Brrrrrlin

It seems there comes a time in every blog's life when the author has to plead forgiveness for long stretches of time between updates, and this blogger is no exception. I had every intention of updating after my trip to Berlin, and rest assured, (I know you were all so worried!) it was a great trip full of lots of photos and memories, but I found myself inundated with stacks of homework from the second I got back, and literaly haven't had time until right now to update. So, here I am, pushing three weeks later, stress free (almost) and ready describe to you my new favorite city in Europe: Berlin.


In a 2003 interview, the mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit said "Berlin is poor but sexy." He couldn't have said it better. Berlin is industrial, modern, bizarre, covered in graffiti, slightly smoggy, cold, relatively tree-less, but fabulously full of life, art, movement, young people, old people, a thirty six languages in a hunder different accents. Here's an example of some of the street art you can find throughout Berlin:



Berlin is full of history, too. You can't walk around the central part of the city for more than half an hour without starting to notice all the physical reminders of the past 100 years of history in the city. Marks of WWII and decades of Cold War separation between east and west Berlin are everywhere. I visited what would become one of my favorite places in Berlin the first day I was there: the East Side Gallary, an art gallary on the east side of a stretch of the Berlin wall. When I visited, the paintings, which had been put up shortly after the "fall" of the Berlin wall, had just been redone. The first picture is of Sarah and Axel (who did such a great job showing us around the city and making us feel welcome!), the second is of an interesting art piece, and the last juxtaposes a part of the wall that hadn't been repainted with a part that had been redone:



The East Side Gallary stretches a few football fields along the river Spree. Each section was unique, and had a different message, and it was a joy to see.

Later that day, we took a break from artsy-culture and absorbed some of the consummer culture by visiting KaDeWe, suppossedly the largest shopping center in Europe. There we found Christmas!


The next day, Sarah and I went on a free tour around the central part of Berlin. This is a picture of us waiting for the tour to start in front of the Brandenburg gate in Pariser Platz.



Out tour guide was a friendly, American student, who knew quite a bit about the history of Berlin, and the stories behind the monuments and buildings. After the Brandenburg gate, we saw the Parliment building, the parking lot now over the bunker where Hitler committed suicide, and then the Holocause memorial, pictured below.





Later we visited one of the few buildings in Berlin that survived WWII: the Nazi Airforce Headquarters, turned East German government propaganda building, turned present-day tax office. The story goes that the building survived the war either because it was so large, it could be used as a landmark by the Allied Forces' air forces to recognize Berlin. Just on the other side of this building, a part of the wall has been left standing, though aprts of it have been destroyed or taken down.



The tour continued through a few more Holocause memorial sites, such as the memorial to the books that were burned in front of Humolt university during the Nazi's rise to power, and the memorial where a Jewish Holocause victim and a Nazi soldier killed during the war are buried side by side.

After the tour, Sarah and I visited the Pergamon Museum on Museum Isle. It had reconstructed Greek, Roman, and Babylonian architecture. German archeologists had brought back, piece by piece, ancient monuments, to reconstruct them inside the museum. Below is a photo of the Gates of Babylon:


Sarah and I spent the rest of our time in Berlin hanging out in our hostle, shopping, wandering around the city, and generally having a blast. Our last day, we visited the Hamburger Bahnof Museum of contemporary art, which is housed in a renovated and remodelled train station, before making our way to the train station to catch our flight. Unfortunately, due to the line we were suppossed to take to get to the airport being under construction, it took us nearly 3 hours to get to the airport by the alternate route. We had an Amazing Race moment with three other American student's who we met at the train station as we ran from the bus, across 6 lanes of traffic and about a quarter of a mile of terminals to our terminal, with just a half hour before take off. We got to our gate just as the flight fors nearing the end of boarding. Needless to say, Sarah and I beat the others, who got tied up in security and lost in the maze between security and our gate.

Berlin was awesome; the picture below says it all, in giant street art on the side of a building:


I even managed to get a picture of a Berlin bear-like dog at the train station! Thanks for reading, and I promise to update more soon, as classes wind down and I take a trip to London with my mom!

Ex-pat Trick or Treat? or How the French do America

Type-writer room at Shakespeare and Company

I must admit, when USC study abroad program staff sat all of us fresh-faced, eager study-abroaders-to-be down and explained to us something they refer to as the Culture Shock Curve, I was skeptical. The curve claims that living in a foreign culture entails an emotional rollercoaster, starting with a honeymoon period and quickly deteriorating into crisis-mode, before transitioning into acceptance and then adjustment. But no, none of that for me. My entire study abroad experience was going to be amazingly, superbely, radically awesome.

