gone

im not in europe anymore. i havent been for 13 days. it already feels like i dreamt it. this is not good. i need to go back. NOW.

sleepy in spain

i am sleepy and in spain but spain is not sleepy at all. thats for sure. and this old woman has been turning her music box outside my window forEVER. it sounds nice and quaint and happy and atmospheric, but come on- im tired.
the only people i have met here are creepy spainish men who dont speak any english and stare at me and its odd and i dont like it. they seem to be everywhere too. but its fine- i just read my book ad pretend to not notice. maybe its my pretty new skirt. probably. it is quite nice.

i just left brighton and sofia and that was very nice. she had been ill and so we just mostly hung around and read books and went shopping and out to eat. brighton is chalk-full of vegitarian foods. it was very pleasant. we had Sunday Vegitarian Roast. yummmm and i ate tons of falafel. and i bought a jeans dress that is, i swear, straight form my childhood only stretched to fit me now. it makes me very happy when i wear it.
annnd we went out dancing last night and i just loveloveLOVE going dancing. it was enjoyable and i was happy but that is also why i am spending today being sleepy. it makes sense. i had to get up at o-dark-thirty to catch the train in to the airport and i nearly missed my flight! it was stressfull. it had been boarding before i even got through the bag chck part. ugh. and i had to take my bag to 'oversize' and the guy told me i would have to run beause the boarding gate closes 20 minutes before lift-off and i got there just barely 2 minutes before the 20 minute mark! ahh but i made it and that is all that matters.

ok im going to go to bed now.
xoxox

LOVE PARADE

i dont know why i thought that writing online would be easy for me. sorry that i can never get myself on here. anyways i have been a lot of places since i last wrote:
-Salzburg, Austria
-Melk, Austria
-Vienna, Austria
-Dundee,Scottland
-Liverpool, England
-Budapest, Hungary
-Prague, Czech Republic
....and tomorrow im going to Berlin, Germany.
I have been having the time of my life. right now i am in prague and it has been my absolute favorite place so far. i LOVE it here. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!! i am happy.
i was traveling with rochelle but she went home after liverpool and i met up with sarah. [obviously i love rochelle, but...] i love sarah. SO MUCH. we are the perfect traveling companions. seriously. everything is perfect. we have already planned our future trips together. we seriously get on so well. everything is smooth sailing and fun and exciting and perfect. we balance eachother perfectly.
anyway, more about prague since i am here right now. there are lots of beautiful men here. including the receptionist of the hostel and the artist on the bridge. they are perfect. also, it is very sunny and warm. we went to a black light theater which is a combo of modern dance and mimes and illusions with funky colors. it was cool. we also walked around a whole lot. its lovely here. but they have, like, the worst jewish quarter ever. we searched high and low for falafel and we could not find any anywhere at all. that was the only letdown. the only one. we were only supposed to be here for two days but we extended it to, like 5. ahhhh its so great.

backpacking

well i havent had too much internet lately. but right now i have some. i am in austria. salzburg specifically. i was in lyon france and then switzerland and now austria. i am not sick anymore but i have been sick. now rochelle is sick. i gave it to her. not so good. but it has helped us budget money because we always eat together and whoever is sick never eats anything and so the other one doesnt eat much either and then we dont waste money.

beach

i am in the south of france and at the beach. its sooooooooooo beautiful! i love it!

rome

I LOVE Rome, Italy.


[more than Paris?...... potentially yes]

effiel tower

macaroons

OH! i have eaten the most delicious stuff lately! macaroons from laduree. oh my gosh. these are the best things in the entire world. they are so freaking yummy! the very best one i had was a rose flavored one. it really tasted like flowers. roses! sugar sweet. i was so happy eating it. my second fav flavor out of the ones we got was lemon. i liked the rose so much that i went back to the patisserie today and got a religieusse a la rose. it had rassberries stuffed inside the middle of it too. rose and rassberry. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm sweet dreams. it was an amazing sensation,

american night and football match

this has been a busy week!
tuesday night was American Night with the family. basically the american girls made dinner and sang patriotic songs. we had mexican food. i made guacamole and everyone loved it! we had lots of fun and dinner lasted 2 hours. we also made a two-layer chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and sprinkles. it was heavenly. it was funny because philipinne didnt like it! french kids are strange.
last night we went to a football match. france VS england! we made shirts and spelled out FRANCE. i was the A. it was great-really american and ridiculous and cheesy- but great none-the-less. we also put on war paint. lots and lots of people kept stopping us to take pictures with us. that was esspecially funny because all those times we were only the F the R and the A. hahaha but anyways, france won, of course. but beckham was tere and he is soooooooo hot that i almost wanted him to win, but i didnt.

choir

i left out some more of easter day. we also had to go to the Young Single Adult thing which was for all of france which was going on all weekend long. we skipped a lot of it everyday. but after celebrating easter with the fam we went and sang in the choir for the easter presentation. it sounded pretty and was fun. i had to sit on the floor on the stand behind the podium because there werent enough chairs. and so every time we sang i had to jump up really high from crouching on the ground and hiding. it was funny. we took a few photos on the RER on the way over before my camera died. i had been wanting to take photos of the seats at Nation and never had my camera until today so i got some of them finally. coooool huh.

