Reflective Entry

I'm so happy to be home! Don't get me wrong, it was an awesome trip, I learned so much, and it was an amazing experience but I think everyone was getting tired of each other.  The tension was growing between people and I think 19 days was a good time period for the trip.  If it was any longer, I think some people would be really really perturbed with some others. 

Question of the Day:
 How is England or France different from America?
Well to start off, France is different from America because of the spoken language.  But it is also different culturally.  As previously mentioned, we saw a wedding in a little market area where the vendors and people shopping around or at cafe's were just pretty much ignoring it.  In America, I would imagine that people would at least stop and stare because that's how our society is today.  It seems like in France, that if something is none of someones business, they just ignore it! It's rather cool to see that happening. 

Describe the best meal you have had on this trip.
I don't necessarily have a favorite meal that I had on the trip because I liked a lot of things.   I loved the crepe with nutella.  I have never had either of those things so it was fun to try something new.  I also like the friend at hand pub that we went to as a class.  That food was really good.  I think I liked the pub food of London better than the cafe food in France.  But it was all good and it was fun to taste things in different countries.  We also had Pizza hut from London and France to compare to Americas.  America won hands down with Paris in second. 

Describe a shop that interested you.
The shopping center in the Louvre had a lot of expensive shops but my favorite was called Pylones. It's a really trendy shop that's full of color and nifty things.  They had everything from beverage coasters to dog leashes to wallets and cigarette holders.     
 
Describe something you bought that you couldn't get in the USA.
Truthfully everything I bought excluding the food, I could have gotten in America.  Which is pretty sad considering we were there for 19 days.  The only things I did buy was French wine for my parents and French chocolates.  The chocolates were very good. But my parents are saving the wine for a special event so I didn't try that yet.

What was the absolutely best thing about the trip?
There were so many things that I loved about this trip! I was definitely getting museum overload by the end of the trip.  Especially with the Louvre being the last museum we visited.  But it was really cool to see the paintings and sculptures we learned about in class and connecting the knowledge I gained from there to them.  I also loved the Moulin Rouge and seeing the Wimbledon tennis courts.  

What will be the most significant thing that you tell your friends or parents about the trip? 
The whole trip was an amazing experience!  I'm so lucky I was able to get the chance to go abroad my freshman year! I would tell my friends and family that this was so much fun and I would recommend going there to anyone! It was truly an experience I will never forget.

Sunday 30/1/11

9:35pm: Home Sweet Home!

Saturday 29/1/11

Today is our last day on our trip, and also my birthday! It's the first time I'm celebrating my birthday outside of New York! But I'm very excited to be going home tomorrow!

Today I met up with my friend Benjamin.  My friend that I met up with in London, Gaylen (and her family), was Benjamin's host family which is how I know him.  So around noon, I met up with him and he tried to take me to the Jewish quarter of Paris where we had lunch.  We got on the wrong train about 3 times.  We went back and fourth and back and fourth and finally, we got to where we wanted to be.  I tried Falafel, which is an interesting dish to say the least.  It's a Middle Eastern food in the form of balls made from chickpeas and/or fava beans. It also came with purple and green cabbage, a pickle, hummus,  pita bread, cooked peppers, mushy things (top right of the plate in the picture) and a cucumber salad. It looked something like the picture below minus the orange stuff on the bottom left.  We also had french fries and Ben put mayonnaise on them! (apparently that's popular in France) 

After the delicious lunch, we walked around looking at all the expensive French shops in that area.  Even though neither of us could afford anything at that time, it was fun to look.  Soon after, we went to the church Sacre Coeur.  I could not believe this church.  It was absolutely beautiful inside and out! It had a wonderful view of all of Paris! You could see for miles and miles! We had to pass so many "crap shops" (what Ben calls survivor shops) and go up about 150/200 stairs to get to the church but once we got up there, it was so worth it.

