13 hours to go...

The final countdown has begun: 12 hours and 45 minutes to go until I leave for the airport.  This is TOO weird.  If anyone knows where the past 3 months has gone, please let me know!!!  

These are just 2 quotes that don't even come close to describing this trip, but they do a decent job:
"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end."  Ursula Le Guin
"It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are." e. e. cummings

and of course, the old cliche song quote everyone loves:
"IT'S SOMETHING UNPREDICTABLE, BUT IN THE END IT'S RIGHT.  I HOPE YOU HAD THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE." Green Day

It definitely was something unpredictable, and everyone I have met on this trip has been awesome...the 23 of us will always remember the spring 2005.  As I pack today/tonight and say my final goodbyes, I just have one thing left to say:
CIAO BELLAS  (thanks jeff!!)

Lots of love...

Finals are over...eventful week

Ok, so I don't really remember where I left off, except that I'm pretty sure it's been a while.  My birthday weekend was EXTREMELY eventful...lots of drinking, shocker.  Friday night Kris and I went to the Champs-Elysees to a bar called Le Paris and had lots of Martinis.  It was a really cool place to sit and hang out and have a drink(or like 3 martinis which you get the shaker so you really get like 2 or more drinks from each...woo) and listen to music.  We went home SO burre(drunk in french).  Saturday we woke up slightly hungover...realizing that we had to sleep, eat, and do it all over again that night.  Bring on the masachism! LOL  We ended up drinking in the dorms with some of my favorite people, but not all...Liz, Marli and Nicole and played F*ck the Dealer...it's a drinking game, don't ask.  I was definitely having fun, but wanted to go dancing, after all we were celebrating my birthday.  We ran into some of the guys that live on our floor(yes, they're french) and we started talking...they asked us to come out with them since we were just going to wing it and find a place anyways.  We went to the Latin Quarter to a place called Le Sainte...it was AWESOME!  When we first got there, they were playing salsa music.  Let's see here:  Me=tipsy=trying to salsa????  It was histarical according to Kris, so thanks!  Then they started playing other music which was good...we were all having a BLAST.  I drank A LOT, sue me it was my 21st! :)  The boys even told the DJ that it was my birthday, and so even though I have no idea what the DJ said, he wished me a happy birthday over the music!  I'm so cool sometimes :) just kidding.  At one point, Kris and I did a straight shot of vodka...Liz and Nicole's orders, they made me(even though they were not there, but I promised).  Kris:  You know you're in trouble when you take a straight shot of vodka and say "Are you sure this isn't water???"  Oh boy.  I also promised Liz that I would do something crazy...so after a few drinks, I danced on the platform in the corner of the bar...yes, there are pictures, but they may remain unseen.  LOTS O BLACKMAIL.  I did get pictures of the cute french guys that were with us though!  I'm not that dumb :)  Sunday morning was HANGOVER CENTRAL--but not as bad as Saturday.  My dad's rule: No puking, other than that, there are no rules.  Well, my dad would be proud: I didn't puke and I definitely went and spent the big bucks on decent vodka in the dorms...he would be very disappointed if I drank something like Effin Vodka(HAHAHA).  Overall, my birthday was a GREAT GREAT night.  On my actual birthday,  we went and had dinner at the Eiffel Tower and it was cool!  Too much food with a hungover me, oh man!   Monday I enrolled in classes for this summer/fall and I got a great schedule...all day on tuesday/thursday, one class on wednesday for 3 hours and I'm not really sure what I am going to do with my time on mondays and fridays because I HAVE NO CLASS!!!!!  Who's excited? ME ME ME!  Road trip! :)  Yesterday I had my art history final which went well, I should get my grade today.  I just finished my western civ II final and it went slightly less as well as yesterdays...oh well.  I have the next day or 2 to hang out, pack, do laundry so I don't have to do it when i get home and am severly jet lagged and say my goodbyes.  :(  Lizzie...my roomie.  I might cry!
These past three months have been absolutely amazing.  Even the not so wonderful stuff has been very overcompensated for by everything else.  I cannot believe that I am actually coming home on saturday and that it's all over.  Since I'm sitting in ACCENT typing this and might cry, I'm going to stop, and I will come online tomorrow and finish my final thoughts and write my  last journal entry of KUWC 2005.  
In the words of my favorite roommate EVER:  Instead of chanting ROCKCHALK JAYHAWK we should be chanting:  HWC Study Abroad 2005...WOOWOO!  

