Tag: express

March 8, 2020 – Luxembourgeois (OOTD #619)

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It wasn’t until my second day in Luxembourg that I actually visited Luxembourg City.

Luxembourg is a somewhat confusing place — it’s the name of both a country and a city. The city, Luxembourg, is sometimes called Luxembourg City to distinguish it from the country, but more often, it’s just called Luxembourg. I suppose it’s something like New York City versus New York State in that you could call either just “New York” and, depending on context, people would understand you to mean either the city or the state.

Because Emma and I spent most of our first day in Luxembourg in Vianden, a town about an hour outside of Luxembourg City, it wasn’t until our second and final day that we actually made it into the city to explore.

Luxembourg City has much fewer things to see than a city like, say, Paris or London. If you ever visit (the country or the city), I would probably only devote two or three days, with only one of those days for Luxembourg City itself.

It’s possible as well that my opinion is swayed by the fact that we were there on a Sunday, when relatively little was open. I’m not necessarily sure I would’ve gone into very many shops or restaurants or museums even if they were, but it did feel very quiet in town as we were walking around, even for a Sunday morning.

We visited the Grand Ducal Palace, the official residence of the Grand Duke and the royal family, which, to us, as visitors on a Sunday morning when nothing was open, was ultimately just a cool work of architecture to look at from the outside. There was also a Notre-Dame Cathedral (yes, another one — I really ought to start keeping a list of all of the Notre Dames I’ve been to) that we poked our heads into for minute or two.

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I think the best part of Luxembourg City was the giant Adolphe Bridge across the Pétrusse valley. Luxembourg, like many cities, is a city in parts, with a bridge connecting the different sections. Most cities, like Budapest or Paris, have massive rivers running through them, sectioning off each partition. Luxembourg, on the other hand, is split not so much by a big river (though it does have one), but by a big valley.

It’s like Luxembourg is a city of two massive hills, with a deep chasm in-between the two. That’s where Adolphe Bridge comes through, which allows you to walk between the two halves. You can also take the stairs and venture down into the valley, which is home to both a lovely park and a small neighborhood of expensive-looking homes. It was something of a hike to get down into the valley, but I would say it’s absolutely worth it. It’s quite something to look up at the bridge towering above you with the two halves of the city on either side.

Luxembourg ended up being my last excursion while I was in Paris. Just a few days later, I got the email informing me that I was being sent home by my university. I think Emma and I both saw it coming, though of course, we didn’t want to believe it could be true. I thought for sure I would at least have a few more weeks — I definitely didn’t see it coming so soon.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life during my semester abroad in the Paris, France. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest,Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Coat: Thrifted (Free’p’star Paris)

Skirt: Thrifted (Free’p’star Paris)

Blouse: Express

March 3, 2020 – Chez Moi (OOTD #616)

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It sure felt good to be back in Paris after traveling Europe for a week.

It was definitely weird to have only gone to school for about a week (two, if you count the Welcome Programme as “school”) before going on vacation. In total, I’d been in Europe for well over a month at this point, but I’d actually only attended classes for a small fraction at that point. I figured, though, I would have 2-3 months still to get into a routine of going to class and coming home and maybe going out sometimes or traveling during the weekends. Even if my life up until early March hadn’t been terribly “normal” I thought it soon would be. Jokes on me, I guess.

By March, coronavirus had become a relatively big story in both Europe and the US, and I was beginning to consider the possibility of getting sent home. Still, it seemed like a pretty far-fetched option at that point. Worst case scenario, I thought maybe I’d get stuck in Paris and be unable to travel on the weekends anymore.

Early March (or at least what was left of March until I eventually got sent home) was devoted to getting accustomed to life in Paris. Despite having lived in my apartment there on the 14e arrondissement, it hadn’t felt like I’d actually spent much time there.

So I set about trying to fix that. One day, after class, I took the reading I’d been assigned for school with me to a small park about a five minute walk from my apartment. It was late afternoon, so the light began fading earlier than I might’ve liked, but it was nice to study somewhere other than my apartment or the cramped Sciences Po library (never thought I’d miss Hesburgh Library) for a little while. The weather was mild enough that I was comfortable in just this light leather jacket.

