Campo dei Miracoli

Thursday was day one in Pisa. I woke up at 4 AM after a late night, showered, got some stuff together, ate breakfast, and met Vaune at the elevator at 5:30. We took the RER to Chatelet and the 1 to Porte Maillot, where we crossed a giant (empty) intersection to get to the Beauvais Airport shuttle bus. Beauvais is the airport that the cheap airlines fly out of, and technically it is an airport that serves Paris, but it is an hour and a half out of the city. We left around 6:30 AM. The drive was actually rather nice, and being on the highway in Paris reminded me of being on the highway in New Orleans. I put in my headphones, turned on my iPod, and conked out to Deb Talan.

Vaune woke me up when we got there at 7:45 AM. We couldn't check in yet so we got some sandwiches and water, and expressed our excitement that we were going to Italy.





Around 9 we checked in for our 9:55 flight. It was so easy, because it's such a tiny airport and nobody flies out of it, so there was no hassle. This airport was literally maybe the size of half of one floor of Clarke Middle School. We went through security and they gave me shit about not having the prescription for my Epi-Pens with me. I wonder if it would ever occur to a French person that in the US we don't keep our prescription papers, we give them to the pharmacists. Then we just waited around, blah blah blah. Finally we got on our plane. No assigned seating, just sit wherever you want. The plane was nearly empty. It was a very strange experience. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I looked out the window and saw... The Alps. Mountains as far as the eye could see. It was surreal. It was like a painting, or a miniature Styrofoam sculpture. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera.

We landed around 11:45. I got my checked bag (actually Alexis' extra duffel bag) with no problem. We had a little difficulty figuring out which bus to take, but once we did it was pretty easy. We changed at the main train station and got on another bus. We were supposed to tell the busdriver that we wanted to get off at "Coop Cisanello." I was terrified to do this, because although I expected the people at the airport to speak some English, I did not expect the busdriver to speak any, and my Italian is shaky and forgotten at best. Also, there was a crazy guy blocking my way. Once I navigated past the crazy guy and got up to the bus driver, I managed to squeak out a paltry "Scusa?" which got him to look at me, at which point I dove in headfirst - "Um, devo scendere al Coop Cisanello. Può dirmi quando ci arriveremo?" - meaning (I hope), "I have to get off at Coop Cisanello. Can you tell me when we get there?" This was as far as I had gotten in my practice Italian the night before, so I was kind of thrown when the bus driver said, "Coop Cisanello? Never heard." He could say barely anything in English, so we had a very odd conversation. He asked me where I was from and told me he had a daughter in Los Angeles. He told me I speak good Italian, at which I laughed out loud, and he protested, saying, "Is true! Is true!" I have found that if you can say one sentence in Italian, that is enough for the Italians. They are proud of you for trying.

He asked me if it was near Cisanello Hospital, to which I replied (in Italian), "I don't know. Someone said Coop Cisanello," which was all I could get out. He asked if I was staying in a hotel and I told him, "No, con un mio amico," and he promptly told me to call the guy and ask him where the stop was. So I called the guy we are staying with. His name is Yorgos and he is half-Greek, half-Sicilian. I found him on Couchsurfing, and he is awesome. Anyway, I called him, and he picked up the phone exclaiming "Roberta!" in an Italian accent. It was wonderful. Anyway, he looked up the stop and told it to us, and we had no trouble after my brief, frightening yet exciting exchange with the bus driver. Yorgos picked us up at the bus stop and took us up to his apartment which was very close to a) the bus stop and b) Coop Cisanello, which turned out to be a giant grocery store. We met his cat Janis, and he made us spaghetti for lunch. Vaune and I could barely keep ourselves from hopping up and down with glee. In fact, we didn't really restrain ourselves and just kind of giggled with happiness throughout the whole meal.







Yorgos making pasta for us


After lunch it was time to explore. Sadly, Yorgos couldn't come with us because he had studying to do. Equipped with a travel guide from Madame Beaufort's office and directions from Yorgos, we headed for the river.


























