Lazy days in Barcelona

So lazy that I've barely taken any pictures, in fact. Barcelona is a beautiful city. We arrived here on... Tuesday, maybe? Yeah, that sounds right. My days are running together. Barcelona seems so big compared to the other cities we've been to. We haven't seen much of it on account of its size and the fact that the weather wasn't very friendly today, though we did catch up with some friends from Caen and we went to the beach for a little while today (before it started hailing). It's been nice, just lounging around and doing whatever we please. I do NOT want this vacation to end!

Easter at the Vatican

He is Risen indeed!

I had a wonderful Easter, though I missed my family so much. My friends and I got up at a leisurely pace, had a leisurely breakfast (in part due to the extremely slow service of the restaurant where we ate), and then headed to the Vatican City for mass. We did not have very high expectations for what we would get to see as we knew that it would be so crowded, but we ended up being so grateful that we decided to go. It was an incredible experience. I may not be a Catholic, but of course Catholicism is a part of my history and culture, and the culture of Europe, so it is important to me in that way. It is always an experience to see how other cultures worship. A very emotional and stunning event indeed, even though we were a little too far to see much of what was going on.

We did see the Pope, and heard him give mass! At the end he said a blessing in tons of different languages. Here is a picture of him standing in his window saying the blessings (you can barely see him, but he's in the center of the window!):



It was definitely the highlight of my trip to Rome, and an experience I will never forget. Afterward we explored the parts of Rome we hadn't yet seen, like some fountains and the Pantheon, took a nap, then walked around town in search of gelato. I love Rome and just Italy in general! I cannot wait until I come back some day.

Rome, Days 1 & 2

That would be St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, which I saw this morning along with the Vatican Museum, which houses the Sistine Chapel.

Rome, Day 1: It was Good Friday on our first full day in Rome so everything we wanted to see closed at around 3:00 PM so they could get the Colosseum ready for the Pope. We didn't see the Pope, but we did see the Colosseum right before closing time so there weren't very many people there. How people were able to build such things that have lasted through war and fire for all of these years, I will never be able to fathom. Two of my favorite pictures of my friends were taken there. After that we just took it easy since everything was closing.

Rome, Day 2: That'd be today. We woke up at around 7:00 to be in line at the Vatican Museum by 8 (it opens at 9:00). We got there at 8:20 and the line was already enormous, but we didn't wait longer than 20 minutes to get in. Once we did we enacted our strategic plan for getting through the museum: We dashed toward the Sistine Chapel first, which took forever as it is at the VERY end of this massive place, spent a good amount of time there (it'll leave you slack-jawed, it's so amazing), then tried to go backwards through the museum. It turned out that wasn't possible so a little of the way through we got sent BACK to the Sistine Chapel, but it turned out that a shortcut through the Vatican libraries takes you right back to the beginning. I postmarked my postcards at the post office there, then we set off through the galleries of treasures from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. We saw St. Peter's Basilica, but did not go inside as the line was HUGE. Oddly enough, we did see two girls that had been in our hostel in Florence in said huge line... it's a small world.

After that we saw some Roman ruins nearby the Colosseum that had been closed for Good Friday the previous day. And now we are getting up from a three hour nap. Can you blame us?

Florence Y'all

I took this picture tonight at the Piazza di Michelangelo. There was a replica of the statue of David there (that picture has Daniel posing as David... we couldn't get him to be more accurate than that, which is probably a good thing). The boys ran up the stairs to the Piazza; Daniel sprinted so quickly that he made himself sick... those are the kinds of memories that really make a trip, eh? We just walked around and looked at the skyline. I wrote a postcard, took some pictures, then we ventured back into the main town for pizza and gelato.

That's how the day ended. I suppose I'm doing things backwards tonight. This is how it began:

We ate breakfast at the open market and shopped around. Just around the corner from our hostel was the famous Baptistry with the doors designed by Ghiberti (they began the Renaissance!), and then the famous church that I can't for the life of me remember the name of but that marked the rediscovery of ancient Roman architecture... At around noon it was time to go to the Accademia. Let me tell you, Michelangelo's David is NOT AT ALL overrated. It was every bit as spectacular as every art history book says it is. The museum also has a musical instrument section which was almost as exciting as seeing the David. I was in art Heaven.

