I just won't bother mentioning when these are "overdue" anymore. That's just silly.
4/2/2011
Good evening!
Before I knew it... Two weeks passed since my last email. I'm sure that's okay!
Last weekend I went to the Loire Valley (near Tours) to visit the Châteaux de la Loire--big, beautiful castles! Out of the many, many castles in the area, we only visited four, but they were all lovely. Since the trip was split over two days, we only went to two castles per day. On Saturday we went to Chambord (gigantic and known for its hunting grounds) and Chenonceau (much smaller in comparison but with gorgeous fresh flower arrangements in EVERY room), and stayed the night at a nice hotel in Tours, which was nearby. On Sunday we got up early (French breakfast; my favorite) and headed to Azay-le-Rideau (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Villandry (famous for having the most beautiful gardens in France). There were canopy beds everywhere, elaborate staircases (Chambord--it was a "double-helix" designed by da Vinci), the smell of flowers, signs of spring... and, of course, the recurring images of fire-breathing salamanders. Why...? I guess you could say call them the mascots of the Châteaux de la Loire... Salamanders were thought to be invincible to fire, and the royalty wanted to identify with that, to show that they were strong as well.
[attached pictures]
As for the rest of the week... Well, that was all about classes. I had phonetics again (it's only every other week), and had lots of work to do for everything. The weather wasn't very nice, so it wasn't very appealing to go out and explore before/after class. It finally warmed up by the end of the week, which was good, because we had another trip today!
This morning I met up with my program and we left for Champagne. Not very far from Paris at all--maybe about two and a half hours. We visited the Notre Dame de Reims (big cathedral) and happened to walk in on a choir's performance. They were from Strasbourg, sang in (what I thought was) Latin, and spoke in German. It was really beautiful. My camera battery died very early on in the trip, so I didn't take many pictures, but I liked being able to just sit down and enjoy everything without the camera always at my face. I know I've mentioned this before...
After the cathedral, we had a nice lunch (outside) in the town. The weather was probably around 70 degrees for most of the day. Perfect! I had a warm goat cheese salad (sounds a little weird, but probably one of the most delicious and typically French foods I've had here), got a small treat with friends at the nearby bakery/pastry shop, and then we left for our next destination: a little abbey near a seemingly endless vineyard, where Dom Perignon was laid to rest. Afterward we went to a champagne house, Mercier (founded in 1858), took a tour, and then tasted the champagne. Overall it was a great trip, and we were back in Paris by about 6:30PM.
I think that's about it for now! :)
My spring break is coming up. I'm just finalizing the details... but I will update again soon!
Hope to talk to you later!
Love,
- Maeghan
Showing posts with label group email update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label group email update. Show all posts
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Group Email Update 7
3/20/2011
Hey, all! A shorter update, this time (although now that I've said it... I don't know if that'll be true). I had a pretty busy week.
On Thursday night I went to a really nice dinner with four other girls in my program. It was at a cute little restaurant in which we had a view of the Eiffel Tower. The bread was made fresh in the restaurant, so it was really good. The whole dinner was very good, actually, and not expensive at all! It was actually much cheaper than we thought it would be. I got a salmon steak (w/ some kind of cream sauce) with vegetables and wild rice, and a macaron (almond biscuit) with a scoop of toffee ice cream for dessert. My grand total? 14€. I was very pleased.
Yesterday I went to the Centre Georges Pompidou museum (for freeeeeee) with two other friends. We explored for a while and saw some odd pieces of artwork (a lot of it was modern). There were a lot of pieces by Picasso and Matisse there, and that was enjoyable. I saw a photography series that I found very interesting and I plan on looking up more of the photographer's (Richard Avedon) work later (I hope that's a safe decision). After the museum we went for a long walk in search of a place to sit down and have dinner. We finally stopped at a small place near a church we had previously visited with our program. My friend Daniel and I both had duck (I wasn't sure about ordering it but, eh, when in France), and my friend Vanessa had steak à cheval--since cheval means horse, I always mistranslated that as horse meat... but as it turns out, that just means that there's an egg on top of the steak. Vanessa explained that it's called that because the egg is sitting on the meat like someone sits on a horse to ride it. Makes sense. Still odd. That definitely makes a lot of the signs I've seen outside of cafes a little less gross, though. I don't think I could eat horse meat... We had dessert from a bakery we found while exploring some more. I had a pretty (and tasty) fruit tart. We all agreed that we'd go back to that one another time. The woman that worked there and helped us was so nice (and even gave Daniel something for free when he went back in a second time... that's what happens when you eat outside the place and stare in the window at all the other treats!).
