The Last Hurrah

This weekend was my last for traveling. Luckily, thanks to the Immaculate Conception (and my willingness to skip classes), this was the longest, most anticipated trip of the year. For 5 days, Tori, Haley and I traveled through Italy, meeting up with old friends and making new ones along the way. We started in Venice, made our way down to Florence, and ended in Rome for one exhausting, thrilling, amazing Italian weekend!

SHOUT OUT...

....to Becky Gundy!! Happy 21st Birthday! I hope you and Carly are enjoying your 21st's with some bar hopping and beer drinking. I wish I was there to celebrate with you. I am missing you and I can't believe I won't even get to see you next semester! (That's an angry exclamation point) Although I won't get to see you, I am excited for you because Germany is going to be amazing. Studying abroad has been the best experience of my life, so I hope it is the same for you, too. If you want any tips, just ask me. Anyway, Happy Birthday and I am sorry I am not there to celebrate!

P.S. I think about you every time I hear this.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkjtctcuQ9Q

Au Revoir, Paris

Our last day in Paris began with another struggle to get out of bed. The weather didn't help much either, considering it was frigid and raining. However, Tori and I put on our game faces (and our rain jackets) and headed out for another day of sight-seeing. Fortunately, our morning battle with the weather was rewarded with a rainless sky by the time we reached the city. First, we started off at Sacre Coeur which is located on the top of "Montmartre"-- a hill in Paris which is the highest point of the city. The church itself was beautiful, both inside and out. We actually were there during the celebration of mass, making it that much more interesting. (I'm sure I just gained a couple of brownie points from all of those ASH teachers, haha) Needless to say, the views were incredible. Even from the steps of the church, you could see most of the city. But Tori and I got greedy and decided to make the winding ascent to the top of the dome. Despite being extremely windy, it was definitely worth it. From here, the size of the Eiffel Tower was really put into perspective. It stood WELL over every building surrounding it (Check out the picture). After Sacre Coeur, Tori and I paid a visit to the most respected areas of Paris, the Red Light District. It's not what you think, I promise. We just wanted to check out the OUTSIDE of Moulin Rouge, the famous cabaret. After our eye-opening stroll through the Red Light District, we got the picture we wanted and went on our way.

After Moulin Rouge, Tori and I headed back towards the city center to St. Chapelle. This chapel is actually housed in the courtyard of what used to be the Royal Palace. It is renowned for its HUGE stained-glass windows that depict various scenes from the Bible. Despite having really cool windows, the chapel was small and admission was over-priced. That said, we didn't spend too much time here. Our last stop of the day was Musee d'Orsay, an impressionistic museum on the other side of the river from the Louvre. This museum was much more manageable and I was much more interested in the art. I appreciated the paintings of Van Gogh and Monet much more than those in the Louvre. In addition, the museum is actually an old train station, which allowed for it to be more wide open, unlike the Louvre.

After plenty of walking and sight-seeing, Tori and I grabbed a hot chocolate from a great restaurant called Angelica's. (Definitely recommend it if you are going to Paris anytime soon) We took our hot chocolates to go, and sat in the Tuileries Gardens, watching "Paris go by". For about an hour, we sipped, talked and took our cool pictures with the Eiffel Tower. For dinner, we walked to the booths along Champs-Elysses to satisfy Tori's soup craving. After a Nutella crepe for dessert, we hopped on the Metro before taking our last glimpse of Paris.

The PARIS Pair

Around 9 a.m. Saturday morning, after struggling to get up for the day, we began our trek to the city center. We decided to start our day at the Eiffel Tower. The night before, we never made it too close, so walking in its shadow was pretty surreal. Looking at it every time, just reminded me how cool this whole experience has been. We bought our tickets for the stairs to the 1st and 2nd levels, but learned to our disappointment that the top was closed due to the strong winds. The views from the 2 floors, however, were still stunning. You could see every direction for miles. The reason for this is because there is a law in Paris that no building can exceed 8 stories (this was put in place after the building of a skyscraper, so there is only 1 in the center of Paris). Also, this may be dumb of me, but I always thought the Eiffel Tower was black. It's in fact, however, painted brown. Other facts: Gustave Eiffel (hence the name) designed it for the entrance arch of the 1889 World's Fair. Also, it was the world's tallest building until 1930 when it was overtaken by the Chrysler Building.

