Last Minute Sightseeing

Hey everyone!

I am currently sitting in the foyer to my hotel because the internet in my room somehow got worse overnight. Yes, I am that dedicated to updating this blog.

Well, ok.. really I'm just bored. I went out for a bit yesterday but I'm not feeling great and I'm trying to rest up so that I can be 100% in Spain. So, I've been avoiding going out in the cold as much as possible. I keep waking up feeling like my tonsils are still there because it hurts to swallow. After having a couple cups of tea it feels better. But where was I...ah yes, the blog! I wanted to share with you all some pictures from this past Saturday! As I told you the other day I went to the Catacombs and two museums. The number of pictures I can put up will depend on how slow the internet is down here.

First of all, I should explain what the Catacombs are. I'm just going to say what I can remember from reading a few signs while we were there, and from what I saw for myself. The Catacombs is really one thing, so I'm going to use "is" instead of "are." The Catacombs is a series of underground tunnels that was built a few centuries ago by quarry diggers in France. Because of some incident, all of the bodies buried in the cemetery of innocents had to be dug up and placed somewhere else. There was either a flood..or overcrowding..or something. They started burying all the dead people in these underground tunnels, and families were allowed to visit them. As the burial site for each dead person began to look like it had not been visited for years, the skeletons were moved to the piles of skeletons already under there. So eventually what they had was 8,000 skeletons down there, their bones are piled along the walls in huge stacks, and the skulls rest on top of the piles.

We arrived at the entrance and were confronted with a sales lady who refused to accept my 20 Euro bill, saying she didn't have change. The ticket price was 4 euro for youth (16-25 yrs). Well, I didn't have change, and I sure wasn't going to just hand over 16 extra Euro. Besides, I knew there was no way that she didn't have ANY change. I mean where are we, Bolivia?! She stared at me until I said I'd pay for Hira too, and she handed me back 12 Euro. So off we went down the stairs to reach the underground cemetery. I was immediately nervous. The winding staircase we descended was so tightly wound that there wasn't that hole in the middle that you can look down to see how far you have to go. We just had to descend blindly for what seemed like hours, I kept looking for the moment when the wall would stop curving and we'd be there, but it took a very long time. I started getting nauseous. Once down there we walked through several dimly lit tunnels.

The ground was dirt and the walls were stone and mud brick. Initially I was like "this is so cool, this is JUST like Harry Potter!" Then I noticed that the ceiling was maybe 5 foot 7 inches high. And then I started thinking about how I would escape if I needed to, and I started to feel slightly claustrophobic. The only escape that we knew of was that hellish winding staircase and we were walking farther and farther away from it. There were supposed to be phones down there to call up to someone in case of trouble, but the only one I saw was out of order.

I made myself ignore that fact and that feeling went away. In one area of the tunnel there was a replica of what looked like a roman palace carved into the wall. Apparently the same guy dug them when he was prisoner down there and then he died from a cave in. After walking for 20 minutes through these tunnels, we reached the entrance to the cemetery.

This says "ARRÊTE! C'EST ICI L'EMPIRE DE LA MORT," this translates to "STOP! HERE IS THE EMPIRE OF DEATH."

It smelled funny in there. It wasn't as gross as I'd expected because they weren't whole skeletons, it was just piles of the same looking bone in neat stacks with skulls on top. Hira said she saw a hip bone, but all I saw was what looked like femurs and skulls.

There was a really cool skull and cross bones built into a couple of the piles, but because we weren't allowed to use flash, the picture didn't come out great. As we walked through the cemetery part of the tunnels, we noticed that the ceilings here were dripping every now and then, creating pools of dirty water on the ground. The last thing I wanted to do was get dripped on with what I decided was death juice in a cold underground cemetery from which there was no escape.

At the end of the cemetery there was another winding staircase to return to the land of the living. At this staircase there was a sign that told us exactly how many steps it would be until we reached the top (87). Thank goodness for that sign, or else I think Hira and I might've lost it.

