Last days in Florence and trip to Rome

My friends Meaghan, Graeme, Cardinal James Harvey,
new friend Daniel, Laura and me at the Papal Palace.

Throwing a coin into the Trevi Fountain

My last week in Florence was topped off with a day trip to Sienna and a couple of wonderful free dinners. Sienna was a beautiful city and definitely worth waking up early to experience. We were able to see the giant Cathedral or Il Duomo de Sienna, which was amazing! And to think that only the transept (or the cross aisle to the main aisle in a church) was the only part actually enclosed and built! Sienna was definitely a cool city to explore for a day. The next day in Florence we had our 'Thanksgiving' dinner. This consisted of going to a restaurant famous for its meat....needless to say I was a little squeemish! We even had 4 whole courses! So much food! Started off with a Caprese salad, followed by some interesting baked zucchini and this mushroom-topped bread-ish thing (can't remember what it's called). Then came the pasta course consisting of both ravioli and gnocchi in red sauce. Then came the meat course...which ended up being a platter of unidentified meats thought to contain rabbit, duck, chicken and perhaps buffalo? Needless to say I did not take part in this course! I ate my vegetables while carefully averting my eyes while my friends clawed away at the meat plate. For dessert we had a sample tray of cakes and chocolates. Very tasty...and extremely full! The next day was our last day in Florence. I would have liked to have done better things with my last day than pack and clean our apartment, but alas, that is what I ended up doing. We then had our farewell dinner in Florence at a different restaurant...still very tasty but only 3 courses this time! The next day we took a chartered bus to Rome! We got to our hotel and immediately had to do a 'neighborhood' walk around Rome. The next full day in Rome we had another sort of walking tour that consisted of Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and finally ending in the Colosseum! Such a great day right? It gets better. After this full day of walking around Rome, me and 3 other friends went to Vatican City to try to get tickets to mass at St. Peter's Basilica the next day (which was a Sunday). Once we got there we heard that there were no more tickets left. Sadly we walked across St. Peter's square to try to get tickets for another day of the week. We ended up running into a large group of American priests who we ended up nicely chatting with. They asked us if were were here to meet the newly named Cardinals. Oblivious to what was happening, we realized that the Pope just had named 6 new Cardinals that day...one being from Milwaukee! Crazy! These priests also asked us if we were going to the Papal palace to meet these new Cardinals. Again we had no idea what was going on. So long story shortish, we followed our new priest friends to wait in line at the Papal Palace (which is never open to the public) and ended up meeting the new Cardinal James Harvey from Milwaukee! Such a great experience waiting in line and making new friends (who happened to be from the Midwest). After such a long day I was exhausted and ready to tell all my facebook and twitter friends the good news. It gets better still. While relaxing in our hotel, our newest friend, who was in seminary school to become a priest, messaged us and told us he had  4 extra tickets to mass the next day with the Pope! Even though we had class that morning, we got up early and skipped class to wait in line at the Vatican for a few hours to see the Pope! Such a great experience going to mass with the Pope at the Vatican. Even though I am not Catholic and don't speak Italian or Latin, the 2-hour mass went by really fast and I found it very interesting and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Not to mention that St. Peter's Basilica was the one building I was most excited to see on my trip :) The next day we started off class visiting the EUR or grounds for the World's Fair set up by Mussolini and contains fascist architecture. Very interesting architecture to say the least. The rest of the day was spent exploring St. Peter's (this time for class) and climbing to the top of the Dome to get crazy awesome sunset pictures! I had a blast taking my time up at the top and admiring the city of Rome from its highest point (buildings in Rome aren't allowed to be taller than the Dome of St. Peter's). Tuesday we had another walking tour of a few famous Baroque churches in Italy followed by an afternoon spent at the MAXXI museum of contemporary art by the architect Zaha Hadid (she did the new Olympic swimming pool for the London games). Yesterday we took a day trip to Tivoli to see two villas. We only ended up going to Villa D'Este which had some amazing Mannerist gardens because it rained too hard to go to Hadrian's Villa. Hadrian's Villa belonged to the Emperor Hadrian and is one of the oldest found villas, basically a site of ruins, and is extremely huge and is an important pilgrimage point for Architects. I was a little disappointed not to go to the villa, but I was happier staying dry inside the bus. Today was a free day for class, so my friends and I went to the Vatican Museum. Definitely worth walking in the rain to go and see. The museum was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and had some amazing artwork from Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Of course the culmination of this museum ended in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. I can't even describe in words how amazing this chapel is. I was in awe of all the figures he was able to paint (about 300 different people). Definitely a great day! Tonight we have a group dinner (saved some money from not going to Hadrian's Villa) and tomorrow is another free day followed by our goodbye dinner! Tomorrow I hope to see the Spanish steps along with seeing some high-end flagship stores as well ;) Then Saturday we flight out of Rome at 9:40 am! So, this may be the end of my blogging career. Overall, this trip has been completely amazing and more than I could have ever dreamed. I just hope as I look back on this trip for years to come that I am more appreciative than I am even now. I hope that this trip changes the way I look at art and architecture and more importantly has a positive influence on my own personal architectural designs. I had the time of my life.

More of Florence, Pisa, Villa Gamberaia, and Uffizi Gallery

When class started up again last Saturday (*groan*), we hiked halfway up the side of a mountain to see San Miniato church and its awesome graveyards. The church was and still is a Dominican church that houses monks. The church itself was beautiful inside with a mix of Romanesque and Gothic features. The altar, if you can picture this in your head, was a split level. The upper level was the altar and directly below it was the crypt, so cool! We also explored the vast and exquisite graveyard around the church. The graveyard kind of creeped me out a bit walking around it, but it was so interesting to see the different and ornate tombs from what we have in America. Sunday we explored the Santa Maria Novella train station, which I have seen multiple times before, but we actually learned about its history and architecture. Turns out, the train station is pretty cool! And afterwards on that rainy Sunday afternoon, I tried some good old Italian hot chocolate! Very delicious, but too rich for me! Basically was like eating melted chocolate. This past Monday was our day trip to Pisa! Pisa is a typical Italian city; cute and quaint, but houses THE most visited monument in all of Europe: the leaning tower! The leaning tower is a must-see sight if you are ever in Italy. What I never knew was that the tower is part of a larger architectural experience with Il Duomo de Pisa and the Baptistry. The leaning tower itself is actually the bell tower for the church. Another very interesting fact I discovered while exploring the Piazza de Miracoli, or the Piazza of Miracles which houses these three buildings, is that all three buildings are sinking/leaning as well! The front part of the church is no longer straight nor is the front of the Baptistry! The soil conditions in Pisa are very soft and made of sedimentary rock. Did you also know that Pisa rivaled Venice as a port city but now is almost 6 miles inland! Crazy! We were lucky enough to go up to the top of the Leaning Tower, and boy what a climb that was! Not only were there tons of stairs, but when you got to the leaning side, even though you were climbing stairs you felt like you were walking down a hill! Such a weird sensation. The view from the top was of course gorgeous, but the slippery marble from the ongoing rain that day made me pretty nervous! Moving on to last Wednesday, we went up the hillside from Florence to Villa Gamberaia, one of the best preserved Renaissance Villas. We explored the Renaissance and the Mannerist gardens on the property along with meeting the cutest little Yorkie named Chicho! Chicho was wearing a Zebra dress as well! I pretty much wanted to take her home. The bus ride and winding walk to the villa wasn't so great but the view from the top is always worth it! Today we just got back from a day exploring the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The Uffizi is famous for its Italian paintings such as Boticelli's Birth of Venus and Leonardo da Vinci's The Annunciation along with many more outstanding works. Now I am on a 3-day weekend...I know life is rough! But I actually have a bit of homework to do this time along with getting to see and explore the things in Florence I have been putting off! We leave for Rome a week from tomorrow and then only a week in Rome and then....I'm home! Crazy to think this trip has gone by so fast! Next week we are going to Sienna and we are also going to have a group 'Thanksgiving' dinner...I will be interested to see what that will entail. Ciao!

