The day after I got back from Paris I got an e-mail from the program director, Bethany, saying that we were going on a tour of the European Parliament here in Strasbourg in the afternoon. We met up there, along with some new students to Strasbourg from Kalamazoo college, and started on our tour. The inside of the Parliament is so beautiful! There's vines growing out of the ground in this middle area and you cross over them on bridges to get to different sides of the building. We saw a model of the building and our guide explained all the symbols in the architecture, for example the building is built in the shape of a circle symbolizing unity. There were other things but I don't really remember... sorry! Then we got to go into the chambers and listen to the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, speak. What an experience!
The rest of the week was classes as usual, though one night I decided to make Tacos for Hélène, my host mom. I also invited over my friend, Lilian, who will be the language assistant at Lewis & Clark next year. I thought he should get used to some American food (even if it is Mexican...) It went very well, Hélène did some shopping and got all the essentials: guacamole, salsa, tortillas, even cheddar cheese! They both thought it was delicious, and so did I :)
Friday we left for an excursion to Nancy. We got there and heard a bit about the giant square in the middle of town. Apparently they spent millions of euros to redo the whole thing. After putting our stuff in our hotel we had a short tour of the Musée des Beaux Arts. There are some really amazing paintings there. I took a picture of my favorite and will put it up on facebook soon. The museum closed about half an hour before dinner so we walked around Nancy for a while, I bought some chocolate :) For dinner we had pizza or pasta, which was really delicious, and Tiramisu for dessert. It was great to see my friends from the Nancy trip and catch up with them for a while. After dinner some of them came back to our hotel room and we hung out for a while until we were too tired.
The next morning we had to get up at 7:30 (ick) so we could get on a bus to Verdun. The first thing we saw was Fort Vaux, from WWI. I was too tired to really be interested in it, but I do know I would never want to live there. There was gross mold on all the ceilings because everything was just carved out of the ground and it was really damp. We got to walk around outside for a little while after the tour before heading into the city of Verdun. There we had a delicious fancy meal. We were supposed to speak in French during the meal, but kept going back to English. oops. After lunch we had free time to wander around and explore Verdun. Alla, Allison, Catherine, and I walked along the river and decided to follow some signs to a Citadelle. When we got there we saw a big hill and decided to climb to the top and see what we could see. Well, we ended up climbing another hill and then had a beautiful view of Verdun and the surrounding area. We also found the World Center for Peace which had beautiful gardens. Then we had to leave so we could catch the bus to get home.
On the way home we stopped and saw some old Roman aquaducts! It was nice to get out of the bus and enjoy the sun for a while. The aquaducts were HUGE! I'm not quite sure how they transported water, but it was amazing to see something so old and giant. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay there very long because we had to take the bus back to Nancy to catch our train.
Back in Nancy we had some time to get food so I went to the market. They didn't have anything prepared to eat right then, but it was cool to see the big fruit stands, and meats and sausages. Yan and I ended up going to the mall and getting Chinese food for dinner. Then we caught the train back home!
The next day I got on a train to Dortmund, Germany to visit my friend Anne-Elisabeth, who was an exchange student at NHS my junior year. She's from Thouars, France and is studying in Dortmund for the year. The train ride was about 7 hours long so I just slept and listened to music the whole time. Anne met me at the train station with some of her friends so it was nice to meet them right away. We got back to her apartment and hung out with them for a while, then ate some pasta, watched Gad Elmaleh, a French comedian, and went to bed.
The next day Anne and her friends were planning for a big surprise birthday party for their friend. We got some Doner Kebab for lunch then spent the day shopping and making presents for their friend.
I didn't write down everything I did so I don't really remember everything, but we basically just hung out around the apartment, did some shopping, and relaxing while I was there. Apparently there's not much to see in Dortmund. One morning while Anne was in class I went for a little walk around the neighbourhood and found a path through some woods, but that was about it.
Wednesday night was the surprise birthday part and that was lots of fun! I met more of Anne's friends and talked to some German students who had been to the States. I was the only American there! At one point all the French students started singing the Marseillaise and I sang along (I had learned it from watching the rugby matches). They were very proud that I knew their national anthem :) We got back late that night, had some food, and went to bed. The next day I woke up early and rode a train for another 8 hours to get back home.
Friday I got to see Obama! He was in Strasbourg for the 60th NATO summit. I had planned to stay at Anne's longer because there were protests this weekend against NATO and people said it would be best to leave town, but then our group got an invitation to hear Obama speak so I came back early. We had to meet by the cinema at 11, be bussed over to the stadium, and wait around for 3 hours before he actually showed up. But it was worth it! It wasn't just some bland, politician speech. He talked about the problems our world is facing and how Europe and America need to work together. He was even bold enough to talk about anti-American sentiments in Europe and American's arrogance and how we take Europe for granted, but resolved it by saying those feelings don't reflect the truth and we need eachother if we're going to get anything done. Then he took questions and answered them all very effectively. He's so laid back and sincere when he speaks. After he was done we had to wait another hour or so to get back on the busses and taken back into town.
