It is now legal for me to drink in every country in the world... Honestly, I really just can't wait till I get back to Tucson to be able to FINALLY go salsa dancing in an actual club!!!

Happy 21 B-day to Me!!!

So I had a wonderful day yesterday, as I should. Because, it's MY day!!
I woke up and made myself some breakfast.

Lisa, Mikayla and I went out shopping (I didn't buy anything) and then we had lunch at a chinese buffet. I don't like chinese buffets, but I was craving chinese food!!

In the evening after dinner, we had cake!

Luke, his friend Rob, Lisa, Mikayla, Laura, Ed, Taylor, Harry and I went out to a bar called Mustard.

Yes. Wearing a 'Happy Birthday' Crown!!

Taylor and I

The guy taking the picture told us to ROAR...

Laura, Lisa, Me, Mikayla

Ended the night at the LCR with Taylor, Ed, Luke and Rob.

:)

Paris Post #5: Eiffel Tower

Ok so. I have like a million pictures of the Eiffel Tower, but what kind of tourist would I be if I didn't?

 Not one of my friends wanted to go to the top of the tower with me. :( How sad. Mikayla and Emily wanted very badly to go to Versailles, and Alessio and Alex wanted to do their male bonding whatevers, so that left me to go to the Tower solo.

The walk from the ground to the first level is a bit over 300 steps. I made it up there just fine.

No huffing and puffing for me.

Then I had to climb another 300+ steps up to the second level. For some reason, this was A LOT harder. I seriously thought I wasn't going to make it. It didn't help that the wind was picking up and it was cold.

I didn't go up to the tip-top though. I didn't want to have to pay. Besides, the view from the second level was enough for me.

I did feel bad for this one lady though. She was FREAKING OUT. She stayed as close to the wall as possible, the whole time, muttering and praying to herself. She had a little girl with her, who was about 6 or 7 who was just having a blast. She would run from one side to the other side, and stand on her tip toes to look over the edge. I'm guessing the lady was her Mom. She was terrified. She kept putting her arm out, trying to grasp hold of the little girls hand...

Anyway, that night we went and saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up

Out of no where, Emily pulls out a bottle of champagne, and as she pops open the bottle, the tower began to sparkle

It was pretty amazing

Me, Emily, Mary, Mikayla

What a wonderful way to spend my last night in Paris :)

Forget about Paris for a bit...

Norwich has been absolutley BEAUTIFUL!!!

Sunny, and sorta warm even!!

:) MUCH better than snow...!!

Paris Post #4: Random

I'm actually not touching the ground....

Some very cool music I bought

They have wishing wells in France, too?

Some random French lady playing the accordion

My Brand New Racing Car

Don't worry Ma, I just charged it on the credit card... No Worries...

Emily and I

Mikayla's friends and I:

L-R: Acsana, Mary, Mikayla, Emily, Me

Mikayla and I

Some girls that I hung out with and went salsa dancing with...

I can't remember their names anymore, but they were SO nice.

Jessica is the girl on the far right.

I met her in Norwich at salsa dancing once.

She just moved to Paris for school/job. My friend Alex was visiting her...

This is my friend Alex. He is probably one of THE nicest guys I've met here.

Can we say, "Chatty Cathy?" ...definitely

Mikayla, Alex and I flew in from Paris on the same plane. We got in around 6p.

Mikayla and I had tickets for the coach, but we wouldn't have left the airport till about 9p,

and by the time all the travelling/layovers would take place, we would have been home at 2a.

Instead, Alex offered us a ride home since his car was at the airport!

So instead of getting in at 2a, we got home about 11.30p :)

We would have been home around 11, but Alex got lost.

I was in the front seat so I got to be his co-captain and figure out which roads to take.

England is ridiculous. TOO MANY ROADS; going every which way.

Anyway;

Thank You Alex!!!! <3

Paris Post #3: Bridges and Such

There are about a gazillion bridges in Paris. Each one beautiful and unique in it's very own way.

My favourite bridge was this one:

Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor

One reason why it is my favourite is because it's in one of my favourite TV shows!

Sex and The City.

Season 6, Episode 94: "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux"

It's the part after Carrie and Alexsander get in a fight, and she meets up with Mr. Big. They are walking together, and it was basically right where I'm standing where he tells her that she's "the one".

