Home

It has been a month and it is odd to be home now. I keep referring to a poem that my professor from my Victorian art and Society class gave to us.

Ulysses by Lord Alfred Tennyson

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink 

Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed

Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those 

That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when 

Through scudding drifts the rainy 

Hyade Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name; 

For always roaming with a hungry heart 

Much have I seen and known; cities of men 

And manners, climates, councils, governments, 

Myself not least, but honoured of them all; 

And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. 

I am a part of all that I have met; 

Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough 

Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades

For ever and for ever when I move. 

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 

To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! 

As though to breathe were life. 

Life piled on life Were all too little, and of one to me 

Little remains: but every hour is saved 

From that eternal silence, something more, 

A bringer of new things; and vile it were

For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 

And this grey spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge like a sinking star, 

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

Paris

Well I'm sorry this is a little late, but its a VERY BUSY time. I think I'd like to tell the next post a story.
Once upon a time there was a girl named Alex who decided that she wanted to go to Paris, but with little money and little time she found more of an adventure ahead of her. Originally she planned to go with her flat mates, but they had "too much work" to do unfortunately. So with bus tickets already booked she decided to take an adventure with herself. On thursday the 11th of April Alex went to the bus station and boarded a 9:30pm bus to Paris. The bus stopped in the middle of the night and she had to take a ferry across the channel. At around 9am the bus arrived, immediately Alex found the metro got a ticket and started zooming across the city by their subway system. She made it to the hostel checked in and put her stuff in a locker. None of her time would be wasted so she ventured off to the Musee D'Orsay. She waited on a long que, but got in for free thanks to her visa, all residents of the European union under 26 or (students) get in for free! The girl who loved art so much could not have been happier. The main reason she came was free. The musse d'orsay had all of her favorite impressionist painters. She was taken by a few piece by Vincent van Gogh like L'talienne, La Nuit etoilee, Roses et anemones, mademoiselle Gachet dan son jardin a auver sur oise, Leslie's d'auver sur oise cue du chevelet(which was a painting that was in a doctor who episode). She also loved the paintings by Emile Bernard, Moisson au bord de la mer, La moisson, madeline au Bois d Amour. Painting she smiled at were George Seurat's Cirque and Henri De Toulouse-Lautec's Rousse and Le Lit, as well as Edward Degas drawings of dancers. She was taken by Paul Signac's La Demolisseur, Entree Du port de La Rochelle, La voile verte and Courbet's giant paintings. There was just so many beautiful paintings in such a little space.
After her journey through the museum she went to meet up with Katie, a cousin of the lovely Kartzmer family who she held so fairly dear. She got a panni which she had trouble ordering because Alex spoke no french, but Katie growing up her whole life in France, was able to order for them. After lunch they ventured to the Lourve which was probably the biggest museum that Alex had ever been to, they saw many famous works of art like the Venus di Milo, and Mona Lisa. It was vey beautiful and impressive the whole museum. After the Lourve they went to recharge and get coffee. Then they went to the Notre Dame, the home of the hunch back of Notre Dame and those famous gargoyles.
Alex said goodbye to Katie, because she had soccer practice and went exploring the 850 year old building. It was a very beautiful church and a mass was going on while Alex looked around. The stain glass was breath taking.
After that the girl went to the hostel to have dinner by herself. The hostel was crowded and some French guys started hitting on her, until her burger came. Then a nice Brazilian woman who was traveling by herself suggested she go check out the eiffel tower with her and her new Brazilian man friend. Alex did and enjoyed making new friends very much so. Alex got to see the beautiful eiffel tower light up at night. Alex did not know about the light show, and was completely caught by surprise when the giant landmark started sparkling. Her face could only be compared to a five year olds on christmas morning. PURE JOY. As first days in Paris go it was not too shabby.


