Bonjour! Salut mes amis!
My 3 day weekend in Paris was the BEST YET and I am so filled with joy and thankfulness that it was my last European adventure (for the time being), the grand finale.
It was a weekend of strange and eerie coincidences. First off, Devin and I ran into Leigh from Art History class and her friend studying in Siena while touring the Musee d'Orsay. Then we ran into them again as the Louvre, but this time there was a girl with them that I knew I recognized. It turned out to be Courtney Martin from Whitworth, who came accross Leigh and Melanie her friend because she asked them to take a photograph of her in the Louvre, and once they started chatting, they realized that Courtney's best friend in Northern Ireland (where's she's studying) is a close friend of Leigh and Melanie's back at their small private school in Virginia. The weird gets weirder. Then Courtney and I flipped out when we recognized each other and instantly got into discussion about Whitworth and how we couldn't believe how many freaking mutual friends we have yet we weren't friends yet. Courtney was supposed to meet up with Candace Farley, another Whitworth student I'd recognize, somewhere in Paris but they were separated and neither had phones. But lo and behold, all of us are wandering the Louvre which is packed on Friday nights with free entrance after 6 pm, and we run into Candace! What!?! And Candace said she thought she saw me earlier that day at the Musee d'Orsay and had to do a double take. So then us five plus Kristin our Milan program friend from New York met up and hit the town together. It seriously was the most perfectly smooth weekend ever. Candace and Courtney were even staying at the same hostel as us! AH! We all went out to dinner together in the city of love, drank French wine in a trendy artsy French quarter, dined on delicious French cuisine with fun live French music in a quaint restaurant. I was able to see ALL the sights I wanted to and timing was perfect, I couldn't have asked for more. We saw the Musee d'Orsay (the best impressionist museum in the world), le centre pompidou (modern art), teh Louvre of course, La Tour Eiffel, Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle (the most amazing stained glass chapel in Europe), Sacre Coeur, the Seine, L'Arc de Triomphe and lots more! Oh yeah, and on the first night Devin and I went on a Pub Crawl with some hostel folks...the leader was a guy that just ended a season of being on Big Brother and he was OUT OF CONTROL. His name is 'Crazy James' and he tells me people know him in Spokane and he's spent a lot of time there.....we also made friends with the coolest Swedish 'redneck' ever from Sweden's most northern villages.
I was struck by how all the stereotypes I have heard about Paris and Parisians were broken. In my opinion the Milanese are WAY more rude. We didn't encounter any rudeness or general unfriendliness among Parisians. I got to speak LOTS of French this weekend too which was amazing so that might have helped. The subway was enormous, probably even bigger than the London Underground, and we've been traveling to so many European cities by this point that we found navigating it simple and breezy (one night we saw an almost knife fight on our train car, yikes, ask me about it sometime!). And the portions of food were very large and filling, not tiny and not too overpriced (Italy is way worse in regards to both). The city was epically beautiful, even in December.
I couldn't have asked for a more magical weekend. Candace and I have already decided that we are hanging out this Jan Term and that our mutually friended friend-groups should merge because why not? We're both awesome and are in the same year at Whitworth? Yes, it was such a blessing to talk with the girls from Whitworth and to identify with them in that we're both off studying abroad in Europe where we are being exposed to so much, and all of us are in our sparate programs, trying to survive, figure out our lives and what it means to be Christians in this world on our own. It was so uplifting and the weekend was filled with too many coincidences to actually be coincidental.
I absolutely loved this infamous city and I will return someday.
Ciao! Now I have two weeks of finals preparation hell ahead of me....but 12 days and counting until a glorious return to my homeland of California and then my second but most lovely homeland of Washington State!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Hola, Barcelona!!!
Barcelona, Spain is a city that never sleeps.
And neither did we.
Barcelona is a throbbing city with some of the world's greatest nightlife, most unique art and architecture while being the second largest metropolis in Spain looking out over the Mediterranean Sea. I honestly didn't know what to expect coming to Spain--I had heard people rave about Barcelona but I must confess, I didn't know much about the city before coming, but now I am set on returning someday in the summertime. Spaniards are similar to Italians in that they love to have fun late, late into the night. So we 'did as the Spanish do' and now I am functioning on only a few hours of sleep over a three day span. Needless to say it was a wild time.
