Scheduling Stress

This has absolutely nothing to do with traveling or the castle, but I was bored and decided to write in here. Feel free to skip over this post if you don't care. Today I had my time to register for classes for next semester. The way Emerson has you register for class, you get an assigned time (November 28th at 3pm) and you get a PIN number/password and you sign in to pick your classes online. The only problem is, when you are an underclassman, you get the worst times so by the time you register, most the classes you want are gone. Last night I went to look at the classes I wanted and started freaking out. After making about 4 different possible schedules, I came up with one I liked that allowed me to have no Friday classes and no class before 12. The only problem is, two days of the week I have to have class from 12-6 with only two 15 minute breaks in between each class. In order to get this schedule, I needed to sign up for a class that only had 3 seats left in it. Throughout the day, I kept hearing people who wanted to take this class, so I was getting really worried. I went to the computer lab around 2:20 because I didn't trust the wireless on my computer to not freeze up, which would make me miss out on the classes I want. By the time we were able to register at 2:45, all 20 or so computers in the lab were filled with sophomores trying to register. It was so crazy and stressful because everyone was yelling and screaming. It reminded me of the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 5 minutes before, I started to just keep refreshing the page until it let me in to register. I got in, typed in the course code for the class with only 3 seats left and hit enter. Then I typed in the code for the class I wanted with only 6 seats left and hit enter. Then I typed in the third class that had 9 seats left, but I knew no one was going to be signing up for that. And the last class was already registered for me. I did this all in under 10 seconds.

I think it is a pretty good schedule and the best part is I will have Magda (My favorite professor) twice on Tuesdays and Thursday. The entire morning I was stressing out over this whole thing and I really think that Emerson should make a better system for registering. Oh well. I live in a castle.

Bad Ass Chicks from the Moulin Rouge

Annnnddddddd I'm back! For anyone who read my Prague blog already, calm down. Here is part two that I know you have been itching for. If you haven't read my Prague blog, scroll down and read that first (Or I mean...You don't have to do it that way...But if you want the true chronology then I suggest you scroll down).

So I left off the last blog with me getting on the train from Prague to Paris. I booked an overnight train for 20:00 (8 pm) on Monday November 19th. My first train was supposed to get into Frankfurt at 6:30 (It was a sleeper train so the 10 hour ride seemed like an hour) and then I needed to switch trains to go from Frankfurt to Paris. I got on my first train and showed the conductor my ticket and Eurail. He looked at it and then said to me "This expires on the 19th. Today is the 19th, but tomorrow is the 20th and you will still be on this train." I started to freak out. He gave it back to me and told me not to use it after this one time. I felt really relieved but then realized I still had one more train the next day. I knew that my Eurail was going to be expired, but I thought it was expired on the 20th, not the 19th. Luckily Blake was on the same train as I was (He was going to Germany to meet up with his mom and some family friends) so I went and found him to see what we should do. He took my Eurail and literally changed the 1 into a 2 and said it would be fine. The conductor on the second train didn't notice, so everything worked out.

Like I said, the train rides did not seem long at all. I was in a compartment with an older couple for the first train, but I was passed out for most of it. The only times I woke up was when people from customs came by twice and had to stamp my passport. The second train was about 4 hours which by now, is a breeze. I can't wait until I get back home, and every ride seems so much shorter. The 3 1/2 hour ride to Boston was never long, but I always got a little antsy by the end. Now it is going be seem like driving to the mall.

I arrived in Paris at around 10:40 on Tuesday morning. I was meeting my friend Allie who I know from back home, but she was busy with her internship for another hour or so. After weighing my options of either sitting in the train station and waiting for her, or walking somewhere and enjoying the amazing city, I chose option number two. Despite having a really heavy bag, and the weather being sort of crappy outside, I picked a road and decided to see where it would take me. It turned out that it took me straight to Notre Dame, which the first time I went to Paris almost two years ago now, was my favorite thing there.



I was very surprised to find out that I recognized exactly where I was in some spots. Notre Dame was just as beautiful as it was last time. After staring at it for a while I looked around and realized that the area I was standing in, has been the background on my computer for 2 years now. It was surreal to be back in one of my favorite cities ever.

Allie texted me and I met her at the metro stop. Now I need to give a little backstory that explains a lot of my trip to Paris. Everyone always says how horrible the French people are. I completely disagree. Most of the people I encountered in Paris have been very warm and friendly. I think as long as you at least show that you are trying to speak their language and not completely disregard their culture, they will appreciate you. That being said, the French are still winy little bitches sometimes. For nine days, the metro (Subway) workers were on "strike." I use the term very loosely. At first when I heard there was a strike, I thought we would have to walk everywhere or take cabs which would cost a lot of money. Nope. When the French say they are on "strike" they don't mean it in the same context as in America. You would think that a strike means that none of the trains are running and all the train stations are closed. Wrong. The "strike" or le grieve as they called it in French, means that some of the trains aren't going to run, and the ones that are running are going to come every 15 minutes instead of every 5. It was still sort of annoying, but we were able to get around fine. The best part was because of le grieve, all the trains were free. This ended up saving me a lot of money in the long run.

Anyway...back to the blog. I met up with Allie and we got lunch with some of her friends. After lunch we went back to her dorm to drop off my bags, and then she had to go to class. I walked around a little, but didn't really know what I was doing. I stumbled upon a parade/protest/picket line that I think was related to the "strike." Everyone always says if see some sort of large angry gathering, to walk the other way, but after examining it from afar, I decided it was safe enough to watch up close. It was really cool. They were all screaming and singing in French and had these huge flairs that looks like torches.





