Prague: a "forced star" experience!

Hello all!
Just got back from visiting Prague this past weekend with my two friends; what a gorgeous city! I think it may be my favorite place that I have visited for the first time this semester :) The city itself was my favorite thing about the weekend; the architecture is so distinct, and absolutely beautiful.  It didn't hurt that the weather was perfect, high sixties, bright, bright blue sky without a cloud in sight the entire time we were there.  The sun shining off the bright yellows and tans of the buildings, and tiled roofs, as well as the beautiful greens of the copper domes was stunning! Saturday we hiked up the largest of the six "hills" that surround the city of Prague, to then climb the observation tower that offers spectacular views and pictures of the city! It was breathtaking in multiple ways, both from being overwhelmed by the beautiful view, as well as literally being very out of breath from the twenty five minute uphill hike and a little shaky from climbing the open-structured spiral staircase to the (very high) top of the tower!  I was glad I made it through my discomfort with the height and got to the top :)
We ate a lot of delicious food like goulash, apple strudel, bread pudding, and lots of potatoes, including lunch on a boat on the main river, within view of the Charles Bridge, although unfortunately I am still not sold on beer (be it Irish, Czech, etc...other than pear beer of course!)
We also took a two hour "free" walking tour around the city, with a tour guide, Jana, who I can only say was a little bit quirky!  She was a bit sassier than we expected, and spent a good part of the tour swatting at other tour guides "encroaching" on her space!  She gave us a good tour of the city though, which we really appreciated since we knew very, very little about Prague and its history when we got there, and thanks to her felt we got at least a grasp of the basics!  We also went to the Franz Kafka museum, which was a surprisingly good experience, based on the fact that I knew nothing about Kafka other than his name prior to this weekend.  The exhibit was relatively small, but set up in a really interesting way, so that you almost felt like you were in the writer's mind at times (and his mind seems to be a bizarre place to be).  It also established him within the context of his Czech, and Jewish roots and background, also within the context of the time (early 20th century Prague).  I hope to get the chance to read one of his books now!
All in all, possibly my favorite weekend travel trip thus far, and I would love to go back to Prague one day! Now back in Paris for the next few weeks, friends coming to visit from Spain, parents arriving in a week and a half (!!!!), possible second viewing of the Hunger Games movie with my cousins, nighttime picnic this Thursday! (Oh and daylight savings happened and now it stays light until about eight thirty, which makes me just about the happiest person alive :)
A bientot, j'espere (really trying to keep up to date with this blog, but sometimes it just slips my mind for a while...it really is rather busy here, which is good I guess!)
Bisous xoxo, Gillian

Hunger Games Premiere in Paris!!

Last night turned into one of the coolest nights ever! One of my dreams came true and I went to the HUNGER GAMES PREMIERE in Paris!! The main cast was there (Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Elizabeth Banks, as well as the author Suzanne Collins and the director!) My friend and I (due to being scrappy) were right at the barricade so we were able to get great pictures of all of them, and say hi to them too! Josh Hutcherson even signed my hand because I didn't have anything else to sign!!(note to self: signing hand is better than signing a poster or something, because even though it ultimately washes away, the person has to physically HOLD YOUR HAND while they sign it....which is OBVIOUSLY a plus!!).  We made it known that we were from the US because we figured they would appreciate english speakers amidst all those pesky frenchies with badly written signs :)

Now I am SO excited to see the movie when it comes out on Wednesday (funnily enough it comes out here two full days before it does in the US...not really sure why-that NEVER happens, and it is the most popular by far in the US, so I'm confused! Not complaining though!)

A bientot, Gillian xoxo

La vie en rose :)

