The End of Paris...

Finally, time and quality internet at the same moment! I’ll try to make up for all the boring text only posts now!

Lets see- Paris was an eye opening experience, on one hand you have beautiful monuments

And then there are parts that are absolutely disgusting. The street our hotel was on smelled of things that you really didn’t want to think about. Drains all over the city overflowed on a regular basis, and trash was truly everywhere. Now, I don’t know if I feel this way because our neighborhood was so gross, and since it took almost an hour to get to the ‘nice’ part of town so we didn’t go there much, or if that’s how it really is. However, despite some cool photos, I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Paris.

We did see a group of skaters doing vaults(?!) that was pretty impressive.

And if you look closely at this guy’s shirt, it reads “Michigan Hornets, Grand Valley State”. Is Grand Valley ‘The Hornets”?

The Arc de Triumph is pretty cool looking- but now I see why any time there is an accident in that circle, the insurance companies just go 50/50, no questions. I couldn’t even count the number of times people almost got into accidents, not that they were driving badly by any means, just that it was TONS of cars, and not much space for them, and nothing painted on the ground for non-locals to follow!

Btw- those tiny things down there- those are the pillars! 

There was a police presence EVERYWHERE in Paris. I never could make up my mind if I thought that was comforting, or terrifying. As soon as we got off the train we saw 5 police officers with huge machine guns. ~gulp~.

The good news was that around the major tourist sites, if the police were there, the gypsies weren’t that bad. I feel so mean saying that- but it was horrible to have them around. They’d grab you, blatantly try to reach into your pockets, yell, scream, badger. Ugh! Thankfully, as long as there was a group of us, it wasn’t TOO bad.

For my captain obvious statements of the day:

1. The Eiffel tower is a lot bigger than I expected.

2. The Eiffel tower was a lot HIGHER than I expected.

Obviously I don’t appreciate the ground as much as I should, and I am working on appreciating it more. I was so scared by the time I got off that thing! It was an amazing, and yet terrifying experience!

I also got to visit the Rodan museum.

I met the Thinker. We’re friends now.

And saw the Gates of Hell. And if that doesn’t scare you straight- Nothing will! Yikes!

There are more photos of everything on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2751107&id=2332258&l=cd214c271b.

I've got some photos from Prague up there already! I'll get them up here with real explanations soon!

Not much time...

Well- thankfully I was pretty much wrong on EVERYTHING to do with Prague.

1. The Hostel is actually cool- we have apartments! Shared- but apartments! (and the Hostel has a bar in it too- keeps people close to home at night)

2. We have internet (only in the bar- hence why this has to be quick, I feel my lungs blackening and my hearing going as I type)

3. Prague is GORGEOUS! There's not enough adjectives to describe how great Prague is, so mentally list your favorites and add here: Prague is ___________.

Ok- I'm off, the music went up another three hundred decibels and I just can't take it. I'm a wimp. I admit it.

Next Stop, Prague!

Our time in Paris is over. It was fun(ish). 

I have heard a rumor that we won't have internet in Prague, hopefully its wrong. 

Paris is a wonderful city, but when you add in how much more difficult our HW was with the language barrier, and how far away our hotel was from everything, I don't know that I feel like it was worth it, we didn't get to see Paris the way we did London. In London, we were maybe 10 minutes from everything. Here it was closer to 45mins. Ridiculous.

Oh well, I have to pack in order to be ready on time, Hopefully I'll be able to find internet that will allow me to upload photos soon!

Quick Update...

So, apparently the French have an 'in' with the big man upstairs. Because right after our slightly mocking baguette, frommage and wine meal on the grass behind the Eiffel tower we were excitedly taking photos of the cool lightning around the tower, and the awesome light show (yeah- you probably see this coming) the skies OPENED up! And the wind started knocking people over. Now, I won't claim that it was hurricane strength like some of the tourists around me, but it was definitely gail force or really darn close. 

