The one with Le Chateau de Vincennes

We had a really fun week with basically no class (as usual) and lots of fun Paris things like shopping. I bought 2 beautiful new dresses and a spring jacket that I plan on wearing constantly for the next 2 months. In other words, I really want winter to be over and to have constant Spring. We also went out a few times, tried out a new club, and even finished watching season 1 of Glee. It's been a very relaxing week.

Then on Friday we decided to do something touristy before our big trip so we went to Le Chateau de Vincennes. I didn't actually know where we were going; it was Hugh's idea and he said it was a big forest... go figure. He's really into forests or something. But I'm all about being outdoors on any day that it isn't raining so I figured a few hours in a giant park/forest could be great. What I wasn't expecting was a giant castle built by King Charles V. It was an entire fortress with a huge mote surrounding the mini-city and then another mote surrounding the actual castle. Charles V even built a church inside the walls that models Saint Chapelle. In later year, there were another 2 palaces constructed inside the city walls, 1 for the king and one for the queen. Must be nice to have your own palace on top of your castle. Anyway, later the castle was turned into a prison and lots of famous French people were kept their and many of them left paintings and carvings in the walls. It was really quite a sight as it's the only castle inside Paris and we didn't even know it existed! Luckily we are under 26 so we got to see everything for free like most attractions in Paris.

Then today we basically prepared for the big trip. We did lots of research and created itineraries for each city. We even marked on maps where each location was so we don't waste time while we're there trying to figure out the directions. It's gonna be a blast. Bon voyage!

The one with St. Valentine's Day

This weekend was wonderful. I loved having Kelly, Audrey, and Karrah stay with me. It was so great to see friendly faces from home. We did a few touristy things and they did a few without me too. My favorite part of the weekend was Sunday afternoon when we went to Notre Dame. On Sunday afternoons at 4:30, Notre Dame hosts an organ concert with one organist on its Grand Organ. We went to listen to the music, which was incredible, and the girls who hadn't seen Notre Dame yet walked around the Basilica. I'm still mesmerized by Notre Dame in general.

After the concert, we went and got some famous Berthillion ice cream on l'ile St. Louis and enjoyed it even more the second time around. The girls left later on that night and Courtney and I hung back in our apartment and watched a few episodes of Glee.

Then today came; Valentine's Day. I wasn't sure how today would go for me but it really has been a wonderful day. When I woke up, I went for a quick run, helped put together Courtney's Valentine's day present from her boyfriend, and picked up a package from Danny at the Accent center. He sent me chocolate and candy from home! It was amazing; I've missed my Dove dark chocolate, Swedish fish, and sour patch kids. He's the best.

After getting ready for the day, Courtney and I headed out to Sacre Coeur on the North side of the city. Apparently, the best view of Sacre Coeur is at Twilight so I'll have to go back again. Sacre Coeur is both a historical and iconic landmark for Paris and it's point off the main dome is the second highest point in the city. We climbed the many steps to the top of the hill where the church sits and entered the Basilica after taking yet another couple shot of the two of us. Inside was incredible. It was similar to Notre Dame in it's arches and structure but completely different in decoration and interior design. The dome above the altar has a beautiful, elaborate painting of Jesus with his arms outstretched and different pieces are plated in gold. Inside the church, they are very strict about not speaking so we don't disturb the few people sitting in the pews to pray. I am definitely going back for mass one Sunday. I won't really be able to understand anything because the masses are in French but then again, I haven't been able to really understand mass since I've been here anyway so there isn't much of a difference. Unfortunately, the crypt and dome, which you can climb to look out over the city, weren't open today. I definitely want to go back in the future to visit both of those as well.

After our excursion to Sacre Coeur, Courtney and I headed back home. We picked up some chicken for dinner and a baguette as usual. I did a load of laundry and actually did a little homework for the first time since arriving in Paris. It's been a great day. For some reason, I do have a small bit of homesickness tonight but I'm sure that's for a lot of reasons. So tonight on this Valentine's day, I just want to say that I love you all, especially for reading my blog, and I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's day! Bon soir!

The one with Disneyland Paris

It's been a great week since we got back from Scotland. Monday was absolutely beautiful; Courtney and I went for a walk down Les Champs-Elysees and it was so warm, I didn't even wear a coat! L'arc de Triomphe is absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed the view of the grand avenue from below it. We went through another week of classes, partying on Tuesday night for Dane's birthday, and then Thursday finally came.

