The French Life

Our Hostel

The view from our hostel

Notre Dame!

yummy French meal.

bahahaha being silly!

Obama's Motorcade!!

Notre Dame

Biking in the Louvre!

Cool French bikers that did cool tricks!

Inside the Louvre

Eiffel Tower at Night:)

It all started at 4 in the morning. We loaded the Coach (the bus) at the crack of dawn...maybe even before that. My stiff, non-adjusting seat on the coach soon became my point of refuge for the following 8 hours! I thought we would never reach our destination...until FINALLY we reached the English Channel. We took the Chunnel through the English Channel and that was pretty cool. The Chunnel is a railroad tunnel under the English Channel between Great Britain and France. After arriving in France we drove to our hostel! It was in a location that was pretty much in the middle of everything; i loved it! Later that night after checking out Notre Dame, eating dinner and roaming in downtown Paris...we headed straight to the Eiffel Tower for our bike tour. This bike tour was AMAZING!!! Our guide was from Texas and that made things even more interesting. We rode our bikes all through Paris...little did we know what was about to happen next.

OBAMA was in Paris during the same time we were! The crazy thing was that while we were riding our bikes on the streets, HUGE crowds of people began to line the streets and so many police started to direct traffic. They ordered us off of the streets but somehow our bike guide talked the police into letting us zoom through the streets. We had every bit of the streets to ourselves and it was like a high speed chase because we had to pedal like our lives depended on it. We were forced to rush in order to get off the streets before Obama came. It was awesome!! Our adrenaline was pumping and people lined on the streets were even cheering for us!! In the end we got to see Obama's motorcade. We all screamed for him...even the people in our group that couldn't stand Obama. I think it was because we were Americans in France and taking politics out of the picture...we were all so proud of that. The French embraced our President like he was a god or something. I had never been so proud :)

The next day my friend Rachel and I went to the market. It was so neat!!! All the stores brought their goods to the streets. Fruit, jewelry, clothing and just everything you could imagine. There was a band performing and the French people clapped along and let their children dance in the streets. I felt like I could live there and go to the market every week. It was wonderful! I bought a couple of things for my family and friends...I even bought one shirt for myself :) It was such a great experience.

The next day we went to Bayeux, France. It was a small, wealthy town next to Normany. We stayed in a hotel there and as a group took a tour of the DDay Memorial and Normandy Beaches. It was AMAZING. Although I did not cry...the experience was very emotional. The people of Normandy are incredibly appreciative of the American soldiers. They wave American flags throughout the town.

I'll post pictures of Bayeux later.

Now I am back in Oxford...and I must say...it honestly feels like home.

Crepes, Kabobs, FRANCE oh mY!

Yesterday and today were pretty laid back. I feel so comfortable in this town and I honestly feel like I could live here. The grass is so green. I know thats random but everything is just so green and healthy here. Also, I promise you I have not seen any overweight people here--everything is just so interesting and different!

Last night my friends and I went to a creperie near our house. I gained 12 pounds just looking at it. It was the most flaky, sweet, delectable slice of heaven I had ever tasted! No Lie!!! I tried extremely hard to eat it slowly and enjoy every little morsel :) It was drizzled with warm chocolate and lightly sprinkled with almonds. Inside was a dip of vanilla icecream. I had no shame as I devoured my crepe like a ravenous beast haha! We all did...I looked to my right and my left to make sure my friends were still alive and breathing because neither of us talked for a good 5 minutes! Yeah, it was that good.

Today, my friend Alise and I ate chicken kabobs. Now, these weren't the type of kabobs that are on skewers in America...no, no! In England they call these chicken wrap things kabobs. They were this pita bread with marinated chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, and this ketchup-like sauce. Amazing! It only cost about 3 pounds and we got it from a street vendor. So good :)

Everything is just so much more expensive here. The pound is worth like twice as much as the dollar. So if something costs 3 Pounds here....its pretty much 6 dollars in US! It can get pretty doggone expensive, too! I had $100 and only got 52 Pounds for it...I nearly cried!!!

Right now it is 11:15pm here and 5:15pm in America! We will be leaving at 5am for PARIS,FRANCE in the morning!! I am so excited!! We will also visit Normandy, France and go on a couple of tours. This will be such an amazing experience! We won't get back until Wednesday!