I'm here to say: Marble is pretty- but slick as ____ and horrifically hard. Especially the third time you fall on it. Not pretty. (For anyone who cares- yes, the Camera and Wine are fine.)

I got to the subway in time for the rain to stop (of course) and couldn't see a darn thing (thank you glasses and soaking wet clothes). For the first time in my life, I actually was able to create a sizable puddle just from my clothes! After spending 10 minutes looking for the rest of my group, I gave up and headed back to the hotel. Dripping the whole way. 

Oh, and the rest of the group was already at the hotel. Apparently none of the 3 french speakers, or 8 others, felt it was worthwhile to wait/look for me. :-\

Hopefully I'll get photos up, I think I actually got some lightning behind the tower *fingers crossed*

Still Alive in Paris

Well, obviously the plan of a post every day has fallen through. 

I pulled my project out for London, but didn't get much of a response from Bossen. Which was a little sad. I'll have to pull him aside and see if I can get any more response from him. 

I'm glad that I get a few more days in London at the very end of my trip, its an amazing city and I didn't get to do as much as I wanted because of the project. 

Right now we have the broadest photo project of my life: "Paris". I have NO clue how I will start and we're already on day 3! 

We came in on Bastille Day (similar to 4th of July) and I decided against going to the Eiffel Tower for the fireworks. I'm glad I made that decision in the end. Apparently on the way back the subway got so stuffed someone right next to the group got stuck in the door and was seriously injured. Yikes! I wandered around our neighborhood here hoping for inspiration on what to photograph. (no luck).

The group dynamic has become very interesting. With 3-4 students haring off on their own, and the rest sticking together. Sadly, becoming lost in every city we visit has become a new tradition ~sigh~ Definitely one I could live without!

Today we went to Notre Dame and I had my first experience of someone trying to pickpocket me. Muahahaha! It was really funny 'cause I happened to be wearing my shorts with the zipper pockets and she couldn't figure out how to get into them. My camera bag is locked constantly, and I don't carry much cash so she just didn't have a chance. It was hilarious!

Surprisingly enough, between people who speak english, pointing and 'Bonjour', I've actually done pretty well for myself here. The only downside right now is our hotel. Its a cute little place, but we're on the 6th floor (a.k.a.- 7th back home) and you can either wait for the world's smallest and slowest elevator; or take a tiny twisted staircase up 7 flights. Its a bad dilemma, although, the fact that we don't have AC (or any way to get cooled off) once we get up here is a point in favor of the elevator. 

So, Parisian rudeness isn't nearly as bad as I expected. So far the only thing that could be chalked up to rudeness is that no matter where we go for something to drink, if I order Coke, I get Diet. I'm guessing its an unspoken commentary. But as long as it stays unspoken I'll survive. 

I haven't downloaded anything in the past 3 days, so I'm going to stop for now and get ready for our stereotyped evening of sitting near the Eiffel tower eating baguettes and cheese and drinking wine. :-) Tomorrow is another day, and come heck or high water, I will get over to Pere Lachaise (sp?) Cemetary. Its right by our hotel and is AWESOME!

Big stuff. . . . (Day 6)

Well, today we got to prove that even though we are a group of  "adults" we cannot get anywhere on time. Even when that 'anywhere' is the lobby of our own building. ~sigh~.

However, we did get to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Its a great museum with a lot of cool stuff. I had a photo of the amazing hanging glass sculpture that was in the lobby. 

Not sure where that photo went. Sorry.

However, we did have lunch at a really cute pub and I branched out to try a pie. It was a steak & beer pie. It sounded intriguing so I ordered it. Yum!

Look at that yummy-ness! It was enough that I didn't need any more food for the rest of the day (double yay!). 

The Natural History Museum was really cool too, and we got to explore it on our own. Honestly, the first thing that struck me was that it was ANOTHER cool building with interesting architectural details. Where did all these buildings come from? Not to mention the sheer cost of them!

