EEK! EXAM WEEK!

Last week was the least wonderful time of the year besides tax-time : EXAM WEEK!  At my home university, I somehow manage to do my homework, be a good student and at least study a little bit for tests and exams, but there is something about France that just makes me a horrible student.  Maybe it's the fact that I feel like there are more important things to do while in Europe than lock myself in a room and study for exams, or maybe it's something in the water.  Either way, I didn't do a lot to prepare for exams.  In a way, I didn't need to; I feel like a lot of my exams went really well- GREAT, even.  However, there were at least two exams that might be the first test(s) I fail in my life.  (Just kidding, mom, I didn't fail but I'm not expecting a super grade.)
It's not that I didn't go to class or that I didn't know the material, the tests were just ridiculous (at least one of them was).  For example, the second half of my French theatre test was a paragraph where you had to fill in the blanks with authors and names of plays.  I think there were more blanks than text on the page.  It was totally unfair and I am not the only one who thinks so!  I blame the poor teacher education in France for not teaching their teachers how to make tests.
Regardless, I had 10 tests between Monday and Wednesday and then I had to write my creative writing piece to turn in on Thursday.  PHEW!  However, it is over, and now all I have to do is smile and make the most out of my last 10 days in France!

Silly Hats Club, Canadian Goodbyes, and Six Miles of Hail Marys

Last weekend, I probably should have been studying since it was the weekend before exams, but instead I had an excellent time doing other things.
My weekend started on Thursday afternoon.  The Lewis and Clark kids had a birthday party for Jill, whose birthday was in late April but we couldn't celebrate until after vacation.  Before Jill's birthday party, Kaila, Jill and I went to a rooftop cafe to hang out and enjoy the Strasbourg sunshine before going to Jill's birthday party at our director's apartment!

Friday night was two of the Canadian girls' last night in Strasbourg, so we had a last hurrah for Rachel and Rosanna.  It was a lot of fun!

A funny anecdote: Later that night, I was reminded of the charms of French men.  We were getting Doners (it was my first Doner since arriving in Strasbourg and it wasn't bad...) and Rosanna and I were sitting near the cathedral and a large group of guys walked past and started hitting on us.  Sometimes I am the typical woman who just ignores the advances, but sometimes I throw the disrespect right back in the guy's face.  Friday night was one of these nights, so I flicked the guys off.  After they walked past, I noticed that one of them had dropped his pants and was mooning us.  How charming!

Saturday morning, I went with Nathalie and Astrid to try on hats for Astrid's wedding.  It's a tradition in France (and a few other European countries I think) for the women to wear big hats at a wedding.  The bigger the hat, the classier you are.  Astrid didn't need a hat, since she's the one getting married, but Nathalie, her mom, did.  We went to the Chapellerie (specialized hat store) and Astrid and I had fun trying on ridiculous hats while her mom shopped seriously.  We had a lot of fun goofing around!

Saturday night was another Canadian goodbye as Ceilidh had to leave on Sunday morning to fly back to Canada.  We went out for gelato and hung out.

Sunday I woke up early to go on a hike with my host parents, Axel, and Astrid.  We drove to a countryside church and then hiked for 6 miles with other folks from church.  We were hiking to a small village in Alsace where we would go to Mass after the hike.  We started around 9 AM and hiked for several hours.  I was expecting just a relaxing promenade with beautiful views, but I didn't know that it was a religious hike!  Before we left, we read the gospel of the day (I think) and then during the hike, different people took turns leading Hail Marys and Our Fathers. This went on for the entire hike.  I now know Hail Mary in French.  I don't know that it's the same in English.  Either way, we eventually arrived at the small church in the village and went to Mass, but I felt like I had just went to Mass when we arrived!  The Mass in the village was quiet and there was no music, all singing was a capella.  It was nice. :)

After Mass, we came home and had a delicious lunch and I hung out with Astrid in the afternoon and then took a much needed nap before I "tried" to study for exams.  

If I had spent my weekend studying for exams, this post wouldn't be nearly as exciting!

French Fashion

I have been in France long enough to notice certain things about their culture and I feel like I can make a judgment on French fashion.  I don’t mean Christian Dior or Yves Saint Laurent, but the clothes that ladies and gentlemen wear on the street every day.

