ITALIA

Hey all,

So again, its been forever since I've updated. Fail. However, also fail, my life before last week was just a whirlwind of work--school and extracirricular. I just recently returned from a wonderful trip to Italy for my Spring Break, so now, I finally have interesting things to talk about!

I had my grandparents visiting me last weekend, until tuesday. It was really good to see them, was also nice to have someone to take me out to expensive restaurants and drink good wine that I didn't pay 1.95 for at monoprix. Good times.

On tuesday Samantha and myself headed towards Rome. We got there, and spent the first night eating amazing pasta and walking around to see sights at night. The temple of nations, and their tomb of the unknown soldier looked pretty cool, and we eventually made it over to the Trevi fountain as well, which was even prettier lit up at night. We also missed the busy time, so we were some of the only people there.

The next day we did the Vatican. That was pretty important to me to do. I'm not a devout Catholic or anything, but as a catholic I feel like its something I had to do, and also, the Vatican's gorgeous. When we got into St.Peter's square, there was some kind of mass going on, and we actually got to see the Pope! He wasn't in his crazy robes though so it took us awhile to figure out it was him. Because of whatever was going on in the square, the basilica wasn't yet open, so we hit the museum and the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was breathtaking, and me and a friend actually got a couple sneak pictures on our phones (even though photography isn't allowed) It was crazy to think Michaelangelo did it all by hand. Once we were done in there, we headed back to St. Peter's basilica, which was also breathtaking. The altar was amazing, black with gold trimming..I can't do it justice through description. Once we were done in there, we had some gelato, of course.

We headed to Florence the next day. Florence is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities I have been to. There wasn't as much to do sightseeing wise, but it was a great city to walk around in, and we had 80 degree weather and clear skys. We found quite a lot of open air markets, where I bought some cool bracelets. We also did the Duomo, and me and a couple girls I was with climbed to the top of the tower. It was a gorgeous view of the city, and you could see out into the countryside/wine country. Once we got down, we got some lunch and then headed up to Michaelangelo's square? (something like that) which is on a hill and also overlooks the city. The walk along the river was gorgeous as was the view from up there. Once we got down, we had dinner at an amazing restaurant in Florence with friends of one of the girls with our group. We went out with them all afterwards, the night was great cause it was still pretty warm.

The next morning we woke up and walked around some more before heading back to Rome. Once we got there, we dropped our stuff at the hostel and did the Colleseum. I loved doing the Colleseum, and pretty much all of the ancient Rome stuff we did. We spent quite a bit of time walking around the Colleseum, so we didn't get any of the other ancient Rome stuff done that day. The next day, we did the Roman forum and such. It was really cool, and give me and Brittany the opportunity to spend the entire day saying "YOUR EMPIRE IS IN RUINS". Good times. That afternoon, me and Brittany and Sam hit up the Pantheon and then the catacombs. The catacombs were probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Rediculously morbid, but really interesting. Basically the bones of 4,000 dead capuchin monks arranged in creative (and extremely morbid) ways. I thought it was really cool, given my affinity for morbid stuff.

All in all, it was a pretty successful visit. I normally don't like to do crazy sightseeing, but I was really into doing it all in Rome. I definitely felt like I didn't have enough time, which was probably because I enjoyed it so much...

It WAS in springtime mode in Paris, now its back in the 50's and raining. I'm not too pleased, I hope it gets back to the sunny weather we had before I left for Rome soon. Although, because the next two weeks are my last of school, I am gonna be busy anyways.

More updates on Springtime in Paris to come!

Megan

schoolwork owns me

So in the past few weeks, I have barely had time to do anything. While Sciences Po is a great experience, it also completely dumps you with work. And as with anywhere, once you get settled into a routine you kind of stop realizing how nice everything around you is. Also, the amount of trash tv, 90210 and Friday Night Lights included, that I have been watching lately is pretty abismal.

