France is fun

My weekend in Paris started Friday morning at 5a.m. because that is what time it was when I woke up to get ready to walk to the bus station. So I walked in the darkness to Piazza Italia to take a bus to the bus station (weird right) and boarded the bus for the Rome airport. Everything went well at the airport except that my flight was moved from gate to gate to gate which resulted in our landing in an altogether different terminal area in Paris, so after a few failed phone calls I finally met up with Laura and her friend Laura, confusing right?
We took the Roissy bus into the city, and got off at the Opera house which was amazing. So incredibly ornate and the gold (it couldn't possibly be real) was so shiny. We then took the metro to Laura's neighborhood to get Laura's stuff before checking into the hotel. Laura's (the one studying in France) mom got me and Laura (this entry is going to get confusing) a hotel room right next to her apartment so that we'd be near her since her host family wouldn't let the two of us stay with her. That was amzing (especially because she lived on the 7th floor). The hotel was so nice and we got a breakfast every morning... mm croissants :)
After checking in, Laura (my Laura) and I went for a long walk to the Louvre which was free to everyone under 26 years of age that night. The road we ambled along had many many cafes and shopping stores as well as many incredible sights such as the Arc de Triomphe.
That was incredible, so much bigger than any arch in Rome. We wandered around and there was some kind of flag ceremony going on so the army guys were there in their cute little hats and I took a few pictures of them standing around with flags. Then we walked toward the giant obelisk which was given by the egyptians to france-- not quite like the recreated ones that we have here in Italy. There were some pretty fountains and buildings... I found that most major attractions in Paris are right in the middle of the road- like the Arc. It was weird to see all the cars zooming past it like it was nothing special, just a tree or a traffic light.

After the Arc we kept walking and saw a few interesting buildings that Laura pointed out to me, mostly governmental, a few museums- one of which I think housed a Dale Chihuly exhibition a few years back that I saw on the DVD documentary. We finally came to a pretty large fountain and grassy area that had many pretty flowers blooming and the whole thing led up to the Louvre, which was GIGANTIC. We went in and got through for free, awesome!, and followed the signs straight to the Mona Lisa. For such a hyped up painting I was a bit disappointed. Not like I've never seen it before, that's just the thing. You see it everywhere, and then when it's finally there in front of you it's kind of like you're expecting more, a little fanfare or fireworks or something. Not to mention its behind glass, on a giant wall, and you are standing a good 10 feet away. Oh and it's about the size of a microwave, yeah she's not that big. But we wandered around some more and saw Aphrodite and went to the underground Louvre which was pretty incredible, it was all the underground area they had dug up and showed all the things they found- however it was all in french, so it was a little difficult to understand exactly what was going on.

After the Louvre we met Laura at a metro stop and walked to a Fondue restaurant where we had an inclusive meal of bread, potato, and beef fondue with cheese-- so good! The meat part was weird because they brought out a bowl of raw beef and I was not about to eat that. But then they brought out another fondue crock pot of hot oil, and you leave the meat in to cook and then dip it in the different sauces. It was really good! We also had dessert, a chocolate cake in this creme sauce, yum! After eating we headed back to the hotel since we had a long day and were planning on waking up early the next day.
On Saturday we woke up for the continental breakfast, which was so good- too bad the fresh squeezed orange juice machine was broken all weekend :( but I did have tons of croissants and kiwis! yum.
So we left and headed straight for the Eiffel Tower, which we took many pictures of and then walked across the street to take pictures of it from a square above this giant fountain. Those came out really well. There were a ton of strange girls with silvery wigs running around and trying to get into people's pictures and I decided that it looked like fun and that my friends and I should do that to the Asian tourists that come to Perugia.
After the Eiffel tower we headed to Notre Dame and went inside. Now, I absolutely love Notre Dame because I read The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Victor Hugo is absolutely amazing. Seeing the actual cathedral and climbing it to see the bells and gargoyles was a whole different amazing experience!

I love the gargoyles!

