Omaha Beach

Ok so I am officially home. My Paris adventure was AMAZING. Since I got kind of busy/lazy about posting the last couple of weeks I thought I'd tell about one of the highlights of my trip that I never got to mention-- Normandy. I got the chance to take a day trip to Omaha beach one Friday and see the American Cemetery. It was a great experience.

First we went through the visitor's center. The visitor's center started with a short film that told you a little bit about the war and some of the soldiers. It gave exerts from there old letters and told you a little bit of their personal stories. The rest of the museum gave you more history and let you see things in context of the bigger picture.

These are some of the the different soldiers and their stories.

After I finished going through the Visitor's center I went to see the cemetery. My friends and I arrived just in time for the guided tour. Our guide was great. She told us a lot of the stories behind the different names. Since our group was all girls she made sure to take us by all the nearby woman graves and tell us their stories. There are only four women buried in the American cemetery.

The markers tell the name of the soldier, and their rank, but they never say the soldier's age. They decided to leave it out because all the soldier were so young when they died.

The cemetery is marked with crosses and stars of David depending on what the soldier listed for his religion. They used to also mark there religion on their dog tags as well. This, of course, was very dangerous for the Jewish soldiers. They know that many falsely registered as Christian to protect themselves, so there should probably be more stars in the cemetery than there are right now.

This is the memorial reflection pool. On a calmer day you can see the entire memorial reflected in the water. When they first built it people kept throwing coins in the water. The government did not want to make money off of the deaths of soldiers so they painted the bottom of the pool to keep people from throwing coins.

This is a close up of the statue in the center of the memorial. It is framed by two olive trees to symbolize peace.

We finished the tour by looking at the wall of the missing. Many of the relatives of these men never stopped looking for them. Our guide told us about one woman in particular that never lost hope. She eventually found him-- in the cemetery. I am not sure about the whole story (whether he was buried under an anonymous grave marker, or under a wrong name or something like that) but, he had been buried under a cross, not the Jewish star he should have been under. Then we said goodbye to our nice tour guide and went down to the beaches. It was weird to know you were standing in the same spot as one of the most infamous battles of World War II.

Anyways that's about it. Normandy was a great trip. I'm glad I got a reminder all the sacrifices those soldiers made for us.

Currently: Excited that Vista is out of my life... my computer is running 3x faster

Quiet Moment

There is usually a moment somewhere in my day where I am alone.





My ipod is dead, or forgotten at home. Any friend I was with had to go somewhere or take a different train. I have somehow turned off part of my brain. I think without planning or organizing. I listen and watch without goals or an agenda.

These little tiny gaps somehow pop in between the everyday back and forth, the to-do list items, and the oh-so-necessary errands that need to be done right away. I get to step outside of myself and blend in with the rush of people overtaking crowded sidewalks or simply look around as the unknown observer. It’s like listening to the pulse of the city.





The city itself is no longer a carefully constructed map of roads, monuments, tunnels, buildings and bridges. It’s distracted shoes tripping over cobblestone streets, drivers honking horns and making way for police sirens, the quick brush of someone’s jacket as they rush past, vendors calling out to potential customers,damp crunchy leaves,people talking loudly while absorbed in private cell phone conversations, or the staticy music from someone else's headphones.





Then something reminds me of what I was really supposed to be doing, so I snap out of it, stop all that silly spacing out, and go on with my day.

This is my final photography assignment. Hopefully it's not too sappy or anything like that. I can't believe my time in Paris is almost done! Oh, I also just finished my "after" blog post for the BYU Paris blog (We wrote a before post on something we wanted to do in Paris, and then later we had to do an after post on whether it met our expectations or not).

Currently: BUSY and tired; hence the no non photography posts right now. But they will happen, I promise.

Influenced by Horizons Collection

This week we had to do an essay based on an exhibit that inspired us during the previous week. I choose the Antoine Gonine (Hopefully all the names of photographers are spelled correctly in this; it was hard to decipher my notes!) Exhibit from the exhibit at the Maison Européene de la Photographie. I had originally wanted to do a series of portraits in the style of Jehsong Beck, or possibly street scenes like Marc Ribould's photos, but at the end of the day I came back to the Horizons collection. I guess it was just meant to be.

Currently: Crazy busy

Decisive Moment Part 2

Ok so since I didn't have to take photos for class last week, I decided to keep looking for a "decisive moment." I took this photo of my friend at Chartes and it was my favorite shot of the week.

