my oh my, where does the time go? I leave tomorrow morning.... I'm excited to come home, I miss everyone so much, and Portland, but I know I will miss Strasbourg and my friends here just as much...
Let's see, what has happened since my bike trip?
I had lots of class, lots of studying, lots of finals.... but I finally finished it all! No more French school! Woohoo! In between all that I went to some good parties, some barbecues, made some friends, camped on a hill and was awoken by firemen and a helicopter... And I've seen a lot of thunderstorms! They come out of nowhere. Like the day Alla and I were studying outside a café, dying in the heat, when all of a sudden lightning flashed and it started pouring down rain and we had to run across town. We got drenched to the bone!
I also went rock climbing outside one day. That was really lots of fun, I can't wait to get back to the climbing club at LC. I just wished I had been able to go here earlier because there are so many different places to go around Alsace.
May 16 I got my tattoo! I've been wanting this tattoo since at least last year. Now I can always remember my time in France and what it means to me. If you haven't seen the pictures on facebook, it's the little prince being carried away by a flock of birds. I loved that movie when I was younger (still do) so it reminds me of the eternal child in me, my semester in France, liberty and initiative and not being afraid to do what I must to reach my goals.
The next day I went to Basel, Switzerland with some friends. We had a lot of fun walking around the town, by the river, and eating ice cream, oh and of course Bratwurst and beer! mmmm... delicious!
A few days later Isabelle Demarte, one of the French professors at Lewis & Clark, came to visit us in Strasbourg. I showed her my apartment here and we talked about the host families, school, and life here in Strasbourg. Then we had a fancy last dinner with Isabelle, Beth, and the whole group. It was the best duck I have ever had! And I've had a lot of duck here in France :)
The past week I've been relaxing and enjoying spending the last few days with my friends here. When it's been nice and sunny I'd just go to le jardin botanique or l'orangerie (two parks here that I love) and draw and write.
May 23 I went to Haut Koenigsbourg, a castle about half an hour away from Strasbourg. That was really fun to see! Although, the tour was a lot shorter than I thought it would be. But we saw old cannons and a dragon! (Okay okay, it wasn't a real dragon, but I like to pretend)
Last night I went to Happy Hour at Le Brasseur for the last time, then went to a friend's house and joined a little party they were having. Now all my stuff is packed, and my room is almost clean. Tonight I might go to a movie with my host sister, then we'll have a nice dinner and champagne with my host mom and tomorrow I'll be back in Portland!
I can't explain how much of a wonderful time I've had here, though there have been some difficult times, I've learned and grown so much. Sorry, I'm getting a little mushy here.
See you all back at home soon!
mercredi 27 mai 2009
vendredi 15 mai 2009
promenade à velo
Friday, April 17: the epic bike adventure commences.
Maia and I met at the train station bright and early to catch our train to Bordeaux. Unfortunately, Ashton missed the morning one and had to come later because of bike complications. Better for her though because when we arrived 7 hours later it was pouring down rain. How encouraging. We were starving and frustrated so we got a kebab at a doner across the street from the train station and tried to make some plans. We were really tempted to book a hotel room for the night instead of camping because the rain was coming down in sheets.
Well, eventually we dragged ourselves out into the pouring rain, got on the tram and headed downtown to tourist information. From there things started looking up. We got information on all the bike paths and camp sites in Les Girondes (the region where we started our trip) and other helpful things, plus it stopped raining! So we went and rented our bikes, easy as pie, bought a tent and did grocery shopping. Things started off really well!
Once Ashton arrived and did her food shopping we headed to the campground. We had to take the tram quite a ways and then bike even further to get there. So we arrived and set up our tent. That first night we were super cold because it had rained all day so we didn't get much sleep.
Saturday, April 18.
To get on the bike path we had to head back into town in the morning. I also had to get some more bungees to hold all my stuff on my bike. Somehow we eventually successfully negotiated our way along the river and found the bike path, after turning around multiple times, but we made it! We stopped in a park to have some lunch: dried fruit, cheese, bread, and sausage. That's pretty much all we ate all week except when we got tired of it and decided to splurge on a restaurant. That day we biked about 60km! We ended up at Lacanau Lake, a small town between Bordeaux and the ocean. Our lists of campsites said there would be somewhere to stay there so we looked around but couldn't find anything. Finally we asked an old man with his family if he knew where a campsite was. He said nothing was open this time of year but he had a large back yard we could stay in. Kind of a strange situation, but they seemed like a nice family and we had nowhere else to go so we took it! He took us to their house and we set up our tent and had a little picnic dinner in the backyard.
Sunday, April 19.
In the morning we thanked the family for their hospitality and headed to Lacanau Océan. What a beautiful beach town! We watched the surfers and enjoyed walking through the sand before lunch. Tired of bread and cheese, we decided to go to a restaurant where we got croque monsieurs (yes, it's still bread and cheese, but at least it's warm and comes with a salad and fries!)
Then we left for Cap Ferret. That was a long day, with lots of countryside and lots of hills. We finally got to Cap Ferret, exhausted and kind of lost. The town was a very classy, snobby beach town and we just wanted to get out and set up camp, but unfortunately there wasn't any open tourist information... Well, we had our list of campsites so we asked someone in a bookstore and got vague directions. Though when we arrived at the first campsite, Le Truc Vert (The Green Thing), it was closed for the season. And it was starting to rain... We debated breaking in and camping anyways, though we thought that probably wasn't a good idea. However, we didn't have many other options and we were wet and tired so we started to scope it out to see if it was possible. Just as we were leading our bikes around back, a woman drove up and started talking to us. She explained to us how to get to another campsite in a nearby town called Claouey, so we figured we'd try our chances there. Well, we biked and biked some more, over some hills, through the forest, in the rain... FINALLY got to the campsite... and it was closed. Well, it was open for the season, but the reception was closed so we decided to just go in and find a spot for ourselves.
Monday, April 20.
In the morning we packed up camp as fast as we could and went to go take showers. It was so nice to finally be clean after three days of biking and camping. After the showers we started strapping all our stuff back on our bikes when a man came up and started asking where we had camped last night. Busted. Oh well, we just had to go pay which is fine.
We headed back to Cap Ferret to catch a ferry to the other side of the bay, otherwise we would have to bike all the way around the bay which would take at least another day or two. Though first we stopped to take a nap on the beach :) The first day I had gotten really sunburnt so every day after I coated myself in sunscreen each morning. Let me tell you, being coated in sunscreen + laying in the sand = scary looking sand monster lady. And not fun to brush off afterwards either... Well, at least the nap was nice!
We got back into Cap Ferret and bought our tickets for the ferry and had some time to wait so we stopped at a café near the dock. We had cocktails and watched children playing on the beach :) What a wonderful life!
The ferry took us across the bay to the most wonderful town of Arcachon! We basically fell in love with it right when we got there. It has beautiful houses and palm trees and beach, and everything amazing pretty much :) Plus the camping was great! They had a water slide and volleyball courts and a bowling green. Well, we didn't really do any of those things, but they were there! After setting up our tent we rode our bikes back down into town and had dinner on the beach. More sausage, bread, and cheese as usual. We had a little doggy friend staring at us the whole time trying to get us to feed him.
Tuesday, April 21 (Happy Birthday, Jordan!)
We decide to stay another day in Arcachon so we could see the town a bit more. We started the morning off visiting the cemetery. I've loved seeing cemeteries here in France, they're so interesting! Kind of cluttered and very eclectic. Every gravestone is different and they're all covered with little signs and nick nacks and flowers. It's rather ironic, but I would even describe them as more "lively" than cemeteries in the states.
After the cemetery we went into town and got on the internet at a café for a while to plan out the next part of our route and catch up with e-mails. I had an oreo "milkshake", which was really more like and ice shake... basically oreos and ice in a blender. meh. And I watched a kid watching power rangers dubbed in French...
Then we had the day to just wander around the town. We saw so many beautiful old houses. There's a park in Arcachon called Parc Mauresque, located at the top of a hill. From the park you can see out over the town, the beach, and the bay.
It was a beautiful day walking around and lying on the beach. Before going back to the campground we did some more grocery shopping and got some bottles of wine to enjoy back at the tent.
Wednesday, April 22.
We started our day off heading to the Dune de Pyla. It's GIANT!!!! We had to wait in a long line to climb the stairs to the top, but Maia decided to attempt to climb up the side without help from the stairs so we let her do that... It was Earth Day so there was a big event with lots of kids on top of the dune. The view from the top was amazing! We could see over the surrounding forests on one side, and the bay on the other. There was also a famous French singer there, Pascal Obispo, who we had never heard of but apparently he's a big deal...
The rest of the day was spent biking to our next campground in Mimizan.
Thursday, April 23.
All I wrote down in my agenda for this day was "biking, beach lunch, camping" Very eventful... Though while eating lunch at the beach some huge bug decided to chase Maia around so she was running in circles yelling, trying to get the bug to go away. That was entertaining. We had a topless sunbather staring at us...
Friday, April 24.
After an annoyingly hilly ride along the road (because the bike path just stopped) we arrived at our destination: Bayonne! Though it was rather anticlimactic. We were tired and frustrated because there weren't any bike paths and the tourist information was hard to find. Then when we were trying to get information about camping and biking they were very unhelpful and kind of rude. So we just decided to get some lunch and decide what to do from there. I had paëlla, which was really good, except that the shrip still had their eyes and legs and antennae and everything and I had to peel it all off... but the rice was good!
Well, Maia's knee was hurting really badly and the only way to get to Biaritz was along a hilly road and there wasn't any camping there anyways so we decided to head back to Bordeaux and spend a few days there.
In Bordeaux we went back to the campground we had stayed at before, set up camp, and passed out.
Saturday, April 25.
By this point we were tired and wanting our beds and a shower, but we decided to just go walk around Bordeaux and see what we could do. Unfortunately it was raining so things weren't much fun. We had pizza and spaghetti at a nice little Italian restaurant and spent as much time inside there before going to find an internet café. There wasn't much else to do in town in the rain so we got some bottles of wine and went and hung out in our tent until bed time.
Sunday, April 26.
Fortunately for us, we had a nice sunny day! We had reserved a tour of a vineyard in Pesac so we went there and got to see the cellars and had a wine tasting. Mmm... delicious! We had lunch in Pesac and wandered around a really cool street market and tried Canelés. Then we rode our bikes around the countryside looking at vineyards. My favorite was Chateau Smith Haut Lefitte (you can see pictures of its awesomeness on my facebook, album: epic bike adventure 4).
We went into town for dinner and ate at a wonderful French restaurant called Les Provinces. It was delicious and rather cheap for what we got! I had a chèvre salad (that's warm goat cheese), duck, and profiteroles for dessert (ice cream in a pastry covered in warm chocolate sauce). Yum! After dinner we walked around a bit and saw the city at night. Maia and I were tired so we went back to the tent while Ashton stayed out and took some more photos.
Monday, April 27.
Our train didn't leave till the afternoon so we just hung out in our tent for the morning because the weather was being crazy. It would pour for about 15 minutes and then get bright and sunny and warm, and then rain again. It was like that pretty much all day. When we finally dragged ourselves out of the tent we packed up and went to return our bikes and get on the train home! We had a bottle of wine each and chips, candy, and bread and cheese so we were happy campers for the 7 hour train ride. We finally made it home and were ready to start another week of madness that is the French educational system!
Maia and I met at the train station bright and early to catch our train to Bordeaux. Unfortunately, Ashton missed the morning one and had to come later because of bike complications. Better for her though because when we arrived 7 hours later it was pouring down rain. How encouraging. We were starving and frustrated so we got a kebab at a doner across the street from the train station and tried to make some plans. We were really tempted to book a hotel room for the night instead of camping because the rain was coming down in sheets.
Well, eventually we dragged ourselves out into the pouring rain, got on the tram and headed downtown to tourist information. From there things started looking up. We got information on all the bike paths and camp sites in Les Girondes (the region where we started our trip) and other helpful things, plus it stopped raining! So we went and rented our bikes, easy as pie, bought a tent and did grocery shopping. Things started off really well!
Once Ashton arrived and did her food shopping we headed to the campground. We had to take the tram quite a ways and then bike even further to get there. So we arrived and set up our tent. That first night we were super cold because it had rained all day so we didn't get much sleep.
Saturday, April 18.
To get on the bike path we had to head back into town in the morning. I also had to get some more bungees to hold all my stuff on my bike. Somehow we eventually successfully negotiated our way along the river and found the bike path, after turning around multiple times, but we made it! We stopped in a park to have some lunch: dried fruit, cheese, bread, and sausage. That's pretty much all we ate all week except when we got tired of it and decided to splurge on a restaurant. That day we biked about 60km! We ended up at Lacanau Lake, a small town between Bordeaux and the ocean. Our lists of campsites said there would be somewhere to stay there so we looked around but couldn't find anything. Finally we asked an old man with his family if he knew where a campsite was. He said nothing was open this time of year but he had a large back yard we could stay in. Kind of a strange situation, but they seemed like a nice family and we had nowhere else to go so we took it! He took us to their house and we set up our tent and had a little picnic dinner in the backyard.
Sunday, April 19.
In the morning we thanked the family for their hospitality and headed to Lacanau Océan. What a beautiful beach town! We watched the surfers and enjoyed walking through the sand before lunch. Tired of bread and cheese, we decided to go to a restaurant where we got croque monsieurs (yes, it's still bread and cheese, but at least it's warm and comes with a salad and fries!)
Then we left for Cap Ferret. That was a long day, with lots of countryside and lots of hills. We finally got to Cap Ferret, exhausted and kind of lost. The town was a very classy, snobby beach town and we just wanted to get out and set up camp, but unfortunately there wasn't any open tourist information... Well, we had our list of campsites so we asked someone in a bookstore and got vague directions. Though when we arrived at the first campsite, Le Truc Vert (The Green Thing), it was closed for the season. And it was starting to rain... We debated breaking in and camping anyways, though we thought that probably wasn't a good idea. However, we didn't have many other options and we were wet and tired so we started to scope it out to see if it was possible. Just as we were leading our bikes around back, a woman drove up and started talking to us. She explained to us how to get to another campsite in a nearby town called Claouey, so we figured we'd try our chances there. Well, we biked and biked some more, over some hills, through the forest, in the rain... FINALLY got to the campsite... and it was closed. Well, it was open for the season, but the reception was closed so we decided to just go in and find a spot for ourselves.
Monday, April 20.
In the morning we packed up camp as fast as we could and went to go take showers. It was so nice to finally be clean after three days of biking and camping. After the showers we started strapping all our stuff back on our bikes when a man came up and started asking where we had camped last night. Busted. Oh well, we just had to go pay which is fine.
We headed back to Cap Ferret to catch a ferry to the other side of the bay, otherwise we would have to bike all the way around the bay which would take at least another day or two. Though first we stopped to take a nap on the beach :) The first day I had gotten really sunburnt so every day after I coated myself in sunscreen each morning. Let me tell you, being coated in sunscreen + laying in the sand = scary looking sand monster lady. And not fun to brush off afterwards either... Well, at least the nap was nice!
We got back into Cap Ferret and bought our tickets for the ferry and had some time to wait so we stopped at a café near the dock. We had cocktails and watched children playing on the beach :) What a wonderful life!
The ferry took us across the bay to the most wonderful town of Arcachon! We basically fell in love with it right when we got there. It has beautiful houses and palm trees and beach, and everything amazing pretty much :) Plus the camping was great! They had a water slide and volleyball courts and a bowling green. Well, we didn't really do any of those things, but they were there! After setting up our tent we rode our bikes back down into town and had dinner on the beach. More sausage, bread, and cheese as usual. We had a little doggy friend staring at us the whole time trying to get us to feed him.
Tuesday, April 21 (Happy Birthday, Jordan!)
We decide to stay another day in Arcachon so we could see the town a bit more. We started the morning off visiting the cemetery. I've loved seeing cemeteries here in France, they're so interesting! Kind of cluttered and very eclectic. Every gravestone is different and they're all covered with little signs and nick nacks and flowers. It's rather ironic, but I would even describe them as more "lively" than cemeteries in the states.
After the cemetery we went into town and got on the internet at a café for a while to plan out the next part of our route and catch up with e-mails. I had an oreo "milkshake", which was really more like and ice shake... basically oreos and ice in a blender. meh. And I watched a kid watching power rangers dubbed in French...
Then we had the day to just wander around the town. We saw so many beautiful old houses. There's a park in Arcachon called Parc Mauresque, located at the top of a hill. From the park you can see out over the town, the beach, and the bay.
It was a beautiful day walking around and lying on the beach. Before going back to the campground we did some more grocery shopping and got some bottles of wine to enjoy back at the tent.
