Wow…so I’m behind again.
The rest of my time in Paris was lots of fun, but rather tiring. Being a tourist is HARD. Oy. But I did some fun things. I didn’t make it to the Monet Museum, I went Monday thinking, and believing I had checked properly, that it was closed TUESDAYS. No. Lies. Closed Mondays. So in a fit of pique I took the metro back to the center of town and wandered around looking at shops and things.
I ended up near the Hotel de Ville and the Centre Pompidou. There was a great little band playing under some stairs at the Centre…it was drizzling at that point, so everyone was all crowded around underneath listening to the French hippie music. It was great! Fun and energetic, the boys were all sort of scraggly looking and very entertaining. There was a clarinet, an accordion, a banjo, and base cello. Epic.
Being at the Hotel de Ville was amazing. I didn’t go in, the line for the exhibit was way too long, but they were prepping for a big veterans ceremony out front. Life in Paris is very interestingly centered around the Hotel, it is were the revolutionary governments would protest, meet, and the people would rally. Really neat to be there.
Then…it started to thunderstorm and bucket down rain. Lightning, thunder, the whole works. I nipped into a bookstore called Mona Lisait (Mona reads) and looked at odd postcards and French Sandman until it let up enough to run to the metro.
The next day I took a train out to Versailles. Versailles was the only place I went that I couldn’t talk my way into the student rate. Sigh. But it was beautiful and sunny. I finally go to see the hall of mirrors, NOT under reconstruction…and man. Louis XIV definitely had some stuff worked out. That hall is amazing. Absolutely incredible…light and gold everywhere you look. Awesome.
I also took the chance to see La Petite Trianon, the little farmhouse and farm that Marie Antoinette had built for her entertainment and relaxation. It must have been nice to be queen of France. It was almost sickeningly beautiful. But when you are queen and you say you want Perfectly Pastorally Picturesque…you get it. Right down to the mill pond with fish, ducks, swans, and even a heron. Oh yes. I took a break and sat down on a little stone bridge crossing a stream with a little waterfall just behind. I sat there and pretended it was all made for me. Very peaceful.
The gardens of Versailles are massive. They just go on and on and getting lost is pretty much easy as pie. I was a little grumpy and a little tired by the end, so I didn’t see as much as I might’ve wanted to. But still, awesome.
The last day: LOUVRE DAY! And time fore me to some exploring too. I got up early and went to a bakery on the same street as my hotel: 2 pain au chocolate for breakfast. Bliss. Then I took the metro to a little children’s library: I had seen a poster for a CLAMP exhibit there (if you don’t know what CLAMP is, it’s a group of 4 Japanese women who create manga series. I adore their work, some series more than others, but they are funny or moving stories and have awesome artwork. Yes, I am a nerd.). And I wanted to see. While I was there they told me at a bigger exhibit of CLAMP’s work not far away. So I hoofed it over there only to find that it didn’t open till 2. So, off to the Louvre I went.
I talked my way into the free student pass to enter the museum and spent 5 hours wandering around. I walked into the statues first, and then into Mesopotamian artifacts next door…which were huge and epic and awesome. I also stumbled, utterly by accident on Hammurabi’s Code. I nearly cried! Because…yeah…Hammurabi, codified laws, center of town, big deal. It’s not as tall as I imagined, but no less intense to be so close to something so old and amazing.
Did La Joconde (Mona Lisa), which remains haunting. I don’t really have anything to say about it that hasn’t been said before, but I’m going to say some stuff anyway. So ha! I think what draws us is her mystery. Her ambiguity…she projects the idea on us that “I am such a small painting, so very quiet and unobtrusive, but look my way, be interested in my, and I will distain to provide you answers.” She sees you, watches you, but tells you nothing.
I passed on to see my favorite painting: Liberté Guidant les Peuples, and happily stumbled on a portrait of Napoleon crossing the Alps.
I did hella Egypt, obviously. Embarrassed myself by asking a guard where the Rosetta Stone was…it’s in London. Since early 1900s. Duh. But he did compliment my French…actually he thought I was Irish, because my accent was too good to be American. (Something similar happened with one of the guys behind the counter at my hotel. He went out of his way to ask me where I was from, because he didn’t believe it when my hotel registry said USA. I guess the Irish have good accents. Bit of a boost to my ego though!)
Yeah…didn’t see it all, but did see a lot. Didn’t read lots of signs. I decided early on to avoid signs unless truly truly interested. I didn’t do an audio guide either. Just let myself be swept up and carried away by the ancient and the beautiful.
I was out of there early enough to go and see the CLAMP exhibit (which was gorgeous) and then back to the hotel. Where I went and shamelessly used the MacDonald’s wifi to Skype Alicia. Oh yes, looking like an idiot gesturing at a computer screen in public. Good times.
