When in Rome...go to Venice!!

I am about halfway through my first independent study break. I took off for Italy with my friends Ben, Becky and Sam. First stop was Rome. I am very glad I got to see it, but it was definitely not my favorite place. The Colosseum was awesome, as was the Pantheon. I loved the fact that ruins were everywhere. However, it was too tourist-y, the people too aggressive, and the city too dirty. Everything was very crowded and very expensive. Lots of waiting in lines, lots of pushing and shoving. The street vendors were everywhere, and even pushier than in Paris. The most unpleasant change was the restaurants. The waiters would stand outside, waiting to shove a menu in your hands and try to convince you to come in. That got old fast. Also, the Vatican was a huge tourist trap.

But I complain too much. It was Rome, and that in itself is very cool. It is the source of classical architecture, "the epicenter of a structural revolution." Classical architectural language was everywhere, even on the most mundane buildings. We stayed in a less fanc corner or town, which actually wasnt too far from the Colisseum. We made reservations at a Bed and Breakfast, which turned out to be an apartment that a couple rented out rooms in. It was clean and had plenty of space, and the people who owned it were nice and obviously tried very hard to make our stay pleasant. The woman who was there to greet us the first day was fun to talk to. The funniest part when she was telling us about her sister in California, who she keeps in touch with through facebook. She asked us if we used Facebook, and then said "do you know Farm Ville?!?!!" in a thick Italian accent. We all just laughed.

Anyhow, we spent three days walking around Rome, but were very ready to leave by the end of three days. Next stop, Venice. I was inlove with the city before the plane had touched down. Its still touristy, but much more relaxed and pleasant than Rome. We are staying in a hotel that is truly a diamond in the rough. Its small and quaint, but cozy. I love all the water in Venice. In Paris we used the metro, in Rome we walked, in venice we take boats everywhere. The shopping is great too, tons of shops with blown glass, and lots of shops with Venetian masks. We visited the beach, which was awesome except for the stellar sunburn I got. SPF 50 is no match for mediterranean sun.

And in closing, a brief shout out to my dear friend Liz, who just turned 21 while I was away. Miss you Liz!! I hope you had fun!

Travel, travel, travel

So, where I last left off was the day before our trip to Chartres. We took the train out to Chartres, which is really just a little village but is also one of the most visited places in France, due to the Cathedral. The town was cute, still retaining some of its medieval organization and buildings. The Cathedral is the biggest gothic cathedral, which definitely says something. Fun fact: Chartres Cathedral's stained glass windows use a lot of blue, which other cathedrals do not. Also, that color of blue glass has never been able to be replicated. When we visited, they were in the process of cleaning the cathedral. The dirt and pollution over hundreds of years clings to the stone and glass, making it dingy and dirty. The cleaned portion of the church was absolutely amazing! The stone was clean and bright, almost white, and the glass was brilliantly colorful. The entire church will be cleaned and restored in 5 or 6 years, and I definitely want to revisit it then. It totally changed my perception of gothic cathedrals. I always imagined them to be kind of dark and dingy, when really they were built to be taller and let in more light. When they are clean and sparkling, I can only imagine how much more beautiful they will be.

Also at Chartres, we got to climb the bell tower, which was fun. However, the long and narrow spiral staircase made me a bit claustrophobic. It was cool to see the cathedral and town from such a high vantage point.

The first weekend in Paris gave us a taste of just how many tourists visit the city. I happened to pass Notre Dame on Saturday, and the entire area was packed. I certainly didn't feel like a tourist after I saw the hordes of truly touristy tourists.

Monday we began a two day trip, first stopping in Normandy. We saw Arromanches beach, where in WWII the British sunk all of their damaged ships to create an artificial harbor. Next we went to Omaha Beach, the site of the d-day invasion. The beach was absolutely beautiful, which was kind of weird. It was hard to imagine the invasion taking place there. There were the remains of sum bunkers and gun turrets that we got to see, and there was a memorial museum and cemetery. I'm really glad we got to stop there, it was very cool to see.

