Six To Eight Black Men
By David Sedaris
A heartwarming tale of Christmas in a foreign land where, if you've
been naughty, Saint Nick and his friends give you an ass-whuppin'.
I've never been much for guidebooks, so when trying to get my
bearings in a strange American city, I normally start by asking the
cabdriver or hotel clerk some silly question regarding the latest
census figures. I say silly because I don't really care how many
people live in Olympia, Washington, or Columbus, Ohio. They're
nice enough places, but the numbers mean nothing to me. My second
question might have to do with average annual rainfall, which,
again, doesn't tell me anything about the people who have chosen
to call this place home.
What really interests me are the local gun laws. Can I carry a
concealed weapon, and if so, under what circumstances? What's the
waiting period for a tommy gun? Could I buy a Glock 17 if I were
recently divorced or fired from my job? I've learned from
experience that it's best to lead into this subject as delicately
as possible, especially if you and the local citizen are alone and
enclosed in a relatively small space. Bide your time, though, and
you can walk away with some excellent stories. I've heard, for
example, that the blind can legally hunt in both Texas and
Michigan. They must be accompanied by a sighted companion, but
still, it seems a bit risky. You wouldn't want a blind person
driving a car or piloting a plane, so why hand him a rifle? What
sense does that make? I ask about guns not because I want one of
my own but because the answers vary so widely from state to state.
In a country that's become so homogenous, I'm reassured by these
last touches of regionalism.
Guns aren't really an issue in Europe, so when I'm traveling
abroad, my first question usually relates to barnyard animals.
"What do your roosters say?" is a good icebreaker, as every country
has its own unique interpretation. In Germany, where dogs bark "vow
vow" and both the frog and the duck say "quack," the rooster greets
the dawn with a hearty "kik-a-ricki." Greek roosters crow "kiri-a-
kee," and in France they scream "coco-rico," which sounds like one
of those horrible premixed cocktails with a pirate on the label.
When told that an American rooster says "cock-a-doodle-doo," my
hosts look at me with disbelief and pity.
"When do you open your Christmas presents?" is another good
conversation starter as it explains a lot about national character.
People who traditionally open gifts on Christmas Eve seem a bit
more pious and family oriented than those who wait until Christmas
morning. They go to mass, open presents, eat a late meal, return
to church the following morning, and devote the rest of the day to
eating another big meal. Gifts are generally reserved for
children, and the parents tend not to go overboard. It's nothing
I'd want for myself, but I suppose it's fine for those who prefer
food and family to things of real value.
In France and Germany, gifts are exchanged on Christmas Eve, while
in Holland the children receive presents on December 5, in
celebration of Saint Nicholas Day. It sounded sort of quaint until
I spoke to a man named Oscar, who filled me in on a few of the
details as we walked from my hotel to the Amsterdam train station.
Unlike the jolly, obese American Santa, Saint Nicholas is painfully
thin and dresses not unlike the pope, topping his robes with a tall
hat resembling an embroidered tea cozy. The outfit, I was told, is
a carryover from his former career, when he served as a bishop in
Turkey.
One doesn't want to be too much of a cultural chauvinist, but this
seemed completely wrong to me. For starters, Santa didn't use to
do anything. He's not retired, and, more important, he has
nothing to do with Turkey. The climate's all wrong, and people
wouldn't appreciate him. When asked how he got from Turkey to the
North Pole, Oscar told me with complete conviction that Saint
Nicholas currently resides in Spain, which again is simply not
true. While he could probably live wherever he wanted, Santa chose
the North Pole specifically because it is harsh and isolated. No
one can spy on him, and he doesn't have to worry about people
coming to the door. Anyone can come to the door in Spain, and in
that outfit, he'd most certainly be recognized. On top of that,
aside from a few pleasantries, Santa doesn't speak Spanish. He
knows enough to get by, but he's not fluent, and he certainly
doesn't eat tapas.
While our Santa flies on a sled, Saint Nicholas arrives by boat
and then transfers to a white horse. The event is televised, and
great crowds gather at the waterfront to greet him. I'm not sure
if there's a set date, but he generally docks in late November and
spends a few weeks hanging out and asking people what they want.
"Is it just him alone?" I asked. "Or does he come with backup?"
Oscar's English was close to perfect, but he seemed thrown by a
term normally reserved for police reinforcement.
"Helpers," I said. "Does he have any elves?"
