Italia

While Sam was visiting me in Paris, we took a trip to Rome and Venice for 5 days.

We left bright and early on Friday, June 12. After a delayed flight, a bus ride, and a long, hot walk, we wound up at the B+B we had booked. It was absolutely incredible! Free internet, air conditioning, our own marble bathroom. We headed out to explore Rome, wandering to the Colosseum (which was about 15 minutes from where we were staying). We wandered around the outside of the Forum as well, not willing to pay the ridiculous admission fees. For dinner, we found a cute little restaurant. Because of traveling, we hadn't eaten a ton during the day, so when we showed up at 6:30 for dinner, we were the only ones in the restaurant. Sam had clams, I had veal, and we shared calamari and shrimp. After dinner, we got gelato and then headed back, since we had woken up before 5 to make our flight.

On Saturday, we got on a Hop-on Hop-Off bus tour at the Colosseum. We took it over to the Vatican City, where we went to St. Peter's. On our way from there to the Vatican Museum, we ran into our friends Walter and Dan who were on trip to Rome with their program from Venice. We knew they were there but hadn't made plans to meet up. We chatted for a little while and then headed off to the Vatican Museum. After a twisted walked, we wound up in the Sistine Chapel, which was so crowded that it was hard to really appreciate it. After a quick lunch, we went to send postcards from the Vatican post office. As were wandering from there to Castel St. Angelo, we ran into Walter again! We took some pictures and hopped back on our bus. We had planned out a route to see Piazza del Poppolo, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain, but because of the Gay Pride parade, they weren't making all the stops. We still made it to the Trevi fountain. Unfortunately, when we got to the Pantheon it was closed for a private service. We walked to Piazza Navona and then ate dinner by the Pantheon, hoping that it would open after the service (which it didn't). We then began the hike back to our hotel, took some pictures of the Colosseum at sunset and packed up our stuff to head off the next day for Venice.

Because of the Gay Pride parade, our tickets had been extended for an extra day, so we rode the entire bus route before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Venice. We saw basically all of the touristy sights in Rome then, and worked on our tans/melted in the sun! We got tickets on a train from Termini station to Fiumicino (Leonardo DaVinci) airport. Again, our flight was delayed, so we had a snack and I started to do some work. After a quick 45 minute flight, we were in Venice! Luckily, we made the water taxi right after our flight landed and got to see some of Venice before getting to San Marco where our hotel was. Despite a detour due to a closed Piaza San Marco because of mass, we were able to find our hotel fairly easily. Then we headed out for dinner and of course gelato and wandered around a little bit.

Monday morning we were set to met Walter at the Doges Palace where his class was going in lieu of class. We wandered over there around 10 and headed inside with his class. After going to so many palaces in Europe, this was just another one. However, it did have a really cool dungeon. Walter's class was set to do some more stuff that afternoon, so Sam and I went shopping for souvenirs. We hadn't bought anything in Rome because we were told that Venice would be cheaper (which it was). We bought lots of miscellaneous Venetian souvenirs...scarves, masks, Murano glass. A quick stop at the hotel and we met Walter for dinner...and gelato. Then we hopped on a Vaporetto to the island where his school is, San Servolo. After hanging out there for a bit, we headed back around midnight.

Tuesday morning was our last one in Italy. After breakfast, we headed over to St. Mark's. It was gorgeous inside, but most of the special rooms had separate admission fees. We wandered around the Piazza a bit and then decided to try to find a museum, because our admission to the Doge's Palace included admission to a few others. We picked the closest on the map, but when we got there, we couldn't find it! So instead, we got lunch which we ate sitting on one the many bridges. We then picked up our suitcase and headed to the bus station to go to the airport. We sat in the airport for a while before we could check in and then when we finally went through security, they confiscated my laptop lock because they told me I could strangle someone with it. Oh Italy! At least our flight left on time. After another bus ride, we splurged on a taxi and made it back to my apartment early Wednesday morning.

Despite how unbearably hot it was, it was a great trip. It was definitely awesome to see Walter too, after not having seen him since January. Unfortunately, I had to come back to the real world immediately and start studying for the final that I took Saturday.

Now I'm down to 5 days and 1 more final. This may be my last update from Paris... I am unbelievably excited to get home! And then a week from Thursday, I'll be in Boston!

