The Halfway Point

03/14/11, 03/15/11, 03/16/11, 03/17/11

     The dreaded week of every semester had quickly creeped up on me, midterm week. It really put things into perspective that I had already been in Europe for 2 months, hit the halfway point and only have 2 months left. I can’t believe how quickly time is flying by. I guess time really does fly when you’re having a good time! The week started off fast, we had two midterms on Wednesday (Food & Culture and Food & Media) and then a take home essay for Italian Society and Culture due on Thursday. Since we didn’t have class until 1 on Monday, I woke up early to start the readings on the two tests on Wednesday. There were a total of nine readings between the two classes and me alongside the rest of my program had yet to crack them open. That said, it was going to be a long couple of days! While this wasn’t an ideal week, we all put it into perspective knowing that this was the first time we had done a lot of actual work in the whole two months we we’ve been here as compared to the amount of work I’d be doing at home. By then end of Monday night I had finished all the readings so I just had to make study guides and memorize the material (that’s the only way to study for exams here).    

     Tuesday morning I went to my Layers of Rome class where we went to the Chiesa Nuova Church. This lesson was particularly interesting to me because it is the church located directly next to our school that we sit on the steps at everyday. While inside, we explored the similarities and difference between this church and the millions of others we’d seen. In general, this church had more gold in it than I’ve seen yet. This church was different in that it was built during the Baroque period so it was much more theatrical. It was also built as part of the Counter Reformation. 

Inside the Chiesa Nuova Church

     The rest of Tuesday revolved around studying for our exams. Later that night me and my five other roommates sat in my room to talk through what we took away from the readings. I think we were all lacking sleep because we couldn’t stop laughing at things and it was one of the funniest hours of my trip. Not to mention, we couldn’t help but be annoyed that it was Gina’s 21^st birthday at midnight and we were studying for two exams. However, an hour before midnight, Gina got the e-mail she had been waiting for. She wants to go to law school and had applied to U of I’s early acceptance law program. To do so, she wrote several essays, got letters of recommendations, etc. After this, only 40 were selected for interviews and she was one of them. They select 15 students to offer acceptance to and as she opened the e-mail, she screamed out with joy that she had been offered a spot! I had never been so excited for anyone and almost started crying for her. After working so hard, she truly deserves it! We couldn’t study after this and just hung out the remainder of the night. 

     Wednesday dragged on and finally our tests were over. I had decided to save my take-home essay for Thursday morning and afternoon because we only had one class. We planned to go out Wednesday night for Gina’s birthday. First we went to Dar Poeta, one of the most famous pizza places in Rome that we had yet to go to. While there, I got a pizza with tomato, mozzarella, salami, and chilli pepper. It was the first time they offered chilli peppers on pizza and it hit the spot. The crust was super thin on the underside and the crust was thick, just perfect! Following dinner, two of Gina’s best friends from home came into Rome. One is studying in Milan and the other was on spring break so she came in to visit for her break. Following dinner, we went to the club La Maison for the night and had a great time. Today, I woke up early and cranked out my paper so I had as little to do as possible after class. I finally finished it around 4 and sent it in, officially declaring it spring break! 

My pizza from Dar Poeta

     Now, I have to try and pack for a 7 day vacation in a backpack… should be interesting! We are flying into Barcelona Friday, going to Amsterdam Tuesday to Thursday, and then Gina and I are flying back to Rome while the rest of our roommates go to Berlin. We’re coming back because two of our good friends from school, Ali and Kelly, are meeting us in Barcelona for break. They really want to see Rome and so we’re coming back with them to show them around for the last part of the break! I can’t wait it is going to be a great week!

Belgium- Sensation White

03/12/11

     I started off my Saturday morning with what seems to be becoming a weekly routine, waking up, taking a quick shower, and hopping on a plane to a new location! This time, we were off to Brussels, Belgium. We were flying Ryanair though, so of course we pretty much had over half a day traveling in order to get where we wanted to be. From the time I left my apartment in the morning until the time I got to the hotel we were staying at took a total of 7 hours. Thinking about it makes me exhausted! First we had to fly into a city outside of Brussels, then take a bus to the city center. This was followed by a walk to the other train station in the city center where we would take a train to Hasselt. Hasselt is the name of the city where we were headed for the concert Sensation White that started at 10 p.m. 

