Reeth

After a rest night in London last Sunday, we took the train up to Darlington Station on Monday afternoon to meet up with Rachel's family--all of them. Rachel's two sisters Laura and Gillian, Laura's boyfriend Ryan, and Rachel's parents had flown into England the day before and picked us up at the station. Rachel's extended family on her dad's side (he's like my mom, who came over to the US to get married) lives in Reeth, a tiny village in Yorkshire. They're staying in an adorable cottage right in the middle of the village (although essentially the middle of the village is the entire village).

My first impression of Reeth was that I loved it. There were beautiful green hills all around with old stone walls dividing people's land. The village itself consists of a small church, a couple rows of stores in old stone buildings, a few pubs, a post office, a general store, a bakery, an ice cream parlor, a village green, and rows of beautiful old stone houses. To get from one end of the village to the other takes at most 5 minutes, which is a big change from London and Paris (and even Coutevroult). And there are sheep and cows everywhere! This place is straight out of a post card.

I essentially only had a day and a half there, so we got moving right away. We dropped our stuff off at the cottage and then headed to the Black Bull--one of the pubs--for dinner, since it was about 6pm by now. There I had my first Giant Yorkshire Pudding, which is a big soft bread bowl full of beef and gravy that you add french fries and vegetables to. I was definitely full. Next up we made the rounds to some of Rachel's aunts and uncles (her dad has 10 brothers and sisters). We met Uncle George and Uncle Jack, who were very nice, and then we went over to Aunt Hannah's. She. is. hilarious. She's this tiny older English woman who had her hair up in curlers. My first impression of her was when she went up to Rachel and said, "I'm glad you're here, because I was calling Gillian 'Rachel' all day yesterday...aren't I naughty?!" And then she burst out in little English giggles.

The rest of the night involved hanging out at another pub called the Buck, where I had a pint of cider (Strongbow...not Longbow...since that was really confusing to me) giving me a grand total of 1 1/2 pints of cider for the night. Therefore, I was silly. It was a lot of fun to sit around and talk with Rachel, Cote, Gillian, Laura, Ryan, and Rachel's cousin Mel, who's a couple years older than us. There were Asian and Jewish jokes galore, just proving that Cote and I are deeply loved by the Aldersons. And we had a long discussion about awkward things (turtles, turkeys, palm trees, etc.). AND we made a new handshake. Incredibly successful pub visit.

Our last stop was a return to the Black Bull. I was all set with my 1 1/2 pints, but I did spend the rest of the night playing pool (Rachel and I won once, woooo!) and listening to the juke box, which we took over. On top of being a horse whisperer, it turns out that Cote is a pool maven. Here she is, being a Cote:

And that was our first night in Reeth. I am a fan. The next day was our first full day (and my last for a week) so we got up and headed out to the Swing Bridge, which Rachel's grandfather helped to build. The bridge sits over the Swale, which is the very shallow river that runs through Reeth and all the nearby villages (collectively called Swaledale). We started out on a 15-minute walk out to the bridge. And thus begins a riveting account of our magical journey into a beautiful land of green hills and animal friends...

We walked to the edge of the village and started walking past farmland, as in pastures where cows and sheep were grazing. But then...we walked INTO a field of sheep! They were everywhere! I was excited to bond with the animals, so I made my way over to my new friends...but they didn't necessarily reciprocate.

NBD...I knew I'd have more opportunities later. After a few more minutes of walking, we arrived at the bridge. And just at that moment, the sun came out and lit up the bridge, the Swale, and the hills.

And it wouldn't be a true PAC(K) outing without a silly bridge picture:

Yeah Cote. We hung out by the bridge for awhile in the sun. Rachel and I kicked off our heels (or flip flops) and waded into the water. Then we discovered that there were tiny fish swimming all around us! They were eating stuff off of our feet, which made me feel like one of those fancy ladies who gets that fish pedicure treatment. Please note how tiny they are in relation to my foot (and the world at large):

So I at least bonded with one thing in nature. We headed back to the cottage and started getting ready for Rachel's Uncle Jack's 80th birthday party. This started another series of friendships with animal friends...

