Of adventures and retellings

Hello everyone! My apologies for leaving you all hanging after my last post for a few months. No, I have not been in Europe for this whole time (for those of you who were concerned) however the summer was full of working and such things, therefore I never caught up with everything I wanted to post here.

Obviously, I am back in the United States. However, I have a conundrum. I have a hastily-jotted, pen-can’t-keep-up-with-my-brain sort of list of all these stories I’ve wanted to write out. I also have tons of pictures. (According to the count made in transferring all of my photos to an external hard drive, there are over 7,000.) Add in the fact that my Europe stories are my favorite thing to talk about as well as the assumption that the people around me are probably getting tired of hearing them all the time, and I have come up with a solution. I’m going to post a story and a few pictures every other day or so for awhile. Yes, this is not a well-defined goal. However, it does give me a place to write out my stories, and probably saves those people who are tired of hearing them as well as gives those who haven’t heard them a chance to read about some of the crazy awesome experiences I had while I was traveling. Win-win situation, right? I think so.

If you’ve read my blog before, you may recall that I decided to focus it around the idea of looking for the joie de vivre, or the joy of life. As much as the world can be a horrible, unfair, violent, sad place, it is the nature of it that it can also be unbelievably beautiful, joyful, amazing, and wonderful at the same time. While I was discovering the beauties and joys of the world in my travels, I encountered some really interesting people. I feel as though there are people who were put in my path that I was somehow meant to learn something from, because I would find myself in conversations with these fascinating people and hearing them say something that was just so insightful and meaningful and downright true. I think a lot of times we don’t realize the effects we have on those around us, and this is a way for me to recount the lessons I have learned from the wonderful individuals I have met along the way. Plus, most of these stories take place in some pretty awesome locations, which often makes for a great story anyways.

So here’s the first one.

Location: Athens, Greece.

After a rather stressful bus ride from the airport outside of Athens (mostly due to the fact that I somehow expected to be able to communicate with the bus driver) and the shocking realization that Greece is a country where I can’t even guess how to pronounce the words, thanks to the intervention of another bus-rider who spoke English and Greek and communicated to the bus driver my stop, I made it to my hostel outside of Athens. My only plans for the next day were to go to the Acropolis and wander. (And take pictures, of course. But that’s a given.) After wandering around the Plaka for a bit, I looked up at the Acropolis hovering above the lower part of the city and simply found a road that seemed to lead up to that general area. I found myself in this tiny, hidden residential road that wound through all these teeny white houses whose residents appeared to only be cats, of which I saw at least 12.

Some of the feline residents taking a nap beneath their motorcycles

 

I see Acropolis, I walk towards Acropolis. Logical? Yes. Trespassing? Hm. Perhaps.

Helpful signs.

Another of the Acropolis Cats. Yes, this is zoomed in. I'm a dog person, I don't get this close to strange cats' faces.

They do make great models, however. And they weren't mean at all.

Interesting collection I discovered in my trespassing--I mean, exploring.

 

Great place for photographical wandering.

After many white, winding, narrow passages I worked my way around to the entry of the Acropolis. (Which, interestingly enough, is where all the wild dogs wander about. Perhaps there was an agreement as to territorial lines?) The first thing I see while walking into the Acropolis area is a giant arena that I decided to go take pictures of first. At this place, I noticed a couple trying to balance their camera on a rock to take a picture of them. Concerned for the safety of their camera, I offered to simply take their picture for them. (Also, this is a huge strategy in getting any pictures of yourself when you’re traveling alone. In my personal opinion, I really honed my skill in selecting people to ask to take my picture/offer to take theirs. Mutual picture taking is the best for all involved!) They were much obliged, and then took mine as well, as evidenced by the picture below, where I am laughing at some joke that Joe, the man I met, made while he was taking the picture.

Apparently it was a funny joke.

I chatted with them for a bit, exchanged stories of why we were in Athens and continued on our merry own ways exploring the Acropolis. I ran into them a few other times around the area, chuckling at jokes about being their personal photographer. The Acropolis really is a great place to wander around, because you can get so close to everything and there’s just so much to see in every direction.

Love the temple ruins.

 

Some of the Acropolis Dogs

The Parthenon!

The flag at the top which basically guided most of my navigation in finding the Acropolis

One kitty got the borders mixed up and was chilling at the base of the Parthenon, no big deal.

After thoroughly exploring the Parthenon, later that evening I was meandering through the markets and looking for a place to eat. After walking down a street of restaurants once, I decided to go back and pick one at random. In returning to the street, I heard someone yell “Hey! Hello!” and I awkwardly and slowly turned around to the happy surprise of running into  Joe & Zdenka, the couple I had met on top of the Acropolis! They invited me to dinner and after much insisting, I sat down and had the best Greek food I probably will ever have in my lifetime. I don’t even know what all of it was but it was delicious. Plus, the food was accompanied by excellent conversation. In talking with them, we talked about finding one another on facebook. Joe made a comment about how he’d love to follow my adventures. I responded by informing him that unfortunately, once I got back to Paris I had about another two weeks and then I’d be returning to the US, so my adventures were sadly, just about over. I will never forget his response. He said, “Over? Your adventures aren’t over. Maybe this one, yes. But you have a whole life of adventures ahead of you. I mean, you’ve already started having them so early!”

As much as I was sad to leave Europe and my semester of adventures behind, I realized that Joe was right. (Zdenka, don’t let it go to his head. It was probably just this one time.) I have a whole lifetime of adventures ahead, and this was just the start. Call it the travel bug, a zeal for life, whatever. There are adventures waiting around every corner of the future, and I intend to seek them out.

Si tu n’oses pas, tu ne traverses jamais..

The title of this post comes from one of my more profound moments in Paris, one whose importance I only recently realized. One of my first days in Paris, I was walking around my quarter and trying to cross this street to get to the street my apartment is on. This street is only busy in the evenings, usually right when I’d be coming home from classes. Any other time of day, I could walk across without even looking, but in the evening, everything changed–and it was a constant stream of cars. At this point, I had not learned the position of the French pieton in society. (Basically, we rule the streets here. This is a practice I should probably forget once I get back to the States or I will be the cause of a traffic incident. Those of you who know Valpo drivers know exactly what I mean.) Seeing this constant stream of cars, I looked ridiculous trying to cross the street, leaning out and then hopping back to the curb several times. After a few times of doing this, a French gentleman came up next to me, looked once, and just started walking across, besides the fact that there were still cars coming. I followed his lead, since the cars stopped for him, and miraculously enough made it to the other side. I thanked him, and he responded very kindly, “Si tu n’oses pas, tu ne traverses jamais.” If you don’t dare, you never cross. How true.. I was recently reflecting on this and thought of a similar connection to Eat Pray Love, seeing as I’m in Italy it’s been on my mind lately. She has this word in Italian that she loves, attraversiamo, which means, “let’s cross over.” If you don’t dare to try, you will never cross over. I feel like this sums up a lot of what you learn living abroad. You have to be willing to put yourself out there to meet people and try new things and live your life a bit differently that you used to. You dare, and all of a sudden you find yourself–not hit by a car, but safely on the other side of the street, wondering why you were even so hesitant in the first place.

