June 4, Day 13

DISCLAIMER: long post, mostly because it’s a large reflection on my feelings about France and the trip thus far. Just a warning.

This was our last day in Paris, and we had a free day and were allowed to spend the day doing whatever we wanted. I actually had a suggestion and idea of something that I personally wanted to do for once. (Well I guess the bikes in Avingnon was my idea too. I just have good idea because I’m so awesome.) I picked up a brochure next to the elevator in the Holiday Inn about a permanent Salvador Dali museum some ways away from the city. I thought oh that’d be awesome if I could go see that. It turned out that other people were interested too which I was stoked about. So this is how my free day went: Starbucks, Sandwiches, Dali Museum, Hard Rock Café, Grand Arch, tourist shopping. Definitely a full busy day, and well worth it for the most part.

Of course I started out my day right again with an iced latte and pain au chocolat- my newfound love. I didn’t eat anything at the sandwhich shop because I’d just had a pastry. Natasha had bought internet for herself the night before this day and had gone online and mapped out all of our destinations and figured out which subway lines to take where and what not etc. etc., so that was pretty awesome. Our first destination was the Dali museum. We took the subway to wherever Natasha chose, and then walked a ways looking around for it. Eventually we did find it. It was awesome. I love Salvador Dali. He’s an artist I’ve known about since the beginning of high school and one I’ve always loved researching and finding more out about. At this museum they had a lot of his sculptures, numerous prints he had made, and throughout the museum they had various photos of him and tons of quotes of his. To put it simply, it was magical and I loved every minute of it. It was awesome to be in the presence of many original work of Salvador Dali. Definitely a cool experience. After we were done wandering around the museum, Natasha really wanted to go to the Hardrock Café she’d looked up. So we did. It was nice to have a restaurant menu in English again for once, and our waiter spoke seemingly fluent English, which was nice as well. I definitely was at a point where I was ready to hear the English language again. I was getting tired of not knowing what the heck I was ordering at restaurants and having to use sign language to communicate with anyone. My meal was decent… I mean it was American, and now I really prefer French food over American food any day. Once we ate Matt wanted to go to the Grand Arch, which is kind of like a modern version of the Arc de Triumph.. and you can actually see one from the other, which really bothers me actually. I don’t like being able to see the old antique roman arch then a huge modern square box off in the distance, but that’s just me. So we went there, I just followed people around because I wasn’t too interested in seeing a large square monument. It was nice to walk around though. I love walking, and that’s a good thing because I’ve walked more on this trip than I have any other time in my life.. or so it seems. I wanted to do some specific tourist shopping back where I saw things I wanted near the Notre Dame, so we headed back there as our last stop of the day. I got what I was looking for and we just headed back to the hotel from there.

It was a long day, lots of walking and visiting places, but that’s what everyday here has basically consisted of. It’s mostly sightseeing with a touch of photography and history lessons here and there. Plus shooting whenever I feel the need when we’re out and about. I was proud of myself to have spent all of my euros except for 0.18. Money souvenir I guess. I didn’t go out to dinner or anything, but I had half of a goat choose, tomato, lettuce baguette sandwich left over from another day, plus a half litre of European coke that I had to finish (no problem), and some candy- so there’s a full meal right there.

Thinking of how I felt about leaving France, I feel like it’s kind of bittersweet really. I made a little pros and cons table in my journal and this is what it turned out to look like:

(keep in mind this is kind of comparing what France has vs. what England has, or what I thought England would probably have)

Pros Neutral Cons

-food -dirty -language

-coffee -smoke -rude people

-pastries -$$$

-language -subways

-noise

So basically the pros were really what France has that England doesn’t, the cons are what England has that France doesn’t, and the neutral things are what both I’m assuming have, but I don’t really like nor dislike… except that was a lie because the first three listed under neutrals are all things that I don’t necessarily like.

