The Best Experience of My Life So Far

So I left for London and Dublin on February 14th, and I had quite the adventure. Let me give you a play by play of my days:

Saturday, Feb. 14
So I met up with my friends Kathleen, Madelyn, Michelle, Kelsey, and Ana at the airport in Nantes and we had a good wait before getting on the plane. Unfortunately, I had to throw away my new and last bottle of lotion because I was only doing carry on luggage. I almost had to throw away my hair product which would have ruined my life, but another friend who flew with us let me put it in her suitcase. Phew!! Ironically enough, the British kids I met last week were on the same plane as me! We talked a bit and took some photos, they were really cool and I hope I get to see them again someday. I mean it must be fate that we met again right? Or just chance perhaps. Who knows. So we flew on Ryanair which is super cheap, and it shows. They sell duty free perfume and lotto tickets during the flight. Nothing is free- not even the water. And they sold random things like Pringles and doughnuts. The plane landing... I give it a 3.3. haha it was not graceful. And they played this funny trumpet sound to celebrate arriving on time. Customs was a good walk from the gate and the customs guy was a pain. We had to fill out these forms indicating a bunch of info like our passport number and the address of where we are staying and where we live yadda yadda. The guy at customs made me show him all of my ticket and host information as proof, and I had to indicate the purpose of my visit in just the right way- he corrected me twice! After that not so brief encounter, I said farewell to my new British friends. We found an ATM with free withdrawals but of course things never run smoothly. I was only able to take out 50 pounds (which still put a major hurt on my money supply. Our flight came into Gatwick which is about an hour away from the center of London, so we bought tickets for a shuttle bus and merrily rode on our way. One of the first things I saw as we approached the city was a Starbucks, and we all got excited!! How strange right? Well it was something familiar which comforted us haha. I also saw a huge billboard of a a naked rugby player diving for a ball in a Powerade ad. It was quite strange and the ads were everywhere! There was this baby coughing up a storm on our bus, and we joked that we were all gonna get bird flew! It was quite funny yet slightly sad :) Anyway when we finally arrived at the shuttle stop, we had to take the tube to Borough station. It was really quick and easy- way better than the El in Chicago. We had to buy an oyster card which is the transportation card that you swipe to use the tube its much more efficient and cheaper because a single ticket on the tube is 4 pounds. Its a strange system but whatevs! Finally we got to Dover Castle Hostel and Bar. The receptionist was quite attractive. We paid for our room and received our sheets and keys and what not. We had to make a deposit for everything! Want a towel? 5 pound deposit. Want a key to your room? 25 pound deposit or leave your passport. Want to borrow a dvd? 10 pound deposit. It was nuts. We would make jokes like "Oh, you need toilet paper? Well that'll be a 5 pound deposit." So we are on the top floor where there were 10 beds that were bunked. Co-ed of course. Thankfully I was on the bottom cause I don't do the top (of a bunk bed guys, don't be gross, haha) So we got settled and explored the bathroom and showers we'd be using for the next 4 nights. The bar was nice, and we even got a free drink (schnapps or soda). Go figure, they were out of schnapps all week. We went back to the receptionist and asked him about some good places to eat. He gave a few suggestions, and we ended up picking the Chinese food place (aka the furthest place from the hostel that he suggested) But it was 4 pounds for a lot of food, so it was totally worth it. We all thought it was odd that we were eating Chinese food in England, but it was really good and hit the spot. After dinner, we returned to the hostel, made a plan for Sunday, and went to sleep.

