Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Ils manget un Baguette (they eat a baguette)... and other French adventures

So I know I'm quite lacking in the update department, but my life has been rather hectic since I returned from my AMAZING trip to Paris on the 22nd.  The school semester is coming to a close, so I have a final paper and finance exam to study for, which are clouding up most of my possible blog time.  I know it is nothing compared to the work load I would usually have at home, but, trust me people, Finance is confusing in English; I dare you to try it in a foreign country.  But everything is coming together nicely; well, for the most part.  Also a friend of mine was in a car accident this past Tuesday and broke his sternum, so I've been preoccupied with helping him out on the road to recovery.  But back to the main focus of this post..

Paris!

I must admit, before this year I had close to no interest in going to Paris what-so-ever.  I always assumed it to be just talked-up, that the glitz and glamour would potentially choke me and that it would have a strange smell (i believe I heard somewhere that every street in Paris has been peed on, so give me a break on that thought..).  However, I was pleasantly surpised to find that Paris is all it's cracked up to be, and only smells mildly while standing over road grates.

I went to Paris with my friend Carissa from the program, and we stayed with a highschool friend of her's in his apartment.  The apartment was pretty central to paris; right next to a metro station.  We took the fast train from Frankfurt to Paris (and rode the entire way there next to a cat...yeah...) and met him at the trainstation around 9 pm Thursday night.  We obviously did nothing real great on Thursday; just sat around and talked in the extremely small yet extremely expensive apartment where he lived.  I mean seriously, his entire apartment fits in like mine in and my parents bedrooms.  The place was small.  But SO CUTE!  His one bathroom only fit a toilet.. it was like a little nook in the wall where someone decided to hide the toilet.  The sink is in a different room, which was always confusing at 3 in the morning.  However, the apartment was adorable and decorated accurately so the space was played up to it's fullest potential.  Housing in Paris is ridiculously expensive.  Tom (the guy we stayed with) was telilng us that in one section of paris, the property goes for 250,000 euros per square meter.  In case you didn't catch that, it was per SQUARE METER.. dear god.  I guess when it comes to buying property in Europe, as your personal realator, i advise you to go for somewhere like Croatia or the boonies in Hungary and avoid Paris like the plague :) Or at least the inner city part.

On our first full day in Paris we managed to find our way to a really huge shopping mall with all the super expensive name brands and things with price tags that made me want to run 6 meters in the opposite direction.  I found myself hoping there was no "you breathe on it, you buy it" policy.  But they hadawesome christmas tree display in the middle of the store..

 I was pretty darn excited about that tree.  It actually reminded me of the tree in Chicago at the Macy's or whatever.. so yay warm thoughts of home.  Ok anyways, after the tree we went to the Louvre art museum.  This was probably the number one "want-to-see" on my list for this trip, and I was slightly disappointed.  however, the disappointment was largely my own fault.  The museum itself is gorgeous; huge windows, grandeur architecture, beautiful lawns, tall pillars, soaring cielings and beautiful crafted floors everywhere.  Outside we saw the glass pyramid entrance into the Louvre which was surrounded by fountains, also gorgeous. 


Yes the building itself didn't disappoint me, and neither did the majority of the art we saw (althought I'm not real partial to the kinds and queens and jesus paintings; they just don't do it for me apparently), and I found myself surprised at how many paintings I saw which I had to memorize for my prior AP European history class back in highschool.  It was like taking a walk down memory lane, only I was minorly twigging out like a kid in a FAO Schwarz store.  "Oh my god it's that one painting from the renaissance! Oh my god it's the painting with the huge nose that I got wrong on that one test! Oh my god ITS THE MONA LISA!!!"  Yes, I'm aware of my nerd status.  And I'm proud.  But yes.  Art is cool.  Accept it.


Those were just a few of the favorites.  The disappointment actually stemmed from my inability to find the impressionism paintings.  You know, Monet and such.  I'm a big fan of the impressionism era, and I epically failed at finding it.  I actually had my main intention of seeing those paintings alone, but I guess sometimse life sends you curve balls.  I still enjoyed the museum, especially the fact we got in free pretending to be German citizens, and I totally recommend people to take at least a few hours if you ever find yourself in Paris to check out the art of the ages.

We ended up spending basically all of Friday in the art museum, so we went out to dinner afterwards at an authentic French restaurant.  I had some type of French mushroom mac and cheese.. it was decent.  I'm not entirely sure how I felt about the meal in honesty, but i ate it.  Tom had rabbit (delicious surprisingly) and his girlfriend had salmon.  French food is delicious, but let me tell you.  Don't just assume that since you're in France everything on the menu must be simply deletible and amazing.  Enough said.

The next day we spent basically just wandering around the city and seeing all the major sites; the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, the river walk along the Seine river and the tunnel where Princess Diana crashed.  FYI, the Eiffel Tower is seriously huge in person.  And brown.  I previously thought it was black, but, eh.  Those French sure are tricky tricky.
  

We ended up at the Arc de Triomphe last, around 9:30 pm, and decided to climb to the top since it was free for EU student citizens (ha..) and see the city of lights from above.  It was probably the best decision we made the entire trip; the view was amazing.  I managed to get a few good photos..

