A journey is truly a thousand steps-each and every one
filled with more memories than you can imagine. I feel like the past 2 weeks
(and of course the past two months), I’ve taken every one of those steps.
First off I haven’t shared my experience of the one and only
PARIS! (yes really, Paris, France) This was my first weekend travelling to do
with a small group, only 4 of us. Sam, Zach, and Yeslin convinced me to travel
to this pretty awesome place. Now I have to let y’all know Paris wasn’t one of
my top places to visit this semester (I’m crazy, I know), but now I am SO happy
I went with them. I’ve never been comfortable with the crowded, craziness of
cities, and I think I was just scared Paris wouldn’t be worth it. It completely
exceeded my expectations.
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| view from the Arc de Triomphe |
We arrived at the airport and were quickly swept into the
frenzy of the many people trying to get where they were going. Now we honestly
didn’t have the best plan of how to get to our Airbnb apartment, but Sam saved
us and called an Uber driver. I thought I had seen crazy drivers in Spain, but
it was nothing compared to Paris. I think Zach might have been a little scared
for his life;) ok not gonna lie, we were all pretty scared. Not to worry, we
made it in one piece to the sidewalk across from our Airbnb. The driver dropped
us off so close to the apartment it should have been easy to find, and yet we
still managed to cross the wrong street twice and take way too long to figure
it out. All part of the adventure, right?! Once we were inside our house for
the weekend, I was so happy because it was adorable and perfect for us; 2
bedrooms and a big enough kitchen to cook a couple of meals in!
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| Arc de Triomphe |
Friday was our first day in the city and our apartment was
pretty close to the Arc de Triomphe, so we decided to go there for our first bit
of sightseeing. It is an amazing structure with beautiful scenes carved all
around it and a staircase inside to get to the top. We made the climb and walked
out on top to see one of the most beautiful city views I’ve ever witnessed. The
streets all fan out from the arc in a circle and the Eiffel tower stood in the
background! So cool:) The only downside of the view up there is these bars all
around the edge like a fence or jail or something, but the view was still worth
it even if the pics weren’t great!
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| bars on the Arc |
After that we headed out walking toward the Eiffel tower. We
took a while to find it, big as it is, but eventually made it across the river
to its base. It is such an AMAZING structure; so much bigger than everything
around it and gorgeously designed. I didn’t know much of the history of it, so
I looked up a bit while we were there. It was designed by the company of
Gustave Eiffel as the entrance to the 1889 world’s fair, to celebrate the
centennial of the French revolution. And it is quite impressive enough for
that. We stopped at a bakery for some dinner, and sat on the lawn just staring
up at the tower while we ate. Afterwards of course we got all the cute
pictures, making use of Yeslin’s gopro camera to get group shots! We did a
little more exploring and then made sure to catch the twinkling lights on the
tower before we headed back. It was such a great day that we ended by hanging
out in the apartment making hot tea and eating cheese and crackers (maybe a
little munching on the macaroons the hosts left us too). 
Saturday was full of adventures beginning with our early
morning start at the Louvre. Zach, being an art major, was so excited and made
us get up at the crack of dawn (8:00) to make it by the time it opened at 9.
Despite all the cathedrals and historical buildings I’ve seen, I can honestly
say this is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever been inside. The
outside is gorgeous and the inside is bigger then I realized; each section has
rooms and rooms of art. As soon as we entered the glass pyramid and went
through security, we took off to make it to the Mona Lisa before it got too
crowded. It’s crazy to see such a famous piece of art in person. After that I
was actually able to walk around and appreciate the museum itself and all the
amazing art it houses. Each room has its own design with beautiful arches,
columns, and even ceiling paintings. I spent most of my time looking at all the
Egyptian artifacts, but I did take a little time to see the renaissance sculptures-even
one by Michelangelo!
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| The Louvre |
Saturday afternoon Sam and Zach had booked tickets to the
catacombs, which I was not quite brave enough for, so that left Yeslin and I
the afternoon to shop! We found Tiffany’s, a giant Sephora’s, and the cutest
teashop ever. Also it was Paris fashion week, so what a perfect time to shop in
the city!
Paris was an amazing weekend to add to the count and I still
can’t believe I stood in front of the actual Eiffel tower-such a crazy feeling!
After our Paris adventure, Page (our director of global
campus) and her videographer friend, Seth arrived to visit! They were also here
to film a promotional video for LCU’s new study abroad program, which was fun
and a little intimidating. He interviewed us all, and even came on our last art
history day trip. We spent the day in Madrid exploring the Reina Sophia museum
and the Prado; both impressive in their own ways. The Prado was remarkably
similar to the Louvre, of course on a much smaller scale. I’ll really miss
those art trips!