We toured a park called the Montjuïc with scenic views of this enormous city by taking a gondola up to a hilltop with an awesome castle on top that overlooked calm Mediterranean as the sun was setting. We visited the Sangrada Familia Church which qualifies as the weirdest looking thing I have ever seen. Seriously, Google image it. Barcelona has a Gothic Quarter with gothic architecture and it has Catalan modernisme (Art Nouveau) leaving an important artisitc legacy in Barcelona, especially through the architect, Antoni Gaudí, who did the Sangrada Familia which is still under construction today and will be complete in 2010. The city features tons and tons of cool stuff that we only scratched the surface of, including great markets and the famous Las Ramblas, one of the best pedestrian walkways in Europe. Park Güell was one of my favorite spots with its views and extensive amounts of Gaudi art, colorful mosaics, and the weirdest looking grotto thing ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell
One evening, Rita and I went to the Travel Bar, an International Bar suggested to us by our hostel, where for 23 euro, we went on a Pub crawl type thing except we got Sangeria, tappas, and entrance to a traditional Flamenco show! The music was incredible with Spanish guitar, rhythmic clapping, and Catalan singing that sounded like beautiful Arabic chanting. And the dancing of course was amazing! The stage was a small, intimate setting, and a man and a woman moved their feet in ways I didn't know was possible. The whole time I kept thinking and telling Rita, "I can't believe I'm actually in Barcelona and watching this amazing Flamenco show!" It was surreal. The night went on, we made friends who we drank Sangeria with (a sweet, fruity, Spanish drink) and later on that night we make some sweet Norwegian friends. We didn't crash in the hostel until 4:30 am! The next day was filled with more sight seeing and then we went back to the travel bar where we made new British and Australian friends who invited us over to their place for dinner. The evening was filled with more Barcelona good times. We were completely, and utterly exhausted, catching a 6:am flight back to Milano and then going to class today (Monday) morning. It was pouring rain, the 57 Cadorna was packed as usual, and our bodies felt pretty miserable today. I'm getting plenty of rest tonight in preparation for a Parisian weekend, the last trip of my European adventures.
20 days and counting until I return home!
And neither did we.
Barcelona is a throbbing city with some of the world's greatest nightlife, most unique art and architecture while being the second largest metropolis in Spain looking out over the Mediterranean Sea. I honestly didn't know what to expect coming to Spain--I had heard people rave about Barcelona but I must confess, I didn't know much about the city before coming, but now I am set on returning someday in the summertime. Spaniards are similar to Italians in that they love to have fun late, late into the night. So we 'did as the Spanish do' and now I am functioning on only a few hours of sleep over a three day span. Needless to say it was a wild time.
We toured a park called the Montjuïc with scenic views of this enormous city by taking a gondola up to a hilltop with an awesome castle on top that overlooked calm Mediterranean as the sun was setting. We visited the Sangrada Familia Church which qualifies as the weirdest looking thing I have ever seen. Seriously, Google image it. Barcelona has a Gothic Quarter with gothic architecture and it has Catalan modernisme (Art Nouveau) leaving an important artisitc legacy in Barcelona, especially through the architect, Antoni Gaudí, who did the Sangrada Familia which is still under construction today and will be complete in 2010. The city features tons and tons of cool stuff that we only scratched the surface of, including great markets and the famous Las Ramblas, one of the best pedestrian walkways in Europe. Park Güell was one of my favorite spots with its views and extensive amounts of Gaudi art, colorful mosaics, and the weirdest looking grotto thing ever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell
One evening, Rita and I went to the Travel Bar, an International Bar suggested to us by our hostel, where for 23 euro, we went on a Pub crawl type thing except we got Sangeria, tappas, and entrance to a traditional Flamenco show! The music was incredible with Spanish guitar, rhythmic clapping, and Catalan singing that sounded like beautiful Arabic chanting. And the dancing of course was amazing! The stage was a small, intimate setting, and a man and a woman moved their feet in ways I didn't know was possible. The whole time I kept thinking and telling Rita, "I can't believe I'm actually in Barcelona and watching this amazing Flamenco show!" It was surreal. The night went on, we made friends who we drank Sangeria with (a sweet, fruity, Spanish drink) and later on that night we make some sweet Norwegian friends. We didn't crash in the hostel until 4:30 am! The next day was filled with more sight seeing and then we went back to the travel bar where we made new British and Australian friends who invited us over to their place for dinner. The evening was filled with more Barcelona good times. We were completely, and utterly exhausted, catching a 6:am flight back to Milano and then going to class today (Monday) morning. It was pouring rain, the 57 Cadorna was packed as usual, and our bodies felt pretty miserable today. I'm getting plenty of rest tonight in preparation for a Parisian weekend, the last trip of my European adventures.
