Paris Day 2 July 4th

Happy July fourth from Paris!

9 a.m. came early that day. At this point we have decided that grabbing a sandwich from the market is the best plan. Before we left we discussed which sites to see and in what order. We decided on taking a tube to Notre Dame and walking most of the rest of the day. Notre Dame, the Louvre, and then some lunch. We were too excited to plan the whole thing. We basically just got on the same page before setting off. We left in search of a tube. A few blocks later we found one.

Notre Dame first on the list, and it didn't disappoint. A lovely elderly Frenchman showed me how to feed the birds.

There is an art to make wild animals feel comfortable enough to eat from your fingertips. Pinch a bread like food item between your fingers and ever so gracefully raise your arm in the air. It was amazing I felt just like Snow White. I have always wanted to feed random wild animals. Little tourist-tamed birds are close enough for me. Take note I had to soak my hand in hand sanitizer for 30 minutes afterword, because trust me they aren't that tame. The building itself was magnificent. We walked around the whole thing. Every wall, corner, and doorway whispers a story of its own.

I would retell every one if I could, but this is Paris in 72 hours or less, so buckle up.

A brief tourist gift shop, and side walk ice cream and hot dog vendor visit was in order. After a shared hot dog, 4 mini Eiffel Towers, one huge bottle of water, and rasberry sorbet we were on our way to the Louvre. Walking along the river was an experience within itself. The river is lined with vendors selling a montage of things, paintings, post cards, books, old odds and end

s, and plenty more.

The Louvre was brilliant. The queue was extraordinarily long, but surprisingly it only took thirty minutes. Once inside we set off for the italian paintings.

I saw THE "Mona Lisa", it was so unbelievably crowded. The guy standing behind me was from North Carolina. I heard him talking to one of his friends, and I got excited at hearing an accent from home. I turned and asked him where he was from. He kind of rolled his eyes and said America. Sometimes if your in a foreign country for a while the question becomes repetitive. Honestly the question isn't so bad as some peoples reactions, and most of the time your the best or your the absolute worst, and some people really don't mind sharing their opinions on your nationality.

I gave him my are-you-kidding-me face and said I know that, but where? He looked so surprised and said North Carolina. Then we talked about the carolinas for a while it was pretty great. We even saw him again later at the Arche de Triumphe. We continued our tour of the Louvre, with walking up tons of stairs to an area of sculptures and another italian painting area.

I saw the sculpture of "dum dum" from "Night at the Museum." We then made our way out in search of lunch.

We continued along the river and then veered off to find a nice quiet sit down place. We found a place and the boys ate MEAT. I believe that was their exact phrase. I had some pizza and we just sat for a while. We planned the rest of the day when we were done. Eiffel Tower, football stadium, and the Arche de Triumphe for the sunset. At this point I am completely exhausted, but its Paris. I kinda just had to get over it.

The Eiffel tower was HUGE, and it looked the same as it does in all the pictures. It was pretty amazing to see in person. We didn't go up because the queue was massive, and we heard it wasn't that big of a deal if you don't have time for it.

The Arche de Triumphe was my absolute favorite part of the whole trip. The sunset was beautiful and it was just really laid back. We walked across the street because we didn't know about the underground situation. We climbed some stairs and then just took pictures and watched the sunset.

We were all pretty tired. It was great! On the way back we walked under the street and then headed home. It was late and I was dead tired.

I am a genius!!!

The Shower Incident

England is cold. It is just a fact of life. Lately it has been semi-warm. The temperature has lingered around 70, which has been a blessing from the Lord for me (seriously). Since Wednesday the temperature has dropped to around 63 or somewhere near there lower when the sun isn't shining plus the wind has kicked up (actually it never died down).

I wake up 6:30 A.M. not super excited about h

aving to drag myself all the way downstairs to take a shower so I can drag myself all the way to the bus stop with wet hair, all the while the wind is blowing like a hurricane off the coast of Florida.

I give in and walk downstairs. Turn the water on and it is just not cutting it for warmth. This is one of those mornings that you would gladly welcome a little sting as long as it meant your bones would warm a little. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but the Button's shower has decided to give in. Let me explain the fixtures are currently temporarily unadjustable. So basically a nice medium warm temperature is picked and thats it. It is unchangeable unless you know where the pliers are, and I don't, and their gone for a while.

(please note the color coordinated kno

bs on top and bottom)

This is fine most days, but today its cold.

