My life as a European!!

I just got back from Amsterdam on Sunday and it was definitely a great weekend! I know I say this a lot, but the city was SOOO different than any other I've ever been to. It was pretty cold, about 45-50 all weekend, very little sun, and a little rain here and there. I can't say that I could picture the weather being much different there--it was suited to the red brick roads, the narrow and colorless buildings, and the horse and carriages that would pass by once and while. Amsterdam is also nick-named "Venice of the North" because canals run through the whole entire city. Cute little house boats line the canal (which you can see in the pictures). The streets there are very confusing; at each bridge the name changes, even if you're going straight...so navigating our way through town was nearly impossible.

Thursday night we arrived pretty late, so we walked around and went to the Red Light District! This was a HUGE eye-opener for me. Everyone hears of prostitution, but this was beyond my wildest dreams! I'm not going to get into details, but I can say that I'm happy those kinds of places aren't all over the world!

Friday, we went to the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh museum. The Anne Frank house was pretty sad. They had videos throughout telling the story. The only catch was that the diary wasn't actually the real one--I guess they were having climate control issues in the house and they didn't want to risk it getting ruined. I'd say it was kind of hard to relate to in general, just because the attic wasn't furnished and it didn't really "feel" like I was where I actually was. Regardless, I'm glad that I went. The Van Gogh musuem was pretty cool though! I don't know that much about Van Gogh, so I can't really recall much of what I saw, but I did enjoy it! Oh in the middle of the day, my friend got her ears double pierced. She'd been wanting to get them for a long time, but it has always been frowned upon by her parents. Well, she decided to be a rebel and just do it! Hmmm...is there anything rebelious I should do now??!?! Just kidding...I'll just stick to being an angel...

Saturday, our plan was to go to a Hemp Museum, take a Canal Tour, and go to another musuem...well we only ended up going on the canal tour which was a complete bust in itself. We spent most of the afternoon in this little British pub making friends and "getting cultured." We were surprised at the time when we finally decided we should leave--4pm. HaHa. We weren't at all worried, it was an afternoon well-spent! Saturday night, we bar-hopped a little bit and walked around the Red Light District.

SOO, I guess you could say my weekend in Amsterdam was a success! I loved everything about the city and I would definitely consider going back! As for now, I need to get some sleep...tomorrow I'm leaving for the Canary Islands and then Italy!! Yay for Spring Break!!

Happy Easter!!

P.S. This Sunday, there are two 17 year-old German girls moving in my flat. They're going to be here until the end of the month! Things are going to be kind of different around here!!

Valencia is province south of Barcelona (outside of Catalunya) on the coast of the Meditteranean. The weather is warmer, and on the Saturday that my program went, it was about 70 degrees and sunny! So amazing!

We left about 7am, got there around 10am, and took a 3 hour walking tour of the city. I saw a bull fighting ring from the outside (which I believe was the largest in Europe..don´t quote me on that!), walked around the largest market in Europe, went to the Cathedral of Valencia, and toured a few other sites. At the Cathedral, we were shocked to find out that it had the Holy Grail! Of course, there is speculation as to whether or not it´s the real one, but there is a legitimate story that one can only believe! The Cathedral also had some paintings by Goya, my favorite Spanish artist, so that pretty cool as well!

After our tour we went to a huge aquarium! The architecture was absolutely amazing! (check out webshots!) In addition to the usual sea creatures, we went to a dolphin show!!

In total, we were only able to spend about 7 hours in the city, but it was definitely well-spent! I really enjoyed my time there!

I just got back from Paris yesterday and WOW what a surreal experience!

First and foremost, not being able to speak more than a word of French made for a very interesting weekend!! There were numerous times that I would start speaking Spanish without even thinking and then I would realize the person had no idea what I was saying so I would just make grunting noises and arm movements to attempt to get across what I wanted to say! The whole weekend was full of funny, but difficult times like this!!