We got to the village where the party was being held (after driving past a field...full of bunnies. That was beautiful animal moment #1) and got out of the car. Immediately, this pidgeon landed near all of us and started pecking at our feet. It was following people around, and when Ryan bent down and reached his hand out, it started biting his fingers. Cote was naht a fan.

Nicole Cote: horse whisperer, pool maven...pidgeon kicker. We left our pidgeon friend and walked over to the tea room (I want my 80th birthday party to be held in a tea room) to meet the rest of the family. But on the way, we found...STEALTH CAT!

The night's animal friend count: 2. (20,002 if you count the bunnies). We went to the party, ate our meal, and then went outside after dessert to get some fresh air. And who did we find? Our pidgeon friend (at this point he deserved a name so we named him Jasper). Turns out Jasper was trained, and Ryan got him to jump up on surfaces and then perch on his hand multiple times. Check ittttt!

Aaaand, after a couple more hours of minglin' with the Aldersons, we headed back, playing a game of "dodge the suicidal bunnies" on the car ride home. We won.

This was a very long post. As a reward for anyone who got this far, the much-talked-up picture from London Dungeon in which Rachel's face is probably the greatest thing I've ever seen:

Paris avec les Bloque-mates!

Leaving the Levesques last Saturday was very sad, but on the bright side, it meant that I was on my way to Paris for 2 days to see...my blockmates!!! A rendez-vous in Paris, how fitting. The Paris party included Petah, Tori (plus 2 friends), Johnny, Hannah, Rachel, Cote, Pauline for the first day, and me. We stayed in an apartment in the 17th arrondissement that Tori's family friend let us stay in for free. Pretty amazing of him. And he left us a bottle of wine to boot.

So as I am just about a week behind in posting, and I want to catch up asap, the next couple posts will be ones of few(er) words and many pictures. To begin: Petah met us on Saturday morning at the train station and took us back to his host family's apartment to use the salle de bain, have a glass of juice, and meet his host family's cat, who I befriended immediately:

That's a French-ass cat! Next up, we made our way to Tori's apartment, and Tori met us at the Metro stop and WE WERE REUNITED YAAAAY! Because two Victorias are better than one. We put our bags in the apartment and promptly started on a magical tour of Paris led by none other than Petah (for anyone who doesn't know, his actual name is Peter, but I always say his name in a British accent because...he's Canadian. Yes.) First up on our Parisian tour: lunch. Because we were really hungry. But we made it cultural by eating on the Seine.

Afterward, our tour included the Louvre, the Tuilleries, Notre Dame, Paris Plages, Musee d'Orsay, l'Ile de la Cite, the Champs Elysses, the Arc de Triomphe, Pont Neuf, Pont des Arts, and many other things along the way. When I say these things were on our tour, I mean that we walked by them and took pictures of them. However, we did do some actual shopping on the Champs Elysses and we stopped for group pictures at the Arc de Triomphe.

B-e-a-utiful! After Petah's tour, we were le tired, so we grabbed some crepes and made our way back to the Seine to eat. I oderered an ouef-fromage, and the crepe man piled it high with delicious French cheese. I was really happy about this until I started eating it and it erupted in a lava flow of grease that landed on my French-ass purse which was but a day old. Sad. Hannah saved the day by lending me her Tide to go pen, and that plus a little dishwasher detergent on the spot later did the trick. Yet another crisis averted on this trip with the help of mes amis.

We went back to the apartment, rested up, got changed, and decided to break out the champagne (pronounced sham-PAH-nya). We figured we'd have one bottle, but one bottle turned into three, and three bottles turned into nine silly bloque-mates and friends. Here's PAC(K) being really serious about our champagne:

And here's everybody being themselves on the couch. Petah was a beast, and Johnny was taking a picture of me because he thought my way of drinking (see cider picture from my last post) was laughable. Rude.