After the Tower, we walked through Trocadero where the Palais de Chaillot is located. From here, we walked down the street towards THE Arc de Triomphe. There are many imitations (such as Barcelona's), but this is the Arc built by Napoleon to honor those who fought in his wars. From here, we continued down Champs-Elysees where all of the high-end shops are located (including 3 McDonald's, haha). We grabbed a quick lunch off Champs-Elysees before continuing to Concord Place. This circle contains the oldest monument in Paris--the 3300 year old Egyptian obelisk. France received the obelisk as a gift because it was Frenchman who first deciphered the heiroglyphics on its side. Concord Place sits at the end of the Tuileries Gardens outside the Louvre. We walked through these gardens (which used to be the location of a palace) to the entrance of the Louvre.

Being a huge Dan Brown fan, seeing the Louvre and the entrance pyramid in person was so cool. Since The Da Vinci Code centers around this museum, Dan Brown provides cool facts about the paintings and building. For example, did you know walking around the whole museum would cover over 3 miles? Or that the Louvre contains over 35,000 pieces of art? Tori and I, however, visited for one specific reason (just like nearly everyone else). After getting our tickets, we went straight to the Mona Lisa. I've got to say, not that impressed. We also saw other works, like Madonna on the Rocks and the statue Venus de Milo. Since we aren't the biggest art aficionados, we spent about an hour here and moved on. From the Louvre, we walked to the Notre Dame Cathedral. The inside was beautiful, but due to the bleak weather, we were never able to appreciate the stained-glass windows. We did, however, get to see the giant Christmas tree out front that offered plenty of photo-ops. After Notre Dame, we were sufficiently tired. We rejuvenated with a couple beers at a nearby bar and grabbed dinner at a local crepery. After dinner, we were satisfied with the amount of sites we covered, but had another full day on our itinerary for Sunday....

I Saw London, I Saw France....

So after my amazing Thanksgiving, Tori and I headed to the airport in order to catch our early morning flight on Friday. After landing at Charles De Gaulle in Paris, Tori and I realized how far out of the city our hotel was. After a train, 3 metros, a bus and a 10 minute walk, we finally made it to our hotel about 2 hours after we landed. Despite being far from the city center (about an hour), the hotel made up for it by being cheap and also really nice. We just had to sacrifice a few extra minutes of sleep to make the most of our day.

So after checking in, we headed to the city center for a FREE evening tour of Paris by NewEurope. Although it was freezing cold, the tour was great--- very thorough and informative. We walked by all the major sights---Notre Dame, St. Chapelle, Seine River, Eiffel Tower, Champs de Elysses, etc.-- and gained a good knowledge of the city that has so much history. The tour ended at the end of Champs De Elysses with an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower sparkling at night. From there, we continued to walk past the booths along Champs De Elysses, all decked out in Christmas lights. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and continued to the Arc de Triomphe at the end of Champs de Elysses. Our first few hours in Paris were hectic, but we made the most of it and saw most of Paris in just one evening!

A Thanksgiving Fiesta

SOO I can definitely say this year's Thanksgiving was the most unique I have ever been a part of. Thanks to Tori's mothers (Gloria, her host mom, and Linda, her real mom), we had as traditional a Thanksgiving dinner as possible. Tori's mom sent recipes to Gloria and Gloria used all of her resources to cook the dinner. Narea, her daughter, cooked the turkey; Josu, her husband, cooked the sweet potatoes (which were AMAZING... thanks Linda); and other friends brought sides like carrot cake, corn casserole (again, AMAZING), brownies, vegetables and cheesecake. In all, there were 11 different people gathered around our table, representing 4 different countries! (Jordan, US, Spain, and Germany) Shockingly, most people spoke English, so we were able to communicate easily and share some great stories. I couldn't have expected anything so amazing. Thank you so much for an amazing Thanksgiving, Gloria!!

SHOUT OUT...

.... TO CARLY DELINE!!! IN HONOR OF YOU I AM GOING TO DO THIS WHOLE POST IN ALL CAPS WITH A THOUSAND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!! I HOPE YOU HAVE AN INCREDIBLE BIRTHDAY AND THAT YOU HAVE YOURSELF PLENTY OF DRINKS.....LEGALLY!!!!!!! I AM MISSING YOU LIKE CRAZY AND I CAN'T BELIEVE I WON'T GET TO PARTY WITH YOU UNTIL SUMMER!!!!!! I DON' THINK I HAVE EVER HAD A FUN DRUNK NIGHT WITH YOU YET SINCE YOU TURNED TO THE "DARK SIDE" HAHAHA!!!!!! WE ARE GONNA HAVE TO FIX THAT!!!! ANYWAY, HAVE A HAPPY 21ST AND WE ARE GONNA HAVE TO DO A BETTER JOB OF KEEPING IN TOUCH SINCE I WON'T SEE YOU NEXT SEMESTER!!!!!