CT À PARIS

CT in SA

2009-02-10T19:43:00.002+01:00

I leave for Stellenbosch in 33 days, so the new blog is now up!

If you haven't been checking my Flickr since I last updated, there are more pictures there from the end of my trip. I really wish that I had kept up with this, but once my computer died, my dedication to the blog sort of went with it. I am sorry. But just as a fun aside, I ended up with a terrible flu the day I left Paris and was puking for like 4 hours straight before I hopped on my flight back. So I didn't even get to really enjoy my first-class ticket. Tragic.

ANYWAY, the point of this post was to direct you to the blog for my upcoming trip to South Africa,

CT in SA

RIP PowerBook

2008-12-17T12:39:00.002+01:00

My computer really is on the verge of death. It won't stay on for more tha 45 minutes at a time. As such, you'll just have to keep watching my blog once I get home to see pictures about my last days here. I'll try to get my Rouen update done on the computers here at school before I go, and maybe write about Saturday (I don't have pictures from the day but it was great anyway) soooo yeah. Just letting everyone know.

Also, the big news here that no one seems to know about:
Explosives Found at Paris Department Store

A package of dynamite planted in a luxury Paris department store was found and removed by the police on Tuesday, rattling the nerves of Parisians at the height of the Christmas shopping season.

It ended up being a few sticks of dynamite tied together with no detonator. It was still a big deal tehre, though, and when I walked past BHV later in the day there were way more police around than usual.

Coming to an end

2008-12-14T16:39:00.004+01:00

I am getting behind on this thing, and I apologize, but I've been super busy winding down my days. I still have to write about Rouen, but it kind of sucked so I'll deal with that later and instead I'm working out of chronological order. Maybe I'll come back to Rouen, maybe not.

I wish I had pictures to share, but I didn't actually take any yesterday, and I haven't uploaded any since Rouen. So if that's a deal-breaker for you, sorry. My computer is on the brink of death, so I'm not even sure how many more pictures you'll be getting from me in the coming (OMG 6!!!!) days. I'm trying not to temp fate by overwhelming it with uploading pictures (though I do have a few from Rouen).

On Thursday after class I FINALLY made it over to Centre Pompidou. I walk past this building at least twice a day, at least four days a week, and I didn't actually go inside until I was 10 days away from the end of my time in Paris. The place is HUGE. I mean, it's not Louvre-scale, and the whole building isn't solely dedicated to gallery space (there is also a library, restaurants, gift shops, etc etc) but even so, the collection is huge and we bought tickets to the temporary exhibits (one on Futurism and a collection of Jacques Villeglé, who does work with ripped posters). It was exhausting and overwhelming, and by the time we'd worked our way almost through we were thrilled to find a couch in the corner of the Futurism exhibit. Melanie, Lia and I settled in for an hour just chatting and enjoying the break from the museum.

By some weird coincidence, after leaving Pompidou, Lia and I bumped into our other roommate Vicky and her boyfriend Stephane! So we all went out for dinner near the museum to get out of the cold for a bit, before heading back home.

Friday I met up with Melanie again, as well as Cassandra, who we met at Thanksgiving dinner. We were all trying to find some souvenirs and gifts before we head back to the states, so we met near Pigalle and hit up some of the tourist shops before sitting down for a cup of coffee.

After coffee we left Cassandra because Melanie and I were going ICE SKATING! CEA paid for us to go, so why not? I planned on going for like 20 minutes and then leaving to grab dinner, but I had a blast! It was mildly ridiculous in that they were playing Snoop Dogg while we were ice skating. I had forgotten that ice skating on indoor rinks is WAY EASIER than outdoors. Then at 8pm it turned into disco skating and they had the crazy lights and weird techno-y music. Hilarious.

I took pictures, but with the whole computer situation isn't going well. I actually started writing this blog like 3 days ago and yeah... it's not done.

Here is a picture someone else took, don't I just look graceful? I didn't fall though!

Farewell Dinner

2008-12-12T15:01:00.002+01:00

Last weekend my program held their Farewell Dinner. It was actually like 2 weeks before the end of the program, but in hindsight I'm glad, since it leaves my last weekend free to do what I want.

We met up at Madeleine church for a group picture beforehand

Can you find me? Probably not. Hint: I am behind my friend Sam, who is one of the few males in the program.

Dinner itself was... interesting. I feel bad that I didn't enjoy it, because it was planned by one of my favorite members of the staff at CEA. But really? It was at a Tahitian themed restaurant. They gave us one drink (compared to the bottomless wine I had at my farewell dinner in Maastricht, but I guess that's just CEA policy) and then came the real issue: a performance. Maybe with more wine I could have gotten outside of my own head enough to enjoy it. It was just weird cultural exploitation and I really didn't have a good time. I think if it had been over-the-top FRENCH stereotypes it would have been funny, since we're studying in France, but as it was I didn't like it. It probably didn't help that I was sick and miserable, though.

The food was good, though

A meli-melo of shrimp, fruit and vegetables served in a coconut shell

Beef stir-fry, basically

A warm chocolate cake that we're pretty sure was bought from the grocery store and then heated at the restaurant

An interesting mis of Christmas decorations and tacky "Tahitian" decor

One of the guys in our program getting a "lap dance"

The emcee for the evening sexually harassing my friend Joanne (for those who speak French, he definitely told her to stick out her "pamplemousses")

The girls in our program wearing the "Tahitian" costumes.

If you're interested in seeing more pictures from the night, you can check out the Facebook album

Brunch!

2008-12-10T00:37:00.003+01:00

Last week my professor Emilie hosted our Gay Paris class in her adorable apartment in the 10th. We had brunch complete with pain au chocolat, croissants, homemade french toast and banana-chocolate-chip pancakes, and soft-boiled eggs, which I had never tried before! Emilie taught us how to eat them, AND when she ran out of egg cups she put them in shot glasses, so now I know that I don't need a fancy egg cup if I want to make soft-boiled eggs myself.

Meggie and I teamed up for beverage duty

Lee and Kiersten were in charge of french toast and pancakes, respectively

And it was (almost) Lee's birthday, so in true lazy-Americans-in-France fashion, we stuck candles into a pain au chocolat. Adorable.

Another food post

2008-12-10T00:30:00.002+01:00

So I know I write about food a lot, but whatevs, it's my blog so I can.

Yet another thing I love about the food here is the lack of weird chemicals and preservatives. I just ate what would be most closely related to a mint-chocolate flavored pudding cup. In the States I'm sure I would probably be unable to identify most of the ingredients in that, and it's my native language.

Even with the packaging being in French, I can identify all of the ingredients: Whole milk, cream, chocolate, lactose/milk proteins, gelatin and mint extract. SWEET.

But I still love my American junk food.

World AIDS Day 2008

2008-12-08T23:42:00.003+01:00

For World AIDS Day, my Gay Paris class went to a march from Bastille to the Marais. The weather was bad, the experience was good.

For reference, SIDA is AIDS

French class

2008-12-08T23:02:00.002+01:00

Prof: "Caitlin [keep in mind the French pronoun my name 'keht-leen'], si tu etait un plat, quel plat est-ce que tu serras?"
Moi: Un plat?
Prof: Un plat.
Moi: Eh... je serrai un hamburger.
Prof: Un hamburger? Pourquoi?
Moi: Oui, pourquoi pas?

I told my French teacher today that if I could be any food, I would be a hamburger. Why? Why not. I miss America a little more than I let on. Still not ready to leave, though.

Final day of Twins

2008-12-08T19:13:00.003+01:00

Friday was the twin's last day in Paris, so we really made it count.

Too bad I was sick. I was actually supposed to go to the wine expo again on Friday, but that didn't happen. Instead I sent the twins off to check out the Rodin museum and I slept in for a few hours.

I guess it was pretty nice.

Then they called me and we met up near my apartment for lunch. We ate at a restaurant at the corner of my street that I'd heard good things about but hadn't actually been to. The guy there didn't speak any English, and we didn't really know what was good, but we went with what we knew. Hayley and I got steak and Amelia got an omelet. It was awesome to hear Amelia order the "jamon" (as in the soft, Spanish j) instead of the French jambon, she must be practicing for Cuba. It was good, no pictures though (I really slacked on the food pics while they were here!)

Then we wanted to go up to Montmartre to pick up some souvenirs for Amelia's friends, but we were feeling especially lazy so instead of the 10-minute uphill walk, we hopped the metro to Abbesses and took the funicular.

With the souvenirs obtained, we then took the funicular back DOWN (lazy? maybe.) and headed off to achieve my one and only goal for my time in Paris. The Catacombs. Long story short on the Catacombs is that there are a bunch of dead displaced bones from Parisian cemeteries that were dug up. I have wanted to go to the catacombs since my first trip to Paris five years ago, and when we came back last summer it was at the top of my must-see list, but since I was traveling with first time visitors, they were more interested in other things. So this trip, literally the ONLY goal I had on my list was the catacombs.

It was dark and wet and smelled like dirt but it was AWESOME! The pictures are super dark, but obviously flash isn't allowed for taking photos of human bones.

There was a light shining on these, obviously

I may totally go to hell for enjoying this so much, but I tried to be as respectful as possible. I enjoyed it so much that these pictures have their own slideshow.

After the catacombs we headed the the Champs Elysees AGAIN, this time it hit up Laduree one last time. The twins needed to get macarons for their friends back home. I'm sure they probably weren't as good by the time they reached the states, but there are far worse souvenirs than a Laduree macarons.

When we finished up there we hit up one of my old favorites, Palais de Tokyo. Palais de Tokyo also boasts one of the best views of the Eiffel Tower, so you know we took the time for a photo-op

Hayley

Then we went inside. I really loved Palais de Tokyo, the twins were less excited about it than I was. In Mel's defense, she hates modern and contemporary art, and knew right off the bat she wouldn't enjoy this. Hayley liked it, she just wasn't as into it as I am. I took a picture of the Burry Man this time

There was an exhibit dealing with cultural practices of rural English towns. Apparently some small town in England has a Burry Man festival. There is also a (separate, for some reason) penis of the Burry Man, but I didn't get a picture of that. I wasn't even sure if photography was allowed, so I didn't want to push my luck.

The twins final meal in Paris was pizza. Yep, Italian food in France. I do not regret it. There's a restaurant in the Marais that has really good pizza, and Amelia was craving pizza, so that was that. Since it was the last dinner together we even had Cokes AND dessert. Obviously I had tiramisu. We live wildly.

Here comes the massive slideshow:

I miss my sistahs.

Thanksgiving!

2008-12-06T14:29:00.002+01:00

Forgive me for getting so behind, I'm swamped with school work AND getting sick, ugh! ANYWAY, I'll pick up back on Thursday the 27th (my aunt Meg's birthday!)

I had an excursion with my Wine class. Our professor is Irish, and as such was completely indifferent to the American holiday. I had thought that my class was meeting at 2 o'clock, then I thought I would check my syllabus really quick just to double check. My syllabus said 1 o'clock, and by the time I saw that I only had 10 minutes to get ready to leave for the day! So I rushed to get ready and made it to the wine expo right around 1pm, only to find that... no one else was there. It really was 2pm. So I waited around outside the expo until 2, when other classmates started to show up. As soon as my partner got there we went in.

It was NUTS! There were sooo many booths of independent winemakers and my partner and I were supposed to be tasting and interviewing vintners from Bordeaux. It's a rough life, I tell ya. So we tasted a bunch of wine, chatted with some Frenchies, and I bought a pate sandwich. One of the women heard that my partner, Molly, was from Georgia. Apparently her son lives in Georgia and is a real estate agent. Molly left with a business card with his picture on it. It was great. I bought a bottle of wine and the people at that booth took down my home address, "in case we get a distributor in Michigan." It was a lot of fun.

Around 4pm, Melanie and I met up at the front of the expo and we made our way over to the 7th arrondissement, where family friends had invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner!

Dave and Deb have an amaaazing apartment by the Eiffel Tower. They had another girl there, Cassandra, who is an au pair from Oklahoma. It was nice to spend the evening with Americans, even though all of my time here is spent with Americans. And they had TV, so we could put on the football game! Deb made an incredible Thanksgiving dinner and added the perfect French touch-- a cheese course. Just what American Thanksgiving had been missing! She made a really great fig-proscuitto-marscapone starter too, and a soup course that was turnip and pumpikn, mmmmm. After dinner we walked over to the Eiffel Tower to take pictures, since the twins hadn't been to see it up-close yet.

And I totally lucked out, because our hosts were leaving town the next day which meant they sent me home with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie! I had Thanksgiving for like a week! Thanks so much for having us, and happy birthday Deb!

Hotel Cribs

2008-12-01T15:24:00.003+01:00

So we filmed this on Friday, but since I'm beaing really slow about getting this updated (and I have a three papers and two presentations this week I don't know how fast it'll all be done) so I figured I might as well put this up.

Basically a brief video tour of the hotel room

Twins on Wednesday

2008-12-01T15:10:00.003+01:00

Wednesday I had planned on skipping Gay Paris, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. The twins also could not bring themselves to come with me, so they went to Musee Carnevalet, and we met up at the Musee Picasso after my class.

Yeah, we took myspace pictures at the Picasso museum. Honestly, I think the experience was somewhat wasted on us, as none of us are particularly big fans of Picasso. The museum is like 3 blocks from my school, though, so I'm glad I got to go.

Next I dragged the girls through the Marais. We stopped in a little accessories shop and picked up some gifts (I got new bracelets) and then walked over to rue de Rosiers for falafel.

One of my sisters happened to be wearing a scarf that resembled a keffiyah, and the guy at l'As du Falafel said she should take it off because it's "a family restaurant." Oops. Anyway, I took them to l'As du Falafel and neither of them even tried falafel, they had schwarma. When we left we ran into my friend Alison with her friends AGAIN! Which makes sense, I guess, since we're all tourists in Paris, but it was still funny. Also funny: our lit professor has trouble telling Alison and I apart. Pretty sure it's the wavy brown hair.

We had planned on going to the Centre Pompidou after that, because I still haven't been, but apparently Amelia has an exreme hatred of modern and contemporary art. So we killed that idea, and decided to go to the Jeu de Paume. Pretty sure the Jeu de Paume is my favorite museum in Paris. They had a Lee Milled exhibit. I wasn't familiar with her before, but I really enjoyed the exhibit. After the Jeu de Paume we headed up to Montmartre to meet up with my roommate Lia and her husband Yuriy, who was visiting from California. We had reservations for this fondue restaurant, but I managed to get us lost like twice in the 3 blocks between the metro and the restaurant. My impeccable sense of direction seems to fail me here.

