and she was worried about ruining the ribbon...: May 2011

I am getting ready for a trip to New York in nine days. I have been diligently checking the weather and compiling outfits.

I am taking my three-year old nephew to Long Island, which means, with us both being minors, I get to pretend to be 18 and I will let everyone assume he is my child ("Yes, I was a whole fourteen years old when I had him. I think I may have started a bit late, don't you? I should probably hurry and make up for lost time...")

In lieu of my up-and-coming adventure, I shall tell about my summer adventure last year.
People to People. Oh, dear, moody, People to People.

People to People 2010

Amsterdam, Netherlands

We visited Clara Maria Cheese and Clogs, a farm.

"Het maken van clompen."

We harassed our allergies playing in a haystack,

And rode bicycles through the country.

Walked through a flower market.

Relaxed on a Princes Canal cruise, named after the Princes of Orange.

Ate at Hard Rock Cafe,

then played a game of life-size chess.

Reality checked us at the Anne Frank House,

it was quite a humbling experience.

We watched diamond cutting at Coster Diamonds.

And did the tourist act with the I AMSTERDAM sign.

We played on the most amazing playground ever,

and fell in a pond.

Angie, Lindsey, Me, Chelsea

Brussels, Belgium

We learned how they make chocolate at Planete Chocolat,

while I was conveniently having an anti-chocolate day.

We invaded the privacy of a peeing boy,

and a peeing girl.

It was almost July 4th.

We saw the Belgian flower carpet square, Grand Place.

There was not a single flower in that square.

Ate at a restaurant that makes you pay for both water

and use of the restroom.

Celebrated Sawyer's birthday, a fellow peer on the trip.

And snuck on top of our hotel roof.

Compiegne, France

We visited the Compiegne Museum, where the WWI and WWII Armistice were signed,

and drank Fanta in a house that fed us.

Lindsey and I matched. Whoops.

Versailles, France

Chateau de Versailles

A Toutes les de la France

The garden is perfectly symmetrical.

Plus, it rained. I love rain.

Paris, please get us a GPS

We got into Paris pretty late.

But not late enough to stop our delegation manager from sneaking us out!

We decided to go to the Eiffel Tower at night, to see it sparkle.

Our group got separated on the way there, and six of us got lost.

Somehow, though, we managed to make it to the Tower.

La Tour de Eiffel was magnificent.

It just so happened that my Teen Nampa sash snuck in my suitcase (thank you Mom), so I got to count it as an 'appearance.'

Sure beat those girls who thought autographs at

JC Penney made a great appearance, right?

On our way back to hotel that night, we got lost. Very badly LOST.

We went the wrong direction on the Metro. And then the clock struck twelve, and our day passes expired.

Great, we get to walk.

But have you ever tried finding your way around Paris in the middle of the night?

Impossible.

We got to see the Champs-Elysees and Arch de Triumph.

At the time, we had no idea they were anything significant.

They sure don't seem it in the dark!

After a splash in a pond and a few run-downs with cars, we found our way back to the hotel.

It was almost 3 am by then.

Paris, Tour de la Paris

Boulangerie Patisserie, the most famous pastry school in the world.

We got to make yummy dessert pastries.

Then a quick stop at the Columns of Memorial to Peace. Basically another way to view the Eiffel Tower.

We went on a bus tour of Paris.

The buss was a double-decker. Pretty awesome, I know.

We drove on Champs-Elysees, around the scary HUGE roundabout, past the Arc de Triumph, and saw the Hotel des Invalides.

We ended the day with shopping.

Bazar de l'Hotel de Ville. La Fayette. KN'L Paris. Miss Coquines. Sunshine. H&M.

And dinner, of course. At Pataques.

France has some very interesting Coca-Cola.

Paris, ascension de la Tour Eiffel

Fourth of July!

my ticket

The Eiffel Tower was amazing.

There's no experience like climbing a hazardous amount of stairs then riding two over-crowded elevators to "see the view."

