Rainy Saturday

I LOVE RAIN!... just sayin

Today, Ashley and I had a few errands to do, but only one of them got accomplished. We needed to go to the CAF office, buy escargot, eat lunch, and go grocery shopping.

CAF: I had to go to the doctor for a physical last week (in Nantes), then I filled out a bunch of forms, then I turn them in at the CAF office. After I do this, they will help me pay for my rent! Since my rent is already mostly paid, though, my landlord will put the extra money in my bank account. But the office was not open since it is Saturday. We'll have to go on Monday after class.

Escargot: The typical way someone makes escargot is in an oven, but we found a recipe to make it on the stove. And when in France, right? So we went to the Saturday market, and we couldn't find any. Usually there is a bunch! Very strange.

Lunch: This is the only thing that got accomplished. We ate kebabs at our favorite stand. I will miss that so much!!

Grocery store: For some reason the buses aren't running today! We had to use the Sunday bus to get from CAF to the market. We walked everywhere else. So therefore, we have no way of getting to Carrefour. So we decided to just go to Marché Plus (which I have been pronouncing wrong the entire time I've been here). But of course it had to be closed. So we'll have to go on Monday. The tiny grocery store is open, but I'm sure I can scrounge around today and tomorrow for food from my fridge.


Oh, so my roommate has been MIA the last two weeks, and she finally came back last night. Then her parents came today and she moved out. She'll have to come back though in a few weeks to check out with the landlord... so I'm not sure if I'll ever see her again. She left me a note because I didn't see her last night or today. That was nice.

Now I will continue to enjoy my rainy day :)

XOXO,
Dena

London... a tad late

I am so bad with updating!! I was really good about it in the beginning. I will make up for it by posting a ton of pictures!



Big Ben and Parliament!! BB was much taller than I expected, actually.



The London Eye. It was so amazing to go to the top. Thanks, Stephanie, for practically making me do it! I hate heights, but it wasn't scary at all. I could see all of London from the very top, or so it seemed.



Fish n' Chips... of course. It was delicious! I got it two nights for dinner. This is a lot coming from me, considering I don't generally enjoy fish. I loved it though, so maybe I am turning over a new leaf and becoming less picky of an eater?



Buckingham Palace. We went and saw the changing of the guards. Honestly it was just boring to watch. Haha. It was basically the same as the changing of the guards in Monaco, only it lasted longer and there were more guards. Of course I had to take tons of pictures of the guards in funny hats, but they were all turned wrong, and I'm not sure how to rotate pictures on here.



Tower of London Bridge. It is often confused as being London Bridge. We took a nice boat ride, which went under both bridges, and I didn't even take a picture of London Bridge because it looked so boring! It was just a boring old bridge. This one was much much cooler.

More London Pictures

Me, riding on the London Eye. You can see Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminister Abbey behind me. The Eye was probably my favorite part of London. It was so much fun!!!



This is the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Park. It took forever to find because the directions kept steering us in the wrong direction!! It was well worth it. This is one of the things I really wanted to see.



Of course I had to take a picture with a telephone booth!!! And I even used one. :)



This is in front of Shakespeare Globe theater. This is one of the other places I really wanted to go. I'm sad that it isn't a very good picture. :( We could not take pictures inside the theater because they were actually doing rehearsals. It was very neat to see that being done. I would have loved to see the show, but they were opening the same day we left.



Yummiest Mexican food EVER!!!! And by ever, I mean, since I have been in Europe.

I'm back!

I'm back from London! The only info I'll release for now is that it was AMAZING!!! I loved it, and I am missing it already. I woke up from a nap a couple of hours ago, and now I am getting ready to go to bed for good. Hopefully I will update and post some pictures tomorrow or Sunday!

Love,
Dena

London!

I leave for London in the morning! Yay! Well technically Paris, but whatever. We will be there tomorrow night, leave for London Tuesday morning, and then back to Paris early Friday morning. I'll let you know how it goes when I get back! I doubt I will be able to blog while I am there or in Paris, but maybe. I will definitely post pictures soon after I get back.

XOXO,
Dena

Pictures

I thought I would post some more photos. Two are from Cody's visit, and the first two are from yesterday. I hate how they show up out of order, but oh well. Cody was clearly here before yesterday, so just pretend like the ones of him and I are posted first.

Me with my sandwich yesterday. We went for a walk by the river. It was so nice outside!!

Last night, Ashley and I decided to make hot fudge sundaes! We went to Marche Plus to buy ice cream and whipped cream. Then we melted chocolate we already had mixed with cream, and the put the ice cream on top. So delish.


Us in front of the Eiffel Tower (obviously...)


Cody and I at the chocolate show. SOOO yummy!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Mine went by way too fast (as usual). This is my last week of class before Spring Break. YAY! Then it's off to Paris and London for 5 days. :) It is going to be so much fun! Then it's just a few more weeks until my trip to Nice and Cannes to see my sorority sister that is working at the Cannes Film Festival. It will be so cool Nice is my favorite city in France, so I am excited to return, and I have never been to Cannes.

Oh, so Ashley and I went out for Lebanese food on Friday. Bad idea. I will probably not be doing that again. At least while I am here. I would be willing to go to a Lebanese restaurant in the states, where I would be able to actually read the menu and know what I am ordering!

Have a good Sunday!
Dena

Happy Easter!!

Hope everyone is having a great day! It's so weird to not be having a huge lunch with my family after going to church. But I'll definitely be home for next year!

I forgot the rest of my week of hell! My computer decided to break on Saturday also! The monitor basically came apart, so I glued it back together. I think it will be able to last the rest of the semester... as long as I don't move it from the spot it is in. Saturday was also the day that Bridget had our meeting for housing next year. It didn't go so well at first because we got a bad location and are going to have to spend a lot more money than where we wanted. But a few days ago SLU gave us our housing scholarships back! So now it is actually cheaper. It is still bad about the location because the apartment is in the opposite direction of where I want it to be, but it will due. I think it'll be nice. It's fully furnished and technically off campus, though it is "SLU run." Not really sure what that means yet, but we'll find out!

I don't have class tomorrow, so that will be nice. Everything will be closed, so if it is nice outside, Ashley and I are planning on going to a park. It has been rainy and cold though. We also did laundry today... festive I know! Haha. But I got it done. It is currently lying on my floor drying. About every ten minutes I have to put a new shirt on the radiator (or whenever the current item on it is dry). I won't do it again the weekend we get back from London. We have all of our tickets purchased! Now we just need to find a hotel in London. That won't be too hard since there are about a billion.

Once again, Happy Easter!
Dena