Grèce: Partie 1

Spring break is already here, and we kicked it off in Athens. Our flight was on Friday, April 13, but the only bad luck that met us was a €25 fine because we apparently didn't have the correct supplemental
metro passes to ride the RER train to the airport. Not such a fun way to start off a vacation.

We flew Air France, and it turned out to be the best experience flying that I've had. The attendants were incredibly nice, we got a not half-bad meal for the 3 1/2 hour flight, and we passed through the
friendly security with only minor complications (those hairbrushes are pretty suspicious, you know. They served fish on the plane, which I found surprising and a little skeptical. After a few months in Paris, I've taken to applying the old rule of thumb “don't eat anything the animals won't” (Little House on the Prairie had some valuable lessons, you know) to French people. If a French person won't eat it, neither will I; so, like my aeronautical neighbors, I stuck to the cheese, bread, and Greek salad.

We arrived in Athens around 17h, and followed the signs for the exit/ passport control. We walked through the final set of double doors to find out that passport control consisted of one disinterested security guard and a crowd of people facing us waiting to pick other travelers up.

It was cloudy when we landed but still beautiful. As we drove towards our hotel, we were surrounded by mountains. As if thrown back hundreds of years, I could easily picture Spartan soldiers flooding down the slopes to invade the city; that is, until I spotted the Ikea down the road from the airport, anyway.

We got off the bus one stop too early because apparently that stop hasn't been added to the listed route on the bus. But there was conveniently a taxi there and it was only a short ride to our hotel. Neither Devan nor I speak or know any Greek. I did take ancient Greek during my senior year of high school and although it is very different than modern Greek and I've forgotten most of it anyway, it did actually help when I was able to read the bus stop names and match them to the names on our map. The Greek alphabet is different than the English alphabet, and it would be more difficult to read the street signs, even if I don't know what they actually mean, if I wasn't familiar with it. This is especially true for the places we were looking for for which we only had the English transliteration of the Greek name. I wish I knew Greek, but at the same time there is a certain beauty in the language that I think I can better appreciate
because I don't understand it.

We stayed just outside of Athens, in the port of Piraeus. We settled into our hotel, Hotel Noufara, and took the bus to Athens (Santygma, last stop on line 40, in front of Parliament) for dinner. We headed
toward Plaka, a section of the city known for its shops and eateries. We both got chicken souvlaki at a chic little cafe, and afterwards strolled the narrow streets. Because it was Easter weekend, I was surprised to see how lively everything was. As we later learned, everything opens up as people celebrate after church at night.

We had passed by one small jewelry shop where we saw rings that we really liked but the shopkeeper was no where to be found. We returned 10 minutes later around 23h and decided to step inside so someone would see us and come over. Sure enough, a minute later a woman hurried in and, looking embarrassed, greeted us with, “I hope you can't smell the ouzo, I've been taking shots.” Can't say I've ever been greeted like that by a Wal-Mart greeter or anyone else in the states.

I got a ring with the Greek eye, just 10 euro, and after taking some pictures of the illuminated acropolis we decided to try to find the bus stop. An equally lost couple from Egypt asked us for directions. This is one of the things I love most about studying and living abroad. When else am I going to randomly meet someone from across the globe? Egyptians aren't exactly common frequenters of New Hampshire.

We eventually made it back to our hotel a little after midnight and slept well to prepare to walk up the Acropolis the next day...

Grèce

Pictures from Greece are now posted! Please let me know if the link is broken or anything.

Je suis rentrée

Back home in Paris safe and sound, slightly tanner (I like to think) and in one piece after almost three weeks of traveling. It went by unbelievably quickly, but it feels so good to be back in Paris. Paris me manquait! 


I'm uploading photos now, a long process with the amount I took! I ran out of room on my memory card so I even had to delete some, too. I'll be posting about pieces of the trip in separate entries, starting with a post I wrote back in Athens. I thought I'd be able to post it using wi-fi from my phone, but Blogspot apparently doesn't like my Blackberry browser and wouldn't let me post anything. I will probably not have them all up today, but hopefully within the next couple of days I will finish the posts about spring break.

Londres

There's so much to tell about London but not enough time. I would've posted already but we only returned Tuesday night and I had two papers and a presentation to finish for today, then tonight I went to meet a friend from Fairfield for dinner because she was visiting Paris. I am writing everything down though, and I will post it as soon as I am able to. Tomorrow morning, we are leaving for our spring break escapade spanning six cities in three countries over 18 days, and I anticipate that I will not have frequent access to internet. I probably won't be able to post a long entry until I come back to Paris (I was going to say "home" but then realized it might sound confusing), but I will sure have plenty to post when I finally get the chance. For now, you can take a peek at my Facebook photo album of Easter weekend in London!

La rap, la censure

For my French conversation class I had to make a really embarrassing video of myself speaking out against censoring rap. For my mother who always begs me to say something in French, I'm posting this for you. Just filmed this at 2 in the morning so it's not at all my best French, but I wanted to get it over with before Easter break. Also, I spoke extremely slowly (and that just made me keep forgetting what I was going to say) because the video was supposed to be 8-10 minutes but I didn't know what else to say. We were also supposed to just talk and not have a script. Yeah, like that was happening. Oh well!

