Tales from a week in Paris: Part 2

These are all the girls! :D

Mel, Brooke, Amy, Me, Avery

Day 3: 
We went to Luxembourg Gardens on the second day and then did some much needed shopping in Paris! :D I didn't get much, but I did get a neat pair of owl earrings and an owl ring, but that is pretty much it. After some much needed shopping and lunch we went to Rue de Rossie (in the gay/Jewish part of Paris) for some cool vintage store shopping! I love vintage stores, but these vintage stores were CRAZY! There were so many people pumped into a small area and I could not enjoy the stores at all! After shopping we went back to the hostel and got ready for a night out at Mix Club. Okay, Mix Club was crazy because there were so many people in the club and it was so hot. The men in this club did not get the hint when we did not want to dance with them. We had to shove them off of us to get then to stop groping us...I had so many men grab my ass and boobs. I was not impressed with the Parisian men because they were kind of assholes! During the whole night, my feet were killing me because I thought I would be cute and wear heels, but I totally forgot that I would be dancing hardcore! So, I maned through half of the night with the shoes on, but could not stand it and I took my shoes off and danced barefoot. I know, it is gross, but I would deal with anything but painful feet. So, we left the club at like 2:30am and tried to make our way back to the hostel...the subways were not running anymore and only the night buses were working...so night bus it was. It was such a bad night bus experience because we had to wait for like 15 minutes for our second bus and there were so many sketchy people around the bus stop. So, we got on that bus and then got dropped off at what we thought was the correct stop...it wasn't, but we did not know that. We walked for about 15 minutes in the complete wrong direction only to find ourselves in the bad area of Paris... But, we did find two random girls coming back from a party and the French speakers asked them where our hostel was and they said we were walking in the wrong direction and that we were headed into the bad part of Paris, so they walked us back to our hostel (which was like a 45 minute walk after the 15 minute walk back to our drop off location) and this whole time I could barely walk because my feet were killing me so hardcore...I had to have Avery help me walk because my feet were so done-zo. I was the drunkest one of them all, but I had no alcohol that night, I was just in pain! But, we did make it back to the hostel without anyone getting raped! Thank you, nice Parisian sisters! 

Day 4: 

I stayed home this day because my feet were swollen and I could not walk on them because of the club last night/early that morning. So, I opted to write some of my Fascist Italy paper and sleep until my feet felt better. :D When the girls came back from their fun filled day we all went to go see the Eiffel Tower at night and to see it sparkle! It was super fun and we just goofed off like we were 12 years old, we got a lot of weird looks because we were American and acting like retards! 

Day 5: 
We started off our day by going to a world famous store that sells amazing macaroons, Laduree and I got an orange blossom and a green apple macaroon. I did not eat them right there, but I did eat the orange blossom one when I got home and I forgot that the tastes of flowers make me sick. I can not have anything flower flavoured without getting sick...so I got sick and I didn't even bother to eat the green apple one. After the macaroon store we went to Longchamp so that Avery, Mel, and Amy could get bags there. Brooke and I were the only two that decided against buying the $100 USD bags...that is like four nights in a hostel. Then we were going to see a museum but the line was so long that we didn't even bother to go. But, on the way back to the subway station we did see a bum pissing in the entrance and he thought that turning around and showing us his penis would make us happy...it did not...it just creeped us out. The men in Paris are such pigs, I cannot say that enough. When we got home from our short day, Mel and I stayed in to do homework while the rest of the girls went out to get some dinner. :) I added some more to my essay and posted my Scotland 12 of 12. Overall Day 5 was pretty lazy and I was so not mad about it! :D


One more Paris post after this one, I promise!

Tales from a week in Paris: Part 1

I was in Paris for a week and I did so much shit that I am going to have to split up the days and make the week more than one post because it would be a novel if I did not do so! :D


Each day I was in Paris I would write what we did in a little notebook so I would not forget. :P Here is my little notebook!

Day 1:
I got to Paris around 12pm with Avery and it was such a strugglefest! I speak no French and neither does Avery and that was a problem. She started getting mad at me because she was stressed that neither of us knew the language and she kept telling me to talk to people even though I knew nothing about their language...apparently because I speak Spanish means that I can understand French..not the case. Either way, we got to our hotel and had to wait about two hours to check into our hostel room so Avery and I got some food at the restaurant that is in our hostel and it was so good! Avery and I put our shit in the lockers under our bunk and went and passed out. We were sleeping for probably about 4 or so hours and then we got up and rustled around for a bit. Mel, Amy, and Brooke got to the hostel around 9pm and we were so excited to see them because we had not seen them for like 5 days and we missed them! They went to Copenhagen for the weekend and we went to Scotland so over dinner we exchanged stories and told each other what our journies were like. We kind of had an early night because we were tired from struggling to the hostel. :)


Day 2:
We got up around 9:30am and went down to the bar to get some free breakfast and head out for the day. Our first stop of the day was the Arc de Triomphe. 

