21st Birthday in LONDON!

I know that I always say sorry for writing so late but this time it is really bad and WAY to late. I really don’t even know why it has taken me so long to update you I have been busy with school and what not but I think I have just been putting it off because I actually hate writing and am not very good at it! Haha

Moving on…
For my 21ST BIRTHDAY I decided a while ago that I really didn’t want to stay in Aix. I figured that its not like all of a sudden I can go buy alcohol or go to bars like in the States, it would pretty much be like any other weekend if I stayed. Instead I decided that I wanted to go spend the weekend in London for a change of scenery, my friend Christa came along with me to celebrate.

This year my birthday was conveniently on a Saturday so we flew into Gatwick Airport in the early evening and then had to take a bus for about an hour into town. It was really nice to be able to speak English and find our way around easily and everyone was very nice and helpful and we just asked tons of questions…well because we could and everyone could understand us. By the tiem we got off the bus it was dark and we were both super hungry so we figured it wouldn’t be to hard to find a place to eat. Well of course we were wrong and we ended up walking around with our huge backpacks forever just trying to find a place. Finally we wandered into China Town and had some Chinese food, which was a first for me in quite a long time. After dinner we got a hold of our couchsurfers, got directions to their place and headed there. Our couchsurfers mane was Mauricio and he lived in a house in Queens Park with 2 other guys and 3 girls. Marico is from Brazil and has moved around a lot but has been living in London for a few years. Before we went out he introduced us to his roommate Hugo who was also from Brazil and one of Marico’s best friends. These 2 guys were amazing to us the entire weekend and im so glad we met them. After a few beers and getting to know each other at there place they wanted to take us out to a bar called Barfly, we stayed there for a while had some more drinks watched a band called The Darkest Hour play (the most awfully funny thing I have seen) and then decided to go. Hugo is a manager of a sushi restaurant in London and Mauricio works with him, down the street for the bar was one of the restaurants so Hugo let us in at about 2 in the morning along with other coworkers of his and got us FREE Japanese beers, sake, and (birthday cake) edamame. We were there until lat into the night and the took a cab home for my big birthday day tomorrow!

The next morning me and Christa got up around 9 to start seeing the sites because we really only had Saturday to see anything because we were to leave early Sunday morning. We started by getting on the Underground and heading toward Buckingham Palace we ending up getting there right during the changing of the guards so it was pretty crowded. I have to admit it wasn’t nearly as beautiful as I thought it would be it was a little bare and really just this Huge building. I guess im just bias because I am so lucky to be in France with all these amazingly beautiful old buildings. After the Palace we just kept walking along the park towards Big Ben. I loved Big Ben! I thought it was just amazing to actually get to see it in person, there isn’t a lot to it because it is just a clock tower but still it was incredibly beautiful. We continued to walk toward the London Eye, where we intended to get on but because of the line we quickly changed our minds. Now we were a little stumped on what to do because we didn’t really plan the trip all to well we just wanted to see the city and have a a good time so we asked a Taxi driver where a good place to get fish and chips were, he led us in a direction and we sat and had lunch. After lunch we got back on the Underground and just headed towards Tower Bridge. Just off our stop there was the Borough Market, filled with tons of food stands and venders selling all types of delish looking foods. After we walked through the market we passed through the coolest little streets that take you back to way back in the day when things were probably so much more relaxed and there were no such thing as starbucks. Once we got to the edge of the river it was just a short walk to Shakespeare’s Globe, we didn’t get to go inside because we didn’t really want to pay for the tour so we just wondered on our own and took some pictures. After that we got back on the Underground towards Big Ben, we then walked some more where we ran into the National Gallery right while the sun was going down, it was incredibly beautiful and huge. We decided to take a break and went into a nearby bookstore to just rest for a while. We stayed there for a bit looking through London travel books and then decided to head back to the house to take a nap before we went out for the big birthday night!

After the nap Hugo told us that he would take us out to dinner in Notting hill where his restaurant was, we werE SO excited because both of us hadn’t had sushi sense we left California so it was way overdue. This dinner was AMAZING! Hugo paid for everything and ordered us just about everything on the menu! We had about $300 worth of sushi, Japanese beer, and ice cream! I really can not believe how night he was to pay for everything. London is just such an expensive city there is no way we could have been able to have any of it if it wasn’t for them. After we stuffed our face with Sushi Christa was dying to head down into Notting Hill because she is in love with that movie and wanted to see the bookstore and the house that belonged to Hugh Grant in the movie. I am actually really sad that we didn’t make our way there during the day when the market was going on because Notting Hill was wonderful! It was so nice and all of the shops even thought they were all closed at the time. Hugo then paid for a cab to take us to a club close to his place called Paradise, I have never really been a fan of clubs so I was skeptical but this club was great the second we walked in I fell in love with it. It is like this huge old Victorian mansion that is a club all of the rooms are decorated like you are in someone’s house and are incredible. The boys paid for all of our drinks that night while Christa and I spent the night dancing away. We stayed till it closed and then walked back to the house along with a bunch of their work friends.

The next morning we had to get up early and catch our flight back to France.


I could not have asked for a better 21st birthday. I was able to spend it in London an amazing city, and stayed with Mauricio and Hugo who we so ridiculously nice to pay for every single thing. The city was breath taking, the sushi diner was delish, and the club was absolutely perfect for me. I had the best birthday with Christa and am really sad that I will not get the opportunity to go back there this year before I go home. But I have made it a new goal to go back one summer and live there and try and find work, or even move there one day.

What can I say I LOVE LONDON!

New Years!

