Can't believe it's already break!!

Monday: I was pretty tired when I had to wake up at 6:30am for my 8am French language class on Monday. I had my presentation in class on French cuisine and molecular gastronomy that I did with Dana. I thought it went pretty well. After our presentation, another group presented on Brazilian music. It was really interesting but they just showed clips and didn’t speak much (it was hilarious watching the prof shaking his head the whole time in disapproval). After class, Dana and I had a relaxing lunch at an Italian place near the Opera House.

Tuesday: I tried to get some work done Tuesday before my Lyon History class and totally failed. But after I got back from class, Dana and I skype for almost 3 hours to plan a bunch of our upcoming trips in March. I booked flights to Brussels and London and trains to Paris for this weekend (since I fly to Vienna from Paris) and to Mulhouse (near Strasbourg). We also began looking into places to stay in Brussels and are working on either a trip to Lisbon or to Istanbul as well in March!!

Wednesday: I finally started doing all that work I have been procrastinating on so successfully since my tennis class was cancelled.

Thursday: I had my political history of health class. I was very happy to make it back to grange blache without all the craziness of the tramways that weren’t working last week! I headed over to meet Barbara and met up with the guy that is going to be my tutor while I was here. He is a history doctoral candidate studying medieval history. It was really interesting to me because in the U.S. if you asked someone like that if they wanted to tutor in history (regardless of what type of history), I feel like they would be very confident in their abilities (despite the truth). But, here in France, I notice that students tend to underestimate their abilities, which is new to me.

Friday: Barbara introduced me a medical student of hers. I met up with her and one of her friends for lunch. We went to the adorable bistrot a tartines  near place Jacobins (rue merciere). It was delicious and we stayed there talking for hours. They were so nice and I really learned a lot from them. I look forward to seeing them again, and sitting in on one of their medical school lectures. Then, I met up with Dana and her mom and we went to a café for a little bit. For dinner, Eduard was home and so we had a nice big dinner. Martine made a mistake and used a pre-packaged sweet crust instead of a savory one for her quiche. Before she tasted it, we all kept asking her, are you sure there isn’t sugar in the crust, because it really tastes like it. She was so embarrassed when she realized her mistake. Quite amusing.

Saturday: My host family left to visit their daughter, Delphine, in London for a few days. I spent the day packing, finally getting to cook for myself since I can’t really use the kitchen here and trying to get my homework done before I left. Not too exciting of a day, but I can’t wait to leave for Vienna tomorrow!

Beaune & Cluny (Borgogne) – I can’t feel my feet!!

Hospice of Beaune

Grande Salle de Povres (pauvres)

Beautiful courtyard in the hospice

Wine tasting - in the cave
with the wood barrels

This past weekend I went to Burgundy with my exchange program. It was nice to have it all planned out for us since I am currently in the middle of planning a ton of different trips that I will be taking in the next few months (don’t get me wrong, I love planning trips, but its nice sometimes just to not have to worry about the details).

Saturday:

In front of the Hospice of Beaune

We had to wake up super early in the morning so that we could meet up at 7:45am. So, I was exhausted and slept during the entire 2 hour bus ride up to Beaune. Once we got to Beaune, we met up with our guide to take a tour of the Hospice of Beaune. This is a very well known hospital that was founded in 1443. It has survived until today because it was in use continuously from 1452-1971. It was founded in 1443 by Nicolas Rolin (the chancellor to the Duke of Burgundy). This hospital became very important in the region and was staffed by nuns (who unlike in most other places, were free to stay or leave as they wished). The building itself was plain and simple on the perimeter but beautiful inside. The roof was made of glazed tiles in red, green, brown and yellow that were arranged in really pretty patterns. The hospital is arranged in a way that is foreign to me who is used to the set up of modern day hospitals. The main room, Grande Salle des Pôvres (=pauvres) has a row of beds on either side all facing towards the chapel at the end of the room. The nurses could walk behind each bed to care for the patients and the curtains to the beds facing the rest of the room could be closed for privacy and warmth (I DON’T KNOW HOW THEY SURVIVED WITHOUT HEAT! Haha). The room itself was really pretty. The coolest thing was around the ceiling were sculpted heads of noblemen next to a sculpted head of an animal that they were said to resemble in terms of their personality. I guess there were some comedians in the middle ages…Around the room was the world Seule/Seulle (it was really interesting that spelling was not yet standardized in this time). There was mass in the chapel at the end of the room every three hours. Also, running under the hospice was a river that was used to easily remove waste, corpses, etc…

