Did You Know....?

This is an interesting video that was shown to us in one of our Marketing classes. It applies a lot of interesting facts on an international level. I just thought it was relevant being abroad and all.

If you've got 5 minutes take a sec and watch it.

Back to Belgium

We got back into Belgium this evening around 6:00pm. We had a great time but I'm pretty happy to be back at our apartment just being so tired from constantly being on the go.

Check back over the next couple of days and I'll repost everything from our travels.

Hope all is well!

All good; all the time,

Thomas

Belgian Life

All in all, not much has changed in Belgium.

The weather continually fluctuates between snow/sleet/rain hovering around the 0 degree Celsius mark. The absence of sun is more noticeable than ever.

Since returning from Paris, our lives have been standard routine. Our teachers did remind us this past week with a load of homework that while traveling abroad is fun, our main function here is still to be students.

We're heading out to Holland tomorrow after classes and staying in a hostel fairly near the Heineken brewery (It should be assumed that I will be taking a tour).

Though as with Paris I will not have my computer, thus internet availability will be limited to my itouch and hopefully a McDonald's Cafe. Be sure and check back next week as I recount our travels through Holland.

I hope that everyone who is following this is doing well.

All good; all the time,

Thomas

Paris, Day 3/3: La Grande Finale

Eight AM wake up calls are no more pleasant in French than they are in English. Regardless, after a quick shower ans some complimentary bird food, we ventured forth, back into the city.

Our first stop was Sacre Coeur, a large basilica situated on the outskirts of Paris atop some rolling hills. I don't actually know much about it, nor have many pictures of the interior because they were holding mass and being from the south and raised Catholic; I know better than to interrupt a service. I did stick my head in the lobby just to catch a glimpse of what all there was to see. I could smell the burning incenses and hear murmuring of the Apostle's Creed (French murmuring). It took me back for an instant to my days at St. Peter's Catholic School...I respectfully genuflected my way back out into the dismal Parisian weather and regrouped with my wolf-pack (I used to consider myself a one man wolf-pack).

Despite our failed attempt to tour the catacombs on the previous day, we returned once more and were able to descend into the City of Lights' renowned crypts.

Spooky. That is the only word fit to describe the mass Parisian grave. The winding labyrinth of decaying human remains creeps its way 20 meters beneath the cobblestone boulevards for a total of 2km. The stale air and distant sound of dripping water (no matter how cliche) combine effectively to send shivers down your spine before even completing the 183 step descension into the tomb. The doorway of the tomb sends a warning to all those of this world: Arrete, c'est ici L'empire de la mort (Halt, this is the realm of death). The catacombs, originally underground mine shafts for limestone production were converted to use as a crypt in 1786 when Paris cemeteries literally reached an overflowing point. Over the next 80 years 6-7 million Parisian remains were placed in their tomb beneath the grand streets of Paris. The tombs stay at a comfortable 14 degrees Celsius but the lingering presence of death and utter silence makes you shiver regardless. The endless walls of human remains is simply put, overwhelming. The entire time spent beneath the city is somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 min-an hour.

We left the catacombs and wandered around the city for the next two hours just killing time until we our loaded up onto our bus. Paris ended up being everything I'd thought it would be: Grand Monuments, beautiful artwork an scenery, rich rfood, and unimaginably inhospitable people. I would recommend to anyone, that given the opportunity, they should travel to majestic city; just expect a less than royal welcome from the locals.

All good; all the time,

Thomas

Paris, Day 2/3: Close but no Cigar

The crew slept in a bit this morning since everyone was so tired from yesterday. We set out to find breakfast and pretty quickly came to the realization that some French bistros charge you some 15-25% more for food if you are American or speak English (maybe they forgot, but there's a little thing called D-day...one serving of 'freedom fries' please).

After some food from a local bakery; we made our way to Notre Dame. Built in 1163 A.D. from limestone of the Paris quarries (which would later be converted into the catacombs) in accordance with the Gothic architecture of the time period. To describe the grandeur of this building in words is beyond my literary abilities. The choir was practicing in union with the 1,800 pipe organ....the acoustics were surreal. During WWII, all of the individual stained glass pieces were removed from their settings for fear the Germans' air raids would blow out the windows, or worse, destroy the building itself (fortunately none of this happened).

