Exams are OVER!

This past month has been super crazy, but I finally feel like things are starting to calm down. Over Christmas holidays, my family came to visit, we celebrated Christmas together and I showed them around England a little. It was so nice to see them! We saw a Pantomime on Boxing day which seems like a popular thing to do for families with young children or anyone really.

We took the Eurostar to Paris for 3 days and it was amazing! I really loved Paris and hope to return someday. We went out to eat on our first night there and the food was absolutely delicious, especially the creme brulee. Our second day, we went to the Eiffel Tower and had breakfast at a little cafe near it. We had scheduled a bike tour for that day and it started mid-morning. The bike tour was really cool because we got to see most of the famous sights in a short amount of time and our tour guide knew a lot of fun facts. We saw Napoleon's tomb which has a dome covered in real gold, the Louvre, Place de la Concorde (where the guillotine was-lots of people killed there!), the Arc de Triomphe, and the Notre Dame.

The Arc de Triomphe

My family and I in front of the Eiffel Tower

On our last day, we actually went inside the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and many other beautiful pieces of art. It was huge and we could have spent the entire day there, but we had to catch our train home in the afternoon. I highly recommend seeing Paris-it was a lovely city.


My sister and I in front of the Notre Dame in Paris, France




After we got back to England, my family and I went to London for a day and saw some of the the famous sights like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and Trafalgar Square. We got to do a 'River Cruise' on the Thames which was fun. We were going to stay for the fireworks on New Years Eve, but it was kind of cold and cloudy and we didn't want to stand outside waiting for hours. My parents left on the 2nd of January but my sister stayed for another week. We had a day in London and saw the Tower of London with those oh, so pretty crown jewels and we went shopping on Oxford St. a little bit as well.

Me with the 'Harrods bear' in London

The next day was our flight to Rome. Rome was also amazing and I hope to go back at some point. We went to the Vatican and saw St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and other art by Michelangelo and Raphael in the Pope's art museum. We had a guided tour by a nun and learned so much about each painting and their meanings. St. Peter's Basilica was huge and beautiful-very ornate. On the days that followed, we saw the Coliseum, Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum and Palatine, and different Plazas and Museums. The food in Italy was absolutely delicious! The pizza was outstanding, the wine was great, all pasta dishes were spectacular, and the coffee was yummy too! I think I got pizza almost everyday; it was soooo good! We had 4 nights in Rome and had to leave early the last day. My sister went back to the US two days after we got back and now I'm back in Manchester. I finished my last exam today and am ready to start the next semester next week! (Haven't uploaded Rome pictures yet...)

Paris!!