Reservations at le Refuge des Fondues are recommended, but not really worth anything. We stood outside for about 10 minutes until they let people in. This place serves fondue, obviously, but you choose either cheese or meat. No menus. So the waiter came and pointed at each of us asking what we wanted. Hayley said cheese, Amelia said cheese, Lia said cheese, I said cheese, and Yuriy said cheese. Then, after the waiter left, Yuriy asked what we were doing. We explained we asked for cheese fondue rather than meat. Yuriy didn't understand, so he had to flag down the waiter and ask for meat.

Amelia and her kir

Then he brought out the little plate of food to eat with our kirs.

They also serve wine in baby bottles here, with such a wide variety of options as "white" or "red." When the waiter came to take our wine orders, Hayley said white, Amelia said white, Lia said white, I said red, and Yuriy said white. Again, after the waiter left, Yuriy asked what we were doing. Again, explained to him that we were ordering wine. AGAIN, Yuriy said the wrong thing! And so he had to flag down the waiter to ask for red.

After we finished our kirs, they brought our fondue and wine

Yuriy's meat

Cheeeeeese fondue
Wine! In my defense, this picture was taken at the end of the meal

Hayley and Amelia with their bottles

By the time we finished eating we had to scrap our original plan of getting profiteroles, because it was getting late and we needed to catch the metro. Very sad.

Twins in Paris (Monday/Tuesday)

2008-12-01T13:46:00.005+01:00

Amelia put up her pictures, so here are a few from Sunday

Amelia was cold. She insists that after spending the last winter in the South she has lost any immunity to the cold that she may have acquired from 18 years of living in Michigan.

I was really excited for the ferris wheel.

Monday morning I had to go to my Gay Paris class. I probably could have skipped, but I really didn't want to. Besides, the twins were still jetlagged so it gave them a chance to sleep in. I tried to force them to come with me and be educated, but sleep was more appealing, go figure.

After class I went back to the hotel and met up with the girls and we walked over by Centre Pompidou, a few blocks from our hotel. We grabbed some lunch at a random cafe and then I had to go to my French class. We had a field trip to a little boulangerie in the 19th that makes organic breads an pastries. Their oven is 100 years old! And they don't use yeast, they use fermented grapes and a leavening agent. I do not know how that works, and she explained it in French, so... but then we got free food! We had a pistachio grapefruit tart and a bunch of bread and jam and butter and tea. It was great. Plus I got back my French test and I got an A!

By the time I got back to the hotel it was dark, so we hopped the metro back over to Place de la Concorde, to walk the Champs Elysees.

Ferris wheel AT NIGHT!

Champs Elysees, looking toward the Arc de Triomphe

I tried to take a picture of the twins with the Eiffel Tower. It didn't work.

We walked down past the little white huts that sell stuff, looking for gifts for the twins to take back to their friends, and a ring for Hayley to replace her lost ring from Rome. We didn't find a ring, so we kept on toward the arch.

Took a pic looking back toward place de la Concorde

On the way back down the Champs Elysees, I told Hayley we had to go to Laduree for macarons. She told me she didn't like coconut, so I explained to her that French macarons aren't like American macaroons. We stopped in and left with a chocolate for Hayley, chocolat amer for me, and vanilla for Amelia. Everyone was pleased, and so we decided that we would have to come back on Friday so the twins could try to take some back to the States for their friends.

Then we went back near our hotel for dinner at Hippopotamus, a French chain. More chains? Yes. But at least this one was French!

Tuesday I had an excursion for my literature class. We went to Jim Haynes' studio. He was reeeeally interesting. He hosts open dinners every Sunday, and all you have to do is call to tell him you're coming and pay like 15-20euro and you get to meet people. It's a very cool concept, and he talked to us about Henry Miller.

While I was off doing that, the twins went to Versailles.

That night the housing director for my program, Ida, had a concert. Her band is called House Special, and they're a cover band. They hand out a "menu" with songs they sing renamed like foods, and people yelled out what they wanted to hear. It was a lot of fun, and she sounded great. We got to meet my friend Alison's friends, who apparently were also at Versailles when the twins were! I guess they were right next to eachother in line, too. Small world.

Twins Take on Paris (Saturday and Sunday)

2008-11-29T16:26:00.006+01:00

So the twins got in on Saturday at 6:30am. They came straight to my apartment and we all slept until like 11, since they hadn't slept at all on the plane. When we woke up, I had bought my fave microwave fondue, so I ran down to the corner and grabbed a baguette and we had some cheese fondue and caught up at my apartment.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we headed up to Sacre Coeur. I couldn't remember whether or not I had actually been in the basilica, so we checked that out and then sat outside for a bit before heading back through Montmartre.

Next we headed down to Pigalle, which is like the Red Light District of Paris. No prostitution (legally, at least) but lots of sex shops, sex shows, and of course the Moulin Rouge. Here is the only picture I took that day:

The Sexodrome decorated for Christmas! Everyone is feeling the holiday spirit! The twins took more pictures. I say this collectively, because while it was Amelia's camera, I think Hayley took the most pictures. When they go up I'll be sure to share.

Then we headed back to the apartment, where we tried to meet up with my friend Melanie, and her friend Megan who was visiting from Barcelona. Megan wanted to buy some tea, and I have a really nice tea shop between my metro and my house, so I sent them there. An hour later they called us back, they had been in the shop the whole time! So at this point they were about a 5 minute walk from my house, and I went to wait outside to let them in (I have 2 door codes and a key to get in, very safe!). I waited for about 10 minutes, then realized they should have been there. I went back in to get my phone, and the twins said Melanie had called and she was lost. My phone can't call out, so I had to wait for her to call AGAIN so she could get to my house! My neighborhood is confusing.

Anyway, eventually they came over, we hung out for a bit, the twins met my roommate Jennifer, and then we went to the hotel. The hotel was really nice! I mean, not REALLY nice, but considering I had only stayed in 2-star hotels in Paris and this was a 3-star, I was pretty impressed. There was one big bed, and two small beds. I will NOT call them twin beds, because they were waaaaay thinner than a twin. Seriously, if I was laying on my back and tried to roll onto my side, I had to be careful not to roll out of bed.

So we left Amelia in the hotel because she was exhausted, and Hayley and I went to try and find Pizza Hut. Ridiculous? Yes. But we love Pizza Hut, so we looked it up on their website and walked to the closest one listed. It was WEIRD AS HELL and it looked like it was only for pick up and delivery, like no one would take our order. So on the twins first night in Paris we had McDonalds in the hotel. I do not regret it.

The next day we slept in because the twins were jet lagged, and because I am lazy. We left the hotel around 11 and walked down rue de Rivoli toward Angelina's. We walked through the courtyard of the Louvre (again, they have the pictures) and then headed back toward rue de Rivoli and got what we were looking for:

Chocolat chaud, yeeeeah! Amelia doesn't do chocolate (I know, right???) so she had a hot vanilla thing that tasted like melted, hot whipped cream aka delicious.
Also we got food:

Hayley had a club sandwich

I went for the quiche Lorraine
And we were in our own little room, so it wasn't even ridiculously embarrassing to take pictures!

The we decided to cut through the Tuileries to get to the Musee d'Orsay, which in all of my trips to Paris I had NEVER been to! But it was freezing rain, and horribly cold, so we tried not to look too miserable.

SEE THE FERRIS WHEEL??? It's at Place de la Concorde. There are TONS of pictures of it in my slideshow because I'm obsessssssed. Oh yeah, and Amelia is in that picture too.

Then we waited in a really long line in the cold and rain to finally get into the museum

Saw some art

Saw the ferris wheel again!

Saw a room we want:

Then we went to the Orangerie (the one that my roommate Lia won tickets to once, but I found out I can get in for FREE!)

THEN I FINALLY GOT TO GO ON THE FERRIS WHEEL

I was THIS excited:

Don't ask my why Hayley's chin is in the air

yeeeah, we kind of picked a bad day. And by we I mean I. But I just couldn't wait!

Then Hayley ate a hot dog.

Then we went back to the hotel and found Pizza Hut. I'm not even kidding, and again I do not regret it. It was delicious.
And that was then end of the first weekend.

C'Tis the Season!

2008-11-29T14:22:00.006+01:00

So, I had great intentions of updating about my sisters' visit while they were here, but I forgot my camera cord at the apartment. I could have gone to get it, but the hotel we were staying at was by school, which is like 45 minutes from my apartment and it didn't seem worth it to me. So now I have a lot of pictures to upload, lots of entries to write, and lots of resting to do, because I'm getting sick.

But it's starting to look like Christmas here (decorations are up! It snowed last weekend!) and so I am in the holiday spirit. You may or may not know that I LOVE Christmas. I really, really do. So I picked a few of my favorite songs from the 220 song (yes, literally) Christmas Music playlist, and created a little mix for you all.

(click for the larger version)

The songs aren't in any real order, but they're either some of my favorite songs, favorite artists, or songs that remind me of friends and family. If you know how to download mixes, enjoy! Just follow the think to the MediaFire page, and click on the link to download. I used MediaFire all the time and I promise it won't destroy your computer.

Anyway, enjoy!
C'Tis the Season!

And I promise I am working on pictures and real blogs in the very near future

Praha

2008-11-21T12:39:00.004+01:00

I LOVED Prague. I really want to go back. We were only there for 2 days, which was not nearly enough time.

Our train got in super early, like 6:30am. We got out the directions our hostel had sent us, which said they were walking distance from the train station. I guess we must have been at a different train station, or something, because the people at the information desk told us we had to use the metro. At that point we were in trouble, because we didn't actually have a map, just directions for how to get to the hostel. We found some guy at the station we were sent to who basically pointed up (duh, we were underground) and told us we were close to where we needed to go.

So we take the escalators up to the street, and what do we see? Golden. Arches. Our hostel didn't even open until 9am, so we had some time to kill. We decided finding the hostel was not a priority, and instead followed the signs to a huge McDonalds.

Oh yeah. Obviously we ordered breakfast and sat down for a bit. At this point we really had no clue where we were in relation to our hostel, so I said, "Well, let's just go this way."

I was wrong. I led us up a hill before Jesse realized that we should probably ask for directions. So she did. And the guy pointed us back toward McDonalds. Back at McDonalds we asked two more men for directions, both of whom pointed us in a different direction than the first. We chose the person who said, "See that building there? Walk to it."

So we ended up in Wenceslas Square. It took about 5 more people before we finally found the hostel, only to be told that check in wasn't until 2pm. So we dropped off our bags at reception and headed back out, this time with a map from the receptionist and a list of key Czech words.

We found ourselves once again we found ourselves on the street. We took a few minutes to and and look at the little market outside our hostel

before deciding it was too cold for that. We headed to a little cafe-ish place for pastries and coffee while we planned out our day. Jesse is big on shopping, and she had asked a friend who lived in Prague to recommend a few vintage stores. So we found the stores on the map and made those our priority for the morning, along with seeing the Charles Bridge.

This first two vintage stores were right near our hostel, then we headed for the river on our way to the third.

We took some pictures from our side, then decided that we would save actually crossing for the next day, when we were going to do the castle.

We walked past the souvenir-y stands along the river and bumped into people we knew! Erin and Elizabeth from CEA were apparently in Prague at the same time we were and happened to be in the same place at the same time!

On our way to the next store we found the town square, with the Astronomical Clock.

We also found a bookstore where I bought 3 children's books. One is in English, Czech and German, another is by Peter Sis, an author I studied in my International Lit class, and the last looks like a poetry book? I don't read Czech, obviously, but the illustrations were soooo cool.

Next came more food! We found someplace with a fixed-price menu that was less than $10US for an entree, dessert, and half a litre of beer.

Yep, still in my pajama shirt. We couldn't change at the hostel so I was still wearing the shirt I slept in.

Okay I officially love Czech food.

A fried block of cheese (giant cheese stick, pretty much) with tartar sauce, french fries and a little salad.

A crepe with custard, whipped cream, ice cream, and chocolate sauce.

At this point we were able to go back to the hostel and check in. Our room was great, we had a six-person room (that was actually two rooms and a bathroom) all to ourselves, which was great. It had a fridge and an electric kettle, too! After all of that food and beer, and having "slept" on the train and woken up at 6:30 we were exhausted and took a nap basically until it was time to eat dinner.

For dinner we walked back to the town square. There were a bunch of booths set up selling food like sausages, and cooked dough and stuff. I got this thing:

Which is chicken and veggies grilled and skewered. Delicious.

After cheap street food, we went to a restaurant for drinks. The girls got hot mulled wine

I had a hot coffee drink. We watched the astronomical clock chime. And then we went back to the hostel and went to bed early.

The next day we woke up and tried to find the Jewish area. We found a couple of synagogues, but that was about it. Oh, and Cartier, where they had already begun to decorate for Christmas!

Then we were starving, so we ate AGAIN

Lamb with rosemary, potato dumplings, and garlic spinach

CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE!

Oh my God, I am such a fat kid.

So then we hit the streets, saw a crazy sculpture

And headed for the bridge. It was actually under construction, but I still got some pictures (more in the slideshow, including some of "The Bridge Band")

On the other side of the bridge we checked out a Starbucks and a book store on our way to the castle! Also on the way to the castle came a billion stairs, which in turn meant lots and lots of pictures. More of those are also in the slideshow.

Then came the castle!

Here I am in front of it! Please note that I am only wearing one mitten. I had the other hand free to take pictures. I'm so glad Lia thought to point it out when we took the photo.

And here is what happened when I tried to go in:

So then I used my impeccable sense of direction to lead us nowhere... we walked around for like 15 minutes and ended up right back where we started, and still had to go back down via the path we had taken up.

I saw Mama in Cinque Terre, in Prague I caught up with Dad:

The walk back over the bridge was not too shabby

That's a good final photo. After that we went back to the street vendors and I had a sausage for dinner. At this point I needed a little bit of cash to get me through the night (and to pay for our cab the next morning). Jennifer and I found an ATM, I out in my card, punched in my PIN and it asked how much money I wanted. I said ~$30US, and instead of giving me money, it told me it was keeping my card and I had to contact my bank. I had put my credit card into the machine, and punched in my debit PIN. So my credit card peaced out in Prague. Luckily I still had my debit, so things are fine, but it's still a hassle.

Once again we headed back to the hostel early because our flight left the next morning at 6:30. We woke up at 4:30 and had a cab come for us at 5:30. Once again, Eastern European cab drivers are insane. This cabbie had seven air fresheners. SEVEN. What could possibly smell so bad that you need SEVEN pieces of cardboard soaked in smelly chemicals? I felt nauseous for a good twenty minutes after we were out of the cab.

Anyway, we got back to Paris in one piece! I had a great fall break, and finished out the weekend by doing absolutely nothing, which is how a school break should end.

