Days Four and Five: Santorini and Athens

Wednesday:
Kathryn and I spent the morning by the pool while Faisal and Tiffany went hiking. We then packed up, loaded up our "convertible", and headed back to the great place we had dinner a couple nights before. After we finished our lunch there, we went to the port, returned our car, then got on the ferry.

Eight hours later, we arrived in Athens. We took a cab to our hotel and checked in, but had to move rooms at 1:30am because our air conditioning broke. 95 degree weather + 5th floor of a hotel without air conditioning = torture.

Thursday:
We got up Thursday morning and indulged in the fantastic continental breakfast at the hotel. We then went to the acropolis to check out the Parthenon and whatnot. My French student ID came in handy because I used it to fake being a European Union citizen and get free entry- score!

We then walked around for a little by afterwards before heading to our hotel and grabbing our luggage to head to the airport. Kathryn, Tiffany, and Faisal had a 7pm flight to Istanbul. Even though my flight didn't leave until 9:30, I decided to go to the airport with them. While I waited for my flight, I walked around Athens's new, shiny airport and bought a copy of Game of Thrones to read for my upcoming traveling.

I finally boarded my flight, where I am writing this from now. I'm flying Transavia airlines and I thought it was going to be a janky budget flight, but I am thoroughly impressed with them. The flight is only 3 hours but they just screened Big Miracle (the whale story with Drew Berrymore). The only thing miraculous about that movie was that I paid attention to it for 2 hours. It was mediocre and filled with unsuccessful attempts at humor, but hey, it gave me something to do for the majority of my flight. I get in to Amsterdam around midnight, where my childhood next door neighbor, Jess, will be awaiting my arrival. She moved there a year or so ago and was extremely generous by offering me a place to stay in the city for the next couple of days. I don't really have much on my agenda for Amsterdam, but hopefully Jess will have some recommendations for me!

Hartelijk,
Katie

Photo: pretty sunset on my flight to Amsterdam

Days Three and Four: Santorini

Monday:
We got up around 5:30am to head out of our hostel and ride the metro to the port, where our ferry to Santorini left at 7:30am. We were all exhausted, so not long after boarding the ferry we found ourselves a spot on deck where we each pushed together a few chairs into makeshift beds. I got an hour or so of sleep and Tiffany and Faisal got a couple of hours. After that, we found some big, comfy leather chairs inside of the ship, where we chilled out for the remainder of the journey

We arrived in Santorini around 3:30pm and rented a car at the advice of Radu, our guide from the day before. It ended up only being 20 euros a day... Split between 4 people and that's not too shabby! The owner was trying to get our business, so he bargained with us and promised us a convertible with a top that goes "aaaall the way back". When we got our car, we realized that our "convertible" was a glorified sun roof. We told the salesman that the car was far from a convertible, to which he replied "no no I no say convertible! Maybe I say 'like a convertible' but I no say convertible!" we were annoyed, but decided to drop it and get in with our day

After 10 minutes of driving, we soon realized that none of the roads in Santorini have names or signs. We spent a good amount of time aimlessly driving around before asking for directions from a few different people. We finally made it to our hotel, checked in, then headed to the beach fortune remainder of the day

Tuesday:
This morning we drove to Red Beach, a beach on the island with red sand. Kathryn and I spent the whole day there whole Tiffany and Faisal, who prefer to explore, hiked parts of the island. We left the beach around 5:30 to head to dinner and after that, we explored Oia, the picturesque part of Santorini. We wandered around tons of white buildings with blue domed roofs before settling somewhere to watch the sun set. When the sun finally set, many people applauded because it was so beautiful, Kathryn and I took this romantic opportunity to start clapping and shout to everybody that Tiffany and Faisal had just gotten engaged (which they didn't). We attracted all sorts of attention (most of which was unwanted by Tiffany) and people even came up to congratulate the "happy couple". We got a huge laugh out of this and were very satisfied with ourselves.

We then returned home to our hotel where we hung out for the remainder of the evening. Back to Athens tomorrow!

στοργικά,
Katie

Photo: Sunset in Santorini

Day Two: Athens

SUNDAY:

This morning, around 9am, a man named Radu met us at our hostel to take us to the marina. We got there and waited on the boat for about 45 minutes until two fellow travelers got on as well. All six were accounted for, so our guides, Adriana and Radu fired up the engines and we were on our way

The ride to Aegina from Athens was about 2.5 hours, but it went by quickly with the beautiful scenery and great conversation. Unfortunately, the German woman got really seasick and was puking for the past half hour. I guess she'd only been on large ferry-type boats before, so she didn't know that the sailboat would have that effect on her. We got off the boat, glad to be away from the barfing lady, and climbed to the highest point of the island to see what remained of an ancient Greek temple. It was really cool and practically nobody was there, so we had the site to ourselves.

We were told to be back at the boat by 2 and when we got there, we were informed that the German couple had taken a ferry back because the woman was too dehydrated to walk around or swim or anything like that. We were sorry to hear that she wasn't feeling well, but them leaving meant that we had a private tour for the rest of the day. Adriana and Radu anchored the boat in some gorgeously blue water and got us the appropriately sized flippers and snorkel equipment. They led us on a snorkeling tour through a pretty reef with tons of sea urchins and other cool things.

After that, we got back on the boat and ate the lunch they'd prepared for us, which was a sumptuous "cheese pie"- puff pastry filled with creamy cheese. For dessert, we had Greek yogurt with honey, which was also very tasty. Our guides suggested that we sail to a different part of the island and walk around for a bit, so we did just that. After about an hour of exploring, we went back to the boat, where Adriana and Radu asked if it would be alright with us if they extend our day by a couple of hours so we could watch the sun set while sailing back... Is that a serious question!? Of course it's alright with us!!

We sailed back and it took a few hours, but once again, it went by quickly. We were sailing against the waves so we got splashed quite a bit, but we didn't mind too much. We chatted the whole time with Adriana and Radu, who are a young couple from Romania who came to Athens for "the sun, the sea, and the city". They did the same type of tours for a company for a few years and realized that they could do it on their own, so they bought their own boat and started a business. While talking to them, we couldn't get over how happy they seemed. These were two people who are working for themselves, doing what they are passionate about. They were such great company and made good conversation with lots of laughs. It really felt like we were hanging out with friends for the day instead of being schlepped on a tour. While the sun set, Adriana offered everyone Ouzo, a Greek alcohol. I declined and was glad I did, because the others took one sip and their faces said it all- the drink was disgusting. Adriana described it like "vodka mixed with toothpaste". Yum...

