Allez les Bleus!!!

So I went to my first ever soccer match last night- France vs. Croatia at Stade de France with a few friends. Don't ask me what happened, because I really have no idea. All I know is, the score was tied at the end 0-0, the beer was awful, and the guy sitting next to me must have been completely confused as to why me and Grace were at the game in the first place because of our complete lack of knowledge of "football" (I don't care what the Europeans say- it's soccer). Regardless, it was a good time had by all.

Side note: Before the game, me and Grace decided to grab dinner together, which ended up being pizza. I showed my true American colors when I gave up on trying the eat the damn thing with a knife and fork (which is the way it's done here- it makes no sense whatsoever), cut the pie into slices, and ate it New York style. I'm pretty sure the owner of the restaurant was looking at me in disgust because of that, but oh well. :)

"Just touched down in Londontown..."

When you're so close to some of the best cities in the world, why not take advantage and explore as many as you can? This past weekend, I headed to England with my friend Laura, and we explored London and Oxford. (Note to future travellers: England is expensive. Try not to convert the prices you see into American dollars- its about a 2:1 ratio- or you'll never do anything. Just suck it up, pay and deal with your monetary balance later.)

We flew into London around late morning and, after discovering my ATM card didn't work in the UK because TDBank froze my account (wonderful people), headed to the hostel, which was pretty nice and didn't cost us a whole lot (always important to a college student on a budget). I was able to send out a few emails to try and take care of my ATM card situation (no worries- I had brought Euros to change over, just in case), and then Laura and I headed out for some exploring. I've been to London before so I've seen quite a few things there, but it was nice to go back and explore it at my own pace.

(Tower Bridge- NOT London Bridge)

(Globe Theater)

(River Thames, Big Ben, Parliament)

(London Eye)

(Westminster Abbey)

(Buckingham Palace)

We grabbed some fsh and chips for dinner (what else do you eat when you're in England?), then decided to call it a early night. We were both pretty tired from walking all day, and with the stress of the last week (lost phone, non-functioning ATM card, non-functioning calling card), I was ready to go to bed.

We started early the next morning, visiting Hyde Park and making the attempt to get into the British Museum. However, the line to get in was around the block, and we had a bus to catch to Oxford, so we decided to just have a full English breakfast instead andmake our way to the coach station.

(Hyde Park)

(Paddington!)

On to Oxford! Laura is friends with a couple, Laurence and Erol, who live near there with their 9 month old son Leon (cutest thing ever), and they were nice enough to invite us to stay with them for a night so we could visit the town and countryside nearby. They were the nicest couple, showing us some sites around the area and giving us tips on where we should visit, not only nearby, but across the world. They're travellers themselves and have visited every continent, it seems, with the exception of Antarctica. We arrived in the afternoon on Saturday, and they took us to Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill and the home of the dukes of Marlborough. The palace and grounds were absolutely gorgeous!

That night, we all had a really nice dinner and just sat around and talked for a few hours, in both English and a little bit of French. The next day, we were able to sleep in a little (which I haven't done in about 3 weeks, save for this morning) and were greeted with freshly-baked homemade bread for breakfast- it was delicious! We were also greeted with the sound of birds chirping when we awoke- not cars honking, not sirens blaring, not people yelling- but birds. Nature. It was wonderful. We then said our thank you's and good-byes to Laurence and Erol for their hospitality and headed into Oxford to explore the town. Its not huge (good for a day trip or an overnight stay like we did), but it's a charming little place with a lot of character. Laura and I did our own version of a Harry Potter tour, since some scenes from the movies were filmed here, then checked out some of the sites where some of the masters of English literature- including Lewis Carroll, Tolkein, and C.S. Lewis- used to frequent.

(Christ Church University)

(The dining hall and staircase featured in HP 1&2)

(Bodleian Library, where more scenes from HP were filmed. And it's a really neat library, where they accumulate enough material each year to fill 3 miles worth of shelving.)

