Alena's Year Abroad

[ashish92]

Two Weeks (Almost) In Qingdao

Two Thursday ago, I arrived in Qingdao at about 2 am. After a few days of trying to get over jetlag. I was finally able to start discovering Qingdao.

For those of you who don't know, Qingdao is located in Northern China, in the Shandong province (home province of Confucius, what! what!) and  is known for two things that are very much related: 1) its beer, Tsingtao, 2) used to be an old German port - which means its by the ocean. Naturally because of the second thing more than the first, I was excited to be able to live in Qingdao for 6 weeks. 

My internship partner found us an apartment in Hong Kong Gardens, which is right in the middle of Qingdao's business district, meaning there's lots of things to do around our area, and lots of food (although food in this part of town is naturally more expensive). Another interesting fact about Qingdao is that there is a very large Korean immigrant community, meaning lots of Korean restaurants, two feet from where I live (clearly a positive way to break my kimchi addiction :P). 

My internship has gotten off to a slow start in the last two weeks, because we have to make some minor (well, sort of major!) changes in the project, so we'll see how it keeps going. The people in the organization, though, are really cool. The other day, they took us out for 青岛小吃 (Qingdao speciality snacks), which included a lot of seafood. I taste starfish (surprisingly delicious), sea urchin, sea cucumber, and lots of shell-type foods that I don't know the name of. They also had this small 摊子 (stand) of more strange foods like snake, scorpions, bats, silkworms etc, etc, so I decided to be adventurous and try some fried scorpions, or maybe some kind of bug, not really sure what. Anyways, it wasn't half-bad; it was fried, I'm pretty much under the impression that anything fried tastes good. 

Being in Qingdao is definitely a very different experience for me. This year, I've always gone places to travel or to study for a semester. I haven't stayed anywhere for so long for a non-academic reason. This also means that I don't have the academic setting support that I'm used to having in all the other places I've been. Figuring out the city and navigating has always been really easy for me, but the social aspect will be a little more difficult. I'm also in withdrawal from not studying Chinese characters, but I'm trying to read a little more in Chinese to compensate for lack of 听写s. 

Speaking of reading a little more in Chinese, I'm currently trying to do some more research for my thesis, which in the Chinese department at Midd, is a literature-related. I think I'd like to do something like that, but I'll also trying to figure out how I can fit Chinese Buddhism into that somehow. There's a lot out there, but its really just about narrowing it all down. At least, I live right by a bookstore named 书城. 

I hope that after these four weeks in Qingdao, I can build a quasi-life (if that makes sense), feel that I've made a real contribution to my internship, and finally figure out what I'm doing for my thesis (and whether, in fact, I am doing one. 

Another picture of Qingdao for ya: 

[ashish92]

Reflections on Studying Abroad

Warning: this entry might be obnoxiously long. 

The one thing I'm certain about when it comes to study abroad is that I'm glad I decided to do it. How it really has affected me positively and negatively is to be determined, but I have some ideas. 

Over this past year, I have had two almost paradoxical experiences. 

After I came back from China in December and my friends asked me, "How was China?" I responded, "Amazing! Awesome! As soon as I stepped off the plane, I've been thinking about how I can go back there." This is the standard study abroad reaction. 

On the ride to the Charles de Gaulle airport on my last Paris, the girl sharing the shuttle with me asked, "So, how did you find your Paris experience?" The only word I could really use to qualify it was "interesting." I can't say that Paris was the ideal study abroad experience. I also can't say that I was always content with Paris. I can't say that, in the beginning, I didn't think about going back on my choice. But what I can say is that I'm glad I didn't. My experience didn't do a complete 180  and become the "I learned to love Paris and made a million French friends at the end." But that does not mean I'm not glad I chose Paris. Just as I said in my mid-semester reflection, I think that Paris gave me a sense of independence that I didn't have before. More importantly, I also realized that change must really come from within, and that we cannot expect study abroad to change us without changing ourselves, which does not mean trying to conform completely to the environment, but is more about figuring out why you decided to study abroad in the first place. I wanted to study abroad because I wanted to be brought outside of myself, because I wanted to be made uncomfortable, so I decided I had to force myself to do that. It really can be way too easy to stay in that shell, even if we are in a foreign place. 

When people talk about study abroad, they talk about it as the experience of their lives and how much it changes them. I cannot deny that. But over the course of my time abroad, I've realized that study abroad changes you only when you realize that you yourself have to change. That is, in both my study abroad experiences, it would have been very easy for me to stay the same person I was when I started.

For example, before studying abroad, the idea of travelling alone in a place with which I was not familiar scared the crap out of me. Now, I feel that I could travel the world (I don't know, if I actually could, but I feel confident about it, anyways). I think that this change did not completely come from the fact that I was in a foreign environment. Sure, being in a foreign country gave me the chance to do it, but if  I hadn't taken the initiative, I would have stayed just as nervous about certain things as I did at the beginning.

That's why I think that the biggest thing that being abroad has given me is the idea that change comes from within and that you will continue to have certains worries or insecurities if you don't make an effort to change them; its not just time and place that changes you (although they definitely help), but your own initiative.  And it's not change for the sake of changing, or the sake of saying that study abroad was life-changing, but it's change for the sake of self-improvement, which everyone, I think, wants a bit of. After all, what pushed me most of the time when I was sick of trying to come out of my shell was the idea that I wouldn't change unless I started to, which seems obvious now. It wasn't the idea that study abroad was supposed to change me that really drove me, it was the idea that I couldn't really take advantage of the situation if I didn't try to. 

Of course, I cannot say that I embraced this philosophy to the fullest. In some ways, I think I realized too late in the game in Paris that I needed to embrace the chance to be completely on my own, than trying to fight it and to figure out how to get around it. My one regret is that I realized too late that I really needed to embrace this idea of changing oneself in order for real change to occur. But every time that feeling of regret surfaces, I also remember, that without this experience, I would have never realized what I have realized. 

I cannot say that I came back a completely changed person. Ten minutes of conversation with me would tell you that, but I think that having this chance (in the form of study abroad) to break out of my shell, and starting to do just that, has made me want to embrace other experiences that will help me do the same. 

