Paris: Je ne compreds pas, je suis americain

Nov 2-Mon
Monday wasn’t too terribly thrilling. I had to go to class with barely any make-up on and a swollen eye, so that was fun, and it was my late day since I had a workshop. Wonderful. And my eye hurt the whole time and I felt like it was taking up my whole face. Then I walked back home in crazy cold weather and the cold hurt my eye more. Stupid stye! Then I came back and Kelsey, Dani and I ate dinner quickly to go to the BCA lecture/meeting about the British Healthcare system, or the NHS. I was already tired and it wasn’t the most stimulating so I fell asleep. It seemed like everyone else did too. Then we came back to the dorms and Dani, me, Kelsey, Hannah, Jade, and Greg played Spoons, Blackjack, and Bull. It was fun and we all had a good time bonding as a flat. They said Kelsey and I are their flatmates even if we don’t live there. I’ll miss them so much when I leave! Sad! Oh and Greg really wanted to play Trivial Pursuit so we ended the night with that and then went to sleep.
End Day 52

Nov 3-Tues
Tuesday it rained so much and there were crazy artic winds. Yuck! I busted out my scarf, big wool jacket, and rain boots to walk to class. I felt very British and very warm. But I could have gone without my umbrella going inside-out like 20 times. Not cool, umbrella! I’m thinking of getting a British one because my poor southern California umbrella can’t handle torrential British rain. Anyways, after class I tried to start my paper, due Tuesday after we get back from Pars, but I got distracted. Then I went to go have dinner with my adopted floor mates and hung out for a bit. Then Jesse said he wanted cookie dough ice cream and suggested we go to Tesco but then he ditched us for his friends house so we went to One-Stop and didn’t buy him any ice cream (they also didn’t have any). Then we tried to have a study/homework session in the kitchen and we were kinda productive for a while before I fell asleep and then Jesse distracted us, haha. Then we paused our work, ate some sweets, talked and hung out some more. Then I called it a night since tomorrow I need to do my paper, my laundry, and pack for Paris on Thursday for the weekend. Yay!
End Day 53

Nov 4-Wed
Wednesday things did not go according to plan. I planned on waking up around 12:30 or 1 to do my laundry, my essay, and pack for Paris the next day, but I ended up waking up at 2:30 and panicking. I got dressed, ran to the laundry room and saw that there were no free washers, so I came back to my room, had breakfast, started my paper, and finally put my laundry in at 3:30. Then I waited for laundry to be done and did more of my paper. It was 500 something words out of 1200 when Dani told me to come to her kitchen for dinner. Then we hung out in there, had an ice cream party after Dani and Kelsey bought Jesse some cookie dough ice cream. Then we saran-wrapped Jesse’s door after he went to go lie down. Kelsey, Hannah, and Katie got ready to go out to a club or a pub but I didn’t want to go and neither did Dani, so we just watched them run around and get ready. Then I went back to my room to Skype with my sister and fold my laundry. Then I started to pack for Paris (we leave tomorrow at noon) and took a shower. After that I skyped my mom, tried to work on more of my paper, and went to sleep. Paris, here we come! Yay!
End Day 54

Nov 5-Thurs
Thursday was a day of mishaps and adventures. I woke up around 9:30 got ready and then went to have breakfast in Dani’s kitchen with Jesse. Then we left to go to the bus station but didn’t allow enough time and we got there right as the bus was driving away. So we were angry and had to buy new tickets for the 1:25 bus and hope that it got to London in time for our 4:25 Eurostar. The bus didn’t get to Victoria Station until 4:05 and we got a Taxi right away to St. Pancras Station, but traffic was crazy and we had to pay a £17 taxi fare to get us there 20 min late. So we then had to go to the Eurostar ticket office and crossed our fingers that we could get on another train. Thankfully the man was nice and put us on the very next train and we didn’t need to pay extra for another ticket! Yay! So we got on the Eurostar and headed to Paris (3 hour ride, with my ears popping from pressure changes every once in a while). We finally arrived in Paris and found our way to the Metro to get to our hostel. We found it alright, after going to McDonalds and checked in, only to discover that our “all girls room” had a guy in it (Chung-we found out his name after seeing his train ticket he left on the pillow, he missed his train and had to stay an extra night) who was mad he had roommates. He’s leaving tomorrow though. Then we decided to walk around a little, after I thought I lost my wallet and had a minor (major) panic attack. I found it in my bag though, so its all good. Oh and I learned my phrase for the weekend: “Je suis American” which means “I am American” which is code for “I don’t understand you, don’t talk to me.” Then we went to McDonalds again fro desert, went on the computers at our hostel (called Absolute Paris) with confusing French keyboards, then decided to go to bed. Ready to conquer Paris tomorrow! Yeayuh! Oh, and I realized I forgot pajama pants. Sleeping in jeans I guess. Lovely.
End Day 55
P.S. The ham and cheese melt sandwich I got on the Eurostar on the way to Paris is a classic French meal, cool!

