Chez Paris
Ok kids, I know I’ve been neglecting my weblog and thus, have been neglecting most of you by keeping you in the dark about what’s up with me. For that I sincerely apologize. But you must understand that this past week has been choc full of ups, downs, adjustments and good times and there has been practically no internet access up until now.
So I am finally in Grenoble, a quaint little French town nestled between three huge mountains at the foot of the Italian Alps (on the French side). But before I start telling you about Grenoble, I feel like I should fill you all in on what’s been going on this past week and why y’all haven’t heard from me!
So my story begins with my arrival at San Francisco International Airport the morning of Friday, August 20th (I know that was forever ago!). The family and I arrived about 6 hours early for my flight. So we had an early lunch at a yummy café, downed a beer or two, got me checked in and walked me to the security checkpoint. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry when I said goodbye, so I hug my dad and no tears. I think to myself, hey, I’m doin’ pretty okay with this! Gets to be mom’s turn… still no tears. Hug grandma and her eyes are getting a little misty but I keep telling myself “you’re doing great Liv. No tears, everything’s going to be fine, these next 10 months are just going to be like a long weekend for you and you’ll be home before you know it.” I get to my sister and I see the tears starting to flow and I just can’t help it. My eyes start to water, I get that stuffy feeling in my sinuses and I hug her so I won’t have to look in her eyes. I hear her start to sniffle and I have to keep telling myself to be happy.. This is the chance of a lifetime and they’re all just a phone call or a 10 hour plane ride away. I manage to say goodbye to my family without soaking my face even though I had to try extremely hard to keep it that way.
I arrived in Paris 10 hours later (the plane ride was pretty boring so I’ll leave that part out). I meet up with the rest of the people from EAP and it turns out all of them are pretty cool. They’re from every one of the other UC’s except Riverside. Most of them went on to Lyon at the end of the week and a few of us are still together in Grenoble. Unfortunately, however, I ended up with travelers sickness and was pretty much bedridden for the entire week in Paris. I missed out on a lot, but managed to go out on the first night to a smoky bar and enjoy a few drinks with a few of the kids. The next day I went to a Pharmacie to get some drugs so I could feel better, and whatever the hell they gave me ended up killing my kidneys so I was doubled over in pain by mid-day and had to cut out on our outing to the center of Paris. I managed to catch a quick glimpse of Notre Dame as I was sprinting toward the public restroom (which are surprisingly hard to find in Paris) in the park. I caught the first metro home and slept the rest of the day.
The next day we went to Monet’s house in Giverny to see his gardens and they were absolutely beautiful. I got lots of pictures and I’m setting up a picture site on Yahoo. I’ll post the address on my blog as soon as it’s ready for everyone to see. So we toured the gardens and saw his famous water lilies, then took a tour of his house there. There are no originals inside, but nearly every wall is covered in prints of Japanese art. I never knew Monet had a flare for oriental art. When we finished at his house we walked down the road and stopped at a very cute, very French restaurant for one of those infamous 2 hour, 4 course French lunches. It was fantastic! For most of us it was our first real meal since arriving in the city, and for me it was my first real meal in 2 days since I lost my appetite when I was sick. When we arrived there was a shot glass full of a delicious apple liqueur at each place setting and our director made a toast. I had less than half of a sip and my kidneys instantly came out of remission and I thought I was going to die. I ate my lunch and it helped a little, but after Giverny we came back to Paris to go to the Musée Marmottan which is where the majority of Monet’s originals are kept, and I was in pain the whole time I was trying to enjoy his work. It sucked.
Oh! I forgot to say that the day before Monet’s we all went to the Louvre. I know you’re probably thinking, “how could she forget to mention the Louvre?!” Well, I was dying throughout the whole tour and so I had to catch the first metro home, but I got some great pictures of a few favorites in the short time that I was there. I’ll post those on Yahoo too. I’d like to go back sometime so I can actually enjoy it.