On the bridge








We turned right at what we thought was Piazza dei Cavalieri but turned out to be Piazza Garibaldi and wended our way through a tiny back alley.









Vaune is excited that we found Kebab in Italy




I was walking down the alley and said, "I feel like there should be laundry hanging out somewhere." And then I looked up, and there it was!


"Ahh, I'm standing in a creepy alley!"


A tower, and a pizzeria


Once we got out into the bigger streets, we turned a corner and suddenly there it was, the Tower of Pisa, leaning before us. I mean, it was just right there. It's not the kind of thing you expect to turn a corner and just see. I expected some sort of lead-up, security, throngs of humanity in camera-happy stupor, but it was just there, at the end of the street.



"Oh my god, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is RIGHT THERE."


We don't know why this car tire was filled with cement.


We just walked right up to it. There was practically nobody there. It was AMAZING. I just couldn't get over how crazy it was that it was just there, with a tiny little fence thing around it. Leaning. And it really leans. I always knew it did, of course, but pictures don't do it justice. Pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa are so common that you start to just think of them as postcard images and not as something real. But there it is, really leaning. Actually, all of the buildings in the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) lean a little bit, but you don't notice it because the "Torre Pendente" leans so much more. IT WAS SO COOL. I was ecstatic. Vaune pointed out that I never get that way about France, and it's true. France doesn't awe me any more. But to be at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and for there to be nobody there, and for the sky to be so blue... it was just breathtaking.







The cathedral






We walked around to the front and took some totally fun Leaning Tower pictures.



















Leaning Bobbie and Vaune in front of Leaning Tower


I even took one of Vaune taking a picture of the Tower, because some of those pictures look so fake.



After exhausting every possible angle, we walked around the rest of the Campo dei Miracoli and then back the way we came. On the way back we stopped at the Bottega del Gelato, which was mentioned in our guidebook and which we kind of stumbled upon. I agree with Yorgos - it may be the best ice cream in the world. Especially the Tuttobosco, or "forest fruits." Yum.

On the way back, we walked along the Arno listening to our iPods. Deb Talan accompanied me through Pisa. She should really know that I listen to her music as I stand next to famous rivers.

When we got back to the apartment, we couldn't find the grocery store or remember what floor Yorgos lived on, so he met us downstairs. We went to the store and got stuff for dinner. After that we relaxed for a bit, and around 7:15 we started cooking. I cut up the fresh mozzarella, Vaune cut up the tomatoes, and Yorgos fried the pork chops. It was AMAZING. Pork chops fried in butter, and salad with mozzarella, tomatoes, corn and balsamic vinaigrette. YUM.



Afterwards we had wine and talked for hours about a lot of things, including Italian film, politics, and the American higher education system. Yorgos is "90% sure that a Republican will not win." I wish I had his confidence. We also showed Yorgos our pictures from the day... and a couple of Peter Shields' music videos. He translated the Greek from one of them for us. Apparently Peter is pretty good at Greek and could feasibly achieve his dream of becoming a Greek crossover star.

Then it was time for bed. Yorgos brought out two cots and we crashed. We slept like babies. Don't you want to know what happened next? Tune in next time for Italian pickup lines and tiny churches.

Boulot

Stuff has started happening in my life again! By which I mean I have a job, so I have things to write about.

Yesterday I dragged myself out of bed at 9 AM to call Alexis, who had to get up at 3 AM EST in order to be at work at 4. I guess that's what happens when you work in a coffee shop. After that I went back to bed and slept way too late. When I finally got up, I leisurely went grocery shopping, thinking I had all the time in the world before my 8 PM class that I was teaching. I got home around 3 PM and went online to make sure I had cancelled one of my empty classes. And lo and behold, I had a class at 3:45 that I had totally forgotten about! Luckily the school is very close to where I live so I had plenty of time. We were suppposed to go see a movie called We Own the Night, but since we have to make our classes 8 days in advance, sometimes the movie times have changed by the time we actually have the class. This was the case yesterday, and there were no movies playing until an hour later. Since the class is only two hours long, and I had another one later in the evening, we didn't have time to see the later movies... and who wants to wait around for an hour just to sit watching a movie? So we spent maybe a half an hour talking about what we wanted to do, and then went across the street to Starbucks. We sat around and talked, and it was much more what a conversation class should be like anyway, so it was fine. We talked about TV and told jokes and had a good time. My first conversation class where we had actual conversations!

