Dreaming of Paris

I cannot believe four months have passed since I started my journey to France this past summer. I am incredibly thankful for every single experience I had including the good, the bad, the smelly, the uncomfortable, and the unforgettable. I will cherish those moments for the rest of my life!

My mom has been begging me to do a wrap up post on this blog, and I think I can finally sit down long enough to do so. As you remember from my last post, I was in the middle of packing to come back home, finishing a ridiculous essay for a class, hoping my computer wouldn't crash on me...needless to say it was pretty difficult to write a final blog post! While I can't share any of the little moments that happened since so much time has passed, I would like to show you some pictures that were never able to make it up. So please, enjoy the following pictures as they were my absolute favorites (and I'm so glad I didn't lose them!)

Thank you all for following me, supporting me, and encouraging me on this life changing experience. Here is my gift to you :)

Paris, je t'aime toujours.

Allison King's Day Off

So I ditched class today, and I don't feel bad about it in the least. In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Today I definitely looked :)

I'm starting my day with Emily at Notre Dame to actually go inside of it for the first time. I can't wait to see it! We waited in line forever to go to the top first. It's really funny how at these tourist hotspots you actually feel like you belong. There are absolutely no French people who do things like this, so it's like a collective space for outsiders. Once I finally got inside, I walked up so many flights of stairs in a teeny tiny stairwell that eventually brought me to the top. The view was breathtaking. You could see everything, and the gargoyles were unreal. I absolutely loved it! I also got to see the only original bell that survived the French revolution. After exploring the top, I went inside the cathedral and was completely blown away. The stained glass windows and high arches were incredible and transported you to a completely different time. I was lucky to catch a Mass that was going on while I browsed around inside. While looking at the story of each glass panel and statue, I listened to scripture readings and hymns. It was all so beautiful, and I would highly recommend actually attending a Mass no matter what denomination, religion, or belief system you have. It definitely adds to the experience of visiting!

I met Emily to head out for lunch. She took me to Montmatre which is a little town on the same hill as the Sacre Coeur. On our way up we had to quickly pass by gypsies and shady vendors who told who your ass was too small if you didn't look at the purses they were trying to sell you. Once we passed all of that, it was a totally different world. Montmatre was much quieter and quainter than downtown Paris. Emily even told me that residents on the hill do not refer to themselves as Parisians and now I understand why, it's completely different! Every building, store, and cafe was packed in together and it had a very small town feel. Artists lined the streets with the most beautiful artwork. This apparently was a big hangout for Monet, Picasso, Dali, and van Gogh, and these artists just seemed to channel the creative energy they left behind. We had lunch as a little cafe and had fun people watching. We also passed by a vineyard that spanned some of the downward slope. Any wine sold in Montmatre comes from that particular vineyard. For any of my readers that intend to visit Paris, please go see Montmatre. It's such a neat little place that you would never expect, I'm so thankful for Emily showing it to me!

After Montmatre, we went to Champs Elysees to sight see and window shop. We browsed around for while, but eventually made our way home to rest for a bit before dinner. We dined at a small cafe on one of the islands of the Seine very close to Notre Dame. The food was excellent, and we were lucky enough to have some performers decided to set up shop right next to us. They were a band of 6 incredibly talented musicians. We heard French songs as well as American swing and other Michael Buble-y material. They were just amazing! I have continuously been impressed with the talent Paris has, and I've had the pleasure of hearing them just on my trips during the day. This particular drew quite a crowd, and with good reason. Emily and I tipped them when we were leaving, thanking them for entertaining us through our meal.

After hearing more music, stopping briefly at The Moose, and getting ready for bed, I am now at home reluctantly working on a presentation I have due tomorrow. It's our last day of class, and my time is just now starting to sink in. All I can say is that I'm so happy to have taken advantage of one of my free days to soak up as much of Paris as I could :)

Au revoir!

72 hours left in Paris

Sorry for the really spotty postings lately, but this is the first time in a while I've been sitting down for a moment with Internet!

Yesterday was a fabulous day. In photography we are printing a book with a collection of each of our photos. Something about knowing your pictures will be in a book makes it that more nerve wracking to pick the right ones! So I turned in ones that had already been critiqued by her that I felt pretty confident about. It was so cool to see all of our work laid out together. However, I got a pleasant surprise yesterday when I found out Hally had chosen one of my pictures to be the cover of the book! I almost cried a little. It was the accordion man I posted in one of my earlier posts, but I will show you again once I'm published :)

After class, Christine and I went out with Emily for her birthday. We all packed dinner and a bottle of wine for ourselves and sat along the Seine near the Notre Dame. It was such a beautiful view, and just fun to be sitting there marveling that this was actually happening. There are definitely worse views to have.

After dinner we went to her favorite cafe for desert. It's called Cafe de Flore. It's a very old and famous cafe, and I must say it was one of my better experiences. The staff was so nice and it was just really neat to see. Emily had hot chocolate while Christine and I split an ice cream dish. I ordered a glass of champagne for everyone and we enjoyed the evening until Emily couldn't stay awake.

We've been trying to make the most of every moment we have left, and I think we definitely had a success tonight!

