I can hardly believe that my time here is going so fast. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been here that long, but it’s true. When people start asking me what’s new I’m saying nothing but then I realize that everything is new and I’m just getting used to it! Crazy! So I’m going to start this week off with my Paris trip! What an amazing experience! The weather there was so nice even if Paris itself was a little bit on the insane side with the traffic (we found out that the traffic lights are actually optional as long as they stay a meter away from the pedestrians), the crazy metro system where nothing is really labeled, and the fact that I only know about 7 French words. That last one is entirely my own fault, but none the less, it contributed to the insanity.
Wednesday morning we woke up at 3.50 so that we would have the time to get 12 people and all of their luggage to the train station for our 5.30 train. That was quite the experience. Thankfully by the time our bus came we had everyone, their bags, and passports. Some people only had to run back for things twice! Some of us, to remain unnamed, remembered everything the first time. We didn’t have to wait very long when we got to the station before we boarded the Eurostar, and then we were off! The Chunnel was kind of disappointing. I thought we would at least see the water approaching then go under it or something, but all of a sudden we just went into a tunnel and then after a little while I realized that this must be it. It is just like a regular tunnel and when you come out of it you are in a new country. When we arrived we went and bought our metro passes and went on to start on our fun! We all bought these museum passes so that we could have admission to tons of museums and monuments. It made everything there so much less expensive! We went first to the Arc de’ Triomphe. It is huge! Huge and we climbed all the crazy steps! (Photo #1) You walk up a massive spiral staircase and when you get to the top you realize that your thighs have felt like fire for the last several minutes. The view from the top was amazing though! You could see all of the main attractions and it was so pretty! After that we went to the Louvre. It was one of the coolest places I’ve ever been! We only got through two of the floors that day and we were only able to do that because all of the labels on things were in French so we didn’t stop to read them. The Venus de Milo is so much more beautiful in person. It was almost an emotional experience to see her. (Photo #2) There was also a real mummy, sarcophagi everywhere, and part of a tomb (kind of like in the Met)! That was awesome! The French crown jewels are on display there and let me tell you they are fantastic! I’m sure I could find some occasion to wear them. No problem! We went to dinner at a little Italian place that night and watched football (soccer) on French television! It was so much fun getting into the game with all of the people there! It was kind of like a party! When it started to get dark we got back on the metro and somehow navigated ourselves back to the Eiffel Tower. It is spectacular at night! So cool! It’s all lit up and it sparkles on the hour! (Photos #3 & #4)
Thursday morning we realized that it was rather problematic having 4 of us trying to use the shower and bathroom when that is the only place where there is a mirror so I had a genius moment and went onto the balcony and used the reflection in the window to do my hair! Thursday was Eiffel Tower day! We climbed 700 steps up and 700 back down again! Yeah! Fire thighs! It was really pretty from up there and we took a lot of pictures! We went to Napoleon’s tomb. It’s one thing to write your own epitaph, but he built a huge monument to himself! Hmmm… it was way pretty though! Notre Dame was next on the list and it was fantastic! It is enormous and it has the most beautiful stained glass windows! We climbed to the top of that one too! More spiral staircases. Seriously, I think that every building here has one and I’m pretty sure I climbed them all! We went to a monument for the French citizens who died in concentration camps. It was beautiful! They had a crystal for each French person who had died in a camp during that time. We then went to the Mussee de’ Orsay. It is another art museum that takes up where the Louvre leaves off. The most amazing thing about it is that they don’t care if you take photos. I have photos of original Monet, Picasso, and other fabulous impressionist artists! It was way cool! That night we went and saw the Louvre and the Arc lit up for the night. It was so awesome!
Friday we went to Versailles. I think that was my favorite part of the trip. The palace was very pretty, but the grounds were the real attraction! (Photo #5) The gardens are spectacular and the little peasant village that Marie Antoinette had constructed was so charming! I didn’t know it, but she had her sheep perfumed. Wow, it’s no wonder the people hated her. If I knew she had all of that and perfumed sheep while I was starving to death I’d be pretty ticked off too! (Photo #6) We wandered through the gardens for a while then we decided to have lunch under a tree and rent some bicycles. We rode around the gardens for an hour before we took them back and went up to the palace again. On the way back we fell asleep and nearly missed our stop. The evening was for catching up on museums that we had not finished. First we went back to the Orsay because it closed earlier, then we went back to the Louvre. We went through the Reubens room and we saw the Mona Lisa. She kind of made me sad because she looked just like she does in the books. I thought she would be more magnificent, but I didn’t really think she was. Maybe if she hadn’t been ten feet away and behind glass, who knows? When we finished there we took the train to meet the rest of the group and as we got there we saw our train waiting so we decided to run for it but I slipped/tripped on the last step and went flying into the train. I landed it, but Lisa and everyone else on the train looked at me like I was insane. She was so funny, she said ‘we weren’t in that big of a hurry’ so I told her, ‘I know, I fell.’ It is now what we refer to as the flying leap since that is what it looked like. That was also the night we nearly got lost in the red light district.