Maybe I'm just overly sensitive, but I couldn't help but feel
personally insulted when Oscar denounced the very idea as grotesque
and unrealistic. "Elves," he said. "They're just so silly."
The words silly and unrealistic were redefined when I learned that
Saint Nicholas travels with what was consistently described as "six
to eight black men." I asked several Dutch people to narrow it
down, but none of them could give me an exact number. It was always
"six to eight," which seems strange, seeing as they've had hundreds
of years to get a decent count.
The six to eight black men were characterized as personal slaves
until the mid-fifties, when the political climate changed and it
was decided that instead of being slaves they were just good
friends. I think history has proven that something usually comes
between slavery and friendship, a period of time marked not by
cookies and quiet times beside the fire but by bloodshed and
mutual hostility. They have such violence in Holland, but rather
than duking it out among themselves, Santa and his former slaves
decided to take it out on the public. In the early years, if a
child was naughty, Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black men
would beat him with what Oscar described as "the small branch of
a tree."
"A switch?"
"Yes," he said. "That's it. They'd kick him and beat him with a
switch. Then, if the youngster was really bad, they'd put him in
a sack and take him back to Spain."
"Saint Nicholas would kick you?"
"Well, not anymore," Oscar said. "Now he just pretends to kick
you."
"And the six to eight black men?"
"Them, too."
He considered this to be progressive, but in a way I think it's
almost more perverse than the original punishment. "I'm going to
hurt you, but not really." How many times have we fallen for that
line? The fake slap invariably makes contact, adding the elements
of shock and betrayal to what had previously been plain, old-
fashioned fear. What kind of Santa spends his time pretending to
kick people before stuffing them into a canvas sack? Then, of
course, you've got the six to eight former slaves who could
potentially go off at any moment. This, I think, is the greatest
difference between us and the Dutch. While a certain segment of
our population might be perfectly happy with the arrangement, if
you told the average white American that six to eight nameless
black men would be sneaking into his house in the middle of the
night, he would barricade the doors and arm himself with whatever
he could get his hands on.
"Six to eight, did you say?"
In the years before central heating, Dutch children would leave
their shoes by the fireplace, the promise being that unless they
planned to beat you, kick you, or stuff you into a sack, Saint
Nicholas and the six to eight black men would fill your clogs
with presents. Aside from the threats of violence and kidnapping,
it's not much different from hanging your stockings from the
mantel. Now that so few people have a working fireplace, Dutch
children are instructed to leave their shoes beside the radiator,
furnace, or space heater. Saint Nicholas and the six to eight black
men arrive on horses, which jump from the yard onto the roof. At
this point, I guess, they either jump back down and use the door,
or they stay put and vaporize through the pipes and electrical
wires. Oscar wasn't too clear about the particulars, but, really,
who can blame him? We have the same problem with our Santa. He's
supposed to use the chimney, but if you don't have one, he still
manages to come through. It's best not to think about it too hard.
While eight flying reindeer are a hard pill to swallow, our
Christmas story remains relatively simple. Santa lives with his
wife in a remote polar village and spends one night a year
traveling around the world. If you're bad, he leaves you coal. If
you're good and live in America, he'll give you just about anything
you want. We tell our children to be good and send them off to bed,
where they lie awake, anticipating their great bounty. A Dutch
parent has a decidedly hairier story to relate, telling his
children, "Listen, you might want to pack a few of your things
together before you go to bed. The former bishop from Turkey will
be coming along with six to eight black men. They might put some
candy in your shoes, they might stuff you in a sack and take you
to Spain, or they might just pretend to kick you. We don't know
for sure, but we want you to be prepared."
This is the reward for living in Holland. As a child you get to
hear this story, and as an adult you get to turn around and repeat
it. As an added bonus, the government has thrown in legalized drugs
and prostitution-so what's not to love about being Dutch?
Oscar finished his story just as we arrived at the station. He was
a polite and interesting guy-very good company-but when he offered
to wait until my train arrived, I begged off, saying I had some
calls to make. Sitting alone in the vast terminal, surrounded by
other polite, seemingly interesting Dutch people, I couldn't help
but feel second-rate. Yes, it was a small country, but it had six
to eight black men and a really good bedtime story. Being a fairly
competitive person, I felt jealous, then bitter, and was edging
toward hostile when I remembered the blind hunter tramping off
into the Michigan forest. He might bag a deer, or he might happily
shoot his sighted companion in the stomach. He may find his way
back to the car, or he may wander around for a week or two before
stumbling through your front door. We don't know for sure, but in
pinning that license to his chest, he inspires the sort of
narrative that ultimately makes me proud to be an American.