Today was one of those "first beautiful and warm day of the year" days, where I immediately put on shorts for a few hours, even if it was inside, where I start to get giddy about the spring and summer....oh and I get to be in Paris for this beautiful day, which makes it just the tiniest bit more beautiful.  Someone was saying that being in Paris (or any other new place) makes us so happy because we want to do everything because it is new.  This is so true.  While there are undoubtedly a millions thing I have yet to do and see in Boston and Baltimore, it is so easy to fall into a groove of doing the same things over and over again, and not always taking the time to stop and go that extra five blocks out of the way, just to see what the new streets look like.  Here, (especially in the last week that it has been gorgeous outside), every time I go to descend into a metro station, I ask myself why not just walk to the next one and see what I see? today I walked around a bunch and took a round about way home just so I could find a few delicious macarons.  I have been wanting them for ages but today I decided to just go for it.  They gave them to me  tied up in a pretty bag, and I held it gently all the way home-by the time I got there I may have been drooling just a little bit!
I keep having to remind myself that I only get to live this life for a little while, relatively speaking, so why not explore? I'll never be in this moment again, even though it is easy to forget that.  This is such a unique experience and I think the first experience that I have ever been fully invested in from the start and each moment, if that makes sense?  So it makes me want to do and see everything, but also just sit on a bench and eat a macaron (I'm nothing if not a savorer of food:) The city is so beautiful; I keep saying this to people, but it almost spoils me when I'm traveling around, because even though every city I have been to thus far is beautiful and unique, I still feel like nothing rivals Paris (even the sound of french is intoxicatingly beautiful).  
It makes me wonder where life will take me...being back here makes me simultaneously want to live in Paris, and never leave, but also makes my stomach ache a little bit sometimes with how much I love home and especially summer in the US.  I can't imagine leaving here in a few months, which again is the first time I have ever felt like that about a place other than my house, but sometimes a song on spotify or the smell of warm breeze twists at me and reminds me how much I love my life at home. Like I said, being here makes me savor many more moments, and also memories of how lucky and happy my life is in general.  I think Paris will always be an enigma for me; full of memories that hop back into mind at the most random times, but also containing so many things unexplored; fitting into the city and language like an old glove, but knowing inside that I'm not really from here too.  I do feel like Paris and days like today will be hard to ever really get out of my system.  

Lovely weekend "en famille" a Lyon!

Le weekend dernier....I spent a wonderful three days in Lyon with the Cayrol family, my distant cousins ("cousins eloignés") through my maternal grandfather.  In short, the weekend was full of wonderful, delicious, spectacular food cooked by my cousin Lucie (whole fish, homemade sausage tomato sauce, TIRAMISU, delicious tartine breakfasts with homemade peach jam and cafe au lait, you get my drift!), sightseeing in Lyon (and having the great fortune of seeing many of the beautiful churches light up as the sun went down), spending time with family (and learning pre-teen french slang/"argot", and playing policier games with the neighborhood ten year olds haha).  It was a great weekend, and my french definitely was given a run for its money trying to maneuver through the southern france accent of the husband, as well as the "kid talk" that I wasn't used to!  I did learn new words, for example for a scooter, and for a hair-tie :) And I was kind (read stupid) enough to give my email address to the ten year old!  Needless to say, after a mere two hour train ride back to Paris, I opened my computer to find three funny, short emails from Mathilde; I take it I will probably continue to receive them at this frequency, she said something about even emailing her next door neighbors!  It's ok, it's cute :) I also came back with two pretty drawings from Mathilde and Perrine, and a silver key chain from their parents, as well as some perfume from Lucie (and even better, a jar of the peach jam!) They really were so nice and welcoming, just as I remembered from when I was younger.  Also my french definitely improved since this was most likely the longest I have gone literally speaking not a SINGLE word of English at a time!  I had an amazing time, and I especially enjoyed my chats with Lucie which lasted late into the night :) She was really a wonderful hostess!  I hope to visit them again in the future, hopefully before the next ten-year mark!
A bientot xoxo 
Gillian

Slainte!