Exploring Italy: Venice, Bolzano, Padua, Verona and more!

Sheep grazing on a hillside in Castelrotto

So obviously I have not been keeping up properly with the whole 'blogging' thing here in Italy thus far! Just living la dolce vida! So I will try to fill you in quickly from where I left off on my last post! Me and a few friends went to Cinque Terre for a three-day weekend...and it was awesome!!! Such gorgeous cities, and the weather was nice and hot! I even was able to swim in the ocean and jump off some cliffs! I completely fell in love with the area and would love to come back someday with my family. I had delicious sea food, and even ate some questionable-looking crustaceans as well. I had an awesome time to say the least. Back in Florence I went to the eye doctor a few more times (still have a swollen cornea and am continuing to go to this eye doctor ...its been over a MONTH!). That aside, I love living in Florence and going to the Mercato Centrale for fresh foods to cook dinner with. Our next big adventure was our week trip to Venice. We left Florence early on a Saturday morning and headed out on the smallest most uncomfortable bus I have ever been on (including the bus trip I took to New York in 10th grade or whatever). Our first stop was actually outside of Venice in Vicenza to check out some awesome work by Palladio. Also to our delight there was a chocolate festival going on at that time...JACKPOT! I tried White Chocolate hot chocolate...basically like drinking white chocolate! So good! Vicenza was beautiful but I was definitely excited to finally arrive in Venice! We took a train from Vicenza to Venice and got there that afternoon. Venice is beautiful and it is really a different way of lifestyle there. There are no cars allowed on the island! Venice is basically an island that was man-made from tons of wood rods and platforms placed on top of these rods...weird! At first it was really hard to get around Venice, going over bridge after bridge and no shortcuts! Our hotel in Venice was awesome, however! I had two other people in my room and we had a two-story room! It was very cool, and come to find out very handy considering we were flooded in to our hotel two different days. And I won't even go into how awesome the continental breakfast was. All I will say is this: cake for breakfast. We also had a day trip to Verona during our time in Venice. We went to the museum Castel Vecchio. Such a cool adaptive reuse building. Verona is also the home to Romeo and Juliet, so of course I sought out Juliet's 'house.' I got to see her balcony and even see the statue they put up of her! I really enjoyed that part of Verona. Anyways, back to Venice. The flooding was actually pretty annoying even though the locals are completely used to it. There were makeshift bridges that looked like low tables placed up in the major areas so you don't have to walk in the water. And let me tell you, it was deep! I thought the flooding would be like small pools of water here and there, I was wrong. In some places, like in Piazza San Marco, it flooded a few feet! The water even went inside the vestibule area in San Marco church! Anyways, Venice is completely beautiful but would have been even more beautiful had we not been there in the fall/flood season. Our last day there I went to the island of Murano which is famous for its glass. It was so cool to see the different things people make out of glass! So interesting and fun to browse in the shops there. After Venice we started our independent travel week. A couple of friends and I went to Padua for a few days. I had a lot of fun in Padua. There were some awesome street markets in Padua which I ended up doing a bit of shopping at ;) I also watched a couple of older Italian men roast chestnuts over an open fire, I kid you not! After a few nights in Padua we went even farther north in Italy to Bolzano in the Dolomite mountains. So beautiful! Many people in this region speak German as their first language, so signs in this area had both the Italian and German name listed. I never would have thought that this area would be such a mix of German influence but apparently many people want to become part of Austria again! I really enjoyed this vacation in the mountains and it honestly felt like we were in Germany most of the time! I had delicious beer, delicious pretzels and even tried Pumpkin soup and Chestnut Soup. During our time in Bolzano we took a day trip to Castelrotto and had a scary bus ride there, but it was beautiful at the same time! We were winding around and going through mountains but finally getting there was worth it! Castelrotto is a small town of about 2,000 people and doesn't really have much to do at this time of year...except stare at the mountains! Which I definitely could have done all day! Another day during our vacation, we took a cable car up to a small town called Oberbozen. So worth it! The cable car ride was gorgeous and had the most spectacular views of Bolzano and the valley! After we got up to Oberbozen, we walked around a bit then took a train over to another town where we took a gorgeous hike to see these Earth Pyramids. It was a nice leisurely day of walking and exploring the small, sleepy towns around Bolzano. I would definitely come back to this part of Italy, but maybe a couple of weeks before. I loved the cooler weather because it made it feel like fall finally, but most of the cable cars and tourist-y things were closed at this time of year. After a nice week in Bolzano, we took a series of trains back to Florence. It seemed like fall finally hit the fair-weathered Florence while we were gone, which I am pumped about! The leaves are finally changing and starting to fall. I am very excited to be back for a few more weeks in Florence and get to be able to do the things I have been putting off! Exactly 3 weeks from today I will be flying back! So crazy to think about! Although between you and me, I am definitely ready to be back in the U.S! Peanut butter, regular deodorant, and normal hair products await me! Oh, and my family too :)) Ciao!

Florence, Italy...through one eye

I've been living in Florence for about a week now, and I am loving it! I love the fact that I have a working kitchen, living room, and our own bathroom! Little luxuries. So far we have seen Il Dumo (and even climbed to the top of the dome!), Museo Dell'Opera del Duomo, Piazza SS. Anunziata, Galleria Dell'Accademia (where the REAL David statue is!), Bargello museum (features a lot of Donatello sculptures), and Boboli Gardens. I love the smaller size of Florence and the walk-ability of the city. I really like not having to take public transportation every single day like we did in Paris. I have also tried 6 different flavors of gelato: pistachio, coffee, dark chocolate, pannacotta (which is a type of Italian dessert), cookies, and some sort of rum delicious flavor. Another thing that I like about Florence so far is that it is MUCH cheaper than Paris...which is good for me since all my money went to having Guiness in Ireland. So you must be wondering why I am seeing Florence through one eye. And here's the story behind that: About two weeks ago, when I was back in London one of my eyes was a bit blurry and I just thought it was because of my glasses. So for most of my time in Ireland I wore my glasses because my contacts were being weird and I wasn't able to see well with them in. Once I got to Florence I finally decided to do something about my blurry eye and I found an English-speaking doctor. After an hour in the waiting room I finally got to see an English-speaking eye doctor! Which was great because I knew the general doctor wouldn't be able to help me much. He told me I had a scratched cornea and  gave me a prescription for some eye drops, which I took for about a day and a half before I had to go back to him to check my eyes again. So this morning I went all the way outside of town to the main Florence hospital, more specifically to the Clinica Occulistica. After wandering around parts of the hospital that I was pretty sure in America you would not be allowed into, I finally found my doctor's office. After looking at my eyes (AGAIN) he prescribed me new eye drops. Great. This entire situation happened to me 2 years ago in the same way. Swollen cornea, eye drops, eye drops didn't work, second kind of eye drops, then I finally was better. I hope that by next Wednesday (which is my next check-up with Dr. Lorenzo) my vision will be better indicating that my eyes are finally better! I will be relieved to get this whole situation over with! This weekend we have a 3-day weekend  in which I will be spending most of it at Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a series of 5 coastal cities on the West Coast of Italy (by the Mediterranean ya'll). I'm very excited to spend the weekend soaking up the sun. I decided that I'm going to pretend that I'm going on vacation this weekend, even though this entire study abroad experience has felt like a vacation...almost! After all the stress of getting to Florence, finally getting my luggage, figuring out my hacked email (yes this happened to me as well), figuring out my claim to Wells Fargo about the charge on it from when an ATM in Dublin ate it (yes this happened too), and the entire process of trying to get my eyes better...I'm more than ready for the weekend! Bring on the sun! Ciao!

