Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!

As I mentioned, Asher and I decided we NEEDED to go to Disneyland Paris. The adventure began by watching Mary Poppins online right before we left. It's really amazing how much humor one gets after growing up. I just thought Mary Poppins was pretty and the music was fun growing up, but Asher and I were laughing the whole time because the humor is brilliant. We also just marveled at the talent of the cast; they were absolutely brilliant!

Anyway, we searched and searched online for decently priced train tickets or flights, but couldn't find anything. We decided that it would be cheapest and more fun to rent a car. I looked online at Europcar online and ordered us a car for 48 hours. Sounds perfect! We'll get to ride through the French countryside, enjoy time together, and gain experience driving on French roads. This was all true, however the car happened to be a manual when we picked it up. Asher and I most certainly didn't know how to drive it. I had only been taught by Ava for a couple hours one day. We are, at this point, really scared, and decide to go back to my apartment and watch a dozen Youtube videos on how to drive a stick shift. We were up really late learning, quizzing each other, and practicing. I CANNOT believe we PRACTICED driving a manual car in France with a rental car. It's just further proof that GLS kids are infinitely better than most people at most things.

We also had a lot of trouble getting the car into reverse. I actually was pushing the car out of the spot at one point. A man pulled up behind us, was really frustrated with our terrible driving, and then in French, taught us how to shift to reverse. We were embarrassed a bit, but really glad to be taught something extremely relevant and in French.

We left Grenoble, with a GPS that we rented, around 5 in the morning. French drivers are actually really great. They drive really fast, but they are excellent drivers. They are considerate, they follow all of the rules, and they are all around super efficient drivers. There weren't all that many people on the road so our terrible driving was usually forgiven. Also, we weren't that bad at all. We happened to learn a lot about how stick shifts work and how the transmission works. Cars are super neat, and being in Europe has made me appreciate the machines so much more. We finally arrived at Disneyland Paris around 11:30.

WE WERE SO EXCITED! There weren't two more excited people in the world that day. We got relatively cheap tickets because we are EU students for both parks.

Disneyland Pairs is obviously smaller than Disneyworld in Orlando, but Disney is always magical! We started in the main Disney park, went to Fantasyland, Main Street USA, and all of the other sites. One of the first rides was the Buzz Lightyear ride, which probably ended up one of our favorites. I also have to comment on how many British people were there! It was the day of the Royal Wedding, and every other person in the park was British. They really did all escape the craziness. (Note: my really good friend from high school, Rachel Huddleston is currently studying abroad in Prague. She went to the Royal Wedding, camped in a tent the whole weekend, and was interviewed by USA Today reporters! My friend is famous.)

The Buzz Lightyear ride was really a game where you shot The Evil Emperor Zurg and saved the Galaxy. The game racked up points for each person, and I ended up with Level 3 and Asher had Level 4. The picture above perfectly illustrates how intense it was.

It's A Small World was brilliant as usual, but it was slightly different. The American room was huge and so much better than the other country representations. This seemed odd to us, but we weren't going to complain.

One of my favorite rides was the Pirates of the Caribbean. It was so well done! The characters were perfect and the boat ride was really pleasant. Way to go Disney!

We then went to the Walt Disney Studios park. This is the "Ear"ful Tower. Get it? Because it's in Paris!

Of course, we had to hit the Tower of Terror. The Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster was absolutely awesome. Oh, and the Space Mission 2 in the main park was SO GREAT! It was obviously all indoors, pitch dark, had spins, swirls, loops, drops, and was a pretty long ride. That was my favorite roller coaster of the day by far. (Note: I take for grated that Asher enjoys roller coasters too. Not everyone does, and I'm glad he doesn't make fun of me for being nervous right before).

We went back to the main park when the studios closed. We rode more rides, walked around, shopped a bit, looked at the beautiful palace, and saw some Princesses! We stayed until past closing time.

It was a really perfect, magical day. Honestly, I was so glad to get home that next morning knowing that I had driven a stick shift in a rental car in France. It was a success, and proves that you can learn anything last minute... usually. Also, we will do anything to get to Disney, right?

Hiking and French News

Today was a stream a great news for our apartment. My roommate Ana, from Colorado, got an e-mail congratulating her on an invitation to go to an Ernst and Young training event. I'm not an accounting major, but I obviously realize how big of a deal that is. She'll be perfectly set up to get an internship in the near future. Even at UT, those kind of things are really hard to get, so she was obviously really excited about that! I was chosen to be a portfolio manager for a massive UT fund next year! It's a team of about eight student, most who interviewed for the position, who will participate in an "investment challenge." It's a big competition between other big southern schools (Auburn, Alabama, Vanderbilt, etc), and I plan on dominating. Also, I'm getting really excited for Austin to come to UT especially since I've been informed that he might be a Lady Vol practice player! I'm pretty sure the intramural teams are going to have a hey day with his arrival as well. The Naves are just going to town.

