Sam du Jour

Et qu'est-ce qui se passe en France?

2011-02-25T14:37:00.000-08:00

On the eve of my next 3 week European tour, I thought it would be fitting to offer an update of my life in France (you know, the country I'm actually living in). So, here's a brief account of the highlights from my past few weeks here in Caen!

Thursday, Jan. 6- Just two days after I got back from vacation our apartment celebrated two major events, Meg's 24th birthday and Ukranian Christmas. Our kitchen was in a

state of constant activity the days leading up to January 6th and, consequently, smelled incredible. Ana prepared an amazing traditional dinner. Miroslav joined us and he and Ana led us through the traditions associated with the dinner, such as bringing the wheat into the house before serving the meal, lighting a candle and placing it in a loaf of bread, and toasts. The meal was delicious and I tried all sorts of new and exciting foods, including pyrogies and borscht.

Since it was also Meg's birthday, I made a chocolate cake and we sang happy birthday, first in English, then French, then Ukranian. We then exchanged our Secret Santa gifts (I got an hilarious Gossip Girl-related gag gift).

January 6th was Epiphany, so at school that week, we had a galette des rois in several classes. After finding la fève (in this case, Toy Story 3 characters) in my slice of cake in two of my classes, I was the queen for the day...twice!

Saturday, Jan. 22- On this charmingly chilly and typically cloudy day in Normandy, Thibault, Meg, Ana, and I drove to Mont St. Michel, stopping in my namesake village, Ducey. The four of us walked (more like Thibault, Meg, and Ana walked as I skipped) around the village briefly, pausing to take photos in front of any and all Ducey signs.

Before we left, I stopped in the Tourism Office, where I signed the guestbook and spoke with the woman at the front desk, who had written a book on the town and family name and was kind enough to copy a few pages for me to look over and keep. She informed me that those with the name Duceys were "soit royauté, soit criminelle."

After our brief stopover in Ducey, we continued on to Mont St. Michel, where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch prior to setting off on a hike around the bay. During the summer people do the hike barefoot, but as it was January and far too cold, we donned boots for our 13 kilometer hike (about 8 miles). Needless to say, we were exhausted by days end, but we climbed up to the monestary just the same, before piling back into the car.

Our night was not over, however, oh no. Once back in Caen, we met up with Chloé, Aurélien, Katerina, and a few other people for cheesecake at Dolly's before going out to El Che for dancing and a nightcap.

Wednesday, Feb. 2- In the spirit of further Anglophone cultural understanding, Meg, Ana, and I watched the Bill Murray classic "Groundhog Day." Earlier that day, I watched the live stream from PA as Punxsatawney Phil informed the world that spring would soon arrive.

Saturday, Feb. 12- Hannah and I took the BusVerts to Vire where we were met by Jordan and Allison and continued on to Jessica's apartment for her baby shower. The shower was lovely. Jessica's mom and aunt had been in Vire over break and had brought an abundance of American food, including chile powder, cheddar cheese, and M&Ms. This might not seem like anything special, but to 15 girls who have been in the land of baguettes, brie, and éclairs for the past 5 months, there's something magical about spicy, sharp, and milk chocolate-y food.

We played a few baby shower games and before we knew it, it was time to take the bus back to Caen. So, we said goodbye and headed on our way, but not before catching a glimpse of Vire's Porte Horloge.

Thursday, Feb. 24- I accompanied two of my classes on their field trip to Honfleur. We stopped along the way at a beach, where we sketched the coastline and the cityscape of Le Havre in the distance. Once in Honfleur, we picnicked along the river at the foot of the Pont Normandie, then made our way to the center of town. We divided into teams and set out on a scavenger hunt, searching for landmarks and the cultural, literary, and artistic elements they represented. We then visited a museum where we sketched those landscapes featured in the various paintings in the exhibit.

Venetian New Year

2011-02-21T09:33:00.000-08:00

Sunday, January 2- As planned, I went to bed nice and early and logged a solid 10 hours before waking up this morning at 9 a.m., ready to enjoy my first official day in Venice. I got up, got dressed, and was out the door by 10 a.m.. I navigated my way to Piazza Rialto, stopping for a chocolate croissant along the way, and window shopped through to Piazza San Marco. I walked through St. Mark's Basillica, then went to the museum at the Doge's Palace. At 1 p.m., I left the museum and made my way down the labyrinthine streets to find a slice of pizza for lunch. I then maneuvered my way back to Piazza San Marco and enjoyed my pizza on the steps next to the Bell Tower.

After lunch, I took advantage of my museum pass and visited Museo Correr and Museo Archeologico. By the time the sun started to set, around 4 p.m., I was on my way back toward the hostel. I took the scenic route through Piazza Roma and basically traversed the city on the way to Piazza Magdalena.

Back at the hostel, I had just started a game of solitaire, when Ali offered to cook me a traditional Afghan dish. Originally from Afghanistan, he left 14 years afgo, lived in England for 11 years, and has lived in Rome the past 9 months. He was in Venice for the weekend to help his friend staff the hostel. I returned to my room and struck up a conversation with Danella and two Australian girls in my room, then went in for our communal pasta dinner where I talked with Jared from Florida. By 9 p.m., it was past my bedtime and I got ready for bed and prepared for another night of sleep in the double digits.

Monday, January 3- I was awake before my alarm had the chance to wake me and was showered, dressed, and on my way to the water bus by 10 a.m.. I bought a day pass and took the first water bus to Murano.

I arrived just before 11 a.m., watched a glass blowing demonstration, window shopped, bought Murano glass candies, then hopped on the water bus to Burrano. The houses on Burrano were painted in such bright colors and with the sun bright in the sky, the island was amazingly picturesque (perhaps an explanation of how I managed to take almost 1,000 pictures over the course of this vacation). I took the 5 minute water bus to Torcinno where I walked along the canal and peaked inside the church before heading back to the "mainland."

I arrived just at sunset and wandered in search of Kathleen's restaurant recommendation. When I wasn't able to find it, I seetled for a cup of gelato to enjoy as I strolled back to the hostel, again, taking the scenic route. When I returned to the hostel, shortly after 5 p.m., I chatted with Kate, a new arrival to our room, and the Australian girls until we were called for dinner.

Part of what I like about hostels, and I suppose travel in general, is the people you meet along the way. Yes, its true, they're not all winners, but there are so many fascinating people in this world and it's wonderful to have to chance to talk with and have discussions with people whose opinions may be divergent, and sometimes shockingly similar, to your own.

Tuesaday, January 4- It's hard to believe the trip is over. It ended so uneventfully, contrary to how it began. This morning proceeded in a similar fashion to my others in Venice. I woke up, showered, got dressed, packed, and was out the door by 10 a.m.. I made my way to Rialto to do my souvenir shopping then stood on the bridge, looking out over the canal for a spell, eating my slice of pizza (and pseudo breakfast). I returned to the hostel to collect my bag and then it was off to the bus, then plane, then metro, then train, then tram, which safely delivered my back to my doorstep.

Felice Anno Nuovo 2011

2011-01-29T03:28:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011- How do I even begin to describe the past 24 hours?

On Friday morning, New Year's Eve, Keri and I woke up at 8:30 a.m., showered, got dressed, and checked out of the hostel. We walked down the street and ordered a pastry breakfast, then, at 11 a.m., got on the metro for the airport. Once at the airport and through security, we sat and chatted for the next two hours as we waited for boarding to begin. The flight to Rome on Aegean Airlines proved to be the start of a very successful New Year's Eve as we were given pomegranates upon boarding as a gift, an in-flight meal, and two drink services.

We took the shuttle to Rome Termini, dropped our bags off in storage at The Yellow (where we also verified the bar's hours and I inquired after my missing glove (no such luck)) began to walk. Keri and I effectively did a tour of the entire city as we set off from Termini, past Colosseo, to Trastavere in search of dinner. Then, when that plan proved unsuccessful, we walked along the river all the way up to the Piazza del Popolo.

Keri and I quickly discovered that finding a restaurant that was not serving a set menu was not going to happen, but had some luck when we stumbled across a 5 euro menu. A slice of pizza, a fried item (not fries), and a drink, all for only 5 euro! We then finished our meal with a cup of gelato and staked out a place on the steps at the center of the piazza. We stayed until 10:30 p.m., watching the homemade fireworks displays, then decided we wanted to watch the countdown from the Capitol.

So, Keri and I descended into the insanity that was the Rome metro and, 45 minutes later, we emerged at Colosseo, and began to maneuver our way through the crowd, toward the stage next to the Capitol building. By 11:30 p.m., we had managed to hunt down a spot with a nice view of the concert and some breathing room.

The music was upbeat and there was such a fun atmosphere. Then came the countdown, the fireworks (green, white, and red), and the massive dance party in the middle of the street!

By 1:30 a.m., we decided to beat the crowd and make our way to The Yellow Bar. We stayed until 5 a.m. when the bar closed, sipping our drinks, eating our Greek New Yar pomegranats, fending off the advances of some very drunk guys, and talking. Then, at 5:45 a.m., Keri and I said goodbye as she boarded the shuttle for the airport and I went to Termini to wait for my train to Venice.

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After over 24 hours awake, with the exception of a few hours of shuteye on the plane and train, I arrived in Venice this morning at 10:35 a.m.. As it is January 1st, tourist information and various other services were closed, but I managed to find my way to my hostel nonetheless, with the aid of a few helpful gondoleers.

I dropped off my bags then set out wandering the city. I stumbled upon a nice restaurant and treated myself to a delicious New Year's lunch. I then returned to the hostel to check in and take a quick nap, then ran to the bank for some cash, hopped online, chatted with some other hostelers, ate our communal pasta dinner, and got ready for bed.

Now, I'm hoping to enjoy a nice, long, rejuvanative sleep to prepare me for my next three days in Venice! Happy 2011!

The experience of travel makes me want to better myself. it ignites my desire to learn more aout other cultures and histories as well as my own. While traveling, I learn more about myself, what I want and don't want, my likes and dislikes, and my priorities and the respective order of people and things in my life. At the same time, traveling drives me to learn mor onc I return home and to appreciate what, and who, I have around me.

It's all Greek to me...

2011-01-23T05:01:00.000-08:00

Monday, Dec. 27 (continued)- When we arrived in Rome, we found our hostel, checked in, showered, changed, and set off for Vatican City. We took the metro then walked through the gates into the Holy See. We saw the Christmas tree and creche scene, then got in line to see the inside of St. Peter's Basilica (Keri and I in St. Peter's Square, below). We then walked through the street market to the Vatican Museum where we saw the Strata di Raphael and Michelangelo's Sistene Chapel. It was beautiful and overwhelming and made me want to re-read all of my Core art history notes. We left the Vatican and walked along the river to Trastevere, an area known for it's restaurants. Keri and I split a caprese salad and I had pork slices in lemon sauce.

After dinner, Keri and I walked across the river's island bridge and past the Capitol to the Colosseo metro. An interesting thing aout Rome is that there are only two metro lines that cross the city, neither of which go particularly close to the majority of the city's main attractions. We got back to the hostel a little after 8 p.m. and put our things in order in preparation for our 4:30 a.m. departure tomorrow morning.When you're planning a trip like this, you want to take advantage of every moment and do every last thing you can. The problem is, you often fail to anticipate how exhausting such an itinerary can be. But, you only live once!

Tuesday, Dec. 28- At 3:30 a.m. I silenced my alarm and dragged myself to the shower. An hour later, Keri and I checked out of the hostel and walked to catch the airport shuttle to the airport. We boarded the bus at 5 a.m. and arrived at the airport at 6 a.m.. We checked in, boarded, and I slept for the vast majority of the 2 hour flight. When we arrived in Athens, Greece, at 10:15 a.m. local time, Keri and I boarded the metro then dropped our bags off at the hostel around noon.

The man working at reception suddested a restaurant nearby, God's Place, for a good lunch. After lunch, we bought tickets to the Acropolis, including entrance to the theatre ruins and the Parthenon (left). This was technically my second time seeing the Parthenon, as I had previously seen the replica in Memphis, Tennessee, on my drive back to Boston from Austin three years ago.

At 3 p.m. when the complex closed, Keri and I began wandering through downtown Athens, through markets and by the ancient agora, Capitol, and the University of Athens. We then returned to the hostel to check in and research our day trip plans online. We again asked for a meal recommendation, got directions, and found ourselves at Petro's for some authentic Greek suflaki and gyros. We spent a solid 2 hours at dinner before we made our way back to the hostel, stopping in toy and gift stores along the way.

Once back at the hostel, I bought some more time on the internet (might I recommend to anyone planning to stay in hostel's in Europe that the system has changed dramatically in the past two years, so now hostel's offer free wifi to those with laptops, but charge to use their computers) to book my hostel for Venice and check my emails. Keri and I then went upstairs, got ready for bed, and relaxed. For the first time in a long time, we don't need to wake up before the crack of dawn tomorrow morning, and I'm looking forward to getting a reasonable amount of sleep.

Wednesday, Dec. 29- I woke up this morning at 7:30 a.m., showered and got dressed quickly, then ran downstairs to grab the free hostel breakfast. Keri and I took the metro to Omonia, then the 51 bus to the Kifissou bus station. We took the bus to Mycenae, about an hour and a half drive, then split a cab with a French couple to the Tomb of Agamemnon and the ruins of Perecles' Palace (right). At 1:30 p.m. we began to walk back to town to take the bus back to Athens.We grabbed some pastries at the grocery store across from the bus stop and retraced our route, back to the hostel. As it was after 5 p.m. and most historic sites in Athens close by 3 p.m., we decided to take advantage of our time and visit the New Acropolis Museum.

We stayed until close at 8 p.m., then walked to the Plaka where we found a Greek tavern where we ate dinner. The food was excellent; I had beef stamina and baklava, there was live music. Two older men, one of whom I kissed on the cheek after he serenaded me, we playing guitar and singing, and various patrons would sing along or stand up and dance. We had a lovely time and a little after 10 p.m. we made our way back to the hostel to turn in for the night.

Thursday, Dec. 30- This morning I woke up at 8:30 a.m., showered, got dressed, attempted to eat breakfast at the hostel, then settled for leftover cookies instead. Keri and I walked through the Acropolis to the Ancient Agora after touring the grounds of the Temple of Zeus. We then went to lunch at a restaurant adjacent to the ancient agora and walked through the markets after having eaten. We browsed and purchased souvenirs then walked back to the hostel.

From 2:30 to 4 p.m. Keri and I basically vegged, lying in our eds and chatting about what we love aout the U.S.. Then we walked back to the Athens Central Market (left) to pick up the necklace I had ordered on Ana's behalf before setting off in search of Kathleen's restaurant recommendation.

After dinner, we wandered back through the Plaka, with the Parthenon lit off in the distance, now all familiar sites, and returned to the hostel where we checked New Year's Eve plans and flight info as well as emails before settling in for the night.

Christmas in Croatia

2011-01-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Dec. 23 (continued)- Upon our arrival, Keri and I checked into our hotel (below, view from our balcony), dropped off our things, showered, and ventured out into Split. The first order of business was to exchange our money for Croatian Kuna and to find breakfast. Keri and I strolled along the port and found a bakery that served traditional Croatian pastries, which we enjoyed sitting on benches by the water. We then set about to explore the historic center of Split, the Diocletian's Palace. We climbed the church tower for an incredible view of the city and coastline. As we had already wandered through the labyrinth of historic buildings housing homes and shops, we made our way to the market. We bought sodas, sat, and chatted, before continuing to the other gates and through the fish market.

For lunch, Keri and I found a cozy little restaurant in one of the plazas. I ordered the seafood risotto, which was delicious, and the leftovers of Keri's vegetable risotto served as our dinner later that night. We ran some errands--looking up ferry times, exchanging money, buying bus tickets--before heading back to the hotel for a restful evening.

We checked our emails and looked up a few things online, like helpful Croatian phrases, then went back up to the room to relax. Keri and I decided to take advantage of the hotel's amenities and went downstairs to use the sauna in the wellness center. We then came back up to the room, watched a bad made-for-tv Christmas movie and some Croatian music videos, ate our leftovers, then showered and got ready for bed in preparation for our early morning departure to Dubrovnik.

Saturday, Dec. 25- The alarm sounded at 4 a.m. and Keri and I climbed out of bed, got dressed, and made our way down to the bus terminal by the port. Our bus departed at 5:15 a.m. and I managed to sleep for most of the drive to Dubrovnik.

We arrived at the bus terminal in Dubrovnik and took a local bus to the Old City. We stopped for breakfast at a pastry shop then walked inside the stone walls and began exploring.

We made our way up to the city walls and somehow managed not to be blown over by the strong winds.

After wandering, we returned to the tourist office for a lunch recommendation. The restaurant was excellent and Keri and I both ordered the traditional small fried fish (left) and crème caramel. After lunch we sat by the water outside the city's fortified walls and I wrote my Christmas postcard home.

Keri and I walked back to the bus terminal along the coast, arriving at 5:15 p.m. for our 6 p.m. bus back to Split. After about 30 minutes, when our bus still had not arrived, we were told that our bus was not running because it was Christmas Eve, despite the fact that we had been assured previously (and repeatedly) that it would run as scheduled.

We spent the next two hours nervously awaiting the 9 p.m. bus to Split. We played a game of gin until finally, shortly after 8 p.m., we saw Croatia Bus across the street. Keri and I were then treated to a Christmas Eve surprise when Croatia Bus stopped in Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We got off the bus, danced around singing "Bosnia! Bosnia! Bosnia!," took our pictures, then boarded Croatia Bus to continue our journey home to Hotel Luxe in Split.

Christmas morning, Keri and I woke up at 8:30 a.m., showered, got dressed, and enjoyed our complimentary breakfast before setting out for the day. We received a partial refund of our bus tickets from the prior day's bus debacle then boarded the ferry for the island of Brac, where we spent about 2 hours exploring the island's capital, Supetar, before returning to Split.

Keri and I relaxed in the hotel and were surprised by a knock on the door around 6 p.m.. My family had sent us a bottle of champagne and chocolate souffles! (right) Keri and I were thrilled and I was so happy to feel connected to my family on Christmas. After a toast, Keri and I went in search of food. In response to our query about dinner, we were told at one bar, "Not tonight, it's Christmas." In the end, the only place open was right next to our hotel. Keri and I ordered burgers and came back to the room to eat our Croatian fast food, drink our champagne, eat our desserts, and watch Steve Martin's "The Lonely Guy." And thus concluded my first Christmas away from home.

Sunday, Dec. 26- This morning, Keri and I woke up at 8:45 a.m. and went downstairs to the jacuzzi in the hotel's wellness center. We returned upstairs at 10 a.m., just in time for the delivery of our room service breakfast. We lounged in our bathrobes and enjoyed our breakfast in bed (along with the remaining champagne).

After our room service breakfast, Keri and I got ready and packed. We left our bags in the lobby an made our way to the substructure of Diocletian's Palace where they sell local crafts and books. After browsing and making a few purchases, we went to a cafe for some hot chocolate and sat and chatted for about 2 hours. It was cold and rainy out and most places were closed because it was Sunday and the day after Christmas, so we returned to Hotel Luxe where we waited in the lobby (below) until it was time to leave for the ferry.

Keri and I checked emails and did some research on the Athens leg of our journey, then played Spit and Gin. At 6 p.m., we walked around the corner to a pizza place Marthe, one of the women at the front desk, had recommended. We ordered our pizza to go, walked to the port where we checked in, went through customs, and found places on our favorite banquettes. We then settled in for the 2 hour wait until embarkment and for the 10 hour ferry ride. I am now sitting on the Marko Polo ferry waiting to depart for Ancona.

Monday, Dec. 27- Keri and I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. talking and playing cards, then settled in on our banquettes for a few hours of sleep. The ferry arrived at the Port of Ancona at 6:45 a.m.. Keri and I arranged our things and disembarked, then went through customs and walked to the Ancona train station where we boarded our train back to Rome Termini.

Trans Adriatic Crossing

2011-01-19T06:49:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Dec. 23- I arrived in Rome at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday and took the bus and metro to Rome Termini, the central train station. I then walked to our hostel, The Yellow, where I met up with Keri and put my things in our room. We took the metro a few stops over and walked to see the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and a few other Roman landmarks before finding a nice restaurant for dinner. Keri and I returned to the hostel where we enjoyed our free welcome drink at the hostel bar before heading to bed.

On Wednesday, we woke up and took the metro to Colosseo. We toured the Colosseum (right) and the adjacent ruins and walked down the road (where, in a little over a week, we would return for New Year's Eve festivities) past the Capitol and Fora. Keri and I then grabbed a pizza lunch before collecting our bags from the hostel and boarding the train for Ancona.

After a 4 hour train ride across the Italian peninsula (through many, many tunnels, though Keri and I seemed to be the only ones whose ears were popping, as apparently Italians are immune), we boarded our overnight ferry for Split.

We staked out a prime bench spot (left, view from said spot) for our 10 hour cruise across the Adriatic. Keri and I talked, played cards (which I had purchased at a tabacchi in Rome for a whopping, and wholly unreasonable, 7 euro), and slept for the majority of the trip, and when I awoke at 6:45 a.m. this morning, we had arrived in Split.

