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Europe France Research Grant

Strasbourg: I Almost Walk To Germany

Bonjour!

Yesterday I did some more sight seeing in Strasbourg, including walking over seven miles to see a new side of the city!  While my feet hurt, it was cool to see a different area from the places that I’ve spent time in so far.  I checked out the National Library, several churches, and got pretty close to the German border before I turned back.  I finally went inside la Cathedrale Nôtre Dame de Strasbourg, which has some pretty awesome stained glass and gorgeous Gothic ceilings.  There are some nice cafés in that area as well, so I had some delicious chocolate crêpes.

Being here in the summer has made me miss a few things about the US.  Namely, air conditioning and window screens.  I’ve had a summer with no air conditioning before, when I lived in Maine for ballet camp.  That one was worse, because we were dancing eight or more hours a day, but it’s never a pleasant experience to feel hot and sweaty all the time.  And it’s hard to sleep, because I like to sleep under sheets but Europe only believes in comforters.  Which are definitely too hot for this summer.  And as much as I want to have the windows open, that involves allowing flies and mosquitos in the room.  Every night this week I’ve woken up to another bite….

 Besides the heat, though, I’ve been fairly productive with my research and looking into jobs and my other summer goals!  I’ll keep you posted.

À bientôt!

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Europe France Research Grant

Strasbourg: Parlez-Vous Français?

Bonjour from Strasbourg!

I’ve spent the last week exploring the city and starting my research, which involves a lot of sending emails to try to get interviews (at varying degrees of success).  I had my first interview last Thursday, which went incredibly well!  The woman walked me through their system, helped me refine my questions, and made sure to speak slowly and write down the important details for me.  Considering how nervous I was, it was nice to have such a good experience to start everything off!

I’ve been busy trying to immerse myself in the culture as well.  The weekend before last, there was some kind of festival, so it was as though the entire city had been turned into a giant garage sale, which was fun.  And on Tuesday, I went to an event that was essentially like multilingual speed dating, where people who want to work on English and people who want to work on French meet up and speak in 7-10 minutes in each language.

This past weekend, I went and visited the Strasbourg Modern Art Museum, as pictured above.  As I’ve mentioned before on this blog (see the Guggenheim Museum), modern art is hit or miss for me.  There was a whole exhibit on the the history of modern art, that started with my favorite style, impressionism, and then went through different phases, including everything from cubism to stained glass until it got to the extremely modern part, where I counted four canvases painted entirely black.  There was also a sculpture that looked like a twisted churro, a section with a lot of pencils that I think had something to do with the Cold War, a dress made out of dried cow organs, and some rocks arranged in a giant circle.  It’s always a bit unsettling in a modern art museum, because you never know what to expect when you round the corner.  In one exhibit, there was this room off of the main section.  When you walked in, it was very dark, with black walls and a single light bulb illuminating the room.  What made it interesting was the soundtrack of loudly crashing waves, so it felt as though you’d walked under the deck of a ship.

Now I want to talk a little about the French language, because that was the #1 question I got when I told people about this project.  It has been a challenge, as expected.  As a little background, I started taking French classes at the age of 12, because I wanted to start a foreign language and I had this crazy idea that taking ballet classes would make it easier.  I continued until my senior year of high school, when it stopped being offered.  When I got to Northwestern, I took two quarters more to obtain my required proficiency and didn’t continue.  I was over the comprehension videos about cheesemaking, the endless conjugation charts, the nitpicking grammar, the professor who seemed upset when my class was not already fluent… and then I studied abroad, and was reminded why I took French in the first place.  I sat in my Danish classes and realized I liked taking foreign language classes, and when I visited Paris I decided that if I was brave enough to speak to French speakers, I could handle taking another class at college.  And then, I upped the ante by applying for this project…

The years of French class have mostly prepared me for this.  I’ve had conversations with people.  In the airport, over lunch, with my Airbnb hosts, at the interview.  There’s still a part of me that’s scared of talking to people, and I wish I could casually respond when I’m on a train and it gets delayed and the person next to me asks me a question.  I wish I could go into a shop and not freeze when they ask me if I need help finding things.  I often understand what’s going on, but responding quickly is difficult.  I think having these conversations has been good for me, though, and I’m hoping by the end of the summer it won’t be so scary.

À bientôt!

