I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I’ve updated. Time flies by so fast. These last couple weeks have been really busy with classes. I swear I had something to do extra for class for the last 2 weeks. Luckily, break is here and it’s just nice to relax and live a little in Paris The original plan was to travel through Italy with Joni but unfortunately he couldn’t get time off and my passes didn’t come in because of stupid STA so here I’m am stuck in Paris. Can’t be all that bad right? I’ll visit Italy and London at some point in my life. I spent pretty good amount of time sulking about not being able to go places during spring break like originally planned but I’m definitely over it. I have time to explore Paris and spend some time relaxing and not worrying about finishing this and that for classes.

In the last few weeks, I…

-Went to the Provence area of France
-Visited Joni in Germany and met a very nice guy at a pizza restaurant in Homburg
- Went up the Eiffel Tower
-Rode a Velib for the first time– public bike!
-Took a bus for the first time
-Wrote a 12 page paper
-Ate sushi
-Befriended the bartender at Patty’s across the street
-Had Pho at a Vietnamese restaurant AND bubble tea in the same day –13th district: “Ngoc Xuyen Saigon” 4 rue Caillaux 75013
-Went to a French movie theater and watched a supposed comedy
And so many more things that it would take another billion lines to tell you all the things I’ve done and seen, like for instance, walking off the edge of Paris. No big deal.

Joni came to visit last weekend It was nice and relaxing and just did some of the stuff we wanted to do since last time- which includes that pho and bubble tea fix that he needed along with a donor and sushi for me and anguille (eel) for him. Just wandered around here and there. Headed over to La Defense to show Joni the skyscrapers and the edge of Paris which was really fun Also went to Sacre Coeur and just decided to get lost from there Ended up somewhere near Metro line 12… which I must say is a really weird metro and kinda sketch.We also went up to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower and I refused to go up any further… :shudders: It was high up!

Spring break week= fantastic It’s been so nice here, mid 70s and it’s just gorgeous with the sun out. I seriously think that I may have sunburn but not exactly sure because it doesn’t totally hurt like it… Today, Clara my roommate and I went shopping on Rue de Rivoli. Clara was determined for me to do something on my list of things I wanted to do and so we used one of the public bikes to get to Rue de Rivoli and then a bus back Woot! multiple things accomplished in one day Also went to Monoprix and got some things to make BLT wraps seriously. YUM.

Today also made me realize that I really need to practice speaking French with other people. And lovely enough, the guy in the pink shirt in which I still have no clue what his name is, is making me speak French to him and everyone else or else they’re going to call me Jennifer. sigh…

Because STA is stupid and frustrating, I didn’t get my tickets (STILL!) but I’m still going to visit Joni this weekend. The military notified him that he was going to Texas for about a month… in about a week and a half. So here I am depressed that he’s leaving and stuck with 8 passes to use. I’m freaking going to use them no matter what! Might as well make the most of my time here… maybe actually go to Nice like I wanted to for spring break. Still have all my skip days left so skip a day of class and day trip!

Tomorrow= day wandering around again plan is to choose one or 2 things still on my list to do and actually go do them! Plus a little shopping here and there

This week went as a blur and as of what I know, I went to the Pantheon and had some yummy Berthillion ice cream and had a Human Rights exam at some point this week… This weekend’s gone really fast too unfortunately…

Friday, I woke up not knowing what to do which is quite weird to say but I came up with a wonderful idea cause it was an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL day. Laura, Kim, Molly and I went to the Catacombs first though which were really creepy and quite depressing BUT my wonderful idea of having a *picnic* out in one of the gardens! We decided to grab some things from Monoprix and went and had a picnic at the Jardins du Trocadero which has a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower. I would suggest anyone to go to one of the gardens on a nice day and have a picnic

Yesterday, I went to a rugby game It was Paris Racing Metro 92 vs. Stade Toulousain and we won! Had a yummy baguette hot dog with cheese on top before we got there and then went into the game It was quite exciting for the first time going to a rugby game. We had a spectacular view from our seats and I was really surprised that CEA even got us those tickets cause we were like 8-9 rows away from the field! There was a huge wave that went around the stadium about 5 times which was pretty cool to see Unfortunately we left about 5 minutes before the end because it started pouring about 20 minutes until the end of the game and we were totally soaked by the time we left. Even though we were soaked we still stopped to get a Racing Metro 92 scarf to commemorate the game

