I have changed sites!!

I am moving to WordPress new website is...

http://dreambigliveasy.wordpress.com/

From Paris to Brussels?

Hello! I have exciting news to share I don't know if you remember my post about Paris being mean, but something has changed. It has been the biggest turn around ever. People have been welcoming me to Paris and helping me when I need it. It's strange how fast a place can change from a place I dislike to one I love. To me the people are what make up a place and before I couldn't take it, I was counting down the days to return to the States, but now I want to stay and explore. I went to Le Queen last wednesday night, it happened to be the club that laughed and clapped at me the last time I tried, but miraculously they let me right in. To tell you the truth it wasn't that great, I'd much rather go to Duplex which is about 3 or 4 blocks away. I was just so happy to get in to a place that is notorious for rejecting. If I were you I'd go to Duplex which happens to look like a metro stop. The club is underground and has different rooms for music. The drinks aren't that bad (price wise) 10 to 20 euro and the people are great! On Tuesday nights Le Duplex is free for students. Le Queen is free on Wednesdays for ladies until 1 am, which is ridiculous when they stay open till early the next morning. It should be free all night for ladies.
So I went to Belgium this past weekend with my friend Debbie. We were in Bruges for about 3 hours when we decided to go to the preferred destination Bruges. Brussels to me was dirty and harsh, the only good thing about it was that it had waffle stands everywhere. The famous peeing boy statue is not worth it, its like a foot big. It's one of those Mona Lisa let-downs. Bruges is to the west of Brussels more towards the coast. It is absolutely spectacular. It was founded by the Vikings in the ninth century, the vikings new the right places to be. Anyway it has this very medieval feel to it, with very old buildings and squares. There are canals that surround the center of the city, you can take a boat tour of the canals for about 5 euro and it is roughly a half hour long. There is also the church of Our Lady and that happens to be the world's tallest brick building. The Basilica of the Holy Blood is said to house the blood of Jesus Christ and it is paraded on L'ascension day every year. You can also go in to the church and touch the canister that contains the blood and say a prayer.
Nightlife in Bruges is very lively. I went to pubs mostly, Charlie Rocket's was my favorite. It was supposed to be an old biker American bar. It did pretty well, the music was from today but the bar itself had an old grungy feel to it, and the drinks were cheap. The bar stays open till 4 and that is late no matter where you go. There is a club in Bruges that is sound proof where you cant hear anything from the street but inside the speakers are blaring techno, my fav. It is called Entrenous. The locals seem to love to interact with the tourists and went to all the places that tourists normally go like Charlie Rocket's. At least that is what the bartender told me.
Bruges is highly recommendable, I want to go back there.

Pursuit of Happiness

So Kid Cudi who is a musical genius has a song titled "Pursuit of Happiness". It just happens to feature MGMT one of my favs, and Ratatat who played at UVM last year. Now Steve Aoki (DJ) made this amazing remix and I think it is about 8000 times better. Here it is, tell me what you think?

A rainy day in Paris

To the 2 followers I have, if you are ever in Paris while its raining there are a few things you can do. First off don't stay cooped up in the very petit apartment you will be staying in here, that's how you go crazy. At least that is how I go crazy, but luckily for me I happened to have 7 hours of classes today so I was interacting with fellow students, as well as the crazy occupants of the métro. Things you should do...

- Go to the aquarium... Aquarium de Paris,
It is located off the Trocadéro Métro stop which has both Line 6 and the 9. Located in the Trocadéro gardens, it has 43 aquariums, 10,000 fish which include 24 sharks!! There is actually a shark tunnel that you can walk through that is 33 meters long. I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty exciting. For students it is 15,50 euro, adults 19,50 euro, and children it is 12,50 euro. The aquarium is open right now from 10h till 19h, off season it is open till 18h.

-Go see a flick!!
Most theaters around Paris have english films, you just have to look around. The Gaumont Alesia has at least one english movie a day. The theater is relatively new and if you are a student the ticket is around 7 euro. If you want to check out the American movies in Paris here is a great link.
http://paris.angloinfo.com/information/movies.asp

-Bowling at the Bowling Mouffetard,
Prices for this fun-filled bowling alley range from 3,30 euro to 15 euro. Located on 73 rue Mouffetard in the 5th, you can take line 7 on the Métro and get off at either Place Mange or Censier-Daubenton. It is a retro bowling alley that also has billiards. The bright colors plastered on the walls will definitely lift your mood on a rainy day. If not there are plenty of bars in Mouffetard that I'm sure will brighten your day.

-Shopping at Forums des Halles
This isn't your ordinary shopping center it happens to have; an indoor pool, two cinemas, children's playground, a library for art and multiple restaurants. It even has a Starbucks. Some of the more popular shops include H&M, Swatch, United Colors of Benetton, Bershka, Darjeerling, FNAC, Gap, Mango and much much more. It is located in the 1st, and is the Les Halles station for the Métro and the RER.

-Louvre
As you hopefully know Paris is home to some of the most impressive museums in the world. One of which being the Louvre which houses the Mona Lisa It's been said that if you look at every piece of art in the Louvre for three seconds each it will take you three months to get through the entire museum. There are two Métro stops for the Louvre called the Louvre Rivoli and Palais Royal Musée du Louvre on line 1. If it is raining or sunny the first sunday of every month is free!

-Musée d'Orsay
There is also the Musée d'Orsay which houses impressionist artists like Monet, Manet and Renoir. It is spectacular and highly recommendable. It is 7 euro for students to get in, and is normally 9,50 euro. It is within walking distance from the Louvre, just on the other side of the Seine. If you want to take the Métro the most direct route is on line 12 stop Solférino.

-Centre Pompidou
If you are into contemporary then the Centre Pompidou is for you, located right next to Forum des Halles. It houses the most contemporary of artists (Andy Warhol one of the most famous) and is in an extremely contemporary building for Paris. The façade looks like a steel web covering it. This is also a great place to go to when it is sunny because when you are on the fifth floor you have the view of the city! If you can pass for an EU student it is free, if not it will be about 8 euro, regular priced tickets are 12 euro (depending on season). The closest Métro is Rambuteau on line 11.

This will fill up your time for now, more fun things to do coming soon!!

