Study Abroad Shenanigans: Le Tour Eiffel

So Wednesday, school went by fast with only three hours of class. After, we decided to be straight up tourists and head to the Eiffel Tower.

However, before we happily made it to the Tower, of course something went wrong. When we got off the metro, police officers were guarding the gates checking people’s metro tickets. So we got out our navigo pass (our metro pass) and showed it to the lady. And yep, she pulled us aside because we didn’t have our pictures on the pass. Oh yeah, then she explained to us it would be a 30 Euro fine. For not having a picture on our pass. Ohhh yes we were pissed. But whatever, shit happens, right? And we were about to go view the eiffel tower, so it’s cool.

We basically took pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower from every angle. So super sorry about all my Eiffel Tower pics….my ones from my last trip were well…let’s just say disgusting (sorry Kelsey…I mean our pictures together were just great…). So, we took tons. The best part was just laying the grass for a while in front of the Tower. All these Parisians just chill by the Eiffel Tower on a normal day. So yeah, we wanted to feel Parisian.

After, we got crepes. Typical lunch. Which let me tell you, they were fantastic made with nutella and bananas. Also, the guys running the shop thought we were from Sweden because our French was so good…..I mean that works too I guess? They were super surprised to learn Americans could actually speak French. Who would have thought.

Which by the way, my diet here basically consists of four things: bread, cheese, gelato and crepes. I’m 100% okay with this idea. Don’t worry Dad, I’ve been eating fruit too.

On Thursday evening, after suffering through six hours of class again, we decided to climb the Eiffel Tour. And by climb, I don’t mean we took the elevator. We walked. Well, at least to the second level…you can’t walk to the very top (where we did end up taking an elevator). But still, it was over 600 steps. And boy did my feet hurt after that. But, actually walking up the Eiffel Tower has been on my bucket list, since I’ve actually been to the top twice before this. So yes, the reason why we look disgusting in our photos is because we were severely sweating.

Once we got to the top, it was CROWDED. It was super hard to take a good picture, but we somehow managed to. We were tempted to buy the 12 Euro champagne they had at the top of the tower, but decided us poor college kids should not splurge on that. After a little while, the tower began to clear out, so we decided to play some music and sit to just watch the sights of Paris. Yes, people did think we were weird. Actually, one woman applauded us for playing music. All of a sudden, everyone else was gone, so what did we do? Took modeling pics. Normal day for Bianca and Nikki. Until we were told we had to leave…sad day.

We went down and decided to go take a picture on the grass in front of the tower again. All these vendors were coming up to you trying to sell you wine and beer. One guy kept on coming up to us and when we told him no we don’t want it, he called us “bastards.” Which I think he kind of got his English mixed up with bitches vs bastards.

Random thoughts:
1. French people do not wear bright colors. So yes, we stick out like sore thumbs. And for some reason, everyone always knows we’re American. Well besides for that person who thought we were Swedish.

2. The metro stinks. Sometimes like piss. Sometimes like sweat. I feel like even if I take a shower, I’ll still smell no matter what that day.

3. My host mom has a really cute French kitty. Well, she has two but only one of them likes me. For all of you who know my cat obsession, this is a dream come true. I’ve actually fallen asleep cuddling her once.

Study Abroad Shenanigans: Actually STUDYING Abroad.

Okay, so when I departed for this adventure, I may or may have not have forgotten that it actually included STUDYING abroad. That’s right, I’m actually going to school. It’s cool though.

The first day (Monday), it was super difficult to wake up at 7 am to make it to class at 9 am. I guess I’m just used to the whole waking up at 9 am every day since my classes didn’t start until 1 last semester.

Also, we mastered the metro system, even though it’s a 25 minute ride to school. And of course, we couldn’t figure out where the school was from the metro station. Good thing we ran into Gretchen, who recognized us from the study abroad meeting back at UW because she lead us to the school.

Our school is Le Institut Catholique de Paris, and it’s in a cute little neighborhood.

Luckily, we found out we only had to go to school for less than an hour to finish some of the testing, including a speaking and writing test.