After this we headed over to Musée d'Orsay to see some art. Hira said we should get in free by showing our long stay visas and our Sciences-Po student IDs. We walked over to what we thought was the appropriate entrance (out of like 5 entrances) and Hira, who is in Intermediate French but decided that since she was 2 days from being home she no longer needed to speak french, asked the doorman in english if he spoke english. He shook his head and said "Français, Español, et Italiano." Hira looked at me and said "spanish!" so I hastily switched to spanish mode and said:

"Hablas español?"

"Sí."

"Ok..uhm..somos estudiantes..y.." (we are students..and..)

Then he broke off in French and said something and pointed to the door, motioning for us to enter. After saying what he'd said in french, for some reason unbeknownst to me he switched to italian! The only word I caught was "Inglese." I very bewilderedly entered the revolving door, and behind me Hira, also obviously confused, tried to enter too but she walked straight into the glass. It was priceless.

I really liked this museum, it seemed overwhelmingly large when we first walked in, but after an hour and a half we'd walked through almost 2/3 of it. I don't have pictures from this because they weren't allowed. All of the Monet (which this museum is famous for) was gone for the Monet exhibit at the Grand Palais, but we saw Manet, Van Gogh, and some other guys. It was 4:30 and the last museum we wanted to visit, Musée de l'Orangerie, which is in the middle of the Tuileries Gardens in front of the Louvre, closed at 6pm. We walked across the Seine and through the gardens to wait in line for our free youth tickets.

I absolutely love Musée de l'Orangerie!! I hadn't been before. It is TINY and so it is extremely doable. It is known for the two oval-shaped rooms of Monet panoramic paintings that wrap around the entire room, creating the feeling that you are in his gardens. Those rooms were pretty sweet, but all the seating space was taken so we stood staring for a bit and continued downstairs.

All of the paintings downstairs (we saw Matisse, Renoir, Picasso, and some other people I can't remember), were very beautiful paintings. I really can't appreciate most modern art, but this kind of art I can truly enjoy. And pictures were allowed! (As long as you turned off your flash). So I have a few pictures of paintings that I especially enjoyed. I would put pictures up of these but the internet connection is like Crabbe and Goyle: almost too slow to function.

Of course at this point we needed nourishment.

We chose to descend the walkway in front of the museum to Place de la Concorde (where the end of the Christmas market on the Champs Élysées and the end of the Tuileries Gardens meet) to get it in the form of waffles covered in melted Nutella. For dinner we met Yomna and walked to our Indian restaurant, only to find it closed. It looked like it was undergoing construction. After walking up and down Montparnasse looking for other ethnic food and failing, we settled on Pasta Papa.

Thus ends my last night with the people on my program. That night I was up late, being awoken by tipsy people saying goodbye, someone wanting me to return a library book they forgot about, my roommate getting the handheld luggage weigher she'd borrowed from a girl she doesn't like stuck to her bag, and the 20 minutes that ensued with a parade of people stopping in our room trying to help get it unstuck. Of course, I was glad for these nightly interruptions. Anything to extend my time with new friends. Not to mention, at 3 am all of these events were experienced with a healthy dose of hilarity. I've really enjoyed my time here. I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of this program.

That's all for now. I'm off to pick up some lunch. I may decide to update again later today.

Love,

H.

Walking to Bon Marché con mi Camera in the Snow

Second post of the day-

After I wrote to you about the snow this morning I layered up and ventured outside to get some food. The closest thing I have to boots here are my Hunters and they have been my best friend since the colder temps have arrived. I pulled on my thickest socks, put on my boots, grabbed my camera, and headed out the door!

Here are some pictures of the snow:

Outside my building:

Outside Bon Marché:
I walked around Bon Marché mostly for fun and the energy in there was great! I love shopping during the holidays. All the decorations have been up since Thanksgiving and the place was packed with families shopping. People were everywhere!! Jingle bells was even playing outside. I'm not kidding.

I bought some gloves and the lady at the register asked me in english if I wanted to pay in Euro or Japanese money.

