In photos: Jackie with kindergartners in the community; a little girl enjoying sugar cane; an old fisherman on the coast; a neighbor cooking a tuna in his kitchen; some children in front of our neighbor's shack;

We got in on Saturday and after a flight delay, a nine-hour flight, an hour and a half bus ride, we were exhausted.

We had a group meeting telling us a little about Oxford and its history. We are living in University, which they call Univ. I got sooo lucky with my housing arrangement! All the rooms have a sitting area and a desk, and a bedroom. Mine, however, is like a little cottage. It is in Helen's court, which is where Bill Clinton lived when he went to school at Univ.

We have our own little courtyard that my three friends and I share with the faculty, who are never there. It's got a beautiful bench to read on and ivy growing on the sides of the buildings. I have a roommate, but we only share a bathroom. You walk into the door and the bathroom is in front of you (It's rather clean and nice for its age), then on the left is her room and on the right mine. We have two separate keys to get into our rooms. We each have our own sitting area with a couch, desk, dresser, chair, refrigerator, and a pot for tea.

Then we have a loft upstairs with the bed, cabinets, a sink, closet, and bedside table. The bed is really firm but I am always so exhausted, that I just fall right to sleep.

On Sunday I went to church at St. Aldates,a block from Univ, with some other SMU students. They were extremely welcoming and friendly. It was a lot like the churches in America. It was contemporary, so it had a band (the guitar player was wearing an American Eagle shirt). Some of the songs were the same and the children's church got up and sang and did hand motions to a few of them. Church lasted like two hours, rather than the one hour it usually is at home.

After that we took a walking tour of Oxford. It is so amazing how beautiful it is and how much history is in one place. There were all kinds of fun facts- like they would put this stuff that looked like barbed wire at the top of the girls' school's walls so that boys could not get in.

I also got to see the Natural History Museum and the house where Halley's Comet was found by Halley himself. I saw the Sigh bridge and the pub The Eagle and Child, where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis hung out. Later that night we had a formal dinner and Lord Butler, the master of the school who is retiring, stopped by.

I am an extremely picky eater but the food has been all right. It is just seasoned differently. There is wine served with dinner, which is an odd change coming from America and SMU, where that would not happen at a school function. The worst part about the food is that they do not drink much water or anything over here, so I have been thirsty the entire time. They give you these tiny little cups to drink out of and it is just not enough. The only other bad thing about being over here is that it gets light at like 4:30 a.m. and dark at like 9:45 p.m.

We had our first day of classes on Monday, which was interesting. Our SMU classes are what you would expect. The Oxford tutorial is a completely different method of learning. They do not have grades normally, and they write a paper a week for their class. Then they have a tutorial, which is like 1 or 2 people from their larger class, and they have to read their papers and discuss it with the tutor. It makes students be very self-sufficient because they will tell you what books to look at for the topic but you have to decide what is relevant out of them, no chapters are provided.

In the larger group we get to ask our tutor any question we want and dicuss it. My tutor is Leslie Mitchell, a history professor here. He is the typical English man. He was telling us the differences between Americans and the English. It is just a whole different perspective, and he is so funny. His sense of humor is very English, he uses dry sarcasm, cynical comments, and understatements.

I had to read my paper in my tutorial on Wednesday, and it was intimidating but he was very nice about it. I learned so much about 18th-century government in one hour. He used my paper as a launching point for discussion with my other group members.

We also had our first high table on Tuesday. High Table is a formal dinner where some of the students get invited to eat at the head table with the professors and the speaker. There is a lecture beforehand. The High table food is very good, while the lower tables is still good. We have another one on Thursday. I was not prepared to need so many dresses - I have already worn two of my four!

Last night after High Table we went to Turf's Tavern. It was extremely crowded but the atmosphere was so fun! The people were extremely nice; it was just hard to find a table. It is definitely a good place to go to meet natives who are our age. It still amazes me how casual drinking is over here, I guess because it is such an issue in the U.S.