After we got back, I slept for about 2 hours and then Kelcie and I went downstairs to eat around 9 or 10 or something like that and then we watch Moulin Rouge until like 2AM which technically was 3 AM due to daylight savings…

Today, I went out to lunch with a student that I met during class from the Duperré school down a few blocks…she’s working to be a fashion designer! Went to a cute French/Thai restaurant near Gard du Nord and had some good carrot cake and cheesecake Now I’m here avoiding studying for my French exam tomorrow but I suppose I should get back to that. Bon soirée!

This past weekend, Joni came to visit which was quite amazing The weekend went by so fast, I can’t even remember what we’ve done. Thursday we got crepes and Friday… was a blur… probably because it was boring since we had to go to UNESCO for my class for a 3 hour lecture. UNESCO wasn’t horrible at all, it was just sitting through the grueling lecture… Later that night we went to a Chinese restaurant in the 17th district and had some lovely roasted duck and caramelized ribs. I also had a wonderful dessert of vanilla and MANGO ice cream soooooo good!
Saturday, we went to Arc de Triomphe and then headed over to the Louvre area. Walked around in the Tulleries for a while before heading to Angelina’s for a fabulous cup of hot chocolate and some food. It was definitely worth the 6.5o for the cup of hot coco and I would suggest anyone to do the same unless you’re not big on the whole drinking a cup of basically a hot melted Hershey’s bar. Joni also had a yummy omelet with a small salad and we shared a cheese cake After, this extremely filling meal we headed over to the Louvre and saw the big things, the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, etc. After about 3 hours there we went back to AEPP for a nap before deciding to go out for Japanese food on Rue Sainte Anne, which is basically where you want to go if you are craving Japanese food in general. We both had a soup and a salad and some sake. Joni had some eel (anguille in french) and I had some sushi Such a filling meal and we had a food coma after.
Today was a gorgeous day comparatively to the rest of the weekend. The sun was out and it was just a nice day to walk around everywhere. Went to the creperie place that I love on Rue de Roquette and then we checked out Notre Dame. Then we had some ice cream at the famous  Berthillon which was quite amazing Joni had peach and vanilla and I had dark chocolate and vanilla! Then we wandered over to the Eiffel Tower and took some cliche pictures of us kissing in front of it and then wandered around the area for a bit just enjoying the weather. Went back to AEPP and took a nap before his train and then dropped him off.

Backtracking a week or so, last week I went to Versailles with CEA which was quite fun minus the weather Later that night the plan was to go clubbing but ended up going to a toga party which was pretty awesome Met some really cool people and seriously love rocking out to 90s music lol

Also- outside of my adventures here, Congrats to Joni’s sister, Lyly on her engagement!

This weekend, I was back in Germany and spent some quality time catching up on homework and internships, had some more quality time with Joni (my boyfriend) and some of his friends and did a lovely hike up Homburg Castle. This weekend was definitely full of non-French things minus nutella on my waffles…

Homburg was gorgeous and the castle and the cave was very cool! Went down into the town for some exploring and had really amazing pizza at Portofino
That night, we partied at John’s house, played a dancing thingy on his kinect and then passed out there for the night. The next morning Brittany his girlfriend made waffles for us while the boys played some zombie killing video game for a couple hours… Didn’t do much after that… just watched the newer Karate Kid movie with Jackie Chan in it. Oh how I love Jackie Chan

Next week is Versailles!

Oooh I also forgot cheese on that list too. On Tuesday we had a stinky cheese tasting event with CEA. We learned to cut each kind of cheese and where each one was from. My favorite is this gooey cheese one called Roblochon which is a cheese from the Alps and usually is melted on potatoes

There was only 3 of us for the group dinner but still fun! We made a giant load of spaghetti which we ended up eating most of it but still ended up having leftovers for the next day. So glad that spaghetti is just so easy to make

Checked out a few museums and sites this last week/weekend: Arts et Métier, Cité National de l’Immigration, Musée l’Orangerie, Arc de Triumph, Le Louvre, and Mémorial de la Shoah (Holocaust Museum) [insert craving for crepes before and after the visits]. A lot to take in but it was a good week overall.