Church in Beaune

Tasting room

After we finished touring the hospice, we split up and some of us (brave souls) went on a tour of the rest of Beaune and some went to sit in a café because it was unbearably cold. We saw an outdoor market where they were selling cheese and truffles (wish I could have tried some of those truffles!). We saw a Roman-style church and learned a bunch more about the history of Beaune. Honestly it was pretty and really interesting, but by that point I had literally lost all feeling in my feet (I was wearing boots and two pairs of socks but since my boots don’t have big soles and the stones on the ground were so cold, it was awful) I really don’t remember the exact details. After the tour we went to have lunch at this place called Petit Paradis. It was! It was so delicious. I have lentils wrapped in smoked salmon with horseradish cream, a steak in this really strong cheese sauce with potatoes and an incredible apple tiramisu with this delicious caramel sauce for dessert. I tried everyone else’s food there too and it was just sooo good! After lunch we went to a wine tasting at Clos Bellefond winery. We arrived there after a beautiful drive through the French countryside. Because its winter, of course there wasn’t much to see in terms of the vineyards, but we went down into their wine cellar and Monsieur Chapelle showed us around. He was such a funny looking guy and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with him. We got to taste 3 white wines and 3 red wines. Being the connoisseur of wine after my trip to Napa with Seth (HAHA) I knew that I had to swirl the wine and smell it before tasting it. M. Chapelle asked us if the wines had the taste of animal, fruit or mineral. I really couldn’t make that type of distinction. I really only liked one of the whites and I really didn’t like the reds at this place (even though I am actually growing to like reds more, like the one we had had at lunch), so I didn’t buy anything.

Domaine de Nesvres 

Lunch at Petit Paradis

After the tasting we drove to the bed and breakfast (hotel d’hote) that we were staying at. We had to go to a different one than Barbara usually uses because the pipes froze in the other one because of the cold. This one was called Domaine de Nesvres. It was an old farmhouse that was beautifully redone. After settling into our rooms, we had dinner served by the man and women who owned the place. We had pumpkin soup, chicken with Dijon mustard and white wine sauce, and a potato gratin. After that, we had a cheese course with about 10 different cheeses, including my favorite which was a white cheese covered in truffles. After that, for dessert, we had a pear and almond tart. Overall, it was a DELICIOUS dinner. However, during dinner, the power in the house went out about three times. At first I thought it was kind of funny and maybe we’d have an interesting night because of it and maybe just keep using the pretty candelabras, but then I realized we wouldn’t have heat and we all started arguing who would get to sleep with the dog for warmth. Fortunately, the power came back on – yay for not having to deal with hypothermia. After that, we had plans to try to watch a movie together, but were all pretty tired and just went to bed.

Sunday:

In the gardens of the Abbey of Cluny

On Sunday morning we all overslept our alarms and had to scramble to make it to our 8:15am breakfast. For breakfast we had this shortbread cake with a chocolate an almond layer (burgundy specialty) that was delicious. We also had other normal breakfast foods, but nothing could compare to that. After breakfast, we drove about an hour to Cluny to visit the famous Cluny Abbey. We had a great tour guide who met us there and gave us an incredibly detailed history of the abbey. It was fascinating as I really knew absolutely nothing about. I will try to piece together what I remember of it (and what Dana has reminded me of) from the tour. The Cluny Abbey is a Benedictine monastery that was founded in 910 by William I of Aquitaine, who donated the necessary money and his Merovingian-era villa for the abbey to be built. At the time purgatory didn’t exist and William wanted to ensure that he would go to heaven, not hell, so he built this abbey. The town of Cluny grew as a result of this abbey, although most of the people there were monks for a long time. The Abbey (of which not that much still remains) had two towers which were used to house the town court system, a special building for excommunicating people, and then another area where people could enter when they were accepted by the Church. There were also living quarters for monks and novices. Before the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Cluny Abbey was the biggest building in Europe. St. Peter's was constructed specifically to be 33 feet longer than Cluny Abbey, a number that was clearly chosen for its religious significance. Cluny was a very important place and The abbot of Cluny (always chosen from the monks in Cluny) became a position that was equally as important as the Pope. One of the most important Abbots of Cluny was Hugh of Cluny, who was abbot for 60 years (between 1049 and 1109) and who greatly expanded the size and influence of the Cluny monasteries. He was also related to William the Conqueror, Ferdinand I and Alphonso VI of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and he was a close friend of Pope Urban II. His connections helped him run the Abbey and make it successful and well-known. (Other famous Abbots of Cluny were Richelieu and Mazarin, both of whom used the Abbey's funds to finance their lives in Paris.) 

