A Weekend in Paris: Part II

Originally, Kat and I were meant to take a 10:55am train back to Strasbourg Sunday morning. When we arrived in Paris, however, we realized our foolishness for not staying in the city longer, so Sunday morning we exchanged our tickets for a much later train. Hence, we were able to spend almost all of Sunday in Paris as well!

The first thing we did after changing tickets was to head to the Louvre museum. We didn't want to go in (too much art) but we wanted to see the famous glass pyramid and all the fountains. It was a cloudy day, but they say that Paris is most beautiful in the rain (I've heard that somewhere) and it didn't disappoint! Of course, I love cloudy days and rainy days as much as I love sunny days, so that could've been a factor as well, but overall I think the colors of Paris work very well with grey skies.

After that, we took the metro to the Centre Pompidou, the museum that I really did want to visit. It's a really awesome modern art museum--it's one of the three major art museums in Paris (along with the Louvre and le Musee d'Orsay) but I think the Centre Pompidou is the least-frequented, which is a shame. I've wanted to visit Pompidou for the past seven years, ever since I began learning French in middle school. It was an amazing feeling to actually finally visit it, and it was made even better since students were given free admission! We spent a good chunk of time in the museum as well, which I was happy about. Also, before entering the museum, it must be mentioned that I had the most amazing crêpe of my life--generously filled with nutella and a fresh banana--and it was worth every centime I spent on it. And funnily enough, the French guy who made my crêpe thought I was German, which really amused me (perhaps my French has taken on an Alsatian accent?).

Best. Crepe. Ever.

Centre Pompidou!

Sacre-Coeur in the distance!
 

Women praying--made entirely of tin foil!

This artwork was full of spices, and it smelled wonderful

After the Centre-Pompidou, Kat and I took a trip over to the famous Arc de Triumphe, which gave us gorgeous views across the city. Again, admission was free for students, which was extremely nice! Especially since food in Paris costs so much (goodness, all meals were so expensive, and Kat and I didn't even eat at fancy restaurants! But the tourist attractions are so cheap! The Catacombs only cost 4 euro, and everything else was free admission for college students).

Tomb of the Unknown Solider

The Arc de Triumphe was followed by a casual stroll down the Champs-Elysee, where everything was out of our price range (nope, not splurging on Coach or Chanel or even on 3 euro macaroons the size of bottle caps). However, it was fun to people watch and window shop. Also, the street itself was wonderfully perfumed. I know that is an odd thing to notice, but it really did smell nice.

By this time, Kat and I were quite hungry, and craving a little Mexican food, we went to what I think is the only Chipotle in France. Yes, I know we were in PARIS and it might seem silly to go to Chipotle, but in our defense, we've been eating French food for the past two months (freshly made each night by my host parents!) and it's the only Chipotle in France! I don't regret it at all.

It started raining a few minutes after we finished eating. The two of us shopped for a bit in these cool little antique shops that were nearby. We also took the metro to the Garnier Opera house that I did a project on years ago for a French class. It's really something to be actually visiting all these monuments and buildings and places that I've researched for projects and presented years before, never imagining that I would one day be standing RIGHT THERE and seeing them in the flesh!

Busy, rainy Paris

 

The Opera!

The Opera house ended being our last sight in Paris. We headed back to Gare de l'Est and caught our train back to Strasbourg, arriving home just before midnight. This weekend in Paris ended up being an amazing trip. I was a little worried that all the movies featuring Paris, and that all the pictures I have seen in my life of this beautiful city, and that all the stories I have heard romanticizing Paris would have left me jaded and disappointed with the city. Luckily, it hasn't. Paris is a gorgeous place, and I simply can't wait to return in a few months!

A Weekend in Paris: Part I

After nearly two full months of living in France, I can finally say that I've seen more of Paris than the airport and the Gare de l'Est train station!

Kat and I were only in the city from Friday night (our train arrived just past 7pm) until Sunday night (our train left Paris at 8:55pm), but even so, I managed to take over 350 photos. We also somehow accomplished the somewhat impossible task of exploring the city's main sights in basically two days. Note: my feet are a little sore from all the walking. I'm still amazed at all we saw, so much that it'd be foolish to attempt to explain everything in just one post!

