This past Saturday Lindsey and I took the train to Koln, Germany for the day. It was a great day trip. Once we got to the train station we sent around an hour trying to figure out where the Nazi museum was that we wanted to go to. It didn't help that neither one of us knew any German and the street to get to the museum changed names four times. It was worth the confusion though. The people at there were nice and spoke English and got us step up with audio guides to understand all the German descriptions. In the basement there were the cells that they held Jewish prisoners and the to be investigated in. They were originally build to house 1 or 2 people but towards the end of the war had over 20 people in them. Walls of the cells were filled with carvings and messages of the prisoners. I captured a great photo of a name and date carved into the wall. The upper levels of the museum displayed the history of the Nazi take over of Koln and what happened to the Jewish in the areas.
After the museum we did some shopping. We found a gummy bear place that made them in all sorts of shapes and flavors. Even the containers were themed. Lindsey picked some up of the beer shaped ones for people back home. I picked up some Snickers for Katie Rose.
The whole time on the train all I could think of was Sheldon Copper and his little song, "You forgot your flash drive" and "Soft Kitty". He would be proud of all the time we spent on the train. It was a great trip.
Packing for home is a challenge that is bittersweet. I don't want to leave this historic city, but I am excited to go back to Chicago and see my friends.
Au Revoir!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Nice Long To-do List and Trip To Koln
Last days of my trip coming closer, which means final time. I have a nice little/long to-do list. Only three items on the list, but the total pages adds up to twenty! I'm so happy that the two big papers are in groups and I don't have to do them on my own. One is my sustainability paper on a sustainable restaurant idea, which isn't going to be that hard to do, its just getting all the ideas down on paper and powerpoint. The other paper is on the United Kingdom, French society, and our each personal landmark. Both are daunting tasks to undergo and I'll be so happy when I finish them.
On Saturday Lindsey and I are going to Koln. It will be a great day to be able to see the Nazi prison camp and a beautiful cathedral. Two different sites, but both are momentous and glorious in their own right. Can't wait to go to Germany for the first time, but not the last time.
On Saturday Lindsey and I are going to Koln. It will be a great day to be able to see the Nazi prison camp and a beautiful cathedral. Two different sites, but both are momentous and glorious in their own right. Can't wait to go to Germany for the first time, but not the last time.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Remembering This Trip
With this trip coming to a close I am thinking about what I will do to remember this amazing trip. I have come up with some good ideas. I want to be able to remember this trip when I am 80 and am telling my grandchildren about all the wonderful people I met in Paris.
Here's the list of ideas I have:
Here's the list of ideas I have:
- Collect all the papers and such from museums and stash in a box along with my journal filled with pictures
- Get a picture of each person by themselves. This is because I want to remember each person as they are and not in a large group where one person is left out because they are taking the picture.
- Print out a few pictures to place in frames.
- Print out this blog and place in the box for others to read if this blog gets erased or outdated.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Weekend Alone
This weekend was my time to be a tourist. I went to so many places this weekend I had to take naps almost every day be I was exhausted.
Friday was my journey out to Saint Denis Cathedral. I have to say the way out there was scary. I took the Tram, not knowing what to expect, and it was really an experience. I got many looks saying, "She is going to hell." I was the only one in a skirt on the tram with a bunch of extremely religious people. Needless to say on the way back I took a different route, that took longer but was less judgmental. The ride was worth what I was able to see. It was so beautiful. My favorite statues were the praying Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. They were a site to be seen. I got some great pictures of them with the stain glass they were in front of. I was also able to get a great picture of Catherine Medici. (All these pictures are on my Pisaca, just click on the slide show to view them!) The rest of the day I spent cleaning and relaxing, nothing to exciting.
