PARIS

Hello Everyone-

We just got to Paris!! It is awsome here!! Today we went and say the Louve, the Eiffel Tower, and Arc de Triumphe!! Of course we did some shopping and eating too !! We have limited access to the internet and my computer has limited battery time... so i will not be able to put up pics as often... but miss ya all and luv you very much :)

(If you click onto my Picasa Web there are some photos under Nicki's name if you want to see)

i heart LONDON!!

London was sooo much fun!! We spent every day trying to do as much as we could and there was still a lot that we did not get to. London is definately a city with much diversity.

*Check out my blog for school to see some of the details about each day*

SATURDAY
-arrived to LONDON
-walked around Euston
-went to Zoo bar

SUNDAY
-took the bus tour around London
-saw St. Pauls
-Big Ben
-walked around Southbank
-Boat trip
-Greenich

-London Eye

-met up with Drew for a drink at the bar

MONDAY

-Changing of the guards/ Buckingham Palace
-Westminster Abby

-Notting Hill/ Portobella Road

-Saw WICKED

-walked along the river at night

-bought a cd from a local musician

Visiting in UK Schools

Today we had our last day in the UK schools. I am so greatful that I got the experience to be able to visit the schools and compare/contrast them from American schools. Some of the things that are differnt about the UK schools include: they have SMART boards in every classrom, every room has a TA, Kindergarten starts at 4, they only have to go to school until they are 16, they offer vocational training after age 16 for students that do not want to take the academic route after secondary school, the students move up in grades regardless of how bad they are doing academically, they hold assembly every day before school, the students all walk to school, they have an hour fr lunch, etc.

Hope all is well at home... miss you all soo much :)

Bath and Stonehedge

Another Rainy Day

Today we got to go visit Bath and Stonehedge. Both of the sights were very interesting and I got to learn a lot of new facts about these historical places. While we were at Bath we took pictures with the pigs that were strategically placed all over the city. Of course our trip had to land on the only day since we have been here in which it has rained continuously all day, but we still enjoyed our trip :)

Our AMAZING trip to Tintagel

Sunday we went to Cornwall to visit the city of Tintagel. This is where King Arthur's castle used to be. On the way there we had to grab a Taxi from the train station to the city. While we were on our way through the narrow winding streets we were suddenly stopped by a herd of cows. There was a herder trying to get a huge group of cows from one place to another. But the funny part was that they would not move. They just sat there starring ahead. We eneded up haivng to turn the car off and wait until the herder finally got them to move. We could not believe what was happening, what a random thing to witness.

At the castle there were only a few remains that are still standing .... but wow what a view. We walked up about a million really steep stairs to the top of this hill that overlooked the ocean. It was a beautiful day out. Then after we hiked all the way up to the top we went down to the bottom by the shore. This is where we climbed up the stones and went into Merlin Cave, well just a little bit. Afterwards we grabbed lunch at a local pub and came back. It was one of the coolest places I have ever been, and the vew was breathtaking.

The weekend begins

Last night we went to the local pub called The Fresher and Profesor to celebrate the fourth of July. We played mixed drink flippy cup and danced the night away. After that we tested out some of the other local pubs while doing "research" for my upcoming project about pubs. Today it has been raining all day and very cold out. I definately did not bring enough warm clothes to wear :( Nicki and I went to the local store to buy umbrellas so that we could still walk around town today. We were not even out of the store 2 minutes and my umbrella flipped inside out and broke. We had a nice lunch at the pub and spent the rest of the day so far working on our projects and napping.

Hope everyone had a great fourth!!

Exploring around town....

Yesterday in class we had a lot of time to work on our projects. Then we went to a seminar about Photostory, which is a neat way to make digital stories. It was the first time that we had good food in the cafe for lunch.

After class we took it upon ourselves to explore around town. First we walked around the town shops and then following that walked down to the bay area, the hoe. It was an amazing view from the bay out on the water, very picturesque. We walked down to the water which was freezing. We got to witness a bunch of teenage boys jumping off diving boards at various heights. As we walked alongside the bay and more toward town we witnessed abunch of the boys "tombstoning" which is jumping off the cliffs. Tombstoning is something that is warned against wthmany signs saying that it can cause death.

On our walk home we decided to stop at the Navy Inn a pub in the Barbican. We all treated ourselves to a Strongbow and hung out chatting for a bit. We ended up meeting some locals who informed us a lot about the british culture.