So, the two of us set off Friday night, arriving in Paris at 7pm. We quickly navigated our way through the metro to the stop closest to our hostel. That is where the first problem arose, however. Trying to be a prepared adult traveler, I had taken a photo of a map that was zoomed-in to where our hostel was located in perspective to the metro station. Apparently I am terrible at orienting myself in an unfamiliar place, though, because I took us in a completely different direction. Kat and I ended up wandering the streets of Montmartre for an hour and a half, looking for our hostel and wondering why it wasn't were it should be. After giving up and taking a random flight of stairs "for shits and giggles" in Kat's words, the two of us accidently stumbled upon our first sight: Sacre-Cœur.

Sacre-Cœur at night is absolutely gorgeous. It is completely lit up, and the white stone of the Basilica is a beautiful contrast in the darkness. Even better, no one else was even there, so we had the Basilica to ourselves for pictures. This was also the beginning of our accidently stumbling upon famous sites and monuments.

After the welcome touristy break, Kat and I wearily continued our search for our hostel, and it ends up that we had been heading in the completely opposite direction the whole time (thanks to my poor sense of direction....). Finally, we arrived at the Caulincourt Square Hostel! Checking-in was a slight ego-boost, as the guy at reception was impressed (and relieved) that we could speak French. When he checked our passports and found out that we were American, he was even more impressed that we could speak French!

The hostel ended up being really nice. It had a very friendly atmosphere, and the rooms were clean enough. I had booked us a 6-person all-female room with our own bathroom, so it was a pretty easy (and cheap!) stay.

Our first night in Paris ended with Kat and I eating a late dinner (and for some reason getting laughed at by our annoying waiter), then hopping to a friendlier café for two huge ice cream sundaes. We were too tired (and too far away) to explore the rest of the city, or to even get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.

Saturday ended up being a day where we set off with an itinerary of three sights, only to walk miles and miles and accidentally happen upon so much.

After waking up early and taking advantage of the hostel's free breakfast, Kat and I took the metro to one of our priority sights: the Catacombs of Paris. Perhaps it is a strange first site, but we wanted to beat the lines as they get extremely long after 10 am due to the fact that the guards only allow 200 people wander the underground ossuary at a time.

Understandably, the tour through the Catacombs was a little creepy. One thought from my time 20 meters underground: I've never seen so many bones. It was absolutely astounding: there are just miles and miles of bones... and bones... and more bones just piled up in the tunnels (neatly stacked in some places, and haphazardly strewn in others). The tour is 2km long, and we didn't even see all the bones, as many sections of the dark, damp tunnels are closed to the public. It is estimated that 6 to 7 MILLION people are "resting in peace" down there! These Parisians were transferred to the Catacombs from 1786 through 1859 due to over-crowded cemeteries, although they were allowed to first decompose in the cemeteries. Overall, I'm really glad that we toured the Catacombs, as it was definitely something you don't see every day!

Then, after a quick Carrefour lunch (pre-made salads and sandwiches! bananas! chocolate bars!) in a park, Kat and I set off for the one and only Eiffel Tower.

This was the first time I had ever seen the Eiffel Tower with my own eyes. It was a strange feeling to hop off the metro and see it looming overhead--not disappointing at all, just very unreal. My first thought: it's huge! (duh, Karen...) But the sheer size of the massive iron structure really impressed me. Kat and I didn't even bother waiting in line to get to the top: the two of us simply relaxed in the greenspace near the tower and took lots of photos.


Kat taking Eiffel Tower pics

Afterwards, we walked over to Trocadero, a great place a few meters away which gives a great view of the Eiffel Tower.

Kat and I at Trocadero

The Eiffel Tower was the second planned site on our itinerary for Saturday. The third and final destination was Laurée, Paris' renowned macaroon shop. Like the organized adult I was trying to be, I had looked up maps of the shop's location, but alas, everything looks like a shorter distance on a little map. We decided to walk to the Laurée (located on Rue de Bonaparte) from Trocadero, and this allowed us to stumble upon lots of other sites along the way.