I noticed almost immediately upon my arrival that color is not a big part of the French wardrobe.  Most French students who I saw wore black, grey, or a dark cream/beige.  This includes bottoms (besides dark blue jeans), tops, dresses, and shoes.  If they do wear colors, they are very dull and subtle: dark grey-blue or dull dark green.  As someone who loves color and playing with color in clothing, I was kind of disappointed when I walked around the city and found everyone dressing in the same way.  I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb when I wore my bright red coat amongst a sea of dark colors on the tram on the way to class.  These colors were most often seen in winter and now that the weather is warmer, I am finally starting to see some color (besides in the foliage and flowers) in the French world.  This spring all of the French girls seem to be wearing a lot of coral and orange.  I think I like it. 

Something that I like about the way that French women dress is that they wear pantyhose and tights.  These are marvelous inventions that can dress up anything and can add a lot to a simple outfit and can be worn year-round.  No, pantyhose and tights are not for old women and ballerinas, and if you wear them, it doesn’t always have to be in obnoxious colors.  French women seem to go for a more subtle look than flashy.  Nude and black pantyhose are always classics and French girls wear a lot of them, especially with shorts and short skirts and dresses.  It takes the skankiness of a really short dress down several notches.  American girls, take a lesson from the French!

I have never seen a French woman just out in jeans and a T-shirt looking like a bum.  I don’t mean to say that French women don’t wear jeans and T-shirts, but they don’t ever look like bums.  They dress it up with jewelry, scarves, a nice hair style or makeup.  It never looks like they just rolled out of bed and put on whatever was on the floor.   It’s not that they “dress up,” it’s just that they take pride in their appearance. It's a nice change from the black-leggings-ugg-boots-northface-fleece uniform that half of college campuses wear.  Leggings are not pants!


Flip flops are a no-no in France unless you are at the beach.  I like this.  Flip flops are not shoes.

French men are somewhat similar in terms of color (or lack thereof) of dress.  A lot of college guys who I see around campus dress a lot nicer than the guys back home.  I don’t mean to generalize about American guys back home, but I don’t think I have ever seen a guy wear dress shoes to class unless they had a presentation.  Guys here wear jeans (which are usually pretty tight…blah) but they wear them with a dressier shirt, belt, and nicer shoes.  This is a nice change to the gym shorts/sweatpants and tee shirts that I am used to seeing around American campuses.  It’s nice to see guys actually making an effort sometimes! 

I do have a bone to pick with the way that some French men dress and groom themselves.  Besides the problem of extremely tight jeans, I think that I mentioned briefly in a previous post that I do not like murses (man purses).  These seem to be a plague in France.  Strangely enough, I have only noticed man purses in France.  Never in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Ireland, or Spain; men only carry purses in France!  I think this might contribute to the stereotype about French men being feminine.  When I say purses, I do not mean a briefcase or laptop case that has a strap which the man slings across his shoulder.  No.  I mean a small bag for his wallet and whatever else men carry around attached to the end of a long strap which he then slings across his shoulder.  This is not okay.   Men wear headbands in France.  First of all, I do not like long hair on men so if his hair is long enough to be held back by a headband, there is a problem.  Again, I do not mean sweatbands that guys wear during sports to soak up sweat or keep their hair out of their eyes; I am talking about an exact headband that my mother wears.   I have seen several guys who wax their eyebrows, too.  I know that some American guys (the type of guys you would expect to see on Jersey Shore) wax their eyebrows, but I feel like there are more in France.  I don’t want it to look like a caterpillar is walking across a guy’s face, moderate grooming is encouraged but waxing  your eyebrows?  Really?  Maybe we could go on a date and get our eyebrows done together.  Then we could get manis and pedis together and share moisturizer and makeup tips.  Oh wait, this is what I do with my girlfriends.  A guy who waxes his eyebrows?  RED FLAG.  The next step is eyeliner and fancy shampoo.

Please take what I say with a grain of salt, I am generalizing about my observations and know a lot of guys who do not fit this stereotype!  Similarly, I know a lot of Americans who don't fit the generalizations I make about American style.

