I do stuff

Hello again.

Yes, it has been a pretty long time. At this point there's too many photos and too many stories all jumbled up together to really make any sense trying to write about it. Or rather one train of thought ends up leading me through different events that took place over the course of a week, or of one afternoon and I'm not really sure what day it is anymore because my class schedule is so irregular.

I CHALLENGE YOU TO GUESS WHAT DAY I TOOK THIS I HAVE NO IDEA 

I went to London this past weekend, did you know?

We just barely missed the changing of the guards

And had some amazing sangria just before the Borough Market's 1000 anniversary

But a few days before that I went to two museums that related to France's colonial history and UNESCO and I went to the Catacombs this morning and yesterday some guy at a cafe tried to make me pay for a cafe au lait when what I asked for was a cafe noisette and did he really think that I was going to pay an extra two euro because I've been here for two weeks now and know the difference between those two things at least. I also bought new shoes and spoke to the very nice lady at the counter in Chinese and she gave me a discount!

We basically became Chengdu celebrities for speaking Mandarin (as Americans) at an exhibit produced for the Vice President of China (My friends more so than I, they were interviewed by a camera crew, I only spoke to a reporter)

I also saw Beyonce in Paris. Nbd.

I made friends with Thomas the concierge at the hotel (he's super classy) and yesterday met a Mauritanian who spoke Spanish and was trying to learn French except he couldn't find anyone to talk to. P.s. I butchered Spanish pretty effectively yesterday but we did, in fact, have a conversation.

I decided to stop taking elevators and escalators and walk even more because I can't drag myself out of bed in the morning to go running and I've been eating so much bread.

Holly has been somewhat integrated into the PittMAP group, and we've been given a hashtag (#rachandH or #Handrach depending on who you ask)

Yeah Holly came to London too and we took a terrible selfie in front of Big Ben

These are all events I would like to elaborate on at some point but... it's a lot and there's way more. Also the fact that it takes forever to upload pictures is not exactly incentive to post more.

Anyway things are great and I'm having fun and contrary to popular belief I am taking classes as well. I will get to it all eventually!

Salut,

Rachel

To the Louvre

We were all adjusting amazingly well to Paris, especially after literally 48 hours after arrival. Still jetlagged, but not too tired to go explore.

We ate good food (This wine is... not so good)

We took pictures of said food

We hung out in the court yard of our hotel and pissed off other patrons by being too loud.

 On Wednesday, we had a planned tour of the Louvre for our Globalization classes.

The courtyard at the Louvre is ENORMOUS. This is only a small portion of this wall. I didn't think to take any pictures to document how expansive the space was.

Our professor is dressed like Australian Indiana Jones

PittMAP ready for a tour

This giant hall under the square holds all kinds of expensive stores (There's an Apple store down here somewhere)

I don't know why I didn't just take a step back to get a picture of the entire prism. WHAT IS IT FOR THERE WAS NO SIGN.

We hung around for a bit waiting for our tour guide. He (thankfully) spoke English, and we each received ear pieces to hear him better.

Okay so the prism actually did make some pretty rainbows as it got later in the day. 

Rainbow hair

We walked into another room with the pyramid above ground

Up the elevators and into the museum

 The Louvre was originally a fort before it was converted into a palace in the late 12th century. Our tour first took us through was used to the moat

This heart carved into the stone was actually a mason's mark; he'd get paid for each stone with his mark on it

A poop shoot: extra sewage lines were added than ran directly into the moat

We had the Egyptian exhibit next.

Right before the Greek/Roman Copy exhibit

"Wait let me take a selfie"

Some of us just aren't into art.

Venus de Milo

What the Temple of Athena would have looked like

Panathenaic Procession, a relief that used to be on the temple.

I saw a lot of pieces that I recognized from a class I took in high school. I got pretty excited, but I couldn't tell you why any of those pieces were important anymore ("It was in the text book, guys!")

