I apologize for the delay in posting. Theres been a lot going on.
I went (about a month ago now) to Portugal. I went with Laura-Beth, we explored Lisbon, and we came back. It was really nice, actually, it was a good break from school and Lisbon was really chill. The weather was nice, the food was delicious and not that expensive, and the sights were good. There was a castle, a beach and a marionette museum. Also, the weekend we were there was the first weekend of Carnival, so people were walking around in costume like it was Halloween. It was really fun to see. Portuguese is a lot like Spanish, so I could read most of the street signs and things, and we were able to get around pretty well.
No country is ever going to be as hard to communicate in as Russia was.
Then three weeks worth of stuff happened.
Then we had mid-term break, during which the entire school went to Brussels and Paris for a week.
On the way to Brussels we stopped in several WWI sites, trenches and cemeteries and memorials, that sort of things. Apparently WWI is a very big deal for the Canadians. We've been learning about it, which is good, cause I didn't know anything at all about it before. I'm pretty glad the US isn't part of the Commonwealth, though. I don't think I'd like having to fight in England's wars just because we were once a colony. It really is interesting, the Canadians don't seem to mind, but there are two Pakistani girls here, and they really resent England's Commonwealth thing. One of the cemeteries we stopped in on the way to Brussels really clarified this point, though, there was a big memorial to missing soldiers from New Zealand. Why were people from New Zealand fighting in WWI? I didn't really think that was fair. Its the same sort of thing.
We weren't in Brussels for very long, and I had field studies, so I didn't really get to see that much of the city. I did, however, have a Belgian waffle (most outstanding food ever, the waffle is cooked fresh in sugar so its got a big of an outside crunch and its all caramelized, and then covered with chocolate, whipped cream and nuts. It was unbelievable.) Also, Belgian chocolate, and, believe it or not, Belgian beer, which isn't really beer, its fruit flavored. I had raspberry, but there were flavors like cherry, strawberry, banana, and honey. It didn't taste like beer at all. (I will repeat at this point that I don't drink very much at all and am actually like, the model good little girl. The beer had like 2% alcohol. Don't worry about it.)
Also in Belgium I went to the EU Parliament in Brussels, as a politics field study (not as interesting as the UN, let me tell you.) I learned things about the EU. It was good.
Then we went to the Royal Museum of Central Africa. It was less good. This was the museum showing all the things about the Belgian occupation of the Congo and Rwanda. It was pretty biased and very upsetting/depressing. Also, it makes a lot of sense why that part of the world is so messed up now. the Belgians weren't that nice to them. But there were lots of elephants at the museum, so that was fun.
Then Paris.
We stayed in a really nice hotel, not in the middle of town, but nice anyway. Laura-Beth and I had both been to Paris before, and so didn't go to any of the really big deal tourist sites. (I haven't been there in awhile, but I didn't like it that much last time, and so wanted to avoid the things that messed it up for me.) I went to the Musee D'Orsey and the Jewish History Museum (Laura-Beth's idea, not mine!) on the first day. I was less impressed with the Musee D'Orsey than I was expecting to be, but thats how it goes sometimes. The Jewish History Museum was really cool, though. It was geared at Parisians who didn't know anything at all about Judaism, rather than at, you know, old Jewish ladies, and so explained things and talked a lot about Jewish life in France, which was interesting. Also, it was in a really cool part of town, near the modern art museum with the sculptures outside it. The next day I did a "literary walking tour" around Paris with the English class (no, I'm not in English) and learned about F. Scott Fitzgerald and Oscar Wilde and them. It was a good time. Then we took the subway to Montmarte to see an old church, which was also interesting, in part because that area is so different from the part of Paris you usually see (Paris is set up kind of backward for a city. The center of it is the very richest, and than rather than people getting wealthier as you get out to the suburbs, they get poorer. There is a ring of slum-like areas around the city. Montmarte wasn't a slum at all, but it was much less upscale than downtown Paris.) Then back on the subway to go to a cemetary where famous people were buried (Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Georges Seurat, etc.) Also very cool. And your typical boat tour of Paris at night, featuring the Eiffel Tower and all the sights.
My last day in Paris was, I don't know, like WWII day or something. One of the history classes (not mine) went to the Shoah (Holocaust) Museum in the morning, and I got them to let me tag along. I hadn't known anything about the Holocaust in France except what I had heard from Boma (aka, not much.) It was interesting. The French government was very anti-semetic, and kind of welcomed Hitler's thing. The Nazis wanted to take the Jewish men and send them to the camps, the French government had to have days of negotiations with them to convince them to take the women and children too. What would they want lots of little Jewish orphans for? Still, the resistance movement was tremendous, and only 1/4 of the French Jews were killed. (Compared to like 90% in Poland and like 30 total in Denmark. Denmark is my favorite.) The museum was very well done. There was a lot of focus on children who were hidden and on the resistance. It was interesting. I learned a lot. Also, then I had a French Latke, which was basically heaven on earth. French food + Jewish food = yum. Its a simple equation. (The Shoah Museum was in the Jewish quarter.) I had a really good time in Paris. Much better than last time I was there. I'd go back again, probably. But it'd have to be a long time from now. Too much Paris isn't really a good thing.
On the drive back to the Castle from Paris, my history class stopped at basically a Nazi bunker. It was a WWII sight that they had turned into a museum. I guess the site had been used to research rockets, so it was really interesting how the museum was set up. They had the typical WWII Nazi paraphernalia, starving people in Auschwitz, etc. and then right next to that they had the Space Race. It was strange. I didn't like it very much.
I had, by the way, no problem getting around in either Belgium or France, because many of my friends speak French.
Midterm trip was good. Its back to the regular old, you know, thing now though. Theres only a month left of school, so things are getting kind of intense.
Next I'm going to Amsterdam.
Picture1: Laura-Beth and me overlooking Lisbon
Picture2: Me in Paris with the Seine and the Eiffel Tower in the background.
