paris holds the key to your heart:)

Salut! from Paris:)

It was an early start at 5am, and nobody experienced that more so than Ariel and Morgan. As Ariel attempted to wake Morgan from her slumber, she was extremely concerned that Morgan's ridiculously sound sleeping was in fact unconsciousness. She literally had to physically awaken the beast after minutes of panic and fear for Morgan's life; Morgan arose with a murmur, until she realized she had less than 15mins to finish packing and eat breakfast downstairs. That certainly forced her to wake up; quite the episode to begin the morning.

The chunnel itself was also an experience as we struggled to make it to the platform in the morning rushhour. Chelsea, Emily and Ariel were all thrilled to discover that they were standing in the train station where Harry Potter was filmed. Although we did not hop on the Hogwarts Express, Ariel continued to struggle finding her way with 5 bags and every member of the team's drinks and snacks for the trip. She barely made it onto the train, as she dangled from the step, to put her suitcase inside. Because it could not fit in the compartment up front, she managed to drag it to the back of the train where she hit multiple Asian individuals. Even Morgan had to lift her 50lb zebra bag over her head in the above compartment and launch it in order to secure it. Talk about a morning work out. Luckily, we all were able to sleep for the majority of the ride.

Immediately arriving to Paris, we started out with a bus tour of the city. The traffic and heat combined to make a somewhat boring ride, but nothing took away from the natural beauty of the monuments and statues that we were fortunate enough to see along the way including but not limited to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, L'arc de triumph, Notre Dame cathedral, and many more. Although our tour guide was nice, we still miss our dear Margot, who definitely spoiled us with her spunk. Interestingly, France has a great population of drivers, who are willing to drive over curbs and hit pedestrians on the street, especially riders on speeding mopeds.

Eventually we were able to arrive at our hotel where we were greeted by VIBRANT color schemes inside our rooms, and beautiful views. Moreover, we had a rooftop terrace that allowed us to overlook the ENTIRE city. We got plenty of pictures, to say the least. Our poor Emily felt a bit under the weather, so we scampered off to the neighboring grocery store to aid her illness with saltine crackers, peanut butter, and good ol sprite. Talk about your fixer-upper! After our saltine cracker party with Em, we decided to venture out in the local streets. We were able to eat dinner, shop at touristy shops, and have crepes all along our street with ease. Now listen up bloggers: if you ever need a bargain shopper, Loretta is the way to go! Lets just say she knew how to wheel and deal inside the locally owned shops.

As it began to darken, we ventured onto the metro in order to view the base of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. We loved the accordian and guitar-playing musicians on the metro, who advised us to "don't worry and be happy". How original. At the base of the tower we were amazed by the size and stature of the edifice, and its specific architectural designs. The lights alone, however, illuminated the entire city and swept us all away. Soon even, sparkling lights lit up the tower and added to our amazement. Lots of vendors attempted to sell us keychains and glowing plastic eiffel towers, and they do not like to take no for an answer. One find we did enjoy, however, was a group souvenir of hand-crafted paintings of places in Europe, like the Notre Dame or Eiffel Tower. These were gorgeous and well done, and we just could not resist!

Perhaps delusional from sleep deprivation, the gang headed back to the hotel on the metro. Chelsea thought that the beeping sounds on the tube sounded like beats from a Lady Gaga song, and she opted to demonstrate for the entire group in a sing-song.

For now, we are going to partake in sleep for the duration of our evening, awaiting our introductions to our host families in Luxembourg tomorrow:)

Bon nuit:)