Printemps

I really ought to be reading for lit. So I decided to blog. Finally. I know i am HORRIBLE. Plenty to catch up on though.

Currently it's spring in Paris! Finally it has bloomed! I am sitting on the little terrace outside my room writing this, with Nutella to keep me company. Nan and Doug arrive Friday morning! We will go to Normandie this weekend, Paris all next week, then Bordeaux next weekend. Should be awesome. And really cheap for me! There is no way Dougie won't look like an american so I'm just over it and glad he won't need a map cause I usually know where I'm going and if I don't I have a very sublte one in my moleskin. Parfait!

So like 6 weeks ago I went to Cologne! March sometime. I don't know exactly. I went with my friend Caroline, who also lives in a homestay in Neuilly. A bunch of people we knew were going on the ski trip so we said whatevs, let's do the Germany thing. Koln was LOVELY. It's right on the Rhine river and when we walked out of the train station we looked up and saw the giant cathedral and were like 'WHOA.' its so massive. it's scary. slash amaaaazingly cool. we didnt go see it til the next day, cause it was pretty late when we got in. We spent Friday at the Dom and then the Shokoladen museum. aka the chocolate museum. and it is just as amazing as it sounds!!! I felt kind of sick so I took a strong nap in the hostel and Caroline did the museum ludwig. We had done lunch by the river. Bratwurst, frites and yummy yummy Kolsch, the beer of Cologne. We went to a brauhaus for dinner and i had a huge plate of taters and kraut topped with roasted pork. with many a round of kolsch. it was amaazing. We ended up at a club with people we met at the hostel. Which was great til i thought i was going to die because EVERYONE was smoking inside. it was gross. all my clothes smelled like smoke it was FOUL. The next day we rented bikes and rode down the rhine! it was so beauitful and so relaxing and I was so so so happy we did it! It was a lovely lovely LOVELY trip.

The weekend after that I went to Florence. My friend Carolyn from my job in Chicago goes to Depaul but was visiting a friend from home who is studying in Florence. I took a night train and met up with her which was SO great to see someone from home. It was grea to have a first day with her and her friends. We did the Boboli gardens and walked around and had a nice low key dinner. The next day she flew back to the states and I packed up my bag and did a day on my own in Florence. I saw the David, and snuck some illegal photos. Woops. I also found the sandwich place Lynne, Mommy and I had gotten these great sandwiches with eggplant and huge chunks of parmesan on them. I was going to do the Uffizi but the line was just so long and I had this big duffle on my back so I just decided to enjoy Florence. I went to the paper shop and hung out writing and watching Florentines in front of the Pitti palace. It was rainy but still so very lovely. I had a long relaxing dinner on my own, pasta salad wine and some panna cotta before heading to the train station for a night train back to Paris. It was two good full days, I was happy I did it. And the night train experience is pretty unique. I was crammed into a tiny room with three tiered bunks. I actually slept really well. Minues t he train being almost 3 hours behind on the way back and then we had to switch to a new train because the breaks were being funny. that SUCKED. but all in all was an amazing trip.

The weekend after THAT I went to Geneva with Linzy. We left really early Saturday and came back late on Sunday. I. Love. Geneva. It was SOOO beautiful. we had two absolutely gorgeous days and we had a nice little room right by the lake. two days in a row we rented a paddle boat and just paddle way far out and sat and watched the mountains as the day passed by. We did a little picnic lunch on the second day too! It was just so relaxing and we didnt rush or try and get to every museum possible. in fact, we didnt even go to the UN. it was amazing. the water and the mountains were so refreshing and the people there are SO VERY NICE. There isn't really too much more to tell about Geneva, other than how much I lvoed it. OH! on Saturday night we met up with another girl from IES, Meredith, cause she was there with this girl Emily but Emily was unfortunately sick :(. so we bought some wine and went ot drink it in this park on the back side of the city where you can see the mountains and its just lovely. for all you lakengren people, it was tea time. we just sat and watched the sun eventually go down. it was awesome. the trick was, we forgot about a way to OPEN the wine. so we found this tiny shop that sold things like olives and spreads and such and were like 'okay maybe they will.' we asked the guy if he sold wine openers and said no but he had one. he took our bottle, opened it for us and gave us three plastic glasses! told us en francais that three girls pretty as us can't be drinking wine out of the bottle, we will give men the wrong idea about us! it was cute. and guys in geneva have been by far the least creepy. i was really upset when we left. literally teared up on the train. it was such a beautiul weekend and the first time in a while I felt in a homey place. maybe it was the mountains. i blame dougie for that!

