A year ago today I was daydreaming about the day when I would be able visit Europe. I was fascinated with the history, diversity of culture, and variety of languages. Most of all, I was intrigued by the country of France, more specifically- Paris. Ever since the 7th grade, Paris was the city I longed to see- I wanted to learn about their culture, eat their food, and most importantly... speak their beautiful language!!!
I had no idea that in one short year...I would be in Paris. I would be learning about their culture, I would be eating their food, and I would be speaking.... GERMAN?!?! It still astounds me how drastically life can change in the course of one year. My mind is boggled.
Well, as you can tell from my little introduction there, I just got back from Paris yesterday! I have few words to describe how beautiful and amazing it was. Despite the fact that I was tired, sick, and had really sore back from sitting in the bus, I had a BLAST and got to see so many things I never thought I'd ever see.
We started our journey mid-day on Thursday. I didn't have to go to school so I ended up going to Ostbahnhof (a train station) early to meet up with some friends who live up north. They had never been to Berlin before so I gave them a super quick tour of the Berlin Wall, Hackesher Markt, Alexander Platz, and Potsdamer Platz before getting picked up by my host mom to go back to the train station. Once there, we mingled with all the exchange students who we havn't seen since September in Neuruppin. It was GREAT to see everyone.
After a few hours of waiting for the bus, we finally all got settled and started the 14 hour bus ride to Paris. It took us forever to get out of Berlin, but once we were out it was smooth-ish sailing. Despite the fact that we were with all of our friends it still didn't erase the fact that the bus was incredibly uncomfortable. We also couldn't use the bathroom for some odd reason. We stopped ever 2-4 hours and went pretty fast. I got around 3-4 hours of sleep so that was nice!
The first thing I saw when I got to Paris that I recognized was La Sacré Coeur. I never thought it was so HUGE! it totally dominates a large portion of the Parisian skyline. I had no idea. Anyways, we went to the hotel and unloaded all of our stuff. It was a realllllly nice hotel. I was expecting it to be really cramped and old, but we all had our own bathrooms and the rooms had windows and were clean and spacious. After we got settled in we made our way to breakfast and I had a great buffet breakfast of crouissants, bread, cheese, and coffee.
The first thing we went to was the "new part" of Paris. It's were the big box-shaped building is, and there are a lot of modern developments there. It also was the first time I've ridden Paris' subway. It was way different than Berlin's- Much older, And much, much, much more complicated...
The next location on our list was Champs-Élysée. We were allotted 2 hours of free time, so me and some friends decided to go to L'arc de Triomphe. It ended up being free for people under the age of 18 to go on top, we we all walked up the never-ending spiraling staircase, and saw a SPECTACULAR view of Paris. It was such a nice day and my breath was taken away by the beauty of Paris' exquisite layout. The contrast of the massive and striaght, Champs-Élyesée, mixed with tiny zig-zagging streets, and numerous round-abouts made the city look like a piece of artwork. It was fantastic.
For the next few hours we slowly walked down the famous Champs-Élysée. We ate some Mcdonalds (only thing I could afford... but still ridiculously expensive) I didn't understand why it cost 1€ for a Hamburger, but 2.30€ for a Cheeseburger... I'm still really confused- that means that a slice of cheese costs more money than an entire hamburger... Hmmm? Speaking of food, I also had my first crêpe in France EVER, and it was very delicious. The woman who made it for me was listening to a Spanish song and she suddenly just started to belt out singing as she was making my crêpe and she was suprisingly REALLY good at singing.
We all met at Place de La Concorde (where the Guillotine used to be back in the day). We had to wait for some people because they got lost, but after that, we went to L'Opera and Galleries Lafayette and had freetime there. I was really tired by that point. We then all rode back to our hotel, and got ready to go to diner.
