The Romance Capital!

There's definitely a reason why Paris is the Romance capital of the world and why it's the romance language....the French definitely know how to do it right! I had the funnest 4 days and really didn't want to go back to Spain this time. haha Okay I love Spain but I think I love France a bit more. We hit all the major sights and had tons of fun hanging out with French boys. My friend Amaury, from France, is the most generous person I have met and his friends were just as awesome, well almost! ;) They took us all around and seriously made our trip the best it could be. I definitely felt like I was in a movie when we were cruising around Paris passing the Arc du Triumphe, Champs-Elysees, Notre Dame, and other amazing things while listening to American rap songs at night with the windows rolled down and everybody singing at the top of their lungs. Oh and then hanging out at the Eiffel Tower eating Nutella chocolate crepes and teaching the boys how to pop, lock, and drop it. haha I'm definitely living a dream!

Chateau de Versaille. Huge. Gorgeous. Loved it.
Amaury! Love this French boy so much! The best tour guide!
Le Louvre. Felt like I was back in the Da Vinci Code
Le Louvre again!
DISNEYLAND PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm serious when I say the trip couldn't have been better!!
The Eiffel Tower (in case you couldn't tell.) My dream came true!

Arc du Triumphe. Huge. Beautiful.
Notre Dame. Huge. Beautiful. Loved hearing part of the Mass going on inside.
As you can tell I loved it all, thought it was all beautiful, and everything was huge. I can't wait to go back!

A little adventure

Todays post isn´t that exciting but I loved today and took tons of pictures and wanted to post about it. Sorry if it´s not very interesting but enjoy what you may! :)

So Britt and I decided to go to Palacio Real (royal palace) to start off our day. It was amazingly decorated. Spanish design is incredible! It has a gaudy feel to it with tons of detail. They wouldn´t let us take pictures inside (lamo´s) so I don´t have any but every single room inside was picture worthy. All the ceilings were painted by various famous artists with tapestries or velvet or fabric covering the walls and matching tapestries everywhere. It was so intense and so fun to see.

We found a little restaurant to eat lunch and the sweet servers gave Britt and I a shot on the house. Oh I´ve never been in such a situation that I didn´t know what to do. Not in deciding whether or not to drink it, of course not, but we didn´t want to offend them and they were watching us! haha so we waited for him to walk away, hurry and emptied one of our water bottles, and poured the shots of junk into the bottle. haha we were laughing, and then he asked if we wanted another.¨Thank goodness I know how to say, ¨No más por favor!!After lunch we decided to discover Parque de Retiro a little more. Well we thought there was only a little more to see, having been there a couple times previously, but little did we know that we had only seen about 20% of it. It was so fun to walk through the park and get a little feel of fall. We found a few amazing buildings like this glass palace. There was a black swan in the water. Perfectly appropriate for Spain, it just fits right.
We found cute little bridges all over. This one was worthy of another famous Britt and Brie photo shoot. We also found a gorgeous rose garden. I think it would be the perfect place for a wedding reception (just stating a fact is all.) We found the famous statue of the fallen angel. Britt and I thought it was only appropriate for us to have a picture with it. Lame picture I know but this part of the park was called the exercise park. These people are sitting on the benches and there are bike pedals in front of them. Why not get a bit of exercise while chatting eh? haha it was the coolest thing i´ve seen!Does this look like Spain to you? Definitely doesn´t to me. I got a little itch for Costa Rica when I took this picture. It was beautiful!
The saddest thing happened on Saturday. The Molina´s house was broken into and they were robbed. Their alarm went off and the police were there 3 minutes later but the robbers were quick and they got away. They thrashed the parents room and stole all of Maria´s jewelry. I have never seen her sad before and I hope I never have to see it again. I felt horrible, they´re the sweetest people with the biggest hearts. They probably would have given it to the lame robber if he would have just asked because they´re that sweet!

I couldn´t resist to send a couple more pictures of these pants. What do you all think, should I bring this style home to the states?

I would have to confess that my favorite thing about Spain is their green grapes. I am literally addicted! The Molina´s are always sure to have them for me at their house every weekend. I could eat them all day and I would be in heaven. They taste so much different here and they´re SO much better than at home! I will definitely have withdrawals when I get home. Ever seen a bigger, more beautiful bundle of grapes? I certainly haven´t.
At 4:30 a.m.(that´s why I look so cute) on our way home we stopped at the ¨candy shop¨ aka pastry shop and knocked on the door to the back kitchen where the cooks were cooking away for the next days fresh pastrys and we bought a yummy little chocolate delight that came straight out of the oven. I like their style here.