(The Eagle and Child Pubm which was a favorite hang-out spot of Tolkein and Lewis.)

We stayed in Oxford until later, then caught the bus back to London, then caught the bus back to the airport in Luton (about and hour outside of London) because our flight back to Paris was at 6am the next morning and we needed to be there by 4am and we didn't feel like figuring out a hotel/hostel situation. So we crashed at the airport for a few hours. It really wasn't too bad- but I did feel the lack of sleep the next day when I had a 3-hour class at the Louvre. Oops.

Overall it was a good weekend. I wish I was able to spend a little more time in London, but I really enjoyed my time in Oxford, away from the hustle and bustle of a city. Up next this weekend: Loire Valley with the ISA gang. Let's try for a repeat of Normandy, yeah?

Lectures, Grievances, and Missing Hunks of Plastic

So the country is starting to show me its true colors (not that it hasn't already, but these are a few of the instances where I'm the one experiencing them). First up: my host lady, Louise. (I'm going to call her host lady and not host mom because quite frankly, she's like a cool aunt or something similar- not really 'motherly') Louise is a very nice little French lady who loves to talk about her past marriages and travels and how hard life in Paris/France can be when compared with other cities/nations. She has been nothing but kind, caring, and welcoming. At the end of the day, though, she is French. And the French have no problem expressing their opinions, as she did with Nicolas Sarkozy a few days ago. Anyway, the other night, I let Louise know that I wouldn't be here this weekend, that I would be going to London with a friend. She thought this was great- she has studied in London and thinks its the best city on the planet. She started telling me everything I should/needed to do, and as usual I listened politely and nodded along. When she said I needed to get to the train station early, I said "No, we're not taking the train, we're flying there." Then, she looked at me funny, and basically started lecturing me (which I absolutely hate- ask my parents) about how far the airport is from the city center, and I'll need to get a taxi, and taxis are expensive, how the train would have been much better, etc. OK 1. I'm not one to just book travel and not know anything beforehand about where I'm going. I know the airport is far, but there is a decently priced coach bus that takes you into the city center. 2. Said bus runs continuously 24 hours/day, making it easy to return to the airport to catch our early flight on Monday morning (and by early, I'm talking 6am). 3. Yes, the train may have been easier, but the idea of the Chunnel kinda freaks me out, no lie. 4. We're college students- we were looking for the cheapest mode of transportation. EasyJet, the Southwest Airlines of European aviation, was the least expensive option, even with the bus transfers to and from the city center. After she was finished telling me how ridiculous I was (not in so many words, but you get the picture), we went on with the rest of our dinner as if nothing happened- which nothing did happen, in her mind, since conversing in such a way is normal here. Flash forward to tonight, when she gave me a pretty detailed map of the city (complete with Underground map) and a little booklet on London of all the up-an-coming places and events that I could check out when I'm there. Like I said, she really is a very nice lady.

UPDATE: I apologize for the rant- bad days happen. Louise was even nice enough to buy me a bag of cookies to take with me. She really cares about the girls that stay with her, and I know she was just showing her concern over my plans. My bad.

Next up in my indoctrination process was losing a personal effect on the Metro. Today, my phone went missing as I was making my way to the ISA office. I'm not quite sure if I was picked off or it fell out of my coat pocket, but I'm pretty sure it fell out of my pocket since there wasn't really anyone around me with the exception of one of my friends and my pocket isn't too deep on my jacket. And naturally, I lose my phone just before I leave for London on Friday and I really have no way of contacting people with the exception of pay phones. WONDERFUL. Granted, there are worse things that could have happened than losing the phone that I really don't use that much anyway, but its definitely an annoyance at the moment.

And I'm getting tired of not being able to think for myself in my classes. My French language class is pretty cut-and-dry, as is my French history class- all names and dates. My two art history classes work pretty much the same way- there's no room for interpretation or personal opinions, as the professors will basically tell you that you're wrong. I usually hate it when a professor from back home asks me what I think of a certain subject or topic, but I think I'm starting to miss it- classes are starting to feel a bit robotic here.

