Well, its apparent that I am not very good at writing about my European adventures. I apologize, I swear I'm having fun and educational adventures, I just have a bad habit of procrastinating blog posts, then by the time I begin to write, I have completely forgotten anything worth sharing. But here goes nothing...
Last week was our fall break, something I've never had before, as clearly not enough school districts believe in a midterm break during the year's most beautiful season! As much as I love Paris, I am a little tired of western Europe, so I decided to explore the unknown, and venture off into central Europe. My previous knowledge of Hungary and the Czech Republic was very limited, as is most people's i guess, and was backed by a few classes on the Holocaust and cold war. I also wanted to be less conventional and go somewhere I never thought I'd be able to, and I am so glad I did.
First of all, autumn is by FAR the best season. Heres what we get in Autumn: my birthday, halloween and thanksgiving. Obviously, these are the three best, and most important, days of the year. What I never got growing up in Northern California, was legitimate seasons, and with that comes the changing color of the trees, which was absolutely beautiful in Budapest and Prague. No matter what people tell you, Paris is a dirty city. It is a beautiful city, don't get me wrong, but there is no getting rid of the grim and wear the city has accumulated, and I swear the whole sewage in the streets problem was never really fixed. Budapest was practically empty, the usual 500 million tourists I am used to in Paris were m.i.a in Budapest, and I liked it. I was fascinated by Budapest's history, for such a small country, they've had an intense history. There is so much damage still visible from the second world war, their 1956 revolution, and the cold war. Unfortunately for me, the Hungarian diet is basically all meat, and really heavily fried stuff too. But their fried dough with sugar cakes were delicious, I think I had one every day I was there.
While in Budapest we took advantage of the free walking tours provided, and went on a general sight seeing one, a specialized jewish tour, and a communist history tour. But even after days of walking around the relatively small city, I wasn't ready to leave Buda or Pest. But I promised myself I would return someday soon!
Our adventure to Prague was a difficult one, we boarded the 8pm night train which was scheduled to arrive at 4:30am. good idea, right? well, after a restless night, who actually can fall asleep on a train?! we finally arrived in Prague, at 4am. We scrambled to get all our stuff together and hop off the train before it continued on its way to Berlin and Warsaw. But then, it was 4am and we were in a train station in a country where we didn't speak a word of the native language and couldn't check into our hostel until 10am. Those were the longest six hours of my life, I can remember trying to name all the Pixar full length films, I was sure there were 13, and we couldn't for the life of us remember the last one. (my bad, I just looked it up and there are only 12 including Cars 2 which we weren't even counting). We then went to list off our top five favorite films. I don't have a definite list but I can assure you that Back to the Future, Big, Beetlejuice and Rear Window are somewhere on there. After all this thought provoking listing going on, it was only 5am and we had another five hours to go. Needless to say, it didn't get much better. The highlight was probably sitting in a 24-7 cafe with a very limited menu, and drinking a milkshake while watching "eighties at 8" and 90's music videos at nine. Finally it was time to check in, and as soon as we paid for our room, we passed out. Two hours later we were up and ready to experience Prague!
For those of you who haven't been lucky enough to visit The Czech Republic: Prague looks like a fairy tale kingdom. The castle on the hill, the Charles Bridge, the clock tower, it is all so OLD and beautiful. The building our hostel was in was built in the 14th century, no big deal just older than the country I was born in. We had an excellent three hour tour of the city, hitting all the major sites and then the next two days were spent exploring on our own, visiting the communist museum and the Mucha museum. Honestly, a week spent anywhere is not enough time. I could have been in both Hungary and Czech Republic for a month and still want more. But atlas, duty calls and I was forced onto an airplane to Paris, woe is me. Now I am back in Paris for another six weeks, which is daunting to think about, as I am so ready to see everything and everyone I left behind, but I don't think I will ever be ready to say goodbye to Paris. Also, I am really not looking forward to returning to normal school life and having to be stuck in Santa Cruz, as much as I love it. But who knows, I will be back, maybe for an extended period of time again, maybe not. Now I just have to try to soak up everything Paris has to offer for the next six weeks, being here for four months was not nearly enough time even though it seems like forever.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Beginning of October
So it's been over a month since I've updated this, and I even forgot how to create a new post! Since my last post I have done so much, so heres a quick update: I went to Chartes, Giverney, Rouen, Amsterdam, visited the Musée du Louvre a few times and turned 21 in the city of light. Yesterday we went to Disneyland Paris, the second happiest place on Earth (after the original park, of course) where I talked to Mickey Mouse on the phone, who wished me a happy birthday, and saw my favorite film Captain Eo on the big screen for the first time in 15 years. Captain Eo starred Michael Jackson and was George Lucas' and Francis Ford Coppola's 3D creation for Disneyland that played from 1986 to 1994 which some how I remember extremely well for being four years old when it closed. When MJ died, they reopened the film at Disneyland and I vowed to see it again! (success!)