Categories
Europe France Research Grant

Marseille: Hotter Than Hell, But Much Nicer

I spent three and a half days here and had a lovely time.  Part of my goal was to go to the French Riviera and go to the beach!  Mission accomplished.  I also got to soak up some of the regional culture of Southern France.

My first day there I didn’t do much, because I had that interview that I was supposed to have in London until I lost my voice.  I still sounded pretty hoarse, but hopefully it went well!  I did head up to the grocery store, which meant I got to check out my neighborhood a little.

Marseille is different from anywhere I’ve ever been.  It’s definitely not the picturesque petite village that comes to mind when you imagine Provence.  It’s not the same as the sleepy beach villages in Spain, nor does it conform to the European cities I’ve visited before.  It’s not conventionally pretty in the same way as Paris or Strasbourg.  There’s an edge to it, a certain grittiness and realness that you don’t find in places overrun by tourists.  And when I say grittiness, I don’t mean to imply that it’s unsafe.  In fact, it felt very safe, and everyone I talked to was very friendly.  I mean that the walls are covered in graffiti, and the buildings are a bit run down.  It doesn’t have the same glass and steel offices in the skylines.  In fact, if it wasn’t for the graffiti and cars lining the streets, I might feel as though I’d stepped back in time.

Now, I didn’t do all, or really any, of the touristy things in Marseille.  First of all, it was incredibly hot while I was there, and my apartment had no air conditioning.  However, I also reveled in a few days with no responsibilities.  When I don’t have places to be, the pace of Mediterranean life is perfect.  I spent time at the beach, at the Vieux Port, and at cafés behind the apartment.  And most of my time I spent… just walking.  Wandering through the streets, stopping in stores.  Examining the different winding roads.

I don’t have any truly great stories from Marseille.  Once a woman bounced a basketball at me and asked me throw it back to her, a man at a café shared a laugh with me about a bird stealing a French fry, I took a picture of a man from Dubai who was a little upset that he hadn’t actually beat the summer heat.  Those are the most interesting things that happened to me.  Mostly I just observed, and relaxed, and put my water bottle in the freezer to try to stay cool(er).

Here’s your French word for the day: la plage.  The beach.  I put my feet in la mer, or the sea, and managed to get a few more tan lines.  All in all, a nice trip.  I’m back in Strasbourg, which has finally lost its heat wave!  I’m looking forward to my first interviews later this week, and I’ll hopefully get the chance to explore more of this city as well.  À bientôt!

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Europe Research Grant United Kingdom

London: From Kings Cross to the Top of the Shard

I honestly cannot imagine a better way to see London.

Admittedly, I didn’t see all of the touristy things.  I didn’t go in Westminster Abbey or see the inside of a single church.  I didn’t visit the Tower of London, or check out the views from the London Eye.  Sadly, I didn’t get to go do a Harry Potter Studio Tour either (but I will be coming back for that one!).

London was a bit of a spur of the moment trip.  One of my friends from Northwestern, Sona, was working in the city for the summer, and she suggested that I come visit her.  I looked it up, figured out Easyjet flies from Strasbourg to London, checked out the timing, and booked the tickets.  It was a great decision.

I arrived on Friday night, and we met up at an Italian restaurant near Sona’s apartment.  She lived right near Paddington station, in a cute little area with a lot of shops and restaurants.  After a lovely night of catching up, we headed to bed so that we would be ready for a day of touristy things!

We stopped by Baker Street in the morning, because I’m a nerd and wanted to see the hypothetical home of Sherlock Holmes.  Then we headed to the British Museum, which Sona correctly described as housing all the treasures that Britain stole from the rest of the world in their quest for an empire.  It was pretty cool.  We saw the Rosetta Stone, artifacts from India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece… amazing artwork and objects from history.  After lunch, we headed off to the major touristy sites, namely Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace.  We couldn’t go inside any of them, but it was amazing to walk around and see the places that I’ve heard about and seen in pictures for years.  After a long walk along the Thames, Sona offered to take me to Harrods at Oxford Circus, where all the nice shops are.