Part of our tour group

Our tour guide was very well informed, and an avid admirer of the art itself. He was funny knowledgable, and a little racist ("I used to get embarrassed to walk in front of all the Japanese people taking pictures, but now I just walk in front and don't care if I'm in their pictures").

Winged Victory of Samothrace

We moved onto friezes

mmm squat yah 

So enthralled to be on this wall.

Giotto's Legend of Saint Francis

A giant hall of all the Italian Renaissance artists

The Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese, just opposite of the Mona Lisa

 The Mona Lisa is just like, whatever. I have a picture, but in protest of her over-ratedness I will not be posting it here. The crowd surrounding her was gigantic, and we were warned that this crowd was a special target for pick pockters. Not to mention everyone and their mother was trying to take a selfie with Mona. It's really bizarre trying to look a a painting and seeing hundreds of faces staring back at you (they're really looking at their phones). You can read a hilarious rant about all the selfie-takers (SO MANY), written by my friend, Jen, here.

Jesus is over it, too. 

Grande Odalisque. When this picture was painted, it wasn't considered pornographic because the turban indicates she was middle eastern and not a white woman.

I admit I got a little bored and started taking bad candids of everyone else. 

I didn't get the name of this one, but I really liked it.

The courtyard lit up beautifully at night. There were so many other people taking pictures, I got kinda embarrassed and pulled mine out quickly to get a picture but didn't really get a good one before I hastily put it back.

Yeah the pictures kinda suck this round, but I can tell you that they do improve!

Also I made an Instagram! I'm a week behind on the blog, but I should be much more current there if you want to see my most recent activities.

Adieu!

Rachel

Wandering with Holly Part 1

So I was worried about not doing enough in Pittsburgh but I am so not worried about not doing enough here. This week has been a blur, I've gone everywhere from Notre Dame to the Louvre to the Bastille, with lots of random excursions in between.

I'm not sure which day I met up with my high school friend, Holly, and spent the whole afternoon wandering the city with her, but I do know that it was in the beginning of the week and it was amazing.

Holly is here for her semester abroad as well, and as a project for a French culture class, she had to explore the 18th arrondissement. I got to go explore with her! This was my first experience walking around without a specific destination in mind. I cannot emphasize how much just the act of using the metro and walking with someone who knew what they were doing helped me acclimatize myself to this environment. 

Even though I still feel like I have no idea what's going on most of the time, I've come to realize that it's just a part of life when you study abroad and didn't even think to learn some of the language before you left -_-. And I've realized it's mostly okay, too. Bonjour and smile will get you pretty far.

Right after coming off the metro

Cities in the US should have more statues and cool gardens like this, right?

The trees are pretty, but the building behind was even more beautiful.

There are a ton of traffic circle here. Just watching people navigate them is pretty stressful.

We ended up in an area that had a lot of Chinese and middle eastern stores. Not a whole lot of French writing here.

We stopped to grab a baguette, cheese, meat and wine for a picnic at the park

This was wine selection at a CONVENIENCE STORE. We, of course, picked one of the cheapest ones. 

Here's the park. There were actually a lot more children and adults running around, but I managed to get this picture during a lull in the traffic.

Our modest spread

It got to be pretty late, so we headed over to Holly's apartment.

Walked over some train tracks

It's a really tiny apartment, even that's an understatement

A beautiful view straight to the bathroom for the floor.

 We caught up there for a bit, and as it got darker we decided to go for a walk again. We headed over to the Arc de Triomphe. which is right down the street.

The moon was pretty too

I just appreciate that the facades of all the buildings are beautiful as well

The Eiffel Tower could be seen, but unfortunately we didn't stop long enough to get a good picture

Looking for ice cream, we headed back into the metro to find an area with more shops.

Saw a hotel that made me a little sad

No ice cream, but we did make it to The Bastille!

No ice cream to be found for a reasonable price, we headed back to our respective lodgings and then to bed. Come to think of it, I have yet to have any ice cream.

Au revoir,

Rachel