Wednesday, April 22.
We started our day off heading to the Dune de Pyla. It's GIANT!!!! We had to wait in a long line to climb the stairs to the top, but Maia decided to attempt to climb up the side without help from the stairs so we let her do that... It was Earth Day so there was a big event with lots of kids on top of the dune. The view from the top was amazing! We could see over the surrounding forests on one side, and the bay on the other. There was also a famous French singer there, Pascal Obispo, who we had never heard of but apparently he's a big deal...
The rest of the day was spent biking to our next campground in Mimizan.
Thursday, April 23.
All I wrote down in my agenda for this day was "biking, beach lunch, camping" Very eventful... Though while eating lunch at the beach some huge bug decided to chase Maia around so she was running in circles yelling, trying to get the bug to go away. That was entertaining. We had a topless sunbather staring at us...
Friday, April 24.
After an annoyingly hilly ride along the road (because the bike path just stopped) we arrived at our destination: Bayonne! Though it was rather anticlimactic. We were tired and frustrated because there weren't any bike paths and the tourist information was hard to find. Then when we were trying to get information about camping and biking they were very unhelpful and kind of rude. So we just decided to get some lunch and decide what to do from there. I had paëlla, which was really good, except that the shrip still had their eyes and legs and antennae and everything and I had to peel it all off... but the rice was good!
Well, Maia's knee was hurting really badly and the only way to get to Biaritz was along a hilly road and there wasn't any camping there anyways so we decided to head back to Bordeaux and spend a few days there.
In Bordeaux we went back to the campground we had stayed at before, set up camp, and passed out.
Saturday, April 25.
By this point we were tired and wanting our beds and a shower, but we decided to just go walk around Bordeaux and see what we could do. Unfortunately it was raining so things weren't much fun. We had pizza and spaghetti at a nice little Italian restaurant and spent as much time inside there before going to find an internet café. There wasn't much else to do in town in the rain so we got some bottles of wine and went and hung out in our tent until bed time.
Sunday, April 26.
Fortunately for us, we had a nice sunny day! We had reserved a tour of a vineyard in Pesac so we went there and got to see the cellars and had a wine tasting. Mmm... delicious! We had lunch in Pesac and wandered around a really cool street market and tried Canelés. Then we rode our bikes around the countryside looking at vineyards. My favorite was Chateau Smith Haut Lefitte (you can see pictures of its awesomeness on my facebook, album: epic bike adventure 4).
We went into town for dinner and ate at a wonderful French restaurant called Les Provinces. It was delicious and rather cheap for what we got! I had a chèvre salad (that's warm goat cheese), duck, and profiteroles for dessert (ice cream in a pastry covered in warm chocolate sauce). Yum! After dinner we walked around a bit and saw the city at night. Maia and I were tired so we went back to the tent while Ashton stayed out and took some more photos.
Monday, April 27.
Our train didn't leave till the afternoon so we just hung out in our tent for the morning because the weather was being crazy. It would pour for about 15 minutes and then get bright and sunny and warm, and then rain again. It was like that pretty much all day. When we finally dragged ourselves out of the tent we packed up and went to return our bikes and get on the train home! We had a bottle of wine each and chips, candy, and bread and cheese so we were happy campers for the 7 hour train ride. We finally made it home and were ready to start another week of madness that is the French educational system!
le prochain mois
Oh boy, it's been forever! Where were we? Okay, April 5... Well, April 6 was Tommy's birthday, I sent her a present when I got home from Germany, I hope she got it.
The week of the 6 was nothing too special, just classes as usual. Though there was a wine and cheese tasting at the IIEF (where I go to school) Wednesday night so I went there and boozed it up (haha) with some of my International friends.
Friday, April 10, I went with Maia, Ashton, and Alla for a petit bike trip to Germany! Strasbourg is about 5 minutes from the Rhin. We met at Ashton's to borrow her host parent's bikes then headed out. The path went through a forest (that kind of reminded me of Champoeg/Tilikum) then we got to the Rhin and ate some lunch (cheese and baguettes, of course). We biked along the Rhin for the rest of the time. First we ended North until we got to a bridge, where there was also an ice cream stand so we stopped and had a little snack. Then we crossed the bridge into Germany! By this time it was really hot out and we were pretty far away from Strasbourg but we pushed on through. We decided to bike all the way down to the Pont d'Europe, where Obama and other important world leaders took a photo during the NATO summit. After going through some more countryside along the Rhin, and coming through Kehl, we crossed the bridge. So after at least 50km we were pretty bushed and made our way back into Strasbourg to get home. On the way back we saw the hotel and pharmacy that had been burned down by protestors during the NATO summit. That was a crazy sight!
The next day we left for Paris with the group from L&C and the students from Kalamazoo. When we got there we chose our hotel rooms and then had free time until we met back up with the group later. Some friends and I decided to get crêpes and sandwiches and enjoy them in le Jardin du Luxembourg. It was so beautiful, with rows of trees and a giant wonderful fountain. After enjoying the sunshine in the garden we met at the hotel to go to the Louvre.
I'm sure you've heard about how immense the Louvre is before... but it's true. That place is HUGE!!! We hit up the big things: Egyptian mummy things, the Mona Lisa, Napolean's apartments, Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, all that good stuff... That night we went to a play (La Cantatrice Chauve) and had Indian food for dinner.
The next morning was Easter and we went to Notre dame for mass. That was certainly a new experience! There was all this standing up and sitting down and singing gregorian chants, and priests marching up and down the aisles. It's interesting to see the traditions of a religion you're not familiar with. Kind of surreal. Later we went to Musée d'Orsasy, which I loved! That's where they have all the impressionist works: Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Degas... My favorite painting was Monet's "Maisons du parlement, Londres (1904)." Afterwards I went with Ashton to the Rodin museum where we saw his amazing sculptures, including The Thinker. In the evening we met with the group for dinner: Sushi. An interesting choice for Easter dinner in France, but most else was closed or booked full.
Monday we saw the Opéra Garnier. That building is amazingly exquisite! We had a nice tour and then were allowed a private visit into see the stage. There is an amazing chandelier with hung from a ceiling painted by Chagal. The tour guide explained how this new painting was controversial because people thought it didn't fit the feeling of the rest of the Opéra, but I loved it. That night was our last so we had a delicious French dinner. Afterwards we went out and drank wine on the Seine and checked out a few Parisian bars, boy are they expensive! That night we got up early to go to the train station, and in my rush out the door I forgot my train ticket in the room so I had to buy a new one at the station :(
Well, the week after was classes again as usual (and Kendall's birthday!) I'll dedicate another entry to my epic bike trip.
The week of the 6 was nothing too special, just classes as usual. Though there was a wine and cheese tasting at the IIEF (where I go to school) Wednesday night so I went there and boozed it up (haha) with some of my International friends.
Friday, April 10, I went with Maia, Ashton, and Alla for a petit bike trip to Germany! Strasbourg is about 5 minutes from the Rhin. We met at Ashton's to borrow her host parent's bikes then headed out. The path went through a forest (that kind of reminded me of Champoeg/Tilikum) then we got to the Rhin and ate some lunch (cheese and baguettes, of course). We biked along the Rhin for the rest of the time. First we ended North until we got to a bridge, where there was also an ice cream stand so we stopped and had a little snack. Then we crossed the bridge into Germany! By this time it was really hot out and we were pretty far away from Strasbourg but we pushed on through. We decided to bike all the way down to the Pont d'Europe, where Obama and other important world leaders took a photo during the NATO summit. After going through some more countryside along the Rhin, and coming through Kehl, we crossed the bridge. So after at least 50km we were pretty bushed and made our way back into Strasbourg to get home. On the way back we saw the hotel and pharmacy that had been burned down by protestors during the NATO summit. That was a crazy sight!
The next day we left for Paris with the group from L&C and the students from Kalamazoo. When we got there we chose our hotel rooms and then had free time until we met back up with the group later. Some friends and I decided to get crêpes and sandwiches and enjoy them in le Jardin du Luxembourg. It was so beautiful, with rows of trees and a giant wonderful fountain. After enjoying the sunshine in the garden we met at the hotel to go to the Louvre.
I'm sure you've heard about how immense the Louvre is before... but it's true. That place is HUGE!!! We hit up the big things: Egyptian mummy things, the Mona Lisa, Napolean's apartments, Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, all that good stuff... That night we went to a play (La Cantatrice Chauve) and had Indian food for dinner.
The next morning was Easter and we went to Notre dame for mass. That was certainly a new experience! There was all this standing up and sitting down and singing gregorian chants, and priests marching up and down the aisles. It's interesting to see the traditions of a religion you're not familiar with. Kind of surreal. Later we went to Musée d'Orsasy, which I loved! That's where they have all the impressionist works: Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, Degas... My favorite painting was Monet's "Maisons du parlement, Londres (1904)." Afterwards I went with Ashton to the Rodin museum where we saw his amazing sculptures, including The Thinker. In the evening we met with the group for dinner: Sushi. An interesting choice for Easter dinner in France, but most else was closed or booked full.
Monday we saw the Opéra Garnier. That building is amazingly exquisite! We had a nice tour and then were allowed a private visit into see the stage. There is an amazing chandelier with hung from a ceiling painted by Chagal. The tour guide explained how this new painting was controversial because people thought it didn't fit the feeling of the rest of the Opéra, but I loved it. That night was our last so we had a delicious French dinner. Afterwards we went out and drank wine on the Seine and checked out a few Parisian bars, boy are they expensive! That night we got up early to go to the train station, and in my rush out the door I forgot my train ticket in the room so I had to buy a new one at the station :(
Well, the week after was classes again as usual (and Kendall's birthday!) I'll dedicate another entry to my epic bike trip.
dimanche 5 avril 2009
Plus Aventures
The day after I got back from Paris I got an e-mail from the program director, Bethany, saying that we were going on a tour of the European Parliament here in Strasbourg in the afternoon. We met up there, along with some new students to Strasbourg from Kalamazoo college, and started on our tour. The inside of the Parliament is so beautiful! There's vines growing out of the ground in this middle area and you cross over them on bridges to get to different sides of the building. We saw a model of the building and our guide explained all the symbols in the architecture, for example the building is built in the shape of a circle symbolizing unity. There were other things but I don't really remember... sorry! Then we got to go into the chambers and listen to the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, speak. What an experience!
The rest of the week was classes as usual, though one night I decided to make Tacos for Hélène, my host mom. I also invited over my friend, Lilian, who will be the language assistant at Lewis & Clark next year. I thought he should get used to some American food (even if it is Mexican...) It went very well, Hélène did some shopping and got all the essentials: guacamole, salsa, tortillas, even cheddar cheese! They both thought it was delicious, and so did I :)
Friday we left for an excursion to Nancy. We got there and heard a bit about the giant square in the middle of town. Apparently they spent millions of euros to redo the whole thing. After putting our stuff in our hotel we had a short tour of the Musée des Beaux Arts. There are some really amazing paintings there. I took a picture of my favorite and will put it up on facebook soon. The museum closed about half an hour before dinner so we walked around Nancy for a while, I bought some chocolate :) For dinner we had pizza or pasta, which was really delicious, and Tiramisu for dessert. It was great to see my friends from the Nancy trip and catch up with them for a while. After dinner some of them came back to our hotel room and we hung out for a while until we were too tired.
The next morning we had to get up at 7:30 (ick) so we could get on a bus to Verdun. The first thing we saw was Fort Vaux, from WWI. I was too tired to really be interested in it, but I do know I would never want to live there. There was gross mold on all the ceilings because everything was just carved out of the ground and it was really damp. We got to walk around outside for a little while after the tour before heading into the city of Verdun. There we had a delicious fancy meal. We were supposed to speak in French during the meal, but kept going back to English. oops. After lunch we had free time to wander around and explore Verdun. Alla, Allison, Catherine, and I walked along the river and decided to follow some signs to a Citadelle. When we got there we saw a big hill and decided to climb to the top and see what we could see. Well, we ended up climbing another hill and then had a beautiful view of Verdun and the surrounding area. We also found the World Center for Peace which had beautiful gardens. Then we had to leave so we could catch the bus to get home.
On the way home we stopped and saw some old Roman aquaducts! It was nice to get out of the bus and enjoy the sun for a while. The aquaducts were HUGE! I'm not quite sure how they transported water, but it was amazing to see something so old and giant. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay there very long because we had to take the bus back to Nancy to catch our train.
Back in Nancy we had some time to get food so I went to the market. They didn't have anything prepared to eat right then, but it was cool to see the big fruit stands, and meats and sausages. Yan and I ended up going to the mall and getting Chinese food for dinner. Then we caught the train back home!
The next day I got on a train to Dortmund, Germany to visit my friend Anne-Elisabeth, who was an exchange student at NHS my junior year. She's from Thouars, France and is studying in Dortmund for the year. The train ride was about 7 hours long so I just slept and listened to music the whole time. Anne met me at the train station with some of her friends so it was nice to meet them right away. We got back to her apartment and hung out with them for a while, then ate some pasta, watched Gad Elmaleh, a French comedian, and went to bed.
The next day Anne and her friends were planning for a big surprise birthday party for their friend. We got some Doner Kebab for lunch then spent the day shopping and making presents for their friend.
I didn't write down everything I did so I don't really remember everything, but we basically just hung out around the apartment, did some shopping, and relaxing while I was there. Apparently there's not much to see in Dortmund. One morning while Anne was in class I went for a little walk around the neighbourhood and found a path through some woods, but that was about it.
Wednesday night was the surprise birthday part and that was lots of fun! I met more of Anne's friends and talked to some German students who had been to the States. I was the only American there! At one point all the French students started singing the Marseillaise and I sang along (I had learned it from watching the rugby matches). They were very proud that I knew their national anthem :) We got back late that night, had some food, and went to bed. The next day I woke up early and rode a train for another 8 hours to get back home.
Friday I got to see Obama! He was in Strasbourg for the 60th NATO summit. I had planned to stay at Anne's longer because there were protests this weekend against NATO and people said it would be best to leave town, but then our group got an invitation to hear Obama speak so I came back early. We had to meet by the cinema at 11, be bussed over to the stadium, and wait around for 3 hours before he actually showed up. But it was worth it! It wasn't just some bland, politician speech. He talked about the problems our world is facing and how Europe and America need to work together. He was even bold enough to talk about anti-American sentiments in Europe and American's arrogance and how we take Europe for granted, but resolved it by saying those feelings don't reflect the truth and we need eachother if we're going to get anything done. Then he took questions and answered them all very effectively. He's so laid back and sincere when he speaks. After he was done we had to wait another hour or so to get back on the busses and taken back into town.
That evening I had an American party with some other people from LC to celebrate our Obama visit. We watched Team America and other ridiculous American videos on Youtube and pizza, mini sausages, chips, and chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
The next day I met up with my friend Lilian to hang out and enjoy the sunshine. We went to a park, walked around, and played on the playground. When we got back to my apartment we watched the news about all the protests that were going on against NATO. It got pretty crazy! At one point we were walking to the grocery store to get food for dinner and we saw a huge plume of smoke rising up in the sky. When we got back we looked online at found out that the protesters had lit the old customs building and a hotel on fire! Don't worry though, I stayed around my apartment and wasn't anywhere near the crazy demonstrations.
Today has been pretty laid back. The suns out again but it's kind of cloudy so it's not as nice as yesterday. I woke up and hung around the apartment then took a nap and woke up when my host mom got home. She was in Paris for the weekend, avoiding the craziness that has been happening in Strasbourg. And here I am! I have another week of school and then back to Paris for easter weekend! I'm going with the group from school. I'll try to write about it when I get back instead of waiting so long like I did this time. :)
Au revoir!
The rest of the week was classes as usual, though one night I decided to make Tacos for Hélène, my host mom. I also invited over my friend, Lilian, who will be the language assistant at Lewis & Clark next year. I thought he should get used to some American food (even if it is Mexican...) It went very well, Hélène did some shopping and got all the essentials: guacamole, salsa, tortillas, even cheddar cheese! They both thought it was delicious, and so did I :)
Friday we left for an excursion to Nancy. We got there and heard a bit about the giant square in the middle of town. Apparently they spent millions of euros to redo the whole thing. After putting our stuff in our hotel we had a short tour of the Musée des Beaux Arts. There are some really amazing paintings there. I took a picture of my favorite and will put it up on facebook soon. The museum closed about half an hour before dinner so we walked around Nancy for a while, I bought some chocolate :) For dinner we had pizza or pasta, which was really delicious, and Tiramisu for dessert. It was great to see my friends from the Nancy trip and catch up with them for a while. After dinner some of them came back to our hotel room and we hung out for a while until we were too tired.
