#3: France and all of Europe

That is right ladies and gentlemen. I am in a writing kind of mood this summery evening so I am going to write about #3 on Auna's List of Loves: France and all of Europe!

Ever since I was a wee little girl, I wanted to go to Europe. I think it is probably one of those common goals that most everyone has in life.
"Oh someday, before I die, I am going to go visit Europe and see all of the sights!"
I got to do just this (almost exactly) two years ago.

Let me tell you all the story of my life. :)
I have studied French since high school. Unfortunately, the foreign language programs at my high school were probably the worst that you could ever imagine a foreign language program to be. In the two full years that I studied the language, I learned about as much as a person would learn in one semester at college.
So when I went to college, what did I do? I studied French damn it!
Initially, I signed up to take 101 and 102 French my freshman year of college. My dad told me that I should take a placement test to see where I place, but I decided not to even bother. I knew my French was crap. I had a couple of friends that went to other high schools in the area and were in French classes and were EONS ahead of me as far as the learning process went.
101 was pretty easy for me, it was basically review and when 102 rolled around, I started learning some of the good stuff. Because I liked it so much, I decided, "What the hell!" and I kept going and signed up to take 201 and 202 the next year.
It was sometime in my second year of French at college that I realized learning the language was almost a waste of my time. Really, I was just taking it for fun. I had no need for it (going for my B.S. at the time). By the time I reached 202, I had efficiently passed my B.A. requirement (keep in mind, I was still aiming for a B.S.) and I had no intention of not taking French classes.
It wasn't until one day in the anthropology lab while sitting around talking about those damn French classes of mine (I secretly loved them) that one of my friends pointed out how utterly useless it was that I was taking a language. So what did I do? I upped the anty and decided that I would study abroad.
Oh wait, but it was still utterly pointless for me to study abroad, with the exception that it would look good in the future. So what did I do next? I went ahead and added a French minor. I vindicated my existence in the French program, wahoo!!!

I made a lot of people jealous with my trip to France, and I bragged about it a lot because let's face it; I was really freaking excited.
Late June of 2005, I boarded a plane to Paris -- my first plane trip ever (my mom will disagree saying that I flew as a baby, but what do I remember of that? Nothing), and I made my way across the great blue ocean.
I hated Paris. The city that I had wanted to visit my entire life and I hated it. Note to all of you people out there thinking about planning vacations and trips to distant cities and countries: Do not go with a group of 20+ people.
Now don't get me wrong, we saw some really cool things, and the time that we had that we could spend on our own was really great. Without that time, I wouldn't have gotten the chance to see places like Pere Lachaise (and yes, I realize there are no accents in there) Cemetery which is quite possibly one of the coolest places I have ever been to. And I certainly would have gotten completely lost on a number of occasions without my professor getting us place to place. Still. It was a very unpleasant experience with so many people.
We were in Paris for a week, and I celebrated my 20th birthday in the city. It was a very crappy birthday, believe it or not. It rained that morning if I remember correctly, I went back to the hotel, took a nap and when I woke up there was no one that wanted to go out to do anything with me. Very disappointing.

The study abroad was not in Paris though, it was in Nice.

I hate Nice.
The only thing that I like about Nice was Fennochio's ice cream and my host mother. My host mother was an amazing woman (with an amazing home) and was one of the most gracious and kindest women I met in France. I still miss her a lot, two years later.
The problem with Nice (and the program in general) is that it's during the summer -- during tourist season. Now really, maybe there's no good way to do a summer study abroad since that's when people travel. But for the love of all that is holy, a study abroad program should not take place in one of the biggest tourist cities in France.
Bastille Day was pretty awesome though.
I won't lie either. The little towns around Nice are really awesome.
For exampe:
Antibes (I love Antibes)
Ville Franche


Although I hated Nice and wish to never return, I was very sad to say goodbye to my host mother.

However! In departing Nice, I traveled to Italy!!! :)
My friend Kate and I traveled together. We were both kind of the "outsiders" of the group. We weren't big fans of going to the clubs or the bars, so we had kind of separated ourselves from everyone else. We both were spending two more weeks in Europe and we had no one to travel with.
So where did we go?

Rome!
Rome is an awesome, awesome city. Especially for the archaeologist inside of me. ;) We spent most of our time around the Forum and Palatino because it was such a cool place (and close to our hostel). We also spent a morning and afternoon at the Vatican museum, but the highlight was definitely the archaeological aspect.

From Rome, we traveled to Venice
Venice is the most beautiful city in the world. And it rained the ENTIRE TIME we were there. Now that's saying something.

From Venice, we traveled to Florence
Don't really have a lot to say about Florence to be honest. We were only there for an afternoon.

And from Florence, we traveled to the second most beautiful place in Europe: Cinque Terre
I'd go back here in a heartbeat.