Cracovie 2

2008-11-18T00:41:00.004+01:00

Auschwitz

This may sound terrible, but I really don't have anything to say here about Auschwitz. I have a lot of private thoughts, but all I have to say here is that if the opportunity presents itself, you should visit. I'm really glad that I did.
Auschwitz was a full day, and the following night was similar to the first: dinner, drinks at the hostel, late night munchies, then back to the hostel to sleep.

The next morning, Lia and I decided to part ways with Jennifer and Jesse. While they headed to the Jewish quarter to shop, Lia and I headed to Wieliczka! The Wieliczka salt mines have been operating since the 13th century.

The inclusive tours, with transportation, weren't running in the morning, and so Lia and I had to navigate there by tram AND bus. There were a bunch of stops for the bus in Wieliczka and we had to ask the bus driver where to get off for the mines. We started to walk the wrong way to look at a sign and he honked at us and everyone on the bus pointed in the direction we had to walk. Pretty sure a few Polish people got a good laugh at us.

The lines to get in were EPIC! You would have thought it was Cedar Point or something. We had to wait in line for over an hour just to buy our tickets, and then even longer until the English-language tour started.
The tour was 3.5 km and covered less than 1% of the mines!

We walked down a billion stairs

(according to Wikipedia it is actually "some 400" but look at that! That's really far down!)

And we saw a bunch of stuff carved out of salt. Some parts looked like a cave, but none of it actually was. They just looked like it because of the path they carved into the salt. There was even a taxidermied horse. Yeah, I just turned "taxidermy" into an adjective.

There were a few chapels.

That is painted wood. It is 200 years old and has never been restored, because the salt is such an effective preservative. Cool, huh?

That was nothing compared to the biggest chapel

The entire thing was carved by just three men-- and only one man at a time!

This recreation of the Last Supper is just slightly more successful that my family's at Thanksgiving '06

I think they had the advantage though. Stone doesn't laugh, and you can carve as many people as you need.

But I digress. Lia took a picture of me

Then we realized that her alignment was less than ideal, and I appeared to be wearing the chandelier as a hat. Hilarious, but a redo was necessary

Also, apparently everyone's fave pope, JPII, once visited! They commemorated this event with a salt statue

Then came a weird light show and an art exhibit. Apparently there is also a boat portion in the works that looked very much like the best scene of Willy Wonka. So basically, the coolest salt mine ever. I could probably live there if I didn't enjoying seeing sunlight every now and then.

Afterward we found a really simple shuttle that cost as much as a tram ticket and it took us directly back to the city.

We met up with Lia and Jesse at the hostel again, ate some more, and then headed for the NIGHT TRAIN! To Prague!

Such a crazy experience, so glad I did it.

Cracovie 1

2008-11-18T00:07:00.003+01:00

Landing in Krakow gave me little reminder of home: it was already getting dark around 4pm and there was a bit of fog covering barren trees. Depressing? Yes. Like Michigan? Double yes.

We walked right into the airport, picked up our baggage, and were unleashed on the streets. No "Poland" stamp in my passport. The streets, however, were somewhat rural, and we ended up just taking a taxi into the city, rather than trying to jump right into Polish culture by hopping a bus. I am so thankful that I was not in the middle or front seats for our cab ride, or I would have either thrown up on the people beside me or possibly died of a heart attack. Eastern European cab drivers do not mess around. I'm pretty sure we almost died at least a dozen times.

We checked into our hostel, Goodbye Lenin. Highly recommended! It was clean, the staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, and overall it might be the best hostel I've stayed at (though 2GO4 in Brussels is a close second).

My lovely roommate Jennifer showing off our room. We booked a 4 bedroom so we had it all to ourselves, and shared a bathroom with a 12-room dorm. Getting into the bathroom in the morning was interesting (read:impossible), but there was another bathroom by reception that was always open, so it wasn't so bad.

After dropping off our bags, we were hungry, so we asked the girl in reception for a recommendation for traditional Polish food and set off.

Took some gloomy, foggy pictures on the way:

Don't worry guys, we ordered a TON of food:

(this was only our first round)
Obviously, I got pierogies

Jesse and Jennifer liked the first crepe thing so much they both ordered another. I was such a fan of the pierogies that for dessert I ordered STRAWBERRY PIEROGIES OMG. My mouth is watering just at the thought of these:

After eating we decided to walk home.

Lia and I are super mature.

We saw a shrine on the outside of a church

In all honestly, I have no idea what this is. At the corner of Market Square:

On our way home we stumbled upon a church!

And we found out that there was a concert that night at the church! Student tickets were ~$10USD, so we decided to check it out.

Not the best classical music I've been witness too, but definitely a great experience.

Afterward, we headed back to the hostel for a traditional Polish drink. I won't even pretend to remember the Polish name, but it was vodka, with what looked like a giant blade of grass in it, mixed with apple juice. It was soooo good. While we were enjoying our drinks at the hostel, I overhead a kid talking about voting.

Him: "Yeah, there were a few issues on the ballot in my state, namely medical marijuana and stem cell research--"
Me: "Oh hey, you live in MI?"
Him: "Yeah!"
Me: "Where in? I'm from MI too!"
Him: "Near Detroit."
Me: "Like where?"
Him: "Grosse Pointe?"

SERIOUSLY. I bumped into a kid from the Woods in freaking POLAND. He graduated GP North '05, I was South '05. Small. World.

After we a few drinks, Jennifer and I were ready to eat again, so we headed to the corner of our block for kebab. I do not understand why kebab isn't as popular in the states as it is in Europe, because I could seriously eat it every. day. Lia and Jesse went on a quest for candy bars, insisting that they would meet us back to the restaurant soon. They weren't there by the time we finished eating, so what did Jennifer and I do?

We got gelato. In Poland. In November. At night. It was SO COLD. And of course we waited like 20 minutes on a street corner for Jesse and Lia, who if I recall correctly did not even find the candy bar they were seeking.

Once we all met up, we headed back to the hostel for a fairly early night, because our tour to Auschwitz was picking us up at 8am the following morning.

How the French officially won my heart

2008-11-14T14:00:00.001+01:00

Cheese.

And bread.

I went to the grocery store and bought a little plastic tub of cheese, that I pop into the microwave for 2 minutes and then magically have fondue. No effort. No clean up. Just a little tub of hot, melty, delicious cheese.

And Americans have Cheez-Whiz. So unfair.

Clean Up Weekend crew

2008-11-08T00:45:00.002+01:00

So my mom's family is all gathered at the northern homestead for "clean up weekend" and I am missing out. I won't really miss the cleaning, the raking, the cold, taking the dock in, or any other work-like activities. I do, however, miss my family and I'm bummed that I'm not seeing them

So for those of you at clean up weekend (and those of you who are not) I made this really awkward video. It's hard to take yourself seriously doing something like this, so I'm trying really hard not to laugh and I acted like an idiot. What can I say, I really was as uncomfortable as I look. But it's the thought that counts, right?

Anyway, I really miss you all and good luck with all the leaves! I want to see pictures, and since I'm not there I'm counting on Allison and/or Hayley and Amelia to deliver!

My life right now

2008-11-07T02:22:00.004+01:00

November is a CRAZY MONTH for me!

So far already:

- Italy
- Okkervil River concert (great but not epic, and I don't have pictures so it's not really worth its own entry)
- Election night!
- David Sedaris (also great! He read his piece from The New Yorker on undecided voters, as well as a piece he wrote for This American Life about living abroad and he was super super super nice. Village Voice is really tiny and he totally walked around the store even though it was PACKED so he could sign books for people in the crowd both before and after.

Please note the fact that one of those windows is filled with political books and a sign that says, "Thank You Obama, Thank You America" (click the image for a huge version)
We even went next door to Coffee Parisien [an American-style restaurant where I had my first bacon cheese burger in over 2 months with these sweet placemats:
] and when we went back next door David was STILL sitting in the store signing books! He was great. Also my friend thinks she was sitting next to Hugh. We were all pretty much glowing afterward)

And coming up:
-Krakow
-Auschwitz
-Prague
-ridiculous amounts of school work
-Wine Expo for 2 days
-THE TWINS THE TWINS THE TWINS (I do not think I have ever been so excited to see my sisters, seriously)
-Thanksgiving dinner with the Smits

Yeah, this is my planner for the month (keep in mind only the very VERY important school work is included, not normal essays or small-scale presentations or homework)

(click for a giant version)

It should go by pretty quickly! Which I don't really think is a good thing...

Election night in Paris

2008-11-06T22:15:00.003+01:00

Ever since Lia and I went to the VP Debates at Carr's, we had been planning to attend a Young Dems party being thrown the night of the election. I RSVPed early, told everyone who would listen about it, and even got it put into the newsletter for my program.

So clearly, I chose to spend the night elsewhere.

The biggest problem with election night in Paris was the time difference. Election parties ran from 12a-6a, due to the 6 hour difference from Eastern time. Parisian metro's are not open 24 hours. In fact, on weeknights, they technicaly run until 1am. Unfortunately, 1am is NOT when the last train leaves, so to be safe you really want to be on your train closer to 12:30am.

If I had the option to party-hop via metro, I probably would have gone to Palais M, where the Young Dems party was. But I couldn't. My roommate tried to RSVP the day of the party and got an email telling her that they were no longer accepting RSVPs because the venue could only hold 1000 people and 1200 has RSVPed. The idea of spending 6 hours in a room with 1200 people was incredibly unappealing to me, since I tend to get anxious in crowds.

Instead, I opted to join the kids from my program at the same dorm where I went to the Halloween party. My roommates and I grabbed a few bottles of wine and hopped in the metro for the 45 minute trek across town. The kids at AEPP had planned for a very American night, complete with beer pong and hot dogs. I straightened my hair for the first time since being in Paris!

With my friend's Meggie and Melanie, relatively early in the night

They hooked up a computer a streamed CNN live, projecting it onto the wall in a common room.

Photo shamelessly stolen from my friend Kiersten's blog

While things were rowdy until about 1:30, after that it quieted down a bit. There were probably only 20 or so of us awake around ~5am, when CNN announced Obama as the predicted winner. I think growing up through the 2000 and 2004 elections has left me incredibly jaded, because as everyone else began to celebrate, I couldn't get excited. I was so afraid that even though we looked like we had won, it might not be true. It wasn't until McCain took the stage and began his concession speech that it really set it. I was holding champagne in one hand and my roommates hand in the other when I realized I was shaking.

Also stolen from Kiersten's blog

Between the projection and Obama's acceptance speech, people ran upstairs to wake up the American's who had gone to bed, and I have to say that having people running gleefully downstairs in their pajamas definitely reminded me of Christmas, and a really great one at that.

Being that 98% of my programs is ladies, and the acceptance speech came on at 6am, pretty much all of us were in tears when Obama started to speak. It would have been awesome to be at Palais M, but I'm still glad that I was with a group of Americans my age who were as excited about this election as I was. The vibe in the room that morning was awesome, and while no one is really "excited" to be leaving Paris, it makes it a lot easier to face the idea of heading home with the hope for a new administration this January.

We headed home shortly after Obama's speech, getting in a bit after 7am. I hit the couch (certain I wouldn't wake up from my bed) and napped from 7:30-9am. I don't remember my alarm going off. I woke up after it went off a second time, luckily I hit snooze and didn't just turn it off, since I had to be in class at 10:30, ughhh.

The first thing I did when I woke up was check out how the ballot measures were doing. I updated the blog for my Gay class around 9:15 saying that Prop 8 was passing, but not all districts were reporting. I was shocked later in the day to see that it really had. Another tough thing about being abroad for this was waiting so long for bloggers to react! I wanted to read what people had to say, but there was a distinct lull, since most Americans don't really start work until 2pm Parisian time.

PS I didn't go to bed the following night until midnight (for no good reason) so I was awake for 37 hours, with a 1.5 hour nap in the middle. My sleep schedule is fuuuucked.

Anyway, I'm very please with the Presidential result, as well as the passed proposals in Michigan. As for Prop 8, well... it's not over yet.

Cinque Terre

2008-11-05T13:21:00.003+01:00

Cinque Terre might not have been the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life... but I can't think of anything that beats it. Literally breathtaking. It consists of five cities on the northwest coast of Italy, with cliffs along the Mediterranean. The hillsides are covered in vegetation, from vineyards to cacti!

After a freezing, dreary week in Paris it was great to get off the train to a bit more warmth in Riomaggiore (the city we stayed in), despite the rain. Danielle stayed at Eos da Simone, and Simone was waiting at the train station to meet us and walk us to the apartment when we got in. The apartment was great, nicer than the one I live in here! We had 2 bedrooms, one with a twin bed and one with a queen, an eat-in kitchen with dishes, a super clean bathroom with a showerhead I didn't have to hold myself, and best of all a sitting area with TV!

view from the sitting room window

View from our front door

There was a longer panoramic walk that we took into town, along the cliffsides overlooking the ocean. Simone told us how to get from our apartment into the "city center," which is basically like three blocks long and only one street. Super small but super cozy.

We got in around 5, so we went into town and bought local pasta, pesto, and some wine. We also got our first gelato (one of many for Danielle!), and in non-food related activites we looked at a church, where I lit a candle to make up for the one I didn't get to light at the Duomo.

church

Cherry and chocolate gelato

The next day we woke up ready to head to the other cities of Cinque Terre. There are scenic hikes along the cliffs. We bought a ticket to hike and were told that one of the paths was closed for a landslide. Not so good, but we decided to buy tickets anyway so that we could at least do the Villa dell'Amore, a paved path that stretches from Riomaggiore to the next (and I believe largest) town, Manarola.

First we had to go into Riomaggiore to pay Simone, who insisted that we see the harbor. The weather on Saturday was ideal. It was sunny and warm, when the forcast had called for rain. I couldn't have asked for nicer weather

PERFECT

You can't tell, but the water was really rough. They'd been having bad weather all week and the ocean still showed it, even though it's thet beautiful bluee-green color.

Yeah, I was there

Alright so after the habor we walked back over to the Villa dell'Amore

That's the first stretch. As you can see, it's barely a hike.

At the gates (see the hearts?)

The translation for the walk is (roughly) "Lover's walk," so the entire span was covered in lovey-dovey graffiti, but I thought the graffiti on the cacti was most interesting:

Something about Cinque Terre inspired me to climb every set of stairs I could. Yes, lazy little me. I guess I thought I could get cool views from up there, but really they were just higher up. I still had fun climbing all over the place, though

That little dot down there is Danielle

Villa del'Amore also has benches and stuff so you can sit and rest if need be.

I'm not sure if you can even see me in this picture, but the kissing people are like.. the logo, I guess? of Villa dell'Amore.

Once we got to Manarola we stopped for lunch

Seafood pizza, two birds with one stone!