Sunday, Feb. 15
So we woke up pretty early and all got dressed. There were only 2 showers on my floor, so I waited for a good while. Our hostel provided breakfast for us which included two pieces of toast with jam or butter, a bowl of corn flakes, and tea or coffee. After breakfast we walked a good ways till will finally got to the Thames River and saw Big Ben, The London Eye, and the Parliament Building. It was incredible. We took a bunch of photos and crossed Westminster Bridge to see Westminster Abbey where all the royals have their coronation. We had to pay to get in, and the tour wasn't cheap, so we just looked around the outside and then walked around. Of course we did the British phone booth photo! We saw 10 Downing street where the Prime Minster lives which is gated and hard core guarded, Horse Guards Parade, and St. James's Park. Kathleen, Madelyn, and I made a Starbucks stop to indulge in our American bad habits ( well Kathleen resisted because she goes home next month for her sister's wedding) and the three of us took the original bus tour which I totally recommend. It is a hop on hop off double decker bus tour that takes you all around London. They have 5 different tour routes you can hop on. The entire tour takes 2 hours. Because its the winter season we got a 48 our deal that let us hop on and hop off for two days. Normally it only lets you do one day I think. And we got a free river cruise ticket for the Thames tour. So the bus took us nearly everywhere we wanted to see including but not excluding St. James's Park, Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, The London Eye, Covent Garden (where Eliza Doolitle meets Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, Fleet Street, St. Paul's Cathedral (Mary Poppins! anyone...anyone?), London Bridge, Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, Shakespear's Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern, the Sherlock Holmes Pub, and Piccadilly Circus (aka London's Time Square) It was incredible! I was so overwhelmed by the amount of history I learned about. Our tour guide was cool and really funny. He told us about the London Fire and pointed out where Michael Cain, Dame Judi Dench, Chris Martin/Gwyneth Paltrow and other celebs live. We saw the famous hotel where Elizabeth Taylor spent her 5 honeymoons. We saw so much I don't think I could possibly share it all with you but I wish I could. It was quite the experience. We were freezing the whole time and huddled together but we were determined to stay on the top of the bus for the best view of everything . Our tour guide showed us the monument tower made in memory of the London fire that destroyed the entire city and he told us that the fence around the top of the tower was added because of the large amount of people who committed suicide off of it in the past- Crazy isn't it!! We also saw where they filmed part of the Duchess. The name of the building escapes me at the moment but its kind of a big deal in London. We passed the City of London School where Daniel Radcliffe and Pettyfer went to school- they are well known British actors for those who aren't in the know. The HMS Belfast is this huge ship with massive guns on it that sits on the Thames. Oh and We passed the Waldorf Hotel- the guy who helped design the rooms in there also designed some of the rooms on the Titanic. Oh and the Tower of London was intense. I really wanted to go in but again tickets are a fortune. So I got to see the outside of where Guy Fawkes, Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and Thomas Moore were some of the many to be held and put to death. So during the tour, we passed a lot of theatres in London's West End. I saw a sign for a play called THREE DAYS OF RAIN starring James Mcavoy. I nearly freaked out and decided that I had to see it regardless of the cost. After the tour, we found a cool place called Costa Coffee where we warmed up and had a teeny weeny lunch. Mine consisted of the best triple chocolate muffin of my life and an incredibly huge small hot chocolate. New flavors of chocolatey goodness just kept on unfolding. We went to the same MacDos twice that day cause that was the only free bathroom we could find it was pretty funny. The three of us went to the box office to get tickets to see a show. Luckily tickets were only 25 pound for the THREE DAYS OF RAIN on Monday so Madelyn and I bought them. Kathleen's friend who was also in London already got them tickets to THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. Mads and I went to the National Gallery in Trafalgar square while Kathleen met up with her friend. We saw some really amazing and historic paintings, including some that we had studied in our Art History class in Nantes! When the museum closed, we grabbed dinner at a restaurant called the Silver Cross. We ended up sitting at our table for like 15 minutes before we gathered that we had to place our order at the bar. The food was great! I tried some of Mads' fish and chips, and I had this chicken kebab meal with rice. We tried to make it to the Jack the Ripper tour but we missed it and decided to walk around before heading back to the hostel. We got great night shots of St. Paul's Cathedral where the Feed the Birds scene from Mary Poppins takes place. We got great shots of the Tower Bridge and the London city at night. It was absolutely breathtaking. I couldn't believe I was there...in London!! It was all like a dream that I never wanted to wake up from. We crossed the Millennium Bridge and walked along the Thames. Its the most beautiful city I've ever seen at night- granted I haven't seen Paris at night yet but... We got some amazing pictures of Big Ben and the Parliament Building with the reflection in the river. My feet were dying at that point but I still loved it. We got majorly lost on the way back to the hostel which made our arrival all the sweeter.

Monday, Feb 16
Kathleen and I rode the London Eye which was so exciting!! We had a 360 view of the city and it was unbelievable. I'm so glad we got to do that. We met up with Madelyn and took our free Thames river Cruise. It was great because the sun was making an appearance that day. It had rained a bit the day before. Our tour guide was quite the joker and we once again learned a lot. The Thames tour was a lot shorter but we covered a lot and got to go under the London Bridge. After that we got a bit turned around and we tried to grab an original tour bus but a protest march was holding up traffic so we just picked a reasonably prices place to grabbed lunch. It actually turned out to be great! After that we caught a bus to the Globe Theatre while Kathleen peaced out and went to Harrods (aka the most intense department store in the world- Macy's who?) The Globe was everything I thought it would be and more. It is a replica of the original which was actually commissioned by the American director and actor Sam Wanamaker who died before construction was complete. It isn't in the exact location of the original because that property is already occupied, but it is designed almost exactly the way it was during Shakespeare's time. The only major difference is the fact that the floor in the pit is cement instead of nut shells due to health codes- but they did put nutshells in the cement to make it more authentic. The reason the floor was covered in nuts before was because they would cram 1000 people in the pit and there was no way for people to get out to use the bathroom so they would just go right there and the nuts would absorb the mess and make the smell not as bad. The open air roof is thatch and the entire theatre structure is made of wood- not a bit of metal- even the pegs are wood. The stage is gorgeous!! Our guide explained that they only do performances in the summer due to the weather and that the plays are audience interactive as they wood have been during the period. People would talk during the show and say things to the actors. The nobles who sat in the balcony(Juliet's balcony) on stage would arrive late and stop the play to inquire about who the characters were by directly addressing the actors. People in the box seats would throw there orange peels and food in the pit, the people in the pit would throw it at the actors, and the actors would pick it up and throw it back in the boxes. Our tour guide told us loads of interesting stuff like this. Seeing it and learning about it there is far more informative than what we learned in class at school!. We walked around the exhibit connected to the theatre a bit, but there was so much to see and so little time! After the Globe, it was time to go see THREE DAYS OF RAIN. We walked through Soho to get to the Apollo Theatre- Madelyn had to drag me through there because there were so many interesting shops to see! The play was incredible!! I loved it so much! James was top notch. He's even better on the stage than he is in films. The set was subtle and very creative. The first act follows Walker, his sister Nan and their oldest and dearest friend Pip as they sift through the mysteries that their dead parents left behind in their father's old apartment. My favorite line has to be when Walker (Mcavoy) shouts, "I feel like Hedda Gabbler" when he burns the notebook his father left behind with all the answers at the end of act one. I was one of maybe 6 people who laughed at this because you have to be a real theatre nut to get the humor there. His character was so funny, sharp, thoughtful and very Mamet- esque. I have to give props to Nigel Harman who probably gave the best monologue I've ever hear. I wished I was a boy for about 5 minutes just so I could actually try to pull it off like him! James was great, but Nigel rocked it! Second act follows their parents years earlier. James plays his father and he has the cutest stutter ever! Downstage there is a path that functions as a sidewalk outside the apartment and they have actual rain water coming down in this act. It is so awesome! I was like "Now I remember why I love theatre so much!" The dynamic between the characters was addictive. Every inch of the space on the stage was used to perfection. I give it 5 stars!! I totally would go see it again if I could- it was that good not just because of James but because it was such a good story. A family drama- what most plays are about( at least the successful ones). After the show, I waited at the stage door and got to meet James!! He signed my playbill, talked to me a bit and even took a photo with me (he totally put his hand around my shoulder) I nearly died, but I kept my cool till I walked away. He was so nice, incredibly gorgeous (human flaws and all), and his scottish accent tickled me pink! I asked him what character he played in Beauty and the Beast the musical and he told me Billy somethingorother (I forgot the last name ironically) I then asked him if he sang, which of course he did. I had all these thought provoking questions I had wanted to ask him but that was the only thing I could think of at the moment. I thought saying "I loved you in Penelope" would be too fan obsessive of me. The rest of my night I had to remind myself to breathe! I wanted to call everyone I know but I was still calm enough to realize how bad that idea was. Needless to say, I went to bed a happy girl!