Rome, if you can...

2011-01-18T04:31:00.000-08:00

Sunday, Dec. 19- What a day, what a day. In an attempt not to dwell on that which is beyond my control, I'll share the abbreviated version of today's events. After waiting nearly 7 hours at the train station, I learned that there would not be any trains to Paris until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest. I tried, and largely succeeded, to maintain a positive mental attitude throughout the day, but found that once I returned to the apartment and began searching for the solutions I had been so confident existed, my optimism began to fade.

Searching for meaning in this series of events, as I tend to do, I believe that there is a lesson to be learned--the harder you try to plan out your life and maintain control, the faster everything will slip away from you. So, instead of trying so desperately to plan out every moment, I need to ride the wave and roll with the punches. It's not the end of the world and you can find a solution to almost any problem.

Monday, Dec. 20- The train to Lyon takes 2 hours, which may be just enough time to recount my harrowing travel tale thus far. Why are you on a train to Lyon, you ask? Well,...

Yesterday, at 2 p.m., Meg, Thibault, and I set off for the Gare de Caen. We arrived around 2:45 p.m. (we had to walk because the trams and buses weren't running) to find that no trains were listed on the departures board (right). An announcement, one which would be made every 15 minutes for the duration of our time at the gare, informed us that, due to exceptional weather conditions, they would not be posting arrivals or departures until the train was at the station and that they would be updating us as information became available.

Flash forward to 7 p.m., 5 hours later, when a grand total of 6 trains have passed through the station, none of them to Paris. Because it was now freezing in the station, Thibault and I (Meg had left at 4:15)went and sat in a train car where the SNCF had turned on the heating. It was on this train, about an hour later at 8 p.m., that Thibault and I learned that there would not be any trains to Paris that night. After waiting in line to receive a justification that all trains had been canceled (for work absences and missed flights), we returned to the apartment.

I set to work to find an alternative route to Rome, since I would not be making my 7 a.m. flight out of Paris the next morning. (Thankfully, I had called to cancel my hotel reservation from the gare at 5 under the assumption that I could always rebook should a train to Paris arrive.) We had been informed that the first trains out of Caen would not be until the next afternoon, but I was pleased to find that a night train ran from paris to Rome. I was unable to purchase the tickets online, but was content to do so at the train station when I arrived in Paris. I went to bed, after a lovely 8 vegetable soup dinner, content that I had apparently found a solution to my problem and would only miss our first day in Rome.

That brings us to this morning when I woke up to the good news that my flight to Rome had been canceled. (Good news because that meant I wasn't out 90 euro.) I emailed Keri and Skype-d home, updating all parties on my lack of progress and new plan. Then at 2 p.m., 24 hours after our initial departure, Thibault and I again ventured through the snow to the Gare de Caen. This time, however, when we arrived, we were greeted by the pleasant sight of a full destination board, with paris St. Lazare listed right at the top and set to depart in 10 minutes. We stamped our tickets, boarded the train, and at 2:35 p.m. the train left the station, with an estimated arrival time of 5:15 p.m..

Things seemed to be turning around and this time, luck appeared to be on our side. Then at 3:45 p.m., the train stopped in Serquigny and we were informed that we were blocked and would be delayed 40 minutes. Fortunately, for the first time, the estimation was correct, and 40 minutes later, we continued on our way.

At 6:15 p.m. our train arrived in Paris. Thibault and I said goodbye and I dashed for the metro. I arrived at Paris Bercy at 6:45 p.m. and was relieved to find that the night train to Rome was delayed 30 minutes. I was not so relieved, however, when I learned shortly thereafter that all trains to Italy were booked, because of all of the canceled flights. I waited in line anyway, hoping that I could find a train to anywhere Italy, if not Rome. As it turns out, I could not.

This is the point in the story when I no longer know the success rate of my efforts as I am currently on the TGV to Lyon in hopes that I will find a plane or train to take me to Rome before the end of the day tomorrow. Since the next available flight to Rome from Paris either cost 600 euro or was on Thursday at the earliest, I figured it was worth a shot to move south, where they may not have been impacted as significantly by the snow.

I probably could have waited for the next flight out, or taken the night train tomorrow, or flown directly to Split, and maybe I would have if I was traveling alone, but my priority right now is to get to Rome, and Keri, by tomorrow night at the latest, and without spending a small fortune.

Tuesday, Dec. 21- Yes! Finally a successful travel day, at least to the extent that my arrival in Rome is now in my foreseeable future.

My train arrived in Lyon last night slightly before 11 p.m.. As I descended the stairs into the station, I was greeted by the welcomingly familiar Gare Part Dieu. At the base of the staircase was an ad for a Hotel Ibis, only 500 meters away. I followed the signs out of the station and quickly saw the hotel's bright neon sign. I booked myself a room for one night and headed upstairs in search of my accomodations (left). As modest as it was, I don't know if I've ever been happier to see a shower and a bed, especially after having spent several hours sincerely contemplating sleeping on the banquettes at the train station or airport.

I washed up, settled in, and returned back downstairs to do some internet research. I found a moderately priced flight, though I only say that in respect to how outrageously expensive the other options were, which was set to arrive in Rome this afternoon. The only problem was that the flight had a connection in Dusseldorf. That's right, Dusseldorf, as in Germany, as in the absolute opposite direction of my destination, Rome. Nevertheless, the flight was the best option on the table at the moment, so I booked the flight and headed to bed hoping for the best.

This morning, I woke up, got packed, ate breakfast, and left the hotel to catch the tram to the airport. I arrived at Lyon St. Exupery and learned at check-in that my flight was delayed from 9:25 a.m. to 10:05 a.m., which put my in danger of missing my connecting flight to Rome, which was set to depart at 11:25 a.m.. Fortunately, I made it to the gate just under the wire and was able to board the flight without a problem (right, landing in Dusseldorf).

So, that brings us to the conclusion of my "Rome, if you can..." saga. My plane is set to land in Rome at 1:30 p.m. and I should arrive at the hostel to meet Keri by 3 p.m., a full 49 hours after I first set out for the Gare de Caen, and this is when the real adventure begins...

Début de Décembre

2010-12-13T01:34:00.000-08:00

This blog business is a funny thing, I think it's eroding my memory. Case in point, I am now incapable of remembering what I've done in the past week, if I haven't written it down.

Anyway, here's a "best of" for the beginning of December.

-Ana, Meg, and I took a cue from Madison Avenue and inaugurated our Christmas season before all of the Thanksgiving had even been eaten. The 2 euro store (which, unlike American dollar stores, actually sell products at their professed price) supplied us with our apartment's Christmas decorations, a lovely assortment of stockings (right), garlands, and lights.

-salsa dancing with Chloé and Ana

-ice skating in Place de Théâtre with Alison and Rob

-admiring the artisan's displays in the Marche de Noel

-seeing "Raiponce" in theatres and John's name in the credits

-visiting the Musée de Beaux Arts de Caen with Meg

Really Great Weekend

2010-11-28T15:46:00.001-08:00

This "really great weekend" of which I speak consisted of several excellent events, the first of which was the first snow of the year (below). It began to snow early Thursday afternoon and, of course, the students (and let's be honest, the teachers too) were crazy. The majority of teachers closed the drapes in their classrooms in a futile attempt to limit distractions, but there was nothing to be done and that was okay because it led to an extraordinarily fun school day. At the end of the day, Franck drove me home so that I could avoid the certain insanity the snow would inflict on the bus routes.

On Wednesday night I had begun to prepare our apartment's Thanksgiving feast, dressing the turkey legs and baking the bread. Thanks to this late night prep work, all that was left to do after work on Thursday was stick the turkey legs in our microwave/ oven, mash the potatoes, microwave the veggies, mix the gravy, and pop the bottle of cider!

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner (right)--Meg and Ana's first--and we complimented the traditional American staples with a few French additions, namely cider and macaroons. Then,

since one night of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy wasn't enough, Ana and I attended our second Thanksgiving dinner at the foyer on Friday evening.

Saturday night, Ana and I met Chloe at a friend's apartment by the university campus for drinks and some excellent homemade guacamole, then went to Palacio, a club outside of Caen, where Chloe's friend Aurelien is the club photographer. Actually, if I were to be accurate, we were at Aurelien's apartment Saturday night and at Palacio Sunday morning (below, at Palacio). Palacio officially holds the title of my favorite dance club in France as there wasn't a single song played all night that I did not love...some new, some old, some you'd never think of for a club but were thrilled to hear.

So, after an amazing, but exhausting, night out, Ana and I decided to sleep in, but managed to slip in one last activity Sunday afternoon, a wine tasting at Saint Sauveur.

This last part is not technically part of the weekend, but matched the spirit of enjoyable activities, and only falls a few days later, so I'll allow it. Thursday night, I went to dinner at Franck's house and after mapping out lesson plans for the rest of the semester, I enjoyed a nice night of delicious food and excellent conversation with Franck and his wife.

And so concluded my really great weekend and the month of November.

Nouvelles de Novembre

2010-11-16T04:26:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe it's been a month since my last update, time has flown by!

The first weeks of November proved to be eventful and fun-filled. Here's a quick update on life in France...

-My first two weeks in classes were nerve-racking and exhilarating. The kids were energetic and enthusiastic about learning English and the teachers were welcoming and supportive as I found my sea legs planning lessons and teaching.

-On Armistice (Veteran's) Day, Meg and I took a daytrip to Deauville with Anthony and Julia. It was a quick trip, but excellent all the same. We walked along the boardwalk, past the cabanas of all the Hollywood stars who visit during the film festival each September (right), down the beach, and got tea and hot chocolate at a café looking out over the water.

-Robyn, who is studying in Madrid, came to visit over Veteran's Day weekend and being the World War II enthusiasts we are, we visited Omaha Beach and the American Cemetary, the WWII exhibit at the Mémorial de Caen, and the museum at Pegasus Bridge (below).

-The next weekend, Meg, Ana, and I attended a crémaillère (housewarming party) for one of Meg's colleagues. It was at this party that I truly came to appreciate how every person in Caen is separated from any other person by no more than 2 degrees. Two such examples...1. One of the teacher's I work with is in the same badminton club as one of Meg's colleague's roommates and 2. her other roommate plays violin in the same Irish band we saw perform on Halloween.

-During this period, Meg, Ana, and I also discovered our favorite lazy afternoon activity, making crêpes. If you are ever in search of a delicious Nutella and banana crêpe, you need not look any farther than our apartment.

C'est la Grève!

2010-10-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

Oui, c'est vrai, les français font la grève encore une fois!

Monday, Oct. 18-Tuesday, Oct. 19- The second day of our stage at the Inspection Académique was canceled due to the strike and when I woke up this morning I opened my window to the sound of chants in the distance. For this, I must give the foyer credit on the impressive soundproofing of their windows.

Last night we went out to celebrate Mama's

birthday. We walked down to Port de Plaissance and found an Irish pub. At first, there were these two girls singing karaoke, and badly, we debated whether their voices consistituted "la torture" or "l'enfer." But soon enough they left the stage and a man started playing the piano. Amazing ragtime versions of Ray Charles and The Beatles, completely worth sitting through the girls

before him.

From there we moved next door to a salsa/ Middle Eastern themed bar. We danced a bit, but mainly practiced our English and French.

Because of the greve, Meg, Ana, and I have decided to have a mini Gossip Girl viewing marathon.

Friday, Oct. 22-Tuesday, Oct. 26- PARIS

For the Toussaint vacation, we decided to go to Paris. Ana and I took the train in Friday afternoon. We went to the Louvre, then met up with Jordan and a girl from the hostel, Alicia. We walked along the Seine to Notre Dame where we found a sushi restaurant for dinner. We then returned to the hostel in Montmartre where we shared a bottle of wine in the common area with some other Americans and Canadians.

On Saturday, Ana and I went on a walking tour of Paris and then went to meet Clare, and her friend Hannah. We grabbed hot chocolate and then Clare, Hannah, and I walked through an art market and got churros near la Bastille (below). We met up with Hannah's friends at their apartment for pizza and then went to meet Pierre-Luc our couch surfing host.

After dropping our bag off at his apartment, Clare and I went with Pierre-Luc to a club where we met up with Ana, Meg, and Meg's friend, Jermemy.

Sunday morning Clare and I headed to Montmartre to find a hostel, since the general consensus was that one night at Jean-Luc's was plenty. We then spent the afternoon walking through the Montmartre Cemetery and sitting on the steps of Sacre Coeur listening to music, watching performers, and talking (below). We found a great restaurant and ended up chatting with the waiter after the restaurant's lunch crowd cleared out.

Clare and I then met up with Hannah for dinner in the Latin Quarter, then met up with some of Hannah's friends and went to a bar across the Seine near Centre Pompidou after abandonning the idea of spending 20 euros for a 30-minute jazz concert at SunRise SunSet (where Jillian, Mark Anthony, Trevor, and I went to the Gershwin concert two years ago).

On Monday, after Clare left for Spain, I headed to Centre Pompidou, then to the Orangerie to see Monet's waterlillies paintings. I met up with Ana, Meg, and Janet, then Jordan and her friend, and Cornell, who had just arrived in Paris, for a crepe dinner near Montparnasse. After dinner we went out for drinks with Meg's friend at a bar across from Notre Dame, then back to the hostel.

Tuesday morning Cornell and I had breakfast at the hostel and then I left to see the Eternal Flame under the Arc de Triomphe. I had lunch and then headed to the train station to go back to Caen.

Thursday, Oct.28- Upon my return to Caen, I packed up my things, said good-bye to the foyer, and hello to our new apartment! On Thursday morning, Meg, Ana, and I picked up our keys and spent the morning choosing rooms and unpacking. The move went exceedingly well and we were all settled in just in time to cook the first dinner in our new apartment (right) before heading to Mozzies for their weekly Thursday night Soirée ERASMUS.

Sunday, Oct. 31- While at Mozzies on Thursday night, we saw that there was a Halloween party at the bar Sunday night and since France isn't necessarily big on the whole Halloween thing, we figured we should take advantage.

Earlier in the week, Meg, Ana, and I had developed a high-concept Halloween costume idea, which met our three basic criteria...1. a theme for all three of us, 2. something we didn't have to spend money on, and 3. it had to be awesome! The result...I went as a painter, Ana was Cubism, and Meg was Pop Art. Brilliant, I know!

Anyway, Sunday night, Meg, Kate, and I headed out to see how the people of Caen celebrate Halloween. And, I must say, I was impressed! Mozzies went all out with leaves on the floor, cobwebs draped everywhere, green strobe lights, and even bowls of candy at the bar!

The bar was mainly filled with Anglophone ex-pats from the major Halloween celebrating nations; the US, Canada, and Ireland. There was also an Irish band playing up-tempo folk music, which suited the mood of the bar much better than the usual thumping dance mixes, and was perfect for a laid-back Sunday night Halloween!

Caen You Believe It

2010-10-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

Getting from the aiport in Paris to Caen proved to be a bit of a mess, but I've decided not to get into it. I have a habit of dwelling on things and in an attempt to avoid that, I'm going to skip to the good part...arriving in Caen!

Tuesday, Sept. 28- When I arrived at the train station in Caen, I was met by Valérie who drove me to the foyer where I would be living. While I was checking in, the woman at the front desk told me that another assistant had arrived the day before and was eager to meet me, so after I unpacked my things, Meg (the aforementioned assistant) and I went downstairs to eat dinner in the foyer restaurant.

Wednesday, Sept. 29-Friday Oct. 8- The next day Meg, Kate (another assistant), and I went to see "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." It was La rentrée in France so tickets were only 4 euro and we decided to take advantage.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=873PrTZkLsI

Thursday is student night in Caen so Ana and Cornell, the final two assistants to arrive at the foyer, and Mama, who we had met earlier in the day at the foyer, went out to a Greek restaurant by Eglise St. Pierre for drinks.

Our first day as assistants began Friday morning with an orientation meeting at the Inspection Académique and ended with dinner at a Chinese buffet with Meg, Ana, and Mama and then drinks at Les Touristes café, a café Jillian and I discovered during our brief time in Normandy two years ago.

On Saturday, Kate, Cornell, and I toured the Château (top), built under William the Conqueror in the 9th century, and met Meg for a crêpe lunch in Vaugueux (right), the quartier ancien de Caen.

Meg, Ana, Cornell, Kate, and I spent Sunday morning at the marché (below) at Port de Plaisance and then returned to Vaugueux for dinner.

On Monday, I visited my two écoles with Véronique and met the directors, teachers, and students who I will be working with this year.

Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to looking for, visiting, and ultimately, signing the lease on an apartment. Along with a lunch of French toast/eggy bread and dinner at Les Touristes.

I spent all of Friday observing classes at one of my schools. After work, I went to see "The Social Network" with Cornell, Ana, Kate, and Meg, then out for drinks and tapas at a café along Rue St. Pierre. We then walked up to the Château to see Caen at night and to take pictures.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB95KLmpLR4

Saturday, Oct. 9-Friday, Oct. 15- The next week, I did a run-through of my teaching schedule. I was only supposed to observe the classes, but I ended up teaching two brief lessons.

Honestly, my first few weeks in Caen have been filled almost equally by paperwork and exploring. As time goes on and the bureaucratic demands of France lessen, I'll have more fun and exciting things to report, but for now, the majority of my days have been filled with paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork.

I'm really looking forward to the next few months here. Caen seems to have plenty to keep me occupied outside of work. The city is beautiful, with amazing architecture and history, and an incredible mix of culture, museums, cafés, theatres, and bars.

ICELAND

2010-10-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Da duna dun da dun da!

The 2010 edition of my blog is officially launched.

Thursday, Sept. 23- After finishing up some last minute packing, my mom and I piled into the car, along with exactly 100 lbs of luggage, and began our mini road trip up the coast to New York, where I would board my plane from JFK to Reykjavik and begin my international adventure.

When I boarded my plane, named Hellefoss after an Icelandic volcano, I overheard a conversation between the people seated across from me. One mentioned that he would be stopping over in Iceland on his way to France. I figured that the odds were slim to none that he was in the same program as me, but I decided to take a shot and as it ends up not only would Peter be teaching English in Metz next year, but he went to Northeastern!

Peter and I chatted for a bit about France, Iceland, and our plans for the year, then I redirected my attention to getting some sleep before we landed.

Friday, Sept. 24- Some background on Iceland-the country has a population of 300, 000, 60 % of whom reside in and around Reykjavik. The country itself is roughly the size of the state of Kentucky.

When we landed in Iceland, Peter and I exchanged our American currency for Icelandic krona and purchased our Flybus tickets. Peter was staying at a different hostel so we parted ways at the bus terminal, but had discovered that we would be on the same flight to Paris a few days later. On the FlyBus I met Justin and Ashley, who were in Reykjavik for a 10 hour layover on their way to work in orphanages in Kenya and South Africa, respectively.

I arrived at the hostel around 7 am. It was still too early to check in, so I left my bags behind the front dest and rescheduled my horseback riding tour of the lava fields to earlier in the morning. The Icelandic horse is far more docile than the horses we encountered in Arles two years ago, which was a relief. Along with the walk, trot, and canter, the Icelandic horse has two additional gaits, the flying pace and the tolt.

At the end of the tour, Andrew and his girlfriend, who I met at Ishestar and were from the US but on their way home after 2 years in London, got dropped off at the port, but pointed out where to find Iceland's most popular restaurant. I had initially learned that Iceland's most popular restaurant was a hot dog stand in Reykjavik from the fun facts on Iceland Air, but hadn't known where I could find said establishment. I also learned that all Icelanders can directly trace their lineage to the first settlers and that the Prime Minister's phone number is listed in the phone book.

I have to be honest about the hot dog, it was not my favorite. I wasn't a fan of some of the toppings and had a strange sense of deja vu with the flavor of one of the sauces. And not in a good way.

In any case, I was happy I tried it and spent the next 3 hours wandering around Reykjavik, taking pictures with my super awesome new camera! Unfortunately, because I didn't go on a guided tour of the city that first day, I don't have any historical fun facts to share with you.

After my day wandering the city, I was insanely exhausted. I went to a restaurant near the hostel, Geysr, for dinner and then headed to bed early in an attempt to beat the onset of my jet lag. For me, the second day is always the hardest and since the weather was suppossed to be the worst, I adjusted my itinerary and decided to enjoy a restful day at the Blue Lagoon.

Saturday, Sept. 25- I woke up Saturday morning, grabbed breakfast at the hostel, and caught the bus to the Blue Lagoon. It was cold, rainy, and windy, but prevailing wisdom said that it wouldn't affect the experience at the Blue Lagoon and they were right!

The Blue Lagoon is phenomenally beautiful! Temperatures run around 38-40 degrees Celcius and are controlled from the hot spring itself, whose temperatures near 240 degrees CELCIUS!

