So Callie dared me to be a vegetarian for the two weeks before we go home. Ignoring the obvious obstacle of living with a French family (which is exactly why Callie has her own apartment), it's been three and a half days. Being a vegetarian in France is hard. Yesterday there were no sandwiches without meat left in any of the stores when I went to have lunch...let's just say I'm really looking forward to eating a nice Christmas dinner.
Also, I am now a legal (temporary) resident of France. I have a shiny laminated Residency Permit and everything. With a terrible picture. I wanted to go to the Photomaton in Gare du Nord last time I was in Paris to get my pictures taken as a little homage to "Amelie," but I would have missed my train from Gare Montparnasse. Oh well, the little grocery store down the street is just a little less poetic. I've also started giving my name as "Amelie" when I order pizza. Not that they understand me any better, since last time they wrote down "Marie," but I really hate the name "Emilie" in french. It's just not pretty...
Tomorrow the professors vote on whether we'll have first semester exams at the end of January instead of our semester break or if they'll push them back til April. In general, I'm a fan of procrastination. But April seems a little extreme. I really hope they vote for January, as I'll still have a decent break between my Science-Po exams at the beginning of January and the Bordeaux 3 exam period. But we'll see...
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
Enough foie gras to last a lifetime...
This weekend, Middlebury organized a trip to Dordogne, home of the caves of Lascaux, some beautiful chateaux and, of course, foie gras. The region itself is beautiful, weirdly reminiscent of the English countryside. Well, I haven't actually been to England, but that's what it reminded me of anyway. Or possibly Vermont? Everytime I go somewhere it seems to remind me of somewhere else. I have all these vague memories of one place or another, but I want to go somewhere that's entirely new. Maybe there is no such place, maybe I'll always be looking for something vaguely familiar. Either way, Dordogne is lovely. Rolling green hills, very cozy looking cottages. Medieval cities. Ancient art. The caves of Lascaux are awe-inspiring, with such detail and immense dimensions. But then again, we only saw the replicas. Since their discovery in 1940, the actual caves have been occasionally on display to the public; however, after a scare with bacteria only scientists are allowed in the originals. Instead, they created an exact replica practically next to the actual caves. One woman spent four years painstakinly duplicating the massive paintings in a man-made cave. It sounds cheesy, and it is, kind of. It's hard to explain because before and after you're in the cave, you can't help but be aware of the actual caves that you're missing out on. They're noted as much for their age as for their beauty, and the ones that I saw were drawn in the 80s. However, when you are inside, you forget that. It is incredible to see them, to try and understand all the drawings. When (or if) they re-open the original, I would love to be able to see them.
We spent Sunday exploring the medieval town of Sarlat. It's incredibly well preserved, with dozens of houses from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The hotel we stayed in was from the 15th century, and Susan and I were at the top of the tower. It was a nice weekend, seeing a different, quieter side of France. Bordeaux itself is a step down from Paris, but a quite different from the little villages I always imagined. I think Sarlat reminded me most of Rothenburg, Germany. Charming, warm (in spirit anyway, although luckily it didn't rain most of the time).
And now I'm back to reality. After three weeks of strikes, we are returning to class. For three weeks before Christmas break. No one, not even the professors really, understands how we'll be able to cover everything, take our exams, etc. I'm divided because I sympathize with the students. Ironically, they were fighting to keep French universities from becoming more like American universities. And while I'm rather partial to our university system, I don't know that it's the best fit for France. The students are worried about the universality of their degrees if each university can decide its program. In a country where young people have a terrible time finding employment, I can understand why anything that might further hurt their chances would be terrifying. And the students were rebelling against Sarkozy in general, and his conservative agenda. My host family keeps telling me that no one should be complaining because Sarkozy is just doing exactly what he said he would do. But I don't think the students elected Sarkozy, the man who half the french refer to as the "American." And I promise it's not a term of endearment.
