London Calling

So, it´s true! I got to go to London! Everyone in Spain talks about how awesome London is so I really had to see it for myself. I went alone last friday through Monday to the beautiful city. I stayed at a hostal which was a very strange experience. When I got in there on Friday night, there were two French people and four Spanish girls. I was already exhausted from quite a bit of walking throughout the day so I went to bed when the Spanish girls were just going out for dinner.  After dozing off for an hour or two, an elderly gentleman entered the room and announced quite loudly, ´I guess this is the last one!¨ He said this in reference to the one bunk on top of mine. After scurrying around for about 20 minutes to get situated, I felt my bed begin to shake as he started to climb the ladder, but being quite elderly, this took him awhile. As he was about in the center of the ladder, all of the Spanish girls burst in and busted out laughing. I opened my eyes to see what was so funny, and this poor guy was in the middle of the ladder in his boxer briefs. I was quite tramatized, and I felt bad for the fella. I´m sure he hadn´t counted on a bunch of young girls coming in right when he was in his undies. This was an interesting first night, and one I wished had not been spent alone with a bunch of strangers. 
On Saturday, I had bought a London Pass which meant I could get into many attractions and all forms of public transport without additional payments. The pass was kind of expensive: 54 pounds. But, I figured out where I wanted to go so I could get the most for my money, and I ended up spending 110 pounds so it was worth it. I went to St. Paul´s Cathedral which was really nice to get a tour of a protestant church and then right after I went to Westminister Abbey so I could directly compare to a catholic church.  St. Paul´s was really awesome. Their audioguide was really good, and the history of the church is really interested. When I took the double-decker bus to Westminister, I got to see Trafalgar Square and then of course Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye are right there as well. Big Ben and Parliament was of course really cool because we get to see it in the movies all the time so being there feels a lot cooler. I then took another double-decker to the Tower of London which is an old fort that holds a lot of history as well as the crown jewels which were AMAZING!  I then went to the top of the Tower Bridge which was great because it gave me a great view of the city on either side of the Thames River.  Next stop was the Globe Theater which is a remake of the theater where Shakespeare´s plays were originally shown.  This was a nice tour and something I wouldn´t have gone to see without my London pass so I´m glad I saw it.  I went to the Millenium Bridge on my way to Tate Modern Museum. This museum was great and even though I could hardly stand by the time I got there, their audioguide made it really interesting.  Sometimes modern art is hard to get, but when you have a good description from the artist of what they would like to convey to you through the scene, it all starts to make sense.  When I made it outside, the earth was suddenly COVERED in snow. Apparently, it had started right after I went inside, and it continued to dump well into the night. This was a nice taste of the Michigan winter I, somehow, had been missing.  Needless to say, I collapsed in bed that night. It was only about 8 o´clock so I figured I´d read for a couple of hours, but in reality, I couldn´t keep my eyes open for more than 10 minutes after I layed down.  That night at the hostal, I was joined in my room again by the two French people. Then, at about 1 in the morning, a group of people speaking some eastern European language came in and got all settled. Again, a night with many interuptions, but when it´s so cheap, you get what you pay for.
On Sunday, I went back to Big Ben to see the view from across the river which is the one more commonly recognized and I walked to Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, Prince Harry did not see me standing among the crowd or I´m sure he would have come bursting out of the palace to try and woo me.  However, that didn´t put a damper on my day. The palace was beautiful along with the park it´s set in.  I then walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I had extremely misjudged the distance so I walked at a rapid pace for almost an hour to get there. I only spent about 45 minutes inside because I had to rest.  I then went to the Natural History Museum and later took a bus to the British Museum. The British Museum was my favorite because I love to see all of the things collected from Ancient Egypt including the Rosetta Stone which is a giant slab of rock in which is engraved a speech by a ancient pharoah in three languages giving scientists the tools they needed finally translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. They also have a lot of mummies. I think a scene from The Mummy Returns was supposed to based there.  Anyways, after three museums and hours of walking I had seen as much of the city as I could.  That night I was alone at the hostal which was great because I had to get up at 4 am to catch my plane.
For those of you that don´t know, traveling within the EU is really easy. You don´t even have to go through customs when you land...for countries that are a part of the Schengan Agreement.  However, I didn´t know that England is not so I was a little surprised to have to go through customs when I came back from London. Well, you know how when you´re near the end of the line on a full flight they take your hand luggage because there isn´t enough room in the overhead bin? Well, they took mine which is no big deal in itself, but when I got to customs luckily I had my passport in my pocket. I gave it to the man and chatted with him for a few seconds before he told my visa says I needed to be out of Spain in December. He spoke only Spanish, by the way.  I was a little surprised, but quickly remembered that it´s completely fine because I have my NIE which is my Spanish ID which approves me to be here until the end of June. He said, ´O good, may I see your NIE then?¨ Well, I had completely forgotten they took my hand luggage which contained my wallet with my ID. He announced to me this would be a 400€ fine to enter the country. I was really flustered and panicked and trying to speak really quickly in Spanish to explain myself.  He finally caved because I´m a student and it´s my first time forgetting. Luckily, I slipped through without a fine, and I will be careful not to make this mistake again. 400€?! That´s about 3 more trips to London right there! Thank goodness I didn´t have to pay it.  It was a great trip, overall. I wish I could´ve shared it with someone, but had a great time regardless. I´m hoping to get a couple of trips within Spain into my itinerary into the next couple of weeks.

