Last Week in Paris

Hey everybody, hard to believe this may be my last post from Paris, this semester absolutely flew by. It's been a while since my last one, so I will try to give a recount of everything that has been going on, although it is all start to run together. Last week I hung out with Xavier on Wednesday, we just hung out and watched some South Park, which I miss so much, haha. Thursday we had the end of year party for Sweet Briar, which was really great. It was very nice, yummy food and some live music performed by the students (and a little trumpet from one of the professors), as well as a Secret Santa-I got a cute little French recipe book, which was perfect-I will have to cook something over break. It was a really fun party, although I must admit it was pretty sad at the same time, knowing that it was almost over. Afterwards, a group of us went out to a bar, and ended up staying there for a really long time. It was so much fun, we all had quite a few drinks and just had a good time being together and silly. Friday I did a tour of the Opera that Sweet Briar had organized, which was interesting, and then that night met up with a bunch of friends to celebrate Abby's 21st birthday. We went to this cool Irish pub, where I tried Absynthe for the first time (ick...not a fan of liccorice taste), and then we went and got a glass of wine before calling it a night. Another fun night, we even did some dancing as the bar kind of morphed into a club as the night went on. Saturday, I spent most of the day working on my cinema essay, and then walked down the Champs Elysees at night to see all the decorations. I then met up with Xavier, who took me to this little bar that had some bizarre but cool live music, and where some of his friends were. After the band finished the two of us and his friend Baptiste (who I had met before) headed out to find another bar, ending up over by Montparnasse at a place that again had some live music for a bit. It was cool, we talked to a couple Egyptians who were working in Paris, and then we left and walked around for awhile. Sunday it was back to work, as today (monday) I had both my final cinema paper do, and my Atelier exam. They both went well, I think, so that's good, so now I'm trying to get my paper done for tomorrow, ack. It's coming along though, all should be well, and tonight Kristin and I are going back to our old bar, Bar Cristal, to de-stress a bit and catch up. The big news is that I was officially accepted into the Spain program today, YAYYY, so now I don't have to worry about that anymore, phew. So yes, life right now is pretty hectic as I try to get all this work done, and my days are sadly slipping away. I'm so excited though to be home for Christmas, it will be so great to see everybody!! Love you all, and will be home soon,
Brit

STRASBOURG and Paris loveliness

Salut!
Just finished up a busy weekend, and am settling back into work mode for the week, ick. I've been up to a lot, so here we go! Thursday night was great, I went to the Frightened Rabbit/Department of Eagles concert. Xavier was really late, since he was held up at work, but luckily for himn Frightened Rabbit was really late and he ended up getting there right on time. It was such a great concert-for Frightened Rabbit we stood right by the stage-soooo great. While I was waiting for Xavier I even saw the band come in, and they walked right by me!!! haha, but anyways, they were great, as always, and then Department of Eagles was really chill-really amazing, beautiful music, with just these two brothers doing it all. We had a great time at the concert, and Xavier really liked it-yay! I had been a bit worried it wouldn't be his thing. Anyways, afterwards we were both hungry, and once Xavier heard I still hadn't had escargots in France he was determined to find me some. We ended up at this really great restaurant not too far from where the concert was. It was so nice, Xavier got us some wine, and I got to try escargots for the first time-which was delicious! The dinner was amazing, and it was really nice to hang out with Xavier. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 4:45 Friday morning to head to the train station for Strasbourg, ick, and almost did make my train because I had problems printing my tickets. In any case, Kristin and I made it to Strasbourg,getting in at around 8:30am! It was a fun trip, we basically just wandered around looking at the many christmas markets, and enjoying the various treats they had to offer. We even went ice skating on a little rink, which was nice-we will have to go ice skating at home-I miss it! So yes, I nice little trip, not a whole lot to do in Strasbourg, which was actually kind of nice as we were both looking for a bit of a getaway from work. We got back Saturday at around 6:30, and I headed home to unpack and get some dinner. Xavier had called me earlier and we were planning to go out, but unfortunately he had to cancel as one of his friends needed help (apparently his friend was moving), so instead I stayed in and finally got some work done, and finally had a chill night (all my friends were either traveling or working anyway, so I didn't even feel like a loser :). Sunday, Xavier called, and I ended up going to this Airplane place south of Paris. He took me on his motorcycle, and one of his friends came along too. His friend was really nice, although talked really quietly which made understanding him a bit challenging, haha. We went over on motorcycles, which was really cool, I love riding on the motorcycle! Unfortunately, because of the foggy weather it turns out the planes weren't flying, but there was a cool museum we checked out. Basically it consisted of a bunch of old planes in this big warehouse, and one of the workers there came over and gave us a tour. It was really cool to see all these old, awesome planes, and since Xavier and his friend are both really into motorcycles they found all the mechanics particularly interesting. It was dark by the time we left, and Xavier took me home so I could get my stuff and head over to the Dandy Warhols concert. I was late, but managed to find my friend Jen in the crowd; it was a really awesome concert!!! Actually, it was pretty crazy-we were right by the front, standing,and the fans were getting really into it-it practically became a mosh pit, ack. So yeah, that was a bit intense, and since it was so crazy and crowded it was getting rediucluously hot. Two or three people actually passed out and had to be carried out! After that they handed out some water bottles and such, but I left the concert feeling pretty exhausted and dehydrated. It was all good though, the Dandy Warhols were so great live, so much energy. So yes, that was my weekend. I did manage to get some work done Saturday and Sunday, so should be okay in terms of school work, although i'm running out of time! Today I had my cinema class, and the professor got really mad as only three of us (myself included) had watched the movie we were supposed to discuss. He basically gave a long, frustrated speech, and then put on the movie for the rest of the class to see, telling the three of us who had seen it to come with him to a cafe. I went, with two other guys from the class, and we got drinks at a cafe by the school. It was actually pretty nice, the professor's German, a really nice guy, and it turns out one of the boys was American-studying abroad from Middlebury! So yeah, it was nice, and we headed back before class ended and he gave us our midterms-I got an A!!! yayyy. Good day for Brittany, now I just have to really get some work done...wish me luck, much love,
Brittany

Stress galore, mais Paris je t'aime toujours

Hey everybody!
So just to give an update, all is well, and I'm working my butt off, or at least trying to. This week I was dealing with all the application stuff, I now have everything in, except my transcript (which kenyon said they sent off Nov.19) still hasn't arrived, and my teacher for the language proficiency report filled out the wrong thing, so she has another page she needs to fill out. I emailed her and asked her to do it, and she said she would "try", and I have heard nothing since, arghhh. I so hope she gets it done, then my application will finally be complete. I talked to the University of Kansas lady, though, and she's like the nicest person in the world-so patient and helpful. She made it sound like it was all going to work out, and kept saying how she was so happy that I was applying. So yeah, hopefully it will all work out, I will have a big party once I finally find out if I get in :). Other than that, I've been waiting on professors to give me approval for my final papers and such, so I spent the first few days this week just being frustrated, waiting around for email responses. I just checked my e-mail though and got approval, so I can really start to get stuff done, which will greatly reduce my stress level. My days this week were basically just filled with me going to various libraries in Paris, doing research and whatnot, ick, but it's all good. Tuesday I went to Kristin's for a bit with Olivia and we watched some Harry Potter in french, always fun, haha.
Last night was actually a really sad night at my house, though. My host mom has been working a LOT lately, and is also pretty sick-she can't even sleep she's coughing so much. So basically last night she had a little breakdown, and I could hear her crying :(. she called her son and was talking to him, while i sat in my room akwardly not really knowing what to do. Once she got off the phone though I went and asked if she was okay, which she said she was, and I told her if she ever needed help or anything she could always ask me. She thanked me, tearfully, and said I was adorable, and then I felt akward again and went back to my room. Like a minute later she came back in crying, and I got up and we just hugged for a while, she's having such a hard time-I felt so bad...I think it made her feel a little better though...This morning she left early for work and doesn't get back til late, so I went and bought her some pretty flowers, and left her a little note, hopefully that will lift her spirits a bit. But yes, so my host mom isn't doing so good, I really like her and just feel so bad for her-she's so sick and is working way too much; fortunately her kids live close by, so with my and their help hopefully she'll get her spirits back up soon.
On a lighter note, I'm going to Strasbourg (France) tomorrow with Kristin! Our train leaves at like 6 in the morning, which is gonna be intense, and then we are spending the night there, and leaving Saturday evening. It will be so nice to go do something fun after this stressful couple of days; it's supposed to be such a beautiful city, and I can't wait to see the Christmas Market and the beautiful cathedral. I'm so excited! Also, tonight I'm going to another concert, this time with Xavier. It's Frightened Rabbit again, opening for Department of Eagles-should be really great, two alt/indie bands, and I haven't seen Xavier in a while so it will be nice to catch up. So yea, life is good here, just working hard with really fun and exciting stuff mixed in a bit sporadically. I will post again and tell you about my weekend, love you all!
Brit