Today I went to a book convention that I've seen ads for all over the city. I'm glad I went. Since I'm a student under 26 years of age, I got in for free. It was close to where I live, so I took the tram and hung around the convention center for about four hours. It went by surprisingly fast. I got five books for a little over 16€. I was not expecting that kind of bargain! Going to the convention was kind of a prideful thing--I booked my own ticket, figured out how to get there easily... I went on my own, too! I've been to conventions before, but it was interesting to try it this way, more independently. The convention center was crowded (which I expected), but not extremely noisy (not what I expected). There were guest lecturers and prize giveaways (I left my ticket in a raffle, basically, so I'll let you know at the off-chance that I win something... haha).
I hope you all have a great week! :)
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Hey, all! A shorter update, this time (although now that I've said it... I don't know if that'll be true). I had a pretty busy week.
On Thursday night I went to a really nice dinner with four other girls in my program. It was at a cute little restaurant in which we had a view of the Eiffel Tower. The bread was made fresh in the restaurant, so it was really good. The whole dinner was very good, actually, and not expensive at all! It was actually much cheaper than we thought it would be. I got a salmon steak (w/ some kind of cream sauce) with vegetables and wild rice, and a macaron (almond biscuit) with a scoop of toffee ice cream for dessert. My grand total? 14€. I was very pleased.
Yesterday I went to the Centre Georges Pompidou museum (for freeeeeee) with two other friends. We explored for a while and saw some odd pieces of artwork (a lot of it was modern). There were a lot of pieces by Picasso and Matisse there, and that was enjoyable. I saw a photography series that I found very interesting and I plan on looking up more of the photographer's (Richard Avedon) work later (I hope that's a safe decision). After the museum we went for a long walk in search of a place to sit down and have dinner. We finally stopped at a small place near a church we had previously visited with our program. My friend Daniel and I both had duck (I wasn't sure about ordering it but, eh, when in France), and my friend Vanessa had steak à cheval--since cheval means horse, I always mistranslated that as horse meat... but as it turns out, that just means that there's an egg on top of the steak. Vanessa explained that it's called that because the egg is sitting on the meat like someone sits on a horse to ride it. Makes sense. Still odd. That definitely makes a lot of the signs I've seen outside of cafes a little less gross, though. I don't think I could eat horse meat... We had dessert from a bakery we found while exploring some more. I had a pretty (and tasty) fruit tart. We all agreed that we'd go back to that one another time. The woman that worked there and helped us was so nice (and even gave Daniel something for free when he went back in a second time... that's what happens when you eat outside the place and stare in the window at all the other treats!).
Today I went to a book convention that I've seen ads for all over the city. I'm glad I went. Since I'm a student under 26 years of age, I got in for free. It was close to where I live, so I took the tram and hung around the convention center for about four hours. It went by surprisingly fast. I got five books for a little over 16€. I was not expecting that kind of bargain! Going to the convention was kind of a prideful thing--I booked my own ticket, figured out how to get there easily... I went on my own, too! I've been to conventions before, but it was interesting to try it this way, more independently. The convention center was crowded (which I expected), but not extremely noisy (not what I expected). There were guest lecturers and prize giveaways (I left my ticket in a raffle, basically, so I'll let you know at the off-chance that I win something... haha).
I hope you all have a great week! :)
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Group Email Update (6)
3/15/2011
Bonsoir from Paris! :)
Not a whole lot has happened since last time... Well, except for the fact that I went to Belgium for the weekend with three of my friends! That's right! We took a bus from Paris to Brussels on Friday after we got out of class. We went through Eurolines and left from a nearby station. It wasn't the most comfortable bus ride (every seat was filled), and it left late (of course it did, after we practically ran half the way to make it there on time), but it was cheap (roughly 40€, or around $51 round-trip) and easy. Once we got to Brussels, we got on a train and went to Bruges, where we spent the night.
Bruges is a part of Flanders, and it's a smaller town than Brussels, so I wasn't sure what to expect. They speak Flemish there, and, if not Flemish, it's either English or German. Not so much French. It was interesting to not French for a while Our hostel was great (only 15€ per person and we had a private room) and I'm glad that that was the first one I ever stayed at. On Saturday we saw the bell tower (the Belfry), took a boat tour on the canal, and stuffed ourselves with fries, waffles, and, of course, fancy chocolate. That night we took the train back to Brussels to our hotel (which was surprisingly inexpensive, only 30€ per person). On Sunday we explored the city and had more bad-for-you food. They speak French there, so we tried our best to get back into the habit of using the language we came to Europe to improve. Brussels is a much busier place than Bruges, which was touristy, but also quite quiet and lovely. Coming from there to this large city was something... In all honesty, I really preferred Bruges. Both places were great, and I'm so happy and grateful that I got to see both, but Bruges had such appeal that I'd love to go back there someday. We managed to see and do a lot in just one weekend, and we were exhausted by the end. Definitely something I would try to do again, though, if I get the chance. Visit a nearby country on a random weekend? If it's affordable, why not?!
Next weekend I'm going to the Châteaux de la Loire with my program, and to Champagne the weekend after. I love having things to do on the weekends (because it isn't fun to stay in my room in Paris longer than a few hours at a time) and I can't wait!
