What a Journey...

It's hard to believe that almost five months ago I stepped into France not knowing how to ask for a pain au chocolat.

What's even harder to comprehend is that I'm going to be leaving Paris after perhaps the most meaningful trip of my life. Never have I experienced such a mix of emotions when returning home. Usually I can't be more excited to be back in the 80-degree standard of Los Angeles, and admittedly, until last night, I thought I was "ready" to go back home.

I am ready. After five months of being in a place where the primary language is not one I'm so familiar with, and after being away from my friends and family in America for so long, I can't wait to be back in the U.S. But at the same time, leaving my friends last night at the Pont des Arts, it hit me that I won't see most of my friends here for a very long time. I created the illusion that we'll all be together at some point in the future, but who knows?

Looking back, it's really difficult for me to say what I've learned and pinpoint my favorite parts of studying abroad, but what I do know is that this trip was one that probably won't be repeated ever again. I went to Ireland, England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and all over France.

To me though, it wasn't about where I could go and the necessity to travel. My favorite part of studying abroad was becoming a part of Paris. Yeah, my French sucks, but it's good enough for Parisiens to realize I'm not a tourist, and the people at our grocery store and bakery know us. Just as I had hoped.

I began my trip just thinking Paris was cool. Big, beautiful buildings everywhere and incredible food and wine. But since I returned from spring break, I can safely say that I love this city. I will be back here many, many times over the years, and I can't wait for my first trip back.

Unfortunately I got a little caught up in what was going on here and wasn't able to finish up my spring break post about Italy, or my last trips to Versailles and Amsterdam. Needless to say, they were amazing, just like everything else.

If there's one thing I learned while studying abroad, is that if you can do it, you must. My art history course was rather difficult, and my French class was incredibly easy, but I learned so much is both classes. In fact, I would say the art history class was one of the best I've taken in college. As for French, all you have to do is hear me speak to understand just how far I've come along over the past semester.

But despite the "Study" in Study Abroad, studying was the least of my worries during this trip. I found myself personally, discovering more about myself than I could ever imagine. To think it's coming to an end is really hard for me to do, but as the cliché goes, with the end of one thing is the start of another (or something like that). Hopefully what comes along next will be as worthwhile as the past semester has been. Seriously though, this is going to be hard to top.

À Bientot, Paris! I'll see you soon.

P.S.

This will be the end of my study abroad blog. Thank you so much to everyone who followed it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing. It really enhanced my trip, allowing me to share my thoughts and pictures with my friends and family, so really, THANKS! If you're still interested in my life, please follow my other blog, jonahbraun.blogspot.com.

Spring Break, Part I

So had an unexpected bump in the road en route to writing this blog entry. In other words, I contracted some sort of illness that made it nearly impossible to leave my bed for three days straight, but now I finally feel good enough to go to class (woohoo), and to write a bit about my two week vacation in southern France and Italy. I've decided that, since this was a long trip, I'm going to write this entry in two segments, the first being southern France, and the second Italy.

I figured the way I would do this is by including excerpts from the journal I kept while adding some side notes before each section. I'll separate it by city, and if you want to see more pictures (believe me, I have them), just ask me and I'll gladly show you my collection.

So, here we go..

Marseille

I've been on quite a few trips in my life. Israel seven times, Poland twice, Ecuador/Galapagos, Hawaii, Alaska, and I won't even count the places I've been while studying abroad. So, forgive me if going to Marseille, a somewhat urban city in southern France, didn't interest me much at first. I knew we were going to the "Calanques" — a word I didn't understand — but it wasn't quite enough to get me so excited for the second biggest city in France.

Luckily, Marseille proved me wrong...


While these pictures are beautiful, they don't do the site justice one bit. After being in relatively cold weather in Paris for, well, a long time, the 75 degree heat and a dip in the Mediterranean was just what I was hoping for. That, coupled with the breathtaking views and a near tourist-free environment made me so happy to be out of Paris and seemingly in a different country.

But then again, southern France basically is a different country. The people look different, the food is very different, and they have a more relaxed feel. Hey, if the weather were this nice in Paris, who knows what that place would be like. (as a side note, it's currently 52 degrees in the French capital). Here's my journal entry from Marseille:

4/19/2010
I sometimes forget that I'm in France right now. I can't believe I was at the Louvre yesterday and that I'm now basking in sunny, 70 degree heat. If it weren't for the French written all over the place, I would assume I'd be in, well, somewhere else. Southern France is completely different from Paris in too many ways to explain. Right now, I'm completely wiped. Going to Aix-en-Provence tomorrow, then Nice.

