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Wednesday March 13

Today we left very early to travel to Paris. The train station was set up just like an airport with going through customs and security which I did not expect so it took a lot longer than I thought. On the train I fell asleep for most of it so in my opinion it went by really fast! Once we got there, we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went to go see Notre Dame Cathedral. Here I had my first crepe ever at one of the stands by the church. A group of us then went to walk around the little back streets with all of the shops by our hotel. Later half of us had dinner at The Little Prince with Caroline. This dinner was very long but also very good. After this it was late so I went back to the hotel to get all of my stuff together and then fall asleep.

Tuesday March 12

We first went to Westminster Abbey which was my favorite place on the itinerary. I am glad that we had a tour guide here because otherwise I would have had no idea what anything was without the mini history lesson at each place we stopped. The church was also so big that I would have taken way too long to look at everything without a tour guide. After this we went to the Royal society, which was not my favorite place. I think this was because I was just tired and very hungry. We all went to the London Eye after this and I wish that it was not raining because it made the glass hard to see out of and there was 24 of us in the pod so it got a little foggy. Later half of us went to dinner at an Italian restaurant with Caroline which took a very long time but the food was very good. I was not going to the theater so I did not mind that it took so long but some people were very late to their show because of the dinners. Instead of the theater I walked around and did some shopping and then ended up at a gourmet donut shop to end the night.

Monday March 11

This was our free day in London and most of my day was spent traveling to and from Stonehenge. The journey went fast there and back and we also learned some history about Salisbury, the town Stonehenge is in. Seeing it was very cool besides the fact that it was beyond windy and I decided to not wear my coat that day…so right when we got there I had to buy a hoodie because I think I was actually going to die. After we got back, we went to Burroughs Market and walked around there and then went to Chinatown for dinner and this is where I got my second bubble waffle. Besides that we just walked around and did some shopping around London until dark.

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Sunday March 10th

The day started off with the hotel breakfast and it was very good. We then walked to the British museum and walked around there on our own for awhile. Then some of us left to go to Camden Market and the zoo. Camden Market is the first place that I saw THE bubble waffle. I fell in love. I got one with oreos, strawberries, and nutella. Then, we walked around Camden Market which was one of my favorite parts in London. After the market, some of us went to the zoo. I was excited for this because I am doing my paradigm shift on zoos and it is also on my bucket list to see a zoo in every state so it was cool to add on a zoo from a different country. For dinner we went to the Gordon Ramsey restaurant which was very good and we all got free dessert!

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Day 10 | Brenden Alkire

The earliest and saddest morning that most of us were dreading for most of the trip was finally upon us. We had to check out of the hotel early in order to get to the airport to board the flight home to Minnesota. After double and triple checking I had everything, I was prepared for the long venture back.

The flight to Minnesota was much more pleasing than the initial flight over the Atlantic. The timing was much better, and it seemed much easier to sleep since we weren’t interrupted at what seemed like every two minutes. I played some nice games of chess, read some more of The Andromeda Strain, watched a movie, and stressed over the upcoming O-Chem exam I was probably going to fail (UPDATE: I definitely failed).

Our flight was behind schedule, so we had to rush in order to make our next flight from the Minnesota airport. Luckily, we caught a ride from one of the employees who drives the indoor vehicles, so we were able to expedite ourselves to the correct terminal. After such a long flight, the flight to Columbus was over in no time, and just like that we were back in beautiful Ohio.

Even with all of the sights to see and the thrill of being in two different foreign countries, my favorite part of the entire trip was getting so much closer to all of my peers. It sounds cliche, but I found that being in a foreign country with only each other to rely on can draw you close, and in some cases skip the initial “get to know you” phase of a relationship. Because of that, I feel like I have known some people for much longer than three weeks at this point. I feel like I got so much closer to everyone else than I was before, and it was the people that really made the trip worth it. And for that, I thank you all.