A couple weeks ago I had a friend from Atlanta come visit me. It was definitely nice to see a friendly face, and it gave me the chance to do some sightseeing with her. We did the usual, Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Tuileries, Orangerie. But we also did a few things that were a little out of the norm. Since fashion week, the museum at Petit Palais on the Champs d'Elysees has had an exhibit about Yves Saint Laurent, just showcasing his work and tracking it over the decades, so we decided to go to that. It was actually one of the best things I have seen yet in Paris. They had an entire section dedicated to his lines during the 60's, and the feminist movements. Turns out Yves Saint Laurent was one of the designers that started the women wearing men's clothes era. They showcased a lot of really interesting pieces from there, including an entire wall of le Smoking, his line of tuxedos for women from the 60's or 70's (can't remember which decade). They also showcased his ball gowns, and the very end of the exhibit showed some of the gowns he did right before he died a couple years ago. It was an eye opening exhibit, I want to buy the book about it before I leave here. In contrast, we also went to the museum of discovery here, much like the Smithsonian only much smaller scale. It gave us the opportunity to act like 5 years olds for awhile (not that I don't on a regular basis), and I got to see a real live octopus. It was really cool until I realized it was unhappy in its tank and then I got upset.

Its springtime here, which means its gorgeous. The only downside is the occasional showers we have been experiencing. Me and a friend of mine went out to Montmartre last weekend, which was beautiful. The first thing we did was go see the Moulin Rouge, which looks pretty cool but we didn't see it at night so I didn't get to see the neon windmill. Oddly enough, there's a Starbucks right across the street, and shortly after we got there it started raining so we hung out in there. Its interesting that in a cafe in Paris, you pay 4 euro or more for coffee, whereas at Starbucks you can still get a grande for 2.80. It makes me feel incredibly American, particularly when I ask for it iced, but its definitely the cheaper option. In any case, the rain only lasted about 15 minutes while we were in there. That's the strange thing about spring showers, they can be heavy but they rarely last long. Afterwards we walked up the hill to Sacre Coeur, and sat on the steps there and ate delicious cheescake that we bought on the way up. It started to rain at sunset, so we went into the church. Because it was the day before easter, I decided to light a candle in the church, and we stayed in there for awhile just looking at the stained glass and such.

The weather is getting increasingly better which makes it even hard to be sitting in classes/inside doing work. Its scary to think I only have 2 and a half months left here. I feel like the time is flying by me way too fast. My grandparents are coming to visit in a couple weeks, and it will be really nice to see them. I am looking forward to showing them around, and just being able to see family in general.

That's pretty much all I have for now. A bientot!

Megan

FASHION WEEK way too late

I can't even believe it has taken me this long to write an entry about fashion week, which was at the beginning of march. Thank god the memories are still fresh in my mind :)

So while my sister was visiting me, it was fashion week here in Paris for the fall lines of many designers. Of course it was hard to actually get in to the shows, so what we mostly did was hang out outside and watch the people walk in. The one show that we actually got chairs and sat outside was Chloe. It was awesome to see all of the people walking in, and look at everybody's outfits. Occasionally you would see some of the models walking in, but mostly it was just people who would dress up and hang out around there. Magazines and fashion bloggers were around too and they would take pictures of people walking around near the show. After we had been sitting there for awhile, some guy comes up to us with a huge bag full of American Apparel goodies. I thought he was just giving them to us to hold when he said "can you take these?" but no, he was actually giving them to us. He said he got them all and didn't have any use for them cause they were girl typed goodies, so he asked us to take them in exchange for a cigarette, which one of the people we were with had. It ended up being a bunch of different colored tights (the green ones came in very handy on St. Patricks day) and a couple rediculous looking sweaters.

We opened all of them in a cafe and ended up making friends with a couple Ukranian girls sitting next to us. We even gave them each a pair of the many tights we had just acquired. Turns out they know this Ukranian photographer who they introduced us to, and who had full footage of the Chloe, Yves Saint Laurent, and Chanel shows on his camera, all of which we got to see. The Chanel show was amazing, they filled Petit Palais with a bunch of ice and made it look like an ice cave, then covered the stage with a thin layer of ice. The models all wore their clothes with snow boots so they weren't freezing.

That was pretty much it on fashion week but it was quite the experience. One of those things that made me never wanna leave Paris.

