"If you just said coquillage...."

Before I go into what I really wanted to write about today. I'm going to apologize for not writing sooner. I've been fairly sick the last few days and have not been up for doing much of anything. I also wanted to mention that being sick and being cooped up inside all day had made me extremely homesick. It was the most homesick I have been thus far on the trip. It's hard to remember homesickness when you've got so many different activities going on, but when it's just you, alone in a room for hours on end.... feeling slighting delirious from a fever in the night.... you will really really miss home. Or at least I did. Oof! Constant daydreams of laying in my bed with my dogs at home and getting spoiled by my mom.

The good news is I think that was the worst of the homesickness I will experience while abroad. Feeling much better health wise today and not nearly as home sick :)

Now, what I had initially wanted to write about! International friends! And ramblings that came from my head after conversations with said international friends.

It was a weekend of meeting new people (referring to last weekend of course, not this one since I've been sick), and I think I will go more or less in chronological order.

First... the SPANISH!

My roommate Gabby and I both have very similar ideas about what we want to get out of studying abroad. One of the big things we have wanted to do is make friends with locals! Up until this past weekend, we hadn't quite succeeded on that end. But now I think we can officially say we have!

It was Thursday night (a big night for university students to go out on the town) and Gabby and I did not have any plans. Thankfully, our friend Bryce invited us to go meet up with him and we accepted! Bryce is a super friendly guy and by the time we got to the bar, he had already made friends with a group of about 12 or so spaniards.

We were so excited because this was our chance to finally talk to locals! The group was surprisingly welcoming to us 3 americans. One guy, named Ricardo was particularly excited to practice his English with Gabby and me. So the entire night he spoke to us in English, while we responded in Spanish. Ricardo's English was so good the entire night, I thought he must have studied at some point either in England or in the U.S. but he said he never had. It was simply that his dad had always spoken in English with him since he was a child. I asked then if his dad was american and he said "Oh no! He's from here." Needless to say, I was very impressed.

We've kept in contact with Ricardo since that night and I can genuinely say he is one of the nicest, most down to earth people I have met.

He's got an attitude that like most Sevillans I have met while here, is focused on all the positive in life. His abounding optimism is refreshing.

Part II to International amigos.
"The IRISH are coming! The IRISH are coming!"

Lorcan, Pierce and Emma.

Just fantastic people.

The first night Gabby and I only had the pleasure of meeting Lorcan and Pierce, but the next night we invited them to come out and they made the party that much merrier by bringing Emma along.

With them, we tried on all sorts of different accents. It became an outright battle of the accents between the Americans and the Irish.

Please for a moment, close your eyes and imagine an Irishman speaking in his very best Chinese accent.

You will be banished from my blog if you did not crack even the slightest smile at that! haha :p

They taught us Irish phrases like "What's the crack?"

And I'll let you in on a secret, its not only Leperchauns that have dancing fever in Ireland,

we got to witness Pierce's modern dance moves on the discotheque dance floor,
as well as Emma's amazing Irish dancing, while we were at a pub!

What a treat! :)

Anyways, "The Irish are coming the Irish are coming!" is something Gabby said when we found out that L.P&E would be joining us one night. Obviously in reference to Paul Revere's "The British are coming, the British are coming!" But then I thought... Would they get that reference if we said it to them? Probably not right? That's not their history.


TIME TO FIND OUT!

Max, Craig and Felix

A day or so later, Gabby, Malika (our other apartment mate), and I took a trip to a beach in Portugal.

The conversation about whether or not an Irish person or even a British person would get the reference "The British are coming, the British are coming!" had still not been settled.

Suddenly I hear something and say to Gabby..."Do you hear that?? Is that a british accent?" I point behind me and mouth silently "Should I ask?" She responds "Why not!"
And so I whip around and say "Hey! Are you by any chance British?"

and Max responds "We are!" *motioning towards himself and a friend sitting next to him* and then correcting himself "or well I am! I'm from England..."
Craig, his friend to the right, pipes in, "I'm from Scotland."

Max: "and he's from Germany!" *pointing to Felix*

So we ask them if they would get the reference and Max understood the quote through context. It's not a quote he had ever heard before but knowing British and American history a bit he guessed where it came from. They all agreed though that it wouldn't be a particularly common quote for someone in Ireland to know.

Our conversation didn't stop there though, we talked about all sorts of things that afternoon on the beach, but one thing that somehow came up was royalty.

Why are we Americans obsessed with royalty...?
Or to put it more accurately: Why are american girls obsessed with royalty?
And someone might try and argue with me on this one, but think back to the times there has been a royal british wedding, or a royal baby, and I'm certain you'll remember seeing their faces all over TV, in our newspapers and in our magazines.

But I thought to myself, how weird is that?
America... a country that fought a WAR against Britain for their independence from a monarch, has grown to have such a fascination and/or fondness for all things royal.

I was reminded of how excited I felt when I met a duke just a couple of weeks ago. I can't exactly tell you why that was so exciting.
The conclusion I came to though was this:
Americans like royalty because we don't have our own royalty.
Royalty appeals to us more than in just the nostalgic sense of fairytale endings, or something from childhood storybooks. It is an institution that's strange and exotic to us americans. A concept that is intertwined with a history now so far removed from our own memory, that there is a magic to anything surrounding it.

