February 20, 2006
Hey all! My parents and I
have both made it to Paris! Italy was amazing! I loved Rome
and I really hope to return someday. The people were so
nice, and the sights were beautiful!
Venice was very pretty as
well, but it rained a lot of the time there. The fog was so
bad, that the plane did not leave and all the other flights
were full for 2 days. Thus we had to go the train station
and get $200 train tickets back to Paris. After a 14 hour
train ride and a 1 hour stop in Switzerland, we made it back
to Paris.
I will have to send more
about my vacation when I get back from London! Now my
parents are here and I don't have much time, but I am so
glad they are here!
Carly
January 30, 2006
I finally got a phone and the
Internet!!!! I am so excited! I hope that now I will be able
to keep in touch better.
My classes seem to keep getting harder. I have 2 presentations
this week and 2 test next week. In total I will have 4, 10
page papers to write as well as normal tests and
presentations. I am not too sure what people were talking
about when they said this schoolwork would be much easier. :(
Well I should get to bed so that I can wake up and get ready
to give my presentation!
Cant wait to hear from you all!
Carly
January 25, 2006
I feel like I am in a city
that never sleeps; therefore, I never sleep. There is so much
to do and see at all hours of the day! Not to mention it seems
to take me an hour to get from place to place all of the time.
My first week of classes went
alright. The teacher never showed up for one of the classes,
so I hope that he will be there this week! I will be learning
a lot of Marketing this semester, I know that for sure. I
think that it will be interesting. I have a service marketing
class and we are talking about how services have to provide
customer stratification. I find this a really funny class to
be taking in France, since the business here don’t seem to
believe in customer stratification one bit. I really don’t
understand how these businesses make their money when every
store is so small, and they do not strive to serve you or make
you happy. They do not care if they have business or not. Oh
well, maybe someday it will change when they realize they have
to compete in a much larger global economy.
Ok, now that I am done
ranting about the French ways of business, onto the fun
stuff!!!! On Friday, Christina, Aniko and I went to see the
Sacre- Coeur. It was amazing. It is located on top of a large
hill so when you get to the top you can see all of Pairs. This
city looked as if it never ends! Inside the church there was a
service taking place. It was a little strange to be walking
around inside a church while they were praying, but I guess
that is why they do it for the experience. I am not really
sure. It was really beautiful, even though I didn’t know what
they were saying.
After, we went to see the
outside of the Moulin Rouge, since it is nearby. I was not too
impressed. I was expected it to look glorious, like it did in
the movie. It was so small with a bunch off billboards
surrounding it. I will try and send some pictures later. It
was still neat just to see it since it is probably one of the
most famous shows on earth.
On Saturday, all of us (my
roommates) went to see the Jardin du Luxembourg. It was so
big! It still looked beautiful in the winter when everything
was dead, so I cannot imagine what it will look like in the
spring. I hope that I will be able to see it bloom before I
come home! We walked around, watched people, and took some
pictures. It was cold on Saturday, so we decided to leave to
go and see the Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame was so much
larger then I thought it would be. There was also a service
taking place, and we all sat down and listened for a while. It
was so surreal to be sitting at a Norte Dame service! It was
not sunny outside, but the stained glass windows still looked
amazing! I hope to go back on a sunny day to see the inside!
That night, Sebastian took us
all out to a pub called Australian Pub. It was so crowded. We
went about 11 got right in, although the drinks were 8 euros
each! (which is about $11 or $12 ) we all danced for while,
and it was really fun to just be going out! We left about 1:45
and there was still a huge line to get into the pub! I could
not believe how many people were still out. We went and got
Crepe, and then Sebastian brought us home at about 3. I could
not imagine having to stay out until the metro starts at 5 am,
like most people. I was glad that he had his car!
On Sunday James (a friend
from my French class at Monmouth, that is studying abroad in
Rein, France) flew into Paris, His train for Rein did not
leave until Sunday morning, so I showed him some of the
highlights of Pairs for the day. We went to Hotel de Ville,
Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge, and Sacre- Coeur.
