Ah Oui, C'est la Vie!

It is blizzard-ing in Paris.

Good thing the weather report let me know in advance so I could wear my boots and warm, down jacket. NOT. So I'm basically living indoors which isn't a bad thing cause I have lotsa work to get done.

Paris is still great, finals on the other hand, not so much. Went to the Pathenon last week with Geena, her brother, and Caitlin and that was really cool - we say Rousseau's, Victor Hugo's and Voltaire's graves anddd there was this awesome pendulum that I guess proves that the world is rotating (because the pendulum looks like its rotating, but really, the building is rotating underneath it). Thought that was cool until we saw the lady adjusting it! LAME!

But basically its crunch time so I have to spend a lot more time doing work than I have, well, all semester. SO TTFN, see ya in 16 days America - can't wait!

Dad this one is for you -

It must be something about the freshness of the food in France because I have big news:

I LIKE TOMATOES.

on my sandwich, in my salad, alone. They're delicious. I seriously didn't think that this day would ever come. It has. In fact this discovery is already two weeks old, but I kept forgetting to share the news. Tonight with dinner we had a salad that consisted of: basil, garlic, tomatoes. Normally - disgusting. Now - delicious.

I know I blog about food like 90% of the time, but it's a significant part of my time in France. (Sorry Ma)

I went to the Musee Rodin yesterday with Geena and brother -- finally getting out of my apartment once this weekend. It's so so so cold outside but the museum was worth it. I really liked his work and we took some silly pictures. We went to Galleries Lafyette to see l'arbe de Noel, but it's closed on Sundays.

Bisous!

Rach - I miss you already!!

This week was seriously great. I had such a fun time walking around and eating our way through the city with Rachel - it was fun to show her around although it also made me realize how much there is left to see and do in this city. I really don't feel like I know it at all!

Instead of taking you through a boring play-by-play of all of our adventures, I'm just gonna sum it up by saying it was really a lot of fun. We did some touristy things like the Notre Dame (round 3 for me), Musee de l'Orangerie, Musee d'Histoire et d'Arte de Judaisme, of course Greek Food in the Latin Quarter, the Champs-Elysee Christmas market, sitting and drinking coffee in cafes all around Paris, amazing falafel in the Marias, getting lost and confused by Paris's streets, and sitting along the Seine & the Jardins Touleries as well as some not-so-touristy things like Vintage Shopping in the Marais, cooking thanksgiving dinner, food shopping at the Sunday morning market, walking around Canal St. Martin despite the cold, french-speaking bars, and eating steak tartar at a cafe. It was my most fun-packed week since I've been here and I'm so glad I got to experience it all with a great friend. Sometimes I got us embarrassingly lost (I've been living here for 3 months--you'd think I'd know the way to some basic places) but we made it work and it was really a great time.

Now that I'm going home in 26 days I feel like I have to cram everything in. Including my finals, papers, and other assignments for my classes. I'm not totally sure how I'll get it all in. It's also FREEZING here in Paris and I own approximately one sweater, so I like to try to spend my time indoors. Maybe today I'll actually leave my apartment.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just got back from a (semi) spontaneous day trip to Brussels compliments of GW Paris. Obviously the first thing I had to do was check my email for the list of Cab '11 and the second: blog.

Brussels is adorable (as I seem to feel about most of the cities I visit). I had been there once before after our great biking trip through the Netherlands, but we had visited so many places that trip, I couldn't really keep straight which place was what. Our train was really early this morning so we could be at the European Commission by 10am to hear two very interesting speakers. We were visiting with the students on the GW business program who are taking a class on the government of the EU, so the visit was mostly for their sake. I don't know much about the inner-workings of the EU but both of the speakers were clear and engaging so I really enjoyed it. Afterward, we were all starved, and GW treated us to an amazing, huge lunch at a really nice restaurant. I'm seriously still full from it.

After lunch, we had a guided walking tour around the city which was pretty cool and then we had some free time to walk around the city. Ali and I ventured off to explore a bit more and basically kill time until our train back to Paris. Neither of us were very interested in shopping or food (still too full from lunch) so we just kind of wandered the streets. Today, apparently, is a huge part for the university in Brussels so there were students EVERYWHERE in the streets, drinking, dancing, singing. It was fun and exciting but also really dirty and gross and it smelled awful. The two of us show up at what we were told was the meeting spot, and we were even 20 minutes early because we didn't know what else to do, and we're waiting around for everyone, but no one is there. We found Florence (the woman who was leading the trip) and she told us to meet her inside by the platform once we found the others. Its way past the time we're supposed to meet, so we go inside without anyone else, to find Florence. She too is MIA. Finally we get her on the phone and she tells us to just meet at the train station (we were at one but we had to take a train to get to the one our train to Paris left from). So we try to figure out what track we need, we board the train, and 30 minutes later, we're in Ghent. AKA NOT PARIS. Why can't I ever travel without something like this happening? I am travel-bad luck, don't bring me on your trips! Fortunately, the "controle" was really nice and helpful, she gave us passes to ride back to Brussels for free and explained to us how what we needed to do to get back to Paris (we obviously had missed out train)

I'm back safely in Paris at least -- excitedly awaiting the arrival of Rachel in just a few short hours!!

How many times do you get to turn 20 in your life? AND WHEN WILL IT EVER AGAIN BE IN VENICE?!

I promised myself I wouldn't blog until I made some headway on my Art History paper, but I've been "at-it" for hours and I'm desperately looking for a way to distract myself (I've already exhausted facebook, responding/writing emails, verymarykate.com, and itunes free downloads) because a) I have no idea how to write an art history paper, b) I don't want to know how to write an art history paper, and c) i've read all the books in the library about surrealism already [okay that one's a joke]. Ps, since when is it considered "short and simple" to have a 10-page paper in every class? I get having a paper in every class, but if each professor describes it as "quick", I start to feel confused. 10-pagers take EFFORT!