So, Thursday night we got settled into our hotel (which was borderline flea-bag!) and headed out to see the Eiffel Tower. The metro ride there was pretty crowded so we all didn't get to sit together. 2 of my friends and I were sitting by this French boy. We were being kind of loud and probably annoying because we were so excited to be in Paris that we started feeling bad for the boy that was sitting near us. Since we couldn't speak a lick of French, my friend got out her electronic translator and we held up "I'm sorry" in French to the boy. He smiled and continued listening to his I-Pod. We noticed him periodically laughing at the things we were saying and we started talking about him saying things like, "Oh he's so cute! He's probably at the most about 14 or 15 years old!" In mid-conversation (still about him), he interruped us and said "I would just like to say that in fact I'm 19 years old." We all looked at each other and busted out laughing and apologized to him! He said he understood everything we had been saying and didn't say he could speak English because listening to us was just too funny!! We decided to go with him and meet his friend to have a drink before going to the Eiffel Tower and ended up have a great time!

After that minor deviation, we got back on track to go to the Eiffel Tower. When I saw it for the first time, I was literally in awe. It was so magical to see it for the first time all lit up! We went all the way up to the top and saw a spectacular view of the city. The whole time I couldn't believe it was actually happening. After about an hour we went back down because we wanted to see the last light show of the night (the Eiffel Tower sparkles all over). The show was so incredible!! There really are no words to describe it! After that, we were lured to a crepe stand right in front of the ET where I enjoyed my first crepe!! The night was a perfect prelude to an amazing weekend!

Friday morning we headed out early to The Louvre! The museum premices where absolutely goregeous! YES, I saw the Mona Lisa! I was surprised at how small it was, but none the less, I was very very excited to actually see it face to face!! I saw a lot of other Italian art as well as Spanish and French. I'm currently taking an art class so it was cool to be able to classify all of the art by style and time period and also note the iconography. We left after a few hours to have lunch in a gorgeous park and then headed out to see the Arc de Triomf. We have an Arc de Triomf in Barcelona, but I guess the one in Paris is the original and it is MUCH larger! There is also a tomb of an unknown soldier in front of the Arc. After this, we walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it during the day and take pictures. After this, we returned to The Louvre to check out more of the museum. On the way there, a bird pooped in my friend Kara's hair so we spent about 15 minutes in the middle of the sidewalk cleaning it off and getting very strange looks from passerbys!! Anyway..we chose to do a lot of walking because we felt that we'd get a better feel for the city and see a lot more than if we were to take the metro everywhere. This held true and I saw a lot of beautiful buildings and took some great pictures! We got home late and decided against going out because we had a lot to do the following day!

This brings me to Saturday!! We started off the morning by going to Notre Dame. It was gorgeous of course! I took a picture in front of it hunched over like "the hunchback of Notre Dame" haha! We took a tour inside and it was soo soo pretty (I have a lot of pictures)! We ate lunch outside of the church overlooking a river that encapsules the church. There were street performers and tents with people selling paintings and other things. The neighborhood the church was in was very quaint and cute and I really enjoyed my time there! After this, we headed to the Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre which was a basilica nestled up in a hill. Right as we were walking up the hill, the sun broke through and the sky cleared to a crystal blue leaving us with an amazing view of the basillica. We had almost climbed all the way to the top when we heard music playing. There was a small band playing American and Spanish music and swarms of people were sitting on the steps singing and enjoying the view of France. We joined in and ended up spending over an hour just singing, laughing, and swaying to the music! I got another rush of emotions sitting up on that hill looking at people from all over the world come together through the music...it made me realize what a small world it really is and that although I was so far from what I know and who I am, it made no difference. We're all so different, but just as much the same.

We took a tour of the basilica (no pictures were allowed) and set off to do some shopping and to see the Opera House. We, again, wanted to walk. On our way, we found ourselves in a crowd watching some street performers. The neighborhood was a little more downscale with a lot of flea-market type stores. We also saw a lot places that seemed like they would be whore houses or strip clubs but just kind of overlooked them, making a joke like "what is this the red light district?!" Well, we found out later that in fact it was the red light district of Paris! I guess in a sense we were kind of happy we came across it just to see what it was like! The shopping didn't turn out too successful-we were all very tired from all the walking!

We went out to some British bar that night (I'm not sure why) but I loved it because I love the British accent! I talked to a lot of British people about the differences between the US and England...sounds pretty lame, but I had a great time! Funny story: on the way to the bar we were switching between metros and some French girls called after me. I turned around and they were pointing to the ground at a black cardigan. Clearly they thought that one of my friends had dropped it. I looked at the tag and thought for sure it was my friend's sweater because she has a lot very similar to this one. I thanked them and ran over to my friend and told her she left her cardigan. There was a lot of confusion as to whether or not she brought it out that night and then I asked her what size hers was and she said it was a large...well the one I had was a medium! We later discovered that she didn't even have a cardigan like that, but in her drunken stooper she seemed to think she did! Point of the story: I acquired the cardigan and I'm very excited about it because it's probably worth about $30!!

