Seeing for the first time

I’ve been going to the beach since before I could walk and talk, leaving me unable to remember my first trip there and my first view of the ocean. My parents, (having both grown up in Iowa), had very different experiences than me, and so while I was growing up they would tell the story of driving over La Jolla Boulevard and seeing the breathtaking view of the San Diego ocean for the first time. This trip to Europe has given me so many of those first incredible views of the various sites I’ve gotten to visit, and I just know that those feelings will stand out vividly in my memory for many years to come. This weekend in Paris provided me with quite a few of those moments, especially when combined with high anticipation and excitement. In this journal, I’ll go through my first impressions of the city and the sites and attempt to describe the beauty of Paris.

After pulling into the train station around noon on Friday, Meg, Ken and I emerged ready to explore the city and experience the culture. Like my first few days in England, everything just felt different and I was giddy with excitement. I had even had trouble sleeping the night before, trying to plan out the trip and make sure I didn’t miss a thing, (along with last minute packing!). The signs were in French, the announcements were in French, the people even looked French! Not only was it a European country, but English was not the first language, adding a new level of exotic-ness. I will admit that I half expected to walk off the train and have my three years of French from high school come rushing back to me so I would be fluent and able to converse with the Parisians, but unfortunately I wasn’t so lucky. We wandered along the main road of the train station before stopping for lunch at a café. We all had omelets and had our first French dining experience. The waiter was almost exactly what I expected—a little snooty, placing us at the back of the restaurant and pretty much ignoring us. Oh well…

We took the metro to our hostel (we quickly learned our way on the public transit system—very well organized with colors, numbers, arrows and names) and checked in. From there, we instantly left to go on a walking tour around the city. We got off the metro at St. Michel and saw a beautiful fountain. From there, we walked across the Seine, seeing Notre Dame, (it was HUGE!), the bridge Pont Neuf, (constructed with faces to represent Henry IV’s dinner guests when they were drunk, haha), le Musee d’Orsay, the Louvre, the Tuileries Garden, l’Orangerie, and the Eiffel Tower and Arc du Triomphe in the distance. We learned lots of fun facts from our outrageous tour guide, and I absolutely fell in love with the city. "Paris-je t’aime." Every building was beautiful and the whole city just seemed to harmonize with everything else. The gardens were well tended to, the monuments were impressive yet sophisticated, and the atmosphere was incredible. The picture above is on a bridge over the Seine. Couples go to the bridge, make a promise of love, put a lock on the bridge and then throw the key into the Seine--cute!

We headed back to our hostel in the Bastille area and then grabbed dinner. It was at the Falstaff Café, and I had a Croque Monsieur. I distinctly remember learning about that dish in my French class in high school, and so I thought I just HAD to try it. It is an open faced grilled ham and cheese sandwich—very good! Again, things from my French class kept coming back to me as I read the menu and reflected on hearing the stories from Monsieur Svidal about Paris and tried to realize that I was actually in Paris! Unreal.

After dinner, we took the metro back to St. Michel and walked along the same path from our walking tour for the night. Everything was so pretty at night, and I really came to understand the “City of Lights” reference. We headed toward the main street of Champs Elysees with its high end shopping. We finally made it to the Arc du Triomphe, took some night pictures and then took the metro to the Eiffel Tower.

On our way to the Eiffel Tower we got to see it sparkling, (it lights up every hour on the hour during the night for about three minutes), and it was absolutely stunning. Standing in front of the Eiffel Tower just didn’t seem real. I had such high expectations for it, and it most certainly did not fail to live up to those expectations. It is such an iconic monument, and I just don’t have the words to describe the powerful feelings I experienced standing under it. There was a cool atmosphere around the base as people were selling these slingshots that shot neon blue firefly toys.. I decided that seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time definitely made it into my top 3 moments from the trip. We headed back to the hostel afterward and called it a night.

Paris!

