Pictures and a Hostel

I'm in London right now.  Yesterday was the royal wedding and it was so cool to see all the people celebrating in the streets!
Ookayy hopefully i can get these pictures to work... I'm on a really old computer in the hostel that I'm staying at.  So we shall see.  Okay just kidding.  There's no pictures on shutterfly and this computer is too old so me.com won't support it. hahaha cool.  Well we are off to the British Museum today.  B. and I plan to spend as little time there as possible.  We want to go do all the fun touristy things.  I'm not a fan of being a tourist, however I do like to see pretty things.  So i guess I'll suck it up and deal.

Technology difficulties

So I took all these wondeful pictures on my phone today thinkthing that I'd be able t o post them on my blog. But of course, I can directly put them on blogger from my phone. Or at least I don't know how. I uploaded them to my mobile me but that won't go to normal setting. It will only do the mobile version which is useless. It's annoying.
My camera also decided to leave itself on all day today and subsequently died right when I really needed it. So I was cameraless for much of today.
I didn't sleep very much last night. I have a really tough time sleeping trough the sound of cars and Paris doesnt sleep. Ever. So they're is constancy loud cars driving by. I was fully awake by 5. Hooray.
Today we went everywhere. Inside Notre Dame, the Louvre, climbed Notre Dame, Moulin Rouge, Montemarte, and saw the Effiel tower light up. I would write more but I should at least try to sleep for a few hours. More tomorrow.

Day One: Paris

Today we arrived in Paris at 9:40 in the morning. 13 hours of flight was brutal, especially when I spent the last 9 next to a girl who got up every hour to puke or worse. Needless to say I got very little sleep. However! Paris did come at last.
When I first arrived I noticed that the saying that Europeans are quieter than Americans is very true. I actually really like it. It's not a silence. Just not annoying and in your face all the time. The next thing I notced is that French is a lot more musical than is portrayed in French films. I always felt like it was more guttural or harsh. It's actually very pretty. It was so cool. I could even understand select words I read or heard because the are cognates with words in Spanish or English.
We checked into our hotels which are rather nice. The area... That's a bit different story. After the hotel we learned how to ride the metro. I'd never ridden one before! So it was a new concept for me. I'm still not quite sure where to get off because the pronunciation and the spelling are many times very different from one another.
From there, we went to the Pompidou. We ha lunch in the cafeteria. None of us knew what to get. No one spoke English and we weren't quite hungry yet. It wasn't a great success. I really like the concept of the Pompidou though. It was a novelty for it's time.
We then walked around and saw Notre Dame. While we were there, a man was drawing the most wonderful chalk drawing. I love chalk art. So cool. We didn't go in Notre Dame because we didn't have time. Tomorrow in the early morning we have the opportunity to revisit Notre Dame and go inside. I think I will wake up and go. I badly want to, but it depends on how jet lagged I am still.
After Notre Dame we went to the Musée d'Orsay. I wasn't expecting too much but I really liked it. Most of the arty was 1850s or later. The sculptures were amazing. The were probably my favorite part. They were modern or romantic and have a rough unfinished look. So much emotion is combated through that look.
After Orsay we took the boat ride on the Sienne. (I don't think I spelled that correctly...) unfortunately I couldn't stay awake for most of it. We also went to the Effiel Tower. It is so much larger than I imagined!! I knew it was big, but not that big. It was amazing! Then when we were going home we made an unexpected stop to the Arc de Triumphe. That was pretty.
Tomorrow is our last day in Paris. We have more things to do! Lost of tomorrow will be a free day. I'll post pictures when I have access to a real computer!

One Week

In exactly one week, I will no longer be in the States.

ECSTATIC.  :D

Classes

The classes are killer.  Two hours of lecture over what we will see in two weeks, with the lights off or dimmed very low.  Nap time?  I think so.  Art history is fun, but I think I've already learned most of it though various classes I took in high school  The religion class is the real killer.  It is on Christian History.  BRUTAL.  Just a few days left of these classes thankfully.
Just keep thinking about Europe.  That is the goal.

Homeless Till Summer

Starting Friday, I will be technically homeless till late May.  Why you ask?
I'm going to Europe.
I applied last semester for a European tour through my school and was accepted.  Now the time is approaching that I will leave this fair country and travel abroad in Europe for a month.  Yes.  4 weeks of adventure.
We will be visiting Paris, London, Rome, Vienna, Barcelona, and many more cities!  Seeing museums and historical sites.  I cannot wait!
For this tour, we are required to take classes.  I am signed up for an Art History class and a Christian religion class.  The Art History class mainly focuses on art created in the Renaissance and after.  The religion class is about saints and symbolism in art and focuses a lot on spiritual aspects of the tour.
I won't be leaving for Europe for another two weeks.  In that time we will be holding the main portion of our classes.  Next week is the spring break for my university.  i will not be leaving.  Since I am off for spring track, I felt that it would be a worthless investment to purchase housing for the whole two weeks I was here.  So... I'm couch living for those weeks.  This weekend i will spend with my family out of town.  Starting Sunday C. has been so kind as to let me use her couch for the break.  I'm so thankful!  You honestly have no idea.  She is a lifesaver.  She is also going on the European tour, so you will probably hear a lot more about her(:
The next week I'm up for grabs.  Whoever wants me on their couch, I'm theirs.
Then is the Easter break.  I will go down to be with my family, and fly out on Monday.
First stop?  Paris.