this blog never got a proper finish. whoops.
well, on july 31st i flew from france to venice and spent 10 days in italy, staying in venice for 4 nights, florence for 3, a day trip to pisa, and rome for 4 nights. it was amazing :)
some things that happened:
_we would have gotten totally lost right when we arrived in venice if it weren't for two people who happened to speak french, so we were able to talk to them in french and get directions from them. (not knowing much italian sucks but we survived.)
_we really DID get lost in venice one night, walking many kilometers out of our way (across the entire city, which is small) and only finding our way back only after people got off a boat nearby, who we followed back into town.
_after a crazy incident which involved me accidentally crying, we got into the vatican museum for free. :) more details if you ask. hehe
_MORE STORIES BUT I AM TOO LAZY TO TYPE THEM SO ASK ME IF YOU WANT :) :) :)
whoo! europe was fun! the end. til next time.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
last week: GO
SUNDAY 7/25:
Out of all the possible things I was going to do (i.e. Cannes, Giverny, EuroDisney), I ended up waking up at 11:00 AM (oh it was glorious) and eating lunch at 日本町 with Mari. Our restaurant was called ひぐま(higuma) and it's very famous, at least according to yelp and google. I had yasai ramen (or as the menu spelled it, lamen) and Mari had miso ramen. YAYYYY for 日本料理! I missed it! While we were eating a little bug (ごきぶり) creeped out of the shadows, and we were almost gonna ask for our meal to be free, but didn't.
After we walked around the neighborhood for a little bit, looking at various Japanese (and some Korean) restaurants and bookstores. It's kind of interesting to get another culture's take on Asian culture. Asians aren't extremely numerous in Paris, so I think it's safe to say that there is less knowledge of Asian culture compared to Californians, but according to my host mom there are plently of Japanophiles who learn the language, eat the food, read the books, and can't wait to get their hands on the girls. (Okay, I added that last part. But it goes without saying.)
After that I was pleasantly surprised to find Tuileries a near stone's throw away, so I walked over there and joined mes potes waiting for the Tour de France to come through. It was boring waiting and my feet got really tired, but it felt cool because the whole crowd was there cheering, and apparently I saw Lance Armstrong zoom by eight times on those bikes. It was cool to be a part of it for this one year--I mean, I'm IN Paris the day of, so why not?!
Everyone left around 5:30, but I still had energy, so I went by myself to Le Marais and explored Place de Vosges, where I had always wanted to go. I didn't really find Victor Hugo's house, but I found Musee de Sully (which was basically two courtyards) and a lot of other cute places (including a cute, well-dressed harpist harping in the street for money) that I'm glad I walked by.
Later in the night we met up again and walked along the canal St. Martin which was very nice and I love it. Another Amelie moment. I wish we could do it again, have it become a regular thing...if we were staying a semester, it could be like that. My new dream is to bring my bf/fiancee/husband to Paris and show him everything and take him all the places I've been. <3
MONDAY:
Me and Analiese got a lot done today!! Very good day.
First we went to St. Cour Emilion which is an INFINITELY CUTE little village with lots of shops and restaurants. We got cheap sandwiches and ice cream and walked around and took pics. Adjacent to it is Bercy park, which was adorable with ducks and bees and plants and best of all, NO CREEPERS yelling at us! We finally found the little city-within-a-city, the little Parisian escape. I felt like I was in the suburbs again. It was so nice to explore the rather unknown portion of the 12th arrondisment.
We got off the metro intending to go to the Tuileries area but saw the Opera Garnier, decided tour it for 5 Euro, which I thoroughly do not regret! Of course I thought of phantom of the opera the whole time (this is where it's based on.) We got to see the whole stage area and the box seats, as well as every other part of the lobby/foyers area, but no secret creepy tunnels/innerworkings. Still, it was beautiful, and it was fun to imagine real operas going down in there. Now that I've done it, I can't believe it was ever optional or not on my list, music-phile that I am. I'm supposed to be super interested in opera...:P
Afterward we decided to go to the Musee L'Orangerie, where they have Monet's water lilies (nympheas) paintings. They were gorgeous, as was everthing else in the museum, but I'm never like TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY by art museums because I just haven't studied it and don't really know quite how to appreciate it. Photography, YES... other forms of visual art (especially pre-20th century), not exactly. But of course it was still a good experience.
