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December 11, 2008
So its already Thursday, I really don’t know how THAT happened. But I am finally blogging about my last trip. I can’t believe this is happening. So much has happened in the past week and a half…get ready for a mouth full.
Monday night we drank the fine and felt a fine at Pietro’s birthday party at Merlin. I called it an early night, for sure. The rest of them might not have. But that’s neither here nor there. Tuesday I went to all my classes, started my American Foreign Policy paper that was due Thursday. And Alex made her signature pasta with sausage recipe for dinner…mmm, gotta love fam dinners. Wednesday, still more class, and I worked on that paper all day and most of the night. 8 pages…8. …I think mine was 9? Well who cares.
Thursday, I went to class, gave my Italian presentation at 9…that means I gave a 5 minute presentation only speaking in Italian, and then handed that American Foreign Policy paper in! After class, I ran home. Luckily, I had already packed. And alex, carson, sara, and I flew out the door. Not before I made tuna and cucumber for dinner of course. We got on the 8:20pm train. Or so we thought we would… We got to the train station, bought a ticket, and then realized (as other Umbra students were standing around) that our first train was delayed an hour, meaning we wouldn’t catch our second train, meaning we would have to sleep in the train station and still potentially miss our flight. So we talked to the counterwoman and she swapped our tickets. And then I don’t know what happened, alex spoke some Italian with the woman, and we were on the incoming train. Then we had an hour layover, and took another train to rome, where our hostel was. good ol’ “Beautiful Hostel”. Don’t be deceived by the name…it smelled awful, and was by no means beautiful. The man woke us up at 4:30, like we had to, and gave us over sugared juice, hot cocoa from a package, and a packaged croissant. We quickly got dressed, then he made alex write a review online with him standing behind her (…no wonder they had such good reviews!) and we rushed out to catch the bus. We caught a bus to the airport and got on our flight to Paris at 7am! Needless to say, I slept the entire way, the hour bus ride and the 2 hour flight, and the other hour bus ride to the center.
Once we were in the center, we took two metros to St. Christopher’s hostel. We freshened up a bit, even though we weren’t allowed to check into our room yet. So we got some lunch nearby, I got a baguette with ham and cheese and some much needed coffee! (seeing as we had “gone to be at 1:30” and woken up at 4). Then we metroed to the Arc di Triomph. Which is basically a big arch. Then we found the Champs-Elyse’es, the major shopping street in Paris. We saw some vendors, found a starbucks (which I got coffee at), and looked at the beautiful Christmas lights as they lit up. It really felt like Christmas there. Then we got some hot spiced wine (vin chaud) and I got a small chewy pastry that wasn’t worth my 1 euro. At 6:30pm, we went to the Louvre, because on Friday’s after 6:30 it is free for anyone under 26…which we are! So we saw the pyramid, the Victory of Samothrace (the winged angel), the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo. Basically the three things you are supposed to see at the Louvre. They were quite impressive, though I must say, the Mona Lisa is much smaller than I imagined it to be. Around 8:30pm, we asked a woman riding a bicycle around the Seine, the river near the Louvre and Notre Dame, where a good place to eat was. she pointed us to café des Initie’s . There I had escargot, and French onion soup (which there is only labeled as onion soup…because naturally its French, as you are in France). We were so exhausted from traveling, that after dinner, we went back to the hostel and fell asleep.
Saturday morning we found an AMAZING pastry shop and each of the four of us got at least two pastries, alex and carson got three each. I had a pane Suisse and an almond croissant, both were delicious. Then we saw the louvre in the day time and got some coffee to warm us up. Then we walked alone the Seine and looked at EVERY vendor we walked by until we got to Notre Dame. The line was huge, but it moved quickly. Mass was going on inside. So I said a few prayers, lit a candle for some very special people in my life, and walked out thinking everyone else had been outside by then. But they weren’t. so I stood on a concrete stoop in my red jacket for 20 minutes, looking for my cellphone, which I realized I had left in the hostel. Me, by myself, on a stoop, in the middle of paris. But thank god…they finally found me. So then we walked around some of the small shops and headed toward the modern museum. We didn’t go in, but the outside of it was really different…modern if you will. We had lunch right next to it. I had a salad and some quiche…which was more like a pile of cheese. Then we metroed back to the Champs-Elysees and got vin chaud from the vendors. It was cold in Paris! Then I got a sucre crepe, a crepe with sugar. We shopped around a bit… I MAY have bought myself a Christmas gift. Then we went back to the vendors and got dinner… a baguette with onions and a sausage. Afterward, we walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it at night. It was beautifully lit up blue. We waited for it to be 7:50pm so that we could see it twinkle…which it did ever so beautifully. Then we of course got coffee nearby, and met Sara’s friend Alex on the Champs-Elysees. We went to his apartment just to chill. He studies fashion in Paris and DJs on the side, making his own house music, which is how he can afford the apartment with a view of the Eiffel tower, that is in the same building as where Russell Crowe stays.
Sunday, we got pastries at a different place, I got a chocolate chip twist thing, and we went to the Eiffel Tower. Before we got there, we got coffee and more pastries and ate breakfast #2 in front of the tower. Though it was foggy, we took the lift up the tower…and couldn’t see anything from the top. Then we metroed to MontMartre. We shop the multiple shops they had, and the Moulin Rouge. We got a huge piece of chocolate each. Being Sunday, not much was opened, much to Carson’s dismay, because she wanted to go shopping. We metroed and walked MULTIPLE streets trying to find shops, but nothings suited her. So alex and I got a waffle with nutella, one of the BEST things I’ve ever eaten, and Sara, Alex, and I window shopped while Carson ran around the streets trying to actually shop. Then we went back to the hostel, grabbed our stuff, and metroed to the bus stop, RAN to the bus, and bused to the airport to catch our delayed flight from Paris to Pisa. We cabbed from there to our hostel and slept in late.
All day Monday, we traveled back and I did some studying. Monday was an Italian holiday, so there were no classes. Carson, Sara, and I must have caught something in Paris and the three of us were sick all Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday I went to class, SLEPT, and I took my American Foreign Policy final. Wednesday was the last day of class, and I went to most of them, as I still wasn’t feeling well. Today is Thursday, and while I am feeling better I am still not 100%. But don’t worry, I will be by the time I come home. I took my food final and have all day tomorrow to study for my Italian exam on Saturday. Which is when Steph comes to visit! I am super excited and REALLY REALLY sad now that I realize I need to be going home. I will write one more time…probably when I am already back in the States! I love this place, and I am already starting to miss is. I predict the last entry shall be a cryfest on my part.
But until then, I have packing to do,
Love angela
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