Me gusta Madrid

After spending Easter in Paris with Cecile, I left on Monday evening to take an overnight train (13 hours) to Madrid.  I arrived in Madrid at about 9:30 on Tuesday morning and took a taxi to the parent's apartment of my host mom's sister-in-law.  In easier words, I went to stay with the aunt, uncle, and cousins of Astrid, who live in Madrid but they were in France for Easter and weren't coming back until a day after I got to Madrid, so I spent the first night at Sylvia's parent's home.  Sylvia's brother lives with her parents too and his English is great so I was able to communicate with him in English but Sylvia's mother speaks only a little French and her father speaks only Spanish, so it was funny to be speaking a mixture of 3 languages at the lunch table!

Anyway, when I got a taxi, I discovered that the first stereotype I knew about the Spanish started to prove to be true: they don't speak English (or other languages besides Spanish).  I asked the driver (in Spanish) if he spoke French, English, or German, but he responded that he only spoke Spanish.  I then told him that I didn't speak Spanish well but I managed to give him the address of Mr. & Ms. R.  When I arrived, I met Javier, Sylvia's brother, and Mr and Mrs. R.  I then passed out for about an hour in the bedroom they prepared for me.  After a much needed nap, I went out with Javier and we walked around the neighborhood.  We got coffee and came back in time for lunch (which for the Spanish is around 2:30 or 3:00 PM).   Ms. R is an excellent cook and I had a sort of rice with cooked bananas and tomato sauce.  It was awesome.  After lunch I indulged in the Spanish culture of la siesta and slept for a few more hours.  By the time I woke up, I hung out for a bit and then Javier and I went out again for dinner, which consisted of Tapas, which is also traditionally Spanish.  You order a plate of a type of food and share it.  Apparently you do this while you drink and you can go to different bars so you eat a little bit at a time but you eat throughout the entire night.  Javier and I shared a plate of Spanish ham, which was delicious, and then he ordered what he described to me as "cooked calamari."  I eat fried calamari in the states all the time, so I was kind of expecting that.  Needless to say, my mouth dropped open when the server put this plate on the table:

Calamari in its own ink

A plate full of whole calamari, with their tentacles attached, served not in a sauce, but in ink.  My first reaction was, EW!  I was really scared and all of a sudden had lost my appetite.  Javier instructed me to mix in the rice and then split the plate of squid between the two of our own plates.  I mixed the rice until it was black with ink and then gave each of us half, trying to give him more tentacles.  I cut open the first one and looked inside.  It looked like it had more tentacles and rice stuffed inside of it.  I hesitantly put the squid into my mouth and... it wasn't bad!  Who knew that ink could actually be edible?  The texture of the squid was fun and after I got used to the very particular taste, I had no problem eating the bodies.  The tentacles made me nervous, though.  I didn't like seeing/feeling the little suction cups on the tentacles but the tentacles tasted the same as the rest of the squid.  First Spanish weird food experience was a success!!

The next morning I woke up late, which is also typically Spanish.  I think I could live in Spain just for their daily schedule: going to bed late, waking up late, taking naps after lunch, life is wonderful in Spain.  Anyway, I went out with Javier to get his train tickets for a trip he was taking and then we went around the city some more before we came back for lunch, which was a sort of ravioli in a cheese sauce.  It was awesome.  After lunch I took another nap and then went out shopping.  Clothes are a LOT cheaper in Spain (compared to France).  A dress that I saw in Zara for 80 Euros in France was 30 Euros in Spain.  (I didn't buy it, but it was really cute and tempting).  It was nice to walk around and shop.  Later that evening, I took a taxi to Sylvia and Xavier's apartment (they speak French and Spanish at home so I had no problems communicating).  Lucky (or unlucky) for me, I was in Madrid on the night where Madrid played Barcelona at home.  NO ONE was in the streets and so there was no traffic.  However, during dinner, we heard some yelling/shouting in the distance. Xavier told me that he thought Madrid had made a goal but it turned out that the noise was cries of anger... Barcelona beat Madrid that night 2-0!  Yikes!

The next morning, Helene and I went downtown after breakfast to see some of the famous Madrid sights and do some shopping :)

standing at Sol

With Helene and a police officer

We went back for lunch, and by then Miguel was home, so he and I went out to a famous park in Madrid called Retiro park.  We rented a boat and rowed on the lake.  The weather was great and it was a lot of fun!