Chocolate and hazelnut gelato

After lunch we decided to try to keep hiking, and at least see how far we could go before we got stopped.

Looking back at Manarola

Oh, you know, palm trees in November.

And, long story short, we eventually reached as far as we could go.

And then we headed back. Remember the graffiti I was talking about?

I love you mama!

And I finished the night with some "small gnocci with a touch of shrimp"

mmmmmmmm

Meaning I managed to reach my goals of gelato, pizaa, pasta and seafood all in Cinque Terre!

Anyway, I took nearly 200 pictures in Cinque Terre alone, so please please please check them out!

Florence

2008-11-03T13:13:00.002+01:00

So for the sake of space I am making this it's own entry, but I should note that I was in Florence for less than 12 hours, and most of this entry will be about travel from Paris.

Ryanair flies uot of Paris-Beauvais airport, which is a little over an hour from the edge of Paris on a good day. Thursday was not a good day. It took us two hours to get from the bus station to the airport, meaning that we got there 3 minutes before they closed check-in for our flight. Now, even though they were closing check in, our flight was delayed. So we got to wait in Beauvais, an airport that probably has 20 chairs. We sat on the floor. Our flight had the worst turbulence I've ever been in, but luckily it was only for a few minutes.

We got into Pisa around 1:30, then had another hour by bus into Florence. We ended up taking a taxi to our hostel and got there just before 3am. We knew would get in late, so we made sure to choose a hostel that had 24hour reception. We started ringing the buzzer to be let in: no answer.

Clearly at this point we were sort of freaking out, since it was 3am and we were in a country where we don't speak the language and we had no idea what to do. We started to call the hostel numbers we had in our confirmation email. The first two went to automated messages in Italian, but finally the third number worked. We spoke to a guy who told us he was at the other location for the hostel, but he would be there soon to check us in.

A little after three we got another call from the hostel guy, telling us that the police had been called to his other location, and he needed to stay and translate. Great. Long story short, Danielle and I ended up sitting for about an hour and a half on the streets of Florence and didn't get into our hostel until 4am. This was especially awesome, since our check out was at 10am. He told us we could stay a little later if we needed, so we stayed until about 11, and he gave us a 9euro discount on the room.

We needed to get to Cinque Terre by 5:30 to check into our new place. We walked past the Duomo and I took some pictures. I would have liked to have gone in, but the lines were insane and we were in a hurry. I got to see the Ghiberti doors reproduction, which was cool. I find myself having constant flashbacks to high school Humanities in Europe. My teachers would be proud.

Clearly I will need to go back to Florence at some point in my life.

Anyway, Italy is hard. We missed some trains, bought too many tickets, and generally were very confused on Friday, but we did make it to Cinque Terre eventually and it was amazing.

PS. I didn't eat in Florence, but I got McDonalds in the train station. Forgive me.

(the first two pictures are of our hostel, it was kind of cool)

Champagne

2008-10-30T16:05:00.005+01:00

So I got my camera back, but Flickr is being finicky today. For some reason my photos just don't seem to want to upload! It wasn't working on Facebook, either. I blame slow internet.

Anyway, last Friday I spent the day in Reims. We had a tour with our class of the cellars at G. H. Mumms, then finished with a tasting. They let us taste their normal champagne, and a glass of their 1999 vintage. Both were delicious, obviously. It was very funny to visit Mumm's after being at the Loire Valley Chateau Nitray, though. Mumm clearly is running this huge operation, mass producing champagne and making a big spectacle out of their cellar tours. Very different from the much smaller scale of production at Nitray.

With an old barrel

My first glass

NASCAR in France? Who knew? Impressed, Dad?

Probably should have used the red-eye correction I have on this one, but I didn't.

Tasting!

The tour finished up around noon, and we didn't have to leave Reims until 5:30, so we went and had lunch (croque madame, obv) and then wandered over to Notre Dame de Reims, a very famous, very beautiful cathedral. It's where the French kings were crowned!

Saw the Chagall stained glass window

And then we were stuck spending the rest of the day in Reims. I probably could have left by like 2, but we didn't leave until 6. So all in all I see no need to go back to Reims, but I did have fun.

And the slideshow:

My camera!

2008-10-29T14:32:00.002+01:00

We have been reunited! Alison Veith is a goddess!

Me+my camera, loving life. Also pictured is Devin the Lion, on Halloween. I am Waldo, from Where's Waldo, my camera is itself.

I'll try to update about Champagne before I leave tomorrow, but I'm going to see Edward aux Mains d'Argent (Edward Scissorhands ballet!) tonight.

I leave for Florence/Cinque Terre tomorrow night!

It's a good day.

Write to Marry Day

2008-10-27T14:01:00.003+01:00

So this is not a political blog in any way, and I cannot vote in California, but for those of you who can please remember to vote No on Proposition 8

Oh yeah and school.

2008-10-26T20:40:00.004+01:00

Midterms are over, I got a B (maybe +? I don't remember) on my writing midterm, which isn't bad considering that I really don't click with the teacher. He just doesn't get me, even though he seems like a nice guy. In one of my papers I wrote, "James Joyce may not even recognize 12, rue de l’Odéon were it not for the plaque commemorating the publication of his famous Ulysses in 1922." His note? "Long dead". Really? REALLY? I KNOW THAT. I'm not stupid. It was a hypothetical statement. Anyway, he's a really nice guy but the class is excruciating and I expect a B in the end, most likely. Although we're reading A Movable Feast right now and I'm actually enjoying it a lot. More than I did Toklas even, which I sort of feel bad about. I'll have to re-read that one later.

And Wine! I seriously thought this midterm was going to kill me. I got a 93.5! Heck yes. I totally owned all the essay questions, but the definitions were last and I sort of choked by that point, what can I say?

Gay Paris's midterm was on Wednesday and I don't have it back yet, but I felt good about the test. I actually felt like I knew the material and I studied, but it wasn't cramming. For Oenology I was essentially memorizing things that I never learned. Everything on the Gay test was stuff that we had discussed and I honestly know.

Oh, that paper? Hm. Yeah, I still need to work on that. I have a ton of quotes typed up, a Works Cited Page going, an outline (which I decided to change... tonight... ugh I am crazy) but only about 1pg double spaced of writing right now. I'm getting frustrated with myself because my writing doesn't sound good, so I'm at a point right now where I just need to get over myself, type out my thoughts, and accept that it's a rough draft. It's not actually DUE tomorrow, I still have time to edit! I just hate knowing that other people will see my work when I know that I can do better, especially since I'm really into the book and my topic.

Also, I went to a Halloween party on Friday in the dorms and ended up spending the night there. I woke up at 7:45am the next morning to leave when the other girls did and I think I left my camera there. I hope I left my camera there. The girls are out of town for the weekend though, so I can't be sure. Operating under the optimisting assumption that I will get my camera back on Monday or Tuesday, I will be updating about Reims, my tour and tasting at Mumm's champagne cellar, and the Halloween party. Well, I'll be doing that either way, but hopefully I won't be making a post about my camera being gone for good. That's the kind of post I don't want to make.

EDIT: I got a B+ on my French test and a 93% on my Gay test. Camera still M.I.A., but hopes are high. I only have like 3 days to find it though, because there is no way that I'm going to Italy without a camera.

Loire Valley 2

2008-10-26T16:54:00.005+01:00

Okay I officially suck at this. It's a week later, I have a rough draft of an essay due tomorrow, and I still haven't finished my Loire update. Oops. So here comes procrastination at it's finest: I just typed up a bunch of quotes for my Nightwood essay, but instead of trying to actually work on the draft I'm updating my blog. Okay so I am also doing research, but the actual writing of the essay is kind of a struggle right now.

ANYWAY, Loire Valley. Sunday.

We went to a wine tasting at Chateau Nitray

We took a group shot

That picture is clickable, so you can actually see the people in it.

We saw the pigeon house

apparently pigeons were a sign of wealth. Who knew? PS that ladder thing the guy is on? Yeah, it totally spins. Sweet.

Saw some wine making stuff

Basket press, tour guide, creepy mannequin thing

Lia and I took a picture on top of the arch

Aaaand I bought three bottles of wine. I bought two bottles of a sweet white that we tasted, one for when the twins visit and one to bring home, and a bottle of Brut that I didn't taste, but it was cheap and I liked all the other wines I tasted there so whatevs.

The last chateau was Chambord, which was amazing. I didn't get any pictures from the front (who knows why) so I had to steal one:

INSANE

Double helix staircase: two spiral staircases intertwined

Looking up through the center of the double helix staircase (there was obviously a crazy bright light at the top)

Looking down the center of the staircase

Exterior spiral staircases

Old school deerblind? Inside the chateau? I mean, it was a hunting lodge...

This entire room was covered in antlers, it was amazing

To give an idea of scale, here is my friend Kiersten in front of one of the walls. The rooms were huuuge

So I didn't get a legit photo of the front of the chateau, but I did get a picture in front of this weird cutout thing

Crazy details

Yet another thing we should implement at Fife Lake: trophy gallery. Ridiculous.

And as usual, here is the slideshow and the Flickr link

Loire Valley: Week-end de Châteaux Part 1

2008-10-22T13:46:00.004+02:00

So we woke up on Saturday morning at 6:15, needing to leave the house by 7:15 to meet up with our bus by 8:15

It was still dark when we left. We had a 3ish hour bus ride before we reached Amboise, where we saw our first château.

We took some pictures from the road, because once you go close it was too big to get in the picture

Also in Amboise is Close Luce, da Vinci's home where he eventually died.

It's the big old brick one back there. This is Close Luce as seen from Château d'Amboise

Because he died in Amboise, da Vinci was actually buried on the grounds of the château. Eventually the grounds were disrupted and his bones were moved into the chapel

The chapel was small but beautiful. All of the stained glass windows were re-done following WWII when they were destroyed by bombings.

Pictures weren't allowed in the chateau, since it's privately owned, but here is a picture of me and my roommates, Lia and Jennifer, from the château. That's the Loire river behind us!

After the château visit, we went out into Amboise for lunch. Lia and I got mousse aux fruits. The only food picture of this trip, I believe

After Amboise we headed to Chenonceau.

You like that scaffolding? Yeah, me too.

History break: Henry II gave the chateau to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers. After Henry died, though, his wife Catherine de Medici took the castle back. The first ever fireworks display in France happened here, too. You know how I feel about fireworks.

Here I am standing in my favorite thing ever:

A human size fireplace. There were beaucoup de human sized fireplaces this weekend, and it only reinforced my strong desire to have one. When I am broke and living in a run down apartment, I will somehow build a human sized fireplace in it. I don't even care. It will happen.

Cane we get a boar's head for Fife Lake?

Martha Stewart, eat your heart out. There are flower arrangements all over the chateau and they are all done with flowers and plants grown on the grounds.

The chateau is built over the river Cher. So cool.

Check this out, Amelia:

The bedroom of Louise de Lorraine.
"Following the assassination of her husband King Henri III by the monk Jacques Clément on August 1, 1589, Louise of Lorraine retired to Chenonceau in meditation and prayer.

Surrounded by nuns who lived in the château as in a convent, and always dressed in white in compliance with the etiquette of royal mourning, she was known as "the White Queen". Her bedroom has been reconstructed around the original ceiling. It is decorated with mourning objects : silver tears, widows' cordons, crowns of thorns and the Greek letter - l - lambda, Louise's initial, intertwined with the H of Henri III."

BADASS, RIGHT?

After we finished in the chateau we headed outside.

The grounds had two formal gardens, a farm, some forest-y stuff and A MAZE.

j/k, we were crouching. The hedges are actually pretty low.

Also, donkeys

That night, our program rented out an entire Château for us to stay in, Château de Razay

Not too shabby

We stayed in the Chateau, but they also had "chalets"

AND TREE HOUSES
I think we should build these on the cousin property at Fife Lake. Treehouses laugh at the threat of wetlands.

And they had animals!

This mini-horse and donkey were bffs. Everywhere the mini-horse went, the donkey followed.

The view from my window at the chateau.

That night we had dinner at a local restaurant, paid for by CEA. We had kir, salad with duck, bread, fish and rice, cheese, dessert and wine.
After dinner we all headed back to the chateau and hung out in the common room playing Psychologist and word games like, "Grandpa likes..." and "What's behind the green glass doors?" Everyone went to their own rooms around midnight except for Lia, Jennifer and I, and two guys who were sharing a room. The guys thought it would be hilarious to try and scare us, and they did a pretty good job of it.

The chateau is in the middle of nowhere, and someone's idea of pleasant decor includes DOLLS. Most notably, a creepy WITCH DOLL

SERIOUSLY, WHAT? I did not take this picture, I had no desire to document it, but luckily Matt did so I can share the horror with you all.

Anyway, Matt and Lee kept saying creepy stuff and Matt actually followed us with the doll at some point and we were pretty much terrified. I made Jennifer and Lia walk me to my room so I could get my bags, because I was going to stay in Jennifer's room. I didn't want to be alone. So then we walked Lia to her room, where Vicky was already waiting to protect her. By the time we got back to Jennifer's room, though, I had calmed down enough that I was ready to tackle sleeping alone.

It didn't help that my room had a fly problem. I have seen one to many An American Haunting episodes to just let that slide. For those who don't know, FLIES ARE A MAJOR SIGN OF IMPENDING EVIL. So I turned on the TV and watched about an hour of Law & Order SVU (dubbed in French) while slowly turning off each light in my room. I slept fine, no ghosts.

I'll have to update about Sunday at another time because this is taking forever and I have to go to class.

CRAZY

2008-10-22T12:16:00.002+02:00

I just finished my last midterm-- hopefully once I finish my French composition I'll finally update about Loire Valley. I had a great weekend and I have TONS to write about but I'll have to wait until I move away from this French keyboard. I feel like Mom, it's taking me forever just to write this.

l'As du Fallafel

2008-10-16T22:35:00.003+02:00

I'm updating about today! The same night! Man, I'm efficient.

So Melanie is going to London this weekend and she had to be at the train station at 5:45. We get out of wine at 4, so we didn't really have time for a museum or anything, so instead we checked out rue des Rosiers in the Marais. It's right by school and packed with Jewish bakeries, and is also home to the famous l'As du Fallafel, hailed as the best fallafel in Paris.

Okay so it doesn't look great, but it tasted pretty good.

The New York Times website ran their 36 Hours travel segment on Paris! Apparently it's going to be in the paper on the 19th, but popped up today while I was trying to read A Brief History of Wine. The wine midterm was brutal, by the way, but actually not as bad as I had thought it would be.

