1 month left

Another week has passed by, leaving me with one month left in Paris.  Hard to believe time has flew by so quickly, and I'm sure the next four weeks won't be any different.  It was a pretty uneventful week though.  I had a group project that needed to be finished and a paper to write for French class so that took up most of my time.  I also have been watching Dexter, so that has taken up my "down time".  The internet in our apartment has almost been normal, its amazing.  I have been able to FINALLY talk to my friends and parents back home through Skype. 

Last Thursday I went to the American grocery store called "Thanksgiving" to check out what they have, maybe even for Thanksgiving Day.  It was incredible how expensive everything was.  A box of Cinnamon Toast Cruch cost 13 dollars!  They were also taking orders for turkeys but to feed the 12 people we think will be feeding it would've cost 90 dollars for an uncooked bird.  Then after a quick lunch at Subway I went to check out Saint Chappelle, a church in the Palais de Justice (French Supreme Court).  You had to go through airport tight security, it was crazy.  Of course on this particular day I was wearing my "bling" jeans which have a bunch of rhinestones and studs above the butt pockets.  I kept saying omgosh this is going to set off the alarm...what do ya know, they did.  The security guard waved his wand all over my body and right as it traversed over my butt I hear a BEEEEEP.  It was embarassing but I think more for the poor guy who got a nice surprise haha.  Anyways, it was a beautiful church which had these gigantic stained glass windows all around.  Then we decided to wander into the Palais de Justice.  It was like something from a movie.  There were these giants rooms with 20 secret little doors that lead to other rooms.  Men and women were running around in black cloaks and we almost got lost in there, so decided it was time to leave.  We headed for Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris.  When I first saw it I didn't think that was it, it really doesn't look that old to me.  I was expecting to see some shabby old wood thing hanging on by a thread. 

Friday I has a business excursion to the Cite des Sciences which is the Children's Science Museum.  Not a lot of people showed up to that one.  It really is interesting to think about how in other countires museums and tourist attractions are listed in multiple languages, but in the United States not.  I really liked the interactive screens they had which were laid out in a table format, very modern.  After that I went back to Galeries Lafayette, a department store that is supposed to have fashion shows every Friday at 3pm.  Well when we got there I asked two workers where the fashion show was and they looked at me like I was crazy.  They said they have never had that before!  I have read in multiple tourist books and on websites that they do, so I have no idea what is going on there.  Fail.  At least I saw some pretty Christmas decorations!  In the end we bought some Christmas wine to have later that night and left.  Well the red wine is mixed with spices and you serve it warm, it was GROSS.  It was just too spiced/sweet.  Fail.  That night we went out to a Hookah bar (flavored tobacco smoked through a waterpipe popular in Middle East), and I tried that for the first time.  It was an interesting experience, but not really my thing so I won't be doing it again.  I didn't like the feeling. 

Saturday I tried going to the Pierre Cardin museum.  Key word again, tried.  I wrote down an address that was on a link google gave me, and even the correct directions and metro stop.  Well when I arrived there was no such thing present.  I was so confused.  I went back home and checked the address again to find that it was 33 not 35, but even standing there looking around I didn't see it.  I have no idea what went wrong there as well but I guess I can worry about that some other time.

 

Fall Break

Fall break came and went, too quickly of course.

My roommates and I tried going to see a show at the Opera, because they usually sell bad seat student tickets last minute at a reduced price.  Unfortunately they already sold out of them all at full price.  Instead we walked around a found a Mexican restaurant.  I was so excited because I had been craving enchiladas.  Well that plan back fired too.  It came out with mole sauce, which basically was chocolate tasting meat.  It was so disgusting.  I tried to gag it down with my margarita but even that was too strong.

The next day most people had already left for their trips so Katlyn and I walked around Paris.  We went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, which was a nice view of Paris.  On the top portion they have a small exhibit about the monument too.  That night we had tickets that we won to see a Tango show.  They were bad seats but it was an interesting show.  They just danced (of course) and sang in Spanish. 

Saturday we walked around again, and went to see the outside of Grand Palais, Petit Palais, Pont Alexandre III bridge, Musee Orangerie, and Invalides.  Inside Invalides is Napoleon's tomb.  The building used to be a hospital for vets and basically a residence for military men. 

Sunday and Monday were more relaxed.  We went to the Pompidou center which is a museum for modern art, Eglise de la Madeleine which is church, Grand Epicerie which is a big grocery store with food from around the world, and Bon Marche the most luxurious department store in Paris. I couldn't believe at the grocery store they had Oreos for 10 euro, which equals about 13 american dollars. 

