Castles in the Sky

Sorry it took so long to get another post loaded folks. Lots of things going on in this city! Lets see, sooo much to talk about, and it's been such a long time since the last post I can't remember everything I did each day. I think I'm going to start from the most recent and work my way back.

Noah and the Whale

On friday, I met up with a stranger and we went to a concert. Story: So I was informed by a good friend back in the states that her friend, Maddie was coming to Paris to clear up some visa issues and she had been a little home sick and wanted to hang out with an American. I had no problem with this because I had planned on going to a concert friday night, but no one in my program had heard of the band I was going to see, so I was just going to go alone. Turned out Maddie had heard of the band and (I think it's safe to say liked them) so we ended up going. Fun story: We had planned to meet before the show infront of the building where they sell the tickets. So I get there, don't see anyone on one side of the entrace, go to the other side and see a couple people and a girl leaning against the wall, face buried in a book, hair covering the face, listening to an ipod. (Keep in mind I had never met Maddie and was just going off her facebook picture) I didn't think much of it, until it was about 10 past the time we had planned to meet. I check again, and she is still there so with some distance between us, I belt out and audible MADDIE and sure enough she looks up. I'm a pretty big fan of Noah and the Whale's music so I thought the show was grand. The concert cost 16 euro, which is on the high end of what I would pay in the U.S., but this has been one of the cheaper concerts prices I've seen for over here. A lot of them range from 20-30 euros even for some low key bands. I've got my eyes open for other concerts though!

Les Chateaux

Saturday morning (19th) I left with my program to the Loire Valley to see five castles, but I almost didn't make it!!! Story: I wake up plenty early, a little before 7:30, train leaves at 8:40. Do my morning hygiene routine and get downstairs a little after 8. My host mom is like when does your train leave, and I tell her, and she said you have to leave right now. I guess I under estimated how many stops I had to go on the metro, which was 16 (and that is a lot) and it didn't help the first train had a 7 minute wait. About half way there I was like I am not going to make this. And then I got all sad because I thought I would be the only person missing the train, because our director said 'you have to be on time, the train won't wait for us'. So, by the time I get to this massive station, it's one of the biggest ones in Paris, it was around 8:45. I'm running through the station to the meeting spot, got there, look, they are still there! OFTA. I guess quite a few people didn't show up on time so they were kind of forced to miss the first train, but got on another one that left before 10, so it wasn't too bad, but I still felt terrible. We took the TGV, which is the fastest train in Europe I believe. It can reach speeds up to 200 mph. It was quite the ride. Saturday and Sunday were packed with events. I took tons of pictures but will only add the one's that best describe each place.

First, Le Chateau de Villandry. Wasn't a super amazing castle and we didn't even go inside. It's more known for the gardens that surround the castle, so we spent and hour roaming the gardens. There were about 8 different massive squares that made up the garden. This is the main garden and you can see the castle in the background. There was of course bajillions of all color flowers, hedges turning this way and that way as you can see in the picture, and they even had some fruit growing such as grapes, that I think were wine grapes and pears If I remember correctly.

Second, Le Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau. We are moving on up to what a castle should look like. Surrounded by a moat and much bigger. The inside wasn't anything too majestic but I liked that there was a dragon over the fire place, as you can see in the second picture. The castle didn't have the gardens like the first one, but there was plenty of nature.

The third and final castle for Saturday was Le Chateau de la Roche. Um, I don't think I'm going to post a picture of the "castle" because it pretty much looks like a house. You can look it up if you'd like. So why did we go here? It's more known for the wine this place makes. There are fields upon fields of grapes. So we got a lecture on how wine is made by the man in the picture. He had a strong strong french accent, it was funny. I took a nice close-up of the grapes so you could see how magical they look. We went down into one of the wine cellars which had walls covered in moss and cobwebs all over the place...but we got to test some scrumshish wine. The man gave us a lesson on how to properly test wine, which consists of analyzing the color, then holding it up to light to see how clear it is, then smelling the wine but with one nostril at a time, and then eventually stick the whole nose in and take a nice full whiff, now the taste, take a little sip, don't swallow yet, but swish it around to get the taste throughout the mouth, then down the hatch. VOILA!

