"Real Paris"

 Pic of the day.
Today we went to Montmartre which is just another section of Paris. I got to experience the part of Paris that I thought the whole thing was suppose to be. Very market-y and painters every where. Moulin Rouge was our first stop (because it was right out of the Metro station.

I wished it would have been more of a place to see, but it was actually an entertainment place....so we just took a pic and kept walking.

We had heard there was a famous church that has the best sights of Paris from the top, so we trekked up HUGE hills until we found it. Sacre Couer which means scared heart. It was beautiful!

That last one is super cool. :)

There was quite the entertainment outside of it too.....
A guy was  singing out side...great stage presence....funny and a great singer!

 And some dancers.....very talented.

THEN! I climbed well over 300 steps to the top of the tower of the church for the view. I was so tired when I got up there; I had to take a breather. And when I got back down my legs where shaking. Work out much?

The market was my fav part today and of Paris. It made it feel like what I had expected. People selling things...mostly food and artists set up with there booths....very pretty
 Bread.

 Dried fruit.

 Carmel apples.

 Candy that tasted like sour punch straws.

 Meat.

 Flower lady.

 Spices and teas. (mom I got you Jasmin tea)

 Painter man.

 My fav painting that I past.

 Hannah, one of my friends getting here pic done.

 Picture the very sweet man drew of me!

Later at night we met some of the group for a picnic under the Eiffel Tower...breads and grapes and strawberries and cheese and chips and cookies and candy!

 Jill creepin up in my pic.

 Bread!

Today was my favorite day in Paris :) And I will be loading a train for Germany tomorrow for one more week of adventure. Then home to mi casa :)

....Paris....

Okay so I haven't posted since yesterday, but it feels like six years. We left Oxford yesterday morning and walked to the train station that took us to London. We saw the British Library. I needed my mother again to tell me what everything was. I wish you book lovers could have seen all of those pretty books. They were locked behind glass but very pretty. I love the way they look! They are so old and worn, which makes them beautiful.


 This internet here is pretty bad so I may not be able to add pictures :/ But they will all be on FB when I get home. (which isnt very long!)

But the Library was very neat. We saw some of the works of Shakespeare. His actual hand writing was behind the glass (that I touched). We saw the Gutenberg Bible. Which is a big deal for us ACU JMC majors. Gutenberg was the man who invented movable type, or in English is the first Printing Press. A huge step in technology and obviously extremely important to us Journalism majors. This was the first Bible printed for commoners. Decorated very carefully and beautifully.  
In the Library we also saw the Magna Carta and one of my favorite parts......The Beatles original work! It was cool because they had their original scribbles from when they were writing a couple of their songs. Pretty sweet. That definitely put their tunes in my head for the rest of the day, which was FOREVER long.

The next step was to get to the train station. We took the Chunnel to Paris. Parts of the train ride were under water. I was expecting the entire trip to be under (for some reason) but it wasn't. Thank God because the pressure that it put on your ears was almost unbearable. It hit us all at once and everyone jumped and groaned. I really enjoyed when we started getting closer to France though because it there was beautiful country-side. Those tall skinny trees along the plain green fields like you see on movies...they are real!

When we arrived in Paris and our professor let us loose the fact that we were alone in a strange country hit us. We all were just standing there for awhile. Finally we got the nerve to head out. The underground (trains) are different than in England and not just because everything is in French instead of English. Its just very difficult to maneuver ESPECIALLY with luggage.  One of our girls actually got caught in the door and ended up having to drop her bags behind in order to get on the cart with us. Thankfully there was a nice Frechman who waited there until she got back with her stuff. It was a scar experience for all of us and after that we were all super freaked. We were tired and hungry and stressed and alone. It had been a long day and we finally found our hotel (which wasn't what we expected) But hey, it's better than an Egyptian sleeper-train. We found a McDonalds (that actually tasted real) and headed for bed.

We were ready to start over today. And we did! We have successfully conquered the Metro/Underground for an entire day. It went smoothly too. But I must confess something....I forgot my camera. I know, I know....I almost balled in the Metro when I realized it. But I keep reminding myself that I still experienced those things and I'm alive and happy. So....I feel kind of better. I did take pictures with my phone though.

