So, our final assignment was to do a presentation on whatever we wanted. It didn't even necessarily have to be relevant to the class, just whatever we wanted in a group or by ourselves. Normally, I would have jumped on the opportunity to just create some goofy skit in a group, but I was feeling creative. Here is the result:
There once was a group of students at UT,
that went off to Europe knowing it would be anything but free.
They had many things they wanted to see and do,
who knew they could fit in a class too!
Each morning the met for a short amount of time
to discuss life with French students and even mime.
In the end, everyone found they had much to learn
about the small things in life and what they really should yearn.
They would disappear every weekend
only to return with stories that would never end
from places like Belgium, Normandy, Amsterdam, and Nice
along with Paris, Spain, Switzerland, and Greece.
Mountains were hiked, possessions were lost,
and many stairs were climbed no matter the cost.
Bikes were rented and good food was eaten,
each day left each student beaten.
From spiritual experiences and naked photo shoots*
to churches, castles, and army boots
It's safe to say everyone enjoyed their time here
and are already planning more adventures for another year.
*No Mom, I was not involved in a massive naked photo shoot, this poems embodies the entire group to an extent. But if y'all are interested, a girl took part in one of these photo shoots in Amsterdam done by the photographer Spencer Tunick.
So yea, that's probably the most creative that I've gotten with a school assignment, I'm kind of proud of myself! :)
Also, instead of adding pictures to here, I just uploaded all of them to Snapfish. There aren't any descriptions yet, but the albums are divided up by place, enjoy! http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=632211182425119987/l=272297394/g=98511546/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
(It'll ask you to create an account, it's easy. Sorry, I didn't realize you had to make an account!)
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
final weekend adventure in Europe
This weekend was my last weekend in Europe and a group of us made our way north to Amsterdam. I figured it was a pretty good final destination.
We started the weekend by renting bikes for the day on Friday and riding them out into the countryside. Although the day had started with pouring rain, it quit right after we got the bikes and the sun came out, it was perfect! We navigated the streets of the city pretty well, I almost fell off once due to my tire getting stuck in the tram tracks, but no biggie. Once we made it out to the country, it was a very peaceful ride along the river. We eventually reached a windmill with a really cute Dutch cafe nearby. I decided to go ahead and try some bitterballen, which are a traditional Dutch snack comprised of fried mince meat and potatoes, they were delicious! After our snack, we made our way back to the city where we spent the evening in the Van Gogh Museum.
The next day, we made our way over to the Anne Frank house. The whole experience was very moving. Although I will admit the annex was bigger than I thought it would be, it's still hard to imagine 8 people living in there for 2 years. It could hardly be said that they were living, since they had to be absolutely silent every night. Still, it's really incredibly sad to think about.
The rest of the weekend was spent basically trying to find random sites and getting lost with all the canals, but it was a good way to see the city! We left early Sunday afternoon because of pouring rain and we were exhausted. Overall, it was quite the adventurous weekend!
I'll put some pictures up from the last two weekends soon!
We started the weekend by renting bikes for the day on Friday and riding them out into the countryside. Although the day had started with pouring rain, it quit right after we got the bikes and the sun came out, it was perfect! We navigated the streets of the city pretty well, I almost fell off once due to my tire getting stuck in the tram tracks, but no biggie. Once we made it out to the country, it was a very peaceful ride along the river. We eventually reached a windmill with a really cute Dutch cafe nearby. I decided to go ahead and try some bitterballen, which are a traditional Dutch snack comprised of fried mince meat and potatoes, they were delicious! After our snack, we made our way back to the city where we spent the evening in the Van Gogh Museum.
The next day, we made our way over to the Anne Frank house. The whole experience was very moving. Although I will admit the annex was bigger than I thought it would be, it's still hard to imagine 8 people living in there for 2 years. It could hardly be said that they were living, since they had to be absolutely silent every night. Still, it's really incredibly sad to think about.