??

I was about to ignore her mistake but she caught herself and blushed but her english wasn't good enough for a quick recovery. I successfully told a saleslady "no, merci" when I understood that she was asking if I needed help! Then I went back to her and asked her the price of something. In french. Boo-yah!

I'm going to download a Christmas movie.

-Hillary out.

Harry Potter and the Visit from Mom and Mo

Hi friends!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!! I know, I know, I haven't update the blog in a while.. but I have a good excuse!!! Last Saturday Mom and Morgan came to visit me!! They came in on Saturday morning and I returned from London that afternoon after having seen Harry Potter the night before in Londontown.

Sidenote: Harry Potter was EPIC. I think it might be my favorite movie so far. It was the closest to the book, and we all know how much I hate it when the stray from the plot. (AHEM pathetically pitiful ministry battle scene at the end of Order of the Phoenix, I'm talking to you). I also had a fabulous time with Yomna and Hira walking around the city and spending all day shopping at Topshop in Soho. The best part of the trip was easily the collective gasp in the theater as the movie started. Priceless. Here's some pics from London:

Moving on, Mom and Mo leave very early tomorrow morning. We had a fun time hanging out and I really loved showing them around. Here are a few highlights from the visit.

Monday through Wednesday I had class all day long so Mom and Mo went to Musée D'Orsay (which was inexplicably closed but where they met a very charming older British lady), shopped at Galleries Lafayette, and saw Harry Potter (for Mo it was the second time).

This is the Christmas Tree at Galleries Lafayette.

The Sunday before all of my classes I took the afternoon to show them around the Opéra Garnier. Instead of paying extra for a guided tour, I did the tour from memory. I was so excited when we found a door on the 2nd floor that was open for people to view the theater with the lights on.
Thursday I took Mom and Morgan shopping around my neighborhood. We went to Bon Marché (a large upscale Harrods-like department store) in the morning, stopped by Repetto for some shoes for Morgan in the afternoon, looked in the windows at Manoush, ate some late lunch, stopped by Aigle where Mom bought rain boots and children's riding boots, got crêpes on the side of the road, and picked up some macarons at Ladurée! It was a long day of shopping. The picture below is the three of us sitting in front of a mirror while Mom was trying on shoes at Aigle. I took the picture because I thought each of us was sitting in a way that completely reflected our personalities.

If you start on the left with mom, you'll see that she's sitting in a very proper and composed manner. Morgan is in the middle, sitting like she doesn't care what that position does to her posture at all, and then there's me on the right, just looking awkward.

After leaving Aigle and getting some macarons (to go) it started pouring, so we ran to the nearest metro and stopped near Galleries Lafayette to shop at Mango. All of the huge department stores are decorated for the holidays and it's really pretty.

Friday afternoon we took a cooking class. The company that offers the cooking classes in english is owned by a woman from Hyde Park (who used to be a banker for citi group) and her french husband. We made french onion soup, spinach souflée, and chocolate fondant. It was so much fun!! And it was delicious. Chopping onions in the beginning was a bit of a nightmare as 11 people were chopping them, but looking back it was pretty funny.

After eating we walked over to Oysho for some loungewear and then crossed to street to go into BHV for Morgan to get a hat but we ended up walking out with a lot more than that hat. I had wanted to take them to Le Marais to get falafel but we were too stuffed and tired so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel. Today we took it easy. We met Hira and Yomna at Angelinas for some famous hot chocolate. I ordered a pecan brioche to make dad happy. (Happy dad?) Somehow sleeping in and drinking hot chocolate exhausted Mo, and this is what she looked like before we ordered room service for dinner.

I bid them farewell and headed back to my dorm to get some work done and let them get to bed early before their flight tomorrow. I can't wait to see them again in Spain in a few weeks. But for now, it's working time. This week I have 3 finals, 2 of which are two hour essays, and a 100 page yet-unwritten group research paper to turn in. It's going to be a marathon.

H.

Swiss chocolate, swiss knives, swiss cheese..