See you soon!

The Beginning of the End...

After my parents left, the one month mark of my time left in Paris quickly approached. I've officially started my countdown (in various different stages)...

Sam! - June 9
Last Day of Class - June 11
Italy - June 12
Last Final - June 26
Home - June 27

As great has Paris has been, I'm definitely ready to be done with school and back at home. I miss the comforts of the United States for sure, as well as my friends and family. This experience has definitely been a lot harder than I thought that it would be, the time difference especially. It's hard to wake up in the morning wanting to talk to people from home and being unable to do so.

I have two more final papers to get through before next Tuesday, then I'll be able to enjoy doing stuff in Paris with Sam before my finals on the 20th and the 26th. I have a whole list of things that I want to get done before I head home, which I'm hoping will keep me busy and make the time go faster. The end is in sight though...3 weeks from Saturday!

This past weekend, I went to Disneyland Paris (again!) with some friends who were visiting for a few days as part of a post-graduation trip around Eruope. It was great to see them and spend the day outside of the city. For dinner, we went to the Rainforest Café which was a nice treat too!

On Sunday, I went to Giverny with two of my friends and one of their friends who was visiting from Spain. We took the train from Paris to Vernon, sitting on the floor of the train because we got our tickets so late and the train was completely packed. Once we got to Vernon, we rented bikes and took a nice 3-mile bike ride to Monet’s house and gardens. We had a little picnic before exploring the gardens. We accidentally went to the Impressionist museum first, before getting on a 2 hour long line to get into Monet’s gardens. The gardens were absolutely gorgeous…so many different flowers. My favorite part was the water lily garden. We spent a few hours there, hit the gift shop and headed back to the train station because we saw a very ominous looking cloud hovering and didn’t want to bike in the rain. While we waited for the train, we had Kirs (wine with flavored liqueur) and shared this bruschetta/pizza thing. Then it was time to head back to Paris.

After working on a paper all day Monday, I went with a few other girls to see a ballet at the Opera Garnier, the big opera house in Paris. Our seats were great, right in the orchestra. The building is absolutely incredible! All marble and gold and incredible frescoes. The ballet itself was really cool too. It was an adaptation of one of Proust’s works and had music by Beethoven and Debussy and Saint-Saens. It was a cool twist between a classic ballet and a really modern ballet, unlike anything I’d ever seen before. Definitely an awesome experience.

Now I'm just gearing up to get through my finals (before finals period, because why would France logically make finals all at the same time?). I had a final last week, one yesterday, and two papers due at the beginning of next week. Then two exams during finals period and I'm officially a senior!

In my spare time, I've uploaded all my photos to Picasa...because I'm getting to an excessive amount of facebook albums. Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/mek2702
I haven't gotten around to putting up captions for all of them yet, but at least you can take a look at them.

Miss you all!

Parents in Paris!

So as soon as I got back from the Loire Valley, I headed to the hotel right across the street to meet my mom, who had flown in that morning! She was exhausted from her trip, but we walked around my neighborhood catching up and then went to dinner. The next few days, we hung out and did some shopping and other little things in between my classes. On Wednesday, my Dad arrived and I had my last day of classes for the week, then the touristy adventure began!

Thursday was a national holiday, so we took advantage of the day off from classes to go to Chartres, about an hour and a half from Paris, where there' s a gorgeous cathedral. My Dad and I climbed to the top of the tower and go a great view of the city and surrounding countryside. Then we all sat by the river to relax and had some dinner before returning to Paris. That night, we wandered around Rue Mouffetard and I took my parents for this delicious gelato served in the shape of roses!

On Friday, we went out for breakfast with one of my roommates and then I took my parents to see my school, so they could see the bane of my existence for themselves. From there, we walked to Les Invalides, a former military hospital that now houses a military museum and Napoleon's tomb. The tomb was really cool. It's absolutely gigantic. The museum was neat too, but I can only look at guns for so long without being bored. That evening, we went to dinner and then went to see "Angels and Demons" to relax. SUCH a good movie. And it was in English, which was great.

