Cold and Wet While Going into Debt
Posted by Ashley | | Posted On Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 4:10 PM
And by going into debt, I mean with how much money I am laying down on pastries and crêpes. French food is so delicious. Goodness! But, as I have said before, "I regret nothing!"
I was thinking today that it has been really interesting to realize that I am having the experience I excepted to have in Italy here in France, while the French experience I was expecting actually happened more in Italy. I hadn't really thought about it until I was having a similar kind of conversation with a couple people late yesterday evening. I had always heard that the French were rather rude and unfriendly, that it is intimidating to order food in a restaurant, that they are purposefully unhelpful when they find out you don't speak French, etc. Having heard these impressions and opinions, I was actually more than a little bit nervous when first coming into Paris.
Now, while no one is ridiculously accommodating or overly friendly, I have been rather impressed with the ease and comfort I feel here. I do wish I knew more French but when I apologize for not speaking their language, most people have seemed very willing to try and work with me despite the communication barrier. Even the restaurants have not been too difficult to navigate. You know exactly what you are paying for, whereas in Italy I was never sure if we would be charged a cover charge unknowingly and we always had to bank on paying for the bread we didn't order but was automatically placed on the type. Italian dining was actually a tad intimidating and I don't feel that I ever got quite the hang of it. Also, almost all waiters gave off an impression that they might be trying to cheat you, they were often pretty aggressive about trying to get you into their establishment. I will admit to having developed some trust issues while on this trip :P I noticed (or at least felt) that the Italians were more quick to get annoyed or angry with us than the French. It is kind of difficult to explain, but I felt that the local Italians were a bit more hostile than the local French. I can understand that tourists must get difficult to live and work with...but you have to do it when you live in major cities like Rome and Florence and Venice so...I actually found it very hard to be sympathetic when they were snippy or rude to me. I hope none of this sounds super pessimistic; it certainly is not meant to be! I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment out here (good and bad, rude or polite ;), but it has been so interesting to observe those differences. I wish I could do a better job of explaining my impressions and understandings. I think it is different for all of us, but that is how I have perceived things. But! I have to tell you that the members of the church in EVERY country have been fabulous and so kind to us, even when our large group obviously presented some logistical problems for them. I love Mormons!
The morning consisted of a quick run up Montmartre (the artists' hill, basically) and through Sacre Coeur (which was beautiful). There was a beautiful view of Paris from the porch of Sacre Coeur. However, it was so rainy that it was difficult to get a good photo of it. Just know that it was lovely and would be stunning on a nicer day. I was soaked and shivering so much that my view was kind of...shaky and almost blurry :P
Next was a museum (whose name I am blanking on) that is most known for holding Monet's Impression Sunrise and some more of his Waterlilies series. Saw some really neat stuff there (particularly works by Morisot, a woman Impressionist, who I adore) but was not allowed to take photos. I would go into greater detail about some of her works and how they provide unique insight to the world of a nineteenth-century French woman, but...since there would be no visuals, I will spare you from that! Lucky you.
We broke for a bit afterwards, during which time Nate, Chelsea, Katie and I got lunch, found a place to print Nate and I's Doctor Who Experience tickets (we are officially going!!!!!), went to the Eiffel Tower, ate crêpes and just wandered for a bit. I really love just strolling around the city. It is just fun to people watch and see the sites at a leisurely pace.
Since it had been raining on and off for most of the day, it was less crowded around the Tower. I was joking with Katie and Chelsea that the Eiffel Tower is my favorite place to go because of all the attractive police and military personnel. I think they do a lot of crowd-control training or something because there are usually quite a few young military and police guys patrolling the area. And you know what? They look REALLY good in their berets...
While at the Tower, we went ahead and caved, buying Nutella and fresh strawberry crêpes...delicious. Oh man. Again, no regrets. We also walked across the street and up the stairs of one of the large public buildings to get a different view of it. It is pretty from basically all angles, that is what I decided.
Later tonight, we went as a group to get crêpes (the exact same ones from the exact same place by the Eiffel Tower) and then took a boat tour on the Seine. It was such a wonderful and light-hearted and enjoyable night. On the way to the pick-up point for the boat, we looked back towards the Tower to see that it was framed by this stunning rainbow. Then a light sun-shower started as we continued to walk. It was so ridiculously romantic, I was dying that I didn't have a significant other by my side at that moment! Dang. The boat tour was a lot of fun. By this point everyone in the group feels really comfortable with each other. It was kind of exciting to realize that throughout the tour people were rotating between groups and talking and including everyone. Traveling this closely for this long has really bonded us, which is awesome. Situations like this can go either way and I am so grateful that our group has been such a positive experience. Of course, there have been small moments of tension and a little unnecessary gossip, but for the most part everything has been extremely chill. So nice, especially when compared with how rough things had been in the London study abroad group for me. Paris looks absolutely marvelous (I am really struggling to find new adjectives...) from the Seine. And! We even got to watch the Tower sparkle TWICE while on the water. It lights up on the hour starting at 10pm every night. It was fantastic!
At the end of the night we had quite the adventure because we hasn't realized that the main train line we use to get to our hotel closes pretty early. So we spent about an hour booking it through the metro and hitting everything JUST right to get home using about 3-4 transfers (as opposed to the one it would have taken if the train were running). The tricky part was that the last tram ride to the actual hotel only runs once every forty minutes after 9pm...we managed to catch it with five minutes to spare. Go us! It must have been quite a site though to watch about 30+ American college students tear through all the metro tunnels at break-neck speed! I must say though, it was amazing how much energy we suddenly had, running as fast as possible and laughing hysterically at the same time. I know we did nothing to disprove the "loud and obnoxious American" stereotype but...at that time of night, cutting things that close...who cares?! :D I certainly didn't.