AMSTERDAM

Hey everybody,
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving, it just didn’t feel like Thanksgiving without you guys, not to mention all the marvelous food we have. Thai food really just wasn’t the same…Anyways, I had a good weekend in Amsterdam, but as usual am happy to be back in Paris. Wednesday, my 3-hour art history class was cancelled because the professor was sick, so I actually ended up going on a motorcycle ride with Xavier!!! It was really, really cool, although by the end of it I was really sore and tired from clinging on for dear life, haha. We went on a pretty long ride, out to the west of Paris, which reminded me a bit of Ohio, very odd. Xavier really knows what he’s doing on a motorcycle, so it wasn’t too scary after I got over the initial terror, haha. I also met up with Kristin that night to steal her wifi and catch up a bit, and then Thursday Alex and I were off to Amsterdam, leaving directly after our Atelier class. We made it through the airport with no trouble, and had plenty of time, a rare feat! We got in to Amsterdam at around 8:30, and set out to find our hostel, taking a train to Central Station, and then a tram to our hostel. It was very easy, and gave us a beautiful view of the city at night, so gorgeous, especially with all the Christmas lights they had set up. Alex and I then checked in and then hung out waiting for Heather; the hostel was actually very nice, and even had a nice cheap bar at the bottom floor, with a cool lounge with lots of comfy couches. We relaxed there for a bit, and then Heather got in, yay. By this time we were all very hungry, and ready to go out to celebrate Alex’s 20th birthday! So off we went; it turns out our hostel was in a really great location, right near a main area with lots of restaurants, shops, and the like. We found a nice thai food place, Alex’s birthday choice, not Turkey but still very delicious. Then it was off to do some exploring, and we stopped in at the Bulldog, which was actually the first Coffeeshop in Amsterdam, and has since multiplied. We spent quite a while there, before heading back to the dorm to talk a bit more, and get to bed-it was getting late. Friday, we got up for the free breakfast, and then headed out to do some more exploring. We went over to the Anne Frank House, which was really moving; they even let you go up the stairs to the top, where she and her family hid, so you get to really see the conditions they were forced to undergo in hiding. They also had her original diary, and other remnants of the time spent in Amsterdam. Very interesting, although we were a bit disturbed by the café they had set up on the level underneath…a bit inappropriate. Then it was off to wander around a bit, and we made our way over to the Heineken brewery and did the Heineken experience. It was fun, the highlight being the a little ride where “you are the beer”, very amusing. We of course also got to do some tasting, always fun, and there were some amusing interactive stuff they had set up. After that, it was getting to be around dinner time, so we wandered a bit more and then found a great Indian restaurant, delicious. Afterwards, it was about time for Ryan to be getting in from London, so we decided to make our way over to his hostel-which is in fact a Christian hostel located in the Red Light District (he of course went for the cheapest hostel he could find…oh Ryan). So, we got our first look at the Red Light District of Amsterdam, which was….interesting, haha. It was pretty unbelievable, there’s this pretty canal running right down the district, and then on either side it’s just lined with sex shops/shows, and prostitutes posing in the windows of all these old houses. Definitely an experience; we ended up stopping in at a tattoo parlor, where Alex was going to get her second tattoo, although it ended up being too expensive. We did however get to talk to a nice guy from New York, a soldier in fact, and his Canadian friend who was getting a tattoo of the world on his arm, and did his best to convince us to get some as well. Don’t worry, I was very responsible and didn’t get anything, I’m not a tattoo kinda girl . Afterwards we left and walked around a bit more, turning down the many offers for ecstasy/cocaine/whatever and sex shows, and we decided to go into Ryan’s hostel and see if he had checked in (as by this point I had not heard from him, and it was getting late). It was a nice hostel, especially if prayer groups and Jesus are your thing, and oh so hilarious as literally next door there was a whorehouse. They were very helpful, and I left Ryan a note telling me we had gone home for the night, and to give me a call. We then made the long trek back to our hostel, stopping in at a coffeehouse for a bit on the way. Definitely an interesting night, the juxtaposition of beautiful, old houses and canals, not to mention memorials like the Anne Frank House, and then drugs and prostitutes was just so weird.
The next day, we decided to get the “I amsterdam” card, which costs like 33 euro but then gives you access to all sorts of museums, transportation, discounts at restaurants, and other free stuff. I checked my email before leaving, as we still hadn’t heard from Ryan, and discovered that he had missed his flight because he had forgotten his passport-oh Ryan. So we went off without him and explored one of the central areas of Amsterdam, including its oldest church. We also went to a beautiful department store and got our free shopping bag with our nifty amsterdam card, very cool. We walked around a lot, and eventually went to the Pancake Bakery, where we had a discount, and which we had heard was the best place to go for some pancakes. It was soooo good, and perfect as we got a chance to warm up (it was pretty much freezing the whole weekend). After that, we made our way back to Ryan’s hostel, and consequently the Red light district again, and he finally arrived. His flight had been delayed, of course, but it was good to see him. We had a free canal cruise included with the iamsterdam card, so we hung out a bit and then headed out to do that. It was nice and warm, and we got to a chance to see the city via the pretty canals, very nice. The tour ended right by our hostel, so we headed back there and hung out by the bar a bit before dinner. For dinner we met up with one of Ryan’s friends from his program, named Rob, and then went back to the yummy Thai place from before. It was a great dinner, nice to be surrounded by some of my best friends, and afterwards we all went out and walked around the city, stopping in at a coffeeshop and eventually a bar. Then we called it a night, as for one thing Ryan had to be back to his hostel before 2am, haha.
The next morning we got up early, as our iamsterdam cards expired at 11, and we headed over to the Reiksmuseum. The museum is undergoing some massive renovations until like 2010, so only part of it was open, housing all the highlights. The museum itself was gorgeous, and looked like it would be really big when open. I was happy to learn that “For the love of God”, by Damien Hurst, was being exhibited, which I have seen in magazinges and such. It’s this caste of a human skull, covered in diamonds, and with real human teeth. It was sooo cool, in it’s own dark room, and light strategically placed to highlight the diamonds. Apparently the name originates from his mother’s reaction to his idea to make this skull, haha. Afterwards, we went over to the Van Gogh museum, stopping in fron of the “I am amsterdam” lettering for the necessary photos. The museum was great, it was nice to actually recognize a lot of the paintings . After the museums, we decided to do some shopping, and grabbed some lunch. At this point, Ryan was of course MIA, so we just kind of walked around and checked out the touristy shops, and Alex found herself a pair of boots (which she had been wanting for a long time). We moseyed over in the general direction of Ryan’s hostel, and finally got in touch with him quite a while later. He was having major troubles with this cell phone, sigh. In any case, we all met up and walked around a bit, stopping in at a coffeeshop to hang out and warm up. We were all pretty tired at this point, and had run out of things to explore, so we just kind of wandered around a bit more and then went back to the hostel to relax for a bit before it was time for us girls to head to the airport. We collected our baggage, and then it was goodbye to Amsterdam, and Alex and I headed back to Paris. I got home at around midnight last night, exhausted, and upset as I lost my favorite necklace during the day (the flowery one from Provence)…must have fallen off…I was pretty bummed. But in any case, got home safe and sound, and then slept in late this morning.
So that brings me to today, where I spent the day at Sweet Briar, first with class, and then on my computer trying to make sure this application is coming together. The deadline is today; I found another professor to do my language proficiency report, as it had been two weeks and my best spanish teacher still hadn’t responded. Unfortunately, the one I got is actually traveling right now, so has to search for a fax machine, ackkkk. I’m just hoping hoping hoping that she finds one and sends it in, otherwise I’m pretty much screwed. Meanwhile, my french professor forgot about the recommendation she was supposed to do for today, and only just did it and faxed it off, so I need to make sure they received it…Argh, I just want this whole process to be over, I’m going to be so upset if something goes wrong and I can’t go to Spain!!! Anyways, tonight I’m going to go over to Kristin’s house and use her wifi to check in on all this stuff, wish me luck! Other than that, I’ve got a huge amount of work to get done, so am stressing out about all that, sigh. Again, wish me luck, this next week or two are gonna be rough. Alrighty then, off I go, love you all,
Brit

concerts galore

Hey there everybody,
It is currently rainy and cold in Paris, although this morning we had some flurries, which made me oh so happy. I just finished another great weekend in Paris, exploring at random and hanging with friends. Friday, I did some work and watched a movie for class during the day, and then headed over to explore the Louvre for a bit. It’s so great, my student card gets me free entry, so I can basically just pop in and explore for a bit, one of the many things I love about being a student in Paris. That night, Kristin and I went to a poetry slam at one of her french friend’s apartment, which was pretty cool, although the french was a bit hard to understand. After the poetry slam, most people left, and a few of us stayed and hung out for a bit
(I started this post and didn’t finish it, so here we go I’m finishing it now-Tuesday night); one of the guys had a guitar so we sat around singing and listening, until it was time to leave and catch the metro. Saturday, I headed over to the Musée d’Orsay, as I had yet to visit it, again getting in for free with my nifty “history of art” student card that Sweet Briar gives us. For dinner, I met up with my friends Abby and Jen, who had just come from a wine testing, and befriended the waiter who had been running it! He and Abby hit it off, so the four of us went to dinner, followed by a cool bar in his neighborhood, and then a sort of club that has live music. It was a fun night, Jen and I had a good time dancing and enjoying the french rap, while Abby and her new french boy did there own thing. We stayed out pretty late, but made the metro, phew. Sunday, I got a call from Xavier, who wanted to hang out. We were going to go on a ride on his motorcycle, but then it started raining and getting really cold, so he picked me up (with his sister’s car, haha, oh Xavier)and we just went and hung out at his place for a bit. It was fun, he has a couple guitars-and he’s really good, so I made him give me a little concert, he even sang a bit-Hotel California, Sweet Home Alabama, Cendrillon (a famous french song), haha, it was great. Unfortunately, my guitar playing was really rusty, makes me sad I can’t play regularly here, but I managed to play some basic chords so we could play together, very cool.We then got a cheap bite to eat at a pannini/kebab place not far from his apartment, and sat and talked for a bit before I headed out to meet up with Alex for a concert. Me, Alex, and two french friends from her Russian concert went to the Frightened Rabbit and Death Cab for Cutie concert, which was realllly great. It was at a small venue, so nice, as in the states they fill up stadiums! I was so happy to see Frightened Rabbit (a Scottish alt rock band), I have been listening to the CD of theirs I have a lot this past month or so, and was so excited to hear they were coming to Paris. We all had a great time at the concert, and then I headed home, as I had class early the next morning (and by early I mean 10 o’clock, my life is pretty tough…). I spent Monday freaking out about the fact that I now have a deadline for the Compostela application, Dec. 1st, and re-emailing my professors, who hadn’t responded to my emails. I also was putting the finishing touches on my essay due Tuesday, and sent it off to my consultation guy so he could look it over via email. He said it was really good overall, which made me really happy, and gave me a couple suggestions for word choice; I think it’s pretty good, so we’ll see. That night I met up with Kristin at Bar Cristal as usual, to catch up on the events of the weekend. It was nice to talk to her, as always, although we found out that our favorite bartender, Dan, is leaving Bar Cristal at the end of the week! We were of course very upset, and he told us to come back this Sunday for his last night...pretty sad, sigh. In any case, it was still good to see Kristin, although we’re both starting to think about the end of this semester, and getting sad about leaving . Today, I turned in my paper and such, and then went to a Wolf Parade concert, which was absolutely AMAZING. It was another small, indie venue, and Alex and I got there early as there wasn’t assigned seating. We got to be right up against the stage, first row standing; it was such an amazing concert, the band members were like an arm’s length away, sooooo cool. And here we are, I’m taking some time to finally give an update on my life, haha. I’m doing really well, as you can probably tell I’ve been amazingly busy, especially since I’ve gone out every night for like the past two weeks, ack. As I said, I’m going to Amsterdam this weekend, from Thursday night to Sunday night, and am so so so excited to see my friends, it should be an amazing weekend. So yes, I love you all and sorry I’ve kind of dropped off the face of the earth, the lack of internet is a problem as usual. Hope everyone has fun at Thanksgiving, I’m superjealous-I’m guessing I wont be getting any turkey or pie this year , haha. Love you all, don’t have too much fun without me,
Brit