I spent the majority of the day with Bec, a girl from Melbourne, Australia, who was one of my 9 roommates at the hostel. We eventually met up with four British guys and toured the springs searching for "hot spots" and avoiding "cold bits." Bec was on her way to the States before heading back home and the British guys were only in Iceland for the weekend and had an abreviated Golden Circle tour scheduled for the afternoon.

There were basins of silica mud, to exfoliate and cleanse, a waterfall, and a steam room (which I lasted in all of a minute) spaced around the Lagoon.

There were also lounge chairs on an enclosed deck upstairs, and after Bec and I grabbed sandwiches for lunch, I took a nice hour-long nap.

The water at the Blue Lagoon is a milky blue color, there are lava rock formations that separate smaller pools from the larger one, and steam wafts perpetually off the top of the water. In the afternoon, when the rain stopped and the sky cleared, you could see the green mountains surrounding you and the steam rising in the distance from the actual spring.

Although I had originally planned to spend only the afternoon at the Blue Lagoon, it was so beautiful and relaxing I decided to spend the entire day, and, as such, decided to stay for dinner.

Sunday, Sept. 26- South Coast tour and dinner downtown at the Mexican restaurant

Monday, Sept. 27- Golden Circle tour and fish & chips dinner, bought my Icelandic wool blanket

Tuesday, Sept. 28- Flybus to airport and flight to Paris

Paris: Le Dernier Post

2010-02-01T20:50:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I made my last post. Since leaving Paris in May 2009, I returned to Boston to complete my senior year, then home to DC for the summer, and now am on my way back to France to teach English.

Some blog followers have informed me that they were dissatisfied with my final treatment of Paris and so I hope to remedy that now, with a final send-off post to Paris and my year abroad in general before embarking upon my next French adventure.

I have also had some time to reflect on my experiences in Paris, and I am hopefully better able to express the most important aspects of my time there.

Since the last post I made was from my weekend in London at the end of February 2009, I will begin there, even though I wasn’t completely thorough in my description of Paris during my first month.

I returned from visiting Babs in London and was immediately faced with final exams. Finals were relatively uneventful and after a test of my knowledge of economics, politics, and French grammar, I began the longest period without classes since I began kindergarten.

Gerald and I had spent the last half of February planning our spring break trip, a cross-European adventure which would take us to the Czech Republic, Germany, and Belgium. The trip was dubbed our Planes, Trains, and Automobiles trip as we flew to Prague, then took a train to Berlin, and finally a train to Brussels.

I was caught off-guard Thursday morning of our departure congested and with a terrible cough. I hoped I would recuperate fully by the time we left for Prague on Saturday morning, but no such luck. Even though I was feeling under the weather, it wasn’t as if we could reschedule, and I was really excited for our trip!

First up was Prague, the city was spectacular, but incredibly cold! Gerald and I took a bus tour of major historical and cultural sites, including Prague Castle. The below freeing temperatures drove us indoors for the evenings. Our first night we saw The Duchess with Kiera Knightley. We were unsure for a good half hour whether the film would be in English or in Czech, thankfully it was in English with Czech subtitles. The cold weather also led Gerald and me to become regulars at a Starbucks in the main square where we would sit with our coffee and hot chocolate and read. I'm not kidding when I say it was freezing out!

Next up was Berlin, which was phenomenal -- such an incredible city! Our first night there we went out to an amazing restaurant and I swear the German food and beer cured me of my illness, since I felt a thousand times better after that first German meal! We stayed at the Wombat hostel in a platz whose name I no longer remember (Alexanderplatz, perhaps?). I would highly recommend it to anyone. While in Berlin, Gerald and I frequented the Free Europe tours, led by our fabulous tour guide Paolo Splendid (honestly, that was his name).

Last up on our spring break itinerary was Brussels, which aside from the EU and delicious chocolate was rather lackluster. I'm sure it is a lovely city once you get to know it, but Gerald and I just weren't feeling it and were content to cut our trip short by a day and return to Paris.

When we returned from our trip, spring has finally arrived in Paris. I started my internship a few days later than the rest of my program, so I took the first few days back from spring break to settle in and get organized before my internship started. It was nice to have some time to myself to prepare for the start of my internship without any class work or deadlines bearing down on me.

On Wednesday, March 18, I began my internship at NPNS. I had a wonderful first day and was looking forward to working with the movement over the next two months. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and encouraged me in speaking French as much as possible. My internship kept me busy both at the office and with various events and activities throughout the city, but my French improved exponentially and I learned much about women’s issues and the governmental apparatus advocating those issues. Through my internship I attended events with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Rama Yade, went to conferences at UNESCO, film screenings, and discussions.

Work was sometimes difficult as the topics we dealt with were emotionally charged and often exhausting, but I gained valuable skills and feel that I made a genuine difference during my time with the organization and made fantastic friends. NPNS was a small organization and as such fostered a tight-knit group, we faire-d le sport on Friday afternoons, always had lively conversation at lunch in our little break room, met up to cook dinner at one another's houses a few times and went out in search of cafes in a short-lived attempt at an intern happy hour. We had a really great group during my time with NPNS and I enjoyed working with everyone tremendously.

Working consumed the majority of my days in Paris and at night, Jillian, Gerald, and I developed a routine of meeting for dinner at the Fondation cafeteria after we all returned from work. We would discuss our day and then continue on to other topics of conversation, usually over our typical carafe d'eau, bow tie pasta, oranges, and bread.

The weekends were when I really had the chance to explore Paris. At the beginning of the semester we were given a pocket map of Paris and I went through and made a list, by arrondisement, of everything I wanted to see in Paris before I left. I am happy to say that by the end of my four months, there were only a handful of places I had not visited, but this just means I have someplace to go when I go back to visit this year!

Guignols, pastis, and petanque in the hail, then saumon ravioles with Jillian, Gerald, Trevor, Mark Anthony, and Patrick at la Fondation, and a night cap at Hippocampus, was one of our most Parisian days by far and a perfect example of the things that I loved about Paris!

Hippocampus, a Parisian jazz club, became our go to Friday night spot for great music, featuring Papi Cravate and other regulars. By the end of the semester we faire-d le bise with the owners and our waiter, had a table reserved for us, and had established standing orders of margaritas with sugar on the rim, for Jillian Gerald, and me, and Johnny Walkers, for Trevor.

In April, Mark Anthony organized a group of us to go see a World Cup qualifying match, France v. Lithuania. It was so much fun and a great experience; I got a France football scarf and a huge French flag. Unfortunately, I had to leave the latter in Paris since it wouldn't fit in my suitcase, but I intend to get another, smaller, version my next time in France.

On Easter weekend, Babs and her roommate Kayla returned my visit to London. It was one of the best weekends of the semester! We went to Versailles, Easter Mass at Notre Dame, Pere Lachaise cemetery (where Babs signed Oscar Wilde’s grave), ate crepes at Pomme Rouge and at Ile de la Cite, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and took pictures from the Trocadero!

On the occasional rainy day, Jillian and I developed a semi-tradition of dinner at Hippopotamus and a movie. We saw some great French films and American films--shush, don't tell. We saw Kad Merad (a favorite from Bienvenue Chez les Chtis) in Safari and on that occasion, mixed things up by going out for Chinese food at a restaurant down the road from the Fondation.

Jillian and I also made a trip out to Normandy to visit the D-Day landing beaches. We went to the American cemetery at Omaha Beach, which was truly moving. I can't wait to work in Calvados next year when I can spend more time in this gorgeous region!

The trip itself was rather epic, as it was filled with transportation woes and some inventive route planning on our parts, but I certainly felt it was worth it. We were surprised to find that we were the only Americans at a sight largely known for its prominent number of foreign tourists, but it was more poignant seeing the monuments and beaches without the crowds.

The last weekend of April, Jillian and I returned to Grenoble to visit Claude, Christine, and Plume. It was, of course, wonderful to be back and Jillian and I both enjoyed the weekend with our former host family tremendously!

May 1st was a jour feriee. Oh, how I love our jours feriees in Paris in the spring! Jillian, Mark Anthony, and at one point, Trevor and his entire family, had a 3-hour picnic on the Champs de Mars. Then Jillian, Mark Anthony, and I continued on to Haagen Dazs on the Champs Elysees for sundaes. That night, Jillian and I walked from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower on a sort of Paris walking night tour, which was so nice! Just an excellent day in general and a brilliant start to a memorable last week in Paris!

My coworkers at NPNS threw a going away party for me my second to last week of work, which was incredibly sweet and thoughtful and made me feel very appreciated for my hard work over the previous two months.

I met Sean in the morning and we did a walking tour of Paris, then met Monica and Rebecca to go get crepes for lunch, then met up with Gerald and had a bottle of champagne on the lawn behind the Cite Internationale, and then went to Hippocampus for an awesome night of dinner and jazz where we met up with Trevor and his family, and Mark Anthony!

I finished up my rapport de stage, which ended up being glorious and something I am really very proud of, though it was tough getting it done. I had my soutenances orales in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the day walking around Paris with Jillian and Monica (and taking some truly awesome jumping photos in front of the Eiffel Tower).

I had the best last day in Paris that I could ever have asked for!

Over the course of our last week in Paris, we did so much, I can’t seem to manage it into a coherent timeline…I went to see OSS 117 Rio ne repond plus with Jillian, went on a dinner cruise on the Seine with Jillian, Mark Anthony, and Trevor, had a photo shoot in front of the Eiffel Tower wearing some fantastic outfits Jillian and I bought at the marche in Grenoble, sang Paradise by the Dashboard Light at karaoke with Jillian, Pat, and Mark Anthony, oh and two of our professors at the BU going away party, saw Coco avant Chanel with Clementine, had one final batch of Mark Anthony's famous hot chocolate, visited Musee Rodin with Clementine and Raja, and enjoyed a final dinner with Jillian and Gerald at a restaurant in Montparnasse.

And that, my friends, is my semester in Paris, in a nutshell.

Until next time, au revoir!

Weekend Holiday in London

2009-03-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

I had the most fantastic weekend! I had missed Babs so much and I had an amazing time with her in London!

So, on Friday morning I arrived at King's Cross St.Pancras around 9 am. I sent Babs a text informing her of my arrival (which never made it to her, it turns out we had phone issues) and then continued on my way to the Underground. I purchased a 3-day pass in my most formal English and then boarded the Picadilly line to Gloucester Road. I walked down Gloucester to Queen's Gate Terrace and I'm pretty sure I had already fallen in love with London by this point.

I arrived at her dorm, which is spectacular and found in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and is surrounded by all sorts of fabulous places...anyway, the security guard was incredibly friendly and let me into Babs' room to drop off my backpack before heading out to explore. I met up with the Royal London free tour at Wellington Arch and joined the group following behind our leader, Beata.

We first saw the Wellington Arch, learned how the Iron Duke got his nickname (he wasn't a very popular Prime Minister and had to put iron on his windows to shield the house from tomatoes), and we saw the memorials to Australia and New Zealand for their contributions to the war effort during WWII. From there we walked to Buckingham Palace where we saw the guards and the band (who played suprisingly modern music). We heard the stories of the palace's origins (bought from a member of the aristocracy), it's history of break ins (several notables), the reason for the use of both the Union Jack and the Royal Standard (the death of Princess Diana while the Queen was at Balmorrow), and the history of Queen Victoria and her undying love for Prince Albert (whose death is responsible for all of the lamp posts in London being painted black in mourning). After that we walked past the Prince of Wales' house and saw St. James' Palace, followed by Trafalgar Square and the Navy Building.

We saw the horse grounds and 10 Downing Street (well, to be more accurate, the walls and guards protecting 10 Downing Street), and then the location of Churchill's War Cabinet (across from St. James' park where the pelicans, remnants from the Royal Zoo, eat pigeons instead of fish). Finally, we finished with Westminster Abbey, Big Ben (the bell named after it's designer, a rather rotund fellow named Benjamin), and Parliament, where we heard the story of Guy Fawkes, the 5th of November, and the gunpowder, treason, and plot.

After the tour ended I found a little sandwich shop and bought a chicken sandwich. I found a little park across the street and sat and enjoyed my food and the passing scenery. I wandered through London, seeing various churches and monuments. I walked through the park next to Parliament and stood and stared out at the Thames for awhile, then I crossed the bridge to over by the London Eye and London Aquarium. On my way I stopped and sat in the Victoria Embankment Garden and dropped in on a museum exhibit about an initiative to empower students and modernize schools.

I retraced my way back to some of the stops along our tour and then hopped on the tube, back to Glocester Road. I had some time to kill before meeting up with Babs so I wandered down Glocester admiring the gardens, window shopping, and finally stopping in a little book store. It was here, while flipping through Madeline Albright's newest book, that my phone rang. It was Babs. And she had been trying to get in touch with me for half the day and had just now succeeded. (Remeber that issue with our phones I mentioned earlier?) Anyway, we decided to meet back at her dorm, and after I took a rather scenic route towards the West End of London, I met her back at her room.

After chatting for a bit, we grabbed our coats and headed to Harrod's. Harrod's is humongous and incredible. The scope and impressive nature of the store and all of it's goods left me in a state of shock and amazement. We explored many of the store's departments (notably sports, where I failed at kicking a digital soccer ball, and toys, where they had doll houses, stuffed animals, bilingual dolls, and artificial snow!) Before leaving, we took in the Egyptian architecture and design and found the Diana and Dodi memorial (Dodi was the son of the owner of Harrod's), and took a turn about the gift shop. From Harrod's, Babs and I walked back to Glocester Road where we stopped in a restaurant and had the most delicious Fish & Chips for dinner. We stayed at the restaurant for over two hours (we haven't seen each other in 4 months after all) and then headed back to the dorm to get to bed so that we'd be ready for our early start the next morning.

On Saturday morning Babs and I woke up, got ready, had breakfast (Babs' made breakfast sanwiches, which might just rival Jack's), and headed to our London Eye flight. We took pictures in front of Big Ben and Parlement on the way. The flight lasted 30 minutes and was incredibly cool, giving us a view of the entire city of London. After the flight we walked back across the Thames and walked through St. James' park to Buckingham Palace. We saw the guards on horseback parade through the square around the sculpture of Queen Victoria and sat by the fountains for awhile.

We then headed over to the Tower of London (and grabbed a muffin at Starbucks on the way). We took the 15 bus from by Trafalgar to the Tower. We were lucky enough to join a tour with the absolute best Beefeater in the history of the world! The tour was fascinating and also very funny. Afterwards, we saw the Crown Jewels which were phenomenal and very impressive. We also walked through a few of the displays in the towers. We caught a 15 Route Master (one of the double deckers with an open back that you have to jump on) to St. Paul's Cathedral. We took some pictures out front and then walked across Memorial Bridge to see the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre. We visited the Globe's gift shop and then went inside to see an exhibit at Tate Modern by a South African artist.

We once again boarded the oh-so-fabulous underground and headed to Picadilly Circus. We ate at a little Italian restaurant, where I had lasagna and a chocolate dessert to die for! And now it was time, the moment we'd been waiting for...Three Days of Rain and JAMES McAVOY!!!

We picked up our tickets, bought programs, found our seats, and proceeded to freak out! The theatre was lovely and the anticipation of being in the same room as James had us in a tizzy! Kayla, Babs' roommate, arrived just as the play began. It was a phenomenal show...brilliant story, brilliant cast, brilliantly acted. At the end of intermission, James came out onto the stage while the house lights were still up and the three of us therefore frantically took pictures and video for a solid 5 minutes (and even a few minutes after...much to the chagrin of the candy boys in front of us). At the end of the play I gave a standing ovation 1. because I love James McAvoy and want desperately for him to love me back, and 2. because I believe the entire production was flawlessly executed from start to finish!

After the show, the three of us waited out front, taking pictures in front of the posters and giggling uncontrollably. After a substantial amount of time without a sighting, we made our way around to the back in search of the stage door (where we probably should have placed ourselves in the first place). So, as Kayla had yet to eat, we swung by McDonald's to grab a bite to eat and to continue to swoon. We then continued on to Babs' dorm where we watched our favorite James McAvoy movie moments and interview clips for well past the time we had alloted. Just like old times!

Sunday morning Babs and I set off to see Hyde Park and Kensington Palace (along with a few other sites) before I had to be at the train station. Kensington Palace is found at the edge of Hyde Park and it was the primary residence of Princess Diana. After Kensington, we grabbed a muffin at Starbucks and got on the tube to Covent Garden. We wandered through the shops and stalls and listened to some opera and violinists. There were all sorts of beautiful crafts and we spoke to a man who made family crests and he looked up information on the origins of our names for us.

We then made our way to King's Cross. We searched in vain for the trolly cart to take a photo until we were finally informed that the 'Arry Potter trolley was located in the section of the station currently being renovated. So I was content to take photos in front of the King's Cross sign and one phot at St. Pancras of Platforms 9 and 10.

And thus ended my amazing weekend in London! Cheerio!

Ma Vie Quotidienne

2009-02-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

I would like to start off with an apology. I haven't been the most dutiful blogger and I'd like to say I'm sorry to those few loyal readers who follow this blog in order to keep up on all of our Parisian activities. In spite of my lack of posts, I can assure you that I have been having a wonderful time in Paris!

I've adapted my journaling/blogging style for this semester. I am now trying more of a reflective approach to looking back on major events rather than my previous "and then I got off the tram...and then I walked to the bureau...and then I went to Pasta Via..." from Grenoble. And although I seem to spend as much time in classes and in my room doing homework as out and about in Paris, I have had the chance to see quite a lot this past month!

While I might not been blogging, I have been taking plenty of photos! Paris has ended up being the "Seattle of Europe," but the silver lining is that with all of the changes in lighting and cloud cover each day, you never see the same place in the same way twice. Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed by classes and am finding it difficult to distinguish life in Paris from anywhere else I take a walk along the Champs de Mars and up to the Eiffel Tower just to remind myself that I'm in Paris and that it is pretty spectacular!

Well, our first weekend in Paris, Jillian, Gerald, and I went to Chantilly for our Ile-de-France day trip. Upon our arrival we were marveling at this fantastic chateau and discussing who might have lived there, well, in fact, it was not a chateau, but a stable. So, essentially, rich people's horses lived there...yup, that's France for you. We eventually made it up to the main chateau (where the humans lived) and walked though the museum and gardens. Of course, we couldn't spend the day in Chantilly without actually enjoying some Chantilly (whipped cream), we stopped at a restaurant and enjoyed our most delicious meal of the semester up to that point.

The Paris program certainly doesn't allot us quite as much time as the Grenoble program did, in part because we have a semester's worth of work in just 7 weeks, so we've had to make an effort to experience the Parisian life. Trevor, Mark Anthony, Jillian, Gerald, and I have developed a weekend tradition of going to jazz clubs. We've been trying out different clubs around the city and have found quite a few favorites, including Chez Papa, Hippocampus, and Duc aux Lombards. They're all very different, but all incredible and so much fun!

Our second week here, France experienced its first nation-wide greve day in several decades. The benefit of this is that we got out of classes and had a good chance to get out and explore the city. We visited a lot of the big touristy places that we had driven by on our bus tour the first day of orientation and got a cursory lay of the land.

I think my biggest story thus far was a few days after the national greve day. Jillian, Trevor, and I went to les Invalides in the morning where we saw Napoleon's tomb and visited the World Wars museum in the Musee de l'Armee. We only made it through the First World War before the museum closed, because there was just so much to see. After we left the museum, we stopped by the grocery store and then went our separate ways. I took the Metro from Dupleix to Denfert-Rochereau as usual, but when I arrived at the station there was a large crowd of people chanting and police forcing these people back towards the platform. I had just passed through the turnstile when I fully grasped the severity of the situation. Seconds later, the crowd turned in my direction and people started yelling "Gaz!" The police had released tear gas in order to calm the crowd, but had instead instilled panic in those of us who didn't know what was happening. I turned and ran following the people in front of me jumping over the turnstile and frantically trying to get out of the tunnels. You could feel the tear gas burning your eyes and filling your lungs and I can honestly say that I have never been so scared in all of my life. As I made my way out of the station I called Jillian, who was making her way towards Denfert, to warn her of the situation in front of her. We both made it home safely and we later learned that we had stumbled into a protest against the antiterrorism efforts of the French government.

But, back to the good, fun things about Paris! Over the past month, I have enjoyed a wine degustation at the Musse de Vin, seen Ionesco's La Cantatrice Chauve (which has been shown every night in Paris for over 50 years and is a true Parisian institution), and have watched Paris, Je T'Aime in a tiny theatre across from Notre Dame cathedral. It's incredible to think about some of the things I've been able to do here in Paris and I've loved seeing and discovering all of the history of the city.

At the beginning of February I went on my interview and was hired as an intern at the organization Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores nor Submissives). NPNS works to empower women in the banlieus to fight for extended women's rights and against domestic violence. I am so excited to begin working for this organization at the beginning of March and to learn more about what they do.

Ok, saving the best for last, this past weekend Vicki came to visit! We had a whirlwind of activities to cram into her 2 days in Paris, but we got to everything on our list. We went out to dinner and then to a swing club and then a jazz club when she got in on Friday night. On Saturday, Valentine's Day, we spent the morning at Versailles and the afternoon walking through Paris. That night we did a City of Lights night tour down the Champs d'Elysees and then walked back in the direction of the Eiffel Tower for dinner. Then on Sunday, we spent the morning at the Louvre, and then went to Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and the Palais du Luxembourg. It was such a great weekend and I was so happy to see Vicki after almost a year.

