L'anniversaire de Mandi à Paris

For Mandi's 21st birthday, Sadie,  Emily, and I took her to Paris for her first visit ever! Sadie and I met Emily and Mandi at Notre Dame in the oldest part of the city. The cathedral was beautiful, as always, but we decided to go up the bell tower, which I had never done before. SO WORTH IT!

The views were probably the best I've seen in all of Paris and I've seen quite a few (top of Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Sacré Coeur hill, etc.). Completely gorgeous! There was also a smattering of quotes from Victor Hugo's Cathédrale de Notre Dame (more commonly known to anglophones as The Hunchback of Notre Dame), which conjured images of the Disney movie in my mind. I felt like Quasimodo as climbed the ladder up to the tower and stood next to a larger-than-life sized bell. Very cool! We were pretty hungry, so we stopped for kebabs and leisurely ate them while sitting next to the Hôtel de Ville. Next stop was the Eiffel Tower, for posterity's sake.

After walking through the Champs de Mars, we hiked up to the Trocadero for a more complete view and hung out there for a while. We did the obligatory walk down the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe, and then headed to the Latin Quarter for dinner. By this point, it started pouring. Literally. I haven't seen rain like that in a loooong time! We ran into the first decent looking restaurant we could find. We had planned to stop by a bar in the Latin Quarter after dinner, but our long day and the rain persuaded us otherwise. We ended up buying some champagne and cookies to while celebrating in our luxury accommodations of Hotel Luna. And by luxury, I mean pretty freaking modest. We had a good time just being ridiculous together.

The next morning, our first venture was to Saint-Chappelle, which was built by Louis IX, I believe. (Perhaps I did learn something in l'Histoire de la France?) Holy wow. I have never seen stained glass like that in my life. If you are ever in Paris, this is a DO NOT MISS church! Definitely one of the more incredible churches I have ever been in period.

We then walked across the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris) to the Louvre just to see the building and stroll through the Jardin des Tuileries. Before we went home, we had a couple more stops to make: Sacré Coeur, Montmartre (where we ate lunch) and the Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge was a new stop for me, and I'm glad we saw it. It's one of those silly touristy things that are just hard to miss. We got a coffee across the street and chatted for a while, then headed back home to Lille.

Although I didn't see a lot of new things in Paris, it was really fun to watch someone experience for the first time. I also had kind of forgotten how much I really do love Paris. I can sit here and complain about how touristy it is, but the fact is, there's just something about the city that draws people to it. I can't explain it, but Paris really is a little magical. Photos on mobileme.

Antwerpen

Well, we've had quite a lack of updates recently, but now that I'm back from my vacation and basically done with finals, I have a lot more time to update everyone on my life in the past month or so.

