Leeds Castle and Canterbury

This morning I, along with a group of people from the program, boarded a coach to go to Leeds Castle and Canterbury.

Leeds Castle is located in Kent and it is beautiful. Most of it stands by a large bit of water and it is very picturesque. I understand why it has been deemed "The Loveliest Castle in the World." We were lead by our tour guide through the grounds where you get to see a large amount of peacocks. Yes, peacocks. There were the gorgous male peacocks and then there were the females ones with their babies who were so cute. Then up to the castle where the tour guide let us loose to go through the insides on our own. Out of the entire interior of the castle, I like the windows the most. Because of the reflections from the water on the outside, many of them, espeically the really old windows, began to glow. It was gorgeous.

Back in the grounds Callie and I walked through the traditional English gardens and found the maze. We were warned by our tour guide that some people have been lost in the maze for a half hour. We only had a half hour left before we had to meet back at the bus. Did we dare go in? Of course. Surprisingly, it only took us five minutes to find the center. Though we did have a little bit of help when two little kids began to follow us cause their dad was in the center telling them which way to go. But I think they ended up following us cause we somehow were going in the right direction. Once you get to the center of the maze, which turns out to be actually quite small, you climb this little tower to look over the entire maze. However, to get out you go down these steps to the grotto under ground. The grotto was actually quite creepy. There were stone inhuman figures and there was a great waterfall that came out of the mouth of a great face. After the maze, we headed back towards the bus, which was about a ten minute walk, stopping every so often to take some pictures.

From Leeds Castle, we went to Canterbury. There our tour guide took us into the town near the entrance to the Canterbury Cathedral that is known for the hundreds of pilgrimages throughout history - for anyone who has read The Canterbury Tales, this is the cathedral. From here our guide gave us an option to either go off and find food or to do some shopping or follow her because she was willing to do a little guided tour of the city. Only os us went on the little tour. The rest went shopping. So disappointing. Anyway, the guide took to us to some areas of the town where the oldest residential tudor architecture can be found along with other sites around the place including where the dunking chair is. This chair is what people used to see whether or not you were a witch. They would put you in the chair and dunk you into the river and if you drowned you were innocent and if you floated you were a witch(and then they killed you).

After the tour we were set free to find lunch and do whatever we wanted for two hours. Callie and I needed food so we found a West Cornwall Pasty Co. If you are ever in England you must eat here soemtime. A pasty is basically any type of meat and veggie and it is wrapped inside a dough pocket and baked. I had the traditional which is beef, potatoes, carrots, and onions. It was delicous. Another reason why I like the place is because the logo is a pirate eating a pasty. These days I like anything with a pirate theme. I would definetely eat at another West Cornwall Pasty Co.

After filling our bellies, we walked around and went into a few shops and bought a thing or two. We then went to the St. Augustine's Abbey ruins. You have to pay to get in. Many would think why would someone pay to see ruins of any abbey, but I actually liked it cause it was something that people don't really pay attention to. Many, when they come to Canterbury, are interested in the cathedral, which I am, but didn't have time to go see. But I think St. Augustine's abbey was just as cool.

After roaming around the ruins and taking pictures, Callie and I headed back to the meeting spot. We had to be there at 3:45 and not be late. Our guide was very stict on this. Basically cause there was a certain time when the coach was going to come back. Cars are only allowed on the outer part of the town, and they really don't like coaches, which have to wait somewhere outside of the town cause there is no area for them to park in. But anyway, we made it to the coach on time and we soon fell alseep on the way back to London.

I ate my usual dinner of a Tesco sandwhich and crisps (photato chips), and I ate in the commons cause, for once, no one was in there. I finally got to see an episode of Dr. Who , though it was a repeat of the second season when the Doctor regenerates and the city of London and the entire world is yet again under attack from aliens. Perhaps the only people who would understand what I'm talking about is my family. My favorite quote from this episdoe: The Doctor's hand grows back after being severed. Alien leader: "Witchcraft." Doctor: "Time Lord."