The stereotype of American-French relations is certainly exagerrated. I've never had any real problems, if anything I'm a curiosity in Bordeaux because few American tourists realize Bordeaux is a city and not just a wine. But there is a subtle pro-British sentiment anyway, if not overtly anti-American. When they have to choose between Anglo-Saxon powers, the French prefer the British. The kids in my second grade English class have told me that I don't actually speak english because I'm American. Also, they have a map of english-speaking countries in the classroom that doesn't include the United States. Americans don't speak real english. Americans aren't as cultured as the British. Even when people recognize my accent, I've never once been asked if I'm American. It's always British first. Sometimes a very long list of Polish, German, Swedish, etc, before I finally cave and admit to being American.
We spent Sunday exploring the medieval town of Sarlat. It's incredibly well preserved, with dozens of houses from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The hotel we stayed in was from the 15th century, and Susan and I were at the top of the tower. It was a nice weekend, seeing a different, quieter side of France. Bordeaux itself is a step down from Paris, but a quite different from the little villages I always imagined. I think Sarlat reminded me most of Rothenburg, Germany. Charming, warm (in spirit anyway, although luckily it didn't rain most of the time).
And now I'm back to reality. After three weeks of strikes, we are returning to class. For three weeks before Christmas break. No one, not even the professors really, understands how we'll be able to cover everything, take our exams, etc. I'm divided because I sympathize with the students. Ironically, they were fighting to keep French universities from becoming more like American universities. And while I'm rather partial to our university system, I don't know that it's the best fit for France. The students are worried about the universality of their degrees if each university can decide its program. In a country where young people have a terrible time finding employment, I can understand why anything that might further hurt their chances would be terrifying. And the students were rebelling against Sarkozy in general, and his conservative agenda. My host family keeps telling me that no one should be complaining because Sarkozy is just doing exactly what he said he would do. But I don't think the students elected Sarkozy, the man who half the french refer to as the "American." And I promise it's not a term of endearment.
The stereotype of American-French relations is certainly exagerrated. I've never had any real problems, if anything I'm a curiosity in Bordeaux because few American tourists realize Bordeaux is a city and not just a wine. But there is a subtle pro-British sentiment anyway, if not overtly anti-American. When they have to choose between Anglo-Saxon powers, the French prefer the British. The kids in my second grade English class have told me that I don't actually speak english because I'm American. Also, they have a map of english-speaking countries in the classroom that doesn't include the United States. Americans don't speak real english. Americans aren't as cultured as the British. Even when people recognize my accent, I've never once been asked if I'm American. It's always British first. Sometimes a very long list of Polish, German, Swedish, etc, before I finally cave and admit to being American.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Possibly a curve ball...
Last tuesday, I was in my literature class, attempting to take an exam which required me to analyze 6 pages in 2 and 1/2 hours while composing a decent 5 page essay. Handwritten essay, because french kids don't type their homework. They also don't write on lined paper, but on essentially graph paper. They all have pencil cases. Anyway, I had just about finished my introduction which meant I actually had to deal with the fact of writing a paper in french without handy wordreference.com. But then they started barricading the doors.
The french kids went on strike. There's no union. It's just that they're unhappy with Sarkozy and a new law interferring with the "autonomy" of the universities, which no one really understands. And they're french. So we're striking. About 2,000 kids stood in the courtyard and voted, while I was attempting to write my paper. Even though it was a little bit undemocratic, enough kids wanted to stop classes that everyone just went with it. The administration does what the kids want. Maybe that's what they mean by autonomy of the universities. From where I was sitting in my classroom, I could see kids starting to pile tables and chairs in front of one set of doors. Everyone could hear the people running through the hallway. Our professor tried to make us just keep writing, but finally she went into the hallway and realized what was going on. She told us just to take our stuff and go, and finish the papers at home for class next week. I had no idea what was waiting for us in the hallway, and I was picturing something very scary and intense. It was actually the most polite forced-exit and barricading of a building I've even seen, anyway, and they let anyone out who wanted to go (as long as you could find the 2 doors that were still open) before they fully sealed off the building. My friend's professor told them they could always climb out the windows...