Ireland!

The past week I traveled to Ireland for my first independent travel period. I had a blast! After a couple of days in Dublin two of my best friends from high school came to visit me! I had a blast wandering around Dublin and trying new pubs and new foods! We saw Trinity College, the Molly Malone statue, Saint Stephen's Green park, and shopped on Grafton street...among many other things! I really enjoyed my time in Dublin to say the least. It was nice, once again, to be in a land of people who spoke English! Even though it was difficult to understand some people....I was also very surprised how everyone was so extremely friendly! That made our stay very enjoyable! We also did a day tour of Wicklow Park last Sunday which was a blast! We had a really nice tour guide and we saw the most incredible views of the national park that was just a bit south of Dublin. After about 5 days in Dublin, my friends and I took a bus to Galway, which is on the Western Coast of Ireland. I loved Galway! I wish I could have spent more time there. It is a smaller coastal city, and reminded me a bit of Duluth...but Irish! We had a blast exploring the shops in Galway and walking along the coast. We also did a day tour of the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren. The Burren is an area south of Galway that is basically a rocky mountainous area with beautiful views! Here I did a cave tour, which was an okay experience. We also randomly did a Birds of Prey exhibition/zoo thing which ended up being really fun! We got to see really cool birds and I even got to hold my favorite bird ever, the barn owl! I loved it! So much fun. Then we went and saw the Cliffs of Moher on the Western coast of Ireland. Unbelievably beautiful! The cliffs were spectacular and I only wish we had more time there to explore! Overall I had a great day with the tour aside from the fact that I had to take the bus back by myself that night to Dublin to catch my flight the next morning. The flight to Florence was a crazy stressful experience trying to catch my connecting flight in London...but I will spare you the details and fast forward to now. I am safe and loving Florence! I got my baggage back yesterday after 3 hours of getting to and back from the airport. We had a walking tour of Florence today which was beautiful and helped me to get better acquainted with the city. Day off tomorrow! Our apartment in Florence is great and I'm really excited that we have a kitchen and our own washing machine! Ciao!

Arriving in Ireland

Thursday morning was my last morning in London...so sad! I had a wonderful time during the short 5 days I was in London, and I can't quite figure out if it was because London itself was such an awesome city or if I loved it so much because they spoke English. Anyways, I packed my stuff up and left our hotel at about 10 am yesterday and sat at Starbucks (and had their delicious Salted Caramel Mocha...try it!) for about two hours waiting to go to the airport to fly to Dublin! At about noon I decided to make the long trek to London's Heathrow Airport via the 'tube'...or London's subway system. That journey lasted a little bit longer than I thought it would, but thankfully I'm crazy and left ridiculously early! Phase 1: Get to the airport...complete! I found my airline check-in place with little trouble and I even got the OK for my large-ish bags to be carry-ons! So..now time for my least favorite thing ever...airport security. Well the day was going okay so far...until security. So I take my shoes off (when apparently nobody else had to) and was patiently waiting for my bags to come through the x-ray machine...and waiting...and waiting...then they flag people over to look at my stuff! I am about ready to freak out! I was talking to this guy next to me and saying how I was getting nervous and stuff and he kept reassuring me that it was fine, so I was like oh what a nice airport worker! So anyways, the airport security guy asked me what was in my backpack and I had to quickly search my brain and said, "I don't know...clothes?" "Any electronics?" "Uh...like an adapter....OH and a battery re-charger!" "That's probably it Miss"  Whew! All that work for a stupid battery re-charger that doesn't work at all with these European plugs! This didn't stop the airport security from completely taking all of the items out of my backpack and purse anyways and putting my bags through the x-ray machine again. Although I do have to say that all of the staff were really nice when I was completely clueless as to what was going on and trying to keep my sanity together! Even the nice man who was reassuring me when they were looking at my bags on the x-ray screen was very helpful...even when I saw that he clearly didn't work at the airport and was just waiting for his stuff to go through security...whoops! Phase 2: Go through airport security...finally complete! So now is the boring part where I wait in the airport for 2 hours until my departure time. The flight went well and was only 55 minutes! When I arrived in Dublin I was so excited but a bit nervous because I was supposed to find my friend who was coming on a later flight, which made me nervous again! After waiting for around 30 minutes she finally showed up and we found a double-decker bus that would take us to our hostel! At this point I'm starting to relax more and realizing how exhausted I am! So I power through my fatigue and we venture out to the oldest pub in Dublin/Ireland called the Brazen Head. I had such a great time! Way better than I would have thought! The pub was a traditional Irish pub with tons of pictures pasted to the wooden walls and a small traditional band playing awesome Irish music! After my first Guiness I didn't feel as tired anymore! ;) We met these two American guys who had just come from Oktoberfest in Munich and they were a blast! They were really funny and we learned they were from Indianapolis and Atlanta...or something like that. After they left we talked with these 3 older Irish gentlemen who were hilarious as well! (Even though I could only understand 1/3 of what they were saying...seriously) The old Irish guys we talked to were from Western Ireland, and kept talking about how they loved Garth Brooks...? Anyways, they were hilarious as well and I definitely consider my first night in Dublin a success! I cannot wait until Saturday when two of my best friends from high school are coming to stay with me here! I have been waiting for this Irish reunion for a long time now! Slán go fóill (shlahn goh foihll) or Goodbye for Now in Gaelic!

Harry Potter Studio Tour and Exploring London!

