PRAGUE

I love Prague.  

No really.  Its great.  The train from Vienna was uneventful, the countryside was really pretty and the ticket taker on the train looked exactly like Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter.  We took the metro towards our hostel and walked for 20 minutes in the wrong direction before figuring it out.  Turns out, our hostel is about 30 seconds away from the Old Town Square.  We got settled and ended up chatting with two girls that were sharing our room.  This hostel (and this city) is full of normal people and college guys who came here to party.  We had dinner down the street and we found out two main things: 1) beer is cheaper than water in Prague 2) the translation "cream sauce" means it comes with whipped cream on top.  So, I had a beef dish with "cream sauce" that I scraped off, and dumplings and mer had pork.  All in all, really tasty.  We went out with the girls who were staying in our room and it was so fun!  

We had a low day the next day, gave ourselves a day off, really.  We walked around Old Town Square and the Charles bridge.  The astrological clock in Old Town Square is really cool, we watched the hour change and tried to decipher all the different rings.  We watched a movie in our hostel and met some more nice people.  We had sausage for dinner and went to bed early.  The next morning we woke up super early and learned that nothing (not even starbucks) opens before 9.  Where do people get their coffee?  No clue.  We walked to the castle and toured it as well as the cathedral, basilica, and Golden Lane.  We walked down to the Little quarter and went to the John Lennon wall.  We had a great lunch at Bohemia Bagel (can't eat meat and potatoes for every meal...) and walked back across the Charles bridge.  We toured the Jewish quarter next.  The large majority of the Jewish population was deported and killed by the Nazis, but they didn't destroy the area during the occupation, which makes it a pretty powerful place to visit.  

We fly to Athens tomorrow and weather.com says its going to be super hot!  I wish I had more time to explore Prague, but that just means I will definitely need to come back here.  So far, each city has been getting better and better, so hopefully Athens will continue the trend!

Vienna

The boat from Budapest to Vienna was fun.  It took about 5 hours and wasn't that scenic, but it was nice to be on a boat for a while!  We went through 2 giant locks on the Danube, which was cool.  We took the metro to our hostel, which was easy to find, and settled into our basement room.  Thus far our hostel roommates have been less than satisfactory.  Everyone is just a little weird.  In this particular room there was a canadian guy who was by himself (normal enough) and this foreign couple (not sure where they were from as they didn't speak english, but they spoke french every now and then) that were way too friendly with each other.  We called them the "amorous pair".  

Well, Vienna was just great.  Our hostel was midway between the old town and the Schonbrunn palace.  We had really bad chinese food the first night we were there and went to bed early.  Next day, we walked into the old town and went through the huge museum of Hapsburg art.  We followed Rick's walking tour and saw the opera, the church, and various old things.  We had sausages for lunch in the big square and continued walking around.  There was a random parade that day, so there was a lot of lederhosen and other traditional costumes.  I think it had something to do with Pentecost.  In Europe, everyone takes the Monday after Pentecost Sunday, for some reason, so everything was closed.  No shopping for us!  We ducked into the Hofburg palace to see the treasury, which was a giant museum full of shiny things and huge jewels.  We were so pooped after this day---so much walking!  We did laundry and had take out pizza in our hostel for dinner.  For some reason, the people we room with really liked to go to bed at about 9:30 and turn off all the lights.

We got a later start the next morning and walked to the Schonbrunn palace.  We did the whole tour, which was really cool.  The Hapsburgs are a really interesting family and they really liked to decorate.  It was kind of like Versailles, but in Vienna.  There was a lot of eastern influence in the interior because it was oh so fashionable at the time.  We walked through the garden afterwards and had lunch (salad and sausage) at one of the stands.  Then we headed towards the military museum on the other side of town.  It took forever to find, but we had a nice detour through a great public park.  We found the museum, but the ticket taker informed us they were only open for another hour.  We did the museum super fast, which was fine because there weren't any english translations, and no matter how long I stared at the german, it never made sense.  We did get to see the car that Archduke Ferdinand was sitting in when he got shot.

 Vienna was really different from Budapest.  It was much more like Paris in that it was fancier.  It wasn't bombed as heavily during World War II, so more things are original.  There were people out everywhere and it felt very safe.  All in all, a cool town.

Budapest

My first stop on the next part of the adventure was Budapest.  We flew from Orly airport in Paris, which has the tightest security I have ever been through.  The flight was uneventful and customs in Budapest was nonexistent.  We had arranged a pick-up service with our hostel and after finding the guy holding a sign with our name on it, we followed him to what turned out to be his car.  Our first sights of Budapest left us with less than good feelings about this supposed great city.  We could never tell whether we were in a good part or bad part of town--everything is in the same dirty broken down state.  The guy finally parked his car, got our bags out, and said "follow me".  We were totally convinced that we were going to be sold into white slavery, when we finally say a sign on the door advertising our hostel.  

Our first night, we wandered into the older part of town, had an underwhelming dinner and walked home.  The next day we got up and walked across the Danube to Buda.  We stopped for coffee at Cafe Piaf (can't escape Paris, apparently...) and had lunch at a vegetarian place (yes!).  We tried to poke our head into a church, but turns out, it was not open.  We went up on castle hill and went to the art museum to look at a bunch of Hungarian art.  We then went to the Hungarian History museum and the best part of that was the children's corner, where we spent an hour sitting on bean bags and coloring.  We checked out the rest of the monuments and ended up sitting in the sun and decided to take the tram home.  We had a really great dinner in an underground wine cellar.

Nest day we explored Pest.  We  visited the great market hall and had some streudel and bought fruit.  We abandoned our free breakfast at the hostel, as it only consists of bad cereal, bad coffee, and white bread.  Luckily, Budapest has a billion and five coffee shops, although we only came across 2 pastry shops, which Rick Steves had assured us "lined every street".  We went to the House of Terror museum, which is housed in the Nazi and Soviet headquarters where they ran their operations and tortured and killed many people. This is one of the creepiest and scariest places I have ever been.  The subject matter is creepy enough and the presentation and building as a whole promote that.  Even the people that work there are creepy.  They all speak in monotones, and the guards tend to hide in dark corners, barely moving.  We made a german friend named Phil, who really wanted to hang out with us, but we finally evaded him by going to shop for english books.  We went for Italian food that night and our waiter really liked to give us high fives.  

All in all, Budapest was not what I expected and wasn't my favorite place.  I'm glad that I don't have to like every place that I visit, but I had hoped it would have been cooler.  Pretty much, it was just a big dirty city where everything is under construction, there is nothing really that cool to see, and the food isn't that good.  The redeeming factors were that the people were really nice and we had great weather!

Goodbye for now...

Les Andelys is a small town not far from Paris that sits on the Seine. It is where Nicolas Poussin was born and there is a ruined castle from Richard the Lionhearted. WE climbed around the castle and then tried to find a hotel. The first one was full, the second one was closed for the day (only in France) and the third one had space, in fact i think we were their only guests. It was a funky old building right on the river, which was cool, and it had a great rose garden. We had crepes for dinner and then got to listen to another incredible thunder storm. Our rooms looked right out at the castle, though, which was awesome.

Next morning we had an awkward breakfast (seeing as how we were the only ones in the hotel) and drove towards Paris. We had trouble figuring out where to drop teh car off adn got a lovely tour of the outlying parts of the Charles de Gaulle airport. A nice American gave us a hint and we finally found the Hertz lot. We said our goodbyes and Mer and I headed back into the city.

We stayed at a hostel on teh edge of the 13th and the 5th, called Oops. (hostels have the weirdest names) It also has some fur walls and light displays. We were able to stash our big suitcases at Merś friendś Saras house, which was actually just a short walk away. We hung out in her apartment for a while and had pizza for dinner.

This morning we got up and had a mediocre free breakfast. Then we headed to the airport to catch our plane to Budapest! Pretty much everything that could go wrong at the airport did, but luckily we had shown up really early. Our flight was unventful after the rowdy soccer team fell asleep. So, that was goodbye to France for a while!

Normandy

Right after Mt St Michel, we crossed into Normandy and stopped ion a town called St Mere Eglise. It is a super touristy stop before the Normandy beaches. The story of this town is that during the Normandy invasion one man who was parachuting with the airborne troops got his parachute stuck on the steeple of the church in this town and just hung there for hours hoping that the germans wouldnt shoot him. They have since put up a parachute and fake person that permanently hangs off the side of this church. The stained glass in the church commemorates that day, as well.