It was so great to be sharing all the things that I have been
seeing with someone else.
We were supposed to get
Internet on Monday, but since everyone keeps getting a French
guy when they call the cell phone, the Internet company did
not come. So now we much wait another week until next Monday.
We are going to the phone store today to try and get the cell
phone fixed, and I hope that they will be much nicer then they
were the first time!
Last night was Aniko’s
Birthday, so we all went out to dinner. We were trying to find
this place in our guide book, but found another beautiful
French restaurant on the way. The food was amazing. I had a
steak with a French cheese sauce. Gladiola had some type of
thing with snails. I actually tried a snail, and it was good!
Christina had a pasta dish that had some type of beef in it,
the sauce was amazing, it had so many different flavors. Aniko
has something that was like ham, but not really. We are not
sure what it was, but it was good! We tried to go to another
pub, but it was student night, and it was way to busy, so we
came home. It was great to go and experience French dining
though!
Today, we are going to go
shopping before the sales end, and I need to get some homework
done. It is so hard to concentrate on doing anything
productive in this city! I hope to send some more pictures
soon. I need to figure out how to resize them! I miss you all!
Please write and let me know what is going on back home!
Love, Carly
January 18, 2006
Bonjour,
I started school Monday and
the classes seem like they will be harder then I thought. My
French class moves fast it seems. It is also really hard to
sit in a class for 3 hours. I bought my books today, after it
took us an hour of walking to find the bookstore. We tired to
go and open a bank account for the internet because one of the
workers at internet store said that we needed it. We were
unsuccessful because the people at the bank did not want to
help us, and got frustrated when we didn’t understand. We then
went to the internet store and waited to talk with a guy
instead of a woman, and he said that we could get internet for
only 3 months and that we did not need a bank account. So I
will get internet on Monday at my apartment. Right now I am
just getting a small signal from someone in the building but
it only works on one of our computers. I will also be getting
a land line phone, so you all will finally be able to call me
since the cell phone thing did not work well. I will let you
know that number soon. I have been sleeping much better at
night now that I got a heater so it is warm and blocks some of
the noise.
I tried to go to a different,
no so fancy pizza place today and share a pizza. That once
again did not work. The guy told us it was a big pizza and the
size he showed us looked like a large American pizza. So we
decided to get one. The once again told us to leave. They are
not nice about it they just say it is not possible, just
leave. It is frustrating. It always takes so long to do the
little things.
I went shopping because there
are sale here now. I guess they will not be all the time like
in the US but just for this month. The styles were just now
something that I wanted to wear in a lot of store, and when I
did like it, it seems like all the clothes were either too big
or too small. I got a pair of earrings because we all know how
much I like those.
I am going to Amsterdam on
February 2nd through the 5th to see a student that I went to
high school with, Bas. I am very excited about this trip. Then
my holidays from school got moved a week earlier, so my
parents will not be here yet. One of my roommates lived in
Greece for 9 years, so I will go to Greece with her for about
6 days over break. I am so excited to see it; it will be so
beautiful in Athens. I also get one week to study before
finals and I think that I will use at least half of this week
to go to Italy! I hope to see Rome and Venice in about 3 days
each. I hope that it will be enough!
Well I guess I have type
enough for now, I hope to keep you all updated well for the
rest of the trip! And I will try and resized pictures next
time I send them, and send more soon! I miss you all!
Carly
January 16, 2006
Bonjour de Paris! I have made
it through my first week and I think that things will keep
getting better. I arrived in Paris last Tuesday, and the
f\light went much better then expected. I took medicine that
Newsweek recommended before I ate dinner and Christina said
that I acted really crazy all through dinner. After the flight
I don’t remember eating this dinner. Ha-Ha! Once off the
flight I tried to ask a French worker for the toilet and he
acted as if he did not understand. I was getting very
frustrated, since it was the first time I was using my French.