     By the time we even got to Hasselt it was almost 5 so we grabbed a bite to eat since we hadn’t eaten since leaving the apartment that morning. Because Belgium is known for its fries, we made sure to stop somewhere with fries. I got a cheeseburger with everything on it and fries. They put the sauce directly on the fries and it’s typical to eat fries with mayonnaise there, but I just couldn’t do it and stuck with ketchup. From here, we went to our hotel. We were staying at the Holiday Inn and it was actually cheap because again, we fit 8 people in a 4 person room. Walking into the hotel was really fun because it was jam packed with college students studying abroad coming in from all across Europe. Before starting to get ready, we went up to say hello to the girls from Grenada and the guys from Barcelona. We also had friends in from places ranging from Verona, Switzerland, Milan, Versailles, Vienna and the list goes on. 

Sightseeing while walking through Brussels

     As we all started getting ready and hanging out in the hallways, they suddenly started getting loud with kids getting ready and starting to put on their all white outfits. Sensation White is a house music concert with several DJs and all those attending wear all white! We gathered with all of our friends between two hotel rooms. There were over 50 kids I knew from U of I there and we were all hanging out. It was such a strange phenomenon to me to be in a foreign place as random as Hasselt, Belgium and to be surrounded by so many people I knew. 

My roommates and I

Rome & Grenada Girls

Some of the boys

     After hanging out for a while, we started our half an hour walk to where the concert was held. As we walked up, it was massive crowds of pure white everywhere. It was such a cool experience. We walked in and the light show was really cool that accompanied the DJs and it was pretty much a rave of everyone dancing and having a good time. The concert began at 10 p.m. and lasted until 7 the following morning. I did my best to stay as long as I could, but come 5 in the morning I couldn’t last any longer and me and two of my roommates headed back to our hotel room. The rest of my roommates walked home as the sun rose and came into our room at 8. This was one of the coolest concerts I’ve ever been to, unlike anything I’ve ever seen and an experience I will never forget!

03/13/11

Because we went to bed so late, we all slept until noon to get a decent 6 hours of sleep in before starting the next day. Unfortunately, our flight left at 5:30 so we had to repeat the travels of the previous day, just backwards. While I didn’t get to sight see Belgium as much as I may have liked to, it was definitely worth the trip. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all my friends I normally see everyday and haven’t seen in two months was really fun! When we finally got back to our apartment that night, we all ran straight to our beds and went to bed for the night! I consider it a very successful weekend, but we had to get our rest in because the week ahead of us was midterms followed by a long week of traveling for spring break!

Quick Week

03/07/11, 03/08/11, 03/09/11, 03/10/11, 03/11/11

     After several weekends of traveling, my exhaustion finally caught up with me this week. It was a low week in terms of class work and the only thing school wise I had due this week was one Italian quiz on Thursday afternoon. Other than that, class was pretty monotonous this week. On Tuesday for our Layers of Rome class, we went to the Church of San Pietro Montorio located along the Janicolo Hill. This church served as a transitioning period into more Renaissance style architecture. The location of the church itself has a very significant meaning. It is said to have been the location of St. Peter’s inverted crucification. When translation is done, St. Peter was said to have been crucified at a place equidistant between two pointy objects, which many translate to the two original pyramids of Rome. This place just so happens to be the location of this church. The main difference between this church and the architecture of past churches we’ve looked at is evident by its Renaissance style. During the Renaissance, architecture was very proportionate and balanced, often using geometrical elements to give it further meaning. 