Saturday we were all so exhausted from our marathon of Paris that we just tied up loose ends. We went out to the Moulin Rouge that morning (Photo #7) then we went to the Pantheon which is a giant tomb and catacombs for the famous French people who want to be buried there. Victor Hugo is there, Marie and Pierre Curie, Voltaire, and tons of others. It’s pretty amazing! After that we did some shopping and just relaxed for most of the day which was good because I’m pretty sure that all of our feet were dieing! By the time it was time to leave for our train I was really ready to leave. You can only take so much of not being able to speak any of the language and still want to be there. On the train I did my homework and when we got back I checked my email and went to bed.
Sunday was a welcome relief from all of the running around I’d been doing the last few days. I was in the nursery so I just got to play all day. I didn’t have to understand Spanish for that! I also listened to Hunchback of Norte Dame and watched the Da Vinci code after church! I just couldn’t help myself!
Monday was class again. It felt like forever since I had been in class. I met with one of my teachers and then came back to do some letter writing and other things around here. A group of us went to Hamlet (the Kenneth Branagh version) at the BFI and it was amazing! He is a genius! Four hours of Hamlet and Kenneth Brahagh. *Sigh* I went to the grocery store and got a couple of things I had run out of then realized that it was a bank holiday so I couldn’t do anything with my Euros since all of the exchange places were closed!
Tuesday wasn’t that horribly exciting either. I did laundry in the morning and went to the Victoria & Albert museum in the afternoon. They have an amazing fashion gallery showcasing clothing since the 1700s! That night our group went to a play called Big White Fog. It was fairly well done. The American accents were a little bit strange though. I guess that’s what they think when they hear us try to do British accents.
Well that’s really it my friends! I love Paris but I’m excited to be back here. Love you all tons!
Wednesday morning we woke up at 3.50 so that we would have the time to get 12 people and all of their luggage to the train station for our 5.30 train. That was quite the experience. Thankfully by the time our bus came we had everyone, their bags, and passports. Some people only had to run back for things twice! Some of us, to remain unnamed, remembered everything the first time. We didn’t have to wait very long when we got to the station before we boarded the Eurostar, and then we were off! The Chunnel was kind of disappointing. I thought we would at least see the water approaching then go under it or something, but all of a sudden we just went into a tunnel and then after a little while I realized that this must be it. It is just like a regular tunnel and when you come out of it you are in a new country. When we arrived we went and bought our metro passes and went on to start on our fun! We all bought these museum passes so that we could have admission to tons of museums and monuments. It made everything there so much less expensive! We went first to the Arc de’ Triomphe. It is huge! Huge and we climbed all the crazy steps! (Photo #1) You walk up a massive spiral staircase and when you get to the top you realize that your thighs have felt like fire for the last several minutes. The view from the top was amazing though! You could see all of the main attractions and it was so pretty! After that we went to the Louvre. It was one of the coolest places I’ve ever been! We only got through two of the floors that day and we were only able to do that because all of the labels on things were in French so we didn’t stop to read them. The Venus de Milo is so much more beautiful in person. It was almost an emotional experience to see her. (Photo #2) There was also a real mummy, sarcophagi everywhere, and part of a tomb (kind of like in the Met)! That was awesome! The French crown jewels are on display there and let me tell you they are fantastic! I’m sure I could find some occasion to wear them. No problem! We went to dinner at a little Italian place that night and watched football (soccer) on French television! It was so much fun getting into the game with all of the people there! It was kind of like a party! When it started to get dark we got back on the metro and somehow navigated ourselves back to the Eiffel Tower. It is spectacular at night! So cool! It’s all lit up and it sparkles on the hour! (Photos #3 & #4)
Thursday morning we realized that it was rather problematic having 4 of us trying to use the shower and bathroom when that is the only place where there is a mirror so I had a genius moment and went onto the balcony and used the reflection in the window to do my hair! Thursday was Eiffel Tower day! We climbed 700 steps up and 700 back down again! Yeah! Fire thighs! It was really pretty from up there and we took a lot of pictures! We went to Napoleon’s tomb. It’s one thing to write your own epitaph, but he built a huge monument to himself! Hmmm… it was way pretty though! Notre Dame was next on the list and it was fantastic! It is enormous and it has the most beautiful stained glass windows! We climbed to the top of that one too! More spiral staircases. Seriously, I think that every building here has one and I’m pretty sure I climbed them all! We went to a monument for the French citizens who died in concentration camps. It was beautiful! They had a crystal for each French person who had died in a camp during that time. We then went to the Mussee de’ Orsay. It is another art museum that takes up where the Louvre leaves off. The most amazing thing about it is that they don’t care if you take photos. I have photos of original Monet, Picasso, and other fabulous impressionist artists! It was way cool! That night we went and saw the Louvre and the Arc lit up for the night. It was so awesome!
