Weekend Trip to Rouen and Traville!

So its been a while again... and I will try to remember things from the last few days. Here goes. Well to start, this weekend we went to the Normandie section of Paris which is in the north east of france. There we went to the towns Rouen and Traville. When we got to Rouen, we toured around the town and saw a bunch of really old and fantastic churches. I think we must have gone past 4 or 5 and we actually went inside one. It reminded me of the inside of Sacre Coeur. I wish I could show everyone all the pictures, but I don't feel like buying a flickr pro account to put my pictures on the internet. I'll just show you all them when I'm back in the USA.

After we toured around we went to a music store because it has been several weeks since some of us have touched an instrument and we are going through musical withdrawl. We found this little store with a ton of keyboards and guitars and when we went in we asked the owner if we could play them. He said only if we were planning on buying them. We "were planning to buy them" so we played a little bit. And then eventually the owner kicked us out haha. It was fun while it lasted. After that we went to a bar to watch the usa/ghana game. One of my friends bought a huge american flag on a pole and was waving it through the streets on the way there and in the bar. I was so proud. I also got some red white and blue face paint that we also wore. Chris bought a reject Vuvuzela that was like a big kazzoo not a vuvuzela but it was still absolutely hilarious when he played it in the bar.


*****i will finish this up tomorrow*******
TO BE CONTINUED!

OK so to continue this tale of epic proportions, so we were at the bar, waving the american flag, watching the game and about 5-6 french guys came in and sat near us. After the game was over, the french people invited us to a party they were having after the game at their apartment near by. I was a little concerned about going and almost just went back to the hotel but without risk there isn't growth. So all 9 of us went and it turned out to be an amazing time. There were probably 20 french people our age at the party and it was really cool just hanging out with them, speaking english and french and having a good old time which eventually led to the taking of this picture:

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I should let it do the talking but I'm skeptical that it will say the next few words exactly as I might. Out of all the amazing experiences I have had seeing different sights, its the things like these that you can't plan an afternoon for, can't buy a ticket for, and consequently won't soon forget. Rouen is awesome. Good friends and good times.

La fête de la Musique

So yesterday was the first day of Summer and in celebration of this nice warm 58ºF day, France was hosting several little concerts all over. Most of which are in Paris. A friend and I met up with Sébastien in the Jardin Luxembourg where there was some irish music and also some spanish music. It was pretty cool but we wanted to see if there was other music near the Eiffel Tower. There wasn't any there for some reason so we just walked around and talked in english and french. Ok..mainly english. We also were told to move because some people were filming a movie. No one would tell us what movie they were filming or who was there. That probably means the 4th Bourne Movie. Because Matt Damon's cover can't be blown. EVER!

After that we headed back to the hotel and there was a DOPE Rap Concert poppin' off right outside the hotel. Tons of people were there. After making an very interesting dinner (pasta, you know!) I headed out to check out the concert and get down with my bad self. As my roommate Robert put it, the bass was undeniable. An other thing that was undeniable is the lack of actual performers on stage. Unless of course Snoop Dogg and Ludacris were actually there and I just didn't see them because I'm 4 feet small! After a little while of listening, and when I realized I was the only white kid wearing a Flogging Molly shirt at hip hop concert, I peaced. MTV's presentation of "Shake Ton Booty" was a little to real for me.

Highlight of the Day:
When Jay-Z's music was playing and french people threw up the Hova handsign. Biggest smile all day haha.

Rollerblading in France

So yesterday I went rollerblading in the streets with about 2000 people in Paris. Rollerblading is huge here which I think is awesome. On fridays and sundays there are different marathons, I guess, that thousands of people participate in. The total distance of the course was 14.5km or about 9 miles. This happens at 10pm on friday nights and 2:30pm on sunday afternoons. Its very official, there are police escorts and probably about 30 or 40 staff members that run the event. Its really cool that the people are ok with waiting as a huge group of people rollerblading goes by stopping traffic and all. There are also cops on rollerblades that join the crowd making sure everything goes smoothly which is something that is apparently exclusive to france. Go figure! It was a very good experience, I really recommend checking it out!