They originally voted to suspend classes from Tuesday until Friday, and they voted yesterday to continue the strike at least through this up-coming Tuesday. Which again means no essay for me. And also no linguistics exam, but Callie saw our linguistics professor voting for the strike so I don't think he's too upset. The train workers seem to be ending their strike, hopefully just in time so that I can get to Paris to see Mary next weekend and then to Poitiers to celebrate a real American Thanksgiving with Caroline. But now it seems the students are getting more determined. We can barely believe that there's only 5 weeks left in this semester (although we've been debating it and it's possibly only 4 weeks because November only has 30 days...it made sense to me). But if the strikes continue, it will change this last month a little bit. I'm not sure how we're going to cram everything in or if they'll just change the exams.
Still don't know if I'm coming home for Christmas. I feel like that should be decided soon. I really want to go to Sweden in December, but I'm thinking I should be more concerned about having enough money to get to Paris to fly home. If I'm coming home. Which is, again, yet to be determined.
I'm also stressing about getting all the paperwork filled out for essentially my residency permit since I'm staying here longer than 6 months. People keep telling me that I won't get deported, but who knows. Can I request deportation to somewhere warmer? They have started decorating for Christmas here. That's weird. I guess since they don't have Thanksgiving to break up the fall, there's no reason not to start thinking about Christmas already. One day soon, I will take my camera out and actually show you this city. I promise.
The french kids went on strike. There's no union. It's just that they're unhappy with Sarkozy and a new law interferring with the "autonomy" of the universities, which no one really understands. And they're french. So we're striking. About 2,000 kids stood in the courtyard and voted, while I was attempting to write my paper. Even though it was a little bit undemocratic, enough kids wanted to stop classes that everyone just went with it. The administration does what the kids want. Maybe that's what they mean by autonomy of the universities. From where I was sitting in my classroom, I could see kids starting to pile tables and chairs in front of one set of doors. Everyone could hear the people running through the hallway. Our professor tried to make us just keep writing, but finally she went into the hallway and realized what was going on. She told us just to take our stuff and go, and finish the papers at home for class next week. I had no idea what was waiting for us in the hallway, and I was picturing something very scary and intense. It was actually the most polite forced-exit and barricading of a building I've even seen, anyway, and they let anyone out who wanted to go (as long as you could find the 2 doors that were still open) before they fully sealed off the building. My friend's professor told them they could always climb out the windows...
They originally voted to suspend classes from Tuesday until Friday, and they voted yesterday to continue the strike at least through this up-coming Tuesday. Which again means no essay for me. And also no linguistics exam, but Callie saw our linguistics professor voting for the strike so I don't think he's too upset. The train workers seem to be ending their strike, hopefully just in time so that I can get to Paris to see Mary next weekend and then to Poitiers to celebrate a real American Thanksgiving with Caroline. But now it seems the students are getting more determined. We can barely believe that there's only 5 weeks left in this semester (although we've been debating it and it's possibly only 4 weeks because November only has 30 days...it made sense to me). But if the strikes continue, it will change this last month a little bit. I'm not sure how we're going to cram everything in or if they'll just change the exams.
Still don't know if I'm coming home for Christmas. I feel like that should be decided soon. I really want to go to Sweden in December, but I'm thinking I should be more concerned about having enough money to get to Paris to fly home. If I'm coming home. Which is, again, yet to be determined.
I'm also stressing about getting all the paperwork filled out for essentially my residency permit since I'm staying here longer than 6 months. People keep telling me that I won't get deported, but who knows. Can I request deportation to somewhere warmer? They have started decorating for Christmas here. That's weird. I guess since they don't have Thanksgiving to break up the fall, there's no reason not to start thinking about Christmas already. One day soon, I will take my camera out and actually show you this city. I promise.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
And one more thing...
Links to my Spain pictures: http://middlebury.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025155&l=0ab3a&id=4403360
Portugal pictures: http://middlebury.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025157&l=7e0fc&id=4403360
One warning: Yes, my hair is a little different then you might remember. I promise it's not permanent. But I felt like too much of a tourist with my blonde hair. Mom, stop freaking out! I haven't gotten any tatoos or piercings.
A few other random thoughts:
The woman at the grocery store the other day asked me where I got my wallet. As sad as it made me to talk about Target, I thought it was a victory that a french woman liked something I owned.
When you fly on the cheap Spanish airline I took, they play music over the speakers during the flight.
