Tomorrow's already Wednesday?

Monday Recap:
Class was pretty good yesterday.  There is a new group of students here now for the second half of the program.  They’re from Russia (funny thing, I was reading on my New York Times app today that 11 Russians in the US were arrested for supposed espionage? Except that’s not what they’re calling it yet, weird.).  And then there’s one new one from Spain in our class and another new one in our class from Venezuela.  We had Bruno for class but the tangents he went off on were of interest to me.  Someone gave their article presentation about the new retirement laws and that led into a comparison of taxes and business practices between here and the US, it was very interesting for me and although I felt a little bad for over 50% of the class who just didn’t care, I really enjoyed it. 

After class Anna and I went back and we each made something to eat before meeting the group for canyoning.  We had to take a bus about a half hour away and I got motion sick (but didn’t throw up), I can’t wait to not have to go through twisty mountainous roads every time I need to go somewhere. Feeling sick almost every time I’m in a moving vehicle is getting really old.  We finally arrived and me, Anna, Lisa, and Jeremiah were told the ugly shoes we bought a Carrefour weren’t going to cut it.  Luckily the guy had a few extra pairs of shoes in each of our sizes!  The instructor guy (or whatever you’d call him), Pierre, handed out these sock type things and wet suits for everyone to put on….What a struggle!  And I hate feet so wearing “socks” that someone else has worn, and that were still wet, was just a little bit of a stretch for me.  We finally got our suits on and then we received harnesses, helmets, and jackets for our wetsuits.  He drove us a little way to the start of the river, we finished putting on our gear, and then we had to hop in the river. 

It started off with us just walking down the river, trying not to fall or twist and ankle due to the large rocky bottom.  We came to a drop in the river and he showed us out to sit on the rocks and slide down like it was a water slide.  That was fun!  A couple more things like that and we reached the beginning, but by that point I felt like we had already began.   Canyoning was the most terrifying and potentially disastrous thing that I have ever done, but it was awesome and I’m so glad I did it!  From the beginning we just kept moving down the river but when we’d come to an obstacle we either had to jump, slide, or rapell down, depending on what the instructors told us.  Our first jump was TERRIFYING.  It was 8 meters up, that’s 25 feet!  And we just had to jump inbetween these two giant rock walls into water that who knows how deep it was.  I had a bit of an issue….we were supposed to pencil dive in but once my feet left the edge my body didn’t know what to do any more.  I landed in the water in a sitting position.  It hurt, a lot.  The wind got knocked out of me for a second but lucky for me our wet suits were also designed to act like a life vest so you just float no matter what.  I recovered while the rest of the group jumped.  We all did it!  Even Chelsea, who is terrified of heights, did it.  We moved along and came to a few more tough spots.  One passage/slide thing was so  narrow that I looked at it and thought that there is no way I wouldn’t get stuck…but I didn’t so that was good.  At one point we crawled behind a waterfall and then jumped back into the river. 

Top two most terrifying parts: at one point we had to just step off a ledge.  There wasn’t even 10 feet in between the rock walls so if we jumped we would smack into the wall across from us.  It wasn’t as high up as 8 meters but still it was quite the drop and we just had to walk off.  I stood at the top, terrified of making a wrong move.  I think that was the scariest part, it was safe in theory, if you did everything right, but one wrong move and you smack into a rock wall, the edge of a canyon!  The other most terrifying part was toward the end.  WE had to jump out pretty far to avoid hitting rocks on our way down.  If we didn’t think we could do it the instructor told us we could take a very uncomfortable looking slide down instead.  I made up my mind that I wanted to jump and not take the easy way out.  Chelsea went before me and hesitated but I told her she could do it and was just encouraging her, she did it!  But then I stood at the edge for a couple minutes, petrified, what if I didn’t jump out enough?  Guillaume told me I could just slide but I didn’t want to so I finally just said a prayer and jumped out, and landed in the water.  It felt good to just do it.  I’m not a huge risk taker and everything we did yesterday was a risk, a big one.

After what felt like forever we finally finished.  It was 2-3 hours of just walking, jumping, sliding, and rappelling down the river.  We took the bus back and were ready to feast, it took a lot out of us.  After dinner we all just hung out and then at 10 we all decided to run.  Actually a couple decided and the rest of us were peer pressured.  It was amazing!  We ran to a track that is .75 miles from our apartments and then we just ran around it at our own paces.  The sun wasn’t quite down yet and while running I could see the outline of the mountains, it was absolutely gorgeous.  And it felt so good to run for longer than 10-15 minutes!  I put on one of my playlists from last summer when I was training for the half marathon and every song reminded me of something from those months, another time I did something I never thought I would do. 

After soaking up the beautiful summer night we came back and talked to some others from the group who were outside and then it was time for a MUCH needed shower and MUCH needed sleep :-)

--
Tuesday:


Today was pretty good too. We had a new professor for class.  She started off by asking us our initial impressions of France/the French.  After a girl said something about how the guys here can be very forward our professor told us, “le flirt est un sport national.”  It was funny.  The rest of class was pretty good today; it was nice to switch it up.  After class we ate lunch in the cafeteria and then left for paragliding at 1:30!

We rode to the site and the guy told us only three could go at a time so three of our guys volunteered to go first.  We stayed at the base and watched, it was sweet and I was so excited to do it!  Me, Anna, and Hope were the next group of three.  We climbed in the van and began the ride to the top of the mountain.  It was about 25 minutes of twisting roads through the mountain, and I was happy to be on solid ground when we finally got to the top!  Not even a minute after we got out it thundered.  We waited at the top with the “pilots” and a couple locals, talked and joked, they were all very sarcastic people, it was funny.  When the realized it wasn’t going to pass any time too soon we got back in the van and rode back down the mountain.  Domage!  We’ll go on Thursday now, and I’m SO excited.  Michael said it was great and it doesn’t look too scary at all.  Just floating through the air like a bird…

When we got back Anna, Hope, and I stopped at the grocery store for a couple things and I’ve just been relaxing since then.  I think we’re going to try to find something exciting to do tonight, we’ll see!

I finally know what Canyoning is...

It's insane!!! But I'm SO tired and have to get up to go veggie shopping at the market in less than 6.5 hours :-(  I will write all about it tomorrow, but it was just crazy.  We basically walked through a river jumped in between narrow passages from really high up (the first one was 8 METERS...aka 25ish feet) and slid down waterfall slides.  I'm bruised in several places and it was the most terrifying yet thrilling thing I have ever done...Definitely out of my comfort zone and a little trust activity between me and God.  I'll write all about it tomorrow (and then I'll be able to write about paragliding!!).  Oh man, two intense days in a row.  I will for sure be sleeping like a baby tonight.  Especially because at 10:00 (PM) a bunch of us decided to go running...3miles, plus a little ab workout in there.  It was great.  I love everything about this experience!


Until tomorrow...sorry I'm boring today!

