Oh, Paris, how i'll miss you.

This weekend we went to Paris.
In true parisian style, there was a strike. The metro was on strike and so the we drove in the middle of a grid lock for three hours before getting to our hotel, but as we inched around the ring road, the eiffel tower would peak out her head and melt my heart. As soon as we set our bags down we bee-lined for the nearest metro station to find out the best route to the eiffel tower in the midst of the strike chaos. I was able to get directions and so we navigated to the Champs d'Elysee where we had supper before making our final pilgrammage to the eiffel tower. As we were full tilt towards to tower, i felt my foot kick a frozen bouquet of flowers, we found ourselves right on top the tunnel where Princess Diana died, that was cool. Morbid, but kinda neat. The clock struck 10pm and the tower started to twinkle with lights. Every hour since the millenium, the eiffel tower has a little light show. We muscled our way through the first round of "lucky men" selling neon mini towers, then bought our tickets and literally walked right on to the elevator with no wait at all. We rode it to the top and scoped out our route for the next morning. It was breathtaking. We kissed.
The next morning we woke super early and made our way to Notre Dame. We passed the pantheon and little markets. We bought a baguette and sauntered to the church which is on a little island right on the Sien. It was enormous. As was the crowd of tourists visiting. We then walked the streets of paris towards Les Galleries Layfayettes, which are big high end shopping centers. We walked from there to L'arc de triomphe which is the beginning of the Champs D'Elysee. The end of the Champ is the Louvre. We strolled the street, then found a little chinese restaurant for supper (where the waitress conned me into doing her english homework). Then we went to the Louvre where we explored for hours. Jonathan loved winged victory, and i loved the modonna of the rocks. And to everyone who says that the mona lisa is disappointing, you are crazy. It was so cool to see such a global image close up, her kind smile and eyes following you all over the room. i loved her! I promised her I would come and visit agian, and I will.
We took the croweded metro back to the hotel.
The next morning we pretty much repeated the first day, but instead, it was in slow motion. We werent in a rush to cram it all in, we simply walked and took it all in. Near the end of our day we hopped on a boat tour of the Sien which passed all the major attractions, we got off and visited the Louvre once more, this time just exploring the outside grounds. My favorite part was standing under the eiffel tower and watching the water droplettes fall from the top of the tower and take 15 seconds to reach the bottom where they would form perfect spheres, and we woudl catch them and laugh till it hurt. All the while, there was a HUGE line of grumpy tourists who had been waiting for hours to get to the top.
The nest morning we rose to get to the market before before the bus left at 9am for Chateau Versaille, which was so cool! It was Marie Antoinettes palace, and the monarchy spent so much time and money in adorning their palace that its said they were the reason for the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. We walked through a procession of brilliantly adorned rooms before arriving in the famous hall of mirrors. It was beautiful. The gardens were vast, and i mean VAST. So beautiful. Marie actually made her own little village where she had people re enact peasant life. So much scandulous and crazy history.
I LOVED PARIS. it was such a romantic city. I loved being able to speak my second language in an authentic setting and just the capturing atmosphere of the city is just undescribable. It was simply amazing. C'etait magnifique! J'adore Paris et tout ces petits tresors.
Tomorrow we are headed to London for an england match in Wembley stadium. I cant believe its here! I will be sure to tell you all about that trip once we are back. We have four nights there.
A bientot!