[ashish92]

These are a few pictures from my 2-week trip to Ukraine. During these two weeks, I re-met many of the people who knew me before my family left Ukraine in 1995. My mom and I traveled together, around Kiev, to Lubny (in Poltava region) to visit my grandma and my aunt, and also to Lviv, a very beautiful and well-known city in Ukraine

Travelling to Ukraine was a very strange, but also wonderful, experience for me. It's weird to think that I had been in many of those places already, but just don't remember them, because I was too young. 

[ashish92]

A Month(-ish) of Travels

Yesterday was June 1st, which marks the official end of May, also the end of my one of my favorite months of my time abroad. Because of my extremely lax finals schedule (my last final was May 14th, but I'm leaving June 4), I decided to take a few trips to see Europe. Over the course of this month, I was lucky enough to travel to Normandy with my host family, London with fellow Midd-kid Sarah Pollnow, Germany & Strasbourg with Toby, and Nice with Toby and Chad. Its going to be impossible for me to recount everything that I've done, but I thought a few highlights (and pictures) would fun. 

Normandy

Before my departure to London, my host family invited me to visit their vacation home in Normandy, France (north of Paris and close to the ocean if you're all wondering). It was an extremely nice offer, so I decided to take it. I arrived at their house on the train around midnight on Day 1. I entered the house and couldn't believe what I saw. I was literally going to be a staying in a museum. According to my hosts, this house was built in the 16th century and belonged to a noble during the reign of Louis XIV. Because of its historical significance, the house is partly supported by the state and its also has its own postcard (of which I have about 15 now). The house really did look old. It came with stone floors and walls, one of the spirally stone staircases, and doors slightly too short for me (I hit my head a few times). 

My host parent's manor.

The next day, they took me to several museums about the D-day landing (where I finally figured out that the "d" in D-day stands for Day, so in French, its called J-jour). The D-day landing took place on the beaches about 10 minutes away from their house. Later on in the day, we went to the American Cemetery in Normandy, which featured a really interesting exhibit about World War II and another exhibit dedicated to the men and women who sacrificed their lives during the War.  What I didn't realize before visiting these museums how much respect French people have for Americans because of the work they did to free the French from Vichy rule. I could tell it's still a very important part of their national memory because of all the monuments and respect giving to American veterans in Normandy and around France, in general. 

Later that afternoon, we took a driving tour around the area to look at old chateaus. Then, we went to my host mom's mom's chateau for dinner. The next day, I headed back to Paris to pack for London. 

London

The plane ride from Paris to London is the shortest one I've ever taken in my life. Literally as soon as you're up in the air, the captain makes an announcement that you're about to land, it's crazy. 

Some fantastic things about London:

1. London's parks. Of all the things, I've heard about London, the parks there was not one of them, but they were one of my favorite things about London. Just miles of green grass, ducks, pigeons, and people. What could be better? 

2. Sherlock Holmes Museum. Finally got to visit 221b Baker Street. 

My favorite book character and I 

3. St. Paul's Cathedral. We didn't get to go inside because it was too expensive (18 pounds?), but St. Paul's is one of the most beautiful and largest churches I've visited so far in Europe. 

4. Going to Brick Lane market with Sam and Sarah. Got to see all the world's food (well, most of it anyways). 

5. Seeing the queen. Sarah and I went to the changing of the guards, which took particularly long that day, until we realized it was because the queen was coming back from Scotland. I saw her silhouette in the tinted windows of her motorcade. 

6. Primose Hill. View of London from Primose Hill is fantastic. 

Germany

After a short break from traveling to finish up finals, I flew out to Berlin. I knew I was going to meet Toby towards the end of the trip, but I had no plans for the first few days. Upon my arrival in Berlin, I walked straight into a party, well the Cultural Carnival, that is. Apparently, its held every year to celebrate all different cultures. This means a crazy parade, lots of drinking, and lots of food from around the world. I made it to the center of Carnival the first night. It was great to be able to listen to all different types of music and eat 3 completely different kinds of food for the courses of my meal. I had a bratwurst for my appetizer. A kinder-crepe for dessert and borscht (really authentic) for the entree. 

The next day, I took Berlin by foot, not realizing how far my hostel was from the center of the city. Eventually, I made it to Checkpoint Charlie. I also saw a really interesting exhibition about Hitler's Reign of Terror, called The Topography of Terror. The exhibit was extremely sad, but very informative and interesting. Right in front of the Topography of Terror documentation centre is a part of the Berlin Wall that still stands. 

The next day, I met Toby, bright and early to start our adventures. We went to the DDR museum. We walked around a ton, seeing the Bradenburg Tor and the Tiergarten (another fantastic park). That night I moved out of my hostel to stay with a couchsurfer. She ended up being very busy, so we didn't get to talk much, although she was very nice. Overall, I had a positive first official couchsurfing experience.

On our last day in Berlin, it was raining and cold. We started off the day in the Berlin Jewish Museum. Afterwards, we decided to give up on touristy things and find me some strudel. Strudel ended up being harder to find then we thought. We ended up going to four different bakeries (and trying pastries in them, of course) until we found strudel. 

Finally, strudel! 

The next day, we headed to Mainz to see all of our friends there. In Mainz, we got to see some of the sights, but mostly just hang out with friends, which was very relaxing after so many days of travelling and walking around. Toby and I decided to stay a day longer than intended, and then headed to Strasbourg. 

Mainz crew :)

Strasbourg

We made it to Strasbourg around late afternoon, so we searched for a hostel, then dropped our stuff and started to explore Strasbourg. We found the most amazing cathedral I've ever seen in my life (Cathédrale de Strasbourg -- i'm starting to think I've been saying that about every church I see -- but this one's true, I mean it).

Beautiful, right? 

We lost Thomas for a while, then eventually found him, and finally decided to look for dinner. We ended up in a part of Strasbourg called Petite France that reminds you of Venice, with cute little bridges and houses. We accidentally bumped into a group of girls wearing pink curly-haired wigs, who were obviously part of a bachelorette party, but we didn't get it at the time. They asked the guys to recite Romeo and Juliet in French with the bride-to-be. It was hilarious. 

