Snow Day

Before I came to France, numerous people told me "It never really snows in Paris." After I got here, Parisians assured me, "When it does snow, it never sticks." So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning, and saw this outside my window.



I've already expressed my dislike for winter, its cold and darkness. But one thing I have no complaint about is snow. Snow (at least in its pre-slush state) is pretty and Christmasy and calm, and if it were only warm I would spend my entire winter outdoors.

Today my original excitement was dampened a bit by my last final exam. But afterwards I decided to make the most of the first snow day in Paris. First I headed to the Jardin du Luxembourg, which was completely blanketed in snow. My favorite part of the garden were all the locals out taking pictures and throwing snowballs. While I don't agree with the stereotype of Parisians as cold and arrogant, it is true that they can't generally be described as "playful." It's good to know that snow has pretty much the same effect around the world.



After running a few quick errands, I walked along the Seine to Notre Dame. It's always a beautiful cathedral, but especially impressive at night. And the addition of Christmas decorations doesn't hurt its appeal. I sat inside for a few minutes, listening to the organist and the choir, before heading off to the Champs-Elysees. As you might expect, Paris does Christmas right. The trees along the avenue were covered with glimmering blue lights, leading to the Arc de Triomphe in one direction, and a huge Ferris wheel in the other. On either side of the street were Christmas market stalls, selling food, clothing, jewelry and more. It wasn't on the same scale of the Munich markets, but it was beautiful nonetheless.


Today wasn't just notable because of the snow. It's also the last day in Paris for the semester students on my program. The group flight back to the States leaves tomorrow morning. So today was a day for saying goodbye, for taking final group photos and lingering in the program center for the last time. So I spent the night with departing friends, first during dinner at Breakfast in America, then during several hours spent in a cafe by the Opera Garnier. It's surreal to think that by the time I get back from Christmas break I'll be surrounded by 50 new students, all of them strangers. In preparation for winter break travels, I spent much of yesterday organizing my room. In doing so, I came across all of the ticket stubs, maps and brochures that I've collected this semester. Looking at all of them--the Christmas card given to me by my French students, a bus ticket from my first international trip, a signed playbill from the Comedie-Francaise--I was reminded of just how much I've done this semester. I haven't accomplished nearly enough to leave Paris, but I'm finally beginning to see signs of the "change" that people always talk about with study abroad. I can only hope that I'll see even more in the six months I have left.

Tomorrow I leave for Italy and won't be back in France for almost three weeks. This snow day was the perfect way to say a temporary goodbye to Paris, but I'm glad it's not goodbye for good.

PSA

Just a friendly announcement about the blog:

I am often very ambitious in my post-writing. I start typing, and tell myself that I am going to finish that night...or within three days...or maybe before next week. And then tests and papers and (more often) sleep and Facebook get in my way. And the madness finally ends at 2:00 some random morning when I decide that I will type whatever pops into my head until it is long enough to be called a post. Which explains why I sound like a crazy, sleep-deprived person in so many of my entries.

Anyway, the date on the posts is the date that I started writing them, and that is the order in which they go on the blog. It makes me look like a more responsible blogger than I really am, but it also means that you may not see new posts because they are sandwiched between old ones. So it's worth scrolling down periodically, or just checking the list of posts on the side to see if there are new entries.

So, the important point, which could have been stated much more succinctly: Scroll down to check for new posts.

Thank you and have a pleasant day.

The Most Magical Place on Earth...

If you'd asked me my feelings about travel eight days ago, they would not have been positive. I spent last Thursday running between two classes, an English instruction session at an elementary school, a conference on African religion and a one-man-show in Montmartre. Throughout the week, I had been rushing to finish a massive final project for my media class (22 pages, 1.5 spacing), prepare a 10-minute oral expose on a Parisian monument, analyze a play for theater, read Charles de Gaulle's 900-page memoirs and write a four page paper on said memoirs. I had finished nearly everything, and was trying to e-mail the four-page paper to my professor, when I discovered that my Internet had stopped working for the first time all year. My computer was telling me that my connection was excellent, but no pages would load, and my host mother wasn't home to help out.

I considered being independent. And then I changed my mind, picked up my American "costs a bajillion dollars a minute to call home" phone and dialed my dad. In hindsight, I probably could have been kinder to his nerves, as a call from that phone generally signals one of two things: (1) Alanna is currently hanging off of the third floor of the Eiffel Tower by one hand or (2) Hello, this is the kidnapper who has taken your daughter. Don't worry, I'm going to kill her, but I figured I'd rack up her cell phone bill just for the hell of it."

After he realized that I was alive and in possession of all my limbs, my dad was able to talk me off the ledge until my Internet spontaneously started working again. After which I e-mailed off my paper, and got no sleep before leaving at 4:20 for the airport.

