"Shhh..... Guys! They speak our language."

The time here at the Abbey gets more and more exciting with each passing day.  This weekend I went with Jacelyn, Amanda, Casey, Charlotte, and Elizabeth to London!  It was spectacular!  We were only there for two days, but that was enough for me to fall in love with the city.

The trip there, however, was not as spectacular.  I had the first anxiety attack of my life between the time Jessica left and the time our train came to pick us up.  I thought a guy was going to blow up our train.  And last but definitely not least, a man tried to steal something out of my backpack while I was walking through the metro in Paris.  Needless to say, getting to London was not the beginning of our trip that I had envisioned. 

The next morning we arrived in London around 8h30.  We went straight to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards.  I enjoyed it, but I think I was the only one.  That's mainly because I could see what was going on and they couldn't.


After that, we got lost in Notting Hill looking for our hotel.  We saw four Madeline-like classes walking along the sidewalk before asking a woman where to go.  She had never heard of the street, but told us to get an AtoZ (pronounced zed, not zee), which is a book with maps of all the streets in London.

"Hopeless, Head Over Heels in the Moment"

So I have gotten a few complaints for not having posted in a week, so I figured I might as well.  Last week was the best so far.  Each week gets better and better!  Last week, after we recovered from our Tours excursion, we came back for a week of classes, meeting new faces, and Blois. 

Classes are getting more intense.  We had our first quiz in French, got our history homework back, and were told to read 124 pages in our Leonardo da Vinci book.  It was last week that I realized I really did have school work here. That in and of itself was like culture shock!  Work is not the center of the French culture like it is in the States, and part of coming to France is to experience the culture.  However, our professors push us in the classroom.  I don't understand how this all makes sense, but that's the reality of the situation.

Apart from class, the week went very well.  On Tuesday night about seven of us went to eat with a lady named Michelle.  She is from England and lives next door to Le Commerce, which is where our "meal plan" is.  At Michelle's we had Moroccan meatballs,rice, a carrot salad, and, the French necessity, bread.  For dessert we had an apple and pear crisp that was amazing.  We stayed at Michelle's for a long time talking about a lot of random things with Michelle, Dr. Beaujot (the HIS professor), Jessica (our student coordinator), and Dr. Mackaman (Mr. Abbey Program).  It is so fun to have our Abbey "community" include our professors.  They all make it known that they are available for discussions about religion, history, or the bones under the roads of Pontlevoy (more about that later).