The next day, it rained in Strasbourg, so we tried our best to stay out of the rain. We had planned on a picnic the day before, so we were being extremely optimistic, hoping the sun would eventually come out. Since it was a Sunday in France, and the hostel receptionist warned us, "everything, I mean, everything, is closed on Sundays," we decided to start collecting our food in the morning. Every épicerie we walked by, we bought an element of our picnic. Eventually, we found a bakery, and went in for a baguette. They only had one left. After we walked out of the bakery, a lady came out of the bakery and told us in a whisper, "There's a bakery a few blocks down that's still open." So, we went to go find this clandestine bakery. 

The rain never stopped, so we decided to have our picnic in the train station, which ended up being really fun. That afternoon, we all parted ways. I spend the night in Paris, and headed to Nice early the next morning. 

Nice

The first afternoon in Nice was a lot fun. Nice is like a perfect combination of Italy and France, colored houses but French-speaking people. Also, the ocean is the prettiest blue I've ever seen. That night when we got back to our hostel, we had a  nice surprise, Toby showed up! The next day, we headed to Monaco. Our hostel owner was nice enough to take us and show us around a little bit. We walked around and hoped it wouldn't start raining again. It's really hard to imagine that a place that small is its own country. I was utterly fascinated by it, so we spent a good part of the afternoon looking up facts about Monaco. The next day, Toby had to leave for Italy, so Chad and I just spent hours on the beach taking it all in. We had a very Nicois lunch with Socca (chickpea flour pancake type things). 

Over the course of these travels, I feel like I've really learned what traveling should be like. Before these trips, I was always so worried about not having enough things to see and trying to fit in a bunch of things in a day, but what I realized is that the funnest moments were when I just took a second to slow down and take it all in, like when Toby and I bakery-hopped in Berlin, or when I sat on the beach for hours in Nice. When travelling, its easy to get caught up in the touristic places, thinking that these are the things that have to be seen. Of course, those things can sometimes be very important, but we really must have a chance to just stop and half a coffee or some tea. I'm glad I was able to realize that on these trips.

Coming up...Final Reflections on Paris & Study Abroad in general, and of course my travels in Ukraine. 

[ashish92]

These are a few of my favorite things

Last week I had the most epic spring break in Italy, that I got to share with my friends Sophie and Madeleine, Kelly, and Chad for part of the way. There were too many stories and beautiful things that I saw, but I want to talk about a few of my favorite things in Italy. 

1. Old things in Rome -- I can't get enough the ruins. How are things that are thousands of years old still standing? The Romans were horrible in a lot of ways, but they knew something about architecture.

2. Sitting at Monument of Emmanuel Something or other people-watching. 

Just a few pictures from what we saw.

3. Finding out that the Trevi Fountain is harder to find in Rome than expected. 

4. Trees in Rome. Aren't they weird-looking and totally awesome at the same time? 

5. Finding a place called Alena that sells chemicals? 

7. Walking into the Sistine Chapel after our tour guide warned us that we'd be kicked out for taking pictures and seeing hundreds of tourists taking flash photos. 

8. This view of Rome. 

9. Being so close to seeing the Pope. 

Yep, thats Papa Francesco on the TV, 200 meters away from me.

10. Pasta....

(and yes, those are the italian flag colors)

Pizza...

and of course, gelato (all day, 'er day)

11. Duomo in Florence (I've never seen a church so beautiful

). 

12. Everything in Venice: 

Even worth having to put up with this: 

14. Bellini - a wonderful mix of prosecco and white peach juice. 

As you can see from the plethora of "my favorite things," my trip to Italy was probably one of my favorite trips I've ever had, especially because I got to spend it with such cool peeps. 

[ashish92]

A Blog-Worthy Moment

Today after an oral presentation about my internship and after my non-existant Chinese exam, I went out to the dinner with my friend Sophie's parents to a restaurant called La Petite Chaise (and they really were small chairs) in Paris. The dinner we had was absolutely great, I had the French classics, Onion Soup and duck. When we were waiting to order dessert, a squabble erupted at the table next to us. Basically, the American couple next to us were arguing with the waiter about the bill; they were trying to argue that he should've charge them for one menu if they shared it, which is just not a thing in Paris. Anyways, eventually, knowing that we spoke French, the waiter asked us to translate for him. So we helped him out, telling the couple that it was not his fault, and it was just the restaurant policy (also intentionally leaving out some comments he made about French brasseries, which were extremely hilarious - basically he was saying "Maybe you can do this in a brasserie, but not in a real restaurant. We serve real food here, not frozen stuff.") The waiter seemed very disturbed by the whole scene even after the couple left. Every time he came back to the table, he kept going on about how ridiculous the situation was and how he was just trying to be nice to the couple. I jokingly said I became his best friend because he basically just ranted to me for the latter part of the dinner. Then, on the way out, he thanked me for translating for him.

And because of that moment, I realized, "Wait, I can really speak French." 

Coming soon... Italy highlights...

[ashish92]

Getting Lost in Luxembourg

...literally. 

This past weekend I took a solo trip to Luxembourg, and it ended being one of my favorite trips so far in Europe. I arrived at the train station in Luxembourg at about 10 am. Being that there were no maps provided at the train station, I decided to just wander around until I found the center of town (and by extension the tourist center). Somehow I found it on pure luck, and a map of city (finally! but would actually be very little help). Next, I ran into a market next to the Hotel de Ville with lots of flowers, meat, cheese, etc. I decided to do one of those two-level bus tours (hop on! hop off! thing) in order to get to better know the city,  that way I could to see the banking district without actually having to walk there because other than a few buildings and several cool sculptures there's not really much there. 