A Couple Weeks of Normalcy

Hey Everyone! I haven´t gone anywhere crazy or exciting in the last couple weeks so I thought I´d give you a little update on the normal stuff.  I´ve been focusing a lot on motivating myself for my Spanish conversation classes because, in the last month, I´ve noticed the increasing gap between my level of speaking and my level of understanding. It´s really good to see my understanding increase so much, but I would also like to get my speaking up to the same level.  This means I need to get myself out of bed on my day off and get to classes with the Spaniards.

This weekend I took a class in a nearby town for Primeros Auxilios Básicos (a.k.a. First Aid). I was a little nervous because how embarrassing would it be if I couldn´t understand enough of the Spanish to pass the class, but I understood no problem. Most medical terms are really similar to where even if you haven´t heard the word in Spanish before you can figure out what it is if you´ve heard the word in English.  It was a lot of fun to be in an environment where only Spanish was spoken. I did have a major headache after each day of listening to five hours of Spanish straight. 

Things are going great at the school. I really enjoy my coworkers and hanging out with the kids. I find I appreciate kids the more time I spend at the school. Today, I went with the 3rd graders to be the female chaperone at the pool.  It was fun to get a change of pace.  Sally is still rocking and giving me different reasons to laugh. Today, there was a bit of drama because she was telling me a story and suddenly saw a bunch of bird poop on a car and she said, ¨Hey look! How gross!¨ But, before I could even think of what I was about to say, I said, ¨Like your face!¨ Well, Sally is a very sensitive soul, and this statement was taken quite literally. Even after my apologies and great attempt at convincing her it was a joke, she ran to her mom and told her I said that her face looked like bird poop.  This was a sloppy mistake on my part.  Anyways, we made peace, and I braided her hair as seen above.  She loves to get it braided and wear it to school like that one day then let it out the next morning so her hair is big and crimpy. What can I say? It´s the dream of every little girl with straight hair.


Weeks are pretty draining because I teach all day, then I´m with Sally until after 9. The weekends have been spent hanging out with friends and practicing my Spanish.  This weekend I´m going to London so I´m sure I´ll write a new update with pictures sometime next week. Miss you all, and God bless!

