LONDON :)

When 7am rolled around on Friday morning and it was time for me to get up and head to the bus station to meet up with Ken, Lauren, and Caitlin to head to the airport, all I wanted to do was roll over and go back to sleep. It was still dark out, and I hadn't been able to sleep the night before because I was so excited about our upcoming London adventure. (I guess some things never change, I've never been able to sleep on Christmas Eve either). We made it to the airport without a problem and the security lines weren't too bad, although they always feel like they are miles long. Our flight was extremely quick, once we got off the ground... there was a man who checked a bag and then didn't get on the plane, so we were delayed while waiting for them to find his bag and take it off. I wonder if he was talking to some random person and didn't want to be rude and tell them that his flight was about to leave...

When we arrived in London, I can't even begin to describe how excited me all were. Heathrow Airport is WONDERFUL. If you could love an airport, I would love this one. We were off the plane, through customs, and on the tube on our way to our hostel within 20 minutes! It was great. We went straight to our hostel to drop off our bags before we started exploring. Our hostel was in the heart of Kensington- one of the richest areas of London. There were Ferraris and Bentleys just parked on the sides of the street, I thought Ken was going to have a heart attack each time we walked by.

After we dropped off our bags, we went to find a pub to grab some lunch. It was exactly how I imagined it, and even though I didn't have fish and chips (gross!) I did have a Pimm's in my dad's honor. He wasn't kidding about them being the summer drink in London, they were the special at every pub we went to! After lunch we headed over to Harrod's, quite possibly the most amazing store I've ever been to. It is now my goal in life to one day be able to shop there, or at least afford a pair of socks. We explored some more and then headed over near the London Tower where our Jack the Ripper tour met up. The tour was awesome, it was about an hour and a half long walking tour that took you to the spots of the Jack the Ripper murders and told the story. Some of the details were a little disgusting, but it was extremely interesting and a cool part of the history to learn about. By the time the tour was over we were all exhausted, apparently none of us had slept very well the night before due to all of our excitement, so we headed back to the hostel.

  After a wonderful nights sleep, despite the fire alarm going off twice in the middle of the night and almost making me fall off the top bunk, we were up and out on Saturday morning and ready to cross more things off our sight-seeing to do list. We lucked out and had the perfect weather, it was a little chilly, about 60 or so, but the sun was actually out for the majority of the day. Our first stop was Parliament, Big Ben and the London Eye. We didn't go on the London eye, it's 17 pounds to go on a Ferris Wheel! I think I'll stick to the one at Navy Pier that's only $6US. After taking they typical touristy pictures we jumped back on the tube and headed over to the London tower. We went on a tour with led by Peter the Beefeater, who was hilarious and told us all about the history of the castle. Then we went to see the crown jewels. They were amazing. I can't even begin to try to describe them and of course they don't let you take pictures while you're there... All of you will be very proud to hear that I braved walking over the London Tower bridge, super long and super scary, although I did 
 refuse to stop and take pictures with Lauren and Caitlin. We grabbed some lunch and made our way over to the British museum. The main attraction of the museum is the Rosetta Stone (not the foreign language computer program, the actual stone itself). It was really cool to see, we learned about it in school, but how do you ever picture something like that? We explored the museum a little more before heading out for our daily Starbucks, you can't find any in France so we had to take advantage of it.

Sunday we checked out of our hostel and went directly to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. It was insane. We arrived about 45 minutes early and the streets were already packed, we were lucky enough to get a good spot so we were able to see everything, I never imagined how elaborate it would be! It was quite the ceremony, and the band even played Mamma Mia! during the actual changing, I can't say that I expected that! After the changing of the guard,  we went to Portobello Road, an area known for it's antique shops and boutiques, it was an adorable area! We wandered up and down the cobblestone street and grabbed lunch before heading back to the train. It was starting to drizzle when we got on the train, so we decided to make our last stop of our London trip King's Cross Station. As any Harry Potter fan knows, this is where Platform 9 3/4 is located, and they actually have a sign up for it in the station. Of course we had to go there and get our picture! It was so cool, and quite possibly one of my favorite pictures from the entire trip. Then again, I'm a nerd and read the books in one day and see the movies at midnight.

We decided to grab Starbucks and hang out for a little while before heading to the airport. Once again Heathrow amazed me with how efficient they were, we were through security in less than 10 minutes. Our flight was on time and we made it back to Paris without one issue.


