the end is near

In fact, two days away. I can't explain how sick to my stomach I feel about leaving this dreamy world. But I'll save the sappy stuff for later. This last week has been very bizarre, since nobody knows how to act in these last days. On a positive note, my exams were great and easier than I expected! To celebrate the ending of Art History, a bunch of us went to a Packer bar in Paris after the exam. Yeah, you read that right, the Green Bay Packers. There is a bar in Paris, France dedicated to them. It was very unique. I asked the bartender why in the world they were a Packer bar and he just said the owner was a huge Packer fan and that's all he knows about it. SO STRANGE SO COOL. They also had a book to sign and we read almost the whole thing, freaking out over peoples signatures from Muskego, Wauwatosa, New Berlin, etc. So many Wisconsinites in Paris!

On Tuesday I had my second and final exam and presentation in my other class called Contemporary France. I never talk about it because it's so easy and I love it. But our teacher was adorable; she's a totally rad french woman who jokes around with us and treats our whole class like her daughters (no boys in that class). So after the exam and presentations were over she whipped out some cookies and juice and we had a little class party. The last time I had one of those was in middle school. She was so sweet saying she's going to particularly miss our class more than others, and it's hard for her to say goodbye. She also said we can ask her any time in the future if we ever need letters of recommendation or if we come back to France and need help to email her. How sweet!! That class was hard to say bye to because we're all very close :'( 

Since I've been eagerly trying to complete everything I wanted to do all semester in these last days, I made my way to Musée Rodin, thinking I could sneak in a quick visit before a rendez-vous I had. The Rodin Museum is where The Thinker is, so I have no idea why I thought I could just run in quick and see it. Well I get there, in the pouring rain, and had to wait 50 minutes to get inside. Then I get inside and the museum is just two floors, one room on each floor. The visit took about 15 minutes! I was pretty disappointed. But at least I get to say I saw it. Unfortunately the original "Thinker" is outside in the gardens, and it was pouring, so I just saw a replica inside..but this one said "original size" so that confused me because I thought this statue was supposed to be life-size? Not sure. 

So today I'm left to deal with my depression about leaving and my suitcases to pack. I'll most likely be writing something sad tomorrow. See you all soon! (Bittersweet) 

Rouen & Giverny

Yesterday I had my last program trip to Rouen & Giverny. Both are located in the Normandy region. Rouen is famous because it's the city where Joan of the Arc was burned at the stake. I didn't even know that before arriving so it was pretty neat. A lot of things in town were named after her. The city was beautiful. We had to suffer through a 2 hour over-detailed city tour and then only had 1 hour for free time, but it was awesome to see everything. Here are some pictures..

lovin it

So having only an hour for lunch in France is very difficult since everything goes so slow and there are 2-3 courses. We all rushed off in search of restaurants. When a couple of friends and I got to one, it took a half hour for our appetizers. We were supposed to meet back with our group at 1:45 and we got our entrees at 1:30. We scarfed our food down, payed, and had to leave without even getting our desserts. On the way back to the group, we saw other people in our program outside at a restaurant and we reminded them that we had to be back right now, and they said they haven't even gotten their entrees yet! Only in France would it be acceptable to wait one hour for your food. And a quick funny story.. the menu was all poorly written on a chalkboard so it was difficult to read, especially being in french. All of us just kind of winged it, guessing we knew what we were ordering. Well for my appetizer, I ordered what said "brochette aux poulpes" or something like that, so I assumed it must be bruchetta! Yum! Except not at all. The server arrived with a kabob of octopus for me.. Luckily one of my friends at the table likes octopus so she was happy. 

In the tour, we got to see the huge cathedral of Rouen that is famous because it is in a couple of Claude Monet's paintings! Of course, there was ugly construction, but the church was amazing. 

And here is their city hall...

So obviously Rouen was beautiful. Another French city I could stay in forever. And next we were off to Giverny! Even more beautiful. In case you're not familiar with Giverny.. it's the location of Claude Monet's garden and house, and also where he painted most of his famous art work. I had been looking forward to this trip all semester and it was so beautiful. Unfortunately there were about 1,000 other tourists trying to capture the picturesque gardens, so it wasn't calm or peaceful like I had imagined. But oh well! 

THE bridge in all his bridge paintings!!

the group :)

So the day was great. Last program trip :'( So sad I only have 6 days left. It's unimaginable that I'll back in America next week! OMG. This week I have exams (aka tomorrow) and I haven't studied one minute yet. Oops. Better get to it! 

Not so fun fact: I have approximately 300 paintings to study for my art history exam. 

Not so fun fact #2: Only 14 paintings will be on the exam.

tourist season

I had the ultimate tourist day today and it was fab. Well first last night was even more fab. Me and a bunch of friends from my program met on a beautiful bridge to watch the sunset, and then sat along the river drinking wine and watching many boats go by! Perfect Paris night.

so wow, that's beautiful

It was so fun! I'm definitely going to be going through withdrawals from the people in my program after returning home :( But today I started by going to the Catacombs of Paris! Which is exactly what it sounds like..catacombs. Super creepy and super awesome. 

it's hard to see but this is dated in the 1700s

It was really cool. We had to wait about an hour and a half to go inside, because they can only let 200 people in at a time. But it was worth it. It took about an hour to walk through. After that, I went to the top of Notre Dame!!! This is a pretty big deal since I have a fear of heights, but I stayed strong and it was well worth it. Luckily the way up was an enclosed spiral staircase so I couldn't see how high up we were until reaching the top. But what really made it hard was climbing stairs for ten minutes. Everyone was panting by the top. 

