This week has had a lot of traveling. On Monday we got on a bus and headed towards Bayeux. When we left Paris it was snowing, but the snow wasn't really sticking. We went to the Rouen Cathedral, which was beautiful, and it was super cool to go up to the place across the street where Monet painted it a gazillion times. It was snowing which made the tour of the actual cathedral a little difficult, but it was still super cool to see around it and inside of it. Fun fact about the cathedral: during World War Two, the support on the right side was almost completely destroyed, but the support on one of the chapels stayed, which kept the entire cathedral from falling apart.
After Rouen Cathedral, we went to Bayeux to go see the tapestry. We had audio guides that explained each scene, and now I actually know a little bit about the Norman conquests. After the tapestry we went to the grocery store to get food for dinner, then went to the hotel and chilled. I kept getting candy throughout the day so I think I ate my body weight in sweets haha. Although that night I was given a raspberry tart (which was so good I love tarts) for my birthday cake, and even more candy.
Tuesday was like the best day ever, not gonna lie. The very first thing we did was head towards the American Cemetery in Normandy, and man I cried so hard. The lady that took us around a little bit told us a sad story about twins and then took us to the grave of the one who died and then we walked around and wow everyone was crying. Then we went to Omaha Beach, and I was still low key crying, and everyone was just very emotional.
Then, after a few hours and some collecting of our emotions, we went to Mont Saint Michel, which was literally THE COOLEST PLACE EVER. Like, my toes were low key numb the whole time we were there, but I gave zero craps I was living my best life that day. The cathedral was so cool it reminded me of Hogwarts a lot, and I just wanted to explore the cathedral so badly. Unfortunately, there were set areas we could go around the cathedral, and we couldn't go wherever we wanted. We could wander around everywhere else, though, and we did. If it had been warmer we probably could have walked around even more.
We did also have to eat, though, so we went to this little cafe that some other people from the group had been chilling in. We sat down and they didn't give us a menu which was bizarre. Then they asked what we wanted to drink and we said "tap water" and the waitress looked so mad and she went and got the manager. He then gave us two bottles of water for eleven euro. Apparently, the kitchen was closed and they were only serving drinks, which is why they were so upset that we ordered free water. We did eventually find food, just so everyone knows we didn't starve.
That night we honestly just all went to bed because it was dark outside and we had time in the morning to explore. Which, we did explore in the morning, and it was so cool. The town we stayed in was called St Malo, and it was sooooo cute. We walked long this really old wall, and we saw the beach, and the shops were so cute it looked like Main Street USA in Disney.
So Wednesday we explored St Malo, and then got on the bus and went straight to Paris, where we chilled. Paris was like having a life crisis, though, because there was so much snow, and they haven't had that much snow since the 80s. Our bus driver was also a little sketchy on the driving skills, so Professor Howard was like "we could go to Chartres or we could be safe" so we were safe.
Then on Thursday, a group of us went to the Eiffel Tower and climbed to the top. It was so many stairs, I was like almost dead. But it was so worth it! Like, I'm not huge on doing the super touristy things, but it was so worth it for this. Also, it was like the only day of sunshine that Paris had the whole week, so it was a good day to go! We also decided that the workout deserved a reward, so we went to Five Guys on the Champs Elysee. After, we were like "lol lets walk down the Champs Elysee" but it was freezing so we went to Abercrombie and Fitch and then went home.
Okay, Abercrombie and Fitch deserves its own paragraph. That place was wild. It's on the Champs Elysee, with all the cute shops that are like buildings pressed together with apartments on top, right? Well, Abercrombie and Fitch is so extra, they have a golden gate, a giant walkway, and big brass doors leading into a 4 story store with golden and brass features. There are these giant murals everywhere of men doing ???? everything ??? and they are bluish grey dudes, and they are sometimes clothed, sometimes not. We joked about doing our art responses for class on the murals there. They also did their darnedest to make it smell like cologne everywhere it was horrible.
Friday, we woke up to meet at 9 am to go see if we could get cheap ballet tickets. Well, we then realized the box office didn't open until 11:30, so we went back to bed and then met back up at 10:30 to get our last crepes and go get tickets. The ballet was supposed to be 2.5 hours long, plus two intermissions, so everyone was kind of like "yeah, we'll go but we can always ditch during an intermission if it's boring". Then, we went back to the hotel and chilled/packed until 6:30 so we could head to the ballet. We got to the opera house fine, made lots of Phantom jokes, and then like went to our seats in the very top. Because there were so many of us, we had to get tickets in smaller groups, so there were four of us in the top right seats on the fourth level. Then, to our shock, this creaking sound comes up from behind our heads, and we are like "it is literally the phantom of the opera we are gone bye" and out pops two other kids from our group who had seats on the nonexistent fifth level in a dark attic like space.
The ballet though was soooooooooo good. I'm still shook. It's called Oneguine, and it's by Tchaikovsky. It started out cute, but like by the second act you're so shook, and then the third act you're like "this could go either way predictable or what I want" and you still end up shook. We talked about it the entire walk to the gelato place we went to.
Then on Saturday we flew to Rome! It was a weird time, ngl, like it was a weird day for me. Then we landed in Rome, and like that's maybe the happiest I've ever been. It was like 50 degrees F out there! We got on our bus and drove to the monastery we live in, dropped our stuff off, and then went on a little walk around some Piazza and eventually got pizza and gelato.
Well, now it's Sunday and we went to church which was warmer than in Paris thank goodness. The weirdest part about this section of the study abroad is how less independent we are. In Paris we were literally so independent and did our own things, but now all 20 of us have to be together at almost all times. So after church we had to wait for all 20 of us to be ready to go before we went back home.
We went back, but rather than stopping to change at the hotel, some girls and I got pizza at this place and holy moly it was good. We also found a super cheap gelato place (G like Gelato, for anyone who ever comes here) and it's right by our hotel, AND it also sells crepes, so we can continue our addiction while in Rome.
Tonight we went on a walk to St. Peter's, and it was soooo cool I'm so excited to be here.
Also for fun on the plane ride I wrote a list of the best best best things in France (some will make sense, some will be like lol what):
1. Amorino's Gelato
2. Achtung! Vertaschen Dieben!
3. Monoprix
4. Monoprix Croissants
5. Kinder Bueno
6. The top of the Eiffel Tower
7. Sugar & Lemon Crepes
8. Rando praline macaron
9. Croque Monsieur
10. Oneguine
11. Disneyland Paris
12. Rando clarinet players
13. Normandy - American Cemetery
14. Mont Saint Michel
15. Musee D'Orsay
16. Water lilies
17. Saint Malo
18. Stay Away - the Colourist
19. Five Guys
20. Arc de Triomphe
21. schjorjshe she shujsh (George V)
22. Knowledge is Shower
23. Shakespeare & Co
24. Catacombs
25. Bread @ FHE
26. Vending machine hot chocolate
27. Sainte Chapelle
28. Franklin D Roosevelt
29. French Fries
30. Chocolate croissants
31. Flower Shops
32. Fruit tarts
33. Domino's
34. Milka oreo bar
35. Picard
36. Ridikulus bowing
37. Abercrombie and Fitch store
~ Emily
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