Gardens of the Abbey of Cluny

Right before the French Revolution began, the Abbot decided to consolidate all of the Cluny monasteries and move all of the monks into the Cluny Abbey. He decided to renovate the building and knocked down most of it, but before he could rebuild, the French Revolution started and religion was declared illegal. They never were able to rebuilt it, so now it is in ruins and only certain parts remain. During Napoleon's reign, he used the Abbey as a place to temporarily house his army and their horses, because Cluny is centrally located between Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. He built a building to house more horses, but he never rebuilt what had originally been torn down. Now, the Abbey is one of the three best engineering schools in France, and students live in the Abbey, despite the sub-par living conditions and minimal heating. It's an honor to go to the school, so the students are expected to deal with the conditions, and they sleep in lofted beds to conserve heat. In room in the Abbey, there are 15 different sculptures arranged around the oval-shaped space. Each sculpture depicts an Old Testament prophet that carries a banner and supports a New Testament figure (the apostles, the Virgin Mary, and a few others that I forget) on his shoulders. When the banners are read in the correct order, they spell out a basic Catholic prayer that begins "Je crois en Dieu." To figure out the correct order, you start with the prophet Simeon, who holds the first portion, and then you look to see where Simeon's eyes lead you. In this way, you figure out the order of the prayer. The last prophet's eyes look directly at the door, so when you enter the room, it is as if you are the last portion of the prayer. This is meant to suggest that the Old Testament supports to New Testament, but that you are needed to continue the prayer and therefore the future of Catholicism rests on your shoulders as well. A copy of this code is found in Rosslyn Chapel in Paris and it was referenced in The Da Vinci Code. 

After our tour of the Abbey, we had lunch at a restaurant called La Nation. I had vegetable soup topped with gruyère, salmon with citrus-cream sauce and pumpkin and zucchini, and a fruit cake that was much better than American fruit cake. Our bus driver Dominique spent most of the tour with us and was really nice and we had some interesting conversations about American stereotypes during lunch. After lunch, we drove back to Lyon and I slept the entire way. I got back to my house, had dinner with my host family, tried to put away my stuff for the weekend and went to bed pretty early in preparation for my presentation in SLM on Monday morning.

Yeah, its really cold in Lyon...and im sick...but still having a GREAT time!

Sunday evening: I returned home after my trip to find about 20 people in the living room in my apartment. After a few minutes I found out that it was my one of my host sisters and her husband. I was a little overwhelmed and out of sorts so I went to my room to unpack. Later in the evening I had dinner with them and my host brother since my host parents hadn’t gotten back from visiting some friends for the weekend. It was a good dinner and quite amusing because my host sisters husband spent the whole time trying to educate me about all the famous and important people who come from Lyon and was very disappointed that my host brother had not yet informed me about such important things.

Monday: Unfortunately I woke up at 6am on Monday for my French language course and felt really sick. So I texted Dana to tell our prof and went back to bed for another 5 hours. Later in the day I caught up on emails and finished unpacking and cleaning my room. After that I decided to try to venture out to see if I could get myself into the photography course that I really wanted to take. I got to the University and I looked on the course list and saw that the class was in room BS06. I went to the B building an saw on a sign that BS was in the basement but accessible from the first level (I entered on the ground floor). I spent 45 minutes walking back and forth across the bulding, looking and asking for help to find the course. Eventually I found room BS01, and after waiting there for a while, I found out that BS06 was in BS01. At Penn there is a building called DRL that I thought was the least logically arranged building ever. Nope, it has certainly been surpassed. It was beyond frustrating and I was almost in tears. Once I found the room, I looked on the door at the schedule for classes in that room. Someone had crossed out the class I was going to take. I went to the office to ask for help and they sent me to an office in another building. Once I got there, they informed me that the person I needed to talk to was actually at the other campus. UGH, SUCH A FRUSTRATING SYSTEM!!! But, its certainly a cultural learning experience!!

Tuesday: The past few days I had been feeling like I was coming down with something. Unfortunately, I was sick in Lyon and couldn’t do that much besides just going to my one class on Tuesday. After class, I took the metro back and stopped off at the pharmacy across the street from my apartment. I went in just looking to pick up something over the counter and learned that in France, that doesn’t really exist. In order to get medications at the pharmacy, you have to take a number and wait your turn. Then you go up to the counter and explain your symptoms to the pharmacist. From there, the pharmacist will decide what they think is likely wrong with you and what medicine to give you. For me, as expected, the pharmacist suspected something my sinuses and gave me something to help it.

