I Just Say Words

On Fear

2010-03-22T16:58:00.003+01:00

I recently wrote this paper for my writing class and since my teacher liked it I decided I would share it with everyone. Some of the personal anecdotes are real and some are embellished or invented entirely but whether real or fiction I hope everyone can relate to the idea of facing their fears. (Also It's rather fitting as Alice in Wonderland is finally released in Paris this week!)

My first visit to Disney World at the age of four scarred me for life. Florida is the Sunshine State, but all I remember from that very first trip is rain. It seemed that entire lakes emptied themselves over our heads as we trudged through the gaily-adorned streets of Disney, swathed in our fluorescent yellow ponchos, sold to us at the steep price of $9.99 each. My eyes were focused on the ground in front of me, my feet making bee lines towards puddles and the red lights in my tennis shoes lighting up with each muddy splash that soaked my jeans and made my parents cringe. The sounds of adult conversation floated high above my head, beyond my comprehension, and I was lost in my own imagination held up only by my parents, one of my tiny hands clasped in each of theirs.

The conversation and the sound of our footsteps faded out and I pulled myself back into reality. I looked up at my family’s faces to see what the cause of our standstill was. My eyes immediately went past them and traveled even farther up, sweeping up the façade of a terrifying black skyscraper that seemed to materialize out of thin air. I couldn’t read the words on the building, but I didn’t need to be literate to hear the screams that were coming out of that tower that obscured the sky. My heart felt like it was in my throat when I swallowed. My father smiled down at me and led me over to the sign that proclaimed, “you must be this tall to ride this ride.” I moved to stand under it and felt the top of the bar just barely graze over my white blonde hair. Enthusiastically, my father pulled me out from under the bar, up onto his shoulder and our group moved to stand in line.

What seemed like (and may very well have been) hours later, we had slowly marched to the front of the line and were now being led inside the lofty structure that had loomed over us. Inside, the dark walls began to instill a sense of fear within me. I crouched down and pressed myself against my dad’s leg, grabbing onto his jeans in an attempt to cling onto some sense of sanity as we walked further and further to what I sensed was our doom. The guide asked us to enter the elevator and fasten our seatbelts. I took a trembling step towards my fate before being scooped up by my father, who held me up to his face and told me I had nothing to worry about before strapping me in my seat.

It began just like any other elevator ride. I felt the strange sensation of the floor pushing up from below us as I sat in my hard wooden seat, feet dangling off the ground. There were no other children around me, I was the lone child in a sea of adolescents and adults; the sense of terror that my father had dispelled returned. The journey up seemed to take forever, and I began to wonder where we were going anyway. Suddenly; we were falling.

I screamed. My nails dug into the unforgiving wooden seats and my thin body slowly slipped from the confines of the nylon seatbelt. I found refuge underneath of my seat. The falling stopped and started again with seeming irregularity and, had I any real conception of death at that age, I’d imagine I would have thought I was dying. Eventually, as we came to a complete stop, tears replaced my screams. My family attempted to hush me while they hurried out of the ride and back onto the streets of Disney, all the while I was still falling.

That was my very first ride at Disney, and it set the theme for my entire first trip. Any ride that involved darkness was immediately met with tears and protests, and this included even the most innocent of rides. My mother had to literally put me in a body bind to get me onto “It’s A Small World.” The entrance tunnel was just too dark after my experience on the aptly named “Tower of Terror.” My parent’s kept reminding me that this was Disney World, home of all of the movie characters that I loved so much. All I kept thinking was that Disney had coerced me here on a bed of lies, held up under the massive white-gloved hands of Mickey Mouse. I was too young to realize that my imagination had gotten the better of me, for what would be just one of millions of times.

++++

In 1951, the results of many people’s imaginations came together to form the Walt Disney animated feature film, Alice in Wonderland, based on the book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In movie theaters everywhere children shielded their eyes, and adult fans gazed open mouthed as the fantastic, but sometimes questionably sane, tale of Alice’s journey took on a colorful animated form.

One sunny day, the air filled with butterflies and the scent of fresh spring flowers, Alice is sitting in a tree, ignoring the history lesson her teacher is spitting at her. Alice begins fantasizing about a world of her own where everything would be nonsense, before she is further distracted by the appearance of a white rabbit with a pocket watch. Intrigued by the rabbit’s constant exclamation of lateness, she leaves her cat Dinah behind and follows him down the rabbit hole.