I am reaching the half way point of my time abroad, next week will mark my two month anniversary in France. I am so lucky to be spending four months in a foreign country, and I sure as heck am glad to have time away from Santa Cruz, however, i go in and out of experiencing homesickness, as the pressures of living in such a high paced metropolitan city sometimes gets to me.
Living in Paris hasn't stopped being a surreal experience, every amazing adventure I have still leaves me breathless. Sitting underneath the eiffel tower eating fromage et baguette and watching the tower sparkle every hour is just as exciting now as it was two months ago.
My new favorite place in all of Paris has come to be le Marais, which is home to the historic jewish community of Paris and also the best dang falafels in the world. I have probably written of them before, but they are just SO good. I try to go at least once a week, and have so far exceeded this goal.
Its beginning to get cold here... which is scary because coming from Berkeley my cold is 68 degrees and people here laugh at me when I say I am cold... but after surviving a winter in France I feel that I can survive anything!
I am reaching the half way point of my time abroad, next week will mark my two month anniversary in France. I am so lucky to be spending four months in a foreign country, and I sure as heck am glad to have time away from Santa Cruz, however, i go in and out of experiencing homesickness, as the pressures of living in such a high paced metropolitan city sometimes gets to me.
Living in Paris hasn't stopped being a surreal experience, every amazing adventure I have still leaves me breathless. Sitting underneath the eiffel tower eating fromage et baguette and watching the tower sparkle every hour is just as exciting now as it was two months ago.
My new favorite place in all of Paris has come to be le Marais, which is home to the historic jewish community of Paris and also the best dang falafels in the world. I have probably written of them before, but they are just SO good. I try to go at least once a week, and have so far exceeded this goal.
Its beginning to get cold here... which is scary because coming from Berkeley my cold is 68 degrees and people here laugh at me when I say I am cold... but after surviving a winter in France I feel that I can survive anything!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Versailles and then some
Not many times in my life have I had the opportunity to say, "I think I'll hop on a 20 minute train and go see Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette's crib!" But that is exactly what we opted to do this sweltering Saturday...
And I am so glad we went, because Versailles was amazing! I had been there before, but last time I strolled the gardens and never entered the Palace. This time, I was able to greatly appreciate the beauty of the palace, in the extreme heat nonetheless! And it was truly beautiful, it was like my dream home, covered in gold! It felt so surreal to stand in what was once a single family's home, whose exorbitant wealth was built by the exploitation of an entire empire. Versailles was crawling with tourists, which put a damper on the visit, but in two months when they are all back home, Versailles will be all mine! With my L'histoire d'art student card I get into almost every museum in Paris for free! Which is such a relief after paying $18 this summer to see the Gertrude Stein exhibit at San Francisco's MOMA. After an exhausting day in Versaille we decided to look for Mexican food that night... in Paris. Now, don't judge me! I absolutely LOVE french food, I love cheese, mussels, salads, everything! But sometimes, having grown up in California eating a diverse array of foods, you have cravings when you are thousands of miles from home. And it wasn't half bad! Don't get me wrong, it had absolutely nothing on Californian Mexican food, but we were cold (having just gotten drenched by a freak rain storm), and were extremely hungry and it was all together a fun experience!
Sunday I met up with Henriette in Montmartre, where went on a stroll to a cafe and drank chocolat and watched street performers play Bei Mir Bistu Shein! It was so crazy to see a pianist and cellist in the middle of a little square in Paris, but the fact that they were playing yiddish music made it all the more exciting! I felt so parisian sitting in the little artist community, sipping chocolat chaud and watching the tourists walk by. But then we got rained on... Leave it to Paris to have such an abrupt switch in weather!