Tuesday, Feb 17
Kathleen left for Paris with my hair product safe in her suitcase! Phew! I was on my own that morning as I rushed to Harrods to see if they had an Estee Lauder because I ran out of eyeliner cartridges (I thought I had an extra one but 'fraid not!) Luckily they have everything in the world at Harrods so I was cover there. It was actually cheaper there than it is in the states, and you can pay in Dollars there. I did some exploring of the intense department store for a while before I decided to force myself to leave in order to avoid spending more money. I went to the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and found it to be very anticlimactic for all the hullaballu people make about it. I mean it was cool, don't get me wrong, but people get there like an hour ahead of time to watch these guards walk around for 45 minutes. The bands played random songs like the theme song from Indiana Jones, The Lion King, "Thunderbirds" and WICKED. A couple of Royal Carriages left the Palace which was exciting but I have no idea who was in them. Could have been the Queen, could have been the Royal dog walker. The Guards aren't as still and stiff as the American soldiers are. They were talking to one another, fumbling with things, and they weren't always perfect. They seemed more relaxed and cool. I think I like it better that way because it makes them seem more human. And they had the coolest uniforms! Buckingham Palace wasn't that impressive actually. Not after all of the chateaux and other castles I've seen. Meh. It was cool none the less. I ran into some girls from IES her were in London too which was random! We caught up and then I headed to the Tate Modern to meet Michelle. We saw some intensely modern Modern Art and I was disgusted with what passes for art these days. We also saw some disturbing things that I want to forget! So I've decided that I'm going to bend a bunch of paper clips, throw them at a canvas, toss some paint on them, call it THE FURY OF FEMINISM and hope that they give me a million dollars for cause seriously...seriously... My 3 year old cousin could have done some of the stuff I saw. There was one cool exhibit where this artist had a bunch of metal bunks with a book chained to each one and this huge, weird, creepy spider thing filled with white eggy things in a clear globey thing hanging from the center, and a screen showing the final scenes of 23 different old movies, a huge apple core, and a bunch of other strange things. It was the coolest thing I saw besides some of the Picasso and Salvador Dali works. Michelle and I went to platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station so I could take a picture. It was so anticlimactic!! Its just a brick wall with half a luggage cart sticking out of it and a sign saying Platform 9 3/4. So we dragged our melancholy and tired butts over to the British Library where I saw the Magna Carta, original notes by Jane Austen, the Bronte Sisters, The First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, original song writings of the Beatles...etc tons of historic and epic works! There was also a small exhibit on Darwin which was cool. That night, I went on Jack the Ripper tour through London. I won't get into all the gruesome details but I learned a lot and I'm all the more intrigued. That guy was vicious! Still nobody knows who he is!! After the tour, I spent my last night with Michelle, Kelsey, Ana, and Madelyn at Young Founder's Arms- this cute cafe and bar on the Thames that has small fires by tables outside and blankets for people to cuddle under the stars and by the river. It was a nice way to spend our last night there.