The next day I took a taxi and the TGV (really fast train) down to Poitiers where I moved in with my host family. They are super nice. Sabine and Patrick are the mom and dad, both are divorced and remarried, all the kids coming from first marriages. Éle is the daughter, 15, and then there are two boys. One is 18, just starting University, he is currently around but leaves in a week or so. The other lives with his father and I only just met him today. He is 19 and also at the University of Poitiers…I think. He is really tall…and quite cute. Hee.
But I have a really nice room, solid internet, and a bus stop into town or to the university only 15 minutes walk away. It’s awesome and the family is very friendly!
Tomorrow I start the week of hell intensive grammar and culture orientation that all the study abroad kids do. And then my classes start the week after I think. All the different departments of a University here are much more segregated than in the states. They all start, and end, at different times. Weird. So if I take classes in the history department, they will start on a different day from those in the literature department, all of which start on a different day than the CFLE classes (classes taught just for study abroad kids, there are different levels of CFLE depending on your level of French). It’s a bit intimidating to try and think about…but I’m sure I can make it work.
And there are salsa classes offered! I just have to figure out how to sign up for them…as it’s different from all the others. Most classes are not registred for online, I think only the PE/dance classes are online. New systems make my head spin.
Anyway! Things progress, I remain stubbornly positive, and I make sure to try cheese anytime it is offered!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Paris: day ONE
Two updates in two days…who is amazed? I am! So remember to read and comment, because I like knowing I’m doing this for a purpose!
Day one in Paris. Lork it took me forever to get motivated and out the door today. But I did, with two maps of Paris in tow. I had a goal, make it to the particular train station I needed, to buy the ticket that I will use on the TGV (lit. translation: Really Fast Train) to get down to Poitiers. This station, or “gare” in French, was pretty much on the other side of the city. And Paris has something like 14 metro lines. But I worked it out! And I got the ticket!
And then I went to L’Hôtel National des Invalides, aka the tomb of Napoleon! Yeah! So, for those of you who don’t know, I’m a big fan of Napoleon, I find him a fascinating historical character who did some very interesting and innovating things. And man did he make an impression on France. They followed him, they loved him, and they still do. His memory lives on. You walk in, and it’s no standard tomb, its in the huge domed cathedral, you walk in and can stand above and look down onto his coffin thing…which is massive! Then you pass behind this huge golden altar, and walk down the set of stairs…the doorway into the circle around the tomb…eagles. On the floor, and eagle rampant, a crown on its head. Napoleon was the eagle, it was his symbol, and it is everywhere. Also, the return to “civility” is shown by his representations as a Roman emperor. His tomb has an inlaid marble olive wreath all the way around it. It’s incredible.
Also, this museum has a huge collection of medieval weapons and armor. Yeah, I spent an hour oogling swords, crossbows, and full plate armor. And really vicious looking spear weapons…yup. It was great. And you will have to go see it yourselves, because I forgot my camera. Which was actually very liberating.
Yeah, not much to say really. The Paris metro is much less intimidating than I remember from four years ago, but it helps knowing how metros work and how to read the map…hmmm. Things progress decently well. I know that no matter what I get to be on a train to Poitiers soon! Where I have set myself up for a very intimidating time… actually being in France has definitely made me see the gaps in my knowledge. Sigh.
Though I am good enough to talk my way into l’Invalides without having to pay or my ticket…! It was supposed to have a discount for students, and free if you were a student under 25. Well, I am both, but I don’t have my French student i.d. card yet…and the deal is only for EU student. Of course.
So I go up to the desk, hoping I can talk my way into the discount…on the “but I am a STUDENT” argument, waving my UO i.d. card…which worked at the Vatican. So I get up there, smile at the guy behind the desk and ask for a student ticket. He asks for identification. Frick…there goes my chance. So, in minor desperation, I just start talking; “I am a student, but I’m here from the US and my University hasn’t started yet, so I don’t have id…” and I pass the ball to him. He looks pensive, I smile and make the “baih…” French noise/motion that means, something like “that’s all I’ve got.” He still looks pensive, but smiles a bit and asks for my passport. I pull it out, and he looks at my visa…my STUDENT visa…and lets me in for free! Damn. I was amazed I pulled this off. A nice smile and better French than I knew I could pull out of nowhere saved me 7 euros!
A brief shout-out here to advice from the best sibling a girl could want! You give me courage to wander around with a map in my hand! Thank you kiddo, I love you muchly.
Still on the list: Louvre, Versailles, and the Monet museum if I can figure out how to get to it. Or if I get sick of museums (very possible in this city) I will do Notre Dame and a day in café instead.
Arrival in Poitiers: 4 days!
Day one in Paris. Lork it took me forever to get motivated and out the door today. But I did, with two maps of Paris in tow. I had a goal, make it to the particular train station I needed, to buy the ticket that I will use on the TGV (lit. translation: Really Fast Train) to get down to Poitiers. This station, or “gare” in French, was pretty much on the other side of the city. And Paris has something like 14 metro lines. But I worked it out! And I got the ticket!
