heat advisory alert

after a month-long hiatus, i decided to wrap up my study abroad blog after all (even though what i write here won't be nearly as good as that picture from nice). i am finishing up my sixth week at people for the american way where i am interning in the public policy department, and i head back to wes in a little over three weeks. this summer has been FLYING by and i haven't quite grasped that i am about to be a senior. in. college.

living and working in dc has had a lot of pros and cons, but it's been a great experience overall. 2010 has  been really memorable so far and i'm sure the last couple months of it will be wonderful as well :)

au revoir, paris

i am leaving paris/france/europe in less than twelve hours. reflections forthcoming, but i leave you with this:

beaches in nice: one of the many things i am going to remember/miss from the last four months i've spent abroad.

in the south of france: yes, life is good.

currently: in aix-en-provence, france. charming town and documents from the colonial archives. yes, life is good indeed.

prague, in a nutshell

to be honest, i haven't had too much time to reflect upon my prague experience like i thought. every day in paris has been wonderful but very busy. it almost feels like after paris, i should be jetting off to another european location instead of going back to the states... or maybe that's just wistful thinking. 

it's hard to sum up three months in a foreign place - being in prague has meant more to me than i can properly convey. before departing for the unknown in many senses of the word (language, culture, people, food, and so on) in february, i was in a pretty strange place. i had a really difficult fall semester - it was academically, socially, and all-around mentally exhausting. i got pwned pretty hard at school (more than usual), had some rough patches with friends, and a break-up, on top of a new job that involved a lot of noisy freshmen and the weight of being a junior... well. somehow i made it to winter break, spent a fantastic month at home, then it was time to go.

luckily, prague gave me a fresh start. it wasn't easy at first - with jet lag and the housing craziness, the pressure to meet new people and constantly go out, spending money but not making any... there were a lot of struggles involved. but over the course of the semester, i learned. one of the most important things i learned is how to do things on my own - i'm normally pretty independent, especially because i spend almost all my time away from home (aka i have to do things on my own like pay bills and figure out travel plans and life plans etc etc), but in prague i realized that it really is okay to do things alone, and enjoy it. i experienced so much in three months - from museums to the rudolfinum, paneria lunches to walks in the park - i did all the things that i wanted to do, when i wanted to do it. i also was not weighed down by stress from schoolwork for the first time in a very long time, which was unbelievably wonderful. with time, things fell into place. despite my complaints, i did learn things this semester (from how to pronounce words with no vowels in czech to little bits and pieces about european integration... and that st. vitus cathedral is typical gothic architecture, of course). i learned how to live with someone else. i bought groceries and learned to cook. i traveled to some great places. i also stayed true to who i was, and i feel like i am in a much better place now than i was five months ago. the transition back into my "real life" will be a little strange, but i am so excited to go back to wesleyan and see my friends there, go back to a job that i love, and i can't wait to have classes that I LOVE!!! yeah, i'm a nerd. i'll also be reunited with my best friends in my new city in a matter of weeks, and also see some familiar faces in dc and new york :)
 

when i left for montana over a year ago, i thought that the wilderness would be the time to "find myself" and figure my life out. instead, i made incredible friends that i naturally wanted to spend all my time with, prague was different because i was able to get both - perspective and introspection, along with great friends. many parts of my prague/abroad experience will remain with me for a very long time, including going to cesky krumlov, seeing auschwitz, getting pivos with pavel, our wonderful flat at na svihance 2, general ridiculousness at 32 vinohradska, the carnival rides, the time the power went out at lemon leaf, wine tasting at litomerice, sitting on the rudolfinum steps, finding old town by accident, ordering my concert tickets in czech, seeing prague castle in the distance, and so much more. prague will always have a very special place in my heart (corny, but true), and it's only appropriate to end this entry with my favorite place (old town square, with horses!!)

well. my european adventures are continuing in FULL FORCE in paris. details forthcoming!

bonjour, paris!

hey friends!

after staying up all night, practically getting into a fistfight with the smartwings lady (ok, more of a verbal fight), and making my way to the suburbs of paris, i am happy to say that i am all settled in and loving paris, even more than when i was here in april. this marks the last part of my european adventures - for those who are new readers (which sounds incredibly vain and it's not like i expect my blog to have a super-wide following so this is really for my friends who may have forgotten why i'm in paris) - i will be in paris from may 19 to june 9, doing research for my senior thesis about french representation of religion in colonial north africa thanks to the generosity of the wesleyan davenport grant. after two days in paris, i am REALLY looking forward to the next two weeks!

so, a few things, starting with housing.

i am doing a homestay outside of paris - it's a 10-minute ride on the commuter train - with a lovely married couple named val and ben, and their little son armand, who is adorbs :) i have my own room on the first floor, which leads into an outdoor garden!! it's nice living in a home and val/ben are very nice except it's sort of hard to communicate because my french is extremely rusty. i mostly nod my head and smile and hope that they don't ask me something i can't answer. i still have to figure out how to ask about the washing machine..