I was thinking today that it has been really interesting to realize that I am having the experience I excepted to have in Italy here in France, while the French experience I was expecting actually happened more in Italy. I hadn't really thought about it until I was having a similar kind of conversation with a couple people late yesterday evening. I had always heard that the French were rather rude and unfriendly, that it is intimidating to order food in a restaurant, that they are purposefully unhelpful when they find out you don't speak French, etc. Having heard these impressions and opinions, I was actually more than a little bit nervous when first coming into Paris.
Now, while no one is ridiculously accommodating or overly friendly, I have been rather impressed with the ease and comfort I feel here. I do wish I knew more French but when I apologize for not speaking their language, most people have seemed very willing to try and work with me despite the communication barrier. Even the restaurants have not been too difficult to navigate. You know exactly what you are paying for, whereas in Italy I was never sure if we would be charged a cover charge unknowingly and we always had to bank on paying for the bread we didn't order but was automatically placed on the type. Italian dining was actually a tad intimidating and I don't feel that I ever got quite the hang of it. Also, almost all waiters gave off an impression that they might be trying to cheat you, they were often pretty aggressive about trying to get you into their establishment. I will admit to having developed some trust issues while on this trip :P I noticed (or at least felt) that the Italians were more quick to get annoyed or angry with us than the French. It is kind of difficult to explain, but I felt that the local Italians were a bit more hostile than the local French. I can understand that tourists must get difficult to live and work with...but you have to do it when you live in major cities like Rome and Florence and Venice so...I actually found it very hard to be sympathetic when they were snippy or rude to me. I hope none of this sounds super pessimistic; it certainly is not meant to be! I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment out here (good and bad, rude or polite ;), but it has been so interesting to observe those differences. I wish I could do a better job of explaining my impressions and understandings. I think it is different for all of us, but that is how I have perceived things. But! I have to tell you that the members of the church in EVERY country have been fabulous and so kind to us, even when our large group obviously presented some logistical problems for them. I love Mormons!
The morning consisted of a quick run up Montmartre (the artists' hill, basically) and through Sacre Coeur (which was beautiful). There was a beautiful view of Paris from the porch of Sacre Coeur. However, it was so rainy that it was difficult to get a good photo of it. Just know that it was lovely and would be stunning on a nicer day. I was soaked and shivering so much that my view was kind of...shaky and almost blurry :P
Next was a museum (whose name I am blanking on) that is most known for holding Monet's Impression Sunrise and some more of his Waterlilies series. Saw some really neat stuff there (particularly works by Morisot, a woman Impressionist, who I adore) but was not allowed to take photos. I would go into greater detail about some of her works and how they provide unique insight to the world of a nineteenth-century French woman, but...since there would be no visuals, I will spare you from that! Lucky you.
We broke for a bit afterwards, during which time Nate, Chelsea, Katie and I got lunch, found a place to print Nate and I's Doctor Who Experience tickets (we are officially going!!!!!), went to the Eiffel Tower, ate crêpes and just wandered for a bit. I really love just strolling around the city. It is just fun to people watch and see the sites at a leisurely pace.
Since it had been raining on and off for most of the day, it was less crowded around the Tower. I was joking with Katie and Chelsea that the Eiffel Tower is my favorite place to go because of all the attractive police and military personnel. I think they do a lot of crowd-control training or something because there are usually quite a few young military and police guys patrolling the area. And you know what? They look REALLY good in their berets...
While at the Tower, we went ahead and caved, buying Nutella and fresh strawberry crêpes...delicious. Oh man. Again, no regrets. We also walked across the street and up the stairs of one of the large public buildings to get a different view of it. It is pretty from basically all angles, that is what I decided.
Later tonight, we went as a group to get crêpes (the exact same ones from the exact same place by the Eiffel Tower) and then took a boat tour on the Seine. It was such a wonderful and light-hearted and enjoyable night. On the way to the pick-up point for the boat, we looked back towards the Tower to see that it was framed by this stunning rainbow. Then a light sun-shower started as we continued to walk. It was so ridiculously romantic, I was dying that I didn't have a significant other by my side at that moment! Dang. The boat tour was a lot of fun. By this point everyone in the group feels really comfortable with each other. It was kind of exciting to realize that throughout the tour people were rotating between groups and talking and including everyone. Traveling this closely for this long has really bonded us, which is awesome. Situations like this can go either way and I am so grateful that our group has been such a positive experience. Of course, there have been small moments of tension and a little unnecessary gossip, but for the most part everything has been extremely chill. So nice, especially when compared with how rough things had been in the London study abroad group for me. Paris looks absolutely marvelous (I am really struggling to find new adjectives...) from the Seine. And! We even got to watch the Tower sparkle TWICE while on the water. It lights up on the hour starting at 10pm every night. It was fantastic!
At the end of the night we had quite the adventure because we hasn't realized that the main train line we use to get to our hotel closes pretty early. So we spent about an hour booking it through the metro and hitting everything JUST right to get home using about 3-4 transfers (as opposed to the one it would have taken if the train were running). The tricky part was that the last tram ride to the actual hotel only runs once every forty minutes after 9pm...we managed to catch it with five minutes to spare. Go us! It must have been quite a site though to watch about 30+ American college students tear through all the metro tunnels at break-neck speed! I must say though, it was amazing how much energy we suddenly had, running as fast as possible and laughing hysterically at the same time. I know we did nothing to disprove the "loud and obnoxious American" stereotype but...at that time of night, cutting things that close...who cares?! :D I certainly didn't.
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Those seem like HUGE crepes. Are they a lot bigger than the ones we got at Awful Waffle? They look like four times the size to me. Is it just that shop or are they all that size around there?