My lovely visit from Aunt Julie & TOUR DE BARCELONA! Barcelona part ONE

Proof I rode a bike.

A long, long, time ago in a country far, far, away... I went on vacation. Literally. It has officially been a month since I went to BARCELONA, SPAIN, or how they say there BarTHelona, ETHpagna. But just to be mean and make you wait a little bit longer I am going to describe my week leading up to it.

Monday was back to the grind and I had Art & Architecture. It was our last class before our big exam on the 12th because we got Monday off the following week because it was the day after Easter and I attend a Catholic university here in Paris. So we covered A LOT of new material in 3 short (and by short I mean painfully long) hours. After class I had host family dinner, which was a bit awkward since the whole me using the stove debacle (still oops!) Tuesday, aka the longest day ever, was Romantisme which I couldn't pay attention to as usual, and Cinema. I actually LIKED this film compared to the others we have watched in this course. Except the ending, but all French movies end abruptly or weirdly. When I got home I received a letter from the Office of Immigration stating they received my confirmation that I was in France. Unfortunately, I got yelled at for receiving mail at my host families home and my host mom said I am never to receive mail at her apartment. How strange. Things were getting even more awkward and worse. :-/

And now Wednesday!! Wednesday I have only Theatre, BUT my professor was performing in a play this week in Avignon so class was cancelled (woo!) so I got to sleep in AND my Aunt Julie came to visit me that day! She lives in London so I do not get to see her a lot so it was wonderful getting to see her! She was staying at this adorable hotel near Saint-Germain Des Pres so I headed over to that area around eleven (I haven't visited it a lot before - it is very swanky) and we chatted a bit and decided to grab a bite a cute cafe around the corner. I had the most wonderful cheese omelet and salad. It was quite a dreary day, but the rain was holding of thus far, so we decided to walk to my school so I could show her around. I showed her where my Illinois Program in Paris classes are, then we walked through the Luxembourg Gardens to get to the Institut Catholique. We almost made made it but suddenly it began to Monsoon, as I now learned it tends to do here since I have been caught THREE times in one, so we ran and hid inside a little Chinese restaurant. The worker there didn't seem to happy that we were seeking shelter in her restaurant so I bought a coke...but she still wasn't happy. After the rain slowed down, Aunt Julie and I quickly left the restaurant and I showed her my school. After, we caught the metro to go to the Centre Pompidou. Now, you all remember that I do not like modern art AT all, but I thought I would give it a try. There was a very interesting English artist that had an exhibit there for awhile that my aunt wanted to see. Well apparently half of France and the world wanted to go to the Pompidou this Wednesday because the line was RIDICULOUS. We both didn't want to wait in a line so we went to the free Brancusi sculpture museum outside of the Centre Pompidou. Constantin Brancusi was a very interesting Romanian modern sculpture. He didn't stick to clay or marple, but used bronze, and metal, and wood for his sculptures. It actually was quite interesting - different, but interesting. Another monsoon hit, so we decided to sit in the museum for awhile (it is very small) before heading back to her hotel to rest for a bit. We accidentally went in the wrong direction on the metro and ended up at the craziest metro station I have ever been at. The entire station is made out of copper - like the walls are covered with it and the chairs are covered with it! I had never been on the line before so it was interesting to see. We got back to her hotel where we checked our emails and the hotel printed out my boarding pass for BARCELONA for free. Sooo nice! After, we headed up to my aunt's room where there were snacks and champagne chilling in a basket waiting for us. I told you - swanky! So we drank some Champagne and both read for awhile because we were tired. After our little rest we decided to head to this restaurant named "Le Christine" near Saint-Germain Des Pres. We were waiting for Giovanni, my aunt's boyfriend of a long time, but his plane from Italy was delayed. We ordered a caesar salad to split while waiting for Giovanni and a bottle of red wine (I am becoming such a connoisseur of wine while being in France! Or so I like to tell myself) and I usually don't drink red wine but it is good! Giovanni finally got to Paris and made it to dinner 45 minutes later and we had a wonderful meal. I had this steak thing with mashed potatoes. SOOO good. And the company was even better!I also had my first souffle with Grand Marnier! Grandmarnier is a type of liquor as I now know - I dont understand how people would want that in a crepe blech! It was great to see and hang out with my Aunt Julie and Giovanni. It had been so long since I had last seen them. The meal last 3.5 great hours, as any real French dinner should, but unfortunately I had to get going home and Aunt Julie and Giovanni had a really early flight to India the next morning and I a flight to BARCELONA the next night, so we decided to call it a night. The next day was Thursday, the first of April, so I had my awful literature class. I luckily didn't have to drag my luggage to class like I did last time. I was sick earlier that morning, hence why I didn't go to the Chopin museum for Romantisme, so I somehow convinced Beth that I was no longer going to Barcelona because there was no way I could fly in my state. She started freaking out and then I yelled "April Fools!" I have never seen her go so pale in my life. I am mean. After class we ran home to get our luggage and then headed to the Orly Bus to take us to the Orly Airport! Fun Fact: Mom you love these "activities" but the bus never validated our ticket so we didn't have to buy a return ticket from Orly when we got back from Barcelona! We essentially got a free bus ride woo! 2 hours later we were on the plane to