We finished up our travels on Monday by going to San Malo, which quickly became my favorite place. It is an old walled town, and has the greatest tidal change of anywhere in the world. At high tide the water rises 40 feet, and San Malo becomes an island. At low tide it exposes awesome beaches and creates tide pools. We arrived during low tide and explored the beaches and climbed on the rocks. That night we went up on the wall that surrounds the city to watch the sun set.

The city itself is pretty quiet, and very cute. My friends and I all agree it would be the perfect place for a vacation home.

On Tuesday we were sad to leave San Malo, but we headed out for le Mont St Michel. Like San Malo, Mont St Michel is sometimes an island. When the tide is out it creates vast expanses of sandy flats, which are absolutely surreal. As for St Michel itself, it looks like something straight out of a Tolkien novel. Its a town on a steep hill, with the church on top and the city spread out below it and a wall around the perimeter for protection. A little narrow main street winds counter-clockwise around the island all the way to the church at the top. It was really very cool, but the ambiance was ruined by all the people packed into the tiny island.

Tomorrow is the beginning of independent study break #1. I am taking off to Rome for 5 days, then Venice and Seville for two days each. I am so excited to see Spain and Italy!

Falling in love with Paris...

It's been a busy but exciting couple of days. Our very first class was at Notre Dame, which was absolutely mind-blowing. For one thing, the cathedral is much bigger than I realized, and far more ornate. The entire thing is covered in statues and carving and stained glass. I particularly love the gargoyles. I don't know exactly how to describe what it was like to be inside the cathedral. I think my jaw literally dropped. The ceiling is over 100 feet high, and the stained glass lights the entire place beautifully. I will probably overuse the word "beautiful" in my descriptions of my summer. Everything in Paris is beautiful. And Notre Dame is the most beautiful thing I've seen so far. It is truly spectacular. Pictures could never do it justice, but I will post them anyways, hopefully soon. I want to go back to climb the bell tower (check out Quasimodo's hang-out) and my professor recommended that even the non-religious attend an organ mass on Sunday. I can't imagine what Notre Dame will be like when it is filled with music.

I feel like I've walked all over Paris. Our classes start at 8 or 9 am and we usually alternate between walking and drawing all the way up until around 5 pm. I'm starting to call it my Paris diet: walk all day and don't eat much. By the end of the day we are all exhausted, but we get to see so much. We also visited Eglise Sainte-Clotilde and Saint Denis, although they were not quite as beautiful as Notre Dame. We have seen the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, Les Invalides, the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe, the Tuilleries, the Palais Royal, Place des Vosges, Place de la Bastille, l'Arsenal, the Eiffel Tower (and probably much more that I can't think of right now) on our walking tours. I also ended up inside the Louvre by accident for a little bit (the metro station exited into it, I didn't realize until I turned a corner and saw I.M.Pei's inverted pyramid. That was quite the surprise!)

Speaking of the metro, we are all becoming pros at navigating the city's public transit system. The metro and the RER and the tram are all very convenient and well organized. I think I have heard Paris's transit system described as the best in the world and I wouldn't be surprised it if were true. We use it all the time, and it is great, although sometimes I feel a bite guilty spending time under ground in such a beautiful city.

Last night while using the communal kitchen I got to meet some other students in my building that were from Japan. They were all fluent in Japanese and French, and most of them spoke some English. I was impressed that they were tri-lingual. Being here really makes me wish I was at least bi-lingual. I'm not learning much new French, but perhaps that will come slowly. It would be great to take a class while I'm here. When I go home I will try to learn more so that when I come back some day I can actually carry on a conversation. I'm certainly not the worst French speaker here, I frequently see Americans who don't even try to use a little French, and it bothers me. I feel like you should at least try to learn the language of the country that you are in, rather than expect the world to know your language. No wonder Americans get a bad reputation.

