Self Realizations

So, obviously I posted my last post way later than I meant to. There are lots of reasons for that, and I've figured at least some of them out. I've come to understand a lot more about what this trip has been doing to me lately. It's taken a few meltdowns, but if a few meltdowns is all that I need to do to find personal growth, then I think it's totally worth it.

Last night, I discovered a new fear within me, that I never expected to truly experience. It's a fear of being alone. And a fear of disappointing myself and others. I always understood that it was a possibility and a common fear, well that both were. But I always considered myself above such fears. After all, mom raised me to be a strong and independent woman. So, being alone and disappointing others shouldn't matter. But I've been disappointing myself too.

Since arriving in Pisa, well really in Paris, I haven't been taking full advantage of this opportunity. I've been sitting around for way more of every day than I should, or want to, and it's taken me until now to really figure out that I'm afraid of being alone. Not to mention I'm not at all used to being alone. Every time I've traveled in the past, it's either been mom and me or a group of students, with at least a handful of us sticking together the whole time. So, I'm working on getting myself going more. Not for my project, but just to see everything I can and experience everything I can. And my lack of going out and about has contributed to my lack of blogging, because I've been embarrassed over how little I've really done.

But no more. Now I'm doing stuff. Which is kinda funny, because as of this afternoon, most of my doing stuff, really doing stuff, has ended up with me just hanging out at my hostel. But I'm actually accomplishing things, don't be fooled.

Now for a bit of humor from last night...I'm staying in a co-ed room, with 6 main beds, but up to 8 beds. I was skyping with my mom, like I do just about every day. All of a sudden she goes, "Is that guy wearing his underwear?" I turn around, and on one of the other top bunks is one of the guys from New Zealand in his underwear! So I'm like "Yes" and we move on. Then, a few minutes later, the guy on the bunk below me is standing and walking around or whatever, and out of the corner of my eye I see him. I swore he was naked, so of course I did a double take. He was wearing red briefs! Like the whitey-tighty style briefs! Oh my word! It was everything I could do to keep from bursting out laughing!

Well there you are. More adventures will be coming soon. In the mean time, I'm doing daily errand for today! Ciao!

Pisa Pisa Pisa!

Sorry I haven't blogged in the past few days. I got in late originally, and then didn't want to yesterday. On Wednesday, I caught an overnight train to Milan at 7:45 from Paris. It was supposed to arrive in Milan around 5:38. So, I woke up at 5:00 to make sure I was all set to get off the train when it stopped...but after 7:00 or so, when I had finally given up on worrying about why the train hadn't stopped, we were told that we had a 4-hour delay. So in the long run, instead of arriving in Pisa around noon, I arrived in Pisa around 6 in the evening. I took a cab to my hostel and played dead for the rest of the evening.

So then, yesterday, I went through town, aiming for the 14 bus in order to get to Media World to get some errands done. As I went, I took a road through town and took my time. I stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the street and got spaghetti!! (I'd been craving spaghetti, so it was a big deal.)

I then made it to the bus stop, where, when asking for help, I was told that there was a "bus stroke", so I continued to the tourist information office of Pisa, hoping for a better map so I could walk there instead. The lady there told me to take a different bus, the LAM Blue line. The "stroke" was a fib, because I saw a 14 bus going, but I made it to Media World either way, and ran all my errands! Other than finding another camera battery anyway. I did my best to though.

I was sure that it hadn't been that far of a ride on the bus, so I decided to try walking back, meandering through town. It was definitely an experience and a lot of fun. I made sure to find the Tower of Pisa for mom too, of course.

Other things I did yesterday included buying my first rock from Europe and buying a couple scarfs.

So far today, I've gone out and wandered. That's it for now. Ciao!

3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Students deploy!

That's right. Everyone, who isn't living in Paris anyway, is leaving Paris today. We're deploying at various times throughout the day to our nations of study. Most of us are totally ready to leave Paris. As wonderful as it has been, the big city life, with it's constant noise and everyone always around us, has gotten a little long. Not to mention the French. I mean, I've learned some and am VERY proud of myself for doing so, but I like Spanish/Italian! I like being able to understand people and have them understand me! Just today, the maids came to my door, saying something about checking out...and I had no clue what they were saying and vice versa. So, I really hope I wasn't rude or anything to them, and that they didn't take anything that way.

