Au Revoir!

I interrupt this regularly-scheduled blogging with my farewell to France. (Don't worry, I'll finish posting about everything over the next week or so.) It's 7:15AM here in Paris, I leave for Ireland at 3:35PM. I leave Ireland on the 19th and will be back in Minneapolis by 4:30PM that day.

I just said goodbye to my host mom, who left for work. Even though she made me fish much too often, I will miss her. She was so nice and very patient with my not-always-coherent French.

I will miss my apartment. I will even miss saying an awkward "bonjour" to everyone I encounter in the elevator. I usually prayed they wouldn't say anything else to me, in case I didn't understand (that only happened twice).

I will miss the 13th arrondisement. Even though it wasn't the most convenient place to live, it was more of a real Parisian life than living near tourist areas. I will miss my bakery, where I bought bread a couple times a week, and where they already were reaching for a baguette when I walked in.

The metro system, even though it cost me a lot while I was here, was the most efficient system I have ever used (except past 12AM, when it starts to close). I will miss running for the trains at the Raspail (which Mathilde taught me is pronounced "ross pie") stop. The feeling of success when I made it and didn't have to wait an extra two minutes for the next train was oddly intense.

I will miss my classes, especially when I go back to regular Northwestern courses. Even though the homework kept me inside on days where I should have been out exploring Paris, without the "study" I wouldn't have been "abroad" for so long. I will miss my professors and the comparatively light work load.

Most of all, I will miss my friends, and being in Paris with my friends. Our random walks through Saint-Michel and the Latin Quarter, meeting up in the Marais, and all of our times sitting along the Seine will stay with me as the standard of fun. I loved getting to know people I had never seen before, and some people who, unfortunately, I do not know when I'll see again. I am happy that I found a roommate (if only for winter quarter) who insists that we speak French in our apartment and that we have crepe parties.

I have accomplished many things during my time abroad. For example, I managed not to step in a single pile of dog poo while here. (I gaurantee that this is a big deal.) More importantly though, I learned more French than ever before. I may still stammer when put on the spot, but I at least know that I shouldn't randomly say "D'accord" like I would "OK" in English, that what I've been calling "classe" all these years is really a "course", and that, even if a person speaks English to you, you should just speak French right back at them. I have become more confident in the language, and in myself. I have learned that I can cook a chicken, have an amazing sense of direction, and that maybe I'm not up to dressing like a French girl.

This would all be a lot more sad for me if I didn't miss home so much. The last week, as I've been doing my Christmas shopping, I have been thinking even more about all the people I love back in the States. I miss my big, fluffy dog and can't wait til I climb into the backseat of the car with her when she picks me up at the airport. I miss my family, and being able to call them whenever I want or need to without worrying about time difference and money. I miss my boyfriend, even though we'll soon go back to our colleges in different states. At least we won't have to have frustrating skype conversations where our calls are randomly dropped or frozen. I can't wait to build my customary fort in Katelyn's basement, as we have been doing for at least five years now, eat pizza rolls, and watching Mulan while playing electronic Battleship. I also can't wait to see my friends at Northwestern, who I am excited to catch up with.

The short version: I have had an amazing time here abroad. I have grown a lot (partially because of the carbs) and will never forget the friendships I've made.

Thank you all for following my blog over the past few months. I hope to see all of you soon!

**Remember: I still have stuff to post about, so keep checking back! I will let you know when all of my abroad updates are finished.

Brussels

As I was reminded by my mother yesterday, I am behind on this blog.
"Aren't you every going to talk about Thanksgiving?" she asked.

Well, since I am now finished with finals and everything (except shopping, packing, and sleeping) I am here to fill the void in all of your lives that is my lack of prompt posting.

The whole reason I was in Amsterdam was because my program was visiting Brussels a few days later. Our program adviser told us that, since a Brussels-Amsterdam ticket was pretty cheap and our Paris-Brussels were already paid for, we should take the opportunity.

Getting to Brussels was pretty uneventful. I fell asleep on the train, and that was about it. Once I got there, I waited on the platform to meet up with all the people who hadn't gone to Amsterdam.