I feel like I should kind of explain my thinking behind everything I listed, starting with the pros of France. The food, I shouldn’t have to say much about that- the food in France rules and I know London’s food won’t be as great. Coffee- another thing that shouldn’t need explanation- you can get a delicious fresh shot of espresso anywhere you go in France, and I love that. Pastries I guess fall under food as well, but when it comes to France I think they definitely deserve their own little subcategory because they’re all so extravagant and extra delicious. The language for me is a good and bad thing; bad: I barely know any French, and therefore it has made it a little more difficult to navigate around and communicate with people, but good: for things like when it comes to what I’m aiming for in my photography series from this trip. My reasoning behind that is that as I’ve stated earlier I’m going along the Street Photography route, and Street Photography is generally candid shots of people on the streets, out and about, doing what they want to do. It’s easier to get away with candid shots if you don’t speak the language of wherever you are because 1) people are more forgiving and understand that I’m a touristy American who they’ll never see again so they don’t care if I take a candid photo of them and 2) if someone does get angry, I won’t understand what they yell at me, and can therefore play the innocent unaware foreigner card. It’s perfect, and I’ll definitely miss that in England.

Moving on to the neutral column: the dirtiness. It’s incredibly dirty in France. The streets, the people, the bathrooms, (even though you usually have to pay 0.50 euro to even use a bathroom that supposedly is used to pay the employees who are supposed to clean them), everything just feels dirty in general. It also kind of smells too. I mean just walking down the street, quite often you can be just randomly hit with some mysterious stink that the wind has picked up. Not necessarily the most appealing thing about being in France. I was sure that England would kind of be the same way. Oh, the smoke. Everybody smokes. I think I’ve said something about that already. I mean I prefer walking through clouds of cigarette smoke to cigar smoke any day, but all the time, everywhere, everyone is always smoking. Quite convenient though, for those on the trip who do smoke. I did expect people to smoke in France, duh, but I had no idea that literally everyone I saw would. It’s kind of disgusting thinking about how blackened all of the citizens’ lungs are. Sucks for them. The money. Obviously in France, the currency is euros, and euros are more expensive than dollars, thus making everything more expensive. I know that pounds in England are even worth more than a pound, which makes everything even MORE expensive, which is just dumb, but I mean I chose to come here so I can get over it. The subways aren’t really something that I really mind that much. I put it in neutral because I feel like it can be a good and bad thing. Great system of getting around, but terrible if you get lost. And it’s also not the best thing in the world when you have over 40lbs. of luggage to lug around with you, because subways and metros move fast, and it’s hard to move fast when you’ve added weight to yourself. I’m going to have big biceps when I get back from all of the lifting and carrying and dragging I’ve done. They told us no rolling bags, but they were wrong, because everyone in Europe has a rolling back, and if I would have brought one I wouldn’t suffer from collar bone and shoulder bruises and neck abrasions from whenever I spend a day transferring and traveling. They look cool though so I’m over it. Lastly in the neutral list is the noise. Going to bed at night in France always sucked, because I don’t think the city ever sleeps with the exception of Sunday night. There’s always some festival or crazy party going on. There’s always some really loud karaoke bar nearby, or just any bar in general. I actually expected France to be a little more tame and quite. It could have a lot to do with the locations of our hotels and what not, but still- it’s been loud every night, and I hate that.

Finally, the cons. Language as I said earlier goes both ways. It sucks not being able to understand what is going on around you, then again sometimes it’s nice to be so isolated in some new country. It can easily go either way depending on the person. I loved it at first, but found myself frustrated towards the end of the trip- I just wanted to be able to read signs again and communicate with people correctly and properly without resorting to caveman motions to get points across. Interesting though, how even though people may not speak the same language, that we can still find some way to say what we’re trying to say. That’s precisely what makes us human. We can reason. Curiouser and curiouser. Rude people were here and there in France. We definitely got some dirty looks and glares and what not, but I also think that may have had a lot to do with our group as a whole, which sometimes I like and sometimes I hate. The thing I hate about our group is how loud people can get. That even bothers me back in America. I don’t like loud people, which is so hypocritical of me to say if you know me at all and the laugh I can produce. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, I have only genuinely laughed just a handful of times on this trip, otherwise I often find myself annoyed with the noise of my peers, or the subject of conversations. I’m speaking as if I’m so high and mighty and up on my horse and everyone else is below me, but there are some things that I think are immature, and apparently I’m the only one who thinks they are. Regardless, I chose to come on the trip, so I’m done complaining. Sometimes I just feel like I’m on the outside of this circle that is the travelers on the trip whom I feel will continue to keep in touch and hang out once back in the states, which unfortunately I’m not really sure how much hanging out I’ll do. I think a lot of that just has to do with me feeling forced to all of the sudden be best friends with everyone on this trip, and I don’t generally open up that fast, never have, never will.