Well, that was my "Best of..." for the past month here in Paris! Au revoir!

Le Premier Jour de la reste de ma Vie

2009-01-13T07:43:00.000-08:00

Bonjour tout le monde!

I arrived in Paris this morning a little after 8 am local time. Comme d'habitude I was unable to sleep on the flight, but I was lucky enough to have a bit more leg room than last time and my choice of movies (I watched Le Premier Jour de la reste de ta Vie, Singin' in the Rain, and the first 45 minutes of The Truman Show).

I met a few people while waiting at the gate and on the flight itself and also got the chance to catch up with Jillian and Gerald.

I have just finished setting up my dorm room at the Fondation des Etats-Unis and plan on exploring a bit and running a few errands before crashing tonight in preparation for the beginning of our week-long Paris orientation tomorrow morning.

Au revoir! A bientot!

2009-01-09T12:04:00.000-08:00

I have never in my life had an experience like the one I had this past semester and I doubt that I will again. There isn't a single thing I would change about my time in Grenoble. I had the most caring and wonderful host parents, who I will never forget and who I hope will have a part in my life for years to come. I have amazing new friends who I have an unbreakable bond with and who I cannot wait to see again, be it in Paris next semester, Boston next fall, or later in life. My french has improved more than I ever could have hoped or imagined and I have gained an invaluable perspective on life in a foreign culture. I love Grenoble and the people I met there and I will hold my memories from this semester close to my heart forever. Je vous aime!

Au revoir! A la prochaine!

Goodbye Grenoble

2009-01-06T14:08:00.001-08:00

This is very, very belated, but what about this blog has ever been timely? My point exactly. For the record this is primarily for posterity (as I am writing this from my lovely living room here in Gaithersburg, Maryland), but I felt that my semester in Grenoble deserved a proper send off. So, here it is...my recollections (perhaps not entirely accurate, but warmly held just the same) from my final weeks in Grenoble, France.

Tuesday, November 25th. After classes, Clare, Jillian, and I went into Centre Ville to buy train tickets to Florence at the SNCF (Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais). This was a wonderfully European experience, as we decided on a Tuesday afternoon that we wanted to spend the coming weekend in Florence and were able to make it happen (without emptying our wallets for exorbitantly-priced plane tickets).

That night Jillian, Eric, and I went to see a visual arts presentation which was part of the Ruggissants festival. I think we were all preparing ourselves for a slightly avant-garde arts show, but nothing could have possibly prepared us for what we actually encountered. To be fair, we did have a bit of a warning of what was to come, because when we met Eric on the tram at Vallier-Jean Jaures he informed us of the nature of the show. Apparently there had been a slight misunderstanding when he picked out this particular show from the brochure, in that he neglected to read the portion of the French description which explained that Nanuq et Ganesh was a show for children 4+. We decided to go ahead and attend the show anyway because it was accessible by tram and chances were good that it would be our only chance to go to this festival.

It wasn't until we got to the theater to pick up our tickets that we realized how sketchy it was for us to be there. When they said 4+, they truly meant 4 and up. As in toddlers and parents only. Our one saving grace was the presence of a few truly creepy older men and the fact that we decided to use the confused foreigner routine as our cover (I think it was plausible).

The visual arts presentation Nanuq et Ganesh followed the journey of Nanuq, a polar bear, who for whatever reason makes a great quest across the world all the while avoiding the perils of many hostile environments. Thanks to the help of his friend Gamesh, an elephant whose choice mode of transportation just happens to be a flying lily pad, Nanuq is rescued from drowning (and pollution?). The visual display was ridiculous in and of itself. Nanuq and Gamesh were essentially toy figurines being moved in front of live nature and wildlife footage. It was just so crazy! Also, you had this insane woman who was making goofy noises over her equally goofy musical instruments (actually, the instruments were pretty cool).

Anyway, Jillian was dying of laughter and Eric and I weren't faring much better. We all took different messages from the show, but we all enjoyed a good laugh and I will always look back on that night with fond memories.

Wednesday, November 26th. For a blog whose greatest triumph had been its detailed descriptions of meals, I have fallen behind terribly. My most sincere apologies. Unfortunately, the accounts aren't very descriptive (if present at all) from here on out, but this is mainly because the food was so delectable and scrumptious each and every night, the extraordinary became ordinary in my mind. Nevertheless, I will describe what I can...tonight we ate dinner with Claude and Christine in a rather impromptu fashion. We had leaks, ravioles (with oil and Parmesan), fromage, and clementines and discussed the origins of Thanksgiving. Legit. That's all I can remember...so very sad.

Thursday, November 27th. To celebrate the greatest of the great American holidays we had Thanksgiving dinner at Marie-Eve's, which was rather lovely. At first, I was weary about what the French version of Thanksgiving would be like, but in the end, it was wonderful. The food was excellent and for the first time in my life (and perhaps the history of Thanksgiving) more dessert was consumed than actual Thanksgiving dinner. For dinner we ate dinde (turkey) and gratin au dauphinoise (sort of the French equivalent to mashed potatoes). Then we, of course, had a massive selection of cheeses on a very elaborate platter...it is France after all! Finally it was time for dessert. Lots of people brought desserts to contribute to our feast and this led to an overflow of confections on the table. All of which I had to try. They were fantastic!

I had so much fun with everyone (we all dressed up and looked rather dashing, if I do say so myself). Talking, singing around the piano, watching a lip sync of 80s hits, and finally, joining Patrice in a French Singing in the Rain-ish themed song and dance (seen at right)...it was an eventful night full of fun new traditions!

Friday, November 28th. We awoke to a snow covered Grenoble (which was simply gorgeous) only to promptly leave for the train station and our adventure in Florence! I skipped my Travaux Pratiques class that morning (eek), but it ended up not mattering since class was canceled anyway because of the snow.

Jillian and I met Clare at the gare and boarded our train. Oh, funny story, (sorry Jillian, but I feel that I must). As usual, we bought a baguette to split for breakfast on our way to the train station, well, while we're waiting for our train to arrive the bag holding the baguette rips and the baguette falls to the ground. Jillian picks it up without flinching and goes to rip off a piece. This is where I protest (germs from the train platform and all that), but we end up compromising that she can eat the half of the baguette that did not touch the ground...to say it was not our proudest moment would be an understatement.

Anyway, we get on the train (which in all honesty was more like a tram), but it was a quick ride to Chambery and was over in no time. I saw an amusing title to an article in a French newspaper, "Oups, elle a ressuscite" referring to Britney Spears...random. From Chambery we got on a train heading to Milan, we were greeted by some mad-annoying Italians and ended up not being able to sit in our seats because of them. We talked a bit, but because of our precarious sitting arrangement, we mainly worked on our ethnographic research projects (which were due at the end of the next week and comprised 30% of our Travaux Pratiques grade). Not too long after the train had departed the station, announcements were made about "mechanical problems" (very vague and therefore slightly worrisome). A little bit later we were ushered off the train to wait on a platform in the absolute middle of nowhere.

It was a bit concerning at first, but we were finally able to ascertain the whole story from bits and pieces of overheard conversations and official TGV statements. Apparently the train we were on was not equipped to run on the rails in Italy (which use a different electrical conversion system). After a short amount of time we boarded a new train and thankfully this time we were not seated next to the obnoxious Italians. The only other "glitch" occurred when the train stopped at one point in the middle of a depot. It ended up that we stopped in order for officials to board the train to check passports at the France-Italy border.

We arrived to the Milano train station in a panic because our train had arrived late and it seemed all too likely that we had missed our connecting train to Florence. We checked the boards and the train departure info was nowhere to be seen. We asked at least five different people (each of whom gave us a very different answer) and roamed the entirety of the station before finding an information booth, where we were informed that our train was bound for Napoli and thankfully was running 20 minutes late...so much for what they say about the trains in Italy...

We reached Firenze without further incident (we met an Italian woman on the train who we talked to for the majority of the train ride. Clare and I also made a new friend, a five year old Italian boy who hovered around us. We played little games like hide and seek with him and the Italian woman said that when he went to get off the train he asked his parents "Are my friends coming with us?" ...so adorable!) Because our train to Firenze arrived late we decided not to walk to the hostel and instead took in our first bit of the city while waiting for a cab in the rain (which luckily cleared up later in the night). We talked with the cab driver (a native of Firenze) about good places to eat and he suggested "The Yellow" a restaurant within walking distance of our hostel.

Our hostel was fantastic! Beautiful and very classically Italian, which fit perfectly with the Room with a View themed-weekend which Jillian single-handedly kept alive with her extensive knowledge of the book and film.

We were pretty hungry at this point so we walked over to "The Yellow" for a real Italian dinner. We were seated at a big table and as we ordered the waiter seated a group of three guys at the other end of our table. (I feel like I should clarify that these "guys" were ranging in age from 25-35, we were never quite able to get a straight answer out of them.) Eduardo DeVito (no relation to Danny), Fernando, and Simone were friendly and engaged us in conversation right away. We had been speaking in English and had decided to use French as our more covert language (this did not work, as Eduardo later informed us that he had studied French in school). We talked to them a bit before ordering and once our food came we carried on our respective conversations with only a few minor exchanges. That is, until dessert, when they all moved down to our end of the table.

Let me say that every stereotype about Italian men you have ever heard (or could ever have imagined) is true and we had to assert our boundaries (because, as Americans, we are the descendants of Puritans, after all) on more than one occasion. The guys weren't truly sketchy, more fun and amusing. At one point Fernando threw a paper airplane (constructed from one of our place mats) at the other table and we were on the verge of a full-scale war with the other table until we were able to convince Fernando not to escalate by throwing one particular plane, which he had lit on fire.

It was an excellent first introduction to Firenze and we had a lot of fun (and maybe even a bit more fun reflecting on our Italian loves later that night and throughout the weekend). Oh, p.s., the Italian food was phenomenal! I had classic spaghetti with homemade red sauce and tiramisu for dessert. We went back to our hostel after dinner in order to get some sleep before attempting to accomplish everything on our to-do list the next day (because in my own words, "I like rules and order.")

Saturday, November 29th. We awoke bright and early Saturday morning prepared to take in all Firenze had to offer. We visited the Uffizi Gallery first, then walked over to Il Duomo and climbed the 463 steps to the top to see a magnificent view of the city (seen below). After our intense physical exertion we grabbed lunch at a little pizzeria followed by some gelato. We walked through several piazzas, simply admiring architecture, and to the Cattedrale de Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistry of St. John (where Dante was baptized). We also visited Santa Croce and saw Dante and Michelangelo's tombs, both of which were magnificent. That night we walked across the Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge to survive WWII, admiring the fine and expensive jewelry as well as the beautiful Christmas lights. For dinner we ate at a little out-of-the-way restaurant where I tried gnocchi (which was delicious) and we shared a bottle of chianti.

Sunday, November 30th. We visited La Galleria dell'Accademia and saw David, which is more spectacular than I could ever have imagined. From there we walked across the Ponte Vecchio to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens (at left). Since it was drizzling we had the gardens completely to ourselves and although we were all drenched by the end of the day it was absolutely phenomenal getting to wander around where the Medici's walked centuries before us. We also got to see part of Pitti Palace, which was exquisite.

On our walk back across the river we watched the Firenze marathon and cheered the runners on (we had to wait for a gap to dart across the road). Our final stop was the flea market where we browsed through the stalls before walking to the train station to return to Grenoble.

Wednesday, December 3rd. Claude and Christine hosted a soiree cinema at our house tonight for students in our program. We watched Bienvenue chez Ch'tis which is one of my favorite films of all time and most certainly the funniest French film I have ever seen. Christine had a little box which, when turned over, would say phrases from the movie (Hein!). We had a great time...all of us were dying of laughter even after the movie had finished.

Thursday, December 4th. We had our last cours de cuisine, with Julia B, Clare, and Geoffrey (who made their triumphant return to the kitchen). We were also joined by the Brandeis international programs director, Scott. We had a wonderful evening as always and enjoyed an excellent bilingual evening (Scott did not speak French) listening to music and chatting.

Friday, December 5th. Disclaimer: From time to time it may seem as though my study abroad experience lacked any academics, but I must assure you that this is most certainly false. I took over 18 hours of classes a week at CUEF, but for the purpose of this blog I assumed for the most part that my studies of the French political system, the history of Napoleon III, or French translation would not be nearly as entertaining as my extracurricular activities.

As mentioned earlier, we had a final project worth a very large part of our grade. The subject of my ethnographic research project was the 2008 presidential elections and the French perception of candidates and American political parties. I presented my project Friday afternoon to Marie-Eve, our program director, and Patrice, our academic adviser. I was nervous, but my presentation went well and I learned a lot from other people's presentations, whose topics ranged from fashion to linguistics to modern gender roles. After watching everyone's presentations, Jillian, Monica, and I went out to Haagen Dazs one last time for celebratory ice cream sundaes and walked through the Marche du Noel (seen left).

Sunday, December 7th. Sunday morning Jillian and I went on a hike-to-end-all-hikes with Claude and Christine. We drove south of Echirolles into the mountains and parked by an old mansion at the foot of a path to begin our petite randonnee. It was a tiring hike, but so much fun! Although we got a bit lost in the mountains and sludged through quite a bit of mud (my shoes were devoured by the muddy path), it was a great chance for us to talk with Claude and Christine (right, with Jillian).

After our trek through the mountains we rushed home to change for our dinner at Confesse with the entire program. The fondue was delicious and, this time, I ordered a normal dessert, which was far more enjoyable (but not as entertaining). Also, in spite of all of our warnings, two people in our group ordered the Dr. Jekyll (the horrifying dessert we had our last time at Confesse).

Monday, December 8th. Jillian and I ate at home with Claude and Christine and had a wonderful time. In our last week we all became more reflective and would often recount stories and memories from our first weeks together.

Tuesday, December 9th. I hosted a Gossip Girl viewing party in honor of the last new episode of the semester. Over the past four months a group of us had made a habit of discussing the latest GG episode the next day in the cafeteria at lunch and since it was our last GG all together in Grenoble Geoffrey, Clare, Gerald, Rachel, and Monica came over to watch.

Wednesday, December 10th. We dined chez Claude and Christine.

Thursday, December 11th. I took my DELF written exam in the morning, which ended up being much less scary than originally thought and rather manageable. And although we experienced a few technical glitches, the exam passed without major incident and I'm confident that I did well.

That night, the CUEF hosted a pot de noel and I met up with Hiroe and Jocelyn (two girls from my Travaux Pratiques class) to go to the party. It was a fun chance for all of the CUEF students to get together outside of class and just talk and hang out (and it was an excellent opportunity to speak even more French!)

I went home and had dinner with Jillian, Claude, and Christine. At this point Christine was making sure to try recipes we had never had before or some of our old favorites!

Friday, December 12th. I had my final Travaux Pratiques class this morning, which was sort of bittersweet. The 15 of us had spent 10 hours a week together for the past four months and had grown close and developed a good rapport. We had a typical class for the first 2 hours (grammar and what not) and then had un petit repas et fete de noel (left)for the last 2 hours. We all brought traditional foods from our respective countries, so we sat around sampling the international foods and talking. I'll miss everyone from my class, but we exchanged emails, so we'll hopefully keep in touch and even see each other again, either in France or abroad.

That night, Jillian, Monica, and I celebrated our final Margarita night at Momento (seen right). It was an excellent tradition and I'm happy that so many of our friends were able to participate at one time or another. We all went back to our house and through an unforeseen chain or events ended up having an impromptu photo shoot, which was ridiculous and so much fun!

Saturday, December 13th. Monica, Gerald, and I went to lunch in Place Grenette, walked around Centre Ville, and then went shopping at the fair trade marche du noel where I bought a beautiful bracelet. Afterwards, me and Gerald met up with Xio at Pathe Cinema to see Le Jour ou la Terre S'Arretera (The Day the Earth Stood Still).

The title was a mouthful so when I bought my ticket I essentially just kept saying random words in no particular order. The trick to seeing a movie in a foreign country is that the first person in the group is the only one who actually has to say the title and the rest can simply say "The same."...such an unfair system (but only if you're the first person).

We liked the movie, although to be honest, we mainly liked looking at Keanu Reeves saving the world in a crisp suit.

Sunday, December 14th. We met Clare, Anna, and Monica in Place Grenette for our last dinner at Cafe Grenette. We alienated yet another waiter by not speaking in English and were teased relentlessly throughout the ordering process (lighthearted and well meant teasing was something we became rather accustomed to over the course of the semester).

Monday, December 15th. I had my Litterature and Vie Politique exams, both of which went well, and then we ate dinner chez Claude et Christine. Litterature was far easier than I had thought and Vie Politique was far more difficult, so in the end I wish that I had switched the amount of time alloted to study for the two exams.

Tuesday, December 16th. I took my DELF oral exam in the morning and my Traduction final exam in the afternoon. The Traduction final was ridiculously detailed and rather difficult, but I'm hoping that I managed to pick up a few points here and there.

That night Jillian and I had our own private cours de cuisine avec Christine and we made our favorite meal, ravioles saumon. I assembled the ravioles saumon (at left) while Jillian mainly focused on the entree, a beautiful salad, and we both helped with the dessert, gateau au chocolat avec framboise. Christine's mother came over for dinner and we listened to Eric Clapton and The BeeGees while sipping our apperatifs.

Wednesday, December 17th. I took my Histoire final exam in the afternoon. I felt prepared for the exam and feel like I did a good job answering the questions in detail while also paying attention to proper grammar. That night we went over to Marie-Eve's for our dernier repas ensemble. It was a nice chance to see everyone and enjoy a meal together one last time.

Thursday, December 18th. At this point I am beginning to doubt the accuracy of my timeline chronicling my activities of our last week in Grenoble, which is troublesome to me seeing as this all took place less than a month ago, but I hope that I'm not too far off base. Gerald and I met Monica and Jillian at Pasta Via (for one last stamp on our frequent customer cards and one last chance to flirt with the guy who works there). After lunch, Gerald, Monica, and I went to see Burn After Reading. It was an interesting film to say the least and the good news was that any confusion on our part about the movie stemmed from the confusing script, not the French language.

Friday, December 19th. Jillian, Monica, and I went to the Musee de Grenoble in the morning and walked through the majority of the exhibits. The artwork was equisite and I'm happy we had the chance to visit before leaving.

After the museum, Eric and Monica came over to watch "The Office" which ended up being a repeat (a mistake on my part), so instead we hung out at the house and popped the poppers I had received in my Thanksgiving care package and played with the trinkets inside them. I got a puzzle and a hair tie with plastic stars...classic.

For our final night in Grenoble we all went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant across the river. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves and it was truly the best way to spend our last night together (right, outside the restaurant after dinner).

Saturday, December 20th. After a little under 2 hours of sleep, I awoke at 4 am for the last time in my room in Grenoble. Claude helped us bring our luggage downstairs and after saying our goodbyes to Christine, Claude drove us to the train station where we said goodbye to him and to Grenoble and boarded the bus to Lyon.

Never Gonna Give You Up

2008-12-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

I have determined that I do not have a future as a professional blogger (it's all yours Perez). And speaking of nothing, Rick Astley recently won MTV Europe Music Awards "Best Act Ever" and since his song "Never Gonna Give You Up" has been a major part of my Grenoble experience and since I haven't updated my blog in such an unacceptable period of time, here it is...

Well, actually not quite... Due to an Internet phenomenon known as "Rick Rolling" the embedding feature on YouTube has been disabled for all videos of this song. So, you'll have to follow the link in order to enjoy some Rick Astley magic!

La Fin de l'Annee is a l'approche-ing

2008-12-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time, but seeing as I only have 2 weeks left before I leave Grenoble I think that now's as good a time as any to fill you in on everything (well, almost everything) that's happened in the last month or so.

Tuesday, November 11th. Jillian and I were supposed to go on a hike with Claude and Christine on Armistice Day (since we didn't have classes), but it rained so we stayed in. Claude did bring us a nice lunch which was very thoughtful and it was a pleasant surprise that brightened our day.

Friday, November 14th. That weekend we went on our trip to Alsace. We met in Place Verdun at 7h15 to meet our bus for Strasbourg (and comme d'habitude met Brittany on the tram beforehand). Our first stop was in Bresse, which is apparently famous for its chickens (or so the town's rest stop led us to believe). I slept on and off for the entire bus ride, and although I was one of the lucky few to get a seat of my own, it was a bit too cramped to be considered restful.

We reached Colmar (right, a church in the center of the town) around 13h and Clare, Geoffrey, and I grabbed lunch at Paul and ate in a little square in the center of town. We went on a little walking tour and saw all the preparations for the Marche du Noel. Marie-Eve took a group of us to quickly see one of the famous paintings in Colmar's art museum before we got back on the bus.