London was beautiful and I cannot wait to go back again. This weekend I head to Spain and Portugal!

School...

Prior to my impending trip to London, life has been pretty quiet and mainly revolved around school. I am finally into the swing of things with school, it only took almost a month of being here to finally begin my entire schedule.

On Monday mornings from 8:30-11:45 I have French class. Clearly these people don't realize that there is a reason that I have never taken a class earlier than 9:30 and that my brain doesn't function in English that early, let alone French. So it will be interesting. The class is mainly focused on improving our confidence in speaking, which is definitely where my weakness is.

Tuesdays are my roughest day of the week, with two three-hour classes back to back. First, I have Sales Force Management with a professor who hasn't had to speak English on a daily basis in over 15 years. It is clear that his English is a bit rusty and it could add an interesting dynamic to the class. After Sales Force Management, I go directly to European Econ, my least favorite class of the week. It drags by and not only do I not find the material interesting, the professor tends to read directly off the slides, so you can't help but wonder why you are wasting your time. I have presentations in both of these classes tomorrow afternoon, so I will be happy when 7:30 rolls around and I don't have to worry about them anymore.

Wednesday at 8:30 I have E-Business. It is by far my favorite class. Not only is the information interesting and timely (we talked about social networking and shopping online the first class) the professor is awesome. He's from Ireland and is hilarious, he makes the material interesting and even manages to not only keep everyone awake but engaged in the class even first thing in the morning. Quite the achievement for a college professor!

I have my last class of the week on either Thursday or Friday afternoons, they alternate each week. This is my international marketing class that I have already told you all about, considering it was the only class I had for the first two weeks. It is a relief to have our presentations done, although we are still waiting to hear our grade, which is a bit nerve wracking!

We have group projects in every class I'm taking, it seems to be an extremely common part of the curriculum and adds an interesting dynamic, especially since we usually have people of multiple nationalities working together in a group. It's nice to not have a ton of homework and studying each night, but it makes it difficult to have to try and coordinate schedules with multiple people in a group, especially when we all have multiple projects that we are preparing for.

School isn't overly difficult, but the expectations are much higher than I expected. Everyone says that the classes are much easier abroad, I don't know if that's the case here though. It is a relief to know that all of my classes are pass/fail, otherwise I might have to miss out on some traveling to work on homework!

The Perfect French Day

This afternoon, Lauren, Caitlin, Ken and I once again made our way into Paris. As I'm sure you've probably figured out by now, there isn't much going on in Cergy where we live, thank goodness the city is just an RER ride away! We made it into the city and grabbed a quick snack before heading to the Louvre. Our timing was perfect, we knew it would be crowded on a Sunday, but it was not nearly as bad as we expected, there wasn't even a line to get our tickets! We made our way through the museum and saw all of the must-see things. We didn't stay long, it's free for EU students, so we decided we could always come back on a day off of school.

After we left the Louvre, we headed to the Latin Quarter for crepes (yes, our whole day did revolve around food, how could it not in Paris?!) We enjoyed our snacks in a small park and just took in the perfect weather in the perfect city. After we ate, Caitlin left and went back towards home and Lauren, Ken and I wandered around the Latin Quarter for a bit. Ken ended up hearing from 2 of his friends from France who he met while studying abroad in Hong Kong who were in Paris for the weekend and we went and met up with them and a few of there other friends. We went to a bar and sat outside for happy hour, talking and people watching. They taught us the important lesson to always double check the bill before you pay, we were charged for THREE extra drinks! The group of us then made our way down the cobblestone street and found a typical French restaurant for dinner. Everything from the food to the decor in the restaurant screamed French, our meal even took us 2 1/2 hours! You would never find that in the US, where typically the waitress is annoyed if you are there more than an hour or so. The French people we met were so nice, asking us about how we liked France and complimenting us on our French when we ordered. They were nothing like the stereotypes you hear about. After dinner, we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways.

We got on the Metro and on our way back to the station where we caught our RER we decided to get off at the Eiffel tower, since none of us had seen it at night yet. From the minute we got off the Metro, it was breathtaking, the closer we got to the Eiffel tower the more and more excited we were. It was truly amazing and seeing it lit up at night made everything seem so much more real. Despite any homesickness I've felt or any difficulty I had adjusting the first couple of weeks here seeing the Eiffel Tower made everything worth it. We hung around just long enough to see the tower sparkle and then made our way back to the train to head back home.