And then I went to L’Hôtel National des Invalides, aka the tomb of Napoleon! Yeah! So, for those of you who don’t know, I’m a big fan of Napoleon, I find him a fascinating historical character who did some very interesting and innovating things. And man did he make an impression on France. They followed him, they loved him, and they still do. His memory lives on. You walk in, and it’s no standard tomb, its in the huge domed cathedral, you walk in and can stand above and look down onto his coffin thing…which is massive! Then you pass behind this huge golden altar, and walk down the set of stairs…the doorway into the circle around the tomb…eagles. On the floor, and eagle rampant, a crown on its head. Napoleon was the eagle, it was his symbol, and it is everywhere. Also, the return to “civility” is shown by his representations as a Roman emperor. His tomb has an inlaid marble olive wreath all the way around it. It’s incredible.
Also, this museum has a huge collection of medieval weapons and armor. Yeah, I spent an hour oogling swords, crossbows, and full plate armor. And really vicious looking spear weapons…yup. It was great. And you will have to go see it yourselves, because I forgot my camera. Which was actually very liberating.
Yeah, not much to say really. The Paris metro is much less intimidating than I remember from four years ago, but it helps knowing how metros work and how to read the map…hmmm. Things progress decently well. I know that no matter what I get to be on a train to Poitiers soon! Where I have set myself up for a very intimidating time… actually being in France has definitely made me see the gaps in my knowledge. Sigh.
Though I am good enough to talk my way into l’Invalides without having to pay or my ticket…! It was supposed to have a discount for students, and free if you were a student under 25. Well, I am both, but I don’t have my French student i.d. card yet…and the deal is only for EU student. Of course.
So I go up to the desk, hoping I can talk my way into the discount…on the “but I am a STUDENT” argument, waving my UO i.d. card…which worked at the Vatican. So I get up there, smile at the guy behind the desk and ask for a student ticket. He asks for identification. Frick…there goes my chance. So, in minor desperation, I just start talking; “I am a student, but I’m here from the US and my University hasn’t started yet, so I don’t have id…” and I pass the ball to him. He looks pensive, I smile and make the “baih…” French noise/motion that means, something like “that’s all I’ve got.” He still looks pensive, but smiles a bit and asks for my passport. I pull it out, and he looks at my visa…my STUDENT visa…and lets me in for free! Damn. I was amazed I pulled this off. A nice smile and better French than I knew I could pull out of nowhere saved me 7 euros!
A brief shout-out here to advice from the best sibling a girl could want! You give me courage to wander around with a map in my hand! Thank you kiddo, I love you muchly.
Still on the list: Louvre, Versailles, and the Monet museum if I can figure out how to get to it. Or if I get sick of museums (very possible in this city) I will do Notre Dame and a day in café instead.
Arrival in Poitiers: 4 days!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Longest Post...covers 3 weeks or so...
Yep, I’m bad at this….
So my last entry was done online, and this is being written offline…so I honestly have not the foggiest idea where I left you all. I think I had just discovered that the Naples Archaeology Museum was closed on Tuesdays…unless I did that bit already…? Hm. Oh well, small recap, hopefully we keep the redundancy to a minimum.
Naples. Went to Pompeii and loved it. Tried to go to the archaeology museum the next day…which involved a train and the very confusing underground. Then its bloody flippin’ closed! I was about falling to bits, and the very nice man in the booth (who had told me that the museum was closed) I think could tell I was falling to bits. I think it became very obvious when I tried to ask him directions to a place that wasn’t even IN Naples. So. He goes: try the Campigdolio museum, very beautiful, run catch that bus there! So I did. Stupid really. I got on a realized I hadn’t a clue where I was going or where the bus was taking me.
A friendly pair of elderly people got me through it; an older woman who mind-waved me instructions to stay with an elderly gentleman…who walked me off the bus, through a creepy residential area, and to this lovely park with a museum in it. Lovely. Then I went to Herculaneum, a mini-Pompeii basically, but closer to the source of the eruption. Where I stood in line behind some very angry French people, and was quiet and timid. As a result one of the guards gave me a little personal guided tour, and he knew hella stuff about it, amazing details and little facts. So cool.
He also kinda gave me the creeps…didn’t know if I’d roped myself into a tour or something. But no, it was very nice and quite low-key. And man that place was gorgeous…the baths were great. There were separate ones for men and women…and did I totally i.d. all the rooms correctly? Yes, yes I did!
So. Problem: the next day I’m supposed to get on a train and leave to head to Rome, then up further north to Assisi. Um, my train is at 10, and the museum doesn’t open until 9. Meaning I couldn’t make it. So not okay with me. So, I get up suuuuper early the next day, check out of my hostel, haul all my bags (duffel and small shoulder bag) to the train station, stand in a longish line, and learn how to change my ticket. Pull it off so that I get a few more hours in Naples and can still catch a train to Assisi that night. Whoo!
