City of Lights, here I come!

Another day, another dollar....well actually quite a few less dollars I'm afraid lol.This week has been a bit of a boring one.

Monday was a slow day with lecture in the afternoon and in the evening me, Jessalyn and Katalyn headed out to the Globe, a pub we had eaten at one night, for dinner (we had AWESOME fish and chips there and wanted it again lol). Unfortunately, since it was a bank holiday, it was just closing up when we got there (most things closed early or weren't open at all all day) so we walked down the street and sure enough found a small restaurant called Nando's open. Well it turned out to be such a great place! It had portuguese decor and mostly chicken menu. The serving was a bit strange as it looked like a regular restaurant but you had to walk up to a counter to order and get your own drinks, utensils, ketchup, etc. But we had a whole huge meal, including dessert for like £7 (about 15-20 Cdn $)! And it was really good with a great atmosphere. It's now our fall back when we don't feel like shitty cafeteria (or "refectory" as they call it here) food. Though I still have about £100 left on my meal card that I have to use up, and I'm running out of spending $ so more often then not I'll be "refectoring" anyway.

Tuesday brought an early morning of shopping, which was very exciting for me as shopping always is lol. A group of us walked to this dept store ppl told us about called Primark. Well it is my new favourite! It was awesome - the clothes are SO cute, the store is HUGE with clothing, accessories, lingerie, shoes, etc, and they are all SO cheap! I got a pair of flats, flip flops, a sweater, two tanks, a jacket, and two tops for £38 (about $80 Cdn)! That may not sound that cheap but by comparison to stores at home for the same quality it was great. I'm going to go back next week before we check out *wink* We stopped at Starbucks, etc, on the way back (I love Starbucks here btw, for some reason everything tastes better) and headed back for another lecture.

Tuesday night was party night! A big group of us all hung around the dorm chatting and drinking in rooms then headed to Covent Garden to this club called, appropriately "The Gardening Club" and it was alot of fun! I was really excited to go out and dance and have fun, partly b/c it had been so long since I had done so, and also b/c my first night out here really sucked. It was nice to get out with ppl I haven't seen so much on the trip also, since we've all kinda broken up into little groups. And the best part is I didn't have a major hangover! Yay!

Today we visited the US Embassy. It didn't start out too fun since Cameron and I got seperated from the rest of the group (my Tube card doesn't work in the machine for some reason so I have to go the long way and show the agent at the gate to let me in...by the time I got through everyone was gone and I just happened to see Cameron at the ticket booth). Dr. Freitag is kind of annoying b/c he'll just take off when we're out somewhere and not wait and make sure everyone gets through or knows where they're going. He always tells us where we're going but isn't always clear. I knew how to get to that point but not from there...anyway it was fine we just got directions from someone on the street and ended up catching up. There was a ton of security to get in - we had to show our ID's to like 3 different ppl and leave those and our cameras/cells at the front desk. It was really nice inside with all marble and portraits on the walls. We didn't see much though b/c we were taken right to a conference room where the Minister and a few other communications ppl talked to us. It was interesting and they were really great people but it was a little boring. Also, I found it hard to relate to some things, since I'm not American.

It would have been nice to visit the Canadian Embassy as well but we have limited time and our field trips are based around the majority of the group and Dr. Freitag's connections. All in all it was an interesting outing though.I've just been hanging around tonight doing laundry (I know, super exciting isn't it?). I'm soooo glad that's done b/c now I have clean clothes and don't have to feel like a slob! lol. We were going to go to the National Gallery with a few people but decided to stay behind anyway. It was great for a short time ppl were watching Friends on the common room tv so I was in heaven....til a bunch of students turned it off in the middle of an episode and put some Indian movie on....sooooo annoying.I needed tonight to relax anyway b/c I need to catch up on sleep before tomorrow night.

As of Friday morning I will be on a train to Paris!! I can't wait, even though I'm a bit nervous to be alone much of the trip, I'm soooo excited to be visiting somewhere I've always wanted to go and it's exciting on my own as well. I'll see what I'm made of I'm sure, in some respects, and it will be great not to have to answer to anyone else. I'm hoping to go to the Louvre, the Catacombes, possibly Montmarte/Basilique de Sacre Couer, and the cemetary where all kinds of famous people are buried (I can't remember the name of it since my french is horrendous). I'll write more about that later.

Tomorrow will just consist of errands, lecture, and packing/going to bed early. There is also a group going to Barcelona and one going to Milan, so there will be lots of exciting stories on Monday, I'm sure.

It has occured to me that I've been really lucky - I've already been to the two cities I just mentioned and by the time I get home from this trip, I will have been to England, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, and Spain. It's hard to believe.

More later :D (or should I say, bon soir......who am I kidding I don't even know exactly what that means...I'm a horrible Canadian lol)