Church of San Pietro Montorio

     On Thursday, as part of our project with the Italian students from Roma Tre, my roommate Kelly and I went to meet the Italian student we were paired with and she was to show us a part of Rome unknown to tourists. From there, we help her to make sure her translation into English for the website is proper and in return, she helps us translate Italian to English in the video we have to make for the end of the semester project. We were to meet her at the metro stop Policlinico at 9:30, meaning we had to be out of our apartment by 8:45 to get there on time. For once, we made it there on time after taking a tram, bus and a metro! I’ve never used public transportation more in my life than in this semester. It has it’s ups and downs, the locations are very convenient, but the crowds of people on them have the ability to make or break your morning. Unfortunately, this was one morning where it started off our day on the wrong foot because every source of transportation was sardined and you couldn’t move and were constantly pushed. When we finally arrived at where we were meeting our friend, Marianna, she was nearly 40 minutes late and said it was traffic, as do most Italians when they aren’t on time. She took us to a museum called the Casina delle Civette, which was an older house focused on Liberty Art. As we walked through the surrounding area and saw several houses around it and the gardens, I couldn’t help but wish I lived in an area such as this! The houses were gorgeous and looked as though they belonged in Napa Valley, California. Our trip ended with a stop for a cappuccino where Marianna treated both Kelly and I. We are very lucky that she is so nice and helpful! She even offered to cook us dinner one night after our spring break, I am definitely going to take her up on that! 

Park surrounding the museum

Casina delle Civette

This picture doesn't quite capture it, but I want my house to look like this one day...

Example of Liberty Art

Beautiful Park surrounding the area

     Other than that, I took this week as a major resting period. Many of my roommates and other people in the program went out several times this week to take advantage of limited schoolwork. I made the attempt two nights to go out and even showered, did my make-up, etc., only to fall asleep in my bed before going out. I think it was a sign that I needed a week off to fully catch up and prepare myself for the week to come! On Friday class got out earlier than normal and it was a beautiful day out. My friend Ashley and I didn’t want the day to slip away so we decided to just wander around Rome for about an hour and a half and then walked back to our apartment. After we got home, we all spent the evening relaxing and packing to leave for Belgium the following morning for the Sensation White concert in Hasselt!

Venice for Carnivale!

03/05/11

     Falling asleep before 10 certainly made getting up at 3:45 a bit more bearable, but still, seeing the clock say a time that early is never a pleasant sight. I woke up, hopped in the shower, and quickly packed before heading on our way to walk to the train station down the street at 5. We had to catch the train that took us directly to the airport that we were flying out of. I don’t like walking anywhere, particularly train stations, at this time in the morning, but we were with a group of 8 girls so I felt quite a bit safer knowing we were traveling with big numbers. Normally, I love having short trips, but for some reason, that morning we all kind of wished we had a long train ride ahead of us that we could sleep on. Instead, we had a 45-minute flight and then we were landing! It was as though we took off, had enough time to listen to about four songs, then it was time to turn my iPod back off and land! 

     From the airport, we took a bus to a town called Mestre where we were staying for the night. We were fitting 8 people in a 4 person hotel because it was the only availability we were able to find during the Carnivale festival. There were no openings on the actual island of Venice itself during the weekend that weren’t outrageously expensive so we took the advice of a teacher of ours and stayed in the outskirts in this town and just took a bus or cab to get to Venice. When we arrived at the hotel, we weren’t able to check-in yet so we just left our bags there and headed on our way into the city of Venice for the remainder of the day. After waiting at the bus stop nearby for over an hour watching countless buses pass by without stopping because they were so filled up with people, we asked the man at the counter of the hotel to call us a cab to get to the main island of Venice. This was a great idea because we got there within 10 minutes of asking for the call! We got dropped off at Piazzale Roma, the first part of Venice you walk into. 

     We hopped on a waterbus to take us from there over to San Marco Square, the main focus are of the Carnivale festival. The bus itself took about a half an hour to get from on end to the other of the island, but it was the perfect opportunity to capture pictures of what is my favorite city I have visited yet. Venice is unlike anything I have ever seen before and unlike anything I will probably ever see in the future as well. I felt like I took a picture of every building we passed, but I couldn’t help it because they were all so pretty and the fact that they were all placed right alongside the waterfront made them that much more beautiful. 