Easter Day

i have the best mom in the entire world. some of our friends from home were in paris for easter and so my mom sent my easter basket to me through them. at church they gave me the bag from mom. I WAS SO HAPPY. she sent an easter basket for rochelle too! it was perfect. and wrapped in colored saran-wrap just like at home. and it had all the right candies in it too, as well as chap stick annnnd bubbles!!! glorious.
and then we got home and went upstairs and found more stuff on our beds! because marie-claire made us little french easter 'baskets' except they were cardboard paper things of tom and jerry [weird] and in france the candy doesnt come from a bunny-- it comes from the bells. but they had chocolate in them too and we were so excited and felt so loved and like we belonged. and then whole extended family was there and all the hot boy grandsons and we hung out with them and talked with them and got to eat lunch with the family. And THHHHEN we had to hide in the house while they hide our eggs in the backyard! fuuuun we had a real easter egg hunt! i found 6 eggs by myself. rochelle was really bad at finding them. she only found 2. we wore our easter dresses and looked really nice all day long. it was a really good easter. and all the chocolate was so delicious. and everyone was so nice and happy.

[photo explanations:
1- theo hiding behind a flowering bush while searching for easter eggs
2- me searching for easter eggs
3- me after finding 2 easter eggs really quickly.
4- all of the adults eating and me and rochelle standing against the wall. only some of the french people here are actually important. the two women at the head of the table are. nannick is the older one. she owns the house and is our 'host mother.' she is nice but a bit insane. the woman next to her is marie-claire. she is nannick's daughter-in-law. she is married to jea.-francois [nannick's son] right now they are in the process of moving and so they and their two kids [phillipine and geoffry] are living with us. jean-francois is te man on the right side of the table in the black shirt with his elbow in the air. he is hilarious. everyone else is related to the family but isnt really important.
5- the american girls and our easter candy in rochelle's room on the floor. rochelle-emma-katie

Easter

this morning we dyed eggs!!!!!!
they dont do this in france. the family was confused. we had to explain it a lot the other night and they didnt understand for a while. it was funny.
it was quite the adventure trying to find some white eggs. apparently everyone likes their eggs brown. ugh. we would not settle for brown though b/c they would look ugly when dyed.
anyways the little girl in our family, phillipine, was SO excited about it.
katie is the best dye-er. i am very jealous of her skills.
i was pretty upset b/c we didnt have any blue dye. and thats my favorite color. but its all good. while we dyed them, it hailed outside, and then got sunny again. this place is whack.
also, while we were dye-ing, phillipine was humming and she was totally humming a song from shrek and i started to humm with her and we were happy together.
rochelle is a pretty good dye-er too. i guess. im excited to wear my new easter dress tomorrow.
Bonne Fete De Paques!

ERUOdisney

thursday i went to a french movie. it was called Modern Love and it was funny. and i understood a whole lot of it. much more than i expected to.
annnnnd yesterday i went to DISNEYLAND PARIS. hahahah thats right. it was tons of fun. i ate a mickey-head pizza and a mickey-head pastery and a waffle with rassberry ice cream on it. yummmm
my favorite rides are: Tower of Terror and Its a Small World. i do not like Space Mountain at all, but i went on it like 8 times. it hurts my head and makes me sick even though i ate my motion-sickness-medicine. it was odd b/c it rained and snowed and hailed and was freezing cold and then sunny and then warm and then windy and cold again. very very strange. but i liked it. it was sort of in celebration of jackie's birthday [feb 1st] it was cool b/c all the ride seemed differnt than the ones in the states. for example the indiana jones ride was actually a freaking roller coaster. cool. i love the tummy flip feeling when you drop. <3 <3 <3 it. best ever.

hair

also, as a side-note: i think one of the reasons i have been able to fit in here is because i never brush my hair

back

im back in paris. my trip was lovely. ive been ridiculously busy lately and it just looks like itll get worse and worse [i mean better and better?!] ill try to write something exciting and interesting soon.
ps- i finally bought a scarf. its baby blue and delicate but also big and french.
also, my family [except dad] is in the florida keys for th second time since ive been here. i know i shouldnt be jealous- but i totally am. ahhhhh i want to go to the beach right now! i guess ill be there soon enough though [greece and then portugal!]

bruises

playing around on that red rope jungle gym thing the other day has given me bruises on my tummy and bottom and legs.
annnnnnd my camera has given me permanent bruises on my hip-bones. i keep forgetting to adjust it's length.
:(

tempest

also. we are going to normandy for the week [tuesday-saturday] and at dinner Jean-Francois told us that there is going to be a huge tempest/storm thing this whole week. ugh.