Hi all!

I just returned from Geneva, Switzerland a couple of hours ago. We didn't spend much time there. Our train got us in at 12:30pm on Monday and we left Geneva on the 5:00pm train tonight. When I think of Switzerland I think of ski lodges on snow-covered mountains, rich people storing their billions in banks, and neutrality. Unfortunately we had a tight schedule and we barely left our hotel neighborhood so I didn't get to see the pretty mountain towns that I'd imagined..or even walk past a ginormous and intimidating modern-looking bank.

When we arrived in Geneva it was very cold and pouring rain. Luckily our hotel was a one-minute walk from the train station. The hotel hadn't assigned rooms to people, so Bruno (our teacher and the head of our public health program at Sciences-Po told us to match up on our own and tell him what we decide. People started pairing off left and right and I felt like I was back at middle school worrying that no one was going to ask me to room with them. I was even more worried that I would have to room with one of the people on this program that have no notion of how to not be an annoying person. I took initiative and asked one of the girls I get along with who wasn't paired up yet to be my roommate.

At 2:45pm we headed for MSF. We were going to walk there but because of the train we took the cable-car bus two stops and walked into a very unassuming building. There is no way I would've ever guessed that inside this building was the headquarters to Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders). I didn't even see a sign. We listened to a speaker talk about the history of MSF for an hour and a half, something we had all already learned while in Paris (not to mention that we're all global health minors and probably knew it before coming to France).

His lecture was very dry and I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. I entertained myself by drawing the MSF logo on my notebook. After his lecture we were supposed to hear a doctor speak to us, but because of the Haiti cholera goings-on all of the staff were all over the place so we got a last minute lecture from a more lively woman (who had reporters waiting for her once she was done), she talked to us for a half an hour about a new nutrient supplement and the controversy surrounding it. Apparently there are intellectual property rights battles surrounding the liquid. It is made of peanuts, milk, water, and something else. I couldn't figure out what she was calling the stuff, it was either "plumpy nuts," "plant peanuts," or "plampinuts." There was nothing else scheduled for us at MSF so we were released at 5:00pm and told to meet in the hotel lobby a couple hours later to walk to dinner.

As we were leaving I noticed the front desk was displaying MSF apparel for sale. I asked the guy behind the desk if they were for sale and he said yes but they only accept Swiss Francs and they don't accept credit cards. Yomna and I decided we'd try to look for an ATM and then we'd return to buy something. We were told that the closest ATM was back at the train station near our hotel. We started walking that direction, searching earnestly in the pouring rain for any sign of an ATM. As we left a pharmacy that couldn't give us change in Swiss Francs we quickly realized that ATMs were not located every couple of blocks like they are in Paris. We tried to go into a bank but found the place completely empty.

Look closely at the picture below. The ceiling was made to look like the night sky!!

We left the bank feeling very confused about our preconceptions of Swiss banking. This was supposed to be Switzerland! Land of banks! Where was the top security? We walked in like we owned the place and only saw one person in an office behind a curtain.

As we left the bank we saw a bureau du change across the street! Yomna and I changed over 50 Euro and hurried back to MSF. The man didn't seem happy to see us, he informed us that the guy who was in charge of the apparel wasn't around, and that they didn't have all of the merchandise there. I was about to get nasty and tell him that we'd take the shirts they had behind the glass in the counter until he said he would make a quick phone call. As we waited Yomna pointed out a white board that listed all of the staff who were departing for service over the next several days, their debriefing meeting times, and their location of work. People were listed as going to Sudan, Swaziland, Niger, and one or two places in the Middle East that I can't remember. Eventually he got off the phone and was about to tell us that the merch guy wasn't there but then cut himself off and said "oh, he's right here." The man behind us asked us what we wanted and he went downstairs somewhere to bring up sizes. The sweatshirt was 80 Francs (about 70 Euro)! I didn't get a hoodie but I got a t-shirt, which was much more reasonably priced.