Feliz Año

Hey Everyone! I can´t believe Christmas break is already over. It went by so fast and so much happened.  Let´s see, where did I leave off on my vacation update?  O ya, Anja´s family! Well, the Prograjsek family was amazing. They never stopped feeding us from the time we got there until long after we were out the door. They sent along bags of fresh and dried apples to tie us over on the train ride.  Anja took us on a tour of her town (that took about 5 minutes.) and gave us a tour of the farm complete with all apple products and different grains. We loved it! From Slovenia, we went to Vienna on train which was much nicer than the scary van ride we had take to get to Anja´s. 

From the moment we stepped off the train, Patrick, my Austrian friend who was an exchange student in Mio several years ago, was there waiting for us with transportation tickets all ready to go. He took us to his house right away and his mom had a wonderful lunch waiting for us which was amazing. The food we ate in Austria was so awesome, I can really only use my food experience in Slovenia to describe how much I liked it.  He even had the kitchen stocked with American food for me such as Doritos, Kisses, and Poptarts. With Patrick we never had to lift a finger; he had everything planned and organized. But, we did have to lift our feet. I don´t think I could have taken another step by the time I went to bed each night. He took to see all the major buildings of the city which, in Vienna, is a lot. We got a full tour of Schonbrunn Palace, Hofburg Palace, and the famous Opera.  It was such a treat! I´ve decided Vienna was my favorite city on the tour, and I´m not just saying that because I know Patrick will read this blog. :)
The next stop was Germany for New Years. We went to Dusseldorf to hang out with a guy we knew from MSU.  When we went to the Rhine to watch the fireworks after the countdown, I was shocked.  Can I just say, I´m sticking with my beliefs that people under the influence of alcohol should not be allowed to operate fireworks. I had a mix of, Wow this is awesome to see so many fireworks, with, O MY GOODNESS! PLEASE DON´T BURN MY HAIR OFF! There were people everywhere just lighting off fireworks in every direction which may or may not have been pointed directly at the sky.  I´ve really never seen anything like it especially because the last ten New Years Eve parties were spent at my parents house where explosives were not involved.

My favorite thing in Germany, however, was that there is a chocolate factory in Aachen! It was a Lindt factory, which, yes, is Swiss and has headquarters in Zurich, but this is a branch. If you know me very well, you know that I eat chocolate like nobody´s business. I was so excited I was like...hmm...I guess the only way to describe it was that I was like ME at a chocolate factory. I think I left with about 5 or 6lbs. of chocolate for about 10€. 

From Germany, we carpooled to Paris. At this point, I was pretty burned out, but I wanted to make sure Esteban saw all the main attractions of Paris such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Notre Dame. But in addition, because I did all of these things on my first trip to Paris, we went to see the palace at Versailles which (I´m sorry Patrick) was even more magnificent than the Schonbrunn palace in Vienna.  Also, we went to Montmarte which I never heard of before this trip, but is a Must See spot in Paris. It was interesting how we finally got there because the directions we had initially been given took us to the Moulin Rouge neighborhood and you could easily say Moulin Rouge was the classiest joint on the block. We quickly left that part of town and found Montmartre the next day.  It was magnificent and overlooked almost the entire city, also it turned out to be better that we couldn´t find it the first time because when we went the sky had finally cleared up and it was a gorgeous day to get the full effect of the view. 

We finally dragged ourselves back to Madrid on Friday night and spent all day Saturday recovering.  Sunday was spent around Madrid at the famous street market, and let´s just say, I´m not fully recovered from all the walking and exploring of cities. I´m back at school and happy to see everyone. My Spanish definitely improved over the vacation from talking a lot with Esteban in Spanish. I´m getting more comfortable with it everyday. After dealing with the Parisians, who were much more rude that last time unfortunately, I´m was really excited to get back to a country where I can communicate with people in their own language.  It was a great tour, and I can´t believe how smooth it was. Luckily, all the planning payed off and we didn´t have any problems with transportation delays or cancellations.  Now, with the New Year, I´m going to have to work hard at my resolution to become fluent in Spanish, and I need to get on the boat with my plans for med school this summer. Happy New Years everybody! I hope it´s a great one!

