Birthday in Paris - Day 1

Last weekend I turned 18 - I know, terrifying that I'm an adult now! I spent it in Paris with an amazing friend of mine; Apryl. We've known each other since we were two weeks old, although we were born within minutes of each other in the same hospital, so it's likely we met before then! 

I got the train the whole way from my school apart from the end where I caught a taxi - Parisian taxi drivers go so fast, it was terrifying. We stayed at this lovely little apartment in the Vincennes area, which was brilliant. Out of all the really touristy areas but less than a 15 minute walk from a metro station straight into the centre. On the first morning we headed towards the Bastille, which used to be used as a state prison by the kings of France. We walked around the area and had a super scummy lunch in this little French restaurant - I had steak with green beans and sauté potatoes. I hadn't realised the area had flooded until we walked past this wall with plaques showing how high the water had reached. 

I'm 6' tall so you can imagine how high the water must have been!

In the afternoon we took this boat down the canals in the city - if you ever go to Paris and can spare 2.5 hours I'd definitely recommend it (you catch the boat near the bastille). We went through loads of locks, I think it was a total of 24 in the end. It was really funny because all the people at the front of the boat got wet every time the locks opened! On the boat you go under the bastille, which creates this really eery atmosphere as the sunlight shines down through light wells from the street above. 

The underground canals

The boat was so cool because I got to see so many of the parts that I didn't even know existed. We went through this area that was really arty and everyone was sat eating and chatting on the sides of the canal, in the sun. After, we went up towards Notre Dame and the latin quarters of the city. There's this little bookshop just across the river from the cathedral which is probably the most beautiful shop I've ever been in. It's called Shakespeare & Company. It's absolutely jam packed with books even though it's so tiny. I think they're all books in English but you can get pretty much anything there. There are quotes all over the walls and little nooks and crannies to explore.

Inside the amazing little bookshop

The evening was spent in this little independent restaurant in the latin quarters of the city. I can't quite remember what I had for my main course, I know the meal started with french onion soup and I had veal; whatever it was, it was extremely tasty. Paris is so beautiful at night. The eiffel tower has a little light display every hour for five minutes where it looks like millions of diamonds are glistening all over it.

Our birthday was on the Sunday so we stayed up to celebrate turning 18. We had a little party in our room to celebrate as all the older adults had gone to sleep - boring! It did mean we were quite tired for Disneyland the next day, but it was completely worth it.

Lizzie

 xxx

Being Green!

Hey

A few days ago was Earth Day where loads of people across the world pledged to become more environmentally friendly as well as putting pressure on big businesses to cut their global emissions. I feel really strongly about environmental issues, especially climate change, because I feel like there are so many easy little things we can all do that together could make a huge difference. 

I'm trying really hard to make a positive impact on the environment. Here's a list of some of the things I'm doing/have done:

• Reusing the same water bottle for school each day
• Recycling as much as I can
• Having showers rather than baths - this saves about 50 litres of water each time
• Eating at least two vegetarian meals a week
• Using energy saving light bulbs in my house
• Turning my phone off at night and not leaving it charging overnight

I watched this video the other day where they talked about shocks and slides. Shocks are events that make people act quickly e.g. the Haiti earthquake, where as slides are changes that occur over a long period of time and as such people are less likely to take notice of them. Climate change is a slide. At what point will be realise that we are slowly ruining our earth and act to save it? We all know we're ruining it but pollution and emissions are still rising globally. Will it be when sea levels rise so much that Venice is no longer inhabitable or will it be sooner when one of the most famous yet endangered species such as the tiger, goes extinct? In the last century, we have lost 97% of the world's tigers - this is insane, we need to change!

As one of my subjects at school, I study geography. We do quite a lot about climate change and pollution. One of our case studies is China and how since becoming the manufacturing capital of the world, its air pollution has rocketed. In some cities the smog caused by pollution is so bad that it's unsafe for people to leave their homes - they even have an app that tells them the current air quality and if its safe!

It scares me greatly that there are already thousands of people on earth who are falling ill and sometimes sadly dying due to pollution - it's completely preventable if we start to use green alternatives to fossil fuels like solar power and wind energy.

What are you guys doing to be environmentally friendly? I read this statistic the other day that if everyone in the UK and USA was more energy efficient, it would save as much energy as Russia and India produce together!

Lizzie

Thank you!

I don't really know how to write this but I really want to, so I'm hoping it'll all just come out ok.

These last few years have been quite difficult for me. My mum died, home life was really tough, moving schools and so many other things I won't go into here - on top of everything applying to medical school and actually trying to get the grades! There have been so many times when everything seemed so horrible and the world was just black. I don't know how to explain it. I wanted to feel happy I really did but I just couldn't. I'd always have this constant nervousness and sadness even though there would often be no reason for it. Don't get me wrong, of course I did have days when I was happy, but for so long I felt like I was trapped in this unhappy place, while everyone else was enjoying life. However, this post isn't about all the upsetting things, this is about saying thank you, because throughout the time there have been two ridiculously special people. I know for sure that if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here today. Not necessarily ending it, more I wouldn't be the person I am today. They were always there, through the good and the bad times, when I was panicking and crying but also when I was laughing and having fun. They always stuck by me and were just a face-to-face chat, Facebook message, phone call or email away. I can't say thank you enough to these people!

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People say their best friend is the best, but I can assure you they obviously haven't met Penny. She's the greatest person you could ever meet. Unbelievably kind, gorgeous, amazing fun and a brilliant listener. Every time I was upset even about the most trivial things, she was always there, making me laugh and stopping me worrying. I have some of the best memories of my life with her, even the most simple of things like eating dib dabs on the business park bench to the greatest things like going on our first holiday together to the Edinburgh Fringe. We were both so scared we wouldn't remain friends when we went to different sixth forms - how stupid we were!

The other person I'd like to say thank you to, and I know Penny will be able to guess this, is Mrs Hague. She's an insanely amazing teacher at the school I moved to for sixth form, and she's just so lovely. I trust her more than anyone in the entire world (except Penny of course!). I don't think she knows how much she's changed my life. I feel I could tell her pretty much anything; she's been like the mum I no longer have.

If you're in a dark place right now, I can promise you it will get better. Talk to someone you trust and you know will understand; you can always talk to these guys. I never believed I would feel happy again when I was about 14/15 but I can assure you with all my heart it is possible.

This post doesn't even begin to tell you how thankful I am for these people in my life, but it's a start. I know they may never read it, but I think it's really important to thank people, whether its due to something massive or the smallest of things that meant the world to you.

Thank you!

Lizzie