When we returned to the hotel I drank some tea and tried to ignore a sinus headache. I tried to get into my room but we were only given one key and my roommate had it and she wasn't there. I got one from the desk and took some sinus medicine and laid down for 20 minutes, channel surfing.

At dinner we were served traditional Swiss fondu.

There was a band singing, yodeling, and playing traditional Swiss instruments like the saw, the accordion, and this thing:

First they brought out orange le creuset pots with handles full of slightly boiling cheese and placed them on little...hot plate things with a little flame inside. We watched Bruno show us the proper procedure. First you take the long skewer/tiny fork onto which you secure a hunk of bread and you dip the bread into the hot cheese using the skewer/tiny fork. Bruno let his bread sit in the hot cheese for a long time before taking it out but the bread gets really soggy that way. I decided that what I liked the best was to dip half of the little hunk of bread into the cheese to improve the proportion of cheese to bread. We had two birthdays on Monday; Yomna and Amanda's 21st birthdays! The band brought them up a few times to play their Swiss instruments and it was really cute. When it was time to bring out the hot pot of chocolate fondue and the fruit trays the band played happy birthday as we all sang.

The experience was great but the food wasn't good enough to make up for it being so absurdly unhealthy. I don't know why, but food in France has a tendency to be made with alcohol. Almost all of the desserts (except for the ones at patisseries) taste like someone poured two shots of rum on them after cooking them. Well, Geneva is in the French speaking-side of Switzerland and, true to form, the cheese tasted faintly of alcohol. We had really good white wine with our meal, but I hate when my food tastes like alcohol. Also, the cheese they used didn't even taste that good. Several people said they didn't like the cheese that was used. The chocolate was delicious but they served it with apples, oranges, cantaloupe, and pineapple. I was really surprised that they didn't give us strawberries or bananas. Nothing went well with the chocolate, and the cantaloupe with chocolate tasted like vomit. All criticisms aside, it was a very fun dinner!

It was still raining by the time we left the restaurant around 10:00pm. I was dead on my feet when I got back to the hotel. Sunday night the new people in the room next to me had friends over and they were up past 2 am. They kept doing that random loud bursts of laughter thing. Remember the girl I spoke about before from New York who spoke like my Ben & Jerry's co-workers? I could hear her voice clearly. I could hear every word she said. I had waited since I went to bed at 11:30pm for them to quiet down, but I finally knocked on their door at 1:30am and asked them politely to keep it down because I had to get up at 7:00 to go to Geneva. My roommate came back from her weekend in Brussels and Amsterdam at 6:00 am and didn't see the point in sleeping for just one hour, so she stayed up. So I only slept from 2:00am to 6:00am the night before. At the hotel my roommate wasn't back yet so I changed into my PJs, vowed to ignore any knocks on my door, watched BBC news for half an hour in bed, and then went to sleep at 10:45pm.

I will post day 2 in Geneva soon!

Love,

H.

Portugal ch. 3: Today Was A Fairytale

Hey everyone!

I know you've been hanging on the edge of your seats waiting for the next addition to my Portugal posts, but wait no longer! To refresh your memory, I ended the last post on our first afternoon in Lisbon after having left Porto. Here we go,

After we spent some time bumming around the plaza and walking into a few different stores near the shopping area (including a store called "Pull and Bear" which was like a cool version of Hollister where there were a few VERY attractive Brits standing around chatting), we headed back to the hostel to change and head to Hard Rock to celebrate Jennie's 21st birthday, which was that day.

On the way to Hard Rock we passed by one of the coolest lunar scenes I have ever seen. Behold:

(Tilt your head so the left side is the top of the page)

I didn't have my camera but I drew it in my journal that night.. and then stole this picture from Jennie once we got back home:

It was one of those moments when everyone around you has stopped and is staring at something, so you look in the direction of their gaze and your jaw drops.

