Monday, December 15, 2008

Last Week in Manchy Manch!

Its been a while since I've written and I apologize for that. As many of you know my current chapter of traveling world is coming to a close. I leave in an exact week. Last weekend I went on my last weekend out of town and went back to London to visit my friend Tori once more and also go visit Oxford. Which reminded me a lot of Middlebury, which was a surprisingly nice change from the many cities. It made me really excited to go home.
Before I left so many people said that three months wouldn't be long enough over here, saying that I'd feel like I just got settled in with friends and all and then I'd have to leave. This statement has come back to me quite a lot recently. Because that's exactly how I feel. As excited as I am to go home and see all my animals and family and friends, I'm really sad to leave the people that have become part of my life. What's most terrifying is that I have no idea when I'll see them again. Yeah you say you'll keep in touch and you will for maybe a month and then your old life kicks in. About a month ago I couldn't wait to go home. Now I have very mixed feelings, I think its because I've traveled with these people for the past three months, or a couple people I just met and I want to keep getting to know them, but alas all good things must come to end.
To make things even worse, something seemed to have happened to my ENTIRE photography portfolio that I worked so hard to put together. So my second to last weekend before going home has been a scurry of searching and thinking positive thoughts, which is hard when I'm also getting yelled by one of my two roommates for things I did not do. But I have decided to not give up on my portfolio and just make the best of my last week. I plan on doing this by doing as many fun things as I can, and seeing as many people as possible especially the ones I will miss greatly. One thing I can't to do is go skating with my small group of close friends as a last adventure. It will be interesting saying that I think only three of us know how to skate. But I don't care it will be amazing to get on the ice after a year and half of not being able to skate.
I do hope everyone who is reading this well and I can't wait to see you all next week. love.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Ready for more....

I was lucky enough to get to stay with a friend in Paris. Woooo. It was really interesting and fun to be in a French house. The first day we decided to go to this museum that Mom wanted me to go to, and suprisingly Nathan said he'd go with me. So we went to the Musee d' Orsay where we saw famous paintings from both Monat and Picasso. Everything was amazing. Of course I didn't get as much out of it because I couldn't read any of the captions of the paintings because they were in French. We then got lunch and proceeded to walk to a huge park which supposedly during the summer is a big hit with children because they can play with there boats in the center where there is a huge fountain. From there we went to study in the golden arches..so Nathan could work on a project. So I sat and finished my book in about five minutes and promptly went on a store run for food for dinner. After eating a simple dinner of noodles and sauce. We went to this bridge after with a bottle of wine where Nathan said that people always go to drink. But of course not when it's cold so we ended up being the only people there drinking....we got many funny looks. From there we walked to the Notre Dame. Which was incredible. From there we walked the long way home and just went to sleep. The following day I got up and went off alone to see the Eiffel Tower and again to the Notre Dame to see the inside. The only way I found the right apartment when I got back into the building four hours later was because Nathan had decided to take a break from studying and play the piano. After we had a quick lunch we went back into town and saw an eight story mall, however, supposedly it was the equivalent to black Friday because it was PACKED. However, the view from the top was amazing. Once we left that mob scene, we went back and made food and then went out for traditional French dessert. Which was really delicious. We ended the night with watching French T.V. shows. He translating only the interesting parts. haha. I fell asleep early and woke up early to catch my early train back to London. Once back in London we went on a mini shopping spree with Tori and Monica. My first bus home back to Manchester left without me because England has a communicative problem. So I had to wait another hour and go on the next bus home. All in all it was an amazing weekend. It was incredible to see people who knew me before I came to England, I didn't have to try and impress anyone which was so nice. Paris was amazing. London was busy but great. Reminded me a lot of N.Y.C. Over all it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back and stay longer.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Lone Traveler....

Hello All,
I got back today from a five day trip to London and Paris to see friends from dear old Vermont of all places. However, first off, I successfully cooked a Thanksgiving feast for my friends who don't live in the states!!! this was amazing saying that it is rare that I cook. Mom sent me verrry specific email on how to prepare the turkey. Instead of turkey i did Chicken because my oven is super small. But I did what the instructions said, including homemade stuffing. It turned out amazing. My friends showed up at 7ish, bringing salad, scalloped potatoes, homemade ice cream sandwiches and apple pie, and of course tons of wine (that seems to be a pattern of ours). We were all happily full of homemade food. It was a great send off to my travels alone to London and then Paris.
I got up early the next day to get an early bus to London where It took me and my friend Tori and hour to find each other because there are apparently two Victoria's Stations. Ugh. However, it all worked out and we then went back to her house to drop off all my luggage. We then went and got Indian food and found really cheap Pashmina's wooooo. Where we both bought more scarves then we needed :) From there we went to Leister Square where we sat in line at a comedy show to get cheap tickets where we then met up with Harry and watched the most amazing comedy show i've ever seen. I laughed myself silly with good friends. it was one of my favorite nights while traveling so far. What was also really exciting was that one of the actors of the show was a starter of the whole comedy store and we got to see him act and his name is Neil Mullarkey. We got the amazing opprotunity to meet him after thanks to harry. He was really nice and we talked and took pictures with him for a good five minutes. it was really cool.
The next day I took the train to Paris!!!! However, I will tell you that epic tale tomorrow! For now I must sleep!!! goodnight all. xoxox