Again, we couldn't take pictures inside but the memories are still very much going to stay in my mind for a long time to come.  After we toured Sacre Coeur for a little bit, we walked around the side streets and found little french shops and cafes.  Where we warmed up with a glass of 'vin chaud' (hot wine) for me (which i have never tried before-Ben recommended it)  and a cafe (coffee) for Ben.  The hot wine was really good. It tasted just like grape juice! After we warmed up, we walked around a little more than went back to our hotel.  There I introduced Ben to Lisa and Danielle. (who surprised me with beautiful flowers for my birthday!) Once they got acquainted, we all went out to this baby bottle wine place.  I was expecting it to be small bottles of wine, but in fact it was literally baby bottles filled with wine.  The door handles were even baby bottles! It was a very cool but very small place.  People had to climb over the table to get to their seat.  We had the baby bottles of wine and cheese fondue! It was my first time trying fondue and it was pretty good for being French cheese (which I was not used to yet)  We had a great time there.  After that, we started going back to our hotel.  While doing this Ben got off at the stop before Lisa, Danielle and mine to go to his party that he had tonight.  He was being very crazy and said he didn't want to leave us because he was having so much fun.  So he got out of the subway at his stop and just stood there outside the doors, then the train started moving, he started running with it trying to keep up with us.  After he fell behind (when we were out of that station) I heard laughter from behind us.  Everyone on the train was laughing at how he tried to run with the train! He's too funny.  After he left, we all got back to the hotel and finished packing. Tomorrow morning we leave for America! I cannot wait to get home! It will be a long day of traveling but it will be worth it in the end to see my family and friends again!
Until tomorrow!
Au Revoir!

Question of the Day: Have you eaten something that you have never tasted before? What was it like? 

I tried the falafel today.  I was feeling very adventurous in my food choices today.  If Ben wasn't there, I would never ever have tried this dish.  Not only did I try the Falafel but I tried all the things that came with it.  The red and green cabbage, the pickle, the hummus, the peppers and the mushy things whose name escapes me at the moment.  I'm not a fan of vegetables to begin with so when I tried all of these things, it was so far out of my comfort zone.  But I'm glad I tried them.  It is a very popular dish in France so I could say I ate what the locals ate. 

Describe an incident that you saw on the street that amused you.

When Ben and I were walking up to Sacre Coeur, we saw this man playing a game with a crowd of people around him.  We watched a little bit but we didn't stay long because we didn't want to get dragged into it.  The game was pretty much like the game we have in America, where there's three cups and you put a ball or something in one of them, turn them upside down and then mix them up and try to figure out which cup the ball is in.  The french version is played with discs and a little white piece of paper which is attached under one of them.  You have to have a quick eye for the dealers quick hand.  It's pretty easy money the first couple rounds.  The first person that points to the correct disc with the white thing under it bets 50 euros they are right. If they are, they get that 50 euros and 50 more! So it's easy to get money but on the other hand it's easy to get rid of your money too.  Every time you guess you have to put down 50 euros.  If your wrong, you don't get your money back. The dealer makes it seem like your lucky that you keep picking the right one (when you start off) but when you get through a couple rounds, the dealer gets faster and makes you lose the money you just won.  Oh, and there's another catch.  It's completely illegal!  The dealers play it on cardboard box so if the police come, they can just take the discs and run- they can leave the box there as if it was garbage on the street.  It's really a cool game.  

What was a complete surprise? 

Something that really surprised me was all the PDA (public display of affection) that I have seen in London and especially Paris! I know Paris is the city of Love and everything but there's so much! I asked Ben about it and he says he doesn't even notice it! It's like a 'way of life' here. It amazes me that people will just make-out on the subway with everyone around them looking but not thinking anything of it! I have seen more people kissing than holding hands!  In America I know some people that get so disgusted with PDA.  I feel bad for them if they went to Paris! They would see so much more of it!

Describe a park or market that you have visited.
After Sacre Coeur, Ben and I strolled the side streets to get back down to the metro.  We saw so many cute little markets with vendors selling all sorts of things.  They had paintings and prints of Paris and France itself.  As we were walking we also saw the ending of a wedding when the bride and groom came out of the church and people were throwing rice at them in celebration.  The market people around them didn't care about the music and song going on around them.  It's as if it happens regularly and they are just used to it.  It's really cool to see how other cultures do things differently than what we have grown up seeing. 

Friday 28/1/11

France is almost done! I can't believe how fast it is going! 

So today was full of excitement as well as the last couple days.  The first thing we did today was go the La Defense.  It is the modern day version of the Arc de Triomphe (which can be seen from this monument and vise versa)  This arc holds offices and is located in the modern part of Paris compared to where the Arc de Triomphe is located.  The canopy at the bottom of the arc is supposed to symbolize clouds.  (I don't necessarily see it, but hey, its not my design) When we were here, we also saw an art piece that shows how one can take something from the garbage and make it beautiful.  ('One man's trash is another mans treasure' is a good quote for this) They made flowers out of colored garbage bags! And put them together to make this 'tent'.

 

 After the modern arc and the flower tent we went to the Arc de Triomphe! The arc honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.  