After the tour, I decided to continue my tour of Luxembourg City on foot, and that's where the fun started (sort of) --- I usually pride myself on my ability to get around, but I literally could not figure out where I was or where I was going for most of that afternoon. The map showed streets that weren't there (someone told me later on that's since the city is a valley with the mountains surroundings -- the map doesn't show that some streets don't actually connect) and signs were pointing in opposite directions (later found out, some locals change the signs do this to mess with tourists). Anyways, at one point I ended up in the next city, and saw a sign for Luxembourg and I was like, "When did I even leave?"

when i accidentally left luxembourg

That night, I had dinner with a fellow couchsurfer ( I just signed up like a week ago), and we ate real luxembourgeois food, that is potatoes, bacon, pork, apparently a standard. That night, I had to head back to my hostel super early because it was half an hour from the city center by bus and the last bus ran at about 9 pm (finding a hostel was more stressful than it needed to be -- i wasn't even sure where I was staying the day before I left). On the way to the hostel, I met randomly a Dutch couple, who were extremely nice and spoke almost perfect English and accents (Europeans and their multilinguism! speaking of, Luxembourg's school requires kids to master English, French, & German, not to mention Luxembourgeois, which is spoken in some homes, why didn't I grow up in Luxembourg again, its a linguaphiles dreams). 

The next day, I met up with some couchsurfers to go hiking in Northern Luxembourg (Esch-sur-Sûre, to be exact). It was freezing cold and started snowing that day during the hike. The people I met though, were super cool. 2 people were Europeans living in Luxembourg, the others were from Italy and Germany, and it was great talking to them about traveling and taking random jumping pictures together! We also had a great lunch of pasta made by our couchsurfing hike organizer. After the hike, we went for a hot coco, trying to warm up. 

view and snow from the mountains

That afternoon, I headed back to Luxembourg, and then I met up with some other couchsurfers I met through one of the people on my hike. We all went to Chocolate House, which sells amazing hot cocoa (the chocolate blocks on the spoons with any flavor you want -- hot chili, bailey's, irish coffee, etc) and amazing cakes (tiramisu, cheesecake, etc). After, I was able to show the rest of couchsurfers around Luxembourg (I was now an expert of the city after getting lost so many times the previous day). 

I head back again at like 8 pm (too early for dinner, I'm becoming European, I think), so I grabbed a delicious chicken curry sandwich at the bus station on the way back. 

The next day, I met some old friends from the previous day to walk around the Whistle Festival, which is a big event in Luxembourg on Easter Monday (basically, there's a large market, and part of it includes a lot of stands which sells whistles in the shape of birds -- its a competition among artisans -- don't worry, I bought one). Afterwards, we had some delicious wurst from the street vendors out that day. After my news friends left, I walked around the markets and took a nice break on a bench taking in the sunlight (it's been a while). I headed back to Paris, later that day. 

I loved my trip to Luxembourg, especially because I got to see a beautiful city and meet so many interesting people, who love traveling just as much as I do (maybe even more so).

fun fact about luxembourg: 60% people living in the capital city are foreigners! 

In other news, I found out last week that I'm going to spending 6 weeks in Qingdao, China this summer for an internship, so I guess my blog won't be ending, when I leave Paris in June. 

This week was also the last week of my internship. I actually finished my  translation a few weeks back, so I've been doing random things around the office (like photo research, I even helped make an outline for a movie-commercial my supervisor is making for a client!) My last day was super fun, I went out to lunch with my supervisor and I ate pig cheek (joue de cochon -- delicious, btw) and oeufs en meurette (poached eggs, mushrooms, sauce, etc) -- delicious too. And later that night, I was invited to a classical music concert that he helped do advertising for. The concert was a violin and piano player playing together and it was absolutely fascinating. I'm not the biggest fan of classical music, but I can appreciate the amount of work and effort it must take to learn pieces like they performed. 

I'm taking a break from traveling for the next couple of weeks because 1) i have a internship paper to write, 2) i'm going to have some visitors (SHONA!!!!), 3) i should probably enjoy Paris some. 

Also, I'm planning a  long trip to Italy at the end of April. 

[ashish92]

Reflections on Paris

Last week was the midway point for me being in Paris, and my Language and Culture teacher said we should make a bucket list of the things we wanted to do before leaving. I have no idea how these past two and a half months have flown by so quickly. But as I think about the things I need to rush to do in the next 2 months and a half, I really can't think of any. Sure, I could think some up, like finally going up to the Eiffel Tower or re-visiting the Louvre, but somehow these things don't seem too important anymore. What I do get more and more excited about is seeing the rest of Europe and the rest of France. My visits to Brugges and Cordoba made me feel like there so many treasures of smaller cities in Europe and its up to me to find them. But what have have I not been so excited to stay in Paris every weekend, you ask? 

When you tell someone that you're going to study abroad for the year, they tell you "Wow, that's going to be an amazing experience." And then you mention Paris, people go crazy, "Oh my god, Paris is so beautiful and there's so many things to visit and do. You're going to love it." Part of what people say is completely right, Paris is beautiful. During my last cooking class when I got to look out onto the Tour Montparnasse and the glistening Eiffel Tower from my teacher's balcony, I understand the city's beauty more than ever, but the statement "You're going to love it" may not be as true. When I did a little google search on Paris online, I found that there was an overwhelming opinion that Paris is awesome, and anyone who spoke against it was crazy. "How could you not like Paris?" Well, I'm going to come out and say: I'm not completely, madly obsessed with Paris. Shocking? Maybe.

 It's really because of a combination of factors (some might not even be Paris's fault). In many ways, study abroad for a year is sort of a marathon, sure, you get to go home for a week and see you're family, but you can't always be sure that this short drink of water will last you the rest of the race. Plus, maybe you're stuck thinking about how awesome the first half of the race was. At the start, I didn't even realize it, but I was in an Alena version of culture shock; I couldn't stop thinking about how awesome China was, and I think subconsciously holding the same expectation for Paris. I missed the way everything was done there: the fact that everyone lived together and the fact that we were actually able to speak in class (of course, this is probably more about the program than Paris itself, bref, it's just how i felt), oh and the food of course and the language (feeling like I could express everything I wanted to say, a little ironic). Also the raining all the time didn't really help my opinion about Paris very much. I'm also beginning to think that people have to much of an idealized version of Paris. When we think of Paris, we imagine the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs-Elysees, but we don't think about the amount of homeless people we pass everyday on the metro, or the musicians playing the metro cars trying to make a little money, or the fact that every morning at 9 am, you have to cram into the metro in order to get to work. I get that these things aren't exclusive to Paris, but the image of the "most romantic city on Earth" is, and I feel like people get the wrong idea. Including those things into an image of a city isn't wrong; it humanizes it, and strips it of an unattainable ideal, and it also speaks more to the truth. It must be said, living in Paris is nothing like being a tourist in Paris. As a tourist in Paris, you can easily ignore all the things that aren't beautiful and shiny and just go on your way, but living in Paris you have to challenge your idea of what Paris is everyday. In this way, I found Paris can be very superficial, an image covering up what isn't perfect. 