As I was leaving to go home for dinner, I had what I think might’ve been my first instance of coronavirus-related racism. There was a (white) woman who’d parked herself at the entrance of the park and was asking people for money as they left, and as I was packing up, I dreaded having to walk by and ignore her. Weirdly though, as I approached, she took one look at me and crossed to the opposite end of the street. I distinctly remember making eye contact with her before she did so.

Microaggressions are stupid and awful for many reasons, but one of the worst is that you can never really know if what just happened actually had anything to do with race. It’s like being gaslit by yourself. By March, I’d already heard stories about Asian people being mistreated because of coronavirus-related fears, and I felt as though I got a few lingering glances on the metro when I coughed, so that’s what I wondered immediately had been going through the woman’s mind — but I’ll never know.

Turtleneck: Express

Skirt: Thrifted (Poshmark)

Jacket: Thrifted (Free’p’star Paris)

February 22, 2020 – Those Red Tail Lights Heading for Spain (OOTD #615)

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Sciences Po winter break: day 8.

My final destination on my whirlwind week-long backpacking tour of Europe was a country I’ve actually never been to before: Spain.

It’s not that I haven’t been interested in visiting Spain. But each time I’ve visited Europe for a significant period of time (that is, the summer after my sophomore year and my junior spring), most of my travels have taken me in an eastbound direction, towards Central and Eastern Europe. Spain has just not ended up being a convenient stop, and it’s been too far away for a weekend or a day trip.

And there actually wasn’t anything significantly different now from those previous trips about the direction of my travels; the meaningful difference ended up that I had a free place to stay in Spain. My friend, Emma, was studying abroad in Toledo and living with a host family, which meant I had free lodging that I could take advantage of.

But it wasn’t just me who was going to make the most of a study abroad living situation — Emma was also planning to come visit me in Paris and stay in my apartment. Long story short, it didn’t end up happening — but I’ll get to that later.

Toledo was one of the most unique European cities I’ve visited — which is saying something, considering I had just come from Venice, which was also one of the most unique European cities I’ve ever visited. For one, Toledo was geographically different — it was hilly, with twisty roads that wound their way back and forth up and down the landscape. It reminded me of some of the scenes from Lord of the Rings — maybe not the Shire, but perhaps Minas Tirith, with the way the towers and roads seemed to be a part of a mountain. It wasn’t the most fairytale-esque of anywhere I’ve ever been, but it was the most fantasy-esque.

And Toledo was warm! It was probably 65 degrees and sunny in February, and even though the winter in Paris was milder than what I was used to in South Bend, I was still shocked with how beautiful the weather was.

It was a perfect day for a hike, which is how I ended up seeing so much of the surrounding countryside. I would have loved to have been able to spend more time there exploring the hills and valleys and some of what looked like ancient ruins scattered along the path.

We even took a little picnic of wine and cheese and bread up to the overlook, which is where I got these beautiful pictures of Toledo looking like Minas Tirith. It also felt lovely to stretch my legs and get some actual physical exercise in. I wasn’t able to workout at all the whole week (not that I was necessarily keeping to a strict regimen while I was at Sciences Po), and it was great to get my heart rate up a little.

After our hike, we took the zipline across the river to get back to town. Then, we took a short break for some food and to rest up before the night’s festivities.

After having spent a day celebrating Carnevale in Venice, Italy it was time to celebrate El Carnaval in Toledo.

Once again, I dressed in my red dress, blue coat, and sparkly mask, exactly what I had worn while I was in Venice. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have another costume, and though I did have a leopard print shirt that I could’ve feasibly used as a cat costume, I thought my masquerade ensemble was more suited for the occasion.

I’m glad I got to go out for a night during Carnival since my friends and I were too tired to go out in the evening when we were in Venice. Toledo may not have been as famous for their Carnival festivities as Venice, but it was still a lot of fun! There was live music, a parade, drinks, and dancing — though I do wish I could’ve understood some of the Spanish to have at least a little bit of a clue what was going on.

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I think my favorite part of the night was watching people in their costumes go by. It was a different kind of a costume than what I saw in Venice. In Venice, everyone was dressed in historical gowns and wigs and Phantom of the Opera-style masks, while in Toledo, people were wearing essentially Halloween costumes. I saw plenty of Elsas and Darth Vadars and Hulks. I also saw a few people in blackface, which I could’ve done without.