After, we wandered off to the Luxembourg Gardens (which is luckily super close to our school) and just sat and enjoyed the weather for over an hour.

We attempted to find a grocery store, but for some reason the one we wanted to go to was closed on a Monday. WEIRD. We found a smaller, super crowed one. Let it be known that French people do not buy in bulk like Americans. This is why these French people are so skinny. I’m pretty sure the cashier thought we were insane for the amount of food we were buying, and it wasn’t even that much on American terms.

And you’d think we’d actually go and do something after that since we’re you know… in Paris. But we were exhausted from the weekend in London so well…we slept all day. And I watched too many episodes of 90210. It’s cool. We have a whole month here!

The next day, we had 6 hours of school. Yes, it does feel like we’re back in high school and no I don’t like it. It’s three hours in the morning and two hours for lunch and three hours in the afternoon on tuesdays and thursdays and three hours in the mornings MWF. So basically, tuesdays and thursday suck. I actually fell asleep in class on Tuesday afternoon…oops. That’s never happened before.

Anyways, my class seems kind of easy so far, we’re just reviewing grammar points (of which i’ve learned 50000 times). We’re also reading a detective book, so you know that’s cool too.

After school, I again passed out and slept. Oops again!

Hopefully, I’ll get more used to this whole school thing. Luckily, we don’t get much homework.

Winning London: Part Two

Sorry, I had to break this post up into two. TOO MANY THINGS TO SAY.

Also sorry this took me a week to post.

The next day (Saturday), we were determined to fit EVERYTHING we needed to finish which included: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Globe Theatre, River Cruise, the London Eye, and oh yeah the Green Day/All Time Low concert. We were super nervous it wouldn’t get done. You’ll have to read on to see if we made it.

First, we woke up bright and early to see the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Which, no, it is not the original globe theatre. There’s been four or five. One burned down, and the freakin’ puritans destroyed another one. This one is a replica of what the globe would have looked like. We got to tour the inside, and some British actors were learning how to enunciate correctly in an outdoor theatre.

After, we ventured over to hop on the boat ride down the Thames River, which was free with our hop on and off bus tour. On our way, we randomly ran into a cute little market, which Bianca claims to have the best sandwich she’s ever had there.

We made it to the boat tour, and of course before I had my first lemon ice cream of the day. For lunch. Normal. We kept on worrying if we had enough time to take the boat ride, literally going back and forth if we should take it. But, I’m super glad we took it. It was a bit chilly, but our tour guide (who claimed he was not a tour guide, but you could tell he was really loving it), explained to us all the random facts of London that you could see from the boat, such as the longest river on the bridge, the construction going on, and why there were lion’s heads on the river bank.

After, we got off to go to on the London Eye, but we couldn’t get on for another hour, so we strolled nearby to Westminster Abbey, aka where Kate and William got married. Oh and also where every king and queen were crowned for the last 1000 years. I mean not cool at all right, right?? The inside of the church was amazing. There were so many crypts of kings and queens, so basically you know we met past monarchs. It’s cool. Of course, I pretended as if I was about to marry Prince Harry, but Bianca claims he’s just never getting married ever. We’ll see about that.

After, I ate my second lemon ice cream cone of the day. It’s cool. And we finally got in line (which was seriously long) for the London Eye (aka that thing Emily the Bachelorette rode on a romantic date last year, so of course we had to do it). Normally, I hate ferris wheel type things. But, I was 100 percent pumped to do this. Did you know the London Eye was only supposed to be up for 3 years, but they’ve kept it because they make thousands of pounds per rotation of the wheel? It’s supposed to be London’s “Eiffel Tower.” While in line, Bianca sat down on one side and waited for me to get to another side because I’m pretty sure her feet were about to fall off. Good thing we still had a bunch of things to do that day…

The view was SPECTACULAR. You could see the tippy top of St. Paul’s Cathedral to Big Ben and Parliament to down the river. Honestly, so worth the money/wait. It seriously wasn’t as scary as it looks at all, and it’s about a 30 minute ride total.

