11/20/10 Last Day in Paris! (I'll be back though)

Our last full day in Paris got to a late start again.  Even though we slept in, I enjoyed the relaxing pace.  We got to the Catacombs around 11.  On the way there, we stopped at a café for breakfast.  I got some sort of bread with chocolate chips.  We were planning to meet Alex and Daven at the Catacombs, but never ended up seeing them.  The Catacombs is a giant underground cemetery.  It has thousands of bones from thousands of people, arranged in an artistic fashion.  Miriam wandered through the Catacombs for about an hour until we made it to the finish.  At the exit, there was a guy checking our bags, to see if we had tried to sneak out any bones.  Good thing he didn’t check my jacket.  Just kidding.  The only thing I took was a rock from the ground to give my friend Marissa for her collection.  Miriam and I did touch one of the skulls though.

            Our next stop was the Eiffle Tower.  We stopped at the same café we had gone to for breakfast and grabbed some lunch to go.  I got some keish.  The Eiffle Tower was about a 5 minute from the metro stop.  All we had to do was follow the masses of people.  Also, there were men selling mini Eiffle towers along the whole street.  We got in the line to walk up the tower.  It was significantly cheaper than taking the elevator and why not walk it?  A brief synopsis of the Eiffle Tower:  It was designed for the World’s Fair in 1889.  It is the tallest building in Paris and according to Wikipedia it is the most visited paid monument in the world.  It was 700+ steps to the second level—a real workout.  We couldn’t go up to the third floor, because you had to take the elevator up to the top.  The second level was high enough for us.  The views of the city were fantastic and you could walk around the whole perimeter.

            After we walked down, we headed to another part of the city.  I forget was part of the city it was, but there was a giant Cathedral on a hill.  We got crepes with nutella to refuel for our next set of stairs up to the cathedral.  We walked around the inside.  From there we just wandered.  There were some cute shops that we checked out.  There was a large square filled with painters selling paintings.  We made our way back down the hill, which led us to Moulin Rouge.  The street that Moulin Rouge is on is filled with sex shops.  I only realized this, when Miriam, Haley and I set out to find a restaurant with French onion soup.  It took a while to find a restaurant on this street.  After our soup, we stopped in a grocery store and bought some baguettes, cheese and wine for dinner.  When we got back to Haley’s room, we stuffed ourselves with brie and other cheeses, while listening to Taylor Swift’s new CD and watching season 5 of How I Met Your Mother.  Could Paris get any better than that?  I don’t think so.  I really need to get season 5 when I get home, I didn’t realize until we watched it, how much I missed the show.  Those were the only episodes of season 5 that I had seen.  We went out with Daven and Alex later that night.  The rain that held out all weekend, decided to make its appearance on our walk home.

11/19/10 Paris Day 2!

Miriam, Haley and I slept in again and started our day in the same place that we had the day before, in front of Notre Dame.  Instead of walking through the Latin Quarter, we walked along the river.  Although Paris was pretty dreary—cold and grey (which Haley says is the weather most of the time), the walk was beautiful.  The architecture of the building along the riverside was amazing.  It had a European feel, how I imagine a European city should be, unlike Barcelona which has more of a modern style.  We walked across the river on a famous foot traveler bridge.  Along the bridge, locks were attacked to the chainlink sides.  Apparently, couples come to the bridge, initial the locks and throw the keys into the river.  Just on the other side of the bridge was the Louvre.  We walked through the courtyard of the museum and out to the other courtyard with the famous glass pyramids.  We continued to walk through parks that led away from the Louvre.  This park led into a road where a Christmas market was set up on either side!  Immediately, I was in love with Paris.  There were tents lining either side of the street selling all sorts of foods—chocolates, crepes, potatoes with cheese and ham (my lunch).  Other tents had small gifts and homemade craft goods.  We walked all the way down one side of the market which led into another famous road.  This street had all the high class shops of Paris.  We walked all the way up it, because at the end of it is the Arc de Triumph.  The Arc de Triumph is in the center of a giant traffic circle.  The traffic circle has about twelve roads converging into it and no markings on the road.  Apparently, none of the auto insurance companies in France cover accidents in this traffic circle, because they happen more than once every half hour on average.  To get to the Arc de Triumph, you have to walk underground.