This experience has further challenged my relationship with the French language. I came into freshman year of college going to be a French major. I was in love the French language, the way it sounded, the words, the music, etc. etc. and I couldn't wait to spend my entire year living in Paris and soaking up all this French culture. But things change, and sometimes your interests and passions do too, with time and with reflection, of course. And now 2 years later, I'm a Chinese major studying in Paris, France. 

What does it mean to be a Chinese major studying in France? Of course, it means that I very rarely have a chance to speak Chinese. But it also means that you have to find a way to refocus and put all your energy into studying the French again. I remember in middle school (i was such a geek, and proud of it), I would go home and study French for fun (yes, I would), and that love for French pushed me to put my heart and soul into learning and mastering the French language (hopefully), but somehow along the way, I lost steam. And I pretty much forgot why I started learning French in the first place. Of course, being here has improved my French in the way that, I no longer want to say Chinese words when I'm trying to speak French (or revert back into Chinese mid-sentence), but has my French really improved? And it is my own fault? The first question, I really can't answer, but the second I can. I honestly feel like I haven't been putting my heart and soul into improving my French, and I think it shows. I want to find a new motivation to push me to keep trying to master my French; I just haven't found it yet. 

Maybe, this post seems like I'm being a negative Nancy, but I think people should know that study abroad isn't all fun and games, and it's okay to feel that way, and even more so, you're not always going to be completely in  love with every place you study abroad (and people should start understanding that, and try to lower these expectations, even slightly). Now, I love one thing, though, a lot. The fact that I don't love Paris. Paradox, you must say. No. Not loving Paris has made me learn a lot things. Being more independent is one of them, also becoming more interested in cooking is another, learning to do deal with a situation where you're not a fan of everything, or must things around you, but I think that these are important things to me, that I've always wanted to work on. In a few months, I will have to leave Paris, and I won't be able to take the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, etc. with me, but I will be able to take what I've learned and try to apply to my life back home and at Middlebury.

And you know, I wouldn't mind being proven wrong about Paris in the next coming weeks, either. 

[ashish92]

When in Spain...

Rule 1: Don't start thinking about dinner until like 10 pm. 

Rule 2: Don't start thinking about going out until like 3 am. 

Rule 3: Don't come back home until 5 am. 

Rule 4: Eat lots and lots of ham...and tortilla. 

Rule 5: Have very, very long dinner (let's say 3 or 4 hours). 

Rule 6: Enjoy. 

While in Spain, I followed most of these rules (not every night, but mostly). My first stop in Spain was Córdoba, located in the Southern Spain, in Andalusia. Getting to a Córdoba was a journey, which involved getting up (or rather not getting up) at 3 am to wait at a sketchy bus stop in Paris for the bus to Charles de Gaulle. Then, involved waiting until my flight at 6 am, which then got in at 9 am and then I had to gun it to the bus station (a 40 minute metro ride) to catch a bus at 10 am. Needless to say, it was a stressful  morning/night/day (I was extremely sleep deprived), but I did get to see the Spanish countryside on the bus ride (absolutely gorgeous -- reminded me of Middlebury, except the mountains aren't as big). But it all got better when I got to see Shona(!!!!) after like a bajillion years. We explored the streets of Old Córdoba, where we found an amazing photography exhibit with lots of landscape photographs. That night, we had an awesome dinner at a Taverne (already forgot the name), which I ate lots of Cordobian (what's the adj for that?) food (or at least that's what Shona told me), like bull's tail, ham fried in ham and then more ham, and other things. The next day we continued our exploration of the streets of Old Cordoba (under pouring rain, I might add -- apparently it never rains in Cordoba, except when I'm there). We visited La Mezquita, which is a church turned mosque turned temple -- super cool architecture and super beautiful. That afternoon, we also visited the Alcázar de los Reyes (Kings' Fort), where we climbed to the top, attempted to take a picture while trying to keep our umbrellas from flying away with the crazy wind and rain, did not succeed, but did get completely trenched. Since we soaked anyway, we decided to walk around in the garden (in the rain). The whole day we were trying to convince ourselves that we saw the sun and it finally did come out (sort of). Also, I drank the best hot chocolate ever, with little bit of hazelnuts inside (only 3 euros, that's cray cray)

Me and Shona drenched after the rain, but loving Cordoba anyway

Impressions of Córdoba: Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Goes on the top of my list for European cities on top of Brugges (where I visited a couple weeks back, in Belgium)

The next morning, with a solid three hours of sleep, I headed back to Madrid to meet Jenny (known as Jenaynay to some)! Trying to beat the jetlag (or lack of sleep, in my case), we decided to find walk around Madrid (in the rain!) We found the cutest jewelry shop in Plaza Mayor (the name escapes me) and a beautiful church, where we listened to an acapella group practice. That night, we went out for dinner to the Museum of Ham (Museo del Jamón), which is an actual restaurant. Guess what I ate? We also headed to the Plaza del Sol, where there were tons of protests for Women's Day (March 8). That night, I also met up with some Midd Kids to understand how Madrid nightlife really works. 

The next day, the sun finally came out. Jen and I set out with the goal of finding this Egyptian temple that we saw in her mom's guidebook. Our plan was to go there first because we really wanted to do see it and then do the other things on our list, we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the complete opposite direction, but somehow we accidentally came across everywhere we wanted to go. Our last step of the day was the Templo de Debod (i wanna say diablo), where we got an amazing view of Madrid (also there's green plains and stuff, right next to Madrid). Unfortunately, this was my last day in Madrid. 

there it is. templo de debod!