Today we went to Blenheim Palace, which belongs to the Duke of Marlborough. It was where Sir Winston Churchill was born. It was the most amazing historical house I have ever seen! It was on 250,000 acres of land, and the Duke still lives there today at age 81. It has several gardens, and the landscaping was all dug by hand and created when the house was built. Everything was just so grand! There was an organ in the library that had over 10,000 books. Overall, it was like stepping back in time.

In the beginning, I was very nervous about returning back to the same church where I worked last summer. I stressed out about whether the kids would remember me, whether the connections I made last summer would still be there, and whether I would be able to "get back into the swing of things."

I am happy to say that things are going so well I feel like I never left. Returning back for a second summer has brought many challenges that I definitely did not expect. When I first worked here last summer, the first half of the summer was spent just learning the job and getting to know students. This summer I have been given a lot more responsibility right off the bat, which is both awesome and intimidating.

I have already planned a recognition service for our graduating seniors, coordinated transportation to the camp we are going to, and planned and led a 6th-grade mission trip. I just returned Friday from this trip, which was the first I was directly responsible for. I think that it is impossible to understand the immense amount of responsibility that planning and leading a trip like this entails until you are the one actually in charge of it.

The students, along with some adult volunteers and myself, worked at a food bank for a day and then went tubing the second day. Confession: tubing in the murky waters of North Florida scares the dickens out of me. Add this to the responsibility of keeping track of 13 6th-graders while floating down aforementioned river, and a very interesting experience is surely created.

At one point, I thought we had lost one of our Adult volunteers along with three of our students. It turns out that one of them got hung up on a log protruding from the river. Without any cell phone communication, and having no other way of knowing, I spent a very tense half an hour waiting for them to reach the bottom of the river.

Overall, I think that the students had a great time, and many of them shared with me their excitement for the trip. At the end of the day, putting all of the stress aside and knowing that I'm making a difference in students' lives makes it all worth it.

Zimbabwe's crisis
Last week, I attended a meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which was billed as a discussion about the roles of South Africa and Nigeria as sub-Saharan regional strongmen. However, it quickly morphed into a harsh criticism of South African President Thabo Mbeki's inaction in stanching the Zimbabwean political crisis.

The chief speaker, a scholar from Nigeria, tweaked the West for expecting too much from Mbeki, whose "quiet diplomacy" approach - he believed - would be vindicated in time. This, understandably, caused some controversy in the room, particularly given the flood of op-eds in the Times and Post placing a great deal of responsibility for Zimbabwe's turmoil upon Mbeki's shoulders.

I see merits in both sides of the argument - if Mbeki were to decry Zimbabwe he'd be painted by Mugabe as a pawn of the West, but at the same time the country is steeped in such visible and egregious corruption that not doing anything appears to be a crime in itself.

Read this book
I've also recently finished reading What Is the What, the novelized autobiography of a Sudanese refugee named Valentino Achak Deng, written by Dave Eggers. It's been a long time since I've read an "important" book - the kind that can make you change the way you think, or the kind you want to buy hundreds of copies of and distribute on the streets just so people will read it - but this, truly, is it.

I'd bought it almost a year ago but hadn't read past the first few pages; only after researching Sudan for my Wilson Center work did I realize how much I needed to finish it. People often conflate the Darfur genocide with the larger political crisis in Sudan, but they are not the same; this book in particular deals with the Second Sudanese Civil War, in which the Arab/Muslim North was pitted against the Christian/animist South, devastating the country. The 2003 Comprehensive Peace Agreement nominally ended the fighting, but there are uneasy indications of another civil war, particularly if the government in Khartoum does not implement all of the agreed-upon provisions of the treaty.

These facts - the names of the rival political parties, the death tolls, the underlying causes of the dispute - are faceless and abstract, which is why What is the What is such a devastating book. It follows Valentino Deng as he flees Sudan with thousands of other young children known as the Lost Boys of Sudan. Reading about their desperate searches for food, their struggles against disease, the idylls of their childhood days destroyed by war, made me wish I could drop everything on this continent and fly to that one.

This is the contradiction of being in DC - there's a think tank on every corner, hosting conferences and conducting research in an attempt to analyze the world's problems, but I can't help but think that there's a difference between sipping Pellegrino at a self-conscious policy discussion and doing trench work in a Sudanese refugee camp. Obviously being able to understand the situation - as opposed to just blindly going in - is vital, which is why I'm glad to have a very research-intensive internship this summer; I just hope to be able to go to the front lines one of these days.