The next morning we had to get up at 7:30 (ick) so we could get on a bus to Verdun. The first thing we saw was Fort Vaux, from WWI. I was too tired to really be interested in it, but I do know I would never want to live there. There was gross mold on all the ceilings because everything was just carved out of the ground and it was really damp. We got to walk around outside for a little while after the tour before heading into the city of Verdun. There we had a delicious fancy meal. We were supposed to speak in French during the meal, but kept going back to English. oops. After lunch we had free time to wander around and explore Verdun. Alla, Allison, Catherine, and I walked along the river and decided to follow some signs to a Citadelle. When we got there we saw a big hill and decided to climb to the top and see what we could see. Well, we ended up climbing another hill and then had a beautiful view of Verdun and the surrounding area. We also found the World Center for Peace which had beautiful gardens. Then we had to leave so we could catch the bus to get home.
On the way home we stopped and saw some old Roman aquaducts! It was nice to get out of the bus and enjoy the sun for a while. The aquaducts were HUGE! I'm not quite sure how they transported water, but it was amazing to see something so old and giant. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay there very long because we had to take the bus back to Nancy to catch our train.
Back in Nancy we had some time to get food so I went to the market. They didn't have anything prepared to eat right then, but it was cool to see the big fruit stands, and meats and sausages. Yan and I ended up going to the mall and getting Chinese food for dinner. Then we caught the train back home!
The next day I got on a train to Dortmund, Germany to visit my friend Anne-Elisabeth, who was an exchange student at NHS my junior year. She's from Thouars, France and is studying in Dortmund for the year. The train ride was about 7 hours long so I just slept and listened to music the whole time. Anne met me at the train station with some of her friends so it was nice to meet them right away. We got back to her apartment and hung out with them for a while, then ate some pasta, watched Gad Elmaleh, a French comedian, and went to bed.
The next day Anne and her friends were planning for a big surprise birthday party for their friend. We got some Doner Kebab for lunch then spent the day shopping and making presents for their friend.
I didn't write down everything I did so I don't really remember everything, but we basically just hung out around the apartment, did some shopping, and relaxing while I was there. Apparently there's not much to see in Dortmund. One morning while Anne was in class I went for a little walk around the neighbourhood and found a path through some woods, but that was about it.
Wednesday night was the surprise birthday part and that was lots of fun! I met more of Anne's friends and talked to some German students who had been to the States. I was the only American there! At one point all the French students started singing the Marseillaise and I sang along (I had learned it from watching the rugby matches). They were very proud that I knew their national anthem :) We got back late that night, had some food, and went to bed. The next day I woke up early and rode a train for another 8 hours to get back home.
Friday I got to see Obama! He was in Strasbourg for the 60th NATO summit. I had planned to stay at Anne's longer because there were protests this weekend against NATO and people said it would be best to leave town, but then our group got an invitation to hear Obama speak so I came back early. We had to meet by the cinema at 11, be bussed over to the stadium, and wait around for 3 hours before he actually showed up. But it was worth it! It wasn't just some bland, politician speech. He talked about the problems our world is facing and how Europe and America need to work together. He was even bold enough to talk about anti-American sentiments in Europe and American's arrogance and how we take Europe for granted, but resolved it by saying those feelings don't reflect the truth and we need eachother if we're going to get anything done. Then he took questions and answered them all very effectively. He's so laid back and sincere when he speaks. After he was done we had to wait another hour or so to get back on the busses and taken back into town.
That evening I had an American party with some other people from LC to celebrate our Obama visit. We watched Team America and other ridiculous American videos on Youtube and pizza, mini sausages, chips, and chocolate chip cookies. Yum!
The next day I met up with my friend Lilian to hang out and enjoy the sunshine. We went to a park, walked around, and played on the playground. When we got back to my apartment we watched the news about all the protests that were going on against NATO. It got pretty crazy! At one point we were walking to the grocery store to get food for dinner and we saw a huge plume of smoke rising up in the sky. When we got back we looked online at found out that the protesters had lit the old customs building and a hotel on fire! Don't worry though, I stayed around my apartment and wasn't anywhere near the crazy demonstrations.
Today has been pretty laid back. The suns out again but it's kind of cloudy so it's not as nice as yesterday. I woke up and hung around the apartment then took a nap and woke up when my host mom got home. She was in Paris for the weekend, avoiding the craziness that has been happening in Strasbourg. And here I am! I have another week of school and then back to Paris for easter weekend! I'm going with the group from school. I'll try to write about it when I get back instead of waiting so long like I did this time. :)
Au revoir!
Paris
Since my last post a lot has been going on! After I finally got over being sick I had another week of classes and then headed out to Paris for the weekend to visit Cecily while she was on Spring Break!
I arrived Saturday morning and met up with Cecily at the train station and then we tried to navigate the metro and RER (another underground train basically like the metro) to get to our hostels and moved in. It took quite a while, especially since our hostels were pretty far away, but we eventually got all our business taken care of and were free to explore Paris.
First thing we did was to get pizza and wine at a cafe next to Cecily's hostel. It was delicious :) After stuffing our mouths, we wandered around to find another cafe and had another glass of wine and some great girl talk. We sat there for quite awhile enjoying the atmosphere and the great weather.
Cecily's hostel was in Montmartre so the first thing we did was climb up to Sacre-Coeur. It was amazing! The lawn in front of Sacre-Coeur was covered in people enjoying the sunshine. We decided to go inside and I can't even describe the feeling inside the church. It's so grand, intense, and overwhelming. I've been in a lot of churches and cathedrals since I've been in Europe, but Sacre-Coeur was the most powerful.
Afterwards we decided to do a few more touristy things so we took the metro to the Jardin des Tuileries and walked around there for a while. I thought there would be a lot of tiles but I didn't really see any... maybe I didn't go to the right area. Well we walked through the garden to the Louvre and walked around the pyramid for a while, as the sun was going down. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance so we figured we'd just walk towards it and eventually get there. I don't know how long it took us, but we walked for quite a while. It was really nice though, we walked along the Seine, saw the Arc de Triomphe and L'Hopital des Invalides. And we saw another group of American girls who took our picture for us. Eventually we arrived that le Tour Eiffel and were so relieved to be able to sit down and rest our feet for a bit. There's a beautiful pond with a weeping willow right next to the Tower. We were just about to head home when the lights all came on so we stayed for a bit longer.
Then we were absolutely famished so we headed back to Montmartre to find some food. We went to a restaurant near Cecily's hostel for a nice meal. The waiter was kind of snobby when we tried to speak French (what a surprise...) but we got our food fine, and it was delicious! Cecily had duck and I had lamb. When we were done I headed to my hostel and passed out because I was so tired.
The next day I met Cecily at her hostel and we headed to Marché aux Puces, a giant flea market. The first area we came to was kind of small and sold a lot of the same things: belts, shoes, scarves... touristy things like that. But then we crossed the street and found the REAL market. It's HUGE! And you can find all sorts of things there. My favorite area was all the furniture. They have some amazing stuff! It really made me want to get an apartment in France and start decorating :) We didn't have time to see it all before we were starving and had to go get some lunch. We took the metro over to the left bank and got a baguette, cheese, and wine. Then we sat in a park facing Notre Dame and enjoyed our feast. How french of us :) When we were done eating we just wondered around the left bank for a really long time, trying to see as much as we could. There were lots of cute little shops, but also a lot of things weren't open because it was Sunday. We walked across Pont Neuf and then decided to take the metro to the Bois de Boulogne, a giant wooded park that I've always wanted to go to.
It took us a while to find the park after we got out of the metro because we got off at a stop a ways away. First we found some sort of botanical garden park which was beautiful though not what we were looking for. We stopped and rested our feet for a while and then saw that the Bois de Boulogne was across the street! We entered from the southernmost point so there wasn't much to see for a while, especially since it was just winter and all the trees are bare. Eventually we saw some groups of men playing Boules. We kept walking and decided to head up to the ponds and then go home since we were so tired from walking all day. The ponds were nice, but I wish we could have gone in the summer because the rest wasn't very impressive. I was a little disappointed, but I'm sure it's much more beautiful when everything is in bloom.
Then we left the park and walked for a long time trying to find a metro stop. We eventually got back to Montmartre and I was so exhausted that I decided just to get a crepe for dinner and head back to the hostel. The crepe was delicious though, nutella and bananas :)
The next day Cecily and I explored Montmartre. We wandered around, saw some parks, a big church (I think it was St. Trinité), and the Moulin Rouge, then stopped and got some chinese food for lunch. I had to leave later that afternoon so we decided just to go chill in a park by the Seine till I had to go. Actually, it was IN the seine because it was the tip of the island that Notre Dame is on. The park is called Square de Vert Galant. It was very pretty and a fun place to spend the afternoon. We even met some French guys that did a little rap for us. It was getting close to when I had to be at the train station so we left, I got my stuff and headed back home. We didn't do a whole lot of touristy things but I kind of like it that way, all the touristy stuff was a little cliché and disappointing because we've heard so much about it. But I did have a really great time and it was so great to see Cecily!
I'll write about the rest of what I've done since then in a new blog. Ciao!
I arrived Saturday morning and met up with Cecily at the train station and then we tried to navigate the metro and RER (another underground train basically like the metro) to get to our hostels and moved in. It took quite a while, especially since our hostels were pretty far away, but we eventually got all our business taken care of and were free to explore Paris.
First thing we did was to get pizza and wine at a cafe next to Cecily's hostel. It was delicious :) After stuffing our mouths, we wandered around to find another cafe and had another glass of wine and some great girl talk. We sat there for quite awhile enjoying the atmosphere and the great weather.
Cecily's hostel was in Montmartre so the first thing we did was climb up to Sacre-Coeur. It was amazing! The lawn in front of Sacre-Coeur was covered in people enjoying the sunshine. We decided to go inside and I can't even describe the feeling inside the church. It's so grand, intense, and overwhelming. I've been in a lot of churches and cathedrals since I've been in Europe, but Sacre-Coeur was the most powerful.
Afterwards we decided to do a few more touristy things so we took the metro to the Jardin des Tuileries and walked around there for a while. I thought there would be a lot of tiles but I didn't really see any... maybe I didn't go to the right area. Well we walked through the garden to the Louvre and walked around the pyramid for a while, as the sun was going down. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance so we figured we'd just walk towards it and eventually get there. I don't know how long it took us, but we walked for quite a while. It was really nice though, we walked along the Seine, saw the Arc de Triomphe and L'Hopital des Invalides. And we saw another group of American girls who took our picture for us. Eventually we arrived that le Tour Eiffel and were so relieved to be able to sit down and rest our feet for a bit. There's a beautiful pond with a weeping willow right next to the Tower. We were just about to head home when the lights all came on so we stayed for a bit longer.
Then we were absolutely famished so we headed back to Montmartre to find some food. We went to a restaurant near Cecily's hostel for a nice meal. The waiter was kind of snobby when we tried to speak French (what a surprise...) but we got our food fine, and it was delicious! Cecily had duck and I had lamb. When we were done I headed to my hostel and passed out because I was so tired.
The next day I met Cecily at her hostel and we headed to Marché aux Puces, a giant flea market. The first area we came to was kind of small and sold a lot of the same things: belts, shoes, scarves... touristy things like that. But then we crossed the street and found the REAL market. It's HUGE! And you can find all sorts of things there. My favorite area was all the furniture. They have some amazing stuff! It really made me want to get an apartment in France and start decorating :) We didn't have time to see it all before we were starving and had to go get some lunch. We took the metro over to the left bank and got a baguette, cheese, and wine. Then we sat in a park facing Notre Dame and enjoyed our feast. How french of us :) When we were done eating we just wondered around the left bank for a really long time, trying to see as much as we could. There were lots of cute little shops, but also a lot of things weren't open because it was Sunday. We walked across Pont Neuf and then decided to take the metro to the Bois de Boulogne, a giant wooded park that I've always wanted to go to.
It took us a while to find the park after we got out of the metro because we got off at a stop a ways away. First we found some sort of botanical garden park which was beautiful though not what we were looking for. We stopped and rested our feet for a while and then saw that the Bois de Boulogne was across the street! We entered from the southernmost point so there wasn't much to see for a while, especially since it was just winter and all the trees are bare. Eventually we saw some groups of men playing Boules. We kept walking and decided to head up to the ponds and then go home since we were so tired from walking all day. The ponds were nice, but I wish we could have gone in the summer because the rest wasn't very impressive. I was a little disappointed, but I'm sure it's much more beautiful when everything is in bloom.
Then we left the park and walked for a long time trying to find a metro stop. We eventually got back to Montmartre and I was so exhausted that I decided just to get a crepe for dinner and head back to the hostel. The crepe was delicious though, nutella and bananas :)
The next day Cecily and I explored Montmartre. We wandered around, saw some parks, a big church (I think it was St. Trinité), and the Moulin Rouge, then stopped and got some chinese food for lunch. I had to leave later that afternoon so we decided just to go chill in a park by the Seine till I had to go. Actually, it was IN the seine because it was the tip of the island that Notre Dame is on. The park is called Square de Vert Galant. It was very pretty and a fun place to spend the afternoon. We even met some French guys that did a little rap for us. It was getting close to when I had to be at the train station so we left, I got my stuff and headed back home. We didn't do a whole lot of touristy things but I kind of like it that way, all the touristy stuff was a little cliché and disappointing because we've heard so much about it. But I did have a really great time and it was so great to see Cecily!
I'll write about the rest of what I've done since then in a new blog. Ciao!
lundi 16 mars 2009
Fantastic London!
I'll now attempt to capture the entire essence of my fun-filled week in London, though I'm sure I'll find it an impossible task...
The first night I arrived was rather uneventful, except I saw Robin!!! However, the weather was less than enjoyable so we spent our time in the hostel doing my laundry and trying a pint at the pub around the corner.
The next day I joined Robin and her class at Hampton Court for a tour of the palace. The infamous Henry XIII had lived there and it was later added to by William... II? Some rich King that wanted to be extravagant of course... After a tour of the kitchens, the chapel, Henry's Great Hall, and William's half of the palace we got to explore the glorious Palace grounds, the garden! It was such a beautiful day, and there were even some flowers in bloom. There were swans on a giant lake, and beautiful landscaping. I only wish the statues hadn't been wrapped in white plastic. We also saw the world's largest grape vine! And I giant wisteria that I took a picture of for mom :) Unfortunately there were no flowers on it yet. Then we walked around to the gardens on the opposite side of the palace and did the most famous maze in the world! It wasn't actually very big, I think originally it was larger, but we certainly got frustrated enough before finally making our way to the center! After the maze we were ready to leave the Palace and head back into downtown London. We took the train back and then hopped on the tube and when we got off Big Ben was RIGHT THERE. Some old ladies wanted me to take their picture but they were standing right in front of Big Ben so it was impossible to get them and all of Big Ben in the picture, but they didn't speak English so I couldn't really explain it to them... oh well, I hope it turned out okay enough. Then we walked around that area and saw the Queen's Gate, which the Queen is only allowed to enter and she only uses once a year... (silly England) Then we saw the outside of Westminster Abbey, but didn't want to pay a ridiculous amount to get inside... Heading back to the tube station we saw a ticket booth for musicals and my friends from the Strasbourg trip that were also in London for the week had told me they were going to Lion King so I bought a ticket for the show that night. Then we had to head over to Covent Garden right away to pick up the tickets because they only reserved them where we were, you had to pick up the physical tickets somewhere else... then once I got my tickets I ran out of credit on my phone so I spent the next couple hours wondering around Covent Garden trying to get credit on my phone and waiting for the show to start. Eventually I just headed over to the theater and took my seat.
The show was AMAZING! The costumes and puppets and scenery and everything was just incredible. The script actually followed the Disney movie really closely, though there were a couple new songs, one which was really cheesy and lame, and another which was really good and I wish I had on my itunes. I met up with Maia and Yan (the girls from the Strasbourg trip that were also in London) at intermission and planned to meet up the next day since my phone wasn't working to call them. After the show we were too tired to do anything else so we went our seperate ways.
The next morning I met Maia at the British Museum. That place is HUGE! First thing we saw was the Rossetta Stone! That's pretty cool to see in real life. Then we wandered amongst giant Egyptian statues for a while, and saw some mummies. I'm sure we saw a lot more, but I don't remember it all right now. You can see it in my facebook photos. Yan was going to meet up with us but by the time she got there we were ready to leave. Then we decided we should hit up some Indian Food place since it's apparently the National Food of London right now. So we had a delicious Indian lunch, though it ended up being a bit more expensive than we expected...
After lunch we met up with Robin and went to Abbey Road! That was really cool to see. The wall in front of the recording studio is covered with writing and drawings from Beatles fans.