Sunday, the fourth castle, setting the bar once again. BIGGEST YET, MOAT, GARDENS, DRAGONS OVER FIREPLACE...no wine though = Le Chateau de Chenonceau. I guess I dont have much to say about this castle. It was the biggest yet, but the rooms inside were quite average. Nothing mesmerizing. And I mean how can I talk about this castle when all I can think about is the last one...

The final, the king, the castle that makes all others (that I have listed...not in the world) look like garages. Le Chateau de Chambord. It was massive. I could've just stared at this thing all day. We had about an hr and a half and I barely made a scratch on the inside, there was soo much to see. Unfortunately, on this castle and likewise on the previous they had scaffolding set up. It really takes away the beauty of the structure. And I think thus, ends my adventures with castles.

I'm blogged out. I've been working on this thing for 4 hours now. I will leave you all with some pictures of my house.

France France France

Welcome to my blog about my adventures in Paris!

I thought a blog would be a good way to keep all you folks across the sea updated instead of me sending emails upon emails. I've never done a blog before, and there are bound to be spelling mistakes so forgive! Let's get this started.

Plane Ride

My flight overseas flew out of Chicago at 6:50 pm on Friday 28th. I flew with Aer Lingus, an Irish airline stationed in Dublin. There was a two hour layover in Dublin, so it was fun to hear all the sweet Irish accents. Then off to Paris I went. But backing up a little. I had never been on an overseas jet before. The seating went (window) 2 (aisle) 5 (aisle) 2 (window). Complicated, I know, but you get it. I of course chose window seats for all my flights! So that ment I got to spend some quality time with the person sitting next to me. Six hours of quality time that is. When I get to my seat I find a girl, my age-ish, sitting next to mine. Well that's a plus. I sit down and notice this chica is sobbing her eyes out. So I thought, gggrrrreeeaaatttt, probably won't be talking to this person. (sarcasm) I didn't know if I should talk to her because there could've been many reasons she was crying...death, something with the family, etc and I didn't want to say something wrong, sooooo I said "Are you dreading this flight that much!?" She started laughing, and we got to talking. She was an exchange student in the U.S., in Michigan and was on her way back to Spain, although it was clear she didn't want to. We talked for almost the whole plane ride except for the mere couple hours of sleep. We said our goodbyes at the Dublin airport and off I went. It finally hit me when I was on the plane to Paris, that I was going to have to start speaking french really soon! Scary thought it was. It was even SCARIER when I got to Charles de Gaulle airport. I managed to make my way to retrieve my luggage but didn't know what to do from there. Someone was supposed to meet me...but where!? I tried to get back to where I had first come off the plane because I thought this person might be there (silly thinking about that now, because security in airports are super stict and that wouldn't be allowed), but I couldn't get back that way. So I saw some people heading towards an exit and just decided to follow them. I emerged to find tons of people waiting for their fellow family and friends and THANKFULLY right in the front I saw a sign "Wells College".

My New Home

From the airport, I took a taxi with Charlotte (the person waiting for me) to my house. Ended up being 30 euro! Which is like 50 bux. Thank goodness I didn't have to pay! Finally got to the house...which is more or less like a typical Paris flat/appartment. I'm on the east side of Paris in the 20th arrondissement. I wish I could've been with a family family.... Mom, Dad, and kids. But I just got a widow. She is very nice though. Her name is Eveylne Fayett. Although, she is a chimney. I think she smokes at least a pack a day. The open windows help suck the smoke out so it doesn't really smell at all. So, we talked for a while, with the broken french I could muster out due to my nervous state, and then I got a tour of the house. Very small, but they know how to utalise space, no space wasted. Best of all, she has a piano! Sadly, no accordion though. (I did just look up an accordion shop and found one! Hopefully I can make a visit there this week). I attached a picture of where the 20th arrondissement is and also where the house is. It's labeled with HOME, but it's pretty small. You get the idea though. There isn't toooooo much near the house. But, a metro stop is a mere couple minutes walk away which is very nice. My school is just three metro stops north. Takes me less than 10 minutes. While all the other students who live in the dorms, which are way in the south, take about 40 minutes. The big green square above my labeled 'home' in the picture, is a huge cemetery. I think it's the biggest one in Paris. All the people buried there have miniature houses for their tombs. They are huge! Hopefully I can get some pictures uploaded eventually.