L’Orangerie = me in love with Monet’s water lilies paintings. They are enormous! I didn’t think they would be that gigantic, no wonder he spent the last 30 years of his life producing them. They are absolutely amazing.

Le Louvre was pretty awesome also but I just wasn’t in the mood for some reason when I went. Another day… free entrance for students under 26 J.The sculptures I saw though were amazing and it’s incredible to see how much detail is put into each one. Venus de Milo and Cupid and Pysche are probably my two favorite that I’ve seen.

There was a Flamenco performance tonight which was nice to see! The rhythms they can make with just one foot or hands clapping or both at the same time was pretty amazing. It was interesting to see something different. The show was pretty simple but overall satisfying to watch the performances.

Went to Chȃteau de Vincennes for class on Thursday. The place was just kept absolutely beautifully! Just imagining living in those times though would have been horrible! It was so cold! Later in the afternoon, I checked out Musée d’Orsay with a couple friends-unfortunately you can’t take pictures in the museum . After that, AEPP dinner was TACOS and we invited our friend, Beth to come join us . We picked up this delicious looking cake on the way home for dessert and for sure it was so delicious when we finally got to it. Tacos was nice and easy to make and ah I loved it! Soooooo good!

Went to Musée de la Musique and Cité des Sciences et de l’industrie on Friday. As you begin to leave the center of Paris, things start to change and sometimes where you are looks nothing like what inner Paris looks like. These two museums, located in the 19th district are probably two of my favorite museums here. Had to pay like 6 Euros to get into the science museum but it was definitely worth it. There was so much stuff to do and a lot of physical interaction rather than just listening or read to science. Wandered around and saw the Geode which is this giant reflective ball kinda like the giant bean in Chicago. Had a late lunch there and I had this giant chicken leg that tasted amazing! How do they make just ordinary food taste so good?!?

“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”

Headed over to Cité de la Musique after and on the way saw this really cool looking park for kids, crossed part of the river and there was a carnival type of set up on the other side. It was pretty cool. I could spent a few more hours in the Musée de la Musique just listening to the music and the looking at all the instruments. Watched a cello and  violin performance while at the museum and it was absolutely wonderful. Music feels like home.

“Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” –  Cesare Pavese

Traveling in a different country is stressful enough if you don’t know the language and combined with being alone while traveling, well that’s stress on top of stress. Fortunately and unfortunately this will probably happen a lot as I make my way around Europe. I feel that traveling allows me to learn on the go. It’s scary no doubt to be somewhere so unfamiliar even at home but instead of panicking like I would do at home, this is different.

This week, I left Paris to go to Strasbourg, then Ramstein, then Trier, back to Ramstein and then back to Paris. It’s a lot of traveling to do in one weekend… Figuring out the train for the first time by myself, asking people for directions in French may I add, and scared that I wouldn’t make the right train terrified me all in less than an hour.  I felt completely lost and out of my comfort zone pretty much the whole time but it was definitely worth it. It’s surprising how just wandering and getting lost allows you to see things in a different perspective.

That’s exactly what I did while I was in Strasbourg. It was absolutely fun Strasbourg is a gorgeous city and I loved just wandering around the streets. The water surrounding the city was calm and it made the area just look so lush and green. The Notre Dame was gorgeous too with very interesting architecture inside. Visited the museums right across the street from it and then just wandered around the water area. I have yet to see everything and there’s a must to go back and look at the other half of the city that I would love to see. Having only about 4-5 hours to see the city, I really didn’t have enough time since I was on my way to Germany that same day

Germany in my opinion is beautiful in its own way. Unlike Paris as you know Germany has a different feel to it, but somehow it actually feels a lot like home. I don’t particularly miss the weather at home (the negative degree weather with a ton of snow is as you can imagine hard to miss) but I do miss home just for the familiarity of it all. People cling to familiarity when in a new place, people from the same school, brand names of clothes, etc.– Some more than others, like the girls down the hall from Michigan, they’ve clung to Starbucks and spend at least 6 Euro on a cup of coffee every morning, disgusting really… I suppose there’s just a sense to keep things familiar but it’s thrilling to experience every new thing in a new city. Alright with that tangent, back to Germany. Spring Minnesota weather, winding roads and trees everywhere is exactly what Germany feels like and it reminds me of home.