ANYWAY, their 36 Hours in Paris piece is based entirely in the Marais, which as I mentioned is where my school is! Super convenient. They recommend the fallafel shop across the street from l'As, Mi-Va-Mi. Today there was no line at l'As, probably because it was 4pm and no one eats fallafel at that time, but next time I may have to check out Mi-Va-Mi. You know how I feel about lines.

We stuffed our faces in a public park and exchanged French-Hebrew babytalk with a toddler. French moms are apparently far more laid-back than Americans, this kid talked to us for a good 5 minutes and tried to get Melanie to feed her and we couldn't even tell who her mom was. Another kid made a run for it and probably would have taken off if she could have opened the gate. Some poor pregnant woman ended up chasing her down and carrying her over to her mom, who appeared to be chatting with friends.

Anyway, even after eating a ton of fallafel, there was still something missing from our day. After reading the NYTimes piece I wanted fallafel, but Melanie and I had been planning all week to get gelato after the wine midterm, and that craving needed to be satisfied.

BAM! Chocolate and biscotti, mmmmmmmm.

My roommate Lia won tickets to the Orangerie museum but can't use them because she has class at that time, which means I have a free ticket for the Orangerie tomorrow! Jealous, Mom? I know.

And Saturday and Sunday I'll be in the Loire Valley with CEA. We're spending the night in a chateau, which could be cool. So as usual, expect a massive update on Monday, but Thursday got done ahead of time! Go me!

Wine Festival II

2008-10-15T12:13:00.003+02:00

So I got busy, midterms are this week (don't even ask how my terrible English class went... you don't want to know) so I've been pretending to study. I should be studying for tomorrow's wine test, but instead I will finish writing about my weekend!

So after we finally took Melanie's bags back to my apartment, we headed toward Sacre Coeur which is only about a 10 minute walk from my house. We came up from behind (I live north of Montmartre) and were met with huge crowds and tents of food and wine.

Sacre Coeur on the right, tents on the left

I saw more accordians on Saturday that I probably have collectively over the span of my life.

Melanie and I almost died on this street. The crowd got super dense, stopped moving, and then everyone started shoving eachother, sort of like a wine festival mosh pit. It was terrifying.

We checked out a little art gallery and then tried to cut through a courtyard back toward Sacre Coeur. There ended up being a fence in the way, but instead we found some secret tents where we probably were supposed to pay for food...

The free pasta only whetted our appetites, so Melanie and I got adventurous. We both had been talking about wanting to try escargots, when what tent should we stumble upon?

We split an order of 6, and found a seat on the steps up closest to the church.

After that we decided we wanted to grab dinner before the fireworks, so first we walked down the front of the Butte Montmartre, thinking we would find a restaurant down there that would be less crowded/less of a ripoff than the stuff at the top. We didn't. So after walking around Montmartre all day I was pretty unhappy with the thought of climbing back up, so Melanie and I took or first ride on the funiculaire!

I didn't take my own picture (shockingly!) but it's that thing.

Then we went back to the restaurants we originally saw. We checked out the menu of one place, went to sit down (we were seated at the end of a table with a family of 4... this was not a faily style restaurant), and realized they didn't have the fixed price menu we thought they did. So we walked out, Melanie told the waitresss that she was sick, and we went to the restaurant next door. Melanie got moules frites and I got the usual steak frites, salad and chocolate mousse. Then Melanie got gelato ("cookies" and banana flavored, yummm) and we went and staked out a spot on the steps of Sacre Coeur. We chilled for about an hour and a half trying to save seats for people we thought we were meeting up with. Luckily they didn't find us before the fireworks started because the giant spot we had slowly filled in until it was just Melanie and I. Then the fireworks started:

They were hands down the coolest fireworks I've ever seen. They're not as impressive as the Detroit fireworks, but they play music and the whole thing is orchestrated and cued up with the music that was playing, and the crowd was all packed in, singing along and swaying to the music. The fireworks were shot off at the foot of the butte so they were exploding right overhead... and it lasted like 15 minutes.

So after that we met up with two of my roommates who were with their friends-- 2 New Yorkers and 2 Swedes. The Swedes apparently live near us but on the other side of the butte, so we followed them to a few bars before we decided on one. We hung out and had kir and beer. On the way home we made sure to walk by the Moulin Rouge, Jennifer's friend was going back to New York the next day he hadn't seen it. Of course Pigalle on a Saturday night is not the nicest place to be, so we stayed only long enough to snap a couple of pictures and then caught the metro back to our apartment.

Lia's friend Jesse and my friend Melanie spent the night, so our apartment was like a giant sleepover. In the "morning" (lets be real, we didn't wake up until 1) we tried to check out the market at Porte Clignancourt but got discouraged and ended up turning around and getting kebap, as usual. No pictures from then, I was too burned out.

Fête des Vendanges Part1: Parade

2008-10-13T13:35:00.004+02:00

So this weekend was the Montmartre wine festival. The only vineyard in the city of Paris is in Montmartre, which also happens to be my neighborhood. The theme of this years festival was Montmartre in cinema, and there were events like concerts, film screenings and art exhibitions. I only saw one art exhibit, but more importantly I saw the parade, the fireworks, and the tents!

Melanie and I planned to hit up the festival together, and since she lives across town it made sense for her to bring a bag and spend the night. So we planned for her to call me when she was transferring trains so I could meet her at the metro station, then we would walk back to my apartment to drop off her bag and head to Sacre Coeur.

Melanie called me around 4pm. I walked over toward the station and listened to my iPod while I waited for her. All of a sudden I could hear crazy drums and people were running up the stairs past the station, so obviously I followed and found these guys:

A child drum line! So cute

So I ran back and met Melanie and we managed to catch the entire parade. Let me tell you a few things about this parade: first of all, it wasn't like a parade with floats or balloons or anything. There was one car, three creepy giant puppet things, several bands, and then weird groups of people dressed in funny clothes.

They don't close the streets, either. Notice how French people just jump into the street to take pictures of the parade. There are also cars still parked on the street.

What is that?!?! No really, WHAT IS THAT!?! So creepy! There were, I think, 4 of these people, but the others looked like normal humans.

These people were also terrifying. They had painted their faces black underneath the masks so they didn't even look human.

Like I said, no barricades. French people just hop into the street to take pictures

Bodeaux, what up! Check out the angsty preteen in the middle.

Apparently this lady got tired. I can't blame her, since the entire parade route is uphill leading to Butte Montmartre. So she relaxed while this went on:

As I was saying earlier, they don't close the street. So these two women presumably were parked on the road and had to get out. They looked so embarrassed to be driving through the parade and were laughing and covering their faces while people took pictures of them. I snapped this picture while I was walking across the street. During the parade.

Adorable family from the wine museum

Reppin' champage with a giant bottle

Jimmy was there

One of two motor vehicles in the entire parade

I think I could play that weird crank instrument. Now you all know what to get me for Christmas, okay?

Smoking a cigar in the parade, loving life

Crazy hats and outfits

Wooden clogs are not practical for an uphill parade

Hat on the ground, smoking and texting. Awesome.

Cutest little French girls everrrrr

Ummmm, what?

I asked Melanie to take a picture of me with the parade and as she was taking it this tiny woman turned around resulting in the BEST PICTURE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. I was wearing flats here, by the way.

The final group was really weird

And then I saw this guy! In his Michigan shirt!

I'm breaking this entry up, so the fireworks and tents will be a new entry. But here is the slideshow with all of the pictures (I think there are 80 on Flickr, I took over a hundred!)

Petanque

2008-10-13T12:42:00.005+02:00

So on Friday I signed up for a CEA activity. Since I don't have classes I usually try to do the activities (crepes,tree climbing); it gets me out of the house and keeps me from sleeping all day. This week's activity was petanque.

Petanque is like the French version of bocce ball. There are four players, one person throws a wooden jack and then everyone tries to throw their ball (each person has 2) closest to the jack. The biggest difference is probably that there is no real court, it's just dirt. Also the balls are solid metal, super heavy, and you throw them with your palm facing down, you don't roll them. You can "point," which is just throwing to get nearest the jack, or you can "tires," which is when you try to knock the other person's ball away.

When we showed up at the petanque court there was a sign that said, "Club Petanque du Marais," but we were playing in a public park which is free, so we went in anyway. Some super old lady came up to us and rattled off some bitchy French about how the club was playing. Whatever, we'd stay on our side of the court and we wouldn't bother them. Then she walks over to her sign, picks it up, and walks past us while holding it up next to her face and pointing. It was hilarious.

While we were playing she came over a few times, each time becoming gradually more friendly until she eventually invited us to join her club! It's only 7€ but you can only sign up in February. Bummer. As we were leaving she informed us, "Je suis presidente du club petanque." Pretty big deal, guys.

Caitlin, Sarah, me and Sam (the entire afternoon group)

Caitlin is pointing to MY BALL! I got a point! I actually got 3, overall. You technically play to 13 points, but we don't really know how long we played because Caitlin stopped keeping track of her points. Pretty sure she won.

Facebook album here, which also includes a couple of pictures from dinner at Melanie's house. Her host mom was out of town this weekend so we went over and had dinner and then ate a ton on macarons from Arnold Delmontel. I wanted to go back to Arnaud Lahrer but they apparently are closed from 1-3:30pm so I had to go next door. Not as good, but we got a bunch of delicious flavors to try (and a few no-so-delicious ones)

Also tacked onto the end of this post:
Thursday Melanie and I took our usual field trip, this week to Palais de Tokyo, which is a contemporary art museum near the Eiffel Tower in the 16th. A couple posts back you can see the sweet view of the tower from next to the museum. Entrance was only 1€ with our Louvre cards, which was great because I will most certainly be going back with the twins. It was probably one of the coolest museums I've ever been to.

It's the only museum in Paris that is open until midnight. They have no permanent collecting, and instead give experimental artists a place in central Paris to exhibit. The emphasis is on interactive art and installations and it had a huge open warehouse feel to it, even though the exterior looks like this:

(but I don't think that thing is on the roof anymore)

The website's description of the exhibition I saw:
"Every year the Palais de Tokyo invites an artist to take on the role of curator and
come up with an out-of-the-ordinary project. Enlisting the help of
quite a few collaborators, Jeremy Deller, a winner of the prestigious
Turner Prize, has devised an exhibition that defies categorization
where the protagonists can escape being defined as artists and the
objects presented are not always apprehended as works of art."

Joe Jonas

2008-10-13T12:19:00.002+02:00

Can we please talk about how THIS was RIGHT BY MY SCHOOL.

That is rue Rambuteau, literally 2 blocks from CEA Global Campus where I walk at least twice a day, at least 4 days a week. I WAS THERE ON FRIDAY. WHY DID I NOT SEE HIM?

By the way, it's right next to Centre Pompidou, if you were wondering why Joe Jonas was chilling at my schol.

You know, just grabbing a crepe in his purple velvet suit with silver shoes.

My life is amazing

2008-10-13T00:22:00.002+02:00

This weekend was incredible, major updates to come!

Palais Tokyo museum, petanque, Montmartre wine festival (parade and fireworks!)

JENNY LEWIS

2008-10-10T13:24:00.004+02:00

Okay so I am basically copying this entry from messages sent to friends the night that I got back from the Jenny Lewis concert, so I sound super dorky and incredibly excited... I was.

Background info for the old or uninformed: Jenny Lewis is the lead singer from the band Rilo Kiley (one of my all time favorite bands). She released a solo album awhile back, did another album/tour with Rilo Kiley, and then just released a new solo album this fall, which she's now on tour promoting.

So I went to see Jenny Lewis Wednesday night at La Maroquinerie. Her show ended around 10:30 so we hung around the bar above the venue after the show and long story short I hung out with Johnathan Rice (a musician/Jenny's boyfriend) and the rest of her band, Benji Hughes (the opening act) bought us beers and I met Miss Lewis herself, who I have loved and idolized since I was 15 years old.

She wouldn't let us take pictures because she had already washed her face. Then my friend asked if anyone had a pen and I was like, "Kiersten, I an going to be an elementary school teacher. You know I have a Sharpie." and Jenny was like, "Really?" and I was like, "Yeah" and she was like, "Make sure you don't lose your cool, they really need it."
SO BASICALLY JENNY LEWIS SAID I WAS COOL.

The venue was incredible, SUPER small so I was like 5 feet away from the band when I was in the middle of the crowd. AND she played a bunch of songs from Rabbit Fur Coat (her first solo album which I LOVED)! I thought it would be all new stuff since she's promoting the new album right now, so I was pleasantly surprised. Not that I don't like the new album, I just haven't memorized all the songs yet.

I took a billion pictures and you KNOW there will be a slideshow and you should look at my Flickr, but I still want to post some of them here because I am still so happy I met her, and her concert was amazing, she sounded great, her band sounded great, and now I don't feel so bad about missing Rilo Kiley this summer to spend an extra night at Fife Lake.

Jenny and Johnathan

Jenny and the bass player whose name I totally forgot

I also too videos, which are on facebook but unfortunately I don't think you can see them if you're not on Facebook. I tried to upload them to mu Flickr but for some reason it doesn't seem to be working. But if you're my friend on Facebook definitely watch the videos, they're great!

And the Flickr link and slideshow: Enjoy!

Nuit Blanche

2008-10-10T12:17:00.002+02:00

ahhh I'm so behind on updating!

Last Saturday (almost a week ago, EEK!) was Nuit Blanche (translation: White Night), which is an art event that takes place all over the city of Paris.

It's based around the train stations and the city is covered in really cool art installations. We saw a photo exhibit projected on screens with music playing, walked through a garden with some sort of spoken-word audio exhibit (my French wasn't good enough to get that) and saw some installation where there were a bunch of rubber duckies with European flags floating in a fountain-type thing.

I can't really explain, but the event itself was incredibly cool. The thing I was bummed about missing the most was Patti Smith. She had a concert at Saint-Germain-des-Pres church that would have been incredible, but it filled up before we could get in.

The ducks

These were three screens projecting photos to music in the middle of an orangerie (not THE orangerie, though)

My roommate Jennifer has a good entry about Nuit Blanche in her blog (which also has great entries about fashion week, for those of you into that kind of thing), too, with pictures of us. I didn't take any pictures of people that night.

I did, obviously, take a picture of my late-night sandwich grec, though

mmmmm... sorry, Dave. I DO NOT REGRET IT ONE BIT! 5euros of deliciousness.

Tree climbing

2008-10-08T12:54:00.002+02:00

You guys.

I am so good at tree climbing.

Nope, not really. It was fun, but for awhile my rope wasn't working, so I would managed to drag myself about 3 feet into the air and then would slide down the rope. After that problem was eventually resolved I was exhausted from all of my climbing nowhere. I only made it about as high as the lowest branch in the tree, and the only pictures of me climbing are of me dangling right above the ground.