The Museum of London and Portobello Road

Today Sarah D. and I went to the Museum of the London. This is, obviously, the museum that is all about the history of London. It starts with the time before the Romans came to the island (called London Before London) with fossils, animal bones, and so on. Then it goes into the Roman history and all the way into the 20th century. There were all sorts of cool things to look at. In the Victorian Era section they had Queen Victoria's coronation robe and an outfit from Prince Albert. Queen Victoria was a very small woman, of course when she was crowned queen she was only seventeen years old. She had to be between five foot and five foot, four inches.

Another thing that I really liked was the Victorian Walk. You walk through a recreated street of London with different types of shops like a grocer, a bank, a pharmacy, a toyshop, and so on. It was really cool.

After exploring the entire museum, we then left to go to Portobello Road. We got there a half hour before the street market officially closed. Portobello is slightly different than the other markets that I have been to while I've been in London. Among some of the usual bag and scarf stalls, there are food stalls as well. There were people selling meat, cheese, and a lot of fruit. I must say that some of the stuff did not smell all that good, especially some of the fruit. If you bought anything you would have eat it that day or else it would go bad. But over all Sarah and I had fun, and we did buy a few things.

Les Miserables

Tonight I saw Les Meserables. It was wonderful. The singing and acting was perfect. The man, John Owen-Jones, who played Jean Valjean also played the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera when I saw it in London five years ago. Another note of John Owen-Jones - he is the only man in London to have the role as the Phantom. He did 14,000 performances! Anyway, back to Les Miserables. I loved the way they choreograph the entire performance. The stage is small, just ever so slightly tilted upwards in the back, and the center rotates. The lighting was also another part of the choreography. It sets the mood for the scene. When someone died a bright, white light shown on them representing their innocent life lost.

The one thing that I really didn't like was my seat. I got the ticket through the AIFS session C cultural event sign up, so it was only £15. The seat was located in the Stall (the first floor), but all the way in the back. This meant that the balconey above us was blocking the upper part of the stage. I never really saw anything that happend up in the top of the barricade. I was disspointed. I think that Callie and I are going to see it again on Friday - the day before we all go back to the States. I would really love to see the show one more time - with better seats.

A Museum Trip and a Show at the Globe

Today, after visiting the British Museum for class, Sarah D. and I went to the Imperial War Museum. This place is awesome. The musuem covers World War I and II with exhibits and the Secret War, which is about espionage and so on. The museum is free, however to see any special exhibits there is a fee. Sarah and I paid a £3 student fee to see the Great Escapes exhibit, which is obviously about some of the famous POW prison escapes during the wars. It first talked about the Mythology of escaping - what is true and what it not. For fans of the movie "Chicken Run," they had on display several of the acutal plastine puppets and sets from the movie there. Then the exhibit talked about how POWs planned their escapes and showed things like records and playing cards that hid forged papers and German money that they would use once the were outside the prison camp.

Then after this we got into the specific escapes. First was the Stalag Luft III: The Wooden Horse. In this escape the plan was to hide diggers in a vaulting horse while it was placed in the yard where men would vault over it. While inside the horse two men would start digging the hole and then later the tunnel. Only three men escaped here, basically cause only three men could fit inside the horse.

The next escape is Stalag Luft III: The Great Escape. This escape was made famous by the movie "The Great Escape" with Steve McQueen and James Garner. I found this really fascinating. For anyone who has seen the movie, the escape is pretty accurate. I saw reproductions of the contraption that gave the tunnel diggers air, and the type of little trolly they used to move around the dirt in the tunnel, and a reproduction of a pair of sandbags that men, called Pengiuns, wore inside their pants so that they could secretly spread the dirt from the tunnel around the camp grounds. Another note on this, other than the difference in color - the tunnel dirt is darker - the two dirts smell differnt (Yes, they did have examples of the dirt for you to smell). To mask this smell when they began to mix the dirt around the compound, the men would smoke pipes. Another thing I found really interesting was the artifacts that were found during an excavation of the tunnel "Dick" in 2003. There were tools, rope, shoes with little hidden compartments in the heels, rope, and all sorts of things. It was all very fasinating.

