Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Dear readers...Sorry to keep you on your toes, but i'm sad to say you might have to wait longer for entries about Paris, Geneva and the weeks to follow. I'm just about at the breaking point of insanity with school work. (And someone once told me study abroad is a joke, HA! I've never worked harder in my life.) Stay tuned...
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Sylvia made me write this post.
Only because my dear friend-sister Sylvia is active follower of my blog, I decided I'd fulfill her wishes of me updating. Yes it's been almost a month but I've been busy and out of the country....ha.
This was written previously on my way to Amsterdam from Giverny
27/10/09 Tuesday.
Listening to: Pixies: Surfer Rosa
Dad's visit was nice. It was really intersting have him where I'm living now. It was really funny to see him just walking down the street in the middle of a French day. It was really a great visit. I'm glad that Kathy and Bob Schmidt came too. From what I was told about their travels, it sounds like the three of them had a ball in Paris and Lourdes as well as Aix with me! Dad arrived on a Monday when I had my critique for midterms. It was kind of a bummer that I able to hang out with him for more the meals when he was here, but it was midterm time and I unfortunately had them. We we're fortunate enough to be able to go to Marseille. The only downside was the the temperature and the abundance of precipitation going hand in hand with the wind. We made the best of it. Jade and Jacob, my host parents, invited my dad, Kathy and Bob over for dinner Wednesday evening of their stay. Jade and Jacob couldn't have been more welcoming. I thought the translation barrier was going to be cause a lot of problems but I think we did very well with that. It's always funny when your brain switches on and you can figure out what you want to say and how to translate that to others. I also think that with a glass of wine and aperatifs helps everyone relax a bit more.
The rest of my midterms we're too bad but it's still very weird that it's almost november and this adventure is almost done.
Dad left Friday morning, as did I. I had one French class before departing where we watched "Paris Je T'aime". The film is truly brilliant. Les Marchutz left for our great adventure to Giverny around 10:30. We arrive in Paris :) and transferred to the metro. (side story: while waiting for Alan to buy our tickets for the Metro, we had noticed an abandoned bag at the Gare du Lyon, which is one of the central train stations in Paris. We moved a ways away from it when the security of the station came down and roped it off. It was kind of funny seeing them put queue markers up around it, you know just incase people wanted to come and check out this abandoned bag.) We took the metro to Gare St. Lazare and made out way to Giverny. Arriving in Giverny, we were met by a woman called Verral. She is a friend of Alan and John's and is very intellegent, resourceful and overall a nice person. She took us to where we were staying for the week.
Since there are 12 of us we had two house on the Terra Foundations grounds in Giverny. The Terra Foundation was started in Chicagi. It was once a museum on Michigan avenue but they close it and continued in different fashion of the Terra Foundation.) The 7 girls stayed in the big pink house :) and the 5 boys stayed in "The Bear Den" as O'Neill would call it. We had the most incredible gardens on our grounds. Givern is a good place as is but where we were tsaying one enhanced out experience. Firday night we had some aperatifs with Verral and had our first dinner of Quiche (which would continue to be a dish for our dinners.) After dinner we sat outside and didn't stay up too late.
Saturday morning I woke up really early so I could go for a bike ride. It was still pitch black when I got up but decided to go anyway. After a while it started to rain so I idnd't want to get my camera wet, I headed home. I had a nice breakfast with Mary, with BIG cups of coffee- I was in heaven. We met around 900 to walk around the town of Giverny. The majority of the morning it rained but we saw the whole of Giverny. Up until lunch time and afterwards the lot of us painted the garden from our backporch. Later that evening we had Quiche for dinner, but it didn't matter. We were together and loved every second of it. Sunday morning we went to Monet's gardens. Wow- I really had no idae how breath taking they are. We spent the majority of our time in the many different part of the gardens. For my work that day I paintined in the gardens and took some pretty rocking pictures. I Sunday night we had a few previous students come for dinner. and it was kind of weird having them there because John and Alan were at dinner with Verral.
O'Neill opted to teach us Texas Hold 'em. Instead of using chops or €/$, we bet sips of wine. Probably not the best idea. I think there was one point a bet of 45 sips, of course the losing party didn't take those sips because it's just silly to do that with nice wine. Diner was lamb, rice and potatoes. It was pretty disappointing. It was bad news for me because I didn't want to eat meat that day when I probably should've. After dinner we were outside on the porch for a while where we had a small night painting session. Charley, Mary, O'Neill, Katherine and Kate all made some good stuff. Charley, Nick, Mary and I were the last ones outand it was nice just hanging out. Mary and Charley wen t to bed so Nick an di Stayed up and some some photos in the studio. I tried giving him a photo lession but it turned out to be a bit of mess. Monday I did some water colors in the morning, went to lunch and attempted an oil in the afternoon but I felt it was really unsuccessful. John and Alan though differently. The museum forgot to send us dinner so we order pizza. We played assassin thorugh the majority of the night. Nick eventually won because I didn't want t o play anymore. Alan came in to join the game of Poker we had going on. So, some of us ate together while the others played cards. The pizza was lousy as usual but still together we were in a good spirits. Mary, Martha, Charley and I foind ourselves hanging out upstairs in mine and martha's room with a bottle of wine laughing out heads off at the silly comments we were making. Eventually we joined the rest of the gorup outside.