Alice tumbles down the rabbit hole for what seems like ages, defying all manner of physics and finally lands, only to see the rabbit disappear through a door that she is simply too large for. Alice begins taking a string of remedies and drugs that turn her into a myriad of shapes and sizes until, overwhelmed and miniature, she cries herself right through the key hole of the door in a sea of her own gigantic tears and into a Caucus race.

++++

In the fall of 2000 I returned to Disney with my father and my new stepmother, this time at the ripe age of 9 years old. Five years had transformed me from a small, white haired cherub, into a taller, gangly, golden haired tiny human being. The one thing that hadn’t changed was my fear of the infamous Tower.

As I left school early in the middle of that September, I suddenly became the envy of all of my friends at school. I delighted myself with images of riding rides all day long while they sat in English class and diagramed sentences. I would be dining with Goofy while they sat on the hard wooden benches in the cafeteria, eating the same inedible food that they ate everyday. As far as I was concerned I would be eating rainbows.

For the first few days I amused myself with riding the usual Disney rides, though there were some I claimed I was too old for now, including the ever popular Dumbo ride. My father was busy with business, so for the most part it was my stepmother and I picking and choosing what to ride and where to go. But for the last two days of our trip my father joined us in exploring the magical world of Disney and I, ever willing to please, let him pick some of our conquests for the day. Top on his list was the “Tower of Terror.”

I didn’t want to disappoint my father who I knew was easily frustrated by fear of any kind, so I hid my horror from him as we made our way through the parks, pausing to ride a few rides here and there, heading towards our final destination, and my doom. My mind was flooded with memories from my first trip down that elevator from hell, my vision was blurry, I prayed for a heart attack, a stroke, a monstrous earthquake, anything so that I wouldn’t have to go through with it.

My stomach somersaulted as we approached the line, my father and his wife chattered away like tiny birds, oblivious to the terror that was raging through me. It was as if a dam had broken and had let out all of the fear that had been contained in the past five years. As we approached the doors that spelled our end, the screams of the other victims echoing out of them, I couldn’t help it, and tears began to flow; I was in my very own Caucus race.

++++

The Caucus race in Alice in Wonderland is characterized as a race where the participants run continuously around in circles, where there is no clear winner, and nothing is accomplished and nothing moves forward. Alice joins in the race only to quickly realize the predicament that she has gotten herself into and she breaks off. Once again she follows the rabbit, only to be corned by two peculiar twins, Tweetdledee and Tweedledum, who tell her a rather ridiculous and sad story about a Walrus and Carpenter who con a bunch of oysters into being eaten. She escapes the twins and stumbles upon the white rabbit who mistakes her for his servant and orders her into his house to find some of his belongings.

Forgetting herself, she takes a bite of food from his room and immediately grows to ten times her size. The rabbit fears that she’s a monster and calls for help. The Dodo comes to his rescue and begins a misguided attempt to set the house on fire in order to remove the “monster.” Alice realizes that this is getting her nowhere and rights the situation herself. Unfortunately she once again misjudges the potency of the food she consumes and shrinks even smaller than she was before, around three inches high. Still chasing the rabbit she finds herself in a forest of flowers. At first the flowers treat her with kindness thinking that Alice is simply an odd type of flower, but as they examine her more closely they begin to see that there are some very striking differences. They conclude that she must be a weed and promptly kick her out of the garden.

++++

Back at school the following week I was, just as I had imagined, the envy of every single one of my classmates. They wanted to hear about everything I did while on my trip and I was happy to oblige but of course I left out some of the details that would have embarrassed me. I managed to avoid the subject of my fear for almost my entire day back until one brave soul dared to ask if I went on the “Tower of Terror.”

I was torn. I knew that it wasn’t right to lie to everyone, but I also knew that life was cruel, and elementary school even more so. One slip up could determine my rank in the social order of my elementary school for the remaining 2 years and I certainly didn’t want that; God forbid it were to follow me into Middle School too! I didn’t think I could possibly outlive the shame that the truth would bring. Panicking, realizing I was taking too long to answer, I heard the words slip out of my mouth before I could take them back.

