Becoming a true Parisian

Now that I have been out of Paris for a little while, I realized that when you are there conforming to their Parisian lifestyle is the key to a great trip. I put together a few of my favorite things that I learned over the past month. 

To be a true Parisian while traveling in Paris, you need to …

- Learn a few words in French… if you walk into a bakery or a restaurant saying “bonjour” you will have a way better experience. Learning “hello” “please” “thank you” “pardon” “may I have” and “goodbye” goes A LOONNGG WAY in the eyes of a Parisian.

- Dress like a Parisian. And by that I mean don’t wear your short Free People or cute Jcrew shorts. You are telling everyone that you are an American and want to be looked at/touched/cat called/pickpocketed. [Quick story: I was doing my laundry and decided to throw on my one pair of jean shorts just to walk the 2 1/2 blocks to the laundry mat. On my 3-minute walk, I was cat called, honked at, grabbed, and glared at by a few people. The cat calling may boost my confidence for about half a second and then you look at the guys and realize they are gross fat old men 99% of the time. And that was the first and last time I wore shorts in Paris.]

- But seriously dress like you live in Paris. Fun fact about Parisians: they always wear pants. If it's 95 degrees outside most people will be wearing jeans with a shirt/blouse/tank with a winter coat thrown over their arm or in their bag. They are always cold. Buy some cute summery scarves and you are golden.

 - Learn how to swipe your Metro pass without opening your bag to get it out. The first few days we (mostly me) would continuously hold up everyone in line to get home or work or wherever he or she is going at that moment. It sucks, and it makes all the Parisian annoyed at the stupid American. You can swipe your pass through anything. After learning that I always knew where my pass was in my purse, and it was an easy swipe to get through quickly.

- Do not use big bills to pay for small things. I think this goes almost everywhere in Europe, but if you have a 50€ chances are most people will not have change for it or will not take it even if they do have change for it. I have had times where I am buying something for a few Euros, and the cashier won’t even take my 20€ … UGH, Annoying.

- Do Not Smile. Okay, well you can smile, but not towards anyone. If you accidently do smile towards someone, do not show your teeth while you are smiling at them. In the French culture smiling with your teeth is a sign that you are interested in them and may or may not want to go home with them if you catch my drift. ;) On that note, don’t look at people when you are walking around. Most people in Paris enjoy keeping to themselves. Parisians do not look at people. Parisians look through people.

- Do not eat the Chinese food. When you walk around Paris, there are a bunch of little restaurants that have yummy looking Chinese food. Do not be fooled by the delicious colors and smells. The TWO places that we went to over the month both turned into hot messes. Learn your lesson from me. The food has been sitting out all day. Not good.

- Hang out on the Seine. True Parisian grabs a baguette and some cheese and a bottle of wine or two (if that is your thing) and hang out on the river. Some people bring their guitars, but usually you are there to laugh, hang out and make memories. It turns into a party late and night, but it is something everyone can enjoy.

A group of us going to the catacombs one afternoon

Pasta dinner in our Apartment

There is the Mona Lisa... everyone comes to see this small tiny painting, but there are so many more AMAZING art pieces in the Louvre.

The day I ditched class

     It started out like every other day. Mia, Taylor, and I were running late (but still on time) like usual. As we left the apartment and walked to the metro stop, Mia told us that she forgot her lipstick. A few seconds I realized how bright it was outside and that I had forgotten my sun glasses. We all paused and after a short second decided that it was a sign.  We needed to go back to get those crucial things to get us through the day. On our walk back to the apartment, we remind each other how later we were going to be and decided it probably was a good day just to miss class altogether.

     After brainstorming for .2 seconds, we all agreed that we wanted to go to the Louvre instead. Once we got there and got our #basic Starbucks we made our way to the line. (Fun fact: if you are a student and have a student ID you get into the Louvre and other museums for free!) After we had got inside, we spent about 4 hours exploring about 1/5 of the museum. Imagine looking at old painting/statues/carving/bowls and other random artifacts for 4 hours. We were all tired and got a little hungry, and if you know me you know that as soon as I get hungry it is vital for me to eat within the next few minutes or else I turn into a cranky hangry monster. We left the Louvre and walked around to find lunch and settled for a gross (high-end) food court. 