When I first arrived in Paris, I thought my dream was to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre Museum. And it was definitely a dream come true and such a memorable experience that I hope to remember for the rest of my life. But I do have to say that yesterday's excursion to see the Harry Potter Studio Tour topped the Mona Lisa (sorry da Vinci). So Sunday night my friends and I decided to see how to get to the studio for our tour. We found out that where we were ending class that day and where the Studio Tour was taking place were on two opposite sides outside of London. So I began a slight panic. We gave ourselves 2 hours to get to the studio...so we thought we would have plenty of time! Then we started to look into exactly how to get there, and soon realized that 2 hours was not going to be enough time! So Monday morning bright and early I called the Harry Potter tours to move our tour time to the last possible time of 4pm. Which ended up not being a problem, but would cost us 10 pounds. So 3 hours should be enough time...right? We sure hoped so. So then we ran into the problem of not having power or internet at our hotel...our teachers were not happy about this. And I had no way of printing out our email confirmation in order to pick up the tickets at the studio...which caused a lot more stress on me. After a bit of looking up stuff and calling people we found out it wasn't a problem that we didn't have the email print out...whew! So class began at 10 am leaving from the hotel. We seemed to be wandering aimlessly throughout London with our tour guide...when our teachers had had enough of this un-planned tour so we split from the tour guides (who set up our entire stay in London) and ended up being let out early to go to the Harry Potter tour. I was finally starting to feel excited about the tour and not nervous about getting there! Although our class was going out to 'see' the Olympic Village after we left, we weren't too sad about missing it considering our plans had changed and we weren't able to go inside the buildings. We later also found out they couldn't even get close to the Olympic Park and they had to view it from a viewing platform inside of some casino...? Poor planning on somebody's part there as well. The Olympic Park is supposed to be open to the public as a series of community centers, but apparently there is construction an we can't view the buildings or grounds yet :'( Anyways, back to Harry Potter. We took a series of trains and an awesome looking double-decker bus...and we were finally at Harry Potter world! I thought I was going to faint/cry/pee my pants from excitement!! After much freaking out (and not all of it was from me!) we went inside to get ready for the tour. We were about an hour early, but we were excited to wander around the amazing gift shop when we heard an announcement that they were letting people in early! Jackpot! And we go in line to find out our tour group is tiny! Double jackpot! So worth going through all the trouble to finally be at the tour! I can't go into too much detail about the tour itself considering I could write a novel about all the things I have seen! The highlights were seeing the Gryffindor common room, drinking butterbeer (amazingly delicious!), and seeing the many different miniature (and also really big) models of all the buildings at Hogwarts and the wizarding world. Such a great day afterall! Today was our first real day of class with our teacher in London. Today we started off walking across Tower Bridge and learning about the London City Hall designed by Norman Foster. We then continued our walk toward the Millenium Bridge and saw a great view of the Globe Theatre as well. We also stumbled upon a random street food market and I tried Falafel for the first time! It was actually really good and I really enjoyed all the food and the atmosphere at this outdoor market. We then continued our journey to the Tate Modern Art Museum. The building itself was interesting inside as it used to be a power plant of sorts, but the art, especially the human performance art, was really...interesting. Definitely not my taste. We then walked across Millenium Bridge (as seen in the 6th Harry Potter film being broken by the death eaters in the beginning of the movie). We then went to John Soane's museum, but pictures were not allowed inside. All I can describe it as an architectural artifact hoarder's dream. But the museum itself was actually incredible as well as the work Soane did to the interiors. To top the day off we did a quick walking tour of the Financial District and saw the Lloyd's of London building and the Swiss Re 'Gherkin' building. Very cool indeed. I have no idea what is in store for tomorrow as I am completely exhausted from the past two days. It's almost 9:30 pm here...and I am about ready for bed! Dublin on Thursday. Cheerio!

London: Love at first sight!

Saturday I arrived in London via the Eurostar train! So far it has been awesome here! I think a lot of it honestly has to do with being able to communicate with everybody! Speaking English and being understood is so nice right now! I am loving it. First day we traveled to our hotel, to find out we couldn't check in until 3...it was 11. So we hauled all of our bags around with us the rest of the day, but was definitely worth it to see a beautiful view of London from the London Eye. The London Eye is a giant 'ferris wheel' of sorts. Such great views! After such a busy day of traveling, we decided to eat Fish and Chips at a local pub called Bayswater Arms. Great fish and I even got to taste some local beer! Definitely the right way to start off our trip in London! Sunday was a free day for class, so with a bit of research we were able to figure out a pretty awesome itinerary. First thing Sunday morning we were up and ready to travel in the 'tube' to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards! Little did we know how long it would take to get there, and way under-estimated the amount of people that would be there too! Unreal how many people were there to see it! After we explored around this area a little, we were off to Harrod's Department Store! What a dream come true! The best department store I have ever been in, hands down. My mom would have died in the baking section. I almost died in the chocolate section. Luxury label after Luxury label here! And I didn't feel like an idiot wandering around in this huge department store, knowing I would never be able to afford the amazing items they sold...because there were tons of other people there doing the same thing! They also had a memorial to Princess Diana here as well because she was dating the son of the owner of Harrod's at the time. With the memorial is the glass she supposedly drank out of the night she died, and the engagement ring her boyfriend was going to give her. After a trip to Harrod's, we then traveled to Westminster Abbey for their 'Evensong' service at 3pm. What an unbelievable total experience. Even though I wasn't able to take pictures of the interior, I got a nice long look as the amazing boy's choir sang. I really enjoyed being able to understand the service for once! It definitely makes a difference. After our amazing day exploring London, we were ready to head home on the 'tube.' We were in such a hurry that...one of us ended up getting slammed in between the subway car doors! ...and you probably didn't have to guess to figure out that that lucky one was me! Slammed. Right between the doors. I didn't even think about it beforehand! I thought I was being a gazelle and leaping into the train just as the doors were about to close. And close they did. On my arms. I'm just glad it wasn't my head, or worse, my purse! I wasn't really hurt, and I don't even have a bruise! We were definitely ready for another drink at our favorite new place, The Bayswater Arms. I slept like a baby last night! Tomorrow I will try to recount my fabulous (and stressful) trip to the Harry Potter Studio Tour...if I have time! Amazing is all I can say! Cheerio!

Cathedral at Chartres and Paris Pantheon

Cathedral at Chartres

So picking up where I left off, Tuesday night we had a surprise concert planned for us! I had no idea where it was or what music we would be listening to, but I sort of liked going into it blind. We got to where the concert was going to be held and it looked like a giant Greek temple! Turns out it was a church, and inside was one of the most beautiful interiors I have ever seen! Despite all these distractions, I paid my full attention to the 8 piece orchestra that played Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. For two of the songs as well we were lucky enough to hear an opera singer too! And for the latter half of the concert a fabulous violinist played solo after amazing solo. It was definitely an awesome experience and I am glad that we had this surprise! So Wednesday morning we boarded a bus to travel to the town of Chartres to see the Cathedral there. What an amazing cathedral too! Very close to Notre Dame in grandeur. We were also even luckier to have a guided tour by the world's expert on this cathedral (giving tours for 55 years) Malcolm Miller, an elderly, British, extremely knowledgeable man who gave possibly one of the best tours I've ever had in my life. Going into it my teacher had said he was a very cranky old man, but he knew his stuff. So I was like okay, I will go along with whatever the guy has to say and hopefully he isn't too mean. They were definitely wrong! He was very witty and not cranky at all! I guess we got him on a good day. Such a great experience wandering around the Cathedral and the town of Chartres (pronounced 'shart'...). We were there for over 5 hours, but the time flew by and I was definitely sad to leave this beautiful cathedral. I learned so much not only about the cathedral, but about the history of France as well during our tour here. I would definitely want to come back here some day. This morning we were touring another 'church' of sorts, the Pantheon. Not to be confused with the famous Pantheon in Rome (we will be visiting there at the end of November!). The Pantheon is a Neoclassical style church commissioned by King Louis XV. So above ground we have a beautiful Greek cross (like a + sign) plan and below is the famous Mausoleum. During the revolution this church was de-consecrated and afterwards named the Pantheon, meaning a temple for gods. Many famous people are buried here; Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Alexander Dumas, Marie Curie, and many, many others. I will have to say that the Mausoleum part wasn't even half as creepy as the Catacombs were! This afternoon our first real 'assignment' is due...so I will be finishing up touches on that as well as packing for London and Dublin! We leave Saturday morning for London, where I will be for 5 days. Then we have an independent travel period where I will be traveling to Dublin! I am very excited, but we are sending our luggage ahead of time to Florence, so this means I have to pack a backpack and purse for 2 weeks! Wish me luck on this! Aur Revoir!

Catacombs, Sacre Coeur, Promenade Plantee, and more!