I've had a really good time so far. It's been a lot of fun, getting to know everyone in the Semester Abroad: Europe 2012 group this week. And I'm gonna miss all of them. After all, they're pretty much just a giant group of goofballs. But it won't be long before I see them again in Levanto, Italy.

Today, I'll be leaving for Milan, Italy on an overnight train leaving at 7:45 pm here, or noon-forty-five back home. I'll probably just spend some of today there, before moving on to Pisa, Italy, where I'll be staying this week. I'm meeting my professor, Mauro Rosi, on Monday.

I'm both sad and excited to move on to the next leg of my journey. I'm gonna miss the group, but I'm excited to FINALLY get to talk volcanoes! Whether or not I remembered to post it, I've already had my first bout of homesickness, so I definitely am nervous that more of that will come once I'm away from the group. And I definitely miss everyone back home...I'd list you all...but that would take WAY too much time and space.

But I'm ready. I'm ready to leave Paris and to explore Italy. I'm ready to hike volcanoes and take ferries and whatever else entailed with my trip. I'm ready to become a Sicilian!

Au revoir France! I'll see you again in three months! Buongiorno Italy! I'll see you in less than 24 hours!

Enfin epuise...

Finally exhausted...

That sounds about right. After 4 days of non-stop activity, I'm finally taking a day to myself. It kind of feels like a waste of time in Paris, and is driving me a little bit insane. But I think I need it. At least the morning and early afternoon off. I'll be back out on the streets of Paris tonight, but for now, sitting and typing out on the beautiful terrace of my hostel is good.

Sorry I haven't blogged in the past couple days, I've been busy.

After my last blog, the whole group of us here in Paris went out to dinner at Le Geueze. We all tried something new, pretty much. I got a cheese plate with four new cheeses. I was very excited, and terrified to try them! Until I tried them. They were way to potent for me. One of them made my tongue hurt it tasted so bad! Yuck! But I tried every one of them! And one of them was definitely edible, so I made do.

Saturday's lesson was on culture shock. Talking about how when we arrive somewhere new, there's excitement, followed by depression, followed by normal life. When we were released from that, my partner, Liz, and I departed to our market to complete our market meander assignment. This assignment consisted of going to a market assigned to us, observing our surroundings (and writing those down when we got back) and buying food for lunch or a snack from said market. Liz and I went to the President Wilson market on Rue President Wilson (President Wilson Street). After wandering up and down the market, I decided to try some new cheese again, and hope for better luck this time! I told one of the ladies in one of the many "fromage" stands that I like mozarella and would like to try something new. She gave me a small piece of cantral cheese to try...and I loved it! So I bought a small chunk of cantral fromage. I also bought some framboises (raspberries), un pomme (an apple), and some Caribbean cornbread ball things. I don't really know much about them, other than those were not my favorite. My final purchase of the day was a bottle of rose wine...my first legal bottle!

Going to the market was a very enlightening, exciting, and interesting experience. I really enjoyed it.  After that, Liz and I were so close to the Eiffel Tower, that, as I hadn't yet been, we wandered near it to get some good pictures. We crossed bridge after bridge until we found the perfect spot! It was right in front of an architecture museum with a huge, gorgeous fountain!

Then, it was time for us to head home. We got back and then I crashed for a couple hours, before making it to Terrace Time. After that, my friend Mallory and I went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it twinkle up close! It was so pretty, and we made such an adventure out of it! It was totally worth the late night that was created by going!

The next morning, Sunday, I was up bright and early to go to mass at Notre Dame. Naturally, it was in French and I didn't understand of word of it, but it was still exciting and interesting. After mass, a group of six of us departed for a day at Versailles. We hopped on the train and took a 40 minute nap! 

The palace was beautiful from the outside. There were lots of gold plated everythings. But I think my favorite part of Versailles was the garden's many fountains. So many of them had a story behind them! One had different spraying patterns assigned to music! Another was made after the story of the leader of the giants being buried in rock by a god: Neptune, I believe. You see, he had been leading the giants to defeat this god by building mountains, enraging the god. So Neptune buried the leader of the giants under the rocks he had been piling to make mountains. With his last breath, the giant uttered a curse which is symbolized by the powerful jet of water coming out of his mouth...at least when the fountain is on. 

