La Fin....

Fewwwwwwwww.....I just finished exams yesterday after one of the most hectic months of my life. I went to the Maison des Examens at yesterday morning and took my final exam for three hours. It was INTENSE!! There were three hundred other people in the room taking the exam and everything was very official. After the exam a friend and I went to the last day of qualifications for the French Open. We got there just in time to see Federer and two matches later Nadal. Nadal is number two in men's singles and has won the Roland Garros two years in a row. After the match we stalked him in the back of the Stadium. There was an open staircase where if you looked through it you could see Nadal giving an interview on one of the private patios about 10 feet away. It was probably one of the most exciting moments of my life.



Ok, so those are the big highlights from yesterday but really this past month has been really eventful. Keiko, one of my closest friends and my roommate from Elon can and visited me for nine days. She came after her semester in London was done in early May which was really fun. We did a lot of touristy things I hadn't had the chance to do yet and also we did some fun stuff not as touristy. We took a cooking class and visited a couple Chateaux outside of Paris in Fountaine Bleau. We also made Sushi one night for my French family( for all 9 plus us). They got to learn a little about Japan and they all loved the Sushi which was surprising but good. Once Keiko left and it was exam crunch time. Last Saturday though there was a big event in Paris which was a nice break from writing papers and exam studying. All the museums were open all night for free. It was fun and I got to see a couple new museums I've been wanting to get to before I leave.


That's basically the last month in a nut shell. I can not believe the semester is almost completely over. I'm excited to get home and see family and friends. At the same time Its bittersweet. I'm sad to leave Europe. I am going to miss speaking French, my French family and friends here, etc... All I have left is to pack, finish some sightseeing, and then Monday night I am going to the Opera to see Carmen with my French Parents. But after that I fly back Thursday Afternoon to the States. Sad, but I am ready to come back until its time for the next adventure overseas whenever that might be. For now though this is the end of one adventure and thanks for sharing it with me and I hope you have enjoyed keeping up with my adventure of becoming a Parisian. I will post some photos from the past month as well so take a look when you get a chance.

Take care and I look forward to seeing many of you soon! Jess

Spring Break!!!!! .....

Jeeezzz! I can't believe its been over a month since I posted! Time flys huh! It blows my mind I am coming back in just over a month. This semester has flown! Especially the last month since there was a lot going on. My Mom and Aunt Carol came at the beginning of April and then after that I went to Spain for almost two weeks.

I don't even know where to start. I guess we'll start with Mom and Aunt Carol's visit. They flew in on Easter morning and I finally found them in time to go over to Notre Dame for Easter Services. I stayed with them in their apartment which was fun and we did sight seeing before I left that Thursday for Barcelona. The day before I left we went to Monet's Gardens in Giverny which is a tiny town up in Normandy. It was beautiful! I'll post some pictures. The flowers were blooming plus it was sunny and warm.

After spending time with Mom and Carol for a few days I left them to do some more exploring around Paris and I took a train to Barcelona. It was a 12 hour overnight train the Thursday after Easter and I barely slept so by the time I got in to Barcelona I was ready to crash, but did I...NOPE! I met up with some friends and got settled. After that we went on a hunt for some tortilla (Spanish omelet) and went to Guelle Park which has a lot of Gaudi Archetecture. Over the next five days I went and visited Casa Mila, Casa Bastilla, and the Segrada Famillar (all Gaudi designed buildings). I also walked around the Ramblas Market, went to the beach, and took a tour of the Barcelona Opera house.

Barcelona was a lot of fun, after that we went to Seville. My friend has another friend who studies there so we went and she showed us around. There was a beautiful Cathedral where Christopher Columbus is buried that, lots of Flamenco, and bullfights. It was interesting to be in a more traditional Spanish town where you could feel the history and traditions of the couontry. Seville was different from Barcelona but just as much fun.

It was sad coming back to Paris, but at the same time it was good to get back and into a routine again. I liked Spain a lot and I left so much I still want to do when I get a chance to go back. For now though I am enjoying the nice weather in Paris. Its been hot and sunny which is really rare. Keiko, my roomie from Elon, comes for a week and a half on the 7th and then I have finals after she leaves to finish off the semester. Its be over before I know it, but I'll post again and put up more pictures.