Our final stop before Strasbourg was a wine tour of Andre Blanck in Kientzheim. We were shown around the wine cellar and given a little tour before our degustation. We sampled some of the regional specialties (Riesling, Pinot gris, et Gewurtztraminer). They were all very good, but I still have trouble identifying and differentiating the specific scents and flavors of the wines.

When we arrived in Strasbourg, we went out to dinner at this crazy bar/restaurant with all-you-can-drink beer and all-you-can-eat tarte flambee and charcrute (Strasbourg was German for the first half of the 20th century after all). The band played excellent American music (Tina Turner's Proud Mary, for example) and we all had fun singing along.

The restaurant started filling up while we were there and started to get pretty rowdy. At one point a group at a table by us stood up, counted 1,2,3, and snorted cocaine off of their hands! Literally two minutes later, the band, apparently inspired, broke out JJ Cayle's Cocaine. We were cracking up (pun not necessarily intended, but I like it), but the group either didn't understand the irony of the situation or were just too high to notice. Anyway, around this point our group split up, with half of us returning to the hotel and the other half staying at the bar. Jillian, Clare, Geoffrey, Julia, and I chilled in our hotel room talking until the drunken half of our group returned and we all went to bed.

Saturday, November 15th. Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant before heading in to downtown Strasbourg. The city is very pretty and I decided the best way to describe it is as "17th century Christmas." We went on a boat tour down the river l'Ill which was a lot of fun, in large part thanks to the hugely entertaining (and informative) children's audio commentary. The English version featured an Australian pirate named Captain Jack, his wisecracking parrot Cocoa, and his grandsons.

After our boat tour we went and saw the mechanical clock in the cathedral and watched a video detailing the clock's history before it chimed at noon. After having left the cathedral, I shopped around for souvenirs for awhile (though I only ended up buying postcards), then Jillian, Monica, Geoffrey, and I went to a kebab shop for lunch before meeting back up with the group to head home. We stopped once again in Bresse for dinner (I had a hearty meal of chicken, rice and peas, baguette, and chocolate cake). We arrived back in Grenoble rather late and after I unpacked I collapsed into bed.

P.S. about Strasbourg...so, something important to note is the incredible significance Strasbourg holds for me and Clare. Our 7th grade French teacher, Madame Dycus, studied in Strasbourg during college, so she was constantly referencing her wild times in the city's discotheques. Strasbourg also contributed to her unique accent (French with a mix of an Oklahoma drawl (complete with the occasional Ya'll) and Germanic undertones). Well, anyway, Clare and I were eager to see the city which we'd heard so much about in our youth and I would like to include two tributes in this blog entry. The first is a photo Clare and I took in front of the Cathedral (seen left, please note the OK we are forming). The second, is a music video of a song that has haunted us since middle school...please enjoy this slice of French disco heaven! Il s'appele Tu me connais pas.

Sunday, November 16th. On Sunday, I woke up, got ready, sent my dad a happy birthday! email, and tried to organize a bit before heading downstairs for raclette with Claude, Christine, and Christine. We helped set the table and prepare the charcrute. We then enjoyed the most amazingly decadent meal.

After eating, we went upstairs and donned our most county-like attire to go country dancing with Christine. I picked up most of the dances pretty quickly and had the best time! Country dancing (an example of which can be seen to your left) is so much fun and I can't wait to go again!

Wednesday, November 19th. The next Wednesday, me, Jillian, Gerald, Julia L, Marion, and Stephanie (the six Grenoble students going to Paris next semester) met with Julie (the internship placement coordinator) and Renee (the Paris program director). Julie was nice and my interview went well and Renee gave us a brief orientation about the program. After the meeting, Renee and Marie-Eve took us out to dinner at a fondue restaurant across the river, La Convesse. The front door of the restaurant is a confessional and the decor is an interesting mix of Halloween decorations and religious paintings. The fondue was good, but the "Surprise Dr. Jekyll" dessert (seen right) that Jillian and I ordered was not so much. When we ordered the waitress asked us if we were vegetarians/allergic to anything and when we replied no she responded with a relieved "good." Well, needless to say, that should have been our first sign, since one of the many treats included was a gummy mouse.

Thursday, November 20th. The next day was Thursday, which meant laundry and cours de cuisine. For our aperitif, we had Muscadot (champagne rose) with bacon flavored chips and baguette with egg spread. Evan, Rachel, and Julia L got along nicely with Claude and Christine and we had fun and easy conversation the whole night. Evan made a quiche which was utterly delicious, Julia L made blood sausage (not so much delicious) and mashed potatoes, and Rachel made pear sundaes for dessert. We also had the Beaujolais nouveau (at left), which had just come out the night before, with dinner (seen left, with Evan's quiche in the background). It had a distinct taste different from what I'm used to with red wines, but was rather enjoyable just the same. The meal was very good and we all had an enjoyable evening (we were up till 23h45!)

Friday, November 21st. On Friday night, Jillian and I met Brittany, Clare, and Jillian N at Memento for our second Margerita night. We had cristal and margaritas along with our classic American burgers and fondant au chocolat. From Memento we went to Bukhana Pub for some dancing (and some singing). We met some guys from Germany and some from the US and Brittany had the honor of being singled out by a rather sketchy French man. Since Evan failed to step up, Jillian was left to steal Brittany away as her jealous friend.

When Bukhana closed we went across the rover to Le Vieux Manoir (an establishment that Christine frequented in her youth) and danced all night. Our group got on stage for the Pussycat Dolls and even though the club looked a bit like a dungeon, we had a lot of fun! We called it a night around 3h30 and walked to Place Victor Hugo where we caught a taxi home and were greeted by the cab driver with a "Bon matin!"

Saturday, November 22nd. Saturday night was significantly more low key than Friday. I met Clare, Kelly, and Brittany at L'Atmosphere for dinner. I got the tagliatelles a la bolognaise and we enjoyed a relaxing dinner discussing the cultural differences and perceptions that exist between the US and France. We sat at a table next to a charming Grenoblois couple who we talked to for a bit before our meals arrived. It was cold out, so after dinner we all decided to head back to our respective houses, change into pjs, crawl into bed, curl up under the covers, and watch a movie.

Election Day and Beyond

2008-11-20T05:52:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 3rd. I went to Travaux Pratiques in the morning and then since Litt was cancelled I ran home before I had to be back for Vie Politique (which was kind of painfully boring, to be honest...maybe a mid semester slump?). I spent the majority of the night frantically finishing my Department of State internship app, so my day was not the most interesting.

Tuesday, November 4th. I nearly died laughing in Traduction today while we were going over idiomatic expressions. A combination of factors contributed to my hysteria, one being a lack of sleep, and the other being the ridiculous nature of my classmates. Our professor asked us what idiomatic French expressions we knew, but no one in the class knew any and all of the French sayings that people had overheard and were asking about are apparently rather vulgar. After awhile our professor was too flustered to continue, so she decided to change the topic. She told us to ask about idiomatic expressions in English and offered to give us the French equivalent. People in the class went ahead asking different questions and then one of the girls in our class says "Watch your back." Everyone in the class turned to look at her and our professor looked completely panicked because it took a minute to get that she was asking a question and not making a threat.

When I got home (notice the Halloween decorations on the kitchen door (thanks Mom!))anticipation was high for the American elections that night. We had dinner with Claude and Christine (beet and bleu cheese salad, pasta with bolognaise and Parmesan, and egg cream dessert) and discussed our expectations and hopes for the elections.

I went to bad after dinner and woke up at 2h30 to start watching election results come in online.

Wednesday, November 5th. I watched CNN and MSNBC results come in on my laptop and chatted online with people in the States. Around 4h I went into the salon and watched French tv reporting and CNN video coverage with Jillian and Monica.

We watched as the networks projected the winners of various states and then at 11pm EST (5am French time) CNN projected that Barack Obama had been elected the 44th President of the United States of America.

It happened so fast and I was in complete and total shock when it was announced. Obama had been ahead, but suddenly CNN projected that he had won Virginia, California, and Oregon and just like that it was over. I wasn't initially sure how I felt, but as I watched more and more coverage the enormity of the everything began to sink in.

McCain's concession speech was gracious, compassionate, and very moving. He expressed what a momentous occasion this was for the country and promised to united behind Obama. He was courteous and asked his supporters not to boo. It was a return to the McCain from before the campaign, the man who is in political office because of his love of country and his desire and dedication to serve.

Obama's acceptance speech was wonderful. There was an incredible energy in the audience and he delivered an honest and heartfelt speech. What touched me the most was seeing Jesse Jackson crying in the crowd and realizing how much this election means to all of the people who have spent their entire lives fighting for equality. Forty-five years after Martin Luther King Jr. stood in Washington and declared that he had a dream that his children "will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character," the American people elected a man based on his beliefs and credentials regardless of his race. I am so proud of the American people for putting aside any prejudices which may still linger and electing a man they believe will make our country better.

I appreciated that Obama acknowledged the problems and challenges his administration will face. I believe that even if Obama is unable to make drastic improvements in his term, he can still be a great success. If he is honest with the American people every step of the way and is able to help us rebuild and regain our trust in politicians and in our government, then we will be empowered to make informed decisions about our candidates in the future without fear of manipulation and will continue to make the right decisions and over time will elect the right people who can make our country a better place.

I went back to bed after Obama's speech and slept another 3 hours before Travaux Pratiques. We listened to a French radio broadcast on Obama in class and I felt incredibly proud of the decisions and future of America.

We ate a celebratory lunch in the cafeteria before History and discussed our renewed optimism in the future. After class, Jillian, Gerald, and I went into the bureau to pick up our BU Liberes and print/fax forms for Paris. Before leaving centre ville I bought train tickets for Lyon, and then headed home.

Jillian and I watched The Office and did some YouTube karaoke as part of our Yay U.S.A! celebrations, which were accompanied with pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut and wine and champagne. We stayed up pretty late since neither of had class the next day and had a good time.

Thursday, November 6th. I slept in (recuperating from the excitement of the night before) and then hit the ground running. Jillian and I had to go into the bureau to finish a few extra Paris forms. I then went to a few tabacs and bought some newspapers chronicling the Obama-mania!

Caanan, Aly, and Lauren came over for the cours de cuisine. We had the bleu cheese salad (again!). I don't even like cheese and bleu cheese is the one I truly cannot stand, but we've had it 3 dinners in a row! Anyway, we had poulet of some sort for dinner (with potatoes and artichokes) which was the same as last time and equally delicious and we had a pomme tart (a Dauphinois specialty) for dessert. Dinner was good and we had a nice night.

Friday, November 7th. After Travaux Pratiques, Jillian and I met up with Monica and Julia B at our little crepe place by Place Victor Hugo for lunch. Then Jillian and I returned home and hung around the house and watched some tv until it was time for us to go bowling with Claude and Christine. We went bowling at Echirolles (at right) with Claude, Christine, and their friends Christine and Andre. Claude won with a score of 132 and Christine and I tied for second with 103. It was so much fun being out with them and seeing another side of French life.

When we got home we had a drink with them in the salon before heading upstairs and watching a solid chick flick, 27 Dresses.

Saturday, November 8th. We slept in and grabbed brunch at the house before heading to Clare's for the wine and cheese tasting with her host dad, Remy. Remy works for the Michelin guide and hosted an excellent degustation de vins (seen left). Afterwards, Clare and I went to Geoffrey's and had some wine and watched Desperate Housewives (which is incredibly popular over here) and The Office (which you can never watch too often!) before making dinner. We made salad with hard boiled eggs, pasta with oil and Parmesan, and apples and dark mint Swiss chocolate for dessert. We discussed politics over several bottles of red wine and had a wonderfully French evening!

Sunday, November 9th. Jillian and I headed to the train station to catch our train to Lyon to see the ballet. When we arrived in Lyon, we took the tram to the Opera and ate at a kebab shop called La Fontaine next to the Batholdi fountain at the Place de Terreaux. We sat, talked, and people-watched while relaxing and enjoying our sandwiches.

After we finished our lunch we walked across the square to the Musee des Beaux Arts and walked through the courtyard admiring the architecture and statues. We walked over to the plaza next to the Opera (right) and sat for a bit (where we saw a wedding motorcade pass by) before meeting the group in front of the theatre and getting our tickets from Marie-Eve.

We saw a modern adaptation of the ballet Romeo & Juliet and I did not like it particularly...too avant-garde for my tastes. After the ballet, we went to Le Croissanterie for hot chocolate and eclairs before running to catch an early train back to Grenoble.

GENEVE

2008-11-13T05:40:00.000-08:00

Monica and I met at the gare Friday afternoon and boarded our train for Geneva. When we first got on the train the conductor informed us that we needed to change cars in order to continue on to Geneva when the train separated. Apparently, we moved too early, however, as we had to stand for a stop before we made our mad dash for the front car. A rather rude woman stole our seats out from under us, so we had to sit with some men playing cards for awhile before getting seats of our own across from a very attractive guy (who I apparently woke up when I threw my trash away in the cigarette ash container). There were virtually no Swiss customs (and by virtually none, I mean none at all (reminiscent of Miami)), which was a bit surprising and disappointing since I'd really wanted to get my passport stamped.

When we arrived in Geneva that night, we began our quest for a place to sleep for the night. Using a series of city and public transportation maps we cleverly located the Auberge de Jeunesse. I felt like quite the European adventurer with our hostel room (seen right), although we appeared to be the only ones in it for the night. Monica and I walked around downstairs and looked at some of the maps in order to determine our plan of attack for the next day. We chilled in our sweet room for a bit and chatted before heading to bed.

The beds at the hostel were comfortable and I got a good nights sleep. An older woman (around 40) came into our room after we were asleep and left while I was in the shower the next morning, so I never spoke to her. We woke up a little before 8h and got ready before heading down to breakfast. I had bread with jam, hot chocolate (real Swiss hot chocolate!), and orange juice. We rented a locker to leave our backpacks in at the Auberge for the day and set off for the day.

We decided to go to the Office du Tourisme first to pick up some maps of the city, so we walked along the lakefront (Lac Leman/ Lac Geneve), which was vast and impressive even though it was almost completely overcast. After wandering a bit in search of the Office du Tourisme, we arrived just before it opened. We got some great maps and info guides and when we stepped outside (we were on Ile Rousseau), there it was...the famous jet d'eau!

We took lots of pictures as we made our way towards the jet d'eau and we stopped and took some pictures in the park lakeside (which ended up being the Jardin Anglais). We walked out onto the jetty to see the lighthouse and the jet d'eau. We then consulted the map and discovered that we were mere seconds from the famous flower clock. The clock turned out to be less impressive than we imagined because there weren't any flowers, but it was good to see and we had fun taking pictures in front of it none the less. We also took pictures by the sovereigns statue before walking in the direction of the centre ville.

We stopped in a camera shop to buy Monica new camera batteries and then went into Franz Carl Weber. We wandered up through Place Madeline, where there was a carousel and a little market. From Place Bourg de Four (though, we didn't know that was where we were at the time), we walked through Parc de Pin and onto the Promenade des Bastions. There we saw the Mur de Reformateurs and played a game of giant chess. After the game (below, me celebrating my victory), we walked over towards the Grand Theatre and we ran into Geoffrey (who was in Geneva visiting a friend from home) on the way. We stopped and chatted for a bit before heading off in our separate directions.

We walked up a steep hill and took in the sights (we saw the murals and cannons outside of the Hotel de Ville) as we wandered towards the Cathedrale St. Pierre. We decided to stop and have lunch at a creperie facing the Cathedrale. I had the St. Pierre crepe (fromage, jambon, tomates, et oeuf) and chocolat-vanille glace for dessert. The most gorgeous boy with brilliant blue eyes walked into the restaurant and we made fleeting eye contact.

After lunch, we went inside the cathedral and saw Calvin's chair. The cathedral (seen below) was bright and beautiful (a nice change from the solemn Catholic churches we've been seeing in France). We walked into the basement and saw some of the ruins being excavated. From there, we walked around the square and saw the remains of an old prison before going into Maison Tavel, the oldest house in Geneva. The house and the various families' possessions have been preserved. After the museum, we went back to the Office du Tourisme to grab a replacement map for the one we had left at the restaurant and then made our way back to the Auberge (stopping at a few monuments and statues along the way).

Our landmark for turning away from the lakefront path to head towards the Auberge was the Hotel Woodrow Wilson. I love that Geneva respects Wilson so much, because I feel like he's one of our nation's greatest presidents and is also one of the least acknowledged.

Anyway, we got a new room for the second night on the cinquieme etage. We settled in and met two of our roommates, two Romanian girls who have been studying French in Dijon for the past year. We went to the gare to exchange our money and then to Pathe Cinema to see a movie. We ended up seeing High School Musical 3: Nos Annees Lycee. It was crazy expensive, but in French, so much fun, and so worth it!

When we got back to our room at the Auberge there was a knock on the door and our neighbor invited us over for a drink. After some initial hesitation on my part, we obliged. There were three guys from Ukraine, the talkative one was studying biology, the silent, attractive one was studying economics, and the nice, attractive one was studying international trade. I was happy we went over, because we had a nice conversation in French and it was a unique experience from our hostel stay. We left after a little more than an hour when their roommate (a French dog trainer/groomer) got back to the room and wanted to go to bed.

We used the opportunity to leave and go walk and see the jet d'eau lit up (it's last night before winter hours began). It was beautiful and we took a zillion pictures. It was magnificent looking out over the lake at night and the air was crisp. When we got back to the room we met our two other roommates, Americans studying abroad in Grenada with Central University in Iowa, and talked to them for a while before going to bed.

We woke up early on Sunday morning and went down to breakfast to beat the rush and get an early start. We brought our backpacks with us and took the tram up to the United Nations. Le homme de mes reves (from the creperie the day before) was on the tram with us...it's a small world! We took pictures in front of the U.N. building by the broken chair installation, the U.N. sign, and all of the flags. The compound was closed, so we walked through the gardens of the Musee Adriana.

We went to the Musee de la Croix Rouge et La Crossance Rouge and spent two hours in the exhibit (as well as the temporary exhibition, Les Murs Entre Les Hommes). The museum was fantastic and I really enjoyed the various media used in the displays and the wide range of time and topics addressed. We then went to the Musee Adriana, which had beautiful ceramic pieces and glass art work. We walked around to the other side of the U.N. complex to the Botanical Gardens (where we saw the U.N. globe) and went in their greenhouse which housed phenomenally gorgeous flowers.

We took the tram back in the direction of centre ville (though, we initially headed in the wrong direction...the scenic route if you will). We went to the Hotel de Ville where we saw the only square spiral staircase to welcome foreign dignitaries and to the Bourg de Four where we saw its charming fountain.

Our last stop in Geneva was the Hotel Coravin to see the world's tallest mechanical clock. The clock was awesome and we saw a magnificent panoramic view of the city from the hotel's breakfast room on the top floor. We bought some chocolate in the basement of the gare, postcards in the gift shop, and sandwiches and snacks at a boulangerie and grocery store before passing through French customs (which was a bit more strict than the Swiss customs, in that they glanced at our passports) and boarding our train back to Grenoble!

J'aime French dance remixes

2008-11-11T07:33:00.000-08:00

So, because I am so ridiculously far behind with my blog I'm going to try and blast through the past few weeks in a single blog entry, which means only the truly interesting activities and escapades of each day will make the cut.

Saturday, October 18th. Monica, Jillian, and I went to Haagen Dazs for lunch (you're jealous, I know). On our way back to our house we stumbled across all these children's games set up across from FNAC and spent some time constructing houses with Lincoln Logs (seen right). After we finished reminiscing, we went back to our house and spent the afternoon watching French tv shows. We watched the French version of Wife Swap and two episodes of Gossip Girl in French (the Thanksgiving and debutant ball episodes).

Monica and I went to dinner at the restaurant in Place Grenette and taught him how to say phrases like "Bon appetit" in English. It's interesting how waiters always try to speak English, no matter how insistent we are about speaking French. After dinner we went to XIII for drinks, where we ran into Marie-Eve who was on her way to the movies with a friend, then we went to Hasard for the rest of the night.

Sunday, October 19th. Jillian and I met Monica for Sporting Cafe in Place Grenette for a late lunch. Pigeons attacked a table next to us while the woman was still sitting and eating, which was pretty intense and gave us reason to fear for the safety of our own food.

The food was good and we had a nice time, but as always when you have somewhere to be, service was impossibly slow. Jillian and I ran back home before meeting Eric at the bus stop by Vallier-Jaures to go to the Back concert and wine tasting at the Millesime festival.

The concert (and the concert hall, left) was very nice and I learned a lot at the wine tasting. We tasted two whites, a rose, and two reds, all from Corsica, and I read some posters hanging around the room that discussed color, flavor, and taste of wines. We got some sweet commemorative wine classes for this year's Millesime festival.

Kristen (who we met up with after the concert and wine tasting), Jillian, Eric, and I stopped at Pizza Hut and brought the pizzas back to our house to eat.

Monday, October 20th. After classes all day, I came home and studied until it was time for dinner. We ate with Christine and her mother (Claude was out bowling). After dinner, I did some pre-studying organizational prep and then went to bed.

