We took the Eurostar there which goes underground underneath the English Channel. You're only underground for about twenty minutes though and I didn't even realize we had already gone under the water until we were above ground again. The train is really nice and the seats are very comfy. It was probably the most beautiful day in London when we left and unfortunately we had to leave, but it was also really sunny in France so the countryside looked really pretty through the train window.
Once we arrived, a bus took all of the students to our hotel which was really nice and in a central location near the bastille area. We then took the Metro down to the Eiffel tower and got on a boat tour down the Sienne for the night. I noticed Paris seemed a lot dirtier than London (especially the Metro... it was kind of gross), but the architecture is prettier, so that balances it out. One girl said she saw some mice running in the street. Here's some pictures of my first view of the Eiffel tower and the boat tour...
This has the Eiffel Tower in the background.
After the boat tour about ten of the girls went out for some food just down the street from our hotel and then we called it a night because we had a bus tour at 8 the next morning. The bus showed us all around town and we got to hop off for an hour to look around Notre Dame. It was very pretty... not as done-up as the Cathedral in Spain, but I really liked the gothic style. More pictures...
After that we did some more touring on the bus (I fell asleep for about ten minutes, along with almost everyone else because we were so tired). One girl woke up in the middle of the tour and asked in a dazed voice, "Where are we?" as if she had just woken up and had no clue where she was. Everyone started cracking up. Nevertheless, I practiced my photography skills and got some good pictures...
As you can see, it was raining and very cloudy skies. It started to downpour right when we got to the Eiffel Tower to go up it. Still got some pretty pictures on the Eiffel Tower though and tried editing them a bit so the gray skies don't look so dreary...
After the Eiffel Tower, Lauren Maddie and I did some shopping. We tried to take the Metro but to get a ticket you have to use a machine and the machine wouldn't read our debit cards and it only took coins and all we had on us was cash. So we gave that up and took taxis the rest of the trip... which actually ended up being well worth it when split among three of us and plus it would drop you off right at your location rather than having to walk from the metro station. Also, it was fun talking to all the taxi drivers because they were entertaining and I got to practice my French. I was excited that I could understand almost everyone as long as they spoke slow enough to me, although I had more trouble remembering how to say things back but I could usually get by enough to communicate. All but one of our taxi drivers only spoke French (one told me that he knows English and he will speak English in England but when he is in France he speaks French... and of course he said this in French). Another driver asked if we were English or American and when I told him American he said "Ohhh I love Americans! The English are pretty but the Americans are VERY pretty. Americans have the prettiest families of anyone." I thought that last part about the families was sweet. I was surprised how friendly the French were. Even though most of them preferred to speak French to us, they nevertheless were extremely friendly and several even told us that they love Americans. I told the taxi driver that the French are much sweeter (I couldn't remember the word for friendlier) than the British and he got my gist... he said "Oh yes, you are correct!" Despite the fact that I feel the British aren't always the friendliest or most outgoing, I also feel like everyone here is a lot more sane and composed. I think that's also why London feels cleaner and safer to me. Either way, it was really fun going somewhere where I could try out some foreign language skills and see a different culture, but the more I go other places the more I feel at home when I come back to London. Anyways, amidst our shopping adventure we stumbled across an Israeli march of some sorts. I wasn't aware of this but one of our student affairs guy at Richmond, Thomas, said that apparently these sorts of marches happen almost every weekend in London and they go from Hyde Park Corner to Trafalgar Square. I guess I've been gone the past few weekends. We watched for a few minutes and then decided it was probably time to go home and get ready for the night.
That night a big group of us went out to dinner a few blocks from our hotel at a restaurant called Cafe Opera. I got a sandwhich and interestingly they put cooked eggs sunny side up on top of their sandwhiches. I really liked it with the egg. After that we walked down a few more blocks to the Bastille area. It was very fun and lively... they had street dancers doing performances for large audiences and all the restaurants were open with music playing so we just hopped around to a few different places.
The next morning we went to a market nearby Sacre Coeur... it was huge! That was probably the most fun part of the trip because we got to bargain with people a bit and I found some cool things. I found a black peacoat for 15 euro so I returned the other two black coats I got last week in place of it. I also found a really pretty vintage necklace at an antique stand so I got that as well. Also at the market they had free bike tour rides where you sit in a little trolley behind someone pulling it on a bike. They do it for free so that you can see the whole market area and where you want to shop. Also at this market they had a couple shops that sold really nice leather jackets. These salesmen were EXPERTS. The jackets were a lot more expensive than anything else in the market, but the salespeople convinced us that it was authentic leather. One guy even pulled out a lighter and ran the flame all over the leather jacket to prove it was flame-proof and really good leather. We thought it would be a good idea for Maddie to get an inflammible jacket as she is probably the clumsiest person ever. We always say she's on her own little boat because she's constantly tripping over things and walking crooked and running into walls. I think she's naturally clumsy but she also has an ear infection right now that has been making her dizzy so I think that has to do with it as well. Anyways, the salesman gave us a long speech about how we go places and see things but we don't really experience things and more or less if you want to really experience things you should buy a nice leather jacket (only he made it sound much more eloquent than how I just put it and much more convincing). He almost convinced Maddie and I to buy the jackets, but eventually we decided it would be silly to waste a ton of money them and we would probably have to give up a weekend trip to make up for the cost. Instead we're going to look at some of the markets around London to see if we can find cheaper versions. Here's some market pictures...
Oh yeah, Mom and Dad I forgot to tell you that I bought a puppy at the market to bring home for you guys!
After the market we went to the Louvre and I saw the Mona Lisa!!
And finally we called it a day and went back to the hotel to get on the bus and go home. I made a new friend with the girl I sat with on the train ride back. Her name is Brittany and she goes to Berkeley. I wish I would have looked at Berkeley for undergrad because it sounds like the most interesting school ever. Unfortunately they don't have a med school. Three of Brittany's best guy friends started the organization Invisible Children which I thought was really impressive. She went to Uganda with them last summer to help out with the program and now does speeches for it. They lived in a displacement camp for two weeks while they were there and she said they had to walk a couple miles to get a bucket of water to shower with! If you don't know what Invisible Children is you should check out their website: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php. I remember hearing a lot of fundraisers for it when I was in high school. Anyways, we fell asleep on the ride back and had creases all over our faces and hence the sad faces in the picture, but you can't really tell from the picture...
All in all, it wasn't as adventure-packed as Madrid but actually much more relaxing and a wonderful trip. And now I must go pack for Amsterdam as we leave tomorrow morning at 6 am!
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