Saturday we headed off on another day trip to Versailles, where my dad actually spent some time working last summer. I had already seen the palace, so we went to Marie Antoinette's house and enjoyed a fountain show in the afternoon. All the fountains are absolutely gorgeous. It's definitely worth paying to see them work, because otherwise they're turned off. It was really nice to be outside, but all the walking was exhausting! After dinner at one of my favorite French/Greek restaurants near my apartment, I crashed for the evening.

Sunday we spent in Paris again, going to Notre Dame for mass and then the bird market nearby afterwards. We finally got me some flowers to hang off my balcony...beautiful pink begonias. We brought those back to my apartment and then went to the Orangerie, a museum that has Monet's Waterlillies, as well as a lot of works from different artists. It was nice to go to a museum that wasn't overwhelming. Afterwards, my mom and I walked along Rue de Rivoli to look for some souvenirs. It was SO hot that we didn't last very long and went back to their hotel. We went to a delicious Italian restaurant by my apartment. I hadn't been feeling well since the night before, so I just went back to the hotel to chill with my parents and take care of some random tasks (since we finally realized that the WiFi was not ridiculously expensive).

On Monday, my dad went to the Cluny, which is a medieval museum in Paris while my mom and I did some shopping. We also went to Breakfast in America for lunch where I got a cheeseburger and Dr. Pepper! Dr. Pepper is SO hard to find in France and is so expensive (1E a can at least!). We also got me some groceries and chocolate for her coworkers. Then in the afternoon, we decided to escape the second day of heat by reading in the Jardin de Luxembourg before meeting up with my Dad for dinner at a Chinese restaurant near my apartment. Certainly not the same as at home, but not too bad. After dinner, we headed over to the Seine for a Bateau-Mouche ride. There was an ominous looking cloud as we headed out, but the rain held off for a few hours. It was nice to see Paris at twilight and get a different view of the city. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle, but it was still a lot of fun. We were going to get dessert afterwards, but pretty much everything was closed.

After a great week with my parents, it was really tough to say goodbye. I definitely think it was harder than leaving home in February. At least I'm pretty much in the home stretch now...

Loire Valley

The weekend on May 16 and 17, we had our second BC trip of the semester, this time to the Loire Valley. We had a nice early wake up call on Saturday morning and went to Gare d'Austerlitz to board our train to Blois.

When we got to Blois, the weather was less than impressive. We wandered around the town a little bit, past the chateau and down to the Loire River. There was a Saturday morning market that we walked through and we stumbled upon this cool tea shop/gourmet food store where we passed time looking at all the interesting things they had. From there, we got lunch at an Italian restaurant (pizza and pasta for everyone). After lunch, we went over the Blois Chateau. When we got there, it turned out they were filming a movie...something about Louis XIV and Colbert we think. The entire time we spent in the castle they filmed the same scene over and over again. The castle was nice, but there wasn't too much inside of it. The architecture and the outside were cool though. After the castle, we took a wine break before watching a magic show (the most ridiculous thing ever!) and heading to our hostel for the night. Our hostel turned out to be in the middle of nowhere so after a cold dinner, we all sat around and talked before going to bed.

Sunday morning we woke up to a breakfast of bread, butter, and jam (yummy! haha) and then went back to Blois where we took a bus to Chambord, another chateau about 45 minutes away. It was cold and rainy, so we weren't the happiest of people. The chateau was really cool though, much cooler than Blois, I think. There's a double helix staircase in the center and a ton of different steeples on the top. We explored the castle so more and watched a video on its making before grabbing some kebabs for lunch and watching a horse show. The horse show was...interesting. We were easily the oldest people there. It was a combination of trick riding and dressage with some bizarre music. We were set to go to another castle afterwards, but with the weather, we were all ready to come back to Paris. After grabbing some hot chocolate to warm up, we headed back to Blois to catch our train to Paris. Luckily for me, getting back to Paris early meant getting dinner with my mom who had just flown in that morning!

Next up...my parents' visit to Paris!

Disneyland Paris!

This weekend, we had a long weekend for French labor day. Because we all have so much work, we planned a trip on Friday to Disneyland Paris. Originally 5 of us were supposed to go, but come 9am Friday morning, only Cathy and I made it to the RER (the train out the suburbs).