Now something interesting about Courtney and I is that we are both recovering from periods of excessive stress and responsibility since we left our Presidential positions. The reason I use the word recovering is because we don't fully understand what non-presidential people do with their time. We have decided to fill ours with excessive workouts and conditioning! I've been running on and off over the past 2 weeks but Thursday was our first official conditioning day. Let's just say it kicked my butt, literally. It's two days later and I'm still walking funny. Our goal: fill time/sexy by summer.

Thursday night we went out on the town near our apartment building. We had an amazing night full of wine, beer, and crepes! We stopped by our favorite crepe stand, like we do every night we go out, to say hi to the Pakistani Crepe Stand Mani, as we like to call him. He gives us free refills on fries because we give him so much service :) We bar hopped a little, ended up at the Irish pub Corcoran's where we had a few beers, and then about 2:30 we decided it really was time to get to bed because we were going to Disney in the morning! But, as Patrick the Irishman said, we had to take one for the road or it will be bad luck. So Courtney and I split one for the road, and got the best luck ever the following day.

Friday morning we woke up at about 8:15 after only sleeping about 5 hours. Personally, I prefer at least 8 hours of sleep after a night out so I wasn't the happiest morning person. But since it was for Disney, I simply had to make sacrifices! So I popped two Excedrin, got ready really fast and headed for the metro. After a 45 minute train ride, we were in Disneyland Paris! The happiest place in the world! It only opened in 1993 and was laid-out perfectly. We spent the entire day hurrying around the park to get the most out of each section. Over the course of the day, we managed to eat a hot dog, french fries, churros, ice cream and bbq ribs and potatoes. It was a feat.

The rides were amazing. My favorite was space mountain. The amazing thing about Disney rides is that most of them are indoor and you aren't just experiencing a rollercoaster, you are enjoying a rollercoaster plus special effects plus music plus decorations and every ride becomes more of an experience than a ride. From what I've heard though I've never been there, Disneyland Paris is very similar to Disney world but much smaller and they took the best rides from world, improved them and made them longer for Paris. Well, we couldn't beat that! Again, the weather was amazing, 63 degrees, so we walked around the park all day in the sunshine without jackets, and since it was a Friday there weren't very many people there and our average wait time per ride was approximately 7 minutes. Now that was luck.

After a fun filled day of Tower of Terror, Space mountain, Buzz Lightyear's adventure, and so much more, we finally headed home to get ready for Monica's birthday celebration! We went out last night to Cafe Oz which is a giant bar (bigger than a normal bar but smaller than a club). Monica was loving life and I was loving our giant group of friends and having everyone together. But it got better! After being at the bar for about an hour or two, who walks in but my best friends from home, Kelly, Audrey, Natalie, and Karrah! I was thrilled! We stayed at the bar till 3:30 and then walked home in a big group. We didn't make it to bed till 5 but we're all up and ready for another night out. First we're going out for French fondue for Monica's birthday! I'm hoping that our luck lasts and it is another great night with my friends from home and celebration of Monica's birthday part 2!

The one in Scotland

The week leading up to our trip to Scotland was the first week that felt a little more routine. We had class a few days out of the week, went running a few times, and also went out of few times. We went to this great Irish pub that's really close to our apartment called Corcoran's and I got in an intense dance-off with a french man. Then a few nights later on Thursday, we went back to club Mix and danced partied there for a few hours. Courtney and I had to leave our apartment by 5 AM the next morning though, so we didn't stay too long. We made it to bed by 2 and then got up for the best weekend we've had yet.

Our trip to Edinburgh was loooooong. First we walked to the metro station, Gare du Lyon, and too a train to Gare du Nord. From there, we took an hour long train out of Paris to the small city of Beuvais. Unfortunately, the airport isn't in the city center so we had to take a shuttle bus to the airport and then wait for our flight to leave. Gotta love Ryan Air! Honestly, the flight was really cheap and if you don't mind the hassle of getting to the airport, it's definitely worth it. So we got into Edinburgh at about noon and really wanted to make it to the free tour of the city that started at 1. Unfortunately again, the passport line took over 45 minutes so we didn't even get to the bus till 1. But we made it to the center of Edinburgh in about 20 minutes are started walking around to find our hostel and some food. We were starving and exhausted but incredibly excited to see the city.

Edinburgh is beautiful. It's a small town compared to Paris so it made it very easy for us to navigate. The rolling hills all over the city gave us a great work-out as we walked along admiring the buildings and green grass. The only downfall was the downpour that we were walking through. On the bright side, we were seeing the real Scotland! It wouldn't really be Scotland without the clouds and rain as everyone told us. By the time we made it to our hostel, we were completely soaked. Castle Rock was a great hostel; great people, great view of the castle, clean, and really fun. We dropped off our stuff and then headed back into the rain to Vat & Fiddle for some grub. We ate some soup and sandwiches and then went to explore the town a little more.

