Giverny

Yesterday my roommates and I took a day trip to Giverny, France. It is where Monet’s home and garden with the famous lily pond are, along with a Museum of Impressionism. It was very beautiful, and Monet did all his own landscaping. Inside his house there were a few shelves of books about horticulture and gardens. His home was quite large too. I think he was well off before he became a famous artist though. We took a train to get there and it wasn’t too hard to use. We just didn’t know how to self validate our ticket with the machine. The worst part was the bike ride from Toulon (the train station) to Giverny, a 30 min bike ride away. From the start I did not want to take the bikes because they were more expensive than the bus and there was a greater chance of getting lost. However, I was outvoted so we took them and ended up getting lost for an hour. It was really frustrating because they gave us a bad map and all the street signs in France are small and up high on the building if there is even one at all. We asked a few town people for directions who actually told us the correct way, we just couldn’t wrap our tiny brains around it. Eventually we got there and everything was fine again. Here is a few pictures of the place.

Then last night I did my first Bus2Alps event, a pub crawl. We went to 4 bars near the Moulin Rouge and a nightclub on the Champs Elysees. They had specials for us crawlers at each bar, like a 5 Euro beer or mixed drink and a free shot. The French don’t drink like the Americans do (which is a good thing), so it definitely got some attention when there were 50 loud people waiting in the Metro stop singing Ole Ole Ole. The fancy club that we went to wasn’t that special though. The drinks were 12 Euro ($17) and nobody was dancing. I had more fun at the regular bars with music. It was funny though because before we got there the leaders gathered everyone up and said put on your poker face or you are not getting in, which really just made people start singing Lady GaGa. There were a lot of people that were not even from my CEA group. Many students were from the U.K. and a there were a few backpackers. It was a fun event though, and I think it helped strengthen the friendships I’ve made so far.  Dancing on the big air vent was fun too.  Man do my feet hurt from those heels...