After Abbey Road Robin took us to Westminster Chapel, which is in a totally different place than Westminster Abbey, I have no idea why... But it was one of the most amazing churches I've ever seen! Parts of the ceiling are covered in beautiful tile mosaics, some with real gold tiles. They're trying to raise enough money to cover the entire ceiling of the chapel with these mosaics... good luck! There was also a choir singing some Gregorian chants or something while we were there. Very beautiful.
After the chapel we saw a theater for Wicked, which I've wanted to see for a long time, so we headed to the ticket booth to see if we could get some tickets for a reasonable price, and we did! We got to sit front and center too! It was an amazing show, and reminded me of a couple friends back in highschool who were always singing songs from Wicked :)
Exhausted after another whirlwind day of fun in London, we headed back to our beds after the show.
The next day was probably the busiest yet. I woke up and went to try to find the Dickens' House Museum but got distracted by a souvenir shop. After taking my purchases back to the hostel I headed out again, but never found the Dickens House Museum... I did find a cute little church called St.-Giles-in the field or something like that... where I found a little brown church mouse and shared a snack with him. I named him Albert. Then Robin called me so I met up with her at St. James Park and we headed over to Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guard wasn't happening that morning so we decided to come back again the next day to watch it. We walked over to Trafalgar square and had some lunch then went and looked around in the National Gallery. I liked seeing William Turner's paintings, because when I was studying Debussy I learned that Debussy was really inspired by Turner's work.
After the Gallery we caught a double-decker bus over to the south bank. We saw the London Eye and walked all along the south bank to the Tate Modern. On the way we saw street performers and a skate park. Once at the Tate Modern we only looked around at two big exhibits because our feet hurt terribly. I saw some Jackson Pollock paintings and Picassos. After that I was begging Robin to get back on the tube so we could sit down. We decided to go back to her house and make some dinner.
So we headed across the Millenium Bridge to get on the other side of the river. We passed by St. Paul's where the lady sings "Feed the Birds" in Mary Poppin's. Finally we got on the tube and headed to Robin's house. From there we walked to a cheap supermarket and bought some microwave dinners, and candy, which I think I left at my hostel :( After eating and resting my feet a bit I headed back to the hostel to get some sleep.
The next day we got up bright and early because we had a lot of things planned. First we went to Portabello Road, which has a lot of outdoor vendors. I got some scarves and a big bag because I needed another bag to take things back home with me. But we didn't stay very long because we wanted to get to the changing of the guards! So we hopped back on the tube to Buckingham Palace. There were TONS of people but we managed to squeeze our way up to the gate to get a better view. Mostly all we could see was the marching band though. And they played songs by Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Marting, and The Beatles, which was really strange...
Of course no London tourist experience is complete without platform 9 3/4 so we went to Kings Cross to get that photo op taken care of.
It was a reasonably nice day so we went for a walk around Hyde Park. There were a bunch of people rollerskating on the road through the park and doing some pretty cool tricks. After walking the entire length of the park and back our feet were hurting again so we hopped a doubledecker again and headed to Harrod's, the giant famous shopping mall in London. I don't think I would have wanted to do any shopping there but it was pretty interesting to see. We decided to get some afternoon tea, since we were in England after all. I got a Darjeeling tea with a delicious raspberry pastry with a rose petal on top. It was absolutely scrumptious! Though the rose petal didn't really taste that good...
We had finally run out of ideas of what to do and our feet were killing us so we just went back to the hostel for a few hours till dinner time. For dinner I had to have some Fish & Chips so we went back to the pub around the corner from the hostel. Their fish & chips were pretty tasty! Then Robin and her friend, Heather's, friend called them asking if we wanted to go see Watchmen so we decided to go with them. I thought Watchmen was pretty good, there were some pretty bad scenes, but overall a pretty good movie. Robin's friend hated it though. Whatever. Robin and Heather live a ways out from downtown so they had to catch a bus after the movie so I went back to my hostel.
The next day I slept in (YAY!) and then grabbed a sandwich and ate lunch in Russell Square, about a block (if that even) away from my hostel. I watched little kids play in the fountain and wrote in my journal a bit. Then it got windy and a tree branch almost fell in my lap so I decided to get out of there... I took the tube to Camden Market to meet Robin. It was beautiful and sunny when I got there but as I was waiting it started pouring rain so I found a Starbucks and sat there eating cake until I heard from Robin. We decided to brave the weather a bit so we could look around Camden Market. We ended up running from stall to stall trying to stay dry. I ended up buying a jacket because it was cute and cheap and I needed something a bit more fashionable since I hadn't brought my peacoat with me.
We eventually got fed up with the thunder and rain so we headed back into the tube station. Robin wasn't feeling well so she headed home and I decided to check out the Victoria & Albert Museum. It ended up being one of my most favorite museums. There were such a wide variety of exhibits, unfortunately I didn't have time to see them all. My favorite was the sculpture gallery. I took some pictures of my favorites you can see on my facebook. I also liked the fashion and jewelry exhibits. I wanted to see the glass works but they were closing by the time I figured out how to get there.
By then all the other museums were closing as well so I went back to my hostel to get dinner. Robin still wasn't feeling well so I just went to the grocery store and got some cheap sushi. And some breakfast for the next morning, which I also forgot at my hostel... The rest of the evening was pretty laid back. I ate some sushi and ended up playing Blackjack and hanging out with two guys from San Francisco and Los Angeles who had just gotten to London. We hung out around London for a little while because my taxi was coming at 3:30am and I figured going to bed was kind of pointless.
Once we got back to the hostel they waited with me till my taxi came and then began my heinous journey home.
I hadn't slept in 30 hours, my train left at 4:30 am and I didn't get back to Strasbourg until 5 pm that evening... over 24 hours of waiting and catching trains and busses and flights and eating airport food because I left my delicious bagel and OJ somewhere... ugh.
But I made it back safe and sound and here I am!
This week wasn't too eventful, just classes mostly. I did meet with a girl, Coline, who is learning English and did some conversation exchange. We have a lot in common so that was pretty fun. Besides that, I got sick and slept all weekend and watched some rugby in which all the teams I was rooting for lost... I need to get out today because I'm getting kind of homesick. I'll let you know how it goes!
The first night I arrived was rather uneventful, except I saw Robin!!! However, the weather was less than enjoyable so we spent our time in the hostel doing my laundry and trying a pint at the pub around the corner.
The next day I joined Robin and her class at Hampton Court for a tour of the palace. The infamous Henry XIII had lived there and it was later added to by William... II? Some rich King that wanted to be extravagant of course... After a tour of the kitchens, the chapel, Henry's Great Hall, and William's half of the palace we got to explore the glorious Palace grounds, the garden! It was such a beautiful day, and there were even some flowers in bloom. There were swans on a giant lake, and beautiful landscaping. I only wish the statues hadn't been wrapped in white plastic. We also saw the world's largest grape vine! And I giant wisteria that I took a picture of for mom :) Unfortunately there were no flowers on it yet. Then we walked around to the gardens on the opposite side of the palace and did the most famous maze in the world! It wasn't actually very big, I think originally it was larger, but we certainly got frustrated enough before finally making our way to the center! After the maze we were ready to leave the Palace and head back into downtown London. We took the train back and then hopped on the tube and when we got off Big Ben was RIGHT THERE. Some old ladies wanted me to take their picture but they were standing right in front of Big Ben so it was impossible to get them and all of Big Ben in the picture, but they didn't speak English so I couldn't really explain it to them... oh well, I hope it turned out okay enough. Then we walked around that area and saw the Queen's Gate, which the Queen is only allowed to enter and she only uses once a year... (silly England) Then we saw the outside of Westminster Abbey, but didn't want to pay a ridiculous amount to get inside... Heading back to the tube station we saw a ticket booth for musicals and my friends from the Strasbourg trip that were also in London for the week had told me they were going to Lion King so I bought a ticket for the show that night. Then we had to head over to Covent Garden right away to pick up the tickets because they only reserved them where we were, you had to pick up the physical tickets somewhere else... then once I got my tickets I ran out of credit on my phone so I spent the next couple hours wondering around Covent Garden trying to get credit on my phone and waiting for the show to start. Eventually I just headed over to the theater and took my seat.
The show was AMAZING! The costumes and puppets and scenery and everything was just incredible. The script actually followed the Disney movie really closely, though there were a couple new songs, one which was really cheesy and lame, and another which was really good and I wish I had on my itunes. I met up with Maia and Yan (the girls from the Strasbourg trip that were also in London) at intermission and planned to meet up the next day since my phone wasn't working to call them. After the show we were too tired to do anything else so we went our seperate ways.
The next morning I met Maia at the British Museum. That place is HUGE! First thing we saw was the Rossetta Stone! That's pretty cool to see in real life. Then we wandered amongst giant Egyptian statues for a while, and saw some mummies. I'm sure we saw a lot more, but I don't remember it all right now. You can see it in my facebook photos. Yan was going to meet up with us but by the time she got there we were ready to leave. Then we decided we should hit up some Indian Food place since it's apparently the National Food of London right now. So we had a delicious Indian lunch, though it ended up being a bit more expensive than we expected...
After lunch we met up with Robin and went to Abbey Road! That was really cool to see. The wall in front of the recording studio is covered with writing and drawings from Beatles fans.
After Abbey Road Robin took us to Westminster Chapel, which is in a totally different place than Westminster Abbey, I have no idea why... But it was one of the most amazing churches I've ever seen! Parts of the ceiling are covered in beautiful tile mosaics, some with real gold tiles. They're trying to raise enough money to cover the entire ceiling of the chapel with these mosaics... good luck! There was also a choir singing some Gregorian chants or something while we were there. Very beautiful.
After the chapel we saw a theater for Wicked, which I've wanted to see for a long time, so we headed to the ticket booth to see if we could get some tickets for a reasonable price, and we did! We got to sit front and center too! It was an amazing show, and reminded me of a couple friends back in highschool who were always singing songs from Wicked :)
Exhausted after another whirlwind day of fun in London, we headed back to our beds after the show.
The next day was probably the busiest yet. I woke up and went to try to find the Dickens' House Museum but got distracted by a souvenir shop. After taking my purchases back to the hostel I headed out again, but never found the Dickens House Museum... I did find a cute little church called St.-Giles-in the field or something like that... where I found a little brown church mouse and shared a snack with him. I named him Albert. Then Robin called me so I met up with her at St. James Park and we headed over to Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guard wasn't happening that morning so we decided to come back again the next day to watch it. We walked over to Trafalgar square and had some lunch then went and looked around in the National Gallery. I liked seeing William Turner's paintings, because when I was studying Debussy I learned that Debussy was really inspired by Turner's work.
After the Gallery we caught a double-decker bus over to the south bank. We saw the London Eye and walked all along the south bank to the Tate Modern. On the way we saw street performers and a skate park. Once at the Tate Modern we only looked around at two big exhibits because our feet hurt terribly. I saw some Jackson Pollock paintings and Picassos. After that I was begging Robin to get back on the tube so we could sit down. We decided to go back to her house and make some dinner.
So we headed across the Millenium Bridge to get on the other side of the river. We passed by St. Paul's where the lady sings "Feed the Birds" in Mary Poppin's. Finally we got on the tube and headed to Robin's house. From there we walked to a cheap supermarket and bought some microwave dinners, and candy, which I think I left at my hostel :( After eating and resting my feet a bit I headed back to the hostel to get some sleep.
The next day we got up bright and early because we had a lot of things planned. First we went to Portabello Road, which has a lot of outdoor vendors. I got some scarves and a big bag because I needed another bag to take things back home with me. But we didn't stay very long because we wanted to get to the changing of the guards! So we hopped back on the tube to Buckingham Palace. There were TONS of people but we managed to squeeze our way up to the gate to get a better view. Mostly all we could see was the marching band though. And they played songs by Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Marting, and The Beatles, which was really strange...
Of course no London tourist experience is complete without platform 9 3/4 so we went to Kings Cross to get that photo op taken care of.
It was a reasonably nice day so we went for a walk around Hyde Park. There were a bunch of people rollerskating on the road through the park and doing some pretty cool tricks. After walking the entire length of the park and back our feet were hurting again so we hopped a doubledecker again and headed to Harrod's, the giant famous shopping mall in London. I don't think I would have wanted to do any shopping there but it was pretty interesting to see. We decided to get some afternoon tea, since we were in England after all. I got a Darjeeling tea with a delicious raspberry pastry with a rose petal on top. It was absolutely scrumptious! Though the rose petal didn't really taste that good...
We had finally run out of ideas of what to do and our feet were killing us so we just went back to the hostel for a few hours till dinner time. For dinner I had to have some Fish & Chips so we went back to the pub around the corner from the hostel. Their fish & chips were pretty tasty! Then Robin and her friend, Heather's, friend called them asking if we wanted to go see Watchmen so we decided to go with them. I thought Watchmen was pretty good, there were some pretty bad scenes, but overall a pretty good movie. Robin's friend hated it though. Whatever. Robin and Heather live a ways out from downtown so they had to catch a bus after the movie so I went back to my hostel.
The next day I slept in (YAY!) and then grabbed a sandwich and ate lunch in Russell Square, about a block (if that even) away from my hostel. I watched little kids play in the fountain and wrote in my journal a bit. Then it got windy and a tree branch almost fell in my lap so I decided to get out of there... I took the tube to Camden Market to meet Robin. It was beautiful and sunny when I got there but as I was waiting it started pouring rain so I found a Starbucks and sat there eating cake until I heard from Robin. We decided to brave the weather a bit so we could look around Camden Market. We ended up running from stall to stall trying to stay dry. I ended up buying a jacket because it was cute and cheap and I needed something a bit more fashionable since I hadn't brought my peacoat with me.
We eventually got fed up with the thunder and rain so we headed back into the tube station. Robin wasn't feeling well so she headed home and I decided to check out the Victoria & Albert Museum. It ended up being one of my most favorite museums. There were such a wide variety of exhibits, unfortunately I didn't have time to see them all. My favorite was the sculpture gallery. I took some pictures of my favorites you can see on my facebook. I also liked the fashion and jewelry exhibits. I wanted to see the glass works but they were closing by the time I figured out how to get there.
By then all the other museums were closing as well so I went back to my hostel to get dinner. Robin still wasn't feeling well so I just went to the grocery store and got some cheap sushi. And some breakfast for the next morning, which I also forgot at my hostel... The rest of the evening was pretty laid back. I ate some sushi and ended up playing Blackjack and hanging out with two guys from San Francisco and Los Angeles who had just gotten to London. We hung out around London for a little while because my taxi was coming at 3:30am and I figured going to bed was kind of pointless.
Once we got back to the hostel they waited with me till my taxi came and then began my heinous journey home.
I hadn't slept in 30 hours, my train left at 4:30 am and I didn't get back to Strasbourg until 5 pm that evening... over 24 hours of waiting and catching trains and busses and flights and eating airport food because I left my delicious bagel and OJ somewhere... ugh.
But I made it back safe and sound and here I am!
This week wasn't too eventful, just classes mostly. I did meet with a girl, Coline, who is learning English and did some conversation exchange. We have a lot in common so that was pretty fun. Besides that, I got sick and slept all weekend and watched some rugby in which all the teams I was rooting for lost... I need to get out today because I'm getting kind of homesick. I'll let you know how it goes!
samedi 14 mars 2009
Oslo & Tromso, Norway
Well, I am long overdo for an entry! I got back from my two-week vacation this last Monday and have been very busy ever since, but now I'm sick so I have nothing better to do.
I started my trip off in Oslo, Norway, visiting my good friend from school, Warren. The first day we went to Vigeland Park, a big park with tons of statues of people during different periods of life. It was really amazing, all the statues were made by one person. There's pictures on my Facebook if you're interested. Then we went to the National Gallery and saw paintings of Norway, as well as some Impressionist paintings and a collection of Edvard Munch's paintings (because he's Norwegian!), including The Scream and Madonna. Afterwards we walked around downtown Oslo in the snow and ended up eating dinner at Peppe's Pizza, which was delicious!!!
The next day we slept in and then went to a cafe on the campus where Warren goes to school where they have cheap, delicious waffles. I met a bunch of his friends and ate like three waffles with jam and whipped cream. Mmm... Then I went to his Norwegian music class with him and learned about Edvard Grieg and other famous Norwegian musicians. In the evening we went to a Quiz at a bar on campus. It's basically like a very difficult game of trivia pursuit. You're in teams and you write down what you think the answer is on a piece of paper to 20 questions and in the end you turn it in and they find who won. After the first round we were in 3rd place! But we didn't stick around to get the results for the 2nd round because their group never wins and we had a bus to catch.