On a personal note

I realize that my latest posts have been really factual without much personal input. Ive been so busy running around taking so much in, I didn't know how else to convey my experiences. But I did want to take a moment to share my own thoughts.

I cannot emphasize how fast the time has past in the last three weeks. A whole month abroad seemed very intimidating to me before I left, but now I'm wondering where the time went. I feel like there is still so much I need to do and see. Unfortunately my classes have made me feel slightly trapped for time, if I could do anything differently it would be to take only one class instead of two. Every moment is precious here, and I felt like I wasted a lot of it reading and writing for my culture class instead of actually experiencing the city.

While I've had a blast over here seeing and learning as much as I could, I will be ready to come home next Saturday. I miss my family, Andrew, and everyone else. I have been gone for some important moments in their lives, and I wish I hadn't. Still, I do not regret a single coming here overall.

One month was the perfect amount of time for me to stay here. I think I've learned so much by actually living in and not simply visiting Paris. I don't think I could stay much longer away from Texas, but the time has past quickly enough for me to enjoy everything here.

Let me vent

Everything about Paris and this trip has been so wonderful. But please allow me one moment to take off my rose colored glasses a let me rant about a couple of things. I'll be brief!

I've absolutely loved learning about photography and I can definitely see an improvement in my pictures (sorry you guys can't yet!). But as I've been going through all of them, there are very few that have me actually in them. I've been so busy focusing behind the camera that I havent actually stepped in front of it all that often. While I'm taking some interesting pictures, I feel like I'm missing out on those touristy pictures like me leaning on the Eiffel Tower with a barret and a baguette or something stupid like that. Maybe I'll have time to work on that this week.

Secondly, I have unfortunately been annoyed for a portion of this trip. I really wanted to do my best to immerse myself and blend into Paris, but a lot of my colleagues could care less. I actually have been a little embarrassed by the super loud talking on the metros and the cussing for example that I've developed this weird spli personality of an American Parisian who finds disdain in her own peers. I really am trying to work on just letting it go, but frankly I think its rude and arrogant to expect another country's culture to adapt to your lifestyle. I have definitely developed an appreciation for people who come to our country and actually try to fit in.

Okay now that I got that out, I can go back to enjoying myself!

Technology Sucks

I almost had a mental breakdown last night with my laptop. Apparently I have reached my storage limit, and not only is that not allowing me to download my pictures, but it has actually started shutting down my applications right in the middle of using them. I only have 500MB left (which is nothing). I've been deleting as many documents, songs, and pictures as impossibly can just to free up some room. But even doing that sometimes uses up too much space and everything just shuts down. So it looks like I'll be doing most everything from my phone now before my laptop decides to just screw it all and explode.

I really had no idea how limited my space was. I guess we just all think that these things are infallible. I only have 5 days left, I'm hoping that will be enough for my data to survive!

Its been real, laptop, but maybe after four years our relationship must come to an end. I'll you know how it goes, and as soon as I can find a way to back everything up I'll try to post some pics!

Chambord & Home!

So I am finally home, showered, and relaxed at this point! I do want to apologize, I was intending to upload these posts with pictures that I've taken over the weekend. However, my computer informed me that it is out of storage and will no longer let me upload pictures from my camera....crap. I will do my best to figure something out, but I apologize for the pictureless posts. Let me catch you up with the last leg of my journey!

We arrive at Chateau Chambord which was by far the largest chateau we visited. It sprawled across the open fields with the small town surrounding it. This was definitely the most interesting architecturally, but it was a little bare inside. The best part was in the center of the main building, there was a double helix stairwell that is believed to be designed by Da Vinci. I promise when I can figure out this picture situation I will show you! The balconies were beautiful as well, and from them you could see the entirety of the gardens. We wandered through the rest of the castle until we were freaked out by the third floor. There apparently was a display for a contemporary artist who is a little....extreme. They were paintings depicting morbid scenes (i.e. suicide or a lady holding a disemboweled cat, that was the light stuff) in a very abstract but obvious manner. I don't think it wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't incorporated human hair in his "art work"....like I said, maybe I'm a heathen for having no appreciation for this, but my friend and I got out as quickly as we could. To escape, we went to the top floor that led to the terrace on the roof. This was the best area to see the tops of all the towers which were extremely intricate. As I was taking thousands of pictures, I started to notice all the shapes that painted on the building. There were circles, triangles, diamonds, semi circles all over. They were always appeared in 1, 3, or 5. It was very interesting to see something with so much geometry on a building during that particular era.

After the chateau we toured the little town nearby. We were lucky, and there was a row of local vendors that had set up stands for the day. I found a man who had a vineyard from the Loire Valley, and I bought 3 bottle pack of his wine that included a Sauvignon, a Rose, and another red....for 12 Eruos!!! I've paid for more than that for a single bottle back in the States! Needless to say, I will be very excited to try it all out.

The trip back home was uneventful, but I loved my weekend out in the French country side. It was nice to be outside the super busy city for once and take in the other kinds of beauty France has to offer. I promise the pictures will paint a better picture, and I will put them up as soon as I can figure out how! As for now, I'm getting ready for bed before I start my last week of class :)

Bon Soiree!