And finally, the crowning (literally!) moment of the night--when I gave Tori her birthday present, a princess tiara from the Tower of London. You can tell by the look on her face that this is undoubtedly THE greatest gift she has EVER received in her life EVER and she absolutely could not be ANY happier about it.

So many moments. To end the night we headed to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up, and it was beautiful. You should look up the Eiffel Tower at night if you've never seen it before. We missed Devan a LOT so we called her from under the Eiffel Tower to say hi and that we missed her a LOT. Unfortunately it was a short conversation because international calling is foolishness, but it was nice to have her there in voice and spirit. A magical end to a magical Parisian tour.

On Sunday we got up, went to Sacre-Coeur, then Rachel, Cote and I went back to the apartment to grab our bags while the others went to the Champs Elysses to get a good spot to watch the Tour de France come in. Making our way back to the apartment by ourselves was easy with the help of my teeny tiny Metro map:

We grabbed lunch, got our bags, and made our way to where everyone was standing, leaving us 20 minutes to see the bikes come in before we had to turn back around and head through the solid mass of people on the street to be on time for our 5:30 train back to London. Apparently whoever won the Tour de France (I still don't know the winner) was not on the same schedule as us, because he and the other cyclists arrived 45 minutes later, just as we were going down the stairs to the Metro. Oh well, at least we can say we were kind of there.

And then, a few hours later, we were back in London once again. France--and especially Paris--went by so quickly! It was a bummer to leave so soon, but I liked seeing this sign as we made our way back to the mew:

France! Levesques!

Last Wednesday, we took the Eurostar from London to Paris for the first part of our French excursion: staying with the Levesques in Coutevroult outside of Paris. They live about 40 minutes NE of Paris by train, right near Eurodisney.


First off, I love the Levesques. Technically I've only stayed with them for about 11 days of my life, but I feel like they're my family from another...country. When I stay with them, I actually feel completely at home. So the Levesques are les bombes. Just wanted to put that out there.


The afternoon that we got there, Claire (the mom) and Pauline (the daughter) took the three Americaines to Pauline's uncle's farm to visit their dogs and see their pidgeonry. Inside the pidgeonry is a giant stone head of Julius Caesar. Just 'cause. After that, Pauline took us to ride her horse, Louna. I rode her last time I was there, but Rachel and Cote had never ridden before. As usual, Rachel managed to snap a picture of me struggling while I wasn't looking (I feel like there's a pattern here) but even though she was terrified of horses, she still tried riding Louna and looked like a cowgirl while she was at it. And a Mountie. And a horseback bobby.



After riding, we helped Pauline put Louna in for the night. Turns out Cote's a horse whisperer. We headed back to the house to get ready for dinner, which included champagne and cheese beforehand. Pinkies up!


The next day: EURODISNAAAY! That is how the Frenchpeople say it, and I love it. I will never say it any other way. We woke up early so we could get to the park right as it opened to pick up the free fast passes that the Levesques arranged for us. Diiiid I mention they're awesome? I was especially excited because I got to see Alan! He was one of Pauline's classmates during last year's exchange, and one of the French students I talked to the most. We went on so many rides: Pirates of the Caribbean, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear Star Command, the teacups, It's a Small World, and then Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Indiana Jones twice. I was a little dizzy, and Rachel again faced her fears by going on the tall rides. Sooo proud of herrrr!