The train was completely packed with lots of families. After a laborious ticket getting process (typical France), we made our way into the park. We thought we would get student discounts, but since it was a holiday, we had to pay full fare. But we got park hopper passes, so that we could go both to Disney World and Disney Studios.

We started in DiscoveryLand driving cars. Then we headed to Fantasy Land to do the quintessential rides, It’s a Small World and the Teacups. We grabbed lunch (gigantic American hot dogs and French fries)and then headed to Disney Studios. Cathy went on the Aerosmith roller coaster while I caught the High School Musical show (High School Musicaal: La Fete!). The we went on the Aladdin magic carpet ride, which was silly, but fun. After that, we saw the Moteur Action Stunt Show and another one called Cinemagic.

From there, we headed back to the other park, since the Studios were closing. We checked out Thunder Mountain, but there was a 90 minute line and fastpass wasn’t working, so we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Then Cathy went on Indian Jones while I got online for Thunder Mountain (my first roller coaster ever!). It was sooo much fun and I survived! Definitely a good first roller coaster. We went to a Mexican place for dinner and waited forever! After one more ride, I did some souvenir shopping for my little neighbors and then we headed back to the RER.

A long day, but all in all a great day. It was so bizarre that everything was in French and English. I hadn’t been to Disney in so long that it was hard to remember if it’s like the one in Florida or not. It definitely felt similar though, a little taste of the US in France. The weather was great too…sunny and not too hot!

8 weeks from today I’ll be back in the US! I like Paris, but I’m definitely ready to be done with school for the semester and SO excited to get back to BC. Lots to look forward to in the upcoming weeks…
Mom and Dad 2 weeks from today
Chris, Meaghan, and Hirsy at the end of May
Sam…June 9-ish


I promise to better about updating in the upcoming weeks. As usual, all my photos are on facebook for you to stalk!

London Calling!

Last weekend, I went to visit my friend from BC, Jon, who is studying at SOAS in London. Because my spring break was filled with work, I completely abandoned all my responsibilities for the weekend and hopped on the Eurostar (the train that runs from London to Paris) on Friday morning. I had bought tickets in the Leisure Class, so I got served champagne and a 3-course meal, the perfect relaxing start to what would prove to be a great weekend.

Jon met me at the train station, which is conveniently down the street from his apartment...I mean...flat. Unfortunately, he had to go to class for the first time in 6 weeks, so I hung out at Russell Square by his campus. It was great to be able to lie on the grass (unlike in Paris). The whole city definitely had a different feel from Paris. It seemed much less crowded and the people were definitely nicer. From there, I went on to explore Regent’s Park. It’s absolutely huge and so gorgeous! I wandered through the gardens, spent time relaxing on the boating lake and took the opportunity to get some photography in. I got to spend some time with his friends Friday night, playing a nice American game of baseball and then we went out to a bar down the street from their dorm building.

Regent's Park

Saturday, despite a late night, we woke up ridiculously early. We went to get somewhat traditional English breakfast (bacon and egg sandwiches! Definitely can’t find those in Paris). After breakfast, we started off on what turned out to be a day long trek. We walked from near King’s Cross down to St. Paul’s Cathedral, across the Millennium Bridge and down along the Thames. We crossed back across the Thames at the Waterloo Bridge and wandered through the Embankment Gardens towards Parliament and Big Ben. From there, we went to Buckingham Palace, where we took a break. They were setting up for the London Marathon (more to come…). Then we headed up to Piccadilly Circus, and Regent and Oxford Street. We got some lunch and discovered that all the people we hadn’t seen that morning were shopping on Regent Street. It was CHAOTIC! After that, we went to some little square and relaxed for a while. Then we headed back to get ready for the evening.

View of the London Eye from the Mall at Buckingham Palace

We decided to go on the London Eye, which was absolutely amazing. Even though it wasn’t dark, it was twilight and it was so cool. You get a complete 360 view of the city. Totally worth it. After our “flight” we went on a search for fish and chips (which I had been demanding since the night before). We found this great pub/restaurant that had all sorts of traditional English food. After dinner, we wandered to Trafalagar Square since we were really close and then through some of the West End and found our way down to the Thames again. It is so pretty at night. I wish I had taken a picture. Paris definitely needs to do something like that at night. They had lots of lights strung from the trees. After our 10 mile trek, we were exhausted, so we decided to call it a night.