This time I attached more pictures... [Included in the original email: my first Belgian waffle, the Belfry (two views), the Madonna and Child (a very beautiful sculpture by Michelangelo, in a church we visited--one of the few works by him that isn't in Italy), the Royal Palace in Brussels, me (and a surprising find outside of a record store), and the city square.] By the end of the trip I had taken over 300 pictures.
In other news, classes are okay. Same old, same old. The weather is finally getting much nicer (and staying like that), so that has been awesome. Today, in fact, I walked around in just a light sweater (bye-bye, winter coat and scarf) and had a picnic in the park with my friend. It made me very happy. :)
Anyway... Enjoy the pictures! I hope to hear from you all soon!
Take care!
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Seeing my typos amuses me. :-p
Bonsoir from Paris! :)
Not a whole lot has happened since last time... Well, except for the fact that I went to Belgium for the weekend with three of my friends! That's right! We took a bus from Paris to Brussels on Friday after we got out of class. We went through Eurolines and left from a nearby station. It wasn't the most comfortable bus ride (every seat was filled), and it left late (of course it did, after we practically ran half the way to make it there on time), but it was cheap (roughly 40€, or around $51 round-trip) and easy. Once we got to Brussels, we got on a train and went to Bruges, where we spent the night.
Bruges is a part of Flanders, and it's a smaller town than Brussels, so I wasn't sure what to expect. They speak Flemish there, and, if not Flemish, it's either English or German. Not so much French. It was interesting to not French for a while Our hostel was great (only 15€ per person and we had a private room) and I'm glad that that was the first one I ever stayed at. On Saturday we saw the bell tower (the Belfry), took a boat tour on the canal, and stuffed ourselves with fries, waffles, and, of course, fancy chocolate. That night we took the train back to Brussels to our hotel (which was surprisingly inexpensive, only 30€ per person). On Sunday we explored the city and had more bad-for-you food. They speak French there, so we tried our best to get back into the habit of using the language we came to Europe to improve. Brussels is a much busier place than Bruges, which was touristy, but also quite quiet and lovely. Coming from there to this large city was something... In all honesty, I really preferred Bruges. Both places were great, and I'm so happy and grateful that I got to see both, but Bruges had such appeal that I'd love to go back there someday. We managed to see and do a lot in just one weekend, and we were exhausted by the end. Definitely something I would try to do again, though, if I get the chance. Visit a nearby country on a random weekend? If it's affordable, why not?!
Next weekend I'm going to the Châteaux de la Loire with my program, and to Champagne the weekend after. I love having things to do on the weekends (because it isn't fun to stay in my room in Paris longer than a few hours at a time) and I can't wait!
This time I attached more pictures... [Included in the original email: my first Belgian waffle, the Belfry (two views), the Madonna and Child (a very beautiful sculpture by Michelangelo, in a church we visited--one of the few works by him that isn't in Italy), the Royal Palace in Brussels, me (and a surprising find outside of a record store), and the city square.] By the end of the trip I had taken over 300 pictures.
In other news, classes are okay. Same old, same old. The weather is finally getting much nicer (and staying like that), so that has been awesome. Today, in fact, I walked around in just a light sweater (bye-bye, winter coat and scarf) and had a picnic in the park with my friend. It made me very happy. :)
Anyway... Enjoy the pictures! I hope to hear from you all soon!
Take care!
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Seeing my typos amuses me. :-p
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Group Email Update (5; overdue)
3/10/2011
Bonjour! :)
First of all, I'm sorry for not updating in a while... The past two weeks have been extremely busy. More of my classes started (so now I have a full schedule) and I've had some visitors! Seeing people from home while I'm far away is such a treat. One of my best friends and her family (which is practically my family, too) came to Paris for a few days, and we had a great time. Then, this past week, my boyfriend came to see me during his break. Hi, guys! :) :) :) I loved seeing you. As it turns out, I'll be having a few more visitors (you know who you are) soon, including my mom!!!!!! So, overall, things have been good!
Two weekends ago I went on a trip to Normandy, St. Malo (in Brittany), and Mont St. Michel with my program. What a great trip--I like history (although I don't really have the brain for it), so the trip itself was interesting, but everything was just so beautiful. The weather itself is so different here--I see bright green grass all over the place; beautiful, colorful flowers; and (when it's really nice out), clear blue skies. That's how it was in Normandy. We took a coach bus, which took about 5 hrs to drive from Paris. It was great to get away from the city for the while and see the gorgeous countryside. The first day we visited the D-Day Museum in Arromanches, the German beach (giant craters everywhere), and the American cemetery--which is considered American soil. So, technically, we were back home for a little while. The whole experience in Normandy was incredibly unique and very touching. After spending the day there, we got back on the bus and drove to St. Malo, a beautiful town that inspired the look of Quebec City in Canada. I've never been to Quebec, so I just had to take my program director's word for it, but the town was almost breathtakingly beautiful. I had a great dinner with the students in my program.