Aix en Provence
Our limited time in Aix was some of my favorite during spring break. It's a very, very small Provencal town (hence the name), but it offers beauty that doesn't exist in Paris and in the rest of France. The food was fantastic, the people were super laid back, and when you think of a French town, this is probably the idea you get.

We had a great lunch that consisted of a baguette tradition — the best I've had in France — a sandwich, cookie, and of course, Orangina. We sat down for a beer on one of the squares, where we saw an accordion player and a hippie dancer. Très français.

Nice/Èze/Cap d'Ail
I'm combining these three because not only are they all within a 20 minute drive of Nice, but we really didn't stay in any of these cities except for Nice, which was our plan. Nice is a pretty big town that sits on the French Riviera, and is also, unfortunately, a top destination to many English-speaking tourists. It wasn't so terrible, but it would have been nice to get some more French in before going to Italy, where we would be full-on American tourists.

Lavander at the Flower Market

Nice itself was, in my opinion, nothing special. It was pretty and had a nice flower market, but the beaches were all big rocks and when your most popular dish is Salade Niçoise, the cuisine can't be THAT great. I mean, it was good, but we live in Paris, so it wasn't that special. Our day trips were what made this stay special.

Èze Village is a medieval fortress located on the top of a cliff overlooking the sea, so we took a bus up there to tour the city for a bit, and then we hiked down to the water, where we thought we would lie on the sand and go for a swim. Didn't turn out that way, but the sights were still pretty awesome. It was tough to get a picture of the fortress itself, so here's one of the view of the Mediterranean from the top.

View from Èze

As for Cap d'Ail, it was finally a beach worth staying at. The water was a bit too cold to go swimming in, but we were still able to soak in some sun before going on a nice walk along the water and catching a bus back to Nice. Unlike some (most) other places in Europe, it seemed like the only thing to do in the French Riviera was to relax.

Cap d'Ail

Believe it or not, that's not even half of my spring break. An Italy post will come as soon as I can. Or whenever I feel like it.

Also, aside from it being my birthday tomorrow, we're going to Giverny and Monet's gardens on our last Abroadco day trip. I'll be sure to post pictures and write about that if time permits. Can you believe I'm coming home in three weeks? Wow.

Well, that was fun...

After our long, two week epic vacation, Jon and I are finally back at our apartment in Paris. We got on an overnight train in Venice at about 8:00 p.m. yesterday and arrived at about 9:20 a.m. today, about an hour later than the scheduled arrival time.

It's tough to put it in words, but the past two weeks have been truly amazing. I saw things I could only dream of seeing before, and got the chance to visit the French Riviera and some amazing parts of Italy. After getting through some scheduling conflicts and train issues, our final trip turned out like this:

• Marseille
• Aix en Provence
• Nice
• Èze
• Cap d'Ail
• Genova
• Cinque Terre
• Rome
• Florence
• Venice

I managed to keep a pretty nifty journal throughout the trip, so I'll include excerpts from it on my next post. For now, I need some coffee, baguette, and about two days to recover. Totally worth it.

All set for spring break. Finally.

After annoying an SNCF employee for about 45 minutes yesterday at Gare Montparnasse, Jon and I finally have our spring break plans finalized. But that stressful process came with some unfortunate sacrifices and left us with some important choices to make.

We planned to take a train from Paris to Marseille on Sunday, but alas that is not the case. The SNCF decided to extend their strike through the weekend, so there aren't any trains going to southern France until the weekend is over. Also, since Monday is a French holiday that I'm unfamiliar with, the trains are either ridiculously expensive or even worse, full.

So that leaves us with a couple options: First, we could just go with our current plans and take a train to Nice on Tuesday. Or, we could rent a car, and make the trek down to Marseille on the highway...