I leave early tomorrow morning for Paris! It just doesn't seem real right now, especially as I sit in the library finishing up a midterm paper. I'm hoping to have it done soon, (this is a study break!) and then I'll pack and try to get a handle on the things that I want to see and do. The backup plan for the group is always just to ask for maps and brochures at the train station--I'm sure there will be plenty of suggestions for things to do. I just can't wait!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsy9k3Z-CiY

This is what I think about as I prepare.

Thoughts of Home

There is a general feeling shared among many of the students on the trip that the days left on the program are dwindling as we are now heading into our sixth week here. Finals are on the horizon along with post-trip plans. I have been browsing the Harvard course catalog, realizing that I will head into my fifth semester in just under a month. After the program ends, I will meet my family in New York City for several days before heading back to campus, making this officially the longest time spent away from home for me, from June 28th to winter break, just under 6 months. That being said, I've been having some thoughts of home...

Things I miss:

Working dryers and a laundry service (thanks Mom!)-I had to spread out all of my clothes across my room to dry them. And trust me, I had to dry A LOT of clothes, so they took up all my walking room and chairs. I ended up having to wear a damp shirt today. It didn’t matter that much though when I walked to class in the rain.

Television-Not only do I not have access to a television, I can’t even watch online shows because most websites don’t broadcast to the UK. I’ll have to catch up once I get back to school. I miss eating popcorn watching American Idol with the fam.

Target and Walmart-I found a substitute here, though. It’s called Primark, but had equivalent costs and reminded me of that classy establishment back home. Most memorable things from the trip: A lady yelling at her crying toddler to “Shut up!” and siblings squabbling and running loops around the store. Oh, how I miss mindless errands back home. It's also very strange to not know the major stores that I like to shop at and having to figure it out by going in and wandering around.

Supercuts- I’ve been dying to get my hair cut but don’t know where to go. Perhaps I should ask a student here for suggestions.

Milk-It just isn’t as commonly found here. The dining hall only has it for breakfast, so I bought some at the supermarket and used it as an excuse to buy cookies. Yum. I miss making brownies and home and eating them fresh out of the oven with a big glass of milk.

These are all minor things, but just things that have come up along the trip. I can't wait to be reunited with my family, my roommates, friends and teammates back at school!

The Center of Paralysis-J Joyce

After another breakfast at the hostel, Meg and I continued on our tourist streak and went to Dublinia-a Viking museum. It was another very well organized museum with lots of cool information and exhibits to explore. I learned that Vikings never wore horned hats, but rather those were part of a ceremonial process from a time before the Vikings. I learned about their trading, plundering, religious views, markets and ways of life and really enjoyed my time in the museum. At the end, I learned about the archaeological process by which people discover information from the past. Well done, Dublinia!

Meg and I got an early lunch after the museum and Café Brick House where we got scrambled eggs and I got Bailey’s cheesecake. I got a strange look when I asked for both, but the cheesecake definitely hit the spot. SO delicious.

We walked back to the Dublin Castle again to get a better look at the gardens around it. The garden is very simple, yet very beautiful. It made for some great photographs and was one of the prettiest scenes in Dublin with the differing architecture behind it and the cool white granite making up the garden structures.

After the garden tour, I went to the Chester Beatty Museum. I’m still not entirely sure what the collections consisted of, but I do know that the collections were some of the most intricately painted and designed folios I’ve ever seen. A very nice museum worker told us that the paintings were painted with molten 24 karat gold with a brush that can only be made with the hair from the chin of a Siamese cat. I got to use a magnifying glass to look at the detail, sometimes as small as written Farsi on the gem of a necklace about the size of a pin head. While I still can’t really place the folios in context, they were extremely beautiful and I’m so glad I went to that museum! At the top of the museum, there was a garden and we could get a great view of the garden below!

Meg and I walked from the museum through Grafton Shopping area to St. Stephen’s Green. The Grafton Street consisted of street performers and high end shopping. It was alive with people milling around and was very fun to walk through. There was such a striking contrast between the frenzy of Grafton St. and the serenity of St. Stephen’s Green. We walked under Fusilier’s Arch and immediately everything was quiet and calm. There was a beautiful pond with swans and then beautiful gardens more centrally located. We sat down for a while to just relax and appreciate the calmness amidst our busy weekend.