Also, when I was waiting for the flight from Madrid, they were making announcements in only Spanish and English, making all the French passengers angry. I overheard an interesting debate behind me, about whether they should make the announcements in French too, since the flight was headed to Paris. One french man was defending the airline, saying it's a British airline with Spanish employees here and most travelers are probably English-speakers. But, really, shouldn't they have made them in French too? Even if the whole flight was full of Americans, it was landing in France. Interesting...
Portugal pictures: http://middlebury.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025157&l=7e0fc&id=4403360
One warning: Yes, my hair is a little different then you might remember. I promise it's not permanent. But I felt like too much of a tourist with my blonde hair. Mom, stop freaking out! I haven't gotten any tatoos or piercings.
A few other random thoughts:
The woman at the grocery store the other day asked me where I got my wallet. As sad as it made me to talk about Target, I thought it was a victory that a french woman liked something I owned.
When you fly on the cheap Spanish airline I took, they play music over the speakers during the flight.
Also, when I was waiting for the flight from Madrid, they were making announcements in only Spanish and English, making all the French passengers angry. I overheard an interesting debate behind me, about whether they should make the announcements in French too, since the flight was headed to Paris. One french man was defending the airline, saying it's a British airline with Spanish employees here and most travelers are probably English-speakers. But, really, shouldn't they have made them in French too? Even if the whole flight was full of Americans, it was landing in France. Interesting...
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
My name is Emily, and I'll be your tour guide...
Well, I sucessfully made it around the Iberian penninsula with only minimal problems. Really, considering the number of connections and types of transportation I was relying on, it is a miracle.
I headed into Paris a few days before leaving for Spain to meet up with Brad, our family friend who works for American Airlines. We had a great time, just exploring the city and we found a couple really cool places with live music that I want to go back to. It's amazing how quickly Paris became familiar. I just wandered Paris for nearly 2 days by myself, without a map, and loved it. However, you have to appreciate the organization of Paris- you can never really be lost because every street is labeled with it's name and arrondissement, so you even know which area of the city you are in. I went to Montmartre for the first time, and climbed the steps up to the Sacre Coeur. It is very impressive but I always laugh when I realize that some of Europe's classic monuments are not older than anything in the U.S. I have this idea that everything here is old, and I forget that Europe has changed too. I also walked around the Pere Lachaise cemetary where so many famous people are buried, but it was raining and there were no maps that I could find. So I stumbled upon Balzac's tomb, and Eugene Delacroix's too, but I did not find Jim Morrison's.
I made it to Barcelona without any problems, except for realizing that I could no longer speak Spanish once I got there. The trains to the center of the city weren't running, but I was able to tell the woman where I needed to go in Spanish, but it was all downhill from there. Ordering food, asking for directions,...I felt like I was translating from English to French to Spanish. And even then, my vocab felt so limited. That was one of the most frustrating things about the trip. I can handle being in countries where I don't speak the language at all, but I when I feel like I should be able to...I just keep thinking about how my Spanish was so much better than my French in June. I did love being around the Catalan though, and I could start to read it reasonably well but I can't pronounce a lanuage that I've really never heard. And Catalan people don't speak Catalan to non-Catalans. Although I think one guy in a coffee shop might have, either that or I just couldn't understand the Castillian spanish.
My first day in Barcelona I just wandered around the city. I didn't want to go to any of the main sights because I knew Caroline was coming later and had never seen the city, so I just walked along Las Ramblas and then through all the neighborhoods where Gaudi and the other Modernists designed apartments. It was a very nice re-introduction to the city. Caroline got in pretty late, so I went to the train station to get her. It's funny because once again on this trip, I was definitely the tour guide. I don't mind at all, especially in Barcelona, but I really had only been there for 2 days four years ago. We hung out with a bunch of the kids in our room at the hostel that night, and then did the big Gaudi stuff the next day. We went to La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell- two of my favorite places in Barcelona. We were at Parc Guell just as the sun was setting and it was beautiful, although the pictures couldn't really capture it. The next day we just walked along Las Ramblas, went to the Picasso museum and went out for tapas. We didn't realize we were going to be in Barcelona for Halloween, and we ended up going out with a group from our hostel to a flamenco show and then a salsa club. It was funny because clearly the only people dressed up were Americans.
