Ooh La La! The Thrills of Paris!

Before I delve into Paris, I will do a quick recap of Spain:

It was beauitful! I went to the beach on Monday, and for the most part the weather was perfection. It did rain on our walk back to the bus, but I still think it was worth seeing San Sebastian! I explored some on my own, but my favorite part was shopping, of course! I found the most flattering jacket and bought it. The city of Bilbao itself was filled with architecture everywhere...statues, stairs, even the metro system had some architecture at either main entrance. I loved every moment. Seeing Jenny was great too, and I felt bad that she was sick and I was too. It made the damp weather hard to go out in, but we did our best, and I am satisfied with my time in Spain.

Now on to Paris! Can anyone say whirlwind adventure? We only had one and a half days really, but the girls and I managed to see a few things and experience Paris at its finest. We of course saw the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and the Louvre. There was lots of walking involved as well as getting lost on the metro a few times. It was all part of the adventure though! Saturday night, we ate at one of the most delightful little cafes across from the Notre Dame. I had the crème brûlée, which was to die for! I would go back to Paris just to have that again. :)

While we were at the TOP of the Eiffel Tower, Elise saw someone get proposed to. The woman said yes, thankfully, and then they went back to talking! I suppose none of us really know what you do in that situation, but we thought going back to talking immediately after was a little weird. I guess on top of the Eiffel Tower, you can't do much else. Maybe scream that you are engaged...like yelling it from the rooftops? I know that's what I would do...but I don't want to be proposed to up there. :)

English at Heart

I'm not off to a very good start of blogging, am I? :) I will try harder to write more than once a week!

This week has been filled with touristy things and travel! I saw Les Miserables and fell in love with it. It is such an emotional story. I also toured several places on Monday, including Westminster Abbey, Winston Churchill's War Cabinets and Museum, saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, and viewed the London Bridge and Tower of London. That already seems so long ago though!

I am now in the English countryside and have been enjoying the quiet and peaceful atmosphere. I was able to help out in the church's school that I am visiting. Here, my degree in English and specifically British literature, is quite useful! I was told by one of the teachers that I am really English at heart. That made me so happy. :)

I drove to Winchester yesterday (left) and explored the city, known for the Great Hall (part of Arthurian legend) and the Round Table, as well as Jane Austen's house and gravesite. It was the perfect day. I was obviously overwhelmed when I stood over Jane's grave and realized that this was the place she actually was, not in some far off place that I read about online or imagined while reading Pride and Prejudice. It was wonderful.

Tonight, I am going to a barn dance (yeehaw!), but I don't think it's anything like what I've been to back home. I am sure there will be pictures and some detail to come on that event. :)

Tomorrow, it's off to the next adventure!

It's a Jolly Holiday in London!

I've walked a lot in the past two days and seen many touristy things! I was mostly on foot and today I am completely sore, but it was worth it. Of course, it rained the whole time but rain here is different. It's just sort of present and you get used to it. It's also just a drizzling sort and never pours like at home. :) In all, I covered about 4 miles on foot, which turned out to be a good exercise for me. I saw the National Gallery, which has several famous paintings and was overwhelming. I loved that I had taken an art history course and learned about most of the paintings. I also visited St. Martin's, a church next to the Gallery. I ate in the cafe downstairs in the crypt...quite interesting to say the least. I also walked to Westminster Abbey and crossed the Thames, right by Big Ben! It was a wonderful first day!

Today was a special day...I visited John Keats' house. He was my senior seminar research topic, and it felt unreal that I could sit in the very room he worked in and touch the same mantle he stood at. It was absolutely delightful. I could not take indoor pictures, but the outdoor landscape was beautiful. There was a mulberry tree that had been there for over 200 years!

The people here are lovely as well. I feel right at home with everyone and am learning how everything works here. I watched the X Factor tonight (and not on youtube for once), and also their version of Dancing With the Stars (called Come Strictly Dancing). They had a former member of Parliament dancing! It was, um...yeah. Anyway, I am a happy girl here having the time of her life!

The Start of Something Good

I am writing this blog in another place! It is still so unreal to me. I flew in this morning after a travel day of 28 hours, got through customs and all of that, then took the underground straight to my stop where I met up with a marvellous lady, Gemma, who showed me where I am staying and then took me to the nearest shopping centre. The entire time I was sitting on the tube, I kept thinking, "Here I am...I am really in Europe. The adventure has begun." As I saw bits of scenery, my stomach got butterflies and the weariness faded away (temporarily). This is really happening.

I must add something here because it was so perfect and just what I needed to start the trip right. I boarded the plane in St. Louis with a girl who ended up sitting next to me on the way to JFK. It turns out, she was from Berlin. We both had long layovers, so after talking the entire two hours on the first flight, we decided to hang out until she had to board her plane that evening. It made the time go so much faster, and I made a new friend. It was exactly what I needed to boost my travelling spirits.

I haven't done much in the way of sightseeing yet. I am going to wander through the city tomorrow and see a few things here and there. It should be great fun! Their transportation system is excellent. The states (at least Chicago) could learn a thing or two...like cleanliness. :)

One last thing: you may notice some words are "misspelled" or at least not American English. The computer I am writing from has a British English spell check. I rather like it!

Off for now,

Nikki

Off I Go!

I am now counting down the hours until I get on the plane that takes me into a whole new adventure. 3 hours and 15 minutes. I feel like I am in free fall mode right now, knowing that I should hit the ground running but still slightly afraid that I may land on my ankle wrong as I hit the ground or that I will trip on my own feet.