A little side note about the Great Escape - this is for people who are really interested in it (Sam and James this is for you!)- here is a list of items that they used to dig their tunnels. 4000 floor and bed boards, 1400 dried milk tins, 1699 blankets, 30 shovels, 304 meters of electrical wire, 200 meters of rope, and 582 forks.

The final escape that the exhibit talked about was the Colditz Story. The prison is basically a castle in Germany. The prisoners tried to escape via tunnels, disguising themselves as German soldiers, jumping out of windows and so on. The most famous item from Colditz is the Colditz glider. This was a two man glider that two pilots built in a secret room in the prison. However, they never got to fly it cause by the time they had finished it the war was almost over. However, in 1999 the gilder was reconstructed and was flown. It would've worked if they had a chance.

After spending a good amount of time in the Great Escapes exhibit, we then went into The Children's War exhibit. This was all about the Second World War as seen by the children. There were letters from children who were sent to the country to their parents who were still in London, there was children toys and clothes. There was even a recreated two story house, that would've been like the house that would be on the outskirts of London, that you could walk through. It had all the details in the rooms, including a bomb shelter sitting in the living room.

From this exhibit we went to do the Blitz Experience. This has scheduled times of when you could attend - like a show. When you first go in you sit down in a recreated bomb shelter that you would have found, say in someone's backyard or wherever, and you listen to a simulated recording of what it would be like during a bombing - babies crying, people talking, and the actual sounds of the bombs. At one point the shelter shook. We then left the shelter to go into a room that was recreated to look like part of the city after it had just been bombed. It was actually sort of creepy. This whole experience lasted only ten minutes. I wish that it was a little longer and had more stuff to learn from, but it was still good.

Our last stop was The Holocaust Exhibition. This was very interesting. It talked about how the Nazi party grew to power after the first World War and the idea of the Master Race and all the hatred the Nazis had for people who were different from them. I found it ironic that there was a poster that showed a family tree of what the Master Race should be, but it was in the shape of a menorah, the Jewish seven branched candelabra. In the lower level there was an actual cattle train car that had transported so many people to the concentration camps. Then there was a model of what the camps would look like, and there were recordings of survivors who talked about how it was like to enter the camps where the soldiers pretended to be nice to them as they led some people immediately to the gas chambers that were disguised as showers. Finally there were literally hundreds of shoes, glasses, and other personal artifacts and prison issued clothing and special patches that signified what type of person you were (Jeweish, Pole, or a homosexual) on display. I was glad that it was the last stop in our visit. It is shocking how people could do such things to other people.

After the Holocaust exhibit Sarah and I were both physically and mentally tired. We took the Tube back to Kensington. We ate dinner and went our seperate ways. I quickly got ready and I left to go to the Globe Theater. I had signed up through the program to see the Shakespeare's Globe production of "Antony and Cleopatra." The ticket was only £3 (the original price was £5) cause it is a Yard Standing ticket. For these special tickets, you get to stand during the entire performance. I got there early so I could find a spot up against the stage. I found one that was left of the stage with a little bit of a blind spot. It was bad.

The show was good, however it could've been a lot better. I think that actors were too busy with thinking of their lines instead of creating a chemistry between themselves and the audience. Though I must note that some of the actors who had minor roles were better than the ones who had the starring roles. I did have some favorite bits though, only cause most of them were funny, like when Cleopatra attacks the messenger who tells her that Antony has married Ceasar's sister and when Antony, Ceasar, and their men are drinking with Pompey. They are all drunk, though I must say that guy who played Ceasar was the best drunk out of all of them, and then they began to dance. The other part that I really liked was at the very end of the show. Right after they the actors took their bows they began to do a traditional dance. It was like the end of the show farewell. It was really good.

I would like to go back to see another show at the Globe, though maybe pay a bit extra and get an actual seat. After standing for more than two hours for the show on top of being in the Imperial War Museum for three hours, my body aches and says "no more" to anything else. So I just went back to school.