Impressions of Spain, in general: beautiful (even in the rain), lots of ham, totally want to go back, also getting to hang out with some awesome people: never a bad thing.

[msnbc]

Melissa Harris-Perry showed this incredible chart today during a discussion on wealth in America and what this week’s stock market gains actually mean for most American families. 

[ashish92]

has nothing to do with studying abroad, but really interesting graph, especially the difference between "actual distribution of wealth" and "what america think it is."

[ashish92]

Balades à Bordeaux

This weekend, I took a trip to Bordeaux, located in the Southwest of France (not too far from the ocean), with a friend from the program, Sophie. 

When one goes to to the south, one assumes it will be warm. Well, one was wrong. It was freezing cold in Bordeaux, even colder than Paris. Thankfully, the sun came out, sort of. Bordeaux weather is very strange. The weather changes forty times a day, that is, it could be snowing in one street, and once you get to the next, it's sunny again. 

On Saturday, I got up about 4:30 am to catch the 3-hour train in Bordeaux. Once there, we started out by heading to the Centre-ville to explore. Basically we walked around for most the afternoon finding random churches as we turned onto different streets. The thing I really enjoyed about the buildings in Bordeaux is that the buildings actually look old. You can see that that the stones on the buildings has darkened and that it's an old city.

beautiful church, Notre Dame (i think)

We also came across an extraordinary (a large) monuments dedicated to the Republique française. 

Monument aux Girodins (and you can see how cold I am)

That night, we had an amazing dinner at Café des Arts (and cheese for desert, like it's supposed to be done!) Also, discovered one of my favorite cheeses in France and stupidly forgot to ask the waiter the name of the cheese (I think its Saint-Nectaire). 

The next day, we took a very long walk along the Garonne (river in Bordeaux) and found an amazing market with any kind of food you want (i.e. clams, shrimp, meat, vin chaud, strawberries, macarons, brownies, etc.) This is probably the best part of the trip because a) there was so much food b) because the view of the Garonne was extremely beautiful c) because we got to have a picnic (who doesn't love a picnic? even its negative a million degrees). Anyways, I ate potatoes (seasoned just like my mom makes them!) and shishkabob with like 5 different kinds of meat! Also, had some fresh kiwi juice and a bailey's-dark chocolate macaron (which changed my life, most amazing maracon I've ever had -- probably my 3rd macaron in France). 

After the amazing lunch-picnic, we headed to the Musée d'Aquitaine, a museum concerning the history of Bordeaux, where I learned that Bordeaux used to be the capital of Aquitania (which something to do with the Roman empire, I think). An awesome museum, which includes a surprisingly extensive history of Bordeaux (including the introduction of the first television and radio and tout ça). 

View of Bordeaux from the bridge crossing the Garonne.

I really enjoyed my trip to Bordeaux. We definitely did a lot of walking. But I feel like it was worth it. Bordeaux is an awesome city, after all.

[ashish92]

Busy, Busy, Busy

This week has been one of my favorite, but one of the busiest weeks in Paris.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I had my first days at my internship, which has been really amazing. Everyone at the office is extremely nice and I really like being able to do translation. I'm working 16 hours a week on top my courses, which makes for not too much free time. 

On Thursday, I had the opportunity participate in a cooking class given by a host mom of one's of the Middlebury students. This was a great experience. Not only did we get to eat delicious food (i.e. scallop salad, the best duck I've ever had, a dessert that I don't know the name, but that had crème anglaise, other kind of crème, and caramel, and also different types of wine), but we got to help in preparing it all the apartment was absolutely beautiful,  with an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower and Tour de Montparnasse and really the whole city. It was on this day that I finally saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle for the first night, and it was sort of an epiphany for me; I finally realized why people think Paris is so beautiful  and romantic-- Paris at night is definitely a sight to see. 

On Thursday, my supervisor invited me to go to lunch to eat traditional French food, and it was absolutely amazing. I also got to try somethings I've never tasted before (i.e. pig head, kidneys, and pheasant). Pheasant is extremely delicious, a little like chicken. Kidneys, on the hand, I didn't really like because of the texture. 

Yesterday, I participated in a guided walk around Paris given by one of the Middlebury professors while basking the warmness of the sun (It's been weirdly sunny in Paris for a few days now). 

 It was really cool to learn historical things about Paris, because most of the time when I walk around I like to just enjoy the architecture of the buildings and I don't really do any research or read any of the informative signs, brochures, etc. That night, I got to see Paris at night by boat, which was -- as expected -- absolutely beautiful. 

Today was my one of my favorite days in Paris, probably because I got to spend it in the Chinese quarter. I headed over there for the New Year parade, which was supposed to start at one o'clock. It didn't get up getting to our location until 2:40 and by that time we were all very hungry. We found a pretty good Chinese restaurant, where I got to eat both 年糕回锅肉, 口水鸡 and 香鱼茄子, which are some  of favorite foods from China. Afterwards, I got eat a delicious pastry called a religieuse (basically an eclair with a creme puff on top). Perfect ending to the day. 

[ashish92]

Adventures to Lille & Brugges

This weekend, I decided to take a two-day trip (with fellow Midd Kid Brianna) to a city in the north of France, Lille, but before I talk about the wonderful-ness of this trip, I'd like to fill you in on my week before that. 

Finally had my first Chinese class, which seems like its going to be way too easy for me, but it's the only class in which there is a speaking component (rather, a conversation component, for which we have to prepare a four-minute dialogue with a group). The hardest part of this class is going to be translating from Chinese to French. We read a different article in class every week, and the professor explains different grammar points and vocab. She calls on different people in the class to translate into French. Not only is this going to make my head explode because I always have trouble going from Chinese to French and vice versa, but also makes me feel like I can't speak French because obviously I can't translate as eloquently into French as the native speakers. I think it'll be a good opportunity to work on the whole changing between French and Chinese thing. Because of the translation, this class will probably end up improving my French? (Ironic, right?) Also, when I registered for this course, the registration guy said the course would be all in Chinese, which is very false. Maybe it was because it was the first class, but it definitely was mostly in French. I feel like a third-year Chinese class should be all in Chinese. But yeah, yeah I know we're not at Middlebury anymore, nor am I in a Chinese class in Middlebury. 