Friday we went to Versailles. I think that was my favorite part of the trip. The palace was very pretty, but the grounds were the real attraction! (Photo #5) The gardens are spectacular and the little peasant village that Marie Antoinette had constructed was so charming! I didn’t know it, but she had her sheep perfumed. Wow, it’s no wonder the people hated her. If I knew she had all of that and perfumed sheep while I was starving to death I’d be pretty ticked off too! (Photo #6) We wandered through the gardens for a while then we decided to have lunch under a tree and rent some bicycles. We rode around the gardens for an hour before we took them back and went up to the palace again. On the way back we fell asleep and nearly missed our stop. The evening was for catching up on museums that we had not finished. First we went back to the Orsay because it closed earlier, then we went back to the Louvre. We went through the Reubens room and we saw the Mona Lisa. She kind of made me sad because she looked just like she does in the books. I thought she would be more magnificent, but I didn’t really think she was. Maybe if she hadn’t been ten feet away and behind glass, who knows? When we finished there we took the train to meet the rest of the group and as we got there we saw our train waiting so we decided to run for it but I slipped/tripped on the last step and went flying into the train. I landed it, but Lisa and everyone else on the train looked at me like I was insane. She was so funny, she said ‘we weren’t in that big of a hurry’ so I told her, ‘I know, I fell.’ It is now what we refer to as the flying leap since that is what it looked like. That was also the night we nearly got lost in the red light district.
Saturday we were all so exhausted from our marathon of Paris that we just tied up loose ends. We went out to the Moulin Rouge that morning (Photo #7) then we went to the Pantheon which is a giant tomb and catacombs for the famous French people who want to be buried there. Victor Hugo is there, Marie and Pierre Curie, Voltaire, and tons of others. It’s pretty amazing! After that we did some shopping and just relaxed for most of the day which was good because I’m pretty sure that all of our feet were dieing! By the time it was time to leave for our train I was really ready to leave. You can only take so much of not being able to speak any of the language and still want to be there. On the train I did my homework and when we got back I checked my email and went to bed.
Sunday was a welcome relief from all of the running around I’d been doing the last few days. I was in the nursery so I just got to play all day. I didn’t have to understand Spanish for that! I also listened to Hunchback of Norte Dame and watched the Da Vinci code after church! I just couldn’t help myself!
Monday was class again. It felt like forever since I had been in class. I met with one of my teachers and then came back to do some letter writing and other things around here. A group of us went to Hamlet (the Kenneth Branagh version) at the BFI and it was amazing! He is a genius! Four hours of Hamlet and Kenneth Brahagh. *Sigh* I went to the grocery store and got a couple of things I had run out of then realized that it was a bank holiday so I couldn’t do anything with my Euros since all of the exchange places were closed!
Tuesday wasn’t that horribly exciting either. I did laundry in the morning and went to the Victoria & Albert museum in the afternoon. They have an amazing fashion gallery showcasing clothing since the 1700s! That night our group went to a play called Big White Fog. It was fairly well done. The American accents were a little bit strange though. I guess that’s what they think when they hear us try to do British accents.
Well that’s really it my friends! I love Paris but I’m excited to be back here. Love you all tons!
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