So I am pretty much awesome. And then I decided that it was way too hard to climb to the top of the zipline, so I didn't do it. I still had an awesome time though, and I wish I knew where I could go tree climbing in the States because I know people (Bryana, Jamie) would have a blast with it. I wish the Sorbonne kids could have come too, but c'est la vie.

I made another Facebook album of these, but it's once again public so you don't need an account to see.

Gay Paris

2008-10-08T12:44:00.002+02:00

Last Friday after tree climbing I went and checked out 27, rue de Fleurus, which was the home of Getrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. I blogged about it for my Gay Paris class and you can check it out here.

Or you can just look at the pictures

The French really like Americans

2008-10-06T12:48:00.003+02:00

Especially Dubya

So as everyone knows, the Vice Presidential debates were last Thursday at 9pm. Unfortunately for us, we don't have a TV, let alone a TV with cable news to watch the debate. So what did we do?

Lia and I went to a debate meet up at a bar in the first! The Young Republicans and Young Democrats have been hosting debate watching parties and we went to our first one on Thursday night. Except because of the whole time-difference thing, it was really Friday morning. 6 hours. Do the math. I'll give you a minute. Yeah, that's right, the debate started at 3am Paris time.

So Lia and I called a cab (and by that I mean Lia called a cab, and thank God because I don't think I could handle doing it in French) and got picked up at 2:15 to go to Carr's near the Tuileries.

It was really cool, but also pretty weird. We haven't been hanging out with Americans when we go out, only at school. So when you walk into a bar where everyone is speaking English and you can just strike up conversations with people, the culture shock sets right back in.

They had two large screens projecting in two rooms, and two smaller TVs behind those, which is where the sound was coming from. We had to keep quiet, and the bar owner actually muted the TV and yelled at us when people were cheering, since it was like 4am in the center of Paris.

It was a fun experience, but I don't know if I'll do it again for the next debates. We didn't get home until 5:30 and I have to say that waking up the next day (for tree climbing!) was pretty brutal.

We did get an invite from the Young Dems to an election night party that I really want to go to, though. It starts at midnight and will probably run pretty late (since concession speeches probably won't happen until like 4am our time, ack!), especially since it's a Tuesday night and I have class on 10:30am Wednesdays, but I really really want to go. Plus they claim they're have bagels and cream cheese! Who could say no to that?

La poste!

2008-10-01T21:55:00.002+02:00

I got my second piece of mail today-- the first being my absentee ballot.

Apparently local political candidate Mary Treder-Lang really is making me the priority. She's pushing so hard for the absentee vote that she spent $1.50 to send me a giant post card!

Too bad I didn't (and don't) plan on voting for her.

Should anyone other than Mary Treder-Lang be interested in sending me mail, my mailing address is:
c/o CEA Paris
6, rue de Braque
Paris, France 75003

Don't worry guys, it's just a mailing address, not where I actually live. Also fun fact: the last two digits of the zip code are the arrondissement. For example, you can see that my school is in the 3rd. My apartment is in the 18th so that address is 75018.

Also, I bought boots at Zara yesterday

They were heavily discounted and actually in my size, so basically I had to have them. Plus it's fashion week right now and I keep seeing beautiful people everywhere (my school even has a modeling agency in the same building)

Here are a couple pictures from last Thursday when the tents started going up:

Hotel de Ville (by school)

Place de Concorde

And the reason I was at Place de Concorde:

Melanie and I went on another Thursday field trip! We decided to go to the Richard Avedon exhibit at the Jeu de Paume, since it closed that weekend

There was a really long line

But it moved quickly enough.
Overall the exhibit had positives and negatives. The photos were incredible, it was especially cool to see his prints for Harpers Bazaar with his notes all over them. The biggest problem was probably the size of the collection. The Jeu de Paume is not a big museum by any means, and there was 250 portraits featured! It got to be rather overwhelming, especially with the crowds for closing weekend.

Sorry this entry is all over the place (and in reverse chronological order), I need to get better at updating as things happen, but I think we all know how lazy I am...

Degustational update:

2008-10-01T00:47:00.005+02:00

This post is sort of non-linear. I'll pretend it's a literary tool that I'm intentionally using, rather than admitting that I just really wanted to get the Versailles blog written as soon as it happened.

Saturday night Lia and I were sort of staying in, while Jennifer was in Amsterdam and Vicky went out with some guy from her French class. Lia and I have both been horribly afflicted with an inexplicable chocolate craving. At home I constantly crave salty foods, here it's mainly chocolate (and frites mmmm). Anyway, Lia and I decided that rather than sitting around doing nothing on a Saturday night, we would have a date!

We both drank some wine (my Bordeaux from Lavinia was suuuuper dry) and then walked down to a little cafe by our metro stop. We had noticed that this certain cafe always seemed to have people at it, no matter the time of day, and figured that was a good sign.

We made an EXCELLENT decision. My mom had reminded me earlier that I needed to eat profiteroles in Paris, so ordered a glass of rose and profiteroles. The waiter wasn't happy with my pronunciation and made sure to correct me when ordering. Then, when he presented the dessert he pointed at the plate and said, "Comment dit?" and made me repeat the proper French pronunciation.

I couldn't be mad though, because really:

OH
MY
GOD
If you don't know or can't tell, profiteroles are cream puffs. These happened to be served with a hot chocolate sauce, a giant pile of whipped cream, and sliced almonds.

I could drink that sauce. It was SO GOOD. So was the wine. Lia and I plan on checking out as many local restaurants for dessert as possible from now.

Aaaaand then on Monday I had gelato AGAIN. I wish I had my camera, you guys. I went back to the gelato place by school that does the rose shape, only this time I got tiramisu and dark chocolate. The inner part was tiramisu and then there were dark chocolate "petals" on the outside, it was beautiful. Also delicious.

Versailles!

2008-09-29T12:52:00.004+02:00

This weekend was my school's excursion to Versailles. A group of 60 of us took the train on Sunday and we were there from 1pm-6pm. I've been to Versailles when my family came to Paris when I was in high school. Because of that, I wasn't too disappointed that the chateau itself was SUPER crowded. There's currently an exhibition by Jeff Koons that was really cool, so I pretty much rushed through the main chateau taking pictures of the Jeff Koons sculptures. I hate crowds and try to avoid being in them for too long. I did really love the sculptures though, even though everyone else seemed to hate them. I was especially fond of the balloons-- the dog, flower, bunny and especially the balloon in the hall of mirrors (once again comes the reminder that photoquality is dramatically compromised by the 400pixel width of my blog. To see the pictures as they're meant to be seen, check out my Flickr!) I also used pretty much any reflective surface possible to take pictures of myself. Do you see me? Hint: I have a pink sweater on Self-portrait with bear (see me back there?) In the hall of mirrors In the balloon in the hall of mirrors I also hit the gift shop here HARD. I got these awesome hologram postcards for my little cousins, and then I figured since I was buying things anyway, I might as well get books. And so I bought my first children's book of the trip. The Monument book is actually awesome, and I think will make a great addition to my classroom. I also bought a paperback about French history that is poorly translated from English. My friend Katie bought the same one. Katie and Joanne digging into 100 Dates of French History Told to Children The weather was beautiful and it was really warm, so obviously I bought MORE ICE CREAM! Also because of the whole fountain thing they were piping music through the gardens in the afternoon, which made for some very cool video.

Toward the later part of the afternoon we settled down by the water and people watched and walked until it was time to leave. My roommate Vicky forgot her camera, and Joanne's batteries died so I ended uptaking 80+ pictures throughout the day. If you'd like to see more you can check out My Flickr as usual, or glance through the slideshow below.

Gelato

2008-09-27T14:14:00.004+02:00

Yeah, yeah, I know it's Italian. But the fact of the matter is that I have not been to Italy, and I love pretty much all forms of sweet frozen dairy treats. As such, I had gelato TWICE this week!

On Wednesday, my French class met up at Luxembourg Gardens to start a little... scavenger hunt, I guess? Anyway, there was a gelato stand in front of the gardens and I have to say, the cone of tiramisu gelato was the best part about that whole debacle. We had to follow a map that our professor gave us and answer questions that we were given in French. We couldn't answer ANY of them, so near the time we should have been finished, we ducked into a papetrie and asked the men at the counter to help us. It was an authentic experience in that they didn't speak English so the entire exchange took place in French, but at the same time I think we were supposed to speak to French people who already KNEW the answers we were looking for. These guys just made use of Google, which admittedly is probably what I would have done in their position.

On Thursday I normally don't have class until 2pm, but I had to meet up with a classmate at 11am to work on a project. We were done by 11:30, which left me with a bunch of free time. Luckily we had a paper due in my wine class, so it wasn't long before other classmates started showing up. I bumped into my friend Melanie, who has become my partner-in-crime when it comes to eating. We decided that lunch was in order before class, so we walked down the street to a Lebanese place. I had some sub-par schwarma (not worth photographing) and she had some delicious little treats that we don't know the name of. We were pretty full, but still had a few minutes to kill before class, so we wandered over to another gelato store. That's right, twice in 24 hours, bitched.

I ordered "Pamplemo Rosa," which was appropriate since the whole schtick of this shop is that they scoop your gelato in the shape of a rose!

mmmmm pink grapefruit

This is the second in a series of pictures we call, "Caitlin Holding Stuff," as documented by Melanie. You may recall the picture of me holding my Louvre card (that is now my facebook default). That's the first. We tried to find something I could hold at the Richard Avedon exhibit we went to that afternoon, but were unsuccessful.

Karl

2008-09-27T01:05:00.002+02:00

Every time I walk past a glasses store I get a quick reminder of my uncle Karl.

Karl has been wearing the same round frames forever, basically. At least as long as my memory serves and I would guess probably since before I existed. Apparently he was way ahead of the curve because round frames are EVERYWHERE right now. I don't see them being worn very often, but they are prominently displayed all over the place in a multitude of colors. I snapped this pair on my way to class.

Not so much a reminder of home, but a reminder of family. In a way it's comforting, but it's also just another reminder of someone I love that's far away from here.

One last one

2008-09-22T14:14:00.003+02:00

Okay, in case you didn't think I updated enough today, there's still more!

I have a few hours in the computer lab between classes, which is a good amount of time to spend updating, especially after I took so many pictures this weekend.

I had a few pictures that didn't make it into the photoset from earlier, because they weren't a part of the actual Gay Paris search. In wandering around I stumbled upon a few personal points of interest

A really dark picture of Vicky and I at Saint Sulpice

Pierre Herme, a shop famous for it's macarons. The line was out the door on Sunday afternoon while we walked from Saint Sulpice to Saint Germain des Pres.

Shakespeare and Company!

And my personal favorite:

Sandwich Grec! mmmmmmmmmm gyro with french fries. This thing was the size of my head and was only 4,50€
My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

In case you haven't noticed, I updated a TON today, so definitely keep reading, there are lots of new posts!

Gay Paris

2008-09-22T13:08:00.005+02:00

I missed my Gay Paris class on Wednesday because I wasn't feeling well. We had an "excursion," which means class was held in the city! Our task for the day was to find locations that were given to us by our professor. The locations were chosen from the book Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, which we're reading in class.

Since I missed class, I took my roommate Vicky with me out to try and find the places I was given. I took 35 photos, which is way too many to copy into the blog, but they're in a photo set on my Flickr with really brief descriptions of what each picture is. I also tried something new this time. I created a slideshow of the photo set, so that hopefully you can just click through the pictures right here in my blog. Unfortunately the slideshow doesn't have descriptions, and the images are smaller than the originals. So, if you're really interested in seeing the pictures, I definitely recommend going to my Flickr, but if you only have a few seconds definitely try to click through the slideshow.

I visited a couple churches, and some streets and adresses that are probably pretty inconsequential to anyone who isn't reading the book, but by far the coolest place I visited was Cimetière de Picpus (Picpus cemetery). Picpus is located in the 12th arrondissement, near Place Nation. Nation is where the guillotine was set up during the French revolution, and Picpus happens to be the burial ground of those executed during the summer of 1794. There were 1306 people executed by guillotine, including 16 Carmelite nuns, all of whom are buried in a mass grave at Picpus.

In the years following the Revolution, the land was purchased by a family whose members were executed and buried in the mass grave. According to the information I was given at the church, "they realized that all these unfortunate victims had been buried in haste, without any religious ceremony, and that nobody would ever come and pray at their graves. For that reason, they decided to create a sacred place for prayer and meditation, they bought the surrounding land and built a chapel. They requested the nuns of a neighboring community, the Sacred Hearts of Mary and Jesus, to set up a perpetual praying service for the souls of the victims."

There are a lot of cool cemeteries in Paris, and this one is one of the most interesting. It's not very well known, there were probably only 4 other people there while Vicky and I visited. There are two small portions of cemetery, the mass grave and a seperate area where family members of victims are buried. Most notable of these is probably the American General Lafayette. His wife's family members are buried in the mass grave, and so he and his wife are buried right next to it. His grave has an American flag on it, and is very well-kept by the Paris chapter of the Daughter's of the American Revolution. Who even knew that the DAR had a Paris chapter? Not that it's suprising...

Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend visiting Picpus cemetery and chapel. It's a 3€ entrance fee, but well worth it. You'll gain access to the chapel, and when you walk past the chapel you go through a big metal gate into a huge courtyard with a tree-lined walk to the cemetery. I think part of it's charm is that the grounds are incredibly beautiful, but not immaculately maintained. It's still in the care of the nuns, rather than being over-groomed. The focus is very much on the victims and the cemetery still. And the grounds are all in the middle of a city block. There's a very well-hidden entrance, and then you walk into the block and around all sides of the property there are schools and a hospital... only the door faces the street.

If you do go, I also recommend making sure that you look up good directions first, I almost missed it! The only sign is about the size of my palm, you can easily walk past. The website I linked to earlier gives pretty good directions, just know that you'll have to keep a look out to find it.

Incredibly belated Sacre Coeur post

2008-09-22T12:47:00.005+02:00

We went to Sacre Coeur for Lia's birthday on August 31st, but I didn't take any pictures of US, only of the church. This weekend my roommate put the pictures of us on facebook. They're weirdly blurry (taken with a self-timer) but still worth posting. My camera took really great pictures of the church, but I didn't (and still don't) know how to use my self-timer, so we used Vicky's for the group shots. But yeah, here they are:

My pictures:

Looking up the hill to the church

From behind

The front

Vicky and Jennifer's pictures:

I'm starting to get really frustrated by the width of the layout and how it totally cuts off my pictures, but I can't figure out what to do about it yet.