My weekend in Dublin ended this morning VERY early, as myself and my two friends had to be at the airport before 5:30 am! I had an incredible weekend in Ireland, and didn't want to leave; this was surprising as Ireland really wasn't very high on my list of to-visit places until my friend invited me to take the trip with them.  Nothing personal, I had just already been there a long time ago and remembered it as being really pretty, but really slow-paced, and not much to do.  There did really end up being a lot of things to do and see, but the pace was slightly slower than the previous few trips I had taken.  This turned out to be EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED!  I really enjoyed spending time in Dublin, and interacting with the locals, who were really nice, and helpful! We had random strangers asking us if we needed directions, suggestions for dinner, etc... Although we decided that as a whole, the men were much nicer than the women...that could have had something to do with the fact that we were a group of four girls...two redheads :) The guys we met were certainly interesting let me say!
The day-long bus trip that we took on Sunday was definitely the highlight of the trip! Although it also left outrageously early in the morning (we really didn't have any sleeping in days), it was a relaxing day filled with beautiful sights of the countryside, small towns, sheep, the gorgeous Cliffs of Moher, where we had a stroke of luck and the wind blew all of the thick fog away for us! Our tour guide was really nice, funny, and had a great accent; he even sang for us along the way!
I ate some delicious food, first of all including "flapjacks" sort of a granola bar but chewier, with chocolate, and nuts and toffee etc on top of it! Other than that, the stews, sheperd's pies, Guinness (must admit had to choke that one down on the Guinness factory tour!), and irish breakfast were the icing on the cake of a wonderful weekend! 
The last day, my friend and I went to the famous Kilmainham Gaol (jail) outside of Dublin, and although we were too late for a tour of the actual jail, we were given free tickets to the museum of the history of the jail, which was really interesting for my friend and I after taking a course last semester at BC that included discussions about prisoner justice.
We also stopped by The Church, and beautiful old church that was converted into a bar; the melding of the two is really interesting and pretty! Pretty much every restaurant that we were in there was some type of live music going on, and it was really cool to hear a mix of contemporary and very traditional songs played, and to see that the locals knew all the songs and sang (and danced) along!
The final biggest surprise was that we stumbled upon Boston College's office in Dublin! We were strolling around the Saint Stephen's Green area, taking pictures of one particularly pretty rowhouse with relaly cool ivy/roots (?) growing along its walls, when I noticed that the window shades said Boston College! We rang the bell, and went in where we met a really welcoming women who works as the BC Ireland liason, who gave us a tour of the beautiful old historic house, told us about BC's Ireland program, and then gave us suggestions of places to eat, and visit, and shop!  It was such an unexpected treat, and made us feel really at home in Dublin!
All in all it was an incredible weekend and I now feel like I have quite a different image of Ireland in my head! I hope to go back again, and hop from inn to inn, and have more time to wander around the countryside!
Back in Paris/land of french :) couldn't be happier...
A bientot!
xoxo Gillian

Off to Ireland :)

This Saturday morning I am leaving for a weekend in Dublin with BC peeps :)! I can't wait for the city, which I have only been to briefly before, the beautiful countryside, which we will see on a day-long bus tour to the cliffs of Moher on Suday, and THE FOOD (aka irish breakfast, shepherds pie, etc...you get the picture!)
I'll post again once I get back from the "Emerald Isle"!
A bientot,
xoxo Gillian

What a beautiful Paris afternoon

Today was one of the warmest days we have had so far in Paris! After my morning class, and a leaisurely lunch with two friends, we wandered over to the Jardin de Luxembourg where we took some sunny day pics and then lounged and chatted on a bench for a couple of hours, watching kids run and play on the playground, and couples sit and read in green chairs by the huge fountain...what a great Tuesday! It got all of us reallllly excited for the warmer weather to come; springtime in Paris :)
A bientot,
Gillian xoxo

KerfurstenstraBe-Berlin long version!

Snuggled in bed this morning...stomach isn't feeling really great so I decided not to go to my morning class today...might have been all the different (kind of rich) food in Berlin and tiredness getting to me :(


Berlin was a really great city though! Our Hostel (Amstel House) in west Berlin worked out really well, I would recommend it to fellow travelers for sure.  The sightseeing was also a lot of fun, and really interesting, and we were lucky that the weather was pretty nice and not too cold, although a little overcast all three days, because we did a ton of walking each day, especially Saturday when all the "trams" and buses were striking for most of the day! 


My favorite things that we visited were the Holocaust Memorial (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe), which had a museum under the memorial with very personal stories of jewish families throughout Europe and what their experiences were in the Holocaust, and even a room with enlarged postcards sent during that period, some tossed out of train windows, some sent to children, parents, family abroad.  That room made me the most emotional.  I also really enjoyed the East Side Gallery, where a mile of the Berlin wall has been turned into an art gallery, painted with murals by artists from all over the world.  It was really interesting to see firsthand the city of Berlin, and start to understand and feel for the first time what a bizarre and complicated last hundred years of history it has experienced.  It made me rethink a lot about how people move on after tragedy, and betrayal, and how people build communities and trust back up again, and remember not to forget who they are and what they think is right and wrong. 