Wednesday, Feb 18
Kelsey and I went to see the famous Peter Pan statue in Hyde park, and we ran into 4 girls from IES randomly!!! It was hilarious. I heard someone call my name and then I saw this girl running towards me ready for a hug! It was Mathilde- our Conversation Club leader. She's french so of course she spoke to me in French. I had been so relieved to have a break from brain overload of French upon arrival in London, and I wasn't read to go back to it yet haha. Anyway, we walked around with them a bit before parting ways. We saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain which was actually pretty blah. I expected more I guess. It was just a huge flat, hollow circle of concrete with water spouting ou. It looked like an elevated sidewalk with vertical sprinklers installed. We walked through Hyde and Kensington Parks a bit and headed back to the hostel to collect our things. We took a train to the airport and left for Dublin. The flight was super short and the customs guy was much nicer although the walk from the plane to the exit took like 15 minutes. We caught a bus to O'connell Street, got a bit lost and finally found our hostel - The Bunkhouse. This was much nicer! Using the internet for the day cost a euro opposed to London where it was a pound for 30 minutes- ridiculous. Anyway the bathrooms were much nicer and the breakfast was awesome( Irish Sausage- which I could actually stand to eat- one egg sunny side up, ham, toast, beans, cereal, and tea) But my bunk bed was right next to someone else- literally it was like one ultra bunk bed- and the guy next to me reached for me in his sleep. It creeped me out and I literally slept on the edge of the bed to avoid his arm and his snoring. That night we ended up eating Chinese again because that was the only place serving past 9. All I can say is I refuse to eat Chinese in Italy! Oh and there was an Irish film festival going on in Dublin which was ultra exiting!! The receptionist at the hostel told me the Colin Farrell was there!! So was Clive Owen!!! Oh and two girls from IES were stying in the same room with us!- It really is a small world when u run into people from school everywhere in Europe!

Thursday, Feb. 19
Our first full day in Dublin was pretty chill. Kelsey went off and did her own thing like she did in London. Madelyn, Michelle, Ana and I walked past Trinity College and checked out the National Library of Ireland. We learned about the History of Ireland and saw a really cool Yeats exhibit. He created his own religion and he was definitely a playa playa with the ladies. He went from Maude Goode to her daughter- they both ended up rejecting him in the end and he got married at 52 to a 24 year old. His life was very interesting to say the least, and they had a lot of originally drafts of his works. I also saw his Nobel prize medal! We headed over the St. Stephen's Green and took pics. Then we all parted to do our own things. I walked down Grafton street and checked out some cool stores. Then I went to Temple Bar (a famous area in Dublin where all the cool pubs and shops are). I checked out the Joy of Coffee and had the best blueberry muffin ever!!! I went to the filmbase and grabbed some stuff on films in the area and the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. Later I went to the Ireland Film Institute and checked out some really cool movies and film books. There were so many things I wanted to buy, but I resisted and met back up with the girls. Madelyn lost both of her gloves in London and I lost one of them on the tour bus, so we went to this store called Accessorize and bought some glittens!! I've always wanted a pair. Then we went to the bus/train station to inquire about tickets to Belfast for the next day. That evening was a bit of a messy affair with the Belfast tickets- monetarily speaking- but everything got straightened out for the most part. We were supposed to eat dinner with Kelsey and the two girls from IES we were co-habitating with but we couldn't find the pub and we ended up eating at Farrington's Pub. It was hard to find a place that was cheap, but this place was almost reasonable. The food was great! I got an Irish beef lasagna with bolognaise sauce and tons of cheese! The pub even had live music playing which was cool. Thankfully, my bed mate didn't reach for me this time so I slept pretty well this time around.

Friday, Feb. 20
The 4 of us sans Kelsey took a train to Belfast early in the morning and met up with Madelyn's friend's Irish boyfriend Phil. Phil drove us around hs university and took us t get food at Subway of all places haha. We saw the two big yellow cranes David and Goliath that helped make the Titanic. Then he took us to the Giant Causeway and the cliffs on the shore of the ocean. It was incredible There were these hexagonal, tall rocks that we climbed up. The waves were crashing against them and it was beautiful just to sit their and watch. It is called the giant causeway because of a myth about a Giant in Ireland who challenged a Giant in Scotland to fight. They threw rocks in the ocean to make a pathway but didn't finish. The Irish Giant even cut off his hand and threw it in the ocean to up his challenge. The rocks were scary at times, and we climbed pretty high for photos. We then walked up the cliffs a ways and saw some sheep. It was beautiful. Phil and I were wondering why no one has made a film there yet. Perhaps I'll be the first! He then took us to this beach area were there were cool shops and the best ice cream place in Northern Ireland apparently. It was pretty good actually! Northern Ireland is incredible and driving through it was so amazing. We saw so many farms and fields and different trees. Life was all around us! It was totally unlike the countryside in the states. It was soo green! We had dinner at pizza hut ironically and Phil took us back to the train station to go back to Dublin. (we covered his gas money of course although he didn't ask for anything) He was probably the nicest guy I've ever met and a pretty entertaining tour guide( the fact that he was a movie buff was a plus). Us girls all agreed that we wish more guys were like him. When we got back to the hostel, we had to move to a different bedroom which was annoying but at least it was a room of all girls and I didn't have creepy Mc creeperson next to me anymore. But I had to sleep on the top! bummer. Oh well