It was actually a very social trip for us, in Barcelona we met a couple people that we went sightseeing with and Caroline looked up a breakfast one morning and saw a girl from her high school! We met people studying in Madrid, Florence, Barcelona, Paris...someone who's interning for Adidas in Germany, and then a few people who were just traveling for a few months, or even a year.
We flew from Barcelona to Lisbon on Friday morning. Lisbon has a very unique feeling to it...it's hard to describe, and I loved it, but it's very different than anywhere I had been. We kept using the phrase "old world." You could tell that it had been a powerful, important country, but the last 500 years had also started to wear away some of the glamour of the city. It almost felt like a colony of itself rather than the colonizer, as if someone had poured all this money in and then left. Regardless, it is beautiful, so picturesque and our hostel was amazing. We were right in the middle of the downtown pedestrian area, in the center of the city, with great common spaces to hang out in when we got back and the people working at the hostel could give us recommendations about everything. The first day there we just wandered in two different neighborhoods- one was the Alfama, the oldest neighboorhood because it survived an earthquake in the 1700s. Along our way up the hills, we also were looking for the famous cathedral, the Se. We found three churches that I thought were the big one before I realized it was actually the giant one up ahead with all the signs. They were all nice though...We also wandered in the Bairro Alto, which is where nearly all the restaurants, stores, bars, everything is. It also has a great view of the city though, and we walked to the same point that an Elevador would have taken us. Lisbon has these elevators throughout the city that just take you straight up to a platform so you don't have to climb all the hills, but we somehow ended up on the platform just walking. The second day we went specifically to a area called Belem, which is known for its tower, the Monastario dos Jeronimos, and, honestly, its pastry. The pastries were delicious and the monastary was beautiful too, with a very elaborate courtyard that I wouldn't mind having in the middle of my house. We also climbed up a different hill to reach el Castelo do San Jorge. There's remnants of the Moorish castle underneath the Medieval one, and it has an amazing view of Lisbon itself, as well as the coast. The last day we went to a town named Sintra, just 45 minutes outside of Lisbon and a UNESCO world heritage site. The town itself is lovely, but it's known for its castles. We first went to a palace that our hostel recommended, where the palace is only a small part of the attraction. It's surrounded by incredibly elaborate gardens, with stone towers, grottos, fountains. You feel like a character from a fairy tale walking around and it's even more unbelievable because it was all created in the 1800s. But it seems as if you're walking around on these ancient grounds and climbing ruins. It was like an amusement park. You have to see the pictures, although they don't really do it justice. Afterwards, we went to Pena Palace, which is painted about 10 different colors and is overlooking the whole coast of Portugal it feels like. Inside was frustrating because we had to just file through to look at each room for 5 seconds, but the views on the outside more than made up for it. And they also have really good pastry there.
Coming home was another ridiculous day of traveling. We left our hostel at around 8 in the morning and I was back in my room in Bordeaux at 11:30 that night. I flew from Lisbon to Madrid on the same flight as Caroline, but I had a much shorter connection to head back to Paris. So I had to fight everyone to get off the airplane, run through the airport following signs to the shuttle between terminals. I had a little less than an hour originally, to change from Terminal 4, which is not connected to the rest of the airport, to Terminal 1, make it through security and sprint to the gate. But then the flight from Lisbon was late. So I was panicking, sitting on the bus checking my watch obsessively. And then we come to a stop. But the driver isn't letting anyone out so I can't figure out why we are stopping. I look in front of us and I see a big group getting off a tour bus. Now I'm just angry, and don't understand why we're stopping for them. Then I glance at the tour bus sitting next to us and realize who this is. Real Madrid. The soccer team. The whole team, the manager, everyone walked right front of my bus with camera crews running around them. So I almost missed my flight because of Real Madrid. And it would have been worth it. But I made it, because there was no one in the security line and easyJet did not close the gate half an hour before the flight like they said they were going to. Luckily I also made it to Paris in time to pick up my suitcase with all my belongings that I expected to have back in September and then to make my train in plenty of time. It was a very long trip. But it was a very nice break from everything, and made me happier to be back here.