Unfortunately it started raining so it was a very wet experience but it was fun nonetheless. We also got really good panini from this little store around the corner from Notre Dame, they were puffy baguettes until he put them into hot sandwich press and then they came out all flat and tasty. A little different from Italy panini but still good! Then we walked to the Pompidou Museum of Modern Art because I really wanted to see the building which I'm glad we went to because it was awesome. But first, we passed by this building called the National Hotel (I think) which wasn't a hotel at all but a government building.. weird. And we also got Nutella crepes! mm good!

So anyway, the Pompidou museum is really strange and has all these crazy pipes and colors on the outside front and then on the back (or maybe that is the front I am not all that sure) there were stairs and escalator and elevators all on the outside of the building- because as Laura told me, the concept of the building was for everything that is supposed to be on the inside of the building to be on the outside. Which made sense but wasn't quite as fun. Oh well, the fountain next to the museum was really neat, it had fun statues and really random art pieces.
We also went into a church right next to the building because it looked pretty and it was nice. The architecture in Paris was very different than anything I'd experienced in Italy and London and I'm not sure if I liked it as much. I liked the apartments and buildings like that which always had the metal framed balconies and such, but a lot of the larger buildings were so ornate- maybe too ornate. But not ornate in such an art way, with sculpture and fresco or paint and color like in Italy but instead, gold- gold gold gold everywhere. It was different though, and I was definetely ready for a change.
Anyway, after the church and Pompidou we still had time before meeting up with Laura and her friends for dinner at this world famous falafel place, which ended up being closed because it was saturday- the sabbath, and the falafel place was located in the jewish area. All of Paris seemed divided into little areas- jewish, italian, irish, you name it. Very NYC. So, instead of having the falafel at the one place, we found another one down the road with the sign "world's best falafel"- and I don't know if it was the world's best, but it was pretty amazing.

This was the closed falafel place, as you can see, also endorsed by "Leny" Kravitz

We walked around, a bunch of them got gelato while I wandered into a pastry shop and got a coffee maccaroon (which are nothing like the maccaroons I am used to- they were SO amazing). Then we were trying to figure out what to do when we all decided to go bowling! Bowling in Paris, who knew. We went to this tiny bowling alley that had 8 lanes but it was so much fun, they had cosmic lights and funky music playing and it was smoke free. We bowled a couple of games and had a really good time. Then we headed back to the hotel since Laura had a pretty early flight the next day.
Sunday morning we woke up and said our goodbyes and then I was off to Sacre Couer all by myself. The whole weekend I had been following Laura and Laura around and not really navigating the metro since they knew it much better than I. However, I found it with no problem and I arrived around 9am before there were any tourists and it was such a nice day- which was a nice change from the rain from the day before.
So I climbed the giant hill that it was on (the funiculaire- monorail type train that ran to the top was shut down) which was really nice since it was so pretty out. Unfortunately I tripped up the stairs on the way up to which some French woman came over and tried to help me up and kept saying random french words to me until I said "thanksmerciwhatever" and ran away. Then I wandered inside and spent a good 30 minutes walking around admiring the frescoes and ceiling and sitting in the nice quiet. Upon leaving I saw the streaaaaaaaaaams of people coming and was glad to be leaving. When back at the metro station I realized that the Orsay Museum was only a few stops away and since it was the first of the month, all museums were free. So I hopped on the next metro and headed to the museum where I waited in line for a bit before going inside to see a ton of Cezanne, Manet, Van Gogh and my favorite, Monet. It was a really beautiful museum and had a great overlook of the Sacre Couer which was amusing because I was just there.

view of the Sacra Couer from the Orsay Museuminside of the Orsay

Then I had to leave to meet Laura (the other one) at the Opera house where she was going to put me on a bus to the airport. However, she was also meeting other family friends at the airport and plans changed and instead of meeting me there, she gave me all the instructions over the phone and I had no problems getting on the Roissy bus and getting to the airport. Before doing that though, I had poked my head inside the Opera house which was gorgeous, I didn't pay to go into the actual part, but there is an opera house right in Perugia where I see my movies so I figured I'd survive.

inside of the opera house

The Opera was actually under rennovation, someone is painting a fresco that is going around it on the scaffolding, as you can kind of see at the bottom