Dublin and Whitlow

I absolutely loved Dublin. As a city, its definitely not as pretty as Paris, and much smaller and dirtier, but I liked the vibe of the city. Reminds me a lot of London. There are so many pubs and bars, and the people were all really nice. Gotta love the Irish.

Me, Sam and Brittany got in really late Thursday night, and were too tired to go out or do anything, so we crashed. The next morning we woke up and decided to do a day tour out to a town called Whitlow. It was really on a whim, because we originally had wanted to go to Cork but couldn't make that work since it was 4 hours away. We got there and were confused when it was an actual town and the bus driver didn't just drop us in the actual countryside. However, we asked some locals, and they told us how to get over to the bay in the town. When we finally got there, it was gorgeous. We met a dog along the way, who we named Whitlow (original I know) and who followed us around everywhere once we met him. There was a way to get down to the actual beach, so we sat there among the cliffs. It was a sunny day so it was nice out, and I found a ton of seaglass which I saved. We sat on the beach for about half an hour which was really relaxing. Afterwards, Brittany decided to go buy treats for the dog, and me and Sam decided to walk around on the fields. We ended up finding that the fields directly above the cliffs were actually a golf course, and we walked around the entire thing. On the way back, we actually ran along most of it, like we were 5. Strangely enough, we didn't get that many dirty looks.

We headed back into Dublin that evening for a Pub crawl. This ended up being a lot of fun. One of the tour guides was really attractive, but sadly had a girlfriend. There were a lot of drink specials at a lot of the places, and you payed a flat rate to go on the tour, but the leader of the pub crawl didn't actually make me pay which was nice. They took us around to different pubs and bars that people in Dublin actually went to, which was cool. I liked a lot of the places, nightlife there is a lot different than Paris but the vibe is pretty cool. We headed back home at around 2 to get some sleep before the next day.

The next day we thought we were in for a St Patty's day parade, but sadly that morning we found out that the information concerning parades that we found on google was actually for Dublin, Ohio and not Dublin, Ireland. The good news was that the Ireland Wales rugby game was on. I don't understand absolutely anything about rugby, but it was such a huge deal over there and it was really cool to see everybody all dressed up and in the bars cheering for their teams. Ireland won in a landslide, I didn't understand how. We also went to the Guinness factory after pretending to understand the first half of the rugby game. I have to say, I have much more appreciation for the taste of beer after I understood how it was actually brewed, and we got a free pint at the end which was cool.

Our intention that night was to pull an all nighter, since we had to leave our hostel at 5am for the bus to the airport for our 7:50 flight. However, me and Brittany both were too tired by 1:30, and were asleep by 2. This only leant us 2 and a half hours of sleep, which helped a little but not that much. The journey back was pretty brutal, and I had so much work to do that I couldn't sleep all day.

Despite the brutality of the trip home, I had an extremely relaxing and fun weekend. Dublin is definitely a cool place, and I wanna go back and see more of the Irish countryside. Perhaps discover my roots? We shall see.

visitors and a trip to London

Hey all,

I really need to get better about writing in this thing, as now I have to write two entries to talk about everything that's happened in the past few weeks. My spring break was the week before last, and I headed over to London for that. But before that happened, my big sis in my sorority came to visit me. She only had circa 48 hours in Paris, and there was a lot she wanted to see so we did whirlwind sightseeing. It was really nice to see a friendly face, and it was good to see one of my friends from home. We had a lot to catch up on.

The first thing we when she got in was (after getting food of course) walk around on the Champs d'Elysees. Since I have been here I have realized, as have many other people, that there is a lot more to Paris than just the Champs and la Tour Eiffel, but I am still amazed at how pretty it can be in that area. The Eiffel Tower may be one of the cliche spots of Paris, but everytime it sparkles I get just as excited as I did the first time I saw it sparkle. Kari also got really excited the first time she saw it sparkle. We found a spot that I had found with a friend earlier up near some art gallery where you get an excellent view of the Eiffel Tower, with la Defense in the background, and a good view of the Sacre Coeur. After we took in the scenery from that view, we walked around and sat under the Eiffel Tower, and drank wine. We were under it to see it sparkle again before we headed home. The next day, we got a slightly later start than we would have liked since we were both exhausted from busy weeks. But once we got moving we headed straight to the Louvre. She wanted to see the Mona Lisa, and, as with most everyone else who sees it for the first time, found it quite dissapointing. We also walked around the 7th near where Sciences Po is and went to the longchamps store so she could get a bag.