After walking through Tuileries (which is next door) a little bit more, we went home, and I had about a 2-hour break for dinner. After dinner (way after, at like 10) we went out to Pigalle(oOo! again) to go to the museum of eroticism. I guess it was worth 6 Euro....LOTS and LOTS of sculptures and images of penises, vaginas, and sex, from throughout the centuries. My favorite part was watching 1920's cartoon porn and filmed porn from the 20's and 30's(silent with the little sentences you read in between scenes, the written dialogue.) It was hilarious. We stopped and took pictures at the Moulin Rouge (yay, I just happened to be there at night!) and other sex shops, etc. along the way. I decided I love Pigalle and think it is fun and happening and definitely not sketch. I haven't had a single sketch experience there, unless you count drunk guys seeing my camera and saying "prend un photo?" or hearing us and saying "speak english?", but that happens everywhere. I think I'd actually be more threatened by that in America than here, because there I wouldn't have the guise of being a tourist, of not knowing the language--I'd actually have to defend myself.
Just a few of the many possibilities which lay before me for these last THREE days:
_park Buttes-Chaumont with Carol! (<3)
_possibly top of Notre Dame with Carol
_park Belleville
_Marais (again) to eat lunch with Bpaul and Jchung
_UP the eiffel tower--at sunset!
_Sacre Coeur at sunset with ISA people :)
_Musee Rodin, Musee des Arts & Metiers
_Tour Montparnasse
_Galleries Lafayatte (yeah, never been!)
There's like 50 things I could add on there which I'm not because I don't want to disappoint myself at not doing every little thing I want to do. I've already done A LOT, including all the crucial attractions and everything on my bucket list. Yay <3 If only I could stay a whole month in EVERY place I go, haha.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
_Paris is somewhat keeping me from thinking negative thoughts/worries about next school year...student teaching, priorities/busyness, having a car, apartment stuff, boy stuff, money stuff...but these issues are IMPENDING and will be on me soon! But gotta get this freaking stressful Italy trip planning out of the way first.
_It's only in these past couple days that I've entered into a new state of comfortability with the city. It's maybe a halfway mark--if I stayed here twice as long, I could be completely 100% comfortable being in the city. But what sucks is that now I've hit that mark, it makes me not want to leave that much more. Whereas last week I was squirming at the seams, having hit the low of homesickness, this week I'm fine and just want to explore and travel more haha. POOP. POOP HOW IT WORKS LIKE THAT. :P
Out of all the possible things I was going to do (i.e. Cannes, Giverny, EuroDisney), I ended up waking up at 11:00 AM (oh it was glorious) and eating lunch at 日本町 with Mari. Our restaurant was called ひぐま(higuma) and it's very famous, at least according to yelp and google. I had yasai ramen (or as the menu spelled it, lamen) and Mari had miso ramen. YAYYYY for 日本料理! I missed it! While we were eating a little bug (ごきぶり) creeped out of the shadows, and we were almost gonna ask for our meal to be free, but didn't.
After we walked around the neighborhood for a little bit, looking at various Japanese (and some Korean) restaurants and bookstores. It's kind of interesting to get another culture's take on Asian culture. Asians aren't extremely numerous in Paris, so I think it's safe to say that there is less knowledge of Asian culture compared to Californians, but according to my host mom there are plently of Japanophiles who learn the language, eat the food, read the books, and can't wait to get their hands on the girls. (Okay, I added that last part. But it goes without saying.)
After that I was pleasantly surprised to find Tuileries a near stone's throw away, so I walked over there and joined mes potes waiting for the Tour de France to come through. It was boring waiting and my feet got really tired, but it felt cool because the whole crowd was there cheering, and apparently I saw Lance Armstrong zoom by eight times on those bikes. It was cool to be a part of it for this one year--I mean, I'm IN Paris the day of, so why not?!
Everyone left around 5:30, but I still had energy, so I went by myself to Le Marais and explored Place de Vosges, where I had always wanted to go. I didn't really find Victor Hugo's house, but I found Musee de Sully (which was basically two courtyards) and a lot of other cute places (including a cute, well-dressed harpist harping in the street for money) that I'm glad I walked by.
Later in the night we met up again and walked along the canal St. Martin which was very nice and I love it. Another Amelie moment. I wish we could do it again, have it become a regular thing...if we were staying a semester, it could be like that. My new dream is to bring my bf/fiancee/husband to Paris and show him everything and take him all the places I've been. <3
MONDAY:
Me and Analiese got a lot done today!! Very good day.
First we went to St. Cour Emilion which is an INFINITELY CUTE little village with lots of shops and restaurants. We got cheap sandwiches and ice cream and walked around and took pics. Adjacent to it is Bercy park, which was adorable with ducks and bees and plants and best of all, NO CREEPERS yelling at us! We finally found the little city-within-a-city, the little Parisian escape. I felt like I was in the suburbs again. It was so nice to explore the rather unknown portion of the 12th arrondisment.
