Going to L.A. for 3 months

Hello,

In september 2012 me and my friend Alice went to L.A. with E.F. to learn english, or to improve our english. Alice came with the idea a few months before and we did some research, went to meetings and decided to do it. It ended up to be the best time of my life. You can guess I have a lot to talk about so I will do this in a few blogs. In today's one I will talk about E.F.

E.F. or education first is for people who wanna learn a language in the country where the language is originated at. For english we could choose out of the UK, Australia or USA. We choose USA and more specifically Los Angeles. Then we could choose where to stay, in an apartment or with a family. We chose for the apartment, so we could do what we wanted when we wanted. The plane and pick up they arranged for us and so we left a few months later.

The first day we went to school we met the whole group of new people. First they showed us the building and the classes, then they let us know in which level we would be and with which other new peoples we would go in to it. We had to do a test to see at which level we would start before leaving. After that we all got in a bus and went to Venice Beach, there we could walk around and visit. Then we went to Santa Monica Beach where we had lunch and also visited. So far so good for the first day.

The rest of the 3 months we had our classes, who were nice and fun. For a homework we had to go to UCLA and interview some people. The teachers were very nice and cool. We only had half days of classes, so that was nice to. We stayed at Redondo Beach and the beach was a 15min walk from the apartment. In the morning and evenings you could go and spot dolphins, and I love dolphins so I did that a lot. We met new people, who we still keep in touch with, from all over the world.

The school was working with EA tours and you could book some trips and events with them.
We went to see the Dodgers with them, that was so nice, I didn't know a lot about the game, but people are so nice they explained it a bit to me. We also went to see the Lakers, we sat so high I was scared to fall down, I'm afraid of heights btw :) We also did a club night with them, it got out of hand (in a good way), thats all I will say about it.

After school we visited almost everything in and around L.A.  We did the Warner Bross studio tour, the O.C., Hollywood, Santa Monica, farmers market, the grove,... Whatever you can think of to do, we did. We even went to visit famous houses, from movies and so.

I also got something at my eye when up there and went to the doctor. Just saying it's so different than at home. I had a very nice doctor, but medication is so expensive there, omg. I had a really nice friend who went to the doctors with me and bought me some frozen yoghurt after it, one of my favorite things there along with the cheese cake factory.

E.F. made sure everything went smoothly and very good. I would recommend it to people who wanna learn a new language and have some adventure. This was the best experience of my life, the saddest thing about it was to go back home. We learned to know a lot of people from different places and I'll always remember them.

Hope you enjoyed this bit of that trip, I will talk about the bigger trips we did while it in another blog. See you next time.

Love,
Sarah

All roads lead to Rome

Hello,

I went twice in one year to Rome, but cause I did the same things I'll only make one blog about it. The only difference was that the first time I went with my mom around march and the second time I went for my birthday with my parents, sister and Stéphanie. Both time we had good weather even in december. The first time we went for 4 days and the second time for 3 days, with the holidays coming. Both times we flew with Alitalia, it was a short and good flight. Second time we flew with a thunderstorm a little further, beautiful but not everyone would share that feeling with me.

The first day we went to visit the Colosseum, this is an amazing historical building. We spent almost the rest of the day there. After that we went shopping a little and then for diner, of course, it was pizza for me.

The second day we went to the Vatican and the Castle of angels. With my mom we visited everything, the museum and the sixteenth chapel.  With the rest we only visited the vatican itself. The castle of angels I visited with my dad and Stéphanie, my mom and sister didn't want to do it. Both historical buildings were beautiful and so big. I love the architecture in Rome. On the way back we past the Spanish stairs and the Di Trevi fountain. Both also so beautiful. This day was also my birthday and for diner we went to a restaurant where I went with my mom on our other trip. My sister and Stéphanie went secretly to the kitchen and asked for a surprise for my birthday. The surprise was that my pizza was shaped in a heart and the cheese on it was in 23 like my age. Super surprise girls!

Rome is an awesome city and I just loved al the Italian pizza. If you haven't been yet you should really visit. I hope you liked my trip to Rome.

Love,
Sarah

Harry Potter : studio tour

Hello,

This is by far the best Harry Potter experience I had, and I did it twice, once on any other day and one in the winter when there's snow in the studio. Both of the experiences were amazing.
The first time I did the trip in one day with my mom, sister, aunt and cousin. That was a lot in one day, the driving and then the excitement, I was so tired and feeling sick at the end of the day. The second time we did it in two days, with my dad, sister, aunt and cousin. This was beter, the first day we made the trip and went to the studios, we stayed at a hotel in a town a bit further and the day after went back home. This way was more relaxing.