Weekends are fantastic :-)

What a great weekend!

Friday after dinner Louie (the guy we met a school who grew up here and loves America/English) came by and met us. Then the group of us - Hope, Mike, Jeffrey, Me, Anna, Michael, Brooke, and Louie - went to a brasserie near the train station where they sell crêpes. After our almost slump on Thursday night we decided to do more fun things with our time (provided they don’t cost too much). So we started by deciding to get crêpes on Friday. They were delicious! Then we all walked around town and relaxed and hung out. It was good to hang out, and Louie told us how he takes horseback riding lessons so me, Anna, and Hope might go with him sometime! That would be so fun.

Saturday morning Anna and I woke up early to go to Marseilles for the day. We had a little issue with our Eurail passes that ended up costing us 18,50 Euros each so that was a bit of a bummer. The man who helped us make our reservations booked us in first class for one train and our passes are only good in second class so we had to pay the difference. It was still way cheaper than paying full fare, but we definitely want to avoid that in the future. I checked our other reservations we have for after school’s done, and we’re going to have to go change two of them.

We arrived in Marseilles around 10:30, figured out how to get to the beach by the métro and set off. When we got out of the métro we were in the middle of a fish mart, and Anna and I both hate fish. Ick. But cool besides that, they were just selling fresh fish from the Mediterranean! WE walked until we foung a beach and set up for the day. It was a smaller beach but all we needed was the beach and the Mediterranean so we were happy. And it was free, I was afraid we would have to pay, so that was great too!

After between 4 and 5 hours in the sun (don’t worry we actually wore sunscreen, and reapplied a few times too!) we decided to see what the town had to offer. It took us a while of walking through deserted streets lined with restaurants to find the shops. But we eventually did. The street was lined with all the mainline stores but when we turned onto the next street there was an open market like the one we found in Paris. It was great! We bought a couple little things and then found ourselves at our métro stop…perfect!

We took the métro back to the train station and then decided to find a place close by for dinner. There was a cute little restaurant right there that was pretty cheap so we decided to eat there. The guy who worked there was very nice, and like everyone he asked us where we were from. Unlike some people, he continued to speak to us in French because he didn’t know much English. He was really nice, I think his family owned the restaurant. It was just a sweet little place, I enjoyed it. Everything in France is just quaint and cute. After we finished eating we just sat at our table outside and soaked up Marseilles until our train left.

We had a stop over in Lyon for about 50 minutes so we left the train station to find the US soccer game. We came to a brasserie where the game was playing and sat down with the only man watching. He wanted the US to win too. One of the guys who worked there gave us a hard time. He was from Algeria and said he cried after that game and now he’s just rooting for Africa, so Ghana in that match. It was fun to talk to him briefly and watch a little of the game. Then we saw my roommate walking by outside so I called to her and she joined us, she was taking the same train as us back to Chambéry so we just waited together. It was good to get to talk to her, I didn’t think I knew her that well before and now I do.
We got home a little after 11 and I was tired so I talked to Matt quick and then it was bedtime!

Church this morning was different than last time, but still good. We went to the church we were at two weeks ago but this weekend was their church camping trip so a lot of people were missing. It was a smaller group but God is still present. We sang songs that were more like hymns today, even though I don’t usually prefer them I found it very comforting this morning. Just another reminder from God that He’s here with me.

After church Anna and I made lunch (SO good) and then met up with some others for the pool. WE didn’t realize it but the pool is less than a block from our apartments. We just walk to the end of the street and cross the road, easy as that. With our “ID” cards from school (our cafeteria cards) we got a student discount so the pool was only 1,90 Euros (which is cheaper than the lake that just started costing money because it’s summer). We layed out for a while and then went to get in the water. It was not a problem for us girls, but the lifeguard wouldn’t let Mike in the pool. If you’re a guy you can’t wear swim trunks, you HAVE to wear a speedo. Something about it being cleaner…Poor guy, it was hot today!

We weren’t in for long and then we just sat out, I read some of my book and we all just talked and relaxed. The fête de l’eau was going on today so there were a lot of people and some entertainment acts. There were some acrobats that were insane! And these guys dressed as mad scientists walking around and being goofy. They spoke to us in English because they heard us speaking English but when we continued to respond in French they switched back. It was fun.

After baking for long enough we went back home and relaxed until dinner. I did laundry for the first time since arriving…impressive, I know. But Katelyn warned me that laundry in Europe is no picnic so I brought lots of underwear and planned to avoid it as long as possible. And it cost 3 Euros just to wash, with no dryers available! Bummer for me…My clothes will be hanging for a while.

The rest of night wasn’t too eventful – dinner, quick burger, O’Cardinals for part of the Mexico-Argentina game (because my roommate’s from Mexico and I wanted to be supportive…). Then we just came back and now it’s bedtime, I've got a busy week coming!

Pictures from the trip so far

Happy Friday!

I was too tired to type anything up last night.  It’s weird, we haven’t had as many big activities this week but I feel like I get more and more tired every day.

Yesterday (Thursday) we just had class with Bruno.  We learned a lot about jobs and labor laws and women in French society.  Women couldn’t vote over here until 1944, and they couldn’t have their own bank account until 1965!  Weird… Right after class we got on a bus and went to have a picnic at the lake.  It was fun!  Anna and I had bought a baguette that morning and then put ham and cheese that we had in the fridge on it, delicious!  We all just relaxed in the sun for a while after eating and then these three French guys came over to the group, because they saw Guillaume playing with the volleyball, and asked us if we wanted to play volleyball.  We all played, it worked out that we had a perfect number to play 6 on 6, girls v boys, you can guess how that went…

We lost. After volleyball we tossed around a Frisbee, some played soccer, a couple twisted their ankles while playing soccer, and then we all relaxed some more.  We left the beach around 5 and then came home to grab some money quick before going to Carrefour.  Me and Anna bought a waterproof camera for canyoning and some sunscreen for the entire day that we will be spending at the beach in Marseille this weekend.  We came home, had some dinner, and decided to stay in for the night.  The sun drained us and we had no energy.  Then Anna and I started talking and we decided to go to karaoke at Mojito for a little bit, we’ve been bums all week and decided to look nice and go!  We got there and there was no karaoke, we were misinformed.  Oh well.  Me, Anna, and Jeffrey just walked around the town, it was a beautiful night! And then we ended up at O’Cardinals (surprise, surprise) and saw Miros, my roommate.  We sat and chatted and then two other people from our group showed up-Jordan and Kris.  We all talked and then Anna, Jeffrey, and I decided to try to get ice cream from Quickburger.  We got there 10 min before it closed and the manager told us they were closed, he suggested a Kebab (those places are open late every night).  They definitely don’t value customer service over here like in America.  We just headed home and went to our own rooms for the night. 