We got off the metro intending to go to the Tuileries area but saw the Opera Garnier, decided tour it for 5 Euro, which I thoroughly do not regret! Of course I thought of phantom of the opera the whole time (this is where it's based on.) We got to see the whole stage area and the box seats, as well as every other part of the lobby/foyers area, but no secret creepy tunnels/innerworkings. Still, it was beautiful, and it was fun to imagine real operas going down in there. Now that I've done it, I can't believe it was ever optional or not on my list, music-phile that I am. I'm supposed to be super interested in opera...:P
Afterward we decided to go to the Musee L'Orangerie, where they have Monet's water lilies (nympheas) paintings. They were gorgeous, as was everthing else in the museum, but I'm never like TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY by art museums because I just haven't studied it and don't really know quite how to appreciate it. Photography, YES... other forms of visual art (especially pre-20th century), not exactly. But of course it was still a good experience.
After walking through Tuileries (which is next door) a little bit more, we went home, and I had about a 2-hour break for dinner. After dinner (way after, at like 10) we went out to Pigalle(oOo! again) to go to the museum of eroticism. I guess it was worth 6 Euro....LOTS and LOTS of sculptures and images of penises, vaginas, and sex, from throughout the centuries. My favorite part was watching 1920's cartoon porn and filmed porn from the 20's and 30's(silent with the little sentences you read in between scenes, the written dialogue.) It was hilarious. We stopped and took pictures at the Moulin Rouge (yay, I just happened to be there at night!) and other sex shops, etc. along the way. I decided I love Pigalle and think it is fun and happening and definitely not sketch. I haven't had a single sketch experience there, unless you count drunk guys seeing my camera and saying "prend un photo?" or hearing us and saying "speak english?", but that happens everywhere. I think I'd actually be more threatened by that in America than here, because there I wouldn't have the guise of being a tourist, of not knowing the language--I'd actually have to defend myself.
Just a few of the many possibilities which lay before me for these last THREE days:
_park Buttes-Chaumont with Carol! (<3)
_possibly top of Notre Dame with Carol
_park Belleville
_Marais (again) to eat lunch with Bpaul and Jchung
_UP the eiffel tower--at sunset!
_Sacre Coeur at sunset with ISA people :)
_Musee Rodin, Musee des Arts & Metiers
_Tour Montparnasse
_Galleries Lafayatte (yeah, never been!)
There's like 50 things I could add on there which I'm not because I don't want to disappoint myself at not doing every little thing I want to do. I've already done A LOT, including all the crucial attractions and everything on my bucket list. Yay <3 If only I could stay a whole month in EVERY place I go, haha.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
_Paris is somewhat keeping me from thinking negative thoughts/worries about next school year...student teaching, priorities/busyness, having a car, apartment stuff, boy stuff, money stuff...but these issues are IMPENDING and will be on me soon! But gotta get this freaking stressful Italy trip planning out of the way first.
_It's only in these past couple days that I've entered into a new state of comfortability with the city. It's maybe a halfway mark--if I stayed here twice as long, I could be completely 100% comfortable being in the city. But what sucks is that now I've hit that mark, it makes me not want to leave that much more. Whereas last week I was squirming at the seams, having hit the low of homesickness, this week I'm fine and just want to explore and travel more haha. POOP. POOP HOW IT WORKS LIKE THAT. :P
Saturday, July 24, 2010
First (and last) Saturday night spent in Paris
...and I'm not doing anything. Haha. I "went out" last night to a Mexican (ha) restaurant and to a club in Pigalle, but ended up going home by 12:30 because I thought the last metro would come and I had to wake up at 8 this morning. And that's practically the craziest I've been here. It's ridiculous, really, but understandable. When I don't feel like an integrated part of the culture, I don't feel as comfortable with going out. Also, alcohol is more expensive here...instead of pregaming, people buy drinks in the club, which cost upwards of 6 Euros each. That's crazy. I LOVE drinking and partying and enjoy it immensely when I do it, but I don't need it to have fun, and I don't necessarily feel like I'm missing out by not doing it in Paris. Even though I am party person, that's not what I came here for.
FRIDAY:
Definitely made up for boring Thursday!!
After class, we:
1. Ate lunch at Luxembourg Gardens
2. Went to Musee D'Orsay (for free!)
3. Went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed UP it (for free!)-- what an AMAZING view!
4. Went to Le Marais to hopefully poke around, but it started raining so we didn't do too much.
5. Went to La Bastille to get gelato, and then I walked home in time for dinner!
6. Ate dinner
7. Went out to a club in Pigalle
those are the kind of days I wish I had in Paris every day. I'm pretty satisfied with my experience here. If I had more time, I could explore even more, and travel to other countries gradually, but as it is, I've done more than my fair share of what any tourist will ever do here...and that's really what I wanted. Other cities I'm content to be a tourist in, but for Paris (and France in general) I had a a desire to get a more nuanced view. So hooray! C'est fait. Ce fut fait.