Saturday gave me a chance to see the Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens, and a huge flea market. The Pantheon had a crypt with some of the amazing men that have called Paris home. Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, and Rousseau. The structure it's self was beautiful. The paintings and the sculptures really were something. Most of the paintings were about Saint Genevieve and some kings. The sculptures were mostly about the Revolution. After the Pantheon I went to the Luxembourg Gardens, on my way I stopped and got a nutella crepe. It was one of the best things ever! The gardens were gorgeous and had sculptures EVERYWHERE! The ones near the center were all queens and other noble women. Throughout the rest of the gardens they were men or something to that extent. Medici Fountain was divine. The way the trees created shadows and gave it a darker feeling. The fountain itself was detailed and balanced with the male and female. My camera almost died when I was in the gardens. From here I went to Notre Dame to visit the Holocaust memorial and to do some souvenir shopping. The memorial was very sobering. To think that only a few decades ago a man decided to blame a whole sector of people for the poor state of the country and so many people went along with it. Genocide is something that as a humans we should never let happen again, but for some reason we haven't learned from Hitler. Other countries have done the same thing and have gotten away with it for many years, even though the whole knows. I'm not blind to America's mistake in the Japanese camps, granted we didn't intentionally kill them it was still wrong to take families from their home and move them to camps that were barely inhabitable. Or even what the early colonies did to the Native Americans, taking their land and killing them because they weren't "civilized" like the European Countries. Sorry for the rant, but that is what I the memorial made me think of. After the memorial I did some souvenir shopping and then went to the flea market. It was something. All the people trying to sell you knock offs and even underwear in funky colors and designs. I won't spill on what I bought because I still need to decide who gets what.
Sunday was the day for the CATACOMBES! I went with Laura and got to the location to enter at 10 am, when they opened. We waited for an hour to get in! The line was crazy and people kept adding to it! The wait was so worth it. My favorite part was all the huge amounts of bones that were kept there. One question that I had throughout the tour was who thought to design the bones the way they did. I have yet to upload the pictures but they will be uploaded soon. After the catacombes Laura and I went to the Dali museum. I wasn't to excited to see this, but I was surprised to find out that I enjoyed the museum. I loved the Alice in Wonderland pieces. Once I returned to the dorms I found Boy Meets World and Brotherly Love on YouTube. It was great to find them and relive some of my childhood. I miss watching them on ABC Family.
Well that was the extent of my weekend. I loved it, but now I am happy to say I don't feel like I need to be a tourist anymore.
Au Revoir!
Friday was my journey out to Saint Denis Cathedral. I have to say the way out there was scary. I took the Tram, not knowing what to expect, and it was really an experience. I got many looks saying, "She is going to hell." I was the only one in a skirt on the tram with a bunch of extremely religious people. Needless to say on the way back I took a different route, that took longer but was less judgmental. The ride was worth what I was able to see. It was so beautiful. My favorite statues were the praying Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. They were a site to be seen. I got some great pictures of them with the stain glass they were in front of. I was also able to get a great picture of Catherine Medici. (All these pictures are on my Pisaca, just click on the slide show to view them!) The rest of the day I spent cleaning and relaxing, nothing to exciting.
Saturday gave me a chance to see the Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens, and a huge flea market. The Pantheon had a crypt with some of the amazing men that have called Paris home. Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, and Rousseau. The structure it's self was beautiful. The paintings and the sculptures really were something. Most of the paintings were about Saint Genevieve and some kings. The sculptures were mostly about the Revolution. After the Pantheon I went to the Luxembourg Gardens, on my way I stopped and got a nutella crepe. It was one of the best things ever! The gardens were gorgeous and had sculptures EVERYWHERE! The ones near the center were all queens and other noble women. Throughout the rest of the gardens they were men or something to that extent. Medici Fountain was divine. The way the trees created shadows and gave it a darker feeling. The fountain itself was detailed and balanced with the male and female. My camera almost died when I was in the gardens. From here I went to Notre Dame to visit the Holocaust memorial and to do some souvenir shopping. The memorial was very sobering. To think that only a few decades ago a man decided to blame a whole sector of people for the poor state of the country and so many people went along with it. Genocide is something that as a humans we should never let happen again, but for some reason we haven't learned from Hitler. Other countries have done the same thing and have gotten away with it for many years, even though the whole knows. I'm not blind to America's mistake in the Japanese camps, granted we didn't intentionally kill them it was still wrong to take families from their home and move them to camps that were barely inhabitable. Or even what the early colonies did to the Native Americans, taking their land and killing them because they weren't "civilized" like the European Countries. Sorry for the rant, but that is what I the memorial made me think of. After the memorial I did some souvenir shopping and then went to the flea market. It was something. All the people trying to sell you knock offs and even underwear in funky colors and designs. I won't spill on what I bought because I still need to decide who gets what.
Sunday was the day for the CATACOMBES! I went with Laura and got to the location to enter at 10 am, when they opened. We waited for an hour to get in! The line was crazy and people kept adding to it! The wait was so worth it. My favorite part was all the huge amounts of bones that were kept there. One question that I had throughout the tour was who thought to design the bones the way they did. I have yet to upload the pictures but they will be uploaded soon. After the catacombes Laura and I went to the Dali museum. I wasn't to excited to see this, but I was surprised to find out that I enjoyed the museum. I loved the Alice in Wonderland pieces. Once I returned to the dorms I found Boy Meets World and Brotherly Love on YouTube. It was great to find them and relive some of my childhood. I miss watching them on ABC Family.
