Day 18 and 19: Take a Bow

Day 18 is the very exciting Bastille day.  For most of the group, this also marks the last day we will be spending in Paris before they go home early the next morning.  I was planning on spending an extra day in Paris, so I was putting off packing while everyone else was running around trying to get their bag under 50 pounds.  Me and Vanessa instead just went walking around Paris, not really having any place in mind to go, just enjoying Paris as our time there started winding down.

We had our last official group activity at a restaurant for dinner.  First off, this was probably the best food I had while I was in Paris, and it was probably the only time I saw vegetables served with my meal.  I got the Scallops with vegetables and a brownie with ice cream for dessert, all of which probably could not have been better.  Before dessert, Herman asked us to go around and name our POW and WOW moments.  At first I was like, "ah, this will be easy," but I was trying to think of what I was going to say, I realized that I couldn't think of many specific moments that really stood out.  It seemed that this trip just had to many WOWs and not many POWs.  

The day ended with a truly amazing firework show.  I have seen some really fantastic firework shows, but this was definitely the best I had ever seen.  They were literally shooting fireworks off the Eiffel Tower.  Simply beautiful.  

When I woke up the next day, me and Caroline were the only ones left.  After three weeks of being in Paris, I felt as if I had been there too long, and also like I had not been there nearly long enough.  I was ready to come home, but I knew that as soon as I got off the plane I would want to climb right back on.  Even though I spent the day with one of friends from back home, it was really different not spending a day in France with the people I had become so close to.  I honestly don't know if I will miss the city or the people the most.  And now as I sit here, writing my last blog post, the end of our trip and the end of our class come closer to an end.  Although I feel like this isn't really the end, more of like taking a break.  I promise, I will go back, I will keep in touch, and I will travel more.  

Day 17: Invading Paris

This day was street art day.  Honestly, I may have loved some of the street art better than most of the art in museums.  There were just so many types, and so many of them make such a statement.  You may see a poster giving an opinion of a political figure on one wall, an artist's tag right off to the side, and then simply a work of art completely from spray paint around the corner all on the same building.  It almost felt like a scavenger hunt, walking around Paris looking for all the different examples of street art.  It's like all of Paris was the museum, and you were scrambling to try to see everything it had to offer.  Needless to say, I could never see it all, but I think I got a good sense of it all.

After seeing all the different examples of street art in Paris, the class went to a skate park to make our own piece of street art.  At first, I was kinda dreading it, just cause I thought we were each going to have to do our own piece of art, and I am no artist.  It was a very pleasant surprise that we would all be working on one big piece as a group.  The only piece of art we had to do was draw an initial design and pick one to put on the wall.  Even though I thought my drawing looked fantastic, we choose a design I really did like.  Lessons I learned from spray painting: it's much harder than it looked.  The two hardest things for me to do was to spray the paint without it dripping, and spray a sharp, clean line.  Somehow the guy teaching us (who was really good) seemed to make it look easy.  It's kind of amazing how talented some of the street artists.  A lot of people may not consider their work true art because its on the street and not in a museum, but being in the skate park and seeing al the talent around me, I don't see how anyone could not consider it art.

Day 16: You Haven't Seen This

This day mark the almost end of my trip in Paris.  Our trip in Paris.  By now, I have spent so much time with the other ten students, we are practically best friends.   Me and my new best friends started off the day by going to the Picasso Museum.  Got to say, I am not the biggest fan of Picasso.  I know that he is one of the most well-known and respected artists in history, but his art just leaves me thinking, "Who has a face like that?"  There were a couple of pieces I really did like, but overall i would give it a 5/10 rating.  The architecture of the building, which was actually really neat, may have been my favorite thing.

This day ended by going to the the play, The Lesson.  On the syllabus, the title of the day is "Avant Garde" Paris.  This play definitely qualifies.  It was just weird.  The story line seems to make no sense at all, and then at the very end the girl dies for just being annoying.  You can't go around killing annoying people!   For me, this line is balancing between completely insane, and a work of genius, and I haven't decided one yet.