And thus ended my eight day tour of Europe. I was actually there until the following day, Sunday, and then flew back to Paris in the afternoon. This was the last photo I took before I headed for the bus station to take me back to Madrid to hop on the metro to take me all the way through the city and back to the Madrid airport to take a plane back to the Paris Beauvais airport to take a shuttle back to Paris to take the metro back to my apartment at the Porte d’Orléans. It was a suitably long day of traveling to conclude a long week of traveling.

Outfit 1:

Turtleneck: Vintage (thrifted, Street Scene Vintage)

Trousers: Express

Outfit 2:

Dress: Express

Turtleneck: See above

Coat: A vintage shop in Budapest  (thrifted)

February 21, 2020 – Venetian Carnevale (OOTD #614)

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Sciences Po winter break: day 7

On my final day with my Sciences Po travel crew, we woke up in an AirBnB apartment in Venice, Italy during Carnevale season.

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Of all the places I visited on our week-long whirlwind tour of Central Europe, Venice was easily the most visually unique. I mean, it’s arguably one of the most visually unique cities in the world — there’s a reason it’s a popular tourist destination. Each city we visited had its own style in some way — for example, Frankfurt had the charm of both old town Germany and a modern city of skyscrapers and Ljubljana had the most beautiful scenery with mountains in the distance. But at the same time, to some extent, they all ran together in my mind.

Venice, on the other hand, was completely different. You could never confuse Venice for Budapest or Prague or Vienna.

I think being there during Carnevale season also helped its case. Not that I’ve ever been to Venice at any other time of the year, but if I had to suggest a time to visit, I would definitely suggest Carnevale. The weather is perfect, for one: Italy during the wintertime is still fairly mild, and there are fewer tourists than there are in the summer. Apparently the canals can get somewhat smelly in the summer as well, which was not an issue I noticed at all when I was there in February.

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Carnevale season is meant for partying — and even if you’re not a party person (or, if you were like my friends and me, you were too tired for partying after six days of night buses and walking tours), you can enjoy watching the partygoers in their elaborate costumes and masks.

I did my best to replicate the Carnevale style of fashion with my purchased masquerade mask and my vintage velvet coat, but what I was wearing was nothing in comparison to the elaborate ball gowns and hats and coats that I saw people wearing. If our only destination was Venice, and if I’d been planning this trip for more than a few weeks, I would’ve bought myself a costume.

I suppose the elephant in the room is that while we were there, Carnevale weekend, was when the first COVID-19 outbreak in Europe occurred. We left on Saturday, just a few days before the first cases began being reported, so we had no clue what was ahead of us in the coming weeks and months. At that time, COVID-19 was still a news story for Asia, not Europe. That was probably one of the last times I was in a large crowd with strangers, and one of the last times I existed in a world where COVID-19 wasn’t on my mind.

I had one more destination ahead of me than my friends, so I bid them all farewell in the afternoon to catch a plain off to Madrid, Spain. Madrid, however, wasn’t actually my actual destination: Toledo, a smaller town about an hour bus ride away from Madrid, was. Toledo was where my friend, Emma, was studying abroad and living with a host family.

I left Venice shortly after lunch, and I ended up getting into Madrid past sundown. From there, I had to take the metro for an hour, from essentially one end of the city to another. Then, it was another hour to find my bus and wait for it to arrive, and then yet another hour to actually get into Toledo.

Emma and one of her friends met me there, and we walked back to her host family’s house. It was dark, about 10 pm, so I couldn’t see clearly, but even in the dark I got the sense that Toledo was yet another visually distinct town. For one, there were more hills than I had seen in any of the other cities I’d visited in the past week. It was quite a hike.

At that point, I wouldn’t have minded to have just taken a shower and gone to bed, but Emma had made plans with some of her Notre Dame friends to go bar hopping, and I couldn’t resist the invitation to go out in a new country.

I thought 11pm-ish was somewhat late to be heading out for the night, but according to Emma, for Spanish people, it was early. She and some of her friends remarked that one of the clubs we went to wasn’t as energetic as it usually was, which they figured was due to it being too early.

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For me though, by around 1am, I was feeling dead on my feet, and I suppose Emma was starting to notice, so we said our goodbyes to her friends and headed home. At that point, I’d been backpacking for a whole week, sleeping on buses and walking all day, and within 24 hours I’d celebrated Carnevale in Italy, flown to Spain, rode a train from one end of Madrid to another, and taken a bus to Toledo. With one mixed drink and a shot of vodka in my system, my body was ready to sleep.