FRIDAY:
Definitely made up for boring Thursday!!
After class, we:
1. Ate lunch at Luxembourg Gardens
2. Went to Musee D'Orsay (for free!)
3. Went to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed UP it (for free!)-- what an AMAZING view!
4. Went to Le Marais to hopefully poke around, but it started raining so we didn't do too much.
5. Went to La Bastille to get gelato, and then I walked home in time for dinner!
6. Ate dinner
7. Went out to a club in Pigalle
those are the kind of days I wish I had in Paris every day. I'm pretty satisfied with my experience here. If I had more time, I could explore even more, and travel to other countries gradually, but as it is, I've done more than my fair share of what any tourist will ever do here...and that's really what I wanted. Other cities I'm content to be a tourist in, but for Paris (and France in general) I had a a desire to get a more nuanced view. So hooray! C'est fait. Ce fut fait.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Today was practically the stupidest day of my life. No not really. But I'm sad because I didn't do anything. I have have A WEEK left. A WEEK. Really only 5 days, and only 2 of those days have long stretches of free time. I was planning on going to 日本町at lunch with Mari, but then she wasn't there and I decided I didn't want to go alone, so I just ate lunch at Luxembourg like always. Then after class at 5, no one was doing anything and I couldn't find anyone and didn't know what to do so I just went home. Sigh. It's okay, I'm still satisfied with my experience here and I only have a couple more MUST-DOS before I leave.
I never thought I would say this, but as I alluded to in my previous entry, the thought of going back isn't crippling or choking. I'm actually looking forward to it. It's a good feeling, like where you are AND where you are going. Usually I'm either hating where I am and wanting the future, or hating the future and wanting to stay paralyzed where I am. But this time I like both :)
Italy with Josefina and Iris for 10 days after the program, until Aug 11th. We planned it all ourselves! I've never been so independent. Oh money. The things it can do. I'm so lucky. Oh mother, I really hope you don't stay a chômeuse forever. :(
Lesson learned from this trip: traveling is better than not traveling, as long as money allows. If I had been smarter and thought about it/could have planned better, I probably would have planned to travel both before and after my program, to more countries/places. I would have researched more about the places I was going so I could be prepared with itineraries and lists. Also, I as I now know, the earlier you plan to travel, the better, even more than 6 months in advance to get the best prices. Sigh. Well this stuff will help me later in life :) I think I can deal with having a shitty small apartment, and budging food and necessities very carefully, in order to save money to travel. WORTH IT. <3
I want to LIVE in at least 3 different countries besides USA. France is one...even though I haven't really "lived" here...it's definitely crossing the line past tourist. Japan will hopefully be the second. And Peace Corps will be the 3rd. And WHO KNOWS! Who knows what opportunities will open up for me. I'm still very optimistic about all this.
I never thought I would say this, but as I alluded to in my previous entry, the thought of going back isn't crippling or choking. I'm actually looking forward to it. It's a good feeling, like where you are AND where you are going. Usually I'm either hating where I am and wanting the future, or hating the future and wanting to stay paralyzed where I am. But this time I like both :)
Italy with Josefina and Iris for 10 days after the program, until Aug 11th. We planned it all ourselves! I've never been so independent. Oh money. The things it can do. I'm so lucky. Oh mother, I really hope you don't stay a chômeuse forever. :(
Lesson learned from this trip: traveling is better than not traveling, as long as money allows. If I had been smarter and thought about it/could have planned better, I probably would have planned to travel both before and after my program, to more countries/places. I would have researched more about the places I was going so I could be prepared with itineraries and lists. Also, I as I now know, the earlier you plan to travel, the better, even more than 6 months in advance to get the best prices. Sigh. Well this stuff will help me later in life :) I think I can deal with having a shitty small apartment, and budging food and necessities very carefully, in order to save money to travel. WORTH IT. <3
I want to LIVE in at least 3 different countries besides USA. France is one...even though I haven't really "lived" here...it's definitely crossing the line past tourist. Japan will hopefully be the second. And Peace Corps will be the 3rd. And WHO KNOWS! Who knows what opportunities will open up for me. I'm still very optimistic about all this.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
day 23
Didn't do too much today except for go to Shakespeare & Co, which was amazing and surpassed my expectations. There's SO many books, and I started getting overwhelmed, because I want to read them all and know all of the knowledge within them, AND because I think about how I want to be cultured and read books and watch plays and movies, AND because I think about how I want my kids to be cultured and know 10 different languages and all about their world. I played piano upstairs too. :) It was nice to play. And I took pictures. There was this little area where people from around the world leave notes (lots of Korean ones for some reason!) and I left a note that was a mix of English, Japanese, and French. :)
Then I went home and took a nap for 2.5 whole hours. I kinda feel like I wasted time not doing anything grand, but then, it's hard when everyone has different agendas and can't get their shit together and plan stuff together. Plus I felt REALLY tired and wanted to take a nap, and I also felt inspired to write and was intending to write (but didn't and am writing now.)
