The City That Doesn't Know It's a City

I feel like I've cheated study abroad.  Half the joys of travel is getting lost in a new city with little knowledge of the language left to your own devices.  Everywhere I've been everyone was able to communicate in either English or French, especially in Oslo; EVERYONE there spoke English.  In Madrid even all the club promoters on the street spoke English.  I also never once got lost thanks to French cell phone plans.  My 5 gigabytes can be used all over Europe during 35 days every year, so no matter where I went I always had Google Maps to tell me how to get back to my hostel or where to meet my friends to go clubbing.  (French cell plans are pretty great because I get unlimited talk and text, that 5 gig data deal, and I can call the US all included in my thirty euros per month.  That's $33.60 at the current exchange rate.)  However, do I feel like this really detracted at all from my study abroad experience?  Not one bit.

Monday night I got back from a weekend in Madrid.  Before leaving I knew absolutely about Madrid or Spain in general except for it's a former dictatorship, they speak Spanish, everything starts and ends late, and I wanted the paella, tapas, and sangria.  On the flight over I was blown away by how beautiful, tropical looking, and small everything was.  Madrid is the capital city but it didn't feel like a city.  No matter where in the city I was it felt like a moderately small town.  I went to visit Ricky, who I met in the Paris-Beauvais airport on the way to Venice.  It was my first time traveling and staying in a hostel completely alone so I'm grateful he was able to show me around.

One of my friends from ESSEC is actually from Madrid, a student at IE, and was home after his exchange.  What's more, three more of my ESSEC friends were also there for weekend.  I got to hang out with them and Manuel, the Madrileño, showed us around the historical part of the city.

I stayed at OK Hostel which I'd highly recommend to anyone traveling to Madrid.  The whole place was very clean and the staff was cool, for lack of a better word.  Every night a tapas chef came in and cooked a three course meal that came with unlimited Tinto de Verano (a sweet red wine drink similar to sangria) and beer for ten euros.  I took advantage of that on two of my four nights and it was actually really good.  

The stereotype of Spain is that everything is late.  This is 100% true.  The hostel said dinner started at 9.  People would sit down at 9 but the first course usually wasn't ready until 10.  Then before going out I'd meet my friends at midnight to hang out and drink a little wine before heading to the club,  We wouldn't get to the first bar until about 1:30 and finally we'd arrive at the club between 2:30 and 3.  This all sounds unreasonably late, but we were usually among the first to show up to the club.  We'd usually leave between 5:30 and 6.  I thought it'd be hard to make it to 6 am but when everything else starts so late it's surprisingly easy.  That being said, my mornings were at 1 pm or later the whole weekend.

I'm back in Cergy now.  My aunt, Dad's youngest sister, gets in tomorrow and is staying in Paris through Sunday.  When she leaves I have a solid two weeks to work on (read: start) my thesis and application to the Masters of International Business program before meeting up with my family in London.  This will be my final blog post.  I hope you've enjoyed reading about my international experience at least half as much as I've the experience itself.  Of course, pictures from my last side trip are below.

From left to right Elisa from Italy, Gonzalo from Chile, Manuel from Spain, and Andrea from Ecuador

The Royal Palace which was designed after and to be bigger than Versailles...and Manuel's head

An ancient Egyptian temple that was gifted to Spain on display in the park next to the palace

My friend and my significant other: The friend is Ricky who I blogged about meeting on the flight to Venice.  The significant other is that gorgeous plate of paella.

This was all the ham hanging up at the same place where the paella picture was taken.  It was at a tapas bar called El Tigre.  I'm certain this is what heaven looks like.

The pond at Retiro park

That first paella and I broke up so that I could chase after this one, even though it's way out of my league.

Churros and Limón on my last night.  Fried dough with chocolate sauce and a sweet lemon slushy.  What's not to love?

This pint of tinto and these four delicious sandwiches cost me 3.50.  Madrid is a beautiful city.

Omelette du Fromage

If you're reading this I really hope you caught the Dexter's Lab reference in the title.  That show was definitely in my top 5 growing up.