We drove down to the American cemetery and got there just in time to watch the flag get retired for the day. The cemetery is beautiful. It is right on the beach and each grave has a French flag and an American flag. This year is teh 65th anniversary and they are planning a big celebration this June. It will probably be the last year where a lot of veterans who fought in the war will be able to come. We drove down to Omaham beach next and walked around. Being in these places is incredible. The beach now just looks like any other beach in the world with people picnicing and laughing and its lined with beach houses. There is so much history there!

We stayed in Bayeux that night, which was the town that was first liberated by the Americans in 1944. We had the worst dinner from the entire trip and we didn sleep that well either, because there was a huge thunder storm! The next morning Mer and I checked out the cathedral and the Bayeux tapestry--which is nearly 1000 years old! We grabbed Dennis and headed out for the day. We went to the German cemetery, which is very different from the American one (for instance it is right off the freeway). We also stopped at Pont du Hoc, where the rangers scaled the cliffs during the invasion.

We drove on to a town called Les Andelys for the night.

Brittany

Nantes is not currently a part of Brittany, but it was in the past, so it is very similar. We left Nantes a day earlier than expected and drove towards St. Malo. When we got to the coast, we stopped and wandered around an adorable fishing town. It felt very much like home to be on the coast! WE spent most of the day driving, through various small towns, trying to figure out where to stay. We ended up in a small town called Dinard, also on the coast.

The first hotel we stopped at was full, but the woman kindly called another and sent us that way. The second one had room for us and when we told her we were American, she threw up her hands and yelled ÿesssssss! She was probably the nicest person I have met in france. She chatted away in french with us, which was very fun. WE had dinner at a creperie and had some more cidre, both traditional foods from Brittany. We stopped for a kir after dinner and watched the people go by,. It was great people watching because there was a motorcycle convention in town, so there were all sorts of characters around!

Next day we drove into St Malo, which is a fortified city on teh coast. We beat the tourist rush and had a fun time wandering the ramparts and the shops. It took all my strength not to buy every anchor I saw, but I did buy a key chain. We drove down the beach a little bit and played in the sand and the sun. I had never seen more people running in my life. People were running on the boardwalk, on the sand, in the water, through the streets, it was incredible, especially for France!

We kept on driving and drove by Mont St Michel, which is a tidal island off the coast that used to be a monastery. IT was super cool to see. We didnt feel much like going inside, so we just kept rolling.

Limousin etc

After leaving the Sarlat area, we drove to a small town called Oradour sur Glane. The entire population of this town was massacred by the Naziś in 1944 and, in memory, the government left the town totally as is. The museum there was really informative and had pretty good english translations. We walked through the town afterwards and it was just eerie. The impact was huge and I am really glad we went there. It is the most visited site in France by the french (or one of them).

We kept driving through the countryside, which, after the Dordogne region, was kind of a let down. Its still quite pretty but, there weren any flowers or castles or ruins anywhere. We ended up staying in a small town called Rochechouart at a great little hotel. The restaurant at the hotel was really tasty and this huge french family was eating next to us and all the kids kept staring. We walked around the town in search of a laundromat, but there wasnt one! This town didn have much going for it except for a chateaux that is now a contemporary art museum and a sports bar that closed by 9pm.

The next day we drove into Nantes, which is the 6th largest town in France. On the way there we discovered that we had left all of our guidebooks in ROchechouart, bummer! Nantes was pretty easy to drive into and we had a lunch on one of the canals/rivers. WE were originally going to stay in Nantes for two days, but as we found out, there isnt very much to do there! We wandered around the city and looked at the cool churches and tried to shop a little. WE had crepes and cidre for dinner (super tasty).

Nantes is a cool city, not only because it is a sister city to Seattle, but because it has a very laid-back northwest kind of feel. It is one of the most livable cities in europe (we read) and I believe it. It seems like a great place to live, but not a great place to visit.

Languedoc / Midi-Pyrenees

After using Arles as a home base for a few days, we decided to make our way north. First, however, we detoured down to Carcassonne to see the fortified city. Mer really wanted to go and it turned out to be kind of a let down. We had built it up to ourselves and it was disappointingly touristy, but the actual structures in the town were really interesting. We didn't spend much time there, but we did have a tasty lunch before heading out!

Our next stop of the day was a town called Albi. This is where Toulouse-Lautrec was born and it is home to the largest collection of his work in the world. The museum is in an old bishop's palace and has a lot of cool art. The cathedral in Albi is also really impressive. I wasn't expecting much, but the interior was ornate and very intricate. Albi looks really interesting because everything is made of red brick. There are no stone quarries nearby, so everything is made of brick, from the streets, to the houses, to the giant cathedral and palace.

We slept in a town called Ambialet, which is about 30 km outside of Albi. The town sits on the Tarn river and is about the size of my thumb. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever even seeing a town. Needless to say, it was very rural. The road to the hotel was treacherous because you had to go through these tunnels, which are about a lane and a half wide, but are supposed to accommodate two lanes of traffic. After we survived the tunnels, we crossed a great old stone bridge and our hotel was right next to it on the river. We could see an old church on top of a hill and a ruined castle across the river--very idyllic. We had a tasty dinner and a good breakfast the next morning, too.

We kept on trucking the next morning and decided to take our chances driving on the country roads. I have really enjoyed the countryside here. Provence is all its cracked up to be and more. There are fields of red poppies, olive trees, and grapes. Everything is green and there is white stone scattered as well. Anyway, we spent the morning winding around on these country roads, through farms full of cows and sheep. We stopped and bought lunch in a small town and ate it along the road in a field. We were aiming to get near Sarlat by the end of the day, and we did! We drove through a bunch of the small towns on the Dordogne river and ended up staying outside of La Roque. This place was a little too formal for our tastes, but the beds were really cushy. There was a crazy storm that night with lots of thunder, lightening, and wind, but no rain.

The next morning we got up and drove into Sarlat. We followed Rick Steve's walking tour and had a lot of fun at the market. The specialties of the region are foie gras and walnuts and all the vendors wanted to give us free samples! Next we went and rented kayaks to float down the Dordogne. We started in a town called Vitrac and paddled to a town called Castelnaud. It was a gorgeous day and the towns were so cute! There are castles scattered everywhere around this region! We stopped in La Roque for lunch and paddled on. A crazy whistling french man picked us up in a hundred year old van to drive us back to our car--he was pretty fun. After all that, we jumped in the car and headed out of Languedoc and the Dordogne towards Limousin.

Provence

We left the rain in Paris and hopped on the train to Avignon.  We took the TGV, which is the high speed train, so it only took about 3 hours to get from one end of the country to the other.  The weather was amazing when we stepped off the train.  It was 80 degrees, clear blue skies, and super dry.  

Dennis rented our car--an adorable black Opel Zafira (hahaha) and we drove to our hotel in Arles.  Arles sits on the Rhone river and our hotel was just across the street from it.  The town is old, but small.  There is a Roman arena that is in remarkably good shape, and they still have bullfights there (there is a lot of Spanish influence in this region).  There is also and old roman amphitheater and some great old buildings.  The town felt very much like Italy, with big squares where people were always sitting and smoking and talking.  The first night we were there was a free museum night so we went to the Folk Heritage museum and there was some really weird performance art happening in addition to an underwhelming museum.  

We went to Avignon the next day, which also sits on the Rhone and is home to the Palace of Popes and a very old bridge.  The town was really touristy and has a pretty large student population, but it was fun to see the walled city and, of course, it was gorgeous.  After that we went to Pont de Gard, which is a Roman aqueduct.  This was very cool.  It was another 80-some degree day, so there were people swimming and picnicing along the banks of the river, and even some jumping off the cliffs into the water.  The aqueduct was very impressive, and it is hard to believe that the Romans could build such a perfect structure.  

After that we went to Nîmes to see the arena there.  This arena is the best intact and largest arena in the world excluding the coliseum in Rome.  The exhibit and museum contained within the arena were really informative and had some fun features.  I was totally hot and tired and hungry by this point in the day, so I wasn't a very happy camper, but Mer was totally hopped up on all the history.  We had drinks on the square by the arena before heading back to Arles.

Our next excursion in Provence was to Les Baux, which is a hilltop fortress and surrounding village.  The view point is amazing from the castle--you can see the entire valley and almost all the way to Marseille.  We also got to watch a medieval weapon demonstration (Mer loved this).  We climbed all over the castle and took far too many pictures.  Then we ditched all the tourists and went to St. Rémy, which is a small town nearby.  We took Rick's advice and had lunch at a small cafe on a small square in the middle of the town.  We sat next to a really cute couple from Denver, who had driven over to France from southern Spain.  They were very impressed with our French skills.  The town is really quant.  We walked around the whole thing and it had some great shops and tasty looking restaurants.   