On the 13/14 of March, I went to Antwerp to visit my former Global Village roommate, Florence. Yay! I was so psyched to see her!! Apparently, I was so excited that I forgot to bring my camera...which means no pictures. When I got of the train at Antwerpen Centraal, I walked through an enormous station out to an incredible entrance, which you can see in this youtube video. I waited a little bit for Florence to get there, but finally found her taking a picture for some tourists in true Florence fashion. I was so happy to see her! Florence knows a TON about Antwerp, so we immediately set out on our tour. We walked near the shopping district, where Florence explained about the gold statues on top of the buildings, which were symbols of the former guilds that were housed there. Our first stop was an iconic Antwerp landmark--Rubenshuis--the former house of the painter, Rubens. The house was amazingly luxurious for a painter. I guess Rubens was not exactly the starving artist type. There was a lot of Italian influence in some sculptures he had and Asian influence in his curio cabinets and china. I was really amazed by his walls, which were gilded leather. Pretty plush, huh? After wandering our way through Rubens' house, we met our other Global Village friend Dennis and headed towards the Grand Place. First thing we noticed: some odd contest going on with cows. Kind of made me feel at home in a weird way. I think they had to try to guess the weight of the cow and then they could keep it? Not really sure...it was a little bizarre. Still a little bizarre, but entertaining was the story that Florence and Dennis told me about how Antwerp got its name. The story goes that there was a giant who lived under a bridge and made everyone who passed him pay a toll. One guy was upset about this and refused to pay the toll. They got into a spat and the guy cut off the giant's hand and threw it at him--hence the name Antwerpen, or "Throwing Hand". Kinda crazy, right? We walked over towards the river and the old fortress, which was really cool. The fortress was small, but really pretty--I just wish you could go inside! After that, we decided to make our way over towards the University of Antwerp where Flo and Dennis go to school for a short tour. On our way, we stopped in a gorgeous little courtyard with an amazing Jesuit Church. This was one of the prettier churches I have ever seen, and Florence's sister just got married there last weekend (April 24th?)!  It's always nice to have a personal connection with all of these old European buildings. We walked all around the University campus (which is pretty small), which was an interesting mix of old and modern. I even got to see a classroom--a little more high tech than ours in Lille. And by a little, I mean a lot. It's a beautiful school! We stopped for a coffee in the student union and then visited Dennis' apartment. I'm sure anyone from GV would be seriously curious about Dennis' natural habitat. Let me just say, it's much tidier then you would expect, but there is no food besides Coke. 5 liters to be exact, because that's how much Coke Dennis drinks every week. After this pit stop, we parted with Dennis and walked around the shopping district for a bit. I must say that Antwerp seems extremely chic to me. I'm not sure, but I would guess that's due to the diamond trading history in Antwerp and the money associated with it. By this time, it was starting to get dark and we were starting to get tired, so we headed towards Flo's house, which is just a little bit outside of Antwerp. Her house is so amazing! Very modern in a super Flemish neighborhood. Let me tell you a secret: we may have different traditions, languages, foods, etc., but when it comes down to it, a family is still a family no matter where you are, and a home is a still a home. I feel like everyone is always so excited to meet a foreign family, but we're all a lot more similar than you think. Her family was so kind and welcoming to me--I was so appreciative! More on that in later entries. Florence and I had been planning to go back downtown for dinner, but the smells coming from her kitchen persuaded us otherwise. We ate with her parents, younger sister, and two brothers. Flo has another older sister and older brother, too. Huge family! It was really cute because most of them speak some English and were all trying very hard to include me in the conversation. It made me smile. We had a wonderful dinner of steak, potatoes, salad (with olive oil from their home in Tuscany), and finished with dessert rice with raspberry coulis. I'd never had dessert rice before, but it was so amazing! Of course, Flo also had to end with a couple pieces of chocolate. I think her family is just as amazed at her chocolate obsession as we were last semester! Delicious and enjoyable meal. After dinner, Florence and I went downtown for a drink. We passed the new courthouse, which Florence told me was built with cones on top as a tribute to the french fry culture there--pretty cool. We went to a really cute little restaurant and had a glass of wine, then decided to head back home for a restful night of sleep.

The next morning, we woke up to bakery and fresh squeezed orange juice that Florence's mom had got for us. So delicious! After breakfast, I said goodbye to her family, and we left to meet Sadie at the train station. We took Sadie through a quick tour around Antwerp of a lot of the same things I had seen the day before. Then we went to the Plantin-Moretus Museum, the house and workshop of the owners of one of the first printing companies. This museum was SO cool! It was amazing to see some of the first books ever and the place where they were printed. The museum also houses the two oldest working presses in the world. One of my favorite things was a score I saw--one of the first ever printed. It was amazing to see something so monumental to the world of music. After the museum, we were starving, so we got some lunch. It was also--surprise, surprise--delicious. Sadie and I both got stoofkarbonaden (yes, I had to look that up), which is a kind of beef stew made with beer, and fries--very Flemish, indeed. Another GV friend, Christophe, met up with us for a bit as we finished our lunch. We walked around a bit and they took us through the tunnel under the river. You go down two sets of these incredibly long wooden escalators, then walk 500 meters to the escalators up, and eventually pop out on the other side of the river, in a park with perfect views of Antwerp. So pretty, and the journey over is definitely worth a story. To round off my trip to Antwerp, we stopped at Désiré de Lille for waffles. Yummm. :-)

Here is one of Sadie's pictures of the two of us by the river:

Comment-on s'amuse à Lille?

March has been a long month of lots of work and lots of play. First, let's talk about play. I've been able to discover a lot of new things in this city since returning from my trip, and I've come to appreciate Lille more than ever. I really do love this city!

Mandi and I have been spending many afternoons discovering cafés around Lille. We really like Café de Paris, which is a pretty standard French café, but the people who work there are very nice to us, it's not outrageously expensive, and the coffee is good. We also had some really good coffee at a place over by Wazemmes one Sunday morning. Look at this adorable sugar cubes they gave us! It says "veux tu m'épouser? oui ou non," which means "do you want to marry me? yes or no." Love them! All of the sugars have different phrases. I think I kept this one. I've really been enjoying our coffee dates and frequent walks through Vieux Lille, which is most definitely the best part of Lille. The Jardins Vauban (Vauban Gardens) are pretty, too. We ate lunch there one day before our Flaubert mid-term and there were all sorts of children running around doing a scavenger hunt. Too cute!

