All Good Things Must Come to an End...

     Well everyone I believe this will be my last blog post on here seeing as I fly home for the States on Saturday. But before I say goodbye to this amazing trip I'll fill you in on the past week.

     Last Wednesday my parents flew in to London and with perfect timing by me of course I got there right as they were walking out of customs. I got them safely around London and set the up with tube passes and directions to their hotel since I had a final I had to study for. I knew I wouldn't see them until the next day because their jet lag would kick in and they would likely be out for the night shortly anyways =) As I later found out I was right...they were out by I think 7 o'clock.

     The next day was our tourist day and I took my parents to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, The Eye, a couple pubs, and ended up at Tower of London. The following day we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace... more like just a bunch of people walking around. Was very anticlimactic to be completely honest. After that we walked through the gardens to Harrod's where we walked through and saw all the Princess Diana monuments within Harrod's and did a small bit of shopping. After that I took them through Hyde Park and gave them directions back to their hotel so they could get ready to go see Blood Brothers.

     On Saturday we went to the service at St. Paul's Cathedral and got to see some amazing views inside of it. After that we went to dinner and then to bed for an early night since we had to get up early to leave for Paris! The train left at the incredibly early hour of 8ish, and I slept the entire way. In Paris we went around and saw the Louvre, The Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame and basically all the sights I saw before. We had some delicious meals and had a nice relaxing couple of days! I am still in love with the city of Paris, it is by far one of the better cities I saw even though each one had its own individual atmosphere.

     Well everyone I hope you've enjoyed reading about my travels and happenings while abroad! It won't be long now before I'm back on the same side of the pond as all you! I better get back to packing up my stuff so I'm not scrambling around last minute on Friday... It has been an INCREDIBLE time these past few months and I would not change a thing! Cheers and I'm sure I'll bee seeing all of you shortly! Thanks for reading and following along!!!

The Eternal City

     Sorry this post is a little later than I thought, I had some complications I had to attend to first. More on that later, for now I have to say Roma was an amazing city! There was four of us that went, I was there from Friday to Sunday night. Friday we arrived late afternoon and met up with our friend who had arrived earlier in the day. We walked to our hostel which was actually really nice. It was more of a small apartment because we had a floor to ourself with a full bathroom down the hallway. Also we had breakfast delivered to our door each morning at 9am. Friday we just decided to stroll around our local area which was right around Termini Station and checked out all the shops. There were tons of little street vendors that were selling fake watches, purses and belt buckles. I was tempted to buy one of the fake watches but could never find the guy selling them again, slightly disappointed. But as it got nearer to dinner time we found a restaurant and had what else... PASTA! I had tortellini, which was absolutely delicious, my friends had spaghetti, and lasagna.

     After dinner we walked around to explore a bit more before going to sleep. Saturday we set aside for our tourist day. We woke up for breakfast and then everyone showered, got ready and we headed out for the Vatican! One bad thing about Rome, their metro system only has two lines. One goes north and south, the other east and west. This makes things slightly annoying to get around but we nevertheless made it over to the Vatican. Before we went in we became hungry again (breakfast was coffee and a croissant) so we found this little pizza parlor and ordered some food. Yes we were being typical tourists and trying to get anything authentic Italian =). The pizza's came out and it was HUGE and delicious! Also one of the guys I was traveling with decided to get a liter of beer, I don't think he knew exactly how large a liter is. After lunch we strolled along into the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel, amazing place and very beautiful. The famous part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling that everyone thinks of is actually much smaller than I originally thought. It only takes a very small portion right in the middle, I thought it took up more of the ceiling than it did. Regardless it was still an amazing sight to see and will remember it forever. After leaving the museum we went to St. Peter's square and went into St. Peter's. Inside was absolutely gorgeous, it had tall arched ceilings and beautiful statues, paintings and architecture everywhere! Next we went down into the tombs of the Pope's where I saw Pope John Paul II tomb and all of the flowers and messages people have left. Quite an amazing moment to be standing there. Once we were done with St. Peter's we decided to go to the famous Trevi fountain.

     The Trevi fountain was an amazing place to just sit and relax, but we only stayed for a little before heading back to the room and took a nap after a long day of walking. We ended up sleeping for about two hours and when we woke up we went out to a pub where we had some delicious beers! They were mainly a mix of German and Italian beers.