A talk with Justice Breyer
Speaking of policy discussions, I went to Brookings last week to hear Justice Breyer give a talk on the importance of international law in American governance - he and Justice Kennedy have been particularly criticized for their citations of foreign constitutions and precedents in their decisions. We'd analyzed Breyer's opinions and voting patterns in Professor Kobylka's Civil Liberties class last semester, so it was fairly surreal to see him in person, and in a suit to boot (for some reason I pictured him giving his lecture in judge robes, which in retrospect I realize would have been ridiculous).

Justice Breyer is certainly one of my favorites jurisprudentially - although some of his drier opinions were torturous to wade through before exams - and his speech was witty and surprisingly not too esoteric. Needless to say, I learned a lot this week, although one thing is for certain - I have a lot more to go.

When we arrived at the MICA campus, we were greeted by a group of students. They gave each one of us a bouquet of flowers and a red mark on our foreheads. While it's the first time anyone has ever given me flowers, it was a very unique and special way of welcoming our group into the MICA community.

But what I want to know is, why do we focus exclusively on chronic homelessness? A person is defined as chronically homeless if they have been homeless for a long time (a year or more) and suffer from something that prevents them from becoming un-homeless (mental illness, chemical dependency, disability, etc.).

But get this - when MDHA did its point-in-time homeless count in 2008, only 611 of 5,869 were chronically homeless. The percentage was similar last year. I am sure there is some reasoning, but I am going to ask Mike Faenza about it because I find it a little puzzling (my last week's meeting was rescheduled to this week). Maybe ending all homelessness is just too big of a task?

Considering my quasi-Parisienne status, I am embarrassed to say that I found out about this park through my Paris guide book. Yes, even as a researcher I took my handy-dandy guide book with me this trip. Looking through the pages of what the guide book had deamed "the lesser-known treasures located off the beaten path", I came across pictures of this beautiful park with a 100ft waterfall hidden inside a secluded grotto, a clifftop folly with breathtaking views, and a 200ft long suspension bridge allowing for passage over the park's massive lake. It looked too good to pass up!

The park is located in the 19th arrondisement, in the North East corner of Paris. It is an area that I am not at all familiar with, but I had no apprehensions exploring the park. Parks tend to be fairly safe during the daytime due to their popularity with tourists and locals alike. Parc des Buttes-Chaumont was not different. It was probably one of the most populated parks I have seen in Paris; however, it is also one of the larger parks in the city. I must admit, after exploring this park for several hours and discovering so many delights, it has replaced the Luxembourg Gardens as my favorite public space in the city. No competition. I am so glad that during this trip to Paris I had the luxury of experiencing some of the city's "best kept secrets".

My adventure began when I stepped off the metro at the stop Buttes Chaumont. From there, the park entrance is just a few steps away. I entered the park and decided to randomly pick from one of the many forked paths, hoping to eventually find the waterfall, suspension bridge, or folly. One of the most distiguishing characteristics of this particular park are its steep hills (hence the name butte, which means hill in French), the tops of which provide great views and on the sides of which people lay out to tan, read, or just relax.

After climbing up and down several of the hills, I found a secluded plateau with a shady pavilion in the center. Under this pavilion, a boxing instructor was teaching two young women about my age to box. I sat on a nearby bench and watched them practicing for about 15 minutes. That is one of the great things about sports, they carry a universal understanding. Although I didn't understand all of his instructions in French, combined with demonstrations and body language, I was able to follow most of the instructor's commands.

Next, I decided to continue my search for the folly. After making several unguided twists and turns, I somehow arrived at the top of a HUGE hill and could see the cliff where the folly sets off in the distance. I headed in that direction, crossing a bridge over the lake and came upon the base of the cliff. From there, it was a short climb to the folly, which is a replica of the Temple of Sibylle near Rome (so my guidebook says; see photo). In the center of the folly, you can see spectacular views of the city, which include the Sacre-Coeur and most of Montmartre.

