We (students in my program) took a group trip to the French Senate/Luxembourg Palace on friday. The French Parliament is made up of two chambers, the National Assembly (like our House of Reps) and the Senate.. The building was quite beautiful and I want to share some of the pictures from the trip with you all. 

Above is a picture I took while standing in the courtyard of the Palace.

Once inside we were told that the black and white checkered floor was Luxembourg Palace and once on the red carpet you were in the Senate. I have to admit that before arriving, I never knew that the Senate was located at the same place as Luxembourg Palace.

Earlier this week, after getting out of class, my roommate Tempest and I decided to explore a little more. We ended up having a great time!

First we found a Korean BBQ place. Here we had bibimbap (pictured in the bowl) and then I had the chicken and Tempest had the beef. It was pretty cool, grilling up our own food.

We then headed over to the Champ de Mars Parks, which is on the other side of the Eiffel Tower. This park is pretty cool and beautiful, we want to have a picnic here before leaving Paris. 

While walking through the Champs de Mar, Tempest spotted Mauricio and Ken. They are two husbands from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

The ladies (pictured below) and I decided to all meet up in Barcelona for a weekend and it was AMAZING! Barcelona was exactly what I expected it to be, if not more beautiful and even better food!

from left to right...Morin (studying in London for the summer, me, Dami (also in Paris taking class for the summer, and Nikki (taking class in Italy for the summer).

Our hotel room was pretty cute and modern. That was the main thing we actually realized about Barcelona, everything there seemed to be so modern.

We went to the beach and it was gorgeous. The water was super chilly though. 

I also had some the BEST food while in Barcelona. Every single thing I ate from Thursday night to Sunday morning was awesome!

This was my meal at Carpe Diem Lounge, it was lamb and couscous.

This paella with chicken was everything!!!! So delicious!

I went on one the day trips with my program and it was pretty cool. We traveled to Reims and saw the Basilique St. Remi. I have to say the Cathedral was gorgeous.

This was the outside of the first Cathedral we visited. It reminded me of an old medieval castle. If you look at the left tower, it's clearly been restored.

The stained glass windows inside where everywhere and amazingly beautiful.

This organ was HUGE!!! I'm sure it sounds beautiful during service :-)

We also went to another Cathedral, the Palais Du Tau. This is where coronations and such take place..

I went to the Eiffel Tower at night with the roomies and it was BEAUTIFUL!! The tower lit up was amazing but when it started twinkling was when I got extremely hype. I was like a kid at Christmas, crossing one of many things off my bucket list at that moment.

The pictures have some weird lighting going on from the lights on the tower but I still love them!

Look who I found at the tower!!! Jenny from the block, she was visiting from London :-)

This is the courthouse in Paris. Isn't the architecture beautiful? The architects of the building were Joseph-Louis Duc and Honore Daument. The outside sculptural work was by Jean-Marie Bonnassieux. 

I honestly do not remember what statute is which (my bad), however, I do remember that these statutes were of Judges/Lawyers that were highly influential to the Parisian justice system.

When I got off the plane in Paris at 10:30am Sunday, I was overwhelmed with feelings. I was beyond excited to be here, yet I was nervous! Mainly because I was traveling alone and speak NO french! I got lost finding my shuttle to my apartment but it was ok because while in the shuttle I had a mini tour of the city.

While riding in the shuttle we went under, around, and past the Eiffel Tower and I had the biggest smile on my face the entire time!

Once I arrived my new roomies (Tempest and Tiffany) helped me take my luggage up three flights of stairs (pictured below).

I know in other posts I showed you all the CN Tower, which stands for Canadian National Tower, but I finally went up into the tower. It was awesome!

The tower is located in downtown Toronto and stands 553.33 meters or 1,815.4 feet.

Here is video of me outside on the skywalk of the CN Tower showing you some of the view.

I remember when I younger always enjoyed the science museums and planetariums. Well when Kim and I went to the science museum we got to have a flashback to childhood days :-).

This exhibit helped me to brush up on where organs and such are in our body.

While we were waiting on line to go inside the planetarium, I realized the floor was glittery and thought it was really cool!

I mean what kid never wanted to be an astronaut, if even for a day? I think growing up or even now people still think space travel is pretty darn cool.

I'm personally a sightseeing type of person but I know it isn't for everyone. While in Toronto, I'm sure I experienced everything a real tourist should! 

We went to Casa Loma, which means "hill house" in spanish. This home is like a huge castle, it was all types of gorgeous! It was built and owned by Sir Henry Pellatt. He no longer could afford the building and the city bought the house and it is now a museum/landmark in Toronto.

We had to go to through this long underground tunnel to get to some of the places in the home. It was long, cold, and damp. Absolutely reminded me of something out of a scary movie!

That tunnel scared me! LOL