We ate a lot of good food, and especially for breakfast all three days had some yummy sort of fruit buckle/cake, some with rhubbard, some with plums, and milkcaffe (like a cafe au lait).  Soft pretzels were also delicious, as were wiener schnitzel, sauerkraut, lots of potatoes, and apple strudel!  We also enjoyed the markedly cheaper cost of food/drinks in Berlin compared to London and Paris, and it will certainly be harder to consider paying four to five euros for a coffee from now on!


All in all, I was pleased with the city of Berlin, and glad we decided to go there on such a whim! Next weekend I have Dublin to look forward to with some other good friends (and more delicious food of course!) and then two weeks of no classes :) yippee ....
A bientot!
 xoxo Gillian

Berlin! (short version!)

I promise more is coming on my trip to Berlin this past weekend, but here is at least a list of the places I visited while in Berlin, so minimum I don't forget what I saw! It was suuuuch a blast :)
Day 1: Friday
Berlin House
East Side Gallery-art gallery using a mile long stretch of the Berlin Wall
Topography of Terrors-museum looking at the Nazi Party's rise to power in Germany
Checkpoint Brick Bridge


Day 2: Saturday
Holocaust memorial/museum
Brandenburg Gate
Reichstag
Pergamon Museum/fleamarket
Berliner Dom
Victory Gate
Tiergarten
Soviet War Memorial


Day 3: Sunday
TV Tower
World Clock
Berliner Dom (went inside this time)
Checkpoint Charlie (ehh kind of a let down, as I was promised it would be!)


All in all, Berlin was great, we ate great food, walked a tonnnn, and I hope to be able to write a longer post about the weekend tomorrow!
Until then, a bientot :)
xoxo Gillian

Berlin demain matin :)

Tomorrow morning I am off to Berlin! My flight ended up being kind of early for my liking, especially since I am off right now for a bateau mouche nightime trip...but at least I will have the full day tomorrow in Berlin with my two friends.  Last weekend a good friend from Boston College came and visited me for the weekend with two other friends, which was a really good time! We hit up all the touristy spots, and probably walked five to ten miles Friday-Sunday, albeit in the verrrrry cold weather! I'm glad it warmed up this week, although Berlin may very well plunge me back into freezing temperatures haha we shall see!  Another good week of classes, applied to an internship in the US for after I get back this summer, made plans to get together with some friends next week, and spent a wonderful evening with friends last night celebrating an old friends 21st birthday! I had so much fun :) and found a great wine bar to go back to in the future!
Heading out now, will post when I get back from Berlin! gutentag :) (wish I could say "bye for now" or "a bientot" in german, but lets face it, I have about three words in my german vocabulary, and that is optimistic at best! Thank goodness it sounds like everyone in Berlin speaks english!) I am excited because this is the first time I will have traveled to a place I haven't been before "on my own"! 
xoxo A bientotschleinauss (my made up german word for talk to you again soon :)
Gillian

Friday full of friends :)

Last friday was such a fun day :) While it was one of the coldest days I have ever spent in Paris, I spent a lot of the day walking around the city!  I met a friend at our moms' old cafe haunt in the 17th, Cafe Vigny, right by EAB Monceau, and got a hot chocolate and pain au chocolat :).  We actually saw british and american mom's of kids at the school, so we had a little nostalgic chat about the old days in Paris, and how bizarre it is that so many of us seem drawn back to the city all at the same time.  I just finished the book The Paris Wife, about Hemingway and his wife, and the time they spent in Paris.  I love imagining what happened in authors real lives, that you only see hints of in their writing.  It was really interesting because I love Hemingway's quotation about Paris being a moveable feast, that once you live there, you carry the city with you forever.  I identify so much with that sentiment.  My friend and I were having moment after moment of feeling simultaneously like an eternity had passed since we left Paris, and also like it was just the other day that we we trooping into Parc Monceau in our blue and grey and white.  We compared 9/11 stories, mine being spent in Paris right at the very start of my time there.  We felt old and young at the same time. 
I got lunch in the 1st arrondissement with a BC friend, and then headed back to the 17th for an "English Tea" with a really old Paris friend (and her pug!).  I love friends who you can not see for days, months, years, and find you can fall into the same friendship each time you see each other again.  
Later in the weekend I headed to the Musée D'Orsay to escape the cold, and what a beautiful building it is!  I took in some Degas(my favorite), Seurat, Monet, etc...and then had a leisurely chevre chaud salad and frites in a nearby cafe, while I read Camus' La Peste for my french literature class (how and when the rest of the class has already read it I'll never know!)
With the cousins, I got down to some planning for our end of the semester traveling/backpacking/eurorailing/hostel-hopping, you get the picture!  We booked our initial flight from Paris to Bilbao at the end of May! It is really happening-and I can't wait!
Upcoming trips: In two weeks, I am off to Berlin for the weekend, and then the following weekend to Dublin, AND the following weekend (the first in March) to Lyon to see extended family! I can't wait! Hopefully the weather will have gotten at LEAST a few degrees warmer by then, but I'm not keeping my hopes too high for that!
A bientot :) bisous
xoxo Gi

