Week-and-a-half update (getting better)

Alright, so I know it's not a major improvement that it has been a week and a half since my last post as apposed to two weeks, but since there has been a major public outcry (a.k.a. Jason Schumacher) over the infrequency of posts, I'll have more incentive to write them in the future.


Ok, what to say...what to say...


Oh yeah, so our ever-charming fellow Logger Bailey Elizabeth Douglass and her friend Adriana came to town for a whirlwind tour of Paris very similar to the one that we did with Christine a few weeks ago (ya know, Louvre, Arch de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, same old, same old...). Along the way we discovered the Longchamp store Bailey so desperately wanted to find but it was closing just as we arrived, so we made note of where it was so she could find it the next day. Unfortunately we we're set back several hours at he beginning of the day because Bailey and Adriana’s train was ridiculously late, throwing a wrench into Bailey's meticulously laid-out tour plan. All was not lost, however, because I did get some great shots of the Louvre and the surrounding area as I waited for them on what was probably one of the last beautiful fall days I'll see in Paris this year.

**To see more go to http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035664&l=1f9b0&id=17703725

I'm getting excited for this weekend because a one Miss Greta Lindquist has invited Abbey and me to hop over the channel for some social carousing in the big smoke (aka London), which we will kick off by seeing the West End production of "Spamalot"--expect a new post in record time (4-5 days).

Bye for now (or should I say cheerio?),

Brad

Time for a Two Week Update (I swear I'll be better in the future)

So I imagine by now that there are probably about two people including my parents who are still checking this blog for updates. However, if anyone is out there, let me start by saying "my bad yo." Thing's have been so hectic here at the beginning of the school year schedule-wise that I either haven't had the time to put up a post, or if I did have time I was to apathetic to actually sit down and type something. I'm hoping that when normal classes start this Monday I'll be able to find a more regular time to write these posts. For now, let me give you the down and dirty of what's been going on in the last week or so.

Last week-end, the always refreshing Christine Kuechmann paid a visit from Vienna, Austria and authoritarianly demanded that we see as many iconic Parisian landmarks as possible. First stop was the Eiffel Tower, which Abbey and I begrugingly agreed to see considering not a week had pased since we'd last seen it (I'am now resigned to the fact that I'm going to have to visit it about a million more times when people come to visit us).

Next up was the Arch de Triomphe which was actually a little confusing to figure out because we didn't know that you had to take a tunnel under the the round-about that surrounds the Arch to actually get right up next to it (I'll put up a post of our jouney under the tunnel when we finally figured it out).

Right up the Champs-Elysées was our next destination, the Louvre. We didn't actually walk down the entire Champs-Elysées because that would have taken way too long, so we hopped on the metro and two stops later were there. Now you always hear people talk about how big the Louvre is, but it has to be said: it's really, really really really big. Faced with such a daunting building and only about 3 hours to give Chrisitine the most representative expereince of the Louvre you can have in that time span, we decided to pinpoint some of the major works in the museum--The Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. We then decided to go off the beaten path somewhat and visit the Middle-Eastern artifacts section of the museum which of course was also quite spectacular.

After dinner, our last stop of the day was the cathedral of Notre Dame. Ok, so here's how the story goes: We had heard that the Pope was going to be at the cathedral to celebrate vespers and then given an address to the people waiting outside, so we decided that we would stick around to see if that was true. Turns out he was actually there the day before and had since moved on to Lourdes down south, so we spent a few good hours outside the cathedral for no good reason--but hey, c'est la vie.

**To see a larger photo album of our excursion (minus photos of Notre Dame because my camera's battery died) go to http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035273&l=bcb5c&id=17703725).

Day 2 Christine decided that Paris isn't good enough for her anymore so she draged us all the way out to see the palace at Versaille, which is to the south-west of Paris. Pictures really work better than words here, so why don't you check out the album at http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035275&l=d8382&id=17703725?

...Pictures Continued...

This was the first French cafe I've ever been to

A close up on the writing in the picture above

That platform with all the people on it is where I took the large photo of the Eiffel Tower. For some reason they had tents set up just below it.

Close-ups of the fountain statues

The pool where the fountain water flows

First Post from Paris

Hello there everyone. Sorry it has taken me so long to put up my first post from Paris, I've pretty much been a zombie since I first arrived here because I barley slept on the eight-hour plane ride from Chicago. In fact, I was so spent that I went straight to bed after I arrived at my host family's house and didn't wake up until eight hours later. After having a great meal that my host family prepared for me, I went straight back to bed.

The next day I had to figure out how to get to the IES center for orientation by the public transportation system. Fortunately, my host father Leon was kind enough to walk me down to the station by their house and explain to me the transfers I needed take to get to the center, and after a bit of confusion as to which direction the trains travel I made it to the station I needed to and, eventually, to the center.

The process of finding the center for the first time also took a lot out of me, so I spent the rest of Friday and all-day Saturday to recuperate. Today, Sunday, was the first time I actually got to explore some of the city, so my fellow Loggers, Abbey Prest and Devon Wohl, and I decided to do the most "touristy" thing we could think of--visit the Eiffel Tower. Here are some of the pictures from our excursion--

Hey Everyone!

This will be the blog for my adventure to Paris. I leave from Portland on Wednesday, September 3 at 7:40 am, so if you need to phone me about depositing large sums of money into my bank account (or for any other reason, I suppose), you best get on it; otherwise e-mail (bkrice@ups.edu), facebook and skype will be good ways to get a hold of me.