Week 12: Big Event and the Marathon of Death

          We had some great times this week. The Big Event/Charity Day was such a cool experience and I'm sure the people at the old folks home loved that we came and cleaned up their garden for them. We ever got a little dog buddy named Nero to keep us company at the Charity Day while we were gardening for them. They made us BBQ for lunch as a little thank you for helping them and then we got back to work, cleaning up the rest of what we had been doing. 

          Once we got back from the Charity Day, we went over to the Cherry Blossom street in Altstadt to see all of the blooming cherry trees. It was such a beautiful sight to see, even if the colors are a little more dull then a normal person would see since I can't see pinks all that well. Madi and Ana were taking some senior pictures there so it took us a while through the whole thing but I didn't mind walking around for a little bit. 

          The next day we had the Bonn Marathon... I woke up late and I was really contemplating not going since I had had little to no training for this half marathon but I decided to go anyway. I got there with plenty of time to get into one of the waves that was waiting to start the race. We didn't start until aboout 45 minutes past the time that it said it would start... The run was actually really easy and fun for the first 9 miles or so. After that, me feet and knees really started to hurt and I was not making great time... I still finished in under 2:30 so I was really proud of myself. I thought that I would have been able to make it in under 2 hours but that was never gonna happen unless I actually trained for this thing... After I finished the race, I ran into a few of the others and we went over to the Hofgarten where they had snacks and drinks for after the race. I had at least half a dozen of the little cinnamon sugar donut balls along with some meatballs and some alcohol free beer (not the greatest). I then went back to the the AIB to get my stuff and then limped back to my house to shower and take a nap for the rest of the day...

Big Event, and The Marathon (4/1)

So nothing really happened during the week. It was all homework and not much fun. We did have a math exam, which went horribly, but I’m glad to have a small break away from math. The weekend was a lot of fun though. We started with the Big Event. I was in a group with Vivian, Ryan Blanchard, Ariella, and some LMU theatre kids. We went to a retirement home and made a garden look a lot nicer by painting a big friendly spider, and setting concrete to make a bench. I was on the concrete team, and my goodness was that difficult. It was heavy, hard to mix, and we had to make several bags. It was a lot of fun though. The people we were helping out were super sweet, and they made us lunch. The lunch was really good, lecker even, and it was mainly a chicken soup. I haven’t had chicken soup since I’ve been in Germany. So it was nice, it kinda tasted like my Mom’s cooking. After lunch we finished our tasks and by that time I was exhausted from all the work. We ended our volunteering and went back home. Since we were in Bad Godesburg already I decided to ride the bus further than the subway stop. I got off at the center of Bad Godesburg, and as I got off I was hit with a surprise. I started walking to my house and then all of the sudden Vivian was all up in my face! I was so confused. I thought everyone had gotten off the bus and onto the subway, but for some reason she had stayed. I asked her what she was doing, and she said that she was only watching me as a cue of when to get off the bus. I told her that I’d get her back on the right train and so we went to the Bahnhof and waited. We got on the first train which just so happened to be the one everyone else was on. She burst into the train like a buffalo on the plains, and bumped into people and poles. It was pretty hilarious. After that I went home and got ready for the marathon the next day.


In the morning I went to go run in the marathon. I was super nervous because I had not trained hardly at all. Thankfully I’m still pretty fit, so I was able to run fairly okay. The whole marathon portion that I ran was about 7 miles. This was the furthest that I’ve ever run in one go. It took a lot of perseverance and bananas to get me through the run. But I did it and I felt good. I was surprised that I wasn’t very sore from the run. I guess that means I can push my body harder than I expected. It was truly a mind over matter experience, and I’m so glad that I was able to participate.

Paris Holds the Key to Her Heart

Paris is an enchanting city. Coming from me, this statement is an immense compliment. You see, I do not like big cities AT ALL. Ok, let me rephrase that, I like all that big cities are able to offer (cuisine, education, jobs) but I do no like the fact that they are big, crowded, far from nature, and dirty.  However, somehow Paris managed to win me over and here are the reasons why I fell in love with it.