Day 15: Where's Hemingway?

On this day, I decided to do the Hemingway Hunt.  This involved going around Paris, and seeing some of the sights described in his novel, A Moveable Feast.  Reading the book before I came, a lot of the places were just a street name and a couple of numbers.  It took a complete new meaning once I was in Paris, and saw the things being described.  Below is the trip I took:

Other Places During My Adventure:

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Day 14: Additional Places #2

Even though today was not officially a work day, we had so much free time it might as well have been.  We've progressively been getting more and more solo time as we get later and later into the trip, which is definitely a plus.  I don't know what I would have been done if I had time to roam Paris by myself at the beginning of the trip.  Nancy tells this story of the first time she went to the Louvre without Herman, and she says that she was curled up in a ball in one of the many, many corners of the museum.  I assume it would look kinda like that.  Now I think that I confidently say I can navigate nearly anywhere in Paris, and get lost a minimal amount of times.  

This was the second day where I decided to go to a place that was not on syllabus.  Today I went to the Natural History Museum of France and saw the evolution exhibit.  A big plus, it was free for anyone under the age of 26.  The only downside about the museum was that all the exhibit descriptions were in French, so there were somethings where I had no idea what I was looking at.  The stuff I could understand, I really enjoyed.  There were exhibits over the origin of the species, prehistoric birds, and creatures of the sea.  I would definitely say that it was worth the money.

We ended the day by going to the Comédie Française where we saw Un Fil à la Patte.  If I had not read the play before hand, I think I still would have found it funny.  Knowing what was happening was just a bonus.  For me, a lot of the comedy didn't come from what the characters said.  It was the the reaction, the way they said it, or the overall character profile of a specific person.  Bouzin may have possibly been my favorite person I have watched in any production.  He was just a very quirky character, and he was played by an amazing actor who was able to portray his eccentric character with movements alone.  Put simply, the actor was a genius.

Day 13: On my Own

While it seems as though I've had multiple favorite days on this trip, Paris solo day to date is my actual favorite.  I was sent to the Musée Cognacq-Jay in the third Arrondissement.  We were given about 5 hours to find our destination, experience it, and make it back to the island we were meeting on in the Seine.  Now walking is usually not on my list of top things to do (we all know how much I love the metro) but there was something so relaxing about the journey there.  I was walking the street of Paris as if I didn't have another care in the World.  I took my time, had lunch, stopped at a few stores when I wanted, and actually ran into a friend from school as she was walking to the Louvre.  That still amazes me: randomly running into someone you know walking the streets in a foreign country, especially since she was suppose to be studying abroad in Germany.

When I got there, I had this overwhelming since of pride that I was able to navigate myself all the way to the museum (and it was a far walk).  Above ground, I usually tend to let whoever I am with take the lead navigating, so this was actually a big accomplishment for me.  Going through the museum, it definitely stood out from other the big museums, and not really in a good or bad way.  It was just different.  Walking through, I felt like I was going through someone's house, and it was very small.  From what I gathered, Ernest Cagnacq and his wife owned the site where the museum sits, and when he died he donated his private collection to make the museum.  A lot of the things in his collection really stood out, in the sense that it wouldn't be things you'd normally find in an art museum.  There were boxes, fans, a pair of scissors.  All of which had more jewels decorating them than a jewelry store, but it was still unexpected.  In one of the floors upstairs, there was a lot of sculptures and figurines inspired by Greek and Roman mythology.  These really caught my attention, because I remembered a lot of the stories behind the characters depicted.  Overall, I am really happy I got to see this museum, mainly because it gave me a sense of how the upper class lived in the early 20th century of Paris.  I also really appreciated that it was way different than the other museums like the Louvre.  While I loved the big museums, and probably liked them better than the Cognaq-Jay museum, I don't think I could have handled another big art museum without going into sensory overload.  This was a nice change of scenery, that was still very interesting to see.  