another week in Paris

Hey everyone! so another week in Paris is passing by, I cant believe i only have about a month left! this week was jam-packed with the stupid application, as well as my big essay, which i think is actually coming out to be pretty good. I spent most of Tuesday working and running around finding internet access, as always, and spitting out mini-essays for my application. That night, I met up with Xavier to go see the new Jame's Bond movie, and he surprised me by picking me up in a car-pretty sweet, since he works for the rental car company he was able to use it. when we got to the theater we realised we had about an hour to kill, so we headed over to a nearby Irish pub and played a game of pool. I totally won, dad you would be proud (although not really because he just happened to be more terrible at it then I was), although I dont think he was too happy about being beat by a girl, haha, oh well. the movie was good, although i didnt remember the first one at all so had some trouble following it, but just watching Daniel Craig run around was fine with me ;). It was fun, and maybe I will see him again this weekend, he has mentioned that he knows some cool jazz clubs, which would be cool. Wednesday I again spent the day running around going to class and trying to get work done, and at night I met up with kristin again over at St.Michel. We went to this place specializing in Italian ice cream, as they boasted like 22 flavors of hot chocolate, which sounded perfect. instead of regular hot chocolate, what it ended up being was basically just hot melted chocolate, not what we were expecting but definitely delicious. so we talked and caught up, she had actually gone to a party tuesday night and met this cool Norwegian girl, who told her about another party on thursday night at the German House (theres a big university area with different houses for different nationalities). So me, Kristin, and Olivia ended up going to this German party last night; it was pretty fun, everyone was just hanging out talking and playing ping pong and foosball in their main room. We headed home a bit after midnight, as they had to close down; another good night, although i was pretty tired from all the work from the week. so yes, this brings me to today, Friday, i dont know what my plans are for the weekend, but it will be nice to have some down time in Paris, to finish up my paper and do a little more exploration of the city...Maybe the Musee d'Orsay. Anyways, gotta go watch a movie for my cinema class, but love you all and will write again soon! Brit

BERLIN

Helllooo,
Or, should I say, guten tag! I just got back from a great weekend in Berlin with Joe and Olivia, another amazing but exhausting trip! We left Thursday after our Atelier class, and went straight to the Orly Airport. What follows was a typical transportation nightmare in Paris, of course. We arrived with plenty of time, and as soon as we walked in we wandered over to the departure screen to check on our 6:40 flight…to discover it had been delayed to 10:15 pm (at the earliest). We were pretty upset, for one thing getting in that late would cause problems with the hostel as check-in hours were limited, but we saw that there was another flight to Berlin originally scheduled for around 4pm that was also delayed, so we figured we would try to switch onto that flight. As we had already checked in online, we thought the best way to deal with this was to just through the security and talk to the people at the gate for the first flight, which we did. Unfortunately, they informed us that for flight changes and the like we would have to go back downstairs, so after talking to the security guards we went back out and down, joining the big line at check-in we were so hoping to avoid. After standing in line for forever, as the check-in was amazingly slow, we finally got up to the counter to explain our situation. Of course, they informed us that we were again in the wrong spot, and pointed us over to the “easy jet” information/help area. Increasingly frustrated, we went and waited in line some more, and then were finally able to talk to someone who could help. We were successfully able to switch to the earlier flight, which was then scheduled to leave at the time our original flight would have left (6:40). They gave us a new print-out, and we headed back up to security, assuming that since we didn’t have bags and had essentially checked in at the info desk, we could just go right to the gate. So on we went, going through security a second time, much to the amusement and confusion of the security guards, and found our way to our new gate. It was pretty crazy, everyone was really upset by the four hour delay, so the poor airport crew was basically just getting yelled at and everyone was getting more and more frustrated. We found a spot and settled in to wait, until around 6pm, when the airport crew announced that there would be a free snack for all those waiting for the flight, in an attempt to quell some of the more angry customers. We happily walked over and got in the long line for free food, when after about a half hour of standing in line my friend Olivia got a call on her cell phone. We watched as she got increasingly panicked while taking on the phone, and then she hung up and informed us that it was someone from check-in, calling to tell us that they were about to close and we still had to check in, and saying basically to really hurry up because they might not be able to do it. We ran off in a panic, heading out of security and explaining what the problem was a second time, and ran down to check-in, where the check in lady grabbed us and made some walkie-talkie calls. In the end, she was able to get us on checked in and on the flight, and with our new tickets in hand, and her yelling at us to hurry, we made our way back to security a third time. By this time the security guards found us pretty funny, “the little family” of silly Americans who just weren’t having any luck. We did however, get successfully through again, got some of the remaining free food, and settled back down to wait for check-in. Finally, the plane arrived, and we took off only about a half hour after when our original flight would have left, big sigh. So yes, so began our trip to Berlin, but luckily it got much much better from there.
We got in to Berlin at around 830 or so, and caught a train from the airport to a station not too far from our hostel. The first thing we noticed about Berlin was that it was freezing; luckily I had learned my lesson in Belgium and Prague and had pulled out my winter coat, plus two layers of sweaters, yes! After a bit of walk from the train station we found the hostel pretty easily, and gave the owners a call so they could come check us in. The hostel was pretty good, about 10 people to a room, so we dropped off our stuff and then headed out to catch a very late dinner as we were pretty hungry. We found a place not far from the hostel that was open til midnight, and served yummy and pretty cheap food. After a nice long dinner, where we used our handy new maps and a guidebook from Sweet Briar to plan out the all we wanted to see. Then it was back to the hostel for a somewhat early bedtime.
The next morning we got up around 9, and found a good café for some hot chocolate and a Danish, breakfast of champions. One of the girls told us that the free tour offered through the hostel was really good, so we decided to do that, meeting up with the group at around 10:25 for the free 3.5 hour tour that hit all the major sites of Berlin. Our tour guide was this amazingly attractive and funny British guy, so I was a happy camper, and on the tour we saw so many incredible parts of Berlin accompagnied by some historical background and little stories. We started by Brandenburg gate, where we also got the longest history lesson-which I found helpful as my history is a bit fuzzy, and then we went over and took a look at the Reichstag. Then it was over to a parking lot, which was actually the spot where Hitler’s Bunker was located (where he actually committed suicide). The spot is unmarked, and the bunker itself is destroyed and inaccessible (it is not advertised basically in an effort to prevent a site where Hitler fans could gather and such). We then saw the Holocaust Memorial (officially called the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a really controversial memorial is it cost millions and millions of dollars, which many Berliners thought could have been better spent (for example on a shuttle to the nearby Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp). The memorial basically consists of a whole bunch of concrete rectangles of varying heights, right in the center of Berlin. We also saw Checkpoint Charlie, which our tour guide explained was really not that interesting, as everything they have setup there is new and fake, but it was still good to see. We of course saw a section of the Berlin wall; it’s so hard to believe it was up until only about 20 years ago…pretty crazy. We saw the TV tower as well as a variety of other newer and historical buildings, all of which I have forgotten the name (German is hard…), as well as the Nazi Book Burning Memorial, located in the square where about 20,000 books were burned, and consisting of a glass covering in the ground, which you look down and see an empty bookshelf (which supposedly could hold 20,000 books)-I’ll let you guys figure that one out, pretty straight-forward. We ended the tour at Museum Island at the Berliner Dome, so impressive. By the end of the tour we were pretty tired from all the walking, and also amazingly cold-the sky was permanently overcast for our visit. We loitered in the Berliner Dome for a bit and tried to come up with a plan of action, deciding to walk around and explore randomly, and eventually pick up some dinner. We eventually found a place, at this point we were really hungry having essentially skipped lunch, so we sat down and got some nice German food-sausage and beer! We finished off dinner with some amazing apple streudel, taking our time and soaking up some heat. Then it was off to the Jewish Museum, which had some really interesting exhibits; the building itself had a very interesting and symbolic design. We then walked around and back over to see the Brandenburg Gate at night, and to explore the Reichstag-which is free to the public, and which we could climb to the top and get an impressive view of Berlin at night (as well as a glimpse of where government business goes down). After a long stop at the Reichstag we started the hike back to the hostel, eventually stopping at an Irish pub not far from the hostel. It turns out it was Karaoke night, so we stayed for a while and laughed at all the drunken Germans singing random English/American songs (“Country road”, “Back in the U.S.S.R.”, “Thunderstruck”), it was very amusing. Then it was off to bed, we had done so much walking and were exhausted.
The next morning we got up again at around 9, and headed out on a really long walk that would eventually take us to a famous statue of an Angel (commemorating the victory of the Franco-Prussian war), and then down to Zoo station (as Olivia particularly wanted a picture at the station, she’s a big U2 fan and apparently they have a song about it). It was SUCH a long walk, and afterwards we stopped and got some yummy Thai noodles for lunch. Then it was off to Charlottenburg, a gourgeous palace (the Berlin version of Versailles). We did the free audio guide, and explored a whole lot of the palace, which took a few hours, including the garden (which I think would be much more impressive in the summer). By the time we were done it was nightfall, and we decided to check out Potsdamer Platz, the business area at Berlin, very modern with the Sony center and such. We took the metro, as it was pretty far from Charlottenburg, and were exited to discover a mini little Christmas/Winter fair, with an artificial hill you could go tubing on!!! Joe and I were very excited, and immediately ran over and got in line among all the little kids-so much fun, reminded me of a mini version of the amazing tubing/sledding hill in Canada-so great. We then wandered around and looked at some of the booths that were st up, and then headed over to see if the Imax theater had anything interesting-as we were at this point very cold and tired, and were running out of things to do. However, there wasn’t really anything worth seeing, so we decided to grab an early dinner of Bratwurst at the little fair, followed by this desert that consisted of a circular pastry thing covered in a vanilla-sauce, which was tasty although I still don’t really know what it was. Then it was time for another epic walk through the city; we stopped along the way at a starbucks for some hot chocolate, and spent a long time just talking and warming up, not to mention resting our feet. Then we braved the cold and continued the walk back, stopping a couple times to check out a few stores, and a long time at this huge book store, where I read a “then and now” book featuring some incredible before and after pictures of Berlin-so much was destroyed. By this time it was getting late, so we headed back to the hostel.
This morning we got up at 715 to get our stuff together and head over to the train station. Unfortunately, we missed the first train to the airport, as it was amazingly confusing, but were then able to grab some breakfast at a little place in the station. We then successfully caught a train and made it to the airport with plenty of time, catching our flight without any problems (although it was delayed about 30min, no big deal). So yes, that was Berlin, probably the most historically interesting city I’ve visited so far. As always, I was glad to come back to Paris today, I love this city so much, I literally start to miss it when I’m away. Plus, it’s so nice to actually speak the language! I was getting tired of communicating via charades and pointing, haha. Germany was very cool though, I would love to see more of it at some point.
This week my main focus will be to do my first “Commentaire Compose” for my litterature class at Paris III, which is basically an around 8 page paper due next week, in french of course. The french style of paper writing is very different than what I’m used to, so it’s definitely going to be challenging. Wish me luck! I also have been communicating with the Study Abroad people at Kenyon, and have learned that it is better to apply through the University of Kansas to go to Santiago de Compostela, as it offers much more support (like Sweet Briar), and apparently there have been some problems with credit transfer and grades when students enroll directly in the Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. I was pretty freaked out when I heard this, as Kenyon never mentioned this stuff to me, so am somewhat frantically trying to get myself enrolled in the UK program-which techinically should have been done by Oct. 11, whoops. Fortunately, I talked with someone at UK, and they said that the main reason they have that so early is so that people can get a visa, and they made it sound like I should be able to get in fine if I apply now, as I am soooo lucky in that I have a British passport and don’t need a visa (that passport has saved my life, thanks Dad-you are brilliant). Unfortunately, I still have to get together a pretty extensive application to the program, which consists of getting lots of signature from Kenyon and teacher reccomendations, all as quickly as humanly possible, ahhh! It’s gonna be tough, so this week will be devoted to getting all that straightened out, so I can go spend the Spring semester in what is supposed to be an absolutely gorgeous town in Spain (not far from the ocean!). Sam is going through all this as well, hopefully she wont have any trouble and we will be able to do this amazing program together! I’m already starting to get excited. At the same time, I’m running out of weekends in Paris, which is scary! It’s going to be really hard to say goodbye to everyone-I’ve made some really great friends, and have fallen in love with this city. But anyways, life is good, I’m also already getting excited to be home for Christmas-I miss you guys! So yes, hopefully this next week will be a productive one, with some Paris exploration mixed in. Love you all, hope all is well, keep a look out for some post cards!
Brit