First stop was the European Commission. The Commission is kind of like congress, except that it is not elected. It creates all European legislation and makes directives and stuff. They pretty much run the EU. We weren't there just to take a tour...we had lectures. Three of them. It was okay though--there was a load of SWAG (free stuff) to make up for it.

In fact, we got a break from lectures while they took us to a four-star hotel for a free lunch! The Hotel Leopold was very nice. At first I got excited because I thought we were all staying there that night (Ha! As if.)

My heart sank when I saw that the entree was fish. It was really good fish, but still. I have had enough. I am pretty pumped to shift my meat consumption back to land animals (chicken!!!) when I get back.

The dessert, on the other hand, was heavenly. Flan with butterscotch sauce and fres
We returned back to the Commission for a lecture on Turkey, but were then released to get to our hotel. Our hotel looked pretty nice. I was staying in a room with my friend Diana. Unfortunately, we were put in a smoking room. My PJs smelled like cigarettes afterward.

A large group of us met up to go get some dinner. The specialties of Brussels (and Belgium in general) are as follows: mussels, fries, chocolate, waffles. We wanted all of these things. We found a cheap restaurant that wooed us with promises of free drinks and dessert, called "Le Bourgeois"

It was pretty fun sitting outside, under the heat lamps, and talking. Mathilde (the blurry one) is one of my new French friends.

The waiter brought out our mussels and gave us each a dog bowl to put our shells in. That meant that our conversation was punctuated by a loud "clang!" about once every ten seconds.

These mussels were not great. They didn't make me sick or anything, but they were not the promised delicious mussels of Brussels (rhyme!)

It was okay though. An experience is an experience.


We walked around more and mostly window shopped. There were tons of chocolate Christmas displays!


Stephanie and I decided to climb on a random sculpture of a cat riding a bike.

Chocolate houses!



I was looking at too much chocolate and not eating any of it, so I was happy when we got to the architectural part of our wanderings. I loved the main square.



A few blocks from the square was the famous statue that translates to "The Pisser". It's a little boy peeing. What "art"!

We went back to the hotel soon after and I fell into a smoky sleep.

The next morning, after drinking about 5 glasses of orange juice at the continental breakfast at 7:30, we set off on our visit to NATO. This involved walking for ten minutes to a bus stop. On the way, there was this cool building that was covered in Chinese lanterns.

The bus ride to NATO took about 45 minutes. It is pretty far out of the city.

Once I got there, there was very little time to take photos. I had to surrender my camera and all electronic equipment at the entrance.


What I can say about NATO is that it looks like a Cold-War era complex, which it is. There are tons of nondescript buildings randomly arranged. We entered one, and it was surprisingly nice on the inside.

We sat through a few more lectures, hearing all about what NATO does, having them try to recruit us to the State Department, all that jazz.

It was different than what I was expecting, because, to be honest, I was picturing something like the opening scene of Austin Powers II where the guy turns on the Jerry Springer show while he is supposed to be looking at the Balkans.

We left and took another long bus ride. We were let out in front of a big fancy church.


My mind could not be distracted though. I was HUNGRY. (As my mom says "you're always hungry!") We found a good looking restaurant. It was the best thing I had eaten in a long time! I got a croque madame (ham and cheese melt with a fried egg on top) and Mathilde shared some of her mashed potatoes with me.

I took a picture of the carnage our group of seven left:

I had very little time to get my final wish: a waffle. We headed back to that square, knowing that there would be something around there.


There was a store dedicated to the other thing that Belgium is famous for:

My favorite place was a chocolate shop that sold chocolates in the shape of the peeing boy. Gross! I actually ended up buying some regular old Belgian chocolates here. It had good deals!

Finally, I got my waffle! Chocolate and strawberries.


Man was it hard to walk and eat that. I didn't let it get me down though.

