After Ireland (delayed)

Well I've been back in the US for over a month now, and now classes back at UD are in full swing. While I was in Ireland instead of posting, I recorded everything in a journal for a course requirement, and I guess I just never had the time to upload it all. I loved Ireland, though! I got better quickly and got a chance to travel to every corner of Ireland- Dublin, Cork, Galway, Northern Ireland, and London, England. I really had a wonderful time, and can't wait to return to the Emerald Isle and the United Kingdom.

Now that the chaos of the semester is setting in it's nice to have a real routine instead of bouncing from place to place every week or so. Still, I can't seem to stay in one place for too long any more- I'm off to visit New York this weekend for an Art Department Field Trip! I'm done with this blog, but not with my travels.

So far we've been taking it easy here in Dublin. Erin's parents left Sunday, and since we've mostly just taken things slowly and relaxed- kind of dreading the start of classes Thursday. (Tomorrow, Wednesday, we go to UCD).

We've gone to Glasnevin Cemetery, to Castletown House in Celbridge (it's a really cool old estate), and I went to a med clinic (without much result). We've also gotten to watch a lot of Irish and British TV. It's been interesting...

The game shows are fun to watch, because occasionally the questions will be very specifically British. What's the northernmost county in England? What British game show was based on the game Knots and Crosses? The humor we've seen, or should I say, the humour, is interesting. I love many British shows, and typically love (and understand) a decent portion of British humour. Some of the Irish humour is a bit more bizarre. For instance, we flipped channels and found a strange Irish skit- type show that included some commentary on the current Irish financial situation but with cuts to, for instance, a drag-queen version of the (female) Irish president going back in time and head-butting and English landlord.... and it all has those Monty Python-esque quick cuts that can leave you disoriented if you don't know what's going on. We end up a bit confused, but I still like it.

Tomorrow we actually have to go to the university and get ready for classes. I 'm also supposed to go back to the med clinic on Thursday so they can see if I'm well. I have a suspicion that my ears will still have pressure in them, like they have for almost a week now. Oh well. I can still tell I'm getting better, it's just been a very long process.

It's been a while

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted. Since my last post I've left Angers, left France altogether, gone to Florence, gone to Munich, and then finally come to Dublin. It's been pretty busy. Let's see if I can be a bit more specific....

Back in France:

The day before finals we went the the Cointreau factory. Then we went to a group dinner. Then at night, we studied for finals. That I wasn't to fond of- I like having actual study time for finals.

I don't think I did well at all on my French final, I have to say. I know I learned a lot in 4 weeks of study, but in class was discussion based, and the test was mostly vocabulary and conjugations. There was very little similarities between the class and the test, in my opinion. Oh well. After the test my teacher Muriel asked (in French, of course) if I did I did well, and I just said "Uhh....." Then she told me that she knew I'd made a lot of progress compared to my first day in Angers. So hopefully my grade will be alright...

Econ went very well, although it was a very long test. That's Barbara John for you.

That night we (Dana, BJ, Rachel, and their visiting friends) went out to get crepes.

Since my Easyjet flight out of France had been cancelled the day before, on Friday I slept in a bit in Angers, took an afternoon train to Paris, and a night train to Florence to meet Erin. While sick. Worst. Idea. Ever. Just a word of advice: if you are ever so nauseous you can't eat all day, don't take a night train. Attempting to sleep in a crowded couchette is not a good idea, especially when the bathroom is a jump down, walk along a narrow hallway, and wait in line, away. I didn't get a lot of sleep. Another contributing factor is that the porter takes your passport away for the night when he takes your ticket. That make me very uncomfortable- since I was getting off hours before the last stop in Rome.

In Florence after the night train disaster, I couldn't muster up any energy to sightsee. We sat in the hotel room most of the day exchanging stories, and only briefly took a walk to the Duomo. Fortunately, I've seen Florence before, so I didn't feel gipped by the experience.

Then, we flew to Munich- me on a last minute flight we booked the day before. All I knew was I couldn't possibly handle another night train. So, instead, I waited in the airport for 5-7 hours or so. When I finally did get on the plane, it was technically business class. (It was literally the last seat on the plane). That was infinitely better than a night train, I'll just say.

In Munich we met up with Erin's parents, saw several churches, went to the Hofbrauhaus, and went to an art museum. It was lovely. I missed Germany.

And now, finally, we are in Dublin. Have been for a few days. We've walked a lot of the city so far and done: more churches, the Guinness brewery, the Jameson distillery, Dublin Castle, the Book of Kells, and more.

My summer so far has also been brought full-circle.... the other day we were eating shepherd's pie in an Irish pub, and the song "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" came on. I have to say, even in wonderful Dublin, I still miss Istanbul....

I'm excited to be in one place for a while. One place that speaks English. It's going to be weird.

Well, the internet doesn't work in our hotel room and my power is about to run out here in the hotel pub.

I should write sooner next time.