Au Revoir Paris, Buon Giorno Italia!

So...classes continue to bore everyone, but that's the same everywhere. Thank god for the weekends, which happened to start a bit earlier this week, thanks to St. Patrick's Day falling on a Thursday. A few of us went out to celebrate our Irish heritage, but I couldn't stay out too late since I had a flight to next day to ITALY! Milan, to be exact. Jen was going to be there during her spring break with some other fashion students from Monclair, so we planned it out that I would visit her while she was there and I would be able to stay somewhere for free, even if two people would be sharing a twin bed (still a plus in the always-expensive continent of Europe). AND I would be able to get a taste of home, which I'm really missing right now. So really, everyone is a winner in this situation :)

My flight wasn't until 1:30 on Friday, so being my anal, OCD-self, I got to the airport with two hours to spare and nothing to do. Super. But I had my weekly Friday morning phone call with my parents, so that seemed to help pass the time a little more quickly. The flight itself was only an hour, and by the time I landed, figured out where to find the airport shuttle into town, and fought off someone for a spot in line for said-shuttle and another for a seat (all in Italian, which I don't speak), I finally made it into Milan around 5pm, just in time to meet up with Jen. Oh my god, have I missed her. Seriously. We talked for a while, then headed to dinner with her fellow fashion students (all from Bergen County), where I had my first pasta (gnocchi) with red sauce in over a month (that has to be a new record for me). Deliciousness. Then some nighttime xity exploration was in order:

(The Duomo at night- it's the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and absolutely beautiful.)

(We missed the celebration of Italy's 150th birthday by one day- womp womp)

(My first legit Italian gelato ever- tiramisu, of course!)



The next day, I tagged along with Jen and her group for a little bit. We visited the Saturday morning market, which every European city seems to have, where I picked up a few scarves. They had so many fresh products, though, that I wish I was there for longer and could have bought some!

Then I broke off from the group and did my own thing. I successfully navigated the tram and made my way to the art museum there (naturally), the Pinacotheca di Brera, where I saw a few works I've studied in past classes. Not my favorite type of art, since it was all Italian Renaissance paintings, but nice to see nonetheless. Although they did have a small room of modern works by Picasso, Severini, and Boccioni- very excited to see that. Then I hoofed it over to Santa Maria delle Grazie, where da Vinci's "Last Supper" is located. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see it because you need to buy a freaking ticket three months in advance and only get 15 minutes in front of the damn thing, but whatever. Nbd (no big deal). They didn't even let me in the freaking church, but I did get a nice picture outside of it (thank you random tourist for offering to take the photo!).

I headed back to the Duomo after, and visited inside- it's absolutely gorgeous both inside and out. And I found Luini's! It's this little place near the Duomo that is known for their panzarottis, and with good reason- they were absolutely delicious little pillow pockets of fried dough and fresh tomatoes and mozzarella.

Later that night, me and Jen were gonna head out for a nice dinner, but instead the heavens decided to hail down upon us- literally. Rain, thunder, lightning, hail- you name it, we had it. So instead we kicked it at the hotel, just talking about anything and everything, which is something I've really missed doing. We're not allowed to have friends come over in the homestays (which is all I do at home), so if I want to hang out with someone, we have to meet up somewhere in the city. It was so nice to just relax and chill and talk with one of my best friends.  I'm so glad I went to visit Jen in Milan- I really needed a taste of home!

I LOVED Italy, and I def plan on going back before I leave Europe: Rome for sure, and I think I'm going to have to make a decision between Florence and Venice- I'm not sure which one I want to go to more!

On the agenda for next weekend: London and Oxford :)

Explore some more...