The next day we headed up North to Tromso, a city inside the Arctic Circle. It's been called "the Paris of the North"! It truly is a beautiful city, surrounded by giant arctic mountains, and the way the sun shines there is indescribable. The first day there we set up our cabins and then walked around the town a bit and did some grocery shopping. Many people in Norway do speak English, but everything is written in Norwegian and trying to find the food we wanted was rather difficult, but we managed to survive the week!
That night we trekked out trying to find a place away from any big lights so that we could see the Northern Lights. We walked down a cross-country ski trail and found a big open field so we forged a path through the knee-deep snow. It was so fun! And by the time we got to the middle and sat down in the snow we could see a glowing green stripe through sky. Such an amazing experience. We stayed there for quite a while before people started getting too cold and wanted to go back. Unfortunately, on the way back out, one of the girls got her shoe stuck under the snow and couldn't get it out. Warren and I volunteered to go get a shovel and dig it out for her. So she and everyone else went back to the cabins and Warren and I went back to the field with a shovel to try to rescue her shoe. We eventually got it out and on the way back we looked up and we saw the brightest green light stretching across the sky, it was shimmering and even had a tinge of red along the bottom! The biggest light we had seen all night! So we ran back to the cabin to grab our cameras and tell the others but by the time we got back outside it was gone.
The next day we went to Polaria, which was mostly an aquarium. We saw a lot of fish and crabs, and most exciting, bearded seals! They were so much fun to watch, and there's a tunnel like at the Newport aquarium that you can walk under and see the seals swimming above you. Afterwards we went to the Gallery of Contemporary Art which was accross the street. There wasn't much in there except for some strange short films that none of us really understood... That night we went out to eat at Egon. I got smoked salmon and it was pretty good. Everyone enjoyed their food. That night it was too cloudy to see the lights, but we played around in the snow making snow angels and exploring the area around the campground until we got too tired.
The next day was Sunday, and not much is open on Sundays, just like in France, but we went to the Tromso Museum. They had a bunch of different exhibits, like how the Northern Lights are formed, rocks in Norway, and life in the Stone Ages. They also had a big section that I found very interesting about the Sami people, the native people of Northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland. We didn't do much else that day except make leftover spaghetti for dinner and play outside in the snow again, it was too cloudy to see the lights again.
The next day was our last in Tromso, but we didn't leave until the evening so we went back to downtown Tromso for the day. We went to the Polar Museum which was about hunting and trapping in the Arctic, kind of depressing, but still interesting. Then we went to the Northernmost Glass blowing studio in the world, called Blast. We got to watch a lady blow a glass wine glass. For dinner we went to Peppe's again (it's a big thing in Norway!) Then we got on our plane back to Oslo. Back in Oslo we were exhausted but I just had to try reindeer before I left so I stayed up while Warren and his friends cooked some reindeer. It was pretty good! Very tender, I think I would have liked it with some potatoes and gravy :)
The next day I headed to London! Which I'll write a post about in a bit, right now I need to get some rest.
I started my trip off in Oslo, Norway, visiting my good friend from school, Warren. The first day we went to Vigeland Park, a big park with tons of statues of people during different periods of life. It was really amazing, all the statues were made by one person. There's pictures on my Facebook if you're interested. Then we went to the National Gallery and saw paintings of Norway, as well as some Impressionist paintings and a collection of Edvard Munch's paintings (because he's Norwegian!), including The Scream and Madonna. Afterwards we walked around downtown Oslo in the snow and ended up eating dinner at Peppe's Pizza, which was delicious!!!
The next day we slept in and then went to a cafe on the campus where Warren goes to school where they have cheap, delicious waffles. I met a bunch of his friends and ate like three waffles with jam and whipped cream. Mmm... Then I went to his Norwegian music class with him and learned about Edvard Grieg and other famous Norwegian musicians. In the evening we went to a Quiz at a bar on campus. It's basically like a very difficult game of trivia pursuit. You're in teams and you write down what you think the answer is on a piece of paper to 20 questions and in the end you turn it in and they find who won. After the first round we were in 3rd place! But we didn't stick around to get the results for the 2nd round because their group never wins and we had a bus to catch.
The next day we headed up North to Tromso, a city inside the Arctic Circle. It's been called "the Paris of the North"! It truly is a beautiful city, surrounded by giant arctic mountains, and the way the sun shines there is indescribable. The first day there we set up our cabins and then walked around the town a bit and did some grocery shopping. Many people in Norway do speak English, but everything is written in Norwegian and trying to find the food we wanted was rather difficult, but we managed to survive the week!
That night we trekked out trying to find a place away from any big lights so that we could see the Northern Lights. We walked down a cross-country ski trail and found a big open field so we forged a path through the knee-deep snow. It was so fun! And by the time we got to the middle and sat down in the snow we could see a glowing green stripe through sky. Such an amazing experience. We stayed there for quite a while before people started getting too cold and wanted to go back. Unfortunately, on the way back out, one of the girls got her shoe stuck under the snow and couldn't get it out. Warren and I volunteered to go get a shovel and dig it out for her. So she and everyone else went back to the cabins and Warren and I went back to the field with a shovel to try to rescue her shoe. We eventually got it out and on the way back we looked up and we saw the brightest green light stretching across the sky, it was shimmering and even had a tinge of red along the bottom! The biggest light we had seen all night! So we ran back to the cabin to grab our cameras and tell the others but by the time we got back outside it was gone.
The next day we went to Polaria, which was mostly an aquarium. We saw a lot of fish and crabs, and most exciting, bearded seals! They were so much fun to watch, and there's a tunnel like at the Newport aquarium that you can walk under and see the seals swimming above you. Afterwards we went to the Gallery of Contemporary Art which was accross the street. There wasn't much in there except for some strange short films that none of us really understood... That night we went out to eat at Egon. I got smoked salmon and it was pretty good. Everyone enjoyed their food. That night it was too cloudy to see the lights, but we played around in the snow making snow angels and exploring the area around the campground until we got too tired.
The next day was Sunday, and not much is open on Sundays, just like in France, but we went to the Tromso Museum. They had a bunch of different exhibits, like how the Northern Lights are formed, rocks in Norway, and life in the Stone Ages. They also had a big section that I found very interesting about the Sami people, the native people of Northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland. We didn't do much else that day except make leftover spaghetti for dinner and play outside in the snow again, it was too cloudy to see the lights again.
The next day was our last in Tromso, but we didn't leave until the evening so we went back to downtown Tromso for the day. We went to the Polar Museum which was about hunting and trapping in the Arctic, kind of depressing, but still interesting. Then we went to the Northernmost Glass blowing studio in the world, called Blast. We got to watch a lady blow a glass wine glass. For dinner we went to Peppe's again (it's a big thing in Norway!) Then we got on our plane back to Oslo. Back in Oslo we were exhausted but I just had to try reindeer before I left so I stayed up while Warren and his friends cooked some reindeer. It was pretty good! Very tender, I think I would have liked it with some potatoes and gravy :)
The next day I headed to London! Which I'll write a post about in a bit, right now I need to get some rest.
lundi 23 février 2009
Les vacances commencent
Tuesday our presentation went alright. It wasn't as long as the requirements said it should be, but we talked a lot during the discussion afterwards and I think the prof knew we knew what we were talking about.
The rest of the week was mostly classes. I didn't do much else. (Sorry I'm boring!)
Friday I slept in and skipped my class again (oops!) And then off to the mountain! The drive up was really pretty, we drove through small villages in the valleys and on the mountain. Snowboarding was an adventure... I couldn't really figure it out for a while. Apparently the problem ended up being that my bindings weren't tight enough so we tightened that up and it was much easier. I still fell on my butt a lot though. Ouch! I made it down 3 times without falling! I think I'll stick to skiing from now on...
Saturday I met Maia at the mall to check out this sushi place. It looked reasonably priced but ended up costing both of us at least 20€... Don't think we'll be going back there! They charge 3€ for the small bottle of water they bring you! I miss SushiLand... Then we went to the Médiathèque, which is really cool! We watched a guy watching Thriller for a few minutes and that was entertaining. They have lots of movies and music that you can sit down and watch or listen to while you're there, or you can buy a membership and check things out. (They have books too, of course). On the way home we got a few bottles of wine then invited some friends over to watch movies and drink wine. It really helped me forget how sore I was from the snowboarding!
Yesterday I met Konstantin to go to the train station because I needed to print out my ticket for tomorrow and he wanted to look at tickets for Paris today. Then we came back here so he could look online because he doesn't have internet at his apartment. We just goofed around on the internet and checked out music until he had to leave. I spent the night eating pasta and watching a French comedian, Gad Elmaleh (well, he's actually Moroccan). He's really hilarious! If you speak French...
Today I have to pack and get all my travelling plans in order, and tomorrow I leave bright and early to get to Oslo! I have to take the tram to the train station, then a train to catch a bus to catch my plane and then take a bus... eek! At least from there Warren will meet me and help me get to his place. I can't wait! I don't know how much I'll be on the internet but I'll try to keep you updated on my adventures.
Au revoir!
The rest of the week was mostly classes. I didn't do much else. (Sorry I'm boring!)
Friday I slept in and skipped my class again (oops!) And then off to the mountain! The drive up was really pretty, we drove through small villages in the valleys and on the mountain. Snowboarding was an adventure... I couldn't really figure it out for a while. Apparently the problem ended up being that my bindings weren't tight enough so we tightened that up and it was much easier. I still fell on my butt a lot though. Ouch! I made it down 3 times without falling! I think I'll stick to skiing from now on...
Saturday I met Maia at the mall to check out this sushi place. It looked reasonably priced but ended up costing both of us at least 20€... Don't think we'll be going back there! They charge 3€ for the small bottle of water they bring you! I miss SushiLand... Then we went to the Médiathèque, which is really cool! We watched a guy watching Thriller for a few minutes and that was entertaining. They have lots of movies and music that you can sit down and watch or listen to while you're there, or you can buy a membership and check things out. (They have books too, of course). On the way home we got a few bottles of wine then invited some friends over to watch movies and drink wine. It really helped me forget how sore I was from the snowboarding!
Yesterday I met Konstantin to go to the train station because I needed to print out my ticket for tomorrow and he wanted to look at tickets for Paris today. Then we came back here so he could look online because he doesn't have internet at his apartment. We just goofed around on the internet and checked out music until he had to leave. I spent the night eating pasta and watching a French comedian, Gad Elmaleh (well, he's actually Moroccan). He's really hilarious! If you speak French...
Today I have to pack and get all my travelling plans in order, and tomorrow I leave bright and early to get to Oslo! I have to take the tram to the train station, then a train to catch a bus to catch my plane and then take a bus... eek! At least from there Warren will meet me and help me get to his place. I can't wait! I don't know how much I'll be on the internet but I'll try to keep you updated on my adventures.
Au revoir!
lundi 16 février 2009
post-script
Well I'm not going to the climbing gym today or to the party on Friday, but that's fine, I'm going snowboarding instead! I'm really excited because I've never been before and it's really cheap!
I'll go to the gym over break (which starts next week!)
Hooray! :)
I'll go to the gym over break (which starts next week!)
Hooray! :)
L'Escalade
After my rock climbing class last Monday I decided to sign up for another class Thursday as well so I could climb at least twice a week. It's a nice break from my usual hum drum of classes.
Tuesday (or was it Wednesday?) night I went to a rock concert at Molodoi. None of my other friends ended up showing up, but I recognized a French guy, JP, from hanging out with Jessamy's friend, Lorrain, and his friends, so I hung out with him for a bit. The music was really loud and fun! If you want to look up the band, they have a Myspace. They're called Plus Guest.
Thursday was Jessamy's birthday! We went to a Moroccan couscous restaurant. It was delicious and filling :) Jessamy and I split the "duo Saharian" which had all different sorts of food to try, including kabobs, sausage, and other things I don't know how to describe... Afterwards we hung out at la Taverne Française with the French guys. They're pretty fun and say I speak the best french of the American group :)
Friday I slept in and skipped class (sh... it's not that big of a deal, I swear!) Then invited some people over in the evening since my host-mom was gone. We hung out and played "Trivial Pursuit: Passport au monde" with a natural French-speaker on each team so at least SOMEONE would understand what was going on :) We almost won! But not quite...
Saturday I went to Dubliner's to watch the rugby game. No one else from the group showed up, but it was okay, I like rugby enough to watch it alone :) France vs. Scotland and France won!!!! Hooray! Then I went home to get ready for the Opera, and my host-mom made rabbit for dinner so I had a little bit before I left. Not bad! As long as you don't think about what you're eating... and fluffy little bunny tails and floppy ears.... anyways...
The Opera was a recital of Nina Stemme, she sang Wagner and Rachmaninov and some other great artists that I don't remember.... but my favorite part was when she did an encore and sang two songs in French. I actually understood what she was saying! I hope I can go back to the Opera and maybe see something in French. I think it's so amazing what they can do with their voices!
Afterwards we went out for Donner Kebab, which is like the fast food here, except just that it's cheap and fast, it's not prepackaged and frozen like American fast food . It's just like hot sandwiches and wraps and stuff. Very yummy :)
Sunday Sam, Allison, and I went to le Salon des Vins, which is just like a GIANT room filled from end to end with wine vendors and you get to try whatever you want! We don't know much about wine or wine tasting, but we enjoyed ourselves well enough :) I found a delicious wine called Cent Visages, but when I came back to buy it they were all out, but I bought a different wine from the same people to bring to people back home. Hopefully next time I go wine-tasting I can bring an expert along with me to tell me what to do!
Not much exciting after that, I came home and worked on a presentation for tomorrow. Sam & I are presenting William James to our World Philosophy class, but it has to be 40 minutes long so it's kind of intimidating... We'll get through it though.
I had rock climbing class today, and am going to check out a gym with Ashton today. There's a party at this gym (it's called Roc n Stock) Friday and I want to go check it out and make sure I can get there okay before I try to go to the party Friday. Basically all I want to do these days is go climbing. I can't wait till it's nice outside and I can get on some real rocks!
It snowed today! But didn't stick at all. I was hoping it would snow enough for class to be cancelled but alas, that is not so. It was pretty though!
Well, I still have some more research to do to make this presentation 40 minutes long so I better get to it.
À bientôt!
Tuesday (or was it Wednesday?) night I went to a rock concert at Molodoi. None of my other friends ended up showing up, but I recognized a French guy, JP, from hanging out with Jessamy's friend, Lorrain, and his friends, so I hung out with him for a bit. The music was really loud and fun! If you want to look up the band, they have a Myspace. They're called Plus Guest.
Thursday was Jessamy's birthday! We went to a Moroccan couscous restaurant. It was delicious and filling :) Jessamy and I split the "duo Saharian" which had all different sorts of food to try, including kabobs, sausage, and other things I don't know how to describe... Afterwards we hung out at la Taverne Française with the French guys. They're pretty fun and say I speak the best french of the American group :)
Friday I slept in and skipped class (sh... it's not that big of a deal, I swear!) Then invited some people over in the evening since my host-mom was gone. We hung out and played "Trivial Pursuit: Passport au monde" with a natural French-speaker on each team so at least SOMEONE would understand what was going on :) We almost won! But not quite...
Saturday I went to Dubliner's to watch the rugby game. No one else from the group showed up, but it was okay, I like rugby enough to watch it alone :) France vs. Scotland and France won!!!! Hooray! Then I went home to get ready for the Opera, and my host-mom made rabbit for dinner so I had a little bit before I left. Not bad! As long as you don't think about what you're eating... and fluffy little bunny tails and floppy ears.... anyways...
The Opera was a recital of Nina Stemme, she sang Wagner and Rachmaninov and some other great artists that I don't remember.... but my favorite part was when she did an encore and sang two songs in French. I actually understood what she was saying! I hope I can go back to the Opera and maybe see something in French. I think it's so amazing what they can do with their voices!
Afterwards we went out for Donner Kebab, which is like the fast food here, except just that it's cheap and fast, it's not prepackaged and frozen like American fast food . It's just like hot sandwiches and wraps and stuff. Very yummy :)
Sunday Sam, Allison, and I went to le Salon des Vins, which is just like a GIANT room filled from end to end with wine vendors and you get to try whatever you want! We don't know much about wine or wine tasting, but we enjoyed ourselves well enough :) I found a delicious wine called Cent Visages, but when I came back to buy it they were all out, but I bought a different wine from the same people to bring to people back home. Hopefully next time I go wine-tasting I can bring an expert along with me to tell me what to do!
Not much exciting after that, I came home and worked on a presentation for tomorrow. Sam & I are presenting William James to our World Philosophy class, but it has to be 40 minutes long so it's kind of intimidating... We'll get through it though.
