Everyone else left for break today (Spain), but I don't leave until Tuesday, so I'm hangin' out here solo. I don't really have a whole lot going on and can't think of any sights I want to see, so I'm just kinda bee-boppin' around--getting in some "Becky time". I went shopping (bought some bathing essentials), strolled around the neighborhood, and did my first--yes, FIRST--round of laundry since I've been here. It cost me £5 to wash and £1.60 to dry, which is about $13.15, but it's done! Hurray! Then, I made some lunch, folded my laundry, and relaxed for a bit, checking out some websites of prospective future job opportunities I found. When I'd had enough, I went back out to campus the neighborhood and eventually ended up at a pub to have dinner and a pint. And on my way home, I decided to write a blog entry mentioning a few things.

-There's a church around the corner with a plaster (or some other material) Jesus on a wood cross... but Jesus only has one arm.

-Riding with a British driver is like riding with one of your friends who gives you reason to fear for your life, but swears they're a good driver, and never gets into an accident. I have yet to see a fender bender here, yet drivers swerve around each other and speed down crowded streets without thinking twice.

-Whereas in America, motorcyclists are expected to stay within the lines and obey the same traffic rules as cars, here, they squeeze and zig-zag around cars with ease.

-Cars park facing both directions on both sides of the road. So, it's acceptable to cut through oncoming traffic to back into a parking spot on the opposite side of the road.

-Iaian Archer is my new love. He's not a real, date-able boy; he's a musician I've taken a liking to. Go to http://www.iainarcher.co.uk/ and click on Listen, if you care to hear his stuff. He's formerly of Snow Patrol, one of my favorite bands, and is now doing his own thing.

-I've been having the craziest of dreams lately. Last night, it had something to do with being caught in every natural disaster imaginable and, somehow, not dying.

-We've all noticed that people with babies or pets get really weird when you fuss over / smile at their baby or pet, and we couldn't understand why. I mean, in the States, it's pretty common to look at someone's small child, think "aww, how cute", and shell out a huge grin. Well, Leah asked one of her co-workers and found that British people tend not to trust others, and tend to feel that people who smile at their child or pet are being creepy and might possibly want to steal it. Well!

That's all I can think of for now.

My upcoming travel plans are looking like this:

Feb 20-22: Denmark
Feb 22-26: Rome
March 3: Salisbury & Stonehenge
March 4: Leeds Castle & Rochester
March 23-25: Amsterdam

Other trips yet to be worked out include Germany, Ireland, & Whales. That is if I have any money left.

And to all you readers... get your fingers in motion! I tell you all about my adventures, but rarely hear from you. Don't be that creepy dude lurking my page for three months without saying hello. I'm not keeping this blog for my health (I could run a mile in less time). What do you think? Did you learn something? Am I an idiot for not knowing ___? What picture did you like best? What do you wish I'd talked about? How is your week going? What have you been doing for fun lately? What's the weather like? I don't care what it is; I just like to know you're still there.

Paris, cont.

On the second day, we visited the Palace and Gardens of Versailles.
There's a ton of history and fun facts around the estate, but I don't remember most of them, so I'll just refer you to the website, which is quite interesting:
http://www.chateauversailles.fr/en/110_Construction.php
You can navigate through the pages by clicking the numbers all the way at the bottom.

When we first arrived, we just couldn't get over how huge it was. We had two hours to explore the grounds and we surely weren't going to spend that time standing in the cold--and the three of us are history/sight-seeing enthusiasts--so we paid to go inside and explore. It was, without a doubt, 13,50€ extremely well-spent.

Most hallways were filled with statues and/or lavish paintings. How do you find that many sculpters?? Ask Louis XIV, I guess.

Marie Antoinette had the most ridiculously huge and beautiful gardens.



Every room was filled with beautiful paintings--on the walls AND ceiling. A person could spend 15 minutes in a room and not take it all in.

This is the hall of mirrors. You can read more about it on the website mentioned above (page 2, I think).

Someone's bed chamber. Louis XIV, I think. Must be they picked up his dirty laundry and took out the tv and video games so people wouldn't steal them.

I could have spent all day in this room looking at the paintings. It blows my mind thinking about the number of artists and years it took to do them all!

After escaping the merchants outside, harassing tourists to buy anything from scarves to handbags to keychains of the Eiffel Tower, we boarded the bus and departed to see more sights.

This is in front of Mansart's dome at Les Invalides, where Napolean's tomb is located. It is now a hotel. We didn't go in, but I hear he's in there under the dome.

And finally, the moment I had been waiting for...

Notre Dame!!

The gargoyles are rain spouts, and they're all over the huge cathedral.



I couldn't believe I was actually inside the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was beautiful, but not in the same sense as St Paul's, which is well-lit and full of color and majesty. ND was dim and mysterious, yet inviting just the same.

And then, since I lost the others I came with, and we still had plenty of free time before having to be back on the bus, I went exploring. I found St Michael's Place, and was hoping to find St Michael's Church because that's where my Uncle Donald served as choirmaster and organist. It wasn't on the local map I found (but neither were any other churches), and I don't speak French, so I just wandered around for a while. I did not find the church, but I did find St Michael's Fountain:

As I was wandering, I got a craving for dessert (I had a delicious crepe before going into Notre Dame), so I popped into a grocery store and picked up a package of cookies. They said 1,38, but they rang up as 3,something. She told me my total, but since I was looking at the screen for the scale and not the cash register, I thought she was asking me a question, so I got really confused (because I don't speak French and didn't know how to respond), and it turned into a big deal. Well, I thought about just leaving the cookies and walking out, but then i saw the actual screen (with the price on it), paid, and left feeling like a dumb tourist.

