the last post!

I'm finally done with school and this week I'm taking the time to be a tourist in Paris. I've been eating fondue, crepes and cider, falafel, and fancy pastries. I went to Musee d'Orsay (the art museum in the old train station), l'Orangerie (a museum with an amazing collection of monet paintings), Musee Rodin (with many of rodin's statues and beautiful gardens), and the Guimet Museum that features Asian/Hindu/Buddhist artwork.

Overall, I LOVED Paris this semester and highly recommend visiting! There's so much to discover and I learn more about it each day. Paris has a distinct culture that's definitely more different from the US than I thought it would be, but I've really learned to love it. It was also a great experience for me to learn to live in another country, since I've only ever lived in the States. Now I feel ready to live/travel almost anywhere! (except I don't think I could live in Africa after hearing my friend's stories haha). I hope you enjoyed entries about my time abroad and I give everyone a lot more details when I come home for Christmas :)

I apologize for the lack of posting, but my life has been pretty boring lately. My trip to Copenhagen was sadly canceled because I found out the night before that my airline was bankrupt, and they never even emailed me about it. I have a 20 page paper, 2 exams, and a presentation this week, so I'm sure I'll be MIA for awhile.

I can't believe my time in Paris is almost over!

what i've been up to :)

field trip to Geneva, Switzerland:
On Monday and Tuesday, my health policy class took a field trip to visit the WHO, ILO (international labor organization), and MSF (doctors without borders). Overall, it was an okay trip. We didn't get to see much of the city because we spent most of our time traveling between the organization buildings, the hotel, and the train station. We heard presentations at each organization. At the WHO, we heard about the polio eradication in Africa and India and about gender rights in Afghanistan. Then we ate a yummy fondue dinner, something Geneva is known for. On Tuesday, we heard about social security in low income countries I think. I don't even really remember because the speaker was so so so boring and repeated repeated repeated almost every word 3 times. We then went to MSF and heard a speaker from their operations office talk about medical missions. Although all these presentations sound great, the trip was a little too rushed and I'll have to return to Geneva to actually see the city. It was definitely a trip all about business!

This weekend I'll be visiting my friend in Copenhagen, which will be a great break before I have to finish up the semester and start doing real work. I have a 20-page group research paper due in a couple weeks and also finals and presentations. I can't believe my time abroad will be over in about a month! There are definitely some things I miss about home (my friends, my family, large fountain diet cokes with ice), but I know that as I arrive in America I'll begin to miss les petits choses(the little things) of Paris that I've grown to love.

An Epic Trip to Spain

During my Toussaint (All-Saints) holiday, I went to Spain with around 15 other people from my Northwestern program in Paris. It was absolutely incredible. We went sight-seeing all day, ate delicious food, and went out every night. Now I just wish I didn't have to return to school and the giant papers/finals that await me in the next month...

Highlights include:
MADRID

-Plaza Mayor
-Sangria
-the gardens
-my first stay in a student hostel
-lunch and dinner with great friends

SEVILLA



-the most beautiful palace and cathedral I have ever seen
-paddle boating
-watching parts of the election
-walking up at 5am to hear election results
-cheap food

BARCELONA
-an incredible (and cheap) apartment with 7 other girls
-making dinners (actually I didn't cook but I ate delicious food)
-cheap wine
-Barcelona nightlife
-a gondola ride
-the fortress overlooking the entire city
-the deserted remains from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics
-water and beach
-parc guell

This is amazing

And now I'm off to Spain for the week. When I return, I'll have many stories about hostel living and Spanish parties, and maybe I'll even know a word or two of Spanish. Adios!

Happy Birthday Michael Barr! (He was born in 1950 :))

Obama in Paris

highlights of the week
1. having no quizzes/tests
2. the organic market at Raspail - Parisians love their markets and always have a great variety of fresh produce, meat, homemade jam (confiture), honey, cheese, jewelry, and more. I wished Americans cared this much about good food.
3. the Marais on Sunday - The Marais is an area of Paris that is considered the Jewish area, and on Sundays it's definitely the "place to be" in Paris. Many stores/restaurants are closed in the city on Sundays, but the Marais is almost completely open. It's full of cute designer stores, falafel restaurants, parks, and Jewish bakeries. I'd love an apartment here!
4. The Bastille Opera - Tonight the people in my program were given a tour of one of the opera houses in Paris. It was completed in 1989, so it's still considered very new. Although I almost fell asleep during the tour of the dozens of backstage areas and the basement, it was interesting to see where the operas take place and how much work/money is put into them. The tour guide said the shows sell out every single night.

Things to look forward to
1. Halloween!! Parisians don't really celebrate it (the most Halloween-related things I've seen in Paris are a few bags of pumpkin-shaped candy in a fancy grocery store and signs for the Halloween party at EuroDisney), but I'm sure we'll see many Americans dressed up and going out on Friday night.
2. Spain - Next week I'll be in Spain for 6 days with people from my program. We'll be going to Madrid, Sevilla, and Barcelona, so I'm excited!