Week 6 ~ London!

Hello!

This week has been so fun!

On Monday it snowed! Rome was like shut down all day. We basically did homework all day, and went to a bunch of churches.

On Tuesday, we did even more homework, and went to more churches and some palazzos. I will also repeat the homework thing because that is what I did most of the day.

Wednesday was so fun, we went to the Borghese gallery, did homework, and did more homework!

Thursday we went to a million churches, did more homework, went to St. Peter's Basilica, and did more homework!

Friday we literally did nothing. We had a group dinner, but like that's pretty much it. We all packed and hung out in the dorms, maybe went on a walk or two around our area.

Saturday we woke up so early to catch our flight to London. Let me tell you, never again will I travel with 20 people because it was too many people. It was fun though I slept pretty much all of the plane ride. We got to London around 10 am, then once we were at the London Centre we chilled, walked, ate Nando's, went to Covent Garden, and that's pretty much it.

Today we went to church! It was so fun! We got separated into small groups so that all 40 of us aren't all dumped into one ward, and my group is super cool. Our ward was amazing, they're like all converts from Africa, and they are just so inspirational to talk to. Our ward is only like 40 minutes away which is great. I'm also super pumped because we get free breakfast and lunch here which is amazing.

This next week is pretty wild I think, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes!

~ Emily

Week 5

Hello!

This last week was so fun!

On Monday we went to a million early christian churches again. We also went to Aventine Hill, which was a gorgeous view, though!

Tuesday was amazing. We went to the Vatican and Vatican museums. We saw a bunch of Raphael paintings (like School of Athens!!!) and the Sistine Chapel!

Wednesday, some of us went to Ostia Antica with Professor Swenson, and it was literally so fun I'm still laughing from that day. There were a couple times we were in parts we were definitely not supposed to be, or standing on mosaics that had not been stood on for a very long time. It was kind of like an ancient playground for me. It was so cool to see it and learn about the area, though. I also maybe definitely had McDonald's for lunch that day.

Thursday we went to Orvieto for like literally 5 seconds I was screaming I could have spent at least an extra hour there. We then went to Florence and went around Florence that whole afternoon and evening.

Friday we went to Uffizi Gallery and climbed the dome, plus some other museum-y things. We went to the science museum for like 30 minutes before it closed to see Galileo's fingers.

Saturday, my life pretty much ended I have peaked. We went to the Borgello, WHERE DONATELLO'S DAVID IS. Like, I'm sorry, Michelangelo's David is cool, BUT HAVE YOU SEEN DONATELLO'S. That is one of the most important pieces in art history, it truly shook the whole world, and let me tell you, I was equally as shook seeing it in person. Ya girl cried.

After we went to a church that I think had some significance like maybe someone was buried there but I'm not sure. We then went to finish the Florence 1500, then waited in line for sandwiches that we never got. We then went to another church (there is a theme here, we go to churches a lot) and then high tailed it to a pizza place, but they only had outdoor seating so we froze while we ate. We also found a cute little lounge/cafe place and did homework there for a little while. I fell asleep, and another girl in our group fell asleep, and apparently some rando was taking pictures of us with her professional camera???

Anyway, we then drove back to Rome that night and I think we were all just dead.

Sunday was actually the coolest day ever though. We went to sacrament meeting like normal, and then some of us went to go to mass at St. Peter's Basilica. Like, mass there is cool anyways, but for some reason our luck was high. There was like a huge crowd to get into the Vatican, which was kind of weird because there hasn't been a huge crowd the last few times we've been over there. We were pushing our way to get to security, and there were some other Americans there pushing as well, so we talked to them for a bit. They look at us and say something along the lines of "Are you excited to see the pope?" The level of shook I was was way high. The pope was giving his little speech and blessing thing, it was amazing! I understood zero of what he said, but I know he blessed us so that's great.
Mass was also super cool! I, again, understood none of it, but it was in the apse of the basilica, which was the coolest thing ever I was shook.

We also got Pasta Imperiale which is the best pasta in Rome, I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

This is our last week in Rome, so hopefully it's fun and we don't die with how much homework we have!