We went back to the hotel, where I took 15 minutes to register for my winter classes at Northwestern:
-French Literature
-Statistics in Political Science
-The role of political parties
-The American Revolution to the Constitution (history)

We walked to the train station, hopped on our train, and sped back to Paris. I spent the ride doing homework (boo.)

Next up: Dublin again!

Amsterdam Day 3: Dad's visit

Day three of my trip started with packing up all of my stuff and waiting for my dad to come meet me at my hostel. I was really excited to see him after all that time! He had worked hard to move his schedule around to see me, so I told my friends I'd see them in Brussels, and left to hang out with my dad.

We first went to his crew hotel where I'd be staying with him that night to drop off my stuff. It was far from the city center, but it was really nice! Part of the niceness was that he had brought me things from home including the pumpkin bread I had requested from my mom. We dug into that pretty quickly. It tasted like fall at home!

We left the hotel after a bit and made our way back to the city center. My dad had never been to the Anne Frank house, so we decided to go. We ended up standing in line outside in the rain for about a half-hour, but it was worth it. No photos were allowed, so I don't have any, but it was such a moving place to be. You see the rooms where they lived all that time, and at the end you see the actual diary. On a wall they have copies of the diary in all the languages they're published in. It's amazing to see the reality of the story I read when I was twelve.

The house, as one can imagine, as a little depressing. My dad and I were also hungry. We hoped on the tram to go find his favorite french fry place.

Side note: when we left the hotel that morning, my dad asked, "Do you have your camera?" I replied, "Yes." He said, "Good. Maybe I'll make it onto your blog."

So, I took a few candid shots of my dad. Hey look dad, you're famous!

The fries were just what I needed. After devouring them, we got back onto the tram to go to the van Gogh museum. The famous Iamsterdam sign is right by there. If you were wondering, that is the name of a tourism company. They are making a ton of money every time that annoying beer commercial is played in the U.S.!

Dad took a photo of me:

This was the van Gogh museum from the outside.

We went in and looked at the paintings for a while. My dad had never seen a van Gogh in real life before. There were a few famous ones there. Again, no picture-taking was allowed.

My dad wanted to see the sunflower painting. There was one of them there, but it wasn't the one he was thinking of. Oh well. It's van Gogh's fault for painting about sixty of them.

Our final stop of the day was a rib place. We got there right as it was opening for the night because we were both so tired. We shared a giant plate of ribs that were really really good! No BBQ sauce, but it was okay. The ribs were worth it!

Below, you can see a blurry picture of my dad paying the bill in the restaurant.

We made it back to the crew hotel where I spent the rest of the night eating American snacks and browsing the internet. My dad fell asleep accidentally watching TV a couple times. I was about that tired too! I used the lovely huge shower in the hotel bathroom with it's towel-warming rack (like this one):

I said to my dad, "Nice place! There's a towel warming rack in the bathroom!"
"Oh, that's what that thing is!"
He examined it, turned to me and said, "don't let your mother find out those exist."
"Too late. They're all over HGTV."

I went to sleep in my single bed that was actually long enough for me, unlike all the hotel beds I've been in since being in Europe. At 4:40AM, I woke up. I had a 6:30 train to Brussels to catch. My dad came in the room after going downstairs. He had learned that his flight from Amsterdam to Mumbai had been cancelled! He was going to stay in Amsterdam another day, and then just fly back to the states.

We took a cab to the train station where we said good bye. I got on the train and immediately fell asleep.

Seeing my dad definitely made me more homesick. This was the point where I started wishing that my program would hurry up and end so that I could go home to my family (and dog)!

Amsterdam Day 2: Art, canals, and junk food!

With only one final left on my horizon, I figured I could take a break and post another update. I'm still in Amsterdam, as you can see.

The next morning, after eating our free breakfast at the hostel (good toast with dutch cheese on it) we set out for the Rembrandt house. We had planned on walking around and seeing the big flea market, but it was raining. Of course.

It was impossible to find the museum on the crappy tourist map we had been given at the hostel, so we stopped inside a souvenir shop to ask for directions. Outside, Ashley found some pretty big clogs.