The design is beautiful with four different reliefs on each pillar holding up the arc.  The most famous of them is La Marseillaise.  Which is the one that you can see in the picture above.  Unlike Notre Dame, we got to go to the top of this famous monument.  This was an astounding view of Paris! In my opinion, a little better than the Eiffel Tower view. Both were spectacular, but this was over the top! After we scoped out the fantastic view of Paris, we went to lunch and then went shopping at the Champs Elysses.  We went shopping and I bought a jacket at the most American store there- H&M.  They had so many good sales! The French stores had sales or 'soldes' as they are called, but not as good as the American stores did.  

After we shopped till we dropped, we headed back to our hotel where Lisa and I got dressed up for the Moulin Rouge which is where we went after our group dinner at Pataques Restaurant in De Bercy.  It was a good restaurant but I liked the one in London better.  At this place we had quiche and a small salad as a starter, and chicken in mushroom sauce as the main meal and then a rum soaked cake like thing for dessert.  The dessert was definitely not my favorite I have had this trip.  So I took a bite and left the rest of it.  On the other hand, the chicken and the quiche were really good.  After dinner, Lisa and I went off to find the Moulin Rouge.  We got there a little early and got in the line we thought was the line for the show- we were wrong.  Somehow we got into the club next door to the Moulin rouge. We got in there and looked at each other and wondered where the show would take place (because there was only a dance floor) and where we would get our champagne. (because there was only a bar)  After we looked around a little bit, we figured we were in the wrong place and wanted to get out of there.  But of course, no one spoke English to help us out.  We finally found a woman and told her our predicament. She laughed and helped us out.  Once we got out of the club Lisa and I were both relieved. We went to the real place where we were supposed to be, and they said come back in about a half hour because it is too early. So we left and went to the Starbucks across the street.  We hung out there for a little bit and then went back over to the Moulin Rouge. We got in line (the right one this time) and finally got into where we were supposed to be. We both looked at each other and said this is more what we were picturing. The people were dressed up more, and there was actually a stage! (not just a dance floor) After we got settled, we got our champagne and waited for the show to start.  Soon enough, it did. Photography was forbidden so unfortunately I couldn't take pictures.  But I don't think I need pictures to remember this.  It was a very memorable show! The dancers were amazing and the costumes were very extravagant.  We spent 92 euros on this but it was worth every one of them.  We got seats right next to the stage, champagne, and had a great night all together! Completely worth $132 US dollars. 

Tomorrow is our free day and last day in Paris! But until then, i'm outta here! 

Salut!

Question of the Day: What did you learn today?

I learned so much today! First off, I learned that La Defence was a project to build the 'Grande Arche' and it was initiated by the French president Mitterrand.  He wanted a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe. The design of Danish architect Otto von Spreckelsen took the medal in the competition for the best design.  But in my opinion,  it looks more like a cube-shaped building than a triumphal arch. It is a 348 feet white building with the middle part left open. The sides of the cube contain offices. You can take a glass elevator to the top of the of it too! And secondly, I learned to check our tickets before standing in just any line...just because there is a line near where you want to be, it may not be the line you really want to be in. 

Thursday 27/1/11

Today was such a cold day! But we battled the harsh weather to go see Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame.  Saint Chapelle was a beautiful little church that was originally just for the rich back in the olden days.  It has stained glass windows on every side with a rose window in the back. It was absolutely gorgeous with a different Bible story in every stained glass pane.  All of the stained glass was amazing, but if you turn around, you will find the Rose window.  This is a circular window also with stained glass all around it.  It's so intricate with the story of Jesus incorporated in it.  This was my third favorite church (after St.Paul's and Westminster Abbey) The detailing and architecture are beautifully made considering how long ago it was crafted. 

After we were done with St. Chapelle, we were off to Notre Dame Cathedral.  This cathedral is very well known in the Disney movie 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame.' This too, is also a beautifully crafted cathedral with so much stained glass and two rose windows on either side of the alter.  We didn't get to go the the top which is unfortunate because i'm sure it would have been a very nice view. 

 

 After Notre Dame, Lisa, Danielle and I went out to lunch at a cafe nearby the cathedral.  I had a french classic- Croque Monsieur.  It was basically a piece of wheat bread with ham on top and lots of cheese melted on top of that.  It was pretty good but I feel you need to acquire the French cheese taste.  Its quite different from American kinds of cheese.  After we warmed up with lunch, we went out shopping at the souvenir shops around that area.  We found a crepe stand and tried another French classic- The Crepe.  We all had ours with Nutella. (which is VERY popular in France) It was the first time I have had a crepe and the first time for Nutella as well.  Both were very good- something I would definitely order again. But after we looked around for a little while, we came back to our hotel and got ready for the circus we went to! It was called, Cirque Phenix, Festival Mondial Du Cirque de Demain.  We got awesome seats very close to the stage for only 17 euros! (we got a student discount- half off regular priced tickets!)  It was definitely worth going! We saw these crazy people that were able to balance another human being on their head, or hold them up with one arm.  One guy even held a girl up with his teeth!!! They were on ropes in the air and the guy held this rope type thing in his mouth and the girl swinging underneath him was holding on to it! It was crazy to think of how much trust you have to put in your partner to hold you in the air and not drop you to the ground that is 6-9 feet beneath you.  Besides the acrobats there were also jugglers and tightrope walkers.  The video below is of a juggler from or around Rochester NY.  (I think I heard the French announcer say that)

