à Colmar avec ma famille

My family came to visit me! (Because I visited them, right? Except it's a little more fun to vacation in Europe than in Byron…) They arrived Wednesday evening. Thursday we went to Mainau and walked around town, but unfortunately my camera battery was dead, so I have no photos (I may put some up later after I steal them from my visitors). Then today we went to Colmar, a small city in the Alsace région of France (near Strasbourg).


We went to the Unterlinden Museum, which is in what used to be a convent. It has lots of paintings that my mom really likes. Some of them I also liked a lot (e.g., the Issenheim Altarpiece and Schuler's "La char de la mort" - sorry, I couldn't find a good image of that one), but mainly I took pictures of the ones I thought were ugly (see below).


That's what baby Jesus really looked like: Mr. Potato Head on meth.


Then we wandered.


There are more German half-timbered houses in Colmar than all of Germany put together, I'm pretty sure - and it's in France! Madness, I tell ya.


This cathedral is one of many buildings that had these unique, green-tiled roofs.


And here's Colmar's Petite Venise (Little Venice). This city's beautiful.


After checking out the Musée d'Histoire naturelle et d'Ethnographie (they let us in as a family for €4 total, instead of what we were supposed to pay - €14!), we were ambushed by young women in weird clothes. The one in the purple tutu was apparently about to get married, but before she did so, she and her girlfriends had to go thru town and measure 500 meters worth of men (like, e.g., my dad and me). After measuring us, she kissed us and gave us candy.


And this is Alsace on the way back to Constance.

So I realize I didn't actually put any pictures of us as a family up, but I promise to do that in my next post. So far all I have are a bunch of photos of my sister being a goof (shock, right?). More to come - soon!

dans la région de mes ancêtres

Kind of spur of the moment, Kirsten and I decided to go to Strasbourg in France on Saturday. It was just a random decision, but how many times in your life do you have the opportunity to just up and go to France for the day? Not too many, so off we went!

It took us under three hours by train, and the ride cut through the gorgeous German country side and for a while through the Black Forest.


Strasbourg is in the Alsace région (state) of France, where my mom's mom's family comes from. It's actually a fascinating area (not to mention beautiful), because Alsace has been traded back and forth between the French and the Germans for centuries. So you can see the influence of both cultures all over the city (cf. the half-timbered houses in the above photo).


Many streets also have both French and German names. ("Little Rooster Alley")


We went to the cathedral. (rose window)


And climbed up the tower. Here you can see the market.


the cathedral


Strasbourg is very pretty.

For lunch we had delicious French food from a pâtisserie. Then we went to the Musée zoologique, which was very cool - and cheap (€1,50)! Plus the woman at the counter thought we were German when she heard me struggling with French, so she spoke to us auf Deutsch!


The museum consisted of tons of taxidermied animals. Most of them weren't dressed up like something from Narnia, but I couldn't resist this photo op. It was actually extremely interesting and well done over all. They even had two mounted coelocanths.


We also went to the European Parliament, where the EU's legislature meets.

Then I bought an oddly shaped French baguette to take back to Constance with me. (It has horns on the ends!)

And today I walked back to Insel Mainau with two friends. We could see the Alps as we crossed the bridge! I love studying abroad!

Paris, je t'aime!

After Dresden we took an overnight train to Paris. We rode in a couchette, which is (according to Webster) a train car with, and I quote, "sleeping berths." I slept like a rock, even though I didn't really fit into my "sleeping berth." I even slept through the two hours we were stalled on the tracks. We had to transfer in Mannheim, but we were scheduled to have just over two hours there, so we made our next train with minutes to spare.

So, after around four hours of sleep, we were in Paris! Amelia and Chrissy wanted to do a walking tour of the city, and I wanted to visit the Institut du Monde Arabe.


The Institut
It was around €4 for students, which is I found very typical for Paris. It was awesome. I even bought Al-'Amîr Aṣ-ṣaghîr (engl. The Little Prince - how much more French/Arab can you get?) in the book store there. ****

Then I went to the Galerie de paléontologie et d'anatomie comparée in the Jardin des plantes. Entrance again was €4 - and definitely worth it! ****


Rue Morgue or Planet of the Apes? No one knows.
(entrance hall to the Galerie)


me in the hall of comparative anatomy
Behind me is a whale's baleen-filled mouth - enormous!


I enjoy this shot.

The paleontology exhibit was not as good as the comparative anatomy one, but it was still cool.

Then I met up in front of Notre Dame with Erik, my roommate from Olaf, and we went to his friend's apartment on the Place d'Italie. His apartment is awesome - he has a kitchen, a bathroom with a nice shower, a bedroom, a living room, a hallway and a guest room! That's where Erik and I stayed. Plus the guy, Mark, was really cool. It was definitely quality housing.


Erik and I spent a significant portion of the next few days eating our way through the Parisian boulangeries and pâtisseries. French food is definitely the greatest thing ever. For example, one night I stopped at a boulangerie near Mark's place, and I grabbed dinner consisting of a tuna and cheese crepe, a massive chocolate brownie/cake thing and an Orangina. (NB: Orangina in Paris has one of the strangest ad campaigns I have ever seen. Check it out!) I'm giving French food - regardless of expense - a perfect *****.


massive dog


Notre Dame is beautiful.


Then one day Amelia had this brilliant idea: picnic in the Tuileries gardens! Pictured: French baguette, French wine, French strawberry (from a farmer's market that morning). Not pictured: French rotisserie chicken, French cheese, French plastic silverware.


My lovely friend Kelly Hamren, who is spending the year studying in France, came up to visit for the day.

After our picnic, we went to the Louvre (it is apparently free on Fridays for anyone under 26). At first I didn't want to go; I though, "I've already been to the Louvre, and it's just a mass of paintings by stuffy old white men". Stupid, jaded ass. The Louvre is spectacular. Even if you've been there a thousand times, I'm sure you'd still love it. I'm not positive how much entry usually is, but even if it were €20, it'd still be well worth it. Also, if you are an art history student or have a fake art-history-student ID like Mark, you get in free every day of the week. *****


Plus while we were there, they had live music playing in many of the rooms. AMAZING!


"Winged Victory"


And then of course we had to go to the Eiffel Tower.

The next day Erik and I went to the Grande galerie de l'évolution, also in the Jardin des plantes. This was slightly more expensive (€6 or €6,50, I'm not sure), but it was also awesome. ****

The first floor consisted of exhibits on marine wildlife, and it had an actual, plasticized giant squid.


The second floor was full of terrestrial animals (here as seen from the third).

The third floor was called "The Evolution of Man." This name, however, is more than a bit misleading. Instead of following the descent of humans from apes, it detailed the destructive impact humans have had on the natural world.


One hall on this floor was dedicated to the species that have gone or are going extinct because of humans. Above is a preserved specimen of the (in)famous Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine. This part was kind of depressing, but it was cool to see an actually Tasmanian tiger. They also had a dodo on display.


On a more positive note, we're bringin' haute-y back!
Erik bought this bottle of slightly alcoholic cider, and we drank in the Tuileries on our way to…


L'Orangerie! I think it was €5,50 entrance, but it was awesome! ***** A definite must-see. Monet's massive paintings of ponds stretch around the circular rooms upstairs. In the center of each room there's a bench, so it's just like you're sitting in the middle of the paintings. Extreme quality.

And downstairs there's a very decent collection of other Impressionist art.


a Modigliani for Dad

In conclusion, Paris was spectacular!

Well, I have class now, so I gotta run. Look soon for a post about life back in Constance and the beginning of the regular semester.