The Arc was so massive! I imagined it being huge, but I was not aware at how large it really was. We took a bunch of pictures of the Arc and then made our way down Champs Elisees and saw a bunch of really neat stores...a lot of really expensive stores. We were on the hunt for the Eiffel Tower for about an hour before we got our first glimpse of it! We all jumped when we first saw it because we were so excited! It was cloudy around the top of the tower and that was kind of a downer, but we were still in PARIS!! I think that is when the whole being in Paris thing really set in for me. We walked towards the Eiffel Tower to get some pictures under it and every time we got a different view of the Tower we stopped and took like a billion shitty pictures of the Tower. When we finally got to the base of the Tower Brooke and Amy made signs that said "Happy Birthday Mommy" because their mothers have birthdays within three or four days of each other and Amy's mom's birhday was the next day. I took some super cute picture of those two with their little mom signs. I also took some pictures of Avery holding a sign saying "Bonjour Mom and Neil" or something along those lines. The the girls decided it would be an amazing idea to have me talk pictures of them jumping in front of the Eiffel Tower, so I did so because I love taking pictures. :D Then I had the idea that they could all whip their hair up on the count of three and their hair would be standing straight up in front of the Tower. That was hilarious and they looked like such tards! *I did not look like a tard because I did not partake in the flipping, I was merely the photographer.* 

We decided that there needed to be a hair flip in front of every monument we came across. :P After the Eiffel Tower we moseyed our way to Notre Dame and while we were on the subway to Notre Dame we saw a homeless man sleeping and a man walking next to us with a cane go to hit the homeless man's open bottle of juice. The asshole man hit the homeless man's bottle but didn't knock it over like he wanted to so he went back and knocked over the poor homeless man's drink. I was so pissed with the asshole douche fucker. I really wanted to go back and wake the bum up and give him some more juice or money to get a juice. But I didn't go back because I was already out of the gate. From the subway exit at Notre Dame we went and walked around a bit before actually going to Notre Dame and we went to the Pompi Dou Museum and it was so fucked up. I hated every minute I was in that museum because there was a feminist exhibit and it was so fucked. There were naked bodies everywhere and there were videos of naked women doing really odd things like holding a chicken upside down until it passes out and then chopping off it's head and then holding it with the blood going everywhere. It seriously freaked me the fuck out and I was done with that museum after that. Good thing we got in for free because I would have been 18 forms of pissed if I paid for that. So, we left the museum and moseyed our way to Notre Dame! When we got to Notre Dame they did some more hair flips and then we went in for a quick stroll around NOTRE FUCKING DAME! 

We took some pictures while in there and looked at the stained glass windows and stuff. Brooke, Mel and I had a little discussion about religion which was nice because they kind of had similar views to me which was nice because I am always around Avery and she is very Christian and it is nice to express my views without getting into an argument about religion. After wandering in and around Notre Dame we went in search for a restaurant for dinner, and we walked down this adorable street and decided to eat in a really neat looking place. We ordered our food and then there was a cat walking around our feet!! I was so happy to finally pet a cat because I miss mine so much! The kitty's name was Penelope and she was such a love bug. I went over to the table that she was sitting at and pet her for a good 15 minutes. :) It made me happy. After our dinner we went back to the hostel and crashed. :) It was a really good day to say the least! We saw a majority of the important Paris things!


Random Pictures:

12 of 12 in SCOTLAND

This month's 12 of 12 is kind of cool because I was in SCOTLAND!! :D 

1. This is the little coffee shop where J.K. Rowling started writing Harry Potter. Apparently she would come to this coffee shop and just write and write and write and she would buy one cup of coffee because she didn't have the money to buy anything else or to tip. She also went to this coffee shop because she could drink as much coffee as she wanted and it was free refills. :) The girls and I thought that it was kind of neat but I also think that J.K. Rowling is a filthy rich billionaire and is a bitch...but that is just me. :P

2. This is the most photographed statue in Scotland. It is a picture of Grey Friar's Bobby and it is a little dog that was with it's owner's side for like two years and when his owner died he would be at his owners grave everyday and this little dog lived to be 14 years old. After his owner died the town council was going to put him down but there was this one rich lady who paid to get him registered and then he belonged to the city council for the rest of his little doggy life. :) The when he finally did die, they wanted to bury him next to his owner, but they couldn't bury him in the cemetery so they buried him right outside of the cemetery gates. So, I thought that was kind of cute! :D

3. After our little dinner in Edinburgh we went on a ghost tour type thing. It was kind of neat but much too dramatic and over the top. After the little walking tour around Edinburgh we went to "one of the most haunted places in Great Britain" I didn't notice anything strange or creepy at all. Avery on the other hand was so creeped out and so scared that she screamed a couple of times. :P I thought it was funny!! :P

4. I obviously had to get some lens flare in there. :P This was from another little stop we made on our journey to Oban. Before getting here Avery and I were literally sleeping on each other for a good hour or so. People on the bus probably thought that we were weird but whatever...we were comfortable and they were just jealous! :P Inverary was a town on a sea loch. It was the first time that there were blue skies and sun shining. The sun and blue skies made for some amazing pictures. :)

5. We had an impromptu photoshoot on the pier before being late going back to the bus. :P

6. This is Avery, Gavin, and I outside of a castle (I don't remember which one) and he was the coolest tour guide ever! He was funny and had an amazing Scottish accent! :D He also knew everything about everything in Scotland. It was awesome!