So sorry for my absence and lack of recent posts, things have been so busy with the end of my program and travel planning and such! I started writing this post in my little notebook I take with me everywhere, (I am an incessant list-maker and note-jotter of random things that pop into my head, plus I’ve been on a lot of trains lately), in which I went on several random tangents, so if this post isn’t as cohesive as some of my others…don’t say I didn’t warn you. I began writing this post in a restaurant (where I ended up receiving impeccable service and food, which I am thinking was a result of them thinking I was a food critic of some kind taking notes through the whole meal) in Amsterdam–a wonderful place that has more bicycles than cars and where everyone instantly recognizes my last name (which is apparently the Dutch equivalent of “Smith”) and enthusiastically responds “NEDERLANDS!” and I smile and nod using the most important phrase I noted down from the phrasebook, “Ik spreek geen Nederlands.” (I can’t speak Dutch!) That’s the thing about having Dutch heritage, I look like I belong there so people try to speak the language to me! I was excited to be in Amsterdam the minute I saw windmills and words with so many vowels they rival the French language, where -eaux is pronounced “oh.”

Amsterdam was beautiful!Amsterdam!

We live in a beautiful world, yeah we do

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” -E. B. White

This quote by E.B. White, the author of Charlotte’s Web, has struck me as ever so profound and remarkably true for me since the day that I read it. I simultaneously see such joy and beauty in the world, i.e. the goal and theme of my blog, but there is also the part he refers to as challenging. It’s an interesting word choice. One could have easily chosen depressing, horrible, or unfair. Instead of these inherently negative words, he chose “challenging,” which is not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but something that asks us a question. It makes us think and even more importantly, it makes us act. There are many things that I find challenging in this world, aside from confusingly large metro stops. The type of challenging that he refers to is the one that hopefully always make us uncomfortable and inspire us to improve the world in some way. The uneven distribution of wealth in the world is challenging. So is poverty. And homelessness. And the lack of clean water, and education, and medical services, and the list goes on. I find it interesting that he describes this part of the world as challenging, which seems to define it as not being a situation of hopelessness but rather a situation that requires action and improvement. What I take away from this quote is the need for an equilibrium between the two: being able to recognize both parts of this amazingly intricate world that we live in, enjoying the beauty and wonder in it as well as recognizing the challenge to improve it.

Sorry to start off with a huge philosophical question, but I felt as though it were extremely appropriate for this blog post combined with the recent one about my trip to Germany, in which I talk about some really beautiful things or experiences I’ve had lately, as well as my internship and what I’m learning there, which centers around the reality that there are over 160 million kids living on the street without a home, a family, or anyone to take care of them. This is a very sobering statistic, especially when you consider the fact that these children have had no say or choice in their life as to their situation, they were simply born into this reality of hardship and suffering. Basically, my organization centers around the idea that “the first human right is the right to have a childhood.” Right now, we’re setting up for this big sale to raise funds for a new orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti. As you can imagine, there is great need for it. Promethee gathers donations of merchandise from mostly French business like clothing designers and home decorating stores, and then sells them at this huge event marked down 40%-60%. It’s a really effective and fascinating way of connecting the commercial sector and consumers of Paris to raising funds to build an orphanage in Haiti as well as maintain the housing and education programs in Madagascar, Senegal, and Vietnam. I have learned so much at my internship so far and I absolutely love it. The people I work with are so great and truly passionate about their work and most importantly, about the kids. It’s been an amazing experience so far and I am so unbelievably happy to be learning about how an NGO really works in this environment–and in French, to boot! I do mostly general office stuff like mailings, and I’ve even done phone calls in French, which is honestly waaay more difficult than it is speaking with someone in person. You don’t realize how much of communication is visual until you have to talk to someone on the phone in a difference language. Overall, I am in love with my internship and couldn’t be more pleased with my placement and my experience as an intern here so far!

I’m sure you’re starting to wonder when the pictures are coming, so let’s start that! I take the same route coming home from my internship every day, starting with leaving the metro stop with the most stairs of any that I have so far yet seen. (AKA my daily metro work out.) Although this walk home is longer than other stops, I really like it because I walk past the flower shop, where it smelled like spring even when it was freezing outside, the wedding dress store where my favorite dress has been hanging in the window for several weeks now, and my favorite boulangerie to get a baguette from. Also on my way home, I have recently had a friend greeting me from his post.

My friend who greets me on my way home!

I’ve seen this little guy sticking his head under the balcony so many times, happily trying to catch the attentions of people and more importantly, other dogs, walking by. I finally stopped to take a picture of him and pet him a little bit this week! He’s a total sweetheart and I look forward to seeing him on my walks home now. And of course, it makes me miss my puppies back home!

Let’s pretend like I inserted a transition here, because I want to tell you all about this but it has nothing to do with the above story. I was with some friends walking along the Rue de Rivoli, and across from the Louvre there’s always street performers and roller-bladers doing crazy stunts in the square. On this particular day, there was a man doing massive, huge bubbles. And it was literally stopping people of all ages and cultures on the street to watch this man make the largest bubbles I have ever seen. It was so simple, but so interesting to see so many people stopped to watch, children, adults, and teenagers alike. And wow, was he good at it. It was a really neat thing to see.

The bubble-making genius who commanded the attention of all who walked past

On the other side of Rue de Rivoli last week, our program got us tickets to all go to the theater at La Comedie Francaise–which is a big deal here in Paris. We went to see Un Fil A La Patte, a hilarious play that has been sold out for months. It was so extremely French and really very funny and not too difficult to follow the story line. The actors were amazing, and the interesting thing is that at the end of French plays, the actors and actresses will continue to repeatedly take bows. They do it once, the curtain goes down, goes back up, they come back out and bow again, and this whole thing repeats for as long as the crowd continues applauding, really. This being a very well renowned play, the actors and actresses may have bowed at least 7 times. After about 4, it really just gets to be a little redundant and your hands start stinging. Still, it’s just the way French theater works! Also, La Comedie Francaise is absolutely beautiful. The theater feels like a palace and is just breathtaking.

