PARIS

22-25.05.2008

Just got back yesterday from an extended weekend trip to the city of love (aka the city of lights apparently... although i thought that was vegas). Last thursday I met my friend Dani, who is studying in Rome, in Milan where we took our ryanair flight to Paris together. Got into the city a little after 11 pm via shuttle bus from the airport, at which time I got my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower- and it was TWINKLING! Apparently it only twinkles a couples times every night, I mean its always lit up, but the lights only sparkle for a couple minutes. Pretty lucky. Kayla met up with us at the bus stop with a bottle of French champagne. It was really good seeing some familiar faces!!

The next day we did some shopping and saw Notre Dame (bottom picture) and the Pompidou (second to last picture)- the modern art museum in Paris. Dani and I had lunch at this little French restaurant and I had quiche, which was really good. It wasnt too expensive compared to all the other touristy restaurants in town. I think I ended up paying 4 euros for water though at least 3 times while I was in Paris though. The three of us went grocery shopping for dinner, and we made a picnic at the Eiffel Tower. French baguettes with cheese and jam are incredible. It was really nice weather, which is uncommon in Paris, and it was full of people picnic-ing. We saw the sun go down at the Eiffel Tower and stayed until it twinkled again.

Kayla had an exam the next morning, so Dani and I went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, Aphrodite, a few Botticelli, and countless others. Not to bring up food again, but Dani and I got complimentary cookies with our sandwiches. I know the French people have a reputation for being really rude to foreigners, especially Americans, but everyone I came across was really nice considering the two of us didnt know any French. After the Louvre we hit up Starbucks, my first since London, and wrote a few postcards back to the homefront. We met back up with Kayla after her exam at the Pompidou and then got sushi with a couple of her other friends for dinner. Apparently that afternoon some of her friends met Mischa Barton (the model/actress from the OC) and took pictures with her, but I wasnt as lucky.

That night we ended up going to a club right on the river called Showtime which was really fun. Although we ended up going straight from the club to get our bags and a cab to the shuttle bus to the airport at about 4 am! After a one and a half hour plane ride, another hour long shuttle, two trains, and another bus later I was finally exhausted and back at my apartment. It seemed like I had been away from Trento much longer than 4 days. Very weird.

All-in-all it was a really good weekend, and Paris was beautiful.. it reminded me a lot of London and a little of Barcelona. It topped #4 on my list of top favorite destinations, behind London, Berlin, and Lisbon. Kayla and Dani definitely have different study abroad experiences than mine in Trento. They study and hang out with all American students, whereas I have only ever seen one American in Trento (aside from my dad and Kevin). I had started to forget what American accents sounded like.. haha.

So the countdown to my 21st birthday has hit 24 hours (maybe less by the time it gets posted!). Not sure how I will be celebrating it yet, differently than I would if I was back home.. thats for sure. Just found out that our Portuguese friend, Gina, will be visiting Trento at that time though, so thats exciting. We will probably all do dinner or something. BIG NEWS!! Today Joey and I booked our tickets to GLASTONBURY music festival in England. I am soooo excited. It is a long four-day weekend at the end of June with a bunch of artists (Jay-Z is headlining it, which may be the reason tickets did not sell out the first day they went on sale for a change). A few of the artists that will be performing there include: amy winehouse, james blunt, kt tunstall, ben folds, kate nash, neil diamond and john mayer to name a few. If you are interested check out the glastonbury line-up, as far as I know tickets are NOT sold out yet. Its a pretty hippy music fest, camping in tents for 4 days, nonstop music on tons of stages on this farm in England. Surrounded by multiple fences and wild horses to keep people from sneaking in. Its a big deal. My flight back to the US was supposed to be on July 2 from Venice, but it'd be easier to fly from London so I had that changed today. Which means that when I fly to London on the 25 of June I will be leaving Trento for good, or at least until I come back someday. So I have less than a month here!! I cant believe it.

I ran out of credit on my cell phone when I was talking to my mom this afternoon- so if you are reading this SORRY and I won't be able to call until i make a trip to the store to recharge.. maybe tomorrow. Maybe not. Hope everyone had a good Memorial day off work, Italy doesnt really have a Memorial Day, but their Labor Day was at the beginning of the month. Just had my last day of my Italian language course today, and found out that I passed my exam! This saturday is the huge party at the engineering faculty. It starts a little after noon and lasts until midnight. Its an outdoor festival with a bunch of local bands and DJs. Tickets sell out in a couple hours and each student can only buy two. Last week we were up really early to wait in line and we didnt have a problem getting them. Hopefully we have good weather, although there is a high chance of thunderstorms in the forecast. Other than that not too much is new in Trento.

I'll leave you with a list of things to be thankful for (aka. things i miss):
the food is incredible here and I am far from being sick of it but I have cravings for mountain dew (nowhere to be found in all of europe!) and frozen coke, peanut butter, ranch dressing and celery, homemade chocolate chip cookies, bbq ribs, no thai, pancheros, btb, americanized mexican food in general..
Ann Arbor (1523, 905, 216...)
RED WINGS ahhhhhhh cannot believe I am missing this season. Cant watch the games, even if I had a TV (the spanish girls took back their TV they left in our apartment a few months ago) or found a website to live broadcast I'd have to stay up until 4 am.
My family (although they will be here in just over a WEEK and I cant wait!!) and dogs
Dairy King
Reading the Michigan Daily in lecture.. not to mention the crossword with Bruna
Charlie
Driving. I havent driven a car since February. Scary. I really may have forgotten by now.

Thats all for now... and on a slightly less depressing note here are PARIS PICTURES!!! enjoy

ciao ciao baci