That evening I had an American party with some other people from LC to celebrate our Obama visit. We watched Team America and other ridiculous American videos on Youtube and pizza, mini sausages, chips, and chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
The next day I met up with my friend Lilian to hang out and enjoy the sunshine. We went to a park, walked around, and played on the playground. When we got back to my apartment we watched the news about all the protests that were going on against NATO. It got pretty crazy! At one point we were walking to the grocery store to get food for dinner and we saw a huge plume of smoke rising up in the sky. When we got back we looked online at found out that the protesters had lit the old customs building and a hotel on fire! Don't worry though, I stayed around my apartment and wasn't anywhere near the crazy demonstrations.
Today has been pretty laid back. The suns out again but it's kind of cloudy so it's not as nice as yesterday. I woke up and hung around the apartment then took a nap and woke up when my host mom got home. She was in Paris for the weekend, avoiding the craziness that has been happening in Strasbourg. And here I am! I have another week of school and then back to Paris for easter weekend! I'm going with the group from school. I'll try to write about it when I get back instead of waiting so long like I did this time. :)
Au revoir!
dimanche 5 avril 2009
Paris
Since my last post a lot has been going on! After I finally got over being sick I had another week of classes and then headed out to Paris for the weekend to visit Cecily while she was on Spring Break!
I arrived Saturday morning and met up with Cecily at the train station and then we tried to navigate the metro and RER (another underground train basically like the metro) to get to our hostels and moved in. It took quite a while, especially since our hostels were pretty far away, but we eventually got all our business taken care of and were free to explore Paris.
First thing we did was to get pizza and wine at a cafe next to Cecily's hostel. It was delicious :) After stuffing our mouths, we wandered around to find another cafe and had another glass of wine and some great girl talk. We sat there for quite awhile enjoying the atmosphere and the great weather.
Cecily's hostel was in Montmartre so the first thing we did was climb up to Sacre-Coeur. It was amazing! The lawn in front of Sacre-Coeur was covered in people enjoying the sunshine. We decided to go inside and I can't even describe the feeling inside the church. It's so grand, intense, and overwhelming. I've been in a lot of churches and cathedrals since I've been in Europe, but Sacre-Coeur was the most powerful.
Afterwards we decided to do a few more touristy things so we took the metro to the Jardin des Tuileries and walked around there for a while. I thought there would be a lot of tiles but I didn't really see any... maybe I didn't go to the right area. Well we walked through the garden to the Louvre and walked around the pyramid for a while, as the sun was going down. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance so we figured we'd just walk towards it and eventually get there. I don't know how long it took us, but we walked for quite a while. It was really nice though, we walked along the Seine, saw the Arc de Triomphe and L'Hopital des Invalides. And we saw another group of American girls who took our picture for us. Eventually we arrived that le Tour Eiffel and were so relieved to be able to sit down and rest our feet for a bit. There's a beautiful pond with a weeping willow right next to the Tower. We were just about to head home when the lights all came on so we stayed for a bit longer.
Then we were absolutely famished so we headed back to Montmartre to find some food. We went to a restaurant near Cecily's hostel for a nice meal. The waiter was kind of snobby when we tried to speak French (what a surprise...) but we got our food fine, and it was delicious! Cecily had duck and I had lamb. When we were done I headed to my hostel and passed out because I was so tired.
The next day I met Cecily at her hostel and we headed to Marché aux Puces, a giant flea market. The first area we came to was kind of small and sold a lot of the same things: belts, shoes, scarves... touristy things like that. But then we crossed the street and found the REAL market. It's HUGE! And you can find all sorts of things there. My favorite area was all the furniture. They have some amazing stuff! It really made me want to get an apartment in France and start decorating :) We didn't have time to see it all before we were starving and had to go get some lunch. We took the metro over to the left bank and got a baguette, cheese, and wine. Then we sat in a park facing Notre Dame and enjoyed our feast. How french of us :) When we were done eating we just wondered around the left bank for a really long time, trying to see as much as we could. There were lots of cute little shops, but also a lot of things weren't open because it was Sunday. We walked across Pont Neuf and then decided to take the metro to the Bois de Boulogne, a giant wooded park that I've always wanted to go to.
It took us a while to find the park after we got out of the metro because we got off at a stop a ways away. First we found some sort of botanical garden park which was beautiful though not what we were looking for. We stopped and rested our feet for a while and then saw that the Bois de Boulogne was across the street! We entered from the southernmost point so there wasn't much to see for a while, especially since it was just winter and all the trees are bare. Eventually we saw some groups of men playing Boules. We kept walking and decided to head up to the ponds and then go home since we were so tired from walking all day. The ponds were nice, but I wish we could have gone in the summer because the rest wasn't very impressive. I was a little disappointed, but I'm sure it's much more beautiful when everything is in bloom.