And.  What a nice shop.  It was incredibly overwhelming.  The bottom level has a bunch of food and markets, with a whole chocolate section and beautiful pastries.  I bought an Oreo cupcake that looked like it was dusted with gold.  Then Sona took me up to the clothing section, to show me some absurdly expensive dresses that she had seen before.  Three shop assistants later, we were in the Evening Dresses Boutique.  It was practically out of my dreams.  The dresses were incredible, in all different colors and covered in rhinestones and glitter- with the price tags subtly tucked under the skirts to keep them out of sight.  Which made sense, considering most of the dresses were around $2,000… and some were special, one of a kind Harrods dresses for around $16,000.  It was sort of unreal.  And, as we’re wandering around the shop getting excited about dresses, the shop assistants come over and offer to look for them in our size…. So, we went ahead and tried them on.  Yeah.  That dress I’m wearing up there, with the sparkles?  About $2,300.  It was totally awesome.

We left when the shop closed, and headed back to have a quiet dinner and figure out what to do the next day.  I’d initially had a Skype interview scheduled for that Sunday, but I woke up that day and had literally no voice, so I had to reschedule.  While unfortunate, it did allow us to have a full day out on the town.  We started with the Cereal Killer Café, fantastic both in name and business idea.  It’s located around the area where Jack the Ripper used to strike, and it features cereal from the US, the UK, and continental Europe.  You can combine cereals, get different milks, add toppings…. and the decorations are all very retro, with cereal boxes through the ages along the walls.  From there, we headed down through the Brick Lane market, stopping to make a couple purchases along the way.

We headed off to Hyde Park in the afternoon, where we rented a paddle boat.  It was incredibly relaxing.  When I was reading the rules, I saw one that said not to pick up people while you were on the boat, which I laughed at… except we sort of ended up breaking that rule?  A group of four British people bumped into our boat, like you sometimes do, and then one of them jokingly said, “do you want to race?”  At which time Sona pointed out the unfair numbers.  And one of them goes, “I’ll even it out!” and casually hops into our boat as his friends are literally floating away.  So we had to follow them and return him to his friends.  Also at the park, an absurd amount of rich people cars.  We saw three lamborghinis in a row.  Talk about wealthy!

Monday morning, Sona had to go to work, so I was on my own for most of the day.  I began my day by heading to Kings Cross and being as touristy as possible at Platform 9 ¾.  I waited in line for… let’s just say a long time… so that I could take the obligatory picture at the station with the wand and the scarf and then I went shopping and bought some chocolate frogs and a shirt.  I’ve been a huge fan since first grade, it was a pretty exciting time for me.

After, I stopped by St. Paul’s Cathedral, but I didn’t want to pay the entrance fee so I just took a few pictures in the lobby and then had lunch at a nearby restaurant.  Then I headed to Charing Cross.  I wandered through parts of Chinatown and went into bookstores, and just generally enjoyed the atmosphere.  There was this amazing bookstore called Foyles, and I spent more time than I’d care to admit in there as well.  It had a huge foreign language section.  Fun fact, the latest redesign of the first French Harry Potter book features Bran Castle, also known as Dracula’s castle, located in Romania.  Which I have been to, so I guess by extension I’ve been to Hogwarts?  Let’s go with that.

That evening, Sona and I went to Billy Elliot in the West End.  What a fantastic choice!  The dancing and singing was outstanding.  I love musicals.  After the show, we headed to the Shard.  We had a drink at the Aquashard- probably the most expensive drink of my life, Sona’s actually had squid ink in it.  The views were unbeatable.  It was up on the 33rd floor, and looked out at the Thames and the London Bridge, and everything sparkled at night.  The whole evening was the definition of luxurious and it was all amazing.  The perfect end to my trip.

So, three days later, I’m totally in love with London.  Head over heels.  My next post will feature my time in Marseille, so stay tuned!

Categories
Europe France Research Grant

Strasbourg: Celebrating Bastille Day

Hi!  So it’s been a week and a half since I last posted.  It’s been a pretty busy time for me, as you’ll see in the next couple posts.

Here are some Bastille Day fireworks for you!  I got to go watch, and then there was live music and people danced and it was pretty cool.  One thing that surprised me, though, was the lack of flags?  I think I saw one.  Which is not much compared to Independence Day in America, or literally any day in Denmark.  I guess the French aren’t as crazy about their flags?

Anyway, after that, I had a couple days in Strasbourg of sending emails to people I want to interview for my research.  I also caught a cold at this point- unsurprising due to my recent international travel, but unfortunate timing considering I managed to lose my voice for the only time this summer that I truly needed it, for a Skype interview that I was lucky to get rescheduled.  For the weekend I headed off to London for a few days, and then to Marseille.  Quite the dichotomy.  As of late last night, I’m back in Strasbourg and prepping for a couple interviews for later this week.  After a week of traveling, I think it’s time to make myself a schedule so that I can actually be productive.