So now that you know about me personally I’ll continue blogging about the trip because that’s why I made this blog. Hah.

The rest of this will just be the little bullets I wrote in my journal about my time here, but don’t fret; I’ll elaborate on everything for your sake of not sharing my brain.

-I’m really looking forward to a lot of tea and scones. That’s one thing I know without a doubt I will adore about England.

-Some people went to Disneyland (That’s what they chose to do with their free day. Three people went to Disneyland in Paris. I wasn’t interested because I can go to Disneyland in the states, so why should I spend my time there while I’m in Paris?)

-Time has gone by fast, yet slow; days are long, but time is flying. (This is a good thing in my head. It’s kind of the best of both worlds when throughout the day things seems long and stretched out- it really allows for me to take my time, but it’s also nice for time itself to continue to go by quickly because I do look forward to going back home to large bathrooms, air conditioning, ice and iced lattes, family, animals, and a boyfriend. It doesn’t help time go by fast though when the sun rises here around 5am and doesn’t set until after 10pm. France is psycho, so maybe that’s why people are always still out at night.)

-I still feel like I’m in school- it’s as if the week before I came was just a quick spring break, feeling like I’m in school is making the time go by fast (Also still feeling like I’m in school kind of sucks, because it’s like that week of summer break was an absolute tease, yet I still recognize that I’m pretty much on a vacation at the same time. It’s kind of an odd feeling really.)

-Mom said I won’t appreciate the trip and being here until I’m back--- I completely agree… I’m most focused on getting through the days, shooting, and looking for opportune moments and not getting lost or left behind. I also feel focused on getting home, once I’m back in my home environment I’ll be able to really let my travels sink in. (Totally true, I’m interested to see how I feel when I get back to the states. Will I miss Europe as much as I’ve been home? Probably not, but I will definitely miss bits and pieces of Europe here and there…)

-Traveling is hard… for so long, so unorganized, and with strangers

-Would love to come for a week and a half or so with family someday, but personally I think Colorado will always suffice.

-Roommate kept me up talking about boys and love…(That just really bothered me because I don’t know her at all, I don’t even really like laying in bed staying up late at night talking about boys, let alone hearing about it all from someone who I don’t know at all… that just really weirded me out, and also helped me realize that I’ve had and have a completely different experience with those subjects than she does. It was like being back in high school hearing girls gossip about boys or whatever.. totally not my thing. All in all this just really made me really appreciate my experience with boys, what my parents have taught me, and it definitely made me appreciate even more than before what I have with Zach. Don’t mean to get all gross and dumb and cheesy but seriously it’s something special and I’m like the most blessed and luckiest girl in the entire world. Really.)

-I’m probably the most blessed girl on the entire planet (I literally wrote that haha)

-Interesting experience… still not sure what to think about everything (This is just overall, and I feel like this relates back to the not being able to completely absorb everything until I get back home)

-Everything is all happening so fast (Literally and figuratively actually. The subways and metros and traveling is crazy fast, and this trip is flying by. Ha)

---How will I view the world once I’m back having seen another side of it?

---What will my photos communicate to the viewer… worried about unintentional emptiness (Not being able to see my photos and go through what I’ve shot so far kind of sucks, but I mean that’s film. I think it only really bothers me because I don’t think I’ve ever gone this long without developing film that I had recently shot. Generally I’ll develop within the same week I shoot so I can know if I need to shoot again or not. But, then again, the surprise and unknowing-ness of film is something that I’ve always loved.)

---How can I inject my personal artistic handwriting / emotion / feeling into the photos I choose to print?

-Hard to work with film really…

-Lots of rest tonight, finally got ice for my knee (we got back kind of early, and it was nice to have some time alone to just sit and baste in my own thoughts. I’m quickly discovering how important it is for me to get a decent amount of alone time in the day. Personal isolation here and there allows me to sustain my sanity. And there are ice machines on various floors in the hotel, but they are all old and dusty and have no electrical power going to them.. so that sucked because I desperately have needed to ice my knee for some time. All of the walking and extra weight has really made it act up. Thankfully, I think, one of the students decided to buy a mini keg for the night and found that the bar in the lobby has ice, and he had been bringing buckets up. So if he had not decided to have a mini keg party, I would not have been able to ice my knee. Hmm. Good for him I guess?)

-Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist is on tv but in French :[ (I was upset because I actually like this movie, even though it’s a chick flick, but I couldn’t understand any of it. One more con about France- French tv. Which makes sense, but sucks when you can only speak English)

And that’s where I stopped (finally) for the day. There’s everything about everything and every detail and thought that has gone through my head, for the most part, about France, traveling, people, and my experience abroad thus far. Again, I apologize for the extensive post, but really it’s hard to limit oneself having traveled and staying on another side of the world.

POST SCRIPT:

here's a boring photo of me, sitting in our hotel room at the Best Western, when we were staying in Lyon. Nothing special, but I took the photo while I was in France, so I guess that's neat.

June 3, Day 12

I woke up with a start when my roommate kind of just yelled my name and scurried out of bed to answer whoever was knocking on the door. I had no idea what time we had to be up this morning and thought to myself surely it won't be early than 930 or so. I was wrong, and I guess we had to be downstaris at 830 to head to the Lourve. So, no starbucks with me. I'm not a fan of rushed mornings, I was a wee bit cranky. hah. We took a long subway ride directly to the Lourve and once we got in and such, lo and behold, there sat a little starbucks nestled all cozy like between the other various souvenir shops in the museum. Armon said he would have told me but just thought it'd be funny if I just saw for myself. They stopped especially for me to get my morning coffee fix. It was awesome.
The Lourve is HUGE. Honestly I often felt that the museum was overcrowded; not with people, but with art work. I wasn't sure what to look at and if you looked at one thing you missed seeing something else behind you. Pretty crazy. I saw the Mona Lisa, yes, kind of anticlimactic really. Easton was saying how he feels it's more of a touristy thing. Like it's more of a big deal for those who don't know much about the painting or the story behind it, and artists know there are better more greater things to see. I completely agree, but at least I can say that I've seen it. More exciting though, I saw my most favorite sculpture that I've ever studied- the Nike of Samothrice- a beautiful winged victory sculpture. I also saw a painting I like called The Raft of Medusa, where the story is that these men got stranded on a raft and eventually resorted to cannibalism for survival. We took a photo in front of it of me biting Easton's arm. Quite appropriate. Just a couple paintings down from that one was Liberty Leading the People, the painting on the cover of Coldplay's most recent album Viva La Vida. It was fabulous. Got a photo in front of that guy too. After spending all morning and early afternoon trying to see everything crammed in the museum, we chilled outside by the huge glass pyramids of the Lourve with our feet in fountain pools. I definitely got some sun, and have a nice defined flip flop tan line beginning to develop. From there we walked to the famous archway, Arc de Triomphe. That was cool to see. Then from there we walked all the way to the Eiffel Tower. Loooooong walk, but it was nice once we got there to sit underneath the tower and what not. Funny thing happened while we were there- tehre are street vendors everywhere trying to sell stupid little Eiffel tower keychains and mini models. It was funny to see them all waiting by the exit of those who went up the tower to try and get them to buy something after having been to the top. When Armon and I were walking looking for Natasha and Jen who took the subway instead of walking to the tower, all of the sudden all of these guys selling things were all sprinting in a big group. One even tripped and fell and his merchqndise went everywhere but he quickly recovered and continued running. We were kind of confused until we saw two bike cops pull up from the direction the men were sprinting from. Hilarious sight. Apparently what they're doing is illegal, and for the rest of the time there we joked about yelled 'POLICE!!' everytime one of them came up and tried to sell something to us. hahah. We took a long subway ride home, I showered which puts me at 4 showers now in 12 days, not bad. We had dinner then Jen, Armon and I met in a room to watch the last episode of Lost which we had all missed seeing as we left the country the day it showed. So that was fun, the finale was AWESOME and I can't stop thinking about it and am excited to discuss and debate on the 4 hour train ride tomorrow to London! It was a fun day full of walking and more seeing of famous things.

