happy halloween!

My adorable little brother decided to dress up as Harry Potter this Halloween. Wise choice.

What are my plans for tonight? Oh, just working on my essays some more and eating too much candy. Maybe I'll squeeze in Shaun of the Dead or Hocus Pocus sometime tonight, too. And eat a Cornetto while I'm at it.

What does England do for Halloween? Apparently some of these bizarre events.

Anyway, hope you all have a safe and fun Halloween! I hope you have as much fun as these two.

paris, france: days 3 & 4

The Paris adventures continue! Hannah, Stacie and I started off Monday morning with a healthy dose of macarons! Now, apparently there is a rivalry between Pierre Herme and Laduree over the best macarons in Paris. We first went into Pierre Herme, where we were greeted with free chocolate samples (YES!). We ended up getting a box of 7 macarons for €18. *cringe* But it was actually worth it. I got the lavender and dark chocolate and sea salt macarons, and we shared the olive oil and vanilla macaron. They melted in your mouth and the flavors were just right. SO GOOD.

Pretty patties!

After crying over how fast the macarons were gone, we were able to go inside the Palais Garnier this time! Ah, being inside just made me remember the "masquerade" scene in the Phantom of the Opera. The whole opera house is lovely, and it's the most beautiful venue I've ever seen.

After the opera house, Hannah sadly had to leave us to do some work. But she directed us to a bakery called Du Pain et Des Idees, which is apparently regarded as one of the best bakeries in Paris. I didn't go into that many bakeries during my stay, but I'll vouch for that, anyway. We ordered a whole bunch of items from Hannah's recommendations, including the niflettes (mini pastries with a custard filling), the escargot (filled pastries shaped like a snail's shell), and the smoked bread. It's hard to pick a favorite because I loved everything.

Aww yeah.

After consuming too many carbs, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe. We were hoping to go up the monument, since we were told that the view from the top offers a better view than the Eiffel Tower. But since the Arc de Triomphe is right in the center of a very busy roundabout, we had no idea where to cross. So we walked along the Champs Elysees, a street full of restaurants and luxury shops that sell things no one can afford.

Along the Champs Elysees, there was also a Laduree! Obviously, we had to get more macarons and compare it to Pierre Herme's. It was a really cute shop, but I have to say, I was pretty dissapointed with their macarons. They were too sweet for my liking, and had a strange texture--definitely not "melt in your mouth." The flavors they offered also weren't that unique. So who wins the macaron battle in Paris? I give my vote Pierre Herme.

We then rushed over to the Eiffel Tower to snap some photos before the sun set, because night time photos are not enough! My heart just fluttered everytime I looked at it. I took a way too many pictures, but I'll just showcase my favorite ones.

Je t'aime!

After dinner that night, we headed to the Sacre Coeur to get a night view over the city. It's a church located on top of a hill called the Montmarte, which is the highest point in the city. For this metro exit in particular, we had to climb a spiral staircase that never seemed to end. Oh, the burn in my thighs. It was only when we got to the top that we noticed there was an elevator. Eh, it was good exercise I suppose.

Before getting on a cable car to get up to the Sacre Couer, around this area were a bunch of scammers. Which brings me to attempted scam #4 (I skipped #2 and #3 because they weren't much): a guy with a bunch of bracelets in his hand was approaching me, saying "Hello there!" but I quickly said "no" and started walking straight ahead (Stacie was walking a bit behind me). He tried to get in front of me, saying "No, no, I just want to show you something!" in which he suddenly GRABBED my wrist. I quickly pulled away and said "no" multiple times, and walked faster towards the ticket booth for the cable car. I knew about these "string men" before coming to Paris, but I wasn't aware that they're actually known to be prominent around the Sacre Couer. It was a bit scary, but thankfully nothing happened.

After that incident, we made our way up the Montemarte to the Sacre Couer. The view was beautiful, but unfortunately trees are in the way of letting you see the Eiffel Tower. It's also a bit strange that there were a bunch of people drinking outside the church?

