Aloha!.... from Paris?

At the moment I am blogging from the Aloha Hostel in Paris. I am very tired and my feet hurt like hell. I am now 20 years old, hurrah! One more year until the fun starts back in the States, right? It was a pretty fun day. We went to the Louvre, saw numerous famous works of art, then got lost trying to find the hostel, then met up with my Mom and Val for dinner and went to Sacre Coeur.

This computer won't let me see my email, wonderful. Gar!

But, more about Paris later... like, tomorrow, if I want to pay another 2 Euro for thirty minutes and not be able to check my internet. I would like to discuss LONDON.

London was amazing. This may be mostly due to the fact that they actually spoke English and we felt a little less like Dumb Americans. However, we did go to every touristy site imaginable... haha. But it was amazing.

London would probably be quite near the top of my list of favorite cities if it wasn't for..
-My fingernails were CONSTANTLY dirty, no matter what I did to remedy this
-When you blow your nose, it comes out BLACK, which probably has to do with reason 1
-The 2-to-1 exchange rate, which was very much not in our favor
-People are too dressed up... I'd like this, because I looove dressing up, but living out of a single backpack for TWO WEEKS doesn't allow many options. I felt slobby, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

We got to see TWO Broadway-ish shows in London's West End. I saw Wicked AND Spamalot. They were amazing. And, even with the shitty exchange rate, probably half of what it would cost to see them in the US in New York. Wicked was even better than I thought it would be, even though I was expecting American accents because of the soundtrack... guess I'll just have to figure out a way to see it in the States too :) But yeah, it really surprised me how well they went by the storyline (even though there were many major changes). It wasn't as comedy-ish as I thought it would be. And Spamalot was hilarious. I kept thinking about how me and Dad used to love The Holy Grail, and how much he'd be cracking up at the show if he'd been there. And I'd probably be embarassed at his loud laughter, but it'd make me crack up too... I think about him like that a lot, I miss him...

But on a happier note... Yeah, it was awesome. Mom and Val took me to the Tower of London, which was this old castle where they used to keep prisoners. It was pretty cool. Then my friends and I went on a tour of London about Jack the Ripper, also very cool though we went through some shady areas. We also went on The London Eye on the ONLY day it rained during our stay... still awesome though. The hotel room was tiny tiny, our hostel room now is bigger than the one Emerson provided... but still, it was a good time. We saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey and Camden and all sorts of cute little places. The Tube is actually surprisingly easy to navigate. Leister Square and Piccadilly Circus are probably two of my favorite places ever. Definately a good time. I'd love to live in London someday.

So, Paris is wonderful so far, surprisingly I'm not liking it quite as much as London, but probably because I feel even more "dumb American" here since I've discovered my French has somehow gotten even worse since the Brussels trip. I need to take more French classes somehow. I can understand like 70% of what I read, but I can't speak it well or understand it spoken at all.

Like I said, I'll talk more about Paris when I get the time. I just didn't want to have to try to remember two whole weeks at once. This is my London entry, mostly. Hehe.

Love everyone and miss you all like CRAZY. Spending time with Mom has been awesome though and made me a little less homesick. But still, I miss home! I'm even getting homesick for the castle!

<333 Ashley