Back to California

Sorry. I was having some serious issues logging into my blogspot account to post. But here are some photos I instamagramed during my journey back to the South Bay with my parents and brother!

The French, they're just like us!

So I had another wonderful dinner with my host family tonight. We had two additional dinner companions, two of my host mother's friends, but my host dad and host sister were just as enchantingly fiesty as ever. I've realized over the past couple weeks, while observing the interactions between my host sister and host father, that fathers and youngest children, if that child is a girl, have a very particular relationship. I know this originally from my interactions with my own father (I'm the youngest and a female), but my theory is only but strengthened by my observations of other father-youngest daughter pairings. In my opinion, this relationship is illustrated by heated arguments (... debates... conversations... comme tu veux) where neither side will budge and no solution is ever found, but just forgotten until the next time. I believe it's because as far as I have experienced, father-youngest daughter pairs are usually very similar in personality (and temperament...) while also, because the daughter is the youngest, we spend the most time with just us and dad (and bien-sur, mom, but we're not talking about her here) when we are old enough to actually have our own intelligent opinions and old enough to be bold stubborn enough to fight for those opinions. At dinner tonight, my host sister and host dad augured over what I believe was how expensive it is to live in Paris (oh be nice! I understand SO MUCH more French than I did when I got here just three short months ago, but I'm definitely still learning and there's only so much you can do when five fluent French speakers are all talking (and talking over each other) in their most causal (and fast) French, not worrying about pronouncing every syllable just right for the slow American) which ended not with one of them conceding, but with a handshake that I'm pretty sure meant that they were making a bet on something they wouldn't ever actually look up later. It's exactly something me and my father would do, I can almost hear the words in my head... 'Agree to disagree..' Hahah

I have a couple other cross-culture theories on father-youngest daughter pairs that I've developed further since having a front-row seat to the going-ons of another 'fyd' pair, but that's a post for another day. For now, I must go to sleep instead of doing anything and everything else I must do, such as study for my final tomorrow, finish my final paper that is due Thursday, or, you know, finish packing. Buuuutt... That's totes not happening, so GOOD NIGHT!

Londres

      Besides a few bumps in the road (and maybe one big bump in the road), the trip to London this past weekend was friggin fantastic. My friends and fellow BU-abroadians, Anakaren and Audrey, and I had a blast staying with a wicked cheerful, kind and sassy Londoner in Westminster and bobbing around the city, trying to cram as much as possible into just a day and a half. We got into the city mid afternoon on Friday and we soon found ourselves at a delicious Chinese food restaurant, Stick & Bowl, that Anakaren practically used to live at when she studied in London two years ago. After that, we checked out the BU office in London, which is huge and in a very wealthy part of the city (good for you, BU), before Anakaren had to leave us to get ready for her concert that night (she saw the Big Bang), so Audrey and I made our way to Harrod's. It was beautiful inside and out and we saw famous people! (the chick from Transformers, no, not Megan Fox, because I'm still living and I would've died if I saw Mega Fox in person, but yeah.. the underwear model. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and her boyfriend, or at least they seemed very together, the guy from the Transporter and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Jason Statham) then we went to see Big Ben and the London Eye and ate dinner at a fabulous Mediterranean restaurant, Troia Cafe. Alas, we were too late to ride on the Eye, but we did walk through an enchanting Christmas market and rode the merry-go-round before calling it a night. 

beautiful sunrise at the Grenoble airport

view from our airBnB room.

Disney Princess displays in the windows at Harrods.
This one's Sleeping Beauty.

The Little Mermaid.

And looky here! They actually honored Pocahontas!
that never happens! and she totes was the most badass.

Mulan.. who definitely wasn't made with an Asian mannequin. 

Big Ben!

The London Eye.

the beautiful lights in the Troia Cafe.

Southbank Centre Christmas Market.

Audrey and her noble steed. 

pack mule.
Thanks for doing this, by the way.

     Sorry for a million photos. But believe me, this was the short SHORT list of photos. I took so friggin many. oh and look for my posts about Saturday and Sunday of our trip. hopefully soon. but that probs won't happen. #sorryImnotsorry #sorryforpartyrocking