Venice

Buongiorno! I write you this blog post with a heavy heart, after having to leave the most beautiful place in the world! Venice, Italy. I can sum up my 3 days there in one word: food. I can definitely say I experienced italian culture because I ate all the pasta, pizza and gelato they had to offer and I don't regret one bite or one pound gained.

I arrived Monday morning with my friend after a quick one hour flight over the Alps.

pretty cool

Despite it being a Monday, we had to fight our way through crowds of tourists to find our Bed & Breakfast, not that we cared since we were in awe of the beautiful scenery, canals and gondolas everywhere we looked! After having found the address of the B&B, we were hesitant since this was the door in a tiny, skinny alley that greeted us.

However, after going inside we were kindly greeted by a cute little chinese couple who ran the B&B literally out of their home. The homey atmosphere in a quiet location was perfect! We also had breakfast one morning with the others who were staying there from Austria and China (who spoke perfect English; one of the people from China had even been to Janesville, WI).

Back to Venice!!!!!! Not having any real plans, we spent 3 straight days wandering, taking in the views, and eating. It was perfect. Such a peaceful, beautiful place. 85% of the people on the streets appeared to be tourists, but what was refreshing was that most Italian people we spoke with did not or barely spoke english! The struggle was amusing for both parties. At restaurants we basically just pointed at the menu, however every restaurant helpfully offered menus in 5, 6 or 7 languages. On the subject of food, feast your eyes on everything I got to feast :) 

we love pasta

we did try Italian pastries and honestly, they can't compare to Paris <3

of course we had to have a cappuccino in Venice

pizza with spicy salami; best pizza i've ever had (and I'm not just saying that since it's Italy)

ravioli

tiramisu and lemon cake

we had gelato every day. I'm not ashamed

So clearly I ate pretty well and was never disappointed. However three straight days of pizza, pasta and gelato can definitely make you appreciate a nice, simple bowl of cereal upon arriving back at home :) OK next best thing after food. The beautiful architecture and canals!!!!!

The last two pictures are my favorite! And yes, it was this incredible every day! Such a picturesque city <3 We also visited Piazza San Marco, the biggest/busiest plaza in Venice, with more beautiful buildings. 

Last but not least, our GONDOLA RIDE. This was my favorite part by far. After talking with a few gondola-owners we found one who would give us a student discount and hopped on in! We did a big loop through beautiful small canals and then a quick ride through the Grande Canal. It was so fun!!! Also very entertaining since we were stuck in gondola traffic almost the whole time, and all the drivers knew each other so they were shouting across canals at each other in fast italian. I loved it! 

pretty relaxed

every time we went under a bridge tons of people were taking our picture

Realto bridge 

Grande Canal

On that note, the trip was perfect. Venice is a prime vacation spot and I hope to one day see more of Italy!! 

homework break

So I'm attempting to work on my next art paper (12 pages) and now it's time to take a break, why not write a blog post? My teacher picked a perfect time to make this paper due, one week after spring break. Yay. We have to compare two paintings. These are the ones I'm pretending to be an expert on: 

 









But anyway! Paris! I've been to a lot of interesting places in the past week. First of all and most important: VERSAILLES! Of course it was gorgeous and I felt like royalty walking through. Words can't describe the beauty so naturally I have a million pictures that might. 

their own church

every room had a ceiling like this

velvet walls!

Hall of Mirrors!

So yeah. Not much to say since my words can't capture the beauty of the castle. Fortunately we were able to enter for free because of our student museum pass, but we couldn't use that for the gardens, and it was like 10 euros to enter, so we didn't go there :( 

In other discoveries, I found the best park in Paris. It's called Parc des Buttes Chaumont and it was better than all the other touristy famous parks by far! See for yourself :) 

Just to show that I wasn't the only one freaking out about this park..there was a couple getting married there. Later that day I saw two more couples getting married! Saturdays in Paris..gotta love em. 

(where the couple was standing) I'd get married here too wow

 In other news, I'm still obsessed with the Eiffel Tower. I went the other night with some friends to watch the sparkling again. It never gets old :) 

This past week with school we also had field trips to an architecture museum and a perfume museum. With my class being all girls, the perfume visit was pretty great. I smelled like flowers after leaving. 

inside architecture museum

Last but definitely not least, I'm currently on spring break!! Yay two and a half weeks of vacation even though I've basically already been on vacation this whole time. Basically everyone in my program left yesterday for their travels so I'm stuck with this guy all weekend.