I really miss singing and dancing here. You think it wouldn't matter but it does. I need the release. It's so weird not singing. Like, I can sing to myself, and that helps, it really does. But I can't dance to myself haha. I want to go clubbing or something so I can just let that shit out.
I also miss SPOP a little bit, not because I'm FOMOing over this year or anything (cause I'm honestly 100% not), but because it's summer and hot weather and my body remembers that the last time it was hot like this, I was spopping away. Call it temperature memory. Also how big dancing was to me that summer, with SPOP modern and SPo you think you can dance and SPaerobics. (Sorry this doesn't relate to France. tangent...)
I love the people here, for the most part. Everyone's so fun. I really do wish we had more time to just hang out and get to know each other better. I think that's one downside of not living in the dorms. I had to sacrifice some of my fun-hanging-out-making-friends experience in order to have the French home experience. (Is this what it feels like to commute? Ugh.)
One change is that I've started thinking about going back a lot more than I did the first two weeks. In the beginning I was always thinking about what I was gonna do the next day, what new things I was going to see, etc. I was immersed in my current experience, and my life in CA was pushed to the back of my mind. Now I think about things from CA all the time: the music I listen to, my friends, experiences from last year, thoughts about the coming year, etc.
I feel a little torn, because I love summer and don't want it to end (who doesn't), but at the same time I miss Irvine and people and so it will be good to return to them....BUT again at the same time, when I come back everything will be different. School will be 100% different. Some friends will still be in Irvine, but not attending school, some will be across the country in jobs/grad school, and some will be back at home. It'll be tricky to get used to. I'm not particularly excited for next school year at the moment (more like scared and dreading the stringent teaching cred requirements) but hopefully that will change when I go back to Irvine and get back in the flow of things.
I'm sorry, I guess this isn't much of a France blog, haha. I got led astray. But, at least, this is what's on my mind. More France blogging when I do some more interesting things (Versailles and Eurodisney this weekend!)
Then I went home and took a nap for 2.5 whole hours. I kinda feel like I wasted time not doing anything grand, but then, it's hard when everyone has different agendas and can't get their shit together and plan stuff together. Plus I felt REALLY tired and wanted to take a nap, and I also felt inspired to write and was intending to write (but didn't and am writing now.)
I really miss singing and dancing here. You think it wouldn't matter but it does. I need the release. It's so weird not singing. Like, I can sing to myself, and that helps, it really does. But I can't dance to myself haha. I want to go clubbing or something so I can just let that shit out.
I also miss SPOP a little bit, not because I'm FOMOing over this year or anything (cause I'm honestly 100% not), but because it's summer and hot weather and my body remembers that the last time it was hot like this, I was spopping away. Call it temperature memory. Also how big dancing was to me that summer, with SPOP modern and SPo you think you can dance and SPaerobics. (Sorry this doesn't relate to France. tangent...)
I love the people here, for the most part. Everyone's so fun. I really do wish we had more time to just hang out and get to know each other better. I think that's one downside of not living in the dorms. I had to sacrifice some of my fun-hanging-out-making-friends experience in order to have the French home experience. (Is this what it feels like to commute? Ugh.)
One change is that I've started thinking about going back a lot more than I did the first two weeks. In the beginning I was always thinking about what I was gonna do the next day, what new things I was going to see, etc. I was immersed in my current experience, and my life in CA was pushed to the back of my mind. Now I think about things from CA all the time: the music I listen to, my friends, experiences from last year, thoughts about the coming year, etc.
I feel a little torn, because I love summer and don't want it to end (who doesn't), but at the same time I miss Irvine and people and so it will be good to return to them....BUT again at the same time, when I come back everything will be different. School will be 100% different. Some friends will still be in Irvine, but not attending school, some will be across the country in jobs/grad school, and some will be back at home. It'll be tricky to get used to. I'm not particularly excited for next school year at the moment (more like scared and dreading the stringent teaching cred requirements) but hopefully that will change when I go back to Irvine and get back in the flow of things.
I'm sorry, I guess this isn't much of a France blog, haha. I got led astray. But, at least, this is what's on my mind. More France blogging when I do some more interesting things (Versailles and Eurodisney this weekend!)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
day 22: 10 days left in Paris!