I had been too afraid to ride it. Suddenly I was no longer a point of interest, I was treated instead like those gifts you get at Christmas from relatives, that you hate but keep on display in case they come to visit. You put it in a corner. I was in a corner and I was longing to escape it.

++++

Alice, cursing her luck with the flowers, follows the sound of vowels being sung as if by an emphysema patient, through the forest until she comes upon a caterpillar. Instead of helping Alice with her problems he takes her words and turns them around on her and confuses her far more than she already was. She tries to leave only to be enticed back by the caterpillar with the promise of important information. He provides her with some mushrooms, which cause her to grow again. After eating them she rights herself to her original height.

Alice finds herself in a wood where there are dozens of signs, all pointing in different directions that read, “up,” “yonder,” “this way,” “that way,” “back,” and other assorted nonsense directions. She is pondering the signs when she is interrupted by the Cheshire Cat who is singing a song that makes about as much sense as the signs. The cat seems to have a remarkable ability to disappear and reappear at will and also seems equipped with the remarkable ability to give horrible and misleading directions. Eventually he points Alice in the direction of the March Hare’s House where they are in the middle of celebrating an Unbirthday Party.

An Unbirthday is every day that is not your birthday, and the party that accompanies such days comes outfitted with nonsense rules and guests with the attention span of a chipmunk on speed. Alice, drained of all her patience, leaves, still following the white rabbit, and Alice begins to blame all of her problems on the rabbit before realizing that she has gotten herself into this mess because of her own curiosity and imagination. Devastated she sits down in the woods and begins to cry, thinking that she will be trapped in Wonderland forever.

++++

For the next few years after my second trip to Disney I spent my time trying to ride rides of every magnitude. The bigger, faster, and scarier, the better. All to prove that it wasn’t my fault that I hadn’t mastered the tower a year earlier, but rather the fault of my parents for subjecting me to that at such a young age. I began to gain a new sort of confidence with myself and when I was 17 years old my grandmother took me to Disney Land in California as a graduation present. I told myself that I was prepared to take the terrifying fall again. I was ready to stop falling, and to pull myself back into the real world.

++++

Alice, with a new burst of life, determined to get herself out of the mess that she has gotten herself into, runs into the Cheshire Cat who point her to the Queen of Hearts. The mischievous Cat claims the Queen can help her find her way home. Alice hurries to find the Queen but is more distraught than she was before finding her. The Queen turns out to be quite mad, and quick to anger, and her greatest delight in life seems to be sentencing her subjects to beheadings. Strangely, the Queen seems to take a slight liking to Alice and invites her to a game of croquet.

The game proves to be even more ridiculous than some other aspects of the world and to make matters worse, the Cheshire Cat appears at just the wrong moment and begins to torment the Queen and frames Alice. The Queen is adamant about beheading Alice on the spot but the king persuades her to hold a trial, which is quickly assembled, and it is revealed that the rabbit was late for Alice’s trial the entire time. They call to the stand a number of witnesses, all people that Alice has met in her travels, and things begin to spin out of control.

Alice runs and runs, chased by the Queens guards, as Disney works his magic, colors swirling haphazardly in time to a childish rhyming song, as all of the characters flash before her eyes, reminding us of where she’s been. Alice runs and reaches the door that she first saw upon her entry into Wonderland, whose door is still locked, and through the keyhole she spies herself, still outside in her lesson, fast asleep. She wills herself awake, and happily finds herself back in reality again. She promises herself to never let her imagination take control of her again.

++++

This time as I approached the tower I still felt the familiar butterflies that had accompanied me on previous such walks, but I was determined that I would change my ways and restore my courage. I was eager to change my reality just as Alice did. I, like Alice, had been giving myself very good advice, and then simply not following it. I knew there was nothing to be afraid of and that the danger was all in my imagination; but having this knowledge did not make it any easier to face. It still loomed over me, ominous as ever, daring me to step inside and face my fears.