Nov 6-Fri
Friday (Day 1 in Paris) started at 10:30 and we got croissants at a cute little café. Oh and we were all really tired because we didn’t sleep well and Chung woke us up this morning to catch his train by turning on the light and rustling with his bags. Uggg! Then we go on the Metro to Trocadero street to try and find the Eiffel Tower and we couldn’t see it at first and then “bam” there it was in front of us. Breathtaking! Then we decided to go to the top of it so we waited in line for like 45 min and spent about 2 hours there. We went all the way to the top by elevator and Dani and I wrote our names on the railing. Shhh! After that we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and went walking around it and under it. Then we walked down the Avenue des Cahmps Elysees and got a baguette for lunch at a cute café and also got hot chocolate. It warmed us up since it was freezing all day. We stopped in some shops along the street, such as a huge Sephora, Virgin Megastore and Disney Store. Then we kept on that street and eventually made it to the Obelisque. After that we walked through Jardin des Tuilerires, then took a detour to to Palais Royal because we saw it looked cool from a distance so we walked towards it. Then we decided to go find the Musee de Louvre to see about tickets. We then saw that is was free for students ages 18-26 after 6pm so we decided to come back and move on to Notre Dame and the Hotel de Ville.

After Notre Dame, we slowed the pace and looked in some souvenir shops before going back to the Louvre. We got in free (yay!) and got to see the Mona Lisa (who I found out for Liz, may or may not have eyebrows, after I asked on of the workers, who told me the style in the day was to have them super thin. I’m sure that went down as the strangest question of the day, haha, and it was fun trying to explain it to him with his broken English). We also saw the Venus de Milo, and the Sphinx among others. By this time our feet hurt and we were exhausted so we left and found a restaurant for dinner. We had good food and crème brulee and we got to rest. After that we got the Metro again (too tired to stand) and went back to the hostel. So tired! Oh and we saw the Eiffel Tower lit up from afar but decided to go tomorrow night to see it properly. Going to bed now, so im ready for Paris day 2.
End Day 56
P.S. Annoying things about Paris: cigarette smoke EVERYWHWRE! Beggars being annoying and street vendors being persistent. French phrases: Satie-exit, Merci-Thank you, Bonjour-Good Day, Je ne comprends pas, je suis American- I do not undertand, I am American.

Nov 7-Sat
Saturday (day 2 of Paris) started with none of us wanting to wake up because we were so tired from the day before. We eventually got up and got some croissants again from the same place as yesterday. Yum! Then we hopped on the Metro and took it to the Moulin Rogue, which wasn’t that exciting. We took some pictures and looked in the overpriced gift shop, then left to go to the catacombs. We took the metro again to the catacombs but couldn’t find it and we ended up wandering around for an hour only to be told by a nice French man that they didn’t open until December. What the heck?! So then we found somewhere to eat at a restaurant that was full of French people and the menu was all in French. We all ordered ravioli because it was the only thing we understood, haha. Then we walked back to the Metro station and took a ride to the Bastille. We got there and walked around in the rain only to realize that it was just an Opera House and not a cool monument or building. Lame. So we decided to walk across the street to the carnival/flea market and walked through it. It was fun to experience that part of the culture, and there were fun things to look at.

From there we walked for a long time down Avenue de Rivloi (or Raviloi Road as we referred to it) where like a bajillion other people were also walking so it was crowded and annoying. We happened upon the Hotel de Ville and crossed the street to find some souvenir shops. There were street vendors along the river so we went to them and got some souvenirs for discounted prices. Yay! We felt very much in the French experience after that. Then it started to get dark (and freezing!) so we decided to walk towards the Eiffel Tower to see it light up and sparkle and take pictures of it. On the way there we looked in a random art exhibit along the river. It was very interesting. Once we got to the Eiffel Tower we wanted some warm stuff so we got hot chocolate and cookies. Then we bought last minute souvenirs and took the Metro back to Rivoli street for dinner in Café de Chatelet where I had some amazing chocolate mousse. Yum! Then we Merto-d home to our hostel and I took a shower in the hostel shower (interesting experience). Oh and I lost one of my gloves at the Chatelet metro station. Sad day!
End Day 57
P.S. Kelsey said I was “so English” when I whipped out my umbrella at the Bastille. Also, I thought the restaurant lady was telling me to go to the bathroom under the bar when she pointed down, then I saw the stairs behind me,lol. Hopefully getting my crepe tomorrow!

Nov 8-Sun
Sunday we woke up and checked out of the hostel around 11am and said goodbye to Chewy (Chawki) the hostel owner who became our friend. Then we headed to a café for breakfast so I could get my crepe. I finally got it and it had strawberry jam in it! Yum! After that we were all low on cash so we walked to the train station and ended up sitting around for about 2 ½ hours. We finally got to check in but then found out our train was delayed. Nice. So we waited around more and looked in some shops in the station. Then it was time to board the train and once we got on we got food (no ham and cheese melt this time), and slept on and off. Once we arrived in St. Pancras in London we had to find a bus to take us to Victoria Station to catch our bus back to Cheltenham. We had a hard time finding the Coach Station (again) and asked for directions like 5 times. We finally found it with like 10 mins to spare and made it to our bus! Yay! Then we sat in traffic, or “deplorable traffic” as the driver described it, for like 2 hours, so the ride home was really annoying and long. Plus my seat kept falling back and I kept apologizing to the guy behind me. He was nice though. Once we got back to Regency we went to Dani’s kitchen, had “dinner” at 10pm, and told Jesse, Katie, Liz, and Hannah about our Paris adventures. Then I unpacked and collapsed,haha.
End Day 58