We mentioned to them that we were going to head to Santorini the next day, so they offered to drive us to the ticket office and help us get tickets, then offered to drive us home from there. They were such nice people that truly made the day exponentially better. We couldn't believe how much we got to do for the reasonable price of 60 euros per person for more than a 12 hour day.

Radu and Adriana took tons of pictures (both on the boat and underwater while we were snorkeling), and they were going to write them on a DVD, but their computer was acting up. They told us they'd put them on a photo sharing website for us and email the link to us- I can't wait to see them!

στοργικά,
Katie

Athens: Day One

Saturday morning I woke up around 3am to get ready and head out to the airport for my 6am flight to Athens. The taxi ride was seamless and luckily I wasn't stranded anywhere, being approached by shady characters and scared out of my mind. After that experience a couple of months ago, any airport experience will seem anticlimactic. Also, it's reassuring to know that NOBODY looks good while waiting through security at 4:30am. Glad I wasn't the only zombie there...

I flew via EasyJet, a reputable European budget airline. When I went to check in, I realized how the company makes their money. Their luggage policy is much stricter than other airlines, limiting your carry-on to roughly the size of a backpack. The carry-on that I bring everywhere, of course, wasn't "regulation size" so I had to pay to check it. Even though that was a bummer, I was happy to see that nobody had the seat next to me, allowing me both the window seat and some wiggle room as well- score! Towards the end of the flight, a woman passed out on her way to the bathroom and they called for any medical personnel on board to rush to the front. All of the chaos definitely woke my sleep-deprived self up. Luckily, the lady is fine and was well enough to walk back to her seat after the doctors did their thing.

I met Kathryn, Tiffany, and Faisal at the airport around 11am, since our flights got in within 20 minutes of each other (they were flying from Munich). We figured out how to use the metro and get to our hostel. Turns out, we went to the wrong hostel. The owner of the hostel we went to said "Oh! You're supposed to be at my son's hostel!" how Greek is that!? I found tons of humor in the stereotypical Greek family connection situation. We made our way over to the correct hostel and checked in around 12:30. (side note: if your luggage is ever broken (ie missing a wheel), do yourself a favor and DON'T take it somewhere that has only cobblestone streets. I learned that the hard way so that you don't have to).

I was too beat to do anything right away, so I took a nap while the othe three got some food and explored around. They were kind enough to save me some pizza because they knew I'd be starving when I woke up. We found outthatthe city of Athens is basically shutting down on Sunday for the presidential elections, so we went to the travel agency by our hostel and booked a day trip. We'll be going on a sailboat cruise that will take us to a Greek island and provide a day of snacks, drinks, snorkeling, and exploration. All with a young, hip tour guide that we met today. Her name is Adriana and she was so friendly! We are all looking forward to a fun day with her tomorrow!

στοργικά,
Katie

La Semaine Finale

My dear blog followers (aka just my family), how I have neglected you. I apologize profusely for not updating my blog frequently these past couple of weeks. Life has been so hectic getting everything in order for my departure that the blog has gotten put on the back burner. Je suis très désolée!

This was my last week in Paris.

The week flew by even faster than I thought it would. Monday-Thursday were filled with finals and big papers, but I'm finally done with schoolwork. I had to write a paper on a certain dress in a painting and talk all about how it "exuded the spirit of the woman wearing it" for eight pages. Seriously. After completing that, I now consider myself a master of BSing.

This past weekend, I had some friends from U of M in town. They all graduated in May and are traveling around before their "real person jobs" start next month. Unfortunately, I couldn't hang out with them as much as I would've liked because I had so much studying to do, but I usually met up with them in the evenings. On Saturday evening, we climbed the Eiffel Tower because none of us had done it yet. We climbed up 56 stories before calling it quits and taking the elevator the remaining 44 stories. The view from the top was magnificent and we went at a perfect time, just as the sun was setting. We heard some young, college-age Americans, so we struck up conversation with them. Soon enough, we came to realize that not only were they from Michigan, but they were U of M students as well! They were on a weekend trip to Paris from their study abroad location. How cool is that!? Even weirder, one of them graduated a year before I did at Troy High School. Such a small world! My friends from U of M left Paris on Monday and are traveling around a bit. I will meet them in Greece tomorrow morning. After we gallivant in Greece, I'll go to Amsterdam for a few days and spend time with Jess, my next door neighbor from childhood who now lives there. I am so excited for the week to come!

After all of my schoolwork was done, there were still loose ends that needed to be tied up in the city. On Monday night, Diane (10) invited me to come to her school play. Of course, I said yes and of course, it was adorable. It was a series of fairytale skits, many of which I already knew (Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, etc.) That made it much easier for me to understand! The best part of the show was when the 5th graders had to dance with each other at Cinderella's ball. Every single one of them looked like they were about to die of embarrassment having to dance with someone of the opposite sex. Hopefully none of the girls caught any of the boys' nasty cooties. 

There were a few things on  my "to do" list that I'd been putting off, so many of them got accomplished this week. I went to some AWESOME pastry shops as well as to the top of Tour Montparnasse, the skyscraper close to my house. I also bought some last-minute souvenirs for friends and totally cleaned my room, packing everything in my suitcase. I have to come back to Paris on the 24th to fly home the next day, so my host family was kind enough to allow me to leave my large suitcase at their house while I travel to Greece and The Netherlands for the week. 

taken at the top of Tour Montparnasse

For our program, money was allocated to get us in to all of the sites we visited for class throughout the semester. Our professor got us all in for free everywhere because we were students, so the money didn't get used. The university has a "use it or lose it" policy, so our professor decided we'd use it on a nice dinner. We went to Le Grand Pan (the same fantastic restaurant I went to with my family), and we had a large spread of beef, veal, and pork, which were all fantastic. We also had every dessert on the menu, my favorite being the chocolate mousse with fresh raspberry sauce on the bottom. It was a very, very nice dinner with the whole program and a great way to say goodbye to everyone.