~Emily

Week 4

Hello!

This week was so wild. Rome is so different from Paris. Everything is so close together and there is a sun (even if it doesn't always come out).

On Monday, we went to the Capitoline Museum and the Pantheon. It was so cool to see so many cool things, and like I was shook at Raphael's tomb at the Pantheon I did not know I was about to see that.

On Tuesday, we went to the Colosseum, saw Michelangelo's Moses, and went through the Forum. It was soooooooooooo cool I'm not kidding the Colosseum was my favorite thing we've done yet in Rome.

On Wednesday, we went to the Catacombs which was so disappointing, ngl. It might have been the specific tour we did, but there were no bones, and it was like hard to understand the tour guide. The ones in Paris were so cool, so I was like majorly disappointed.

On Thursday, we went to a bunch of Early Christian churches and I saw so many mosaics and frescoes. We did a couple optional churches, too, and we went to one that had some cult church on the bottom, an early christian church in the middle, and then a renaissance/baroque (not sure which) church on top. It was so cool, that was like up there with the Colosseum for me.

On Friday, a couple girls and I went to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain early in the morning. Then a couple people went to Tivoli, which is a small town that is not Rome. It was super cute, though.

On Saturday, I went with Megan and Emmy to the mall that was in the burbs to see if Apple could fix Emmy's phone. We also shopped for a sec and ate at a German restaurant. Then some girls and I bought tickets to see Harry Styles when we're in London! Honestly that made my life which is maybe pathetic but idec I'm pumped.

Sunday has been pretty cool, we went to church and then I ate a bunch of strawberries and olives so I'm living a good life.

Here is a list of the best food/gelato I've had:

G like Gelato
Frigidarium
Grom
CamBio Vita
Brown & Brown
Pasta Imperiale
2.50 Euro Paninis (don't know what the place is called sorry)

~ Emily

Week 3 ~ Rome!

Hello!

This week has had a lot of traveling. On Monday we got on a bus and headed towards Bayeux. When we left Paris it was snowing, but the snow wasn't really sticking. We went to the Rouen Cathedral, which was beautiful, and it was super cool to go up to the place across the street where Monet painted it a gazillion times. It was snowing which made the tour of the actual cathedral a little difficult, but it was still super cool to see around it and inside of it. Fun fact about the cathedral: during World War Two, the support on the right side was almost completely destroyed, but the support on one of the chapels stayed, which kept the entire cathedral from falling apart.

After Rouen Cathedral, we went to Bayeux to go see the tapestry. We had audio guides that explained each scene, and now I actually know a little bit about the Norman conquests. After the tapestry we went to the grocery store to get food for dinner, then went to the hotel and chilled. I kept getting candy throughout the day so I think I ate my body weight in sweets haha. Although that night I was given a raspberry tart (which was so good I love tarts) for my birthday cake, and even more candy.

Tuesday was like the best day ever, not gonna lie. The very first thing we did was head towards the American Cemetery in Normandy, and man I cried so hard. The lady that took us around a little bit told us a sad story about twins and then took us to the grave of the one who died and then we walked around and wow everyone was crying. Then we went to Omaha Beach, and I was still low key crying, and everyone was just very emotional.

Then, after a few hours and some collecting of our emotions, we went to Mont Saint Michel, which was literally THE COOLEST PLACE EVER. Like, my toes were low key numb the whole time we were there, but I gave zero craps I was living my best life that day. The cathedral was so cool it reminded me of Hogwarts a lot, and I just wanted to explore the cathedral so badly. Unfortunately, there were set areas we could go around the cathedral, and we couldn't go wherever we wanted. We could wander around everywhere else, though, and we did. If it had been warmer we probably could have walked around even more.

We did also have to eat, though, so we went to this little cafe that some other people from the group had been chilling in. We sat down and they didn't give us a menu which was bizarre. Then they asked what we wanted to drink and we said "tap water" and the waitress looked so mad and she went and got the manager. He then gave us two bottles of water for eleven euro. Apparently, the kitchen was closed and they were only serving drinks, which is why they were so upset that we ordered free water. We did eventually find food, just so everyone knows we didn't starve.

