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