SO after that whole trip spring break came up. I skipped class on Thursday to take a Wednesday night train to Barcelona. Im sorry, Barthelona. Can't forget that Spanish lisp. I went with Marcy and Nicole and Connor met up with us Friday evening. I loooove Barcelona. We had a great great hostal that was inexpensive, fit all four of us and had a nice little terrace-y thing. sink and table in room. we spent Friday kind of wandering and went to the beach. it was so great to just be next to the ocean! when the day winded down to tea time we went back to the hostal and on our way stopped and bought some cheese crackers and boxed sangria, 'Don Simon.' The Don is my best friend. we bought some orange to put in it which was great, and for being 1.70 euros for a box, was pretty darn good. We had a nice early evening with that and then went to this tiny little place with really cheap food for dinner and turned in somewhat early. Good Friday = RAINY. i spent quite some time searching out a place for church which failed MISERABLY. we got churros and chocolate for breakfast. and its not like drinkable hot chocolate its more like a mug of melted chocolate. its still amazing though. oh yeah, coffee in spain is really really good. i enjoyed that a LOT. we went to see sagrada familia, which is the CRAZY cathedral by gaudi and it wont even be finished for another 50 years. i had a good time explaining the ridiculous religious symbolism all over hte passion and nativity facades. it was an insane piece of cathedral. i cant even explain. google images. its just nuts. we decided to have ourselves a good dinner and decied to do paella sinc ei wasnt eating meat and had been fasting all day. we found this place on las ramblas with 1 tapas + 1 paella + 1 sangria = 9.9 euros! we had a winner. it was really great cause they just brought us each our sangria and then our three tapas and then a HUGE seafood paella. it was really fun to eat it all togeter like that and was REALLY delicious and not too much food. and just hte right price. we then went up montjuic. mount of the jews. we just called it jew mountain. we watched hte magic fountains show which was SO beautiful and the view of barcelona from way up there is just breahtaking, especially when you can see sagrada familia way in the distance and then the ocean too. we then took the long way to the metro to go meet connor who was getting in from the airport. we found ourselves in the most intense passion parade i have ever seen. drums, incence, carrying floats on backs it was NUTS. slash really cool. I spent the next day on my own as they went up t he coast to see all the Dali stuff and i couldnt really afford a side trip. I went to the huge market there, and just watched all the insane things being sold as everyone was buying things for Easter dinner. I had myself a one euro strawberry coconut juice which was soooo good and then sat myself at this little tapas bar in the back and had myself chorizo tapas (the one spanish thing i wanted but hadnt had yet) and a cafe con leche and journaled and watched the buzz of the market. it was an excellent choice for hte morning. I basically spent he rest of hte day wandering a lot. it was gorgeous so i went to the beach but by the time i had walked there it started to get cloudy. so i sat on the beach and watched storm clouds roll in. and yeah i got caught in the rain but it was fine. i took a long wandering time back to the hostal, showered, packed and went ot find dinner. i foudn a 4 euros falafel place wher eyou get to kind of do like a falafel bar. mine with PACKED with hummus, tomato, onions, fried eggplant and fresh fresh fresh tabouli. SCORE. it was so good. i met up with the rest of hte folks to give them the key to the hostal, bid them farewell a nd headed back to the train station to night train it back to paris. was a little weird, the first time in a LONG time i havent been to easter vigil mass. but i was so happy i went to spain

this has been a huge post. im tired of typing. maybe will fill in on easter/spring break later this evening!

Ellen