Needless to say, exhaustion rather than excitement was my primary emotion as I headed off to Munich. But it ended up being a really great weekend. My traveling buddy was Mary, a high school friend currently studying outside of Paris (formerly featured in the Krakow entry). The trip was planned to coincide with the Christmas markets that cover the city starting in late November. I hadn't really been feeling the Christmas spirit in Paris, so it was good to get a dose of it in Germany.

Friday

What's the first thing to do when you get to a new country? Yes, the correct answer is "nap." Judge if you want, but considering that I had gotten about 3 minutes of sleep in the previous week, it was all over once I hit the (exceedingly comfy) beds at our hotel room.

A short time (read: three hours) later, Mary and I were awake enough to head into central Munich and get our first glimpse of the Munich Christmas markets. And oh. my. gosh. It was like Christmas threw up all over that city. I couldn't even handle it. Much of the market was concentrated in Marienplatz, one of Munich's central squares, but every street had at least one stall. And they were selling everything: strings of ornaments, hot spiced gluhwein, candied apples, rows of cookware, piles of toys, lamps, candles, Nativity sets, chocolate. Everything was overlaid with the smell of cinnamon-roasted nuts (if you've ever walked by those vendors at Navy Pier, you know what I'm talking about. I don't even like nuts, and I think they're delicious). If you need more proof, let me give you two examples of how extreme these markets were:

1) The trash can lids were gingerbread houses.
2) This:


See what I mean? These people are not messing around.

Saturday

It's actually a law in Europe that one cannot leave the continent without visiting a minimum of 97 castles. Don't try to defy the Culture Police on this one. Sometimes you can get exemptions for every two hours spent in an art museum, but it's risky to try. I myself have seen many chateaux and palaces on my three trips to Europe, and it's true that many of them start to blend together. But if you are ever in Europe, make Neuschwanstein one of your 97. Seriously. Do it.

If you aren't convinced, here are several more reasons:

1) Walt Disney based the Sleeping Beauty Castle on it. So every time you watch a Disney movie, you are seeing an animated Neuschwanstein.
2) It was built by Ludwig II, aka the "Mad King of Bavaria," who was either crazy or eccentric depending on your interpretation. He was deposed by his administration and died under very mysterious circumstances. Spooky...
3) It has the most beautiful setting of any castle I've seen. It's set right in the middle of the Alps, which had gotten a fresh layer of snow the day we visited. As beautiful as man-made things can be (and I've seen a lot of them this year), for me nothing beats natural beauty. And as great as the castle itself is, it's the setting that's really stunning.



Sunday

Sunday, we were back in Munich for the day. Serendipitously, all of the state museums in the city were 1 euro. Anything costing 1 euro or less is obligatory for college students living in Europe, so we headed over to the modern art museum. I've always had a tortured relationship with modern art. It's a complaint I've heard from numerous people: Some of it I love; some of it looks like a moderately intelligent chimpanzee could have created it. But this museum had a lot of really beautiful paintings, as well as exhibits on architecture and technology.

After that, it was back to the markets for more Christmas cheer. I cannot stress to you how obsessed I was with these markets. Maybe after a few more days they would have gotten cliche or dull. But despite the tourists, there seemed to be a lot of regular people out enjoying themselves, eating, ice skating and generally getting into the Christmas spirit.



We also fit in a trip to the Hofbrauhaus, where we became the first patrons in its history not to order beer. The waiter literally laughed at us when we asked for water. But the food was pretty good.

Monday

Our flight back to Paris was scheduled to leave at 6:25 Monday morning, meaning a 4:00 wake-up call. Now I have flown with various carriers--namely the infamous Ryanair--that barely qualify as airlines. And considering that I had a massive media project to turn in that very evening (a project that my professor told us could not be turned in via proxy, e-mail, mailbox, etc.), I was relieved to be flying the reputable Lufthansa, paragon of German efficiency. So you can imagine my dismay when I went to one of the self-check-in stations and saw a message to the effect of: "Your flight has been canceled. Please see one of our agents for more agents." That's right. Our flight had been CANCELED, and no one could tell us why. After one rebooking, two gate changes and a 45-minute delay due to rioting in Athens we managed to make it back to Paris by noon, but it was a pretty exhausting morning. Germany efficiency my behind.

Despite that snafu--and my initial lack of enthusiasm--it really was the perfect weekend. Our schedule was pretty empty compared to some of my past trips. But I didn't need a rushed, busy weekend. I needed a relaxing, low-key weekend, and that was exactly what I got. We didn't see as many sights, but we did take the time to soak up some German culture, and I returned to Paris with a lot more Christmas spirit.