As for now, I'm headed off to Starbucks ^_^

June 2, Day 11

I got up early enough to hit up the Starbucks I had located the previous night. Though I ordered an iced vanilla latte, I was given an iced caramel macchiato, which thankfully I still like. I cannot tell you how delighted I was to have an iced latte in my hands. It took me back home, that's for sure. Too bad for Jen, who came with me, she didn't really get to enjoy her drink; she bumped into a pole or something and dropped her vente hot chocolate in the street... it was pretty funny... but not for her. haaaha. (I also bought a pain du chocolat, which has become my morning tradition in frqnce. SO delicious) We took the subway to some other part of Paris and began our search for the Photography Institute of Paris. After a lot of walking we finally arrived. Pierre, the owner and founder of the 25 year old school, gave us a tour right off the bat. The students at the school, which it's a fairly small school.. they only have up to 1,000 students or so I think he said, have 24 hour access to a huge shooting studio with lamps and backgrounds and everything. He took us into another room where students were actually in a class practacing studio lighting and shooting. This is an entirely english speaking school, so another point for that. He showed us a few various computer rooms that were littered with huge up-to-date iMacs. He also showed us their darkroom (my favourite part) and then went on to explain that they only teach darkroom and alternative processes for the first year of school for students. After that, they focus more on digital things and what not specifically to prepare the students for a job once they are out of school. (yes, as much as I have always hated to admit, digital is the booming side of photography right now; thought, analog is beginning to make a place for itself once again). He sat us down in a small lecture room and talked to us more in depth, and in english, about the Niepce house that we had visited a few days prior. We quickly found out that he was the discoverer of the Niepce house, and further was the one who was able to produce evidence from the house proving that Niepce was in fact the founder of Photography. So basically I hung out with a celebrity all day. After the lecture and speech and such about Niepce he served us snacks and wine (I had coke thank you very much) and even gave us a free book.

SIDE NOTE: Clocks by Coldplay is playing over the Holiday Inn speakers. I've decided that europeans love Coldplay.

It was a really huge deal for us as students to kind of get our foot in the door in a school such as that. It's definitely a HUGE opportunity for those who are interested in digital commercial and fashion photography.

We had lunch in a big open plaza outside full of people. There were a lot of street performer type things... those are common here on the streets of Paris, and there was even a girl playing the didgeridoo. I took photos to show my big brudder who has become quite fond of didgeridoos, and zach too who somehow even discovered a way to make his own out of pvc pipe. Ah, art. After lunch we hit up a local photography museum which left me entirely unimpressed. I saw one or two photos that intrigued me, but nothing more. There were a few collections that I actually hated for their sake of being overdone and cliche, but it's photography so whatevz. We mqde our way back to the hotel for our first little discussion and critique where we shared 10 photos and explained our vision for our own series' from the trip. Seeing as I'm doing film, I couldn't really show any photos of mine. After talking about my whole Street Photography aim, people mentioned how people react when I take photos- something I actually never noticed. People pose and interact and are generally excited and happy when they see I'm photographing them. I feel like it has a lot to do with me being a small innocent looking girl, and the fact that I'm clearly an american just visiting europe. After talking about all of this I decided to point my series focus more towards the risks I take in shooting, or so it feels as such to me, and the reactions I get from the people. Pretty fun.

We had dinner at some random cafe- I had carpaccio which is delicious here. They make sure that you know it will be raw... I guess not many americans have had carpaccio before and complain when the delicous plate of tender delicate beef is placed in front of them. We stopped by the market to get some candy, and it was here that I had my first kind of Street Photographer experience. Nothing huge, but it was a big deal to me. I thought it'd be fun to photograph people shopping in the grocery store, so I whipped out my camera and was adjusting my aperature and shutter speed according to a light reading from a random wall when all of the sudden some dude sticks his hand in my face and camera lens. I looked up and he just said, 'sorry please no photos!' I don't know if 1) he thought I was photographing him, 2) he didn't want me photographing the merchandise, or 3) didn't want me photographing the entire wall of liquor behind the counter that I didn't realize I was taking my light reading from (haha typical me). Nonetheless, it disturbed him and the atmosphere, which is what Street Photographers do. It didn't affect me in the slightest, which is what I'm the most excited about. I'm not afraid anymore.

I went to bed early, well I generally do compared to everyone else seeing as they all like to party and hit up the town and bars at night... and that's totally not my thing.