Post-program!

I know its been a while, but I have lots to report on! 

Our program is over, Mer and I moved out of our apartment and kissed Boulevard Brune goodbye!  We moved in with Mer's dad, Dennis, at a hotel near the Eiffel Tower in the Rue Cler neighborhood.  

We went to Giverny on a lovely day before we left Paris.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and we were some of the first people through the gates at Monet's house.  We cruised through the garden and the house, before heading over to the lily pond and the Japanese bridge.  Then we took our time walking back through everything.  The flowers had just exploded so everything was in bloom.  I have never seen so many different kinds and colors of iris.  I have also never seen so many sweat suits and people with canes. 

We grabbed lunch to eat on the train ride home and it started to pour down rain right when we got on the train.  It didn't stop raining until after we left Paris.   

Versailles!!!!!!!!!

Last Friday, my friend Katie and I went to Versialles for the day.  We left Paris at 9:30 AM and got back at 8:30 that night.  The train takes about 45 minutes and is entirely full of tourists going to the Palace.  There is a Starbucks literally just outside the train station in the town of Versailles, so Katie and I treated ourselves.  The walk to the Palace is about 5 minutes from the Starbucks (and 6 from the train station).  We stood in line to figure out if we could get in free with our IES student cards and then stood in line for about 45 minutes to get into the castle.  

There was an exhibition of clothing and jewels that we went to, and of course, the royal apartments, etc.  The Hall of Mirrors was absolutely amazing.  Beyond it just being a gorgeous space, there is so much history in that room (all of which I have been learning about in my french history class).  Katie and I had a fun time taking pictures and reading aloud from Rick Steves.  By the time we got outside the sun had come out, so we sat on a bench in the gardens and had a snack.  We just kept wandering to different parts of the gardens and sitting in the sun--it was so nice.  On our way to Marie Antoinette's Hamlet, we spent about an hour frolicking in a field and taking pictures.  I think the french picnic-ers thought we were really entertaining.  

The hamlet was so adorable!  It was like the village in the Beauty and the Beast.  Again, we took a bunch of pictures, frolicked in some fields, and sat in the sun.  We made the trek all the way back to the palace and, I will admit, we stopped at the Starbucks one more time before getting back on the train to Paris.  My feet were so tired!  I can't believe that I almost didn't go to Versailles, but I am so glad my mom told me I had to go.  Luckily, Katie's mom had done the same thing, so we had a good time.  Plus, it is always nice to be in the country and get away from hectic Paris.  It was so nice to run around barefoot in the grass and to hear birds singing.  Katie and I kept saying that it felt like a different world.  All in all, Versailles was a great day trip.

NO MORE CLASS

Today was my last day of class at IES!  I only have 5 tests between me and a month of travel!  It was a stereotypical "last day of school"--the sun was out, it was 70 degrees, and no one could pay attention.  

My french grammar class, which was probably my favorite class, had a picnic this morning instead of class.  We went to the park near IES, where you can actually sit on the grass (gasp!).  We had mimosas, strawberries, bread, cheese, jam, pain au chocolat, fruit salad, and some other lovely pastries.  It was fun to sit around and chat in french and reminisce about the last four months.  An adorable old man took our picture, and we had a lot of fun! 

Mer and I took ourselves out for dinner in order to celebrate.  We went to Italian in the Marais and it was so cute!  One wall was exposed stone and brick, and everything was red, black, and white.  It was really lively and all the waiters were speaking italian.  There was also a huge poster of the Sopranos on the wall, and the chef actually looked like he should be on the show.  The food was really tasty, we split a bruschetta and I had great seafood risotto.  We opted out of dessert because we had a bottle of wine, but the women next to us said the chocolate tart was great.  These women were so chatty!  We spoke french to the waiter, but once we started speaking english to each other, these women got super excited and were like "are you american!?!"  They are in the film business and were heading to Cannes for the film festival, but they were soooooooo chatty.  They were nice, but chatty.  I'm just so used to having everyone mind their own business, that it was weird to have people soliciting information about their lives.  

Going for walks

Going for walks is a legitimate activity over here.  It is totally normal  to have spent your day 'walking around'.  "oh i took the metro to this neighborhood and walked around" is a legit way to spend your day.  Its nice, because its free, and because you can do it anytime.  

May Day is a huge deal here.  Everything was closed on May 1st.  They take it seriously.  There were also Lilly of the Valley all over the place!  It is the traditional gift to give, so people were selling them on every street corner.  

Its been cloudy here recently.  Its also been warm, as a consequence, but a little muggy.  The kind of day where you never quite know if its going to rain or not, but it never does.  I walked around the opera quarter the other day.  Its a really cool spot--very touristy, but also full of life and fun stuff to look at.  I walked from the Madeleine to the Opera and then down to the Palais Royal.  I picked up a snack on the way and got made fun of for my french.   It was in good humor, but I'm kind of over getting teased about not saying everything correctly.  I ate my snack in the Palais Royal gardens while I watched about 8 couples making out.  They never even came up for air!  Its incredible how people can do that in public.  Sometimes its nice to see people so in love, but eventually it gets a little sickening.  

Paris is still as lovely as ever.  I'm gearing up for my last week of class.  I only have one paper to write this week, and then I have 5 tests the week after that, so next weekend will be full of study time!    

The Marais

I think I spend more time in the Marais than anywhere else.  I have so many journal entries that include the sentence "I wandered around the Marais today..."  Mer and I cruised there after school and wandered.  We walked down Rue des Rosiers, which is home to great cheesecake, challah bread, and other treats.  We did a little window shopping and had coffee at Les Philosophes.

I can't believe that It is almost May!  I have been here since January!  It sounds like such a long time ago.  I have one more week of class and then 2 days of finals, and then I am done with my program!  I feel like I've done pretty well in Paris.  I've seen most everything at least once and I've gotten really comfortable here.  I'm rarely startled when people start speaking french to me, and I can usually respond intelligibly.  

Today I ate ketchup

Seriously.  It was a great day.

Mer and I went shopping near Montparnasse today and we had lunch at the french version of Red Robin.  They brought us ketchup to eat with our frites and it was amazing.  Its the longest I've ever gone without that magical substance.  It was probably the best plate of fries I have ever had.  Then we went to Starbucks.  Seriously, it was a great day.

I was a little sick this weekend.  I had a weird 24 bug where I just felt awful for a while and then magically got better.  It was random, but a good excuse to stay in bed for a while.  Mer and I went out for pho-like dinner last night and it was super tasty.  

Life is humming along.  We are looking forward to Mer's dad coming to town and the end of the program.  I'm especially excited for the month of traveling and our week in GREECE!  I'm kind of done with Paris.  Not that I don't still love it.  I know I'm so lucky to be here and I am in no way bitter (like some of the people on my program).  I have really come to love the city, but I am just ready to move on.  I'm very excited about the next chapter of this whole study-abroad thing.  Mer and I have booked all of our hostels and flights for our travels, and we are figuring out where to store our luggage while we gone.  Its crazy to start thinking about things like that, but we are getting very close to the end!

Paris in the Springtime

Paris in the Springtime really is all its cracked up to be.  It is amazing.  Everyday after school this week I have ended up sitting in some gorgeous garden or other and doing my homework in the sun.  Monday, it was the Jardin de Luxembourg, Tuesday it was outside Invalides, Wednesday it was the Musée Rhodin.  

The Musée Rhodin was gorgeous.  All the lilacs are blooming, so the whole garden smells amazing.  We had to go there for class (because we have a quiz on the museum) so Marcy, Ellen, and I went after school.  We get in free with our student cards and it was a gorgeous sunny day.  The museum consists of a nice old mansion and the park/gardens that it sits in.  There are sculptures all throughout the garden, so we just wandered through and looked at some great art.  We sat by the fountain, next to a bunch of lilacs, and watched these french children have a sword fight.  They were even wearing costumes.  It was really cute.  There are also some excellent lawn chairs in the grass there--I will definitely be returning to read here.  Ellen and I had a coffee at the café in the park and watched a small child pick a cigarette butt out of the trash and play with it--not cute.  No worries--his mother eventually persuaded him to leave it alone.  

Everything is pretty peachy here in Paris.  Today was the first day that I wore sandals to school--woohoo!  School continues to drag on.  I'm so ready for IES classes to be over but, alas, I have about 3 more weeks.  I think some of the professors are ready for it to be over with as well.  One of my professors started singing "we are the world" the other day while describing how Kant and Rousseau would go skipping through the park holding hands--it was a little weird, but probably the highlight of my day.   