First we went to Notre Dame. It's HUGE! I was astonished at the size of it and the architecture was unlike any other, I think. It gave Westminster a run for it's money. And the bell actually rang! I need to re-watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame again when I get home. Its hard to describe how beautiful it was. One thing that was humerous was the fact that at Westminster you could offer prayers by lighting a candle or by writing it down. (I lit a candle in honor of my family and wrote Jordan's name on a piece of paper) BUT in Notre Dame it cost 2 Euros to put in a prayer request and 5 Euros if it was a big one. LOL. crazy French people.

After that we made our way to The Louvre which is a very famous museum. And rightfully so. It was crazy big...we saw like one sixth of the interior. The most important things for me to see were the Mona Lisa, which was beautiful but smaller than I had perceived and the famous (armless) statue of Venus, which was beautiful. I can't wait to come back with my familia.

Then it was on to the Eiffel Tower. It was brown....not what I expected, but pretty all the same. Just like all the pictures....very tall. I didn't have the urge to go to the top, but I actually wished I had after my friends got back. I didn't really want to spend the money (because Pris is SO expensive) but their pictures seemed to be great. The park was a little trashy though....

I've eaten ham and cheese twice today (I don't like ham)...haha, but It tasted good. I'm feeling better about Paris every minute. Not my favorite town, by far, but definitely a memorable place. Being here makes me want my mom and dad. lol. My dad is so good at picking up new things and would be great at maneuvering through the subways and trains. And my mother would drive me crazy reading everything but it would be nice to follow her brilliant mind around.  I want them to experience these things too, and I'm thankful that they let me come. :)

Tomorrow is another day of Paris before we head to Germany to meet our class again. We are going to take it slower and find some neat areas, hopefully. I'm getting excited to see the concentration camp in Germany!

Party in the Park

Today is Wednesday! I had wonderful plans that ended up not happening but still had a successful day. I planned on going to the palace where Churchill was born, but we couldn't really find the right bus and it was taking too long......so we went to Christ Church.

Now, I'm sure that this church has much more of a significance than what we wanted to see it for, but I don't really know what that is. Although, there is a staircase inside of the church that a scene from the first Harry Potter movie was filmed on. There are spots like that all over Oxford and London and this was a close one! However, Michelle Obama was in town and coming to the same church....who knew. The guards has it blocked off and wouldn't let anyone in for the inside tours. Bummer....thanks a lot Michelle.

Anyhow, we had a wonderful shopping/walking tour....again. I got a little sweater so that I could look more Parisian and wouldn't have to wear my wind-breaker everywhere anymore.

We walked passed this goergeous building and thought we would climb the tower to the top!...Beautiful view.

We then headed to the Park for class. Today's discussion was over Copyright. Also we had a 21st birthday of one of the girls today! We had  a cookie cake and hats....probably got lots of stares, but fun all the same.

After packing, resting, tv watching, and being REALLY hungry we finally all got ready to go eat for our birthday party celebration! We ate at a wonderful little Italian place. Now I'm packing and getting ready to wake up early for tomorrow.
Agenda:
Walk to the train station.
Train to London.
Play time.
British Library
Chunnel to Paris (under water train)
Arrive in Paris for a weekend filled with sights, cheese, and baguettes!
After our free weekend we will be off to Germany for the rest of our class. I'm not positive there will be internet access in our Hotel in Paris so that I can update you guys...but I'm almost certain there will be. Hope so! I can't wait to see the sights!

Lazy, Lazy

We finaly got off our feet for a little while today. Some of the group went back to London, but I (and others) stayed here in Oxford. We all woke up late and watched movies until we were ready for lunch in the afternoon. We walked to town and instead of eating right away we got distracted at the tourist stores. I've been looking for the perfect (simple) Oxford sweater. Found it....purple :)  We then ate at the oldest Pub in Oxford, the Turf Tavern.


Remember back in the day when Bill Clinton denied inhaling the maryj? Well, this was the pub that it didn't happen in. So...i was were Bill Clinton was...again. (whether you like him or not...that's still cool. you know it)

So after eating we walked around a little more. Got cookies at Ben's Cookies...that were really good. (everyone brags about those) and then we got Moo Moo's milkshakes. AMAZING.

I think that we were all meant to be here this summer. I mean we made a guard laugh, we have done so many cool things! While walking down the street today we spotted a couple of men with cameras. One of the guys just walked up to them and started talking so we all joined in. They were super nice! Turns out it was the CEO of Wesley Mission for the Methodist churches, out of Sidney, Australia. They were making a documentary about the founder of the Methodist church. He really loved us! All of the workers were interested in all of us. Especially when we mentioned that we were JMC majors. Very cool. Very cool.

