Day Trip: Versailles

Yesterday I took a day trip to Versailles with some of the other assistants, where we also met up with an old friend of mine (we hadn't seen each other since summer camp in high school!). I visited Versailles during my semester in Nantes, but that trip was in November which meant it was cold, gray and way too unpleasant for visiting the gardens. I was happy to get a second chance to go this year during springtime, which turned out to be a really good decision. We enjoyed the main chateau as well as Marie Antoinette's house, but the best part of the day was walking around the gardens, lunching at an outdoor cafe, and lounging by the lake eating ice cream.

~ Me, Sophia, Haidee, Yirah, and Sarah at the entrance ~

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~ Hall of Mirrors ~

~ Queen's bedroom wallpaper ~

~ View of the chateau from the gardens ~

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~ Gardens in the Grand Trianon ~

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~ Temple de l'Amour ~

My Apartment

Since my first week here, friends have requested pictures of my apartment in Saint-Quentin. It has taken almost seven months for me to get around to responding to those requests, but here we go. I'm living at my school, where an apartment is reserved for the teaching assistants to use. It's small but has everything I need, with nice-sized bedrooms and a cute kitchen. It's been a nice gathering place for the assistants during various pizza dinners, game nights and movies, and I truly appreciate my 30 second commute to work in the morning.

 

~ The German assistant, Alexandra, lived at the apartment too (she left a few weeks ago). As we encountered new vocabulary this year, I illustrated some of our favorite words to decorate the apartment's hallway. These are just a few of the vocab drawings. ~

~ Kitchen ~

~ My room: dresser ~

~ Bed and wardrobe(s) ~

~ Desk nook and window ~

Paris Visit #4

Last weekend I took another day trip to Paris, this time with Sarah, Yirah, and Matteo. We went to a part of Paris I haven't been to before, where we visited the Natural History Museum and took a long afternoon walk. The museum was impressive, and the rest of the day was sunny and perfect for a meandering stroll through the Jardin du Luxembourg, past the Pantheon, and finishing up by the Seine.

~ Inside the Natural History Museum ~

~ Fish! ~

  

~ Chillin ~

~ Pantheon in Paris ~

~ Jardin du Luxembourg ~

~ Springtime at Notre Dame ~

Louvre-Lens

Last weekend Daniele and I drove to Lens, a city about an hour north of Saint-Quentin. We wanted to visit Lens's art museum, which is run by the Louvre in Paris (called Louvre-Lens). The museum was cool, with a super modern architectural design. The main gallery, called the Galerie du temps (the Gallery of Time), is organized by chronology, and not by subject. The result is that art from many traditions is displayed in the same space, so visitors can directly compare art that was created at the same time in different places in the world. The gallery is one long room, with a timeline along one wall that corresponds to the art on display. It was a neat way to organize an exhibit, and the works on display were great.

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Weekend in Casablanca

My final trip during the recent vacation was a weekend in Casablanca with Madeleine and Katherine. We had a lovely time, seeing a lot while also having a relaxing stay (the 80-degree weather helped the weekend feel like a summer beach vacation). The main event was a tour of the Hassan II Mosque, Morocco's largest mosque. It was beautiful, with incredible mosaics and lovely architecture. We also did some shopping in the city's souk, visited the coastline, and made sure to try plenty of delicious Moroccan food.

~ Hassan II Mosque ~

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~ World's tallest minaret ~

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~ Prayer room ~

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~ Hamam ~

~ Outside the mosque ~

~ Coastline ~

~ Delicious appetizer at dinner~

Rome Take 2

My second trip during vacation was to Rome, where I met Haidee and Sarah for three days. We packed a lot into a short amount of time, hitting major monuments (Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps) and also spending a day at the Vatican museums and Saint Peter's Basilica. My favorite part of the trip was a guided tour of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. Palatine Hill was especially beautiful, covered in trees and green spaces and overlooking the ancient Forum. This was my second trip to Rome (the first was during my semester in Nantes), and I was happy to find that there were plenty of new things to do (and plenty of gelato to eat)!

~ Exploring back streets ~

~ Inside the Pantheon ~

~ Trevi Fountain at night ~

~ Colosseum ~

~ Panorama inside the Colosseum ~

~ Palatine Hill ~

~ Orange trees on Palatine Hill ~

~ Roman Forum ruins ~

~ View from the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II~

~ Nero's bathtub ~

~ In the Vatican museum map room ~

~ Vatican museum ~