Dress: Express

Turtleneck: FreePeople

Coat: A vintage shop in Budapest  (thrifted)

February 18, 2020 – Vienna Waits for You (OOTD #611)

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Sciences Po winter break: day 4

Actually, on the contrary, I’d argue that Vienna doesn’t really wait for you, considering they close up most of everything when the sun goes down. Vienna waits for you at least until dusk, and then you’re on your own.

On day two in Vienna, we did allow ourselves a late start to the day. One of my friends wasn’t feeling well (was it coronavirus or just a cold? I guess I’ll never know), so we took our time getting ready in the morning. I probably would’ve preferred to head out earlier, but looking back, it was probably good to allow ourselves a slower morning. We basically didn’t have any others for the rest of the week.

Our AirBnB apartment this time wasn’t really anywhere near the City Centre, so it was a solid 30 minute walk to get to any of the tourist sites. It was interesting to see Vienna during the daytime this time, walking the same streets as I’d walked the night before in the dark. Vienna feels like a relatively laid back city, at least in comparison to Paris, which can at times feel somewhat stuffy, or even another Central European city like Budapest, which can feel a little cold and unforgiving.

At the City Centre, we saw the famous St. Stephen’s Cathedral (an interesting name, given that there’s a St. Stephen’s Basilica in neighboring Budapest) and Hofburg Palace. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a walking tour this time, unlike in Prague, so I couldn’t really tell you the historical significance of any of the buildings we saw.

Then, we went for what I think was my favorite dining experience of the trip — a snack at a Viennese coffee house.

I mostly didn’t bother planning for this trip beyond organizing AirBnbs and buses. I figured I’d go with the flow and figure out what to do each day on the fly. But I did know that Viennese coffee was something I wanted to try.

The place we went was called Café Central, in case you ever want to check it out. I would definitely recommend — the building itself is beautiful, with high vaulted ceilings and colorful paintings, and the food was delicious. I got an iced coffee and goulash (again), and my friends got desserts.

After our meal, we floundered around for a bit trying to decide what to do. By then, the sun was going down, which meant everything but restaurants was closing up for the day. We had wanted to go to the Schonbrunn Palace, but that, like everything else, was closed by about 5pm. We weren’t ready to just call it quits and head home for the night, especially since we’d only really gone out in the afternoon, but there didn’t seem to be much left to do other than eat, and we’d literally just done that.

Finally Margo managed to find a museum that was open called the House of Music, a tribute to the many famous composers and musicians from Austria, such as Mozart and Haydn and Mahler. A lot of the exhibits kind of went over my head, as I don’t really know much about classical composers, but I loved looking at some of the handwritten pieces of sheet music and sitting and listening to the video of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra concert. If I ever go back to Austria (which I really hope I do), I think getting tickets to the Vienna Philharmonic would have to be at the top of my list.

After spending a few hours at the music museum, we were hungry so we treated ourselves to an authentic Austrian feast: sushi and potstickers.

Of course, I’m being sarcastic — we got Asian takeout. We were all feeling a little exhausted from trying new foods in every city, and the heavy Central European stews and sausages were growing old. I probably liked the food the most of everyone — I think fondly of the goulash I had in Prague at least once a week — but my friends were sick of it. In truth, I was also craving some comfort food myself, and nothing reminds me of home quite like stir fry.

And that’s the story of the cover photo for this post, which is probably one of my favorite photos of me that’s ever been taken. Ebba shot it while Megan, Margo, and me were gazing hungrily at the menu. I love the soft lighting, the way my hair falls, and how excited I look to be ordering noodles.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life during my semester abroad in the Paris, France. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest,Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Dress: Express

Coat: A vintage shop in Budapest  (thrifted)

February 15, 2020 – Frankfurt with a ‘U’ (OOTD #608)

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Sciences Po winter break: day 1

Here it is: the first day on my whirlwind week-long backpacking trip though Europe.

