Paris!

Well I have just returned from my 6 day stay in the most amazing city North of Rome, that would be Paris! We had the greatest time in France it was such an amazing trip. I feel like we had so much time there that I was able to see everything that I wanted to. And I got to experience the true French culture and way of life. And while we're on that note I decided that not all of the French hate Americans. And that if you at least attempt to speak French to them they are much more willing to help you find whatever you are looking for. By the middle of the week I got very good at a select few phrases. These basically included: Where is the bathroom? Excuse Me! I want one Chocolate Croissant! Can you give me directions to the Metro? and Do you speak any English!...so pretty much only the essentials! haha- but seriously I had such an amazing time I absolutely loved Paris!
So we started off our first day by going to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery! Sounds weird and creepy to go to a graveyard as our first site in Paris but in reality this place is awesome! It is the most famous of cemetaries in all of France. People such as Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Jim Morrison, and Izadorra Duncan are buried there. So after spending a few hours walking around Pere Lachaise we headed over to Notre Dame Cathedral! It was by my favorite Cathedral we have seen since arriving in Europe. It was so ornate and not to mention massive! The glass windows inside of it were the most amazing that I have ever seen and it was really neat to read about the history behind the Cathedral. (And all of the gargoyles were prett awesome too!) Those two things were the main events of the day- however we couldn't retire to our hotel until we had seen the Eiffel Tour! It was perfect timing because right as we came out of the Metro stop at the tower it had began to sparkle... it lights up all sparkly for about 10 minutes every hour! So it was perfect timing and we saw the tour at its best!
The next day was a very long one for us. We started out at the Musee D'Orsay which was an incredible Museum that housed two of my favorite works of Art! The original Degas portrait of the Ballerinas in Dance Class and the Monet water Lillies painting! We spent alot of time in this museum before moving on to the Sacraceaux... (sounds like sock-ray-ker) So we walked about eight miles up hill to see this church that sat atop a hill in Montmarte! It was a beautiful walk although farther than we had originally anticipated it being! This church was gorgeous and located just up the street from the Moulin Rouge which was fun to see! But the day was long and we retired early in preparation for the fantastic Wednesday we had planned!
We woke up early and all met in the front of the Musee de Louvre!!! First off we went straight for the Louvre's most famous resident The Mona Lisa! I have heard people say that it is overrated but I absolutely loved her! The painting was small but it was so incredible to get to see in the flesh! Well what is there really to say about the Louvre- it was incredible!!! I saw so many things that I have studied about in art classes and I was so excited that it was hard to take it all in at once. So we just picked a list of ten major pieces that we wanted to see and focused on those. These included some Greek Statues such as The Venus de Milo, and paintings such as the Virgin on the Rocks! I won't bore you all with these details of art that you don't care about... Lets just say it was sufficiently the best morning of my life. So later we walked past the Royal Opera House where the story of the Phantom of the Opera stems from! And we went to the Rodin Museum... it was so nice to come to this place because it was very low key. Located in the heart of Paris, however it was serenely peaceful. It was in Rodin's estate and the grounds were beautifully kept with his bronze version of The Thinker right in the backyard!
Thursday was a more relaxed day... we went to the top of Notre Dame and got a great view of the city, and we did alot of window shopping! Walked down the Champs de Ellyses and basically wanted to cry at how beautiful all of the stores were! We ate better food than we have had in the last three months combined! I ate more pastries than anyone needs... but I figure it was fine because I was only in Paris once right!!!
Friday was a day for the kids in me and Amanda! We went to Disneyland Paris! And it was awesome! Actually to be perfectly honest in comparrison to California the park was tiny and kinda lacking in the rides... but we had such a fantastic time nonetheless!!! And the funniest thing was going on a ride such as Peter Pan and having Peter yelling in French at Captain Hook! Ha- good times! good times! So most of it was in both english and french but yeah it was just really funny! Well that brings us to saturday where we spent the whole day traveling back to London! And now I am sitting on my bed just reliving the whole week and kinda wishing that I was back in Gay old Paris! It was so incredible and I even picked up some French!!!

My Own Canterbury Tale

This last weekend was our designated "live-in" weekend. Basically everyone from the program leaves London from Thursday to Monday, going in groups of two, and lives with an English family for a few days. Our group was spread out all up and down England, while some even ventured into Ireland and Scotland. Mallory and I were heading off to Canterbury and the small town of Herne Bay.
When we arrived on Thursday evening we were picked up at the train station by our host woman Carly and her two year old son Joshua. She was friendly enough, and what could have been a horribly awkward car ride back to the house with a complete stranger turned out to be only mildly uncomfortable. I was just beginning to think that our weekend would be one of the more pleasant experiences when we arrived at the house, and walked through the front door only to see two obese cats gazing upwards at me. I subconsciously covered my throat to make sure it wasn't exposed to the horrible demons on the floor. You know they say that animals can sense fear... that's pretty much what was going through my head at the moment.
We got settled into our room and I decided to just try and stick it out at the allergy centralized home for the weekend. This family had invited two strange Americans to stay with them and I didn't want to seem rude or ungrateful. So we basically stayed away from the house as much as possible the next day. We went into Canterbury in the morning and stayed until almost midnight. It really was a beautiful place. There was adorable little neighborhoods with quaint looking homes that had been there for decades. And we had a good time seeing the Cathedral and all of the religious sites surrounding it. Also we did some shopping (naturally) and spent alot of time walking up and down High Street, going in little boutiques and walking round the market. That night we didn't want to go back to the cat house too early so we were wandering and just happened to come upon a local theatre house. And just our luck there happened to be student tickets available for that nights showing of To Kill A Mockingbird. And for only 5GBP! Wow, that's a steal of a deal! So we decided to brave the local thesbians and see the play.
Funny thing about To Kill A Mockingbird, it is set in the Deep South in America. Well being in a small town in Brittain we were shocked almost to tears and laughter when the show began and we were hit with a mixture of an English, southern accent. And at times it sounded extremely Australian... it was interesting to say the least. And I suppose it was good acting by most in the cast to be able to pull off the accents. However, for the unlucky actors that couldn't afford a speech coach they made immense fools of themselves!
We got back to the house and I knew the second we walked in doors that it was going to be a rough night. My allergies had escalated immensly and to make a long story short I had a wicked asthma attack in the middle of the night. My lack of breathing got so bad in fact that I stuck my head out of our bedroom window for about a half hour. Which would've been no problem if there didn't happen to be a crazy wind and rain storm raging about. It's safe to say that I didnt get much sleep that night. So to sum up me and Mallory came back to London Saturday morning.
So here I sit on this Sunday night, with only two girls in my dormroom instead of the usual twelve. And I think I have almost forgotten what silence sounds like. It is very nice and relaxing to have a bit of alone time!
I'll finish this story with the most exciting of news! Just as a little back up for those who don't know... me and Sam have "reconnecting" if you will, since I've come out to London. We e-mail and keep eachother up to date on whats new in our lives. So the other day he called me to say that at work he saw on the internet some incredibly cheap tickets to London and simply couldn't pass them up! So Sam will be coming out here at the end of March!!! Yeah!!! I can't wait for him to come see my new lifestyle in this incredible city! Well I posted some new pictures for you guys to see... I'll try and update them a litte more frequently this week! And that's about it for my Canterbury Tale.