I'm Done!

This morning I took my oral exam and on Saturday I took my written exam. I studied beaucoup for the exam so I'd like to think that I passed my class. I will find out my results on June 6th. As for the rest of the week, I'm going to continue showing my sister Paris. We even have a new roommate, Patricia, she is a friend of ours that is going to travel with Christy during the next two weeks. I believe they are going to: Geneva, the Swiss Alps, and are going to see more of Paris. Right now, its raining and it has been raining which has made sightseeing that much more difficult and has reeked havoc on my new bangs. See you soon!

Barcelona

Christy and I arrived in Barcelona pretty late at night and so we took a taxi to our party hostel. It was located right off La Rambla (the main strip of Barcelona) in Plaza Real. Our accommodations were an 8-dorm suite where we meet some pretty cool people. There was a couple from Canada, but working in the UK, a couple from Brazil, and a couple that were also studying in Paris. The Paris couple were soon switched out for actual Parisian girls who were extremely nice to us. Christy, Genoveva, and I hit the city early in the morning each day and stayed out until the wee hours of the night. We started most days with a generous breakfast provided by the hostel: cereal, bread, ham, cheese, muffin, and coffee. Yummer for the first day... boring on the 3rd consecutive day. In Barcelona, we wandered around taking in the beautiful architecture and hitting up a couple of cute boutiques. On our second day, we went on a Gaudi walking tour that took us to some of his most famous works including: Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, and La Sagrada Família. La Sagrada Família is a cathedral that has taken a hundred years to complete, but is nowhere near being completed. When we toured the cathedral, only the exterior looked remotely finished. I believe it's supposed to resemble sand falling down into the main spires of the church. The next day, Genoveva managed to use her cute smile to get us into the Picasso museum for free without waiting in the long line. The museum was interesting, but it was mostly filled with lesser known works that Picasso completed as a young student and many were preparatory sketches. The Picasso piece I would love to see up-close and personal is Guernica which is in Madrid. Oh well, next time. During my time in Barcelona, I never did actually enjoy a siesta instead I was more inconvenienced by it since we usually wanted to eat at that time, but everything was closed. I did enjoy the food more than I thought I would since I've always been told that Spanish food is pretty gross. I almost forgot to mention that Genoveva was to leave us a day before, but fortunately for me, she missed her plane and had to come back. On the day which was to be her last day, we went up to Park Güell which is a park that was conceived by Gaudi. It was to be a new place for people to live, but it turned out to be a commercial failure. Nevertheless, Gaudi himself lived there. On our extra day with Genoveva, we went to the beach where we all got tanned... some of us more than others. That day, we all made our flights Geno to Granada and us to Rome. Stay tuned!

I Have Returned!

Hi everyone! I'm back from my little vacay. I'm well rested and hating Paris right now. Spain and Italy was so much fun and I got to see so much. It was fun to see Genoveva again in Barcelona (her spanish is so impressive.) I only wish my French was at her level of Spanish. Any who, I just wanted to write out a quick blog to let everyone know that I got back and to share that I'm going to write out a blog each day this week to break up the vacation into the different cities.

I hate Paris right now, because it is so gorgeous but I now really need to study for my final exam.
Btw, I cut my hair. :)

Senioritious or Spring Break Blues

I don't know what it is, but this week has not been a good week. I've been in a bad mood, stressed out, and pooped out. I missed both of my classes on Monday, because I couldn't get up on time. Yesterday, I missed my phonetics class, because again I was unmotivated to actually walk ten minutes to class. I'm getting a little complacent with life right now and I think it might be because I only have a month and a half left in Paris. I'm sad about leaving Paris, but also I'm freaked out by the huge final I will have to take. I haven't exactly been acing my tests and the final is going to be on everything I should have learned. If I pass this class, it will be a gosh darn miracle. In other wonderful news, Christy and I are going to see Blonde Redhead tonight at the Bataclan (click on la salle.) I think the venue is really small and intimate which will be a perfect place to see the trio. Then on Friday, we are going to have some people over and I'm going to cook some Mexican food. Hopefully everything will go well. On Saturday, we leave for Barcelona!!! Our flight is at night, but the airport is really far away so we'll be using the extra time to get to the airport. The following is my itinerary:
April 19th-23rd (Barcelona avec Genoveva)
April 23rd-28th (Rome)
April 28th (Pisa to Florence)
April 29th-May 2nd (Florence to Venice)
May 2nd return to Paris (where I believe my Mom will be waiting for me.)