Another man came up and told me that I needed to be asking for
the W.C. I thought that this was in England, but I guess it is
in France too. I then found a Taxi to the school, and quickly
learned that the driving is very different from the Untied
States. Cars get very close to each other and close to the
people. They seem to miss you by only a foot. Also the roads
seem to go all over the place with no order; you cannot tell
which traffic light is for which lane of traffic. When the
cars cross the intersections they all just honk at each other
and go across with no order. It is very scary to see from in
the car and to walk through.
The school is very nice, and has many exchange students. It
was a little frustrating at first to be passed around between
many people, but once I got my classes set and the key to my
apartment, I felt more at ease. My apartment is much larger
then I expected. I have 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, an entry room,
a shower room, and a toilette. Christina and I share the
largest bedroom with 3 beds. Aniko has the middle bedroom with
2 beds and Gladiola has the small room with 1 bed. It is very
nice that we will have extra beds for visitors. The apartment
is not that clean or new, but it is much nicer then I
expected. It has been very cold and people from the school
have tried to fix the heat with no luck. I got a space heater
yesterday though and now it is very comfortable.
My biggest challenge has been getting the internet. I think
that we will get in next Monday. It has been hard to be so far
away without so much communication. There is internet at the
school, but it is not open all of the time. The cell phone
that I have also does not seem to work from the United States.
L
So far I have been to the Eiffel Tower on Tuesday night. It
was so much larger then I thought it would be. It was so
beautiful to see it all light up at night. We did not go up in
it because it is so cold outside and it was night. It was so
great to see the sight though. We can also see the tower from
down the street from our apartment. It is far away but it is
still beautiful.
On Friday night we went to the Louvre since it is free for
students then. We got to see the Mona Lisa, which was much
smaller then I thought it would be. I don’t know how it came
to be the most famous painting in the world, but the eyes
really did seem to follow me!
Saturday, Sebastian, the boy that studied at Monmouth College
from ESGCI last year, took my, Christina and Aniko bowling on
the Champs-Elysees. It was a gorgeous street at night. The
stores are all open until midnight, and at midnight there were
still hundreds of people out on the streets. At the bowling
alley there was a bouncer to let people in. I guess since it
is such a high class area, you have to be dressed a certain
way to get in. One game was about $10. Also in this area we
saw the Arc de Triomphe. It was so magnificent. From all sides
it looked like the center of the city. I want to go and look
at the street from the top sometime!
On night Christnia, Aniko and I tried to go to get pizza at a
restaurant, and split it like we do in America since it was
like $13. The waiter told us that we could not share it, so
only 2 of us would eat us were going to eat and the waiter
told us to leave because they need the space if only 2 people
will eat. There was only one more table eating in the entire
place. Many people here just don’t seem to want to help, or
offer you anything. I hope that this will go away soon. I
wanted to come with an open mind about the French, but it is
hard to keep an open mind about it when I am having such a
hard time getting around and dealing with the people. I am
still keeping an open mind for now, and I hope that I will do
better soon!
I miss everyone so much and Please write me all about what is
going on!
Carly
January 12, 2006
Bonjour! I am getting settled
here in Paris although I am still trying to get over jet lag.
I also miss everyone a lot but I guess this is what they mean
by culture shock. I think that I will go to see the tower
tonight cause I still have done nothing fun.
I cleaned the apartment today
and now I am at the school to use the Internet. I tired to get
the cell phone to work but no luck. Maybe we can get Internet
soon. I hope. Well I am off. I miss you very much!!!
Carly
January 11, 2006
I made it here!!! We took a
taxi from the airport. It was fast and the plane ride was fast
as well. There is a McDonalds right down the street! I don't
think that I will eat there much, I hope.
The school is very nice! My
apartment is very big we have three bedrooms a bathroom and a
kitchen; Christina and I share & bedroom! It is very cold, but
there were blankets already here!
The school is nice, but
confusing! I don't have class on wed or fri! My part of town
is not that nice, but maybe tonight I will go too see the
Effile Tower! We will try and get Internet in our apartment
sometime soon I think! My roommates are nice. The one from
Boston has a friend with her that is staying for about a week.
I guess they are kind of crazy together but I hope that we
will have fun! I miss everyone!
