One of my favorite activities of my time in China was riding bikes on Xi An’s city wall. Xi An is one of the China’s oldest cities and is home to some of the most treasured artifacts from China’s long history. While we were in Xi An, we visited many historical sites including Emperor Qin’s Mausoleum, which is home to the famous Terracotta Warriors. We also visited Xi An’s Muslim Street, a street bustling with food vendors leading to a few beautiful Islamic mosques. Finally, we rented bikes and rode all the way around Xi An’s city wall. This wall no longer surrounds the perimeter of the city. However, the city decided to keep the wall while other cities, like Beijing, destroyed their city walls a long time ago.
Riding bikes on the wall was so much fun for me. For one, I love riding bikes. And two, we could see so many beautiful views of the city while exploring the city wall itself. At one point, I stopped to look down over the wall and saw a beautiful, green park. This is something I hadn’t seen much of in Beijing. There were old men going on walks, and people playing ping pong at the bottom of the wall. For me, this was a refreshing sight, and one that I will not soon forget from my time visiting Xi An.
The weather in Tours is usually temperate, but the temperature has rested between ninety and one-hundred degrees all week, which becomes bothersome in classrooms and houses without air conditioning.
L’Hôtel de Ville de Tours par nuit. Tours semble plus frais dans cette photo.
The greatest challenge I’m having in learning French is speaking English with other Institute students. We are supposed to speak only French, but English is the common language since most students speak it better than French. Perhaps if we didn’t want to know each other, following that rule would come easily, but most people here are vivacious and social and worth getting to know.
I learned on the riverbank that someone had drowned the day before, and I suddenly understood why my host family warned me against swimming near the Guinguette. Whirlpools form above large craters left by bombshells in the World Wars, they explained. They can pull you under. The tree from which our rope hung over the river was situated upstream of a small dam, where the water flows calmly and I could regard from afar the bridge where so many artillerists fought.
Constructed at the end of WWI and bombed by Allied soldiers in Tours during WWII to prevent German soldiers from crossing, the bridge currently connects Tours-Nord and Tours-Sud. Its namesake, Woodrow Wilson, acted instrumentally in creating the League of Nations. His vision for global betterment resonates with the predominantly liberal French outlook.
My host father is open with his opinions, particularly about nations. Proud of his country and the socialist, globally-minded policies which most often find traction here, he laments the U.S. election results. We share consternation towards the adverse environmental effects resultant from everyday American life. Yet, he loves American music and the beautiful landscapes we inhabit. To his mind, figures like Woodrow Wilson, Bob Dylan, Michael Moore, and Obama give America a redemptive quality. He is the person who invited me to visit the American war memorial near Le Pont Wilson, describing it as “incroyable.”
I hadn’t recognized the memorial for what it is when I first walked by it two weeks ago, on the way to Blanc Foussy. I and the German student with whom I conversed have become better friends, and she also freely expresses her thoughts on Americans. From her experience, she finds Americans loud and strange, but lovably optimistic. In the midst of applying for college herself, she has asked me about American colleges, which she associates with college-party movie scenes.
That association has also been made by some faculty at the Institute. Some of the younger professors have inquired of the many American college students whether those scenes represent reality, and have received differing responses. For my part, I go out more in Europe.
J’ai sorti vendredi soir à une boîte de nuit (ma première fois).
Most students come to L’Institut de Touraine for a month, since classes are oriented to teach a level of language per month. Friday consisted of several goodbyes. Saturday I only said one. A fellow ND student wanted help carrying his excess of baggage through Charles de Gaulle airport. Being a student from Africa, he told me, often entails taking other African students’ baggage home for them. I carried a suticase filled with other South African students’ belongings, and a guitar.
Despite the uncertainties caused for him by the derailment of his travel plans, he and I managed to enjoy a short day in Paris. He checked his baggage into a storage service, then we visited Notre-Dame de Paris and the Eiffel Tower, where we met with some friends for lunch on the Champ de Mars.