Sooo...remember how a little while ago I said that I hated Paris?
Yeah, that changed completely.
Kate and I had to go back to Paris to catch our flight back to the United States at the end of our trip. We arrived in Paris two days before we left, just so we could have a little bit more of a chance to sight see, check out some of the things that we didn't get to when we were there the first week and go and re-visit some of the things that we liked.
I fell head over heels in love with the city. It was amazing. Leading me to believe that studying abroad with a group of more than 10 people really sucks ass.
Kate and I spent an entire day walking around the area of the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre (note: we did not actually go inside the Louvre) and Notre Dame. We got some great photos in the process too.

The picture of me and the crazy mysterious clown man is my absolute most favoritest picture in the entire world.
We also went to the Musee d'Eroticisme! That's right ladies and gentlemen, The Museum of Eroticism. Hands down, greatest museum in the world -- greatest museum you will ever visit in your lifetime. I guarantee it. We also walked around Montmartre and just had a fun ol' time doing whatever the heck we wanted.

So all in all, the last two days of my month and a half abroad made up for all of the really bad experiences.
Now, don't get me wrong, I had a great time abroad and I have some really great memories from it, unfortunately, most of those memories are from when I was off on my own. This leads me to believe that it is much better that I go back on my own accord and do what I want instead of letting people dictate what I do.
I really want to go back to Europe, I really want to go back to Paris. There are a lot of other places that I want to see and there are a lot more things that I want to do.
I loved this area of the world.

Next up on Auna's List of Loves!
#10. Sailing

#1: The Office (US)

#1 on Auna's List of Loves is The Office (US)

I don't even know where to start with this one to be honest. Just flat-out, this is the absolute best show on television. If Arrested Development were still on the air, I might have a major conflict of interest. Thankfully, I can say without hesitation that The Office, is the absolute best show currently on television. Which of the two is the best of all time? Now there you have a sticky situation.
Anyway, down to business...
Let me just start by saying that my mother is a genius. Without her, I would not be exposed to the plethora of amazing network programming that has been produced over the past five years. Like Arrested Development, my mother is the one that coerced me into watching The Office. During my college years, I was hooked on cable television -- mostly crap. I didn't have cable at home, and suddenly having the opportunity to watch Comedy Central just seemed so much more appealing than NBC.
After moving back home at the end of last April, my parents watched My Name is Earl and The Office every Thursday night. I had no idea what the big deal about the shows were, really. My boyfriend and I would watch old DVDs of Northern Exposure (another great television show from the early 1990's) and really couldn't care that much about what was on television Thursday nights.
I'm not sure if it was "Drug Testing" or "Conflict Resolution", but I watched one episode one evening with my family and I was hooked. And if this gives you any indication of how quickly I was sucked into the show -- I nearly shat myself when I watched "Casino Night".

So this leads me to the #1 reason why I love The Office.
That's right. Jim and Pam.
Never, ever in the history of television -- since The X-Files (Mulder and Scully) at least -- has there been an on-screen male and female combination that are SO FREAKING COMPATIBLE! I mean, to be fair, the entire cast is just beyond amazing and they all compliment each other better than almost any other show on television. But these two: John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer...holy crap. If I could be in a polygamous relationship with anyone in the world, it would be these two.
That sounded a little creepier than I intended it to be.
But in any case! These two characters totally sucked me into a truly amazing show.

So throughout last summer, I spent every Thursday watching re-runs of The Office. By September 2006, I was about ready to jump off a cliff in anticipation for what was going to happen. Mostly between Jim and Pam. Meep.
Of course, to any of you that watch The Office, I was dragged along on a string until around...April or so. But! The point is! I became so unbelievably hooked on this show that I officially crossed over into the "religious viewer" stage this past year. Remember "religious viewer" from last post? Yes, that point in which that I would not do ANYTHING within the time frame that the show airs.
I love the show so much that for the first time EVER in the history of television (for me), I actually bought the first and second seasons of the show on DVD. Yes, I did this for Arrested Development, but the show was off the air by that point. Once I had caught up with the first couple of seasons (and watching shows that I had never actually seen before!), I was even more in love.

My love affair with The Office was only further solidified at the end of Season 3 with the episode "Beach Games" where Pam made her big speech that I had only been waiting for the whole damn season. Now not only do I have a secret lust for Jim and Pam, but I have a secret lust for just Pam.
Pam Beesly is my hero.

So uh...that about does it, I guess.
Now I have to spend a very, very long three months waiting for Season 4 to start.
My last words about this show: The cast, the writers, the producers, the directors, the entire damn team are the most absolutely brilliant people in the entertainment business in this day and age.
Here's hoping they never jump the shark.


Next up for Auna's List of Loves:
#3. France and all of Europe

and
#12 on Auna's List of Loves: The Ask.com commercial "Chicks with Swords"