View from the London Eye

Sunday morning, we went out in search of the London Marathon, which we found by Blackfriar’s. We were able to see both the leading man and leading woman while we wandered along the marathon route. It was both similar and different to the Boston Marathon. Once the fast runners past, it seemed similar with people wearing costumes and their names emblazoned everywhere. Once we got hungry, we went up to Covent Garden, basically the London equivalent of Faneuil Hall. Rather than lunch, we decided to get ice cream. We watched a street performer and enjoyed yet another nice day of weather (no rain at all while I was there!). Jon had to be a student for once, so I took some time to explore the British Museum. I liked the architecture almost more than the actual artifacts in the building.

The floor of the British Museum

Then it was back to Russell Square and back to the flat to get my things. I was definitely sad to leave London. It was great to see a friendly face and be able to completely check out of my life in Paris for a few days. Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye and hop on the Eurostar back to Paris.

St. Malo and Mont-St-Michel

Sooo I’ve been absolutely terrible about updating this, so here comes the first of several new updates. The first weekend in April, our BC coordinator organized a trip for us to St. Malo (in Brittany) and Mont-St-Michel (in Normandy) in the north of France. We took the TGV (the high speed train) from Gare Montparnasse on Friday night and arrived at our hostel in time to hang out with some the kids who had gone earlier.

We woke up early Saturday morning to check out of our hostel and explore the city. The city itself is entirely within walls and sits on the Atlantic Ocean. It was really grey when we first woke up, but we wandered along the beach for a while. We climbed up the wall and down into the city. It started raining, so we ducked into a pretty church to get out of the weather. After that, we stopped at a little bistro to get drinks to warm up. We then when to a place that served traditional Breton crepes. I got one that had cheese and onions and pancetta in it. Soooo good. Then a fabulous banana and chocolate one for desert. And of course traditional alcoholic cider.

The sun finally came out, so we went back down to the beach. A couple of us decided to walk over to where there is a fortress and we climbed up the rocks and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air. The tide started coming in, so we had to wade back across and played in the ocean. Then we wandered around the city some more and boarded a bus to our next hostel. The hostel was up on a hill right by the edge of a little cove…absolutely gorgeous. We climbed around on the rocks for a little bit before dinner. After dinner, we all just hung out and played games and talked.

The Fortress at St. Malo

Right by our Hostel

Sunday morning we got up early again and boarded a bus to Mont-St-Michel, which was about 2 hours from where we were. Mont-St-Michel is a huge old abbey/fortress set out into the ocean. Back when it was still used, the ocean would come in and completely cut off the fortress. When we walked into the town, it felt like we were entering Disney World. We wandered up through the narrow staircases and eventually found our way to the Abbey where we stumbled upon Palm Sunday mass. After mass, we decided to take a lunch break at a restaurant with a view of the tides. Mont-St-Michel is famous for its tides that change at moments notice, though we didn’t see them. After some ice cream, we decided to spend some time relaxing on the grass. Then it was time to get on a bus to Rennes where we picked up the TGV back to Paris.

The Mont-St-Michel

Ireland!!

So I'm supposed to be coming up with a thesis topic right now, but clearly updating this is much higher on my priority list.

Last weekend (not this past one, but the one before) I went with my roommate Cathy and two of her friends from her welcome program group, Brenna and Michelle to Ireland...my first trip of the semester! We left Friday night from Beauvais, which is the tiny airport about an hour north of Paris. We flew from there to Shannon, which is on the west coast of Ireland. From there, we took a 12:45am bus to Galway, about an hour north of the airport. Our hostel wound up being literally next door to the bus station, which was convenient.

On Saturday morning, we signed up for a tour through the Irish countryside which one of my friends from BC who had been there several weeks earlier recommended. The main attraction of the tour was the Cliffs of Moher, which is my absolute favorite place in the entire world now. They're about 200 meters above the sea, and it's a straight drop down. The wind was so intense when we were there that the sea foam was getting blown up to the top of the Cliffs. While it was cloudy when we got there, part way through it started to clear and we could see the Aran Islands off the coast. It was absolutely amazing.

