Happy Turkey Day

I know I'm a lot behind on my blogging, so I will catch myself up all in one blog post. First my trip to Paris with the little girl that I babysit and her family.

Sweet boy is ALWAYS happy and smiling!

PARIS

They decided that they wanted to meet up with some of their old friends from New York in Paris, so I got to accompany them for the weekend...which meant free food, free hotel room bed, free HUGE shower, free Eiffel Tower visit. Everything FREE! This is the dream for a poor college kid. And even more, they paid me for the time that I sat with the two kids while they were SLEEPING as I played on my computer. Babysitting is the easiest and most rewarding job ever. You get to play with kids, relax by cleaning up house, enjoy free birth control (those little suckers will have you waiting to have your own children for YEARS), and every once in a while free weekends to Paris. I felt like a true "au pair" last weekend, and it was great! They said I could go off by myself and meet up with friends, but who would want to do that when all your food will be paid for if you just stick with the family all day?! I got to experience a French meal (pasta and chicken), spend time with my two favorite French kids, visit the Eiffel Tower, and learn some new French words! All in all, it was a really great weekend! I missed Paris quite a bit (that was the first time I've been back in two years). And I finally got some serious pictures out of the kids!

Le sénat in Paris

Serious picture!!!!!!

Eiffel Tower...she's standing on a block,
she's not really that tall!

Two crazy French girls ;)

Oh how they love each other...at 7 in the morning

 BRUXELLES

Gary Reedy

I also had the amazing opportunity to visit Johnson & Johnson in Bruxelles, Belgium (yes, I was in Belgium again, no I am not fat yet from all the chocolate and beer). I shadowed a few of the members from the Government Affairs & Policy sector with the focus on Europe, Middle East, and Africa (GA&P EMEA for short). They were an amazing team who were all MUCH younger than I expected them to be. All of them were younger than thirty years old and had all had experience in previous companies. The first day I had dinner with Gary Reedy (member of the Board of Trustees and alumni of E&H). He was the one who set all of this up for me and really helped me through the week. He made me feel right at home with his southern accent, and I told him I was "in heaven" because I was finally speaking with a native American speaker. Sometimes I get homesick for that good 'ol American accent (or normal accent as I call it).  It was nice to relax and eat some pizza after having had to take four trains and the airport shuttle to the hotel. After a long day of traveling, I was ready to get to bed. 

One of the committee meeting rooms

The next three days were filled with meetings, lunch dates, and a team dinner with a few of the members. It was a jam-packed week, but it was well worth it in the end, and I am more than happy that I took notes! I ended up getting sick on Wednesday night (which I am still recovering from), so my head was a little cloudy to remember everything that I had done. I don't want to reveal too much of what I did because I have promised Dr. Lane that I will do a presentation on it when I return, and I love telling my stories in person way too much to spoil it in a blog post! Don't worry, I took lots of notes, so I won't forget everything I did! If you want to know more about it, just let me know, and I can fill you in on the details, but for now, things remain a secret :) One thing I would like to say, though, is how impressed I was with the EU Parliament. The meeting rooms were astounding! It was literally like the movies in that there was a huge room with chairs everywhere for each member of the committee, and then in little boxed rooms situated all around the room translators of 23 different languages would be translating directly what what going on on the floor for each committee member to listen to if he/ she wanted. All they had to do was pick up the headphones, turn it to the right language channel, and they would be connected to that translator. That has to be one of the hardest jobs to directly translate what is going on in the room. Maybe José Lucas can attest to that since he translates from Portuguese to English/ French for me on a daily basis ;) 

Grand Place

JnJ building right across from my hotel

Little restaurant - "Le Tout Bon"

Sitting in the president's chair in the EU Parliament

MEXICAN DINNER DAY 

Well, we all decided that we wanted to eat Mexican food together, so that's exactly what we did. This last weekend, we ended up going to the store and buying a whole bunch of Mexican food. What was supposed to be just a lunch turned into a full-blown Mexican day. We had so many tacos that we ate them for both lunch AND dinner, and we spent the whole day resting in the kitchen, talking and spending time together. It was a good day of fellowship and friendship. 

Talking after having stuffed our faces 

Marcelo and Pri getting ready to assemble tacos

SOCCER

José Lucas #3

I also got to attend a soccer game of José Lucas'. He plays well except for that part where he only played a total of maybe 30 minutes during two whole games. He even bet me that his team would win if he got to play more than 15 minutes during the second game. His team lost...he played for 14 minutes. I timed it. It's funny to watch French people play sports because you imagine them being these more feminine people due to the clothes they wear, and then they really show that style on the court. Now, not all of them run weird or are really bad at defense, but they aren't as "manly" at sports as us Americans are. Anyway, that was fun considering we were walking through centre ville when JL's friends called all of a sudden and within 10 minutes we were being wisked away for him to be able to play soccer at 8 at night. 