So this past Saturday my friends and I got a jump start on our 3-day weekend early by touring the Catacombs of Paris! The Catacombs are an abandoned underground limestone quarry that the Parisians used to store the bones that were dug up from around the many churches in Paris when they started to not have anymore room for graves.We had been trying to do this tour since we came here! So finally the day had arrived. After going down 100-some steps, we were down underneath the streets of Paris. After winding through a underground maze of tiny corridors, we finally saw the stacks of bones. And stacks of bones. And stacks of bones. Bones on bones on bones! There was nothing separating me from touching the piles of bones that were almost 300 years old! I definitely was creeped out...and started to feel claustrophobic for the first time in my life. But overall it was definitely a really cool/creepy/Halloween-y experience. After this, we went to the Promenade Plantee, or the 'Highline' in Paris, which is basically a really cool elevated park with shops underneath. Even though the plants weren't in full bloom at this point, it was a beautiful fall day for a walk in the elevated park. And of course no walk in the park is complete in Paris without a baguette and brie cheese! Sunday morning we were up fairly bright and early to attend mass at the Sacre Coeur Basilica, which is also the highest point in the city. The climb all the way up to the top was well worth it, although I arrived at the church sweating profusely which was not part of the plan! The church was beautiful inside and the church service was very nice as well. I especially enjoyed listening to the Nun choir. After church ended we wandered around Montmarte, which is the elevated area where the church is located.  The rest of Sunday was spent in the park across the street from our apartment building...and yes I was actually doing homework!...and drinking wine. Hey, when in Paris! Monday morning started off rainy and windy, but we powered through to see the 'Eternal Flame' or the real name 'Flame of Liberty.' This wasn't intended to be a sort of memorial for Princess Diana ,but that is what it has become since the car accident in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel closeby. I was shocked to see flowers, posters, and messages written on the base of the flame on Monday, which is now 15 years after she died. Definitely a sad memorial but one I am glad to have been able to see. After this, we traveled to see Coco Chanel's original apartment and store on 31 Rue Cambon. I was definitely the only one in the group excited to see her building, but I didn't care. Her store is located on the first floor, while the second floor is used for 'couture' dressing rooms. The third floor is her 'apartment' (which she never used to actually sleep in, she went across the street to the Ritz to sleep every night) and the top floor was used as her studio. After our window shopping here, we continued around the block to see the high-end shopping district of Paris. I loved the window shopping here! We continued to the Longchamp store to buy our highly-anticipated bags! I had been looking at getting one of these bags for a long time now, and it just so happens they are cheaper in Paris! Who knew?? Jackpot! So I will say I made my first big purchase here and bought a navy Longchamp bag, which I love! And after this experience we continued on to get mid-day drinks at the famous Harry's New York Bar. This bar was known to host such people as Coco Chanel, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, and occasionally the Duke of Windsor! So since we were in the neighborhood we decided to stop by for one drink. I will say I tried my first bloody mary here, and what a place to try it at then the place where it originated! Definitely a memorable experience. After this long and exciting day, I went back to my apartment to again work on homework (which I should be doing now, but I decided to do this instead!). This morning we went to the Cartier Foundation center designed by Jean Nouvel. Yes this is the actual Cartier cooperate headquarters. No I did not get to see any diamonds :(( Tonight we are going to a concert and tomorrow we are heading out of the city to Chartres to see the cathedral there. Aur revoir!

Orsay Museum, Eiffel Tower, Versailles and more!

Palace at Versailles

So, where did I leave off? Oh yes. Tuesday for class we went to the Orsay Museum. The Orsay houses many interesting pieces of work emphasizing on impressionist, romantic, and naturalist pieces of art. So this includes Monet and Manet along with many others. I enjoyed a lot of the work I saw here, not really thinking that I enjoyed impressionist paintings, but I ended up liking them a lot. Also, this museum is an adaptive reuse of an old train station, so the architecture inside was a combination of the old and the new. On Wednesday, we went all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower! The views were spectacular along with the amazing architecture/engineering of the Tower itself. After going all the way up and down, we then moved onto the Musee du Quai Branly designed by Jean Nouvel. This is a museum of African, Asian, Oceanic, and Native American artifacts. I like this museum a whole lot more than I thought I would! The artifacts were cleverly displayed in unique organizations that made you feel like you were in Africa itself or in some ancient civilization. After we wandered about this museum for an hour or so, we decided to eat lunch...under the Eiffel Tower! Such a great day! I had so much fun that afternoon taking fun pictures by the Eiffel Tower and also going to see Les Invalides, where Napoleon Bonoparte is buried. It was a very interesting museum/church/hospital sort of building. This building also housed the French Military Museum which we did not see. Then Thursday was our big day...the Palace at Versailles! The grounds at Versailles are enormous! I thoroughly enjoyed our visit here. We first went through a tour of the interiors, which were extremely ornate and grand! We saw the Hall of Mirrors, the King's Bedchamber, the Queen's Bedchamber along with many other important rooms. After we toured the inside we then started touring the vast gardens. The gardens are so huge that you probably couldn't tour them all in your lifetime! We started out on the main axis where the most important fountains are. It also helped that it was a gorgeous day! Then I made my way over to the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon, which are buildings far off from the main palace. Petit Trianon was notoriously given to Marie Antoinette from her husband King Louis XVI. I enjoyed looking at all the beautiful, but down to earth, interiors here at her smaller home. She also has a series of Hamlets that were farther away from the Petit Trianon where she kept her sheep and where she supposedly stayed and gardened while Parisians starved. Thursday was a very busy day, making my feet very sore at the end of the day. This morning my class toured the Pompidou Center of Modern Art. I actually enjoyed this museum too more than I thought I would. I especially enjoyed seeing a series of Liz Taylor prints by Andy Warhol. For class we studied the architecture of the building instead of studying the pieces held inside. To describe in brief, the Pompidou Center basically has an exoskeleton...it keeps all its functional parts on the outside including stairs/escalators, heating, plumbing, electrical, etc. Very cool and interesting building. After touring this museum briefly, my friends and I went to the Carnavalet Museum of French History. This museum has one of the best Art Nouveau interiors in Paris...and I love Art Nouveau so I definitely enjoyed that part. Pretty cool museum...although it started raining and I was unprepared so I wasn't too keen on that part. Tomorrow is the day we finally are going to tour the Catacombs along with going to the Highline, which is an elevated park. Did I also mention I now have a 3-day weekend?? And that a week from tomorrow I'm on my way to London?? I'm definitely ready to be in a country where they speak English! Aur Revoir!

Funny Things

So far I've been writing mostly about my architectural/historic experiences that I have had so far in Paris, but so much more has been happening to me than just this! I'll try to give updates on my life once and a while like this so I don't bore everyone to death with my nerd rants about architecture. When traveling extensively like I recently have, weird/funny things are bound to happen. I am going to list funny things that have happened so far to me, because no one likes to hear about the bad stuff! Although I have learned a few lessons the hard way as well here, so don't think I'm living in wonderland over here! So here it goes, a list of funny things that have happened to me so far starting with my first flight from Minneapolis to Chicago (not in chronological order):
-used airplane bathroom soap as hand sanitizer
-watched a monk give us the finger
-saw 4 different people on 4 different occasions peeing in public
-broke the bed at the monastery
-ordered a 6 inch sub at subway (they don't use inches) ( I don't think its that funny but my friends do...)
-have used the term si (Spanish for yes) instead of oui (French for yes) on too many occasions to count
-walked in on my classmate in the bathroom (bound to happen)
-tripped on the sidewalk and almost face-planted more than once
-saw and heard a man with a portable microphone sing French and Spanish songs on the metro for money
-saw multiple children run down this one hill and face-plant at the park where we picnic
-saw a little French girl kiss another little girl's knee because she fell (okay this one is just too darn cute not to mention!)