Walking along la Seine, we ran into a huge riverside photography exhibition, which I absolutely loved. It featured professional photographers from across the world--South Korea to Russia to Chile to Kenya to Indonesia--each of whom presented 5 to 10 photographs from one of their collections. One of the most striking collections for me was a photographer from China, who captured several families sitting in front of their respective homes with all their worldly belongings splayed in the yard/street in front of them. Another compelling collection belonged to a Mexican photographer, who featured aerial shots of different men sleeping in the backs of pick-up trucks.

Next, Kat and I encountered the Pont Royale, an extremely ornate bridge with gold-plated statues and magnificent street lamps. We stopped to photograph this extensively, although it was hard to capture the beauty of it.

While crossing another bridge, we noticed the silhouette of the Egyptian Obelisk that I've read about, and we wandered over to see it. There was a just-married couple getting photographed near the Obelisk, whom I creepily managed to capture in my photographs (I mean, they were in the way....). There was also a pretty fountain, which probably has a history unknown to me.

Egyptian Obelisk plus wedding photo!

Finally, after what seemed like miles of walking, Kat and I arrived at Laurée. We each bought a few of the pretty macaroons--I chose framboise (raspberry), vanille (obviously, vanilla), and a special chocolat variety with cacao that originated from Colombia.

Special Chocolate Macaroon! Delicious

After our successful purchase at Laurée, we again happened upon another famous bridge: the Love-Lock bridge (seriously, we weren't even trying to find these places, they just appeared out of nowhere). We took a break and sat on the Love-Lock bridge for quite a while, people-watching all the lovey-dovey couples displaying quite a bit of PDA and all the other camera-happy tourists.

Love-Lock Bridge!

By then, it was almost dark. The two of us made our way back to the Eiffel Tower and ate dinner, then walked back to Trocadero for a great view of the Tower all lit up in the darkness. On the lowest landing of Trocadero, there were about thirty couples waltzing in the moonlight, just a kilometer from (and in full view of) the Eiffel Tower. Kat and I sat on the stairs with many others to watch the romantic spectacle for a few minutes, then made our way up to Trocadero's higher landing to better see the lit-up tower.

Sitting and watching the sparkling lights of la Tour Eiffel finished up  our busy Saturday. We returned to our hostel afterwards (at half-past 11pm), and fell asleep. In the next post, I'll write about our weekend in Paris, part 2! Along with a few more photos, of course!

Struthof

I've spent half my educated life listening to history lessons about the Holocaust and reading books written by survivors. When I was in the 9th grade, I even heard a survivor--Joseph Hirt--speak to my school about his experience and his escape from Auschwitz.

But yesterday morning, I found myself inside a concentration camp for the first time, and it was a chilling experience. I saw the crematorium with my own eyes. I saw the rusted metal hooks where SS guards would hang the political prisoners without fanfare, and I saw the noose where they would execute people while the whole camp was forced to watch. I saw the memorial graves, and if I had looked deeper into the black forest that lies past the barbed-wire fences, I might've seen the ghosts.

Struthof (also known by the German name, Natzweiler-Struthof or just Natzweiler) is the only Nazi-established concentration camp located in present-day France. It was built specifically for "Nacht und Nebel" ("Night and Fog") prisoners, a label used mostly for political rebels and captured resistance members whom the Nazis wanted to disappear. 

A little history: set up in 1941 as primarily a work camp, Struthof differed from the more infamous Auschwitz and Treblinka death camps where thousands were sent to the gas chambers. Although there was a gas chamber at Struthof, it wasn't used for mass exterminations, and most deaths were the result of hangings, hunger, medical experimentation, and exhausting work in the nearby quarries. Over 50,000 people are estimated to have been prisoners at Struthof, 22,000 of whom died there. Although it was liberated in November of 1944, there was little left to save as the camp had been evacuated and prisoners sent on a death march two months earlier in September.

My first impressions of the camp? To be honest, even though this sounds awful, the location of the camp is beautiful. There was a strange juxtaposition of beauty and tragedy at Struthof.