Exams are icky...and over!

Hey there everybody,
So after much studying and overall mental pain I have finished my two midterms this week, yayyy. Monday was the cinema “partiel”, and it actually went okay. It consisted of four questions, and we had 90 minutes to basically answer them in a short essay style. I took the whole time, and I think I answered the questions pretty well, although my french was definitely not that good, haha. Fortunately, they take the fact that I’m a foreign student into account, so as long as my ideas are good and I was able to get them across, all should be well. Afterwards I headed over to Sweet Briar for my Atelier class, and was delighted to find a package from dad…my new Ipod!!! I was very very happy. After class, and a snack with Alex, I rushed home and got it all set up, life is good again . I even have room now for some music videos, and lots of pictures (I’ve been looking a lot at our pictures from Provence-makes me happy to see you all). That night, I met up with Kristin at Bar Cristal, as usual, and Alex tagged along and was introduced to the magic that is our favorite bar. I even discovered my new favorite drink, called a Monoco or something like that (I don’t know how it’s spelled), that basically tastes like a Shirley Temple, yummy. We had a really good time hanging out and catching up, me celebrating finishing with my stressful cinema exam. Tuesday was a national holiday here, Armistice day, so no classes. It was perfect, as my Art History exam was Wednesday, so I pretty much spent the whole day studying, plus I was feeling pretty sick so I took a nice long nap, and feel significantly better now. So today (Wednesday) I studied some more for my Art History exam, heading to the Louvre to re-look over the stuff we talked about on our visits, and then headed over to Sweet Briar for our exam. It is half of our grade, and was only 20 multiple choice questions. We graded it in class, and I got a 20 out of 20, yayyy! My teacher was impressed, and I was very very happy, all the studying paid off, I am an expert of the French Renaissance . So yes, very successful day, and now I’m about to head out for our class in the Louvre. Afterwards I’m meeting some friends and we’re going to the movies to see “The Ducess” (with Keira Knightley), which is opening tonight, should be fun. Tomorrow I’m off to Berlin after my Atelier class, with my friends Joe and Olivia. I’m so excited, I’ve heard so many good things about the city, and I’m so ready for an adventure after a week of so much stress and studying. Love you all, and will post upon my return to Paris. So excited! Much love,
Brit

Reims, and Paris goodness

Hello everyone.
I apoligize in advance for this post, as it will probably be as convoluted and full of typos as usual, as I am trying to carry on conversations on AIM, listen to Band of Horses, and update my blog at the same time. So here we go. Thursday I did go to the book store to see David Sedaris, he read some stories (always hilarious), and then did a book signing afterwards, which was very cool. He drew a little picture of Abraham Lincoln trapped in a turtle's body in mine (I'm still not entirely sure why...but ok), very cool. That night I ended up going out Kristin and Joe. We found this English bar called the Long Hop, which was a pretty cool bar; it was also student night, so we got drinks half-price, always good. Afterwards we grabbed a crepe and called it a night, heading back in time to catch the metro. Friday I slept in until like 1pm, catching up on some much-needed sleep, and then I spent the day studying for my Cinema midterm tomorrow. I headed over to Paris III and staked out a spot, and then re-watched most of several of the movies. In the evening I headed home and ate an early dinner, jumpy from sitting and watching movies for so long. Feeling impatient, as none of my friends were ready to hang out, I gave Xavier a call to see if he wanted to meet for a drink or something. He did, so I headed back down to Montparnasse to meet up with him. He then took me on a really long walk to find this cafe/bar he wanted to show me that he seemed pretty excited about. However, when we finally arrived it was pretty quiet-apparently they usually have great live music and everything on Friday nights, but the waitress explained that there wasn't one this weekend for some reason :(. We were pretty disappointed, but stayed and had a couple beers, talking and getting to know each other a little better. After a while, I explained that I had promised to meet up with my friends (which was true), so he walked me to the metro and we rode together for a bit before he got off and headed home. I then met up with Kristin, as well as our friend Caroline and two of her friends that were visiting-one of which was Sarah (Heather's friend that I met in Prague). We hung out and talked for a bit in the St. Michel area, before heading home, as they were pretty exhausted from travelling and it was getting a bit late. Saturday morning, I got up at 7am (argh!), as Sweet Briar had a trip to Reims. It was a really good trip; we did a tour of the "Caves" of Champagne, which also included some weird contemporary art scattered throughout it, and got to taste a glass at the end-very good. Afterwards we were given some time to grab lunch and wander around Reims, before meeting in front of the cathedral. We then had a long tour of the Cathedral (Notre Dame), part of which was outside-it was FREEZING. By the end everyone was practically running to the warmth of the bus, and we headed back to Paris, getting in at around 7. My friend Jen and I then went to find some dinner, again in Saint Michel. After walking around a bit, we decided to call it a night, as all of our friends were either out of town, broke, tired, or just had too much work to go out. This was fine with me, i had gotten up at 7 am after all. Not the most exciting over Saturday nights, but a very good day overall. Today, I studied in the morning, then headed over to Kristin's house for lunch-her host mom insists on a huge sunday lunch, and had suggested that Kristin invite a friend over to share it. I of course was more than happy to oblige, my host mom doesn't feed me more than she's required to, so a free lunch is always good. After lunch, we ended up watching an episode of the Colbert Report via her laptop, and then just wasting our time talking and distracting one another. Finally, around 6pm I decided it was time to head home and actually get some work done, so off I went. And here I am, back at McDonald's to use the Wifi, and to take a break from studying...I'm really hoping my exam tomorrow goes okay, since it is all in french, and my first cinema class, i'm kind of stressing. Also, the Professor neglected to post a bibliography, with suggested books and such to read on the subject, until like yesterday; so basically it was utterly worthless, and really frustrating...I had been checking for it online for like two weeks, and he didn't put it up until two days before the exam, ARGH. I'm just going to hope that it's not really necessary. That's the thing about the french system, the teachers will give you a list of like 20-50 books, and you're just supposed to kind of pick a few at will to read...or not, as my literature advisor essentialy told me to do. So we'll see how this goes, hopefully I don't fail miserably, or misunderstand a question and lose my ability to communicate in French :). Wish me luck, love you all,
Brit

VICTORY!

Yayyyyyy OBAMA! We are all so excited for Obama's win, I had a good time celebrating with the french, but wish I could have been back in the states for such an amazing win, I still can't really believe it. I feel like I can finally state with pride that I'm American, although now I don't know what all the random french people will ask me now that the election is over-Obama vs. McCain was always our main topic :). Gotta go to class now, but will post soon about my election night, hooray!