"Les trains sont perturbés"

Sorry for the delay; what with classes starting this week I have been all over the place!  I started classes on Monday, and I am glad to say that I am finished for the week! (aka no classes on Fridays!)  Classes so far seem interesting and within my abilities, if challenging, although it is tricky to navigate a system where most classes are carrying over from first semester, so everyone has already read the book, or the syllabus was handed out in september and hasn't been heard of since.  I haven't yet been to my spanish class (because of a slight mix up in which my brain changed 15h-17h to 5-7 pm...I knew that would happen to me at some point)...Luckily, I was able to meet the teacher and talk to her to make sure that class wouldn't be too hard for me.  Switching that quickly directly from french to spanish with no english in between was a little jarring, and I had to literally bite me tongue to keep from dropping certain french words in with the spanish! Class should be interesting, needless to say, but I feel like switching back and forth will keep me on my toes :) 
Today after caving and picking out a longchamps bag (simply the best bag to fit my laptop, notebooks, etc that doesn't look totally crappy-I should have done as the french students in all of my classes and gotten a little notebook, instead of having my macbook...oh well...), I went to the Louvre with a few friends, where we were pleasantly surprised to find that university students (at least "french" universtiy students" haha) get in for free! We hope this carries over to many of the other major museums too :) We picked one wing (French/Italian Renaissance wing), based on what we talked about in our first Modern Art History "TD", and were able to recognize a lot of the paintings and artists that we had talked about in class this morning (and when I say talked about, I mean the teacher played a slideshow and quizzed the students at random on artist, title, location, dates, etc. of paintings they had studied in the fall..unfortunately we hadn't introduced ourselves as study abroad students before the class, so when he called on any of us, it was kind of awkward/we mostly failed to correctly i.d. haha) Luckily he was nicely quizzing everyone, not meanly quizzing everyone!
After the Louvre, I stopped off at the Gare de Lyon to try to get a 12-25 pass, which discounts all train tickets in France.  After stopping to ask where I could buy one at approximately five different "guichets",  I arrived at a huge line of about 200 people waiting to buy tickets...it would appear that they don't have a separate location to just buy this discount pass, so I decided I will try to buy it online again before waiting in a horrendous line!
Can't wait to be taken to an "american cake shop", as my british friend calls it, tomorrow afternoon :) (did I mention I don't have class on Fridays?)
A bientot! I promise to try to post more frequently in the future!!
Gillian

Crazy days before school starts!

TRYING TO BOOK TRAVEL PLANS for the semester!!!  Also, spent mulllllltiple hours today trying to figure out my schedule! I think I have it down and it includes...duh duh duhnnn a spanish class haha :)
We'll see if I can keep up!  I am also taking history of the international system between 1917-1947, a class called "literature francaise moderne et contemporaine", a class on the history of FOOD which only meets one hour a week, and two art history courses including the one taught by the Boston College coordinator! phewww hopefully I stick with these and don't need to change because that would not be an easy feat!
A bientot :) (wish me luck!) 
p.s. also met an old friend (kind of ) for the first time (kind of ) haha its a long story!