Leaving the cliff and heading into the valley, I discovered the grotto and waterfall tucked away in a corner of the quiet cliffside (see photo). Entering the dark and damp grotto from the intense daylight only made the place more magical. The sound of the waterfall seemed unreal in the middle of this international city, but when in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont, you don't feel like you're in a city. I hopped across the stepping stones to the other side of the cavern and headed back into the brightness of the day.

I felt like I had experienced more adventure in this Parisian park than I had in a long time. Who knew that Paris could offer the kind of outdoor adventure that includes hidden grottos, Roman ruins, 100ft waterfalls, and the seclusion of a hilltop?

Chocolat
Later that evening Lety and I met up at the apartment and headed to the 1st to take in the beautiful views of the Louvre, Jardin Tuileries, Place de la Concorde, and the Champs-Elysee at night. But first, dinner in the 6th. I had heard of a nearby cafe called Le Nemrod, which was reported to have the best Croques in Paris. Being the conoisseur of Croque Madames that I am, I wanted to see for myself. So, off we went. The Croque Madame was excellent, but I wouldn't say the best in Paris. However, the real find of the night was the dessert Fondant au Chocolat (a thick chocolate cake with a warm molten center) with a scoop of Berthillon vanilla ice cream. Heavenly! So much so that we would return the next night just for the dessert!

Parc Monsouris and the Cite Universitaire
By now you may be thinking that I am a little bit of a park addict. Well, Wednesday was my first official day off, and I headed to the 14th to visit the Parc Monsouris. It was relatively early, and I decided to walk around Buttes aux Cailles for a bit first in the hopes of finding a creperie that might serve me. No such luck, the French are fairly adamant about not serving until midi (noon). Crepeless, I headed to the park.

One of the reasons that I wanted to visit this particular park was because I had lived near it all last summer during my time in Paris, yet I had never had the chance to go. Having seen it now, I regret that I wasn't able to take advantage of it last summer. It is situated in the university district, and you definitely get the feel of being in a college town. Although many of the people are families, students will cut through the park on their way to the university.

I hadn't realized previously how close the univeristy was to the park, but it is right across the street. I saw what looked like American condos. I thought to myself, "This cannot be, there isn't enough room in Paris for those kind of accomadations." So, I decided to explore, and sure enough I found myself on the campus of the Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris (International University of Paris; see photo).

What is so interesting about this university as a foreigner is that it is an international school. Therefore, students come here from all over the world. There were signs directing visitors to the individual buildings dedicated to all of the countries represented at the university (Sweden, Mexico, Italy, Switzerland, the United States, etc.). One thing that I love about university campuses is their universal feel. I felt like I could have been on any university campus in the United States. I felt like I truly belonged. There is a bond between young intellectuals that crosses all cultural boundaries, and it was truly a gift to experience this after all of my trials in Paris.

La Madeleine and the Musee d'Orangerie
After my morning in the park, I met Lety at La Madeleine that afternoon. If I am a park junkie, Lety is definitely the same way with cathedrals. However, we both really wanted to see this particular cathedral - one of the most famous in Paris. My favorite thing about La Madeleine was the beautiful mosaic in the apse. It was very difficult to get any quality pictures without a flash, but just being able to experience it in person was memory enough.

Next, we headed to the nearby Musee d'Orangerie at the base of the Tuileries Gardens. The main floor of this museum is dedicated to Monet's colossial waterlily paintings. The rooms are circular, and skylights provide enough natural light to illuminate the paintings without threatening their condition. Since these are some of the most famous paintings in the world, like so many other things in Paris, it was surreal seeing them in person. There are benches in the center of the rooms, and we set there for awhile just taking in the majesty of these iconic symbols of the impressionist movement.

Afterwards, I really wanted to go to a Chinese art emporium that I had heard about in the 8th arrondisement. The architecture of the emporium is modeled after a Chinese pagoda, and definitely stands out among all of the distinctly 18th-century French apartments that surround it. The inside was spectacular. They were currently having an exposition of modern Chinese screen paintings on display. The delicate art work complemented by the spectacular architecture of the space provided a truly memorable scene.