Aix-en-Provence et Cassis

This weekend was our last excursion in Aix-en-Provence and Cassis. This last excursion was absolutely amazing!!! Aix-en-Provence is a small town in the South of France and was also the hometown of painter Paul Cezanne. We took a walking tour of the city and our guide said that although Cezanne never painted Provence directly, he did paint in city's color palette. For lunch, Christy and I had some delicious pizza with some chili oil... mmm so good! The only problem with this day was that the night before I didn't get to sleep until 3 am and we had to leave by 5:30 am. The next day we traveled to Cassis, France by bus, but the bus was too large to get close to the coast so we had to take one of those little trains (you know those trains that are at the zoo.) Nothing could have prepared me for how gorgeous this coast was. OMG. Beautiful. When we arrived, we took a boat ride out on the Mediterranean and viewed creeks along the coast. I felt so special and so decadent. The only bad thing about the boat ride, besides getting blasted by waves, was that I sat on a bench that still had wet white paint. GRRRR. Luckily, the paint was on the part of my tights that was covered by my dress. After the boat ride, we were free to have lunch and walk around. Christy and I ended up eating at a lovely restaurant with two girls from the program. I had a delicious tomato salad, chicken with potatoes, and two sorbet scoops. So good. We ended-up staying there for 2 and half hours and I believe thats where my face got sunburned. After lunch, Christy and I walked around for about 5 minutes when we decided to get a coffee. All our free time in Cassis was spent eating or drinking and just being lazy. At around 3:30 we meet again to take the little train back up to the bus and from there we went towards the train station. We ended up arriving to the train station too early so the bus driver, who was so nice, decided to drive us around the city of Cassis. Our train left at around 7, we got back to Paris at 9:30, and we were back at the apartment by 10:30. I was so tired and so happy. Don't forget to check out my pictures. Until next time...

London Baby!

I love London!!! I had a wonderful time in London over this past weekend. So much, that I slept in yesterday and missed my first class. Rhoopsy! It was just so nice to be in a country where everyone speaks English. I knew I was stressed about not knowing French, but I didn't really appreciate it until I was removed from there. We arrived fairly early in London on Friday and checked into our hotel which had a view of Hyde Park. After we dropped off our stuff we walked the entire city, eventually passing: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, Westminster Abby. We started out with a nice stroll through the gorgeous Hyde Park which lead us to the major monuments of London and the weather was amazing. During the weekend, there was a small drizzle that came and went, but it never ruined our plans. When we came across Buckingham Palace, we were fortunate enough to see the changing of the guards (which only happens once a day.) After viewing the major scenes of London, we found a very cute pub that had 15 different types of sausages. I had bangers and mash and Christy had fish and chips. After our lovely meal, we decided to take on the London Eye (the huge ferris wheel off the Thames River.) The view was spectacular, but the experience was very nerve wrecking as the height was quite daunting. I got over my fear quickly when I realized that the children that were also there were just fine. Later on that night, we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and tried to find a bar. We finally ended up at Fudge where every person got a free shot. I ordered a gin and tonic and the shot and the bartender came back with two glasses of tonic water and one shot??? How is it that I can order this drink in Paris, in a different language, and get the right drink? But in London, in English, I got tonic water! On Saturday, Christy and I went to Topshop. It was supposed to be the start of our shopping day in London, but it quickly turned into the entire day. We stayed there for 4 hours simply because they're so many clothes. Every room we went into lead into another room full of latest fashions. I really wish the concept of Topshop is brought over to the US which besides clothing had a: nail salon, hair drying salon, a cafe, personal style consultant, and a sweets area. Later that night, we went to a very cool bar that played a mixture of great music where Christy and I had a great time drinking and dancing. Sunday morning, we had to wake-up pretty early for check out and went to the Tate Modern Museum. We were able to see an incredible show which housed works from: Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia. Finally, at 5 or so we headed to the airport and we got back to Paris by 9pm. All and all my trip to London was amazing and I would really really like to go back.

Care Package!