A bientot! Jess

Britagne, Normandie et plus!

Heyy! I’m back!! I have been swamped with work etc…so I apologize for the lack of blogging recently. Two weekends ago I went to Brittany and Normandy. They are two neighboring regions on the west coast of France. In Brittany I only spent Saturday visiting Mont St. Michael which is a beautiful Abby right on a tiny mounted island just off the coast. I spent the night and the rest of Sunday in Normandy. First I will tell you about the evening we spent in Normandy then I will you about our visit to Omaha Beach Sunday. I stayed in this little village called Saint Malo that was very cute and quant. It was an old medieval town and still had most of its fortress wall standing probably after multiple restorations. It’s right on the water so you can walk around the town on top of the wall and look out over the ocean. My friends and I went just before sun set and walked around the wall then we walked down to the beach at sun set. The beach party didn’t last very long though since it was probably 20 or 30 degrees and the tide was coming in. It was neat walking around the town and looking at all the old architecture. The next day we got up early and drove a few hours down the coast to Omaha Beach where the heaviest fighting during D-day occurred. We went to the American Cemetery there which was pretty sobering and actually walked down on to the beaches from there. It was surreal to think about what happened there since the beaches are absolutely gorgeous and peaceful now. We were told though that you can still find bullet casings and if you are really lucky a dog tag, but all I found was a bunch a shells. As we were walking along the beach though we did find a German sniper nest up on the hill leading down to the beach so we climbed up to explore. There was a little plaque on it and that’s it. You could go through it basically as it was minus the guns etc obviously. Let me tell you, that was a little, well, more like very creepy. My camera ran out of batteries unfortunately just before we got to the sniper nest though so no picturesL. After the Cemetery we went through the Peace Museum near by. It was really interesting and powerful as well. By the time we finished at the museum it was time to come back to Paris. It was a little difficult coming back since we all realized how beautiful the other parts of France are on the trip and how much nicer people are outside of Paris…..not that there aren’t nice people in Paris hahahha, maybe just fewer of them.

So those are the big highlights of the last two weeks, but there have been other things that have happened besides the mundane day to day routine. I went to a museum called to the Musee Marmottan which has a lot of impressionist work especially by Monet and I babysat for the first time in France! My eldest brother and sister in my host family couldn’t watch the kids so they asked me. There were three girls and they were so cute (Juliet (6), Laure (10), and Amilee (8))! Their mom had died two years ago so their Dad was going on a date. We worked on their English homework, read101 Dalmatiens, and then it was time for bed. It was a little difficult keeping them in bed cause they kept coming downstairs to give me notes on their Hello Kitty stationary but they finally went to bed.

Alright that is it for now but check my pictures out since I just put new ones on the picture link and I’ll keep you updated soon!

~ A bientot, Jess

L'Assemblee Nationale!!

Alright, I'm back! It has been quite a week. Last weekend through a mutual friend here, I met a guy, Patrice, who worked for a Senator in the National Assembly for two years...which is like our Congress. We began talking and he found out I am also interested in politics and law so he offered to give two other friends and me a tour of the National Assembly sometime this week. I thought he would forget about it, BUT, to my surprise on Tuesday he texted one of my friends asking if if we still wanted a tour of the National Assembly. We said of course and after class we met up with him and we got the whole tour. It was amazing! Most French people haven't even been inside so it was exciting. We didn't have the right id to get in since we didn't realize we would actually be going but Patrice was able to pull some strings and get us in under his passport. Once we were inside the building it was amazing! Everywhere you turn there are Italian Renaissance pieces by Michelangelo and other famous Italian Renaissance artist. We saw the French Constitution, signed by President Charles de Gualle back in 1958, the National Assembly Room, the National Library, and a couple other sections of the building. Unfortunately though I didn't have my camera and they weren't even aloud, so no pictures :( Afterwords we went to a Cafe and argued about France's economics. Since Patrice is part of the Parti Socialiste it was not easy. Aughhh! Socialist!

