My life in pictures...

...because I have to leave for class soon and words take too long. But if I don't update substantially before next Wednesday or so, then dad you have my permission to book as many segway tours as you wish in Barca. (Shh...this is really a win-win for me. Imagine my parents on segways) 

So, here's life lately: Paris, London, Paris, Dublin, Paris, Normandy, PARIS.  God, I'm in love with this city!

But let's start with London (3/5-3/8).  Sam was there for her spring break from Emerson, so I was able to spend the weekend at Kristen's school with her, which was fantastic!

London Eye 

Parliament and Big Ben (which apparently no one from Britain refers to as Ben)

Here's something comical: Note the traffic. Then try picturing me trying to cross the street.

Just some genius British advertising.  

But really, I actually noticed that all their ads were great. 

This one's just the best (sorry, dad).

I took a 5 am train back to Paris Monday morning to make it to my class at 10. 

This is from about halfway through my 2 hour nap on the TGV: I woke up to the sunrise! 

Still don't know if it was in Britain or France, but it was great.

KATIE VISITS

So I haven't exactly been updating. I'm sorry! But, once again, I haven't been sleeping either so it's justified I would say. Katie came to visit for her spring break (she leaves tomorrow and I will in all likelihood cry) and in the 6 or so days we had together I tried to show her as many of the Paris must-sees as possible. The only problem was I was in class for the best parts of the day. We worked around it pretty well though, and  I'm a little bit proud of us since we managed to wake up early every day and make it to: 

-The Eiffel Tower (of course)

-The Louvre

-d'Orsay

-Centre Pompidou

-Notre Dame/ Ile st Louis (Berthillon!!) 

-Montmartre/Sacre Coeur 

-L'arc de Triumph/Champs-elysees

-view from the top of Montparnasse

And we've ate and taken walks around the Tuileries & Luxembourg gardens, the Bastille area, as well as St. Michel, St. Germain and the Latin quarter. Plus shopping at Les Halles! 

Anyway, I will try not to be as spacey on here, but for the next week I'm making no promises. Tomorrow for example, we're leaving here by 8 am to get Kate to the airport, then I go straight to class at 12, then straight to the train station for London to see Kristen and Sam! Hope everything's going well back home, I'll talk to you soon I promise! 

Top of the Centre Pompidou

quelques photos pour vous

If you click any picture it will get bigger (mom) 

Miss you!

Chantilly

Hotel d'Invalides

The perfection that was Montmartre

Sacre Coeur 

My favorite picture from Valentine's day:

Champagne and people watching at the Eiffel Tour

I just found this amusing

Updates

So much is going on! Lately I have pretty much been waking up, heading to class at 9:30 or 10, and then not coming home until dinner. Between all the sites, classes, and homework I've barely had time to update on here. But here are a few highlights:

-I went to a museum in the Tuileries called l'Orangerie with my art history class. It was a lot smaller than the other ones, way less trafficked by tourists, and entirely worth it.  Monet's water lilies are housed here, as are a bunch of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. It's in a great area right next to the Place de la Concord and I could easily spend a few more afternoons there.
-My Sorbonne class has started to pick up. I wish we did more speaking, but it's serving as a nice grammar class regardless. There are a lot of international students (Japan, Spain, Sweden, China, etc) and so the entire course is conducted only in French.
-Chantilly! Yesterday was another CEA excursion to the Chantilly castle. We walked the grounds and garden, got to peak at the chapel and large art collection lining the walls, and attended a horse show in the stables. I haven't updated any pictures yet, but I'll get on that soon. Everything was beautiful per usual, despite the cold.
-We stumbled upon a great hookah bar last night called La One. I'm getting sick (super congested and all that good stuff) so I skipped out on actually trying it, but I managed to gather from my girlfriends that the tobacco was good but a little harsh; the apple flavor tasted like black licorice; and the mint was great along with nutella crepes. It's a Turkish place and the decor and music are traditional and really pretty--engraved wooden wall pieces, comfy couches, etc.  They don't serve alcohol because of their religious beliefs, but they have a small food selection at reasonable prices for the big portions (8 euro for a large chicken and cheese galette with a big side salad//12 euro per hookah pack).

That's it for now. Pictures to come soon!

My life is a joke

Seriously! This is too good to be any sort of reality. What kind of person has a day like the one I had today. Observe...

Today we woke up fresh from a night of hanging out at the Art Cafe (in the Bastille area) and late-night crepes to head to Montmartre. We followed an itinerary mapped out by one of my roommate's guidebooks, which took us to:

-Le Bateau Lavoir, where Picasso once lived. It's now a museum, but wasn't open for some reason when we got there.
-All sorts of beautiful side streets! It had just snowed and everything was gently dusted and extremely picturesque. Which is why it's only fitting that my camera battery died while we were there.
-The square where a bunch of artists congregate. We watched people get their portraits done and browsed through all the different vendors. It was so nice to see their different takes on the city (some in bright hues, some darker, textured canvasses, which angles they chose to paint, etc, etc).  While here we actually were interviewed by a cable news team getting their caricatures done and, although we don't have a tv, we're assuming we made it on tonight. We were a little bit giddy.
-La Moulin de La Galette! Renoir and a bunch of other artists got their inspiration from this cafe. It was frequented by all sorts of artists who would meet up and talk for hours. We attempted to do the same (although I'm thinking our conversation was a little less inspired) and were happy the lunch plate prices fit our budgets a little better than the regular menu.
-The Sacre Coeur--of course!

We cut the trip a little shorter than we intended to because it was below freezing out, but this was definitely my favorite spot since I've been here!

Musee d'Orsay

This museum was so amazing! My art history class met there on Wednesday, and I have an obscene amount of pictures of the artwork there-- But I figured this was most appropriate to post since I had just posted my own view of Etretat below. Looks like Gustave Courbet and I have something in common now. 

Super Bowl

Went to an American bar last night to watch the super bowl.  Considering the fact that it aired in France at 12:30 am and I went to the movies the last time the Patriots played in it (I know, they lost, my fault), this is a big feat pour moi!

We stayed until halftime and then left and it was actually a lot of fun. But in our quest to find a bar that aired ESPN, we overlooked the fact that the super bowl commercials wouldn't be aired in France for the same reason that "football americain" wasn't playing all over the place-- no one here cares! (And they don't have the rights to distribute them, same reason why I can't watch 30 rock on hulu, sadly.)

But lucky for me, my friend Sam watched and picked probably the best commercial ever for my purposes and sent it to me. Watch it below and check out the CEA website cameo appearance!