Le Printemps

Spring is here and Paris has come to life. On the first beautiful day people poured outside and the streets, gardens and cafés instantly filled. Because the Sorbonne does not have a central campus, we don't really have a main gathering place and we were often forced to take refuge for hours inside cafés when it was too cold even to wander. Now instead I can walk along the Seine after lunch to get to the Musée d'Orsay instead of taking the metro, and of course picnic season has begun. There are parks and gardens everywhere to spend an afternoon doing homework or of course the always important activity in the Miskell family...
Exercising. This part of the blog is for those of you (Miskell's) who value physical activity over relaxation and eating. While am a Miskell, I have done my best to find a balance while here. When I first started running, I ran along the Seine from my house to and around Notre Dame, but I have to go down a few main streets to get to the Seine and I grew tired of weaving around people. I then found the Promenade Plantée, which is a 4.5 km elevated park very close to my house. The park is in a converted railway passageway, which starts at the Bastille and continues to the Bois de Vincennes. Right now it is a beautiful place to run in the early afternoon before it fills after school gets out. I have also been running in the Luxembourg Gardens although this is usually an afternoon event as I either metro or bus there.

The Promenade Plantée

In addition to running I have been taking dance classes at Studio Harmonic, a large dance studio close to my house in the Bastille. Studio Harmonic has many open dance classes of all styles and levels Monday through Saturday and they are all drop in so I can go whenever I am free. This is perfect because although my class schedule is the same every week I am always doing something different in the afternoons and evenings. I try to take a few classes each week, either ballet or modern. I have taken modern from an Italian teacher whose style of modern is a mixture of yoga and modern dance, so it is very focused on stretching and fluid movement. I have also taken ballet from an American teacher and a French teacher. Taking these dance classes in French is not too difficult as most of the vocabulary is the same. The only time that I don't understand is when the teachers go into detailed analogies about how a particular section of a combination should be executed and I don't understand all the vocabulary, but I usually get the general idea of what they are saying. I am very happy to have found a dance studio here in Paris so that I can continue to dance while I am here. I continue to avoid the favorite Miskell form of exercise, biking, as that is a death wish and I am not brave enough to face off against the traffic. I don't plan on trying it.

Tomorrow's activity is a two hour wine tasting, so I will have updates after that. Mom and Dad have the same activity planned for tomorrow to get ready for their trip here in three weeks!

No Pasa Nada

This past weekend Alex and I traveled to Madrid to visit Nicole, my roommate from AU. We quickly learned that Spanish life is very different and much more laid back. One of the first things that Nicole told us is that if we learned one thing by the time we left Spain it would be “No Pasa Nada” which pretty much translates to no worries. The Spanish use this phrase for everything. If they are late: No Pasa Nada. If someone misses class: No Pasa Nada. If they are out until 7 in the morning: No Pasa Nada. I did my best to adopt the Spanish lifestyle for the weekend.

Nicole met us by the Sol metro stop in Madrid , we dropped off our bags at our hostel, and then we began to explore the city. We walked to the Plaza Mayor and to the Palacio Real, but it was too late to go inside so we walked through the gardens next to the palace. We also passed the Temple of Debod, which is an ancient Egyptian temple that was rebuilt in Madrid. On our walk back to our hostel we stopped for tapas and sangria. We met up with many people from AU later in the evening and went to a club called Joy. The club is in an old theatre, so it was beautiful inside and the night even included a cirque du soleil/ Alice and Wonderland themed show. We finished the night with churros and chocolate in true Spanish fashion.

Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor

Market next to the Plaza Mayor

Cathedral

Alex, Nicole, and Me in front of the Palacio Real

The Palace Gardens

The Temple of Debod

View from the Temple

Churros and Chocolate

Saturday we went back to the Palacio Real to go inside. First we went inside the Santa María la Real de La Almudena, the Catholic Cathedral in Madrid. The Cathedral was not completed until 1993, so the decoration inside is very modern. In the Palace each room was beautifully decorated with embroidered fabric or porcelain (Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside). After our visit to the Palace we had paella for lunch before walking through El Retiro (the gardens) on our way to the Reina Sofia and the Prado. The Reina Sofia is Spain’s national museum for 20^th Century Art, and the Prado is the National Museum. We did not have a chance to see very much in the Reina Sofia, but Alex and I really wanted to Picasso’s Guernica. Alex, who knows her art history, led us around the Prado. We saw the highlights of the Museum, but saw only a fraction of the artwork. Nicole’s senora invited us for dinner and we spoke a mixture of French and English with her while enjoying a homemade Spanish dish with egg, onions, potatoes and cheese. Sunday we walked through El Rastro, a large Spanish flea market in the city, and enjoyed the sunshine before returning to Paris. Nicole was a fantastic tour guide, showing us the Madrid highlights and making sure we sampled the best Spanish cuisine. No trips for a few weeks, so now to enjoy springtime in Paris!

