I'm done with class?

One of the things I love most about Paris is that there are so many parks!  There are big ones such as the Luxembourg Gardens and the Champ de Mars, and smaller ones like Parc Belleville and   This week I've checked out two new ones: Parc Monceau and the Jardin des Plantes.  Also, I spent some time studying in the Jardin des Tuileries, right next to the Louvre.  This week's lovely weather made it a great time for some park exploring.  

Here is part of the fountain in the Tuileries, the building is one of the wings of the Louvre:

Here's the Jardin des Plantes, where I did some reading and studying yesterday morning.  It's huge, has a zoo and a botanical school, as well as a few smaller animal related museums, like paleontology and evolution.

Here is the entrance to Parc Monceau, where I had a great picnic today.  Interesting fact: in 1797, it was the site of landing for the first silk parachute jump.  Also, a fifth-generation park watchmen lives in the top part of this rotunda because it is a semi-private park: six EXTREMELY wealthy families have houses adjacent to the park, and they have 24 hour access to it.  Also, this is one of the few parks in Paris where you can sit on the grass, so that was perfect for a picnic on a warm day!

Here is the classroom where I have spent two hours every weekday for the past (nearly) 4 months:

Today was my last day of grammar class, last Friday was my last day of phonetics class, and I have one measly review session left of my civilization class.  WOW!  Unfortunately this means that I have finals coming up- my huge 4 hour long grammar final this Saturday, an oral exam next Wednesday, and my exam for my civilization class next Thursday.

Luxembourg!

I had one day to use up on my Eurail pass so I decided to go to Luxembourg for the day today.  I literally had no expectations at all, but I figured I may never get the chance to go again so, why not?  I definitely made the right decision because I LOVED it.  It is on a series of hills so some neighborhoods are on top of the hills and some are hundreds of feet below in the valleys.  

I was by myself, and since it was a Sunday most things were closed, so all I did was walk around all day- I must have walked at least 6 or 7 miles!  I am going to let the photos mostly speak for themselves, but I found the city gorgeous.  Much of the military walls are still intact from as early as the 10th century.  

Did you know the country of Luxembourg is about the size of Rhode Island?  

Also, Luxembourg still has a royal family- the Grand Ducal family!  I spotted their former royal palace today but couldn't get a good picture due to the guards and gate.  

Also yesterday I did lots of exploring around Paris!  I finally went to the Pompidou modern art museum: really liked it!  For me, the most interesting part is the exoskeletal construction of the building:  things like pipes, ducts, and even the escalators are on the outside of the building.  Also, there were some interesting Dali and Mondrian pieces.  Besides that I saw Angels and Demons (in English), which I really enjoyed.  This week I am doing a bit of babysitting and A LOT of studying for my big final on Saturday!

A curiously American week so far

My week has felt so American thus far!  Today everyone in the program had our first and only paper of the semester due.  Since none of us have had to write anything since December, it was quite a challenge and even though it was nowhere near as difficult as some of the papers I've done, it took me forever!  For once I actually appreciated the awful weather because forcing myself to write would have been harder if it was beautiful out.

I wrote it on the introduction of coffee in Paris, the mass opening of cafes and coffee houses, and how cafes and coffee have been intertwined with Parisian history.  It was interesting, but lots of research.

Yesterday for lunch, a few of us went to a place called Breakfast in America.  We were all craving pancakes and wow- they were great!  There's a few other American-style places here but this is the first I've been to...

Tonight I'm going to a friend's apartment for dinner which should be nice.  My host mom isn't the best cook so I am REALLY looking forward to going home where my Mom will cook for me (when I am home) and I can actually cook for myself in D.C.  Having no control over what I have for dinner is getting kind of old.

So there you have it-- a week quite like a week in DC- writing papers and eating American food with friends!  Of course, I couldn't go a full four days without doing some exploring, so I spent some time reading in the Arenes de Lutece.  Lutecia was the name for Paris when it was first settled by the Roman empire.  The Arenes de Lutece are the remnants of the coliseum-style amphitheater, now it is a public park.