Day 11 and 12: Ballet at the Palace

Day 11 was the first time we left the city since we arrived in Paris.  While I absolutely love it here, the change of scenery was definitely nice.  Unfortunately this change of scenery came with a heat wave.  While I know its probably way hotter back in the US, days like this make me miss air conditioning and cold drinks.  Despite the heat, The castle of Versailles was great.  Literally every inch of it was ornamented; not too bad for a hunting lodge.  If I had to, I could live there.  My favorite thing was probably the row boats.  Going out in the water was just a really relaxing way to see the grounds and people-watch.  It also helped that I was not the one rowing the boat (Caroline is practically a professional).  The one weird thing that really stood out to me was Marie-Antoinette's Hamlet.  I don't really understand why she would want to create a "play" village where she and her friends could go when they were bored.  It seems to me almost like she was mocking the lifestyle of the everyday person.  I can see why she wasn't very liked.  I wouldn't have liked her.

Day 12 was a much needed break.  Instead of going out, I decided to do some much needed laundry (my first time using the laundry mat was a success), go to the Franprix, and do homework for most of the day.  In the evening, we went as a class to the Paris Opera to see a contemporary Ballet.  Like every other building in France, the Opera building was beautiful.  The ballet was split into three parts.  It was really different in that I had to watch all three parts in a different way.  The first part was just two dancers, but a series of words came down in different patterns so that the interpretation was different with every new order.  It just really had me thinking about what that dance was about, and what the message was suppose to be.  Honestly I still don't think I completely know what was trying to be said, but the fact that I keep thinking about it makes me like it much more than I initially did.  My favorite was probably the last part of the ballet.  To me, it seemed to be the most modern.  The music to this part was the only one that had words, and it was in English so I could actually understand it!  I think it was also the only section whose music was not set in a minor key, so it didn't seem as weird or sad.  While I did not do a lot of thinking or interpretation for that part, it was definitely my favorite to watch in the moment.

Day 10: Take a seat Pinocchio

Day ten marked the day we would have our last official lecture.  While I'm beyond excited the actual classroom classes are over (roaming in Paris way better than sitting in our dorm), there is something also kinda sad about it.  It makes it more real that our trip is now officially half over.  Paris has been an adventure and I will for sure miss the city.  I will also miss not waking up to some of the people I have met on the trip.  It seems crazy that I've only known a majority of them for less than a week!  When you spend so much time with the same people, you get to be really close, really quick.

On this day, the class went as a group to a puppet show in the Luxembourg Garden.  While you could probably count the number of words I understood on one hand, I actually liked the show.  We were by far the oldest ones there who did not have a child, but I thought it was pretty funny.  Although I probably not recommend it anyone my age or older, I was glad we got to see this part of French culture that was really focused around the children.

Day 9: Art Museum #7381

So my ninth day in Paris followed the same trend as the lost two days, and I went to another art gallery.  This time, we took a class trip to the Musée d'Orsay.  This morning was particularly different because there was a possibility of protests in the subway.  The fact that the French protest things so vocally, and that literally everything can be protested is something way different than we see back home.  We may see a few protests every now and then, but there seems to be a possibility of a protest every other day here.  Of course the day we were suppose to go to the art museum, a protest in the metro did actually happen.  Nothing serious happened, the train was just delayed about 15 minutes, and we were still able to make it to our reservation on time.

The Musée d'Orsay was a very beautiful art museum.  A lot of the other people on the trip said it was their favorite museum we've been to.  The impressionist and neoimpressionist paintings at the museum are just very different than the classics we saw at the Louvre.  These paintings had a lot more color (which everyone appreciated) and had a type of movement about it.  The brush strokes looked like little wisps instead of fine, precise line.  You could tell clearly what each image was trying to capture, but it was portrayed in a way that the image wasn't so sharp.  Needless to say, I'm a fan.  Now I may not have liked it as much as the Salvador Dali museum, but this was definitely a close second.