Week 1

Welp, I got the first week under my belt and going strong. After some schedule shifting I am set on my schedule. I'm taking 18 credits. Two french courses. Intro to the Louvre - (which is me going to the Louvre every class period for 3 hours. During our first class we had one hour to try and get lost in the Louvre....pretty easily done. It's a massive place). Intro to photography (art history). Photography and Painting. On monday we went to the language school, because the language school is separate from the Wells College to take a written and oral placement exam. I thought it was fairly simple until I got to a story in which I had to answer questions about. I'm not very good at understand a reading and then answer questions in french, plus it was super noisy due to everyone being practically done. So I just left the whole page blank. I thought this would bring me down a bit, but I think I ended up in the most advanced class. I dont know if this is a good thing though. There are only 7 students in the class (I'm the only boy....just like in my painting and Louvre class.....cool huh?!) The students are from all over...Germany, Sweden, Spain, etc. and they are all practically fluent in french. I am by far the worst in the class. My teachers at UNL didn't do my two years of french knownledge justice. So the class is quite difficult for me. But you can tell my teacher loves what she is doing (which is hard to find) and the other students are really fun people so I'm sticking through til the end. French meets every day except thursday and all the other classes meet once a week. ALTHOUGH, each class is 3 hours long!!!! 3 hour long courses remind me of my science lab and architecture courses at UNL. It's just toooo long to have a course. Your brain actually hurts afterwards. And lucky me, on wednesday I have 3 classes = 9 hours. Ofta. I could go into detail about each class, but meh, think I'm going to pass. I'll post something if it's worthy.

So now some random things. I have to take the metro ALOT. All the students got a free pass for the first month, which is SUPER nice. But sadly I will eventually have to start paying for tickets. A fun story! I always carry my backpack with me for my books, groceries, coat, etc. Nothing really toooo valuable but I was on my way down some steps to enter a metro and I kind of noticed someone was right behind me....like really close. I finally caught on he was trying to open my backpack so I swerved to the side right away and he kept going. Silly man can't get Nathan that easily. He had barely moved the zipper. Anywho, now I am super concious about my surroundings. I always take a glance to the sides to check who's behind.

Food. Food is good. Since I'm doing home stay, I get food made for me! (plus my host my does my laundry!!!) I get breakfast in the morning and three dinners a week...so I make four for myself. Breakfast consists of coffee and a slice of bread. I have recently bought some delicious nutella to go with my slice of bread, so I look forward to my breakfasts now. I usually dont have lunch. But I've been getting by. I'll go out to lunch with friends, friends that are girls, these girls who have lots of money and claim they have small stomachs so they never finish their sandwich and they so generously ask if I'd like it. See I have it under control. And by doing that, I was able to not spend a single euro for a whole week! Spent my first euro on friday on some groceries. Cheese, baguette, yogurt, and a bottle of wine. It's a good combination if you ask me. The three meals with my host mom are something to look forward too. We have them tradition french style which is some fruit or soup first. Then the main meal with a side such as a salade or rice, afterwards the BEST part, cheese and bread. My host mom has a plate of cheese to choose from. Each one amazing! Then after that there is dessert which is usually pie or cake. And of course every meal comes with wine. All of this usually takes about two hours.

On friday night there was a planned dinner for all the students at a fancy french restaurant. I had chicken on a shish kabob served with fruit and rice. (picture <----) Then for dessert I had some chocolate cake that had fudge in the middle. O, and there were wine bottles galore on this table. The waitress spaced them so it was like one bottle for 2-3 people. Excessive wine! Fun fact. The waitress would pour a little wine into the person closest to her for the group of people, and that person was the taster. They are supposed to taste the wine and if they like it, she pours out the rest of the glasses...and I guess if the taster doesn't like it she brings a new one. That wouldn't be nice. I was the taster though! What an honor it was. Then on saturday I went on a boat ride on the seine with the other students. It took a good hour. Unfortunately it was cloudy and super cold. But right when we finished the ride, the sun came out! Errrrr. At night, I went with some friends to the le tour de eiffel for the first time. By the way, that first picture was taken by me. It tooks professional huh? We sat on some grass, ate cheese and drank wine and watched the tour sparkle every hour. It sparkles for a minute every hour. It's quite the magical sight.

Thus marks the end of my first post.

Hope all is well everyone!

Nathan