Today:
another failed attempt to ascend notre dame today. LAME. apparently the line is 823043253 people long and you have to come super early to get a spot. it wasn't that way last time! foiled again. so all we did (maggie, kate and i) was walk around ile de la cité. we took pics with pt. zero, saw st. chappelle (but didn't go inside), saw la place de châtelet, and checked out the grand opening of paris plages. all in all not a bad day...even just walking around seeing random stuff is fun, because it's all new to me. i have most of the utmost essentials checked off my to-do list so the next two weeks will just be filling in the cracks. topping my list is: euro disneyland (sunday!), actually going up the eiffel tower (hopefully sometime SOON), le marais, and a couple museums that i would love to go to if i have the time...musée d'orsay, musée de rodin, musée de quai branly. (i feel that i should give museums more time than i do, because i feel stupid and uncultured if i don't go to them. but i'd rather be doing something outside.) also, if i had the chance, i'd like to go up the arc of triomphe, and tour montparnasse, and see bois de vincennes/bois de boulogne. let's see what i get done in the next couple weeks.
Planning my Italy trip is stressful as fck. Sorry, I keep bitching about it. But it's a great experience for me. I'll probably have to plan my own travel later in life, and it'll be great that I had this experience planning this. I already have a future trip in mind, once I meet a friend or LOVA with which to travel: go to Paris for a few days, so I can be back and show that person around, then go to the south of France (Nice, Cannes, Marseilles, Monaco, and maybe even Cinque Terre/Liguria!) for the rest of the time. SIGH. <3 <3 <3 I am going to prioritize traveling so much. I am going to fight for it.
I AM SO EXCITED FOR NIHON MACHI. I'm going this weeek!!!!!!!!!! Nihon machi!!! I'm so deprived here. Everything is European as fck. It's not like it'll be a magical world where I become transported to Japan, but I think it will remind me of home a little bit. I really miss my Mitsuwa runs and my Nihonjin <3 Saya! さみしいいいよ～！(that was just to show off that I figured out how to add Japanese to this computer's settings.) And the food will be a welcome break from all the freaking baguettes and SANDWICHES. No kidding, like, you think it's so stereotypical, but baguette is EVERYWHERE here. AND cheese. AND wine. Stereotypes have their origin in truth.
Mkay, that's all for now. I think things are beginning to crystallize a little bit! At Notre Dame today, it was one of the first days things felt real. I'm sure that I will leave before things turn entirely real, though, and my experience will remain the fleeting fantasy that it is. :) Paris. Me.
another failed attempt to ascend notre dame today. LAME. apparently the line is 823043253 people long and you have to come super early to get a spot. it wasn't that way last time! foiled again. so all we did (maggie, kate and i) was walk around ile de la cité. we took pics with pt. zero, saw st. chappelle (but didn't go inside), saw la place de châtelet, and checked out the grand opening of paris plages. all in all not a bad day...even just walking around seeing random stuff is fun, because it's all new to me. i have most of the utmost essentials checked off my to-do list so the next two weeks will just be filling in the cracks. topping my list is: euro disneyland (sunday!), actually going up the eiffel tower (hopefully sometime SOON), le marais, and a couple museums that i would love to go to if i have the time...musée d'orsay, musée de rodin, musée de quai branly. (i feel that i should give museums more time than i do, because i feel stupid and uncultured if i don't go to them. but i'd rather be doing something outside.) also, if i had the chance, i'd like to go up the arc of triomphe, and tour montparnasse, and see bois de vincennes/bois de boulogne. let's see what i get done in the next couple weeks.
Planning my Italy trip is stressful as fck. Sorry, I keep bitching about it. But it's a great experience for me. I'll probably have to plan my own travel later in life, and it'll be great that I had this experience planning this. I already have a future trip in mind, once I meet a friend or LOVA with which to travel: go to Paris for a few days, so I can be back and show that person around, then go to the south of France (Nice, Cannes, Marseilles, Monaco, and maybe even Cinque Terre/Liguria!) for the rest of the time. SIGH. <3 <3 <3 I am going to prioritize traveling so much. I am going to fight for it.
I AM SO EXCITED FOR NIHON MACHI. I'm going this weeek!!!!!!!!!! Nihon machi!!! I'm so deprived here. Everything is European as fck. It's not like it'll be a magical world where I become transported to Japan, but I think it will remind me of home a little bit. I really miss my Mitsuwa runs and my Nihonjin <3 Saya! さみしいいいよ～！(that was just to show off that I figured out how to add Japanese to this computer's settings.) And the food will be a welcome break from all the freaking baguettes and SANDWICHES. No kidding, like, you think it's so stereotypical, but baguette is EVERYWHERE here. AND cheese. AND wine. Stereotypes have their origin in truth.