Montmartre
Thursday morning we woke up early and decided to take a day trip to Montmartre. Lety had never been before, and there were several things that I wanted to see and hadn't had a chance to last time I was there.

We started out at the Montmartre Cemetery. This place is enormous! We walked around for awhile just enjoying all of the beautiful details contained within many of the tombs and standing in awe in front of some of the more extravagant additions to the cemetery's landscape. Two resting places that I really wanted to see were those of Alexandre Dumas (author of the Count of Monte Cristo) and Edgar Degas (an impressionist painter famous for his depictions of ballerinas).

After finding our quests, we headed towards the Sacre-Coeur (sacred heart). I had climbed up to it before, but had never been inside. As we entered this sacred cathedral, I saw the most beautiful guilded mosaic of my life. It pictured Jesus enthroned in the center of the image; flanking him were people of all races and ethnicities. The craftsmanship was exquisitely executed, and the message was just as beautiful. The space is gigantic, as one would imagine from pictures and the fact that you are able to see the cathedral from almost any elevated point in the city. Completely worth the hike up about a thousand steps!

Next we went to the Place du Tertre, which has a daily artists' market, and grabbed gelato at one of my favorite places. We strolled among the many vendors, appreciating the uniqueness of each. Then we began the long trek down the hill with our gelato, breifly coming upon Au Lapin Agile (one of the first cabarets in Paris). Afterwards it was back to the apartment to nurse our aching feet after the day of intense hiking up and down the hills of Montmartre.

Jardin des Plantes and the Mosquee de Paris
My last official day in Paris I decided to visit one of the few gardens in the city I had not yet had the time to experience: The Jardin des Plantes. This gardens is full of things to do including a menagerie (I got to see a group of wallabys), botanical gardens, a natural history museum, a green house, etc. I strolled the botanical gardens and then decided to head somewhere that intrigued me more than all of the other nearby sites: the Mosquee de Paris.

After taking an Islamic art class with Dr. Carr last year, I became more intrigued with Near Eastern culture and religion. I knew that the mosque was open to the public, and I really wanted to tour it if possible. I had never been inside a mosque before and thought "what better place to start than Paris?" I had forgotten a key fact, it was Friday. Friday prayer. I walked around the large complex surrounding the mosque looking for a main entrance into the inner courtyard. Finally, I came upon the said entrance and what I saw was magical.

The doors had been propped open, and I could fully see the interior of the courtyard. It was magnificent with pure aqua blue fountains, lush greenery, colorful blossoms, and clean architechture. Something right out of one of my books. I read the sign that said no tours on Fridays but decided to try anyway. It never hurts to ask right? This was probably extremely rude and taboo of me being a Western woman to enter the complex during Friday prayer. However, in my defense, I still had forgotten about Friday prayer, and my adventurous spirit had taken over.

At first the men standing around (all in western dress) did not acknowledge my presence. Awkward. They were not speaking French; I can only assume they were speaking Arabic. However, I finally approached the one who looked like a guard on duty and asked politely in French if the mosque was indeed closed to tourists on Fridays. He chuckled and shook his head in a manner that I took to mean I was right in my assumption. Having lost all my courage, I nodded and fled the scene as two men entered in full garb. I felt mortified and confused? Oh well, maybe next time on a day that isn't Friday.

France and China
One more thing that I had to do before I left Paris was see the temporary exhibition of the terracotta army (Les Soldats de l'Eternite) at the Pinacotheque. These just over life-size figures are famous throughout the world after their discovery in the 1970s. It is estimated that there are over 7,000 figures that make up the army's totality. The Pinacotheque had maybe ten of the actual figures and many other pieces important in the Chinese funerary tradition. It was spectacular to see these objects up close, and something that would only have been possible in Paris.

The connection between France and China lives on today, although it is evolving on almost a daily basis. Exoticism and orientalism are still strong forces in France today, however, so are the fields of sinology and ethnography.

Departure
After four weeks in Paris and a vast array of experiences, trials, and adventures, my trip came to a close. Saturday morning I headed to the airport for the 10-hour flight back to the States. However, the adventure doesn't end here. I still have many long hours of research and writing ahead of me to prepare a paper for the Richter board and possible publication.

