Sara’s abroad in Paris, France, until Dec. 13.

This past week was Toussaint –- a week break that the Paris program gives to students because we’re doing a semester here instead of a quarter. Basically, it’s like spring break in November. I had originally wanted to go to Italy during the break, but after looking at flight costs, I ditched that plan. It seemed like everyone on the program wanted to go to Spain but knowing no Spanish, I wasn’t too sure about that. It’s hard enough getting around Paris not being too fluent, and I really had never wanted to go to Spain. Sitting around Paris for a week didn’t sound too appealing though, so I ended up booking my tickets. After everyone booked their tickets, it ended up being 14 NU kids traveling together to Madrid, Sevilla and Barcelona. While I was a little apprehensive about going, it was really one of the most amazing weeks of my life and probably as close to backpacking through Europe as I’ll ever get. I could go on and on about each city and what we did, but instead I’ll just give a quick run down of the more interesting parts.

Transport:
When you’re a student studying abroad, trying to make a penny go along way isn’t easy. But one way to cut costs is to fly on cheap airlines. I was expecting plastic seats, cramped cabin space and rough takeoffs. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Vueling Airlines was probably the most interesting flight of my life. After boarding, the pilot slammed on breaks, throwing the flight attendants around as they were giving the mandatory safety speech. He quickly came over the radio with a “Sorry about that”. Then, halfway into the flight, the pilot came back on the radio to ask us all in broken English to sing “Happy Birthday” to one of the flight attendants so the entire plane broke into song. On top of all that we were serenaded during the entire flight by the “acclaimed” music of some French DJ. Basically, I know every word to “These Boots Are Made for Walking” now. It was a pretty hilarious experience, made even more funny because we were all traveling (and having that song stuck in our heads…) together.

Hostels:
The hostel experience was even more funny than the airplane experience. The first hostel was pretty average –- private rooms, dorm-like bathroom. When we got to the next one, “Ole Backpacker” ,we clearly were not prepared. Not only did we have to walk through other people’s rooms to get to our room, but we had to walk through their room to get to the bathroom. The bathroom was a room with three showers and a toilet. But there was no door for the toilet…and it was on a pedestal. All of this would have actually been pretty normal if it wasn’t for Klaus, the fifty-year-old German man staying next to us who stunk up the entire floor, walked around in his tighty-whiteys and looked at porn on the public computer. It was literally a scene out of “Euro Trip”.

Our hostel in Barcelona was pretty normal. I won’t lie -– we all agreed that the bizarre hostel experience and sketchy plane flights actually made the trip more enjoyable. It’s the only time in our lives that we’ll really want to spend a week cramped into a six person room and we got some pretty good stories out of the whole experience. In Sevilla, my friend Adam lost his key to the locker in our room so they guy at the front desk just told him to go upstairs, get a knife and break it. When Adam asked if he’d have to pay for it, our new Spanish friend said, “Nah…I won’t tell anybody about it.” Talk about something that would never happen in America (or hardly anywhere for that matter).

Food:
I have to admit…I have a love/hate relationship with Spanish food. I love how cheap it is and it actually tastes pretty good. In Sevilla, we found a restaurant with sandwiches and drinks for a euro each. That’s about one-sixth of the Paris price. The only problem with the food that I found was that it was so meat heavy. Don’t get me wrong, I like my protein, but there was literally nothing but meat in any of the dishes. After a while, all I really wanted was just some pasta. At one point we actually did find a five euro all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet.

The highlight of our dining experience was at a pretty unlikely place though. Just a block down from our Barcelona hostel, in a fairly sketch neighborhood, there was a restaurant with taps at each individual tables. They gave you cups and you poured your own beer. A screen on the wall then kept track of how much your table had drank and you got to see how you measured up against all the other tables. I doubt it’s legal in the United States, but if this establishment was in Evanston it would probably put both the Keg and Hundo out of business. The best part was the food was actually delicious and about 2.75 for a sandwich. Quite possibly every college student’s dream.

All in all, I would say that Barcelona was my favorite. It had a very bohemian feel, was a beautiful city on the beach and had a great blend of culture and entertainment. Sevilla was a beautiful city too and I felt like I really got to experience the Spanish culture there. I really couldn’t appreciate much of Madrid. We were only there for a night and a day, so I know I shouldn’t write it off without spending more time there. I just felt like it was too much like Paris without any of the charm.

Speaking of Paris, this trip only confirmed how happy I am to be in Paris. It was such a relief to land in the Orly airport and hear French again. I finally knew what was going on and didn’t have to ask every five seconds “What does that mean?”. As great as Spain was, Paris is really more my kind of town. (And now the French can’t be rude to us anymore because we elected Obama.) The only bad part is, I’m starting to realize how little time I have left.

I feel like I’ll really get to know Paris these next two weeks though. My boyfriend, Jamie, is coming into town, and then my mom and my aunt are coming the following weekend. So, in between registering for classes and writing papers this week, I’m going to at least try to think of all the must-dos in Paris so I can show them all a good time. Although it might be a little unrealistic, I want everyone to love the place that I call home as much as I do.

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