Afterwards some of them went to see the movie, and I went home, ate and showered. At 7:30 I met Julie in front of the tram and we went to the school to pick up my other class. We were just going to go to a bar and talk, but I don't know what bars would be good for that, so I asked them. I figured they would know god bars near their school, but instead they dragged us all the way to Bastille.

After the class, Julie and I met up with her friend Sophie and we went to the Troisième Lieu for maybe an hour, and then I came home and went to bed.

This morning was very similar... Crawled out of bed at 9 to call Alexis, slept way too late. But then I spent two hours wandering around Paris trying to find an Italian restaurant that would let five French students and their English teacher have dinner at 5:30 PM. Finally I found one and went home, drenched from the rain. At 5 I met my students and brought them to the restaurant. Erin met us there. We had a pretty good time, nice and relaxed. It was good to have relaxing class with sweet guys after my horrible one last night.

Now I am home. I should be studying for Swedish. I made some flashcards. That counts, right?

Tomorrow is my Swedish exam, then Grammar exam, then sleep. Then Italy! We will be in Pisa for two days, Florence for four, and Rome for four. I hope to update from Italy!

And some pictures that go with my previous post:

Teaching Erin to swing at Le Troisième Lieu


Julie and Mona


Our veggie burgers

The Third Place

Things have been pretty normal lately, not much of interest to write about...

I got a couple of my exams back. These are the first indication I have gotten during the whole semester of how I am doing in my classes! Luckily I'm doing fine. My Translation exam came out pretty much as I expected - I got a 15/20 on the French to English part and a 10/20 on the English to French. That may seem pretty bad... but keep in mind that an American A is a 14/20 in France. When they set a curve, the person who did the best gets a 14, not a 20. So a 15 is pretty damn good, and a 10 is a low B. Put them together along with the fact that Tulane has agreed to count the French to English section for more, and I have an A- in Translation. Nice.

My Grammar and History of Language class is the one that I basically though I was going to fail, but I did pretty well there, too. I don't know how I did on the work that I turned in to her, but on the exam I got an 11/10 on the first part (I still don't understand this) and a 6/10 on the second part, which adds up to a 17/20... totally rad. So I'm doing very well in the two classes in which I have received my graded exams. Hopefully my other two exams will go well, too. Seems like they like to make you sweat and think you are going to do horribly and then, presto change-o, A+!

In other news, a girl named Julie is visiting Paris right now. She's from Australia and is traveling the world for three months, or until her money runs out. I met her on Couchsurfing.com. She's staying in a hostel, but she wanted to see some sights with someone who knows the city but speaks English, and so she sent me a message. So we met up on Friday. I took her with me to the Louvre with my conversation class. Most of the guys ditched after an hour, but one of them asked if he could stay and walk around the Louvre with us, and we had a fun time going back and forth between he and I trying to translate descriptions of Egyptian art, including bizarre vocabulary that neither of us knew. Afterwards, Julie and I came back to the Fondation where we tried out the closest thing I could find in France to veggie burgers. They were pretty good, but really squishy, and the buns were lame and fell apart. But we had a good meal, all in all. After that we met Erin at Châtelet and went to Le Troisième Lieu, a bar which I really do enjoy, but I keep meeting weird guys there who seem nice and then turn out to be completely creepy. For example, this is the bar where I threw beer in a guy's face (one of my life goals, completed). But as usual, we met some cool people of various nationalities. Julie, who is from Melbourne, even met another Aussie at the bar!

