western heritage passports 2015 part 2

western heritage passports 2015 part 2

kepheus intranet link

smb://w2k8-iis1.ags.school.nz/latin

smb://iis1.ags.school.nz/latin

Tim's blog (try to post it)

Earth, Wind and Fire

After I somehow, miraculously managed to get a post onto the blog, I've decided to attempt again although I may be pushing my luck. My strike-rate of 1 in 4 is commendable considering others like 1 in 5 and 0 in 3. 

Since I created that blog post we have been to Florence, Pisa, Sienna, Fiesole, Venice, Dijon, Avignon, Beaucaire, Nimes, Baux-de-Provence, Tarascon, Arles and Orange. So you know, we haven't done that much.

Here's a brief summary of what happened:

• We ate a lot of gelato (Chris)

•Me Skeen's van was named Mary-Lou and became the world's only location where you can do Karate-oke

•We had a race to find a bridge on a city made of floating islands (or at least I thought it was a race.)

•When a waiter asked James if he spoke French in French, he replied mercy.  On the other hand James and I did manage to have a fantastic insult battle through geo-politics.

•We had further singing recitals from Bucko in both chapels and theatres.

•We visited three castles in one day and didn't even get knighted.

•We 'ran' with the bulls, an obviously very safe event. Also mysteriously we had bull cheek two nights later.

• People bought all types of items from the Florentine markets and we also managed to find  a great deal in the Beaucaire markets with 20 chocolate croissants for €5

•Bucko took a wrong turn and unfortunately the other vans weren't following so all three vans ended up in Arles at different times and all decided to get ice cream when they couldn't find the others.

•We ate snails, not bad, not bad at all.

•Last of all for you frisbee aficionados, we are currently playing a game of skybox except with the rule that every time the disc goes over the fence everyone jumps in the pool.

Tim Meyer-Smith

Robbie Speakman - City of Love ;) (Paris)

It's scary how fast time passes on this trip, I'm writing this in Melbourne airport, waiting for our plane home when it just seems like yesterday that we left Beaucaire, and ventured into Paris. After hearing great things about the 'city of love' from others on the trip, I went in with high expectations and they were easily met. From our first afternoon excursion, I couldn't help but think of Paris as a better version of Rome. The streets were cleaner and less crowded, the Moroccans were replaced with unbelievable fire and football buskers and the general outdoor atmosphere just seemed so much more enjoyable. Highlights were definitely the Arch de Triomphe, climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower and Versailles, and also seeing Whistler's Mother at Musée d'Orsay (Mr. Bean painting). Better go as just got the boarding call - sad the tour is pretty much over but as a lot of the guys have been saying, it's probably about time and it has been an experience that we will remember forever. Huge thank you to all of the teachers, they have been absolutely outstanding, making the tour as special as it is. See you in a few hours Auckland, no paparazzi plz

Robbie

Almost home

I'm sitting in Melbourne airport and have just realised I have around 5 hours until I am back in Auckland. I knew this day would come eventually and I have mixed emotions. I have absolutely loved these 30 odd days away but I miss Auckland and weirdly I sort of miss school. I haven't blogged since beaucaire and I'll keep my summaries nice and short. Paris was great. I had been there before a couple of years ago and was just as good although a little dirtier than I remember. My highlight was seeing my parents for dinner on one of the nights as dad had somehow got airfares to Paris for his birthday.... London was the coolest place we went to on the trip. I think it was because it was the most normal. Everyone understood English, public transport was really easy and the shopping was really really good. My highlight in London was going to lords with Alex to see England play New Zealand and going to arsenals home stadium for a tour.
Getting on the plane in 30 minutes then off for yet another flight, having had an amazing two hours sleep across the last 24 hours. See everyone at the airport!

Myron Liu — Paris

After reluctantly leaving the beautiful region of Beaucaire, we arrived in Paris. There it became a full on adventure travelling and transferring on the metro. Depositing our bags at the hotel Gay-Lussac at Luxembourg, we immediately headed to St Michel – Notre Dame. The Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame was very spectacular. With its multiple pointed arches, very tall spire, dual towers in front and the flying buttresses at the sides of the cathedral for support, Notre Dame was one of the highlights of the trip. Architecturally beautiful, it appeared to be the quintessential example of a Gothic church. I enjoyed exploring its interior with its amazing and massive rose windows.