BARCELONA! Courtney had flown in early and was already relaxing at the hotel. We stayed at a lovely hotel called Abba Garden, which I guess is technically in a suburb right on the outskirts of Barcelona - but there is a metro stop 10 minutes away so it wasn't bad at all! I found it on Priceline because all of the hostels in Barcelona were booked for Easter Weekend. This hotel was awesome! It had a pool, a sauna, a hot tob, etc. It was midnight by the time we got there so we decided to stay in and chat until 3 am to catch up with each other. The next day we decided to hit the town. We passed through this lovely garden (pictured on the left) everyday we went to the metro stop. It was beautiful and very different than any Parisian gardens. our first stop was Las Ramblas, the most well-known street in Barcelona. It has tons of cafes, restaurants, shops, hotels, and street-performers galore! Just look how packed it was on a Friday at like 11am! It was amazing! Right away we saw there were TONS of ice cream stores so we of course had to go get some ice cream! That was our lunch for the day, and let me tell you, it was the best lunch! After spending some time looking at some of the street performers and flower markets we decided to head over to the Barcelona Cathedral cathedral that was very close by because it was Good Friday and Beth wanted to go to Good Friday Services. Like most things in Europe, this cathedral was under construction and the scaffolding got in the way of my photos. There were TONS of people there getting ready for the outdoor service. Beth being a good Catholic stayed while Courtney and I went to find a cafe nearby while Beth was at the service. This is what Courtney and I do best. We go to cafes and can talk for hours, literally hours. Remember that one Sunday where i was gone from noon to almost midnight, eating tons of different foods? Yep, that was with Courtney! After drinking a really good lemon slushy drink thing we decided to walk towards the harbor. We past a lot of really good looking restaurants, which we made note of to come back to another day. While walking around we ran into Beth! The service had ended so we decided to walk around the harbor of Barcelona. It was absolutely beautiful! We sat down for a little bit right near the water and then decided to go to the giant mall that was on the a bridge over the harbor. Nothing caught my eye, but Beth was enamored with an awesome coat from Mango. She didn't buy it that day but we came back on Monday and she bought the coat! Beth is not one to splurge so it was great to see her spend money on something she really loved and that was for herself. After the mall we decided to head down to the beach (!!!) It was beautiful and had the most amazing sand sculptures I have ever seen! We walked a long way down the beach and found a row of awesome bars and restaurants right on the beach! We were starving at this point so we decided to check out this Italian restaurant. Yes, and Italian restaurant in Spain. It was 6:50 and apparently the Spanish don't eat until much later so we had to wait until 7 to enter the restaurant because that is when it opened. Courtney ordered seafood paella (remember paella,) Beth ordered a cheese pizza, and I ordered a sausage and mushroom. It was delicious! And of course we are in Spain, and what is Spain known for besides their daily siestas (naps)? SANGRIA!! Courtney and I decided to order a pitcher of Sangria and it was the best Sangria I have ever had. It was my first time having Sangria, but it was by far the best of the entire trip. It was a wonderful dinner over, however we did learn that they charge for bread AND water in Spain. What the?? I guess we are spoiled in France and the U.S. with our endless amounts of free bread and free water! After dinner we walked around a little more around the beach then decided to call it quits for the night because the next morning we had our amazingly, awesome...

