Spring Break 2012, not very springy, but plenty breaky

The past two weeks have been my spring break here in Paris.  This past week has been relatively uneventful, half working while just relaxing and recovering from the first week, since the first week was INCREDIBLE.

Market in Tangier: semi sketchy but so much exploring to be done

After a visit from Mike "Milkman" Dairyko the first Saturday of break, on Tuesday I once again headed to the RyanAir Beauvais Airport, which was once again a pain in the butt.  This time, though, I decided to switch it up on Europe and head down to AFRICA (Tangier, Morocco to be more specific).  I travelled with my friend Hannah from my program.  Because of the wonders of the internet, we found a Groupon deal for a four-star hotel in Tangier for only 25 euro a night per person; it was worth it.  Upon arrival, we decided Tuesday night was the perfect night for using up the 3 COURSE DINNER that was included with the deal.  My pics came out bad, but trust me, it was one of the best meals of my life that included appetizers covered in Moroccan spices, a main dish of lamb and dried fruit, and a flakey pastry dessert thing that was perfect.  Day 2 in Morocco was one of exploration: we bartered with a taxi for a reasonable price to take us to Cape Spartel (where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet!), Hercules' Grotto, and Assilah, a petite walled city that was touching the ocean.  Quite the amazing site seeing day trip that would have been even better were it not for the monsoon-like weather conditions.  After some delicious Moroccan mint tea, we settled in for the night, and the next day we travelled to Madrid.

Port of Tangier, KAPOW 

I could eat this for breakfast every day

View from hotel room, livin' that 4 star life

Cape Spartel, WEST SIDE

inverted Africa! in Hercules' Grotto

I believe I can fly! (also I promise it is not a toupée, just windy)

Thrilla in Assilah

This guy's fishing business isn't too hot.

Thi 

Overhead waves in Morocco... not.  Mediterranean raging

Moroccan Mint tea, tee hee hee

Initially, our trip to Madrid was only supposed to be about 26 hours, but our flight was delayed for nearly 4 hours in Tangier, so our first day in Madrid was basically shot.  Luckily, there were/are people from Pomona in Madrid and they showed us to a super cool restaurant where we sat in the sand on pillows. Quite the experience! We went dancing at some huge club, then decided to pick up some churros at six in the morning (spanish style with melted chocolate, not Mexican style with cinnamon sugar).  We stayed in a hostel that was amazing (we even had our own room), and Jake, who goes to Pomona, showed us around Madrid that next day, day 4 of the vacation.  Love the relaxed vibe in Madrid, nothing like Paris.  It is a shame that I don't speak Spanish because the people there were extremely outgoing and willing to talk, but most did not know English.

Plaza del Mayor, Madrid

Late night/early morning churro place

M0d3rN aRt

Although Madrid was great, we only had a day there, so we were only able to see so much.  Luckily, we travelled to a place that I instantly fell in love with, a place that I could see myself moving to very easily: Barcelona.  I tried to explain to someone that Barcelona is a lot like Paris, if in Paris everyone was extremely nice and open-minded, the entire city was chilling, the architecture was modern and it was on the beach.  So, I guess it really isn't like Paris.  I love Paris, but could never live here; I'd move to Barcelona on the drop of a hat.  The main stretch, called La Rambla, is just a large street with a walkway in the middle, filled constantly with locals and foreigners alike, all happy to be in the sun.  Our first day, we arrived at night and went straight to the hostel.  After a quick dinner and some new acquaintances, we hit up a club on the beach.  Now, when I say on the beach, I don't just mean you can see the beach: I literally stepped off the back porch of the club onto sand.  Yes. The next day, we saw La Sagrada Familia, one of the most amazing churches I have ever seen, and a true work of modern art.  It strangely resembles the Fortress of Solitude from Superman, but is more like a Fortress of Catholicism. We then hit up a market in front of the Arc de Triomf that made my entire trip.  It was like an art fair, a produce market, and a world food market all rolled into one.  There were artisan crafts, objects, and the most delicious looking foods and drinks from Spain, Brazil, Morocco, Jamaica, etc.  It also made me want dreads sooo bad, since half of the guys there had super fluffy pants and dreadlocks and all looked like such cool people.  The majority of the architecture throughout Barcelona is made by Gaudi, a Spanish architect that they basically just gave pieces of the city to so that he can do crazy things with them.  That night we hung out with more awesome people we met in our hostel, and I watched the sunrise from a couch on the roof of the hostel with a dude from the east coast and a guy who works at the hostel.  Such a perfect way to end a perfect spring break.