The One Where I Lose My Metro Card (Day 8)

On the final day in Paris, I went shopping around the city; however, the only thing I really liked I knew would look better on my mother, so I bought it for her. I then went to the metro to meet a friend of mine who is studying abroad in Paris this semester. As soon as I got there, I realized that I couldn’t find my metro card, so I crossed my fingers as I walked up to the window to buy another, praying that the man spoke English. “Paralez vous anglais?”, and his immediate response was “Do you speak French?”. He then tried to convince me to buy what seemed like 3,000 different deals on metro passes (and when he asked my age I told him I’m 18 even though I am definitely 20). Finally we compromised on me buying a 2-day pass (since I left the next day), and I then proceeded to hand him a 10-pound bill with a large picture of the queen’s face on it, and the man looked at me like I was completely incompetent (which is not entirely false). I finally arrived to meet my friend (only 30 minutes late) and we had a lunch on the Seine. That night, I walked around the city and went into a local crepe shop for dinner. It was the perfect end to a great trip.

Day 9 | Brenden Alkire

A pretty large group of us ventured off to Versailles to kick off our last full day abroad. It was sad to know it was the last day we had together in Europe, but a part of me was ready to come home as well. I wouldn’t say that it because of anything specific, but on any trip I go on, no matter how long, I always tend to be ready to come home as the end approaches. Versailles was a huge area to explore, and the layout of the entire property was phenomenal, but the tour around left a lot to be desired. Most of the rooms seemed similar to one another, yet they all were still beautiful. My favorite was the chandelier room, just because of how overly elegant and over the top it seemed. Did they need that many chandeliers? Probably not. But is it awesome to have that many in a room, and does it really show how majestic you are? Absolutely.

Our next destination was one last stop at church, Sacré-Cœur. It was a gigantic, beautiful church on a hill, and the placement of it couldn’t have been better. This was my favorite view of Paris, even though it may not have been as high up as the Arc de Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower. I wasn’t as impressed at the inside as I was the outside, but that is testament to how amazing the outside truly was, because voyaging around the inside of the structure was a great time as well. Sacré-Cœur is definitely one of the most slept on areas of Paris as far as I can tell, and it gives some great photo-ops, such as my most favorite from the entire trip.

Next, we ventured around the nearby shopping district, which had some great little art shops, along with another experience with a street band. I didn’t buy anything, but I was tempted to a few different times. I thought it was interesting to see how many different small, local art shops there were in both London and Paris. The pieces were a bit too pricey for me, as well as not having enough room in my duffel bag to bring them back home, but on a future trip when I actually have money (yet again, hopefully!) and more room they will definitely be on my radar.

A large group of us decided to find somewhere nice to eat to spend the rest of our Euros, and that meal was one of the best I had my entire time in Paris. There was some problem arising from the fact that restaurants for some reason cannot split bills (which I still don’t get), but in the end it all sorted itself out. It was nice to have an evening to relax after such an exhausting, yet very fun-filled trip.

The One Where I Attempt to Speak French (Day 7)

On Friday morning, the group gathered to go up the Eiffel Tower; unfortunately, we were not able to go all the way up due to the high winds, but we were able to get a great view of the city. We then walked to do a self-guided tour of the Musée de l’Homme, which was a very modern museum (a contrast to most of what we had seen on our trip). I thought that the “tongue wall” was very interesting, and it highlighted some of the rare languages that are spoken around the world (there are about 7,000 total). Afterwards, we traveled to see the Pasteur Institute, and I attempted to order a coffee nearby, however they spoke no English and my attempt to speak French was quite pitiful. I particularly enjoyed the beginning of the tour at the Pasteur Institute, because the first room had some of the first autoclaves, and I had previously done an extensive research project on autoclaves. The final museum of the day was the Musée des Arts et Métiers. I thought that this tour was the best of the trip (which probably had something to do with our loquacious tour guide, although he had some serious beef with the internet).