After, we took the bus to go see my childhood dream ever since I saw Mary-Kate and Ashley’s Winning London: Buckingham Palace. Seriously, I was about to pee my pants I was so excited. Fun fact: there are over 700 rooms in the Palace and the Queen hasn’t even been in all of them. Unfortunately, the guards weren’t outside of the gate. Don’t worry, Bianca still yelled a joke at them from behind the gate. I think it kind of worked?

After, we took the metro to a concert. Not just any concert: Green Day and All Time Low!!! Aka my middle school favorite band and my favorite band. Yes, that was the 13th time I’ve seen All Time Low. Yes, I know I have a problem. It’s definitely okay, don’t judge. Anyways, it was the biggest concert I’ve ever been to; over 60,000 people at Emrites Stadium. We got there at 4:30, also the earliest I’ve ever been to a concert and it lasted until 1030. It was the furthest I’ve ever been away from All Time Low. Normally, I’d be the front row fangirl, but instead I was in the nosebleed seats. And sitting. Which was such a relief compared to normally standing until my feet fall off. Of course, they were great. Green Day came on after a British band played, and I got to relive my middle school days. Fun fact: Green Day was the first concert I ever went to 8 years ago in 6th grade. Okay well that makes me feel SUPER old. Anyways, they were amazing and I was surprised the amount of songs i remembered. However, they didn’t play Wake Me Up When September Ends, so we were disappointed. Honestly, it was one of the best shows I’ve been to in a while because Billie Joe was so entertaining. Pretty sure Bianca is now completely in love.

After, it was a complete mess trying to get out of the stadium. It took forever to walk to the tube because of the large crowd. I couldn’t believe the amount of people that were there.

The next day was (sadly) our last day in London. I seriously wish I could go back, there was so many things I still want to do, like the Harry Potter studio tour and museums and parliament…well the list could go on.

We headed out to channel our inner Beatles by traveling to Abbey Road. I grew up listening to, well basically either the Beatles or Queen on repeat, so this was another childhood dream come true. And when I say on repeat, I mean on repeat. I remember we’d always listen to it on our 3 hour drive up North, so this meant a lot to me. So, when we got there, we basically kept on trying to cross to get a good picture. Pretty sure we each crossed like 10 times. Plus we crossed another five together. It actually was just super fun to cross over and over again….we really couldn’t stop.

After, we headed to Hyde Park, where we climbed Primrose Hill (…where of course we shouted Primrose Everdeen….) and we saw a spectacular view of the city. We traveled through the park and got to witness many games of Cricket going on. Basically, it’s a combination of Pickle and Baseball…makes sense.

It was time to leave, and we were basically kind of depressed to leave London. Of course, Bianca forgot to buy a souvenir, so we ran around the train station and finally found a souvenir shop outside of the train station where she decidedly bought a London t-shirt. We also came to the realization that we actually had to go to school the next day… I mean I think we forgot it was called STUDY abroad.
On a final note, that train ride was the most uncomfortable ride ever…we awkwardly had to sit across from random people we didn’t know and they were taking up all the leg room.

OH, yeah almost forgot. There were these kids about our age sitting across from us on the train who may have quite possibly been the most annoying people I’ve ever heard. Direct quote from the American girl, “I bought my dad like this 50 or 60 dollar belt for his birthday because he totally needed a new one, and my mom told me so. Well when i say bought, I used his credit card. And my dad was so mad when he found out it was 50 dollars.” LYKE WUT. Oh and another quote, ” omg my dad is sooooo like embarrassing when he dresses. You know those like boat shoes? He wears SOCKS with them! In the wrong color! And then his belt never matches his shoes. Who does that? It’s so funny.”  OH! and another… “The Only  middle eastern country I’ve been to is Israel.” OH ONLY? So sad for you. I couldn’t stop laughing at whatever came out of this girl’s mouth.

Winning London: Part One

Just a warning, this post may be extremely long. Sorry, your fault for reading a journalism major’s blog.

Basically, I fell in love with London. I don’t think I’ve loved a city more than I loved London. I’ve always wanted to go there, pretty much due to the fact that Mary-Kate and Ashley movie was my favorite as a child.