Now I have to start planning things for the rest of this semester, and it's terrifying that I can plan all the way til the end...it's not that far away. However, I wanted to go back to Paris next weekend and I think that there's going to be another strike. Of course there is...
I headed into Paris a few days before leaving for Spain to meet up with Brad, our family friend who works for American Airlines. We had a great time, just exploring the city and we found a couple really cool places with live music that I want to go back to. It's amazing how quickly Paris became familiar. I just wandered Paris for nearly 2 days by myself, without a map, and loved it. However, you have to appreciate the organization of Paris- you can never really be lost because every street is labeled with it's name and arrondissement, so you even know which area of the city you are in. I went to Montmartre for the first time, and climbed the steps up to the Sacre Coeur. It is very impressive but I always laugh when I realize that some of Europe's classic monuments are not older than anything in the U.S. I have this idea that everything here is old, and I forget that Europe has changed too. I also walked around the Pere Lachaise cemetary where so many famous people are buried, but it was raining and there were no maps that I could find. So I stumbled upon Balzac's tomb, and Eugene Delacroix's too, but I did not find Jim Morrison's.
I made it to Barcelona without any problems, except for realizing that I could no longer speak Spanish once I got there. The trains to the center of the city weren't running, but I was able to tell the woman where I needed to go in Spanish, but it was all downhill from there. Ordering food, asking for directions,...I felt like I was translating from English to French to Spanish. And even then, my vocab felt so limited. That was one of the most frustrating things about the trip. I can handle being in countries where I don't speak the language at all, but I when I feel like I should be able to...I just keep thinking about how my Spanish was so much better than my French in June. I did love being around the Catalan though, and I could start to read it reasonably well but I can't pronounce a lanuage that I've really never heard. And Catalan people don't speak Catalan to non-Catalans. Although I think one guy in a coffee shop might have, either that or I just couldn't understand the Castillian spanish.
My first day in Barcelona I just wandered around the city. I didn't want to go to any of the main sights because I knew Caroline was coming later and had never seen the city, so I just walked along Las Ramblas and then through all the neighborhoods where Gaudi and the other Modernists designed apartments. It was a very nice re-introduction to the city. Caroline got in pretty late, so I went to the train station to get her. It's funny because once again on this trip, I was definitely the tour guide. I don't mind at all, especially in Barcelona, but I really had only been there for 2 days four years ago. We hung out with a bunch of the kids in our room at the hostel that night, and then did the big Gaudi stuff the next day. We went to La Sagrada Familia and Parc Guell- two of my favorite places in Barcelona. We were at Parc Guell just as the sun was setting and it was beautiful, although the pictures couldn't really capture it. The next day we just walked along Las Ramblas, went to the Picasso museum and went out for tapas. We didn't realize we were going to be in Barcelona for Halloween, and we ended up going out with a group from our hostel to a flamenco show and then a salsa club. It was funny because clearly the only people dressed up were Americans.
It was actually a very social trip for us, in Barcelona we met a couple people that we went sightseeing with and Caroline looked up a breakfast one morning and saw a girl from her high school! We met people studying in Madrid, Florence, Barcelona, Paris...someone who's interning for Adidas in Germany, and then a few people who were just traveling for a few months, or even a year.
