Paris Wrap Up Feat. London and Madrid Side Trips

After 8 weeks I think its safe to say that my French did improve…I did have to use my French to ask for a croque monsieur and a macaroon or two every once in a while. While my café hopping did allow me to stretch my restaurant vocabulary here and there, my film and literature classes greatly helped me perfect my French (at this point I’ve been at it for 8 years!) and my time with my host family ushered me into the chic Parisian community.

Through my classes I was able to enjoy and analyze classic texts like Emile Zola’s Au Bonheur des Dames and I had the chance to watch many French and American films that centered on Paris- if anyone’s looking to read an essay on how Disney’s “The Artisocats” display certain Parisian stereotypes I have one ready to go! With all that said, I had a blast going from class to museum to café and can’t wait to go on another study abroad sometime in the future. I hope to go abroad to Europe once again and really capitalize on the easy travel between countries (I highly recommend EasyJet or CityJet if you’re a last minute planner like I was).

While abroad I was able to visit London for a chilly (surprisingly sunny) weekend and managed to hop on a flight to visit my godmother and family in Madrid! While in London, my friend and I went on an 8-hour touristic marathon…we had a very limited window of opportunity so we had to capitalize on the decent weather and whip out our comfiest(/stylish?) Sneakers.

Feat. Big Ben.

Luckily we were well situated in Kensington and were in walking distance from the Kensington Palace and the ever helpful Circle Line that gave u s easy access to Big Ben, The London Eye, and many more. As a die-hard tourist (and someone who was sick and tired of the metro) I insisted that we walk everywhere to really see the city.

My favorite part of our adventure was our trip to The British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone, admired the Assyrian sculptures, and took advantage of the free, unlimited Wi-Fi. After our walks through the museum we decided to call it a day and headed off to the lively theater district where we enjoyed some Italian food and the pub scene. Unfortunately we were only able to spend a few days in England- our program would not have been too pleased if we had skipped class to visit another country – so we returned back to Paris with hopes of planning future weekend trips.

The Churchill Arms is a well known London Pub located in Kensington.

Because I have family in Madrid I was able to enjoy the sun and the heat in the company of my lovely godmother and her lively dog Tosca. My trips to Madrid this summer were special and particularly sentimental…it had been 16 years since I had seen my godmother, Morelita, so the reunion was a long time coming. Unfortunately I was only able to visit her once in our native Venezuela when I was merely two…since then our family has decided to stay more state-side.

So while I was in Madrid we did the usual godmother-goddaughter bonding and caught up on family stories while we made new memories. We were able to drive out to Segovia, a quaint touristic town, and reunite with Panamanian family members who were in town for a wedding. My trip to Madrid reminded me how important it is too keep in touch (I promise I’ll WhatsApp you more often Morelita!) and made me feel a little homesick…so by the time July 23^rd rolled around I was ready to go back home to D.C and spend some time at our island home off of Lake Huron in Michigan.