There was a very long wait at Hard Rock but it was well worth the wait. I ordered a strawberry daiquiri (is that really how you spell that?) that tasted exactly like a strawberry smoothie and I have a sneaky suspicion the bartender left out the alcohol..which I guess is fine with me, it was yummy. To my surprise Jennie didn't order a drink because she'd had half a drink the night before. We had agreed on getting a fun drink while we waited for our table to celebrate her birthday but after I decided on mine she changed her mine and ordered a soda. I was a little frustrated but I wasn't going to push the issue and make it awkward. It was delicious food as always, but my twisted mac-and-cheese (which is Morgan's go-to at Hard Rock) was 11 Euro or around 15 dollars! Oh, and while we were waiting in the crowded bar area to be seated, a guy walked past us and said "hi" with a british accent, and as he passed Jennie heard his friend say "dude they're like 14!"

No comment.

The next morning was Sunday. We got up and ate breakfast at the hostel. While we ate we chatted with a couple girls from Eau Claire college in Wisconsin!! How random. After talking to them and sharing tips, we decided to head out to Sintra, the castle village about 45 minutes out from the city. We hopped on a train, I with London Fog Starbucks drink in hand ("hazelnut instead of vanilla, please") right before it pulled out of the station. We chatted about boys and political ideologies until we got to Sintra. We knew when to get off because all of the tourists on the train were getting off. When traveling and confused, always follow the tourists.

Before we go any further I should mention that Ali from last season's Bachelorette went to Lisbon with 5 of the guys and visited 3 different castles. One of the castles was multicolored and I'd seen it atop it's ginormous hill from afar while our train pulled into Sintra. I was more than excited.

We followed the tourists up a long, windy road as a horse-drawn carriage rode past us (Ali took a horse-drawn carriage all the way up to the multi-colored castle!) and we found ourselves in the middle of a fairytale village. I mean, it was lush and green with a slight chill to the air and the place was littered with palaces nestled in the rolling hills. It was beautiful. We reached the city center which was tiny and visited a tourists office to plan our day. First, we visited the King's summer home (don't ask me which king) because it was only free until 2pm.

I found two amazing things in the King's summer home.

First, Narnia's wardrobe!

Second, A GALLEON ROOM!! WOOHOO! There were no galleons in that room and my dreams of wizarding riches vanished with a sting.

Then we decided we should grab some food before walking over to the next palace. Strolling along the narrow streets to find food we passed by a café that Jennie had read about for being famous for two of Portugal's pastries. They are called "travasseros" and "quejados." One was an almond pillow and the other a sugary cinnamon cheese thing from which I tasted no cheese, only heaven. To get them we had to take a number and wait in line. We took our pastries to a café and ordered food and chatted.

Our chat turned into a conversation about what it is to be gay. You see, Jennie is a conservative Christian who goes to church every Sunday at an english-speaking church in Paris, and while I am a spiritual person I also do not agree with many dictums from organized christianity or christian churches. We had a very respectful and grown up talk, but a lot of things surprised me from our conversation. I knew she was a strict christian, she will only marry a christian and she has a tattoo to remind herself of God's love, but I don't know..somehow I thought she would think the same way that I did about this topic. I guess that was naïve of me. I quickly learned that she believes that being gay is a sin, "just like murder, it's in the bible." She also said she knows for a fact that it is something you can change about yourself because she had a friend who was a girl and dated a girl for a year, but then changed her mind and "saw the error of her ways" if you'll allow me to paraphrase, and she switched back to men. Then she went on to explain that she doesn't think politics should get into the moral issue and that the reason we should ban gay marriage shouldn't be because of religion, but only because it is causing so much tension.

The frustration was building up inside of my chest and I could feel myself frantically trying to calm myself down and find a way to respond politely while still expressing my opinion. I hate debates. I took a breath and told her that the story about her friend is ONE story, and that it's purely unscientific to take one case-study and apply it to everyone. I went on to explain to her the theory of the dimensional view of sexuality, where everyone has a place on the scale. Some people are at either end and are purely homosexual or purely heterosexual, where as there are some people that can fall anywhere in between the two extremes, and that her friend would fall somewhere in between the middle and heterosexual. She hadn't heard this theory before and I was surprised by that. I didn't make it up, I learned it. We decided our disagreement was purely based upon whether we thought our sexuality was something we could change, or something we were born with. Over the course of our conversation we had moved from the cafeteria and were walking to another summer home palace of sorts.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

I found Aslan!!! I can't share with you what he told me.