Group picture after dinner

It makes me a little sad sitting in my bare room. It's so empty, with no traces of me ever having lived in it. My host family has been one of the best things about this whole experience and I truly hope that they enjoyed my presence as much as I enjoyed theirs. I will greatly miss their lively family atmosphere, Madame's fantastic French cuisine, and Monsieur's hilariously loose grasp on the English language. If I ever return to Paris, I will absolutely give them a call. I really couldn't have asked for a better host family than them.

Affectueusement,

Katie

Giverny and Normandy

My final exams are next week, so I've been super busy studying and whatnot. My Aunt Julie e-mailed me and reminded me that I haven't blogged in a while, so I decided to start this post with something that remind me of her last week: Monet's gardens in Giverny.

A few classmates and I had a day off of school last week, so we decided to leave the city for the day and go see Monet's jardins at his house in Giverny, France. We took the train for about 45 minutes and once we arrived at the train station, we had to take a bus for another 10. Once we arrived, we got in the very short line and got our tickets. The garden was absolutely gorgeous. We wandered around the grounds for a good two hours, looking at all of the beautiful scenes that inspired many of Monet's paintings. I had heard that Giverny is a zoo during tourist season, but it wasn't bad at all while we were there, perhaps because we went on a weekday. We had perfect weather and really couldn't have asked for a better day. I was thinking of you the whole time, Aunt Julie. You would've loved it and I'm sure you could have identified the hundreds of different flowers that we saw.

This past weekend, my class went on a trip to Normandy, France. We met at 8am and boarded a luxurious charter bus for our 3.5 hour drive. I'm not kidding. This bus was sparkling clean had leather interior. Since there were only 16 students and 4 adults, everybody got a row to themselves. It was fantastic. There's some crazy rule in France that bus drivers can't drive for more than two hours at a time, so we made a stop in Bayeux, France to see the Bayeux tapestry. Never heard of the Bayeux Tapestry? You're not missing out. It's a 70-meter long piece of fabric from the 1070s that depicts the story of William the Conquerer. I realize that it's huge and was made a long time ago, but it was horribly underwhelming. The best part of Bayeux was the lunch I had with some classmates. We found an English pub and I got a fantastic homemade tomato-cheese soup. After our lunch, we headed back on the bus to our next stop, Pointe du Hoc

Crater at Pointe du Hoc

I wasn't planning on stepping on American soil until June 25th, my return date, but it happened a lot sooner than I expected. Turns out, Pointe du Hoc was declared American land in 1945, just after the war. It was a key spot in Operation Overlord, at which the American troops arrived and fought the Germans on D-Day. The site is preserved so that it resembles how it looked on June 6, 1944. The ground is filled with enormous craters that were left by bombs and you can even walk inside the German bunkers. The site was fantastic. It was so cool to be able to stand exactly at one of the most significant sites in recent world history. After our walk around Pointe du Hoc, we drove a few kilometers to our hotel in Port-en-Bessin, a little fishing village on the Atlantic coast. We had a few hours of free time to unwind and hang out before going to the dinner that our professor, Katie, organized for us. It was held at a local restaurant and we got three courses for only 10 euros each (instead of the original 20), thanks to the "Paris by Site fairy", as Katie informed us that morning. I opted for escargots, sirloin, and apple bread as my three dishes, and all three were out of this world. I ordered my steak medium-rare, but it came out practically still mooing. I didn't care- it was fantastic and I haven't gotten violently ill yet, so I think I'm in the clear. The dinner was an awesome experience and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to do it!

I woke up very well-rested the next day, since I got a queen bed all to myself the night before. We had a great breakfast in the hotel, then headed out to see both the American and German cemeteries. The American cemetery / museum was so émouvant, I must've gotten chills at least ten separate times within the hour that we were there. The museum was filled with tons of anecdotes that I loved learning about and did a phenomenal job of respecting people's stories. One of the stories that stuck with me was about a woman who, in a period of a few days, learned that her husband and two sons had been killed in the war and that her third son was reported missing. I can't even imagine what horror that woman experienced and I sincerely hope that I never have to live through anything similar to the mid-1940s. The German cemetery was a totally different experience. Instead of beautiful, tall gravestones, the soldier's monuments were somber plaques on the ground. It was hard to feel sympathy when standing in the middle of the burial site of 21,000 Nazis, but it was important to remember that many young German men were required to join the Nazi army and were likely there against their will. The most interesting thing about this whole experience is that my professor's husband, who is a German, was with us. He was able to tell us all about the German perspective on World War II and what it was like learning about the war in a German classroom.

The trip to Normandy was very relaxed with plenty of time to wander around and experience a given space. It definitely made me realize how important the United States was to Europe in World War II and sent chills through every patriotic bone in my body. God bless the USA!

Affectueusement,

Katie

French Schools

There are countless cultural differences that I've encountered since being here, but none seem to be so apparent as in the French schooling system. Inès and I have spent a great deal of time comparing our respective high school experiences and both of us are always astonished at the other's school norms. As someone who'd like to go into education, this topic especially interests me, so I've compiled a list of differences between French and American schools:

