Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Spotlight

April 29th...my mom's birthday! She had to spend most of it on an airplane home from D.C., but I'm glad I got to see her that morning.

One of the things I missed most in London was my daily phone chat with my mom...if it's 5 minutes or over an hour, I always love talking to my mom on the phone. My mom is just so good-- good to send me jokes in the mail, good to dance with me at random times, good to take frequent road trips to Delta with me...I just love her!

Things I inherited from my mother:

• Dark hair
• Love for going on walks
• Popcorn cravings
• The ability to put up with my dad (hehe jk)

Things I did not inherit from my mother:

• Her almost complete intolerance for anything spicy
• Impressive early-to-bed habits
• The way she never needs an alarm clock no matter what

Happy 30th Birthday, Mom!

;)

April's Last Hurrah

After Ali showed us around Boston for a few days, my family took a little road trip down to D.C. Here's my cute family in Ali's cute car, taking a break in Connecticut.

My dad saw a sign for Stonington, CT, and remembered one of our ancestors settled the town. We found the monument with Thomas Minor's name put on it...I promise he's my ancestor, the spelling just changed over the years. Pretty cool!

Arlington Cemetery

Tomb of the Unkown Soldier

Georgetown! I loved walking around the campus.

The Capitol!

Look close, you can see Obama

Cute.

My favorite spot in the city

The National Air and Space museum is WAY too much fun

We stopped to see the temple on our way to take my parents to the airport. So beautiful!

Back to Boston!!

When in Rome...

No more school! Finals ended last week and we left for Italy the next morning. First stop, Venice!

Venice looks exactly like it's supposed to.

Gondola ride!

Our driver's name was Marco. Driver? Rower? Yeah.



We ran into the missionaries and they told us to get pizza here. Huge!

Hotel balcony

The sister! I had fun getting lost with her, Venice is one big maze.

Ali on the Spanish steps.

Yep, Italy has them too.

Making a wish at the Trevi Fountain -- I'd tell you but then it probably won't come true, I figure the birthday candle rule applies.

St. Peter's Basilica -- This statue of Paul has a completely smooth foot because of constant caresses.

Outside St. Peter's, where everyone comes to hear the Pope.

We got a little lost trying to find a church in Rome, but a cute old Italian man found us and led the way!

Gladiator fight in the Colosseum

This was my favorite site in Rome

And that's the end of the semester! Now I'm back in America and super excited to be with my family. We're playing in Boston for a couple days then heading to D.C. this weekend!

Leaving London Town

Last night in London! I'm surrounded by scattered bags and scattered girls. People are taking off one by one today and tomorrow. I have mixed feelings, but all of them are good. Here are the last of my London pictures, just a few random shots to show you the girls I'm going to miss!

The Louvre

Not a posed picture. They're trying their best :)

The soccer team shot of the group!

Sun + Exhaustion

Janna is teaching me how to be Asian since no one knows what race I am. Especially here, I get that question way too often.





Janna carries me when I'm injured :) Even when I'm laughing and trying not to let her.

Love those girls!

P.S. My SISTER is here! She's out on the town while I'm trying to pack...lame. But I love her! We're heading to Italy early in the morning for a few days, I'm excited to go get lost there.

The last castle...

Finishing up...

...one of my last London goals.

Best part of the experience: Either following a random lady across the road to make her our fourth Beatle without her knowing (the picture didn't quite turn out, we were laughing too hard in it), or hanging around and watching all the tourists try to get this shot while angry London drivers practically aim for them.

Thinking of you, dad!

J'aime Paris!

My last week in London has been pretty crazy! Crazy busy, but the good kind. I'm trying to make time for all the things I want to do before leaving, so I've had tosacrifice some other things in life...like sleeping and blogging. Now I'm finally getting around to at least one of them!

Paris was a blast, I don't really know how to even explain it...so I'm just going to overload you with pictures!

Boarding our early morning train ride through the chunnel! It's not very exciting. Just dark.

First we went through the Musee' D'Orsay. The paintings were beautiful! This was one of my favorites. If I had a little more blogging patience I might show you more :)

Chrysanthemes - Monet

The museum used to be a train station.

Our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! That's when we felt like Paris was Paris.

So we went to find it! I love finding tall things, it's nice to find something without getting lost.

Next was Sainte-Chapelle. It has over 1,000 stained glass images. It taught me that something literally can take your breath away.


Notre Dame! No Quasimoto. That movie scared me when I was little, I think I have bad feelings towards the place that I didn't discover until being there.

Up the hill to see Sacre-Coeur. There were dozens of painters trying to capture the view of the city.

We heard Moulin Rouge was close by, so we went to get a picture of it. Walking there was quite an experience, the neighborhood made the Strip seem like nothing. Pretty scandalous...but here it is!

We watched the sunset from the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Climbing the Eiffel Tower first thing in the morning! It's cheaper if you take the stairs to the middle of it, then everyone has to take a lift the rest of the way. The stairs are conveniently numbered because counting all 700 steps makes it easier. This is not true.

View from the top!

Cool shadow :)

The catacombs underneath Paris were creepy. Lots of bones. Soo many bones.


The sun!! Power nap in Luxembourg Gardens.

Most of us took a trip out to Versailles. Here's the Hall of Mirrors where the peace treaty of WWI was signed.

Rowing around the gardens of Versailles! This got a little contentious; we had some back-seat rowing and different theories about how to turn the boat. When we finally got going we realized the boat was technically going backwards. Sometimes you just can't be picky.

The Gardens of Versailles

My new favorite museum! Musee' de Rodin.


I didn't know Rodin was my favorite artist until this trip. Now I know. Here's The Thinker.


This was my favorite Rodin sculpture, The Waltz. If I'm ever wondering what I should do with all my money, I think I'll buy it. In 62 years.

We went to the Eiffel Tower every night to watch the light show.


I went to Pere Lachaise Cimetiere to find Chopin's grave. Looks like I have the same favorite as plenty of other people -- his grave was one of the most decorated.

The Louvre was huge. Here's Mona! Still smiling.

Winged Victory. Still broken.

Everything in the Louvre was amazing, but I'm not gonna lie...pretty overwhelming.

Every night in Paris ended with a crepe and the light show at the Eiffel Tower. Every hour it kind of...sparkles? for 5 minutes. It's beautiful.

Au revoir Paris !