This morning I got a pain au chocolat in honor of Friday.  Class went by pretty fast until about 11:30 and then it went by really slow.  After class Anna and I came home to make ourselves lunch and then we went back up to school for our activity of the afternoon – Baseball (canyoning has been moved to Monday).  There were only 6 of us including Guillaume so it was a little difficult.  We played with the bat that Guillaume made from something that looked like wrapping paper tubes, and the ball was an old orange!  After about three hits the bat was broken and then orange was smashed.  So we moved on to the next game…kickball!  That ended quickly as well and we just hit around a volleyball for a bit until we got too hot (it was in the 80s today!).  

After that Anna and I went into town to make some more reservations for our Eurail passes.  WE had the rest of our trips all written out and were ready to go, but when we got there the man (who is always working when we go to make reservations) informed us that we can’t make reservations for Italy.  It’s impossible until at least July 1 because they’re changing the schedules or something.  We got our other reservations made; I’m getting excited for traveling after classes are over!  I still can’t believe that we’re leaving Chambéry in 3 weeks!  It’s so crazy, this week FLEW by.  I feel like it was just Monday, I hope the rest don’t go that quickly!

Is it really going to be July next week?

Happy Wednesday!

I love Wednesdays, especially when I’m in school. Once they’re over the week just flies right on by and the weekend just shows up before we know it. Today was a long day of class. We had the usual 9-12:30, and then an atelier at 1:30. Luckily he let us out at 3:30 (I think they go til 4 usually) so we had time to walk to the pub (O’Cardinals, where we ALWAYS go for futbol) for the US game. Yesterday my roommate asked one of the bartenders which game they’d be playing today, the US or England, and he told her the US…there’s a lot of Algerians in France and we’re always there too so it just worked out.

What a game! I don’t know who got to watch it but we were there for the whole, long, painful thing. Ugh that first goal should have counted. And then there was this obnoxious man in the bar who kept yelling “Allez Alergie!” (Go Algeria!). I wanted to give a piece of my mind because it was just so random and annoying! But I just didn’t think I could do that as effectively in French as I can in English, and I don’t make it a habit to yell at strangers, so I kept my mouth shut. And then I was SO happy when we FINALLY scored…what’s up now Algeria? I jokingly said we should go back to Paris and find all the obnoxious Algerians who were yelling and cheering when their team tied at 0, hmmmmm. So the US is moving on and the world cup is still exciting! Yeaaaa! We met another French guy at the bar today. He was wearing an American flag bandana and was sitting by the tables we always occupy. He’s a middle school teacher in Chambéry and lived in the US for two years, in Maine and Michigan. It was cool, I love getting to talk to people in French!

After the game we came back and ate, and tonight was another just relaxing night. I think we’re all getting tired out from constantly going that we just don’t have energy to go out every night to Mojito or wherever else some of the group goes. Me, Jeffrey, Brooke, Hope, and Michael watched How I Met Your Mother again, we just can’t get enough of it. And now I’m just relaxing before 11:30ish when I can skype with Matt for a few before bed.

I’m excited for the rest of the week! The weather’s supposed to be nice and tomorrow we’re going to the lake and Friday we’re finally going canyoning! And Saturday Anna and I are using our Eurail passes to make a day trip to Marseilles :-)

Everything here is still great. Every night when I just think back on the day I just realize again and again how blessed I am to have this experience. My friends here are awesome, and looking at us you’d think there is definitely no way we’ve known each other for less than three weeks, I feel like we’ve known each other way longer than that. It’s great and I’m really sad to think about leaving them, but that’s not for a little over 3 weeks.
Bon Soir!

Choux and futbol

Today was good!  We had class with Sabine so that made things go a little faster.  And I wasn’t as tired today too so it was just a lot better than yesterday.   We talked about Paris, did some grammar, and then acted some things out, it was random yet entertaining.  Then we did some reading and were then free for lunch!  We didn’t have any activity planned for this afternoon so Anna and I went to the atelier with the intermediate group.  It was cooking again!  While we waited to start I was just talking with Anna and Hope when this guy came over to talk to us.  His name is Louie.  He noticed we were speaking English and asked where we were from.  We told him America and he just happened to be wearing his shirt from the Lincoln (Nebraska) Marathon.  He’s a student at the university who grew up in Chambéry and we got to talk to him in French while he got to speak in English.  He was so excited and said “I love speaking English!” and we told him that’s perfect because we like speaking French.  It’s his birthday today and he invited us to the lake for a BBQ with his friends.  It was sweet and he’s definitely not creepy like the other French guys who have talked to us at bars or pubs or Mojito (I don’t know exactly how that place would be classified).  Due to lack of transportation we declined his offer but invited him to come watch the game with us at O’Cardinals at 4.

At the atelier we made potatoes with onions and turkey and cheese stuff, delicious and there weren’t a lot of people there so we each had plenty to bring home for dinner…and breakfast…and lunch…and probably dinner again.  We also made cookies and cream puffs (minus the cream for some reason).  It was a lot of fun and what else were we supposed to do?  Then it was off to watch France lose and end their world cup 2010 experience. 

It’s interesting, the story of the France team.  I’m sure it has reached the US but basically a player told off the coach (which I’ve been told is pretty common) and then he got kicked off the team.  In response the team didn’t attend practice this weekend so basically it’s this huge scandal and everyone here wanted them to lose.  Really, the bar cheered when South Africa scored and pathetically clapped when France scored (their one and only goal the entire world cup).  Mike was wearing his France jersey for a grand total of 2 minutes because a minute after he put it on a French couple came over and said something to him about it (I couldn’t hear from where I was), but he decided to take it off soon after.  Basically I hope the US wins tomorrow.  

 Louie showed up and hung out with the group of us.  After talking to him some more we learned that he had just gotten back from America a few weeks ago and he misses it.  He wants us all to do something for the 4^th of July!  It’s cool to be able to talk to a French person who grew up here.  He said he was born in Chambéry and has lived here all his life.  Pretty cool.  He left to meet his friends and Jeffrey and I went to find ingredients for guacamole.  After that we went to return my Bible from last week (because I got one for 1.50 at church on Sunday!).  Then Anna, Jeffrey, Mike, Hope, and I had dinner together.  We just hung out and now a bunch of us are watching How I Met Your Mother.  It was a good day. 

France is so great.  Today I realized that I’m no longer translating the French in my mind while people speak, I just know what they’re saying.  My aural comprehension is definitely improving.  It’s great and I noticed it in Paris too while we were out and about.  And I LOVE being able to use my French skills!  I get excited when I’m confused at the train station or something because then I get to ask for help.  On Friday the man at the train station was so nice and people just like that we try to speak in French (and generally succeed).  The French always ask it we’re from England, and if not their next guess is Canadian.  They can tell by our accents that our first language is English but they just never ask if we’re from America because they don’t think Americans bother to speak French.  So we’re breaking stereotypes while we’re here.  And because we just begin by speaking in French instead of using English people are so much nicer.  Especially in Paris, there was a lady at the metro station who gladly helped us find the best deal on metro passes for the weekend (3,30 a day compared to the 20 euros everyone spent on a 3 day pass, she rocks).  It's cool, France is not like I thought it would be, but that's a good thing.  I was expected some hatred because of the US, but nope...it's sweet.

