PARIS!!!!

Bonjour!

I am home from my wonderful weekend in Paris! We had an absolutely AMAZING time! Paris is a beautiful city. I thought people were exaggerating, but it is probably the most romantic city I've ever been to. I can definitely see how people could fall in love there. Another misconception about Paris: the people aren't rude at all! Everyone I ran into was super helpful and willing to give me directions or attempt to speak English with me if I couldn't get my point across to them. So here's the rundown of what we did this weekend:

Friday: at 6:30 am, a bunch of groggy Americans got on a double decker bus at our school. We made a few stops along the way for food, etc. One stop was at a wine warehouse where we took the chance to buy ourselves some French wine! It was lovely. We took the Euro Tunnel (lovingly referred to as the Chunnel) under the English Channel to get to France. Basically, our bus drove onto the train and we were enclosed in a box for 35 minutes until the train got to the other side. So cool! It took us 9 hours to get to Paris, but at 4:30 Paris time (3:30 England time) we finally made it.

We checked into our hotel which was a 5 minute walk from the Eiffel tower! Interesting tidbit about European hotels: they have twin beds. Our room had two twin beds pushed next to each other. Weird. When we finished unpacking, the group walked over to the Eiffel Tower and took MILLIONS of pictures before walking further to the Seine River (another 2 minute walk or so) for a boat tour just as the sun was setting. It was beautiful. The boat tour lasted about an hour or so, and when we were finished, a group of us set off to find some food. At this point, it was about 9:30, and most of us hadn't eaten since about 1, so we were starving! We wandered the streets of Paris looking for a good (yet inexpensive) meal, and finally settled on a little Italian restaurant where we all ordered €8 cheese pizzas. They were delicious! By the time we were finished, it was about 10:30 and we were all exhausted, so we headed back to the hotel to sleep.

Saturday: I woke up at 7 Saturday morning to the lovely surprise that I had somehow lost my voice! I squeaked for the rest of the trip. We made it downstairs for our complimentary breakfast at 8. Fun fact about France: They eat SO MANY carbs! Breakfast consisted of: Croissants, quiche, crepes, bread, cheese, cereal, fruit, and coffee. I gladly tried my first French croissant, which was amazing, and stowed one in my purse for later, which proved to be a wise decision.

We left the hotel at 9am and headed back towards the Eiffel Tower, this time to CLIMB! We paid €3.50 to climb the 704 stairs that are open to the public. The first platform is about 1/4 of the way to the top, and the second platform is 1/2 way to the top. You can only climb to the second platform, but you can take an elevator (British: lift) to the top for an extra €5, so we did. The view was incredible, and I am so glad I did it. We walked down the 704 stairs to the bottom as well. My legs did pretty well! It really wasn't that bad, despite what I had heard from other people who had climbed it. At the bottom of the Eiffel Tower are a TON of vendors, all trying to sell you the exact same thing- little miniature Eiffel Towers. They all literally look the same, and I'm pretty sure they buy them from the same place. The men that sell them have some odd sales techniques. Apparently, they assume that if you're a woman and you're from America, you'll buy one of their Eiffel Towers if they call you Lady Gaga. So, 30 minutes, and many "Eiffel Tour for you, Lady Gaga's" later, we made our way to our bus, where we took a tour of the city.