20 days and counting until I return home!
An Italian Thanksgiving
All of the American students in my program felt great pangs of sadness and homesickness on Thanksgiving day. It was all we could talk about at school--our favorite homecooked foods that we craved, our family traditions, the smells, watching the Macy's Day parade and American football....all the little things that make a holiday tradition and that are a part of the meaning of 'home' to us.
Many of us wanted to fix up an American Thanksgiving meal for the occasion, but in Italy, none of the ingredients really exist. They don't eat turkey (they have to be imported in for a hefty amount of euro), yams are probably only sold at the specialty markets in the African districts of the city, there is no cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, stuffing, gravy....so it was virtually impossible to fix such a meal. My roommates and I plus our friends Allie and Julianne went to the Brera Neighborhood of Milano where we received a flyer to go to this nice bar/restaurant where they host 'American nights' complete with American traditional food, movies and such. So they were putting on a thing for Thanksgiving complete with big couches and big screen TVs with American football playing. We figured it'd be a fun and a good way to rekindle those good homey feelings....but then we discovered that the meal itself was 35 euro and not very good so we peaced out of there. Instead, we had Thanksgiving dinner at Mirco's!!! (Our good friend and owner of the Italian restaurant around the corner from our apartment in our sketchy neighborhood). But it was great and Mirco was as amazingly hospitable as ever, chatting it up with us and giving us plenty of free food and alcohol. What a guy! We around the table to say what we were thankful for.....and I also got to skype with my mom that day which was nice. Aaron and Beth are officially married now which is exciting and Joe and Rivitta are planning a trip next summer to visit Rivitta's family in Israel, and they plan on going to Egypt and Dubai as well!!! I am INSANELY jealous of my big bro but SO exciting for him! He deserves it and I'm so happy that he is going to get more opportunities to travel after our family vacation in Italy.
Though Thanksgiving was not like being home, it was comforting to be surrounded by people who understood and felt the same way, missing the same place that they call home. Thanksgiving is a lovely American tradition and I appreciate it's family togetherness....even if the First Thanksgiving was kind of a lie considering what colonizers eventually did to the Native Americans. That should be recognized. Anyways, this Christmas I'm eating to make up for Turkey Day. Va bene.
Many of us wanted to fix up an American Thanksgiving meal for the occasion, but in Italy, none of the ingredients really exist. They don't eat turkey (they have to be imported in for a hefty amount of euro), yams are probably only sold at the specialty markets in the African districts of the city, there is no cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, stuffing, gravy....so it was virtually impossible to fix such a meal. My roommates and I plus our friends Allie and Julianne went to the Brera Neighborhood of Milano where we received a flyer to go to this nice bar/restaurant where they host 'American nights' complete with American traditional food, movies and such. So they were putting on a thing for Thanksgiving complete with big couches and big screen TVs with American football playing. We figured it'd be a fun and a good way to rekindle those good homey feelings....but then we discovered that the meal itself was 35 euro and not very good so we peaced out of there. Instead, we had Thanksgiving dinner at Mirco's!!! (Our good friend and owner of the Italian restaurant around the corner from our apartment in our sketchy neighborhood). But it was great and Mirco was as amazingly hospitable as ever, chatting it up with us and giving us plenty of free food and alcohol. What a guy! We around the table to say what we were thankful for.....and I also got to skype with my mom that day which was nice. Aaron and Beth are officially married now which is exciting and Joe and Rivitta are planning a trip next summer to visit Rivitta's family in Israel, and they plan on going to Egypt and Dubai as well!!! I am INSANELY jealous of my big bro but SO exciting for him! He deserves it and I'm so happy that he is going to get more opportunities to travel after our family vacation in Italy.
