Hey! So... I'm bad at this.

Crazy church in Toulouse. Didn't have time to figure out what it was exactly.

Greetings!!!

I realize that I've been putting this off for quite awhile, so I'd like to apologize. Looking back on my decision to start a blog, I suddenly remembered that I've never been able to keep a consistent diary in my whole life. I feel that blogging is essentially an online, public diary, so it makes sense why I haven't been successful in keeping this up to date. Procrastination is an incredible thing, eh??

Well, moving on, a lot's been happening. After my last blog post, I continued on in Saint Antonin for a couple of weeks. During that time, friends of Christine's came to visit. They're from Taos: a mother and daughter named Lyn and Prisma. Prisma also went to preschool with me and Shane. I hadn't seen her for about 13 years, so it was fun and interesting to be able to catch up.

With five people in the house, things got a little crazy, but it was nice to have other people from New Mexico to talk with.

During the time they were there, we made a couple little trips to Toulouse, which is the largest city in the Midi-Pyrenées region. Because there are so many universities in the city, the average population is very young. The atmosphere is exhilarating. Protests and marches go on all the time, and the markets are packed and vibrant, containing hundreds of booths selling wares from around the region and around the world. Here are a couple of pictures from my visit to Toulouse:

A delicious ham, egg, and cheese crêpe (my first in France)

Street musicians at a market in Toulouse

One of my favorite things about the city was the delicious food. Besides wonderful crêpes and exotic teas, we had delicious pastries, and the night before Lyn and Prisma left, we went to an awesome tapas bar called La Tantina de Burgos. It was crowded and loud, but I went nuts over all the seafood tapas, and after eleven, the music went up, the lights went down, and people started dancing on the bar and tables. It was pretty wild.

                       

Me on the brink of devouring a squid (deranged look intended)

The next day, before taking the ladies to the airport, we enjoyed a meal at restaurant l'Entrecôte, which serves steak-frites exclusively. The walls were plaid (BRIGHT red, yellow, and green) with dark wood, and the food was fucking excellent!

Christine and I returned to Saint Antonin, where I enjoyed a few more days of quiet and relaxation. 

View from Christine's balcony

One day I took one of her dogs, Leo, on a hike up the side of the cliffs (lining the river valley) to the Roc d'Anglars, which is essentially a lovely, panoramic viewpoint from which you can see the entire valley and surrounding lush, rolling farm hills. Quite lovely. I didn't take my camera because I sort of hate taking pictures of beautiful things rather than just enjoying them in the moment. I can assure you, the forest was magical, what with all of the green stuff dripping off of EVERYTHING. It was great to be able to get away completely by myself in the beautiful nature of southern France.

Last Thursday, I left from Toulouse on a flight to London, where my friend Phoebe is in school. She offered to let me stay with her in her flat for about a week. It's been really great to be with a friend from back home, and although London isn't my favorite place I've ever been, I'm appreciating the experience very much. Not only am I having tons of fun with Phoebe, but it's great to experience such a bustling city with such a wide variety of different cultures.

Roaming about on the streets of London! Phoebe's not good at looking at the camera, but she shares my insanely stoked sentiment.... I promise.

I've done quite a bit of shopping (followed by a certain amount of guilt. London's fucking expensive!), and Phoebe and I have been having fun just catching up and walking around the city. On Saturday we went to Camden Market, which is a huge street market with tons of people and random goods. It was overwhelming, but extremely fun.  Here are a couple pictures. I was way too overwhelmed to take out my camera once we got inside.

Camden Lock. The edges of the market.

Sign professing the world famous market....

Besides slacking on updating my blog, I've been TERRIBLE about taking pictures. Almost all of my memories are going to be in my head. I feel better about leaving Europe without pictures than stopping every three minutes to take pictures of the things I'm seeing.

In an effort to save money, I've been laying pretty low the last couple days and just chilling at Phoebe's flat, cooking and watching funny movies. On Wednesday I'm going to meet up with my aunt, Susan, and my cousin, Ava, who are traveling here for a couple weeks. I'm excited to see them. I'm still enjoying being in Europe immensely. Sorry I haven't been better about blogging. I'm not going to promise any great improvements.... I will try, though.

Ha! Cheers for now,

Grace