Site Visits and PARIS!

I haven't had much time to blog so I will just highlight some interesting things that happened before I talk about Paris!  Last week's site visits included the Vatican Museums and the Jewish Ghetto.  The Vatican Museums were very cool.  There was so much to see!  When we got in, I had to check my backpack, which I later regretted.  Then, we went through a ton of different rooms and saw many paintings and sculptures.  Some parts were very crowded with people and you could hardly get through to make your way to other rooms.  The most notable painting was "The School of Athens" since I have learned about that in many of my classes at home.  At the end of the museums is the Sistine Chapel, which I rushed through before booking it through a ton more rooms in order to get my bag.  I remember that the walls were very detailed and intricate looking.  I then had to run to my World Religions class since I had a quiz and my presentation.  It was pretty stressful but I made it to CEA with two minutes to spare.  My presentation went well, even though the projector wasn't hooking up with the computer, so I couldn't show my PowerPoint.  Luckily, no points will be taken off and hopefully I will get a good grade.

School of Athens

On Wednesday, my New Testament class was combined with a CEA visit to the Jewish Ghetto.  There was a tour guide leading us around the neighborhood which was pretty boring.  But the neighborhood itself had a lot of really cool shops and restaurants and bakeries so I definitely want to go back.  And we did learn about how Jews were crowded in this one area in Rome and they had very few rights.  This was interesting because this occurred way before the Holocaust.  After that, Nanny and Aunt Mary Lou were in town for just one night, so they took me and five of my roommates out for dinner.  We went to Taverna Trilussa, a very nice restaurant that Rachel recommended which is right behind our apartment.  It was really nice to see some family and catch up over some great Italian food.  I thought it might be awkward with the roommates but it went really well and they all thought Nanny and Mary Lou were cool, cute, and funny!  My big regret is that I didn't get a picture with Nan and Mary Lou!  But of course, I got pictures of the food... I need to re-prioritize.  After dinner, they came were able to see my apartment before heading back to the hotel before their morning flight.

Carbonara (yet again) at Taverna Trilussa

The most exciting part of this past week was my trip to Paris!  On Thursday night, Rachel, Emmy, and I took a cab to the airport.  We made it through security, even though Emmy and I were both given an uncomfortable full-body "pat down" by a (female) security guard.  Then, we got some pizza and snacks before boarding the plane.  We flew with Easy Jet, a cheap but pretty nice airline.  Within two hours, we had arrived in Paris!  From the airport, we took a shuttle and then the Metro in order to get to our hostel, St. Christopher's Inn.  At this point, it was midnight.  We checked in and then looked at the hostel's bar before heading to bed.

On Friday morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel before meeting our WSA guide, Kevi. He was really great at showing us around throughout the weekend.  Since we paid for the WSA program, Kevi had metro passes ready for us everyday and we got to skip the lines at all attractions.  First, we went to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre.  Along the way, we saw the neighborhood that is highlighted in Amelie, which was cool since I watched that movie senior year of high school.  We had to climb up a bunch of steps in order to get to the church, but the beautiful view of Paris made it worth it. We walked through the church and then continued on to see the Moulin Rouge.  We took some picutres in front of it and then left for Notre Dame Cathedral.  This year is the 850th anniversary of the cathedral so we saw some cool mini exhibits of the church, along with the beautiful stained glass windows inside.  Next, we continued on to see a lock bridge (not the original but still full of locks) and then walked around the Latin Quarter.  We got lunch at a small cafe where a sandwich, a sugar and butter crepe and a drink was 5 euro.  

We then walked around some more and came upon the Eiffel Tower, where we took a bunch of pictures.  We walked by a few more sites and then left for dinner.  We went to a small, traditional restaurant where I had a delicious warm goat cheese over bread, escargots (kinda weird but not bad), beef bourgignon, and some great chocolate cake.  Our WSA program had a great group of people that I got to know better at dinner.  It was cool to learn about everyone else's study abroad experience.  After such a long day, we then went back to the Eiffel Tower which is beautifully lit up at night.  We skipped the line and took the elevator to the top where we saw the city of Paris all lit up.  It was freezing at the top, and in general Paris was much colder than I expected! I am really glad Rome has such nice weather. We decided to take the stairs on our way down from the top.  This seemed cool to me at first, but realizing how high up we were made me a bit anxious, so I had to walk down really slowly while staring at the ground.  That night, we went to a bar in Oberkampf where we met up with Emmy's friend who is studying in Paris.  We got some crepes before taking a cab back to the hostel and heading to bed.

Sacre Coeur

Moulin Rouge

Notre Dame Cathedral

Inside Notre Dame

Rose Window

Lock Bridge

Eiffel Tower by Day

Eiffel Tower at Night

On Saturday, we went to the Louvre all morning.  The highlight was the Mona Lisa, which is as small as people have told me.  Next, we took the metro to the Champs Elysees, where we took some pictures in front of the Arc de Triomphe.  We finally had some free time so we did a little window shopping before finding a restaurant on a side street.  I got the croque madame that I had been craving since my last visit to Paris.  Then, I definitely wanted to find Laduree, where I got delicious macaroons on Easter Sunday with Kathy and Brittany 5 years ago.  We came across one on the Champs Elysees so we all got some macaroons before heading back to the hostel.  We put our stuff down and then left again for a bike tour around the city.  This was a really fun part of the trip because we got to bike through busy areas and it was funny to see some inexperienced bikers.  One girl fell at one point!  It was so funny.  In between the bike ride, we took a Bateau Mouche along the River Seine.  We got some good views of the Eiffel Tower and other monuments again, but it really was SO COLD in Paris.  After returning our bikes, it was 11:30 so we went to a crepe stand that was recommended by our bike tour guide.  He said the best crepe was chicken, egg, tomato, and cheese so pretty much everyone got this one.  But it was cool because I was one of the only people in the group who knew French, so I translated the menu for everyone.  Besides this time, I didn't use much French because we had Kevi with us almost all the time.  I wish we had more free time to do whatever we wanted, and it would have been cool to use more French in a more local area.  But overall, the trip was definitely worth it because, as you can tell, we packed so much into two days.  

Mona Lisa and I

Croque Madame

Laduree! (Chocolate, Vanilla, Pistachio, Lemon, Columbian Chocolate, Raspberry)

Bike tour!

Arc de Triomphe

Eiffel Tower

On Sunday, we had to wake up at 4 am in order to catch our 7 am flight.  In the cab, we heard "Sympathique" and "Je serai la", two songs that I've listened to in many of my French classes, so it was really cool to end the trip on that note.  Paris was great, but I was glad to come back to Rome and its warmer weather.  Going to Paris helped me realize that Rome really is the BEST place to study abroad.  Can't wait for my mom to arrive on Thursday!