Sweden and Thanksgiving #2

The next day Kaitlyn and I pulled ourselves out of bed to catch the 10:20am bus.  We had some delicious danishes on the way – which were dedicated to you, mom.  We headed off to Sweden for a day trip.  We went from Helsingør, Denmark to Helsingborg, Sweden.  The names really confused me.  We decided to have a relaxed afternoon and just wandered around – finding a soccer field, tower, and then later a café.  It felt wonderful to just be with Kaitlyn, being absolutely ridiculous per usual.  These photos capture pure happiness.  So so so so fun. 

ferry to Sweden

so much free time

too much free time

hidden entrance

Sweden - NBD

so much love

This whole trip I was taken aback by the Danish and Swedish language.  It literally sounds like the gibberish I made up as a child.  It is so funny to listen to!  Here’s a hilarious video that captures it’s essence to my ears.  Kaitlyn and I chatted about how incredible it is that other people in the world think, talk, and dream in a whole other language. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=s-mOy8VUEBk

After getting back from Sweden, we headed off to Thanksgiving #2 at Ava’s house.  We hung out, chatted, ate, and joked around for hours.  The warm, welcoming atmosphere really captured the essence of Thanksgiving.  The Danish families were so welcoming and it felt so good to have discussions about Danish culture.  I was a little sad because I feel like the language barrier has prevented me from learning as much I would’ve liked from France.  It’s been difficult lately for me to get past the embarrassment of asking questions and my difficulties in comprehension. I am still not at a high enough level to have a long, intense intellectual conversation L It’s a little bit frustrating. 

Thanksgiving #2 - thanks again for the photos Lauren!

Kevin's host dad, Kevin, and I

Throughout the weekend I was continually impressed by Kaitlyn’s thorough understanding of Denmark, its traditions, and the generalities of its people.  She whipped out super interesting facts the whole weekend.  Two that I found exceptionally interesting are that marriage is not super common and bikes are parallel to vacuum cleaners.  Everyone has a bike and uses it.  It is just an everyday item.  Everywhere we went in the city there were throngs of people biking around – in any outfit (biking heels and skirts is common) and in any weather.  It isn’t necessary to have super nice bike and people don’t really pay attention to what they look like or the brands.  I saw a bunch of rusty old ones.  The only thing that matters is that the bikes work – hence the similarity to a vacuum cleaner.  It was so neat to see biking used as such an important form of transportation.  In the US, the culture around biking is much more intimidating and not so common, everyday.  As for marriage, a lot of couples have families together but never get married. It’s really interesting!

Exploring Copenhagen

After Kaitlyn and I finally reunited, we rushed off to our first Thanksgiving dinner with a group of students from her DIS program.  It felt so good to have a real meal.  I’d only eaten crackers all day!  Plus Thanksgiving is by far my favorite meal and holiday of the year.  It was great to be able to share the event with her Danish parents and brother; it was their first Thanksgiving!  They were adorable and loved the concept of the wishbone.  Once we got home, I got to skype with the ski team for a bit before bed.  Yay skype!

Thanksgiving #1 (Thanks for the photo Lauren!)

The next day Kaitlyn, Lauren, and I had some yummy homemade bread and cheese for breakfast before heading to Copenhagen to explore for the day.  It took us over an hour to get into the city.  Now I can finally understand Kaitlyn’s frustration with her commute.  She has to change from a bus to a train just to get to the city.  The bus runs only every hour on the weekends and you have to a do a TON of waiting outside at the stations.  It’s super frustrating! 

Our first aim of attack was to find Christiania – a hippie town in the middle of Copenhagen.  It was neat to see the make-shift houses and see how separated it was from the city.  It was like its own little world!  After, we walked to the center of town, Strøget Street, and found the gorgeous view of the harbor.  Since it is getting close to Christmas, the town was decorated and filled with lights.  It was beautiful!  Unfortunately it was cold and rainy so we hurriedly searched for a café to order some hot drinks.  There were a bunch of stands and mini Christmas bazaars throughout the city.  We tried some delicious Danish specialties – Glogg: a delicious drink of mulled wine with raisins (which I liked better than the mulled wine I’ve had in France!), æbelskiver: fried balls of dough served with powdered sugar and jam, romkugles: chocolate donut-like balls that tasted intensely like rum, and later the Christmas beer (Tuburg Julebryg). 

getting the gløgg and æbelskiver from the super friendly Dane 

æbelskiver

weird rumballs which I hated

Tuburg Julebryg - Christmas beer
note my matching hat with a bottle opener on the brim

Next up was exploring Tivoli at night – an amusement park and with world famous gardens, a beautiful concert venue, and tons of food.  The theme was Russian Winter so there were TONS of lights and it was absolutely beautiful to wander around!  We headed back to Gevninge to eat dinner with Ava and then went back to Kaitlyn’s house to skype with my family for Thanksgiving.  Kaitlyn got to see the real Cape Cod Thanksgiving.  So much family!  It was wonderful to catch up and alsosad to miss the festivities (especially Aunt Patti’s heath cake).  After we decided to go out and explore the nightlife in Roskilde, which is the second largest city in Denmark.  We had a great time – staying out till 4:30 in the morning!  