• Grading. I've mentioned this before, but the French grading scale is out of 20, and 20s are never, ever given out. It's their way of motivation, a way of telling the students "keep working cause you'll never be good enough". While an 11 out of 20 may be a 55% in America, it's France's equivalent of a B or B-.
• Attendance. I don't know if it's all French schools or just the one my host siblings attend, but they take attendance really seriously. I think in high school, we were allowed 9 excused absences a semester. My host family told me that if you miss school once without a legitimate excuse (family death, illness, etc.), you get expelled
• Fun (or lack thereof). In grade school, it wasn't uncommon to have a fun lesson. In language classes, we'd watch movies, play games, and sing songs. 70% of  my Economics class in high school was based off of interactive games (yes, we played Monopoly). I remember in Geometry, we had a day where our assignment was to calculate how much ice cream could fit in a cone, crunch the price numbers, and determine how badly ice cream shops rip you off. Of course, at the end of this lesson, we put our calculations to the test with real ice cream in class. In France, schools are very studious and lessons are very cut and dry; no-nonsense or fun allowed.
• Public Humiliation. I've also mentioned this before, but I still can't get over how French teachers call you out in front of the class. In the states, teachers have to remain partial and never reveal anything about a student's progress in front of other students. In France, they see it as motivation to let everyone in the room know your intellectual status. For example, my French teacher's recurring comment on my essays is that I need to go back and re-learn verb conjugations. The other day, le prof wrote a sentence on the board and asked us what was wrong with it. The problem was an incorrectly conjugated verb, so I raised my hand to correct it. The teacher sarcastically said, "Ah, Kah-tee, our resident conjugation expert!" She's lucky that I grew up in the Parent family and, as a result, have alligator-thick skin.
• Teachers. French teachers sound like real ball-busters. Madamde read an article in the French newspaper the other day about American schools. "Is it true", she asked me, "that in America, teachers appreciate it when students tell on other students for cheating, lying, etc?" I replied that yes, a teacher would be very grateful to know when students are being dishonest on exams and such. My host family couldn't believe that. They said that if a student tattled in France, the teacher would admonish them because other people's dishonesty is none of their business. French teachers are also zero fun. My host siblings couldn't believe that in the States, many teachers are actually funny and make class entertaining. It really threw them for a loop when I told them that fun teachers even find it humorous when subjected to the occasional prank or two.
• Parent Mentality. I feel that in the past 20 years or so, the phrase "spare the rod, spoil the child" has really flourished in American schools (literally and figuratively...c'mon, what ever happened to good ol' corporal punishment?). I've personally seen parents marching into the counseling office, yelling at the guidance counselor, demanding to know why the teacher "gave" their little princess a bad grade. It seems like teachers are at the mercy of parents and are sometimes receiving angry e-mails for things that were the student's own fault or neurotic emails from hover moms. In high school, our teachers used to tell us "you want something to change? Have your parents write the school district", basically admitting that the parents hold all of the power in public schools. My host family told me that this couldn't be further from the truth in France. Here, teachers are highly respected by parents. Whenever a student receives a bad grade or gets in trouble at school, in their parents' eyes, it's always the student's fault, no questions asked. The teacher being "biased" or "out to get me" is a totally foreign idea, because adults will always side with the teacher.
• Extra-Curriculars. In France, these don't exist. School is a place to learn, and nothing more than that. Coming from a former student body president, I find this appalling. Actually, in high school, the only kids who ever expressed a strong desire to "get out of school" were the ones who didn't take advantage of the multitude of clubs, sports, and activities offered. The majority of my fondest high school memories take place during theatre, student government, and other out-of-school activities that I was involved in and couldn't imagine a high school experience without them. My host siblings got so excited when I showed them my prom pictures and explained that the school throws a giant dance at a fancy location, and that many students even arrive in limousines. School dances are a foreign concept because, as I said, school is nothing but where you go to learn. I find this so disappointing and think that somebody really needs to knock some sense into these Frenchies.

Neither system is more effective than the other; both American and French schools produce functioning members of society. Personally, I feel that if the strict schooling is no more beneficial than the interactive, laid back approach, why not go with the fun one? It sounds to me like the French education system fell out of the boring tree and hit every branch on the way down. I realize that I'm totally biased because I had a great experience growing up in American schools, but I just couldn't imagine school being a place that's all study and no fun. Let's just say that learning about my host siblings' school has made me even more grateful for the awesome grade school experience that I had. God bless the USA!

Affectueusement,

Katie

French Riviera Vacation

My train left at 8:49 am on Thursday. I set my alarm for 7:20 to allow myself enough time to get ready and be out the door by 8, since it takes me about half an hour to travel to the train station. Of course, Thursday was the first day since arriving that I forgot to check the volume of my alarm clock, which just so happened to be on silent. Fortunately, I have a freaky inner-clock. No matter what time my alarm is set for, I almost always wake up a couple of minutes before. While this wasn't exactly the case today, I still miraculously woke up naturally at 7:50am, which was impressive considering my bed time. At 7:55, Madame knocked on my door. When I said "un moment!" since I was changing, Madame said "Kah-tee? I don't need to come in, I just wanted to make sure you were awake. Your train leaves in less than an hour, no? You might want to leave soon!" I thought it was really sweet of her to be concerned, and she even offered me a big slice of baguette on my way out the door. Thank heavens I packed everything up the night before I would've been in serious trouble.

Luckily, I made it to the train station with time to spare. I hopped on the train, which was a high-speed TGV. The journey took about five hours, which is impressive, considering that the length of Paris to Nice is longer than Detroit to Nashville. I started reading Fifty Shades of Grey on the train... I had absolutely no idea what it was about, so you can imagine how shocked I was to find out that it's pretty much a porn novel. After a few chapters of feeling violated, I decided that listening to music would be a better pastime. The last 45 minutes of the ride were absolutely spectacular. It was along the Mediterranean coast, and the ride was filled with magnificent scenery.

The beach in Nice!

I arrived at the apartment we rented around 3pm and it is awesome! The woman who we rented it from is American- she lives in this apartment half of the year then rents it out and lives with a friend the other half. She provided us with beach towels, tote bags, and beach chairs to borrow for our stay here, which have proved to be very convenient. We decided to get our swimsuits on and go to the beach for a couple of hours. The beach chairs definitely came in handy, since the beaches in Nice aren't sandy- the ground is just covered in stones. We made a game out of this by placing someone's shoe about ten yards away and throwing rocks at it... whoever made it in the shoe got a point. I don't know who won, but I definitely know it wasn't me.

Plage Mala!

