Castles and Rain

The chateaux were beautiful! We saw Chambord, Chenoceaux and Blois. I fell in love with Chenoceaux, a particularly beautiful castle built across water. The day was beautiful and I had a wonderful time. As usual. ;)

I would like to apologize for my recent neglect of this chronicle. I think I have felt less inspired to write of late because I haven’t had anything of much note to say. I crossed the half-way mark this Monday – I had left home eight weeks ago and I was leaving for home in another eight weeks. I feel like I have finally settled into my life here everything is no longer shiny and new. I still look up at just the right time on my walk to the Metro to catch a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, but it no longer seems so exotic. I still feel a sense of temporariness; my apartment does not feel like home, just a place with my bed and my suitcases. But at the same time that I feel this temporariness, I feel like I have been here forever – not eight weeks and 3 days. I get emails from my friends updating me on their lives and I feel like I have missed years. It is an odd feeling to be here and hear about their lives back home because I feel like my “real” life is on hold and I am here, just doing nothing. Meanwhile their lives are in full swing, and I missing out. It sucks sometimes.

I still have things to do – I am going to Amsterdam on a school trip next week, and after that I plan on visiting London and Rome. I’m not ready to be done traveling Europe, but I am ready to be done living in Europe. I know it is going to go so fast and I will be home before I know it, but ugh. The other day I had this indulgent fantasy that I could move my flight home up and get home a week sooner. It wouldn’t make sense, but still. I looked at my calendar the other day and realized that will only be home for 2 weeks before I have to leave for school again. Basically I will spend 2 weeks at home unpacking and then repacking. Gross! The upside, of course, is that I will be back with my friends and back into debate without much delay.

Gosh! Why do I sound so sad? It sounds like I am hating it here, but really, I promise I am not. I have great friends here and I have so many amazing days, walking around the city, hanging out at pubs with my friends, touring things, traveling…really, everything is so great. I think it’s just that it’s not home. I always wanted to spend some time living in Paris – as I have said before, I have always been in love with this city. For most of my life I have dreamt of living here for some time and I am so glad to have had this chance. My love and appreciation for not only my home and my school in America have grown, but also my love and appreciation for America. I am still so grateful to be here and so glad to be learning everything that I am. But today it is cold and rainy and I am missing my American life.

Ireland

Ireland was amazing. It was the perfect combination of nice people, good beer and a beautiful landscape. I am in love.

My first day in Dublin was mostly walking around looking at cool buildings. We walked through the old Viking district of the city, which was pretty awesome. It’s not often you get to think to yourself, “Wow! A super long time ago there were some Vikings standing here!” We also saw a church which was built sometime in the 13th century, and it looked it. That is so old! I think it was striking to me because it was so small and normal looking that it felt really intimate. There weren’t any tourists around, it was just the two of us and a few locals sitting on a bench in the small garden. Churches were such a central aspect of people’s lives during the time this one was built, and when you’re there alone with the stones and the trees the history is almost palpable. I think that is the coolest feeling. We also toured the original Guinness brewery, which is still operational. Arthur Guinness, the founder of the brand, signed a 9000-year lease on the property. Crazy! So if the company continues to enjoy the global success it has seen so far, they could be there for a while. Anyway, the brewery was really neat and the beer even better.

Ireland has made me a Guinness convert! We went to dinner at a pub/carvery (place where they serve good food cafeteria-style) and I ate a cod fillet with chips (fries) and a Guinness. The next day we were on a tour where we stopped at another carvery and I had Guinness and beef stew and a pint of Guinness. It was one of the best meals I’ve had since coming to Europe, and that’s a pretty big deal coming from a girl who can’t remember the last time she ate beef in the States! I drank Guinness all night on the pub crawl we went on, and the Irish were quite glad to see it. As far as I can tell, if you drink Guinness or Jameson, the Irish love you. Or really, if you drink at all.

Our first night at the pub/carvery there was a duo of Irish men playing guitar and singing traditional Irish ballads (folk songs? I’m not totally sure what the proper term would be) and it was so neat. Everyone was clapping and dancing or singing along, the perfect embodiment of what I had imagined an Irish pub would be like. You don’t think that things like that could really happen because it is so cliché, but it happened. It made me wish I could sing along too!

The second day we took a bus tour out to the edge of the city (to the coast) and out through the countryside. I can’t put into to words the kind of beauty that I experienced at all of the different places we stopped. If you’ve never been to Ireland, you should put it on your list of places to see. It was breath-taking. I have included a few pictures, but they could never do the experience justice. I was astounded. Though that seems to be the story of my life these days…

This weekend I am going on a day trip to the chateaux (castles) of the Loire Valley. I can't wait!