I've spent the rest of this weekend lazing around and taking advantage of the fact that they have finally re-opened the laundry room at the Fondation. It still costs an arm and a leg, but it's a little cheaper, it's close to home, and you only need to run one dryer cycle to dry your clothes, which is basically priceless in France. Usually I have to pay 1E for ten minutes, and this time I paid 1E50 for nearly an hour and a half of drying.

I have also been trying out some of the vegetarian foods that I bought at this organic, natural, vegetarian store called Naturalia. It's not that I'm going veggie or anything - just trying to eat healthy. But really, I'm just not that into soy products. I tried the aforementioned veggie burger-like things, which were pretty good. But I also had these little star-shaped things made of tofu and veggies as well as tofu hot dogs, and they were both kind of gross. I had to use a lot of ketchup. It doesn't help that there's nothing really yummy like Boca Burgers or Gardenburgers. I think that for my health food I am just going to stick to muesli and yogurt for breakfast, and stir-fried vegetables. Although this store Naturalia is the only place in France where I have found sweet potatoes... I'll have to go back!

So, two more exams and then Italy!

Some random pictures, because they have been sadly absent from my blog lately:

Foucault's pendulum - not the original exactly, because the original would have fallen apart by now, but not really a replica either. More like the real thing with new parts. In it's original home, the Panthéon.


The courtyard of the Louvre at night - not the part that you usually see pictures of, eh?


Paige (who stayed with me through Couchsurfing) and I and some enthusiastic tourists who wanted their picture taken with us. I never did get around to writing about Paige's visit...


Chili cheese fries, a Coke and a milkshake at Breakfast in America, and American diner in Paris. It's the real deal - those are the best chili cheese fries I have ever had.



They light up the Eiffel Tower with sparkling lights for ten minutes every hour at night.


Some monks who wanted their picture with us. This was amazing.


Vaune, myself and Alan on a night out on the town right before break


Alexis and me on New Year's Eve in New Jersey


Family photo - with the cat!


And silliness to end the post

Back in action

Well, after exams, illness, holidays, and approximately 37 hours of travel time, I am back to Paris, and back to my sadly neglected blog.

The holidays were interesting. They had high points and low points, but this is not the place for those stories.

I arrived in Paris on Sunday morning, after having left on Saturday afternoon. It was 7:30 AM in Paris, and 1:30 AM in my brain. I actually slept some on the long flight, which was a pleasant surprise. In fact, once the plane started landing I started to get grumpy because I wanted to keep sleeping. But land we did. Customs was much quicker to go through than when I flew in in August, and I got my bags without trouble, at which point I headed off to find the subway. Little did I know that I had to walk about a mile in the airport before finding it.

But walk I did, carrying nearly my own weight in luggage, and eventually I found the entrance to the RER. I managed to make it through the turnstile with my giant rolling suitcase, matching carry-on, borrowed duffel bag, and giant backpack. Then I settled into my seat for the long ride back to the Cité U.

When I finally got back, I had to go upstairs and get my key from Vaune. Turns out Renata Maniaci had it, and was also sleeping in my bed. So we rousted her out of there and I promptly took a shower and slept until 5 PM. Meaning I didn't get to sleep until maybe 3 AM that night. This proved fun the next day, as it was my first class teaching English conversation to computer science students.

No one had signed up for my first class so I cancelled it, meaning I got to sleep in. But around noon Vaune, Renata and I headed over to the school to grab our students. Four of my six students showed up and we went to see Gone Baby Gone at the Gaumont Parnasse. It was pretty good, I recommend it. It was also a low-stress way to ease into teaching English classes to French IT students. Afterwards, they asked me to go bowling with them, which was nice. I didn't go, but at least they like me. I'm thinking about making a bowling class for when we get back from Italy.

