third last week :'(

When you see this building, what would you guess it is? A castle? Somewhere to house France's royalty? A fashion house? Something amazing? NO IT'S CITY HALL. That's right.. this majestic building is home to Paris's local administration. Jeez, I'm embarrassed for our city halls. 

So their city hall, aka l'Hôtel de Ville, is located in the center of Paris, near Notre Dame, and my class took a field trip there this week. We were also with a group of french high school students so that was pretty cool. They were divas. Here's a look at the beauty on the inside:

WOW


It's so beautiful! However, these glamorous hard wood floors were anything but beautiful when we figured out how squeaky they were. I excused myself for a moment to go to the bathroom and had to walk across a giant ballroom to meet back up with my group and all my teachers were giving my the stink eye as the floor squeaked and squeaked, announcing my arrival. Awkward.

Other than that majestic field trip, I had a pretty easy week. Today is a holiday so we don't have school. Second 4 day weekend in a row! This week I also completed a presentation in french class and turned in my twelve page art history paper! Such a relief. My entire class celebrated with happy hour cocktails after turning in the essay we had been complaining about for weeks. Well that's it, just a quick update since I don't have much time left to blog :(

Not a fun fact this time but fun story: I was on the metro last night and a french man who was not from Paris was asking me a bunch of questions (in french) about the metro and paris transportation and I felt great since he couldn't tell that I was NOT Parisian, and also did not change to english upon hearing my accent. :)

Bordeaux & Paris: SB 2K14

It seems I finally have a minute to blog! Things have been seriously crazy with school winding down. It was so hard to go back after having ten straight days of wine and pastries with my mom. :) Two and a half week spring break flew by unfortunately but of course, it was perfect. My mom and I crammed as much of Paris as we could into one short week: seeing all the sights, people watching for hours and eating delicious cheeses. We also made a small trip to Bordeaux, France! Of course, it was beautiful. Small town feel in a big city.

We stayed in an apartment about 15 minutes from the center of the city, where all the action was. In one day we walked the entire thing, seeing everything we could.

one of the many awesome city squares

Le Miroir d'Eau (mirror of water)

 This thing was so cool. It's the largest water mirror in the world. We visited during the day as well but it was much cooler at night with all the lights being reflected.

Just some cool architecture. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do any wine/vineyard tours (since it is Bordeaux) but that didn't keep us from trying their wine of course, along with a delicious three course meal where everyone in the restaurant were english speaking tourists..they're everywhere!

Yum. We also went to Rue Sainte Catherine! A famous Bordeaux shopping street. My picture doesn't do justice to how huge and awesome it is. It was really like an outdoor mall but better because there was such a wide variety of stores, from designer to thrift shop. The hours spent shopping were well worth it since my mom found a purse and I found some shoes (the fourth pair I've bought in Europe oops). 

Rue Sainte Catherine

So that's Bordeaux! I could live there. This is a very condensed version of my spring break since it's impossible to remember all the things my mom and I saw! Hours at art museums, baguettes every day and miles of walking. :) Two of my favorite things we did was a boat tour on the Seine, it was basically a huge water taxi that goes past all the tourist sites and it was awesome. We also did a tour of Notre Dame, which I didn't even know was possible before hand. It was great, I learned so much! Can you believe I'm excited about learning?

Ok here are some pictures from everything we did in Paris! 

Notre Dame

Attending mass on Easter Sunday at Notre Dame is probably one of the cooler things I've done in life.  Although the entire thing was in french and bible words are somewhat outside of my knowledge in the french language, I could understand enough for it to be worth it. Awesome.

Yummy cheese plate. Who knew adding jelly to bread with cheese was so good? 

Le Louvre

Four hours spent at the Louvre, and we could have spent four hours more. It's literally impossible to see everything in one day. I've been there probably ten times now and I haven't yet seen the whole museum.

Musée d'Orsay

I LOVE D'ORSAY. My mom visited at the perfect time because they currently have a Van Gogh exhibit that's seriously amazing. Also, if you're unfamiliar with this museum, you may have seen it in Gossip Girl when Blair meets Prince Louis. :)

Sacre-Coeur

one of many pastries we tasted

just had to throw this awesome pic in

of course

And finally.. :)

Jardin du Luxembourg

So that's about it. The days with my mom were amazing and much needed after being family-less for the past three months.

I can't believe spring break is over. My heart is breaking at the thought of having only three short weeks left. I can't even process having to return to reality. I'll be cramming as much of Paris into these last weeks as I can because YOLO. 

Next weekend you can find me in Germany, visiting my Dad's cousins who I haven't seen since I was five and really don't even know. Eek! :) Then after that I'll be working on my 12 page art history paper (in french), many presentations and finally exams. For once studying abroad actually feels like I'm in school.



Interesting fact: Two more people have asked me about guns in America/if I own a gun.

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!!