7. We stopped at a church along the side of a loch that was absoultely beautiful! The church had this guy chilling our inside. :P He was in a gated off area, but there was no sign that said that we could not go in so being Katie Benton, I opened up the gate and went in to get a closer look of him. :P

8. This is a picture from the same church, this was outside on a hill overlooking the church. I was running up the hill to get get a picture and I yelled back to Avery "I don't know why they put this lowercase "t" here, but it must be significant!" She did not find it as funny as I, but whatevs. :P 

9. This is the second hostel that we stayed at...It was in Oban and it was not as cool as the one in Edinburgh, but it was still pretty awesome, especially because we had some really cool girls from the Arcadia program in our room as well. :P 

10. This is a view from Stirling Castle (Camelot) and there was a super neat looking cemetery and I really wanted to go look at it, but sadly it was far away and we could not go there...it made me sad. But, I did get an amazing view from the castle of the city below and of the neat cemetery. :) Off in the distance somewhere was a monument for William Wallace and I thought that it was kind of cool because I am part of the Wallace clan and yeah...

11. Before getting on our train back to London we had about an hour or so to walk around Edinburgh and we saw this guy playing the bagpipes on the street. When one is playing the bagpipes they are not attractive in the least. :P It is not a sexy instrument to play.

12. Pretty Edinburgh! <3

I *heart* Sex and Che Guevara

The other day Avery and I went to the Student Union for a poster sale because we needed to make our rooms look less like hospital rooms and more like our own rooms. :) We looked through a good 200 posters to find the ones that we liked best. There was a deal where we could get three posters for £5, so we kind of needed to do it! :D


Avery got six posters (Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Abbey Road Cover, Audrey Hepburn, Rosie the riveter, and "Keep Calm and Carry On") and I got three. :)

I had to get this one for the novelty of it. Really poster sale? An "I <3 SEX" poster? It was too funny not to get!! Plus, it really ties the room together! :P

I really liked the quote on this one, and I really liked that it actually had Che's name and not just his face. A lot of people know the face but they don't know the name or what he did. Bitches.

The one on the bottom was from the poster sale. I was trying to decide on my last one and I asked Ave what I should get and what poster screamed "KATIE" and she replied with this poster. :) It is a handgun, a grenade, a knife, and a machine gun. Totally Katie if you ask me!

I had the Justin Bieber one far before....mainly because I packed it in my suitcase!! :P

Yesterday we all went to one of our international friends' flats to predrink, even though my predrink consists of me drinking water. :P After the predrink we were going to go to the pub on campus called Medicine, so I wore some of the clothes that I ordered from Forever 21. I looked totally awesome! All the girls were telling me how awesome I looked and it made me feel good! :P They haven't seen me try to get kind of dressed up here yet, and I did last night and they were pleasantly surprised. I guess I clean up nicely!

Nostril Piercing!! :D

So, yesterday I went and got my nose pierced!! :D It was so spur of the moment, it was awesome. We were walking to the train station to get Brooke a rail card and we were going to pass a tattoo shop and I wanted to know the price of tattoos, so I walked in. I asked how much my desired tattoo would be and then I asked how much a nose piercing would be and they said £10 and that is like $16! How awesome is that?! And the price included the jewelry! I thought it was quite the deal. But, I was still a bit indecisive, so we kept on going to the train station so I had time to think about getting my nose pierced. On the way back from the train station I decided to do it!  Signing the paper, sitting and waiting for him to get shit organized, picking out the jewelry, getting it done, paying, and waiting for a minute or so took about 8 minutes, total! It was a pretty fast ordeal and it was awesome! :D 

Oh, and when I got home I dyed my hair brown!! It has not been a natural color for like two years, so it is really weird for me! :X I like it and everyone else seems to like it as well! :D Breaking the news to my family was fun though. :P I knew that they would not like the decision I made, but they aren't going to see me for five months, so they have time to get use to it...plus I already have five tattoos so a nose piercing is not the worst thing I have done to my body! :P Here is the conversation with my dad...

Daddy: "Hey baby Katie!"
Me: "I am glad you are happy with me now, because you are not going to be impressed with my life."
Daddy: "What did you do...?"
Me: "Guess."
Daddy: "What tattoo did you get?!"
Me: "None, yet."
Daddy: "What did you get pierced?!"
*Little brother in the background* "HER NIPPLES!" 

I fucking love my family!! Haha!