Paris!

THIS WEEKEND WAS AMAZING!!!

Friday after packing Anna and I went to the train station a little early to activate our Eurail passes and to look into traveling next weekend. We got reservations for a train to Marseille for the day on Saturday! We’ll leave at 7:01and then leave Marseille at 7 something at night to come back. It works out perfect: we’ll have the day at the beach and then still have time to explore a little :-)

So the train was good, it got there about an hour late which was a bummer but we just moved along on to the métro and tried to find the first thing on our “agenda” for the weekend (which was made specially by me and Jeffrey, we rock). We got off the métro stop that was supposed to take us to the Eiffel Tower but when we got off we didn’t see anything. We decided to walk down the street and then we saw it around a building! It was AMAZING. We might have freaked out a little bit (but with class, don’t worry). We just stood in Trocadero Square and looked at the tower, got creeped out by a few people, asked a family to take our picture, and then moved along to find the rest of our friends at the base of the tower. We got a couple of harmless bon soir-s, ran into several obnoxious Alergians who were excited that they were tied at 0 at the half, pathetic. But then I saw a guy wearing a USA scarf and yelled to him to see if we won. He and his friend are from the US but now they live in Paris and go to the American high school there. One was from Charlotte and the other from Boston, then we ran into some of their other friends and one was from Ithaca! Small world…When we got to the base of the tower we got straight in line for the stairs to the second floor (since we didn’t have too much time and it’s way cheaper that way). While waiting Jeffrey and Hope came over to see us and took our backpacks so we wouldn’t die while walking up the stairs, they already went before we got there. It was AWESOME. Totally worth the 3,50 Euros and burning calf muscles from the stairs. We got to see the city light up as nighttime came and it was just beautiful.

After that we met up with Jeffrey, Hope, Mike, Yvonne, Jordan, and Brooke. We walked far enough away before the tower did its whole sparkly light up thing. Again, it was AMAZING! We walked around some more near the Eiffel Tower, got annoyed about more obnoxious Algerians (who by then had only tied 0-0, how do you get that excited about that?! ), and then got on to the most crowded subway car ever! It was awful, and I’ve been on the el during rush hour a few times in my day…
We finally got off to our stop for our hostel. I’ve never stayed in a hostel and this was a pretty good first experience. Me and Anna were in the same room as a girl from our group, we headed to bed shortly after arriving at the hostel (it was almost 1!).

Saturday we got up pretty early, the plan was to be off by 8:30 (but as I’ve been finding out, plans don’t always happen the way I’d like). On our way to breakfast we saw Yvonne in the hallway, she had gone with some of the people in our group the night before, and she wanted to come too so we waited for her and were off a little after 9. First stop: Versailles. It took about 30 min to get there on one of the trains but it was AMAZING. I did a project on Versailles my senior year in French class and it was just crazy to finally see it in person. The castle was insane, there was gold everywhere and most of the rooms had ceilings that were painted with such detail. Just amazing…We walked through the whole castle and then moved along to the gardens. We decided not to go in, they were 8 extra Euros and not covered by the handy museum passes we bought (which was the greatest deal, it was 32 for a two day pass and the parts of Versailles that we went to would have cost 23.50, and then we did tons of other stuff too…). We then found our way to Marie Antoinette’s domain, it was beautiful. The at least 30 min walk was worth it. We walked around there some and then it was back into the city for the rest of our day.

Back in Paris we headed for the Louvre. The outside was so cool looking! And of course there were people everywhere. Our museum passes got us in a special line with basically no wait time. We wandered around inside for a while and found our way to the Mona Lisa, and after that we were pretty much done with the Louvre, I’m just not a fan of that kind of art. Mike really wanted to see Monet so we decided to head back across the river to the Musée d’Orsay. But first we had to stop for some food, many of us were getting a little crabby (it was 4 PM and we hadn’t had a meal since 8ish…). After what seemed like forever of walking we found a Boulangerie and everyone was able find a little something that we liked. Then it was off to the Musée…

And thank God that we went! It was amazing. I loved everything I saw, it was definitely more my type of stuff. AND I saw some of the work of Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, the artist I did a project on for my 11th grade French project. It was awesome to finally see the paintings up close! And obviously seeing Monet and Renoir and all the other artists we learned about was sweet too. The Musée d’Orsay is 500 times better than the Louvre. The work there is so much better and I’m pretty sure all 6 of us liked it so much better than the Louvre, whoopdeedo the Mona Lisa is there, and that’s not even that cool we just saw it to see it. The only thing disappointing about d’Orsay is that you can’t take pictures inside to remember all the great things. Good thing we had the museum pass so we didn’t really pay for it (well we did but not individually…).

Jeffrey and I went to the bookstore to get some prints of some paintings and then we all sat and just enjoyed being there until the museum closed. Next it was off to the Champs Elysées… That was just insane. The stores are ridiculously over priced and I just didn’t care for the crowds of people. We tried to get to the Arc de Triomphe but it was blocked off for some sort of military thing so we turned around and found somewhere for dinner.

We found a fairly reasonable place for dinner and just relaxed for a little while. After dinner and a disappointing dessert we went to the Arc again and this time we were able to cross to it (through an underground tunnel) and then we went to the top of it (which was also included in the museum pass, best deal ever!). After that we were all SO tired so we headed back to the hostel and were in bed by midnight.

Sunday was AMAZING (I wonder how many times I have used that word…)! We started off with breakfast at the hostel again (it was free so we figured we should load up). Then we were off by 8, we had a lot to see and do! First we went to Sacre Coeur. Beautiful! And it was pretty early still so there weren’t a ton of people so it was just quiet and peaceful. We also weren’t allowed to take pictures inside here but I think that made it a little less tourist-y. WE got there just in time because as we were leaving a bus load of people arrived and I had a feeling that the “silence” rule just wasn’t going to be followed. We enjoyed the view for a little bit and then headed down for some shopping time. We left the area around 10 in order to get to church at 10:30. Get this…we went the the Hillsong church in Paris! It was an adventure to find it but we made it…

I looked up churches online before we left and found that there is a Hillsong church in Paris, after getting Jeffrey’s approval (ha) I looked up directions on the website and it seemed simple enough…fast forward to Sunday. We arrive at the church with 10 minutes to spare before church started. A REALLY nice man greeted us and apologetically informed us that this particular Sunday the Hillsong church was meeting elsewhere. He said it normally is in the theater we were at but they were at another place in Paris that weekend (which I did remember seeing on the site, but I thought it was just a special event and real church met where we went to. The man was so nice and said something to us in English about us all being brothers and sisters, it was so sweet. Luckily there was the male, American version of me also at this wrong place. His name is Dane and he and his friend Frank were looking for church too. They’re from Wisconsin and studying in Paris for 2 months. Dane had looked up the church and had the same thought process as me but luckily he had a little notebook of addresses in Paris, including the other address from the Hillsong site. And luckily church there this week started at 11, not like the 10:30 service at the wrong place we went to. And then he had a little book of Paris maps so we easily found our way to church and we were 5 minutes early!
Church again was amazing. It is SO great going to church in France. It just gets me every time. And this one was cool too because it was in French and English. They sang several songs in French and then a couple in English too. Sadly they don’t have Hillsong CDs in French (although I did use my French to ask). We said bye to Dane and Frank and went to grab something to eat across the street from church. Kebabs and Paninis and French fries!

