A much-delayed update of fall break

Once again, I have left the blog on a sour note far too long. The following is a "brief" account of my travels during our fall break, copied from an email:

During our week off in November, I traveled with a friend to Budapest, Krakow, and Vienna. We flew to Budapest and stayed in a great hostel run by a couple who had converted their large apartment. We met a lot of fun people, including a pair of British college students who showed up in tuxedos. Their story was that in Bristol, where they go to school, there is a charity event called Jail Break (), where participants spend the night in jail and are released at the same time to travel as far as they can in 24 hours without spending any money. The winner gets money for the charity based on how far they get. Anyway, these two guys had made it to Poland in their 24 hour period, and then found themselves without a flight home, so they hopped a train to Budapest (turns out their trip to Budapest was counted and they came in 1st). Only thing was, all they had to wear were their tuxedos, so they got a lot of funny looks. We all went out to dinner at this Hungarian restaurant, which was fantastic. There were five people at dinner, so we ordered five dishes and passed them around the table so everyone had a chance to try everything. There was no dish that I didn't like. While we were in Budapest, and wandering about the city, it started raining, then sleeting, then snowing, until finally we gave up and retreated back to the hostel, where we met everyone else who had the same idea.

After a few days in Budapest, my travel buddy Kamilla and I took an overnight train to Krakow. We weren't in a sleeper car, because it was cheaper, but that meant that we slept stretched out on the seats. We got to Krakow around 5 am, where it was snowing. Instead of going to a hostel, we had arranged to couchsurf (), where someone lets us stay for free at their place. Our host in Krakow was a nice American girl, who had done her master's at Jagiellonian University and decided to stay and join the large population of American expats in Krakow. She met us at the station and took us to her apartment, which wasn't great, but it was nice to have someone come meet us and give us tips on what to see, not to mention have a free place to stay (though we bought our hosts dinner in thanks). Poland is the most actively religious country I've ever been to, there is a church, or more, on every corner, and people stop in to say a prayer while on their regular errands. So, one of the main things we did was go visit church after church of historical or architectural importance. There is also a castle, which Callie, our host, took us to while giving us a brief rundown of Krakow's history and royal family (her masters was in Polish history). Another upside was again the food. Polish food for me is a kind of comfort food (there is apparently a larger Polish population in Chicago than even Warsaw), though Kamilla is Russian and was disappointed in the differences between Polish and Russian food. Having Kamilla around was great, though, because she could speak Russian and be understood, and she could understand some of the Polish. In Hungary we didn't have any problems with language barriers; we joked that all Hungarians spoke English because no one else speaks or can understand Hungarian. We only spent two full days in Krakow, which was more than enough, because it really is a small city.

We took another overnight train, this time in a sleeper car, to Vienna. Apparently I don't ever get motion sickness UNLESS I'm suspended midair in a dark cabin, so despite the improvement of comfort of a bunk compared to the seats on the train to Krakow, it was a bit of an uncomfortable ride. We reached Vienna around 6 am, and made our way to the apartment of another Couchsurfing host, this time a guy named Mathias. His Spanish roommate also had her brother and his girlfriend staying, so it was a pretty full house. Also, the UofC has a study abroad program in Vienna, and I had a friend there, so between Mathias and my friend Shira, we had plenty of tips on where to go and what to visit. Though by the time it was the weekend and Mathias had time to give us a real tour, he joked that we had done everything and could probably give him a better tour than he could give us. So, we went by his university and the houses of parliament. There is also a nice Viennan tradition of drinking punch - hot mulled wine - outside in the snow (yes, there was more snow). We visited more churches, though with considerably less enthusiasm after Krakow. Apparently every church is Baroque, which is neither my nor Kamilla's favorite style, so that got tiring pretty quickly. We took a day trip to the monastery in Melk, the highlight of which was our adorably dorky tour guide and the amazing library there. When it came time to leave Vienna, we realized that what we thought was a flight flying out of Vienna to Paris at 8pm was in fact a bus leaving Vienna at 8pm to go to the airport in Bratislavia, and that our flight was actually at 5:30 in the morning. Apparently, we had to take the bus shuttle that night because it was the last to leave Vienna and get us to the airport in time for our flight. So, we had to spent the night sleeping on these really cold metal benches in the airport in Bratislava. I suppose I visited Slovakia, too, then. Sadly, we weren't the only ones in this predicament, because despite the fact that virtually everything shuts down in the Bratislavan airport, there was an Armenian football team sleeping on the benches too. Such is the life of flying cheap airlines, I suppose. Anyway, we didn't get back into Paris until Monday morning, and we were too exhausted to go to class (which was at 10 am), so we went home and slept. Not that we were the only ones to do so.