One of the many pictures I took on the waterbus

Christina and I enjoying the view

Saint Mary's Basilica along the canals

     As we arrived at the San Marco stop, we saw the crowds in front of us and I could see that we were in for quite an adventure. The first thing we saw after getting off the boat were Carnivale masks everywhere. We all really wanted to buy one, but were starving since we hadn’t yet eaten so first we stopped and grabbed lunch before going back to grab a mask. I had pasta with clams for lunch, the first time I’ve had this yet, but I figured I had to try seafood in a city that’s built upon water. The pasta was great and I’m really happy I got it! From there, the eight of us (my roommates and I, plus two other girls from my program Kim and Marisa) went and picked out masks. All of ours were so different from one another’s, making it fun! The one I picked out was black, gold and white with a large black feather on the side. I really loved how it looked and the color combination and each stand I went to I kept coming back to it so I decided this was the mask for me! 

San Marco Square

Campanile Tower in San Marco Square

San Marco Church

     After purchasing our masks and exploring all of what San Marco Square had to offer, we sat alongside the water on a ledge and hung out while having a couple drinks and waiting to meet up with friends. We did all our sightseeing of the San Marco area that morning and devoted the rest of the day to people watching and meeting up with friends from school and home. We found a group of friends studying in Vienna as well as kids from another program in Rome and relaxed by the water all afternoon. As we sat along the edge, we felt like celebrities because nearly every person who walked by us snapped a photo of us. I can’t say I blame them though because after all, there were eight of us sitting in front of what is one of the most scenic backdrops I’ve ever seen in unique masks. We decided not to move until we counted 100 people who took a picture of us, and we reached this number relatively quickly!   

     After hanging out all afternoon, we wandered around for a place to go to dinner nearby the Rialto Bridge. After dinner, we walked around and some girls did a bit of shopping before heading back in to our hotel for the night. We didn’t want to stay out late as it had already been a long day and we knew we wanted to get an early start to the next afternoon so we could accomplish everything we wanted to that we hadn’t yet done on Saturday. As we walked back towards where we needed to catch the waterbus, we ran into a DJ playing in the center of a Piazza outdoors. The square was packed with people in masks and costumes dancing the night away and since it was still early, we decided to hang out and join the party for a bit. After about a half an hour, we proceeded on our walk back to the bus and hopped on it. We got back to our hotel by about 11 and quickly fell asleep. Because it was eight of us in a four-person room, it was four people to a bed. Let’s just say, I woke up sweating several times because there was no room to move! Either way, I had a very successful first day in Venice and experiencing Carnivale and couldn’t wait for round two the next day! 

03/06/11

     Our room woke up early on Sunday given that we went to bed at such a reasonable hour the night before and we were on our way back to the actual island of Venice by 10:30 that morning. We hopped back on the waterbus to head farther down the island, but this time got off at the Rialto stop by the bridge. Our first plan of attack for the day, something you can’t travel to Venice and not do, was to take a gondola ride. We bargained with the man standing there, got a good rate, then split into two groups of four, and went for a ride. Our drivers agreed to ride next to each other or close to each other so that we could still communicate with each other. As we took off from the dock, I felt as if this moment was surreal. Taking a gondola ride isn’t something I ever thought I would actually do and the fact that I had the opportunity to do so, and in Venice for that matter, made my trip. While the ride itself wasn’t super long, the view was astounding and it didn’t matter to me how long it was. We went down the main stream for a while and then turned into the smaller canal streets between buildings. As we traveled around, we talked a bit to our driver who seemed to know every other driver. He told us how it was a family run business and all the drivers were in some way related to one another, which I thought was a really cool thing. 

     After snapping several photos on my gondola ride, we got off and tried to meet up with one of my roommate Kelly’s friend from home, Sean. He goes to the University of Kansas and is studying about an hour outside of Venice so I got the chance to talk to him more about KU, which was fun to hear about since Sam goes there now. We had seen just about everything that we necessarily wanted to out of the trip so everyone did a little extra shopping and I bought myself a Murano glass ring in the color of my birth stone (emerald), as well as my souvenir from every city I visit (postcard and shot glass). 