Anyway, to continue on my travels and get my blog up to date, after Rome, Asher hung out in Grenoble for a couple of days. I had one French exam and was attempting to study for the others, but we mostly ate in parks, hiked, cooked good meals, and watched a lot of The Big Bang Theory. We hiked the Bastille one day which was really enjoyable. It was the third time I've hiked it this semester. It's really the perfect hike because it only takes about an hour and a half round trip, has a marvelous view of Grenoble, and has a very clearly defined path. The hike up can be rough, and I have to take breaks. I think Asher really enjoyed it as well and even commented that Grenoble was a "neat place." Yeah... it's a small place with too much pollution, but it's my home for a semester and I love it.

Traveling can be really stressful and tiresome, emotional and physically. So, when Asher and I were in Grenoble, it was hard to try to do too much because traveling every weekend can be terrible at times. Just like now, I'm getting ready to leave to go to London for three days then on to Manchester with ALL OF MY STUFF. Three different trains with the shortest layover being 50 minutes, yeah, I'm slightly worried. During the time that we were watching too much TV on my computer and studying, we thought it would be a brilliant, fun idea to go to Disneyland Paris! We started planning right away, but I'll save the details for the next post.

Ok, I'll post more soon.

Dunzo!!

Yay! I'm done with Finals! I'm officially finished classes at the Grenoble Ecole de Management. I have mixed feelings about this. A lot of students really disliked GEM because it's really unorganized, over half of your grade is always based on your one final, and the professors are really hard to get in touch with. I didn't really have a problem with it. Sure, it is frustrating when you can't go to a professors office hours or you have no clue what your schedule with be only a week before, but I had a great time at GEM. The professors are really great. I mean that. They are from all over the world, but mostly from Europe, went to fabulous schools, and now just really like teaching their respective subjects. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but each class has at least three different professors so I've been instructed by about twelve professors this semester. I say that the professors were awesome, however there were definitely a few that bored me to tears or were just really terrible at explaining things. One of our International Finance professors was just that; he drowned on and on, and when asked a question, he made absolutely no sense. Another one of our professors for the Economic Environment of the EU was kind of shaky with the English language (he was from Poland) and DID ECON GRAPHS WRONG! Whew, it's taken me a while to get past this... Currently, I'm just glad that his silly graphs weren't on the final.

Man, finals almost killed me this week and I'm not really sure why. They just really stressed me out. Maybe it was because I didn't really get a chance to study in the past couple of weeks or maybe because most of the exams were essay questions. (International Business Ethics on Monday consisted of writing three FOUR page essays on particularly challenging questions). Innovation and Product Design (my favorite class) wasn't too bad except for a silly question that I had no clue how to answer. International Finance was slightly easier than expected which was a very good thing considering how many terrible finance questions they could have asked. I really feel like I learned A TON about finance this semester. I didn't realize it until I started studying for the final, but I understand a lot about finance and international business that I most certainly didn't before this semester. Today, was my last final in Economic Environment of the European Union which I currently don't even want to think about.

Never the less, I'm officially finished with International Business classes forever!! Well, until I decide to get an MBA and take more businessy things which will most certainly involve international aspects...

I'll blog about my last couple of weeks soon, but currently I'm just really excited to go to the UNITED KINGDOM. I feel like I've already been there a little bit since I hear so much about it from my friends here, the GLS students staying in London, and from Asher. It'll be great to go in THREE DAYS! So excited. I'll blog more soon.

Au revoir, je suis fini!!

The Eternal City Day Two

I think I just realized how obnoxiously long my last post was. It's hard work writing a blog, not just fun and fluffy stuff, but once you start writing, it's sometimes hard to stop.

Our second full day in Rome started with the shuttle into the city where we promptly went to the Pantheon.

First of all, pictures simply do not do it justice. The building is massive and of course the dome is. The dome is the largest free-standing rotunda in the world, and probably the oldest. The Pantheon was rebuilt in 126 AD by Emperor Hadian, but it was commissioned before that. It was built to honor the Roman Gods, a temple to the Pagan Gods. Everything about this building is perfectly executed architecturally, from the oculus (the opening at the top), to the whole rotunda, to the door opening, it is all perfect. To think that it was built and designed so long ago is simply mind-blowing.

The cool thing about the rotunda is the oculus at the top which permits sunlight to rotate around the huge room throughout the day creating a sort of massive sundial. After returning from Rome, Asher and I found a video explaining how the sunlight perfectly lines up with the doorframe at certain, important times illuminating the entrance. The oculus is also the building's ventilation and cooling system, very cool. It's neat that this kind of genius was exhibited so long ago without the technology we have today.

