Last Week in London

29 days down...3 to go.  This month has flown by!  I can not believe it is almost time to leave London.  I have had a wonderful experience and am so glad I came here this summer....if any of you that are reading this ever have the chance to study abroad, I would DEFINITELY recommend it :)

This week has been pretty low key...I've had a lot of homework to do that is due tomorrow so I've been busy with that.  Tomorrow I will be done with class!  It will be nice to have Saturday and Sunday off to do whatever I want to do.  Here is a quick recap of the week....pretty short!

Tuesday:  My class took a trip to Brighton today.  We went to the Royal Pavilion, home of George IV.  It was very unique in that it was decorated in Chinoiserie...basically all Chinese decoration.  This was a fun place to go and see something a little different!  We ate lunch at a delicious mexican restaurant.  I can't wait to go to La Teraza when I get back to Starkville...that sounds heavenly right about now.  After lunch, we walked down to the beach.  Brighton is a beach town in England but the beaches are very different here.  They don't have sand, but small little rocks instead.  It was barely sunny out but the beach was still packed.  

We have started to fit right in everywhere we go

Wednesday:  For class today we went to the Geffyre museum.  This museum showed how the middle class used to live.  It was interesting because we were able to see what we learned about in class.  We didn't really take that long to look around and made it back to the college for lunch!  I rested/worked on some homework for the rest of the afternoon then headed to see Legally Blonde the Musical!  My friend Shannon and I splurged and bought pretty good seats and I really enjoyed it!  It was just like the movie but with more songs.  I would definitely recommend seeing this!

Thursday:  I have not been feeling well the past few days and today I woke up feeling not so great again :-/  Meg was so kind and went to the pharmacy with me to pick up some medicine.  I came back to the dorm and got ready to tour Buckingham Palace.  I bought my ticket awhile back and have been really looking forward to it!  There were TONS of people.  I guess it was so packed because Buckingham Palace is only opened when the Queen is on vacation and Kate Middleton's wedding dress was on display!  I got to tour 19 staterooms as well as see Kate's dress, shoes, earrings, and learn about the cake. The planning that went into that wedding was complex for sure...it blew my mind all the details that I would have never thought about and the symbolism of small things!  Unfortunately I could not take pictures.  But-everything was very beautiful!!

I am really ready to go home now that all of my friends are back in Starkville.  I got to skype with everyone moving in a few days ago and I got SO excited!  I miss all my friends so so much...I am very blessed with amazing friends.  Can't wait to see everyone!

J'adore Paris!

I had such a great time in Paris this weekend!  I think I can honestly say that Paris is one of my favorite places in the entire world.  It wasn't really what I expected, and it was unlike any other large city I have ever visited!  Here is a recap of the weekend.

Saturday:  After a long night of traveling on the bus, we arrived in Paris at 7am.  I woke up to this outside my window!

It was really amazing to see Paris at sunrise.  We took a bus of the entire city with no tourists around, so I got some great pictures.  After we took the bus tour, we stopped at the Eiffel Tower and had about an hour of free time.  I picked up a painting nearby and tried to get some good shots of the tower!

We left this area and headed to the Louvre with our tour guide.  I was absolutely amazed at how large it was.  I had heard that it was the largest museum in the world but I could never picture how large it was!  It is the home of the Mona Lisa, which draws many many people.  You could easily spend a good 3 days in this place.

She's a lot smaller than I thought!

After the Louvre, we ventured to Notre Dame.  We walked along the River Seine and enjoyed the beautiful weather!  We definitely lucked out on the weather...I wish I had packed shorts this weekend!

After admiring Notre Dame, I enjoyed my first crepe.  I have definitely been missing out!!  If you have never tried one, you should soon.  I had cinnamon and sugar...it was delicious!  After walking around a few shops, I split up from the group and walked along more of the River Seine.  I didn't buy an underground pass for the day because I wanted to walk around and explore a little bit more.  So I had my map and decided to explore on my own.  After about a 20 minute walk along the river, I decided to go to the Musee D'Orsay.  This is another very famous and large museum that features Van Gogh and Monet. I love both of these artists, so I really enjoyed walking around.  Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures here but I did get some good shots on my stroll down the river!  

Musee D'Orsay

I met back up with the group and we went on a boat cruise and saw more of the city.  This was really nice, because we were all a little tired from the day.  We headed back to the hotel after a long day.  It was located a little outside of Paris, but it was still very nice!

Someone was a little too tired haha

Smallest house in Paris!

Sunday:  Today I went with the tour group to the gardens of Versailles and Montmartre.  The gardens were very beautiful!  I had seen pictures of the gardens of Versailles before, but it was even more incredible in person.

 

We headed to Montmartre after Versailles.  Montmartre is the highest point in Paris!  We were able to look out and have a perfect view of the city.  There was also a guy balancing a soccer ball while doing all of these crazy stretches.  He was very talented.  His name was Iya Traore...i'm sure you can youtube his show and see his videos!  I walked around the stores around Montmartre and got some Tour De France souvenirs.  It just ended last weekend!  I hate I missed it, but I'm glad I still got some souvenirs!

The famous Moulin Rouge

View of Paris!

I was impressed.

After this sadly it was time to leave Paris :(  We met up with the whole group and headed out of the city on the bus!  Our tour guide, Amanda, was incredible.  She definitely made the trip well worth it.  We even had karaoke on the bus ride back....i have a hilarious video of meg singing to the whole bus but it's not uploading! That sums up Paris though...have a great week!