Buon Natale

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope your was well, and I know mine was! My Christmas was spent in Venice, Italz which was amazing, and the most nontraditional Christmas I've ever had.  The trip started on Thursday night when we (Esteban (my friend from Ecuador) and I) had to sleep on the floor at the airport because we had an early flight to Venice and public transportation wouldn't open in time for us to make it. This was quite a poor start to the trip because it was the coldest night I've ever spent. The floor was like a refrigerator and all the benches were taken.  Esteban ended up sleeping on a bench and looked quite homeless which I laughed about quite a lot after not sleeping most of the night. I was waiting for him to get up to go to through security and I was sitting in a place where two benches had been pushed together to make more comfortable for sleeping, but these were very dirty and I was crunched up on one side of them where it didn't look quite so nasty.  Esteban came over to me and said with the most excitement I'd heard all day, ˝You didn't tell me you got this place!˝ As if I'd been sleeping at the Hilton while he was on some broken bench. Again, after no sleep this turned out to be one of the funniest things I'd ever heard and I proceeded to laugh for about twenty minutes and start all over again whenever I remembered the story. 
When we got to Venice, we were met by Diana who is an Ecuadorian friend of Esteban's, and she's studying in Venice. She was awesome and took us all around the city and the islands of Murano and Buran.  Murano is famous for the glass making and Burano was the cutest little town of all different colored, gorgeous buildings.  The weather was a little rainy on Saturday, but we made the most of it and marched around with our umbrellas and cameras ready. If you've never been to Venice, let me just say it is remarkable how much you can feel like you're in a maze. Sometimes you walk with a purpose and you're like a mouse trying to get to the cheese, but other times you're walking absolutely aimlessly and happy to find whatever may be around the next corner. I was oblivious and had no clue what to expect there. I had no idea there were no cars and how tiny the ˝streets˝ were. Over every bridge and down every alley was something new to discover but very old and beautiful. We made a dinner at home on Christmas Eve which was the most ridiculous, but hilarious, Christmas dinner I've ever had. Any kind of traditional Christmas food you can think of, I'm sure we didn't have it.  But, I loved it and it added a great new Christmas memory, all though I did miss my family and thinking about what kinds of food they would be having at home.  Christmas was a day completely devoted to exploring. I didn't really care to enter any of the buildings or museums because I was having such a good time wandering and exploring.  I love the city of Venice and would highly recommend it as a vacation destination.
However, today is Monday and time to move on to the next city. I was panicking this morning because we didn't have a print-out of our bus tickets from the Venice airport to Ljubljana, Slovenia.  So we found our way through the maze which is the city of Venice to a print shop early in the morning. After, a couple of guaranteed wrong turns the shop turned out to be closed so we hurried home to try to pull up our tickets on an iPod to make the most of it and hope the bus people don't care. Then, we were off to the airport. What we didn't anticipate is that absolutely no one at any information desk or bus ticket counter had ever heard of the company we had bought our tickets to Slovenia through.  Good thing we got there an hour early because, of course, I started freaking out and scurring around to find anything. I was feeling completely panicked and asking anyone I could find and searching the bus areas for anyone who could point us in the right direction.  Esteban, however, being quite smart while I was running around thinking we got ripped off and bought our tickets through a scam website, found a computer at the airport that could be used for a couple euros and found where the bus was supposed to pick us up ˝exactly.˝ This didn't turn out to be so exact though because with ten minutes until the bus was supposed to leave we still had no sign of where we really needed to be and get on. So, of course, and international bus would be like a tour bus with bathrooms and a giant display right? Well this is what we'd been looking for until I noticed a couple around our area wandering and searching and appearing just as panicked as we did. I finally asked the guy where he was going and he said Slovenia as well and he had luckily just found the ˝bus˝ which actually turned out to be more of a van with a driver who spoke zero English or Spanish and very little Italian.  We showed him our little iPod tickets and, after a few seconds or realizing we were never going to understand each other enough to explain ourselves, he just passed us through with a kind of, ˝whatever; get in,˝ kind of look.  There turned out to be a total of 5 passengers in our van and it looked pretty sketchy. I told Esteban that this is where they drive us to the middle of nowhere and kick us while driving away with all our stuff.  The driver was driving 150 km/hr in an 80 km/hr zone, and I quickly put on my seatbelt.  We ended up dropping this one guy off in the middle of nowhere off some random exit which didn't make us feel anymore comfortable with the whole situation.  A little while later, we pulled over at some random gas station just before the border of Slovenia where 6 very large, Slovenia women approached the van. There were only 4 seats available so we all kinda exchange worried glances.  Luckily, only 3 of them got in and not to be mean but one of the women had the thickest mustache I've ever seen. We continued on our trip and the driver took out something that looked like a strange water bottle, and as we slightly swerved back and forth over the centerline, Esteban leaned over and said, ˝Gosh, I hope that's not Vodka.˝ Needless to say, we arrived in Ljubljana intact and 45 minutes earlier than expected as a result of our speedy driver.
Anja picked us up promptly and took us with her cousin through some of the Christmas markets and to see some of the little sights of this little city. It was really cool and completely different from the other big, European cities I've been to which made it a little exciting.  When we got to Anja's house, her mom had made us a traditional Slovenian meal which was AMAZING!  Her parents are crop farmers and everything we had a dinner was homemade. We had a veggie that was pretty much saurkraut and a homemade sausage with homemade wine and cornmeal and mashed potatoes. Everything was so tasty and they made us eat until we were stuffed out of our minds.  Anja's parents can understand some but don't speak any English so it was kind of exciting to be a table with constant translations.  Esteban, being a food scientist, wanted to know all about the food and what her dad does while Anja's dad wanted to know all about the food and landscape of Ecuador. It was really fun, and we were welcomed so warmly. So far it's been amazing, and I'll try to keep up with the next adventures soon.  Tomorrow we're going on a tour of the farm and Anja's little village which consists of about 300 people.