And the Pantheon isn't just a building today, though. It is in fact used for Christian services as it was converted to a Christian church around 600 AD by the Pope at the time. Other than its very odd shape, the interior seems very much a Christian church now with all of the Christian symbols. The nooks around the base of the building now hold all sorts of monuments and statues to former Italians kinds, popes, the Virgin Mary, and others. A pope is buried, one of our favorite painters Raphael, and Emanuele II who united Italy and the first King and Queen of Italy. Yes, pagan temple used as a Christian church! So now it's known as the Church of St. Mary and the Martyrs apparently.

This is a lovely painting of the Pantheon from the 18th century, which looks at lot more like the actually structure than my little pictures.

After this, we stood in line for about two hours waiting to get into the Vatican Museums and to see the Sistine Chapel. After waiting and waiting and waiting, we toured the Vatican Museum just to see how many things the pope likes to collect. Hundreds of statues, gifts to the pope, all sorts of art, more statues and figurines, then list and the rooms went on and one. It holds some of the greatest pieces of Renaissance art in the world and also a ton of pagan art which is a bit surprising. We estimated that our tour of the museum was maybe only a tenth of the Vatican, thus the pope has a huge domain, well, bigger than I have.

This is a cool piece that represents the Nile river. There is also one to match for the Tiber river, which would have been nice to see.

Somehow this statue represents the founding of Ancient Rome. Asher and I kept reading the description and just stayed confused. It's nice though, right?

The best parts, needless to say, were the Raphael rooms and the Sistine Chapel. (Goofy Fact: I didn't understand what the Sistine Chapel was whenever I first heard the name and I kept thinking that it was named the Sixteenth Chapel, which sounded like a terrible name). The rooms that Raphael painted have some of the best, most famous painting in the world. They are right there together, painted on the walls, and it's hard to comprehend how much fantastic, world-renowned art one is looking at because there is so much of it everywhere.

The favorite is most certainly the School of Athens.

And for the main event... (drum role please)...

Madames et Monsieurs, Le Sistine Chapel.

Yeah, it's huge, full of art, and gorgeous. Fun Fact: Raphael didn't actually paint it upside down. He did however, get a neck fracture from bending his head back all the time.

Next stop was the Colosseum since we didn't actually get to go inside yesterday. We're walking around the huge thing wondering where to get in and one of the doors just opens. Well, of course, I march in. In less than ten seconds I'm scolded and told to get out because 1. that was an exit and 2. it was closing and 3. I most certainly didn't pay. Whatever, I get to say that I've been in the Colosseum.

Keep in mind that every sentence posted should include after it "but there were so many other people there." Rome was a madhouse, and I kind of think it always is. So, honestly, I think my favorite part of the day was getting a bit of gelato, going to a restaurant and just ordering coffee and tiramisu while it rained. Asher and I just sat there forever talking and eating the best tiramisu either of us had ever had. It was the perfect cap for a day that was brilliant, but sometimes frustrating, crowded, and way too expensive.

Early the next day, we said goodbye to the Eternal City and hello to the Capital of the Alps!

ROMA!

Thursday
The week after Munich, I had some classes and studying to do, but on Thursday Asher and I left early in the morning to go to ROME! We boarded a train in Grenoble around 9:25 and it wasn't going to be until about 6 pm that evening before we got the the Eternal City. I only had to pay about 20€ to go by train with my Eurorail pass which I booked very, very far in advance. Unfortunately for Asher, he had to pay a pretty penny to ride the train with me. In all honesty, it sounds terrible to take three different trains through France and Italy for most of a day, but it was really nice and went by super fast. The first train was from Grenoble to Chambery, the second from Chambery to Torino (Turin in English), and the then from Torino to Rome. The train out of Chambery, where we left France and entered Italy, was most certainly the most fun because it went through the Alps. However, about half of the ride was through tunnels. Asher took some great photos of the countryside and of the mountains which I may post later.

Maria, my friend who is an architecture student in Grenoble and who is from Moldova, was also on the train to Chambery and then on the one to Torino. She just happened to have an assigned seat right next to Asher, so out of the kindness of her heart, she traded seats with me. She had just finished her exams and was headed home for a couple of weeks. With several languages under her belt and a big personality, she is a bit of a handful and someone you really can't miss or forget.

Around 6 pm, we arrived in the Termini train station in the exact center of Rome. Of course, everything was already very touristy with men asking me to buy all sorts of pins, keychains, scarves, and other things I didn't need. This was cute and exciting at first, so many colors, so many people, and such a huge train station, but this feeling would change by the end of the trip. We eventually found our way to a fancy pizzeria that was relatively close to Termini. It was a really nice place, the waiter taught us a bit of Italian, and we ordered pizza, of course. The food was excellent, though didn't measure up to a Chicago or New York style pizza.

This is Asher's wonderful cappuccino. The waiter set it down saying "You likey da flowwar?" The accent was cute.