One down! Weekend in Belgium :)

This past weekend, I made it to the first stop on my list of travels: Belgium! I left Paris early enough on Sunday morning that I saw the Richard Lenoir market outside my front door being set up in the dark-that was cool! I took an eight a.m. Thalys train to Bruxelles, and than a local train out to Mortsel, where old family friends live.  I first went on a short bike ride to the local bakery, which was made slightly longer by the fact that they are all substantially taller than me, so the bike I was riding was a bit tricky to get a handle on!  After much helping and holding and pushing the bike I was on my way (albeit slightly more anxious than usual not to be wearing a helmet!), and each time I had to start up again people helped me, including their good friend that we ran into along the way haha...I was proud that I was able to pull it off, and the last time I started I got going all on my own!  I spent a great day eating and talking with them (the food was delicious!!), and then the mom and daughter took me into Antwerp on the tram, and the last leg consisted of walking through a long tunnel that went under the river to cross into the city!  We saw  some churches, shopping areas, the new Antwerp museum, which was a really interesting style of architecture, and even strolled through the tiny red light district (which they said I had to see since we were there)...it was one of the most bizarre things/concepts I have seen...I was a little weirded out to say the least! I got to watch a weekly television program with them with updates on the Belgian royal family, and then we watched Glee!  Apparently it is the dad's (closet) favorite show :) He didn't want to admit how much he liked it, but he laughed when I told him that in the US there is a word for people obssessed with Glee ("Gleeks").  
I took the train back into Bruxelles Monday morning and met up with three friends from Paris! Although the Bruxelles tram system through us for a loop initally, we were finally able to figure out where we were going, and made it to the 2Go4 Hostel, five minutes walk away from the Grand Place.  After dumping our stuff, we went in search of some lunch and were satisfied with delicious plates of moules-frites!  We walked all around the Grand Place, taking pictures, looking for chocolate (which I of course bought some of!), and using our cool interactive maps that we got at the hostel.  We saw about three churches Monday, as well as some ancient towers that now had modern buildings built right into them.  We got dinner at a great little place, with somewhat of an italian influence, and then went to a bar, Delirium, which one friend had found in her guide book as having the record for most types of beer on tap...not really knowing what any of the options were or tasted like, I ended up getting lucky with a pear beer that was really yummy :)
Tuesday we slept in a bit, left our bags at the hostel, and walked around the city again for almost the full day (two days did seem like enough time to see most of the main sights in the city, and to be able to walk around almost all of the city, although we didn't make it to any museums...) We went into the museum of comic books briefly, the museum of chocolate for a longer time, saw the two biggest cathedrals, went back to the Grand Place for some fries at a "friterie", and waffles, and saw the Royal Palace and adjacent park, as well as Parliament! Whew!! we were so tired out by the time we got to the train station Tuesday evening to come back to Paris.  Luckily I had a great book (The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest) with me, that I couldn't put down, so I was able to read quietly on the way back!
It was a great trip, amidst some pretty chilly and drizzly weather, and I had a great time with new and old friends!  Now on to my Belgian chocolate!!
A bientot xoxo
Gillian

Quasimoto!

Not the best hair day for me today! Slept on wet hair to save myself the time showering this morning, and forgot that my hair doesn't take well to being slept on...ever.  Oh well, I will just have to keep working on my well-coiffed Paris "look".
Today, we went on a tour of "les cryptes" underneath Notre Dame; basically the foundations of ancient Paris dating as far back as the Roman Empire! Then we walked around the streets surrounding Notre Dame finding the few buildings that survived the major Haussman reorganization and redesign of Paris in the mid 19th century.  In one of the oldest buildings on a street right behind Notre Dame that we went into, a name on one of the mailboxes was "Quasimoto"! How crazy is that!?? We did the obligatory round inside Notre Dame, which was beautiful by the way; I was able to appreciate it more than the first time that I was there, Christmas Day 1999, when I fell asleep during the latin mass :) How the time flies!
Tomorrow I am getting lunch with an old Paris friend who I am so excited to see after a few years :) It is weird and great how I have been able to stay in touch with some of the great friends I made as a child in Paris.
The longer I am here, the more love I feel for the city; it feels comfortable, like it fits me snuggly, and is a perfect mix of new excitement, and old comforts and good friends and family.  I had dinner with my host family again last night along with Mme's brother and sister in law! This was a lot of fun as they were all very talkative and it was interesting to talk to them, and listen to them sharing horror stories of building parties, and memories of when Mme first moved into the apartment (right around 28 years ago, before her daughter was born!) The couple is pretty funny to listen to :) Tomorrow I am going to see "Le Bourgeois Gentillhome", and then Thursday we have a visit to le marché Richard Lenoir (my market as I call it, since it is directly outside of the front door to my apartment!), and le Marais.  Thursday I am eating dinner with M. and his daughter, who is 28 and is coming over to visit! He told me she speaks better english than he does (which isn't saying much as far as I can tell haha), if I feel like I want a break!
Unfortunately the temperature has sooooort of been plummeting and today I was particularly cold, along with everyone else :(  I am on the lookout for some new boots, but have now added to the list a huge knitted scarf and maybe different gloves!
Bisous! A Bientot :) xxx