I hadn’t planned to visit Paris, particularly not the Eiffel Tower, which I had seen before, cheap trinket vendors and all, but I couldn’t help my awe at seeing the historic streets of Paris again, thrilled by the opportunity to study there in spring and see it more intimately.
La Tour Eiffel avec un bon amiMon endroit futur d’études
My train back to Tours was delayed, meaning I would not likely catch the second leg. I sensed something strange in making a connection at Lilles to get to Tours, but boarded the first train anyways, too tired to correctly estimate the frequency of trains between Lilles and Tours.
I remembered the location of the city when I saw it. Far North from the Loire Valley, practically on the France-Luxembourg border, I lucked out. A train, a subway ride, another train, and a navette (town-to-town train) later, I returned at only 4 in the morning. My room in France felt like home.
This week I went to Harajuku with my friends. Harajuku is a representative place for youth fashion in Tokyo. Even before we arrive at Harajuku, on the subway to there, there are already many people who dressed very fashionable, even somehow weird to me. Since Harajuku is very popular among tourists as well as local people, it became so crowded on subways and huge groups of people got off at the Harajuku station. Once we got out of the train station, the streets looks so different compared to those around ICU. The streets are filled with people with all kinds of hairstyles and hair colors. Girls, even some male people, wear bold makeups and dress up. An interesting theme is that every people just walk on their own way without questioning others’ looks. The shops along the streets are all very unique. I see in Harajuku a great acceptance and confidence of people’s own understanding of fashion.
Harajuku’s street full of people looking from a pantry shop
My favorite fashion brand’s window display in Japan
Indeed, I have been interested by the Japanese sense of beauty. On the one hand, Japanese people seems to like extreme beauty. Girls and sometimes middle aged women often make their cheeks outstandingly red using blushers. Last weekend my friends and I went to プリクラ (Japanese photo booth) to experience the legendary “cosmetic surgery machine” (because the photo adjusts faces so much). Even though we tried minimal adjustment, our eyes were like twice as big and our chin were like knives. It was a cute and funny experience but we did not look like ourselves in photos at all. On the other hand, Japanese people also seems to pursue natural beauty. I recently saw a news talking about the most beautiful high school girl selected by the Japanese public. Far from what I described above, she looked very natural, and not so outstandingly beautiful that some of my Chinese friends joked that they might defeat her. I also wondered about Japanese people’s criteria of beauty and so I went to ask some Japanese friends. According to them, instead of stressing the point “sexy” in many western countries, Japanese people value “healthy beauty” more. They think youth should be 元気 lively and they like 可愛い cute girls. There are people who are very bold in expressing themselves, but the large population prefer to be natural in dressing in normal days. That’s why I see many people dressed elegantly with makeups so delicate that I could not tell if it is natural skin or makeup from distance.
I feel that fashion in Japan is such a colorful and amazing topic that I wish to explore more. No wonder why many designers find their inspiration from Japan.
During our third weekend in Beijing, we had a “ND Alumni” lunch celebration at a restaurant near the new Notre Dame Beijing Global Gateways office (which we toured afterwards). At the restaurant were previous/current ND students who were also in China, as well as Chinese international students who were about to start their first year at Notre Dame. I sat with some of these students, their parents, as well as a couple Chinese teachers. During the lunch, waiters and waitresses brought out one dish at a time, each dish unique to the Hunan province that the restaurant specialized in. When they brought out the first tofu dish (which was incredible), my one of my Chinese teachers mischievously asked me, “Eric, do you like to eat tofu?” in Chinese. I, naive to Chinese slang, responded enthusiastically, “I absolutely like to eat tofu!” This prompted giggles from the other Chinese students and snorts from the Chinese teachers. Turns out, someone who “likes to eat tofu” is slang for someone who has…”promiscuous” tendencies. When I replied how much I liked to eat tofu, I was basically saying that I liked to flirt with lots of women and pursue multiple relationships. It seemed like this particular slang was known to both young adults and older generations, and was used to poke fun at friends. If you actually want to express your honest and innocent appreciation for tofu, you have to say so in a slightly roundabout way: “Tofu is a dish I love eating,” or “Eating tofu is something I like.”