SPEAKING of Italy. Vaune and I are going to Italy from the 17th to the 27th! We are spending 2 nights in Pisa, 4 nights in Florence and 4 nights in Rome. It ought to be pretty awesome. Vaune's taken care of figuring out most of the travel arrangements, and I am working on places to stay. Mostly through Couchsurfing.com. I have already had one person stay with me and it was a very positive experience. I think this website is really great and helpful and they've built a really amazing community of people who love to travel and want to help other people be able to travel to the places they want to visit. I really encourage you to check it out! Especially the Beyer aunts... for some reason I think you would all find this site very interesting.

As for now, our last week of classes has started up. It's review time before my two remaining exams - Grammar and Swedish. I also have to complete two Swedish assignments by Thursday. I think it will be okay though. As odd as it was, I kind of like that two of my exams were before my two week break (because they were held during class) and two of them are after (because they are held during exam periods). All I have to do now is work out the timing between those two exams, because they are on the same day. Hopefully this week I will also find out some of my grades from the exams I have already taken. We'll see how it goes!

Also, I now have something called SkypeIn. It means that I have a US phone number that is assigned to my Skype account, so you can call me from a US phone and reach me on Skype, costing no more than it would normally cost to call a number from my area code! It's very cool. I also have voicemail so if you miss me you can leave a message, and I am trying to set up call forwarding to my French cell phone as we speak. If you would like the number, please ask me and I will e-mail it to you - I am obviously not going to post it on my public blog.

Running around in Rennes

As I sit at home, sick, dreading the Translation “devoirs sur table” (in class translation test) that I have this afternoon, dreaming of better times, I feel like I should write about my past two weekends, both of which were glorious. I’ll start with this past weekend with Carolyn, because it is a shorter story and does not include pictures.

I left you in suspense on Thursday as I got ready to head to the train station. After posting in my blog, I rounded up ALL of my dirty laundry, as well as a few other necessities, dropped my key off with Vaune, and went to the train station. Even with my giant suitcase I had very little trouble taking the Métro to Gare Montparnasse, where I arrived just in time to see which platform my train was on and roll on over there. I got on, a lovely man helped me with my bag, and I settled into my seat. I finished my book a half-hour into the ride, so then I had to spend the next hour and a half listening to the creepy man across from me whisper sweet nothings in bad English to his surprisingly pretty girlfriend. They were very weird and creepy. I was really glad when they got off at Laval.

When I arrived in Rennes, Carolyn met me at the train station. The Rennes public transportation system (which consists of one Metro line and many bus lines) was having some sort of Christmas pass thing going on, so I managed to get around pretty inexpensively for the weekend. We bought a couple of day passes and took the Metro to Carolyn’s dorm. I met her friends Tiffany, Brierley and Haley, all of whom were very pleasant. Carolyn was in the midst of making cookies in Haley’s toaster oven, so we finished that up and then went to Carolyn’s French class for foreign students, much like my grammar class at Reid Hall. It was fun, the teacher was pleasant, and I think I was sufficiently impressive so as to not make Carolyn look bad.

Friday we “slept in” which for Carolyn and me means we slept until nine. We lazed around and then went out to Indian food, which was delicious. After that we wandered around a cool crafts market. Then we went home and had naptime and went to see Il Etait Une Fois - more commonly known in the US as “Enchanted” - dubbed over in French. After that we kind of crashed again - we kept not eating being hungry for dinner and just kind of going to sleep.

Saturday we got up early and went to the open air market. It was a grey rainy day but the market was beautiful, with all the bright colors of the fruits and vegetables. We got galettes for breakfast - I got a double sausage cheese and onion galette, in which the cheese and onions are inside the galette and then the galette is wrapped around this delicious sweet sausage. It was amazing, if a little overwhelming.

When we got back, I did my laundry. I had brought all of my laundry with me because doing laundry at Carolyn’s dorm is cheaper and easier than hauling it to a laundromat down my street. While we did my laundry we lazed around and watched TV shows. Carolyn left to go do some grocery shopping. When she got back we were supposed to go to a music festival that was in Rennes that weekend, but we were too tired so we just chilled out some more. I know it sounds like we did a lot of just chilling out, but let me remind you that Carolyn had not been expecting a visitor, and I was very sick. So don’t judge!