For our break we had about 2 weeks off so during that time I was lucky enough to have my parents come visit. They’ve never been to France before or Europe for that matter so it was nice to be able to show them around. It was hard at times because I myself am just starting to get used to everything here and I don’t even have everything down, but I did my best. They ended up flying right in to Paris so I had to take the TGV (our high speed train) and meet them at our hotel. It only takes me about 3 hours to get to Paris so I was there by about 12 and they had already had a delay so I knew they wouldn’t be getting in until about 3pm. They had no phone or didn’t know how to get around Paris all to well, and neither did I because it was also my first time there, well about 7pm rolls around and I have NO idea where they are. There’s really nothing I can do besides just wait cause there was no way for me to get a hold of them. They finally show up a little before 7:30pm they get a little settled and we talk for a bit and they tell me about what had happened. We decide to take the metro down to the arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élyées. We were able to go to the top of the Arc, and it was absolutely beautiful Champs-Élyées is usually always lit but during Christmas it was just amazing. After that we walked around for a while trying to find some food and then headed back to the hotel to get up the next day.

Day 2
The weather was so much nicer today; they day before it was pretty dreary out, you couldn’t even see the top of the Eiffel Tower. We started off the day by going straight to the Louvre, its one of the most famous museums in the world, known most for having the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The building was just incredible on its one let alone everything actually in the museum! I absolutely loved it you could honestly spend days in there and get so lost. It was the most amazing thing to actually be able to see these world famous pieces of art in person. Ive heard how small the Mona Lisa is in real life and its true it was super small, there were just so many people around it just trying to take a picture it completely took away from the painting. It was actually really sad and a little disappointing…but still it was the Mona Lisa and completely mind blowing. After we were finished we walked for a while down to Notre Dame. It was really pretty because it had a huge Christmas tree right in front, there was a huge line of people waiting to go in so while my parents waited me and Kels went to get some snacks, by the time we got back we got right in. It’s huge in side and very pretty but again just SO many people. We stayed inside for a while until we figured out our next place to venture off to. We decided to head up towards Luxemburg Gardens…once again beautiful. It was the middle of winter so the flowers weren’t in bloom but the park was still so nice the sun was starting to go down so the sky was so colorful. We were only there for a little because the park was closing. I had made plans to meet up with Christa because she was in town with her boyfriend Cody who was visiting from home. We had decided to take a river cruise on the Seine. It was nice to be able to sit for a while and get to see all the sights from the river, it had gotten dark so the Eiffel Tower was lit and sparkles every 45 minutes. After the boat we were all pretty hungry so we started walking around looking for a place to eat. We ended up coming upon this restaurant with a line out in front, we heard people speaking English and asked what the deal was. Well it turned out that the restaurant (which the name has totally escaped me) was in some travel books as a really good spot. We decide to wait in line and see what all the excitement was about. Everyone in the restaurant orders the same thing, you get steak haché and fries covered with this gravy, and as much as you want (a very un-french-like thing). The food was really really good and worked out perfectly. After the long day we all decided to call it a night and head back and get some rest.

Day 3
EURO DISNEY! Kelsey insisted on going to Disneyland Paris while they were here so on our 3rd day we slept in for a bit and then headed there on the train. It took around 45 mins to get there because it was outside of town. We arrived later in the afternoon and had to wait in line forever to get tickets. Once we finally got inside we just kinnda ventured around. It is a lot different from the one in California I thought they would be more similar. It was kinnda rainy out so that wasn’t the best and we ended up having to wait in line for like 2 hours for one ride so that was also not so much fun. I really did love going there and I know Kelsey was really excited to be there; also it was nice to kinnda feel like I was back at home, minus the line cutting and the massive smoking. We stayed there for the whole day and headed home once the park closed.

Day 4
This morning we wanted to get up pretty early and finish seeing all the things we have yet to see. Mom wanted to go to Sacré Coure, which is a huge church on the top of a hill that overlooks all of Paris. It was really pretty up there but still a little gloomy because it was still early. It’s a huge tourist spot so it was fairly busy and known for a popular spot of pickpocketers. We started walking down a the hill and headed for Moulin Rouge took some pictures and then got on the Metro and headed toward the Opera house we weren’t lucky enough to go see an Opera but it was incredibly beautiful inside. Next we just continued to wonder around for a while more until we made it to Napoleons tomb, which took forever to get to! By this time I had gotten a hold of some of my friends from my program who were also in Paris for new years, they decided to come meet up with us. This is where we split up for a bit and my parents went to the Eiffel Tower while I wondered for a bit with my friends. We met back up with my parents at the hotel and rested for a while before heading over to the Eiffel Tower for the “countdown.” We ended up meeting up with even more of my friends from school. There were a ton of people hanging around with their bottles of champagne and noise makers ready for the new year. All of a sudden we look and its midnight and the Tower starts to sparkle…no countdown. We were all super bummed, we thought there was going to be this big countdown and ball drop time thing and major fireworks. Instead it just lit up and we all just started yelling…it was a little awkward but still a lot of fun because I mean we were in france at the Eiffel Tower so it was amazing. I guess normally they have a big firework show but it was canceled because of security. After me and my friends wandered around for a while watched the crazy drunk french people run in the streets push cars and break bottles all over the streets. We weren’t out for to long because we all had to get up early to leave in the morning.

Day 5
This was our last day in Paris and we had to catch the train pretty early so all we really had time for was to head back to the Eiffel Tower and take some pictures. After we did that we got on a train that takes about 3 hours, and headed back to Aix.For the rest of the day we just kinnda walked around Aix.

For the rest of the trip we just stayed here in Aix, took a day trip to Avignon, and went up into St. Victorie for a couple hours. My roommate Jordan also had his mom, sister, girlfriend, and friend, so our small 4 person apartment got pretty busy. We were lucky enough to use our neighbor’s apartment because they would be on vacation. We spent a lot of the time just hanging around the apartment and walking around Aix.

It was nice to have the family out here and show them where I live, and where all there money is going.