I had lunch in Asia

A cool thing about Istanbul is that it is one city that spans 2 continents.  It is both an Asian city and a European one.  The Bosphorus Strait runs in between it from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea.  We took a boat cruise up the entire thing to a small town on the Asian side.  We tried to pick a sunny day to go, but with our luck we chose the only cloudy and cold day.  We sat outside so that we could have a good view--which we did, but we froze our behinds off.  

We had lunch near the water and then hiked up to an old castle with a great view.  We climbed around and took pictures of the black sea.  Then we hiked back down, grabbed a sweet treat at a bakery and hopped back on the boat.   

It was really cool to see the city from the water.  There are all sorts of mansions on the water in really diverse styles.  There are some beautiful traditional ones with english gardens right next to modern ones with infinity pools.  There is also a stretch of mansions that Rick said look like those along the Mississippi.  Having never cruised the Mississippi, I will take his word for it.  Of course, there are others things like castles, fortresses, the president's home, and the sultan's modern palace.  

Our best friend Moses a.k.a. stuff we ate

Food in Turkey is TASTY.  It is greece meets the middle east and we ate a lot of it.  

We had a lot of kababs and lavash (like pita bread).  We also had turkish pide, which is also called turkish pizza.  It is a big piece of bread with cheese and other fun stuff on top--so pretty much a pizza.  We had famous meatballs (who knew they were famous until we read Rick Steves?) which were scrumptious.  

Other turkish stuff we ate was simite, which is pretty much a soft bagel.  They sell them on the street and they are a ring of bread dipped in grape seed oil and covered in sesame seeds before being baked.  We had some great dried fruit from the spice market.  We drank turkish coffee, which wasn't awful.  It is really strong and a little grainy because they leave the grounds in, but they usually gave you a piece of turkish delight on the side!  Turkish delight is just a cube of gelatin that has nuts in it and is then covered in powdered sugar.  We also drank salep, which is a warm white drink made from the ground root of an orchid and served with cinnamon on top.  

We ate a lot of hummus and yogurt sauce with cucumbers (turkish style, not tzatziki). 

My all-time two favorite turkish food experiences were:

Turkish ravioli--little tiny handmade dough pockets with meat in them and then covered in a warm and creamy yogurt sauce.  They were so good!  I would also like to mention that at the same restaurant we had an amazing stuffed eggplant for a starter.

Çay--also known as tea.  Tea in Paris is ridiculously expensive because there is some crazy high tax on it, so we don't get it very often.  In turkey tea is about 50 cents.  They give you free tea with almost every meal and it comes in a very stylish tulip shaped glass.  The best kind of tea is apple.  Seriously, it was amazing!  

I have poison for your mother in law a.k.a. stuff we did in turkey

Istanbul is a great tourist city because all the sights are really close to each other.  We stayed about a block away from two of the biggest--the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia.  The Hagia Sofia is a former mosque that is now a museum.  The place is huge!  It was built before the duomo in Florence and the dome here is just as big.  It was being restored so we couldn't see much of it, but apparently it is 20 stories tall.  The Blue Mosque is at the other end of a park from the Hagia Sofia and it is a functional mosque.  It is so named because the tile covering the walls is blue.  I expected it to be a lot more blue than it actually was--like I expected the tiles to be totally blue, instead of pretty tiles that just happened to have blue in them.  Anywho.  We visited two smaller mosques which I thought were way cooler than the big ones.  The tile was amazing in both of them--and it was way bluer than that of the blue mosque.  We also went to the New Mosque of the Mother Sultan, which was cool, and the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent--which was closed for restoration (bummer!).  

You have to remove your shoes when you go into the mosques and it is so funny because at the bigger mosques they provide you with plastic bags in which to carry your shoes while inside.  The smaller mosques just have wooden shelves to leave your shoes and collect when you leave.  As a woman, I had to cover my head as well when I entered the mosque and, as Rick Steves said, "dress modestly".  They provided extra scarves and wraps for those that were dressed inappropriately or came unprepared.

We also visited the Topkapi Palace, which was the home of the sultan for many many years.  They had collections of jewels and swords and armor and all sorts of things.  The gardens were also totally in bloom, so there were tulips everywhere!  There was a room of religious relics as well, but most of them looked really fake.  For instance, they claimed to have Moses' staff (which looked like it was made of plastic) and a piece of the crucifix (sure....).  We paid extra to visit the Harem, which was worth it.  It was interesting because it was decorated in the baroque and rococo style because it was all the rage in Istanbul back then.  It proved an interesting contrast to the rest of the palace.  I took about 100 pictures of tile because all of it was gorgeous.  There was a lot of mother of pearl inlay on everything and great views of the city.

We also hit up some museums--Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Archaeological Museum, and others.  

We went to the Grand Bazaar, which is pretty much Pike Place Market on crack and 18 thousand times the size.  The shop keepers heckle you as you walk by so you pretty much can't stop moving or you get swallowed up!  We wandered most of it and had a turkish coffee in the middle of the bazaar.  We hit up the book market as well, which was a fun mix of old and new and english and arabic and turkish and french.  The Spice Market was another stop.  It was so cool to see piles of spices and dried fruit.  This is where one of the shopkeepers tried to get us in his store by telling us he had poison for our mother in law.  He broke our serious paris faces, we couldn't stop laughing after that.

SB '09---Istanbul

I'm going to have to break this Istanbul entry up in a few bits so that I can do it justice.

The trip was amazing!  Mer and I left Paris in the afternoon and got to Istanbul in the middle of the night.  Our hostel had an airport pick-up service so we went straight to bed about an hour after our arrival.  We had our free breakfast on the roof-top terrace that we were happy to find out had gorgeous views of the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia, and the Bosphorus strait.  

Istanbul overall was a great city.  The old part (where we stayed) was super touristy and full of great sights.  The new town (across the bosphorus) was super modern and european.  The city is very walkable and the public transportation system is really easy to figure out.  It was cool to be in a city where there was a mosque in every neighborhood instead of a church.  I also got used to hearing the call to prayer blasted throughout the city 5 times a day.  The first few mornings I woke up when they call the first one just after sunrise, but by the end of the week I slept right through it.  

The people are so friendly there.  We had a joke that we made a new best friend everyday.  The first lunch we had our waiter was named Moses and he really wanted to talk to us about Lost.  He also told us he really wanted to visit New Jersey and Utah "to do the ski".  We also met some turkish teenagers who wanted to practice their english with us and they were really excited to go to Wisconsin some day.  We even had a waiter tell another waiter that we were his "best friends".  A 15 year old waiter also fell in love with Meredith and made her a flower out of a napkin.  He looked crushed when we asked for the check.  

All in all, Istanbul comes highly recommended from yours truly. 

This one time...

This one time I was really bad at blogging.

Also, this one time, I went to Lisbon! The first weekend in April I met two of my friends from Whitman for a weekend in Lisboa.  Lisbon is a really cool city that is right on the water and consists on two huge hills and the little valley between them.  We stayed in the Bairro Alto, which is one of the giant hills.  There are four options to get yourself up the hills: tram, bus, elevator in some cases, or to climb.  We did a lot of climbing because climbing comes free and because it is good for our health (we kept reminding ourselves).  A lot of streets are not even streets, they are just stairs....that go on forever.  Our hostel was at the top of some crazy set of stairs and it was the cutest place ever.  The walls were all really brightly painted and the furniture was all ikea-chic.  The view was great (see picture) and the staff was really nice.

Our first day we wandered around the neighborhood we were staying in and then went to Indian food for dinner.  It was AMAZING.  and SO CHEAP.  We had a great bottle of Portuguese white wine and explored the world of indian dessert food.  The next day we did an epic walk across the whole city.  We went to a giant flea market and had sandwiches for lunch.  Then we walked all the way up to the castle (on top of the other giant hill) and took a million pictures.  There was a man playing guitar in the middle of it and you could hear it from all over the hill.  We sat in the sun and rested before the climb back to the hostel.

We met my friend Grace and her friend Katie for dinner down the street.  We went for drinks before and found a happy hour where they had beer for one euro!  The Whitman crew had picked the restaurant out earlier solely on the criteria that they had guacamole.  We had their mediocre guac, some great bruschetta, and I had the most amazing octopus ever!  We finished the meal with fresh strawberries drizzled in warm chocolate.  