I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures when I return!

Ciao!

Silly Americans...:)

Living the Oxford Life

$$ Money Money Money MONAYYYY haha $$

Exhausted after a long day!

Me and Alise!!

Church nearby our house.

Why, hello there!

Mmm Mmm Good!

Downtown Oxford! I love it

It always interesting receiving the, "Oh, you're just stupid Americans" glare. My friends and I were wondering if we actually look like Americans... you know, like have a stereotypical American look. Who knows? All I know is that I do my best to not really stand out...unfortunately that's been a struggle when I'm taking pictures of EVERYTHING haha. Now don't get me wrong, its not like I wear a big T-shirt that says, "I LOVE BUSH" with American flag themed sandals and a crocheted American flag belt!! People I've encountered initially stared at me a little funny and smirk at my accent. Funny thing is that I was smirking at their accents too!

This morning I went to my Business Statistics class. It was pretty cool...until I started zoning out due to lack of sleep/jet lag. It was terrible because I felt like I was just a zombie! In addition to this class, today I found out which company I'm going to be working with for the summer. I'm going to be doing marketing research for A.C. Nielsen (http://www.nielsen.com/). This will be awesome!!

Today Rachel, Alise and myself walked over 5 miles!! I promise you we've walked close to 15 miles since we've been here...and we clearly have not been here that long! Here in Oxford we walk absolutely everywhere! There is an open market nearby but most of the shopping centers are like a mile away. That means that once we walk up there...we have to walk the treacherous walk back. I've never walked to so much in all of my life haha. I'm telling you I'm gonna come back to the States like 15 pounds lighter haha.

After grabbing groceries, my friends and I decided to roam the busy streets of Oxford...alone! DUN DUHH DAHHHHH haha. It was so fun! I felt all free and independent :) While meandering, we came across a cool Malaysian noodle bar called Makan La! It was pretty different...like the food wasn't extremely seasoned or anything like that. It was tasty, though. Afterwards we walked further and found a secret pub that J.R. Tolken and C.S. Lewis use to meet up at! It was so neat :) This one guy asked us...in his strong English accent, "Are you in the queue?" haha We blankly stared at him until Rachel was like, "Ummm, we're American!" Then, in a forced American accent he smiled and said, "Are you in the LINE?" We all laughed and we told him where we were from. He seemed so fascinated by us! We chatted and it turns out he has always wanted to visit Austin, Texas!!! After talking with him, we left and we just hung out and talked for what seemed like hours. It was so relaxing.

Ta Ta For Now ;)

Pictures to Commemorate haha:)

My First Day in England!...I Had Jet Lag in Most of These Pictures... & I Will NEVER Forget:)
Every picture after the "Mind Your Head" one is from Oxford, England! Check it out!

Where we live on Cantebury Road! Such cute Victorian homes:)

My extra, cool roomate and co-worker: Rachel!

Shrunken heads!!! So cool haha :)

Jet LAG!!

So, maybe I should not have stayed up until 4am the night before my flight to London. Hey, don't give me that look like its common sense or something...I was so excited and nervous that I just could not sleep. Like some sick version of insomnia/ worry-wart syndrome. (Some of you are googling worry-wart syndrome right now haha)

It REALLY bothers me that when I went to sleep last night it was ultra bright outside (even though it was like 9:30 p.m.)...and right now its ultra bright outside (even though its about 5 a.m.). I'M SO THROWN OUT OF WACK AND I'M GOING CRAZY! I mean seriously??? Why can't it just be dark outside? Then I wouldn't be up right now...extra awake and confused. Well, now that I think about it, I have been sleeping for a good, hefty 8.5 hours!! Sounds great to me!

When we left the States it was 5:30 p.m. but after our 9 hour flight (and barely getting any sleep on the flight) we arrived there at 2:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m. London time). Instead of allowing us to go to sleep...our leaders STRONGLY encouraged us to fight the jet lag and stay awake...so we did. I didn't end up going to sleep until 9:30 p.m. London time!!! Do you see what happened?? haha I was awake for like 2 days lol...well, technically??? I'm so confused!! Well, here are some random pictures to commemorate my first days in England! ENJOY :)