Christine visited Paris over the weekend! I had to share her with some of her Stanford friends, but we made the most out of a Friday and took ourselves on an Amélie tour of Montmartre, an artist-hub-turned-tourist-mecca in the 18th arrondissement. It was so lovely and delightful to have somebody from home here. And in showing her around, I realized how much I now know about Paris, and what it means to have lived in Paris for 6 months, and (worst of all) how much I’m going to miss France.
After Christine returned to Madrid, where she’s studying this quarter, I rewatched Le fableux destin d’Amélie Poulain. I was shocked that (a) I recognized so much of the scenery of the film, and (b) I could understand most of what the characters said. Not all, of course, but certainly enough to discern some differences between the VO (version originale) and the English translation, which I have partially memorized. I even knew some of the proverbs that Gina makes Nino recite! Amélie is like a measuring stick of my level of French. It was really encouraging to gauge my progress.
In any case, Deven and I are in the middle of planning June journeys to Spain, Portugal, and/or Germany. Any recommendations?
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Yay for more pictures! In Spain, go to Salamanca. Also, it’s far south, but if you can, I’d really recommend making it to Cordoba (I think Granada is worth it as well, but I’ve never been there so I can’t vouch for it). Skip Sevilla. It’s pretty but swarming with tourists to the point of being exhausting.
I’m not too big of a fan of Berlin, but I think it’s because it feels too much like Warsaw so I have this sense of “Why am I here when I could just be at ‘home’ (Warsaw in this case) with my friends.” However, a lot of people LOVE the city, so maybe something’s wrong with me. Dresden has some really impressive art, and Cologne’s cathedral is amazing, though I keep only seeing it from the train
Most important suggestion: be back by 4.36 in the afternoon on June 26th to see Sara in Paris!
May 11, 2009 @ 5:18 pm