So now begins the transportation story of the decade.
Let's just do the run down shall we? Bus to airport. Wait for plane, plane arrives late. Plane takes off 30 minutes late. Plane arrives 10 minutes later than schedule, I miss train to train station. Take the next train, miss train to Perugia. Buy tickets for next train, which has a connection in Foligno. Ride train for 2 hours, get off in Foligno to discover that on the departure board the next train is not actually a train, but a bus, which I also realize from the loudspeaker voice saying "THE BUS FOR PERUGIA IS LEAVING RIGHT NOW" (in italian) and me running for the door. I got on the bus which happened to be the sketchiest bus of buses, with a little sign on it that said Perugia (and a few other cities). The bus then proceeded to stop in every single train station along the way, in Spello, Assisi, and some other ones that I didn't recognize. That took a good hour, so I finally got to the Perugia train station (note: not the actual city center) just in time to take the next bus to the center. By the time I actually arrived home it was just about midnight and I think I had taken every form of transportation possible in that day. I was tired, hungry, and ready for bed.

This is my story of Paris, and I'm sure I will continuously update it as I think of more things that happened and that should be discussed. Sicily this weekend, wish me luck with the Italian mob! Miss and love you all!

Florence... again

So Saturday and Sunday I spent my last two days in Florence for the remainder of my time in Italy. I cannot see myself going back there as I have been there three times already and seen just about everything major. The city grew on me overtime as in the beginning I thought it was quite dirty and crowded- now I realize Rome is much more disgusting and Florence is actually quite lovely.
So instead of boring you with all the churches and frescos that I saw (it was an art trip after all) I will show you pictures from the very last thing I saw in Florence... a re-enactment march of the Medici royal family- complete with drums and trumpets and flag twirlers and full costumes! It was amazing! So without further ado, my farewall fanfare of Florence:










I'm going to Paris this weekend to see Laura and many exciting things so if I don't post before then, expect a lengthy french post upon my arrival. Ciao!

Lake Trasimeno

So I realized that I never updated all of you about my weekend. Don't worry, I am still alive! I've just been really busy with papers and work that has thankfully all ended today!
The last time I left you was before this past weekend, where I had been planning on taking it easy and doing my work while going to Ravenna and Rimini for the day. Well, I did take it easy, but I did not go to Ravenna and Rimini mainly because they are 5 hours away. I really hope that I will still be able to go, maybe in April when classes are over and we have those "study" days... I can study on the beach, right?
So anyway, my friend Meg's friend Chris came to visit and I joined them in going to Castiglion del Lago, which is right on Lake Trasimeno, Italy's 4th largest lake- and right next door to Perugia. We took the bus which took us to the town, really pretty and right on the water. We had then wanted to take a boat to Isola Maggiore, the large island in the middle of the lake to do some hiking. However, because it was both off season and because it is easier to get there from the train station (oops) we decided to stay where we were and explore the castle and fortress. I'm glad we stayed. It was an absolutely beautiful day- and we weren't running around looking at things, it was all very relaxing. We climbed up the fortress and I took some beautiful pictures which I will display below. There were sailboats and even families out enjoying the beautiful day. The lakeside was basically a giant park so there were benches and nice places to sit and relax. The lake doesn't even look like a lake, it looks like a gorgeous blue sea or ocean. I can't wait to go to Sicily and the Amalfi coast and experience the blue water there!

(this picture just shows how clear the water was- you could see all the rocks)

As for this weekend, I am going to Florence Saturday and Sunday for my Art Renaissance trip. Hopefully it will be interesting, sometimes my teacher is really dull- but Meg is going on the trip with me so that will be fun. I'm having a low key night with friends and then tomorrow I may go up Garibaldi to the overlook of Perugia, weather depending... the weather here has been really weird lately- it was so warm last weekend, then all of a sudden it got extremely cold- it even snowed! Crazy.
Well that's all I've really got here. As always, the rest of my pictures are up on my yahoo photo account so be sure to check out the rest of the beautiful lake pictures there!
Ciao! :)