So on Tuesdays, I have class until noon, and then I'm done until the next day, which is all well and good except for the fact that in Paris, many museums and attractions are closed on Tuesdays. Quelle chance! (What luck!) So I've been trying to find things to do. Last week, I went to the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris- big name for a not-so-big collection. Even though it wasn't all that large, which may have been because they were renovating and installing in some rooms, I really liked this museum. The inside was clean and sleek and featured some of my favorite artists- Picasso, Matisse, Sonia Delaunay, etc. This is how I spent my afternoon:

(On the left, Sonia Delaunay's interpretation of the Eiffel Tower. On the right, through the window and behind the trees- the actual Eiffel Tower.)

(I can't even tell you who this is by, but I just wanted to touch it. Hence, the picture below.)

The museum also has Raoul Dufy's "Fee Electricite." Simply stated, it's amazing, completely overwhelming (in a good way), and probably my favorite work there.

This week, I wanted to do a little shopping in preparation for my trip to Milan to visit Jen (super-psyched!). So it was my intention to find a new jacket, because the Spring season decided to make itself known today, with temperatures close to 67 degrees and I'm still walking around with my winter coat. No luck in the clothing department, but I did have my guidebook on me, so I looked up some English-language bookshops. I was in need of a new book, since I finished the one I brought over with me (Eat, Pray, Love- I highly reccommend it). So I set out to find the Abbey Bookshop. It's described in my guide as a Canadian-owned bookshop that's "overflowing" with books. Overflowing is a bit of an understatement.

Books are not overflowing; they are leaking out of every orfice imaginable. It'll take me forever to go through everything in there. But they do have a nice selection of used books, so I picked up two for easy reading. The owner is a very nice Canadian man who moved here in the late 70s/early 80s and he offers free coffee to his patrons. Completely awesome. I then headed over to Shakespeare and Co., a famous English-language bookshop here in Paris.

Unfortunately, they were filming a commercial or movie or something when I walked by. Oh well, I'll save it for another time.

Other explorations (online): atdhe.me. I LOVE THIS SITE. It streams live action sports matches. Meaning that as I'm typing this at 12:51am, I'm watching my Flyers as they are tied with Florida 1-1, and JVR just took a penalty for hooking, I think, even though it clearly wasn't.

Classes continue...but the weekend always comes around :)

I've been continuously plugging away at my classes and doing a little more exploring. The material I'm being taught in class isn't so hard to master, its the teaching of it in a foreign language that makes it a bit difficult to grasp. Example: Charlemagne was important in the organization of France during the late 8th/early 9th centuries. Ok. Good. Yes, I can understand that. However, I have to decipher everything the professor said to get to that conclusion. Thank goodness I'm fairly good with linguistics and context clues. Other than my history class, my courses aren't really any problem: my French Language class is about as easy as my French courses in high school, my French art history course is nothing new- but the vocabulary is new and I get to have class in the Louvre (we had class there this past Monday, as in yesterday- it's so much better to learn about a painting standing in front of it instead of looking at a slide), and I know more than my professor in my Contemporary art class. This is not an exaggeration- she's referred to me on several occasions for explanations and asked my thoughts on certain ideas. I'm in it for the actual contemporary art that's coming up (right now we're doing a lot of background stuff leading up to the contemporary) and all the gallery/museum visits, like we did last week.

This weekend, I went to Toulouse, in the south of France, with my friend Joscelyn- her cousin lives down there and was nice enough to let us stay with her while we visited. It's a cute little town and the people were very nice (but I think I prefer Paris). The weather was awful when we were there, but that didn't stop us from site-seeing.

(la Garonne)

(I felt like I was in a Category 1 hurricane.)

(la Captiole)

(Saint-Sernin)

(We stopped off at the Natural History Museum, since the weather was so awful. It even had a horseshoe crab- oh, the Jersey Shore, how I miss you.)

Natalia (Joscelyn's cousin) was a really good guide and a really great host, introducing us to all of her friends and taking us all over. We went to La Maison du Cassoulet for lunch, where I had the BEST cassoulet (if you don't know what it is, use Google or Wiki).