La Rambla

La Sagrada Familia

At the market

Shorts again AHHHH YEAHHH

From a park, aka where I want to live

mimicking the pose of the Salamander, minus the spilling water

Opening scene of my new movie: birds, sunset, life.

Where did the pirate go for a weekend in Italy? Barrrrrrga

WARNING: Lots of pics to follow.  And stories to go with them.

So, about a week ago, I woke up at 5:15 in the morning to go for a little metro and bus ride, and ended up at the “Paris” Beauvais Airport where I decided to take a plane to Pisa, Italy.  I put Paris in quotes there because the super-budget airline, RyanAir, flies out of the airport and calls it Paris so that it will get more business. In reality, it is necessary to take a bus for at least an hour from the western edge of Paris to get there; definitely not still in Paris.  Also, the trip was entirely planned, as funny and convincing as the first sentences may seem.

Anywho, I arrived in Pisa last Friday, happy to get out of Paris and the large amounts of work I associated it with, due to my hellacious week where everything I procrastinated on was due.  In Pisa, I had to take a train to meet up with friends in a nearby city/town/walled-fortress called Lucca, but decided to wait a train or two and explore Pisa.  My plan was to find the Leaning Tower, but it is a sizeable city and I am too proud/stubborn to ask anyone, so fat chance I was just going to happen upon a monument.  But, as it turns out, I walked in one direction for a while and when I went to turn around, a church caught my eye, so I walked towards it.  Out of nowhere, the Leaning Tower appeared, large and in charge, and just like that, I found it.

There you are, tricky tower.

Satisfied with my expert navigation, I took the train to Lucca (there were mountains + there aren’t mountains anywhere near Paris = I was happy).  I arrived in Lucca and found my fwends.  It was a Pomona in Europe gathering, including people studying in France, Spain, Germany, Italy, and England.  We took quite the leisurely bike ride around the city walls of Lucca (not a big city, so it took us about a half hour including pic stops), and after eating way too much delicious Italian candy, passed out on the bus ride to Barga, an even smaller town in the mountainous countryside of Italy, where most of them had been staying in a villa for the past week.  Honestly, I just jumped on the villa bandwagon for a few days, and it was the best decision EVER.  The first night, Marco, who is part Italian and studying in Florence, taught us how to make homemade pasta as we shared funny stories about our respective abroad countries.  After some admittedly bizarre dreams that involved being shot at, I woke up and walked out on the balcony of this Italian villa I was casually crashing at for the weekend.  The view was a mix between a Lord of the Rings landscape and a Bob Ross painting:

Nothing like a weekend acting like a 75 year old retiree...

After much more chilling and even more eating, we left on Easter Sunday, full of food and without a single stress in the world.  My flight home consisted of some great views and some great naps.

Italian coastline WHY MUST YOU TAUNT ME

Paris, upon return, was a bit cloudy, and besides missing an amazing home cooked Easter meal with my family at home, I already missed the hills of Barga.  But, Tuesday rolled around and I met a couple of friends on the Seine, where it was raining.  Thanks to the power of friendship (?), though, it magically became sunny and we waltzed around the Tuilleries Garden.  Spring has arrived in Paris, and as my friend Phoebe said, “People should not even be allowed to visit Paris in the winter.  It was made for the spring.”  The green trees and the blue skies mix so well with the light/white buildings, and it is getting increasingly more difficult to be inside for more than two seconds.  Although all my tests and papers went well, I will try not to procrastinate the next time, but with Paris like this, it is bound to happen…

louvresunspringgreen

AND, some more photos to keep the masses (or two family members who still read) up to date, CLICK TO ENLARGE:

Baptistry near the Leaning Tower.  Amazing!

raise the roof son!

Lucca

That is not a crazy Italian, it is just Marco... so I guess it is a crazy Italian?

BIKES

Striking (back in Paris)

My duck friend. 

Seine chillin', rain or shine...

Unleashing my artsy side as the Seine unleashes its sunny side.

COLORS, SO VIVID

Wall around Lucca

SUGAR CRASHHH

A natural river? What's that, where's the concrete?