L'opéra a craint!

I just got back from the opera. I was so incredibly excited, and so incredibly disappointed. The building, of course, was magnificent. But that's where the good things ended. We had seats in boxes, but most of us were seated behind other people, and in the boxes the seats are right behind each other. They are neither staggered or on different levels. Therefore, most the stage was instead in my vision the silhouettes of the old men in front of me. I have a crick in my neck from leaning my head on the (thankfully upholstered) wall next to me from first trying to see, and then trying to nap. Half the theater was wearing JEANS, for crying out pete, and I don't even find that acceptable in a regular theater to see a play at a matinée. It's rude and disrespectful to the performers, the rest of the audience, and the whole tradition of going to the theater. The man in front of me had his phone go off in the middle of the first act, and he had the gall to glare at us behind him and NOT TURN IT OFF and just pretend it wasn't his.
The set design was horrible, just an almost bare stage with another stage-type platform set up in the middle, and long modern "chandeliers" which murdered my retinas by being fluorescent (if you've ever worked in a cubicle in a windowless office with nothing but the flicker of fluorescent and the dim blue light of the computer screen, you feel my pain). Apparently the idea was to have it set somewhere between the 40s and 50s, which just doesn't work too well with a story about courtesans, as our French professor pointed out. The lead had an irritating voice; she could technically hit all the notes, but there was no pleasure in listening to her. She (and the chorus) stumbled around on the stage with all the grace of a drunken, coked-out old woman. One woman kept showing up and flashing the audience by opening her fur coat to reveal a lace unitard type thing. There was also a male dancer in the chorus using the opportunity of being on the stage in the Opéra Garnier of Paris to breakdance/do the robot (I know it has a term, but I'm blanking in my anger). Good job, man. Now go get a cup and hang out in front of a national monument with your boombox. By the time we finally reached the last act, I was praying for Violetta to just up and fricking DIE ALREADY! And stop putting your coat on and taking it off and wandering around the stage and behind set pieces with no purpose. Oh, and no, you weren't good enough for 5 curtain calls. Let us go home.

I do stuff! Really!

So, it's been a while since my last post. I apologize to what few people check this on a regular basis. But you haven't missed anything terribly exciting.

We read Huis Clos by Jean-Paul Sarte in my French class, and then we went to go see the play. In French, of course. It was definitely interesting, and it was interpreted much differently than I did while reading it. Of course, I totally didn't get that they were in hell until they had to explicitly state it to the dense Estelle, and as I read, "L'enfer! Nous sommes dans l'enfer!" I was totally like, "Hell? Really? Huh..." They had the wings of the stage open, and lots of cluttered furniture here and there. Each of the characters had a color - Garçin was green, Estelle was blue, Inès was red - and their clothes and personalities went with their respective couches and chandeliers. Throughout the play, they totally trashed the stage, and all I could think about was who the hell was going to have to strike the stage and reset it for the next night? The stage manager, of course. I've clearly spent far too much time in that position. I can no longer go to the theater without thinking more about what is going on behind the scenes than what is going on on stage. We're going to the opera to see La Traviata next Monday, and I am completely fascinated by set designs in opera (they're so elaborate!), so I can't wait.

The day after the play, we went to the Musée Carnavalet and were whisked through with hilarious commentary by the amazing Steve Sawyer, who teaches the history of Paris class to everyone but us. He's so funny, I totally envy everyone who has his class. They kept the museum open a bit late for us, so we had to leave as soon as the lecture was over, but I think out visit was sufficient to see the important parts of the museum.

And then the NEXT day (ok, I suppose it was an eventful week) we went to Versailles. Totally overrated. I mean, yay hall of mirrors and all, very nice. But I guess I am just not such a fan of the Baroque. Plus you see like four rooms. The gardens were better, even if we didn't spend much time in them because it was cold. I really wanted to rent a canoe and take it out into the canal, but the booth was closed, and I guess it wouldn't have been much fun once I started to get cold. But if I ever went back, I'll bring a thermos and picnic and row out and chase the swans with my boat. It's going to be awesome.