Saturday, Feb 21
Kelsey and I went back to the Yeats exhibit because I didn't get to see everything. She peaced out pretty quickly and went to the cliffs at Howth. I then went to the National Museum of Ireland and saw some pretty cool stuff. They found really well preserved bodies from 400BC-200BC in bogs! They were gruesomely killed and the scientists think they were sacrifices. Some of the bodies still had hair and teeth and well defined fingers and skin! It was incredible! I wanted to get a few things before I met up with Madelyn so I left the museum pretty quickly and searched for a claddagh ring because that was at the top of my to do list! I never wanted to buy one in the states because I always knew I would make it to Ireland someday and get one. Its a ring with hands of holding a heart with a crown on top of it. If the hear faces inward, it means you belong to someone. If the crown faces inward it means you are single. There's more to it than that depending on which finger you put it on but I'm not going to get into it. Google it if you're interested. Afterward I went to the Temple Bar outdoor book market. One of the book sellers was extra friendly and flirty which was funny! He was adorable in that Irish book seller guy kind of way until he started talking about the female midget who used to stalk him and even got a hotel for them. He suggested a bunch of books to me, and I bought an Irish fairy tale book and a historical fiction book. I finished my English books already and every time I try to read Harry Potter et Le Prince de Sang-Mêlé my head explodes! I met up with Madelyn at the Winding Stair( The name of a Yeats poem and also an Irish bookstore). It was the 4th Irish bookstore I went to that hadn't heard of Herbie Brennan or his books which is odd since he is an Irish author. We saw a major protest going down O'Connell street, and we ducked into a souvenir shop where we both got real cheap t-shirts. Mine cost 5 euro! We made our way to the Guinness Factory and got distracted a few times by Christ Church Cathedral and The Brazen Head pub aka the oldest pub in Ireland. It took us forever to find the entrance to the factory and we met these girls outside who sold us their tickets for 5 dollars each- rather than 11 dollars inside. We quickly accepted but realized we might have been scammed. We weren't and we totally got in. It was so cool! There were 7 floors of information on Guinness. Arthur Guinness paid 47 euro for a 9000 year lease on the property that the Guinness factory owns. Guinness is made of hops, yeast, barely, and water. They use the same yeast that Arthur Guinness used when he first created the drink. We got to see how it is made and check out the old machinery they used to use. They even gave us a small taste. We saw how they made the barrels and they had a lot of information on the adds. 1 in 3 persons in Dublin made a living off of the Guinness Factory in the early 1900s. They really took care of their workers and even provided them with housing and medical. "Guinness is Good For You" there cartoon toucan would say. Doctors even used to prescribe it for patients because it lifted their spirits and other things I can't remember but isn't that wild?! i watched some of the adds, and they are hilarious. They used cartoons a lot. "Oh my Goodness! Oh my Guinness!" was the slogan. The company even made a film in Africa staring their main commercial actor Michael Powers. Anyway when we finally reached the Gravity Bar on the 7th floor, we got a 360 view of Dublin and a complimentary pint of Guinness. I finished the whole thing! It was tough cause I'm not a beer drinker but it was a part of the tour experience. Pints are so big! Guinness is very filling! I dunno about it being good for you though haha. Well after the Guinness Factory, we went to dinner at this pub called Madigans. I had an Irish stew which was really good!It had leeks, lamb, mashed potatoes, carrots and some other veggies. My taste buds were thanking me for this new discovery. We then went to Temple Bar were music performers play in the streets all over. We saw this Spanish group, oddly enough, paying instruments and singing. These old Irish guys started dancing in the street, it was ridiculous! I loved it! For dessert we went to this gelato place were I got the best strawberry sorbet and nutella gelato ever!! It was a great finish to our last night in Dublin.

Sunday, Feb. 22
The next day we got up extra early and caught a bus to the airport. On the plane I met a cool French girl named Floriane who gave me a free metro ticket and told me where we need to go to get to the train station. We rode on the shuttle bus to Paris together and chatted/napped some. The 4 girls I traveled with and I took the metro to the Montparnasse train station. On the way there, I saw Le Tour Eiffel for the 1st time. It was stunning even in the gray haze of the morning. I can't wait to visit Paris properly. The houses and architecture are amazing! There's nothing like it in the states. We tried to get out tickets changed for an earlier train but it was really expensive, so we ended up waithing for 6 hours- with 4 other girls from IES that we ran into. It was a painful wait but it made the arrival home all the sweeter. We rode first class cause that was cheaper with our student discount card and it was ultra nice!.

Now I'm home, well I'm back in Nantes anyway, and I'm so glad to be able to wear different clothes and sleep in my own bed in my own room! It was an incomparable and unmatchable experience. I love London and hope to one day live there. It is the best of Europe with a few American things thrown in which make it easy to adapt. I love the accents and the history and of course the theatre! Well, now that I've given you all a blow by blow of my current adventures- bon nuit!

Umm London.... LONDON and DUBLIN!!!!!