Overlooking the roll-call gathering place and the site of public hangings

Barbed wire fence

It is perched on top of one of the Vosges Mountains, and it has a fantastic view of surrounding mountains. The air up there is fresh and crisp, although in the winter it is apparently quite bitter. Yesterday was also a gorgeous autumn day: finally sunny, and with thousands of yellow dandelions trembling in the cool breeze, it just didn't feel like a good morning to be at a concentration camp. In the camp's museum, it was said that the pretty mountain scenery gave a little hope to the prisoners, although the fact that the camp is built on a side of a steep hill wore out those who were already weak and exhausted from labor and malnutrition.

Don't get me wrong, though: the camp itself and all the atrocities that occurred there are far from beautiful. The atmosphere of Struthof is very somber and a little creepy. Most of the barracks were burned down by the neo-Nazis after the war, but the double barbed-wire fences (although they are no longer electrified), the watchtowers, the crematorium, and the cell block where medical experimentation took place still remain. 

The thing that made me tear up was listening and seeing how coldly scientific the camp was set up: how the Nazis placed drains in the floors of the torture rooms and tilted the lab tables in the experimentation rooms so that the prisoner's blood could be easily filtered away; how the heat produced from the burning bodies in the crematorium was used to heat the water for cooking and bathing; how those doomed to be publically executed were given less food as to not waste bread on the almost-dead.

Overall, the experience felt a bit unreal; for me, it was a little hard to grasp how much suffering went on at the camp just by being there, although the guide's poignant words and the fact that I stood a meter from the incinerator did make my heart break a little. Seeing hundreds of earthenware jars filled with the ashes of anonymous prisoners really hurt as well, much more than the statistics of how many died on the ground where I stood.

In the history books, the Holocaust is often thought of in numbers--there were a hundred thousand Russian POWs at this camp at this time, six million Jews in total were slaughtered, two hundred thousand mentally and physically disabled people were secretly euthanized in this year--but we sometimes forget that those numbers were actually people, breathing, starving, suffering human beings. The statistics horrify, but it is the stories of the survivors and the remnants (the pictures, the possessions, the ashes) of those who didn't survive that really haunt you.

The Monument to the Departed

Dinner Chez-Malou

Fridays seem to be days where I wake up thinking that I'll get so much done, and by the time I go to bed, I realize that I accomplished nothing.

Yesterday, the other Holy Cross girls and I thought we were going to finally get our student I.D. cards from the IEP--the Institut d'Etudes Politiques--which is the political science division of the University of Strasbourg that we are all enrolled in. Having a student I.D. card means that lunches at the university restaurants cost only 3.15 euro as opposed to the 5 or 6 euro I've been paying in cash each time; the I.D. also allows you to enroll in the free sports and exercise classes at the university; and most importantly, the I.D. also allows you to actually enroll in university courses (because at the moment, I'm going to classes that I'm not technically allowed to be in.....oops). As one can imagine, receiving my student I.D. is now a priority for me.

Well, since Fridays seem to be doomed for failure, you can probably guess what happened: we were unsuccessful. The 9 a.m. IEP meeting ended up being yet another hour-long "welcome" speech when we thought it was an appointment to get our I.D.'s. We were then told to go to the IEP after lunch to get our student cards. So of course, we turned up after lunch only to be told that the IEP didn't have our I.D. cards--and that we needed to trek back to main campus to the Agora building. However, when we entered Agora, we were told that the office was having issues, and to come back on Monday.

Typical France, being so disorganized and non-functional.

The back-and-forth hunt for our I.D. cards actually ate up most of the day, unfortunately. It also made me walk miles for no absolutely no reason. After the final failure, Kat and I decided to go shopping for a bit, which was fun (and I bought a cute sweater on sale!). At 5:30 p.m., though, we took the tram and headed to Malou's apartment.

Malou (our cultural coordinator and on-site academic advisor) had invited us for dinner last night, and it ended up being quite enjoyable, actually.