...And back. So election night was difficult as usual, as Paris is want to be. Kristin and I started out at Porte Maillot around midnight for an Obama party, where we ran into our friends Maura and Lucy. It was huge, so many people standing in this gigantic line; we waited around for like an hour and a half before anything happened, and then chaos pretty much broke loose. Everyone was trying to get in, and it got scary crowded and out of control. They also announced that if you hadn't RSVP'd there was no way you were getting in, so as Kristin and I hadn't we headed out, with Maura and Lucy throwing in the towel as well. As we walked away, we ran into a big group of our Sweet Briar friends, so we decided to all go to a place by the Louvre that was supposedly having an all-night party. We took our friend the night bus, which took forever, and finally arrived, only to realise that the bar had to close at 2 (apparently the police hadn't given them permission to stay open allnight or something). Now we were all pretty frustrated, as it was cold and we were basically nowhere close to any bars, plus everything was closed. Fortunately Kristin had a newspaper page with some info about places to go on the election, so we headed out in what turned out to be the wrong direction. We realized this a good 15-minute walk into it, changing plans and heading on a long walk to a place in the 3rd arrondissement. We finally arrived, by now at like 3 in the morning, and entered the main building/mayor's building of the arrondissement, where there was a big screen set up and a bunch of people crowded into a room watching the election coverage. We shouldered our way in to get a view, and i ended up mostly standing there for two hours just watching Barack pull in the votes. It was really cool, everyone there was so excited for Obama, and there was such a mix of people. Lots of Africans, actually, but also a lot of random French people with a few Americans mixed in. It was pretty great, each time Obama won a state everyone would cheer, so much emotion and excitement. At 5 they closed, giving us all a donught on the way out. At this point we had to wait for the metro, which doesn't open until 530, so we walked around a bit, of course it was drizzling, and found a metro station. We finally caught the metro home at around 6, after an unsuccessful search for public bathrooms, so i got home at round 630, still a bit wired from the red bull i drank to keep myself going. I got home and turned on the tv to catch the latest election updates, and got to see Obama and Biden celebrating with their families on stage, so cool. So yes, that was my election night, tiring but wonderful.
Other than that I've just been studying and stuff for school, and mostly sleeping to make up for the all-nighter that was my election night. Last night, however, Xavier gave me a call, and I ended up meeting him at Montparnasse for a drink after dinner. It was actually really fun, we went to a cool bar and got some delicious German beer, and one of his friends joined us, haha (apparently the friend invited himself, and Xavier couldn't say no). His friend was actually really nice and cute, and it was fun talking with the two of them in a combination of french and english, they've known each other for a long time and we had some pretty hilarious, and interesting, conversations. After the bar, it was too late to see a movie (Xavier's original plan), so we decided to walk around awhile before I had to catch the metro. It was a nice night, a bit rainy but still nice, and Xavier told me a bit about the area and showed me a cute little park, his friend trailing along on his bike. We walked around until a little after midnight, and then Xavier walked me to the metro and sent me on my way, as he apparently lived close by and could just walk home. It was a really nice night, it was nice to get to know him better, he seems like a really cool and interesting guy, and hopefully I will see him again soon :). So yes, there you go, romantic adventures in Paris, juicy stuff, haha. Now I have to go do some work before a consultation with one of the Sweet Briar professors who helps with Literature papers. Then i'm going to see David Sedaris with a couple of friends, yay, i'm very excited. Alrighty then, hope all is well with everyone, love you lots,
Brit

Oh Paris, why must you test me? and Lloyd's visit!

Hey there everybody,
Sorry I’ve slacked a bit on the blogging, although honestly I didn’t have a whole lot to report last week, I’ve actually got a lot of school work (it was bound to happen…), so am not able to do the usual explorations. I did, however, just have a great weekend with Ryan (Lloyd), one of my best friends from Kenyon, who came from London to visit for a bit, yay! So yes, last week was kind of a stressful week, lots of me running around trying to find books to use for studying and a big paper, as well as trying to fix my Ipod (and failing…I am sending it home tomorrow as Paris does not have an Apple store here-apparently there is one being built, sigh). As for the internet, there is no progress, my host mom has officially given up on it, and I don’t want to move, so more nights at McDonalds for me…argh. Friday was really great, as Sweet Briar organized a trip to the Catacombes in the morning, super cool/creepy, and then afterwards a bunch of us went to this huge chocolate exhibit that was going on this weekend (the catocombes and chocolate, perfect for Halloween). Basically, it consisted of just a huge room filled with lots of booths/tables of chocolate producers, who gave out free samples and such, so great. After gorging ourselves on free samples, Kristin and I went to go try and find a movie theater by the train station, but after no success just ended up wandering around the area. We then went to the train station and met Lloyd, yay! It was really great to see him, although I admit it was kind of hard-so many memories of Kenyon that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with. After we met, we spent forever trying to get him a weekend pass, which took entirely too long as the automated machines are evil and only accept American credit cards about half the time, but we finally figured it out and headed out to find his hostel. Unfortunately, being Lloyd, he had managed to book a hostel in pretty much the sketchiest area of Paris-my good book says it’s known as the place to go for drugs…Lots of people trying to sell us packets of cigarettes, begging, and overall crowded scariness. Upon reaching the hostel, Kristin mentioned that her host mom was actually gone for the weekend, and that since she has an extra bed in her room she invited us to both just stay at her place for the weekend, perfection. So Ryan cancelled his reservation and we got out of there as quick as we could, stopping by Kristin’s house to drop off his stuff. Ryan and I then went out to dinner in the Bastille area, while Kristin ate the dinner her host mom made for her. We went to this really great Mexican place, getting a chance to catch up, it had been a while. Afterwards, we met up with Alex, Emily, Abby, and Jen at the Pub down the street we like to visit (happy hour til 11!), where we got a couple drinks and hung out for a bit before heading over to an Australian bar Alex had found, where you can play beer pong! Unfortunately, we only got in one game, as the place had only one table, but Lloyd and I were victorious, yesss. Then it was off to a café for a bit to chat, before me, Lloyd, and Kristin (who had met us at the beer pong place) decided to head out and catch the last metro home (the others decided they were going to pull there first late night in Paris and stay out til 5:30pm-when the metro starts running again. I don’t know yet if they acutally did, haha.) So off we went, catching the first metro no problem, and then waiting, waiting, and waiting at the next….And it didn’t come! Apparently we had just missed it, so we were far from home at 2am, and it was freezing and raining, ARGH. By this point, Lloyd and I were both really tired (he was going on two hours of sleep from the night before, and I was just exhausted from everything that week), but Kristin valiantly stepped up and figured out the night bus situation, which was my first time taking it. It was so miserable, so cold, so wet; we walked awhile to the station, getting lucky both times in that we only had to wait a bit when we got there, and finally made it back to her place a good 45 minutes later. We just were not having luck with transportation this weekend, Lloyd’s passes also gave us tons of trouble-the stupid machines rejected them the vast majority of the time. Fortunately, when we got back to Kristin’s place, she prepared some hot tea and a plate of cake that her host mom had told her to eat, and we watched an episode of the Colbert Report via her Wifi (lucky bitch ;). Overall then, it was okay, but such an ordeal.
Saturday started off pretty bad as well, with Kristin having a huge amount of trouble getting her Carte Navigo recharged (we have to do this each month to use the public transportation). After much difficulty, we did however make it to the Marais, where we visitied the Centre Pompidou, this huge, awesome modern art museum I had been meaning to check out for a while. It was very interesting, with the mix of really bizarre and incomprehensible art, as well as some of the better known artists such as Dali, Picasso, Matisse, etc. After exploring the museum for quite a while, we left and got some ice cream before heading to Saint Chappelle and the Conciergie. Unfortunately, by that time it was already around 5:30, so neither was open. However, it was a beautiful night in Paris, so we walked along the Seine, falling back in love with our oh-so-frustrating at times city. It was beautiful, so we walked around for quite a while, eventually meeting up with our friend Olivia and continuing up the Champs-Elysées. Then Ryan and I went off to find some dinner, and Kristin headed back to her place for hers. We went to the Latin Quarter and found a pretty cheap place with Panninis, yum. I even got a free cookie from the waiter . Then it was off to do more random wandering, which eventually took us to Shakespeare and Co, the famous English bookstore frequented by James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, etc. I ended up getting a book by David Sedaris that I had been meaning to read for forever (“Me talk pretty one day”); I mainly bought it because he is actually coming to Paris on Thursday, which is super exciting! His books are just really clever and funny, I really hope to see him and maybe get a copy of his new book. Anyways, Ryan and I also explored a bit of Ile St. Louis, at the end stopping in a little café to split some Berthillon ice cream, which is supposed to be like the best ice cream ever….it was pretty damn good. By that time we were ready to head back to Kristin’s place, as Ryan needed to submit an application before midnight (he likes to procrastinate). After talking and hanging out a bit we took Ryan over to Bar Cristal, where we had a couple drinks and had a good time laughing at our adorable bar tender. We stayed there until it closed at 2, before heading back to Kristin’s house for some more Colbert Report and then sleep. Sunday, we got up earlier, and Ryan and I headed to check out Les Invalides, a short walk from Kristin’s place. It was very cool, another site I hadn’t seen yet in Paris, where Napoleon’s tomb is located. There was also a really interesting museum, a large part of which focused on WWI and WWII, very interesting. We then headed over to the Pantheon, so Ryan could see it, he was very excited to see Rousseau and Voltaire in particular. After that, we called up Kristin, who met us for lunch in Montmartre. We had some delicious Indian food, and then headed up the steps to the Sacre-Coeur, again one of my favorite places in Paris. After sitting and listening to a rather unfortunate rendition of “Wish You Were Here”, we went into the Church for a bit, and then walked out to look at the little shopping area where lots of painters display there work. Then it was time to start heading back a bit, so we walked down and through the Pigalle, so he could see the Moulin Rouge, before hopping on the metro and heading back to Kristin’s house to get our stuff. Then it was goodbye, as Ryan had to catch his train home, so I rode the metro most of the way before sending him on his way back to London. Like I said, it was really great to see him, and share this city and these people that I have come to love. Hopefully I will get to visit him in London next semester, and he can do the same. So yes, good weekend, although now I have to get back to thinking about all the work I have to get done in the next week, ick. Wish me luck!
Much love,
Brit