I had rock climbing class today, and am going to check out a gym with Ashton today. There's a party at this gym (it's called Roc n Stock) Friday and I want to go check it out and make sure I can get there okay before I try to go to the party Friday. Basically all I want to do these days is go climbing. I can't wait till it's nice outside and I can get on some real rocks!
It snowed today! But didn't stick at all. I was hoping it would snow enough for class to be cancelled but alas, that is not so. It was pretty though!
Well, I still have some more research to do to make this presentation 40 minutes long so I better get to it.
À bientôt!
mardi 10 février 2009
Trop des tartes flambées!
Last Thursday I went to a dégustation des tartes flambées (tasting of tartes flambées). Tartes flambées are kind of the Alsacian form of pizza, but don't call it pizza or they'll get pissed! It's on a thin bread with cheese and usually ham and onions, but there were also some with mushrooms. And for dessert we had chocolate tarte flambées or apples and cinnamon tarte flambées!
It was a University event so there were lots of people but I didn't know anyone when I got there. But I very soon made some new friends :) I met Hudson from Brazil, Angelica also from Brazil, Mateo from Colombia, Stella from China, and Konstantin from Germany. They were all very friendly and fun! What's interesting is that most exchange students speak English much better than French so we tried to keep up conversation in French but spoke English a lot. We got absolutely stuffed from tartes flambées and then walked around near the cathedral a bit. I hung out with Mateo and Konstantin the rest of the night.
The next day (Friday) I had class at 8:30. Ick. But that went by relatively quickly and then I had a meeting with Beth to make sure I was taking enough classes, etc. Everything was fine there and we just hung out and talked for a while about the abroad experience and random things like psychology and religion (she also majored in Psychology in college!) I met up with Mateo, Konstantin, Ashton, and Sean (Ashton and Sean are in my group, Ashton's from De Pauw, but still part of the "LC" group) for lunch and we had more tartes flambées! After that Mateo, Konstantin and I were a little tired of tartes flambées and we were joking that we couldn't eat anymore, at least for the rest of the day, haha!
Then when I got my home my host mom had gotten back, along with her boyfriend, Wolfgang, his son Yannis, and Yannis' girlfriend, Valentine. Before dinner we had champagne and guess what... more tartes flambées! I managed to eat a little bit more :)
Saturday evening I hung out with friends... I don't remember doing much else during the day. Saturday we went to the Dubliner's and watched some rugby games! That was really fun, except France lost to Ireland :( Then we went to Jessamy's French friend, Lorrain's, friend's house and hung out with some vrais français! We played some games and tried to converse in franglais :)
Sunday I slept in the met up with Konstantin to watch more rugby. It's a fun game to watch! Most of the LC group is getting together next Saturday since it's Valentine's Day and we're all alone and we'll probably watch a rugby game and go to the opera, how culturally diverse of us :) Anyways, after the game we just walked around the town until I had dinner. That was pretty much the end of my night.
Monday I had my first rock climbing class! Alla ( a girl from the LC group) was there too so it was nice to have someone I knew there. I went with the beginners and we learned how to tie ropes etc. and then we got to climb. The beginner routes were a little too easy and my balaying partner (the say assurer instead of balay in french) kept saying I was going too fast. But I signed up for another class on Thursday so I can get right to the challenging stuff next time! After class I got my opera ticket and exchanged some money that Dad & Barb sent me for my birthday. (pst, Dad, do you know if checks expire? Because depositing that check from here is super complicated and I was just going to wait till I get back to the States)
Anyways, today I got up at a heinous hour, went to class at 8 and had eight hours of classes... I almost fell asleep a couple times in one!
So that's where I am now. Dinner is soon :) I'm excited for another rock climbing class on Thursday and Jessamy's birthday! We're going to a Pizzeria.
Hope all is well with all of you! Sorry to those of you whose e-mails I haven't responded to, I've been busy trying to get my travelling plans in order and it's a little frustrating and time-consuming but I'll get to it when I have my plans all put together.
Bisous!
It was a University event so there were lots of people but I didn't know anyone when I got there. But I very soon made some new friends :) I met Hudson from Brazil, Angelica also from Brazil, Mateo from Colombia, Stella from China, and Konstantin from Germany. They were all very friendly and fun! What's interesting is that most exchange students speak English much better than French so we tried to keep up conversation in French but spoke English a lot. We got absolutely stuffed from tartes flambées and then walked around near the cathedral a bit. I hung out with Mateo and Konstantin the rest of the night.
The next day (Friday) I had class at 8:30. Ick. But that went by relatively quickly and then I had a meeting with Beth to make sure I was taking enough classes, etc. Everything was fine there and we just hung out and talked for a while about the abroad experience and random things like psychology and religion (she also majored in Psychology in college!) I met up with Mateo, Konstantin, Ashton, and Sean (Ashton and Sean are in my group, Ashton's from De Pauw, but still part of the "LC" group) for lunch and we had more tartes flambées! After that Mateo, Konstantin and I were a little tired of tartes flambées and we were joking that we couldn't eat anymore, at least for the rest of the day, haha!
Then when I got my home my host mom had gotten back, along with her boyfriend, Wolfgang, his son Yannis, and Yannis' girlfriend, Valentine. Before dinner we had champagne and guess what... more tartes flambées! I managed to eat a little bit more :)
Saturday evening I hung out with friends... I don't remember doing much else during the day. Saturday we went to the Dubliner's and watched some rugby games! That was really fun, except France lost to Ireland :( Then we went to Jessamy's French friend, Lorrain's, friend's house and hung out with some vrais français! We played some games and tried to converse in franglais :)
Sunday I slept in the met up with Konstantin to watch more rugby. It's a fun game to watch! Most of the LC group is getting together next Saturday since it's Valentine's Day and we're all alone and we'll probably watch a rugby game and go to the opera, how culturally diverse of us :) Anyways, after the game we just walked around the town until I had dinner. That was pretty much the end of my night.
Monday I had my first rock climbing class! Alla ( a girl from the LC group) was there too so it was nice to have someone I knew there. I went with the beginners and we learned how to tie ropes etc. and then we got to climb. The beginner routes were a little too easy and my balaying partner (the say assurer instead of balay in french) kept saying I was going too fast. But I signed up for another class on Thursday so I can get right to the challenging stuff next time! After class I got my opera ticket and exchanged some money that Dad & Barb sent me for my birthday. (pst, Dad, do you know if checks expire? Because depositing that check from here is super complicated and I was just going to wait till I get back to the States)
Anyways, today I got up at a heinous hour, went to class at 8 and had eight hours of classes... I almost fell asleep a couple times in one!
So that's where I am now. Dinner is soon :) I'm excited for another rock climbing class on Thursday and Jessamy's birthday! We're going to a Pizzeria.
Hope all is well with all of you! Sorry to those of you whose e-mails I haven't responded to, I've been busy trying to get my travelling plans in order and it's a little frustrating and time-consuming but I'll get to it when I have my plans all put together.
Bisous!
mercredi 4 février 2009
J'ai 21 ans!
Merci for all the birthday wishes! I had a great time :) My actually birthday I spent relaxing in bed because I stayed up late having fun the night before. I also got the most wonderful birthday package in the mail from home!
Yesterday I had eight hours of class... Though not too bad. Our leader, Beth, had a little birthday get-together for me at her apartment between classes. I still have some of the yummy cake in the fridge! I'm glad to be in class, learning new things and keeping my brain entertained.
Some of the students and professors were on strike again today. I believe it's about some reforms the government is making concerning University finances. There's a new law changing how the state pays for schooling an requiring schools to become more financially independent. Because of this the three universities in Strasbourg joined together to form one University of Strasbourg. For some reason people don't like this... I'll try to learn more about it.
So today some of my friends and I went to a Faculté class for the first time. When the teacher arrived she said that she's on strike but is required to be there so she said she was physically there but wouldn't be teaching so we could just talk about whatever we want. So we talked about the States for a while and since she's from Italy she told us about school in Italy and Canada since she taught there. It was very interesting and I can't wait to get the actual class started next week. It's the sociology of cities or something like that...
After we left I realized 5€ fell out of my pocket and I couldn't find it so I get upset about that... then the coffee machine at my money... but I tried to forget about all that because other than that I was having a really great day.
So I came home, watched a couple episodes of 24 and then made dinner! I made pasta and some chicken I started marinating last night. It was really good! Except that I marinated it in soy sauce and some other things so it was kind of salty but I just added sweet chili sauce and it was good :) I was happy to make up my own sauce without a recipe and have it turn out okay :)
I'm not quite sure when my host mom is getting back but I hope soon because I've run out of cooking ideas... at least anything I can make with what's left in the fridge.
I was thinking about the strikes lately and had some interesting ideas. Well the French love to go on strike and it happens all the time. I learned in my culture class they basically go on strike when the government tries to make any kind of reform. But if that's the case wouldn't it start to lose it's power? If the government knows everyone's going to strike no matter what then it won't matter because maybe they're just striking for the sake of striking? The government may just come to ignore it because it's meaningless. I don't know, just my thoughts and impressions, if any people that know a bit more about France and French culture have any responses please let me know :)
On another note I'm getting really excited about climbing! I did a lot of research last night and found some good climbing spots nearby, now I just have to figure out how to get there. I also found out where the gym where my class is so I can make it there next Monday. I hope I can make some new friends and get some great climbs in!
But now it's cake time :) A bientôt!
Yesterday I had eight hours of class... Though not too bad. Our leader, Beth, had a little birthday get-together for me at her apartment between classes. I still have some of the yummy cake in the fridge! I'm glad to be in class, learning new things and keeping my brain entertained.
Some of the students and professors were on strike again today. I believe it's about some reforms the government is making concerning University finances. There's a new law changing how the state pays for schooling an requiring schools to become more financially independent. Because of this the three universities in Strasbourg joined together to form one University of Strasbourg. For some reason people don't like this... I'll try to learn more about it.
So today some of my friends and I went to a Faculté class for the first time. When the teacher arrived she said that she's on strike but is required to be there so she said she was physically there but wouldn't be teaching so we could just talk about whatever we want. So we talked about the States for a while and since she's from Italy she told us about school in Italy and Canada since she taught there. It was very interesting and I can't wait to get the actual class started next week. It's the sociology of cities or something like that...
After we left I realized 5€ fell out of my pocket and I couldn't find it so I get upset about that... then the coffee machine at my money... but I tried to forget about all that because other than that I was having a really great day.
So I came home, watched a couple episodes of 24 and then made dinner! I made pasta and some chicken I started marinating last night. It was really good! Except that I marinated it in soy sauce and some other things so it was kind of salty but I just added sweet chili sauce and it was good :) I was happy to make up my own sauce without a recipe and have it turn out okay :)
I'm not quite sure when my host mom is getting back but I hope soon because I've run out of cooking ideas... at least anything I can make with what's left in the fridge.
I was thinking about the strikes lately and had some interesting ideas. Well the French love to go on strike and it happens all the time. I learned in my culture class they basically go on strike when the government tries to make any kind of reform. But if that's the case wouldn't it start to lose it's power? If the government knows everyone's going to strike no matter what then it won't matter because maybe they're just striking for the sake of striking? The government may just come to ignore it because it's meaningless. I don't know, just my thoughts and impressions, if any people that know a bit more about France and French culture have any responses please let me know :)
On another note I'm getting really excited about climbing! I did a lot of research last night and found some good climbing spots nearby, now I just have to figure out how to get there. I also found out where the gym where my class is so I can make it there next Monday. I hope I can make some new friends and get some great climbs in!
But now it's cake time :) A bientôt!
samedi 31 janvier 2009
La Rhume
Wow, it's been a busy week!
Let's see, what have I done since I last posted...
Sunday Maia and I wanted to check out the Médiatheque but it was closed... as everything is on Sundays, except the Cinema! So we went and saw "slumdog millionaire". It was really good! Then we came back to my apartment and watched another movie because it's cheaper to watch them for free :)
Monday I went to go check out a rock climbing class but it was canceled so I met up with Maia and Yan at the cafeteria... not much to say about that, it's cafeteria food, only bread and cheese and quiche instead of... American food, but still mass processed and mushy. Then Yan and I went shopping! I got boots in case it rains (which it did once but doesn't look like it will again... great...) and some really cheap cute clothes! Right now it's Les Soldes (sales) so everything is on sale, except the new clothes for spring, but who needs that?
Tuesday was my first day of classes... what an interesting experience. My first class was Savoirs Culturels which is like learning about French customs and cultures. We talked about stereotypes about French people and what is true and why. That's two hours. Then right afterwards is language block, another two hours. The first day we just chose our classes then did some ridiculous listening activity that nobody else finished. Sam, a girl from the LC group, and I have all our classes together which is nice. Then we have a two hour break then 4 hours straight of options courses: Phonétiques (phonetics), Les Langues de la Rue (street language), Philosophie du Monde, and Philosophie de la France. All of the option courses are interesting.
Wednesday Sam came over and we recopied our notes and talked about classes. Then we had another language block which is semi-interesting/semi-boring because it's really easy stuff, but at least the class won't be too hard! We were going to check out Mouvements Litteraires (literary movements) but it was cancelled.
Thursday we went to Diversité Linguistique de la France (Linguistic Diversity in France) but our prof never showed up, probably because of the strike. Then we tried to find out information for taking a course at the faculté (the actual French university, not the international school that we go to) and the office was also closed because of the strike. Apparently there was a nationwide strike and a lot of public workers like teachers and transportation workers were on strike against vague things like education, the economic crisis, and Sarkozy. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the manifestations because I went to bed for the rest of the day besides our village project class. I had a really bad cold that is still bothering me so hopefully I get over it soon...
Friday I skipped my morning class to get rest because we went on an excursion! We met up with the Nancy group (another group of students from LC) and took a bus to Colmar. There we visited an old church with a famous organ, and the the Musée d'Unterlinden to see the Retable d'Issenheim, a famous religious painting. The museum was very cool, they had everything from old religious statues, to artifacts from the neanderthal period to modern paintings, I even saw two Picassos! We were able to wander around by ourselves for a while and then had a guide explain the Retable d'Issenheim. I really enjoyed hearing all the background and explanations about the paintings, I really wouldn't have appreciated it without that. Next we went to a museum of Eau de Vie, which is a special type of liquer. The man that owns this small museum showed us how it was made and explained the history of a bunch of different bottles of liquer, as well as the history of absinthe. Then we got to taste some Eau de Vie! It was very very strong and not something I'd want to drink again, but I also tried a liquer called Exotic Cranberry which was sweet and delicious :)
After all that we were starving and we headed off for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called L'Agneau d'Or (the Golden Lamb). It was definitely very french... first the waitress came around and poured us all wine... then 100 years later (really only half an hour maybe, but I was starving so everything took forever) she brought this whipped vegetable purée thing... it was good but only because I was starving. Then another 100 years later we got a salad with munster cheese biscuit things! (sorry everyone, I forgot all the real names for everything) That was DELICIOUS! but definitely not filling enough... next course, sorbet to cleanse the palate. Then we had the main course, guinea fowl with homemade noodles and vegetables. It was so good! Finally I was full :) For a while we were scared that the salad was all we were going to get because the menu was out of order plus we didn't really understand what it said, so we were very happy when she brought out big plates of meat and veggies. After the delicious main course we had chocolate tart with ice cream (I'm sure it was something more fancy than that but that's how it translates in my American mind) All in all it was a very fancy delicious meal, I just wish it didn't take so long! We were there for about three hours!
Today I slept till about 11:30 because I'm still feeling icky and cold-infested but the Nancy group was still in Strasbourg and I wanted to go hang out with some friends before they left. Sam brought over the notes I missed Thursday and Friday. Then Maia and I went shopping for some food for my birthday party Sunday night! (I hope I'm feeling better by then!) After we dropped the groceries off at the apartment we met up with Catherine and Alla at a huge shopping center and walked around. It was nice being in a warm building instead of out in the cold but by the end I was feeling tired and icky again. We dropped Catherine off at her hotel then Maia and I came back to my apartment and watched some TV.
I would make this more interesting and detailed but I've been tired and sick since Thursday so my brain isn't functioning at it's fullest capacity... Tomorrow I'm going to rest up before my birthday party in the evening and Monday I have a Rock Climbing class I hope I'm in full form to attend. Then back into the school week with 8 hours of class on Tuesday! As long as I can make it through the first four hours of culture and language block the rest of the day should be interesting. Oh! And I get to pick up a birthday package at the post office on Monday :) Hopefully a good Birthday week to look forward to if I'm not still sick with une rhume (a cold)!
Let's see, what have I done since I last posted...