There are a bajillion details I could mention about this day because it was so much fun, but the highlights were: the rides, taking a million pictures of It's A Small World, not having to wait in line, the Disney character dance show in the afternoon, and the parade at night. As we left, there was a group of break dancers outside the park who put on an amazing show. The best part was when they brought this little 2 year old boy out and made him dance with them. I took a video but I can't put it up here, so hopefully one day it ends up on facebook for all to see. Overall, a beautiful day at Eurodisnaaay with my French amis:



The next day was already our last. We went to the Val d'Europe (a giant mall) in the afternoon, where I bought myself a French-ass purse, Rachel got a pair of earrings for her brother's fiancee, and Cote got a shirt. We went back to the Levesques and hung out for a little before people came for the barbecue that the family put on for us. Yet another nice thing they did for us. It was Pauline, her parents, her uncle, and some of her friends that I met last year during the exchange program: Carole, Jeanne, and Xavier. The conversation was a little awkward at first since the majority of them don't speak too much English and the majority of us don't speak too much French, but after Claire served her cocktail to everyone, everything got way less awkward and way more funny. These French people love to dance, and they had a line dance to basically every song. They taught us and we struggled, and Cote got it all on her video camera. Really really wish I could share that with everyone in the world. It was a lot of fun, and we got a picture with the whole family:




After the barbecue, we all walked down the road to the Coutevroult town sign to take funny pictures. The French girls all ganged up on Xavier and stole his shoe, then took pictures of him. We got a lot of awesome pictures, none of which I have because Claire took them on her camera. Speaking of Claire, she is just hilarious. I don't think I could actually put it into words, but she is the most ridiculous, hilarious, French woman I have ever met.


We finished off the night by playing bilingual Pictionary (that was interesting) and then heading to bed. It was so much fun, and such a great way to end our stay. We all definitely bonded, which was beautiful. The next day we got up early to take the RER train into Paris with Pauline, and it was really sad to say goodbye. Ils me manquent :-(

The London Eye and Posh Girls

Umm...it's been awhile. In my defense, I haven't really had regular internet till now. Also, this is better for anyone reading this because since I'm not writing every day, every post will probably be quicker/more condensed and will probably be easier to read for you. What I'm really trying to say is...you're welcome.

So I'll post a bunch of entries about the things I missed, but since it's been 10 days I'm not even going to try to pretend to write on the same day. It's been too long...

Last Monday, we went to the London Eye. The line was loooong but it was so cool! They call it a "4D experience" because before you go on the Eye, you watch this 3D movie where when there are bubbles in the movie, they actually blow bubbles at you, etc. I'd list the other things but the bubbles were objectively the best part. The view from the eye was pretty amazing. Here's a picture of the view as we were just passing over the top (in our pod):

There's not anything too exciting in this view, but I wanted to include another pod and make it all artsy. On the other side of the Thames to the right was an amazing view of Parliament/Big Ben (just cannot get enough of that clock tower) and to the back left was a great view of St. Paul's Cathedral. Also I of course enjoyed watching all the teeny tiny people, buses and cars below. If only they could stay that small forever. This would've been a really great place to take one of those pictures that I can't remember the name of, where you blur the top and bottom so it looks like a miniature, but I didn't think about that till...now. And now I'm in Harrogate.


Anyway, after the Eye we got ice cream and walked over to take pictures of Westminster Abbey. We were going to go in but turns out it costs £15 unless you're there for actual religious reasons. Which we were not at all. so I took the opportunity to capture yet another majestic portrayal of this beautiful animal:



Not the lion, the unicorn. Although lions are cool too. In this case, America could really take a page out of England's book.

The next day we got all dressed up and went to Harrod's. We got dressed up because Harrod's has a dress code where you can't wear ripped jeans, shorts, athletic clothing, or flip flops. So while we were at it, we decided to get all posh. Three ladies, takin' London by storm. On the town. Kickin' A. Takin' names. This is what we were. I couldn't take any pictures inside the store, but it was really cool to walk around. My favorite part was the Egyptian escalator. You should google it if you get the chance.

The night, we got ready to say goodbye (so long) to Dave, Kathleen, Hugo, and Floyd. Floyd is the giant spider that lives next to the front door of Dave and Kathleen's mew. I kind of hate him, but I respect his existence because Rachel loves him. Here he is in all his shiny, hairy, spidery glory.