PRAGUE

Hey all,
Last night I got back from an amazing weekend in Prague, where Kristin and I stayed with Heather in her dorm. We had such a great time, we saw a lot, had some great food, and had a fun time catching up. Kristin and I left early Friday morning, getting up at around 5, and then taking the metro, RER, and Orlyval to Paris Orly, where we caught our flight to Prague (about a two-hour flight). We got in at around 11, and then took a bus and a metro to meet Heather at the metro station close to her dorm. We spent some time catching up and getting settled into our dorm, and figuring out the plan for the weekend, before heading out for lunch at an amazing noodle place. Then, we explored some of the city, with Heather’s friend Sarah (who was really nice), seeing some significant spots in Czech history, before catching the tram to a famous strudel place. It’s basically just a tiny strudel place that most people would miss, but it has been featured on the travel channel and such as having the best strudel in the world, so of course we had to get some! We climbed up the hill to a little park and sat on a bench to eat our apple strudel, delicious, where we also got a pretty view of Prague in the fall. Then it was off to visit the TV tower, which features these creepy babies/aliens crawling over it (I’m still not quite sure why…). We paid to go up to the top, where we got a really cool view of the city, although it was pretty foggy, so a bit limited. After a bit of a walk, we headed back to the dorm to hang out for a bit before heading out to a nearby bar (“Dogs Bollocks”, haha) for some Hoegaarden with Sarah and this guy named John (who said he almost went to Kenyon, but is at Haverford, and new some of our friends on the Sweet Briar Program, as did Sarah-who goes to Northwestern). Then it was off to dinner, where we tried to go to a couple Czech restaurants by the dorm, but they were full, so we headed to a really good pizza place. Afterwards, we headed to a bar known for having different flavors of beer. We tried some samples, deciding that our favorite was the banana flavor…yummy! After the bar, we headed back home, as Kristin and I were too tired to go to a club or anything, where we stayed up a bit late just talking and hanging out.
Saturday, we got up relatively early and caught breakfast at the hotel, then set off to see the castle. It was so cool; we saw the beautiful chapel, as well as a museum housing a bunch of interesting artifacts and such, and then Golden Alley (I think), with a bunch of little stores and stuff, including one with a bunch of armor-where we all paid to shoot a crossbow, fun, as well as a prison with all this old torture stuff…cool! We also went to the Toy Museum, which I have to say has been my favorite museum so far, haha. They even had a Barbie exhibit going on, so we learned some of the actually really interesting of Barbie, and basically saw its evolution-it was really funny to see all the different outfits from different decades. Then we headed out to Bohemia Bagel, where we got our first American breakfast in forever! I got some delicious blueberry pancakes and such, it was funny, I felt like I was back in the US-hanging out with Heather, hearing English all around me, and eating American-style breakfast food…it was nice. We then crossed the beautiful bridge, lined with sculptures, to head into old town, where we saw the famous clock tower, and saw it on the hour-where a skeleton rings a bell and the apostles come out the sides. We even climbed it, as Kristin’s friend from home specifically called her from home to tell her it was a must, and got a really nice view of Old Town. We then walked around for a while and headed back, heading back to the dorm, and then out to an authentic Czech restaurant. It was really nice, we sat on benches and they brought us their home-made beer. Kristin and I split an order of Goulash, the Czech dish, consisting of meat (I believe beef) in a yummy broth, as well as some potato dumplings. Delicious. We also had some shots of Becherovka, a special kind of Czech liquor with lots of different kinds of herbs from all over, not my cup of tea, but okay. Afterwards, we met up with John, as well as our friend Ben from sweet briar, who it turns out was visiting someone from Heather’s program, which was funny. We all went to this fun bar, where it’s basically a giant drinking game. There are taps at the table, and it’s all done electronically, where the tables get points for ever .5L of beer they drink, and there’s a big screen listing each table and their points. They even compare different bars around bar, showing which bar has drunk the most. We weren’t feeling too competitive, but it was still fun, and definitely a cool idea. Afterwards, me, Kristin, Heather, and Sarah headed to a 5-story club, which was really fun. It was great, we hung out mainly on the fourth floor, which played a bunch of American rap that we all knew, good time. When we were too tired to dance anymore, we headed back to the dorm, and fell asleep not too long after.
The next morning we slept in a bit, gaining an extra hour from Daylight Savings, yes!, before heading out. We had missed the dorm’s breakfast, so we got some fresh juice from this amazing place by the dorm, and then tried Trdelnik-an amazing Czech pastry. We then went to see the Lennon wall, where graffiti was written following his death. The police apparently would paint it over every night, but it would always reappear. It was a really cool thing to see, all about peace and love. Then we headed over to the Gardens, which were really cool, with sculptures, a wall made to look like that of a cave and featuring a cage with real owls, etc. There was even a duck pond! We then went and saw an interesting sculpture, depicting a man losing parts of his body in different stages, essentially representing the effects of communism. We then went to an amazing Mexican restaurant for lunch, so good, we all agreed that we missed Mexican food from the U.S., and it’s the one type of food Paris seems to lack. Then it was off to a nearby church, where there is the famous baby Jesus, which people send in clothes to wear. They had a display of some of the different outfits from all over the world, it was really cool, they were all really elaborate and beautiful. We then walked through a touristy area to check out souvenirs and such before heading back to the dorm, to collect our stuff and head out. Then it was goodbye, and Kristin and I headed back to the airport, where or flight was delayed for two hours because of the heavy fog, argh. I finally got home close to 11pm, what a weekend! It was such a great trip; so nice to have Heather, it was like a personal tour guide! So yes, Prague was great, Aunt Sandy and Uncle Alex I know you will enjoy it, although I’m excited to have the next two weekends in Paris-a break from the craziness of traveling.
This morning my host mom was kind of pissy, she said that Madame Parnet called about the internet situation, and kept repeating that she cannot “faire des miracles” (make miracles), that she works so much and doesn’t have time…sigh. Madame Parnet talked to me today and said that my host mom had said she would take care of it this week (although my host mom didn’t tell me this, so we’ll see if it actually happens). Oh well, I will live. Tonight I think Kristin and I are heading to Bar Cristal to see our favorite bartenders, yay! So yeah, life is good here, love you all!
Brit

Oh technology...

Hey everybody,
So this has been a rather uneventful and kind of stressful week for me, but fortunately today I took care of some stuff. I guess I will start from the beginning, Monday during the day I was feeling pretty upset with my host mom. Basically, I feel like I'm constantly screwing up, she has all these little things I have to remember to do in her apartment, and I always do them, but somehow not right, not good enough, I dont even know. But basically she just keeps repeating all these little things I need to do, just when im about to do them, its getting really old. On top of that, she hasn't done anything to try and fix the internet, which is such a problem for me. I basically have to plan my day around finding stupid internet access, so I can communicate with friends and family, not to mention coordinate travel plans, look up stuff for class, coordinate stuff for next semester, etc. My laptop is really big and heavy, perfect for wifi at home but not for walking around Paris, so my days have been really limited. Essentially, I was and am just feeling really frustrated by the whole situation, as im like the only person who doesnt have wifi at their house, and my host mom just isnt making much of an effort. So yeah, Monday I was feeling pretty crappy, annoyed, frustrated, and even a bit homesick, so I went over to Kristin's place to use her wifi before heading to Bar Cristal. I felt so much better, after venting to Kristin, and it was really fun just relaxing and hanging out, and talking to our friends the bartenders. They even played "Born in the USA" for us, and Led Zeppelin, which they remembered we like. It was really fun, Dan (one of the bartenders) even invited us out for a drink after they closed, but then realized it was a Monday and everything is closed by 2, haha, oh well. Tuesday was pretty uneventful, I stayed in and caught up on sleep, as was Wednesday until the evening...When my water bottle spilled in my purse...where my Ipod was...So essentially I broke my Ipod, and was very upset. Im going to wait a week to make sure its all dried out, and then try to get it going, but there's little hope...Also, I discovered there's no freaking Apple store in Paris, so I dont even know how to go about getting it looked at if it doesnt work. So yeah, basically I had a horrible night, called mom who made me feel better, and then went to bed early, resolving to take care of stuff today...which I did. I just talked to Madame Parnet (One of the people in charge at Sweet Priar), about the whole internet problem, and she is going to speak to my host mom about it. If for some reason she wont get me internet, there is another host family not far from where Im living now that has room for another student, and that has internet. So who, knows, I might be moving...We'll see. Anyways, tomorrow I leave early early in the morning for Prague with Kristin, where I'm staying with Heather!!! ( who is studying there for the semester). I'm so excited, it will also be really nice to see someone from home. So yea, there's the stressful update, sorry it's not a fun one, I promise my next one I will have returned from Prague and be in a much better mood. :)
Much love,
Brit