Posts on London and Marseille are in the works!

Categories
Europe France Research Grant

Strasbourg: First Impressions

Bonjour from Strasbourg!

My flight landed yesterday morning, and then I had a long day at the airport waiting for my TGV train.  I ended up using my French skills to talk to a French couple, which was a huge confidence boost for me.  Also, back when I first started French classes in 7th grade, I assumed that I would never need to worry about the pronunciation of the alphabet?  I was totally wrong.  The French couple asked me about American slang that they noticed on a trip, and wanted me to spell it out.  So I guess that stupid catchy alphabet song did eventually pay off.

Thoughts on the TGV train: first of all, amazing how quickly I could get across the country.  Major props to the French on that.  However, it is slightly terrifying to pass another TGV train.  But overall, a good experience, the train was super comfortable and clean.

From there I took a bus to my Airbnb, which is a nice small apartment a bit outside of the city.  The people I’m living with, a woman and her daughter, have been very welcoming, and I’ve been able to practice a bit of my French with them as well.  They have a cat, which is a new experience for me since my family has always had dogs.  Last night the cat stood outside my door for several hours and stared at me, and this morning it pushed open my door so it could lay under my bed for about an hour.  Is this how cats always are?

This morning I headed into the city for the first time.  I went to a café for a pastry, and got the chance to speak to a few French people again, who were very understanding at my struggles to put together coherent sentences and just spoke slowly to me in French.  Then I wandered around for a bit and ended up taking a boat tour.  The information wasn’t exceptionally useful, but it was a great way to see different areas of the city, from the historic city center to the more modern section with the UN headquarters.

Tonight, my Airbnb hosts are taking me to go see the fireworks for Bastille Day!

Overall, I think it’s going well.  My French is definitely going to get significantly better.  I’m not always that confident about my ability to speak to people, but everyone has been so understanding and wonderful so far.  I can’t wait to see more of the city and start reaching out to people for my research!

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Europe Spain

Sevilla: The Birthplace of Flamenco

After Gibraltar, we drove to Sevilla.  We climbed up to the top of the Mirador, that looks like a mushroom, which was quite hot in the afternoon but had pretty great views of the city.  We wandered around a little that evening, taking in the area around our hotel, and then had the main tour the next day.  It started at Plaza de España, which was gorgeous.  Then we headed to the Alcazar, which had similar tiling as the Alhambra, and walked around the city center a bit.  Sevilla is a beautiful city, the architecture was very ornate.

The best part of our time there, however, was the flamenco show!  The footwork reminded me a lot of tap, and it was pretty impressive.  The woman who did the choreography was apparently 70 years old.  They performed an excerpt from Carmen, had live music, and did various solo and couples dances with castanets.  Having once danced to the music of Carmen, it was nice to hear music I recognized.  I love watching people dance, and it was awesome to see the regional style!

Our next morning was spent in Cordoba, where we went to a mosque that had been turned into a church.  It had beautiful ceilings, and row after row of columns with red-striped arches.  It still amazes me how the different religious practices seem to coexist so easily in Spain.

Our final night was in Madrid again, after coming full circle.  The trip was a whirlwind!  I had a great time, and although there are a few cities I would visit again, I feel as though I have a good sense of Spain and I’ve seen many of their famous monuments and artwork.

I’ve finished blogging about this trip just in time, because I leave for France in 5.5 hours!  I have a flight into Paris, a train ride to Strasbourg, and then I’ll have to find my Airbnb place from the train station.  I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.

Adios!

Categories
Europe Spain United Kingdom

Gibraltar: Light-Up Caves and Monkeys on Cars

Located at the southern tip of Spain, Gibraltar is technically an overseas territory of the United Kingdom.  We stopped by for the morning after leaving Costa del Sol, and it was pretty awesome.  We went on a bus tour with our slightly crazy but very entertaining driver, and he brought us all around the island.  We stopped at a lighthouse at the southern part of the rock, where he told us about a mosque funded by Saudi Arabia and explained that if we looked over the Strait of Gibraltar we could see Africa.

From there we went to the top of the rock and checked out St. Michael’s Cave, which was a performance venue.  I bet it would be amazing to see a concert in there!  Although I’ve been in a lot of caves, the lighting in this one was the coolest I’ve ever seen.  They had a bunch of changing colored lights in the space, which emphasized all of the cave features.