Wednesday: Since I was still in the process of figuring out what my final class would be, I went to go try out another class about food production, agriculture, the environment, etc… The topic of the day was food disparities in Africa. While it actually sounded like a topic I would be very interested in and the professor seemed really nice, the class was pretty awful. He literally spent the whole class period reading off statistics. At one point he was reading off statistics on calorie consumption in every individual country in Africa. Honestly, I have never listened to so much information and learned so little. The rest of the day was spent catching up on work and trying to recover from being sick. During dinner on Wednesday, something my host mother did really amused me. During every meal, Thibeaut gets yelled at by Martine about something. He is always eating too big bites, eating too fast, eating too much, playing with his food, etc… and Martine is always critiquing him on it. On Wednesday we had pasta for dinner and there was a little bowl of gruyere to put on top of it. Once everyone had finished eating and was just sitting around the table talking, Martine just reached into the bowl and grabbed a pinch of cheese with her hands to eat. I just found it so amusing because she would have absolutely yelled at Thibeaut for doing the exact same thing.

Thursday: Today I slept in and headed to my class on political history of health. For this class there is both a CM (lecture) and TD (recitation), but I only need to take the CM. The CM was supposed to be at 12:00pm and the TD at 2:00pm. I sat through the class from 12-1:45pm and it was horrible. It was just two presentations by these two guys that talked so fast that the French student sitting next to me could barely understand them (doesn’t bode well for me then…). The worst part was that at the end of their presentations, the prof spent the next 15 minutes or so critiquing every single aspect of their presentations. I was truly shocked and asked my French friend Lea sitting next to me. Apparently that is super normal and an expected part of giving an oral presentation in France. Luckily I don’t have to give a presentation in this class, but, let’s just say that I am now terrified for my presentation in one of my other classes. Unfortunately after sitting through all of this, I found out that the times of the TD and CM had been switched and now I had to stay and sit through another whole class. MAJOR FAIL!! After class ended, I headed to the tram with my two friends in the class. Once we got there, we found out that the tram would only take us halfway to where we needed to go to change to the metro to get back to where I live. We took the tram and then waited an hour in the freezing cold, with total chaos for a bus to come to take us to the metro stop. Apparently there was a problem with the tram at the opposite end of the line and for some reason that screwed up everything else. I was so cold that I could barely feel my toes, but it was certainly an experience! After I got home, for dinner, Martine made a lasagna. Thibeaut has been begging her to make a lasagna ever since I got to France. He was so excited and was very pleased that I couldn’t eat very much (because I never eat that much), which left more for him. It was really good, but had a really different taste than any lasagna that I’ve ever had before. I couldn’t quite place the exact taste, but I think there was a much less strong tomato and oregano flavor…

Water frozen on the side of a building
and all down the street in La Croix Russe

It's so cold here that all the water in
 the fountain in La Place de Terreaux froze

Friday: I met up with Jose, Dana and Janee for lunch today. We went to this place that Jose was raving about called the croq and roll. I had a really delicious sandwich with melted emmental cheese on top. After that, Dana and I went to this adorable little café to work on a presenation for our French class. For dinner Martine and Thibeaut were gone in Paris, so I had dinner with Marc. We had a great conversation. Then Stefan (Danish student living with us for a month) joined us since it is the last night that I will be here before he leaves. He gave me a French beer to try because I was unaware that France made beer (let alone good beer) and we talked all about different types of alcohol, how much we hat the passé simple tense and had a really great time! I’m so excited now for my trip to Burgundy this weekend with my program!

Paris, je t'aime

So for our first excursion of the semester, Dana and I decided to go to Paris. Dana had a friend from high school (Madeline) who is studying abroad in Paris right now, so we were lucky enough to get to stay with her. Also Dana’s best friend from high school Lina and a friend of hers from her study abroad in Seville, Matt, came to stay for the weekend as well. We had a fabulous weekend despite the arctic temperatures. I had been to Paris before when I was 11, but it has been a long time since I was there and it was great to see some sites again and to experience some new ones.