ITALY

Hey there!
So I just got back from an amazing but exhausting weekend in Italy with my friend Kristin. I’m actually watching the movie about The Doors, which my host mom is also watching, as I can here her singing along to “Light My Fire”, haha, so cute. So yeah, I’ve been up to a lot since my last post…here it goes! Thursday night ended up being a really random but fun night. I came over to Kristin’s house to meet her and convince her to go to Le Mixe (the club from the week before), and sat with her while she finished up a really late dinner (she has class til 9 Thursdays). We were in her little kitchen, which has a pretty big window facing a bunch of other apartment buildings that form a kind of square. Anyways, we were sitting and talking, when we noticed that in one of the apartments right across from us there was a party or something going on, with several people standing by the window talking and smoking. They noticed us, and immediately started waving at us to come over, which we found hilarious, so after much giggling I opened the window and waved back. One of the guys started telling us his cell phone number, as quietly as possible as it’s a pretty quiet neighborhood, so we wrote it down and gave them a call. They gave us the code and number of their building, and we were feeling adventurous, so off we went to find the party, figuring if it was lame or sketchy we could always bail and head over to Le Mixe. When we got there, we called the guy’s cell, and he let us in. It ended up being really fun, it was a bunch of french students studying in the same business school together, they were really friendly, and had fun asking us about life in America and such. They were all our age, just hanging out in this guy’s apartment talking and relaxing. After quite a while, everyone headed out; a few of them went on to find a dance club on the Champs-Elysees, but Kristin and I decided to stay by her house and head to the Bar Cristal to get a drink and laugh about it all. Hopefully we will see them again at some point-they gave us a flyer to this really big Halloween party they’re planning to go to, that is organized by the university, sounds like it will be really cool. Anyways, since it was too late to catch the metro, I spent the night at Kristin’s place, where she has an extra bed in her room, and headed out early the next morning to get all ready to leave for Italy...such a random night.
So Friday afternoon it was off to Italy! Getting there was a bit tricky, as I took a bus to Porte Maillot, caught a shuttle to the Aeroport Beauvais (which took a little over an hour), where we then caught our plane to the Pisa airport. We arrived without problems, and at the airport I even saw a friend (Emily May) from Chapel Hill High! It was too crazy, I said hello and we chatted a bit, she was with a group of students from Davidson, who are studying in Tours-they did exactly the opposite of what we did, starting in Paris for a couple weeks and then heading to Tours for the semester (we definitely have the better setup). But anyways, as I said it was pretty crazy to see her, we were on the same flight and such. So Kristin and I got into Pisa at around 8pm, and then we caught a bus to Florence (which took another hour and a half). Finally, we arrived in Florence, and set out with our guide book to find the hostel I booked. Fortunately, it was just a short walk from the station, so we checked in and left our stuff to go find a place to eat. We soon found a delicious pizza place, where we ate our first Italian meal, complete with white wine, delicious. By the time we finished dinner it was pretty late, and we were both tired, so we headed back to the hostel to get some rest so we could get up early on Saturday. The hostel was descent-only 13 euro a night, yes!, and we had our own room and a private bathroom, good deal. We stayed up talking for a bit, and eventually went to sleep.
The next morning we got up early, and got some breakfast included in the hostel. Then it was off for a day of wandering, the first stop being “Le Duomo”, the cathedral Santa Maria, including the Cupola del Duomo, the domed ceiling of the cathedral covered in a painting by Brunelleschi depicting various scenes of the last judgement. We climbed all the way up to the top, over 400 steps, to catch one of the most beautiful views of Florence, it was really amazing (and also very tiring). We also visitied les Cappelle Medicee, which was huge, and really beautiful inside and out. Afterwards we went and saw a museum/former palace of one of the greatest families in Italy (I think it was called the Palazzo Vecchio), running into a huge student protest on the way. Apparently the government is doing something that raises university prices a lot, we weren’t entirely sure what was going on…but yeah it was pretty cool, there were so many people marching, with Bob Marley blaring in the background. Anyways, we then headed over to la Galleria dell’Accademia, where we saw David and all sorts of other paintings and sculptures. Then it was time for lunch, so we stopped at another pizza place to rest and eat, delicious, and then heading toward the river, walking through a beautiful piazza littered with statues, including the fountain of Neptune. We then reached the Ponte Vecchio, and crossed it, checking out the many jewelry stores as we passed (too expensive for us!). Then it was time for some gelato, so we each grabbed a cone and sat on the wall boarding the river. After talking and resting for a while, we went off to discover what was on the other side of the bridge, including the Palazzo Pitti, and a few more churches I know forget the name of. By the time we were finished, it was getting late, so we headed back in the direction of the hostel, at this point pretty exhausted. We stopped by the station to check out train times, and then grabbed our bags at the hostel and got ready to go. Then it was off to Pisa, and an hour and a half train ride later we arrived.
Upon arriving at the Pisa Central Station, it was time to find our hostel; I had directions for the bus, but we were feeling adventurous (and impatient) and decided to save a couple euro and walk there. Unfortunately, our hostel was just off the map we had, but we knew the general location and figured we could find it. So off we went, traversing Pisa, stopping about half-way to find dinner. We both got pasta, and finished with some amazing Tiraimasu. The service was really slow, and by the time we finished it was already approaching midnight. On we went, walking in the general direction of the hostel, until we started to get out into the residential area. There was no one around, and pretty soon we were lost…without a map, tired, and of course Kristin had to go to the bathroom. Fortunately, we stumbled across a friendly Italian couple, who gave us directions through pointing and repetitions of the street name (they didn’t speak english, sigh), and off we went in what we hoped was the right direction. Unfortunately, not so much. We walked farther and farther, and were getting pretty nervous…I tried to call the hostel, but couldn’t get it to work with my french cell phone. Finally, as we were deciding to walk back all the way to the city center, we noticed an older couple and two others standing outside their house. We rushed over, asking if they spoke English, and then asking if they knew the name road we were looking for. To our surprise, they responded yes, they knew the road, as we were on it! Lots of “Gratzi” later, we were off in the right direction, and easily found our hostel just a short walk away, what a relief! It also just so happened that the owner pulled up right as we arrived, so he was able to let us in and get us all situated. He was really nice, and gave us a map, marking the important landmarks and the bus stations we would need. Then it was off to bed, as we were both exhausted.
The next morning we slept in a bit later, as we hadn’t reached the hostel until about 1am, and had both agreed we would take it slower on Sunday, since there’s really not a whole lot to see in Pisa besides the mean square with the leaning tower and such. So off we went to find the square, stopping for a snack on the way, and then we arrived at the tower! It was really cool, very pretty, and of course we had to get the obligatory pictures of us pretending to hold it up. We then checked out the cathedral, also very beautiful, and then went and found a gelato place to sit and hang out for a bit. As we sat, we looked at the map the hostel owner had given us, and noticed that there was a bus tour of Pisa that left right by where we were. Since we were carrying our bags and such with us, the bus tour sounded perfect, so we climbed aboard, sitting at the top to get some fresh air and the best views. It was really nice, the weather was incredible, and it was cool to hear some of the history of Pisa, and see parts of it that would otherwise have been too far. Afterwards, it was time to find the bus to take us to the airport, which we found with ease thanks to our handy map. We made it to the airport with plenty of time, oh the marvels of public transportation, and then it was back to Paris. It was an amazing trip, as I said very tiring, hopefully I will get to go back to Italy at some point, it’s such a great country, and see Rome, Venice, etc.
Alors, voila! That was Italy, and now it’s back to class for the week. I love walking around in Paris right now, it’s getting a bit colder, and feels really fresh and nice out…perfection. Phew, I think that was my longest post yet! Will write again soon, much love,
Brit

Fall in Paris

Hey there,
So life in Paris is continuing as usual, I am super happy because the weather has been perfect lately-the early stages of fall, and relatively warm and nice. I love the fresh air, and watching the leaves change in Paris, fall always was my favorite season. This week has been a typical week, just classes and random hanging out. Monday, I had my cinema class again; we are studying films by Jean Rouche, which are really interesting-he's a french guy that went to Africa and made a bunch of films, where he basically just followed Africans around in their daily lives, allowing them to create there own story. We've seen three so far, it's really interesting stuff, and was very controversial when it came out, with Europeans claiming it was too pro-Africa and Africans calling it racist. Monday night, I actually met up with Xavier, who had been trying to reach me for a couple days, and it never worked out. In any case, we ended up going to a cafe by my house, and just chatting and whatnot for a while. He is very into his motorcycle, and tried to convince me to go on a ride with him, but I refused, haha, maybe next time. He's a nice guy, I don't know if anything will come of it, as he is 24 (ack!) and might be a little too badass for me, but we'll see. It was nice to talk to him about Paris (where he has pretty much lived all his life), and France in general, I was surprised by some of the things he said. So yeah, it was a good time, and he said he would give me a call some time soon. Tuesday, I had my literature class again, which was alright, and I just spent time at Sweet Briar taking care of stuff online, as I've decided to study abroad in Spain spring semester, hooray! On tuesday, my host mom told me she was finally going to go to Fnac to get stuff for the internet, but it turns out the thing she wanted to get requires a phone line, which she no longer has because she just uses her cell phone. ARRRGHH, i was so annoyed, as now she says she doesn't know what to do, and I know she wont deal with it until she has her days off, so another week. Alas, I am still without internet at my house, which is killing me-I have so much stuff going on that I need to take care of, for next semester, class, travel plans, and just keeping up with everyone in general. Anyways, that night I went over to Alex and Jen's house, to hang out and use their Wifi, which was cool-it's good to see them, as I often don't see Jen much during the week, plus I got to watch an episode of the Office (which Alex has on DVD), yay. Wednesday (yesterday), I had art history, which was pretty good as usual, again i really enjoyed the Louvre visit where we looked at paintings. Afterwards, I called my friend Olivia to meet up to get a drink or something, as i didn't feel like going home yet, so we went and found a little cafe and sat outside, enjoying the beauty that is Paris at night. Today, I had my atelier class, always good, and then headed over to the Museum of Paris (Musee Carnavalet), as she is a history geek and likes that kind of stuff, so she took me on a little tour. It was really cool, especially with all the stuff concerning the French Revolution, which I studied at Kenyon. Afterwards, I went to MacDO, where I am now, to use the internet and plan out the trip to ITALY, yayyy, which I am leaving for tomorrow...Florence and Pisa, so excited. Tonight, some friends and I are planning to head to "Le Mix", where we tried to go to last week, this time we know to be early :). It should be really fun, my first dance club in Paris, yay! So yeah, I'm busy as usual, and am so excited to head to italy tomorrow-hopefully everything will go smoothly, as we are planning on spending a night in Florence and a night in Pisa, which involves lots of various modes of transportation. Alrighty then, my computer is dying so that means it's time to go. Love you all, Happy day-after-your-birthday Mom, and will post again when I get back from Italy!
Bisous,
Brit