Today our french class had an excursion to L'Opera Garnier which is the Paris opera house which inspired the novel The Phantom of The Opera. The opera house was gorgeous! One of the building's foyers was modeled after Versaille's hall of mirrors, and was just stunning, unfortunately, there was a rehearsal going on so we were unable to see inside the actual theatre, which is just an excuse for me to go to the Opera...
Love
And I am so glad we went, because Versailles was amazing! I had been there before, but last time I strolled the gardens and never entered the Palace. This time, I was able to greatly appreciate the beauty of the palace, in the extreme heat nonetheless! And it was truly beautiful, it was like my dream home, covered in gold! It felt so surreal to stand in what was once a single family's home, whose exorbitant wealth was built by the exploitation of an entire empire. Versailles was crawling with tourists, which put a damper on the visit, but in two months when they are all back home, Versailles will be all mine! With my L'histoire d'art student card I get into almost every museum in Paris for free! Which is such a relief after paying $18 this summer to see the Gertrude Stein exhibit at San Francisco's MOMA. After an exhausting day in Versaille we decided to look for Mexican food that night... in Paris. Now, don't judge me! I absolutely LOVE french food, I love cheese, mussels, salads, everything! But sometimes, having grown up in California eating a diverse array of foods, you have cravings when you are thousands of miles from home. And it wasn't half bad! Don't get me wrong, it had absolutely nothing on Californian Mexican food, but we were cold (having just gotten drenched by a freak rain storm), and were extremely hungry and it was all together a fun experience!
Sunday I met up with Henriette in Montmartre, where went on a stroll to a cafe and drank chocolat and watched street performers play Bei Mir Bistu Shein! It was so crazy to see a pianist and cellist in the middle of a little square in Paris, but the fact that they were playing yiddish music made it all the more exciting! I felt so parisian sitting in the little artist community, sipping chocolat chaud and watching the tourists walk by. But then we got rained on... Leave it to Paris to have such an abrupt switch in weather!
Today our french class had an excursion to L'Opera Garnier which is the Paris opera house which inspired the novel The Phantom of The Opera. The opera house was gorgeous! One of the building's foyers was modeled after Versaille's hall of mirrors, and was just stunning, unfortunately, there was a rehearsal going on so we were unable to see inside the actual theatre, which is just an excuse for me to go to the Opera...
Love
Thursday, September 1, 2011
September 1st
It has been quite a while since my last post, this may be partially due to the fact that I am tres busy, but really its mostly because I feel that my one reader, Mom, hears enough about my adventures via email. But just in case I have other admirers and number 1 fans of this blog, i'll try to keep you guys updated more often on Paris...
Last Sunday I moved into my host family's apartment in Neuilly Sur Seine, which is technically a suburb of Paris, but it is often looked at as part of the 16th arrondissement. Moving into another family's home can be intimidating, but my Madam and Monsieur are very sweet people. They have four grown children, the youngest Ludivine still lives at home, their cat Touch keeps me company in the early mornings when I am the sole awake human in the house. I was a little skeptical about the living situation, as I am a fifteen minute walk to the closest metro station and then its almost a 40 minute ride to get to Bastille, where my school is. But I am beginning to enjoy the early morning walks in the brisk air and the metro ride, as long as I get a seat, is quite an exciting part of my day as I get to people watch like no other, my favorite recreational activity... We are half way through our two week language intensive, and I feel like I have learned SO much, and yet so little. Even my english skills are slipping... it's beginning to be a problem. They keep us super busy, with daily three hour french classes and afternoon excursions that literally take us ALL over the city. Even though they are emotionally, physically, and intellectually draining days, I am super duper excited for the next four months.
Studying abroad has been a difficult adjustment, I go through waves of emotions on a daily basis. Leaving Berkeley and Santa Cruz was a hard decision, but so far I haven't truly regretted it. Thanks to the U.S dollar's excellent value I am saving tons of money here! (JUST KIDDING) everything is out of my price range, I will be in debt come December, but it will all be worth it.