Traveller's Notes On Paris

I have just a few additional notes about Paris that may prove to be useful to any future travellers or for anyone who is just interested.

The first is about the Paris Metro. The stations are easy to find when you're walking around the city. Much like the Tube in London, they have a uniform sign. It's red and it says Metro. Some of them have a pretty Art Nouveau design to them. Tickets. Well, there is the Carnet which is 10 one-way tickets for €10,50 Euros. Which is not bad at all, and if you are there for three days it's just about right. Callie and I split a Carnet, which means we had five tickets each. On Sunday, our final day, we only needed two more one-ways. So all together we used 7 tickets each. The rest of the time we walked and it isn't very hard to walk around Paris. It's one way to learn your way around the city.

Now that we've talked about the tickets, let's talk about the subway lines. There are a lot of lines. It isn't hard to find ourself around the Metro. Though unlike the London Tube, you have to know exactly where you are going. The lines in London have names such as Picadilly, Ciricle, Distric, Northern, and so on. Names that have something to do with the area that they go through. In Paris they use numbers or letters, like the A line, or the 1 line. Not so mnemonic.

In London you have say the Circle line and you either want to go Eastbound or Westbound. In Paris you have to know which end station you want to go. For example, consider going from the Gare de Lyon train station to the Louvre museum. Well, you can take the 1 line, which is in yellow. Before you get on any train, you find this line on the map and you following it all the way to the end of the line and it will say what station it is. When going to the Louvre from Gare de Lyon the end station is La Defense. This means you take the La Defense 1 line train until it stops at Palais Royal Musee du Louvre, which where you get off for the Louvre. Does that make sense? Once you've done it once or twice, you'll get use to it.

The next thing is the language barrier. Don't worry too much about it. During the summer there are a lot of tourists who will know English. In fact, this is a little side note, during the summer is when school is on holiday so a lot of people leave the city for vacation, but then tourists come and replace that number of people and then some. But, there are also some French people who know enough English to help you. At a lot of patisseries or other places to eat near common tourist sites they will know English. If not, to order food you can just point and they'll understand.

At the Metro ticket offices I didn't talk to anyone cause Callie always bought the tickets. Though I must say, if you see that the trains stop even when they are not suppose to and there is someone speaking on the PA, and you notice that everyone else is making their way towards the exit - this means that you must follow them. This happened to us on Saturday when we were trying to get to the Chateou Rouge station. The station was being evacuated by the police! Which a real surprise cause we all noticed that there was a lot of police men and women around the area of the station. I don't know why we had to evacuate, but all I can say is don't just stand around wondering whats going on. Just follow the locals.

The third note that would like to make is about planning. Of course, I'm sure that everyone makes a list of things that they would want to see when they go on the trip. I had meant to make such a list, but because of other things I forgot to. So when we were on the train to Paris I was asked what I would like to see I said "I don't know." It turns out that I really wanted to go inside the Paris Opera house and to visit Oscar Wilde's gave, though because I really didn't tell anyone we never made time to see these things. So please prepare a list ahead of time of places you really want to go. I don't mind that I didn't get to see some of things that I wanted to see. This only means that I'll have to come back to Paris for a second time, and I find nothing wrong with that.

The Traveller Has Returned - Part III

Sunday morning almost the entire group went to the Louvre. Part of the trip packet was a paid entrance. So our tour manager bought all of the tickets for us and let us loose inside the museum. The Louvre has a deep history that you can read on the official website, but here are some facts. The museum was first a 12th century fortress and palace, then over the centuries it grew larger and housed collections from people like Cardinal de Richelieu and Napoleon I.

Callie and I made our way to the Sully Wing. Here to greet us as we climb the stairs was Victory of Samothrace Landing or better known as Winged Victory or just plain Nike. For my fellow TWU students - the Nike that stands in the portico of the Old Main Building is a repical of this statue in the Louvre. Once we took a picture or two of Nike, Callie and I moved onto the left side of the Sully Wing. There we saw Venus de Milo. She was just as beautiful as Nike was. I noticed that both of the statues were larger than I originally thought.