There are four handles for water. One hot and one cold for the bottom, which I have no idea why they are there, because there is not tub attached, but whatever. One hot and one cold for the actual shower nozzle up top. I reach down and turn the bottom hot on seeing if I can warm the top water up, and no that was a complete fail. Freezing cold water comes rushing down on my head as I nearly choke myself on the shower curtain trying to get out of the way. This "failure" however has lead to great discovery! So I turn the bottom cold on and then hot water comes out of the top. Just a little too hot if you know what I mean, but as I said before even a little sting is welcome at this point. A small adjustment and its smooth HOT sailing from there on. I am a genius! Hot showers for all. Praise the Lord. I spent the rest of my shower contorting my body as to remain in the hot water, but avoid the ever growing puddle of freezing water at my feet. No worries, it was great adventurous start to the day. I say this with all seriousness. So if ever your shower is being uncooperative just turn on cold water somewhere else. Happy Showering!

Paris Day 1 Saturday July 3rd

Paris is only one of the most amazing places.

I went with Brian and Mac. They are two other interns for CIU. We had a great time. It was stressful, but it was a great adventure! I learned a good bit about myself and about communication. Speaking of communication there are a few things that should be clarified before reading this blog. When I say train I mean above ground and when I say tube I mean underground like subway. Tube change is when you get off of one and move up or down levels to get on another.

(this is what 5a.m. looks like in London)

Starting at 6:50 p.m. Friday, July 2nd it took 1 train, 3 tube changes, and a taxi to get to Gypsy Hill in London to stay with Lenea(another CIU/CLC intern)so I could leave for Paris the next morning. (Thanks Lenea for letting me crash at your place!) Lenea and I ate pretzels and frozen Lasagna, while we giggled about "yankee" stuff. We are both very southern, but in England if your from the states your a yank. Actually we talked about how hot it was. It was 80, I am going to pass out when I get back to South Carolina.

Then Saturday starting at 5:00 it took 1 train, a 4 block walk, 2 tube changes, 1 more tube change (because we got confused), and an airplane to get to Paris. At 12:15 we landed and made our way through customs(which is the new bane of my existence). There was supposed to be a shuttle to take us to the hotel but that fell through (wimps). It then took a train, 2 tube changes, 2 difficult but fun multi-lingualconversations, and a taxi to get to the Best Western, where Mac had been waiting for us for almost 2 hours(it was 4 o'clock by the time we got there)(Sorry Mac). Exhausted and hungry we put our luggage in our rooms and set out to explore Paris, the city of love, and walking. ;)

First on the list of things to do was to FIND FOOD. Looking for a cheap place to eat was a complete fail. We walk into Zeyer, where we find a menu with things listed separately. Thats right we managed to wander into a restaurant that requires you to order every item individually. We ordered appetizers and left. But first we made our waiter translate the entire left side of the menu. Ahh Paris' ;) After we left we walked to the nearest market and bought a sandwich, well I had a baguette and let me tell you it may have been one of the best pieces of bread I have ever eaten in my life.

It is now 6:30 p.m. and what do we do we begin to walk. We wanted to take pictures at the top of Mountparnasse at sunset. Mountparnasse is this ridiculously huge building that allows you to not only see all of Paris, but also allows you to watch the sun set behind the Tour Eiffel.

We found the building then decided to adventure a little before heading up, because the sun sets around 9:30 in Paris during the summer. Turning to leave we noticed guy dressed in full skiing attire with skiing equipment standing on this wall type thing surrounded by his buddies, who had there cameras out. I thought he was going to try to ski down this slightly sloped wall thing he was on. Kodak moment right...WRONG! He started swaying, then he took his gloves off and throw them to various members of the audience, and then unzipping his jacket... It did not take long to figure out just what was going on. At this point I said, "Self I don't think he is doing what you thought he was going to do." Escape! Escape! How do I escape this situation. The wall thing was kind of blocking the exit. I turned my head and walked quickly and Brian says something like, yeah you probably shouldn't look. So that was a fun adventure...haha Ahh Paris'

Moving right a long. We walked around for a while and took pictures of this big building that had a golden dome roof.

I don't think it was a masque, but I actually have no idea what it was. We walked along the river, then headed back to Mountparnasse to watch the sunset and to take pictures of course.

At Mountparnasse we took 900 pictures too many. In all seriousness when your in a place so far away can you really take too many pictures? I think not. There was a beautiful sunset and after it finally set and there was no light to be seen the Eiffel Tower decided to put on a little show of its own. It sparkles at night, did you know that, because I didn't. It was so great!

After mount parnasse we got lost, but got to the hotel around 12:30 and decided to meet in the morning around 9 (I think. I couldn't remember then either. The boys came and got me.)