So let me tell you all about my week cause it was awesome! So I went to see this french movie called LOL (Laughing out Loud) and it was sooo good. I'm totally in love with it and I want to see it again. Here's a music video of the film which I watch over and over again everyday now!! Ok so on Tuesday we had conversation club, as usual, and we played Taboo in French. I don't know if many of you are familiar with that game (if you're in my family I know u are!), but its awesome and my team won!! I got ultra competitive and I got my team 7 points in one sitting at the end- I was totally rockin' the French. That night we had a terrible dinner at a chinese restaurant- what ever you do, stay away from French-Chinese restaurants. Stick to the French food. Its way better. But after dinner, my friend and I split a NUTELLA MILKSHAKE! For any of you who don't know what Nutella is, you need to get on that. It's like Europe's peanut butter. Its a chocolate hazelnut spread that you can put on almost anything- I wouldn't recommend putting it on meat though. Ok so The next night I met up with some French kids that I met at conversation club and had a blast. The two kids I met, Floriane, a guy, and Justine, a girl, know everybody!! We met up with like 20 French kids and just walked around town talking in French mostly. I felt like I was really improving so much just by being around them. We went to a bar and chatted for a while and bonded over Gossip Girl and Theatre. It was great. They said my French is good and they understand me perfectly which means I'm getting better yay! Flo, two other girls and I take the same tram home, so we decided to walk along the tracks for a while instead of standing around waiting 29 minutes for the next one to come. Flo ran into a friend who popped out of a bar by the tram, and a bunch of British boarding school kids spilled out of the bar after her. They were so cool and hilarious- since they were pretty drunk. They were saying things like "Oh My God I love America, I love Americans!! I love you!" We chatted for a while and exchanged fb info. It was great. I loved talking with the Brits, I'm totally in love with accents. haha Then Flo, Charlotte, Lauraline and I caught the tram home. I was literally dancing in the street- to RENT- on my way back I was so happy! What a night! And it gets better! I took an African dance class with my friends the other day! It was intense and I am so sore now but I love it. I wish they had classes like that at Loyola! The teacher was so cool and spiritual. He really got into it with the dancing, it was great! Way better than the hip hop class!. Thursday night, my host parents' 26th anniversary yay- our activities coordinator Samuel took us to a karaoke bar. There were about 15 to 20 of us there, we had the second floor to ourselves. The karaoke was free so we did a bunch of songs. You have to go downstairs with a microphone in front of a big big screen, in front of everybody and sing. For the most part we all just sang together: Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Don't Stop Believing, The Devil Went Down to Georgia... The guys sang the French version of My Way (Comme habitude) and it was hilarious-until it lasted around 5 minutes. My friend Megan left before our last song came up and no one else knew it or wanted to do it with me. Luckily the French love love love ABBA, so when I started to do Take A Chance on Me, all the French people in the bar joined me!!!! It was awesome!!! At random points in the night, two french guys grabbed me and started dancing with me. It was spontaneous and fun! I love that karaoke bar and I'm definitely going back sometime soon!! This girl who lives on my street and I ended up walking home because the trams stop running after 12:30 AM and we left around 1:30 oops haha. It was quite the experience. Now my plane leaves in a few hours. I'm going to London and Dublin for winter vacation starting today!! I can't wait! We are going to try to see a show and do a walking Jack the Ripper Tour, ride the London Eye, Buckingham Palace etc etc! I'll tell you all about it when I get back- if I get back- it'll be difficult to leave all of those amazing British accents! Oh funny story. So my host brother always says I speak American, not English, and he doesn't understand me very well. So yesterday I talked to him in a British accent, and he understood me perfectly! (when I spoke in english, not french) But isn't that funny! Ok loves well, I have plane to catch! Ciao!!

Une Bonne Semaine!!!

Ok so I had my first teaching internship at the high school Tuesday, and I loved it!! This is strange for me to say, but I could totally go for being an English teacher in France for a living. It was so fun. I had my own class room, and two different groups of boys. The first group had 3 boys and they were so cute and nice. I had to talk pretty slow, actually the slowest I've ever talked in my life. There was this one student name Valentin who was so adorable and helpful. And Pierre owns 10 horses!! And Paul was the strongest in English in my first group. I introduced myself and we talked for about an hour or less. It was cool, and they said they liked it better than regular English class. My second group was much better at understanding and speaking for the most part but they were a bit tougher to work with. There was one boy who was being difficult at times and always talked with his buddies in French while I was talking. One of the boys wanted to talk to me the entire time, I was like "Okay let the other boys talk." He asked me if I can talk "ghetto"! I cleared things up for him about that stereotype right then and there. There were about 7 boys in the second group, and most of them were really engaged and interested. They all told me they hate school, most of them smoke, they all have girlfriends, one of them is the go-to guy for throwing parties, and they are all staying at home for the 2 weeks. One of the boys likes video games and the rest of the class called him a geek! He told me he loves World of War Craft, so I told him about my friend Jim who plays WOW too. Its strange working with kids so close to my age, their ages range from 16-19 going on 20. I really like it though because I'd probably get a bit frustrated working with little ones who have no clue what I'm saying. I can't wait till after winter break when I get to go work with them again!!

So later on this week, there was a grève(strike) at the University by the students called the blocus where they don't let people in the University. On Thursday my bus had to take a different route because the students were holding a manifestation on my street. It was intense! There were so many university students on my street just marching and holding flags saying Education is a right not a Privilege- in French of course. They take grèves seriously here and they have them all the time. Anyway my Phonetics lab and my one class at the Fac were canceled due to the grève and it might last all next week too! Oh how I love the French and their ways. HAHA

So last night I went out to a bar with my host sister and her friends. I met her for the first time at the house after school, and she is so cool and really pretty!! I wish she lived here instead of one of the boys because at least she takes me with her to meet french people. Stephane, Thibaud, and Thomas ride their bikes everywhere so they never take me with them. In fact today was the first time I saw Thomas outside of the house! I only ever see them when I'm inside usually. Anyway so I went out with Solenne and her friends. This guy Matieu and his girlfriend picked us up in his car which was awesome! We met up with a bunch of other people and went to a bar to hang out. Everyone was really chill and nice, and we spoke to each other in English and French. They all do the kiss-kiss on the cheek thing when they greet each other, so I had to get used to that- they even do it with strangers like me for example. I probably did it around 9 times last night.