For dinner we went to a little restaurant in Montmartre. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, and was right next to Sacré Coeur. We had a roast type of thing to eat, and had UNLIMITED WATER! I was SO excited for that! It was even CHILLED! First time that's happened in Europe! After dinner we were given freetime until bedtime. Some friends and I decided to go to The Eiffel Tour. We made it there and took some AMAZING PICTURES! It was so beautiful at night. Unfortunately I didn't bring my host-mom's camera with me because it fails to take pictures at night, but I'll be able to get them from them soon. After walking around a little bit, we made our way to La Louvre and looked at the Pyramid by night. It was really pretty! After taking about a thousand pictures, we made it back to the hotel JUST in time... two minutes to spare.
The next day the first thing we did was go to Le Louvre for 3 hours! It was really interesting and cool (I got to see Mona), but I think it was a little long for a group of 50 exchange students. We walked around after that- and saw a bunch of cool places! At Notre Dame there was a "Free Hugs" campaign going on and we got some pictures with them.
After wandering around together, we ate dinner at a steak restaurant, then went on a boatride to see Paris by night! It was so beautiful! The Eiffel Tour was having a special lightshow and even though it was cold, it was a fantastic way to experience Paris. On the way home we made a quick detour to Moulin Rouge and met some peculiar people in the red light district! It was awesome :) (ps- I know my eyes are close in the first picture, but it's the only one I have haha)
The final day in paris we all went to the Eiffel Tour for the majority of the day. It was optional to go up the tower (we had to pay) but it was totally worth it. We took the stairs up the first two stories and I was really freaked out because of my fear of heights. We have made many pictures and than rode the final elevator up to the top.
The final thing we did in Paris was go to Versailles. I was exhausted! It was really cool though!
After Versailles we all piled into Mcdonalds and ate BigMacs and Cola! It was a great way to end a fantastic trip :) The busride back was pretty smooth. I was really tired and ended up being able to sleep for a long portion of the ride. It was nice to be back in Berlin- were everything is familiar, but I miss all of the exchange students very much. They are all so much fun! It's a bummer than I won't be able to see them until March (the exchange students who don't live in Berlin).
So THAT, was my trip to France. It was spectacular. I can't wait to go back in the years to come and experience all the other things it has to offer. I'm still incredibly tired since I havn't had a descent amount of sleep since the night before I left for Paris. I would have slept yesterday but it was the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, so I went out downtown yesterday night will all of my friends, in the pouring rain to witness the huge celebration. Hilary Clinton and Bon Jovi were there!!! It was so COOL! (despite being absolutely freezing). There were hundreds of massive dominoes there set up around Brandenburger Tour all the way down to Potsdamer Platz , and each one had a mural on it having to due with Freedom and the fall of the berlin wall! It was really exciting to watch all of the dominoes fall down!
Later that night, I met my hostmom and brother at Tony Roma's and had a fantastic American dinner! It was SO late and I was SO tired, but I got to eat hot wings and ribs for the first time in AGES! I ended up getting hope around 12, and got to sleep at 1. It was really hard to wake up for school this morning at 6.30. We also had a klausur (BIG test that happens 2ce a year) in Basic English today. We had to write a summary and essay about these 2 short pieces of writing... I'm not worrying about it :) I totally forgot to say that I got my Math Klausur back and I got a 2+!!! That is like a B+! I'm was so EXCITED!!!
So...There really isn't anything out of the ordinary going on in the weeks to come. Life is completely... normal. Currently I'm having a lot of difficulty with German Articals and how they change depending on how they are used in a sentence... English is so easy in comparison to German... We only say "THE" but Germans use der, die, das, den, dem, AND des. Adjective endings, and other endings in general... are also really diffiuclt! But I know that it isn't THAT important. Nomatter which article you use, Germans understand- they just never tell me when I get it wrong!
Whew... so this is a really long blog post-I better get started on a French assignment! Hopefully I'll be getting more pictures soon!
Also to come- I'm going to be doing a video shortly about the similarities and differences between the American and German school systems (more specifically James Madison Memorial High School and Canisius Kolleg).
I had no idea that in one short year...I would be in Paris. I would be learning about their culture, I would be eating their food, and I would be speaking.... GERMAN?!?! It still astounds me how drastically life can change in the course of one year. My mind is boggled.