Well, they were sort of right. Living 24-7 in a culture that is both confident enough that it is superior to yours and frank enough to tell you it on a semi-regular basis can be trying, especially when you are navigating the trecherous territory of not seeming like a loud-mouthed yankee in a foreign language that is still getting harder, not easier, every day. But fear not, would-be-francophile! In our modern, globalized world economy, France is full of Americanized treats for the home-sick ex-pat and foreign student alike! But the real trick is finding those anglophone establishments/institutions/events that not only warm your soul with patriotic feeling, but which the French themselves can't get enough of! There is nothing like waiting along side 40 French people for 55 minutes to get into a place like Breakfast in America to make you realize, hey! some aspects of my culture aren't so lacking after all! Sure, Frace gets to have wine, and macaroons, and refinement, but the good ol' United States of America sure knows how to make a pancake!

This photo was around minute 48 in our wait for a table, as you can probably tell by the hint of desparation in all of our eyes.
But it was more than worth it. I meant to take pictures of our food BEFORE we ate all of it, but my excitement at seeing real fake-maple syrup and A&W root beer ruined any chance of that happening. This is what was left of my meal 15 minutes or so after our spunky, American waitress sat it down in front of me:I'd opted for the pancake special, "Yellow and Blue" (i.e. blueberry and lemon) and an A&W root beer float. I also had a side of home fries, and everyone else at the table managed to order (and eat) so much, that our waitress even commented on the amount of deliciousness that we had consumed. And, since this is France, it wasn't judgementally! She was proud and impressed. To make the experience even better, Breakfast in America, like any good American establishment, has a punch card where if you come in 11 times you get one free meal! I have one, and plan on making it to that free meal even if it means standing in line for 55 whole minutes every time!

Another American tradition based on consuming large amounts of unhealthy food-stuff that the French have picked up with more than a little enthusiasm is, of course, Halloween! Prepared for the French to suck at it, I made plans to go to Rocky Horror Picture Show, but first I was going to stop by a mysterious event called "Zombie Walk 2009":


Exceeding all expectations, I found a group of some 300-400 people decked out in full zombie make-up and attire marching the streets with appropriately vacant expressions. One even grabbed ahold of Kristen, which sparked surprising terror in both of us, but not more than the sight of the ferocious, the untamable, zombie puppy!


You can't see it too well here, but rest assured, the puppy was in character too, with red paint smears around his cute little nose! Like most French parades, this one carried with it a political message as well, from "Zombie's have rights too!", to "Proud to be zombie-sexuel". Yes, it was impressive, and yes, it was Halloween-y, but of course the French had their own political spin on it. Yet somehow, this franco-ization made me feel as warm and fuzzy as overhearing one French jeune explaining to another that the parade was there because "Itz 'Alloween!" But not quite as warm and fuzzy as the sight of this zombie family:
It was a lucky thing that the Zombie Walk exceeded all expectations because Rocky Horror was sold out. Fortunately, it plays every week, and even more fortunately, there was a free Halloween party at an Irish bar called Sweeny's to take it's place! Halloween was awesome, and France really is growing on me more and more every day. Especially when it comes up with awesome surprises like a dog that loves to play fetch with straws in a bar!

Hope everyone had a spooky Halloween!

Lessons in Layers

Three more or less exciting things have happened since I last updated: classes have started, I went on a weekend trip around Normandy, and we turned on the heating in our apartement. Yes, there is a chill in the air, and so far I have not gotten frost bite, been unable to sleep because of the cold, or splurged on heavy duty ski gear to get me through the difficult weather. No, thank you, I've been just fine. In fact, I think the cold agrees with me. Granted, it hasn't quite dropped below freezing, but it'd like to think the fortitude I'm demonstrating now will be able to conquer any weather in a month or so. I also ordered really warm winter boots online, so I'm feeling ready for anything!

Something else that I'm sure will be a comfort once autumn turns to winter is French hot chocolat. We're not talking Nesquik mixed with some milk in the microwave. No, this is rich, creamy, melt in your mouth, create a heavenly sphere of happiness in your belly, chocolat chaud. Above is a picture of Jeremy sitting at a pink table at Comme à la maison in the Marais. Anytime I get so cold I feel tears of longing for California beaches freezing on my eye balls, I plan on making my way there or to any of the many other wonderful cafes that specialize in hot chocolat made to warm the heart. It's also a good place to meet dogs. This cutie is Eloise:

She already was working on her winter coat, which I know since she jumped all over me before kindly posing for this picture. There were definitely some moments in my trip to Normandy this weekend where I wished I had been as well covered as she was!

