London Baby!

I love London!!! I had a wonderful time in London over this past weekend. So much, that I slept in yesterday and missed my first class. Rhoopsy! It was just so nice to be in a country where everyone speaks English. I knew I was stressed about not knowing French, but I didn't really appreciate it until I was removed from there. We arrived fairly early in London on Friday and checked into our hotel which had a view of Hyde Park. After we dropped off our stuff we walked the entire city, eventually passing: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, Westminster Abby. We started out with a nice stroll through the gorgeous Hyde Park which lead us to the major monuments of London and the weather was amazing. During the weekend, there was a small drizzle that came and went, but it never ruined our plans. When we came across Buckingham Palace, we were fortunate enough to see the changing of the guards (which only happens once a day.) After viewing the major scenes of London, we found a very cute pub that had 15 different types of sausages. I had bangers and mash and Christy had fish and chips. After our lovely meal, we decided to take on the London Eye (the huge ferris wheel off the Thames River.) The view was spectacular, but the experience was very nerve wrecking as the height was quite daunting. I got over my fear quickly when I realized that the children that were also there were just fine. Later on that night, we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and tried to find a bar. We finally ended up at Fudge where every person got a free shot. I ordered a gin and tonic and the shot and the bartender came back with two glasses of tonic water and one shot??? How is it that I can order this drink in Paris, in a different language, and get the right drink? But in London, in English, I got tonic water! On Saturday, Christy and I went to Topshop. It was supposed to be the start of our shopping day in London, but it quickly turned into the entire day. We stayed there for 4 hours simply because they're so many clothes. Every room we went into lead into another room full of latest fashions. I really wish the concept of Topshop is brought over to the US which besides clothing had a: nail salon, hair drying salon, a cafe, personal style consultant, and a sweets area. Later that night, we went to a very cool bar that played a mixture of great music where Christy and I had a great time drinking and dancing. Sunday morning, we had to wake-up pretty early for check out and went to the Tate Modern Museum. We were able to see an incredible show which housed works from: Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia. Finally, at 5 or so we headed to the airport and we got back to Paris by 9pm. All and all my trip to London was amazing and I would really really like to go back.

Care Package!

Yesterday I finally received my first care package. It was so fun to finally receive some sort of mail and now I have a ton of food which will help with money. Pasta, rice, sauce and all of that stuff is theoretically cheap, but since I use my credit card on such transactions it really isn't cheap. A package of pasta is €1.80 = $3.50 and it only lasts two dinners. Christy and I spend €30 each on groceries every week or so, but this is cheaper than eating out for each meal. Any who, I just want to thank Liz and Becky for gathering up the supplies and getting the funds together to ship it. Thank you so much! There will be tons of pictures to come as we enjoy each meal.

London is Calling

So in celebration of my upcoming birthday, on Friday btw, Christy and I have decided to go to London! We leave Paris very early in the morning and will arrive in London an hour and 20 minutes later. We are going to stay until Sunday and return to Paris in the evening. Our hotel is Royal Bayswater Hostel which is very close to Hyde Park. I will, of course, update you all on what transpires while I'm away, but it probably won't be until Monday. Any who, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I'm sick again, so I could really use some voodoo to finally get rid of whatever keeps coming back :)

My Paris Album

Paris 2008

I've updated my album with a lot more pictures of Paris and I hope to update it continuously.

I had mexican food?

Christy and I strolled down to the Latin Quarter today where they have good greek food and cheap postcards.  We turned on a tiny street where we were inundated by all these people trying to get us to eat in their restaurant.  We decided to get an appetizer at a Mexican food restaurant.  I had a Tecate and Christy ordered a Dos Equis.  I asked for some extra lime and salt for my beer, but what came out was a minuscule lime and some salt.  Then came the delicious appetizer "Super Nachos," which was a platter of 5-7 chips and on top of them were: an almost liquid guacamole, sour cream, not spicy chorizo, huge kidney beans, chicken, and ceviche that didn't taste like fish.  I forgot to mention that the chips had to have been from the Doritos family.  We then ordered another plate of chips which brought the grand total of chips to 15.  After we finished the chips, we used our utensils to finish the rest of the food (not that there was much to finish.)  Needless to say, they were not "super nachos" and I will probably stick to the good greek food.

Brussels, Belgium

One full day in Brussels is too long!  We arrived at 9 am to a very cold Brussels, the economic capital of Europe.  We took a tour bus around the whole city and saw some interesting things, but we did not stop anywhere.  One interesting thing we saw was a huge molecule which was built for the 1958 World's Fair by an architect who imagined we would all live in structures like it, but we didn't stop and explore the building.  After the tour bus, we had lunch at a very cute café, the dessert was good.  After lunch, we were free to explore the city by ourselves... for four hours.  We saw the mannequin pis (excuse my language) :) which is a little statue that commemorates an old story where a cannon was pointed at the city, set to destroy it, when a little child came across it and extinguished it by peeing on it.  The statue is tiny and the little boy is naked and on special occasions they dress him up.  Brussels is best known for its: beer, waffles, lace, and chocolate.  I bought some great chocolate there and later suffered dearly for it when I finally crashed.  Christy and I also shared a delicious waffle with chocolate and strawberries.  Yummers!  We all meet up on time with an hour to catch our train, but somehow we still missed it.  There we were 30 or so people running from the metro to the train station arriving three minutes late for the train (France prides itself on the punctuality of their trains.)  Luckily, there was another train a half hour later, but nothing will take away from the memory of people at the station laughing at us as we all tried desperately to catch the train.  We finally reached home sweet Paris at 9:30 where Christy and I enjoyed a nice quiet dinner at home.