All in all, today was just a big day of travel. We had to be ready to go--checked out and everything by 10 AM Paris time, which wasn't too hard. I'd packed most of my things the day before, so I just had to have breakfast, finish getting ready for the day, and then throw in the last few things into my suitcase.
Breakfast, as always was awesome. I treated myself to 2 pan au chocolats today (don't worry, it gets even better).
We got on the bus, and we were off! We were going to have class to discuss some of our readings and homework, so I used most of my free time at first to finish the reading assignments. It all has to do with a book called Made to Stick, and the book is actually really good. Its a great read for anyone trying to communicate an idea.
The countyside outside France is absolutely amazing. The fields are so green, and today the sky was beautiful, which totally added to the whole experience. France, je t'aime.
We drove for a few hours and then had to stop for a half hour and wait for the driver. I guess that all the drivers in Europe are part of a union or something and that their minutes driving and speeds are tracked. IF they go too fast, or if they drive too long with out taking a long break (30 minutes +), they can be fined 1500 euro (over 2000 USD). So..we waited, and then made it back on the road after a while. Craziness.
After a few hours of traveling (and class), and of course grabbing some awesome pictures of people sleeping in my group, we arrived in a small midevil town called Dijon. We would have a few hours to get food and explore. A couple of us jumped off the bus, and we were off. Right next to where we parked, there was this great little park that had some awesome statues in it. I went in to explore, and while I was taking pictures, a kid came up to one of the other guys I was with and asked him if he was from Provo. Of course, he said we were, and so he started chatting with the guy. His name is Nathan, he is LDS, and he lives in Dijon, but his siblings go to BYU. How random is that! We chatted with him for quite a while. Such a nice guy! He thought we might be from BYU because the side of our bus has this big sign on it that says BYU EUROPE BUSINESS TRIP (even though its not actually us...but was a group from before us.) It really is a small world after all!.
While in Dijon, we found a place to eat. I got this awesome baguette sandwich called the specimine...it had beef, cheese, tomatoes, onions DIJON mustard, and ketchup. It was really good! I'm glad I went that way for lunch. Yum.
Then we got to walk around. The architecture is, as always, so ornate and awesome. I guess dijon is known for some of its roofs, and it didn't dissapoint. We had the chance to go into a few of the churches as we walked around, and they were all gorgeous. The Stained glass is beautiful and was a real treat to see.
Time was running out and we had to start heading back to the bus. When we were looking for lunch, I passed this bakery that sold pan au chocolats. Since they are pretty much my favorite french pastry, I had to go and get one for dessert...especially since I hadn't had (2) already that day haha. So I went back for one, and what did they have? A MAXI PAN AU CHOCOLAT! Man, I was in heaven. It was HUGE! And not much more. So I bought a big one...and a small one for good measure. I had planned to save one for later, but it didn't last very long. I shared it and ate the rest. Man, it was good. I LOVE FRANCE!
Back to the bus and I finally got a chance to nap for a little bit. We had class again for another assignment, and after a few more hours of bussing around, we finally made it to Lausanne. The city kind of takes you by surprise. As you come into the city, you can see the mountains in the back, and they are absolutely gorgeous. After getting checked into our AWESOME hOtel (quite small, but still pretty darn cool)...pictures later), we took the (kind of) metro down to the waterfront. The professors bought us all an ice cream (they owed us for being late one day) and we got to take fun pictures. We had an amazing sunset, and just enjoyed being so close to the water. If I can, I really want to take a boat ride, because the scenery is so stinking awesome.
After a while of just chilling (we counted it as FHE), we started heading back to the hotel. A few of us were hungry, so we looked for a place to eat. Honestly, I don't know how I'm going to make it through the few days were here because all the cafe's are in the 20-30 dollars (after conversion) PER MEAL. Most of the places were closed anyway. So, we found a mcdonalds and had a party. :-) I've now had McDonalds in NYC, France, and now Switzerland, so I am confident I'll be able to have McDonalds in each country on our trip. haha. Even Mcdonalds was expensive. It cost more than $6 for a regular cheeseburger and a snack wrap. It tasted good though, so I guess thats what matters.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Au Revoirs (until we meet again)
Paris is still awesome. Thats all there is to it. Its the city of love, of lights, and of a lot of fun.
But all good things must come to an end. Tonight was our last day in Paris, and tomorrow morning (after some good Pan au Chocolats), we'll get on a bus and go to Lausanne, Switzerland. But that is for another day.