We saw the Arc d' Triomphe, the Moulin Rouge (but sadly, not Ewen McGregor), and the Assemble Nationale, before we stopped at the Sacre Coeur ("Sacred Heart") Cathedral. We hiked up millions of more stairs to the top and got to go inside. It is beautiful. There were candles lit everywhere and stained glass windows. When we went outside, we were bombarded with more vendors, but this time they were trying to sell us friendship bracelets. The men would come up and grab your arm and start tying a bracelet on your wrist and then ask for money for it. Two of the American guys got suckered into it, and everyone made fun of them because one of them payed €10 while the other one only payed €1. So funny. We walked down a little street with tons of souvenir shops, and I found myself a sticker for my water bottle before getting back on the bus. We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral which was PHENOMENAL! It is absolutely stunning. I can't even describe it. Luckily, we were allowed to take pictures inside, unlike the Sacre Coeur, so I snapped quite a few pictures of the stained glass windows, the statues of the saints, and the murals on the walls until... my camera battery died. Luckily, I had my iPod with me, and could take worse quality pictures the rest of the afternoon. When we left Notre Dame, we were dropped off at the Louvre and the bus headed back to the hotel. We didn't get to actually go into the museum part of the Louvre because it was only going to be open for another half hour by the time we got there, but we got to see the pyramids which were really cool! My friends and I took the metro back to the hotel, which was an experience in itself! Let's just say, I have never had less personal space in my life. The metro was PACKED with people. At one point, there were about 9 of us standing and holding onto one bar. My friend Becca had some lovely French lady actually put her arm around her shoulders and hold onto the bar. Needless to say, we were relieved to get off the metro 15 minutes later.

Back at the hotel, we got all dressed up and 4 of us went out to a nice French dinner around 8:30. Another Fun Fact: In France, a normal dinner time is around 8:30 or 9, and restaurants are always packed until about 10:30. I got chicken with these AMAZING mashed potatoes with cheese in them, and some strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. So good. We had a really nice time at dinner, and ended up sitting there for about 2 hours just talking. After that, we went back to the hotel, grabbed the wine we had bought the previous day, and headed out again. We walked near the Seine River and took pictures of all the boats and bridges, but couldn't find a decent place to sit, so we headed back towards the Eiffel Tower. We ended up sitting in the Peace Monument, which has a magnificent view of the Eiffel Tower, drinking our wine, and talking. It was a fantastic night.

Sunday: Sunday morning came waaaaaaay too quickly, and we left the hotel around 9 to go to Versailles. We went to the Palace of Versailles, where some of my friends and I joined the throng of people going inside. The place is huge. Apparently it could house 20,000 people and its stables could hold 7,000 horses in its prime. All the ceilings are painted beautifully, and everything is extravagant and beautiful. Even the front gates are gold! We got to see the Queen's bedroom which was amazing, and the gardens outside which were beautiful!

After that, we still had some time left, so two of my friends and I headed for the town market. It's basically a huge farmer's market with all sorts of homemade/ homegrown produce, bread, honey, meat, pastries, etc. At a bread stand, the guy behind the counter started speaking Spanish to me, and asked if I was from Spain. Politely, I squeaked to him in Spanish that I was from America and asked if he spoke English. He immediately changed languages and told me I looked Spanish. He is the second person to do that since I've been here! The entire trip, I was amazed at how many people spoke English. It really makes me want to learn to be fluent in a second language. It just opens up your world to so many more people! A friend of mine ran into someone who didn't speak English, and she didn't speak French, but they both spoke some Spanish, and they communicated that way! It's incredible. When we left the market, we got back on the bus and took a 7 hour journey back to Brighton, arriving around 8 that night.

Paris was absolutely amazing. I loved the city, the culture, and the architecture there! I definitely want to make it back some day.

Standing outside the bus in the Euro Tunnel Train!

Found some good ol' California wine in France!

A street in Paris

My first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower!

Me in front of the Eiffel Tower!

I just like this picture!

Eiffel Tower at night!

A bunch of us in front of the Eiffel Tower after our boat cruise!

The Peace Monument

Jumping picture!

Looking down from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower!

Me on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower

View from the Second floor

View from the top!

LA: 9,105 km away!

The Moulin Rouge!

My French store. I didn't get to go inside, but from what I saw it was a teenage clothes store.

Four of us in front of the Sacre Coeur

In front of the Notre Dame Cathedral!

The famous Notre Dame stained glass window!

Once every hour at night, the Eiffel tower sparkles!

The Eiffel Tower through the Peace Monument

In front of the Golden Gate at the Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles

The upside down Pyramid at the Louvre!

