Oui a Paris

I was actually in Paris! Not the one in Texas, but the one in France! I know, right! So this is the story all about how my life got turned upside down, so I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there and let me tell you how I became the Prince.... Oh wait ummm I meant this is the days of my Paris adventure. Exciting! Oh My Gosh! Can you believe it? I can't!

Just a quick overview before diving into my pictures and stories. I have exams in January right after my month long break. This is rather unfortunate because I want to do everything I possibly can in every place I end up, but I also want to do well on my exams. I decided to at least for the moment, spend my day out and about, but then during the evening come back and study. I do realize that I miss out on a lot of stuff, but after walking more than 15miles each day just to get to places, I am tired anyway. 

So let's begin. These pictures are the view from my window. The pictures don't do the view justice as I don't have to squint to see the Eiffel Tower from my room. The one on the right was taken at night and I zoomed in.

On my first day of actually being able to explore, I, naturally, got myself lost. I knew I was lost about twenty minutes into my walk, but decided to just keep walking until I found a map(I thought I had packed mine, but in true fashion, I forgot it) or a metro stop or actually figured out where I was. As I was ambling around, I saw this cemetery that I found mesmerizing. I have no idea why, but it was. Thinking about it, I was probably possessed. Just kidding. Maybe. 

Continuing my adventure, I passed a huge stadium and the French National Olympic Committee Building. I wandered around some more until I found a Metro Station called Gentilly. Since I was ridiculously lost, I hoped on a train and was determined to find the touristy things. The first thing I saw was Notre Dame. It was nice, but I preferred looking at the outside more than the inside.

 I continued to wander around. I was basically just walked in a north east direction and then went towards the Eiffel Tower. I really like the  picture below. I just think it looks kind of cool!

I spent my second day at Disneyland Paris. I have always wanted to see all the Disney parks. It has been  a goal. I don't know why, but my best guess is the Disney company did a number on me with their marketing and movies. The next chunk of pictures are all from there.
This was a cool stain glass I saw while riding the train around the park.

The Nautilus, which at first I thought was from Atlantis, but when I went inside I realized it wasn't.

Who can resist the tea cups? Riding on it alone was a little sad because there was no one else to scream at to stop spinning the cup. I could have screamed it at myself, but I am pretty sure the Disney cast members would have politely walked me out of the park.

My wonderful companion on the Carousel. Being surrounded by kids on this was hilarious because they were all waving to people that weren't on the ride. To humour myself, I started waving at the people too.

This is a garden called the Jardin des Plantes. It was cool because there were several museums attached to it.

The following two pictures are from the Palaeontology part of the Natural History Museum

This is the Evolution part of the Natural History Museum

The following pictures are from inside the Natural History Museum

The following animals are from the Zoo in the Jardin des Plantes

The picture above just looks cool.

The above building is right next to the Pantheon. The pictures following this are of the Pantheon. I know, what a great transition!

The following is the view of the Eiffel Tower from the Pantheon.

Below is the Lumenbourg Palace at Luxembourg Gardens, which is partially shown in the picture following.

This was a random statue I found whilst I was wandering.

I spent a full day in the Louvre, but mistakenly left my camera in my hostel, so there are no pictures! Whoops!

The following few pictures are from my last day spent at Disneyland.

 The first time going on the Riverboat. At least this is the only time I remember going on it. It was really pretty to travel the river at night. I really wanted to do the Titanic scene. You know the one I am talking about. But, alas, being alone, I would have looked really ridiculous. Well more so than usual.

 The Arc de Triomphe! It was pretty, but not really worth the crowd.

 The last few pictures are just pictures I took while I was walking around. They just had a cool look to them, so I thought I would share them.

And that is Paris! Whooo!!!!

Oh Goodness!

Hello again!
I am still alive, contrary to popular belief. It has been quite some time since I did anything with this blog and for that I apologize. I have been and will be apologizing a lot for this as I don't forget about the blog, but I get ridiculously lazy and refuse to post what I have been doing. Oh and well I wasn't being very adventurous either. Whoops!
Over the last few months I only took two trips and they go as follows:
Stratford upon Avon: I went for a day and enjoyed it. The weather was wonderful and sunny. I spent most of the time wandering around with a group of girls from California looking at things that had to do with Shakespeare. You know, stuff like, his birthplace and house and such. Oh and I saw the Holy Trinity Church where his bones are. Exciting!
London: I went for a long weekend to meet the Provost of the UC's. It was nice, but I was a little disappointed with my traveling companion as she was very hasty in going through the British Museum and was often late. Overall though it was a good experience. I learned that there can be some awful hostels that offer cold showers and rude staff and that you need to choose traveling companions very carefully or it will make enjoying your trip difficult.
And, well, that is it in a quick little nutshell!
Below are a few pictures from my day in Stratford. Alas, I forgot my camera when I went to London, so there are no pictures!

Saw this in town

 Shakespeare's Birthplace

 The Gardens at Shakespeare's Home

 Holy Trinity Church

 Inside the Church

 The River

Edinburgh

My first two and a half days in the UK were spent in Edinburgh. It was a fantastically beautiful area and I wish I could have spent more time there. The entire purpose of this short trip was study abroad orientation. My main concern in attending was that I would not get along well or be liked by my fellow UC people. Turns out we got along very well. There are thirteen of us attending Leeds from the UC's. Our orientation was nice because we got to know each other and it allowed us a way to slowly ease our way into our new playground instead of being pushed in head first. We were introduced to the food by going to typical UK restaurants and were allowed to have some time to explore.

My first day was nice because I arrived early in the morning at the airport and grabbed a taxi. My driver was really kind in talking with me on our long drive to the city. He informed me of some of the local places and really encouraged me to explore as much as I could. He also talked to me about his life and his family, which was nice because it let me feel like I knew someone in Edinburgh even though I will probably never see him again. After my cab ride, I dropped off my bags and headed out into the city. I explored for a few hours and really got a nice view of the area. Unfortunately I wasn't quite prepared for the weather because it started out sunny, so I was just in jeans and a tshirt, but then it started raining really hard. Needless to say, I got completely soaked and began to head back to send my parents an email telling them I had safely arrived. Of course, once I reached the UC Study Abroad Center, the rain cleared up. Typical for me and the UK I am afraid. The rest of the day was just meeting the coordinators and the other students.



My second day was spent half in orientation, which was not very exciting, and then at the Edinburgh castle. The castle was really cool. I would have liked to explore it more, but unfortunately we only had about two hours there. The view from the castle was amazing. I wish I could have spent the entire time sitting and looking out.

The next picture was of a part of the castle that they were using as a memorial to all who had fallen in all the wars the Scots were involved in. It was very beautiful. The four girls closest in this picture are the ones I was hanging out with.

The castle also had a recreation of what the prisons looked liked and had some of the original carvings that the prisoners made. There were so many different prisoners. We also got to see some of the jewels that belonged to royalty.

Traveling from Edinburgh to Leeds was more stressful than I had originally anticipated. I had bought my train tickets online, but needed to change the travel time. I thought it would be similar to Amtrak, but I was dead wrong. It was a pain and instead of letting me trade tickets, I had to buy an entirely different ticket, which was ridiculously expensive. The day of travel was annoying and overwhelming, but eventually I got to Leeds and my accommodation!