The five of us--Melissa, Marissa, Jacqueline, Kat, and I--showed up at Malou's around 6 p.m. and started preparing dinner (the other three HC girls are traveling this weekend). Malou was making us Thai chicken curry with zucchini and rice, complete with a plum crumble for dessert! We helped her prepare that, then the five of us struggled a little to make chocolate chip cookies. Melissa has a special family recipe for the cookies, but the problem arose when translating all the measurements into grams, since the French don't use cups and tablespoons. Also, the French don't have real brown sugar. They have natural brown "cane sugar," but they don't sell the packed molasses-brown sugar that is used in U.S. cookie recipes.

Dinner and both deserts were delicious. Malou's 24-year-old son, Lucas, ate with us as well, along with Lucas's friend and an Australian guy who has been couch-surfing at his house for the past few days. Conversation was in English since the random Australian guy doesn't speak French, but his story was fascinating: he was unhappy with his job, so he quit and then planed a 5-and-a-half month journey through Europe, hopping from Turkey to Spain to Croatia to England to Italy to Russia to Slovakia to Sweden.... honestly, he's been pretty much everywhere in Europe! And in a few days, he's leaving for Boston to spend another three months exploring America, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba! I imagine that hundreds of people wish they had the guts (and the freedom and the financial stability) to take that adventure...

Oh, the people you meet, right? Yesterday turned out to be unsuccessful and, at times, a little frustrating (stupid French bureaucracy), but the dinner chez-Malou (at Malou's house) made it all a little better. I'll just have to live without my student I.D. until Monday... unless another problem arises, of course.

Influential America

As an American living in the U.S. for my entire life, I knew that my country had left a pretty big stamp of influence (both positive and negative) on the rest of the world, but now that I'm living abroad, it is absolutely flabbergasting how much of American culture has been exported.

First, America rules the music industry. It's not even up for debate. Yes, each country has their own pop sensation groups and record-selling artists singing in the nation's language, but that's not really what you hear in day-to-day life, at least not in France. Almost any bar or restaurant or clothing store I step into, I hear American music. I'm actually not even sure if I've heard a French song playing in any of those places (besides when a live French band was playing at one bar), which is crazy considering I've been popping into restaurants and clothing stores since I arrived in France almost two months ago. This very same thing shocked me when I visited Japan at the age of 16: the music blasting in the subway was Katy Perry and Lady Gaga and whatever else was popular back in 2010, and I vividly remember wondering "Does anyone else besides me in this subway station actually understand all the lyrics to these songs?" Of course, I can't vouch for every remote corner of this earth, but based of my experience, American music seems to be the world winner.

Similarly, American television and movies have a special (dubbed) place in France.  One T.V. show that was apparently a big hit here was House (which the French call Dr. House). Other U.S. shows that I have seen include Friends, CSI: Miami, Lie to Me, Criminal Minds, Bones, Grey's Anatomy, and The Mentalist. This selection of shows makes me wonder why some made it to France--CSI: Miami? Really?--and others did not--come on, no Law and Order SVU? Also, Hollywood is one busy industry that seemingly can't be matched in France. I remember that my Swiss housemate from Tours, Ardianna, said that American movies were her absolute favorite--and she had seen more than I had! In cinemas, maybe a third of movies will be French in origin, and the other two-thirds are all American movies dubbed or subbed in French.

American stores, too, have infiltrated France. It is beyond weird for me to see a Claire's store here, but they are in every mall! (How did Claire's of all things make it to France? How?) As I mentioned before, Abercrombie and Fitch is here, as is Hollister, and H&M, although that is actually Swedish in origin (who knew?). France, of course, has hundreds of its own store chains (Naf Naf and Zara and Pimkie are all examples), but it always throws me off to see an American store.

What is more, numerous other American brands have wormed their way into France in all forms. Cereals here include Special K and many other Kellogg's varieties. If you crave Coca-Cola or Sprite, they're available (but be warned: they're expensive). Lays brand chips are sold in stores, along with Babybel cheese and Heinz ketchup and Dannon yogurts and even Oreos sometimes. McDonalds is, of course, found all over the world, but Pizza Hut and Subway have crash-landed here, too.

