Madison Michelle

Madison Michelle

December 8, 2014

London, England - Part two














Seriously, I could not get enough of London. I had a serious shopping problem here. I was doing so good, until we got to London.. I mean their Nike store was HUGE, how could I not? Dallin was also a big supporter of Nike, so we both just went and spent hours in there, deciding on what shoes he needed to get (obviously my vote was for the Kobe's, which he got) and what clothes I needed to get. It was a great time. I also fell in love with a store in London called Jack Wills. It was amazing.. but I do not have a shopping problem. I promise.

On the third day in London, I felt like I was getting the hang of the whole city and where everything was located. It was so nice to be able to stay in one city for more than two nights. We decided to spend the day at Portabello Road markets. This street was so fun to walk through and shop at all the little shops! We spent a good portion of our day at this market. Of course we had to stop and get some nourishment in order to get through all of the shops, so we decided to grab some waffles and gelato. It was so good. After the markets we went to Pret A Manger and then had our first Ben's Cookies for dessert. Those cookies are seriously unreal. At night I went and saw Wicked with a couple of friends from my group. I love that musical! The music and acting is amazing! 

Our next day in London we went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards. After that we went to church at the Hyde Park chapel. Church was great! After church we went and rented bikes and rode them through Hyde Park and the Kensington Gardens. It was so fun to be able to see the city from a bike, the park is so beautiful. At the end of our bike ride we went to Abbey Road and HAD to recreate the album cover from The Beatles. This was a lot more difficult then we thought it would be. The stupid cars kept on getting in our way. rude. After our fail of trying to attempt to recreate this picture we decided to go to Big Ben and The London Eye. We had a photoshoot at these two places, it was so fun! After the photos we went to dinner at Giraffe, which was incredible, and then went over to have FHE in Hyde Park.

Our final day in London was very calm and relaxing, we went shopping in the morning and then met up with some people from our group to have Wagamama's for lunch. After we got back to our hotel, we took a quick nap before the John Mayer concert at The O2 Arena. John Mayer is so good, but live he was seriously unreal. The aftermath of the concert was not so great though. For some reason on our way home I got so sick. I was up all night. It was awful. There is seriously nothing worse than not being home while you are sick. But seriously all in all, London was fabulous. Definitely one of my favorite places on our trip!  




















December 1, 2014

London, England - Part One

London was one of my favorite places. We were able to stay there for a longer period of time, so we were able to see a lot of the city! Even though it was one of my favorite places, it didn't start out so great. First off, we were supposed to leave Paris early in the morning to make it to the Chunnel that took us to London. Well.. everyone in our apartment slept WAY passed the time we were supposed to get up and meet everyone down in the lobby. Right when we woke up we had to book it out the door..luckily we all had packed the night before, but we were literally running through the streets of Paris to make it. Don't be alarmed though, we made it with just enough time to buy a pastry before we hopped on the Chunnel. Once we were all boarded on the Chunnel I do not remember one thing from that ride...I was knocked out. Traveling can really take a lot out of you. Thankfully, the rest of my time in London besides one other occurrence, which I talk about later, was pretty calm and relaxed. That is probably because I was able to follow Rachel, the London expert, everywhere because she already did a study abroad in London last year.

Right when we arrived to our hotel in London we all decided that we wanted to see a show that night. So all of us headed over to the West End musicals. I was able to see Mama Mia with Carly, Jennica, Lauren, and Mary. We didn't have the best seats, but it was still an amazing show! 
The next day we had a business visit at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, as well as the Arsenal Emirates Stadium. After the Globe Theatre we went to the Borough Market where we had some fresh squeezed juice and rum steak sandwiches. I loved the Borough Market, it was so good! Then a couple of us went to the London Bridge where we hung out for a little bit and we able to get some Galaxy chocolates that Rachel was raving about. Once we were done we had our business visit with Arsenal. Getting to the stadium was a little hectic.. We had to be on time to this especially because Rachel was the one who organized and planned it all, and we thought we had plenty of time to get to the stadium on time, but every train we went to in the Tube wouldn't be there for another 30 minutes. This was very unusual because they usually would come about every five to ten minutes, we guessed that there must have been something on the tracks. So we had to run through the Tube from line to line trying to find a route to get to the stadium on time. Seriously when I say that we were running through the Tube, I mean it. When we were running I heard one of the workers yell to us, "Running from your husband?" It was hilarious, but it honestly looked like we were running from something. We got to the stadium just a few minutes late, but we were still able to go on the tour! The stadium was unreal. It was so cool to be able to tour something that I am interested in and maybe want to do in the future.

