Paris

I went to Paris last weekend!

My Mom’s friend from high school, Michelle, lives in France.

Michelle’s husband is Rachid; they were my great and selfless hosts for the weekend.

[Shout out: THANK YOU MICHELLE AND RACHID! Thank you for making my trip to personal/special/memorable—I couldn’t have done it without you =)]

 

[Side note: Michelle played trombone in high school. And, she and my Mom have the same birthday. So cool!]

My day on Friday, February 24, started at 7:00am, when I woke up to finish packing and leave around 8:00a. (Also: my day on Thursday had ended only two hours prior, as I arrived home from going out on Thursday night around 4:00a, packed, and then fell asleep around 5:00a. Haha.) I walked to the bus stop, took the bus to the interchange, took the metro to the airport, and caught my flight at 11:00a. I slept through lunch on the plane… which was fine, because I assumed that I could grab a bite to eat once I arrived at the terminal in France.

WRONG! (What terminal?!) I could not eat lunch at the airport because there was only a make-shift terminal at the little airport, Beauvais, where I arrived. To get off the plane, we used air-stairs to the tarmac, and then walked through the make-shift terminal to a ticket booth, where all the passengers purchased a bus ticket, and we were shuttled to an interchange station in Paris.

[Side note: The best part of the flight was seeing a girl named Brittany, with her friends, who were travelling from Seville to Paris for the weekend. Brittany and I first met when we had the same flight from Dulles to Madrid, back in January. Dulles and Madrid were both connecting airports for her, as she was travelling from Philadelphia to Seville. So ironic!]

[Disclaimer: Brittany is not actually from Philadelphia. I actually have no idea where she’s from, because honestly, I don’t remember. I don’t even know her last name. But, for the purposes of this blog post, I guessed that she’s from Philadelphia, because I do remember that she was from some recognizable city on the east coast. Lol.]

Anyway, Michelle and I had perfect timing for arriving and greeting each other at the interchange; she arrived by train and I by bus. We had no trouble finding each other. As per Michelle’s recommendation, I packed light (just one change of clothes and a toothbrush in my backpack), so right away we were off—on our way to starting a personal tour of Paris =) How exciting!

Our first stop was at a corner café so that I could get lunch. I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich on a French baguette, along with a chocolate/fruit tart for dessert. So delicious! From there, we took a walk down Gran Via to the Arc de Triumph.  

After fighting other tourists and battling traffic coming from all directions to take some photos, we headed for the nearest metro station, which put us… at the base of the Eiffel Tower!

We hung out at the Eiffel Tower for several hours. I waited in line for the cheap ticket, and climbed the stairs in less time than it would have taken to buy a ticket to take the elevator to the top. I was in the Eiffel Tower long enough to watch the sun set over the Paris skyline…

So beautiful!

Around 7:00pm, we left to head home. I insisted that we stop at a souvenir shop along the way, after which Michelle insisted that we stay until the top of the hour to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle…

No wonder Paris is the City of Love <3 Who wouldn’t LOVE such a monument?! ;)

Dinner on Friday was very French—wheat flour crepes with goat cheese, a side salad with vinaigrette dressing and a sweet surprising splash of honey, strawberries and powdered sugar for dessert, along with caramel crème yogurt dipping cream, and orange juice to drink. It was heavenly!

Saturday morning started off with some OJ (my favorite) and some pastries, including a French croissant, for breakfast. Then we took the metro into Paris, where we saw the National Opera building.

After that we went to the Louvre. Michelle and I have the same mentality about visiting museums, so we were great travel partners.

This is a replica of the Dining Room in Michelle’s house.
Jk—I meant to say: Michelle’s palace.

Jk—I meant to say: Napoleon’s Palace.

Then I saw the real Mona Lisa! I saw the recently restored Mona Lisa at the Museo del Prado just last week, but I didn’t get to take a picture of that one :( Oh well, it’s still cool to say that I saw BOTH of the Mona Lisa paintings, within a week of each other!

For lunch, we had quiche lorraine and salad at the restaurant.

Our next stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral. What a beautiful and ornate building.

