Friday, October 19, 2012

London at last

Finally we have arrived in London. And as much as I loved the traveling we will no longer be changing hotels every few days and be living out of suitcases. I think my favorite part is that we will finally have easy access to washing machines and my clothes will no longer smell like a have worn them six time (which seems about right.) I am guess we smelt really bad because the directors of the London home, Alvaro and Thais, asked us to make sure we shower and do our laundry. I cant even imagine what that bus must have smelt like after 40 people not being able to do there laundry for almost two weeks. The first couple of days of London have been very relaxing and easy. The first day I mostly just unpacked, did laundry, and took a long walk around Hyde Park. Today I did a lot of the same.  I walked around the city and was able to better orient myself. In the evening the program was able to go to barbican hall to see the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The first half of the program was very good with part of it accompanied with a piano player. The second half became a sort of French opera that had the most bizarre story line ever. It was about a clock maker’s wife who was trying to cheat on her husband. After two attempts to do so she said that the day was wasted but in the end was able to find a man just before her husband came home. Bizarre is the only word I could think to describe it.
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Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Shortest Night and the Longest Day


Well the program finally has begun and with a little of a rocky start. I left for the airport early Friday morning, and until the time that I went to bed on Saturday night, this long day had become one the most tiring of my life. My second flight from Seattle to Paris left at 1 15 PM and than arrived in Paris the next day at 8 AM. A huge time swing that required flying throughout the whole night. The night could have only lasted a couple hours as I remember the sun setting as I was dosing off. I woke up later to one of the most resounding sunrises I have ever seen. As we came into the airport it was unfortunate to find out that the train that we need to take into actual Paris was closed. But luckily after a bus, two trains, and a walk with all of or luggage we finally made it to the hotel. The whole time walking up to the hotel we talked of a shower just to find out we had to wait 5 more hours to check in. But than Dr. Murphy, our professor who had already been in Paris several days, took us up into his hotel to find this view. 

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It made the whole day not seem so bad