Americans in Paris

Hi everyone!

So it's been a while since my last post and I'm running somewhat behind - a semester's worth of work is starting to catch up to me. However, some really exciting things happened these last few weeks and I figure if the evil cat from apartment #1 got some blog time, so should the following...

Two of my best friends, Bailey and Zoe, decided to spend their Thanksgiving break in Paris with me instead of with their families eating turkey. Having friends in Paris was exactly what I could have hoped for over the holidays - the chance to put together a few days and take them around the city was an incredible opportunity to rediscover what I love about Paris at this time towards the end of my trip.

It was also a great way to get in all of the things I had been too busy with class to go to, or had no reason to go to on my own. When they first arrived, we went straight to the Marais, where they were staying, and ate Falafel at L'as du Falafel - unequivocally the best falafel in Paris. Unfortunately (for my case), Zoe lived in Israel for a year and has probably eaten better falafel in someone's garage there, but even she conceded that it was good.

We ended up walking along the Seine all the way to the Musée d'Orsay. There, we saw a pastel exhibit called Mystère d'éclat. Pastels, from what I'm told, can only be shown during a short period in Winter since the light has to be just so. There's also a massive Picasso exhibit split between the Grand Palais, the Louvre, and the Orsay, so we saw Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe displayed in a room filled with Picasso's reworkings of the masterpiece.

We ate lunch one day at Café de Flore - one of the really famous cafés on St. Germain that Sartre and Simon de Beauvoir used to hang out. Places like these are all over Paris and iconic, but there's really no excuse to spend that much on a cappuccino unless you have friends visiting who need to experience the "culture". Eating was definitely our main priority, and we had some amazing meals. Zoe's uncle is Parisian and he recommended an amazing and really cheap restaurant in the Marais, right next to the Pompidou museum, called Hangar. We wanted one "chic" Parisian dining experience, so we went to none other than Carrie Bradshaw herself. In the show "Sex and the City," Carrie comes to Paris and eats lunch with a very chic Parisian woman in this restaurant overlooking the Seine. We did some research and found the restaurant, called Kong. I had what might have been the best meal of my life. We could only afford lunch (without drinks), but it was worth it.

We went out on the Champs Elysées with all of the Christmas lights, and made sure to make it up to Sacre Coeur, the cathedral at the top of Montmartre, to see the view over all of Paris. We ate lots and lots and lots of macarons and went to my favorite museum, the Orangerie.

All of the photos from the trip can be seen at:

Friends visit Paris

Until next time,
Stephanie

A Long Weekend in Dublin

Above is a picture of Trinity College in Dublin. I was there a few weeks ago for a long weekend with Jessalyn, one of my best friends from high school who is currently studying in Madrid.

The trip to Dublin was great! It was interesting to see how the city was so different from what I had expected: I think it's easy to assume in English-speaking countries that the culture won't be that different from the U.S., but that hasn't been true at all. And I don't even know that Ireland could be called an English speaking country! Of course, everyone speaks English, but I had no idea that they were required to learn Gaelic in public schools and that all of the signs would be in both languages - and as you can see from this sign, the two have almost nothing to do with each other.

Dublin is also an amazing city to be if you're interested in writing. I was already starting to think about writing my senior thesis on James Joyce, so the Dublin Writer's Museum was the first thing I went to. For a relatively small city, and one that was culturally removed from other major European centers for such a long time, there really was a lot of writing bang for your buck here. Some of the best writers of the last century are from or lived in Dublin.

We saw the Book of Kells, one of the oldest and definitely the most famous illuminated manuscript, at Trinity College. One of my favorite museums that we went to was the Chester Beatty Library. He was basically an American business tycoon who decided to go around the world collecting cultural artifacts. The collection includes some amazing religious texts, including copies of bible pages written in Greek from the year 150 and about ten incredible korans. There are also lots of Chinese buddhist texts and illustrated stories.

In addition to the museum going (we were very good student-tourists), we also did what one has to do when in Dublin - go to pubs. While we were staying right in Temple Bar, the supposedly really cool but touristy pub area, we stayed out of that neighborhood and mostly went out around Grafton Street. We even accidentally went into a really famous pub where Bono from U2 goes all the time and didn't even find out until the next day. We drank lots of Baileys Coffee (definitely NOT coffee with Baileys - we were corrected several times) and everyone was almost shockingly friendly. The pub culture isn't a myth - every single night, every single bar was packed almost to capacity.

We also saw some important sights like Christ Church, which has a really cool tomb underneath it, and the Viking Museum. We went to the Jameson Whiskey Distillery and I was quick enough to volunteer to be a taster. I don't even like whiskey but I braved through a taste test of Jameson Irish Whiskey, Scotch, and American whiskey. It was really interesting to see the distilling process and how each one tasted so different.

All of my pictures from Dublin can be seen at

Dublin 11/2008

Until next time! xo
Stephanie