La Comedie Francaise!

This theater is so beautifully decorated, it's unbelievable

Even the ceiling!

As much as I tell you all my wonderful experiences and ramblings, I do also occasionally tell of the misadventures that occur every once in awhile, i.e. like how I get lost all the time, also known as How Ali Discovered She Had No Innate Sense of Direction. A recent misadventure took place in the kitchen this week. Sometimes, when you’re doing more than once thing at once and thinking of at least five other things in your head, you do something…less than intelligent. For me, this week, I took my turn participating in this human ritual while simply making a grilled cheese sandwich. (I recently found what is referred to as “Burger Cheese” here in France and went on a grilled-cheese-binge for a few days.) There is this relationship between hot pans and plastic. It is not a positive relationship. Unfortunately for the plastic tablecloth on the table in the kitchen, it was forced to come in contact for an extended period of at least 15 seconds with a hot pan that had recently made a delicious grilled cheese sandwich. Alas, as I was transferring the sandwich to my plate and arranging my lunch in an aesthetically pleasing configuration (grilled cheese must be cut into triangles), I absent-mindedly set the hot pan on the table. This is the result of that decision.

Poor, poor, whimsical tablecloth.

It’s like the whimsical fruit on the tablecloth are laughing at me. I particularly like the expressions of the apples. (I’ve talked with my friend Liz about this, and there’s something about French people’s sense of humor where they have this thing about random whimsical prints, like the silly giraffes on my bed sheets..) I’m also somewhat impressed that I managed to make a near perfect circle cut out of the tablecloth. Thankfully, my host mom was understanding when I gave her the bad news and she was just glad I didn’t set myself on fire or burn the house down.

Speaking of my friend Liz, I went to visit her this past weekend in the lovely city/town of Laval! She is currently there as an English Teaching Assistant at a high school. It was nice to see somewhere outside of the Ile de France, and we had a wonderful time.

Laval! The view from my friend Liz's window

Crossing the river in Laval

Another river photo

One of the many interesting, old buildings on a great little side street

Another side street (Oh, the converging walls! Be still, my beating heart!)

The remnants of the old chateau in Laval

After exploring the old areas of town, which was so neat and had a really great, old feel to it, we later walked around the Jardin (garden) of Laval, which is really above most of the city, has a beautiful park where you can’t actually frolic in the grass, and is home to a collection of bunnies, guinea pigs, goats, sheep, and birds. I particularly enjoyed the baby goats as well as the duck pond, which was just too funny because the ducks and geese there seem to have such personality and we had fun with the voice over commentary of the situation in the duck pond.

Le jardin de Laval

Newsflash: Baby goats are the cutest thing ever.

Afro-duck!!

Me at the piece de la resistance of the jardin: the duck pond

I had a great time visiting Laval, which was ended by dinner at an amazing pizza restaurant that had THE craziest pizza combinations I have ever seen. I actually found a tartiflette pizza. It was sooo delicious. And then I ended up having to literally run to my train and just barely made it before the train pulled out of the station. Surprised, anyone?

Last thing, for those of who you survived to the end of this long and rather random post: points to the one who comments with the name/artist of the song the title of this post comes from….

Spring Break Adventures Part II: Reutlingen, Germany!

I’ve decided to give Germany its own post because of how many pictures I want to put into this one and I don’t want to get cut off with a file limit or something halfway through. For the second part of my spring break, I headed across the French/German border to Reutlingen, a smaller city near Stuttgart. My university has a study abroad program there, so I went to stay with my friend Alex. Germany was a really awesome place to visit, and it was particularly interesting for me because it was the first country I’d visited where I haven’t at least some what spoken the language. Even the first time I came to France, I had still taken four years of high school French and at least had a clue of what was going on around me. Once I got into Germany and saw all these signs at the train station, it was one of those “not in Kansas anymore” moments and the fact that I have never taken a German class in my life all of a sudden smacked me in the face with the realization that I had no clue what was going on around me. Thankfully the ticket machines had an English option! Eventually, I did learn some basic words and phrases in German from Alex, including things like “ticket” and “I don’t speak German.” My first experience after getting off the train at Reutlingen and seeing my friend was having what I’m convinced will forever be the best pretzel I’ve had in my entire life. Needless to say, this started the trip on a good note.

Reutlingen is basically a really adorable German town. Unfortunately, parts of it were destroyed during WWII bombings, however; Tubingen, another town right nearby, went untouched. We visited this my first day in Reutlingen, and it was really interesting to see how vastly different old German architecture is, even in just little houses, than it is in France. It was so cute! Some of the colors they used were just so surprisingly bright and fun, colors that many Americans would cringe at, for sure.

Aren't these houses just great?

Thank you, Corinna of the Hairy Goat Tour, for teaching me the tool of reflections in photography..

Luckily for me and my camera, all of these beautiful houses were on a river. On a sunny day. I took so many pictures of this! I think I now understand why Claude Monet was so obsessed by the luminosity of the world around him and why he did paintings in different lightings and everything. I couldn’t help but think of his paintings he did at La Grenouillere with all the water reflections. The day we walked around Tubingen was such an unbelievably gorgeous day, it was like all of a sudden the sun came out from its hiding place, ready to work and announce the beginning of spring with a bang!

Look! Spring!

Some swans came to say hello

After walking along the little river, we walked up roughly 5,736 stairs (just an estimate, mind you) to get to this amazing view of the city. It was absolutely beautiful, and no matter how many pictures I took I felt like my camera just couldn’t handle it and take in the beauty, because these pictures don’t even do it justice. It tried its best, however.

The view was worth all the stairs..I think.

One of the really special things about Reutlingen is the claim to fame you see in the photo below: it is the home of the narrowest street in the world! How they know this, I honestly have no idea, because I mean really, who was the one who went around measuring all the skinny, narrow little streets in the world to decide that this was the narrowest? However, since there’s an official sign, I believe it for the moment. Also, it is really really really narrow. But we walked down it, nonetheless!

Narrowest street in the world!

