Just a heads up, this post will have many many pictures at the end.
A few weekends ago, a friend of mine who studies abroad in Seville, Kendall, was in Paris for the weekend. Another friend of mine, Sydney, just happens to be studying abroad at the Sorbonne. On a Saturday night we all met up in la Bastille area to catch up as we literally hadn't seen each other since high school graduation. I took them to the speakeasy behind the pizzeria my Parisian friend showed me. Sydney and I have gone to school together since preschool and Kendall and I lived several houses down from each other until second grade. I was her first ever friend. The 3 of us go way back.
A few weekends ago, a friend of mine who studies abroad in Seville, Kendall, was in Paris for the weekend. Another friend of mine, Sydney, just happens to be studying abroad at the Sorbonne. On a Saturday night we all met up in la Bastille area to catch up as we literally hadn't seen each other since high school graduation. I took them to the speakeasy behind the pizzeria my Parisian friend showed me. Sydney and I have gone to school together since preschool and Kendall and I lived several houses down from each other until second grade. I was her first ever friend. The 3 of us go way back.
The week before last was UNC-Chapel Hill's spring break and about a third of my graduating class goes there. Two old friends of Sydney and mine, Sarah and Haley, came to Paris for a couple days to visit us. Sydney and I met Haley in kindergarten and Sarah the next year. After my class on Thursday that week I met them in Paris for lunch and to go sightseeing some more. It was really nice seeing old friends again. We ended the day with Sydney showing us the tea room in La Grande Mosquee (the Paris mosque). You just walk in, sit down, and a waiter comes by to hand you a small glass of piping hot, deliciously sweet, mint tea. The tea only cost 2 euros and the room itself was beautiful.
I'm a solid two weeks into my classes. School here in very laid back. The teacher walks in a few minutes late, the students finish trickling in a couple minutes later, and in about 5 more minutes class begins. That's the rule, but of course this is a French school and, as with the French language, every rule has its exception that proves it. The exception to this is my Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity class. This professor starts class on time to the second. However, we usually get out a few minutes early. The classes themselves are only once per week, but 3 hours at a time. Because they're so long, each class has a 15 to 30 minute break in the middle. The length of the break depends on how the professor's mood, the students' mood, where we are in the material, and any other factors of the day. When given the choice, the students typically opt for the 15 minute break as that means we leave class 15 minutes earlier.
After the first day I decided to drop my digital communications and strategies class. The professor spoke in rapid colloquial French, so I couldn't understand him. It also appeared, from the powerpoint, to be a primarily marketing class, which I don't enjoy studying. I dropped the class and signed up for the Geopolitics intensive spring break course to fill the credit. Geopolitics is taught in English but it will still fulfill one of my international business requirements. It'll be the first three days of spring break, leaving me with only Thursday and Friday of the break off. That's alright except I had already bought my flight to Croatia. Thankfully, the flight was only $62.22 thanks to Ryanair. That's cheaper than a class at USC, which I'd have to take if I didn't pick up this spring break course. I'm not too torn up about missing Croatia since I still have plenty of other opportunities to travel this semester.
Digital communications and strategies was on Wednesday evenings and last week my other Wednesday class, international contract law, was canceled. This meant I had the day free in the middle of my week. A couple months ago, my friend Deborah reached out to me. Deborah and I have known each other since kindergarten and she would be in Brussels for spring break. She wanted to come to Paris for a couple days while her friend in Brussels was in class. I told her she was more than welcome to stay with me and I'd be happy to show her around. It just so happened that her only full day in Paris was my free Wednesday.
Tuesday after my class I headed to Paris to meet her at the bus stop. Unlike my other friends visiting Paris, we had seen each other a month before, so our greeting was more of "Hi! How was the bus ride?" than "Oh my gosh I haven't seen you in years! How are you!?" However, the greeting was no less happy since she's been one of my best friends for close to ten years.
I showed Deborah Place de la Republique, where all the massive demonstrations take place, like the one for Charlie Hebdo. We then had dinner at the Arts et Metiers cafe right at the eponymous metro stop. I tried steak tartare for the first time while Deborah finally tried escargot. We're both foodies and loved every second of our meal. Deborah didn't have much baggage so we stayed in Paris for the evening so she could see all the lights.
The next day we got up around 9 and headed back into Paris to go sightseeing. I showed her Montmartre and the basilica then we took the metro to Notre Dame. From there we took the metro to The Invalides (Napoleon's tomb) and walked to the Eiffel Tower. From my exchange in high school I'm very familiar with that walk in the 7th arrondisment (district). It's very residential and a calm, non-touristy side of Paris most don't get to see. It was Deborah's first time in Paris and I wanted to make sure she saw as much as possible.
After sitting at the Eiffel Tower for a bit we walked through Trocadero Gardens up to l'Arc de Triomphe. From there we walked the entire length of the Champs Elysees, Tuileries Gardens, then through the Louvre. I figured that way we were able to pack as much of Paris into one day as possible since her bus back to Brussels was the next day while I was in class.