Saturday night was SHOPPING! I love shopping. We also stopped for ice cream. I got tiramisu flavor. I also love ice cream.

We spent a lot of time looking at jewelry, and scarves, and purses… and, basically, if I had the time, I would probably spend my entire life’s savings shopping in Paris, and then I wouldn’t have any money left to take other trips around Europe. Glad I didn’t have time to spend that much money! Haha.

Dinner on Saturday was chicken with corn, carrots, and potatoes. I also ate a sourdough baguette with a plethora of cheeses. I tried camembert, bleu, Swiss, and chèvre (goat). Yum :)

On Sunday, I started the morning watching Marie Antionette, the movie, after our fresh-fruit-with-yogurt-and-granola breakfast. It was great to watch the movie before visiting the Palace of Versailles, in order to have a solid mental image of what it looked like, as well as a better understanding of what went into its use and decoration.

But before we went to Versailles, we walked through the Market in Saint Germain en Laye to buy dinner (which was served at lunch time). We ate steamed salmon with potatoes and guacamole, followed by Rum Cake with fruit. (That cake was THOROUGHLY doused in rum. It was good, but it was strong!)

The Palace of Versailles was STUNNING, even on an overcast-Sunday afternoon.  

God’s glory shines, even on overcast-Sunday afternoons ;)

Before heading home, we stopped at a Creperie, where I ate a fabulous Nutella-banana-ice cream crepe.

Rachid dropped us off at Château de Saint Germain en Laye, where we walked around the castle grounds, and I got to see where Louis XIV was born.

[Note: compare this picture I took of the Castle with the image on the Wikipedia page. Impresionante!]

Sunday evening was spent relaxing, watching a movie, and eating another smattering of cheese and fruits for dinner. So delightful!

This car lives parked right outside of Michelle’s house; I couldn’t help but take a picture ;)

Michelle accompanied me to the airport on Monday, at which point I boarded with EasyJet (the first ticketless airline!), made some important life decisions on the airplane (inspired by a strong cup of coffee), and arrived back in Madrid around noon.

By 1:30p I was home again, and at 2:30p, I was back in class, as if nothing had ever happened. The only difference was: I was now the proud holder of 366 photos, several souvenirs, and countless fond memories about my magical weekend in France. <3

Can’t wait to go back. <3

Stay tuned for my next post for more information about my important life decisions.

Love, ~Taylor

Metro Craze

I’m in Paris1 But that’s not what this blog post is about…

But, please forgive the typos (intentionally UNCORRECTED°, as typing on a French keyboard is wayyyy more complicated than typing on a Spanish one =P

Hints

q=a

z=w

:=.

;=,

1=!

§=!

The rest qre just mistakes, hqhq:

On Thirsday of lqst week, I went to Literature class. Most unfortunately, it was horribly boring. Jenna and I had arranged to go into Madrid for the afternoon, because we had to pay for our upcoming trip to Las Fallas, en Valencia, at the Travel Agency: Hali and Crystal said that they would join us, so that we could spend the afternoon getting to knoa a nea part of the city, and then going shopping. But, first things first, we had to eat lunch. I suggested a cute little restaurant near Plaza Mayor that I had heard about during the Madrid walking tour, callzs El Modroño. The cool thing about his place is that they serve fruit-flavored liquor shots of Madroño liquer in CHOCOLQRE SHOT GLASSES§

When we arrived, I asked if it was the right place, and sure enough, they served us our first round of shots prqctically before we’d even sat down :) DELICIOUS. For lunch, I ate some croquetas de jamón, una bocadilla de lomo y queso, y una Fanta límon to drink. We order another round of shots for dessert, and then we were served a THIRD round of shots on the house! How nice! Definitely a technique to get the Americans’ business bqck there, and with friends ;) (One of the great things about Europe is that you’re not judged for what time of day it is when you start drinking. It was about 15:30 =D)

By the time we left the restaurant, it wqs alreqdy qlmost 5:00pm. we walked straight to the metro stqtion, but then zere delqyed zhen ze got there becquse Jennq hqd q hqir stuck in her eye; under her contqct: So painful1 For the rest of us, it zqs kind of funny, but I’m pretty sure Jennq didn’t think so:::

While Hali was buying her metro ticket; Jennq rubbed her eye qnd qsked if I could see qn eyelash: I saw a hair that was longer than an eyelqsh1 <it looked like q dqrk threqd. Hqli lent Jennq her pocket-mirror, and ze stood zaiting for Jennq qs she tried to get the threqd out of her eye:  We tried to help, but the best ze could do zqs guide her verbqlly. No one else volunteered to poke Jennq’s eyebqll!