My second day in Germany, we headed up to Bad Urach, which to me sounded like a city Tolkien might have made up and put in the Lord of the Rings book. Bad Urach is actually home to a really beautiful park/hiking area as well as the ruins of the Castle Hohenurach (originally built in the 11th century) and a really amazingly beautiful waterfall. I would say it took at least twice as long to get up to the ruins as it did to walk back down from then, because it is literally uphill the entire way up to the top to get to the ruins. Although I love nature, love being outside and all that, I really hate hiking. I have since I was little and still sort of do today. I can make concessions when there’s a point to all of the trudging about, i.e. ruins, but just meandering in a forest is not exactly my cup of tea. I tell you this because I have to say, the crazy hike up the mountain to the ruins was COMPLETELY worth it when we got there. You can explore all around, go into the underground parts, walk all over and climb on stuff–it’s practically a playground of ruins, really. And there was so much left! It was just a really awesome experience and something totally new for me.

Ruins at Bad Urach

The picture above was my first view of the ruins. Little did I know all that was to come and blow my mind.

I loved looking out these little windows

Exploring the underground rooms of the ruins

Slightly scary ancient stairs

View from the top of the Ruins

The "courtyard" area

The famous facade part of the Bad Urach ruins

I walked on top of some of these! And then there was a gap that I did not trust myself to successfully walk over.

Seriously, the view was amazing.

So, yes. The ruins were totally worth the hike and just overall awesome. We then realized we did indeed have enough time to see the waterfall as well, so we headed over there. The waterfall was absolutely gorgeous, like something straight out of a Thomas Kinkade calendar but even better because it was real. You could hear it before you could see it, and when you did finally see it, it was just the most picturesque, perfect work of natural art you could imagine. Just seeing it cascading down all the rocks and listening to the sound of the water, it was a truly beautiful sight to see. In a surprising moment of unnaturally athletic skill, I climbed up the side of the waterfall and stood directly underneath the very top where the water first comes out over the cliff. Once I got there, I just stood there and took it all in for a few minutes. I’m convinced I will never forget that moment standing under the waterfall. It was one of the perfect moments where all you can do is just revel in the beauty of your surroundings. I mean, when you think about it, this part of nature is similar to many others–rocks, water, plants, trees, etc. But the configuration of this particular place is just awe inducing. Nature will never cease to amaze me, the beautiful things it can do with the simplest elements like rocks and water.

Yes, you will find this in the dictionary next to "enchanted forest waterfall."

Just breathtaking.

Little bit closer...

And then I got right underneath it!

Those were the highlights of my wonderful trip to Germany! It was a great experience and I absolutely loved everything I was able to see. It’s so crazy to think just how culturally different Germany is from France, and yet, in the US, that would be like Illinois and Indiana having completely difference cultures.. It’s just crazy! Europe is just kind of great like that. Looking forward to more traveling in the future, including a trip to Bruges and Brussels in Belgium next weekend! As always, thanks for reading and following my adventures. I feel very lucky to have people like you who, for whatever reason, are interested in reading about them.

In the Queue for an English Adventure

For the majority of my week long break in between classes and my internship, I took off across the channel on the Eurostar (not via ferry, for those of you curious as to whether I repeated the Great Seasick Expedition of 2006… I did not. There’s not enough Dramamine in the world to make me reconsider the idea of an overnight ferry over the channel again.) to jolly old England! It was my first time ever going to the country, and wow, was it a change from Paris! Not only because of the language change, although that was a large shift in itself, going from being surrounded by French to being once again surrounded by English, albeit with a heavy accent and words like ‘queue’ and ‘alighting,’ the uses of which were foreign to me until this week. The whole atmosphere of England is just different from that in France, not better or worse, but just different. Everything was green and budding with the first little inklings of spring, it actually wasn’t too cold and it didn’t even rain until right before I was about to leave!

I started off my journey in the lovely town of Cambridge, where VU has a study center. Stayed there for the first two nights, and it was positively wonderful. Even the first night there, just sitting in a typically charming English pub with a pint of Guinness, fish and chips, reading a wonderful book on my Kindle called “Getting Sassy” (which also happens to be written by one of the best aunts in the world, strangely enough. If you’re looking for a good caper, check out her book here: http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Sassy-D-C-Brod/dp/1935562223/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300401935&sr=8-1) with the dim hum of the pub bustling about me–it was just perfectly relaxing. It was like I was simultaneously soaking up the English culture while I was soaking up malt vinegar with the remains of my perfectly crunchy fish. (I should point out that usually, I am not the world’s biggest fan of seafood whatsoever. There’s just something about fish and chips that just breaks my usual disdain for anything that lives under the sea.)

One of the main streets in Cambridge. Also a picture that could be listed next to the definition of "quaint."

The next day I spent exploring all over Cambridge. Literally. I had a map, but wandering is really just more fun, isn’t it? Plus, once you know where the main street is it’s pretty easy to navigate, even for this girl who’s been stuck underground in the Chatelet metro station for half an hour trying to find her way back to the sunlight. One of the really interesting things about Cambridge is that it isn’t your typical university town, with plenty of late night eating options or student discounts all over the place. Instead of 24 hour Taco Bell, Cambridge changes the meaning of college town to a town whose main street is lined up and down with all of the difference colleges that make up Cambridge University. And naturally, each of these colleges are architecturally phenomenal and look like something out of a Harry Potter movie.

An example of two of the colleges of Cambridge you walk past down the street

Another college with some really impressive towers at the entrance

An extremely stunning courtyard

Also one of the good things about wandering and meandering is that you find some really cool places without having any idea what they are. I love hearing the history behind a place as much as the next person, possibly more, but sometimes it’s just neat to appreciate a place for being visually fascinating without knowing or caring about the purpose. It’s like you’re just appreciating it for existing because it is, in itself, interesting. Exhibit A: The photo above.

Also, from a photography standpoint, I have this thing about depth of field and perspective… I can’t help it when I find little alleyways like this. I can not even begin to tell you how many pictures I have that resemble this from all over Paris, and now from both England and Germany. I don’t know what it is about this point of view but I can never stop taking pictures of it. One of my favorite pictures from my black and white Photo class was of this random alley that had tracks of ice on it in Goshen. It was just a bare alley that had literally no purpose, but the way the light hit the ice and the patterns of the brick just transforms it into something beautiful, you know?

Give me two converging walls, particularly walls that are architecturally interesting such as these, and you've got one happy photographer here.

As I meandered down the main street, walking in and out of courtyards and random side streets, I found this King’s College, which is interesting because apparently it’s perfectly symmetrical according to a tour guide. Also, there just happened to be an Amnesty International demonstration in front of it with all of these signatures on the white sheets. (I’d recognize that barbed-wire-candle-icon anywhere!)

King's College - so huge and ornate. Also with an Amnesty International demonstration in the lower left corner. (I signed one of those sheets!)