Day 8 | Brenden Alkire

Day 8 started off with a class trip to the Eiffel Tower, which I know I was excited to see for the first time up close. Of course, a lot of my family members were telling me “Make sure to get a ton of pictures of the Eiffel Tower!”, so I had a lot of responsibility going into it. It was impressive up close, but overall I would say underwhelming. Going up the tower, though, was a different story. I thought the view from the second floor was gorgeous, and the wind created an atmosphere that seemed typical yet exciting. I wish we could have gone up farther, but it was apparently never within the plans of Mother Nature to allow us to do that.

After a nice little visit at the Musée de l’Homme, we had lunch at what I think was an American themed restaurant that was pretty good. They were able to split the bill too, which is something I will make sure never to take for granted again here in the states. We visited a few more huge cathedrals, and I was yet again amazed at the effort it had to take to create such beautiful architecture. I was also surprised at the sheer number of large cathedrals in the city, but after thinking about it I shouldn’t be that surprised.

We reconvened as a class in front of the Pasteur Institute for a guided tour that not many people get to experience. I thought it was cool going in, as this institute was mentioned in a book I am currently reading (The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton). The lady giving the presentation was incredibly nice, and it was evident that she was passionate, but in all honesty I couldn’t understand most of the things she was saying. I was able to make inferences based off of prior knowledge from class and the movie, but I feel as if it would have been much more enjoyable had we been given a better tour guide. Most of the class was obviously tired as well, so I felt slightly bad for the tour guide, as none of it was really her fault, but I was just hoping that she didn’t notice. It was still fascinating to see so many of the things we have been talking about this whole semester, and yet again just getting to witness the environment in which this extraordinary scientists was subject to work in will make for a great memory, along with future appreciation for my working conditions (hopefully!).

The next museum we visited was the Musée des Arts et Métiers, which I had a great amount of appreciation for. I am a huge technology guy, so seeing how technology has advanced over the centuries was really fun to me. I also think technology is the most important factor in advancing as a society, so hearing our guide’s opinions on the internet were a bit alarming. I’m not a fan of going back to “the bucket system”, but if that is what needs to be done then I guess it will be done. Our guide had a great sense of humor, but I wish we had more time for both a tour, and more importantly some time on our own to venture around and look more into each showcase they had, because I feel like there was a lot of history that we missed out on.

Overall, day 8 was one of the most informative, yet definitely was one of the most exhausting. It would have been more enjoyable had these guided tours been spread out a bit more, and I would have loved to have more time in the Musée des Arts et Métiers.

The One Where I Cry in the Metro (Day 6)

The second day in Paris, we went to Jardin des Plantes and did a self-guided tour through the Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie Comparée. I then walked over to the Galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie; this way my favorite museum that I saw on the trip. I really liked that they provided the chemical formulas for all of the minerals and had them grouped together by key elements. After leaving the Jardin de Plantes, I took the metro to go to the Arc de Triumph, and went to the top to see a better view of the city. I then walked through the city towards the Louvre and stopped for an amazing crepe on the way. The Louvre was phenomenal–my only regret was that I wish I had given myself more time to be there (2.5 hours was not nearly enough to see all of the exhibits). I then stopped back at the hotel before going to see the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur and eating at a nearby restaurant (where the piano player begged all of the customers for spare change). A group of us then decided to head to the Eiffel Tower; after getting off a stop that was a 34 minute walk from the Eiffel Tower, we realized we were lost. I suggested walking, however, after already walking 16 miles that day my suggestion seemed laughable. We then took 6 (yes, six) incorrect metro trains, and at approximately 11pm you could’ve found me crying on my knees by Line 10. One hour and forty-two minutes later, we finally made it to see the Eiffel Tower, where we met some very ~interesting~ street vendors who helped us laugh about our night. We luckily were able to stay at the Tower for a few minutes before having to head home so that we could catch the final metro.