Exploring our Unknown world!

Bonjour everyone! As you may already know we have one month left of travelling in Europe. So there is about two weeks of school left in France and then two more weeks of travelling in 3 other countries. We are excited to see something new. We have done so much in Paris and France already that I am sure those who come here for vacation dont get the chance to do. I will admit that we are lucky to only be 30 minutes away from paris and we get out of class everyday at 3:30 so we have the afternoons for free. The last couple of days have been pretty fun and busy which is why we havent posted anything. On Friday we had a fieldtrip with out Cross Cultural Communication class to the Cite des Sciences and de l'industrie (site of science and industry) where we saw some interesting exhibits on science and technology related things. Because we were already in Paris we decided to go to Montmarte which is another suburb/district of Paris that we have been to and really like. The weather was rather cold and gloomy with on and off showers which was quite annoying and disappointing. We checked out the Sacure coure (a church) and then we walked around the village where there are many cafes, creperies (crepe shops), and souviner shops. There are many artists in this area that walk around asking if you want them to draw your picture. They actually do a pretty good job for 10 minutes but we had no money so we couldnt do it, maybe next time. After walking around the village area we headed down to the district around Moulin Rouge. You can probably guess what kind of stuff is around there so it felt a little awkward walking around the area but we wanted to get pictures of the moulin rouge sign. We also visited an art museum while in the montmarte area.

Today, Saturday, the international office took us on a trip to a city 4 hours away to a chateau, Chenonceau le Chateau des Dames, which was beautiful. It was in a gorgeous city called Loire Valley, there was an aroma of flowers in the air and it was the perfect temperature. We got to walk around in the castle and see a lot of historic peices as well as eat a 3 course meal on the castle grounds. After the castle we went to another city, Blois where there was another chateau and a shopping village. On the way home almost everyone slept the whole way

Pictures: Top is of the Moulin Rouge sign, Middle is of the Chateau in Loire Valley, and the bottom is of a self cleaning toilet- just for fun

Time for an update

Things have been pretty relaxed and boring around here so I havent had anything excitng to tell you about until today. The last few days we have just been learning about cross cultural communications and french language. We are starting to pick up some key phrases and are learning a lot of new words. On wednesday we had the afternoon off from french class so that we could go explore in paris. Wow exploring is not even the right explanation for all of the walking we did in paris. Tasha, myself and Mariah went into paris around 1:30 and didnt come back until 10pm. We walked around for hours, but we saw a lot of stuff and looking in a few cute little shops. We looked at the Arc de Triomphe, Tomb of an unknown soldier, Jardin de Tuilerie (garden of tuilerie), walked the Champs-Eleeyse, saw the Invalide (napoleons body is burried there), and a bunch of other little things throughout our walk. We stoped at a cafe, Le Paradise du Fruit (paradise of fruit) , on the Seine River for drinks and a short rest before we went to dinner and walked around some more. We were freezing cold the whole day. The weather has been abnormally cold, around 50-65 degrees farenheit. We have had to wear fall/winter clothing everyday but we didnt pack cold clothes. Good thing this is one of the only times of the year that stores in france are allowed to have sales. In france they are only allowed to have sales twice a year. Once in January and again in June. Sales started on Wednesday of this week at 30% off and will go to 40% off next week and then 50% off, 60%, then finally 70%. I know im excited for that because things are so darn expensive here. Well we must run to class. Check back later for another update.

