April 18th

April 12th

I got up and was really not feeling all that well. I was just feeling really run down, but I figured I would try and get through work anyways. I got to work and did a couple of little things before I talked to Damien for a while about the market survey. We sat in a really warm room, which did not make me feel all that good. I went back to my desk and got to work. I was there for a little while and pretty much just completely spaced out for a while. Damien got up to ask me something and I was just not there. He asked me if I was feeling alright, I said no and he said that I should probably head home. I wasn’t going to argue. I came home, ate some lunch and slept for the rest of the afternoon. I just sat around for a long time that night. I messed around online and got caught up on my journal for a while. I spent most of the night watching TV though and just trying to get rested.


April 13th

I woke up this morning and still really wasn’t feeling that good so I called in sick to work. I probably could have made it through the day, but with my trip this weekend, I didn’t want to push it. I had a really nice lie in and then started to get stuff done for the trip. I went to do laundry because I had run out of clothes. I thought those might be helpful for the weekend. I went to a Laundromat around the corner because I had quite a bit to do. I just sat around there and did some reading while I waited. Once I was done with that I came home and made some lunch. None of my roommates were up yet, so I had to wait to finish my laundry for awhile. I managed to get that done after lunch and then headed to Metrogate.

I had a paper I wanted to get written before I went to Paris so I wouldn’t have to deal with it when I got back. The actual paper writing only took me about two hours or so but I was there for the better part of the day just messing around. I day really didn’t have a whole lot of motivation to do any work this particular day. After that I came and made me some food to eat. I wanted to keep this night calm too because I was going to have to get up really early the next morning to catch my train. I ended up watching TV for most of the night after I got everything all packed up. I called it an early night and tried to get some sleep.

April 14th

I really didn’t sleep much this particular night. I went to bed around 12 the night before and I woke up a couple of hours after that and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I stayed up for about an hour and just sat on my computer. I eventually did get back to sleep for another hour or so before I had to get up to get to the train. We had to take a taxi that was at our flat 4:15, so we had to be up before that. The ride over there was fine and we got checked in alright. We were all spread out through the train so we found our seats and got settled. I read for a little while and then took a nap. Once I woke up I found one of the people sitting near me and talked to her for about the last hour of the trip.

We got into Paris and took the Metro to the hostel. It was a nice place called the Three Ducks. It has a nice little courtyard and the location was really good. We dropped our stuff off there and headed over to the Eiffel Tower. We made it there and looked around, but decided to come back later. One of the girls saw a merry-go-round so three of us took a ride on that. We then took a boat ride up and down the Seine to get a layout of the city. That was really nice. We grabbed some ice cream and walked to Notre Dame. That was quite a walk. It would have been a lot nice except that it was the hottest day we’ve had out here so far and no one was really dressed for it. We explored Notre Dame and said hi to Quasimodo before heading to get something to drink at a café. We went to one that was right next to the cathedral and we paid for it, we paid a lot for it. Woops.

We started walking down the other side of the river and passed through a nice little flower market. It was rather pretty. We walked until we came to the Louvre and found some shade. We thought we would sit and rest for a while, which we did. We just happened to take an hour long nap in the process. That was really nice and really refreshing. We started walking again and got back to the Tower. We grabbed some Nutella Crepes, which makes me want to learn to cook crepes very badly. They were delicious. That gave us all the strength we needed to get up the tower.

We got in line, the wrong one first, but eventually we got it all sorted. We started up just as the sun was starting to go down and we really took our time, enjoying it as we went. It really is a beautiful view. By the time we reached the top dusk had fallen. We walked around for a while and by the time we were done, night proper had fallen. We got to watch Paris light up, district by district. It was pretty cool. We were also on the Tower as it lit up and put on its light show. It was pretty cool. We were in the middle of the biggest rave in the world. We made out way down and went to a café for something to eat. We all got these amazing three course meals. I had terrain canard, a steak, and a lemon meringue tart. Pretty good. We spent a lot of time there eating, drinking, and talking before going back to the hostel. Some of the group went to sleep but I stayed up with one other person at the bar talking.

April 15th

We got up and had some breakfast at the hostel before checking out. We took the Metro to the Louvre to spend a good chunk of the day there. That was really amazing. I remembered a lot of it from the last time I was there, but we still saw a lot more. We spent most of the time in the Devon wing looking at those paintings, but eventually we crossed over and looked at some other paintings there. We had a lunch/snack while we were there too. We ate at the same café that we ate at when I visited with the family, in almost the same spot. That was pretty cool. It was a really good time.