When I stepped inside the elevator panic really began to set in. As the doors closed I fastened my seatbelt and looked down at my feet, which this time were set firmly on the ground. I looked under my seat, and marveled that I could ever have squeezed myself into such a small space. Thinking about that brought back flashes of images from my last frightening ride, and my mind was filled with screams and flashes of lights that represented my broken memory of the event. Claustrophobia began to take over at the elevator began it’s climb to the top of the building.

We reached the peak and we were sitting silently, wrapped up in that moment of calm before the storm, right before unseen forces drop you into infinity. I took a moment to glance around me. I saw the faces of my fellow captives in the small chamber, and I could taste the energy in the air, a mix of fear and excitement. I focused all of my being on the excitement and brought myself out of my imagination and into the reality of the situation. Faced with this new clarity I thought to myself, quoting Alice, as I felt the world fall from under my feet; “After this, I shall think nothing of falling downstairs.”

Welcome Back

2010-01-27T13:17:00.005+01:00

My second day back in the City of Lights in no way resembled the first. After I woke up I headed out to mandatory meeting talking about all of the trips and activities that are available this semester and waited for them to finish to I could get my hands on the free food they were giving us afterwards, after all thats our only incentive for going to our MANDATORY meetings. Some things I missed about meetings like this include, the free food, the dry humor of Christina Von Koehler as she presents the ballets and operas to us, and Bryan's French translations.

Afterwards a bunch of the freshman guys purchased wine and almost all 200 of us boarded a boat to take a cruise down the Seine. Needless to say they caught the attention of the upper classmen who were overheard wishing they had thought to do that. But the person who gained by far the most attention was Matt's friend from home Brandon. We first spotted him running along the river next to us as we all froze on the upper deck and he followed us up the river and back effectively running three or so miles before our boat actually pulled over and he dramatically jumped from the shore to the deck of our boat. Thats one way to make an entrance.

Here's Brandon Running alongside the boat

I was planning on calling it an early night around nine after I made myself some dinner but I got talked into going out to International a Bar and small band venue that we frequent right down the street from us. We were lucky enough to get there early enough to see two bands playing this time. The first band didn't really do anything for me but the second one called 'Elephanz' was an awesome way to end our night out before heading back to Alex's room to end the night as always. Maybe it was the lyrics, "Not gonna give into the girl next door, I'm just paying attention to the busty whore" that kept me entertained but either way it was a good night.

Back in Paris

2010-01-26T09:03:00.004+01:00

I arrived back in Paris yesterday at 10 AM after a 3 hour delay at the airport, which I'm so used to now I hardly even noticed. I didn't sleep, and in a groggy haze I landed, grabbed my bags and a taxi and headed back to Oberkampf chatting with my driver, trying to remember all of the french I'd forgotten over my 40 day break.

Upon entering my dorm it was just as I remembered it and I quickly met up with Allyssa and unpacked all of my things and settled in then headed over to NYU. It was kind of disorienting walking the familiar streets and walking around Campus, seeing all the new faces of the upperclassmen who may become my friends overtime for this next semester. After a short meeting at school I got myself my first crepe of being back and then came back to my room. I took a shower, only to discover it's broken...nothing changes much does it, always problem with slow fixes in France...sigh.

And then I proceeded to sleep for 12 hours and woke up around 6 AM this morning and I've been awake for 3 hours waiting for everyone else to wake up. Mandatory orientation activities today and tomorrow and then the weekend before classes start again on the first.

Sonic

2010-01-08T21:51:00.004+01:00

I have visited my favorite fast food establishment twice in the past 5 days; Sonic. I'm not really sure what the draw is for Sonic. It's about a 30 or 40 minute drive from my house and once there you drive up and order just like it so enticingly claims in the commercials but beyond that there's not much there. You'd think after the first 5 or 6 times it would loose it's charm and yet everyone continuously asks that we go there for a meal when I see them. While the cherry limeade is delicious and the tater tots are to die for I think the reason everyone wants to go back to Sonic is for the drive. I find that while driving somewhere since people have nothing better to do than talk thats what we do, and we end up talking and learning more about each other in that time than we would doing anything else. It's the best way I know of catching up with people, so I guess it's worth the waste of gas.

