London Hath Need of Thee

     In less than 100 hours, I will be returning to the United States and run straight into the arms my loving family. As much as I've loved this inexplicable feeling of independence and capability, I need my family and to feel their love. It truly has been far too long.
     Yet I can't quite say that I'll be returning home. Because I'm leaving home. Virginia is and will forever be my home, but now London will be too. My heart resides here just as much as it does in the States and I will always have a piece of it drifting and floating about the streets, the pubs, the parks, and the Underground.
     My father suggested that I should compile a list of things that I'll miss most. I've never known him to suggest tedious ideas so I'll take his suggestion:

• First and foremost, I am going to miss the men. Now, that sounded a bit more risque than I intended so allow me to explain before my father finds the shotgun. The men here are perfect gentlemen, at least the ones that I've met. They wear fashionable clothes than fit them properly, maintain their hair instead of letting it just exist on top of their heads, have beautiful accents, and they're exceptionally intelligent. That's all I ask for: smart, well-tailored, accented men with manners. Is that too much?
• Secondly, I think I am actually going to miss the Tube. We don't have a metro system in Richmond so I'm still kind of fascinated with its efficiency and the strange and interesting people that I apparently attract whilst on it. Most of the people in my program hate going anywhere on the Tube because it's underground and the feel like mole-people. WEll I like being a mole-person. It's like I'm an inhabitant of two cities rather than one
• Thirdly, the music. I LOVE BRITISH MUSIC. I LOVE MUSIC. I LOVE IT ALLLLLL. Seriously, I've seen a lot of bands here and I haven't disliked any of them. Granted, a few were American bands, but that's not the point. I like chill shows at a pub where you're literally 4 feet from the drummer. It's a nice feeling, until you smell the drummer and then it's uncomfortable. But you can't let the little things keep you down.
• Fourthly, the food.... bahaha that's a lie. British food sucks. However, Indian food is my new pride and passion. Literally cannot get enough of it... and now I really want some.
• Fifthly, old, sassy British people. They do not give a single care in the world and will speak their minds to whomever, wherever, whenever. And I love them for it. The world needs a good dose of real talk, and no one will back talk to an adorable old person telling you how it is.

But as much as I will miss these things, there are some things that I am more than ready to leave behind:

• Non-separated checks. This is a really trivial detail, but when you go to dinner with a group of people they don't separate the checks. A) it takes forever to collect the right amount of money from everyone B) everyone wants to count it up their own way and C) I end up spending more because some people can't do math and don't put enough in and then I have to supplement it because I'm actually a nice person.... ugh, I'm not having that anymore
• Weird Diet Coke. All right, let's be honest. We all know I have a problem with Diet Coke. It's fine, whatever. But the Diet Coke here is different. It's sweeter and tastes more like weird Diet Pepsi, which is a huge problem! I just want a nice, crisp, refreshing 32 oz. of Diet Coke from Wawa. Is that too much to ask for?
• Tourists. Tourists are everywhere. And they don't know which side of the sidewalk to walk on. This makes power walking very difficult and more of a an intense agility workout. I don't like it.

There's so much more to add to these lists, however I think you get the point. Regardless, I love this city for its splendors and misfortunes. I know I'm coming back as soon as I feasibly can and not leaving because obviously I will have met and fallen in love with a future Lord or Duke or Earl, etc. Until then...

London Love, Kristen

We'll Always Have Paris...

     Paris is an interesting place. Going into the trip, I hadn’t many expectations except wine, baguettes, and various smells of a concerning nature. And truth be told, I wasn’t entirely wrong with that assumption. Parisians do indeed stroll through the streets with a baguette in hand, the wine is good (but not as good as Spanish wine), and there is an extremely concerning amount of questionable smells. The smells however do not come from the city but its inhabitants.