There were sooo many really old churches in this area, too, including the aptly named Round Church, which is somewhat reminiscent of a hobbit house from the Shire or something. No points for creativity when it came to the naming, but it was really an interesting church!

The Round Church. Original, right?

One of the things I was told that I HAD to do was to do what’s known as a “punting tour.” Punting is Cambridge’s version of Venetian gondolas, with these big long wooden boats and you use this huge long wooden stick to propel it. That’s a proverbial “you”, since I did not actually attempt this feat. There were people around us on the tour failing miserably all over the place, and it was much easier to sit and enjoy the ride while the nice young British guy did the steering and commentating. So I went punting down the River Cam, saw all the bridges and the famous ‘College Backs’ (yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like. The backs of the colleges that are all visible from the river.) It was really interesting to hear all about the colleges and the different bridges, and just a really cool experience over all. Plus, a great opportunity for picture taking, which is always an important factor.

This swan was strangely friendly around the punting area, so I had to snap a photo.

The River Cam

The Bridge of Sighs, and no, I didn't make that up. Supposedly it's called that because of the sighs of the students walking from residence halls to classes..

A chapel and a college. It'd be cool if I remembered the names...but I don't. Oops.

Sir Isaac Newton's allegedly 'mathematically perfect' bridge

After a lovely stay in Cambridge, which I think was an excellent picture of England outside of London, I headed into the busy city of London for the next 4 days. A huge smile spread across my face arriving into King’s Cross Station (although sadly, no Platform 9 3/4 to whisk me away to Hogwarts) and I made my first journey via the tube to trek on over to my hostel. I won’t say much about my hostel other than I got lost for an hour to find it (there goes my navigation skills again.. I swear I can read a map, honestly..), it was freezing, and the supposed ‘free breakfast’ was akin to a pack of over a hundred rabid, savage beasts all simultaneously descending upon a helpless pile of toast and a bowl of unknown cereal that ended up all over the floor and tables, each being in no way sufficient for the ravenous appetite before it. Needless to say I gave up on participating in this veritable feast after the first morning. I wanted to retain all of my limbs for the rest of my trip, thank you very much.

The first night I went to the Troubadour, a pub/cafe with live music that is famous for having hosted the musical talents of such legends as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Nick Drake and (more recently) Laura Marling. Needless to say, I was in awe imagining that all of these famed musicians had once played on the stage before me. Plus, the food was great!

The Troubadour!

My second day in London was so full and timed out perfectly I can barely believe it was me who planned it all out. I started out with the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. The sheer crowd of people who had gathered to see this sight was just as interesting as the actual event itself. The fascination people have with the royal family is something that just struck me as so interesting throughout the whole trip. Not only is it something you observe everywhere, with the crowd of people hording around the gates for the Changing of the Guard or seeing Prince William and Kate Middleton’s faces plastered all over any object you can imagine from mugs to towels to snowglobes, it also something you can easily get swept up in while traveling around London. Exploring Buckingham Palace and later seeing the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London was something I got just as excited about even though I’m from the US. It’s really kinda fun, actually, and the whole idea of royalty is just so foreign being an American that it just makes it interesting to hear about it and see it all the time.

Buckingham Palace, waiting for the Changing of the Guard (They were late!)

Changing of the Guard

The only other part of Buckingham Palace that was open to the public at this time was the Royal Mews, which is the stables where they keep all the royal carriages, cars, and horses. It was actually a lot more interesting than it sounds! And it just contributed to the whole royal atmosphere and everything. I mean, who travels by carriage any more? That’s just special in and of itself. It just felt like something straight out of an Austen novel where Jane needs the carriage to go to Netherfield..

Thanks to a helpful security warden, I got to snap a photo of a carriage in use coming back from taking the Hungarian ambassador to see the Queen!

Wow that's a lot of gold on one carriage. It is also allegedly extremely uncomfortable, according to the king who rode in it to his coronation.

I then strolled on through St. James Park which was joyfully throwing spring at my face from every angle. There were birds everywhere and all of these plants and trees were flowering, it was like spring was born in this park. I proceeded to take almost as many pictures of birds as I would of Big Ben.

Just happened to see this cute little family in St. James' Park while I grabbed a quick lunch

After lunch, I intended to go to Parliament Square, but little did I know I was about to turn the corner and BAM! there it was looking me in the face. I love these cities where you’re constantly stumbling on amazing sights, not realizing how close all of these things are to one another. Big Ben is a truly amazing sight, I couldn’t get enough pictures of it. It’s hard to capture how ornate it is, this huge clock that’s simultaneously delicately decorated as well as a symbol of fortitude and strength being connected to Parliament, which is a beautiful building itself as well. Intense, imposing, yes, but also just really beautifully designed, too.

It is honestly just breathtaking.

Really impressive for a government building, and the light was just hitting it perfectly that day.

Westminster Abbey

The next few hours were dedicated to Westminster Abbey, one of my favorite parts of my visit to London. You’re not allowed to take pictures inside of it, but I assure you it is just as impressive on the inside as it is looking at the facade. Standing in Poet’s Corner is just a really awe inspiring experience, realizing all of these great minds and writers are buried beneath your feet like Chaucer and Lord Byron. Little did I know that Jane Austen is buried here as well, and when I found her plaque on the wall I literally gasped aloud. I don’t know what it is about Jane, but she just knew how to write in a way that speaks past her era and on through to girls today. Needless to say, I felt very honored to be standing in front of her remains. I stayed for a choral service at the Abbey which was just amazing, and almost felt guilty (but not quite) at being able to sit in the seats where monks in the 1600s had sat so many years ago!

It's even more impressive at night time!

I walked out of the Abbey and made a beeline across Westminster bridge for the London Eye, but not before stopping to get a picture taken with Big Ben, which was now ever so elegantly illuminated. One thing I have learned from traveling on my own is the fine skill of how to ask other people to take a picture of you. I usually look for families, who as always looking for people to take a picture of them so everyone can be in the picture, or young girls my age who want goofy pictures of them making peace signs in front of the Big Ben. These people seem both the most willing to do mutual picture taking as well as the least likely to drop and run off with my camera. Another fine art to this skill is communicating this when you find out the people don’t speak English. When I went up in the London Eye, there was only one other German couple in the pod with me, they spoke no English, but yet we were able to convey to each other with a series of gestures that we could take pictures of one another. Funny how that mutual desire for photographical souvenirs of a place crosses cultural borders…

It's way more intimidating from this angle than when you're actually in it

Going on the London Eye was an absolutely phenomenal experience. You can see so much of London, and honestly–you don’t even realize how high up you’re going because it moves ever so slowly. (Slow enough so that it doesn’t stop and yet people are still able to get on.) So for those of you who are hesitant because it’s technically the biggest ferris wheel in the world–it was unlike any ferris wheel I’ve ever been on. It was a view of the city you can’t see from anywhere else.