Then it was off to Notre Dame! We tried to go to Saint Chappelle first but the line was kinda long and there was no special entrance for museum pass holders. We waited in the wrong line for about 5 minutes and then Brooke pointed us in the right direction. Notre Dame was to Sacre Coeur as the Louvre was to Musée d’Orsay. It was cool and all but too touristy for me. But the stained glass windows were beautiful! Then we headed off to get some ice cream as recommended in the “guide Fred” from Madame O’Hara. It was SO good!

The others had to be back to leave with the group by 4:30 so we left from there. Mine and Anna’s train didn’t leave until a little after 11 so we had time to just chill and shop. We got off at a stop where a mall was supposed to be but silly us, we forgot that France basically shuts down on Sundays, even in Paris! The mall was closed so we just walked around and ran into a market type place. I got some perfume for me and a couple gifts for a couple people and then me and Anna just sat and relaxed for a little longer.

We still had a lot of time but I consulted my Rick Steves Paris book (greatest book ever made) and saw that the Centre Pompidou is open until 9 PM on Sundays! So we headed there. It was so sweet. And the art was pretty cool too, a few too many naked things on the first level we went to but then there were some pretty cool things the next floor up. I was glad we got to go there. We walked around that neighborhood after and talked to a couple people in a tourist shop, the man was from Italy (I was proud of myself that could tell by his accent). And then we were off to explore some more. That area is so nice! The various bars and cafés were crowded with people watching the world cup. I love that that is going on while we’re here; it just adds so much more life and excitement to everyday life (as if it needed more…) And there were a lot of little shops that were reasonable, we stopped in one and looked at clothes.

Then we headed to the train. Our train back to Chambéry wasn’t a TGV, it was a regular speed, almost 6 hour, overnight train. We arrive in town at about 5 AM and then walked back with some others in the program who had switched their tickets to a later time. Then it was a much needed shower and 2.5 more hours of sleep!
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Today was rough, I was so tired. And I had to give a presentation in class. Miserable. But class went by faster than I thought and before I knew it we were headed home. Anna and I made lunch today, the stuff at the cafeteria just didn’t look worth it. Then I just relaxed and began typing this up. We went to the store for some groceries this afternoon, we found some reasonable priced chicken patties that don’t need an over to cook! Then I relaxed some more before we made dinner and then we were off into town for la fête de la musique. It was cool. Lots of people out and about, but I was really tired so I sat down to watch a little of the Spain game and then came home. Now it’s off to bed! Bon soir!

Tonight I will be in the Eiffel Tower...ahhhhhh

So today has been good so far, I'm writing now because I don't know when I will have another chance to do so, probably not til Monday but by then I will be pooped (or "poofed" as Yvonne would say)so we will see.

Class was alright today. We started off with some article presentations, Jeffery's basically told us that France has no chance of moving on to the next round, but go USA! Ha. Lisa's was about evangelical churches in France and somehow that lead to a discussion about cults in France (I think, sometimes I zone out when Bruno is speaking...). Then we watched a video about the Champs Elysées. It's crazy to think that we will FINALLY be there. I've been learning about all these places in Paris and I'm finally going there for the weekend! Then our prof told us some good places to go in Paris and then we listened to a song about Paris before getting out early (because most of the group's train left at 12:25).

Me and Anna went running after class, in the rain (again). Then we made a nice lunch, potatoes, Salad, Carrots, and our other tarte aux fruits for dessert (we each ate one of ours yesterday). It was delicious, we are getting really good at this cooking with minimal utensils business. I just finished showering and packing, I have only my backpack to carry stuff, I've also been getting good at packing light :-) Just a little over an hour til we're off!

Happy Friday everyone!

Edible Arrangements

So today was another good (yet sadly rainy) day. We had class and it was again not so exciting, It was a Bruno day. It started off pretty good. We all gave mini presentations about our states. It was like a refresher from 4th grade. Then the rest of the class was just brutal, nothing too interesting at all, it was really hard to focus.

After class we had lunch and then we had out atelier today. Today it was fun, we were in the kitchen making tarts and then carving veggies. It was pretty sweet, the tarts taste delicious! The carving was a little more difficult, I was trying to not cut myself again (and succeeded). We were basically cutting veggies into flowers, and I learned something really cool too (maybe I'll try to do it again in the states). So basically today I learned that if my internship at PricewaterhouseCoopers doesn't work out, I can always head for a career at Edible Arrangements.

The atelier lasted until a little after four so we didn't have too much time (we decided to meet to go to the pub for the France game at 6:30, thinking it would be more crowded tonight, this game matter more). Anna, Jeffrey, Michael, and I went to the train store to look into getting tickets to Italy for a day trip next weekend. Unfortunately the train store's computer system wasn't working so we then had to go to the train station. There wasn't any convenient times for Saturday so we're going to rethink it and see if we want to stay the night or just try to go somewhere else. We'll see...

We had a little time to relax and then at 6:30 it was off to the pub! (2 hours early...) While waiting for the match to start, Jeffery and I planned out the weekend in Paris.  I’m SO excited!!! We’re going to get a two day museum pass and get in all the major touristy things this weekend.  Then when Anna and I come back in July before flying home we can just chill and smell the roses (or maybe the dog poop, our prof told us it’s worse there than it is here!)  Right now we have planned: the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Museé d’Orsay, Versailles, Les Champs Elysées, L’Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Sainte Chappelle, and Le Centre Pompidou.  As well as a service at the Hillsong church in Paris on Sunday morning.  I’m so excited, greatest weekend ever coming up!

France ended up losing the match, but it's ok because we're American, I hope we win tomorrow.  My brave roommate is from Mexico and was wearing her Mexico jersey at the pub tonight.  She was pleased with the results.  I'm a little bummed, I thought Europeans were supposed to be good at futbol?

Everything about this experience has been amazing.  I absolutely love my friends here and it hasn't even been 2 weeks, I can't imagine what it's going to be like to leave, super weird.  God has been good to us and nothing bad has happened to this point (except dog poop, but if that's the worst I'll take it!).  

France is still great (except at futbol), I'm still having the time of my life!

