The Capital of Baguettes and Berets

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Well I'm back from my 3rd weekend travels, and a sad reality has set in that I only have 10 days left here. Time really does fly when you're having fun. So I haven't updated you in almost a week so I'll try and be as detailed as possible.

We spent Thursday in Brussels, as I said in my last entry and visited the European Commission. It is interesting to see all of these EU buildings, but quite honestly they all seem to do about the same things to me, and its hard keeping their very unoriginal names straight. It's been especially relevant though doing all these visits right in the middle of this whole debacle with Greece. Our professor typically ends our question and answer sessions of our visits by getting in a heated debate about whether or not Europe will be able to pull itself together. So that keeps us all entertained for at least a little bit. After that visit though, we walked around Brussels, got dinner, and then had a real Belgian waffle - SO GOOD. Seeing as we can't go anywhere without making a scene, of course the 8 of us who were there immediately began scarfing them down as soon as we had them in our hands. Not sure if it was a positive image for the waffle stand or not. We were raving about the waffles, but at the same time we looked like rabid animals. We found a fun area to go out in that night and stayed out pretty late even though we knew we had to leave for Paris pretty early.

Friday we set off for Paris! I had already been there once before when I came to Europe after high school to see Mona, but I was excited to go back and try and get a different impression. We did a bus and boat tour whenever we first got there, and then we had our evening free. We went out to dinner where I discovered Nutella Banana crepes and I don't think my life will ever be the same. Our plan was to try and hang out with the group in someone's room, but when it came time to get everyone together, we were just all so exhausted, and for the first time in a while, we made it to sleep at a decent hour.

Saturday we went to the Palace of Versailles pretty early. The inside was just as beautiful as I'd always heard, but the weather outside was miserable (as it had been for about 2 weeks) so we avoided the gardens. We got little audio things to guide us through the different rooms, but I would get so caught up looking at everything that I wouldn't really listen to what the voice was telling me so I just gave up. After Versailles, our group headed to the Lourve where pretty much everyone was only interested in seeing the Mona Lisa. If I had had more time in Paris and was actually interested in art I definitely would have explored more, but as that wasn't the case, we got in, got our picture, and got out. We walked around Champs Elysees for a while, and then head back to our hotel to get ready for the night. Nine of the girls I usually hang around with took the subway up to Sacre Couer, which is a big church on top of a hill, and you have the greatest view of Paris. They have little restaurants all over that area, so we grabbed dinner at this Italian place. Surprisingly the waiters were very attentive, and I didn't complain once about the service. Probably had something to do with our large purchase of wine bottles, but either way it was great. After that we just sat on the steps and watched the sun go down and the Eiffel Tower light up and listened to a guy play songs on his guitar. It was one of the most fun nights of this trip so far. We took the train back to our side of the city and found some bars to hit up, and I met up with a couple other girls I knew from A&M who were also in Paris.

Sunday we had to leave at 2 so a few of us went and bought baguettes and wine and cheese, and we had a picnic on the lawn at the Eiffel Tower. The weather was perfect, so it was just a great end to our trip. We got on the bus and headed back to Strasbourg and got in around 830.

Other than our weekend trip, we went to Deutche Bank and European Central Bank today in Frankfurt. It was interesting of course, but our presentation lady at Deutche Bank seemed to think that all Americans stereotype Germans as a bunch of Nazis. We were all less than pleased with her personality by the end of that presentation, to say the least.

Ok so TOMORROW we are heading to Rome!! I've been looking forward to this trip so much, and I'm so excited to be there for a long weekend. Not to mention, I can finally be in the sun and warmth again. So yeah I probably won't write again until I get back on Monday, and after this weekend I'm pretty much done :( As much as I've loved this trip though, I will be very ready to get back to the states where water, refills, and using the bathroom are free. So goodbye for now!

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