Bath: Day 35

I guess this makes for my official LAST post? So weird. I just can't get over how quickly this went by. Although I am ready to come home and be with everyone I love...I definitely will be missing Bath. It will be an odd change not to have everything at my fingertips and that I can walk to. And I will miss my favorite places to eat and hang out and the scenery and accents. I really hope I have the chance to come back here again.

Today has been pretty bitter-sweet. It was really odd not to have class or anything to do like getting up at 7am to take a 2 hour bus ride to some destination or other that requires me to hike 50 miles...just took care of some errands, grabbed some lunch, hung out, and headed off to the final tea.

ASE has us go to a very nice hotel nearby where I live in Bath where we had high tea. Of course this included tea sandwiches (not many were fond of them, but I liked them), scones (yummmm) with clotted cream and/or strawberry jelly (BOO to the clotted cream, yayyyy to the jelly), and then a bazillion sweets. The English are OBSESSED with them, I tell you. It was a little too rich for me, but good. And no, Mom...I did not drink the tea. GROSS. Plus, I was burning up and there was no air in the hotel either so hot tea was not appealing to me. The pitcher of water sure was. But I digress...we watched a final slideshow that was put together by one of the staff. We were all asked to submit photos to Jonathan and he also added some he had taken to make this 12 minute show. It was great. Lots of funnies and some "awww" moments. Kind of got us in the mood for all the speeches we had to hear after. Those were definite "aww" :( moments. We decided as a program to all chip in some money and get little gifts for the staff and our English tutors. Each person gave about 5 pounds for 6 people (no, not everyone in the program chipped in). The women got earrings, our Jane Austen prof. got an "I love Darcy" bag as a gag gift, and we got Jonathan a How-To-Dad book since his little one will be born very soon. It was kind of an emotional outing, but a good one nonetheless.

After we said our goodbyes to the staff and professors, we had some time to kill. Sam, Becca, Amanda and I took the opportunity to eat at this place called the Ha Ha Grill. We've been wanting to try it just for the name. It was sooo good and a fun atmosphere! I got chicken skewers that came with a Greek salad, pita, and cucumber sauce. YUM! So glad we decided to try something new and go there. Of course...I had to get in my last gelato experience at The Real Italian Ice Cream place. THEY HAD MY FAVORITE THAT THEY HAVEN'T HAD IN FOREVER, TOO! It was FATE. Got my Biscotti and I was happy as a clam. We also took some time to relax and listen to the musicians in the Abbey square which was sooo relaxing.

Then we got ready and the four of us headed out to a couple places tonight. We spent most of our time at the one club and it was a throwback night so it was so fun! Unfortunately, the ASE program got all split up tonight. It would have been nice to go somewhere as a big group like we did last night, but whatever.

Gonna get a good night's rest and take care of the last-minutes tomorrow morning. Taxi will be coming at 8:40, then the train station, then the Heathrow Express to my terminal. I WILL BE SO EXCITED TO GET THE HEAVY BAGS OFF MY HANDS!

Night all. America, here I come.

Bath: Day 34

So today was the last day of classes, which was odd. In Jane Austen we just talked about the kinds of games people in Austen's time played. It was just for fun. They played some weird stuff though. One game you have a bowl of brandy and you drop raisins in it and light it on fire and you're supposed to grab raisins out (yes, through the blue flames) and eat them while they are still on fire. That DOES NOT sound like fun to me. 2nd degree burns? No thanks. Another one is where they make a "cake" out of flour and put a bullet on the top. Each person spoons out a little bit of flour and whomever collapses it, making the bullet fall, must then only use their mouth to retrieve it. These people must have been very bored back then. We did do a fun game where you get like 4 words and you have to make a little short poem with them. SO funny.

Sherlock Holmes we just finished watching the new movie, which I like, and chatted and she let us go. Final verdict on my final papers: an A-- on Sherlock Holmes and a B+ on my Jane Austen which is perfectly fine by me. I'm not sure about the overall grades for the classes yet. I can e-mail the academic director of ASE and get that info when I get back. Otherwise I would have to wait until Denison got that information and send me it--which takes them forever and a day.

Oh, on the break in between classes my friends and I went to lunch at the Pump Room. It's gorgeous in there! The food was great and the atmosphere is very authentic. It's furnished like in Jane Austen's time and they had an orchestra playing. Loved it.

We also had "Write Night" where anyone can perform a talent. It was held at the Huntsman, a local pub, and we got free food and such. It was fun, but there was no air and we were in there for like 2.5 hours so I was ready to be done at the end. After, all the kids in the program went out to one of our favorite clubs and we danced and had some fun. I'm pretty pooped out so it's a good thing that I packed my bags today (mostly).