Brittany is known for a few things, food-and-drink-wise, particularly crêpes and seafood. I got the best of both and had a savoury crêpe with salmon, scallops, leeks, mushrooms, and cheese. It was delicious. Everyone seemed happy with what they got and after eating, we went our separate ways and explored. My group of friends and I went walking around and saw a lot. We even walked down to the beach at night and looked at the stars. It was a great end to the night. The bed & breakfast we stayed at was nice, too. Cute, clean rooms with a NORMAL sized bathroom (if there's one thing I can tell you about the bathrooms I'm used to here... it's that they seem to be made for ants)... and a great breakfast, of course. We had to get up early for it, but it was worth it. Delicious bread, jams, croissants... you name it. It was awesome. After that, those of us that were awake took a tour around the outer walls in the town. Soon after, we got back on the bus to head to Mont St. Michel.
I feel like I'd say too much about that part of the trip... but just know that it was probably my favorite part. I did a project on Mont St. Michel when I was in 8th grade and I've wanted to visit it since then. It's a beautiful church/town that rests on its own island, pretty much--I'm terrible at describing it, but the tides usually make it so that it's separate from the coast. Our program director actually told us that this would probably be the last time for a very long time that it would be possible to get there by bus. I've attached a picture of it, if you want to see. I'd send more but my Internet connection is too slow to send multiple files.
Anyway, my classes are good. Grammar is difficult but, hey, that's what I need. Phonetics is interesting, if not for the schedule alone--it meets every weekday for one hour, every other week. Bizarre. The class is split into two sections--repetition, where we take some notes and, well, repeat stuff that our professor says... and the lab, where we sit with headphones and a microphone and do audio recordings of our pronunciation. The professor gives us what to say, and we record over and over again--she can even listen to us individually and help us out. It's very useful, and much different than the phonetics class I took last semester, so I don't mind taking this one. My lectures meet once a week each for two hours. I'm in a 20th century theatre class and one on the history of Paris. I won't bore you with the details.
This weekend is looking interesting... I guess I'll have to discuss that in a later update. :)
Miss you all!
Take care.
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Bonjour! :)
First of all, I'm sorry for not updating in a while... The past two weeks have been extremely busy. More of my classes started (so now I have a full schedule) and I've had some visitors! Seeing people from home while I'm far away is such a treat. One of my best friends and her family (which is practically my family, too) came to Paris for a few days, and we had a great time. Then, this past week, my boyfriend came to see me during his break. Hi, guys! :) :) :) I loved seeing you. As it turns out, I'll be having a few more visitors (you know who you are) soon, including my mom!!!!!! So, overall, things have been good!
Two weekends ago I went on a trip to Normandy, St. Malo (in Brittany), and Mont St. Michel with my program. What a great trip--I like history (although I don't really have the brain for it), so the trip itself was interesting, but everything was just so beautiful. The weather itself is so different here--I see bright green grass all over the place; beautiful, colorful flowers; and (when it's really nice out), clear blue skies. That's how it was in Normandy. We took a coach bus, which took about 5 hrs to drive from Paris. It was great to get away from the city for the while and see the gorgeous countryside. The first day we visited the D-Day Museum in Arromanches, the German beach (giant craters everywhere), and the American cemetery--which is considered American soil. So, technically, we were back home for a little while. The whole experience in Normandy was incredibly unique and very touching. After spending the day there, we got back on the bus and drove to St. Malo, a beautiful town that inspired the look of Quebec City in Canada. I've never been to Quebec, so I just had to take my program director's word for it, but the town was almost breathtakingly beautiful. I had a great dinner with the students in my program.
Brittany is known for a few things, food-and-drink-wise, particularly crêpes and seafood. I got the best of both and had a savoury crêpe with salmon, scallops, leeks, mushrooms, and cheese. It was delicious. Everyone seemed happy with what they got and after eating, we went our separate ways and explored. My group of friends and I went walking around and saw a lot. We even walked down to the beach at night and looked at the stars. It was a great end to the night. The bed & breakfast we stayed at was nice, too. Cute, clean rooms with a NORMAL sized bathroom (if there's one thing I can tell you about the bathrooms I'm used to here... it's that they seem to be made for ants)... and a great breakfast, of course. We had to get up early for it, but it was worth it. Delicious bread, jams, croissants... you name it. It was awesome. After that, those of us that were awake took a tour around the outer walls in the town. Soon after, we got back on the bus to head to Mont St. Michel.