     As we walked around shopping, we headed back towards San Marco to stop at the Murano Glass Factory to take a tour. With the crowd, it took us nearly a half an hour to get somewhere that would ordinarily take maybe 10 minutes. Going inside the glass factory was very interesting. We watched a man blow glass while it was hot and within a matter of five minutes, the man had shaped a beautiful glass vase and horse sculpture. It was interesting to see how quickly one can do this once you learn how to do it. From watching this, we went upstairs and got to see several of the glass creations they are famous for. Although none of us could afford anything they offered in our wildest dreams, it was really neat to see. 

     By this time, it was nearing when we needed to head back to ensure we made it to our train in time. We sat along the waterfront for twenty minutes more to soak in the sight one last time and then began our journey to the Mestre train station to head back to Rome after a great two day vacation! 

 

Unofficial in Rome!

03/04/11

     Friday started with a field trip to a television studio for our Food & Media class. According to our schedule, it was supposed to be from 9-4, which doesn’t sound like the greatest of afternoons. As it turned out, we actually didn’t have to meet at the train station until 10 and by the end of the day we spent more time traveling than in the studio itself. We arrived on set at about 11:30 after taking the tram and metro over. Once there, we split into groups and took turns taking a tour of the facilities and getting the chance to watch one of their television shows be recorded first hand. Although I’m not sure of the exact name of the show, it is a combination of a cooking show and a talk show. The day we visited we got the chance to see two guests, one a book writer and the other a prior Miss Italy. Miss Italy was stunning in real life (on screen too, of course!), but we learned how there was a lot of controversy in her claiming the title of Miss Italy because she wasn’t technically born in Italy and is of African American decent. Either way, it was cool to get to see her and say ciao! We sat in the production studio while they filmed it so I got a chance to see how one person is responsible for microphones/sound, one in charge of camera angles, one for switching from camera to camera and one is the director. It was neat to see all of this happening in one place and recognizing how much truly goes into creating a TV show. I never really think about this when just flipping through channels, but it makes me appreciate them a lot more now! 

     Immediately after the TV Studio visit, all 32 students in my program planned to go home and then start our “Unofficial Pub Crawl” an hour from the time we got back to our apartment. For anyone who doesn’t know, Unofficial is something students at U of I celebrate every year a couple weeks before St. Patrick’s day (an unofficial St. Patty’s Day) where students skip class, wear all green, and it’s a big party all day long. Considering this is one of every students favorite days on campus, many of us abroad were sad to miss out on the occasion so we wanted to create our own! Therefore, everyone in my program dressed up in as much green as we packed—I packed surprisingly little green and had to borrow from my roommates—and got together to go to the various Irish pubs across Rome. We met down in the lobby at 4:30 and went on our way. Our program director knew of the holiday and warned us to behave ourselves and act in an appropriate way, but I’m pretty sure we did everything she wouldn’t have wanted us to do. We were loud and obnoxious on the tram playing games as we went. As we walked to our first stop (Highlanders), we walked around with half of the program chanting I-L-L followed by the other half chanting I-N-I. Looking at the faces of all the Italians surrounding us made my night that much better. 

     We paused quickly to take a picture of ourselves in front of the Pantheon in all green on our way to the first bar. Highlanders was the perfect place to start as it was 10 Euro all you can drink, wine and beer, for an hour. Plus, they had two large beer pong tables and plenty other tables to gather around giving us the feeling that we were back on campus in a fraternity house.  We drank Carlsberg beer, the first time I’d drank it but I couldn’t think of a better occasion to try it and I liked it a lot! From Highlanders, we skipped the other bars and went straight to Scholars for the remainder of the night. My roommates and I went home at 9 knowing we had to get up veryyyy early the following morning to catch our flight to Venice.