I know “backpacking through Europe” normally refers to longer trips — weeks or even months — and it’s probably better that way. I would have loved to have months to travel, to actually get to spend more than 24 hours in each city I visited. But that sort of travel is expensive and time-consuming, and as a student, those are two adjectives that I can’t necessarily indulge in right now. One day, I’d love to go back and really live the nomadic lifestyle for a longer period of time. But for an only one-week winter holiday in the middle of a semester, I made the most of the time I had.

I hit seven countries in total in one week — Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, and Spain. In each country, my friends and I had between 12 and 48 hours. Our shortest stop was Slovenia, with just a half day, and the longest stop was Spain, which I visited on my own at the end to see my friend Emma for two days.

Up first on our agenda, though, was Frankfurt, Germany. Notice the spelling there — Frankfurt, not Frankfort. Once again, as was the case with Versailles, there’s a city in Kentucky with a similar name to a much more famous European city. In this instance, though, the pronunciation is the same but the spelling is different.

I’ve been to Germany only once before, and that was on a day trip to kill time during a long layover. That time, I visited Munich, in what was my first visit to mainland Europe ever. I was there for Christmas Eve in what is possibly the most famous city for Christmas festivities (save, I suppose, for Bethlehem — which I’ve also visited — and the North Pole — which I have not).

This visit to Frankfurt was also very short. My friends and I — Megan, Margo, Ebba, and Garrett — all arrived via night bus from Paris in the morning, and we departed by evening for a night bus trip to our next destination. All in all, that probably means I’ve only ever spent 24 hours max in Germany in my entire life.

Frankfurt really only has one small part of town, Römerberg that looks like “traditional” Germany, with a big church and quaint little houses that look like they’re made of gingerbread and come out of a storybook. The rest of it looks like a modern city, with big skyscrapers and glass buildings. For my friends and, as tourists, this made it perhaps the least interesting city to visit. If I were a young German professional looking for a place to settle, though, I can absolutely see the appeal.

After taking photos in Römerberg (which was practically empty and devoid of tourists, since we were there at 9AM on a Saturday morning in the middle of winter), we stopped for breakfast before making our way across the famous Eiserner Steg footbridge that’s covered with love locks. I know that basically every European city has that — a bridge that’s covered in locks for couples to figuratively represent their love by placing a lock on a beam and then throwing away the key, essentially the European equivalent of carving your names in a heart on a tree — but I think they’re cute anyway.

In the afternoon, we checked out a thrift shop where I almost bought a beautiful dress (only regretfully putting it away because it was slightly big), a food market, and a botanical garden. Then, we tried to visit the roof of one of the tall skyscrapers in order to get a panoramic view of the city from above, but we were disappointed to discover that the line was too long to make it worth it.

But that was okay because we were hungry and exhausted from walking all day (and from having slept on a night bus — a common theme you will find through all of these retrospectives), and so we decided to get some dinner. After trying one tavern that had good reviews online only to find that it was full, we picked one across the seat and ate a meal of sausages, spaetzle, and beer.

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After dinner, we were off to the station to catch our next night bus to Prague. Though a bus is certainly not the ideal way to sleep, I think we were all so exhausted that we crashed almost immediately once we sat down in our seats.

As a final note: here’s the link to the Spotify playlist I created for the whole trip. There are songs meant to represent each country we visited. Give it a listen!

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life during my semester abroad in the Paris, France. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest,Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Top: Express

Trousers: Express

Coat: A vintage shop in Budapest  (thrifted)

January 24, 2020 – Seine It All Before (OOTD #601)

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I’m going to run out of French-related puns soon. It seems like the time hasn’t come quite yet though.

The Friday before the start of classes was essentially the final day of the Sciences Po Welcome Programme. The ~official~ final day was actually Saturday, in that it was the day of the very last event, but Friday felt like the true end. It was the last day when I met with my Programme group for our méthodologie class, for one, which had been a defining element of orientation. We gave presentations in groups to show how much we’d learnt about French pedagogy (spoiler alert: my group didn’t learn much), and an instructor gave us feedback (spoiler alert: our instructor wasn’t very nice).

After that somewhat harrowing experience, Friday culminated in a Seine river tour and a party at a local club, which made it feel like a true conclusion. While Saturday still held one more event (a bus tour of the city), it was mostly optional, and so not everyone I had gotten to know from my Programme group showed up — and it was really the people who defined the whole Welcome Programme experience anyway.