Tuesday, October 21st. The day was rather hectic as I had my first midterm exam that night. I received two compliments in my Traduction class, first, my professor noted that my French was improving each week, and second, one of the girls in my class commented on how BU was an excellent university.

The day was a blur of studying, but I feel like it paid off and I was confident with my performance on my History midterm. It proved difficult to vary my sentence structure, use appropriate vocabulary, correct my grammar, and get all of the facts right...so, we shall see!

We had a delicious dinner with Claude. He made Quiche Lorraine, salad, and yogurt with raspberry jam. All of which was scrumptious!

Wednesday, October 22nd. Yet another day which became a blur of classes and studying all leading up to my Vie Politique exam that night. The exam was more specific than I had expected, but I think I did well none the less.

It was cold and rainy out so I headed home and grabbed a cheeseburger at the kebab place around the corner from our house. I watched some tv (sort of a reward for making it halfway through exams) and when Jillian got home we watched Flight of the Concords songs on YouTube which were hilarious!

Thursday, October 23rd. I woke up and opened my Halloween package and card from my mom which made my morning! Jillian and I went to Casino to buy some baguette for lunch. We heated up some chicken tenders and had etorki with baguette...a very French meal indeed.

I only spent 30 minutes on my Litterature exam which was troubling, since I normally won't leave an exam before the time is up and I only used a quarter of the time allotted for this exam, but I answered all of the questions to her specifications and I read over what I had written before turning it in, so all I can do is hope for the best.

Max and Marion came over for the cours de cuisine. We literally had chestnuts roasting on an open fire along with our cider apperatif, which was awesome! Max made mousse sardines, which was a lot like tuna fish, and was very good. The plat principal was fish fillets with prunes and wild rice (seen right as Christine presents it to the table in chef apron, toque, and all). I didn't like the prunes, but the juice added a nice sweetness to the fish, cheese, and onions. I had etorki and the most magnificent Camembert on the face of the planet and the bread was delicious, so it was a GOOD cheese night!

Marion made a cake with a framboise layer and creme which was delicious and we ate in the salon while we discussed literature, music, and movies...comme toujours :) and we watched three songs from Christine's Best of David Bowie DVD.

(At left, Claude and Max perusing my favorite book, 1001 Greatest Films of All Time!)

Friday, October 23rd. There were only 8 people in my Travaux Pratiques class, but it ended up being nice because our homework had been to prepare questions about the cultures of our classmates and we had a great discussion. It was nice being the only American in class because I was able to voice my thoughts and opinions without contradictory statements being imposed by others.

Clare's mom took me, Clare, and Geoffrey out to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Place Ste. Claire which was so sweet of her and I had a fantastic time. After dinner, Geoffrey and I met up with Monica, Gerald, and Brittany (and later Clare and Rachel) and went out. I really liked the bar we ended up in, it wasn't quite what we had been expecting or planning on, but they played Sarah McLaughlin and we had a nice time.

Saturday, October 24th. I'm going to take a photojournalism approach to my day trip to Lyon with Jillian, Kristen, and Laura.

So, let me step back and let the photos speak for themselves!

Sunday, October 25th. We slept in and then went in to centre ville for lunch at Place Grenette before heading over to Place Victor Hugo for piano duets (seen right) and wine tastings at the final day of the Millesime festival. After the festival, we went home and watched comedians online and sang and danced to Oldies music!

Monday, October 26th. This week is Toussaint and none of the French students have classes, so the cafeteria at CUEF was closed. Monica, Jillian, Julia B, Evan, Kristen, and I went to Place Grenette for lunch and afterwards Monica and I recharged our tram cards and bought train tickets to Geneva for this weekend.

Tuesday, October 27th. Travaux Pratiques and then into centre ville for lunch (after a failed attempt to visit the Musee de Grenoble (which happens to be closed Tuesdays)). After lunch at the little pizzeria in Place Victor Hugo, Monica and I went to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I liked it a lot (it may be one of my favorite Woody Allen movies), but the end produced conflicting emotions and I was left feeling rather undecided about the characters and their life choices.

We had dinner with Claude and Christine and their nieces, Manon and Diane. We had avocado, sausage and lentils, cheese, and berry ice cream. After dinner, Diane gave us a quiz she had taken at the Museum of Natural History that day and we were utterly terrible at it since we didn't understand any of the vocabulary. Well, that is until I recognized the word "marmot," and my exuberant reaction brought about a fit of laughter!

Wednesday, October 29th. After Travaux Pratiques, Jillian and I went and had lunch at the restaurant on campus before History. I had pasta bolognaise and we split a gateau au chocolat avec framboise and a creme brulee. I went to the bureau to sign up for November activities, pick up the BU Libere, and meet with Patrice to proofread my ethnographic research project questionnaire.

We went to Clare's for dinner to celebrate her mom's birthday (which had been the day before). We had champagne rose, salad (with baguette et fromage chevre chaud), tomate crumble, and baked apples with butter and brown sugar. After dinner we stood around the piano singing Billy Joel, Elton John, One Republic's Apologize, and Hallelujah, while Jillian and Geoffrey played (beautifully, I might add.)

Thursday, October 30th. I spent the day working through my To-Do list, which was rather daunting, particularly because I was going to be in Geneva the entire weekend. I made a decent amount of progress and Jillian and I were even able to slip in lunch at the Italian pizza place down the road in the afternoon.

There was a little bit of drama dealing with the cours de cuisine this week and it ended up being cancelled, but it all worked out for the best and we had a nice family dinner with me, Claude, Christine, her friend Christine, and Diane. We played dominoes before dinner which was so much fun! We had salad with bleu cheese and beets (not my fav, sorry Dwight), a delicious chicken dish with potatoes and artichokes for our plat principal, and chocolate fondue for dessert! The meal was incredible and I had a great time talking with everyone over dinner.

2008-10-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

Monday, October 13th. I had classes all day and then about an hour to decompress before we went downstairs to eat dinner with Claude and Christine. We had vegetable soup, grilled chicken strips with sauteed vegetables, cheese, and orange and vanilla Popsicles. After dinner we watched the first of a two part tv movie about the life of Francoise Sagan, author of Bonjour Tristesse. Her life was fascinating and as in all biographies it was captivating to watch the roller coaster-like story of her career and relationships.

Tuesday, October 14th. Travaux Pratiques was good and I grabbed a panini in the cafeteria in the half hour before Traduction and met up with Gerald in the courtyard behind batiment P. Traduction was nearly insufferable the last 30 minutes (2 1/2 hours straight of glorified vocabulary lessons is too much!) I have never wanted to run screaming from a room so badly in my entire life. I went home and watched the new How I Met Your Mother before Jillian and I went into Centre Ville to meet Gerald and Kristin (Jillian's friend from Travaux Pratiques) for dinner.

We ate at L'Atmosphere in Place Notre Dame and dinner was fantastic! I had lasagna for dinner and chocolate mousse for dessert, and the restaurant had huile picante (which was crazy spicy) with their bread. Dinner was a lot of fun and it was nice to meet Kristen and to hang out with Gerald outside of class since it seemed like we hadn't seen each other in ages.

Wednesday, October 15th. I had Travaux Pratiques, lunch with everyone in the cafeteria, Histoire, and then headed back home. I went to the bureau to pick up the BU Libere and Jillian, Monica, Clare, and I got dinner at La Grenette in Place Grenette. Clare and I both got the pizza raviole which was delectable! After dinner, we had wanted to go to Haagen Dazs but it was closed (lame), so instead we went to the creperie by Place Victor Hugo where I got a chocolate sundae.

Jillian's friend Kristen was having a party, so Jillian had gone home to get ready. Monica, Clare, and I took the tram from the creperie to meet up with her only to find that the A line was no longer running from Chavant to Denis Papin. We walked back to Chavant to meet Geoffrey (who we had called to meet us, before we realized the tram situation) and from there we decided to call it a night.

Thursday, October 16th. This morning I found out that I got into PARIS!!!!! So, I will be in France again for the spring semester studying with the BU Paris Internship Program! I spent most of the morning online taking care of paperwork for study abroad, then when Jillian got home from class we went into Centre Ville to get lunch at Pasta Via.

Monica, Jillian, and I had the Cours de Cuisine with Christine. I made the entree (bread rolls filled with jambon, champignons, fromage, and creme fresh), Jillian made the plat principal (a meat and vegetable stew), and Monica made the dessert (an apple tart). It wasn't my favorite dinner, but that had more to do with my tastes than with the quality of the food.

We enjoyed some champagne roses as an apperatif and while we were eating our cake in the salon we watched old home movies of baby Plume from 2000 to 2007. The night was a lot of fun and after our obligatory stairwell pictures we went upstairs and I chatted online with my mom for a little bit before going to bed.

Friday, October 17th. After Travaux Pratiques I headed into Centre Ville to stop at LCL (where I ran into Rachel), before going to my rendez-vous individuel avec Marie-Eve. I spoke with her for about an hour about home, friends, classes, Paris, and life in Grenoble in general. After my meeting I walked to Place Grenette to meet Jillian and we went to FNAC to buy tickets for a Bach concert with the Millesime festival before meeting Monica in Place Victor Hugo for lunch.

We ate at a little pizzeria and had a nice long, relaxed lunch. I had a pizza Margarita and we split a nutella pizza for dessert. Jillian and I headed home where we watched The Office before it was time for dinner with Claude and Christine. We had a vegetable broth soup, pasta and homemade tomato sauce, and the remaining apple tart from the night before.

After dinner, Christine took us to see Faubourg 36 at Pathe Echirolles. The movie was good, different from Les Choristes, but a good different...more character development and a wider range of issues and emotions (though now I feel like I'm selling Les Choristes short).

Au revoir!

Weekend in Provence

2008-10-18T02:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we woke up at 6h and got ready before running to the Patisserie to grab a baguette for breakfast and meeting up with Brittany on the tram. We met the rest of our group in Place Verdun at 7h30 and boarded the bus for Arles. We made the trip in about 4 hours, including a small break at a rest stop where I got a pain au chocolat and vending machine chocolat chaud. I passed out on the bus and slept for most of the ride, with the exception of announcements which were always prefaced by a horrible electronic feedback noise to startle us awake.

When we arrived in Arles we dropped our bags off at the hotel and went to the marche to do some shopping before meeting up again to eat a picnic lunch on the lawn in front of the theatre (at left, Clare at the picnic). We had baguette, strawberries, blackberries, olives, and spiced potatoes for lunch, all of which we purchased from vendors in the marche. All of the food was fresh and tasted spectacular!

After our picnic Patrice led us through Arles on a little tour. We went to an amphitheatre (seen right, where we watched a local organization's calendar photo shoot), to a plaza overlooking part of the city, to a convent, and to a church in a square near our hotel. After our tour, we went back to the hotel and were given some time to ourselves to rest before dinner.

On the walk over to dinner I found out that Gerald knows one of my SCA friends from Alaska, Kate. Apparently, they were on the same swim team...it's such a small world! Dinner was delicious and so much fun. I had been dragging a bit earlier in the day, but dinner completely turned my day around.

I had a tomate et mozarelle meuille feuille avec pistou, poisson et riz avec carrots, et un meueillaux au chocolat...tout avec beaucoup de vin rouge. Kelly, Clare, Geoffrey, and I worked out a system of sampling each others foods and had a good time talking, joking, and laughing.

After dinner, a group of us went back to the place by Le Cafe La Nuit (seen left, made famous by the Van Gogh painting) where we had had a drink that afternoon and got a round of drinks before heading back to the hotel and going to bed.

On Sunday morning, we woke up, got ready, backed, and went down stairs for breakfast. We took the bus from Arles to Saintes Maries de la Mer for our balade au cheval. My horse's name was Beaumarin. The ride was incredible at times, but too stressful for words at others.

After our 3 hour ride we went into town and bought sandwiches for a picnic lunch on the beach. It was spectacular and the weather was lovely. I dipped my toes in the Mediterranean and got a glace italienne at a shop across from the boardwalk. We sat on the rocks eating our ice cream and admiring the view.

Before leaving we visited a church with exvotos which was incredibly somber. While we were sitting outside of the church we saw a woman and her pet wolf. Naturally, we were all rather concerned by this, and I noted that this was the exact sort of situation that could be avoided by electing Sarah Palin. Palin asked what exactly it is a veep does and the answer is: they fly around in a helicopter shooting wolves and thus protecting the citizens of the United States from wolves both foreign and domestic.

The bus ride home went quickly, but maybe just for me since I slept the majority of the way. Anyway, once we arrived back in Grenoble the bus dropped us off on Boulevard Gambetta and we caught the tram from there back home.

Au revoir!

2008-10-18T01:44:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, October 8th. After Travaux Pratiques in the morning I had lunch with everyone in the stairwell (which has recently replaced the cafeteria as our meal time hang out) before Histoire with Patrice. I went home for a bit before I had to be at the bureau in Centre Ville.

After we left the bureau, Monica, Jillian, and I grabbed dinner at Pasta Via. Our guy was working (the one who gives us extra stamps on our frequent customer cards) and when we walked in he called out "Hey girl!" It was pretty crowded so we didn't get to talk to him much, but he gave us each an extra stamp comme d'habitude.

We went back to our house to watch the debate, which was more frustrating than ever (yet, at the same time, more amusing than ever grace a the ridiculous nature of both candidates and their attempts at one-upmanship).

Thursday, October 9th. I slept in, got ready, and headed to the laundromat. After I finished my laundry, Jillian and I went to the kebab place around the corner to buy lunch. We brought our kebab frites home and ate them out in the garden. I wrote my ethnographic research proposal and ran into Centre Ville to turn it in. When I got home I worked on homework until it was time for dinner (with Cours de Cuisine group #2).

This week, Gerald, Brittany, and Xio came over for the Cours de Cuisine with Chrsitine. Our apperatif, the champagne roses, was less fruity than last time, but still good. For dinner Gerald made les oeufs russes, Brittany made pork and potatoes, and Xio made citron and rum cake. The meal was very good and we had a nice time. It was less jovial than last week, but we had an enjoyable meal and night none the less.

During dinner, Claude asked us if we thought our French was improving and I honestly believe that mine is, but I also want to make sure I put in more of an effort in the weeks to come. No matter what, this will have been a fantastic experience, but at the end I want to know that I made the absolute most of my time here.

Friday, October 10th. In the afternoon, after Travaux Pratiques, Monica, Jillian, and I met up in Place Grenette to get lunch before our meetings with Patrice. We went to a little shop by the Maison du Tourisme tram stop for paninis which we ate in the Jardin de Ville before going to Haagen Dazs for sundaes.

I had a good meeting with Patrice about my ethnographic research project and he seemed to be more encouraging of my topic (French perceptions of the U.S. Presidential election) than the last time I met with him. After our rendez-vous individuels, we walked over to Place Victor Hugo to browse through the jewelry, music, and clothing stands set up around the edge of the square.

We grabbed dinner at Pop Pizza around the corner from us (which was delicious and their picante olive oil was actually spicy). Then we headed back to our house, watched The Office, packed for our weekend trip to Provence, and went to bed.

2008-10-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'm all caught up! Can you believe it?

I got tons of sleep last night (10+ hours...preparation for this momentous occasion) and was really well rested which was important because I had an extended Traduction class this afternoon that I might not have made it through otherwise. Anyway, Travaux Pratiques flew by as usual and then I had a quick 30 minute break to grab a panini in the cafeteria before translation. I got a chance to talk to Geoffrey and Clare and Brittany (who went paraponting this afternoon!) while I was in line, so the day wasn't completely devoid of socializing. Traduction class was not as insufferable as I had imagined it would be (2 1/2 hours seems like a bit much), but this was due in large part to the faux amis competition the last half of class. We didn't finish scoring the teams responses, but I'm pretty sure me, Gerald, Ken, and Justin owned at the activity.

On the tram ride home from class a man sitting next to me commented on how nice my handwriting was, which made me feel good. It's always nice to receive a compliment when you're not expecting it!

After I got home, I did some homework and watched the new How I Met Your Mother. We ate dinner with Claude and Christine and discussed gun control and civil liberties in France and the US. We had vegetable soup, fish and rice with a butter sauce, and cheese (I had Camembert as usual) for dinner. Christine had her country dance class and Jillian had homework so we skipped watching a movie, but hopefully we'll see one together later in the week.

I wish my first up to date blog post could be filled with more exciting events, but alack and alas it is not. The triumph of catching up will have to be enough in and of itself!

Au revoir!

October thus far...

2008-10-06T10:41:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, October 1st. My morning went by pretty fast...I went to Travaux Pratiques, had lunch in the cafeteria with everyone, and went to history before heading home. Around 18h I headed into centre ville to take care of some stuff at the bureau. I got our cultural reimbursements for September, discussed my final class selection with Patrice, and signed up to see the ballet in November. I ran into Geoffrey, Julia L, Clare, and Kelly outside the bureau and we discussed the elections and Sarah Palin, and decided to have a VP debate party Friday night. I stopped at Pasta Via on the way home and grabbed dinner to go for me and Jillian. After dinner, I sent some emails, watched some SNL skits online, and chatted online before going to bed.

Thursday, October 2nd. When I woke up, I chilled out in my room until Jillian got back from class and we left to meet Monica for lunch. We ran into Julia B on our way to Quality Burger (which ended up being not so quality) and she joined us for lunch. The food was good, but more fast-food like than we had anticipated and it definitely did not meet our expectations of a delicious French hamburger a la How I Met Your Mother. That afternoon I watched the first Presidential debate online with the video transcript on CNN.com. I will spare you my political ruminations and ramblings (though I will not spare Jillian).

Clare, Geoffrey, and Anna made a delicious meal with Christine (the first week of the cours de cuisine). We had champagne rose for our aperitif and it was fruity and light which I loved. Clare made our entree (ratatouille crumble), Anna made a dish with potatoes, onions, and cheese, and Geoffrey made a chocolate cake with raspberry sauce that was to die for. (Clare, Anna, and I can be seen at right by our magnificently decorated table.)It was fun having a big group at dinner and it was nice speaking French with the other BU students since we usually speak English to one another. We listened to lots of music and had a lively conversation. It was a nice night and I'm looking for to these Thursday cours de cuisine meals.

Friday, October 3rd. After Travaux Pratiques in the morning, I returned home for a bit before I had to return to campus for our make-up class Histoire with Patrice. Jillian and I went home again after class to drop off our things before going over to Geoffrey's to watch the VP debate. The debate party was a definite success. We (me and Jillian) watched with Julia L, Kelly, Brittany, Xio, Clare, Geoffrey (of course), and Geoffrey's host brother Matisse. We stopped at Pasta Via to pick up dinner on the way home and we the same guy who was there two nights before was working again and gave us each an extra stamp on our frequent customer cards. We made it an early night, ate our pasta at home and watched The Scarlet Pimpernel before going to bed.

Saturday, October 4th. Jillian and I woke up at the crack of dawn to meet at 7h30 in Place Verdun for the CUEF trip to Orange-Avignon-Pont du Gard. BU was well represented, with me, Jillian, Monica, Xio, Brittany, Gerald, and Anna on the trip (seen left posing in front of the Arc de Triomphe d'Orange). I slept on the bus until we reached a rest stop around 9h30. Monica and I got pain au chocolat and boisson chocolatee.

First, we visited the Arc de Triomphe d'Orange which was built nearly 2000 years ago in the 1st century during the Pax Romana. It was incredible to see something built so long ago standing before me, seemingly untouched by time. Our next stop was the Theatre Antique d'Orange, where we took an audio guided tour. The Theatre was built by the Romans in the early 1st century under Emperor Augustus and is one of the best preserved Roman theatres in Europe (there are only three fully-intact Roman theatres remaining today, the other two are in Turkey and Syria). The Theatre Antique d'Orange (seen below) has experienced a myriad of transformations over the past 2000 years, acting as a barracks and a city (with apartment-like units built into the stage walls) as well as a theatre.

From Orange, we drove to Avignon. We got lunch at a restaurant in a square next to the Palais des Papes. I got a croque madame that came with a delicious salad and Monica and I shared a fondant au chocolat for dessert with french vanilla ice cream, chantilly, and kiwi slices. After lunch, we toured the Palais des Papes. The tour was incredibly interesting, but it was frustrating listening to the audio guide while also attempting to read the written descriptions.

From the Palais des Papes, we walked to the Pont d'Avignon (actual name: Pont Saint-Benezet). This time foregoing the audio guides and instead took pictures (at left, me sur la Pont d'Avignon) and listened to different versions of la chanson bien connu in a little musee beneath the pont. We browsed around little gift shops in the streets before returning to bus.

Our final stop of the day was the Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct. It was beautiful. We arrived at sunset and the view was spectacular (particularly the panorama Monica and I found while hiking). We walked across the pont and down into the riverbed below where we sat for awhile, talking and admiring the pont, the mountains, and the sunset.

We stopped at the same rest stop on the ride home and I got a chicken sandwich and a slice of chocolate cake for dinner. I slept the rest of the bus ride home. Brittany, Jillian, and I walked Monica home on our way to the tram and as soon as we got home I crashed.