Sunday Maia and I wanted to check out the Médiatheque but it was closed... as everything is on Sundays, except the Cinema! So we went and saw "slumdog millionaire". It was really good! Then we came back to my apartment and watched another movie because it's cheaper to watch them for free :)
Monday I went to go check out a rock climbing class but it was canceled so I met up with Maia and Yan at the cafeteria... not much to say about that, it's cafeteria food, only bread and cheese and quiche instead of... American food, but still mass processed and mushy. Then Yan and I went shopping! I got boots in case it rains (which it did once but doesn't look like it will again... great...) and some really cheap cute clothes! Right now it's Les Soldes (sales) so everything is on sale, except the new clothes for spring, but who needs that?
Tuesday was my first day of classes... what an interesting experience. My first class was Savoirs Culturels which is like learning about French customs and cultures. We talked about stereotypes about French people and what is true and why. That's two hours. Then right afterwards is language block, another two hours. The first day we just chose our classes then did some ridiculous listening activity that nobody else finished. Sam, a girl from the LC group, and I have all our classes together which is nice. Then we have a two hour break then 4 hours straight of options courses: Phonétiques (phonetics), Les Langues de la Rue (street language), Philosophie du Monde, and Philosophie de la France. All of the option courses are interesting.
Wednesday Sam came over and we recopied our notes and talked about classes. Then we had another language block which is semi-interesting/semi-boring because it's really easy stuff, but at least the class won't be too hard! We were going to check out Mouvements Litteraires (literary movements) but it was cancelled.
Thursday we went to Diversité Linguistique de la France (Linguistic Diversity in France) but our prof never showed up, probably because of the strike. Then we tried to find out information for taking a course at the faculté (the actual French university, not the international school that we go to) and the office was also closed because of the strike. Apparently there was a nationwide strike and a lot of public workers like teachers and transportation workers were on strike against vague things like education, the economic crisis, and Sarkozy. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the manifestations because I went to bed for the rest of the day besides our village project class. I had a really bad cold that is still bothering me so hopefully I get over it soon...
Friday I skipped my morning class to get rest because we went on an excursion! We met up with the Nancy group (another group of students from LC) and took a bus to Colmar. There we visited an old church with a famous organ, and the the Musée d'Unterlinden to see the Retable d'Issenheim, a famous religious painting. The museum was very cool, they had everything from old religious statues, to artifacts from the neanderthal period to modern paintings, I even saw two Picassos! We were able to wander around by ourselves for a while and then had a guide explain the Retable d'Issenheim. I really enjoyed hearing all the background and explanations about the paintings, I really wouldn't have appreciated it without that. Next we went to a museum of Eau de Vie, which is a special type of liquer. The man that owns this small museum showed us how it was made and explained the history of a bunch of different bottles of liquer, as well as the history of absinthe. Then we got to taste some Eau de Vie! It was very very strong and not something I'd want to drink again, but I also tried a liquer called Exotic Cranberry which was sweet and delicious :)
After all that we were starving and we headed off for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called L'Agneau d'Or (the Golden Lamb). It was definitely very french... first the waitress came around and poured us all wine... then 100 years later (really only half an hour maybe, but I was starving so everything took forever) she brought this whipped vegetable purée thing... it was good but only because I was starving. Then another 100 years later we got a salad with munster cheese biscuit things! (sorry everyone, I forgot all the real names for everything) That was DELICIOUS! but definitely not filling enough... next course, sorbet to cleanse the palate. Then we had the main course, guinea fowl with homemade noodles and vegetables. It was so good! Finally I was full :) For a while we were scared that the salad was all we were going to get because the menu was out of order plus we didn't really understand what it said, so we were very happy when she brought out big plates of meat and veggies. After the delicious main course we had chocolate tart with ice cream (I'm sure it was something more fancy than that but that's how it translates in my American mind) All in all it was a very fancy delicious meal, I just wish it didn't take so long! We were there for about three hours!
Today I slept till about 11:30 because I'm still feeling icky and cold-infested but the Nancy group was still in Strasbourg and I wanted to go hang out with some friends before they left. Sam brought over the notes I missed Thursday and Friday. Then Maia and I went shopping for some food for my birthday party Sunday night! (I hope I'm feeling better by then!) After we dropped the groceries off at the apartment we met up with Catherine and Alla at a huge shopping center and walked around. It was nice being in a warm building instead of out in the cold but by the end I was feeling tired and icky again. We dropped Catherine off at her hotel then Maia and I came back to my apartment and watched some TV.
I would make this more interesting and detailed but I've been tired and sick since Thursday so my brain isn't functioning at it's fullest capacity... Tomorrow I'm going to rest up before my birthday party in the evening and Monday I have a Rock Climbing class I hope I'm in full form to attend. Then back into the school week with 8 hours of class on Tuesday! As long as I can make it through the first four hours of culture and language block the rest of the day should be interesting. Oh! And I get to pick up a birthday package at the post office on Monday :) Hopefully a good Birthday week to look forward to if I'm not still sick with une rhume (a cold)!
samedi 24 janvier 2009
Une Baguette
Friday I got my bank card and saw the results of my language placement test, I'm in the DAEF group with a few other people from L&C. (DAEF is like second from the top, so that's good!)
Afterwards we had an academic meeting with Beth. She just explained how to register for classes, etc. So far it looks like I won't have any classes on Monday or Friday! Except for maybe a rock climbing class on Mondays or if I take a class at the Fac (faculté, the REAL French university).
Had a delicious Salmon dinner and then went to the theatre!
Hélène had bought a ticket to Vie et Destin a while ago but couldn't go so she gave me her ticket. The play was very intense... It was in Russian with French subtitles (or surtitres since they were above the stage) on a screen. So it gave me a headache looking up and reading the whole time while trying to keep track of what was going on, but I think maybe it was easier than if they had been speaking French because it would have been so fast. It was about a family in Russia during the holocaust. Very intense and powerful...
Overall I enjoyed it, but I'd like to go to a comedy next time :)
Afterwards I joined some friends from the group at Dubliner's, but we didn't stay long, they were tired and so was I.
Last night I had a dream about home and woke up suddenly and realized I was far far away in my room in France. :( It's a little daunting to think that I'll be so far away for so long, but I get busy and forget about it so it's not too bad...
I met my friend Maia at the mall and we did some shopping. There was a bookstore with books for 2€! I got a book by Antoine Saint-Exupéry (author of Le Petit Prince) and one by Pablo Neruda. We also got notebooks and pens for school. And a baguette! Très delicieuse! I can't wait until the weather gets warmer and I'll just sit outside with a baguette, cheese, and a book aaaaaall day. Especially Sundays since there's NOTHING to do on Sundays, except go to the movies.
After that we went downtown and walked around looking for a microphone so Maia can call her mom on Skype. Not much else except sitting outside a café until we headed home. And here I am!
We'll have dinner soon and then Maia and I are going to try to find Le Trolley Bus, Coline recommended it to me.
I have two more days this weekend to try to fill up so I don't get too lonely... Tomorrow we'll probably go check out the Médiathèque, a giant library next to the mall.
Oh! That reminds me... I need to get some bags there because at the grocery store you have to bring your own bags! We ended up carrying around all our school supplies in our purses today because they didn't give us bags... but I've seen people carrying around bags from the Médiathèque and they look pretty cool so I have to remember to get those.
Well, I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss you all and love you!
À tout à l'heure!
Afterwards we had an academic meeting with Beth. She just explained how to register for classes, etc. So far it looks like I won't have any classes on Monday or Friday! Except for maybe a rock climbing class on Mondays or if I take a class at the Fac (faculté, the REAL French university).
Had a delicious Salmon dinner and then went to the theatre!
Hélène had bought a ticket to Vie et Destin a while ago but couldn't go so she gave me her ticket. The play was very intense... It was in Russian with French subtitles (or surtitres since they were above the stage) on a screen. So it gave me a headache looking up and reading the whole time while trying to keep track of what was going on, but I think maybe it was easier than if they had been speaking French because it would have been so fast. It was about a family in Russia during the holocaust. Very intense and powerful...
Overall I enjoyed it, but I'd like to go to a comedy next time :)
Afterwards I joined some friends from the group at Dubliner's, but we didn't stay long, they were tired and so was I.
Last night I had a dream about home and woke up suddenly and realized I was far far away in my room in France. :( It's a little daunting to think that I'll be so far away for so long, but I get busy and forget about it so it's not too bad...
I met my friend Maia at the mall and we did some shopping. There was a bookstore with books for 2€! I got a book by Antoine Saint-Exupéry (author of Le Petit Prince) and one by Pablo Neruda. We also got notebooks and pens for school. And a baguette! Très delicieuse! I can't wait until the weather gets warmer and I'll just sit outside with a baguette, cheese, and a book aaaaaall day. Especially Sundays since there's NOTHING to do on Sundays, except go to the movies.
After that we went downtown and walked around looking for a microphone so Maia can call her mom on Skype. Not much else except sitting outside a café until we headed home. And here I am!
We'll have dinner soon and then Maia and I are going to try to find Le Trolley Bus, Coline recommended it to me.
I have two more days this weekend to try to fill up so I don't get too lonely... Tomorrow we'll probably go check out the Médiathèque, a giant library next to the mall.
Oh! That reminds me... I need to get some bags there because at the grocery store you have to bring your own bags! We ended up carrying around all our school supplies in our purses today because they didn't give us bags... but I've seen people carrying around bags from the Médiathèque and they look pretty cool so I have to remember to get those.
Well, I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss you all and love you!
À tout à l'heure!
jeudi 22 janvier 2009
It's going to be hard to think of a name for every entry...
Yesterday was tourist day! We did a tour on les bateaux mouches, which are long tour boats with windows all around. My host mom said they open the top in the summer, but it's too cold right now. Downtown Strasbourg is surrounded by the River Ill so the boats take you all around. We went from La Petite France (which I learned was named after a venereal disease...) all the way around to the counsel of Europe and the European Parliament.
Afterwards we walked through the mall rivetoile and then went to see a movie, Largo Winch. It's a sort of James Bond action movie. I was kind of worried because I didn't understand what was going on for a while, then I realized I probably wouldn't have understood the movie in English either, it's just one of those kinds of movies... But I learned that you can by a membership at the cinema for 20€ a month and see unlimited movies, so I'll probably do that and go on Sundays since nothing else is open on Sundays.
I was pretty tired once I finally got home so I had dinner with my host mom, read and watched a little TV and then fell asleep.
Today was another free day. The group from L&C going to Nancy arrived at the train station and had about 3 hours before their train left so I met up with them at a café and showed them around downtown a bit. We went inside the cathedral which was huge and beautiful! I want to go see the astronomical clock they have inside sometime. Then we walked back and I helped them get their bags on the train and take off. It was really nice to see some friends in that group and I'm excited to go on excursions with them this semester.
I walked home along the river. The streets are up high and I usually walk along the river on the street level and look down but I decided to take a stairway down and walk by the water. It was really nice, though a bit colder. They have benches in the grass along the water; when it warms up I'll go have a sandwich and read a book sometime. The swans swam up to me hoping for some food but I had nothing. Then I noticed this weird growling sound they were making... I had no idea swans sounded so scary!
I'm tired again tonight so not much more to say. My host mom is out at dinner so I'm feeding myself. Tomorrow we get our test results and choose our classes!
Well, off to see what's in the fridge, maybe I'll just eat cheese. Delicieux!
Afterwards we walked through the mall rivetoile and then went to see a movie, Largo Winch. It's a sort of James Bond action movie. I was kind of worried because I didn't understand what was going on for a while, then I realized I probably wouldn't have understood the movie in English either, it's just one of those kinds of movies... But I learned that you can by a membership at the cinema for 20€ a month and see unlimited movies, so I'll probably do that and go on Sundays since nothing else is open on Sundays.
I was pretty tired once I finally got home so I had dinner with my host mom, read and watched a little TV and then fell asleep.
Today was another free day. The group from L&C going to Nancy arrived at the train station and had about 3 hours before their train left so I met up with them at a café and showed them around downtown a bit. We went inside the cathedral which was huge and beautiful! I want to go see the astronomical clock they have inside sometime. Then we walked back and I helped them get their bags on the train and take off. It was really nice to see some friends in that group and I'm excited to go on excursions with them this semester.
I walked home along the river. The streets are up high and I usually walk along the river on the street level and look down but I decided to take a stairway down and walk by the water. It was really nice, though a bit colder. They have benches in the grass along the water; when it warms up I'll go have a sandwich and read a book sometime. The swans swam up to me hoping for some food but I had nothing. Then I noticed this weird growling sound they were making... I had no idea swans sounded so scary!
I'm tired again tonight so not much more to say. My host mom is out at dinner so I'm feeding myself. Tomorrow we get our test results and choose our classes!
Well, off to see what's in the fridge, maybe I'll just eat cheese. Delicieux!
mercredi 21 janvier 2009
L'Investiture (inauguration)
I've gotten a couple days behind! Sorry about that...
Monday we took our placement test, not much to say about that. On Friday we'll find out our language groups and choose our classes. Afterwards we opened a bank account and Friday we get our bank cards so I can't stop charging things to my credit card.
I was tired but the rest of the group wanted to walk around a bit more so I went with them and I'm glad I did. The walking and some food perked me up a bit. The rest of the group went to get phones and we walked around the center of town trying to find a movie theater, which we did and might go back to sometime.
After our feet got too tired we went our separate ways back to our homes. I took a nap and woke up for dinner. Rice and chicken with some kind of yummy sauce. No cheese course this time though :( After dinner the group wanted to go out so most of us arranged to meet at Le Trou.
Le Trou means "the hole" and that's basically what it is. You walk down this little road that looks like an alley way, open the door to Le Trou and walk down some stairs and you're in a little cavern. It reminded me of where the Beatles played their first concerts, in the Cavern, though much smaller. I don't think the whole band let alone their fans would fit in Le Trou. So we just hung out and had some drinks, talked and got to know eachother better. It was definitely an experience for the first bar I've ever been to! I really like the people on this trip and I'm glad I get to spend time with some people that I probably wouldn't get to know very well at Lewis & Clark.
The next day Samantha came over and we made some lunch, just some potato thing I found in the freezer and we added red peppers an cheese. It was pretty tasty! At 2 we had an academic meeting at Beth's and she just told us how choosing courses would work, etc. and we talked about our experience so far. She's great and we're so lucky to have someone to help us work through all the stinky details and strange experiences that come with living abroad. Then we left to get ready for the inauguration. We were walking back towards my apartment to drop off some stuff and go over to Sam's and we saw two students from Lewis & Clark who are going on the Nancy trip! Most of the Nancy group is arriving on Thursday but they did self-travel and were here early so we invited to come to the Dubliner's to watch the inauguration with us.
So we talked to them and started heading back towards downtown to try to find the Dubliner's, an Irish bar that was showing the inauguration. We got there a little later than we expected to but luckily nothing super important had happened.
The inauguration was quite and experience. Pretty much everyone in the bar was Americain or spoke English I'm guessing. My friend, Maia, and I kept making comments to eachother which annoyed some people who were watching intently, but we had fun... There's a lot of comments I could make, but I'll save that for some other time. Let's just say I really didn't like the looooong prayer (except for how he said MelEa and SAsha) but I did like Aretha Franklin :)
After it was all over we went outside to decide what to do next. Some people wanted to go home but I was feeling homesick for America and wanted to keep hanging out with LC kids. Maia, Evan, Whitney, Alla, and I went around the corner to a French bar to get some drinks and some food for me. (Maia and Alla are on the Strasbourg program with me and Evan and Whitney are the people from the Nancy group that arrived early). At the bar we all got a beer and I ordered a tartine aux quatres fromages, which is just basically a piece of bread piled high with four different kinds of cheese. It was delicious!
We all just hung out and talked for a while and then headed back outside to decide what to do next. Alla wanted to go home for dinner so Evan, Whitney, Maia and I went to Evan and Whitney's hostel to hang out for a while.
I've never been in a hostel before, it was pretty interesting. Evan's room had eight beds in it, but he was the only one staying there. We all just hung out and listened to music for a long time until Maia and I decided we were getting tired and should probably start walking back home.
So all in all I'm having lots of fun here, seeing new things, meeting new people, and experiencing things I wouldn't be able to back home, but walking home last night I was just so homesick. I miss Lewis & Clark, and my family, and my friends a lot. I want to get as much as I can out of this experience while I'm here but I'll be so glad to come home and see everyone again! I'll be writing postcards soon!
I love you all and hope to hear some news from America :)
Monday we took our placement test, not much to say about that. On Friday we'll find out our language groups and choose our classes. Afterwards we opened a bank account and Friday we get our bank cards so I can't stop charging things to my credit card.
I was tired but the rest of the group wanted to walk around a bit more so I went with them and I'm glad I did. The walking and some food perked me up a bit. The rest of the group went to get phones and we walked around the center of town trying to find a movie theater, which we did and might go back to sometime.