Outside one of the city’s most bustling tourist attractions, El Mercat de Boqueria, hanging a sign painted in English “Tourist invasion, GO HOME”. The strategic placement in a side street directly off of Las Ramblas, the most congested area of the city
All over the city are smaller stickers in many different languages, primarily catalan, Spanish, and english that proclaim “tourism kills the city”. I first noticed this message hanging outside of Park Guell and then found it posted all over the metro stops, telephone polls, and outside other landmark attractions.
At first this sentiment really offended me. Although the majority of the natives that I came in contact with were nothing but friendly, you could definitely feel that some had grown tired of the more ignorant tourists and branded all that looked american into this category.
Even so, how could the cities largest source of income for their economy be “killing the city”. In fact it seemed that tourism was making the city thrive, it’s what put Barcelona on the map after the 1992 olympics and is giving income and jobs to so many when other parts of Spain are majorly struggling.
However after I examined this issue a bit more deeply I realized what a double edged sword tourism really is. When you have millions of people who are looking to consume a culture, get an “authentic” experience, it forces the people of Barcelona to market and sell their culture, their history, their art, their food and in turn cheapen it. When every restaurant, show, tourist shop etc, is boasting an “authentic Spanish experience” to simply sell to foreigners, it looses all authenticity.
Something that troubled me was tourists’ misunderstanding of what Spain is as a whole. Spain, historically has been separated into different kingdoms in different regions that have developed distinct foods, cultures, festivals, and even languages. When you come to a city in Spain you are experiencing the culture of the particular city or region of Spain, a true singular Spanish identity and culture really doesn’t exist. However, because so many people are ignorant to this history, in Barcelona there were endless advertisements for flamenco shows (a tradition that matriculates from Andalusia and is seldom practiced in Catalunya), pincho bars (food that is native to Pais Vasco region of Spain), and “Spain’s best paella” (a recipe that was invented in Alicante in the province of Valencia).
This anti-tourist sentiment comes from the citizens of Barcelona constantly seeing their cultured being cheapened, simplified, and sold, and mixed with the traditions of other regions of Spain (remember Catalunyans are very proud people and the purity of their culture is something very important to them). They see their most famed landmarks, the works of Gaudí, being overrun by tourists and in turn being worn down by all of the foot traffic through them. They have increased traffic, heightened prices for restaurants and shops and more. Although many people come to genuinely learn, many tourists are on vacation and are using their time in Barcelona to relax, entertain them for a week, then return to their home, breeding a sentiment that the culture is meant to serve their leisure, but is altogether inferior.
Barcelona also gets an incredible amount of American students studying abroad during the entire year. It is a shame to say that the general stereotype of these students in that they come simply to party, not to learn and speak Spanish. So even this more engaged role of student has been relegated to the same level as tourist.
During my time in Barcelona, however, I have truly tried my best in my own small way to fight this sentiment with a genuine interest and engagement in culture and language. I spoke Spanish whenever possible, I asked questions about culture, I avoided negative comparison to American culture, I ate foods that I might not have liked without complaint, and I inquired to my host mother and teachers about this anti-tourism movement to better understand the perspective of the natives (this is really no large feat, just expected behaviors of a respectful human being that are often forgotten). This experience has made me rethink how I travel, how I interact with a culture, and how I practice a language.
There are two ramen shops near ICU’s back door. I have heard lots of good feedbacks from my friends and they say the waiter in one of them looks very handsome. So, this week I urged my friends to accompany me to the two shops. I have heard long before that Japanese people are fond of ramen, but I never know that there are so many different kinds of ramen. The rules of eating the the flavor of the soup varies a lot from place to place and ramen thus becomes both a national and local pride.