This is all I can think of for now! Just wanted to give everyone some examples of the funny and weird things that have happened to us so far. This list is definitely ongoing and I will try to update again soon! Aur Revoir!

Trip to Lyon, La Tourette, and Ronchamp

Last night my class just got back from our 3-day excursion outside of Paris! We first traveled to Lyon, which is South east-ish of Paris...by a lot more than I thought! It only took us 2 hours by train however. When we got to Lyon we had our first pleasant surprise...we stayed in a nice hotel! Comfy beds, INTERNET, and a private shower! Still not as big or as nice as an American hotel but we were thrilled. We then visited the Lyon Opera House designed by Jean Nouvel. This building was basically an old opera house that was too small and was gutted and redesigned to accommodate the new needs of the Opera house.
We had a guided tour for the first time at the Opera House which was definitely a new and interesting experience. I will say that Lyon is a really awesome and very scenic city. The Opera House is a very cool design of an old building that is now updated, but I wasn't as impressed with this building as I was with the Garnier Opera House in Paris. After our guided tour was over, we were free to spend the day exploring Lyon. I quite enjoyed our leisurely day strolling throughout Lyon and finding fun shops to go into. What I enjoyed more was the free breakfast the hotel served the next day. I didn't even care that I had to wake up early, I was just excited for a hot breakfast and COFFEE. After our delicious breakfast we then took a train outside Lyon about a half an hour to stay at a Monastery designed by Le Corbusier. We knew in advance that we had to walk to the Monastery...and that it was 25 minutes walking uphill. Again I'd have to say that I was a trooper, even though I was scared that the walk was going to be worse than what my teacher said it would be. It was worth the climb, however. The view was fantastic and it was amazing to again be able to have the opportunity to see and touch in person a building you studied in a book far away in Milwaukee. As it was a Monastery and the home to about 10 friars, we had to whisper and respect the quietness of their home. We each stayed in a friar's cell that was smaller than my room back in Paris. Overall I enjoyed my stay at La Tourette Monastery a lot more than I thought I would have. I was apprehensive about staying in a cell by myself, but ended up quite liking the solitude and time for reflection. We were served lunch, dinner, then breakfast the next day in their dinning room. The friars even packed us a lunch to go the next day as well! The first day we were there we had a guided tour by the cutest French tour guide I have ever met. She knew TONS about Le Corbusier and even more about the Monastery. After our tour the night we arrived, I had a fun time exploring the expansive fields and woods surrounding the Monastery along with taking pictures and sketching the gorgeous view of the town below. After dinner that night a friar offered to speak with us about the building and about the Dominican order of friars, which is the type of friars living in the monastery. He was a very interesting man who told us how the Dominicans were teachers and you could definitely tell by the way he spoke with us that he loved to teach. The best part of the evening was how he was telling a story so intensely that he gave us the finger! I laughed so hard at this...a friar just gave us the finger! Although it was part of the story, I just had to laugh at the situation I was in. After getting over my fear of sleeping alone in a cell with total silence, I had a decent night of sleep and was excited to see my favorite Le Corbusier piece the next day, the church Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp. We took a four hour coach bus ride the next day...on the nicest coach bus I have ever been on! Lets just say I had a comfy ride...despite driving way too fast through way too small of streets! We finally got to the small city of Ronchamp where Le Corbusier (again) designed a small church. We had a few hours at the church to explore, draw, and take pictures. I can't really explain why, but I love this church. It was in the 3rd phase of Le Corbusier's designs and his first religious building (built before the Monastery). It is an extremely sculptural building with punched window openings in a highly irregular pattern. Again, Le Corbusier picks the best spot with the best views to place his buildings on. Even though the church looks so much different from any architecture I have ever seen before, somehow it fit in. It just felt like you took a small house or cottage and warped it a bit. What I'm trying to say is that it felt like it belonged there, as odd-looking as it might be. After our time at the church was up, we took an hour bus ride to the train station and rode a 2 1/2 hour train ride back to Paris. It seemed like we were gone forever...but not gone at all at the same time. I was excited to get back to 'normal.' Today my friends and I took it easy and sat in the park and worked on homework most of the day (rough life, I know). Tomorrow we are going to the Catacombs and maybe some shopping too! Pictures to come! Aur Revoir!

Le Corbusier: Maison la Roche

Today we took a short tour of Le Corbusier's Maison la Roche in Paris. This particular house predates the Villa Savoye we toured yesterday. After a quick lecture from my teacher, we learned that this house was a sort of 'experiement' in trying to define Le Corbusier's 5 points of architecture (which he is famous for perfecting in the Villa Savoye). I'm pretty sure you have to be an amazing architect to use a whole house as an 'experiement.' At least that was my own initial thought. From the outside the house did not have as much cohesiveness as the Villa Savoye, but I was surprised to find inside an interesting interior. The one thing I did really like in this house was how maze-like it was, there were many ways to get back to a room or to the other side of the house. I enjoyed his purposeful use of color as well. I found this house to be more inviting and less stark than the Villa Savoye. We were allowed to explore around the house for about 45 minutes (blue booties included so we did not track dirt in). It was a nice change of pace to be done at 11 this morning instead of at like 4 or 5. Tonight my friends and I are going to attempt our first look at the French department store called Monoprix as well as attemp to find an art store to pick up more supplies. Tomorrow we start our 3-day excursion to Lyon. We will be leaving tomorrow (bright and early) to catch a train to Lyon to tour the Lyon Opera house. We will stay in a hotel in Lyon and on Friday we will be taking another train to La Tourette to see Le Corbusier's monastery (and stay overnight in a monks cell!). Then Saturday we will be taking a bus to Ronchamp to see one of my favorite Le Corbusier's pieces, his Notre Dame du Haut church. I'm excited to be outside of Paris for a few days, and to not have to take the metro all the time! After I come back from our little excursion, then we have two days off. I'm hoping to see the Catacombs at some point along with seeing Napoleon's tomb. I can't believe its been a week since we arrived in Paris already. Time has flown by because I have been so busy! I'm excited for the rest of our time in Paris, especially now since I'm so familiar with our routine now. I'm even more excited for the weeks to come when we travel to London and I take my first independent travel trip to Ireland! I will write and post more pictures once I get back from Lyon. Aur Revoir!

Le Corbusier: Villa Savoye

Today was our first rainy day since arriving over here in Paris. I was able to pull out my handy rain jacket (thanks Mom) and use it all day today as we traveled outside of Paris for the first time. We took a train bright and early this morning to a small town about 40 minutes outside of the city called Poissy. After getting off the train and walking for about ten minutes in the quaint, slower-paced suburb, we came across a beautiful Romanesque/Gothic church. This is what I love about France, and especially Paris, you can be strolling down the street and suddenly run into a beautiful piece of architecture. Since we had extra time this morning, we were able to look inside the La Collegiale Notre Dame church. This church was built during the Romanesque architectural era and finished in the Gothic era. An interesting fact I found out was that the same man who was in charge of restoration for Notre Dame in the 1800's was also working on restoring this church at about the same time. After visiting this church for about 20 minutes, we walked another 20 minutes or so to finally see the Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier. To architects this villa is extremely important and even though I'm not a huge Le Corbusier fan, I was excited to see this piece. I definitely have to say this experience of visiting a smaller house compared to the many ornate cathedrals, churches, museums, and opera houses was a different experience, especially because it was done in the stark modernist style. It was hard to appreciate the architecture that Le Corbusier so carefully designed without having an explanation from my teacher, and especially because it was raining and almost chilly outside. We had plenty of time today to explore and sketch the villa after a few short meetings with our teacher. After being there for a few hours today and especially doing many sketches of the villa I began to get why this villa was such a big deal to architects. The main principle behind this villa, more importantly the modern style, is that functional is beautiful. I began to understand the complexities and all the little details that make this place such a master work that you can only get from visiting it firsthand. Overall, I enjoyed our visit today and the change of pace traveling to the villa gave us, although I definitely wouldn't want to live at Villa Savoye...sorry Le Corbusier. Just to add in, the Savoyes didn't want to live there either...the roof leaked when it rained. Good thing it didn't leak today! Tomorrow we are going to be visiting  Maison la Roche, another work done by Le Corbusier. Aur Revoir!