Then, came the dinosaurs. Its been so long since I've seen dinosaurs it made me feel like a little kid, staring up at them. :-)

The dinosaurs also started the beginning of when we started to run into Professor Bossen everywhere we went! Museums, Restaurants, streets, everthing! It is crazy (and a little creepy). We also did a high-speed glance at the rest of the museum, and this sheep made me giggle. 

Call me crazy, but I agreed with the woman behind me who called him a "Cheeky little sheep". That, and the phrase itself entertains me too.

I wanted to go see the Wallace and Grommit exhibit at the science museum (yet another large and impressive building). But it cost 7 pounds, and we only had an hour and a half before we had to get back to the dorm to meet with Bossen about our project. 

About that talk with Bossen- oy vey. I had completely forgotten how obsessed the man is about depth of field. He dislikes any photo where the background is even marginally in focus. 

He also mentioned that a few students had questions about different things and that he sent them my way. 

So Katie and I spent the evening in a park while she learned how to use her camera. Stonehenge was the next morning, you can't go into that without figuring out your camera some. It was fun, and I got some cute shots. 

And then it was time to head to bed- because we had to leave for stonehenge at 2:20am.

In my defense... (day 5)

In my defense, I was very, very tired when I did the last blog, so I really don't know how much sense it made. Sorry!

This one is a day late, but I'm actually capable of speaking in complete sentences, so theoretically that'll help my writing. . . . 

Now that you've stopped giggling. 'Day 5' was so much FUN!

I'm rather sad that I put it off for so long because I finally got that spine tingly, jaw dropping, suppressing-the-urge-to-jump-up-and-down-like-a-two-year-old moments where it just hit me that, yes, I was IN LONDON.

It was cold, and rainy (that photo was taken later in the day- dreary doesn't look good) but amazing. I munched croissants as I walked down the bank. I oogled the House of Parliament (gorgeous!), 

Decided that no cathedral is worth $32 just to look around and not be allowed photos inside 

and checked out the Churchill museum and War Cabinet rooms. Sadly- no photos were allowed there either, but it was fascinating anyway. 

-Did you know that Churchill's mother was American, his father was British semi-royalty and they pretty much ignored him? 

-Also- the first time he met his wife he wasn't able to bring himself to even speak to her?

-And he was in the calvary for a time, and his political career bombed multiple times before the war? (and once after)

Sadly, that took my entire morning and I rushed to class, got bewildered for a moment, grabbed some lunch to go, and got to class. And I was SO glad I did! Our speaker was FASCINATING (sorry- the following will be photo-gush and may be un-intelligible to some).

Her name was Grace Robertson, she is a British documentary photographer/photojournalist. Her career began in 1947 when she had a small photo story published in the picture post (the British version of LIFE magazine). She was entirely self-taught, photojournalism had barely begun and photography itself was still very new. Anywho- she was asked to join the staff of the picture post full time and turned it down(!) and did the same to Life Magazine(!!) after they offered her a job too. 

I think the moment I nearly turned into that wide-eyed screaming groupie was when she casually mentioned her friend Larry Burrows(!!!). I have done reports on him, he was an AMAZING photographer. She casually mentioned how she saw him in the airport the last time he headed over to Vietnam. She told him that she had turned down Life's job offer and he congratulated her on her marriage, they hugged and he left. It was the last time he was in Britain before the troop transport he was on was shot down over Korea. 

However, beyond that, she was there, helping create photo-stories as they have come to be. She saw "Spanish Village" (Eugene Smith) when it was first published. I think she even said she knew him, but at that point I was feeling something close to what most people must feel around stars. Well, maybe not. I just wanted her to sit down and talk for the next 2-4 years. It was FASCINATING.

*deep breaths* Ok. Done with the photo gush.

After class I dazedly wandered back to the dorm, resisting the urge to kidnap the lecturer. How would I kidnap a 6'4 woman who had a dinner date with my prof without arousing suspicion anyway?

I then realized I needed to see more of London proper, and it was still icky so I didn't want to bother wandering through parks hoping someone wanted to get wet. On my way to the tube I met a really nice guy and his 4 dogs.

