Across the Pond

Well, here I sit in a computer lab in the Ecole Centrale of Lille, France. I can't look down at my fingers typing due to the arrangement of French keyboards. For whatever reason, AZERTY lies across the upper lefthand corner rather than the American QWERTY. Luckily, the settings can be changed to English, which is only helpful as long as you can type without looking down, otherwise, good luck!

My experiences in Europe have been wonderful so far. I started off the trip in London where I met up with some friends from camp and we became horribly touristy for 5 days. We saw all the main sites of the city, my favorite being St. Paul's cathedral. The architecture and paintings inside the main dome were nothing short of absolutely breathtaking. We climbed 442 very narrow, winding steps to the top of the dome where we got an amazing view of the city. Needless to say, climbing down 442 very narrow, winding steps isn't necessarily any easier than going up. That night, we went to the Globe Theater to see "Othello" which was also very cool. The entire trip in London was wonderful.

St. Paul's Cathredal

Navigating the super narrow stairs

Inside the Globe Theater

Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery

Buckingham Palace

Me and some friends from camp in Leceister Square

The next part of the trip involved taking the Eurostar through the chunnel to Lille last Thursday, the 24th. I fell asleep on the train and woke up in the lovey French countryside, very excited. There were about 15 people from my study abroad group on the train, so when we got to Lille, we were able to figure out the metro system together. I'm sure we looked pretty goofy, 15 Americans with huge suitcases trying to cram on the subway with no A/C (it was easily 80-85 degrees that day). We finally made it, found our dorms, and settled in. That night, we met many of the French students who were very willing to speak English and help us out with anything. I'll have more about Lille another day.

Some of us decided to go to Belgium for the weekend. We went to Brugge on Saturday and Brussels on Sunday. Both cities were extremely touristy, which ended up being a blessing because there was always someone nearby who spoke english. Both cities also have a very medievel feel to them, with many castles and cathredals. Of course, we had to get a Belgian waffle while we were there, which is probably some of the best food I've had over here so far. I've decided that I'm a big fan of train travel and can't wait to continue this weekend to Paris.

Brugge, Belgium

Central Square in Brugge

St. Michael's Cathedral in Brussels

Inside St. Michael's

Hope y'all enjoy the pictures and I'll try my best to keep this updated!