More pictures of final weeks in Paris with friends

The beginning of the end

A few weeks ago, I spent a final weekend in Freiburg with Brett. Although Brett had to attend a model E.U. with his study abroad program that weekend, we did lots of things together during the nights. On Sunday, we were even able to spend the whole day together. We both had lots of work to do to prepare for finals and finish up our classes, so I spent most the days studying, though.

My last trip to Freiburg was perfect. We ate Schnitzel twice. We went to our favorite brewery. We went to our favorite beer garden. We also went hiking through the black forest in a downpour. I visited the Danube, which happens to run through Freiburg. I ate lots of pretzels, too. Mostly, it was very relaxing and nice to be in my favorite German city again. I can't really describe the experience, but I think the pictures do it more justice. Freiburg is a wonderful city with lots of hidden corners to explore. I'm so glad I had a chance to visit it so many times.

As I left the train station on Monday morning, I felt I had given Freiburg a proper final goodbye. Rolling into Paris, I felt bittersweet, because I had already started my goodbyes to the places that have been so wonderful to me during my stay here. A few weeks later, now, and I'm sitting in my apartment for the last night. My bags are packed, my finals are finished, and I'm off tomorrow to meet Brett, and then Friday, my mom for a week more of Paris, and then I must leave for the final time.

My friends and I in Paris have been going out a lot lately, since we know that tomorrow everyone will be leaving. I spent last weekend watching the Eiffel Tower twinkle on the lawn in front of Trocadero with a few friends, and the next night I met them in our favorite hang out: St. Michel. Yesterday, we went out to a nice dinner in the Latin Quarter, and tonight we will meet up for one last time, before we say goodbye. Walking the little streets in the Latin Quarter today, I felt so comfortable with all that surrounded me. I've been to most of the restaurants and shops down Rue de la Huchette. I even have a favorite place to buy crepes.

But I'm also ready to leave Paris for new adventures. This summer, I will be in Tuscany, Italy. So look forward to a new blog about my Italia experiences. For now, au revoir, although I will probably update again before I leave Paris for the last time next week.

Leah

A weekend in Normandy and Brittany

Last weekend, I headed to Normandy with my study abroad program to visit Mont St. Michel, and then to Brittany to visit St. Malo. We took a bus from Paris early in the morning to get to Mont St. Michel. The bus ride was supposed to take 3 hours, but it ended up taking closer to 5 hours, because our driver got lost and had to turn around a bunch of times.

When we finally made it to Mont St. Michel, we had lunch at a converted barn. Lunch was just ok; the best part was definitely the apple tart at the end. The whole meal took forever though, we must have been at the restaurant for 2.5 hours eating course after course of food. Finally, we were finished, and made our way over to Mont St. Michel.

Mont St. Michel is a monastery in the English channel. The tides there are extremely strong here. Mont St. Michel itself is an island, but during low tide, it looks like a rock in the desert, because the shore is so far away. When the tide rises, it rises 1 meter per second! It can rise up to 45 feet at high tide.

When we went, it was low tide, and beautiful. We had a guided tour of the monastery, where monks and nuns still live. The abbey itself reminded me of a Spanish mission in southern California with lots of nooks and crannys and gardens and chapels everywhere. The views from the top were magnificent.

After Mont St. Michel, we left for Granville, a small coast town where we stayed for the night. We had dinner at our youth hostel and then a group of us went to a cafe where I had two servings of raspberry sorbet. After that, I was tired, and went to bed early, knowing that we'd be waking up early.

The next morning we left for St. Malo, a town in Brittany, also on the coast. For us being so far north, I was shocked to see that St. Malo's beach looked like the caribbean. The water was crystal clear, there were boats sailing int the distance, the sun was shining just right. The only thing that made it seem unlike the Caribbean was the fact that there was an island with a big fort/castle on it off in the distance. Nevertheless, that town was simply gorgeous.

We had lunch at a cafe, and were served a plate of seafood for our appetizer. We got these huge plates full of crawfish, crab legs, snails, and oysters. I wasn't exactly sure how to eat all of it. I had about 3 different sized forks and then a cracking device. It was quite an adventure. The crawfish looked like they were still alive because their little eyes stared back at me while I tore them apart. It was also my first time trying oysters, which I'm not sure if I'm a big fan because of their snotty texture.