Rain, Rain Go Away

Today was another rainy day, it's starting to get old. It's one thing when it rains in Syracuse and I'm stuck inside DD all day and then get to drive anywhere I need to go. Here it STINKS because we're walking everywhere and my shoes, as well as the bottoms of my jeans(because it's been too cold to wear shorts), get soaked. Yuck.

We had class, it went by fairly quickly again. We learned about French hygiene. It might be as bad as some people think. Yesterday we had started reading the article about hygiene that we finished today, and our teacher asked us if we had any questions. I raised my hand and told her that someone (coughmomcough) told me only the prostitutes in France shave their armpits and asked if that was true. She jokingly asked if we wanted to see her armpits and then told us that no, it's not true. But apparently they like waxing their legs better than shaving because it lasts longer, just a fun fact in case you wanted to know about the shaving habits of French Women.

We continued class today with a discussion of what has been shocking to us in France. #1: People don't clean up after their dogs! Ahh it drives me nuts!  And after stepping "les crottes des chiens" twice I have learned to just walk with my head down, alert and ready to avoid piles.  Our professor told us that it is a law to clean up after them, it's just not enforced very well.   Another odd thing: paying to use a public toilet, or even worse: that awful thing they call a bathroom that was at the lake the first weekend (I still need to get the picture of that from Hope, my camera was dead so she took the picture).

After class we ate lunch in the cafeteria today. Then we came back home and just hung out for a little while. Then me and Anna went to the train store to see if we could change our reservations for the train to Paris this weekend. Last week when we went to make them we chose the 16:00ish train instead of the 12:25 train, thinking that we were being good students by not planning to leave class early. But then today we found out that the rest of the group is going at 12:25 so we wanted to see if we could get on that train (we bought our reservations separately because we have Eurail passes and the reservation was only 4,50 E round trip per person). Bad news is that we can't do it, but it's ok, we will be in Paris again at the end of our trip. Then we looked for reservations for our group's trip to Nice in July. There are no more spots so we will just have to pay for that separately and then use up our passes another day, maybe and extra trip while we're in Italy.

After that we met at the Elephants to catch a bus to go bowling. Not a ton of people went but anyone who I would have really wanted to be with went: Anna, Jeffrey, Yvonne, Michael, Liz, and Hope. And then Guillaume and his friend, Nono. The bowling alley was SO nice.  There were couches at each lane to sit on while waiting, it was crazy!  And it wasn't like it was super expensive to bowl.  It was 5,60 E for shoes and 1 game...more than at home but not bad for how nice the place was, I'm never going to want to go bowling in America again!  Later I'll for sure put a bunch of the pictures on photo bucket, but here's one for now:

 

It was a lot of fun.  There were TV screens above each lane with the World Cup on (the Spain vs Switzerland game).  Guillaume was funny to watch bowl, and Nono started off the game with like 2 strikes and a couple spares in a row.  I was struggling to just keep the ball out of the gutter (Guillaume said bumpers are only for “newbies and children”) and I made it a mental goal to just beat Guillaume.  In the last frame Guillaume got a Spare so the pressure was on.  I had a good first bowl, I thought it would be a strike, but only 9 pins fell.  Then I got the last one down (my first mark of the game!).  I needed 4 to tie him and 5 to beat him.  As I was throwing the last ball Michael yelled gutter ball, and that’s exactly what it was.  I was a little bummed but life goes on.

We came back and made some dinner.  Then we got ready for Mojito's for salsa dancing but first went to the pub to watch some soccer again.   I was bored with it by half time and I felt really tired so I just came back home.  There will be plenty more soccer, and Mojito has dancing every Monday and Wednesday, and apparently karaoke Tuesdays and Thursdays, we will definitely be checking that out.

I still can't get over how awesome this experience has been so far.  Everyone in the group gets along so well, it's weird (but great).  The activities the program has planned have also been awesome, I'm so glad we have a little over 4 more weeks!  Classes are going well too.  It's weird, there is no syllabus and the professors are always asking us what we want to learn about, and I have absolutely no idea what I will be graded on.  It's all a little odd to me, and frustrating, but I'm trying to just go with it because our professors don't seem too concerned.   

Well it's bedtime,  I am le tired :-P

Week 2: Monday and Tuesday

Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of Savoie (the region of France we are in) being a part of France. Woooo.

We had class in the morning; it actually went by fairly quickly. I don't know what makes some days fast and other days slow, I think when we talk a lot about history I get bored. It's only interesting to me for so long, which is weird because I love reading historical fiction. I don't know. We did some grammar, presentations, and geography. We learned some interesting things about France. For example, over 2/3 of the population lives on the East side of the country. And Paris, the largest city, has 12 million people, which is ten times as big as the second largest city, Marseilles. Crazy.

Then canyoning was cancelled for some reason, we went to visit Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s house instead. He was a French writer, his house was pretty cool. Growing up I wanted to live in the 1700s so it was a glimpse into the life I wanted. The walk there took FOREVER, I sometimes I feel like we have to climb a mountain every time we want to go somewhere. The stuff looked pretty cool, and the gardens were SO pretty! Then we headed on the long walk back. Then we went to Carrefour and bought some water shoes for canyoning. And there’s a McDonalds in the same area as Carrefour so we walked over there and felt American for a half hour. I got a McFlurry, with chocolate syrup and kit-kats. Now that’s something you can’t get in America. It was pretty good. And it was so little, and only came in one size...No wonder we're so fat in America!



Then we came back and made some dinner and just hung out. We made French bread pizzas (haha, literally), it was interesting to do without an oven, but we made it work on the stove and they were delicious! I sliced my thumb while cutting the bread. I was really calm while holding my thumb until I saw the blood dripping through my hand. I just kept a lot of pressure on it and hoped that it would stop, and it did. Luckily it was on my left hand so the only thing I struggle to do is unbutton my pants, I’ve been being careful to not break it open again.

At 9:45 we met to go to the castle for the 150th year celebration. They had a lights show (that we weren’t allowed to bring cameras to) and it was SO cool. I wish I could have recorded some of it! Then we came home while some others went to Mojito, I still don’t think that some people fully understand that we have class at 9 AM.
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Today was good. We had class with our grammar prof, I think she makes things more interesting. And she isn’t required to talk about history so that helps too. Class flew by today! And then canyoning was cancelled again, Guillaume told us that there was an orange alert for storms so we wouldn’t be going today, which was fine because it was cloudy, cold, and rainy today, so Anna and I didn’t really want to pay 35 Euros to be miserable. So now we can go and enjoy it!

That left us with the afternoon free so Anna and I made lunch and then ran some errands. I bought a French Bible for 8,50 Euros! Exciting stuff. Then we came back and went running. We were supposed to find a grocery store while running but after running 15-20 minutes in one direction we couldn’t find it, so we turned around and decided we would just have to use less cheese with our dinner. We got home, changed and then made “omelets” for dinner, which really just turned in to scrambled eggs because we didn’t have a spatula to fold and flip them. And then some fruit salad and toast, it was good. A bunch of people are getting sick but I figure me and Anna are pretty safe because we eat a ton of fruits and veggies every day. Gotta strive for five! :-P

Then we just hung out and didn’t do too much, it’s nice to have an off day every once in a while. I’m hoping to go to bed early tonight, I need more sleep.

