Rome

We just spent three days in Rome, which I actually liked quite a bit. I had heard that Rome was really hot and crowded and not very exciting, but it was fine for me. Yes, it was hot, and, yes, it was crowded, but I enjoyed my time here.

We saw a lot of old buildings, monuments, and churches. It’s so interesting to think back to what life was like 2000 or more years ago when they were being built, and what the people did back then. I don’t even remember all of the names of the monuments we saw, but I liked them. I especially liked the Trevi Fountain. And the churches are so beautiful—wonderful architecture with lots of paintings all over the walls and ceilings and also lots of statues.

We went to the Vatican, too, of course. Saint Peter’s Bascilica is huge. The Sistine Chapel is also beautiful. I was extremely impressed. It’s the place where Michelangelo painted a bunch of scenes from the Bible on the ceiling. The really famous one is the one of Adam and God reaching hands to each other, which I’m sure you’ve seen before. There were so many people there, though, so it was kind of hard to spend time really looking at everything. Plus, it hurt my neck to look up at the ceiling for so long. But I loved it.

I also loved the Roman ruins everywhere, like the Coliseum and Palestine Hill and the Roman Forum. It’s so amazing that it’s all still standing. We took a short guided tour at the Coliseum, which I liked because I learned a little more about its history. Next to the Coliseum was Paul’s prison cell (Paul from the Bible). It is so dark and dreary, with no daylight at all. It made me think about him living there and being persecuted for what he believed. I can’t believe I got to see all of these things that have so much history.

Italian food is so good. We had pizza for lunch every day, and pasta for dinner. Some days were better than others, but I finally found the BEST pizza in Rome on our last night. It had chunks of mozzarella cheese with tomato sauce and basil. Mmmmm. Like it should be. Although, I think I’ll be full for a week after all of this food.

Now we’re about to head back home. Our plane leaves really early, so I’m staying up all night so I’ll be able to sleep on the plane. This is my last blog, because now I’ll be back in the US. So that means we’ll have to talk in person. Thanks for reading about my summer.

Florence

Well, two days in Florence are already over. This is a very nice city; I really like it.

We took the night train from Florence to Paris, which was quite an adventure. It wasn’t the smoothest or most comfortable ride, but it was functional. And I saw the sun rise over the Tuscan countryside out of my window in the early morning hours, which was beautiful.

The first day we were there, we had to wait to check into our hotel since we arrived at 8 in the morning, so, of course, being absolutely exhausted already from not getting enough sleep on the train, we decided to climb this huge tower. It was hard, but had such a good view of the city. I really loved that. Then we went to the Bovili gardens, which was also very nice, but mostly I just lay on benches because I was so tired, haha.

We went to the two main museums, the Accademia and Uzzi-something gallery. I loved seeing the sculpture “David” by Michelangelo, and also seeing all of the themes of Italian art throughout both museums. I recognized many of the same characteristics that I saw in the Italian art section of the Louvre, so it was neat to see it all come together.

The food is AMAZING. I love pizza and pasta and gelato. Mmmmm....

We leave for Rome in the morning, and we’ll be there for three days. I’m glad I get to eat more Italian food! Oh, and I get to see ancient ruins and the Vatican and all that. :)

Paris is gone

(Written on Sunday, July 13, 2008)

We’re on our way to Florence right now. Goodbye Paris. I’m kind of sad; I really love Paris. It’s the closest to my heart, and I don’t know how I’ll feel about any other European city.

We stayed in a cute little hotel in Montmartre area. The downside was that it was like a half hour metro ride from everything else in Paris. But oh well. It was an adventure.

Let’s see... here are some things we did...

-Eiffel Tower. It was cold and a bit rainy while we were in line, but we were lucky that the rain stopped when we were going up. You’d think that Paris in July would be super hot, but it wasn’t. Actually, I kind of prefer it this way.
-I sat in a couple parks and read while my mom and sister went to some museums that I’ve already been to. It was really nice.
-I showed them around my favorite neighborhoods, like le Marais and the 6th.
-We had a nice 3 course real French dinner, with cheese and bread and duck and potatoes and crème brulée.
-We ate a new French pastry every day, which was great. My favorite was the strawberry tart.
-Notre Dame, of course.
-Arc de Triomphe
-Shopping
-Sacre Coeur
-I went to Hillsong Church Paris again, while my mom and sister were at the Louvre. It was even better than last time because they spoke a lot more in French first, and then translated it into English, rather than the other way around. It was a lot of fun.