Aside from simple manners, I feel there is a lot that America can learn from Paris (and probably the rest of Europe) in terms of design. One thing I really love about the city is that it's very dense, but it never feels too dense. The buildings are attractive, and there are plenty of gardens. Since all the buildings here are built wall-to-wall, there are often central courtyards that allow light in and cross-ventilation for the air. Simple, attractive, and an intelligent use of space. Why didn't America carry these ideas over? Also, things are small in Paris, but they are still comfortable. The dorm room that I share with one other girl is about 90-100 square feet, with maybe 40 square feet for the closet, sink and entry, and a little closet of a bathroom. Still, it is comfortable. Perhaps a permanent home could be a little bigger, but we don't need homes as big as we have in America.

Ok, that's all the ranting I will do for now on the flaws of American living.

Tomorrow we take the train out to see Chartres Cathedral. My professor says it is more impressive than Notre Dame (I can't even imagine!). It is located in a typical medieval town, which will be very cool to see. It will be a very early morning though, so I am off to bed. I'll try to post pictures soon!

Finally in Paris!

I'm officially here now! When I got off the plane yesterday I had a hard time comprehending that I was actually in Paris, but waking up today it seemed a little more real.

The flight was good, but very disorienting. We left the US at 6 pm CST and landed in Dublin at 1 am, or 7am Dublin time. It was really weird, since we were flying toward the sunrise we only had about two hours of darkness. We were only in Dublin for 4 hours, but that didn't stop the group from getting an 8am beer at the airport pub (because you have to go to a pub in Ireland, and we were on Milwaukee time and it was right about bar close there). From Ireland it was a short flight to Paris. Flying in over the city I could see the Eiffel Tower, and I freaked out a little bit. It was pretty exciting.

My friend Petronille met me at the airport which was nice. She also ended up being incredibly helpful, since I was so overwhelmed with everything. The new country, foreign language, and complete lack of a sense of time made everything so confusing.

Paris looks a lot like I imagined it to, which shouldn't be weird, but is. The whole city is picturesque and always busy. We stayed in a little hotel the first night. Based on that one hotel, Paris hotels are very different from American hotels. The room was tiny, just large enough for the beds with about 2 feet to walk around them and 3 feet where the door was. Also, the showers here don't have fixed heads, you have to use one hand to hold it. But, one thing I love about the buildings in Paris is that they all have tall skinny windows that open like doors. They let so much light into the room, and in the hotel there was a little ledge so you could step out and look up and down the street. Also, there are never screens on the windows in Paris, but bugs don't seem to be a problem.

After wandering a little bit and getting food, we went to bed early and slept through the night. I think staying awake through the flights and until the evening helped me skip jet lag, because I really didn't have any problem. Today I checked into my dorm. I'm at the Cite Universitaire, which is a collection of dorms for study abroad students. They are set up a lot like a typical American college campus, with large beautiful buildings and lots of green space. The dorms are pretty nice, and like the hotel, small. But who needs to stay inside when there is Paris to see?

I just can't get over how beautiful everything is. It feels like everything I've seen is gorgeous. I saw Notre Dame today, and it was more spectacular than I realized. So intricate and very very very big. I also saw Place des Vosges, which is also beautiful. It's so crazy to actually be in the places we've learned about!

I've been trying to use my French. There are a lot of gaps in my knowledge, but I've been doing ok for the most part. It's getting less intimidating as time goes on, and hopefully I'll get better.

I don't have any photos uploaded yet, but I'll work on it. Tomorrow we start classes!

Two days to go!

I just wanted to let you know that I'll be putting pictures up on shutterfly (allisonsheamastel.shutterfly.com).

Also, turns out I'm living in a different place than I thought, but that's ok. I'll be at Cite Universitaire, which will also be home to many other study abroad students from all over the world. Hopefully I will get to meet some interesting people that way! It is still in Paris, but not in the 11eme.

That's all for now. One more day in Milwaukee, then off to the airport on Saturday!