clementine31129's VirtualTourist Home Page

Why are French women completly and totally flawlessly fashionable even when they don't try to be? It's impossible! They always look perfect! It not that they all wear couture all the time or whatever, but whatever they are wearing they always seem to make it work wonderfully. I wish I could do that.

I'm sort of intimidated about going to Paris for that reason. It sounds silly, I know, but I want to blend in, or stand out at least because people think i look good; I most definitely don't want to be one of those people who manages to scream tourist from every pore and fiber of their being. I mean, I shouldn't care what others think of me, I know that, but I do in this sort of circumstance. I'll just have to take some time planning all my outfits specially.

Since my time has been occupied recently by studying for the AP Euro national exam rather then planning the trip, i havent really thought about travel in awhile. But now that the exam is over (I'm hoping for a 5/5, I was comfortable and happy with all parts!!!) I need to get back down to work. I'm trying to plan Provence, which will be the most diffucult part for sure. Trying to balance Avignon and Arles with the countryside is going to be diffucult, but I'm up for it. Also, I need to do Nice, I have almost no info on Nice yet. I have to balance everything, then worst of all get it approved by the family, who is content with sitting back on their asses and watching me scramble. For the love of Jesus I cant even get Dad and Andrew to sit down in front of the computer and find out whats important for them to see in Normandy for Christ's sake! Breathe....breathe....breathe.
At least Paris is done, well almost. Just a few kinks to work out and stuff, and also I have to run some stuff by mom and dad concerning the amount of time that I will be allowed alone (for the sake of ease and accomodating everyone I'm gonna propose to go to the Marie Antoinette exhibit alon while they do the boat tour, which sounds SOOOOO tacky and I dont want to do it). I mean, seriously, its a museum, its not as if Im asking to go out at 2am to a vampire club or something. And I'll be only a month away from 16 at that point. AND my cell is international, as are theres, so everythings good. Dad can convince mom of it, i'm sure he can.

I'm, so excited to be going to paris this summer I can hardly wait... most definitely the best sweet 16 birthday present ever! And I'm completely excited to be going to the Louvre as well. I want to see so much though, I know I will run into problems. But I'm trying to pare it all down, though its incredibly hard for me. But heres what I have so far

French Crown Jewels
Napoleon III Apartments
Objects d'Art from the 17th century, Bourbon Restoration, July Monarchy
French Sculpture
French 17th and 18th century painting

I know I'm asking for too much. But I think the crwon jewels are not that large of a collection (???) and if anything, I would totally cut the objects d'art if I find them to not be what I expect them to be when I get there. But I want to devote a lot of time to sculpture and paintings as well.
Any suggestions, please email me or shoot me a comment, love to here from those who have already been with tips or anything!

Carley

So its official now, finally, France is where we are going to go over the summer! How excited I am! God, after doing the extremeley fdifficault and time consuming AP European Hisotry class during school, I should practically know the history of every thing that went on there, so it should be insane! We're doing Paris (duh), Normandy, and then Provence/Monte Carlo. If anyone has ever been to any of these places and has any tips or suggestions, feel free to comment, it would be greatly appreciated!

So in Paris, from reading guide book so far, I have already emassed a list of thing that I would like to do, I'll give you a little list. Bear in mind this is my first time to Paris, so the obligatory, inescapable things are on there:

Eiffel Tower
Arc d' Triompe
Louvre
Musee d'Orsay
Sacre Couer
Jardin de Luxembourg
Notre Dame
Concierge (where Marie Antoinette was imprisioned during the Revolution)
Sainte Chapelle
Ile Saint Louis
St Sulpice/ St Germain des Pres
Institut de Monde Arabe
Mosquee de Paris
Église St-Etienne-du-Mont
Eglise St-Louis St-Paul
Eglise Saint-Séverin
St-Gervais-St-Protais