From the Sully Wing, Callie and I then went in search of the famous Mona Lisa. It actually didn't take long cause all we had to do was follow the crowd of people. I didn't get too close because of the crowd, but I did get a very good long look at her. She is quite pretty and enigmatic as some claim her to be, and she really does not have eyebrows. Why is that? Who knows. Another thing about Mona was that the painting is actually quite small. It's only about 30 inches in height and 21 inches in length. You would think that she would be larger, but I think that is because of her popularity in the mass media and all the large posters people buy. I like the idea of Mona being a small painting. It adds to her uniqueness.

After swimming our way out of the crowd that surrounded Mona, Callie and I wandered through the other painting galleries. I actually got to see some paintings that I have studied while at TWU like Ingres' "The Bather, known as the Valpincon Bather" and Delacorix's "July 28. Liberty Guiding the People." I try to see more paintings in the upper level, however the wing was closed. So we decided to roam around the museum a little more and ended up in the gift shop where we bought postcards of our favorite works.

After taking a few pictures of the glass pyramids when leaving the Louvre, which have been made famous recently with the The Da Vinci Code phenomenon, we walked along the Seine making our way to Notre Dame. Along the way we bought some mini Art Nouveau posters. For any fans of the Art Nouveau artist Mucha - Paris is the place to buy such things!

At Notre Dame I took the pictures that I wanted and then we went inside the cathedral once more. We were only inside for few minutes when Mass began. I was surprised that they would allow tourist to walk around the outer part of the church while they hold a service in the middle. Feeling the need for some respect, I didn't take any pcitures once the Mass started.

Outside once more, we bought lunch at a little patisserie next to the church. Instead of having another panini, I opted for two hot dogs in a bagette that had cheese on it. It was yummy, though I wish that they had some ketchup to go with it. After we ate in the shadows of the cathedral we did a little shopping. I bought two postcards of the Paris Opera house (the one where Phantom of the Opera has its setting), and a new scarf. After that we took the Metro back to the hotel.

At 3:30 we all meet in the lobby of the hotel and took a coach to the Gare de Nord train station. The train ride back to London was nice. Though, when I was at the station I noticed that my throat was sore, so during the ride I was slightly incomfortable. When we stepped off the coach that brought us from the Waterloo station in London back to Gloucester Road I had an official sore throat.

In my room I unpacked my bag, changed my clothes and popped a few pills to try to lessen my oncoming cold. I then ran into Sarah D. in the computer lab and we decided that it was time to eat a big dinner. So we went to Pizza Hut. After that, I had a Deliciousness from Tesco. As Sarah S. would put it - tonight was the three week anniversery of discovering the wonderful chocolate dessert. After that, I went to bed. My body had enough fun for one day.

The Traveller Has Returned - Part II

Saturday morning, we all recieved a wake-up call at 7 AM. I of course naturally woke at 6:30 AM - my usual time. Even though I was on French time, which is one hour ahead of London - I still woke at 6:30! I took a long shower, since there was no one else wanting to use it of course. A note about this hotel - they do have hair dryers in the bathroom. However, they look like a vacum cleaner stuck on the wall, but they still work.

Breakfast is downstairs. They serve eggs, bacon, and sausage, a large amount of different types of croissants and sweet rolls, cheese, cereal and fruit. It was basically like the caferteria here, but minus the eggs and meat. When get to the dinning area, they ask for your room number, which they will check off, and then they'll tell what table you can sit at. It was a very nice.

After breakfast we all met downstairs for our bus tour of the city. On the tour we saw all the usual famous sites that Paris has to offer. We saw the Bastille monument representing the Revolution and the Bastille prison that use to stand on that site. We also saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Invalides where Napoleon's tombs is, the Eiffel tower, and much more. Our final destination was Notre Dame where got to go inside and struggle to listen to the tour guide talk about the interior of the cathedral. I didn't mind if I couldn't hear, I was too busy soaking everything in. Our tour offically ended out on the side of the cathedral where in the novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" Quasimodo's room was located. It was very interesting.