After the tour we went to the store to buy some memorabilia and take some pictures outside. When we were finished up at the stadium and were about to start walking toward the Tube, something flew into my eye and I had to stop while Lyndi helped me out. The next thing I knew the group I was planning on exploring and eating with left me. We planned on going to GBK because Rachel had said it was really good, so that was the plan until they all left me. Thanks, Rachel. But I was able to spend the rest of the night with Dallin and Emylee! It was a lot of fun, we decided to see Big Ben and The London Eye. I loved hanging out and walking through the streets of London with them!

That was it for the first few days in London, there was plenty more that we did, which I will talk about later!






And here is some creeper pics Carly snapped from my phone when we were checking into the hotel.











November 23, 2014

Paris, France

We had a very successful trip to Paris! Everything we wanted to do we did. It was so fun! 
The first day in Paris we went the the Louvre. The Louvre is ginormous! There are so many different painting, sculptures and other pieces of art that you can see. You could easily spend a whole day, or longer in there. I am not the biggest art fanatic, so I actually was very overwhelmed by how many people were there. Luckily, I was with a group that their main focus was to see the Mona Lisa and that was about it. After the Louvre we went to the Love Lock Bridge. All of us were able to put our lock on the bridge and lock away our love...even though I still have no clue to whom that will be, it was still fun to do! After the Love Lock Bridge we traveled to the Arc de Triomphe. Even though there was some construction going on on one side of the arc, it was still beautiful! Then we quickly went and bought some macaroons and went to the Eiffel Tower! Obviously I could see it while we were exploring the rest of the city during that day, but this was the first time I got to see it up close! Funny side note: While we were going to the Eiffel Tower we wanted a cool video of us standing underground as the Metro drove by and have all of our hair fly around. This sounds lame, but Mikyla was going to make a video of the trip, so we thought this would be a perfect addition to the video. We were probably standing there for a good five or six minutes and right when we heard the train come we were ready, but it definitely failed. An old man decided to stand right in front of Mikyla's camera and block all of us, then he preceded to cut us off so he could get on the train. He was completely oblivious to this all, but we got a good laugh out of it. This story might have been a "you had to be there" kind of thing. But I promise you it was hilarious. Anyway back to the Eiffel Tower... I loved the Eiffel Tower, so obviously we had a photo shoot in front of it. This was not the one and only time we went to the Eiffel Tower, we went back pretty much every night so that we could see it "sparkle". After the Eiffel Tower we had a fireside with the Paris YSA Ward. Professor Hill was the one that put this whole thing on, it was really good! Once we were done at the fireside we headed to Notre Dame and the Sacre Coeur cathedral. Then at night we went and hung out by the Eiffel Tower to enjoy the sparkling lights.
The next day, we had a business meeting with Disneyland Paris to learn about the history of Euro Disney. After our business visit we were able to spend the day at Disneyland Paris. It was a different experience at Euro Disney then at the Disneyland in Anaheim that I am used to, but it was still fun! But it did rain while I was on the Autopia ride, and I was not prepared for it.. I did not have my rain jacket on me, it was with one of my friends in the car in front of me. So for about five minutes I had to enjoy the rain beating down on me during this ride. It was awesome. And I looked really good after it..

Our last day in Paris was so amazing! We were able to walk around and go shopping through the city. We were able to get crepes. Crepes are unreal. I was in love. After our pretty relaxed morning a group of us decided to jump on the train to go to Versailles. The only person from our group that did not come with us was Rachel Swendsen, I'll get to that story after Versailles. When we got to Versailles, Carly Davis and I wanted to reenact a statue, but we had to find the perfect statue. We of course needed someone to take our picture so Zoe came along with us. The only problem with us doing this was that we lost our group we were with, and we honestly had no clue where they were. This was a problem on our study abroad because once you lost someone for the day, you couldn't contact them by just texting them because none of us had a plan, so we could only communicate through wifi. But Carly, Zoe, and I decided to make the best of it and just have fun. I don't know why this came about but we decided to do jump on each other's backs and make a three person tower (don't worry we were able to capture this wonderful moment in pictures). Right as we started doing this we ran into the rest of our group, which we were totally pumped about. Once we were done at Versailles it was time to go back and meet up with Rachel. We had a specific place to meet up with her. Once we got to where we said we were going to meet, we were looking for her everywhere and could not find her! Finally after about five minutes, Rachel comes running up in a completely different outfit then when we left her. She basically went on a shopping trip by herself and got everything brand new. And by everything I mean all the way from her shoes, socks, pants, top, scarf, and even a new lipstick. She looked like she totally fit in. Her story behind it all was hilarious. One thing that we all learned from this study abroad is that Rachel is one of THE BEST story tellers ever. After meeting up with her we went back to the Eiffel Tower for one last time. Paris was amazing! One of my favorite places for sure.