Mkay, that's all for now. I think things are beginning to crystallize a little bit! At Notre Dame today, it was one of the first days things felt real. I'm sure that I will leave before things turn entirely real, though, and my experience will remain the fleeting fantasy that it is. :) Paris. Me.
Monday, July 19, 2010
days 19-21: loire valley, marché des puces, and other randoms
Since I waxed at the world last time and didn't get to talk about my trip to the Loire Valley, here it is, along with today's update.
LOIRE VALLEY
-Chenonceau was nice, but a tiny bit of a letdown. This probably sounds uber spoiled and unappreciative, but it's not like I haven't seen a huge mansion before, faux-furnished and with a million gaggling tourists speaking in every which tongue.
-Wine tasting was OFF THE HOOK. That is to say, getting drunk for free was off the hook. I think I had about 6 glasses. (!) It was really fun to see everyone open up. I got to talk to some people really freely who I never normally would've talked to, like Natira and Kaylee. And it was nice. :) I wish we all had more time to get to know one another and party together. I really wanna get drunk with everyone.
-Chambord, by contrast, was brilliant and so much fun. This was mostly due to 1) the amazing double-helix spiral staircase which is made of white/taupe marble and amazingly fun to go up/down and also look at and 2) BOATING. I'll admit, me and Candace failed on our little bike trip à deux, but being on the boat on the river with Analiese, Candace, Jose and Iris was definitely the best part of the day. We made a really good group and the pictures were beautiful and the weather was beautiful and the breeze was blowing and I felt as relaxed as I've felt here in a long time. Compared to uber-urban Paris, being out in the country was freaking amazing.
-Tours was a nice little town, and it'd be nice to spend more time there. Our hotel bathroom had a shower you could actually hang above your head (SCORE!!) but there was literally NO shower curtain or barrier of any kind (what the fck?) so I basically made a flood in the bathroom. -___-;;
TODAY (Monday July 20th...my 23rd day here!)
-Class is SO BORING. I could not care less about passé simple. But it's good that we're moving onto prepositions...a nice much-needed and somewhat-never-learned review.
-We went to Marché des Puces! If you take line 4 all the way to the top (Porte de Clignancourt) you enter into a magical world where lots of different people are trying to sell you objects of every size, shape, age, color, and price range, on the street. Clothes, shoes, accessories, furniture, drug paraphenalia, ethnic things, modern things, antiques...it's like the UCI vendor faire x 10000000000. They have a lot of cheap vendor faire-esque clothes and items. Sometimes the merchants are little too aggressive...I tried to stay away from the hip-hop-blasting, loudly-shouting, overcrowded "modern clothes & shoes" section and drifted more towards the quite, cute, quaint, old-people-antiques section. MUCH more my thing, at least in this situation. (I'm such a marm! I never want to go out, and I'm tired all the time, and now I like old people antiques. Jesus.) I browsed a whole lot and ended up getting gifts for my freeeeends WHICH SHALL REMAIN SURPRISES. :)
-Me and Candace had fun playing FIND OBJECTS. We looked on the ground for things. I found a ripped letter from 1958, a coin from Finland, and basically a bunch of metal things (a spiral, a coupe-papier, a screw, some random sticks, etc.) While we were walking I looked around and we were in the outskirts of Paris, in the ZUP, and I was reminded of La Haine.
-Afterward, we did AMELIE TOUR 2010. If you haven't seen Amelie, you won't appreciate this part. We went to Gare de L'est, where she meets Nino, where she keeps seeing the phantom photo-taker, where she gets trapped at night, where they keep showing the clock, etc. Obvi it didn't look the same, but you could kind of recognize it. Then we did PHOTOMATON just like in the movie, except it was different cause it was all modern and not cute and antiquey. -_-; THEN we went to LES DEUX MOULINS in Montmartre, the restaurant where she works! Except there was no tabac and no glass sign! But other than that stuff looked pretty much the same! We got drinks there (RIDIC expensive) and took touristy pictures (I forgot my CF card and so took pictures on Beth's camera, much to her dismay.)
ANYTHING ELSE I'VE BEEN THINKING
-Good things about homestay: I get my own room (most share), my host mom is nice, she cooks dinner every night for us and listens to my preferences, I can improve my French by talking to her, she helps me or tries to help me when I don't know where something is, the cats are cute
-Eh things about homestay: it's pretty small and dingy and old, there is cat hair EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING, my towel and clothes smell bad and kind of like mold, I think because she line dries them, she's sometimes weirdly demanding/not considerate (i.e. after I slept under just the comforter for just one night, she took it away and said I can't use it because it's not hygenic for me to sleep under it and she'd have to wash it.)