Phone Troubles

2010-01-01T20:35:00.005+01:00

My Friends in France know that I have had some trouble keeping a cell phone during my time there; And for every French cell phone I bought and either broke, or had stolen, I managed to hold on to my useless Iphone. During my travels to get back home for Winter Break the descion was finally made to turn my Iphone on. As I landed in San Francisco, my excitement rising in anticipation of my re-enlistment into the modern world of cell phone communication, the unthinkable happened.

Yes, my poor Iphone fell from my pocket and bit the dust. But as you can see it is still functional and everyone who has seen it has said that half of the Iphones they see look like this. I wonder if Apple can do anything to improve the design so we can avoid more people in my situation who nearly cry every time they look at their phone.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T19:36:00.012+01:00

Welcome to the New Year! I haven't written since the last leg of my flight to Los Angeles and I am already out of California and back in Pennsylvania. Last night I welcomed in a snowy New Year in West Chester with my friends and family and some delicious lobster, steak, and of course Champagne. I've only been home for 5 days but in that time I have done A LOT of things, but before I landed in Philadelphia I was enjoying sunny California with the other side of my family.

Left to Right: Hannah, Me, William, Kayli, Sarah, and Roxy in front

Beautiful California Sunset

I love visiting California for it's weather, it's food, the beaches, and my family. I had a long list of things to accomplish when I was there and majority of the things on the list were food! I had In-n-Out, Becker's cupcakes, Pinkberry, Mama D's, Sushi Fusion, delicious Mexican Food, and many more. Our stop in Beckers even landed us a cameo in a television show (not a very popular one as I already forget it's name) but interesting none the less. Here is a picture of the beautiful and mouthwatering cupcakes from Beckers.

Becker's Cupcakes

Our Christmas Cookies

I saw my dads new house, demonstrated my ice skating skills on the beach ice and celebrated Christmas at my Grandmother's house and my Uncle Pat's house and spent time with my family.

Kayli using Silly String

The typical Dinosaur stop on the way to the Desert

My return to Pennsylvania was met with my second Christmas and a brand new giraffe. If you know me you know I LOVE my giant wooden giraffe Jerry. Unfortunately the weather has taken a toll on him over the years and so this year I received a new smaller version for inside of the house.

What is in that big package!?

Gerard the Giraffe

I celebrated my best friend Eddie's birthday at Fogo de Chao with Mike, Dan, Courtney, his parents, and his girlfriend Sarah. It's one of my favorite restaurants and I was celebrating for one of my favorite people so it was a great time. On New Years Eve my friend Maddie and I kidnapped her boyfriend Max and took him to tea with us. I think it was an experience that made him more cultured overall and we definitely enjoyed laughing at his antics at the table.

Not The Actual Table

I still have a few more days in Pennsylvania before I head out to Puerto Rico to celebrate yet another birthday with my good friend Allyssa, and I am enjoying every cold snowy minute of it.

Happy New Year Everyone. And a happy new decade.

I Hate the Combination of Travel and Snow

2009-12-20T21:59:00.004+01:00

I am writing you this from the comfort of my middle seat on my 3rd flight since leaving Paris, on my way to my third country, and my fourth city, in my second continent. And San Francisco isn't even the final destination! I was unlucky enough to leave Paris on one of their largest snow falls ever (which really only means like 2 inches) but that was enough to delay my flight to the point where I missed my connection in Dublin.

I stayed the night and Dublin and made a new flight to NYC only to find my flight CANCELED by even more snow (this time a legitimate blizzard). Another overnight. This time I was in NYC and visited Mike in Manhattan and narrowly avoided being trapped in by the blizzard.

This morning I woke up to find my flight delayed so I would be missing my original connection in San Francisco. But I have a new flight scheduled now for a little after I land. After 3 days I should be making it to my final destination of Los Angeles. And Frankly I never want to get on a plane again...I've just remembered, my next flight is December 28th to Las Vegas and then on through Philadelphia. 8 days to recover before I have to deal with any more planes. I'm not sure if I'll write before Christmas so Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this. And to all my friends in Paris I hope you are home safely or are in the process of.

Finals are here...

2009-12-12T17:16:00.005+01:00

Remember when I decided that I was going to write more often? Well unfortunately I decided that just as finals were creeping up on us and now they are practically here. I admit I'm only writing right now to distract myself from essays I should be writing and studying I should be doing. But once finals are over we have over a month of winter break to look forward to before it's back to the old grind. For some of us this means going home and for others it means leaving to explore other, new places. But for all of us it means a little bit of a break from Paris.