It was the perfect, leisurely French Sunday, I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my day.

Fountainebleau and Versailles!

Last Sunday, I went to Fountainebleau with Ken, Lucy, Luke and Colm. The chateau is in a located in the town of Fountainebleau, which is a typical French town with cobblestone streets, bakeries and pastry shops on every corner, and the typical old French buildings. From the moment I stepped off the train, I felt like Belle in Beauty and the Beast. The chateau was beautiful, and though it may not have been as big as Versailles, it was nearly empty, even on the first Sunday of the month when all of the public buildings are free. After spending day after day in crowded tourist spots, it was nice to go somewhere with some more space to breathe. We wandered through the chateau with our audio guides, learning the history of all of the French royalty that spent time at the chateau.

Fountainebleau was perfect, from the chateau to the town, and despite the 1 1/2 journey from Cergy it was definitely worth going, I would even consider going back again!

Today, Lauren, Caitlin, and I visited Versailles, words and pictures could never describe how grand Versailles is. The gates and the building sparkle and each room you walk in is even more impressive than the last. It is so hard to imagine where these kings and architects were even to come up with such grand ideas for the entire chateau. There was one odd thing about our trip though, apparently there is an exhibition of Japanese art going on at Versailles right now. As you can imagine, the large Japanese sculptures stick out like a sore thumb when you walk through the castle, I can only imagine what Louis XIV would think if he knew that these were on display.

The Hall of Mirrors

After touring the inside of Versailles, we headed out to the even more impressive gardens. We had lunch at the cafe on the grounds and then wandered around. It was the prefect day, relaxing day. We sat by the canal and watched people attempt to row their boats (it was quite a struggle for some) and then made our way to Marie Antoinette's hamlet which is about a 10 minute walk from the gardens. As if the castle isn't enough, there are 3 more buildings out in that area. By the time we made it back, we were just in time for them to turn all the fountains on. This completely transformed the gardens. They were beautiful! The fountain of Apollo's Chariot was by far the most impressive, as was the Ballroom.

As most of you can probably see from my Facebook albums, I was completely at awe with how amazing these two places are and took more pictures than imaginable. I just can't believe what it would be like to live in one of these places or how you even think to building something so grand. Both visits to the chateaus were on days with perfect weather, which made it even more enjoyable.

A week of... not much

This past school week made me even more excited for my actual classes to begin. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday many of my friends had an intensive negotiation skills workshop from 9-5 each day, which I did not take. This gave me a lot of free time at the beginning of the week! Luckily, I had the international marketing group project to work on. My group got in touch with me not long after my last blog post, so we met up on Monday to divide the tasks and begin to create a plan. This meeting was followed by several more throughout the week. Because I am the only native English speaker in the group, I lucked out with the task of editing and compiling the sections of the paper, something I was happy to do. Our paper turned out well and we were able to complete it on time. In class on Friday we sat through THREE hours of group presentations and we still have to present in class this week. The length of the class and having to sit through one group after another really made me miss those hour and fifteen minute long classes at UofL, I used to think those were torture to sit through!

The French students I was working with were all amazed by the fact that I'm a sorority back home. They asked me if my life is just like the TV show "Greek" and told me how jealous they are that I'm living the "American college dream". That is the one odd thing about schools in Europe, they are only focused on academics, they have some student organizations, but nothing like an American university. That is the one thing I miss the most about Louisville, how busy everyone is with everything, not just schoolwork. At any given moment there is a RSO meeting, an intramural game, or a tailgate to attend.

I did book two trips with all my free time this week! So mark your calendars and don't say I didn't warn you, I will be out of the country on the following dates...

On September 24th, Lauren, Caitlin, Ken and I will be heading to London for the weekend. It's Lauren's birthday and we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate. It'll be a quick trip, just from Friday morning to Sunday evening, but I am super excited. I've always wanted to go to London and it'll be a nice change of pace to be in an English speaking country. We are already planning all of the places we want to visit while we're there.