The end of a crazy (wonderful) first week...and FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH

I can't believe that I have been in Paris for a week already! I feel like it has been a month... The end of this week I got to do a bunch of really fun things; the only bad thing is my weakling feet have been reacting to the major increase in walking with some pretty anggggry blisters on my toes :(
Yesterday the other girls going to "La Catho" (Institut Catholique de Paris) and I went to check out the course offerings at the school, which wasn't exactly as straight forward of a process as we thought it would be...and then wandered around the 6th and grabbed lunch while finishing up some last minute french homework (which we kind of have a bunch of haha).  Last night a bunch of us went to Rue de la Roquette,  a street recommended to us by many (primarily my dad) for its many cool bars etc... We ended up at something like Yellow Monkey bar, where our waiter turned out to be from Florida (he figured out we were American preeeetty quickly haha).  It was really fun, and super convenient for me, since the street is about a five minute walk from my apartment, which made for an easy walk home!
Today I went back to the 17th arrondissement, right to where I used to live, opened a bank account (felt really grown up/cool doing that in french :), walked by my old school on Van Dyk, through Parc Monceau, where I actually saw my fifth grade english teacher (Mme Pinchon for those of you who remember her!).  She not surprisingly did not recognize me, but it was just bizarre and cool to see her from a distance, walking with this year's batch of eager, chatty, loud fifth graders in adaptation, and think that that was me a whole DECADE ago!
I walked up Avenue Hoche all the way to the Arc de Triomphe, took some touristy pictures, and then strolled down the Champs Elysées.  I was thinking that the Poncelet market (Rue Poncelet) was on a street right off of the Champs Elysées, but later realized it was off of Place des Ternes.  I ended up there an hour or so later, getting lunch with friends, and briefly walked through the market, salivating over the delicious familiar aromas and sounds.  It really is a great place.  
The weather has been beautiful here, although today was a little nippier than I anticipated!  Tonight I am off to get dinner (somewhere?), and then to the Latin Quarter tonight with BC people :) Tomorrow I hope to get some shopping done in Saint German des Pres (aka shoes!) with my fave french cousins :)
A bientot!

Je suis...intouchable! (and various fire-cracker-setting french tweens)

Today marked the first day where I got a substantial amount of time to explore the city! All of us walked around Saint-German-des-Pres, popping into churches, shops, and art galleries.  The weather was beautiful, and we first popped into Saint-Sulpice, after a quick group photo outside in front of a pretty fountain.  Next we happened upon the Saint-German-des-Pres Church, the oldest in Paris, dating back to the 9th century!  Descartes is buried there and I happened to be the one to finally find the stone marking his burial place.
We popped into the Adademie des Beaux Arts, even though it is supposed to be visitors only, so we all tried to keep a low profile :)
After taking more pictures in the Pont des Arts, and learning why there are so many padlocks (or cadenas) on the metal railings (couples write or carve their names onto the locks and clasp them onto the bridge <3), I grabbed lunch with a few people in the group and popped into a handful of shops (because the month-long sales began today!!!) around Saint-German, before heading to french class.
We went to see the movie Intouchables, apparently the current most popular film in Paris, and it was really, really good (sort of a Blind Side meets Mar Adentro vibe)!  It was a fun ending to a great (albeit long) day!
I have photos coming that I have accumulated this week and am waiting to dump onto my computer this week when I have more time...check back soon!
A bientot :)
Ohhhh and three french boys (young) were literally throwing LOUD sparklers on the side walk!  Someone commented that if we were in New York a SWAT team would swarm on them in a matter of seconds! 

a little bit sleepy to be blogging zzzz...