***, I just realized how long that list is. Yeah, I'm a huge history buff, like, out of my mind, and a huge church fan (I went crazy in Rome this summer), and also a huge art fiend. Paris in a limited amount of time is not my friend. Oh, and I'm going through this obsession with Islamic art and architecture, so thats why the mosque and Institue of the Arab World museum are in there. I mean, some of those thing will not even take five seconds, like the Arc de Triompe, the Sacre Couer and all the churchs, its not like I'm gonna spend hours in these places, so I'll be fine I think. But we're gonna run into problems in the Louvre. For example, this summer, I spent the entire ( and I mean ENTIRE) day at the Met in New York City and still only made a dent in my "must see at the Met" list. Thus, I smell trouble here as well. Well, I will have to keep my art and art history insanity to a minimum, which I will try my hardest to do.

Again, love suggestions, feel free to comment me! Thanks
Carley

Summer study abroad...my total dream!!! I wanted to do it last year, but my mother and father said no, too young, and now I agree with them. It would not have been good if I had gone last year. I will appreciate it more next summer. So, I want to go to Spoleto, Italy in Umbria, which has a photography program which I so want to be a part of. I'm obssessed with photography, it's my ultimate goal in life and, yeah, I'm just totally obsessed. So I want to go there for that reason. But it's also really expensive, and I feel terrible for asking my parents for that, despite the fact that I have offered to pay for as much as they feel I need to. And then there's Granada, Spain. Less expensive, but then again, i dont even know I I can get in, because you have to be 16, but I will not be 16 until a few weeks after the program concludes. So thats totally iffy for that reason. But if I went there, then I could put my 4 years of Spanish to their first real practice. And I've heard that Granada is so beautiful. So beautiful and totally enchanting. It is all so iffy right now that I have no idea. No idea whatsoever.

Carley

My life for the past week had sucked, quite honestly. I've been swamped with homework, I got a bad grade on a Chemistry test, and I love chemistry (yes, 15 year old girl who likes chemistry and is totally sane), and then today I got a horrendous grade on my English paper. Which really made me feel like crap. Like I felt like the teacher has not gotten the wrong impression of me. I am an awesome English student, Enlgish was one of my best classes last year, and I love it, everything about it. I love reading, I love writing, and I just feel like her image of me has been cheapened now that I got a C on my paper. Last year, the worst grade I got on a major assignment was an A-! So now I feel so motivated thought to work super-hard and earn back my reputation as a good English student. Which I guess is good, I just wish I could get back my rep in the English department sooner.

So anyways, I have been reallly focusing on NYU, my future college (God permitting), and their whole new campus that is in the works in Abu Dhabi in the UAE. It's insane, but God must love me or something, becasue when I am a freshmen at NYU, the school will be opening the campus for the first time. So when I want to go abroad as a sophomore, I can choose Abu Dhabi. God, sometimes life works out almost too well. I have always wanted to study abroad, and I think it would be a great oppertunity to really experiance the Middle East if I studied there for a semester. But here's what I'm torn over. Abu Dhabi, Madrid, or Buenos Aires. The sie of three NYU studay abroad campuses. Now, I take Spanish now, and will continue to take it until I gain fluency, but I can't decide whether or not to go to Madrid or Buenos Aires to contiue my studying, or just go to Abu Dhabi. I have heard time an time again how beneficial it is to study abroad in a country where the langauage you are learning is spoken, so that makes my case for Buenos Aires or Madrid, but I really really want to go to Abu Dhabi. And there's no way I can do both, no way. I don't know. If anyonereading this has a recommendation, please leave me comment or a message or something, anything is greatly appreciated!

Carley

Ay Dios mio! I am so drawn to Istanbul! After spending some time there this summer, I feel like Istanbul is pulling me back. It's tugging at my soul it seems, and the longer I say away the more I need to go back. It's like, when I left Istanbul, I left part of who I was there. Actually, let me change that statement. When I left Istanbul, I was so profoundly affected, that now I'm a totally different person; I feel like I need to get back there as soon as I can in order to fully complete who I am, because Istanbul makes up part of me now. The city is so beautiful and so cultured and so...everything that I feel its nearly perfect.

Carley