My roommates and I in front of the Trevi Fountain in between pubs

Days go by

02/28/11, 03/01/11, 03/02/11, 03/03/11

     Tuesday started early with our Layers of Rome class, this week we were going to Villa Farnesia, This is the first attempt post-renaissance to create a Roman Villa similar to those during the classical period. The majority of the class was focused on the artwork within the villa, much of which was done by Raphael or his associates. My favorite room in the house was the dining room upstairs where it was painted to look as though it was situated outside with columns painted on the wall and the floors are painted on the wall to look as though it continues. The view shows what you would be able to see throughout Rome if the walls weren’t there. 

Painting by Raphael

Painting by Sebastiano del Piombo

The "Outdoor" Room

     Later that day, we had to meet with the Italian students we are matched with to help discuss ideas for our video project that is due at the end of the semester focused on some aspect of food and culture in Italy. Our group decided on fresh markets and to focus on restaurants that only use fresh food versus the many restaurants in America that have food stocked in their storage and shipped in on trucks. I think this will be a very interesting topic especially because fresh markets seem to be slowly dying out even in Italy. While there used to be one in nearly every neighborhood, now only two main ones exist because of the increase in number of supermarkets. 

     Yesterday and today (Wednesday and Thursday), I had my first two oral exams for my Italian class and they wound up going well! They had to be between 3-5 minutes and with how short of a time period I’ve been taking the language, I used nearly every word I knew somewhere in my presentation! Wednesday night a group of us went out to an area called Testaccio to a club called Coyote. We all enjoyed a night out dancing and meeting new people. Today, I’m staying in to catch up on everything that needs to be done before we leave for yet another weekend to Venice for Carnival! But first, tomorrow we have a Rome version of U of I’s unofficial St. Patrick’s Day (which is actually tomorrow at school as well) by doing an Irish Pub crawl tomorrow night!

Paris

02/25/11

     I woke up Friday morning around 11, giving me enough time to rest up and enough time to make sure everything was packed and set in stone before leaving for the long weekend. Me, four of my roommates, and several others in my program were traveling to Paris from Friday until Monday night. I packed up relatively quickly (1- because I’m finally becoming a better packer and 2- I was so anxious to get on our way!). Paris has always been somewhere I’ve dreamed of going and it seemed surreal to me that the day I would see it had actually come! Unfortunately, before I could get there, I had a very long day of traveling ahead of me! It was the first time I was going to fly out of Rome’s other airport (Ciampino—which of course is conveniently not located anywhere convenient, hence the reasons you can find cheap flights out of it!). First stop, taking the bus from our apartment to Termini Train Station, a nice 20 minute ride. This was followed by a 45 minute bus ride to Ciampino Airport. From there, a lovely 2 hour plane ride where we then had to take an hour and 20 minute bus to the center of Paris.        

     By the time we wound up in Paris itself, it was already about 11:30 and of course, we were lost and had no idea how to get to our hotel. The website of the hotel didn’t give its actual address, just a small clipping on a map of where it was situated. Looking back, this would have been a good hint as to one of many reasons we shouldn’t have booked the hotel in the first place. After nearly 2 hours of wandering around asking anyone from people on the street to police officers, we finally found it. Sadly, it was not the sight that we were expecting when we heard the words hotel. We had decided to stay in a hotel in Paris because they were actually less expensive than the hostels, surprisingly enough. When we walked up, the place itself seemed very shady as it looked as though a gang was hanging out outside the building. When we walked up, the glass doors were locked, but not by what you would expect, but rather a large metal rod over the door handles that supposedly kept people out. We knocked on the door and out of the creepy darkness came a balding and frightening looking man who did not look happy. He spoke to us and was angry that we came at such an odd time in the night and we quickly explained that our flight landed late and got lost, but rather than have sympathy, he just yelled “shhh, people are sleeping.” Right off the bat we were very scared. Once we were given our keys, we eerily walked up the spiral staircase to our room to see what we were in for. We walked up to find that not was there gum on the walls right next to the bed, it didn’t look like the sheets were washed, and there wasn’t even enough pillows for everyone. Not too mention, there was no wifi or hairdryer provided as promised on the website. Not really sure of what to do considering none of us felt safe and knowing that we wouldn’t sleep a minute if we had to stay there, we decided to venture out around the area to see if there were any last minute availabilities somewhere we felt safer. As we went to leave, we left our bags in the room in the case we couldn’t find anything else and the owner didn’t allow us to take our key with us and told us to leave them at the front desk. This assured us even further we needed to get out because we didn’t want to leave all of our belongings during the day just hanging out in the room with nowhere to lock them. Luckily, we walked down the street and there was a hotel called All Seasons with an availability that night for the same price. I think it’s safe to say we booked it as quickly as possible, ran back to the other place, paused to quickly tell the scary owner we would not be back and to cancel the rest of our stay, and ran back to our new hotel for the night. We quickly got into bed as it was now already 2:30 in the morning and we wanted to start the day out early and explore. None of us even wanted to think about the fact that as of then, we were homeless for the next two nights with nowhere to stay! 