Back in the swing of things

This week has been a weird one, as we all returned from Spring break and were expected to actually work? Yes, that is what I should be doing now, writing my 10 page paper which is due thursday or my case study (also 10 pages) which is due wednesday. But instead I am procrastinating and updating this blog- although there is not all that much to update on.
Classes have been going pretty well, I got back all my midterms and did really well on a few, and decent on the rest. I figure I should do better on finals since we have more time to study for them and I know what to expect now. I hope.
It's been weird to be back in Italy even after just a weekend in London. It was almost like experiencing what they call "culture shock" all over again- even though I was pretty convinced I never really felt any of that when I first came to Italy. I even forgot a lot of stuff from class, which is probably why most of my professors were calling it the week of tolerance and letting dumb things slide (especially in Italian class).
All of my friends seemed to have good spring breaks although this week was pretty busy and flew by for the most part and we have still not all discussed our spring breaks (since most of us did different things). However, I proposed we have slideshow presentations of our pictures so that may happen sometime this weekend- if we are all not too busy with this paper (most of us are in the food class so we all have to write the stupid paper).
Yesterday my friend Margaux got her hair cut in an Italian salon and I went to watch after I got our of class early and it was so much fun. The hairdresser was ridiculous and kept dancing with Meg and I and then started hitting on Meg which was kind of awkward but also funny. He made her his assistant and when we weren't sliding around on the floor she was helping him blow dry Margaux's hair-- which is now amazing. Who knew haircuts could be so much fun?
Then last night we cooked dinner for my professor (the one we ate dinner with a while back) and it was a lot of fun.
I think he was impressed with our cooking abilities (and the amount of food we made-aparently Italians only really eat one dish at home, which is weird because when they eat out there are all those courses)- I made fried eggplant for the appetizer and dan made some baked apple skins (as well as his world famous apple crisp for dessert), meg made the pasta concoction which was really good- sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, peppers, in a mushroom wine sauce with spaghetti, and margaux made salad. Yum. I love our dinners. It started at 8 and lasted till around 11:30 which was nice (and unexpected), and we had a large range of conversation topics.
Today (and hopefully Sunday) is more of a laid back day supposedly dedicated to working on my paper... and tomorrow the plan is to go to Ravenna and Rimini, two east coast towns in Italy. In Ravenna you can rent bikes for free and ride them around the town and Rimini is right on the water (also where Federico Fellini is from-- writer/director of La Dolce Vita... he's amazing) and the beach is supposed to be beautiful. I'm excited!
Hope everyone is doing well, I know the Elon spring break just started so I hope everyone has a fantastic break and that I hear from you all sometime soon!
Mi Manchi! (I miss you)

LONDON!