I feel like I'd say too much about that part of the trip... but just know that it was probably my favorite part. I did a project on Mont St. Michel when I was in 8th grade and I've wanted to visit it since then. It's a beautiful church/town that rests on its own island, pretty much--I'm terrible at describing it, but the tides usually make it so that it's separate from the coast. Our program director actually told us that this would probably be the last time for a very long time that it would be possible to get there by bus. I've attached a picture of it, if you want to see. I'd send more but my Internet connection is too slow to send multiple files.
 | |
| View of Mont St. Michel from just outside of the bus |
Anyway, my classes are good. Grammar is difficult but, hey, that's what I need. Phonetics is interesting, if not for the schedule alone--it meets every weekday for one hour, every other week. Bizarre. The class is split into two sections--repetition, where we take some notes and, well, repeat stuff that our professor says... and the lab, where we sit with headphones and a microphone and do audio recordings of our pronunciation. The professor gives us what to say, and we record over and over again--she can even listen to us individually and help us out. It's very useful, and much different than the phonetics class I took last semester, so I don't mind taking this one. My lectures meet once a week each for two hours. I'm in a 20th century theatre class and one on the history of Paris. I won't bore you with the details.
This weekend is looking interesting... I guess I'll have to discuss that in a later update. :)
Miss you all!
Take care.
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Friday, March 4, 2011
Group Email Update (4)
2/20/2011
Hello!
It just occurred to me that I didn't do an update this weekend... Mostly because I don't know what to update you all about! I don't want to say that nothing interesting has happened, but... I don't know. I guess I just got lazy!
Anyway... I asked to be placed into a higher-level class and I was approved, so now the work is a little harder, but that's fine--I wanted a challenge and I wasn't getting one in my other class. I took a placement test for a phonetics class (which wasn't actually a test... we sat with someone that asked us to repeat simple phrases in French and they determined our placement based on how we pronounced everything)... and that one will start next week. The class schedules here are pretty bizarre. I've been having grammar review/French civilization classes since I arrived, and the official grammar class started after 2 weeks, and now my phonetics one starts next week... The lectures (AKA my theatre class and my art history class) don't start until this week, either. The lectures only meet once a week for two hours, but phonetics meets for one hour, every day, every OTHER week. It's very weird. Not to mention they're in all different parts of the city. It makes no sense!
Aside from classes this week, I'm going to the ballet on Thursday night, which I'm really looking forward to, since I liked the opera so much (it was awesome).
My friends and I are planning what we want to do later in the semester as far as traveling is concerned and it's all very exciting. Lots of interesting stuff... but nothing official as of yet.
I go exploring after my grammar class and I've made friends outside of my program, which is really nice. I like everyone that I've been with so far, but it's cool to have friends that come from different places. The Cours de Civilisation at the Sorbonne is open to students from all over the world, not just those of us in the US (and especially not just New York). Having interesting places to visit and new people to visit them with is great! I like being able to branch out.
The weather here has been cold... That's unfortunate because it was so nice last week and the week before. It's been chilly and a little rainy. I can't stand being cooped up in my building all day long, though, so despite the not-so-nice weather today, I made myself go outside and walk around. I'm glad I did... Staying in my room gets boring fast. With so much to do in the city, how can I just lay around? I can't wait til it really warms up, though. I need good adventure weather!
I hope everything by you guys has been good! Is there more snow coming? I'm getting sick of it FOR you!
Take care!
With lots of love,
- Maeghan
Hello!
It just occurred to me that I didn't do an update this weekend... Mostly because I don't know what to update you all about! I don't want to say that nothing interesting has happened, but... I don't know. I guess I just got lazy!
Anyway... I asked to be placed into a higher-level class and I was approved, so now the work is a little harder, but that's fine--I wanted a challenge and I wasn't getting one in my other class. I took a placement test for a phonetics class (which wasn't actually a test... we sat with someone that asked us to repeat simple phrases in French and they determined our placement based on how we pronounced everything)... and that one will start next week. The class schedules here are pretty bizarre. I've been having grammar review/French civilization classes since I arrived, and the official grammar class started after 2 weeks, and now my phonetics one starts next week... The lectures (AKA my theatre class and my art history class) don't start until this week, either. The lectures only meet once a week for two hours, but phonetics meets for one hour, every day, every OTHER week. It's very weird. Not to mention they're in all different parts of the city. It makes no sense!
Aside from classes this week, I'm going to the ballet on Thursday night, which I'm really looking forward to, since I liked the opera so much (it was awesome).
My friends and I are planning what we want to do later in the semester as far as traveling is concerned and it's all very exciting. Lots of interesting stuff... but nothing official as of yet.
I go exploring after my grammar class and I've made friends outside of my program, which is really nice. I like everyone that I've been with so far, but it's cool to have friends that come from different places. The Cours de Civilisation at the Sorbonne is open to students from all over the world, not just those of us in the US (and especially not just New York). Having interesting places to visit and new people to visit them with is great! I like being able to branch out.
The weather here has been cold... That's unfortunate because it was so nice last week and the week before. It's been chilly and a little rainy. I can't stand being cooped up in my building all day long, though, so despite the not-so-nice weather today, I made myself go outside and walk around. I'm glad I did... Staying in my room gets boring fast. With so much to do in the city, how can I just lay around? I can't wait til it really warms up, though. I need good adventure weather!