I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. Which is why it was completely necessary to share this. To say bye to Dave and Kathleen, we went to the pub down the road, the Nightingale, to have a last drink together. Dave asked me what I wanted and I said cider, but he didn't hear me say "half pint of" so he got me a pint. It was giant. Rachel caught me struggling with my rather large glass:



I'd love to say that I was only making that face because I knew someone was taking a picture of me, but that's not true at all. It was a struggle. And thennn I was a little tipsier than someone should be after one pint of cider.

The rest of the night was just packing for our French excursion. Next up...all about that.

A Sparkly and Scary Day

Today, Sunday, July 18 (this is actually written on the day of…nice) we went back into London to take a closer look at some of the things we saw on our tour. First up was the Tower of London. We started off by going on a tour given by one of the Yeoman Warders. The Yeomen Warders live in and work at the Tower. It’s pretty cool because they’re all badass men who were high-ranking officers in the Royal Army for at least 21 years, and now they live in a castle and give tours to tourists every day. And also they guard the Crown Jewels. Our tour guide was named Andy and he was hi-larious. I snuck a picture of him:

Doesn’t he look cool? What he’s wearing is their official uniform. He kept comparing our tour group to wild animals. We were “stampeding wildebeests in the blazing hot sun” and “swans gliding gracefully across the water on a cold January morning,” among other things.

After the tour was over, we headed straight for the line to see the Crown Jewels. It was loooong, but worth the wait. As we slowly walked through about 4 rooms before getting to the actual vault where they keep the jewels, we saw a bunch of movies projected on the walls showing Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and up-close views/info on each of the jewels. Then, we got into the vault. Here’s what I have to say about the Crown Jewels: So beautiful. Soooo sparkly! So so so impressive. This was an excellent addition to my trip.

Next, we headed to London Dungeon, which is basically an educational haunted house. Play actors take you through, and in the process of being really scary and jumping out at you all over the place, they tell you about the diseases, torture methods, and murderers of old London. It was informative but really freaking scary for someone like me. The brochure specifically said “Not recommended for young children or persons with a nervous disposition,” which I’m pretty sure disqualifies me on both counts. But luckily Cote and Rachel were there to save me. I literally grabbed onto them for dear life in the Sweeney Todd room.

The end of the museum/haunted house tour is a smaller version of the Tower of Terror, where you’re strapped into a row of seats and they drop you really quickly and unexpectedly. They took a picture of us as we dropped, and I wouldn’t have spent the 5 pounds on the copy they were selling at the end, but Rachel’s face was PRICELESS. I wish so very much that there was a way for me to scan it and upload it here for all to see. Because seriously…best face ever. Every time I look at it, I can’t stop laughing. She’s going to be really happy that I’m describing her face this way.

After being traumatized for life, we took the Underground to King’s Cross to buy Eurostar tickets to France, since the blocking group rendez-vous is only 6 days away! Then we grabbed dinner near the station (which I didn’t realize was so beautiful…just another opportunity to take more pictures! Of which I have 200…from 3 days…), went to the internet café once again, and went back to Dave and Kathleen’s mew. We’ve gotten into the habit of making a video diary each night with Cote’s video camera, which has been pretty entertaining.

Also, for whatever reason, I was especially excited about the Underground today. I know this is a stereotypical cornerstone of the London experience, but I love when we get off the train and they tell us to “Mind the gap, please.” I also love that the trains are so colorful. I’m just a big fan of the Underground system in general. Here are a few pics I took today in my excitement:

Whew, so after this blogging extravaganza, time for bed. On the agenda for tomorrow: the London Eye and a day trip to Oxford.