Today is monday, November 12, 2007.
I am so happy. I have this big fat smile on my face because sometimes reality hits and I am like 'where am i?' and 'what am i about to do?'. I am in europe with my bestfriend and we are about to explore places I have only dreamed about since I was little. Paris, London,Rome and more.
Thursday we are going to Paris. Thursday evening we are going to the eiffel tower, which is possibly the most romanitc spot ever. I think we will bring this cute little picnic kit from Jonny's mom and have some wine and cheese. (even though i dont like wine, it tastes like hairspray... or so i am told). We are going to the Louvre on friday, Roland Garos, MontMar (the home of moulan rouge and the bohemian arts and countless other fine art movements), the palace of Versaille (home of marie antoinette and other famous monarchs.), Champs d'elysee, and whatever else we can pack into 3 and a half days. I can hardly wait. I am also excited to maybe practice a little french as I spent 8 years learning the language and haven't really used it in a french setting before...might be scary! So i will have to post some pictures and tell you more when we get back.
The only news i can think to share is that we have tickets to handel's messiah on decimber 8th in the minster. (you could replace the 'i' for an 'o' in minster because that place is HUGE!) it will be beautiful. Jonathan and I persuaded a pub to show some shanghai master's cup tennis today. Fed played Gonzalez and lost :( but it was neat to see where Jonathan was adventuring a year ago this week. I am almost done my last paper and we are healthy and happy and just loving this city more and more everyday. I love it here, and although I am excited to come home to Canada, I will miss this place forever and will be sad to leave.
Take care and we'll write again after paris.
A Bientot!

Mullito.

Hello All,
I am sorry that I haven't written in a long time. Sometimes when we are in our routines around here I feel like i have nothing interesting to say. But really, it's all been quite fun. I write history papers and Jonathan reviews them, I go to my legs bums and tums class with Kathryn (we are ripped), we stroll the streets, read good books, Jonny works his phonebook factory job and then we do it again and again.
It is Saturday afternoon. Today we went to the National Trust tea room for breakfast with Kathryn and Steph. (You maybe haven't heard us talk about Steph yet, but we like her. She is also from Regina, so Kathryn, Jonathan and I let her into the club.) Then we went browsing through this eco friendly fair. It seems as though there is always a market or fair on the weekends. (Jill, i found another ring like the one I gave you. Now we are twins) We went and checked out fake moustaches, then went to find standing room in a pub to catch the second half of the game. Arsenal and Man U tied. I thought someone was going to club Jonny because they were all Man U fans and Jonathan was a surprisingly vocal Man U opposer... not even really an Arsenal fan, just a man u opposer. It was really fun though. Then we browsed some more and bought a cornish pasty as a treat. I found a lovely and inexpensive dress which i love love love. Now we are in the library. In a few hours we will meet again to go for sushi.
Tuesday I think we are going to Leeds to go shopping and then we are planning on getting to the south of England to do some exploring. I am really excited to venture away, but this city is just so magical that i love coming back to it. It is my reading week so we are able to stray away a bit more.
I think i am going to get a mullet hair cut. once and for all.
thats the news.
muah muah.

These pretzels are making me thirsty!

Some of you will remember the episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer lands a minor role in a Woody Allen movie. His one line - These pretzels are making me thirsty! He spends much of the show trying to decide how best to deliver those 6 simple words - with power and meaning and emotion - but, as only Kramer can, messes it up in the end. Try this www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRaLpHoZA8E to refresh your memory. And now that we've all had a good laugh, I'll explain how this has anything to do with anything. I, on the inspiration of Kosmo Kramer, have decided to try my hand at acting. I have auditioned for a similarly minor role in a little known, film-students-of-York-St. John production, entitled - The Last Non-Smoker. I shall not divulge the plot (my contract prohibits this), nor shall I reveal the lines that I deliver with such force, but I'd encourage you to seek out this soon to be cult classic. You wont be dissappointed. (In fact, I don't even know if I got the part, I just read a couple lines for the camera, barely managing to hold back laughter. Oh Kramer!)

Banshees

Hello All,

This weekend has been fabulous. Yesterday we got up early and went to the National Trust Tea Room for tea and scones. Jonathan opted for a "real" breakfast which actually had something other than bread, so he was happy with that. I soooo miss my omlettes, and protein in general.