While I was in Toulouse, I watched my first television how in four weeks (French "Dancing with the Stars" and some Exteme Makeover-type show), my first rugby game (still don't understand it- but the Welsh team was pretty damn good looking), and listened to the radio- which plays English-language  music. No joke. Coldplay, James Blunt and Katy Perry going strong.

Later that night, it was one girl's birthday, so we were all invited (told you the people were nice) to go dancing, at a Latin club, mind you- where I was one of the few people without a drop of Latino blood in them- I'm pretty sure I held my own, though. Almost everyone in the picture below is a citizen of a South American nation- Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, etc., except me, of course- and another girl who was born and raised in Toulouse, so the night was a mixture of English, Spanish, and French. With all of the Spanish that I've been exposed to- at home, at school, traveling, etc., I'm beginning to understand the language. Granted, I can't say anything myself, but sometimes I can understand the conversations people are having.



And yes, that is a giant animal cage in the background- Natalia has a pet rabbit named Mirko (still not sure if it's a boy or a girl- we're gonna go with male on this one). He was the cutest thing ever and I was ready to steal him.

The weekend had to come to an end, so Joscelyn and I hopped on the train to take us back to Paris. The train was 7 hours. Seven. Hours. Coming and going, so 14 hours total. On a train. In second class, with 6 total people in each car sectional. Guess what? A flight to Toulouse only takes 1 hour and apparentlt costs about the same. What the hell were we thinking?

"Hell yeah, America!" (-C.McG)

Ok, so on Friday, I did some more exploring on my own. My adventures took me to "Les Jardins des Plantes," which is this really pretty park near Gare Austerlitz. I was originally just going to sit there and read and enjoy the sunshine (which has been shining for about 10 days now without the threat of rain), but then I started walking around the area a little. I found the city's mosque, which is really beautiful, and then on my way back to the park, I found the natural history museum. And then I discovered that the museum was free for me since I'm under the age of 26. And that's how my plans for the day changed from reading in the park to looking at fake animals and dinosaur skeletons while in the company of 4 year olds.

(Jardin des Plantes)

(Mosquee de Paris)

(Museum of Natural History that was reminiscent of both Lion King and Jumanji)

On Saturday and Sunday, I went to Normady and Mont St. Michel with everyone from ISA. It felt nice to have an "American" weekend (and technically, we were on American soil too), in spite of having to wake up at an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning. First, we stopped at Le Memorial de Caen, which documents the history of France and Europe from just after WWI until the after-effects of WWII. Then we headed off for the beaches in Normandy- first Omaha Beach, where we also visited the American cemetary, then Pointe du Hoc. The American Cemetary was really beautiful in a haunting sort-of way.

(Memorial Museum)

(American Cemetary at Omaha Beach)

Then we had a surprise visit to an apple farm? And not your average apple farm in the US, but the kind that makes juice and cider and calvados (apple brandy-ish stuff) and let's its customers sample all its products, making everyone on the bus very happy campers. We spent the night in nearby Caen, where I had the BEST crepe ever (Camembert, potatoes, lardon (like bacon) in crepe, topped with an over-easy egg and some kind of cream sauce- pretty much a heart attack on a plate but it was delicious) and all the American students with ISA, myself included, managed to turn the nearby Irish bar into a dance club. Mission accomplished.

Sunday was spent at Mont St. Michel, which is this AMAZING abbey/church/Diagon Alley-looking place on the western coast of France. (Quick backstory: the Archangel Michael asks this bishop Aubert to build a church here. Aubert says no. The Archangel asks again, and again, Aubert says no. So the Archangel visits Aubert for a third time, burns a hole with his finger in the head of Aubert, and asks again. Not surprisingly, Aubert complies with the request.) The structure of this place was just beautiful and I loved the cloister up at the top. All the stairs, not so much.



Driving through the French countryside during the weekend just made me miss home that much more. I miss the open space and trees and being able to feel like I can breathe. In Paris, it can almost feel claustrophobic between everyone on the streets and in the metro. Cities are nice to visit and live in for a short period of time, but I'm definitely a country girl through and through.