Can't believe tomorrow is my last day in Bath!

Bath: Day 33

Well, it's getting down to the wire now. Trying to fit in everything I want to do. We went to the Baths today which was awesome. Unfortunately, it was even more crowded than usual because Bath University has been having graduation ceremonies this weekend so all the grads and their families go to them and congregate around the Abbey in the square which is the route we have to take to class. It gets a little annoying shoving through the huge crowds to get to class, but it's alright. The Baths were AWESOME. They had a ton preserved from the original structure that stood there. It was actually a ton larger than what stands today. Very cool history, actually. It was built and dedicated to Minerva.

We just watched movies in both classes today and tomorrow is the last day of class. I find tomorrow's classes pointless. There really is nothing to talk about. I wish we could just go and pick up our papers and that's it. Jane Austen we are just doing a course overview, but he will keep us there for the entire hour and a half even if there is nothing more to say...and Sherlock Holmes we will finish up the movie and wrap up the course as well.

So tonight we were planning on going to Celcius, the ice bar, but when we got there...it was closed! Which is odd because it's open all week from 10pm-2am. No idea what that was all about. So we really didn't wind up doing much tonight. I did watch the Germany v. Spain game earlier. I was rooting for Spain so I am glad they won. :)

People are starting to get really crabby because it's the end and I think everyone just wants to go home now. Got my train ticket today as well. I will be leaving Bath 9am Saturday with plenty of time to get to the airport. Definitely doing a majority of my packing tomorrow.

Update tomorrow. Night!

Bath: Day 32

Today has been much more relaxed than I am used to so I kind of don't know what to do with myself now.

We went to the Jane Austen Center and it definitely was not what I thought it would be, unfortunately. It was pretty lame, but we got out of "class" at 10:20ish as opposed to 11 so that was fine by me. Grabbed some lunch from Cafe Retro (amazing sandwiches) and ate in the park with Sam and Amanda (despite the abundance of pigeons and seagulls waiting to attack). It's been a gorgeous day so we figured we would eat outside and enjoy the scenery and weather.

After I did some running around with Amanda- we both had some things left to buy for people back home so we got that done before Sherlock Holmes. That class let out early too- a whole hour early so we went and picked up some stuff to make for dinner.

Just headed back to the house to finish tweaking my last edits to turn my Holmes paper in tomorrow, made some spicy chicken, and have been hanging out. Originally was supposed to go to the Baths tonight, but nobody wanted to motivate so I guess we are going to see them tomorrow afternoon. I don't care really when I see them, but I definitely don't want to leave without having so much as had a peek at them. Instead, we are just going to have a chill night and pop in a movie since the work is finished.

We made a schedule for what we want to do this whole week which is really helpful. Helps me keep track of everything I want to see and do before I go and manage my time accordingly. Also, I thankfully will be able to travel to Heathrow with someone. We will probably be heading out of Bath by train by 9am Sat. I will be there with plenty of time to spare as the girl I am traveling with has an earlier flight time than I do, but hey...better to have more time to kill than none at all.

I think tomorrow my whole house is going to go out for a nice dinner as well. That will be a good time.
Also, my final papers will be returned to us Thursday so I am antzy to see how I did on them.
Well, off to relax. Odd.
xox

Bath: Day 31

Today I got one of my papers off my hands and finished up the second one so I was really happy. It feels good to get things accomplished.

I really didn't do all that much today since all my papers are done. I went to The Real Italian Pizza Co. today with my friends Sam and Amanda. I had never been there before, but the same people who own the gelatto place I love, own this. It was really really good oven-baked pizza and the people who worked there were really Italian. Yummy mushroom pizza :) mmm mmm mmm
But, no, this does NOT mean I will not be wanting pizza when I get home. Hardly.
After lunch I just went back to the house and napped until it was time for the second class.

Tonight a bunch of us went out to Revolution where our favorite DJ was playing and we discovered his mustache is actually fake! It was very upsetting. We also met some interesting people...cross-dressers. And not very convincing ones at that. After Revolution we headed over to Second Bridge where we all kind of just hung out and talked and then headed back for the night.

Pretty sleepy, actually. Tomorrow I need to go sort out some phone issues with Vodafone, ugh. I will really be excited to have my Blackberry back and not have to do this pay-as-you-go thing any longer.