We flew from Barcelona to Lisbon on Friday morning. Lisbon has a very unique feeling to it...it's hard to describe, and I loved it, but it's very different than anywhere I had been. We kept using the phrase "old world." You could tell that it had been a powerful, important country, but the last 500 years had also started to wear away some of the glamour of the city. It almost felt like a colony of itself rather than the colonizer, as if someone had poured all this money in and then left. Regardless, it is beautiful, so picturesque and our hostel was amazing. We were right in the middle of the downtown pedestrian area, in the center of the city, with great common spaces to hang out in when we got back and the people working at the hostel could give us recommendations about everything. The first day there we just wandered in two different neighborhoods- one was the Alfama, the oldest neighboorhood because it survived an earthquake in the 1700s. Along our way up the hills, we also were looking for the famous cathedral, the Se. We found three churches that I thought were the big one before I realized it was actually the giant one up ahead with all the signs. They were all nice though...We also wandered in the Bairro Alto, which is where nearly all the restaurants, stores, bars, everything is. It also has a great view of the city though, and we walked to the same point that an Elevador would have taken us. Lisbon has these elevators throughout the city that just take you straight up to a platform so you don't have to climb all the hills, but we somehow ended up on the platform just walking. The second day we went specifically to a area called Belem, which is known for its tower, the Monastario dos Jeronimos, and, honestly, its pastry. The pastries were delicious and the monastary was beautiful too, with a very elaborate courtyard that I wouldn't mind having in the middle of my house. We also climbed up a different hill to reach el Castelo do San Jorge. There's remnants of the Moorish castle underneath the Medieval one, and it has an amazing view of Lisbon itself, as well as the coast. The last day we went to a town named Sintra, just 45 minutes outside of Lisbon and a UNESCO world heritage site. The town itself is lovely, but it's known for its castles. We first went to a palace that our hostel recommended, where the palace is only a small part of the attraction. It's surrounded by incredibly elaborate gardens, with stone towers, grottos, fountains. You feel like a character from a fairy tale walking around and it's even more unbelievable because it was all created in the 1800s. But it seems as if you're walking around on these ancient grounds and climbing ruins. It was like an amusement park. You have to see the pictures, although they don't really do it justice. Afterwards, we went to Pena Palace, which is painted about 10 different colors and is overlooking the whole coast of Portugal it feels like. Inside was frustrating because we had to just file through to look at each room for 5 seconds, but the views on the outside more than made up for it. And they also have really good pastry there.
Coming home was another ridiculous day of traveling. We left our hostel at around 8 in the morning and I was back in my room in Bordeaux at 11:30 that night. I flew from Lisbon to Madrid on the same flight as Caroline, but I had a much shorter connection to head back to Paris. So I had to fight everyone to get off the airplane, run through the airport following signs to the shuttle between terminals. I had a little less than an hour originally, to change from Terminal 4, which is not connected to the rest of the airport, to Terminal 1, make it through security and sprint to the gate. But then the flight from Lisbon was late. So I was panicking, sitting on the bus checking my watch obsessively. And then we come to a stop. But the driver isn't letting anyone out so I can't figure out why we are stopping. I look in front of us and I see a big group getting off a tour bus. Now I'm just angry, and don't understand why we're stopping for them. Then I glance at the tour bus sitting next to us and realize who this is. Real Madrid. The soccer team. The whole team, the manager, everyone walked right front of my bus with camera crews running around them. So I almost missed my flight because of Real Madrid. And it would have been worth it. But I made it, because there was no one in the security line and easyJet did not close the gate half an hour before the flight like they said they were going to. Luckily I also made it to Paris in time to pick up my suitcase with all my belongings that I expected to have back in September and then to make my train in plenty of time. It was a very long trip. But it was a very nice break from everything, and made me happier to be back here.
Now I have to start planning things for the rest of this semester, and it's terrifying that I can plan all the way til the end...it's not that far away. However, I wanted to go back to Paris next weekend and I think that there's going to be another strike. Of course there is...
Saturday, October 27, 2007
I never said I wasn't a procrastinator...
Alright, one last post for anyone who's interested. I promised my mom one email in the next week to let her know I'm alive, which is more than what she got when I went to Europe in high school, but I'm not bringing my computer with me on my trip. I leave Bordeaux at 7:57 tomorrow morning (or it might be 6:57? 8:57?- I shouldn't have chosen to travel on the day that the time changes...). I will be in Paris for a day and a half, enough time to explore a little more of the city, but unfortunately not able to go see Versailles or Monet's gardens because everything is closed on Mondays. I am going to be a history nerd and go to the cathedral of St. Denis, just a little outside of Paris, to see the first gothic cathedral. And I'm going to Montmatre, the one area of Paris that I really want to see but haven't yet (famous for being the setting of 'Amelie,' as well as the Moulin Rouge, but I'm really going to see the Sacre Coeur). Then a whirlwind of Barcelona, Lisbon, Sintra, Madrid and Paris. I'm only really going to be in Madrid's airport for about 45 minutes but I'm counting it. I actually just realized that I only have about 45 minutes to change terminals and check-in for my flight from Madrid to Paris so I can't check baggage. Funny that I'll be taking a backpack on a week-long trip when I had a duffel bag for my weekend in Paris. I'll be back in Bordeaux late Monday night November 5th, just in time for classes again on the 6th but not early enough to watch 'V for Vendetta' on the 5th of November the way I should.