Like I said in my last blog, I actually really enjoyed my experience during the Sciences Po Welcome Programme. There were about two-ish weeks in between my arrival in Paris and the actual start of classes, one of which was taken up by the Welcome Programme. Though I was afraid it would just be another hokey ice breaker-filled orientation, it was actually a really fun way to get acquainted with my new city and make new friends. It allowed me to get some more tourist-y activities out of the way (taking a Seine river tour, pour exemple) while also getting to know other exchange students.

If any of you reading this blog happen to be aspiring Sciences Po students, I’d actually highly recommend coughing up the extra 200 euro or whatever it is to participate. The friends I made during the Welcome Programme ended up being the friends I stuck with for the rest of the semester (or at least however much of the semester was in-person), and I don’t know how I would’ve made friends without it.

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That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life this semester abroad in the Paris, France. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Sweater: Thrifted (Goodwill)

Trousers: Express

Jacket: Thrifted (Goodwill)

January 22, 2020 – Parisian Uniform (OOTD #599)

Published on by lensembledujour1 Comment

I wish I had worn this blazer more while I was in Paris.

Okay, there are a lot of things I wish I had done more of while I was in Paris. I’ll try not to harp on that too much. But after I’ve had a look through the photos on my phone, I believe this is the only set of pictures I have in which I’m wearing this beautiful yellow blazer — and that’s really quite a crime.

I also don’t think I wore this scarf much while I was in Paris either — another terrible offense. It was a Christmas gift from my Uncle Tim (yes, the one who has gotten referenced a few times before in this blog — for example, as my tour guide on my day-long layover in Philadelphia before I headed off to Rome last summer or as the giver of some of my name tag shirts), and I’m very fond of it. I also think its well-suited to France — the scarf is a depiction of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and, while Van Gogh isn’t French and while The Starry Night is housed in the MOMA rather than the Louvre, the painting itself depicts Van Gogh’s view from his asylum room in the South of France. Plus, the painting is pretty heavily inspired by the Impressionists, a movement which began in France.

This outfit is a pretty good example of what my day-to-day uniform in Paris was like. These pictures are from pretty early on in my semester, long before I had fully masted of the “Parisian look” (if I ever really did master it) but I was beginning to get a grasp of it.

Here’s the formula: Blazer or jacket of some kind, turtleneck sweater, trousers (see, the jeans here are much too casual for a French woman — especially with the tears, which are a dead giveaway that I’m American), and round wire-frame glasses. A cigarette à la main can’t hurt your chances of being mistaken for an authentic Parisian either.

I wore this outfit out to a club after the Welcome Programme activities at Sciences Po were over for the day, and I think it held up pretty well. This was actually one of my only nights out properly clubbing — as you’ll find out later, I spend most of my subsequent weekends traveling out of the city (and sometimes out of the country) so I really didn’t to go out dancing much.

(Don’t worry — I’ll stop myself before I end that paragraph with “I wish I had”).

Still, I think this night was one of the best ones I spent in Paris. The club, a place called La Rive Gauche, was pretty small, and the only people there were other Sciences Po exchange students. The DJ played a mix of international music because of the diverse crowd — I think they even played “Party in the USA” once.

I think one of the reasons why this night stands out so much in my mind as well as that it ended up being some of my first meaningful encounters with the people who became my closest friends over the course of the semester. I’d been getting to know them a little during our Welcome Programme activities, but it’s hard to really get to know anyone until you interact with them outside of the formal classroom setting. I was hesitant about the Welcome Programme at first — I thought it was silly to show up literally 2-3 weeks earlier than the first day of classes just to go through orientation — but I’m so glad I did it. It helped me make friends beyond the few Notre Dame girls I shared an apartment with, and making friends outside of that bubble was what really made the whole “study abroad” semester special to me. Wherever I go, I want to feel as much as I can like a true local, like someone who’s at home in the city she’s in — and you can’t feel at home in a city without friends who live there too.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life this semester abroad in the Paris, France. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Jacket: Express

Top: FreePeople

Jeans: Hollister

Scarf: My Uncle Tim

 

January 15, 2020 – Bienvenue à Paris (OOTD #596)

Published on by lensembledujour4 Comments

Finalement, je suis ici à Paris! 

It’s hard to believe that I finally made it here to Paris. It’s been a whole year since I first committed to study abroad at Sciences Po Paris for a semester, and it’s been over a year since I first submitted my application. My arrival in Paris has been a long time coming.