After spending the week with my parents in Italy I was ready to finally leave the country and see something new. I've always wanted to go to London and since I was so close and tickets weren't too expensive I knew I had to go. My really good friend Lily is studying there this semester and it was the perfect opportunity to go visit London and stay with her. So Friday morning I woke up early and got all my stuff together and headed down to Garibaldi to get my taxi (we had arranged for a taxi to pick me up to take me to the Perugia airport). The Perugia airport was only 15 minutes away but it was actually in Assisi, and way up in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. I twas a cute little airport, with only one gate and no real terminal and to get on the plane we went outside onto the giant windy platform and climbed the steps up to the plane. The flight wasn't bad (I didn't realize that London is an hour behind us) and I was there in no time. I followed the directions that Lily had given me- had a slight problem figuring out how to buy my tube ticket and how to use the pounds and pence... luckily the tube worker was really nice and helped me with both. I changed lines and made my way to Warwick Ave. stop and Clifton Gardens which is where Lily's flat is. I found her flat and met her friend Keiko who is also her roommate and she went with me to Soho to meet Lily and Lily's parents who were also there for the week. Soho is like a big area with lots of restaurants and we found a really good Indian restaurant for dinner. Lily's parents had bought tickets to ride the London Eye so we headed to the tube and took it to the London eye, got a little lost, but eventually found it. It was basically a giant ferris wheel that took 30 minutes to ride and had AMAZING panoramic views of the city.
I took SO many pictures, it was incredible. After riding the eye, Lily Keiko and I said goodbye to Lily's parents and sister who were doing their own thing the next day, and headed over to Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey which were just across the Thames.
The buildings were really pretty at night and I took a lot of pictures. We walked along the water a little bit and then decided to head back because I had a lot of things I wanted to see the next day and we needed to plan out how we were going to go about doing everything. However, upon walking along we decided it would be fun to take the bus back (which was also on my list) so I bought a ticket and we took the tube to Trafalgar square
which was neat and then we took the bus from Piccadilly Circus all the way back to Lily's flat. I got to see a lot of London that way and got to ride on the double decker bus, whoo hoo! When we got back, Lily and I made a list and wrote down all the tube spots and decided to conquer the city from west to east, seeing as much as we could. I just want to say now, how proud of all of us I am- not only did we see everything on my list, but we saw it in style and without any real problems or freak outs! :) So without further ado, I call this:
Seeing everything there is to see in London in one day.
We woke up pretty early, had breakfast, and with my directions, map, and list in hand, headed off towards our first stop: Abbey Road.
Now, Ellen (thank you!) had given me directions since it was really close to the Elon flats. We eventually found it and realized it was going to be a little difficult to get our pictures what with traffic and everything. When we were about to cross to street to switch taking pictures of each other, three girls came walking up the street and asked if we could take each others pictures doing the traditional Beatles walk and then vice versa.. it was really good timing! I also saw the sign for abbey road as well as abbey road studios- amazing! So we took a bunch of pictures and then were on our way yet again. The next stop: Notting Hill and Portobello Road.
We took the tube to Notting hill Gate and wandered along following the signs for portobello market until we came across a massive line of carts and tables in the street with tons and tons of street vendors. It was a really nice area and a gorgeous day so we walked all the way down, stopping to look at all the crazy things people were selling, everything from telescopes to purses to make-up to the most delicious brownies and pastries (for only a few pounds we bought tons of goodies) and even clothes and shoes. That was really cool, you could have spent the whole day there. But since I only had the day, we were off to our next stop: Buckingham Palace. After getting off the tube and walking through Green Park (the parks in London are really nice!) and stopping to take pictures with the pretty flowers, we came to the palace.

They don't do the changing of the guards on Saturdays- but I did see one of them marching around and we walked around and I took some pictures before we left for Harrods.
Because I knew we would be spending more than a few minutes in the store, we decided to grab something to eat. We went to EAT. (this was it's name) and had sandwiches and this really good noodle salad thing before heading into Harrods. Oh man, what a CRAZY store. The food halls were definitely my favorite- they had candy, chocolate, tea, coffee, meats, cheese, pastries... you name it. And it was all themed and we just wandered from one to the other. Then we went from the basement straight up to the top floor- going through the really fashionable clothing lines to furniture to electronics to TOYS! to sporting goods. It was definitely an experience. We left Harrods and made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral which wad very different than the cathedrals I have been used to seeing here in Italy.
We walked around the outside and then went inside, the baroque style was very pretty. However, after only looking around we decided not to pay to go in (which I didn't realize we even had to do) and headed to the little park behind the cathedral to eat some of our brownies from Portobello road (which some lady commented on how good they looked) before walking towards the Millennium bridge and The Globe Theatre. The bridge was pretty cool and I took a lot of neat pictures of St. Paul's from the bridge and of the Globe theatre. We didn't actually go in the globe because you had to take a tour, plus it isn't even the original globe- however we did spend some time in their really cool gift shop and I bought some fun Shakespeare gifts.
We decided to head for another tube stop so we could head to the tower of London and tower bridge however after walking all the way there, the underground stop was not only closed but the line we wanted to take was closed for the weekend- there was just no way to get there besides walking and we were too far away. Instead we decided to walk along the Thames towards the direction of the tower of london and tower bridge.
While walking we came across signs for Burrough market (which is only open on the weekends) and wasn't even on our list, but we ran in long enough to get lots of free samples, buy a ton of organic fruit, and really good organic pear juice! yum!
We continued to walk along the water, stopping in several arcades (shopping areas) along the water for me to buy random souvenirs. After a while we made it close enough to get some good shots of the tower bridge and we also passed by the actual London bridge, which is not all that impressive. Thank goodness it was such a beautiful day outside or all this running around may have not happened and we may have spent the whole day in a museum- which is what I had been doing for the past week in Italy- so hooray for that!
Anyway, after our last bit of shopping we took the tube to where the theatre was for our show! Lily and Keiko had bought us tickets to see the Blue Man group and we tried to find a pub so I could get fish and chips but unfortunately they were all packed. We decided to have something quick and light to eat before the show and to eat dinner after the show. So we went in and the lady checked our tickets and told us we had to go to coat check and check all our plastic bags. The coat check guy was really cute and funny and got a real kick out of checking our plastic bags full of pears and apples which he called uncommon items.
The show was really cool, we had amazing seats- 6th row right in the middle, not bad for only getting them a few days in advance. After hearing so much about the Blue Man group I wasn't sure what to expect but I liked all their little acts- especially the music and things they did with paint. I wish there was more music, but I liked all the various acts they had- and I especially liked when they came out and interacted with the audience. Towards the very end there was a really weird part with tons of (recycled) paper that came shooting out of the back of the stage and all these crazy lights and music and the paper made it all the way from the back of the auditorium to the front, we had to hoist it over our heads. It was very strange, but a lot of fun.
After the show we headed back to the flat (after getting our checked apples of course) and dropped everything off before heading to Piccadilly circus for dinner.