The next day Alex took a walking tour of paris met a few new friends. The tour guide reminded her of an old friend and funny enough he was a Laguardia High School Alumni. (A fellow new yorker) The tour was very informative and very gruesome. Even just from the French revolution we know that France's history is a bloody one. After the tour which showed streets that would remind you of a midnight in paris, Alex got french onion soup at a bistro. After warming up and having some soup Alex went with her new friends to visit Oscar Wilde and Jim Morison's grave in a huge famous grave yard. Then they went to see the outside of Moulin Rouge. Alex then met up with the family friend Katie got savory crepes for dinner

The next day Alex full filled her long held dream of going to see the place of versailles. She had learned a lot about it in World History class in high school. She wanted to see its grandeur in real life. The hall of mirrors was interesting.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was interesting to say the least. There was a club called "The Church." So I was able to tell everyone back home that I went to Church on Easter Sunday. It was in the middle of the day and everyone dressed up it was rather silly. I will say being in England for Easter is really great though. Cadbury chocolate eggs? Cadbury chocolate egg mcflurries? COULD YOU WANT ANYTHING ELSE?

Steven wore his mask from venice and Linda dressed as a bunny  

Charlie I and Linda dressed our easter bunny selves

The stage was huge. This is the Church. 

House of Lords

I'm a very lucky lady. I had the most wonderful opportunity to actually get a tour and eat in the house of lords! As part of my internship, we were invited to dine at the house of lords with the very gracious Lord Fraser who just so happens to also be a president for the charity I have been interning at. Working at Attend.org.uk has been a wonderful experience and by far one of the best parts of my abroad experience. I have learned so much about the culture. BUT ANYWAY back to the fantastic trip to the house of Lords. We weren't allowed to take pictures but of course that didn't stop yours truly.

The hall was beautiful it reminded me of the ceiling from harry potter

The ceiling beams are just so gorgeous

Here is in fact the house of lords 

Fun fact I learned is that the house of lords is red so wherever you go the seats and details are red, but once you go to the house of commons everything is green. So remember house of lords red, house of commons green.

After the visit we took a photo outside with Lord Fraser from left, Ryan, Cam, Lord Fraser, Ewart and I

The Attend Gang From left Me, Cam, Ewart, and Ryan

Of course an embarrassing cold selfie with Big Ben

Taking the Bus

After our lunch we decided to go enjoy the bumper cars across the thames river since were weren't needed back at the office there was a great arcade and bumper cars next to the London Eye.

Madrid

We arrived in Madrid in late afternoon. I slept most of the rainy train ride, though I did enjoy watching the Iron Lady in Spanish for a bit, and writing out postcard to some loved ones. Once in Madrid we found our way to some paella, because honestly Sarah and I became addicted because it is the most amazing meal. It is salty and a little spicy and delicious. We met a lovely canadian and spanish couple. The spaniard he met his wife when he was studying in canada. She still hasn't learned spanish but they still come to spain every now and then. I really would love to have that life, marry a spaniard and get to come to spain every year or couple of years. I really have fallen in love with Spain, the food, the dancing and music, and the naps! There really is so much to love. After lunch we checked in at our hostel which really wasn't the best but had a nice location right next to the palace. Katie Adrian then came to meet up with us and we got churros and hot chocolate to dip it in. Then we went to look at the market and Katie showed us around a bit of Madrid she likes. We then met up with some friends in her program, and had some drinks. The next day Sarah and I went walking around Madrid we got breakfast and I had the torrtia which is basically a spanish omelette which was very delicious. Sarah got the fried potato which came in this really delicious sauce that tasted like the sauce paella comes in. We tired to go to a couple of museum but found them to be rather expensive. We went through the park. It was unfortunately raining but it was still lovely to walk around and see the arch! For lunch around 2pm we met up with my friend Diana. We walked around Madrid with her as well and got Churros at this famous place. It was VERYYY delicious best churros diped in chocolate I've had in my entire life. Then we went to the museum saw Picasso's famous painting called the Guernica. It was magnificent. I really have a new appreciation for Picasso and for Dali. I enjoy their artwork. After the museum we got more paella and sangria for dinner. We took a nap then took our plane back home to very cold not so sunny London.

