Spring adventures in Paris: May 2008

Hi! I'm back! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated, but it's been a whirlwind month. Morocco was 11 days, then back in Paris for 3, then a long weekend in Amsterdam/Brussels, and now back in Paris for one more week before the program ends.

First off, let me just say that my trip to Morocco was one of the most wonderful experiences I've ever had. I loved every second of it- from the wonderful people we met to the camels to seeing the sunrise over sand dunes in the Saharan desert to life in a small pedestrian seaside town. It was an inspiring, beautiful country with the warmest, most welcoming inhabitants, and I didn't want to leave. I would LOVE to share my experience there with anyone who is interested- it is simply too much to blog, so if you want to hear about it, ask me the next time you see me and I promise I'll jump at the opportunity to relive it. I will, however, try to get some pictures up.

So, in other news... After being back in Paris for a whole 3 (!) days, my friends Jenna and Chelsea and I took off for our long weekend explorations of Amsterdam and Brussels. Some reflections...

We took buses because they were cheaper- they were not, unfortunately, comfortable. The one to Amsterdam was an overnight bus, on which we got zero sleep. So we rolled into Amsterdam at 6:30 AM, tired and disoriented. We then commenced a trek through the city, which was oddly deserted and absolutely filthy, with trash everywhere. When it reached 8:00 and we still had not seen a single living soul we started to worry that we'd stumbled into a zombie movie. Turns out, the night before had been the annual celebration of Queen's Day (the queen's birthday), and so we had actually just arrived during a citywide hangover. I guess it would be kind of like three Dutch girls walking into Times Square on New Year's morning- except they probably wouldn't have taken a bus. Even with the mess, our first impressions of Amsterdam were quite nice, because it's a beautiful city. I'd never realized how pretty it was (and it probably helped that we had perfect weather the whole weekend). The canals are everywhere, and adorable, and great for navigating. We were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go, which was nice. We checked into our hostel, which was very neat and clean, and partook in the free breakfast there before heading to the Van Gogh museum. It was small but horribly crowded and all in all a little underwhelming. We also discovered, much to our horror after living in Paris for 4 months, that the Dutch don't believe in student discounts. After the museum we got lunch at a little cafe. There we discovered that the Dutch speak perfect English- our waitress possibly spoke better English than me after a semester in France (some eviednce: when the waitress handed me my food, I said "Merci," because that's always what I say when someone hands me food). I had the world's largest hot chocolate (at which point we also discovered that the Dutch have a penchant for including free cookies with beverages, a trait we enjoyed), and a plate of kroket, which is like a fried meat/cheese roll coated in bread crumbs. Then we couldn't walk anymore and took a quick power nap back at the hostel.

After our nap we set out to find the house where Anne Frank had been in hiding, now a museum. On the way there we stumbled across a giant carnival- so naturally, we went on a ride. It was awesome. We also got food from the food slot wall- literally, a wall with little glass doors where you put a coin in and take a food item. After our little detour we made it to the Anne Frank house, which was also crowded but very interesting. You toured the house, watched video interviews with her father and the woman who helped hide them, viewed exhibits with records, photographs, diary excerpts, etc. It was very well done, and of course rather somber and intense. I'm really glad we went to see it. After the museum we walked around a bit more, then got a late (or on-time for Europeans) dinner at a pancake house. I got pannekoken with cheese, apples, and bacon (dinner pancake) and Jenna and Chelsea got poffertjes, which are like little puffy mini pancakes with fruit and goodness. We then found ourselves back at the carnival- but hey it was awesome!- where we went on another ride. This one was crazy- a giant rotating arm with seats on either end that flipped you around way high in the air, and you got a pretty good view of the city while you were flipping. We then went and explored the red light district out of curiosity to see the ladies in their windows. The evening rounded out relaxing in a small cafe before the trek home.

We were staying in an 8 bed dorm room, and although our roommates stuff was there when we got back, and we could tell from the look of their stuff that they were male, we hadn't met them. So that morning we were awakened to an unfamiliar noise- 6 booming, deep male voices speaking indeterminate languages that belonged to 6 GIANT men of unidentified European nationalities. Since they were still in bed, we didn't talk with them other than saying bye when we left- hilarious encounter nonetheless. That morning we started out at the Rijkmuseum, which is the Dutch national museum. It was full of Dutch things, and I was immensely saddened by the lack of Vermeers, and the extremely long lines. After the museum we got super yummy sandwiches and ate them by the canalside while we people-watched. Then we spent some time in the gorgeous Vondelpark eating ice cream (we ate a lot this weekend). Next came our stroke of brilliance- renting a paddleboat!! We paddled around the canals for our allotted hour, enjoying the beautiful weather and taking in the view of the city. A quick reflection on the Dutch, sparked by the memory of the man who rented us the paddleboat- the Dutch sure are nice and cheery and friendly. Maybe my sense of friendliness is off after Paris, but they seemed especially friendly. Anywho, we stopped back at the hostel to shower, taking a minute to note that the shampoo bottle in the bathroom was in Italian (we later ascertained that there were 2 groups of large men- 2 Italians, and 3 of indeterminate Slavic origin). There was also a pink roller hairbrush that must have belonged to one of our Slavic roommates- odd. After another leisurely walk we ate dinner in an outdoor cafe, where my "assortment of warm snacks" was quite good (it was different varieties of kroket and similar things). We tried to find the carnival again- but alas! it was gone. And we were sad. After more walking, we headed back to the hostel because we had an early bus to catch.