I'm not sure about everyone else but even if I wasn't going home I would definitely be getting out of Paris for part of break and traveling. I love this city but I'm becoming claustrophobic as time goes on. I came here with such high expectations for what the year would hold and I haven't been disappointed, but part of the magic of Paris is the expectation of the city and once that wears off it's time to pack your bags and head somewhere else for a while. So as this blog gets ready for another Hiatus until after next Friday I wish all of my friends here at NYU in Paris good luck on their finals, and send greetings so everyone at home; I'm heading your way soon.

The next time I write will be from the warm (comparatively) weather of Manhattan Beach. But I will leave you with this scene of Oberkampf on a Saturday night, something I will definitely miss over break.

Visitors in Paris

2009-12-01T23:40:00.009+01:00

This past week I was lucky enough to have my Sister Emily, my Dad, and Rose visit me in Paris. We did just about everything imaginable from the moment they stepped off the plane until Emily left on Monday. My Dad and Rose are still here for one more day but here are just a few things that we did during their time in Paris.

We stopped in (more than once) at Angelina's for their famous hot chocolate that literally is straight melted, warm chocolate...

We rode a "scarousel" at Place de la Concorde...

We rode the Ferris Wheel...

We looked at Christmas Decorations along the Champs Elysee...

Some of us drank huge things of beer...

We saw a statue holding a vacuum...

And we did just about every other tourist attraction possible. We saw the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, we went shopping in a real French market, we even accidentally wandered into a French government building trying to find Saint Chapelle. You name it we did it all. It was Emily and Rose's first time in Paris so we got to do everything, and I have to say I may have seen more of Paris in this past week than I have during my three months here so far. The end of their visit marks the very beginning of December which means that in less than 3 weeks I will be landing in LA and seeing my Dad again, but this time in much warmer weather.

It's a Thanksgiving Miracle!

2009-12-01T19:11:00.007+01:00

As most of you are probably aware, the holiday Thanksgiving is a purely American idea. So around October when leaves started to fall I, along with the rest of my peers, began to wonder what NYU would do to compensate for Thanksgiving during our stay in France. None of us were entirely delighted when we were told that we actually had classes all day on Thanksgiving. So why was it that on November 26th every student and teacher at NYU was in a cheerful and thankful mood even though we were in school? We were waiting for 9 pm that night when we would all make the trek up the Eiffel Tower to eat a Thanksgiving dinner of epic proportions in one of the Eiffel's two restaurants, 58.

Yep stole this picture from their Website.

As we raced (last minute of course) down the steps of the Trocadero in the pouring rain, we were lucky enough to see the tower light up in a spectacular manner, in honor of the 120th anniversary of it's construction.

Excuse the poor camera work, I was after all running on cobble stones in the rain.

The restaurant was chaos of course as over 200 NYU students and faculty crammed themselves onto the entire second floor of the restaurant and eagerly awaited our Thanksgiving feast. I'm not entirely sure what we expected, but it was certainly not your usual Thanksgiving dinner. Oh there was turkey, and some form of mashed potatoes, but the pumpkin soup and the strange cranberries on a pancake, while delicious, were not something you expect to see on your plate at Thanksgiving. I think the consensus for the most delicious part of the meal was the pumpkin "tart" they served at the end. It tasted exactly like pumpkin pie but it was much more beautiful.

Everyone was in good spirits, the food was delicious, and the wine was flowing freely. So while it may not have been the most traditional Thanksgiving ever, it was certainly one no one in attendance is likely to forget too soon.

Apple Store...Fail

2009-11-23T23:27:00.004+01:00

So I took my MacBook to the new Apple Store in the Carousel du Louvre in the hopes of getting it fixed. Unfortunately, just like like every Apple store I have ever been to, it was packed! I ended up making an appointment for Wednesday but it was a cool chance to see the store because it's pretty cool, and I've never been to the Carousel du Louvre before. I even visited the Virgin Mega Store there and learned about the secret Louvre entrance down there. (Ok well it was secret to me) Here's a picture of the store location.

