j'adore paris

The next morning we were off to the Eiffel Tower, which to go to the top took an hour and a half of line waiting just for another hour to get to the top and see all the views. It was incredible. Once we finally made it back to the ground we took photos from the grassy side, which turned out looking surreal, as if it were fake, the blue sky was so rich and the green grass so vivid, it was incredible. Then we hiked all the way to the Arc de Triumph, and starvingly searched for a metropolitan to take us to the Louvre, where they would not let us in for free because we were not of the EU nationality, it didn't matter that we went to an EU uni. We were ticked, and there wasn't much time before they closed, like only an hour and a half, so we just decided not to go in, because it wouldn't have been worth it. Then we finally got a baguette for lunch and then made it back to our hotel for a quick nap. That night we went to a few pubs and I ate two nutella crepes, one with banana, because by that time I was starving. We then went to sleep then woke up early, ate breakfast again then headed to Versailles. We wanted to go in, but the line was ages long and we had to be at the train station in an hour to get to Grindelwald, Switzerland, so we thought. When we finally made it to the train station they informed us that there were no more seats to Switzerland that day unless we wanted to pay over 200 euro. Then we went to another man who after 30 minutes was finally able to find us a way to get there for only 11euro. He was really funny and nice, he had a great sense of humour which was the type of person we needed at that moment in time. Then we hurried off to another train station to catch it. We had a very long train ride 7pm til midnight, I believe, it may have been longer. While we were awake on the train, for most of it I slept, but I think on our second train, when we were all awake. These kid boys put their number on their ipod and had it scroll it saying call me and three hearts for these girls across the isle from us, but the entire train car thought it was hysterical. Also, a man was kicked off the train for being drunk, he had a beer that when he passed out in his seat flew off the table onto the hallway floor, luckily it was the handcap area outside of the regular car near the bathroom. He also dropped his phone in the beer, it was entertaining to witness to say the least. We were sitting next to this really kind family from Basel that was trying to help us see if there was a train to Grindelwald when we'd arrive, which there wasn't. So, when we finally walked out of the train station into this empty closed city a taxi driver finally drove past, he told us it would be 100 swiss francs to take us to our hostel, so we opted to see if the hotel across the street would be cheaper for the night, but they were already closed. Thankfully the other taxi driver that quoted us a price, a cheaper price stuck around until we decided we needed a taxi. He was really nice, and told us he would give us the 30-40 minute ride for only 64 euro, which was a great price for the distance. He told us that he was concerned because three girls shouldn't be out that late by ourselves, but that's when our train arrived. We finally made it to our hostel, to what seemed to be empty because everyone was asleep already and the place was locked, except for the side doors where the late check in was with our key in a box. It worked out great and thankfully there was free internet!

Paris holds the key to your heart...

When we arrived in Paris we took a taxi from the train station to our hotel. We stayed in the Hotel Andre Gill which is near the Moulin Rouge, thankfully just outside of all the crazyness. We went straight to our room to hopefully go to sleep, but when we opened our door we found it to be filled with this awful smoky smell. It literally made us sick, but they did not have any other rooms available and did not speak english well enough to understand the phrase 'reduced rate'. So, we sucked it up, and the next day asked for brand new sheets and everything. We ate breakfast quick, baguettes, croissants, orange juice, and tea, then headed off to take a free tour around Paris. We arrived just on time at St. Michel. Our tour guide, Justin, was an exchange student from Illonios and was brilliant, he knew everything that he was showing us. We made our way down to and around the Notre Dame. Then walked by the Seine River, and were even told stories about the rings and that they are good luck to touch. I climbed on the rings, and stood in between two of them. It was high, and I almost fell trying to reach the second ring, so someone ran over to help boost me up. Slightly awkward, but funny. Then we saw the 'new' bridge, which is actually very old and it is decorated with the drunken faces of the King's friends. We also walked through the Louvre, not in it. And saw the pyramids. Next it was through the gardens of Toulleries and to the Concord monument where we could see both the Eiffel tower and Arc de Triumph in the distant. The walk was exhausting, but when Justin mentioned one that went through Monmart at 6pm, we decided to do that one as well. Before that we went into the Notre Dame for Palm Sunday, and then rushed back to the hotel to change before it became too cold outside. We were starved when we arrived and the lady gave us a baguette to eat. Later for dinner we also ate another baguette and a piece of peanut baklava, disappointing I must say. Then we made our way to the Sacre Ceur and saw Picasso's studio and Van Gogh's apartment from his earliest works. Needless to say that was an exhausting day!