The frivolity continue for a few more hours. What was meant to be sleeping upstairs in my room turned into a small fance party/dog pile on Martha's bed. It was pretty funny to be quite honest. We really have a sense of community between the 10 of us. We really are a family. I'm so lucky be with such amazing people at the end of my college career, making things seem a little strange. This morning I woke up next to Mary and Charley, I guess we all had switched rooms. The house was a mess so we had majory cleaning to do. I had about 20 minutes before we had to leave for the train so I walked by my favorite staircase at the Butler house and just listened to "Sweet Avenue" by Jets to Brazil. The line "now all these tastes improve through the view that comes with you. Like they handed me my life for the first time it felt right" completely blew me away looking at some of the most beautiful things my eyes had seen. I finally got my fall color in the fall weather:) I was really missing that down in Aix. It felt right ot be in Giverny with these people. Currently I'm on my way to Amsterdam with katherine. We're meeting the boys in the morning and our Dutch vacation begins. We were given assignments in the Van Gogh and Rijks Museum of paintings to look at. I hope this leg of our trip is going to be graet. For now.. you'll find me lost in art and music.
Amsterdam really was a lot of fun. Katherine and I stayed at a Hostel called the Flying Pig. Sitting downstairs in the bar we met these two guys from.... CHICAGO!!! Not only were they form Chicago, but they were from Palos Park. that's about 5-10 mins from where I live. They also went to Stagg High School, one of the three in my HS district. You never really know how small the world is until these kinds of things happen.
We woke up Wednesday morning with O'Neill's head popping through our door. Stupidly, O'Neill, Nick and Katherine all forgot their passports. How that's possible i'm not sure but it was kind of funny hearing the boys story about Passport control coming onto the bus. Wednesday we basically just explored the city. We had a rockin lunch at this cute little cafe where they would sell light fixtures from the ceiling. It was pretty cool. I had the BEST aubergine and humous sandwich. Nick showed us a lot fo the city because he's been there before.
Thursday we went to the Rijks Museum where there was an exhibition for the Masterpieces. It was a good three house museum session. We looked at some really great pieces but were getting antsy to do something else. We walked around the city for a bit while longer and explored the canals a little bit. WOW. The canals are some fo the most beautiful bodies of water I've ever seen. The way they were placed through out the city and the overal aesthetic gives me a huge appreciation for them. We went back to the boy's hostel for a bit. Took little naps and the boys showered. We went out and had sushi for dinner that was A-w-e-s-o-m-e. We retired early because we were runnin low on fumes.
Friday we met the boys around 1. Katherine and I spent the morning sleeping in a bit then going out to shoot some photos. It was nice to be able to just go out and shoot for the fun of it and not for work. I think being in Amsterdam helped with my photos because there were so many things that appealed to me. I took some great shots whilst being there. We finally reconnected with the boys and went over the Van Gogh museum. This museum was SOOOO great! There are 4 floors of predominantly Van Gogh pieces and the majority are amazing. I had seen a Van Gogh/Gaugan exhibit in Chicago when I was younger and remember looking at his pear tree for about 20 minutes and when I saw it in it's proper home I couldn't help but feel nostalgic.
We left on Saturday to get back to Paris on sunday on an overnight bus. Boy was that an experience. All this time I thought I was going to be away from traveling on coach busses but I find myself more and more on them whilst I'm here. Basketball season must be here! We arrived in Paris and were able to hang out at Mary's apartment for the remainder of our stay. She showed me around the Mazarin, the oldest part of Paris. I saw a lot of the old squares that definitely looked like 1940's film. It was so quaint and endearing. The train ride back wasn't too bad but I was just totally pooped by the end of the trip. Good thing I didn't have class until 2 on Mondays.
Last week we started painting still lifes in the studio. It's really different to paint a still life instead of just draw them . I had a bit of trouble working it out but I'm getting the hang of it. I want to crank out at least two or three more painting before we leave for Paris. I can get it done.
Wesnesday we're leaving for Paris..... I AM SO EXCITED!!
I'll try and keep this updated but my schedule the next few weeks looks pretty busy.