The two restaurants near our university opens right beside each other. While I was wondering how badly the competition would be, my friends who is a “ramen professional” told me that these two shops specialize in different kinds of ramen. One is Musashi flavor and the other is Hakata flavor. Musashi is the town where ICU is located and the ramen in this shop has lighter soup. Hakata is a town in Kyushu and the ramen there is famous for its rich soup made by cooking pork bones for a long time.
The Musashi ramen shop is very popular among locals and ICU students, but when I first tried the ramen, I was shocked by how salty it was. Actually, the waiter asked me if I want a bowl of rice in company with the ramen and I refused thinking it was weird to eat to main dishes at once. Later I asked my friend and she told me that this kind of ramen is meant to eat with rice so that I would not felt so salty. The waiter also told me that after finishing the noodles, people often pour ramen soup into rice to add flavor to it. The ramen soup here had miso soup added in.
Besides eating itself, the process of eating ramen is also very interesting. We needed to buy the ticket for the dish choices we want and give the ticket to waiters before we go to our seat. Besides tables for two and four, there were also single seats at the bar. For privacy the bar had curtains that break up each seat. I saw many people wearing business suits came and eat quietly and leave. The whole process was very quick, private and quiet. This made me recall the ramen shops I saw in subway stations. Many shops did not have even one seat and all people ate ramen standing, orderly and quietly. From small things such as eating ramen, I could also feel the uniqueness of Japanese culture. This sense of delicacy in details and mutual respect must be cultivated since young.
Originally, I planned to write a single post regarding all the differences I’ve noticed between living in Tokyo and living in America; however, that post became rather long, so I decided to split it into two parts. If you read the title, you have probably already deduced that I’ll be talking about transportation as well as fashion and beauty standards in this post. There is a lot to talk about in regards to those two topics, but I’ll avoid rambling on too long about all the minor nuances I’ve experienced and hit on the major points.
Transportation
There are two big ideas I want to talk about regarding transportation in Tokyo: Public Transportation and Private Transportation
Public Transport
A map of the JR train lines in Tokyo. This is easy to read, right?
I can’t speak for all of America, but back in Houston, Texas, public transportation really isn’t an amenity we value. There is no subway. The train system is so limited it’s basically useless unless you’re in the center of the city. Bus routes are also fairly limited in comparison to other cities. Essentially, if you want to get around Houston, you need a car. That is the primary mode of transportation. Tokyo’s public transportation system, however, is incredibly complex, efficient, and affordable. I’ve touched on this a bit in my first post, but now I plan to go a little more into detail.
Cars and trucks passing through Shibuya crossing
Roads in Tokyo aren’t just large, glorified sidewalks, though in certain areas they’re certainly treated that way. You can navigate Tokyo by car or taxi, but you would be in the extreme minority. The train lines are more widely used and, in my opinion, affordable. In many cases, it’s also much faster to navigate the city by train, and finding parking in the narrow, cramped side streets of Tokyo is a bit of a challenge even when you do get to where you’re going. To put things into context, I’ll give an example based on my travels in Tokyo. My friends and I decided to visit Asakusa on the day of a fireworks festival. Traveling from the station nearest to ICU to Asakusa station costs 560 yen (about five dollars) for a 52 minute train ride. It would take 55 minutes to and hour and 40 minutes by car. More often than not, google maps won’t even bother recommending the car routes and will direct you straight to the train and subway lines.
Another interesting difference is that in America, we build what we want in our cities and then adjust the transportation systems to get there. However, in Tokyo the major shopping areas and services tend to gather and build themselves up around already established train stations.
Private Transport
No, not everyone gets a Kart and Mario costume
As you distance yourself from central Tokyo and the more populated areas cars and accessible streets become more common. The first big point regarding road travel is that in Japan you drive on the left side of the road and cars are built accordingly. This isn’t all too remarkable. You adjust fairly quickly to the difference, though I didn’t have to drive during my stay. What’s more interesting, in my opinion, is how narrow the roads are and how the vehicles are built in response.
Mitaka City. Notice the wide crosswalks and how far back the cars have to stop.