We had to leave shortly after lunch to make it back to Paris at a decent time. So we hopped in the bus for another really long ride. This time, we watched a film called La Vie en Rose about Edith Piaf. It was horribly depressing, just like most every French film I've seen. Today I'm in Freiburg for one last time with Brett, but I'll write more about that later. Next week is my last week in school, and then my mom and Brett are coming to Paris to visit for 10 days. So my time in France is quickly coming to a close. As much as I'll miss France, I'm ready for the next adventure ahead this summer in Tuscany. Stay tuned.

Leah

Spring Break in the Land of Pretzels and Fish and Chips

Brett and I have been hit with a mass of end of the semester homework, and have yet to have a good amount of time to sit down and reflect on the past couple of weeks. Today, even though I don't have much time, I feel I need to update about my adventures in the old world. Two weeks ago was spring break. I went to Freiburg for the week to hang out with Brett, who still had class, then we spent the last weekend in London to visit Brett's friend Fernando, someone he hasn't seen since high school because he was deported to Mexico.

Freiburg was wonderful all week. It was at least 75 degrees and sunny everyday. The city seemed more alive to me than any other time I'd been there. The streets were crowded and noisy with people huddled around the various bratwurst stands and beer gardens. Brett and I spent lots of time outside. We walked to a beer garden on the banks of the Danube river. It was beautiful. Everyone was there with their dogs and their kids. We both had dunckel beers (which we could never pronounce correctly to the point where we just had to say "Dark, please!!") and Brett and I agreed that it tasted like bubble gum. We went grocery shopping at the local Penny Market for our sustenance of bratwurst and spaghetti, and I had some treats that I brought from France (crepe mix, Laughing Cow cheese, and salted butter).

Brett and I tried to go to Baden-Baden for one day, to visit the roman baths there. That proved to be an utter sad failure. We went to the train station to get a ticket and I decided to get a week long regional pass. We talked to a man behind the desk who didn't speak English, but Brett did a pretty awesome job of communicating with him with the little German he has learned. Then we talked to another woman in English, and we were 98% sure that we wanted to buy the regional pass. When we got on the train however, we were in for some bad news. The train conductor who didn't speak English, either told us that my pass didn't work, and he wrote us a citation for 40 euros!!! I was so upset, because I had already payed 40 euros for the regional pass. We got off the train in Offenburg, and talked to a man at the train station. He was the nicest man ever. He said I needed to write Deutsche-Bahn and tell them that I was misinformed about what ticket I was buying. So I wrote a letter, and the man that worked there photocopied all my different tickets and helped me edit the letter so that it was perfect. He said not to forget to say how wonderful the Germans are. Haha. Then he mailed it for us. I was so glad, but I haven't heard from Deutsche-Bahn yet, so I'm still a bit worried. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, after all of that, we decided we had already wasted too much money and went back to Freiburg without ever making it to Baden-Baden. I was really sad, but when we got back to Freiburg we had some really really good ice cream sundaes which cheered me up quickly. That evening, we went to a different beer garden, and then I ran into my French teacher from high school, Mme. Pappas. I knew it was her, and we both smiled at each other strangely, and then she walked away, because I wasn't 100% sure it was her. Later, I emailed her, and she confirmed that it was her! What a small world!

After a wonderful week of pretzels and beer and Brett and I lazing about in various parks, we left for London. We flew into London late at night, and met Fernando at the Liverpool Street train station. Brett and I were so excited to see people speaking English and signs in English, we could hardly contain it. We spent that night with Fernando and his girlfriend Tess at their flat. We met his 6 flatmates, and Brett and Fernando spent most of the evening catching up over the many years they hadn't seen each other. I was sick with a cold at this point, which was a big bummer, so I probably should have been in bed, but I stayed up to talk.

The next morning, we woke up and cooked a big breakfast of potatoes and eggs and listened to lots of Beatles music, and then we went sightseeing. We went to the Tower bridge and walked from there to Big Ben, the London Eye, Shakespeare's globe, along the Thames river, and St. Paul's cathedral. We also stopped in the National gallery for about 10 minutes to see a painting by Michaelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, and Da Vinci. It was pretty exciting, since I had never seen any of those artists before except for Da Vinci at the Louvre. Afterwards, we met Tess at the bar where Fernando and Tess work and had a beer before running off to a different bar where Fernando's flatmate works and getting free wine, nachos, and chips(fries)!

