forget where you're from-you're in France!

Paris part two:

Notre Dame Cathedral, not the school.  400 steps later I made it to the top.  A little scary, but mostly beautiful and amazing.  My favorite part about looking out over cities is seeing the church steeples.  Words cannot describe the beauty.

(if you look just to the right of my head, you can see the eiffel tower.  It was foggy, so it is a looks like a shadow on the horizon)

Versailles: Gaudy palace for royalty that doesn't exist anymore.  Don't go during the winter, it's ugly. Luckily, we found tandem bikes for rent!

The weather was beautiful, and really, although the trees were brown, just being outside in the fresh air laughing and being with friends was amazing.

france=yummy food!

Luxembourg Gardens.  Stay away from greasy looking, smoking young men.  This led to choosing fake names.  If I don't know you and I don't trust you and you ask me my name I will tell you Samantha.  I go by Sam.

The Pantheon(in Paris).  Beautiful, but cold.  The coolest part was the crypt.  Many influential people were buried in the Pantheon including Marie Curie, Braille, 

The Louvre.  After a looooong day it is not smart to end with the Louvre.  All of the artwork was AMAZING, but the entire experience was tainted by our physical and mental exhaustion.  Feet were throbbing, blisters were popping, tears were falling(not in a good way).  Advice for future Paris/Louvre goers: Give yourselves HOURS if not an entire DAY to spend here.  We spent over 2 hours and we had a list of only 9 works of art to find/see.

hall of statues

crown jewels

mona lisa

(don't remember what this is called, but I learned about it in humanities last year and just happened to stumble upon it)

the lace maker(?)

Napoleon's apartments

Venus Di Milo

winged victory

How we all felt.

Paris was beautiful and amazing.  I started the week with low expectations, and my expectations were exceeded.  I want to return to Paris one day for sure.

Coming soon!

Paris part two, Denmark(great grandpa Freddy) lake district, life at the centre, Sunday

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! Things are changing. In 19 days I will be back in Utah-but my adventures aren't over yet!

Picture=shutout to any Kellis girls or others reading my blog who LOVE pie. Enjoyed in Ambleside, England.

welcome my friends to Paris!

Before reading this post, you either need to go here and load this song and listen whilst you read and admire my photographs.

First Day: Groupish day.  Eurostar from London to Paris.  Lunch, Arch de Triumph, explore, Eiffel Tower, River Cruise, Hotel, Dinner, Bed.

The BEST churros I have ever had in my entire life.  Across the street from the Eiffel Tower.

Spiral Staircase to the top of the Arch de Triumph

France's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Emma and I are starting a jumping tradition.  Annoying Americans? check.

My Favorite Picture from the semester so far!

(Emma, Caity, Courtney, Taylor)

Each night on each hour the Eiffel Tower Sparkles for five minutes.  Sadly, photographs can't capture the magic.  To be completely honest, I am not the biggest fan of the Eiffel Tower.  I don't really love it during the day, but I have to admit that it is magical at night.  Especially when it is sparkling.  To close our first day, the entire group waited and watched the tower sparkle.  AMAZING.

market day

Every Saturday I have to decide whether or not to sleep in to catch up on some much needed zzz's or to get up and go explore.  Last week was a mixture of both.   I slept in and then went to changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace at 11:30.

There were SO MANY people!  Because it's not the tourist season, they only do the big changing ceremony every other day:(

After changing of the guards, we headed to Borough Market in Southwark!!  The market is only food, and most of it looks AMAZING, but there are some things that look a little out there.

(Gluten Free shout out to all you celiacs out there!)

This past week we spent in PARIS, FRANCE.  Posts to come soon.  My last midterm is on Tuesday, and it is looking to be a rough one.  Our professor enjoys reminding us that the first word in Study Abroad is Study, so we shouldn't complain about a test that keeps us in the centre studying for a day and a half and then takes over 2 hours to complete.  Wish me luck.

a walk in the park

This past weekend we didn't have any class or program activities which left only about 10 of us at the centre all day Friday and Saturday.  The weather has turned SO NICE(notice the lack of coats in the pictures), so we took the opportunity to go to the park, go to a free classical concert at St. Martins in the Field, and rent bikes!

Hiking 66 stairs multiple times a day and riding bikes are totally different.  We may look happy in this picture, but we were DYING our quads were burning.  This picture was just an excuse to take a break!

Gelato after the concert at St. Martins in the field, obviously.

We were the only ones in the Lift at Queensway tube station, so we had to take a picture!!  It may not seem like a big deal, but it is!

roma part 2

Surprise!  A couple of weeks late, but here's my Rome part 2 post.  I didn't mention in my last post, but I went to Rome on my 21st birthday!  The first two days in Rome were AMAZING, but the last day was cold and rainy the. entire. day.  To be honest, I really did not love my last day in Rome, and I do not want to go back to Rome, or even to Italy ever again unless it is during the months of April, May, June, July, August or September.  April and September are questionable.

21st Birthday shot(Gelato next to the Trevi Fountain!)

Our 'hotel' room.

Sadly, we had planned on going to the colosseum on the last day we were in Rome, and because the weather was bad they closed it for tours, so we were out 25 euros and we only got to see the outside, but it was still breathtaking!

Triumphal arch of Constantine!  Take Humanities 201 and you will know why I was so excited to see this!!

Yep, it's COLD by this time.  And raining.  behind me are two domes, the first one I have no idea what it is, the second is St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.  Love.

Last meal in Rome.  Vegetarian Pizza for me.  SO GOOD.  Best pizza I have ever had in my life.

After we ate on Friday, we went to the airport.  We spent two and a half hours at the airport drying out before boarding our plane.  We then spent 5 hours on the tarmac waiting for our plane to be deiced and then for the airport to open and then for the deicer machine to be fixed.  Our scheduled departure was 8:50 PM and we took off at 1:09 AM.   Luckily, the people sitting around us on the plane were super nice and we talked and laughed the entire 5 hours, making it fly by.  Because we were so late getting back to London the trains were closed, so we then got to wait for 2 1/2 hours for the trains to start again.  We finally made it back to the centre at 6:30 AM Saturday morning.  It was pretty horrible at the time, but looking back I'm so happy I did it!!

birthday

A couple of weeks ago I had a birthday.  Luckily, I have an amazing family, and they sent me this crazy awesome package.  See all of that candy?  It's not even all of it.  I only pulled out a small sampling of it to give an idea.  The best part about the package is that although it came a little late, it came at the perfect time because I am right in the middle of midterms and I was in need of a little lovin from home!

I also want to give a shout out to this guy.  He broke his arm skiing last Saturday:( Get better soon Brian!