 Some random building.  Lots of amazing random buildings like this!

 Locks of Love

The River

 Louvre

Christmas Market

 Christmas Market

Arch de Triumph

 One of Napoleon's Rooms (lucky!)

 Milo de Venus?

            After this, we walked all the back from where we came from.  We stopped for lunch at the Christmas market.  I also got a crepe with chocolate.  I am really missing the crepes in Paris.  Miriam and I headed to the Louvre for the rest of the afternoon, while Haley went back to her dorm.  She had already been many times.  Miriam and I only saw a few wings of a few floors.  My favorite part was the Napoleon rooms, rooms decorated from when Napoleon lived there.  We also saw the Mona Lisa, which I have to say is probably one of the most overrated pieces of art ever.  Honestly, I have no idea what makes it so famous compared to other portraits.  I was dragging by the end of the museum, since we had been on our feet since we left that morning.  Miriam and I called up Haley to meet us for dinner.
          We also met up with Evan for dinner and went to another small restaurant.  This time we were all able to get a prefix meal, which includes and appetizer, entre and dessert.  This was the best meal I had in Paris.  I started off with French onion soup, followed by these beef tips with a cream dipping sauce and some sort of caramel cream dessert.  We followed dinner by going to the bar next door and eventually meeting up with Alex and Daven later that night.

 Authentic French Onion Soup

 Dinner!

Alex and Miriam

                      

11/18/10

We slept in as much as we could, until Daven called saying that he was in a café next to Haley’s dorm.  We met him down there and I got a croissant type thing with raisins.  First great impression of French food, and it got continually better and better.  We took the metro to the city center? and got out in front of Notre Dame.  It was pretty cool I guess.  I’ve kind of gotten used to cathedrals in Europe that they don’t seem like a big deal anymore.  We walked in of course.  It was nice to escape from the cold.  Paris is so much colder than Barcelona.  I was very happy that I bought a jacket before the trip.  We walked through the Latin Quarters and Haley led us toward her university.  She had class that afternoon, so we all got lunch a small café before she went.  I got a croquet mademmoislle?  I just butchered that French.  It was basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top. 

After lunch, Daven, Miriam and I started to wander the streets of Paris.  We first came across the Luxembourg gardens which were beautifully maintained.  It was the most green I’d seen in a very long time.  From the gardens, we saw the top of the Eiffle Tower over some buildings in the distance.  We made it our goal to find it.  After walking for about twenty minutes, we came across a different building in the distance with a gold dome on top.  It was only a few blocks away and instantly became our new destination.  It turns out it was the military museum of France and Napoleon’s tomb was also inside the building.  We spent about two hours in the military museum and only managed to make it through the World War I and World War 2 exhibits.  The museum was extremely well done with a great mixture of pictures, artifacts and multimedia.  We missed tons of other exhibits.  I could have spent all day there and not seen it all.

Luxembourg Garden Building

We met Haley after her class for happy hour.  We were basically just trying to burn time before dinner and get out of the cold.  Even met up with us at the bar and we ventured to a different part of the city to find a restaurant.  The restaurant we ended up finding was fairly small, but the menu looked good for its relatively cheap prices.  Paris is an expensive city compared to Barcelona.  I got macaroni with goat cheese.  At first I thought it was going to be macaroni with goat, because the waitress bleated like a goat to make sure that I knew what I was getting.  It was delicious and naturally we followed our meals with crepes.  From there, we headed back to Haley’s room and called it a night.

11/17/10 PARIS!