Every morning I am out the house by eight o'clock in order to arrive on time to my 9am class. When I exit the metro station outside the Opera house and turn left I see the same family asleep everyday. The mother and father are not much older than me, maybe in their late twenties, and they are usually asleep when I walk by. They sleep on a old mattress two feet away from the street in a busy district, with a seven year old, a four year old, a toddler and a baby in between them. This is perhaps the worst part of my day. It just upsets and confuses me why a young couple, who obviously can't support and protect themselves, would choose to subject four young children to this lifestyle. Its just so selfish and unnecessary. I don't believe this family are gypsies, because I have never seen them beg for money or work tricks in order to pick pocket tourists. I don't know what the politically correct term is for the Romani people known as "Gypsies" but they are all over France and use their children for financial means. It surprises me that the French government doesn't have more effective social institutions to control the homelessness in cities. I understand that its a major problem that can not be easily fixed, but it is something that needs to be addressed, if a couple can raise four young children on the streets in a neighborhood that is known to be slightly dangerous at night in a city with extreme weather conditions, there is a problem. But I try to not let these little things upset me and instead try to thoroughly enjoy the complete french experience that would not be complete without... FROMAGE!
As anybody who knows me would tell you, I absolutely LOVE cheese. stinky cheese, soft cheese, blue cheese, fromage is my absolute favorite thing to eat and I am so lucky that my host family ends every meal with a cheese plate. We eat dinner around 8:30 every night when Monsieur comes home from work, so by the time we are finished with dinner I am ready to pass out... however there is work to be done! I know I am here to study french and European studies, but forcing myself to study has been an ordeal, as I feel I am learning so much from experiencing the city itself. But my french homework won't finish itself...
Last Sunday I moved into my host family's apartment in Neuilly Sur Seine, which is technically a suburb of Paris, but it is often looked at as part of the 16th arrondissement. Moving into another family's home can be intimidating, but my Madam and Monsieur are very sweet people. They have four grown children, the youngest Ludivine still lives at home, their cat Touch keeps me company in the early mornings when I am the sole awake human in the house. I was a little skeptical about the living situation, as I am a fifteen minute walk to the closest metro station and then its almost a 40 minute ride to get to Bastille, where my school is. But I am beginning to enjoy the early morning walks in the brisk air and the metro ride, as long as I get a seat, is quite an exciting part of my day as I get to people watch like no other, my favorite recreational activity... We are half way through our two week language intensive, and I feel like I have learned SO much, and yet so little. Even my english skills are slipping... it's beginning to be a problem. They keep us super busy, with daily three hour french classes and afternoon excursions that literally take us ALL over the city. Even though they are emotionally, physically, and intellectually draining days, I am super duper excited for the next four months.
Studying abroad has been a difficult adjustment, I go through waves of emotions on a daily basis. Leaving Berkeley and Santa Cruz was a hard decision, but so far I haven't truly regretted it. Thanks to the U.S dollar's excellent value I am saving tons of money here! (JUST KIDDING) everything is out of my price range, I will be in debt come December, but it will all be worth it.
Every morning I am out the house by eight o'clock in order to arrive on time to my 9am class. When I exit the metro station outside the Opera house and turn left I see the same family asleep everyday. The mother and father are not much older than me, maybe in their late twenties, and they are usually asleep when I walk by. They sleep on a old mattress two feet away from the street in a busy district, with a seven year old, a four year old, a toddler and a baby in between them. This is perhaps the worst part of my day. It just upsets and confuses me why a young couple, who obviously can't support and protect themselves, would choose to subject four young children to this lifestyle. Its just so selfish and unnecessary. I don't believe this family are gypsies, because I have never seen them beg for money or work tricks in order to pick pocket tourists. I don't know what the politically correct term is for the Romani people known as "Gypsies" but they are all over France and use their children for financial means. It surprises me that the French government doesn't have more effective social institutions to control the homelessness in cities. I understand that its a major problem that can not be easily fixed, but it is something that needs to be addressed, if a couple can raise four young children on the streets in a neighborhood that is known to be slightly dangerous at night in a city with extreme weather conditions, there is a problem. But I try to not let these little things upset me and instead try to thoroughly enjoy the complete french experience that would not be complete without... FROMAGE!
As anybody who knows me would tell you, I absolutely LOVE cheese. stinky cheese, soft cheese, blue cheese, fromage is my absolute favorite thing to eat and I am so lucky that my host family ends every meal with a cheese plate. We eat dinner around 8:30 every night when Monsieur comes home from work, so by the time we are finished with dinner I am ready to pass out... however there is work to be done! I know I am here to study french and European studies, but forcing myself to study has been an ordeal, as I feel I am learning so much from experiencing the city itself. But my french homework won't finish itself...
Sunday, August 21, 2011
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