Tights Galore

While walking around Paris today I was of course people watching to see what everyone else around me was wearing. One thing that I have noticed while doing this was that the women have an obsession with tights. I'm not complaining at all because tights are miracle blemish workers. I feel like when most people think of Paris they think of well sex-appealed, romantic fashion, and you do see that when it comes to the magazines. Like in this months French Vogue where they have a spread of this very beautiful model and in every picture you either see her breasts or her vagina. Yes I said her vagina, it seems to be a reoccurring theme in everything French a full naked woman is just as common as the cafes that blanket the streets of Paris. So the appearance of clothes is slim to none in high-fashion magazines, but in real life Paris there is plenty of clothes. They don't really show skin they cover it with tights and sweaters. One of the fashion statements that I have seen on numerous occasions here is the short and tight look, not even skin-tone tights but black ones. At first you ponder and look up and down to try and figure out why someone decided to do this. I think that it is cute as long as it is done the right way. I think jean shorts that have the ragged cuffs and light washes are a no-go for black tights but maybe something funky like neon prints or even skin-tone and a pair of converse. I think in order to have the black tights look work you should wear colored(grey, khaki, black, red, maybe even dark purple) twill shorts or clean cut dark jean shorts. I think this look could even be brought out in to night wear with a cute pair of heels and a flirty top accompanied with a cardigan.

Here is an option for a classy look...


Silk cargo shorts
Banana Republic
$69.50




















Sheer tight
Banana Republic
$15.00
















Caryssa
Steve Madden
$89.00





and for the easy daily look...











Embroidered Jean Cutoffs
Gap
$59.50










Couture Lace Tight
Kate Spade
$28.00









Converse Chuck Taylor® 'Sparkle' Sneaker
Converse
$59.95






Whatever you do, do not wear tights with the awkward line that is on the top part of your thigh with short shorts it is awkward and not necessary. It either means you are buying the wrong tights or your shorts are too short. To be clear I am a follower of the tight thing I'm all about it, but I haven't ventured to anything but skin-tone but maybe soon I'll try the Parisian way.

Claude Monet's Gardens plus some

Believe it or not in three weekends today I will be back in New York. It is a crazy thing to think about. I have my schedule pretty packed up so I'm sure it is going to go by really fast, yesterday I went with my program to the Normandy region of France which is in the North-west of France. We went to two towns; Giverny and Honfleur. Giverny is the home of Claude Monet who is an extremely famous impressionist painter. His home in Giverny is surrounded by gardens of the most beautiful flowers, trees, ponds, and animals. It was very impressive and it smelled so delicious. My favorite flowers which I can never remember their names were scattered all through out the garden. These gardens feature the pond with the lilly pads that are featured in multiple paintings by Monet. It was really cool seeing them, knowing that Monet was painting where I was standing was very exciting. I love Monet he is one of my favorite artists.
Pretty similar huh?

After Monet we drove to this village Honfleur, that was absolutely adorable. My program just let us wonder and failed to mention that it was a fishermen's village. It reminded me so much of the Fisherman's village I went to in the Netherlands. It was so cute. I had soupe de poissons which is fish soup, but it wasn't that great sadly. My favorite fish soup is at a tiny restaurant in Lillesand, Norway. This soup had a strange consistency and it didn't have any fish taste to it. When we walked around the docks we came across a Ben and Jerry's, I thought that was hilarious it made me feel like I was in Vermont. Overall, it was a really nice day. I wish we had stayed the night there but my program had it as a day trip so whatever. Next time I come to France I'll just have to wonder around on my own.
Today I went to a market in Paris in the north of Paris, and right now I was looking up information on it to tell you but I realized we went to the wrong market. The funny thing is that when I was there I thought to myself that this seemed awkward and there were no antiques. The market that I want to go to is the Saint Ouen market which is the largest antique market in the world. How we missed it, I don't know!?! Funny I guess. I am going to go the last sunday here I think. Anyway, this upcoming week I only have three days of classes due to L'ascension day which is supposedly a religious holiday that no one in the states celebrates, so my friend Debbie and I are going to Belgium!! We are going to have one day in Brussels and two days in Bruges. We have been hearing great things so I am really excited. Till next time!!

Spring Break: part 2

Upon my arrival in Athens I was stuck with excitement. Greece has been one of the places I have wanted to go to since I can remember. I couldn't believe that I was actually there. Ever since my dad told me some of his stories about the Greek Islands I knew I had to get there while I was still young ;) We were in Athens for a total of two days; the first day and our last day, the rest of our Greece trip was spent in Santorini and Mykonos. My favorite you ask? Well, I'd have to say Santorini. You probably know Santorini because of the famous blue and white houses draped over the side of a volcanic mountain. It was serene, beautiful and filled with happy people. The experience there was amazing even our hostel was amazing. It was actually more like a bed & breakfast. My friends and I were the only people staying there except for the owners of course. The hostel itself was painted bright hues of purple which stood out from the white houses that surrounded us. We spent a day on the beach which was really nice and relaxing except that the sand is volcanic sand meaning its black and prickly which doesn't add up well with bare feet. We also couldn't walk in to the water without yelping because of the amount of rocks, but if we just laid there it was marvelous.
Oia is the part of Santorini that has those houses, that is also the area where you can ride donkeys up and down the huge steep mountain. Allie and Rob did it as Debbie and I stood from the top taking creepy photos of them. The bad part about the islands was that it was so windy that it became difficult to wear any of our warm weather clothes we brought with us. We learned to deal by layering with everything we brought.
Mykonos was extremely commercialized the first thing we saw was a Starbucks disguised as a traditional Greek home. We stayed at a campground called Paradise Beach which to our surprise wasn't a gay resort that the Athenians told us about. Our rooms were concrete huts that you could picture in a Discovery Channel special about an indigenous species from thousands of years ago. Debbie and I had our own little roommates; 2 snails, millions of ants and some mosquitos that left me with 14 mosquito bites. I named one of the snails GusGus from Cinderella but the other one wasn't as exciting so I didn't name it. Talene, Caitlin, Debbie and I ventured off our last night there to find the wind mills according to a Londonite, George he told us that windmills used to power everything on the island (I'm not sure if that is still true). We stumbled upon this really cute restaurant right against the sea and when Tal and I went to take pictures to our surprise the windmills were right there! It was a coincidence but perfect because we didn't think we were going to find them. The waiters at the restaurant were very nice; one was talking about Chicago calling it the "town of wind", he was close. When we returned to Athens we of course saw the Acropolis which was how I pictured it. To this day my favorite historical site/building is the Pantheon in Rome.
Athens reminded me of China Town in Manhattan because of the amount of fake merchandise you can buy it was almost ridiculous. I wasn't expecting that at all. Athens seemed a little dirty and the people weren't as nice as everywhere else I had been, but I still enjoyed it. I also realized that the gyros in Greece were the same thing as what you'd find in a traditional greek restaurant in NY (I wasn't as gyro-crazy as my friends). While in Athens we went on this tourist train that brought us through the city, we were being presented to the world is what it felt like because we would drive down allies that were lined with restaurants and everyone in Athens. Moral of the story don't go on the trollies unless you are prepared to turn red, laugh a lot and feel completely embarrassed.
This is the Acropolis!!