     After eating our nasty old Chinese food, we walked to the Opera. If you pay a few dollars, you can walk around the inside of the Opera building. If you look at the pictures below, that obviously don’t do it justice, you will see that it is breathtaking. On the top floor you can go into one of the balcony booths and see the stage, in other parts of the building you can see rooms filled with books, old costumes, dance studios, and a balcony to get the full effect of the building. It was so worth it.

    Once we finished our self-guided tour of the opera, we started to make our way home. We had walked 12 miles (Thanks, IPhone health apps) and only had a little time to rest up and meet our class. See, our class had a night field trip to the Louvre later on that same evening. Obviously we knew that, but in our head going to the Louvre sounded way more exciting in the morning. Once we got to the Louvre for the second time that day we decided to explain to our teacher our "confusion" about why we missed class and went to explore the museum … again. After two more hours, we were burnt out. The 3 of us went back home and passed out until we had to get up for class the next morning.
Even though we missed our class, I felt that I learned so much more than I would have in class that day. Isn’t that what studying abroad is about? Learning not only in the classroom but also in the beautiful city that we are only living in for a little while.

nothing goes better with a Starbucks then a selfie right??

One of the coolest parts of the Louvre is napoleons apartment.

Inside the opera

"hey look, I am holding the Louvre"

On the roof where we ate lunch

The happiest place on earth is in Paris?

     No, I do not mean the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre, but those places are both incredible and I will talk about both of them in another blog post. I am talking about Disneyland!! If you are in Paris for an extended vacation and are tired of museums and old churches, I would 100% suggest you go. We went on a warm-ish day, and it was perfect. We got there at 11 and by the time we walked out after the fireworks show we had gone on every single ride, some twice and had seen everything that we wanted to see. Imagine a Disneyland that is a little more run down, the rides are a little shorter, and there are no churros… that is Disneyland Paris!! And the best part is that we did not wait longer than 15/20 minutes for a ride. Most of the time we could just walk directly onto the ride. It was perfect.
If you buy your tickets online a few days before they are only 55€. I have never been the one that buys my tickets when I go to Disneyland in California, but I think it is WAY more than 55€ for a day.
One thing that we noticed while we were there was that all of the rides were just a little different. The teacups only fit three people, the Haunted Mansion ride did not have the ghost sitting next to you, and Indiana Jones is a stupid roller coaster. As long as you get over the fact that you are not in California you can have an incredible day.
     At the end of the day, they have a fun light/firework show. If you think that it is like the world of color at California adventure you are wrong… remember everything in the park is a little different. They turn the castle into a screen where they play cute sing-a-long sense from a bunch of different Disney movies ending with a big firework show. I would have to say that that was my favorite part of the whole day. I was sitting with 2 of my sorority sisters singing on the top of our lungs to all of the Disney songs.
     ** One thing to remember is that if you are taking the metro to hurry as soon as the show is over. The metro starts slowing down and making fewer stops as the night goes on, so it is important to rush out of the gates to make sure you make the metro. You will be squished in like sardines, but it is so worth it making the train.

Our other roommate Ashley decided to make the trip to Disneyland with us for the day!

My 2 cute Alpha Phis on the Tea cups

Taylor and I being silly

After a long day it is important to have a photo shoot with the princess castle.

Pompeii for the Day

            Saturday was a great day! We left Rome early morning and took a train to Naples, saw Pompeii, Drove to Sorrento, Watched an amazing sunset, ate delicious food and obviously had a gelato… or 2.

            After having a few laughs on the train trying to understand how European traveling works we made it to Naples. A short trip later and we were in Pompeii. There we met up with our tour guide, Hector and he took us around. Before being there I did not know much about the city or what happened there so it was amazing walking down streets that were built so many years ago. Obviously no one has time to write down ever-single detail about Pompeii, but I will say that it was one of my favorite things we have seen so far. The people back then had restaurants, forums (malls), public bathrooms, churches, houses (with separate rooms), water and piping system, and even brothels. It just makes me want to go back to 75 A.D. to see it all in action not just as ruins. I would definitely recommend everyone to go and see it if they are in the area!