Quick Little Update

Kris is finally in PARIS!!!  Yesterday was the best day ever because I finally got to see my best friend!  We went to lunch at this cute little restaurant out by the Opera Garnier, then walk all over...from the Opera to the Place de Vendom to the Tuileries/The Louvre.  It was awesome.  Then last night it was technically stop day eve, which makes today STOP DAY...so we all drank in the dorms.  WHAT A NIGHT.  Didn't get drunk though, but we had fun.  Liz--knock on the wall one more time, see what happens! :)  This morning Kris and I got up and went grab coffee and a muffin...then went to the Arc de Triomphe(wow!) and the Champs Elysees!!!  We were going to go up the Arc de Triomphe but it has been raining all day, so we opted not to.  We walked all up and down the Champs Elysees and oogled at all the stores...we did end up going in  a few, and I finally found my birthday present!  I got the most beautiful watch...Bubbee and Grandpa, wait til you see what you bought me!  I'm VERY excited!  Then we went to a nearby bar to get out of the rain and had a drink.  Gotta love the drinking age in Europe.  Speaking of which...since I will most likely not be at the computer before monday:

Sunday I will be in the dorms probably between 3p.m. and 5:30p.m.(Paris time) and then after 11 p.m. (again, Paris time).  If you call and I'm not there, leave a message with Liz and I'll call you back...if no one answers...you can try back later.  Liz takes great messages though! :) 

Oh and cuz I'm a major dork, I came up with a little song for my birthday:  Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, I'm officially allowed to be drunk in public, Happy 21st Birthday to me!!!  HAHA I KNOW I'm a DORK.  Don't care!

Side note:  The past 3 months have been amazing, good, bad, and indifferent.  Unfortunately, my time here is SLOWLY and QUICKLY coming to an end seeing as I am now coming home next Saturday(the 16th).  My dad and I now have more in common: dehydration and a trip to the hospital, however, I was smart enough to sit down before I blacked out to avoid further injury.  Hope the ankle gets well soon...golf is out til June or so, what to do???

anyways,  lots of love!

 

 

 

NCAA Championship

So last night UNC beat Illinois by 5 points to claim the National Championship that SHOULD have been KU's if only that hadn't CHOKED on Bucknell in the first round.  I've got nothing to say...UGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH...props to Roy Williams, he finally won his stinkin' championship...shoulda won it with us, we shoulda won this year, but still...UGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

Weekend in Normandy

This past weekend in Normandy was AMAZING!  (really long, too!)  Friday morning we got up at about 6:30, got on the bus and drove 3 hours to Caen to see the Peace Memorial Museum there.  The museum was really interesting, we walked through it for about an hour, then saw a film from the soldier's point of view: half the screen from the German side, half from the Allied side.  It was about the D-Day invasion at Normandy(obviously) but it was cool.  After lunch we got back on the bus to drive about an hour to Omaha Beach.  (for those who don't know/remember...it was one of the American Beaches from WWII).  We got to actually walk down to the beach which was AWESOME.  It's quite a hike...you basically walk through all the brush that the German's would have been sitting and waiting in, and then you get to the beach and it's bare.  It's so calm and serene and you can't even possibly begin to imagine that there were thousands of people that were invading the beach and you are standing the exact spot where probably many of them died.  Afterwards we walked up to the American Military Cemetary(it was in the movie Saving Private Ryan) and just walked through and looked at all of the gravestones.  What is interesting that I never knew, was that there are something like 9,371 graves at the cemetary and those are just the bodies that were unknown or not requested to be buried in the states.  Also, France gave the land to the U.S. when they decided to re-do the cemetaries and build one large one(that's there now) so the soldiers are buried on U.S. soil.  The names on the tombstones are all facing west too...symbolizing that west is where the U.S. is.  I thought that it was really touching to know that they purposely place the names on the tombstones like that.  I thought the cemetary was really emotional.  I don't know why, but it just got to me.  Before I left, I took the stone that I had stolen from the beach earlier that i was going to keep as a souvenir, and I placed it on one of the tombstones.  
Friday night for dinner, Marli, Kevin, Nicole and I went to this cute little restaurant right next to our hotel in St. Malo.  When we asked the waiter to explain the menu, he told us there were clams on it.  Marli and i both ordered clams as our first course and guess what we  got?  Raw oysters.  WHAT?  Yeah, so I ate all 6 of mine and one of Marli's (against my will, she did not eat hers and didn't want it to look like she didn't eat them, so we all "pitched in" to help her out...yuck).  Let's go with I will NEVER eat raw oysters again, eeww.  I like clams...those were definitely NOT clams.  We also got crepes for dessert which were AMAZING, they were chocolate, hence the amazing.  
Saturday we went to Mont St. Michel and got a tour of the little island/church.  It was really interesting.  We also got a walking tour of St. Malo when we got back and it is really pretty.  It's basically an Island surrounded by defensive city walls and we were walking on top of the walls.  the ocean was cool :)  Saturday night Liz, Marli, Nicole, Kevin and I went for crepes for dinner and then had ice cream! :)
Sunday we went to Bayeux to see a 200 ft.(or something like that) tapestry...woohoo for the excitement, next...
Afterwards we went to Giverny to Claude Monet's house.  It was really cool to see, but probably would have been nicer if the flowers were ALL in bloom and the trees had more leaves on them but still we had really REALLY  nice weather and so it was cool to see.
After that, we had a nice long bus ride home.
So I've been writing down everything that people say on this trip, dumb stuff, funny stuff, things we've just caught onto saying or doing...I told all of my friends about it and it's SO FUNNY now because they (mainly kevin) are just saying stuff to try and "get in my book."  Then there are those that don't realize yet that I AM listening, and I AM writing down EVERYTHING.  What was that Jeff?  "Attention mortals, I'm now exiting the shower?" yeah...don't ask.  
Well, we're in about the 8th inning, bases loaded and only one strike.  (nice right?) The last two weeks are going to be action packed.  By action packed I do mean homework and class, but still.  Intinerary for the  next week(tentative of course):
Today: no class because our professors love us: aka free day to catch up on reading and homework.
Tuesday: Class, papers due, more work...one last visit to the Musee d'Orsay.
Wednesday: More class, no homework due, visit the Picasso Museum.
Thursday: Class, (ditching out on western civ) Kris comes to PARIS!!!!!! Night one of the party weekend...
Friday: Day off...being a tourist showing Kris around the city, most likely going out friday night
Saturday: Same as friday, going out at Night to celebrate my 21st!!!! (we have class on monday, so the drunken fiesta starts saturday night)
Sunday: MY BIRTHDAY...aka a day of hopefully being hungover and loving it!  Dinner @ the Eiffel Tower.