Chinatown in Paris

It has been almost 2 weeks since Tasha and I left Hawaii for our European adventure and 1 week since we started school in France. We were all craving saimin (aka Ramen) so the Hawaii group decided to venture into China Town. Once we navigated our way through train to the right stations and transfers we made it into Place d'italie which is the district where Chinatown is located. Once we got there it felt kind of like Chinatown in Honolulu so that was a nice change. All the smells of asian food penetrated our nostrils and made our stomachs scream for asian food. We made a pit stop at an asian food market to get some snacks and instant saimin for those days we crave it. Kevin and I proceeded to buy some Jin Dui (a chinese sesame roll snack) from a little lady on the street and they were so delicious. After exploring the food markets and smelling and seeing all the food we set our eyes on a little restaurant in the distance and headed toward it where we enjoyed some delicious fried spring rolls and chicken and beef Pho. We ate so much that we were all stuffed to the brim by the time we were done. On the way to the train station we stoped in a bakery for some baguettes and pasteries to enjoy at a later time. Unfortunately no pictures were taken due to our minds being on a mission to find asian food and then being in food comas after finding the food. Maybe one day before we leave France we will go again and you will have a glimpse of Chinatown in Paris. If you were our stomaches you would have throughouly enjoyed yourself. Peace out for now!

Excursions

The International Office here at INT has kept us pretty busy with classes and excursions. We are continuing to enjoy ourselves and explore around Paris and Evry, the town that we live in. Its starting to feel a little like "home" because we are learning to get around, how to use the public transportation system, and we have a routine. Because we are only 30 minutes outside of Paris we tend to go into town a lot. After class on Friday Tasha and I and the 4 other Hawaii students went to the Louvre because it is free for students under 26 on Friday evenings. Free in Paris is hard to find especially to such a famous museum. It was a lot of fun to walk around and see all the famous paintings, statues, and artifacts. It wasnt very crowded, which was nice because we were able to get around easier. While at the Louvre because it is so big we decided to just see the things that we really wanted to see. Our group began looking at Egypt: stones with markings, statue of Ramses II- Greece: statue of Aphrodite (aka Venus De Milo)- Roman antiques: Sarchophagus of Married couple. We also saw the Mona Lisa, The dying slave (by michelangelo) and much much more. After the Louvre we made our way home on the metro so we could get a good nights sleep for our class excursion on saturday.

On Saturday INT took us into Paris Via bus for an all day excursion. Our day began with breakfast at the school, then we went to take a boat ride along the Seine River to see all of the sights and neighborhoods in Paris from a different view than we would get on foot. After the boat ride we had lunch on our own, Tasha had a crepe for the first time and I had a hot dog (it was served in a baguette). Our teachers then took us up the Eiffel tower. The tower didnt look anything like I had imagined nor was it as big. The view was really pretty and we could see so much from the top. After the Eiffel tower we travelled to another part of Paris, Montmarte which is the romantic district. We looked around a church and did some shopping in the little gift shops, which were much cheaper than in the city. We drove by Moulin Rouge and saw all of the crazy shops and billboards surrounding it. Our teachers took us for our first official dinner in Paris. We had a traditional Parisian dinner which began with predinner drinks, white wine with black liquor, then a starter, shrimp cocktail that tasted like the ocean. The main course was duck in an orange sauce with fried potatoes, then sorbet with liquor to cleanse our palate and help us digest what we ate, and then dessert, an icecream cake thing that our waitress lit on fire. They provided us with a bottle of white wine and red wine. As we were sitting at dinner and enjoying ourselves the table behind us was getting ready for a big event. A guy proposed to his girlfriend and the whole restaurant went crazy. There was a trio playing music around the restaurant that was quite entertaining. We decided to stay in paris for a bit after dinner but by the time we were on our way we got tired so we decided to go back home. It was a bit confusing, but we managed to find our way home on the train.

Check back tomorrow to find out what we will do today (Sunday)!