Yesterday I finally received my first care package. It was so fun to finally receive some sort of mail and now I have a ton of food which will help with money. Pasta, rice, sauce and all of that stuff is theoretically cheap, but since I use my credit card on such transactions it really isn't cheap. A package of pasta is €1.80 = $3.50 and it only lasts two dinners. Christy and I spend €30 each on groceries every week or so, but this is cheaper than eating out for each meal. Any who, I just want to thank Liz and Becky for gathering up the supplies and getting the funds together to ship it. Thank you so much! There will be tons of pictures to come as we enjoy each meal.

London is Calling

So in celebration of my upcoming birthday, on Friday btw, Christy and I have decided to go to London! We leave Paris very early in the morning and will arrive in London an hour and 20 minutes later. We are going to stay until Sunday and return to Paris in the evening. Our hotel is Royal Bayswater Hostel which is very close to Hyde Park. I will, of course, update you all on what transpires while I'm away, but it probably won't be until Monday. Any who, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I'm sick again, so I could really use some voodoo to finally get rid of whatever keeps coming back :)

My Paris Album

Paris 2008

I've updated my album with a lot more pictures of Paris and I hope to update it continuously.

I had mexican food?

Christy and I strolled down to the Latin Quarter today where they have good greek food and cheap postcards.  We turned on a tiny street where we were inundated by all these people trying to get us to eat in their restaurant.  We decided to get an appetizer at a Mexican food restaurant.  I had a Tecate and Christy ordered a Dos Equis.  I asked for some extra lime and salt for my beer, but what came out was a minuscule lime and some salt.  Then came the delicious appetizer "Super Nachos," which was a platter of 5-7 chips and on top of them were: an almost liquid guacamole, sour cream, not spicy chorizo, huge kidney beans, chicken, and ceviche that didn't taste like fish.  I forgot to mention that the chips had to have been from the Doritos family.  We then ordered another plate of chips which brought the grand total of chips to 15.  After we finished the chips, we used our utensils to finish the rest of the food (not that there was much to finish.)  Needless to say, they were not "super nachos" and I will probably stick to the good greek food.

Brussels, Belgium

One full day in Brussels is too long!  We arrived at 9 am to a very cold Brussels, the economic capital of Europe.  We took a tour bus around the whole city and saw some interesting things, but we did not stop anywhere.  One interesting thing we saw was a huge molecule which was built for the 1958 World's Fair by an architect who imagined we would all live in structures like it, but we didn't stop and explore the building.  After the tour bus, we had lunch at a very cute café, the dessert was good.  After lunch, we were free to explore the city by ourselves... for four hours.  We saw the mannequin pis (excuse my language) :) which is a little statue that commemorates an old story where a cannon was pointed at the city, set to destroy it, when a little child came across it and extinguished it by peeing on it.  The statue is tiny and the little boy is naked and on special occasions they dress him up.  Brussels is best known for its: beer, waffles, lace, and chocolate.  I bought some great chocolate there and later suffered dearly for it when I finally crashed.  Christy and I also shared a delicious waffle with chocolate and strawberries.  Yummers!  We all meet up on time with an hour to catch our train, but somehow we still missed it.  There we were 30 or so people running from the metro to the train station arriving three minutes late for the train (France prides itself on the punctuality of their trains.)  Luckily, there was another train a half hour later, but nothing will take away from the memory of people at the station laughing at us as we all tried desperately to catch the train.  We finally reached home sweet Paris at 9:30 where Christy and I enjoyed a nice quiet dinner at home. 

The Louvre

Last night I went to the Louvre and viewed masterpieces from DaVinci and Michelangelo.  In France they call Michelangelo Michel-Ange.  Friday nights are free for students, but because I have more years on the average student I had to pay.  6 euros for me and 9 euros for adults.  Kids 18 and under are allowed in free everyday.  I can't imagine a more perfect evening than going to wander the corridors of the Louvre.  I know I will be back, but seeing all the Renaissance art just makes me want to go to Rome even more.  One day soon.  :)

Retraction

Well I guess no one liked my last photo.  I guess that's good?  Since you guys want to see my ugly mug.  Last night, Christy and I went to the Musée D'Orsay again since it's free on Thursdays and since it's so gorgeous.  This is a photo of me in their newest exhibition (I hope this isn't copyright infringement.)  LOL  Tonight I think we are going to the Louvre (also free on Fridays.)  I'm not sure what we are doing this weekend, but I'll keep you posted.  Sorry this post is so short it's just that I'm on my way out to class.  We have another dictation and reactionary essay to write so I'm a bit nervous.  Last time I made some really stupid mistakes, hopefully this time I will more careful.  