Currently: excited for Italy

The fall of the Berlin wall

Anyways, as you probably know yesterday was the 11th of November so everyone was celebrating the end of World War I, and last week was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. I am so glad I got to experience these two events in Paris. In the US I don't think I would have appreciated these two days as much. It's amazing to see the way everyone in Europe remembers these important dates.

Me in front of the Arc de Triumph on Nov. 11th. They had a huge flag up, and they also had something going on at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Everyone here has been anticipating the 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall for a while. One chocolatier, Patrick Roger (I've sampled some of his chocolate before, delicious!) even built a chocolate Berlin wall to commemorate the occasion. I attended a free city wide celebration in the Place de Concorde.The event was amazing. They had amazing music playing while they projected images onto some of the buildings behind the orchestra. Some of the images were just stuff like shots of the musicians up close, but they also projected old photos of the Berlin wall. It was a really moving site actually.

Some of the images they were showing at the memorial presentation.

Everything was light up, there were tons of people, and they had a whole orchestra there. They had all the cellist in individual stands/box things that were covered in graffiti (like the Berlin wall) and they would spotlight them at different times throughout the songs.

So the video is kind of hard to see. There were a lot of people and it was dark, but the audio is worth listening to (I think you actually see some of it towards the end).

Anyways, I was so glad I took the time to remember some very important bits of history these last two weeks. It has definitely been a highlight of this trip.

Another picture from the Place de Concorde, there is a tiny French flag in the background (Although, I'm blanking on what building that is right now).



I love this picture by Cartier-Bresson of the Berlin Wall. I learned about him in my photography class. He is amazing.
(http://www.ttx-net.sk/georgie/Cartier-Bresson1.htm)

Currently: Really tired, despite all my naps today (train rides are a good place to catch up on sleep, lol)

Decisive Moment

So I was really excited for the last photography project. It was all about capturing the "decisive moment." Sadly, I never really felt like I got that moment! I ended up using this picture which I actually took a while ago and don't like that much(There was only one I really liked from this week and it didn't really seem to fit the theme). But this week we aren't taking photos (going to photo exhibit instead) so I think I'll continue this theme on my own for another week. Who knows maybe I'll find that perfect shot!

Currently: Excited for Normandy

Clinical trial 1A: Results: Bittersweet

Paris to me has been a magical place of meringue, savory fillings, and whipped cream. But what is it that makes a pastry so irresistible? Does everyone hear the siren call of dark chocolate? I realized that this question could not be explained by my usual photography frivolity. This called for something more serious. At first I was intimidated by the magnitude of my task, but if Bill Nye taught me anything it is that everything can be explained with science. So I began designing my experiment. I came up with a plan to capture the average person's reaction to the delectable thing we call dessert.



I would take a Lenotre pastry and strategically place it in a public place for anyone to encounter and secretly watch from the side lines. Would they be horrified at its abandonment? Would they worry about where it came from or would they just take it and stuff it in their mouth without a second thought? There were risks to be sure. But it had to be done. My assistant helped me set the stage. Pretending to be absorbed in a phone call she walked away from a bench leaving behind the pastry in a box.



A few heads turned as they walked past, but no one was bold enough to go up to it. Finally a family sat down on the bench. I was slightly dismayed when the woman pushed the box to the end of the bench and nibbled on an inferior Mars bar instead. But I didn’t let it detour me from my scientific observation. Surely no one could resist the pastry for long or think that it had evil intentions.



Sadly the experiment took a tragic turn when the woman, in an attempt to position herself on the bench for a photo, callously thrust the innocent pastry off the edge. I was in shock. I know I am supposed to be an impartial scientific observer, but this was too much.



After this catastrophic turn of events the experiment was promptly terminated and all other test groups abandoned. The remaining subjects were disposed of through proper channels.





This was my photography assignment for the topic food. I had so much fun doing this little experiment! My roommate Haidy is my partner in crime, or assistant :), in case you are wondering.

Currently: excited that my French seems to be improving (slowly, but surely lol)

A few of my favorite things

Ok so instead of inundating you with my usual marathon stories of the events and historical artifacts I've seen recently I thought I'd simply write a list of my ten favorite things about Paris study abroad so far (By the way I considered not making the title the obligatory Sound of Music reference, but yeah...couldn't resist).

1)Favorite French habit

Fresh bread and cheese at the end of dinner every night. Yum.


Look at all those yummy cheeses.

2)Favorite Dessert

Chocolate. All this fancy foreign chocolate has ruined me.

3)Favorite Day Trip

Monet's garden. I went twice.



4)Favorite Museum

Right now it's a tie between the Tate Modern in London and Cite de l'architecture & du Patrimoine. Haidy and I wandered in the last one this afternoon, and I wasn't expecting much. But it was just so fabulous.Maybe that's why I like it so much; I've always loved surprises. However I still have many, many museums on my list.