Paris was the first step on the path of a long journey as an art historian. It was a whirlwind full of ups and downs, and hopefully after the jetlag wears off, I will be able to reflect back on all of my time and examine the personal and professional lessons of the entire experience. Until then, thank you so much for coming on this journey with me ...

Monday was our last full day of class. We turned in a paper in our morning class and spent the afternoon at the Cluny Museum. The Cluny Museum has a lot of beautiful art. It is connected to ancient Roman baths, which can be viewed from the side of the building. Jennifer and I headed across the river to see a church across the river, but the line was very long. We ended up reading at a cafe for a couple of hours.

For dinner five of us headed up the 4 metro to the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a lot of fun to see a HRC in another country, and the cheeseburgers were absolutely delicious! They had some cool memorabilia from The Who, Madonna and many other performing artists. I spent the rest of the night working on my take-home final for Dr. Freidel.

Tuesday we went to the Musee d'Orsay. Dr. Isabelle Roynier, the director of SMU-in-Paris at Reid Hall, gave us a tour of the building. We spent a lot more time learning about the history of the building and studying the facade than looking at the art work, though we did get time to browse at the end. The Orsay has an impressive collection of impressionists, as well as many other types of work. If you ever go to Paris - you have to go to the Orsay!

We were given the rest of the afternoon to begin studying for Thursday's final, as well as finish the take-home that was due Wednesday. Some of us wandered over to Rue St. Honore to check out some of the beautiful stores like Chanel and Hermes. It was definitely a day of window shopping and no purchases!

Our last group dinner was Tuesday night at a really cool old Brasserie. The steak and fries were delicious, and the chocolate pudding was to die for! Andrew made a good toast, thanking the teachers and directors for all of their hard work. It was a little bittersweet to think the trip was coming to an end.

Wednesday we spent the morning with Dr. Wellman at the Carnavalet Museum. The Carnavalet Museum has different rooms for each century of French history. It was a great way to sum up the entire month of study, and it was really helpful to see how each of the kings came together. It definitely helped make more sense to help prepare us for Thursday's final. I spent pretty much the rest of the day studying for Dr. Wellman's final. I am not a history buff, and it took a lot of work to organize the kings and remember who did what. We quizzed each other and made the studying fun.

Thursday morning we had our final in Dr. Wellman's class. It was a relief to finish! We got back our final in Dr. Freidel's class too. It's nice to have a journal to bring home to show my family of all that I did everyday. After the final we grabbed some lunch and headed to the Champs-Elysees to the Lauduree store. Lauduree is famous for their macaroons, so I picked some up to bring home. They were delicious!

We took the metro over to Trocadero where there is a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower. We went to the Eiffel Tower on Thursday night for one last delicious crepe and to see the lights flash. We left fairly early because we had to wake up at 5 a.m. for Normandy Friday morning.

Friday was a long day. Our train left for Caen at 6:45 from St. Lazare. Thankfully it was a 2-hour train ride so we were able to sleep a bit more. It was colder than we expected when we got there. The tour we signed up for (through the Caen Memorial Museum Site picked us up at the train station and took us to the museum. We had half an hour to wake up and shop at the bookstore. I picked up some fun stuff for my family as well as some really interesting books.

We were given a guided tour through the museum and then had a few extra minutes to explore by ourselves. We were given lunch at the museum (steak and french fries!) and then had an hour to explore either the Cold War exhibit or the special September 11 exhibit. We were blown away at how well done the September 11 exhibit was, though it was very emotional for all of us.

Vanessa, our guide, picked us up at 2 to guide us through the beaches. We went to Gold Beach (The British beach), The American Cemetery, Omaha Beach (The American Beach), and Point De Hoc (the cliff the rangers climbed). Our guide was very knowledgeable and helped explain every little thing we saw. We were dropped off at the train station at 7:15 and got back to Paris around 10. I was so glad I found time to go to Normandy, not only because it was beautiful but because of how much American history we share with the French there.