12:20 a.m.
So it looks like we're driving to Marseille at about 8:30 on Sunday morning, and we'll be doing our trip as planned. Just to give you an idea of what's ahead for our trip, here's our long list of cities for the two-week epic adventure:

• Marseille
• Aix-en-Provence
• Nice
• Antibes
• Cannes
• Villefranche
• Eze (Google it)
• Genoa
• Cinque Terre (Google that too)
• Rome
• Florence
• Venice
• Zurich, for about 2 hours

And that doesn't include our ridiculous roundabout trip from Venice to Paris. For that trip alone, we're stopping in four cities in three countries before arriving home after midnight. Milan, Zurich, Basel, Strasbourg, and finally Paris. Good thing I bought The Little Prince in French, should keep me pretty busy..

Really though, I can't remember a time I've been more excited in my life. This will be a trip I'll always remember, and can't wait to get it started. It should be quite an adventure, and I look forward to writing about it in a couple weeks. By then, I'll have to sift through thousands of pictures, but for now, I'll leave you with one of my favorites from the top of Arc de Triomphe. À Bientot!

Finally, some sun!

About a week ago, when I was in the midst of writing my 10-page term paper for my art history class, something very troubling occurred to me. It's now April. Normally I would be happy - the weather is getting nicer, trees are starting to bloom, and Parisians seem less snobby than usual. But then again, it's April 6, and that means that my program ends in less than two months. Not good.

So after calming down, I put things into perspective. Over the next seven weeks, I'm going to Chartres, Aix-en-Provence, Marseilles, Nice (and surrounding towns), Cannes, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, Rome, Giverny, and hopefully Amsterdam. Three countries, 11 cities, then back home.

Really though, this nonstop traveling started this past weekend with our trip to Barcelona, which was by far my favorite trip so far. First off, we were able to stay at my friend Annie Miller's apartment (palace) in an incredible location in the city. That, coupled with her encyclopedia-like knowledge of the city and its landmarks made it an unforgettable trip.

Barcelona is the first city I've been to in Europe whose architecture rivals that of Paris. Clearly influenced by the famous architect Antonio Gaudi, who built incredible sights all around the city. Most notable are the Sagrada Familia cathedral and Parc Guell. They are straight out of fairy tale books and were a great contrast to the gothic architecture I'm used to in France.

Sagrada Familia

Parc Guell

View from Parc Guell

The pictures don't really do it justice, but these were without doubt my favorite parts of Barcelona. That's a pretty ridiculous statement to make considering the amount of amazing sights we were able to take in in the three-plus days we were there.

The weather in Barcelona was pretty much perfect throughout our entire visit. It hovered around 70 degrees with sunshine throughout, and I was outside for most of the time in a t-shirt. Unfortunately, our return to Paris brought us back to reality, with temperatures in the 40s and 50s once again...but not for long.
----
So at this point, I got really busy (lazy) and haven't really had a lot of time to finish this entry, so please forgive me.

This week completely flew by. First, not having class on Monday threw me off a bit, and the fact that my sleep schedule has been on Barcelona time all week didn't help my cause. With that said, I will say I had a really fun week. We got closer with our awesome Parisian neighbor who took us to a great club, and on Friday we went to Montmartre again, which was lovely.

And since the weather got a bit nicer (high 50s and sunny), we were able to spend some time outside, and we even got to explore a new park/garden called Lac de Buttes Chaumont, a true gem in the far northeast district of the city.

Lac de Buttes Chaumont

Aside from that, not too much is going on at the moment. My friend Annie from Wisconsin is visiting us for a couple of days, and in one week Jon and I are going on our epic spring break. Before I finish though, I thought it would be fun to show some pictures from the Luxembourg Gardens that really illustrate the change in seasons.

Winter

Still not quite there...

About freakin' time!

Alright, that's it. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll try to get another post in before I go on spring break.

Busy Busy

It's hard to believe I've been here for nearly 11 weeks. My friend Annie was asking me about Dublin, and I almost forgot that I even did that, considering it's been about eight weeks since I visited the Irish capital. I guess that's what happens when you visit six cities in eight weeks.

That trend hasn't changed, and it won't until my return flight on June 6th. June...6th. Interesting, considering that this past weekend we visited the Normandy region and the D-Day landing beaches. Coincidental? Completely.

I had been looking forward to this one for a long time. After our first (mediocre) outing with Abroadco, I was hoping they wouldn't screw up what could be a great excursion. Luckily, Tawna pulled it together and it turned out to be a great day in Normandy. We went to the D-Day museum, the D-Day sites, and notably, the American Cemetery on Omaha Beach, where about 5,000 Americans died during the landing. Pretty amazing place to be.