So, new tickets in hand I book it back down to the confusing metro, into the museum, and stuff my bags in the cloakroom lockers and spend a very happy hour and a half in the museum. Which was awesome. By the way. HUGE colossuses, colossi, plural thingy? And then there were the most amazing mosaics from Pompeii and Herculaneum…pieces so fine they looked painted. It was incredible. And there was the “room of secrets,” things pulled from Pompeii and Herculaneum ages ago, but weren’t publicly displayed until sometime in the 1900s, because they were a bit…well, quite extremely…scandalous! The Romans were quite…open about sex. So it’s basically a sex room. Good times. The only bummer of the afternoon was that the Gladiator exhibit was closed.
Also…once again proving the world is a very small place, I met the same Brit couple that I had met on my way to Herculaneum the day before. They had also tried to go to the museum on a Tuesday and had been thwarted. We met on the metro, chatted on the platform, and once again…ran into them at the museum the next day. Wowza.
So, anyway, loved the museum and booked it back to the train station.
Easy train ride to Rome. Sat in Termini (the main Rome station) for two hours waiting for my train to Assisi. Got on the train. I had an interesting ride up, I sat in the first class, it had been only about an extra euro…so I thought “what the hell”…and you met some interesting people. The first class wasn’t actually a separate car, but a blocked off portion of a second-class car, meaning that people kept popping in and out. There was a girl that got on with a gaggle of young boys hassling her…in the obnoxious pre-teen way…and fled again. A man and woman got on and I had quite the interesting conversation in a mix of English, Italian, and Spanish with them. The woman was very friendly, and kept telling me to BE CAREFUL on my own. This actually made me more nervous, but I thanked her. Then they got off.
I had to switch trains partway through, and the car I got on also had the girl who had briefly been in my car. We chatted; she was going to Assisi as well. She had something to do with the Franciscan chapter I think. We parted at the Assisi station.
I went to my hotel, perfectly located directly across from the train station. With one full day in Assisi, I relaxed. Chilled in a public park and read, then went to a medieval castle, which was bliss. Windy, cool, and really neat with narrow windy staircases, guard towers, and a tunnel through a wall. Just my height! Yay for generations of short people.
Then back to Rome for two more nights. I had to pick up my luggage from Lynda the wonderful (seriously, fabulous woman) who had taken care of my huuuge blue suitcase, my steel-toed boots, and the laptop. So, get to Rome (which was HOT), take the metro to her apartment, haul everything down stairs, and back onto the metro to the station I had just come from. Walk six blocks, get very slightly lost, and find the hostel. Which…I had booked for the wrong days, thus had missed when I had reserved a room for. Good times. Oh yes. Luckily they still had plenty of space. So I booked into a 6-person dorm, with air-conditioning, got in a tinsy elevator, and entered my room.
Quite nice, lots of open space. It was just me and one other guy in the room at the moment. We got chatting, he was Irish and quite nice. We ended up walking around together a bit, I did some basic tour guiding…yeah, I’ve been here. A lot. A second guy came in, turned out he had been on an archaeology dig as well. We compared chops. He had found jewelry at his site…but oh I topped him. (Still can’t talk about it…sorry)
Actually for the two nights I was there…I was the only girl in a room of six. It was a bit odd…and amazingly enough I never had to put the toilet seat down.
Quirky event of the century: I’m standing at the desk of the hostel waiting for a password for the wifi, and some guy walks in for some reason or other. I ignore him, all I want is to check my email, I notice him looking at me and then he goes… “Were you in my Samurai and Film class?”
What. The. Hell. He’s from Eugene, he was in my massive 200-person Film class, occasionally went to dancing on Fridays, and remembered me. Sorry Jeremy…I didn’t remember you at all…but if I ever make it back to Eugene, I will.
So we are being all amazed about this, and the Brit girl working behind the desk asks where we are from…Eugene, Oregon…she won’t have heard of it (nobody knows where Oregon is here), and she goes “OH, I had two kids from Eugene sleeping on my floor last week. Weird kids.” Yeah…creepy small world.
Saturday night, my last night in Italy, I met up with Julia. And it was fantastic. We went to goodbye gelato, sat outside Largo Argentina talking, and went to Scholars for a bit. Relaxing, girl chatter; it was the perfect way to leave Rome.
Then, Sunday, I got up early and headed for Termini again, with all my crap in tow. The Irish kid, who’s name I can’t for the life of me remember, helped me get all my huge amounts of stuff to the station. At Termini I had to get on a train for the airport…it was very very full…and I have a tough time managing everything myself…luckily there are some very nice people in this world who helped me get everything on and stuffed in the isle (the walkway…the train was very full), and off we went.
I arrived WAY early for my train…so early I didn’t even know which terminal to go into and they hadn’t posted my flight on the massive number of monitors. So, I parked in front of these monitors. It was me and another kid just sort of chilling in the middle of this intersection of terminals and mini-train station. We got chatting in the hour I sat there…he had been there longer than I had, and was waiting for his flight back to Argentina. He was still waiting for his flight number to come up when mine came up.
So, I go into the right terminal, and find the Lufthansa check in. (Lufthansa makes the world go round. Remember this) I was so early the woman at the desk said I couldn’t check my luggage yet. I had to wait. So I waited. Nervously…my luggage was crazy overweight. But they didn’t charge me! Yay Lufthansa ladies!