Lost asking the police where to go!

02/25/11

     We woke up on the early side Saturday and enjoyed our complimentary breakfast at the hotel before meeting our friends at the Louvre Museum at 10. Looking outside, as expected from looking up the weather prior to our departure, it was rainy and cold. While it isn’t the ideal weather to tour a city in, I couldn’t have too many complaints given that rain or shine, I was in Paris. 

     After waiting in a very long line, we made it to the front and finally were on our way into the world’s largest museum! Thanks to being a “European Union citizen,” entry was free, which is pretty cool. Given how large and confusing the museum is, my friends and I decided to get the audio tour to help guide us and give us a more thorough explanation to the various pieces of artwork throughout the museum. We chose to do the “Masterpiece” tour that stopped at three focal pieces, but stopped at many others along the way. The three main spots we stopped were: Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace, and the Mona Lisa. All of these were astounding in person, particularly the Mona Lisa. As many times as I’ve seen pictures, I wasn’t expecting it to be as small as it was in person. Although it wasn’t that big, it was still just as stunning as I expected and her eyes truly do follow you wherever you go! 

The Louvre

Me outside the Louvre!

Venus de Milo

Victory of the Samothrace

Total tourist picture in front of the Mona Lisa

     By the time the guided tour was over, it was nearly three hours later and we decided we should probably move to our next stop! But first, we had to stop for lunch. We were heading towards the Eiffel Tower next so we just walked in that direction until we found something. We stopped at a cute little restaurant that served gyros and French fries and decided to stop as it sounded super appealing! Considering it was already nearly 3 at this point, we were all starving. Luckily, the weather had cleared up a bit (or so we thought!) and we proceeded to the Eiffel Tower to go to the top. When we got to the Eiffel Tower, I was amazed at its beauty in person. The structure and architecture of it is so unique from anything I’d ever seen. Once in front of it, due to how tall it is, it was hard to get a picture of myself in front of it and still capturing the whole tower! 

     After snapping a couple of shots in front of it, we headed to the line to go up the tower. There are two ways to get up, one is to take the elevator directly to the top and the other is to walk the stairs up the first two levels and then take the elevator the final leg. We chose to walk the first two levels so that we could view the city from each level up. After waiting in line for approximately a half an hour, we approached the ticket booth and rain started coming down in a downpour. Not really sure what we should do, we decided as long as we had waited so long and that the weather wasn’t supposed to be that great any of the days we were there, we would just do it anyways! I’m so happy we chose to do this. For one, I don’t think I’ll ever forget climbing up the Eiffel Tower in the rain! Also, we really lucked out and after climbing to the first level, it slowed to a slight drizzle and by the time we got to the second level it came to a complete halt. Not to mention, the rain gave the sky a very interesting tint that made my pictures really different. At the second level, we again waited in another line for the elevator to the top. When we finally got in an elevator, as we went up in the glass elevator, we felt as though we were in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and that the elevator was never going to stop and we would shoot into the sky as it felt like a much longer ride than originally expected. Once we arrived at the top, we admired the view that it gave us and took a couple pictures.