Omaha Beach

American Cemetery

It wasn't as emotional as I expected, but it was nonetheless a very meaningful trip. Our tour guide was fantastic, letting us roam the beach and the cemetery while acting as a walking D-Day encyclopedia.

So I just realized I forgot to mention that we were staying in Caen, a city near the beaches, overnight. We figured that, since Abroadco didn't plan an overnight trip, we should plan one for ourselves — so we did. And it was great.

Turns out there's a huge open air market every Sunday in Caen, and we took full advantage. For lunch, we roamed around and found some delicious treats for a ridiculously small amount of money.

Fresh baguettes, mango and peach chutney, goat cheese, strawberries and seasoned frites. We ate it on the river, and aside from the random dude peeing in the water, we had a fairly peaceful meal.

But then again, there's really nothing like coming back to Paris. Caen is a cute town (albeit brand new — it was completely destroyed in WWII), but the consistent beauty Paris has to offer is unparalleled by any other city I've ever been to (except for Jerusalem). Luckily, the weather was as nice when we got back as when we left, and it has yet to decline.

In other news, things are getting pretty exciting around here. Tomorrow, Emily Eckhous and Kelly Maslow come, and on Friday Curren and John arrive, then Voj on Sunday. Prettay prettay exciting.

Jon and I also booked tickets to Barcelona for next weekend. We're staying with ANNIE, and I cannot wait for that trip. Hopefully I'll get some updates in before I leave for Espagne.

Oh and by the way, as promised, our picture with the Cordon Bleu chef:

Printemps et Londres

Forgive me for not writing sooner, but it's been over 60 degrees the past three days. Growing up in Los Angeles, where changing seasons are more of an indication for a changing fashion trend than actual weather patterns, I never really got the pure joy out of leaving the cold season.

But Paris is a completely different story. It's not hot like LA, and it's not freezing cold like Madison. Apparently I was lucky to be able to get some snow this year - it doesn't happen a lot in Paris. So yesterday, with a high of 67 in the afternoon, Jon and I head to Montmartre, a hillside region that I went to around two months ago. Only then, it was 35 degrees and pouring rain - one of my most uncomfortable days in Paris.

Thirty-two degrees warmer and sunshine definitely beats the pouring rain (even if I got a couple great pictures..) And while last time I was looking down on to a foggy Paris, yesterday was the clearest day of the year.

Paris doesn't have the same type of skyline as a New York, Chicago, etc. There's one (ugly) tower, the Eiffel Tower, The Panthéon, and Invalides. And it's hard to see most of them. For me, it was a relief to be able to walk around in Paris without a coat and to see the city in a completely different way. A day earlier, we zig-zagged along the Seine River, which was also among the best things I've done so far. Tragically, I left my camera at home. I did get some great shots of Sacre Coeur and Paris, so I'll post those instead.

This shouldn't overshadow our trip to London last week, but it's hard not to be excited during such an exciting time.

I had already been to London, so I was pretty much only going because a) one of our best friends, Zac, studies there, and b) it's nice to see other cultures after living in France for quite a while. Our first night out, we went to pubs in the Picadilly Circus, and to our surprise, a pint of good beer cost only 2.21 pounds (about $3.50). Last night I paid 4.50 euro (about $6) for a 25cl cup of Heineken. Oh well.

The weather was surprisingly great in London. The forecast said it was going to be pouring rain on Friday, and instead we got sunshine through the weekend. It was great to see Zac, and we even got see his favorite place, Golders Green (is that not the most typical Jewish name..), where he spends a lot of time.

We did all the touristy stuff: Big Ben, London Eye (though we didn't go in, line was too long), Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Camdentown, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery. Going to the art museum worked out really well for me, considering I had an art history test two days later. We saw some amazing art by (notably) Velazquez, Caravaggio, Caracci, Rubens, Raphael, and Van Dyck. Great collection, but nothing like the Louvre.

London Eye and some other building

Anyway, it's been a really tiring week. I had a tough midterm, a lot of traveling, and it's not even close to over. Tomorrow, my study abroad program is taking us to Caen, Normandy and the D-Day beaches. Should be another great weekend, and hopefully I won't get too caught up in this weather. Just don't blame me if I do.