So I get to my gate… nearly two hours early…and sit. Get on plane. Fly to Munich, almost-but-not-quite sprint through the airport to my next flight. I show up just in time to board my next flight. To Stockholm. In Sweden. Oh yeah!
I was in Sweden for two weeks. Two weeks of bliss. It was beautiful, and wonderful, and I was happy there. I stayed with a family there, just outside the town called Uppsala. The father was an old friend of my moms; his wife and his two sons and he were all incredibly welcoming. And it was fantastic.
Some major events: I went to an amusement park in Stockholm with the boys, their mom, and their 5 cousins…all Swedes. Blonde, blue eyes, really tall. It was quite fun until it started to POUR. Downpour. Open skies. It was cold, wet, and sopping. Good times. I’d already been soaked once while out walking the neighbors’ dog. And believe it or not, I loved it! Weather…oh I had missed it! Rome was just hot…having weather was GREAT! I also went on a boat trip to some islands on the edge of Finland. It was beautiful on the sea, grey and blue, and stormy and sunny, layers of weather just next to each other. It was incredible to see. I also went into Stockholm with Anna, a girl from the dig who happens to live in Uppsala- yes small world, to see a dance show in a park. The dance show turned out to be an opening act for a film for international film month…not quite what expected…6 minutes of dancing…so we went and walked around Stockholm for a while. I know so little about Swedish history…and now I want to know more! Also, it was a great city! In one city block I kid you not, there were THREE concerts. One techno on a smallish stage, on small out-door bar party playing YMCA, and one HUGE concert outside the opera house with full lights and smoke and screamy noise music. Yup. Go Stockholm.
My third run into Stockholm was to take a barre class with the Royal Swedish Ballet Company as part of a public promotion for their opening season. Yup. If you can’t picture how thrilled I was…you are a very very silly person. That was with Anna again. Then we booked it back to Uppsala (by the train, runs regularly between the two as a commuter route, clean, fast and easy!) onto a bus out to Old Uppsala, where I saw Viking Burial Mounds! My Scandinavian roots were moved. It was awesome.
Other events, a massive family dinner of Swedes, some fantastic walks, the boys attempting to teach me soccer, my ability to put them in their place with my body waves, realizing I’m in Sweden because everything is too tall for me, massive ice cream cones, secondhand sweaters, gardening, toads, and a cheesecake.
I honestly liked Sweden the best of anywhere I’ve been this summer. I was so honestly happy there, I could see myself living there. I am also really really not a city person. I don’t do well in cities, I need green and quiet and peace. I can’t do cities. I didn’t want to leave. And now I’ve left.
Today (22nd August)…I had to get up early and leave paradise.
I am currently in Paris and I’ll be here for 5 nights until I get on the train for my year in Poitiers. I know…it’s Paris. I should be thrilled. I should be out and about and excited. I’m not. I’m going to do things and be entertained and whatnot…Louvre, Versailles (if I can work out how to get there), Monet museum, and I have to work out how to get to the train station I need to get down to Poitiers. I’m a bit terrified actually. Really…
Coming into Paris on the bus today…everything seemed almost surreal. I don’t know if I can make it a year. I’m going to do my damndest. I’ve been here all summer, speaking English (though I did learn a bit of Swedish), and now all of a sudden it’s all French. I don’t have the confidence for this, nor the vocabulary. Sigh. Naw, I’ll be fine, I just need food and whatnot.
Sorry about the massive failure of updatings. I will try to be better. Things should be better once I’m settled in Poitiers…I need a host family still, but once I’m settled internet should be stable and life ought to settle down into some routine…like, school.
And oh my god I’m thrilled to start dancing again!
So my last entry was done online, and this is being written offline…so I honestly have not the foggiest idea where I left you all. I think I had just discovered that the Naples Archaeology Museum was closed on Tuesdays…unless I did that bit already…? Hm. Oh well, small recap, hopefully we keep the redundancy to a minimum.
Naples. Went to Pompeii and loved it. Tried to go to the archaeology museum the next day…which involved a train and the very confusing underground. Then its bloody flippin’ closed! I was about falling to bits, and the very nice man in the booth (who had told me that the museum was closed) I think could tell I was falling to bits. I think it became very obvious when I tried to ask him directions to a place that wasn’t even IN Naples. So. He goes: try the Campigdolio museum, very beautiful, run catch that bus there! So I did. Stupid really. I got on a realized I hadn’t a clue where I was going or where the bus was taking me.
A friendly pair of elderly people got me through it; an older woman who mind-waved me instructions to stay with an elderly gentleman…who walked me off the bus, through a creepy residential area, and to this lovely park with a museum in it. Lovely. Then I went to Herculaneum, a mini-Pompeii basically, but closer to the source of the eruption. Where I stood in line behind some very angry French people, and was quiet and timid. As a result one of the guards gave me a little personal guided tour, and he knew hella stuff about it, amazing details and little facts. So cool.