London by Bus

Today (pretend it’s Saturday) we did our big first tour of London so we could see everything, take a bunch of pictures, and decide what we want to take a closer look at during the rest of our time here. We went on a double-decker tour bus, and for the first part of our tour, we had the whole top to ourselves, which was pretty sweet. We saw (I’m remembering all these with a little help from the brochure we got):

Piccadilly Circus/Eros Statue
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
St. James’s Palace
Ritz Hotel
Hyde Park
Buckingham Palace
Westminster Abbey
Big Ben & Parliament (my favorite!)
The London Eye
Covent Garden
St. Paul’s Cathedral (second favorite)
London Bridge
Southwark Cathedral
London Dungeon
HMS Belfast
Tower Bridge
The Tower of London
The Globe Theatre
Tate Modern
Sherlock Holmes Pub
Leicester Square

The two things I didn’t get to see that I really wanted to were Harrod’s and Kensington Palace, but there’s time for that. Also, I took about ten bajillion pictures, and it would be cruel and unusual punishment to post them all here, but here’s my favorite that I took all day:


Doesn’t it look like the clouds are photoshopped in? But they’re naht. Clouds are just really cool in England (I’ve been taking way too many pictures of clouds…). Another great part about today was that it was an excellent excuse for me to take pictures of my name all over the place.

Here’s my bus:

And my Underground station:

And my street:

And my STATUE. Yeah, statue:

At night, we went back to Clapham, stopped into the internet café for a bit (it is becoming my new best friend) and then went to the Nightingale Pub, which is right on the corner of the entrance to the mews. I ordered my own drink for the first time (half pint of Foster’s…I am a fan of this beer) and they didn’t card me! Woooo! So I officially look over 18. I think we can call this a successful day.

English Livin', Day 1

Not having the internet for the past few days means that I haven't had a chance to write any entries, so now I have an unnecessary amount of things to write about. So I'm just going to pretend I wrote them each day, because putting them all in one entry would just be rude. I'm doing this for you. And you. And you, too.

Today (pretend it's Friday) we took the train to Brighton, a seaside town on the southern coast of England. It's known for being adorable and charming and small. AND for being referenced in Pride and Prejudice. But we didn't find Darcy there. On the train ride down (by the way, I'm really enjoying the fact that all of England is accessible by train. And that the people who check our BritRail passes never sign off the dates we use them, so we paid for a 4-day pass but essentially get unlimited rides) nice and short, and the views out the window were pretty. Rachel bought a bag of Quavers from the push cart and I tried them for the first time. BEST. CHIPS. EVER. Officially obsessed.

When we got to Brighton, we walked down to the Cathedral and the gardens in front of it. Then crisis struck: my flip flop broke. The part that holds the two straps in between my toes came out, so it barely stayed on my foot. I looked very awkward when I tried to walk with it, and since the sidewalk was kind of dirty (and I didn't want to give the British people the wrong impression of America) it would have been weird to go barefoot. Luckily, Rachel so kindly offered to carry me, and we walked through the streets of Brighton piggyback, thus giving the British people the best impression of America everrrrrr:

We found a shoe store and I bought myself a pair of replacement shoes, and I was able to walk like a normal person again. We walked by the ocean, which was really nice, and then headed back inland to find our very first pub. We found an adorable looking one called Waggon and Horses. Yeah, two g’s. Could it be more legitimate? We went in and Rachel bought Cote and me our first legal beers! Good thing we get another shot (literally?) at first legal drinks a couple months after we get back. We each got a half pint of Kronenbourg to honor Alice. Here we are, sippin’ on our dranks:

The most exciting part of that pub visit, though, was the part where a really drunk, belligerent man was thrown out of pub and arrested right outside (by two bobbies! That’s one of my favorite British words). He would have knocked into me on the way out, but I moved just in time when I saw him coming. Yet another crisis averted.

