Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving & Paris

I had more of a Thanksgiving celebration than I had anticipated. All of CIEE held a Thanksgiving toast. It was quite the posh place, really. So the 40 of us that showed up got to mingle and drink with our teachers (which is pretty culturally acceptable, I believe). It was fun, and a chance to talk with students from other programs. Kyle and I were the only ones there from our program. Then our Guardian Angel Cristina showed up and we all walked to T.C.’s house from there. (Guardian Angels are locals who guide us through Barcelona. Now they are just fun to hang out with!)

T.C.’s family from the US had gotten a place and cooked a fantastic Thanksgiving meal for us! *See pictures!* Amazing herb-filled turkey, pumpkin bread, mashed potatoes…I was super content! It was a lot of fun to hang out with a family again. They made me miss mine a lot too! I miss annoying my brother! (I can’t pick on my host brother—he’s only 22 months old.) Who knew I would ever miss that? It was fantastic though and I ended up getting home so late that I only got two hours of sleep. Haha. Definitely worth it though.

Mashed potatoes, Kyle, Cristina and Sam at our Thanksgiving dinner with T.C.'s family.

I caught a super early plane and landed in Paris the next morning (Friday). I then took a walking tour before meeting up with Valerie. We then sought a bagels place which no longer exists. After a little shopping we crashed for the night. The next morning we got up early and went to the Louvre. We made a beeline for the Mona Lisa. It’s small. Luckily I was warned by literally everyone. It’s still cool. I even lay on the floor to see if she would still be looking at me. (Yes). From there we really only looked at Renaissance paintings. The Louvre is too big to even try to see everything.  After, we walked to the Arc de Triumph. It was very cool, and we got crepes on the way! Yum… After getting lost in a metro station that turned into a mall, I went to Notre Dame. It’s gorgeous, but I have to say that they are all starting to look the same… Then we went to the Eiffel Tower at night. We were one of the last people up to the very top. Slightly disappointing since it was in the middle of a cloud, but oh well. Also it was FREEZING! Actually it was rather cold the whole time in Paris! Then we went to a cool offbeat part of Paris to meet up with the group for dinner. Finally I flew home this morning and now have to do all my homework. Barcelona.

 Me and Notre Dame (on only 2 hours of sleep...3.5 if we count the plane)

The [in]famous pyramid of I.M. Pei. I personally loved it!


 THE Mona Lisa. Very cool! (You can't see the people surrounding her 7 people deep...)


 The Arc de Triumph! Wow...


 The Eiffel Tower!!!!!!!!!


View of Paris from middle viewing platform. Super cute!

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