Paris Favorites

Paris is full of mesmerizing and enticing wonders and it is difficult to choose what my favorite places and foods were during my stay here in this beautiful city. Some of these things are not available back in Hawaii so it’s something that I will miss a lot. It was definitely a great experience and it is something that I will look forward to in the future if I ever decide to come back to this beautiful city. So here are some of the many favorite things from France.

 Pain au Chocolat

The one place that I would go to for a quick snack or a cheap breakfast meal is a Boulangerie.  These bakeries are literally on every street and they sell such a variety of pastries and bread; some that aren’t even sold in Hawaii. A pastry that I have come to love and would always order is the pain au chocolat. It is pretty much a croissant filled with chocolate. They are sold in many sizes depending on the boulangerie that you go to but all the same it is delicious. Because I loved it so much I bought myself a pack at the local Monoprix to eat in my dorm. I even brought a pack home to Hawaii to share with family (but mostly for myself).

Kinder Bueno

This was my go-to snack when I got really hungry in class. During breaks, I would go to the vending machine and get this all the time. The pack comes in two and it’s a chocolate wafer filled with hazelnut. What’s even great is that while walking around the little shops, my friend and I found a huge candy store and I found that they were selling packs of these kinder Bueno. I ended up buying three packs of nine to bring home. These are really addicting.

Baguette

Everyone knows what a baugtte is and honestly it was pretty much what I ate during my stay in Paris. I haven’t really tried baguettes from bolangeries or other shops but I have tried to the ones that were sold during lunch at my school and they were delicious. There are different types such as ham and cheese, curry, and bologna and pickles. These things were really big and filling and were at a cheap price. Baugettes are very popular. Almost everywhere I go, I would see someone carrying two to three baguettes with them. I can see why though because you can fill it up with almost anything.

Château de Versailles

It wasn’t just food that I’ve come to enjoy but there are many places that I have visited that I’ve come to love. Aside from the typical well known tourist spots such as the Eiffel Tower or the Lourve, there are so much more places to see. For me one of my favorite places that I’ve visited was the Château de Versailles. This place is about 30 minutes away by train and is such an amazing sight to see. This estate used to belong to King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and it is HUGE. Compared to the ‘Iolani Palace, the Palace of Versailles is probably 10 bigger, not including the acres of gardens and fountains around the palace. They even offer golf carts and bike rentals for visitors because the walk around the whole estate can be quite tiring. At one point, my friend and I rented bikes and pedaled all the way to the other side of the estate near Mary Antoinette’s estate. The gardens are marvelous. It was an adventure getting through some of them because it was like the maze in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Also, what I thought was really amazing was the classical music that played throughout the gardens. It gave such a relaxing, enchanting vibe. This place is definitely worth going to and I would definitely go again.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Another place that I think is worth going to is the Notre Dame Cathedral. Yes, it’s just like the cathedral from the movie Hunchback of Notre Dame (that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw it). I think this is one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve ever seen. The architecture is truly amazing. Though the line to get is may be intimidating because of how long it gets, it’s still worth it because it’s free and the lines go by really fast so you would only be standing in line for a couple of minutes. Once you go inside it’s so mysterious and very gothic looking. There are many sculptures and paintings throughout the cathedral and you are able to light up candles to pay respects.

Catacombs

Probably not a place a lot of people would like to visit but I thought this place was by far amazing. The line for this was ridiculously long but luckily my school was able to book a tour prior so we were all able to go get in quite fast. The Catacombs was quite a sight to see. I didn’t realize how deep underground we had to go but it was quite a walk. We descended almost 20 feet underground and a few more after to get to the remains. We learned a lot throughout the tour. We learned that over six billion Parisians from around the 17-18^th century was buried there because there wasn’t enough space in the graves above ground. What I found interesting was the fact that there are more Parisian remains that the population of Hawaii.

Though there are many more things that I enjoyed on my trip, these are the few that I really enjoyed and recommend to those who are planning to study abroad in Paris, France. There are so much more things to do and explore in this beautiful city and I loved every second of it. It was fun experiencing new things and exploring so many historical places. It’s something I will definitely do again.