That night we honestly just all went to bed because it was dark outside and we had time in the morning to explore. Which, we did explore in the morning, and it was so cool. The town we stayed in was called St Malo, and it was sooooo cute. We walked long this really old wall, and we saw the beach, and the shops were so cute it looked like Main Street USA in Disney.

So Wednesday we explored St Malo, and then got on the bus and went straight to Paris, where we chilled. Paris was like having a life crisis, though, because there was so much snow, and they haven't had that much snow since the 80s. Our bus driver was also a little sketchy on the driving skills, so Professor Howard was like "we could go to Chartres or we could be safe" so we were safe.

Then on Thursday, a group of us went to the Eiffel Tower and climbed to the top. It was so many stairs, I was like almost dead. But it was so worth it! Like, I'm not huge on doing the super touristy things, but it was so worth it for this. Also, it was like the only day of sunshine that Paris had the whole week, so it was a good day to go! We also decided that the workout deserved a reward, so we went to Five Guys on the Champs Elysee. After, we were like "lol lets walk down the Champs Elysee" but it was freezing so we went to Abercrombie and Fitch and then went home.

Okay, Abercrombie and Fitch deserves its own paragraph. That place was wild. It's on the Champs Elysee, with all the cute shops that are like buildings pressed together with apartments on top, right? Well, Abercrombie and Fitch is so extra, they have a golden gate, a giant walkway, and big brass doors leading into a 4 story store with golden and brass features. There are these giant murals everywhere of men doing ???? everything ??? and they are bluish grey dudes, and they are sometimes clothed, sometimes not. We joked about doing our art responses for class on the murals there. They also did their darnedest to make it smell like cologne everywhere it was horrible.

Friday, we woke up to meet at 9 am to go see if we could get cheap ballet tickets. Well, we then realized the box office didn't open until 11:30, so we went back to bed and then met back up at 10:30 to get our last crepes and go get tickets. The ballet was supposed to be 2.5 hours long, plus two intermissions, so everyone was kind of like "yeah, we'll go but we can always ditch during an intermission if it's boring". Then, we went back to the hotel and chilled/packed until 6:30 so we could head to the ballet. We got to the opera house fine, made lots of Phantom jokes, and then like went to our seats in the very top. Because there were so many of us, we had to get tickets in smaller groups, so there were four of us in the top right seats on the fourth level. Then, to our shock, this creaking sound comes up from behind our heads, and we are like "it is literally the phantom of the opera we are gone bye" and out pops two other kids from our group who had seats on the nonexistent fifth level in a dark attic like space.

The ballet though was soooooooooo good. I'm still shook. It's called Oneguine, and it's by Tchaikovsky. It started out cute, but like by the second act you're so shook, and then the third act you're like "this could go either way predictable or what I want" and you still end up shook. We talked about it the entire walk to the gelato place we went to.

Then on Saturday we flew to Rome! It was a weird time, ngl, like it was a weird day for me. Then we landed in Rome, and like that's maybe the happiest I've ever been. It was like 50 degrees F out there! We got on our bus and drove to the monastery we live in, dropped our stuff off, and then went on a little walk around some Piazza and eventually got pizza and gelato.

Well, now it's Sunday and we went to church which was warmer than in Paris thank goodness. The weirdest part about this section of the study abroad is how less independent we are. In Paris we were literally so independent and did our own things, but now all 20 of us have to be together at almost all times. So after church we had to wait for all 20 of us to be ready to go before we went back home.

We went back, but rather than stopping to change at the hotel, some girls and I got pizza at this place and holy moly it was good. We also found a super cheap gelato place (G like Gelato, for anyone who ever comes here) and it's right by our hotel, AND it also sells crepes, so we can continue our addiction while in Rome.

Tonight we went on a walk to St. Peter's, and it was soooo cool I'm so excited to be here.

