Paris!

The first night that we were in Paris we walked to the Eiffel Tower! It was amazing and a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. We went in a big group and were there to see it light up and we went to the top. It was an amazing view from the top, I loved it! Our first full day there we went to the Musee D' Orsay, which is a famous art museum. We saw a ton of famous paintings there and then walked to Notre Dame. That was also amazing, the architecture was really intricate and it was impressive to see. We also got to see the Louvre, which of course has the Mona Lisa inside. I'm going to be honest, the Mona Lisa was not nearly as big as I though it would have been and wasn't that impressive. The museum itself was amazing though. It was huge! I shopped for while down the Champs D Elysee and saw the Arc D' Triomphe. Overall Paris was awesome, it was a ton fun, with a lot of really cool things to see. Everything is very spread out so it was definitely a lot of walking and doing it all in two days in probably not recommended, but it was great.
I am in the Czech Republic now and it is beautiful. We got to Prague Thursday night and already leave tomorrow morning. This is a really beautiful city and a really fun place to walk around. Tonight we are having a dinner boat cruise down the river, I am very excited! We head back to Austria tomorrow, to stay at the castle. It is the last leg of our trip, back to more work. School definitely has not been the priority these last few weeks, so I will have a wake up call monday morning! I hope you are all doing great and I can't wait to see all of you!

So I am living with a French family....

I am in Brittany, France for the week and we are living with host families from the area. My family is interesting and I am wondering why they wanted to host somone, when they make no effort to get to know me. Besides that fun situation, we have been doing a lot of events with the French sutdents here. We go to classes with them, eat meals together and go on business site visits with them. I sat in on a German class, which is confusing enough for me, but then the default language was French! It was one of the more confusing hours of my life to say the least.
We have not done many blog worthy things in the past week but on Monday we leave for Paris and I am sure I will have things to tell from there! I hope you all are doing well!

Franceville!

I am currently living in Franceville, France. It is a region of Normandy, so while I have been here we have learned a ton of information about the invasion of D-day. We are living in a house, but it is considered a French Institute. We are learning a little bit of French, which is making if very difficult to keep all the languages straight! Everyday we go on "excursions" all day, usually to something related to D-day. Yesterday we visited Omaha beach and Utah beach which are the beaches the American forces invaded on D-day. We also watched Saving Private Ryan, to prepare ourselves- I didn't really enjoy that movie, but it was good to watch. We went to the cemetery of the dead soldiers and were able to see the graves of the brothers that inspired the story of Saving Private Ryan. The silver lining of the story, if you have seen the movie, is that in real life 2 of the brothers actually lived. One of them was a POW and survived, which is not shown in the movie.

We are going to a soccer game tonight and continue our French part of the trip for the next couple of weeks. Starting Monday we live with a French family for a week- could be interesting, but I am excited. I come home a month from today, which is crazy to me. We have time with our host families, a few days in Paris, a few days in Prague, and then we go back to the Schloss in Austria until I come home. While we are at the Schloss we go to Vienna for a weekend to visit a Christmas market- I am really excited!

Italy!

After I was in Madrid we traveled to Barcelona. I had a great time in Spain and we got to see a lot of sites. We were in Barcelona for a couple of days and we saw Las Ramblas, the Mediterranean, the Olympic park( which was not exciting), a lot of Guadi buildings and the Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada familia was unbelievable. This church is absolutely massive and it is so intersting to me that they never finished it, they are still today working on it.
For this trip I was absolutely most excited about the second half because it is in Italy. We flew into Rome today and it is amazing. The city itself is dirtier than I expected and it is definitely chaotic, but it is unbelievable. There are so many things to see here, its so exciting. Today I got to see the Roman ruins, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Trevi Fountain. My favorite was definitely the Colosseum. It is just so amazing to think about what went on there thousands of years ago.
For dinner I got to have traditional Italian pizza, very tasty and dessert of course was gelato. Oh my gosh real gelato is soooo good. I am definitely getting that a couple times tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are going to see the Vatican- which I am super excited for. Also, one of the girls I am with, her parents gave her money so we could go out for a fancy Italian dinner! That is happening tomorrow night and it will be so nice to not have to worry about price! Rome is expensive!

Espana!

Since leaving Ireland I have been to Madrid, Sagovia, and Barcelona. I am on my free travel with two other girls and we are here in Spain through Wednesday and then head to Italy on Thursday!!!
Madrid was interesting, it was really similar to a lot of big cities that we have seen so that was kind of a let down. We did go to their "central park" which is a massive beautiful park in the middle of the city. It had street vendors and you could rent boats to row around the river. It was a beautiful place to see. While we were there we also got to see the Guernica, which is one of Pablo Picasso's most famous works. We also traveled to Sagovia Spain to see what small town Spain looks like. That city is what I pictured Spain to look like. We got to see the Aquaducts, which a national monument and runs the length of the city. Sagovia is known for their chocolate and churros, so we of course had to try some of those. It was really greasy and the chocolate was not sweet, like it is at home, I cannot imagine having it for breakfast.
The whole schedule of Spain is something to get used to. Breakfast is around 10, lunch places open around 1, and dinner places don't open until 8 or 9. That was definitely an adjustment.
Now that I am Barcelona I have walked Las Ramblas, seen the Mediterranean, gone to the site of the Olymics, gone to the Picasso museum, and seen the Sagrada Familia. I was definitely a tourist today, but it was awesome. Las Ramblas is ridiculous because there are so many people everywhere and you can tell they are all tourists. It cities like this that are known for tourism it is so funny to see Mcdonald's (with 4 floors), KFC (with 3 floors) and a Starbucks basically on every corner. You can definitely still get a taste of home when you are abroad.
Tomorrow we are going to see more Gaudi landmarks and do a little shopping! Free travel has been great so far because we can make our own schedule and actually get some sleep! I hope you guys are doing well! I come home in 40 days!! That is ridiculous, this trip is flying by!

Ireland

So we flew into Ireland and stayed in a little town called Gallway. We stayed in this hostel, that was the worst place we had stayed in by far. We had 4 people jammed into an area meant for one. Besides that we took a day trip to the cliffs of Mohr, which were the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We got there and they were breath taking, but you couldn't get very close so we jumped this rock wall and walked along the edge. you definitely were not supposed to do it, but the view was phenomenal. I could have sat there all day and just stared at the sea and the waves crashing against the cliffs.
The food in Ireland is awesome. It is definitely hearty, but I had shepherds pie and beef and guiness stew. They were both really good and definitely something I want to try and make myself. We left on Wednesday morning to go to Dublin, but I didn't get to see much of the city because we had a test to take. The only thing I did do in Dublin was go on a tour of Guinness. The tour was sweet, the building is 7 levels and in the shape of a pint! and apparently Arthur Guinness the founder was so confident in Guinness that he signed a 9000 year lease- I thought that was pretty interesting. (this year is 250)
Then this afternoon I left with two other girls on my trip for Madrid Spain. We got here late tonight so I haven't seen anything, but tomorrow we are doing a little shopping and then Sagovia, Spain. It will be a great trip!

Gallway, Ireland

So today I traveled by taxi to the airport, flew to Dublin Ireland, took a bus to the train station and then rode the train to Galway, Ireland. We finally got here and I am really excited. It is a really cute city right next to the ocean. We had class for a couple hours this afternoon and then we all went out to dinner. I had traditional Irish stew with mashed pototoes and vegtables. Of course it was marinated in Guinness! Tomorrow we are visiting some cliffs on the coast so that will be awesome and then on wednesday we leave to go stay in Dublin. On Thursday I leave for Spain, its a busy week!