The rest of the weekend was spent basically trying to find random sites and getting lost with all the canals, but it was a good way to see the city! We left early Sunday afternoon because of pouring rain and we were exhausted. Overall, it was quite the adventurous weekend!
I'll put some pictures up from the last two weekends soon!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Ciao!
This past weekend I found myself in Lyon, Milan, and Switzerland for a quick train change. Every place was gorgeous and made the 9 hour train ride back to Lille well worth it.
First off, my travel buddy Marissa and I went to Lyon, France for the afternoon and night on Thursday. Our hostel was located on the side of a hill with an amazing view of the city. We explored the city for the day, stumbled across Lyon's own Notre Dame and a cemetary with graves from people born in the 1700s. Lyon's Notre Dame was far more impressive on the inside than the one in Paris. The ceiling is covered in thousands of sparkling tiles formed into mosaics depicting different icons and Biblical stories. Although smaller than the cathedral in Paris, the extreme details found inside were so enchanting, I probably could have sat inside all day just gazing at the ceiling. While in Lyon, we decided to go for Indian food that night for dinner. I've found that French food itself isn't all that great and have been avoiding it to an extent. The Indian food was a very satisfactory end to the day. When we got back to the hostel, we spent some time talking to one of our roommates, a girl from Wisconsin, then crashed pretty early.
We got up early the next morning to start our 4 hour train journey to Milan through the Alps which are probably the prettiest mountains I've ever seen. Once we got to Milan, we set off to the Santa Maria delle Grazie, which is the convent where "The Last Supper" is located. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see "The Last Supper" because tickets sell out months in advance, which was pretty disappointing. We did get to go inside the church though, and like every other church, it was lovely. We also found a Catholic University and walked around the campus a bit, it was exactly what I imagined European college campuses to be. It had very old buildings with awesome architecture and green lawns. Our school in Lille is very modern unfortunately, with very little character.
On Saturday, we spent a good part of the afternoon at the Duomo, whcih is Europe's 3rd largest cathedral. It doesn't have a belfry, so instead we climbed more narrow stairs up to the roof. The roof is covered in hundreds of spires, with different icons carved into the sides, it's almost like a forest up there! We also visited a castle and hung out in the surrounding park for awhile. Overall, there isn't a lot to see in Milan, but it was cool to experience a little bit of Italy. We went out for pasta that night and it was amazing. On Sunday, I had a 8 hour train ride back myself because Marissa got stuck on the overnight train that night. The train made a some stops in Switzerland in the middle of the Alps and the view from the window was awesome. I was so happy I got to go through Switzerland because I heard it was beautiful and people definitely aren't lying.
Next up, Amsterdam!
First off, my travel buddy Marissa and I went to Lyon, France for the afternoon and night on Thursday. Our hostel was located on the side of a hill with an amazing view of the city. We explored the city for the day, stumbled across Lyon's own Notre Dame and a cemetary with graves from people born in the 1700s. Lyon's Notre Dame was far more impressive on the inside than the one in Paris. The ceiling is covered in thousands of sparkling tiles formed into mosaics depicting different icons and Biblical stories. Although smaller than the cathedral in Paris, the extreme details found inside were so enchanting, I probably could have sat inside all day just gazing at the ceiling. While in Lyon, we decided to go for Indian food that night for dinner. I've found that French food itself isn't all that great and have been avoiding it to an extent. The Indian food was a very satisfactory end to the day. When we got back to the hostel, we spent some time talking to one of our roommates, a girl from Wisconsin, then crashed pretty early.
We got up early the next morning to start our 4 hour train journey to Milan through the Alps which are probably the prettiest mountains I've ever seen. Once we got to Milan, we set off to the Santa Maria delle Grazie, which is the convent where "The Last Supper" is located. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see "The Last Supper" because tickets sell out months in advance, which was pretty disappointing. We did get to go inside the church though, and like every other church, it was lovely. We also found a Catholic University and walked around the campus a bit, it was exactly what I imagined European college campuses to be. It had very old buildings with awesome architecture and green lawns. Our school in Lille is very modern unfortunately, with very little character.