THANKSGIVING

This was my first Thanksgiving away from home, and I didn't really realize how much this holiday means to me until I had to spend it without my family, and especially without the ability to Skype them because the internet was so bad yesterday. But I am incredibly thankful for not only my family back in the States, but also my family here in France. They don't fully understand what it means to celebrate Thanksgiving, but it really is the most unique holiday in that our country preserves a day just to celebrate FAMILY and everything else we can be thankful for. So this week, and all the weeks to precede and follow this one, I am thankful for my family, I am thankful for the chance of a lifetime I have to spend in France, and I am thankful to have met all my Brazilians. 

Waiting for dinner to be ready

Proof that I actually cooked

Playing "chubby bunny" 

I got to make Thanksgiving dinner for all 8 of us on Wednesday night, which was a blast. I did pretty well considering everything for my recipes I had to find in French, in the confusing French grocery stores, and then I had to convert the units of measurement. The only thing I was not able to make was the pumpkin pie (I couldn't find the pumpkin), but we still had rolls, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, apple pie, and chicken (turkey is not so common here I guess). The only thing that went wrong was that the bottom of the apple pie got a little burnt, but they still ate all of it! I also don't think it was my fault that it burnt because the top of the pie had only just started to get golden brown when I pulled it out of the oven. Needless to say, it was a successful Thanksgiving dinner - my first to cook, and the Brazilians' first ever! They are excited to celebrate next year in America with me and have a true Thanksgiving dinner with all the American favorites. 

Thank you mom and dad for everything you do for me, for all the support, love, attention, and encouragement you give me on a daily basis. Without the two of you, of course I wouldn't be on this Earth, but I also wouldn't be nearly as independent and ready to explore the world as I am. As I look back at this past semester, I can only imagine how hard it would have been for me to study in a foreign language, find metro lines to take, navigate the bus schedule, cook for myself, make friends, and live by myself if mom hadn't been asking me if I was ready to pack my boxes for college two months before I was supposed to leave ;) I complain about it, but I truly do appreciate having been raised to be an independent, outspoken woman. My family is my rock, and to them I will always run.

Also, my town is better than yours. We have a giant ferris wheel for Christmas :)

Centre Ville with Christmas decorations

Also have been feeling pretty homesick this week. I've been overwhelmed with work, I've been sick, and I missed Thanksgiving at home. I actually had some guy turn around this morning in class and tell me that I need to blow my nose. Excuse me, but I am sick. Would you rather me get up in the middle of class, make a bunch of ruckus, and go get a tissue? That would be better? Or you want me to blow my nose right in the middle of class? In America, if someone was sniffling, we would be kind enough to ask if they need a tissue and have one ready at their disposal...not turn around and make the person blow their nose! I told him I didn't have a tissue, at which time his girlfriend proceeded to pull out TWO packs of tissues, and then he glared at me while I took the tissue and pretended to wipe my nose. I think that is the most insensitivity I have experienced in any culture. I'm sorry I'm sick, France. I'm sorry to disturb you with my germs. At least I go to every class and TRY to take notes even when I'm sick.

Brasileiros em Bruxelas

As most of my friends and family know, I took a small trip to Brussels this weekend with my Brazilians (Bruxelles in French and Bruxelas in Portuguese- my spelling will be all kinds of messed up when I get back to the States).

Victory dance

Before I talk about that, though, I need to add some pictures from the basketball game of José Lucas. His school has a small team, and they played against my school this last week, so Bia, Henrique and I all traveled down to campus to watch him play. He is better than I thought he would be at playing ;) Although he was very tired after only about half of the game haha. I tried to take several pictures of him laying down on the ground to rest, but he always would get up too fast. One of the French asked if we could take score because no one was there. I'm American, so of course I know some things about basketball, but not THAT much! haha The Brazilians like to joke that because I'm American, I know how to play basketball really well, just like the rest of the world thinks they know how to play football (soccer) very well! Not always true in the case of some Brazilians....hahaha

Teaming up after winning

Now Bruxelles!! We woke up extremely early in the morning to make it to the train station on time for the train at 6am. Priscila bought her ticket literally the day before we left (we were all afraid she wouldn't get to go with us because she procrastinated so long!). The first day was the hardest because we were all so tired after walking maybe a mile to our hostel, and we finally had wifi at the hostel, but we (Bia, Henrique and I) rallied and ended up visiting some of the town. Priscila slept until the evening haha. It was very cold, so it was difficult to walk very much. We saw many interesting and beautiful buildings, most of which were closed, so I only took pictures of the outside, and then we would move on to the next place. We did visit a very beautiful park in which there was a fountain that Bia told me I needed to wish for something in ;) There was no money already in the fountain, so I didn't want to throw a coin in, but I made a fake wish of course.