The view from inside the pod

I took so many pictures of this same exact scene from varying heights and angles

London at night time, from the top of the Eye. Just beautiful.

Unfortunately, my main camera that hooks into my computer so easily with its little USB connector died the next day, and although I was able to use my back up camera, there’s no way to transfer the pictures from my SD card onto my netbook at this moment. So the next day is on my other camera and sadly, not on the computer and unable to be shared. But, in short (heh) I went to the Tower of London, where all of Henry VIII’s wives were executed (among others) and also where the Crown Jewels are located! The wardens who live at the Tower of London and also do the tours are absolutely hysterical and honestly really make the visit what it is. Right next to it is Tower Bridge, where I got a picture taken and promptly turned around to completely wipe out in front of tons of people because I was staring at my camera and not at a silly cement platform. I made my way over to the British Museum, where I spent three hours in complete and total awe of the history of the world that surrounded me on all sides. My favorite part of the British Museum was the Rosetta Stone, which is such a sight to behold. I’m pretty sure you could spend an entire week in the British Museum, it’s that big. They have vast collections that show history from all over different parts of the world, from Egyptian mummies to pieces of the Parthenon to Mayan stelas and Aztec masks.

Last but not least, my final day in London was devoted to the Hairy Goat Mystery Photography Tour, which was absolutely one of the highlights of my trip. Corinna, the tour guide, is unbelievably knowledgeable in both the history of London as well as what makes for some really interesting photographs. The whole tour had this sense of exploration, it wasn’t like we went from one tourist landmark to the next and all stood and took the same picture. She showed us around to different areas and we were free to explore and walk around these places that were full of all sorts of different types of shots just awaiting a group of photographers. I learned a lot about the history of the London, with the influences of the guilds that you can see in the architecture of various buildings we came across, but also about how to use reflections to make for really fascinating photos and different angles that show new perspectives of a scene. If you like taking pictures and are going to be in London, you cannot miss this tour. (www.hairygoat.net) It was really difficult trying to pick which pictures to post here, but here’s just a sampling of what was truly an amazing and extremely enjoyable tour.

We started off in front of the Royal Exchange, and if you look closely at the lamp you can see the little dragon on top holding the shield of the City of London!

This is what Corinna referred to as the "coolest ashtray in all of London" because of how much you could see in its reflexion! I would never have found this awesome picture on my own.

Cool windows on a modern building creating distortions of the older buildings in its reflection

Thank you, Corinna, for this suggestion..

Who knew you could use the back of a taxi van like that?

The 'Gherkin' and a really old church

A bank/insurance building designed by the same guy who designed the Centre Pompidou in Paris

The same bank/insurance building, but distorted by the really need windows in the building across the street

Oh, and if you bend over backwards, look what happens now...

A really neat marketplace that has such fun architecture and this really fantastic glass roof

A really old pub with a great mosaic floor

The whole time I was writing this post I kept waiting for an error message to pop up and tell me I couldn’t post any more pictures! Miraculously enough, they all fit. All in all, I had a wonderful time during my adventure in England. Next post to come–my visit to Reutlingen, Germany and the beginnings of a new adventure: having an internship in Paris!

Life moves pretty fast.

I am currently writing to you all from the ecstatic state of post-finals-syndrome! I can’t believe that my classes are over and that my internship begins in a little over a week. This may sound strange, (and I may have said this before), but it simultaneously feels as though I just got here and that I’ve been here for an incredibly long-although not uncomfortably so-period of time. I’m guessing this is evidence of the fact that I have settled into the Parisian life just a little bit–although not so much that I’m no longer amazed every single day by what’s around me. Even going to my metro stop in the morning to go to class, I just can’t help but think, “Wow. I’m crossing the street right now and I see the Eiffel Tower at the end.” It’s just surreal. Even just seeing the way light plays off of the buildings with the most fabulous architecture in my quarter, or walking down the street with a warm baguette in hand. It’s just like this scene from Julie and Julia (a fantastic movie about Julia Child and a blogger who worked her way through Julia Child’s cookbook; if you haven’t seen it, you MUST. it’s one of my favorites and I feel as though Julia and I share similar views of France..) where Julia Child is telling her husband when they first get to their apartment in Paris, “I can’t believe we get to live HERE!”

Meryl Streep as Julia Child - she's so adorable!

Oh, and yes I have my favorite stretch of street in my quarter, in case you were wondering. Well, I know that you weren’t, but I wanted to show it off anyways. I pass it on my way to my metro stop, Mirabeau, (yes it’s right by Pont Mirabeau, if you’re a Guillaume Apollinaire fan!) and when I go to the grocery store. There’s not much that’s particularly unique about it, and I haven’t been into any of the stores or anything, but everything about it just incarnates a french building, with the columns, the ornate terraces on every window, the decorative supports everywhere.. Just perfect.

A typical charming street in Paris that happens to be my favorite

Speaking of Julia Child, this brings me to one of my recent cooking experience, of which I can’t get pictures to work However, I must briefly describe it. My friend Emily and I embarked upon a Julia Child adventure one night, complete with dresses to honor the Julia Child tradition of wearing pearls while cooking, playing French period music like Edith Piaf, and lots and LOTS of butter. I can’t even imagine the butter consumption of this country. It truly is what makes everything good, though. Also, if you’ve ever tried to think of “that one French song they play in movies that reference Paris” I have recently discovered that it is an Edith Piaf song called La Vie en Rose. If you haven’t heard it, go youtube it because it’s a wonderful song, and you’ll know exactly what I mean when you hear it! So my friend Emily and I tackled a roast chicken with potatoes and onions underneath it, gougères (these cheese puff pastries with gruyere cheese), salade de chevre chaud (salad with melted goat cheese on little pieces of baguette), sauteed green beans, and profiteroles. Foodies, eat your heart out. It was one of the best and biggest meals I have ever eaten, and we watched Julie and Julia afterwards while doing our best to fit as many profiteroles in the remaining space in our stomachs. Profiteroles may be the most heavenly dessert ever. I highly recommend it. (Oh, and if anyone wants recipes, do let me know! Although I’m a little lax on measurements, I can give you the general idea of course.) It involved a lot of butter and a lot of herbes de provence (revelation: this mysterious mix of spices is amazing) and we had a great time!