Bath: Day 30

So today has not been very eventful. We checked out super early and got a cab to the airport. We were there at like 7:45 a.m. and we weren't set to board until 9:20. Nobody even started showing up to the gate until like an hour after us. But, man...boarding took FOREVER. It turns out we were on the biggest plane I've ever been on. It was huge plus had a double deck. Our seats were really nice, but it was only a 40 minute flight. However, our set take off time got pushed back 40 minutes to 10:45 just because they waited for 2 passengers! That would never happen on a domestic flight in the U.S.! We got into Heathrow much later than expected, but Amanda and I didn't buy any tickets ahead of time which was good. So we hopped a shuttle to Terminal 5, picked up the bus to the Reading train station and took a train back to Bath. We were starving by the time we got back so we picked up food and began the long trek up lots of fun hills with a heavy bag. That was not so much fun.

Spent the rest of the day uploading pictures on my computer, putting them on facebook, doing my blog and a majority really went to writing my outline for my final paper in Sherlock Holmes and then writing the draft of it. I got to page 5 and I still have plenty more to say- it only needs to be 6-8 pages so I will be fine. But I really don't think Dr. Brown was paying attention to our proposals this weekend. All the girls in my house, including me, said she didn't understand what we wanted to do with our papers and she twisted it into something that none of us had in mind for our papers. It was so off base for all four of us. But I wound up getting a B+ on it. Hopefully the final paper will be a little better.

Oh, I forgot to mention in my other post the battle I had with the shower in the hotel. The water pressure was much higher there and somehow the shower head came loose from its holder (its a handheld one) and fell to the floor and it was jetting water out everywhere! Plus they only had half of the shower covered with glass-it was odd- which further added to the water issue. So it was like a waterpark in there. I spend forever mopping it all up. Such a mess, but I fixed it!

Tomorrow is the start of the last week I have in Bath. I will finish my draft of my final paper for Holmes tomorrow and I get to turn in my final paper for Jane Austen tomorrow morning so basically, once tomorrow night rolls around...I'm done with work and can enjoy Bath without any focus on school! Yay!

xox
Happy 4th of July- I hope it was a wonderful celebration for you all. It was a little ironic for me to spend it in England, I must say.

Bath: Day 29

Day 2 of Paris!

Unfortunately, today started out with pouring rain. Yes, luckily I brought my rain jacket and the hotel had extra umbrellas. It was kind of a bummer to start the day that way and have to walk around in the dreary weather, but it eventually did clear up around lunch time.

Today's agenda was: Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and the Palace of Versailles. Somehow Amanda and I have this ability to wander around and just find the coolest things. So along our way we found a ton of cool statues, monuments, buildings, musuems, etc.

Notre Dame was absolutely stunning (and jam-packed). I lit a candle for my grandmother and for my grandfather Frank since it was the 32nd anniversary of his passing. The stained glass, the portraits, monuments, and the structure itself was so detailed and breathtaking. I kind of half-expected to see Quasimodo or Esmerelda pop out, but no such luck. Disney lied to us as children.

We then walked to the Pantheon which was just right up the road where we found some old ruined church, the National Assembly, and some other neat looking buildings. Zola, Voltaire, Jean Moulin, and Marie Curie are actually buried in the Pantheon (which, of course, Louis XV built as a dedication to Genvieve, the patron saint of Paris in 1744).

Next, we ventured to Versailles. I don't even know how to describe this place other than mammoth wealth. It's pretty far out from the city, but I suppose that isn't too shocking. Marie Antoinette must not have wanted to associate with those she ruled and, not to mention...the size of that palace could never be accomodated in Paris. It seemed like each room was more grand than the next. I was surprised to find out what I thought were royal rooms were in fact just for guests! That should give you some sort of an idea. There are even rooms here dedicated solely for portraits. They really must have run out of ideas on how to fill these rooms. Actually, what I found interesting was the number of marble statues. If I remember right...it was something like 80 hand-made marble statues were there. The foyer was even ridiculous. It literally is a huge room of pure marble. The Hall of Mirrors was my favorite room by far. Unfortunately, my camera died out on me before I could get a picture of it, but if you google image it, you can get an idea. Security here was ridiculous as well. I got in trouble for carrying around my umbrella- despite the fact I had previously walked an ENTIRE wing of the palace with it. They wanted me to walk to the complete opposite side of the place to pay to store it, but I wound up talking my way into leaving it in the gift shop near where I was going to be. And those people working were not nice about telling me to get rid of my umbrella. They wanted to confiscate it originally, but I was like...this is my hotel's. No way. After all of the sight-seeing here we waited 40 minutes (yes, 40) for a cab. It's definitely not like Chicago or NYC.