BIKE TOUR! Courtney had gone on a bike tour around Paris and had the time of her life and had heard there was one in Barcelona too! We were running a little bit late, and basically had to run to the square where it was starting, but we got there just in time! We were greeted by 2 hilarious Aussies who have been living in Barcelona for awhile and new everything there is about it. It was a 4 hour bike tour around all of Barcelona that showed us most of the main touristy things and some not so touristy stuff! Poor little Beth had to have little kid's bike because she is so small (hahahahaha) but unfortunately her seat was broken so she had to adjust it every 5 minutes - it was actually quite entertaining. Our first stop was the original castle where the Kings and Queens of old Spain lived - aka King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who commissioned Christopher Columbus! After, we headed to an amazing music hall in Barcelona. The outside detail was beautiful and my pictures do NOT do it justice, because the roads are sooo narrow in Barcelona that I couldn't get a good angle. Next up was the Arc of Triumph! Yep, that is right, there is an "Arc de Triomph" in Barcelona. In fact, there are a little over 300 "Arc de Triomphs" in Europe, Paris' is just the most well-known one. The one is Rome was the first one ever. Betcha didn't know that! I certainly didn't know there were 300! After the Arc, we went to the most magnificent garden, with a ginormous fountain and sculptures of elephants...yep elephants. It was absolutely beautiful and looked almost like a jungle in some parts. We then rode off to the Bull Fighting Arena! Bullfighting, or Tauromachy which comes from the Greek word tauromachia "bull-fight," (see parents! I do learn things!) is despised and like by many Spaniards. After a fight, the bull is killed :( and because of this a vote was made to ban Bull Fighting. However, the people of Barcelona didn't like that so they are still continuing bull fighting. This is much like the anti-smoking bills. The Spanish government has passed anti-smoking laws in public places (restaurants, bars, stores, etc.) FOUR times. FOUR! It works for a little while then everyone blows of the law and starts smoking again. A new ban was supposed to go into affect in April - we shall see how long this one lasts! Our next stop after the arena was La Sagrada Familia - the most well known church in Barcelona, if not in Spain. It is the most ridiculous church I have EVER seen in my life. Antoni Gaudi designed the plans for this church and he was nuts. Seriously. It started in 1882 and it is still under-construction to this day and isn't expected to be finished until 2026 (yeah right!) 100 years after the death of Gaudi. There is a giant fake Christmas looking tree above the door, grapes decorating the tops of towers. Gaudi was hit by a tram in Barcelona and left on the side of the road because people thought he was a beggar. He was taken to a hospital where nobody recognized him. He was finally recognized and someone offered to take him to a nicer hospital, but he said no and that "he belongs with the poor people." 3 days later he died. He is buried underneath/in La Sagrada Familia. In 1938 the blueprints to La Sagrda Familia were destroyed by anarchists in the Spanish Civil War. Now, this part I do not know if it is true or if our guides maid it up, but supposedly these 2 guys believed that Gaudi HAD to have created another set of blueprints and that he would be kooky enough to hide it somewhere around La Sagrada Familia. They scoured the place and couldn't find it and finally decided to check his grave and there they were clutched in his hands. Would definitely be a cool/creepy story if that is true! After La Sagrada Familia we sped down to the beach to hang out for a little while, get lunch, and Sangria! Yep Sangria and bike riding. After that, our wonderful tour had to end :( so we said goodbye to our new Aussie friends and headed to Las Ramblas to go to La Boqueria!

This blog is getting EXTREMELY long like my Sweden blog so I am cutting this blog in half *gasp!* But no worries, i will write Barcelona part Deux tomorrow so I won't leave you hanging TOO much! Until then AU REVOIR!

Technology. Can't live with it. CAN'T live without it.

Soooo I honestly was planning on writing a blog much sooner than this (believe me, I promise!) but good ol' technology decided to get in my way. My computer broke. The graphics card gave out on me and I had to take it into a repair shop in Paris to get it fixed. That was a fun experience. I learned some new technology vocab from this experience. Thank goodness they were able to fix it because 3 other girls have had to get new computers entirely. EEK! I got extremely lucky. There must be something going on with the electrical conversion or something because for 4 computers to have all these problems (they all started with a black screen) so hopefully no more computer problems from here on out!