Then we left the park and walked for a long time trying to find a metro stop. We eventually got back to Montmartre and I was so exhausted that I decided just to get a crepe for dinner and head back to the hostel. The crepe was delicious though, nutella and bananas :)
The next day Cecily and I explored Montmartre. We wandered around, saw some parks, a big church (I think it was St. Trinité), and the Moulin Rouge, then stopped and got some chinese food for lunch. I had to leave later that afternoon so we decided just to go chill in a park by the Seine till I had to go. Actually, it was IN the seine because it was the tip of the island that Notre Dame is on. The park is called Square de Vert Galant. It was very pretty and a fun place to spend the afternoon. We even met some French guys that did a little rap for us. It was getting close to when I had to be at the train station so we left, I got my stuff and headed back home. We didn't do a whole lot of touristy things but I kind of like it that way, all the touristy stuff was a little cliché and disappointing because we've heard so much about it. But I did have a really great time and it was so great to see Cecily!
I'll write about the rest of what I've done since then in a new blog. Ciao!
I arrived Saturday morning and met up with Cecily at the train station and then we tried to navigate the metro and RER (another underground train basically like the metro) to get to our hostels and moved in. It took quite a while, especially since our hostels were pretty far away, but we eventually got all our business taken care of and were free to explore Paris.
First thing we did was to get pizza and wine at a cafe next to Cecily's hostel. It was delicious :) After stuffing our mouths, we wandered around to find another cafe and had another glass of wine and some great girl talk. We sat there for quite awhile enjoying the atmosphere and the great weather.
Cecily's hostel was in Montmartre so the first thing we did was climb up to Sacre-Coeur. It was amazing! The lawn in front of Sacre-Coeur was covered in people enjoying the sunshine. We decided to go inside and I can't even describe the feeling inside the church. It's so grand, intense, and overwhelming. I've been in a lot of churches and cathedrals since I've been in Europe, but Sacre-Coeur was the most powerful.
Afterwards we decided to do a few more touristy things so we took the metro to the Jardin des Tuileries and walked around there for a while. I thought there would be a lot of tiles but I didn't really see any... maybe I didn't go to the right area. Well we walked through the garden to the Louvre and walked around the pyramid for a while, as the sun was going down. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance so we figured we'd just walk towards it and eventually get there. I don't know how long it took us, but we walked for quite a while. It was really nice though, we walked along the Seine, saw the Arc de Triomphe and L'Hopital des Invalides. And we saw another group of American girls who took our picture for us. Eventually we arrived that le Tour Eiffel and were so relieved to be able to sit down and rest our feet for a bit. There's a beautiful pond with a weeping willow right next to the Tower. We were just about to head home when the lights all came on so we stayed for a bit longer.
Then we were absolutely famished so we headed back to Montmartre to find some food. We went to a restaurant near Cecily's hostel for a nice meal. The waiter was kind of snobby when we tried to speak French (what a surprise...) but we got our food fine, and it was delicious! Cecily had duck and I had lamb. When we were done I headed to my hostel and passed out because I was so tired.
The next day I met Cecily at her hostel and we headed to Marché aux Puces, a giant flea market. The first area we came to was kind of small and sold a lot of the same things: belts, shoes, scarves... touristy things like that. But then we crossed the street and found the REAL market. It's HUGE! And you can find all sorts of things there. My favorite area was all the furniture. They have some amazing stuff! It really made me want to get an apartment in France and start decorating :) We didn't have time to see it all before we were starving and had to go get some lunch. We took the metro over to the left bank and got a baguette, cheese, and wine. Then we sat in a park facing Notre Dame and enjoyed our feast. How french of us :) When we were done eating we just wondered around the left bank for a really long time, trying to see as much as we could. There were lots of cute little shops, but also a lot of things weren't open because it was Sunday. We walked across Pont Neuf and then decided to take the metro to the Bois de Boulogne, a giant wooded park that I've always wanted to go to.
It took us a while to find the park after we got out of the metro because we got off at a stop a ways away. First we found some sort of botanical garden park which was beautiful though not what we were looking for. We stopped and rested our feet for a while and then saw that the Bois de Boulogne was across the street! We entered from the southernmost point so there wasn't much to see for a while, especially since it was just winter and all the trees are bare. Eventually we saw some groups of men playing Boules. We kept walking and decided to head up to the ponds and then go home since we were so tired from walking all day. The ponds were nice, but I wish we could have gone in the summer because the rest wasn't very impressive. I was a little disappointed, but I'm sure it's much more beautiful when everything is in bloom.
Then we left the park and walked for a long time trying to find a metro stop. We eventually got back to Montmartre and I was so exhausted that I decided just to get a crepe for dinner and head back to the hostel. The crepe was delicious though, nutella and bananas :)
The next day Cecily and I explored Montmartre. We wandered around, saw some parks, a big church (I think it was St. Trinité), and the Moulin Rouge, then stopped and got some chinese food for lunch. I had to leave later that afternoon so we decided just to go chill in a park by the Seine till I had to go. Actually, it was IN the seine because it was the tip of the island that Notre Dame is on. The park is called Square de Vert Galant. It was very pretty and a fun place to spend the afternoon. We even met some French guys that did a little rap for us. It was getting close to when I had to be at the train station so we left, I got my stuff and headed back home. We didn't do a whole lot of touristy things but I kind of like it that way, all the touristy stuff was a little cliché and disappointing because we've heard so much about it. But I did have a really great time and it was so great to see Cecily!
I'll write about the rest of what I've done since then in a new blog. Ciao!
Inscription à :
Commentaires (Atom)