The next morning, Hannah brought us to a bakery nearby her place. I seriously don't know how the French stay so slim and fit when there are bakeries everywhere. Is it because they go up and down the stairs all the time? I've noticed that the French metros rarely have escalators. Is that their secret?

I got a chocolate eclair and a baguette sandwich with mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, and an olive tapanade. I haven't had too many eclairs in my day, but wow, this eclair was delicious. The baguette was also one of the best I've ever eaten. I'm still dreaming about them.

We didn't have much time to do anything else in Paris, since we had to get the the train station around 3:00 PM. So Stacie and I decided to spend our morning at the Palace of Versailles, once home to Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette. What can I say about the Palace Versailles other than how ridiculously massive and glorious it is? Gold was everywhere at the front gates! Jeez, can you just imagine the lives of French royalty before? It's insane. I want that lavish life.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go inside because the line to get in was literally a mile long. We definitely weren't expecting such a huge crowd that morning. I was really upset because I wanted to go inside and also see the gardens. Oh well, one day I'll be back! One day... (sorry, I just had to.)

So instead of going inside the château, we ended up just walking around the streets of Versailles and shopping at Monoprix, which is a French retail store similar to Target. I loaded up on a lot of pate, some Dijon mustard, and French sweets. I really don't know how I'm going to fit all of my stuff into my luggage when I go back home.

Before we knew it, our French travels were over, and we headed back to Hannah's to get ready to leave.

Bye bye cute and shy French kitty!

It was sad to say goodbye, and I am missing Hannah so much right now. But I'll be seeing her in the next couple of weeks when she comes to visit the U.K.! I want to thank Hannah and Pallavi so much for letting us stay in their home and helping us around! I couldn't have done this trip without them.

Paris, overall, was great. Was it what I dreamed it would be? Not exactly--it had its good and bad moments. It was certainly nothing like Jenny's trip to Paris from the movie An Education (which I love). But I think that the city is absolutely beautiful, and I'm so glad I got to experience a bit of it all. From eating the delicious pastries to visiting some of the prettiest monuments and museums in the world, Paris has a lot to offer, and I want to come back one day to visit other areas in France. But maybe when I sharpen my French skills. Someone please make learning French as enjoyable as Flight of the Conchords.

I have a lot more thoughts about Paris that I'll probably save for another day, but now I have so many essays to get going on. *sigh*

paris, france: days 1 & 2

Warning: my Paris posts may contain lots of delicious looking foods. Do not read on an empty stomach.

Sorry for the late post, but I'm back from Paris! It was an exhausting, yet overall wonderful trip. It feels a little weird coming back from another country, and then not going back home afterwards. If you're wondering: no, I did not skip my classes. This week is "reading week" for students, which means we get the entire week off to catch up on all of our readings and class work. (Though in reality it's "traveling week" shhh).

I knew that when I was going to study abroad, Paris was first on my "must-see" list of cities to visit. Not only because I've always dreamed about going, but I also wanted to visit my BFF Hannah, whom I've known nearly all my life and is studying abroad for the semester as well. We stayed at her place in the suburbs of Paris, along with her roommate Pallavi and her adorable cat!

Stacie and I left very early Saturday morning. It would have been a lot faster to fly to Paris, but flights were ridiculously expensive for this past weekend. So instead, we took a train from Manchester to London, then took the Eurostar from London to Paris. It took about 4 hours total, so it wasn't too bad. But on the Eurostar there were a bunch of rowdy, teenage French students that made it a rather uncomfortable ride. Thankfully, it wasn't as uncomfortable as that scene in Eurotrip.