After Retiro park, Miguel and I went to get coffee and then to visit his grandparents (where I had stayed a few nights prior).  We went back, had dinner, and then went out for drinks to enjoy the night life in Madrid!

The next day, I went to the Prado musuem by myself.  It was soo cool and I learned a lot about Spanish artists.  I hardly knew anything about Spanish art before, since for the past 8 years I've had nothing but French culture drilled into my head in my French classes.  The museum was beautiful and it was nice to go through it peacefully and at my own pace.

Later, Miguel and I went out to go to the Royal Palace.  

Then we were going to go to the botanical gardens but they closed at 8, so we walked around downtown and went to a ham museum instead.  It was the most ham I have ever seen in my life.

look at all that meat!

Anyway, afterwards, we met up with his other French friends and we ate tapas and drank together.  It was fun!  The next day, we took a road trip with some of Miguel's friends to the Escorial castle/monestary.  I couldn't take pictures while I was there but this is what it looks like:

The tour was several hours, but it was fascinating.  Every room was something different and amazing!  Afterwards, we went to a basilica where I saw the biggest cross I have ever seen in my life!

 Inside the basilica is where Franco was buried.  Cool, huh??

After we drove back, I had to pack up my things and take a 13 hour train back to Paris, where I spent the day with Cecile and Jibe.  We went to Montmartre and enjoyed the sun.  I hadn't slept well on the train so I felt exhausted and gross all day, but when I got back to Strasbourg around 10:30 that night, I had to walk all the way home because the trams and buses weren't running.  It was the French equivalent of labor day in France and in the smaller cities (ie not Paris,) public transportation shuts down.  I got home about 40 minutes later after dragging two heavy suitcases across the city.  I was exhausted and not ready for school the next day!  

Regardless of lack of sleeping throughout the two weeks I was away, this spring break was the best vacation I have ever been on!

Amsterdam!

I AMsterdam!

After a wonderful weekend in Paris, I continued my vacation in Amsterdam.  Tuesday morning, Brenah and I headed to the Garde du Nord to take a train to Amsterdam at noon.  The train was reallly nice and the seats were comfortable.  The Dutch know how to travel!  The train only took about 3 hours and we passed through Brussels on the way so it was a nice ride.  We arrived in Amsterdam around 4 and walked around the station looking for our friends from the program, Kaila and Rebecca, but we didn't find them until about 30 minutes later.  The 4 of us split up so that Brenah and I could check into our hostels but we ended up taking a lot longer and cell phones were difficult so Brenah and I ended up spending our first night in Amsterdam by ourselves.  We had Thai food for dinner and then walked around the city.  Amsterdam is beautiful and many of its canals are lit up at night.  The city is lively at night and we enjoyed walked around in the cool air and enjoying the sweet smells coming from the coffee shops.  We accidentally found the Red Light District our first night we were there and that was crazy!
The next morning, Brenah and I hoped to meet Kaila and Becca at the Botanical Gardens, but it ended up not working out.  However, we did meet up with Kaila's friend Lydia from Ireland so the 3 of us finally found Kaila in the late afternoon.  Once we were together, we decided that we should go on a touristy canal cruise.  That was a lot of fun and I got to see the smallest house in Amsterdam!

In the botanical gardens 

Crazy tree in the gardens

On the canal tour, 7 bridges in a row!

A carnival that opened on the 20th, the second day we were there!

On the touristy canal cruise

The smallest house in Amsterdam!

The tour was about an hour, and afterwards, we grabbed dinner and walked around the city until we wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel.  We wanted to go on other rides, too, but they were all separate and expensive, so we just enjoyed the view of the city from the top of the Ferris Wheel.  It was so cool!  After the carnival we got ice cream before we decided to call it a night.

The next morning we met up and wanted to go to the Van Gogh museum, but the line was ridiculous so we ended up going on a pedal boat tour instead after hanging out in the park behind the museum.  We rented a pedal boat and went through the canals for an hour.  

In the park behind the Van Gogh Museum

with Kaila!

