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!

more adventures

Whoa whoa. Even more has happened in these last few days. France is still great. The weather is pretty spazzy. I can never tell if it’s going to be hot or cool, sunny or cloudy. Today it just keeps alternating between all of that. Earlier last week it was kind of cold and a bit rainy, but now I don’t think it’ll go back to that. It’s muggy and warm, even if it’s cloudy out. But we love it. It’s better than being super hot and burning under the sun.

We went to two museums this week, the Museum of Rodin and Centre Pompidou. Rodin was an artist who didn’t like how all of the art around him was so “perfect.” He wanted to create sculptures that illustrated real people. He sculpted a man with a broken nose, a walking man, and other things like that. I enjoyed seeing him create what he saw, rather than the ideal of what people should look like. The Centre Pompidou is the newest art museum in France filled with modern art from this past century. We started with the temporary collection which was filled with lots of new, and often unusual, art. Some people created huge things out of car parts or sheep skin, for example. There was a huge red rhinoceros at the end of the hall, too. So there were some works that were very modern. But my favorite from that section was this painting by Yves Klein, who painted only with this one shade of blue that he discovered. He did that because the way the light shone on it made it the canvas its own. On the floor with the more traditional modern works, I really liked Matisse and Picasso. Matisse and the other Fauvists (not Picasso—he was cubist and surrealist) in the early 1900s experimented painting with bright and vibrant colors, which I find beautiful.

One night we went to see the play, “Fourberies de Sapin,” by Moliere, who was a famous French comedy playwright. It was hard to understand at first because they spoke so quickly, but the longer into it, the more immersed I was into the language, and the more I could understand. It was a really good play. I’m excited to see it next year when SPU puts it on (in English, of course).

The other night we went to a jazz club concert and watched a jazz trio play. They had an upright bass, drums, and a piano. I really enjoyed it—being in Paris at a jazz club, sitting with friends, listening to good music. I especially enjoyed watching the piano player because he was pretty much going crazy. Sometimes he would stand or just go off on some riff that wasn’t part of the song. The other two guys laughed at him when he did that.

We went to Giverny yesterday, which is where Claude Monet painted all of his water lily and garden paintings. We saw his house where he lived for 40 years of his life and walked through his gardens. It’s beautiful. I would have liked to live there as well.

Last night was the Fête de la Musique in Paris, which is a huge music festival. People play music ALL OVER the corners of Paris. You can walk from street to street listening to different bands who bring out their stuff to play. They also have organized concerts all around, too, in different places, outside or even in museums like the Louvre. We started with going to see Fredrika Stahl in this enclosed garden, who is a Swedish singer (though most of her songs were in English). She sounds kind of like Regina Spektor. I really liked her. Then we wandered down the street and listened to some African music and a few other bands. Then we rode the metro to a different part of Paris. There, we listened to some jazz, and then walked a little ways where there was a DJ playing dancing music, so we had fun dancing around there for awhile. And then we rode the metro to the Eiffel Tower and just lay in the grass looking up at it, while in part of the park next to it there was another dance going on with techno music. As we were leaving, the Eiffel Tower started lighting up, almost as if it were sparkling. Apparently it does special light things on special days. It was a really fun night.

At this point, I’m starting to recognize more where I am, and going to places for the third or fourth time, which is fun. The other day we had a picnic in one of my favorite areas, Rue Mouffetarre. We also visited Ernest Hemingway’s house, where he lived while he was in Paris.

So to sum it up, I’m still loving this city!

one week down

We have gone on so many more adventures around Paris in the last few days. (I like to call them adventures because that’s what they feel like each time we stay out all afternoon and evening in a new part of Paris.)