He also kinda gave me the creeps…didn’t know if I’d roped myself into a tour or something. But no, it was very nice and quite low-key. And man that place was gorgeous…the baths were great. There were separate ones for men and women…and did I totally i.d. all the rooms correctly? Yes, yes I did!
So. Problem: the next day I’m supposed to get on a train and leave to head to Rome, then up further north to Assisi. Um, my train is at 10, and the museum doesn’t open until 9. Meaning I couldn’t make it. So not okay with me. So, I get up suuuuper early the next day, check out of my hostel, haul all my bags (duffel and small shoulder bag) to the train station, stand in a longish line, and learn how to change my ticket. Pull it off so that I get a few more hours in Naples and can still catch a train to Assisi that night. Whoo!
So, new tickets in hand I book it back down to the confusing metro, into the museum, and stuff my bags in the cloakroom lockers and spend a very happy hour and a half in the museum. Which was awesome. By the way. HUGE colossuses, colossi, plural thingy? And then there were the most amazing mosaics from Pompeii and Herculaneum…pieces so fine they looked painted. It was incredible. And there was the “room of secrets,” things pulled from Pompeii and Herculaneum ages ago, but weren’t publicly displayed until sometime in the 1900s, because they were a bit…well, quite extremely…scandalous! The Romans were quite…open about sex. So it’s basically a sex room. Good times. The only bummer of the afternoon was that the Gladiator exhibit was closed.
Also…once again proving the world is a very small place, I met the same Brit couple that I had met on my way to Herculaneum the day before. They had also tried to go to the museum on a Tuesday and had been thwarted. We met on the metro, chatted on the platform, and once again…ran into them at the museum the next day. Wowza.
So, anyway, loved the museum and booked it back to the train station.
Easy train ride to Rome. Sat in Termini (the main Rome station) for two hours waiting for my train to Assisi. Got on the train. I had an interesting ride up, I sat in the first class, it had been only about an extra euro…so I thought “what the hell”…and you met some interesting people. The first class wasn’t actually a separate car, but a blocked off portion of a second-class car, meaning that people kept popping in and out. There was a girl that got on with a gaggle of young boys hassling her…in the obnoxious pre-teen way…and fled again. A man and woman got on and I had quite the interesting conversation in a mix of English, Italian, and Spanish with them. The woman was very friendly, and kept telling me to BE CAREFUL on my own. This actually made me more nervous, but I thanked her. Then they got off.
I had to switch trains partway through, and the car I got on also had the girl who had briefly been in my car. We chatted; she was going to Assisi as well. She had something to do with the Franciscan chapter I think. We parted at the Assisi station.
I went to my hotel, perfectly located directly across from the train station. With one full day in Assisi, I relaxed. Chilled in a public park and read, then went to a medieval castle, which was bliss. Windy, cool, and really neat with narrow windy staircases, guard towers, and a tunnel through a wall. Just my height! Yay for generations of short people.
Then back to Rome for two more nights. I had to pick up my luggage from Lynda the wonderful (seriously, fabulous woman) who had taken care of my huuuge blue suitcase, my steel-toed boots, and the laptop. So, get to Rome (which was HOT), take the metro to her apartment, haul everything down stairs, and back onto the metro to the station I had just come from. Walk six blocks, get very slightly lost, and find the hostel. Which…I had booked for the wrong days, thus had missed when I had reserved a room for. Good times. Oh yes. Luckily they still had plenty of space. So I booked into a 6-person dorm, with air-conditioning, got in a tinsy elevator, and entered my room.
Quite nice, lots of open space. It was just me and one other guy in the room at the moment. We got chatting, he was Irish and quite nice. We ended up walking around together a bit, I did some basic tour guiding…yeah, I’ve been here. A lot. A second guy came in, turned out he had been on an archaeology dig as well. We compared chops. He had found jewelry at his site…but oh I topped him. (Still can’t talk about it…sorry)
Actually for the two nights I was there…I was the only girl in a room of six. It was a bit odd…and amazingly enough I never had to put the toilet seat down.
Quirky event of the century: I’m standing at the desk of the hostel waiting for a password for the wifi, and some guy walks in for some reason or other. I ignore him, all I want is to check my email, I notice him looking at me and then he goes… “Were you in my Samurai and Film class?”
What. The. Hell. He’s from Eugene, he was in my massive 200-person Film class, occasionally went to dancing on Fridays, and remembered me. Sorry Jeremy…I didn’t remember you at all…but if I ever make it back to Eugene, I will.
So we are being all amazed about this, and the Brit girl working behind the desk asks where we are from…Eugene, Oregon…she won’t have heard of it (nobody knows where Oregon is here), and she goes “OH, I had two kids from Eugene sleeping on my floor last week. Weird kids.” Yeah…creepy small world.
Saturday night, my last night in Italy, I met up with Julia. And it was fantastic. We went to goodbye gelato, sat outside Largo Argentina talking, and went to Scholars for a bit. Relaxing, girl chatter; it was the perfect way to leave Rome.
