Day 4, June 18
We had to gett up at 4:00 am to catch the 5:00 train so we could catch our flight to Rome at 7. I don’t do mornings at all, especially mornings that begin at 4 am. We were running late at the airport and barely made it in time for our flight. Once we got to Italy we spent a cool 2 hours at the airport waiting for our bus driver to pick us up. He was at Terminal 2 and as luck would have we were sitting at Terminal 1, typical. I spent my first 2 hours in Italy at the airport, which isn’t that impressive mind you. We went to our hotel to drop our luggage off and then our hotel was booked up so we had to go to another one. At this point in the day I was sooooo aggravated, but the fun was just getting started. Once we got the hotel stuff straight we headed to Vatican City and St. Peter’s Basilica. We spent 4 HOURS at this place, mind it is large and we still didn’t see a lot, but 4 hours was a bit much for my personal preference. It was SO hot and I had been up since 4 am. I didn’t think we would ever leave. I told my group I would be the only person who would go to the Vatican and lose my religion because I was losing faith that we would ever get out of there. It was pretty and I’m glad I got to see it, but I was fit to be tied by the time we left. After the Vatican we went to Trevy Fountain which was also really pretty. We ate a DELICIOUS Italian meal and had gelato.
Day 5, June 19
Got up early (again, I’m so over mornings) to take the train to Florence. My friend Britton and I had the pleasure of sitting with 2 funny guys from London. It was a 2 hour train ride and I’m pretty sure we laughed for the whole 2 hours. The guys were super nice and extremely entertaining. Once we got to Florence and checked into the convent (yes you read that right, we stayed in a convent), we went to the street market. The street market allowed me to showcase my true talents—shopping and spending money. I bought a few things and surprisingly enough some gifts for others. After the market, we headed to the Uffizi Museum and saw the statue of David. It was huge and pretty impressive. Although at this point, I feel like I’ve been to a 1000 museums so if I’ve seen one marble statue I’ve seen them all. I have also seen about 87658 paintings of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. I told my friends that I couldn’t wait to get to heaven and see what he actually looks like. We had an Italian style family dinner at the convent and it was SO GOOD. This trip is wearing me out though. Dr. Ellis (my fashion teacher/coordinator of this adventure) said, “If y’all are up to it, I’ll show you around the city some more.” I replied, “I’m barely up to complete the remainder of this trip so no thanks.” My friends started laughing but I was totally serious. I’m exhausted.
Day 6, June 20
We went to some designer outlets in Florence. Most of the things in the store were still about $9865897 so needless to say all I bought was lunch. There is nothing too exciting to report from that outing.
Day 7, June 21
We woke up early to go see the Spanish steps in Rome. I don’t know much about them other than they are really hold and quite massive. If you want more details, google it. We toured the Fendi factory which was really cool. I really enjoyed that tour minus some crazy lady yelling at our group on the sidewalk. I’m pretty sure she forgot to take her medicine that morning, she was quite bizarre. We left Rome (in a rush, almost missing our flight again) that night and flew to Nice. Nice is so beautiful. I don’t care for the beach, but it was pretty to look at it. It was France Music Festival Day or something like that so there were concerts going on all over Nice and all across France. We had a nice dinner and watched some of the street performers and then headed back to the hotel because we were all tired. In case you haven’t caught on, tiredness is a recurring theme in this trip.
Day 8, June 22
Today we had a free day in Nice. I don’t do the beach so I spent my free day shopping and relaxing. We all went out to lunch and then some of the group went to the beach, but Mary Ashlyn and I stayed behind. We went to a few stores and then went back to the hotel to read, have a drink, and relax. At least that’s what I thought we were going to do. I went to turn on my Kindle and my screen had cracked. I was SO MAD. I had left it in my suitcase that I checked because we were in such a rush. It was in a protective case and everything, but it still got messed up. God bless Amazon and their replacement plan. We took a late flight back to Paris and when got to the airport (in Paris), one of the girls in our group passed out. Dr. Ellis had to go with her to the doctor (she had a heat stroke, but she is fine now) so the rest of us had to take the metro back to our apartments at approximately 10:30 at night. Talk about sketchiness. Thankfully we all made it back safely. We are all glad to be back in Paris.
Day 9, June 23
It is law in Paris that stores put almost all of their merchandise on sale in the summer so we got up early to go shopping before our first show. I didn’t buy anything at the department stores, but I did buy the CUTEST black flats (peeptoe) with a red bow on the top so it wasn’t a totally wasted trip. Our first job at our first show was to be hostesses at the Alex Mabille show. It was a little overwhelming at first, but it ended up being really fun. I was my first experience of a real fashion show. My friend Mary Ashlyn had some money stolen, but thankfully not her whole purse. Our group always guarantees an adventure when we go somewhere.
Day 10, June 24
We finally got to sleep in a little before heading to the Walter Van Beirendock show. His collection was interesting, a bit crazy, but very colorful and unique. After the show was over we headed to Sacre Cœur. I climbed all the way to the top, all 83749872384 steps. It is a beautiful basilica and the views of the city from there are AMAZING. I was so glad that we took the bus all day today because I do not care for the metro. It is nasty, sketchy, hot, sticky, just plain nasty. I am so thankful that La Grange and Raleigh are too small for such means of public transportation. I can’t wait to get home and drive to where I want to go instead of taking a bus, plane, train, or good ole Pat and Charlie.
Day 11, June 25
Dr. Ellis, Whitney, Britton, and I got up early to head to the mall and outlet stores in Paris. What a waste of valuable time that I could have spent sleeping. I did get some nail polish (shocker) and a makeup bag but that was it. After shopping we went and watched the Wooyoungmi fashion show. It was fun too and that collection had more wearable clothes. After the show Whitney, Katie, and I did laundry. It took forever and cost about 15 euros (about 21 dollars), yikes. We had dinner at a place called Quick. The food is great and tastes like home, but the name is a lie. Today was the first day I got reallyyyy homesick. My cousin Anna got married and a lot of my family was there and y’all know I don’t like to be left out and my best friend Hailey (scroll down and read about her) won Miss North Carolina. Obviously, I couldn’t have been at both events anyways, but I sure I wish I could have gone to one of them. I know Anna looked beautiful and I’m so excited for Hailey.
Day 12, June 26
Today we worked 2 menswear shows, Songzio and Qasimi Homme. We dressed models at both shows. The models I worked with were super nice even in a stressful atmosphere. My friend Whitney and I had the same model for the second show. He walked to up us and said hello and when we said hey back his first comment was, “And where are y’all from.” Obviously our southern accents stick out here, who knew? He was from New York so he at least knew where good ole NC was. We ate dinner at Quick again tonight, I think we are hooked although the service has yet to live up to its name.
Day 13, June 27
Semi-horrific day. We went to the Louvre and then walked about 987683728 miles to the Champs-Elysees. I'm pretty sure we walked through the Sahara to get there. I did purchase a few things at the Longchamp store, but other than drinks to stay hydrated, that is all I bought. It is approximately 34902384 degrees here and yall know I do not like to sweat or be outside and I had to do both today ughhh. I will post again when I can, but internet is as hard to come by as a Diet Pepsi in this town. I'm taking the time to edit this post so disregard all the errors.