On Saturday, I saw my French friend, Charlene, who had stayed with us as an exchange student a few summers ago. That was really good. We first went to lunch at her friend’s Parisian apartment (which was extremely small—half the size of a dorm room, with a counter and a sink and a shower—and expensive, because that’s what living in Paris is like. It was in one of those tall buildings that look so glamorous from the street. I have been saying all week how I’ve wanted to see one of the apartments, so I was really excited. Inside, even though it was small, it was still cute and fun to hang out there.) I was with three French speakers, so I pretty much just listened and tried my best to understand what they were saying. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower and, after that, a bakery. At night, Charlene’s friend got us in to see two one-hour French comedy plays for free because she works there. I really enjoyed them because I could understand what was going on, for the most part, even though I didn’t understand every single word. Afterwards, one of the actors asked me if I at least understood the part when he said, “You talkin’ to me?” I noticed that quite a few times they said things in English like that, which is interesting.

On Sunday we went to Mass at Saint Sulpice, and then walked over to see Saint Germain des Prés, both of which are beautiful churches that are hundreds of years old. The mass was almost impossible for me to understand. I only knew what was happening because I used to go to mass a lot, so I could guess what prayers and other things they were doing.

One afternoon we went to le Jardin du Luxembourg, which is a nice park in the middle of Paris where the Senate building is (I think...). We started talking to this older French man, Michel (we called him “Mike”), who comes into the city on Sundays and sits at the garden because it’s his favorite place in Paris. We ended up talking with him for a couple of hours in a mix of French and English. It was really nice, and we were really sad when we had to go.

The other day we had a huge excursion, walking around a lot. We started with walking to see the Moulin Rouge, which isn’t all that impressive. Then we walked up to Les Deux Moulins, the cafe Amelie works in, and got coffee. That was really fun. Then we walked quite a ways o Cimetière de Montmontre, which has the above-ground graves. Finally, we made our way up the hills and stairs (it reminded us of SPU) to le Sacré Coeur, a beautiful cathedral. The painting on the ceiling above the altar is breathtaking and overwhelming.

We went to a French movie the other night—to “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” which means something like “Welcome to the home of the Ch’tis”. It’s about how this guy gets transferred to a small town in the north of France, where the people have a different dialect and speak French with a different accent. A lot of the story has to do with all of the mix-ups in what each person is saying because they say things in a different way. We understood kind of what was going on, but we definitely didn’t catch all of the jokes. But the good thing is that the chairs were really comfortable, and my friend and I kind of dozed off a little bit... haha. Being in Paris is exhausting sometimes.

We went to the Eiffel Tower yesterday, which was so fun. We just hung out there all afternoon, reading and talking and taking pictures. It’s surreal to see it in person.

I love all of the time we spend just walking around different areas of Paris. We go to a cafe almost every day, just drinking coffee (or for me—hot chocolate, which is actually real chocolate melted in hot milk) and talking. Last night we sat at a cafe for a couple of hours watching the football (soccer) game between France and Italy. It was quite the atmosphere. The place was packed, and so were all of the other cafes around the area, and everyone was just hanging out and cheering for France (even though they lost).

Oh, and we also went to Hotel des Invalides, which is where Napoleon is buried. I must say, he has a very nice place.

days 3 and 4 (ish)

The last few days have been so crazy and great. My French is improving a lot. The other day we went to the Picasso museum, which was interesting. I didn’t really know much about him, but through looking at all of his pieces of art and talking with my friend who’s an art history major, I learned a lot. It’s cool to see how he painted and sculpted and everything over his whole lifetime. Also, I learned that he was trying to see how much you could take a shape and make it look like what we think it is in its context, like a triangle for a nose, for example. So he kept pushing the limits—taking shapes farther and farther out of context to see if it would still look like the original intended image, in a way.

After that, Emily and Kaleigh and I went to find Victor Hugo’s house, which was an adventure. We’re getting better at asking people for directions, but they speak so quickly, so it’s hard to understand them at times. We found it, and it’s in part of this beautiful building that goes around a whole block, with a huge park in the middle. There were lots of cute little French kids playing around in it. I LOVE listening to kids speak French!!