So I haven't forgotten my bi-weekly list of major differences between France and the States so here it goes
1. The take strikes seriously here, and schools will shutdown for months sometimes. And sometimes people we stand in front of Trams or buses and stop them from moving- its always fun when you have to walk hom (if you didn't notice, that was dripping with sarcasm)
2. Everyone drives stick here: EVERYONE
3. Kids sometimes live with their parents till they are close to 30, and its no big deal. The parents aren't trying to shove them out of the nest like in the states. There's actually a French film called Tanguy about that very subject.
4. Families eat almost every dinner together- save for Friday or Saturday night when people are all off doing different things
5. The way we have hundreds of different pizza places, they have hundreds of different creperies.
6. Most if not all people roll their own cigarettes here
7. You know the normal kind of lined paper we use in the States, well they use graph paper instead for everything! I hate it cause I have to write so small for the boxes.
8. French boys are way more forward and aggressive, if they want you (and they usually do) they jump right in to asking things like "Do you want to French kiss" or other naughtier questions. They make eye contact like it is their job and are very hard to let down. On the one hand it makes life easier because you don't have to do all the work and they don't play the shy game(too slow sometimes and it can drag on for months), but at the same time you don't get a chance to become friends before they want to jump on to other more advanced things. And they love, love, love American girls. Not that American boys don't love American girls, but you always hear our boys talking about how they would love to be with an exotic woman from a Latin American country or Italy. Well Girls, we are ultra loved and ultra wanted here.
9. They have round-abouts everywhere: in the city, in the burbs, u name the place and they've got at least one.
10. Certain alcohol is cheaper than gum. You can buy a bottle of cidre for around 2 to 3 euros and some change, and I've seen gum that is almost 4 euros! I miss it but I won't pay for it that's for sure!

I also wanted to make a list of things I miss because I've been thinking about it a lot lately:
1. My friends!!!! I love them all so much but I didn't realize how much until now. I think about you guys often!!! And sometimes I see French people that resemble my friends and I get excited for a second. Like, for example, I totally saw the French clone of my friend Kevin waiting at the bus stop yesterday.
2. My family of course, but I'm used to not seeing them at this time of year and we hardly talk when I'm at school, but we tallk a bunch more now that I'm here so.... but yeah I miss them
3. Hugs!!! I miss hugging my friends- or anyone for that matter. I want a hug so bad, and I haven't had one since I left the states! That's odd isn't it? I prefer hugs much more than the kiss on the cheek thing.
4. Warm rooms, warmth in general. Its so cold in the house all the time because gas is so expensive here.
5. Ramen noodles, mac n cheese, American pizza, milkshakes, automatic cars, whatever the opposite of military time is, random dance parties, work-out gyms, bathrooms with the toilet in the same room as the sink, meal plans, carpets, certain American laws, Naked Juice, Orange Juice, Stride Gum, doing my own laundry, trix cereal, my movie collection, my friends again, parties, english, the theatre world, normal notebook paper, American prices, my video games, my friends once more.....

As you can see, I miss a lot of things. I love it here but its just very different, and things are starting to become familiar aka The Honeymoon phase is passing. The excitement is starting to cool off. Part of me wants this experience to last for a while, and another part of me is so excited for next semester. I think once it starts to warm up here things will be better. Its just kind of hard to love your life when the bus is warmer than your bedroom. haha. Well I'm off to Atlantis! Ciao!

What a week!!!!