On Sunday the weather was rather gloomy and rainy, so we decided to take the 30 minute train ride to Versailles (right outside of Paris) and see the palace.  I love love loved it.  Of course i'm a total history nerd and was soaking up all the atmosphere; picturing Marie Antionette running around the palace the entire time, and the storming of the gates by angry French citizens during the French Revolution.  But don't worry, the palace was really beautiful and interesting for non-history nerds as well.  It was a pity that we went in November and not in the summer, because although the palace is huge, the gardens are like 10 times as large and gorgeous.  Oh well.  Maybe another time in life.  But anyways, the palace was awesome and adorned in gold, mirrors and huuuuge paintings of the monarchies over the ages.  I especially loved the hall of mirrors.  There were huge chandelliers every couple feet, and mirrors lining the walls the entire length of the hall.  It felt so bright and alive with light within the hall, and I couldn't help but just stand in awe for a few moments, realizing the history that once danced its way across the very same mirrors.  It was a sentimental moment, alright?

 
 

I added a picture from the macaroon shop in there... we had some macaroons thanks to Tom, and oh my god they were SO good.  Basically, they have a hard outer shell, kind of like the consistancy of an egg shell, only not THAT hard, but then a super soft and creamy inside with sweet flavors such as berries, apple, vanilla, almond, etc.  They're so good, but so expensive.  I believe they cost something like 25 euros for 15 macaroons. 
Actually, i think it might just be this store which is so expensive, but they are famous for having the best macaroons in Paris :)

I know this post is getting super long, but bear with me!

After Versailles we found a cute little french restaurant, again, and I ate beef bourguignon.  For any of you who are familiar with the movie Julie & Julia, you may be just as excited about this as I was.  Especially you, mother.  It was sooo good! 


My last exciting tour in Paris was of the Notre Dame Cathedral.  We went around 6 pm on Sunday night, right in the time of mass.  I found myself in awe of the beauty of the mass (it was all in french, so the songs and whatever they were saying just sounded like beauty rolling off their tounges) and of the cathedral.  It's really quite huge with tall cielings and a few (i can't remember the english word..) colorful glass window things.  I lit a candle for my grandparents and a friend, which was also a cool experience.  Here are some photos from within the church, during mass (yeah, I  know, crazy that they let us still take pictures.. again, crazy frenchmen..)

So yep.  That was basically the entirety of my trip to Paris.  Oh wait.  I ate a baguette..

Ok well I'm off to dinner at a friends house.  I leave Thursday for Thanksgiving in Hamburg, and then I'm back for my exam and then... Budapest!  It seems so strange; it's been months since I planned that trip but yet now it's here, and it feels like close to no time has passed... crazy how life works.  See you all in 16 days!

Monday, November 15, 2010

Essen?

Another weekend has passed, and with it went the last group trip with this semester's participants.  It was kind of depressing to realize how close this semester is to coming to a close, and how we'll never be all together in the same place again.  But, I guess, that's how life works.  We went to Essen, the industrial capital of Germany.  I guess in retrospect it was interesting to a point; I mean I'll never go there again in this lifetime (if I can avoid it) but it was something to see/add onto the list of life experiences.  The weather this weekend made the trip quite miserable, however.  It rained this weekend the most it has rained in five years, according to the radio station.  It wasn't terribly cold; actually it was quite warm, but the rain just made everything so much more annoying.  Oh well. 

Friday we left Marburg around 2 pm and arrived in Essen at 5 pm.  We took a brief moment to drop our stuff at our hostel (which was in the middle of nowhere.. relatively anyways..) and then went back to the city where we had a night bus tour.  That was actually pretty cool.  We were able to see the skyline of Essen from the city hall, and I got some pretty legit photos.  The guide was older and didn't completely understand the usage of English slang, so instead of using the word "like" all the time, he used the word "just", which gave the tour an interesting spin.  But whatever.  It happens.

So yep.  Those are my attempts at night skyline photos.  They aren't really all that great in their small sizes on here, so if you want to see all the pictures or these in larger form, click here... (yes, I am aware I sound like a spam add..)
http://picasaweb.google.com/113919949355390501172/20101114?authkey=Gv1sRgCIDm5pb5w_LXigE&feat=directlink

Basically, the city of Essen was created around the Krupp Steel Factory which was started there in the.. oh... I believe late 1800s? or maybe during the Industrial revolution?  Ok, I'm sorry for the lack of reliable facts, but, at least I remembered the name of the company?  It was for a long period of time the largest steel productor in the world.  The city grew around the factory, and industries soon began finding their way into this area.  Because of solider's resting points in the middle ages, there are 3 large cities where are all linked together in this area as the "industrial capital." The area is called the Ruhrgebein (at least I think?  I'd google but.. it's froze..) and this area is the industry area.  So, basically, we toured a ton of factories and coal mines, which were also highly prevelent in this area.  And by highly I mean 600,000 workers at one point.  It was the beginning of the industrial revolution in Germany, so there is a ton of history in this region.  However, the region was not "beautiful" until about 20 years ago, when they started closing coal mines and building new "Green" areas.  It apparently used to be quite the rugged little town.  We toured the Zollverein mill, which was one of the larget coal pit production places in the world at one point.  The museum was really modern and quite interesting, and our tour guide was pretty great, so I'd have to say that was my favorite tour.  Here's some of those photos..