Next on our tourist checklist, we walked in the rain again, (thanks Dublin!) to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was slightly out of the way but well worth the walk. It was a gorgeous cathedral and very impressive. We huddled under a tree waiting for the rain to stop, and managed to snap some pictures in front of the cathedral.

We continued walking and went back to Christ Church Cathedral to go inside. The church was so peaceful and I got to go into the crypt beneath. It had been converted into a mini museum and smelled very moldy and old. After wandering around that cathedral, we got an early meal at the Copper Alley Bistro (one of the best meals I’ve had since here: garlic mashed potatoes and chicken!) and then headed back to the airport for our evening flight. The travel back was relatively uneventful and it felt so nice to get into bed after the extremely tiring, but AMAZING, weekend!

Dubliners Day 2

Meg and I started the day early by walking around the city before our walking tour. Before leaving, we ate (free!) breakfast at the hostel and really got a sense of what staying in a hostel is like. It’s definitely different than anything that I’ve experienced before, but it is a really cool communal feeling. Everyone washes his/her own dishes after eating and just coexists in the same common space. I could imagine that it would be a pretty cool way to live for a while and you could meet some interesting people, traveling from hostel to hostel. While walking around the downtown area, I continued to fall in love with Dublin because of all the cool restaurants, shops and buildings.

At 11:00, Meg and I started our 3 hour walking tour. We got to see so many of the Dublin hot spots including the City Hall, the Dublin Castle, Dublin gardens, the birthplace of Jonathan Swift, Temple Bar area (which is NOT named after the bar, but rather the land that was there beforehand), the music wall of fame that pays tribute to the Irish music stars, Trinity College, Dublin Parliament building, and finally Merrion Square (a pretty park). The tour was filled with historical information and was a great way to hear cool stories about the city and see all the major sites. I didn’t know much Irish history beforehand, but now I realize how filled with uprising, rebellion and fighting for freedom it was. We also learned that the colorful doors of Dublin were originally painted for men to be able to identify their own houses when they were drunk and that now, Guinness finances the repainting of the doors every 5 years to perpetuate the association of the Irish and drinking so that the rest of the world will believe that Guinness is good beer.

After the tour, Meg and I did a brief run through of the Dublin National Gallery. It was very similar to the London National Gallery, but it was still cool to see all of the paintings and critique them, putting into use everything I’ve learned from my art class.


In search of food, Meg and I walked down Temple Bar and settled for some gelato. It was so rich and delicious and hit the spot. We then went on our second tour of the day at Trinity College. We learned that one of the provosts said that “Girls will enter this school over my dead body,” after which he soon died, and soon after girls were allowed admittance. We also learned that one of the dormitories only houses students fluent in Irish and who regularly speak the language. At the end of the tour, we got to see the Trinity Library, (where the library scene in Harry Potter was filmed!) and the Book of Kells-the oldest illustrated Bible in existence. The dyes used for the book come from stones in Afghanistan and pregnant beetles in India, among other obscure and exotic elements.

We went back to the hostel after the tour to get ready for the night and then went to Fitsimons Bar for dinner. It was a very nice dinner of soup, salad and soda bread and Ken got a platter of potatoes-a necessity since we were in Ireland.

Dinner took us right up to the starting time of our pub crawl, beginning at the Purty Kitchen. We preceded to go to 4 other pubs before ending up at a night club. The best drink on the crawl was the strawberry beer (you should try making this dad! It was REALLY strawberry flavored), and we also met a group of students from Michigan State studying in Cambridge as well. Each pub definitely had a distinct feel to it, and it was cool to experience all the different ones. The pub crawl was a great way to meet some people and be social. It was definitely one of the most fun things of the trip.