On Saturday, we spent a good part of the afternoon at the Duomo, whcih is Europe's 3rd largest cathedral. It doesn't have a belfry, so instead we climbed more narrow stairs up to the roof. The roof is covered in hundreds of spires, with different icons carved into the sides, it's almost like a forest up there! We also visited a castle and hung out in the surrounding park for awhile. Overall, there isn't a lot to see in Milan, but it was cool to experience a little bit of Italy. We went out for pasta that night and it was amazing. On Sunday, I had a 8 hour train ride back myself because Marissa got stuck on the overnight train that night. The train made a some stops in Switzerland in the middle of the Alps and the view from the window was awesome. I was so happy I got to go through Switzerland because I heard it was beautiful and people definitely aren't lying.
Next up, Amsterdam!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Paris, cont'd.
So, the band, The Fanfare as they call themselves. Some of us were sitting in front of Notre Dame, enjoying some wine that we had picked up and watching a street performer juggle fire.
After he had finished his show off with a great deal of fire works and the crowd moved on, we could hear Britney Spears' "Toxic" being played by a brass band in the direction of the river. We all looked at each other and thought, "No way!". The first night we were in Lille, we had heard this same song outside our dorm, so we were sure it was the same band. Sure enough, from the bridge we could see the tops of hot pink tubas, so we ran down to the river banks to check it out. The Fanfare had managed to draw quite a crowd, and we spent the rest of the night talking to people, swapping travel stories with other Americans, and just enjoying ourselves overall.
I've really become a fan of hanging out with other tourists. When I was younger, I lived in Williamsburg, VA for a few years and was pretty turned off by the idea of masses of tourists in one location by the time my family moved away. For this reason, I was kind of weary of visiting Paris and especially the Eiffel Tower to begin with. After the first night though, I fell in love with the Eiffel Tower. After dusk, every hour on the hour, the tower is lit in a sparkling manner for 5-10 minutes. It's surprisingly not tacky at all in my opinion, but just the opposite. Standing in line the following day for over an hour, I couldn't wait to climb to the top. While waiting in line with two 20 year old guys, you can only imagine what their primary goal was. They took several opportunities to strike up conversations with other girls that would snake past us, which was awkward for me at first, but I ended up liking talking to most of the girls more than they did! We got to share some travel tips and just girl talk in general. In the end, when we all made it to the top, we were very satisfied with what we got for 11 euros. It was a a clear, beautiful day and you could see every landmark in the city clearly. A nice change from the cloud, rainy view we had from Notre Dame the day before. I loved every minute of it.
Since arriving in Europe 2 weeks ago, I've developed a huge appreciation for gigantic, old cathedrals. Nothing in the States even compares to the magnificence of these buildings. All the paintings and sculptures tell a story, some more obvious than others. So much work, thought, and detail went into these churches, and many times those who started the work didn't live to see completion. A friend told me that he read that once the men who began the work on Notre Dame were able to accept the fact that they would never see the finished masterpiece, they were able to work at their full potential. I found the sculptures on the facade of Notre Dame to be the most interesting. In the center of the center door, sits Jesus Christ on Judgement Day with people lining up below him awaiting their fate. Above the lefthand door, there is a small sculpture of Adam and Eve in the Garden and Eden with the serpent. The serpent is sculpted with a women's head, which is 
hard to notice at first. Various saints and kings are also sculpted along the facade. Far above the 3 doors are a line of 28 kings from Judah and Israel. During the French Revolution, the kings were believed to be French kings and were decapitated. Eventually the heads were replaced, but the original heads weren't found until about 30 years ago. There are many other stories like this to go with Notre Dame. I find it fascinating that a building can have so much history!
