7/4/13-7/7/13

I was planning on meeting Joe in Barcelona on Thursday July 4^th for the weekend. I decided to take the RER there, and got completely and hopelessly lost. I ended up in Paris’s ghetto, which made me very nervous and uncomfortable. Time was running short too and so I was also nervous I was going to miss my flight. Which I did. I made it to the airport a little less than 30 minutes before my flight and was told I missed it. I was so upset with myself, and of course the waterworks display started. I sat in the airport crying trying to find a flight or any type of transportation to Barcelona but there was nothing. I eventually decided to stay in a nearby airport and take the next morning flight. It was definitely a long and emotional night for me, but luckily I was able to talk to my parents who helped calm me down and made me feel better. The next day I made sure to give myself enough time to get to the airport and was able to make my flight and land in Barcelona just a little after 10.

Joe greeted me at the gate and I had never been so relieved to see a familiar face. The past 12 hours were so stressful and I just wanted to relax and not think of it. Fortunately, Barcelona was the right place to go to forget about the stressful times. After dropping my stuff off at the hotel, we went to beach. We quick got lunch along the beach and then went to layout and relax. I was definitely missing the nice warm weather and was so happy to finally have sun and to be near an ocean. When we got too hot from lying out we decided to go into the Mediterranean. It was very nice and the cool water was perfect with the warm sun. After spending the day on the beach we went back to the hotel and quick got ready for dinner. We decided to eat at the restaurant at the hotel. It had a great view of Barcelona, and watching the sunset was beautiful and breathtaking with the view. We had great food and drinks and even a little birthday treat as well. We then went to La Ramdas, which is the major touristy street in Barcelona. This street was crowded and while we were originally looking for a bar, we ended up just getting some sangria on an outdoor patio.

The next day we went to check out the Guel Park. Guel is a famous architect in Barcelona who created some very unique and interesting looking buildings. We walked around a massive park, checked out the architecture, got a little lost, and ended up taking a taxi to get out there. It was very stressful, but unlike Paris the taxis are not ridiculously expensive so it wasn’t a big deal at all. We got dropped off at the famous church in Barcelona called the Sagrada Família. It’s quite interesting because it’s been under construction for the past 200 years and will probably remain under construction for the next 200 years. We decided to then go back to la ramdas to do some touristy shopping and also get lunch. We enjoyed a nice little sampling of several kinds of seafood and some white sangrias. After lunch and buying our little trinkets we headed to beach. It was really hot and crowded when we got there so we decided to sit on the pier for a while and drink some waters. We then went and found some spots to lay out on the beach. After a couple hours on the beach we went back to get ready for dinner. We shortly returned to the same area and walked around the beach and watched the sunset. On the ride over, while waiting for the metro I ran into my friend Josh Orner from home. I knew he was in Barcelona, but it was very random that we ended up seeing each other on the metro. Of all the places to bump into someone… haha. After walking the beach and taking some pictures we went to restaurant along the pier and had once again a lovely seafood dinner. The restaurant was amazing and they even brought out a cute little dessert and dessert wine for my birthday. The pier is filled with bars so Joe and I walked along the bar area and got a couple of drinks. I couldn’t quite do as the spainards do however and stay out drinking till 6 or 7 in the morning… I had a plane to catch at that time!

My plane the next day was at 8:30. I finally made it back to my apartment around noon and met up with Magdalena. We had planned to do a bike tour and hot air balloon tour but the bike tour was already full when we got there and it was too windy for the hot air balloons. We decided to get a quick lunch and then walked around. I bought a few more touristy items and then we went in search of shade because it was so extremely hot. We ended up getting drinks at a café and then sat in a garden and relaxed while taking in a beautiful view of Notre dame. Being worn out from Barcelona and the sun, I realized I needed a nap. Magdalena gladly agreed and so we headed back to our apartments to rest. We then met up later with Sam for dinner.

While the weekend started off on a bad foot, Barcelona truly was incredible. I wish I could’ve spent more time there, but I am looking forward to getting back into schedule.

 

lunch near the beach, first taste of sangria too!

Beach!

View from restaurant in hotel!

Birthday treat and champagne!

Guel park... had such a pretty view!

Guel park

the interesting architecture  in park

Church in Barcelona

seafood sampling on la ramdas!

la ramdas

pier

relaxing on the beach

 

last night in Barcelona!

last dinner!

birthday fun!

Forgot to add some pics from my week, a little out of order but here they are!

