I want to do this more often.....

I'm rather disappointed with myself for not updated this silly thing more often! However, I just had a good day and decided I'll write a short and sensible post :) I met up with Leda this afternoon to walk around and such, and we ended up buying a few things since the sales in France are ending soon! It's been a love hate relationship with the sales... I LOVE them because I can buy 3 shirts and a dress for less than 13 euros <3 and I also HATE them because it makes me spend more money.

So! Vacation is coming up in February. Leda and I have bought bus tickets to Amsterdam in the Netherlands! Our bus and hostel for the 21-27 cost us only about 170 euros. It should be a fabulous trip and I'm very excited for it :) There are a few excursions as well going on through the school such as St. Malo, Dinan, Loire Valley, Versailles, and one that's going on a tour through Bretagne I think.

<3 And here are some photos of my favorite purchases of the day <3 The first two are of a coin purse I got, which is absolutely super!



It's an address book! The gold "sim card" is shiny and everything :) It's super cute!

How cute are these clothes? They were 3 euros each!!! Love France..... And this makes me wish Spring were here :) Good thing the weather has been much nicer. Though it's still Brittany and it rains constantly.

Well I hope you're happy with my short post! I'll update more often now, I promise!

Crazy Winter Vacation

Ok, so I know it's been a long time since I've updated this poor little thing, but I think it's about time I do it again. Last day of classes at Cirefe was December 18th. I woke up and it had snowed overnight... joy! Rennes was covered in about an inch or two of snow and the buses were refusing to drive anywhere. After waiting for about ten minutes some kind lady informed all of us waiting at the bus stop that we had to walk to the metro to get anywhere. I was about 15 minutes late for class and there was only 8 of us in there watching a movie. My Etude de la Langue class had more students but still some couldn't make it due to not living close enough to a metro stop (like poor Jenn).

I left to go to Ireland on the 19th, the day after classes ended :) I flew into Dublin and had a tough time getting to my hostel, I actually had to get a taxi after a long while. The next morning I took a train into Galway which is on the west coast. Galway was a lot of fun :) I arrived on Sunday and walked around a lot and got used to the layout of the city, which is very very small. I went on two tours: Monday I went to Connemara and Tuesday I went to the Cliffs of Moor. They were both very beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect for them, except for because of the slushy roads there were several parts of the tour that we couldn't drive to that day. I met two girls from Colorado on my Monday tour and ended up hanging out with them for the day. When we got back to Galway, we played a game of Monopoly and went out to an Italian place for dinner. After that we went back to their hostel and picked up a group of Australians, who were staying in the same room as them, and we all went out to a pub to watch some live Irish music. The band was fantastic and on the last song the guy playing the Tin Whistle got up and started river dancing :) Tuesday morning I agreed to wake up early with them and walk down to the pier to take photos of the sunrise. They were some of my favorite photos of the whole trip!

Wednesday I left Galway and took a train back to Dublin where Stephen picked me up and we drove around the city. Him and Karen always tell me really great stories and I love talking with them :) So, Christmas was fantastic! We went to Greg's house for dinner, that's Stephen's brother. He cooked the whole thing and it was absolutely delicious! I got so many sweets that I will be eating them for several months haha. The rest of the week was really stress-free and relaxing. We were snowed in pretty bad, so I didn't get to see anything but I don't mind at all because it was just nice to sit back and watch movies with my cousins :)

After that, I flew back to Paris where I stayed the night in a hostel since Mike was arriving the next morning! I woke up with pink eye... awesome! I just didn't touch it at all and when I did I washed my hands and thankfully it went away almost completely by the next night and then entirely the morning after. Mike and I were standing across the room from each other for about half an hour without noticing... I was getting really anxious because it had been a long time since his flight landed and I showed up super early so I knew I didn't miss him come through the doors. I called him to confirm the gate and through some mis-communication we both thought the other was still making it to the gate however we were both there haha. Oops! I saw him though and ran over :) We made it back to our hotel and relaxed a little while while we decided what to do that day. We went to walk around Luxembourg Gardens but the gate had closed already and it was starting to rain, so we just walked around for a while and found a place to get an early dinner. We went to the Louvre before going back to the hotel and actually bought some tickets half-price off of a couple that were cheaper anyway since we were going in after 6pm. The Louvre was awesome :) I'm glad that in spite of seeing all of these things for the 4th time or more, it was almost like seeing it for the first time since Mike was there. All this was new to him and that made everything much more exciting to see and show him :)