It's difficult at time to get Nathalie out

So happy to find McDonald's! 

There were many beautiful cathedrals, and there was even a small street market with antiques. My favorite part though was the Grand Place, especially during the night. It was so beautiful to see all buildings covered in gold lit up in every direction that you looked. It is one of the most beautiful man-made places that I have ever visited because of its elegance and grandeur. It is interesting in that it has architectural styles from three different epoques! I wish my iPhone had done a better job of taking in the beauty of it all. It's a shame that we don't have technology to capture exactly what the human eye can see.

Street market with antiques

Belgium flag in the rain

Beautiful building....

Grand Place

One of the many parks

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That night, I had the honor to visit a gorgeous Brazilian singer, Paula Fernandes. I have been learning one of her song, Não Precisa, so I was able to sing along when she sang that song! I enjoyed some Guaraná Antarctica (a Brazilian beverage), and the company of MANY Brazilians. It was impressive how many Brazilians were all in attendance at this event!













The next day, we got up around 10am (much later than normal because we had stayed out until 3 in the morning to watch Paula!), and we took Priscila to see some more things in Brussels, including the Grand Place again in the daylight. We also visited the European Commission building and the Manneken Pis. For those of you who don't know, this is one of the most famous statues in Belgium, a major landmark of Bruxelles, but it is also the smallest. If you expect some large, grand statue, you will be sorely disappointed. It rained A LOT this day, so we were glad to be on the train to Lille.

Another beautiful park with Nath

European Commission building

The Grand Place during the day

Manneken Pis

Lille is a city in France in which some of our friends lived before coming to Amiens. To my mother, you would LOVE Lille. I take what I said about never living in France back. Lille is beautiful. It is a city MUCH larger than Amiens, and there is literally everything you would need in it, but it still somehow how this feel of a small, quaint town to it. It doesn't feel so large when you are walking through the streets. It doesn't feel like a huge city, but rather a small college town. But in reality, it has both H&M AND Nike outlet! I'm in love with this town. The first night, we just spent some time together in the hostel's bar, and we tried to make it an early night because we were all so exhausted from the day before. On Monday, we visited some major landmarks, but it was raining, so we ended up going into the large centre commercial and shopping for some time :)

Church in Lille

Coffee :)

Streets of Lille

Needless to say, I was happy to be back in my own bed. Some times I just want to travel all over the world every weekend, but it's months like these that make me grateful for the downtime. I went to Ireland, went to Bruxelles, this next weekend I have Paris, and then the weekend after that, I will be in Bruxelles again for a trip to the Johnson & Johnson headquarters to shadow a European representative. Keep your fingers crossed for a possible internship opportunity or good connections stemming from this trip. After these next two weeks, I will be more than glad to crash in my bed and sleep like a bear for the next three months (Priscila ;)). 


Thanks to Nathália for the weekly song :)

Irish mouths, ABC peanut butter and friendships

My tea while waiting for the train

Well I am sitting in the Beauvais train station for the next three hours waiting for the next train, because I missed my train literally by ONE MINUTE. If the lady in front of me had not asked so many questions, I would have been on that train and back in Amiens by 1pm. The way I look at it though is that everything happens for a reason. No matter how terribly you might think things are, there is ALWAYS a reason. That is one of the main things I have learned during my study abroad time here. It has helped me to relax and calm down after a crisis has occurred. There’s no point in being frustrated over something when you will always be able to remedy it some other way. And this way, by missing my bus, I have some extra time to work on my blog! I spent 18 euros to get from the airport to the train station, and that was only about 5 miles. I was not about to waste every bit of money I have in my account just because I want to be back in my own bed! Now I get to sit in the train station on a holiday and have my thoughts to myself. Did I mention that despite the fact that the next train is at 12h40, my layover train doesn’t leave the next station until 17h49. All in good time, all in good time.

So happy to be on the train back to Amiens

So like I said, my blog post of IRELAND! I arrived at the airport extremely late at night, and Vicky and Olivia were there to greet me! Vicky and I ended up staying up until 5 in the morning laying in her bed catching up despite the fact that we had to be up early the next morning to catch a train for Galway! The train was one of the nicest that I have ever been on. It even had little tables where four people could gather around and play cards, talk, or sleep (which is what we did). The countryside was beautiful. We saw a total of four rainbows over the whole week! I was bestowed with a ton of Irish luck (but apparently that doesn’t work in France…).

Waiting in the train station!

On the LUAS (step #2) to train station

My welcome team!