The big pyramid outside the Louvre

An example of what the ceilings looked like in the Palace of Versailles

The Queen's bedroom in Versailles

The Gardens at Versailles

Standing in front of Versailles!

Things I'm Loving: Getting to travel more, French cheese, Paris in general, getting to see a bunch of places that I'd only seen in pictures.

Things I'm Not Loving So Much: Skype being finicky, having a hoarse voice, only having 4 days between trips.

Things I'm Learning: How to survive in a country that speaks another language.

British to American Dictionary:

Pancakes: Crepes
Off License: Liquor store

French to English Dictionary:

mon petit chou: "my little cabbage" This is a term of endearment, like calling someone honey or sweetie, lol!


Next time I write, I'll be on my big 2 1/2 week adventure through Europe! I can't wait to share it all with you!!

Bon Voyage (again!)

~Jenn

St. Patrick's Day, etc.

Hey All,

The past week has been pretty uneventful, except for St. Patrick's day, which was AMAZING! I've mostly been focusing on keeping myself involved in school work, only because I know that if I let myself slip away from it, I'll be having too much fun to bother to keep up. I'm absolutely LOVING my creative writing class, though. I have to write a short story every week, and it feels so good to be writing consistently. I used to write a lot in high school, but I sort of stopped doing it, so it's nice to have an excuse to write again. It's really nice to have people to get feedback from as well.

So this past Thursday was St, Patrick's day. I got dressed that morning with the holiday in mind, and put on my bright green sweatshirt before heading out the door. Little known fact about England: the people don't really wear green on St. Patrick's day. I kept fighting the urge to pinch everyone in sight for not wearing green! Class went by as usual, and that night, I went out with some friends. Madison (my friend from the theatre department in Chico), myself, and three of our English friends, Leanne, Tara, and Dani, went out to our favourite pub called King and Queen. The place was packed. I have never had to wait to get into King and Queen before, but we waited in the queue for about 10 minutes before finally getting inside. It would have been longer but Madison knows someone who works there, and he let us in. Inside, there was an Irish band that was playing a gig. They were phenomenal. We had so much fun dancing around to random Irish music! I tried my first Guinness there as well (wasn't a huge fan of it... a bit too bitter for me). We met up with some of the other American students there, too!

After the gig was over, Tara and Dani went home, and Madison, Leanne, myself, and two of our American friends, Laura and Shayna, went out to a club called Coalition to go dancing. The DJ was playing all 80's and 90's music, and we had such an amazing time! Unfortunately, we didn't get home until about 3:30 in the morning, and I had class at 10 the next morning, so I was a bit tired the next day. But it was totally worth it!

Other than St Patrick's day, nothing else to report. I'm off to Paris next weekend for three days, so you'll be getting a post about that!!! I'm SO EXCITED!!! Then the weekend after next starts my Spring Break Extravaganza!

Baby's First Guinness!

The Irish band that was playing! So fun!

(Left to Right) Leanne, Madison, Laura, and I outside King and Queen

Huge sign right outside the pub

They have the weirdest flavoured crisps ever. My favorite name I've found so far, though are the "Cheese Moments"

Yes, there is a store in Brighton called "Fat Face"

Things I'm Loving: The weather getting progressively nicer as the days go on, watching "A Very Potter Musical" with my friend Claire, meeting even more people, getting back into writing again, feeling totally at home here.

Things I'm Not Loving So Much: The temperature, the planning phase of my trips.

Things I'm Learning: That I need to balance the time I spend with people and the time I spend alone, or else I get worn out.

British to American Dictionary:

Bunk off = Ditch School
Nan = Grandma
Slag = Slut

I saw a funny sign on the side of the road the other day-

In America it would go something like this:
People who are caught talking on the phone while driving will be fined.

And here's the sign in England:
Think. Don't phone whilst driving.

Gotta love the way they phrase things. It sounded so hilariously Shakespearean that I had to post it.

Anyway, hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all, and I'll post when I get back from PARIS!!!

Au Revoir,
Jenn

Bath and Stonehenge!

Hello Everyone!!