Are all of these American influences positive? I don't know. And don't get me wrong--French brands and French culture is found in every corner of Strasbourg. I'm just pointing out how much of America happens to be here as well.

So the rest of the world may hate or get annoyed by America (and I freely admit that there reasons to do so--every country has its flaws, the U.S. definitely included) but the rest of the world also seems to accept a lot of American culture, too. Or maybe it is partly forced upon them by expanding U.S. enterprises? Anyway, clues to the influence of America can be seen everywhere, and it's wonder for me. It's a small world, after all.

Cafes and Classes

Today, I just wanted to write a summary of my first week of classes here at the University of Strasbourg!

Monday: I was meant to have a two hour sociology class. However, the professor never showed up--I must say, that is so French. All the other students who were also waiting simply left half an hour after class was meant to start. I stayed a little longer, but still no professor, so Monday ended up being a free day for me.

Tuesday: I started my morning with a two-and-a-half hour language class at CIEL, a building twenty-five minutes away by tram from the rest of the university. Apparently there was a strike, so the university restaurant we wanted to eat at was closed (again, that's so French), although this ended happily, as we now know a great sandwich and panini shop. Following lunch, I had my first American/British literature class, the only class I'm taking that is partly taught in English.

Wednesday: From 10 a.m through noon, I sat through what I thought was going to be my Art History class. I'm definitely dropping it and searching for another course, though; first, the course includes at least one oral exam (I'd die from that in English--never mind in FRENCH!) and second, the professor is also testing us on material from last year that he just expects us to know..... um, nope! After that, Kat and I grabbed some lunch at a patisserie (quiche Lorraine! yum). To kill time and to take shelter from the rain, we spent a good hour feeling so French and chilling in a café, drinking tea (for me) and coffee (for Kat) and watching the downpour outside. Wednesday afternoon was round two of my American/British literature class, and that went well, happily. 



A rainy day in Strasbourg's beautiful Place Kleber

Thursday: My first class began at 1pm, so Kat and I once again killed some time in the same café as Wednesday: Café Michel. It is now my number one favorite café in the city (because obviously I know them all after two weeks here). The staff are so extremely friendly and the hot chocolate with homemade whip cream is to die for! Thursday afternoons are going to be miserable though. First, we have our two-and-a-half-hour CIEL language class, then the group of us Holy Cross girls run to catch the tram and hurry (late) into our two-and-a-half hour History of Alsace class, which was super crowded yesterday. Plus, the overly-pierced guy sitting next to me kept glancing over at my notes and he was definitely judging my poor French and all my misspellings--then he found out I was American halfway through the class, so he kept turning to me and asking "do you understand?" in a very condescending manner. I seriously felt like responding with "Why no, I don't understand a word the professor is saying right now, silly me, why did I sign up to take all my university classes in French?" Of course I understood! Not every word of course, probably only about 75%, but that is enough (I hope).


Can't beat Café Michel's hot chocolate on a cold rainy day!

Friday: NO CLASSES!! This is the first time in my college career that I have a day off from classes. Hurray three-day weekends! This is also ideal for the weekends I'm travelling, because it means more time to explore a foreign city!

Reflecting on this past week, classes didn't exactly go as well as I planned. I knew it would be challenging taking classes in another language, but... I feel unprepared for how demanding it actually is. I simply don't know a lot of the vocabulary that the professors are using, and when they spit out a year, it takes me a full minute to comprehend what they said (personally, I find that "1887" spoken in English is so much easier to understand than in French.... "mille huit cent quatre-vingt sept" is too much to grasp in two seconds). Hopefully the second week in classes will be easier? If not, I'll be frequenting Café Michel much more often, as a good cup of tea or hot chocolate from that cheerful café never fails to make me feel better!

The French List #2

Five Insignificant Oddities About Life in France:

1. The paper here has different dimensions.

Seriously. For the first two weeks, I couldn't figure out why all the worksheets I was given looked slightly off, but there you have it. Regular paper in the USA has the dimensions 8.5 x 11 inches, but in France, standard paper is about 8.5 x 11.6 inches. Okay, just over half an inch isn't much of a difference at all, but it still threw me off for a while, along with making all my folders from home sort of unusable.

