Paris is (Spring)ing into action.

Life is wonderful.

That is really the only way to describe things at the current moment.

My days in Paris have slowed down a bit, in the sense that I am getting used to my course schedule and the pace of Parisian living.

Everyday, excluding Monday, I get out of school at 13:00, so I like to spend my afternoons walking to new parts of the city, reading a book/studying or, my all time favorite at the moment, get a seat in the Luxembourg gardens and soak in the sun for an hour or two, ice cold coke in my hand and headphones in my ears. Now that the sun has come out in Paris, public gardens are constantly being swarmed to. I cannot wait to see how much more lively this city gets when it is consistently warm enough to go without a jacket.

Spring is coming!

Last Friday I went with my friend Johannah up to Montmarte to soak in the amazing view once again, and to spend a relaxing afternoon outside. We ended up on the steps overlooking the city, which is a popular spot for performers to take the stage in front of the crowds. An Italian singer performed for a good 30-40 minutes, doing covers of Beatles, Maroon 5, and more. It was a great way to relax and have a great conversation with a good friend of mine.

Sidesteps for going to Sacre Coeur.

Steps from the backside of Montmarte.

Human!

Man performing for a big crowd!

This past week my parents visited, and it was so amazing to see their faces! I am used to not seeing them for months at a time because of college life, but after having gone through so much change culturally, it was great to get face-to-face time with them. We had some amazing food and great talks, and I was sad to see them go so soon!

My amazing parents!

Some the awesome food we had! (Came with A+ couscous)

Thanks to my program (ISA), I have the amazing opportunity to be able to go to several events for free with my other program-mates. Some of these events include: A new French film in the cinema, special expositions at museums, a French play, and much more. Three days ago, I participated in a visit to the catacombs of Paris. I had never really learned much about the catacombs, or took interest in visiting them, but it was such a great opportunity to broaden my horizons of the city!

We arrived at the designated location, and all trekked down a winding spiral staircase into the catacombs. There we were informed about how many people are kept there, (over 6 million bodies!!) and several creepy stories about people getting lost and dying in the labrynth-ish halls of the site. Because of the “no flash” rule, it was very difficult to get a great shot of the somber surroundings that I found myself in.

Stairs leading even deeper into the catacombs.

As we were walking through the catacombs, I passed by a woman who looked really familiar, and then realized why I felt I knew her. It was Katie Couric! As soon as I told other classmates, we felt it was our task to figure out if it was really her or not. As soon as my friends heard her laugh, we were all sure it was! After walking most of the tour, one of the girls in our group finally introduced herself, and a small conversation ensued. She said she was just visiting, and that her and her friends were going to Sacre Coeur after her visit to the catacombs. Of course I had to jump at the chance to talk to her, so I gave her some restaurant advice about where to eat up at Sacre Coeur. She kindly accepted my suggestion, and at the end of the tour she posed with all of us for a group picture.

Katie Couric! (Click on it to see it bigger if you don't believe me!)

Of course I still tried to focus on the event at hand, but seeing Kati Couric was definitely a highlight in such a gloomy place! All in all, the visit to the catacombs was memorable, and such a crazy line of events.

On Thursday, my friends Johannah and Amanda and I went walking along the Seine and ended up walking into Notre Dame. Every Friday during lent, the relics of the Church are brought out for people to see. The relics at Notre Dame are a nail that nailed Jesus into the cross, a shard of the cross itself, and a part of the crown of thorns. Of course I was eager to see these relics, as were swarms of other people! Although it was really crowded, I still got to see the relics when they brought them out for people to go on their knees and genuflect in front of the crown. The relic itself was encased in a crown of thorns made of gold or something of that nature, and adorned with either jewels or something that made it shine (I couldn't tell from where I was). Either way, it was really cool to see!

Love in Paris?!

No, no. Just friends!

The priest holding the crown of thorns relic.

Today I planned and booked most of my trip to Ireland in April. For my semester, we have a two-week spring break the last two weeks of April, and I am trying to take full advantage of it! The first 6 days will be a trip with ISA to Morocco! I cannot tell you how excited I am for this trip. A big highlight of that excursion is that I don’t have to plan it at all! My directors have already booked and planned everything to the t. After Morocco, I come home to Paris for a day, and then the following night I leave for Ireland, where my three friends and I will spend 5 days in the great green land! That will definitely make for one great blog entry! Until then!

Oh, and I also have been doing lots of schoolwork. Don’t you worry, Mom and Dad!

Affectuesement,

George

I Amsterdam.

This past weekend I made my first adventurous outing to the great city of Amsterdam. Considering I had never before booked a trip entirely without my parents, what an adventure it was!

First of all, my friends and I went the cheapest route we could in booking a trip to Amsterdam two weeks in advice: the bus. Now let me tell you, the bus is a very interesting experience all in itself. My friend and I boarded the bus at the wee hour of 7 a.m. (having gotten up at 5:45 a.m. to hop on the metro to the bus station) and were a little apprehensive of what the outcome of our voyage over would be like. Some very "sketchy" people were sitting in the back of the bus, so we plopped ourselves in the comfortable middle section. Throughout the 8 1/2 bus ride there (10 hours back!), we stopped 5-6 times, each time dropping off and adding people to our passenger list. We stopped in a few well known places, such as Lilles, Brussels and Antwerp. Too bad we couldn't properly visit each place!

