Pictures!

PIc 1:This is a Paris sunset from the Seine River (picture by billy)
Pic 2: Sometimes traffic can get a little chaotic!! This was taken from the Arc de Triomphe
Pic 3: Billy and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower
Pic 4: This is why I love this place! I live in a city that sparkles with diamonds!! What more could you ask for

Everyone SHOULD have a pair of Nose Clippers, just in case!

As I was waiting for the metro today, I realized how many different people I see in just a matter of seconds!! Men wearing fur, men weaing pointed toed boots with heels, men with long hair, women with buzzed hair, women with too much makeup, dreadlocks, hats, braces, glasses, tattoos, piercings in eyebrows, noses, lips, and chins, homeless people, fat people (although not too many), skinny people, nuns, incredibly tall people, people with lots of nose hair (i've never seen anything like what I saw today. it was really disgusting), people who havent washed their hair in days or maybe even weeks, dozens of nationalities, I could go on for hours just about the types of people that I see over the course of one day. And it's so incredible to me how I sometimes go an entire day without noticing any of them or anything else around me. Usually I dont try to talk to anyone while on the metro, but the past couple days, I have been noticing all the different kinds of people that I come in contact with, and I have this urge to want to know about them and their story. So, my mission for these next couple weeks before my spring break is to try and talk to as many people as I can while on the metro-whether we speak english or french! We'll see what happens!
So I realized that it has almost been a MONTH since I last updated my blog, and I'm so very sorry. However, many many important people have been visiting me, so I wanted to give them as much of my time as possible, so the blogging sort of took a back seat. BUT, like I said, for the past couple of weeks, I have been having visitors. First, Billy came to visit me and I got to take him to most of my favorite places in Paris like Montmartre where the Sacre Coeur is, Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, Bercy Village, and of course beautiful Monceau park by where I live. I also got to take him to our favorite restaurants as well. Then, last week, on Monday, I started out the week with a very dear friend, Julie, (roommate from freshman year) who was in Paris for the Killers concert. We hung out all day Monday and had a good time catching up. On Tuesday of last week, my family arrived!! The sisters and parents were all here, and we GREATLY missed our best factor in the family, Chasy!! I'm so sad that I didn't get to see him. Charlotte came to Paris with a list of all the things she wanted to see, so we used that as a guide for scheduling each day. On top of all the many museums and sites that we got to see, we also got to try out some pretty phenominal french restaurants!! One night, we ventured up to the top of the Centre Pompidou where there is a restaurant called Georges. We got there just as the sun was setting, and saw a pretty spectacular view of the city and the eiffel tower, and the sunset in the background. The restaurant itself was quite upscale and snoody, but such a fun experience. AND, their dark chocolate ice cream was to die for!! (the little taste that i had at least). Another hilight of their trip was getting to go on a bike tour around Paris. I enjoyed getting to see all the major Paris sites while on a bike! And it gives you a little bit of a rush to get mixed in with Paris traffic!! All in all, I've had an amazing past two weeks thanks to all those who visited. It has been much quieter in these past two days, and I don't quite know what to do with myself! However, I guess that March is just my month for visitors, because tomorrow, SUSANNAH is coming for the weekend!! This week is the marking of ten weeks since I have been abroad, and I can honestly say that it has felt like 4, maybe 5. And I only have a little more than 2 months left in this beautiful city, so I want to make the most of it! Do let me know if you have any suggestions of things for me to do in my last months here, not that I don't have a lot to do, but I dont want to miss out on anything!

These are all pictures of Amsterdam. The first two are shots of the houses and the canals in Amsterdam. The next one is at the Fromagerie that we went to. Those were some dutch cut outs that we stepped into. And the last Picture was taken dedication to my father...WHO told me to get some FRITES MET Mayonnaise? they were very gross. :) Below the pics is a glimpse of a day in my Parisien life!

A day in the life...