• Public Transportation- The public transportation is Paris is amazing, comprehensible and reliable. Just watch out for pick pockets especially during the morning or evening when people go/ get off from work. Those trains are packed! While I was traveling on a subway, I saw a guy who had a pet rat. Her name was Juliet and it was the cutest thing.
  
  
  Part of the Paris Metro Map
  
  There's Juliet!


• Food- The way the French love their food is unlike anything I have ever seen before. Such attention is made to the quality of the food and the taste in every bite. I had a delicious lemon crepe at a place called Creperie Plougastel and delicious rice pudding at the Hardware Society (An Australian breakfast food restaurant in Paris but believe me when I say this place is a must go!).
  
  
  Best Rice Pudding
  I also had yummy macarons at another shop that were delicious!! I got passion fruit, pistachio, and lemon. Literally, every bite was just perfect! Take me back!!
  
  Yumm!!


• Museums-I love museums and ,well, Paris has the Louvre!
  
  The Mona Lisa
• Parks- I adore flower gardens and trees and Paris has a particularly beautiful park called Luxembourg. The flowers were blooming as children sailed boats in the giant fountains and runners ran through the shade of bright green leaves. I absolutely loved it! The Luxembourg gardens is by far my favorite location to visit in Paris!
  
  
  Flowers
  
  The center of the gardens.


• Buildings- The buildings , especially the French Catholic churches, are beautiful. My favorite church was Saint -Etienne-du-Mont.
  It was a bright sunny day and the sun streamed through the windows into the church.  The walls are  a light sandy gray stone and the atmosphere is light and airy. The screen that separates the sanctuary is exquisite yet uniform in its building material. Simple yet intricate. I absolutely loved it. It was no wonder that it withstood the destruction of a revolution while so many other screens were destroyed. It is truly a work of art. As you exit you see a rich dark brown organ seated above the door. As I left knew this was, would be, and is ,without a doubt, my favorite church interior in Europe.
  
  
  The Interior.
  
  The gorgeous Screen that survived the French Revolution


• The Views




• Eiffel Tower

When talking to my sister (an architecture student), I discovered that the Eiffel tower was designed and built by an engineer (engineers for the win). We did not go to the top level of the Eiffel tower because it closed before we went up, however, the views on the second level were incredible! I looked out through the telescopes on the level and looked at sights we had seen earlier that day like Notre Dame.

• The Arc of Triumph

Best views of downtown Paris. You can see clearly in every direction since buildings in this particular part of Paris are only allowed to be so tall. The more modern side of Paris with skyscrapers has an arched building that looks like a portal out of a superhero movie. Fun Fact: Parisians take their drivers test around this arc. Apparently it is common to fail on your first try.

The Acre de Triumph

• Sacre Cure

Best overall views of Paris. Sid, Ryan, and I went on a clear day and huffed and puffed our way up the tower. However, all those steps were totally worth it! The views were absolutely beautiful! 

Views! Can you see the Eiffel Tower

The steps before the tower steps

There's so much more to Paris but these are all my favorites! Hope you all enjoyed reading! What is your favorite city in the world?

P.S. To all my fellow Anastasia fans, yes, the title is a reference to "Paris Holds the Key."

Parlez-vous français??

This week was one of my favorite weeks of the semester thus far. It was so exciting to finally be traveling to France, I have always wanted to go! We started the week by going to Colmar to see the isenheim altarpiece.

I enjoyed seeing this painting especially since it is so closely related to my Catholic faith as well as having medical significance. The city of Colmar itself was very nice, we didn't get to see too much of it though because we were only there for a few hours. 

After Colmar, we got back on the bus to head to Beaune. We went there to see the Hotel Dieu. This was an old hospital that was used to care for the poor. The architecture of this building was absolutely beautiful. 