Hannah and Pallavi were at the station upon our arrival. I was so thrilled to see them! Let me just say now that I probably wouldn't have survived this trip without them. Even though I took French in high school, I'm definitely not fluent and my French skills only helped in reading things here and there. Thankfully, we had Hannah and Pallavi to either guide us around, give us helpful tips, and communicate for us. It's not that you can't speak English to the Parisians--I've just noticed that some do get a bit rude and impatient when you don't speak the language. But nothing too horrible.

After having some delicious Indian food for lunch, we dropped off our bags at their house and headed out. It was already late in the afternoon, and since most of Paris's main attractions close around 5 PM and 6 PM, we wouldn't have enough time to visit them. Additionally, Stacie and I were super tired from lack of sleep anyway, so we decided to take it relatively easy our first night. But we did go to Art Ludique, which currently has a Studio Ghibli exhibit going on. It was really interesting to see all of the drawings and the creative process behind Miyazaki's films. Photos weren't allowed to be taken inside the exhibit, which was really lame. But we did take a free picture in which we were "animated" into a Spirited Away scene. I love the picture so much.

I still can't get over this.

After the exhibit, we walked around the city for a while to get a glimpse of Paris by night. I love how different the vibe is from day to night. For dinner, we were hoping to get some fondue, but we couldn't get into either of the two restaurants we had in mind. So we went settled on a cafe that sold crepes instead. All of us ended up choosing dessert crepes, of course. Sadly, my first and only French crepe experience did not go well. Our crepes took more than 30 minutes to come out--I mean, how long does it really take to make a crepe? I ordered the "St. Michel," which had caramelized apples, roasted almonds, some sort of liquor, and vanilla ice cream. When the crepes were finally brought out, the lady who burned the liquor for my crepe at our table failed to do so correctly, so I could taste the alcohol quite a lot, which I did not like at all. It also needed more ice cream. But it's okay, we grabbed a Doner kebab and french fries later that night, which made up for it. And yes, the french fries in France are amazing!

It looked cool, though!

The next morning, Stacie and I first headed to the Palais Garnier. This opera house served as a setting for The Phantom of the Opera, which is one my my favorite musicals. I can't tell you how much I enjoy the architecture of the buildings in Paris. The buildings are beautiful nearly everywhere you go. Sadly, we didn't get to go inside the Palais Garnier that day because they closed early for a matinee performance.

Outside the Palais Garnier, I also experienced my attempted scam #1. A seemingly friendly guy came up to us with an orange balloon and asked us to have it. We said no, but he kept insisting. So we just walked away and he stopped. I'm not even sure if it was a scam or not, but I assumed anyone who tried to give me something was some sort of con-artist. Which brings me to this point: I suggest reading up on tourist scams if you're thinking about visiting Europe. I was approached a total of 4 times by scammers during my stay in Paris. I don't mean to scare you, but just be cautious, keep your belongings close, and don't take anything!

Next, we headed to the Musee du Louvre. I knew that this museum was big, but boy, I really underestimated the size of it. The place is HUGE. Once I got through the entrance, my jaw literally dropped. The museum is ridiculously gorgeous, and I love the pyramids in the center of it all. It was funny that they actually had small blocks for you to stand on to take a picture of you pinching the top of the pyramid. It was no easy task, but we just had to do it!

There is SO MUCH to see in the Louvre. You really need to plan out which pieces of artwork you want to see beforehand. We ended up seeing the more famous works including the Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Wedding at Cana, the Venus de Milo, and of course, the Mona Lisa. It's hilarious to see so many people crowding around to take pictures of such a small art piece. I managed to get a shot of the Mona Lisa at the back of the crowd. Good enough.

Madness!

For lunch, Stacie and I headed to a cafe nearby. I'll confirm the fact that Paris has a lot of cafes. While you look outside of their menus, the waiters try to lure you in to take a seat. I guess you've gotta do what you've gotta do when you have tough competition and nearly identical menus. Also: the food in Paris is pretty darn expensive. The average price for dishes are around €12-€15. I know I should have had the "treat yo self" mindset in my head, but as a poor college student, it's hard not to think about money. But the cafe we ate at had descent prices. I ordered the classic Croque Madame, which is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top. There's also the Croque Monsieur, which is the same thing except it doesn't have the egg. But seriously, why is that even an option?