Sunday, October 5th. As Saturday had been utterly exhausting, Jillian and I slept in on Sunday morning. We met Sasha, Julia B, Monica, and Anna at Sporting Cafe in Place de Grenette for brunch/lunch at 13h. We had a leisurely meal (not by choice, the waiter just took his time taking our orders and serving our food) and afterwards I headed back to the house to work on homework. For dinner, Jillian and I went to Pizza Hut where there was a 2 for 1 deal which suited our frugal sensibilities perfectly. We had dinner at home and I got to chat online with Babs :) before finishing my homework and going to bed.

Monday, October 6th. As usual, my Monday was dominated by classes...Travaux Pratiques, Litterature Francaise, et Vie Politique. When I got home we microwaved our leftover pizza for dinner. I was discussing politics with Jillian and after utterly depressing her with facts and statistics about the US political system, we went to Casino and bought some chocolate. We watched an old BBC comedy, Are You Being Served? while devouring our heavenly cream puffs.

Au revoir!

2008-09-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

It's time to play some major catch up!

Thursday, September 25th. I slept in and when I woke up I went out and met Jillian at Casino to do some grocery shopping. We bought some sandwiches for lunch and other basics then came home and watched Les Demoiselles de Rochefort with English subtitles. Even though I had understood the general plot of the film the first time, the subtitles were extremely helpful. My comprehension of dialogue, especially for the musical numbers when the song lyrics seemed to speed by, improved greatly. I met Monica at Place Victor Hugo at 15h00 to pick up our bank cards so we can access our monthly stipends to cover food and transportation expenses.

For dinner, we had vegetarian steak (which tasted good, but I don't fully understand the point of calling it a steak when it obviously does not contain anything close to resembling steak), shredded carrots with "the sauce," Camembert cheese, red wine, and a pear tart for dessert.

After dinner I headed back up to my room to write an essay for my Travaux Pratiques class, subject: why you love where you're from and why...talk about a formula for homesickness!

Friday, September 26th. After my Travaux Pratiques class in the morning Jillian and I met Monica in Centre Ville for lunch. We went to a creperie by Place Victor Hugo which was cheap and had a nice atmosphere. I got an oeuf et jambon crepe and glace chocolat for dessert. After lunch Jillian and I went back to our house and her cousin, Mary, picked us up. She drove us up to a path in Belledonne and we took a little hike to a footbridge by a waterfall (me and Jillian on said footbridge at right) and then back. After our walk we went into St. Martin d'Uriage to go to the post office and pick up a few things for dinner, then we went to pick the kids up from school. It was interesting to see what schools are like here and how everything is set up. I was surprised at how similar the ecole premier was to elementary schools in the US.

When we got back to their house, me and Jillian played with the kids in the yard. At first we were making up games by combining American and French games and then we all played soccer (football) until it got cold out and we headed inside. I watched Phineas et Ferb (in French) and Camp Rock on Disney channel France until dinner time.

Before dinner, we had aperitifs and I tried a port (cooked wine) and was not a fan, but I did try a strawberry juice from concentrate the kids were drinking that was very good. Dinner was crazy with everyone at the table, but a lot of fun. We had crepes with ham and cheese which were delectable. The kids went downstairs to watch the end of Camp Rock (it had just come out in France the past weekend and was therefore a big deal) and the adults had dessert on our own (crepes with buerre et sucre or nutella). We helped clean up, danced around to their newly purchased Camp Rock CD, and then said goodnight.

Once we got home Jillian and I watched the season premiere of The Office online (SO GOOD! YAY JIM and PAM!) before going to bed.

Saturday, September 27th. We had brunch with Claude and Christine and I tried raw oysters for the first time (they tasted kind of like jellyfish soaked in salt water). We also had a very nice white wine, salad with crab meat and "the sauce" dressing, and yogurt with sugar for dessert. After brunch Jillian, Monica, and I went to Maison du Tourisme in Centre Ville to recharge our tram passes for the month of October. Once we recharged our TAG cards we went to Kohl, where Monica bought an adorable brown leather jacket and where we ran into Geoffrey (who was looking for Kelly).

When we got back to our house we watched Les Demoiselles de Rochefort with Monica (and no, you are not mistaken, it was our third time watching this comedie musicale in 4 days). We got dinner at Speed Rabbit Pizza and took it back to the house to eat. We had a good time, as always, and after dinner and the movie we called it a night.

Sunday, September 28th. In the morning we met the BU group at Place de Verdun for our day trip to Chartreuse. We rode the bus up into the mountains where we were dropped off to hike a trail through the Chartreuse. It took about an hour to hike up to the summit and it was exhausting, but the views were spectacular! At the summit of Charmant Som (the mountain we hiked) there is a cross that is described in Wordsworth's poem "Descriptive Sketches." (Clare and I can be seen posing next to the summit cross to the left.) I took dozens and dozens of pictures of the massifs of the Chartreuse that can be seen here.

We hiked down a bit to an open grassy area for lunch and it was during this portion of our trek that I stepped into a hole in the ground and sprained my ankle (ouch!...not fun). We ate our picnic lunches and watched the paraponters nearby. We hiked the rest of the way down the mountain (I did so slowly, with Jillian's help) to a little restaurant near where the bus dropped us off. We sat at picnic tables, enjoyed some hot chocolate, discussed Harry Potter, and marvelled at the mountains surrounding us.

We drove to l'Eglise Saint Hugues which had a modern art exhibit, the paintings of Arcabas, inside. From there we visited the musee du Monastere de la Grande Chartreuse (seen below) and took another hike (this one was much shorter and less strenuous) to the monastery. We sat on a hill by the monastery and watched the sunset over the monastery and mountains before hiking back down. (Pictures of the museum, monastery, and mountains can be seen here.) On our walk back down to the bus we passed a monk riding his bicycle. He was wearing a white robe and a blue beret and we said "bonjour" as we passed him.

Monday, September 29th. After a full day of classes (Travaux Pratiques, Litterature, et Vie Politique), I came home and relaxed for a bit before it was time for dinner with Claude and Christine. We had salad with "the sauce" and crab meat, baked frites, and casserole. It didn't look appetizing (and probably doesn't sound appetizing either), but it was delicious...trust me! It was structured sort of like a lasagna, but with ravioli, salmon, cream, tomatoes, and cheese. We had fromage (du vache) and yogurt with sugar, for our cheese plate and dessert respectively.

After dinner, we watched the German film, Das Leben der Andersen, which won the Oscar in 2006 for Best Foreign Language Film (La Vie des Autres in French). The subtitles didn't match the dubbed voices at all, but the film was incredibly interesting. It was thought provoking in terms of politics and human psychology and I enjoyed it immensely.

Today there was an exciting development in my French language skills! Now, I speak in French without first processing what I'm going to say in English in my mind. This makes certain things easier and certain things more difficult, but it was definitely a "aha" moment and I'm excited about it...so, we shall see!

Tuesday, September 30th. The morning passed by without any major events to note...my Travaux Pratiques class continues to be awesome and the most practical class I have ever taken, the line in the cafeteria continues to be soul-crushingly long, and my Translation class continues to be a translation class. I went home and watched How I Met Your Mother online, after which I was so craving a hamburger (the subject of the episode was the gang's quest for New York's greatest hamburger). Monica and I (since the two of us watch all the same shows, and were therefore both craving hamburgers) made a plan to go to Quality Burger on Thursday for lunch to determine what Grenoble has to offer on the hamburger front.

Jillian and I met Monica and Anna in Place Victor Hugo to go to dinner at the creperie where we went for lunch Friday afternoon. I had a jambon crepe salee and 2 boules de glace (all for 5,30 euros!). Something to note about my ice cream selection (vanille et fraise)..."french" vanilla and strawberry is not a satisfying combination when you are hoping for a refreshing blend of vanilla and strawberry flavor. Anyway, we had a wonderful series of awkward interactions with our waiter throughout the course of the meal. It all started when he first came to refill our water and I blushed for some reason (I honestly don't know why, it's just who I am), in any case it was a noticeable blush as it always is with me. Then later, when we were trying to get his attention to bring us our check, three of us (first Jillian, then me and Monica) all had awkward head nod/smile/eyebrow raise interactions with him. So, pretty much we were sending a very different message than the one we were intending, until Anna finally succeeded and we got our bill. In the end, our dinner lasted over 2 hours, but was hysterical and wonderful!

Au revoir!

Aimer la vie, Aimer les fleurs

2008-09-24T05:57:00.001-07:00

Monday, September 22nd. Jillian and I both have 8h30 classes Monday mornings and I'm at the CUEF until 17h30 with my Litterature and Vie Politique classes, so it's a long day and a rough start to the week...but classes are good and I love the people I get to hang out with all day, so I'm not complaining. That night, Jillian and I were getting ready to go out and find someplace to eat when Claude came upstairs to get us for dinner. We hadn't realized that we were eating at home that night, but of course were happy to.

We had pumpkin soup, which surprisingly, I liked quite a bit (I usually avoid the pie at Thanksgiving and the gourd itself on all other occasions) as it was spicy (but that might just have been the ground pepper sprinkled on top). Anyway, then we had salad (with the same delicious homemade dressing that was on the carrots a few nights before) and omelets with potato slices. For our cheese course, we tried some new cheeses that were plus fort and I was rather proud of myself for trying them, even though I must admit that my cheese to baguette ratio was definitely more in favor of the baguette, and for dessert we had apple compote. Christine also had us try these fruit Popsicles that she adores, which were really tasty and actually tasted like fruit instead of fruit flavoring.

Over dinner, Claude explained the Syracuse conjecture to us...in French. Basically, the conjecture says that any integer number will equal the number 1 after going through a specific process of simple math. So, if the number given is even, divide it by two, and if the number is odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1. Here's an example, 35:

35*3+1=106

106/2=53

53*3+1=160

160/2=80

80/2=40

40/2=20

20/2=10

10/2=5

5*3+1=16

16/2=8

8/2=4

4/2=2

2/2=1

And voila!

After dinner (and our complex math problems), we watched Plein Soleil. It's a good film, with a mildly disturbing twist about a quarter of the way through. But, the plot was interesting and captivating and the characters were likeable (even when their actions were not).

Tuesday, September 23rd. I woke up, got ready, had a leisurely breakfast in my room, finished mes devoirs, and caught the tram to campus. In Travaux Pratiques we wrote soap opera-like love stories to utilise all the romantic vocab and advice that we had learned over the past week. I had my first Translation class that afternoon (the last one wasn't divided into sections yet). I think it will be an interesting class, but it's too soon to tell exactly what the format of the class will be like since we spent the first hour doing introductions this week.

It was just us and Claude for dinner, so we ate in the kitchen. We had chailletts (viande), potatoes, salad (with what will from now on be referred to as "the sauce") with a vintage red wine, cheese, and homemade yogurt for dessert.

After dinner we watched one of Claude's favorite comedie musicales, Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, starring Gene Kelly, Catherine Deneuve, Francoise Dorleac, George Chikiris (Bernardo from West Side Story), and Jacques Perrin (adult Pierre in Les Choristes), and directed by Jacques Demy. The movie is so much fun! Gene Kelly and George Chikiris are wonderful dancers and the music (composed by Michel Legrand) is fantastic and will be stuck in your head forever, but in a good way!

Here's a clip of the trailer:

and one of my favorite songs, Chanson d'un jour d'ete:

Wednesday, September 24th. After my Travaux Pratiques class in the morning, Jillian and I went out and grabbed lunch at a restaurant around the corner from our house. We got the plat du jour (seen right, with Jillian), which consisted of a salad, tomato (stuffed with ground meats and spices), rice, and mashed potatoes...and was delicious! We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and then headed back to the house to take care of some chores.

We went to the bureau in Centre Ville to pick up our copies of the BU Libere and to sign up for a courses de cuisine with Christine. Christine was bragging to Marie-Eve about how well Jillian and I spoke French and how much she and Claude enjoyed having us, and while it was a little embarrassing (as we were with the entire BU group) I was really flattered that she cares so much and that she is so impressed with us.

Jillian, Monica, Anna, and I had dinner at Pasta Via and then went to Sporting Cafe in Place Grenette for dessert, where I got the chocolat liegeois yet again. Anna and I met Clare and Evan in front of the Maison du Tourisme to go to the Grenoble match. We walked over to the Stade des Alpes for the football match against Nancy. The stadium was pretty empty as it was a Wednesday night and not a major game, but we had great seats with an incredible view of the field. Grenoble lost the game in overtime, but it was a fun game to watch and the crowd really got into it once the score was tied in the second half. 28, 11, 2, and the goalie (who got injured in a dramatic fashion during overtime, but had to stay in the game because Grenoble didn't have any substitutions remaining) were my favorite players. After the game we parted ways so that we could get home before the trams stopped running.

Au revoir!

2008-09-23T08:36:00.001-07:00

Sunday morning we had a baguette and chocolate for breakfast as we made our way (with Brittany) on the tram to Place Verdun to meet our group for our day trip to Annecy (pictures here). On the bus ride Monica, Jillian, Anna, and I played M.A.S.H. which is always fun. When we first arrived it was much cooler than any of us had expected and a bit foggy, but the city was still lovely. We walked through town and saw a monument (at right) dedicated to Jean Jacques Rousseau (who lived in Annecy after converting to Catholicism and leaving Geneva) and Madame de Warens as well as the cathedral of Saint Francois de Sales. Afterwards we were given time to shop around the marche. I bought some Christmas presents and a watch for myself. Markets are common fixtures on Sunday mornings in France and it was great to see all the local artisans products (clothing, jewelry, food). I tried some of Canaan's dehydrates strawberries and Geoffrey's fraises de boite, both of which were delicious.

At 13h, we met back up with the group for lunch. We had raclette, a traditional meal to the Savoie region of France, which is traditionally enjoyed with white wines. The name raclette comes from the French verb racler, meaning "to scrape." Melted cheese is scraped onto potatoes, meats (usually hams), and various vegetables, like onions...it's so gluttonous, and therefore, so delicious. It was a fun process, the waiter placed the cheese on this contraption (seen left) that slowly melted the cheese and then we scraped layers of melted cheese on top of the food on our plates. For dessert we had raspberry and lemon sorbet with chantilly (whipped cream) and a cookie. When the waiter brought the dessert plate out the entire table literally gasped and exclaimed a big French "Woww!"

After lunch we walked up a hill to a former castle (and later barracks) overlooking the city. On our walk back in the direction of the lake, we saw the Palais de l'Isle (right), which was used as a prison by the occupying German forces during WWII to hold members of the French Resistance, and the Pont des Amours before boarding a bateau for our tour of Lac d'Annecy (pictures here). The lake was incredibly beautiful and surrounded by mountains. The sun started to peek out from behind the clouds while we were on the water and everything looked spectacular. There were incredible chateaus covering the mountains around the lake with beautiful Italian architecture. Historically, Annecy has been a part of both Italy and France, but for economic and trade reasons it's citizens voted to become a part of France and every since have been very patriotic sending troops to aid in various military conflicts, including the American Revolution under Lafayette, throughout history in the name of France.

The trip was incredible and I can't wait to see more of France during our weekend excursions this semester.

Au revoir!

2008-09-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

It was pouring rain Friday morning when I left the house for Travaux Pratiques, but by the time my class was over the skies had cleared and it was sunny and warm. Jillian and I met Monica and Anna in Centre Ville for lunch at an Indian restaurant. I got some sort of chicken curry with rice which was delicious and it came with a ridiculously spicy sauce which was really good. Jillian and I had to leave to meet with Patrice at the bureau to discuss our ethnographic research projects (which will count as a grade for the program). I'm planning on doing my project on some facet of the French Resistance in Grenoble, but I have to narrow my focus before I can start doing research and interviews.

After our meetings, we went across the street to the Office du Tourisme to meet for the CUEF sponsored Rallye (like a scavenger hunt) through Grenoble. The Rallye was a lot of fun and a good opportunity to meet other students in the CUEF. Jillian and I were on a team with a girl from Russia, Xenia, and a girl from China, Tsenun. It was a gorgeous day so it was nice walking around the city, but the directions to the various locations were unclear and once you reached the destination it was difficult to find the answer to the questions. About half an hour before we were supposed to meet at the Hotel de Ville for the end of the Rallye our team decided to abandon the designated route and take the tram back. On the tram ride I made up answers to the remaining questions (some of which were actually correct). When Olivier, a French student who organized the Rallye, was going over the path we were supposed to follow he asked us why we had come from the opposite direction. Xenia said it was a little secret and he responded "Comme ca" and clicked his heels together and held onto an imaginary umbrella a la Mary Poppins. We were the first team to finish, so even though we deviated from the route and made up half our answers I think we have a good chance of winning the Rallye and its prize.

After the Rallye, Jillian and I went back to the house for a little bit to recover before heading out again to meet Monica and Anna for dinner in Place Grenette. The restaurant had an awning with heat lamps so we ate our pasta (I had ravioli with pesto which was incredible) outside. After dinner we walked around Centre Ville for awhile before walking back in the direction of Monica's where we settled at a bar where we sat outside and talked over drinks for the rest of the night.

Saturday was a lazy day. Jillian and I slept in and then spent the morning walking around the streets by our house scouting for places to eat. We have a good number of cafes and patisseries nearby so that should be really nice. We decided to eat at a Mediterranean cafe that probably doesn't usually sell food. I am guessing this because the woman working there seemed horribly confused when we asked for something to eat and skeptically offered us croque monsieurs. The food was okay, but certainly overpriced. Our restaurant experience was also harmed by the fact that two (and then three) sketchy old men hit on us (and I mean old, as in the youngest was probably 45). It started out innocently enough as they asked if we were American and explained how they were there betting on the football matches for the day. We sat chatting while we waited for our bill (yet another argument against the French restaurant process), but it was when Jillian went inside to pay that it got sketchy. One of the men asked me for my phone number so that Jillian and I could go over to his apartment to watch a football game that afternoon/night. I said that I didn't have a French phone number (not true) and that we had a program event that night (also not true). I don't know enough French to delicately extract myself from those situations, so it was just horribly awkward and uncomfortable until Jillian returned, confirmed my lies, and we were able to flee the cafe.

After our successful escape, Jillian and I stopped at a patisserie for dessert. While eating our desserts on a bench in the street, a man walked out onto his balcony above us to auto lock his car (a seemingly mundane task and not something of note except for the fact that he was completely naked). I don't want people to think that Grenoble is this sketchy city, because it's not, I just happened to have two creepy/awkward interactions in a row this particular morning.

The rest of the day was completely lovely and free of any such interactions. Jillian went to meet Anna for a tour and I returned home for a bit. Later in the afternoon, Jillian, Monica, and I met at Grand'Place to go to the centre commercial. I ran into a girl from my Travaux Pratiques class, Hiroe, at the tram station and we talked while we waited for our respective trams. Fortunately, I had an unusually successful shopping trip (I bought a fall coat at Zara and a sweater at Mim) and was very happy with both of my purchases. We had dinner at Pasta Via which is a fast food pasta restaurant and is so good! Before heading back to our house, we stopped at Casino for a bottle of wine. Monica, Jillian, Xenia, and I watched Les Choristes which is a wonderful movie that I would recommend to anyone. The plot is a heartfelt story about boys attending a correctional school in France and how music transforms their view of the world. The movie has an incredible soundtrack and the sequel to the film, Faubourg 36, comes out this Wednesday.

Au revoir!

2008-09-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Thank you for bearing with me! I'm coming closer and closer to making real-time blog posts!

Tuesday morning I woke up, got ready, and headed out to catch the tram to campus. I ended up getting to my Travaux Pratiques class 2-3 minutes late because my tram was delayed, but I wasn't the last person to arrive so I think it was okay. In class we listened to a French news report on "The Rules" for women on dating and had a discussion about their effectiveness, which was incredibly amusing. My class seems to be the most practical of all of the Travaux Pratiques classes with the themes generally focusing on wooing the opposite sex, from "The Rules" lesson to our simulation of how to pick up a guy at a club/bar.

Anyway, after class I met up with Julia L and we ended up grabbing a panini in the courtyard by the cafeteria between classes. Then I met up with Gerald, Julia B, and Jillian to go to the B1 translation lecture. There was a group of about 30 students sitting in Amphi. 8 and a professor came in and started speaking rapidly in French about comparative literature. After a few minutes someone in the back of the class who had gotten a handout asked the professor if this was the translation class. The professor seemed surprised by the question, said no, made a phone call, and then left the room. The 30 of us sitting in the lecture hall with no professor weren't sure what was going on, but a girl from the class went out and found out that the rest of the class was in Amphi. 9. Once we were in the right place, the class went smoothly and I think that it will be extremely helpful for my French.

After class, Jillian and I went home and walked around to find someplace to eat dinner. We discovered a little pizza place about a block away from our house and decided to have dinner there. Monica met us around 7 and we went to the pizzeria (see pizza box at right) which was so good! We bought some pudding at Casino for dessert, chilled for awhile, and then went to do homework (so studious).