Overall this Spring Break definitely tops all the other ones I've had, but next year who knows where I'll go :) I'm so glad to have enjoyed both Spain and Greece, I want to go back to both to explore more parts of them but that will have to be for another time. I only have 3 weeks left in Paris, and most likely the next two weekends I will be traveling again so I have even less time in Paris then I thought. I want to go to the YSL exhibit at the Petit Palais which is supposed to be incredible, but I have to hurry because I think it is done soon! I definitely want to do the cliche picnic in the parks with a bottle of wine in one hand and a baguette in the other, but I might save that for when my cousin comes in a couple weeks!!
With Love.

Spring Break: part 1

Sitting in my overly small dorm room in downtown Paris I started to think about my wonderful spring break vacation I just returned from. Mostly because it is pouring here I am dreaming about the beaches I laid on in Spain and Greece. I left last Thursday for Barcelona, Spain. Upon my arrival with my good friend Debbie we decided to roam the streets where we landed on one of the biggest shopping streets in Barcelona, extremely similar to the Champs in Paris. This is one of those streets you window shop on and don't walk in the stores because your wallet will run away. Well we ended up finding this really cute cafe called Ou Ou where we indulged in our first real spanish tapas. I actually wasn't that big of a fan, on most of them they put this orange sauce on it that looks like the hot sauce americans put on there wings, but instead it was sweet.
After checking in to my hotel we were bombarded by club promoters and pub crawls. One of them was from the states and his aunt was supposedly from Manhattan off Park Ave. I couldn't tell if he was faking to try to get us to go with him, but he was very excited about it so who knows. We ended up not going on a pub crawl or to a club, we went to this really authentic restaurant where we had Sangria and Paella. Paella is my new favorite food and I plan on learning how to make it at home and eating it like once a week. It consisted of spanish rice, chicken or craw fish or both, vegetables and probably a whole bunch of other stuff I had no idea that was in there, but it was so good. Of course the Sangria was amazing we ended up going to a cafe afterwards and shared a carafe of Sangria, delish!
The next day when we met up with our friend Rob we went to the Sagrada Familia a church that is still in the process of being finished but was originally designed by Antoni Gaudi. The church was magnificent, it looked as if it was melting it had fruit, and animals draped over the church, there was lots of color and inside which is completely under construction there was the most gorgeous stained glass it had such bright colors. It was definitely a site that I recommend seeing. That night we met up with people from our program in Paris and went out to the clubs with them. The club was not that fun because there were mostly 35+ year olds there. I didn't enjoy watching the old men trying to dance.
We spent our last day in Barcelona at the beach. On our way to the beach we walked to their Arc de Triomph which happened to be red. Through the arc there was a market that had traditional spanish foods we hopped from booth to booth trying fruits, tapas, guac, and much more. It was really neat. The beach was beautiful and we found out from a local that this happened to be the nicest day they have had this year. That night we went to this bar called the Chupito which sold over 200 different shots for 2 euro a piece. The oasis and the boy scout were my favorite. The oasis was very fruity and the boy scout was sweet but the special thing about the boy scout is that they put the shots on fire and then give you a marshmallow on a stick that you roast over the shot. Needless to say it is a go-to place in Barcelona, but don't think you will have a lot of space to chill because there is pretty much a two foot gap between the bar and the wall, and no seats. I enjoyed it still. If you ever go ask for the Monica Lewinsky.

next stop Greece!!

Hello Volcano!

So luckily my spring break plans were not semi-ruined from the volcano, but it definitely effected everyone over here. Now I am taking a train to Spain instead of a plane, which may actually be pretty cool. Since I wanted to have a fun weekend I wandered around Paris and landed at Père Lachaise cemetery that happens to have some very cool people residing there. Like, have you heard of The Doors? Well, the wonderfully handsome druggie Jim Morrison is buried there. His grave covered in roses, and pictures of him. I'm sure there would be more things there, but they actually have it barricaded so we can't get close to it. Oh yea! I went with Allie, Tahl and Caitlin. Cait and Tahl have been there already but we dragged them along. We also saw Oscar Wilde's grave which is decorated with women's and I am sure men's red lipstick prints. Allie was the only adventurous one of the group and actually kissed his grave that is blanketed with kisses. Oscar Wilde was and still is a famous writer... google for more info :) The cemeteries over here are very cool, unlike in the US when primarily there are tomb stones here they have the tomb houses so it makes it feel even more eerie and like a village. There was this weird man selling post cards and maps that kept telling Allie she could pay with USD and we were like we are in France we carry euros.
After that exciting couple of hours we all went to see Green Zone with Matt Damon. I highly recommend this movie. The movie is about the Iraq war and what the US government did and hid in order to start the war. I love Matt Damon and I love action so it was a real treat. I just wonder if the French actually got the concept of it? Well I don't really care to ask so I guess we will never know.
Today we went to Disneyland Paris!!! It felt like I was home again. Of course the park is a lot tinier compared to Orlando, but it still did the job. They had all the rides that you would possibly want to go on and the lines weren't that crazy so we were able to do every ride we wanted. Sadly though they didn't have Turkey Legs, so I guess I'll have to go down to Orlando for that. The Tower of Terror here is actually a lot better then the one in Orlando, at one point I couldn't decide if we were going up or down. We went on Thunder Mountain which of course was fun. I took a video for part of it and all you hear is Allie screaming its quite entertaining (its on Fbook). We did the Haunted Mansion which was great as always. Umm... we went on Rock'n'roller coaster and they must've like cheaped out on it or something because it was missing all the cool glow and the dark stuff while you were on the coaster, it was awkward. Then Caitlin and I went on Space Mountain and it was crazy, it was the second edition and this one went upside down and did all these spins, it was nuts. Tahl and Allie would've hated it hence why they didn't go on. We ate at Planet Hollywood for dinner, I literally felt like I was in Manhattan at Planet and we were just going out for a fun meal. I had this amazing alcoholic beverage, but sadly I don't remember the name of it. I do remember that it had baileys, ice cream, vodka, bananas, and maybe chocolate something in it... delish!! Now, I'm finally home about to fall asleep just wanted to update you first!! love.

