9-Aprile-2006

“Paris Holds the Key to My Heart…” – song in Anastasia, but I’m pretty sure it has more interesting roots than that.

If ever anyone reading this has the opportunity to journey to Paris, take it. I’ve been looking forward to Paris since I heard we were getting a fantastic deal on transportation and lodging, but I was still a little worried about the hot spot being touristier than I care to enjoy. I have to admit, that I loved every moment – with the exception of our hotel area. We were definitely lodged up near Gard de Nord, which is a little bit shadier than I would like to admit. On the first night I discovered ants crawling along the floor and our bathroom was ridiculous! I don’t think a very, very tiny person could have used the toilet without sitting sideways on the seat. It was ridiculous.. and to the astonishment of many, myself included, I forgot to take a picture of how obscenely small it was.

We arrived Friday evening and had heard through the grapevine that the Louvre was free to students after 6pm. Not knowing whether this was true or not, we journeyed to the Jardin des Tuileries and took in a sunny Friday evening with breathtaking views of the Effiel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and other beautiful works of art. My friends Erin, Kristal, Emily and I walked over to the Louvre and found the student rumour to be true. Waiting not a minute longer, we made our way inside and headed towards Da Vinci’s La Giaconda (Mona Lisa). Unfortunately, she was stuck behind some serious glass as well as a roped off area that made it very difficult to see details. As we stood next to about a million signs that displayed pictures prohibiting cameras, people would walk up and snap a shot just to be verbally assaulted by one of many guards standing around the painting. I did my best to envision the scenes from the Da Vinci code in my head, but I think I’m going to need to reread it since it has been awhile.

After the Louvre we headed to Moulin Rouge and took those famous pictures as well. This was an easy option since it was close to our hotel and we were pretty exhausted from the day before. My friends and I departed only after deciding our EARLY start time so we could be some of the first to the Eiffel Tower.

For some reason waking up in Paris was a lot more exciting than waking up anywhere else. There wasn’t anything too special; still a hotel room with ants and an impossibly tiny bathroom, but it was Paris! The “fab four,” Emily, Kristal, Erin, and I, headed to the Tower. It was a little nerve racking trying to figure out the metro system, since none of us had any idea how to read French, but we did it after a little bit of struggle. The Eiffel Tower appeared to us as we made it off of the metro and sent us practically jogging to see the symbol of Paris. All along I had figured that it was just a tall monument that we would take some pictures at, ride up to the top, take a few more pictures and then be on our way but we were mesmerized. Standing in line with many more mesmerized people, we finally made it to the elevator and descended the giant steel structure. The view was amazing; we had blue bird skies with a minimal amount of clouds that made everything look spectacular. I could have sat in the garden for days.

After the Tower we made the quick jaunt over the river and onto the island that holds the Notre Dame. Erin is an architect major and turned out to be a fantastic tour guide for all of the old works of art. I learned about flying buttresses and also that the Notre Dame could not even be recreated today because the stone work was not passed down into our generation. It is kind of sad really. We didn’t make it up top to hang out with the gargoyles, but it was still well worth the visit. I can totally see being French and chillin with all these fantastic monuments everywhere!

Our admiration for Paris continued from there into the small streets that seemed kind of Italian, but had a different aura. We had heard that the French didn’t really like Americans but everywhere we went, we received smiles, and some much appreciated English (Even though the French language was intimidating, we were still happy to hear Italian once and awhile). Also, it’s been in the news lately that there are riots going on in Paris because people are protesting. I was minutely concerned about this, but we didn’t see any protestors and our train didn’t have any problems. It was unfortunate that four in our group (there was about 18 or so of us) missed the train back to Torino today. Hopefully they don’t have too much trouble working that whole situation out.

After that we walked around the streets a bit and made our way towards Sainte-Chapelle. This church is unbelieveably beautiful. Since I’ve been to a ton of churches over here, they are all beginning to look a bit similar… of course all of them are amazing and huge and gorgeous, but similar nonetheless. Well, not this one. The upper chapel contains 1,134 scenes from the bible in stained glass. This church is most famous for its rose window which has 86 multicolored glass panels depicting the Apocalypse. One of the King Louis’ built it and it is absolutely amazing.

Another highlight included an evening boat tour on the Seine River. We bought baguettes, cheese, and some wine for the excursion and our feet enjoyed the rest from the very busy, exhausting day. After that we saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up for the evening and even got to see the “sparkle” show which happens every half hour for ten minutes.

Sunday morning we hadn’t quite decided a schedule but knew the time to get up and wouldn’t you know that I overslept. My alarm clock didn’t go off and Erin and I were late to breakfast. Luckily, we salvaged the few hours we had before the train left and went up to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur. Yes, another church. This church happens to be set up in the hills a bit and has a breathtaking panoramic view of the city. We climbed the stairs (where the annoying vendors tried relentlessly to get us to pay money for moronic things – I resisted like a pro) and checked out the huge structure. It was Palm Sunday today and the church had Mass going on so we were amazed to see they were still letting tourists in the church. It was a pretty amazing church, but we didn’t stay too long. For the last few hours we moseyed around and picked up a few souvenirs and other fun stuff. Lots of places were closed, but we had fun anyway.

