Paris - jon visit - pics

Pics: Madeline; View of Paris from Monmartre; View of Eiffel Tower; Sacre Coeur; Sacre Coeur; Pancakes!; Jon and I in front of the Eiffel Tower; Eiffel Tower; Me with my 'barbe a papa'; Arch of Triumph; Arch of Triumph; Demonstrators near the US embassy (for an anniversary of the war in Iraq I think); Champs Elysee; The Louvre; Notre Dame; Demonstrators stopping traffic

Paris to visit Jon

One of the things I was most excited to do in Europe is visit my friend Jon who lives in Paris. I worked with him at camp for a bunch of years so I know him pretty well. I hadn't seen him in a while because he wasn't able to visit last summer because of health problems. It was really cool to have a person who really knew Paris to show me around.

I was also excited to go to Paris because we learned so much about if in French class in high school. We had a whole test just on Paris. Jon commented that I knew more about Paris than he did. The thing I couldnt believe about all the monument was just how huge they were. I had seen pictures of all of them but I didnt understand just how large everything is.

The first day Jon and I saw a lot including Notre Dame and we also went into the Louvre because its free for students on friday nights. That night I got to meet a lot of his crazy doctor friends (he's in med school). I couldn't believe how fast they all spoke. I could barely understand anything they said. Luckily they were all eager to try out their English on me. It was funny, they were asking me what a lot of American slang that they had heard in American songs meant. Some of them were difficult to explain, try explaining what "dumps like a truck" means to french people.

The next day we walked along the Champs Elysees which is this famous road that runs from the Louvre to the Arch of Triumph. It's really cool because you can see all the way from the Louvre to the Arch of Triumph. We then walked to the Eiffel tower and had lunch overlooking the park thats in front of the eiffel tower. I was excited to get cotton candy which they call "barbe a papa" or father's beard. I found that funny.

The demonstrations going on that night were crazy. Most of the college students (not Jon's school though, thank goodness) were demonstrating against this new law that says employers can fire anyone under 26 without giving any reason. All the of the schools are blockaded and the students are staying inside them. They were stopping traffic and waving signs. At night it was pretty bad. Hoards of riot police armed showed up in these blue buses. We came out of the metro right near it and about 30 feet away was police throwing tear gas. Because it was windy everyone had to cover their faces. It was kind of scary but we tried to stay away.
All the stuff is still going on. Yesterday was one of the biggest demonstrations, where basically all workers were on strike, including public transportation. The country was shut down. The government is still not budging. Everyone in Belgium just says 'oh the French like to demonstrate'.

The last day Jon and I made pancakes that his aunt (who lives in Northampton) had brought over. They dont have pancakes over here so I was excited to make them. We even had real vermont maple syrup.

Great, tiring weekend. We walked everywhere but we saw a lot. I'm excited for my parents to go to Paris, I dont know how they'll see everything in two days because theres so much to see.

Ostende Pictures

Pics: Bunkers; Earth Explorer museum; Napoleon's fort; The shells on the beach were on these wierd sand piles, it was really cool; Me throwing the disk; Matt and I; The beach; International sign for meat (taken from our hostel window); Cool random tower; Beach; Me on the beach, can you tell its cold?; Mmmmm Easter candy

Ostende, Belgium

3 weekends ago 4 of us decided to go for a night up to Belgiums coast on the North sea. It was nice to get away from the big citiness. When we first walked off the boat we knew right away we were on the shore; the wind was some of the strongest I had ever felt. I could almost lean forward and have the wind catch me. Needless to say it was freezing, but it was still nice to be on a beach town.

The first day we walked around and went to an aquarium. We also braved walking on the pier and watched the large waves roll in. By the second day the wind had died down and it was beautiful out. I forgot to mention that the Ostende was hosting the Blegium national cross country championchips the same time we were there so our hostel was filled with rowdy Belgian runners. We were going to go watch but couldnt figure out exactly how to get there. Instead we took a tram to the beaches. We were walking along the beach and we found this abandoned bunker from WWII. Come to find out their scattered all along the beach, just abandoned. It was really wierd. It kind of freaked me out, especially when I thought about people actually fighting in them. None the less they were fun to explore. We walked along the beach, and even stopped to play frisbee. It was truely one of the first nice days we've had here in Belgium. Eventually we wandered from the beach hand found this crazy museum. It was called Earth Explorers and it was a museum/amusement park all about the Earth. Wow it was right up my alley. hehe. There were all sorts of things about weather, water, volcanoes, etc. They had this water ride inside that was supposed to mimic a volcano ride and also this tornado simulator. We all thought it was great.

In all, through some exploring, Ostende turned out to be a great weekend. We always seem to happen upon great things to do.

Amsterdam and Cologne, Germany

Hi everyone, i know i know....long time no post. I haven't forgot I've just been extremely busy the past few weeks.