 

 After the show, it was a long walk back to our hotel because the metros stopped at 12:30 and we got out at 12:50 ish.  We walked about 3 miles I'd say back to our hotel- only getting lost a couple times.  But we found the way and now we are safe back at our hotel.  Today was a fun day but tomorrow is our last class day here then its our free day and then home!!  I'm very excited! But until tomorrow, I'm outta here! 

Salut!!

Question of the Day: Choose one of the churches or cathedrals that we have seen and discuss your feelings about it. 

Saint Chapelle was an absolutely beautiful chapel.  The stained glass was so detailed about books from the Bible, it had so many colors and I bet when the sun shined in it, the colors would shine so much brighter than they did today! I was first not at all excited to go to Saint Chapelle.  I figured it would just be another church but when we got there, even on the outside, I knew it was going to be good.  I walked in and I was right.  There was something different about this church than the others we have been to.  I think it has to do with the size.  Notre Dame and St.Paul's for instance, were huge! I liked the difference though.  It was a good change. 

Wednesday 26/1/11

Today we went to the biggest museum in the world- the Louvre! It was way too big to see everything in one visit even three or four visits! I can't believe the size of it!  In the picture below, it shows just a little of each side of the museum and the entrance (the glass pyramid by I.M. Pei) There is much more museum behind the camera plus there are 4 floors! It is literally a gigantic place.   Don't let the map fool you...it looks much smaller than the Louvre actually is!

We saw so many beautiful pieces made by very popular artists here.  Michelangelo, Canova, de Vinci, David, Ingres, and van Eyck are just about .01% of the artists that are displayed at the Louvre. We also saw Gericault’s painting of the Raft of Medusa.  This was an unbelievable paining- the size alone was astonishing! In my Art History class, we learned about it and our professor told us it was big, but I didn't think it would be this big! The picture below is the Raft of Medusa- look at the size of it in comparison to the man in front of it.

But I have to say this painting was one of my favorites.  The story behind this is it is an over-life-size painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Meduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania on July 5, 1816. At least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation, dehydration, cannibalism and madness. The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain acting under the authority of the recently restored French monarchy. The artist does a great job of showing the pain and agony that the survivors have endured while waiting to be rescued.  If you look very closely at the painting, their waiting pays off- they see a boat in the distance- Is this the boat that saves them?  Gericault never says for sure, but this was a real event that took place in history and the artist did talk to some survivors about the incident so it could quite possibly be.

My other favorite painting was called Liberty leading the People. This is by Delacroix.  This is a painting commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled Charles X of France. A woman personifying Liberty leads the people forward over the fallen bodies holding the French flag in one hand and a musket with the other.  In 1874, the painting entered the Louvre and it has been there ever since.

I probably should talk about Mona Lisa since we saw her here.  It was quite what I expected.  I knew she would be in glass and that you wouldn't be able to see her very close up. I was right on both circumstances.  She was indeed in bullet proof glass and there was a marker you couldn't pass which was about 5 feet back from the actual painting.

This picture shows the bullet proof glass...and it’s zoomed in quite a ways from where I was standing.  There was a mob around it too.  We went up to that room twice and both times, loads of people were crowding around it.  I understand that this is an important painting, but many other paintings by many other artists (besides daVinci) are just as important-if not more! I don't understand why it has to be guarded so much, with the glass, and the bar that holds people back, and even museum workers, and the other paintings are just hanging on the walls close to the hands of curious children or over the shoulder bags that could be bumped a little too hard and could scratch or even ruin the painting.  That's just my opinion though, what do I know?!

So after we saw the mob-filled room with the Mona Lisa in it, we walked around more and came across the apartments of Napoleon III.  I thought this exhibit was so much more beautiful than the Palace of Versailles! (Again, I think it has to do with the popularity of Versailles but still)  I could not believe these rooms! They were exquisite! The chandeliers were beautiful, the furniture was ridiculously amazing, and the ceilings were off the charts! This picture is of the Grand Salon.  It had a very...rich style to say the least.