Alicante

Alicante was wonderful. Sarah and I arrived by train the first day. We were a little disheartened when was saw that it was raining, but we soldiered on. The bed and breakfast said that we would be able to a bus easily from the train station, but we couldn't even find a bus stop. So we decided to walk there because Alicante isn't too big of a city it is very easy to walk through it. We got a great deal on meal which was three courses and a glass of wine for only 9 euros. I got a kind of fish soup, which reminded me a little of noodle and manhattan clam chowder. It was really delicious. I then had steak and chips. I had a delicious red wine. We had flan for desert which was very good. After lunch we made our way to the bed and breakfast which was right next to a beautiful church and across from a museum. Even in the rain, Alicante was a gorgeous city. The buildings are brightly colored. They are yellow, pink, orange, many colors of the sunset. Our B&B was lovely and was very cheap per night, it had heating and air conditioning a tv and gave us towels as well as a lovely rooftop breakfast, but we'll get to that later. After checking into the B&B Sarah and I got lost wondering the city streets. We went into a gallery and admired the street art. A lot of the places were closed because it was raining, and they decided not to reopen after siesta. That night per Jackson's recommendation we went to a restaurant called Miami. It was near the beach. I got a pasta dish which oddly enough had an egg over easy on top. Jackson Chauncey, and Chauncey's sister Audrey met us after dinner for drinks at around 9:30. We went to this cute cafe place and got delicious sangria. It was so great to see them. They looked amazing glowing, and Jackson looked so natural in Spain, their spanish was so good. I was very impressed. They had class the next day so, Sarah and I woke up to a beautiful sunny Alicante. We had breakfast (which was toast with cheese and ham) on the roof of our bed and breakfast. We had a great view of the castle and church. It was so sunny and beautiful out I wore just leggings and a tank top with my cardigan (IN MARCH!). After we went to walk on the beach and enjoyed the sun. We met up with Chauncey and her sister and got some gelato, she showed us around alicante and the market place told us some of the history of spain and alicante, about the dictator there during WWII and how there were bombings in the market killing lots of civilians (not a happy story really). I got some delicious Valencian oranges there though, Sarah got some fresh strawberries which were delicious as well. After leaving Chauncey so she could go to lunch we got some delicious chicken paella and wine. We then took a nap, then sat on the beach to get our toes in the sand. Later we met up with Chauncey, Audrey and Jackson for drinks with some of their friends from there program. We were able to get buckets of beers which was rather lovely. We then said our goodbyes and then in the morning after having our rooftop breakfast set on a train to Madrid.

Barcelona

Sarah and I arrived in Barcelona in the evening. We walked along La rambla street. We got a little lost but eventually found our way to our amazing hostel, called "the Hipstel" (which is a play on hostel and hipsters) It was a beautiful old spanish architecture building, and our room had old spanish tiles for the stairs to our private room which was nice. After we got our room settled we went to meet up with Megan and Christina. We all went to a bar called Mojito rocks, which had the best mojito I have ever had. The next day Sarah and I did some walking around. We tried to meet Megan and Chrisitna at the market off la rambla but it was unfortunately closed on sunday. We walked in the gothic bari district saw some beautiful architecture. We walked over towards the ocean. We got some tapas and sangria which was delicious our waiter spoke english and flirted with Christina, who had the same name has his wife. We tried Manchego cheese which was delicious. I ordered muscles which were very good. After lunch we walked along the pier and got some chocolate covered churros. They were also very good. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for the Picasso museum because its free after 3pm on Sundays. We went to the park and saw a beautiful fountain, and a wolly mamouth statue. Finally we got to the picasso museum which had an amazingly long line. It was great to see Picasso's early work though. He was a very talented 15 year old. Sarah and I then went on a pub crawl that night and made two new friends from the hostel. Roy who was from Israel and booked this trip last minute, and Saul who was from Mexico, but wast studying in France. We went to a club called Opium they had chocolate fondue. There was a saxophonist who played some big hits and was very talented. The next day Sarah and I went to Park Guell, which is easily now my new favorite place in the world. It was absolutely gorgeous you could see all of Barcelona from up there, and it was gorgeous, it reminded me of doctor Seuss. It was so colorful. Then we went to the Sagrada familia, which they were unfortunately doing construction on. I loved it though from what I saw, because it looked like the sand drippy castles I used to make with my dad when I was a kid. By that point Sarah and I were starving so we got lunch at Barcelona's famous sandwhich place, called Bo de B. The sandwhiches were amazing. Once we had the sandwhiches we walked over towards la rambla and the plaza there. We went to the bocadillo market and got freshly squeezed mango and orange juice. It was delicious. I went to a book store to look for a book for my mother but had no luck finding it. After that we went back to the hostel and joined the spanish culture in taking a siesta(nap). After that we met up with Roy and Saul for dinner, and then went to Chupitos which had different types of crazy shots. They would light them on fire and everything. It was exciting. The next morning Sarah and I took a train to Alicante.