Day 46

Wednesday, June 27 -

Today was the slowest news day I have ever experienced. All I did all morning was log the video feed of the Queen's visit to Northern Ireland and her handshake with former IRA leader. Usually the video feeds I have to log last several hours, so I was very relieved this one was about 20 minutes long.

Usually people just eat their lunch at their desk, so no one really has a lunch break. But today was super nice out, so me and one of the other interns actually left the office to have lunch outside. It was like experiencing a whole new world! The business park we work in sets up an inflatable arena to play football (soccer) in, so people play football during their lunch break. They had a referee and everything.

Nothing was happening during the afternoon either. A lot of people took the day off or were in meetings or something, because no one was around the news desk. The phones weren't even ringing. Me and the other intern decided to take a walk around the whole office.

The hall of offices 
The news room! 
The anchor desk
The screens on the news desk!
The whole walk only took up about 35 minutes. We ended up leaving an hour early because there was just nothing happening. Me and my co-intern decided to go shopping at this awesome place called Cath Kidston. It's my new favorite store ever. It's like the Vera Bradley of the UK, but slightly less expensive. I got myself a little umbrella that will fit in my purse so I can be prepared every time it rains. We shopped around some of the other shops in the area, which is one station away from where we work, and there were some really cool shops. After that, we ventured a little closer to home to this huge two story souvenir shop. It was a great end to a slow day!

Day 45

Tuesday, June 26 -

I worked on the web today at work, and posted some exciting stories. I got to use my journalism skills to put together two different wires into one story about Al Qaeda in the Middle East. Keeping with the theme, I posted a story about land mines in Yemen, and for some lighter news on the way out, I posted this story about the Queen arriving in Northern Ireland.

In class we took a tour of the East End. It was so cool! I'm so glad we have this class (British Life and Culture) because we take trips to places I'd never go otherwise. The East End is filled with street art (very different from graffiti) and has it's own little culture surrounding that.



























There was also this Jewish biegel shop in the East End, and they had the most delicious and cheap bagels ever.

Day 44


Monday, June 25 -


Megabus was just as uncomfortable this time as it was last time. Sometime during the night there was a huge crash and it woke me up but I couldn't figure out what it was. Then we stopped somewhere and everyone was looking around, so I looked toward the front of the bus and there is this HUGE crack in the windshield. When getting off the bus to go through the UK border control someone asked the driver what happened, and he said someone threw a brick off a bridge at the bus. If they threw it any harder it probably would have broken all the way through the glass. It was pretty bad.

The ferry was much better this time around. We found this little room that was filled with available couches so we spread out on those right away! After we sat down, we realized there was a sign on the door that said it was a private room for commercial drivers only. We decided to ignore it since we hadn't seen it when we first went in, and went to sleep. A few drivers had walked in and they were just sitting watching TV, not being bothered by us or anything. After we had been fast asleep for around 40 minutes, some guy walks in and is like, 'Wakey, wakey, this is a private room, you have to leave.' Well sorry for causing so much trouble, sir. So we left and I ended up sleeping on the floor again. There were no screaming children this time.

We finally arrived back in London and as soon as we all got home I took a nice nap in my own comfortable bed. Unfortunately we still had class later in the afternoon, so I still had to get up to go to that.

Day 43

Sunday, June 24 -

We all woke up bright and early in the morning (as we have been every morning, you can't waste time on sleep in Paris) and went to see Moulin Rouge! It was around 100 pounds (~$156) to see a show, so we had to settle for just standing outside.


After that we headed back to Versailles to see the gardens. We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's and I was so ready to order my food in French, but then they had machines that you could order off of. It was the weirdest thing! I did go through the machine in French. It was very easy because everything had pictures.

Ordering off the McDonald's machine
When we got back to the palace the line (queue) to get through security was about a million people long. We put on our British accents again to try to get in for free. First we went to the area where the gate to the garden is, but it looked like you could only buy tickets for the firework show there. We were still talking with British accents and we got the weirdest look from this group of people. We heard them talk, and it turns out they were actually British. We stopped talking.