DAY ONE:

Unfortunately, the main reason why I wanted to go to London was sold out a week in advance before we arrived. What was that reason? Nothing other than the Harry Potter Studio Tour. But, it all turned out okay. I still got to go to Hogwarts at Platform 9 3/4 outfitted in Slytherin attire (which, the guy taking my picture was very surprised I chose Slytherin. It was a Harry Potter nerd fest come true.

We took the train from Paris to London on Thursday. Bianca was expecting the train to be a clear underwater tube so we could see fish. Unfortunately, her dream did not come true. We were just in a dark, noisy tunnel for 20 minutes.

We made it to London at around 10 o’clock their time and (stupidly) decided to walk to find our hostel. Not such a great idea to walk on cobble streets with my rolling suitcase. Good thing Bianca had her giant hiking backpack, which she reminded me I should have brought one….every time I was on the struggle bus with my suitcase.

We finally found our hostel, which we were quite skeptical of at first because, well the word “hostel” just scared us. However, it turned out to be really cool because it was a youth hostel so many other college kids stayed there.

After, we immediately took a two hour scenic  bus ride of the English countryside to Stonehedge. Pretty sure the bus driver thought we were crazy for wanting to see a pile of rocks. But seriously, it was such an amazing thing to see. The rocks have been standing there for thousands of years, placed by humans. And it’s one of the 7 wonders of the world (on most lists), so of course we had to see it.

We planned on going to the London Eye at night so we could be like the Bachelorette, but unfortunately it closed at 8. And we ran into a slight problem where Bianca thought her computer was going to explode back in Paris because she forgot to unplug it. No worries, she didn’t forget to.

We met our roommies, and they were super cool. One girl from the south could immediately recognize we were from Wisconsin because of our accent. Yes, it does exists (well, and she did have a roomie from Wisconsin). Another girl was from Australia, so of course I wanted to talk to her. Pretty sure she might have been my first real Australian I’ve ever met. A different girl we met later….well when she went to bed at 10 and we came in at 12 kinda loud. OOPS. It’s cool.

The next day we went on our tourist excursion of London. AKA, let’s ride the double decker bus and walk until our feet were about to fall off. And yes, I’m pretty sure Bianca’s feet almost did fall off.

We started off with attempting to find where to buy the hop on hop off bus tickets. Surprising, it only took us 15 minutes to find. We hopped on a bus and I felt like Amanda Bynes in What a Girl Wants (obviously before she got crazy). We got off at a stop by where the building they used as the Ministry of Magic for Harry Potter, took a picture, and then found a British guard to take a picture with. Typical. Even more typical, we took a picture in a London phone booth. And yes, it smelt like straight up piss. After, we quickly took a picture by a fountain and threw a penny in the well.

Finally, we hopped on the bus again and went to the heart of Touristic London: Parliament  & Big Ben. Don’t worry, I got the classic selfie with Big Ben. Fun fact of the day: did you know that the tower isn’t actually named Big Ben? It’s the bell inside of it. This was told to us by 3 or 4 different tour guides.

We decided to do something different and go to the War Rooms, where Churchill had all his meetings during WW2. Which was actually pretty cool. And there was a huge Churchill museum…pretty sure  I now know more about Churchill than I ever need to know.

After, we traveled to St. Paul’s Cathedral…aka where Princess Di and Charles were married. Let me tell you, that was an impressive building. We went to the top, and I decided not to go to the very tippytop…somehow I was kind of scared of heights. So, I sat on the balcony outside and waited for Bianca. And waited. And waited. and waited some more. I was freaking out thinking what the hell happened to Bianca. Well, turns out there’s two sides of the balcony, and where Bianca came out of goes to the other sides. So I wasn’t there. Pretty sure we both had heart attacks. It’s cool though we were only lost for like 40 minutes.

After, we made our way to the London Tower. I was about to pee my pants. No, not because I was about to see the Crown Jewels, but because I was about to see my best fran, Caitlin, whom I haven’t seen in 6 months. Of course I ran to her screaming Caitlin. Normal Nikki. It’s cool. Anyways, the castle was super cool. We had a weird tour guide, who we really couldn’t understand much. Embarrassing moment of the day: we decided to leave the tour early and get up out of a church…but the doors wouldn’t open and he exclaimed it to the whole group. OOPS. We then waited in the longest line ever to see the Crown Jewels, but it was so worth it. SO. MANY. DIAMONDS.