In the morning we tiptoed around the sleeping slavic men, who all had train-stopping snores (Chelsea dubbed them the sleeping giants). Oh we also names them all- Igor, Dimitri, Alexei, Giorgio, and Leonardo. During our breakfast we asked the desk clerk how far the walk was to the bus station- he said half an hour. He lied. An HOUR of stressed powerwalking later we just made the bus on time. We rolled into Belgium around 1 and checked into our hostel, which was not as nice as the one in Amsterdam but also much much cheaper. We set out into the city center (the tiny, tiny city center- Brussels was not large) and quickly found ourselves at the Grand Place, which was gorgeous. We sat in an outdoor cafe there and ate waffles, but not just waffles- sugary, caramelized waffles topped w/ ice cream and fruit and chocolate. Then we walked a bit more and bought giant cones of french fries and chose from the variety of sauces (you'll soon see the pattern we followed in Brussels- find Belgian delicacy, eat it, walk, repeat). After paying a visit to the Mannekin Pis, the famous (and perplexing) fountain of the little boy peeing, we stopped for a bit on a bench near a gathering of scouts (pronounced in French as "scoots"). There was some sort of giant scout scavenger hunt going on that weekend- scouts were EVERYWHERE, and usually running. We watched as the high school aged scout leaders sent the younger scouts off on a task, then spent a half hour narrating from afar the male scout leaders attempt to put the moves on the female scout leader by giving her beer. We named them Julien and Corrine, and they were hilarious. A bit later we found ourselves back in the Grand Place, eating more waffles (but from a different waffle place). Brussels had a very interesting feel- it's a bilingual city, and certainly feels more Dutch than French in attitude. We explored a different part of town, walked by some fountains and parks, and saw some churches (one of which had urinals on the side of it). Then we walked through an outdoor market and a covered gallery, spent some time in Place des martyres, and soon decided it was time to eat again. We had dinner at a cute little outdoor seafood place, and got lobster since we figured we should have a real meal after having eaten nothing but ice cream, waffles, and french fries. It was a long dinner, and afterwards we headed up to the hostel where we played cards for a while and chatted with our roommate, a courageous girl from Dallas who was exploring on her own.

Our bus left at noon the next day, so we headed back to the city center in the morning for one more meal at an outdoor cafe followed up by one last waffle (so yup, that's 3 waffles in under 24 hours). Then back to Paris, which is FINALLY beautiful and sunny and almost TOO hot because it's a sticky, urban sort of heat.

This week I'm finishing up my classes and trying to take advantage of the nice weather. I did my reading Monday in the jardin de Luxembourg, which was peaceful and wonderful. My museums class went to the musee Rodin yesterday, which is both a house and gardens full of his work, and it's great. It's hard with the weather finally being so nice, because we have so much end of the semester work- I still managed to squeeze in a nice long walk yesterday with a visit to St. Sulpice and the Vlaminck exposition at the musee de Luxembourg.

Yesterday I had to give a presentation in front of my University of Paris 8 class, which was terrifying- subjecting 20 French students to my accent for a half an hour just seems cruel. The professor seemed to like it though, and I'm glad it was overwith. One of the scarier assigments I've ever had, but I'm proud that I did it. I FINALLY feel confident when I speak in French- on the street, in class, with my host family (which may be largely in part due to Morocco, where I spoke French all the time because people were so friendly and patient). It's pretty frustrating to have finally hit that point just when it's come time to leave- although they told us at orientation that that would happen.

I can't imagine leaving- well, I can imagine leaving, but what's difficult to comprehend is not living in this wonderful city anymore. Because as students we know our time here is limited I think we've really made an effort to get out and know the city and make it our own, and now it's back to another life- a life without boulangeries! I also can't imagine not speaking French on a daily basis, especially because I'm proud of my progress and don't want to lose it.

It's not over yet though. There's one more week exactly- I still have a 15 page paper and 3 finals between now and then. And, hopefully, a few more days with this fabulous city!

Hope all is well, miss and love you all!

Spring adventures in Paris

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Morocco albums

A little slice of Morocco

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Long overdue update

Blog Archive

About Me