Lessons learned from international travel.

• In France, 95% of the shops, except for restaurants, close between 5-7.
• Don't show up an hour before your international departure, and if you do, pray really hard. (I made it through everything in about 30 minutes. I don't want to do that again.)
• Buy a phone card and know how to use it. Write down all the access numbers for any country you will be traveling through--airport pay phones are exorbitant.
• It's nice to pack food so that when you're flying, so you don't have to buy stuff in the airports. That being said, if you pack apples or oranges or meat, the dogs might pick up on your backpack, even after you've eaten them.
• Don't wear heels--you may need to run to make your connecting flight (this I did not learn personally).
• Write down the model and distinguishing characteristics of all electronic items you possess--you'll need them if you lose anything (this I did).
• Have flexible transportation plans for after you land. If you don't and your flight is delayed, you may make people wait a long time or miss the shuttle you booked.
• If you travel without a laptop or wireless device, be prepared to pay for internet, and have a hard time contacting people. That being said, I didn't have a problem without one (but that was more from luck than good planning). 
• UNTETHER YOURSELF. You came to look and experience things that you may never have a chance to again. Angry birds can wait.
• When learning a new bus/train system learn where to look to find 1) what stop you are at 2) which line stops there 3) what direction the vehicle is going. Other useful information includes how to tell when you can transfer, ticket prices, and availability of day/week passes.
• If you plan on spending a few days in Paris and seeing a lot of museums, buy a museum pass. It will save you a lot.
• Bring two batteries for each camera. Heck, bring three. And always charge your camera, even if it's only half empty--an extra five minutes can count.
• Bring your charger with you if you're going into town and it's not to bulky. You may find a place you can use it, oddly enough.
•  If you don't think about how you're going to buy souvenirs, you may spend more money than you want.
• Sometimes, if you're lost, you need to stop and think about things before you move.
• People are more friendly when addressed them in their own language. Even "Parlez-vous Anglais?" (Do you speak English?) will make a better first impression. Try to learn phrases in the language of the country. Not only will it help you to get to know the people better, your trip will mean more.
• If you are going to a country where the exchange rate is higher, then the cost of living will be higher for you (ie. food and lodging). But don't complain about how expensive things are.
• Learn how to use your atm card internationally. Generally there is an atm fee, which means you will want to pull out large sums of money ($100-$200)
• Let your bank know you're leaving the country. Otherwise, you may have problems.
• Luggage is heavy. (duh) Pack light, even for a month/two months of travel.

Happy travelings!

The last days

So I'm about to go home.

It's been a long month, and I've done quite a bit. I've made several new friends, come to appreciate/understand the people in my group better (since I didn't know them at all before), and really enjoyed myself. In some ways, learning French has been a reminder of learning Cantonese, and I've thought a lot about my two years in Hong Kong. The people here have been kind, although I haven't talked to many natives except the storekeepers. Annecy, which used to be a strange town on the other side of the world is now a place filled with memories: getting lost while coming home at 12:00 at night; eating apricot ice cream (really good) from a store that sold 57 other flavors; the film festival, and watching Un Monstre à Paris on the largest outdoor screen I've seen in my life; the lake; walking everywhere; little shops that we now refer to as the ___ shop; watching an eight person drum line during La Fête de la Musique; the small cathedrals (I have pictures) and the big one on top of the hill; the lake, of course; people, places, thoughts, smells. I like this town a lot better than Paris, even though there's more to do in Paris. Overall, it has been quite an experience. But I'm still glad to be going home.

Food

Yesterday I had the best mint chocolate-chip ice cream I've had in a long time. I bought it at a bread store (patisserie). It's not too hard to find ice cream here, as many bread stores, sandwich stores, and ice cream stores (imagine that) here sell ice cream. Not all stores scoop it; sometimes they use a tool that looks like a rice paddle to form the ice cream onto the cone. I say store, but they're really more like shops in a mall, and they sell everything. Cooked meat, raw meat, curios, bread, sandwiches, clothes, cheese, knives, sweets (I found one sweet shop that was two stories tall). They vary in size from about 8'x20' to 40'x60'. Side by side, they line the streets of Annecy, forming the foundation of the apartment buildings above them. Big stores or malls are rare in comparison; I know of only 3 in a town about the geographic size of Martin (about 5.8 mi x 5 mi, for those of you who don't know. Random fact: I'm about 4692 mi from Martin). 


Obviously, both the bread and ice cream is good. I think I mentioned that it's pretty tough, too. The white bread, which is what baguettes are made from, tastes a lot like crackers. The sandwiches are pretty simple: variations on cheese, tomato, and salade (lettuce), and a meat, but no sauces. Panninis are common, and are made from a much softer bread. They are pretty cheap, from 2.5 to 4 or 5 euros.