Tuesday was the first day of my own adventures.  I went to the Montmartre cemetary first, and I noticed there are soo many cats that hang out in cemetaries.  It was kind of scary.  I would see a shadow moving in the corner of my eye and turn to find another staring at me.  Then I went back to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore to get the Julia Child cookbook I've been wanting.  They stamp inside on the first page too, so it makes it more special. 

Wednesday and Thursday were lazy days.  I did laundry, cleaned the apartment, and went grocery shopping.  Then I basically tried to catch up on tv shows.  My friend lent me the first season of Dexter which I finished and I must say it is quite entertaining.  At first I didn't like it because I thought it was creepy, but then I got over it haha!  True Blood has more gore than that anyways.  Thursday night though I venutred out at sunset to go to the top of Notre Dame.  I got some really beautiful photos.  This is random but I totally am thankful for the elevator invention!  Every place has so many stairs.  I'm still young and it was even hard for me going up 500 stairs.  Also, Paris is not a place for (excuse me) fat tourists.  There are so many nooks and crannies that you have to squeeze through, especially at the top of Notre Dame and the staircases.  The circular staircases are so steep and worn down, and at the top you were honestly given just a 1.5 foot space to walk through.

Friday I went to a perfume museum which was a little dissappointing.  It was just a small area on the top floor of a shop, and there wasn't anything explained on signs so I had no idea what I was looking at.  I also went to a Louis Vuitton exhibit in a museum.  They had a bunch of trunks and such displayed.  It was interesting that so many styles have been created.  They have some with pull out chairs from the suitcase, bathroom kits, and picnic dishware.

Lets see what else...well the girls I was supposed to go to Italy with are making me pay for one of the hostels.  They claim it wasn't fair because the orginal plan was to divide by 5.  I argued with them and tried to explain my point but they were being thick so I just said fine.  It really doesn't make sense to me because I talked to all the owners and they changed the reservations to 4 people.  My psychology major roommate Rachel said I have a more developed frontal lobe than them because I can sense right and wrong. 
Ugh whatever...

So My friend Melissa went home to surprise her family for her brother's wedding.  She told them she wasn't gonna be able to make it, so when she walked in the front door everyones jaw dropped.  She captured it all on video, and it was soo funny.  Her poor mother screamed for at least a whole minute.  I just thought that was a really nice thing she did.

Oh and Christmas lights are already going up around the city!

I can't wait to see everyone- December 18th baby!  Miss and love you all!!!

London -> Dublin -> Belfast -> Lady GaGa

Harry Potter 9 3/4 platform!

Wouldn't cha know on the way to London we had a problem before we even left the airport.  Turns out Alisha's boarding pass wouldn't print so we had to wait in the long bagage line 40 minutes before our flight was to leave.  Then we had 20 minutes to get through security.  We were waiting so impatiently and finally a security guard let us cut to the front of the line, along with a few others who had some trouble as well.  We ran all the way to our gate shoes in hand....for no reason at all.  The plane was late.  I'm just glad we made it, never again will we be cutting the time that close, but it was mostly because Alisha had class that morning so we had to wait to leave for the airport.  Customs in London was a hassle too.  The guy gave me crap because I didn't have the plane tickets home with me, Alisha had them.  So he was like always carry your own tickets blah blah blah.  It shouldn't matter as long as I have one.  Our hostel was a 30 min train ride outside of London, in this sketchy Indian community that honestly smelled like onions.  It was theonly station on the train ride that had to have a sign in another language!  I didn't book it so I was upset about having to stay there, I looked around for some places a few days before we left and there was nothing so we were forced to stay there.  At least it was really cheap.  We did get some good Indian food though on our first night there, I had lamb curry and this mint ice cream dish.  The manager gave us a free sample of this dessert carrot dish too, which was kind of like squash.  Just okay.  We also went on the London Eye (ferris wheel) and got a glimpse of it all at night.  Then we walked around looking for a pub to go to, and ended up just chilling and playing cards with a beer.

The second day we went to the British museum.  I walked around by myself because I think that's a better way to enjoy a museum.  I really enjoyed looking at all the jewelry, antique pottery, and the Rosetta Stone.  One really weird thing they had was a squished head with a replica of what it would've looked like.  Then we enjoyed lunch at none other than the famous Chipotle.  MMMM but the burritos still tasted a little different.  We then hopped on a double decker tour bus.  It was really enjoyable on our already aching feet.  From the bus we saw a very nice chunk of London, like JK Rowlings house, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminister Abbey, Parliament, London Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral and too much more to remember haha!  At night we went to the picadilly circus area where there is a lot of nightlife but we didn't really like it because club promoters kept bugging us.  It reminded me of Times Square and I haven't even been there yet.  We ended up going to this ice bar which is exactly as it sounds, made of ice.  They gave us these big coats and gloves to wear, and our drinks were served in ice cube glasses.  They give you a 40 min time limit but we booked it out of there after 20 minutes. 