2. Your hands must be visible at all times while eating.

This politeness rule took a little getting used to. In America, having the hand that isn't gripping a fork or a spoon resting on your lap is no problem, but here it's considered rude. So normally, I rest the wrist or forearm of my non-eating hand (my left hand) on the edge of the table. I dare an American to try to this one night a dinner. It feels a little bizarre.

3. Bread is not meant for plates.

I don't know why, but when we are eating bread and cheese after dinner, my host parents put their slab of baguette directly on the table surface while placing their cheese on a little plate. Apparently, bread does not go on plates. It is forbidden.

4. Wearing clothing from Abercrombie and Fitch is "très chic."

Even though this store is present in many large American malls, I'm not quite sure how popular it is in the US. At least, I've never bought anything there, and my friends don't really shop there, and when people buy clothes from Abercrombie, it's not really a big deal. However, in Europe, it IS a big deal. There's only one store in France (located in Paris, of course) and it's apparently always mobbed. When a French person wears a shirt from Abercrombie, many people notice (except me and the other Americans, I guess. We are oblivious). The brand is very cool here in Europe. I just think it's funny.

5. Walking around the house barefoot is just not done.

It's not exactly rude to walk about with naked feet, but it's also not a common practice. I was completely unconscious of this unwritten rule throughout my stay in Tours, but looking back, everyone else in the house was always wearing socks at the very least. I become more aware when my host mother here in Strasbourg presented me with a pair of slippers and then commented one night at dinner how I was barefoot (okay, I get the hint). Luckily the slippers are cute and soft and my own pair is back at home after being cut from the packing process, so I'm totally okay with this rule.

A Day in the Alsatian Countryside

Alsace (noun)

1. One of France's 27 administrative regions: it is the smallest region in metropolitan France, located in eastern France and bordering Germany and Switzerland. Long history of switching between German and French control. The capital of the region is Strasbourg.
2. A gorgeous place that everyone should visit (skip Paris--apparently the people there are rude).

When I was first telling everyone that I would be studying abroad in France, everyone assumed I meant Paris. When I broke the news that I was actually studying in Strasbourg, I always received blank looks, or sometimes the occasional question: isn't that a German city? Alsace, as well, was a relatively unknown region to most of my fellow Americans. Actually, it was foreign to me as well. Up until yesterday, I hadn't really seen any of Alsace besides Strasbourg.

So my home university, College of the Holy Cross, paid for our group of 8 study-abroad girls to discover more of the region. Yesterday we took a mini-bus tour of part of Alsace's Route des Vins (Wine Route), along with a few other touristy sights along the way.

First up on our Alsace Immersion Trip was the misty "Monastery in the Clouds."

It's actually called the Hohenburg Abbey on Mont Saint-Odile, but I prefer my title for it. This monastery sits atop one of the high hills of the Vosges Mountains in Alsace, and for the duration of our visit, was wrapped in cloud. This spoiled the view of the surrounding countryside, but it also gave the monastery a very ancient and slightly ghostly atmosphere, which I much appreciated.

Next, we stopped in the pretty little town of Obernai for lunch. It's one of many cute wine towns in the area, and made up with many charming half-timbered houses in the German style (an architecture which Strasbourg and Alsace in general is famous for). Here in Obernai we ate lunch and wandered the town for a bit. This is also where I bought my first nutella crêpe since leaving Tours--unfortunately, crêpes seem to be less popular here in Alsace.



I really loved the green-and-gold patterned tiles on this roof

Our third stop was the Chateau Haut-Koenigsbourg, an unpronounceable castle that is perched atop another of the Vosges Mountains. It is a real Medieval castle, built sometime in the early 12th century (and rebuilt from 1900-1908 by Kaiser Wilhelm II). What most amazed me is how people in the 12th century dragged all those stones and building materials up the mountain--without the aide of cars or trains or modern technology.



Unfortunately, the tower was under reconstruction...