Paris, Why are you so mean?

To my dismay I have come to the realization that the youth of Paris is the epitome of the stereotypes the worlds holds for them. It was upsetting to be put in the situations I was put in this past week, especially after defending the beloved people of this city before I came here. Everyone said to me "the Parisians are mean and rude, and don't care about anyone else except the French, so on and so forth, blah blah blah" and well its true. I have never been treated and more upset with a group of people before in my life. Since my time here I have been yelled at, made fun of, and clapped at. Clapped you ask? Well, a group of men clapped at a friend of mine and I after we realized we weren't going to be let in to a pretty popular club in Paris and we walked away. As we walked away they started to clap, and laughed at us. Normally, I would have said something but I was so shocked, appalled, upset that I couldn't do anything. What type of person or people would do that? Everyone is like well New Yorkers are the same way, rude, stuck up etc. The one thing that New Yorkers have against the Parisians is hospitality. We welcome who ever in and will be nice to them until they act cray-cray and we have to be rude to them. The parisians are just rude to begin with and stick their noses up in the air and turn away from the rest of the people in the world. I'm not trying to hate on the Parisians, but from my experiences here I honestly can't wait to get away from these people. The people that I have met here and do like, none of them are originally from Paris or they have opened their minds to the cultures other then their own and have realized that the French don't rule the world, and they have shown me so much welcome and helped me when I was struggling to communicate in French. Unlike the english speaking world, when attempting to speak French and you are not good at it, they will yell at you. Its happened to me plenty of times, or they will make fun of you by laughing and speaking in French and staring at you. It is so upsetting to me that this is how they behave because I had so much hope for these people before I came there, and I am sure that there are Parisians that are nice and welcoming, but when you have so many bad experiences with different ages (mostly the youth though) its disheartening and makes you believe in the stereotype even more. This experience has definitely been a great one, but I am now counting the days down to return home because of how much hatred I feel for this place. The city will always hold a special place in my heart, but the people will not. I hope this cloud fiasco disappears within the month so I can get out of here, but I am exploring other options. I am not getting stuck in a city filled with pretentious, and stuck up bitches.

2 months and counting!!

I have now been here 2 months. It is crazy how fast it has been going all though on the other hand I feel like I've been here forever. I'm missing a lot of faces from home, which makes me believe I want to return sooner then later. So far this trip has been one for the history books, but sadly the connection I was dreaming to find in Paris I did not find. I read in an article once about the Parisian people, it was something along these lines, "The food is absolutely fantastic, but the service is dismissive and rude" referring to the French people of course. I find this to be true. The people that I do talk to outside of my program and classes that I think are from Paris end up being from other countries, none from Paris. It's kind of a bummer, but I am still enjoying myself with the friends that I have made here. They are what keep me going daily until I go home which is in 1 month and 21 days, but who is counting. I am very anxious and excited for my Spring break that starts this weekend I have been waiting for this break for a while and it is coming at the perfect time. My favorite place so far that I have visited has been London, and then next comes Cassis which is a small town in the south of France, its so quaint and adorable, good for retiring. London is great for meeting people, such a lively city. I can't wait to see what Spain and Greece have in store.
This passed weekend I went to Loire Valley and to my dismay we did not go to the Chateau Chambord which is the most famous of the castles, and to me the prettiest. We did drive by it though and it was the biggest tease ever, "I was like thanks a bunch API for being so nice to take a drive by and make us feel more crappy about not going where are first stop should've been". We did see two other castles that were way smaller. Out of those two I liked the first one the best which was the Chateau de Chenonceau. This chateau was built by Thomas Bohier and Katherine Briconnet in the 16th century. The chateau itself was known as the ladies chateau because of all the queens that have lived there. This chateau was also known for the parties that were thrown there, according to our guide they were like orgies. Allie and I ventured in to the castle that still had a lot of the furniture in it which isn't typical for most of the places we have visited in France. It was cool seeing all the beds, jewelry boxes which were more like armoires, and the art work was so amazing. The forests that surrounded the castle were spectacular, Allie and I found this really cool statue fountain in the woods far away from the castle, we were sure the people who lived there way back in the day had been all around those woods. After all most of these castles were for Kings to go to for hunting and relaxing.
Saturday night we went to dinner at one of the local restaurant in the town of Tours which was where we were staying. It was very fun. To our surprise the waiter wanted to speak english, his mom was there and he introduced us to her, and then a passing bachelor party saw us and stopped by and started to talk to us. For those of you who don't know bachelor and bachelorette parties are a lot different here then they are at home. Typically the friends and relatives will make the bride or groom dress up in something crazy, in this case he was in a diaper, and then they make them do silly tasks during the day and then there last stop is a bar. I think it sounds so much more fun then at home, but hey thats just me. It was a great night filled with laughs, my friend Caitlin when she starts laughing she can't stop so it makes everything so much funnier.
We also went to a few factories for chocolate, candy and bread. They were all very cool but brought me back to last summer when I took my nutrition class through NYU and went to these factories all through out NYC that showed us the very same things. Our second and last castle we went to was the Chateau Amboise which was where Leonardo DiVinci was buried in a chapel on the grounds. Seeing his grave was the coolest part of the chateau, by far. There were knight's armor in one of the rooms of the chateau and one of them had a belly pouch area which made me think of my dad and he probably would have worn it if he was a knight. I thought it was funny.