Here's the Sacre Couer ("sacred heart"). We hiked up that huge hill and went inside, and it was quite lovely, as is the area of shops next to it. There, Becky and I made an enemy by pretending we were going to sit down and eat, but really, we just needed to use the toilet. Sometimes, you do what you gotta do.

Today was kinda boring. I woke up earlier than usual (about 9:30am) and I was going to do laundry down the street, but I didn't want to wake my roommates packing up my stuff, so I hung out until it was time to go to class. Class was 2-5, as it is tomorrow, and afterward, I did a bit of shopping before coming home to cook dinner. I had my heart set on doing laundry then, but soon, Laura came home soaked from the newly-fallen rain, and I decided it was just a bad idea.

In other news... today is Jason's Birthday. Happy b-day, Jason! You made my blog!

Jake also makes my blog since I just found out he reads it. Hello, Jake!

Tomorrow HAS to involve: class, laundry, and initial research for my upcoming presentation.

Ok... it's after midnight. I must be getting to bed. I'm sorry there wasn't more interesting info in this blog, but I'm really tired and I think I'm getting sick, so my creative energy is gone. OH! But I did take a tour of Parliament yesterday. More info on that coming up soon!

museum pics

Natural History Museum

Natural Science Museum

pretty bird

Today I learned this: Busking is the practice of doing live performances in public places to entertain people, usually to solicit donations and tips. Those engaging in this practice are called buskers. Busking is a British term used in many areas of the English-speaking world. In the United States the term busking is almost unknown; buskers in the USA are called street performers or street musicians.

See, there are "buskers" at just about every tube stop, and they're really good. I have yet to see/hear a busker who wasn't very talented. They usually sing or play an instrument along with an instrumental track booming from a cd player. Today, I passed a sign in one of the narrow corridors of the tube station that said "No Busking", and since I didn't know what it meant, I wrote it on my hand to look up when I got home.

I visited the Natural History and Science Museums today, which was really dumb of me to think I could enjoy myself in them on a Saturday afternoon. Kids everywhere! Yuck! Then, I took the tube to the Camden markets to find an inexpensive pair of cowboy boots. I didn't find the boots, but I did get a pair of shoes for £10, a purse for £7, a necklace and earrings for £5 (buy one, get one free), and a belt buckle I bargained down to £8. I definitely lucked out!

Fun phrase of the day:

How ya doing; alright?
Ok, now most of us would answer that with, "yeah, I'm alright," or "I'm pretty good" or something like that. Wrong. According to social rules, you don't actually answer this question; it's rhetorical. You reply with, "how ya doin; alright?" That's right. You repeat the question. I haven't gotten the hang of it because, frankly, I feel silly - like a parrot.

Speaking of "birds"... that's what men sometimes call females... especially attractive ones.

That's all for now!

Some Q's A'd

US: bathroom
EK: toilet

US: X all the boxes
UK: tick all the boxes

US: elevator
UK: lift

US: truck
UK: laurie

US: get along (like each other)
UK: get on

US: try it
UK: have a go at it

US: fries
UK: chips

US: chips
UK: crisps

and the most important one of all
US: soccer
UK: football
US: football
UK: American football

Ok... my internship.
Well, I work for a record label that owns a night club. Most of the work I do is for the club. I make sure that our listing that we send out to people is up to date with the latest lineup and price, and from that, I make sure that all our shows have tickets for sale with three seperate outlets. I also look up descriptions of bands to add to the listing. Gradually, I've started to do a bit more, like researching certain types of companies who pick out music for advertising, tv, and film and other various tasks. I work from 1-7 and usually get something to eat mid-afternoon from the sandwhich shop on the corner, for which I get a weekly allowance of £20 (not bad at all). There are only three of us in the office, which is typical for a small indie company, but we have quite a bit going on. Since I've expressed interest in working with label-specific things, Paul is going to have me help with licensing contracts next week perhaps. I'm really looking forward to that because I'll get to learn a bit more about licensing and contracts, both in which I'm very interested.

Is the experience what I expected or hoped for? Not entirely. I hoped to work for a larger organization with more weight in the marketplace. Am I enjoying myself? Yes. My internship experience is what I make of it, so I'm asking lots of questions, doing any task thrown at me, no matter how menial, and soaking up as much info as possible. Even if I don't figure out what my dream job is, this will help narrow things down, and that's valuable knowledge.

More Paris pictures to come soon.

Pear-ee

On Friday morning, Becky, George, and I left our residence at 5:45 and took off for the bus pick-up point. Front there, we took a 2-hour ride to Dover, where we caught our ferry.

The ferry was HUGE. It had a full cafeteria, 2 cafes, a bar, an arcade, 2 stores (tax free), and more.
The most exciting part about the ferry, though, was that everyone loaded their cars/vans/busses right on the boat and took it over to France. There had to be at least 60 cars loaded (maybe a lot more), not to mention about 5 busses, several big rigs, campers, etc. On a boat!




The ride was about 1 hour 20 min (not long at all), and then we docked in Calais, France, got back on the bus, and began our 3-hour journey to Paris.

Our first stop in Paris was for a boat tour on the Seine ("sen") River.







The Eiffel Tower!



I'm not sure what I expected it to be like... but whatever that was, it was different in real life.


(Becky and George)

This is all I have time for right now. I'll try to add some more pictures after I get home from my internship.

<3