They let me photograph them playing, which sadly ruined my previous project idea. Now I want to shoot Londoners and their dogs.  I need to find more. 

Anyway, I headed back to the embankment and a little sun  came out (thats the photo from above). Here are some of my favorites;

I wanted to get a sunset behind the Tower Bridge, so I sat. And waited. And got colder. And waited. And got bored. And waited. And the clouds go darker and darker. So I decided I just wanted a photo with the lights on. So, I sat. And waited. And got colder. And waited. And got bored. And waited. And gave up. 

So I walked away, and not 200 feet from where I had been sitting, I ran into 5 other people from my program who had the same brilliant idea as I did. So I stopped to say hi. . . and the lights on the bridge came on. So we all shot it together before braving the subway home. 

Sadly, I didn't get photos of the group trying to jaywalk to the side of the street with the metro stop in time for one person to get creamed by a biker. He was going very fast. Thankfully for her, he also had really good brakes. Apparently it also looked a lot worse than it actually was, because she doesn't even have a bruise and it looked like she should have had broken bones!

However, when we got home at 11, I realized that I had woken up at 6am, walked all over London (twice), shot for hours and had nearly spazzed over a speaker. It was a long day, so when I laid down to stretch my aching back out, it was lights out before I knew it. Hence why the post is a day late. 

Now I think I'll rustle up some food and head to bed, because in 4.5 hours we'll be getting on the bus for STONEHENGE!!!!!!!!! 

Woohoo! Big rocks at sunrise!

Maybe I'll even get in a post about today before we head out... Or not...

Day 4...

So, I have decided that I really love the old buildings that we're in for this program. Who makes these intense wrought iron railings anymore? 

I'm guessing whoever is in charge of painting them fully appreciates that they no longer exist. I've discovered that you can tell what buildings are expensive by how well their ironwork is painted. In case you're wondering:

Hotels = Great paint job

University buildings = not so much

There's a really cute little park right across the street from where we hold class. Well- technically there's a cute little park right across from durn near everywhere in this city. Its rather nice!
Anyway- I got to class early and decided to sit for a bit and hope something photogenic decided to walk by. 

And lo and behold- something did!

In the form of a hilarious dog and his owner. They were walking around the tree lined pathway and at each tree- the dog would run up the side of the tree. Every once in a while, the owner would have to tap the top of the tree and the dog would run up as high as his owner's hand. 
It was amazing! The dog was running like 6ft into the air!

Ok, some of it was jumping too. But as the owner walked by he grinned at me and shrugged "if we don't come here- he does it at home." hehe. I can almost see that little dog running up the walls of a small flat.
I just had to toss that in- look! Not picking up your dog messes could cost between $160-$2,000!!! Talk about a place that pooper-scoopers much be really popular!

So now I'm really interested in the open, public spaces of this city, and there are a lot, with each one being very different. There's one just off Regent's square thats an old cemetery. 
There were people relaxing and kids playing all around these very old tombstones. It was the most intriguing thing to me. I know the british are phlegmatic, but playing around tombstones? Isn't that pushing it?
And yet- space is truely at a premium here (people pay over 220 pounds A WEEK for some flats- the more than $440/week!) so why wouldn't you utilize such a peaceful area? I have to admit that I really like some cemeteries back home, they have great trees, quiet and usually really pretty.

I also stopped by Russel Square park which is really different. They have flower gardens, an arbor, a coffee shop, and a fountain for kids to play in. I didn't want to freak out the parents so I actually just shot the tree I was under- the branches were cool and wavy :-)
Across the street is an awesome hotel. Look at that architecture! And the hotel is actually huge.
See? There's even more on either side of the frame too. I should see if it's really expensive. Maybe I could stay there after scotland... Hmmm
Well- its nearly midnight again and I am planning to get up early and hit the tourist traps in the morning (yay!)  so I'll head to bed and hopefully some more traditional London shots will be up tomorrow!