That afternoon/evening, we actually went up the Eiffel Tower. I had been told that because I was afraid of heights, it would be a really bad idea to do it, but because both Kari and I are afraid of heights, we decided to brave it and go together. We were both surprised because our fear of heights didn't pose much of a problem. The elevator up to the second floor (the first floor is a restaurant) was easy, and the second floor didn't pose too much of an issue. However, once we got up there, we had to wait in a ridiculous line to get up to the third floor, and by this time it had gotten pretty cold and rainy. The elevator up to the third floor was the scariest part, because its glass and you can see all the way down. But once we were up on the top it was enclosed, and it was an excellent view for picture taking.

The next day, I put Kari on the train to CDG and I got on the eurostar to head to London. I had a week off of school last week, so I decided to go visit friends there. My best friend from England's parents still live there, and because they are like my second family, I stayed with them, even though Kirsten is in Virginia. It was a relatively relaxing week for the most part, got to go into London one day. The Wednesday of break there was a memorial service for a high school friend who died in a car accident recently. It was a difficult day, needless to say. That evening I also managed to pick up some sort of stomach virus, and so I was sick for the next 24 hours. Although stomach flus are never fun, it gave me an excuse to lay around and watch TV and movies. I watched quite a few documentaries on the history channel, and thoroughly enjoyed them all. It was a good visit though, I was glad I went and had some R&R. Much needed. On Friday night, I got to go into London and see my dad for the night as he was around on business. It was good to see him after such a long time.

When I got back to Paris on Saturday, I had to get ready for my sister to come on Sunday. It was definitely good to see her. Although I am having a blast here, it is really difficult to be away from my family, and since I probably won't see any of them until may it was good to have her around, particularly when I had just gotten to see my dad. I had class, and a lot of work I had to do before the weekend so it was difficult for us to get a lot of sightseeing done, but we walked around a lot and I showed her different areas of the city. She was only here until Thursday, when I had to head to Dublin.

Work is really beginning to pick up at Sciences Po, and its extremely difficult. I am extremely interested in all of my classes, so it isn't difficult for me to keep up but the assignments are difficult. Today, I had an expose (10-15 minute oral presentation) in French in my Religions and Societes class. I spent quite a lot of time going over the reading, and then when I got home from Dublin on Sunday I did the outline for my presentation, and filled it in afterwards. I practiced the night before, and it went very well, but this morning when I did it nerves got the better of me and I didn't present as well as I had hoped I would. It went alright, and I am definitely glad to have it over with. I remember a friend of mine who did this program last spring talking to me about exposes, and she said it was one of the most difficult things she had to do, but once you do that, things get a lot easier. I am hoping this is true. Even though all of my classes are pass/fail, I still want to do well.

I have a good friend from Atlanta visiting me this weekend, and I am hoping to be able to get some more sightseeing done. The weather is starting to get nice and the sun is starting to come out and the city is even more beautiful than it usually is. Its getting me really excited for actual springtime here.

That's all for this one, update on Dublin in another post of course.

Megan

Work Hard Play Hard?

Hey all,

So it has been ages since I have written because the past few weeks have been insanely busy. School has really begun to pick up, particularly because I had two of my exposes this past week. Because of this, I regret to inform my sightseeing has also been well below part. BUT, there were still quite a few things I have seen and experiences I have had.

Firstly, thursday before last, me and a friend visited the Musee Marmottan Monet in the 16th. It was actually an old house (we never quite figured out who it actually belonged to) and many of the paintings in the house were there when the tenant still lived there. There were a few more of Monet's famed Nympheas(Water Lillies) along with many other Monet paintings. Gorgeous as always, so I spent quite a bit of time looking at the paintings. Downstairs, there was a more modernist exhibit. Though I liked the colors, it was a bit harsh for me, particularly after looking at the Monet paintings. With Monet, I could so easily picture myself there and put myself where he was, whereas with these paintings I didn't have the same experience. The museum also had pictures of Monet taken at his house and in his gardens in Giverny. It was nice to see the actual locations for many of his paintings. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to make a trip out to his house and gardens and see it firsthand, though I doubt it will be as good as Monet's portrayal of these places.