On September 30th, I am heading to Spain after class. I'll meet up with Chris when I arrive and then on Friday morning we are heading to Lagos, Portugal on an excursion with some of his friends from Spain. It's supposed to be gorgeous there, and I'm looking forward to the beach weather, it has felt like fall here since I arrived! We will be in Lagos until Sunday night and then I head back to Paris on Monday. I'm really excited for the beach trip and to see Chris.

Then, on the weekend of October 15th, Chris is coming to visit me in Paris for our 1 year anniversary. Needless to say, it is going to be a busy/fun 4 weeks consisting of:

Sept. 24-25 London
Sept. 30-Oct 4 Spain/Portugal
Oct 8-12 Uncle Mike, Nikki and Taylor here!
Oct 15-17 Chris here

There is so much to look forward to, I can't wait! I'm also super excited to actually start going to school this week. If the weeks were going by fast when I wasn't busy, I can only imagine how quickly they'll go by once I throw school into the mix.

2 More Paris Trips!

On Friday afternoon Ken, Lauren and I met up with Luke and Colm, 2 guys from Ireland, and headed into Paris. Our first stop of the day was Montmartre and Sacré Coeur. When you first arrive at the bottom of Montmartre, the steps are a bit daunting. I'm going to be in better shape than I have been in a long time despite the mostly carb diet I seem to be on here.

Ken, Me, Lauren, and Luke at the bottom on Montmartre

As soon as  you arrive at the top of Montmartre you realize that the million steps it feels like you just walked up were worth it. The view is amazing. It was the perfect day, sunny and about 75 degrees, with not a cloud in the sky and you literally look out on all of Paris. We visited Montmartre last time I went to Paris, but just like everything else about this city the picture and memories do not do it justice. The view is not the only thing that Montmartre has to offer, throughout the winding, hilly cobblestone streets there are artists everywhere selling paintings, drawing portraits, singing, anything you can imagine. It is a really cool unique area.

The most spectacular thing about the area isn't the view or the streets though, it is Basilique du Sacré-Coeur or the Basilica of the Scared-Heart. Last time I visited Paris we were so sick of going into chruches and cathedrels that we chose to skip this one, I'm so glad I had the chance to visit it the other day. It was breathtaking and humbling. As we walked in a mass was beginning and the nuns were all singing, it was shocking to see how many people were around for an afternoon mass on a Friday, I can only imagine what it's like on a Sunday, I would love to go back to experience it. It is by far my favorite church I have ever been in, and between my last trip to France and all the new churches Grandma Jack used to take us so we could make our 3 wishes when we'd sleep over there, I've been to my fair share of Catholic churches. It may even be my favorite spot in Paris.

After we made our way back down all the stairs, we jumped on the Metro (we're getting good at navigating all those different lines!) and went to the Bastille, the building itself is gone but there is a pretty cool statue in memorial in the middle of a major roundabout. After taking a few pictures we wandered down the streets for a bit and found a little bakery where we got a snack, they pastries are all so good it's hard to pick which one to get. Colm and Luke are both huge Irish football fans (no, not Notre Dame) and there was a game on that afternoon, so we went to an Irish bar for a little while and watched the first half of the game with them. Needless to say, I am still not a big soccer fan. By halftime, Lauren, Ken and I had had enough and headed back towards Cergy, leaving the other two behind to watch the second half.

Today the original plan was go to Versailles but after a couple of misunderstandings and missed trains Lauren and I ended up deciding to just explore Paris more instead of making the trip all the way out to the chateau, we wanted to make sure we have plenty of time to explore ALL of the gardens. So we started our day out at the Eiffel Tower and then had lunch at a restaurant near by. We then headed over to the Galleries LaFayette and wandered around wishing we had all the money in the world to buy all the beautiful designer bags and shoes and clothes.

Showing my Cardinal pride on game day, even from so far away

We then decided to go to the Opera, and I am so happy we did. I didn't know what to expect but the building was amazing! We didn't get to see the actual stage and auditorium because there was a rehearsal going on but we were able to see the Grand Staircase and Foyer along with the library and museum. The building was one of the most beautiful ones I have seen so far. We stumbled our way into joining a tour that was being held in English and found out that it took 15 years to build and cost what is equal to 330 million euros today! Garnier was the architect and designed the foyers to resemble a gallery in chateau, he certainly accomplished his goal. It was an awesome place to visit and I'm so glad we decided to go in, we had debated it, not knowing what to expect. After the opera we found some ice cream and enjoyed the rest of another beautiful day in Paris.