 

Haut-Koenigsbourg is not in the flouncy, fancy, gold-guilded renaissance style of the previous chateaux of the Loire Valley--it is certainly not a rival of Chambord or Chennonceau. Mostly, Haut-Koenigsbourg reminds me of ancient English castles that I've seen in years past with my family... it is made in a simple and slightly rustic style, built with strategic defense in mind, and not made solely for impressing visiting royals with expansive gardens and Italian architecture.

Really cool chandelier, complete with antler horns!

Our last stop of the day was a wine tasting in the walled town of Bergheim (we were on la Route des Vins, after all, and it would have been silly not to have sampled some wine). We tasted five different types. The four I remember are: Pinot Gris, Riesling, Muscat, and a Crément, all of them white wines.  

I'm not going to lie, I was very, very "happy" after that wine tasting. Not drunk, of course, but a little more than tipsy, and to be honest, it was a very giggly ride back to Strasbourg. Obviously, I have a high alcohol tolerance, getting so "happy" after a wine tasting!

Lastly, I will leave you of my favorite picture of the day: a snapshot of the hillside vinyards leading down to another cute Alsatian town with the misty Vosges mountains as a backdrop!

Strasbourg Orientation

This week, I've had a ton of information thrown at me (all in French, of course) about the University of Strasbourg and requirements I still need to fulfill in order to stay here (something about an OFII form and a medical exam....).

Meanwhile, I'm still getting used to my new surroundings and my new host family.

Malou, the Strasbourg-Holy Cross cultural coordinator, has been showing us different parts of the city and the campus all this week, along with trying to help us sign up for classes.

That, by the way, has been a nightmare. Back at College of the Holy Cross, signing up for classes is stressful, but here... there are actually no words for how absolutely ludicrous the course registration process is in France. It would be laughable if the outcome didn't effect my studies, but it does, so I'm certainly not laughing.  



Le Palais Universitaire: one of the University of Strasbourg buildings

In the U.S.A., college course registration is all done online, about two to five months before you actually start said classes. Here in France, though, that online process must be too mind-boggling because universities do it the old-fashioned way: there are three days where students shuffle from building to building with pen in hand to literally sign up with the department secretary for a class. As you can imagine, this process also features a lot of waiting in long lines, and a lot of students who missed the correct sign-up time.

I suppose this system would be passable if everything ran smoothly, but the problem is that students reach about 15 different snags along the way! So many departments (ie: the History department, the Theology department, the psychology department...) didn't have their classes and times figured out by the first day of sign-ups, so students were told to look online when those class offerings were worked out and sign up the next day. I mean, I'm a procrastinator too, but that is just ridiculous. Additionally, many of the literature classes (including one I signed up for) required you to have already read the book(s) before entering the class--but the classes themselves, along with these reading requirements, weren't posted online until a week or two before the classes even start! And I didn't see it until the day I was signing up! (That novel will definitely not be finished before I start the class. I might be 50 pages in, but that's the most I can hope for since I don't even own the book yet and the class begins Tuesday).

Aside from the nightmare of course-scheduling, my Holy Cross group has been all around Strasbourg. On Thursday afternoon, we dropped down to "super-tourist" status as we all took a bateau mouche ride (a boat tour) around the city canals. It was actually a lot of fun since I love being on the water and the history I learned about the old city was great, but in the sun, we were all roasting--it is still quite hot here!

Bateau Mouche tour!

Another thing I did this week? One afternoon, I set off on my own to explore the huge park near my house: Parc de l'Orangerie. This was a fantastic discovery since the park is AMAZING. First, there is a free zoo in the park that I didn't have a clue existed until I accidently stumbled upon it. It's not a lame little zoo either--there are snakes, giant eagle owls, three separate monkey exhibits, flamingos, a lynx, and kangaroos!

Further on in the park, there is a huge lake with a waterfall at one end. After a little bit of exploring, I found out that you could climb up the hill and look out over the top of the waterfall! The park itself is so huge that even though there were literally hundreds of people there on the sunny afternoon I visited, there were times where I felt I was secluded in a nature reserve. There were flowers and fountains and tree-lined paths everywhere, along with woodsy running trails and giant playground. Orangerie might become my escape from busy city life (and from silly French course-selection processes)!