Later that night, we took the metro to a “random” street in Paris, rue Muffetarre, to try to find a cafe where Ernest Hemingway used to go. (Emily just read “A Moveable Feast” which is a memoir of Hemingway when he lived in Paris, so he references a lot of places. It’s fun to try to find them.) The cafe doesn’t exist anymore, but it was fun to walk around and see Paris “night life” without the tourists. Everyone eats dinner really late, so at 9 or 10, when we were walking around, the streets were alive with people getting food and eating at cafes. We got coffee and hot chocolate at one, just sitting and watching everyone walk by. Then I bought “Les Trois Mousquetaires” (The Three Musketeers) at a local bookstore. I figure, if I’m going to read it, I might as well read it in the original language. (Though I tried to read a few pages, and I only retained half of what happened...)

Let’s see... another adventure... Yesterday we got on the metro and took it really far, to the 19th arrondissement (district), and walked around the Cite de la Musique and the Canal d’Orcqe where Amelie, in the movie, skipped rocks. It’s a really cool place.


One morning, a few of us, before class, walked to this little market street nearby and then sat at a park and did some homework. It was such a good moment, to be in a park in the middle of Paris, sitting on a bench in the sun.

I love it here.

first days

(I wrote this yesterday...)

The last few days have been pretty crazy. I took three flights and finally got to Paris at 10 am Tuesday morning, after leaving Monday at 8:30 am and skipping 9 hours somewhere in the middle. I couldn’t find the people I was supposed to meet at the airport, so I ended up taking a taxi to the place we’re staying in Paris. It was definitely an adventure. (I had my first real French conversation with the cab driver, which was cool.) We’re staying at the FIAP, which is kind of like a dorm where people rent out rooms and stay. Our room is very tiny, but cute, of course. It’s about as wide as a queen size bed. It has two little beds, two little desks and a bathroom.

Yesterday our group went out for dinner at a cute little French restaurant and then walked to the Louvre and along the Seine. It was really nice out—a perfect first night in Paris!

Today we had class in the morning and learned about how to use the metro system, which is actually pretty easy. Then we went to the Musée d’Orsay and looked at all of the impressionist, postimpressionist, and neoimpressionist paintings from artists like Van Gough and Monet. I, along with two other girls, stayed until the museum closed. Then we walked around and ate crepes at a cute little restaurant, speaking French the whole time, or at least trying to. We also went and saw the little bookstore where Ernest Hemingway bought his books and Sylvia Beach published James Joyce’s Ulysses. Thomas Paine had also been there.

All in all, I’m loving Paris. I could live here for awhile, for sure. I feel like there is way too much to do and see. It is so overwhelming. But I’ll see as much of it as I can for the time being. And my French is already getting better.

It's coming!

I'm leaving for the airport in 4 hours, and I'm pretty much ready to go! I'm excited. I'm going to be flying from Portland to Chicago to Germany to Paris. It'll be kind of a long trip, but I'll get there Tuesday morning and meet up with my group and have all day to relax.

So here's what I'm doing. I'm going to stay in Paris for a month with a group from SPU. We're going to have class in the morning, from about 9 to noon, and then have all afternoon to explore the city. Some afternoons we'll have a museum visit or a play to go see, but we'll also have a lot of free time. Then, when our month is over, my mom and sister are coming over and we're going to go to London, Paris, Florence, and Rome for two weeks. I get home on July 19th.

This is going to be such a huge experience in a short amount of time! I'm excited.

I really want to talk to you all over the summer, so I'll try to email you and send postcards and things like that. And you can email me, too. I really intend to write a lot, but who knows what'll happen once I get there.

I'm going to be in Paris in one day!

Packing

I'm getting ready to go to Paris. I'm leaving for the airport in about 31 hours. And I still have to start packing. Ahh! I think once I'm on the plane I'll feel a lot better, because all of the prep will be done.

I got home yesterday and unpacked all of my stuff from school (kind of). Today I was gone for most of the day in Corvallis visiting Amy (!!! :), and then I just got home from doing some last minute shopping. It's kind of unreal that I'm going to be in France in a few days. But I'm excited!