Later that night, after wandering around the area past the town hall and then taking the train to Place de la Concorde, we went up the very expensive stores at the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. There we had an enjoyable walk up the stairs to the very top where we had a beautiful 360 view of Paris at night.

The next few days went by very quickly with us exploring churches, the palace at Versailles, the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay and the Eiffel tower.

My favourite museum on the trip so far has been the Musée d’Orsay (though I didn’t truly get to explore the Louvre enough). I really enjoyed the Impressionist painting especially those by Claude Monet. It was interesting because I could spend well over 30 minutes at a single painting staring at it intently while moving back and forth to try understand what the painting was about.

The Louvre or at least the parts we saw was also awesome. After trying to push through the rather large crowd at the Mona Lisa, we wandered around the museum looking at the many, many different paintings. I really want to come back to Paris at some point to truly experience the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay completely.

Looking forward to the sights and shopping in London.

Finn Lloyd — Paris

Paris has been a thoroughly enjoyable place, it is a beautiful city and it provided great places for us to visit, we visited the main attractions of course, the Louvre which was amazing, I particularly liked the Germanic and Dutch Renaissance paintings although I enjoyed everything else immensely, the Mona Lisa didn’t live up to the hype although it was still pretty good, we also visited the Eiffel tower which gave us an amazing view of Paris. I was rather disappointed when we were unable to visit the catacombs because of a two hour wait when the closing time was in an hour, however that meant that I could enjoy a second walk up to the Arc de Triumph. The food in Paris was amazing; I really liked a dinner of snails as an entrée followed by roast duck and roast potatoes which proved to be delicious. The snails didn’t actually taste of much themselves but the garlic butter that they were covered in tasted amazing. I was disappointed not to try frog legs but fortunately they apparently tasted watery and not very nice. The crepes were also amazing my favourite would have been my Nutella, banana and cream crèpe which was amazing. I unfortunately couldn’t find any gifts for my family although I did manage to pick up an Asterix’s magic potion for a friend, which means that I have almost all of my shopping to do in London. The large amount of free time was really good it gave me time to go back to the Louvre with Jonathan to see the art that we hadn’t been able to view in our first time this included some of napoleon’s personal possessions which were rather grand and although they were incredibly cool I would get sick of living the kind of lifestyle he lived. Versailles was another amazing place, the gardens were magical and huge I enjoyed a bike round the bottom of the garden and although we were told not to hire bikes it was possibly my best purchase of the trip so far. The dancing fountains were also pretty cool. The palace looked amazing inside and outside however I thought that there was too much gold, anywhere they could put gold they did and in my opinion they put up too much. I am currently under the sea on a train to London where I am looking forward to seeing the Lion King which my brother recommended and I am also looking forward to Hamley’s the 5 level toy store, although London will have to be pretty good to beat the rest of the trip so far. 

Joseph Youl — Paris

Paris Is most likely my favourite city we’ve been to so far, rivalled perhaps only by Florence. I’m writing this blog while on a train heading for London, the city I’ve been looking most forward to. In Paris we did all of the main attractions and they were all as awesome as I expected. When we went to the Louvre, we saw countless works of art, including the Mona Lisa which was smaller than I expected. The Louvre was just enormous. We spent hours there, going at a fast pace and even then we didn’t even cover half of it. Some day I’d love to go back there and spend a full day, going everywhere. The other main attraction we went to was most definitely the Eiffel tower. Different people went to it on different days, when we had free time, myself going last night. I only have one thing to say about it, It is unbelievably high.

Besides the main tourist sites we went to, the city itself is amazing, I can finally see why people call it the city which never sleeps, with cars and people cruising the city all night long. Transport with the metro is also incredibly easy and I’m certain that I could now find my way to anywhere in the city. Sadly I didn’t try frog’s legs but apparently they’re quite tasteless. Instead I tried snails, which I loved. Paris is definitely a city which I’m going to return to, most likely only on a holiday but I’d like to live here as well.