Cati and I in Barga

Rollin out that dough, nice and thin-like

Look like a just woke up? I did.  Morning tea on the terrace

Archway in Barga

What is this, an ambulance FOR ANTS?

Skies opening up for us!

Look we are so original!

Gelato is mine, cannoli is Wiley's, cigarettes probably belong to some Italian dudes.

Hair is leanin like the tower dawg!

P'tit weekend à Lille

Last week, most of my week was taken up with studying for a mid-term on Thursday, which actually went quite well; if anything, I tried to write too much and just kind of repeated myself and rambled on, which is surprisingly even easier in French.  After three hours, I had written 7 pages of semi-understandable legit french, leaving frustrated but actually pretty proud of myself.
Then the fun happened.  Thursday day was filled with chillin: chillin at Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris.  Jacob and I brought some hw and he did his while I took a little nap using my hw as a pillow.  Successful afternoon if you ask me.  The evening entailed some extended Seine chilling with friends, and then a trip over to Phoebe's for some dinner.  Eventually ended up at Café Oz, an australian bar with some bumpin tunes.  No one was really dancing but we decided to tear the floor up.  After a nice bike ride home during the wee hours of the morning and my morning Friday class, I went over to the Jardin de Tuilleries and slept there like a homeless man.  It was too nice of a day to not be outside!
Early Saturday morning, I set out for Lille, a city an hour train ride north of Paris.  It marked my first time going on a trip outside of Paris, and the timing was perfect.  I was meeting Tamera, a Pomona-Pitzer alum who is in Europe playing professional polo, and her friend Charlotte, who is doing the same thing but for a different team.  We went to Bruges, Belgium Saturday, an hour drive from Lille.  Bruges was great, a cute city that seems to only sell chocolate, beer, waffles, and frites (French fries).  When I ordered my fries, I got them with mayonnaise, because that is how the locals do it.  Needless to say, it was different, but the fries themselves were so good I could have eaten them with anything as a sauce and would have enjoyed it.

Train ride to Lille; not used to the absence of mountains...

chillin Bruges buildings

Belfry; wanted to climb it but it is being renovated

PP Polo, represent! Belgium style

Tamera and Charlotte, with the canal outside

Some French kids that came to Bruges to cross dress, lick the street, and drink vodka.  Quite the show

the square we had lunch in

None of my pics of the inside turned out well, but it had gorgeous stained glass windows

After a waffle covered in chocolate sauce and some fries and a couple of churches, we rolled back to Lille.  First, we went to a men's professional water polo game, which was so much fun.  Although the stadium held even less people than Haldeman pool at Pomona, it was packed full with enthusiastic fans since the game decided on whether they would advance to the playoffs.  Even with the enthusiasm, t-shirt gun, and CHEERLEADERS (what??), Lille still lost by two.  Bummer for the home crowd.

Lille on the left, bad guys on the right

Not great dancers, but you can't have it all 

Not so effective counter; Euros don't really like swimming

After that, the girls took forever to get ready and we went out to a club in Lille, an overall great time. Sunday was a wonderful day of relaxing, first going to the large Sunday market and getting fresh produce and fresh bread, all much cheaper than Paris (not surprisingly), then having a little pic nic in the park.  Although not as great as wandering in Paris, the wandering we did post-picnic was pretty cool.  One thing I have to give Lille credit on is their people: they look happy! I don't think it was anything too crazy, but compared to Paris it was like an episode of the Care Bears: people laughing, people actually raising their voices a little, and giant technicolor bears hugging everything.  The chairs in the cafés were plastic, basically just lawn chairs.  Although this does not seem that crazy, for people to be relaxed in plastic chairs on a Sunday, the scene is just not seen in Paris.
Later that night, we made a bunch of mini-crêpes and had a little crêpe party, then I had to come back home.  "Coming home" to Paris actually made me extremely happy, and I realized that over the weekend I had started to miss it a bit.  Who woulda thought, homesick for Paris!  I have to say, the weekend in Lille was EASILY my favorite voyage so far...
The next week and a half will be a bunch of work, but after that expect stories of more adventures.

Lille market!

Park that seems to go through the whole city

Lille opera 

They caught me taking a pic of the plastic chairs.  Still incredulous, no café in Paris would do that

a strange church type thing

so cool

one of my favorite buildings in Europe so far

Gare de Lille