June 1, Day 10

In the morning before heading out to do some hardcore sight seeing we hit up a little pastry shop (Le Cafe de The I think? Or 'the tea cafe'... no I havent had tea there... im having no tea until London duuhhh). I got q 'pain du chocolat', translation unknown, but it's just a fabulous croissant with chocolate in the middle- a perfect way to start the day. We walked for awhile, then got tickets for a boatbus that takes you to eight stops like the eiffel tower, lourve, and notre dame, etc. Our destination: Notre Dame. I was so excited, especially since Ive had numerous art history classes where ive studied it and what not. It was gigantic- one could even become dizzy looking up towards the ceiling. It was astoundingly beautiful and beyond impressive. A mighty experience indeed. After lunch we then hit up the Sainte Chappel, which the building in itself is a reliquary, or a sacred decorative container that plays host to some holy relic. I forget what relic was there, but it sure was decorative. The second floor is entirely stained glass; fifteen total huge vertical stained glass windows, each with scenes from the bible. The entire story of the bible was in that stained glass, so that should go to show you how ,uch there really was. Incredible. We then went to some museum where I saw the original Poling the marsh Hay by Peter Henry Emerson, paintings by Manet, Gustave Corbet, and Van Gough. I saw Van Gough's self portrait and was entirely unimpressed. I can appreciate what he did for the impressionist painting movement... but his work did not excite me in the least bit. A little bit of a letdown... but the rest of the work I saw was pretty incredible. I never realized how huge those paintings actually are.
After eating a pretty American dinner (cheeseburger... and I should have just gotten french food because it was not good) I went on a little exploration adventure before heading back to the hotel: find the starbucks. I was told there was one near that restaraunt and was determined to know where so I could go there the next morning before we headed out. Ive been having iced latte withdrawl... it sucks. Nevertheless I found it in not even 2 minutes time (Im not sure if that's pathetic or awesome.... i'd like to say it's quite honorable).

There was a point throughout the day where I saw a great Street Photography photo moment, two homeless french men sharing a bottle of wine on a bench near the river, but was too afraid to get in their business and photograph them. Easton told me, "Some of the best advice a friend ever gave me was 'Dont be afraid.'" This hqs kind of stuck with me since then and my series of Street Photography, I feel, is going to be a lot about me trying to push myself out of my own comfort zone; after all, Street Photography is about upsetting the flow of things and people's personal way of things.

One last thing- everyone smokes in France. I dont know if that's solely a european thing or not, but I feel like just because i dont smoke makes it that much more obvious that Im american. Though, I was told that out of the entire group Im probqbly the one who could pass for being french or european or whatever. That's definitely a compliment in my book.

That's all I have for tonight... I bought some 'Chocolat noir intense et zestes d'orange', rather, chocolate with orange zest, and I really want to eat it :)

May 31, Day 9

I still hate this keyboard. what's messing me up the most is the 'a' being at the top left, the 'm' being in the middle row all the way on the right, and the 'w' being all the way on the bottom left row. Oh and holding shift for a period is getting really old.

I slept really well with ,y new roommate Dani. We headed out early to go to some town where the Niepce Museum is. Long story short: Niepce was the inventor of Photography, so I was pretty stoked to go to the museum. I got to see many of his original heliographs, and I got to see Alfred Steigliz's Steerage, which sparked the movement of Straight Photography, the process of finding abstractions in everyday objects, which is something i've explored myself. I had someone take a photo of me by it ^_^ We then went to the Niepce house where I stood in the room and looked out the window of where the first ever photograph, View From A Window At Gras, was taken. If you dont think that's neat you can just stop reading this blog or something. I also stood in Niepce's workroom, and the attic darkroom that he and Daguerre once shared and worked with one another in. What a fabulous day.

At a train stop on our way to Paris, I learned that 'cornichon', pronounced corn-i-sho, means pickle. The lady I ordered my sandwhich from taught me. How pleasant. We got to Paris and settled in our Holiday in Hotel nestled nicely in the cityscape next to a sex shop. It's kind of funny. I had a fabulous dinner at a little cafe a few blocks down: a salad with a horseradish-like dressing, french ham/bacon, tomatoes, and toast with warm goat cheese. Ive mearned that if you dont like goat cheese, you should come to france (Lowen Winkler) hahah. its everywhere and in everything.

Clearly, we have no free internet at this hotel, which is more normal for france. There are two computers downstairs, one of which im on, the only catch is someone switched up the keys on the keyboard so they can laugh at the stupid americans who try to catch up on their blogs.......