Cruisin in style

The cruise ship was the Aquamarine by Louis Cruises. It was fantastic for students on a budget, but I will assure you we got what we paid for, which means since it was not much that the boat was out dated in new things such as carpet and such. And the entertainment could be out done by a high school drama team easily. But none the less it was amazing for us. Often we were the entertainment, or at least I was. The food also was very good, which was a slight surprise to me.

First stop: Mykonos, Greece We arrived there and just walked around the main area. We saw two pink pelicans, and were even able to pet them. Then we saw the church that the city is known for and the little Venice strip and windmills. It was a really cute city. We also ate baklava there, it was delicious as always.

That same night we ate dinner on board and watched the entertainment group, which was cute and funny at times, especially because one of the male dancers zipper broke mid way and he was freaking out, but trying to hide his frustration. Then after that they played music and you could dance on stage which we did. Then when the male singer came out, as a dare (a little game we played for the trip) we ran up to him asking for an autograph on our arms, which he embarrassedly did.

Second stop: Kusadasi, Türkey This is the only port that I went on a tour. We went to the ancient Ephesus. It was amazing to see again. Afterwards I bought two pashminas of very high quality for €15 instead of €45, even the Turkish people at a few shops asked where I got them because they were so nice. I also bought a coffee (tea) cup and mini bowl.

That same day we all layed out in the wonderful sun, some people became cherry colored.

Third stop, same day: Patmos, Greece We took a taxi tour to see the cave where John wrote Revelations, and went to a monastry at the top of the Island, which had beautiful views. We tried pugies (sp?) which are desserts that only Patmos makes. I also went on a battery search, but sadly was only able to find mega alkaline instead of lithium.

That night the dinner was Greek night, so we all wore blue and white. And before dinner during the music the stage was open, and as a dare I went up and had to dance for one minute straight in front of the entire room. I did a few cha cha moves and mainly just had the room clap. When my minute was over and I left people cheered and called for an encore, but I did not do that. Then after dinner we went to Karaoke, where Kathleen and I did Summer nights from Grease, which was really funny. Then I was signed up without knowing to do Jackson 5 ABC, which I did not know the words to, and still did it to be funny, but the dare was to do it as badly as possible, to get a 29%, I did not do that poorly surprisingly I made a 35% trying as hard as possible to be awful. It was so funny though, everyone was busting out of their seats laughing.

Fourth stop: Rhodes, Greece We just went to the beach in Rhodes. It was full of rocks, but smooth ones, so they were actually very nice to lay on and were warm too. We also swam out to a three tiered platform, which is the farthest I have ever swam without being able to touch the bottom, it was actually slightly terrifying. It took me forever to jump off the 7 ft ledge into the water, because my two biggest fears are heights and drowning. I finally did and it was fun, so I decided to jump off the 12 ft ledge, but that too took a little more thinking once I was up there. Finally I did it, then it was to the 20 ft ledge, I was brave after about 30 minutes of standing in the cold air deciding if I could do it. I wish I had Kathleen and Hannahs bravery because the jumped off the 20 ft ledge the first time, Kathleen was the first to do it. She even did a flip off the 12 ft one. Then we swam back to the shore, it was so cold that I could not even tell if I was moving anymore by the time we made it back. But it was definitely worth it.

It was the dress up night that night. We had our picture taken with the captain, then went outside to take photos. Then we all hit the Disco for some dancing. Sadly there were young kids dancing too, ahhh. Anyways I convinced the singer guy that signed our arms to dance with me, oh man he did not have rhythm. I also did some latin dancing with this guy from Arizona.