the photo is of me and rochelle on the red-rope-jungle-gym

Pincess of the Flowers

i learnt some french sign language this evening at dinner. that was fun and interesting.

on friday we went to the rodin museum. it was amazing and beautiful. all the sculptures were so sensual and lovely.

saturday i played on a playground and then spun around until i fell on the ground and laid down in the daisies in the sunshine for quite a while. then i got up and went to the castle in Saint-Germain-En-Laye. inside of it is the National Archaeology Museum. <3 that was neat. i love archaeology. i also ate some ice cream.

then we went back home and painted. theo came over again. he is hilarious. seriously. he calls me the Princess of the Flowers. cute. when we walked jackie home at 11:30 he let me ride on his bike with him. i sat on the handlebar. [riding bikes is against Study Abroad Poliy. hahahha] how rebellious. we tried to teach him how to use facebook but i dont think that he understands it entirely. or at all.

today during church i had a hard time concentrating. its allllll in french! so instead i wrote lots of poetry. that put me in a good mood.

climbing

the other day rochelle and i climbed to the top of notre dame b/c we can do it for free with our magical 'Student of Art' Cards. and it was a bit cloudy, but fine for looking out on the city and that just made it less crowded and less of a wait. but so we starting climbing the circle stairs and finally we get to the top and were standing there and we see this massively huge dark gray sheet of cloud speeding towards us and it gets dark and IT STARTS TO HAIL ON US. haha it was so odd and unexpected. i thought it was hilarious. it kind of hurt though. so we had to take shelter up in the Hunch Back's Bell. and when we came out again it was sunny. isnt that so strange?

to keep in with the climbing, yesterday we climbed to the top of the Arch de Triumph [also free with the magic Art Card]. so we have gotten lots and lots of views of the city as of late. im finally getting oriented. some parts of paris i really actually <3 a lot. and then others i hate, not gunna lie. but its always easy to find my school building b/c its literally right across the street from the pompidou center. and thats easy to spot.

we were going to climb the eiffel tower today but it was raining and cold so we didnt. but we did opt for the stairs instead of the escalator in all of the metro stations. how fit.

angry

i am very, very angry.
this is the SECOND time that somehow my pictures have been lost/deleted. 792 photos. LOST. i hate my computer. hate it hate it hate it!
i seriously want to cry. these photographs are my life. 792! seven hundred and freaking ninety two pictures. and they are all gone. i dont understand how this can keep happening to me.
i am really upset.
all i do is put the card into the computer and then for some reason they wont open up and so i put it back into the camera and it says that i have no photos. none. it does not make sense and it should not happen. i put the card in the computer all the time. and then for some reason today [and that one time before] it does this stupid stuff and ruins my life. i dont even do anything. i really really am going to go cry.
some of those photos were SO good. this sucks, it really really sucks. i hate losing moments that i actually was able to capture. i feel like i have instantly lost and forgotten huge parts of my living in france. i hate this. i hate this. i hate this. i hate this. i hate this!!!!

Lost

the sad part about today was that i got lost for the first time..... i was terrified. which surprised me b/c i was completely fine being completely alone when i was alone in england for those three days...maybe i was scared because i was in a sketchy part of the city and it was night and i had been in a group and then was suddenly isolated and obviously lost and a girl and vulnerable and had no idea where i was supposed to be going or how to get to the RER-A. but its okay, it ended well. [and tomorrow theo is going to make dinner with us and im very excited about that because he is cute and i like him, especially when he speaks english]

Lipstick

today i went back to the cemetery of Pere- Lachaise and finished the walk in there. [i am in a class called 'Paris Walks' where we follow directions from a book of important and interesting places around paris] and we saw the grave of Oscar Wilde [he wrote The Importance of Being Ernest] and it was hilarious because his tomb was covered in lipstick kisses. and guess what! i just happened to have some bright red lipstick in my pocket and so i took it out and passed it around to all the girls and we added our lips to the collage! it had potential for being absolutely disgusting- but i dont like to think about that part. it was really kind of fun! and my lips looked good on there, not gunna lie. how weird is that though.....

incense

i also bought some incense. the best scents i got were peach, rose, and jasmine. my room even smells like peaches now and i burnt it this morning at, like, 6:00 AM! and is now 2:00 AM. how delicious.