After he had finished his show off with a great deal of fire works and the crowd moved on, we could hear Britney Spears' "Toxic" being played by a brass band in the direction of the river. We all looked at each other and thought, "No way!". The first night we were in Lille, we had heard this same song outside our dorm, so we were sure it was the same band. Sure enough, from the bridge we could see the tops of hot pink tubas, so we ran down to the river banks to check it out. The Fanfare had managed to draw quite a crowd, and we spent the rest of the night talking to people, swapping travel stories with other Americans, and just enjoying ourselves overall.
I've really become a fan of hanging out with other tourists. When I was younger, I lived in Williamsburg, VA for a few years and was pretty turned off by the idea of masses of tourists in one location by the time my family moved away. For this reason, I was kind of weary of visiting Paris and especially the Eiffel Tower to begin with. After the first night though, I fell in love with the Eiffel Tower. After dusk, every hour on the hour, the tower is lit in a sparkling manner for 5-10 minutes. It's surprisingly not tacky at all in my opinion, but just the opposite. Standing in line the following day for over an hour, I couldn't wait to climb to the top. While waiting in line with two 20 year old guys, you can only imagine what their primary goal was. They took several opportunities to strike up conversations with other girls that would snake past us, which was awkward for me at first, but I ended up liking talking to most of the girls more than they did! We got to share some travel tips and just girl talk in general. In the end, when we all made it to the top, we were very satisfied with what we got for 11 euros. It was a a clear, beautiful day and you could see every landmark in the city clearly. A nice change from the cloud, rainy view we had from Notre Dame the day before. I loved every minute of it.Since arriving in Europe 2 weeks ago, I've developed a huge appreciation for gigantic, old cathedrals. Nothing in the States even compares to the magnificence of these buildings. All the paintings and sculptures tell a story, some more obvious than others. So much work, thought, and detail went into these churches, and many times those who started the work didn't live to see completion. A friend told me that he read that once the men who began the work on Notre Dame were able to accept the fact that they would never see the finished masterpiece, they were able to work at their full potential. I found the sculptures on the facade of Notre Dame to be the most interesting. In the center of the center door, sits Jesus Christ on Judgement Day with people lining up below him awaiting their fate. Above the lefthand door, there is a small sculpture of Adam and Eve in the Garden and Eden with the serpent. The serpent is sculpted with a women's head, which is hard to notice at first. Various saints and kings are also sculpted along the facade. Far above the 3 doors are a line of 28 kings from Judah and Israel. During the French Revolution, the kings were believed to be French kings and were decapitated. Eventually the heads were replaced, but the original heads weren't found until about 30 years ago. There are many other stories like this to go with Notre Dame. I find it fascinating that a building can have so much history!Visiting these old cathedrals always involves climbing to the top of the dome or belfry regardless of the cost. Most of the cathedrals have separate "up" and "down" staircases, the exception being the the belfry in Brugge. The staircases are often extremely narrow and winding, with at least 300-400 steps. Trying to maneuver past people going in the opposite direction in Brugge was nearly impossible. I've climbed more steps in the past 2 weeks than in my life time I'm convinced; every weekend involves a mini stairmaster work out. The view at the top always makes these climbs worth it though. I always like to think of people hundreds of years ago climbing the same staircases and how the view must have differed to them. Overall, the view from the top of Notre Dame and the church at Montemarte may have been very similar, minus the Eiffel Tower and the Paris business district. Whereas in London, the view from St. Paul's was full of skyscrapers and cranes, it's hard to imagine what it had been like at the beginning of the church.
Monday, June 4, 2007
A Weekend in Paris
I love Paris.
It doesn't smell, the people aren't rude, and you're never more than 10 yards away from somehow who knows English (a definite plus due to my French vocabulary of about 5 words).
Another plus, the undergroud metro system is ridiculously easy to navigate. The couple times I've been to New York City, I've been completely baffled by the subway system in less than 5 minutes. Maybe it's just me, but it makes absolutely no sense to me. Paris on the other hand, I mastered instantly, thanks in part to my nifty little guide book which was well worth the 10 euros I paid for it.