After lunch, we crossed the Seine river to get the the Notre-Dame Cathedral. Also gorgeous. No surprise there.

At night, we met up with Hannah for dinner. We ended up passing by the Eiffel Tower (finally), which is truly is breathtaking to see it up close. It was lovely to see it light up at night!

We ended our night eating escargot and gelato at Amorino. I actually really liked the escargot--it tasted similar to squid, and it was in a garlic and parsley butter sauce, which made it even better. And the gelato was heaven. I got to choose probably 5 different flavors, in which the lady working there shaped the gelato into a rose. Pretty!

Get ready for days 3 & 4!

je suis très excité

Let's hope my five years of French can (somewhat) help me for the next four days. Allons-y!

#tbt: s club 7

Is this how "Thowback Thursdays" work? Eh, I don't care. But I do care about S Club 7's reunion! It was announced yesterday that S Club 7 will be reuniting on Nov. 14 for a charity performance benefiting Children in Need. *screams*

If you've never heard of S Club 7 before, they were an English pop group in the 90's and they were a pretty big deal (at least for me). They even had their own television show that I watched whenever I got home after school. I've spent a good chunk of my night watching their old music videos and listening to their songs, including "Reach," "Don't Stop Movin'," and the ever heartbreaking "Never Had A Dream Come True." Ah yes, those were the days. It may look and sound cheesy now, but I still love them. BRING IT ALL BACK NOW.

edinburgh, scotland

Another weekend, another trip with the International Society! And this time we drove out of England into Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Our Saturday morning didn't exactly go well. Around 15 minutes into the trip, our bus had some problems and we needed to turn back near the university to board a different one. I'm glad that noting happened in the middle of our journey, though, because I think that would've been much worse. So after some delay, we were off on our nearly six hour bus ride.

After we finally settled into our hostel around 3:00 PM, my friends and I decided to explore the city. The buildings are ridiculously gorgeous, and they're all situated on top of various hills. We mainly roamed around the touristy Royal Mile, which are streets that are in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Cashmere shops must be in tough competition, as there is a store nearly every 10 steps you take. There were plenty of men in kilts playing bagpipes as well. I'll let the pictures do all the talking now because I fail at giving good descriptions.

I wonder if he's freezing under there...

Since many of the main attractions closed early, we didn't have much time to do anything else. So we headed to dinner at The Albanach, a classic Scottish pub (of course) that serves over 200 kinds of whisky! But forget about the whisky. I was here for the haggis! No trip to Scotland would be complete without trying their national dish, right? According to BBC Food:

Haggis is a traditional Scottish sausage made from a sheep’s stomach stuffed with diced sheep’s liver, lungs and heart, oatmeal, onion, suet and seasoning.

Mmm, how delicious! It actually tastes better than it sounds. I really enjoyed my first couple of bites with the oatcake. The haggis had a lot of pepper and herby seasonings, and it had a similar texture to ground beef. But after eating it for a while, the haggis started leaving a weird aftertaste in my mouth, and my stomach felt a bit weird. I just couldn't go on. I'm glad the dish was shared because I definitely wouldn't have been able to finish it all.