Next day, stop five: Herklion, Crete, Greece We had to wake up early, so we woke up and watched the sun rise, sadly through cranes. Then we left to just shop, I bought this lush dessert, I have no idea what it is called and ate it for breakfast. Then I bought two table runners and then headed back to the ship to sleep because I was exhausted.

Later after my nap we were all out on deck in the sun and watched an ice carving show and fruits and veg carving, that was neat. Then we went to get ready for Santorini.

Sixth stop, later that day: Santorini, Greece We rode the tender boats to the Island because it is too small for docking the ship. Then we rode donkeys, yes donkeys, in a dress, to the top of the mountainous island. Then we took a taxi to the famous church in Oia. It was really awesome. Kathleen and I shared a lush dessert of cream and almonds. Then Hannah and Siusan took the cable car down, but Kathleen and I did not want to pay more money so we opted to walk down the donkey path, now only imagine what donkeys leave behind when they are walking, ahhhh gross, and there was danger of slipping on the marble rocks. But we made it safely with only a few stumbles and it was a breath taking view the whole way down, breath taking for more than just the smell... :D

Back to Athens. The Hostel we stayed at had a funny looking man in charge with a wig, ahhh crazy looking. He was very nice though. Hannah, Kathleen, Siusan, and I took naps while Maureen, Courtney, Leslie, Bethany, and Julie went to the Acropolis. Then Kathleen and I went exploring around Athens... did not do much. Just searched for four leaf clovers and failed, and used the free internet in Publics for around an hour and also started to watch Daredevil and also ate baklava, of course. Then the next morning Kathleen and I went to the highest point in Athens and took photos of the entire city, it is so much larger than I imagined, and beautiful too. Then went to the original Olympic stadium, Temple of Zeus where we saw a turtle, and the ancient Agora. Then we sped back to the hostel to meet up with everyone else to head to the airport.

That night Bethany, Julie and I left for Paris.

Baklava, Baklava, and more Baklava!

Thursday brought a flight from Charlotte to Philly to Frankfurt, Germany and finally to Athens, Greece. Greece was absolutely beautiful and the temperature was perfect! When I came out of the airport, Siusan was there waiting and then we were off to Hostel Aphrodite. We took a short nap and then wandered around Syntagma Square for, oh 5 hours, waiting to meet up with Hannah and Kathleen. We ate near the ancient Agora. This was when I was first introduced to the amazing grilled feta. Then we walked around the ritzy streets with all the fancy shops, where we found a flower stand. The man that ran it did not speak English, so he had an officer explain to us in English all of the beautiful flowers that I had not seen before. The freesia (sp?) were absolutely magnificent. And well the officer was very nice looking himself. Later we ate some baklava, twice, because lets face it, its amazing. We also ran into some elderly ladies from Tennessee, whom ended up being on our cruise ship as well. All in all the first night was a fun experience. Also, on the street that night the performers were out, and one girl was dancing with fire on rope like things, it was really cool. Well, another performer with pink cabbage patch like hair came over and was yelling at her in Greek, obviously because her music was too loud. Then she slightly touched his arm with her ashy hands and that was it, he was livid. He started to almost threaten her with his body movements as to say try and touch me again. It was not until later that I realized that the yelling had become English. So, it was a funny mix of things. The cops straightened it out, but not like Americans would. Just calmly made siren beeps until the man came to the car, yelled at and touched the cop and the cop simply told him to go somewhere else. Later that night we saw him still wiping the barely there ash off his sleeve.