Rain started falling while we were inside the church, but we humped it to the Pantheon of Paris which was roughly a mile and a half away. The entry fee here was 5.50Euro with a student discount. In 1744, King Louis XV recovered from a serious illness and attributed it to prayers made to Saint Genevieve and pledged to dedicate a prestigious church to her name. The building was completed in 1797 and turned into a national Pantheon some years later. The huge edifice was home to Christian worship until finally being converted over for secular use in 1885 as a temple to house the remains of the nation's great leaders.

Following the Pantheon we headed across the city to the Catacombes of Paris. Unfortunately we got there 15 minutes after they closed.

As disappointing as this was, we decided we were rested enough to attempt the climb to the top of the Eiffel tower -- however, as luck would have it, the 3rd platform of the tower is only open durring the tourist months (which apparently doesn't open until late February). Long story short, we opted to save 8Euro and climb it when we come back in later months.

The evening ended with us grabbing some cheap food and returning to the hostel for some much needed rest (the sheer amount of walking we endured was a feat in itself).

Back at the hostel the group parted ways; Charlie and I made our war down to the lounge and met a group of Australians traveling abroad for the month of January. They were seated in a large roundabout booth with two Canadians we had met the previous night (Connor & Jeff). The conversation wandered for half an hour or so until we were joined by a male Russian named John who was also traveling abroad for the month of January. He soon enlightened us that he was an international politics major which of course sparked a thousand questions I wanted him to answer. A few drinks later and we were in a pretty fierce (but friendly) debate over world politics. An hour or so went by, and we ultimately decided to call it a night but not before I'd gotten a pretty in depth view on how Russians view Americans their international position.

I was ready for sleep at this point, as was Charlie. We still had entire day in Paris before us, no need to be overly tired from the get go.

Author's Note: Keep checking back as I recount my 3 days in Paris.

All good; all the time,

Thomas

Epic Fail Award Goes to...

I received my first package today. It was mailed on January the 8th. For those of you not near a Calendar or simply just too lazy to do the math; that's a solid 18 days, gives a whole new meaning to the term snail mail.

On my way home I was waiting for the metro line to come to my station when I noticed two Brits near by conversing. This may seem a bit odd, but when you find random English speaking persons in this country you're almost obligated to go talk to them just because its so rare. As I was talking to them a random guy walked to the same area of the platform and started giving me really weird looks. The two Brits noticed it as well and one of them whispered for me to be careful and that "he doesn't look like he likes you too much there Tom". I ended up picking up my package and heaving it a bit farther down the platform while waiting on the unusually slow train. Finally it arrived and as I was getting on I noticed that he was coming down the platform towards me so I quickly got on the train and strategically set my package in the aisle behind me while I leaned up on a hand rail. Sure enough, seconds later he came lumbering through the door (by this point I was almost certain he was gonna try to pit pocket me) and as the train started to roll, he walked past me and just as I thought, he brushed up against me trying to make it look like it was the train moving causing him to fall. Right as I felt him off balance, I spun sideways and let gravity do the rest. He tripped over the package as my weight moved away from him causing him to fall and hit the ground. He hit his nose on the ground causing it to bleed pretty good. The rest of that section of my car saw what happened and they must have figured out as I had that he was trying to pit pocket me because no one helped him and some of them even started yelling angrily at him in French (no clue what they were saying, but I'm just glad it wasn't directed at me). He got up, moved down the car holding his face and then hobbled off at the next stop. Long story short, the epic fail of the year award goes to that guy....

Many of the students in CUBC have been pick pocketed already and the locals say that its incredibly common. I'm just happy that karma got a hold of one of them.

Other than that, Monday and Tuesday were relatively routine. School work, workout, cook, clean, study. A day in the life of living in Brussels.

All good; all the time,

Thomas

Paris, Day 1/3: Tourism Cram Session

The alarms went off at 8:30 so we quickly got dressed and went downstairs to grab some of the advertised 'complimentary breakfast'. Now, generally speaking, I consider complimentary breakfast to be something of nutritional value...not sliced bread, Nutella, and tap water. Back in the states, we call this false advertising, here in France its just business.

After a walk down the canal, we hopped on the metro and got off a couple blocks from L'arc de Triumphe. You've more than likely seen a picture of this Parisian monument although you may not recognize it by its given name. The monument consists of a traffic circle (the largest in the world, so claim the Frenchies) encircling a single arc monument. This historic landmark was commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon Bonaparte in commemoration of his victories in battle (I learned that ego is a reoccurring theme in the French), however as the tides of battle changed, the monument's completion was delayed until 1836. We made it to the arc pretty early in the morning, before the sun was even fully shining. We paid the 5.30 euro and climbed the spiral staircase to the top. The view from atop L'Arc De Triumph is all meanings of the word, breathtaking. Standing there was one of the coolest experiences I've had since arriving in Europe.