As I have mentioned before, the options for asian cuisine in Paris are endless. There are these places called "Traiteur Asiatique" (Asian Caterer) all over Paris. You walk in and there are all the options of what you can order right in front of you (already made), as if you were at a bakery. To put it simply, this is my dream come true. I finally made it to one yesterday! I was always kind of nervous to go there because the owners of these places are genuinely from asian countries so I wasn't sure how easy communicating would be. Well it was worth the risk and hands down the best asian food I've ever had. I ordered some rice, some spicy chicken and vegetable dish and a beef and vegetable dish. I forgot to take a picture because I was immediately inhaling the food. 

 Today I'm going to "Le marché retro d'Oberkampf" so a vintage clothes market! Cannot wait to see what they have. Then on Monday I'm off to Venice with a friend for 3 days!!!! Hello gelato and gondolas :) THEN next Friday my mom is coming to Paris! So basically the next two weeks will be pretty great :) :) :)

Fun (but annoying) fact: Most of the americans I've met here say that my midwest accent is so strong that I sound Canadian... NO I DONT :(

One week until spring break!

The weeks here are flying by. I haven't once found myself saying TGI Friday like at home because every day is amazing! One of my program advisors once said to my group, "you'll have good days and bad days here, but your bad days will never really be bad..because you're in Paris." I loved that. Right now I'm really appreciative of being in Paris because I was just angrily planning my classes for next semester knowing I'll be back in freezing Wisconsin. Just kidding, I'm excited to come back. But I've definitely had a really easy semester compared to normal, so the adjustment to real college again will be a big struggle.

With spring break coming up, I figured the days would slowly pass, but this week went so fast. On Wednesday my art history class went to Musée d'Orsay for the first time and it was magical. I honestly liked it better than the Louvre, which feels wrong to say. But I recognized so much of the art, and that's just a great feeling. D'Orsay used to be a train station so the whole set up is just really amazing.

The museum also currently has a Van Gogh exhibit going on, so of course I went to that! I felt my 5th grade art education come right back to me; it was great! All the classics were there (besides starry night, sadly) Pictures weren't allowed, but I managed to snap one.






Prior to going to the museum, I wandered around near the museum doing some exploring. Believe it or not, there's still so much I haven't seen. I grabbed some lunch and walked through the Tuileries garden, which connects the Louvre to the Champs Elysees. It's beautiful.

Louvre in the background

As far as school is going, I don't have too much to do. We rarely get homework, all of our grades are tests and papers. So May will be very stressful with lots of presentations, papers and exams when school is finishing up. Something interesting I learned is that giving presentations in class is super American. Apparently other countries don't put nearly as much of an emphasis on public speaking skills as we do. Half of my french class (all of the non-americans) had NEVER given a presentation in French before. That's just crazy to me. But otherwise school is going great, I'm not stressed out at all like I constantly am at home. I had my midterm in my French class on Tuesday and it took three hours. Unbelievable. It was super easy but still! 

Another observation: Paris might even be more beautiful at night. 

Food updates: 

• It's kind of crazy that I haven't tried much french food, but unfortunately it's very difficult to find affordable french food. My host mom doesn't make anything super french, other than when we have our course of various types of cheeses! This week she made me curry chicken and rice. YUM. 
• This week I finally made it to Le Marais, which is a historic, Jewish neighborhood in Paris. It has so many cute little shops and restaurants, and is definitely known for the falafel! So I tried a huge vegetarian falafel pita and it was amazing. They just handed me this heaping pita out of the "to go" window and I was left to chow down in the middle of the street. 
• My french teacher spent 6 years in Japan so she always has all kinds of crazy facts for us about Japanese culture. Well she suggested we go to this Japanese patisserie right by the university (apparently it was in Bon Appetite magazine in the United States). So I went after class (literally right around the corner from the building my class is in) and I got two macaroons: sesame and yuzo flavored. Très bizarre but I'm glad I tried it. 
• Lastly, I'm getting so good at grocery shopping! I feel like a regular now at the grocery store I go to; I know where everything is, and what brands are cheapest :) I do miss cooking though. I have really just been eating very basic meals that require little preparation because it's a little awkward to cook in someone else's kitchen.
• Milk. At the stores, milk is not refrigerated. It is also often sold in packs of 6 1.5 liter jugs. So my host mom buys the 6 pack, they stay unrefrigerated, but the one we are currently working on is always in the fridge. Very strange. Even stranger..it's SO GOOD. Best milk I've ever had.