#19

so this will be the last one. =[ I leave today at 3pm my time, 7am your time, and get home at 6pm. Its gonna be a long flight! The last couple days have gone by fast, we've done the science museum, and even went to an arcade. I'm sad to leave, but glad to be coming home =]
I'm gonna miss everyone, cant wait for the reunion!

p.s. if anyone still hasn't gotten their full of pictures, you can go to
http://gallery.me.com/liz_leong#100049&bgcolor=black&view=carouseljs&sel=0
Liz has been working on putting all the pictures together there. Not all are up though, so it'll be a few more days.
Peace!

#14-18

PARIS WAS AMAZING!!! But i'm glad to be back in London. =] It was about 20 degree's colder in Paris, and I thought I might die at times of coldness. haha.
Friday: We went to St. Paul's cathedral for Christmas, so the first picture is of it. On friday we went to the changing of the guard and tried to freeze ourselves. haha, it was neat to see, but not that eventful, and the cold was awful. I didn't do much after that, wandered around, took a double decker bus, and packed. We got on the train to leave pretty late (7pm) and then got dinner on the train. It was actually pretty good! When we finally got to paris it was cold, and we were pretty tired. I really just wanted to find our hostel and go to bed i'm sure. We had to get Metro tickets (kinda like the Tube in London) and then figure out where we needed to go. It was pretty easy, but the Metro there is horrible compared to London. Its really dingy and there is a lot of scetchy people. I was glad to be traveling in the group for most of the time. Che, there were advertisments for you movie everywhere. haha. We found our place pretty easy, and got checked in ok. It was pretty late by this time, and when we got to our room one of our roommates was sleeping so we had to get ready for bed in the dark. It was not fun, but at least the beds were really warm. We decided to get up early and try to go exploring as much as we could. We wanted to make the most of our stay.
Saturday: We were up and ready to go by 8 i'm pretty sure. We got breakfast from the Hostel, so that was nice not to have to worry about that. We had to go back to the Metro and buy passes for the next couple days. They gave us paper tickets, and i'm so surprised that I didn't lose it! haha. We went back to the train station so we could exchange money from pounds to eros (this whole different money thing really sucks! I lost so much money coming to london, I hope I have some left to exchange back when I go home). While at the station we decided to buy a museum pass for the next two days. It was kinda expensive but we ended up going to a lot of places that we could for free, so I think in the end it was very much worth it. After the train staition we climbed a ton of steps and went to the Montmartre for the view. It was beautiful!!! (but freezing!) There was also a cathedral on the top (i forget the name) but we went through it. There is so many amazing places in paris! We didn't know where to start, haha. After the cathedral we went down to this carousal that was in Amelie (the movie, I haven't seen in, but a lot of people on the trip did, so I guess it was pretty eventful, haha) and got to ride it too! It was free, but extreemly rickety, and almost a bit scary, needless to say, we were glad to get off. I wanted to do a bit of shopping, but no one else really wanted to, so we had to pass by all the shops (including the fabric store which was a bit painful (but I guess i'm glad not because I dont have to pack it)). We got back on the Metro and decided to go to the Eiffel Tower (cause who can resist?). It was amazing! oh, it was very beautiful. David fake proposed to liz, which was hilarious. We couldn't stop laughing. We took way to many pictures though, and by the time we were done, we were all pretty starving. We had taken bread from breakfast, and we had eaten it all by this time. We stoped in a small cafe by a market. I had a salad with goat cheese in a crepe, and got yelled at by a french lady sitting next to me. haha, I'm not sure why though, I dont understand much french, but she was mad! oh well. Outside it just seemed to get colder, and was not fun. I'm pretty sure that after that we went to the Louve, and explored for just a little bit. We were all pretty tired, but we did the main things there, like see the Mona Lisa and some other pretty neat things. We also went to Notre Dame and saw it at dusk. There was a church seminar going on, so we tried to be fast and get out of there when we could. We also went to a Modorn art museum i think... i'm trying to remember everything and i'm not quite sure when we did that, but i'm gonna put it here. haha. That night we decided to sleep in a bit because we were all really tired. We got home late again, and had to get dressed in the dark. Sleep was good.
Sunday: We really cranked out the Museums today (or tried to). After getting up two of our group members went to the train to try and get an earlier train out, for some reason they didn't want to stay much longer. The rest of us went to the Arc de Triomphe and using our passes got right up into it, and walked around the top. The view was amazing! It really was pretty. I probably took too many pictures, but its ok. Then we went straight to Picasso Museum. That was a fun museum. He was a really talented man. After the museum we went on a hunt for a restraunt that David had been to before. We walked past the Bastille and some neat cafe's. After a good 20 minutes of walking (and a serious drop in faith that we were gonna find this place) we actually did find it! It was called the Nectorine, and it was fabulous! Honestly, i'd like to go back to paris just to eat the food, it was so good. I couldn't stop eating sometimes. I had a duck/cheese/potato crepe with salad, and for desert a straberry crepe. we all shared food, so we could try a bit of everything. Kortney and Liz got pure chocolate drinks. haha, they were really good though, i'll admit. Then we went to a cathedral right by Notre Dome, and were all stuned by the stained glass. We couldn't believe how amazing it was. We had to leave quickly though to make the Orsay museum. We got there just in time to be let in, and walked around for about an hour before we were kicked out, but we were there! The museum used to be a train station, and was neat to walk around. After that we went back to the Eiffel Tower and decided to go up to the very tippy top! (there were 3 levels, and you can see the different bands on the tower, and the one at the top? yeah, I was all over that!) It sparkles every hour, and made everyone happy. We sat in a cafe for over an hour after we came from the tower, and got some really good pictures of the tower. We came home in a rush though because we were so cold (I think thats the theme going on every day, we just couldn't stay very warm out in the open for very long! good thing paris is full of cute little places to go when its cold). We didn't sleep too long that night for tomorrow was another big day!
Monday(last day): you'll never guess where we went... Disney land Paris! where else right? Well, that was a fantastic day. We rode (in order btw) Indiana Jones, Aladdin, Hotel Terror, Space Mountain (FAV!), Pirates, Mountain train ride thing (haha), and the Buz lightyear one. We had a fantastic day. It snowed (fake) in the town when we were there, we got to see the parade at night, and the ending of a show (along with the lit up castle). It was pretty much amazing. We did a lot for our time, and even though we were dead on the way home, couldn't stop smiling. Oh, it was a very very good couple days.
Tuesday: We got up EARLY to catch our train... which turned out to be a huge mess. Our tickets had been booked for the wrong date =/ We had to scramble to get them changed in time to get on the train, and that is never cheap. The funny thing is, tickets are cheaper when you buy them round trip... So if anyone wants to go from London to paris on the 8th I think it was, and return on the 30th, your welcome to it! haha, just give me a ring! But we did get home ok, dont anyone worry, and then did a bit of shopping this afternoon for some late christmas gifts. The good thing is stores are having mega sales right now! so things are better prices, which is helpful.
Alright, this is the longest blog of my life. I'm going to bed. Peace!