So, the morning started and I decided to do some laundry. Theres nothing like doing laundry in the bathtub :-) We went to church, and saw someone who was on national news about 8 years ago, so that was kind of random. Surprisingly, a lot of the people in our group knew people from the Paris ward we went to. It was really funny. Church was translated for us and about 50 other people into English and we watched the meeting on a screen in a different room. It was testimony meeting, and it was really a great meeting.
After church, a large part of the group went to the Pompidou, which is this random Modern art museum. The exterior of the building is pretty cool because it actually has the escalator outside the building. The building is weird, and the art inside is even weirder. Kind of interesting to look at though.
Next, we hit up Saint Chappelle, which is this really cool church connected to the palace of justice (Police headquarters). The chapel has some really amazing and intricate stained glass windows that just glow like a florescent flashlight when the sun hits it. It was amazing.
By that time, we were starving so we got some lunch at some random store. I got a turkey coriander and something else sandwich. It was actually pretty good. And I had to finish up the meal with some great Gelato of course! Frozen yogurt and chocolate mousse...SO GOOD!
Headed back to the hotel to finish up some homework (lame, I know), and then a few hours later, we went to the Latin quarter to get some quick crepes. I had no idea what I had been missing my whole life. I got a crepe with egg and cheese, and it ROCKED. I totally am going to make them at home now. I got one with nutella and banana for a friend too, and so I ate some of it. It was very good as well. BUt the egg one was better :-)
Then, back onto the metro to meet up with the rest of the group on the Champs Elisees and for the Arc de Triomphe. We met up with them and waited around for a while taking pictures, but finally just went up. Needless to say, it was amazing.
I wasn't able to see everything I wanted to...not even close. But there was still some amazing things I got to see, and I'm not complaining one bit. It was a-maze-ing.
Now, its off to bed after I've finished more homework. I love traveling, and I love paris. Je t'aime, Paris. but since I'm leaving tomorrow morning, Au Revoirs. Until we meet again. (And I know that we will).
But all good things must come to an end. Tonight was our last day in Paris, and tomorrow morning (after some good Pan au Chocolats), we'll get on a bus and go to Lausanne, Switzerland. But that is for another day.
So, the morning started and I decided to do some laundry. Theres nothing like doing laundry in the bathtub :-) We went to church, and saw someone who was on national news about 8 years ago, so that was kind of random. Surprisingly, a lot of the people in our group knew people from the Paris ward we went to. It was really funny. Church was translated for us and about 50 other people into English and we watched the meeting on a screen in a different room. It was testimony meeting, and it was really a great meeting.
After church, a large part of the group went to the Pompidou, which is this random Modern art museum. The exterior of the building is pretty cool because it actually has the escalator outside the building. The building is weird, and the art inside is even weirder. Kind of interesting to look at though.
Next, we hit up Saint Chappelle, which is this really cool church connected to the palace of justice (Police headquarters). The chapel has some really amazing and intricate stained glass windows that just glow like a florescent flashlight when the sun hits it. It was amazing.
By that time, we were starving so we got some lunch at some random store. I got a turkey coriander and something else sandwich. It was actually pretty good. And I had to finish up the meal with some great Gelato of course! Frozen yogurt and chocolate mousse...SO GOOD!
Headed back to the hotel to finish up some homework (lame, I know), and then a few hours later, we went to the Latin quarter to get some quick crepes. I had no idea what I had been missing my whole life. I got a crepe with egg and cheese, and it ROCKED. I totally am going to make them at home now. I got one with nutella and banana for a friend too, and so I ate some of it. It was very good as well. BUt the egg one was better :-)
Then, back onto the metro to meet up with the rest of the group on the Champs Elisees and for the Arc de Triomphe. We met up with them and waited around for a while taking pictures, but finally just went up. Needless to say, it was amazing.
I wasn't able to see everything I wanted to...not even close. But there was still some amazing things I got to see, and I'm not complaining one bit. It was a-maze-ing.
Now, its off to bed after I've finished more homework. I love traveling, and I love paris. Je t'aime, Paris. but since I'm leaving tomorrow morning, Au Revoirs. Until we meet again. (And I know that we will).
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Je t'aime, Paris.
Saturday, July 3, 2010.
Well, life is so incredibly good. I have a few days to catch up on, so I figure I'll just start and work backwards.