Today I'm going to tell you a little bit about my daily activities and exactly what I do here.
8:00 Time to wake up!! LA (my roomie) and I usually get up around the same time, and go into the kitchen where we make some tea and eat breakfast. Tea is very big here, and I think the French drink it more than coffee. Something everyone needs to know before coming to Paris!!! IS that the coffee portions are VERY different from the US. Of course, like everything else, France does things a little bit smaller than America. Therefore, if you ask for "un cafe" you will get a tiny looking coffee mug with a shot of espresso. It's really not that bad once you get used to it. But you can also ask for "un cafe americain" and they will give you coffee. Moving on: For breakfast, one usually eats bread and jam, but LA and I cannot afford to have just that, so we have yogurt and cereal pretty much every morning. We usually visit with Madame Richer (the woman who we live with) every morning and see what she will be doing for the day.
8:30 Better get moving!! I try to make it to the metro by this time so I won't be late for class!
9:00 Once a week, I have a french society at 9a.m. which lasts for almost 3 hours. In this class, there are about 8 other American students, and we have a French professor who teaches us all about France and their activities, jobs, history, politics, etc. All of my classes are held in French. This class is held in a building across from the Notre Dame.
11:45 Time to board the metro again!!
12:00 At this time every day, I have a french grammar class that lasts for about two hours. In this class, there are about 20-25 students from around the world who have come to Paris to learn and perfect French. There are three other Americans in my class, and others are Portuguese, Suisse, Russian, Mexican, Brazilian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. It is especially difficult to understand Asian French accents, as everyone has learned how to speak very different french. My teacher, Madame Bourseau is a French woman. The french notebooks are a little bit differnt from American ones, and instead of having lined paper, all they have is graphed paper! You can imagine the frustration of trying to write and read your handwriting on graph paper! (I feel like such an engineer-DAD). ALSO, there is no bell or anything to let the teachers know that classes are done, so a lot of times our teacher will just carry on with whatever we are doing and not pay attention to what time it is. The French rarely know the time and they don't ever feel rushed or pressed for time-something very different from our American culture. This class is held at International School, and the building is sandwiched inbetween some other apartment complexes. There are 6 floors, and I have to climb all the way to the top everyday!! (quite a workout). There are no fountains or courtyards or anything, just floors and floors of classrooms, and then a bathroom on the bottom floor. O yes, and there is absolutely NO recess, or breaks during class, AND you cannot go to the bathroom during class!! It's quite a struggle.
2:00 Time for Lunch! yum. Sometimes I will meet friends for lunch, depending on what day it is. Sometimes I eat at a small cafe and wait for my afternoon class to start, but usually I will go home and make something to eat. Lunch usually consists of a sandwich of some sort, whether it is a panini, or a bagel sandwich, or just a regular PB & J. The couple who we live with has a house in Normandy where they garden and grow fresh fruits, so every week we get FRESH HOMEMADE jam!! And it is soo very delicious.
3:30 On Thursdays, I have a French civilization class, where we are learning about France's history. It is held in the same classroom as my Tuesday class, but a different professor teaches it. This class also consists of all American students from my program.
On days that I do not have this class, I usually walk around Paris, going into bookstores, or just sit outside and read or do homework. Today I am going running around the park near our apartment. I also like to have a cup of tea in the afternoon, and read emails and such.
6:00 Get on the metro yet again!! I ride the metro home, and either quickly dress myself for the evening activities, or relax and make something at home for dinner. For dinner, we eat a lot of pasta with vegetables or pizza. I know that it doesn't sound very french, but I cannot afford to have a full fledged french dinner every night. Usually though, a full meal consists of the main course, followed by some salad, and after, having some cheese, followed by a delicious dessert!!
In the evenings, LA and I like to go out with friends and grab dinner, or see a movie. Before lent, we always seemed to end the night with a desset crepe from the street vendors:) Last night, we got to go to the ballet "Don Quixotte," which was very well done. The costumes were amazing!
12:00 Sleep time
So now you have a little taste of my daily life here in Paris! Such a fun life.