Excuses Excuses

2009-11-23T14:57:00.017+01:00

Hey everyone! I know I haven't posted in a while and I was looking forward to posting last Thursday when the unthinkable happened; My MacBook Pro broke!!! Fortunately, I brought my old MacBook (also broken but useable) but all of my pictures are saved on the other computer. So I'm making due with what I have. But I'm going to check out the new Apple Store right here in Paris later today to get all of my problems solved!!!

But you may ask where I have been these past few weeks and the answer is...everywhere! Three weekends ago I traveled with NYU to the towns of Metz and Nancy in France, very close to the German boarder. I signed up for the trip last minute and wasn't really sure what to expect, but of course as always NYU pulled through and made what could have been a boring trip quite interesting. One of my favorite parts was the tour guide that I had for the English tour in Metz. He was adorable! And he had a cute story about moving to France because of his wife. I took a few stalker shots of him. : )

But beyond that, Metz was beautiful and then we took a side trip to La Maison de la Mirabelle where they grow Mirabelles which are some kind of fruit similar to a peach. I even posed with a giant Mirabelle. And the next day we headed off to Nancy.

Nancy was great mostly because of this great find.

That's right a carnival that just happened to be going on while we were in Nancy. I drank Van Chaud (Hot Wine) which is a typical drink for Noel or Christmas, rode some rides, and even won a stuffed fish and a lollipop.

The next weekend I took a break from the hustle and bustle of Paris and made a quick stop back home in Philadelphia to visit with my mom and with all of my friends I haven't seen for a few months. I went shopping and enjoyed some home cooked food and enjoyed speaking English all the time. But I found I kept saying "Merci" instead of "Thank you" I guess that's what a few months in Paris will do to you.

After saying goodbye to everyone I travel back to Paris...and then left again! This past weekend I visited the town of Grenoble, nestled in the French Alps. It was very scenic and beautiful though there was less snow than I pictured. After deciding to scale one of the mountains (in clothes completely unfit for climbing a mountain in 60 degree weather) we had a relaxing Raclette dinner on top of the mountain. For those who don't know what Raclette is, it is a dish of Swiss origin consisting of melted cheese and potato. Can't really go wrong with that.

The following day we headed to another beautiful town called Pont en Royans. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. This was one of the most beautiful places I have visited thus far in France.

And now I'm off to the apple store to hopefully fix my computer! Hopefully these blogs will start to be more weekly than monthly.

Au revoir.

Halloween and Disney in France

2009-11-02T22:58:00.008+01:00

I've been living in Paris for the past two months, and during this time I have experienced many differences between my new home here in France, and my home in Pennsylvania. The most recent strange experience I was lucky enough to take part in was Halloween. Halloween is not celebrated with the same sort of enthusiasm as it is in the United States. There is no trick or treating, stores are void of any kind of decoration, and in order to buy a pumpkin (which we did eventually accomplish) we practically had to beg our local market to give us a whole one to carve. Knowing that Halloween would be different here, my friends and I decided we would take a trip to the most magical place in Europe; Disneyland Paris.

Disneyland was just what we needed. Apparently the folks over at Disney have an appreciation for Halloween even across the Atlantic and the entire place was decked out in Halloween themed greatness. Disney provided yet another example of the differences between the United States and France, in the form of it's rides. Oh the rides! I don't think I've ever experienced so many twists, turns, and loops, on any Disney coasters at either of the parks in the United States. Disneyland Paris is maybe a little more intense than the Disney we know and love at home, and it was exemplified by the numerous adults and teenagers that we encountered, not your usual hoards of small children. But that's not to say that they don't have the classics; Dumbo, Small World, and the Snow White. Those are, after all, what make going to Disneyland so much fun. You get to be a kid again.

I certainly felt like a child again as I roamed through Alice in Wonderland's Labyrinth wearing my newly acquired Minnie Mouse Ears. All in all one of the more interesting and memorable Halloweens that I have had in quite a few years actually.

We even arrived home in time to have a real Parisian Halloween outing at Social Club to celebrate our friend's birthday complete with Halloween costumes that we purchased here in Paris. So maybe the French know how to do Halloween after all.

I'll leave you with this short video of some of my friends getting into the spirit of things in a Caucus Race. Wait a minute, this is college?