Brrrrrr

Well Paris has finally become cold to me.  At first, I expected it to be cold, but I walked so much that it didn't matter.  Now it is just cold and if you take a breather by shopping or enjoying a café then you have to start all over again.  Yesterday I took a nap on top of my covers soon without warning I was shivering.  The average has been a high of 50 and lows of 20's I think it's closer to 30 all the time.  Oh well, I bundle up and wear my gloves everywhere.  I think this weekend Christy and I are going to Chinatown and in a few more weeks we will make it out to the Palace of Versailles.  As of now, I am just trying to survive my courses (or as they say in French suivre un cours) and as more details unravel it seems like I will be taking a lot of classes: one french class Monday thru Friday, one phonetics class Monday thru Friday but biweekly, and two conference classes that meet twice a week every week.  I didn't sign up for this much school, but then again maybe I did?  This is a picture of the Abroadco group at St. Malo.  The whole group is there, but unfortunately one person has decided to leave Paris.  So I dedicate this post to her... she's the one in the multi-colored jacket.

I'm Sick!!!

At the start of this week I was just fine.  I thought I had beaten the germs from the airplane and even the germs from the kids in our program.  Christy had not been so lucky.  She started coughing a lot, but I still thought I would be fine.  On my first Saturday in Paris to myself (as last week I was on an excursion) I woke up with a sore throat and a little cough.  I still managed to roll out of bed and head down to Montmartre to see the Sacré Cœur and Moulin Rouge.  Montmartre is the highest point in Paris and has an amazing view.  I have pictures of this view, but my camera sucks so you can barely make it out.  We sat on the stairs half way up to the Sacrè Cœur and enjoyed a concert from a young man who sang English tunes from bands; such as, U2 and Radiohead.  At one point, we even joined in and sang the chorus.  Afterward we walked down to the Moulin Rouge which is only ten minutes away.  The Moulin Rouge is an impressive building, but the neighborhood was sketch.  There were a lot of peep shows and interesting shops.  As we walked by one peep show some guy growled at me.  I don't know what it is about me where bums and weirdos need to growl in my ear.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I miss you all very much.  I think Christy and I are going to the Musee D'orsay for tonight's festivities.  Hope to hear from you soon.

Oh la la Sorbonne

Hi, I'm sorry it has been such a long time since I have last updated this thing, but the program was kept me really busy.  This past weekend we all went on our first overnight excursion to Saint Malo and Saint Michel.  Christy and I almost missed the train, but we made it with two minutes to spare.  The train ride was gorgeous since it was the French countryside and I'd have to say that the nicest perk of the weekend was the food.  We were well fed the entire time with gourmet lamb or fish which was a nice change from my daily regime of a croissant, sandwich, and cafe creme (which is the only thing I eat all day.)  Today I started my class at the Sorbonne.  Tomorrow I take another test to find out which phonetics class I'll place into.  The class involves two hours a day Monday through Friday, one hour a week in the phonetics class, and attending a few conferences.  The end result of the class will be a huge three hour final.  It's a bit intimidating, but I was warned beforehand so I only have myself to blame if I fail.  I better not fail.  Today Christy and I went grocery shopping... we spent five minutes in front of the milk, because we didn't know which one was fat free since they all looked like cream.  Oh well, I will find out which one we did get when I have cereal the first time.  Please comment, email, and call if you can.  Ciao bellas!! 

My Life on the Seine River

Today we meet up with a lot of the Abroadco kids to take a tour of Paris on the Seine River.  The view was spectacular even though the water appeared to be a dark brown color.  YUCK.  Oh well.  Afterwards we traveled around some beautiful neighborhoods and had good greek food.  I had some chicken with fries (which will be my third time having French fries in Paris.)  I walk a lot everyday so I don't feel bad about eating the fried goodness.  Christy and I have adjusted quite nicely to the neighborhood and we were remembered by the guy who works at the little market next to us and the guy who makes the best cafe creme.  Tonight Christy and I went to the Erasmus party which is a big club for all the foreigners that study here.  It was your typical club that had the best of house music.  Did I mention that I hate house music?  LOL Oh well, they also played one song by Britney Spears and one by Justin Timberlake.  We both got in for free, because we are foreigners and we got a free drink because we are girls.  We danced for awhile hoping the music would get better, but it didn't and we left shortly after that.  We practiced our French all the way home.  C'est une bonne idee!!  Did you hear about all the young celebs in rehab?  It's pretty scary.... I hope all my American celebs stay healthy.