     Saturday we woke up and headed out to the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Pantheon. The Colosseum was very impressive and quite the sight to see. The weather was absolutely beautiful both days we were there in the 70's. We walked everywhere on Saturday and by the time we had to leave I was exhausted. We caught a bus shuttle around 7 to the airport and headed back to London on our flight. The trip was a great time and the city was absolutely gorgeous to walk around in! I'll put some pictures up to give you guys some idea of what I saw. Well now I have to go take some finals and it's basically the last thing to do before my parents are here! Until next time!

  

Coming to a Close

     Well everyone thought I'd give you a little midweek update. I leave for Rome tomorrow until Sunday night! I'm excited to see all the ancient Roman buildings cause I took a class on Ancient Roman culture. I'll try to use the little knowledge I've retained as I walk around. I will take plenty of pictures no worries Sis!Little sad because this is my last true trip! I go to Paris with my parents next week (but I'm not really counting places I've already been to haha). So check in either late (for me at least) Sunday night or sometime Monday to see the post.
     Crazy to think that 2 weeks from Saturday will be my flight back home to the States. Little tear comes to my eye when I say that =(. But my parents come in Wednesday for a week and then 4 days after they leave it's my flight home! Slightly ruins the reunion factor when I go back to the States but it's ok haha. Wish I could stay a little longer but I've enjoyed my time here so much! So check back in at the end of the weekend to hear allllll about ROMA! But for right now it's time to go celebrate my last day of work with my co-workers at a pub around the corner! CHEERS!!

Lords, Baguettes, Eiffel Tower and Relaxation: The life of a lucky kid in London

     As promised all, I said I'd do have this post up on Sunday since I've been slacking! This actually comes at a nice breaking point for me from my paper (4,500/7,500 words). We'll start off with my trip to the Houses of Parliament!
    
     So as my sort of going away/thank you present my boss set up a surprise for the entire office. Only she knew where we were going and basically gave them a half day in order to go along with. Last Tuesday I strolled into the office at 2:30 as I was instructed and everyone was there all dressed up and ready to go. Our boss led the way to the Tube station nearby work and had us all guess which stop we were getting off at. My co-worker and I both guessed Westminster (where Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey are). We turned out to be right. We got off the Tube and went in this side/private entrance into the House of Parliament to meet up with the Lord who would be showing us around and a friend of my boss. We start off by having to go through security and get a picture ID tag for the day (yes I kept the ID). Next Lord Tom (sorry that's all I got from anyone, don't know his full name. Know he is part of the Labour party though) showed us all around the Houses of Parliament, taking us through the sights that tourists can see to private areas where only Lords are allowed. I got to see the library within Parliament which had books reaching the top of a room that must have been 2 stories tall. We sat in both the House of Lords and House of Commons to listen to the topics up for discussion for the day. Lord Tom took us into where the Queen enters the Houses of Parliament for her ceremonies and where she stages and processes out from to talk to the Houses. In that room were gorgeous paintings and of course the Queen's throne (not the actual one though, sad I know).

The cherry on the top though was the fact that we got to have tea in the tea room reserved for Lords and MP's. This experience was surreal, it was my boss, 3 co-workers, me, Lord Tom, a friend of his and 2 other MP's who joined us. The table was laid out with gold and silver trays filled with finger sandwiches, delicious scones, and desserts! You could order any type of tea in the world (I went with earl grey) and they would surely have it and bring you your own kettle. A little later during tea the head fundraiser for Tony Blair stopped by and talked to my boss and Lord Tom. Also one of the MP's that was having tea with us talks to all the heads of states frequently and just returned from an 8 day long trip in NYC. After talking with him about my program, politics, and random topics I found out that his son goes to Vanderbilt. After tea we got to go into a choir room underneath the Houses which only people in the choir or Lords and their guests can get into. You weren't supposed to take pictures but since there were only 6 of us I sneaked a couple in! This entire experience was unbelievable and one that I'll remember for the rest of my life!

     After experiencing Houses of Parliament in a way few others could it's hard to imagine anything topping it but Paris definitely did. This weekend (Thurs-Sat night) I was in Paris with a friend from the program. Our hotel was right across the river from Notre Dame so we wondered over there after we checked in and saw a spectacular light show on the face of Notre Dame!! The one we saw was a replay from an event earlier so it did not have the sound/commentary but it was behind words how amazing it was. I'll post pictures but trying to describe it would never do it justice. The event ran only Thursday, Friday night and luckily we got to catch the light show both nights! 

