Thanksgiving and My 20th Birthday

This week has been by far one of the best weeks I have spent in Europe.  I am lucky enough to have my Mom and one of my little sisters in London visiting.  They got here on Monday and requested fish and chips immediately.  Maggie had never had them before but I think it is her new favorite.  On Tuesday night we went and saw Wicked.  I had seen it once before but it never gets old.  It was funny to hear the songs that I knew by heart off the soundtrack sung with British accents.  It took some getting used to.  On Wednesday night there was a group event with dinner and then a show.  The show that night happened to be Oliver.  I liked it but this time the accents were even thicker and harder to understand.  Half the time I had no idea what was going on.  Thanksgiving morning I went to class, they do not celebrate Thanksgiving here, not even if you are attending an American university, and then went to a Thanksgiving service at St. Paul's Cathedral.  The service was put on by the US embassy and the ambassador from the US for the UK was there.  The cathedral was beautiful and I couldn't believe I was attending a service in such a beautiful place.  That night we had a big Thanksgiving dinner over at the dinning room of Imperial College, just across the street.  The British interpretation of Thanksgiving dinner is a little off though.  The meal was good, but for stuffing they had patties that tasted like sausage and for desert the pumpkin pie was all crust with a paper thin layer of "pumpkin."  I also found it odd that they served an apple pie with pistachio ice cream.  As an overall review of the meal I would say the dinner was pretty good, but the desert was bad.  That night I went over to the apartment that my mom and Maggie were staying at in preparation for our 8:50 train on Friday morning.  Friday morning we got on our train to Paris which took us through the chunnel, well I think, I was asleep the whole time and Maggie said we were in a tunnel for a long time so I'm guessing that was it.  It was extremely chilly when we got to Paris.  We bundled up and headed off to our hotel.  Our hotel was just across the street from the Notre Dame and so we made that our first stop.  Right as we walked up to the Cathedral it started snowing.  It was a magical experience.  The next day was my 20th birthday.  Instead of birthday cake I had a birthday crepe.  We went to the Louvre, walked down the Champ de Elysees, and went up to the top of the Eifel tour.  It was all so amazing.  On Sunday we did a river tour on the river Seine, explored more of Paris, and then took a train back to London.  It was a wonderful weekend and I enjoyed every minute of it! Countdown until America 10 DAYS!!!!!!