Tivoli

miss them! epic skype <3

a night on the town

Technical Difficulties

I woke up early Thursday morning to make the 40-minute commute to Grenoble and then take the hour bus ride to Lyon airport.  Besides coming France (where I had my parents to see me off and Nani to meet me halfway), this is the only other time I’ve traveled by myself.  I was quite nervous so I got to the airport super early and waited what felt like forever for my first flight at 10:30am. The flight was incredible.  From my window I saw the most beautiful views - the Swiss Alps, a small river of clouds that flowed in and out of the mountains, and an expansive sea of clouds.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  I just couldn’t get over the fact that what I was viewing were like surreal images from a movie.  It’s just amazing the way our society has progressed – the fact that flying is mainstream is crazy!  Fun fact: when we got close to the clouds I couldn’t stop thinking of sewing lessons with Aunt Coco.  The clouds looked exactly like pillow stuffing!  Good times.

Swiss Alps and river of clouds
couldn't stop staring

sea of clouds - breathtaking

When I arrived in Zurich, Switzerland I made my way to the gate and waited for a long time.  After a while, I rechecked the screen and realized that my flight had been canceled.  So, I asked the closest airport employee what I should do.  They sent me to a transfer desk, where I was told the plane had “technical problems” and I could take another flight in 4 hours.  Since I didn’t have Kaitlyn’s phone number and my phone can’t call internationally anyways, I rushed off to the computer lounge to send her an email and fb message to let her know I’d be late.  I was super worried because she was meeting me at the airport so if she wasn’t there when I arrived I wouldn’t know where to go!  Later in the afternoon she called my phone through skype and we made plans for me to meet at a metro stop near the dinner spot. 

7 hours after arriving in Zurich, I finally made it to Copenhagen.  I took what I thought was the metro to Nørreport station.  It seemed like a super nice metro, which I later found out is because it was actually a train.  I arrived at the station so so so excited to see Kaitlyn.  I couldn’t stop smiling.  I wandered around back and forth on the platform in and out of the building searching for her.  I waited 10 minutes in case she was late and then decided I needed to do something.  I literally couldn’t do anything without her.  I didn’t even know where she lived and I had no idea where I was!  Luckily, I was smart enough to write down her telephone number when she skyped me, but unfortunately my phone couldn’t call outside of France.  After searching for her a couple more times, I found an information desk outside and asked the man where the nearest payphone was.  I found the payphone and then realized I only had euros not Danish kronor.  So, I went back to the info desk and asked the man where the nearest bank was.  I searched the station one more time for Kaitlyn and then rushed off to find an ATM.  I took out the smallest amount I could – which was 100 kronor.  I went back to the man to ask him for change since this was in paper form and he told me I had to ask at a business.  So, I went to a hotdog stand (which is one of the Danes’ most classic food item) but the seller didn’t have change either.  I wandered back down the street to find a coffee shop and finally got some coins.  Then, I searched the station one more time before trying the pay phone.  I still didn’t find her and knew something was wrong because it was 45-minutes later and I knew she wouldn’t be that late!  After some confusion with the Danish instructions on the phone I finally got in contact with her and we realized that I was at the train station and she was at the metro station, which was literally directly below me.  So frustrating!  After literally an hour of us both waiting nervously and impatiently, we finally found each other.  This definitely taught me the importance of back up plans because if I didn’t happen to write down Kaitlyn’s number I would’ve have been completely screwed.  Although figuring out how to handle both the flight issue and the mix up with the stations made me feel a lot more confident in my ability of being independent.  I was also so thankful I got to talk English for this debacle.  