I watched that for a little bit and then continued to walk around. I stopped in a few stores. Then I started to recognize where I was. I had wandered over to wear our hotel was the first time I came to Paris. I decided to walk around and look at some things that we used to laugh about.


Our hotel that has now changed its name.

At 7, I met up with Allie again and we went over to her friend Beth's apartment for dinner. Beth's boyfriend was visiting too and he is studying to be a chef, so he made this incredible dinner. After dinner we started to make our way over to her aunt and uncle's house, where we were staying.

Her aunt and uncle live in Le Vesinet which is about 30 minutes outside of Paris, but it is on the RER (Kind of like the commuter rail in Boston). However because of the "strike" it took us an hour or two to get there. But once we were there, it was worth the wait. They live in this gorgeous house that I can't even describe, I am just going to show you pictures...




The outside gate to their house















Yup that's a wine cellar

They even had a guest house that I stayed in...






The town




By the time we got there, we were both exhausted and passed out pretty quickly.

The next morning we woke up around 9 and tried to get into Paris. After waiting for the train for about an hour, we heard an announcement that there were no trains running. We went back to the house, and found out that her cousin was driving into Paris in an hour or so. We decided to just wait around and have him take us in. He dropped us off by Sacre Coeur. Allie had never been up there, so we walked around for a little bit.






Me and Allie outside of Sacre Coeur.

Allie got a phone call from Beth who wanted to meet us for lunch. We ate and then Allie had to go to class again. While Allie was in class, I went to order tickets to West Side Story for Friday night. I read a few weeks ago about this European tour of West Side Story that was going to have its stop in Paris while I was there and got really excited. Then I realized that Allie likes musicals and would probably want to go with me. THEN I realized that Allie and I were IN West Side Story together, so then we had to go. While I was standing in line, I was debating whether or not to try and order the tickets in French or English. As I walked up, I was about to start speaking in English, but then I forced myself to at least try to order in French. I felt so proud of myself because not only was I able to order en Francais, but the woman even asked me a few questions which I understood and was able to answer her, in French. Ok so it really wasn't anything too complicated it went something like this...

ME: I would like two tickets (While holding up two fingers just in case she didn't get it) for Friday night
WOMAN: For West Side Story?
ME: Yes.
WOMAN: This Friday?
ME: Yes
WOMAN: Which tickets?
ME: 15 euros

Even if it was 7th grade level conversation, I felt so proud. After I got the tickets I decided to walk along the Champs d'Elysee because that is one thing I never got to do the first time in Paris (Long story...Ask me later). I took the metro to the Louvre and planned to walk from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomph. I had been to the Louvre before and didn't think too much of it, so I didn't have much desire to go inside, but I did want to see it.


The Louvre









I have no clue where that ferris wheel came from, but it definitely was not there when I went 2 years ago.










As I was walking down the Champs d'Elysee, I walked into a few stores just to look at stuff I am too poor to buy and literally had someone laugh at me. I walked into Cartier and one of the workers saw me and laughed and then as I was leaving the doorman said to me "haha just looking I guess??" I didn't mind, but I think its funny how they can pick out poor Americans.


Here is a video of the Eiffel Tower sparkling.

Around 7:30, I met Allie on the train and we went back to Le Vesinet for a Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, it was not Thanksgiving, but Allie's cousin was visiting and was going home the next morning. Anyway...Dinner was incredible. Allie's aunt made a full on Thanksgiving dinner for 9 people. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, etc. I had about 4 helpings and afterwards went into an insane food coma.

The next morning, we decided to sleep in a little because we knew it would be hard to get a train, so we figured why bother waking up early. We got into Paris around 1 and went to Allie's program's Thanksgiving dinner. Again, it was full on Thanksgiving dinner and again, I had an insane amount of food. I sat next to this woman who was maybe in her 30s who I found out went to Barnstable High School, so we had a nice little conversation about the Cape (I forget what her name is, but I will find out).

After Thanksgiving, we went back over to Beth's apartment and hung out with more of Allie's friends. It was a really nice day, even if it was not Parisian at all. We got back to Le Vesinet where I got to call home and talk to some of my family.

Friday was my last day in Paris, so I tried to squeeze in as much as possible. We woke up and found out that the "strike" was over. It was a breeze getting onto the train and we made it into Paris pretty quickly. I had to go to the train station to clear up something with my ticket home and then I decided to go to Musee d'Orsay. This is probably my favorite museum that I have ever been to. I ended up spending almost 3 hours at the museum.



It has a lot of impressionist art including an entire room on Monet, and entire room of Degas and a lot of Seurat (aka all my favorite painters). After the museum, I walked over to the Latin Quarter to walk around a little, then walked over to Centre Pompidou.






That fountain was also one of my favorite things in Paris the first time. It is so weird a quirky. After Pompidou I walked over to Galeries Lafayette because I heard it was decorated really nice for Christmas.




Finally I looked at a map and found out that I was close to the Moulin Rouge, so I decided to see it.



At 7, I got on the Metro and met Allie outside of the theatre and we went to see West Side Story.






The show was really good. Most of them were bad actors, but it was completely made up for by how amazing their dancing was. The show was performed with the original Jerome Robbins choreography and every single person in the cast was spot on. It was thrilling to be able to see that choreography in real life.

After the show we went back to Allie's dorm and went to sleep. The next morning we woke up around 7, I went to the train station and went back to The Netherlands. Everything went smoothly although I did double think if I was on the right train or not, but I always was. It's very nice to be back at the castle and sleep in my own bed here.

Classes are coming to an end and everything is winding down over here. This weekend I am going to Barcelona for my last weekend of traveling. Then we have finals and we come home. 17 days. I feel like there is still so much I need to see over here but do not have enough time to see it. Oh well, I live in a castle.