Pastries, tapas, paella and jamon..oH my!

SPRING BREAK 11' - OH HOW I WISH IT WASN'T OVER

The destinations are - PARIS, LYON, BARCELONA AND MADRID.

Spring break last week and it was super awesome!!! Ryan, Michelle and I went to France and Spain.

Our first stop was Paris, which I've been before but it was nice going back and this time the people there were a lot nicer and the weather was good too and then we went to Lyon for a day. One awesome accomplishment was getting my Longchamp bag which is $40 cheaper than in the states. I was gonna get blue but then Michelle got it so I was something different, the color is Graphite and I really like it! its not gray or black, it's different with a shine so I'm special! hehe. We took the eurostar to Paris and on our first day we almost walked to death. We hit most of the sights on the first day such as Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, the Louve, and the fountains and gardens. We got into the Louve for free so yay! Then the second day, we had a hiccup and accidentally went to the city of Versailles instead of the palace so we did our shopping instead and on the third day we made it to Versailles. It was huge and crowded and the gardens are freaking huge and scary!! OMG so we went onto the pond and i rowed a boat for the first time and got made fun of BUT in the end I would say it was a success because I learned how to row a boat.


Lyon was the next destination and it's the 3rd largest city in France. It was really nice there because it was nice to get away from the big city of Paris and it was just a quaint and small town and the people there were really friendly and a river runs through the city so it was quite beautiful! We took the funicular up to the mountain where there is an abbey and it overlooked the city and the view was amazing! We ate at a restaurant called La Mere Jean and THE MOST EMBARRASSING THING HAPPENED TO US! I have never been so embarrassed so to make a long story short, we shift tables, middle table had to stand, middle table and cups and everything on table shatters to the ground and every looks at us and we eat the meal with our heads down the whole time and we give big tip and never go back! THE END


Then we flew out of France and off to Espana!!! our first stop was Barcelona. I was super excited to go to Spain because none of us has ever been but when we got to Barcelona it was pouring rain so it kind of ruined it for you BUT the food there is amazing and all we did was eat during our whole break LOL I'm like the size of a whale. We went to Bon Qu Qu which is actually just called Qu Qu and had tapas and paella and Ryan had a Barcelona style cannelloni fulled of cheese and meat!I had awesome black paella from the squid ink with chunks of squid!!


Anyways so our first day in Barcelona and something really cool happen, we saw a super duper famous soccer player that plays for F.C. Barcelona and on the Argentina national team, his name is Lionel Messi. Barcelona is near the beach but since it was raining we didn't actually go to the beach but we went to the harbour and did see the water. Saw a lot of the sights of Barcelona and ate a lot - tapas and paella galore! At night time we were walking on one of the many popular walking streets with lots of stores and restaurants and since the lifestyle is so different everything closes so late because of siesta! We encountered the Josef market which is one of the largest outdoor markets that specialize in fruits and seafood. The amount of fruit was amazing!!! every stall sold fresh fruit and fresh fruit drink with the coolest and wackiest combination. We also went to see Camp Nou which is the F.C. Barcelona stadium and it was super ugly and i got a shot glass!

Then it was off the Madrid! The weather in Madrid was so nice!! it was warm and sunny!! We met up with Stephanie and Jess who are studying abroad in Madrid and they showed us around. They had horror home stay stories which made me kind of glad I didn't go to Madrid because the home stays are awkward! They have really good jamon and we fell in love with the museo de jamon in Spain and there are a lot of plazas in Spain and they are really nice and lively. Plaza mayor and Plaza Sol are the two big main ones! We also went to the Museo De Prado and saw the Royal palace and the gardens and the Retrio Park!We took a trip to see the Real Madrid stadium the bernanbeu and it was really tall and very nice looking! There was an outdoor market there that day so that was lovely and we had CHORIZO..so yummy!!!!

Overall, my spring break was really good and I'm sad that its over. I feel that I have definitely grown from all my travels. I feel more independent and proud because I traveled the same way that I do with my parents. Just take a map and use you feet and go. Life is about exploring and learning new things so just like in Mag class, we are not tourists but we are travelers and every new place you go to is a new destination waiting to be explored!

I'm off to Copenhagen for this weekend, I've never been to Denmark before so I'm excited for that!

Another fun fact to remember, I had my interview with HarperCollins today - keep you fingers crossed!

xoxo

Leprechauns & 4 leaf clovers

On the first weekend on March, I went to Dublin with Michelle, Ryan and Katie. We were there for 2 days, so friday and saturday and came back sunday morning. Overall we had a really fun and productive trip. We managed to get all the sight-seeing and touristy things done and get a good feel of Dublin.

Since this was awhile ago, i'll try to remember everything we saw. Dublin is divided by a river and on both parts of the city, there is a lot to see and do. We went on a free tour of Dublin and also got our bit of history.

So we saw Dublin castle which is not really a castle and was never really occupied and also Dublin city hall which is right next door. We hit the Temple Bar Area - there are lots of pubs, bars and resturants. Dublin is of course what people would think of as the drinking capital. We also went to the Guinness factory which was really cool because we took a tour of it and in the end we learn how to pull a Guinness like from tap. We also ate dessert at a place called Queen of tarts and it was very yummy! On saturday night, we went on a pub crawl and it was so much fun! For every drink you buy, you get a free shot and we were all a little bussed by the end.

Dublin was very fun and it was a great trip!

Society Club

So I wanted to write a quick bit about how my internship is going. I love it!! Robert and Baette are wonderful and are so nice. Also offering tea or food and Robert is always giving books away. At first I was working on the website and was editing the content of the blogs on the site. Then I was working on the cinema club which takes place every night. The movie night is a new aspect and I'd say that it is quite successful so far! So each monday they have a different movie and a different theme and members or non-members come and watch the movie. The usually have a speaker or an author of a book that goes with it and it's really cool adn it takes place in such an intimate setting - The Sanctum Hotel in Soho. The owners are two of the members from Iron Madien, so that's cool!

Now I have started working on the paper. The Society Club paper is also a new thing. It will be sold for a pound and is sort of like a fanzine. It will be very graphically designed and lots of pictures and words! I'm excited for that to come out and see how it turns out. I worked on the layout and will then further work on the content of the articles.

Ryan has also started working at Robert and Babett's. He has been helping with the design and such and it's been fun working together. I also wanna bring Michelle in whenever she can. They have 3 small dogs that I still have to get the name right. There is a Chihuahua and a bulldog named Modestine and a cocker spaniel!!