Normandie

Hey everybody,
Just got back from a great but somewhat exhausting weekend in Normandie (or Normandy, as we Americans would say), it was a lot of fun. So it’s been a bit since my last post, sorry, no internet access in Normandie, and of course still not internet in my house (although my host mom said she was going to buy a new internet thing on Monday or Tuesday…finally). Thursday night ended up being kind of lame, we were all ready to go to this club that lets in international students for free on Thursdays until midnight, but even though we got there at around 11:30 the line was so long we couldn’t get in on time (and we were too cheap to pay the 15 euro entrance fee). So after walking around a bit we decided to call it a night; I was feeling pretty tired anyway, maybe next week we will get there earlier and give it another go. Friday I slept in a bit and then headed out to find a library that had a book I needed for class. Of course, what should have taken 20 minutes took me like two hours, as I got unbelievably lost and ended up wandering around for at least an hour, but it was okay as it was a nice day, and I got the chance to explore my arrondissement, haha. When I finally found the library, which was in fact only about 15 minutes from my apartment, it didn’t open until 2pm, so I had to wait around for a while anyway, sigh, I feel like I’m always doing that in France-things are never open, people are always taking breaks and such, haha. But anyways, after so much effort, I was able to find the book I needed for class, and triumphantly obtained a library card that works at a slew of libraries throughout Paris, success! Afterwards, I headed home to rest a bit and start in on the book, and shortly after got a call from Kristin, who wanted to hang out. We ended up heading over to Montmartre, where we checked out the infamous Moulin Rouge, and walked up the x-rated Pigalle, scandalous. We then got some amazing Haggen-das (I have no idea how to spell this) ice cream cones and climbed up to the Sacre-Coeur, where we sat on the steps and listened to a German singer we both fell madly in love with . It was really nice, a gorgeous day, just sitting listening to some of our favorite songs, with the amazing view of Paris in the background…so great. This soccer guy even started a performance next to the singer, doing all sorts of crazy tricks.We then headed back to her place, where I had dinner with her, before heading out to a free comedy show organized by an international student organization. It was all in french, of course, in this little theatre, kind of funny but not amazing, although I was proud that I was able to understand the various sketches. We then met up with three other friends to check out a “cheap bar” as they put it, which ended up being our secret bar! So yeah, Kristin and I had a good laugh over that, and felt special as we knew the bartenders, yessss. We hung out for a bit, and then headed home, as I had to get up early for the trip to Normandie (before 7am! I almost died.).
So Saturday it was off to Normandie; we took the train and got there at around 10am, arriving in Bayeux to see a famous Tapestry, and to find some lunch and explore. Afterwards, we headed to Omaha beach, and saw the American cemetery. It was really moving, and very strange in that the weather was gorgeous, so the beach was beautiful…hard to believe it was a site of such horrors. We also went to “la Pointe du Hoc”, where German troops were stationed, overlooking the ocean. There are huge craters where bombs went off, hinting at the destruction of so many years ago. Afterwards, it was time to head to the hotel for dinner, so we hopped on the bus for a long ride. We ended up staying in a Best Western, which we all found pretty amusing, but it was actually really cute and nice, apparently Best Western is all over Europe, and they’re known for being at least three star hotels. After dinner Alex and I headed up to our room to relax and watch TV, which was filled with shows in German, which we found amusing (we watched a George Clooney for awhile, I thought of you, Grandma, although I must say with the voice-over George is just not the same), particularly the German MTV. We also got CNN, and actually got to watch the news in English! Exciting! There was even a clip of the Daily Show, where John Stewart was interviewing Michelle Obama-excellent. Eventually we dozed off, waking up early Sunday morning to eat breakfast and get on the road.
Off we went to le Mont Saint-Michel, which was absolutely gorgeous, basically a huge monastery sitting on the top of a hill, with sand and water surrounding it. However, it is known for having quicksand; apparently every year several people are killed because of it, scary! We spent a few hours exploring the monastery and the winding roads around it, lots of walking, with beautiful views. Then it was off to Saint Malo, a beautiful town on the coast. The water was amazing, it was so nice to walk on the beach, I felt like I was at the Outer Banks, it was so nice. The town itself was also really cute and nice, it was nice just wandering around exploring with Jen, Abby, and Alex. Afterwards we headed over to the train station, and caught the train back to Paris, phew! As you can see, it was a very busy weekend, and as I said the weather was absolutely amazing, it felt like early spring!
So now I’m off to bed, I’m so exhausted; love you all and I will write again soon.
Brit

Daily life in Paris

Hey everybody,
So not a whole lot going on here, during the week I just spend my time running around going to classes, or trying to find the stuff I need to read or watch for my classes, as well as firming up travel plans and doing the necessary booking. I’m also still without internet at my house, ahhhhhh, so I waste lots of time struggling with various WiFi networks and trying to get pictures and such slowly uploaded, sigh. I’m even currently without iTunes, as I accidently deleted Quicktime and the internet connections are all to slow to let me download it again…how will I survive!? Hehe, but in general, I’m still loving it here in Paris. Monday, I had my cinema class again, which was kind of a joke-it turns out a lot of people couldn’t access the reading online, and since the movie wasn’t at the library most of us (myself included) weren’t able to watch it before class. So, in class we watched extracts from the movie we were supposed to have watched, and he handed out copies of the article we were supposed to have read (which I did, yay me). The article was also in English, as he couldn’t find it in french, so it took FOREVER for everyone to read it in class, so I basically just sat there…so worthless. But oh well, hopefully it will be better next week, as the movie is definitely at the library, now I just have to find the reading…So difficult. I met up with Kristin for lunch on Monday, as we had gone the whole weekend without seeing each other (gasp!), and we hung out again that night at our secret bar, which ended up being really fun. We have befriended two of the bartenders that work there, Dan and Tony, who are two really nice french guys that enjoy talking to us and letting us in on practical jokes and such. We even got some free drinks, yes! And, they look out for us, saving us from creepy old men that try to hit on the Americans…We met this really cool guy from New York, who was staying in Paris for a week before making his way around Europe and eventually to Morocco, where he wants to teach English and live for a while. He was carrying a guitar with him, and it turns out he is also into music, and is taking recording from the places he visits and such. Really cool guy, he even taught in Brazil for several months, and is just traveling around learning new languages at each place he goes. Tuesday I had my literature class again, which was good, I really like it, and yesterday I had my art history class, including the Louvre visit where we looked at various sculptures. Again, it was really interesting, and the professor is amazing, really funny and adorable, and really encourages participation, I love that class. Last night, I spent forever messing around on the internet trying to get travel stuff figured out, and finally succeeded at around 1am. I am officially going to Berlin, yay!!!, so far with two of my friends from Sweet Briar, maybe more eventually. I also booked hostels for Pisa/Florence for the weekend after next, and talked to Ryan-who is hopefully coming to Paris to visit me oct.31-nov.2-ish, yayyy. I’m so excited to see him, I hope everything works out. So yeah, today I have my atelier class, and I’m going to meet with my friend Olivia to book hostels for Berlin after class, and then hopefully go see the movie I need to see for class Monday, ack. So yeah, busy day, and I want to go out on the town tonight, since no class tomorrow (yesss). Alrighty then, off I go, much love, sorry the post is kind of boring but oh well,
Brit

BELGIUM

Yes, I went to Belgium this weekend, and it was amazing! I left on Thursday with Joe and Dana, following my Atelier d’ecriture class (which I love). We met at the Gare du Nord, and then waited around for the train to arrive, turns out we didn’t need as much time to figure out the train station as we thought we did. Then, it was on the train and off to Brussels, where we then switched trains and headed to Bruges. The trains were actually really nice, and very easy to figure out-we didn’t have any problems, despite the fact that in Bruges the main language is Dutch (ack!). We arrived in Bruges after dark, and set out to from the train station, map in hand, to explore the city at night. The weather was nice, and the city was quiet and gorgeous, so we wandered around admiring all the pretty old buildings in this neat little town. Hungry, we picked up some of the infamous Belgian fries for dinner-delicious, and then went off to find the hostel and get settled in a bit. We stayed in the Snuffel hostel, a cheap but descent hostel with a nice bar area, free breakfast and sheets, etc. Plus, it’s called Snuffel, which is adorable (almost as adorable as “Snuggle”, which Joe kept accidentally calling it). We also went to find some Belgian beer, and ended up in a club that was having a “jungle party”, basically with lots of techno-ish music and lots of smoke and jungle decorations, pretty fun. We all slept well, and woke up the next morning fairly early to catch the free breakfast and get going. Again, we walked all over town, stopping for waffles for lunch, and headed into the museum of the city to check out the building and learn a bit about Bruges. It was really gorgeous in the morning, and there were so many nice houses to see, not to mention all the old cathedrals and such we got to check out. We even walked to the edge of town to see the windmills, as well as a couple sites, including a wall containing bullet holes-where 12 men were killed by the Germans in one of the world wars, as well as one of the original entrances to the city. Not long after, the weather turned cold and rainy, so we sought refuge in a fancy restaurant and ordered some hot chocolate, and lingered there to warm up and rest our feet. Afterwards, we walked around some more before heading to an amazing dinner of traditional Belgian food, where I ordered some delicious cherry-flavored beer (Kriek) and Mussels, yum! We then headed back to the hostel to hang out, as it was really cold and rainy, and to take advantage of the cheap bar. We ended up playing a drinking game and having fun just talking and hanging out, and then we went to bed at a decent hour. Saturday, we finally did a boat ride in the morning (Bruges is known as the “Venice of the North”, as it has lots of canals), which was gorgeous and really fun. Of course, we picked up some chocolate and such throughout our stay in Bruges, and overall it was really great, such a cool little town. After the boat tour we set out to find the train station, to get tickets and head to Brussels.
We got to Brussels at around noon, and walked around a bit from the train station and found a place for lunch. We then walked around some more, checked out the main square (which Victor Hugo called the most beautiful of all Europe), and then headed over to a parking garage that has one of the best views of the city from the top, very cool. At 4, we headed out to find out hostel to drop off our bags; it ended up being really nice, great for the price, and reminded us of a “Real World” kind of house. We even had a bathroom and shower in our room (gasp!), very exciting. We then headed out to wander around and find some dinner, where I got Mussels again (yesss), and we saw Mannequin Pis (I’m not sure if that’s how you spell it), the famous fountain featuring a little boy peeing, hehe. At night, it was the “Nuit Blanche” (white night) in Brussels, which was really cool. Basically everything just stays open really late, and there are different events going on around the city-lots of music and such. It was a really good night, we got some Belgian beer from a grocery store and spent the night walking around, stopping occasionally to listen to music or check an event (including this crazy performance art exhibit, where women dressed as snow white walked around and did weird things…crazy Belgians). The next morning, we got up pretty early again and headed over to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, where we saw a range of art including a painting by Dali, as well as the famous “Assassination of Marat” by David, one of my favorite paintings. We then headed over to get one last waffle before heading to the train station. We then hurried over to the station, which was pretty miserable as it was cold and raining, but we made it to our train on time, and then it was back to Paris. Ah! So yeah, the trip was really great, we saw so much and all had a really good time. Plus, traveling and everything went amazingly smoothly, and the hostels turned out to be nice despite their cheap rates. The food was so great, Belgian chocolate and waffles are truly amazing, and of course the beer was great. Dad and Uncle Alex would have had a ball. It is nice to be back in Paris, it was funny, I even kind of missed it while I was in Belgium, it’s starting to feel like my home away from home. Alrighty then, well I now need to take care of homework and such for tomorrow, sigh. Hope all is well,
Brit