The Louvre and Garnier Opera House

How can I describe a day like today....AMAZING! Today all my childhood (and adult) dreams came true! Sorry to sound a big corny there. I have been a pretty big Art and Art History fan since I did a project on Leonardo da Vinci in 9th grade. Ever since then I have been enamored by his work, and especially by the Mona Lisa. I never really thought I would be able to see her in person, so you can imagine my excitement today upon visiting the Louvre Museum. We started out our tour today by seeing the Venus de Milo statue. I sort of forgot that this piece was at the Louvre and I was surprised by how I reacted to seeing it. I was a bit awestruck at seeing my first true internationally famous piece of art. The Venus de Milo definitely caught my attention, and I found that many of these famous works you could find yourself staring at them all day...hoping you never have to leave. The Venus de Milo is a statue of the goddess Aphrodite (supposedly) with her arms missing. I really enjoyed the display they set up for her, and I especially enjoyed the architecture of the interior of the Louvre. The Louvre has had many architects work on the galleries inside, and I found it funny to watch my classmates who are all clearly architects with their cameras pointed at the ornate ceilings and walls while the other tourists quickly took pictures of the pieces of art. The museum was a bit overwhelming at the amount of artifacts and pieces of artwork they have on display. The museum itself is actually a collection of about 4 museums total inside its massive structure. So we started off by seeing the Venus de Milo, then moved on to learn about the Winged Victory sculpture. The Winged Victory sculpture is beautifully displayed atop a giant staircase leading up to it, recreating the conditions in which she was originally meant for...a Greecian hillside. Next we moved on to see some pieces of Leonardo da Vinci's work. We started off by talking about The Virgin and St. Anne. I was surprised by seeing about 4 or 5 paintings done by da Vinci all in a row...and also very disappointed I didn't have more time to look at them considering I was with my class. I was very awestruck by all of them. We then turned to go into a different room and suddenly I saw the Mona Lisa in the distance. I found, and yes I am a very big geek for thinking this, that she had almost her own presence. You could feel her watching you. And yes, I was the only one in a group of architects totally geek-ing out as we entered the room. She was situated on her own wall surrounded by a sea of tourists. Although the group surrounding her was very deep, my teachers had said that it was about half of what they saw the last time they were there. I waited patiently, and pushed as well, to the front of the group so I could have a front-row view. Behind bullet-proof glass was the Mona Lisa...one of the most, if not the most, famous pieces of art in the world. I cringed to think that she rode on a soldier's lap in a car when they evacuated the Louvre during WWII. Although I wanted to stay and stare at her all day, or at least make everyone else leave the room so I could see her in peace, we had to continue on with our tour. We then continued on to see several Neoclassical pieces and several Romanticism pieces as well before being left to wander by ourselves. I really enjoyed just wandering throughout the Louvre on our own and stumbling upon great works of art, including many sculptures done by Michelangelo. I was so tired and my feet hurt so bad, but I was very glad I had the opportunity to see so many pieces of art. But, yet, my day was not done! We then traveled to the Opera Garnier, which was used as the setting for The Phantom of the Opera book. I enjoyed this visit very much because not only was it extremely grand and ornate, it was a great piece of architecture as well, as I learned from my teacher. The interesting thing I found about this Opera House was that the main attention was put on the many lobbies it had. In the time it was made, the Opera was were the wealthy went to see and be seen, so naturally the architect placed emphasis on its many ornate and complex lobbies. Although I must say, the actual theater itself was very beautiful as well, but it does surprise you at how small it actually is. Tomorrow is our first experience learning about a post-modern piece, which will be a big shift from the places we have looked at so far. We will be touring Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, which is one of the most important pieces in post-modern architecture...and you probably have not heard of it. And I didn't either until I went to Architecture school, but now its all I ever hear about. So I am excited to be able to say that I have been there. Aur Revoir!

Paris-the city of Love and Lights

Over the past day and a half since I posted last...I have seen a lot! So hopefully I can explain everything briefly here. My friends and I went to see the Eiffel Tower from this place called Trocadero, which is basically a big platform/park thing in which you get the best view of the tower. We arrived there at about 7:30 at night, and let me tell you, the pictures everyone has seen of the Eiffel Tower give it no justice. I could have stayed there all night and just stared at it. We literally had the best view in Paris! We waited until the sun went down to see the tower lit up. That was definitely worth the wait. There are huge fountains in front of the tower which enhanced your overall experience for sure! I could go on and on about the Eiffel Tower but I have so much more to tell! Later on I hope to go all the way to the top of it! Anyways, after our awesome adventure out there, we had a Paris walking tour the next day...for class. My life is so hard ;) We met at Notre Dame again that morning, and walked to the Louvre. We arrived at the very back of the Louvre, which was still very stunning. We walked over the old moat to go inside the 'backyard' as my teacher called it of the Louvre palace. It was basically a giant courtyard surrounded by one of the most ornate facades I have ever seen with sculptures and columns everywhere. After hearing a little about the history of the palace here, we proceeded to the 'front yard' of the palace. In the distance I saw my beloved pyramids designed by I.M. Pei which now is a sort of symbol of the Louvre museum and palace. It was such a cool experience to see the giant pyramid with the Jardin des Tuileries in the background. We next then moved on to walk through the Jardin des Tuileries or the Tuileries garden...aka the King's garden. The Louvre was built during the Baroque period which is why the garden is so perfectly designed without a blade of grass or a leaf out of place. The Baroque period was basically a response from the Monarchy to the Reformation. So in every detail of the palace and the streets beyond, the King wanted to remind you that you were under his control. The pyramid lines up with the main path down the garden, which again lines up with the Champs Elysees (a very wide boulevard) which again lines up all the way down to the Arc de Triomphe. The Baroque period was basically orderly and ornate. The gardens were beautiful even on the scorcher of a day when we went there. We next traveled outside of the castle grounds finally to see the giant obelisk (that was perfectly in-line with the gardens as well). This obelisk was carved out of a single piece of granite that was transported all the way from Egypt. It marked the spot where the Rebels during the French Revolution executed around 2,000 members of the aristocracy...by guillotine including King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. We moved on to walk down the boulevard for a mile or so along another beautiful park. The trees are definitely starting to change colors here and even fall a lot too! I'm just hoping the weather cools down! Anyways after this mile and a half or so of the park we finally reach the Champs Elysees. The Chaps Elysees is a wide boulevard filled with expensive shopping and eating places. Napoleon was the original creator of the boulevard, widening it enough so the French citizens wouldn't be able to barricade it at some point. The Champs Elysees leads right to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc de Triomphe was a lot bigger than I had ever imagined it would be! The cooler part of it was that it also acted as a traffic circle, with about 12 or so streets radiating all around it. After class ended here, my friends and I continued along the straight path down to La Defense, which is the downtown area of Paris...yes Paris does have skyscrapers. I especially loved La Grande Arch, which is a 20th century 'Arc de Triomphe.' And of course, La Grande Arch lines up perfectly with the Arc de Triomphe without a single building blocking its path! I was very impressed with La Defense and the downtown area. Every skyscraper had an interesting architectural detail. It isn't like New York where most skyscrapers have flat tops. What was most neat was that you didn't feel overwhelmed by the skyscrapers like you do in bigger cities. We had a pretty good view of the buildings from La Grande Arch. I really enjoyed sitting and enjoying the view from the steps of the Arch. After this jam-packed day, I was ready to take it easy...especially since we didn't have any class the next day! So this morning we went to church at St. Sulpice, which is second in size only to Notre Dame in Paris. I was surprised at how big it was inside, and how dirty everything seemed to be. But it wasn't dirty in a bad way. Dirty in a this-has-been-here-forever way. The stones in some places were covered in a film, and in others they were perfectly white. The church also had one of the most impressive organs in France, accompanied by world-renown organists! I just sat and took it all in during the service, considering I don't speak French and I'm not Catholic. I'm definitely glad we took time to go there. Tomorrow for class we are going to the Louvre Museum! I am beyond excited for this...a dream come true for me to finally see the Mona Lisa! I am a huge Art History fan, so I'm trying to rest up today for our big outing tomorrow. We also will be seeing Opera Garnier later in the day...along with some homework I am sure :/ Still feeling a bit sick from all the traveling, so hopefully another good night sleep will get me ready to see the masterworks tomorrow! Aur Revoir!