Also for fun on the plane ride I wrote a list of the best best best things in France (some will make sense, some will be like lol what):

1. Amorino's Gelato
2. Achtung! Vertaschen Dieben!
3. Monoprix
4. Monoprix Croissants
5. Kinder Bueno
6. The top of the Eiffel Tower
7. Sugar & Lemon Crepes
8. Rando praline macaron
9. Croque Monsieur
10. Oneguine
11. Disneyland Paris
12. Rando clarinet players
13. Normandy - American Cemetery
14. Mont Saint Michel
15. Musee D'Orsay
16. Water lilies
17. Saint Malo
18. Stay Away - the Colourist
19. Five Guys
20. Arc de Triomphe
21. schjorjshe she shujsh (George V)
22. Knowledge is Shower
23. Shakespeare & Co
24. Catacombs
25. Bread @ FHE
26. Vending machine hot chocolate
27. Sainte Chapelle
28. Franklin D Roosevelt
29. French Fries
30. Chocolate croissants
31. Flower Shops
32. Fruit tarts
33. Domino's
34. Milka oreo bar
35. Picard
36. Ridikulus bowing
37. Abercrombie and Fitch store


~ Emily

Week 2

Hello!

This week was wild.
On Monday, we went to Sacre Coeur, which was so amazing. The basilica is gorgeous, and the view was literally the greatest. We climbed the stairs to get to the basilica, and I was surprised at how easy the stairs were. It was crazy because I am not a stair loving person, but for some reason going up all 200 or whatever stairs was not bad at all. Also, I was having a great time going up the stairs because all I could think about is The Great Race when Professor Fate and Max take a wrong turn and end up going down the stairs. We also got lunch at this cute (but overpriced) cafe and I got the most delicious yogurt I've ever had.

On Tuesday, we went to Pere Lachaise Cemetery. I'm not entirely here for cemeteries, so I was a little freaked out, especially because there were crows everywhere. It was really cool, though, and we got to see Oscar Wilde's grave, Jim Morrison's grave, and Chopin's grave.

On Wednesday, we went to the catacombs, which was super fun, then a puppet show, which was really weird, and we had a potluck at Professor Howard's flat, which was great. The catacombs were so wild, like I was surrounded by dead people but I didn't feel weird about it. They were arranged in cool ways, and they like made shapes with skulls into hearts and crosses. It was so cool. The puppet show was really weird, like I've never been a big fan of traditional looking puppets, and then they spoke French so I didn't even understand the story line. It was a weird experience.

On Thursday, I went back to the catacombs with another group! It was so cool, and this time I spent more time paying attention to my surroundings, because last time I had been in a rush to make it to the puppet show. It was still super cool and interesting, and I'm super excited to go to the ones in Rome. After, we went to Shakespeare and Company, and got crepes. We then went to a movie that night, which was all in French and had no visible plot other than some occasional scenes that were like "ok something is happening" but really without understanding the dialogue it made no sense.

On Friday, I went to the Moulin de Gallette to look at where Renoir did his painting, and we saw the Moulin Rouge.

We also went to a place that may or may not have things that look like this:

                                             

                                             


On Saturday, we went to a circus! It was an aerial and equestrian show, and it was wild. So much happened I can't even fully describe it. Like, there was fire, there was a lot of water, there was a story line with a child, Katy Perry was sung, so much happened. I was laughing so hard though, because they had this singer (who was not good rip) and at one point she was singing Back to Black (Amy Winehouse) and they made her repeat to go along with the act that was happening, and she just kept singing the first verse over and over again, and it has a fairly dirty lyric that she sang SO CLEARLY and the audience was mainly children. I was laughing so hard, like she could have repeated any of the verses multiple times and she chose the first verse.
                                  
                                            
                                            

We also went to an organ concert at Notre Dame that night which was AMAZING. I was like crying at one point.

Today, we went to sacrament meeting, and then a group of us went to Mass at Notre Dame, which was so cool. I'd never been to a Mass before, so it was pretty awesome.