In front of the Cathedral

The ceiling of the Cathedral

The Palacio Real

And Again

El Retiro

El Retiro

The Reina Sofia Museum

The Prado

Streets of Madrid

PRAHA

Two weeks ago, I traveled a little further from Paris to Prague for the weekend. Again with my friend Alex, we headed to Prague to visit her best friend from home, Jane, who is at NYU in Prague for the semester. I knew very little about the city besides what I learned while flipping through the guidebook my host mother gave me (It was from when she and my host father went to Prague…in 1988). The trip started out on the wrong foot as I was left off the flight list, frisked, and searched but after that the trip went smoothly and it was a quick flight to Prague. Jane met us at the airport and we made our way back to her apartment. We woke up Friday morning ready to explore, and we grabbed a croissant as we headed to the Old Town Square in the light snow. We got there just in time to see the astronomical clock change and hear the trumpeters play. The astronomical clock was made in 1410 and has an astronomical dial, an hourly clock, and a calendar dial. We then walked along the Charles River to have lunch at Café Louvre. Despite its French name, I got a sampling of Czech food with a very creamy pasta dish. As we walked along the river we passed the theatre where Mozart premiered Don Giovanni in 1787. After lunch we took the tram across the river and walked up to Prague Castle. We were too late to go inside the Castle, but we went inside St. Vitus’ Cathedral and saw King Wenceslas’ tomb. We also walked down golden lane where Emperor Rudolph kept his alchemists who tried to turn metal to gold. Our next destination was the John Lennon wall. It was a little difficult to find and we passed the right street a few times before we found it. The map from my communist guide saved the day. The wall was originally used for students’ grievances during 1980’s, but still remains today constantly changing but overall continues to represent love and peace. We spent a while reading the different messages on the wall before walking across the Charles Bridge and heading back to Jane’s apartment to take a quick rest before dinner. For dinner we had typical Czech cuisine, which consists of a lot of a lot of meant, cream, cranberries, dumpings etc. I had a chicken vegetable rice dish that had a lot of paprika and we all shared a bottle of Moldavian wine and potato dumplings.

Old Town Square

The Astronomical Clock

Alex and I in front of the Astronomical Clock

View of Prague Castle

Estates Theatre

View from Prague Castle

Back of St. Vitus Cathedral

The Golden Gate of St. Vitus Cathedral

The Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

Love Padlocks on a bridge near the John Lennon Wall

John Lennon Wall

From the Charles Bridge

Charles Bridge

Czech Food

Saturday we woke early to heavy snowfall. Prague is almost all cobblestones so this made for a day of sliding around the city. We headed to the Museum of Communism, which is a small museum that displays the history of communism and focuses then how the Czech people were affected by each issue. It was very powerful to see the videos of the protests on the streets we had just walked on and hear the testimonies of the people who had been punished for their resistance to the communist regime. We then returned to Prague castle and had a little different view of the city now that it was covered in snow. We walked through the castle, and my favorite part was the window where the second defenestration of Prague took place (defenestrate is my favorite word). After the castle we explored the touristy shops and looked at all the garnet and amber jewelry, Prague’s big items, before eating dinner and returning to Jane’s.

Inside the Museum of Communism

Another view from Prague Castle

Window where the Second Defenestration of Prague took place

View of the Snowy City

Sunday we experienced a czech brunch, complete with comfort food of bagel and cream cheese (which does not exist in Paris). We then went to see the dancing building (also known as Fred and Ginger) before heading to the airport. Despite the extreme cold, I had a fantastic weekend in Prague. It is a beautiful city and very different from Paris. I am glad that we got to experience Eastern Europe in the right way: with snow. Thanks for hosting us Jane!

The Dancing Building (also known as Fred and Ginger)