PARIS

Now, I am on the train ride back from Paris.  I had the most incredible time there.  I could not get over the fact that I was meandering along the same streets that were the same source of inspiration for all of these famous artists and writers.  Our hotel was right in central Paris – a five minute walk from the Seine!  The first afternoon we got there and marched of directly to the Eiffel Tower along the river.  Gotta start off big.  We sat on the lawn in front and just appreciated its grandeur.  We also met with OLGA – a ski friend from Colby.  After, we tried to visit the Catacombs and then the Luxembourg Gardens but unfortunately both were closed, which was super frustrating.  So, we ended up wandering the streets and finding a bar for Happy Hour.  It was wonderful to just relax and chat for a couple of hours before dinner.  That’s one thing I’m going to miss about France is taking the time to just relax and chat.  I really hope I take the time to go get a coffee and just appreciate my friends at Bowdoin at least once every day.  There is so much value in simple conversation!

After drinks, we met up for dinner at a place called Brasserie Vagenende with the rest of our group.  We had a delicious, super fancy meal.  I ended up accidentally ordering a liver and rabbit terrine for an entrée which was absolutely disgusting but also had yummy fish and oozing chocolate cake made up for it.  It was the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been too – decorated Renaissance style.  I ended up sitting near Micheline and a bunch of guest students from Swarthmore who were studying in Paris for the semester.  It was really neat to be able to compare and contrast programs.  Apparently, they are only in classes for the first 5 weeks and are then placed in internships – like at the Louvre, in a French school, and so on.  After dinner, Elita, Molly, Greg, Elliot, Olga, and I met up with one of Elita’s friends and checked out the bar scene on this neat street called Rue de la Lappe.  It was a great recommendation because it was definitely the spot to be on a Friday night in Paris!

The next morning, Elita, Molly, and I got up early and arrived at the Musée d’Orsay.  We didn’t rush or anything and got there just in time to beat the crowds.  I was kind of grumpy about visiting it because I wanted to explore some of the outside monuments more but it ended up being the best museum I’ve ever visited.  The structure was so cool.  It had this beautiful pattern on the ceiling.  And check out the pic of the lobby below.   We spent over 3 hours in just one section on Impressionism.  I absolutely fell in love with that form of art and noted down some of my favorite paintings to research and look at more later.  Seeing the work of Monet was so cool and I was a little disappointed there wasn’t enough time to see Van Gogh’s as well.  I was really appreciative to be with Molly and Elita – they are just such wonderful traveling buddies.  They are like me and want to fit in as much as they can but also relax and enjoy each place.  It was so much fun to chat about art.  None of us were particularly well educated on the artists but it was great to discuss what we thought about the paintings and see how different the things we picked up on were.

Then, we met up with Elita’s friend and got a cheap but delicious lunch and ate in the Tuileries Gardens.  We wandered to the Place de la Concorde, which was the center for the guillotine executions after the Revolution.  There happened to be a Ferris Wheel that was just installed temporarily this past week.  So, of course we took advantage!  It was great to have the beautiful view of Paris from up high without waiting in line forever!  FYI the name for Ferris Wheel in French is the big wheel – aka La Grande Roule.

Then we wandered over to the Louvre and checked out the glass pyramid but decided not to go inside since we had spent the whole morning in a museum.  After we went to SHAKESPEARE AND COMPANY.  Caps locks for emphasis on my excitement.  This was my top choice of what to see.  As I talked about a couple entries ago, the book A Moveable Feast got me super excited to learn more about the company that helped Hemmingway and Fitzgerald and still exists today!  I bought a neat journal there made out of used books.  So excited to fill it with all my thoughts! It was exactly the type of place I’d love to hang out.  I could’ve chatted for hours with all the people there!

After Shakespeare & Co. we took the metro to Montmartre where the Sacre Coeur is.  We made the long hike up and rewarding with the most breathtaking view of the city just as it was getting dark.  Absolutely incredible.  The church was beautiful and it was nice to take a moment and reflect.  I lit a candle for Uncle Nou and Aunt Nancy.  They’re in my thoughts constantly.  We wandered around Montmartre for a while, enjoying it’s upscale beauty and checking out the art of all the local artists.  We planted ourselves at a café and chatted for a couple hours and then met up with Olga for a 2ish hour dinner.  Man am I going to miss the huge focus on making time for casual conversation here in France.  Also, I tried escargots at the restaurant.  Yummm!

That night we decided to check out the Eiffel Tower and got to see it sparkle at midnight.  So beautiful!  We also checked out this free techno party on a cruise ship on the Seine. So funny.  I was pretty jealous of some of the dance moves.  We ended up calling it a night pretty early so we could appreciate the next day as well slash we were just exhausted. 