On the way to the train station we started to see tons of people in matching ponchos and got close enough to read that they were from a marathon. As it turns out, Paris hosted a marathon this morning and all the athletes were walking around, probably cooling down. We didn’t get to see anyone running, but on the train ride home we rode back to Torino with an athlete. They were Italian so we used our second favorite language and talked to him and his family about the marathon (he did really well) and eating raw peppers.

Low and behold we made it home and I’m now avoiding my homework like a pro. I hope my teacher never finds my blog, she would be very disappointed in me. My only happy story about the weekend was when we got off the train.. Apparently my bag must have spilled open and I didn’t think everything spilled out, but I lost a few of my souvenirs. I am pretty bummed, but it could have been worse. At least it wasn’t my camera or my ipod.. the total value lost was probably around 10 euro. I have a friend who has either wrecked, lost, or had stolen 4 different cameras. (One of them wasn’t hers) and now she’s on her 5th. I figure as long as my damage toll doesn’t get that high, that I should be alright.

Ok, I’m headed to bed… tomorrow I’m going to talk all about the cockroaches we have in our apt. That’s just something to look forward to.

6-Aprile-2006

In just 8 short hours I will be on a train headed for Paris. It’s so strange to think about that statement. It’s always been one of those “oh maybe someday” type thoughts, but no, tomorrow I go to Paris. Exciting!! My friend Erin has every spare second planned. It’s kind of relaxing.. almost like a tour guide without the big fee, excellent. Hopefully I’ll be able to return the favor if she ends up jumping the plane to Germany with us.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. I should be packing right now but instead all I want to do is read my book but instead I’m writing on this darn contraption. My computer has been getting fussy lately. I’ve had a real bad history with this computer that likes to break at the most inconvenient times… Hopefully, knock on wood, it can hold out until I get back to the states. Otherwise Best Buy is going to have one angry customer, not that they don’t already but more angry could be worse than the current state of “totally and completely agitated past the point of all stable thinking…

Well, I suppose I should move on to that whole packing thing since it is mildly important and all that jazz.

Ciao for now! And Bonjour tomorrow!

A few things..

Ok, I realized that I forgot to post the pictures of my day trip to Genoa. They are in the gallery now right under the Scotland album... go here.

Also, here is this week's Student Abroad Article...

I think that's it.. ttfn! :)

5-Aprile-2006

Yay for no class, boo for extra segments of class. Today I spent a ton of time at school because for my Italian class extra hours are to be spent doing listening comprehension. Thankfully I finished mine today and now I only have to worry about the rest of the compositions that I need to recite.

Yesterday was the final day of cuisine class. Possibly one of the saddest days of my life and not because we won’t have any more meals but we also have a harder final than I thought humanly possibly. During the class our teacher has been going into depth about the origination of the goods used. The different types of grains for pasta, regional cooking differences, etc. and now it seems that she wants us to regurgitate most of that information in the form of a paper. Oh no… I should probably get working on it because if I put it off for too long, then I’ll forget about it. I also have my last presentation for Italian culture due at the end of the month. We got to pick our own topics and I chose dogs in Italy. I was pretty excited.

Other than that today has been fairly uneventful. I paid for the rest of my rent while I’m in Italy and the program directors tried to talk me into going and getting the shots again today. Sounds fun, huh? I’m still all opposed.. but who knows, maybe I’ll be swayed.

Arrivederci!

3-Aprile-2006

I can’t believe that I forgot to finish the adventures of my Scotland story. Sunday was pretty exciting. We walked around town and sat in Borders for a while. Being able to read rocked. I even bought a cookbook so I could try and redeem myself as someone who is efficient in the kitchen. We’ll see how many more pans I can ruin in the next month and a half. After Borders we went to eat at this small art café, which had amazing food. I had a Brie baguette with sun dried tomatoes and spinach. It still sounds amazing! I tried to replicate it today and I think I might be missing an ingredient or two, but it was still good.

After we made it to the airport, thanks to Gillian and Jim, our flight was delayed because someone got on the wrong plane. When we landed, we had to catch a bus from the Bergamo-Milano airport to the Milano train station. This usually is an hour bus ride but for some reason, Sunday night traffic was thick and it took us two hours! Our train was the only thing on time about the whole journey, and we made it back to Torino a little before midnight. Regardless, still a good weekend.

Today was like Christmas. I received three, yes three packages and one super awesome card. One from Adam, one from Megan, one from my mom and a super awesome card from Rose. Thanks to all of the excellent pick-me uppers J It was great. Did you know that “espresso” literally means “pick me up?” Just thought that some of you all might need some random useless knowledge.

The new diagnosis for my bites is bed bugs. Sounds exciting huh? If you do a google search on bed bugs you can find people ranting and raving about how horrible they are. I even read about a couple that moved out of their house. Apparently once you pick them up and they start to multiply, you can get stuck with them. The web sites suggested a few at home recipes but most recommended a professional to do the dirty work. I guess we aren’t totally sure if they are bed bugs, but I’ll be taking precautions. Tomorrow I’m going to boil my bedding. Sounds fun, huh? We’ll see I suppose.