But really, it was beautiful, and I loved it all (all of it but that I didn't get to kiss a hott French guy at the top!)

The Louvre was next. Really, how many magnificent places could we go to in one day?!

We got kicked out of the Louvre. You try getting a group of 42 in a high-security place like that! Apparently we were a "threat to security."

So we split up and took off our P2P lanyards. And we all used a different entrance.

The Louvre Museum, oh the Louvre.

Too much to see, too little time.

We hit the basics, you know, Mona Lisa, Michealangelo's David, Uccello's The Battle of San Romano, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, a bunch of stuff that I can't remember, and

Winged Victory of Samothrace.

My favorite work of art, ever.

We went to the Arc de Triumph, and something special was going on. I have no idea what, and I didn't know at the time, either.

Sneak out of hotel, play at park,

get hit on by hott French guys at McDonald's.

Of course I was oblivious to the fact that Chelsea and I were being hit on.

I had to be informed of that.

escargo and frog legs

Paris, what is it I'm eating?

La Cathedral Notre-Dame.

How do you say, magnifico?

And lunch was escargo and frog legs.

Best meal we had the entire trip...I loved it.

Montmartre, the Artists' District.

Strangers trying to con you into caricatures.

Touristy shops.

Locals playing futbol.

Dalida, the statue of an Egyptian entertainer buried in Montmartre.

She committed suicide.

It's kinda sad she had to be invaded like this.

Le Sacre-Coeur was a beautiful chapel. The lawn was drawing me in, I really wanted to dance and tumble on it, but some beauty and her beau were taking wedding photographs on it.

For dinner, we ate at A l'Auberge du Pere Louis. It was cramped, hot, and the waiters hovered, watching us eat. Umm, awkward!

But this is where it gets better. In other countries the drinking age is younger, much younger. Some places 16, some 18. In our little group within the group (me, Chelsea, Lindsey, Angie, Ty, Cooper, Vinny) we just so happened to have Cooper, who was 18.

So what did the guys do? Bought a bunch of alcohol, of course.

Including absinthe, illegal in the US (at the time).

That night was supposed to be a party in Ty, Vinny, and Matt's room.

I was supposed to attend.

My OCD distracted me, and I spent forever perfecting and packing my suitcase.

I was tired, and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, hotel security entered every room of members of our delegation, and our leaders had to see, in person, each and every one of us.

I discovered in the morning, that my whole group had been partying, and Ty and Cooper ended up in the hospital.

It was determined that Ty, Cooper, Vinny, and Matt would be sent home.

Normandy, France

Our time at the D-Day Museum was cut short.

We had to wait for those darned boys to get back from the hospital.

Omaha and Utah Beaches.

Where lots of soldiers were killed.

And yet, people were swimming in the water,

like nothing ever happened.

And then, a cemetery.

9,387 American soldiers

42 sets of brothers

33 sets of brothers next to each other

Real brothers from Saving Private Ryan.

And Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

This cemetery is the final resting place to all of these heroes.

Warwick, England

Brittany Ferries.

An overnight ferry took us to England.

Ty, Vinny, Cooper, and Matt were not on this ferry with us.

They were on their way back to the US.

Stonehenge. I always wondered what that picture of rocks on your average history teacher's desktop was. Turns out it's one of the wonders of the world.

Warwick Castle. Great battles, ancient myths, spellbinding tales, pampered princesses...yeah, all that came off the info packet.

At the Castle there was a very...long Trebuchet demonstration. I was sitting right on the trebuchet, and what did I do? Fall asleep, of course.

London, I love your bridges.

Oxford University.

Chauffeured Punting.

Shopping.

London, I love you.

Breakfast. This was the morning that started my obsession with Nutella. I came home with about 50 little sample-sized Nutella packets, courtesy of our London hotel breakfasts.

City of London School.

St. Paul's Cathedral.

Changing of the Guard.

Cruise down the River Thames.

The Medieval Banquet with "King Henry."

Tower of London. The Beefeaters were my favorite part.