Anywho, I know I am wayyyyy behind and this blog is about the week after SWEDEN and going to Foutainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte. I arrived back Sunday around noon and I was EXHAUSTED from pulling an all-nighter the night before so I came home and slept a lot of the day. Monday I had Art and Architecture BUT it was cancelled for the day (woo!) so instead of going home and working on my Romantisme paper that was due the next day, Alla, Beth, and I went to the Luxumbourg Gardens because it was nice and sunny out and talked for a couple of hours. We then went to get a crepe and went our separate ways to go do homework. The Romantisme was a bit harder than I expected. It was about Victor Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris" (Hunchback of Notre Dame) but it wasn't even the storyline of it (No Quasimodo or Esmerelda) We read his descriptions of Notre-Dame (he is verrry descriptive) and explain why it relates to Romantisme. It was hard and I kind of made up things - hopefully it will be ok. Everyone else I talked to did the same thing. Wednesday we did some book shopping for our classes, some window shopping, and then Caroline, Ashley, Beth and I went to Starbucks to plan Spring Break! My second week here I bought a 5 euro umbrella. It broke within 30 minutes of me using it. The third week a brought a sturdier umbrella - so sturdy that it does not fold up and is quite large so I forget I need to be careful with it. At Starbucks I knocked over, not one, but TWO glasses they had on sale with my umbrella. Oy. Vay. I was sooo embarrassed but luckily the workers were very cool with it and told me "I wasn't the first, and I won't be the last." OOPS! Remember my umbrella. Thursday for Romantisme we went to Eugene Delacroix' home/museum (!) I like Delacroix so it was very interesting to see how he went through several phases in his life and started painting in different styles. He was never precise with his brush-strokes, which is a big part of Romantisme. In 1832 he went to Morocco and after his travels is when his style started to change and he started painting different things than he had in the past i.e. lots of exotic animals and African people became his subjects for awhile. It was very interesting! That night we went to go see a play for Theatre called "Fantasio" and it was at the Comedie Francaise. The building is GORGEOUS and right next to the Louvre. Our seats were awful - we could see perfectly fine, but the seats themselves were sooo uncomfortable. It was also really hard to folllow the play because it was in French and they spoke soooo quickly. I just made up my own dialogue and plot instead. :) Friday we had theatre class and nothing too exciting happened there.

That day Beth's friend Larry was coming to visit because it was U of I's spring break so we decided to go to Baby Bottles again. Ok, it isn't called Baby Bottles - I just never remember the name! I know what street it is on but that is it. Beth, Larry, Alla, Colie, and I all met up at the metro station to go the Baby Bottles. Brian and his friend Dale were supposed to meet us, but Brian ended up getting extremely lost and didn't get there until an hour later, but the restaurant wouldn't keep our reservation so we had to go in without them. We felt bad but they found a really good dinner down the street - so it ended up working out. This time we ordered cheese fondue AND meat! It was delicious and an overall good time! After dinner, we still wanted to enjoy everyone's company and had no desire to go home yet, so we went to Larry's hotel (he was staying at the Marriot - hello swanky and huge) and chatted and hung out for an hour or two. We ended the night (somewhat) early because the next morning we had to be on the bus bright an early for the Chateaux (Castles basically) Fontainebleau and Vaux-le-Vicomte.

When I woke up Saturday morning, really early I might add, the weather was so dreary and rainy. Go figure we would be spending most of the day outside exploring guide of the inside

the castles and whatnot. Our first destination is Fontainebleau, which is an hour and 15 minutes outside of Paris. This is where the kings of yore, and Napoleon, lived before Versailles became the grand Palace. When they weren't at Versailles, they were at Fontainebleau. Dr. Costello gave us a tour of the outside and we had an audio tour. The building to the right was just the kitchens for Fontainerbleau. Those. Are. Kitchens. You can imagine what the palace is like if those are the kitchens. Fontainebleau isn't as grand as Versailles, by any means, but there was a lot of interesting history in this chateau! Like I said, today was gloomy, and of course while we were outside doing th tour it was raining. But thankfully I had my handy-dandy umbrella! Except not. I get inside and we start the audio tour when suddenly I am tapped on the shoulder. Some employee said my umbrella was way too large and I had to check it in. What?! I had to pay 2 euro to check it into some locker. I was NOT happy. My stupid umbrella strikes again at causing a disruption. Back to the chateau:There was a room filled with all these plates that had important places, events in history, people, etc on them. Every inch of the room was filled with plates! There is also a "Hall of Mirrors" which is where the inspiration for the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles came to be. My favorite room in the chateau was Marie Antionette's "White Room" everything was white and pretty! Also, Fontainebleau contains the last throne of France - Napoleon's thrown! It is quite small...but then again so was Napoleon :)

