Y fait frette

Y'a pantoute de neige icitte mais quand même y fait frette!

Italian

Today I had my last class of Italian. Everyone in that class got to know each other pretty well and I really am going to miss all of them. The teacher was one of the liveliest that I've had and always made the class enjoyable. Once she made it too enjoyable... she couldn't get herself to stop cracking up at each funny mistake everyone made. Oh man, when this guy said "autocaro" to say car (which is "macchina" in Italian) she laughed so hard that her eyes started tearing up. Then she controlled her laughter and apologized but another giggle slipped through and again she continued to crack up and had to put her head down on her desk.

The teacher was super sweet too... she spent a good fifteen minutes of class wishing me a good farewell today. Thanks to her, I know that maybe I too will be missed. I'm not sure if I will continue studying Italian (the attempt to become trilingual is hard enough) but I sure can't wait 'til my next trip to Italy.

It's Almost Time to Say Goodbye to Bordeaux

So my four-month journey in Europe is almost coming to an end. I've had trouble updating my blog because I've managed to slip in something negative each time I start a new entry... making the entire entry sound negative. I've really liked France though at the same time it isn't easy and always fun living here. But overall France is a wonderful place and I feel very privileged having gotten the chance to live here. I wrote about Madrid but I repeated that I wanted to stay there and not come back to Bordeaux... I really felt at home there and so I wanted to point that out but I didn't post the entry because I made French people seem very cold... when they aren't... they're just not as welcoming as Spaniards in general and I guess I really missed being surrounded by a hispanic culture. I'm actually really going to miss Bordeaux especially because I know that I won't be back for a long time... I've also made French not just a language that I'm learning but a part of who I am. I didn't think that 4 months would have made me feel like a real Francophone but it really has become a distinctive part of me.

All Saint's Week - Rome and the Vatican

Ray, Virg, and I got off the airplane at Ciampino, picked up our bags, and then bought bus tickets to the center of Rome. We were pretty surprised how warm it was in Rome compared to how cold Paris was. It was a nice change. BUT, then we had the worst bus ride ever. It had no airconditioning whatsoever and none of the windows could be opened. Everyone was sweating and the traffic was worse than in L.A. Then, I asked Ray, who had already been to Rome, "why didn't you warn us that Rome looked like Tijuana." I was surprised how different from France it was. Then we got to the Termini train station where we had to catch the metro... where it took us about twenty minutes to figure out how to get to our destination. Then when we tried to get on the metro everyone was really rude and kept shoving their way in and not letting more people on. I was really confused as to why people rave about Rome...

But then we got off the metro, walked down Via Nazionale (a shopping boulevard) and then we turned onto Via Firenze, where our hotel was. This part of town was like another world compared to the outskirts of Rome and the Termini train station. On Via Firenze, we passed a hotel called Hotel Paris, which was funny to see since we were just in Paris earlier that day. We checked into our hotel and thank goodness our room was really nice. It even had a statue carving on one of the walls. We ventured out for lunch (I had a yummy calzone) and to the Spanish Steps. It was about a 15 minute walk away from the hotel but we ended up taking a longer route since we were distracted by all of the amazing buildings and the churches that were everywhere left and right. We stopped in front of one of the Catholic universities, where Ray chatted away with one of the priests about who knows what... I had never seen so many priests and nuns walking along like any other pedestrian. Even as the priests passed by restaurants the waiters would try to get their attention, "Padre, un cappuccino?" We finally got to La Piazza di Spagna, we climbed the Spanish Steps and I felt so relieved at that point that Rome really was beautiful.

It still took me a while to get over how different Italy was from France. The buildings were in lively colors, or many of them were rustic, others were classical in style with huge columns. It also took me some time to get used to how Italians are much more friendly and easygoing than the French are. Italians can also be less formal than the French are... which I liked because at times the French try to be so formal that they become rigid. I also really, really liked that no one looked at me with squinted eyes when I spoke to them in English or Spanish mixed in with a little bit of Italian. The French look like they're going to die when you make a few mistakes or you throw in some English.

Later on our first day in Italy we saw the Trevi Fountain, we all made a wish, and then we had Gelato (which you can't get anymore this time of the year in Bordeaux... for obvious reasons). The next day, we saw the Colliseum and the ruins that lead up to it. There was a pretty big student protest going around that time... it was actually the biggest protest I've ever seen and it was interesting to hear them chanting because it almost sounded like they were Roman gladiators, which went well during our visit to the Colliseum.