5)Favorite Snack

Sea Salt and Vinegar chips. I got some at the train station in London and fell in love.

6)Favorite Parisians (aside from my wonderful host family of course)

Dog owners. They take their dogs everywhere here. It's hilarious.



7)Favorite place to sit

By the Pompidou center. There are always tons of people doing street performances or some other crazy thing. Very Entertaining.

8)Favorite Walls

Fontainbleau. Ceilings are pretty awesome as well.



9)Favorite fashion trend

Scarves. Seriously I wear one almost every day.

10)Favorite Pastime

Wandering. You never really know what you'll run into here.



So basically I just wanted an excuse to post a picture of this cute little teapot store (I actually encountered a cuter one, but my camera was MIA so this one will have to do).


Currently: Enjoying the sound of rain outside my apartment and catching up on SYTYCD

Progression

From a sleepy countryside village...



To a quaint little town...



Which is traded for something that is more city chic...



And then replaced with something refreshingly modern...



Slowly transforming into uniquely urban...



Followed by lovely potential that is soon to be remodeled....



Quickly becoming a bit neglected...



Or all together forgotten.

So that was my photo assignment for last week. I got way more into this one. The theme was architecture. I'm super excited for this week's theme: Food.

Currently: happy that I talked myself into buying my new scarf

Good Girls go to Heaven, Bad Girls go to Brugge

I went on a sort of spur of the moment trip to Belgium this weekend. I visited Bruge (If you are wondering about the title it was inspired by a tourist t-shirt that I found hilarious for some reason. I guess they were trying to be edgy, lol.) and spent a couple of hours in Brussels.

I went with my friend Megan. We were under the impression that most people in Bruge would speak French, it turns out Bruge (Or Brugge) is actually more German than anything. Although once you are in the town it is obvious that everything is run for tourists and every sign is posted in about 5 different languages.

Megan and I

I loved Bruge. It is the most relaxing, beautiful place. Everywhere we went we saw the coolest buildings, and details. Even the doorknobs were pretty (We started taking pictures of the unique ones). There is a lot to do there as well. We took a boat tour of the city. From the canals you can basically see everything worth seeing in Bruge. Our tour guide was a funny guy. He kept quizzing Megan on her french history and trying to set her up with his son who was a chef at a restaurant along the canal. He also spoke little bits or every language. So he would give the tour in English, french, throw in a couple Japanese phrases for the girls next to us, and then would ask if anyone spoke Spanish.

I also climbed the bell tower (no elevator) and got a gorgeous view of the whole city. Plus the bells rang while we were up there, which was very interesting. One of the most stunning things we saw on our visit was the sculpture of Madonna and Child in the Church of our First Lady. We also visited a church claiming to have a vial of Christ's blood.

Michelangelo's Madonna and Child

The view from the top and the lovely ringing of the bells.

One of my favorite things that we did was rent bikes. This was probably the highlight of my trip. The store closed at 6 so we only had them for a few hours. I wish we had gotten them the second we arrived in the hotel. We saw bicycles everywhere in Bruge. It was a lot more fun to get around this way, and toward the end of the day we found this cool park (Minnewater Park) to ride around in. We even skipped a museum or two just so we could have more time to use our bikes.

Everywhere we went there were lace stores. They sold everything possible in lace form: handkerchiefs, table cloths, aprons, shirts, dresses, silverware holders, Christmas ornaments, coasters, etc. They also kept trying to sell all this tapestry stuff, which seemed kind of strange. The lace was pretty though.

This woman was demonstrating how to make lace by hand.

In Brussels I finally had a Belgian waffle. It was seriously one of the best waffles I have ever had; they are not kidding about how amazing those are! I of course had to buy some Belgian chocolates (In the shape of seashells!) and eat some famous Belgium fries. The place where we got fries gave Megan and I each a huge serving with a sauce of your choice (Megan was adventurous and got the curry). They also give you cute mini plastic forks to eat your fries with.

This weird fry man was the first thing to greet us at the Bruge train station.

In Brussels we didn't have a lot of time so we mainly spent our visit in the Grand Place. However we also found some interesting finds along the way (We somehow managed to get there without a map, which led to a lot of twists and turns).

Standing in front of the famous Manneken Pis Statue

A little bit of the Grande Place

Two random spots we found on the way back to the train station.

That's the end of my Belgium adventure. I had a great time getting to know Bruge and hanging out in Brussels.

Currently: in need of new boots