Its Been a While

Hey! So sorry about the late post, I've been really busy lately! I'm coming to you live from Bercy Park which is right near our hotel. This is my first time coming here and it is really awesome. I may have to do some running here at some point. Very scenic, very pedestrian friendly, outdoor wifi. Classic Paris. Its around 60 degrees out right now, hence the sweat shirt *shiver*. Anyway, in class this week we were giving little powerpoint presentations on the different artists that lived in Montmartre which is a section of paris that is very charming. This is also where you would find the Sacre Coeur. Yesterday we went there and to the Montmartre museum which has a lot of interesting art that is from artists that used to live where the museum is today. Impressionist paintings and the like. Thursday we went out to a spanish tapas restaurant to watch the france/mexico game. It was a great time even though france fails and can't score any goals in the world cup. It was really funny because when Mexico scored their goals, there was this one guy who was screaming and cheering and getting all excited and he was the only one haha. I have to say that being around the locals when they get excited about anything is probably one of my favorite things about Paris, its so great! During the day thursday, I met with my french friend/conversation partner Sebastien in the jardin du Luxembourg. After that we got to go inside the sorbonne because he went there for class. I was only allowed in with him on the condition that I didn't take any pictures. Oh well. It absolutely incredible and the lecture halls belong in a museum or something. There are massive murals above the podium and so much interesting and old architecture that I don't know how anyone pays attention in class. Apparently to attend the Sorbonne tuition is only €450 per year! When I told Sebastien how much Villanova tuition was per year he absolutely couldn't believe it.

So last night me and Chris hosted a crepe party in his room. I was making the crepes and Chris was spreading nutella on them. TEAMWORK! So delicious. So fun. Mom you would have been so proud :D

This morning a few of us went to the Louvre and got it FREE and didn't have to wait in any line at all. This my friends, is the power of being a student in France. We started in the areas that had Greek sculptures carvings and the like and finally made our way to see the Mona Lisa. I don't mean to hate on Mona, but she wasn't that friendly. I mean, we couldn't get within like 20 feet of her because she was fenced off and wasn't even signing autographs. She also had a lot of loyal fans taking paparazzi pictures of her. I was surprised that she was holding a Coke can and wearing a Nike hat: Someone's making money...but she was just kind of staring and after like 3 mins of her not moving, I got a little creeped out and left. I really wanted to see the picture from the Coldplay album art for Viva La Vida and it was really surreal to see it in person. I think that was probably my favorite thing I saw.



After that we saw a bunch of sculptures and egyptian stuff. All things considered, the Louvre is the most AMAZING museum I have ever seen. Even if there was nothing on display in the rooms, the walls and ceilings alone would be more than enough for it to be a museum. There are massive paintings on the ceilings which you could easily miss if you don't look up.

So I guess that's all for now. One week down 5 amazing weeks to go!

Spittin' Madd Francais

So I'm going to combine the last two days. The second day of class I had an easier time listening and understanding the teacher. After class I took a walk around the Opéra metro stop. I didn't actually get to see the Palais Garnier because I didn't go the right way. I wasn't planning on staying for long because I had a good amount of homework that I needed to get to. Around 5pm here we met back up at the center and met our french conversation partners. This was arranged through the center and the idea is that French natives that are learning english have conversations with American native students that are learning french. This was really interesting and definitely took patience with each of us to understand and correct each other. Later on some friends and I went to an indian food restaurant which was a good time. Order indian food in french: CHECK! After that we went back to the hotel to watch the brazil/north korea game. What a great one. Crazy goals. Later on me and Chris started talking to two guys from morocco that are staying in the same hotel and later a guy from senegal. We must have talked for 2-3 hours about the foreign view of america as well as how america is handling the situation in iraq. We also talked about the israel and palestine conflict. I don't really want to go into detail so just take my word that it was extremely eye opening. It was really cool because they knew english a little better than we knew english so we had to help each other out and translate things to make our conversation work. Such a good experience!!!