One day I’ll go back, hopefully for a longer amount of time, where I’m not a tourist.

London

We were in London for three days, and now we’re in Paris (I’m BACK!). It rained in London for most of the time, but that’s okay, because I’m used to Seattle rain. We first went to the Tower of London, which is where many prisoners like Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cranmer were held. (I learned about them in my Reformation and Modern Christianity class last year, so I found it interesting.) They also had a huge display of all of the crowned jewels, which was kind of cheesy, but cool nonetheless. It’s funny how much importance the monarchy had and still has in their country. I’m not used to that kind of thing at all.

We saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, which took a really long time, haha. I wanted to get my picture with one of them—you know, how they don’t smile when you’re next to them—but none were around. Oh well. It was fun to see them marching all around and playing the drums for an hour. There were these two in particular that just walked back and forth from side to side of the palace yard, which was funny because they looked like they were my age, and they were just kind of talking to each other as they walked with their huge hats with straps around their chins and big red jackets.

Let’s see... I went to a real British pub. I went to an organ concert at Westminster Abbey, though it was the day I got in from Paris so I kind of accidentally took a nap. I got “lost” on the Underground—which means I got split from my mom and sister, and it took them awhile before they decided to come back to get me, haha (that was also the first day, so I didn’t know my way around very well yet). I went on the London Eye (a massive ferris wheel-like thing). I saw good ol’ Big Ben (and you know what I thought when I saw that? “Second star on the right, and straight on till morning!”)

Last but not least, of course, we saw THE LION KING (the musical). It was SO good. It made me really happy. The first moment of the whole thing was so amazing. Rafiki, played by this African woman with a beautiful huge voice, sings the first line, and then all of these people/animals come out from the doors behind you, through the audience and up on stage. I’m talking giraffes, lions, rams, birds, and even an elephant. It was amazing. And every song that came on was just so good. My favorite non-Disney-song was “He lives in you.” It’s really good. You should listen to it. I loved the sets and the costumes. It was such a piece of art—so visually pleasing. Every scene was stunning. They also had quite a few interludes with African singing and dancing, which I also loved. I would see it again right now. I loved it. Definitely the highlight.

And now I’m back in Paris, at a park, typing on my computer again. I’m excited to go back to all of my favorite places and show my mom and sister around. We’re here until Sunday, so that gives us a good amount of time here.

The end of Paris.

(I haven’t written in awhile because of my computer problems, but hopefully it’s all fine now.)

Well, we finished the France study abroad part of the trip on Sunday. Last week was our last week in Paris, so we did all of our favorite things one last time, plus some other fun things. Here are the highlights...

--I went to see two French movies last week, “Un Conte de Noel” and “Mes Amis Mes Amours”, plus the play “Tartuffe” by Moliere. It’s amazing how much more I can understand as the movie or play goes on, just being completely “in” the language. I still didn’t catch every word, but I still really like that kind of thing because it’s good practice.

--Over the week, we split up into groups and had tea with our French teacher at a really nice tea place called Mariage Frères. It was such good tea. I had Pleine Lune, which was an almond vanilla black tea. Another one I tried that I really liked was chocolate caramel flavored. Mmmm.

--We saw Saint Chappelle, a beautiful church with wall to wall stained-glass windows, and the Consiegerie, which was where Marie Antoinette and other prisoners were held before they were beheaded. It’s interesting that they are right next to each other.

--On Thursday night, we had a really nice group dinner at La Cadole. It was a three course meal. I had duck (a.k.a le canard) for the first time, and it was delicious. Most of all, it was just a really fun time to spend with the group, hanging out and taking a really long time to eat a nice French meal.

--We went to the Musée de l’Orangerie, which was built specifically for eight huge water lily paintings of Monet. They are beautiful. There are four wall sized paintings in each of two elliptical-shaped rooms. It was definitely one of my favorite museums. I wish I could have just sat there by myself looking at them.

--We had a picnic lunch sitting on the Pont des Arts, which is a walking bridge over the Seine. It was sunny and beautiful, just sitting and overlooking the river and the sights of Paris.

--We had dinner at a crêperie one night, and so Kaleigh and I split a dinner crepe and a dessert crepe. The dessert one we had was SO good. SO good. The best crepe I’ve ever had. And then our teacher said we could all get a dessert crepe (it was a group dinner, so our “cultural fund” was paying for it), so we decided to split it again! Haha. It was really funny, and a really great French crepe day.

--On our last day, we got up early and had breakfast on the terrace of a cafe.