The next day was New Year's Eve. We got into the city and walked around Montmartre and up to Sacre-Coeur, to the windmill, and the shops area. We got lunch at the Hippopotamus restaurant by the Gare du Nord :) We went to the Eiffel Tower as it was getting dark and saw it lighting up while we were underneath it. My time in Paris with Mike was full of firsts actually... we did a lot of things I'd never done before, which made me very happy. We walked up the stairs together and it was surprisingly empty which was nice :) so we could take our time and take photos. I've never been on the Eiffel Tower when it is lit up before so we took a lot of photos of the lights, although it was foggy so it was hard to see the top level. We walked around the Champs-Elysee to waste time until midnight and ended up sitting in a Brioche-Doree because it was so cold. We waited right by the Arc de Triomphe for midnight. Apparently the count down isn't a big thing here because all of a sudden it was midnight and people were kissing and setting off street bought fireworks. There wasn't a fireworks display except for what people were setting off every now and then, which was slightly disappointing but the night was a ton of fun anyway!

The next morning we got up early to pack and go see the Notre Dame before our train left for Rennes. We walked around it and then sneaked in the exit since we didn't have time to waste standing in line haha. I think Mike liked it a lot :) He's really interested in architecture so he was really loving the churches and the way they are built. When we got to Rennes we dropped off some stuff at my apartment and he met my host family. Odile was being very nice and even spoke English to him - I didn't even know she knew English haha. We struggled finding Marie's apartment, she's the librarian at the Franco-American Institute, but eventually we found it. Saturday morning we went to the market and had lunch at a creperie :) We met up with Leda, Ben and Marie (his girlfriend) for dinner and then came back to the apartment to play some cards! Sunday I took Mike to see Mont Saint Michel which I think was his favorite part about his trip here haha. It was one of the only things he decided he wanted to see before he came, so I knew we had to get it done while we were in Rennes. We just caught a bus in the afternoon up and it happened to be free entry that day :) When we got back we just relaxed and watched movies and played our DS and PSP. He gave me a DS for xmas and two games for it :) as well as some other things...!

I'll publish England and Ireland in another post tomorrow, this is getting too long!

Ireland is magnificent!!!

I arrived in Dublin yesterday morning. We had to get up at 2:45 am to walk to the bus stop to take a bus to a bus station, and then took another bus to the airport, ran to board the plane on time, plane was delayed a few minutes, landed in Ireland, took a bus from the airport into the city, and then crashed and got breakfast. We had to walk around with our luggage the whole day but it was still fun. We walked a ton and we felt like we were hit by a truck at the end of the day.

At 4pm we waited to meet up with my second cousin Karen who lives here about an hour and a half away from Dublin. I'm almost glad she doesn't live in the city, because I miss the countryside. Her house is still being built but it's absolutely huge and so far it is gorgeous. She has one of those big old stoves that is surrounded by brick and that's what heats the house at night. Last night was the best I've slept since coming here, and I wish I could just live here and finish my studies here instead of France. I don't really miss France that much! All I want to do now is plan the rest of my travels... I want to go to so many places!!! We're in a library right now just checking emails and stuff and then we're on our way to go to Trim to walk around and visit a couple of castles. I'm excited to come home and upload all of my photos because I've been getting some really good ones. I'm getting more used to my camera and everyone has been telling me that my photos look great :)

So the last night we were in London, Wednesday night, we went on two tours. Firstly we went on a Beatles tour around 2pm and walked around and visited all the places that were important to the band. Paul McCartney's studio, the studio where they recorded Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, where John Lennon met Yoko Ono, another studio where they recorded most of their other songs that is on Abbey Road. We got our photos taken on Abbey Road but it was very hard because the cars refused to stop and wait for all of the people there. I think if you don't like the tourists THAT much then you should just try to drive a different way because they were being very rude and honking and yelling at everyone for simply trying to cross a crosswalk. We also went and saw the building where they played their last show on the roof. That was especially neat because it was such an important moment for them.