Besides the National Assembly tour I mostly just went to class and did work. My Host family went on Holiday for the week so I had the house to myself which was a little frightening at times. I came home one night and all the lights and windows were open. Then I came inside and smelled cleaning supplies. The maid had decided to come late since the family was on vacation, but still I think I had a mini stroke or something like that walking up to the house before I realized what was going on. On Friday I sat in on a Societal Law class at the Sorbonne with a friend a met here which was neat. The Vocabulary was rough but it was interesting.

Alright it is starting to get late and I have work, but hope all is well in the States and we'll talk again soon! Jess

Almost a month already, what??!!!

Bonjour, Bonjour encore tout le monde!

Its been a week or so since I updated you but things are going well. Time flies and I can't believe this weekend will mark my first Month here! I have even had my first visitor from the US! This weekend I spent some time catching up with Dr. Hilaire who was a professor I had while I was interning in DC and taking a class. He also came to Elon to do some lectures for the International Studies Society and the campus in general in regards to US foreign policy.We checked out the Palace of Versailles and met up with another of his former students living now in Paris. She is very nice and another aspiring attorney from the Czech Republic named Helena. After meeting Dr. Hilaire and Helena, some friends and I went to China town for dinner Sunday and celebrated the Chinese New Year Parisian style. I had no idea there were so many Asians in Paris but there is a growing population here in France in general. Its neat to see how they integrate into French culture also. They have an easier time I think than Americans or North Africans. China town is huge too and nicer definitely than San Fransisco or New York.

Today I went to Ash Wednesday Mass at Notre Dame which was beautiful and got a belated Valentines day package from home so it was a good day... aside from the fact my host brother accidentally set the alarm this morning while I was still at home and...you guessed it, yep, I set it off. He felt bad though when he realized what happened and that I had to deal with the Police by myself in my PJs when they came to the house. Ohlala, C'est la vie right?

Classes are becoming definitely more intense, but are going well and my professors are nice. One of my professors today complimented my accident, which was nice. Its always the little things that make or break you I think when you first begin living abroad. I also feel myself maturing already a great deal since I've been here which is gratifying in a way and makes the experience much more multi-dementional if that make any sense.

Alright..this is a blog not a novel so I am going to end here. Hopefully my last blog about pictures wasn't too confusing, but if you have any troubles, ask me, and I'll make sure you can view them. Some of you have really been enjoying them, especially the picture of the Crepe guy (hahaha you know who you are :) so I will try to get some fresh ones up by the weekend.

Take care, I'll talk to you soon! Jess

Pictures...

Pictures are posted if you go to yahoo pictures and put parispix07 as the user name and europix07 as the password then you will be able to see them. There are still more I need to load off of my camera so I'll do that soon. Hope you enjoy!

Superbowl comes to France!

I was very exited when I found out that I could watch the Superbowl on a local channel here. So on my first night with my new French family my sister, Josephine (17 y/o) ,and I watched the Colts successfully become Superbowl champs (finally!). It was an amazing game and I am glad I got to watch, despite the fact all the turn overs almost gave me an early heart attack. It did make me a little homesick though to hear how excited everyone was back home when they won and also to hear on the French news how crazy Indianapolis went when they won, but at least I got to see the game period. Josephine got to learn a little about American culture too so that was good.

Tonight I had dinner with all 7 kids for the first time and Marie (my French mom). It was so fun, even a circus at times, but I felt they made me feel very welcome and were open armed which was nice. They laughed at me because I said I'm full, but nobody says this in France since it means I'm pregnant too I guess...hahahah aren't moments of linguistic understanding like this wonderful?? Marie baked a very good and very typical French spinich and feta tart and an apple suffle from scrtach for all 8 of after she came home from work. I don't know how the woman does it!!

Alright classes have started this week so I need to keep this short and get some rest. My classes are going well and are intersting. My contemporary French politics class is really interesting especially since big elections are coming up for the country in May. Hope all is well back home in the States and you are enjoying my blog so far :) I will keep recording my daily activities to a minimum from now on and focus more about aspects of France. D'accord, au revoir pour maintenant!