France by WiL Anson

France was a blur really it just went so fast. One day we’re in Beaucaire and the next we’re leaving for England. I guess that’s because it was the most enjoyable, relaxing and entertaining. Southern France was like a dream and disappeared like one as well. It took over my mind and consumed my thoughts. It felt like I was somewhere else entirely from the world, as most people know it. Like a dream I can’t remember a lot just a few fragments of memories, which were created there. So I can’t tell you all that much about it, just that if you want to escape the troubles of everyday life then I would definitely consider the southern part of France.

Paris, well it’s pretty amazing just like everybody says it is. The food is great and very expensive just like everything there really. I would go back. I wouldn’t live there. Not for a long period of time anyway. Too many people. Far too many. But. Paris does have it’s lively inspiring nature and way of working. For this reason I am going to go back. Everything and everyone there appears to have a purpose in life, some ambition, goals which they strive towards.

Joseph Youl

Rome turned out to be as amazing as I expected. After nearly 24 hours chilling on the ferry, we arrived at Ancona. We then had a quick train ride to Termini, the train station which we became very familiar with over our stay in Rome. Once we had dropped off the luggage at the Downtown Hostel, we went out for a night tour and caught out first glimpse of the Colosseum. It’s nearly impossible to remember all of the churches we visited over those 5 days but some of them stick in your mind. Most certainly, the most impressive church we visited was St Peter’s in Vatican city. The scale of the cathedral was astonishing, it surpasses all other buildings I have ever been to and there’s no doubt that it is the most impressive church built. Some other amazing churches we went to were St. Paul’s without the walls, St. John Lateran and St. Maria. We didn’t only see churches though we also went to various Piazzas, ruins, arches, fountains and buildings. The only other places which stick in my mind are the Trevi fountain, the ruins of Ostia and the Colosseum.

Once we had finished in Rome, we took an hour and a half train ride to Florence, in which we stayed in a very nice hotel, right next to the Arno river. On the day we arrived we headed out to Pisa to see the iconic leaning tower of Pisa. The tower was more impressive than I expected, and there were some great markets set up around it. Once back we went for a night tour of Florence and saw Il Duomo, the massive dome. The next day we endured a “pleasant” 3 or 4 hour wait in the queue for the Uffizi Gallery. The wait turned out to be worth it though, as we saw some of the most incredible paintings and statues. The following day we finally visited Il Duomo which was certainly the highlight of the city, after seeing this, we  saw a church or two then had the afternoon to ourselves, to roam the market and forage for food. To finish off that night we went up a hill and had a night view of Florence. Our final day in Italy was spent in Venice, the city which had very few major attractions other than the city itself. Venice was definitely one of the highlights of Italy, simply because the city was awesomely confusing and great fun to walk around.

The Thello overnight train to Dijon was great fun, with 6 boys being crammed into each 1.5x1.0x2.0 meter cabins. During the trip we viewed an awesome lightening storm happening off in the distance. Upon arriving in Dijon, we proceeded to take yet another train, this one a mere 3 hour ride to Avignon, at which we collected some mini vans and headed off to our luxurious hotel in the country side of Beaucaire. Beaucaire was no doubt the holiday/break part of the trip. Every day we would have a late breakfast at 8am, where we would stuff ourselves with pain au chocolat, croissants and various other breads and pastries. After this we wouldn’t leave until 9:30 at which point we would take the vans out and view only 2 or 3 things and we would normally be back around 4 or 5. We would then proceed to have bombing and diving competitions in the pool followed by sun bathing for several hours. Dinner would then be a 3 course meals with a seemingly infinite amount of bread between the courses. We would then hang out for an hour or two and finally head back to our rooms and have the best sleeps of the trip.

In conclusion, the amount of famous art in Italy is astonishing, the amount of pizza I can consume is also astonishing and Beaucaire is astonishingly chill.