Ok, so on Wednesday we boarded the train to Grenoble. It was a 3 hour trip on the TGV which is a super fast train that goes all through Europe. I don’t know for sure, but I heard from someone that it doesn’t even touch the ground, and that it’s propelled by magnets, so there’s no friction. It’s an incredibly smooth ride, but it hurt my eyes to look out the window because everything was going by so fast. I occupied myself instead with the friends I made in Paris, who make me laugh almost non-stop. I have pictures of them all, and you’ll be seeing them soon. We arrived in Grenoble at about maybe 2:00pm? I can’t be sure. But it was nice and sunny and warm, and absolutely beautiful. We took a bus to the dorms on campus, got our room assignments, and went upstairs to find that each of us has our own room, but each of the rooms is so small that one can barely turn around without knocking someone over, and that there is one toilet and one shower that have to be shared by all 14 of us on the floor. Yeah.. not convenient. Also, there’s no cafeteria, so we have been going to the local supermarket every day to buy food. It’s actually been okay so far, though, so I guess I can’t complain too much.
Since we arrived we’ve been taking the tram into town every day to try and find our way around. We went to the student housing aid office today to look for apartments to rent and it’s going to be difficult since we’re all Americans and they aren’t particularly fond of renting to foreigners here, but I managed to get a hold of one property owner today and I have an appointment for Monday to preview a place! I’m pretty excited, I just hope that it’s not too shabby and that the lady is nice enough to give me a shot at it. I’m very scared that I won’t find a place before they kick us out of the dorms in September, and very excited to find a place to call my own for the next ten months.
There’s so much more to write, and trust me now that I’ve found my new favorite place—an internet café called Neptune that has cheap wireless access and great lattés—I will be writing more often and I’ll fill in all the details when I get the chance. But for now I think this blog is way too long.. Again, I will post the address for my picture site as soon as it’s ready and I will do my best to keep this updated. I miss you all more than you could ever imagine! Write me and I’ll write you back (livvy@umail.ucsb.edu, or Olivia_dee@hotmail.com) . Much love, -Liv
So I am finally in Grenoble, a quaint little French town nestled between three huge mountains at the foot of the Italian Alps (on the French side). But before I start telling you about Grenoble, I feel like I should fill you all in on what’s been going on this past week and why y’all haven’t heard from me!
So my story begins with my arrival at San Francisco International Airport the morning of Friday, August 20th (I know that was forever ago!). The family and I arrived about 6 hours early for my flight. So we had an early lunch at a yummy café, downed a beer or two, got me checked in and walked me to the security checkpoint. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry when I said goodbye, so I hug my dad and no tears. I think to myself, hey, I’m doin’ pretty okay with this! Gets to be mom’s turn… still no tears. Hug grandma and her eyes are getting a little misty but I keep telling myself “you’re doing great Liv. No tears, everything’s going to be fine, these next 10 months are just going to be like a long weekend for you and you’ll be home before you know it.” I get to my sister and I see the tears starting to flow and I just can’t help it. My eyes start to water, I get that stuffy feeling in my sinuses and I hug her so I won’t have to look in her eyes. I hear her start to sniffle and I have to keep telling myself to be happy.. This is the chance of a lifetime and they’re all just a phone call or a 10 hour plane ride away. I manage to say goodbye to my family without soaking my face even though I had to try extremely hard to keep it that way.
I arrived in Paris 10 hours later (the plane ride was pretty boring so I’ll leave that part out). I meet up with the rest of the people from EAP and it turns out all of them are pretty cool. They’re from every one of the other UC’s except Riverside. Most of them went on to Lyon at the end of the week and a few of us are still together in Grenoble. Unfortunately, however, I ended up with travelers sickness and was pretty much bedridden for the entire week in Paris. I missed out on a lot, but managed to go out on the first night to a smoky bar and enjoy a few drinks with a few of the kids. The next day I went to a Pharmacie to get some drugs so I could feel better, and whatever the hell they gave me ended up killing my kidneys so I was doubled over in pain by mid-day and had to cut out on our outing to the center of Paris. I managed to catch a quick glimpse of Notre Dame as I was sprinting toward the public restroom (which are surprisingly hard to find in Paris) in the park. I caught the first metro home and slept the rest of the day.