Outside of the cave, we saw the famous colony of apes.  There were signs everywhere saying not to feed them and talking about how they may bite.  But what surprised me was how close they would get to people.  Some of them seemed to pose as the tourists took pictures, and we even watched one climb onto a moving car.  They were very cute!

Overall, a pretty fantastic day trip.  Totally different from anything else we saw in Spain, and if you’re in the area, you should definitely check it out!

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Europe Spain

Costa Del Sol: Beaches, Burros, and Bartering

We stayed in Torremolinos while we were there, and our hotel was beachfront and beautiful.  Our first afternoon we went to Mijas, which was a cute little whitewashed village, and we got to spend a couple hours looking around.  They have “burro taxis” there too, with little license plates.  When we got back to Torremolinos, we went to dinner at a beachfront restaurant and they made me a vegetable paella, which was very good.  I’ve discovered I like the taste of saffron, which is unfortunate since it’s typically very expensive!  We also had freshly squeezed orange juice on the beach, which was amazing.  After dinner my mom and I headed up to a shop where we’d seen a souvenir she wanted.  We also ended up bartering with a different shopkeeper for a leather bag, which was fun.  He spoke a little French with me, and the price went down from 45 euros to 32 euros so I felt accomplished!

The next morning we went out to Malaga, and saw Roman ruins, checked out souvenir shops, and tried some sangria.  We got back in Torremolinos around noon, which left us the rest of the day to have lunch and go to the beach!

We went to lunch at a really good pizza place, where I got in an argument with the management over the fact that they charged us for bread.  Because, seriously, you can’t bring us something we didn’t order, not tell us it costs money, mislabel it on the menu, and then expect us to pay 1.50 euro per person for it.  They took it off our bill.

The beach was incredibly relaxing.  I found some seashells and sea glass, fell asleep on the beach, got a sunburn on my legs, went up to people from Norway to ask which Scandinavian country they were from because their language sounded like Danish, and saw my first live jellyfish, a little neon purple one floating about six inches from my leg.  And for dinner, we got ice cream at this tiny place on the boardwalk, which was some of the best I’ve ever had.  They had all these amazing flavors, like Twix and a gingerbread cookie kind and donut flavor, which tasted like cake and was delicious.  So, all in all, a pretty great day, and a much needed break in the craziness of constant city tours.

Adios!

Categories
Europe Spain

Valencia, Granada, and Sweating to Death at the Alhambra

After Barcelona, we headed to Valencia!  It was a long day on the bus, although the drive along the coast was very picturesque.  When we arrived, we did a city tour.  First we went to the modern section, which featured stark white buildings in creative shapes, like a couple that looked like fish or boats.  It was pretty interesting, very unlike anything I’ve seen in the US.  Which might be because our architects aren’t that creative and would rather just make another rectangular prism when they design buildings.  After wandering around the gardens in the modern section for a while, we headed into the older city center.  Our tour guide took us to an ice cream place and had everyone try the horchata flavor, which is a taste that is specific to the region of Valencia and is made of tigernuts.  I thought it was alright, although some people in our group described it as a bit chalky.  From there we walked around, went in a couple churches, and got a sense of the city.  I would have liked to spend a little more time in Valencia, because I liked what I saw while we were there.

The next day, we got up early to go to Granada. Our afternoon was spent at the Alhambra.  We had the bad fortune to have our visit on a particularly hot day, so it was a little miserable.  We kept dipping our hands in fountains along the way to try to stay cool, which didn’t really work.  Despite all of that, the palace was awesome.  All of the details were stunning, with tiles and intricate designs covering the walls.  The only ugly parts were the ones that Christian monarchs had added years later in an attempt to make the palace theirs, like these awkward ceilings with their crests on them.  Overall, pretty magnificent, and I’m impressed that humanity managed to accomplish anything before we invented air conditioning.

The morning after, most people went on the optional tour to a cathedral.  We decided we didn’t need to see more cathedrals, so we headed into town and checked out the shops.  I tried to buy a dress, except it turned out it wasn’t a dress and so I had to return it and the street vendor was very unhappy.  It was an awkward encounter.  After one more stop at a bakery, we went back to the hotel and met the rest of our group, so that we could get on the bus and head down to Costa del Sol.

Until next time!