Side note- having Page and Seth here, to film a video about
us and the program, reminded me of what a unique and incredible thing it is to
be part of the first group to make this journey through LCU. I cannot imagine
how I became so blessed to be here now, but I am so thankful. It has impacted
my life in so many amazing ways. This has been such a great reminder because
I’ve been having to do a little soul searching lately; I’m missing home an
incredible amount and especially with all that I have not be able to be part of
at home-the South Plains Fair, football, Kappa, and then last night the private
Aaron Watson concert. There are things I knew I would be sad to leave, family
and friends, but when you miss parts of life you wouldn’t miss for any other
reason, it is incredibly hard. I feel that reminding myself of the amazing
blessing this trip is has helped that homesickness.
Ok so back to a couple weeks ago, (the timeline is already
jumbled in my mind) another one of my favorite things was our Spanish class excursion
to a museum in Avila. Juan Antonio, our professor, is also very knowledgeable
about art history, so he took us to the museum of the oldest artifacts from the
Castilla region of Spain. This museum houses artifacts such as old Christian
tombs and the ancient stone bulls-the symbol of Avila. It was super interesting
and one of my favorite museums thus far.
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| Interlaken |
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| Lauterbrunnen valley |
Now I get to finally tell y’all about SWITZERLAND! Can you
tell I loved it? This has been our longest trip of the semester, because we
planned it for our weeklong break between the 2 quarter periods of classes. (Sorry
that’s a little confusing, but basically we have a first half of the semester
with Spanish and art, and then a second half with Bible, Spanish, and child
development). We ended art history with a final on Tuesday, and headed out from
Madrid on Wednesday morning! This was another one of those smaller groups;
Luke, Zach, Sam, and I all flew out together and were all 4 staying in the same
hotel in Interlaken, Switzerland. Emily, Jessica, Kate, and Anna were also
gonna meet us in Interlaken, but everyone else was headed off to Italy. Flying
into Zurich was a little crazy-Sam’s card got stuck in the machine, we couldn’t
find Anna, and I drank way too much Starbucks, but eventually we made it to our
hotel and I was able to appreciate the beauty of Switzerland. It is such a
contrast from Spain. Mountains surrounded our cute little town of Interlaken;
it even sits between 2 huge lakes. I honestly cannot express the beauty of it
or of the rest of the countryside we saw during the trip, but I’ll put some
pics on here to hopefully show a little.
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| Behind the waterfall |
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| Murren |
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| Cailler Chocolate Factory |
Thursday was spent just exploring the town and hiking through
some cow pastures and little country houses. Luke and I actually followed the
river that runs through Interlaken between the lakes for several miles. Small
town Switzerland life is so cute, full of beautiful scenery, and captured my
heart. Throughout the whole week traveling around this beautiful country, that
is one thing that struck me everywhere we went-small villages just living
beautiful life. Don’t get me wrong, there is still craziness including quite a
bit of train confusion, but that was probably mostly our own fault. The second
full day there Sam, Zach, and I took a train to Lauterbrunnen valley because I
wanted to see the waterfalls there. This is exactly how I would picture
Switzerland and the Alps: the cutest town I’ve ever seen set perfectly in a
tiny valley surrounded by the Alps. This valley is filled with over 70
waterfalls, many of which you can hike to. One of the larger and closer
waterfalls actually had a carved out tunnel behind it that you could hike up.
That was so cool! I’ve never been behind a waterfall, much less one in
Switzerland. After the waterfall we just kept walking through the valley along
a tiny little road. We walked pretty far through the most gorgeous scenery I
have ever seen all the way to the sky tram that would take us up the mountain
to Murren. Murren was another quiet little town, but had the BEST view of the
week. We were high up in the mountains where you could see the snowcaps or down
into the waterfall filled valley. (those were some of our most amazing pictures
too!) The rest of our week was spent in a flurry of activity: riding trains ALL
over Switzerland and visiting as many cities and towns as we could! Most of our
time was spent on trains riding through the gorgeous countryside ending up in
random towns, but we also visited the first chocolate factory in Switzerland
(yum) and Basel, where France, Germany, and Switzerland meet. The Cailler
chocolate factory in in Broc and was founded in 1819; we took a tour that ended
with a chocolate tasting! We even had the chance to explore some caves in
Interlaken. Each place was so unique and I can’t believe we saw so much in so
little time.
Switzerland captured my heart and I cannot explain its
beauty. I had such a great trip exploring such an amazing place-and we all made
it back in one piece, so I would count that as a success!
As I hope you all can see, study abroad has been quite the
adventure and opened my eyes to the world. I hope through my pictures and
stories y’all can catch a little glimpse of that incredibleness!
Buenas!