The next day we went to the Acropolis. It was a really warm day, shorts weather, so it was great. I also saw the same cat I saw there 6 months previous. When we were leaving these young boys were asking me in broken English to take a picture, so I took their photo for them with their camera and then they were like no with us. It was so funny we took a photo with them and took one too to remember. They were 18 from Sicily on a school trip, so we think they just wanted to have a funny story about Americans. We ate some delicious gyros of course, but we also managed to find the worst place to eat in Athens, luckily it was cheap. They did not even have real chicken it was freezer burned patty stuff, eck. We did do a lot of shopping at only one shop because that old man gave us the best prices. I bought two vases, one with Aphrodite because of the magnificent hostel and one of Athena because of Athens. I also bought a charm. And when we were leaving he gave us all free evil eye charms.

The next day we went to Piraeus, where Siusan was almost pickpocketed. These gypsy women opened her purse and took her wallet, but luckilz Siusan noticed and smacked it out of her hand and was able to retrieve it. We just stayed in Piraeus for the day and walked to the beach, a very sharp rocked beach. We played on the seesaw though, it was really nice. We also were able to meet up with 3 of the other girls going on the cruise, Julie, Bethany, and Leslie for a little while.

The next morning was early, especially for Kathleen and I, we went on a mission to find some baklava for the receptionist, Andrea, who was especially helpful to us. We went in around 10 different bakeries before finally finding some, which is very ironic. Then we ran back brought our stuff downstairs, while we waited on the other girls I ran to Hondos Center to buy some hair dye. Then we walked with all of our bags for around 30 minutes to get to the cruise ship. We finally boarded and met up with everyone and then ate lunch after the life boat drill.

Raleigh March 23

While I was home in Charlotte for the first week of my break, I was able to not only see my family, but also catch up with a few friends. The second day I was back my friend, Nathan, came to visit me, it was fantastic to see him again. Then the next day (Saturday) I met up with my best friend, Kristin, for lunch. We had a great time talking and catching up on lost time. Then Sunday after church and going to see Ryan and Kristen, I flew to Raleigh, unannouced to most people. Only a select few knew. Jeff Jagoda picked me up and we were off to surprise the Atwater house! When I stumbled into Atwater Estate I silenced the room and was welcomed with a lot of confused, but yet pleased faces. It was really exciting to sit and tell stories with everyone again. Then Olivia came over and we dropped by Cookout so she could get dinner and then headed over to Okelly. Now no one in the Okelly house had a clue I was in town, well, except for Matt who had previously seen me at Atwater. So, Olivia walked into their kitchen first and they all cheered to welcome her, and once everything was settled I took a deep breath in as I looked into their hall mirror then crept around the corner. Aaron was talking, and was the first to see me, which when he stopped talking everyone turned (note all of this happened in seconds, but seemed longer to me). They knew I was in Charlotte, but I had told them I was not going to make it to Raleigh, but I decided to go up for Jeffords birthday and to sign my apartment lease for next year. It was fun sitting around the dinner table like old times and chatting, then we headed to Brickhouse because Matt insisted on celebrating my very belated birthday. It was really fun. Then I spent the night at Olivia and Laurens place. The next morning Lauren and I headed to campus then to see the apartment complex. After that I borrowed Bens car to go visit Allison Lee and the twins! It was great to see them again, I was afraid Shephard and Kiki would not remember me, but I have a sneaky feeling they did after a few minutes! After that I bought some Goodberrys ice cream, which I dearly missed then took a nap and reading break until Emma called. Emma and I met up at Atwater then walked to a nearby park to just catch up, it was so refreshing to speak finally in person rather than email. Then later that night we had a Southern themed birthday party for Jefford, it was a brilliant time, made me realize that I did miss home. The rest of the time home was really nice just hanging out with my mom, Olivia, dad, and Scott. It was especially nice to see my babies.... cats (Pebbles, Crisco, and Principessa) and King Louis. I also was blessed to have the opportunity the first Saturday to babysit for Joelle. It was lovely to be around kids again, I loved that. Made me glad to know that I will be coming home to babysit this summer!