This next week is gonna be kind of crazy, so I'm super excited. This week we had a lot of free time, so it'll be interesting to see what life's like with a schedule.

~ Emily

Week 1

Hello!

On Monday we started class @ 10 am, then headed to the Louvre. The Louvre is very intimidating. There is so much happening there and I saw like so little of what they have, yet so much. Here are some photos:

We also had FHE, which was an interesting time because the 15ish of us that went made up like most of the attendants, other than missionaries. Everyone was super cool, though, and they had food which was a plus. We got massively lost on our way there, which was less cool because we showed up late and it was just like awkward.

Tuesday was so fun! We went to Musee d'Orsay which was my favorite museum by far. There was a ton of Van Gogh and I was very happy and there was some Monet and my main man Degas and some others like Cezanne and Renoir. Here's a million photos:

@ the conjuring 2 for making it so i cant go to museums

After we went to Sainte Chapelle which is one of my favorite places on earth. I could literally sit in there for hours. My fave section is Esther ofc, but like it's all so beautiful and I love it all.

After that we went to Notre Dame which is very fun. There's also the Crypt of Archaeology underneath the courtyard which is pretty fun. It was a lot like the Roman Baths in Bath, but smaller.

That night we had game night it was pretty fun.

Wednesday was pretty fun, too! We went to Musee Rodin which was fun (also the Dior fashion show catwalk was being taken down so that was kind of cool). We then went to the army museum to look at Napoleon's tomb which was awesome because Napoleon was so wild what a guy.

After that we went to the Pantheon which was pretty cool but it was actually the coldest place on earth. I've never been in a place in my entire life that was so cold (just kidding the church building maybe has it beat).

After that I started walking with two girls to the Eiffel Tower (because I hadn't seen it yet), but we quickly realized it was way too long to walk. We did make it, though, and it was very cool. It's wild to think that tourists kind of saved it, because Parisians hated it until the tourists became obsessed.

Later, we ran into two other girls that were headed to the Arc de Triomphe (a large group of us had all planned on meeting there) so I joined them and we went to the top and watched the sunset and the lights turn on the Eiffel Tower. It was very, very cold but so worth it! The stairs to get up were also horrible, though, so if anyone ever reading this decides to go up, fair warning. Again, though, so worth the pain.

                                         

I had already been getting sick, though, and by Thursday I was like pretty dang sick. We went to the Picasso museum and the Pompadou, and I peaced out and slept for like most of the afternoon and was not seen the rest of the day.

Friday was super fun, though! We went to Versailles! First off, it is so beautiful! Architecturally and decoratively it is magnificent. It is also really overwhelming, though, because it is so extravagant everywhere. We went to Marie Antoinette's hamlet, which was part of the grounds/gardens, and that was the cutest thing ever. It was like a fairy tale village. Also, the animals were sooooooo cute.

After Versailles I ate my second Croque Monsieur of the week at this cute little place near the temple. We then went to the temple, which was one of my favorite temples ever. It was so beautiful!

You can't super tell in this photo, but they make the stained glass wavy so it looks like an impressionist painting!

That night we went to the opera! We saw a collection of different songs from different operas, and it was pretty fun. It was so hot in there, though, haha. I was also geeking the whole time because of Phantom of the Opera. (We saw it at the Palais Garnier).

Saturday was our free day! We had no class and no sights we were expected to see! We went to Sainte Chapelle (some people hadn't seen it, and I was sooo down to go again). We then walked to Notre Dame but ended up not going (although we stopped and got a crepe nearby). We went to L'Orangerie museum, which was really cool. They had the water lily paintings there by Monet, so that was magical. Monet is the bomb.

Then that night we had a pizza and chatting night, which was super fun! Everyone is really awesome, I'm going to be sad when we go home and I don't see everyone every day haha. (Although idk maybe I'll hate everyone by the end of the trip haha jkjk).

Today wasn't really exciting, we just went to church and froze to death and then came to the hotel to study and sleep.

This week we have like very few things scheduled so it's going to be a lot of free time. Guess we'll see what I end up doing haha.

~ Emily