That was pretty much the last stop on the tour before a two hour drive back to Galway. Along the way there though, we stopped at a castle right on Galway Bay, a fairy ring, and the Poulnabrone Dolmen (sort of the Irish version of Stonehenge). On the way back, we stopped for some fresh air right by the eastern shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Every place we went was more beautiful than the last.

We arrived back in Galway around 6 and were exhausted, but after a quick rest, we headed out to Shop Street to get dinner and start off our night. We went to an Irish pub, where we were all excited to get some non-French food. I got delicious fish and chips! From there, we found a bar where there was some live Irish music which we listened to for a while. Once that got boring, we barhopped around the area. I headed back to the hostel fairly early because we were getting a 7:45am bus to Dublin the next morning.

So we woke up early on Sunday to head to Dublin, which is 3 hours east of Galway. I wasn't really able to sleep on the bus, which was annoying. When we got to Dublin, it felt like we were in an entirely different place. Galway was very much the quintessential small Irish town, and Dublin is much more of a bustling city. After some confusion because the bus dropped us off somewhere different from where it said it would and the map they gave us was upside down, we made our way to our hostel. Because it was so early, we dropped our bags and headed out to find some food. We wound up going to a diner (the Irish cousin of Johnny Rocket's) which was really delicious (especially since I'd been craving a cheeseburger for two weeks). While we were eating, we planned out a full day in Dublin.

From breakfast/lunch, we headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, a must do in Dublin. We then wandered to a square where there was a St. Patrick's (or Paddy's Day as they call it there) Festival. There were rides and performers and vendors and all of that good stuff. We got some really good smoothies from one of the food carts. After that, we tried to find Dublin Castle, much easier said than done and walked by St. Patrick's. Then, we headed over to the Guinness Storehouse. We toured the exhibit and then got free pints at the Gravity Bar at the top of the factory, which had great views of the city.
We were exhausted after walking all over the city, so we took a cab back to O'Connell Street, which is one of the main streets in Dublin. We went to Carroll's, the ultimate Irish gift shop, and Penney's, a really cheap clothing store. Then we went back to the hostel to finally check in and relax before dinner. Our cab driver had recommended The Knightsbridge Bar at the Arlington Hotel, because they have live music and dancing, so we decided to head there for dinner. Dinner was less than noteworthy, but the music and the Irish dancers were great. Once the show ended, we decided to head over to Temple Bar Street. A lot of the places were packed, but we found a little bar called The Quays (prounounced Keys) that had more live music. We actually ran into a friend of Cathy's from BC too! Since it was Sunday, by the time we left there a lot of places were closed, so we just headed back to the hostel.

The other three girls left early Monday morning, but since I didn't have class, I had booked a later flight. I did some souvenir shopping and then took a boat tour on the Liffey River to relax and take a break from walking. It was a really cool way to see the city. Then I got some lunch and just wandered around the city. There was so much that I didn't even get to see, having been there for barely more than a day. I wandered down Grafton Street, which is the big shopping street in Dublin and wound up at St. Stephen's Green. I remembered the Director of OIP mentioning that there was a BC office there when he came to Paris and as I walked down the street, I saw the BC flag! It was really cool to BC over here in Europe. I wish I could've stopped in, but it would've been too risky with my flight.

So from Dublin, I took the public bus out to the airport and headed home to France. Ireland was absolutely amazing and I was so sad to leave. It definitely made me wish that I'd considered studying there.

My Dad's coming to visit me this weekend, which I'm so excited about and then the weekend after, we have a BC trip planned to Mont St Michel in Normandy in the north of France. Then it's spring break! Less than three weeks away and I have NO idea where I'm going. Oh well, it'll work out.

Be sure to check out facebook for all my pictures from Ireland!

One Month In...

Since my last post, so much has happened. For one, I started classes. Even after two weeks of classes though, I've still yet to have all of my classes in one week. The first week, one professor didn't show up and the other canceled class altogether. I definitely don't mind not having a full week of classes though. Including conferences (like discussion sections) and tutorials (also like discussion sections), I can have up to 9 classes in a week. Each class here is one a week, which I think I kind of like. Plus, we only have to buy coursepacks. Because of copywriting laws in France, they're so much cheaper than the ones we have to buy at BC. I only spent 30E on all of my coursepacks!