Jet Lag -- My Worst Enemy

As I mentioned earlier, Christy and I pretty much hit some of the major spots in Paris on our first full day.  The next day, however, we slept in until 4 p.m. and unfortunately since I have arrived I haven't been able to get a full night's rest.  Last night I slept four hours and then made myself sleep some more, but it took two hours of trying.  Today we took our placement tests for the class and just as I suspected I placed in the elementary level.  There are about twenty other kids in the program and out of them only three placed into more advanced levels so I'm in good company.  Before our placement test we took a detour to the Jardin du Luxembourg.  The garden is beautiful and large so I wasn't able to see the whole thing.  I also purchased my carte d'orange which will allow me to travel between Paris's two zones on the metro, the bus, and the RER for the low price of 55 euros each month.  I'm hoping to walk a lot but it will also be nice to take the metro to get to further places.  It is now seven o'clock in the evening and I am trying desperately to stay up so that I can sleep through tonight.  Tomorrow we are taking a boat ride down the Seine so I'll have to keep you updated about that and take pictures.

First Few Days in Paris

I arrived safely to Paris with my luggage, but the rest of the day did not go as smoothly.  Christy and I waited around for forty minutes for our shuttle.  Finally we called them and it turned out that they were also waiting for us at another terminal.  We got into the city just fine, but I missed most of it because I passed out in the shuttle.  When we arrived to our apartment we called the program director to find out our next step.  That's when we found out our apartment was not ready, but luckily they placed us at a hotel right in front of our apartment that happened to also have an elevator.  The elevator was so small that we had to make several trips but alas we were near a bed.  We then went out into the city and picked a charming restaurant that was reasonably priced.  I was all set to order in French when the waiter told us that that menu was not available so off the cuff I decided to order lamb.  The food was good, but my French was not so the waiter hardly made any eye contact with me but seemed to love Christy.  The conversation during dinner was mute.  I was so tired that I couldn't even sit up straight in my chair.  

That night we slept ten hours straight and when we awoke we had a care package to eat that was provided through the program.  When we left we decided to walk to Notre Dame and from there we would walk along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower.  Along our way we stopped at the Pantheon (a five minute walk from our apartment) and it was also my first view of the Eiffel Tower.  I nearly fainted; it was a pleasant surprise.  The tower seemed so close but when walked there after the Notre Dame it was quite the walk.  I would love to go into greater detail, but there is too much to discuss.

I will leave you with this last piece of info.  We did eventually get our apartment.  It is on the 3rd floor and they do not have an elevator so we had to lug our 100 lb. luggage up a winding staircase.  The apartment is small but I think we both anticipated a much smaller place so we are happy with this one.  Also, we have internet access so when Christy isn't using her laptop I will be checking my email.  The real last piece of info is that I did get to see Morrissey in concert and he was awesome like always.  

Leaving for Paris

I can't believe the time has finally come. To celebrate I've had a handful of parties with friends, co-workers, and family. It has been nice to see everyone one last time. My party with my friends was an exceptional one seeing that I kept being attacked throughout the day. The day started out innocently enough when I decided to go to downtown LA with Liz. We strolled down the streets when out of now where a homeless man tried to bark at me and follow us. We left immediately. Then we went to the hotel to get ready and the door nearly missed me as it opened outward. At dinner, the food had finally arrived and when the server placed my food down he knicked my red wine glass and it exploded onto my WHITE dress. Luckily the dress was polyester so you couldn't really see the stain and I have since got it dry cleaned and all of the wine came out. Later on, we drove to another bar and I sat in the back seat on top of a small calendar. When I tried to move it I didn't realize it had one sprial sticking out that had grabbed onto my tights. I had a HUGE run in my tights, but luckily since there were black you couldn't really tell. PHEW. Ok so one last thing I forgot to mention... We all took a taxi to the resturant and when we all got out the door was opened and nearly pinched my elbow. I can be really clumsy sometimes.