The next day, we woke up late and walked to Canary wharf. Then we went to get a cheeseburger at a stand near Fernando's flat and while we were ordering we heard a big bang! and then we looked behind and saw a man falling on the sidewalk in front of us. Then one of those big red double decker London buses came screeching to a halt with it's windshield completely smashed. We didn't know what to do, because we didn't know the number for an ambulance in England. Everyone came running off the bus. Finally someone called an ambulance. The man was really in bad shape and he tried to get up even though everyone was trying to keep him down. He immediately collapsed and it was obvious that his legs were broken. They needed towels to soak up the blood, but no one had any, so I gave up my Monterey Bay fleece. We came back about an hour later and the street was completely closed by the police and they even tried to get a helicopter to pick him up. There was a huge crowd watching. We were scared to cross the street for the rest of the day, especially since the cars drive on the left side of the road.

We went to Buckingham Palace after that, and then to Soho and Picadilly Circus. Then we went to a bar that played live music and was actually a lot of fun. Then we went back to the bar where Tess and Fernando work at to pick up Tess, picked up some Chinese on the way back, and then went back to the flat. I was so tired then, and I had to wake up so early, that I just collapsed on the floor to sleep. I was exhausted, and sick, and needed some time to recover. I didn't get any sleep, though, because I had to catch a bus at 4:30 in the morning. Tess, Fernando, and Brett all came with me, they were so awesome. We fell asleep on the bus ride, we could barely keep our eyes open. Then we barely made the bus and we had to run like crazy to get to it. I made it though and flew off to Paris exhausted, and sad that spring break was over. Soon it was back to school and homework, and now the countdown is getting closer to the end of the semester (2 weeks!) and the end of my Parisian adventure. More to come soon about my recent trip to Normandy and Brittany!

Leah

My First Taste of Normandy

On Thursday, I went to the Musee Marmottan with my art history class. The Musee Marmottan has some of Claude Monet's best works. It has his painting Soleil Levant Impression, the first impressionist painting, in which the term was coined. It also had a fairly good collection of his waterlily series.

We went there mostly to talk about Soleil Levant, because a few people in my class had to give a presentation on it. Getting to the museum was quite an adventure. We had to take the metro, which we often do for this class, but this time, our class hopped on the train, and our professor got confused and hopped off, and the doors slammed closed on her, leaving her on the platform. It was very funny, but our class was very confused as to what to do, so we all hopped off at the next stop hoping she'd take the next train. When the next train came, a friend of mine and I walked down past each car to see if she was in it, and while we were looking, the class saw her in another car and hopped in with her. We turned back and saw ourselves now stranded on the platform as the rest of the class rolled away.

Finally, we took the next train, and met them at the next station, and finally we all went together to the museum. The walk to the museum was gorgeous. I noticed that the leaves on the trees are now sprouting and the flowers are in bloom. April in Paris is magnifique! It has also been 65 degrees and sunny all week! I love it.

The museum itself was beautiful, too. It was just a house, very quiet and small, but with some of my favorite artwork. After class, a couple of friends and I wandered around closely examining the Monet paintings. I especially liked the ones he painted when he got cataracts and could barely see. Seeing all of those colors in one painting was like eating an expensive piece of chocolate very slowly.

The next day, I went with my study abroad program on an excursion to Giverny and Rouen. In Giverny, we visited Monet's garden. Although it was kind of cold in Normandy, the garden was still beautiful. I also got to look around in Monet's house, which reminded me a lot of Hemingway's house in Key West. Monet's house was a beautiful country cottage, that I would have loved to live in in the summer time. I could imagine long slow days lazing in the garden, watching the ripples grow in his waterlily pond.

We had lunch at a very country French restaurant. I had the best apple pie ever.

Afterwards, we drove to Rouen, where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and where Monet painted his Cathedrale de Notre Dame series. I loved Rouen. All of its buildings were timberframed. It was the quaintest little city, but also a very happening place. It was definitely my favorite small French city I've visited yet. We didn't spend much time in Rouen, unfortunately, as we had a guided tour of the city, then had to leave for school, because it was a long drive back to Paris. I would like to return to Rouen sometime and spend a long day sitting at a cafe people watching. If I could paint, I'd love to paint the streets and the shops.

After a long drive, we arrived back in Paris, and I went home for some spaghetti dinner (yum!). Then, my friends called and invited me to the Eiffel Tower to watch it twinkle at 10. Of course, it all sounded so romantic, so I had to go. We were just under the Eiffel Tower, when all of the sudden the lights burst out like fireworks, flickering all over. Brett and I have spent hours watching this phenomenon, but it never gets old for me. We then bought an ice cream cone, because it was so warm, even at 10, and laid out on the grass waiting for the next hour to come and the Tower to twinkle again. While we sat, I got out my cards and we played rummy, BS, and Egyptian Rat Screw. It was a lot of fun, and I felt like it was the 4th of July, the weather was so warm, and there were so many people there. After it finally twinkled again at 11, we left. I came home and went to sleep, so I could wake up today to go to the Our Bodies exhibit at the science center. It's been touring around the world, and Bri recommended I go, so I'm going to check it out with a friend.