After that we went on a Jack the Ripper tour. That was verrry cool and I was proud of myself because I actually knew most of the information that the tour guide was telling us. The tour was at night as well, so the eeriness was enhanced because it was dark and the street lights were glowing. First we walked by Tower Hill, a place where a lot of executions took place, including the execution of the Duke of Normandy who had the worst executioner in history. He payed the executioner to try his best to cut his head off in one blow, and it ended up taking 4 or five tries, and the first one missed his neck completely, slicing at his scalp instead. I could go on for a long time about this because I absolutely love the history of London :) I'm such a nerd!

After that we saw the London Bridge, the Tower of London, and the entrance to the underground transportation system they used which is where they ended up burying hundreds of thousands of people who died from the black plague. We saw where all of the five Ripper murders took place and he explained in detail how each of them occured. You should look it up because it's very gruesome and I don't want to go into too much detail about it :)

After the tour was over we ended up at the Ten Bells pub!!!! Which as everyone knows is where everyone went for a drink and Jack the Ripper most likely drank there many times. The bathrooms are pretty much a shrine to him; the women's room was covered in graffiti in his honor. It was very crowded inside but I got a few nice photos of the place. They even served absynthe there but I was not about to try any!

Time to go now! I'll update again when I get home with photos :)

XXXDiane

London Bridge is Falling Down....

So unfortunately this will be short since I have only ten minutes left on this computer, and then I'm going up to my room to sleep! I'm in London right now with Nicole M. We arrived on Monday and are staying until Thursday morning (6am) and then we're flying to Dublin for three days and then we have class on Monday. I still have 4 or 5 midterms left I think so I'm not looking forward to going back to school.

Our hostel here is great. It's called the Generator, and the whole place looks like a big club. All of the rooms are covered with blue neon lights all over the walls and ceilings and there are five huge rooms to hang out in. There's a restaurant kind of thing that serves cheap meals, and even a bar area that looks like a dance club. Our room is pretty comfortable and the bathrooms are super clean.

I went on a tour of London today for free and my tour guide was mad hilarious. I want him to be my friend haha in a non creepy kind of way! Tomorrow I'm going on a Jack the Ripper tour!! Super excited and I'll update again later :) and then again when I get to Rennes with photos.

Peace!

Merlin's Forest!!!!

Here is the wiki in case you're curious! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broceliande_Forest I think everyone should at least know a little about the legends before they look at my pictures, because it is absolutely amazing!

So it was last Saturday that we went, and I'm just now getting around to writing about it... oops! We went and visited Broceliande, which is the forest in Brittany, France that all the legends of Merlin and King Arthur take place in. It was gorgeous and I can't wait to go back! There are many different parts to the forest, and we visited the smallest, but our guide also said it was the most mysterious :) It is called the Valley of no return... oooooo We did end up returning though. And afterward we all went back to Ben's apartment and made oven pizzas... delicious!!!!!

I have to keep this short though because I have to get some dinner and I'm meeting Jenn and Leda at Gaumont to watch Hotel Woodstock. I am absolutely loving that we get reimbursed for films! I've seen like 10 in the month and a half that we've been here... that's a lot for me haha

The movie was amazing! The whole time Leda and I were like, "aww I wish I was alive back then so that I could go!" I just realized though that the movie title is different, I think the English title is "Taking on Woodstock".

Cows and Things

Today I got this sweet picture in an email from my sweet friend Josh who thought of me.