We had a three day weekend following that, which did not prove as productive as one would think. Thursday night, me and my friend Sam decided to go out since we didn't have school Friday. We also wanted to make the last metro (at 1:20) home. So, she came over, we had some wine with our friend Brittany beforehand and we didn't actually end up heading out till about 12. At that point, we checked out the bar we had wanted to go into, saw that there weren't that many people there and decided to cut our losses and head home. At this point, it was a little before 1. Me and Sam waited for the train until about 1:15 when the announcer called out that the line was terminated for the evening. We were less than pleased, but ended up heading back to the bar since we had to take a taxi at that point anyways. Brittany met up with us. A few tequila shots afterwards, the bartender said he had to close up shop, so we headed over to try out another bar called the Highlander(scottish bar). This ended up being extremely fun. The bartender was scottish, and funny. And, the bar was packed. We met some other French students, and spent a very long time talking to them. This was wonderful for me because I got to speak French, but since Brittany and Sam don't speak very good French, they were constantly asking me to speak in English. By the time we were done talking to them, and hanging out there in general, the bar was closing, and it was 5am. At this point we decided to wait the extra 45 minutes till the metro started again, and went to what I am sure is the French version of Ihop and had some food there. By the time I got home, it was 6:30am and I was exhausted. Slept until about 1 the next day and then woke up and got some work done. Next night, we went out again, to the same two places. First, to the Moose (canadian bar) where we met a group of girls in another Paris program, and we hung out there for awhile and talked to the bartenders. We headed over to the Highlander at around 1:30 again, but Sam and I were only there for a short time since we were tired from the night before. So, we called it a night and went home.

The next day was Valentine's Day, and as you can imagine, spending Valentine's Day in the city of love when your single is not exactly ideal. Thankfully, me and my roommate went to a dinner party thrown by some of our friends to celebrate Chinese New Year. Afterwards, I headed to a movie theater on the Champs d'Elysees to see Valentine's Day in English with Sam and Laura. It was cute, no Love Actually, but it still made me happy.

This pas week, I had mass amounts of presentations so basically the only thing I did all week was work. Even though it was stressful, it was nice to get them out of the way. I have one coming up on March 15th, and because its in French, my goal is to have books checked out for it by the end of the week so I can start working on it over my Winter Break.

As for more sightseeing: this past Friday, they have the Louvre open late for students. So, me and a friend first went to what I am sure is my grown up version of Disneyland, a macaroon making place called Laduree. Macaroons are french merangue typed cookies that are delicious, and at Laduree, they have a huge selection, and you can get a bunch of mini macaroons so you can try out the different flavours. Afterwards, we headed to the Louvre for student night which was a blast. It was nice to wander around, although we got there late so I didn't get to see much that I hadn't already seen, I love being at the Louvre.

Saturday, me and my roommate threw an extremely successful dinner party. It was potluck themed, so everybody brought food and wine, and we made chicken curry, which went well with the vegetarian curry my friend Heidi made. Everybody had a really good time, and was there until they had to leave at around 1 to get the last metro. We went through a lot of wine, and a lot of dessert, but it was all in all a successful night. I really like the people I have been meeting here, and dinner parties are a fun way for everybody to get to meet people they haven't known as well and talk.

Yesterday, me and a couple friends visited the Rodin Museum. It was a much nicer day that it has been in awhile, the sun finally decided to come out for a short period of time. The museum was also an old house, and contained many of Rodin's sculptures. This included the Gates of Hell (my personal favourite) and the Thinker. The gardens were pretty, especially with all of the statues interspersed around.

I am still enjoying myself very much here, even with the interludes of large amounts of schoolwork. I can already tell its going to be hard for me to leave. I feel like I will be excited to see home again and all my friends and family, but after the novelty of that wears off I am really going to miss everything here. This weekend my big sis in my sorority is visiting from Florence (where she is studying abroad) so I am excited to show her around!