Next we caught a bus up the huge hill/small mountain to find the Moorish Castle and the Palacio Naçional de Pena (the multi-colored castle). I thought the winding walls looked a lot like the great wall in Mulan. Climbing all of these steps was very tiring and tricky to do while wearing a skirt in the high winds, but well worth it for the view.

We were told that the multi-colored palace was only a 15 minute walk up the hill from the Moorish castle, so we walked. This was the most exercise I'd had since climbing the too-small-to-be-called-a-hill hill at the Salar de Uyuni at 10,000 feet up. It was tough but I was glad for the exercise. (That exhausted picture of me above is before the hike up to the palace.)

Walking around the palace was amazing. The rooms were full of stuff to look at and admire. Jennie charged ahead in front of me so fast she didn't stop once to look at anything. I raced through the rooms in order to catch up to her when what I'd really wanted to do was take my time and marvel at things. When I caught up to her she said "there you are!" as if I'd taken my sweet time. Traveling with only one person can be tough sometimes. You can never argue because you know you're stuck with them and the awkwardness that is sure to come after an argument. I smiled silently and followed behind her. I decided to take my time looking at the hogwart's-esque kitchen with fake dead animals strung upside-down in the back pantry.

Thus ends chapter 3!!

-H.

Metro Maniac

Hey guys!

I have a weird story to tell you, I know I just updated with a post on Lisbon but I'm splitting these up because they have very different tones.

Today I had French for 2 hours and then public health for 5 hours (it was scheduled to be 7 hours). In French something really shocking happened. A woman came in to tell us that my French teacher was on the metro and something happened with the metro but that she'd be here soon and we should wait in the classroom for her. We didn't think much of it because she's always telling us that she has to plan way ahead to get to class on time because of the strikes, and she's always worried that she's going to be late one day. She came in about 8 minutes late sobbing. We all went completely silent and she mumbled that she might not be able to teach today. We waited, and she said she was attacked on the metro. We frantically muttered that we didn't need to have class, or that we could do independent study. A few people kept asking if she needed anything, but she just continued taking big gulps of air and shakily reaching for the class folder from her backpack.

Now, I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but sometimes I have extremely inappropriate reactions to grave situations that have been sprung upon me suddenly like that. When I had that car accident in high school (when I was doing donuts in the street, as dad always says) I laughed before I cried. So this whole time I'm concentrating really hard on not laughing, and a smile is forcing its way onto my face. I had to put my hand over my mouth to control myself. There's a reason for this and its very normal, psychologists say it's because we don't know how to process sudden traumas..or something like that. Anyway I was struggling between wanting to condole her but also trying to restrain myself from being really inappropriate. Finally she asked for us to give her 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes were up she started class as usual. I'm so grateful that she didn't call on me first to answer her question in french because I would've stared at her with my mouth hanging open, still trying to process the abrupt shift we had just made.

After class she told us what happened. Apparently the metro was really crowded this morning and some woman was trying to get on. My teacher was standing in her way but she couldn't move because it was so tight, and there was a stroller behind her. The woman made it on but cussed her out throughout the entire metro ride. She said the woman almost hit her! She ended up asking a man to walk with her out of the station and then she stood with some police for a few minutes.

How crazy is that!!?? We told her that anyone would've been upset after that and she shouldn't be embarrassed. At first I wondered why she hadn't pulled herself together in the bathroom before walking into class, but then after talking with some people we decided that maybe she had been ok before walking into class, but upon seeing us her adrenaline subsided and she just broke down.

It's getting colder but the crazies aren't hibernating!

Love,

Hillary

Portugal Ch.2: Lazing in Lisbon

Hola Lovers!!

Or should I say, "Bonjour!" This is chapter 2 of my trip to Portugal.

