Mr. Friendly, Dr. Pepper, and more pictures

I'm home again. I got in to Tulsa around 9 p.m. on the 19th, after 20 hours of airport shenanigans and travel. The strangest part for me was arriving in Detroit ... everyone was speaking in English and they were smiling and very friendly and it was chilly in the airport. Air conditioning!

I didn't even realize that I'd gotten used to people not being particularly friendly, as I never thought I'd been slighted by a French person and also thought they did smile a lot despite what we'd been told. However, it was like coming up out of water to take a breath when the customs officer was friendly and smiled and said "he didn't bite," which was very different than the way I was greeted by the French equivalent: silence and a placid half-smile. It didn't really matter to me either way; it's customs, it's annoying, and I didn't care to have anyone make small talk with me.

Getting used to being around a lot of Americans again was strange for a little while ... and I was unhappy to be in Detroit of all places (my connection from France to Tulsa), rather than Paris. I did not want to leave Europe at all, so I sat and cried about it for a little bit, which was also due to a massive lack of sleep and total exhaustion.

The first thing I did when I got back to the U.S. was buy a Dr. Pepper. I never ever saw Dr. Pepper anywhere in France or Italy. The rest of the OSU group and I pretty much love Dr. Pepper more than any other soda, so we were all suffering with the soda choices of Coke and Coke Light for an entire month. It was sweet consolation. Another strange thing: in Europe, Coke was almost as expensive, and sometimes more expensive than, alcohol. About 7 dollars, and often more, just for a regular 16 oz. Coke. Lucky I don't really like Coke at all, so I was never tempted to pay that.

Here are some pictures from our last full day in Paris:



A Paris Metro sign. I think I saw more of the Metro subway system than any other part of Paris itself. We'd finally gotten a good handle on the routes when it was time to go home. Of course.



On our last day, we decided to take a BatoBus, or bateaux (boat) bus, to tour the city down the Seine River. I would definitely do this again ... except I'd wear sunscreen next time, as I got a pretty good burn from standing out on the deck. The cool thing about the little water bus was that you can get off at different sites like Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower, tour around, and then get back on whenever you want. We got off at the Notre Dame stop, the St. Germain stop (to eat lunch at a classic French cafe), and the Champs-Elysees stop. A long day of sightseeing!



Actually this wasn't the last day in Paris, but the day before. I like it because I was having fun with everyone at the Louvre. A lot of the kids tried the Da Vinci Code audio tour after I said it was the bomb, and everyone loved it. I tried the regular audio tour on my second visit, and it was extremely dull and obvious.



On the last night, the whole OSU group met at the top of Sacre Coeur, or the Sacred Heart Church, on top of a hill in Montmartre. It was a crazy hike, involving a walk up toward the hill and then another 180-200 steps up to the top, but worth it to see the city as the sun was setting on our final day. We all ate dinner at a little French cafe (it was gross and reminiscent of the cafeteria food we'd eaten in Dijon every day) and hung out one last time before we all splintered into little groups ...



My little group and I headed over to the Eiffel Tower for one last visit. I went to the Tower about 4-5 times while I was in France, and I could definitely see it many times again. But my final plan was to take the elevator up to the top to see the entire city lit up at night. So, Shane and I got in line about 2 hours before the Tower closed down for the night. It was really busy there, of course, and the sign was threatening an oversaturation of people but we didn't pay attention. However, as we kept waiting in line, suddenly the sign flashed "Troisieme etage ferme" which means "3rd stage closed." There was no more going to the top of the Eiffel Tower at all ... it was extremely disappointing. But that's only one more reason to go back - I have to take that elevator to the top someday!



Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. I'd always wanted to go to this airport after seeing the U2 video for their song "All That You Can't Leave Behind," which they filmed entirely in this futuristic place. Since I was the last person to fly out that day, I had some extra time to take pictures and take a good look at everything. I ended up being at the airport about 7 hours before my flight took off! But only one bus took all of us from our hotel to the airport, and I was worried I'd get lost if I didn't go with everyone else at 6:30 a.m. ... it was worth it.



This is an advertisement in Charles de Gaulle, which I thought summed up my trip. Next to the funky shoes it says "journey," and to the right of them, it basically says "To be open to the world is to understand the differences in points of view." And that was the note with which I ended my amazing month-long adventure in Europe.

Last night in Dijon ...

Here are some pictures from our closing dinner in Dijon, hosted by the Millers. It was at a French cuisine restaurant, which I had not been to yet, surprisingly. No one really likes official French food ... it's really heavy. But I did like trying Escargot. It was really rich and delicious. I didn't really like my beef burgundy, but loved my salad paysanne and the creme brulee, of course.



Here was my table, which we all decided was the most fun one. :) Left to right: Dana, Paige, Jen, Shane, Hilary, me. I was wearing a dress I borrowed from Jenna, which everyone loved...



Hilary and I goofing around at dinner ... we shared a bottle of red and had a great time.