Jacket

i bought a 'leather' jacket the other day at H&M and it was expensive and is pretty nice. its not actually leather. but it makes me feel/look really tough and also cool and mostly european. i reallly like it a lot. its black. and i like it when i wear it with flowy girly tops. anyways so i wore it today for the first time and i think that it is the reason the following story took place:
so we went to the museum Les Invalides which is a war museum and, first of all we got into it FREE b/c of our 'art cards' which is kind of hilarious b/c it is NOT an art museum.... but the person selling tickets was a boy so we just smiled a lot very lovely-y and asked if it was free with an art-card. [its was 6 euros with a plain student card]. anyways so i was standing around looking in the cases at some ancient armor that was cool and this guy who worked in the museum started talking to me about my camera and i thought 'ok i can talk to this guy-- he works here, itll be short and just improve my french' and so i was like yeah i like to take photos blah blah and then tried to keep looking at the stuff in the displays. BUT he kept following me and trying to talk. i basically just said yes 'oui' to everything. so i told him i was English and then spent 3 minutes trying to explain where i was 'from' in relation to london....hah finally he left and i went to talk to jackie before leaving the room.
but thats not the end. he came back over to me and is all 'arent you going to take photo" and im all 'i have taken lots of photos...' and hes all 'of me. a souviener' and im thinking 'ew. gorss. you are old and balding and creepy.' but instead i told jackie to stand next to him and i just snapped it. and thennnnnn hes all 'do you have email' and i was all 'no.' and jackie is all 'she doesnt have internet.' and hes all 'you have such a technologically advanced camera but no internet?!' and we were all 'yeah. we are old fashioned" and hes all 'but we must communicate!" and i was like well i usually just write people letters sooo..... and then i left. but not in a rude way. im pretty sure he seriously blieved us. im a pretty good liar sometimes. but UGH seriously. he was icky. lots of creepy older men talk to me and smile at me. its gross. but the point of this story is that jackie says it is all because of the new jacket and the fact that it makes me look so hot and irresistable. oh baby.

daft punk

i listened to daft punk with a real-live french boy today.

maoz

also, i need to make a shout-out to my lunch today.
i went to a vegitarian place in the latin quarter called Maoz. apparently it is a chain, but this is the only one open in france-- too bad! it was soooooo yummy and i wasnt hungry again all day until dinner at 8! and i ate this at 11.
i had falafel-balls in a pita-sandwich with hummus and veggies.
finally i got to eat some humus! i have been craving it since the day i got here.....

Cards

today we basically had a double date with the woman we live with's grandsons....hah, kidding, sort of. we got home from jackie and summer's just in time for dinner and apparently marie-claire and family went out of town for the week so it would have been just the three of us [me, rochelle and nannick] but instead she just so happened to invite her attractive and available 18 and 21 year old grandsons over. haha so that was awkward.
it was hilarious trying to have conversation over dinner. paul, the older one, was talking about something under-ground and tunneling and and a light on your forehead and i still dont know what it was all about and i kept asking and it was reallly funny. things get so mixed up and jumbled up and confused and distorted when you try to communicate and translate into other languages. what a funny combination of french and english words we threw out there.
after dinner we lite a fire and played cards and nannick tried to put on 'ambiance' music and then dimmed the lights and left! haha she is so funny.
but going back to cards-- i dont know why i didnt expect it but the playing cards are differnt. King=Roi Queen=Dame Jack=Valet [i think] and they dont have Aces, just 1s. [R, D, V, 1] i thought it was funny.
and we played 'President' AKA SCUM! i pretended to not know the game and then when i realized what it was i kicked butt. i was President for basically the entire time. ahah yay.
it was funny because we would all speak in combos of french and english and then make fun of everyone's accents. they said i have a high-pitched girly accent that is funny but cute. :) that made me happy. i giggled, like, every time they spoke in english, which was a lot. it was just so adorable!
and they sang "Hakunamata"[sp?] in french! that was so strange.....
and tomorrow we are going to play 'football' together. im very excited about it. i think that actually interacting with french boys my age is going to improve my french a whole lot. exponentially, in fact. seriously.
im glad to have finally made some friends. [french ones, specifically]

Milk

if i end up gaining weight while i am here i can tell you right now what it would be caused by-- the milk.
milk here is literaly half-cream. that is a lot fatter than fat [whole] milk! i mean, im not going to lie, it tastes like heaven, but this is where any possible future weight gain stems from. usually, in the states, i hardly ever have milk [sometimes i eat cereal, that is it] and if i do have some i try to go healthy and i get skim. but here i eat a bowl of cereal every morning and then i have a cup of hot chocolate [made with milk obviously] every evening when i get back from the city. that is two cups of pure creamy fat that i am pouring into my body every day.
everyone says that the weight gain comes form eating chocolate and bread and cheese, but seriously-- i am eating just about the same amount of chocolates/sweets as i do at home, as well as basically the same amount of bread and of cheese.
annnnnd anyways i am walking a freaking crap of a lot more here.
so long story short: milk = poison.
while we are on the subject of milk. this half-cream option is the only option availible. annnnd it comes in a box, which is stored in the cupboard and does not need to be refridgerated until opened. and it is a relatively small box. for instance- two mugs of milk takes up basically the entire box. i feel like i am constantly using up all of their milk and having to cut another triangle into the corner of another box. i have perfected the triangle, btw. now i dont cut it so that you spill all over.
i have concluded that the french hardly drink any milk ever.
[the photo is of my lovely housemate rochelle drinking some chocolat]
this is all of my information on my milk life in france.

its not like im giving up....

its not like i am giving up, its just that frankly i never got caught up writing about everything that i have done and am doing. it just takes soooooo long and so much effort.