We got changed and ready for dinner, got great food again, and I tried a crepe for dessert. They do eat them here for breakfact but it's like street food and much more popular as a dessert. They often make them in a couple ways: one is just sugar and butter, one is nutella and sugar, banana, nutella, and whip cream, or chestnut cream, whip cream, and vanilla ice cream. I tried to latter with the ice cream on the side and it was delicious! I had to try it.

Afterward, we figured we should do even more walking and check out the sights at night. So we saw the Eiffel tower all lit up and doing a light display show (it was all twinkly), saw the ferris wheel lit up, the Arc du Triomphe lit up, etc. Paris is insanely busy late at night so we just walked around and hung out. Actually, a funny story: Amanda does not speak a word of French, but she tries. So while on our walk we came across this neat looking building that she wanted a picture of. Well, it was dark and I wasn't paying attention so I neglected to read a particularly important sign. We found out quick no photos were allowed of that building thanks to a security guard. The building Amanda was taking a picture of was the Spanish Embassy and there was a sign in French saying what it was and no pictures. The guard was nice about it and Amanda was super confused cuz he was explaining all this in French to me and I was talking to him in French so she kind of stood by. Good thing I remember a little bit from college language, right?! I was able to navigate us in taxis and order food, and understand a good amount.

We are hitting bed super early tonight because we have to be up at 6:30 am to head out for the airport. We have an early flight (10:05 am) because it takes 2.5 hours to get back to Bath from Heathrow without any delays of any sort and we have a lot of work to do. But I absolutely love Paris. It would be great to come back to visit France. I definitely prefer Paris to London, but Bath to Paris.

Tout a leur!

Bath: Day 28

Pictures:
(1) River Seine
(2) Streets of Paris
(3) On the bridge
(4) Self explanatory
(5) Our hotel
(6) Cute little cafe outside
(7) Arc du Triomphe
(8) Louvre
(9) Close-up of the second arc
(10) Ferris Wheel near Louvre
(11) Dome where Napoleon's tomb is
(12) Us with a stupid bee that got caught in our picture- his name is Pierre.
(13) Tribute to Diana
(14) Tower

THE FIRST DAY IN PARIS!

Gosh, are my feet ever tired. I'm not sure if it's as bad as the hiking experience in Tintagel...but yeah, they are pretty done. Today we ventured all over the city in 90-something degree weather. I was such a mess. We actually walked around the whole thing. We started off on the left bank where our hotel is, Hotel Galileo, and then walked across the bridge (across the Seine River) and all around the right bank.

Of course, the first stop was the Eiffel Tower. I expected it to be huge, but it's totally different in person. It's pretty amazing how they built that and the detail is awesome. You could take a little car up the side of it all the way up, but that wasn't really for me. Plus, the line was forever long and it required you to walk up stairs to about half-way up the tower in the sun. No thanks. What did annoy me there; however, was the beggers. There were a ton of women who were holding little cards in English saying they were Bosnian and had ___ number of children and needed money. Yadda, yadda. I'm sure you can imagine the audacity. They march straight up to you and give you their shpeel in their whatever language and put their faces on to beg. But there are just so many of them and you see them talking that you know they're working for someone. And if they hear you speak English- you're hounded. They assume you must have tons of cash and are stupid if you speak English. So Amanda and I learned quickly to speak Spanish to them. We did the same for the hawkers which worked pretty well until we came across a guy who spoke fluent Spanish...we walked away quickly. It's sad but you really have to be rude because they don't leave you alone. It kind of reminded me of Battery Park in NYC. But we sat on the lawn of the park around the tower and took pictures and watched the little ones running through the sprinklers. We also started a trend: our arms up in the air pictures. People saw us doing that and they all started taking pictures like that, haha.

We had lunch at this little, out of the way cafe that was super tasty. I made sure to order in French. I think it's important to at least try to speak their language. After all, the French already have a pretty strong opinion of Americans so I would like to dispel that as much as possible for one person to do.

We also saw the memorial to Princess Diana, the Arc du Triomphe, the Ecole Militaire (which was built by King Louis XV in 1750- Napoleon graduated from there), where Napoleon's tomb is (he built this massive structure that served as barracks for his men- and it's elaborate!), went to the Louvre where everyone was hanging out in the fountains since it was so hot. You couldn't walk around in them but you could put your legs in if you sat on the side. It was definitely needed. They have a ferris wheel right by there and a bunch of gardens with tons of statues in rows of hedges. There seems to be marble statues everywhere you look here. Another big thing we hit today was the Arc of Charles de Gaul.

