Hello to whoever is awesome enough to be reading this! You are beautiful.
It's been a while since my last update so prepare yourself for a big post. Ready? Here we go!
Day Thirty-Two:
Wednesday, June 4th
Today I had to wake up at an abominable hour to get to the train station on time. My alarm went off and my reaction was something like this:
But, I made it and soon, our class was in Belgium!!! We arrived in Bruxelles and let me tell you, this place is fantastic!!! Here are a few pictures of the city:
It was so lovely there! And the weather was uncharacteristically warm so we got lucky there too!
One funny story I learned about is that of Town Hall in the middle of the Grand Place in Bruxelles. For some reason, this building was constructed extremely off center. According to legend, the architect was so horrified when he realized his mistake that he decided to jump off the top of the building. I thought this was a little sad until I saw the building and I have to admit, it's pretty embarrassing:
That's not just a little error...look at how far the door is to the left! How exactly does one do something like that?!? I'd probably die of shame too.
On a happier note, we saw the famous Manneken Pis. He was all dressed up and literally peeing in his excitement to see me:
Charming.
I also discovered that Belgium has delicious food. For one, this country was the real inventor of French Fries. For some reason, France just got the credit for it. But yes, Belgium's fries are incredible. And of course, the Belgium waffles were life changing. Check them out:
I know what you're thinking right now:
They were so dang good....but I think the store next to this waffle shop was a little resentful, because it stuck this sign up:
After walking around town for a bit, we all went to the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. There was some cool Flemish art there, if you're into that sort of thing.
This guy is the original ugly-cat-sweater-dude. Good on him.
Afterwards, we got on a train and headed to Bruges where we had dinner and spent the night. Dinner was awesome...I ended up laughing until I cried over how wonderfully ridiculous my friends were being. We then headed back to our hotel, where we all played a game which comprised of making a person blast a song on their iPod, put their headphones in, put a sheet over their head (so they can't hear or see anyone), and then sing along as loud as possible. I sang Call Me Maybe. It has been recorded but there is no way in hell I'm letting that video hit the Internet. Sorry everyone! There's only so much public humiliation I can withstand. But, all in all, it was a great night!
Day Thirty-Three:
Thursday, June 5th
This morning, our class took a boat ride through the charming town of Bruges. It was so beautiful:
This town was so cute! I loved every minute of it!
After our boat ride, we wandered through the town, stopping at every chocolate shop we found. (And there were a LOT of them!) The candy in Bruges is delicious and not too expensive...so I probably ate more than I should have. But if stuffing myself full of world-famous chocolate is wrong, then I don't want to be right.
Also, I saw this store...which is just begging to be teased:
Honestly...if I only I'd had my Buddy the Elf costume, I could have had some fun in that restaurant!
After that, we got on a train back to Bruxelles where we had a tour of the European Parliament building waiting for us.
Many people don't know this, but Bruxelles is a center for politics. After all, it's the headquarters of the European Union!
This is a piece of the Berlin Wall that Belgium keeps next to the parliament building. I thought that was pretty legit.
After that, we ate our final waffles and kissed Belgium goodbye!
Day Thirty-Four:
Friday, June 7th
Today I got on another train...this time headed for Nice for a weekend trip with some of my friends here. The train was a whole flipping 6 hours long, but the scenery was nice. We arrived in Nice and checked into our hostel. (If anyone is ever looking for a good place to stay here, I highly recommend it: Auberge de Jeunesse--Les Camelias). There were 6 of us girls together, but we also had two roommates that we didn't know. One of them was this very quiet Asian girl who never spoke a single word the whole weekend, but she was always with another Asian. She reminded me a lot of Kimmy Jin from Pitch Perfect. Every time I walked into the room, this exact scene happened:
Our other roommate was this crazy Australian lady named Jackie. She was in her fifties and she's been traveling all over Europe. She only owns purple clothes, she swears like a sailor, she's a former crystal-meth addict, and she's very bisexual. I was a little frightened of her, but she was really nice to us so I got over it.
After checking in, we immediately headed to the beach.
We fell asleep there for a few hours and then, it was time for dinner. Afterwards, a few of the girls and I walked along the beach. Within two minutes, a group of cute guys swarmed around us. I got asked multiple times if I would sleep with one of them. It was a little awkward, but it got better after some of the drunk ones left. We talked to them for a bit and they promised us they'd take us dancing tomorrow!
Day Thirty-Five:
Saturday, June 8th
This morning, we headed to Cannes in search of sandy beaches. This place was pretty cool, but I definitely liked Nice more. The beaches were excellent though.
And, it was definitely cool to visit the famous site of the Cannes Film Festival.
Ah. On the red carpet, where I belong.