- Allysha Mae Martinez, Summer Study Abroad ESCE

Readjusting & Crying About Pizza

To quote the silver fox that is George Clooney (whose house in Lake Como I sadly could not find), "I think people in Italy live their lives better than we do. It's an older country, and they've learned to celebrate dinner and lunch, whereas we sort of eat as quickly as we can to get through it." George knows what he's talking about, as I often spend my days back in America reflecting on one of God's greatest gifts that is Italian food.

It's still hard to believe that my study abroad program in Milan, Italy ended 2 months ago and that I returned back to New Jersey a little over a month ago. My first week back in New Jersey was bizarre- I no longer had to mentally prepare myself to speak Italian every time I walked into a store or restaurant. I was now hearing English everywhere I went instead of Italian, which was comforting but strange nonetheless. Every time I see family or friends they say "You have to tell me EVERYTHING about Italy!" but I'm not too sure how to sum up 5 amazing months into a few minutes. Reflecting back on this past semester has made me appreciate the crazy adventures I had. I feel so grateful and #blessed to have had this opportunity to go abroad that it would probably take me a whole year to explain every single thing I loved about Europe. Basically, I got to travel throughout most of Italy by planes, trains, buses and cars. I got to know the huge city of Milan, rode a gondola in Venice, tossed a coin into the Trevi Fountain & explored the Vatican in Rome, drove the Amalfi Coast in Naples, took a ferry to Positano, and went on a solo 4 day trip to Florence.

View of Ponte Vecchio in Florence from the Uffizi Gallery

I also took a solo day trip to Lugano, Switzerland, met up with a foreign exchange student from HPU in Copenhagen, Denmark, biked around Barcelona, Spain with a dear friend and had a jam-packed weekend in Paris, France with two international students I met at my Italian school from Mexico. I ate some of the most amazing food in the world, visited family, toured the most breathtaking museums, and made some of my greatest memories- which makes coming home even harder. When I was still in Europe, I vowed that once I got back to the US I would keep traveling and see more of the United States; I didn't want to stand still. But since I've been back, I've been visiting family, friends, and taking it easy. In Italy, I was always running around on my next adventure, which is why it's nice to just take a break and enjoy my summer at home. (And honestly cuddling with my dog has been the highlight of my summer, I'm not gonna lie.)

Reppin HPU from Park Güell in Barcelona

One of the greatest rewards of living in Italy was getting to come home and speak Italian with my Italian grandmother. I never realized how happy it would make her to hear one of her grandchildren speaking her native language. When I'm not practicing with her, I'm keeping up with the language app Duolingo so I don't forget it when I'm back in Hawaii. Since I dress a lot like an American, many Italians couldn't tell if I spoke Italian or if I was just a tourist, especially in Florence. I couldn't believe how many American tourists I heard in Florence that I actually heard sighs of relief when I spoke to locals in Italian. (It's also fun to be bilingual because you can eavesdrop on conversations when people think you don't understand.)

I'd like to dedicate the end of this blog post to the amazing friends I made in Italy who made my experience as enjoyable as can be. I encourage everyone to talk to students from all different countries as well as America. Every two weeks, I'd go out to dinner with girls from France, Brazil and the Netherlands where we'd compare the things we'd do in our respective countries from food to politics to pop-culture. Every time I talked to them I learned something new about the world, which makes this huge planet seem a little less unfamiliar and scary. It opened my mind to how other cultures do certain things and what their impressions of America are. One of the best things was comparing our languages and trying to explain American slang to them. We would always try to pronounce words in each other's languages (French, Dutch, English and Brazilian Portuguese) and laugh when we would horribly mispronounce them. When you study abroad, don't be afraid to break out of your shell, make friends and try something new!

Left to Right: Camille and Caroline from France, Paula from Brazil, Iris from the Netherlands and me :)

Italian friends and fellow HPU student, Hunter!

Waiting in line to go up the Eiffel Tower with
Mitchell and Paola from Mexico

Sarah from Tennessee (yes I had American friends too)

P.S. Here's a quick shout-out to Italian pizza. I miss you and think about you everyday. 

The entire pizza is for one person.
Notice how I added arugula in an attempt to not feel
guilty about how many carbs I was consuming on a regular basis.