The rest of the night was pretty relaxed: we took the train back and saw cows on the way! Love cows. Then we stopped in a pub in Clapham called Avalon (which reminds me of the club in Boston…but that’s okay). There I tried cider for the first time. I like. After that, we went back to Kathleen and Dave’s new house, which is actually a mew. Besides the fact that mew means tiny house, it is also the sound a kitten makes. This just keeps better and better. To top it all off, when we got to their mew (aww) we found that there was a friendly tabby cat sitting right outside! So we named him Hugo and proceeded to take way too many pictures of him. Here’s one of him, looking fierce in the night:

Seriously though, I have about 10 pictures of this cat on my camera. And they’re allll going on Facebook when I get back.

And lastly, unrelated to England: my grandpa turned 99 today! That is pretty amazing. Just another reason that he’s the most impressive person I know.

Three Girls...on a Mission

To get to Cote's cousin's apartment. From the time we got to Logan, it took us 17 hours to get there. We showed up at the airport, ready to go with our travel gear:

Wow. We are so cool. It's almost like we all bought our backpacks at the same time or something...

We got on our first flight (Boston to Shannon, Ireland) and there I entered a magial land of friendly Irish people. Everything seems warmer and happier when said in an Irish accent--the lady next to us asked if she could put her water bottle next to Cote's seat, and it just warmed my heart and soul. We took off at 7:15 (at which point I declared "RACHEL! COTE! OUR MAGICAL JOURNEY IS ABOUT TO COMMENCE!" I get reaaaally excited about airplane takeoffs), and I thought it would be easy to sleep on the flight, but Aer Lingus decided that turning off the lights on our overnight flight wasn't a good idea. They also decided that the best time to serve our meal was right in the middle of the flight, a.k.a. at 10:30pm Boston time and 2:30am UK time. Hmm. And they woke us up. Rude. At that point I felt awake and was getting to the point of tiredness where I start acting a little...silly. It started with us making fun of Cote for looking like an anime character, giving her the nickname "cartoon ho." And then when we each started doing our own thing, I watched the Grey's Anatomy season finale from I think two seasons ago and actually started crying on the plane. I felt really special. Needless to say, my emotions were alive and kickin'.

I was only in Ireland for 2 hours, but the people there were so friendly and everything seemed leprechaun themed. For example: the Irish guy standing in front of me in line strongly resembled a leprechaun. Also, instead of yellow pages, they had GOLDEN pages. I wish it had been Pot o' Golden Pages, but I won't be picky. Besides the leprechauns, what I saw of Ireland out the window actually was really beautiful. It is definitely an emerald country, and it would be really cool to visit sometime. Fun fact that I wasn't expecting: the first language on all the airport signs is Gaelic, not English. And Ireland even smelled like I imagined Ireland would. Can't really give any more helpful description here, since my only way to describe the smell accurately is..."Irish." Clean and fresh work, too. All that was missing from my stereotypical view of Ireland was a rainbow.

Our second flight was delayed by an hour because of high winds in London, and I think at that point Rachel and I actually felt like death. I was so out of it on the flight, I fell asleep while we were waiting to take off, then woke up just long enough to put gum in my mouth, fell asleep immediately with that gum in my mouth, and woke up just in time for us to land. This flight we had window seats, and I got a couple shots of 1) clouds. Cause clouds are sweet, and 2) our first glimpse of England:

We got off at Heathrow, bought ourselves some Oyster Cards (like Charlie Cards for the Underground...I think it means that London is our oyster now), and started the 2 hour journey to Cote's cousin's apartment. It took us longer, though, because we got confused and lost (we were really out of it by that point...). But a lot of friendly British people helped us along the way, one of which greeted Cote with "Hallo, darling!" when she asked for help. Without a doubt, my favorite part about England is that everyone here is English.

When we got to the apartment with all our luggage, having been awake for 27 hours straight, we realized that trying to stay awake the rest of the day to get rid of our jet lag was just silly. So we crashed for 4 hours. Then Cote's cousin and her husband (Kathleen and Dave from here on out) bought us Chinese take out (which is awesome here! Except fortune cookies are not guaranteed. Win for Amurrica). We kind of hung out for the night, called and checked in at home, went on the internet for awhile, Cote killed a giant moth in our room while Rachel and I hid in the living room, and then I stole Cote's netbook to write this.