The next day we went to Monet’s house in Giverny to see his gardens and they were absolutely beautiful. I got lots of pictures and I’m setting up a picture site on Yahoo. I’ll post the address on my blog as soon as it’s ready for everyone to see. So we toured the gardens and saw his famous water lilies, then took a tour of his house there. There are no originals inside, but nearly every wall is covered in prints of Japanese art. I never knew Monet had a flare for oriental art. When we finished at his house we walked down the road and stopped at a very cute, very French restaurant for one of those infamous 2 hour, 4 course French lunches. It was fantastic! For most of us it was our first real meal since arriving in the city, and for me it was my first real meal in 2 days since I lost my appetite when I was sick. When we arrived there was a shot glass full of a delicious apple liqueur at each place setting and our director made a toast. I had less than half of a sip and my kidneys instantly came out of remission and I thought I was going to die. I ate my lunch and it helped a little, but after Giverny we came back to Paris to go to the Musée Marmottan which is where the majority of Monet’s originals are kept, and I was in pain the whole time I was trying to enjoy his work. It sucked.
Oh! I forgot to say that the day before Monet’s we all went to the Louvre. I know you’re probably thinking, “how could she forget to mention the Louvre?!” Well, I was dying throughout the whole tour and so I had to catch the first metro home, but I got some great pictures of a few favorites in the short time that I was there. I’ll post those on Yahoo too. I’d like to go back sometime so I can actually enjoy it.
Ok, so on Wednesday we boarded the train to Grenoble. It was a 3 hour trip on the TGV which is a super fast train that goes all through Europe. I don’t know for sure, but I heard from someone that it doesn’t even touch the ground, and that it’s propelled by magnets, so there’s no friction. It’s an incredibly smooth ride, but it hurt my eyes to look out the window because everything was going by so fast. I occupied myself instead with the friends I made in Paris, who make me laugh almost non-stop. I have pictures of them all, and you’ll be seeing them soon. We arrived in Grenoble at about maybe 2:00pm? I can’t be sure. But it was nice and sunny and warm, and absolutely beautiful. We took a bus to the dorms on campus, got our room assignments, and went upstairs to find that each of us has our own room, but each of the rooms is so small that one can barely turn around without knocking someone over, and that there is one toilet and one shower that have to be shared by all 14 of us on the floor. Yeah.. not convenient. Also, there’s no cafeteria, so we have been going to the local supermarket every day to buy food. It’s actually been okay so far, though, so I guess I can’t complain too much.
Since we arrived we’ve been taking the tram into town every day to try and find our way around. We went to the student housing aid office today to look for apartments to rent and it’s going to be difficult since we’re all Americans and they aren’t particularly fond of renting to foreigners here, but I managed to get a hold of one property owner today and I have an appointment for Monday to preview a place! I’m pretty excited, I just hope that it’s not too shabby and that the lady is nice enough to give me a shot at it. I’m very scared that I won’t find a place before they kick us out of the dorms in September, and very excited to find a place to call my own for the next ten months.
There’s so much more to write, and trust me now that I’ve found my new favorite place—an internet café called Neptune that has cheap wireless access and great lattés—I will be writing more often and I’ll fill in all the details when I get the chance. But for now I think this blog is way too long.. Again, I will post the address for my picture site as soon as it’s ready and I will do my best to keep this updated. I miss you all more than you could ever imagine! Write me and I’ll write you back (livvy@umail.ucsb.edu, or Olivia_dee@hotmail.com) . Much love, -Liv
posted by Liv at 1:58 PM
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