Arriving in Ramstein AFB, I had some comfort food that I was craving to have– Pizza Rolls. Just relaxed for the night and watched some tv shows. The next day, I was heading to Trier with my boyfriend, Joni, and two of his friends, John and Brittany. In the morning we had some yummy breakfast subs at Charlie’s, went to work out a bit later and then got ready to go to Trier.

Trier was adorable and we had a delicious dinner at a place that I wasn’t so sure about… it had a rat or something in the title… Later we walked around, ended up in a mall and then had some amazing ice cream in a cute little shop Got lost on the way back but was able to see some pretty landscape and some scary cliffy and curvy landscape too.

Went to a few churches this week: Saint Ambrose, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle. All absolutely gorgeous. I love the churches here in Paris, they are just breath-taking each one of them. The Saint Chapelle has to be one of my absolute favorite churches here. If you’re ever here in Paris, I would suggest going to this place. It’s really nearby Notre Dame but unlike the Notre Dame the Saint Chapelle is so bright. They didn’t realize when they built Notre Dame that it was too large to let in enough light to the center of the church and that’s why it’s so dark in there. When I went to Saint Chapelle though, it was nice and sunny and the stained glass windows absolutely glowed. It was magnificent. Every church I’ve gone to here has left me in awe. This is what I don’t see at home, just all the history behind it, the stunning architecture, the glow that makes the place just special. It makes me never want to leave this place and all the people I’ve met.

Sacre Coeur was quite nice too and we got there right when mass started. The view from the area is just gorgeous too. Saw a couple of rugby players visiting and playing rugby on part of the pavement, some teenagers playing music and dancing, and jipped a guy out of a bracelet cause I’m special like that with my bargaining skills and all
After Sacre Coeur, went to see Moulin Rouge and what it looked like and I was actually really disappointed… maybe I need to see a show? hmm…

Had a fabulous GC AEPP group dinner made a nice and cheesy lasagna  enough for 10-15 people. The six of us could only finish HALF of the pan and still needed to eat dessert! I have seriously just fallen in love with having group dinners and luckily we’ve all decided that every Thursday we would have a group dinner Next week it’s tacos! I think we’re trying to do something familiar but at the same time something from another culture. One week I get to do something Asian-y… it’ll probably be spring rolls or something easy like it.

Gotten into the normal school routine but everyday still trying to do something new. I love to plan and it’s amazing yet frustrating to have so much to see since I know I won’t be able to see it all while I’m here for only 3 more months! There’s so much to do here yet I want to be able to travel every couple weekends or so. Tomorrow (Friday) I will be heading to Strasbourg, France and then to Ramstein, Germany. Saturday’s plan is to go to Trier, Germany so fun filled weekend!

Sure enough, Saturday rolled around and on the platform that morning we found out that we were going to Bruges, Belguim! 2 1/2 train ride. Luckily the train we were taking was a Thaly which is like a bullet train and they had really nice comfortable seats.

I’m pretty positive I gained about 5 pounds during this trip. I ate so much food… Mainly a lot of chocolate. You have to if you’re in Belgium- chocolate, waffles and french fries. We got to wander around for a couple hours then joined back together as a group to have lunch at De Halves Maan. We had soup for an appetizer, for the main dish we had a dish with really good meat that just fell apart, potatoes and applesauce, then for dessert we had this really delicious chocolate mousse. Everyone also was allowed to have a beer during lunch which was pretty good. They also had a beer tasting tour later in the day

Had a sugar waffle with chocolate sauce at Laurent which was absolutely delicious. Stopped by The Chocolate Line to see some interesting things with chocolate such as chocolate paint, chocolate lipstick, and chocolate massage. Checked out some shopping and the churches around the area. Then went to a litt shop for some french fries- really wanted to find the French Fry Factory but ended up not being able to. On the way back, my group took the long way back and passed by some pretty swans in a river and the Lake of Love Everyone was exhausted on the way home and pretty much slept most of the way.