Good Episode! :)

Also, the fence is full of padlocks. Emily told me that couples come here, and place a lock on the fence, to sort of symbolize their love for one another... locking the padlock = you're the only one for me; forever...

aww.... Very cute

Walking along the river was is one of my favourite things to do in a big city... London, Dublin, Paris... Love it...

Have you ever seen the movie 'Ratatouille'? LOVE that movie... well, in the beginning of the movie when Remy (the rat) is first discovered in the kitchen, the garbage boy, Linguini, is told to destroy him. He walks out to the river and is about to dump the rat into the water, but he just can't.

While Mikayla and I were walking, I saw the end of this part of the river and instantly thought of that movie. Right before the bridge on the right hand side.... that HAS to be the part of the bridge that they copied for the movie....

And then at the end of the movie, when Remy is running from the small bad chef, with Linguini's papers... and he leaps from the trees onto a boat... TOTALLY the middle part of this picutre! I swear! It looks just like it!

So one day, Mikayla and I were walking alone. No Emily, no Alessio, no Mary... just us two. We SORTA got lost, but that was the whole point. To see where we would end up... We happened to come across this random garden thing. The only other person in it was a bum who was laying in the grass taking in the beautiful sunshine.

Paris Post #2: Buildings and Such

Mikayla and I stayed in a hotel named 'Hotel Cosy'. It was indeed, Cosy. It was about 2minutes from the Picpus metro line, making it very easy to get to everything else by way of tube. We were right on the corner of the building, so here is Alessio looking out one window, and I am on the balcony.

A bit small, but we though it was perfect.

One of our first stops of the day was the amazing Moulin Rouge. Oh, how I wish I could have afforded to see a show!! The cheapest was €100, which is like $135.00!! Probably worth it, but not to my quickly depleating wallet *sigh*

Arc de Triomphe. Both sides were under construction. Rather depressing.

Notre Dame!!

Didn't have a chance to make it to the top. However, I did go inside. Very beautiful. Very crowded, but very beautiful.

Musée du Louvre:

The Louvre, if you don't know, is this HUGE museum. Nothing special is kept there. Nothing at all...

j/k

Things like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo are there!!

The Musée du Louvre houses 35,000 works of art. We only had time to spend about an hour and a half in there, which was NOT enough. Guess I will have to go back one day!!

I don't quite remember what this was, but I know that it is painted on a ceiling. Alessio and I had been looking up and talking about it for a good 2minutes, and our necks started to really hurt. So. What did we do? We layed down so it was better to see and talk about. So much is going on on all four sides of the ceiling.

Code of Hammurabi

I was pretty excited when I saw this. I learned about it last semester. The Code of Hammurabi is this 7' 4'' tall structure containing an ancient law code. In ancient Babylon, 1790 B.C., one would find the Code of Hammurabi in the middle of town, for all to see. If you didn't read the code and broke the law, well, that was your fault. Because the code is there for all to read. Some of the laws were:

*If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth will be knocked out.

*If during an unsuccessful operation a patient dies, the arm of the surgeon must be cut off.

*If a man takes a woman to wife, but has no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.

*If a man puts out the eye of an equal, his eye shall be put out.

Winged Victory

Discovered in 1863 in pieces. 118 pieces to be exact, all of which were assembled at the Louvre. The head was never found.

Basillique de Sacre-Coeur

So we see this huge building. And we start walking up the steps to it. I asked Mikayla what it was, and she said "Sacre Coeur!!!!" Well, I didn't know what she said, so I was like, Oh. Ok. Well - Cool!!

So we get inside and BAM!! This HUUUUGE picture of Jesus is painted above the alter. This is when I figured out that it was a Catholic Church. I had just thought it was a pretty building. Very wrong. While we were there, a mass was in session, so I sat down and took part in it. The Priest was decked out head to toe in beautiful cream robes, complete with gold stitching. There were also 3 or 4 Nuns singing the hymns. Such beautiful voices!! Truly the voices of angels.

The only part that I didn't like about it, and that I don't like about a lot of churchs is that they are tourist attractions. Which, is ok, but not in the middle of a mass!!! If you are going to be in there while people are worshiping their God, you better be quiet....

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Lots of famous people are burried here. Check out this LINK if you want to look up who...

Frédéric Chopin

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde's grave is full of kiss'. Not too sure when that started, but I think its a way for people to show their admiration towards him.

Of course, Mikayla, Emily and I had to kiss his grave with red lipstick. Emily has yet to send me the picture, but when she does, I will be sure to post it.

.....More to come in the next day or so...

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