Well that was the extent of my weekend. I loved it, but now I am happy to say I don't feel like I need to be a tourist anymore.
Au Revoir!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Planning for a weekend alone
Most of the people in my RMU group are leaving this weekend to go to Venice, which leaves me in Paris with a few other people. I have started to plan what I want to get accomplished this weekend alone. For some reason all the places I have chosen to go to are morbid. On Friday I plan on going out to Saint Denis church, which is a burial location for Marie Antoinette and many other influential people. Saturday I will be heading to the Latin quarter to go into the Parthenon and into the crypt. I might also try and hit the crypt at Notre Dame on the same day along with the Holocaust Memorial. Last, but not least, Sunday is going to be a trip to the catacombs with the lovely Laura Gomez. I can't wait to see all these places, but I haven't gone to them yet because I want to go early in the day, but getting everyone together to go is difficult. This is the perfect time to go right when they open to avoid the long lines of tourists, although I am a tourist myself.
School is going great. I am really enjoying the classes, teachers, and students. The combination is creating a very dynamic classroom setting. I will miss the students and teachers when I go back to RMU, sometimes the classes aren't that exciting back home. I can't believe that I am almost half way done with this experience. Very unreal. Sometimes I still don't feel like I am in France, but am at home and relaxed.
Au Revoir!
School is going great. I am really enjoying the classes, teachers, and students. The combination is creating a very dynamic classroom setting. I will miss the students and teachers when I go back to RMU, sometimes the classes aren't that exciting back home. I can't believe that I am almost half way done with this experience. Very unreal. Sometimes I still don't feel like I am in France, but am at home and relaxed.
Au Revoir!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Brussels, Belgium
On Friday June 17th, almost 40 of us boarded a train to Brussels at 6 am to visit the European Commission and Direct Sell Europe. It was a really good trip, educational and fun. The city was so beautiful and relaxing. It was more laid back than Paris and felt safer as well. The streets were filled with nice people and nice vendors. On the first day we ate lunch at this little pizza place, the best pizza I have ever had. The lady that served us was super nice and spoke English. The place we had dinner at was Chez Leon. The mussels were scrumptious and the iced chocolate truffle was delicious. After dinner I spent the evening walking around with Jeanette, ViVi, and Antoine. We were able to see the little peeing man fountain and lit up buildings. On Saturday, I finished the new Sarah Dessen novel, What Happened to Goodbye. It was amazing! I was also able to purchase a ring that is beautiful at a street market.
The other parts of the week weren't that exciting, filled with school and homework. I was able to do my laundry for the first time here. It was an experience. Only one thing shrunk, but it is all right.
Just figured out the slideshow app. Up in the right had corner are some pictures that have been taken while I'm here. Enjoy!
Au Revoir!
The other parts of the week weren't that exciting, filled with school and homework. I was able to do my laundry for the first time here. It was an experience. Only one thing shrunk, but it is all right.
Just figured out the slideshow app. Up in the right had corner are some pictures that have been taken while I'm here. Enjoy!
Au Revoir!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Chateau De Vincennes
Today was my first French 320 class. It is the history and society of Paris in 5 weeks. It is going to be intense, because the teacher usually teaches it in a semester. It is going to challenge me, which I am really excited for. Being challenged is something I love. I have to read over a hundred pages tonight, for tomorrow but that's not horrible. The material can be a little dry at times, but it has great moments. The one thing about history books is that the writing needs to be readable, not something just analytical. Jones does a good job of combining the analytical with some light hearted information. Like how prostitutes tried to get a stained glass window in Notre Dame.
I decided that I wanted to see the Chateau de Vincennes, so today I took the chance. It was perfect timing. I just read in the history book about the first kings of France and this Chateau was the first one to be used by kings. It was really beautiful and historical. Seeing the remains of it was still delightful, even though Napoleon destroyed most of the Chateau. Being there made me think that I was born in the wrong century; I think I could live without technology and in door plumbing.
I decided that I wanted to see the Chateau de Vincennes, so today I took the chance. It was perfect timing. I just read in the history book about the first kings of France and this Chateau was the first one to be used by kings. It was really beautiful and historical. Seeing the remains of it was still delightful, even though Napoleon destroyed most of the Chateau. Being there made me think that I was born in the wrong century; I think I could live without technology and in door plumbing.
Bonne Nuit!
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