Sad about missing the train :(

The next day, Missy, Kristin, Patrick, Chris, and I decided to take the train 20 minutes to Cap D'Ail, since we had read that there was a gorgeous secluded beach there. After an extremely packed train ride, we walked for about 15 minutes up and down a winding path of stairs along the coast. We finally arrived to Plage Mala and instantly  understood why it's a favorite vacation spot of Brad and Angelina. The water was electric blue and the whole beach was at the bottom of a huge cliff area. We decided to splurge on ourselves and buy a "spot" at the private part of the small beach, which entitled us each to an extremely comfy chaise lounge. We all ordered a drink off of their fancy menu and felt like superstars when they were delivered straight to our chairs. We spent the majority of the day just laying out in the sun and swimming in the Mediterranean. We had lunch at the restaurant-thing on the beach; all I got was a giant plate of french fries since I'd been snacking earlier, but they were fantastic (very similar to the french fries that I had at Le Grand Pan when my family was here). Around 3:30, storm clouds rolled in, so we decided to call it a day and head back to Nice. Unfortunately, the train back was even more packed than the train there, and Missy and I didn't get on the same train as the others. We didn't have our phones with us, either, so they had no way of knowing that we weren't on the car behind them, as planned. Things worked out, though, and we got on the next train and met the others back at the apartment. The day at Plage Mala was probably one of the best days I've had since arriving in France :)

Affectueusement,

Katie

 

"Fish Egg Spread"

Today was not my day.

Some classmates and I are going to Nice on the French Riviera this weekend. They bought their tickets a while ago, but I have a Eurail pass with two days of travel left on it, so I was planning on just using that. Turns out, France is the only country in Europe that requires Eurail pass holders to make reservations on trains, so I went to the train station today, hoping to make one. As luck would have it, all trains within a three-day time period didn't have any Eurail seats left, so I was forced to pay 170 euros for a round-trip ticket. I don't have any free weekends left, so I can't use the last two days of unlimited travel on my pass :/ Oh, well. C'est la vie.

Remember how my class went over by an hour on Thursday? Well, my professor felt bad that my "forty minute" presentation, which was actually more like an hour, got cut "short" due to the Louvre closing, so she e-mailed me this past weekend asking me to put together a powerpoint presentation on the things I would've covered if we'd had more time at The Louvre. She's so obsessed with art history, I think she genuinely felt that she was doing me a favor by asking me to make a presentation for today's class. She's one of the most long-winded people I've ever met, so today's powerpoint presentation ended up being another half hour because she kept asking me all of these philosophical questions pertaining to fashion. Two things that bore the life out of me? Philosophy and fashion. Needless to say, today's class was a drag.

Dinner tonight was quite the experience. Madame is a good cook, but tonight's consisted of just about all of the foods I don't like. I don't consider myself a particularly picky eater. I have my preferences, but I'll eat most things without griping. There are only a few things that I can't stand, namely meatloaf, pickled vegetables, mustard, and fish. Tonight's dinner had four of those five things. For our appetizer, Madame gave everyone slices of salmon. She knows I don't like fish, so she asked me if I liked salmon- I lied and said yes because I didn't want to be gênant. I doused the salmon in lemon juice and ate it quickly to get it over with. After that, they brought out a container filled with bright pink spread. They asked me if I'd like to have some, so I said yes, even though I was very weary of its ingredients. I took a decent amount because I didn't want to show them how averse I was to the mystery goo, but the first bite confirmed my apprehension. It was the fishiest tasting thing I've ever eaten. The label said "Tartinade aux oeufs de cabbilaud". I understood this much: Spread with eggs of _____. Since the spread was bright pink and tasted awful, I was pretty certain it wasn't eggs of chicken. I ate every last trace of it on my plate and washed it down with as much water as I could. After dinner, I ran to my computer to Google Translate "cabbilaud" The verdict: cod. Wonderful. I just ate fluorescent cod eggs. Excuse me, host family, while I go vomit in your bathroom for the rest of the night. The fun didn't end there- that was just the appetizer. I was looking forward to the pizza in the oven until Monsieur took it out and it was covered in olives. None of the kids like olives, either, so I didn't feel so bad about being averse to them. Nevertheless, I didn't let my disgust show and ate a big slice, olives and all. Finalement, we always have the same dressing on our salad. Tonight, Madame decided to change it up and give it a mustard dressing. Fantastic. With each dish, I was hoping that the next would cleanse my palate, but it just got worse and worse. Luckily, the dessert was tonight's saving grace.

Today is Geoffroy's birthday, so we had gâteau brûlé, which literally translate to "burnt cake". I thought Madame had maybe left it in the oven for a bit too long, but apparently you're actually supposed to burn the entire top half of the cake. It was cake, so of course I liked it, but I think in the future I'll stick to non-burnt cake. We also had a fantastic fruit salad of strawberries and mangoes.

Well, my friends, you win some, you lose some. Today's events were less than stellar, but as Annie reminds us, the sun'll come out tomorrow. The sun will also come out when I'm sunbathing on the French Riviera this weekend. Missy and I want to reward ourselves for our half-marathon by getting pedicures in Nice, which I'm really looking forward to. I can't wait for a weekend free of unending rain, philosophy, fashion, and fish eggs.

Affectueusement,

Katie

Luxembourg Half Marathon

Me and my new do rag!!

Friday Morning, Missy and I left for Luxembourg. The train took about two hours and we arrived around noon. We went to our hostel to check in, but they told us that we wouldn't be able to until 1. We decided to head to the race expo to pick up our bibs and such to kill time. When we got there at 12:30, they told us that the expo doesn't start until 2 and that we'd have to come back then... we were bummed because we had nowhere else to go! We decided to walk to a nearby food court and get lunch to kill some time- Missy had McDonald's and I had Subway. After an hour and a half of waiting at McDonald's we went back to the expo hall and got our bibs. We were also handed a cinch sack filled with all sorts of goodies, including a do rag. We were excited, to say the least.