First day of school!

Back to school! Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool! I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight! Ohhhh, back to school! Back to school! Back to school! Well, here goes nothing!

So classes started today, and much to my delight I am not taking beginner french and instead, am taking intermediate french 2 which is taught completely in french. I was a little overwhelmed and struggling to understand everything the teacher said but it went pretty good all things considered. I'm learning a lot and our teacher is awesome! After class I booked it back to the hotel to refresh my memory about using past tense and imperfect tense. 5 hours and one nap later, I got dinner with Chris which was good and then came back to an empty hotel room. My roommate Robert wasn't there but all of his stuff including shoes so I did what anyone would naturally do and assume he was stolen and taken hostage by Matt Damon. Thats all for today!

Au Parc!

Today wasn't as eventful as others but was just perfect because it was our first day to just relax and do whatever without having to meet up with the whole group. Or wake up for that matter. Got up and headed to the parc in front of the louvre with two of my friends; just read, relaxed, and ate lunch that we brought with us. Then we walked around the city a little bit in search of graffiti to photograph. As you can see: Mission Accomplished! Class starts tomorrow and its still up in the air whether I will be taking Beginner french which I already think I know, or Intermediate French 2 which will be more of a challenge. Cooked some dinner and watched the Germany vs. Australia game tonight. 4-0! Anyway, enough of this rambling, heres an awesome song instead!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wavpWRK6IX8&feature=player_embedded

Chateau d'Ecouen

Today we went to the Chateau d'Ecouen. We ate lunch there which was really nice then took a tour around the castle. There were some pretty interesting wood carvings in different furnishings around the castle. There was also several huge tapestries that were very detailed. We walked around the surrounding area and it was really beautiful and set in the sprawling country side. I took some pictures of some interesting houses and I'm working on getting all my pictures on the internet somewhere. Flickr only would let me upload like 100 pics per month so I'm looking for any advice from anyone who has any alternatives.

When we came back a few of us went to the 19th arrondissement and went to the parc des Buttes Chaumont. After that we went to dinner at a japanese restaurant. Order japanese food in french, CHECK! Then we went to a bar to catch the last 15 mins of the USA/England game. Tomorrow we have the day off before classes start on monday.

Paris is awesome

Well to start, yesterday we went to Monmatre where you will find le Sacre Coeur. So thats where we headed first and it was amazing. It is on top of a hill so you have to climb an almost Rocky Balboa amount of stairs to get to it. When you get to the top you turn around and get an amazing view of Paris. This is where the picture taking began. I wanted to capture as much of the beautiful architecture of the church as possible because I've seen nothing like it before. However the inside of the church is equally amazing, there are thousands of little candles around the church it was like getting a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs, you would not believe your eyes either! I also thought that it was really neat that even though there was probably like 500 people inside either praying or walking around it was completely silent.

Next we went to the main part of the town where there were streets upon streets of picturesque little shops, cafe's, and houses. So 120 pictures later I realized that I couldn't take any more because everything I looked at was picture worthy. Awesomeness Overload. After that a few of us took the metro to go grocery shopping and then walked back a mile or two to our apartment. Later on I made some dinner for a few of us, pasta to be more specific, and then left for the eiffel tower to watch the France/Uruguay football match with basically all of Paris gathered outside. There was a huge screen set up in front of the eiffel tower and it was pretty surreal to be part of the crowd. Especially when it started to get darker and the eiffel tower had a light show that made it sparkle in the background right next to the screen. Even though the game wasn't very interesting with a final score of 0-0, it was a great time. Afterwords everyone rushed the metro and it was packed. When we were walking through the underground tunnel to get to the platform everyone started yelling and clapping and slapping the wall which was hilarious because it was so loud and full of life. People were running through the crowd with french flags and going crazy for no reason at all. I like it. We were on the metro and suddenly 2 guys ran on to the train which at first made me think they were running to make the train, but no, one guy had apparently pick pocketed the guy chasing him who was trying to get back his stolen phone. Needless to say, he got it back.

