It's too late to apologize...

Yeah, I know these pictures are from November. My bad.

But enough people have asked me to put my pictures up that I'm going to keep going. So... back 2 months ago, my mom came and visited me and we went to Paris for a few days via the chunnel. We didn't even notice going under the English Channel... it was only after a while that I was looking out the window of the train and I noticed the cars were on the right side of the road that I asked "... are we... in France?" So apparently the chunnel is not a glass tunnel with brightly colored fish and sharks all over the place. (I didn't actually think that, for the record, but WHY CAN'T IT BE THAT WAY).

Turns out the Eiffel Tower is huge. It always looked so small in postcards...
Despite my mom's fear of heights, we made it up to the second observation level (after an hour and a half wait in line), and the view of Paris at night was definitely worth it. Unfortunately, me and my tripod-less self aren't very good at taking night photos, so I'll spare you the blurry and confusing pictures I took from the observation deck.

Of course the most important thing about Paris is food. The first night after wandering around the city and all the small shops and alleys (without my sweater... oops. Also turns out it gets colder at night? Who knew.) my mom and I stopped in a restaurant called Mondrian and had some delicious cheese and pasta and wine. A good night indeed. However, apparently I was rather out of character for this trip and didn't take many pictures of my food. I did get one pictures of a cheese plate, but that was only after we'd eaten most of the cheese. Oops? I did also get a picture of a delicious falafel:

But rather in character, I did take a picture of our morning coffee at the Parisian cafe down the street. (I know I didn't really need to say "Parisian," but #pretentious).

 We were too cool for pouring the espresso into the water to make an Americano #wearecultured

One day we went to Versailles, and, well, I took a ton of pictures. I don't have much to say about Versailles, but as my mom says, you can see why the French people were angry at how much money the monarchy was spending just looking at the building without even going inside:

And then you go inside...

(On the right side is the Hall of Mirrors where, at the table bottom right, the various Treaties of Versailles have been signed)

 Looking up at a chandelier - the ornery behind it gives you a jist for how most of the inside was decorated...

 

And if you're REALLY lucky, you'll find ME! What d'ya know. 

Also, the cafe at Versailles had the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my life. Now, I'm not claiming to be any expert on these things, I never went to some fancy school to study chocolate tasting - but I was in the real world, doing it. (Re: this). Anyway, it was amazing.

We also did some of the typical touristy things: walked around the Louvre, went to the Musee d'Orsay, ate plenty, had wine, went to the Pompidou:

Which I thought was really cool (my mom thought less cool since we started with the contemporary exhibit), but definitely tested our museum fatigue. 

We also of course went to Notre Dame, but my camera died before we went inside. Oops.

Yay Pariz. 

Meanwhile, back in London... Thanksgiving approaches. Over Thanksgiving weekend some of the Budapest kids were in town, including Sam Whitehead who imposed himself on me rudely and stayed in my small room. What a douche. 

And so this will be the one picture I post of him. 

Thanksgiving dinner was a success! Joseph and I cooked a delicious chicken and vegetables, eventually finished cooking sweet potatoes (which turn out take longer to cook than 15 minutes in the microwave. Bummer), Frances made a tasty vegetarian dish (with quinoa?), I made a salad, and overall things were very merry.

And of course pie. 

And on that note, happy new year's, folks.