Yay for a Swiss Vacation!

Last week we had Thursday and Friday off of school so I took off for the weekend and went to Geneva, Switzerland to stay with some cousins I have there and see some sites. I haven´t seen these cousins in probably about 10 years so it was really good to catch up.  On Friday, Aunt Annette took me to the international side of Geneva. She showed me some of the big buildings and explained what they´re used for, and we got to go on a tour of the United Nations building which was really interesting because I didn´t know very much about what they do and are used for.  Friday night was a going away party for my cousin, Elise. She´s going to be studying for six months in Alaska.  I don´t speak a word of French so her friends had a nice time practicing their English.  It was really weird to be in a place where something besides Spanish is the language being spoken because I kept hearing a foreign language and that made me want to be speaking in Spanish. I´m glad to be back where I can semi-communicate with the people, but French is a really pretty language to listen to. 
    On Saturday, cousin Alexzandra got there with a friend. Olivier showed us around the old part of Geneva. This weekend was the Escalade which is a festival that commemorates the last attack on Geneva which was in 1602 and everyone wears Medieval clothes and we say cannons fired and sword fights and all that fun stuff.  It´s the only festival they have all year and it seems to me a slightly strange thing to celebrate, but it was fun.  We got to celebrate Alexzandra´s birthday so we went out to a restaurant and had fondue. It was a cute place with guys playing traditional music and wearing costumes and playing instruments like cowbells and a really really long horn. 
    On Sunday, Aunt Annette and Uncle Pierre took Alexzandra, her friend and I to the mountains for a little excursion.  We went to the mountains right on the border between France and Switzerland. There was a little train that we took to the top of the mountain, and it brought us to one of the most beautiful views I´ve ever seen. It was also refreshing to see some snow up there, but it was also good to be able to escape the snow just by going back down the mountain. We then went to the Chateau Chillon which is a little castle right on the lake. They had a medieval village set up inside so it was really fun to look around and imagine how much it would stink living there without modern conveniences.  This castle is where Mary Shelley got her inspiration to write Frankenstein. It was really beautiful and a little creepy when we went down to the prison area.  There was a door about 10 or 15ft off the ground and the tour guide told us that was the entrance where they literally ´threw people into prison.´ Ouch. On the way home, we saw the most beautiful sunset I´ve ever seen in my life. My pictures don´t do it justice, but seeing the mountains and the colors painted across the sky just made me really think about how awesome God is that he would give us something so beautiful.  It´s so true how His creation cries out with His majesty.