paris, so far.

on wednesday, i didn't sleep and got to the airport at 4am. there was some trouble at the counter with my luggage (the smartwings lady was a TOTAL bitch to me, btw) but somehow i made it to paris, with my 39kg of belongings. i got to val and ben's around 8:30am and proceeded to sleep until 1pm. i met up with julie and dani at st. michel and we went to get delish burgers while watching some trashy american music videos. YUM. also, i got a new pair of sandals on day 1. haha.

today, i went to musee d'orsay with dani - it was part of my proposed research to see visual representations of north african societies but there wasn't a whole lot. d'orsay was cool (and i got to use my czech visa to get in for free, which was nice) and not overwhelmingly large, which is not something that can be said for the louvre, which i will be visiting tomorrow. after that, i went to l'institut du monde arabe which i guess was the real start of this research adventure. they have a great bookstore of arab books - both fictional works written by authors in the maghreb and in the middle east, as well as books on history, architecture, contemporary politics, and so on. i got two books that i think are going to be SUPER helpful and i'm really excited about reading them - but they are in french so it's going to take me awhile. after that, i went upstairs to the library and did a bit of reading. the building is BEAUTIFUL and has a wealth of resources so i will definitely be going there soon.

outside musee d'orsay!

the next few days are a bit up in the air, mostly because i have a lot to read before i really delve into the material i came to paris to see (like actual primary documents and whatnot). my plans are sort of set, though - i'll be heading to aix-en-provence from may 30 to june 2, then i'm going to take a few days off and enjoy what is my summer vacation (though it doesn't feel like it to me) in NICE, FRANCE! aka beaches, here i come!! i'll be there until saturday, then a few more days in paris before flying to jfk on june 9. should be wonderful!

i still have a lot of things i want to say about prague, which i miss already. i saw pilsner beer at monoprix (the grocery store) and felt very nostalgic... i will say that studying abroad was a really great decision at a great time for me, and i think i am in a much better place to go back to wes and truly enjoy it in the fall. being abroad also made me feel a sense of extreme accomplishment at small tasks (even until my last week, i still liked going to the post office and buying stamps in czech) and really made me feel independent. i've always considered myself to be pretty independent (especially since i don't go home very often as it is) but living in prague, and now being in paris, really solidified that. well, more thoughts to come. for now, i should probably figure out a game plan for tomorrow...

prague, i love you

so it's 2:28am on wednesday morning and i am heading to the airport in approximately 75 minutes to head to paris. i am feeling all sorts of things that can't really be put into words. but. this has been an incredible three months, and i will hopefully properly reflect on this in the days to come. for now, i'm going to try to stay awake and enjoy the last hour in my lovely abode with my roomie and cross my fingers that i can make it to paris in one piece. so thank you, prague. this has been unforgettable.

three days left.

it is actually unbelievable to me that i have three days left in prague. i know i'll be staying in europe for another three weeks... but still. it's weird to think about moving out of my flat. not using the prague metro (which i love). not going to lemon leaf all the time. too much to think about at this point.

this past week has been relatively uneventful, since it's finals week. for some reason, i seem to have a lot less work than other people though i don't really know how true that is since i had three papers and an exam. well. i'm almost done with all my work meaning i can spend the next couple days exploring/going to new places. on friday, our trip to the vietnamese outdoor market was canceled because of the rain.. so i tried looking for the ethnographic museum but failed. instead i climbed to the top of petrin hill by walking, which was nice but also sort of sad because it made me realize how much i love prague and how sad i am to leave. i don't think the rainy weather or the mopey k-pop ballads i was listening to really helped my mood.. anyhow. after that, i scurried home and then met up with kyra in front of the state opera where we saw madame butterfly, a totally spontaneous thing. it was fantasticky and i loved the music, though the story itself was incredibly sad.

from the top: cerny statues near ujzed, flowers on top of petrin, and me at the opera house!

yesterday, kyra and i went to plzen - famous for the pilsner urquell brewery. plzen was sort of a strange-looking town. it was cold and deserted on a saturday, but that could be because of the cold weather. we ate lunch, walked around a bit, and then went on the brewery tour which was really cool. overall a great day :) and the hot cocoa on the student agency buses were also super, haha.

so i am this close |----| to finishing junior year. just final edits on my eu integration paper left. i've started packing, and it just feels SO strange to think about how fast this semester has gone by. in a week from now, i'll be in paris. in a month from now, i'll be working in dc. wow.

and one last thing. wednesday was our last prague as a living history class - the exam for the class was 15 questions and had lots of pictures, ridic. afterwards, we went to the beer garden right next to our flat with PAVEL and we also played foosball, talked about hopscotch, and the meaning of the universe. per usual.

HE ALSO INVITED US TO HIS CHOIR CONCERT!!!!!!!! but we aren't going to be in prague for it. sadness.