Delicious Pasta

We then checked in to our hostel, put our stuff in our room, then trekked to the city center to check out the happenings of Luxembourg. There wasn't a whole lot to do there and most of the stores were closed by the time we got there, so we just walked around. Missy spotted a ChiChis (yes, the Mexican franchise that was the cause of the largest Hepatitis A outbreak in US history), which was her favorite restaurant before they closed, and she was ecstatic. We would've eaten there for dinner, but a pasta party was included in our race registration fee, so we stuck true to our inner poor college students and vowed to stick with the pasta dinner and return to ChiChis for lunch the next day. We headed to the pasta "party", which was a sorry excuse for a party, but the lack of bumpin' music was made up for by the scrumptious pasta. We decided it would be best to head back to the hostel early to chill out and get a good night's sleep. As we walked down our hallway, we heard some serious snoring coming from one of the rooms and said "that sucks for whoever has to sleep in there!" As luck would have it, the snoring was coming from our room. We were staying in a six-bed dorm and two of the women sharing our room snored louder than I thought humanly possible. Of course, their snores were perfectly synchronized so that when one breathed in, the other breathed out, creating an endless cycle of noise that was comparable to a jackhammer. I took an Advil PM hoping that it would knock me out, but not even that helped. Missy and I didn't fall asleep until 5am when the women packed up and left, but we had to get back up at 7am to eat the breakfast included with our room.

Balloons released at the gun fire

We had breakfast and went back to bed, hoping to get a decent nap in before the race. We woke back up around noon feeling so much better and ready to run. Our friend Chris came from Paris that morning to spend the day with us and cheer us on at the race, so we met up with him at ChiChis. I had a pork quesadilla, being sure to load up on protein before my 13.1 mile run. The lunch was fantastic and Missy was happier than ever to once again be eating at her favorite restaurant. We walked around the city center for a little bit after that, then headed back to the hostel to get our running gear on. I bought some stars and stripes leggings a few months ago so that I could rep my motherland while running, and I was so excited to finally be able to wear them. We got dressed then headed down to the race! We were both pretty nervous, but once we arrived, the energy near the start line wiped our worries away. There was music blasting, runners decked out in all types of gear, and tons of cheerleaders with signs aplenty. When the gun went off to signal the beginning of the race, hundreds and hundreds of balloons were released- it looked awesome!

Just before the start!

The race started at 7pm and went all throughout the city. Except for a 20 minute downpour, the weather was perfect. The route was fairly flat, which Missy and I were both very happy about. About every 2-3 miles, there were water/Gatorade stations that also handed out banana and orange slices for fuel. While, in theory, this is a good idea, the person behind it didn't think very thoroughly. The fruit was sliced up but unpeeled, resulting in mass amounts of orange and banana peels on wet pavement. Nobody near me wiped out, but I definitely slipped a few times. After a few hours, I finally made it to the finish. It was dark out, so the path to the finish line was lit by candles- it looked so awesome! I mustered up what little energy I had left and ran through the finish, making it in a little over three hours. I realize that most people could do it in about 2.5, but I'm a horrible runner. On top of that, I pulled my hip flexor muscle a couple of weeks ago and haven't run since, so I was just aiming to finish rather than make a  time! After the finish line, there was a buffet of fruits, power bars, Gatorade, and beer. I don't know who in their right mind would want a beer after running a half or full marathon, but more power to those that did. Missy, Chris, and I met up and got a taxi back to the hostel. We were craving pizza, so we asked the guy at the front desk if any local pizza places delivered. He was so rude to us and said "No. You're not in America anymore, okay? There's a McDonald's in the center of town and guess what, it isn't 24 hours, so you better get hiking if you want to make it there before it closes". Someone was harboring some serious animosity towards America...

We showered, got in our PJs, and watched TV until the 13.1 miles caught up with us and then crashed for the night. Luckily, our new roommates weren't snorers, so we got an incredibly rejuvenating night of sleep before heading back to Paris Sunday morning :)

 Affectueusement,

Katie

I finished!!

An American, A Frenchman, and a Belgian Were Having Dinner...

^I feel like that would be the opening line to some sort of nationally insensitive joke. Instead, it's the premise of my dinner on Tuesday evening. Diane and her 5th grade class have been pen pals with a school in Belgium since the beginning of the school year. There was an uneven amount of students, so Diane got two pen pals named Marie-Esther and Chaima. The Belgian class came to Paris for a couple of days and spent the whole time seeing sites with Diane's class. On their last night in town, the two girls came over for an authentic French dinner.

Crêpe Griddle!

Madame made mini-crêpes on this fancy griddle I'd never seen before. It would be perfect for pancakes! We pretty much just made small talk with the Belgian girls all evening, talking about their everyday life. Marie-Esther was very serious... the girls mentioned that they had watched a movie  the night before about a zebra that wants to become a racing horse. When we asked them if they enjoyed it, Marie-Esther said "No. A zebra that wants to be a horse? That's ridiculous." Jeesh. Tough crowd. They were a tad bit shy and socially awkward, but then again, what ten year olds aren't? We used up the rest of the crêpe batter and brought out the nutella and sugar for dessert. My host family was joking that Geoffroy and I are in a competition for who can eat the most. First they force feed me seconds and thirds, then they make fun of how much I eat! French people are so weird sometimes...

It always interests me how different cultures have totally different mindsets about the same situation. I tried explaining to my host family that something like the Belgian dinner would never fly with Americans, but they had no clue what I meant. I mean, think about what a huge liability that is... sending your 10 year old child to a foreign country where they spend 3 nights on the floor of a gymnasium, then get picked up at school by a stranger who takes them to their house to have dinner all alone with no other adult supervision. That just sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. My host family didn't understand when I explained that Americans would be paranoid about something bad potentially happening at a stranger's house, then they proceeded to ask me why it was okay for me to go abroad to live in a stranger's house. I'll tell you why- because I'm not ten years old.

Today was jam-packed with the most boring stuff on earth. First of all, it's a national holiday so we weren't supposed to have class. Due to a scheduling conflict, my professor for Paris by Site moved class to this morning, but she apologized with a peace offering of homemade banana bread and apple cake.They were both good, but the apple cake was infinitely better. Here's the recipe! We went to Sacre Coeur, then walked all around a cemetery for a couple of hours. What on earth is there to see in a cemetery!? Nothing, that's what. After that, I had a forty minute presentation in the Louvre. It was painstaking because my professor was relentlessly firing philosophical questions at me and I had to pull answers out of thin air. The Louvre seriously lacks climate control, so I was sweating my butt off the entire time. My professor for that class is just a tad bit overzealous about art history so we ended up staying an hour longer than our scheduled class time (which is normally three hours, so it's bad enough as it is). The only reason we left when we did is because the museum was closing and the guards literally had to force my teacher out of the building because when they told her to leave, she would ignore them and just keep rambling on and on to us.