The northern region of France, especially right on the Atlantic, was significantly colder than it had been in Paris. Our first stop was the town of Bayeux.

We visited a museum containing the Tapisserie de Bayeux , which depicts the story of William the Conqueror and the Norman invasion of England in the 9th century. Fascinating stuff, I assure you. Before leaving, I had a picturesque lunch of French onion soup and crepes, in an equally picturesque restaurant. How charming!

We then made our way to Omaha Beach to see the WWII Memorial Museum and the American cemetary. Heavy stuff, but by far the best war memorial I've visited.


We didn't get a lot of time to explore the cemetary or the beach at Omaha, but we went to Point du Hoc afterwards. Less memorialized but significantly more surreal, Point du Hoc is a small jut of land with several old, bombed out fortifications left in place. The whole area is covered in deep bomb craters from the war, now lined with grass and other vegetation. The monuments at Omaha make it impossile to ignore what happened there, but Point du Hoc takes on the feeling of a playground sometimes, with easy access to many of the fortifications that were once used as lookout points or to shelter gunman.


The next day, we made our way to Mont Saint-Michel.

It's right on the edge of the ocean, with great views in every direction. Before we got of the bus, the Sweet Briar personnel with us were careful to warn us not to go walking along the beach-- apparently someone dies in the quick sand every year. We mostly listened and only waded out until we lost our shoes.

Here are some photographs from the interior of the abby:




After Mont Saint-Michel, we made our way to the pirate town, Saint Malo, where we ate, walked around, went to the beach, walked around and ate some more, and went to an old corsaire's house (a type of more legal pirate). The basement was pretty neat! It had many different rooms for hiding goods from the tax men, and apparently gets rented out for parties on occasion. There were still chairs and speakers there from a wedding reception!

Otherwise, Saint Malo was pretty calm and touristy. I met a few pirate dogs, the scalywags, pictured below:


This fellow, however, is Ninja. He was in town attending the bi-monthly "Pirates vs. Ninjas" convention. You can guess what side he was on:

We got back in time for me to make it to Sunday dinner with my host family, though I sadly didn't get much homework done that weekend. As I like to remind myself, everything I'm doing is a learning experience! It's not all about the classes after all... :)

All in all, France has continued to treat me well. Everyday I realize more and more of the mistakes I'm making in French, and thus have the bizarre sensation of actually getting worse, while my English spelling is going downhill (I know, I didn't think it was possible either!). Hopefully my courses will help me improve all the more, though I think my volleyball class will probably remain my favorite for the rest of the semester!

Fashion Weak and Nuit-not-so-Blanch

Paris and I are still in our honeymoon stage, and, with one more week until my classes start, I hardly know where the begin with what I've been up to!

Last weekend, Jeremy and I went to look at Vogue covers from the past 80 some years along Champs-Élysées. They were truly a joy, and the exposition was so well put together! We walked down one direction, wandered a bit away from the exposition to l'Arc de Triomphe, and, after un petit pause at a boulangerie, then made our way back to look at the rest of the covers. Here are some of my favorite shots from the afternoon:


Unfortunately, this is the extent to which I have done anything at all relating to Fashion Week (weak on my part). Honestly, though, it seems like Fashion Week all the time here (I will not buy a whole new wordrobe to fit in, I will not buy a whole new wordrobe to fit in, I will not..), and there is always the Fashion Week in spring (which showcases fall lines), so no real harm done.

What I won't be able to catch again is Nuit Blanch (Insomniac), which is an all night arts festival, with light and other art instillations all over the city. In anticipation, we visited Buttes Charmont, which is definitely the most beautiful park I have ever seen, and possibly the best one in Paris:

I think it's the closest I've ever been to being in/at Hogwarts/Rivendell/Neverland/Wonderland/Avalon/Shangri-La/Narnia/(insert your own magical kingdom). There were also some cool things going on for Nuit Blanch, like these red umbrellas:


I'm still working on getting my camera to cooperate with taking night shots, so unfortunately, I don't have that many great shots from the actual night, but suffice to say there were many bizarre things goin on. I saw these big blue blocks on a bridge over the Seine and these giat crystals in Notre Dame:

With all this funky moden art light stuff (and a trip to the Pompidou), I'll need to spend some more time in the Louvre to ground myself. I also need to start classes, so my French can really start working again. I think I've reached the point where I finally realized how little French I know, and my accent has gone to crap trying to pronounce all the sounds I've been used to butchering for so long. This combines to make me extra self-conscious of asking to take doggie pictures. I did, however, get a shot of this lively pooch walking through Buttes Charmont, though unfortunately I didn't get a name. Next week, I promise!

