starting with London & Oxford ending with Barcelona (warning: its a long update..)

Eurostar to London
The weekend of Nov 20-23rd I took my first EuroTrip to London. I took the Eurostar, the train that goes straight to London across the Chunnel!! It was approx 2h30min. Rountrip price was only 60 euros! Of course, I had the earliest trains at 6am both ways, but either way it was worth it! So I'm of to an english speaking country..... woooo!
London and Barbican Jill.
Jill met me at St. Pancras and I was directly on my way to my first London sight the minute I got off the train: Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross! It took us a while to find it since the train station is under construction (for the Olympics 2012 & stuff) but when we found it, I was bit dissapointed. Don't worry I still love you Harry!! Jill and I then saw New Moon (it was my second time watching it since it came out two days earlier in France) and since our day had started so early we had so much time on our hands. We then met up Kristin and they both took me on a "Historic London" tour. Including Buckingham Palace (pictured above), St. James Park, Picadilly Circus, Oxford Circus (the shopping equivalent of Champs-Elysee?), The London Eye, Big Ben & Parliament, the Tube experience, fish n chips, and so much more.
During the grand tour of London, I realized that I knew almost nothing about this city, not even what the big tourist sights were or anything. I'm happy that I was able to have two great great city guides with me. However, I feel like my visit of London wasn't that long (so I have promised my friend Silvia that I will return- and spend all the pounds that I have left over-- like a bag full!).
Oxford and Eric
After spending all of Friday in London, Jill-Kristin-and I were all off to Oxford (about 1.5 hours from London) to visit my friend Mr. Eric Rucker studying at Oxford this fall. Yes, like Oxford as in the oldest university in the English speaking world (according to wiki). We visited the Museum of the History of Science & the Oxford University Museum of Natural History & of course Christ Church! For those of you Harry Potter lovers, the Christ Church dining hall, is indeed the Great Hall in HP. Wowzaa! The museums had Darwin expositions because it was the anniversary of his findings/research so that was interesting. I sometimes forget about what I learned in high school. Wow, I did learn something! In the end, I have to say that Oxford was a bit toooo tiny for me, but I loved the history that is attached to that town. The entire weekend I was unable to speak english correctly, or any language as a matter of fact.
One week back in Paris, and its Thanksgiving!
So the Thanksgiving spirit was completely absent in Paris. Except for my fellow american friends that are also living here.. no one wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. I think ONE person from back home sent me a message (my brother- who is probs the last person I would expect it from). Anyway, I was invited by my friend Margaret Schultz from Hamilton College to their program's Thanksgiving dinner. It marked my 4th official Thanksgiving dinner. Yes because my first was with Alicia Zhang who delivered her own cooked meal to my house junior year of high school- second, when I decided to do it myself at home, but with boxed stuffing and mash- and third, last year with my ex Michael and his family (which is more accurately the first). Voila. It was amazing, and I loved being with all the students like me, studying in Paris from the States. Margaret has invited me to Brooklyn for Thanksgiving, and I am so not going to forget, so that's what I'm doing next year!!
Barcelona and the Mediterranean
While my fellow Americans were getting their sleep in preparation for Black Friday, I was on my way to Barcelona. I had been waiting all week for this trip, because of course I was very excited to finally speak Spanish freely and incorrectly (my Spanish has gotten rusty with the whole Americanisation and Frenchisation thing over the years). Anyway, I have completely fallen in love with the city. The first day, Margaret & I took the cable car ride across one of the ports, and it was incredible, it reminded me so much of Mexico (there is a cable car in Zacatecas, MX that rides across the city- one of the longest in the world). Saturday was above all my favorite day, we did so much (thanks to Mandy and her lovely planning).
Everything Gaudi
If you don't know about Salvador Dali, alright that's fine. If you don't know who Antionio Gaudi is, then you are not a fully cultured person (face it). Gaudi is the emblem of Barcelona where also the language is not Spanish, but Catalan. And don't you dare say Castellano. We visited the major works of Gaudi: La Pedrera (house-now apartments designed by him), La Sagrada Familia (catholic church), and Park Guell (awesome park with houses designed by him again). Simply incredible. La Sagrada Familia-pictured above- is probably my favorite of all, only because its been in construction for about 120 years and still has about 50 more to go. I promise myself I will be there on its inaguration day! We also ventured into La Boqueria, the huge market off Las Ramblas (party streeet). The girls and I bought grapes, champagne, cheese, bread, plastic knives (very important) and had a party. Lovely! I can't wait to do that again once it gets nicer in Paris.
Jaime!
Barcelona would not have been Barcelona without my friend Jaime Viteri. Ohhhhh how much I have missed him! Although we haven't hung out at Marquette a lot a lot a lot, I feel like we're tight and I could go to him for anything. Jaimeeee you're the best!! He invited my friends and I to a party (which actually overlooked the market we had been to earlier) and I felt like I was able to be a real college student there. (okay I am not talking about the drinking part) I mean, the part where you meet people from all over the place and they have really really cool aspirations and you just want to tell them how cool they are. Yup that's what it was like. Not to mention the group of francophones that were there who spoke spanish/french/english probably the first time I have ever encountered anyone with those abilitiessss. Sigh**** haha!

Well overall, I loved Barcelona (I am now a Barca fan!) and I will go back to London in Jan/Feb. My two eurotrips were a successss and I'm happy to tell you that I'm going to Italy for Christmas/Winter Break/New Years to visit my friends Maria & Luca! ahhhH! Wowwowowowowowowoww! Sorry for the long update, but atleast it had pics... right?

with hugs,
<3 Mayra.