The American Girls in London

Paris

Here are some of the highlights of our Valentine’s weekend in Paris…

• easyjet doesn’t have assigned seats so people stampede to the plane…it’s hilarious to watch if you’re in the right mood
• seeing a homeless person sleeping right next to her shit in the metro station, it also smelled like pee regardless of what station you were in…we KNOW it’s pee because we witnessed a “pee-er”
• not knowing this hostel only takes cash on arrival. safe to say most of our money was spent the same night we got there
• getting to the hostel after our roommates had fallen asleep and awkwardly sleeping in your clothes
• McDonald’s coffees do not satisfy our needs - TOO SMALL
• mean, black metro lady yelling at us because we’re American…no exaggeration
• if you get off a random stop on line 4, you just might run into Notre Dam…we did! Also, if you’re lucky, you’ll find a street performer dressed up as an egyptian.
• The inside of Notre Dame is beautiful and breathtaking.
• Seeing Les Champs-Elysees, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe
• Seeing the outside of the Louvre, but the lines were too long to go inside.
• almost getting pick-pocketed…pick-pocketers really DO exist
• Eating “omelettes” for brunch on Valentine’s day
• going to the top of the eiffel tower on Valentine’s day night!
• Indian ladies pretending to be poor to get money…and KISSING our hands
• Dead animal smell coming from the bathroom making us sick!

But we still love Paris and will someday live there! Au Revoir!

b&p

Oops

So we haven’t written in a while…so we’ll a quick catch up. We went to Wales for the weekend and stayed with families. Paige’s family was quiet and awkward. But the two kids were cute and never cried. Blair’s family had a mom and a dad and three kids. They were wild and fun and very welcoming. They also gave Blair lots of food. We also had a flat party. We went to a club together after playing a few games. Millie is crazy and Robert disappears every so often to dance on speakers. Josh…was just awkward and Josh-like. We also went to Dover and Canterbury for a day one weekend. We saw sunshine and blue skies on these trips. The Dover Castle was pretty and old. We went on a tour of the secret tunnels. We climbed up to the roof of it and looked out onto the water. Canterbury was charming and quaint. The Cathedral was beautiful but we couldn’t go in because of some service. It was still all fun to see. We walked in a few gardens and enjoyed strolling through the streets filled with shops. We saw a band playing in the street and the four of us decided to buy one CD to share. We selected Josh to be the lucky one to go buy it himself. Turns out…the CD was blank. Ugh. So Josh e-mailed the band with the subject being “What the hell?” They mailed us a new one and it sickened our computers. We actually like Robert now surprisingly. He made us crepes and cosmos. The crepes were good and the cosmos were not. He has chili pepper pajama pants and parades around here like he’s king. We learned that Millie is the abuser in the relationship she is in. We woke up to screaming and pounding in the flat hallway. “Call security!” Apparently her boyfriend caught her cheating and started pushing her and she pushed back…a lot. When she asked for security, Josh said “How do I do that?” She replied with “I don’t know, just do it!” We also saw a fight in a coffee shop in Camdentown between some British and French girls. Kicking, grabbing, and hair pulling. The management pushed the British girl outside and she paced around until finally changing shirts and running back to get revenge. Very eventful. Wanted to laugh, but didn’t want to get beat up. We kept our mouths shut so she wouldn’t know we were American. On a happier note, we went to Harrods and explored the various floors of clothes, shoes, bags, bikes, doll houses, teddy bears, and ski equipment. And food. The prettiest bananas we’ve seen all year. We also voted in the Queen Mary student union elections….?

b&p

Day 11

This morning was the morning where we had our first class not with each other. Blair had Protest and Revolution in Germany and Paige had Statistics. Safe to say that both of us are dropping those particular classes. Ewwww. Today was not a very interesting day. We went to the Ground again and also the gym again and also went to Sainsbury’s again. We both bought a lot of food and it was mainly pasta, but we both actually found some decent vegetables as well. That’s grossly it. Later that evening, Paige and Meredith went to Soho to a club called Punk. They went with Nick and John and Mark. There were lots of kids because the admission was just 3 pounds. However, drinks were 10 pounds. Figures. Paige and Meredith took the bus home, but it took them to the middle of nowhere in a circle and then just dropped them off. Ended up in a 22 pound cab ride back to Queen Mary. In the meantime, Blair and Jill stayed in and watched America’s Next Top Model and drank chocolate milk. One of the models was from Minnesota and Jill liked her and then another was from Kentucky and Blair liked her. Of course, this Kentucky one was blonde and had a really strong southern twang and was always acting like a goober. This pissed off Blair!!!!! A boring but very relaxing day. The maids invade our flat every morning and hit our doors with the vaccum. This is going to get old pretty fast.

b&p

Day 10!