Though Thanksgiving was not like being home, it was comforting to be surrounded by people who understood and felt the same way, missing the same place that they call home. Thanksgiving is a lovely American tradition and I appreciate it's family togetherness....even if the First Thanksgiving was kind of a lie considering what colonizers eventually did to the Native Americans. That should be recognized. Anyways, this Christmas I'm eating to make up for Turkey Day. Va bene.
Hej København, Danmark & Malmö, Sweden!
It's been a little while since I went to frigid northern Europe (two weekends ago) so I apologize for leaving out the details! Tara, Rita, Mike & Myself journeyed north to the land of taller mostly blond people, pastries, perfectly pronounced American English, darkness at 4:30 in the afternoon, flatlands, canals, and more and more bikes!!
So it's true, visiting Denmark and Sweden in November means that the days are short as it gets dark around 4:30. Regardless, we were kept busy in these amazing countries. First, we arrived at night in Copenhagen and bought tickets to Tivoli, a really really cute carnival park thing in central Copenhagen. The place was decked out for Christmas, complete with thousands of Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and Danish Christmas treats and even a laser light show. We walked around in the -1 degree C temperatures and sipped on hot wine with spices, a Danish specialty drink that keeps you quite warm.
The next morning we woke up early and rented bikes which is the main mode of transportation in Copenhagen (like Amsterdam, Netherlands). Lucky for us it was a Sunday so the bike commuters weren't out so we could ride leisurely without angering the locals. We rode everywhere, stopping to take pictures at the scenic spots--Copenhagen is an overwhelming beautiful city with pituresque colored row buildings on canals with a thin layer of snow that dusted all the streets, buildings and trees. We rode through a park with a castle and went to visit the famous Little Mermaid Statue that inspired the author of the story and eventually, the Disney film (the statue is surprisingly tiny). Even the areas of the city that were supposed to be more industrial were beautiful and clean. And Danishes in Denmark are THE BEST ever (though only we refer to them as 'Danishes' in the States). Danish, Swedes, and most Nordic countries in general speak incredible English with more American sounding accents rather than British--their school systems start teaching them when they're 8 years old. Danish and Sweden are complex sounding, but very unusual languages and the only phases we picked up were "Hej!" (Hello) and "Takk!" (Thank you.....which I noted is the title of teh Icelandic Sigur Ros's album).
So the city of Malmö, Sweden is only about a 20 minute train ride from downtown Copenhagen, so we figured, what the heck, let's go to Sweden for the afternoon. We wandered around a bit in the cold, saw pretty things and also the "Turning Torso" building, the tallest building in all of Sweden and a modern architectural feat. That night we ate cheap Chinese food....which was odd and seemed out of context. On the train ride back to Copenhagen, we made friends with the NICEST Swedish guy ever who was one of the train conductors. He had a long blond braided ponytail which was entertaining. When we parted ways we informed the man that he was the nicest train employee that we've encountered in all of Europe (which is a lot, believe me!) and it made his day.
I also appreciated the huge emphasis on environmentalism in both Denmark and Sweden, which are among the cleanest countries in the world. Malmö is working on initiatives to becoming one of the most sustainable cities in the world. And the people are among the friendliness I would say, along with the Dutch.
We had a very interesting experience in our hostel in Copenhagen. It was us four Americans staying in a room with one of guy, who we hadn't really spoken to and we didn't know where we was from. So we were all chatting in up one night in the room and the guy, after not speaking a word the day before, asked us "Are you Americans?" So we said yes, and asked where he was from and he answered "Iraq". Then followed an awkward pause in the conversation. We eventually learned that this man's parents both worked at the Iraqui consulate in Copenhagen and that he frequently flies up to visit them, but he was headed back to Iraq the next morning. We exchanged passports to look at and tried to talk with him a little bit despite his broken English. But still there was that feeling of 'oh gosh, what do we say?' How do you tell someone 'um, so sorry my country screwed up your country?' It was an interesting learning experience and I had wished we had more time to talk with this man about life, politics, our cultures. Each hostel we've stayed in has led us to learn a little something new about the world through its people.