The following day we went to the Vatican. Naturally I knew that I would really enjoy my visit... but it actually ended up being quite an emotional visit for me. I grew up Catholic and I'm not sure whether I believe in God or not anymore... but while I was there I really felt something special. It was also overwhelming to see Pope John Paul II's tomb under St. Peter's Basilica... it really irritated me that the tourists wouldn't remain silent. After seeing the tombs of the popes that had passed, we climbed up to the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica. It was 534 steps (if I remember correctly) to climb! It felt like we were in Alice in Wonderland as the walls started to curve in once we were near the top. Then the view from up there was unbelievable... the Vatican's gardens, the columns in front of St. Peter's Basilica, Castel Sant'Angello a few blocks up ahead from those columns...

We closed our trip with a visit to the Pantheon. Seeing the sister city of Paris was truly amazing.

All Saint's Week - Paris and Versailles

I know, I know, an update has been overdue...

So two Sundays ago, bright and early in the morning (well actually not so bright, it was cold and still dark), I headed to the train station. The train was right on time and smooth all the way through to Paris. As soon as I got off the train I headed out quickly, dodging the people through the gigantic Montparnasse station, eager to see Paris again. I stepped outside and breathed in the chilly air as if I was smelling a freshly fabric softened sweater. Then I headed into the underground serpent that would slither my way to the Pyramides stop. Since I was really excited for this trip, I had memorized the directions to the hotel, which was near the Louvre. But then... Ray and Virg weren't at the hotel yet as expected. An hour had passed and they still hadn't arrived. I was afraid that they maybe weren't getting there that night. Another hour later the hotel staff rang me up and let me know that Ray and Virg were still at the airport, claiming their lost luggage. I hadn't eaten anything yet so to kill the time I went to a little sandwicherie nearby and then I took a little walk around the Louvre. I came back and took a nap... suddenly the phone rang loudly and the hotel staff told me that my friends had finally arrived. I jumped up and headed down to the lobby to greet them. I was so happy that they made it that day, but I didn't feel so happy that their bags hadn't made it along with them. They were informed though that they would be getting their bags the next day... so we still had a great time that day.

We didn't have a strict itinerary but we had planned to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower on the first day of the trip... Virg had asked me earlier, "hey Alex the first time that you came to Paris didn't you think that the Eiffel Tower was smaller than you had imagined?" I actually thought it was pretty tall and funny enough as we were on the second elevator that goes all the way up to the top Virg kept repeating "oh man this is really high, so high..." The wind was really strong up there too so it definitely felt high.

The next day we went to the Louvre, where Mona Lisa followed us as we saw Egyptian scupltures and mummy tombs, Picasso paintings, a dungeon, Greek sculptures and a million other amazing masterpieces... the Louvre is enormous and 'til this day we're still trying to find the exit! At night we went to see the Château de Vincennes... we knew that it was already closed but I still hadn't seen a castle yet so for that we still went to see it. I'll never forget that visit because as we started to encircle the castle it suddenly started to rain so hard that we had to hug this giant tree for some sort of protection. We hugged that tree for over half an hour, thinking that that rain was never going to stop pouring.

Day three: Versailles. We were all still a little overwhelmed by the Louvre so we decided to skip the main palace and head over to the domain of Marie Antoinette. So much for toning the sensory overload down a bit: it took us about half an hour to get there walking through Versailles' infinite gardens. Versailles really is an extraordinary place...

The following morning we took a taxi to the Paris-Orly airport...

Next post: Rome and the Vatican.

All Saint's Week

PARIS

VERSAILLES

ROME

VATICAN CITY

MADRID

DESTINATION PARIS, ROME AND MADRID

Tomorrow morning I'm going to be waking up at 4:00 AM to head out to Paris and eventually Rome and Madrid later on in the week. My train is at 6:59 AM but I have to leave at around 5:20 to get all the way over to La Gare St. Jean, which is only half an hour away by bus but the bus only passes by every half hour at that time of day and I would totally hate myself if I missed my train.

Although it's going to be super cold tomorrow morning when I head out, in the dark, I can't wait for it. This trip is all I've been able to think about this last week... in fact, since I had this trip in mind every minute of each day this past week I've been pretty much stress-free. I studied a lot too since I was so relaxed and at peace. I even kind of started to like my French professor that loves to complicate everything.

Some things on the itinerary: Eiffel Tower (I promised Ray that I would wait to climb it until he and Virg came), the Louvre, possibly Disneyland, the Château de Vincennes, Montmartre, and possibly Versailles; the Colliseum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and the Vatican, oh and yummy yummy Gelato; the Prado and hopefully we'll get to see some Flamenco! Then we all head back to Bordeaux where I'll show Ray and Virg the Grand Théâtre, Quinconces, Rue Sainte Catherine (just simply to point out that it's the longest pedestrian street in Europe), the Jardin Public and the Catédral Saint André of course.

I hope I can sleep tonight because I'm just way too excited.