Lows

- Having a lot of (heavy) luggage on the train

- Still being somewhat jet-lagged

- Having a sketchy driver who made me scream a few times

Highs

+ Not missing our train

+Gelato

+ Our tour guide in Pompeii

+ Our tour guide in Pompeii making up funny stories about life in 70 A.D.

+ Our tour guide in Pompeii telling us that the funny stories were true

+ Getting lost in Sorrento

+Watching a beautiful sunset off the coast of Sorrento

 

Part of the temple at the end of the forum in Pompeii

 

Our tour guide, Hector, and I in the middle of the forum in Pompeii. The forum was complete with its own restaurants, bathrooms, shops, temples, city hall, grocery store, Bath houses, and more!

 

One of the only original wall paintings

I think I am still jet-lagged

     I made it to ROME! After 15 or so hours in a plane with a layover in Washington DC, I made it. I've already taken about a thousand photos, and I have only been in Europe for two days! It has truly been so amazing already I do not even know where to start. When we [my mom and I] finally got to our hotel yesterday morning they did not have a room ready for us, so while we were smelling like a sweaty airplane seat we decided to walk around Rome.

     This first place I wanted to go was the Trevi fountain (obviously because it was pretty iconic in the Lizzie McGuire Movie, but I didn't want my mom to know that was the main reason). As soon as we got there and looked around we realized that all of Rome's excavations were not going to stop once we got to town. Saddened by the site and the fact that I was not going to be able to make a wish and throw a coin into the fountain we moved onward to see a few other famous sites that were close by.

     After getting lost only a few times, we made our way back to the hotel to take a break because we were extremely jet-lagged and wanted just 30-minute to take showers and relax. Once we got back to the hotel, they informed us that our room was still not ready. From there we left on our 4-hour tour of the Vatican, not only smelling like a sweaty airplane seat, but looking like one too.

     Visiting the Vatican was amazing, though I almost fell asleep standing up a few times. I learned so much from our fantastic tour guide and saw some of the most incredible pieces of art in the whole world. There are rooms and courtyards and entire buildings lined with paintings, statues, and tapestries. It was truly breathtaking.

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    After not sleeping very well, we woke the this morning having a packed day in Rome. I am sure that by the end of the tour we stopped and saw every significant monument made for every Roman God/Godess, Pope, Emperor, President, King, and Prime Minister. We saw ruins through every old era imaginable, and it was incredible! It was unbelievable seeing apartment buildings next to ruins of ancient temples next to a palace all centered around a beautiful marble fountain. It was breathtaking!!!

    One of my favorite things that I did not realize was going to help me before I came was knowing about all of my Roman Gods and Goddesses. Last year I ended up taking a Greek mythology class where we studied all of the Gods with Greek and Roman names. As our fantastic tour guide started pointing out monuments I realized where I have seen and heard about most of the gods. I could depict who the statue was before the tour guide showed them to us. It was cool knowing that a class that I disliked so much could make traveling to Europe more exciting.

Highs
+ we made it to Europe
+ all my bags made it to Europe
+ I am so grateful I took mythology in College
+ PASTA
+ You can get a selfie stick on every street corner

Lows:
- I am still on a weird sleeping clock
- I bought the wrong size converse the day that I left the USA
- PASTA
- not knowing Italian

 

Trevi Fountain - The guard was telling me that I was taking too long so I had him jump in my great photo to let me stay longer (notice the no sleep and no shower).

 

View from a window in one of the buildings of the Vatican overlooking Rome

 

The Colosseum!!

 

Look at how amazing it is (and how cute mom and I are)!!

 

These pictures do not do the Colosseum justice! It was breathtaking! 

 

I loved all of the cute little statues on top of the buildings

 

The Pantheon Temple built forever ago to worship all of the Roman Gods