Friday morning, I leave for Luxembourg with my friend Missy. We are running the half marathon on Saturday. I pulled a muscle in my leg a few weeks ago and got a blister on my foot on Sunday, but I'm really hoping those two things don't get in the way of me completing the race. I'm not shooting for any specific time- I just want to cross the finish line, however long it may take. The run is at night, starting at 7pm. I've been training for the past few months, so I'm really looking forward to all of that work paying off! I'll be sure to bring a course map along with me this time to avoid any incidents like my Detroit Free Press "5K".

Affectueusement,

Katie

May 12, My American Birthday and Scavenger Hunt: Chronicles of a Winner

I'm a bit behind on posts, so I'm going to combine two and make one large one. Sorry for all of the reading!

May 12, My American Birthday:

On my birthday, I went to Disneyland Paris to take full advantage of my free admission. The park opened up at 10 and the train ride took a bit longer than I anticipated, so I got there around 11am. My ticket included two parks, so I decided to spend the first half of my day at Walt Disney Studios, the section of the park that is cinema / Hollywood themed. I rode a few rides and walked all through the park, which didn't take too long because it is significantly smaller than the main park. After I was finished in Walt Disney Studios, I headed to the main Disneyland park for lunch.

I went to the Agrabah Cafe, an Aladdin-themed Moroccan buffet. I had middle-eastern food for lunch and it was pretty good. The decor of the restaurant was awesome, and had a truly authentic feel to it. I've never been to Morocco before, so I could be totally off on the whole "authentic feel" thing, but it felt authentic to me! I then spent the rest of the day walking around Disneyland. It was much more similar to Disneyworld in the sense that it's sectioned off into different themed areas. There was Frontierland (Western themed), Adventureland (pirate / treasure themed), Fantasyland (Disney Princess themed), and Discoveryland (futuristic / Buzz Lightyear themed). In order to get to any of these places, you had to walk down the Main Street, USA, which had a very cliche "old America" feel to it with all of its parlors, taverns, etc. In all honesty, I think Disneyworld is much better, but it was totally free for me so I'm not complaining!

When I got back home, I saw that two birthday cards had arrived from family members- perfect timing! (your thank-yous are in the mail, FYI!) I spent about an hour or so writing my paper on the Opera house (yuck) before going out to meet my classmates for dinner. We went to a Chinese place called Happy Nouilles, recommended by our professor. They have homemade noodles and dumplings there, and you can watch the chef pulling the noodles for your meal from outside. I had yummy dumplings and noodle soup that was to die for. We all agreed that we'd be coming back soon. It was definitely a birthday well-spent!

Scavenger Hunt: Chronicles of a Winner:

Sunday, May 13th, our Parisian History professor organized an optional scavenger hunt for us. It was French Revolution / Napoleon themed, so all of the clues revolved around landmarks that were essential to these two things. The date had been getting pushed back for about four weeks until we finally got nice weather this weekend. We were told to be in teams of 2-3 and near a computer to receive our instructions at 2pm. My friend Missy and I are running the half marathon together next weekend, so we decided to team up and put our training to the test. Additionally, she and I speak the most French out of anyone in our class, so we thought teaming up would give us an advantage. We met at a McDonald's in a central location, tapped into their wifi and got our list of clues. There were 13 clues total, most of them being pretty tricky- we had to consult our notes and textbook for at least half of them. Instead of doing them in order and figuring them out as we go, Missy and I decided to stay at McDonald's for 30 minutes, figure them all out at once, then map them out to ensure that we wouldn't waste time re-tracing our steps.

Our first stop was probably the hardest for us. We had to find a "faint blue line" sketched on the ground, outlining where a prison's temple once was. Luckily, the McDonald's was nearby, so we ran to the general area and started looking for any signs of blue on the sidewalks, After about 15 minutes of wandering, we found something magical. It was a map etched on some random wall. The title of it? "Ancient Plan of the Temple Neighborhood". We consulted the map to find where the prison once was, ran there, then looked all over for a faint blue line on the ground. After about 15 minutes of looking, we got frustrated and decided that an ambiguously-colored line would suffice. We took a picture of it and continued. We ran all around the city, looking for sculptures of random French generals, historic plaques 2 stories above the most common-looking buildings, and other icons of late 18th / early 19th century France.

The picnic that awaited us

After four and a half hours of physically running into people on the street, climbing more stairs than I ever want to again, and sweating my butt off, we finally arrived at our destination. We ran there to find that we were the first ones, our professor awaiting us with a picnic of breads, cheeses, wines, and fantastic pastries. After a quick victory party, we crashed on the ground, SO happy to finally be sitting down, catch our breath, and get some scrumptious food in our stomachs. Our professor reviewed our photos and told us that we had one incorrect location- we were devastated because we had spent the last week smack-talking the other teams, telling them that they had nothing on us. She told us not to get too downhearted, because if the other two teams did any of the clues incorrectly, we would still win. We anxiously awaited and ten minutes later, the next team showed up. The professor announced that they, too, messed up a clue. It all depended on the last team.

Me, Missy, and our booty!

About 45 minutes later, the last team arrived. They looked really discouraged and worn-out; one of them said he even puked because he wasn't used to running that much. We watched our professor review their photos and screamed out in excitement when she said that their pictures had some technical errors as well. We got our prize, which was an adorable picnic basket filled with all sorts of French chocolates, caramels, and other goodies. We were so ecstatic that we had won! All of our running, sweating, and getting lost in Paris was totally worth it.

Affectueusement,

Katie

May 10th, My French Birthday

In retrospect, tonight's dinner was anything but normal. I realized that we were doing things a little differently, but didn't think anything of it or put two and two together. For starters, we didn't eat until 8:30pm. We usually eat around 7:20 and Monsieur joins us when he gets home around 7:40. This evening, we waited for Monsieur until he got home, which was at 8:30. Madame apologized for the late dinner, but I had a big lunch, so I really didn't mind.