I actually didn't want to lug my camera around today, so there are no pictures. But I just realized that i haven
t showed you were we live.....

Tomorrow we have class at some point and we are going somewhere for it....I'm not sure where though. Guess you;ll just have to wait and see (like me)!

"We're the British Royal Gaurd"

We got up on our own because it's Saturday and we have no school! Took a train to London and on the way there met Max...short for Maximus. He was a very nice lad studying Latin and Greek at oxford, so obviously a genius. He told us things that should be visited in London and also helped me on my school work. I have to help present some of the information in Monday's class over Privacy Laws in Germany, USA, and England. So he definitely let me record him and his thoughts on England's privacy laws. So that helped me out! Very nice of him.

We thought it would be a brilliant idea to take a bus tour. It started out nicely with a stop to the BBC. (British Broadcasting Corp) I mean...how could we pass it up as Journalism/Mass Communication majors. They only offer tours on Sundays so some of the group is going back tomorrow; however, I will be taking the day easy and staying in Oxford. (my feet and knee still hurt)

We then got on our amazingly NOT quick tour bus. The ride was extremely slow because of the traffic...who would have thought there would be traffic in down town London? But I did get to talking to these two men. They were from Canada and LOVED how many times I said yall without even realizing it. That's not a word?...WHAT?! They were super nice and talked to us the whole ride. Told us what we needed to see and what everything was along the way. Here are some pictures of the buildings along the ride and of the Tower Bridge. (note that the London bridge isn't impressive....we just drove over it. and the river below is the Thames.)

We finally made it to my favorite part of the day...The Tower of London. It was actually more like a small castle. I stood in the same castle that Anne Boleyn was beheaded. And I saw the crowns and jewels of the Kings and Queens, some of it dated back to more than 600 years ago. Although I couldn't take pictures. (this 8 year old girl definitely took a picture of the last crown....urg)

I did however get to see one of the gaurds in the red uniforms. He was pretty young. He was there to guard the Tower. I MADE HIM LAUGH! the thing is was that I was just acting normal....
I was having one of my friends take my picture and I had my hand up to make the picture seem like I was grabbing his ear. (from the distance we were at)
my friend said, "What are you doin? You wnat to make it look like you're poking him?"
 I said, " No! I want to grab his ear!"
and he started laughing!! I could SO get him fired. (or beheaded like Anne Boleyn) haha but he was precious so I feel like he deserves a break. It made my life. I'm set. Now all I need is for the Rapture to happen...wait, wasn't that suppose to happen today?

Mission accomplished.

We then took the subway (which I'm starting to like) to a restaurant that is not of English taste, but a part of our home land. TEXAS.

The reason we wanted to go here was because the ACU Oxford study abroad students (awhile back) put our ACU flag up in the top floor of the building where lots of schools are represented. It was VERY cool to see a piece of us already hanging and to write our names on the wall.

We finally made it back to our train to Oxford safely and easily tonight. Rode home and met another Britt! His name was Peter and he was very interested in us, as we were of him. Literature was our favorite word that he said. He was very into Rugby and had just come from playing in London. A very cool was to end the night. We made it to Oxford after the hour train ride and did our 45 minute was back to the house. I am ready for a relaxing day tomorrow. A nap may even be in store for me....how exciting (very happy face).

I'll leave you with a few more random pictures of the day.

The reason our bus tour way slow....busy London streets.

 Pretty Building....?

 Me eating REAL roasted peanuts cooked by a lovely man outside London Tower.

 Me knocking on a door in the London Tower. (if you can't tell, i like touching things)

 All Souls Church, I believe. Otherwise....a pretty building...?

 On the London Tower.....pretty pretty :)

 Heavy Helmets in the Tower!

 Mean face in the cage. A section of the tower told why the Kings and Queens had strange wild animals....What do you give a person that has everything?....A lion, tiger, or bear of course.

 Random Carving....pretty

 "He proposed!"......replica of Princess Kate's wedding ring

 At the train station. In England....or lots of places in the world (Egypt) they remind you to "Mind the Gap" when you step off of the train, so you don't hurt yourself. Love it.