View from the second level of the Eiffel Tower

     However, it was starting to get late and given that we still didn’t have somewhere to stay that night, we headed back to the area and searched around for somewhere and lucked out that there was an opening at the Best Western hotel right next door for the same price. After showering and getting ready for the night, we stopped at a crepe stand right down the street for dinner. I had a nutella and banana crepe and with my sweet tooth, it really hit the spot. We stopped back up in our room to finish getting ready and actually soaked our feet in the bathtub. Our apartments in Rome only have showers and so we wanted to take advantage of the bath. Therefore, with our cold, wet, and worn out feet from the day we filled it up and hung out around the bathtub until we headed out to a club called Rex to meet up with the rest of the people from our program and several other U of I students studying in Paris! 

02/26/11

     After a long night out, getting up and ready to go the next morning wasn’t quite as easy as the day before, but we managed to be out and going by 11. Our plan of attack for the day was to go to the Notre Dame Cathedral and see the Arc de Triumph. First stop, Notre Dame Cathedral where we tried to meet up with our friends who have been studying in Versailles all year. We were supposed to meet them at noon by the metro stop right by the Cathedral, but with our history of getting lost, we were of course late. By the time we arrived, they were nowhere to be found. We kept trying to call them using our Italian phones, but for some reason they haven’t been very reliable in foreign countries and the calls weren’t going through. Sadly, this meant we weren’t able to see them, but they’re going to be in Belgium in two weeks with us so I’ll be able to see them soon enough. Because we missed them and we hadn’t eaten yet, we grabbed lunch before going into the church. We stopped at a place right outside where I had French onion soup. 

     After finishing up, we crossed the street and headed into the church and were amazed at its grandeur. It was one of the prettiest churches I’ve been in yet (and let me say, there’s a lot of churches in Europe!). Not only was the church massive in size, but its decoration was beautiful. From the Notre Dame Cathedral, we stopped briefly at Starbucks, because yes, unlike Rome, Paris has Starbucks. Not wanting to miss this opportunity, we stopped and grabbed a real coffee and enjoyed the stop to warm up before moving on. 

     From Starbucks, we hopped on the metro towards the Arc de Triumph. After experiencing Paris’s metro system it makes me realize when I get home I really need to make better use of Chicago’s public transportation. We were able to get wherever we needed using this which came in very handy with how big of a city Paris is. The Arc de Triumph is located right along Champs Elysees Boulevard, one of Paris’s famous shopping areas. Rather than take the metro back to our apartment, we walked down this boulevard stopping in various shops to explore what the fashion capital of the world had to offer! After walking an immense amount and seeing several sights, we called it a day and went back to our hotel (we stayed at the Best Western again because there was another opening thankfully!). We went to an Irish Pub called Corcoran’s for dinner where I had a fantastic cheeseburger which I have been craving for far too long. After dinner, we were either going to go back to Corcoran’s for a relaxing night or just hanging out at the apartment. Most of the other people from our group headed back to Rome earlier in the day or else were departing at 4 in the morning so my roommates and I hung out and chatted until we fell asleep very early. 

02/27/11

     When we woke up Monday morning, we had to make the most of our time because we had to get back to the bus station to begin our journey back to Rome at least three hours before our flight meaning we had to be there no later than 5. We decided to spend our last day exploring the area of Montmarte because it seemed to be the consensus as one of everyone’s favorite area in Paris. The main attraction of the area is the Sacra Coeur located on top of a hill giving a different panoramic view of Paris. Before climbing to the top, we stopped at a cute diner at the bottom and I enjoyed a hearty omelet before walking to the top. It was again a cold and cloudy day so we were unable to see as great a view as what we would have on a sunny day, but I still loved it. Following going in the church, we headed through the area to do our souvenir shopping for the trip where I got my signature shot glass and post card to add to my collection! By this time, because Montmarte was a hike away from where we needed to be, we had to start heading back to get our things before heading on our way to the airport. We got back to our hotel around midnight that night after yet another great weekend trip. Paris is my favorite city I’ve been for a weekend trip yet despite the weather and I loved every minute of being there. The city had a feel that somewhat reminded me of that of Chicago. I hope to one day return and experience it in the summertime to gain a whole new perspective!