I think that this next seven weeks is another step to becoming an independent adult. I thought graduating would have been enough or maybe finding my career path. Still. I am joyful to take this in-between step. I also feel like a "grown-up" for leaving my computer at home. Those of you who know me know that it was hard enough to leave my "Friends" DVDs behind for seven weeks, but I think that leaving my computer behind, something that can be distracting, will prove to let me see what is around me and keep me free to do other things. :) Plus, everyone has computers over there, so I can hop on and off every day or so to keep people in the loop.

The butterflies in my stomach are starting to build, begging to be released. I'm not quite sure they will fully be released until the trip is over! I am ready to take this trip head-on and see what God will do. It is going to be one amazing ride!

This seems to be more of an informative post, but I haven't left yet and can't give much more than that.

Talk to you soon!

The Mr. Darcys and Captain Wentworths of the World

In my attempt to blog while I am in Europe, I've decided that I need to "practice" before I leave. I am such a horrible blogger, which is most obvious just by looking at the date on my last post: April 16. If I am to keep a blog going at all in Europe, I have to start now, I've decided.

I may be stepping out on a limb with a blog about the opposite sex, but I am in no way "bashing" men. In fact, this blog is more of an admittance of my own behavior rather than a slandering of the male sex. I've been thinking lately how often I find myself, or one of my friends, swooning over men from an era that is quite different from the era in which we live now. We...and I really do include myself in this...we watch every BBC/Masterpiece Theater adaptation of Jane Austen's or Elizabeth's Gaskell's novels and nearly melt at every touch, every word, every moment the gentleman's eyes connect with his fair maiden. Our stomachs tie up in knots, and we forget to breathe as we are immersed into the scene unfolding before our very eyes.

I have a feeling that some may read this and think, "Good grief! It's just a story...this girl is crazy! Mr. Darcy is just a character. Mr. Knightley doesn't exist. And Mr. Thornton was mean!" While I do admit it does seem slightly silly to become wrapped up in these characters, it is inevitable. Most women, at least those who hug their pillows and hardly dare to blink lest they miss something while watching Pride and Prejudice or North and South, are looking/waiting for their own Mr. Darcy. Even their own Mr. Thornton. It is not just women of our time who have searched for their Austenian gentleman. Women have been falling at the feet of Captain Wentworth and Mr. Darcy for nearly two hundred years. There is something instilled in these characters that is timeless and continues to make a mark on girls of all ages.

I still have not admitted my own folly in this. I watched a film tonight, Lost in Austen, in which a woman from modern London mysteriously changes places with Elizabeth Bennett. While the entire plot of Pride and Prejudice is changed, it all works out for good in the end, with a few bumps and potholes along the way. It was not so much the story itself that caught my attention tonight but the title of the film. Lost in Austen. It echoed in my head when the movie finished and continued to repeat over and over. I realized that I was maybe a little lost in Austen myself.

As I watched these films and read the books, I made a mental list of the qualities that I thought were essential to finding a man. It is not that making a list of qualities is a bad thing. In fact, I think you should know what you want and should not settle for less than that. My mistake, however, was evident once I was absorbed in the world of Austen and other writers like her. I was so set on that mental list of qualities, that I readily excused the weaknesses of the characters I had fallen in love with. Of course, I knew that Mr. Darcy was prejudiced or that Mr. Thornton was a little rough around the edges, yet I told myself that those character flaws were what helped drive the story.

While that may be true, I find that I am not so ready to excuse those same flaws, or new ones, in men today. I bemoan the fact that these men from novels have become non-existent. I rant with my girlfriends about society's lack of single gentlemen. (I am in no way saying that those who have found their own are not really with a gentlemen or their own "Mr. Darcy.") We turn away from men who do not seem to "fit the bill," even at first glance, and barely give them another minute of our time.

 If I take a good, hard look in my heart I find that I am being unfair to men all the world over. Besides the fact that I do not know all of the men in this world, could it be that I focus too much on the flaws and fail to see the strengths, the very qualities I am looking for? Do we all, as females, fail to recognize that the flaws of Mr. Darcy, Captain Wentworth, or any of the other gentlemen we prefer from the novels were what the heroines themselves focused on at first? Elizabeth found Mr. Darcy to be insufferable and full of prejudice. She was not swept off her feet at first meeting. It took working through the flaws in both characters to realize he was Mr. Darcy *swoon*.

I will still get teary-eyed while watching Mr. Thornton see Margaret Hale on the opposite train at the station. I will feel the butterflies in my stomach when Captain Wentworth shows Anne her childhood estate and begins to dance with her in the front yard. I think that even if I never find my own Mr. Thornton or Captain Wentworth (although I hope that I do), I still need to see the qualities in the opposite sex and not be so quick to find the flaw(s). And this is going to take lots of work!

The Silver Platter of Life

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” 

  Andre Gide, French writer

Today started just like any other. I woke up late for class, rushed around to get ready, and opened the front door to leave the comfort of my house. The after effects of rain. Part of me wanted to go back inside and crawl under the covers, ignoring the puddles and slight chill in the air. Still, the "better" student inside of me pushed my feet forward and thus my day began.

Have you ever began a day, like this one? Not different from any other? You're just walking down the street and then Bam! your life is changed forever. (Would a post of mine be complete w/out one reference to Friends?) It could be many things: a new relationship, a baby, a new job. etc. You see it happen to others and never think you could be so lucky yourself. When the world (whatever the world represents to you) is offered on a silver platter, you don't think twice that this is you, a normal average day person, who never has life-changing opportunities. 

Do you walk around it, pushing that silver platter aside for the path you are already walking? It's safe that way; you know the path. You kind of even expect how life might turn out if you stay on it. Or...do you take a chance on life and see where this new adventure takes you, losing sight of the shore and jumping in feet first? 

I am ready to take a running leap of faith and make the biggest splash the world has ever seen!