what the future brings

Currently I am in Charlotte, NC for my first week of break. In total I have 5 weeks of break. Thursday I will be flying to Athens, Greece to arrive Friday around noon. Then on Monday, the 30th, a group of 11 of us leave on a Greek Island cruise. We arrive the same day in Mykonos, then its off to Kusadasi, Turkey and Patmos, Greece. The next day we are at Rhodes. Then Thursday in the morning we are in Crete and in the evening Santorini. Then its back to Athens, where we are staying an extra night before flying to Paris. We are in Paris for three days then are taking a train to a city, undecided as of yet, in Switzerland for two days. Then Munich for two days, Prague for two days, Vienna for one, Venice for one, Rome for three with a partial day trip to Napoli/Pompeii, then Florence for one. Finally to fly home to Swansea, Milan to Bristol on April 20. Then its back to school unitl May 8. I'll let you know how each city goes!

Daffodils bloom

Ok, so its been over a month. My apologies to everyone. I some how just let the blog posting slip my mind, but I'm going to try to be better about it!

So, where I left off. After Valentine's weekend. The following Monday I went to CU, Christian Union, and we set up our first Bible study for that week. The meeting went great and we were able to really establish a great group. That weekend I started to get sick, I had a terrible sore throat and a fever. I did go down to the Mumbles and explore with my two new friends from Bible study, Hannah and Kathleen.

Hannah and Kathleen both happen to be from North Carolina, and both of their dad's went to NC State. Both girls also happen to live with in 40 minutes from my Charlotte home. Hannah goes to Columbia College in South Carolina and Kathleen goes to UNC Wilmington. We have all become really close and are excited to also spend the summer together as well!

Since that weekend, every Sunday I have been going to church at Parklands with those two girls and some other American girls as well. After church we attend the student lunch where I have met and made lots of new Welsh Christian friends, which has been great. After lunch the 5 of us girls head over to a lady of the church's house named Ms. Faye. (her first name is Faye, but to be polite we call her Ms. Faye). One of the American girls is living with her for the semester. Then we hang out and she makes us dinner. Following that we all watch together Dancing on Ice and Wild at Heart. Brilliant shows, its loads of fun.

I went to London just two weeks ago for a few days with Hannah. We went and saw all the sights in less than 48 hours, it was a tight squeeze of events. We made friends with some guys from Philadephia at the Buckingham Palace and all went out to eat together, for some pizza. Oh, how American. :D They were really cool and of course we are now all friends on facebook. We stayed in a nice little hostel in Bayswater where we met some guys from South Africa that were really cool too. Hostels are really neat experiences. Of course, however, the high light of the trip was stumbling upon the end of a movie premiere and watching Reese Witherspoon and Keifer Sutherland walk to their cars. Now that was neat. Then we had some amazing ice cream and made friends with some paps, and their going to keep us informed of all the cool celebs coming in April so we can go see them too!

The weekend immediately following our adventure to London, Hannah and I joined our church for a weekend away. We went up to Pembrokeshire (I think...) and stayed at Long Barn, which is an old barn turned place for youth groups and such to stay. We had a great time! Saturday was a grand photo scavenger hunt, and of course, Hannah and I proved the competitiveness of Americans and our team won! It was so fun! Then Sunday morning before we left we were able to see a baby lamb be born, that was awesome! And she had two babies just before that and the farmer needed help to move them to another pen, so we each got to carry one, and yes they were slimey and gross, but still so cute!

Then we have caught up to St. Patrick's Day. Which I spent in London with my friend, Nonie, who is studying there. She and I were roommates at dance camp two years ago. That was a long day though, I in the morning had to turn in an essay and then take a 3 hour train to London only to get on an hour tube ride! So, needless to say all we did was get dinner then just relax. I left then at 6am to go to the Gatwick airport. I then flew back home, to Charlotte, NC. I arrived Wednesday around 4pm. And I have been here since. Home has been a really nice place to be. Nice and relaxing and great to see everyone and my pets!

Okay so... Daffodils. Just in case you were wondering about the title. The flower of Wales is the daffodil and people literally wear pins of them on their shirts all the time. Right now in Wales they are in full bloom and are beautiful. They are everywhere, everytime you see green you pretty much see yellow with it! It's so lovely.

Get back to you soon!