Someone suggested thqt Jennq might have better luck if she took her contqct lens out completely.  She did so; successfully removed the hqir; qnd then qccidently dropped her contqct lens on the ground. FIVE SECOND RULE§ Jennq insisted thqt she zould hqve to put it bqck in, or else she zould be blind. Since none of us zqs cqrrying contqct solution, my zqter bottle zqs the next best thing. I poured zqter into Jennq’s pqlm to rinse the contact, qnd then Crystal felt compelled to wipe up the zqter spill so thqt no unsuspecting metro rider would slip and fall. Finally we were on our way; Crystal zqs carryinig the dirty tissue from the zqter on the floor, Hali’s mirror zqs returned, qnd Jennq’s eye zqs stinging from hqving bqthed the contqct lens in zqter rqther thqn contqct solution. Whew!

Hali prqcticed doing pull-ups on the hqndle bqr in the metro; HQHQ§

Our next metro qdventure zqs lqter thqt night, zhen Crystal, Jennq qnd I were going bqck into the city zith a bunch of other friends to go out on Thursdqy night: Thqt time, our group of 12 qlmost got separated becquse the metro zqs FULL of peeps. It zqs just jam-packed! The other thing we hqd to remember zqs thqt the metro is closed from 1:00a until 6:00a; so ze hqd to plqn on zqlking bqck to the bus stop qround 3:00a to cqtch the bus to Villaviciosa.

Fridqy morning zqs my third metro trip in 12 hours, when I left by bus from Villaviciosa to Principe Pio, and then took the metro to the qirport. Easy peazy1

Since then, for the rest of this zeekend, I’ve been trqvelling on the Paris metro insteqd of the Madrid Metro ;)

More to come regarding my adventures on the Paris metro, meaning, my adventures in France ;)

Love, ~Tqylor

Ways to spot an American

Any one of these clues, or a combination of them, might indicate an American in a foreign country:

-drinks out of a re-useable water bottle

-carries Vera Bradley luggage

-speaks in fluent English

-has impeccably straight (and white) teeth

-doesn’t share Tapas

-orders more than one bottle of soda (always needs a refill)

-doesn’t show their ID when paying with a credit card

-wears a college sweatshirt

-has red hair

-uses a washcloth, rather than a bath mitten or a body sponge

-has a North Face jacket

-makes jokes about Carrefour being like Walmart

-responds to street Gypsies

-over-tips the waiters

*This list is subject to constant revision. Suggestions are welcome.

Weekend

What a fun weekend!

On Saturday, I went to Córdoba with Carolina, Rory, and Susan’s friend, Encarna.

We took a train from Madrid to Córdoba, and arrived around noon.

Our first stop was a lovely and delicious café.

We spent most of the day in the historic district.

This is the view from the top of the Iglesia de Santa Marina de Aguas Santas. (Sorry it's not rotated! Anybody know how to fix that??)

The surrounding gardens were absolutely beautiful. The Jardines del Alcázar are full of citrus trees.

We stopped at a Tapas bar for lunch—so delicious!
This is salmorejo--a cold tomato soup, topped with ham and eggs. Very typical of Andalucia.

We went to the famous Mezquita (Mosque), and Encarna told us all about the history.

 

Once the Moors were expelled from Spain, the Christians decided to build a Cathedral inside the Mosque. The King was furious. Que tontos.  