Then, Sunday, I got up early and headed for Termini again, with all my crap in tow. The Irish kid, who’s name I can’t for the life of me remember, helped me get all my huge amounts of stuff to the station. At Termini I had to get on a train for the airport…it was very very full…and I have a tough time managing everything myself…luckily there are some very nice people in this world who helped me get everything on and stuffed in the isle (the walkway…the train was very full), and off we went.
I arrived WAY early for my train…so early I didn’t even know which terminal to go into and they hadn’t posted my flight on the massive number of monitors. So, I parked in front of these monitors. It was me and another kid just sort of chilling in the middle of this intersection of terminals and mini-train station. We got chatting in the hour I sat there…he had been there longer than I had, and was waiting for his flight back to Argentina. He was still waiting for his flight number to come up when mine came up.
So, I go into the right terminal, and find the Lufthansa check in. (Lufthansa makes the world go round. Remember this) I was so early the woman at the desk said I couldn’t check my luggage yet. I had to wait. So I waited. Nervously…my luggage was crazy overweight. But they didn’t charge me! Yay Lufthansa ladies!
So I get to my gate… nearly two hours early…and sit. Get on plane. Fly to Munich, almost-but-not-quite sprint through the airport to my next flight. I show up just in time to board my next flight. To Stockholm. In Sweden. Oh yeah!
I was in Sweden for two weeks. Two weeks of bliss. It was beautiful, and wonderful, and I was happy there. I stayed with a family there, just outside the town called Uppsala. The father was an old friend of my moms; his wife and his two sons and he were all incredibly welcoming. And it was fantastic.
Some major events: I went to an amusement park in Stockholm with the boys, their mom, and their 5 cousins…all Swedes. Blonde, blue eyes, really tall. It was quite fun until it started to POUR. Downpour. Open skies. It was cold, wet, and sopping. Good times. I’d already been soaked once while out walking the neighbors’ dog. And believe it or not, I loved it! Weather…oh I had missed it! Rome was just hot…having weather was GREAT! I also went on a boat trip to some islands on the edge of Finland. It was beautiful on the sea, grey and blue, and stormy and sunny, layers of weather just next to each other. It was incredible to see. I also went into Stockholm with Anna, a girl from the dig who happens to live in Uppsala- yes small world, to see a dance show in a park. The dance show turned out to be an opening act for a film for international film month…not quite what expected…6 minutes of dancing…so we went and walked around Stockholm for a while. I know so little about Swedish history…and now I want to know more! Also, it was a great city! In one city block I kid you not, there were THREE concerts. One techno on a smallish stage, on small out-door bar party playing YMCA, and one HUGE concert outside the opera house with full lights and smoke and screamy noise music. Yup. Go Stockholm.
My third run into Stockholm was to take a barre class with the Royal Swedish Ballet Company as part of a public promotion for their opening season. Yup. If you can’t picture how thrilled I was…you are a very very silly person. That was with Anna again. Then we booked it back to Uppsala (by the train, runs regularly between the two as a commuter route, clean, fast and easy!) onto a bus out to Old Uppsala, where I saw Viking Burial Mounds! My Scandinavian roots were moved. It was awesome.
Other events, a massive family dinner of Swedes, some fantastic walks, the boys attempting to teach me soccer, my ability to put them in their place with my body waves, realizing I’m in Sweden because everything is too tall for me, massive ice cream cones, secondhand sweaters, gardening, toads, and a cheesecake.
I honestly liked Sweden the best of anywhere I’ve been this summer. I was so honestly happy there, I could see myself living there. I am also really really not a city person. I don’t do well in cities, I need green and quiet and peace. I can’t do cities. I didn’t want to leave. And now I’ve left.
Today (22nd August)…I had to get up early and leave paradise.
I am currently in Paris and I’ll be here for 5 nights until I get on the train for my year in Poitiers. I know…it’s Paris. I should be thrilled. I should be out and about and excited. I’m not. I’m going to do things and be entertained and whatnot…Louvre, Versailles (if I can work out how to get there), Monet museum, and I have to work out how to get to the train station I need to get down to Poitiers. I’m a bit terrified actually. Really…
Coming into Paris on the bus today…everything seemed almost surreal. I don’t know if I can make it a year. I’m going to do my damndest. I’ve been here all summer, speaking English (though I did learn a bit of Swedish), and now all of a sudden it’s all French. I don’t have the confidence for this, nor the vocabulary. Sigh. Naw, I’ll be fine, I just need food and whatnot.
Sorry about the massive failure of updatings. I will try to be better. Things should be better once I’m settled in Poitiers…I need a host family still, but once I’m settled internet should be stable and life ought to settle down into some routine…like, school.
And oh my god I’m thrilled to start dancing again!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Eternity has passed...
hiya...
so...I'm a bit behind now. Like, by quite a lot. The Rome program has finished, and I have much to say, be excited about, review, grump...etc. But no the energy at the moment. Suffice it to say that we went out with QUITE the bang, and as soon as I am allowed to go into details...I will! It's really really cool.