Dad's Weekend

My dad came to visit!!! Him and Kim flew in on Saturday morning where we jump-started our weekend. All though it did rain on Saturday and Sunday during the day, Monday and yesterday were both absolutely beautiful. We did the the tourist things; Notre Dame, Louvre, Eiffel Tower, National Assembly, and a boat tour. While walking over the famous "love" bridge my dad decided that the accordion players aren't that good, and he could be better. The love bridge is a bridge where couples go and put locks on the railing with their name and their lovers to give them luck during their relationship, it's very cute, but if you don't know what its all about its kind of funny seeing all these locks. We went to dinner at Chez Flotte a restaurant near the Louvre, that was absolutely delicious. The first few minutes though when we were trying to order cocktails we had at least 4 different waiters come up to us to ask us what we were saying because they couldn't understand our english. The food was delicious, I had escargot, my fav!! We also went to this place in the same area called Buddha Bar that was one of the coolest restaurants I have ever been to. There was a huge Buddha in the center of the restaurant I'd say two stories tall. The lighting was very dim so it took us a little while to get used to it because it was still sunny outside when we walked in. The food was to die for, we had really yummy dumplings, shrimp, and crab/lobster cakes for an appetizer. I had seared tuna for dinner it was scrumptious. For dessert, I had sorbet it was the best sorbet I ever tasted. I had mango, lime and coconut.. yum!! I will definitely go back there.
So exciting news I am done with classes so soon! I have next week and then a two week spring break and then three weeks after that and I am done!! I'm mostly excited for spring break, I am going to Alicante, Barcelona, Athens, Santorini and Mykonos. I think that sounds like a pretty awesome vacay!! This weekend I am going to Loire Valley which is in France. There are a lot of castles there and I googled it and they look amazing. So there will definitely be a lot of picture taking. Its crazy how fast this semester is coming to a close. After spring break I am going to Normandy, then possibly Austria to visit some friends of my dad, and then its the last weekend where I am going to Ireland for a week and then heading home!! I am so excited. I love France but I am excited to say goodbye.

Top Ten Things

The Top Ten things I want to do when I get home are...

1. Dunkin Donuts iced coffee
2. Chinese food from Imperial Wok
3. Pizza from IP
4. Cosi
5. The Westchester
6. Thai food from Tiny Thai
7. Applebees
8. Movies
9. Beach
10. Dunkin Donuts again

Versailles

Well another week has gone by, which means I am a week closer to being home. It's not that I don't like it here. The city is beautiful, the friends I have made here are awesome, but it's the French that don't seem to care about anyone but themselves. I thought America was cocky but the French bring it to a whole other level. I'm trying very hard to write properly because I haven't been paying attention to my grammar lately and while learning another language is great it is putting a huge block on my english writing skills. Yesterday I went to Chateau de Versailles. I went with my group, but only 30 of us showed up. The tour was for roughly two and a half hours, it was very interesting. The gardens were magnificent, but half of the main parts of them weren't open due to the weather. They don't open until middle to end of April regularly. We walked through the castle itself, the bedrooms, apartments, etc. Each room was more decorated then the next. With velvets, silks, gold and marble what isn't there to love about this place? I love Marie Antoinette so seeing her portraits, beds, statues was very exciting to me. I am currently working on a project for my French Politics and Economy class that is based on her life as the Queen of France. The walls had either velvet fabric covering them or silk. Back in the day they used velvet for the winter times and silk for the summers, isn't that fantastic? This place is like a designers dream, I kept thinking about HGTV and if they were around during Marie's time she would have had her run of the company. She loved floral patterns and light fabrics, so while walking through Versailles you could tell what rooms she had redecorated. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were the last king and queen to live at Versailles due to the French Revolution. I think that's a pretty cool fact. Overall it was a fun mini-trip but I definitely want to go back there when it is warm and the fountains are on. Anyway spring break is right around the corner, and I cannot wait for that.

Till next time!!

Champagne!!

This weekend I took a day trip to the Champagne region of France, which is absolutely spectacular. I went with about 60 students from my program. The day was very overcast and gloomy but the country side was so beautiful. It was a little flat but the little towns that I saw were so cute and nice. We spent the day going to two different champagne galleries or caves, first one being Taittinger Champagne owned by Francois Taittinger. The gallery itself was about 30 meters underground and there were tunnels that connected it to the second place we visited, Notre-Dame De Reims which is where the kings of France used to be crowned. I thought it was funny how a champagne gallery was connected to a church, but hey the French know how to have a good time. This Taittinger gallery was smaller then the other one they have, it housed around 3 million bottles. There were these hallways that went on forever some over 1 km that had bottle after bottle stacked. It was very exciting learning where and how the champagne comes from. Taittinger seemed to put more heart in to their champagne, they aged theirs between 8 and 10 years. The second gallery we went to was that of the famous Monsieur Mercier of Mercier Champagne. Mercier's establishment was way more of a production then that of Taittinger. They seemed to want to get their product out faster without putting as much heart in to it as Taittinger. The establishment as a whole though was a lot larger, in fact we had to take an underground tram for our tour, it was nice to not have to walk but harder to take pictures because it is so dark down there. They had a room down there that housed wines from 1923. I guess it was a good year. The galleries were on the Avenue de Champagne which is considered to be the most expensive street in the world because of the millions of champagne bottles that lie beneath it. Moet & Chandon's galleries are on this street as well. It was a really fun trip but very exhausting, I went to bed right when I got back in to Paris. Today I worked on multiple projects for my classes. Can you believe there is only 9 weeks left? It's gone by so fast. I'm now looking forward to Spring Break which has broken my bank but its going to be amazing. I need beaches! It's been raining here I feel like almost every day. I didn't expect the weather to be like this at all, but life is full of surprises. I'm excited to return to the states.

1 month down.

Bonjour mon amis!
J'ai étudié à Paris pour 1 mois. Le c'est fou! J'ai deux plus de mois et quinze jours pour aller. Je n'ai rien appris. J'utilise freetranslation.com. Mon français est horrible. J'écrirai dans l'anglais plutôt.