After the pedal boats, we went to the shopping district and looked around for some dinner.  We stopped at a pasta restaurant where I enjoyed some delicious spaghetti and sangria.  After dinner, Kaila and Lydia wanted to take a nap before we went out at night so they slept while Brenah and I hung out.  Kaila and Lydia ended up not waking up until the next morning so Brenah and I just walked around town by ourselves and hung out.  We got the best frozen yogurt I have ever tasted and had a lovely evening!

The next day Brenah and I woke up early to go to the Van Gogh museum to beat the line but we still had to wait an hour before we were admitted inside.  It was soo cool though and definitely worth the wait!

After the Van Gogh Museum, Brenah and I hung out in the park behind it and soaked up the sun.  I have yet to mention that the ENTIRE time I was in Amsterdam, the weather was absolutely perfect.  I didn't need a jacket at all.  During the day it was sunny and bright with a perfect sky and I'm not sure of exact numbers but I'm pretty sure it was in the mid to high 70s.  Consequently, we tried to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the sun whether it was walking along the canals, sitting in a park, or sitting in the city center at the monument.  It was wonderful!  I think there are more bikes than cars in Amsterdam and everyone is really friendly.

The next morning I had to leave Amsterdam and while I was looking forward to a few days in Paris and then a week in Madrid, I was really sad to leave Amsterdam!  It's a very unique city and I think the weather contributed a lot to my impression of the city.  The city is very green (in many senses of the word) and there were lots of flowers.  I can't wait to go back there someday, I think I could live there!!

Dutch Tulips!

A Glamorous Weekend in Paris

Last Friday was the official start of Spring Break and while I’m ecstatic to have a break from school, this European adventure will sadly be my last big travel extravaganza before I leave.  Disregarding the fact that I soon have to leave my European bubble and return to reality, this spring break has been the time of my life (so far).  I started in Paris, where my life was graced by perfect weather every day I was there and I gorged myself on macaroons, wine, and duck. 

Saturday morning, April 16, I finished packing my life for 2 weeks and headed to the train station where I met the rest of the Lewis and Clark group and the Kalamazoo kids.  We got on our train around 9 and arrived in Paris 2 hours later and then checked into our hotel.  We stayed in a place called Hotel Minerve, which is located in the Latin Quarter of Paris and was reaaaallly nice.  I think it’s a 3 star hotel and everything was great except for the fact that our room smelled like stale cigarettes.  I shared a room with Jill and Alissa, two of my friends from the Lewis and Clark program.

We had crepes for lunch and then some of us went to Notre Dame where we met up with Rosanna, one of our Canadian friends who is also studying in Strasbourg.  It was wonderful to see her!

That afternoon I met up with Cecile, Clement, and Brice.  I had seen Cecile and Brice a few times since my arrival to France but I hadn’t seen Clement since last year at Longwood so it was great to be with the gang again (except Mariza wasn’t there!)  Anyway, we walked along the seine before we decided to sit and hang out in the park in front of the Louvre.  We talked for a while and then I wanted to go get macaroons from La Durée, which is conveniently located on the Champs Elysées.  I love macaroons and the ones from La Durée are supposed to be really good.  Let me tell you, they are better than good.  Totally worth the wait in line and the money.  

Heaven.

After obtaining those little bites of heaven, I needed to head back to the hotel to meet up with the group, since we had a group activity to see the play called La Cancatrice Chauve, which has been playing in Paris for 6 days a week since the 1950s.  It’s well-known and a comedy, but unfortunately, I did not find it funny.  It’s a play from the period of Absurd Theatre in French history, where there is less plot and more ridiculous interaction between the characters.  The jokes were mostly repetitive and silly plays on words.  Maybe I would have found it more humorous if I hadn’t been so tired, but I just didn’t appreciate the play.  Thankfully, dinner was afterwards. We went as a group to an Indian restaurant and we ate well.  After dinner, some students were making plans to go out, but I was so exhausted that just hanging out in the room with Jill and Alissa sounded like a great time to me.  So the three of us had a great evening in the hotel room eating chocolate and macaroons, drinking wine, and watching tv.  After a hectic day of traveling and walking around Paris, this was a perfect night.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning we woke up too late to go to the Gregorian Mass at Notre Dame de Paris.  The three of us still managed to get up and out in a decent amount of time.  We stumbled upon Victor Hugo’s house and since it was free admission, we decided to check it out.  It was really cool and Victor Hugo had some beautiful views from his apartment!  Afterwards we went to the Musée de Carnavalet, which is a museum about the history of Paris.