The Three Nasty Amigos, as we prefer to be called. We are all sitting in the Paris hotel room right now as I post this ...

Eiffel Tower, 1:30 a.m.

Most of us just hung around the hotel tonight after eating Chinese food in a little hole in the wall restaurant. I was just drinking some kir (I'm making it for you all when I get home - white wine mixed with creme de cassis, or blackcurrant, a delicacy made specifically in Dijon) and watching bits of the Daily Show with some of my classmates ... when right around 1 a.m., my friend Red got a bit antsy. He gets antsy a lot. Many would say he is incredibly impatient. Bored easily. He said he just wanted to go walk around, so I said I'd go because I was bored and wanted to see more of the city. Even though it was the middle of the night. Which it still is. So, we went downstairs and Red decided to ask the night manager people how to get to the Eiffel Tower; check. It was a straight shot from a Metro station right near the hotel. But the Metro also closes down at 1:50 a.m. So, we only had about 45 minutes to go there, see it, and come back before that time.

It was really fun. Yes, I already saw it last week, but it was also fun going with someone who hadn't seen it before. Plus, it looked different. It didn't have the goldish glow to it - it was all bright, sparkly disco lights. I love doing stuff like that. Just totally, completely random, in the middle of the night.

It's 2:50 a.m. now, and we all have to get up early (for real this time) to hit the Louvre (again), the Champs-Elysees, Notre Dame, etc. We've got to get our sightseeing on because we're leaving on Tuesday! Only two more days and then it's back to Oklahoma. It's going to be weird, to say the least ... but no weirder than going to the Eiffel Tower at 1:30 a.m. on a whim.

Jennie

Shane to French bee: "Surrender like the rest of your countrty!"

We are now in Paris after riding in a bus from Dijon. Everyone went to Hard Rock Paris last night, and we had a great time eating chicken and other American foods and also drinking out of souvenir glasses. Expensive, but a good time nonetheless. We're all glad that our classes are done. We got these little certificates from the Burgundy School of Business, as well as crappy free t-shirts, which I promptly wore.

So, today we went to Versailles. No one could really get up early enough, so we weren't able to see the whole thing. We essentially only saw the main palace, and weren't able to go into the gardens or to Marie-Antoinette's private estate. That was a bummer, but I liked everything I saw. It was beautiful and expansive ... and there were tons of annoying souvenir sellers practically blocking our path into the palace. It's about the most irritating thing about Paris: the souvenir hawkers. And they sell the most idiotic crap, like cheap scarves with Paris written all over it, and icky little Eiffel Tower key chains as well as light up Eiffel Towers ...

We all had a good time buying souvenirs (in the shops) and seeing where Marie-Antoinette used to live with Louis the 14th, but the most fun was on the Metro train on the way back to the hotel. We were standing in a pretty full train, when Hilary spotted a large bee on the window above her head. Thus, we all moved out of the way while Shane tried to beat it to death with his ... umbrella. Not exactly a weapon of choice when it comes to stinging insects, but that's all we had. As soon as he smacked it once, he'd basically just pissed it off and it started buzzing around angrily. He had to smash it with the umbrella approximately 12 times before it died ... and in the meantime we were all screaming and laughing hysterically after Shane shouted, "Surrender like the rest of your country!!" Even some of the stoic French passengers were chuckling ...

Well, I'll try to post more pictures soon. Shane, my Paris roommate, wants to use our shared Internet, and we're trying to decide what to do for dinner.

Love,
Jennie

Pirates des Caribaes

I decided to go to the French cinema to see Pirates of the Caribbean III. There were two reasons for this: 1 because I really wanted to see it and couldnt wait any longer and 2 because I was curious about seeing an American movie dubbed in French in a French theater. I was not disappointed on either count.

First of all, French theaters do not serve snacks or drinks. That is the key difference between the French and American cultures: we eat at any and all opportunities while the French never seem to eat at all, unless you count smoking. Thus there are not cup holders in the seats. As a matter of fact, there is nothing snazzy about the seats in general. No rocking chair-cup holder-arm rest mobility action. Its just rows upon rows of living room chairs, soft and fuzzy, but with very straight backs.

In addition, we watched several trailers, and only one of the movies was an actual French movie in French with French actors. The rest were either Fantastic Four-type American films or German movies with French subtitles. There seems to be a big market for German films in France, as there's an entire theater in Dijon that only plays German movies with French subtitles.

After the trailers, the theater turns the lights BACK on for a moment, then slowly lowers them back down and you get that little ad for the theater, like Welcome to Cinemark, or what have you. Usually there's a little star or filmy thing that's the theater's mascot ... well at this theater the mascot is Pinocchio with a pickaxe. Pinocchio. And in his hand a pick axe. And he rides a roll of film to the movie theater. I was and am extremely disturbed by this image, and do not understand what a weapon-wielding Pinocchio would have to do with the movies. Only in France, right? But the more and more we experience of French culture, the more I also understand why they import so much of ours: theirs really sucks.