I remember studying world monuments and icons back in Shelley's AP European History class just hoping that one day I'd be able to actually go visit them, and here I am. I feel like a lot of tourists (90% of which seem to be of Asian decent, no joke) see the monuments and sights because its on the "Sights to See" list from the visitor center or an add in SkyMall, not because they understand the historic relevance and impact such things had on the culture and history of the country. I think knowing such details gives much more meaning to visiting these places.

After descending the winding staircase of the Arc, we grabbed some lunch off of the Euro menu at McDonald's (Abroad or not, I'm still on a college budget). We strolled down one of the many cobblestone boulevards leading away from the traffic circle. The streets are lined with designer stores stocking everything from Louis Vutton, Armani, Gucci, Rolex, and so on.

Word of Advice: No matter what part of town you're in, Paris is full of gypsies. Its hard to go two blocks without a shawl covered middle eastern woman begging for spare change, claiming the generic misfortune of being displaced with "many hungry babies". If you make the mistake of giving one of them spare change; take a picture, because within seconds twenty others will materialize out of thin air begging the same story. Avoid all of this; just keep on truckin' right past.

The next major monument we came to was the Musee De Louvre. The Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Phillippe - Auguste in the mid 13th century and rebuilt for residency in the mid 16th century. It was transformed into the Musee de Louvre in 1793, the nation's first and foremost museum. The building is divided into four main sections: The Sully, Devon, Richelieu, and the Hall Napoleon. The museum houses an astounding 35,000 exhibits making it nearly impossible to see it all in any time frame under an estimated 9 months (I did not make that up, 9 months). The collection displays a diverse area of emphasis ranging from Islamic artworks to Egyptian Artifacts all the way to a fabulous collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. However, the most attracted collections of de Louvre are without a doubt its' paintings. Such displays feature works from Raphael, Botticelli, Titan, and of course Leonardo da Vinci.

We, like most Louvre visitors entered through the nearly entirely glass pyramid centered in the estate. After descending two stories into the Earth, we stepped foot inside the Grand Hall and lobby of the Louvre. The pyramid (like the rest of Paris) is completely illuminated at night and quite a sight. We were a bit crunched for time (I don't know anyone that has 9 months to spare) so we spent most of our time inside the Egyptian and Roman displays. We eventually made our way to da Vinci's Mona Lisa and I gotta tell you it was cool to actually see it in person; but I was honestly really surprised how small it was. With all the hype it gets, I expected it to be a bit larger than life. Regardless though, it was cool to get to finally see da Vinci's lady.

Walking through the rest of the museum was amazing. Its such a huge building and requires a lot of walking...a LOT of walking. Fellas, I'm going off of experience here, but unless you're the kind of guy that has the honor of going shopping every weekend with his lady and holding her purse while she tries on clothes for you to buy, you are in no way conditioned for this trek. Fortunately for us, the curator of the Louvre must also be male, because there is an abundance of comfortable chairs in nearly every exhibit. The only improvement I would suggest is perhaps recliners on a moving sidewalk, but excuse me, that must be the American in me talking.

After seeing a decent portion of the Louvre, we set off for La Tour de Eiffle. Built for the world fair in 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair), many Parisians thought it a blight on the city and dubbed it the "metal asparagus". The tower was nearly town down in 1909 and was only saved because radiotelegraphy scientists realized that its "molecular composition and precise structure" (large, metal antenna) made it ideal for transmitting radio signals. A steep climb at 324m of vertical staircases, we chose to save it for the next day.

We ate dinner at an French bistro and relaxed under the space heaters for a while. I think it would be strange to travel to Mexico and not eat at the very least, a taco (sorry for you Fourth Meal lovers) and the same applies for France. I ended up ordering 25cl of French vino, Bordelino. Warm food and a glass of wine beneath the evening glow of the Eiffel tower helped us to catch our second wind and before long we back out in the city. We navigated our way through Paris' extensive metro system back to the hostel and called it a night on account of everyone being so exhausted.

From our experiences on the first day, I can already tell that Paris is a beautiful city which almost seems like a paradox in my mind. I generally don't like the idea of big cities, but Paris combines history, nature, and architectural beauty to create an awe inspiring city.

Authors Note: Keep checking back as I post my travels through Paris last weekend. Please feel free to comment at the bottom of all the posts. Feedback of all kinds is appreciated.

All good; all the time,

Thomas