Well, not too much is new. I got sick last week and had to stay home in bed for two days, which was no fun at all. It is so much better to be sick when you have somewhere to lounge around other than your bedroom! But thanks to Auntie Lori and Auntie Nancy's generous donation of Zicam (which the English don't sell, apparently. I got the weirdest look from the guy at the pharmacy when I asked for it!), I am back to feeling like myself again!

This weekend, we had an AMAZING weekend in Bath! We had such a fantastic time! After waking up at 7 on Saturday mroning (ugh.) we left around 8 am and took a three hour bus ride to Stonehenge! We spent about 45 minutes at Stonehenge, which is really all the time you need to walk around some rocks and take pictures. Stonehenge itself is beautiful, and having been so close to it, I have absolutely no idea how those people built it without modern tractors, crane lifts, etc! We couldn't actually go up and walk through the rocks, since there was a rope about 20 feet or so from the actual structure. I'm assuming this is so that a) people can actually get decent pictures of it without millions of people milling about in between the rocks, and b) stupid teenage boys don't go trying to knock it down. It definitely makes sense. There is a gift shop there, too, so we spent a little while milling around the gift shop, although I didn't get anything. I've decided that instead of buying souvenirs on this trip,  I'll buy a sticker everywhere I go and stick it on my clean canteen so that when I come back, I'll have a collage of all of the places I've been on my water bottle! Plus, it saves a whole bunch of money!

When we were all Stonehenged-out, we got back on the bus and drove for about an hour to the town of Bath, which is officially one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. Everything is made of the same kind of rock, and it is all beautiful! There is an amazing Abbey in the middle of the city, and next to it are the Roman Baths, where Bath got its name from. The city of Bath sits upon a natural hot spring, and during the time when England was part of the Roman Empire, the Romans created a series of baths from the hot spring. They made steam rooms, saunas, hot tubs, etc. and the rich would spend time there to relax. Some of the original structures still are there, and we were lucky enough to get to see them! So cool! When we finished taking a tour of the baths, we headed out to find some food. While we were searching for a good place to eat, we came across these street musicians (Bath is FULL of amazing musicians just playing on the streets for money!) who recorded their own music right there in the street! One guy would beat-box into the microphone and record it, then add layers on top of saxophone and another guy would rap to it. They were unbelievable! I've never seen anything like it! We found a pasty shop right next to them and ate our pasties while listening to them. (By the way: Pasties are the best invention ever. They are very English. Basically, it's a puff pastry shell with cheese and potato and meat and veggies inside. SO GOOD!!!! ) We spent the rest of the afternoon people watching before heading to our hotel in Bristol.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Bristol, which was really nice! It felt amazing to sleep in a bed that I couldn't feel the springs through! We had a 3 course dinner at the hotel, which was really nice, and went for a swim in the indoor pool later that night!

The next morning, we headed back to Bath for another few hours. My friends and I decided to go to the Jane Austen Centre, which is a museum all about Jane Austen, who lived in Bath. It was really interesting! After the tour was over, we went upstairs in the centre to have a proper English tea party! My inner 6 year old was ecstatic!! We sat down at this lovely table and chose our teas, and they brought us cucumber sandwiches, cakes, and scones! Needless to say, we were all stuffed by the time we left! But we had so much fun drinking tea and feeling proper! I hope I get to do that again before I leave England! I have to admit, I didn't like tea before I came here, but the English have turned me into a tea fiend! I LOVE IT!!! When we had finished our tea, we walked up the street and saw the house where Jane Austen lived! We didn't get to go inside or anything. They actually don't make a very big deal about it, because the house has been turned into a dentist's office, but it was still cool to see. After that, we headed home. I was exhausted, so I slept most of the 3 hour drive. It was a great weekend!!!

Other than that, nothing too exciting is going on! We go to Paris in two weeks, which will be AMAZING!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!

Stonehenge!

The Roman Baths!

While looking around the gift shop at the Roman Baths, I found "Harrius Potter" which I can only assume is Harry Potter in Latin!