I hope everything by you guys has been good! Is there more snow coming? I'm getting sick of it FOR you!
Take care!
With lots of love,
- Maeghan
Group Email Update (3)
2/12/2011
Hello! :) I hope you all are well and keeping yourselves occupied with interesting things.
As of yesterday, I've been here for two weeks! It's a weird feeling. It doesn't feel like I've been here for very long, yet I'm already pretty used to it. There is a lot to explore here and I really haven't even scratched the surface. For the first week or so, I was sometimes feeling too tired/sick to go out much, so I missed some outings planned by my friends, but now that I'm feeling a lot better (although that stupid cough won't go away), I'm making it a point to go out and explore more. Yesterday I even took out my city map and started looking for things!
Yesterday was also the first day of my grammar class at the Sorbonne. Right now we only have that--I still have the director's course with my group, but we've all been split up into different levels thanks to the (very difficult) placement test we took last week. I didn't do as well as I hoped I would, but I'm comfortable with my placement now (intermediate). That's apparently more like a higher-level back in the US, according to Céline. She keeps saying it, so I guess I'll just have to believe it... Ha ha. Anyway, I really enjoyed the class yesterday. I left my building early so that I would have enough time to find it (since no one else in my group had the same class... when I said we were all split up, I really did mean it), and explore if time allowed. I used GoogleMaps to make sure I knew where I was going, as well as the university map we were given (more on that later), and by that time I had a pretty good idea of what to do. I decided to find it on foot, so I got off the Metro at a familiar stop and made my way from there. It was surprisingly easy and it didn't take a lot of time at all! I arrived about 30 minutes early and used that time to walk around a bit. There was so much to see!
The area that my grammar class is in is lovely. First of all, the building itself looks nice. Second, there are little shops everywhere... and Notre Dame, of course. I can see it down the road! :) I walked up and down the road a little, and eventually came across a sign for a road whose name was IMMEDIATELY familiar. I got very excited and said, "Hey, I have enough time to go and find this..."
... AND I DID! That road was the one this famous bookstore I've been wanting to see for months is... Shakespeare & Company! My friend and I tried finding it a while back, but I couldn't remember the address, and no one we asked help from seemed to know it at all. The thing is, it's an American bookstore, so I don't think that many French people are particularly interested in it.
I was very proud of myself for finding it (all by myself) because, as most of you know, I cannot direct myself anywhere. I just can't do it. Now, however, I have a little more confidence and I'm going to explore more. There are lots of other places I want to see.
Anyway... Enough about my nerdy bookstore adventure. I'll spare you the details. Just know that I was really happy to find it and, since it's so close, I plan on visiting on a regular basis.
The weather here is amazing. Yesterday it was even in the 60s! I'm not kidding! It was such a nice day that I met up with friends after class (well, after I explored some more) and we just walked around for a few hours. We visited the Seine River and it was really nice. We got there just in time for all of the lights to turn on on the bridge and it was very pretty.
This week I also went to the Louvre (the Egyptian art exhibit... that museum is far too big to explore the whole thing in one visit). That was awesome. I want to visit Pompidou (another museum, but a bit of a strange one from what I understand).
I think I've written quite a lot for one email, but that's what's up! :)
Take care and, really, thanks again for keeping in touch with me. I love getting emails from back home! Or, you know... real letters... Those are nice, too... ;)
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Hello! :) I hope you all are well and keeping yourselves occupied with interesting things.
As of yesterday, I've been here for two weeks! It's a weird feeling. It doesn't feel like I've been here for very long, yet I'm already pretty used to it. There is a lot to explore here and I really haven't even scratched the surface. For the first week or so, I was sometimes feeling too tired/sick to go out much, so I missed some outings planned by my friends, but now that I'm feeling a lot better (although that stupid cough won't go away), I'm making it a point to go out and explore more. Yesterday I even took out my city map and started looking for things!
Yesterday was also the first day of my grammar class at the Sorbonne. Right now we only have that--I still have the director's course with my group, but we've all been split up into different levels thanks to the (very difficult) placement test we took last week. I didn't do as well as I hoped I would, but I'm comfortable with my placement now (intermediate). That's apparently more like a higher-level back in the US, according to Céline. She keeps saying it, so I guess I'll just have to believe it... Ha ha. Anyway, I really enjoyed the class yesterday. I left my building early so that I would have enough time to find it (since no one else in my group had the same class... when I said we were all split up, I really did mean it), and explore if time allowed. I used GoogleMaps to make sure I knew where I was going, as well as the university map we were given (more on that later), and by that time I had a pretty good idea of what to do. I decided to find it on foot, so I got off the Metro at a familiar stop and made my way from there. It was surprisingly easy and it didn't take a lot of time at all! I arrived about 30 minutes early and used that time to walk around a bit. There was so much to see!