Next day we went to the beach!  We took the train along the coast to a little town called Cascais (cashcash).  It has about two streets and two beaches.  We sat around and read books all day--life is tough.  That night us Whitman girls took ourselves to a fun dinner.  The place was really cute, but was so pretentious!  The food was fine, but not amazing.  The waitresses looked at us like we were crazy every time we asked a question, but by the end of the night we had won them over because we each had a three course meal and we had wine.  Oh well, it was great people watching.

I found out that I really take for granted the fact that people can't smoke inside anymore in Paris.  It was awful to come home smelling like cigarettes every night.  The cool thing about Lisbon, though, is that all the streets are so small and all the bars are so small that people just get their drink and stand on the street.  You can look down a street and it just looks like a block party.  It was a very fun atmosphere.

All in all, I gave Portugal two thumbs up, very nice people and very nice sights.  Portuguese, however, still remains a mystery to me.

Spring?

Well, I think spring may have arrived.  Today Mer and I decided that we need to start doing more things with our time.  So, after class we went to St Chapelle and looked at all the lovely stained glass in the sunshine.  That place is just absolutely amazing and is totally worth the 5 euros to get in.  After that we went to place du dauphin, which is a park on the very tip of Ile de la cite.  We sat down by the river in the sun.  We did homework for a few hours while soaking up some rays--we were seriously lacking in vitamin d.  Then we walked to Ile St Louis and Mer got gelato and I got Berthillon sorbet.  We stopped by the Abbey bookshop on our way home and I bought some english books to read this weekend while in Portugal.  

Life is pretty sweet.  Everything is blooming, so when I am not sneezing because of all the pollen, I am really enjoying the view!  

Goodbyes

Mer's friend Sasha (who has been living in Paris for the past 3 months) went back to the states on Monday, so we had a last hurrah lunch together.  We went to Ladurée on the Champs Elysées and had lunch and tea.  It was so fun and felt very french.  We did not have any macaroons because we were so full from lunch, but we really enjoyed our tea.  Then we visited the Arc de Triomphe and Grace and I took anchor wave pictures in front of it!  From there, we walked Sasha back to her apartment in the Marais, which is a very long walk.  We walked down the champs elysées, through the Tuileries, to the Palais Royal, and then all the way down rue de rivoli.  We stopped at Myberry, which is the french equivalent of Pink Berry, also known as really good frozen yogurt.  We grabbed some bread for dinner, and then went back to our apartment to eat.  We said goodbye to Sasha and wished her safe travels.

Grace met me at IES yesterday and we went up to Montmartre.  It was another wonderful sunny day and we enjoyed walking around.  I made her eat a cheese crepe because it is the closest thing to a quesadilla that Grace is going to get until she gets back to the states.  From there we went back down to the Latin quarter and window shopped for the rest of the afternoon.  Today, we met in the jardin de luxembourg and sat in the sun.  We walked to the Pantheon and then to the jardin des plantes, then to the park on the Seine.  The sun was out, but the wind was cold, so it was good weather for walking.  I packed her up and sent her to the airport, but I won't miss her because I will see her in Lisbon in 3 days!  

I love having friends come to visit!  It is so nice to show people Paris, especially when the sun is out.  

Castles

For my second IES excursion, I went to Veaux le Vicomte and Fontainebleau.  They are both right outside of Paris, so it was about a 90 minute drive.  We went to Fontainebleau first, which is not a super impressive castle from the outside, but the interior is amazing!  The castle has a lot of interesting history and a pretty good art collection.  The decor is a mix of styles- from renaissance to baroque to rococo-and it is all gorgeous.  I took an enormous amount of pictures.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant, and IES always treats us to a great meal.  We had a duck salad, then salmon and rice, and profiteroles for dessert.  Then it was back on the bus and over to Veaux le Vicomte.  This castle is almost the exact opposite of Fontainebleau.  It is super impressive on the outside and not so much on the inside.  This one was built by Foucault and its beauty made the king of france so jealous that he took it! The gardens are extensive and really gorgeous (eva langoria got married there)--we had a fun time playing in them and taking pictures.  

I really love these IES field trips because you get to sleep a lot on the buses and you get to see a little bit of the countryside.  The thing I hate is how disrespectful some kids can be.  There was a group of kids that kept speaking really loudly in english (our tour guide was speaking in french) and they just kept laughing and being really disrespectful.  Sometimes I wish everyone would just practice common courtesy!  

Mer and Claire's Day of Fun!

My classes were cancelled last Wednesday and Mer only had one, so we decided to have a day of fun!  We did homework all morning and ate croissants.  I had to meet some friends at Musée d'Orsay to work on a presentation on Manet, so Mer and I went there.  After that, we grabbed panini's and ate them while sitting by the Seine, with our legs dangling over the edge--how Paris.  Then we walked to gardens at the Palais Royal, which are amazing right now.  They are full of daffodils and hyacinths.  There was also this adorable grandmother-granddaughter pair that I snuck a picture of because they were so very french.  We sat outside at a cafe and had a coffee after that, then we headed home and made dinner.  

Next day I did my presentation at Musée d'Orsay.  It was all in french and I did it with two friends.  It was really nerve-racking!  There were so many people at the museum that day, and the paintings we were talking about are really famous, so everyone was trying to look at them and they were all listening to us!  I think it went pretty well, although our teacher kept interjecting her own thoughts.  

That night my friend Grace Emery got to Paris!  It was another dramatic arrival.  Her train from the airport stopped and they made everyone get off, so she was a few metro stops farther from me.  She made it to my metro stop, but her phone didn't work in France, so she ended up asking to use the phone in a hotel on my street.  On top of all this, she doesn't speak a word of french, and it was pouring down rain.  In the end, she got here in one piece.

It so fun having friends visit!  Grace spent her first day in Paris going to museums on her own because Mer and I had an excursion (more on that next).  We went to the Eiffel Tower in the rain and had coffee nearby.  We wandered around the 7th arrondissement to the military museum.  We sat in a park and we saw a bride and groom walk by!  The weather just couldn't decide what to do, it kept pouring rain, hailing, and then getting really sunny.  We walked down rue cler, which is a great market street, and bought some produce for dinner.  We stopped by Notre Dame later and then had a glass of wine by the river.  We split a crepe and headed home. We all went to Sasha's and had pizza and beer for dinner (so college).  On the way home we wandered the Seine, so Grace could see it at night.   

   

My best friend Rick

I have a lot to catch up on!  This will have to come in increments, so get ready.  It all starts with the fact that....

I love Rick Steves!  While Lindsey was still here Mer and I took her up to Montmartre and we did the Rick Steves walking tour.  It was such a beautiful day!  I was actually walking around in just a t-shirt, which is absolute madness because the next day I was back wearing my knee-length wool coat.  Anywho, we did the whole hill of Montmartre and ate a lot of crepes.  We also had lunch at Le Chat Noir (like the poster that everyone knows).  We went on a pub crawl that night, which was really fun.  Next day we slept late and wandered around.  I had homework to do, so it was a pretty chill day.  

Lindsey's visit was perfectly timed because my friend Marcy's friend, Caitlin, was in town at the same time.  Marcy and I have the same class schedule, so Lindsey and Caitlin hung out while we were in class. Lindsey and I did some other Paris musts--like the Louvre and Notre Dame--together, and she did some others on her own--Eiffel tower, champs elysee.  We went out to a fabulous dinner at Auberge Nicolas Flamel (yes, like the sorcerer's stone) and it was AMAZING.  I love going out to dinner.  Lindsey was in town for a few more days and we had a great time wandering the city and the gardens.  We went to Creperie Josselin, which makes the best crepes, and all sorts of other places.  She left town on Wednesday morning, and I was sad to see her go!  We did have a fabulous time and she can't wait to come back some day.  I was also very impressed with her french skills and how quickly she learned! (love you lindser!)  

MYRA

LINDSEY'S HERE!  My friend Lindsey is visiting from Whitman this week.  She got in on Thursday, which was a little dramatic.  There was another greve (strike) in Paris but this time it was the train workers, so the train system was going to be a little shotty.  This is the best way to get in from the airport, so Lindsey had to take a cab.  Her cad driver let her borrow his cell phone to call me, which was super nice.  So, she made it here safe and sound.

Her first day, we just hung out and then made dinner at the apartment.  An excellent dinner, if I do say so myself.  I had really been craving broccoli for some reason, so I made broccoli with caramelized onions and lemon juice, and chicken marinated in balsamic.  Then we went for an epic night walk.  We walked all the way down the Seine and saw everything all lit up at night.  It was a great first glimpse of Paris for Lindsey.  Also, on one of the bridges there was a man playing the accordion and he was playing "la vie en rose", so it was a perfect Parisian night.  