Then we had to meet up with the other students for our group activity of the Musée Rodin, a sculpture museum.  I got to see Le Penseur (the thinker) in person, it was awesome.  

Brenah and I broke off from the rest of the group after the museum and we were hoping to go to the Musée D’Orsay, but once we got there and saw the line, we changed our minds and decided to walk down the Champs Elysées instead.  We started at Place de la Concorde and walked all the way down to L’Arc de Triomphe, which we decided to climb.  After climbing the stairs of the cathedrals in Prague, Strasbourg, and Geneva, L’Arc de Triomphe wasn’t bad at all.  When we got to the top, the views were great since the sky was clear and it was really sunny.  We stayed at the top for about 20 minutes before we had to descend to take the metro and arrive back at the hotel on time for dinner. 

The restaurant we went to that night was probably my favorite of the entirety of the Paris trip.  For an appetizer we ate ravioli stuffed with chevre (goat cheese).  If you know me, you will know that one of my favorite things about French culture/cuisine is the cheese.  I love cheese.  My favorite is probably Chevre, followed closely by Munster and Roquefort.  I love that the French have cheese in its own course.  It’s one of my favorite parts of dinner/lunch with my host family.  Anyway, for the main dish we had DUCK.  Since I came to France, I ate duck for the first time and now it is probably one of my favorite foods. With the duck we ate yummy cooked vegetables and of course red wine.  For dessert, we had a sort of creamy yogurt with a raspberry sauce.  It was delicious.  Afterwards we had coffee.  It was pretty much the perfect meal. 

After dinner about half of the kids in the group wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night/climb it.  It took over an hour for us to organize ourselves after dinner though so by the time we got there, it was too late to climb the Eiffel Tower so we just hung out on the lawn in front of it and watched it sparkle at the top of the hour while some of the kids drank wine. My camera was dead so I was unable to take pictures.

Monday morning we had an organized tour of the Opéra Garnier in Paris.  I have seen the Opera several times from the outside, but this was my first time going inside.  It was beautiful!!  Everything was immaculate.  The staircase was flawless and the many types of marble were amazing.  Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and she even showed us inside of the hall.  The ceiling inside of the performance hall is incredible and the seats and tiers are so stunning.  I feel lucky to have been able to go inside and hopefully one day I might actually see an opera inside… who knows.

After the Opera tour, Alissa and I went to Galeries Lafayette and shopped around.  I didn’t buy anything (shocking, I know) but Alissa found some great stuff.  Then I went to meet Jill somewhere outside of touristy Paris to go shopping in an area that her host mom told her had lots of boutiques and wasn’t very expensive.  I’m not sure if we missed it or if it just doesn’t exist, but all we found was a street that was full of children’s clothing shops.  We walked around the block but couldn’t find anything and we were in kind of a sketchy part of town, so we hopped on the metro and went back to an area close to our hotel.  I convinced Jill to come with me to Café de Flore so we went there for an afternoon coffee.  It was lovely but kind of expensive... Café de Flore is really well known in Paris and a few famous philosophers used to frequent there (ie Sartre).  After coffee we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  This dinner was also very delicious – we had a lot of wine with dinner and for an appetizer I had a sort of sausage with red peppers, for the main dish I had pork, salad, and potatoes, and for dessert I enjoyed a crème caramel.  It was all very delicious but compared to the dinner that I enjoyed the night prior, it was average.   Oh my gosh, am I becoming a food snob?? 

After dinner, Brenah and I decided to go to the Eiffel Tower just the two of us to climb it at night.  Despite being really tipsy and having food babies in our stomachs, we hurried over to the Tower after dinner and we climbed the 700 stairs to the second level.  I would love to go to the third level of the tower someday, I have never been but it’s expensive and only accessible by elevator.  Maybe one day…

Anyway, when Brenah and I got to the top, the views were spectacular.  The lights sprinkled across Paris made it twinkle in the night and there was a full moon hanging over the city.  It was my first time going up the tower at night and it was absolutely exquisite.  A lovely ending to a delightful weekend in Paris.