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Published: February 19th 2006
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Hello Everyone,
I start my spring semester tomorrow morning bright and early and so I thought I would ease myself back into the writing mode by putting up a little blog for you all to help get the kinks out of my typing muscles.
I just had a surprisingly long break that lasted an entire month. But between two trips, finishing several papers, and getting really sick twice it didn’t feel that long. The break began with a four day trip to Amsterdam and Brussels. I fell in love with the fairytalesque architecture in Amsterdam as well as its friendly inhabitants and excellent food. The many rings of canals is like having 50 Seines and makes the city so beautiful. Other favorites of Amsterdam include the delicious pancakes, the Van Gogh Museum, and learning a little bit of Dutch. Next, my three traveling companions and I headed to Brussels where I promptly got so sick I had to stay in the hostel and sleep rather than touring the city. So unfortunately I got to see very little of Brussels though I did have a Belgium waffle, which was pretty good but can’t really rely on sick taste buds to
Hot Chocolate in Barcelona
This hot chocolate is like drinking 2 bars of melted down hershey's bar. actually way too sweet for my tastes! give me the full effect.
Next I came home, wrote a paper on Zola’s novel Germinal and a few philosophy papers and then really fell into a sick funk for several days in which I could barely leave the house. Hiking all my groceries of ‘sick food’ home was quite the chore and I really wanted to call my mom to come on over and give me a hand, but finally common sense kicked in and I was able to tough it out on my own. This was my first time really being sick since arriving in France so I suppose my body was making up for all the other illnesses that I hadn’t gotten in the fall.
After recovering I headed off to Barcelona to meet up with my friend Michelle who goes to Berkeley and is studying in Italy. Michelle and I took the laid back approach to traveling and didn’t bother planning too far in advance where we wanted to go during our travels. So we didn’t even have return tickets to Paris or Italy and just decided the day before where to go the next day. In the end we became pros at sleeping
in overnight buses; which turns out to be not the most comfortable way to travel, but definitely the cheapest since you can cut out a night of hostel fees. Also, it is far less shady than the greyhound and so we never felt unsafe. A funny note about the buses, they don’t hesitate to blast music throughout the entire trip - even though it might be 4 in the morning. It was the weirdest sensation to be driving through the middle of no-where in Spain and be listening to .... the Beach Boys, Christina Aguilera, or Dave Mathews. American music is everywhere!!
So on this week and a half long trip Michelle and I saw Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, and San Sebastian. My personal two favorite places where definitely Barcelona and Lisbon. Both towns are near the coast and have a vibrant feel to them. I was totally blown away by how much I liked Lisbon. It sort of felt like San Francisco to me but with crumbling Italian villas instead of the classic Victorian houses in San Fran. In Lisbon you can find: amazing pastries, very friendly people, a great clean metro, cheap and delicious food, and the city
Barcelona
Gaudi's unfinished La Sagrada Familia Church was absolutely amazing to see. I am going back when I am 90 to try to see what it looks like then! has a great character that I can only describe as “earthy.” There is also a fun and clean nightlife; lots of young people gathering out on the streets drinking very cheap but good Sangria. In Lisbon Michelle and I were also courted by a very cute waiter who was actually shy unlike most of his fellow Latin men. We didn’t know exactly what he was saying but something to the effect of wanting to prolong our stay at the restaurant. But since none of us could actually say anything in the other language there was a lot of repeating things, laughter, and absolutely no understanding. Michelle and I had used the “point and shoot” method to order whatever item we happened to be pointing at on the menu- which actually got us very yummy results! Miche and I had to leave our waiter with a smile and a shrug and after that both of us expressed a keen interest in learning some Portuguese!
But even before the waiter episode Miche and I had fallen in love with this beautiful language and we had a great time trying to figure out how to pronounce words in Portuguese. Portuguese looks kind
Beach in Barcelona
Here I am trying to pretend it is a great beach day ... in my big black jacket! of like Spanish but is pronounced so differently that we had to look up pronunciation of each letter before decoding even simple words such as a number or “thank you”!
So, after leaving Spain and Portugal I have realized a few things. One, that I live in possibly one of the most expensive cities in Europe and I am sick of having to pay 3.50 euro for a coffee or 12 euro to eat a basic meal out on the town. Two, that it was very refreshing to have that waiter not know how to say a single word in English, and that it is a bit deflating to constantly have the Parisians “helping me out” by speaking to me in English once they detect that I am not fluent. But on the upside, I also realized that I definitely love the French language and I am glad that I chose it over Spanish or Portuguese, and that I was happy to come “home” to Paris where I know my way around more or less and I can at least make myself understood in French even if I am not yet fluent.
So, here we go with semester
Madrid
Here is the Park where we spent most of our time lounging about and reading in the sun while in Madrid. We didn't really take to the city of Madrid that much! two. Already a bit teary eyed that more than half my stay in France is over, but then again I still have at least 4 more months to live it up in Paris so hoping to make the best of those!
Cheers! love you all,
Win
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