Part of the Grand Foyer

Tomorrow I am headed to the palace Fountainbleau, not far outside of Paris and can't wait to update you all on my next adventure. :)

First Day of Class

My first day of class was Thursday and it went well, but it's definitely going to be way harder than I expected. Thank god all my classes are pass fail! They are all 3 hours long and meet once a week, so sitting through them (even with a break) will be rough. The only class I've had so far is international marketing and that's the same one I have this coming friday. Then the week of the 13th I start 3 more classes and by the 20th I'll have all 5. It will be interesting.

My class was interesting but has me a little stressed out. 40% of our grade is participation and 60% is the final exam which is a 3 hour test with 6 questions on the case studies and lectures. Most of our participation grade is based on a 10 page group paper and 10 minute presentation which is already due on Friday. He assigned our groups randomly and somehow I ended up getting placed in a group with 4 French students and myself, highly unlikely and and possibly unlucky considering the majority of the class is international students. My group members were supposed to email me with their names and emails and possible meeting times on Friday and I still have not heard from them. Needless to say I'm getting a little nervous and may end up being the dumb American who has to email the professor to find out who her group members are. They had assured me they would find me and email me and all already knew each other so I thought it would be easier to just do it that way. Apparently French students are notorious for being procrastinators so they may just not be worried about it yet, I am though! The topic and assignment are a bit so I don't even know where to begin with research without them, I have all week to work on this and no idea how to get started! Only one class in and I'm already stressed... could be an interesting semester if all my classes are like this!

On a lighter note, the classroom was super hot and stuffy and when there were only about 15 minutes left a girl got up to walk out (I'm assuming to get air) and fainted on the stairs! She was okay, but they had to call the nurses office to come take care of her, so we got out of class early so they could clear out the room. It was quite eventful and an interesting way for that girl to decide to make a first impression!

Paris On a Day Off of School? YES!

Today, Lauren (the girl from San Diego that I went to Paris with on Saturday) and I did not have class, so we decided we should do something besides just hang around our dorms or school, there is way too much nearby to waste a day doing nothing, so we went into Paris!

We took the RER into Paris and found our way to Notre Dame, I forgot how amazing it is both inside and out. We took a ton of pictures outside the massive cathedral and then headed in. As we wandered through looking at all the stained glass and statues, there was a mass going on, which was actually pretty cool. I was surprised they let visitors come in during mass.

After we left Notre Dame, we went and grabbed a couple of sandwiches and sat on a bench, had lunch, and just people watched for a bit. Then we headed over to the Luxembourg gardens which are absolutely beautiful. When we got to the gardens they were packed with people having picnics, just sitting around taking in the perfect day and gorgeous scenery, and little kids playing with toy ships in the fountain. It was so peaceful, if only they had something like that near UofL for us to go to during our lunch breaks at school...  We wandered around the gardens for a while before leaving to go explore the rest of the Latin Quarter where Sorbonne and a few other universities are, so it's the college area of town. We went in and out of a lot of little shops and then headed back over towards Notre Dame for my favorite thing in the world, Berthillion ice cream! I remembered how much I loved Berthillion last time I was in France, but I forgot just how good it was. Lauren and I each got our ice cream and found a seat in front of Notre Dame to sit while savoring every last drop of the scrumptious ice cream.

It was still pretty early when we finished our ice cream, so we decided to head back in the direction of our RER stop, but to wander around a bit, looking at the shops and sights along the way. We even found a little shop where I found brown boots for 15euro! Lauren and I quickly learned that we have a similar sense of direction, and it is not a very good one. It took us a while to finally find our way back to the RER station, but it was an adventure and we made it back safe and sound, just with sore feet.

We made it back to Cergy just in time to stop by an international event that they were having at Foy's, the student bar that is literally in the school building next to the library. We only stayed for about an hour and talked with a few people before heading home, we were exhausted!

It was a great day and I had a lot of fun, as hard as it is to miss some of the things going on back home and in Louisville, how many people get the opportunity to say they went to Paris on their day off class and are already planning their next trip for Friday? I have my first class tomorrow at 4:30, it's international marketing and like all of the classes here, is THREE hours long. It should be interesting to see how I manage to sit through that...