Friday, September 19

2008-09-22T12:10:00.006+02:00

Friday was my roommate Jennifer's birthday. We planned on doing the Bateaux Mouches and then hitting up the Eiffel Tower, but of course we didn't end up leaving the house until 10pm. We live about an hour by metro from the Tower and the last boat leaves at 11pm. We decided not to try to make the boat.

It's a good thing we didn't try to rush to the boat, because we found out on our metro ride that the line we needed was closed before the stop we were trying to get. If we tried to go to Bir Hakim it would have taken about an hour to get to the Tower, and we decided to go to Ecole Militaire because it was only a 35 minute metro ride. Of course the line we needed was closed, and no other lines run to Ecole Militaire. So then we needed to get ourselves to Bir Hakim, which was only mildly confusing. Long story short, we were on the metro when we saw the Tower sparkling at 11, but by the time we got off the metro it was done (the Tower sparkles for 10 minutes every hour from dark until 2am).

Currently, the Eiffel Tower is blue with a ring of stars (the twelve stars of Europe), just like the EU flag! It's to celebrate the French presidency of the EU. I think it's also because they knew I was comnig back, and they wanted me to be able to take even more pictures of a landmark I already have a billion pictures of.

My roommates and I! Vicky, Lia, me and Jennifer

We met some Croatian guys, and shared a bench with some girls playing guitar. We drank Riesling to celebrate Jennifer's birthday, since she's a big fan of sweet wine.

A terrible picture of me standing behind the Tower while it was sparkling

Roommates in front of the sparkling Tower: Lia, Vicky, me and Jennifer

Sparkling Tower!

During the day Friday I took a class at CEA on making crepes! Guys, I am SO good at it.

mmmm leftover crepes

Me making crepes!

I have more pictures of crepe making and the Eiffel Tower on Facebook. The album is public, so you shouldn't need an account to see it, just click on the link!

Lavinia

2008-09-21T20:32:00.002+02:00

While I wait for Flickr to upload some of the pictures I took today, I'll update about my class on Thursday. I had planned to take pictures here, but when I pulled out my camera to take a picture of the exterior, my battery died. Luckily I plan on going back with my roommates so I'll try to take some pictures next time.

My wine class was held in this incredible store called Lavinia. Lavinia was founded in 1999 with their first store in Madrid, followed by a Barcelona location in 2001, Paris in 2002, and subsequent locations in the Ukraine and Switzerland. The director of the store spoke to us and was so nice. Lavinia was founded with the intention of making wine more accessible to everyone. Their clerks are incredibly well informed, multi-lingual, and super friendly and open to questions. They hold classes and have memberships available.

The Paris location is 1200 square meters! That's almost 4000 square feet! It's three stories, with the lower level housing an enormous wine collection divided by geographic location. There was an entire wall dedicated to my region, Bordeaux. Most of the bottles of Bordeaux were priced between 20€ and 60€ (I bought the second cheapest bottle I could find, which was 9,90€). The shop is kept at exactly 19 degrees Celsius, with controlled humidity levels and a special foundation to keep the rumble of the subway from disturbing the bottles. The more expensive/more fickle bottles of wine are kept in a special "cave" (cellar) that is 14 degrees. Inside the cave I saw the most expensive bottle of wine I've ever encountered: 10 000,00€. That's like a $15,000.00 bottle of wine! AND I saw a bottle of Hennessey that was 30 000,00€! A $45,000 bottle of Hennessey! Insane!

The rez-de-chaussez, or ground floor, has a wall of food and wine pairings. For example there was "tarte aux pommes" (apple tart) and below that they had 3 different wines that would pair well with that dish. Also throughout the store there are little round, colorful tags that denote certain wines that are recommended by the sommeliers, certain "vins bio" (organic wines), and wines that were under 10€ (the yellow tag, which I am a big fan of!). Also on the ground floor they have a tasting area. You buy a prepaid card in denominations ranging from 15€-50€ and you can taste wines! You can taste wines that you may be interested in buying, or you can taste wines you could never afford. For example, a taste (3mm in the glass) of Chateau le Tour will run you 25€, but I saw some you could sample for as little as o,80€.

The first floor (which is the second floor to Americans) housed a collection of spirits. They obviously have far fewer spirits than they had varieties of wine, but I saw things like Glenfidditch, Bacardi, and even Pucker (sick). Also in that area they had several books, every variety of wine glass you could imagine, and a huge collection of carafes. There is also a little cafe-type area on that floor, where you can get food and if you buy a bottle of wine in the store they'll open it for you and you can drink it there free of charge at either their indoor cafe-area or a little terrace outside.

It was a very cool shop, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in wine. I was super intimidated because I don't actually know anything about wine yet, but their entire premise is that they want to be open to everyone and a comfortable environment to ask questions, and it certainly is! It's at metro Madeleine on 3, boulevard de la Madeleine in the 1st.

2008-09-13T15:46:00.006+02:00

Double update today. I thought the Pope visit deserved it's own separate entry, so when you finish reading this one don't forget to keep going! I have pictures and video and it was really cool, I wouldn't want you to miss out on it!

On Friday I don't have classes, but I didn't want to waste the day so I woke up and went out to lunch with Vicky and her friend Francois. Francois goes to Georgia State but has been living in France for a bit and was in Paris for a few weeks before he leaves. We met up at Gare du Nord and wandered around a bit trying to figure out where to eat. We're all pretty indecisive but Francois suggested kebap and we all agreed that sounded good.

I didn't take a picture of all of us together, but I obviously took a picture of my lunch.

mmmmm I had a Sandwich Grec Kebap. Do you see ALL THAT FOOD? (EDIT: no you don't, because the blogspot layout cuts off the bread they gave me, plus you can't tell that plate is humongous). That plus a Coca Light was €6.50. I was so full, it was awesome. I could totally go for more of that right about now.

On the way back to the apartment Vicky and I finally decided we needed to find the macarons shop. Oh. My. Gosh. It was beautiful

LOOK AT THAT. How could you not want to eat them all? I exercised some level of restraint and only bought two: coffee and dark chocolate. Did I say OH MY GOSH yet? They were heavenly, incredible, remarkable, there are not enough adjectives. I can see why they are famous. Tragically my two macarons cost €2.44, so they won't be a regular indulgence, but I can't imagine not going back for more. The saleslady hated us, though. We couldn't really communicate the fact that we were still looking and she got pissed. I bought stuff, though! Next time we need to go to the bakery next door, which is also fairly well known. And we found an independent wine shop. So that next block down seems to be a pretty amazing place.

Then I went and saw the Pope.
On the way home I went through the Concorde station, where I am constantly reminded of home/Michigan

I came home from early from seeing the Pope because we had plans to go out. Vicky knows a guy here who is Greek, and one of his friends had a birthday party last night. They told us they would pick us up and drive us home, and the offer of cars was all we needed.

Vicky's friend Nicolas doesn't speak English, only Greek and French. In the car, whenever I would talk to Vicky in English he would yell and me and tell me I could only speak French, otherwise I won't learn the language. But even though he wouldn't let me speak English, he was speaking almost exclusively Greek! They took us out to this really weird/cool bar in the suburbs. It was circus themed! You walked up to the front and paid cover at a ticket booth like you would at a carnival, and then walked through this tented hallway into a big circus tent! There was a dance floor in the middle of the tent and a bar along one side. Nicolas went straight for the dance floor and he won Vicky and I t-shirts. I now have a shirt that says "Don't Stop the Party" (in English) from France haha.

Going out with French speakers was very cool, and everyone seemed helpful. I met some guy (whose name I didn't get) who was a friend of Nicolas that spoke English. He was a total sweetheart because his English was about as good as our French, so we would try to speak French to him and he would try to speak English to us. It was probably the best conversation I had all night. And a guy named Julien tried to teach me a French handshake haha. It involved bumping fists and half hugging and all the normal stuff you would do in the states, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that. I also didn't really learn is so much as just mirror him for a few minutes.

Everyone was incredibly nice, teaching us phrases and helping us to pronounce words. The circus club closed around 2, so then we went back into the city to a bar, only to have that bar close at 3. At that point everyone else was headed on to another bar, but we only stayed long enough to say goodbye. We were all tired, and a certain roommate was dying for food. I didn't get to bed last night until 5, which means I didn't wake up today until noon.

Catacombs probably aren't going to happen this weekend. Also, we were supposed to go buy books, which I mentioned in an earlier entry. The bookstore is closed today because of the Pope! I have homework due on Monday from the book that I don't have, so I've been trying to find classmates on Facebook to borrow the text from, but so far no responses. From the looks of it we're vegging out here and then probably going out again tonight. We may go out with Nicolas and his friends again if they have the room to take us, or we may go to a club near Sacre Coeur. So of my list of weekend to-do's I have completed two already, and it looks like the other two will need to be bumped back for next weekend.

Don't forget to keep reading for the Pope visit!

2008-09-13T14:31:00.004+02:00

Oh
My
Gosh.
Papal rendez-vous complete.

The Pope was supposed to be headed to Notre Dame between 6:45 and 7, but my roommates had class from 5-7, so I had to go by myself. It takes 30-40 minutes to get from my house to Notre Dame, and the papeaparis website said that the Metros would be running as usual, so I left my apartment at 6. I had planned on taking the 1 line to Hotel de Ville, by school, and just walking down to the Cathedral, but then Jennifer told me the 4 goes to Cite, which is the stop nearest Notre Dame and the 4 is the line I usually take to class so it seemed like a better plan.

The Pope website lied. They closed the station at Cité (which is a really creepy looking stop by the way, and looks even creepier when it's completely deserted) AND the next stop at St. Michel. So everyone was forced off at Odéon, which confused pretty much every person who was trying to see the Pope. So there were huge crowds of confused people all stumbling out onto the street and just stopping and clustering... pretty much the opposite of my idea of fun. I walked down onto St. Germain away from everyone else, pulled out my Paris Practique (a little map book type thing that CEA gave us) and figured out the best way to get to Notre Dame.

I planned on walking to St. Michel and taking the Pont St. Michel (bridge) across there. Of course, once I actually reached the bridge they weren't letting people onto the island there. Notre Dame itself is on an island in the middle of Paris called Île de la Cité, which is only accessible by three bridges on either side (and also the previously mentioned Cité metro stop). St. Michel is the middle bridge, the bridge closest to Notre Dame was completely closed, with no one allowed on it. At this point I just started following the crowds. We walked to the far end of Île de la Cité, since apparently Pont Neuf was the only point of access open at the time. Fun fact: Pont Neuf is called the "new bridge," but is currently the oldest bridge in Paris.

As I was crossing the bridge I got a call from my roommates. When I explained to them that the area was a total madhouse, and that the nearest metro stops were closed and the bridges were closed... well, they weren't quite up for the challenge. It didn't help that while I was on the phone with Vicky I got shoved by someone. The crowds kept going straight, but I decided to follow the water and basically just try to walk to Notre Dame. As I was headed back toward Pont St. Michel I could hear the music from the vespers beginning.

Once I reached Pont St. Michel there were thin areas in the crowds on the bridge, so I found someplace to slip in. I was behind three super short little old ladies, so I had an awesome view. They had screens set up across the river, so I had Notre Dame in front of me to the left, the Seine river below me, and Pope-vision on my right. Obviously, I couldn't understand a thing that was going on inside. They were holding vespers inside the church with the Pope, priests, seminaries, monks and nuns. The acoustics of hearing the chanting and singing from the services inside the church broadcast out into the city was just incredible, I've never experienced anything like that. I took a couple of videos mainly for the effect of the sound, but obviously a YouTube video can't exactly convey how awesome it was.

The whole event was a really interesting mix of worship and spectacle. There were tons of old people with their heads bowed praying, and then obviously throngs of people who were there just to see the Pope. There were several school groups there, too. You could see people holding up signs with their school name and grade and little clusters of students following them. I can't even imagine trying to keep track of a class in a place like that. I also heard more American English there than I have this whole trip, aside from school.

I have TONS of pictures on my Flickr, but I'll try to only post a few on here, since this entry is long already
(EDIT: the blogspot layout cuts off the right side of the pictures, so anywhere it says "screens" there is another screen that you can't see. The full pictures are on Flickr though)

Crowds of people on Pont St. Michel, where I ended up watching

My view: you can see Notre Dame on the left and the screens broadcasting from within the church on the right. Also you can see people taking what must have been an awesome boat tour.

The screens broadcasting. You can also see people out on their balconies watching, but what you can't see is how crowded that road along the Seine was

The Pope actually showed up in this picture! In the others it didn't work because he was wearing white, and the screen just didn't photograph well.

See! Awesome!

And videos!
The first is really short, but you can hear the music and it sounds amazing. If you think it's cool and you want to watch more then check out the second one, which is longer and a bit more comprehensive as far as surroundings go. I tried to give an idea of what was going on so I showed the church, the river, tried (unsuccessfully) to zoom in on the screens, and scanned a little bit of the crowd. The music sounds better in the shorter video though.

PHEW, got all that? I'm so glad that I went. It was a really incredible experience and only served to remind me just how lucky I am to be here.

2008-09-11T20:31:00.003+02:00

Today was awesome. I didn't have class until 2, so I slept in until 11:30. The best part about that is the fact that I was the first person to get up at the apartment. I went to wine class, which is awesome. We had a lecture about champagne: how it's made and how it's marketed. Then after class my friend Melanie and I went to the Louvre.

Because we're students we get wonderful magical passes that let us into the museum for FREE! I was so excited about mine, I made Melanie take my picture with it.

My Louvre ID is more official looking than my CEA ID.

Melanie had to sketch the Venus di Milo for her drawing class, and by the time we got to the sculpture itself, it was already 4:50. The museum closes at 6, so I went over to the Ruben's room. I took a few quick pictures out the window on my way.

You know how in the states when a museum closes at 6, that's when they start kicking people out? Yeah, the Louvre isn't like that. They started roping off little rooms around 5:30. As we were trying to find an exit at 5:45 there was already a man mopping and they were roping off the hall with the Venus di Milo.

At that point, Melanie and I were both starving. We walked out away from the museum a bit, but were still in a touristy area. We ended up picking an Italian restaurant. Yep, after visiting probably the most famous museum in France, we went out for Italian. It wasn't too over-priced, either, which is what I expected from this area. I got a HUGE portion of tortelloni with cheese and spinach in a cream sauce and they gave us free bread, which is practically unheard of in Paris. Melanie got something called a "pasta cocktail" (rough translation) which was FOUR different kinds of pasta and sauces, and about a fist-sized portion of each! So she basically got 4 dinners for €13!

On the way home it started to pour, and my cheapy H&M umbrella didn't feel like helping me out. One of the... arm... things? It broke, and kept flipping up and just in general seems to need replacing. The rain (and my incredibly full stomach) didn't stop me from getting dessert though. I got off at the Lamarck stop (which is the one closer to my apartment but with stairs) and so I stopped at a different bakery than usual and picked up an eclair cafe. I prefer the one from my usual baker at the end of my street, but I still ate it all.