So instead, i am just going to pretend that it doesnt matter what i am doing here all day every day and from now on every-so-often i will just post something that i have been thinking about that is slightly french-related, since i am in france. okay? okay.

Mardi Gras

the next morning we got a big breakfast and they had pain-au-chocolat so i ate a lot of food. we went to another cathedral but this one i wasnt allowed to take pictures inside of but it had the most increidble stain-glass window ever that i am in love with and i willll find a picture of somehow. [note- i just spent a really long amount of time trying to find a picture and apparently one does not exist- apparently no one else in the whole world cares about this window as much as i do. i am really quite upset about it. i shouldve just broken the law and taken a picture!!!! stupid. stupid.]
anyways the most important thing about this cathedral is that it is home to the famous Van Eyck Triptych. let me tell you, it is soooooooo increidble. i am obbsesed with it now. it was freaking HUGE and overwhelming and beautiful. we spent a long time looking at it.

welllll that part doesnt really have anyhting to do with Mardi Gras-- its just how we spent Mardi Gras Morning. afterwards we drove to our little parade town for The Big Celebration.

Okay, so apparently this tiny town has a hugely famous parade for mardi gras every year so of course we went to it- thats why we were there yeah. it was cloudy and rainy and cold and icky. i was pretty upset about all that. so we walked around back and forth and back and forth down the center of town which was not large at all and we basically had it memorized after less than a half hour and we had tons of time to kill since we were hours early so we spent time eating french fries and getting wet and going into the bars and watching people being drunk and we danced and little kids threw confetti all over us an everything and everywhere. at this point that was my favorite part [bseides the french fies with maoynaise] the fact that there was cOnfetti alllllll over and it was beautiful and pretty and stuck to the cobblestones b/c everything was wet. how festive.
anywyas the woman selling some yellow flowers that husbands are supposed to buy for their wives told us that the town's folklore [which everyone strongly believes and says is 100% true] is that the moment the parade begins---- the sun comes out. yeah that was idelistic if you ask me. i thought it was a cute idea. but did not believe itwould happen. BUT ohmygosh. at exactl 3:30 on the nose, THE SUN BROKE THROUGH AND IT DIDNT RAIN ANYMORE. i pretty much took it as a sign. holy crap i freaked out. and was sooooo happy that it was true. they say they are the True Village and Blessed by God and stuff and now i totally agree and want to live there b/c man it was frreaky. it was crazy. they say the sun comes outlike that every single year! [how 'Truman Show'.] i called it the Mardi Gras Miracle. hah. and the even weirder thing is that it started raining again within minutes of the parade ending...... ahhhhh

Belgium

monday morning we left for belgium! i absolutely LOVE belgium. [at least where we went] it is so quaint and pretty and has really good french fries, waffles, AND chocolate.
anyways, they forced us to speak only french on the bus for the entire morning and i had to go up to the front of the bus and talk into the mircophone [which was actually really really fun b/c everyone paid attention to me] and i had to tell, in french, about my experiance of going to that huge cemetary.i accidentally said that i loved the crazyman... i meant to say i loved the experiance hahaha. i slept a lot on rochelle and had wierd dreams and drooled. and the lush countryside rolled on by..... la la la so beautiful.
we stopped at this adorable little town with a catherdral and got out and went inside of it and learnt alll about everything about it and it was all really cool info. Brother Welch knows freaking everything about everything! on the front walls there were scenes depicting vices and virtues.... they were funny. the inside was gorgeous and we were allowed to take pictures so of course i did. my favorite part was that when the sun shone [it didnt shine very often so i had to wait for long periods of time in my secret spot][it wasnt really that secret. at all actually] it would light up this pillar and it looked like it had been tie-dyed! it was soooooooo cool. theres also some sad pouty angel that would get dyed too and that was funny.
for lunch i got a bread+butter+cheese sandwich and it was perfect.
we got on the bus and i slept more and when i woke up i thought i had died and gone to heaven.... sort of. hahah thats b/c when we got off tthe bus we walked over to a CHOCOLATE MUSEUM. we had to follow the chocolate fairy throughout the museum! i loved it. they had lots of artifacts from the aztecs and i toook a pcture of the secret recipie and got some free samples. good stuff. and they had all these statuues and artworks and a cross-section of some part of the humanbody or something [thought of mary kate] made out of chocolate!! cooooool it all smelled so yummy.
the town was basically made up of chocolate shops and lace shops. i could totally deal with that.
we walked past this BalloonMan who looked crazy if you ask me but for some reason we stopped and talked to him and he was funny and told a joke about jehovah witnesses and knock-knock jokes and it was really funny, espeically b/c we were all mormon and the joke totally applied to mormons too and he didnt realize that.
anyways then we went to dinner and i ate french fries and hot chocolate and the restaurant had a self-disinfection-rotating toliet seat. fancy. except not really. just strange. but a good idea i guess. anyways rochelle got a waffles and didnt use all of her chocolate sauce on it and so there was lots of extra in a cute little wateringcan-type-pouring-thing and so i ate it all with a spoon and it made me insanely hyper. like insanely hyper. and so i was in a goodmood and happy and walked around the town for a long time and we looked at this romantic bridge in the dark and it was lovely and then went to the hotel and laid on jackie and summers bed with rochelle and giggled for a really long time and then went to sleep.