First we went up by the castle and took some pictures and admired the view from the top of the hill. Then we did a little shopping and I bought a 100% lambswool scarf. I forgot to mention this before but I love scarves and I want to buy one in every country that I visit; I want the scarves to kind of represent the country I went to so that wool, purple plaid scarf from Scotland was perfect! We shopped around a little more and then went back to Castle Rock for a quick nap before dinner and our pub crawl.

We only had 30 minutes to eat before the pub crawl when we woke up, so as embarrassing as it is, we popped into the McDonalds to grab some chicken strips and fries. We made it to the pub crawl just in time! And its a good thing we did or we might have missed our first free pint! We drank up and then headed to our second pub. The pub crawl went to 5 pubs and then a club at the end. At each pub, everyone took a free shot and then there were really great drink specials for anyone on the pub crawl. It was awesome. For those of you that believe the true way to take a shot is straight without a chaser, you'd be very proud of me because not only did I take a straight shot with no chaser, but it was a whiskey shot and anyone that knows me knows I hate whiskey. I was very proud of myself. Then halfway through the pub crawl we met up with Callie Pittman and her friend Jeri who finished the crawl with us. We met a lot of really fun people and had a great night.

Then the next morning was our big tour of the highlands. We went from 9 in the morning till 7 at night touring the Scotland highlands, stopping at castles and lochs to enjoy the scenery and beauty of Scotland's highlands. It was truly amazing. Our tour guide, Bob, was an old Scottish man that made jokes and ripped on the English. Well, he really poked fun at everyone. He made a comment that the Americans would be the first off the bus at every picture stop because we take pictures of anything old. It was a completely true statement; we don't have anything old in our country so old things like broken down castles intrigue us! He was absolutely hilarious and very insightful about all things Scottish. We learned a small amount about Scotland's history, historic figures, such as William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and Mary Queen of Scots. He also explained some of Scotland's customs and culture such as the kilt, haggis (their national food which is the lining of a sheep's stomach ground up), and of course whiskey. Bob talked for a long time about "the true Scottish men" and explained how women often try to find out if they are real men or not by sneakily checking under their kilts. This was one of the last stories he told us after we'd visited the castle where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed and also Loch Lomond. The scenery was amazing, the ride was smooth, and the commentary was very enjoyable.

We got back from the tour, grabbed some dinner and a pint at Binny Mulligan's pub and headed for our second night out on the town. First we went back to one of the bars we had been at on the pub crawl and we ended up seeing a few Germans that we met the previous night. We had a couple rounds there, switched pubs a few times, and called it a semi-early night at 1:30 because we had to leave our hostel by 4:30 to catch our plane home. So after a few quick hours of sleep, Courtney and I headed back to Paris.

Sunday was decently uneventful. I napped for about 2 hours, went to mass, had dinner, and then went to watch the superbowl. We made fast friends with a few of the locals and a bartender, got some free drinks, had a great time regardless of the outcome of the game, and finally went home by 6 AM to get some sleep. It would be the first night in 3 nights that I slept more than 3 hours. I was really looking forward to getting into my bed.

The one with Mona Lisa and Skulls

It's been an interesting weekend and it's only Saturday evening. We started out Thursday night (and as anyone in college knows, your weekend starts on Thursday night) to an apartment on the other side of the city where we met up with exchange students from Wisconsin. We hung out there for a little and then took the metro to a disco where we got in free because it was international night! We had a blast singing and dancing and meeting other international students from all over.

Then we woke up the next morning and headed to the Louvre. It was impossible to make it through the whole thing in one day. Well maybe not impossible but if you were planning on it you need to eat a really hearty breakfast and put on some serious walking shoes. The Louvre is segmented into 3 parts, Sully, Denon, and Richelieu and within each section, there are 4 floors. In about 3 and 1/2 hours, we made it through 2 floors in Sully. There's a lot more that we need to see. So before we left, we went through the museum to see a couple of the main attractions. Now, before I went to the Louvre, everyone told me that the Mona Lisa was extremely small, far away, and hidden behind pains of glass. I was pleasantly surprised when we got to the famous painting that is was much larger than I expected! It was then that I had to remind myself, I'm in Paris, at the Louvre, looking at the famous Mona Lisa painting. It was quite a feeling. Then we went and found the giant statue of Ramses II, saw a real 1000s of years old mummy, and ended with the Venus de Milo. It was amazing. The building of the Louvre itself is amazing! The architecture, walls, columns, and archways are exquisite. Many of the ceilings had grand paintings on them complete with golden details around their edges. It was absolutely beautiful. Needless to say, we are going back a few more times to make sure we see everything.