This week actually went by very quickly, but it's weird because normally Fall Break feels like such a relief. This time, I'm very happy for the traveling time but I still don't feel like I'm really in classes. Oh well...I also thought I had a Linguistics exam this Thursday so I crammed late Wednesday and all morning Thursday just to find out that it won't be until the week after vacation. I blame the language barrier.
I'm looking into going to Sweden for St. Lucia's day, December 13th. I found a flight on Ryanair for .01 Euro, which is ridiculous on its own, but I might have another Linguistics quiz. However, as the last story proved, I actually have no idea. Something to look into...
I found out that I have no exams after Christmas so I have a much longer break between semesters than I thought. I just might come home for Christmas afterall, though it will make it much harder to come back here.
It's funny because I have much more complicated interactions in French all the time, but simple things like buying my train ticket all in French are what make me feel good about my language skills. There's times when I'm frustrated, such as when a waiter switches to english or when I have long conversations with my host family and they kind of assume I can't actually explain myself. But it's when I do something relatively complicated and logistical like buying a train ticket from someone who doesn't know I'm not french that I feel the greatest sense of accomplishment. It's hard because everyone keeps asking if my french is better. I'm sure it is, but not in an obvious sense. I'm more comfortable with it. My comprehension is much better just from living in the language. But it's not as if I wake up and feel, ok, today I know how to say this phrase. And tomorrow, I'll wake up knowing how to conjugate a different verb. My language skills aren't concrete, but I think that at the end of this I'll be shocked to think back to the beginning.
One other note on the differences between my college life here and at Midd: at Midd, I run out of my room 5 minutes before I have class across campus and make it before the professor. Here, for example when the trams didn't run between the center of town and campus on Friday afternoon (it's a much bigger deal than what it seems), I spent two hours walking home. It's normally a 10ish minute walk and a 25 minute tram ride. Ridiculous.
And now it's time to finish packing and go to bed. I have to wake up in 6 hours. Or is it 7?...
This week actually went by very quickly, but it's weird because normally Fall Break feels like such a relief. This time, I'm very happy for the traveling time but I still don't feel like I'm really in classes. Oh well...I also thought I had a Linguistics exam this Thursday so I crammed late Wednesday and all morning Thursday just to find out that it won't be until the week after vacation. I blame the language barrier.
I'm looking into going to Sweden for St. Lucia's day, December 13th. I found a flight on Ryanair for .01 Euro, which is ridiculous on its own, but I might have another Linguistics quiz. However, as the last story proved, I actually have no idea. Something to look into...
I found out that I have no exams after Christmas so I have a much longer break between semesters than I thought. I just might come home for Christmas afterall, though it will make it much harder to come back here.
It's funny because I have much more complicated interactions in French all the time, but simple things like buying my train ticket all in French are what make me feel good about my language skills. There's times when I'm frustrated, such as when a waiter switches to english or when I have long conversations with my host family and they kind of assume I can't actually explain myself. But it's when I do something relatively complicated and logistical like buying a train ticket from someone who doesn't know I'm not french that I feel the greatest sense of accomplishment. It's hard because everyone keeps asking if my french is better. I'm sure it is, but not in an obvious sense. I'm more comfortable with it. My comprehension is much better just from living in the language. But it's not as if I wake up and feel, ok, today I know how to say this phrase. And tomorrow, I'll wake up knowing how to conjugate a different verb. My language skills aren't concrete, but I think that at the end of this I'll be shocked to think back to the beginning.
One other note on the differences between my college life here and at Midd: at Midd, I run out of my room 5 minutes before I have class across campus and make it before the professor. Here, for example when the trams didn't run between the center of town and campus on Friday afternoon (it's a much bigger deal than what it seems), I spent two hours walking home. It's normally a 10ish minute walk and a 25 minute tram ride. Ridiculous.
And now it's time to finish packing and go to bed. I have to wake up in 6 hours. Or is it 7?...
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