I’m realizing that I have a tendency to get all chatty in the beginning of my posts and then realize I haven’t posted any pictures and start inserting pictures like crazy–a tendency which I will not be breaking with this post! My friend Emily and I visited Pere LaChaise cemetery, where a bunch of famous people are buried. Sounds like a downer, right? But oh no. This cemetery is a photographer’s playground. The sheer number of graves is astounding, and they all differ in shape, size, and style and yet when you look at them like this they tend to look the same!

Pere La Chaise - eerie, yet beautiful

It was really a lot of the random graves that were the most breathtaking and interesting

It was a really fascinating place to go to, with lots of famous French artists, painters, writers, and randomly enough, Oscar Wilde, whose grave is covered in kiss marks. As cool as it may be to say that you have kissed the grave of Oscar Wilde, up close, it is much less appealing, I must say. Seriously. Sadly, it was during this trip to photography playground that my camera decided that it was just too cold to be taking pictures and it bailed on me. Yes, my camera is mean-spirited. Therefore I got a few pictures of this fascinating place, and I’ll just have to go back to get the rest someday! Plus, the place is huge and I think we barely traversed half of it! When the cemetery closes, they start ringing this bell basically like places play the “Closing Time” song: to tell everyone to get out so they can close up shop. As they started ringing the bells for closing time, we were in a random corner of the cemetery, there was a bunch of crows on the graves and in the trees, and it was an overcast sky. The atmosphere was just too perfect.

One of my favorite photos of the day

there's so many!

Sometimes one of the most interesting things to do in Paris is just to wander and see what you find. There’s so many little hidden things that you see just walking around the city and keeping your eyes open. I think that sometimes, probably more often that not, there’s a lot lf beauty that we miss around us because we’re too busy getting to where we need to go or figuring out the next whatever. Slowing down and taking time has been a development for me this semester, considering I’m the one who has every hour of her life planned out from day to day when I’m at school. Here, it’s all up to me, and that choice is just positively liberating! I’m heading to London tomorrow afternoon for vacation until Thursday, and I can literally do whatever it is that I want. It’s a very freeing concept, and I think it makes you slow down and notice things around you that you may not have seen before. I’m not saying I’ve perfected this, because it’s so easy to rush and miss everything, but I am recommending trying out the concept, because in the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once in awhile, you could miss it.” And it’s definitely something worth not missing.

Here are some of the fruits of my open-eyed wandering:

 

Random curvy street discovery

Street art

Oh hello, Shakespeare and Company!

This picture also represents one of the best things about wandering: you stumble upon things you didn’t even know were there! I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been walking in some area of Paris looking for something else and I end up stumbling upon a national monument! While wandering, my friend and I found the famous bookstore, Shakespeare and Company! It’s a truly wonderful bookstore, something you can just tell the minute you walk in and smell the air of musty pages. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many books in such a small place. The atmosphere just reeks of book lovers and writers and thinkers, if such a thing is possible.

 

Books! Books! And more books!

We even found this little nook where they had a typewriter for people to leave little notes of musings, thoughts, written words of any kind.. It was such an interesting, thoughtful concept so we had to make our own contribution to the wall of notes..

We left a note at the typewriter!

Anywhere that has built in wooden ladders to reach the top shelf of books is fine by me.

One of my other recent conquests in Paris was going to have lunch at the cafe from the movie Amelie, called Les Deux Moulins (The Two Mills). It’s right by the  Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre area of Paris, which is just a fascinating area to explore aside from shops of a certain nature.  The cafe just brings to life the scenes from the film and seriously oozes of Amelie’s personality. Everything is pink and retro and just fun.

Le Moulin Rouge!

Cafe de 2 Moulins

She's on the menu!

It's just so Amelie. Right out of the movie..

And since we were at the cafe from Amelie, we of course had to get creme brûlée. (My first one in Paris!) If you haven’t seen the film, Amelie is a really quirky, interesting individual and one of the things she loves is the cracking sound of hitting creme brulee with the tip of the spoon. It really is a lovely sound.. And it was absolutely delicious. Amelie really is the poster child for finding  joy in the little things, and it was so neat to just be in the cafe where the ambience was everything Amelie!

Creme brulee! The cracking noise really is the best.

Tomorrow I am off on a whirlwind adventure to England, starting in Cambridge then heading to London! I’ve never been and always wanted to, so I’m very excited. Plus, after finals week, I think a few days in London will be the perfect way to forget about school. I promise that soon after I’ll be posting pictures and stories of my adventures in London! Hope Paris isn’t stealing away all the sunshine from the States, and thanks so much for reading.

Love actually is all around.

Hello again! Hope you all had a wonderful 14th of February yesterday, or the Day of Saint Valentine as it’s known here. I decided that the City of Love itself would be my Valentine, considering I have definitely fallen in love with this amazing city. I can’t believe that I’ve been here a little over a month! It’s strange, because it simultaneously feels as though I just got here and that I’ve been here for such a long time. Not that I’m saying I want it to be over, on the contrary, it feels like it’s all going by too fast, especially considering I have finals in about two weeks! My program is half classes, half internship so it’s basically like a semester of classes squished into 7 weeks. I had my interview for my internship, which went well despite that fact that I had an extremely difficult time finding it (I’ve been getting lost a lot lately. Oops. Comes with the territory, I suppose), and I couldn’t be more happy about my placement! I’ll be working with an organization called Promethee Humanitaire, a humanitarian organization that works to build houses for kids on the streets in 5 countries (Senegal, Madagascar, Haiti, Brazil, and Vietnam) through family units run by native volunteers. They have a website, but it’s entirely in French, though if you want to poke around or are one of my fellow francophones, here’s the link! www.prometheehumanitaire.org.

Yay internship!

I am absolutely thrilled and am very excited to be working with them, everyone who works/volunteers there seems very friendly and passionate about the work they do. During the interview/information session, the woman who started the organization, Claire, said something really interesting that translates as basically, “We want to do good, efficiently, in a good environment.” And you know, that’s pretty much it, isn’t it? What else could you ask for? Plus, the whole thing will be conducted in French since they don’t speak English, something I’m very pleased about so that I can really work on my professional French in an environment that’s not too intimidating. I start my internship the 14th of March after a week vacation, which I’m still deciding on where to go.. For those of you readers who have the travel bug, any recommendations regarding England/Scotland??