Not last weekend, but the weekend before, I had another art field trip to Amsterdam. It was 3 days, 2 nights. Amsterdam is a pretty ridiculous place. Within minutes of getting there our teacher was leading us to our boat tour and we passed many "coffee shops". First off, "coffee shops" probably don't sell much coffee. It seemed very odd to see people smoking out in the open. Anyways, one of the first things we did was take a boat canal tour through the city. It was a good way to get a general view of the whole city. Amsterdam is basically built on canals.

The weekend basically consisted of getting up very early, listening to my teacher talk and talk and visiting museums alllll day. Then we would have a few hours to ourselves at night to explore on our own. Some of the highlights of the museums were the Anne Frank house and the Van Gogh museum.

The food in Amsterdam was great. THe first night we ate with our art teacher at this Indonesian restaurant. I got this amazing vegitarian platter that had about 5 different types of food on it. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. The second night all of the lafayette students went out, with our professor who came along, and Lafayette treated us out to dinner. We went to this traditional Belgian restaurant. It was pretty fancy and nice that our budget paid for it. Also, because theres a large Jewish population in Amsterdam I was able to get a bagel. Toasted with cream cheese. Bagels are probably the food I miss most so I was really excited.

One cool thing about the city is that theirs a housing shortage so the canals are lined with houseboats, where people actually permanantly live on them. I decided it would be fun for a little while but I'm not sure I'd like to live on a houseboat permanantly.

Also one evening our professor decided that going through the fame redlight district would be a valid cultural/educational experience. We went early in the night so it was still safe, and stayed together as a group. It was pretty obvious we were tourists. Legal prostitution is a wierd concept to understand. I don't, thats for sure. The women were dressed scantily and soliciting themselves in front of their windows. I can't imagine that being my normal job. I'm just glad I have other and better options.

So basically Amsterdam was an interesting city. It was probably not what I expected because you hear so much about it I had a preconcieved idea about what it would be like.





Last weekend a large group of us decided to go, on our own, to Cologne, Germany for Carnival. Cologne gets about 1 million visitors for Carnival. Cologne isn't really a big city so 1 million visitors makes it a pretty ridiculous place. We were told that Germans believe in 5 season, winter, spring, summer, fall, and carnival. Carnival is the time before lent made for feasting and drinking. So this is the basis for Carnival. We were so surprised when we got there and realized everyone is dressed up in costumes. We felt really out of place in our normal clothes. Adults, children, everyone was dressed up. On saturday they had a parade with all of the school children and different organizations marching. They all throw out different types of candies and flowers. My pockets were overflowing with candy by the time the parade was done. That night for dinner we went to a traditional German eating hall. Basically they had lots of different types of sausages. Oh yeah did i mention Germany is not a very vegitarian friendly place? French fries were my main form of sustinence for the weekend. Anyways the german place luckily had spaghetti. This place was huge though, I had never seen anything like it, it must have seated 500 people. It was all decorated for carnival, everyone was dancing, and you sit at long tables with random other people. It was a pretty neat experience.

The next day, also called Rose Monday, is the big day. This is when the main parade happens. It's kinda of like Mardi Gras but instead of throwing out beads they throw out lots of candy (I'll take the candy anyday). It was so crowded that we couldnt get very close to the parade so we didn't catch as much as we would have liked. It was also freezing and snowing at this point, I swear Germany was colder than Belgium. I couldn't believe the masses of people that were there. I don't think I've ever been to such a crowded place in my life.

Anyways Cologne was fun and it was certainly a cultural experience that you can't get anywhere else. It was interesting that that was my first impression of Germany, I have to wonder if their all that crazy.

This past week was mid terms. In Europe classes generally have two grades: a final and a midterm. I really don't like the system, too much pressure on one test. Anyways I only had 3 and I think they went fairly well. I'm just glad their done with. This weekend were just hanging aroudn Brussels. Since we've been traveling every weekend we haven't really had much time to explore Brussels. I'm pretty excited to be touristy here for a few days.



Also, if you havent heard yet, I applied for a position to do research in Africa this summer and I got accepted. =) . I will spend 4 weeks at Lafayette preparing for the trip and then 6 weeks in Uganda, and we may do a weeklong Safari in Kenya at the end. I can't even begin to explain how good this opportunity is. First off, I'm getting paid $3,000 for the ten weeks, and they pay for everything (travel expenses, housing, food stipend) . I also get to do something I really want, since I'll be doing envrionmental wetlands type stuff. Also, one of the girls I'm living with and two other guys on the trip will be going so I'll get to be with some of my friends. Also, this research will look great on future resumes. Theres also the opportunity to do research later at Lafayette. Needles to say I'm really excited.



That's all for now. I hope everyone is doing well =)

Cologne Pics

Pics: Matt and his crazy clown hair; The cathedrale in the snow; The girls and our leis; Us eating at this huge traditional german hall place; Matt and his meal (no comment); Street performers; People everywhere!; Me, Christa, and Will ecstatic that we get to carry around our bags all day, we don't look like tourists or anything, hehe; The parage; The train station craziness after the parade

Amsterdam pics

Pics: Canals in Amsterdam; Building in the maine square; old kayaks; old ship we got to go on; Delft; me pretending to be a beach bum