After Beaune, we were on our way to Paris and I could not have been more excited! As soon as we got there we went to the Seine River and Notre Dame. It was surreal to be seeing both of these places that I had heard about for so long. It was incredible!

The next day we went to the Versaille palace and had a picnic at the gardens. We were so lucky to have such great weather. I loved walking through each of the rooms in the palace. It was crazy to think that people used to live there. 

After the Versaille palace, we headed to the arc de triumph and Sacre Coure for our free afternoon. It was really great that we could get into so many places in Europe for free with our EU student visas, we really took advantage of that in Paris. The view from the top of the arc was very beautiful, and Sacre Coure amazing as well!

That night we had a nice dinner as a group and then got to go to the top of the Eifel tower. It was amazed at how big it was. 

 It was such a dream to get to see this iconic building. 

The next day we took a tour of the city along with the tour of the Louvre. My mom really loves museums and always reminisces on the time when she visited the Louvre; we had watched a documentary on the best museums in the world over winter break so I was excited to finally be there! 

After the Louvre we were let loose, and I got to explore the city with friends for the rest of the night. We went to a kebab restaurant, got bubble tea, and went back to the Eifel tower to see it twinkle. Honestly, it was one of my favorite nights of the whole semester. Getting to spend time with people I’ve gotten to know the whole semester and not have a care in the world was so much fun. 

The next day I had an extra day in Paris and I decided to squeeze in Mass at Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, and the Picasso museum. I was really surprised at how much I liked Paris, since throughout the semester I had grown to like the smaller cities I visited a lot more, but Paris was full of so many beautiful things.

Monday morning Josh and I had a train to catch heading to Lisieux. I was overjoyed that we were going to be able to visit. Lisieux is the birthday of St. Therese who is one of my favorite Catholic saints, and I could not wait to visit her hometown. We woke up in the morning with plenty of time to get to the train station. We had no idea the crazy morning we were about to get ourselves into. Unfortunately, the train station we had arrived to was the wrong one. We didn’t realize this until about 20 minutes after we had been going around trying to find our train. We hurried to the metro to try and get to the right station, but at this point I knew there was a real possibility that we wouldn’t make it. We arrived at the correct station only to find out that we were a few minutes too late. At first I was heartbroken, I didn’t know if there would be any other way to get to Lisieux and the dream of getting to visit this city was slowly slipping through my fingers. We got in line to ask the workers at the counter and were disappointed to find out that the only way to get to Lisieux was by buying another train ticket. My heart sank. I had already paid for the train ticket I had, and the thought of buying another one just because we had missed the train by a couple minutes was a bummer. Josh and I talked about it and decided that we should just go for it, we were already at the station, and the only other option would have been to spend the day in Paris and just wait for our overnight bus back to Bonn. Neither of us thought that would be a good idea. It was a lesson learned to say the least. I am very grateful that we were still able to make it. The day turned out to be absolutely perfect. 

I had an unforgettable experience in France, and I cannot wait to visit again at some point in my life. Paris is one of those cities that you can visit over and over again without running out of things to do! 

Spring Break 2019 - Mamma Mia vibes!

Saturday (3/9): Peace out, Bonn! Hello, Greece 💙

To say that I was excited for Greece is an understatement! I was so ready to soak in some sun (hahaha, details to come) and beautiful sights. Immediately getting off the plane in Athens, my jaw dropped in response to being surrounding by so many beautiful mountains. After reaching the city center, me and Adrianna met up with Masha, Jessica, and Vivian #girlstrip! Our first night, we ate a traditional Greek restaurant with a beautiful view! I ordered a Greek spinach pie and a Caesar salad. I know, I know, why order a Caesar salad and not a Greek salad in Greece?! Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of the majority of things in a Greek salad. :( The Caesar salad was delicious though so its all good! Although the pie was not my favorite, I'm happy I tried an authentic Greek dish my first night. 😋 After dinner, we walked around the city center and stumbled upon an interesting yet super inappropriate festival... then went into some stores. I also tried rolled ice cream for the first time.
A great first day! 