Sunday morning we had to leave early so we didn't really do anything but have our lovely continental breakfast at the hotel. It consisted of a baguette, croissante, and coffee. VERY impressive!!

So, I had an AMAZING, indescribable weekend in Paris, one I know I will never forget! I'll be posting pictures on webshots very soon so please check them out!

What's next? I have a day trip with my program to Valencia, a city south of Barcelona outside of Catalunya, on Saturday.

***Random Barcelona Fact: Most stores, cafes, and restaurants allow you to bring your dog with you!! It's so weird to be in a clothing store shopping and see a dog right next to you!! Also, most dogs don't have leashes and they're apparently so well trained they don't even approach strangers, they just walk along very calmly***

Hi!!! I´m so sorry for not getting this together as things happened. From here on out, I´m going to be updating my blog weekly(ish) depending on whether or not I do something exciting! Actually, I´m going to Paris TOMORROW!!!! [b]so I will have a lot to talk about when I get back!

Also, I have a Webshots account: http://community.webshots.com/user/jenineurope08 It takes a long time to upload pictures so getting them up is a process. After reading this information and looking at the pictures I have so far, you should have a general idea of where I am and what I´m doing. I know there was an error with a couple of the pictures in my album as well...I´ll get to fixing those soon enough!!

Remember, my e-mail is jchassay@indiana.edu so feel free to e-mail any time!! I miss everyone so much and I hope all is well back in the good old US!!

More updates: I´m going to Amsterdam in 2 weeks, then for Spring Break I´m going to the Canary Islands for 5 days, then Italy for 5!! I´ll be in Italy on Easter Sunday!!!! I can´t wait!!

This was an AMAZING weekend!! The trip was organized by my program. Madrid is the capital of Spain and has SO much to see and do that a weekend was definitely not enough time spent! I thought Barcelona was an active city--until I got to Madrid! The hustle and bussle of the city, the architecture, the parks...everything was so great!

Friday when we arrived, we took a general tour of the city. I can´t really recall much that I saw because it was a 3 hour walking tour, but all of it was so cool!

Saturday, we went to El Prado. For me, this was such an exhilerating experience...I can´t even explain! I studied Spanish Art history in high school (one of my favorite classes ever!) and my interest in this subject led me pursue Spanish in college, which further led me to Spain. I got the chills when I saw the paintings I had analyzed so carefully right in front of me and it made me feel so accomplished, like everything I had gone through in life-the struggles, the stress, etc-all happened for a reason because it all led me right there. Wow, that sounds really corny, but it was a very personal experience for me and one that I will NEVER forget!!

We also visited the Royal Palace of Spain which was sooo cool! The palace has over 1000 rooms, fully decorated, each with a story of its own. We went to all of them! ...just kidding, we only fit in 20 in the 2 hours we had...but it was all so beautiful. The King and Queen of Spain don´t actually live there, but they visit about 2 times a month. Saturday night I went to one of the biggest discotecas in Spain. It had 7 floors, live entertainment, great atmosphere and A LOT of fun!!

OH yeah, one big thing I have left out...I had a 26 year old girl named Mónica living with me up until 2 weeks ago. She is from Madrid but was working in Barcelona. She recently lost her job so she moved back to Madrid where her family and friends are. This was really sad for me because we had gotten really close living together for a month and a half. She was a really good friend of mine and much easier to relate to than Eli. She would spend hours telling me about culture in Spain and asking me questions and teaching me...she was sooo great!! I was really sad when she left, but was lucky to see her the following weekend when I visited Madrid. She came out to the discoteca on Saturday with my friends and I and had a great time!! (She calls me once a week to catch up and she´s planning on visiting Barcelona once or twice before I go back to the US!!)

Anyway, Sunday I went to a big flea market and spent time with Mónica before I left!! She even went to the train station with me to say goodbye!! How cute! That concludes my weekend in Madrid! One of the best weekends yet!! (Don´t worry, I still like Barcelona better!)