I saw all the major sites, climbed to the top of most of them, and thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. The church at Montemarte is so far the prettiest I've seen. Standing with the gargoyles on top of Notre Dame was awesome. And, although we had to wait an hour in the blazing hot sun for it, the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower was breathtaking. At night, we managed to find the little brass band from our school in Lille playing on the banks of the Seine. I should really have an entire entry dedicated to this band. During random periods of the day, you can hear blasts of a trumpet coming from down the hallway, and it's really not that good. At night when they perform, they dress in some form of goofy pink costumes and the tubas are covered in pink fabric.
We're getting kicked out by a class...more later.
It doesn't smell, the people aren't rude, and you're never more than 10 yards away from somehow who knows English (a definite plus due to my French vocabulary of about 5 words).
Another plus, the undergroud metro system is ridiculously easy to navigate. The couple times I've been to New York City, I've been completely baffled by the subway system in less than 5 minutes. Maybe it's just me, but it makes absolutely no sense to me. Paris on the other hand, I mastered instantly, thanks in part to my nifty little guide book which was well worth the 10 euros I paid for it.
I saw all the major sites, climbed to the top of most of them, and thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. The church at Montemarte is so far the prettiest I've seen. Standing with the gargoyles on top of Notre Dame was awesome. And, although we had to wait an hour in the blazing hot sun for it, the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower was breathtaking. At night, we managed to find the little brass band from our school in Lille playing on the banks of the Seine. I should really have an entire entry dedicated to this band. During random periods of the day, you can hear blasts of a trumpet coming from down the hallway, and it's really not that good. At night when they perform, they dress in some form of goofy pink costumes and the tubas are covered in pink fabric.
We're getting kicked out by a class...more later.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Across the Pond
Well, here I sit in a computer lab in the Ecole Centrale of Lille, France. I can't look down at my fingers typing due to the arrangement of French keyboards. For whatever reason, AZERTY lies across the upper lefthand corner rather than the American QWERTY. Luckily, the settings can be changed to English, which is only helpful as long as you can type without looking down, otherwise, good luck!
My experiences in Europe have been wonderful so far. I started off the trip in London where I met up with some friends from camp and we became horribly touristy for 5 days. We saw all the main sites of the city, my favorite being St. Paul's cathedral. The architecture and paintings inside the main dome were nothing short of absolutely breathtaking. We climbed 442 very narrow, winding steps to the top of the dome where we got an amazing view of the city. Needless to say, climbing down 442 very narrow, winding steps isn't necessarily any easier than going up. That night, we went to the Globe Theater to see "Othello" which was also very cool. The entire trip in London was wonderful.
St. Paul's Cathredal
Navigating the super narrow stairs
Inside the Globe Theater
Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery
Me and some friends from camp in Leceister SquareThe next part of the trip involved taking the Eurostar through the chunnel to Lille last Thursday, the 24th. I fell asleep on the train and woke up in the lovey French countryside, very excited. There were about 15 people from my study abroad group on the train, so when we got to Lille, we were able to figure out the metro system together. I'm sure we looked pretty goofy, 15 Americans with huge suitcases trying to cram on the subway with no A/C (it was easily 80-85 degrees that day). We finally made it, found our dorms, and settled in. That night, we met many of the French students who were very willing to speak English and help us out with anything. I'll have more about Lille another day.
Some of us decided to go to Belgium for the weekend. We went to Brugge on Saturday and Brussels on Sunday. Both cities were extremely touristy, which ended up being a blessing because there was always someone nearby who spoke english. Both cities also have a very medievel feel to them, with many castles and cathredals. Of course, we had to get a Belgian waffle while we were there, which is probably some of the best food I've had over here so far. I've decided that I'm a big fan of train travel and can't wait to continue this weekend to Paris.
Brugge, Belgium
Central Square in Brugge
St. Michael's Cathedral in Brussels
Inside St. Michael's
Hope y'all enjoy the pictures and I'll try my best to keep this updated!
Hope y'all enjoy the pictures and I'll try my best to keep this updated!
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