In Annecy

Annecy is a small (but larger than Martin) town on the east side of France near Italy and about a 45 minute bus ride from Geneva. It has the purest lake in Europe. You can literally drink out of it, thanks to a far-seeing  mayor who demanded that a sewer pipe be built all the way around the lake. It was expensive, but I'm pretty sure the town has recouped the cost in tourism. It really is a beautiful area.

My host family, the Barons, are wonderful. They've housed foreign students for the past ten (yes, ten) years--over 130 from many different nations: Japan, Turkey, Italy, and US to name a few. They are well organized and practiced at speaking slowly; they even have a white board and markers by the dinner table. Their house sits in a small community about 20 minutes away from the school by bus, or about a 40 minutes walk (if you don't get lost). I'll get pictures hopefully today. I had two housemates, but one (a girl from Turkey) left Monday. My other housemate, a girl from Japan, leaves Friday, so it will be just the Barons and myself for two weeks.

Pictures here!

A couple of the canals in Annecy. There are tons.

An ice cream/sandwich store

Notre dame of Annecy

Paysage! (countryside)

A street in Annecy (new village)

My new haircut (better, Heidi?)

Le Louvre

Since I didn't get the chance to write about Paris while I was in Paris, I'm going to try to alternate between Annecy and Paris. Today is Paris.

Our second day in  Paris we walked to the Louvre. I'm sure most of you know of the Louvre, or have seen a picture of it. I swear it is the biggest art and artifact museum in the world. It took a long time to build, since it was started in the Middle Ages and modified by Napolean III (that's 1200's to 1850's). It has three floors and a basement (among other things), and literally miles of hallways. And they're all filled with art--paintings, statues, and objects from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Italy, France, and a smattering of things from other places. I didn't see half of it in the four hours I was running around inside (at times literally, being late to meet up with my group). It was magnificent. It was there, looking at paintings I had seen in a culture class by artists I had heard about since I could read, that it really came home where I was. For those of us without hundreds of years of history laying spread out on our doorstep, I think it takes a second before we realize the gravity of something, so simple and material, which has been an icon of a nation for hundreds of years. Or that the men (and women) who constructed these masterpieces have been revered by thousands for centuries.

Entering the Louvre is simple enough. You wait in line to enter the glass pyramid (inaugurated on 15 October 1988), walk through security, and down a spiral staircase into the smaller basement level comprised mostly of a huge reception area. From there, it's wherever you want to go. I started with a group who went to the Greek area first, and then the Egyptian. The Greek area had some really cool small glass pots, along with an explanation of how they were made and from what. There was also the famous Venus de Milo, the one without the arms.

Most of the objects in the Egypt section display were artifacts from daily life: makeup spoons, jewelry, pots and farming implements. Near the end there was a section on temples. I learned from one of the information plaques that the temples weren't meant for the people, but for Pharaoh to impress the Gods. A big difference from Catholic cathedrals. But they are different religions.

After losing my group in the Egyptians section, I just kind of wandered. I went to see the winged victory, the Mona Lisa, and the Code of Hamurabi. I did a quick run through of the French painters, and ran through the section on sculpture on my way back to meet my group. It was a lot to take in.

If you want to know something, feel free to ask. I can't think of everything you want to know.

Pictures! (Finally)

 Pictures!

The Louvre                                                                  Musee de Clunny

                                Can you guess this one?

Some pictures a friend of mine took.

Louvre

 Duh

I can't be sure, but I think this is Versaille (or the Louvre).

Only the beginning

It appears that I may have been unclear as to the details of my visit, so I'll write them here. I'm in an intensive french course in a faculty-led program at a school in Annecy, France. I spent five (exhausting) days in Paris, and saw about a third of what there was to see. Pictures are coming, but I'm having some technical difficulties. I'll post them as soon as I can.

Alright, so you want to hear about Paris, now. Where to start? It reminded me a lot of Hong Kong, but more laid back (which doesn't help most of you). More specifically, tall buildings everywhere (by American standards--there weren't any taller than 5 stories) with artistic stone faces; no concrete. There was a lot of green, provided by small, random parks and occasional big ones, like the Luxembourg. The gardens were well cared for, and many of them were placed next to interesting things, such as museums or cathedrals (of varying size). That might have been that there are so many in Paris, however.

I can't even begin to describe everything I saw. Think of pretty much any big name in art or architecture from the middle ages to pre-1950's Europe and there's a 50-50 chance I saw it or something by them: Van Gogh, Rodin, Da Vinci, Boudin, Monet, Botecelli, Renoir, Degas, Picasso, Matisse, Poussin, Manet, Gaugin, the Eiffel Tower (though I didn't go up), Winged Victory, the code of Hamurabi, the statue of Venus, Napolean's tomb, Mona Lisa, Notre Dame, Sacre Couer, and Versaille and the Louvre, of course. Either one of those last ones could have been it's own day. Half of what I saw in the Louvre was passing by. No Michellangelo, though.

Should I post my visit in chronological order, or does it matter?