Today we met Marcy for lunch on Mouffetard, at my favorite greek place.  Then we walked to the jardin des plantes and sat in the sun for a while.  It was great people watching.  These french teenagers were made to do laps by what we think was their teacher, but none of them were dressed for it.  It was just a bunch of teenagers running around in their skinny jeans and converse.  We then walked out to the Seine and crisscrossed our way around.  We found a great little street cafe in the sun, but there were no tables, so we shelved that one for another day.  Then we went to Notre Dame, but there was a huge line to get in, so we went to the Marais.  We got palmiers the size of our faces (my favorite) and walked to Pompidou to eat them.  We hit up St. Eustache and then hopped the metro home.      

Rough Life

Since my parents have left I've pretty much just been catching up on sleep and homework.  I finally had to go grocery shopping again.  Friday I walked through the Marais on my way home from seeing off the family, and then I took a nap and did homework.  Saturday was more homework and sleeping (crazy i know).  I met a friend of Mer's from high school for dinner that night.  We just went to a random place by Notre Dame, touristy, but with a good view.  Sunday I did more homework!  I had midterms this week, and Mer was in Belfast for the weekend, so it was nice to have some down time.  Sunday night, a woman from the Whitman Study Abroad office was in town visiting our program, so she took us all out to dinner!  We went to the "best crepes in Paris" at Creperie Josseph.  They were amazing!  I had this huge crepe full of spinach, cheese, cream, egg, and bacon.  The best one at the table, though, was goat cheese and honey.  For dessert I had a salted carmel toffee one.  They also have really good cider that we had as well.  

My life is really tough, let me tell you.  Today it was a gorgeous 60 degree day and I had just taken two midterms, so I met Katie, Jasper, and Kim (who is visiting from Whitman) in the Jardin de Luxembourg.  We just sat by the pond in the sun and ate bread and cheese and cookies.  Everyone was out in Paris today!  People were laughing and smiling, and kissing a lot.  There were little kids pushing sailboats in the pond and lots of old people holding hands.  It was just a lovely Parisian afternoon!  

21 RUN

So I turned 21 years old last Tuesday.  Yup.  Now I can do everything but rent a car.  

Well, my birthday was just great.  It was not your average 21 run were your friends run you around to all of the bars in town until you pass out or hit someone.  My birthday was classy!  We got all dressed up and then met up in the lobby of the Ritz.  We went to the Hemingway bar there and had drinks.  The bar is super tiny and is just covered in Hemingway stuff.  The menu is a newspaper and if you were a woman, your drink came with a giant flower in it!  I had a drink called a serendipity, which was pretty much a mojito, but with champagne in it.  It came with a big purple poppy in it.  Mer and mom had some lovely raspberry thing, dad had a gimlet, and Joel had something called a "death in the afternoon".  They gave us olives, nuts, and really good potato chips (how i've missed those...).

After drinks we walked over to Willie's Wine Bar, in the 9th arrondissement.  This is the neighborhood with the Opera, so it is a really cool part of town.  We had Obama themed champagne the description said something about "bubbles of hope".  The food was just great and the wine was, too.  I had a a great quail salad and ragu with polenta.  The staff was very nice and entertained all of our questions (despite what everyone might think, I do not know every food word in french).  They even put a candle in my dessert!  

All in all, it was a great birthday.  I got lots of cards and emails and I really appreciate everyones good wishes!  Thanks for making my birthday a merry one! 

Family in Paris!!

Well, my parents arrived on March 2nd.  They rented an apartment in the Marais, which is the Jewish and Gay quarter.  So basically it is a really fun place!  The building that they stayed in was built in like 1490, or something like that.  Well, I hung out with the 'rents the first day they got here, but they were pooped so I left them on their own for dinner and went home to do some homework.  Mer and I took ourselves out to dinner and had the best chocolat chaud ever.  They gave us a warmed cup and saucer and then two small porcelain jugs.  One was full of steamed milk, the other was full of liquid chocolate.  You got to mix it to your own liking, and they brought us sugar--just in case it wasn't sweet enough.   

I'm not going to give a day by day account of the family's visit, but I will give a general overview.  Basically we ate really good food and wandered around most of Paris.  I got to show them my apartment and my walk to school.  I ate a steak that was pretty much raw, and then the parents headed to Beaune for a night.  I had my excursion to Provins, and then on Friday night Mer and I had a sleepover at my parent's place.  We got pizza's to go and watched a movie.  It was just like being at home!  

Then next morning Mer and I ventured out to go buy pastries from our favorite Marais Patisserie.  They make palmiers the size of my face!  Joel arrived that morning as well, so the gang was all here!  We did the Champs Elysées and climbed the Arc de Triomphe.  Then we walked over to the Eiffel Tower.  Next day, we went up the Eiffel tower--it was rainy and cold, but the line was pretty short!  Then we took a cruise on the Seine.  It was great to see the city from the river.  It was especially nice to see what all the bridges really look like.  We ate onion soup and I met them for dinner again.  Then the weekend was over and I had to go back to school!  The family would explore museums and stuff during the day and I would meet them for dinner each night.  Some friends from home were also in town that week, so I met them for lunch one day, which was very fun.  

Mer and I met mom for tea at Angelina's one day, which was interesting.  The decor was gorgeous, very belle epoque.  It is kind of the epitome of stereotypical French snooty and sophisticated.  Our waiter was totally rude, but the

 food was good.  I was instructed to try the African drinking chocolate, which I did.  It was fine.  It wasn't the best I've had, but it was pretty good.  The people watching was amazing, however.  It was fashion week in Paris (the couture week) so there were all sorts of people there.  There were the tourists like us, asian people taking pictures of everything, french families, impeccably dressed older women who were obviously there for fashion week, and some other interesting people.  At the table next to us, a guy was pitching his new t-shirt line and he described the show looking like "astronauts who are in training".  The table behind us was a group from Teen Vogue, and we really wanted to ask them if they knew Lauren Conrad.  

We went to a great restaurant that night that was recommended to us.  It was out by Porte Maillot and is obviously a favorite with the locals.  A line starts to form at about 6:30 and it doesn't open until 7.  We got in line and at 7 they start letting people in.  The maitresse directs you to a table and immediately a waitress (all of them were wearing black dresses with starched white collars and aprons) comes over and asks how you want your steak cooked.  There is no menu.  Then she brings you your wine and a salad and once you finish that, let the feast begin!  They bring these big plates of steak frites with a mustard sauce and once your plate is empty, they just refill it!  We only made it two rounds, but she probably would have given us more.  Somehow we all found room for profiteroles and sorbet.

Their last night we had a tasty dinner in a funky place in the Marais and then went to look a the Eiffel Tower at night.  I spent the night in the loft one more time and saw them off in the morning.  It was so nice to have family in town!  It was great to show them where I have been living the last many weeks and where I will be for the next few months.  I hope they all had a fun time seeing Paris, as well!     

 

March?

Wow, so much has happened in the last two weeks.  I went to Provins, my family was in town, AND I turned 21!!!!  I'm going to have to take this a few posts at a time, so stay tuned.

Provins

With IES (my program) you get 2 free field trips to places

 around Paris.  I went on my first one last Friday.  We went to Provins, which is about 90 minutes outside of Paris.  It is a fortified medieval city that has been completely untouched since it was first built.  If the cars weren't there, it would be exactly like being in the middle ages (or moyen âge, en français).  

We met our bus at 8 AM and headed out of town.  It was freezing!!! The bus didn't have any heat, so Mer and I were forced to huddle together all the way to Provins.  Although it was cold, it was one of those super clear, sunny days.  We watched an informational video on the town once we got to the visitors center, and then met our tour guide.  She was adorable!  She asked where we were from and was surprised when we said the US.  She complemented our French, but told us that she would speak slowly just in case (which we were all thankful for).  We started by walking around the outside of part of the city, stopping in two of the tower gates to the city.  We learned a lot about France in the middle ages, and then we headed inside the walls.  We visited the castle, we climbed all the way to the top, and saw the smallest staircase I had ever seen.  My shoulders were even too broad to fit in it!  Next we went to the church, which was charming.  It was built in the middle ages, but is pretty light and airy because of the changes made.  The walls were once covered in frescoes, but when they went out of style they decided to scrape them off and paint all the walls white.  What a shame!  

We stopped for lunch at a great place in the middle of town.  The great thing about traveling with your program is that they buy you a traditional French lunch.  We had a terrine, then confit de canard (duck), and amazing chocolate cake.  After a coffee, we left to go on a tour of the underground.  The city has an extensive system of underground caves leftover from cutting out the stones for the walls and buildings.  Back in the day people used to keep their wine down there, and the Free Masons used some of the space for initiation and meditation.  It was a cool tour--not something you see everyday.

