A Weekend in Paris

Bonjour Madames et Monsieurs!!

It's really cool because in my school schedule, I have Fridays off. You know why they do that? To give us more time to TRAVEL!! How cool is that?? That means that I can go to Paris for the weekend if I want... which is EXACTLY what I did last weekend.
What a beautiful city!! I left on Wednesday in order to get to Paris in time to see a band called the Aristocrats. I've been in touch with the drummer, Marco Minnemann, and after the show I got a chance to talk with him and meet the other members of the band too. So that was really cool.
One really funny thing that happened that day on my way to the show: I was walking down the street trying to find the venue, and I was getting a little bit lost. I get to an intersection, and then this older man comes up to me and starts speaking in French, but of course I didn't understand what he was saying so I just tried to wave him off. He was trying to show me something on his iPhone, and I was like, uhhh je ne comprends pas! But then he said with a British accent, Do you speak English??? And I was like, YES!! hahahaha! He seemed friendly and not creepy so I wasn't scared. And then what he was showing me on his iPhone was the name of the venue that I was trying to find, so I said, are you here to see the Aristocrats? YES HE WAS!! hahahahaha!! Totally random. So he helped me as much as he could in finding the Bastille Memorial, which helped me find the venue, and then we parted ways and were like, maybe I'll see you later! hahaha. And then I did end up running into him while waiting outside for Marco, and we started talking with another group of French students, it was so fun! Of course we talked about music, Dream Theater, metal, etc. The man, Reese, was a real Dream Theater fan. So that was really really fun, cool to make some new friends!
For the rest of the weekend I pretty much just spent my time enjoying the city, seeing the sights. My friend James from study abroad wanted to see Paris too, so he ended up meeting me there on Thursday. I enjoyed the time that I spent there alone, but it was definitely nice to have a travel buddy. We went to see the Eiffel Tower of course, and we also went into the Louvre, to the top of the Arc de Triumphe, and to Notre Dame. It was all so beautiful, I could've literally spent an entire day at each one of those places just looking at them. And of course there were the cafes. Croissants, Croque Madames, Chocolat Chaud, Crepes... man apparently all french food starts with the letter C... haha.
So the moral of the story is... I'm definitely going to go back to Paris again. What an amazing city!! I was blown away.

Au revoir!

Swiss Roobios on the train to Paris

Marco's drumset

The Aristocrats! Guthrie Govan, Brian Beller, Marco Minnemann

The Bastille Memorial

Absolute Heaven: reading while eating delicious food in a cafe in Paris.

For drinking Hot Chocolate with a Mustache...

Cafe!!

Happy Birthday Caleb!!!

James and me at the top of the Eiffel Tower

Classic...

So there was a car show while were there randomly, which was so awesome. This Lotus was just chillin with the rest of the Ferraris and Lamborghinis.

SNAILS!!!

The Louvre

Sup Lisa! It's actually a lot smaller than you'd think.

THIS IS A CARPET.

On the Champs Ellysee and the Arc de Triumphe!!

On top of the Arc de Triumphe

Paris at night is a sight to see in itself.

We went to a gregorian chant service at Notre Dame, which was a very very cool experience. Ended up being the first time I'd been to church yet while being here.

Found a little gem...

<3

<3 hannah ;)

Quick Update!

Hallo Alle!!

Wie geht es ihnen?? Just wanted to send you all a quick update before I leave to go to PARIS FOR THE WEEKEND!!! YAAA!! I'm going to go see a show by a band called The Aristocrats. I've been in contact with the drummer, Marco Minnemann, and he asked me if I could come to one of his shows while in Europe so that we could discuss the possibility of me getting lessons with him at some point. SOO hopefully all goes well!! And then I'm just going to stay in the city for the weekend, because it just seemed like such a perfect opportunity to spend some time there! So I'm pretty excited about that.
Classes are going well so far. I don't have that many, so I've got lots of time to relax and enjoy Europe, which is really nice. I'm continuing to practice as much as possible, but that's been difficult recently because somehow I messed up my elbow while practicing. But I'm hoping that taking a little break while in Paris will give it some time to heal so I can continue practicing next week!
In other news, I've decided to change my major to Music Education. This came up last Friday. It's a long story, but I'm really excited about it. I really feel that Music Education is where God is calling me to go, so I'm super stoked to do that. I also decided to apply to the Peer Advising program at Berklee, which I'm also pretty excited about. If I am accepted to be a Peer Advisor, I'd get a group of brand new students at Berklee, and it'd basically be my job to help them settle into Berklee life better.
Well that's about all I have time for right now. Gotta catch my train!! I'll let you all know how Paris was next week!!

Bis bald,

<3 hannah ;)

Immersion

So when I got here, I didn't really realize how different Germany would be from Canada and America. I kindof figured, heck, my family is German, I know German, and Europeans are a lot like Canadians and Americans. A lot of Canadians and Americans have a European family background. So how different can it be? Sure they have cooler architecture, but shouldn't I still be able to step out the door and grab a burger if I want? They have burgers in Europe, don't they? NO!! Well yes, they have McDonalds and Burger King, but come on, who wants McDonalds and Burger King when you can have B.Good or Tasty Burger or Fulton Market Burger Co. or any one of the other hundreds of delicious burger joints in North America? So I assumed that I'd be able to do this here too. But not exactly. There's more differences than I could've even imagined! I learned something new today: in order to get the full experience of study abroad, you've really got to do all you can to immerse yourself in the culture.

One example that I've encountered of this is how I think of my money. I can't keep thinking of money in Dollars, I've got to think of money in Euros. I would look at prices and be like, wow! That's cheap! Wait... it's in Euros... and I'd frantically try to convert the currency in my head to see how much I was spending in my own currency. But then Christian, a fellow study abroader, said to me, "Just see your money as Euros and spend money according to how many Euros you have" and I realized, he's totally right! I'm not in Canada, I'm not in America, I'm in Germany, so I've got to make some adjustments. This same concept also applies to time. Instead of trying to figure out, ok, 13:00 is 1:00pm, 21:56 is almost 10:00pm, I've got to think, it's 21:56, it's 13:00. They're adjustments, but I've realized, If I don't try to see my world in the eyes of a German right now, I won't get the full abroad experience! I've got to become German while here! That's a pretty hard, but exciting thing to attempt to do.

The party scene here is pretty crazy. The German culture, and I'd stretch that to most of Europe as well, is to start dinner maybe around 20:00 - 20:30 (8 - 8:30pm), and dine until maybe 22:00 or even 23:00. Then they might go out to a pub to grab a beer, because who's going to be at the club at 23:00? No one. Only when it reaches about midnight is it kosher to start heading to the club. Then they dance pretty much the entire night away, and sometimes even have breakfast with the people they went out with the night before. My collegues and I (except Tasha, our little night owl) have had a couple issues with this, because clubs and parties in Canada and America usually start winding down around 2am, for the most part. But not here. So usually around 2am we get tired and have to leave, while everyone else in the club is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I'm not a huge partier in general, but I wanted to get a feel for the culture down here. It's pretty interesting. One of the best things about German clubs is when a German song comes on, and EVERYONE sings along, except us, who are like, uhhh... YEY!! haha.We went to an I <3 80's night at one of the clubs that often has live music called JazzHaus Freiburg, and it was so much fun! Jammed out to the best of the 80's, including some of my FAVES, Upside Down by Diana Ross, Conga by Gloria Estefan, multiple Michael Jackson songs and some awesome hair metal songs. It was a really fun to. ime.
So my conclusion: Immersion is key!

Bis bald alle!

<3 hannah ;)