The next day we woke up to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  It was pretty cool but not what I expected.  There were so many people and the guards did it behind the gates.  You couldn't even go up to them to make them crack a smile like you see in the movies.  They basically just stood and yelled stuff while a band played music from ABBA.  Then a few of us went to Wimbledon and the other half went to Westminister Abbey to check out the inside.  I think Westminister is my favorite church yet, it was breathtaking.  You weren't supposed to take pictures so I put my camera in my jacket pocket and slightly pulled it out for a few snapshots to show you guys.  Then we went on a river boat cruise which was part of our bus package deal.  It was a different view of the city, and I love boat rides.  All the tours made a big deal out of this skyscraper they are building called the Shard for the 2012 Olympics which are going to be set there. I think they said this building was going to be the tallest in Europe or something.We then tried to go check out the crown jewels but it was almost closed and even the ticket people were like ARE YOU SURE you want to buy these?  So we backed out because it was around 30 pounds if we would only get an hour.  Then we headed over to St. Paul's Cathedral to check out the indside, and I attended a little bit of service.  Aftwewards, I had traditional english tea and a flapjack (they only serve crumpets in the morning) which was like a oatmealy brownie thing.  At night we all met up again and went to the Tate Modern Art museum.  I don't really like or understand modern art so wasn't my thing.  For dinner we found thing random pub and had fish n chips, shepherds pie, and some ale.  It was undescribably good fish and chips (remember I don't like seafood) but my shepherd's pie wasn't as good as my mamas.  It was a nice ending to our trip in London.

Overall, London wasn't really what I expected.  A lot of my pictures are of the same things.  I couldn't imagine studying abroad there or being a tourist for more than a few days.  It is definitly a city for residents living there.  The Tube (subway) was horribly confusing, and really made me appreciate the Paris Metro system.  It was also wickidly expensive!  At midnight we checked out of our hostel and headed over to London Luton airport for our 6am flight.  We tried sleeping on the cold airport floor and failed miserably.  Even the bad hour long RyanAir flight I couldn't catch a wink.  Everyone else doesn't remember taking off, and a few including me had upset stomachs.  When we arrived in Dublin we stayed at Alisha's friend's apartment.  They were nice people and had an amazing apartment set up by their school, but it was like their schools apartments so I guess it is a different situation.  Anyways, we walked around Dublin with her friend as our tour guide and saw Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church, Dublin Castle, a beautiful park and went to the Guiness factory which I surprisingly find really tasty.  It was Halloween night but I was so tired I decided not to go out, instead a few of us just dressed up and went out for dinner.  It's crazy how tiring traveling itself can be.  I tried to be goldfinger by painting my fingernails gold.

Then in the afternoon Alisha and I were off on a train to Belfast.  That night we attended a life changing event: a Lady GaGa concert.  It was the best concert I have ever been to.  Even though you could tell in the beginning that she was tired from touring for 2 years straight she picked up energy and ended with a bang.  She is honestly such an amazing person and I don't even know her personally (obviously).  You can just really tell that she wants to help make the world a better place, and truly cares about humanity.  Anywho, I am glad that I could attend.

All I really wanted to see in Belfast was the Titanic museum but of course it was closed on the day we were there.  We were able to walk around and kind of get a feel for the setting of where it was built so it would have to be good enough. 

I was actually a little dissappointed with the whole trip.  Maybe it was just because I was stressed out with the people I went with though.  I noticed that people were really cranky and complaining about the dumbest things, and about what we were doing next on the agenda.  Almost as if they didn't want to do the tourist things.  Then we started talking about Italy and people were upset with the way the schedule was set up.  I of course along with Marcy and Melissa set it up because the other two girls didn't show up that day to do it.  Even in London Alisha and I looked up the information on how to get to where and what times things open and close, so I feel like without us and especially Alisha on that trip nothing would have happened.  So I decided that going to Italy and spending all that money on a trip that I didn't think would be enjoyable wasn't the best option for me.  I am just going to have to come back with a future husband or friend.  I was really sad about it before but now I know I made the right choice and can REALLY get to know Paris, my true love.  Luckily I was able to email the hostels in Italy for them to change our reservation so I only lost about 100 euro for the flights.

C'est la vie,

L