For the life of me, I can't remember what I did on Tuesday. 

Wednesday was crazy, as always, with class 'til 9 am to 6 pm.

On Friday, I decided to do two promenades from my book of Promenades in Paris, which took me to the Village of Passy, where I found my favorite park in Paris (I've been to like 5 parks in all, but still --  it was quiet, few people, and green plants -- even in the winter, so I obviously approve.) The other walk was called "Paris so artsy," which meant I visited some places in Paris where famous artists used to live (oh and the Cemetery of Montparnasse). Here are some pictures from the adventure. 

My favorite park

Where Benjamin Franklin lived in Paris

  Smallest avenue in Paris - called Avenue de Cameons, with a great view of the Eiffel Tower (I saw literally every angle of the Eiffel Tower on this promenade)

Cute little street in Paris (called La Passage d'Enfer -- literally, the passage of hell - idk looks pretty great to me, maybe its hell for Parisians because the doors are bright colors, like pink and blue, who knows?) 

Alright, after this long interlude, here's the story (and pictures) from my trip to Lille. 

When Brianna and I arrived in Lille on Saturday morning, it was around 9 am and there was no one out of the streets of Lille. We went to the Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse, which was founded in 13th century by the Church as a hospital/hospice. Then, we decided to take a walk around Lille and realized how small it actually was. I also found my favorite church in France so far called the Church of St. Maurice. From the outside, it looks like a mini-Notre Dame, but the inside is absolutely amazing. It was has lots of lighting, with large open spaces, and Renaissance-y sounding music. 

Instead of staying in Lille for the day, since the weather was nice, we decided to head to Brugges, Belgium, where people don't speak French as there first language, but Flemish. That was definitely a surprise for us. Once we got we crossed the border between French and Belgium, all train announcements changed just to Flemish and I was like wtf?

Brugges (pronounced however you like) is the most amazing town. It has beautiful architecture and cute little chocolate stores everywhere. It is called the Venice of Northern Europe because of the canals running through. It's absolutely beautiful. When you walk around, you get the sense that this isn't real life, and that a place as quaint and magical can't exist. (I totally recommend Brugges to anyone going to Lille for a weekend, or going to Belgium for a period of time). Let's just say I might have to move there when I turn 60 and decide to retire. 

No captions needed. It's too beautiful. 

That night, we headed back to Lille to stay at the only hostel in Lille. And we had an amazing three-hour dinner at this restaurant called Instants Gourmands,  where we tried a classic lillois dish, called Le Welsh, which is basically cheese, bread, ham with an egg on top. Délicieux! 

The next day, we visited several museums in Lille (Palais des Beaux-Arts and the Birthplace of Charles de Gaulle). It was really too cold to do any sightseeing of monuments, so we just warmed up in some bakeries and museums most of Sunday. I definitely recommend Lille, but maybe when it's 20 degrees warmer, and also not for two days. We spent one day in Lille, and that was definitely enough. 

[ashish92]

"first week" of classes; tour of the 10th; musée du chocolat

Classes started this week at Paris 3, also known as the Nouvelle Sorbonne. Currently, I am registered for 5 different classes there (2 Chinese classes, and 3 Linguistics class), in order to figure out which ones I want to take. It would be helpful, though, if the professors showed up to class. The first class, i.e. Chinese class, the professor didn't show up and we all waited for about 30-60 minutes. During this time, I found out that the professor doesn't show up very often. The next day, I was all ready to have my first real class  (aka Lexicology) at a French university, and the professor didn't show up again; there was a note left outside of the department office, but no one knew and the whole class showed up.  I had another class after that (Historical Sociolinguistics), which actually happened (woot!). It was an extremely interesting class, but there were way, way too many people (50 people), I had no idea how the people in the back heard anything the professor was saying (the acoustics in the room were horrible). The next day, I had a class on History of the French Language and I found that class absolutely fascinating; we talked about the different changes that occurred between modern and classical French from different linguistics aspects, like morphology, syntax, lexicon, etc. I've decided I'm staying in this class and the first Chinese one (I only need 2 classes at the Paris 3, anyways). 

On Thursday, I took a tour of the 10th arrondissement, which is where I'm living. Didn't find anything too crazy interesting, but I finally entered the beautiful church that is located literally across the street from me. 

Église Saint-Vincent-de-Paul

I also bought a few pastries at a really great bakery, and got complimented on the pastry as I was eating it walking down the street. 

On Saturday, I visited the Musée du Chocolat (which in English, is the museum of chocolate), which was an absolutely delicious museum, as you might except. The most important discovery was this: 

Known as a moustache cup, used my men back in the day, so as not the wet their moustache when drinking foamy chocolate. 

Also, the museum has the most adorable mascot named, Chocolala, see below: 

Look at those crazy Midd Kids! 

On Sunday, I decided to take one of the "promenades" offered by my book of walks around Paris. This time I choose to explore the covered-passages in Paris, which are covered streets used during the times of Napoleon, so people could do shopping, but be protected from rain, snow, etc. 

One of the passages -- usually more lively -- when its not Sunday, that is.

Oh, and look what I ran into...

my attempt at an artistic picture.

and also ran into this...

There is a mini-Statue of Liberty in Paris.... what?

[ashish92]

Here Comes The Sun

I haven't started all my classes yet (still), but I got to do some more exploring of museums this week. 

On Monday, I had my interview for my internship to work in a consulting company doing translation. I got the internship! I'm really excited to start in February, and the book I'm translating is really interesting! 

On Tuesday, I visited the Musée du quai Branly (museum of art and civilisation of Africa, Oceania, America & Asia), which remains slightly controversial, but I thought it was pretty cool, because it had cool and interesting artifacts from different civilizations around the world. 

And I got to see this cool half-man, half-lion statue from Bénin. 