Around seven we went to the grocery store one more time to pick some things up, and then headed to Carolyn’s friend Annie’s apartment. I already knew Annie because she (almost) stayed with me one night in Paris. Carolyn made lasagna from scratch while we sat around watching silly music videos. The lasagna was delicious, and at one point Carolyn and I got up and clogged. We were pretty silly, but it turns out we remember most of it - Carolyn better than I.

We went back and got ready for bed, and Brierley gave me some medicine for my stomach which helped it not hurt so much. Then it was bedtime.

Sunday was definitely a relax kind of day, because on Sundays in France there is nothing to do. Carolyn and I spent most of the day reacquainting ourselves with silly card games we haven’t played in years, most notably Spit, although we also tried Crazy Eights and Go Fish. For breakfast, Tiffany made pancakes, which were delicious. We watched a lot of Harry Potter, and I even popped some popping corn that Carolyn had found at a co-op in a pot and ate it with lots of melted butter and salt, and then in the evening Tiffany and Brierley made fajitas. Later, we watched Margaret Cho with Haley. All in all, a good time was had.

Monday morning Carolyn took me to Géant, which is a huge hypermarché and we found all sorts of fun things there. We also went to a crafts store and I bought some knitting supplies because I have been itching to just make something. Then we tried to go to this co-op so I could buy some popping corn for myself, but it was closed. We went back and got my stuff and said bye to everyone and then Carolyn took me to the train station. I forgot to punch my ticket so Carolyn had to run back and do it for me, but other than that there were no hitches. I knitted on the train, got back fine, and crashed. I spent the whole next day trying to find a doctor, but that’s another story for another time. As well as the story of Paige’s visit. There are now pictures, so I can post that soon!

Video of the Day - "Parle à ma main" by Fatal Bazooka feat. Yelle

I'll give you a hint - "Parle à ma main" means "talk to the hand." Watch it. It's hilarious.

J'ai douze ans

So part of my plan in life is to always strive to be more like I was when I was 12 or 13 - spontaneous, fun, not anxious all the time like I am now, oblivious to negative people, self-confident, thinking I can do anything. Part of what I miss is after school sometimes I would just be like, "Carolyn! Come over!" or "Sarah! I'm coming to your house and making popcorn!" Sarah would always say we were doing homework or that she was staying late at school to do work or practice violin when she would come to my house. We would call respective parents and tell them the plan, and someone would inevitably end up staying for dinner. And we walked everywhere.

This morning in Grammaire et Histoire de Langue, the teacher gave me a hard time for not typing an assignment that only I have. For one thing, I have very neat handwriting, and it's only one person. You can handle it. For another, it was just some exercises. Not an essay or anything. But she literally said that she physically could not correct it. What the hell. So I rolled my eyes and she yelled at me. I was suddenly reminded of Mr. Palladino/Mr. Wilkins/other mean teachers of LHS and Clarke Middle School lore. I did what I usually used to do in that situation (at the age of 12 or 13): First, I talked back to the teacher, saying that I had never ever turned in an assignment in France and that in the U.S. if you are doing numbered exercises it would be considered weird to type them up (which she did not believe). Second, I totally made a comeback by being the only person in that room full of French students confident enough in her abilities of the International Phonetic Alphabet to go up to the board and transcribe masculine and feminine forms of adjectives. I did pretty damn well and she was definitely surprised, and the French students started muttering. Finally, I said to myself, "Screw it, this teacher made me feel stupid for no reason and I am in a bad mood. I'm going to Rennes to see Carolyn this afternoon. I've had enough of mean Parisians." So after class I went and bought a train ticket to Rennes for this afternoon. I'm leaving in fifteen minutes. I guess this means it's time to call my Mom and tell her I am going to Carolyn's after school today and I will probably stay for dinner (and four nights). I am not, however, going to walk there.

(I would love to right about my great weekend, but I am waiting for Paige to upload the pictures. Soon!)