Friday night we stayed in and watched Harry Potter, ate pizza, and each had an ice cream bar. We had a little taste of home and took the night off knowing that we'd be out the next day as well. So Saturday, today, we woke up and headed out for our dangerous voyage beneath the city...Les Catacombs. After walking through the entrance, you descend down 132 stairs in a twisting spiral staircase. The entrance made it very clear that this journey was not for the faint-hearted, and for good reason. They even had a defibrillator next to the entrance just in case! Very comforting. When we got to the bottom, we first read about when it was made by the romans, how it was used during the Revolution as a secret meeting place, and how it is the resting place of hundreds of thousands of bodies. We walked through many very tight, narrow, and low walkways that twisted and turned, 10 stories beneath the bustling city. If you are at all claustrophobic, I do not recommend going down. About halfway through, we came to an opening with an inscription that had been etched into the rock wall that read, "Stop! Here is the empire of death." If that didn't stop you, the sight certainly would. Bones upon bones were piled high on both sides, creating a clear walkway through the tunnel. Skulls were strategically placed within the piles of legs and arms to create patterns of crosses or arches. It literally took your breath away but in a creepy way. The most incredible aspect of the catacombs was how vast it was. The tunnels stretched on and on in different directions, filled with bones in areas blocked off to visitors. When we finally ascended the stairs back to the busy streets of Paris, I was incredibly thankful for the sunlight and the fresh air. We headed home a little later and we're about to make dinner now and then head out on our first real Parisian bar-crawl. It's funny to think that hours ago, I was inches from millions of bones. I'll be happy to think about my cooking pasta instead.

The one with my First Week of Class

Based on what I heard from friends who have studied at ESCP in the past, I expected my classes to be easy and potentially boring. What I didn't expect was that I'd love them. My first class each week is Tuesday mornings for 3 hours: strategic marketing. At first, I felt like I was right back in Badm 320 listening to Oatmeal talk about branding. But then the class changed; we were put into groups of 5 and were given a semester long assignment. Now, I usually try not to be too competitive but this class is going to bring that side out of me for sure. Our semester long project is a marketing simulation where each team works for a separate company and uses the simulation to boost their product sales against their competitors. My group is awesome and half of our class time each week will be spent in groups. Bring it on.

Then Tuesday afternoon I have positional bargaining. Ok, so this is the class I heard was a joke. To be honest, it's a joke in terms of how we're graded but it actually might turn out to be one of the most beneficial classes I ever take. What do we do in class? Argue. Alright, we do a little more than that. First we were given an acquisition case and then the class was split up into 2 groups and we planned out our strategies of how we will approach the other side in next week's class. The best part ESCP is that there are students from all over the world in each of my classes. In this class, even on the first day, it was interesting to see how each person approached the issues and what kind of result they each wanted. For example, the Americans talked too much, the Russians thought no one could compromise and wouldn't agree with anyone, the Polish hardly talked, and the Spaniard always played devil's advocate. Now, I'm not trying to stereotype because this was only one class but it was certainly interesting.

Then Wednesday afternoon I had Consumer Behavior: again, just like badm 320. Our professor is from the states and he's very interesting. His entire lecture was filled with interesting facts and statistics. The only problem was that it really was just that, a lecture for 3 hours. If it wasn't for the 15 minute break that we get in the middle of each class, there is no way I'd be able to pay attention for that long. Oh, and he actually has the most ridiculous comb over; it's impressive. If you have some coffee and are really awake for this class, it's got a lot of potential to be great.

Thursday morning's class was my favorite by far. Even though we went out Wednesday night and I was tired for class, I was blown away by our professor. The class is "Does the European Construction lead to a European Model?" Before going to class I was hoping the answer was just going to be "Yes" and that's all I needed to know. But the class is primarily on the European Union and our teacher just knows his stuff. This class is a mix of history, politics, economics, government, and culture. It's awesome. Even though I was hoping for very easy classes this semester, I'm actually really looking forward to being challenged in a different way by these classes that really give you an international perspective on life. Really, that's what Dean Hedeman believes studying abroad is all about. He told me a long time ago that I'd come back a new person. I'm only about 2 weeks in and I don't know if I'll come back a new person but I think I will definitely have a new perspective.