It almost didn’t happen either. My last blog post, I wrote about going to the Chicago visa office to submit the last of my paperwork. I thought that was going to be the end of it — I’d hand it my papers at the office, and then they would issue me my visa right there. I was deeply wrong. As it turns out, after I handed in my papers, I had to hand in my passport as well, leave it with in Chicago so they could send it all the way to Washington DC, and then, finally, they would send it back.

You can imagine how anxious I was as my flight departure date grew nearer and I still didn’t have my passport back from the DC visa office. I braced myself to have to reschedule my flight, potentially missing the Sciences Po Welcome Programme in the fallout.

I got lucky though — my passport, with my visa attached inside, arrived literally one day before my departure. A word of advice, though, if you’re going to be studying abroad in France and don’t want to deal with the stress of waiting for you passport to be returned to you via snail mail — do your visa appointment early! Don’t wait until the last second like I did.

Believe it or not, this is actually my first time in Paris. I feel like almost everyone (at least, those of my friends who had to go on international family vacations when they were kids) has been to Paris. It isn’t the number one tourist destination in the world for nothing.

My first few days in Paris were relatively uneventful. The grève, or strike, against the retirement pension reforms was still going on, so the RER and several métro lines were down, making getting from CDG Aéroport to my apartment in the 14e arrondissement more difficult that I had anticipated it being. In the end, rather than braving a taxi or a bus, I called a car service to pick me up and drive me to my apartment. It was perhaps the less “authentic” choice, but it got me where I needed to be.

After arriving at my apartment, I spent a good chunk of the day asleep. I was hardly able to sleep on the plane, despite my attempts, and so I was exhausted when I arrived. Unfortunately, since I arrived in the morning (7am to be exact), I still had a full day ahead of me to try to stay awake — a task that I admittedly didn’t do amazingly at.

When I was finally able to stay awake for more than five minutes at a time, I decided to take the bus into the city to walk around a little, as well as to get some paperwork from my landlord’s office. Completely unintentionally, as I was wandering around, I ended up bumping into the Eiffel Tower.

I still think la tour Eiffel looks a little like an overhyped telephone pole, but don’t tell the French I said that about their most iconic architectural structure. I’m sure it’s gorgeous at night when it’s all sparkling and lit up, and I’m sure it offers a beautiful view of the city if you go to the top. During the day, though, when viewed as a spectator from the ground, I think the romanticized idea of the Eiffel Tower is cooler than the reality.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life this semester abroad in the Paris, France. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Jacket: Thrift (Goodwill)

Turtleneck: Express

Jeans: Hollister

December 30, 2019 – Suburban Style (OOTD #594)

Published on by lensembledujour2 Comments

Being home again makes me realize how difficult it is to find good locations for photos when you’re not in a city.

Think about it — for the last six months, I’ve been traveling around from one city to another. This blog has almost become more of a travel blog than a fashion one at this point. I’ve been to Europe, South America, and the Middle East, and I’ve lived in both Washington, DC and Rome, Italy. There were pros and cons to each location, and nowhere was perfect (except arguably New York, which will always have a special place in my heart), but one thing you could say consistently with confidence was that there were always great locations for fashion photography..

December 2019 was the first time I’d been home for more than two weeks in basically a year and a half. I think the last time I was home for this long was winter break my freshman year. I’d forgotten how hard it was to find places to take pictures for my blog at home; a small suburb in Kentucky doesn’t quite compare to an ancient European city.

I have to be more creative when I’m at home. I can’t just go out and find a random pretty building to stand next to — all the buildings around are cookie-cutter brick houses. They’re not really worth photographing, and besides, it’d be kind of creepy if I used my neighbor’s house as a backdrop for my blog!

In the spring and fall, I like to get foliage and plantlife to incorporate color and variety. In the winter, I can’t really rely on those though — half of the time, I can’t even rely on the sun to be out.

I’ve found that I like this sort of “street scene” shot — I’ve done it before, and each time, it makes for a really cool set of photos, or at least, as cool as they can get for being taken in suburbia. I do what I can with what I have.

That’s about it for today. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life this winter break in Kentucky. Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Bloglovin, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Jacket: Express

Sweater: Thrift (Goodwill)

Trousers: Express