If you're looking at my photos on picasa, they're the first set of pictures involving mining equipment.  The second set of mine photos was taken in an actual mine, which we crawled around for about an hour on Sunday.  I would royally suck at being a coal miner; i am not a fan of being a hunchback and would probably let it be known to whoever was working near me.  Oh and not to mention, i'm not a fan of working in the dark and wet, I like to breathe clean air, and no matter how many weight training sessions I sign up for, theres no way I could hold those tools for full 8 hour shifts.  Just 30 seconds was exhausting!  The life of a miner was not easy, but it paid well.  Today, however, it is no longer one of the better paying jobs in Germany.  Times change I guess.  Our tour guide for the coal mine tour was so cute, oh my god.  I wanted to take her home with me and adopt her.  Her name was Hildegard (yes, so authentic german; although I took to calling her "Hildie my Homie") and she only could speak English through reading the words off a page she had someone previously prepare for her.  Otherwise her English sentances were "Come to me now, Come to me" and "Yes, yes, you understand? yes?" ooooooh how I loved her.  Here's that mine..
 

Don't let the photos fool you; it was not that exciting of a tour.  Had it not been for Hildie, all hope for that tour would have been lost.  In addition to those coal mines, we visited a factory which made weapons during WWII.  Unfortunately, I can't really remember the name of it.  Apparently they had 2,000 prisoners of war working in the broiler rooms and melting down steel and coal and such during times of war.  Our tour guide told us about how in one situation, during a bombing of the city, some prisoners of war were chained to the... melting.. things... because they didn't want the production to stop, but had those workers ran for their lives, it would have.  Luckily, no bombs fell on that factory.  But I still found the story interesting.  Life really had to suck for them.  But then again, I guess it was better than going to the concentration camp near by: Buchenwald.  The 2,000 workers at the plant were actually taken from there to work in the factory instead


And here are some photos of the factory in the above ground part.  Today it is used as a hall for events and such.  The day we were there, they were hosting a marathon (which further instated my possible goal of running a half marathon..). 

I added the clock photo just to show you all that there are still various elements of the original factory left in place.  Personally, I did not find this to be the most beautiful event hall I've ever seen.  Yet it did have a strange industrial beauty to it.  And since the area is famous for their industrial history, I guess I can understand why they would choose to further emphasize it by serving cocktail weenies and displaying nude paintings for an evening, or by filling it with sand and preforming a biblical play.  You know, the arts meet history.  Eh.

The most exciting thing for me this weekend (please don't hold your breath; its rather lame) was finding a book store.  It was like Barnes and Noble, only ... German.  But i was in love.  You have no idea how much I miss Barnes and Noble.  I've been going through withdrawls like crazy, and just finished my last english book about a week ago.  So, I took advantage of the situation and attacked the book store with a vengance.  I bought myself a German novel, which I fully intend to finish before I'm home for Christmas.  This is quite the goal, you see, because it's 575 pages.  All in German.  Yeah.  If I truly accomplish this, someone better give me a cookie.  Although, I was pleasantly surprised that when I started reading it, it wasn't as hard as I imagined it to be.  This made me quite thrilled on various levels, because it was a new way for me to realize my german actually HAS improved (quite tremendously since the day I first stepped off the plane and couldn't even order french fries alone..) and I can follow the story line without really having to think that hard.  Ok, maybe I'm just a nerd, but this was seriously awesome.  The book I bought is a fiction novel called "Die Buecherdiebin" and it follows a girl who steals books during the time of world war 2.  Apparently she survives the bombing of her city, and witnesses the treatment of jews around her during the times.  I thought the connection to German history might be interesting, so that was how I came upon this choice.  Be excited for me, ok?  Thank you.

In other news, I leave for Paris Thursday and have officially began learning French via Rosetta stone last Wednesday.  No, I do not expect to know french by the time I go to Paris.  I'm actually learning it because it is a business language, and I'm kind of interested in having more than just English and German under my belt.  Again with the nerd thing, but hey.  Languages are my thing.

As for classes, Finance is confusing no matter what language you take it in, and my US reproductive health policy class is interesting and thought provoking as usual.  I have a huge paper due in a few weeks in that class (which I have yet to have actually thoroughly started) so I'm trying to squeeze typing times into my extremely hectic schedule.  Other than that, the life of classes is quite dull.

So folks, to wrap up this post, if you are planning on visiting me in Germany, or wish to explore the country at some point of your life, you might as well skip essen.  The word Essen in German translates as "Food" or "To eat."  Don't let it trick you.  McDonalds was probably some of the best food offered.  So there is literally no reason to go to Essen.  Just scratch it off your to do list, especially in rainy, cold November.  Oh and another life lesson: don't eat at Mr. Chicken.  Don't ask, just trust me.  It won't end good.