The morning started around 4 AM Paris time, when I woke up. I was late to the last meeting, and I'd missed breakfast so I didn't want to miss breakfast again! (especially because everyone raved about it). So I got up thinking that it was already 10 AM, but my roommate was just going to bed! We chatted for a few minutes about random stuff and then back to bed for me. ARound 9, I did go to breakfast, and it was very good. They had french cheeses, and pan au chocolats there, and they were all very good!
We got together as a group after breakfast to have devotional and little instruction session things about some of the businesses and cultural visits that we have/would be seeing. We took the metro ride (about a half hour cause of transfers) to the Louvre museum. Our group leaders decided to take us to see a few of the bigger things at the Louvre (Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, etc.) and then let us all go off on our own (in groups) after that. It was really hard to stay with the group! There were so many people, I'd turn around to take a picture or to take a closer look at a painting or a statue and I'd lose the group I was with. It made it really difficult.
I found a group to hang out with, and we walked around the Louvre and saw Venus de Milo (Aphrodite), a bunch of really cool other statues, a statue of Ramses II, the coronation crown of Charlemagne, and a lot more. There are so many pieces of art it was on overload. Theres definitely tons more to see there.
We all were pretty hungry and we wanted to find a creperie, but we couldn't find one anywhere! So we found this bakery and had their sandwich, drink, and dessert combo. I got a baguette sandwich and a chocolate eclair. The chocolate eclair was AWESOME! The creme was chocolate too, and so much better than I thought it would be. French food ROCKS!
I also found a bakery that sold pan au chocolats...so I had to buy one of those too! And, it did not disappoint at all. I LOVE THIS CITY!
We decided to go to the Palais Garnier, which is the Paris Opera House next. Like, the Phantom of the OPera Paris Opera house. HOly awesomeness. The architechure is so incredibly beautiful and intricate. So much red in it all. We got to go into one of the boxes. The chandelier is just like in the play. Ironically, I could totally imagine everything from the musical going on in real life at the opera house (and apparently there really is a lake under it all). It gives such a beautiful view of the city and everything. I loved it there, and hopefully someday I'll be able to go see a show there.
The tomb of Napoleon was next. We finally made it to the metro stop and couple figure out where the building was, so we decided to just go to Notre Dame. The cathedral is architecturally amazing. We just went in really fast and then lined up to go up. I think I want to go back tomorrow and actually go inside more and go up into the towers. A couple of people got crepes (we finally found the creperies!) and then a few of us left to try and hit up versailles before it closed. There was this man with a creepy mask who was walking around and scaring women and he got one of the girls in our group. I'll see if I can get the video of it because it was hilarious!
We found the train that would get us to Versailles and hoped that we'd make it in time. We'd seen this advertisement for a huge light and water show that would be in the chateau gardens at night. There wasn't a ton of additional information...about ticket prices or times or anything so we just kind of went to see what we could find out. It was going to be about 20 euro, so some of the people in our group didn't want to do it, and then wait around for everything. I was willing to support the group even though I wanted to stay (I figured...its not a normal event, and it seemed pretty cool, so I was willing to pay). Anyway, as we were walking back to the metro, we ran into another group from our Study Abroad. They wanted to stay so I switched over to them with another girl from my original group. Boy, was I ever glad that I did!
We waited in line forever and were finally able to buy tickets...and we got a student discount!. It was only a few euro, but every little bit counts.
Then came dinner. We had to get something fast, so McDonalds it was! I think we are going to try and hit up a mcdonalds in every country we go to. Needless to say, it was really good! Their food tastes much more gourmet and I tried this dessert I'd never seen at a mcdonalds before. It was a thick chocolate brownie with ice cream and fudge on the top. I was quite surprised because I didn't even think I was eating mcdonalds anymore. Holy Crap. Is that even possible!?
We ran back to the castle and started walking around. They'd opened up alot of the gardens and had all the water running. Music played in the background, and there were a lot of the fountains that were choreographed to lights and music. They had some fire things that would shoot up too, and we found out there would be fireworks at the end of the night. Talk about awesome! I'll definitely throw up some pics from this when I get them on the computer.
They sold soft serve ice cream too, and it was different than anything I'd ever had. It wasn't grainy, and the chocolate was a better chocolate than they have in the US, and the vanilla was better too. Heaven!
After the fireworks were over, we ran back to the metro and met this really cool american couple on the train. The guy is working as a lawyer for a firm in Paris, so hes been living here for the past year. Such a nice couple. They told us the places to go and things to do on our last day in the city.
We made it back, and now I sit here writing about it on this. Why? I don't know. Probably because I can type faster than I can hand write. But needless to say, this trip was the best decision I could have made for this month in my 2010 life. HOly crap...this is awesome. And we haven't even been gone a week!