After dinner, Asher and I experienced the small, cramped, and inefficient metro. The metro has only two lines so it is obviously the simplest and easiest to understand, but this is also the downside. It only has two lines and only goes certain places because the metro can only exist where there are not precious Roman ruins. It makes sense, but it makes for a terrible metro system, if you can even call it a system.

The hostel was MILES away. It was actually a camp site on the outskirts of Rome. The bungalow was cute, but the staff was not helpful and rude most of the time. Walking there at night was also a perfect example of a time where one is glad to be with a guy. Rome was already proving to be an interesting place, but we were so excited to be there and to see Jasmine, Ben and other GLS students the next day!!

Friday
Friday was absolutely brilliant because we got to meet Jasmine and Ben for lunch and then have them show us around the city. We took a shuttle from the hostel to the Vatican and then took our trusty 6€ map to find the Argentina bus stop where Jas and Ben met us. I was really glad to see Ben; he is having a great time studying abroad in Rome and an even better time traveling so it was really nice to talk. After going to a market with spices, jewelry, wine stoppers, and all sort of pasta (including US dollar shaped pasta, tulip shaped, and um... male body part shaped), we went to eat lunch at a great place named Rossopomodora. This was the best pizza I had in Rome, it was really simply, just cheese, but had the best flavor and texture in the world.

Obviously, we found a logistics bus with the GLS acronym and just happened to catch the perfect picture before it zoomed away.

Anyway, lunch was great because of the great food and my sparkling water, but it was even better to talk to Jasmine and Ben. I really, really enjoy talking to others about their study abroad experiences, and if I could, I would study abroad in every place in order to get a feel of each place. Ben is also a CEA student but he goes to a CEA school where he really just takes culture classes with only a few other Americans, he lives in an apartment with crazy party guys, but he is still loving traveling. He goes to so many Italian cities and recently went to London with our GLS friend Katie who is studying in a very small town in Switzerland. Just hearing others talk, though, makes me so glad to be in France going to a great business school. Ben and Jasmine are sick of Rome right about now, so I'm glad I'm in a place that I'm not completely over yet.

This day was absolutely perfect after lunch. We let Jasmine walk us around and show us the sites. The highlights were the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Colosseum of course, the Roman Forum, the hundreds of fountains, and all the many obelisks (only 8 of 13 are actually Egyptian) in the city.

The Pantheon. It's a great, ridiculous building that I'll talk about in my next post because we went into the church on Saturday.

Piazza Navona. This plaza makes me really happy because it was featured in Angels and Demons as one of the Altars of Science! It was historically a place for games in ancient Rome a lot like the Roman Forum and is only about two miles away. The Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini is in the center of the plaza and is where Robert Langdon almost died! There are two other fountains in the square including the Fountain of Neptune, and there are many, many more monuments and statues in the square.

Emanuele II Monument. It's probably one of the most recent monuments built in Rome since it was erected around 1930 to commemorate the unification of Italy. Basically, Emanuele II was the first king of Italy and joined all of the Italian states in 1861. Italy is now celebrating 150 years of well... being Italian.

The Roman Forum. This was the center of ancient Roman public life and was the center of Rome. It was a place for debates, elections, gladiator matches, criminal trails, etc. It's located in a small valley between Palatine and Capitoline Hills, and the Colosseum is just down the street.

Colosseum. Hopefully, I don't have to explain this one, but I will say the it was the largest Roman theater ever built and it is an absolute miracle that it still survives today. After lunch, we met up with two GLS students from the 2013 class, Margaret and Emily. They just finished their internships in London and are only about a week away from flying back to the US. I had never met them before and got a funny impression.

Trevi Fountain. It's the largest Baroque fountain in the city and possibly the most famous fountain in the world. It honestly famous because of the legend behind it, but it should be famous for being the end point of a major Roman aqueduct used to bring water into the city. It was restored as a major meeting place and joined three roads. Bernini sketched the rough draft the the fountain as it's seen today, but it wasn't actually carried out by him. Legend says that if you throw a coin into the fountain with your right hand over your left shoulder, you'll swiftly return to Rome. If you thrown two coins in the same fashion, you'll fall in love in Rome. I threw a two cent coin in, not sure what that means.

The Spanish Steps. These steps link two very famous plazas and hold the church of Trinita dei Monti at the top. The steps are the widest in Europe and very pretty with all of the flowers. In the lower plaze, the Piazza di Spagna there is a charming boat fountain called, in English, the Fountain of the Old Boat, but much more lovely in Italian, the Fontana della Barcaccia. It's by Bernini's father, which is interesting. The steps were totally crowded with people so we didn't even attempt to climb then, so we toured the adjacent street with Dior, Bvlgari, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton. Probably a good move.

The day ended with a romantic, Italian meal of pasta and red wine. Goodnight, Rome.