Okay, by the way...the men here are way forward. You could be looking disgusting and sweaty and they will hit on you. AND THEY DO NOT GO AWAY. Even if you ignore them! We had one creepo who was older that was like Borat. No joke. Amanda and I were walking, minding our own business when this guy goes, "Nice. Very Nice." WE ARE NOT FOR SALE, SIR. CREEP!! We ignored him and kept walking and he followed us and offered to buy us a drink and I was like, look, we are going to meet our friends. No. So finally he left us alone. UGH!

We then took a little nap and got cleaned up for dinner. We found this place called Vesuvio's. AMAZING FOOD!!! Oddly enough, you really don't find many "French" restaurants there. Most of it is very eclectic and a ton of Italian joints. So we tried it here and it was Italian and awesome. Of course I had a bowl of tagliatelle and some white wine and I got a lemon merengue for dessert (hey, I walked enough). The best one I have ever had in my life. Plus, our waiter was super hilarious and the inside of the restaurant was very cool. And most of the eating places are pretty open so you can see and hear everything going on outside, but it's not obnoxiously loud. I really like that cafe feel where you can people watch. They had a funny bathroom though. You had to step on this button (and hard) with your foot to get the water to go from the sink. If some lady wouldn't have told me, I never would have known!

After dinner we went to the Moulin Rouge because Amanda really wanted to see it. No, we didn't see a show because those tickets are insane. BUT OH GOSH- I didn't realize it was in basically the Red Light district of France. I was totally comfortable in my little Champs-Elysees bubble and then I was put in that atmosphere. I was like, ooookayyy I am ready to leave now! It was mostly bars and adult attractions so we took our pics in front of the Moulin Rouge and hopped a cab back- quickly.

We were SOOOO lucky to have a jerk of a young cab driver. Might I add here that Europe has an odd custom where you MUST go to the first cab in line- they won't accept you even if you ask them. But Amanda and I didn't like the looks of this guy and nobody else was waiting for a cab so we were forced to take him. Right off the bat I knew he was a moron. I told him where we needed to go (in French) and he had no clue what I was talking about so I wrote it for him and he still didn't know so he plugged it into his GPS and finally got it. Then he thought he would take advantage of American girls because he assumed we didn't know the streets well enough. Well he drove us in a circle to make the charge more and we obviously knew that. Once we got to the hotel the charge was about 13 euros and I gave him a 20, but he started yelling and arguing and I told him to just give us the change. Well, he obviously didn't have change enough for a 20 cuz he's an awful driver so I wound up giving him 15 euros which he could make change for and we did NOT tip him. Such a jerk. That was really the only bad experience we had with the French.

But the tourists are awful. They are so ignorant and don't move when you're trying to take pictures and nobody has any concept of personal space. I swear. Americans must just be very different. They are wayyy into their PDA here too. Like people will literally just stop in the MIDDLE of a super busy street to make out. Disgusting and rude. AND their service is so darn slow. I understand the concept of enjoy your food and company, but c'mon...I am not into spending over 2 hours eating. I like my American customs just fine: I will definitely appreciate prude, rushed, space-loving America again.

Bath: 27

SO, today (Thursday) I ran around like a chicken without a head. I needed to make sure that everything was in order for my flight to Paris. Last night I packed up and this morning I put my last-minutes in my bag, used my break to exchange pounds for euros, got my boarding pass printed out, turned in my proposal for my final paper, and checked a bazillion times that I had necessary documentation and my passport.

Because the train we needed was at 4:13 (during class time), Amanda and I had to request that we be able to leave 40 minutes early. It really was no biggie because we would be there for all the important stuff (a student presentation that lasts 2:30-3:30). Our professor readily agreed to let us out at 3:50 and even went so far as to let the whole class out earlier since we covered everything we needed to. So Amanda and I booked it to our train and got to the airport with time to spare. It took forever to get there though: 3 trains and a shuttle to our terminal. BUT WE DID IT!

Got to the hotel late: around 11 something because France is an hour later. At first we were freaking out because no one was at the reception desk and the door was locked so just as I got my phone out to call the hotel, the concierge walked back to the desk and buzzed us in. PHEW!
We then took the teensiest elevator I have ever seen in my life (it was cute) to our floor and were welcomed by wonderous air conditioning. I immediately felt better when I walked into the cold room. We were so tired by this time that Amanda and I just checked out the room, checked out our view from the room, washed up and went straight to sleep.

Not too eventful, but hey...we made it to France :)