We waited in the ticket line for awhile (it was not as long as the security line, which is the one we went through yesterday, which took 5 seconds and was free) and it turns out we actually needed to buy our tickets at the garden gate. So we went back there and actually paid, but we got a discounted price.

The garden was HUGE. It might as well have been it's own little town. We had great weather the other two days we were in Paris, so of course it rained today. And of course I was wearing sandals and did not have an umbrella. Things got slightly less enjoyable, but it was still pretty cool.

One of many fountains in the gardens
A flowerbed
The palace from the gardens
Another fountain in the garden 
In the hedges
Another fountain
That's the palace way off in the distance
Still in the gardens
You can take a boat ride!
More of the gardens 
A room inside the Grand Trianon  
Another room in the Grand Trianon 
More of the Grand Trianon
The gardens 
More of the gardens

It took forever to get all the way to the Grand Trianon and by that time my feet were soaked, the bottom of my pants were soaked, and everyone's feet hurt. Cobblestone is pretty but not fun to walk on. We ended up taking this little train/trolley thing back to the Palace, and it's really too bad we didn't know about it before we walked all the way out there.

After that we did some more fabulous outdoor activities in the rain and went to Notre Dame and walked down the Champs-Elysees.

Notre Dame
A line to get into Louis Vuitton on the Champs-Elysees
By this time our feet were about to fall off, so we headed to the bus station. Our plan was to stop at the grocery store and get some cheap food for dinner and the ride back, but it turns out the grocery store is closed on Sunday. We went to the bus station, which is an outside station, and thankfully the mall it's right next to was open. We sat in there, but everything was closed, so two of us went out in search for food while the other two waited by all our things.

My friend and I ventured back outside and around a corner and found a little super market that was open. They had some chips that I wanted, but they were behind the counter, so I decided to talk to the guy in French. I tried really hard. He laughed at me. My friend told me she thought he appreciated my effort. I got the chips though.

Then the bus came and we headed back to London!

Day 42

Saturday, June 23 -

I went to Giverny (pronounced jew-ver-knee, for anyone not French) and went to Claude Monet's house and garden. I did a report on him in my french class in high school, so seeing his paintings resurfaced a tiny bit of that knowledge. The gardens were beautiful!

Oddly enough, this is the road Monet's house is on.
Monet's garden
The following 18 pictures are all of flowers in Monet's garden: 



















Monet's house
The view of the gardens from Monet's bedroom

That one boat Monet painted 
That one bridge Monet painted

For lunch we had to grab food really quick so we could catch the shuttle back to the train. I went pretty French and got a hot dog in a baguette and an Orangina!


After that we hopped on the train to go across the city to Versailles. European Union residents and long-term citizens under the age of 26 got into the palace for free. Our plan was to talk in British accents and pretend to be British while our friend spoke in French and told the people at the ticket booth we lived in London and asked if we needed to pay. We must have been pretty convincing because we walked right through security and straight into the Palace without even seeing a ticket booth. They did check our visas, though, so there is a small chance the visa qualified us as EU residents.

Inside the Palace was beautiful, but so crowded. We can't complain much though since we got in for free! Unfortunately, the gardens were closed by the time we got to them. They were having some sort of firework show that night, but since the sun doesn't ever set here it didn't start until 11:30 at night, and the trains close so we'd be stuck.

The Palace of Versailles
The gates to the palace
A chandelier inside the palace
Walking into the Hall of Mirrors
Hall of Mirrors
Shoes made out of pots
Someone's bedroom in the palace 
A very fancy table
Mairie Antoinette
Another room inside the palace
The view of the gardens from the palace
We ate dinner at a cute little French Cafe, and I went French again and got a Croque Madame! It was like a grilled cheese sandwich with ham and an egg on the top. It was delicious and we ate outside like true Europeans.



After dinner we took a cruise down the Seine! We didn't get a discount for this one, but it was worth it. We went in the evening so we got to watch the sun set over the river. We also ended up right in front of the Eiffel Tower during the light show.

A cool looking building by the river 
The Seine
Another cool building along the river
More buildings along the river
The Seine during sunset
Another boat on the river
Going under a bridge
Because I don't have enough pictures of the Eiffel Tower already...