The best thing about Parisian monuments, besides the ambiance they give to the city, is that usually there are at least a few in sight, and if you pay even a little bit of attention, you can triangulate your location almost anywhere in the city. Of course, this isn't necessary when you're at Sacré-Cœur (where I met Bobby, pictured above) since from there you get a view of the entire city:


The photo is a bit foggy, but in person it's a great view of the city, though it is second to the view from the upper floors of the Pompidou, which, oh bother, I'm going to have to go back to so I can get you some pictures!

Sacré-Cœur itself was looking mighty fine that afternoon. That's in the first photo below. The second captures, thanks to Sarah, the unique sensation of visiting the place:


Notice the hoards of tourists sitting on the steps behind her. They are listening to French-accented Bob Marley covers, and they are clapping. Doesn't the sheer majesty of the place just make you feel so pious?

Another monument I visited in the last few weeks that has a similar effect on people is Bastille:


Here it is pictured with several Parisian youths enjoying a fun-filled afternoon in the sun, at the conclusion of the all-day Techno Parade. These are some riot police also enjoying the pleasant weather nearby:


But don't worry Mom and Dad! It's a cultural thing. Anytime there is a strike, it's almost an insult to the strikers if the riot police don't show up. The workers would feel that they weren't being taken seriously if the State didn't make an appearance at their shin-dig. I'm not sure they usually pull out the tear gas on workers, but I couldn't ask, since I was out of the vicinity before that happened!

Speaking of which, I started half of my classes last week! I'll be taking two courses at the Sweet Briar College center with other students in my program and two of three classes at Université Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle alongside French students. Those don't start until October 12, so in the meantime I have lots of free time to explore... or as the case may be mess around in photo shop with pictures of la Tour Eiffel:

Here's one of Emily and I sitting drinking grape juice in Champ de Mars:


I've also spent a lot of time in museums in the past couple weeks, but they mostly don't allow flash photography, and the photos I take usually come out less than stellar. I've been the la Maison de Gustave Moreau, le Louvre (twice) and the Pompidou for literally 15 minutes. We have plans in the works for Salvador Dali museum, and the d'Orsay. Right now I have to head off to class, so I'll leave you with the anonymous dog that always sits in the doorway of the mini-mart right across from where my classes are. Bonne journée!

La Tour Eiffel: A Study in Perspectives

I think there must be something about being in Paris that makes me take crappy photos. Is it just that everything is so beautiful to look at that any attempt to capture it on film falls short? In any case, I was already off to a bad start when I resorted to taking this shot through the bus window at a rest stop on the drive between Tours and Paris:
As such, I don't have a name for this rough-riding, motorcycling pooch, but what he lacks in title he more than makes up for in attitude.

I should also note here that the French even do rest-stops in style. The multi-level complex situated just about half-way between the two cities features a wide range of restaurants and snack bars on the inside, with a well-groomed "sculpture garden" out front. But enough about the drive over; I know what you really want to see:


I live in the 15th arrondissement, which means that to get just about anywhere on foot or by bus I have to (i.e. get to) walk by the Eiffel Tower. So, naturally, I have a lot of pictures of it.



The change in weather between them should be proof enough that these are all from different days. This shot is the view of Paris, Eiffel Tower in the background, from Point Neuf, the bridge that crosses over from the right bank to the left right at the tip of the island where Notre Dame is:



I'd tell you more about what I've been doing, but to be honest, these pictures really do say it all. I've spent the last three days wandering about the city, taking in the sites and sounds, blistering my feet, and loving every second of it. My classes at Sweet Briar don't start until Monday, and the ones at the Sorbonne until the 12 of October, so I'll have plenty more time to work out the kinks in my photography skills and practice the art of blending in. You wouldn't believe how excited I get when anyone stopes me on the street to ask for directions or when a server starts talking to me in French.

On one final note, I am sad to say that despite much walking about, I haven't really asked anyone if I can take a picture of their pooch. That didn't stop me from snagging a shot of this shaggy fellow as he trotted ahead of his owner across the street from where I was eating lunch today. Hope you enjoy!