So, I have been here 1 month today! It is crazy! I have two months and fifteen days left. It's going by really fast. I have been sick for over a week now, started with flu-like symptoms but since then I have moved on to a sinus infection to a sore throat to double pink eye, then back to sinus infection/sore throat which brought me to the pharmacy today. It sucks but I figure now that I have had pretty much every sickness in the book once I'm better I will hopefully be immune for a while. All though I have been sick I went to London for the very first time with my friend Allie. We took the chunnel which is the train that goes under water. I slept the entire way there and back so that was good. London by the way is awesome! It's great, it made me want to get to Ireland that much faster. I thought Paris was expensive I was wrong, actually London is. The pound literally took out my wallet ripped apart threw it on the ground stepped on it and then gave it back a.k.a. I'm broke. The first day all though deathly ill we saw everything, and walked everywhere. One thing I didn't think of was the rain that happens like everyday there. Luckily thanks to Allie I stayed somewhat dry. We did the London Eye and saw all of the London scape. We went to the Palace, Hyde Park, Parliament, Big Ben, Tower of London, London Bridge and Platform 9 3/4 from the famous Harry Potter which was the main purpose of me going to London. I stayed in a hostel for the first time, it was nothing like what I'm used to, but luckily the people there were super nice and the rooms were semi-decent and we had these four funny irishmen as roommates. The first night Allie and I hung out in the bar that happened to be on the main floor of our hostel and we were figuring the irishmen were going to come back to our room really drunk and loud like the stereotypical irishmen, but no! They went to see Chicago (that is something that I would do, not a bunch of young irishmen) I thought it was hilarious. We met up with Allie's close friend from home Julia and she was really fun we went on a pub crawl with her. I also went to the part of London my Nana stayed in when she lived there and the street that Papa and her got married on so that was my sentimental part of the trip. I almost didn't want to leave on Sunday. I think I preferred to be there then Paris just because the people are nicer, taller and have manners. Unlike the French who don't talk to you, are less then 5'5 and have their noses in the air. And the English buy drinks for women unlike the French who I'd presume would ask a woman to buy a drink for them!
Anyway this weekend my sorority sister Jac maybe coming to visit but she is trying to figure out living situation, and then on saturday I am going to Champagne with my group to have a little wine/champagne testing. Champagne is in the south of France. The best part of France if you ask me is the South. As previously stated my favorite place in France is Cassis which is located in the Provence region.
I'll probably write the beginning of next week unless something dramatic happens this week.
Love and miss!

Sarah came to visit!!

So this past weekend Sarah and her friends came to visit. She is studying in Italy in a small town between Firenze and Roma. She came with two of her friends they were both super nice. We went to the eiffel tower light show which was absolutely beautiful. I could watch that forever all though it only runs for the first ten minutes on the hour from like 9 pm to 1 am I believe. It just so happened that this past weekend was the coldest that we had to deal with since I have been here, so going to the eiffel tower was fun but we ran out of there as fast as possible. I definitely want to go back when it gets warmer and hang out there. In Paris you are allowed to walk around with alcoholic beverages aka bottles of wine which is fantastic. We all still feel like we are doing something wrong since it is so strict in the states. I was also thinking about how when I go home I will have roughly two and a half months before I'm legally allowed to drink which is going to be weird seeing that drinking a glass of wine here is so normal for all ages. I just think its going to be interesting to have to wait for those months...
I went to the catacombs, it was very cool. I actually didn't know what to expect at all I figured it was more like graves underground everywhere, not mounds of bones from floor to ceiling for god knows how long. It was weird, I don't think there is another word that can best describe how I felt when I was down there. I do know one thing climbing those 84 steps to get back up to street level was one of the happiest moments because I was just glad to have survived going through that. The pictures don't do it justice at all because when you are down there it is eerie, quiet and damp. It was something out of a horror film. Speaking of I went to an American theater here where they have french subtitles instead of the films being dubbed over with French voices. I saw Shutter Island starring my favorite actor of all time Leonardo DiCaprio. I would definitely recommend it, but it isn't anything like the trailers for it. I thought it was going to be scary at the edge of your seat type of film, but it was actually one big twist more like a mind game. I enjoyed it. Since Monday I have been sick and pretty much living off dayquil and nyquil so if this doesn't make sense its because of the nyquil. I'm going to London this weekend so there will be lots to talk about next time!

Love and miss!

Club Experience #1 and more to come.

Last night we went to Le Mix which happens to be like 4 metro stops away from us. Us as in like 10 people from my study abroad group and my friend Sarah from home, and her friends so we were a rather large group. It was international students night which meant that if you brought a state id you'd get in for free with no cover. It was actually kind of funny because they had a sticker table with different flags so I got the Etats-Unis one which is the US but then I switched to French when I felt confident enough haha. We got there around say 11:30 and stayed till 3:30 well everyone else stayed but Allie and I got kicked out :/ woops. Well we were invited to dance in the VIP section which was exactly the same as any other section, but there was this one French girl who was there that hated that we were there and she got a security guard and kicked us out. I went to le toilett before we left because the only form of public transportation was the bus and there was no bus that went to where we needed to go. Sooo we hopped on the bus and got off the closest stop possible which was still 3.4 km away (2.2 miles) that we had to walk. Mind you it was in the 20's F last night, so around -5 C but we had on tights. It was freezing and my feet were killing me. We finally got back to the dorms and I realized I left my room key in my room and the front desk was closed so I just passed out in Allies till about an hour ago and was finally able to get in to my room. Overall it was a great night (no sarcasm there).

I'm definitely not in Paris anymore.