Sunday (3/10): the Acropolis, delicious food, and much more 🙆

In the morning, we headed toward the Acropolis. On the way there (which was a beautiful and peaceful walk), I noticed a cool hill and decided to see what the view looked like on top. Wowza!

(The Acropolis is on the top right!)

It turned out to be the Areopagus Hill, which served as the high court for judicial cases (like murders) in ancient Greece!
Afterwards, we went to the Acropolis. ❤

For lunch, we went to this GREAT Greek cafe. I tried tzatziki and a gyro for the first time. It was soooo good! Our server was super friendly and gave us free shots and dessert. 😋
After lunch we strolled through the park and ended up at the Acropolis Museum.
For dinner, we went to another Greek restaurant and I had another gyro ;)

We got more free shots and dessert, ayy!

Monday (3/11): Goodbye Athens, Hello Paros! 🌞🌊🌸

Up and early (~5 AM) for the 7 AM ferry to Paros. This was my first time riding a ferry, seeing a dolphin, and going to the beach. :) Our hotel was really close to the beach and so cute! I went on a hike and enjoyed the most beautiful scenery.

One of my favorite views of all time :)

For dinner, we went to another Greek restaurant. I had fresh fish and calamari!

Tuesday (3/12): Rain, rain go away :/

Just as expected, it rained almost all day. Oh well, a little rain never hurt anyone! We walked around, visited some stores, and spent 3 hours at this cute restaurant for lunch. #gyronumber_? Afterwards, I got my first gelato ever. We then hung out at the hotel, made dinner (so fun), and watched Mamma Mia! 😊

Wednesday (3/13): Goodbye Paros, Hello Naxos! 🌄

For breakfast, I had Greek yogurt, honey, strawberries, and granola with chocolate. YUM! (I’ve found a new favorite breakfast – I’m going to be on the lookout for more-than-not authentic Greek yogurt once I get back to the US!) It rained all morning before we headed to Naxos, and then it stopped LITERALLY as soon as we got on the ferry. The weather in Naxos was decent (semi cloudy, with some sun here and there). Our first adventure was walking the alley ways, catching sight of: beautiful buildings with blue doors and windows, a castle, stores, and the sea. 💙

We then went to the Apollo temple. 

We grabbed lunch at a creperie. Walking around some more, I couldn’t help but admire how beautiful the hills were. I suggested how cool it would be to go up and enjoy the view. Luckily, I was with a group of girls who were down! On the way up, I thought I was going to be blown off. It was SO windy. We also saw some cute baby goats. We finally reached our destination: a church built into the rock. The climb took about an hour and was totally worth it! 

For dinner, we went to another authentic Greek restaurant. I was feeling spontaneous and decided to try the goat and orzo. It was good, and I’m glad I tried something new!

Thursday (3/14): Naxos Day 2 🌅

Today’s main event was going to Agious Giorious, the most beautiful beach in Greece. In the morning, I decided to grab breakfast alone – a cappuccino and delicious sandwich. I sat on a bench enjoying the views and weather 😊. In order to get to beach on the other side of the island, we had to take a taxi. Once we got dropped off, our driver said “here, no bus, no taxi!” The beach was completely empty; we were the only ones there! Although the sun came and went, I enjoyed just sitting there and enjoying the waves, getting to know the girls I was with.

For dinner, we went to this really cute restaurant. I decided to order something I’d been craving for a while: spaghetti carbonara. SO GOOD!

Friday (3/15): Back to Athens ✨

We caught the ferry back to Athens and arrived around 5 PM. We grabbed a quick lunch (another delicious gyro) and headed to the markets. I bought my sister a ring and myself some earrings. 😊 After walking around some more, we decided to spend our last night at a rooftop bar. Our view = the Acropolis!

Despite the occasional gloomy weather, my spring break in Greece was unforgettable. I never thought I would be the girl who got the chance to do something super cool for break. Everyday I feel so grateful and blessed to be in this program. 😊

-Mel✌❤