The one where we ate Waffles, Fries, and Chocolate

Our first trip out of Paris was definitely eventful. We took the metro to Paris Nord station to take an express train to Brussels. The station was huge and had a massive departures board which mechanically rotated every minute or so. We were so intrigued by it we all took pictures :) When we finally boarded the train, we were all tired from the night before and slept the entire way there. When we arrived in Brussels, we realized that our hostel was on the opposite side of the city, so we left the station and ventured towards the heart of the city to see what Brussels was all about, luggage and all. Luckily we traveled light! We were almost to the Grand Place when we noticed a small little store to our left. It was a minute before we realized it was a chocolate museum! Sign me up. So we went in, paid a few euros to walk around the museum, see how chocolate is made, listen to a chocolatier explain how he makes chocolate, and enjoy the FREE SAMPLES! Didn't they realize American girls can't say no to chocolate? Or is that just women in general? Anyway, we had our fill of chocolate before we left and certainly got our money's worth.

When we left the chocolate museum, it was only a few seconds before we were in the Grand Place. The architecture was beautiful but didn't match the rest of the city at all. It was very old and even a bit dark. We took some pictures in the square but then we noticed a lot of people walking around with fries. Without any shame, Torey immediately walked up to a couple and practically demanded, "Where did you get those?" They pointed us down the street away from the square and we began our quest. After all the chocolate, it was time for a salty Belgium specialty: frites special, or french fries with ketchup, grilled onions, and lots of mayonnaise. It's basically a heart attack in a bowl, but again, totally worth it. Here's a picture of me faking a heart attack before even eating them:

So after yummy, yummy fries, we went to see the Manneken Pis: a small fountain of a little boy peeing. It was supposed to be Brussels' equivalent to Paris' Eiffel Tower... huge disappointment. But it was still funny to see all the tourist attractions centered around a peeing boy. You can buy peeing boy bottle openers, figurines, chocolate statues, t-shirts, you name it. After seeing the Manneken Pis, we headed to our hostel. We took a quick nap when we got there any then got ready to go out. First, we headed back to the square to eat sandwiches and waffles before trying to find the Delirium Pub. If you haven't heard of Delirium, let me fill you in: it's a bar that serves over 2004 different beers! I loved every minute of it. The atmosphere was exciting and although it was filled with a cloud of smoke, we enjoyed the Michael Jackson tribute that played all night long. We made friends with a bunch of Spaniards and we enjoyed many different types of Belgian beer. Overall, it was a great night.

The next morning, Courtney and I got up and went to mass at a giant cathedral down the street. For such a large church, it was odd to see only 38 people total at mass... it didn't really seem like Brussels had a very religious community. Anyway, after church we headed to the train station to take a 50 minute train to Brugge. We were told it was beautiful so we went to check it out for the day. What we had heard was correct: it was everything you'd imagine a small European town to look like. It was very quaint and intriguing with a small river running through it and little squares throughout the small city. The most interesting thing about Brugge was that it had more chocolate shops than Wheaton, Illinois has churches which is saying something. Everywhere you looked there was a sign that read, "Belgium's Finest Chocolate." We didn't know who to believe! Who's was really the best? So after walking around for an hour or so, we went with the only sign that read, "The best hot chocolate you will ever have." And they weren't kidding. The hot chocolate was amazing. They give you a large cup of steaming milk and then a chocolate cup filled with chocolate chips which you add to the milk yourself to give it as much chocolate as you desire. Bon Appetite!

After a little more window shopping and walking around Brugge, we headed back to Brussels to make it to the American sports bar, Fat Boys, to catch the Bears Game. While we were there we ate true American food: cheese fries, onion rings, mozzarella sticks, and burgers. What a treat! Although the result of the game didn't turn out at all how we had hoped, we still had a great time amongst the lively atmosphere or Bears and Packers fans. Soon after the game ended, we headed back to the hostel for some shuteye.

The next day was one of those awkward days where you have enough time to do something small but not enough time to do anything significant before heading home. I hate traveling in the mid-afternoon. I really prefer traveling in the morning so I can get to my destination and move on from there. But since we had some time, we walked to the Palais Royal and took some pictures of the grand building. Then we headed back to the square to grab some lunch. We basically cafe hopped on our way back to the train station. We headed home the same way we came and made it back to Paris in time to do grocery shopping and laundry before our first real day of class. I had no idea then what my classes would be like but I was in for a real surprise the next morning.