11/11-15/11 Paris
15/11-17/11 Geneva
17/11-20/11 Aix
20/11-23/11 London
23/11-03/12 Aix
03/12-06/12 Paris or Barcelona
06/12-18/12 Aix
19/12-31/12 Chicago
31/12-MAY Quincy
Got a lot of places to go and see!!! I'l try and keep you all posted!
This was written previously on my way to Amsterdam from Giverny
27/10/09 Tuesday.
Listening to: Pixies: Surfer Rosa
Dad's visit was nice. It was really intersting have him where I'm living now. It was really funny to see him just walking down the street in the middle of a French day. It was really a great visit. I'm glad that Kathy and Bob Schmidt came too. From what I was told about their travels, it sounds like the three of them had a ball in Paris and Lourdes as well as Aix with me! Dad arrived on a Monday when I had my critique for midterms. It was kind of a bummer that I able to hang out with him for more the meals when he was here, but it was midterm time and I unfortunately had them. We we're fortunate enough to be able to go to Marseille. The only downside was the the temperature and the abundance of precipitation going hand in hand with the wind. We made the best of it. Jade and Jacob, my host parents, invited my dad, Kathy and Bob over for dinner Wednesday evening of their stay. Jade and Jacob couldn't have been more welcoming. I thought the translation barrier was going to be cause a lot of problems but I think we did very well with that. It's always funny when your brain switches on and you can figure out what you want to say and how to translate that to others. I also think that with a glass of wine and aperatifs helps everyone relax a bit more.
The rest of my midterms we're too bad but it's still very weird that it's almost november and this adventure is almost done.
Dad left Friday morning, as did I. I had one French class before departing where we watched "Paris Je T'aime". The film is truly brilliant. Les Marchutz left for our great adventure to Giverny around 10:30. We arrive in Paris :) and transferred to the metro. (side story: while waiting for Alan to buy our tickets for the Metro, we had noticed an abandoned bag at the Gare du Lyon, which is one of the central train stations in Paris. We moved a ways away from it when the security of the station came down and roped it off. It was kind of funny seeing them put queue markers up around it, you know just incase people wanted to come and check out this abandoned bag.) We took the metro to Gare St. Lazare and made out way to Giverny. Arriving in Giverny, we were met by a woman called Verral. She is a friend of Alan and John's and is very intellegent, resourceful and overall a nice person. She took us to where we were staying for the week.
Since there are 12 of us we had two house on the Terra Foundations grounds in Giverny. The Terra Foundation was started in Chicagi. It was once a museum on Michigan avenue but they close it and continued in different fashion of the Terra Foundation.) The 7 girls stayed in the big pink house :) and the 5 boys stayed in "The Bear Den" as O'Neill would call it. We had the most incredible gardens on our grounds. Givern is a good place as is but where we were tsaying one enhanced out experience. Firday night we had some aperatifs with Verral and had our first dinner of Quiche (which would continue to be a dish for our dinners.) After dinner we sat outside and didn't stay up too late.
Saturday morning I woke up really early so I could go for a bike ride. It was still pitch black when I got up but decided to go anyway. After a while it started to rain so I idnd't want to get my camera wet, I headed home. I had a nice breakfast with Mary, with BIG cups of coffee- I was in heaven. We met around 900 to walk around the town of Giverny. The majority of the morning it rained but we saw the whole of Giverny. Up until lunch time and afterwards the lot of us painted the garden from our backporch. Later that evening we had Quiche for dinner, but it didn't matter. We were together and loved every second of it. Sunday morning we went to Monet's gardens. Wow- I really had no idae how breath taking they are. We spent the majority of our time in the many different part of the gardens. For my work that day I paintined in the gardens and took some pretty rocking pictures. I Sunday night we had a few previous students come for dinner. and it was kind of weird having them there because John and Alan were at dinner with Verral.
O'Neill opted to teach us Texas Hold 'em. Instead of using chops or €/$, we bet sips of wine. Probably not the best idea. I think there was one point a bet of 45 sips, of course the losing party didn't take those sips because it's just silly to do that with nice wine. Diner was lamb, rice and potatoes. It was pretty disappointing. It was bad news for me because I didn't want to eat meat that day when I probably should've. After dinner we were outside on the porch for a while where we had a small night painting session. Charley, Mary, O'Neill, Katherine and Kate all made some good stuff. Charley, Nick, Mary and I were the last ones outand it was nice just hanging out. Mary and Charley wen t to bed so Nick an di Stayed up and some some photos in the studio. I tried giving him a photo lession but it turned out to be a bit of mess. Monday I did some water colors in the morning, went to lunch and attempted an oil in the afternoon but I felt it was really unsuccessful. John and Alan though differently. The museum forgot to send us dinner so we order pizza. We played assassin thorugh the majority of the night. Nick eventually won because I didn't want t o play anymore. Alan came in to join the game of Poker we had going on. So, some of us ate together while the others played cards. The pizza was lousy as usual but still together we were in a good spirits. Mary, Martha, Charley and I foind ourselves hanging out upstairs in mine and martha's room with a bottle of wine laughing out heads off at the silly comments we were making. Eventually we joined the rest of the gorup outside.