The general English translation of what I said is:


For hundreds of years, music has been an integral part of cultures all over the world.
From the chants of African tribes, to the sweet lullabies of a mother, music is a means of expression. Rap is not any different than this.

Like other forms of music, rap is a way to communicate, a way to send a message. The audience might be small, or it might be large. Traditionally, rap has been used by those who live in the suburbs, where life is not so easy.

Rap allows them to express their feelings and their observations about their lives. Often, rap is explicit. Many people, unfortunately, think that rap should be censored.
But why?

Rap is a reflection of the state the artist lives in. The rough words are used to recreate the experience of living in the suburbs. The controversial words, like life in the suburbs, make people uncomfortable. In the suburbs, it can be difficult to live. In rap, the words can be difficult to listen to.

Explicit words are also used to capture the attention of other people. The artists have stories to tell, and they want people to listen. Often, because they live in the suburbs, they are silenced and no one hears their stories. Explicit lyrics capture the attention of other people so that the artists can tell their stories.

One of the UMP deputies, Michel Raison, wants to censor the rap. Monsieur Raison is not making sense. The government should not be able to censor rap, or videos on Youtube. It especially seems that immigrants would be a target of any law that would censor rap.

Some people argue that rap perpetuates racial discrimination. I think that rap can change racist or discriminatory opinions. If one listens carefully to a rap song, one can realize that the song is a commentary on social structure. One can learn a lot about culture and different opinions.

For example, one can look at Kanye West, an american artist. In his song « Jesus Walks » there are many swears. But the song provides both a personal insight and a commentary on life in the ghetto. Several of his songs also invoke religious references. While some may find the songs offensive, the songs are not unintelligent.

Surely, there are some rap artists whose songs are especially violent and seemingly unnecessary. But who are we to decide what should be said and what should not be said? It is a human right to express your opinions, and if we limit those natural rights, we are no better than the artists who choose to say horrible things.

Nice, encore

...And I forgot, this link will bring you to my entire album for Nice, Eze, and Monte Carlo, Monaco, since I wasn't able to upload them all here.

le 2 avril

Another weekend gone. Last week we had individual meetings with one of the program directors to talk about how our semester has gone now that we’re more than halfway done, and I almost cried because I don’t want to leave.

Our weekend in Brittany was very enjoyable. We took a train to Rennes, just under two hours from Paris. Our hotel was a 10 minute walk from the train station. The area we stayed in wasn’t the nicest but it wasn't dangerous and the hotel was great. Another part of the town within walking distance had the same French charm that I’m used to now: windy cobblestone paths, slightly slanted buildings, half-opened shutters.

On Friday we had free time after we settled into the hotel until we met for dinner at 19h00. We went to a creperie. The crepes were okay – goat cheese and walnut for dinner and chocolate for dessert – but everyone was a little disappointed.

Saturday morning, we took a bus to Mont Saint Michel (I didn't get great pictures of it from a distance myself), a little over an hour from Rennes. It’s a large, steep rocky hill upon which looms a large abbey. Built into the banks of the all are smaller residences, now shops and restaurants. Mont Saint Michel is particularly striking when you approach it because it is surrounded entirely by flatlands.

The little island village dates back to the 6^th century. It was naturally a perfect fortress because of its height and isolation. It is surrounded by quicksand – not so fun if you’re a 15^th century knight trying to invade, wearing pounds of metal armor.

 We picnicked at Mont Saint Michel, then climbed back on the bus to drive to Saint-Malo, a port city on the coast of Brittany. We walked the beach, and I touched the Atlantic Ocean from the eastern side. The city was completely destroyed during the bombings of World War II, and the buildings standing today are reconstructions. There is a castle full of small shops and eateries, where we walked around and got tea and waffles.

Saturday night, we went to dinner as a group to a restaurant called Paix where we had roasted duck and potatoes. Amazing. Afterward, we went to the hotel and I went to bed fairly early because Devan, our friend Anthony, and I were getting up early to go to Palm Sunday mass with Julie, one of the girls who work for our program.

There turned out to be a bit of chaos with the bud schedule Sunday morning, and we didn’t end up making it to the church we were supposed to go to, but we found another one in Rennes, where we got our palms then walked with the parish members through the town in a procession to another church for mass 10 minutes away. We almost got trampled by some cute little old French nuns, but the whole experience was very nice.

If you read my blog from the beginning, you might remember me mentioning how the sun didn’t rise here until close to 9h00 our first days in Paris. Well, this is flipped now. It doesn’t get dark until close to 21h00. Someone told me that in the summer, it’s still light out at 22h30. I love it, but I think it’s going to throw me off in two months when I go back to the states and it gets darker two hours earlier.

I still haven’t figured out how to add space to my Blogspot account for pictures, so here is the link to my Brittany photo album on Facebook: Bretagne

Please, someone let me know if it doesn't work. It’s frustrating, I wish I could post them directly on this page, but the link will have to do for now.