It was really interesting to me that the fountains weren't left on during tourist hours. Some were on, some were off, and they seemed to cycle when which were on. My favorite fountains were the Grove of the Three Fountains. Each of the three were all shell and fish based with really interesting rocks lining the little pools. I have no idea what the story behind these were though. 

I also saw Marie-Antoinette's estate, which got me into researching her. She was a duchess of Austria before she became Dauphine (next in line for the queen's throne in France) by marrying Louis XVI. She was never involved in politics, because the French were raised with an anti-Austria bias, until her husband started withdrawing from his role as king, because of depression. By this time, she had 2 or 3 children and a miscarriage. She later had a 4th, and the Dauphin (male heir apparent) contracted tuberculosis and died. One of her 2 daughters also died as a baby. At this point, she was no longer involved in politics, rather focusing her energy and time on her children. Around this time, the French Revolution was beginning. She was becoming more and more hated by the French people, as she was blamed for everything that went wrong in France at the time. Finally, the royal family was put under house arrest, at which point she did nothing but care for her children. The royal family attempted to escape, but because of Louis XVI's poor planning and his uncertainty, they were caught and arrested. Their son was given to another family to raise and retrain to be more revolutionary. King Louis XVI was executed for treason by guillotine. Finally, Marie Antoinette was tried for treason and child abuse, for sexually abusing her son, who said she had after being instructed to do so by his new family. She was convicted of treason, by helping Austria which she never actually did, and sentenced to death by guillotine.

Her estate was really pretty though. She made some changes to this building, by having the king's private staircase removed, and putting in a mirrored boudoir where they had been. The mirrors would actually move too. She also had the study on her floor turned into a billiards room. Everything at her estate was very elegant and pretty. The gardens around her estate were also very pretty.

Finally we went to the palace tour. It was very palace-like and fancy, with random modern art included throughout the halls. We accidentally missed the kings bed chambers. But the rest of the palace was interesting, though very crowded and hot. We also saw the Dauphin's apartments. These were also very elegant. But my favorite part of his apartments was definitely his globe. The outer globe was a terrestrial and celestial globe. Under it was a 3D globe that showed the height and depth of landmasses and oceans. Finally,  at the base were zodiac carvings and the feet were dolphins. It was very cool!

Then it was time to head for home, where I crashed! Today, we've had class already and we've had most of the day so far. I also had a one-on-one meeting with my professors to update them one last time on my project. Before and after that, I've been taking it easy, uploading pictures and journaling, and now blogging! 

I hope I'm not going into too much detail for anyone, I'm really just trying to share the factoids I find most interesting. But now I need to be going, after all, I only have 2 nights left here in Paris! For more pictures, check out the shutterfly link on the right! Au revoir!

Bienvenue a Paris!

That's right people! I'm in Paris! I arrived yesterday at 7:30 in the morning here, after a 7-hour rather turbulent flight. We then took a bus to our hostel, well, really close to it, before walking the little bit left. The bus ride took forever. But who cares, right? I'm in Paris!

We were kept REALLY busy yesterday, with all kinds of little events, to keep us from being able to crash and let the jet-lag set in, which seems to have worked pretty well as of now! These events included picnic lunches, sandwiches and crepes depending on your preference (I chose sandwich: butter and brie cheese!), in the Luxembourg garden! It is gorgeous, but I haven't actually gotten to fully exploring that yet...then we had our first class in Europe, which most of us fell asleep during...finally we had a neighborhood walking tour! That was really cool and interesting, except that there were some issues with picking the best timing...at that point jet-lag had taken control of me without my permission, so I had to work hard just to keep walking. But I did it! I made it to the Notre Dame and back by my own volition!

However...shortly after making it back, I crashed, so I missed the first group terrace time. Oh well. It's all good, since I got to go up to the terrace and see the view before then.

After sleeping that long, I'm back in action today!

