This is my friend Emily and I on one of our brutal French Civilization walks. Our class has to walk around Paris while the teacher tells us stuff. Sounds fun right? That's what I thought. But not so much. The professor is always six miles in front of the group and only tells what she has to the two people that can keep up with her. It's so bad that some of the kids pop into the supermarket and get some Heinekens to get it through the walk...and during class people crack open a bottle of cab to make it through. Just to describe how it is.

This is in Lyon :) they have their own Eiffel too. I can't remember if I already posted this. If I did... oops! But it is the same as the top-most section of the Eiffel and they use it as an electrical/satellite hub. So Lyons is basically a mini Paris.

Mom and Catie have deemed this picture "sex-pot" and want me to take it off Facebook. I don't really understand why and I just like to make them mad :) What say you?

One of the girls in my sorority came through Paris on a tour she is taking (she studied in Edinburgh, Scotland) and we threw down the gammas in front of the Eiffel :) We also went to Angelina and while I was waiting for her at the Metro a creepy Moroccan man came up and sat down next to me and asked me if I wanted to get a coffee. When I said no thanks he asked if I wanted a Coke instead. And then he asked me if I wanted to go sit on those benches "just over there." At this point I was calling Ashley to meet her or something... And then she showed up! And then he followed us. So I suddenly needed to go into a souvenir shop to look at something for my mom and he didn't follow us anymore. But I was on the lookout for him for the rest of the day and I firmly believe I successfully avoided being human-trafficked in Marrakech. All in a good day's work right?

That's all for now!!

À tout à l'heure!

Lots has happened

So. I've been to Italy, Germany, and the South of France since my last post.

I don't have a whole bunch to say, but I'll post some pictures with explanations.

Look how cool I am taking a tourist picture at the leaning tower of PISA. I'm not good with awkward tourist pictures.

Me and my dear sweet cousin Rachel at the train station in Cologne. We had a wonderful long weekend together filled with biking, walking, and E4 (a British TV station with American shows).

Theo, lookin too cool for school in my one pound sunglasses from Primark in London. Ain't he cute?

We made chocolate mousse at Alexia's house in Lyons... I love chocolate. (and no I'm not bleeding, it's chocolate)

Alexia's apartment is roundabout the big crayon building. This is a view of Lyons from a Church we walked a mile and a year up steps to get to. When we went out of the house in the morning I didn't sign up for such a trek, but I guess you could say it was worth it in the end.

Now I am back in Paris, soaking up my last few weeks, not quite ready to leave, but ready to see all the friends and family.

À tout à l'heure!

Since I'm Procrastinating Enough Anyway...

So this week I have a presentation, an accounting test, and a persuasive speech. I'm ready for the presentation, don't even know what the test is over in Accounting, and haven't chosen a topic for my persuasive speech... I'm doing fine right? HA. Today wasn't nearly as productive as I had hoped, but I did watch two intense episodes of 24. Which is always a good day. Well, for me, it's not such a good day for Jack Bauer...

Anyway... look at this picture!

While Paden was here we saw a huge march/demonstration. It went from Bastille (above) almost all the way to my street. Which is like a mile and a half. And it didn't start in Bastille, I'm pretty sure it was throughout the city. Paden really really really wanted to go march in it. But I'm a killjoy and said no because for all he knew they were demonstrating to cut the heads off of every third person in Botswana. Turns out it they were the communist party (that's what one of my teachers said at least, but she's kind of an idiot, so who knows). Anyway. They had flares and megaphones and "We hate Sarkozy" stickers. Poor Sarkozy. haha. So that was pretty cool. There were I think 800,000 people who marched in this thing then we saw 2 people that were the opposition that were hold up a piece of cardboard that said "Work less to live better" on the side of the road.
Thank you English man for taking a picture of me and Paden... but we kind of wanted one with the Arc de Triomphe too... Oh well. It was FREEZING this day. And we did lots of walking the whole time he was here. We walked from my apartment to the Louvre a couple times. And we got a falafel in the Marais, which happens to be the Jew/Gay district of Paris. We also went to Angelina that day and got drinking chocolate. Which is probably the most amazing drink in existence. Then we went to Bordeaux and I could only put 6 pictures up at a time, so there is a big time lapse between the picture above and the next one. But in between the two we met mom and dad in Bordeaux, went to some vineyards, Padey left, and then mom and dad and I went to Fontainebleau which is the hunting lodge of the royal family. I can now see that I am going to have to do another post with more pictures because there is a lot more missing than I thought. It will be out of order, but what does it matter to you, the reader. It only matters that I tell you about it :)
So this was Easter at Mont Saint Michel. Mom, Dad and I went there with the Navions. Alexia and I have this picture from 3 years ago in the same spot only we were in shorts and flip flops then. It was really fun to watch mom go around and be in awe of all the stuff at Mont Saint Michel because I had already been there and she hadn't :)
Here you go Sherri! There's momsie and popsicle. We are at the 7th best bar in all of Europe. It's a landmark that can't be changed apparently. But it was really cool. We were in Bretagne, so we HAD to get some calvados right? Mostly right. I got a Malo Saint which is lime juice and cointreau. And then I tasted the calvados. I'm not a fan of the calvados, but cointreau I am in favor of. (And mom really wanted a picture on my blog, so here you go mommy)
This is my French brother Thomas sitting on a wall that is like 40 feet down on the other side. But that's the English channel in the background. It was very pretty, and St. Malo was the perfect place to celebrate Easter. We were going to go to the 11am mass at the cathedral of St. Malo, but it wasn't at 11. It was at 10:30 and the front desk people told us the wrong time. And then wouldn't let us use the upstairs bathroom. They weren't very nice. But we stayed for the end of the service and when they finished the choir sang "Alleluia" and it reverberated in the cathedral. Then we walked outside and the bells were ringing and ringing and ringing. It was very Eastery. And according to Alexia the church bells don't ring from Thursday to Sunday morning, and to celebrate the raising of Christ they ring like crazy after the Easter service. Very cool!

Okay, so there will be more to come about Fontainebleau and Athens in the future. Hopefully this will tide all four of you who read this over :)

À tout à l'heure!