Saturday and Sunday

Ahh I just can't get over how awesome everything here is! This program is awesome, they have activities planned for us every day. Each day goes by so fast but we've done so much since getting to Chambéry that I feel like we've been here forever. And the group as a whole is great, and I really like the smaller group of people who I hang out with on a regular basis. I feel like I've know them for way longer than a week (with the exception of Anna, I have known her longer than a week). It's great, every day is so fun, and there is no shortage of laughter with us :-)

Yesterday we started the day off with a trip to the market. We met at 9:30 and went to stock up until Tuesday morning. Then we had to be to the train station by 10:45 to meet Guillaume to go hiking. We stopped at a Tabac to see if we were in the paper (from the picture the guy took of us in our france Jerseys on Friday night and WE WERE! I bought two copies of the paper.

After meeting Guillaume we took a train to Aix Les Bains and then took a bus to the start of our hike. I was told the hike would take 1 hours but it definitely took 2ish hours. And we weren't even dilly dallying! There was a group of like 5 of us who just kept truckin along - Jeffrey, Me, Michael, Lisa, and Liz. There were several forks in the path (they all ended up meeting the same trail, but we didn't know that at the time) so we thought we were 'perdus dans le forêt.' It was the joke of the day. In our confusion we turned around but then ran into Brooke and Hope, who had been a little behind us (they stopped to use the restroom we passed before entering the forest) and they reassured us that we were going the right way so then we all continued. Several rocky and muddy trails later we finally made it to the cross! It was HUGE! And the view was AMAZING (I will be posting pictures up after this if I have time). We ate lunch at the cross and then began our descent, it was way faster than the way up! WE missed the first bus back into town, it left at 3:30 and we got back between 4 and 4:30, so we just had to hang out until 6 (buses aren't very frequent on the weekends, especially in the mountains. Then our train was late so we didn't get back to the Chambéry train station until 8:15.

We walked home quick, changed and then went back to the same pub from the night before (It's a good one)to watch the US v England game. Some people from the program were already there, we missed the first few minutes, didn't see England's goal. But we were there for the US goal! It was awesome, the whole bar (minus like 6 people) started chanting "U S A! U S A!" They all wanted us to win cause England's so good and we'd be easier to beat down the road. It was cool though. After that we walked around finding something to eat, dinner wasn't as good as we had hoped after over 3 hours of hiking. WE got ice cream and called it good enough :-) Then we (me, Anna, Jeffrey, Michael, Hope, Liz, Yvonne, and Hannah) just hung out for a little longer and then it was off to bed!

This morning Me, Anna, Jeffrey, Yvonne, Mike Lui, and Lisa went to church. Jeffrey, Anna, and me had looked it up earlier this week, it was a baptist church about 2km away. We walked there and it was totally worth it. It met in a high school and was probably 150, maybe 200 people, including kids. We started off singing some songs we didn't know but then after the offering we sang 'Here I am to Worship', same melody, just words in French. I cried a little because it was just amazing to remember how big God is that people across the ocean worship him in the same way but just in another language. It was just like a little hug and reminder that God is with us wherever we are. And that's one of my favorite songs to begin with so it was extra awesome. Then they just had a time of prayer and people from all around the room would just pray out loud, it was really nice. And I like how when people pray they go slower so it was easier to understand! The announcements lasted a long time and were harder to follow but when the pastor gave the message I think I got most of it. It was nice.



We walked back and some people got food from quick burger, possible the only place for food that is open in Sundays. It's so weird, almost every single place is closed on Sunday! Anna and I made lunch and shared with Mike. It was delicious again. Then we got our homework and things and set out to see if the ice cream place that advertised free wifi was open (trying to switch things up). We got there, it was open and we bought ice cream (me, Anna, Liz, Hope, and Yvonne). Then while we waited for the others to get their ice cream me, Liz, and Yvonne went inside to sit. We sent upstairs and were really excited to see that the world cup was on. We sat down and started to get our stuff out. Not even 5 minutes later the manager or something comes up to us and tells us (in French, of course) that ice cream is only for take out and we can't stay there. He asked Liz to unplug her computer and told us we had to go. Rude. So here we are at quick burger, yet again. At least they don't get mad when we're here for hours at a time after only buying a 1 euro thing of coffee, fries, or ice cream.

The rest of the day we're just relaxing, maybe a run in there. Tomorrow we're going canyoning. I don't quite know what it is but I know it involved rappelling down a canyon and then jumping into water. It will be interesting...

France is still awesome, I still love it :-)

Thursday and Friday

France is so great! Yesterday we had class in the morning, it was seriously dragging on! After that the director of ISEP(the organization we came here through) came to talk to us. He came 20 min late, I feel like nobody's ever on time over here, so we didn't have time to eat at school. We rushed to the train station after and had time to grab a sandwich from a place across the street while Guillaume bought our tickets.

We went to Grenoble in the afternoon, the olympics were there in the 60s. It's about an hour by train from Chambery. We took a ride on a cable car to the bastille's fortress and walked around up there for a while, it was nice and windy on the mountain, a good change from the 90 degree weather in the city! We walked through the museum too, that was cool! They gave us a headset with and audio Gide that automatically changed when we changed rooms. It was in French but I still could understand most of it.


The cable cars going up the mountain

Then we went down into the city and walked around. It was cool, everything over here is like nothing in America...we looked in some shops and finally just sat in a park to relax, the heat had drained us! When we got back we went to quick burger for the Internet and I got to watch glee from this week :-) When we got back from there I went up to hang out with Hope, Jeremiah, and Mike, a few people from the program who live in my building. Then it was off to bed!

Today we had class from 9-12:30, like always. Then we ate lunch at school and then we had an 'atelier,' it's like a workshop and we have one per week. Today we went to an exhibit about taste/food. It was pretty cool, next week we get to cook :-) Then me and Anna went to reserve our spots on the train for Paris next weekend. The whole group is going but we have eurail passes so we get to pay way less but still
needed to get reservations. After that we went to carrefour with a few others, it's a huge grocery store but with other stuff too, kind of like walmart. We bought some groceries and got France jerseys!

Right now a bunch of us are at a bar watching the first France world cup game (in our jerseys). It's so fun! Everyone was singing the national anthem (that we happened to learn in class today). It's great but really hot inside. They have a big screen for the game and it's packed! In the way here people were talking to us and getting excited that we were wearing French jerseys, a guy who's a photographer for the newspaper took our picture with some other locals who were wearing jerseys. It's cool, everyone is really excited, obviously.

Well I'm going to go pay attention now!


Intently watching the game...

Tuesday and Wednesday...