Well, as you can tell from my little introduction there, I just got back from Paris yesterday! I have few words to describe how beautiful and amazing it was. Despite the fact that I was tired, sick, and had really sore back from sitting in the bus, I had a BLAST and got to see so many things I never thought I'd ever see.
We started our journey mid-day on Thursday. I didn't have to go to school so I ended up going to Ostbahnhof (a train station) early to meet up with some friends who live up north. They had never been to Berlin before so I gave them a super quick tour of the Berlin Wall, Hackesher Markt, Alexander Platz, and Potsdamer Platz before getting picked up by my host mom to go back to the train station. Once there, we mingled with all the exchange students who we havn't seen since September in Neuruppin. It was GREAT to see everyone.
After a few hours of waiting for the bus, we finally all got settled and started the 14 hour bus ride to Paris. It took us forever to get out of Berlin, but once we were out it was smooth-ish sailing. Despite the fact that we were with all of our friends it still didn't erase the fact that the bus was incredibly uncomfortable. We also couldn't use the bathroom for some odd reason. We stopped ever 2-4 hours and went pretty fast. I got around 3-4 hours of sleep so that was nice!
The first thing I saw when I got to Paris that I recognized was La Sacré Coeur. I never thought it was so HUGE! it totally dominates a large portion of the Parisian skyline. I had no idea. Anyways, we went to the hotel and unloaded all of our stuff. It was a realllllly nice hotel. I was expecting it to be really cramped and old, but we all had our own bathrooms and the rooms had windows and were clean and spacious. After we got settled in we made our way to breakfast and I had a great buffet breakfast of crouissants, bread, cheese, and coffee.
The first thing we went to was the "new part" of Paris. It's were the big box-shaped building is, and there are a lot of modern developments there. It also was the first time I've ridden Paris' subway. It was way different than Berlin's- Much older, And much, much, much more complicated...
The next location on our list was Champs-Élysée. We were allotted 2 hours of free time, so me and some friends decided to go to L'arc de Triomphe. It ended up being free for people under the age of 18 to go on top, we we all walked up the never-ending spiraling staircase, and saw a SPECTACULAR view of Paris. It was such a nice day and my breath was taken away by the beauty of Paris' exquisite layout. The contrast of the massive and striaght, Champs-Élyesée, mixed with tiny zig-zagging streets, and numerous round-abouts made the city look like a piece of artwork. It was fantastic.
For the next few hours we slowly walked down the famous Champs-Élysée. We ate some Mcdonalds (only thing I could afford... but still ridiculously expensive) I didn't understand why it cost 1€ for a Hamburger, but 2.30€ for a Cheeseburger... I'm still really confused- that means that a slice of cheese costs more money than an entire hamburger... Hmmm? Speaking of food, I also had my first crêpe in France EVER, and it was very delicious. The woman who made it for me was listening to a Spanish song and she suddenly just started to belt out singing as she was making my crêpe and she was suprisingly REALLY good at singing.
We all met at Place de La Concorde (where the Guillotine used to be back in the day). We had to wait for some people because they got lost, but after that, we went to L'Opera and Galleries Lafayette and had freetime there. I was really tired by that point. We then all rode back to our hotel, and got ready to go to diner.
For dinner we went to a little restaurant in Montmartre. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, and was right next to Sacré Coeur. We had a roast type of thing to eat, and had UNLIMITED WATER! I was SO excited for that! It was even CHILLED! First time that's happened in Europe! After dinner we were given freetime until bedtime. Some friends and I decided to go to The Eiffel Tour. We made it there and took some AMAZING PICTURES! It was so beautiful at night. Unfortunately I didn't bring my host-mom's camera with me because it fails to take pictures at night, but I'll be able to get them from them soon. After walking around a little bit, we made our way to La Louvre and looked at the Pyramid by night. It was really pretty! After taking about a thousand pictures, we made it back to the hotel JUST in time... two minutes to spare.