The next day, we wandered around the Luxembourg Gardens and then I planted myself down to finish my journal.  Now I’m finally onto my new one!  I also rushed off to go to Shakespeare & Co one more time to ask more questions.  I found out that there are 3 beds open at all times.  You just have to stop in and talk with the store owner.  If she thinks you would get along with the people there, you can stay for free.  The only requirement is that you wake up when the store opens and return when it closes.  The only downside is there is no place to cook or shower.  She said people usually stay for a couple weeks to a month but are welcome to stay as long as they like.  I’m seriously considering trying to do this someday.  Or WOOFing.  

Ile de la Cite

wandering along the Seine.  NBD.

Musee d'Orsay

Monet - Impressionism

Jardin des Tuileries

Champs d'Elysees and Place de la Concorde

thank you Ferris Wheel

Louvre

view from Sacre Coeur

Sacre Coeur

escargots

thanks Emma :)

Invalides

Eiffel Tower at Midnight

Jardin du Luxembourg

Notre Dame

To Paris and Beyond

Right now I am on the train to Paris.  I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!! This is my first time and I want to do everything.  I am counting my blessings for my two brothers because with their help (unknown to them) I am super inspired.  Tommy gave me the book A Moveable Feast by Earnest Hemmingway before leaving, which includes excerpts that Hemmingway wrote about life in Paris as a young, poor writer in the 1920s.  His son pieced them together and created this magnificent novel posthumously.  Hemmingway runs across Scott Fitzgerald (who wrote The Great Gatsby) and James Joyce (who wrote Ulysses) as well as some other famous writers throughout the novel. He describes his gratefulness to the bookstore Shakespeare & Company for helping him out with meals, lending him books, and just providing a supportive base for him and other young writers.  That bookstore is still around to this date and I am set on going to find it.  It’s near Notre Dame and Ile de la Cité, so it shouldn’t be too out of the way!  I have 4 pages left in my journal so I’m planning on getting a journal there.  How cool is that?!?!  Maybe it’ll inspire me to try my hand at writing someday.  I’ve also been reading this awesome guide book with great pictures, descriptions, and maps of Paris that Minal gave me before I left.  I’ve been perusing it for the past hour and now I feel pretty comfortable with the set up of Paris and know which sites I definitely want to explore.  Thanks guys!

I figured it was about time I caught up on blogging.  One of my goals was to write about every weekend but I missed the last one.  I told myself at the beginning of the semester I would not lose my inspiration to blog but it’s been pretty challenging lately.  I just feel so busy all the time!  We just have a ridiculous amount of class time and I have 20-30 pages to write in French at the end of the month which I haven’t started yet!  Considering I’ve only written 2-3 pages before this I’m quite nervous.  They’re also research papers so I have to sift through material in French, try and find relative information, and then try to express what I know in French.  Quite a challenge! 

Last weekend Molly and I were going to plan a last minute trip to the Mediterranean on the southern coast of France, which is only a 2 hourish train ride from Grenoble!  Unfortunately, because of flooding we decided not to go.  It ended up working out perfectly, however, because I was still pretty tired from the last minute excursion Elita and I had the weekend before to Italy.  The weekend was super relaxing and I really got to take advantage of some local sites.

Vizelle & Picnic

I woke up early on Saturday morning to study a little more and finish my second mid-term.  One more left until I was caught up!  Molly, Emma, Nicole, Nani and I met up to take the bus to Vizelle in the afternoon.  There was a beautiful chateau that had exhibits on the Revolution inside as well as the most beautiful grounds to wander.  As Nani kept saying, it was just like a scene from Pride and Predjudice.  I could’ve stayed outside all day reading on that lawn.

Going inside the museum was the most wonderful experience.  I love history because it’s just like reading stories.  Studying about the revolution and reigns of Louis VIV and Napoléon is so fun!  Unfortunately, I don’t have a very good base in history.  In fact I hadn’t even studied European history at all before France.  This was the first museum where I knew the material presented very well.  It made me appreciate and understand the exhibits much more.  It was the best feeling!

We ended the trip with a quick trip to the bakery and then sprinted off to catch the bus.  Nicole, Drew, Declan, and I went out for Indian in the Rolles (our nickname for Echirolles) and then called it a night.   

The next day Emma, Nicole, Declan, and I went for a hike behind my house.  My second day of exercise in a row!  It was wonderful to be active again.  The picnic was so classic France – consisting of cheese, baguettes, and nutella.  YUM.  We found this beautiful field to eat in and had a feast and a small nap.  Then, we had a homework party until dinner time.  It was a solid weekend – restful, productive, and fun to take advantage of the local sites.

reindeer

Pride & Prejudice.  Pretty much

Reign of Terreur

so French

beautiful view of Echirolles