In the afternoon, when we had some free time, we went for a walk, and bought some souvenirs, etc. I took this photo, overlooking the city, from the Puente Romano. It looks like it could be a jigsaw puzzle ;)

Our train ride back to Madrid was from 20.30-22.30H. I got home around midnight.

Carolina and Rory and I decided that we would meet again on Sunday morning, around 8.30 to go to El Rastro in La Latina, and then take a guided walking tour of Madrid. We had a really great time!

I got off on kind of a rocky start though...
My feet were freezing because I was wearing my converse, and it was cold. So that was kind of a problem.

We stopped at a McCafe (McDonalds) to get some breakfast. (McCafes in Spain are actually quite good quality, and not just fast food.) We were kind of in a hurry because we had to be at Plaza Mayor to start the tour within half an hour. All I wanted to get was a coffee and a muffin.
The first delay happened when the guy in line in front of us realized that he didn’t have his wallet to pay for his food. The waiter explained that while he (the customer) had been asleep in the corner, he was pick-pocketed. Some stranger came and stole his wallet right out of his pocket, and he hadn’t even noticed. The wait-staff tried to wake him up, but apparently he’d been sleeping too deeply to even notice. The customer was in disbelief, and the waiter was frustrated with his ignorance. I heard them repeat “it happened about half an hour ago. You were pick-pocketed. You didn’t wake up” about 20 times, in English and Spanish. Poor guy.

Then, finally, now running late but with a stomach satisfied by an apple/cinnamon muffin, I took a sip of my drink. IT FELT LIKE I DRANK FIRE. I BURNED MY TONGUE REALLY BAD AND SPILLED MY DRINK. Gross. And embarrassing. So, once that was taken care of, and we were happily on our way again to the tour, I could no longer enjoy my drink, because my tongue was too hot. But I couldn’t help thinking that despite the hassle and embarrassment of my hot coffee, I was still having a better day than the other guy.

The tour was great. Our tour guide was a funny guy from Israel who moved to Madrid several years ago to play guitar. Cool!

Along the way, we saw…

…the Oldest Restaurant in the World…

…the Suicide Bridge of Madrid…

...the Catedral...

…El Palacio Royal…

…the best Churro shop in the country, open 22/7…

etc. The whole trip only took about three hours. The tour was free, and the guides work for tips alone. Whew! They give tours in all major European cities, and in Madrid they also offer a Tapas Tour, and a Pub Crawl. (Who wants to COME VISIT and go on a Tapas Tour or Pup Crawl with me?! You know you want to… ;)

We got home on Sunday just in time for lunch. After that, my friend Jenna came over, and we worked on translating a menu for Translation class. (SO TEDIOUS. Did you know that many culinary words in English are taken from French or Italian, and therefore don’t have a direct translation from Spanish? How difficult! How am I supposed to write a menu in English, then, if I don’t know French or Italian? Haha.)

My next travels include:
Going to El Museo del Prado with Rory, Carolina, and Encarna on Sunday
Going to Paris to visit Michelle and family this weekend
Going to Granada with UEM USA students the following weekend
(Hopefully) Going to Valencia para Las Fallas with UEM friends from Mexico after that
Going to Venice, Austria and then Italy with Annie for Semana Santa!
Going to Sevilla para la Feria, when my grandparents are in town…

And I think that’s it for now. Some of those plans are still TBD, haha.
Love from Spain, ~Taylor

¡Cursos, finalizados!

Finalmente, he finalizado la lista de asignaturas que tengo. Mandé un email al Elon Registrar diciéndole las clases en que había matriculada… y me dijo que estaba todo bien. Pero, me di cuenta que, para la carrera de Español en Elon, solo valen 16 créditos, y con 5 asignaturas, yo hubiera tenido 20 créditos. What a waste of time. Por eso, regrese a la Oficina International y me quitaron Sociología de Educación. Que lastima. La única que me interesaba, tanto, y en la cual he conocido a unos amigos. Pero, por suerte, ya esta todo arreglado y ahora hay solo un día de la semana cuando tengo clases antes del mediodía =P (Y esta empieza a las 10.30. No hay ningún problema ;)

Por fin relajada, ~Taylor