Then we just did... whatever. We napped, we walked around, we shopped (I bought a gorgeous green Italian leather wallet to console me after trying on the most GORGEOUS leather coat that was about $150 too expensive for this poor student!). Then after a nap we went to the Piazza... it was a good day. I'm exhausted. And happy. So happy.

It's been a whirlwind vacation so far! Saturday we arrived in Maidenhead, which is just outside of London. We stayed three nights with a chic assortment of British flatmates (one of them was a friend of Daniel's who let us stay in her house free of charge). They took us to see Windsor on Saturday, then gave us a tour of London the day after that. We saw Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace, the houses of Parliament & Big Ben, the London Eye, and caught a glimpse of the Globe Theater while walking across the Millennium Bridge (you can only go into the theater if you pay for a ticket). Monday we explored sans British people and saw the TOWER!!! WOW. It was amazing. Very touristy, but it doesn't take much imagination to imagine it all away and just imagine the people who actually lived there, particularly when there was a stunning temporary exhibit on Henry VIII's armor. We also explored Trafalgar's Square, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens (Peter Pan statue!!!).

Yeah, British history lover that I am, I was in Paradise.

(Click to get the full pic. This blog layout isn't too kind to photos)

Little punks, all of 'em

I just saw the new trailer for Where the Wild Things Are and it just made me feel so warm inside! What a wonderful, wonderful book. The movie looks great, especially since they're using Jim Henson monsters. Excellent choice. In the trailer is a song by Arcade Fire which fits perfectly, but of course isn't an obvious choice of soundtrack for a children's movie. In one of the comments on the story I read about the trailer someone suggested a Very Hungry Caterpillar with a Sufjan Stevens soundtrack. Hmm, why not? Personally, I'd like to see a Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day movie with a Muse soundtrack. I can just see him contemplating the injustice of his lack of dessert in his lunch box to the tune of Apocalypse Please.

My students were so squirrely yesterday because on Sunday most of them are going on a skiing trip to the Alps, so I couldn't really blame them for not wanting to pay attention. Bernadette barely gave me a thing to go off of as far as lesson plans went so it was hard to engage their attention when I was just winging it. During the first hour I had three kids who were helping to translate a piece of text for an upcoming event. The text wasn't difficult, but it wasn't very easy, either, and they were almost flawless in their translations. They are so, so intelligent. Both of my classes with children of that age (13/14) are brilliant and adorable.

Then there are my older students. They give no effort and don't care at all. I've been told that they used to be just as brilliant as the younger ones, but then they just stopped caring. There's still evidence of the former intelligence as a few of them speak English remarkably well and with very clear accents, and still more could if they just tried.

Regardless of their behavior yesterday I fear I shall miss the little hooligans! I won't be seeing them for another three weeks because of SPRING BREAK! WOO!

Rennes

Yesterday I went on a field trip with my class to Rennes, a large city in Brittany, to visit the headquarters of Ouest-France, France's most circulated daily newspaper. I was interviewed in it once after the elections, and I'm glad that at the time I didn't know it had such a large readership! It was very interesting because I have never seen the big machine thingy where newspapers are actually made. It was just nice to get out of Caen for a day! My friend Lauren and I ate at a Moroccan restaurant where the management was so incredibly sweet. Plus, I love any restaurant that gives you a free aperitif and a free coffee or tea! Especially as tea is ridiculously expensive here!



We got home at around 3:00 AM which was fine with me as I have nothing to do on Thursdays. I like taking the day to walk around the city, shop, eat, read, etc. Today that wasn't in the stars because I feel so... icky. Just icky. I spent the entire day in bed which I hate doing. Then my internet stopped working and so I ventured out into the gray, Normandy drizzle to take my computer to the internet store, where of course it began working again. Sigh. At least I was able to get through the transaction without fumbling up my French too terribly much!

Because I was downtown anyway, I decided to pop into Memoranda, my favorite used book store, to pick up a couple of books and to have a hot chocolate. It's the only book store in Caen that understands the beauty and comfort of books, food, and hot beverages in the same place, but stores in France are usually too tiny for such things. Memorandum is different from other bookstores, though, because there is a lady baking things inside the bookstore all day long-- breads, brownies, apple crisp-- and the aroma wafts through the claustrophobic bookstore creating the most cozy and soothing atmosphere. I purchased a French translation of A Series of Unfortunate Events and Asterix et Obelix, which is a very famous French comic book about a little village in Gaul that has resisted being conquered by the Romans. It's adorable.