After the tea room we were on our way into town to run some errands when Jonathan spotted a bird on the ground. It was struggling and all ratty and couldnt fly. We looked, and it was sad. People looked, and they were sad. After a good 30 minutes of conscience battles and attempts to walk away, Jonathan killed it. I won't tell you how, thats just gross. But I was so proud! Here is me, looking for anyone in overalls, because farmers are used to that kind of thing (killing chickens and stuff) and Jonathan is a kind city boy, but he knew it was the right thing to do, and he did it. It got me to thinking the rest of the day about my conscience, and if I honour it enough. When I was like, 11 or something, I was walking behind this woman, and 5$ fell out of her pocket, I gave it back. But just the other day, i was at Subway and I didn't get charged for my extra cheese, and I didn't say anything. Little examples I know, i am probably too embarassed to tell you of my bigger faults, i'll come around, but still... all the while my conscience was whispering.

Anyways, Jonathan did something super uncomfortable and conscience honouring, and so I gave him a Hero cookie. He earned it big time.

Then we went to the horse races, SO FUN! We went into the inner enclosure and got really close to the track and saw all these powerful animals just ZOOOOM by and then saw all the people act like banshees when they won and whew, it was cool.

Then, we went to a pub and watched the England- Estonia game. More banshee fans. It was fun, i had a pickle and cheese sandwhich for lunch...jelous?

Then we came back to the dorm, ate some cereal and toast (Jonathan's favorite meal) and headed out to find some standing room in a pub to watch the England-France rugby game. Probably on the top 100 most dangerous things to do in life. It was fun though, more banshees. France has this one player, and he is HUGE and he looks like Rasputin and it was terrifying, not as terrifying as the insane guy infront of us foaming at the mouth and highfiving everyone in the pub, twice... but almost.

We came back and went to the library where we booked three tickets to Rome. We spend 4 days in paris-come back for school, 4 days in London for the england game- come back to school, then 4 days in Rome- come back for school. So three weeks of travelling to three very different places. Oh, and the third ticket is for my dad! Should be fun to explore with a new random hero.

Today we got really excited about monasteries, and read all these books, and bought some books, and lived in the library, and just went crazy over Benedictine monasteries in medieval europe... it was awesome!

Now we are going to go eat supper.

That was our weekend... school tomorrow... work tomorrow... paper writing.

Whats new with you?

More pics:

Our summer, alittle late, I know:
http://uregina.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59508&l=f931b&id=666295320
Lake District-so so so beautiful. north east england:
http://uregina.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58655&l=9da10&id=666295320

La la laaaa

Hello All,
Happy Thanksgiving! Jonathan and I are really missing Canada especially on such a family centered holiday. We went out in search of a turkey dinner but were unable to find anything. We ended up going to McDonalds and then to our favorite dessert cafe for some yummy treats. The most excellent cakes and THE perfect latte. Going to Mcdonalds on a holiday wasn't too far from home for me, I seem to remember Mcdonald's pizza for christmas dinner and a few other family occaisons.
Anyways, we did get to talking about the things we are thankful for and amongst them are family for sure. We are thankful for adventures and exploring, but also that we are able to return home to people who love us.
Jonathan is at work right now, his second shift of the week. He is working 12 hour shifts so I miss him during the days. I have been spending hours upon hours in the library tackling my papers. The topics are so vague and I am really struggling to structure the papers. It will be so good to get these done because their end will mark the beginning of lots of travelling to exciting places in November. The month of October will be fairly low-key in terms of outings as Jonathan will be working and I will be cramming in school.
We are hoping to thouroughly explore York during this month. There are a few historic sites that we have yet to see and are also looking forward to visiting the railway museum.
Last Saturday we went to the Lake District. It is in the north eastern part of England. It was absolutely gorgeous. It definately did not disappoint. The scenary would make your knees weak, so would the three hour hike...
We took lots of pictures, had a fabulous picnic and rested in the little town of grasmere where we bought some famous gingerbread. All in all it was a relaxing yet active day.
Today Kathryn and I are taking a study break and hitting the pizza hut buffet. Our culinary experiences have been so poor that we get all giddy when its time to hit an american restaurant that we really didn't care too much for prior to coming here. Funny.
I am sure I am forgetting things to share but i've been looking at this computer screen for so long i am becoming a zombie.
gobble gobble.