The frivolity continue for a few more hours. What was meant to be sleeping upstairs in my room turned into a small fance party/dog pile on Martha's bed. It was pretty funny to be quite honest. We really have a sense of community between the 10 of us. We really are a family. I'm so lucky be with such amazing people at the end of my college career, making things seem a little strange. This morning I woke up next to Mary and Charley, I guess we all had switched rooms. The house was a mess so we had majory cleaning to do. I had about 20 minutes before we had to leave for the train so I walked by my favorite staircase at the Butler house and just listened to "Sweet Avenue" by Jets to Brazil. The line "now all these tastes improve through the view that comes with you. Like they handed me my life for the first time it felt right" completely blew me away looking at some of the most beautiful things my eyes had seen. I finally got my fall color in the fall weather:) I was really missing that down in Aix. It felt right ot be in Giverny with these people. Currently I'm on my way to Amsterdam with katherine. We're meeting the boys in the morning and our Dutch vacation begins. We were given assignments in the Van Gogh and Rijks Museum of paintings to look at. I hope this leg of our trip is going to be graet. For now.. you'll find me lost in art and music.
Amsterdam really was a lot of fun. Katherine and I stayed at a Hostel called the Flying Pig. Sitting downstairs in the bar we met these two guys from.... CHICAGO!!! Not only were they form Chicago, but they were from Palos Park. that's about 5-10 mins from where I live. They also went to Stagg High School, one of the three in my HS district. You never really know how small the world is until these kinds of things happen.
We woke up Wednesday morning with O'Neill's head popping through our door. Stupidly, O'Neill, Nick and Katherine all forgot their passports. How that's possible i'm not sure but it was kind of funny hearing the boys story about Passport control coming onto the bus. Wednesday we basically just explored the city. We had a rockin lunch at this cute little cafe where they would sell light fixtures from the ceiling. It was pretty cool. I had the BEST aubergine and humous sandwich. Nick showed us a lot fo the city because he's been there before.
Thursday we went to the Rijks Museum where there was an exhibition for the Masterpieces. It was a good three house museum session. We looked at some really great pieces but were getting antsy to do something else. We walked around the city for a bit while longer and explored the canals a little bit. WOW. The canals are some fo the most beautiful bodies of water I've ever seen. The way they were placed through out the city and the overal aesthetic gives me a huge appreciation for them. We went back to the boy's hostel for a bit. Took little naps and the boys showered. We went out and had sushi for dinner that was A-w-e-s-o-m-e. We retired early because we were runnin low on fumes.
Friday we met the boys around 1. Katherine and I spent the morning sleeping in a bit then going out to shoot some photos. It was nice to be able to just go out and shoot for the fun of it and not for work. I think being in Amsterdam helped with my photos because there were so many things that appealed to me. I took some great shots whilst being there. We finally reconnected with the boys and went over the Van Gogh museum. This museum was SOOOO great! There are 4 floors of predominantly Van Gogh pieces and the majority are amazing. I had seen a Van Gogh/Gaugan exhibit in Chicago when I was younger and remember looking at his pear tree for about 20 minutes and when I saw it in it's proper home I couldn't help but feel nostalgic.
We left on Saturday to get back to Paris on sunday on an overnight bus. Boy was that an experience. All this time I thought I was going to be away from traveling on coach busses but I find myself more and more on them whilst I'm here. Basketball season must be here! We arrived in Paris and were able to hang out at Mary's apartment for the remainder of our stay. She showed me around the Mazarin, the oldest part of Paris. I saw a lot of the old squares that definitely looked like 1940's film. It was so quaint and endearing. The train ride back wasn't too bad but I was just totally pooped by the end of the trip. Good thing I didn't have class until 2 on Mondays.
Last week we started painting still lifes in the studio. It's really different to paint a still life instead of just draw them . I had a bit of trouble working it out but I'm getting the hang of it. I want to crank out at least two or three more painting before we leave for Paris. I can get it done.
Wesnesday we're leaving for Paris..... I AM SO EXCITED!!
I'll try and keep this updated but my schedule the next few weeks looks pretty busy.
11/11-15/11 Paris
15/11-17/11 Geneva
17/11-20/11 Aix
20/11-23/11 London
23/11-03/12 Aix
03/12-06/12 Paris or Barcelona
06/12-18/12 Aix
19/12-31/12 Chicago
31/12-MAY Quincy
Got a lot of places to go and see!!! I'l try and keep you all posted!
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