So I think I'm just going to make a few movies like this one with as much photos in them as will fit. I'll post just regular pictures later with comments. Mom said she likes that. haha. So here's the first part, Athens.

Home.

I made it home. It's kind of weird being here, yet great at the same time. On Saturday I had quite a lazy day. Which was weird considering I didn't have one of those at all for the last two months. I want to share pictures with you on here, but I'm trying to decide the best way to do it. There are a lot of them. What do you think? If I made a slide show of them would you watch it? Or should I just post some of my favorites with commentary? Maybe both? ha. I don't know. But, pictures are coming soon. It was an amazing trip. The best of my life. I can't believe it's already over and I'm home. Europe is a magical place. Pictures and more experiences to come! :)

Je t'aime, Paris

Hello family! It's been a while since my last email. I blame the difficulty of finding Internet and also lack of spare time. We've been real busy here in the city of lights. We go to one, more often two, museums a day and after that we're usually running around exploring the city. There's so much to see and do in this place it's insane! I feel like I still haven't even seen half of it. Some highlights: definitely the musee d'orsay. That is a beautiful museum with the best collection of 19th century European art, my favorite. The Van Goghs were of course my favorite. I bought a poster of his "Eglise D'Auvers." it's beautiful. But an artist that really surprised me was Renoir. Look up his Moulin de la Galette. I absolutely loved how you can see the light coming through the trees and reflecting on the people below. Gorgeous! It's so strange how my opinions have changed so drastically. Monet used to be my favorite impressionist, but now he's moving down the list as other artists like Renoir and degas are moving up. Again, seeing the art in person is so different from looking at a slide. I've been amazed time and time again. We also went to Versailles. That place was amazing! No wonder France went bankrupt and the people revolted. Did you know that to build that place it took the equivalent of $2 billion dollars today? Insane. But it was a beautiful palace. I want gardens like that in my yard someday... Ha! We went to the Hameau, which was this little English country side village built by Marie Antoinette. It was so stinking cute! It was like a functioning farm too with cows and goats and pigs. She built it for her children and her to play in, but I would live there. I can't wait to post pictures. The best part of Versailles was our rowboat trip on the grand canals. We rented a row boat For forty-five minutes and merrily merrily merrily merrily rowed gently down the stream. It was very relaxing. Other favorite of Paris have been the Louvre- which is finormous and can't possibly be fully explored in one day (we spent three there), climbing Notre Dame, visiting Chartres cathedral - the first cathedral done completely in the Gothic style with beyond amazing stained glass windows, an amazing Indian food dining experience (it was my first time for Indian and I now love it), the best French onion soup soup I've ever had, and climbing the Eiffel tower. We climbed to the second floor and then rode the elevator to the top. It was a gorgeous sunset that night. One downside to Paris is that, besides the two delicious meals mentioned, we have not had a good experience with food. Most of our meals have been bad to really bad. Which is sad considering where we are. But I spoke to a friend and she said most o the time you have to pay a lot more for good food, which has actually been the case. That Indian meal was the most expensive meal of my life, but so worth it. We'll be dining st the cheap places for the rest of the trip probably because of it. :) I love Europe! I'm very sad I have to go home in less than two weeks back to real life. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the parentals and lil sis tomorrow! It's come so fast! I can't wait. I love you all and I hope you are all well! 

Hello hello family! I am in the beautiful, and by beautiful I mean REALLY beautiful, city of Paris. It is a nice reprieve after the unfortunate incident at the Brussels train station where I discovered many things, including my travel journal I've kept since the age of 15, were stolen. Really sad. I cried. Thieves suck. Don't ever become one, k? Anyway, we've recovered from that and I just really love this city. I love french. I want to learn it. Fluently. I think I like it better than Italian, and it's much more useful for my area of study. Anyway, just to keep this short, our first day: St. Denis and a walking architectural tour. I had a moment at st denis that ill try to blog about later when i have more time. That night we got a great French dinner and chilled by the Eiffel tower until we saw it sparkle. Twice. It sparkles for five minutes every hour, in case you didn't know. Second day: medieval art/architecture at notre dame, the cluny museum, and saint chapelle. I love gothic cathedrals. Then we played in the mac store at the louvre and sprayed ourselves with smelly good stuff at sephora (it's been a while since we've all really smelt good...) and then paraded down the champs élysées to the arc de triomphe. Today we went to church. Elizabeth smart is a sister missionary here! We saw her and some of us knew her companion. Everyone is so nice in the mission field and i love it. Then leaving church, Mandy, Liz, and I got mooned by a creepy old man. That was weird and unwelcome. But we went to notre dame and climbed to the top which made us feel better about life. Ha! I fell in love today. With a bookstore. Shakespeare and Company. Right across the river from notre dame. The books are stacked everywhere and there are ladders to ge up to the top. They had reading rooms where you could just sit and read for however long you wanted...You know how I love bookstores, this one was great. Mom, dad, I'm taking you there when you come. It's right I. The Latin quarter. I was there for almost two hours. Love love! Anyway, that's about it for now! Love you all and I hope you are great! Au Revoir for now! :)

kell