Je ma pel Claude... Jet tou fle floo

Nothing better than visiting the most romantic city in the world with your parents. Well we may have had a few awkward moments, for the most part I loved every second of being in Paris with my mom and dad. From the croissants in the morning to the macaroons in the afternoon, we successfully ate our way through Paris. We enjoyed a lovely boat ride on the Seine River, where we were the only table of 3. As they replayed the same playlist of Love Songs ( Josh Groban, Barbara Streisand etc)  I looked out and saw the eiffel tower all lit up and couldn't think of a more romantic moment to share with my parents. We stayed in the Maray area filled with Jewish bakeries, gay clubs, and awesome clothing stories. What more could I ask for.  On Friday we went on the double decker bus tour and hopped off at all the museums and monuments we wanted to see.  We stopped at Napolean's Tomb, which is a very huge tomb for a very little guy. We saw the Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, and few museums.  I really loved the  Orsay Museum where we saw great impressionist art. This was of course after we struggled with the audio guide head sets for a while. This was especially a challenge for my dad. Another challenge for my dad was figuring out which language to speak. The week before my parents had been in Barcelona, where my dad was able to speak Spanish pretty well. He also knows French, which he tried to use in Paris. With the quick change in language and his love of Israel,  most of the things that came out of his mouth were in Hebrew. He kept referring to shekels, asking ma zeh, and occasionally he did speak French. My mom however struggled with the metro there, getting stuck in the barrier many times. Lets just say Barcelona def has a better metro system, and I will never forget the way their metro smelled. On Saturday night we went to Che Janou which had the best chocolate mousse of our lives. My mom almost cried. We also made friends with the couple next to us who happened to be Jewish and we of course invited them to New Orleans. Between the wine and the mousse we were feeling very friendly. On Saturday we headed to Versailles and saw all of the beautiful rooms each one having  more gold than the one before. Then my mom and I headed to their fancy mall. Before we stopped at a small lunch placed ordered two large cokes and split a sandwich. We were trying to be economical. When we got the bill i saw they charged 10 euros per coke. THEY WEREN'T EVEN SPIKED. After having a small stroke and vowing never to order coke in Europe again we went to the very expensive and beautiful mall where I bought a great orange scarf. Color was everywhere in Paris so I needed to spice up my  black or grey wardrobe. That night we had another great meal, then headed  back to our hotel after a quick stroll on Le Champs Elysees. It was the perfect week vacation both in Barcelona and n Paris. Next weekend Amsterdam! Besos
Mica

Thank You For Speaking English

Dear London,
Thank you so much for giving me directions in English, smiling at me on the tube, and not giving me ham to eat for every meal.
My first trip to London was the perfect way to start my travels. I had my first hostel experience, and while I did not touch the showers there, I enjoyed all the people we stayed with and the pub below us. I went to London with my friends Jillian, Amanda, and Jordan. We stayed in a nine person room, which meant bunk beds with three mattresses. I was assigned to the bottom bed or as I called  it the coffin bed. I quickly asked to be switched and instead a 6 ft 40 year  old spanish man slept there. You snooze ya loose. We also met our friend Paul Tall ( no joke, and no he wasn't that tall) He was from Prague and we brought him with us on all the tours. We went on a very cold walking tour and saw Trafalgar square, Westminster Abby, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and every other typical London landmark.  Met some fun Israelis who invited us all to Israel. We ended the tour with some nice fish and chips and a cider. I enjoyed the cider, but I can live without having fish and chips again. My favorite stop was Harrods. For my friend Jordan he died in the mens clothing department, but for me it was the chocolate room.  They even had samples! I could have spent all day drooling at the food, but we had a tight schedule. As I froze my behind off, i put on every article of clothing I had brought and went on a Pub Crawl in Camden. The men there def know how to drink.  The girls were dressed in high heels and adorable outfits. I was so layered i couldn't move enough to dance, so we didn't stay too long. Then Sunday morning we quickly ran to the Tate modern museum then  hopped in an adorable cab and headed back to Barcelona. It turned out to be a  wonderful weekend filled with fun accents, descent food, and lots of new foreign friends, (but not so much showering). Besos
Mica

Necessita Deodorant en Espana!

I know I am on the verge of being one of those people who says they will blog and stops, so this post is going to prevent me from going on that list. The past two weeks have been filled with classes and visiting sites and fun places in and around Barcelona. Two weeks ago I had a Picasso weekend. I went with two friends and ate at 4 Gats. This was a restaurant Picasso used to go to. The atmosphere was very cool and had Picasso paintings all over it, but the food was overrated. As a New Orleans girl, I know my seafood and 3 scallops does not equal 22 euros. Never the less, it was a fun experience. The next morning we woke up and went to the Picasso museum. We had a wonderful guide who even spoke English! That weekend it was cold and rainy and pretty miserable. We tried to drown our sorrows in what was supposed to be the "best mexican in Barcelona" but I am just going to have to disagree. On a different note, since my school sells chocolate croissants for 95 cents I have joined a gym. I thought I would not have to be with smelly Europeans since it is the winter, but let me tell you... this gym stinks. I can barely go into the weight room because the men clearly do not wear deodorant. Just another reason I need to avoid the gym. Besides the smell it does the job. This weekend we went to Girona with my abroad group. It was about an hour ride and we saw an old Jewish quarter and a church etc. It was really cold so we mostly hid inside.  I did however try a dessert called a shoo shoo. ( It sounded like how my grandma used to pronounce sushi). I had to eat the donut like pastry because I didn't want to be disrespectful. Then we headed to the Dali museum which was awesome. All of his work was very bizarre and the museum doesn't allow guides or descriptions really.  We have also ventured to a bunch of different bars and discotecas in Barcelona. I really enjoyed a bar called Le Cerano where you pour your own drinks and they give popcorn. We even talked to locals in spanish while we were there so it was an educational bar too. This weekend I take my first big trip to London!  Will tell you all about it next week. Besos XOXO Mica