 After Napoleon’s apartments, we stayed a little longer at the Louvre.  (We got there at 11:00am and stayed until about 9:00pm)  Lisa, Danielle and I stopped for dessert on the way back to our hotel.  I got chocolate pudding but it was cooked so it was cake-like.  It was really thin and in a big bowl so to make it look filled, they put whipped cream all the way to the top.  It was like I was paying just for whipped cream! But the little pudding I had was good anyways.  Then we came back to our hotel and here we are.  It has been a very long day today! But today was our last museum of the trip! Tomorrow we get to see Notre Dame-where Quasimodo lived! Can’t wait to see that! 

But until then, I’m outta here! Salut! 

Question of the Day: How was the Mona Lisa?
The Mona Lisa was about the size I expected it to be because of the stories I have heard of it.  I think it was protected way too much though! I heard that it's not even the real one! The real one is in the Louvre but its not the one hanging behind the bullet proof glass on its own wall. Its hidden away. Is this true? If it is...would all the pictures of this importance have a copy in place of the real one? David's painting Death of Murat is a copy...but where is the real one? The idea that The Mona Lisa is such an iconic painting that is in the world today brings about a lot of questions as to why? What special things are incorporated in it that no other paintings have?

Describe your favorite painting in the 19th century French paintings room in the Louvre.
The Raft of Medusa was one of my favorite paintings in this room.  The other was Liberty Leading the People.  We talked about both works in my Art History class, but seeing them up close just was truly amazing.  I could not believe the size of Raft of Medusa! It is ginormous! Liberty Leading the People was more the size I thought it would be and also the size I thought the Raft of Medusa would be.  Both paintings were beautifully done.  You could feel the emotion in the peoples faces. You could see the determination (at least in Liberty Leading the People) of how the people wanted to fight for their country.  Both works were amazing!

What was the smallest thing you saw today?
The Mona Lisa.  It seemed so minuscule compared to all the giant paintings around it!

Tuesday 25/1/11

Only five days left of the J-Term trip! I'm very excited to go home but I will definitely miss the new cultural aspects of both countries.  But were not there yet, so today we went to the Palace of Versailles! It was very lavish! I felt as though it was a little over the top.  It had gold gates and doors, too many paintings to count, mirrors all over the place, grand bedrooms and gardens, extravagant chandeliers and very detailed ceiling paintings-too much for one man to have-that's for sure. My favorite part about the palace itself has to be the ceiling paintings.  Granted, they are over the top but they are exquisite.   The picture below was the ceiling in the Hercules Room. It's very pretty.

  After we toured Versailles, we 

 went out to the gardens.  They were bigger than the castle itself! We wanted to go to Marie Antoinette's private house, so we took the long way around (the WHOLE garden)-accidentally.  We got there about two to three hours later (that's how big the gardens are-if it took us 3 hours to walk all the way around them!)  So anyways, we found her house.  I personally thought her house was prettier than Versailles itself.  I think it might be because Versailles is talked about so much about how beautiful it is that when I saw it, it just wasn't pretty anymore.  But Marie Antoinette's house was not talked about so when I saw it,  it was more of a surprise of what it looked like. The gardens are the same way.  They were not over talked about so they were more of a surprise to see them.   

Gardens of Versailles

Marie Antoinette's House

After Marie Antoinette's house, we started walking back to the  Palace, we took more pictures and then headed back to our hotel for our afternoon meeting.  After our meeting, Lisa, Danielle and I went to a restaurant where the people didn't speak English. It was fun to point to what we wanted on the menu and give the waiter a blank stare when we didn't understand what he said.  But that's the experience.  So anyways, after our dinner, we went out to the Eiffel Tower and we went on a River Boat cruise.  It was really cool to see all the lights and stuff sparkling in the night light.  After the hour cruise though, we came back to our hotel and I got ready for bed. The cold from being in the gardens all day made me very tired. So, until tomorrow, im outta here! Au Revoir!

Question of the Day: Discuss your reaction to Versailles.  

Versailles was a very extravagant palace.  Too extravagant some might say.  It's way too over the top for me.  I think it was talked about too much that I got a specific picture in my mind of what I thought it looked like because everyone talked so highly of it, that when I got there, it didn't look like I thought.  Marie Antoinette's house on the other hand, I loved! It was absolutely gorgeous!  I think this is because people didn't talk about it that I couldn't gather a picture of it and when I saw it, it was nothing I have pictured before.  The gardens were amazing though.  I bet they would be prettier than they are in the spring! I would love to go back to Paris in the spring when the flowers are budding and the sun is actually shining.