Catching Up

The theatre where La Lecon
has performed for 53 years.

Wow. So… I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in over two weeks. I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, I promise! Right now I’m in Florence, Italy, but let me start with my visit to Paris (for the second time!) with my program. We had a blast! The way that our program planned out the trip, we had one activity to attend everyday and the rest of the day free for exploring. We also had dinners all together (all 24 of us) at a restaurant where we were served a full three course meal. Those were delicious!

We arrived on Saturday in the late morning and checked into our three star hotel. I shared a room with two of my close friends but it was easy to jump around visiting my class mates throughout the rest of the building. The hotel served a small breakfast of croissants, cereal, yogurt and hard boiled eggs.

A hall of gold in
the opera house.

Our first planned activity was attending the play The Lesson (La Leçon) by Ionisco in a tiny theatre hidden between tourist shops and restaurants on a small side street of Paris. The play was interesting in content but it was preformed quite well. It was great to see since I would never have done that if I was visiting Paris on my own. Before the play we had dinner at an Indian restaurant. Before the meal, we were given a pitcher of this delicious yogurt drink to share per table of six. I don’t think I can explain how good this drink was. It was the consistency of sweetened condensed milk but had the best yogurt taste ever. At first I thought it was a specialty drink that we would only get about a glass of each, but soon they refilled the pitcher and I was overjoyed. It was better than the coconut and French vanilla ice cream we had for dessert.

The building of the opera
house was so ornate.

On Sunday we didn’t have any obligations until the afternoon when we were visiting the Muse d’Orsay. So, that morning I went with my two roommates to mass at the Cathedrale de Notre Dame. The service was wonderful! It was given in French and Latin. It was a special mass because along with the regular rituals, there was a group of Gregorian singers who sang and led the hymns. The entire experience was hauntingly beautiful. Spending the afternoon at the Muse d’Orsay was quite fun. In comparison to the Louvre, I found it to be more enjoyable. Mostly I contribute that to its smaller size and higher concentration (wow, did I really just use that term… a little love note to the bio I miss so much) of sculptures to paintings.  

Monday was fun. It began with a late start at 9am (yey sleeping in!) and after breakfast we took a tour of the Paris Opera House. That place is amazing! As we went through, I tried to imagine what it would be like to see a show there and what it would have been like to have seen a show when it was new. The entire place was gorgeous. There was a gigantic hall/room completely decked out in gold, the stairways were many different shades of marble, and it contained countless busts and sculptures. Because were we part of a tour, we got to go into the house of the theatre! It was a dream come true for a theatre lover like me. I couldn't believe that I was sitting in a seat where audience members had sat and watched operas and the Paris Ballet perform for years and years. So wonderful!

Pisa!

I think this picture
explains itself

Yesterday was a little crazy. Since our program's trip had ended, we all had to check out of the hotel and travel to our respective places for the rest of vacation. My plans are to travel in Italy for a few days. I'm with two guys who are also studying in Strasbourg with me, and we're having a good time. We overcame the challenge of getting to the airport where our plane was taking off (since it's a cheap airline, we have to leave from a small airport 50km out of the city) which consisted of walking, metro-taking, and bus riding. We made all transitions and destinations in good time and soon landed in Pisa. The three of us checked in to our hostel in Pisa and explored the little town that night. 

Pizza!

This morning we checked out of the hostel and went back out to see the town during the day. We visited the Leaning Tower(!) and found an alleyway pizzeria for lunch. I have officially only eaten pizza since I've been here. It's so much better than the greasy, cheese and sauce overloaded bread they try to pass as pizza in the States. And it's the cheapest, most filling thing that I've found to order (even with four or five different toppings).

The Duomo, a famous cathedral
in Florence

From lunch, we headed back to the Pisa airport and caught a bus to Florence. I fell asleep on the bus (a common theme for me in Europe), and we arrived shortly. So here we are! We checked in to our second Italian hostel and went out to wander around Florence. I am very excited to go out and see the city during the day tomorrow. There is a huge open-air tourist market just down the street from our hostel that I hope to strip bare... or at least create a crater sized hole in. À plus!