But for the real purpose of the entry --> FOOD! (oh, right, and my trip to Venice). But before I forget, I wanted to describe my delicious welcome-home dinner Madame prepared last night. Her food is generally good, but last night it stood out as really good. Maybe it's because for the first time in weeks I was binge-eating junk food and actually had 3 normal meals, so I was hungry. Anywayzz we started with salad (basic, but with great dressing) then had crispy potatoes, green beans, and LAMB! And for dessert, only my favorite: CREME BRULEE! I hadn't eaten at home for two weeks (as I've been traveling pretty much non-stop) so it was a perfect meal to be welcomed home with! I'm starting to really enjoy living with Madame and Betsy. Betsy and I are becoming pretty good friends and its kind of like my little Parisian family. When I'm in the apartment, Madame respects my privacy and usually doesn't bother me but dinner is always filled with great conversation (most of the time in French) and Betsy and I keep each other entertained. It's actually just what I wanted when I was searching for housing. =D

Obviously, the food in Italy was yum yum yum as well. I arrived Tuesday evening with another boy in my class, Marc because both of us somehow missed out on the group flight so we had to arrive a day early. It took us almost 3 hours to get to our hostel because the Vaperettos were super confusing (not actually, but at first they were). The hostel was meh, but it was only for a night so it was fine. We met some really nice Australians at the hostel (there are Australians traveling everywhere you go) and we had dinner with them at the hostel, played cards, walked around, ate gelatto -- basically did everything there is to do in Venice in the first night. It was also pretty uncomfortable/awkward for Marc and me because we didn't know each other at all and we were forced into this situation in which we spent a LOT of time together....we ran out of things to talk about pretty quickly.

The next morning we just wandered aimlessly, grabbed breakfast, and waited for out class to arrive. As soon as we met them, we went straight into site-seeing and "learning". Wednesday was also the main day for "Aqua Alta" which is when the whole city floods (because Venice is entirely surrounded by water, as we all know) so everything was wet -- and FREEZING. Like I was expecting Venice to be a min warm getaway. This was definitely not the case. We also spent an immense amount of time standing outside while our professor lectured us on art, churches, history, random facts, religion, basically everything there ever was to know about everything...But the aqua alta was really cool, everyone was walking around in rainboots and fishing boots and a lot of people just tied bags to their pants!

Our first stop was to the church of San Marco and Palazzo Ducale (the Doge's Palace). Both were extremely beautiful -- The Doge's Palace was filled with Renaissance art and really great architecture while the church has incredible mosaics, literally from floor to ceiling. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so you'll just have to take my word for it -- or go see it for yourself!!

The night we went out for an Italian feast, which was basically lots of wine (compliments of AUP!) and pasta. I had lasagna, but I wasn't too impressed. Thursday morning we were up early again (yes-free hotel breakfast) and spent the day visiting the naval museum, the arsenale (just the outside), some scuola (Venetian confraternities), more churches, and the Venetian Jewish Ghetto. Although all of them were filled with awesome Renaissance art, my favorite part was the ghetto. The tour guide was super enthusiastic about it and we got to see 3 old synagogues from the Middle Ages. Apparently, at one point, there were 5,000 Jews living in the Ghetto. If you had seen the size of it (maybe you have!) it is so hard to believe how all the people fit. According to our tour guide, that meant there were 8 or 9 people living in each room! Not just apartment, but ROOM! And because they weren't allowed to build out, they had to build up, so the buildings are some of the tallest in Venice. Except they could build too high so they made the floors really short in order to fit more - some of the floors are only 6 feet high. Guess I wouldn't be able to live there....

Friday we visited the Jewish Cemetery which was really cool (although I was freezing throughout). There is an 80-year old Venetian Jew living on this island called Lido who basically is responsible for the restoration of the synagogue. There are tombstones from the 13th and 14 centuries all the way to present. In the old cemetery the tombstones don't have graves but are there as an "exhibition of gravestones" as the man put it. But the "new one" is up and running and mucccch bigger. Overall, it was really moving to see how much this man cared about preserving the history of the Venetian Jews and I thoroughly enjoyed the morning with him.

The afternoon was spent in another church and scuola and looking at more Renaissance art, which still remained to be incredible.

Saturday morning, I woke up as a 20 year old!!!!, and we made our way to Accademia -- a museum, just in case we hadn't seen enough art already. Still, I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed learning about the artists and comparing the different styles - Look what Paris is doing to me!! We went to every remaining Venetian church that afternoon (well at least it seemed like it) and by this point I was pretty jaded, but I still tried to appreciate the opportunity to see this stuff first hand.

That night, my class surprised me with champagne and chips at the cafe near the hotel, so sweet! Then we went to this great restaurant that we had discovered the night before and one of the girls has apparently called ahead so they set up a whole birthday table for me -- it was sooo great! The dinner was so much fun and it was a great chance for all of us to hang out. We had a huge family style seafood starter: some kind of fishy-spread, shrimps, prawns, cheese, veggies, yum! Then we had fettucini with tomato sauce and scallops (my fave!). And for dessert, they brought out a huge tiramisu with candles and everything. My class even treated me to dinner which was incredibly nice of them. It was definitely an unforgettable birthday.

Venice overall was wet, beautiful, small, rich, and cold. I really enjoyed my time there, but it was like living in a museum for five days. The weather wasn't the greatest, but we still had a great time traveling as a class and spending my birthday among the Italians!!

View from the bell tower of one of the churches we visited [not my fault I can't remember which one, we seriously visited like 9]

There are no cars in Venice, so everything has to be done by walking or by boat. Deliveries, public transport, taxis, and apparently, ambulance!