   

     Friday we decided to sleep in a little and then we headed out for the Louvre Museum in the gorgeous, sunny 65 degree weather. We spent a good three and a half hours in the Louvre and saw all the major things: Mona Lisa, Aphrodite, French Revolution painting, etc. afterwards we got some baguette sandwiches, which were delicious, and sat in the gardens right outside the Louvre. We then strolled around the area until night time where we went to eat at Cafe du Pont Neuf. Once we were done eating we went to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. A spectacular sight and a must do if anyone is every in Paris. It was farm more impressive than what I thought it was going to be and movies, pictures, and stories is nothing like seeing it with your own eyes. After that we went to catch the light show for the second time (but this time with sound) and it was even better than the first night. Once that ended we just hung around our Hotel area which was the Latin Quarter before going to bed. 

     

      Saturday we dedicated to relaxing so after sleeping in a little we went to the Eiffel tower to go allllll the way to the top observation deck. 669 stairs, 2 observation deck, and an elevator ride later we reached the top most observation deck. AMAZING sights on a sunny and slightly cloudy day of Paris. The view was impeccable and we spent our sweet time on every level. After we descended back to the ground we laid in the grass right next to the Eiffel tower for a good 45mins just enjoying the weather and the sights of the Eiffel Tower. Once we got up we decided to head to the Champs Elysees, buuutttt the weather decided to turn and started pouring rain! We saw the Champs Elysees from afar the day before so we decided to give up trying to make it over there since we were cutting it close to getting back in time for our train as it was. We went back to our Hotel to pick up our bags when we realized my friends passport was missing... After a frantic 30 mins she finally found it in her makeup bag, we still have no clue how it got there. After that we bought our last minute souvenirs and headed to the train station to return to London. I can't wait to return to Paris in 2 weeks with my parents as it is the best city I have been to by far! I'll put some pictures up so that you guys can see some of the things we did. Hope you guys enjoyed the read! Cheers! 

    

Lords, MP's and PARIS!!!

     So sorry all!!!! I know I have been slacking severely on this blog but things have started coming fast and furious to finish up this semester! I've had to write this 7500 dissertation and a couple other papers. But fear not I have plenty of stories to update everyone with after I get back from Paris this weekend. Yes that's right tonight I leave on a the Eurostar and get to go through the chunnel to Paris. Something to look forward to when I get back though is my experience of getting a private tour AND TEA with some Lord's and MP's of Parliament!! Exciting stuff but that is all for when I return, so check in again on Sunday and I'll try to have everything up from the past couple weeks! Cheers!

Beginning of the End

     Good evening all! So it came to my realization the other day that I only have roughly 6 weeks left here in London town =(. What made this more frightening is that in two weekends I'll be in Paris, then in three weekends I'll be in Rome, then the weekend after that my parents will be back in town/back to Paris with them for a little. Man these next 6 weeks are going to fly by! Also in that time I have to write a 25 page paper, take some finals, and go to work. Before i know it I'll be back in the States!

     This past weekend wasn't all the eventful for me only thing we really did was go out to celebrate one of our roommates 21st birthday. Other than that I stayed in and tried writing my papers which kinda worked out... Then today I went to the pub nearby to watch the Manchester United game which they ended up losing so that didn't help make the day too bright but for once we're getting a streak of decent weather here in London! Lately it has been clear skies, sunny, and about 50's. Forgot to mention if anyone does wind up making to London would definitely recommend spending a day around Hyde Park (depending on the time of year). A friend and I went down there and just hung around the water and people watched for a good chunk of the day. Was very relaxing and was a good chance to enjoy the cool but sunny weather! Just watch out for the swans they are the sizes of small children and will try chasing you if you don't give them bread. Also there were paddle boats you could rent out and take up the small lake that is in the middle of Hyde Park, seemed to be relaxing as long as it's nice out.
     Not too much is on the schedule for this week but if anything exciting happens (which I do have one idea, we'll see if it happens) I'll let you guys know! Hope everyone has a good week!

Midterms and No Spring Break??

     So tomorrow is the first mid term of this semester abroad. No clue how easy or hard it is going to be but studying for it none the less. Little sad to find out that we also get no Spring Break while we are abroad. The University we are studying at gets a Spring Break but our classes that run through a US college are still going on. Other than that not much is going on. I need some new ideas for easy/simple things to cook at my flat, I'm getting sick of pasta with chicken. So please if you have any suggestions leave a comment with how to make it and what I need to buy for it! Well this post was basically just a study break for me I guess I should get back to it! Hope everyone is doing well back in the States, sadly it's not too much longer til I'm back. 6 weeks! Until next time!