Later that night, we decided to do a pub crawl in Camden Town. Basically, it was really fun. I had my first legal drink (…or drinks). We somehow found all the midwestern people in London that night I think. We even found a guy who goes to UW Madison, crazy. Of course, dumb Nikki and Bianca thought it would be a great idea to save money and walk back to our hostel. Nope, we got lost of course. Don’t worry though, we asked nice Londoners where we should go (people are a lot nicer there than Paris. And less sketchy. And speak English). We ended up taking one of those bike taxi things to get home. Which, yes, was quite fun.

THINGS I LEARNED:

1. British guys have weird looking mustaches. But British dads all have shaved heads.

2. McDonalds has waffle fries over there. If this was implemented in the states, I would actually eat at McDonalds (Don’t worry guys, I only ate at McDonalds because I had to pee).

3. Watch out while walking. That whole driving on the other side of the road thing is quite confusing.

4. Yes, you will start talking in a British accent by the end of your trip. It’s perfectly okay.5.

5. Yes, you will feel like Harry Potter

6. Yes, you will want to listen to the Beatles while your over there.

7. Crisps are chips.

STUDY ABROAD SHENANIGANS: Day 1 & 2

Of course, an adventure to Europe featuring Nikki and Bianca wouldn’t be anything without some sort of chaos. And yes, it did start five minutes after we got to the airport. This is how the scenario went:

Bianca-“I think my bag’s like only ten pounds overweight or something, it’s cool.”

Baggage Lady- “Uhm…hun your bag is 25 pounds overweight. That’s a 200 dollar charge.”

Bianca- “WHAT!?”

Luckily, with some maneuvering and shifting some of her stuff, we got the charge down significantly.

We then went on to wait in the O’Hare airport for two hours, took a two hour flight to NYC (where I was tempted to buy a I ❤ NY shirt…), and then waited four more hours for our next flight. Of course WIFI at the airport costs money, so we couldn’t watch our beloved Netflix. Don’t worry, we had Degrassi on our laptops to entertain us.

8 hours on a plane is a long ride. Especially when you’re trapped at the window seat when you’re about to pee your pants and the flight attendants decide to deliver dinner in the slowest way possible. But, it’s okay, we  passed our time by mostly sleeping. And when I mean sleeping, I mean Bianca falling asleep on me and twitching every 15 minutes. And yes, she did fall asleep once on the cute little old French lady sitting next to us on the plane.

Of course, right off the airplane we ran into troubles trying to find our driver to take us to our host mom. Obviously our French was just too good for him to understand…

We finally arrived to our house we will be staying in for the next five weeks with Caroline, our host mom. Luckily, I can understand her French perfectly. PHEW. The apartment is cute, with a balcony full of what used to be flowers because her cats keep eating them. OH YEAH THAT’S RIGHT. She has cats. NIKKI’S DREAM COME TRUE…FRENCH CATS! I’ve made quite the friend with the little orange one. I’m starting to teach her English.

I was so tired, I fell asleep twice today. JETLAG!

But, in the night, we mastered the Metro and found our way to Les champ elysees. I say getting there and back was our biggest accomplishment of the day.

THINGS I LEARNED TODAY:

1. Depressingly, Netflix is not available in France 😦

2. We definitely look like idiot tourists. It’s cool though. We rock that map of Paris.

3. The metro isn’t as complicated as it seems….but of course dumbass nikki and bianca couldn’t figure out how to get the ticket in the machine. Americans. Don’t worry, we made it to L’Arch de Triomphe.

4. French people actually do walk around with huge baguettes. stereotype proven

5. My French accent sucks.

6. Waiters get surprised when you tip them 3.50..then when you realize that’s actually a lot more in Euros. Got to get out of this american money idea.

ALRIGHT, peace out. Gotta go sleep, we’re winning London tomorrow! (:

6 Years Later

European Excursions

6 years later and a lot cuter, after years of French classes together, we’re headed to Paris!

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