Exploring Paris!

After being a few days into this new time zone, I'm starting to feel much better about Paris and our new routine. We had a delicious dinner at Le Grand Colbert last night. It was ahhh-mazing. Started out with a starter course of fresh cantalope, followed by the main course of salmon with bernaise sauce. This was followed by a delicious dessert of Rum Baba which is sort of a cake soaked in rum...and apparently you top it with a shot of rum as well! Delicious! The restaurant and service was amazing, although it looked a lot different from what I had seen of it in 'Something's Gotta Give.' (thanks to some cinematography magic they altered  your perception of the space) Today was our first real day of class, and what a way to start it off by touring Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle. Notre Dame was amazing on the outside, but even more spectacular on the inside. It also helped that our professor gave us a mini-lecture on site about the history and architecture of the building. We toured the church briefly then we were given a sketching assignment...which we did inside the church! Very cool indeed. This was followed by a delicious lunch-on-the-go of a Nutella and Banana crepes. I will definitely be having more of those! After some more photo opportunities outside Notre Dame, we walked to Sainte Chapelle. Saint Chapelle was built as a private chapel to King Louis IV that actually housed the Crown of Thorns for some time. The chapel was built inside the palace's courtyard in the heart of Paris. I could go into a lot more detail here about the architecture behind it but I will cut it short for you...basically there was a lot of amazing stained-glass windows! Unfortunately the supposed Crown of Thorns is no longer kept here but in a vault underneath Notre Dame. Much smaller in scale than Notre Dame but was surprisingly built in only 5 years...compared to Notre Dame that took 200 years! I had a lot of fun there. After 'class' was done today, my friends and I decided to explore the Luxembourg Gardens. Mom, you would appreciate this one! This is basically like a more awesome and manicured version of central park. The French senate building is located inside the grounds as well. Tons of flowers and sculptures to be seen...along with many palm trees surprisingly. Very cool. Tonight after dinner my friends and I are going to one of the best places to view Paris at night, called Trocadero...stay tuned for pictures! On a side note  I must say I love the Paris metro system. So easy to use and you can go anywhere in the city very quickly. Also on another side note, while we were getting groceries last night on the tram ride back to our apartment we saw a mugging or pick-pocketing take place! All we saw was a lot of commotion as two people got onto the tram, but let me tell you, this awesome French lady would not let this creep take her purse. She was yelling in French at him and cornered him on the tram and sounded like she was calling the police (?). My first time seeing a mugging take place and the lady came out on top! Props to her. Anyways, tomorrow for class we are doing a Paris walking tour seeing the exterior of the Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe and a lot of other places too. I will be wearing my tennis shoes for that one. Aur Revoir!

Traveling to Paris

Traveling is...hard. Very hard actually. I learned this over the past 2(?) days of organized traveling with my Architecture classmates. For those of you who don't know why I'm over here in Paris, I am doing a study abroad program through my grad school (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee). The entire process of getting to Paris had its ups and downs, although I feel like I was a champ throughout the crazy process. I started off by flying to Chicago on September 4th to catch a group flight there and to meet up with my classmates and professor. The goodbyes were a little hard seeing as I've never been this far away from my family nor for this long of a time period. The flight to Chicago went well and thankfully fast. Although I do regret using the airplane bathroom's hand soap as hand sanitizer and having to wipe it on my pants in front of everyone on the plane. Oops. At least my luggage wasn't lost! From here I managed to find my way to where I was supposed to check in my luggage again. I guess since I was more than 4 hours early for the flight, you get to just wait there until someone shows up to help you. Lesson learned. Getting through security in Chicago was easy and since I had so much time I thought I would just get settled and find a nice restaurant and exchange my money. Well, unlike Minneapolis airport, once you get through security in O'hare international terminal you don't get either. There's some nice kiosks with food. But no currency exchange counters or restaurants. Oh well, lesson learned again. The flight to Amsterdam was 6 hours and 45 minutes. Not bad when you can watch 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' and 'Snow White and the Huntsman' on your personal TV. We arrived in Amsterdam at 6 am their time, our time it was still 11pm. Three hours later with some delicious Danish Mini Pancakes eaten, we were off to Paris! Meanwhile still not having slept more than 15 minutes, I was eager to catch some shut-eye on the plane...which only lasted an hour. This was when things got tricky. Luggage arrived in Pairs (YES!) Traveled as a group to get our train RER ticket. Okay doing fine here. Waited for the train for no more than about five minutes. Still good. Sat on a train for about 15 minutes or so traveling from Charles de Gaulle airport outside of Pairs to the city center. Still doing okay here...while listening to a man with a portable microphone and speaker sing random French songs (but also performed La Bamba better than the woman who sang it on our booze cruise in Mexico I must say). Got off the RER train, meanwhile still maneuvering my 45lb suitcase and backpack the whole time. This is where it gets weird. We were now in the underground subway system of Paris known as the Metro. Trying to get 20+ students with luggage up and down countless flights of stairs to our line was difficult to say the least, and tiring! After a few wrong turns and having to retrace our steps we were on the Metro and only had 2 stops before we got off...to walk further to our University 'headquarters.' Once we were there, we were introduced with some of the staff and given our Metro Passes so we could use the Metro and RER at anytime. Now that we got our passes (which I have to say could have been mailed to our actual APARTMENT building or given to us at a later time) we have to go BACK through the Metro and RER train to our actual assigned apartment. After going back exactly the way we came, up and down stairs with all of our stuff, we finally got to our apartments! Yay!The only surprise here was that everyone gets his or her own room...which I'm fine with but would have liked to room with my friends! Oh well, we will definitely be rooming together after we leave Paris in 21 or so days. So for now I'm just getting used to the food, the bathrooms, and definitely the language. Which I'm sure will all seem much better once I get more sleep...only slept about 7 hours last night. I think my body still thinks its 8:45 am instead of 3:45 pm. Tonight is dinner at the Grand Colbert (as featured in the movie 'Something's Gotta Give') at 8. Tomorrow real class starts as we visit Notre Dame and Sainte Chapelle. Aur Revoir!