This past week we had a French midterm, and then because of All Saints day, we had no school on Thursday (though we did have to make up for the lost day on Friday), so we were able to party it up for Halloween. Unfortunately, Halloween is almost never celebrated during Halloween. Unfortunately, I had a somewhat out-there costume, and unfortunately, people literally broke into derisive laughter when they saw me. It was sad that their cold hearts couldn't appreciate the glory and pageantry that is Halloween, but also funny. I couldn't keep a straight face myself, seeing people's reactions to my gold faux eyelashes and massive red hair. (By the way, I was Ana Matronic from the Scissor Sisters, and Kamilla was Jake Shears, the other lead singer). We found a bar called Pomme d'Eve, and pretty much had taken over by the end of the night. It was great fun, and we had all of Thursday to recover.

Today I went to the Musée d'Orsay again, and while we had to wait in line due to the tourists (I wasn't so lucky this time), we were able to skip the ticket line with our glorious Carte d'étudiant de l'histoire de l'art. Hot damn. I figure it will take me one more trip to see everything I want to see. I don't think I'll be going to the Louvre again. I just can't take it.

Côte d'Azure, and all it's gloriousness

Last week was pretty uneventful for most of the week, thanks to the combination of having a paper due on Friday and the grève. The grève being, of course, the infamous metro/RER strike across the whole country. It started on Thursday, and so those of us who had class had to walk an hour there and an hour back. I was surprised and dismayed to discover that Paris was so hilly. And France being France, the strike, though scheduled for only Thursday, stretched into Friday and parts of Saturday. All in all, that isn't that bad, considering the fact that the last two strikes lasted 3 and 5 weeks, respectively. But the most irritating thing was the reason for the strike: the workers wanted to keep their 30 hour weeks and retirement age of 50. Considering their salary (pretty hefty for people who press buttons on a train), it's ridiculous they'd expect to keep the old laws from back when they actually had to shovel coal.

Anyway, despite the various difficulties that some of you may have heard about my trip planning, Nice worked out. I was able to find someone to go with me who was willing to take a plane and not give up at the slightest planning difficulty. So, we took a cab to Orly (no train, of course) and took an hour flight to Nice very early in the morning. I had been up late the night before finishing my paper, so I had only gotten 2 hours of "sleep." Phil was still working on his paper all of Friday. We get to Nice, and it's absolutely gorgeous, with perfect sunny warm weather that is equally friendly to tank tops and sweatshirts. We missed our stop on the bus into the city because the bus driver doesn't announce anything, and we were kinda spaced out with all the beautiful water and palm trees. It turned out not to be so bad though, because we had day passes for the buses, and we were able to find a bus with a nice bus driver who told us when he passed by our street. We checked into the hostel, which turned out to be more like a cheap hotel (so, a step up, with a TV and a private bathroom!) and only two blocks from the beach. Since our room wasn't quite ready, we stopped for a sandwich at a small little shop and took our food to the beach. Not only were they the best sandwiches EVER, we were eating them and looking at the Mediterranean. Afterwards we went to a restaurant that was on the beach so Phil could use the wireless internet to send his paper in, and we had dessert and coffee. The rest of our day was pretty much spend wading in the water (because neither of us had brought bathing suits) and napping on the beach. Though the beach was rocks and not sand, it was actually pretty comfortable, and the rocks are all super round and smooth.

We wandered around Vieux Nice and found a nice seafood restauraunt. The meal, and the wine, were fantastic. I tried mussels, and much like the escargot, I'm pretty apathetic. I don't particularly care for them, but I'm not opposed to eating them. Next I'll have to cross cuisses de grenouilles off my list of French things to eat. After dinner we headed back to our hotel and called it a night.

Saturday we woke up with the plan to take the bus to Monaco and see Monte Carlo. We walked to the bus station, but on the way discovered the shopping center of Nice. It was pretty grey and windy instead of the beautiful sunny day we had Friday, but once we got on the bus we got a great view of the whole coastline and the cute French towns dotting the coast. After about an hour we arrived in Monte Carlo. We wandered around, taking pictures of yachts with names like "Miss Money Penny" and James Bond themed arcade games. Since we had hopped right on the bus, we hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch yet, so we found a little pizza place in a square and ate. We walked back up the hill overlooking the harbor, and then we went to see the famous casino. Pictures weren't allowed, but I managed to snap a few without being noticed. It was chock-full of tourists, though. After about 3-4 hours in Monaco, we had our fill of glitzy stores and policemen with golden helmets and Lamborginis speeding by every few minutes, so we got back on the bus and headed back to Nice.