Ok so its been a while since I've posted, but so much has happened in these past 7 days. I hope I can remember everything! So every Tuesday is conversation club at the IES building and this past Tuesday pretty much made my week. There were more French students this week which made it more fun. Most of them were guys. We did this group activity called speed dating where all the girls made a circle on the inside and the guys made a circle on the outside facing the girls. We each got a name tag with a random name(I was Jeanne) and a list of 20 questions to ask our dates. I had a blast!!! There were more girls than guys so some of the American girls volunteered to be guys. We had a 7 minute speed date with each person. There was this one French guy whose speed date name was Rogers and he said the only music he liked was high school musical and he had giraffes for pets. Of course he was joking, but I fell in love for those 7 minutes haha. I even got him to show me his dance moves. My dates with the American girls were hilarious because they tried to behave like guys. This one French guy kept on making fun of me because he couldn't understand my English and he thought I had a Texas accent. He said he didn't know anything about the different American accents so he was just guessing which was good because my accent is far from southern. I was surprised that he couldn't understand me though... so much for voice and diction class. One of the girls in the guy circle is a French girl who works at IES. We became instant bffs over our love for Gaspard Ulliel, Guillaime Canet, and Louis Garrel- hot french actors. We both want to go look for Guillame in Paris and pronounce our undying love to him haha not really but we do love his films immensely.
Dinners with my family are the highlight off my day. I love my host brothers, they embraced me into the family immediately. I want to keep them!!! haha I've never had brothers before and its very different. They pick on me all the time but its always in a cute or funny way. And they always help me with my homework. Thibaud basically goes through everything and is like "Wrong,Wrong, Wrong, Right!" and then he tells me how to fix my mistakes. I'm getting better at getting things right on the first try though. I'm learning things about boys through my experience living here:
1. Boys don't like to close the door when they go to the toilet
2. They also don't like to knock before entering the bathroom
3. They like to wrestle after dinner- they all attacked my host dad after dinner on Wednesday it was hilarious!
4. They wear the same sweater multiple days in a row- like 5 days- like cartoon characters who only have a different outfit if they go to a dance.
5. Nearly Naked push ups haha
6. Hugo Boss cologne is the way to go.
7. They are such clowns!!! But I love it
My goal for this week is to try to get at least two of my bros to participate in a random dance party because I really need one.
Ok so Thursday there was a strike all through out France. All university classes were canceled- except for mine of course. I had a class at the Fac at 5:30 but all public transportation was cut off downtown by 4:45 because the streets were filled with people. Literally everyone and their mother came downtown for the grève(strike). I'm not even sure what they were protesting, but it seemed like there were at lot of different grievances. People were standing in front of buses and on the tram tracks just talking or drinking. The A big van was playing spanish music ironically enough and people were dancing in the street. It was unlike anything I'd ever seen in my life. Parents even had their kids with them in strollers or just carrying them. French people are serious about their strikes. Some people started throwing firecrackers and I got a bit nervous that things might turn violent. I was also afraid I would have to walk home if the tram never started running again that night. I obviously missed my class. Apparently strikes happen in France all the time. Great! I ended up walking up three tram stops from the centre ville, and I caught a tram to the university. I made it to the second session of phonetiques lab so I don't have to do any catch up! yay for that. Friday, my friend Megan and I went to a hip hop class at the university. We ran into 4 other IES students there too ( two of them were totally wasted before the class- what geniuses) It wasn't as cool as I thought it would be. All of the music was American rap, and we spent half the time stretching and doing weird things like standing on the tips of our toes and plié-ing which was tough and my toes felt broken the next day. Anyway we only got through 4 eights of dance moves and they weren't that cool. It was like a You Got Served class for beginners. It felt good to dance though!! After an hour and half of that,we went back to my house and had pizza. My host mom had pizza for me, and Megan ordered pizza at his place by my house. The lady at the register spent like 5 minutes trying to get Megan's debit card to work. The French aren't used to our cards because their black bar goes across the short side of the card and they just stick it in a scanner. The woman was talking to the debit card and blowing kisses at it to make it work (she even rubbed it against her chest and cried out to Obama) It was the most random and hilarious thing ever. Finally I said "Maybe try turning it around and swiping the other side" et Voila! It worked. The lady was really funny and we are totally going back there soon. Stephan, the oldest bro, hung out with us at dinner because the parents were having a huge dinner party in the living room. My host parents are so cool, they have parties all the time and they go out dancing. They are adorable, and I can really tell that they love each other. Ok so after dinner, some of my friends and I FINALLY went to La Maison for the first time!!! It was awesome!! Every room really is like a room in a house. I got to sit in the bathtub!!! I had one drink and tons of good conversation. I love my life here! And La Maison is my new favorite bar. On Saturday Madelyn and Megan and I went to our favorite sandwich place, Brioche Doree. A french lady who had studied abroad in America when she was young started talking to us. She was really nice and cool. It was her 10 year old daughter's birthday! She told us about her 17 year old daughter who doesn't know what she wants to do after high school and gave us the details about her American experience. She gave us some good tips on places to go in Nantes and sqid she'd make us burritos sometime when I mentioned that I miss those. We exchanged contact info and her daughter is going to come to conversation club tomorrow!!! After lunch, Megan and I made had a little adventure on our way to this mall called Atlantis. We saw Slumdog Millionaire dubbed in french. The movie was amazing and I actually understood most of it! After the movie we went to Ikea and got some chocolate and then we had dinner at a creperie. It was the best one I've been to soo far. Atlantis actually has decent restaurants! We didn't get to explore much of the mall before it closed so we,re going back next weekend before the Soldes end. We decided to go see another movie instead of going to a discotheque that night because tickets are only 3 €90 for students at Atlantis. They have two movie theaters there, so we tried the second one and saw De L'autre à cote du Lit. The French was much harder to understand for that film but the parts we did catch were hilarious!!! I had tons of fun that day. Sunday was chill. I hung out with the fam and played the piano with Thomas again. He is probably the funniest kid I've ever met! That evening I went to see a music concert courtesy of IES. It was a cellist playing two pieces by Bach. It was incredible! I wish I could play the cello! After the concert, I went to dinner with a few girls and watched superbowl commercials before going to bed. I finally finished reading Inkheart but all the movie theaters in Nantes only have the movie dubbed. I refuse to watch a dubbed movie if I can help it. Slumdog Millionare was an accident cause we forgot to check. Not many people realize it but so much gets lost in translation.

Anyway after this epic blog, my fingers need a break. Sorry for any grammatical errors. I didn't have time to check. Well, I have my first teaching experience with kids tomorrow!! Wish me luck!!!