Alright, now I know that my blog title is from a movie that’s really more of a Christmas movie, but the opening monologue of this film is just so poignant and to me, very applicable considering yesterday was Valentine’s Day, a day which, in spite of all the commercialism and Hallmark exploding with cards and flowers everywhere, makes people take a moment to consider love. Love, something that we tend to only think about on a surface level, something that without a doubt is forced down everyone’s throats with movies and television shows, but it’s also something that we are surrounded by every single day, in all the little things that we sometimes miss if we’re not looking for them. So, since Paris is my Valentine this year, I decided I’d share some of the little things I’ve noticed lately that make me love this city so much. Although, I guess that’s what I’m doing in this blog anyways? Well, let’s just say that being in this amazing place, I am determined to stop, as often as possible, and really appreciate what’s around me. I know I won’t be here forever (contrary to popular belief, I will eventually buy a return ticket home.) and I just want to know that I–to steal a theme from Rabelais–got every last bit of life, meaning, and love out of this experience, down to the marrow. I think it’s just too easy to fall into the daily grind of taking the metro, going to school, going home and lose the novelty of this place, something I hope I never do. Granted, I will get to know it really well and be more comfortable, but I always want to be amazed at this place.

This past Friday, the sun came out of its hiding spot and was shining all over the city, which honestly came to life with the first ray of warmth, I swear. I had a moment Friday afternoon, where I was sitting on a bench in the Champ de Mars, the fields right in front of the Eiffel Tower, with my baguette sandwich just soaking up every bit of beauty that was in front of my eyes. It was quite the sight to see, with all the old men playing petanque (bocce ball) in the park, all of the people laying in the grass at the base of the Tower, seeing the sunlight hit buildings in ways they hadn’t been illuminated in weeks–suffice it to say the photographer in me was positively reveling in all of this light! (I’ve been a little talkative up to this point in this post, so have some pictures now!)

Petanque! I tried to be the least creepy as possible while taking this..

Sunlight speaks across cultural borders

All these buildings are so tall it was hard to find an angle that did them justice

A building on my way to the metro

While I was standing taking a picture of the building above, I realized two things: 1. There were BIRDS singing. Spring is on its way, and I am really quite ready. Also, the birds even sound different here… 2. The mini-roundabout I walk through all the time has a sculpture by Rodin in the middle. Rodin is the one who did the Thinker sculpture, and there’s one of his sculptures just chilling in the middle of this area.

Oh hey, Rodin sculpture!

Also, remember how I mentioned that I’ve been getting lost a little too often lately? Clearly I have absolutely no innate sense of direction whatsoever. I don’t know what it is, but without a map, I would never find half the places I try to get to in the city. There’s some quote that talks about optimists seeing opportunity in every difficulty, and I have taken on my lack of innate navigation skills as a challenge in figuring out how to get places without getting so lost. Also, there’s a point where you just have to laugh at your situation sometimes. Granted, after being stuck in an underground metro station for 30 minutes (thank you, Chatelet..) I was not laughing. I actually felt like I was going crazy, that I had walked up and down the moving sidewalk 3 times and as cool as it was I still had no idea how to get out, and sheer frustration that the one sign pointing to the exit I needed lead me nowhere good, except the wrong way where I got questioned by a metro station guard who checked my metro pass and told me I wasn’t supposed to use that exit. But in GENERAL, there are times where you just have to laugh, know that this won’t last forever, and somehow figure out a solution. (This method/attitude is known as the Systeme D in France, for this verb se debrouiller which means “to get by” pretty much.) Plus, sometimes when you get lost, you find cool things, like a sweet gothic church that’s older than the founding of the United States

At this point, I thought I was walking in the right direction!

Shadows make for fun pictures--another church I stumbled upon in Le Marais

And then sometimes you stumble upon cool landmarks.. Which make you realize you walked towards the Bastille and not Le Marais, like you were planning..

It was at this point that I realized I was not going in the right direction..

So what do you do? You laugh to yourself, discreetly whip out your handy little Paris book of maps of each arrondissement, find out where you are and cross the street, walking back down the other side to see what’s on the other side of the street as well as avoiding glances from people who just saw you pass..

And sometimes you take an opportunity to snap a cool picture before crossing the street and turning around!

Eventually I did make it to Le Marais, this really artsy, young quarter full of contemporary art galleries and really neat boutiques. I went to an exhibition for my art class, called “Exposition-suicide” by Claude Rutault which was super modern and difficult to understand, albeit interesting. Just because it was quirky and weird, I’ll show you a few pics:

This one had something to do with symmetry and the backwards canvases of another artist

Suspended canvases, cool. Meaning? .....No clue.

This one apparently references the 'Day on the Grande Jatte' Seurat painting that's at the Art Institute in Chicago, by creating its frame out of canvases

All in all, it was interesting, at least. At one point during the exhibition, I was just fascinated by this really ornate window that looked out onto the gorgeous courtyard where this gallery was located. I took probably just a few too many pictures, but it was too cool not to..

It was such a cool window.. Great view..

Loved this place. I walked in through that little alley way and immediately began taking pictures.

Also in this gallery, as part of another varied-media exhibit, there was this teeeeny tiny little elevator, where the doors actually alternated opening every once in awhile and made the little ‘ding!’ sound when they did. It was so bizarre, I had to take a picture, with my shoes included so you could see how tiny they were.

Crazy miniature elevator.. (Also, shameless plug: go TOMS!)

Also in Le Marais is this area called the Place des Vosges, this square of red brick arched buildings that houses a bunch of art galleries, shops, and cafes. I browsed a bunch of random art galleries, which was so cool because there were so many different styles of art presented in each of these galleries. After taking this art history class, it’s interesting to see where people draw their influences from, and in this place you could see sculpture influenced by Degas next to paintings influenced by the impressionists next to totally abstract graphic printings. Another random part of the Places des Vosges is that Victor Hugo’s house is in it! It was closed, but I took a picture of the sign.

Under the arches, where all the galleries and such are

 

Place des Vosges!

The plaque outside Victor Hugo's house

All in all, I still love it here, even though I get lost sometimes. It’s in those times of wandering when you can find some cool places and pictures, though! That’s the thing about defining your own schedule (a new concept for me, since usually I have every hour of my day planned out) and not having any specific constraints, it doesn’t matter if you were planning on getting to a certain art gallery at 3 and end up getting there at 4 since you walked down to the Bastille instead…

Bisous from Paris and hope you all had a very love-filled Valentine’s Day, whether it be from your spouse, your family, your friends, or your dog.

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion… love actually is all around.”