Meryl Streep's handprint!
And here are Julie Andrews'!
Unfortunately, the sun disappeared, so we chased it to Villefranche-sur-Mer. This place was gorgeous! We laid on the beach here for a while too and it was wonderful!
We headed back to Nice and then got all dressed up for a night out on the town.
I'm not sure how this picture got taken, but...you're welcome, world.
We went out to dinner at this fantastic Italian place called La Voglia. It was some of the best food I've ever had. Then, we met up with the boys from last night and headed to a couple of bars. One of them, Les 3 Diables, had some really fun dancing and we went crazy for a while. The night life in Nice is really cool. I love this place. We left the bar around 2 am and decided to walk along the beach for fun. Unfortunately, every crazy drunk guy in Nice had that same idea and we had to leave extremely quickly to get away from a few creepy jerks. Note to self: French beaches late at night are bad ideas.
Day Thirty-Six:
Sunday, June 9th
We went to Monaco today and I fell in love with it. It's the world's second-smallest country and it's absolutely incredible. I love the link it has with Grace Kelly. I also love the ritziness of it all. I seriously felt so cool just to be walking by all the yachts and designer stores. We went to the beach first, of course. The sun was shining and we sat there for a few hours, eating strawberries and suntanning. It was paradise. Suddenly, I woke up to find that the sun had disappeared. I turned around to find these horrifying dark clouds billowing towards us.
I seriously have never seen anything like it in my life. It was epic.
And the whole time this is happening, I'm trying not to be weird and laugh out loud, which is difficult because I'm totally picturing this scene with Hagrid in my head:
"There's a storm coming, Harry."
^ Must be read in your best Hagrid voice.
Anyway, at that point it started to rain really hard and lightning was striking around us. We all figured we better run away. The only problem was that Ashley and I were wearing stupid slippery flip flops. We literally could not take a step without doing the splits or falling on our butts. We were totally soaked, just trying to hold each other up. I could not stop laughing. Pretty sure I looked like the biggest loser of all time...this picture confirms it:
Anyway, we eventually found shelter at...you guessed it...McDonald's, where we ate chicken nuggets and waited the storm out. Eventually, it stopped and we wandered around Monaco some more.
We visited the casinos:
We saw the palace:
We even found the starting line for the Grand Prix:
Monaco is seriously one of the coolest places on earth. I wish we could have stayed there longer.
That night, we had dinner in Monaco...some more delicious Italian food in this way cool terrace restaurant.
We got hit on by some rich guys in the restaurant who wanted us to go to the casinos with them that night. It was very nice, but I could not ignore the disturbing fact that they were in their fifties. As much as I'd love a sugar daddy, I decided to pass on that lovely offer. So, we headed back to Nice and enjoyed our last night in Provence there.
Day Thirty-Seven:
Monday, June 10th
I bid a fond farewell to the sunny south of France and returned to Paris today. It was another 6 hour train ride, so my day was pretty uneventful. When I got home--it's funny how I think of Paris as home now--I did some homework and then went on a run with a couple of my friends.
Day Thirty-Eight:
Tuesday, June 11th
After class today, a few of the girls and I headed to the Opera Garnier--Paris' famous opera house. I thought it was pretty cool because it is the setting for The Phantom of the Opera. It's a beautiful building and it's definitely one of my favorite places that I've visited in Paris.
"If passion is not born immediately in the heart, the sentiments are uncertain and love condemns them."
Also, this place really made me wish I'd decided to be a ballerina:
I loved everything about this place. I stayed there, watching clips of old ballet performances until the opera house had closed and the employees had to kick me out.
Afterwards, I went to a couple of churches: Saint Sulpice and Saint-German des Pres. They were both lovely, but nothing particularly special.
I ended my day by visiting the Tuileries Garden in Paris. I just wandered around the garden by myself. Then, I sat at a chair by the fountain, sipped some hot chocolate, read a book, and people watched. It was so pleasant and I loved getting to see a more relaxed side to Paris.
Also, I made friends with this duck. He came right up to my feet:
Day Thirty-Nine:
Wednesday, June 12th
Today was our last day of class. We had review for our final written exam. After that, we all completed our final oral exam with our professors and then, we were done! Afterwards, me and my friends got some sushi, went to the movies, then went home. It was a bit of a strange day for me because I'm suddenly realizing that I only have a short amount of time left here...I leave in 3 days! It's gone by way too quickly. It feels like only yesterday that I was arriving in Paris, totally out of my element and unable to even use the metro without help! Now, everything feels so familiar here. I'll be so sad to leave this place.
I have gone so many places and seen so many incredible things...but there are so many more places to go. If anything, this experience has made me hungry for more.
I want to see the world.
