My last weekend abroad I took the train under the channel to Paris, France! I went with two girls I met in the summer program and it was absolutely amazing! I have to say though, as much as I loved Paris I do like London more and wouldn’t of wanted to study abroad in Paris. It was definetly interesting trying to adapt to a new culture after getting comfortable around London. The most obvious challenge would be the language barrier in Paris however that wasn’t even the most challenging part of the new culture. I downloaded a speak easy french app onto my phone and practiced before I went some simple phrases. I’d have to say the phrase I used the most while there was, “parlez-vous anglais?”! Most people could speak english, there was only one gal who couldn’t in a small bagguette place we went for lunch and we would just point to what we would like. The most challenging part of Paris was nagivating around. They also have an underground train like London but called the Metropolitan. The metropolitan however stinks and was very confusing! We obviously still had to use it to get around but London’s tube is much better! So once we arrived and found our hostel we took a map from reception, sat down at there restaurant and ordered some food, and planned our weekend there! Exciting, and we even met some friends who were from California! Our first day we bought tickets for a hop on hop off boat that went in a circle along the canal and that day we visited Notre Dame, Champs-Elysees, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. The second day we explored a little bit, went to a cute little creperie, the love lock bridge, Versailles, and back to the Eiffel Tower. We spent

close to four hours at the Eiffel tower the second day just relaxing and we bought food at a close grocery store for dinner. Then after the sun sets the Eiffel Tower glitters for the first five minutes at the top of every hour.

Although two very busy days in Paris and I was beyond exhausted traveling back to London, I am so thankful that I was able to take advantage of this opportunity. My one hope while abroad was to travel outside of the UK and I did it! I can’t believe I have less than a week left in London now before I fly back home. I have seriously had an amazing time here but I am also very excited to go back home!