Ciao! Sono Brianna: J'adore Paris

Going on the third week and like I say every time where does the time go?

1. Torino. On Sunday we went to Torino where the 2006 Olympics were held. The sun was out and we saw a lot of important monuments. The best part was a lookout over the whole city with the Alps in the background. The Italians though have no sense of time.... So we had to take the train back at 9:05 or else we would have to wait for the train at 11:30. Of course the Italian leaders of the trip did not plan enough time to get the train station so we had to fast walk all the way to the station and when we got there, we had 3 minutes to get to the train. All of a sudden i hear a lot of noise behind me and when I look everyone is yelling and starts running towards me. I felt like simba being chased by 150 hyenas.

2. Trying to look Italian. So we all have tried so hard to fit in with the Italians but it's a fail. The other day in the cafeteria I was talking to an Italian and asked him if he was standing across the room, would he be able to tell I was American. He started hysterically laughing and said, "1. You're sitting at the counter on your laptop. 2. You brought your own lunch. 3. You have a reusable water bottle. 4. What is this? (referring to the carabiner attached to my water bottle)." To explain why he said this: 1. The Italians are never on technology. Instead, they actually sit and talk with their friends (crazy concept to us Americans right??). 2. They always eat in the cafeteria or go out for lunch. There are no "brown paper bag lunches." 3. Reusable water bottles are nonexistent.

3.Paris - Thursday: I flew by myself to Paris and a friend from Rome arrived at the same time so we were able to start the trek to Paris together with some of her friends from her program. We ended up going to a restaurant one of the girls had been told had authentic French food and let me tell you.... IT WAS AMAZING! I got white fish (not sure what that means exactly) with eggplant and tomatoes with pesto. Escargot was another thing I was able to tried. A bit too fishy for my taste. Chocolate mousse was what the restaurant was known for. From a big bowl they give you one scoop of the mousse. We ordered two orders for the 7 of us and the waiter ends up giving each plate 4 scoops and then ends up leaving the entire bowl (guess sometimes it does pay off to be an American girl)! After, we went back to the hostel because the rest of our friends had arrived. 11 best friends reunited during quite hours at the hostel did not go over real well with the manager... That night we all went out to a club and danced our butts off with each other because it was the first time we had been reunited for about two months. Our cab driver was named was Raulf and not only turned on some party jams but danced with us the entire way to the car. We ended that night with some late night crepes made by a guy right by our hostel. I got egg, chicken and cheese and it was my first authentic French crepe.

4. Firday - The next day we slowly made our way out of bed and saw the sights. We saw everything and anything that day (besides the Eiffel Tower). I got to experience my first macaroon and it really lived up to the hype. For dinner that night we stopped at this hole in the wall bakery and tried to communicate to this adorable french lady our sandwich order. And yes, I did remember some of my French. I was the navigator that day and was able to ask people on the street how to get places and was able to understand their directions.

5. Avicci. The reason we went to Paris that weekend was for the Avicci concert. We were late to the concert and at the first gate we saw we were told we had to go all the way to the other side. So here are 11 girls sprinting and I'm leading the pact. To give you some background before I finish this story, throughout the streets in Europe they have these random poles that go up to about your hip and sometimes they have a metal chain in between them. So here I am, full on sprinting because I want to get into the concert and I hear behind me "Jump Brianna." I heard that a little too late..... and I sprinted right into that metal chain and bounced right off it. My friends have never seen anything funnier and literally peed their pants I think. I didn't even think it hurt (till the next day. I have six HUGE bruises all over my legs making it appear I was beat up just from the waist down). But once we got in to the concert..... I don't even know how to explain. IT WAS AMAZING. We were on the floor and when the lights would go on and you looked up and around, the amount of people just blew you away. It was definitely my favorite part of the trip. After the concert we somehow were able to meet up with everyone else from Madison and ran to the top of this huge hill to take a picture... not realizing that getting up would be the easy part. We ended up also running into one of our friends from Madison who was studying in Paris on the walk home. Even though Paris is huge, that night it felt like such a small city.

