The Mugger

The day after we got back from Paris, Stef and Alison came in from London for their Spring Break. We met up with them for tapas and some sangria and on our way back we had to take the metro. So we went to Gran Via metro stop which is usually crazy crowded and full of tourists. There werent that many people around and I was the last to go on the escalator towards the stop we wanted to go to. I had my black bag around my wrist and I felt from behind someone tugging on it and I turned around and saw this short man in his forties trying to steal my bag! Since it was still around my wrist and he was trying to run away he dragged me onto the escalator and we were both trying to fight for it. It happened in like 30 seconds but it felt like forever and I kept pulling and ended up getting a bunch of bruises on my legs but I ended up with all my things in the end. The mugger had a bag of chips in his hand when we was trying to mug me and then dropped all of them on the escalator. Stef Alison and Amanda didnt realaize anything was going on until they saw me on lying on the escalator and they had thought i had fallen. Stef then realized after and we all walked as fast as we could after she helped me up. We told the security guard who had a dog and crossed eyes and he didnt seem to concerned about it but this nice woman came up to us after and asked if we were okay. I was just happy the mugger didnt get to enjoy any of those chips or my bag.

J'aime Paris

It's our spring break here (Semana Santa) so we have no school for 2 weeks! Taryn, Amanda and I went to Paris for 4 nights which was busy busy but amazing! The day before we left we took a trip to grocery store to buy a bunch of snack food and things to put on bocadillos we made for lunch everyday. We took the metro from the airport which took about an hour but it wasnt bad except I hate lugging around my suitcase especially on stairs. We arrived on Saturday night and had a picnic on our beds in the hotel room with peanut butter and jelly. We decided to wake up early to go to the museo. We woke up around 7:30 and went down for breakfast and had croissants and little baguettes with jelly and of course hot chocolate! We found this little convient store down the street so we bought some baguettes for lunch and these mexican chips that we ended up eating everyday. We went to the Musee D'Orsay and had to wait in line for about forty minutes. It kept raining on and off but it was fine becuase I had a hood on. After we looked at all the Impressionist paintings we wanted to see we went to Notre Dame which was pretty crowded. We wanted to go up the tower so we waited in line and watched this man with an old mans mask on scare people on the streets. He was funny but a little creepy. On the way to the line he grabbed onto Amanda's arm and scared all of us from his face. We climbed all the stairs which took awhile and then took some pictures of the view. We could see the whole city and I took pictures of the gargoyles which were my favorite. It was really windy up there and cold so we decided to rest in a coffee shop down the street and ended up splitting a banana and chocolate crepe! It was amazing and perfect after being out in the cold for so long. When we were eating the crepe our friends from Clark who had gotten into paris a few days earlier called us and wanted to meet up so we met them on the Champs-Elysees. We walked down the street and took some pictures of the Arc de Triumphe. Afterwards we wanted to go back to the hotel and rest before dinner. We found this cute restaurant down the street from our hotel that wasnt too expensive so we went there and I had pollo y frites and of course bread! It was so good and I finished all of it. We went back to the hotel because we were tired and wanted to see the Louvre the next day. On Monday we went to the Louvre and ran into some girls from Clark who were on spring break from the London program. It is a small world. After our lunch of bocadillos con atun we walked to the Tuleries and to the Champs-Elysees again to do a little shopping and sightseeing. We could see the Eiffel tower from the street so we decided to go up it but only to the second floor which is still really high. I took a few videos from the top of the tower and a lot a lot of pictures! We got hungry so decided to go to dinner and found a nice restaurant near the Louvre. We saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night and its so much prettier like that. On Tuesday we ended up going to Versaille which was sooooooo crowded. We did a lot of waiting and then had an audio tour which was nice. My favorite room is the hall of mirrors. The whole place is ridiculous. We didnt stay there as long as we thought so we went to the cemetary where Jim Morrison is buried and it was so hard to find. But we saw a bunch of people near his grave and figured it out. People left rolling papers on his grave and Amanda read in her book that they needed to put up fences around the grave because people would come at night and do illegal things there. Before dinner we went to Sacre Cour where we saw a ton of Americans that were really loud. That was annoying but the church is really beautiful. There was a service going on so we just walked around. We had dinner near the Moulin Rouge and got nutella and banana crepes on the street. I would eat one everyday theyre that good. We were so tired we went back and just packed for the rest of the night. The next day I bought some Mexican chips from the convient store for the road and we headed back to Madrid!

Londres!

This is a really late post about London but I wanted to talk about it anyway. Amanda and i flew to London about 4 weeks ago and stayed in Stef and Alison's flat which was really nice.Theres 3 doubles and a single with a kitchen/common room. We got in around 2 in the morning on Friday and Stef waited up for us. We had take an hour long bus from the Luton airport becuase its kind of far from the city. Stef took off from work the next day and was our tour guide for the day! We woke up kind of early and went to see all the touristy things like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace which wasnt as amazing as I thought it would be.We went up the London Eye which is the big ferris wheel and got to see a view of the whole city. Then we met Alison who was working for a quick lunch and went to art gallery and saw some Van Gogh and Monet paintings. We took the tube for the most part there and I felt like a giant becuase the the trains felt so small. We also took some good pictures in the red phone booths which I loved! After Alison got back from work we went out to dinner to their favorite restaurant down the street from their flat with their roommates Erin and Sarah and I got a tuna melt that was amazing and drank Strongbow which is like cider/cerveza.It's really good and I think they only have it in the UK. I also found out that they call french fries "chips" there. When people said fish and chips I always thought they meant regular chips. My friends Emma and Mike studied in London last semester so I asked them where to go and they said they liked this place called Walkabout. It was this australian bar that played really random music but it was great. They played some quality 80s music like madonna and bon jovi which was exciting since I dont really hear that in Madrid! We went to Camden market the next day and I had never seen anything like it. There were really interesting people there and a lot of places to shop. There were these guys with huge mohawks standing around and I bought a tank top there thats like an old rolling stones shirt. After that we went to the grocery store becuase we wanted fajitas for dinner! We got all our supplies and some Strongbow and went back to the flat to cook dinner and then............ i had a Lauralton flashback and saw one of my classmates Laura for the first time since graduation. She is studying in London too and it was really bizarre. We chatted and then she stayed for the fajitas and guacamole which was amazing! We watched part of the Brit awards and saw Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson perform and now I am obsessed with their song "Valerie." After that we decided to go out again and I went to my first English pub and watched a football game! We went to the Court and had some more Strongbow and stayed for awhile. Our flight was at 6 in the morning so we decided to not sleep and just stay out for the rest of the night until we had to take our bus back. Finding a bus to the the sirport was really difficult but Stef and Alison tried to help us. It was freezing and windy and we ended up taking the bus to the airport and finally got there. i fell asleep right away on the plane with my passport and ticket in my hand and Amanda had to wake me up to tell me to put them away. The flight seemed fast and then we were back in Madrid around 11 in the afternoon so i slept for most of the day to catch up on sleep since Londres was exhausting.