After wandering around (and in and out of closing pubs) we decided on a Thai restaurant which was really good- I had delicious chicken pad Thai. Then we went to a Japanese restaurant that Lily and Keiko like for some desert: really good chocolate wasabi cake, white chocolate and ginger cheesecake, and coconut ice cream with mango sauce. Afterwards we walked around Piccadilly circus which was extremely crowded (it was a Saturday night after all) and then decided to head back to the flat. It was a great end to a long and eventful day.
The next morning I had to wake up really early and get everything ready to leave. I took the tube back to Liverpool St. Station which is where I had been dropped off by a Stansted shuttle bus that I took back to the airport again. The shuttle service worked out really well, I had gotten tickets before leaving Italy. However, I missed the first bus and after getting on the second one was running a little late for the airport. The check in lines were a bit long but I finally made it to security who were extremely tight. Not only did I get a full pat down (when I say full I mean full) but they pulled me aside to go through every single part of my bag because something looked strange in the x-ray in my bag. That something turned out to be the golf balls I bought for my dad in Harrods- so I hope he likes them because they almost made me miss my flight. The woman went through all my stuff and kept commenting on the things I had bought and had "oh this tea smells good" "oh you went to the globe theatre!" and yada yada meanwhile I was worrying about my flight. But no worries, I made it to the gate (after a bit of quick sprinting) without a problem. I met up with two girls I know who were also on my flight, one of which is in my Italian class, and we were talking a bit. After boarding we got split up and then my friend Dan boarded the plane and sat next to me. I had no idea so many people were on my flight. There was also another girl right behind us from Umbra. The five of us gathered together after we landed and decided to take a taxi back to the center of town. Our driver was from Assisi and kept talking to Dan about Corvettes and how nice (but boring) Assisi is and was really funny. Finally Finally we made it back and I have spent the rest of my day loading my many many pictures on the computer and catching up with all the things I have to do. I have to register for classes back at Elon soon and I've been trying to figure out my schedule. I think I will take senior seminar fall semester to get it over with. Thank god they are offering the next level of Italian that I need to take- I hope Lanzoni is teaching it. I wish my Italian professor here could come teach at Elon, I've learned the language so much better in his class- however, living in the country while learning the language doesn't hurt either.
Well, it's been a long and amazing spring break and I am happy that everything went as planned and that I have enough street smarts and map smarts to navigate around a city I have never been to before (I did all of London without a map- only with a tube map). Hooray. The rest of my pictures are all up on my yahoo photo account so you definetely should check that out!
Hope everyone else is doing well and that you all have great spring breaks (I think everyone's are coming up in a week or so). Love and miss you all!!