After Fontainebleau, we hop on the bus and drive to Vaux-le-Vicomte which is a a cheateau built for Nicolas Fourquet NOT a king or emperor. A picture of it from the gardens is the first picture on the blog. Nicolas Forquet came from a wealthy family and was a politcal man (he was the financier of Louis XIV) and wanted a majestic home for himself, so he built Vaux-le-Vicomte for himself. After it was finally finished he had a huge party and invited the king to see Forquet's new humble abode. Louis XIV was so jealous of this luxurious palace as well as the grand party that was held, that 3 weeks later Fourquet was arrested and imprisoned for the rest of his life for treason. He only got to live there for 3 weeks! How sad! first off was lunch at the chateau. It was quite expensive (seeing as there was no restaurant or grocery store near by to buy food hence why they could jack up prices) and I had rabbit for the first time. I honestly didn't know it was rabbit. I need to start learning food names or actually pay attention because that is how I ended up with shrimp pizza bread once because I for the word fro shrimp. It was delicious though! So I didn't mind, besides the fact I was eating a poor little Bugs Bunny. The sun finally started to appear after lunch so Larry, Beth, and I decided to check out the gardens first. Oh. My. Goodness. These gardens were AMAZING! Vaux-le-Vicomte and it's garden werer the inspiration for Versailles, acutally. Louis XIV loved the chateau that much. There are flowers, and trees, and fountains everywhere in the back yard, and it expands tons of acres. My pictures cannot even do this place justice. Bet, Larry, and I were having way to much fun in the gardens. hiding behind shrubs, pretending we were fountains (yes, you read correctly) oh and riding on golf carts! Because the gardens are sooo large and because there is a very famous statue of Hercules/Zeus 40 minutes away from the chateux but still in the garden (by walking) they rent golf carts. We are making the like hike to the statue, when suddenly Adam, a kid from the program, comes whiuzzing by on a golf cart and yells for us to get on. So we did. We come across 2 others and we tell them to get on too. We start driving up to the statue and pass 2 more and we tell them to get on! That is 8 people on a golf cart...and the weight limit is 800...yep you do the math! It was a BLAST. Maybe a bit unsafe, but who cares! We were so paranoid about getting caught though, but luckily we never were AND we made it to the statue! It was getting close to the time we had to leave so Larry, Beth, and I rushed back to the Chateau (on the golf cart of course) and went inside real quickly. We literally went through 5 rooms because there was a big concert going on in on of the rooms, so we couldn't get past it. But oh well, we got to see the gardens which were the best part of the day! In the picture to the left is Sean, our graduate assistant on the trip, and Beth. The picture on the right is John, Me, Lena, and Adam on the golf cart!

After visitng the chataux, we came back to Paris for a little rest and then a bunch of us went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant that has a great deal for pizza, wine, and a dessert. It was delicious! A bunch of the people we went to dinner with were going to the Tim Burton Movie Festival, 3 movies in 1 theater starting at midnight until 8am and then everyone got breakfast. I wanted to go but no one wanted to see the movies I wanted to. There were 2 rooms, one showing 2 Batmans and Sleepy Hollow, and the other was showing Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and Mars Attack. Well i have never seen any of the movies in theater 1, but everyone was going to theater 2, so I passed. Instead, Beth was feeling quite sick and tired, but she didn't want Larry to not have fun in Paris so she went home and I took him to an Irish Pub that a bunch of us go to a lot. He works for the IT department down at U of I, in the athletic department, so I learned a lot of stuff about what goes on in the athletic department and sports and what not. It was very interesting! Sunday I hid in my room all day and did work, 1.) because I had a lot and 2.) my host family came back from vacation early and found out I used the stove (oops :-/) so i didn't want to press any buttons at the time.

That is all for now, but next blog is BARCELONA!!!!! I know you all have been waiting for that! until then, AU REVOIR!