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Best Thing I've Ever Read
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Preservatifs and Preservatives are not the same…
Many words in english are extremely similar to their french counterparts. So much so that when I’m at a loss for the french word I’m searching for I just say the english word with a french accent. Coupled with a confused look it’s turned out to be a pretty successful system, most of the time.
However, tonight my system caused a little confusion. I was talking to mes Maries about where I can get olives for Mike stuffed with garlic. If they didn’t have to last until April when he comes back it wouldn’t be a problem. There are olive stands all over the markets in Aix and even though I hate olives Aix is a part of the Olive Belt so they are excellent here! However, the olives available at the markets do not have preservatives in them and would not last. I was trying to explain my problem to them and so I said “J’ai besoin de les olives avec de l’ail mais il faut que il a les preservatifs.” Translation: I need olives with garlic but they have to have (don’t know the french word for preservatives…throw on the french accent and confused look…) PRESERVATIFS?
By their reaction I could tell that my system had failed me. Though I had no idea how badly…Eventually Marie explained to me that “preservatifs sont pour proteger de SIDA” aka protection from AIDS. Great. I told mes Maries that I needed olives with garlic for my brother but they had to have condoms or they wouldn’t be good when he got back to the states. The word I was searching for was conservatifs. I doubt I’ll be making that mistake again. My system failed me. Perhaps it’s time for a new system.
Also I would like to add that this story now trumps me saying the equivalent of fuck at the dinner table when I was trying to talk about the Russian Prime Minister Putin. Poo-teen = Prime Minister Putin. Poo-tan = Fuck. And my other french faux pas was telling the group of frenchies I went hiking with that I was horny instead of just plain hot. I’m doing really well here…
However, tonight my system caused a little confusion. I was talking to mes Maries about where I can get olives for Mike stuffed with garlic. If they didn’t have to last until April when he comes back it wouldn’t be a problem. There are olive stands all over the markets in Aix and even though I hate olives Aix is a part of the Olive Belt so they are excellent here! However, the olives available at the markets do not have preservatives in them and would not last. I was trying to explain my problem to them and so I said “J’ai besoin de les olives avec de l’ail mais il faut que il a les preservatifs.” Translation: I need olives with garlic but they have to have (don’t know the french word for preservatives…throw on the french accent and confused look…) PRESERVATIFS?
By their reaction I could tell that my system had failed me. Though I had no idea how badly…Eventually Marie explained to me that “preservatifs sont pour proteger de SIDA” aka protection from AIDS. Great. I told mes Maries that I needed olives with garlic for my brother but they had to have condoms or they wouldn’t be good when he got back to the states. The word I was searching for was conservatifs. I doubt I’ll be making that mistake again. My system failed me. Perhaps it’s time for a new system.
Also I would like to add that this story now trumps me saying the equivalent of fuck at the dinner table when I was trying to talk about the Russian Prime Minister Putin. Poo-teen = Prime Minister Putin. Poo-tan = Fuck. And my other french faux pas was telling the group of frenchies I went hiking with that I was horny instead of just plain hot. I’m doing really well here…
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
I love Paris Oh my Oh my
Another week has come and gone! Time is slipping away like summer. I spent last week in Paris and it was more incredible that I could ever have imagined. The city is absolutely beautiful and there is so much to see. I did all I could but I will have to go back because there is so much that I missed.
The transportation system in France began a strike on Tuesday night and while it has become less intense it is still going on. Worried that we might not be able to get to Paris on Wednesday, our professors arranged another mode of transportation. We ended up flying there which worked out well because we ended up with more time in the city than we had initially planned.
Wednesday we had a free afternoon and so a few of us decided to go to le Centre Pompidou, which is a modern art museum. There was a large Giacommeti exhibit with some early portraits and tons of sketches and sculptures. So talented. We also checked out the modern works on the floors below his exhibit, which always confuse me but were fun to look at. I’ve decided, for my own sanity, not to take modern art too seriously.