After that we headed back to the bus to go back to Paris, but about 5 minutes from Provins, we headed into a traffic circle, but there was a car on fire!  Our bus driver stopped and we just watched this van burn for about 20 minutes.  Eventually the firemen arrived, but it was a crazy end to the day.  

Firenze!

So, I made it to Florence and back!

I left Paris on Thursday night, took every form of public transportation there is (a tram to the metro, to another metro, to a bus, to a plane, to a bus, to a taxi) and flew from Beauvais (a rural airport near Paris) to Pisa and on to Florence.  I got to my friend Destiny's apartment at about 2:00 AM.   

Next day I hung out and did homework while Destiny was in class in the morning.  Her apartment is amazing!  There are about 5 girls who live there and they have 3 bedrooms, a common room, a great kitchen, and 3 bathrooms.  It has marble floors, amazing tall ceilings, and is just one block from the Duomo.  Destiny and I hung out for a while, then I went and met Katharine to go shopping.  I bought a few scarves and some great handmade sandals.  We then met up with Laura and tried to go to the Bobali gardens, but they were closed, so we settled for just eating some gelato.  Next we went to the apple store to check on Katharine's computer (it had died a few weeks before), where we found that they had replaced the hard drive and wanted to charge her a lot for it.  After a little fit she received a discount, and then we had a little nervous breakdown in the street, after which we decided that we all needed a beer.  We went to JJ's which looks out over the Duomo and had a beer.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and they were playing some great american oldies.  We went to dinner with some of Laura and Katharine's friends and it was sooooo tasty.  Then we hit up a karoke bar.  

Next day Katharine and Laura had a field trip with school, I could have gone, but didn't feel like leaving at 7AM, so I just bummed around Florence for the day.  I checked into my hostel which was about a block away from Destiny's and still near the Duomo.  My first hostel experience was really not bad.  Everything was very clean, the staff was helpful, and the people all seemed nice.  

Last day in Florence I woke up early and wandered around for a while.   I met up with Katharine and Laura, we walked Laura to school and got coffee and pastries on the way at their favorite spot, Minni's.  Their school is beautiful and puts IES paris to shame.  Katharine and I continued to wander around, then stopped for lunch at a cute cafe.  We had tuscan bread soup that I don't remember the actual name for, but it was amazing!  Then we headed towards the bus station and wandered a little of the fashion district as well.  I grabbed my bus back to Pisa to do the whole thing in reverse.

Florence was great.  I had already been there so I didn't spend very much time being a real tourist.  I really enjoyed seeing friends from home and it is just crazy to be with them in Europe--it hardly feels real.  I am so excited to show them my life in Paris when they come into town next weekend!  

*don't worry, pictures from florence will be emailed out shortly...

update

Not much has changed around here.  I've been doing a lot of homework.  Yes, I do go to school. It is fun most days, but also really boring, and a little long.  We have 90 minute classes which is the longest class I have ever had (except labs).  I could probably do that at college, but this is in french, so my brain is usually a little mushy by the end of a period.  Also, they really like to make all the classrooms really warm, and a little stuffy--perfect for falling asleep.  My art history professor likes to take a "petit pose" halfway through class so that everyone can get some air, stand up, and wake up.  I am very thankful for the 40 cent coffee machine in the IES lounge--its a life saver!  

We laugh a lot in class, though.  Mostly because of misunderstandings.  A boy in my french class was explaining why he couldn't get a coffee out of the coffee machine and he accidentally said that there was a man inside the machine, instead of in front of it.  Our class still hasn't let that one go.  So, we have a pretty good time, but I think we are all getting better at french, if not just a little more comfortable with it.  There are some horrendous speakers, though.  Those people that still have not mastered the basics of french pronunciation drive me crazy.  Also, there are a few girls who punctuate their french sentences with "like", "so", "ya know" in english!  It just sounds awful, I feel sorry for the professors who have to listen to it all the time.

I'm going to Florence tomorrow to see some friends, so I will have plenty to write about.  It should be an adventure!

Urban Hike

Katie and I decided to go on an urban hike today.  We needed some exercise and an adventure so we put on our running shoes (woohoo arch support) and some spandex, then we did what any parisienne would do....we got on the metro.  Well, we took the metro to a park in the 19th (north eastern Paris) called Butte Chaumant.  It is a really hilly park with lots of trails, a waterfall, a lake, and some random gazebos and pavilions.  We had a great photo shoot at the highest part of the park.  The view is really interesting because it just looks over the city of Paris, no monuments in sight.  If you squint you can see Sacre Coeur in the distance,  but otherwise it is just a lot of city.  

After the park we decided to walk back to the Marais (near the Seine).  So we started walking.  We walked th

rough 3 or 4 arrondissements and saw a lot of Paris.  We walked along a canal for a while, which was very cool because it had at least 3 sets of locks on it.  It felt like a totally different city in that area because the buildings and the canal are not stereotypical Paris.  We were exhausted after our 5 hour walk, so we had a glass of wine and crashed for the day.

I went to the Louvre for the first time this week and, let me tell you, that place is HUGE.  I was so glad I was with my art history class and that I had something very specific to look at because otherwise I would have been so overwhelmed.  With art history this week, we also went to Les Gobelins, which is actually an old factory.  Now it is a tapestry museum, so we went to 

see those, and we got to 

visit the studios and watch people make tapestries which was very cool.  There was also a manifestation (protest) that day because of the education greve.  So we walked out of the museum and the entire Rue des Gobelins was full of people.  It was pretty amazing to watch how passionate they all were.  

Parisians are so funny.   I held the door open for an old lady the other day and she was totally taken aback.  She said "merci, mademoiselle.  c'est gentille!" (thanks, young lady.  that's nice!).  I also held a door open for a women with a stroller and she thought it was weird, too.  I also helped an old lady across the street, but she wasn't so grateful--she was mad that I wasn't continuing in her direction.  I think I have just been missing those nice pacific northwesterners.  So, I'm bringing it to Paris!  

Classes are going pretty well--the second week of them just finished.  I get a little frustrated in my philosophy class because I can't express the full breadth of my opinion in french.  My comics class is really cool--our textbook is a comic book about comic books.  Art history is fun because of all the museum visits.  My french class is really fun because we just have a really good time teasing our professor and the one boy who is in our class.  My history class is funny because the professor really likes to ask questions that no one knows the answer to.  He especially likes to ask those questions of me.  For instance, he usually starts every lecture by asking a few questions about the previous lecture.  This week he asked us what the Treaty of Verdun was, but he forgot that he hadn't finished his lecture on that.  He had described the treaty, but he had never named it.  When I said he asked "us" this question, I really mean that he looked at his roster and asked me.  I had no idea what he was talking about but he wouldn't let me get out of answering so I wittingly responded with "the treaty of verdun is a treaty that was discussed and signed at verdun".  I proceeded to try and make up for my poor answer by answering many questions throughout the rest of class.  I got most of them wrong, but I think he appreciates me effort.  

Day tripper

Mer and I had our first day trip over the weekend.  We decided that we didn't want to spend Valentine's Day hanging out in the most romantic city in the world, so we jumped on a train to Chartres Saturday morning.  Chartres is a small town about and hour and half southwest of Paris by train.  

We caught the 9:30 AM train out there and made it to the cathedral before the crowds.  Rick Steves has a great guided visit of the church in his Paris book, so we took turns reading aloud from it.  We love to be tourists!  The church is really cool, with different parts dating from all different eras.  The stained glass is some of the prettiest I have seen thus far.  We splurged and payed the 4.50 euro to climb to the top one of the towers, which was totally worth it.  It was a great view of the town and the countryside in general, too bad it was absolutely freezing and windy!  Mer also forgot to inform me that she is afraid of heights until we were leaning over the railing on top of said super tall windy tower.  The tower is reached by a tiny spiral staircase with slippery stone steps and a slippery stone railing.  Its not that bad on the way up, but the ay down is scary!  We inched down the tower with an adorable couple from Ireland, who appreciated our slow pace.  

Because it was Saturday, the outdoor market was in full force and everyone was out.  There was also a great flower market around the corner.  We had lunch and spent the rest of the day wandering around the town.  It was really nice to be out of Paris for the day, just to be somewhere with less people, less noise, and some quaint character.  I especially enjoyed the train ride home because you actually got to see rolling fields of nothing!  Open space is something that doesn't really exist in Paris, so it was nice to know it still exists.