That's all for now, better get back to some work for school. Will be better about updating from now on I promise.

Megan

Dinner Parties, Musee d'Orangerie, Versailles, and Superbowl at midnight

Hey everybody!

My weekend was quite successful to say the least, and I did some touristy esque things as well which was good. Even with the cold temperatures and the fact that I haven't seen the sun in forever, I am falling more and more in love with this city every day. I have moments where it hits me that I am actually here, and that this is actually real and I love those moments.

On friday, my friend Sam and myself went to see a movie called Oceans. Set to come out on earth day in the US, but as its a french film its being shown here earlier. Its a planet earth esque thing all about marine life, and the cinematography was breathtaking. It made me want to drop out of school and become a documentary filmmaker about the ocean. It also made me miss the ocean and being close to it. That evening, a friend of mine had a bunch of us over for dinner, and made delicious french onion soup. It was a lot of fun, and her apartment has an awesome view of the city which we all got to see. Afterwards, me and Sam walked around with a bottle of wine to avoid the ridiculous drink costs in bars.

Saturday, Sam Laura and I decided to go to the Musee d'Orangerie on recommendation from my mother, and to see Monet's water lily paintings. They were so wonderful I can't put it into words. We all spent about a half an hour in each room looking at the paintings. The way he captured the light, and how the light changed the scenery was beautiful, and the reflections of the sky in the water. I also loved them because I love water, and I really liked how he portrayed it with the water lillies. I really want to go out to his house outside the city, and to his gardens and see what the actual scenery looks like. Probably nothing in comparison to his portrayal, but it would be really interesting to see the nature that gave him inspiration for so many of his pieces.

Saturday evening we bought 5 euro tickets to a Shakespeare performance...in French. Needless to say, we understood almost none of it, and there were a reason the tickets were 5 euros; we were essentially sitting on the ceiling in the place. The play seemed like it would have been really good had I been able to see it and had I understood better what was going on, but because of the seating and lack of comprehension we opted to leave at intermission.

Sunday we went out to Versailles, which was beautiful. The palace and the gates were gorgeous at the entrance, but it was sad to see that a lot of modern buildings have been built up around the palace. Definitely a must see if your in Paris. You get in free on the first sunday of every month, and if your a French student(even though I am not actually french I just flash my Sciences Po ID and they think I am) its free every sunday. However, once you get through the palace and out into the grounds you felt like it was its own little city. The grounds were so pretty, even in the dead of winter so I can't wait to see what they'll be like in spring. I can't imagine what it would have been like to legitimately spend summers there and be able to wander around the grounds at your leisure. There was a Tex Mex place right by Versailles, and we wanted to go so badly, it was definitely a buzzkill when we walked in and they said they weren't serving food anymore. But, on the grounds of Versailles and near Marie Antionette's cottage there was a cafe that sold macaroons which were definitely the most delicious ones I have had since I have been here. We're talking about going back this weekend sometime, since apparently we don't have any classes on Friday.

I also watched the superbowl!! At a canadian bar. I have an 8am on mondays, so it was definitely a dilemma but it was too good a game for me to pass up. And it definitely lived up to my expectations, it was such a good game. So glad the saints won too! By the time I got home, it was 4:30, and I had my 8am to wake up for. But, my alarm decided to break and so I actually woke up at 9:30 and was extremely confused, so I missed class and spent forever fixing my alarm. Fixed now thank god so I won't be missing my 8am tomorrow.

I am enjoying myself so much here, I am falling more and more in love with this city every day. I feel completely at home here, and I feel like everything I do is interesting, even the things I must do out of necessity, like class, I still enjoy doing. I was talking to my mother today, and I realized how much I love all of my classes here. I actually enjoy going to class, it doesn't feel like a chore. I love studying at Sciences Po, and I really lucked out with my teachers. They are all extremely interesting, and extremely nice people. I feel very intellectually stimulated by all my classes, and even doing readings for them is interesting. It is also nice to have a lot of writing based assessment, and less exam based.

That's all for now. Since I have gotten very little sleep in the past 24 hours, I want to try and get some in tonight before I have to wake up for my next 8am.

A bientot!

Megan