The Abbey in Bath

Another picture of the Abbey. So beautiful!

The River that flows right through Bath

I just really liked these archways

Our Tea table! Those are cucumber sandwiches on the three tiered tray!

We had "Tea with Mr. Darcy" :)

Our Cakes! Yum!

My friend Jeehyun and I at Stonehenge!

Things I'm Loving: Afternoon tea, tea in general, cucumber sandwiches, pasties, starting to travel around more, not having a problem understanding accents as much.

Things I'm Not Loving So Much: Being away from my mom on her birthday, the fact that I'm really bad at remembering to take pictures, being sick this week.

Things I'm Learning: English medicine is SO not as good as American medicine, the further along I get in this semester, the less reading I want to do.

British to American Dictionary:

Knackered: Really, really tired. (I had ABSOLUTELY no idea what my friend Helena was talking about when she said this.)

Also: the English flip each other off by putting their pointer and middle fingers up with the back of the hand towards the other person. Just a fun fact :)

I'm sure I'll be writing again soon!! Miss you all!!
Love,
Jenn

Daily Life as a Brighton Resident!

Hey all!

Hope everyone is doing well! I know I am!I've been hanging out with my English friends a lot, and every time I do something with them, it's a learning experience! It seems like we're constantly finding phrases and words that one culture uses, but the other one doesn't. Whether we're out on the town, or staying in and watching a movie, I always have a great time with them!

Life around here has become more routine. I am still having the time of my life, though, just experiencing everything that Brighton has to offer! For example: Last weekend, some friends and I went down to the Brighton Pier, which was so much fun! The pier basically just has a bunch of carnival-type food, an arcade/casino area, and some rides! It was raining most of the time, and I couldn't feel my toes by the time we got back on the bus, but we still had an amazing time!

I've been spending most of my time doing things like that, going out dancing, and of course studying! Recently, a lot of my focus has been on planning my spring break!!! I get three weeks off of school in April, and I am going to take that time to travel around Europe and see some of my friends who are over here! If all goes as planned, I'm going to leave 31 March for France with my friends Claire and Amanda. We'll go through France to Italy where we will hang out for a few days before they head home and I head to Spain to visit my friend Theadora from high school for the weekend. After that, It'll be off to Germany to visit my friend Maya for a bit, then to the Netherlands to see Tess, a friend of Erika's from school, before heading back to England! I'm so excited about this trip!!! It will be the experience of a lifetime, and I can't wait!!!

Between now and spring break, I'll be doing some traveling as well! The weekend of 12 March, I'll be going to Bath and Stonehenge for two days, and the 25-27 of March will be spent in Paris!!!

I have so much to look forward to in the next two months, so although nothing too exciting has been happening recently, expect to have some amazing stories coming your way on the blog very shortly!!

Some photos of what I've been up to:

Out with my friends Muche (left) and Helena (right) for the Drama Club Social!

Finger Mustaches at the Drama Club Social!

This is a church that is literally a 10 minute walk from  my dorm in Falmer Village

The pond in Falmer Village

Closer view of the church and the graveyard.

View of Brighton from the pier

The carnival section of the pier.

Went to see S Club 7!!!

(Right to Left) Claire, Helena, and I at the S Club concert!

Things I'm Loving: Having a solid group of friends, the calendar my mom made me with old family pictures, planning my spring break, more frequent sunny days (!), not necessarily having to wear a scarf and hat every time I step outside, hearing my friends' attempt at American accents!

Things I'm Not Loving So Much: Early classes, the amount of reading we're expected to do, the fact that I forget to take enough pictures.

Things I'm Learning: Planning a trip is NOT easy, it feels much better to have a clean room, American vegetables are SO much better!

British to American Dictionary:
Lorry: 18-wheeler truck
Pusher: Stroller
Full stop: Period (punctuation)
Sat-nav: GPS
Fit: Good Looking (ex: that guy is quite fit)
Cash Point: ATM

I'll be posting again soon!
Love,
Jenn