This weekend I went to the Provence region of France. I went with the entire API group so there was over 70 of us. We spent Friday and part of Saturday in Aix en Provence which was cute, it was a little off the coast. It was a very old town and reminded me of Italy. Well we found out that it was built in Ancient Rome so I guess there is a reason why it felt like I was in Italy. The first day we went to this restaurant that had extremely fresh seafood. I ate these mussels that literally just came out of the ocean there was still seaweed stuck to them. They were amazing salty. Then Allie my roomie for the weekend, and I went and took a three hour long nap which was very nice because all though we only stayed in a two star hotel the beds were way more comfortable then what we have at the dorms. We went to dinner with a couple others who went on a tour earlier in the day that we missed. We walked to this really tiny street that was filled with restaurants and actually got chinese food it wasn't half bad, but it was nothing like chinese food from say Imperial Wok which is my favorite.
On Saturday in the morning we went to the markets of Aix. We first went to the flower market which was absolutely amazing. I felt like I could smell the flowers blocks away, it was very nice. The markets here reminded me of Beauty and the Beast. Then we went to the food market, which was spectacular we got some cheese that was delish and then I bought a bottle of pink wine that was made in Provence and pink colored wine is known to be from that area so I'm excited to try it! We then went to the clothing market, it was very cool because they had like booths for everything; hats, marfs (man scarf), furs, pants, dresses. This market also had an amazing selection of old vintage books. I bought a Shirley Temple book that looks super old, it has an edition number on the front so only a certain amount were made, and it is in French so maybe it will help me learn French. The second half of the day we went to Cassis, which is where I'm moving to when I have enough money. It was literally the most amazing town ever. The sites were beautiful no matter where you were. All though it was raining the views were still spectacular. It is right on the Mediterranean sea, meaning the water is super blue. Oh! So I decided that I am going to collect like rocks from different places I visit, like tiny river rocks. I got one from Cassis and Marseille. These smaller towns are very hilly like if you aren't in shape you will definitely need to take a break.
So, Marseille. I didn't like it. It's one of the largest cities in France. I thought it was really gross, and it reminded me of like Communist Russia it was really run down and I felt like it could have crumbled. I mean I'm sure there are nice places their, but where we were it was super gross. They did have this beautiful church which is considered the Notre Dame of the south but when we got there my camera died so I dont have a picture but it was beautiful. I guess Marseille has that.
I'm glad to be back in Paris though, it was an exhausting weekend. I also cant believe I have been here for two weeks already it doesn't feel that long at all. I miss everyone, especially Scarlett. I have a full day of class tomorrow (7 hours) and my second class I have to present a project on a French film director so that should be interesting haha. My friend from home is coming to visit this wednesday. Her name is Sarah, she is studying abroad in Italy! I can't wait to see her its going to be nice to see a familiar face for a few days.
Conclusion of the weekend go to Cassis, whenever you have the chance, and when it is warm.

<3

Furro' Dance

So during the day wasn't exciting had French class, got really frustrated because of how long the class was and that I felt like I wasn't learning anything. I think it will get better soon.
Tonight I met up with a family friend Caroline and her boyfriend they were super nice and they gave us a lot of food, that was delicious. We had french food that Caroline explained to us what part of France it came from but I forgot hehe. Afterwards two of their friends joined us and we went to the bar Bizart. When I walked in I felt like I was in a scene out of Dirty Dancing Havana Nights. The bar had a Brazilian night where everyone danced this dance called the Furro' literally the sexiest dance I have ever seen. I am determined to learn it by the end of this trip. I felt like my jaw was on the floor the entire time watching these people move, it was insane. Every dance couple had their own style but all similar moves that was just beautiful. Debbie came with me and we both attempted to do it, she was way better then I. It's almost like a salsa dance just extremely harder and complicated but if you got the moves it looks so amazing.
Here is an example of it... its hard to imagine it because this is in a studio and not in a dim-lit bar with a live band and a lot of people dancing the same thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNfL5NK14o&feature=related
but its like the club scenes in this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9keThUYOi7c&feature=related

Needless to say it was a lot of fun, and I want to go there every week.

Politely Rude

Fact #1 the Les Halles metro stop off line 4 takes you to a partially underground mall, it has a 3 story H &M which leads me to...

Fact #2 H&M is a thousand times better here then it is in the states they had some really cute stuff, but more expensive then H&M at home.

Fact #3 I'm obsessed with Zara and all the amazing French stores, that I have decided to eat less and shop more.

Fact #4 I saw a Parisian actually yell at another Parisian today; I thought the Parisians were only supposed to be politely rude? Guess not, this guy was going at it.

Fact #5 The crepes that you see that are made in front of you instead of heated up are so much better, so check to see if they make a new one or just take it from a huge plate of them.

Fact #6 It has to stop raining I cant deal.

Fact #7 I can't wait to go to Provence.

Fact # 8 I went to buy books today at Gibert Jeune and there are like three of the same store on the same street and each one is dedicated to different subjects.

Fact #9 I'm listening to John Mayer right now.

My First Day of Classes

Well today was interesting. I don't remember the last time I had a 7 hour class day. I don't even know how I am still awake from it, but to say the least the classes weren't half bad. I was really frustrated this morning when my metro card didn't work, and I had to buy a ticket and the woman at the counter and I couldn't understand each other and then I got off the metro and my friend Caley and I couldn't find the school we kept walking in the opposite direction, luckily here everything is way slower paced so when class starts at 10 they mean 10:15 which is perfectly acceptable in my book.
Then when I walked in to class my professor doesn't speak english, well she does but she wouldn't speak it. I mean I am in Paris and I'm trying to learn French but on the first day of the lowest possible level of French I mean come on at least wait a week. She had to repeat herself like 20 times because some people understood but the majority was just shaking their heads and guessing. So that was extremely frustrating. I had an hour and a half break and went to my second class which is Contemporary French Cinema which was awesome because it is completely taught in english and I could participate, and the professor was so cool. He actually goes back and forth between London and Paris for teaching which is really intense but he's great, so I don't mind.
I think I'll be able to deal with my French class as long as the electives I am taking are more exciting and fun.
One thing that sucks is that the metro stop thats literally right outside of my school is closing next Monday so I have to get off a stop before but I'm not really complaining because I need the exercise and I have to go home skinny, its my goal. So sitting here eating Golden Grahams isn't helping haha.. but they're so good.
I asked for a Berger today thinking I'd get a burger but I got a crepe with provolone cheese and goat cheese on it I almost vommed, but when I mixed it with the side salad it wasn't half bad. I need to go learn the French alphabet, I need all the help I can get!!

<3

Le feu!

So I just learned that in France when the Fire Alarm goes off you don't have to throw on whatever is closest to you and run out the door and down 6 flights of stairs and stand out in the cold because they just disregard the fire alarm all together. At least all my fire drills during elementary school paid off and I know that I'll be the safest one here haha.