Because of the limited space available in the Tokyo area, everything is cramped together for the most part. Side roads tend to only accommodate a single car, and in less populated areas the main roads are two lanes. Two, very narrow lanes. When stopping at intersections, the space between the intersection itself and where cars stop is significantly larger than what is standard in America. This is due to the fact that the turns on the roads are very sharp. Watching buses navigate the narrow pathways is pretty impressive.
A delivery car for 7 eleven
In order to navigate the aforementioned narrow streets Japanese cars are more compact than American models, and many of them are box shaped. A large SUV or truck wouldn’t be able to handle the sharp turns and would more than likely end up scraping against cars on the other side of the road. As for the box shapes, I’m really not sure what the reason is behind that. Seems to be a popular design choice, but the box cars don’t really perform significantly better than the rounder counterparts. Motorcycles are a tad more common further from central Tokyo than they are in the US, but cars are the primary mode of transportation on the roads.
That said, road travel is the least common way to get around. You’ll typically see more folks getting around on bicycles or on foot if their destination isn’t too far from home. From what I’ve seen, a good, reliable bike is a better investment than a car.
Fashion and Beauty
There are three big differences I noticed in regards to beauty standards between Japan and America: dental cosmetics, what’s attractive, and general fashion.
Dental Cosmetics
There is actually a surgery to make your teeth crooked called yaeba. Women get this “semi-vampire” look as a fashion statement.
I’m not entirely sure that’s the right phrase for the topic at hand, but I what I wanted to briefly talk about is the importance of corrective procedures like braces. In Japan having white teeth is more important than having straight teeth. This is a sort of minor difference in the grand scheme of things, but I found it really interesting when my teacher explained it in class. Especially because getting braces is almost a right of passage in America. It’s really common to see boys and girls alike with crooked teeth. Some younger Japanese women actually consider some crooked teeth cute. Again, it’s a very small thing, but it’s different enough to be interesting.
What’s Attractive
For this section I can only really comment about women’s beauty standards, because that was all I paid attention to. That said, there are very noticeable differences between what is considered an ideal woman in Japan and America. I would say that we Americans value three things: breasts, curves, and butts. Most of our clothes are tight fitting or low cut to accent these features. The hour glass figure is what we aspire to. Girls often lament over the size of their chest or glutes. However, in Japan this is not at all the case. I would say that if there is any feature that is idealized in Japan it is probably a woman’s legs. Girls don’t show nearly as much skin in Japan, but wearing shorts or skirts that flash some leg is completely acceptable.
On top of that, the ideal silhouette is inherently different. I mentioned before that Americans aspire to the hourglass silhouette. However, in my opinion, Japanese fashion doesn’t accent any silhouette at all. Clothes are generally baggy and formless. Japanese women are thinner than most American women, their breasts are significantly smaller, and they don’t really have posteriors to write home about. Sorry if I’m being rude or crude, but these are my honest opinions. I think this difference in body types is what leads to the emphasis on legs and the lack of form fitting clothing.
General Fashion
Most people probably think this is common attire around Tokyo
I think that whenever someone says “Tokyo fashion” you instantly think of the more colorful and abstract fashion common among young people in Harajuku. Or maybe they think of something that’s bold but a bit a tad more mundane like the picture to the right. However, this really isn’t the case. It’s true that a few younger women wear outfits like this regularly, but most women don’t. Tokyo fashion ended up being much more subdued than I anticipated.
The biggest difference between expectation and reality is that bright colors aren’t at all common in Tokyo fashion. You’re much more likely to see even young girls sporting pastels rather than neon colors. White, cream, and pastels were the most common colors I saw. This is distinct from American fashion for two reasons. One being that we tend to favor bolder shades like jewel tones and the occasional neon, but we also use vibrant prints. In America you’d be hard pressed to find someone wearing a t-shirt with no design on it. There’s usually some wording, a picture, or a pattern somewhere on the shirt that catches the eye. In Japan, solid prints are the go to style. Mundane Tokyo fashion seems to use color blocking to spice up an outfit rather than using zany and interesting prints. Case in point: Uniqlo.