The area that my grammar class is in is lovely. First of all, the building itself looks nice. Second, there are little shops everywhere... and Notre Dame, of course. I can see it down the road! :) I walked up and down the road a little, and eventually came across a sign for a road whose name was IMMEDIATELY familiar. I got very excited and said, "Hey, I have enough time to go and find this..."
... AND I DID! That road was the one this famous bookstore I've been wanting to see for months is... Shakespeare & Company! My friend and I tried finding it a while back, but I couldn't remember the address, and no one we asked help from seemed to know it at all. The thing is, it's an American bookstore, so I don't think that many French people are particularly interested in it.
I was very proud of myself for finding it (all by myself) because, as most of you know, I cannot direct myself anywhere. I just can't do it. Now, however, I have a little more confidence and I'm going to explore more. There are lots of other places I want to see.
Anyway... Enough about my nerdy bookstore adventure. I'll spare you the details. Just know that I was really happy to find it and, since it's so close, I plan on visiting on a regular basis.
The weather here is amazing. Yesterday it was even in the 60s! I'm not kidding! It was such a nice day that I met up with friends after class (well, after I explored some more) and we just walked around for a few hours. We visited the Seine River and it was really nice. We got there just in time for all of the lights to turn on on the bridge and it was very pretty.
This week I also went to the Louvre (the Egyptian art exhibit... that museum is far too big to explore the whole thing in one visit). That was awesome. I want to visit Pompidou (another museum, but a bit of a strange one from what I understand).
I think I've written quite a lot for one email, but that's what's up! :)
Take care and, really, thanks again for keeping in touch with me. I love getting emails from back home! Or, you know... real letters... Those are nice, too... ;)
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Group Email Update (2)
2/6/2011
Hello, everyone! :)
Just for future reference, I'm pretty sure that my updates are just going to be sent on the weekends... Or whenever I have the most free time. Things have been busy!
My official classes still haven't started, but some of them will by the end of this week. So far we have just been doing language review and orientation with our program director, Céline (she is awesome). A lot of my friends and I have been doing some sight-seeing (like good ol' American tourists), but I've been feeling a little under the weather (nothing serious), so I haven't gone every time. Today, however, I went to Belleville for the Chinese New Year celebration. Belleville is pretty much the French version of China Town that we know from New York. Everything was very colorful... and the weather today was beautiful! We're expecting temperatures in the 50s this week. It's great! Sorry about all the snow... Ha ha!
Tomorrow night I'm seeing an opera with my group ( Mme Butterfly... it's by Puccini) and later in the month I'm seeing a ballet (Caligula... not that I can tell you much about it, because I simply don't know). I also am going on a trip to Normandy in about two weeks. I'm glad to have a lot of exciting things coming up!
I was finally able to do laundry and buy a hairdryer... These things seem really stupid and probably meaningless to a lot of you but it is SO NICE to have clean clothes and hair that doesn't make me look weirder than I already am. ;) Getting laundry done was a process... There are only 7 machines (4 washers, 3 dryers) and you need to purchase tokens to use them from the front desk... for 5€. The directions to use the machines are all in French... and for something like that, where my tokens may be eaten if I make any mistakes (and in which case I don't get a refund and am stuck with dirty clothes), I'd really like for the directions to be in English, too. Oh, well. I was given tips on how to use it by a friend, and I also made it a point to ask people that came into the laundry room. In the end, I had clean, dry clothes. Yay! My hairdryer was cheap, too (only 5,99€, and works well, so this weekend was pretty successful.
Ehhh!
I suppose that's about it...
If you want to send me letters or something, my address is here:
________________
(the ___ is my room number! You may want to write "chambre ___" but I'm not sure)
Also... I have a magicJack and the number is ____________--YES, it's a local number! It's not always turned on, but you can leave me a voicemail. Although I never seem to get the whole message... Just the first few seconds. I'll have to look into that...
I think that's about it for now! :)
I'll be writing again next weekend. Thank you for keeping in touch with me!
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Hello, everyone! :)
Just for future reference, I'm pretty sure that my updates are just going to be sent on the weekends... Or whenever I have the most free time. Things have been busy!
My official classes still haven't started, but some of them will by the end of this week. So far we have just been doing language review and orientation with our program director, Céline (she is awesome). A lot of my friends and I have been doing some sight-seeing (like good ol' American tourists), but I've been feeling a little under the weather (nothing serious), so I haven't gone every time. Today, however, I went to Belleville for the Chinese New Year celebration. Belleville is pretty much the French version of China Town that we know from New York. Everything was very colorful... and the weather today was beautiful! We're expecting temperatures in the 50s this week. It's great! Sorry about all the snow... Ha ha!
Tomorrow night I'm seeing an opera with my group ( Mme Butterfly... it's by Puccini) and later in the month I'm seeing a ballet (Caligula... not that I can tell you much about it, because I simply don't know). I also am going on a trip to Normandy in about two weeks. I'm glad to have a lot of exciting things coming up!