yesterday was ground hog day

went to church had to wake up soooooo early and then it was freezing cold and we couldnt get out of the house b.c rochelle was pushing the door instead of pulling it. didnt wait at the station and then we got lost and this guy asked to go throught the turn-stall with R and she didnt know what he said and just said 'oui' cause thats what she always responds with and then we were so confiused and lost and there were people in ble jackets doing train sureveyinng just like my job with the traffic surveyin! and we asked them but still got lost dome more andgot on some wrong trains going in wrong directions and then the guy we illegally got through to the staition kept following us and trying to help. went to the wrng versaille station and walked allllll the ay across town trying to find the right place and to start at with our directins to the chapel and then asked some biker guys from parisand there was this creepy pigeon who had a crippled foot and it was SO GROSS and following me and then we finally found the correct station and walked to church and were late but since its 3 hourslong we didnt miss that much and then i used a headset translator and that was really cool and then the missionaries kept talking to me and there were a lot of them and we stayed for brek the fast and it was pretty much al yucky foods with meat in them that i didnt like but there were lots of americans who talked to us and these two black girls from california who were soooooo funny. and then we went home on the right/ train and it was rpettty and ate my entire avacado but it was so big and i had to eat the whole thing so that it wouldnt turn brown and it made me feel sick so i took a nap and then woke up at 8 ish and ate dinner and our 'family' wasnt there b/c they went to some really cool concert without iviting us. my friend summer was apparently on a train and had her feet up and they gave her a ticket for 50 euros! holy freakkingcrap. her 'family' says that she shoul have pretended to tnot speak frenchand say that she had no money and then have them send it to her home in texas b/c then she wouldnt have had to pay it. SO if that ever happens to me i am saying that. [i totally had my feet up tday and the ticket-checking guy just told me to put them down please.... wahoo breaking the law!] I WENT SHOPPING Eyesterday and it was soooooo expensive b/c we kept accidentally going to the Mode sections of everywhere and thats like high fashion. opps. anyways im getting really good at have to talk to strangers and theyre mostly really nceto me. except for waiters, they always seem really annoyed at my broken french and at the fact that somtetimes all i want to eat is french fries [frites] they come to the table and say 'just fries” when they bring them. its annoying.

FRANCE, finally

-tub, poster, tights, trendy bag= silver= falling apart
-everything about the house and family
-hotel
-first day
-feelings
-welch's place
.........
-crazy guy on metro singing bob marleyrat race with jamazcin acent in french and then crazy guy in cemetary
-shower feelings
-lost in morning-- late for class
-cheap bread with sesame seeds
-institute
-verailles
-jackie's birthday [train in morning run into everyone late]
-window shop
-gyro with freis

--sugar in hot chocolate
-so sick of people spekaing french
-shopping champs o lycee
-[that good sandwhich the other day] [cheese and tomato]
-gray dress for mk
-rain ruined boots the other day
-lunch, fries, waiter annoyed
-shopping- gray boots, expensive stuff, upstairs store with white one of a kind flower dress
-pink dress
-that dessert [ange]
-steve is david cramers cousin
-sephora free givenchy MAKE OVER

More London.....