If it's still pouring and disgusting tomorrow, though, that may affect my papal visit. Pope events don't really even start until like 4ish, and that's just when the area starts to open. The Popemobile isn't bringing the Pope to Notre Dame until 6:45-7ish, so hopefully the weather will be a bit clearer by then.

Also on the list for this weekend:

I want to go to the catacombs!!! I have wanted to go every time I was in Paris but have yet to actually visit them. Lia said she would go with me, so that should hopefully happen

We need to go back to Gibert Joseph, because Lia and Vicky's books were sold out last weekend, and I just found out that I need a workbook I didn't know about. Oops.

Lia and I really want to find Macarons et Chocolat a shop that from the looks of it, appears to be right down the street from us

I'm hoping that by making this list I'll actually do most (hopefully all!) of these things. I know for sure the last two will happen, if I'm luckily I'll also get in Pope and catacombs. Hope everyone else has weekend as good as mine looks to be!

2008-09-07T20:17:00.002+02:00

So the past few days have been pretty relaxed. I had classes Thursday and Friday. Thursday was my wine class, I'm pretty sure I'm going to love this class. Basically all we talked about on the first day was how to taste wine. Next week we're talking more about terroir. We also were assigned regions for our projects. I'm doing the eastern half of Bordeaux, with an emphasis on sweet wines. My partner is Molly, who happens to be in three of my classes (all but French). I'm thinking a weekend in Bordeaux may be in order, since it is only 2 hours away by train.

Sidenote for those who have expressed an interest in my classes: my Gay class has a blog! It's full of interesting readings and I'm really impressed with the concept and with how well my professor has been making use of it, so if you're interested, Gay Paris CEA.

Friday I had my Expatriate Writing class. I'm excited, but a bit nervous. I have to read the first 3 books of The Ambassadors by Tuesday! Not sure how well that's going to work out for me, especially since we should have had a week to read it. I'm also a bit apprehensive about the creative writing aspect of the course, but we'll see how things pan out.

I had planned on going to the Jeu de Paume on Friday after class, but it was disgusting outside. It was gray and rainy and I just completely lacked any motivation. Which is odd, because you would think a rainy day would be a good day for a museum, but I've never been one to brag about my common sense.

Saturday was beautiful! Lia and Vicky had to go to buy books, so I went with them down to the area near the Sorbonne. Gibert Joseph (the bookstore) was insane! There were so many people, and I hate crowds so it wasn't my favorite experience of the trip, but it was that of an authentic French student. Afterward, the three of us went to McDonalds. Vicky had a Big Mac that she claims tasted exactly like a Big Mac from home, and I had a Royal Deluxe. It's a cheeseburger with mustard. It was good, but oddly enough it was way messier and actually way greasier than a McDonalds cheeseburger at home would have been.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store. Champion was WAY more busy on Saturday evening than it was on the weekday, I'll probably try to go on weeknights from now on. I did buy real food this time though, instead of just pizzas. So for lunch today I had green peppers, celery, onions, macaroni and tuna fish! Also, I could SO get used to buying a bag of croissants instead of a bag of bread at the grocery store. Even the prepackaged grocery store croissants are good!

Next weekend I think my roommates and I are going to try to see the Pope! He's in Paris on the 12th and 13th before a pilgrimage to Lourdes. I'm sure it will be insane, but we're going to try anyway.

Well, I finished my Gay and my French homework for tomorrow, but I still have 120ish pages of Henry James to trudge through before Tuesday, so I'm off to attempt that. A bientot!

Fine, Amelia!

2008-09-02T20:38:00.003+02:00

So my pesky sister has inquired about my classes, and boy did she pick a good day.

Yesterday I had my first classes: Gay Paris and Intermediate French I. I am so excited for Gay Paris. The instructor seems really excited, too, which I see as a great sign. on Monday we kind of just went over the syllabus (which is why there is little to say, Amelia) but tomorrow we're doing an excursion in Le Marais. Le Marais is the traditionally gay (and Jewish!) area in Paris, and coincidentally is also where CEA Global Campus is.

French was terrifying. I'm already relatively immersed from living here, but to be back in an academic setting where someone is speaking exclusively French and I'm actyally expected to understand??? Sort of overwhelming. Hopefully I'll be more comfortable after a few more classes.

Today I had Writer's Workshop: Expatriate Lit. Well. I hauled my lazy little butt all the way out to Le Marais-- a 45 minute commute-- only to be told that the class was canceled. Not only did I not have class today, but it's rescheduled for Friday. Friday! I don't even have classes on Friday! Oh well.

Since I was already out there, I wandered around, shopped a little (at American Apparel, hilariously enough), and took a few pictures of the neighborhood around school. On my way home I got off at the Lamarck metro stop and went grocery shopping at Champion, a larger chain that's just groceries-- less confusing than Monoprix. I bought a couple little pizzas, some Orangina (mmmm), pasta, and chicken flavored potato chips. In actuality I would describe them more as gravy flavored chips, but I'm not complaining.

Tomorrow I have French and Gay Paris again, then Thursday is my first day of Wine class! Friday is the rescheduled writing class, and then after that I think I may go to the Jeu de Paume, which is having a Richard Avedon exhibit. Friday night there is a Seine river cruise for CEA that I plan on going to. I'll have to write about that later, since I still need to update on Sunday, when the roomies and I went to Sacre Coeur for Lia's birthday. I'm waiting to steal some pictures from Jennifer still, though.

I do have neighborhood pictures though! Only a few pictures near both school and home.

The nearest metro stop to us is Lamarck-Coulaincourt

Unfortunately for my lazy self, the Lamarck stop looks like this on the outside:

See the little red Metro sign peeking out behind all those steps? ALL those steps? To go to school??? Yeah right.

So instead I walk about 2 blocks farther but NOT uphill, to Jules Jofferin:

The metro is across the street and behind the bus, but you get the idea.

CEA's Global Campus is on a tiny little street off of Rue du Temple

We're a stone's throw from the Jewish Museum.

Normally I would take the metro stop at Les Halles, which I would walk past Georges Pompidou and (duh) Les Halles for, but I wanted to go to American Apparel so instead I walked toward the Hotel de Ville

And the also notable BHV, a huge department store next to Hotel de Ville. Not gonna lie, I could shop myself to death in there. I've already been twice (don't worry, all I've bought so far was a can of dry shampoo)

I probably won't update again until the weekend, but until then you can check out my Flickr for bigger pictures of everything (and my Sacre Coeur pictures are actually up there, and they kind of speak for themselves!)

Mon appartement

2008-08-31T18:38:00.004+02:00

Alright so you've seen my front door, and kind of my street, so here is the real apartment.

When you walk in the door, the first room you see is the kitchen on your right.

We have a small fridge, a mini fridge, a microwave, a toaster oven with hot plates on top, a sink, some super high cabinets that my vertically challenged roommate Vicky and I struggle to reach, and a table that get treated like a counter/storage area. Things worth noting: not oven, no coffeemaker, no toaster. I guess I need to figure out how to use that toaster oven. Also, aforementioned roommate Vicky made me iced coffee this morning using instant coffee and it was surprisingly good. I guess I'll be learning to love the instant stuff... for now, at least.

After the kitchen you walk down this pseudo-hallway that has a little half wall.

This picture was taken in the living room, you can see the half wall and the doors to our bedrooms. The first (left) bedroom is Vicky and Lia's, the one on the right is mine and Jennifer's. To the right of the mirror is our bathroom.

See? Bathroom.

This picture is deceptive, the bathroom is actually really big, especially by Paris standards.

When you walk out of the bathroom, this is what you see.

There's a huge cutout from our living room into the kitchen, which is great. It makes the very cramped kitchen feel much more open, and really helps to make the rooms both feel bigger. Also, there is a plug in the half wall, so people can straighten their hair in front of the full length mirror, rather than taking up the bathroom (4 girls, 1 bathroom... luckily we all have class at different times!)

If you turn to your left, you'll see into our living room.

See the (living) flowers? Jennifer came home with the exact same type that I bought a few hours after this picture was taken! Hers are now on the mantle in our room. But anyway, as you can see we have a couch (that I pretty much set up my computer in front of), a little cafe table that Lia has been using for her computer (these pictures were taken before they moved in) and a larger, dining-sized table that Vicky has been using for her computer. It's worked out really well so far! I put my Paris travel books in the cabinet in the fireplace so that everyone has access to them, too.

At the end of the living room we have a window

My roommates are all smokers, so having the little courtyard right outside our window (we're on the ground floor) has proven to be convenient. Also, we've twice now encountered a cat! Vicky said it was mean and hissing this morning when I was in the shower, but he looked really cute last night through the kitchen window. Maybe I'm just missing Cashmere and Tobias.

Jennifer and I share a bedroom

This is my half. We have curtains that divide the room for privacy, you can see them in the foreground on the right of this picture. Also pictured here is my suitcase: that giant lump covered in pashmina's to the left of my bed. Nice, huh? My bed is so low to the ground that my larger suitcase won't fit beneath it. Vicky and Lia offered to let me store it under their beds, but I'm currently using it as a makeshift nightstand. Another storage issue was solved by using my headboard to hold my scarves.

Storage issue, you ask?

Yep, that's my closet, at the foot of my bed. The shelf is maybe 5 inches deep. Note that I said shelf. Singular. Yep. And the hanging bar is so low that my dresses sit on the floor, which is just weird, unfinished concrete. I keep my dresses in Jennifer's closet, which is a normal-sized wardrobe. My underwear and socks are currently in some boxes bought at Monoprix, sitting on the floor. Please be jealous of my fireplace though! That single dead stem was replaced by Jennifer's flowers, which look beautiful. I use the mantle to keep my books, notebooks, watch, lotion... and Febreeze. Apparently it costs like €8 to do a load of laundry. Febreeze it is!

Remember when I said I used Jennifer's closet to store my dresses?

Mine are the white hangers on the right-hand size. Yeah, it's not like she has an abundance of space, either. Vicky and Lia each got a wardrobe the size of Jennifer's, PLUS another set of shelves the same size! And they also have a built-in mini closet like mine. I guess it's a trade off though, since they don't have a curtain. I'm not sure if their room is actually smaller, or if it just feels that way because their wardrobe is 3x the size of ours.

And speaking of Vicky and Lia's room, I didn't take any pictures of it because they weren't even in it yet. So yeah, there is the tour of my apartment. If you want better pictures of anything just ask and I can take more!

This post is dedicated to Hayley

2008-08-30T17:13:00.007+02:00

So at like 10 last night, Jennifer and I realized we were starving. We took off toward rue Ordener, the street we usually take to the Metro, in search of dinner. We came across a little cafe that is open 24/7!

We both ordered soupe a l'oignon and dessert.

Mmmmmmm. It was just as good as it looks.
Jennifer opted for creme brulee, and I obviously got chocolate mousse. It looks gross, but it's chocolate mousse, what do you expect? It was incredibly rich and I only managed to eat about half before giving myself a stomach ache.

Jennifer is enjoying her creme brulee.
Forgive the lighting, it was embarrassing enough that I was taking pictures of my food, I didn't need a flash going off at the same time.

Then I took a picture of our street, rue Montcalm

And the most embarrassing picture of all

This is me pretending that I'm opening the door. In fact, our lock is broken and it doesn't close. Luckily we're in the next building back.

2008-08-25T16:46:00.001+02:00

So my flight, which was scheduled to leave at 9:30, ended up taking off at 11:15. Typical Northwest. I slept a lot, but I was still exhausted by the time to got into CDG. I hauled my luggage across the airport, which believe me was quite the feat, in order to get to the Sheraton. I checked in around 1:30pm France time, but my body still thought it was 7:30am. I took a nap from about 2:30-4pm, then exchanged money in the airport. $255USD became €125. Not the best feeling. I took a bath AND a shower. I tried to go to bed at 10pm, but of course didn't fall asleep until midnight, when my body thought it was 6pm.

At 4am France time (are you confused yet?) an alarm went off in the hotel! Just fyi, if there is ever a real hotel fire, I will probably die. I couldn't figure out what was going on, then I couldn't find anything so I stumbled over to the lightswitch, turned on the lights, got my purse, glasses, room key and a teeshirt (because I was wearing a nightgown) and THEN left my room. When I got out into the hallway there were a few people yelling, "No problem! No problem!" Not wanting to accidentally die a fiery death, I called down to the front desk and was informed that in fact there was NOT a fire, and someone would take care of it. The alarm stopped after a few minutes, but my body was pissed, thinking I had napped from 6pm-10pm. I eventually fell back asleep, but my 8am wakeup call was not exactly enjoyable. When I checked out the man in reception comped my internet though, so that's good.

I left my room at 9am, left the hotel by 9:15 and made it into CEA by 10:15, which was early- I was supposed to be there at 11. They tossed me into a mini-orientation with the next group coming from the airport, but there wasn't any room in their shuttle, so I had to take a taxi from CEA (which I'm assured I will be reimbursed for).

No one was at the apartment when I got here around noon. My room has pretty much NO storage. There is once tiny built-in "closet" that isn't deep enough to hold anything on a hanger, and only has one shelf that's about 6inches deep and 2feet wide. Jennifer was kind enough to share her wardrobe with me, so luckily I do have a space to hang my dresses. It's kind of annoying though, because the other bedroom has 3x the storage we do. I think our room is bigger, though.

After unpacking a bit Jennifer and I went to the grocery store. Apparently she is a clean freak, so she had to buy bleach and disinfectant spray. I had to get deodorant, because even though I had 2 sticks at home, neither of them made it into my bag. Spray deodorant isn't my first choice, but I guess it'll do for now.

Later there is a CEA "welcome cocktail" back at school, which I think Jennifer and I are going to, hopefully we'll meet Lia and Vicky there. We need to go to Monoprix sometime, too, because Jennifer doesn't have sheets and I would like to buy a pillow. My pillow is crappy, and if I'm going to be here for 4 months I feel like a pillow is worth investing in.

2008-08-15T17:04:00.001+02:00

I got my schedule! (Click on the picture for a large enough view to read it) I'm taking four classes while I'm abroad. Three are a part of GVSU's "theme" requirement, which I've put together as a "French cultural studies" theme. The fourth is a language course, which will hopefully put me at third semester proficiency which will satisfy my BA requirement.

I also got my housing info a few days ago. I'm living in the 18th with three other girls.

I leave a week from tomorrow!

Study abroad dates

2008-03-11T03:07:00.001+01:00

My adviser called me today with the official program dates. I'll be in Paris from August 25th- December 20th. That's 168 days from now!