The dinner plates we ate on were different than the ones we've eaten on every other night. They were fancier and looked a little exotic. I thought nothing of it and just assumed that my host parents bought a new dish set when they were vacationing in Turkey a couple of weeks ago. Over dinner (which was crêpe complete, my favorite homemade French meal), my host family mentioned that they were going out of town for a wedding this weekend. Of course, my initial thought was that I was going to be all alone on my birthday. I didn't let my disappointment show and talked with them about how exciting it would be for them to go on a mini-vacation to this wedding. 

Dinner was good, but I was a little surprised that Madame didn't try force feeding me as much as she usually does. Most evenings, she asks me if I want seconds on both the salad and entrée and then thirds after I take the seconds I really didn't want (or need). When I say "non, merci" to thirds, she always asks "are you sure?" This evening, she didn't do that. I thought it was odd, but it was nothing more than a fleeting thought. Madame was done before us, so she got up to go do something in the other room. Diane (my 10 year old host sister), whispered something in Inès's (my 16 year old host sister) ear and got up a few seconds later. Monsieur, going along with the charade, asked Inès, "where did Diane go?" because the kids aren't allowed to leave the table during dinner as they please. Inès replied "she had to go to the bathroom". I bought Inès's explanation and finished up my last bite of salad. Monsieur said "As you know, we're not going to be home this weeke-" and got cut off by the lights in the kitchen shutting off. Everyone looked up in "confusion" (turns out, I was the only one who was genuinely confused). I turned around to look near the light switch, and in walked Madame and Diane with an enormous apple crisp, 20 candles ablaze. I was genuinely surprised and couldn't contain my excitement at how well they tricked me. They sang happy birthday in butchered English and I blew out my candles. 

They then offered me a present, which Monsieur proudly bragged that he had wrapped all by himself. I commended his wrapping job and opened it to find a pretty pink scarf and glove set. When I had unwrapped my gift, they said "because Michigan is cold!!" How cute is that!? We ate the apple crisp, which rivaled that of my mother's (and that's saying something). Don't worry, Mom. Yours will always be my favorite, but Madame's was a sufficient substitute. Madame offered it with ice cream because "Kah-tee loves ice cream!" I don't know how they know I love ice cream, since I've only had ice cream with them once. I must've had lust in my eyes when gazing at la glace, because that one time clearly made a lasting impression. This time, Madame made me take thirds, since she knew I'd have room. Their act of graciousness and generosity put the biggest smile on my face. Even writing this blog post, I couldn't help but smile the entire time because of how much their generosity means to me. I'm sure every May 10th for the rest of my life, I'll be reminded of the wonderful feeling my host family gave me. 

May 10th will now and forever be my French birthday.

Affectueusement,

Katie

Everything Since Last Wednesday

I apologize for how long it's been since I last posted. I picked up another class (which meets in four hour chunks, twice a week) after break, so I've been pretty busy with schoolwork. Not much is new in Paris, but here are a couple of things I've been up to:

La Foire de Paris:

When at our cooking class the week before, we asked our hosts where they bought the fresh vanilla beans we were cooking with. They replied "La Foire de Paris",  so I decided to go this past weekend and see what it was all about. It was very similar to the Salon d'Agriculture I attended in March, just without the animals. It was the largest expo event I'd ever seen. They had a home expo, garden expo, beauty expo, random junk from all over the world expo, and of course, tons of food. I decided to get a ham and cheese sandwich that looked incredibly appealing. The sandwiches were pre-made, but the cheese was under a heat lamp, and they would put your sandwich at the bottom of the 1/2 wheel of cheese and scrape off all of the gooey wonderfulness directly on to your sandwich. I'd say it was one of the better purchases I've made since being here. I didn't buy much (other than some vanilla beans, Aunt Jackie!), but I had a good time walking around and looking at all of the different beds, plants, face creams, African sculptures, and foods.

Lunch at Osman's House:

My photography professor has another class called "Places", and their assignment was to create a "food experience" for everyone else in the program. Our classmates decided to have it be a lunch with wine, cheese, meats, etc. and they told us it was BYOB (bring your own baguette). Tuesday was a national holiday, so what better day to do it than when nobody has class? Digression: the French never work. ever. They usually start any given job with 5-6 weeks of vacation, then there are tons of national holidays. Especially in the month of May. Tuesday's holiday was Victory Day. Yep. They get work and school off just because America saved their butts and won World War II for them. Whatever, I'm not complaining because it means less school for me! Anywho, our professor, Osman, held the lunch at his house. We all showed up around 1:30, baguettes in hand, ready to party. It was totally hilarious to cross the threshold of professor/student boundaries and take a look at where our professor lives. I know I've said it before, but one of the best parts about this whole study abroad experience is the personal relationships formed between us and our professors. In what other context would a professor invite students over to their house to have a picnic on their living room floor? All in all, it was a great afternoon and everyone had a good time.

Opera Garnier Presentation:

I can now cross off "rap on the balcony of the Paris opera house" off of my bucket list. For our Paris by Site class, each student presents at a different monument each week. I signed up for Opera Garnier at the beginning of the semester. Why, you ask? Because it's the opera house that Phantom of the Opera is based off of. Oh yeah, I was excited. The opera house is absolutely beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed doing research on it. I decided to spice things up a bit with my presentation, and instead of reading facts as most of my classmates have done, I wrote a rap. I found an awesome backbeat online that complemented my mad lyrics (sick flow: check). My presentation ended on the balcony, so I chose to perform there (awesome venue: check). All I needed to become the next Lil Kim were some cronies. To my surprise, when I got ready to deliver my rap, two of my classmates asked if they could be my backup dancers, so I had a full entourage (posse: check). Move out of the way Nicki Minaj, there's a new rap diva in town. My professor loved my beats and told me that if my life plan doesn't work out, I should start a business where I write historical raps and sell them. She said "I've never had a student rap their presentation before, and I surely hope this isn't the last of it." If that doesn't get me an A, I don't know what will.

In other news, my birthday is on Saturday and I think I'm going to go to Disneyland for it. Disney Paris is celebrating it's 20th birthday by giving everyone free entrance on their birthday. I wonder if I would get anything extra special since it's my 20th birthday, too... I'll be sure to report back about my adventures with Mickey and Minny :)

Affectueusement,

Katie