A Story of Pride and Foolishness

I am a little ashamed to publish this post because it is a story which revolves around my foolishness, but this blog is supposed to be a chronicle of my experiences, be they good, bad or evidence of my stupidity. So here goes!

As I said, I was having a rough couple of days before I left for Poland. Paris was finally starting to get to me. I started to feel incredibly crowded, nearly claustrophobic. I have spent my whole life in towns either suburban or semi-rural in nature and I was not at all accustomed to big city life. Big city life is apartments stacked on top of apartments stacked on top of shops squeezed into every spare inch of space. Big city life is a constant parade of cars and bikes and vespas in a street which you are desperately trying not to totter into as you are shoved around the 3 foot wide sidewalk you share with 30 other people. Big city life is crippled women begging, old men leering and more shit in the street, on the sidewalk and around the rare tree than you thought you would ever see in your life.

But Paris is not just any big city, it is Paris. Add a native population which is incredibly proud of its culture and language. The following is a true story: I was at a bar on the Champs Elysee with a bunch of other people from school when a guy I had seen around a couple of times came over to talk to me and my friend. He knew that we were exchange students so he started to speak English with us. As we were talking one of his friends came over, but once the friend heard us speaking English he got an angry look on his face and immediately turned around to walk away. The guy we were talking to looked over to see what was wrong and his obviously disgusted friend said (in French), “You are in France, you should be speaking French,” before stalking angrily away.

Add a foreign fashion culture. This is the one that surprised me the most. I knew that French people dressed in darker clothing than Americans typically did, so I packed accordingly. This was a little difficult because if you know me you know that I love to wear bright colors. But I stuck to my grays and black in an effort to fit in with the culture as much as possible – my biggest fear was that I would be that American girl who dressed loud and talked loud and fed every stereotype Europeans have of Americans. On a deeper level though (and this is where it gets foolish), I thought that I could actually be French for a semester. I thought I could dress like them, talk like them and live like them to fit seamlessly into their community for four months. And this is why it got hard. I am not Parisian!

I didn’t think I would feel culture shock – I thought I would feel like part of the culture. Basically, I was stupid. It took a few weeks to hit me at all, but then it all hit me at once. I always have been and still am in love with Paris, but it has its flaws. It is loud and crowded and dirty and it’s okay if I’m not in love with it every moment of every day. And really, I am not Parisian! I am American and I am proud of it. I have started wearing colors again and even that has made such a difference. Do you know how depressing it is to wear just black and gray all the time?? It sucks! It is not me. I feel like I am 12 again, having to tell myself that it doesn’t matter what other people think of me! Haha.

Like I said, I feel a little stupid admitting to all of this. I can’t believe I thought I would be the ONE person who didn’t feel culture shock. And I am ashamed that I came over here afraid to show that I am American! Of course it is difficult to be an American abroad (I have talked about this a little – I will write more on it soon), but that’s certainly not a reason to shy away from it. Especially not me! I can’t remember the last time I sought to avoid conflict. I have spent the last 7 years getting good at engaging conflict through debate. What was I thinking?? Ah well, it is all part of the growing and learning this experience is affording me. And I am grateful for it, however stupid it makes me feel.

I am leaving again tomorrow morning! I am spending the weekend in Dublin, Ireland, so I will post pictures from Poland and Ireland next week.

A bientot!

A Quick Hello

Hello from Poland!

I am sorry my posting has been sparse lately. I meant to post again from Paris before I left for Poland but didn't get around to it. So today I will post some quick love from Opole, Poland where I am visiting my friend Nell.

I love Poland! Many good things have converged to make this an amazing trip for me. My experience in Poland has included a meter of beer at a pub in Krakow, delicious potato dumplings filled with cheese called pierogy, beautiful fall weather and plenty of time with Nell. Poland has a feel much different from that of Paris, of course - a more familiar feeling. Before I left I was in a bit of a funk; the French and I were not getting along very well and I was feeling very homesick. Maybe I will go into specifics later, but suffice it to say that I was not in a very good place. Time with a friend from home and a break from the city life have been just what I needed and I already feel refreshed. I have gotten to talk American politics and walk down a street where I have a full 2 feet of space in either direction, as opposed to the 4 inches I have in Paris. I saw some real countryside! I walked through a natural park and smelled fall. I sat around and watched American TV shows with a friend. As I said, it has been refreshing!