The past day and a half since I arrived at my homestay family have been fun but also a taaaad bit overwhelming.  The combination of everything that has to be set up for school, visa, insurance, bank, rent, transportation, and cellphone plus the constantly having to think, breathe, speak, listen in French is a bit of a shock.  That being said-being forced to speak only french at a minimum for three or so hours a day with my host family has already noticeably gotten me to the point where I barely think before answering and the couple have complimented me on "mon accent" et "mon syntex", which is nice reinforcement of my efforts.  They also demonstrated their knowledge of American culture tonight during dinner, when it came up that they enjoy watching Desperate Housewives, Miami Vice, NCIS, and Zee Good Wife (haha).  It was funny trying to decipher their english accents and listen to them complain about trying to understand people speaking with british, irish, and yes Texas (I think they meant southern American accents in general!) accents...Still feeling a bit homesick, but getting to spend the day with my fellow BC students a Paris and hearing about their similarly awkward and new experiences and talking to my parents briefly helped.  Got a little sleepy on a bus tour of Paris, but it was really helpful in terms of mentally visualizing the layout of the city and what is near to what.  Still trying to get a grip on coordinating skype with people in the US!  I hope to look back next week and realize how well settled I am and relaxed by then compared to now!

Meeting my homestay family...DUHN DUH!

After two lovely days with the Cooks...where I laughed pretty much constantly :) I finally met my homestay couple and moved into their apartment in the 11th!  The location is great and cool because I don't know all that much about it going into it.  Both "parents" are really nice and told me my french is great...but there is definitely a bit of "first day living with strangers" awkwardness haha which I'm sure will go away over time!  Tomorrow I regroup with the BC group and Ophelie, and get a metro card and potentially a new cell phone...since I just realized that the one my friend gave me from Lyon only functions until March...and I'm here until June/July.  Regardless I will have to put credits on whatever phone I end up with...lots to do, even more to take in from my surroundings :) feeling excited/nervous/ a tad homesick/most of all sleepy :) (although this has been my smoothest time zone transition to date, and I've been mostly able to fall asleep and wake up at regular times!
Check back in with me soon-and keep wishing me luck!
xoxo

Premier Jour!

Hello all! I arrived in London early this morning and then in Paris around 2 p.m. after a couple hour layover at Heathrow.  The loveeeely Cook cousins picked me up at CDG airport and I was at least somewhat able to shake off the exhaustion after having slept a few hours on the flight and nodding off during the layover (a girl actually tapped me on the shoulder to wake me up when it was time to board haha lifesaver!).  Here's to a great first day a Paris :) can't wait for many more to come!

Today's the day!

It's the morning of my flight to Paris eeeeek...realized yesterday that I fly out of Dullas, not BWI unfortunately so the fam and I will be trekking it to Dullas a little earlier than planned.  Bags are packed (within 0.1 pounds of the baggage weight limit haha so I'm not allowed to touch them before we leave!), documents, ipod, and magazine for the plane are a go.  Running through random french words, phrases, tenses in my head...time to warm up for game time!
Saying goodbye to a few more people this morning, and then i thiiiink I'm ready!
See you on the flip side! To people I hope to see in Paris, <A bientot! >

I hope the lights are still all up when I get there!

I hope the lights are still all up when I get there!

And away I go!!

SO here it is...the week I go to PARIS :)  It feels like I have been waiting for this moment for about the past year!!
Bags are packed (stuffed) ...kinda. I still have some work to do on that!
In one week I will be settled in with my homestay family and have reconvened with the BC group for our first day of "orientation", after spending two fun days with the F Cook cousins :)
I hope my homestay couple are "foodies" as my dad calls it and that I learn a lot from them.  I am so excited to be living  a stone's throw away from Place des Vosges, one of my favorite places in Paris, as well as La Bastille, Le Marais, potentially with an open air market on my street! Life doesn't get much better than this :)  
Re-watched a bit of Paris Je t'Aime in preparation and to get reallllly excited...one of my all-time favorite movies :)
Can't wait to get back to french pens and notebooks haha I realize that is sort of a specific thing to be excited about but it's the truth!  
Going to bring a french book on the plane to warm up my vocab haha...but really.




WISH ME LUCK!
A Gillian