Then, that same day, because I had time and because it wasn't too far from the Musée du quai Branly, I decided to go visit the Petit Palais. On the way there, I walked past a side entrance of the Grand Palais, and I came upon a group of paparazzi and some English-speaking, who seemed to be waiting for someone to come out of the door. Since, I was really curious about who they were waiting for, and because I had time to kill, I decided to wait for whatever celebrity it was. I have no idea who the person was that came out, but I'll post the picture here anyways, and maybe someone recognizes this celebrity (please, tell me if you do, because she looks really familiar)

The Petit Palais had a really interesting exhibit called Dieu(x) (fthe word for god in French) and it had artifacts, books, and models of religious structures from all different religions, Christianity, Islam, Judiasm, Buddhism, Animism, Jainism, etc. I thought it was a really cool idea for an exhibit, to see representations of different religions in one place and to be able to compare and contrast the differences in representation in art and architecture. 

Wednesday, I started another class at the Centre Madeleine about the concept of French secularism and its history and importance over the course of French history

On Thursday, we had to register for classes at Paris 3. And registering in France is not like registering in America. It's definitely not on the internet, and it's definitely not as organized. Luckily, I'm doing linguistics classes at Paris 3, so my classes didn't fill up as fast as the literature classes, but it seemed really stressful for those who had to change their choices on the spot. Thursday night, I got a chance to go to see a performance of  En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot). I thought the plays  ideas were really interesting, but I honestly felt like I wanted to sleep throughout most of it. 

On Friday, I had to figure out how to register for Chinese classes, which was a slightly annoying process, because they don't post the class times for Chinese classes until Friday (which just the a 2 days before we are supposed to start classes). It must be really stressful for the French university students if they find out that classes conflict and then have to move their schedule around. Also, the fire alarm rang on my way out of Paris 3, and no one even made a move to leave the building.

This weekend, I got the opportunity to take a trip of the South of France with a group organized by the Middlebury College. We visited the Pont du Gard, Uzès, and Nîmes. This trip was amazing, awesome, fantastique, magnifique, formidable! It was sunny (which is something that is very infrequent in Paris -- also explains the name of this post) and the weather was relatively warm (50 degrees). Anyway, the pictures will speak for themselves because all the places we visited were absolutely beautiful. 

Pont du Gard -- a bridge that served as a long aqueduct built during the Roman Empire to provide water to the city of Nîmes. Notice the ray of sunlight. 

Château d'Uzès, located in Uzès, through which the aqueduct described above passed. Uzès is absolutely the most adorable town ever, with narrow cobble-stone, and one or two main streets lined with cafés. Also, Uzès is a duchy, so we visited the Château d'Uzès, home to the duke. What makes it interesting is that it integrates 3 different architectures, Renaissance, Medieval, and the third that I forgot. Also, we climbed a very narrow, spirally staircase to get an amazing view of the mountains surrounding Uzès. 

Note the blue sky in both pictures. 

That night, we had an amazing dinner at a restaurant in Nîmes, where I successfully consumed a dish, in which the main ingredient was fish (yes, you heard right, I ate fish).

I ate that! 

Amphitheatre in Nîmes, home to gladiator fights back in the day. 

We also had an amazing lunch on Sunday (luckily we found a café that was open, but nothing is open on Sundays in France) in Nîmes. The waiter was really nice and taught us French insults and talked about how much he loved 50 Cent. At the end of the meal, he told our director of our program that we changed his view of Americans, because we made an effort to speak French with him, and with each other (and although that's because of the language pledge, still I think we get some life points for breaking stereotypes.. yay!)

This weekend, I discovered how absolutely beautiful the south of France is, and I cannot wait to return (especially to go to Nice).

This week I'm starting classes at Paris 3. Oh and my first official class at a French university is in Chinese; the French-Chinese  combination might make my head explode. Also, a three-hour class. We'll see how it goes. 

'Til next week! 

[ashish92]

Highlights of Week 3

Highlight Number 1. I love how in Paris, you can just turn onto a street, and then turn onto another street, and you'll find a hundred-year old (probably way more) church or the Panthéon. On Tuesday, I was a little early to meet up with my "marraine" (means, god mother; older student who is showing us around Paris), so I decided to take a walk around the area, and I found this: 

and this: 

Highlight 2. There was sunshine this week. And I have proof. 

Highlight 3. My visit to the Musée de l'Orangerie (or the basically the museum known for a lot of impressionist art). At the Orangerie, I could to see crazy moustaches, like this... (Enjoy, Jenaynay!)

(Painting: La Carriole du Père Junier by Henri-Julien Félix

I also got to see really cool impressionist paintings. Impressionism is one of my favorite art styles. It seems you can never exactly paint something you see, or something you think of, but for me, in impressionist, the unclarity of the lines and feeling of fogginess of the image represent that inexactness, and inability to transfer picture to painting. Here is one of the my favorite paintings that I saw at the Orangerie. 

Highlight 4: Had my first macaron at La Durée (famous bakery in Paris).

Highlight 5, that isn't really a highlight: I had my interview for my internship on Monday, which turned out, not to be exactly an interview. In fact, the interviewer informed me that they were only taking interns that were graduate students and that could work for 5 days a week. So, because of this, I have another interview tomorrow for translation internship at a consulting company. 

Highlight 6: Started classes at the Centre Madeleine. Actually only started one class. And yes this is a highlight, because it's been weird not having classes for this long. I had my first class of "Language and Culture" and a workshop for methodology for writing in French. 

Highlight 7: Snow in Paris. Which is like half a highlight actually. It's pretty when it falls. But once it hits the ground, it was turns into either a deathtrap of ice or slushy grayness. 

Highlight 8: Visit to the Louvre to see the famous "La Joconde," or Mona Lisa, or rather see lots of tourist takes selfies with the Mona Lisa. Free admission for me, so I can go back again and see the other things that the Louvre has to offer. Also, just FYI, the architecture inside the Louvre is amazingly beautiful. 

Highlight 9: Celebrating the holiday of Galette des Rois, where you get to eat lots of a almond paste pastry and if you find a fève (or small figure) in the cake, you get to be crowned "king" for the day. 

Next week, I will be signing up for classes, taking a trip to the South of France with my program, and starting my content course called about French secularism, otherwise known as la laïcité. 

[ashish92]