Exploration

Yesterday afternoon after finishing our rest time Tasha, Myself, our friends from HPU, and a French student from the school took a trip to Paris. The student, Alice offered to take us into Paris and was so sweet. We walked around for about 6 hours while she showed us many of the sights and then we treated her to a fresh fruit smoothie at her favorite cafe in Paris. The drinks were a little expensive but totally worth it because they were fresh fruit smoothies. We visited the Catacombes first thing when we got into Paris and made it just in time before they stopped letting people in for the day. It was really nice because we didnt have to wait in line to get in and we were allowed to take pictures, which you really arent supposed to do because the light deteriorates the bones, but we got away with it so we got some really great pictures. It was an amazing sight, but it stumped all of us as to how and who the bones were stacked so neatly and high. After the catacombes we walked through the streets looking at all the neighborhoods the Seine River, the Fountain of Saint Michel, Luxemborg Garden, Notre Dame, Sorbonne (university of paris), and the tip of the Eifel tower from far away. The Notre Dame cathedral was so beautiful both inside and outside. I personally felt really emotional in the cathedral for some reason. The statues were so beautiful as well as the cross with jesus on the wall. We had a lot of fun wandering the streets of Paris, but by the time we were done we were all exhausted. Sitting on the train on the way home almost all of us had droopy eyes it was pretty funny.

Today was pretty relaxed although our first class this morning was a bit on the tiring side because we were listening to a lecture on french history in the dark so that we could see the powerpoint that seemed to have a million words per slide. That was 3 hours of listening to Miseur Eve lecture about France and we only go through 4 points out of 6. We had a lunch break, which I believe was the first time that we actually ate all of our food. After lunch we ran off to our french classes and unfortunately we all got split up into different classes. Tash and I were bummed that we werent in the same class, but its probably good because it will make us expand out of our HPU comfort bubble. We learned the alphabet and a few basic questions in french today, but nothing to exciting. Tonight there is a music festival all over France, mainly in Paris that several of our friends and classmates are going to. Tasha, myself, and mariah decided to stay back because of the big crowds that will be in Paris and so that we can get a good nights sleep, but we can still hear music from our windows that is being played in Evry Square. Maybe we will go walk around to listen to the music up close. Tonight will be a relaxed night because we will go to see the Louve tomorrow evening because it is free for students under 26 in the evening. For us FREE in Paris is pretty hard to find so we will take advantage of it. Check back later for more stories and adventures.

France

Bonjour Everyone!
Our time in France is beginning and we are all so glad that we finally have a routine. Today we were taken by our French teachers to a traditional French Market where they sell everything from fruit and vegetables to pigs head as well as clothes, bathroom supplies and accessories. For those of you in Hawaii you can compare it to the swap meet, but on a smaller scale and in France. We got some great deals on our purchases which is great. Later Tasha and I and our friends from HPU will go into Paris to explore the city and see what it is like. Its great because with the Carte Orange we can go to and from Paris as many times as we want. For now that is all that has been going on. Things will begin to pick up tomorrow as we will have our first full day of classes. Goodbye for now!

Its time for a change!

So I must appologize for not updating everyone in the past 3 days. Things have been a little hectic and crazy and fun at the same time. Tasha finally got her bag back after going to the airport in Rome on Sunday, getting angry at the people and some hard explaining. Unfortunately it took half of our day away, but it was well worth it because we were both beginning to run out of clothes. We were still able to do more sightseeing in Rome and got to see the Trevi Fountain and many other famous sights of Rome. It actually worked out really well because all of the sights and places to see werent as busy as they are in the morning. Tasha and I have met a lot of cool people at The BeeHive hotel. It looks even better in person than in the pictures that were online. It is owned by an American family and everyone that works there speaks English. There was even a 11 year old cat that lives there, Ingmar, who is the friendliest cat I have ever met. He is such a character, I never thought that cats could be so entertaining. We were definately sad to leave our friends at the Beehive, but we know that if we are ever to come back to Rome that is where we would stay because it is so nice and so is everyone that works there. The price is great too. On Monday morning, we woke up early and set off on foot for the Roma Termini (train and metro station) for our train to Ciampino for the airport. Our ride to the airport was pretty uneventful which was great. We flew on EasyJet which is a low cost airlines. It was quite funny because everything about this airline is orange from their signs to the crews uniforms. The crew was really nice and spoke many languages. The flight to Paris was quite turbulant, but we handled it pretty good. Once we arrived we had to wait about an hour for our friends from the international office at INT to find us. Finally Marie and Michelle found us and led us to Michelles car. She has a cute little car that we packed ourselves and luggage into. We had plenty room to stretch and be comfortable, it was surprising that our luggage fit in the trunk. It was really nice of them to pick us up at the airport because according to them we would have had to catch a train from the airport, then switch to another train on a different line, and then catch a bus, and then walk for 10 minutes to the campus. It worked out well because we got in a few hours before everyone else so we got a lot taken care of without a wait. Our rooms are pretty nice, although after being together for so long Tasha and I are having trouble being seperated and are wanting to always check up on each other. We get so bored being alone in our rooms. Well I suppose I have strained your eyes by now with all this writing, but I had to catch you up on what has been going on. We started our first day of class today, and needless to say neither tasha or myself passed the first test because we didnt even answer anything. It was all in French and we werent alone so we have been put in the Beginners French class.