Classes are definitely different. Considering they're only once a week, a lot of them are a lot less work than at BC. I do less reading for a whole week than I do for one day of class at BC. There's a whole differently methodology here, most of my classes have oral presentations, called exposes and only one or two other assignments. We hear the gradings a lot harder, so that should be interesting...

Other than classes, I've been trying to explore the city. Last weekend, we finally got some gorgeous weather, so a couple of us went to the courtyard by the Louvre and then walked through the Jardins des Tuileries and over to the Invalides. On Sunday, I went to the Musee D'Orsay, because all the museums in Paris are free on the first Sunday of the month. It was absolutely amazing. It used to be a train station, and now it's a museum dedicated to impressionist and post impressionist art.



Next weekend, I'm heading off on my first trip to Ireland! We're leaving Friday night, staying in Galway Friday and Saturday night and then heading to Dublin on Sunday. Since I don't have class on Monday, I'm coming back Monday night. I'm really excited to start my traveling. Because of all the work I have for my classes, this is probably the only trip I'll be able to take before Spring Break. I'm hoping to travel more later in the semester though...London and hopefully Venice (to visit Walter and Sam!)

Parisian Life

I'm really awful at updating this, but hopefully now that classes are starting (finally!), I'll have more of a regular schedule.

Classes at Sciences-Po started today, though my first class isn't until tomorrow. Today I went over to school to pick up my course packs and it was very weird to see the "campus" with a ton of students on it. For the past two weeks, all of the year long students have been on break, but now they're all back. The campus of Sciences-Po is much different than BC. There are 5 or 6 main buildings spread out over a couple blocks in the St. Germain de Pres area of Paris. I'll definitely have to take pictures of the area, because it's gorgeous and classically Parisian. Down the street from the school are a bunch of really famous cafes/brasseries where lots of the existentialists used to sit and write.

Let's see what I've been up to other than finishing the Welcome Program and getting ready for school to start...

Last Sunday I went to Versailles, which is about a half hour train ride southeast of Paris. The trip, which was organized by the Welcome Program, was the epitome of French disorganization. Getting train tickets was a nightmare and when we got to Versailles, it turned out that there was an hour line and they hadn't reserved us tickets. They told us we could walk around the gardens, but then didn't tell us where to meet to get tickets. Once we got inside, it was absolutely amazing. Despite the crowds, I really enjoyed myself. A lot of the rooms were only partially furnished, but the architecture is gorgeous. I'm looking forward to going back in the spring when the gardens are blooming.

On Tuesday, the Welcome Program arranged a bateau-mouche ride on the Seine. The bateau-mouche are large open boats that take cruises from the Eiffel Tower to the area around Notre Dame. It was kind of cold and rainy, but the city was gorgeous all lit up. I wish my camera had taken better pictures so that I could post them. We got some nice pictures of the Eiffel Tower though, especially when it sparkled on the hour!

Thursday, there was a big demonstration in the city over the economy and new university policies. Cathy and I came out of our metro stop to be confronted by a ton of police officers in riot gear. Around 3:30, the demonstration started and came right past our apartment. It was definitely an awesome experience and very Parisian I feel. I put up some pictures on Facebook of it.

I did some exploring around my neighborhood at the end of last week. There's a great street near me called Rue Mouffetard that has a ton of little market stalls and restaurants. We went out there on Saturday and went to a bar called Fifth Bar where they had beer pong. Unfortunately, Europeans don't understand how to play and spent 90% of the game fighting about the rules with each other. Kim and Liz (who was visiting from London and I randomly ran into on my street on Friday) finally got on the table and beat the British boys. While they were playing, we had a nice conversation with some guys from England about football (soccer) and the US and other random stuff.

Yesterday, Kim and I wandered around to go shopping, forgetting that all the stores in Paris are closed on Sunday. We went to the area where a few of the big department stores are (Gallerie Lafayette and Printemps) and from there walked all the way down the Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. Then we headed over to Place de la Republique to see a Mardi Gras parade, which we ended up seeing just the end of. I'm curious to see how Mardi Gras in France is. I think we might be getting a King Cake tomorrow, which is a big Mardi Gras tradition here.

