Weekend Trip

This weekend my program went on a little escapade to Strasbourg and Frebourg....It was Freezing...Like literally a good 20 degrees colder than Paris, and I was so frigid the whole time.  But other than the cold and raining aspects of the trip it was tiring.  The train ride to the bus ride, to the walk around tour, to another busride to more walking...it was continuous and exhausting...but other than weather, and general energy it was cool.  The buildings were really pretty and the food was DELICIOUS... we ate this cool tart pizza thing, and the special sausage, which i forget its name right now, but it was especailly delicous, i had black forest cherry cake, which kinda tasted like tiramasu to me, so i didn't like it, and actually no one at my table liked it but at least it was tried!   I took alot of good pictures for my photography class so i got homework done on the trip!  and now i'm back in Paris and never want to leave ever again!!

The Gryfffindor Fountain

Well here in Paris People tend to go out ALOT!  From Thursday to Saturday your are out Partying... Which actually isn't such a bad thing, like you would think...I think this is half because of the drinking age being so low that it really makes going out not as crazy.  Normally i can't keep up with everyone's agendas so i normally go out for people's birthday... but honestly i am just sleepy and pooped by 12 and i have no idea how people stay up all night...i'm afraid i'm turning into an old grany already and i'm not even 21 yet!?!  But the other night, my building went out to this club which gets you in free if you get there before 12 and your a foreigner... and unfortunately we didn't get there before 12 and of course, we didn't want to pay the 20 euros to get in so we left...but by this time it's almost 12:45 which is when the metro shuts down, and i'm getting sleepy.  So me and another guy decide instead of trying to find another place, we are just going to head back and crash...So we get off at the nearest metro stop to our house and start walking because we both didn't want to pay for a taxi... But we still have no idea where we are so we are just looking at maps trying to figure it all out... So we start off in one direction and hit the next metro stop and realize we are walking in the wrong direction...then we go back to where we started and by now i'm just having fun... so there happens to be a big fountain and i really want to go in the fountain...you know like all the movies, i just think it would be so much fun...so i convince this boy to go, first in the middle of this structure which is like surrounded by statues that look like the Gryffindor symbol from harry potter....and then into the freezing cold water, meaning HeadUnder...Go Big or Go Home...And we did both...and it was such an experience...Half because we did it, and i was so afraid of getting caught by the police, but we also still had no idea how to get home and now we are soaking wet and freezing. But eventually we figure out the right direction and all this is now just an amazing memory!

MORNINGS

Squeak.Cough. Footsteps...I wake up. You can hear everything in AEPP!...Classical Music. Electric Guitar. French Horn. Garbage Truck. Laughter...You can hear everything Outside!! I guess this is what i get for living in a city, but I enjoy it...It's the sounds of Life!

TECHNO LIFE

So probably the most radical experience i have had here so far has been a techno parade.  The main attraction was Bob Sinclair who is a really famous artist, who I LOVE!  This was something that you would have never seen in America and probably not in the rest of the world either.  So there were about 15 floats, with each playing a different style of techno/electronic/dance music.  People were drinking everywhere and going completely crazy.  Some were up in trees, while others climbed on top of bus stops.  Ages ranged from 5(with cute little headphones on) to about 68.  And even though the parade were a bunch of floats with people dancing all around them, people still came out of their houses to watch which was just kind of really funny.  The parade was much better at the beginning of the day around 1pm because it was mostly about the music and just jamming, while towards the end there was a lot more rampaging people going absolutely crazy.  Basically BEST EXPERIENCE ever!

Hillsong Paris

Today was the second time I went to Hillsong Paris and it is always an experience to remember! The venue is in a humungous theater, with a big disco ball on one side.  The worship is a mix of English and French singing, but the lyrics of both languages are always up on the screen.  Throughout the entirety of the welcome and the message there is a translator up on stage repeating sentence by sentence of what the pastor is saying.  I think it is one of the most radical things i have ever experience but they really do help to accommodate as many people as possible at this church.  Yet it is very interesting to see who actually enjoys it or not.  The first week I brought a friend who was raised in the Greek Orthodox Tradition, and she didn't enjoy the upbeat service that Hillsong provides, while this week I brought two other people who thoroughly were intrigued and enjoyed the joyful and passionate way that Hillsong presents the word.  Yet it is also interesting how I know of the band "Hillsong United" so I think this church is the bomb diggity, yet no one else has heard of these types of churches or of this worship group, so they are just going into it as if it were just another normal church.  Also many people, at least in the hostile i live in, do not go to church at all.  The first time i went it was this big spectacle because "someone was going to church" which is weird, because being raised going to church all my life, and going to a christian school, "going to church" is not weird.  People asked me all day, "did you go to church," "what did your learn," etc.... It was definitely a sight...something that i am not familiar with at all....Well that was my church spiel, just a glimpse of some religious experiences of mine so far.

Pictures of AEPP

AEPP

AEPP...The name of the dorm/apartment style hostile I'm living in.  I live here with eight other Americans that are in the same program as me with four people per room.    This might be hard for some, but i find it easy to live with and share space with multiple other people, which must be from having to share a room with my sister my whole life.   The problem here is, we are four very different people with different backgrounds, habits, and personalities.  DIFFICULT.  Yet as the days go on we have learned to adapt more to one another and are slowly learning how to live with one another and all our differences.  I really like our room here because it's us eight Americans and everyone else comes from all parts of the world.  Examples...Germany.Senegal. England. China. Kaghistan....MIND BLOWING. I have learned that it is typical to travel and spend years at a time in different places across the world for many people.  They move around and get a part job, wherever they decide to go.  It is incredible, some of the life stories I hear from people .