Bonjour, Ami

Hello, Friend.

I spent the weekend using words such as Bonjour, Merci, Oui, Non, and Excusez-moi. Yes, I spent the weekend in Paris, France. Our professors surprised us in class last Wednesday by announcing that they were sending us to Paris for the weekend. That was one of the best surprises I've ever received, and very unexpected. I'm so thankful to have professors that care so much about their students. That's a blessing that not all students are able to experience.

We took the Eurostar train to Paris, and arrived Thursday evening. We stayed in a new hostel, which was thankfully close to the train station. Thursday night we went to the Eiffel Tower, enjoyed some crepes, and admired the French culture.

Friday we walked all over Paris. First, we visited the Salvador Dali exhibit. This exhibit travels all over the world, and it just arrived in Paris a few weeks ago.  I have never really been into art, but seeing the thoughts and feelings that inspired his pieces of art gave me a new perception. His thoughts were so deep that very few people could understand him, so he created surrealism art.

"The Melting Clock" - one of Salvador Dali's most famous sculptures. 

After the museum we visited the Basilica, and saw the incredible London Skyline. In the area of the Basilica, there was an abundance of street vendors, gypsies and graffiti. I was surprised at the amount of graffiti because of how much Paris is portrayed as a clean, beautiful city. I didn't see one place in Paris where they had covered up graffiti. 

After a nice lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, we visited the Pompidou, a five story art museum in Paris.  Three of the five exhibits were temporary exhibits, including the Roy Lichtenstein exhibit. 

The Pompidou

We ended our day with visiting Notre Dame. Unfortunately the inside was already closed, but we walked around the outside. There were street performers all around the church, which I found a bit disrespectful.  Notre Dame is one of the most known churches in the world, and people have just turned it into another tourist attraction. 

Notre Dame

Saturday we devoted to the Louvre and Versailles.  The Louvre was so large we didn't even know where to begin. I learned that if you spent twenty seconds looking at each item in the Louvre, it would take you 4 weeks to get through everything. Yes, you read that right - 4 weeks.  After visiting the Louvre I was sure that it was the largest museum in the world, but it's actually the fourth largest in the world. The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. is the world's largest museum.

Sorry for the distortion, this is the only photo I have to justify how large the Louvre is.

We finished our Paris trip with a visit to Versailles. There are no words to justify how gorgeous, elegant and unreal the Palace of Versailles was. I felt like I was in a story book and it was only an illusion. Pictures do not do the palace justice, nor share the history of it. It's still hard for me to fathom all of the history that happened in the palace, including all of the queens and mistresses that lived there, people beheaded, and royalty born there.

The entrance to the Palace of Versailles. 

A parlor in the palace. 

The King's quarters.

The famous mirror room.

Marie Antoinette's bedroom.

After an unreal weekend in Paris, I am now back in London for 4 more days. Then, I'm back to the U.S.  I hope this week doesn't fly by too fast. I'll try to blog before I head home.

Until then, Cheers!

Learning in London

Aside from the abundance of information I am trying to learn about the UK culture, I have two classes that I'm always playing catch up in. I can't complain about the catch up though, because I really enjoy this class. At the beginning of this trip, I thought I would be playing "lost puppy" the whole time considering I'm a public relations major taking senior level advertising and news courses. These courses have exceeded my expectations by a landslide. I feel like I completely understand international advertising, which is odd for me because advertising has always been my weak point. The required text for international advertising, Another One Bites the Grass by Simon Anholt, is written very well. The book is one of the most understandable textbooks i've read since I started college.

Mollie and I presented our chapter from the book to class Tuesday, and the presentation went really well. Our chapter was titled, "Going It Alone" which talked about global centralization in advertising, and all the things you need to be aware of as a centralization agency. The chapter really put the point across that learning the culture you are working with is one of the most important things in advertising. I really enjoyed the book because it was interesting, easy to follow and understand and the message was straight forward. Here is a picture of our mind map, which is a guide or outline of our presentation. 

It was nice to give a presentation and enjoy presenting the material. I cannot count the number of presentations I have NOT enjoyed presenting because I don't like the material. Professor Noble did an excellent job on choosing the textbook for this class. This week I'm presenting my media outlet for the British Media course, and wrapping up all of the final projects. It's so hard to believe we only have one more week left in London, but I'm ready to be two courses closer to graduating. 

Until next time, Cheers!