This week we just had 3 days of classes. That was because the school gave us Thursday off for Thanksgiving even though it doesn’t happen in Italy. For lunch on Wednesday the hotel made us a Thanksgiving dinner. It was not what I expected at all, but it was a lot of fun. One of my professors told us it would be set up in Harry Potter dining hall style with the table of all of the Professors and administrators in the front and we sat at other tables in the dining room. I had a lot of fun but I really could have used some good old American Thanksgiving food. That night Alex and I got on a night train to PARIS! We were so excited! The train ride felt like it lasted forever. It was a night train so I mean it was going to be long but what ended up happening was the train was an hour and a half late. We were not happy about that. But when we finally got to Paris Alex and I set off on foot to try and find out first stop. After walking for a while with our backpacks we decided that taking the metro for the rest of the weekend would be a good choice. We finally made it to the Luxemburg gardens. They were so pretty. I love just being able to walk through gardens here in Europe but they will never compare to having trees everywhere back at home. After that we bought some metro tickets and took the metro as close as we could to our hotel and walked the rest of the way to our hotel. After we found the hotel, got checked in and paid for it we were off to the metro again to go to Notre Deme. The metro in Paris is really easy to navigate. Alex and I had no problem with it. We then walked around the Latin Quarter a little and I got my little sister’s Christmas present! I am so excited about it and I am sure she is going to love it! We then went and got dinner. I ended up getting an omelet and let me tell you. It was one of the best ones I have ever had. We each go a sweet crepe to go and decided to walk over to the Bastille because it was right between where we were and out hotel. I was a little disappointed because it was just a statue for it in the middle of a roundabout but hey at least I saw it. We then walked the rest of the way back to our hotel. Once we got in our room Alex and I immediately got our internet working. I told my family I would try and skype them on Thanksgiving so I wanted to make sure I got on in time to be able to do that. I was finally able to skype my family and it was so great to mot only be able to see just my parents, brothers and sister but also one of my aunts, some cousins, and one of my uncles. It was a lot of fun. My mom even made sure I got to be a part of the Thanksgiving toast said by my great uncle and I got the chance to see my cousin Kevin with his new wife! Although it did make me a little more homesick it just made me a lot more excited for seeing everyone this Christmas. After I was done skyping Alex and I decided to watch a Christmas movie it might have been one of the best ideas we had had in a while. It was so much fun. On Friday we had a big day. We got up around 8:30 got ready and went to the metro. We took the metro to the big mall in Paris (sorry I don’t remember the name..) and did a little shopping. The best part was the enormous tree in the middle of the store. I might have been the biggest tree I had ever seen and I was covered in lights and lit up already. It was fantastic! After that we grabbed a quick lunch and headed off to the train station on the northern part of Paris. it was time for Alex’s Christmas present to me. She decided since we had both been to both Italy and France we needed a new country so she bought us tickets to go to Brussels Belgium! It was so exciting! So we took the train to Brussels and started off. We took the metro there and it once again was so easy. We headed to the center of town and saw everything we could. First we went to the comic strip museum. It was a lot more fun that I thought it would be. We actually spend like 2 hours there. Then we did a little shopping on the main shopping street. After that we went back to the city center and saw that it was all set up for Christmas! This made both me and Alex so happy because Rome is not ready for Christmas at all. There were lights everywhere and Christmas music playing. It was so great! Then we decided to see the main attraction in Brussels. There is a fountain that is called Mannakin Pis…I’m sure you can figure out what it does just by the name, but since it was such a big deal we decided to find it. It was like a scavenger hunt to find the stupid statue. We even stopped and asked some police, in our best French, where it was. Finally we made it to where it was supposed to be and it was so small. I mean after so many people made such a big deal about it you would think that it would be more than 12 inches tall. After that we decided to get some dinner and I’m sure you can guess what we got. Yes that is correct we had waffles! I missed breakfast food so much so this just made my mood even better. They were so good and actually pretty cheap for what we got. Then we decided to head back to the center of town. On our way back I think we made a wrong turn but it turned out for the better. We made it to where the palace was in Brussels and there was a gigantic Christmas tree with a huge nativity scene. There was also a light show going on. It was all so cool. We also found out after that that there was a Christmas market just down the street! We were in heaven and practically ran down the road to the market. It was so pretty. There were lights everywhere and people singing and selling ornaments. Ahh so good! After we finished in the Christmas market we decided to get a snack before we went to the train station to get on our train back to Paris. We got something that was born in Brussels once again and this was French fries. We saved them until we got to the train station to eat but they were really good. We then got on our train and made it back to our hotel safe and sound. When we got back to our room we went right to bed because tomorrow was another early morning. Saturday morning we got up at 8:30 again, got ready, jumped on the metro and went to the Louvre. At the Louvre we met our friend Cathy who is studying abroad in Dijon, France. It was so great seeing her. We hung out all day with her and that was just fantastic! We went through the Louvre and saw everything we wanted to see but since we had all been there before we didn’t spend more than 2 hours there. Then we walked through the Tuleries gardens. They were so pretty. I love gardens in Europe. After the gardens we got a quick lunch at a little café on the way to the Eiffel Tower. After lunch we headed to the next event of the day: the Eiffel Tower. Not only were we going up the Eiffel Tower but we were going all the way up to the summit! I had been up the Eiffel Tower before and that didn’t go very well so I was hoping it would go better this time. We were so excited. Alex had never been up the Eiffel Tower so she was a little nervous but she was still fine. Went all the way to the summit and saw all of Paris. it was so pretty and I absolutely loved it! Then we walked over to the Petit Palace. This was converted into a museum so that was pretty cool and the even better part was the fact that it was free to students. We were going to go to another museum but it was starting to get close to time for Cathy to get her train so we decided to walk her to the train station. The walk took a while but at least we knew that she made it to her train which was good. After we dropped her off Alex and I went to the grocery store to get some bread and cheese for dinner and some snacks for the train rides back to Rome all day Sunday. We then took the metro back to our hotel and just had a relaxing night in our room after we packed up all of our stuff. All day Sunday alex and I were on trains. Our first train went from Paris to Milan and that was from 7:40 until 2:50. Longest train of my life. Then we were supposed to get on another train that went from Milan to Rome at 4 but we going out that that train was canceled due to a train strike. So we ran and talked to some of the workers in the station. Since we had Eurail passes we could jump on the train that left at 3 for Rome. So we did and made it back to Rome at 6. It might have been one of the best weekends here. It was just so much fun to get out of Rome and to see Cathy! And now I only have 15 more days here before I am back home. I guess I’ll just have to make the most of it!
ciao bella!
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