The studios are just amazing! When you buy your tickets it's with a timeline, so you don't have to stay in line to long. Only the income is already amazing, with pictures of all the actors. The people who work there are also so nice and funny. After the line you go in a dark room, where someone say welcome and ask some questions to settle the mood. Already so excited by then. After that you go in a cinema room with a huge screen, there you see a montage of all the movies. The magic is getting started, all the memories. Then the screen goes up and you see the doors of the great hall, and then they open... Let's go in!

You enter the great hall and it's really great. You have the tables, the costumes, all just amazing.
Then you continue to the rest of the studios, you have everything. The rooms and the costumes to belong with, the houses,.. There's something of each movie. Because my sister was under the 18y/o she got a little book to get stamps in, so we searched for all the stamps. Yes, I have that book now :)
You also have a place to take pictures on a broom with a robe on, what I did :) And you can take a group picture in the car from Ron's dad. Yes we did both.

Then you get outside and there you could eat and drink, yes there's butterbeer. Yes, we got one and it's so good! You also have the house were Harry grew up, the house where his parents died, the bridge and the bus. The outside area is pretty big.

When you get back in you have all the masks and beasts they had in the movie, just amazing. Also all the mechanical needed things you could find there, very interesting. It's so cool that you can see how they made all of it, just great to see. At the end of all this you have the castle, literally the castle and it's huge. The room was so big, you could walk around the whole castle and see little lights in it and shadows, this was maybe even the best part of the whole thing.

If you're ever around London and a Harry Potter fan, big or small, this is a must see experience for all. I could only say, go and see for yourself. I had so much pictures of it I had to choose which to put on here. The next Harry Potter thing I wanna to is the theme park in Florida, one day I will. But in the mean while i think I will go back to the studios, very soon.

Love,
Sarah

German Comic Con

Hello,

Today I'm going to tell you about the time I went to Comic Con in Germany. It was in Dortmund and I went with my sister, my best friend and his girlfriend. We went for the whole weekend and for all of us it was the first time going to Comic Con. I was amazing!

There were a hall full of little shops, a retro game area, catering and the artists alley. The other hall was with a laser game, wrestling area, photoshoot area, game zone, back to the future photoshoot, tardis photoshoot,... And you also had the panel room, I was there the most of the time :)

The first day we went to see everything, first we went by the second hall, with the laser game. There was so much to see, and the costumes were amazing, the people there brought their A game.
The first hall with all the shops was so big, when we did half of it we ate something first before doing the rest. OMG when I saw the artists alley I flipped a little, I have to admit. So many of them; Jason Isaacs, James Marsters, Laurie Holden, Manu Bennett, Rory McCann, Nathalie Emmanuel, Sylvester McCoy, Thomas Jane, Michael Madsen, William Baldwin, Stephen Lang, Sam Jones, Melody Anderson, Lea Thompson, Michael Dudikoff, Chad Rook, Stanislav Ianevski, Keith Allen, Pisa Pao, Russell Hodgkinson, Addy Miller.
That day we saw The walking dead panel with Laurie Holden, so sad no one was there who's still on the show. We also saw The Hobbit panel with Sylvester McCoy, he was so funny, an amazing panel, maybe the best. We saw The Harry Potter panel with Jason Isaacs, I was so excited!! Oh yes I'm a big Harry Potter fan!

The second day I went early with my sister because we wanted to see the panel with William Baldwin. So that was the first thing we did. We saw the Z-nation panel with Keith Allen, Pisay Pao & Russell Hodgkinson, I don't really know this show, but after this panel I might start watching it. We ate some nachos as lunch, because there were so many panels that day. Then it was the Game of thrones panel, so excited for that one, with Rory McCan & Nathalie Emmanuel. Such a good panel, they were so funny to. After that we went for a real meal and saw some of the shops again. Then we went back to the panels and saw James Marsters. Yes we saw The hobbit panel again, today Manu Bennet was there to, Sylvester McCoy is really so funny. Loved that panel. After a long day we went back to the hotel and had an early night before driving back the day after.

I hope you liked this as much as I did, my first Comic Con was a good one :)
My dream is to go to the one in San Diego!!! Hopefully one day.

Love,
Sarah

New York City

Hello,

Today I'm gonna talk to you about the first and till this day the only time I went to NY. I did this trip with my mom, this is becoming a thing :) Mother daughter traveling! We have so much fun together. We traveled in May and that was a very nice time, we had great weather. We went for 8 days, some people said it would be long, because it's more for a city trip, but I think it was ideal. We had time to see everything on our own time. And we saw it all.

For this trip I haven't kept every activity for each day like my other trips, I don't even know why...
We flew with Continental Airlines, that was great, just like last time, nothing to say about that.
Our hotel was the Mave, this was a great hotel for what I've been hearing about NY hotels. The room was nice but small, but I don't mind that cause I had great comfort and we were only in our room at night to sleep. The only minor thing was that the breakfast was just a table with some coffee on it and some croissants and fruit. If you have a big day ahead it's not enough.
But there was a dunkin donuts just around the corner :) so lucky me.