The next day the first thing we did was go to Le Louvre for 3 hours! It was really interesting and cool (I got to see Mona), but I think it was a little long for a group of 50 exchange students. We walked around after that- and saw a bunch of cool places! At Notre Dame there was a "Free Hugs" campaign going on and we got some pictures with them.
After wandering around together, we ate dinner at a steak restaurant, then went on a boatride to see Paris by night! It was so beautiful! The Eiffel Tour was having a special lightshow and even though it was cold, it was a fantastic way to experience Paris. On the way home we made a quick detour to Moulin Rouge and met some peculiar people in the red light district! It was awesome :) (ps- I know my eyes are close in the first picture, but it's the only one I have haha)
The final day in paris we all went to the Eiffel Tour for the majority of the day. It was optional to go up the tower (we had to pay) but it was totally worth it. We took the stairs up the first two stories and I was really freaked out because of my fear of heights. We have made many pictures and than rode the final elevator up to the top.
The final thing we did in Paris was go to Versailles. I was exhausted! It was really cool though!
After Versailles we all piled into Mcdonalds and ate BigMacs and Cola! It was a great way to end a fantastic trip :) The busride back was pretty smooth. I was really tired and ended up being able to sleep for a long portion of the ride. It was nice to be back in Berlin- were everything is familiar, but I miss all of the exchange students very much. They are all so much fun! It's a bummer than I won't be able to see them until March (the exchange students who don't live in Berlin).
So THAT, was my trip to France. It was spectacular. I can't wait to go back in the years to come and experience all the other things it has to offer. I'm still incredibly tired since I havn't had a descent amount of sleep since the night before I left for Paris. I would have slept yesterday but it was the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, so I went out downtown yesterday night will all of my friends, in the pouring rain to witness the huge celebration. Hilary Clinton and Bon Jovi were there!!! It was so COOL! (despite being absolutely freezing). There were hundreds of massive dominoes there set up around Brandenburger Tour all the way down to Potsdamer Platz , and each one had a mural on it having to due with Freedom and the fall of the berlin wall! It was really exciting to watch all of the dominoes fall down!
Later that night, I met my hostmom and brother at Tony Roma's and had a fantastic American dinner! It was SO late and I was SO tired, but I got to eat hot wings and ribs for the first time in AGES! I ended up getting hope around 12, and got to sleep at 1. It was really hard to wake up for school this morning at 6.30. We also had a klausur (BIG test that happens 2ce a year) in Basic English today. We had to write a summary and essay about these 2 short pieces of writing... I'm not worrying about it :) I totally forgot to say that I got my Math Klausur back and I got a 2+!!! That is like a B+! I'm was so EXCITED!!!
So...There really isn't anything out of the ordinary going on in the weeks to come. Life is completely... normal. Currently I'm having a lot of difficulty with German Articals and how they change depending on how they are used in a sentence... English is so easy in comparison to German... We only say "THE" but Germans use der, die, das, den, dem, AND des. Adjective endings, and other endings in general... are also really diffiuclt! But I know that it isn't THAT important. Nomatter which article you use, Germans understand- they just never tell me when I get it wrong!
Whew... so this is a really long blog post-I better get started on a French assignment! Hopefully I'll be getting more pictures soon!
Also to come- I'm going to be doing a video shortly about the similarities and differences between the American and German school systems (more specifically James Madison Memorial High School and Canisius Kolleg).
How absolutely marvelous!!! I have some of the same pictures that you have-Sacre Coeur, L'Arc, Tour, Champs Ellysee(?), Galleries Layfayyette! Isn't the view from the top of L'Arc de Triomphe terrific? Like the spokes of a wheel as I recall. I'm so happy that you had such a great visit. Can't wait to see tons of pictures when you get home! Love, Mom
Benjamin Mau your blog ıs so good! I am so glad youre havıng a great tıme ın Deutschland/you had a good tıme ın Paris! Take care
Lydia Greve (d.6250 now ın Turkey haha)
Ben-- you make me jealous :) You're exchange sounds like it's going marvelously!
By the way: You "made" many pictures? Someone's been thinking in another language....