Later in the evening after we got back around 9, there was a Sangria party at AEPP which was awesome. It was some sort of Spanish mixture which was really really good. It tasted like a mixture of limenade and everything else in Sangria.

Today, I’m heading to the 13th district to see the largest dragon parade for the New Years celebration. Hopefully that will be fun and I’ll get a lot of pictures

Through the course of this week there’s has been a lot of celebrating in Paris for this event! There’s a week long celebration in a few different districts, one at the Chinatown in my district (11th), the 13th district which always has the largest celebration, the 3rd district and the 17th district. All of these places have something going on this week. Some of the exciting things that were happening was the Shanghai Orchestra, cultural exhibitions about immigrants, shows for little kids including an event for children to participate in some Kung Fu, a lion dance and new years wishes with lanterns. Although New Years is actually TODAY (well yesterday), the celebration lasts all week long up until Sunday, Feb. 6 where there’s going to be a huge parade and a large celebration to end it. I’m really excited for that

This week, we started classes and not to lie, kinda really sad about it cause it is the study part to being abroad in study abroad. Seems like courses are going to actually be really challenging. Thought about switching to an I’m sticking with Intermediate French is going at a really fast pace and my brain feels like it’s going to explode. Already packed with homework and a ton of information this week and it’s only the 4th day of the week! Part of some of my courses we get to go travel places especially for my architectural perspective class where every Thursday (sometimes Friday) we visit places such as Notre Dame, Le Louvre, Chateau de Vincennes and many more. We get to learn about the history behind it along with what each part of the stones, arches and buildings are all about.

Today, for Arch. Pers. we went to the Archeological Crypts (Crypte Archeologique) which is located right in front of Notre Dame. It was really interesting to see the history behind what was found about the people and the buildings before modern Paris. I was able to stand on the spot where between 5-10ft there used to be houses a river and a street which is pretty crazy. What’s also crazy that I learned was that they haven’t found everything in the Crypts yet because they are leaving it for further generations with more advanced technology to excavate it. Architecture here is just amazing.

My communications and my human rights course help me open my eyes to different cultures and different ways to think about things. We looked a picture in my Comm. course about a few people sitting and standing and at the end we found out that our perspective was totally different than someone else’s culture, where we (Americans) perceived the people inside a room while people in Africa may see it as actually outside. Difficulties in definition of any topic comes from different perspective and cultures.

Tonight, there was also a AEPP dinner (where I’m living) and that was just utterly fantastic. It was half Brazilian and half Italian dinner. It took a LONG time for them to finish cooking considering they were making food for about 50+ people. They started at about 5PM and we didn’t have dinner until about 10PM and I was starving by that point! It was utterly delicious though! Italian: Lasagna both meat and vegetarian-spinach (I tried both and let’s just say YUM), a salad, and then also Brazilian: rice, beef or pork?  with beans, lettuce? and this grainy kind of stuff to the side where we could put on our rice which was really interesting. Then this pie cake kind of thing for dessert which was again delicious! White and red wine were offered for our drinks and of course who could deny wine for dinner especially when it’s free!

After dinner, a group of us went out just for some fun at a club and a restaurant, I ended up getting a Nutella crepe because they are SO GOOD and the people there remember us . Came back for some late night Karaoke with the people still at the AEPP dinner party and just hung out a bit there and then bed time!

Tomorrow: Trip to ??? It’s a mystery tour set up by CEA! So excited!

Sunday: I’m going to a New Years celebration in the 3rd district with a lion dance and a new year wishes and lantern ceremony. It’s not until the evening so I possibly might just wander in the morning or go to a museum. There’s plenty of museums to see so no doubt I will be at many of them throughout this semester.

Once again, Chúc mừng năm mới, Happy Lunar New Years! Welcome to the year of the Rabbit (Chinese) / Cat (Vietnamese)