Venturing Beyond London

For anyone who actually reads my blog, I am sorry it has been so long since I last posted. I guess I feel like so much of my life has become ordinary here as I have tried to focus on school a lot. I know I don't have class often but that means a lot of work to do on my own outside of class on top of the small homework assignments from my teachers. Anyways, this past weekend I was able to go visit France! No, not Paris (though I will be headed there in a few weeks!) but Strasbourg. Let me back up a bit....
When Kimberly and I were in high school our mom signed us up to be a host family for girls from France each summer. Manon was the third (and BEST!) girl to come stay with us and we have kept in touch, first through email, then through facebook, for the past 6 years. We have always talked about visiting each other but it has never really been a possibility until I moved here!
After briefly discussing travel options and dates we were both free my flight got booked and off I flew to Strasbourg! I can't even tell you HOW ADORABLE I think this city is. Not only did Manon grow up in this city but her parents AND grandparents grew up there! It has an adorable city center and it is on the river so we were able to take long walks all around the city by following the river. It was really fun to see another country and city from the eyes of a native. In my opinion, that is the best way to travel when possible.
I'll walk you through my weekend:
Friday morning  I woke up at 4:45am to get on the first tube and off to Victoria Station where the train would take me to the airport. I travelled to the airport and got on my flight without a hitch. I arrived in Basel-Mulhouse-Frieburg airport around 11am. This airport is actually in Switzerland because Manon lives closer to this airport than the ones in France haha. Quick side note.... it literally borders Switzerland/Germany so my phone kept sending me messages "welcome to Switz." wait "welcome to Germany" WAIT "welcome to..." so I turned it off since I didn't need it anyways. Back to our day....
We had lunch at the cutest little restaurant where I had meat and potatoes of some kind and it was DELICIOUS. Then we walked and walked and walked all over the city which actually isn't very big, quite quaint, but SO much history to see and talk about. We picked up her nephew Friday afternoon and it made me homesick for Aiden. I miss that little boy so much. We also climbed the stairs to the top of the Cathedral! We were both super out of breath by the top. It had an incredible view from the top though and definitely worth it. Friday evening we went to a beer fest of sorts and we got to keep our glasses as souvenirs. There were beers from all over the world and it was so fun! I was able to meet many of her friends and everyone was super nice about speaking English to me. Another side note...I was the only person who couldn't speak more than one language. Manon speaks four. FOUR. I need to work on that.....

Saturday involved sleeping in and walking around the city again. We went to visit/meet her parents which was so awesome! I love their house a lot :) And Saturday night we went to a friends party where there was lots of music and dancing and more people practicing their English with me haha. They love practicing languages and it's so awesome! We ended up staying out until after 5am and had to get up at 8 to head to the pub for the Rugby World Cup! Sunday morning we were so tired I don't know how but we got up with plenty of time to get  a good table to watch France and New Zealand play. Although France lost it was still a great game and France played REALLY well. It was fun to get so in to the sport. Side note part 3: I had my first traditional English breakfast at this Irish pub. In France. hahahah I find this amusing. After the game we just had to nap for a while as we were exHAUSTED from the night before.

We then walked to the park where they have a mini zoo and it was so fun to see all the animals including a couple rams stuck in a staring contest and some really cute kangaroos! I also ate a waffle with nutella and it was super yummy. I LOVE FOOD! Sunday evening we went back to Manon's parents house for dinner which was so lovely! Her dad cooked for us which apparently only happens once a year so I felt honored it happened while I was there haha I was telling her dad that the meal was delicious and her mom started laughing and told me to please tell him that several more times so that he starts to cook more!  I made sure to mention it a few more times before we left that evening ;)  It was such a lovely weekend and it went by way too fast. I can't WAIT to head back in the spring when the weather warms up. It was VERY, VERY cold the entire weekend. Lucky for me I had my warm coat and a jacket that Alex got me right before I left that fits under it as well. I am becoming a fan of scarves because they really actually do help quite a bit! With the help of boots, coats, scarves and gloves I think I'll be set for winter in London. I have been told it won't be as cold as in France but that the rain will probably make it seem that way. My first adventure outside of England was a big success and I can't wait to continue my traveling experiences.

Some good news has come my way this past week or so as well! My twinnie and Mommy will be with me on my birthday!!!! We are going to travel around England as well as go to Paris and I can't WAIT to explore with my family. Although I don't feel the need to make a big celebration out of our birthday anymore it will definitely make me feel less homesick to have people I love with me on this day. It will be fun to celebrate in another country too!
I visited the Imperial War Museum again today and spent another 4 hours in the place and still didn't finish the entire Holocaust exhibit. I probably could have but I was getting tired and wanted to really pay attention to the whole exhibit so I decided it was a good idea to leave and go back a different day when I wasn't feeling so tired.
I actually need to go now and work on some homework for class this week. Lots of reading to get done tomorrow as I haven't read another book for this class in over a week. EEKS.


Love from London,
Kristin