The rain can't stop us

Goodness gracious, I don’t even know how to begin!! This past weekend was such an exciting adventure. Two of my friends and I traveled up to Amsterdam for the weekend. We traveled Friday night, and arrived on Saturday morning, where we were taken to our hotel….which was actually a BOTEL!! a boat hotel! It was pretty funny. After we checked in, we found a cute café where we grabbed some breakfast before heading over to the Anne Frank House. I still cannot believe that I saw where Anne and her family hid for 2 years during WWII. They have left so much of the house in its original form and it was so cool to see Anne’s bedroom, and all the original pictures that she had put on the walls to cheer herself up. They also had Anne’s original diary. Museums are always nice to visit, but going to the actual place where history took place is so unforgettable and incredible.
After visiting the house, we ventured over to the Heineken “Experience.” We did realize that it was only noon when we arrived, but we wanted to beat the crowds of tourists. The Heineken Experience is more like a theme park. There is so much going on and it’s so entertaining! We got to see how the beer came about and how it is made, and then we went on a little “ride” that showed us what it was like to be a Heineken beer bottle. Then they have an area where you can make a music video and send it to whomever you want, and you can also send video messages to people as well. In another room, you get to see what it’s like to be a DJ. After that, there is a room where you can watch all the commercials and advertisements that Heineken has ever made. And then one of the last things that we did was ride on a carriage and see what it was like to deliver Heineken boxes. (virtual of course, but still so much fun!!) At the end they give you a free Heineken and a free bottle opener! It was a pretty great deal.
On Sunday, we woke up and went on an excursion to a Fromagerie where we got to see how the Dutch make cheese AND how they make clogs! It was the coolest thing ever! And we got to taste all the cheeses too! I myself could not resist and bought a pair of clogs and they are quite comfortable believe it or not. After the Fromagerie and a little souvernir stop shop in Holland, we returned to Amsterdam and went to the Torture Museum. This place has all the ways the people were executed in history. All of them looked so very painful. If you have the chance and the access, you should take a look at my photos on Facebook. They have some good examples of what I mean.
I absolutely loved Amsterdam and all of the museums that it has! I wish we could have been there longer and gotten to see the Van Gogh museum and some of the others, but the trip was well worth it, and I think that everyone should visit atleast once in their lifetime if for nothing else to see Anne Frank’s hideout.

Lots of exciting things have been taking place, actually I guess I've just been going to some exciting places, but nothing REALLY exciting has happened. On Friday, after class, our group took a bus up to Chartres, which is about an hour north, where we had a tour of this amazing cathedral. We had this really knowledgeable tour guide who showed us around, and told us about all the stories in each pane of the stained glass windows. It was so interesting to hear about what certain things symbolized, that you would never catch in just looking in the cathedral on your own. For example, on the wall outside the cathedral, there are statues of biblical characters, and if you study the statue of Abraham holding his son Isaac closely enough, you will notice that he is standing on a lamb. It symbolizes God providing the lamb for his sacrifice instead of sacrificing his son. All the statues had something interesting on which they stood and it was so cool to hear the stories and the symbolism behind it.
After arriving back in Paris from our half day excursion, a group of friends and I found yet another mexican food restaurant. Yes, I do eat that atleast once a week here, but I have to get my fill! This particular restaurant was quite delicious, and its guacomole has been the best so far.
Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous day in Paris, so we walked up to Montmartre, which is a hill in Paris where you can see a beautiful view of the city. There is also a square in the center of the area, where artists sit and paint and sell their work. It is so cool to see artwork in the process of being made. While we were up on the hill, we also visited the Sacre Coeur (meaning sacred heart) which is a beautiful white cathedral that was built solely from donations by the community. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful church in Paris.
The past three days in Paris have been completely sunny and atleast 50 degrees. I think that is a record for the most sunny days in a row for Paris :) But it has been nice to sit outside and just enjoy the weather!
Today I bought a ticket to travel to Amsterdam this weekend, so I'm very much looking forward to that trip!
If anyone who does not have my email is interested in updating me with what is going on in their lives, please feel free to write me at claire21@uga.edu. I love emails and hearing about updates in your lives!!