So today’s the day for PARIS!  I had my bag packed and ready to go before I left in the morning, but still had to struggle through four classes before the flight.  I only went to half of Game Theory though.  That was a nice break.  During our two hour class, we always get a break in the middle, so I left then.  My Spanish friend David said I could copy his notes in the next class!  I rushed home to get rid of my notebooks and grab my filled to the brim backpack.  It is really hard packing for four days in one backpack, but I managed to make it all fit.  I grabbed a quick bite to eat and was off!

            Evan and I got on the same train to the airport.  The train only takes about twenty minutes for me to get there.  I really enjoy how accessible the airport is in Barcelona compared to Rome and Paris.  The flight to Paris was about an hour and half long and I talked to Evan the whole time.  Daven and Miriam were sitting in the row ahead of us.  When we got to the airport, we all went our separate ways.  I was staying with Miriam and her friend from Tufts, Haley.  Evan was getting picked up by his cousin, who lives in the city and Daven ended up sleeping in the airport (long story).  To get to Haley’s dorm, we had to take the RER Train into the city.  Miriam and I walked about the whole length of the airport until we finally got to the escalator that led to the train.  At the bottom, there was a guy who asked us if we were going into the city (in English).  Of course, Miriam and I replied simultaneously in Spanish “Si!”  He told us that we had to run because the train was about to leave, but that the gate was open.  We sprinted down two escalators and barely made it on to the train.  We were both pretty pumped that we saved 8 Euro, since we didn’t have to buy a train ticket.  We did have to jump the turnstile when we got off the train though, a good start to Paris!  Haley met us right outside the station.  Her dorm was literally across the street.  Her room was small, but she had her own bathroom and refrigerator.  We shared a bottle of cider and chatted until at least two in the morning.  It was difficult to fall asleep on her floor.  Miriam and I each had one blanket and I used by backpack for my pillow.

11/13/10 Hiking in Ripoll

PICTURES TO COME.... (they don't download fast enough on my internet at home)

           Emily, Daven and I got away from the city today.  I was nice to get some fresh air.  Daven wanted to do a road trip this weekend, but Lorenzo couldn’t go (which meant there was no one over 21 to rent the car for us).  Plan B was a day hiking in Ripoll.  Emily, Daven and I all live in different parts of the city, so we all got on at different stops.  Our plan was to meet in the front car of the train which worked out well.  It was my first experience figuring out to take the train to where I needed it to go by myself.  Pepita packed me a bocadillo and I left early for the station.  It was good I left early, because I had some trouble figuring out the ticket.  For all my other train rides, I just went to an automatic booth, pressed my destination and my ticket just printed out.  It wasn’t that simple this time, because Ripoll wasn’t listed.  I did a few laps around the station looking for someone to ask, but there were no helpers out like there normally are.  Instead I went up to a window and asked.  Apparently, it was the window for the highspeed trains to places like Madrid.  The man was nice and told me to go to one of the windows 1 through 5.  I was nervous when I made it here, because the lines were long and the train I needed was coming in less than 25 minutes.  Luckily the line moved quickly and I made it to the boarding platform on time.

            Daven and Emily got on the train at the following 2 stops and we were off for Ripoll.  Ripoll is the former capital of Catalunia and is about a 2 hour train ride away.  We took the train through the mountains and got off in the tiny town called Ripoll.  We had no idea where the hiking trails were so we wandered through the streets.  We first came across the Saturday morning market full of fruits, vegetables, meats and fishes.  Then we crossed a small bridge to find a Socialist group campaigning.  November 28^th are the national elections and the Socialist party was getting their name out in Ripoll.  They had a few fun bounces for little kids and were giving away hot chocolate and balloons.  Emily and I both got the hot chocolate.  It was amazing.  I’m going to be sad to go back to the U.S. where hot chocolate is actually liquid.  We stopped in a tourist office and the women gave us a map.  It didn’t end up helping because the trail was not well marked.  We made it to the beginning, but there were lots of turn offs.