France's number 1 industry is tourism, so naturally, walking around Paris I hear a lot of different languages.  I hear people speaking rapidly in French, English, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and more.  Most communicate with sales associates, waiters, etc. in English if they don't speak French.  If you're in Paris and you don't speak one of those two languages you're pretty much out of luck (note: the irony that if you didn't speak English you wouldn't be reading my blog in the first place).  Most of the time, if your accent while speaking French sounds foreign they'll switch to English talking to you. 

While out and about in Paris (no, I will never get tired of saying that) I hear lots of really bad attempts at French.  There are a lot of "French expressions" we learn and hear about in America that the French haven't used since the 1950's.  Since this is a blog about my study abroad experience, I figured I'd dedicate a post to clarifying some of these.

Omelette du Fromage

If you ever watched Dexter's Lab on Cartoon Network you know this is supposed to mean cheese omelet.  However, when it comes to food the preposition "à" which means "at" or "to" is used when describing the flavor or preparation.  "Du" is a contraction of "de" meaning "of" and "le" meaning "the."  The proper translation of "cheese omelet" would be "omelette au fromage."  The same goes for "pain au chocolat" or "tarte aux fraises" (strawberry tart).  "Au" is a contraction of "à" and "le."  The "x" at the end is used when the noun it's modifying is plural.  Unlike in English, contractions are not colloquial speech devices.  It's grammatically incorrect not to use them in formal writing.  The French language LOVES its prepositions.

Pardon vs. Excusez-moi

Both these expressions are used by native French speakers, but in different contexts as I've learned from my experience.  "Excusez-moi" literally translates to "excuse me" and is used in the context of, "Excuse me.  I need to ask or tell you something or get your attention in some vaguely significant way."  "Pardon" on the other hand means "pardon me."  But in context it's typically used as, "I'm coming through.  Let me off this train now," or "Oh my gosh you are walking so slow move over and let me by before I eat you."  My favorite use of "pardon" is, "If you almost hit me with your selfie stick one more time I swear I will snap it over my knee and throw it into the Seine."  But of course, both phrases are considered to be relatively polite.

Sacré Bleu!

This phrase, literally meaning "sacred blue," is supposed to mean "oh my gosh!" but no one says it...ever.  It'd be like exclaiming "Well I declare!" in the middle of New York City.  The antebellum southern belle has been dead for quite some time now.  No one says either of these expressions anymore.

Oh là là!

I first heard this expression said by Pepé le Pew, the lovesick harassing skunk.  He used it as an expression of, "Oh my isn't that nice!"  Consequently, many Americans, myself included, came to think of it in that context.  French people still say this, but it literally means "oh there there."  In conversation people use it to say, "Wow that's too bad.  I'm glad I'm not you," but in a sympathetic way.

"Voulez-vous choucher avec moi, ce soir."

We get it.  You've heard the song "Lady Marmalade" or seen the movie "Moulin Rouge."  You're not funny. 

I hope this cleared something up for you.  If not, I at least hope it entertained you for however long it took you to read this.  

I'm still hanging out in Paris and Cergy.  A week from today I leave for a weekend in Madrid.  The American guy who Shannon, Katie, James, and I met in Venice is doing a summer term there so he's going to show me around when he's not in class.  36 hours after getting back to France my aunt (my dad's youngest sister) is coming with her best friend for 6 days and I get to show them around my favorite city in the world.  Two weeks after they leave I hop on the Eurostar to London to meet my my mom and her side of the family and I'm traveling with them for a couple weeks.  We're doing a week in London, a couple days back in France in the Loire Valley, and then a week in Paris.  After they leave I have just 4 short days to pack up, move out, and board my flight back to Charlotte.

My last final at ESSEC was this past Tuesday.  I feel really good about how my classes here went.  I won't find out my grades until next month, but as long as I got a 12/20 (what would be a C) I get credit for the course.  Thankfully, my grades don't affect my GPA so it's just a matter of getting credit.  I'm really excited for my summer to begin.  Even though classes are over, I'll keep updating this blog until I get back to the states.