     I had a really awesome weekend, and my cousins were so hospitable! It´s amazing to be blessed with such great family and people who will take care of you. I´m a little bit sick now. I think I caught a cold on the airplane or something so I´m going to be spending this week resting up as much as possible because my Christmas trip is just around the corner and I´ll need to be in tip top shape.  I miss everyone, and if you think of it, shoot me and email or facebook message about what´s going on in your life because I´m pretty cut off from everyone at home. Talk to you soon!

A Rough Week Followed by an AWESOME Weekend!!

Well, the last couple weeks were a bit hard because I bought a computer that didn´t work. Then I spent hours on the phone with Spanish-speaking Dell people who were all crazy and could not fix my computer. It led to a lot stress and a 45€ phone bill because there aren´t toll free numbers here.  All these stressful hours were draining and led to my first culture-shock experience where I missed Taco Bell and my mom´s chocolate torte.  Finally, on Thursday UPS came to pick up the computer and take it away which was a huge weight off my shoulders.  This is why I haven´t been writing lately because there was just nothing good to say for awhile there.

This week at school it was my turn to plan the lesson for the Infantil age group which is the 3-5 year olds. I had to teach them clothes such as: trousers (British English of course), shirt, skirt, hat, shoes, and dress. I came up with the idea of making a little girl on a big piece of paper. Sally helped me decorate her clothes. Her name was Lucy which is coincidentally the name of our dog, and (how embarrassing!!) she came to school without her clothes!! Haha, the kids had to help by sticking her clothes on and saying their names.  It was a lot of fun, and I was impressed with myself because I'll admit I'm not the most creative person.
This weekend, FOR MY BIRTHDAY :), I went to Madrid for Mexican food with my friends and it was a blast! It was great to eat some awesome food and just kick back with the girls. We got all dressed up and had a good time. Two new friends came with us. One girl from Mexico (hence the Mexican food) and one girl from Poland (who can actually pronounce my last name. Go figure!)  I got to practice a lot of Spanish because the Mexican girl can speak English fluently, but its easier for the Polish girl to understand Spanish.  It was a great birthday party.
Yesterday, Alfonso, one of my Spanish teachers, took me to a store near Madrid with Anja to help me buy a new computer. This was SUCH a blessing! I don´t know very much about computers anyways let alone enough to understand the guy telling me about all the specs in Spanish.  Alfonso explained everything very slowly and in terms he knew I would understand, and after some thinking and testing, I bought a really good computer its an HP with a screen so big I have to sit a little farther back. It was a good birthday present for myself.  After, he took Anja and I to Ávila which is a historical town about an hour from San Lorenzo.  He ended up spending his entire day with us; he´s so nice and it´s great to have people like this in your life especially in a foreign country where I don´t have my own car or the knowledge of these places. Ávila is up there with Paris in the most beautiful places I´ve seen. Of course, Paris and Ávila can´t really be compared because they´re beautiful for completely different things. Ávila is a city that was built around 1085 so it´s almost 1000 years old and it´s surrounded by castle walls. You see castles in movies and pictures and storybooks, but to see one in real life was the most amazing experience ever! The wall still stands in it´s entirety and there is a beautiful cathedral that still stands inside.  We tried different sweets that the city is famous for and enjoyed some great tapas. We went into this place where there were things used by a famous saint which happened to include one of her fingers with a ring on it!! I´m sorry my Catholic friends, but I will never understand the significance of keep someone´s intact bodypart.  I really didn´t think I could handle much more because I was overwhelmed by all these amazing sturctures, then Alfonso drove us to a lookout a little outside the city after dark to see the entire city and walls all lit up. It was absolutly breathtaking!
Today, when I got home from church, we celebrated my birthday with a special dinner. Stephen made some awesome jumbilaya and Marina made a beautiful birthday cake with 21 candles on it. It was so nice and I felt right at home.  They even got me a present which was a case for my new computer. The case they bought was for the little computer that I just bought and Marina told me she bought this case then came home and I said I was returning that computer haha. She kept the receipt though so I´ll just exchange it. I´ve been so blessed to have a great family and friends here, and I´m getting better at my Spanish all the time. So things are going great just in time for my birthday tomorrw. I´m sure I´ll always remember my birthday in Spain! :) Happy Birthday to me!! 