I decided to take her to dinner in the Pigalle area. I knew of a very small, inexpensive restaurant that has one other location in the world, in the West Village of New York City. The restaurant is called Buvette gastroteque (http://www.buvette.com/). I've been to the NYC location twice and wanted to try the Paris one. The food was delicious as we started with a braised rabbit terrine. She had the mussels and I had croque monsieur (a fancy grilled ham and cheese with beschemel sauce). After dinner we briefly explored the Pigalle at night. It's Paris' red light district and we wanted to be able to say we did it. After exploring we made it back by 11 and went to bed early since I had class at 9 and she had to get to the bus station. She made it no problem thanks to my very detailed directions on the RER and Paris metro. Needless to say, she had a blast her first time in Paris.
Tuesday after my class I headed to Paris to meet her at the bus stop. Unlike my other friends visiting Paris, we had seen each other a month before, so our greeting was more of "Hi! How was the bus ride?" than "Oh my gosh I haven't seen you in years! How are you!?" However, the greeting was no less happy since she's been one of my best friends for close to ten years.
I showed Deborah Place de la Republique, where all the massive demonstrations take place, like the one for Charlie Hebdo. We then had dinner at the Arts et Metiers cafe right at the eponymous metro stop. I tried steak tartare for the first time while Deborah finally tried escargot. We're both foodies and loved every second of our meal. Deborah didn't have much baggage so we stayed in Paris for the evening so she could see all the lights.
The next day we got up around 9 and headed back into Paris to go sightseeing. I showed her Montmartre and the basilica then we took the metro to Notre Dame. From there we took the metro to The Invalides (Napoleon's tomb) and walked to the Eiffel Tower. From my exchange in high school I'm very familiar with that walk in the 7th arrondisment (district). It's very residential and a calm, non-touristy side of Paris most don't get to see. It was Deborah's first time in Paris and I wanted to make sure she saw as much as possible.
After sitting at the Eiffel Tower for a bit we walked through Trocadero Gardens up to l'Arc de Triomphe. From there we walked the entire length of the Champs Elysees, Tuileries Gardens, then through the Louvre. I figured that way we were able to pack as much of Paris into one day as possible since her bus back to Brussels was the next day while I was in class.
I decided to take her to dinner in the Pigalle area. I knew of a very small, inexpensive restaurant that has one other location in the world, in the West Village of New York City. The restaurant is called Buvette gastroteque (http://www.buvette.com/). I've been to the NYC location twice and wanted to try the Paris one. The food was delicious as we started with a braised rabbit terrine. She had the mussels and I had croque monsieur (a fancy grilled ham and cheese with beschemel sauce). After dinner we briefly explored the Pigalle at night. It's Paris' red light district and we wanted to be able to say we did it. After exploring we made it back by 11 and went to bed early since I had class at 9 and she had to get to the bus station. She made it no problem thanks to my very detailed directions on the RER and Paris metro. Needless to say, she had a blast her first time in Paris.
This Wednesday is my friend Shannon's 21st birthday. She's in my program at USC studying abroad in Rome at LUISS and she decided she wanted to celebrate her birthday in Nice. On Friday morning of last week I hopped on a train to meet her and our friend Kaleigh (studying abroad at St. Gallen, shoutout to swissmissbliss.blogspot.com) at a hostel near the beach the had picked out. We had gotten a three bed private room with bathroom so the hostel felt more like a hotel to us. There are a million things I want to say about Nice but my writing abilities are not up to the challenge of doing the city's beauty any justice. We went sightseeing, dipped out toes in the Mediterrean for the first time, and went on a hostel sponsored pub crawl. We had an amazing time and Shannon had an unforgettable 21st birthday experience. I might not be able to put Nice into words, but I won't shortchange you readers, I took as many pictures as I could these past few weeks and here they all are:
Old friends and GDS Bengals reunited in Paris
The tea room in the mosque
Inside Notre Dame with Deborah
L'Esplanade des Invalides
The Sunset over the Seine, Musee d'Orsay, and the Tuileries Gardens
My croque at Buvette
The Moulin Rouge lit up at night
The foothills of the Alps on the way to Nice on the high speed train
Nice's rocky Mediterranean beach. Not very easy on your feet. I recommend thick soled shoes if you ever go.
Exploring Nice
Nice's central square, before reaching the old town
The port of Nice
The mountains behind the port. If you look closely there's an old fortress of some sort to the left.
Kaleigh snapping some shots of the port
Shannon taking pictures of the mountains
The hill in the old town there the Chateau used to be
The Mediterranean and Nice from the top of the hill
The foothills of the French Alps
All of Nice laid out before us
I tried out the panorama function on my phone's camera. Pretty good except the the random guy quickly walking away while I was taking the picture, which explains that odd anthropomorphic blur.
Another shot of the coast the took my breath away
Dipping my feet in the Mediterranean for the first time
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