So once Paige finally got home on the crowded and delayed underground in the morning from Nick, John, and Mark’s place, she slept. And once we both woke up, we ventured out to find the head of the geography department. And he wasn’t there. FIgures. We were told to go to City Centre, a place nobody on campus was familiar with. The first person we asked was a little, dark skinned man who had no idea what we were talking about, but he was really nice so we forgave him. We then asked a girl at the student union reception desk who had the same reaction as the little, dark man. We had no choice but to find Henry/Harry, the wacky study abroad director who knows everything, INCLUDING WHERE CITY CENTRE WAS! We went there and spoke to the geography guy and on our way back, we ran into little, dark skinned man again. He popped out of the post room and said, “DID YOU FIND IT?! See you in the library!” Adorable. Then we went to the Ground again for lunch which was sandwiches. Yum. After lunch, we caught up on our blog and then went to see The Road with Josh. Students only have to pay 5 pounds, so we were happy about that. There were tons of commercials before the previews. Literally 20 minutes of them. Our favorite was George Clooney with something called Nespresso. Then the movie began. On the whole, we liked this movie, but Josh is the only one of us to have read the book beforehand. According to him, the movie does NOT compare to the book. We thought the movie was well done and great, but only if you are in the mood for a kind of depressing story without a true true happy ending. Then we decided to cook pasta for dinner, but our kitchen was so loud and smelly and full of weird people we had never seen before. So we ventured to Meredith and Jill’s to cook in their kitchen. This is where we met Magnus. Oh Magnus. What a character. We love him lots. How to describe Magnus??? One of those guys who acts like an asshole, but is nice about it and doesn’t mean any harm. All Blair did was ask him a bunch of stupid questions and he gladly answered. He is our new go-to-Brit!!! Next was a photo shoot with Josh and nutella. Quite a pair. Paige feels like exploding from her bought alfredo sauce that she put on her pasta. Blair feels fine, but she ate tortellini instead. Now for the Lovely Bones.

b&p

Day 9

OK!!!! Fire alarm at 1 am. Paige was on the verge of falling asleep and Blair was asleep with music blasting in her ears when they heard this horrid alarm. We bundled up in our coats and shoes and pyjamas and went outside with the rest of our flat. Blair went out in her retainers and she was sourly pissed about it, but then saw a girl with a little white smudge of zit cream on her cheek and felt loads better. Robert had liquid dripping all over his shirt and could not stand straight. He fell backwards and claimed he really fell forwards. Josh called him out. Then as everyone was being forced to wait outside in the cold, Robert just walks right back inside. Like it was nothing. When we all finally got back up here, Robert was in the hall talking to some of our British flatmates about how he likes Michael Jackson because he’s from the US. We stand in the hall with Josh listening to this. Then the 3 of us decide to go to sleep. Paige and Josh are smart enough to close their doors. Blair leaves hers cracked and who should visit???? Drunken ROBERT. Robert talks to Blair for 30 minutes and asks her if she is from the US or California. Hmmmmmm…..hell. What a great start to this day!!! We were woken up again at around 11 o’clock this morning by a flashy maid vacuuming the hallway right outside our doors. Went to the gym and then sat in the Ground coffee place on campus for two hours waiting for Paige’s bagel. They gave it to someone else, so she was given another one free of charge!!! Both of us had cappuccino also. We returned to our flat and tried to get dolled up and cute for our next class at 4. We had no clue where the class was being held, so we left early to find it. Brazilian Cultural Studies was held in the engineering building. Who would have thought!?!?!?! That building was impossible to navigate. We could not swipe in to open the door, we could not make the lift work, we could not find any room, and Paige could not find a bathroom. Professor was 15 minutes late to class and entered by saying, “i felt like a drunken cockroach in those hallways.” Point made. She was cute and from somewhere in Brazil called Minias Gerais. After class we were in really bad moods due to starvation and visited the Ground again for dinner. We got tea for the cold walk back home. Green and earl grey. Blair relaxed and stayed in and Paige went to see Nick and John and Mark. They looked for a certain bar called Oldschool Bar for 40 minutes in the cold and John stepped in poop. When the bar was finally found, it was closed. Went to another bar for about 20 minutes and then just went back to the guys’ apartment. The rest of the night was laughing at Nick Loui and his British accent.

b&p