Katie, Jennifer, Britt and I met Drew at Indian Cafe for dinner when we got back to the 14th arr. around 10:30. We got margaritas, nachos, and enchiladas. It was delicious! We had a lot of fun talking about our favorite parts of the trip and what we were going to remember. It was a good way to close out the trip.

As I left for the airport Saturday morning, Britt and Jennifer headed to Disneyland Paris. I hope they had fun; I haven't gotten a chance to talk to them yet!

I got home Saturday night after some delays due to weather in Chicago. It's bittersweet to be home. It's weird to think that only 2 days ago I was in Paris and now I am home, prepping to start my internship. I am glad to be home but I definitely miss Paris and the entire experience that went along with being there.

The great Ernest Hemingway said, "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."

Paris has stayed with me and will continue to stay with me for the rest of my life, "for Paris is a moveable feast."

Thank you for letting me share my journey with you.

I have finally settled into London and am having a blast already! Since I got here on Tuesday, we have been going, going, going, and it's been so fun. We're staying at Regents' College situated inside Regents' Park in the Marylebone area.

After getting settled on Tuesday, we spent all of Wednesday walking all around London, seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalger Square, Covent Garden, among other places, and getting used to taking the Tube. We went to lunch at a pub called Chandor on St. Martin's Lane, and had something called a Toastie, which was really just a simple grilled sandwich but was so good, and we already have plans to go back there soon.

We were introduced to a place that sells half-priced theater tickets on the day of the show, and we got cheap tickets to go see the musical Avenue Q. Four of us went to see it, and we were laughing the whole time - it was definitely politically incorrect but absolutely hilarious. I highly recommend it to anyone who is not easily offended but would love a good laugh.

On Thursday we went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but we couldn't see very much because we didn't show up early and there were loads of people there. We did see some of the guard changing and marching everytime we got on our tip-toes. At one point we realized that the Royal Marching Band was playing pop music like "Thriller," "All the Lonely People," and the theme from Indiana Jones. We thought that was pretty funny.

In the afternoon, I met the people I'll be working with at Mencap, and I can't wait to start on Monday. It seems like it's going to be an amazing place to work and a wonderful experience. I'll have more to blog about my work when I start.

Thursday night we met up with some other girls from SMU, who are interning at Ketchum in London, at a bar called Belushi's in Covent Garden and ended up at a Brazillian dance club that was so fun.

Friday, we took the train to Kent to visit Leeds Castle, which was a fun ride because we got to see the beautiful countryside outside of London. We toured all through the castle and learned all about the history. They had a gorgeous flower garden there with lots of flowers I've never seen before. We also went through the Aviary and took lots of pictures with the toucans and macaws. We finished the tour with their maze, and with a little help from one of the guides we finally made it through. At the end they have this beautiful grotto underground that you walk through to get out of the maze. It was a really great day trip.

So far I love London and can't wait to start work on Monday. I'll have more about my adventures in London soon.

Cheers!!

We walked all of the winding roads to the city walls on all the sides. We went through all of the different Contrada, where everyone was festive and cheering for their team and having parties in the streets!

We saw them do the flag throwing and someone from the Snail Contrada almost impaled Mindy and me with the flag! It was so cool!

The culture is all about the horse races on Wednesday! Each neighborhood ran through the streets with their horse singing their songs, and everyone was wearing shirts and scarves and flags supporting their Contrada!

In the morning, they did the horse selection where they draw straws to see which Contrada gets which horse for the races. We weren't able to get into the packed Campo, so we watched through peoples' butts, haha!

Then they did 6 trial races and two of the jockeys were dismounted! The horses can win even without a jockey.

The town was buzzing all day long with the excitement of the festival and it was such a blast to be a part of it!! Now we are headed back home to Vigna ... I wonder how everyone else's weekend was.

In the year 210B.C, around 7,500 clay figures were buried for the purpose of protecting the Qin emperor, the first declared emperor of China. In fact the very name of "China" is derived form that of the Qin. He was also the first emperor to try to unite China through a series of battles. He believed that this terracotta army of warriors would protect him after he died. Emperor Qin eventually died at the young age of 50 but spent most of his life preparing for a majestic burial and "second life." Meanwhile he ordered his workers to discover an elixir of life, and so he spent a great amount of resources in an unsuccessful attempt to discover it.