On a side note, I have to say...I LOVE PARIS, and I LOVE FRENCH. I love hearing the language, and I've loved getting to practice my french here and there. I'm surprised at how much I've remembered and how much has come back by just hearing it constantly. I'd definitely like to work on becoming more fluent in it. Its such a beautiful language.
Tomorrow we go to church, see the Arc de Triumphe, and who knows what else. Its full of possibility...I know that for sure!
Au Revoirs,
M
Well, life is so incredibly good. I have a few days to catch up on, so I figure I'll just start and work backwards.
The morning started around 4 AM Paris time, when I woke up. I was late to the last meeting, and I'd missed breakfast so I didn't want to miss breakfast again! (especially because everyone raved about it). So I got up thinking that it was already 10 AM, but my roommate was just going to bed! We chatted for a few minutes about random stuff and then back to bed for me. ARound 9, I did go to breakfast, and it was very good. They had french cheeses, and pan au chocolats there, and they were all very good!
We got together as a group after breakfast to have devotional and little instruction session things about some of the businesses and cultural visits that we have/would be seeing. We took the metro ride (about a half hour cause of transfers) to the Louvre museum. Our group leaders decided to take us to see a few of the bigger things at the Louvre (Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, etc.) and then let us all go off on our own (in groups) after that. It was really hard to stay with the group! There were so many people, I'd turn around to take a picture or to take a closer look at a painting or a statue and I'd lose the group I was with. It made it really difficult.
I found a group to hang out with, and we walked around the Louvre and saw Venus de Milo (Aphrodite), a bunch of really cool other statues, a statue of Ramses II, the coronation crown of Charlemagne, and a lot more. There are so many pieces of art it was on overload. Theres definitely tons more to see there.
We all were pretty hungry and we wanted to find a creperie, but we couldn't find one anywhere! So we found this bakery and had their sandwich, drink, and dessert combo. I got a baguette sandwich and a chocolate eclair. The chocolate eclair was AWESOME! The creme was chocolate too, and so much better than I thought it would be. French food ROCKS!
I also found a bakery that sold pan au chocolats...so I had to buy one of those too! And, it did not disappoint at all. I LOVE THIS CITY!
We decided to go to the Palais Garnier, which is the Paris Opera House next. Like, the Phantom of the OPera Paris Opera house. HOly awesomeness. The architechure is so incredibly beautiful and intricate. So much red in it all. We got to go into one of the boxes. The chandelier is just like in the play. Ironically, I could totally imagine everything from the musical going on in real life at the opera house (and apparently there really is a lake under it all). It gives such a beautiful view of the city and everything. I loved it there, and hopefully someday I'll be able to go see a show there.
The tomb of Napoleon was next. We finally made it to the metro stop and couple figure out where the building was, so we decided to just go to Notre Dame. The cathedral is architecturally amazing. We just went in really fast and then lined up to go up. I think I want to go back tomorrow and actually go inside more and go up into the towers. A couple of people got crepes (we finally found the creperies!) and then a few of us left to try and hit up versailles before it closed. There was this man with a creepy mask who was walking around and scaring women and he got one of the girls in our group. I'll see if I can get the video of it because it was hilarious!
We found the train that would get us to Versailles and hoped that we'd make it in time. We'd seen this advertisement for a huge light and water show that would be in the chateau gardens at night. There wasn't a ton of additional information...about ticket prices or times or anything so we just kind of went to see what we could find out. It was going to be about 20 euro, so some of the people in our group didn't want to do it, and then wait around for everything. I was willing to support the group even though I wanted to stay (I figured...its not a normal event, and it seemed pretty cool, so I was willing to pay). Anyway, as we were walking back to the metro, we ran into another group from our Study Abroad. They wanted to stay so I switched over to them with another girl from my original group. Boy, was I ever glad that I did!
We waited in line forever and were finally able to buy tickets...and we got a student discount!. It was only a few euro, but every little bit counts.
Then came dinner. We had to get something fast, so McDonalds it was! I think we are going to try and hit up a mcdonalds in every country we go to. Needless to say, it was really good! Their food tastes much more gourmet and I tried this dessert I'd never seen at a mcdonalds before. It was a thick chocolate brownie with ice cream and fudge on the top. I was quite surprised because I didn't even think I was eating mcdonalds anymore. Holy Crap. Is that even possible!?