Thursday afternoon: After my class on Thursday I had about an hour to make it to the train station across town to catch my train. I ran to the tram with my big backpack and made it on time. However, when I got there the train was late. Every ten minutes they would update it and say that they train was going to be 10 more minutes late. After about 45 minutes, it said on the screen that the train was indeterminably late. We all stormed the information desk and finally the said that the train was on its way. The train left the station about 55 minutes late (so, no refund, because it would need to be 60 minutes late for that…). Once we were on the train the ride was very easy. We made it to Paris in 2 hours and headed to Madeline’s apartment. We hung out there while we waited for Lina and Matt to arrive. Afterwards, we went to this cute little Thai restaurant nearby. We were there for a long time and we knew that the restaurant was closing soon. At one point, our waiter and the other waiter just waved by to us and left. For a split second we thought that they had just left us alone in the restaurant until we realized there was still someone else left in the back. It was pretty funny.

Arc de Triomphe

Friday: We had gone to bed pretty late Thursday night and so we woke up pretty late Friday morning. We went to get some pastries from a nearby bakery to eat for breakfast in the apartment. After that, we went to the Jeu de Paume to see a really great photography exhibit by Diane Arbus. Next, we went to this famous café called Angelina’s. They are renowned for their hot chocolate, so of course we had to try it. It was so incredibly rich and it basically seemed like they had just melted a delicious chocolate bar. While it was delicious, I was only able to take a few sips because it was just so rich. After that, we decided to go on this Ferris wheel that we had seen. We took it right during sunset and it was an absolutely spectacular view of the Tuileries, the Eiffel tower, Champs Elysees, Notre dame and the Sacre Coeur. After that we split up and Dana and  went to explore the Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe which was very pretty at night. Later on, we met up again for dinner at this delicious restaurant. We were so cold and had the most delicious French onion soup.

Delicious hot chocolate at Angelina's

Ferris Wheel near the Tuileries

Eiffel Tou& the Seine

Dana and I on the ferris w

Saturday: Dana and I woke up really early on Saturday morning to head out to Versailles. We got there and booked a tour of the private apartments and then went to explore before our tour started. The tour showed us the private rooms that were constructed by Louis XV and used by him and Louis XVI. Louis XIV lived a very public life and did not have a separate bedroom, dining room, etc… to use privately since he was always in the public eye. Then we went on to explore the public part of the castle including the king’s public bedroom and the incredible hall of mirrors. Overall Versailles was absolutely incredible. Each room was more beautiful than the next. Honestly despite trying to capture it in many photos, they just cannot do it justice. Also, the chapel in Versailles was probably the most beautiful that I have ever seen. I was completely awestruck at the intricacy and grandeur of the place. After spending quite a few hours exploring the beautiful place, we returned back to Paris. We were starving and were planning to try to go to my favorite Parisian creperie from when I was 11. When I was with my family in Paris for 2 weeks we went to this creperie many times. We loved it so much and even took a picture with the owner before we left. My mom had looked up the address for me and found that it still existed from its reviews on Yelp. However, when we got to the address, it was no longer there. It was replaced by a run of the mill chain restaurant and I was really upset. Fortunately we found a creperie across the street that was really great. I got a savory crepe and then Dana and I split a dessert crepe with nutella, raspberries, whipped cream and ice cream. It was amazing!!! Next we went to check out Notre Dame which was beautiful as expected, though it was hard for it to even compete with the chapel in Versailles. Next we headed to Montmartre to see the Sacre Coeur. We walked it and there was a service going on (which was being led by nuns – still don’t understand that). We sat down to wait for Lina and Matt and listened to the service. The music was beautiful as was the inside of the Sacre Coeur. Photos weren’t really allowed, but I snuck one because it was just so pretty inside. Next we found a little cheap restaurant because Paris really expensive. It was good. After that we walked over to the Moulin Rouge to take a picture. The neighborhood around it was a little bit sketchy, but it was early enough and there were enough of us that it wasn’t a big deal. Later that evening we went to this really weird, but great bar called Zero de Conduite. It is a bar where they serve drinks in baby bottles and you play games. They had some amazing looking drinks that were really delicious. We found it hilariously funny that we were drinking out of baby bottles and really had a great time there!

 

Baby bottles at Zero de Conduite

Me and Dana at 

Sunday morning: We packed up our stuff and headed out of Madeline’s apartment. We had a little time in the morning before our train and so we went to the Marche aux Puces. It was freezing cold and snowing and we had all our stuff there, but it was still really fun. We had some delicious (and warm!) crepes and bought a really cute leather purse from one of the vendors. Overall I had an absolutely amazing weekend and a relatively easy trip back to Lyon. I can’t wait for many more trips in the coming weeks!