Holy Rome

Well today has been quite exciting. We forced ourself to wake up early with an alarm, which was good but sleep would have been nice. The cafe downstairs in our hostel had breakfast so we ate there and it was D to the Licious. I cannot even tell you when i tasted better eggs, in fact they didnt even taste like eggs, tasha had yogurt with fresh cut fruit. We decided to add to our adventure by taking the metro so we purchased a 3 day pass for Rome and hopped on and got off at the right place surpisingly. It was pretty darn simple and we didnt get lost or anything! Once we got to the Vatican Museums the lines were wraped around the block but were moving pretty fast so we hopped in line, and wouldnt you know it that we got in the wrong one. To bad we didnt realize we were in the wrong line until we got up to the entrance and figured out that we were in the reserved group line. We laughed quite a bit and ended up being able to sneak in with a group and got our tickets 15 minutes before everyone else. It all worked out but it was a bit confusing. After going through the musem, seeing amazing statues, standing in the sistine chapel, and looking at the elaborate artwork we made our way to the Basillica. The Basillica was amazing, the church was gorgeous, St. Peters Square was amazing. We went to the top of the Basillica domes after climbing 320 stairs where there was an amazing view of the city. One of the things I thought was really cool was that at the vatican and in St Peters Square there were fountains that you could actually drink out of. The water in them was so tasty and it was even ice cold. Our feet were killing us by the end of our time at the vatican so we made our way back home for a little rest before we set out on our next roman adventure, which you will find out after it happens so stay tuned to our travel log. Ciao!

We finally arrived

We finally arrived in Europe after a good 2 days of travelling. The flights we super long, but not to bad because we slept and watched movies. The fod was actually pretty good which is quite surprising for airplane food. Our flight from New Jersey to Rome ended up coming into Rome about 30 minutes late which caused us to miss our connecting flight to Genoa, Italy and also our train that we had tickets for already. It was a bit hectic trying to figure the Rome airport out because its like a maze in that place. We finally figured out how things were working and where to go, but by that time our flight had already left, what a bummer that was. We ended up being able to get on another flight, but we had to wait 4 hours before it left to go to Genoa. Once we got to Genoa our bags were supposed to come, mine did, but Tashas didnt come so that was a learning experience right there trying to explain what happened and getting a claim for lost luggage. I (stephanie) feel horrible that I have my stuff and she doesnt, but I will help her in anyway that I can. We stayed in a town called Cinque Terre, and village of Vernazza for one night at a bed and breakfast that was so cute. Our landlord Salvatore was so nice and so helpful to us, he gave us the number to one of his friends who invited us to a party tonight, kinda funny, but nice. Vernazza was right on the water and was so cute and quaint and beautiful. We left Vernazza this morning and took a train to Rome where we will be for the next 3 days. The hostel that we are staying at is called the BeeHive. It is really nice and clean. We are just praying for Tashas bag to come or for the airlines to call, its pretty ridiculous, but hopefully they will get their act together.