The group then went to a little souvenier shop to purchase some things and to use the bathroom. Then Christine, Callie, Cyndie, Abby, Tracy, and I found a place called Father and Son for lunch. After the usual panini, Abby and Tracy left us to go shopping while we went to the Sainte Chappelle church. There was a fee to get in, so only Callie went in. She is majoring in arcitecture and she did a big project on this church. When she came out she was so happy and said that she could go home right then and there cause she saw what she wanted to see.

After that Cyndie and Christine decided that they wanted to see the Moulin Rouge. I really didn't want to go cause I wanted to see the Opera House where the Phantom of the Opera was set, but I had no choice cause I didn't want to get lost. Got on the Metro and went to the station Chateau Rouge, which turned out not to be even near the caberet. So we just start walking in the general direction of where they thought it was. It turns out that the place wasn't even on the map that we were given.

After climbing several stairs we found ourselves at the Sacre Couer church and its panoramic view of Paris. It was amazing. We then did a little shopping at a little souvenier stand near the church, then we started looking for the caberet.

I finally got frustrated with getting lost, so I pull out my map book that actually showed where the place was and lead the rest down the hill and to the location. So finally, after three hours, we found the Moulin Rouge. To tie us over till dinner we got pastries from a patisserie around the corner. I bought a thing that was like a cake with heavy cream - it was probably a custard - with strawberries in it. It was very yummy and messy to eat.

From there we took the Metro back to the hotel. Christine and Cyndie got ready for their bike tour and Callie and I got ready for our Eiffel Tower event.

We got to the monument an hour before the meeting time and made a dinner out of a Panini Jambon - which has ham, mozzerella cheese, and tomatoes. Then we split a crepe with the Nutella spread which is a chocolate spread that has Hazelnut flavoring. (I like Cadbury Milk Chocolate spread better). Then we meet our tour manager and the rest of the group. Since there was a little over 25 five of us we got to stand in the group line, which much shorter than the individual ticket holder line.

We took the elevator cars to the the first level. There are actually two levels here. One is where you directly get off and can get in line for the elevator that goes to the very top, the second is a couple steps below where there is a better viewing gallery and a little cafe. Callie and I decided to, and really didn't have any choice really, to get in line for the top. After twenty minutes slowly making our way through the line and taking the elevator, we were now at the top of the Eiffel Tower. At this very moment the sparkling light show began. The tower is fitted with lights that will blink like sparkling crystals every hour once it gets dark and it will last for ten minutes. We walked around the entire place and saw the city of Paris at night. It was amazing.

About an hour and a half after we first went up, we were sitting on a ledge with a patch of grass taking pictures. It was there that a couple from New Jersey asked us to take their picture. They told us they were debating whether or not we spoke English. They were quite happy to know that we were from the States as well. So we took their picture and they took ours. Then we just sat there talking and waiting for the top of the hour to come around when the second light show would start.

In the mean time we learned more about the couple. They were here for their anniversary. But before they came to Paris they were in London to visit the husband's brother who was stationed right outside of the city. We told them about our study abroad program. Then we shared suggestions and knoweldge of both Paris and London. It was so nice to finally talk to someone from America and who spoke English. I was missing this while being in Paris. I can function in Paris, however my French consists of words that won't make complete sentences, leaving me feeling a little vulnerable. But I still survived.

After the light show and more pictures, Callie and I said bye to the couple and we headed to the Metro station and went back to the hotel. Back in my room, I managed to get into my PJs and the moment I got into bed I was out. I didn't even make it to the bathroom to brush my teeth, or to put my satchel or jewelery off the bed. After exploring the city from 8:30 AM to 11:30 PM, I'm not surprised that I was dead to the world.

The Traveller Has Returned - Part I

Hello Everyone. I have returned safe and sound from Paris. It was a whirlwind weekend. Since I have so much to tell, I've decided that I should post about it in parts. It is the only way for you people to be satisfied now instead of waiting for a day or more for the entire thing.