So the past few days have been crazy and it’s so hard to update this without having internet at our apartments. A couple people have looked into it and it’s just not going to be worth it to get it for the next 5 weeks.

Tuesday was good. Me and Anna got up early and went to the market before class. Everyone who we walked past said “bonjour!” to us, it was seriously like that song in Beauty and the Beast when everyone says “bonjour” to Belle. Too fun :-)
We had class with our grammar instructor. She's really nice, and we didn't really do grammar today. We just talked about something interesting about ourselves, that took a while because there are 16 of us and she would politely correct us along the way but it was fun. My interesting thing was that there's a pizza shop named after my family, and opened by my family, in NC. There are like 5 or 6 people in the program from NC, it's weird.

Then we had lunch in the cafeteria again, not too bad, and it’s only 2,90 Euros. We were supposed to go to the lake to play volleyball but then it started raining as we were waiting for the bus so we decided to postpone it until yesterday. Instead some of the girls went shopping. I bought a couple of things – a dress, a shirt, a necklace, and some other little things. It’s weird when shopping for clothes here, at a lot of places they don’t have actual sizes on them and they’re just designed to expand with the person wearing them. So the dress that I bought looks good and fits, but someone who’s a size 2 could also buy the exact same dress and have it fit them differently…The shirt that I bought in Lyon was the same way…

After shopping we headed home to make dinner. Jeffery came over again and brought his laptop with internet access from his French roommate. We made grilled cheese with the cheese we bought from the cheese factory and then salad to go with it. Yummm, I actually think we’re making it again today or tomorrow because the cheese is only good for about a week after buying it and we bought it on Sunday..

Yesterday was good too! Class again with the grammar prof. We started with a worksheet, a little bit of a struggle seeing as I haven’t taken a French class in 2 years! Me and Anna bought a sandwich in town for us to share. It was the same price as lunch at the school (but half, because we split it) and the menu at school just didn't sound very good today. Then we just walked around, stopped at a "tabac" and bought a packet of tickets for the bus (7,50 for 10 or just 1,10 every time we ride the bus). Then we all met up at 2:15 to go to the lake for some volleyball. It was fun! We played frisbee for a while because a bunch of French people were playing volleyball but the FINALLY stopped later so we got to play. Oh my gosh, on the bus on the way to the lake this man started talking to us. He was from Italy and his name is Mario!!! I had to hold in the laughter. Then we made dinner together and hung out for a while. Then at 10 we met to go out to Salsa dance because it was one of the girls’ 21st birthday. It was fun, a place called Mojito’s. I didn’t stay long, me and three of the others walked back at 11:30, we had class this morning!

Well this has been long enough, I’ll write about today some other time. France is still great, I’m still loving it!

Monday Recap

So I'm using a French keyboard at school right now so this post might be more painful than from my itouch.

Yesterday we started class :-) I love school so it was very exciting. We had Bruno Fillon as our prof yesterday, he teaches history and culture three times a week in June and two times a week in July. The other teacher, Madame Buffin teaches grammar. I'm in the advanced class, so is Anna. There are 16 of us in it, two girls aren't in our program but the rest are from our group so it's fun. The class was good, a perfect balance between challenging and I know what I'm doing...good stuff.

We had a guided tour of Chambéry yesterday. It was cool, I'll put pics up at quickburger sometime...

Last night we made a delicious dinner (me and Anna) and we invited our neighbor, Jeffery, over (he's in the program too). We just hung out the rest of the night and then it was off to bed!

Everything is still great, and I still love it here. The end for now.

Saturday night and Sunday

I'm posting this from my itouch because I didn't know we'd be stopping at quick burger so I don't have my laptop...apologies in advance if my typing is off.

So saturday night Guillome took us all to a pub in town. It was fun, we all gotto know each other more and some French people talked to us. They were from the military, one had just gotten back from Afghanistan that day! They were from marseille so they ordered a drink that is a specialty in their region an has us try it, it tasted like liquid black licorice...yuck! It was so fun to talk to them. I love using my French! The pub closed at 1:30 and after using my French to track down one guy in our group (who was drunk) we were all talking outside the pub and these two girls came over and almost cried with joy when they found out we are American. Just think of the most dramatic 13 year old girl meeting the guy from twilight or something...ridiculous! We talked to them some and then went home.

Yesterday we had to be up at 9 to go to a cheese factory. It was cool, we saw goats too (pics on photo bucket). Then we wet to the most beautiful lake in Annecy. We just hung out in the town for the day, got some sun :-) it was a lot of fun. But oh my gosh the bathroom I had to use at the lake wasn't even real. It was seriously a porcelain hole in the ground...disgusting but it was necessary so I used it, th other girls decided they didn't need the bathroom THAT bad...

Last night me and Anna just made dinner and hung out with her neighbor (a guy in the program). It's so fun being here and meeting people, like freshman year orientation all over again! Haha, well we're off, I'll write more later...

Backtrack to Thursday...

I forgot to post on Thursday! Actually I knew I didn't, I was just tired and didn't feel like typing up everything. We went to Lyon. We got there at like 9:30 and nothing was really open so we just sat on a park bench and chilled for a little bit. Then the stores started to open so we went in and looked at some stuff. Anna bought a ring and necklace. It's funny, in the french equivalent of a forever 21 or wet seal they play all American music. It's the cool thing to do...

After a little bit of that we set off walking along a road that Joy had recommended. It ran into several squares that each had a fountain or statue and beautiful buildings surrounding them. We wanted to get pictures of us so we'd look for an older person, or someone with a kid, or one time we asked a girl with SUPER high heels to take our picture, I figured she wouldn't get far with our camera...

We went over from that road to walk along the river and bought a baguette to share from a boulangerie. Then we crossed the river on a foot bridge and set off to see fourvière. It's up on a hill and JOy told us a bus could take us there but we couldn't find the bus so we climbed up SO many stairs. Seriously 15-20 minutes of straight stairs. But when we got to the top the view was worth it (see pictures on photobucket).

We continued over a little ways to the Roman Ruins and saw that, it was so cool. It's crazy to think that it has been around for so long. We then walked back down and looked for somewhere to eat. At one place we check out the guy talked to us and said we looked Italian (probably because Anna is always SO tan looking and I was fairly tan). We crossed back over the river to find a better place and sat at another square for a while. We found a café to eat lunch and ordered some wraps and then had some ice cream for dessert :-)

We continued walking... We saw 'la bourse', the chamber of commerce building, and Anna took a picture of me in front of that. Then we did a little more shopping, I bought a shirt and Anna bought some shoes. At the shoe place they were very excited to talk to Americans. When I say I'm from New York people assume the city and I just don't have the energy to try to explain in French that I don't live in the city. I just let them be excited, I mean it is where I flew out of last week...

We were pooped when we got home. Joy had made another delicious dinner. We ate, showered and slept.



I'm being told that we're leaving the Quick burger so I'll write about last night and today later, pictures are already up. Everything is great, I love it here!