So, on to the movie. It was fully dubbed, and I didn't really notice their mouths moving at drastically different rates ... I had trouble imagining their voices as being different than what I was hearing. Plus, Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't really need actual words because it doesn't really have any dialogue to speak of. Or, like, any that means anything.

Well, I've got to go back to class ... can't wait to see Pirates in English to compare. Anyone see it yet? I've got a little bet going regarding a scene I swear would not be shown in the U.S. version ...

Jennie

Last few days in Dijon ...

And I have definite mixed feelings about it. I'm happy because I want to see everyone back at home, and I'd like to stop having stomach cramps and I'd also like to eat chicken again and stop living out of a suitcase. However, I also love all my new buds and enjoy being abroad. Here's a picture we had the waiter take tonight at dinner:



This isn't the entire group. It was just the people who wanted to eat at the little Italian place that Lauree, Jenna and I fell in love with a few weeks ago. We had our wine tasting session earlier in the afternoon, and then afterward as we were milling around in the classroom, we told people we were going out for Italian afterward, and everyone sort of wandered over there with us. We had a lot of laughs and good food, which we do a lot. Around the table starting on the left front: Amy, Reddy, Meghan, Christie, Jenna, Shane, Hilary, Jen, Lauree, Ashleigh, Katie, me. Anyway, there aren't many boys as you can tell, but they don't seem to mind ...

This has been a pretty great experience, all in all. I may be downing Pepto-Bismol tonight, and sweating because there is no air conditioning in this dang college, but it has been pretty great. We haven't all gotten along all the time, but we've done the best we could considering the circumstances (around each other 24/7 for weeks at a time). I'm wearing a dress I bought at Monoprix, the grocery store/Target sort of place here.

See you all pretty soon!

Love,
Jennie

I even procrastinate in France!

Well, I've got a presentation due tomorrow morning at about 9:45 a.m. And one of my group members is sick to her stomach and sleeping, another one is in the lobby of our hotel playing cards, another is completely MIA, and then there's me. Blogging at school. So, I guess we'll be putting together our PowerPoint presentation on EU-US trade relations at some point tonight. But not now.

Now it's time for some pictures of Paris. Here we go:



After getting into Paris via train, we promptly had to get onto the Metro and try to figure out where our hotel was. We asked an information person at the train station and she snubbed her nose at us and told us to "call the hotel." This picture is of Jenna laughing hysterically when we realized we got on a Metro going the wrong way. Everyone else had gotten off and we had to sit in an empty subway train, waiting for it to reverse directions and start its path over again ... we had fun with it.



The Paris Metro ... we finally found our stop: Victor Hugo. It was funny because our hotel in Lyon was on Victor Hugo Way, and then our Metro stop in Paris was Victor Hugo as well ... it seems this writer is "popular" or "famous" in France for some bizarre reason.



Pretty classic shot of ole Eiffel. Hard to get something "artsy" when it's so enormous, and every picture in the world's been taken of it. This was after the sparkly white lights had turned off. They turn off and turn on at intervals.



Another shot of La Tour Eiffel.



The picture I'd been waiting all trip to take: the self-shot in front of the Eiffel Tower. Who knows what that lady was doing in the background. Ruining tourists' photos, I guess.



Julie and I in a Paris cafe, right across from the Louvre. I think I was the only one who actually liked my food. Everyone says I'm the one who will "eat anything," which those of you at home will hardly believe. But it's true: when I'm hungry, I will eat it. Plus, I like the food here. I don't know what they're complaining about half the time. I also have an upset stomach more often than the rest ... perhaps there is some link I'm missing out on.



I am a huge tartlette fan! This is a tartlette fraises, or strawberry tart. Sweet!!!! I ate about three tartlettes that day. They are so much better in France than at home, because the crust is sweeter and more graham-crackery delicious. At home it always seemed like the crust was waxy. At any rate, that's also an espresso in the shot. Since this is how they serve it here, I've gotten used to just drinking shots of espresso with sugar, or avec sucre. I've learned coffee French. :) I just say "dou-blay expresso AVEC SUCRE!!!" I had to have my strength up for walking around the Louvre all day!



The Louvre! This is after you walk into the courtyard. All four of us were so thrilled to finally see the glass pyramid ... it really made our trip. We spent a lot of time just milling about taking pictures of it and looking around and just generally being awed.



This is the entrance lobby of the Louvre. The entrance is inside and below ground underneath the pyramid. Then you go to whichever wing you want by taking an escalator back up. There are, I think, four floors of stuff. Someone said you could spend six months inside of the museum and still not see everything. So I just did the Da Vinci Code stuff, milled about, and saw the Vermeer paintings. It took hours just to do that.




Julie and I in the sculpture garden. There isn't much modern art in the Louvre at all, but this was there. And it was odd. We had one of the security guards take this picture. :)



We'll be back on Friday!