6. Saturday. It took us just a little longer to get up and of course we started our morning with crepes. Then we were off for the Eiffel Tower. Of course my mom had told me that I had to climb to the top and I did just that. It was extremely windy up there but there was nothing like that view and thinking that your in/on this monument that is known throughout the entire world made me remind myself that I'm not dreaming, this is my life. After that we walked for what seemed like HOURS and finally ended up at Angelina's for their famous hot chocolate; thick with home made whipped cream on top. Deciding that hot chocolate is not enough for lunch we went back to our hostel area and ended up at this really "hip" restaurant. All we wanted was cheese and baguette and we got just that (but obviously a little fancier). For dinner though we found this cute little restaurant and I got duck... Another fabulous choice by moi. The owner of the restaurant was this lady who kept talking to us in french (thank goodness Sarah Randall is pretty much fluent). She kept saying how beautiful we were and saying we had to go dancing that night. That night we all went out again and four of us ended up at this bar/club and lets just say it ended with one of my best friends running away from a lesbian who was trying to kiss her (Jess Schmit). And of course we ended our night with crepes from the stand and this time I got nutella and banana. The man I think started to recognize us... Good or bad sign? you tell me!

7. Sunday. We had to end the trip with another crepe... Wow I keep writing crepe and I'm curious if that's all I ate this weekend. I left a little late for my plane... and when I got to the airport I was running around like a crazy American lady... (but when am I not freaking out). I forgot about having to drink your water to get through security so since I was late I stated chugging A FULL NALGENE. The french security guards ended up cheering me on which only made me go slower since I started laughing. I finally got to the gate and it ended up working out perfectly because my flight was delayed.

8. Things do actually happen for a reason and being here has made me realzie just that. If I hadn't been late to my plane I never would have been in the back of the line. If the plane was never delayed I would not have met Carole. So i'm standing in line to borad and this girl behind me looks to be about my age so of course I started talking to her and boy am I ever glad I did. She lives in Milan (but is from Lebanon) meaning she was on my same plane and the hour long bus ride. The advice she gave me throughout our time together will stay with me forever. We learned all about each other, and I explained my worries for the future about not knowing whats going to happen after graduation and getting out of the bubble I call college. She is 25 and has been all over the world working for the Lebanon music festival. Her advice to me consisted of, "You keep pushing for things and I've learned that when things are supposed to happen they will. Many doors will be slammed in your face but you seem like a person that doesn't give up. So yeah your future may be uncertain and that may scare the hell out of you, considering you plan everything, but you're resume/experiences and your personality will get you so far in life. Its okay to fail (which made me realize our generation is never told this.) but you just have to get back up and try something else." I think the best piece of advice she told me though was to not limit myself to what I think are my limits. I know that's confusing but she meant I kept saying, "I need to get an internship this summer then a full time job after I graduate." She told me to expand those limits. She thought she would be doing something totally different from what she is doing now as an actress, getting her masters, studying Italian (she is fluent in 5 languages) and working for a music festival. Listening to what the world expects me to do in my life will get me now where, but listening to what my head and heart want out of life will get me everywhere. The best part of meeting her is she is living in Milan for three months so of course she is giving me restaurants I have to try, a place where they show English movies, and fingers crossed tickets for different shows that may be in Milan this semester.

9. Christians. This is a family owned restaurant by Arco and since I had no food I stopped there on my way home from Paris. I had been traveling for 7 hours and exhaustion had finally hit me from the weekend. I ordered a margarita pizza and when I went to pay the owner he could tell I was just so exhausted and in a horrible mood. He gave me a free order of fries and pop so of course I ate like a princess that night

10. Grocery shopping. As you remember from previous posts, Emma and I are a mess when we're together. Not only did she get pick pocked this weekend in Florence but she also lost her RayBan sunglasses. So that makes us sisters right considering I got my passport taken? But anyways as you know our grocery experiences together have been a full on production to say the least... This trip ended with us getting so many groceries we had to take a cart back to our dorm with us and everyone staring at us along the way... we pretty much bought everything at Esselunga.

Sorry for the long post but ciao till next time!