A dress I bought at Uniqlo. The design is unusually busy by Uniqlo standards.
Uniqlo is easily the most common clothing store I’ve run across in Tokyo. I have not been to a single section of the city where a Uniqlo wasn’t within walking distance from the station. You really can’t escape them, to be honest. When I first walked into a Uniqlo, I was very excited to see what common Japanese fashion would be, but my first impressions were somewhat poor. By American standards Uniqlo is, quite honestly, drab, dowdy, and uninspired. Solid prints as far as the eye can see. Very few shorts, but oodles of full length, business-like pants.
I could keep describing more minor differences, but the coloring and lack of prints are the most immediately noticeable differences. If I kept on going, this post would become much too long of a read, so I’ll cut it off here.
Next Time
The next post will be part two of America vs Japan where I’ll talk about food and mundane parts of everyday life. Until next time!
Almost all of architecture throughout history has been an effort to create something from the hands of man, that stands in stark contrast against the nature around it, that is separate from the elements and the earth. Buildings are meant to be strong and permanent, to withstand time and guard against the elements. In my Spanish Art and Architecture class we detailed ancient stone dwellings found in the Iberian Peninsula, the short stout romanic architecture of the middle ages, gothic architecture meant to be tall and ornate, divine rather than worldly. Although all of the movements were distinct they followed this same paradigm that building is to be in contrast to nature.
That is why Antoni Gaudí’s modernism was so revolutionary. It was a completely different conception of what architecture should be. Gaudí said “originally consists of returning to the origin”. He took all of his inspiration from nature and therefore his building were meant to be a part of this nature, rather than an opposition to it. In the age directly following the industrial revolution, this was so radical and so different from the utilitarian factories, gray skyscrapers, and other architectural trends of his era. In his houses, churches, parks, and palaces, he uses curved lines, stained glass, abstract forms that recall animals and plants, bright colors along with earthy tones, and a special mosaic technique called trencadis, in Catalan, where he takes mosaic tiles, breaks them into pieces and reassembles then in a much less manufactured manner.
Looking at Gaudís modernist building, especially La Sagrada Familia, was the first time that I had considered that a building, rather than serving a utilitarian purpose, can actually be a giant, livable sculpture, a perfect piece of art, with every detail having a specific, premeditated meaning. On the nativity facade of La Sagrada Familia, every carving into the stone serves a specific purpose in telling a story of the Bible. In the interior he uses columns to appear as a forest within the church and created a complicated buttressing system that used branches to direct all weight down through these large trunks. The details of the stain glass windows make allusions to holy sites throughout Catalunya and Spain, and the numbers and patterns that he uses throughout are all of a holy origin. It is truly a work of pure genius (of course this is no radical or original statement, but the popular conclusion)
In learning about the history of art and architecture in the Iberian peninsula and then actively exploring these famous sites throughout Catalunya I have developed a much greater understanding and appreciation of this artform. I have developed an incredible vocabulary to talk about art and describe artistic trends, which I otherwise would have likely never learned. Being able to discuss and explore the life and philosophy of Antoni Gaudí through one of his mother tongues has been an experience that will truly bring one back to the origins.
In Paris, you’re striding to catch your metro, or strolling Jardin des Tuileries, when you’re approached by a man. He asks you the hour, or
Connaissez-vous où est la Rue des Grands Boulevards?
then offers his 06. Turn this one down. He’s probably done the same thing to twelve other sheilas.
Or you’re at Sacre Coeur, and you see a boy lay a bordeaux colored scarf next to a girl reading a book. You see a surprised expression become over her face, and that she hurries to another shaded tree. Maybe turn this one down, too.
Better yet, you go to a language exchange group in the heart of Paris. You meet a caravan of new people! People who are interested in learning English and experiencing a new culture. He’s there, mildly charmed by your American accent (mildly friends, mildly) and your blog. After all, you’re cute and foreign. So, he suggests that you get together that weekend, to chat and grab a drink.