Day 8: Additional Sites #1

The start of our second week in Paris marked our first free day.  After the impression the Louvre left, Mikayla, Emily, Julia, and I decided we should spend our day off at a few more art museums that we would not be visiting as a class.  We started the day by going back up to Montmartre to go to the Salvador Dali museum (yes, I climbed all those stairs again).  Needless to say, I was out of breath when I got to the top.  What little breath I had left when I got to the Dali museum was taken away after I got inside.  I had never really looked at a lot of his works, but he may now be one of my favorite artists.  His art is more abstract than a lot of the traditional artists, but you can actually see the story behind his pieces.  I can't remember once looking at a canvas and thinking, "these are just a bunch of random dots and lines" or "a toddler could have done this," as I often think when I look at some of the more modern works of art.  He falls in a much grayer area of art that allows the imagination to wander freely, but comes with a rope to grab onto whenever you get truly lost.

Now the Pompidou is a much different story.  While I did truly like some of the art there, some of it I just truly did not understand.  The Picasso art work upstairs was really unique and I enjoyed those, but a lot of the other artwork in the museum seemed pale in comparison to Dali's work.  Now I may just be biased because I'm a fan of Dali's, but I would recommend the museum at Montmartre before the Pompidou.  

End of Week One!

So I've decided to combine my sixth and seventh days in Paris into one blog post.  And these are two pretty big days.  We went to two of Paris's most iconic buildings on these days: the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral.  At Notre Dame, it seemed like half the city was packed into the same the building.  It was an amazingly beautiful church, but I have not seen one church here that isn't beautiful.  While Notre Dame truly is amazing, and should definitely be seen, I think a lot of the smaller churches, some of which have just as much or more history behind them, would be a much better place to worship and really appreciate the artwork that goes into building the catholic cathedrals of France.

While half of France was at Notre Dame, the other half was roaming around at the Louvre.  Around the exhibits of the most iconic pieces of work, you have to just shove your way through to the front to get a decent picture.  Exhibits with lesser known pieces, such as Napoleon's apartment, are not nearly as crowded, so if breathing room is a priority, spend most of your time in those exhibits.  Some of the pieces of art required a second look to truly grasp how incredible it is, but my favorite piece that immediately grabbed my attention was a sculpture called "Winged Victory."  The sculpture is missing its head and both of its arms, but I believe that just makes it even more beautiful.  Adds to the mystery.  Although, what remains left of the statue accomplishes a lot.  you can see where Victory's dress is wet, and the wind is blowing it close to her body.  She seems to exude power and strength with both wings extended out boldly, and a solid stance.  To be in her presence is to feel a sense of victory.

Day 5: Know where that door leads?

It has now been five days since we moved into the dorms.  I'd like to think that I know how to navigate the city by now, but still sometimes I round a corner and I'm like, "Who put Notre Dame here?"  It's fine.

Today we explored Paris from below and above.  We began by going into the catacombs.  This may just be my favorite place I go during my time in Paris.  The remember reading the articles before going, and it said something about how the number of bodies in the catacombs below the city outnumber the number of people walking around in Paris.  I thought "That's ridiculous.  There are a bijillion people in this city!"  I was wrong.  The feeling I had walking through bordered between eerie and holy.  Seeing the bones just lined up on the wall was definitely different, but I loved it.

We ended the day up on Montmartre.  Let me tell you, there are a lot of stairs.  It is literally on the top of a mountain, but it was worth the trek.  The story of Saint Denis on Montmartre is probably one of my favorite stories I have learned in Paris so far.  I really enjoyed just learning about the history.  And there is so much art everywhere.  Artists just line the square, asking everyone if they want a portrait.   The church at the top, Sacre Coeur, is beautifully built, and the view from the inside is breathtaking.  You almost feel as if you're sitting on top of the whole city.  Incomparable.  

