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!