P.S. These last two pictures are especially for Hud and Dad. The first for Hud because we had been talking a lot about the Lord of the Rings since we had been around castles and all and then we went around a corner and this reminded me of a slightly chopped version of the White Tree of Minis Tirith or Gondor or where. I thought you, of all people, would appreciate it. The second is for Dad. You would have gone crazy with all the awesome roads through the mountains we took to get to 'Avila. There were motorcycles everywhere and it made me think of you :) Enjoy!!

Paris

Wow! It's been a long time since I've written and so much has happened. My computer broke a.k.a I dropped it and had to buy a new one. So, since I've been limited in my computer use, I haven't had time to fill everyone in. I'll just write about my trip to Paris though because it was by far the most exciting!

I skipped school on Friday to head out early. Don't worry this is totally fine :). We got to see sooooo many historical sites. It was amazing and exhausting. Luckily, everyone speaks English so we had no problem communicating even though I speak maybe 10 words of the entire French language. My favorite food was the crepes that we could buy pretty cheap  on the street. They also sold good panini's there :). All the architecture is amazing and old and beautiful. The most amazing building, however, was Notre Dame. It was absolutely breathtaking both inside and out. I took pictures because it is impossible to even attempt to describe how magnificent it is. The Eiffel Tower of course was a necessary stop on the itinerary. It's one of those places that you can't believe you're actually seeing in real life. It's always just been on tv or the internet or something, but to be able to stand beneath it and view all of it was an incredible experience. Another marker in France that I thought I'd only ever see on tv or movies or internet was the Mona Lisa.  It's so familiar and so simple, but so elegant and surreal.  You've probably already noticed an unusually large amount of descriptor words so I suppose I should just stop trying, but every landmark we went to see was beyond words and I'm so excited to have had the opportunity to see them all in real life. On Saturday, we met up with my cousin, Alexzandra, and she took us to a famous little cafe where Hemmingway used to go. The coffee was great and she took us next to try some amazing macaroons which were really expensive, but they were worth the experience. Another memorable stop was to a little cafe where Alex's guide book said we could find the best hot chocolate ever. It turned out to be the most expensive hot chocolate ever, too. Ringing up at 7 euros, we enjoyed the thickest, chocolatiest cup of deliciousness I've ever brought to my lips. We only ordered 2 because it was a fortune, but the lady was really nice and brought us 3 anyways.  We were lucky enough to see several plazas and famous squares and building in the city. They were all spectacular and our feet were begging us to stop seeing more. I had to massage my feet at the end of each night because they wouldn't stop throbbing.  We went to the Arc de Triomphe and strolled down the Champs Elysees and one of our final events was seeing St. Champelle which is a small church with the most amazing stained glass windows in probably the entire world! I'm sure my pictures will speak for themselves and I'll have all of them posted on facebook really soon! I'll be sure to fill you in more frequently on what's going on here.