There was also this thick wire fencing around and above us to hold everyone in!

view from the front

back

side: Sacre-Coeur in the distance

 So first we got to go to the middle section between the two towers of Notre Dame, then we got to go even higher to the top of one of the towers. Pretty cool! Something else that made this day so great was that we got to enter both the Catacombs and Notre Dame for free because of our student museum pass.

After Notre Dame we walked over to this very famous bookshop called Shakespeare and Company. It was adorable.

And I found something great inside...

:)

hey i just got here, and this is crazy

salut tout le monde. It feels like the beginning all over again because I've been a busy little beaver trying to make the most of these last days! This week has been really great (other than the daunting thought of my departure looming over my head). But I've really been taking advantage of my museum pass this week; with that being said, I've been to four new museums in the past three days. Gosh. I'm so exhausted. There's only so much pretending to understand art a girl can do in a week. But everything is always so interesting to see. The museums I went to were:

1. Musée du Quai Branly
2. Musée de l'Orangerie
3. Musée Marmotton Monet
4. Musée de l'Art Moderne

Know any? Me either. They're all very small. The first museum listed I went to because they currently have a tattoo exhibit! How interesting. It showed tattoos from the 16th century - today, and almost everyone at the exhibit was tatted. Like this guy...

I can't even tell you how many tattooed butts they had. Nice.

Next, I went to Orangerie, which is a tiny museum located in the Jardin de Tuileries, which is a huge park in front of the Louvre. It's a famous museum because it has Monet's "Waterlilies" in a giant circular room. 

Next! I went to Musée Marmotton with my art class. My teacher warned us it would be full of the "old ladies of the 16th." Meaning the 16th arrondissement, which is the wealthiest one in Paris. He was right. Our class were the only people under 60. But the museum was beautiful. Full of Monet. 

And lastly today I went to the modern art museum of Paris. I always like modern art museums because they are just SO bizarre and I don't understand anything at all so it really just throws me off. Kind of fun? 

In other news, I also visited this gigantic park on the outskirts of Paris. I know I call things huge and giant a lot, but this time I'm serious. To get an idea, my host mom told me that she keeps her horse that she owns in the stables at this park. Wow. I didn't see any horses but I walked for probably over a mile around this little lake and it was gorgeous. I'm really going to miss the parks here!! 

my friends looking sentimental

That's about all the new things I've seen this week! I have many more plans for these last days in Paris. I need to see everything! Unfortunately I also have exams next week so I'll have to find the willpower to sit down with my notes for some time. :( 

Quick venting session: Not everything is peaches and cream. I haven't said much about them but I'm completely disappointed with my host family :( Some examples of why:

• we don't talk unless I start the conversation
• my host sister will be in the same room as me, hasn't seen me in a week and won't say Hi
• my "dinner once a week" has been steak and potatoes for the past five weeks
• the past like 20 weeks I've had dinner alone
• my host mom asked me if my nose ring was new, that's how little we talk

I hate to sound ungrateful but I can just imagine how much I'd do with a foreign exchange student if they'd stay at my house.

Until next time!

Fun fact: Parisian's work out clothes are so nice that they're clothes I'd wear to school. 

Germany

This past weekend I was lucky enough to go to Stuttgart, Germany. This wasn't a typical travel weekend like my weekends in the past of exploring Europe - this trip was very special because I got to meet some family members who I haven't seen in over 15 years! It was basically like meeting them for the first time. With the help of my parents and my Grandma, we were able to arrange a weekend visit to get to know each other! They are cousins of my Dad who live only a short four hours from Paris, so how could I not go?!

So it was pretty crazy. Getting off a train in a whole new country not knowing who I'm even looking for is sort of nerve-racking. But everything was great. I knew I'd like them when immediately after finding each other, they had tears in their eyes, happy to meet me. I was immediately treated like family.

That evening we went back to their home and had dinner together, catching up on basically my entire life, sharing stories of our families, showing pictures, and struggling through the language barriers with both English and German (as they kept forgetting I don' know German).

 the street they live on 

So they had a perfect day planned on Saturday... lots of exploring and showing me around the city! We started by seeing where other cousins and my great grandmother used to live, which was really unbelievable to see. I still can't really believe I even have family that lives in Germany. But next we went to this castle (or schlosse, which I learned is castle in german) in the next town called Ludwigsburg.

This was huge and beautiful. We didn't go inside but we explored within the castle walls where we saw about 5 or 6 different brides having their wedding pictures taken. They also took me to this beautiful spot on top of a hill which allowed us to have an amazing view of the rolling hills of Germany. 

Annemarie and I

For lunch they took me to their favorite Chinese restaurant YUM and more family stories were told! After lunch we did more exploring of the city, where they would tell me random facts and stories. 

They told me they have to show me the cakes in a certain restaurant because they're just like my Grandma's. I almost thought my Oma made these! 

'

Horrible picture but just to show that Stuttgart had so many beautiful car dealerships. Home of the Porsche. This is Porsche museum. There were Audi dealers, Mercedes Benz and more. Everywhere.

A square in town where Frank Sinatra once sang!

intersection right by their house!

don't know what these are but they look cool!

of course

Later in the evening we went to this big fest called Spring Fest, (they called it German Fest, and that's exactly what it was). It was basically a huge carnival with lots of beer and guys wearing lederhosen. We basically just sat and people watched for hours. It was great. Unfortunately I wasn't sneaky enough to capture a pic of anyone's outfit. 

So of course I had beer and sausage at this fest while watching how normal German people my age are. Interesting. After the fest we returned home for a cup of coffee and conversation before bed. And then the next morning it was time to leave. 

So yeah pretty cool, huh. I never even thought I'd be in Germany, let alone meet family I barely knew anything about! I learned so much and it was really really awesome. Such a unique experience that I'll never forget!!

Last but not least: it's cool to be a Wiener in Germany.