Once we arrived in Amsterdam, I had an experience like never before. We literally had no plan of what to do once we got off the bus. No idea where we were located in context to our hostel, the city center, or the Netherlands for that matter. We walked into the metro/train station nearby to get information, and were overwhelmed at the sight we saw. Mass amounts of teenagers yelling and talking to each other in the lobby of the station seemed to shock me right away, and then Policemen and police dogs came on the scene, leading to me feeling a bit uncomfortable, to say the least! Something must have been going on before we had arrived, but we tried to stay far away from the mess.
We finally found out how to buy tickets to Central Station, where we would then find a bus to take us to our hostel. After accepting help from a stranger who let us know that we had taken the metro instead of the train (our passes didn't work trying to get out of the station), we were off and on the bus to our hostel.


That night we explored the downtown area, popping out heads into shops and random restaurants, just to get a feel of the city. Other friends met us from Paris, and by the end of the night, we were all accounted for and ready for the next day.
The next day, my friends and I went straight to the activity I was most excited about; the Anne Frank museum. Though I've never read the book, I was very intrigued by the things I had heard, and wanted to see the famous house myself. The museum was really well done, and very interesting to go through. At the end, I thought it was only fitting to buy the book, considering the location!

The bookcase leading to the secret annex of the house.

In front of the house of Anne Frank.

The rest of the afternoon and night was basically a repeat of the night before, sightseeing as much of the city as we could. Considering we were all poor college students and without planned events, our activities in the city were limited. Just being able to walk around and soak in the culture was cool enough, however!

The biggest thing I loved about Amsterdam? The bikes.


Bikes are everywhere. Literally, everywhere. It was so fascinating to see people doing things while riding their bikes, such as texting, eating, talking with friends, etc. I also got a few bells whistled at me for being in the bike lane without knowing it (since they are everywhere!!)!

Texting and riding. No, no, lady.

We also went to the flower market near central station, as the Netherlands is known for their tulips and other flowers. Although flowers were not in bloom yet, the market still had the amazing scent of tulips in the Springtime!

One thing that really amazed me was the amount of fast food restaurants in Amsterdam! A McDonalds was found every handful of streets. So funny to be in a completely different culture, and yet see something so familiar to your own country.

My trip to Amsterdam was much too short, but I loved it, nonetheless! It was a great start to my trips outside of Paris.

I forgot to mention! My friends from home visited last week, and it was amazing to see familiar faces for once! I got to enjoy their company three days during the week, and then they were off for Berlin. Tomorrow my parents come, and I cannot express how excited I am!

Affectuesement,

George

Who wants a FREE day?

Let's think here...

Today was such an awesome and FREE day! Here is a wonderful tip for anyone ever wanting to visit Paris: On the first Sunday of every month, all monuments and museums are FREE for anyone wanting to visit. Knowing this special tip, my friends and I decided to go and see some of the places we had wanted to a few weeks ago, but couldn’t afford on our poor college-student budget.

First off was the Rodin Museum. I have never taken much notice to Mr. Auguste Rodin as an artist besides “The Thinker” and “Hell’s Gates.” After going through this museum, however, my attention has shifted 180 degrees to his works! The museum itself is probably a lot more appealing in the middle of spring, as there is a large garden hosting many of his sculptures between fountains and gardens. Inside the museum, his paintings, moldings and sculptures are on display.

A couple getting engaged in the gardens of the Museum.

I found many of his pieces to be very mesmerizing. Most of the sculptures are, in some way, coming out of the stone itself. I really enjoyed this aspect, because it made it feel as if the art was being created in front of your eyes. He really knew how to capture the human body and emotion.

Next we were onto the Centre George Pompidou. A museum known for it’s outside artistic structure, the Pompidou is a contemporary/modern art museum. The fourth floor was the FREE entrance of the day, and the exhibit was done entirely by female artists.

The famous escalator to get to the top of the museum.

Now, I consider myself to be open-minded and somewhat artistic, but a lot of what was on display was not to my liking. Many things I could not even post on this blog, as I don’t consider it to be for the general public to read or see! It definitely made you think throughout the exhibits, however.

After Pompidou, we were all a bit starving. At the mention of falafel, we were off! I had never had falafel until arriving in Paris, and it is definitely something I will continue to search for when getting back to the States! The Jewish area called The Marais is known for it’s falafel stands, and rightfully so. We eagerly stuffed our faces, and walked a short way to our next FREE destination of the day: Notre Dame.

Now, going inside the main cathedral of Notre Dame is FREE, but going up in the towers is not. I had always wanted to actually go up into the top of the two towers, so we waited in a freezing line to get our FREE chance. We climbed over 400 steps in spiral staircases, and finally reached the middle of the church. Seeing all the famous gargoyles was so amazing! Next, we climbed a little further to see the main bell of the south tower. After that, we trekked up more staircases to reach the very top of one of the towers. The view is brilliant, as is the architecture itself.

I would like to point out that this is the same picture as the one in my blog title, but now I have taken it myself!! So cool to find the same location.

The view from the top of the south tower of Notre Dame.Finally, after spiraling back down to the streets of Paris, my roommate and I decided to check one more place out before heading home for dinner: St. Chapelle. Thankfully, we made it just as the doors were closing. (That is another tip for all who want to travel here; realize that most museums and monuments close in the early evening, some as early as 16:45.) The inside of the church is one of my favorites sites in the city, and always is a great surprise to see as you come out of the small spiral staircase.

The amazing windows of St. Chapelle.

Tired and windblown, Erik and I headed home, where we had an amazing dinner, once again. We always have great food, but tonight I felt like I had finally eaten like the French. My host mom prepared boeuf bourguignon! Man, was it delicious. One thing I won’t get sick of? Food.

An awesome street performer from New York. He had a myspace! haha.

This week my friends from the Forensics team back home are coming! I am so excited to see familiar faces and catch up. All is well.

Affectuesement,

George

Sunday 7 March 2010