Haggis with neeps (turnips) & tatties (mashed potatoes), whisky sauce, & oatcakes

After dinner, we made the odd and brave decision to go on an underground ghost tour! SPOOOKY. And just in time for Halloween! Now, let me tell you: I don't exactly know why I did this tour. I get scared relatively easily, but this sounded really interesting. Our tour guide definitely didn't leave out the gruesome details when telling us about witches being burned alive at the stake, and criminals having their ears pinned to a wall in public. *shivers* (I literally was shaking though because it was freezing outside). I think the one of the scariest parts was having to move from one room/vault to the next. Most of the time, it was pitch black underground, except for our tour guide's small flashlight (and some people's cellphones). And I was afraid not of ghosts, but of falling down. Thankfully, I made it in one piece by the last vault. Now this was the worst part. At this time, our group formed a circle around the guide as she was telling us a SPOOOKY story in the vault. My friends and I were near the back of the group, so we couldn't really see what was going on in front of us. Suddenly, we hear a guy scream out of nowhere (I'm guessing it was an actor hired to scare us), which caused everyone to scream and push the whole group back against the wall. Apparently, the scare was for the tour guide's "entertainment" to see all of us freak out. Ugh, not cool man. Not cool.

The blurriness of the photo kind of creeps me out.

On Sunday morning, we were given a 2 hour bus tour of Edinburgh. Not to be rude, but I actually slept through most of the tour. I mean, I surprisingly slept very well after the ghost tour, but I generally fall asleep on car/bus rides. And the rain didn't help, either. But I was awake when we were allowed to get off the bus to take pictures of Forth Bridge, Forth Road Bridge, and Holyrood Palace, which is where the Queen resides for a week in the summer. The Queen really lives the life, doesn't she?

Afterwards, we headed to Edinburgh Castle. Yes, I visited a castle in the U.K.! I can finally check that off my list. It's no surprise that the castle is breathtakingly beautiful. The castle also offers more lovely views of the city since it's located on top of a volcano. Because why wouldn't you build a castle on top of a volcano?

As you can tell from that photo, it was SUPER windy. I actually struggled to walk at some moments because the winds were so strong! It also rained a lot throughout the day. Not surprising.

We also stumbled upon an event going on in the middle of one of the castle's courtyards. I'm not exactly sure, but I think it was a reenactment of the Scottish military practicing with their weapons and learning defence techniques. There was one guy in uniform that was laughing the whole time. Very professional.

The guy in the back literally cannot.

Our last stop of the trip was none other than The Scotch Whisky Experience! At the beginning of the "experience," you go on a 10 minute barrel ride to learn the history of whisky. This was actually the part I was most excited for, because I thought they were kidding when they said it was an actual barrel ride. Unfortunately, Stacie and I rode on a barrel that wasn't working properly, and the television screens and lights wouldn't turn on whenever our barrel passed through. Thus, we learned absolutely nothing about whisky. Since we didn't have time to go on it again, we were offered another free glass of whisky at the end of the tour. I guess that makes up for it?

After the ride, we went into another room where a guide gave us a presentation on the various types of whisky from the different areas of Scotland. We were given a "scratch and sniff" card to smell the different types of whisky in order to choose which one we wanted to taste. I immediately went "OOOH" because I hadn't seen one of those cards since I was a kid! I ended up choosing a whisky from the Lowlands, which had citrus flavors and was apparently lighter than the others.

But here is a confession: I don't drink alcohol at all. The only time I've truly had a pint was on my 21st birthday. It was hard cider and I got it for free at a pub on campus, and I couldn't even finish it. I know, I'm in the U.K. and drinking is apart of the culture. But I just can't stand the taste, and whisky was much worse for me. I barely took a sip, but the taste was so strong and it burned my throat. I ended up giving my glasses to my friends because I'm so uncool.

We also went into a room that had cabinets filled with bottles of whisky from all over Scotland. I call it "Ron Burgundy's Heaven."

We got to keep the glasses as souvenirs!

By the end of the tour, we only had 30 minutes to get to our bus! We had to run/fast walk like mad to get to the pick up point, and thankfully we made it just in time. But as we were running, I nearly teared up as I saw the most amazing thing: a pub called The World's End! It was a truly magical moment.

It exists!

Thanks for being such a fun and beautiful city, Edinburgh! I definitely want to come back one day and visit the rest of Scotland as well. I'll be saving up for a good quality kilt, as I hope to be as pretty as your Stormtroopers.