Tomorrow, I am having brunch with a French friend that I met from the International club. We got together last weekend for amazing hot chocolate and then we got together again for lunch (I had rabbit!) last Wednesday and tomorrow we are going to have brunch at the student cafe. She doesn't speak very good English, and I don't speak very good French, so we are practicing on each other. She speaks English to me, and I respond in French, and then we correct each other. It's all pretty exciting, and hopefully, I'll finally improve my speaking skills.

Next weekend, I'm off to Freiburg for a whole week with Brett, because it is spring break!

A Bientot!

Leah

Champagne for the day

Yesterday, I went to Reims, France to go Champagne tasting with my friend Giovi. We took a morning train and met at the metro station before heading off to the train station. We got on the metro together and waited and waited and realized that it wasn't going anywhere. There had been a problem at the next metro stop, and so they were waiting for it to clear up. So Giovi and I kept waiting. Almost 20 minutes went by and the metro still wasn't moving. I was getting restless so I was looking at my train tickets, and realized that I forgot my youth discount card. Without it, I might have had to pay full fare, which would have probably been over 50 euros! So I decided that I needed to go back to my house; luckily the metro still hadn't gone anywhere. Giovi and I ran and ran back to my apartment, because now it was getting late and we were worried about making our train.

We finally made it to my apartment, huffing and puffing, I ran upstairs and grabbed the card, then we ran and ran back to the metro station. Fortunately, the metro was moving again, but we didn't know if we would be able to make our train. We were super worried. Eventually, we got off and transfered at another metro station, running and running and huffing and puffing. Then it was only 4 stops to the train station. At the train station, we just hopped on a car as quick as we could, and we made it with 5 minutes to spare! It was quite an adventurous morning, but the mishaps didn't stop there.

When we got to Reims, we went to the Notre Dame where every king in France was crowned and where Joan of Arc convinced Charles VII to crown himself even though the king of England sort of ruled France at that time. There were a bunch of monuments of Joan of Arc, and the cathedral itself was extremely old. Clovis, the first king of the Franks was crowned there in the late 400s. So we wandered around the cathedral a bit, then went to the Palais du Tau where they had a bunch of statues from the cathedral and also some robes and crowns that the kings wore. It was actually pretty interesting, and I understood a lot of it, because I've been taking the History of France.

After that, we wandered around Reims not sure what to do. We looked in our tour guide and found a museum dedicated to the end of WWII, because apparently they signed a treaty in Reims to end WWII in Europe. We walked and walked and walked trying to find this museum, and then when we got there it was closed. So that was that, and we walked back to town for lunch. We headed to a cafe determined to have some champagne with lunch, but all the champagne cost over 15 euros for a glass. So I just had water. There was a curious thing on the menu at this cafe. Raw ground beef! I saw lots of people order it, and the person sitting next to me had the waiter put a raw egg over his raw beef. It was disgusting; it couldn't be sanitary. I wanted to throw up looking at that.

After lunch, we went on a hunt for Mumm's or Tattinger's champagne cellars. We walked, got lost, walked some more, got more lost, walked and walked, asked people where to find the cellars and never found them! Apparently they were kind of out of town, and it was too far to walk. We found a couple of cellars that we asked to take a tour of, but they said they didn't have public tours running. So our whole plan was ruined. By this time, it was late in the afternoon and we had to go home. We were so disappointed that we never actually tasted Champagne in Champagne, that we bought some mini bottles of "sparkling wine" at the grocery store and sat on a park bench and toasted. It was sad. But all in all, it was a pretty adventurous day, and we got some good pictures, too!

Tomorrow, I'm supposed to go back to Strasbourg to meet Brett for the day, but we don't know if that will work out, because there is a NATO summit there and apparently there are some dangerous protesters and rioters planned to be there. I think that the public transportation will be significantly reduced, and because we're concerned about our safety, we probably will have to cancel. It makes me sad, but I don't want to be in the middle of a riot! I'm going to the train station today to see if I can get a last minute ticket to Freiburg and bypass Strasbourg. I'll be crossing my fingers, because it's a stretch to get last minute train tickets.

Leah

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