--We took a group boat ride on the Seine, which was really fun.

--Saturday night, the last night, we went up to the Eiffel Tower. It’s lit up blue right now celebrating the fact that France is “head” of the European Union this year.

Now I’m in London with my mom and sister. I took the Eurostar (a.k.a the Chunnel, the underground train that goes from Paris to London). It was weird because I fell asleep before we went underwater, and then I woke up afterwards, so I didn’t even get to know I was under the English Channel. Haha, oh well. We’re going back to Paris on Wednesday, so hopefully I’ll be awake then. I’m really excited for Paris, to show my mom and sister around. Plus, I’m kind of having withdrawals/culture shock from not being there anymore, and being in this foreign city. Whenever I see a French bakery here in London, all I want to do is go smell it or something because it’s familiar. And their metro system isn’t the same at all. Anyways, I’m really enjoying London and I’m excited to go back to Paris one last time for a few days.

chateaux weekend

I don't have much time to write right now because I'm having computer issues.

Last Friday I got to go to an elementary school for an hour and talk to the French kids in French, and a little in English.  It was one of my very favorite parts of the trip.  Emily has a friend here, and so she and her son came to dinner with us the night before, and then we got to go to his school the next day!

This weekend we went to the Loire Valley to see Chartes Cathedral and three chateaux.  I really enjoyed it--seeing the French countryside and these huge houses that kings used to live in.

I'll hopefully be able to write more later.

This is the last week of my study abroad part of my trip in Paris, so we're wrapping things up in class and going to our favorite places one last time.

week 3

In class we’ve been going over grammar and how to phrase sentences in more complicated ways. Our favorite song that we learned this week was “Champs-Elysées,” so we’ve been singing it every time we’re near the road, or if it’s just stuck in our heads. (We have class every morning for an hour and a half or so, and then we usually have something to do in the afternoon or at night. Other than that, we’re free to explore the city.)

Just a general overview of the kind of food I’ve been eating: In general, we eat breakfast at the place we’re staying (the FIAP). I have a croissant almost every morning. (To be more French, I should have a cup of coffee, too.) We also usually take one of the chocolate croissants that they have at breakfast and save it for later in the day. We have a meal plan at the FIAP, so we eat one meal there per day. It’s not horrible food, but it’s not the best either. When we get to eat out somewhere, it’s really fun. Sometimes we do picnic stuff, but also sometimes a sit down restaurant. I actually had my first “real” French dinner the other night. I’m learning that the French really like to put together meat, sliced potatoes, lettuce, and tomato. It’s a really good combination.

We went to the Ile de Saint Louis on Monday, which is in the middle of the Seine. We had some really good ice cream and saw the Notre Dame. The Notre Dame was so crowded—lots of tourists. It makes me wonder what the church was like before it became famous (before Hugo’s book—The Hunchback of Notre Dame). I kind of want to read that book/see the movie again, haha.

I went to see another French movie, Affaire de Famille, which I really enjoyed. We thought it was a comedy, but it ended up being a dark comedy, which we figured out after the first quarter way through. I feel like I’m being able to understand more French, kind of, even though I still can’t pick up on everything they’re saying.

The other night we took this [English-speaking] bike tour through Paris. It was so fun because we got to ride through and see all of these sights we’ve been looking at for so long, but we got to see how they all connected together. It was in the evening, too, so the sun was setting. My favorite part was when we rode through this archway into the courtyard surrounding the Louvre, with the sun setting in the background. It was beautiful. And we got to take a boat ride on the Seine.

Yesterday we went to the Louvre. I wasn’t that excited, just because I was kind of overwhelmed at the thought of how big it is, but I ended up really loving it. I was there from about 3 in the afternoon until 9 pm. One of my favorite paintings was “The Raft of the Medusa” by Théodore Géricault because of the emotion in all of their faces. It’s the point between hope and despair. I also really liked this series of four paintings by Nicolas Poussin. Each painting represented a season and a biblical scene (spring: Adam and Eve, summer: Ruth and Boaz, fall: gathering grapes in the fields, winter: Noah and the flood). There were A LOT more works that I really appreciated and enjoyed, such as the statues “Psyche and Cupid” and “Dying Slave,” and the paintings “The Piesta of Villaneuve-Les-Avignon” and “St. Joseph the Carpenter.” (plus many more) I just really enjoyed walking through everything, even though there was no way I could understand or appreciate it all because there is SO MUCH. Oh, and they also have part of the medieval castle there, which was really cool.

A little over a week left!