Journey to a land of English!!!!

As you can tell from the title I was extremely excited to be able to speak English to the person sitting next to me and they would respond IN ENGLISH and I could understand them (for the most part) and I could ask for directions and the response would actually help me and ah!! it was amazing! London was amazing and it wore me to death! We walked all day and night and still didn't get everything done that I hoped for. But we did see TONS and loved it all.

Britt and I began our journey at 4:50 when the taxi picked us up in Spain to take us to the airport. We arrived in England and had to take an hour bus ride to London where we got on the tube and then began our attempt to find the hostel. We, of course, got lost right away and I do know that miracles happen because right as I finished a little prayer in my head I turned around and looked up only to see Rebbie walking towards me!!! It was SO fun to see her and to play with her for a couple of days. I had missed her SO much and what best friends can say they explored London together?!The hostel was lovely and we scored bigtime with the suite room but only had to pay for the cheapest priced room for each night there! Saturday we went to Borrough's Market which is a huge food market with the most awesome food! We ate delicious veggie burgers! These are mushrooms!! Ever seen them so big and so much variety?Then we went to Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery (where we saw famous paintings by Rembrandt, Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo, Monet, Van Gogh, and more...just a few, I know), and walked along the Thames Rivier to see all the beautiful bridges! The London bridge wasn't even cool but the Tower bridge was amazing! And at the end of our walk was Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament! Oh and it was pouring rain ALL day and SO cold and we didn't like being wet and cold so then that night we went to the cinema and saw Solace of Quantum, the new Bond movie which I don't even think is out in the states for a while still. Pretty cool huh?Sunday morning we walked thorugh Hyde park, St. James park, Green park and Kensington park that lead us to Buckingham Palace where the Queen lives. It was so beautiful, just wish I could have gone inside! Then Britt and I evetually made it to the singles ward, which was so fun to attend church and be able to understand it. I LOVED it! It made me realize how much I miss participating in the discussions and being able to read. Afterwards we were able to go to "the center," which is where the BYU London Study Abroad is. I got to see where Rebbie studies, eats, and sleeps(all in the same place.) We also got to eat dinner there that night and meet all the girls. It is SO beautiful and made me very jealous of them. It looks like so much fun! Then that night we went on a walk to see lights at night and had a little photo shoot....haha and then walked down Oxford street, which everything was closed so they could all decorate for CHRISTMAS!!!!

Monday we met up with Hillary, Britton, and little baby Nora! She is so big and so stinkin cute! She is pretty much a perfect baby and I was so glad I got to see them. Hillary and Nora took us around all day and were literally the perfect tour guides. We hit everything with perfect timing so we saw the changing of the gaurd and soldiers on horses without having to wait and got front row views. We had lunch with Britton at Wagamama's which was amazing! We went to the British Museum where we saw amazing things you only see in your text books like the Rosetta Stone. I could spend a week there. I loved it so much and only skimmed the surface of that huge place. Next we went to Harrods or as Britton put it best "The Great and Spacious Building." Oh my goodness!!! It was huge and full of everything you can imagine and prices you shouldn't even imagine. It was SO amazing! Now I know where the Celebrities really do shop. It was intense but fun to look through. The fur coats were my favorite and almost affordable at 55,000 pounds thats around $100,000!!!! Then to top the night off perfectly we got to see Mamma Mia!!!!!!!! I loved it!!!!Tuesday was another day full of walking and sight seeing. We started off with the Tower of London, probably one of my favorite sights we saw. It was so fun to see the biggest diamond in the world, The star of Africa, and get a taste of how things were back in the day when it was in full use. After the best part of the trip....SHOPPING!!!!! I went only a little bit crazy. I was quite proud of myself for the bargain deals I got. Topshop and Primark are my two new favorite place to shop. Unfortunately the dollar is almost worthless so it makes things quite expensive but I still managed to find good deals. We shopped for about 4 hours and then met with Britton and family to have dinner and gelato. We sadly said our goodbyes the them and then decided to ride a double decker bus. I have no idea which one it was, it was just the first to come to the bus stop we found so we got on and rode for a bit and then got off and found our way back home.All in all, you can tell that I loved every bit of it. It was so tempting to stay and never come home! I am so grateful for Rebbie, Hillary, Britton, and Nora's time and hospitality! They made our trip amazing and it really couldn't have been better! Hope you enjoy the pics! (once again excuse the wild hair and the billions of layers so I look like i'm puffed up or something! haha)