So those were the highlights of the weekend. I'd love to return to the Nordic areas someday, but preferably in the summertime! I was sad to leave so soon and return to the congested chaotic streets of Milano, though with each week that I'm here, I see more of Milano's redeeming qualities which I've grown to love.
Ciao mi amici!
So it's true, visiting Denmark and Sweden in November means that the days are short as it gets dark around 4:30. Regardless, we were kept busy in these amazing countries. First, we arrived at night in Copenhagen and bought tickets to Tivoli, a really really cute carnival park thing in central Copenhagen. The place was decked out for Christmas, complete with thousands of Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and Danish Christmas treats and even a laser light show. We walked around in the -1 degree C temperatures and sipped on hot wine with spices, a Danish specialty drink that keeps you quite warm.
The next morning we woke up early and rented bikes which is the main mode of transportation in Copenhagen (like Amsterdam, Netherlands). Lucky for us it was a Sunday so the bike commuters weren't out so we could ride leisurely without angering the locals. We rode everywhere, stopping to take pictures at the scenic spots--Copenhagen is an overwhelming beautiful city with pituresque colored row buildings on canals with a thin layer of snow that dusted all the streets, buildings and trees. We rode through a park with a castle and went to visit the famous Little Mermaid Statue that inspired the author of the story and eventually, the Disney film (the statue is surprisingly tiny). Even the areas of the city that were supposed to be more industrial were beautiful and clean. And Danishes in Denmark are THE BEST ever (though only we refer to them as 'Danishes' in the States). Danish, Swedes, and most Nordic countries in general speak incredible English with more American sounding accents rather than British--their school systems start teaching them when they're 8 years old. Danish and Sweden are complex sounding, but very unusual languages and the only phases we picked up were "Hej!" (Hello) and "Takk!" (Thank you.....which I noted is the title of teh Icelandic Sigur Ros's album).
So the city of Malmö, Sweden is only about a 20 minute train ride from downtown Copenhagen, so we figured, what the heck, let's go to Sweden for the afternoon. We wandered around a bit in the cold, saw pretty things and also the "Turning Torso" building, the tallest building in all of Sweden and a modern architectural feat. That night we ate cheap Chinese food....which was odd and seemed out of context. On the train ride back to Copenhagen, we made friends with the NICEST Swedish guy ever who was one of the train conductors. He had a long blond braided ponytail which was entertaining. When we parted ways we informed the man that he was the nicest train employee that we've encountered in all of Europe (which is a lot, believe me!) and it made his day.
I also appreciated the huge emphasis on environmentalism in both Denmark and Sweden, which are among the cleanest countries in the world. Malmö is working on initiatives to becoming one of the most sustainable cities in the world. And the people are among the friendliness I would say, along with the Dutch.
We had a very interesting experience in our hostel in Copenhagen. It was us four Americans staying in a room with one of guy, who we hadn't really spoken to and we didn't know where we was from. So we were all chatting in up one night in the room and the guy, after not speaking a word the day before, asked us "Are you Americans?" So we said yes, and asked where he was from and he answered "Iraq". Then followed an awkward pause in the conversation. We eventually learned that this man's parents both worked at the Iraqui consulate in Copenhagen and that he frequently flies up to visit them, but he was headed back to Iraq the next morning. We exchanged passports to look at and tried to talk with him a little bit despite his broken English. But still there was that feeling of 'oh gosh, what do we say?' How do you tell someone 'um, so sorry my country screwed up your country?' It was an interesting learning experience and I had wished we had more time to talk with this man about life, politics, our cultures. Each hostel we've stayed in has led us to learn a little something new about the world through its people.
So those were the highlights of the weekend. I'd love to return to the Nordic areas someday, but preferably in the summertime! I was sad to leave so soon and return to the congested chaotic streets of Milano, though with each week that I'm here, I see more of Milano's redeeming qualities which I've grown to love.
Ciao mi amici!
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