 

Interesting art along the seine and near muse d'orsay

Cute little store near champs  elysee.. bought some tea!

also near champs elysee...  bought nothing here unfortunately!!!!

cute little park on champs elysee

drinks after the night mystery tour!

petite palais

art in petite palais

same shop is in the film ratatouille... very gross tho!

instuit du  monde arabe! Very cool exterior

parc in petite palais

place that we saw on the mystery tour.. was where a baker made human pies.. yummy

Jardin des planets

7/1/13-7/4/13

This was my first week working alone, and I was very nervous as I had no idea what to expect. I was also excited however to take on more responsibility. When I first arrived, I settled in and then got my directrice a coffee. I think she was a little surprised when I asked if she wanted one because Claudia would always do it for Anne rather than myself. This showed however that I wasn’t just sitting there twirling my thumbs, I was in fact paying attention and taking mental notes of how things are done in the office. I wanted it to seem like nothing has changed since Claudia left.  I then sat and talked with Anne for quite some time. She was very friendly which made me less nervous. This also made her less intimidating which made me feel much more at ease. She then told me what she wanted me to do and went off to work on it. I was doing “busy work” by doing simple tasks like categorizing and labeling DVD’s of new commercials. I would watch several commercials and write each product for each commercial so that the DVD had an index now. It was easy brainless work, but I still enjoyed it because it was better than sitting there and doing nothing. My directrice asked me to do this because she was busy finishing up this really big project. I felt like she kind of just wanted me out of the way, but again she gave me something to do and was nice about it so I didn’t mind.

One of the benefits of not working with the other intern however is that I can now leave earlier and start later. On Monday I got to leave early which was nice to have some down time and relax. I feel like Paris is always on the go and it has a very rushed atmosphere, which is why I try to take advantage of the down time. For the rest of the work week (Tuesday- Thursday) I didn’t have to start work until 2:30. This gave me time to work out and explore different areas in the morning. Tuesday morning, I tried going to Musee D’orsay but the line was too long so I decided to just walk along Champs Elysee since it was nearby. I went into a few stores because there are huge sales going on right now, but I ended up going to petite palais for the majority of my morning. The petite palais is “small” (not really) palace that has art exhibits. I really enjoyed the art that it had on display. When I got to work, I continued working of the DVD’s of commercials and categorizing them. At the end of the day however, my directrice gave me a little gift she had gotten in Mexico. It was a pastry-candy thing, and while it had “interesting” taste (the kind way to put it I guess) I really appreciated the thought. Wednesday, I started late as well but decided to sleep in so I didn’t accomplish much in the morning. Work was again the same stuff. After work though, I met up with Magdalena at Notre Dame and we did a ghost tour of Paris. It was a cheap tour that we found and we were basically taken around parts of Paris where we learned about mysteries such as phantom of the opera and the whole Sweeney Todd making people pie thing. It was quite interesting and a different perspective of Paris.

Thursday was much more interesting however. I woke up and went to do a little shopping area around the Notre Dame and continued my sales shopping. I then saw the store that was shown in the Disney film ratatouille. It was quite disgusting, but cool to see since they put this store in the film. (Animation version of course) After getting a salad for lunch I went to work but was surprised when my directrice told me I I didn’t have to stay if i didn’t want to because she was still finishing up the final details of the project. I gladly accepted this offer and decided to go check out instute du monde arabe, which is a Arabian museum. I wasn’t necessarily interested in the art, but the exterior of the building was quite exquisite. Nearby this museum was a parc called jardin des planets. This included very pretty gardens along the Seine and also a zoo full of flowers, nature, animals, and fossils. I quickly walked around there and headed home to get ready for my plane ride to Barcelona.

art along the seine and near musee d'orsay

view from musee d'orsay

park along champs elysee

petite palais

art in petitie palais

gardens of petite palais

Euro-dollar

Costs:

Since it was recently brought to my attention that my blog may not interesting enough for everyone (my dad) I have been advised to write about the prices of things here in Paris and compare them to the price in the US. For starters, the French use the euro; which sucks. For every 1 euro that I spend it is 1.31 dollars. Basically, just like the euro being “more expensive”, so is everything else in Paris. It’s funny because the number amounts of things are the same, but the costs are very different, For example, Alix told me she was looking into buying a new computer. In the US, the price for the computer was $2000 and in France, it was also 2000 euro. However, 2000 euro in dollars is more expensive and ends up being $2,620. Drinks are insanely more expensive here also. To get a coke or a sprite, it ranges anywhere between 4-5 euro which is $5.24-$6.55. Beers range from 6-12 euro, $7.86-$15.72. Mixed drinks range from 10-15 euro which is $11.31-$19.65. Since the drinks cost so much, usually the price for a meal is extremely expensive. Appetizers start at 10 euros and entrees can range from 12 -30 euro. Wine which is usually drank with meals here are usually around 7 euro per glass, 12 euro for a carafe, and 20 euro for a bottle. This is of course for the cheapest wine options, which I of course always buy. I usually consider it a good deal if I can spend less than 20 euro for a meal. Clothes here are a little more expensive, but in my opinion that depends on where you shop. Starbucks here is much more expensive and drinks usually start at a minimum of 5 euro. Basically, I have just had to learn to accept that Paris is an expensive city, and my dad who wanted to know so badly the prices of everything will probably learn the hard way about the euro if he plans on drinking as much Starbucks here as he does in the US.

my apartment

Here is some pictures of the apartment I'm living in. I live in a very nice area where the apartments cost anywhere between 1-3 million euro. Its a very safe and family oriented area.

Where we eat

Living room

entry way

The brothers room

My bathroom

Patricias room

Patricias bathroom

My bathroom (connected to Patricias)

Brothers room

Kitchen

Patricias room again