Snapshots of Dublin: Day 1

Meg, Ken and I had to wake up at 3:20 am to catch a 4 am shuttle to the airport for our 6:30 flight. We arrived in Dublin around 9 and were in no rush, taking our time to get to the hostel and figure out the rest of our day's plans. I'll give us some major credit here-we were GREAT travelers!We learned the hard way that tourist maps may not always be to scale and that Dublin has unpredictable weather as we walked in the rain to the Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced Kill-main-um Jail!). Even after our long and wet walk, I still really enjoyed the tour of the jail that housed the leaders of the Easter Rebellion before they were executed. There were some interesting stories and cool architecture.

After lunch at The Patriots' Inn, Meg and I had to convince Ken to postpone our much anticipated nap in favor of touring the Guinness factory. The storehouse museum was extremely well organized as it led us through the main ingredients of the beer, the process by which it is made, the history of its production, its advertising and the culminated with the Gravity Bar glass hub where we got free pints of Guinness. It was an incredible experience to sit in the Gravity Bar, looking out through the glass walls over all of Dublin. It was, (as Meg calls them), a "life moment" where I realized just how lucky I am and how cool of an experience this is. We sat there in silence with our Guinnei (?) and just looked out at the city, soaking in the moment and taking mental and emotional pictures.

After taking a nap for 2 hours, we experienced our first real Irish meal at the Brazen Head. The Brazen Head is the oldest pub in Dublin, established in 1198! Absolutely incredible. It had a really cool vibe and great Irish food including soda bread.

After dinner, Meg and I walked around Temple Bar (the main strip of Dublin with lots of restaurants, pubs, bars and clubs) and got a feeling for the city. We got Malteser milk shakes to celebrate Meg's birthday. Our favorite part was when we stumbled across a street band playing Irish inspired music. I've attached a video at the end because it was so incredible to listen to the music. The city came to life at night and was one of the most beautiful night scenes I've ever experienced. Every bar had live music playing and it was so well lit and colorful. Walking back to the hostel was such a pleasant experience as Meg and I went to bed relatively early to make up for our sleep deprivation the night before.

Retail, Friend and Food Therapy!

Last Wednesday, I had lecture for Sports class, got paninis with Meg and Lynnette, (Meg's big sister from Kappa back at school!), and then we went shopping. Especially during the early weeks of the classes, little work is required so it is fun to be able to do summer-y things with friends. I found a cute skirt that Meg talked me into buying at Zara that I absolutely needed! We all went to tea then for carrot cake, scones and/or chocolate cake. I sure do love those English tea parties, such good food and such a great opportunity to socialize. After that, I went to the gym and then we all went to dinner in Pembroke. After an average dinner, (like always!), we went punting! We rented the boat from King’s College and Ben started as the punter. He made it look very easy, and so I decided I wanted a turn. Let me tell you though, it is NOT as easy as it looks. Simply by pushing off the one side, it makes the punt veer sideways, so it is necessary to use the long pole as an oar as well, guiding the boat on a straight line. I managed to get the hang of it, although I was very cautious—surprise, surprise—and we went very slowly. Duc, Meg and Ken each took turns, but the drama didn’t start until we were done. Ben accidentally dropped the lock into the Cam and so he and Ken changed into swimming trunks and jumped in the river to find it, but unfortunately with no avail. After punting, Lynnette, Meg and I walked around Cambridge before calling it a night.

July 28

Thursday was a marathon day. I was kind of stressed because I was leaving the next morning for Dublin and I just didn't feel prepared for the trip. I had seminar and my art class (we’re painting models now—something I’ve never done before!), and then formal hall for dinner. It was another chance to get dressed up and be served a three course meal. The group took lots of pictures from the night, and the dinner was fantastic. The starter was a “Fresh Tuna Ceviche with Avocado and crisp tortilla,” the main course was “Supreme of honey roasted chicken, pont neuf potatoes, peas, broad beans, and baby gem lettuce,” and the dessert was “marinated strawberries and peaches with sweet basil sorbet.” The meal was made complete with champagne, and after the formal hall, we socialized in the Pembroke bar before going to a bar in the main part of the city to celebrate Meg’s upcoming birthday! Meg and I headed back after the mini celebration to finish packing for the next (EARLY!) morning when we were going to DUBLIN!!!

July 29