            The first part of the path or trail was fairly flat.  It went alongside a field filled with cows.  The cows even had cowbells on, so you could hear them wherever they were.  Then the path went next to some empty warehouses.  This is when we got confused as to whether we were going the right way.  Finally we started to go up a road toward some pretty run down houses.  The road twisted back and fourth up the hill until we were finally past the houses and it lead us through the woods.  We figured it could be the right way.  We kept going up and up until we ran into a small wire fence.  We hopped over the fence and continued to follow the path.  Eventually were just wandering through the woods, on what were probably paths made by cows opposed to humans.  We summitted the mountain and continued to follow the ridgeline until we came out in an opening and could see the city below.  When we came out into the opening, we were in a giant field for cows at the top of the hill.  Below us, all the land on the hill was terraced for farming purposes.  A man was walking his dog and picking mushrooms up at the top, so we figured we weren’t that lost if there was someone else in the same place as us.  We ate our bocadillos at the top and headed down to catch the train.  On our way down, we found the real path.

11/8/10 to 11/12/10= Just Another School Week

Nothing too exciting happened this week.  We got a few of the exam scores back and there was a wide range of scores on the midterms.  It is hard to judge what the scores actually mean since they use a different grading system over here.  They use a scale from 1 to 10.  For the US grading system, a 6 or lower would be failing, but I don’t think it is the same over here, because a lot of other students got fives, sixes and sevens.  I’m pretty sure the directors of the programs just make up our grades at the end, because the professors give them our exams and papers after they grade them, but I think that these only serve as “guidelines” for our actual grades. 

            I started and finished my first essay this week!  I have 2 essays due by December 1^st and another by December 9^th.  Three 10 page papers is not that bad I guess, since I haven’t had any other work this semester.  This first paper was about the reforms of the eighteenth century of Spain.  During the eighteenth century, the Bourbons (a French royal family) took the thrown from the Habsburgs.  The Bourbons reformed a lot of things, especially under Carlos III, helping to modernize the government and economy in the country.  That is my brief English summary of the paper I wrote in Spanish.  One down, two more to go…

            Friday, I worked on my paper some more in the morning.  No one was really around to do anything.  Half the kids were on trips this weekend and the other half were retaking the Pre-semester course final exam.  I didn’t have to retake the exam, but I met up with some people once they got out.  Emily and I walked around Las Ramblas and stopped in a gelato shop.  I got a gofra (waffle) with caramel syrup and whipped cream.  She got a crepe with nutella and bananas.  I’m saving my crepe experience for Paris.  We then went to the festival in Raval.  Raval is a part of Barcelona that has a large immigrant community.  Many of them come from Morocco or northern Africa.  The festival is meant to bring the immigrants together with the Spanish community, by allowing them to share their cultures with one another.  We caught the end of a Bollywood concert.  From there, I headed home for the night. 

11/7/10 The Pope and Pepita Come to Barcelona!

I slept in again.  My lack of sleep from the weekend had been catching up and I had a cold that was developing.  By the time I woke up, Pepita was home!  I was so happy to have her back.  She gave souvenirs to her grandkids and her other daughter (and family) also came over to welcome her back.  She got me a necklace too!  After she had given everyone gifts, they all left.  For lunch, it was back to the two of us.  I had planned to meet Amie and Erin at Sants Estacio after lunch (that is the big train station of the city and it is close to my apartment).  Unfortunately, I got a call during lunch not come.  They couldn’t take trains on the high speed train to Sevilla, so they had decided to go to Mallorca instead!  They said they off to find the ferry and that was the last I heard from them.  I spent the afternoon relaxing and doing some reading for literature. 

I also watched the Pope on the TV later that night.  I watched him as he left from the airport and as the king and queen waved him goodbye.  The king and the Pope both gave “thank you” speeches to each other before the departure.  I was happy that I did not attempt to see him at La Sagrada Familia, because I heard it was insanely crowded and exhausting.  Maybe if I was Catholic, I would have made a better effort to see the Pope.  Not to be irreverent, but to me the Pope is just another guy and not that big of a deal.  I took a picture of him on the TV though, just to say I saw him.