Montmartre & the Moulin Rouge

Last night I went out in Paris for the first time, it was a lot of fun we went to this Irish bar called Le Hideout all the people there were super nice and when that closed for the night we went to an Australian bar right across the street and when we realized we were allowed to walk around with our drinks outside we did, we were in the Bastille area which has a lot of bars, but when the metros closed we ended up taking a taxi back which wasn't half bad (price wise) except I really had to pee so I literally ran in to my dorm. I definitely want to go back that area. I feel like at the bars I'm going to end up only drinking beer because its the cheapest and its still like 4,50 euro, thats like 7 or 8 USD. Crazy.
Well today I went to McDonalds for a Royal with Cheese which dates back to Pulp Fiction, it was delish. My friend Allie came along with me through out the whole day she is from Long Island. We then walked over to a market that was in the central part of Bastille and Allie bought this awesome mirror that was a Jewish hand symbol (i dont remember the name) but it's also an Israel symbol, it was decorated with tin foil and the decoration on it was incredible for tin foil work. We then proceeded to go to the wrong National Opera House for the ballet we had tickets for and we were too late to travel to the other side of Paris to make the show, so we hopped on the metro and went to the artsy area Montmartre which is in the 18th arrondissement. When we walked up the million stair spiral staircase to reach the open air from the metro, we walked in to this really pretty church it was smaller then most churches in France but it had intricate detail it almost looked spanish at least from the stonework that I saw. After we checked that out we walked down a large hill which takes some practice because the streets are made of different stones not pavement.
When we got down to the bottom we found ourselves in the sex district, store after store of sex stuff and door after door of strip joints, and at last we found the Moulin Rouge which was really cool because I love that movie. So we took several pictures and then went to the Cimetiere de Montmartre it housed famous French artists, politicians, writers, actors any profession you could think of in this cemetery. The cemetery was nothing like at home, it felt more like a little village, because they don't have tomb stones really they have the little houses instead. After we exited the cemetery I saw a golden retriever puppy and it made me miss Scarlett so much. The puppy was jumping up and down and having a blast. We then proceeded to walk back up the hill to go to the church Sacre Coeur, which was incredible it was on the tippy top of the hill and you can see all of Paris from its steps it was so beautiful (again pictures coming soon). I ran in to what I thought was a pick pocketer and gave him the death stare and walked away. Then we hopped on the metro and I just got back home, so I'm exhausted.

Tomorrow is my first day of classes! Wish me luck!!

The passing of a loved one

Well I know this is a blog for my travels but last night my grandma passed away of whom I called Farmor. So I just wanted to write a little something for her, and then I will proceed with writing about my travels another day.

The sun danced on to the horizon
and knocked at your door.
The birds hummed their usual song, frozen
you wish they were when you'd walk along the shore.
You would play your battery powered card games,
as you lighted up your beautiful deadly obsession.
You laughed a lot and sometimes confused our names,
but I didn't mind I thought it was funny, is this a confession?
The wide-eyed look that you'd give me
when I said something crazy,
Our chuckles gathered and collected like dust
and it would seem that our conversation was a little hazy.
I loved you so with your charm and grace.
I'll miss you thick and through and I will always remember that beautiful face.

Anyway I'm going to dinner, and I'll post something maybe later. Miss you all!

Till next time...

Mona Lisa smile

So today was an early day. We had to get up at 7:30 and go to our school to take the oral exam which in my case was entertaining because I don't know how to speak French. After that I had my first food shopping experience which was pleasant, and I also picked up a little rug for my even littler room. Milk here tastes way different then milk from home I would do anything for a Nesquick right now haha.

Then we had our last orientation meeting that was actually the best one, it was about shopping in Paris and the do's and dont's sort of thing. I think I may be catching a cold because I've been sneezing on and off all day. We then went to the Louvre which was amazing. I learned that if you look at each piece for 3 seconds it will take you three months to see every piece. I saw the Mona Lisa which just made me laugh because it is the only painting with a glass box over it and there is a minimum like 10 feet barricade around it so no one can get close. I did get a picture so that was good. They had some beautiful pieces especially from Ancient Greece, but I definitely have to go back there because I would say we saw roughly 2 % of it or less, and we were there for almost 2 hours. By the time that was over I thought my feet were going to fall off because they hurt so much from walking around.
Today I was able to order something from a bakery in French and they didn't ask me to repeat it, that was the first time... so yay me! Tomorrow we are going to the Notre Dame and then I want to go up to the Opera house and go shopping around there, supposedly there are huge dept stores similar to Macys and such!
Miss you!!

Till next time.

Bienvenue Paris!!!

So the first day was quite exhausting, but I met a lot of great people almost everyone from the group except for number two of the two guys on this program because he missed his flight but I feel like he had cold feet and then his parents made him come but those are just my thoughts. Actually my flight was wonderful the stewardess was very nice and spoke french. When I arrived I had to find a cafe to meet the director to take me to the hotel which took me forever to find but finally I did. Everyone in the program is super nice and pleasant. The first four girls I met we ended up eating like the whole day which is wonderful haha. We ordered coffee from McDonalds because it was the only place with to-go coffee.

On the second day we took a metro tour which was exciting and complicated and then some of us branched off and went to the eiffel tower which is marvelous. It is better then any picture, its hard to explain how magnificent it is.
I then started to realize that restaurants seem to try to make the most awkward mixture of foods ever because I went to a little cafe and had a bagel that had guac and tuna on it, don't recommend it. Later on that night, I got stuck in the hotel elevator for an hour and a half with 8 other students that are from my group. I freaked out for the first five minutes but then all of us started talking and we actually got to know each other pretty well.
The third day I ate my first crepe!! It was amazing. I had a banana and chocolate crepe literally to die for, a lot better then Skinny Pancake in VT. I also moved in to my dorm which is brand new but extremely tiny and definitely made for la francais petit, not for 6 foot people. Our building has a soiree every wednesday where the other students meet for drinks in the basement (its refinished) and have 1 euro beer and wine at the bar that is down there, so that was cool except it seemed very cliquy and everyone spoke a hundred mile an hour french, so it was impossible for me to understand.
Today we had to wake up early and go to the center for a meeting where we got our schedule, mines pretty cool I'm taking some neat classes but they seem to be 4 hours long each. They start next Monday so we will see how that goes. Then after that we went to the Musee d'Orsay which was spectacular, there were mostly impressionist painters; monet, van gogh, and certain french painters that I can't remember but the cool thing about this museum is that it used to be a train station but then it grew to small so it was abandoned and then in the 70's the pres decided to make it a museum and the works that are in the museum are only between the periods of the end of the French Monarchy and the start of world war 1 all the other works are housed in the Louvre (I'm going there tomorrow). I went to a place called Berts for lunch and it was a really great sandwich shop they had amazing food. For dinner a couple of us just went up the street to this italian place that was pretty cheap for France and got a pizza.
Its great so far but I can't wait to see whats next!

Till next time. Au revior!!