After that, we rested outside for awhile before heading out to the Sacred Heart Church. It a big cathedral set on top of this big hill that over looks the city. We had quite the hike to get to the top of that. When we got there, it was just covered with people. There were people in the streets and there were people sitting on the slope up to the church. We walked in and caught the end of a service that was in progress. That was kind of cool. We walked around there and ended up sitting down because it was really cool in the building. We left and wandered around until we found a place to eat, a little pizza place. It was some really good food.

We finished up there and headed to the Metro. On the way, there was a group of guys doing some free style dancing, so we watched that for a while. We got our tickets for the Metro and realized that the station was just a couple of blocks away. Oh well, the tickets were cheap. We got to the station and got all checked in. We didn’t have a problem, except that one of the girls had a hard time checking in with her ticket. They had to check to make sure that they hadn’t given it away for some reason. That was a quite interesting.

The train ride back was pretty mellow. I ended up sleeping for most of the time again and read for the rest. Not a whole lot went on really. We got off and took the Tube home. I got back and made myself a snack and tried to check my mail. That would have worked except that my computer wouldn’t turn on. I’m pretty sure that it’s the same problem I had before, but I wouldn’t be able to get it fixed until I get home. So that now becomes the first thing I get to do when I get back because I have a final paper on it that I need to get off. Good time. I ran to Metrogate to check my mail then went to bed.

April 16th

I got up and went to the first of the last of my classes. Senior Sem was pretty good today. We first talked about a book we had read and then went over some pieces of propaganda that we had researched. Good stuff. While that was going, I went and talked to the prof who’s paper I had written on Friday. He was really cool about and told me to get it to him when I could. That was helpful. After some lunch I spent a couple of hours at Metrogate working on another paper that I luckily was able to get a copy of off my backup. That was nice. I was there for a couple of hours before I went for a nice walk. I went around to a bunch of the little gardens that are around here that I had seen, but never explored. I went to the one my parents over looked from their hotel room, but I couldn’t get in. It was for residents of the area only and you needed a key. The next one I went to was the same way. The last one was at a roundabout just behind our flat. The houses around it were really pretty and the little garden in the centre was really nice too. The nicest part was the smell of the wet earth. The flowers were being watered and it really reminded me of home.

I got back and took a little nap. We were going out for a farewell dinner with Cynthia at a Turkish place called Tas or Taz. I can’t remember which one. The food was really good and the best part was the school paid for all of it. We started off with all these appetizers to share and we dug into that. For a main course I had lamb with I think was polenta with melted cheese, eggplant, and a tomato sauce. It was just amazing. For desert I finished it all off with some rice pudding. Kind of fitting I thought. After that I went to a pub with some of the group and we hung out there for a while. I called it an early night because I worked the next day.

April 17th

Work was pretty laid back today. I worked on the market survey for most of the day and got pretty much all done with that. I also helped Damien get acquainted with the DVD software so that he could finish it up. There were a couple of things that I needed from him that he didn’t have a chance to get finished so he was going to do that. I’m kind of sad about that, but I’m still happy the way the project turned out. Really just a pretty low key day as things wound down there.

I got back home, but not before going to Metrogate for a while. When I got back, I made a big dinner to help burn some of the food I had left and really enjoyed that. I hadn’t written in my journal for a along time, so I spent most of the time getting caught up on that. That was really all I did that night.

April 18th

I got up and decided to go for a run today. This was the first time I had gone out since the Isle of Mann weekend and I was pretty sore. It felt good though. After I had gotten back and stretched out, I was feeling really good. I made some lunch and then started getting things in order packing wise. I went through and got all the stuff I knew I wasn’t going to be using in some vacuum packing bags so that was all done. I also went through and got some of the other stuff ready to get packed by getting all the things I could folded and ready to go. I also went through all the papers I had accumulated over the months and tossed a bunch of those. I think I’ll end up making some sort of scrap book out of all of them when I get back. Katie gave me a really nice album I think would work nicely for that purpose, but we’ll see how motivated I am when I get back.

The last Ethno class was fun. We each got up and told a story about something that stood out in out minds about our trip to London. I told one about how I thought I was getting yelled at by a very angry British man while I was with Mom over spring break. I’m sure she remembers that night very well. We got done really early there so we all went out to a pub for a drink with the prof. We ended with a picture and then I grabbed some food and had to go do some work. In the theatre class we had to act out a scene as out final project and so I met with my partner and we rehearsed for a while. That went really well and the scene turned out pretty good too I think. All of them went really well actually. After that I headed to Metrogate and sat around for awhile. I did my blog and then I plan on going home to get some food and watch some TV.