In my next post I want to tell you all about my pre-Poland realization that I was experiencing a little something called culture shock and that it was affecting me more than I thought. The most interesting aspect of it involved the least intriguing of things: my wardrobe. More to come!

A Gray Day

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Two of my friends and I had decided to go to the Musee D’Orsay for the day because the first Sunday of every month admission is free. Well we didn’t get there very early (it was a late night!) and by the time we arrived the line was about an hour long. We decided to come back another day and just appreciate our student discounts and instead we spent the day walking along the Seine. The weather was so poetic – the clouds were brooding and everything was gray, but in a crisp, romantic sort of way. Paris looked the way that it does in all of the black and white postcards you see. The wind was sharp, but the kind of sharp that makes you feel cozy in your coat. It was so perfect, just a delicious feeling. I was in heaven. When it started to rain a little we went into a café and ate crepes with egg, cheese, ham and mushrooms. So good. It was one of those days that makes me so happy for every minute I have here.

I also talked to my family yesterday. My dad’s birthday is coming up but I will be in Poland when it arrives, so I wanted to call and talk to him before I leave. Conveniently, my entire family was home when I called and I got a chance to speak with all of them on speaker phone. It was wonderful to hear from all of them and to hear them all together, but it was a little bit hard. They were eating pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins my mom had made and were telling me about all of the fun things they had done together in my hometown. After I got off the phone I came back to my apartment and cried a little bit. It is a little difficult to explain – I wasn’t sad because I wanted to be home. I am only here for 4 months (less than 3 left!!) and every day goes by so quickly that I spend most of them thinking my time here is not enough. It was just sad because it is not often that everyone is together but they were and I wasn’t there. I was the only one missing! I am so close to my family and it was hard to know that they were all getting to be with each other and I couldn’t be a part of it. Ah! Such is life. I will back with them soon enough.

Yesterday my friends and I talked about how we are feeling here. We are all exchange students in love with Paris, so we are having pretty similar experiences. It is weird. Each day feels amazing and long and great, but the weeks feel like they go so quickly. Sometimes I get a little panicky – I feel like my time is going too fast and I have so much to do! So much of Paris to see and love and experience. I wanted to come here and travel a great deal, but now I am feeling like a homebody. I want to spend all the time that I can in Paris! And I am glad that I feel this way. It means my exchange is going well!

5 weeks down, 11 to go!

October (and congestion) arrives!

I am really bad about taking pictures (hence the lack) but I did manage to take a few while on a random walk the other day. Here they are! It is amazing to me that these are all things I saw while on a random stroll through the city. Cool, huh?

All of my classes have now begun. Fortunately I only have class three days a week, so I still have time for travel and exploring. Unfortunately, each class is three hours long. The majority of my classes in the States are 50 minutes long and meet once a week, though there are a few that are one hour and 20 minutes long and meet twice a week. Three hours once a week is not easy to handle! We get only one break of 15 minutes, 30 minutes if the class covers lunch hours. It is not at all easy to stay focused for that long. Some of my professors have expressed that it is even difficult for them to teach for that long. I am not sure I understand the system, but it is all part of me exploring other cultures, right?

I have planned another trip to Dublin, Ireland. I was looking for another American to travel with but the only American I met was a married girl who is living here with her husband and I didn’t really want to travel with a married couple. Luckily, I met a guy from South Korea who is just as new to Europe as I am and wanted to travel a lot as well. We will be going together to Dublin and have tentatively planned to also take trips to London and Rome. I am looking forward to it!

In other news, I am a bit sick with what I think is a sinus infection. Nothing serious, of course, but it is really not fun to be sick in Paris. I am used to going on with life as usual when I am a little bit sick like this, but it is much harder here. Yesterday I had to go to class on two different campuses and in between I went to my friend’s apartment so I was walking for about 2 hours total, which is really exhausting when you are not at 100%. Getting into my car to drive to class for 50 minutes would be one thing – this is quite another. Yuck!

The weather here is getting ever more gorgeous. Paris has definitely entered fall, which happens to be my favorite season. Everything is crisp and clear and leaves are falling off trees throughout the city. Sometimes I catch a whiff of the fall smell, though in a city this big you rarely smell much other than …well, city. Exhaust or garbage or fish from the market you are walking past. Still, it is so beautiful. Hopefully I will be feeling better soon! I want to be out and about in this weather!