We've also been exploring some new bars. The Vieux Lille bar scene is twenty times different from the bars on Rue Solférino which the students frequent. We've been to Drugstore (funny name, I know) a couple times, which is a lot more relaxed and good for having a couple drinks and good conversation. Just a more pleasant atmosphere overall, however I do appreciate the fact that O'Scotland has like...23 beers on tap for me to sample.

I also had my first legitimate discothéque experience. Very French. We went to celebrate Monika's birthday, so it was fun being out with a lot of people from my residence, but I'm not jumping to go back en boîte anytime soon. I just am not capable of going out like the French. They usually go to the bars until around 1 or 2 AM and THEN head out to the discothéque. By then, it is most definitely my bedtime no matter what continent I'm on. They stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning...a little much for me, but it was fun for one night.

After that very French night, we decided that we needed to throw a North American party in our residence. Angela, Sadie, and I worked hard on music playlists, Emily made burgers (hand packed!) and fries, and we feasted. That burger tasted so delicious, I can't even describe it. After we cleaned up, we headed downstairs to the basement to listen to North American music and hang out. Mandi and Emily taught the French kids how to play Flip Cup, which was hilarious. I'll admit, I did my part and played for Team 'Merica one round. I was a good contributer, too, because I flipped my cup on the second try. Guess who won? Team 'Merica, of course. It turned into a hilarious battle of France vs. USA. In the eternal words of Tom Petty "she was an American girl."

Un jour mon prince viendra...

On the weekend of March 6, I went to the place where all dreams come true. That's right--Disneyland Paris! Our friend Mikael, who used to live in Global Village, graciously took Mandi, Angela, and I to Disneyland for the day, got us discounted tickets and food, and procured something like 50 fast passes for us!

The night before we left, the three of us went with Mikael to his friend Charlotte's house for dinner so we could all meet each other and make some plans for the next day. Mandi and I were jumping-out-of-our-skin excited, and it was Angela's first time going to Disneyland, so I think she was part excited, part terrified of our Disney obsess-fest. We had a good time trying to figure out what the French Disney songs translated to in English. Difficult ones include "A la file indienne," "Ce rêve bleu," and "Tu t'envoles." (Lit: "To The Indian Line" "This Blue Dream" and "You Make Yourself Fly"...Real Translation: "Following the Leader" "A Whole New World" and "You Can Fly.") There were a couple other difficult ones that I can't remember the translations for. Guess them for extra credit: "J'en ai rêvé" and "Partir là-bas." We went to bed pretty early though because it was going to be an early morning.

We left Lille at 6:30 AM. Yes, you read that right. We're serious about our Disney! We got to Walt Disney Studios as it opened and jumped in line for Crush's Coaster. The line gets REALLY long if you're not there early, and there are no fast passes. I have trouble explaining this ride, but it was awesome. It's a roller coaster, but it starts off as kind of a story thing, then you get to the top of a hill, and the car starts spinning freely as you "ride the East Australian Current." Watch the video if you want a better idea. It was cute because Crush, the turtle, had a southern French accent instead of a Californian accent. We also went to Stitch, Live! which was interesting because we saw it in French. In this show, Stitch interacts with the audience, so the three American girls were praying we wouldn't get called on! We were able to understand everything that was going on, but I really didn't feel like butchering the French language in a room full of French people. We met up with Mikael's friend Aurélien, and all rode the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster. Fun!

After that, we headed over to Disneyland to secure Fast Passes. We also met up with Mikael's friend Caroline. Caroline, Aurélien, and Mikael all work at Disney, so they know how to cheat the system and we were able to get Fast Passes for everyone for all the rides at one time. Score! After we rounded everyone up, we got some lunch. Those chicken nuggets tasted like America, but I still paid tribute to France by putting mayonnaise on my fries. We had a great afternoon of rides like Indiana Jones, Pirates, Space Mountain, Les Voyages de Pinocchio, Peter Pan's Flight, Buzz Lightyear's Lazer Blast (my first time on it...so fun!), It's a Small World (it really is), Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor, and Star Tours (made me really motion sick...ugh).

We also got to see the Once Upon a Dream Parade, and saw the fireworks before park closing. I ended the night with my first BigMac ever, and made it home to Lille at 2:30 AM. Long day, but what can I say? There's nothing like Disney to bring out the child in anyone.