Our last night in Nice was spend shopping, where the prices are good and the salespeople are really, really nice. I got a pair of boots that are exactly what I had been looking for. We had dinner at a restaurant that was showing the rugby final, although because it was crowded we were seating literally inches from the giant screen. I was able to watch up until halftime before I got a headache from being so close, and we finished watching it at the hotel. England lost to South Africa, and I was sad.

Sunday morning we had to get up early to catch the bus back to the airport, and while we were waiting we got to see the sun rise over the mountains. It was amazing (hello, understatement). Since we were leaving before the front desk was open, we had to leave our key in a safe box. We got to the bus stop, and there were already several people there. Apparently the bus was late. When it finally came, it was packed, and the other people were able to squeeze on, but the bus driver told us he couldn't take us. So, after a brief debate about whether or not we should bother waiting for the next bus, which might be just as crowded, we took an overpriced cab to the airport, seeing as how we only had an hour before our flight at this point. We got back to Paris in good time, and promptly commenced putting all our pictures up online to silently gloat over the fools who didn't go.

Trying to summarize a week is difficult, but here goes.

Ok, Sunday was homework and laundry day. Nothing interesting to report there, except that laundry is a ridiculous 4 Euros per load. No fun.
Monday I had class, and afterwards Caroline and I went to the Luxembourg gardens and wandered around the Latin Quarter. We saw the Panthéon, but decided that the entrance fee wasn't worth it. Instead, we headed a bit further down the street to discover a beautiful church called Saint Etienne du Mont. That night, three of us tried an actual dinner at a brasserie down the street.
I had escargots for the first time. They are neither fantastic nor disgusting, just kind of meh. Yes, meh. That is the word to describe escargot. The buttery sauce that they're in is really the only tasteful thing, the snails themselves are just kind of earthy. I also had duck. It was amazing.
Tuesday we had a midterm, and that evening, I went to dinner with Caroline, Averill, and Vidal. The four of us had to give a presentation on Machiavelli on Wednesday during class, so we briefly discussed our plan of action, and commenced the eating of French food and drinking of French wine without further ado.
Wednesday I went shopping at the Galleries Lafayette, though I didn't buy anything. I wanted to explore a bit more, but since there was much homework to be done, I headed home.
Thursday is when the fun started. After a very long day of classes, I met my conversation group, and we went to a bar/café where I proceeded to depress everyone by describing my summer job. After we got home around 9, we left soon after at 10:30/11 to go to Club Mix, which lets foreign students in for free before midnight on Thursdays. After waiting in line for nearly an hour, and suffering the irritating French tradition of cutting in line (grrr), we finally got in just past midnight and had to pay the 15 Euro entrance fee, but it was really worth it. It was so much fun! However, we didn't get home until 3, and we all had to get up and meet the bus for our trip to the Loire Valley at 6:30 am.
So, I went to bed at 3:30, after debating staying up and not sleeping at all, because past experience and foresight told me I would not be woken up my alarm at 5:30. Of course, that's what happened. I got a phone call at 6:45 am from a friend saying, "Where the hell are you? We're about to leave!" I threw on some pants and shoes, grabbed a sweatshirt and my purse, and proceeded to haul ass out the door and sprint down the street. Luckily, I did manage to make it to the bus, unlike another guy in our group, who had to find a train to take him to meet up with us later in the day. We went to Amboise, which is in a cute town, but other than the fact that Leonardo da Vinci is buried there, is somewhat unimpressive. Also, it was rather cold and foggy, so there wasn't much of a view from the towers.
Then, we drove to Blois and had a lovely lunch at l'Orangerie before getting a tour of the château itself. Blois is much more interesting, though we did have a very rude tour guide who we all wanted to throw things at. There are four different time periods of architecture in each of the four wings surrounding the courtyard, and the fourth was left unfinished, so you can still see the sketches on the limestone in preparation for the carvings. It's pretty amazing. Then that night, I went out with some friends to an American bar Averill had been raving about. It was an interesting group of people there, French, American, British, Australian, etc, and very congenial. There was even a White Sox beer pong table. Caroline and I managed to leave before the metro closed, so I got a good night's sleep.
Today I went to the Musée d'Orsay, which I really do think is better than the Louvre, and certainly less overwhelming. Plus, we got in free with our Art History student IDs. They worked like magic. Tonight is the rugby match between England and France, so we're going to watch it on a big screen by the Eiffel Tour. I'm really excited about it, and even though I'm in Paris, I'm going to be cheering for England!