For now i will continue where i left off being in London:
I cant believe that i havent writtten anything down since i got here! gahhh i just know im going to have forgotten A LOT and i will leave some stuff out. oh crap. ok here goes: at least what i can remember:
On thursday i played with SOFIA! i was so happy. but that wasnt until later. she facebooked me and told me she would skip french so i gave her my hotel phone number and she called me and it was funny. i went around to touristy places with nicole and ashley in the morning. we shopped on oxford street at this store called Top Shop which was really cool but very expenseive and they played Kate Nash 'i just want you kiss boy' and that made me sooooooo happy. and then in the store i saw a shirt EXACTLY like that weird frilly one i got in Park City that i never ever wear and that was funny. the dresses in that store were beautiful but everything iwanted was like 58 pounds and then double itif youwant to know the price in dollars! no good. we also went to Clarks, the shoes store. and then into this mall looking for a clarks where this guy exfoliated my hands with salt from the dead sea.
We took the tube to buckingham Palace and in the park we saw a buisnessman with one green sock and one red one and his pants were riding up so we could see them and i was soooo awkward and embarassed for him beause it made me think he must do is own laundry and live alone and have no one to love and it was just way to personal of an insight. at the palace gate we asked a guard what the queen;s last name was BC we had forgotten and he told us it was windsor. DUHH totally knew that. i swear. there was a street called birdcage street, ew,
Next we went down the street to look at Big Ben and westminister abbey and st margarets church [which is mom's favorite] we went inside of st margarets and it was very pretty. i finally met up with sofia and was really happy and she brought her house-mate jesse and he was nice. we talked and walked and metro-ed which was good beause i had a day-pass and got more than my money's worth out of it. we went to the tower of london [closed] and tower bridge and i was just happy to be with sofia because i love her. eventually we began to walk over to the globe theatre and it was so weird becuse we literally ran into the other group of girls from the SA who had come early and were staying in london. wierdddddddddd.
there were lots of street musicians.they were also all in the underground. i wish there wasnt a law against that in DC because its so beautiful to listen to.
e noticed that th 'in-style' for buildings in london is for them to be entirely see-through and let me tell you that was weird because we could see everything tht was going on inside of them all the time. at one point i was staring in at these people working [it was dark out] and this girl was trying to fi her desk drawer b/c she had pulled it out and there were two guys in their cublicles and they saw me looking at them somehow and they waved and danced and it was odd. the buildings were boxy.
since i was too busy to eat lunch we split up so it was just me and sofia and jesse and we went and got dinner and it was yummy pasta with pesto. and we saw this pirate shiip replica floating in the water and it said that you could have sleepovers on it!!!! so cool.
we also went to platform 9 3/4 [that was my idea] but it didnt work when i tried to go through the wall.... we ate some chocolate and then went to some plazza and sat on a giant statue and watched some young teenagers being stupid and drunk and it was funny because the police gaurds were wearing vests that said Heritage Warden on them. we could see a rotating tower that said collusium but it looked like it said 'cold' to me but thats because it was cold outside.
we just walked around a lot more and got smoothies and watched people argueing and rode the tube.

The next morning i was eating eggs on toast and i looked up and saw this man who had been looking over at me and HE LOOKED LIKE AARON ECKLES [hes a murderer from the tv show Veronica Mars] ahhhhhh how creepy is that?!
when i checked out i was charged 88 pence for phone calls and then i just went on over to the chunnel and waited for the other girls to show up so we could go over to France.

I finally found them [and really if i hadnt it ave found them it wouldnt have been a big deal because i couldve totally handled it all myself. i was feeling very free and independant by this point] I got myself a humus and veggie sandwhich from Marks and Spencers adn it was delicious. You know what? i was really really lucky that i never fell over backwards from the wieght of my bags and hurt myself.....

okay so we got onto the euro-star [itink thats what its called] and my seat was next to this cute little french boy and his mom and we got the middle seats with a table inbetween [only ONE per car!] which was very exciting. i spent the whole trip looking out the window [except when we went down-under- in which case i watched him play soccer on his gameboything] i saw that horse that is carved into the hillside [the Uffington Horse] and tried to point it out to him but i totally forgot that he didnt speak english and i think he just thought i was really weird and a bit crazy b/c i was so excited about something out the window and he didnt see it..... but its whateve.

i got off the train and was..... IN FRANCE. FINALLY

First Day in London

Thursday January 24th. [this was written dwn in a notebook earlier and not directly typed right now]

i got through the airport, that was easy, goodbye parents. tingley nervousness, but not too bad. i just told myself that i had to step up. and so i did. sorry to be writing in here- its the only notebook in my big silver purse currently. my watch fell out of the bucket in the metal scanner . that was bothersome. - but i asked someone to retreve it for me, at th gate i read Diasy Fay and the Miracle Man it was easy to get into and good. i must say that i quite like it so far. there were lots of people speaking french around me [and british...obviousl]. on the plane i was very tierd and dozed off and missed take off [same exact thing with the landing. hah] i was so happy beause they supplied a mini-toothbrush and i had been concerned about that. they also supplied socks i had brought an extra pair anyways], a pink pillow, and a blanket. i drooled a lot and slept. the food was yummy. pasta and salad with vinegar anf a [not-so-yummy] roll. dessert. and most importantly: a mini CRUNCHY! yes! which i am saving so that i can savor it and enjoy it proprely. thats my favorite type of chocolate bar in the whole wide world. right now [not actually as i am typing this.... but as i was originally writing] i am on the underground. and we just went above ground. but only for one minute. weird. anyways sleeping on the plane was uncomfortale, i had restless dreams and was most likely talking in my sleep. one of my dreams i took these pills right before getting off of the airplane and i was so messed up that i couldnt get off of it ....but you got off it like a ski lift. i did not lke it. or the dream. or the fact that when i woke up i was still on the airplane. (i like the way this train smells, btw)(a hint of cigarette but also slight rassberry and just a clean bright fresh shower smell) (we are above ground again and its so lush and beautiful and all the buildings and houses i can see out the window are all brick and perfectly lovely.)(im quite over-heated though in my sweater and big coat.) OK: so i got off the plane. it was all much easier than expeted, blah blah blah blah- probably beause i prayedso much about it since i was so nervous. On the escalator i rainbow-taped my fingers on the handrail and the man directly behnd me was doing it too exactly the same as me. it was cool. i totally went to the wrong place. i went to “trains” instead of “underground” oooppps. anyways my stuff is really heavy and difficult to manage but still manageable. barely, im actually really enjoying being utterly alone. and that really surprises me. i keep surprising myself. ugh i keep wanting to take photos but my camera is burried. there are lots of girls wearing boots similar to my brown ones that i am wearing right now and even ones similar to my short black ones that both beth and mary kate dont like, i feel very relaxed and i think this is up to where i am now. [but not actually NOW now...as im typing, no] (oh yeah i forgot to say thhat i brushed my teeth in the bathroom) i want to live here. the trains are white with blue bottoms an red doors and are so brght and cheery and beautiful. they look great against the green and all the gray of the sky. i just remembered, i only brought 5 hair-ties for all 5 months and i have already lost one! on the plane. hah whtevers though- not important. i love all the variations of accents and the people are so lovely to look at. [they all look much different from pople in america and i think they are so beautiful. [Someone] totally doesnt agree or see them differently or likes looking at them. shes all “theyre just people””the boys arent attractive at all- have you looked at their teeth?” i dont know what she is seeing... maybe her eyes are broken or foggy or something because i love all of these people everywhere i look. they are all exquisite.] i think its all the old brick that really gets me though.... its perfectly crumbly and clouded but not dull or faded. ohmygosh ew i just saw my first pigeon GROSS and it got me nervous an flew along parallel with the train.