I'm looking forward to exploring more of the Ile de France (province that Paris is in) with some more day trips.  It was nice to get the first one under my belt!  Other than Chartres, the last week was pretty uneventful.  Just going to class and doing homework most days.  I made burritos for some friends last week and rediscovered y love for salsa. My friend Jasper made an amazing dinner last week as well--we ate like kings.  My friend Monica turned 21 and we went to the super touristy fondue restaurant in Montmartre where you drink your wine out of baby bottles, which was fun.  Other than that, not much to report!  

I will email out pictures from Chartres soon, I promise!    

Because it was 

I am a bad blogger

So its been about a week...and I have written nothing.  This is a bad thing because so much has happened!

Last week was just another week of french class in the morning and wandering the city in the afternoon.  Mer and I covered a few more neighborhoods, Katie and I wandered a few as well.  My friend Grace, from high school, came to visit this weekend! So that is pretty much all I can think about.  We had such a good time!

Grace came in on Thursday night and we headed to the Beaubourg area for dinner.  We ended up in this little italian place which was great!  The waiter was a little old italian 

man who kept turning up the opera and singing along.  He sang happy birthday to someone in english, even though they were french, and then he gave us free limoncello after dinner.  The food was pretty good.  The antipasto was amazing.  He just brought us all these little bowls of things and I have no idea what anything was.  There was bean som

ething, potato something, zucchini something, sausage something, and some proscuitto.

Friday, Grace and I went to the Musée du Luxembourg to see the modern art exhibit.  We shopped a little on the way and wandered through the garden as well.  It was a gorgeous sunny day and one of the warmest yet!  Then we went to Rue Mouffetard for lunch at our favorite greek place (aka the only greek place we have eaten at).  It is amazing.  Then we walked back to the Seine, and wove our way across it, stopping on the Ile St Louis and at Notre Dame.  We took far too many pictures.  We made a little dinner at the apartment that night and then headed to the Trocadero to watch the eiffel tower sparkle.  

Saturday, it snowed.  We decided to go to the catacombs because they are underground and much warmer than being on the street.  Walking through the catacombs is like being in an Indiana Jones movie/the goonies.  You just walk down all these tiny dimly lit corridors, 20 meters under the city, until you get to these stacks of bones.  They are arranged in patterns and are usually sorted by type of bone--all the femurs over there, tibias on that wall, etc.  It is super creepy, but kind of cool.  After that we met Mer for some onion soup in the Marais, then we grabbed some giant palmiers and shopped a bit more.  We took a little siesta of sorts after that and then went to Sasha's before heading to a bar with a bunch of girls.  We went to the Long Hop and had a great time.  We missed the last metro, much to our chagrin, so we had to take a cab.  We also learned that cabs can be hard to come by after the metro closes, but we made it home eventually.  

Grace left the next morning, unfortunately she had food poisoning, so she wasn't feeling her best!  No, it wasn't just a hangover, it was food poisoning.  I walked home after I dropped her at the bus and discovered the Sunday morning is a charming time to walk in Paris!  Everyone is getting things at the market for Sunday dinner and there are just a lot of people out.  Mer and I spent most of the day in bed hiding from the cold and the rain.  Very college.

Today was the first day of classes.  Mer and I were so excited!  I think we might do homework tonight, which just sounds fantastic because I have been without it for about 2 months.  I had my french aesthetics class and bandes dessinées.  That is a french comics literature class.  My book for that class is huge!  It isn't that thick, but it is about as long as my torso, and probably bigger than my professor (he is a tiny little french man).  It is still raining here and being really windy and cold.  I am really looking forward to spring!  

Wine and Popcorn

I am a classy ex-pat. and here is why:

Mer, Sasha, and I went to the Musee d'Orangerie on Saturday.  Which is the museum with the circular rooms of Monet's paintings.  There are only two of those rooms, but being surrounded by Monet is pretty cool.  Fun Paris Fact: the museum is called the Orangerie because it is built on the part of the Tuileries where the orange grove used to be.  After that, Mer and I went to Montmartre, which is one of the coolest places ever.  The church is kind of weird because it looks like a greek orthodox church, instead of a Catholic one.  And it is the kind of place with a guy standing inside going "shhhh!  shhhhh!" every few seconds.  It kind of ruins the ambiance of a place when someone is doing that.  After cruising the church we walked around the neighborhood, which is adorable.  It feels like you are miles away from Paris and you are in a small town in the country.  Supercute is the way to describe it.  We had lunch at Chez Ma Cousine which was really tasty.  We decided that Saturdays would be the days where we go out for a leisurely multiple course late lunch, and have a light dinner.  So far (one weekend) it has worked out great.

That night I went to a dinner party at a friend's homestay.  Her family was gone for the weekend, so we made crepes and had a very classy party.  Someone made brownies, and I really enjoyed them.  

I went to an organ concert at St Louis en Ile on Sunday.  It was fantastic!  Just me and a whole bunch of French people sitting in this beautiful church while someone played an instrument bigger than my house.  The program was handwritten and the sun was shining through all the stained glass--magical, if I do say so myself.  After that I got a great chocolat chaud, and wandered the island.  It was a wonderful sunny day--the first in a long while and you could tell because everyone was out that day--but it was freezing!!!!!!  Mer and I did homework and made some pasta for dinner, nothing too fancy.

Today I discovered the beauty of wine and popcorn.  After some meetings and boring stuff in the morning I met Katie in the afternoon.  We wandered, thought about getting a coffee, and decided to go to happy hour instead.  (I would like to interject that during our wandering we stumbled across "The Happy Days Diner".  We took a lot of pictures and the people sitting in it were a little puzzled as to why, when we saw it, we started giggling and skipping towards it.  The menu advertised "american milkshakes" and hot dogs for 10 euro.)  The charming thing about Paris is that they don't translate happy hour, they just leave it as is, so there are all these cute cafes with big signs advertising "Le Happy Hour".  Our restaurant was already decked out for Valentine's day, so our table was strewn with rose petals--how romantic for me and Katie.  

We really enjoyed the menu because there were all sorts of funny snacks listed.  One of them was popcorn, for 1 euro.  We decided we would go the classy route and got bread and tapenade to go with our drinks.  When we got a glass of wine after that, our waiter brought us a free basket of popcorn to go with it--classy.  First of all, I would like to say that it was some damn good popcorn.  Second of all, I'm not sure if it was free because they liked us, or because they thought we should eat something.  Anywho, the waiters got a kick out of us because we refused to take the english menu and because we would only speak to them in french.

Mer and I had dinner at Sasha's and then came home to do homework--super fun!  I just booked a trip to Florence and I have 3 people who haved booked trips to come see me in Paris, so my schedule is filling up!  I have one more week of intensive French, and then I start real classes!  

St Germain de Près

Today was a fun day!  I pretty much read my entire guidebook last night, so I slept in and then decided to go to the St Germain de Près neighborhood and wander around.  The church is amazing!  It is one of those with every inch of the walls and ceilings covered in art or design or painting.  All ceilings are that super dark blue with the gold stars.  The sun was coming in through the stained glass windows and it was just magical.  

Today was also the first truly sunny day since we have been here, although it was still freezing.  The weather has been in the 30's and today with the sun it might have climbed to the 40's, but it was breezy.  After the church, I wandered towards the Jardin de Luxembourg and sat in the sun.  The parks are so funny here because they area all very organized and mostly dirt.  Even if there is grass, you are not allowed to walk on it.  There are, however, tons of benches and lawn chairs to sit in.  I sunned myself in the freezing cold until I couldn't feel my limbs.  Then I wandered the garden, looking at all the art, and I found the little version of the statue of liberty!  

All in all, it was a nice day.  The neighborhood was full of shops and little tiny cobbled streets with cafes.  It was an area very popular with Hemingway and all that crowd.  I saw the cafes where they would hang out--Les Deux Magots (not magots, but asian sculptures) and Cafe Flore.  I went to San Sulpice, which is probably one of the ugliest churches I have ever been to.  It is a bad combination of architectural styles.  Overall, it is a very grand building--very large, soaring ceilings, huge columns, etc.  But it looks like it should be a senate building and not a church.  It is also in bad need of a restoration!  The organ was very impressive, however.

Mer and I had a pseudo dinner party tonight.  We had four people over for omelets and wine.  I don't think we can ever have a proper dinner party because we only have two burners, two chairs, four forks, four plates, and no oven.  Anyway, we didn't even cook.  We made one of our guests cook for us, because he is infinitely better at it.  

I promise that I am working on getting pictures on this blog!  Stay tuned!