Paris - Take THAT Dan Brown!

Bonjour Friends and Fam,

I hope this finds everyone well. As for myself, I am doing just dandy and am still loving London; however I did have my first pangs of homesickness in Paris when NOBODY would help us because we were Americans. Granted we didn't speak a lick of French, but I know that I would have helped someone in that situation regardless. A little frustrating to say the least, but it was still an awesome trip.

To back track a little, I took the Eurostar (the train that goes under the English Channel: the chunnel) to Paris from London. I found out that my class on Friday was canceled, so I piggy backed on a trip that two friends in my house already had planned. I had to travel to and from Paris by myself because their trains were already full, and I actually flew home which means I had to find my way to the airport in Paris all by myself. It was somewhat daunting, but I survived and am better for it.

Paris was amazing. We had pretty good weather while we were there, although I would have liked it to have been a little warmer. As you'll see in the video, we tried to go to a lot of places and I think we fared pretty well. We made it to Bastille Monument, walked the Seine river several times, Notre Dame Cathedral, a beautiful park, the Eiffel Tower (which was the scariest place we went because of all the pick pocketers), the Louvre, and the Sacre Coeur which had the most beautiful view of Paris. We also stayed in a really cool little hotel in the Bastille neighborhood, which was a little off the beaten path. I ate lots of baguettes, crepes, and croissants like a good little tourist in France.

Otherwise, life is pretty standard over here. I'm always meeting new people, but I still love all the people I live with. We have so much fun together. School isn't all-consuming in London like it is in the States, so it's turning out to be a nice, relaxing semester.

I will try to post a little more often, but we'll see how that goes. I am going to Dublin and Amsterdam this month, so hopefully I will have posts about those trips.

Thanks for following,

Stu

Epic FAIL!

Hey Everyone,

So I've totally failed keeping up with writing and taking video, but I was pretty good the first week. I've made a little video of some of my treks around London!

As of now I've been in London for a little more than 3 weeks, and I have to say that coming here has been the best decision I've ever made. I live in a house with 22 other Americans so it is pretty much like MTV's Real World. Needless to say, I love it. We all bonded in about 2 minutes and have been family ever since. We live in a really posh part of London, and Hugh Grant is actually our neighbor. We are basically the hoodrats of the neighborhood.

I spent the first week in London doing a lot of stuff for orientation, going to plays, and just generally exploring. The first weekend we went on a homestay in Old Woking (the home of H.G. Wells known for War of the Worlds), Surrey which was AMAZING. I was fortunate enough to stay with the nicest family ever, Clive and Shirley (2 badass retirees). We spent an afternoon in Windsor at the queen's weekend castle, and the rest of the time we ate our hearts out. I had Shephard's pie, roasted rosemary chicken, sage and garlic stuffing balls, roasted potatoes, chopped cabbage and peas, Yorkshire pudding, wine, and TONS of TEA! I was in heaven.

I started classes and my internship this past week. I am working for a non-for-prof. partnership consulting company, but I've yet to do anything really exciting. Just a lot of reading. I'm also in a marketing and an advertising class while i'm over here. Classes are not totally different over here, but Uni is not the same as in the U.S.

My main goal pretty much has been to find awesome food and booze, and I think I've made some admirable attempts. We've been to many pubs and clubs, and eaten at some great restaurants (ate Indian food up in little India last night which was incredible).

I'm sure there will be lots more to come, because I hope to start traveling very soon.

Til then Cheers!

Stuart