We walked in the direction the man had pointed us and stumbled upon the same market that we had wanted to visit! We browsed for a little bit and bought some cheap souvenirs. I should say that my friends bought souvenirs. My family doesn't really need anything from Amsterdam--my dad goes there so often that we don't need a blue-and-white china bell to remember it by.

Even in the rain the canals were looking quaint.

The Rembrandt House was even cooler than I thought it was going to be, because it gave us a chance to look inside an authentic narrow house.
We started the tour in his basement kitchen. The house dates back to the 1600s, when Rembrandt built it. He never paid it off in his lifetime, so, at one point, an extensive inventory of all the items of the house was made to try to end his debt. This was bad for Rembrandt, but good for us, because the house has been restored as accurately as possible.



After the kitchen, we went upstairs to the main entry way. I liked the big green door.

Just beyond this room was another room they had set up with a demonstration of print making. Rembrandt is most famous for his prints, and it was really cool to see how it was done.



Below is a metal plate that a drawing was etched into. The etching was filled with ink, then covered with canvas and run through a press. After it was through the press and dried, it became a print.



Moving on was Rembrandt's bedroom. It was covered from wall to wall with extensive artwork. He was an art dealer as well as an artist, so I bet he got some good deals.


Up some precarious winding stairs was a gallery of his prints. I really liked this windmill one.

And the little self-portrait:


On the third floor was his studio. This room is even more accurate than the others because Rembrandt did a sketch of his studio. It has been recreated entirely.






My favorite room in the house was the room crammed with curiosities like the ones Rembrandt had collected for his teaching. It was floor to ceiling historical artifacts! Pretty cool.



There was a neat scale-model of the house:

Finally, there was a separate exhibit of modern prints that are inspired by Rembrandt's work. I really liked how realistic they were.



By the time we got out of the museum, it had stopped raining! I love when that happens.




We had an impromptu photo shoot.

Our main goal at this point was food. I had the name of a good dutch pancake house, so we made our way over there.

We got distracted by all the cool shops along the way. There some accessory stores that I wanted to take home with me!!!

What was really cool was a modern furniture store that had a bunch of concept-design chairs and furniture set up museum-like, like this chair made out of legos!

I remember seeing this chair below on a blog I read. It's just a block of metal that has been hammered into a "seat". Not very comfortable looking if you ask me.

We found the pannekoeken (spelling, I know) huis. I was excited for this. I was imagining the kinds of dutch pancakes that come from the PannekoekenHuis restaurant in Minnesota (surprise pancakes). What I got were just regular pancakes (a little bit thinner than usual, but not as thin as crepes).
It all worked out though. The restaurant was really quaint. There were teapots hanging from the ceiling.

Once I got my apple-cinnamon pancakes, I was a happy camper.

I took this picture of my friends going down the stairs so people can see how steep they are. I am impressed more intoxicated people don't die falling down the stairs in Amsterdam.

The restaurant was just on a canal, and I made friends with this silly duck. It swam along side me hoping that I would give it some bread.

We trapsed up to Dam Square next. It was pretty cool.






We had been looking for the palace, but when we reached the central station (below), we knew we had gone too far. Later, we figured out why we had missed it. The entire thing was covered in scaffolding!

We went back to the actual Dam Square and saw A LOT of pigeons.

Also Batman and Darth Vader.

We went to another market area to look around. There was a hotdog cart there and it smelled so good that I had to get one. What a disappointment though. General advice: don't get a hotdog in Amsterdam.

I ended up sharing the bun with a swan in the canal though. That was fun.

We had planned on going to an all-you-can-eat falafel place (yum!) for dinner that night, but we couldn't find it. We were also in an unfamiliar part of town, so we split pretty fast for the city center. We found a cheap restaurant where a whole Turkish pizza was only 5 euro, and each got one. It was delicious!

After dinner, we went back to the fried food carts from the night before. I got a cream-filled powdered sugar covered dutch donut. AMAZING!!!


I was meeting my dad at nine o'clock sharp the next morning, so I went to bed super excited!