I did laundry in the hotel sink. that was fun. My grass stained jeans turned the water completely yellow. Hah.

May 30, Day 8

First of all, please forgive any random, typos- Im on a french computer and the keyboard is all sorts of different; the top to bottom row of keys:
azertyuiop
qsdfghjklm
wxcvbn,;:!
and the shift button is all weird and you have to shift and alt to get different things.. this is odd. I even have to shift for a period. thqts ridiculous.

So Hanna kept me up this night again from snoring.. which sucked, but im starting to get used to it (I actually even threw pillows at her throughout the night and that was even unsuccessful.. funny though seeing her snore with a pile of pillows on top of her). We had a very slow relaxing morning at the teeny little Avignon Hotel de Splendid. Eventually, after getting to the train station, we realized we were at the wrong train station and had to take taxis to the correct one.

SIDE NOTE: Coldplay's Lover in Japan is playing over the hotel speakers here. This marks the second time ive heard Coldplay in public places like this in france. pretty cool.


We got to Lyon after some time and checked into the Best Western hotel which was HUGE compared to what we had been staying in, so that was quite relaxing. We dropped our stuff off and immediately went to the Lumiere Museum, and the Lumiere family is basically known for the invention of cienema. It was fun to see. Also there, I found a flier for a zombie day happening in Lyon-- they were going to show a George A. Romero film, some other zombie film, and then 28 Days Later. Too bad we were going to be gone before that happened. Though, I was glad to find out that french zombie lovers do exist. After returning to the hotel we went to a market a few blocks down and i got a big ol baguette for 1€ which is soooo cheap compared to buying something like that in the states. The rest of the night was super chill. We just hung out and zent to bed whenevz.

Overall it seemed like a short day, which is never a bad thing in my opinion. Also that day I had my official meeting with Easton and Armon about what sorts of photos I wanted to take: those being 1) Street Photography and 2) self portraits in every cafe I go to.

We only stayed in Lyon one night; we headed to Paris the next morning.

May 29, Day 7

Breakfast was provided by the hotel, so that was nice. Right after eating we left to go find a place to rent bikes from. We ran into an English couple who told us about a place just outside of the walls of town. After renting 5 bikes, our gang was off to explore Avignon and the nearby islands. We rode through town, crossed a first bridge and had a delightful lunch, then crossed a second bridge and climbed an old tower and witnessed a magnificent view of Avignon, then we rode back into town and toured the Pope's Palace which was pretty awesome. We had a long day full of a 4+ mile bike ride and an infinite amount of stairs, so I definitely got a workout. We walked around looking for a place to have dinner and found a very nice cafe on a random street.

I have a newfound love: european coke. It's the most delicious thing in the world. It's more clean, crisp, and citrusy than the coke back in the states. I feel like the coke we have is really thick and syrupy compared to what they have here. Plus it's extra awesome that they generally serve coke to you in a coke glass with one ice cube and one thin lemon slice. It's actually really really good. I have a feeling that when I get back to America, the food is going to disgust me. Like I'll eat things that I normally ate when at home, and will ask myself, "Why did I ever think this was tasteful?" Honestly, just the thought of McDonald's is revolting, just thinking about how greasy and just thick and unhealthy it is. Don't get me wrong- I'm no health nutrition nut, it's just the the food here is SO elegant and authentic... I will definitely miss it. That and the coke. Oh, and to order a coke, you just say 'Coca', because that's what they call it here.

While on our bike ride we went through a park area where I guess it's a popular place to lay out and tan and what not. Europe is so funny, because people wear speedos, and not as a joke. I just think it's so funny. Also, PDA is like just another thing here. I can't believe how open the people here are about letting others know who they are in a relationship with and making sure you know how much they love whomever that person may be. It's kind of gross. And I think it's especially awkward for me seeing as people back in the states generally can't even tell that Zach and I are dating. Interesting.

One other fun thing is that French people like bread. That's something that people generally can pick up even if they have never been to france. What they don't realize though, is how much the french people actually do like bread. People literally walk around with huge baguettes just chomping away. I think it's really funny, and had no idea that something so simple as bread could ever be such a big deal. 

Welp I'm headed out with some fellow classmates to get some food.