Je Suis Ici

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been so long but I didn't have internet the whole time I was in London and now I finally have it for a day! When I actually arrive in Nancy I'll be able to upload all my pictures and write blogs more regularly!

Well England was amazing if I can sum it up in one word. It was kind of cold and rainy when Eric and I got there (and for pretty much the whole time we were there) but that only added to the charm of England (most of the time). The first day we arrived we were so exhausted from our trip that when we got to Tony and Wendy's ( our extremely kind hosts) we konked out for a few hours. After that we were ready to do some exploring. We went with Lincoln and Misty ( the dogs) to a cozy little town near where we were staying (Ruislip) to do some walking. Then we decided to eat dinner and what else an English pub! The next day we explored London with Tony and Wendy; walking through Hyde Park, gawking at Buckingham Palace, trying to sneak a peak at number 10 downing street, walking beside Parliament, and strolling by the Thames, you know just normal things done in a days work :). Oh and of course going to Convent Garden and watching a mini orchestra play for a few pounds. The next day we decided to go to the London Eye and see all of the city. It went up unbelievably high showing us London from a completely different perspective. We then went to what I was dying to see and others ,ay ask why, the Underground War Rooms of Churchill. It was so interesting and inspiring to see all the places where Churchill ran and decided the fate of things in WWII ( thats the history loving person inside of me).

The rest of England trip consisted of us feeding swarms of pigeons, visiting my cousin who lives in London and eating some amazing Indian food, going to the gardens and grounds/palace of where the infamous Henry the 8th lived and married wives, drinking tea with the queen at Westminster Palace (maybe it was just seeing the palace from the outside), and visiting the famous Eton school for the extremely wealthy and one day prime minister boys of England.
Tony and Wendy also took us to a quaint little village where we saw black swans swim through the little river in the town. We also went to the top of a hill where the wind almost blew us down and looked out across the country to see Wales in the distance.

Now for the interesting part, we were supposed to go to Paris on the Eurostar, but the day before we left the chunnel caught fire and haulted all travel. The nice part was that we got to spend another day with Tony and Wendy, but the part that was hard was that we had to figure out a different way to get to Paris. Tony and Wendy ended up graciously giving us a ride to Dover where we booked a ferry to Calais. From Calais we were going to take a train to Lille and then a train from Lille to Paris. However because of the fire everyone had the same idea as us and the ferry was overbooked. So we ended up leaving 2 1/2 hours late and then just missing our train to Lille. When we left on the next train we were sure we were going to miss our last train to paris, however we when we arrived in Lille we ran to the other train station that our train was leaving from and literaly just made it. We got on and the train left a second later. Keep in mind we were doing all this while carrying our luggage for 6 months!

Well I will have to tell you our Paris adventures later because I have to get ready to leave for Venice now! Pictures are on there way, don't worry I took a ton!

Salut!

T Minus 60 Seconds!!

So I am officially freaking out! I leave in less than 24 hours and I still have to pack all my clothes! I have all the clothes I want but i have to narrow it down, which is extremely hard. Time felt like it just completely flew by and what was a month until leaving is now only a few hours!!! Packing for winter when its 90 degrees is a whole lot harder than it may seem. But I have to keep telling myself that I'm not going to the middle of nowhere and they do have stores in France, so if I forget something I wont be left stranded.

I'm getting so nervous, but I know that this is going to be an amazing experience. I can't imagine being away for 6 months in a completely different country but I'm pretty sure that I will never regret going. Everything will be new and very European, which will be a nice change from the the America that I have been in my entire life. That reminds me I applied to get an absentee ballot sent to me in France, because there's no way I'm not voting in this election!! For those of you who aren't registered, go out there and do it!! No matter what your affiliation get your voice and vote out there! I'm going to be sporting my Obama shirt in Europe :).

Well the next time I put a post up I will be in Europe, which is still pretty hard to believe. I'll start posting all my adventures and stories and don't worry I bought a memory card for my camera with like a thousand pictures I can take so I will be posting them up as they come. Ok well everyone wish me luck!!!

Au revoir pour maintainent!!

Evangelia