Finally on the nice train

Once we got to Galway, it started raining a little bit, but that didn’t stop us from wandering around and shopping for a bit before Sarah and Michael came to meet us to walk back to the house. Those two days were fun-filled with beautiful scenery, torrential rain, garlic cheese fries, a cathedral, and a pub in the evening. In the morning when we were scheduled to leave, the rain was so hard that we had to take shelter in a McDonald’s and wait for it to blow over.

Vicky loooooves Nathalie!

The train that we took

Nathalie is super excited to see Ireland

Taking the bus (step #1) to the train station

The cathedral of Galway

We made it back to Dublin in time to make some food and repack for our trip to Waterford the next day. I’m not too much of a girly girl, so you can imagine my excitement at going to look at a bunch of crystals…WOOO. They were nice, but not something that I would go back to. However, we didn’t get to go on the tour because it was some sort of bank holiday (what is it with Europeans and their holidays?!?!), so that might have changed my perspective on the whole experience. The town was beautiful, with cathedrals, sheep, and interesting stores. Pictures to follow:

We love rainbows in Ireland

It was a bit windy that day

River leading to the ocean in Galway

We did not enjoy the rain so much

Inside the Cathedral

Our long walk to and from Galway center 

Inside church again

Looking forward to that warm bed in Dublin!

Weird roadsigns in Celtic and English

The most interesting thing about Ireland was that everything was written in the Celtic language FIRST, and then in English - despite the fact that no one really speaks Celtic anymore. There were the few Irish people that would occasionally come out with their language, but I feel as if that was maybe only to talk about the weird Americans! I really liked the look of the words, but I just found it interesting that most people didn't even understand the words.

We were more than glad to get back to Dublin and get some good rest, especially since the girls had service work the next day at 10am. That next day, I was extremely lazy. I told myself I was going to make a trip into Dublin and wander around by myself, but when I looked outside, it was raining (surprise), so I ended up staying in, drinking tea, and watching Netflix (since I’ve been deprived of it in France).

Vicky making me
food for the week.

Kilmainham Gaol

SHEEP!

Beautiful rainbows

Comic book-looking building in Dublin

On Wednesday, I finally got out on the town and visited the Kilmainham Gaol and the Guinness Brewery with one of Vicky’s friends, Kaian. We were supposed to go with a bunch of his other friends after they got out of class, but then they decided to cancel last minute. I was just happy to not have to go to these places by myself! We actually got lost on our way to the Kilmainham Gaol (aka really old jail) and almost wandered into a REAL JAIL!! It is called Arbour Jail? I think. We decided not to try anything. We finally found Kilmainham and took the tour for two euros! It was really interesting to listen to the history of this jail and how it played a major role in Irish history itself.

After such a long day of walking and getting lost, you can imagine our excitement to get to the Guinness factory with indoor heating and beer.  We both learned how to pour a Guinness. I am now an official Guinness pourer, and I even have the certificate to prove it. I didn’t drink all of it, but I had to drink at least some of it in honor of my dad not being able to be there with me! It was a fun day, but I was ready to be back in my warm bed in Vicky’s room!

Anddd the Guinness gates!

Old Guinness paraphernalia 

Learning how to pour a Guinness

The final day of my trip I spent sending things to my family, visiting Temple Bar (the famous bar district in Dublin) and eating garlic cheese fries for the last time from Supermacs! I also might or might not have become addicted to the show “Orange is the New Black” on Netflix. And I might or might not have watched seven episodes in one night. Needless to say, I got two hours of sleep, so I will be sleeping well tonight! Who knows when I will be in Ireland again?! Might as well take advantage of everything including Netflix!

Temple Bar, didn't get to go inside

Next to the river in Dublin

Trinity College, with my Starbucks :)

Sidenotes:

They have peanut butter in this strange country, but as Vicky says it’s “ABC peanut butter.” It was a little creamier than it should have been I think.

The Irish like to drink, or at least the ones I came in contact with. They were drinking every night I was there. One night Vicky went out into the hall and screamed down the stairs several times to “shut up” and that she didn’t want to “hear their Irish mouths.” It was quite hysterical, especially considering she came back in the room and said that it was best not to mess with the Irish because they can be angry elves when they are drunk.

And finally, I have missed the heck out of my Brazilians. I loved Ireland, and I loved being able to spend time with Vicky, but I have grown so close to this group of seven Brazilians that it’s difficult to be away from them for so long! They always tell me that I will regret my decision to not tag along with them, but I still don’t believe that to be true! I enjoyed Ireland so much, and I really needed to see Vicky, but I know I would have had an incredible amount of fun with Bia, Henrique and Pri as well!

Hello France! I’ve missed you (even though I’m angry at you right now for making me miss my train).