PART III. The FRENCH and Belgians who speak French :)

Sophie and Malika

Sophie happened to sit next to me on the bus ride over to Portugal. She's a French grad student, who like so many of us internationals in Sevilla, is studying here for a semester or two (can't remember exactly how many now). She was very sweet and a good companion to have for our trip.

I think I briefly mentioned above that our other apartment mate, Malika is Belgian, and her native language is French. As Sophie and Malika were on the beach later talking to each other in French I was trying desperately to make out words and figure out what they were saying to each other. Even though I've never taken a single class of French, I'm always interested in learning more languages and picking up new words where I can. I started asking the two what different words were in French. Since we were at the beach I asked Malika how to say seashell. She told me it is "la coquillage." So I repeated, like a parrot.. "la coquillage" Her face looked so surprised! She told me, "That was perfect! If you just said coquillage, I would think you were French!"

I must say, a small feat but I was very pleased with myself ;)

Anyways: a question for you all...
Why is it so much easier to make friends with other internationals than actual Spaniards here?

Do you have any ideas? I've rambled more than enough for today, so I think I'll let you have a turn :)

Wishing you all a very happy start to your week!

Until next time
& to many more adventures,

xx
Gaby

My favorite part of Paris? Probably the mashed potatoes.

What a day in Paris. And it was just that, only a day but I fell in love with the place as if I had been living there a life time. Everything about the city is beautiful.

A little view on the train ride over to Paris

After a train ride into Paris from our airport hotel we started our adventure at Notre Dame. (As much as I searched and searched for Quasimodo, he could not be found. I did however see some of Esmeralda's gypsy friends... )

Me outside of Notre Dame

And then my mom posing by one of the statues in Notre Dame

After walking throughout Notre Dame, we went for one of those hop on hop off bus tours where you go around the city and well, can "hop on and off" where ever you want for how ever long you want. We went on to the hop on/off bus and then stopped at the Champs Elysees (which is right next to the Arc de Triomph).

Now lets be real for a second and say that if ANYONE knows my mother, they would know we were not leaving Paris without doing a bit of shopping there.  We were actually pretty good and did more window shopping and people watching then anything else.

Saw these characters sitting outside our restaurant. 

Anyways, after eating a lunch that was pretty disappointing for being French food in France, we went to use the restaurant's restroom.

As I waited outside the bathroom for my mom, I watched from an upstairs window as people passed by on the street. To my surprise, the waiter who had been serving us stopped as he was running up the stairs to ask if I needed help with something. I answered no but thank you. And then he just kind of stands there looking at me, with this sheepish look on his face and just as I am about to ask if he needs something... he says to me, "You are so beautiful!"

I tell him thank you but then he pauses a second time and I give him a confused look.

Finally he blurts out "I want to kiss you!"

In total shock, I of course told him no but the incident was so curious! He seemed completely content just to have tried, like this was normal behavior.

** On this matter I have to make a short side note: Paris was filled with couples! I understood completely why it was called the city of love. Because not only were there couples everywhere you looked but all the couples seemed so IN LOVE! As if they were the only two in the world. It made me so happy to see all of them. **

After taking pictures at the Arc de Triumph, we hopped on the bus again and then hopped off at the Eiffel Tower.

While yes, the Eiffel Tower was really beautiful, I think the most interesting thing to me there was something that happened below the tower.

Out of no where a pack of young men comes charging towards the direction my mom and I were walking. As they got closer, the group seemed to grow. They shout to each other and motion frantically.

If I did not know any better, I would have thought they all had just robbed a bank.

But I did know better. Or at least I knew enough to be able to figure out what was going on as it was happening.

There are street vendors all throughout Paris, but it seems like there's a larger than usual concentration of them under and surrounding the Eiffel Tower. They sell everything from miniature Eiffel Tower key chains to toy dogs that do back flips.

In obvious response, the police routinely come to kick them out.

I had just witnessed a well practiced evasion maneuver.

Yeah I would run fast from these guys too. We saw these police ALL over Paris....

I'm going to fast forward a bit because this is turning into a very long first post
But we ended up finding the bridge with all the lover's locks.

I really couldn't believe it because I honestly had never even realized that bridge was in France.

Fast forward a bit more and after getting somewhat lost, my mom and I ate dinner at La Petite Perigourdine....

 

It's a french restaurant that had been recommended to us by a native French girl on the street.

I think it should also be mentioned that this native Parisian told us the French rarely eat French food. According to her French people prefer sushi.

Nonetheless, this was an amazing meal. Definitely the meal we had been waiting for from France.





What we had not been expecting were exceptional mashed potatoes.

I have to explain that these were no ordinary mashed potatoes. They were probably 60% cheese, 20% butter and then maybe 20% actual potatoes.

We went crazy over this magical combination-- which is where the title of this post comes from.

My mom and I joked that if someone were to ask her what her favorite part of Paris was, she would respond that it was not the Eiffel Tower, or the River Seine, or any other beautiful landmark but the mashed potatoes. I have no doubt if someone asks her this question when she gets back home, she would answer in all seriousness that her favorite part was the mashed potatoes at La Petite Perigourdine.

To finish up our time in Paris, we took a night time cruise along the river Seine.

There are few things more beautiful in the world than Paris at midnight. To get an idea of what we saw, I put in a picture from our ride.


Until next time
& to many more adventures!

xx
Gaby