After our feet got too tired we went our separate ways back to our homes. I took a nap and woke up for dinner. Rice and chicken with some kind of yummy sauce. No cheese course this time though :( After dinner the group wanted to go out so most of us arranged to meet at Le Trou.
Le Trou means "the hole" and that's basically what it is. You walk down this little road that looks like an alley way, open the door to Le Trou and walk down some stairs and you're in a little cavern. It reminded me of where the Beatles played their first concerts, in the Cavern, though much smaller. I don't think the whole band let alone their fans would fit in Le Trou. So we just hung out and had some drinks, talked and got to know eachother better. It was definitely an experience for the first bar I've ever been to! I really like the people on this trip and I'm glad I get to spend time with some people that I probably wouldn't get to know very well at Lewis & Clark.
The next day Samantha came over and we made some lunch, just some potato thing I found in the freezer and we added red peppers an cheese. It was pretty tasty! At 2 we had an academic meeting at Beth's and she just told us how choosing courses would work, etc. and we talked about our experience so far. She's great and we're so lucky to have someone to help us work through all the stinky details and strange experiences that come with living abroad. Then we left to get ready for the inauguration. We were walking back towards my apartment to drop off some stuff and go over to Sam's and we saw two students from Lewis & Clark who are going on the Nancy trip! Most of the Nancy group is arriving on Thursday but they did self-travel and were here early so we invited to come to the Dubliner's to watch the inauguration with us.
So we talked to them and started heading back towards downtown to try to find the Dubliner's, an Irish bar that was showing the inauguration. We got there a little later than we expected to but luckily nothing super important had happened.
The inauguration was quite and experience. Pretty much everyone in the bar was Americain or spoke English I'm guessing. My friend, Maia, and I kept making comments to eachother which annoyed some people who were watching intently, but we had fun... There's a lot of comments I could make, but I'll save that for some other time. Let's just say I really didn't like the looooong prayer (except for how he said MelEa and SAsha) but I did like Aretha Franklin :)
After it was all over we went outside to decide what to do next. Some people wanted to go home but I was feeling homesick for America and wanted to keep hanging out with LC kids. Maia, Evan, Whitney, Alla, and I went around the corner to a French bar to get some drinks and some food for me. (Maia and Alla are on the Strasbourg program with me and Evan and Whitney are the people from the Nancy group that arrived early). At the bar we all got a beer and I ordered a tartine aux quatres fromages, which is just basically a piece of bread piled high with four different kinds of cheese. It was delicious!
We all just hung out and talked for a while and then headed back outside to decide what to do next. Alla wanted to go home for dinner so Evan, Whitney, Maia and I went to Evan and Whitney's hostel to hang out for a while.
I've never been in a hostel before, it was pretty interesting. Evan's room had eight beds in it, but he was the only one staying there. We all just hung out and listened to music for a long time until Maia and I decided we were getting tired and should probably start walking back home.
So all in all I'm having lots of fun here, seeing new things, meeting new people, and experiencing things I wouldn't be able to back home, but walking home last night I was just so homesick. I miss Lewis & Clark, and my family, and my friends a lot. I want to get as much as I can out of this experience while I'm here but I'll be so glad to come home and see everyone again! I'll be writing postcards soon!
I love you all and hope to hear some news from America :)
dimanche 18 janvier 2009
Free Day
Yesterday we had the day off from orientation activities, but Beth asked us to try to get to the University from our homes so that we would arrive at the language placement test on time. Samantha usually comes to my apartment (since we live so close) and we go from there, but I wanted to see her place so we met there and then tried to get to the University from her place.
Instead of walking back towards my apartment and going the route we knew, we decided to take a short cut... bad idea...
It seems like some streets should logically connect to other streets that should seem perpendicular to them, but somehow it just doesn't work that way... So we ended up wandering all around until we decided to pull out the map and find our way back. We eventually met a few other girls from our group at the Pangloss (the building where our test is this morning). Pretty much nothing is open on Sundays in France and we were hungry so we decided to hit up the Macdo (McDonald's) across the street. I got a Royal Bacon with Frites (fries) and a beer. Yum! ... sorta... The beer was super watery and tasted like beer flavored water, but not too bad I guess.
After we were done at Macdo we just wandered around for hours. We went to la Petite France and saw the touristy things and then wandered around downtown near the chapel. We tried to find coffee but it was pretty difficult, the only things open were restaurants. Around 4 our feet started hurting and we were all tired so we headed to our respective homes.
I got back and Helene said my internet worked so I was happy about that! I told her I was going to take a little nap and fell asleep around 4:30... then I woke up this morning at 6:30am again, and realized I had slept for 14 hours!
Well it was nice to get some rest. I have a language placement exam in an hour so wish me luck!
Instead of walking back towards my apartment and going the route we knew, we decided to take a short cut... bad idea...
It seems like some streets should logically connect to other streets that should seem perpendicular to them, but somehow it just doesn't work that way... So we ended up wandering all around until we decided to pull out the map and find our way back. We eventually met a few other girls from our group at the Pangloss (the building where our test is this morning). Pretty much nothing is open on Sundays in France and we were hungry so we decided to hit up the Macdo (McDonald's) across the street. I got a Royal Bacon with Frites (fries) and a beer. Yum! ... sorta... The beer was super watery and tasted like beer flavored water, but not too bad I guess.
After we were done at Macdo we just wandered around for hours. We went to la Petite France and saw the touristy things and then wandered around downtown near the chapel. We tried to find coffee but it was pretty difficult, the only things open were restaurants. Around 4 our feet started hurting and we were all tired so we headed to our respective homes.
I got back and Helene said my internet worked so I was happy about that! I told her I was going to take a little nap and fell asleep around 4:30... then I woke up this morning at 6:30am again, and realized I had slept for 14 hours!
Well it was nice to get some rest. I have a language placement exam in an hour so wish me luck!
samedi 17 janvier 2009
17.1.09 Orientation
I wrote this last night on my computer, but I don't have the internet working yet so I have to retype it here on my host-mom's computer:
(excuse any typing errors, french keyboards take a little while to get used to)
17.1.09
Last night I slept pretty well; I woke up a few times because it was really hot; but I just threw the blanket off of me and I was fine after that. :) This morning I woke up at 7:30! Very strange for me, as all of you who know me well will admit...
After that I spent some time catching up on Facebook.
For bfreakfast I had muesli, a type of French ceral that's like chocolate granola, very dense but delicious! Afterwards my friend Samantha stopped by so we could qalk to orientation together. We had a ma^and instructions frm my host-mom but we still got a little lost... The streets in France aren't in grids or anything logical so even reading a ma^can get confusing, but we stood there looking like confused tourists holding a giant map in front of us and a nice old French man came to our rescue, and after talking to him for a while and not riguring it out, two more people came over and helped. Our gorup leader, Bethany Zehr, livess on rue de Zurich. The meeting was at her apartment tand the people helping us said rue de Zurich is the most confusing street in all of Strasbourg! Lucky us.
Fortunately we figured it out and made it to the meeting on time. There we ded some get to know each other activities. There are 8 students from Lewis & Clark and 2 students from other Universities (De Pauw and Bryn Mawr). So 10 students: 9 girls and 1 boy. Lucky him!
We went through a huge packet; filled out some forms and then took a break for lunch, sandwiches. Even simple meat and cheese sandwiches are delicious in France! We had turkey and some sort of delicious white cheese on a baguette.
Then it was time for the galette des rois, a sort of pastry filled with almond paste. It's the traditional food for epiphany and they eat it all throughout January. Inside is a fève (a small plastic toy or figurine) and whoever gets it is the roi (king) or reine (queen). The youngest child goes under the table so they can't see the galette and they say who gets which piece. Sean (the only boy) had to go under the table because he's the youngest and we were all laughing because the table was so small!
After everyone had a piece and he came back out from under the table we dug in. He found the first fève and qas declared the roi! He got a crown and since we had another galette there was one more toy to find... and it was in my piece! So I was the reine and was crowned as well.
After all the excitement of rois and reines we started our petit walking tour of Strasbourg. We started off going to the Université to see where we will take our language placement tests on Monday and the bank where we will open our accounts. The buildings are not very attractive at all and our leader, Emily, said no one really likes school or takes it very seriously... I'm really going to miss the beautiful Lewis & Clark campus! It's so lovely in the spring! I hope things look better here once the winter greyness disappears.
Then we headed downtown! We learned how to ride the tram and stopped to watch the swans on the River Ill, and I had a moment of freaking out when I thought I lost my camera... it was just in my pocket, silly me!
We got back on the tram and arrived at the centre de ville (downtown). Quite a shock because around the Université there was NO ONE, then the second we stepped off the tram in downtown it was swarming with people! Very loud and busy! But lots of shops that I'm excited to go check out :) We saw the famous cathedral of Strasbourg then split up to go home or back to Beth's or wherever we like. A few of us went to get phones so we could contact each other if we needed to, then we went to Monoprix, which is like Target. I got conditioner and face wash (very exciting). After all of that we were exhausted and our feet hurt se we headed back home.
Luckily my friend Samantha lives near me se we walked together. On the map it looked far away and I was kind of dreading the whole walk home, but it really wasn't very far, and I recognized the school cafeteria on the way back and felt so good to finally be figuring out where things are.
When I got back we had poulet (chicken) for dinner with some sort of vegetable that looks like onions, but isn't... and wine, bien sûr! Then a course of delicious cheeses again. I could get used to this; :) Hélène and Wolfgang went for a cigarette break so I checked up on facebook while I waited for them to come back for dessert. We had a galette des ois but we were all so full that we only ate half of it, and the fève wasn't in that half so we'll have to see who is our next roi or reine another time.
Afterwards Hélène and I talked about books and music and she shared a lot of CD's with me. Her daughter is studying English literature in Montréal so I told her about the books I read in my francophone literature class from Québec.
The rest of my evening was spent on facebook. My computer still won't connect to the internet so I borrowed Hélène's, but she had to call her daughter on Skype so I'm typing this journal on Word and will post it as soon as I can connect, which will hopefully be tomorrow. Hélène has a friend that knows about computers that we're going to call.
Tomorrow is a free day so hopefully I can get some rest and check out the jardin botanique (botanical garden) next to my apartment.
____________________________________________
18.1.09
This morning I woke up at 6 am.... ridicule!!!! Well not much to do here right now so I retyped that blog I wrote last night. Sam, Jessamy, Allison, and I are meeting at the University at noon. Not sure what else we'll do... maybe I can get some more sleep!
Au revoir!
(excuse any typing errors, french keyboards take a little while to get used to)
17.1.09
Last night I slept pretty well; I woke up a few times because it was really hot; but I just threw the blanket off of me and I was fine after that. :) This morning I woke up at 7:30! Very strange for me, as all of you who know me well will admit...
After that I spent some time catching up on Facebook.
For bfreakfast I had muesli, a type of French ceral that's like chocolate granola, very dense but delicious! Afterwards my friend Samantha stopped by so we could qalk to orientation together. We had a ma^and instructions frm my host-mom but we still got a little lost... The streets in France aren't in grids or anything logical so even reading a ma^can get confusing, but we stood there looking like confused tourists holding a giant map in front of us and a nice old French man came to our rescue, and after talking to him for a while and not riguring it out, two more people came over and helped. Our gorup leader, Bethany Zehr, livess on rue de Zurich. The meeting was at her apartment tand the people helping us said rue de Zurich is the most confusing street in all of Strasbourg! Lucky us.
Fortunately we figured it out and made it to the meeting on time. There we ded some get to know each other activities. There are 8 students from Lewis & Clark and 2 students from other Universities (De Pauw and Bryn Mawr). So 10 students: 9 girls and 1 boy. Lucky him!
We went through a huge packet; filled out some forms and then took a break for lunch, sandwiches. Even simple meat and cheese sandwiches are delicious in France! We had turkey and some sort of delicious white cheese on a baguette.
Then it was time for the galette des rois, a sort of pastry filled with almond paste. It's the traditional food for epiphany and they eat it all throughout January. Inside is a fève (a small plastic toy or figurine) and whoever gets it is the roi (king) or reine (queen). The youngest child goes under the table so they can't see the galette and they say who gets which piece. Sean (the only boy) had to go under the table because he's the youngest and we were all laughing because the table was so small!
After everyone had a piece and he came back out from under the table we dug in. He found the first fève and qas declared the roi! He got a crown and since we had another galette there was one more toy to find... and it was in my piece! So I was the reine and was crowned as well.
After all the excitement of rois and reines we started our petit walking tour of Strasbourg. We started off going to the Université to see where we will take our language placement tests on Monday and the bank where we will open our accounts. The buildings are not very attractive at all and our leader, Emily, said no one really likes school or takes it very seriously... I'm really going to miss the beautiful Lewis & Clark campus! It's so lovely in the spring! I hope things look better here once the winter greyness disappears.
Then we headed downtown! We learned how to ride the tram and stopped to watch the swans on the River Ill, and I had a moment of freaking out when I thought I lost my camera... it was just in my pocket, silly me!
We got back on the tram and arrived at the centre de ville (downtown). Quite a shock because around the Université there was NO ONE, then the second we stepped off the tram in downtown it was swarming with people! Very loud and busy! But lots of shops that I'm excited to go check out :) We saw the famous cathedral of Strasbourg then split up to go home or back to Beth's or wherever we like. A few of us went to get phones so we could contact each other if we needed to, then we went to Monoprix, which is like Target. I got conditioner and face wash (very exciting). After all of that we were exhausted and our feet hurt se we headed back home.
Luckily my friend Samantha lives near me se we walked together. On the map it looked far away and I was kind of dreading the whole walk home, but it really wasn't very far, and I recognized the school cafeteria on the way back and felt so good to finally be figuring out where things are.
When I got back we had poulet (chicken) for dinner with some sort of vegetable that looks like onions, but isn't... and wine, bien sûr! Then a course of delicious cheeses again. I could get used to this; :) Hélène and Wolfgang went for a cigarette break so I checked up on facebook while I waited for them to come back for dessert. We had a galette des ois but we were all so full that we only ate half of it, and the fève wasn't in that half so we'll have to see who is our next roi or reine another time.
Afterwards Hélène and I talked about books and music and she shared a lot of CD's with me. Her daughter is studying English literature in Montréal so I told her about the books I read in my francophone literature class from Québec.
The rest of my evening was spent on facebook. My computer still won't connect to the internet so I borrowed Hélène's, but she had to call her daughter on Skype so I'm typing this journal on Word and will post it as soon as I can connect, which will hopefully be tomorrow. Hélène has a friend that knows about computers that we're going to call.
Tomorrow is a free day so hopefully I can get some rest and check out the jardin botanique (botanical garden) next to my apartment.
____________________________________________
18.1.09
This morning I woke up at 6 am.... ridicule!!!! Well not much to do here right now so I retyped that blog I wrote last night. Sam, Jessamy, Allison, and I are meeting at the University at noon. Not sure what else we'll do... maybe I can get some more sleep!
Au revoir!
vendredi 16 janvier 2009
Premier Jour
Bonjour! I arrived in Strasbourg, France yesterday around 4:30 local time. C'est magnifique! My host mom was not home which was nice because it gave me some time to relax and unpack. I put on a CD that I (luckily, since my computer can't be plugged in yet) had decided to bring at the last minute and moved into my room. The apartment is beautiful! I'll put up some pictures on facebook soon (and maybe here if I can). I have a large room with my own balcony! When my host-mom, Hélène, arrived with her boyfriend, Wolfgang (she was picking him up from the airport, he's from Berlin) we had a delicious dinner of ham and potatoes with delicious red wine. Just when I thought I was full, she brought out the cheese! And she taught me how to eat it with bread the proper French way :) Dinner conversation was interesting because I speak english and french, Hélène speaks french and german, and Wolfgang speaks english and german! After the cheese, when I thought I was REALLY stuffed, she brought out desert! And it was so delicious I couldn't refuse; eclaires in chocolate sauce! mmm
After that not much happened except her letting me borrow her laptop until I can get an adapter. Then I visited with people back home, took a shower and went to sleep.
My host mom is up and moving around in the kitchen so I'm going to go get some petit déjeuner (breakfast). Next time I'll tell about the craziness of french keyboards and bathrooms :)
A bientôt!
After that not much happened except her letting me borrow her laptop until I can get an adapter. Then I visited with people back home, took a shower and went to sleep.
My host mom is up and moving around in the kitchen so I'm going to go get some petit déjeuner (breakfast). Next time I'll tell about the craziness of french keyboards and bathrooms :)
A bientôt!
Inscription à :
Commentaires (Atom)