Continuation of Yesterday SLASH Friday Morning

So yesterday we took the Metro to the study center in the 2nd arrondissement which is where we will be studying and taking our classes during the week. We had several presentations there about what is in all of the different arrondissements in Paris and then we ate lunch. I almost ordered everything right in french, but I realized that when I have been ordering a bottle of water (which has been like every time I ate) I have been using the wrong word for bottle! French 1 Gerry 0 oh well. But everything is going well, my french seems to be coming back much faster than I had expected to which is pretty awesome. After lunch we went out on a little tour of the area around our study center and got a prepaid cell phone. I don't think I will be putting my number up because the cost for anyone to call it outside of france would not be worth the expense. However, feel free HOLLA BACK on Skype at gerrymayer17 send me an IM at cybrswmage or email me at gerard.mayer@villanova.edu or comment below! ANYWAY....After that we went on le bateau mouche (paris tour boats) in the Seine. This started near the eiffel tower and went around to Notre Dame. Good thing I forgot to bring my camera! But I guess those are the most photographed things in the city anyway so feel free to check them out at google.com/images if you want to see some pictures. And you can just pretend I took them; see what I did there? :D After that we made out way back to the hotel and then had a fantastic dinner at a nearby restaurant filled with good conversation and excellent company! (a one, two punch combination of epic win) Everyone is starting to open up a little more, myself included. Afterwords we hung out in the hotel rooms and I even got to meet Bobby Bottleservice! Night made.

SLASH

Had a great breakfast in the hotel this morning. I want to especially make note that the cappuccino that comes out of a machine is better that any I have had in the states. lolz

Today we are going to Montmatre for a scavenger hunt and then later tonight the first French world cup game will be on which I'm really excited for! There are a few options of what we are going to do for the game, either go to the eiffel tower where there are HUGE screens set up to watch it or go to a bar and watch it with the locals. I think both would be awesome so I will be sure to let you know what happened tomorrow.

Second Day in Paris

Alrighty so I got into Paris early yesterday morning. I left Boston at 5pm and arrived in france around 6am. We eventually got to our hotel/apartment around 13 and ate lunch outside, took a little tour of Bercy (the area of paris that we are living). Then we went into the center of the city, learning how to use the metro on the way. We took a tour with Jipé (JP short for Jean-Philipe) our student coordinator and local Parisian. We saw a lot of different things really to many and to briefly to be taken fully. We all ate dinner together complete with bread, wine, lamb, and creme brulee. C'est fantastic! And thats about all for now!

This post brought to you by AT&T and their free airport terminal wifi.

Well right about now I'm at the airport waiting to board my 1:30 jet plane to BO$. I will take this opportunity to note that the gray cloudy sky outside the window next to me matches very well with the interior design of the airport terminal. Seriously, everything in here is different shades of gray. Someone forgot to change the printer from grayscale to color. Philly airport your game is weak. That is all.

The Storm Before The Calm

Intro

Well Hey there! If you're reading this then that means you probably want to see what I'm up to in France OR you are a random stalker. Either way...Welcome! I decided that maybe I should make a blog to give you a daily *knocks of wood* update no matter how brief, of what exciting adventures I'm having in Paris for the next 6 weeks.

Body

So currently I am still at home, frantically packing my life into a rather large suitcase (yes I can fit inside). This sunday I'm shipping up to Boston to my good pal Chris' house until we leave for France on tuesday afternoon. We are both representing Villanova in our study abroad program and aim to make Jay Wright proud.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think this pretty much sums up what I want to get out my this experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZG2Cb1I7oo