     Yet upon arrival, I realized that there is so much more to the city. And I’m still not entirely certain how I feel about it. Thus, the best way to explain it is with simple lists sans commentary to allow you to interpret for yourself. From the Eurostar we had to take the metro to the hostel. This is what occurred:

• -    Waiting for the train a woman across the platform was weeping and, at times, screaming hysterical French into her cellphone with absolutely no one around her.
• -   A man in crutches also screaming to himself in French on my platform. He was also very drunk. It was 10am.
• -   A woman got on to the train after me with a baby and a concerning cold sore on her lip who began proclaiming something to the train as soon as it started moving, presumably begging for change. I however don’t know French and had no change.
• -   After the woman departed at the next stop, an older man came on with an accordion. He began to play as soon as the door closed. He was standing right behind me. He was standing right.behind.me.
• -   After exiting the metro at out stop, we walked past a fast-food pizza establishment that was being raided by the police. Our hostel was right across the street.

     Needless to say, my first hour of Paris was very… interesting. But aside from all of the strangeness, I managed to do a lot of really cool things. For one of my classes we went to the Musee D’Orsay where I feel in love with Toulouse Lautrec Then we went to the Louvre where I found that the Mona Lisa was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Everyone says that it’s smaller than they expected, so I expected it to be small. However, it wasn’t small. It was the size of a normal painting. So I guess you could say that it was more normal that I expected it to be.

     I also went to the Eiffel Tower, both during the day and at night. During the day it was a bit underwhelming. It was really grey outside (really big difference from London) so it looked kind of brownish and dull. But at night, it was magnificent. Seeing it all lit up made me realize why this city was called the City of Lights. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

 

     As far as the food goes: primitive, but delicious. I like to eat the custom foods of an area when I travel so in Paris I had (and please don’t judge me):

-   Croquette deux fromage

-   Croquette madame

-   Duck with fig and honey sauce

-   Baguette (obviously)

-   Beignet

-   Macaroons… so many macaroons. No exaggeration, chocolate macaroons were my favorite part of Paris

-   Quiche

The amount of bread and cheese ingested in just one weekend is uncanny, but what can I say? It was delicious.

     On my last day, we went to Versailles, which was incredible! My camera died that morning so unfortunately no visual aid. But you can Google pictures and they probably would have looked the same. But Versailles was amazing and I would love to go back someday. It truly is a modern marvel in art, architecture, and culture. It reinstated my eight-year-old girl wish to be a princess so I can live in a palace like that. But I don’t want to be Marie Antoinette; that wouldn’t be very fun.

So there you have it, my novella of Paris :)

London Love, Kristen

The Mysterious Tale of the Tap Dancing Rats

An allegory for your thoughts:

     Once upon a time, there were six Princesses who lived in the Dungeon of a magnificent Castle in a faraway land. Yet this Dungeon, and this Castle, were like nothing else; this was no ordinary Dungeon. In the beginning, this Dungeon was an oasis and the most spacious part of the castle. All had flocked from far off lands to spend leisure or seek refuge in the Dungeon. Some had said that the Dungeon is what made the Castle a Palace.
     However, this was only the beginning, because after several months of living in the Dungeon, curious things began to happen; it was almost as if the Castle was playing tricks on the Princesses. At first a cold chill swept the Castle. The magical sauna bath waters transformed into the cold waves from Boreas' winds, and the vents bringing in warm air from the deserts clogged from the solid ice that had formed around them.
     Then in a rush of confusion, lights began bursting, the windows began to view strange things, and the walls began to speak. The Dungeon and Castle, indeed, were under seige by some foreign force.
     What should have alarmed the Princesses did, indeed, worry them. But it was mere fodder for laughing fools. They realized the Dungeon and Castle were not trying to scare them, but playing with them.
     This was all until the noises began from the ceiling. At first it sounded like dripping, tiny pebbles of water into an empty basin. Yet, it grew louder and more rhythmic. The Princesses realized that it wasn't just the Dungeon and the Castle playing tricks anymore: something was inside.
     And what was it you may ask?.... Tap Dancing Rats.
     YES! Tap Dancing Rats!! They pittered and they pattered and they danced through the night above the Princesses' heads. They awoke the Princesses in the morning with their jive and continued all through the day moving to and fro around the dungeon. And it drove the Princesses mad! So mad, indeed, that they protested, with great blunt force, against the celing of the Dungeon to make the stupid rats shut up!!
     But did they? No. They kept tap tap tappin' away up there.
     One day, yes indeed, ONE DAY retribution will be had.

     ... Stupid Tap Dancing Rats

London Love, Kristen