Last Days in Angers

I'm ready to get out of France. Not that it's not lovely...

For the most part this week has been just more of the same- more sick, more cold/rain/clouds outside, and more and more homework. Part of my desire to leave France stems from my desire to be done with my classes here- Econ and French. Honestly, I can't see myself returning to either of these subjects, so it's hard to continue to work at this intense pace to learn the information. I'm ready to move on- I'm already getting into the Irish mindset. Yesterday I started reading one of the books for my Irish philosophy of literature class, and it is SO much more interesting than graphs or conjugations. That plus the Flogging Molly I listened to on the bus are just making these next few days feel like an eternity... sigh, I'm sure it's just overall exhaustion from being sick and working too much. The weekend was nice, though. Yesterday we went to the lake her in Angers, and that was great. We swam around, jumped off of the docks, and laid out in the grass. That was wonderful.

Friday and Saturday nights we went out to 2 different pubs to watch the World Cup games- France vs. Uruguay on Friday and US vs. England on Saturday. We weren't expecting to see excitement for Saturday's game of course, but we were expecting to see some excitement for Friday's game with France! This is a European country, and the World Cup, after all- how could there not be enthusiasm? Yes, there was a pub or two filled with people watching the game, but they were downright silent. There was no cheering, no yelling- a few times we heard disappointed sighs when a kick went wrong. That was it. When the game ended in a 0-0 tie, everyone walked home quietly. We had been expecting the stereotypical European football fans.

Here are a few stereotypes about the French that appear to be true (to our very limited observation and of course not applicable to all French):

Baguettes. According to our own supermarket observations, the French really do buy a lot of baguettes- at least 50% of the people we noticed were buying baguettes. The baguettes also appear to be larger here as well.

Horizontally-striped shirts. You know the cartoon image of a Frenchman standing at an easel with a beret and a horizontally-striped shirt? Well, the beret is of course ridiculous. The shirt, on the other hand.... so many people here where horizontally-striped shirts! You literally can't turn around without seeing another one. Perhaps it's a global fashion trend and we're just noticing it here...

Smoking. Yes, the French do smoke quite a bit more than the Americans, as long as we're making sweeping generalizations.

Last and most tricky to explain: rudeness. Of course, there are rude people everywhere. Of course, the vast majority of people here are extremely nice and helpful. But....

We get a general feeling of being judged wherever we walk here. There is a lot of staring. Even when we don't speak, we apparently wear giant signs declaring our nationality. Well, declaring our foreign-ness. One time some people complained about us being Spanish tourists... but usually the complaints are about Americans.

How do they know? Once Dana and I stood at the curb silently waiting to cross the street, and a teenager ran up, linked arms with Dana, and shouted into her face "HOW ARE YOU?" When we reacted, he ran away to his friends laughing and shouting back to us "I don't want to f*** you anyway".

One of the boys on our trip was walking alone- silently- wearing only clothes purchased in Europe- and women behind him complained about the "American". Seriously, how do they know? These are just two recent stories out of many, many similar incidences here in France.

What motivates these select few to be so obnoxious towards Americans, anyway? Some Americans may be rude to tourists in the US, but I can't imagine, for instance, a New Yorker grabbing a tourist and screaming in the tourist's native tongue. Sigh.

I know full well that these odd people do not represent the French as a whole. I've met many many polite and helpful French. The vast majority do in fact have common courtesy. It's just this small but vocal percentage that make us feel so unwelcome....

Oh well. On Friday I fly off to Italy, then it's Germany, and then the Emerald Isle. I'm excited to speak English without being judged. Well, at least if I'm judged it will only be for my accent, not the whole language.

First days in Angers

I'm in Angers! and sick. Colds and study abroad trips are not a pleasant combination. Angers is nice, though. From what we've seen, it's very quiet here- all of the students have left for the summer, so it feels like the city is pretty empty.

Today we were given a walking tour of the city (while wearing our backpacks for school, which was not so fun) and a tour of the school and a bit of the surrounding area. Then we went to class, and I had my first french class here in Angers. It's still intense. Today we talked a bit about French culture and politics, and she corrected our pronunciation a lot, which was great because I have no idea how to pronounce the words properly. At first she spoke very fast, but the more blank stares I gave her, the slower she spoke, the more I could pick up from what she said. Hopefully I'll be able to learn quickly enough for this class.

We also went grocery shopping by the school. I do love shopping for groceries in foreign countries. It's kind of fun when you have no idea what's going on. Well, it's kind of fun until the checkout. Then you just feel like an idiot when you can't understand what the cashier is trying to tell you. Still, though, that's one of the great experiences of living abroad- trying to figure things out when you're clueless.