Hopefully I haven't bored all of you too much. Now that classes are starting and I find out when all my major assignments are due (yes, I am that much of a dork) I can start planning trips around Europe and France too!

Une Autre Semaine a Paris

So it's hard to believe, but I've been in Paris for almost two weeks!

This past week, we started our welcome program at Sciences-Po. On Monday, we had a big information session where we learned about the administrative procedures of the university. It's so much different than the US, and definitely makes me miss BC! We can't even change our own classes here, and there's no posted schedule of open classes.

On Tuesday, we started our French and Methodology classes. We have each one for 2 hours each day. The French class is a lot of fun, my professor's very entertaining. I'm in a group with kids from all over the world. Aside from the US, we have a Norwegian, a Brazilian, an Australian, a Russian, a girl from China and a guy from Korea. It's really cool to have such an international perspective. The methodology class is really hard. Sciences-Po has a whole different system of grading and papers than we do in the US, and apparently it's different from the rest of the French universities too. It's really hard to forget how we've been taught to write papers in the US. It's good that we have this class now though, before actual classes start. I've already had to do two awful group presentations, but I should be done now.

I haven't gotten to do much exploring of the city, which I'm disappointed about, but hopefully I'll be able to do more soon. Our classes will calm down next week, so I'll have more free time. I'm going to Versailles tomorrow, so that should be a lot of fun. I have to go get ready for the day, but hopefully I'll post more soon!

A Paris

Bonjour!

I arrived in Paris on Tuesday morning with two other girls on my program after a relatively nice flight. It was really empty so we each had an entire row to ourselves to sleep in and we had our own on demand TVs! We took a shuttle bus from the airport to our apartments.

Cathy and I (who flew together) are living in the same apartment and Jen (who also flew with us), lives a couple metro stops away. When we got to our apartment, we had some trouble figuring out how to get in, but luckily someone came out and then our landlord type guy came down to bring us up to the apartment. I'm on the 5th floor (6th floor in the US) and have to walk up because the elevator's super tiny. Guess I'll get a good work out!

The apartment's a lot larger than I expected. There will be four of us living here, so we have four bedrooms, a huge living/dining room, a really big kitchen, a bathroom, a WC (with a toilet and sink) and a little sitting area by one of the bedrooms. I'm still in the process of getting unpacked, but I'll post pictures of it when I can. The windows in the front of the apartment have little balconies and all of them have railings so we can have window boxes in the spring time. All the buildings on the street are very typically Parisian and the neighborhood is full of cafes.

There's no food in the apartment, so we've been eating out for most of our meals. Tuesday we had mostly sandwiches, and didn't eat lunch until 3, so we were starving. Then we went to Sciences-Po to look around and use the internet because it didn't work in our apartment yet. It's still on and off in the bedrooms, but in the living room it works well. Yesterday, we cleaned our apartment because it was really dusty. We found a great little Italian restaurant around the corner from apartment and it cost 4E each for a bottle of coke!! That's like $6! We found a supermarket though, so we'll hopefully get food today.

Then last night a bunch of us on the program met up for dinner. We went to a restaurant that I think served food from Southern France. It was definitely interesting. None of us could understand the menu very well and ordered some bizarre dishes, only to find out at the end of our meal that they had steak-frites (steak and french fries). Since we were in our neighborhood, we all came back to our apartment to drink wine and hang out.

I'm still all screwed up with the time zone so I didn't fall asleep until 3 or 4 Parisian time, which is 6 hours ahead of the Boston. We had to wake up early to wait for our other two roommates, Nicole and Noelle, who should be arriving any minute now. Hopefully after they get here, hopefully we'll be able to go get bank accounts and finally cell phones! It's so weird to be without one.

Congratulations if you made it all the way to the end! I'll be sure to update more as my life gets more exciting.

Less Than Two Weeks!

I created this blog so I can keep all of you updated on my adventures in Paris and wherever my travels may take me. I'll arrive in Paris two weeks from yesterday. My apartment is in the 5th arrondisement of Paris on the left bank of the Seine. I'll be taking classes at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris (Sciences-Po) which is in the 7th arrondisement. Right now I'm busy trying to figure out how to fit my life into two suitcases and a carry on! I'll be sure to update you all once I get to Paris.