Day 3 and 4: So French

I'm going to start off this post with a list of words I have learned so far: bonjour, oui, merci, pardon.  That's about it.  Every now and then I will remember the phrase for how to say "good afternoon" or how to order a meal, but I still think it is safe to say that I am far from fluent in French.  But progress is progress, and I have set a personal goal to be able to order breakfast without using any English.  While I have not met this goal, I am almost there.

It seems only appropriate that I should talk about food at the end of gastronomy day.  Here is a list of the food I have tried since I have been in Paris: the stereotypical escargot, many, many pastries, and an assortment of different cheeses.  I'm sure I have eaten more than that, but those are really the things that stand out.  While I would not have thought I would ever like snails, I really enjoyed the garlic and oil taste it had.  Even though it was really hard to get it out of the shell, I would get it again.  While I have been trying not to wonder into the realm of American food by stepping into a McDonalds, I have frequented the french version of it, the Quick, many times.  Even, though the food at Quick would not be my first choice in cuisine in Paris, it has a deadly trio that seems to draw me in: cheap food, long hours, and free wi-fi.  For the last few couple nights, me and Mikayla have come to work on our assignments and contact people back home in the evenings before we go to bed.  Needless to say, others are starting to catch-on to this genius plan, and now half of our group spends the hour before going to bed reading the articles for the next day and playing on snapchat huddled around a table at the Quick.  New personal goal: I will not go to Quick once the wi-fi is fixed in our building.

The Snails I got the other day.  Photo creds to Alexis Spahn

Triumphant Day 2

After sleeping a total of 16 hours (no joke), the jet lag seemed to be fading a little bit.  On this day, we learned how to navigate the metro of Paris.  While this labyrinth may seem pretty scary at first, I can definitely say that it is on my list of favorite inventions man has ever made.  Once I got used to reading the map of the metro, I used it constantly.  While walking has the definite advantage of allowing one to really take in their surroundings, the metro system of France seems to also have a unique culture apart from the city above it.  You see people selling fruit along different tunnels, people playing music in the entry way as you enter the underground.  Even if you decide taking the metro is not for you, I think it is a very central part of Paris culture that should be experienced at least once.

After having our first adventure on the subway, we went back to the Arc de Triumph.  Seeing it a second time, you could really see the detail that went into making it.  While many of us would not give a second look to skyscrapers and towering buildings, the arc was built in the 1800s!  They did not have near the technology and machinery we have today.  You can't help but amazed not only at how beautiful it is, but how anyone was able to achieve something so great in the time period. 

Day 1: Exhaustion

On Sunday, June 26th, I remember standing in the line of the airport bursting with emotions.  Anxious because I was going to a new city with entirely new people.  Lost because I had never seen the inside of this airport or traveled alone before.  And most of all, excited that I was going to be in Paris in what felt like several hours.  

One day later, all those emotions were overwhelmed by one very strong, powerful emotion.  I was TIRED.  Despite the fact I was struggling to keep my eyes open and stumbling in every direction under the sun, the first impression Paris made unforgettable.  For starters, the food here was really good.  We went a cafe right outside of the Pantheon, and it was a real experience.  I chose to stay with something safe, and went with a pork and gravy dinner with mashed potatoes, but looking around the table, you could see some real french culture.  Just a couple seats down someone else in the group was eating a croque madame.  Now I know some people get fried eggs sandwiches all the time, but to me this seemed like a new invention in a galaxy far far away.  I would never have imagined having the yolk of an egg run down my sandwich, but it looked strangely good and I am definitely willing to try it.  

Even though a majority of that day is a blur, two things really stood out to me: the Arc de Triumph and the Eiffel Tower.  There is just something so special about being in the presence of something so impressive.  You see these iconic landmarks in pictures, but I think all of us know that a picture never does a true landmark justice.  We have already been back to the arc, and it was even more TRIUMPHANT in person.  I'm not sure if we take a class trip back to the eiffel tower, but it is definitely on my list of other trips to make if we do not.