As far as calling me goes:  I am pretty sure I lost my cell phone, so my dorm room number is all you've got.  I will post an entry later in the week so you'll know when I'll be aruond...
Lots of Love!  Gotta go to homework.

The Eiffel Tower

Ahhhh...
One more week down, crazy.  Yesterday we did what every single tourist in Paris does: go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  No, we did not climb the stairs like we did in Florence, are you nuts?!?!?  After we stood in line forever, we took the elevator to the top.  Let me tell you for a person afraid of heights, it's some scary uh, stuff.  It's about 4X the height of the Duomo, and only about 50-100 feet shorter than the Sears Tower.  Didn't like the top of the sears tower then, didn't like the height of the Eiffel Tower now.  As scary as it was, I did it, I'll probably do it again with Kris and or my parents, but the fact is, I did it.  WOW.  It was really cool to see Paris from the top of the tower...but scary.  I got a few pictures, I accomplished yet another goal here, GO ME! :) haha.  
Last night I did the unthinkable...I went to be at 8pm.  Man, I was TIRED.  I haven't been sleeping too much here for lack of silence after about midnight, cuz the girls next door think it's funny to keep me up at night.  Not a big deal, I showed them...slept for 12 hours last night, woohoo.  I think that's at least 3 nights of sleep in one!  
Tomorrow we get to get up at the CRACK of dawn to get on the long 6 hour bus ride to Normandy.  Yeah!  We aren't going straight there...you know, a 3 hour bus ride here, a 3 hour bus ride there...We are stopping at Omaha Beach and the American Memorial tomorrow--me, the history major...WHO'S EXCITED?!?!?  I think it's going to be the coolest thing ever to be on the beach...kind of intense!
I finally got my cell phone to work, so I am going to have my parents do a test run to make sure it really works before I post the number...hopefully it will work and anyone that needs to call me on that...not too early in the morning please!!! HAHA
I will write back after our fun weekend excursion to Normandy.
Lots of Love!

the countdown begins!

London was amazing!!  I had such a good time doing absolutely nothing touristy with Laura!  We did go to Abbey Road on Friday and walked across is while taking pictures...gotta love it.  Surprise, my dad knows a)who the beatles are and b) knows that abbey road is from their album cover...who knew????  We went shopping on friday, but didn't buy anything(which is fine).  Friday night we went out with her friend Susan from Cornell who is really cool, and we got a little tipsy but had SO much fun!!! Saturday laura and I went to the Portobella market and walked around,  bought different color matching rings and hats(yes, we are LOSERS) but we love it!!  Other than that we pretty much just hung out, did some homework and enjoyed hanging out because we haven't seen each other in 3 months.  Half the clique back together again, YEAH!!  
Ok, so the official countdown has begun around here in Paris, so I'll fill you all in back at home.  As of today, March 29:
9 days until my best friend comes to visit me in Paris
17 days until the worlds greatest parents come to Paris(woohoo their first time in Paris!)
18 days until my 3 months of amazing adventure comes to a close
26 days until I make my appearance back in the states(lines are now open for booking of appointments to see me! LOL)
and the best # of the entire countdown:
12...why 12 you ask?  Because of two reasons:
a) think dyslexic-ly...
b)that's how many days I have until I'm 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
not that I'm excited and not that I'm counting...
lots of love!