When he died, thousands of officials and craftsmen were buried alive with him in order to keep this tomb a secret. The construction of this massive tomb created precedent for the emperors to follow. Two thousand years later, some farmers were digging a well and ended up making the biggest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. One of the farmers was actually at the museum signing autographs, so it was kind of neat to see him in person.

Afterward we went straight to lunch and then did some shopping. I am getting better at bargaining, but I am not nearly as good as Daniel. He doesn't only cut the stated price in half but starts off at 10 percent of that price. The crazy thing is half the time it actually works. I am glad we have some good bargainers on this trip because it keeps me from getting taken. I give in too quickly, but I am learning to just walk away and that always seems to work. After that bargaining episode we went to a Buddhist Temple and walked around. It was an incredibly hot day today, ranging in the temperature of 110 degrees.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped to climb the Xi'an wall, which surrounds the city. Built to protect the city from foreign invaders, it is a total of nine miles round. Rachael and I wanted to run it but probably would have had a heat stroke if we tried. While the others decided to walk around on the wall, Benjie and I thought it would be cool to rent a two-seater bike. We had 30 minutes so we had to bolt, but we made it on time. Now we can say that we were able to see the whole city in 30 minutes!

We got back just on time and then found out they were not going to give us our deposit because they said we "broke" the bike. We were finally able to convince them that rust doesn't just appear in 30 minutes so the "damage" was not from us. The language barrier just made it that much more difficult but after about 15 minutes of that little dispute they finally let us go. Note to self: no more renting antique bikes from sketchy vendors.

That night we went to a legendary dumpling restaurant right off the main square. We tried a grand total of 15 different types of dumplings that night! After our dumpling feast we decided to explore some of downtown before heading back to the hotel. Right outside the restaurant there were these adorable little puppies for sale. We all took turns holding them. We then walked around, did some go-cart racing on the sidewalk, shopped for a little while, and then split ways with some of the group. While a few stayed longer, Chris, Ricky, Rachael, and I all had fun riding a little motorized tuck-tucks back to our hotel.

Tomorrow morning we fly to Nanjing to see the museum then drive 4 and a half hrs to Shanghai, where we will be for the next five days. Hopefully we will have Internet access, which has been very difficult for us to get ahold of lately.

Then we all went to the Archaeological Museum where Dr. Warden walked us through the whole museum and talked about all of the pieces on display and their significance, as well as what some of them mean to our studies at Poggia Colla. We even got to see some closed exhibits (which of course is where all the good stuff is)!!

After touring and the museum, the students split off and went to lunch. Kyle knew of the most amazing restaurant and we ate family style until we couldn't fit anything more in our stomachs! It was fabulous!!!!! We had rigatone made in a wood fire, pasta with chingale ragu, and green gnocchi with a tomato cream sauce!! (in photo: Kyle, Joanna, Me, and Mike at lunch)

Then, Leigh, Mindy, Matt, Alex F, Joanna, Cameron, Jayme, Lisa, Cathy, and I jumped on the bus and headed for Siena!! When we got there, we could already see that it was amazing! The whole city is medieval and all of the streets are teeny and winding around the Campo (left) in the center. Il Palio is on Sunday but the festivities started today, so the whole place is abuzz with excitement and locals supporting their Contrada (neighborhood)!

We wandered the city and went to the Duomo (right), which has amazingly beautiful marbles. I could have walked this city forever!!

Overall, I am really happy with the team I work with; they won an award for being the most efficient team and meeting their deadlines last month. To commend their work, the company bought us a cake, and we took our last hour of work off on Tuesday to celebrate. I made a toast to the team, sarcastically explaining, "I'm sure you guys already know that you wouldn't have won without me, but there is no need to thank me ... you're all welcome." Despite being hard workers, everyone has a sense of humor and we are always joking with each other. I could not have asked for better teammates to work with.

This weekend I will pay a visit to the salt mines and go hiking/camping in the mountains about an hour away. They are both a must-see in Poland, so I'm looking forward to tonight when I make my departure from the city.