A California Girl in Paris

This weekend was the long anticipated trip to Paris organized by my school and well there is no one word to sum it all up in. I’d have to say it was a very mixed bag full of great fun but also horrible luck. Let me start off by saying that the French and me have never gotten along well. But I decided to give them a chance and see what all the fuss was about: i.e. go to Paris. Well I don’t know if you have all heard back in the states, but the French transit workers chose this past weekend to go on strike. And not an Italian strike (which lasts for a day), but an indefinite French strike of all major modes of transportation (that is still going on as I write this). So we were going to take a sleeper train Thursday night and arrive Friday morning, but transportation from Italy to Paris was “quasi nill!” Instead our amazing TAs (Carrie and Paola) did their best to fix it all. Mode of transportation: 15 hour bus ride with aprox 50 college kids. Um it was not very pleasant at all. I have just now regained feeling in my but and the crick in my neck is less painful. Oh how I wish I could have pulled what they guys of “Entourage” did and hopped onto Kanye’s private jet! Actually he was in Paris at the same time as us, so it wouldn’t have been totally unbelievable. His lyrics were the theme for the trip, “That don’t kill me, can only make me stronger.” Keep that in mind, or better yet just play the song while looking at the photos on facebook. Kanye dance party!

Well once we arrived in Paris on Friday morning, we checking into our hotel. Let’s just say it was not in a savory neighborhood, and there were some exposed wires. I’m sure my parents would have had a cow, mainly my dad, if they saw where we stayed. But they had great water pressure for the shower, so that’s a plus. Also we were dead tired so all I cared about was being able to shower and sleep. Once we relaxed a bit, it was off to the LOUVRE! Time to play some DaVinci Code! Well there were no deaths, but there was brisk walking and French people, so close enough. But my version was way more historically accurate. So Carrie took us around the Louvre and I was in art heaven. So many amazing things to see. I can’t recount everything I saw (and there are photos on facebook) but my favorites were the sculpture of “Cupid and Psyche” and the painting “The Raft of Medusa.” Everything was breath taking and I wish I had more time to look around (it’s like the British Museum, I could live there). Afterwards, Katie and me decided to walk around the city. Why walk you might ask? There are two answers: one we wanted to enjoy the night beauty of the city and two-the massive transit strike that only got worse as time passed. I’m glad that I went this past weekend, because all transportation had halted now and there have been cases of arson and violence on the tracks. Nice job on timing. Main point: we walked around Paris at night and it was beautiful! I felt very much like Andrea in “The Devil Wears Prada” when she is looking around Paris (and U2’s “In The City of Blinding Light” is playing in the background- as it was in my head). We hit up the Eiffel Tower and took some lovely shots, but there was no way I was going to climb that sucker. After we walked by the Lafayette windows (giant mall thingy) and saw their Christmas window displays. They so put the ones in the states to shame. Very cute animals singing and then expensive gowns, what more could you want? And as it got later, my body decided to spazz out. See my inner California self and its inability to handle weather after a certain temperature kicked in and I stated to freeze under my layers. It was -8C there, meaning it was 18F and that is below freezing!! Very cold but very pretty outside.

On Saturday we were supposed to go to Charts and Versailles but because of the transit strike we weren’t able to go. I was really bummed out about it, but then I realized I was in France and I would still have fun no matter what. Professor Hatfield, Carrie, and Paola altered that plans but we still ended up seeing some amazing sites. First we went to Sainte Chapelle, which is a church that was build in 1248 by Louis the 9th to house important relics. Basically it’s one of the most beautiful gothic churches with its stained glass windows. I absolutely love gothic architecture; it’s def a fave. After we went to Notre Dame, another great and more famous gothic church. It was begun in 1163 and took 170 years to finish being built. Not going to lie, I did have “The Bells of Notre Dame” from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame playing in my head while I was playing. I am a nerd, what can I say? The gargoyles were also very entertaining. Inside is just so vast and awe inspiring. A cool thing happened while we were inside; the organist was playing this famous song on the massive organ. After looking around a bit and just being silenced by the massiveness of the church, WE CLIMBED IT! We didn’t go all the way to the top because it was closed, but we still went pretty far up. Oh Medieval staircases, you and me have spent way too much time together. Despite the curving climb in the stairwell, the view made it all worth it. By the way, Paris has smog and it reminded me of LA. After marveling at the beauty of Norte Dame and the view of the Paris, and trying not to get freaked out when I looked down, it was lunchtime. Katie, Kate, and I went to a little restaurant and had delish onion soup (French onion soup, but since we were in France they just call it onion soup). But we didn’t have much time so we had to eat said yummy soup really fast and then run to meet the group, hot but worth it. Then the massive group of us tried to maneuver the metro system in the middle of the strike; yes it was that fun (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice?). We saw a group of French Jewish musicians playing songs in the station. They were quite good but they got “Hava Nagila” stuck in my head for days. Once out of the sardine can that we will call the metro, we arrived at the Musee d’Orsay. It was originally a railway station that was converted into a museum and it holds works of art from 1848-1914, done by people such as Degas, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec. I loved it all, but one of my fave works of art was here so I was really excited: Van Gogh’s “Le Nuit Etoilee, Arles.” And the ballet series by Degas was great to see also. But then I was art-ed out, so Kate and I went to walk around the city. We decided to go to the Eiffel Tower and take some day shots, because you need shots from day and night time, obvi. It was really funny because while taking photos I had a trilingual moment in France, and none of the languages were French. There was this couple taking photos and they asked me to take a photo and I said “si” and then they asked me in Spanish if I was Spanish, Mexican, or Italian. Then I explained in a combo of Spanish and Italian about myself and we all laughed. It was so funny and my brain hurt a bit, but we all got our photos taken in our respective languages. Walking around made me quite hungry and therefore it was only fitting that Kate and me eat some crepes! Neutella crepes are HEAVENLY! They were made warm and fresh right in front of us by this street vendor and made us incredibly happy. I want more. Now warm and delish inside, we walked to l’Arc du Triomphe. It was conceived by Napoleon in 1809 (and finished in 1836 under Louis Philippe) to celebrate the imperial armies and is the world’s largest triumphal arch. The tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located here and we were able to see the eternal flame ceremony that night. It is a very impressive arch, and very obvi conceived by someone who has competency issues. Yummy dinner with better deserts of chocolate mousse and crème brule. Sadly there was no going out after because we were way too cold and tired.

Sunday involved one more failed attempt to go to Versailles. And when that didn’t work out Katie and I decided to wander around Paris some more. So we spent some time trying to find the Latin Quarter, which was ok. It wasn’t that impressive, and not much was open because it was a Sunday morning. I think it’s one of those places that would have been better to see at night, who knows? I was also freezing so it didn’t help me enjoy walking around much. Then we walked down the Champs Elysees and saw the super classy and expensive stores there, such as the Louis Vuitton Building! As in it was a whole building! Oh and a nice French car place, took some photos of the cars I’d like, I’m sure my dad liked those. And I had to go into the Disney store, which was so nice I might add. They even had xmas tress up and a beautiful staircase. More walking and fighting our way through the metro mobs, which resulted in us finally getting back to our hotel and not getting lost. And then we got back on the bus for 18 hours and made our way back to Florence.

Every time I leave Florence I realize how much I love it here. Today is marks the countdown: ONLY ONE MONTH LEFT IN ITALY!! I really can’t believe this. NON CI CREDO. Time has gone by so fast and I don’t want by abroad time to end, even though I miss you all dearly. I’m def going to live it up this last month, despite all of the work that I have to do. Speaking of which, I should stop blogging and actually do some work, so this will be the end of this entry. Alla prosssima.