On Friday, we took a coach from Gloucester Road to the Waterloo International station. We passed through security and passport control and boarded a Eurostar train. The ride was so nice! It was quiet and smooth. We went out into the countryside towards the Chunnel. It didn't take long to go through this tunnel that goes under the English Channel. It was only 20 minutes. The train stopped at the Gare du Nord station in Paris where we boarded another coach that would take us to our hotel which was the Mercure Hotel. It is right next to the train station Gare du Lyon.

Callie and I had signed up to be roommates in a double room, however the hotel had run out of doubles. So I ended up with a private room. The moment I entered my room and saw the huge bed (two twins pushed together) and a bathroom all to myself I was excited! It was so nice not to have to share a bathroom with one and a half floors worth of people!

It was around 7:00 when everyone came back down to have a little powow with our tour manager, who was a language professor from the school. She gave us a map and told us that there were plenty of places to eat near the Bastille, which is near our hotel. Christine and Cyndie was given the suggestion to go to a little place that was off of San Michelle near Notre Dame. So we decided to walk towards the Cathedral.

A notes of caution: 1. Unlike England, the French drive on the right side of the road - American style. 2. Don't be shocked if you see a man using the Seine as a bathroom.

When we got nearer the Notre Dame, which is only about a thirty minutes walk from the hotel, I pulled out my camera. It was gorgeous!

We got to the right street, however at that very moment it began to rain. Heavily. With only two umbrellas amongst the four of us. Callie and I each shared with Christine and Cyndie. We finally had to seek shelter under an awning of some nearby place. Despite my attempts to stay dry, I was soaked from my feet to my knees. Once the rain had subsided we continued on our quest for food.

At one point a woman speaking French asked me where some restaurants were. I told her in my broken French that I don't speak French. So she asked me in English. We pointed her and her husband towards the river we had just come from. It wasn't much further and we finally found the restuarant we were seeking.

The place - I don't even know the name - is not where tourists go. The waiters didn't know a lick of English. Christine and Cyndie tried to order two glasses of wine, however they ended up with a whole bottle. The menue was both in French and English, however it wasn't descriptive at all so even though we knew what type of meat was in the dish we didn't know how it was prepared.

Callie and I went safe and had chicken. It turned out that it was a chicken on top of rice and was covered in a tomato base sauce with peppers in it. It reminded me of a dish that my mom made one time. Christine got what turned out to be a steak and chips (french fries). Though poor Cyndie ordered Salmon, which she thought was would be cooked or smoked. No. It was raw - fresh, but raw - and it came with lettuce with no dressing. However, she was the type of person who doesn't mind eating it with several slices of a baguette. We got desserts that were in even better than the dinner. Cyndie had a Peach Melba, which is a half a peach covered with heavy ice cream. Callie had a Apple tart, and Christine and I shared a tart that was topped with apricots - we think.

As we ate our meals, two Frenchmen sat next to use at our table. At one point they asked us, in English, where we were from. Cyndie and I said Texas to which they responded with "George Bush." Callie said Arkansas and they said "Bill Clinton," and finally to Christine's Chicago it was "Al Capone." They did the same with our names. For once someone didn't relate my name to Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Instead they said Dorothy Parker, who was a writer. We asked what they're names were. One who sat next to me was Christoph, and the one next to Callie was Stephan - which they asked if we in America had names like Stephan and we said Stephen or Steven (pick the spelling that you like).

Once we had paid our waitress, we headed back to the hotel. On the way we paused in the Shakespeare & Company bookshop. It's a very cute little place that is right on the Seine. They have the Shakespeare books, but they also had other types of literature, including the entire collection of William Blakes poems. If I opened a bookshop, it would be exactly like this one. I loved it.

I finally got back to my room around midnight. As I relaxed in bed I turned on the TV. It was very clear that the only channels, other than CNN, that were in English you had to pay to see. So I settled between Blade III in French and MTV in German and quickly fell asleep.