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche was ok. Much like Looptopia (well, obviously, since Looptopia was based on Nuit Blanche), it was spread over a large area of the city. Various art installations and supposedly performances (we didn't see any) were around the city, mostly concentrated along the Metro line 14, from 7pm to 7am. Actually, the highlight of the night was when France won the rugby semi-final against New Zealand. Caroline, Laura, and I were wandering along the street, looking for evidence of a Nuit Blanche event (we didn't know you could get maps at the Louvre). The street was lined with sports bars, and all of a sudden, people start screaming and shouting "Allez Bleus!," cars start honking, because there was some great tackle that put France in front. It was awesome. Some guy kept turning out of the sports bar to yell the score to people on the street. If you're interested in rugby, here's the full story: http://www.skysports.com/rugbyunion/World_Cup/Story/0,21043,13175_2785046,00.html

We managed to meet up with a few more people as we followed the crowds to Centre Pompidou, where there was a huge line for free admission to the upper galleries. We went through, and there was a video exhibit that really didn't make sense unless you had time to watch full movies, and a photography exhibit that was amazing. The photographer was Abbas Kiarostami.

Afterwards, we were very hungry and it just seemed like many groups of people our age were buying food and wine from crèperies and having picnics on the cobblestones in front of Pompidou. So, we did the same. I had a Parisian hot dog! They actually put two hot-dog-like sausages in a baguette, and then cover it with melted cheese. It's pretty sweet. Our little picnic was pretty fun, and when we finally got too cold to sit there anymore, we tried to find other events, but a few of us gave up and braved the packed Metro. We were sandwiched in there, though luckily we didn't have to squeeze our way out since ours was the final stop on the line.

Frommage, frommage, je t'aime!

So, Friday was pretty much the best day we've had in Paris. The Paris Center had one of the owners from a nearby wine shop bring us some wine and cheese to taste, and he told us about how to taste it, and the region it comes from, etc. We had two whites and three reds, with a cheese to match. I've discovered that I hate dry white wines, but the sweeter ones I can handle. And I reconfirmed what I already knew, that I'm completely obsessed with cheese. Who knew that fungus could do such wonderful things?

After getting sufficiently warm and fuzzy, we split up to go to our conversation sessions. Every three students are given a Parisian college student to hang out with for an hour once a week. My conversation assistant is named Jade, and we met her at the Bastille metro and went to a bar/café and talked about Chicago, old movies, etc. She said that our French was better than her last group, so that made us feel a lot better.

We regrouped at the dorms, changed, and met again for another pub crawl. Except that we only went to one bar. But anyway, it was a cool little place, and we were finally able to get several tables moved together and have a good time. Ice-breaking bonding games were played, such as "Never Have I Ever." Apparently I had a stunted childhood, because "never have I ever" heard of this game before last night. I also had considerable problems playing "Concentration" when I was in London. I guess the bonding moments come when people have a story to tell about how incompetent I am (I'm sure Seth still has a few snide remarks up his sleeve). Sweet!

Today was a wandering day. We took the metro up to Les Halles and just walked around, winding up eating kebabs in front of Notre Dame. It was so nice out, we didn't go in any places. Tonight we are doing the Nuit Blanche...more on that later.

Pere Lachaise and Cranky Waiters

On Thursday I went with Caroline, Averill, and Zach to the Père Lachaise cemetery. It was pretty cool, and of course we went to see the Lizard King. We were only able to find it because of the fact that it was the only grave surrounded by one of those make-shift fences they use along parade routes and such. All in all, it was somewhat disappointing. It was rather overshadowed by large and prestigious masoleums from the 1830s and such, all crumbling and rusting picaresquely. There was even one so derelict as to expose the above-ground coffin inside. And a few with trees growing up through the middle. Apparently it costs 6000 Euros to be buried there.

After wandering about for a bit, and a brief rest rudely aborted by a well-aimed bird dropping, we decided that we were craving crêpes instead of crypts and stopped in a café across the road. We managed to get a waiter at the end of his shift, and thus began the comic rigamarole of the Americans trying desperately to order food and the waiter running off with only half the order. Finallement, we got food, paid, and returned home.

That night the group went out for drinks at a bar called Footsie by the Opéra metro stop. It is a stock-exchange themed bar, and on nights when their screens aren't broken, the drink prices rise and fall with their demand. The crowd was mostly business men and women, but we were able to commandeer a space on the second floor with enough seats for all 15 of us. Afterwards, we left for another bar near Chatlet, and then we turned in.