Wednesday, briefly mentioned in my last blog post, was not my favorite day so please forgive me for the scarcity of details. After my Travaux Pratiques class I got lunch in the cafeteria with Gerald, Geoffrey, Xio, Clare, Jillian, and Monica. We talked about Gossip Girl and I learned that it was available online. After history class we went to the bureau to pick up a copy of the BU Libere. We were told that we had to meet with Patrice that evening to discuss the courses we had selected for the semester. There wasn't enough time to go back to the house, so we went to a bookstore to look for two books we needed for our literature class. None of the bookstores had the books we were looking for, but I did buy Pride & Prejudice in French, which I cannot wait to read. I know it won't be nearly as good as the original since elements of Austen's writing will be lost in translation, but I love the story and need a good book to read at night before bed. After exploring the many libraries de Centre Ville we went to Haagen Dazs in Place Grenette and got sundaes (which can be seen to the right and to the left).

We went home and had dinner with Claude (Christine was out at her country line dancing class). I hadn't been feeling well that afternoon and I could not finish our meal as much as I tried. I felt bad because I've been making an effort to try new foods in France, but I couldn't that night.

Thursday is my day off from classes so when I woke up I watched some tv online. It's comforting watching shows from home in English. I miss the familiarity of American culture and an hour long show is the perfect indulgence. Jillian brought me a sandwich back from campus and we had them for lunch before heading to the laundromat (seen to the left). Laundry was a pain to the extent that we had to wait at the laverie for our clothes to wash and dry (well, not really dry, seeing as the dryers were less than effective). I never thought I would miss the laundry rooms at BU, but they are ridiculously convenient compared to our laundry situation here. After we finished our laundry, Jillian and I went to campus and met Jillian's pen pal, Marion, at a cafe on campus and spent the afternoon hanging out with her. She was so nice and our conversation was half in English and half in French. On our way home we stopped at Speed Rabbit Pizza to pick up pizzas for dinner (seen at right, Jillian at the tram stop with said pizzas). While we waited for our pizzas we read French gossip magazines, which if it's possible are even more ridiculous than American celebrity magazines. The two guys working at Speed Rabbit Pizza were really friendly and got so excited when we said that we were from Boston...apparently one of the guys was a big fan of the Celtics.

Well, this was a very visual account of the last few days thanks to the fact that I started taking pictures for the specific purpose of their use in my blog. Hope you enjoyed it!

Au revoir!

2008-09-18T01:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the actual yesterday, was not my favorite day so I skipped a day of blogging, but I'm back and ready to go!

In Sam's Blog World it is now September 12th and it's a Friday, hallelujah! My Travaux Partiques class was good and I feel like it will really help improve my communication and comprehension skills. There was one exercise that was particularly interesting. Our professor played a tape recording of an interview where the people were speaking French rapidly and had us each pick out as many words as possible and write them down. She played the recording three times and after each every member of the class would try to hear new words. She wrote the words on the board and they started to form sentences until by the fourth time we listened it was perfectly clear what was being said. It was really interesting how by breaking down what had originally been a completely incomprehensible dialogue into smaller and smaller pieces the conversation became clear. It was an encouraging demonstration of how language becomes easier to understand the longer you work at it.

That afternoon, Monica, Jillian, and I went to lunch at the creperie on campus and then returned to our house to hang out. It was overcast and rainy out, so we decided to stay in for the night and have a wine and cheese party. We bought sandwiches, salad, cheese, baguette, peaches, chocolate mousse, and wine at Casino and set up our spread in the salon (seen to the right). After we ate we were looking around on facebook and realized that we knew a ton of the same people at BU (through classes, the CSC, and friends of friends) and I learned that the 11B group is well-known for our noisy 5 o'clock dinners at Myles. We had a lot of fun and I was glad that we stayed in and got a chance to relax and hang out. Jillian and I walked Monica to the tram station at the end of the night and headed back home to go to bed.

The next morning it was raining yet again, so Jillian, Monica, Clare, and I decided to go to La Musee de la Resistance et de la Deportation. The museum was incredibly interesting and I learned a lot. There were details of the French Resistance that I had never been aware of before and it was fascinating to learn about the events in the place where they happened. The events of World War Two often feel really distant, in both time and space, and I think reading about what happened in French and recognizing that the streets you walk past every day are the same streets people walked down when they were being taken from their homes sixty years ago has a tremendous impact on your perceptions of historical events.

After we left the museum we searched for a place to have lunch, but since it was 3 and after "lunch time" most places were closed. We ended up eating at Sandwich Oasis, which turned out to be exactly what it's name implied, an oasis of sandwiches. I got a poulet frites sandwich was much better than I ever would have expected, since it was a chicken sandwich topped with french fries and mayonnaise...don't judge it till you've tried it! We had a really good conversation over lunch about war, man's motivations for it and the reasons for its persisting and evolving.

We parted ways after lunch and Jillian and I returned home and watched French game shows along with French Super Nanny and a couple minutes of Gossip Girl in French. The game shows here are pretty intense (see Jillian's blog for a sample problem from Les Chiffres & Les Lettres). We rooted for Rene, who was this short older man who was the only contestant wearing a blue shirt (everyone else was wearing white) and was also getting all of the questions wrong. At one point he buzzed in and when the moderator asked for his answer he just shrugged and said never mind. He was so cute and finally towards the end he got four questions correct in a row, but still didn't make it to the next round. We also watched Super Nanny which took place in Morocco where the family had the perfect son and a devil child daughter. I don't watch the show at home, but I can't imagine any child more terrible than this little girl! But, the son was tres adorable and so we desperately wanted French Super Nanny to solve all of the families problems.

Jillian and I went to Casino for salad, grapes, wine, baguette, and eclairs. Clare, Monica, and Julia B came over for dinner (Clare brought brie). Claude and Christine went to dinner at a friend's so we were a bit louder and people stayed a bit longer than usual, but we had a lot of fun and since it was gross and rainy out it was the perfect way to spend the evening.

Sunday, September 14th, Claude fixed the system fan in my laptop and I commenced my blogging! Also on this day in history...Jillian and I went out in search of food around lunch time and found a place completely by accident. France is closed on Sundays (a bit of a generalization, but not by much) so our plan was to go to Centre Ville to eat, but because we had to wait 15 minutes for our transfer tram at Chavant we decided to wander over to Pathe! cinema. The restaurant next door so we had lunch there (I had pizza with champignons and jambon). At that point we decided to see a movie, so Monica came and met us at the theatre for a late afternoon show. It was a "return to cinema" weekend, so tickets were only 3,50 euro. We saw Comme les Autres and although I worried that it would be a dark and tragic French film it was funny and thoughtful and I really enjoyed it.

Monday was a pretty nondescript day. I had my Travaux Pratiques class in the morning, met up with people for lunch in the cafeteria, had two more classes in the CUEF, then left campus with Jillian. On our way home we stopped at Monoprix to buy school supplies. I got some sweet matching folders and notebooks and that was pretty much my success story for the day. (The picture to the right was taken from our tram stop, Monday was our first non dreary day in a while, so I wanted to capture the moment for posterity.)

We had dinner with Claude and Christine and it was incredible (comme toujours!)...we had avocado (with lemon and olive oil), shredded carrots (with an oil and vinegar dressing), ravioli (which is a dish typical to the region) with butter and cheese, bread, cheese that Christine made herself, and ice cream and frozen cherries for dessert. We discussed WWII, war films and documentaries (Claude lent us The Longest Day, a film about D-Day, to watch), the differences and similarities between French and American politics, and the valor of Napoleon. It's great talking to Claude and Christine because they offer new and unique perspectives on every subject and are always supportive of our French, helping us better articulate our thoughts and providing useful vocabulary.

It seems that summer is long gone from France and fall is in full swing with winter right around the corner here in Grenoble, but I love it and wouldn't change a thing in the world!

Au revoir!

2008-09-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

On we go...

Tuesday was our first day of classes at the university. After receiving the results of our placement test, we attended an orientation session for CUEF students and got a chance to meet other students who will be studying in Grenoble this semester. For the first week it was required that we attend all the classes in the CUEF in order to decide which four we want to take for the semester along with our Travaux Pratiques (French language) class. Our first class, Monde des affaires et environnement economique, was painfully boring and I was glad when it was over and we were free to leave.

Xio, Monica, Gerald, Brittany, and I went to Monoprix and a Paperie in search of notebooks and agendas/planners. I found a beautiful planner for 4 euro and was very pleased with both its colorful design and its functionality. Xio, Monica, and I went to the creperie where we had dinner with the group our first night and rushed to finish in 30 minutes...tres not French. We met up with Geoffrey, Kelly, and Julia for the historical tour of Grenoble, but there ended up being too many people, so Julia, Xio, and I went for a walk around Centre Ville and to find dessert instead. We had dessert at Cafe Grenette. I had the fontane du chocolat which was delicious and our waiter was cute, friendly, and spoke English. He told us about some cool bars and discotheques in Grenoble that we should check out while we're here. There was some sort of crazy initiation thing going on in Centre Ville with university students running around, acting crazy, and taking pictures, but it was entertaining.

The next day I had my first Travaux Pratiques class and it went extremely well. There are a lot of really nice people in my class from all over the world (China, Venezuela, Kuwait, Japan,...) who I'll get to know better as the semester goes on (with 10 hours of class per week, the 12 of us are sure to become close by the end of the semester). Histoire de la France contemporaine (taught by Patrice) was interesting and a good introduction for what we'll be covering over the course of the semester, French Revolution to the end of the First World War. Histoire du cinema francais was also interesting, but four hours (even if two are spent watching a film) are too much for me. Particularly artistic French films which tend to be intense and not necessarily suited to my tastes.

Our group left the film screening a bit early in order to make it to Marie-Eve's apartment by 18h for dinner. Patrice talked to us briefly about classes and then we enjoyed an Asian inspired/infused meal. Marie-Eve's apartment has an incredible view of Grenoble and the mountains. We talked to Celine about our host families and met her three children. Some of our talented program members played the piano after dinner (Jillian, Geoffrey, and Julia L) and overall it was a nice, relaxed evening.

After leaving Marie-Eve's a group of us walked back towards Centre Ville and Place Grenette and got dessert at Sporting Cafe. I got a chocolat liegois (je ne sais pas que c'etait le vrai nom), but it came in a tall glass and was delicious! Most of us still haven't gotten used to the French service style of taking your time and not having an attentive waiter (one of the problems of the service compris system in my opinion), but anyway, Jillian, Monica, Brittany, Gerald, Clare, and I had a good time.

The next morning I had my typical breakfast of baguette et chocolat chaud. I don't have classes Thursday morning so I worked on some homework, relaxed a bit, and dealt with some laptop stuff (I have largely ignored the details of my laptop ordeal in the blog seeing as everything is now settled, but at this particular moment in my story my laptop was held up in Paris in customs) before heading off to campus to meet Clare and Geoffrey for lunch at the campus sandwicherie. In the afternoon we had an art history class, Initiation a l'histoire de l'art francais, which was enjoyable, but will most likely not end up in my permanent schedule.

After class Jillian and I went to Casino, the supermarche by our house, and bought some food for our rooms and other such essential items. Dinner with Claude and Christine was served on the back patio. We had melon, leeks (which I can honestly say were the first French food I have encountered which I was not a fan of, but even so, I wouldn't say I detest them), fried fish, cheese and bread, and a delectable creme du chocolat with little chunks of chocolate. We watched M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable (Incassable) en francais with French subtitles, which were extremely helpful for understanding the dialogue. Before I went to bed I called David and left him a voicemail for his birthday. Happy 18th bday Davo!

Au revoir!

2008-09-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

It is now September 7th and Jillian's 20th birthday!

In the morning we joined Claude, Christine, and a family friend, also named Christine, for breakfast before leaving to meet the rest of our group at Maison du Tourisme for our trip to the Bastille. We went to lunch in Centre Ville at Pain & Cei where I had vin rouge and une tartine chaud de poulet.

From there we walked to Jardin de Ville and rode les boulles up to the Bastille. Patrice acted as our tour guide for the day, telling us all about the history of Grenoble and pointing out relevant locations and their architecture. The view on the ride up the mountain was breathtaking, but a bit scary since the doors of our boulle did not close completely. From the Bastille, you can see all of Grenoble and its surrounding rivers and mountain chains. We hiked down the mountain stopping along the way when Patrice explained different elements of our academic program and when we visited the Musee Dauphinois.

On our way home Jillian and I stopped at Patisserie et Chocolaterie by our house and bought a cake for her birthday. We got the chance to use our house keys for the first time, since they had just been given to us that morning in a key ceremony. We ate dinner with Claude and Christine and had sardines (which were not in can form and were surprisingly good), ratatouille, cheese and spinach quiche, cheese and bread, and sorbet with a British cookie. After dinner, Claude set up a little breakfast station for us in our bathroom and gave us a DVD to watch, Les Poupees Russes (the sequel to L'Auberge Espagnole).

On Monday we took our placement exam at Universite Stendhal. Oral exams were first and we met individually with CUEF (Centre Universitaire D'Etudes Francaises) professors where we discussed general topics relating to interests and potential career plans in order to gauge our proficiency in spoken French. We then took the written exam which was meant to assess our listening and reading comprehension. The exam went well and I felt confident that I had done the best that I could.

After the exam our group had lunch at a restaurant on campus, where I had pasta with roquefort and a brownie with creme anglais. Then we met with Patrice to discuss the programs and what our expectations for the semester should be.

Jillian, Anna, Clare, Xio, Brittany, Gerald, Monica, and myself returned to our maison to eat cake and belatedly celebrate Jillian's birthday. There was a misunderstanding and Claude and Christine had thought that it was Jillian's birthday on the 8th instead of the 7th, so we also celebrated with them (and Christine's mother) that night before dinner. They bought Jillian a cadeaux and we had a bottle of champagne on the porch in the garden in front of the house (right). We had melon, pork, ratatouille, rice, cheese and bread, and a lemon custard dessert. Claude and Christine opened a vintage bottle of red wine (1993), which was apparently two years past its prime. According to Christine's mother, you can tell if red wines are too aged if they are maroon. Our dinner conversation was lively...Claude sang Roxanne by The Police, and we discussed various animated Pixar classics, like Toy Story. It was so much fun and we laughed through the whole meal...a truly bon fete! Au revoir!

2008-09-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm still playing catch-up, but I'm making progress. Slow and steady...

To give you some context on when these events are taking place, our first full day in Grenoble was Friday, September 5th. That morning we woke up and enjoyed the hotel's breakfast, which included various breads, sugar donuts, and fresh squeezed orange juice (a picture of me enjoying my jus d'orange can be seen above in my lovely blog header designed by Jillian (seen to the right, working hard in her chambre) in a petite salle with small tables and banquettes.

After breakfast we met with Marie-Eve, did introductions, and were given a small packet with our schedule for the week, a map of Grenoble, and an extremely helpful handbook which I wish I had received in advance. From there we went to the bureau in Place St. Claire and talked a little bit more about our program housing and host families. Then we went to Orange (a cell phone store) and let me tell you that anything dealing with technology...phones, laptops (don't even get me started on laptops)...is beyond stressful. But anyway...we went to lunch at Fleur de Sel where I had scallops and rice for lunch and an opera (gateau du chocolat et du cafe) for dessert.

In the afternoon, we took the tram to campus and got a mini tour. The campus is beautiful. It's surrounded by mountains and despite the sometimes garish architecture of the 70's is really lovely (seen to the right). After the tour a group of us returned to Jardin de Ville (which has access to the public wifi...pronounced wee-fee in French) and sat in the pavilion until it was time to return to the hotel.

Because our host family was on vacation in the south of France, Jillian and I stayed at Hotel de l'Europe for an extra night once everyone else left with their host families. Jillian and I met Canaan for dinner at a little Italian restaurant. It was a nice long dinner and we had the chance to talk while we waited for our food. That's definitely one cultural difference which is taking me awhile to adjust to...food service. All meals are very leisurely and it's frustrating sometimes, particularly when you're hungry or have somewhere to be, but I appreciate the concept and am learning to adapt. There were three mini blackouts, which were amusing, especially since none of the patrons or staff seemed to mind them at all. After dinner, Jillian and I returned to Place Grenette for ice cream and we strolled through Centre Ville before turning in for the evening.

On Saturday morning, we once again enjoyed our petit dejeuner at the hotel before meeting Jillian's dad's cousin Mary, who drove us out to her home in St. Martin d'Uriage. Mary explained some of the history of Grenoble and described how to identify the three mountain chains surrounding the city (Chartreuse, Verdun, et Vercours). Her home was magnificent, with a view of the mountains from her patio (seen to the left). We spent the morning with her family and I got the chance to practice my French while playing with her youngest daughter and during lunch. Mary drove us to the tram station in the afternoon and we ran some errands in Centre Ville before returning to the hotel to meet our host parents.

Claude came to pick us up at the hotel at 18h Saturday night and drove us to our new home. Our house is incredible, even in the pouring rain it was beautiful. Claude helped us with our luggage and inside we met Christine and Plume. Claude and Christine are wonderful and have been so generous with us and so patient and encouraging with our french, I absolutely could not have wished for a better host family.

We have the deuxieme etage to ourselves. We each have our own bedroom and we share a private bath and a petit salon. My room has a view of the sunset and is blue and yellow in a very French provincial style (seen to the right). I have a small fireplace, a desk, an armoir, and a bookshelf. C'est fantastique!

Jillian and I presented Claude and Christine with our cadeaux before les aperatifs and we were able to hold our own in conversation which made me very pleased. Jillian and I decided that we would speak to one another in French on the rez-de-chaussee and would only speak English from time to time on the 2ieme etage. For dinner we had melon (which they brought back from the south of France), viande et tomates, cheese, baguette, and for dessert, un tart tropezienne. Christine told us the history of the dessert, which did not actually come from St. Tropez, but was named after the city to appeal to a discerning public.

Our dinner conversation was wonderful. Claude showed us a map of the tram and told us about the geography of the region. He also told us about a statue in the Centre Ville of a Lion with a serpent in its mouth (seen to the left), the Lion representing le Drac and the Serpent representing l'Isere, these two rivers converge in a "y" around Grenoble. After our meal we watched the beginning of Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief en francais and discussed the lives and careers of Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. Claude knows an incredible amount about films and directors (French and American) and had lots of trivia for us about the locations where the film was shot.

It was an excellent first night with Claude, Christine, and Plume and in the past week things have only gotten better!

Au revoir!

2008-09-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I have a laptop and can commence with my blog!

I think it's best to start from the beginning, so here it goes...

I was paranoid about missing my flight, so I arrived at the airport way too early...2 hours before Air France even opened. Everything ran smoothly and I met people from the program at the check-in line. Most people were just as in the dark as I was regarding what was happening once we arrived in Grenoble, so that was a major relief.

The seats on Air France flights are, how shall I put this delicately, cozy? but I was sitting next to two awesome people, Julia B and my future housemate (though we didn't know it at the time) Jillian (seen below). Our in-flight dinner was delicious, we had chicken and rice with wine sauce, broccoli, tabbouleh with salmon, brie, chocolate cake, and baguette. You will find over the course of my blogging that food will play an important role in my life in France.

I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and because I felt to cramped to sleep Jillian and I talked for most of the flight from Boston to Paris. We also played a word game (sort of like Scrabble, but with cards) with limited success (mostly on my part).

After we arrived in Paris and went through customs, we waited at our lovely gate and made the first of many video blogs (which can be viewed on Jillian's blog). We had a short flight from Paris to Lyon which I slept through entirely, so nothing interesting to report regarding that leg of my journey. Something of note, however, is the fact that up until we arrived in Lyon at St.Exupery, I really hadn't had a truly French interaction, but when we landed in Lyon I asked for directions to the bus terminal in French and was quite proud of myself!

I fell asleep on the bus ride from Lyon to Grenoble, but didn't miss too much since it was pretty overcast and rainy (and there was apparently hail). The mountains surrounding Grenoble were completely shrouded by clouds, but the city was still gorgeous. We were staying at the Hotel de l'Europe (seen to the right) and had a great room with a balcony and a view of Place Grenette. It was when we arrived at the hotel that Jillian and I learned that we were going to be housemates for the semester.

Before we met for dinner, a small group of us went shopping at Monoprix, walked through Jardin de Ville, visited a tabac, and got some info at the Maison du Tourisme. We all went out to dinner with Marie-Eve and Canaan at a crepe restaurant near Place Notre Dame and the food was delicious.

And so ended my first day in Grenoble.

Au revoir!

Bonjour de Grenoble

2008-09-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I am currently without a computer of my own (...it's a long story), but I wanted to set up my blog (with the help of my lovely housemate Jillian) and begin posting.

Grenoble is incredible! I love the people in the program, my host family and their dog Plume are wonderful, the food and the wine are amazing, I am surrounded by mountains, and everyone speaks French!

I miss you all and promise to give more details of my life abroad soon!

Au revoir,
Sam

p.s. If you are just dying to see photos and cannot possibly wait for me to upload them myself, check out Jillian's blog (the link is to the left) for brilliant commentary, photos, and video.