Today, so far, we had a lesson on the metro and introducing our semester, after a baguette for breakfast. Then, we put our lesson into action and bought "un carne", which is a group of 10 metro tickets, and took the metro to the "Basilique du Sacre-Coeur" or the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. And it was gorgeous! Not to mention the view of Paris from it!

We also got to walk around that area to an artist market, where there were lots of painters trying to get you to buy a portrait from them. Of course, I said no, because as fun as it would be, I don't need a drawing of myself for that much money when I'm in Paris! But looking around at all the other paintings especially was a lot of fun, and super interesting!

Then, we went to a market to buy ourselves lunch! I have no idea what kind of cheese or bread I bought, but I also bought a little basket of strawberries or "fraise" for myself! All of the above was delicious. Since then, I've made it back to the hostel and downloaded and uploaded pictures! I'll post more soon, but in the mean time, I'm off to enjoy and explore Paris!

To see more pictures, check out my shutterfly site! The link is on the right!

5 Days Left...Time to get down to business

So, there's less than a week left. Thankfully, I've been hanging out with a neighbor all week, so I've had plenty of distractions to keep me from freaking out...unfortunately that also means I've had plenty of distractions to keep me from being properly productive...

So now, it's time to pack! Thankfully, mom's a HUGE help with stuff like that. She's been making me bags to organize my stuff within my back pack, so I can just grab pjs, or underwear and socks, or whatever. However, I haven't actually started packing or figuring out what I want to go in each bag...so I need to do that...

Mom also made me a geology field bag that's big enough for my computer, a notebook, pencils, my testing kit, a water bottle, and whatever else I want/need with me in the field (technically including my rock hammer, but that's not coming to Europe with me) and fits on me just the way I like! It's awesome! I love it! And it's tough enough to withstand being brought into the field with me!

She also managed to find the perfect size of ziplock baggies for me for collecting samples! They're the PERFECT size! My boyfriend, Dustin (also a geology major at UWRF), and I simply freaked over them, because they're hard to find! At least for us. Mom makes it sound really easy and says it is...but not for us!

But, as of now, I've also had my first full-blown meltdown over being gone for a whole semester and being away from all my friends and family. So, I'm definitely nervous about that now. But I can do it! This semester's going to be amazing!

The Countdown Has Begun

I leave in 10 days, practically 9 now. The countdown has begun.

Now it's time for all of the last minute stuff, including packing. Mom and I are both feeling the pressure. We went shopping today...and only got maybe half of the things on my shopping list...and added lots of new items to the list, of course. We have a laundry bin full of things to be brought, or to potentially be brought.

I have lots of scanning to do, so I don't need to bring the heavy binders full of all my notes for semester abroad and on volcanoes in general. I'm doing lots of research still. And then I need to scan those notes onto my computer.

I have bookings to make. I have reading to do. I have packing to do. None of which alone are too difficult. But all of them together is a terrifyingly HUGE list of things to be accomplished. And this week, I'm hanging out with an old neighbor of mine, so she isn't home alone. I'm so excited for that...but at times it seems impossible for me to be able to accomplish everything!

Thankfully, I at least feel like I'm actually learning stuff while reading. And I'm actually managing to accomplish things, however slowly that may be.

So, some interesting things about the volcanoes I'll be studying...

• The typical eruption style of Vesuvius is the Plinian style, which is named after Pliny the Younger, who wrote about the first recorded eruption of Vesuvius. The Plinian eruption style is a voluminous eruption of large clouds of "fire-broken", or pyroclastic, material in a column shape that usually collapse into a flow, like a river,  of the same material. 
• When Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, the eruption that makes Vesuvius famous, there were two pyroclastic flows. The first was when the column of ash, rock, and gas, or the pyroclastic material, originally collapsed. Then, it actually destroyed the town of Herculaneum, before the second flow destroyed the famous city of Pompeii. 

Sadly, that is all I feel up to sharing at this particular moment, and that is some of the most interesting stuff I have learned so far. But I will keep posting and sharing more interesting tidbits that I learn!

In the meantime, thank you for reading and finding my blog interesting! Keep safe! And wish me luck with getting ready in time for my flight to Paris on September 5th!