1. Paris
I just got back from Paris about 5 days ago. It was amazing! Everything there was beautiful! My friend Lauren and I went with the school's International Academy. First we went on a ferry from Dover to Calais and we got to see the white cliffs of Dover, which were so pretty! Then when we got there we drove straight to the Eiffel Tower and it was beyond my imagination. From far away I was thinking that it wasn't too special, it looked like it did in the pictures, but then, as we got closer, it got exponentially more and more beautiful. Paris itself was like a fake world. There were happy couples everywhere (I know its the city of love, but really? yes, really), cute picture perfect families complete with 2.5 children and a dog, and simply gorgeous architecture all around. Our first real day in Paris was filled with typical tourist things. We first went to the Sacre-Coeur and walked reverently inside the grand church. I also bought a candle and prayed, as one is tempted to do in a place so beautiful. Next we went for a complete change of pace and drove to the Moulin Rouge. It was very expensive to go in, so we didn't, but we did take lots of pictures of the iconic outside. In the afternoon the group journeyed to Notre Dame Cathedral and listened to the bells. Afterwards, Lauren and I spent the rest of the day walking through the Louvre Museum and generally being in awe of all the paintings. In the evening, Lauren and I found a quaint little chinese restaurant, ordered some takeaway, went back to our hotel, and ate it before going to sleep. All in all, a great 2 days in Paris.
2. EuroDisneyThis place was amazing. It was so different, and yet the same to the Disneyland I'm used to. The castle was pink instead of blue, everything was more decorated and more beautiful, Indiana Jones was a pure rollercoaster, Space Mountain was so much more intense, and Star Tours was in French! It was amazing. I'm gonna let the pictures do the talking, I think
3. London AgainThis was my third trip to London, and its still as magical as the first trip. Big Ben is just as unexplainable and Westminster Abbey is just as old. This trip we did a few new things though. We finally got to go into the national gallery, something I've been wanting to do since I got to England. We saw all of these amazing paintings by Degas, Van Dyck, Rubens, Vigee-Lebrun, Da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. I was in Heaven. Speaking of Heaven, we also went into a church and were there for the Evensong. The church was St. Paul's Cathedral, and the architecture in that building was so amazing and ornate it made you want to cry. The Evensong was very beautiful. The men's choir had voices like angels, and some of them were very high pictched angels, they were singing all the way up in my range! Then, after that, we went for a complete scene change. The Troubadour, a downtown restaurant and bar, has acoustic musical acts held in the basement. Jenika, Jaime and I went there to see an aquantaince of mine perform. When we got there we were surprised to see that it was in a part of town that was not touristy at all! It was very nice. The show was filled with pretty decent indie music. The first act was Catherine Tran. She had a lovely voice, but her melodies were great for background music. The second act was Tom Milsom, a brief acquaintance of mine. He was great! I've heard him sing better, but I've never heard a better kazoo act. Also, his in-between chatter to the audience was the funniest out of the three acts and his electric ukelele was enjoyable to listen to. The last act was called Animal Kingdom. They were used to more 'rockin' settings so their acoustic set was rather depressing, but still great sounding. We then caught the train back to Colchester and I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
Catherine Tran
Tom Milsom
