#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