We ran back to the castle and started walking around. They'd opened up alot of the gardens and had all the water running. Music played in the background, and there were a lot of the fountains that were choreographed to lights and music. They had some fire things that would shoot up too, and we found out there would be fireworks at the end of the night. Talk about awesome! I'll definitely throw up some pics from this when I get them on the computer.
They sold soft serve ice cream too, and it was different than anything I'd ever had. It wasn't grainy, and the chocolate was a better chocolate than they have in the US, and the vanilla was better too. Heaven!
After the fireworks were over, we ran back to the metro and met this really cool american couple on the train. The guy is working as a lawyer for a firm in Paris, so hes been living here for the past year. Such a nice couple. They told us the places to go and things to do on our last day in the city.
We made it back, and now I sit here writing about it on this. Why? I don't know. Probably because I can type faster than I can hand write. But needless to say, this trip was the best decision I could have made for this month in my 2010 life. HOly crap...this is awesome. And we haven't even been gone a week!
On a side note, I have to say...I LOVE PARIS, and I LOVE FRENCH. I love hearing the language, and I've loved getting to practice my french here and there. I'm surprised at how much I've remembered and how much has come back by just hearing it constantly. I'd definitely like to work on becoming more fluent in it. Its such a beautiful language.
Tomorrow we go to church, see the Arc de Triumphe, and who knows what else. Its full of possibility...I know that for sure!
Au Revoirs,
M
Friday, July 2, 2010
Disney!
Today we went to visit Disneyland Paris (it was a business visit…we weren’t going to the park). But wait! In our morning meeting, we found out that the group leaders got us all FREE tickets to both parks! So…we had our business meeting (which was one of my favorites so far), and then we got to go play in Disneyland! It was so cool! Indy Jones was closed…ugh. But I got to ride Peter Pan, Small world, Space Mountain (2! Not 1!) and a whole bunch of other awesome rides! Man…I love Disneyland…Now I just need to go to the Ones in the US…especially since I haven’t been there in over 10 years and I’ve never been to the ones in Florida…haha. Such a good day!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Ah, Paris
I LOVE PARIS! The city of Love…or is it lights? I don’t know. Anyway, its…So Awesome. We navigated the airport and train system to get to our subway stop..only to find out that our hotel didn’t have A/C. So, we waited for a few hours while our travel man, Chad, figured everything out. The hotel people did bring us OJ, and there was a store across the street that thankfully took our US Dollars out of pity, I’m sure. We walked to the new place and found a place to pull out some money, then grabbed some dinner at a local pub. The people there were so fun! (I had a croque monsieur, and it was fabulous. I love French food! We jumped on another subway and went to the Eiffel Tower…and it really just pops right out there! Of course, we went to the top and saw the spectacular views. It was such a good day…
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Oh what a night!
Today was pretty much ours. We had to pack and get ready to go to France, but we had enough time to go exploring and go to a show. I REALLY wanted to go see Jersey Boys (as I was robbed of my opportunity in Washington, DC…basically…I got the date wrong and pretty much showed up for the show the day AFTER my tickets were booked for…oops…) so a group of us gathered at the box office to get tickets. Prior to, I got to meet up with one of my best friends from growing up years who is now a card carrying equity actor for broadway shows! He was about to audition for a show so I’m glad I got to meet up with him, even for a few minutes.
Jersey boys rocked, and it just made the trip even better. 3 shows…3 days. I love new york! We made it to the airport, and got all checked in. The only decent thing available for dinner was McDonalds…Little did I know how often I’d be eating McDees in the coming weeks…Jumped on the plane and we were off! Red Eye flights really are the best…(I hope you notice my sarcasm…)
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Anything can happen if you let it
Today we had a bunch of free time in comparison with Monday. We had a visit with a PR firm in midtown and tried the Shake Shack (great shakes btw). Then we headed to Times Square and Central Park (as it was the 3rd time I had been to NYC…and had never been inside the park…) A few of us decided to go to Mary Poppins while the rest of the group either went random places or to the Yankees Game (I would have done Yankees…but didn’t really want to pay more than about…5 bucks for a ticket…k I’m cheap I know.) Anyway, it was a great day. Central Park is gorgeous, and I’d love to spend more time there sometime. We ended up on 5th avenue and checked out the Plaza and the apple store. New York really is unlike any other place. And I love it. Mary was quite contrary and she flew across the audience! (I knew it…it was actually my 2nd time) haha but it was a great show. And I could understand their british accents this time. Spent the evening in Times Square… Man, I love NYC.
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