I was finally able to do laundry and buy a hairdryer... These things seem really stupid and probably meaningless to a lot of you but it is SO NICE to have clean clothes and hair that doesn't make me look weirder than I already am. ;) Getting laundry done was a process... There are only 7 machines (4 washers, 3 dryers) and you need to purchase tokens to use them from the front desk... for 5€. The directions to use the machines are all in French... and for something like that, where my tokens may be eaten if I make any mistakes (and in which case I don't get a refund and am stuck with dirty clothes), I'd really like for the directions to be in English, too. Oh, well. I was given tips on how to use it by a friend, and I also made it a point to ask people that came into the laundry room. In the end, I had clean, dry clothes. Yay! My hairdryer was cheap, too (only 5,99€, and works well, so this weekend was pretty successful.
Ehhh!
I suppose that's about it...
If you want to send me letters or something, my address is here:
________________
(the ___ is my room number! You may want to write "chambre ___" but I'm not sure)
Also... I have a magicJack and the number is ____________--YES, it's a local number! It's not always turned on, but you can leave me a voicemail. Although I never seem to get the whole message... Just the first few seconds. I'll have to look into that...
I think that's about it for now! :)
I'll be writing again next weekend. Thank you for keeping in touch with me!
Lots of love,
- Maeghan
Group Email Update (1)
1/28/2011
Hey, everyone! :)
I have arrived! Right now I'm in my room in Paris, fighting the evil
Internet "connection." It's not being very cooperative right now (and
I have a feeling that this is normal), but I'm trying my best to
update.
My original flight was delayed by about 6 hours due to the storm,
until it was finally canceled--then I ended up spending the night in
the airport with some students from my program. The whole ordeal was
very exhausting, but it was nice to get to know the others. We had to
wait over 24hrs from our original flight time in order to get on
another one. We passed the time by playing Uno and, eventually,
making a blanket fort at one of the gates--are you surprised? The
employees at Newark seemed amused and didn't ask us to take it
down--in fact, one man who worked for the airport came over and asked
if we needed more blankets. :D
As of right now (6PM Paris-time as I'm writing this--can't guarantee
when this message will be sent) I'm unpacking some things. I'll take
pictures of the room and probably will include them in a separate
message. It's a decent size, but there's no carpet... :(
Anyway, things are going well. We should be catching up with the rest
of the program participants + the director tomorrow.
If you want to contact me outside of email and Facebook while I'm
here, this should be of interest to you:
- I got something called a magicJack--it's basically a landline phone
that I can plug into my computer with a ___ area code. This way I can
call home without paying enormous fees! Due to the weird Internet
connection I have, I can't guarantee that it will always be on, but my
phone number is ____________. I have a voicemail box, so you can
leave a message if I don't answer. :) Also, keep in mind that I am
6hrs ahead of you!
- My mailing address is:
___________________
Use that if you want to send me anything! :D
I will do my best to keep in touch as often as possible. :) For the
next week or so I'll be participating in orientation activities as
well as placement exams, so I have a little while before I start my
classes.
Lots of love and hope to talk to you soon,
- Maeghan
Hey, everyone! :)
I have arrived! Right now I'm in my room in Paris, fighting the evil
Internet "connection." It's not being very cooperative right now (and
I have a feeling that this is normal), but I'm trying my best to
update.
My original flight was delayed by about 6 hours due to the storm,
until it was finally canceled--then I ended up spending the night in
the airport with some students from my program. The whole ordeal was
very exhausting, but it was nice to get to know the others. We had to
wait over 24hrs from our original flight time in order to get on
another one. We passed the time by playing Uno and, eventually,
making a blanket fort at one of the gates--are you surprised? The
employees at Newark seemed amused and didn't ask us to take it
down--in fact, one man who worked for the airport came over and asked
if we needed more blankets. :D
As of right now (6PM Paris-time as I'm writing this--can't guarantee
when this message will be sent) I'm unpacking some things. I'll take
pictures of the room and probably will include them in a separate
message. It's a decent size, but there's no carpet... :(
Anyway, things are going well. We should be catching up with the rest
of the program participants + the director tomorrow.
If you want to contact me outside of email and Facebook while I'm
here, this should be of interest to you:
- I got something called a magicJack--it's basically a landline phone
that I can plug into my computer with a ___ area code. This way I can
call home without paying enormous fees! Due to the weird Internet
connection I have, I can't guarantee that it will always be on, but my
phone number is ____________. I have a voicemail box, so you can
leave a message if I don't answer. :) Also, keep in mind that I am
6hrs ahead of you!
- My mailing address is:
___________________
Use that if you want to send me anything! :D
I will do my best to keep in touch as often as possible. :) For the
next week or so I'll be participating in orientation activities as
well as placement exams, so I have a little while before I start my
classes.
Lots of love and hope to talk to you soon,
- Maeghan
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