Thursday morning our group met up after breakfast and walked to Le Louvre. It was a beautiful clear day out, though it was pretty cold. The walk took about an hour and we actually walked along the Seine! It was so unreal for me to walk along that famous river and see Notre Dame just a couple blocks away. We arrived at le Louvre to discover that it would be opening an hour late because there weren’t enough personnel at work due to the strike. Eventually we went in, via the famous pyramid and began looking at art. We spent every day at the museums from about 9-5 looking at only a small handful of paintings. We sat in front of each painting for about an hour and drinking it in and discussing the work. It was such an incredible experience. I have never seen art in such a way. We were separated into two groups throughout the week excluding when we talked about the first and last paintings.
After we finished Thursday evening Libby, Mandy and I took a stroll down the Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe. We walked around Place de Concorde and Les Tuileries then headed home. We ate at a tiny falafel place and ordered a bottle of the 2007 Boujelais. The release of this wine is a huge event in France and everyone goes out the night it is released and drinks a glass. It was released Thursday so we felt it was our duty as cultural conessieurs to have a glass.
Friday we walked through the city to the Musee d’Orsay. It was another amazing day of discussions and that afternoon they finally had enough staff to open up the Impressioniste floor, which is our class’ focus. After the museum we walk to Notre Dame and around Hotel de Ville. Then Libby and I bought some wine, cheese, baguettes, fruit and chips for dinner and lunch the next day. We were supposed to have free dinner at the hostel but it was nearly unedible so after the first night we didn’t go back. Our homemade dinner was cheap, french and delicious! After dinner Libby, Mike, Becca and I went out in search of a bar. Our hostel had a 1 am curfew so we went to the first bar we saw and after about 5 minutes of sitting inside we realized it was a gay bar. We saw a series of Britney Spears videos followed by J. Lo and watched the bartenders in tight shirts dance behind the bar. It was pretty entertaining.
Saturday we returned to the Musee d’Orsay for the morning and then went to the Orangerie in the afternoon. The Orangerie is a museum designed by Monet to house 8 of his waterlillies series. Downstairs they have works by other artists like Renoir. The Monet’s were so impressive. The building is two ovals that connect through two hallways so the paintings are on giant curved canvases which really connect you to the painting.
Saturday night the strike was beginning to ease up a little and about 1 out of 3 trains were running on the metro so Libby headed out to Sacre Coeur. Libby’s friend from high school is a student in Paris and she has the most incredible flat I have ever seen. She literally lives across the street from Sacre Coeur. It’s on the 5 floor so the living room doors and windows give a perfect view of the old church. Outside her kitchen window you can see the Eiffel Tower sparkling. Julia and her flatmate invited Libby and one lucky friend (me) to their dinner party that night. There were 10 people there in total. Libby and I represented Texas and NY, there were a couple people there from Italy, a girl from Finland/Russia, and the remaining 5 were from different parts of England and Scotland. We had drinks and appetizers like olives, artichoke hearts and mushrooms. Then we sat down and had warm goat cheese wrapped in thinly sliced ham over salade fraiche. Our main course was a Moraccan dish with couscous, chicken, chick peas? and a delicious sauce. For dessert we had macaroons, hagaandaz ice cream, fruit salad and warm apple tart. Great food, great wine, an incredible view and good conversation topped off with a cab ride home and a mad dash to the hostel to beat curfew. This night goes in my top ten for the semester.
Sunday we headed to our last museum but unfortunately I cannot remember the name of this one. We spent some time walking around on our own then we all met back up as one group, like we did for the first painting we looked at, in front of a Monet painting. We spent probably an hour and a half sitting together talking about the painting. I can’t describe the feeling I had that afternoon but it was so powerful. This trip was such an amazing experience for me and I couldn’t be happier about it all.
Over the course of the week we examined works by Gorgioni, Titian, Van Gogh, Renoir, Daubigny, Daumier, Monet, Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec. They gave us time to walk around the museums before each session and look at other works too. It’s such an overwhelming feeling to be surrounded by such amazing talent. I saw a beautiful portrait by Van Gogh that he completed in 45 minutes! I’ve never felt such awe and incompetance at the same time. I will never look at art the same way again. I am so thankful for the past 5 days.
This week I am back in the swing again in Aix. Thanksgiving is coming Thursday and I can’t help being sad that I can’t spend it with my family. I realized when I was in Paris talking to my friends about the holidays that I will not be cuddled up on a couch wrapped in a blanket watching It’s a Wonderful Life with you all on Thursday night and it brought me to tears. I love you family and I wish more than anything that I could be with you on Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving and remember…
Every time a bell rings an angel gets it’s wings.