-I think I need to stop eating chocolate/ice cream and drinking Orangina every day. Did you know?! In the kitchen of every house there are two faucets: one for water and one for Orangina! It runs in the rivers here! :)
Oh, how I could go on, I have soooo many pensées, but I need to do my HW and upload my pics and OtHeR ShItZ.
LOIRE VALLEY
-Chenonceau was nice, but a tiny bit of a letdown. This probably sounds uber spoiled and unappreciative, but it's not like I haven't seen a huge mansion before, faux-furnished and with a million gaggling tourists speaking in every which tongue.
-Wine tasting was OFF THE HOOK. That is to say, getting drunk for free was off the hook. I think I had about 6 glasses. (!) It was really fun to see everyone open up. I got to talk to some people really freely who I never normally would've talked to, like Natira and Kaylee. And it was nice. :) I wish we all had more time to get to know one another and party together. I really wanna get drunk with everyone.
-Chambord, by contrast, was brilliant and so much fun. This was mostly due to 1) the amazing double-helix spiral staircase which is made of white/taupe marble and amazingly fun to go up/down and also look at and 2) BOATING. I'll admit, me and Candace failed on our little bike trip à deux, but being on the boat on the river with Analiese, Candace, Jose and Iris was definitely the best part of the day. We made a really good group and the pictures were beautiful and the weather was beautiful and the breeze was blowing and I felt as relaxed as I've felt here in a long time. Compared to uber-urban Paris, being out in the country was freaking amazing.
-Tours was a nice little town, and it'd be nice to spend more time there. Our hotel bathroom had a shower you could actually hang above your head (SCORE!!) but there was literally NO shower curtain or barrier of any kind (what the fck?) so I basically made a flood in the bathroom. -___-;;
TODAY (Monday July 20th...my 23rd day here!)
-Class is SO BORING. I could not care less about passé simple. But it's good that we're moving onto prepositions...a nice much-needed and somewhat-never-learned review.
-We went to Marché des Puces! If you take line 4 all the way to the top (Porte de Clignancourt) you enter into a magical world where lots of different people are trying to sell you objects of every size, shape, age, color, and price range, on the street. Clothes, shoes, accessories, furniture, drug paraphenalia, ethnic things, modern things, antiques...it's like the UCI vendor faire x 10000000000. They have a lot of cheap vendor faire-esque clothes and items. Sometimes the merchants are little too aggressive...I tried to stay away from the hip-hop-blasting, loudly-shouting, overcrowded "modern clothes & shoes" section and drifted more towards the quite, cute, quaint, old-people-antiques section. MUCH more my thing, at least in this situation. (I'm such a marm! I never want to go out, and I'm tired all the time, and now I like old people antiques. Jesus.) I browsed a whole lot and ended up getting gifts for my freeeeends WHICH SHALL REMAIN SURPRISES. :)
-Me and Candace had fun playing FIND OBJECTS. We looked on the ground for things. I found a ripped letter from 1958, a coin from Finland, and basically a bunch of metal things (a spiral, a coupe-papier, a screw, some random sticks, etc.) While we were walking I looked around and we were in the outskirts of Paris, in the ZUP, and I was reminded of La Haine.
-Afterward, we did AMELIE TOUR 2010. If you haven't seen Amelie, you won't appreciate this part. We went to Gare de L'est, where she meets Nino, where she keeps seeing the phantom photo-taker, where she gets trapped at night, where they keep showing the clock, etc. Obvi it didn't look the same, but you could kind of recognize it. Then we did PHOTOMATON just like in the movie, except it was different cause it was all modern and not cute and antiquey. -_-; THEN we went to LES DEUX MOULINS in Montmartre, the restaurant where she works! Except there was no tabac and no glass sign! But other than that stuff looked pretty much the same! We got drinks there (RIDIC expensive) and took touristy pictures (I forgot my CF card and so took pictures on Beth's camera, much to her dismay.)
ANYTHING ELSE I'VE BEEN THINKING
-Good things about homestay: I get my own room (most share), my host mom is nice, she cooks dinner every night for us and listens to my preferences, I can improve my French by talking to her, she helps me or tries to help me when I don't know where something is, the cats are cute
-Eh things about homestay: it's pretty small and dingy and old, there is cat hair EVERYWHERE on EVERYTHING, my towel and clothes smell bad and kind of like mold, I think because she line dries them, she's sometimes weirdly demanding/not considerate (i.e. after I slept under just the comforter for just one night, she took it away and said I can't use it because it's not hygenic for me to sleep under it and she'd have to wash it.)
-I think I need to stop eating chocolate/ice cream and drinking Orangina every day. Did you know?! In the kitchen of every house there are two faucets: one for water and one for Orangina! It runs in the rivers here! :)
Oh, how I could go on, I have soooo many pensées, but I need to do my HW and upload my pics and OtHeR ShItZ.
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