But that ended Friday. Sunday was our last day in our appartment. I woke up super early to help two of my roommates take their suitcases down our four flights of stairs, up a cobblestoned street, and down two more flights of stairs to the metro. I am really good at getting suitcases down stairs now. Oh yeah.
Then I showered, finished cleaning the appartment, foisted some of our leftover stuff, food, clothes, books, on Julia the intern. And booked it out by 11 to catch a train down to Napoli. Or Naples in American. I had a hostel down there for 3 nights, to see Pompei, Herulaneum, and the archaeological meuseum.
Found the hostel...only got a bit lost, and an elderly Italian couple were kind enough to shout down from the second story of their home to me, and pointed me in the right direction. I stayed at the Fabric Hostel. Nice, clean, 9-person dorm room. Actually it was really nice. Decent breakfasts, cheap dinners, nice beds. One of my lockers was broken, but I don't currently have much stuff (left lots of it with Lynda the amazing...another story there), so it all fit in the one that worked.
I rocked the public transport in Naples. Whoa yeah. And kudos to Amanda for the tip about the Art Card. Worked like a dream, definitly saved me money, even with my little...fiasco...that was tuesday.
Anyway. Sunday was a bust for tourism. I was tired and just wanted to chill. But Monday morning saw me and Ivar, a Norwegian kid I met at my hostel...picture: tall, blond, blue-eyed, realllly skinny scandinavian, heading for Pompei.
Pompei...I could rave and rave and rave about it. I was there for basically 7 hours and loved every second. I did regularly have the urge to drop to my knees to brush dust of stuff, and went into RAPTURE over the tile floors...you have NO idea. Gorgeous. The archaeology history bug has bitten me bad. And the level of preservation...oh. wow. So cool. Just walking around the streets, with the narrow roads, ruts of carts still there, tall sidewalks. And being able to just wander into random peoples houses, look in their rooms. AND I got to go into one of the recently rennovated bath complexes. Which was wild. Seeing some of what we've been finding and looking for in my site was quite cool.
End Monday.
Enter Tuesday...a bit of a fiasco, but quite the adventure...
enter also hunger. It is now Wednesday evening for me. I am in Assisi, another adventure getting here, and quite quite hungry. So a brief break while I eat. to be continued. This is mostly to let people know I am alive, and do intend to update you all when I can.
Cheers.
so...I'm a bit behind now. Like, by quite a lot. The Rome program has finished, and I have much to say, be excited about, review, grump...etc. But no the energy at the moment. Suffice it to say that we went out with QUITE the bang, and as soon as I am allowed to go into details...I will! It's really really cool.
But that ended Friday. Sunday was our last day in our appartment. I woke up super early to help two of my roommates take their suitcases down our four flights of stairs, up a cobblestoned street, and down two more flights of stairs to the metro. I am really good at getting suitcases down stairs now. Oh yeah.
Then I showered, finished cleaning the appartment, foisted some of our leftover stuff, food, clothes, books, on Julia the intern. And booked it out by 11 to catch a train down to Napoli. Or Naples in American. I had a hostel down there for 3 nights, to see Pompei, Herulaneum, and the archaeological meuseum.
Found the hostel...only got a bit lost, and an elderly Italian couple were kind enough to shout down from the second story of their home to me, and pointed me in the right direction. I stayed at the Fabric Hostel. Nice, clean, 9-person dorm room. Actually it was really nice. Decent breakfasts, cheap dinners, nice beds. One of my lockers was broken, but I don't currently have much stuff (left lots of it with Lynda the amazing...another story there), so it all fit in the one that worked.
I rocked the public transport in Naples. Whoa yeah. And kudos to Amanda for the tip about the Art Card. Worked like a dream, definitly saved me money, even with my little...fiasco...that was tuesday.
Anyway. Sunday was a bust for tourism. I was tired and just wanted to chill. But Monday morning saw me and Ivar, a Norwegian kid I met at my hostel...picture: tall, blond, blue-eyed, realllly skinny scandinavian, heading for Pompei.
Pompei...I could rave and rave and rave about it. I was there for basically 7 hours and loved every second. I did regularly have the urge to drop to my knees to brush dust of stuff, and went into RAPTURE over the tile floors...you have NO idea. Gorgeous. The archaeology history bug has bitten me bad. And the level of preservation...oh. wow. So cool. Just walking around the streets, with the narrow roads, ruts of carts still there, tall sidewalks. And being able to just wander into random peoples houses, look in their rooms. AND I got to go into one of the recently rennovated bath complexes. Which was wild. Seeing some of what we've been finding and looking for in my site was quite cool.
End Monday.
Enter Tuesday...a bit of a fiasco, but quite the adventure...
enter also hunger. It is now Wednesday evening for me. I am in Assisi, another adventure getting here, and quite quite hungry. So a brief break while I eat. to be continued. This is mostly to let people know I am alive, and do intend to update you all when I can.
Cheers.
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