I left something out of my last post about Porto! After dinner and ice cream, we returned to our hostel and got ready for bed. We were staying in a room of 4 but so far we hadn't seen our roommates. We'd guessed that it was a guy and a girl because one of the beds was not made and sort of messy, and the other one was made and rather neat. As we were journaling, our roomies came in. It was in fact a guy and a girl. After a brief introduction I realized that we had made the wrong conclusion. They were both very talkative and outgoing, but I decided we were wrong based on two things.

A) The girl was put together and even had a cardigan on, but in a devil-may-care way. She talked about only getting 2 hours of sleep before her flight that morning because she'd been out until 6 am in Barcelona (where she's studying abroad).

B) The guy was gay. And I'm not stereotyping here. He was very put together in a neat way and a tad more polite. (Not that she was rude! She just abandoned the formalities in meeting new people..which was actually really refreshing.)

We chatted with them for awhile. Both are juniors at Middlebury in Vermont. When I heard this I almost jumped up and shouted with joy. You see, Middlebury is the birthplace of college quidditch. They started it a few years ago and college quidditch has grown immensly. Maybe I'll do a post on college quidditch sometime soon and explain how it works. Anyway, to me they might as well have told me they went to Hogwarts. I didn't hesitate to convey to them the sheer joy of being in their presence. They agreed with me and thought the quidditch team at Middlebury was really cool. We talked with them for awhile until they left to find a bar or a club. Before they walked out we asked which bed belonged to which person, and I was right. He had the neat bed and she had the messy one.

The next morning we caught a 3 and a half our train to Lisbon. We almost got off at the wrong stop in some random little town because we couldn't understand the announcements for each station and there was no schedule or list of stops to reference. Eventually a middle aged man picked up on our panic and he told us the Lisbon stop was next, but we wanted the second Lisbon stop because it was in the city center.

The tourism office at the train station was closed. I called the hostel to find out where to go, and he told us to take a bus. We found the right bus and thankfully got off at the right stop (there was no sign to indicate which stop it was) and eventually found our hostel. Our hostel was SWEET. When we got there an older couple was trying to make a reservation, but there were no vacancies. It's always weird when people over 30 are in a hostel, but they are always there. I don't want to be in hostels after 30, let me tell you. But they are fun now! There are always tons of people my age, and lots of solo travelers doing the "around the world" vacation that so many 28 year olds do after their "I'm done with grad school/my job sucks" crisis. These people are anxious to meet others and plan activities during the time that their itineraries overlap. Also, lots of hostels are really cool looking and most of the ones I've stayed in are very clean, super trendy, and have a very helpful staff. I took some pictures of this one. I forgot to take a picture of the lounge, but there was a huge tv in the wall playing CNN and below it was a queen size bed with a sign that read: "Make Love, Not War."

On the wall in the staircase (each floor had a different graphic):

On the wall on my floor between the showers and the rooms:
My room. Notice that there are 3 bunk beds lined up in a row, and the bottom beds have a curtain for privacy:
The key for this hostel looked like a coiled key-chain that goes around your wrist, and it had a tiny circle, the shape of a watch face that was an electronic key. That circle opened the front door, the room door, and your specific under-bed drawer by placing it on an electronic sensor. The under-bed drawers were big enough to fit my suitcase and still have extra space. So cool!!

Each bed had its own reading light, a tiny shelf, and an outlet. The only main light in the room was the backlight to the gray cityscape on the wall. So turning on the light doesn't disturb everyone because it isn't a strong light.

Peep this bathroom sign:
After checking out the hostel we wandered through a market at the main plaza and then sat by the sea shore for awhile.

This mass of fish was very mysterious. They were all swimming toward a lowered wall and not making much progress. Seagulls were dipping down attempting to pick one up but these fish were way too big for them. A friend from Northwestern who saw my this picture on my facebook told me that the fish were doing the same thing when he was in Lisbon last year...

Thus ends chapter 2!

To be continued...

Hillary