 

The beauty of Interlaken

Besides skydiving, Kim and I did a whole lot of walking and a whole lot of talking in Interlaken.  The town is TINY, we had a lot of fun just walking around and looking at everything, sitting in a park and enjoying the amazing view, etc.  Kim described it as a "toy town" and I think that describes it well: it didn't feel real, more like a little model town conveniently dropped between two lakes and surrounded by the Swiss Alps.  

If this setting seems ideal for me, that's because it is.  Luckily during one of our walks I found my future home:

Here's pre and post skydiving pictures: surprisingly I am more put together before skydiving, and completely frazzled afterwards.  Also, I'm aware that I appear to have some sort of black eye, but it's because my eyes were watering like crazy from the speed of descent, so my mascara ran and resulted in what you see!

The town is just beautiful, I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

Paragliding is the thing to do in Interlaken if you're not extreme enough to skydive..on Sunday walking through the town we glanced up and saw this:

 

Overall, a wonderful weekend.  Interlaken was delightful, it felt great to be outside of a big city and to appreciate natural beauty, and skydiving was amazing!   Did I mention we had swiss cheese fondue!?

SKYDIVING!

Sorry I couldn't forewarn everyone about skydiving but I didn't want to cause any unnecessary anxiety (especially on my Mom's part!). I was also pretty anxious and definitely questioned what I was getting myself into.

We got picked up from our hostel and headed out to the hangar/airstrip where we got like a 5 minute briefing.. ONLY five minutes. Plus, we only had to sign our names ONCE, can you believe that? In the U.S. we definitely would have had to sign our lives away like 10 times. But don't worry, everything and everyone there is certified both in Switzerland and in the U.S. if that's reassuring at all.

Of course I went tandem with my instructor who was named Hans. When we were the last to get into the plane, I realized that could only mean one thing: we would be the first ones leaving it! Luckily the absolutely amazing scenery calmed me down a bit..except for when they thought it would be hilarious to just open the door midflight in order to scare me.

Once we got to 13,000 feet, they opened the door and the photographer climbed out and stood by the wing. By this time I was all strapped to Hans and I had to swing my legs out and put them on the little step outside of the plane. Then I arched my back, put my legs in between his, and we were off!

We fell 5,000 feet in 40 seconds and even though I expected to scream my head off the entire time, I didn't make a sound! I think I was too busy thinking "WHAT IS GOING ON!?", looking at the amazing scenery, and smiling for the camera.

Then before I knew it, it was time to pull the parachute cord. Hans took care of all of that, all I had to do was grab my shoulders. All the sudden we were going upwards instead of down! One thing I did not expect was that since we had soooo much momentum going, even when we landed on the ground we were still moving SO quickly.

I had about five minutes to enjoy the incredible scenery that was the Swiss Alps and Interlaken. At this point I had to take off my goggles and my eyes watered because of how fast we were going, plus my ears were popping like crazy! Also because of the crazy force of the freefall, both of my shoelaces were untied. I remember thinking, "Great, I only brought one pair of shoes to Switzerland and I'm about to lose them!" At least it would have been a good excuse for shopping..but I didn't end up losing them after all.

Hans decided that while we were gliding down it would be a good idea to take advantage of our speed and do some crazy twists and turns. By the time I was on the ground I thought I was going to vomit, I was so dizzy! When it was time for us to land, the mowed grass lawn we were landing on had other people on it..so we had to land in the unmowed meadow that was beyond it. Here is a picture of me realizing that we would NOT be going down in the designated landing zone...even though we look about ready to land, we didn't for another 50 feet or so.

Once we landed, I was covered in dirt (because we were in the meadow instead of the grass) and basically in shock. I just laid on the ground for a minute wondering what the heck I had just done, then got up and felt the crazy effects of the adrenaline rush.

After all of that, I felt pretty out of sorts so I just sat on the tarmac in front of the hangar for a while. I got to see Kim land and found out that she got to do a back flip out of the plane! Overall it was an amazing experience. I am really glad I did it in the Swiss Alps because the surroundings were absolutely amazing. It was one of the most invigorating things I have ever done, and I'm still kind of shocked that I did it! It's so crazy that what started as a silly idea while Kim and I were sitting in the living room of our apartment actually happened six months later! I would highly suggest doing it and would definitely go again if the opportunity arrose.