well thats the end of what i wrote on the train. now i m typing this all for realz as i go.....

-off metro, walk to hotel, hotel looks, key, door problem, room.
[the key was on the end of a nearly foot-long peiece of metal. and was a real key! also it was scary because the lock slid to the side and made it so that the door couldnt shut and that was not safe at all but i relized it and fixed it really quickly. the room was tiny but i liked it because no murderers could hide anywhere]

-just missed girls, british museum,
[two girls from my study abroad group stoped by the hotel looking for me and left me a note so that was really kind of them. i met up with them in the british museum]

-mummies, statues, africa, jewlery. just the architecture, hippo, sandals, hand insense burner
[thats just some stuff i saw, i think i took pictures of most of it...]

-sore: feet, shoulder, eyes. tired.cant sleep because want to get on right timing ie: no jetlag

-alone in hotel. small. waiting to go eat. will ask desk.

-beth email.

-anoying to type. mousey thing difficult when not plugged in.

-scared to go out in city in dark. got dark at 4:30!

-drink on plane
[they offered me a drink on the plane and it was wierd because that doesnt happen to me, i thought mayeb i just looked old or something with my new haircut but then i remembered that their law was just different. hah]

-asked cute boy at desk where to go to dinner. had been left alone agan b.c those girls left. italian place

-sat alone but wasnt akward. empowering. took a long time, relaxed and enjoyed being 'out'

-picked vegetarian pizaa [peppers. tomato. artichoke.]

-confused about tiping.

-asked man sitting beside me and he said 'i am a foreigner like yourself. i actualy do not know. he thought i was brisith just not from there because he said i have an accent! lovely. he was from france. i told him i was going to la vesinet and he recognized the name. he went to berkley for grad shool i think he said. a very nice older man. we ended up asking the woman on the other side of him what to tip. i think she was american.

-i just remembered that im legally allowed to drink so thats why they all keep asking me haha it all makes sense

-when i left they said 'chao bella' cuuuuute.

-almmost got run over by a speeding vn that was going ridiulously fast.

-saved ½ pizza but theres no fridge but i think itll be okay. artichokes were kind of sour tasteing and the heart was at the center of the pizza

-been feeling very unreal. not real..... so i know that i think allllll the time a lot in my head constantly and irrationally and abouteverythin and ridiculous stuff. but since ive been mostly alone and in my head this entire while i have realized that i hear people and their voices in my head and i picture them and can clearly see and feel their emotions and wack-o 'madeup?' [potentially] convos. and i have ot conseiously not think about them an concentrate on them beause thats wierd. i think also that when i am alone like this i thik more and more and more and more and then it gets kind of hard to talk and then when i finally do talk or s

-lighting in hotel rom. perfect for plucking eyebrows

-rough towels
[im pretty sure they hurt my face and made red splotches. ugh]

-dad called
[<3]

I have been here for an entire week and so that means i should write some stuff down

Hello everyone and anyone. This is Emma. I am starting a blog so that people can see whats up with me while I am studying in France. Basically its my journal minus the parts when I write about people.... that makes me sound mean, I'm not. These first few entries were written a while ago but I figure that I should put them in here anyways. I have been in France now for pretty much exactly week. I wish I had done a better job of writing everything down but it was such a whirlwind of emotions and activity that i ended up only making a few bullet-point lists for some day's journal entries. Oh and excuse all of my type-os, I have a tiny tiny tiny baby laptop and they keyboard is really small and difficult to use.