Veux-tu prendre un verre?
You RDV at some Metro Station, though you swore you would never meet a bloke at the Metro Station. He takes you to a museum, or maybe a park or the swimming pool, rock climbing or the outdoor markets. You love the outdoor markets. Then, you walk along the Seine and settle at a cozy but overcrowded cafe. You talk about books and movies, even though you hate movies, because you find it disagreeable to sit still. But in general, you find they are creative, The French Boys.
In the evening, he takes you to the théâtre, or a comedy show. The show is in English, or has to do with the United States. He wants to share your culture with you, but little does he know that all you want to do is learn French. You can see an English movie in the States, yo. But that is of little importance, and you have a grand time anyway.
After the show, you take a Vespa tour of Paris by night. You eventually have a ridiculously late European dinner. It is near 21h00 when you finally open a menu at his favorite galettes de Bretagne restaurant. Or, he might suggest that you cook something together, and you feast on duck, warm chèvre salad, chocolate cake, and matcha tea. It was probably you, who introduced the matcha tea.
At the end of the evening, he walks you home. He asks you every few minutes if you are able to walk in your heels. The chivalry is there, but like, you’re fine, dude. Chill. When you are finally in front of your door, the door to your tiny, un-airconditioned, over-populated Parisian flat, he kisses you goodnight. You close the door behind you, thinking you have a new standard for a good kiss. Because in France, every kiss, is a French kiss.
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about all the amazing food I have had the opportunity to eat in Ireland! My bean an tí, Lucy, is an incredible cook. We have been treated to all kinds of food over the past few weeks but I have especially loved the meals that are authentically Irish. Within breakfast alone, I cannot express how much I love the brown bread. It sounds so simple but it is the most delicious toast I have ever had. I would eat it for every meal if I could! The delicious bread paired with the fresh butter is an unbeatable breakfast. I can’t go back to American butter! For dinner, Lucy has served the most delicious Irish lamb stew and there are always endless potatoes. I have eaten more potatoes in the last four weeks than in the last 19 years of my life! Oh, but they are so good! The stew has lamb, carrots, onion, parsnips, potatoes, and all kinds of spices. I am going to make her write it down before I leave! Tonight, Lucy made us some traditional blood sausage with potatoes. I am going to miss her and her food so much! At the very least, I will be bringing back tea culture to the United States. Having a “cupán tae” midmorning has become one of my favorite routines. Apparently, it is very important to let the tea brew for a while rather than just boiling water. I have been scolded (playfully) for making my tea too weak!
Lucy’s stew!
We also got the chance to visit the Cliffs of Moher this weekend! I have dreamed of going to the cliffs for years so I was very excited. They did not disappoint in the slightest. The color of the water when the waves crashed against the rocks was stunning. The green and brown of the cliffs next to the blue of the sky was unbelievable. I couldn’t get over the sheer size and scale of them. There was definitely an element of fear there though! It would’ve been so easy to go over the edge. Some people were very bold in their search for the perfect photo-I thought a father and son were going to fall off! The beauty of the scene far outweighed my fear. The weather wasn’t bad; there were only a few clouds. I have found that Ireland is beautiful whether it is raining or sunny. I hope I can make it back to the cliffs on a sunny day!
windy day at the cliffsCliffs of Moher!
Going to places like the cliffs reminds me how incredibly blessed I am to be here. I have learned so much about this country and these people, gotten to see the most beautiful sights, and made friends that I will keep for the rest of my life. I can’t thank everyone enough for helping get here!
Or you’re at Sacre Coeur, and you see a boy lay a bordeaux colored scarf next to a girl reading a book. You see a surprised expression become over her face, and that she hurries to another shaded tree. Maybe turn this one down, too.
In the evening, he takes you to the théâtre, or a comedy show. The show is in English, or has to do with the United States. He wants to share your culture with you, but little does he know that all you want to do is learn French. You can see an English movie in the States, yo. But that is of little importance, and you have a grand time anyway.
