During Spring break, my parents and sister came to visit me for 10 days. We spent the first few days in Paris, and a few days in Rome. I found a really nice typical French hotel for my parents, and my sister stayed with me. Everyone was really tired from Jetlag and the 7 hr time difference, except for my dad who insisted he was not at all tired. We enjoyed croissants and pain au chocolat on Easter, and steak frites for dinner. Going to Rome with the family was an adventure- we had to get up at 5 in the [View Full Entry]

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What a great surprise it was when my boyfriend Hans told me that he and his mom would be coming to England to visit his brother who was working in Portsmouth! Luckily, my university in Paris was on strike in March and I was able to visit them before my family came to visit me. Portsmouth is a sea-port town in the south of England. it is about 2 hours away from London in the train. Although the weather was really dreadful, like they always say it's like in England, we had a great time and did a ton of tourism-- [View Full Entry]

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It's been too long since I've updated my blog! I always have lots of ideas to write about, but after a week or so I get too lazy to write them down :) But now that classes have ended, and summer has started (!) I am going to fill you in about everything that has happened since ---- February. And alot has happened! After I visited Berlin, I took a train to Prague, in the Czech Republic. The views from the train were really amazing because you could see the German countryside. When I first arrived, the strangest thing was the [View Full Entry]

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Berlin : The city of rich history, cold weather and some modern architecture. After three days in Brussels, we were off to Berlin to meet our friend Lilian who is a German herself. The plane took a total of probably 30 minutes to arrive there! The history of Berlin was very interesting, especially to learn how recent the communist rule was. Being there brought me back to Mr. Remfery's history class in high school when he showed us photos of the Berlin wall. Berlin had dozens and dozens of Dunkin Donuts! I think they all went out of business in the [View Full Entry]

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Brussels, Belgium : The city of waffles, fries and chocolate! And "mannekin pis," the famous peeing boy fountain. I don't have much more to say about our trip to Brussels other than that we stuffed ourselves with waffles, fries and chocolate! The Belgian waffles are much more different from the ones in the us: they're crispy with sugar and you can get them topped with strawberries, Nutella, or ice cream! They are also famous for the monstrous portions of fries with a cup of mayonnaise on top like they have in Amsterdam. Auni and I went to the "most famous" french [View Full Entry]

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The next morning, I left london to head off to take the same tour bus to Holland, the land of my ancestors (on my dad's side). In one morning, we drove through England, crossed the English channel, drove through France, Belguim, and finally reached Amsterdam. The strangest thing about arriving in Holland was the language- seeing Dutch written on street signs, maps, and on the bus stops. The first place I ate was McDonalds' (Sad, I know) and all of the garbage cans said "DANK U" on them. I found alot of the Dutch words really funny. [img=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3164/2633235171_4c [View Full Entry]

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Last week I had time to travel before second semester started, so I had time to travel to London and Amsterdam, Holland. I took the bus from Paris to London, a semi-crazy idea but a cheap way to travel. The bus drove from 11 pm to 6 am. When the first thing the man sitting next to me said under his breath was "putain," I knew it would be a long trip. How did we drive from Paris to London? Well, there are two ways to cross the English channel, an underground train tunnel, or by ferry. We took the ferry. [View Full Entry]

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It's been along time since the last time I wrote! The semester and the holidays passed quickly and I'm finally getting around to filling you in about the last few months I've spent in Paris. I am right now sitting in Starbucks in a small table looking out the front window. Why am I sitting here? To observe the big strike without freezing to death outside. For over an hour, the street which is usually packed with 4 lanes of traffic is packed with tens of thousands of Parisians on strike. From what I understand, they are upset for many [View Full Entry]

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Thanks to everyone who has sent me nice comments or emails! I'm glad you enjoy the photos on my blog. I haven't put any up for awhile because I've been busy but tonight I put up two new entries about a trip to the castles in the Loire Valley and the Nuit Blanche. Classes are finally in full swing and are going great! I'm taking 5 classes: A writing class, a philosophy class, a Francophone literature class, a Phonetics and Phonology class, and a Spanish class that Hans' cousin teaches. I'm at the University of Paris Sorbonne 3. I would have [View Full Entry]

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I went on a weeked trip with an international student club to see the castles in the Loire Valley of France. We saw Blois, Amoise, and Chenonceau. We also visited the castle that Leonardo da Vinci lived in when he invented and painted his masterpices. There were recreations of his inventions in the castle and also in the gardens. It's amazing how much he created. The best part was meeting all of the people! There were students from all over the world: Germany, Algeria, Russia, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, USA. I even met someone who is in the seminary and becoming a [View Full Entry]

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