Plan for tomorrow: Brighton (referenced in Pride and Prejudice...sigh) in the morning, then London to buy train tickets to France and do a little exploring. At night, Kathleen and Dave are going to take us out on the town and we're gonna dance dance dance till we can't dance anymore.

And now...I sleep. Although I'm not tired at all because of that 4 hour nap...

Pre-England post

As of now, 1 day till England! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

This is gonna be a short post because I am ti ti and at this point I should be spending my time doing things like...packing, maybe.

But anyway, I just uploaded a bunch of old pictures I found in our family photo boxes on fb because I went digging for pictures of the places I visited in England as a kid. I have pretty vivid memories of being at these places, but I don't remember the names of any of them. I'm hoping my Bobba will recognize them from pictures so we can go back and visit. But since most of the pictures I uploaded to the fb album weren't actually from England (I'm a sucker for cute pictures...of myself) I thought I'd put up the ones here that are forreal:

First, the cousins!

Then a few places I don't know the names of...although I'm guessing the last one was in Liverpool. Maybe.

Alright, time for bed. 42 hours and counting :-D

Cooler Than Me

...is a song I really like right now. But I'm not listening to it, I'm listening to acoustic Iron and Wine, which I'm also a big fan of at the moment.

So I don't know if 12 days in between posts makes me a bad blogger, but oh well. To recap last week real quick: pedicures with Morgan, many many sleepovers at Cote's (big thank you to her while I'm at it), 4th of July at the outlet mall (huge success! even got to see a blockmate/banana while I was at it) plus Cote's brother's friend's house/the observatory/Cote's house. Also, a lot of really good talks. I have some pretty amazing people in my life--don't think I'm not aware of it, friends.

This week! Many Boston adventures. Boston Common/Public Garden/Government Center/Quincy Market/tropical drinks/North End park with Devan. Then repeat that with Catherine (it was a really good combination of Boston sights). Then repeat that with Drew, except at night (minus the tropical drinks, plus gelato). Did I mention this is a great set of places to walk to in Boston during the summer? It actually doesn't get old. Also, fitness! I biked a lot by myself (after an inspiring journey with Cote and Isabella) and then went on a great bike ride with Devan and Isabella. In a surprise turn of events, Devan got to meet all the Palanges in a matter of 10 minutes! I didn't even see that coming, but Mummy P was especially excited to finally meet this particular roomie (somehow I wasn't aware that they hadn't already met).

Then of course there were the usual PACK adventures. And by PACK adventures I mean that I spent a lot of time at Cote's house. Tonight we watched Taken. That movie was awesome, but freaking scary. All I know is...if we meet a friendly French guy when we arrive in England, we are NAHT sharing a cab with him. Also, Liam Neeson is my hero. I was already a fan of him for being married to Natasha Richardson, but this movie sealed the deal. Cote said that if she has a son, she's naming him Liam. However, I might beat her to it...or our sons can have the same name, which would also be okay with me.

Aaanyway, one of my favorite parts about the past couple weeks was snapping some fun nature shots. A few of my favorites:

Cool lookin' clouds on the 4th of July.

Bunny on the Charles!

Spy Pond on a sunny day (the bike path goes past this).

Duckling. This little guy's definitely not an ugly one.

More ducklings! Just being adorable.

And I also took some not-nature shots of Boston:

The view of Boston from the Public Garden. This is technically somewhat naturey.

A famous church...that I forget the name of...at Park Street. The sky is almost a perfect cerulean (Drew had a more accurate color description that I don't remember).

The trees at Quincy Market at night.

The view of Boston at night from the North End park.

And one more picture. This one is possibly/probably my favorite (and captured another FAVORITE part of this week): VID CHAT WITH MY ROOMIES! As Devan would say...distance, schmistance.

4 DAYS TILL ENGLAND! Aaand goodnight.