New Places and Faces

Here is where I went in 2007:
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Washington, DC
New York City, New York
Monterey, California
Carmel, California
Pebble Beach, California
San Luis Obispo, California
Salinas, California
San Francisco, California
San Jose, California
Compiegne, France
Normandy, France
Bayeaux, France
Le Havre, France
Chartres, France
Marseilles, France
Hyeres, France
Nice, France
Antibes, France
St. Tropez, France
Paris, France
London, United Kingdom
Windsor, United Kingdom
Chantilly, France
Versailles, France
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Trier, Germany
Amsterdam, Holland (The Netherlands)
Dallas, Texas

That's all for this year! Next year I will be in Nice, Geneva, Copenhagen, Rome, Brussels, Toulouse and, of course, Paris. Stay tuned.

Make It Happen

Soon my first semester in Paris will be over. Don’t worry! I will be back next semester with more exciting stories and pictures for you. Well, at least there will be pictures, I can’t promise exciting stories. I have learned a lot this semester, but the most important thing I have learned is that if you want something, you should do it. Time might not always allow for you to do what you want. I don’t mean to imply that everyone should be out traveling the world. I mean this in an everyday sense as well. This idea applies to everything, from deciding to go to the movies to deciding to go to Damascus. This past week I have heard so many people in the SMU-in-Paris program say things like, “I still haven’t been to the top of the Eiffel Tower” or “I wish I had gone to London”, etc, etc… I never say anything but what I am thinking is: What were you doing with your time that you didn’t? Time is one of the few things in life that we cannot have more of. I can honestly say that I have done everything I wanted to do this semester and I look forward to next semester to experiencing even more new and different things. My hope in writing this blog is that if there is anybody out there who sits around constantly saying “I should do this” or “I should do that”, you should do it! Make it happen.

Amsterdam

As I mentioned in a previous post, today I went to Amsterdam. It is about 4 hours by train north of Paris. Amsterdam was very surprising to me and nothing like what I was expecting. I had imagined Amsterdam to be a very young, hip city with a very friendly and open vibe. Needless to say, that is not the Amsterdam I experienced today. While Amsterdam is a very open city and a lot of people do speak English, it is not a friendly city. And while the city is very clean and efficient, like other Scandinavian cities, the people are not very lively. Amsterdam was a very quiet, clean city. The Dutch architecture was very beautiful. To me, the most interesting thing about Amsterdam were all the canals. Amsterdam is the "City of 100 Canals" and I believe it! Also, there are bicycles EVERYWHERE in Amsterdam. I have posted pictures on my photobucket account of a three story bicycle garage. It is just like a car garage, but with bicycles. My friend and I only spent a day in Amsterdam, and we saw the Anne Frank House and the Rijks Museum and then spent the rest of the time walking around and seeing Amsterdam. I talked about the Anne Frank House in a previous post and the Rijks Museum was also really interesting. It has the famous "Night Watch" by Rembrandt and also had a Constable painting on loan from London. The museum is being renovated so they only had their masterpieces out, which was just fine, it made it more convenient for the tourists, I think. I left Amsterdam glad that I went, but happy that I am back in Paris. I am thankful that I go to see Amsterdam, but I'm not sure I'll go back again. However, before I finish this post, I want to mention that on the way to Amsterdam, the train stopped in Brussels, Rotterdam and the Hague. Both Rotterdam and the Hague (both are in the Netherlands/Holland) were very pretty. I wouldn't mind visiting one of those cities. On an unrelated note, I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season!

The Anne Frank House

I'll start off by saying that today I went to Amsterdam. I went with a friend and we had two goals: visit the Anne Frank house and see Rembrandts at the Rijks Museum. We accomplished both our goals so it was a successful day. The Anne Frank House was interesting. I must have read Anne Frank's Diary at least 25 times. So, for me, seeing the actual Annex was very interesting. I have to admit, though, that it was a little disappointing. It was not nearly as small as I had imagined. But, I guess that's the way life is: Sometimes the fantasy in your head is better than the reality. I didn't take any pictures inside the Annex because no one else was and also because it seeemed like it would be disrespectful somehow. The tour through the house starts with a brief history of the Holocaust and then you wind your way behind the bookcase/door and up to the Annex. It has VERY steep stairs. You go through all the different rooms and then out the back to see the view that they saw of Amsterdam from the Secret Annex. Overall, the tour is very brief and I'm not sure if I would actually recommend doing it. This is odd for me to say, because I typically believe that you should do everything that is offered to you, but there was something creepy about the Anne Frank House. I think it was knowing that in the rooms we were walking through, an innocent Jewish family had been betrayed, and Nazis had actually walked into the rooms we were in and deported them to concentration camps. I think that my friend and I completed the entire tour in under 30 minutes. So, what is my final opinion on this museum? What do I think? I think everyone should read Anne Frank's diary.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo

One thing that has resulted from my being here in Paris for four months is that I have learned to appreciate art. Today I had some free time, so I took a stroll through the Luxembourg Gardens (near my school) and went to the Musée du Luxembourg. They are having a special exhibit of Arcimboldo's work. This guy was crazy! It was amazing to see so many of his paintings in one place, as there are not many remaining, since he painted in the 1500s. On a related note about art, I went to an art auction on Wednesday and saw some amazing paintings there as well. Unfortunatley, I didn't have the 48,000 euros on me to buy the painting I wanted. Maybe next time. For now, here are some Arcimboldo paintings to enjoy.

Arabic Soirée

I had been looking forward to tonight for over a week, and I was not disappointed. Ana, a girl in my Arabic class, wanted to have an Arabic dinner for us. So, tonight was the dinner and I went. Little did I know that it was also a joint surprise birthday party for Rosine and me! It was a lot of fun and I met some really interesting people. Ana had the food catered by one of the best Arabic restaurants in Paris and her apartment was amazing, it's right behind the Louvre. The food was outstanding and for dessert she had four different types of amazing Arabic desserts. My entire Arabic class was there, as pictured below, and there were also friends of Ana's from work, and other places as well. The majority of the people were Syrian and French and there were a few Lebanese people thrown in for good measure. What was really nice was being able to practice French, Arabic and English at the same time. It was also really fascinating to hear Arabs talk among themselves about various Middle Eastern issues. It was an all around good night and an excellent way to celebrate my birthday!

Front Row: Ana, Khalthar, Rosine and Khaldoun (teacher)/Back Row: Benita and Rene