This experience is one of the many reasons I prefer to stay in one place for a while rather than bounce from city to city, from hotel to hotel. I don't think I really gained all that much from our travel days in Austria and Germany. They were great, and the cities were awesome, but it very quickly became WAY too much touristy stuff. In a finite period, there are only so many castles and churches one can take, and there are only so many hills one can climb, because after a while, all of the valley and river views blend together. When you bounce from city to city, your view of the world just becomes flat. You don't see anything out of the ordinary in a city, you just hit the tourist high points, and those are in no way an accurate depiction of the town or the culture. Everything gets oversimplified, and there's no struggle, because in the tourist spots, everyone speaks English to you. I need to spend real, substantial time in a place.

As difficult as they will be, hopefully I will enjoy these next (almost) two weeks in Angers.

A whirl of wind

This past week has been crazy. We haven't stopped since we left Budapest, it's been a whirlwind of travel! Since my last post I've been to Vienna, Salzburg, Rothenburg, Bacharach, Trier, and now, Paris. Sunday we leave for Angers, and it's back to classes. There has been no stopping!

and now I will attempt to describe these past few days:

Vienna

We went to the open market to eat when we first arrived, and then wandered about. The next day, we went to the Spanish riding school and saw the horse performance. Then we went to Shonbrunn Palace (in the pouring rain, and I had forgotten my coat). I had seen it before, so I wasn't really looking forward to it, but it was absolutely amazing. We went to a strudel-making demonstration first, and then since the rain had stopped we walked the palace grounds. We ran through a hedge maze, played on the playground, and then walked up a hill to the Gloriette. Then, we actually went inside and did the standard tour of the palace. That night we ate at an open-air restaurant, that is, a restaurant with a retractable roof and vines for a ceiling.

Salzburg

If you are ever in the Salzburg area, go on a salt mine tour. It was awesome! I'd also been to a salt mine before, but in Poland, so it was a very different experience. The one we just went to in Salzburg had a train thing to take you into the mine, wooden slides to take you to different levels of the mine, an underground salt lake, and allowed us to go to Germany underground! You also get to (well, have to) wear white coveralls down in the mine.

The city itself is pretty quiet, but it was nice. Between Salzburg and Rothenburg, we stopped at Dachau.

Rothenburg

This is a gorgeous city! We stayed at the bottom of the hill of the town, in a hotel made out of a restored mill. It's a preserved medieval town, and it is very nice, if also pretty quit. We took the "night watchman" tour in the evening, which was extremely touristy, but interesting. The next day we went to the medieval torture museum, which was surprisingly fascinating! For example, we saw a drunk tank, chastity belts, and devices for dunking witches.

Bacharach

In Bacharach we stayed in a hostel on a hill that was once a castle, and took a boat tour. The next day was a holiday in Germany, so when we got on the train to leave the city, it was packed to bursting with vacationing Germans and their bikes.

Trier

Trier is a city in Germany near France, and is filled with Roman ruins. We mostly walked around and saw sights- churches, ruins, etc. There really just isn't enough time to get much more done when you're only in a city for a day! I did get a sketch in, which was nice.

Paris

And here I am right now, in Paris. Perhaps it's the past week of hectic travel, or the fact that I've already been to Paris, but I don't see all of the touristy things as totally necessary in Paris. Today, we knocked out a lot after our train arrived in the afternoon (and then we took our luggage on the metro to our hotel.....). We went to Notre Dame, then to the Louvre to hit a few specific pieces- Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, The Raft of Medusa, Hamurabi's code, to name a few. I wish we could have spent more time, but the group just wanted to hit the highlights, and I'm a bit too tired from travel today to enjoy the Louvre like I should. I was glad to see more pieces from my art history classes, though!

Then we went to the Eiffel Tower (which is right by our hotel), sat in the park for a while, and then walked up to the 2nd level (about 400 feet up, or, according to the internet, 719 steps).

It's been a long day, a long week, a long summer so far. I may only have two weeks left in this particular trip, but I'm not even halfway to the end yet! It's gonna be a whirlwind.

Vienna waits

I'm going to miss Budapest. As I write this it's just after 7am here, and I've woken up early to finish my packing, so this will be a short post- in a few hours we leave for Vienna.

Everything here in Budapest has moved fast, especially these past two days. Thursday after classes we took a field trip to the Unicum factory where we learned the history of the drink and the Zwack company, and then were given three different samples- Unicum, Unicum next, and a traditional Hungarian drink called polinka. After that, and a lecture on the EU, we went to a lovely dinner on a boat at a restaurant called Spoon, and then to another boat for a night tour of the Danube.

The Danube is absolutely gorgeous at night.

It was also a bit interesting doing economics homework after going on the Unicum field trip....

oh, college.

After classes on Friday, we went to get hot chocolate despite the warm weather, and then (after a long attempt to return clothing to a store) we saw the shoes sculpture along the Danube- in memory of the Jews shot along the Danube during WWII.

After that cheery final sight-see we went out to a nice dinner to say good-bye to the city.

I'm excited to keep moving, but it's strange to think how much of the summer has already gone by. I'm already about half-way through this study abroad portion of my summer. Yikes.