One day we went shopping, of course, and my sister asked to go to a specific shop (don't remember the name). After asking around we found out it was in Queens, in a mall there. So we took the metro and went looking for it. We found it, but not what she wanted from it. The ride back to NY from Queens on the metro was interesting, there was a woman singing and some suspicious people on it. But we made it back safe.

We also went to the American Museum of Natural History. That was so nice, so much to see, to much almost to do in one day. My favorite part were the dinosaurs and the animals. But really everything was amazing. We just saw the museum during a walk in Central Park. It is just an amazing park, so much to see and to do. Of course I've been eating some hot dogs in the park, so good, and I ate a pretzel for the first time. I didn't liked it so much, to salty for me, or maybe I ate the wrong one.

There was a day where it was raining, so we decided to do go on a tourbus. My travel agent gave us a free ticket we could use for one day. It was such a nice tour, we did everything I feel like. The part where we went over a bridge was so scary, because I'm scared of heights and we sat upstairs on the bus. And we ate the best pizza in Brooklyn, so we've been told, but it was pretty good.

We also went to Time Square, by day and by night. So beautiful, but so busy.
Grand central station was also a stop we did, so nice and big, amazing.
My mom wanted to go on the Empire state building, but cause I'm scared of heights I didn't want to go up. That I regret now, so next time we go, I'll go on it, promise!

While we were there it was mothers day. So in the morning we went for breakfast in a pancake house around the corner. I had the pancake, of course, and my mom had the eggs and toast. We had a wonderful breakfast. After that we went walking in Central Park for the whole day. We ate lunch in the park. It was just wonderful. Then for diner I bought my mom a fancy diner in a restaurant not far from the hotel. We had a wonderful time!



On one of the last days we did the Gossip Girl tour, cause I loved the tv show, and it was the only one my mom knew a bit. It was so nice, even if you don't know it so well, you still see a lot of beautiful things that you maybe wouldn't have seen other wise.

When we flew back home, I bought some Dunkin donuts at the airport to take home. Everyone on the plane wanted some, but they were for the family at home :) So when we arrived back home, everyone had a nice breakfast.

I hope you liked to read about my time in NY, remember the pictures are from a view years ago, so maybe not that good. Hopefully I have all our adventures on here :)

Love,
Sarah

Birthday in Paris

Hello,

I love celebrating my birthday on special ways. For my 22th birthday we went with the whole family to Paris, for one day. The day before one of my brothers said he couldn't come anyway because of work. But the rest of us still went.

We had so much fun from the start, laughed so much on the train over there.
Then we ate croissant, what I only eat in France because they have the best. And of course I had to eat some macarons, that is so good :)
We went to visit the Notre Dame, it's so beautiful, you really have to see this.
The champs elysees is also very nice to see, so different than any other shopping streets I saw.
We also did a little shopping and went to a Starbucks.
Of course we had to go and see the Eiffel tower, there was also a christmas market around it and SNOW! I almost never have snow for my birthday the last few years so I was very excited. ( My birth day is in december, almost at christmas time ).
On the way back we got stuck with the train in the snow, so we had to wait for a 2 hours in the train, but we had fun waiting so it was ok :)

This was such a nice gift for my birthday, I couldn't asked for more. Or maybe that my other brother also could've come with us. Maybe next time.

Love,
Sarah

Harry Potter : The Exhibition

Hello,

Today I'm gonna talk about when we went to the exhibition of Harry Potter in Brussels. With we I mean my sister, her best friend and my friend. We had a wonderful time!

So when we ordered the tickets we had to choose a timeline of when we wanted to enter the exhibition. We chose to enter at 1pm so then we had the time to get there.

Once we got there we could enter without having a waiting line, so that was nice. First we could take a picture as a group with wands. This was a very nice extra, of course you had to pay for this picture, we chose not to. Me and my sister already did this in London, I will also make a blog about that.

Then we could enter the exhibition! First we came in a room with the sorting hat. I was one of the lucky ones who could sit and go through the experience. I will have the video on my instagram, the adventure_oflife , you can also follow me there. Then we saw a little montage of all the movies!

And then we could enter the exhibition. You had the rooms of Gryffindor and the clothes they wore during the first movie. Then you also had a room full of quidditch stuff, the clothes they wore, the equipment they needed,... That was so nice to see. You could also throw some balls in hoops like in the movie.

You also had Hagrids house and all the creatures of the dark forest. This was so dark so the pictures weren't so clear. Of course you had Voldemort and the dead eaters, so nice to see that.

And then their was the great hall, with the different houses and all of the foods. You also had the costumes of their ball and of all the professors.

The only thing that I found a little less about this is the souvenir shop, I hoped their would be more stuff, but maybe thats just me.


If you're in Brussel this summer and you're a Harry Potter fan, this is a must see!
So I hope you can visit this exhibition and that you have as much fun as we did.

Love,
Sarah