Gros Bisous
The transportation system in France began a strike on Tuesday night and while it has become less intense it is still going on. Worried that we might not be able to get to Paris on Wednesday, our professors arranged another mode of transportation. We ended up flying there which worked out well because we ended up with more time in the city than we had initially planned.
Wednesday we had a free afternoon and so a few of us decided to go to le Centre Pompidou, which is a modern art museum. There was a large Giacommeti exhibit with some early portraits and tons of sketches and sculptures. So talented. We also checked out the modern works on the floors below his exhibit, which always confuse me but were fun to look at. I’ve decided, for my own sanity, not to take modern art too seriously.
Thursday morning our group met up after breakfast and walked to Le Louvre. It was a beautiful clear day out, though it was pretty cold. The walk took about an hour and we actually walked along the Seine! It was so unreal for me to walk along that famous river and see Notre Dame just a couple blocks away. We arrived at le Louvre to discover that it would be opening an hour late because there weren’t enough personnel at work due to the strike. Eventually we went in, via the famous pyramid and began looking at art. We spent every day at the museums from about 9-5 looking at only a small handful of paintings. We sat in front of each painting for about an hour and drinking it in and discussing the work. It was such an incredible experience. I have never seen art in such a way. We were separated into two groups throughout the week excluding when we talked about the first and last paintings.
After we finished Thursday evening Libby, Mandy and I took a stroll down the Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe. We walked around Place de Concorde and Les Tuileries then headed home. We ate at a tiny falafel place and ordered a bottle of the 2007 Boujelais. The release of this wine is a huge event in France and everyone goes out the night it is released and drinks a glass. It was released Thursday so we felt it was our duty as cultural conessieurs to have a glass.
Friday we walked through the city to the Musee d’Orsay. It was another amazing day of discussions and that afternoon they finally had enough staff to open up the Impressioniste floor, which is our class’ focus. After the museum we walk to Notre Dame and around Hotel de Ville. Then Libby and I bought some wine, cheese, baguettes, fruit and chips for dinner and lunch the next day. We were supposed to have free dinner at the hostel but it was nearly unedible so after the first night we didn’t go back. Our homemade dinner was cheap, french and delicious! After dinner Libby, Mike, Becca and I went out in search of a bar. Our hostel had a 1 am curfew so we went to the first bar we saw and after about 5 minutes of sitting inside we realized it was a gay bar. We saw a series of Britney Spears videos followed by J. Lo and watched the bartenders in tight shirts dance behind the bar. It was pretty entertaining.
Saturday we returned to the Musee d’Orsay for the morning and then went to the Orangerie in the afternoon. The Orangerie is a museum designed by Monet to house 8 of his waterlillies series. Downstairs they have works by other artists like Renoir. The Monet’s were so impressive. The building is two ovals that connect through two hallways so the paintings are on giant curved canvases which really connect you to the painting.
Saturday night the strike was beginning to ease up a little and about 1 out of 3 trains were running on the metro so Libby headed out to Sacre Coeur. Libby’s friend from high school is a student in Paris and she has the most incredible flat I have ever seen. She literally lives across the street from Sacre Coeur. It’s on the 5 floor so the living room doors and windows give a perfect view of the old church. Outside her kitchen window you can see the Eiffel Tower sparkling. Julia and her flatmate invited Libby and one lucky friend (me) to their dinner party that night. There were 10 people there in total. Libby and I represented Texas and NY, there were a couple people there from Italy, a girl from Finland/Russia, and the remaining 5 were from different parts of England and Scotland. We had drinks and appetizers like olives, artichoke hearts and mushrooms. Then we sat down and had warm goat cheese wrapped in thinly sliced ham over salade fraiche. Our main course was a Moraccan dish with couscous, chicken, chick peas? and a delicious sauce. For dessert we had macaroons, hagaandaz ice cream, fruit salad and warm apple tart. Great food, great wine, an incredible view and good conversation topped off with a cab ride home and a mad dash to the hostel to beat curfew. This night goes in my top ten for the semester.
Sunday we headed to our last museum but unfortunately I cannot remember the name of this one. We spent some time walking around on our own then we all met back up as one group, like we did for the first painting we looked at, in front of a Monet painting. We spent probably an hour and a half sitting together talking about the painting. I can’t describe the feeling I had that afternoon but it was so powerful. This trip was such an amazing experience for me and I couldn’t be happier about it all.
Over the course of the week we examined works by Gorgioni, Titian, Van Gogh, Renoir, Daubigny, Daumier, Monet, Cezanne and Toulouse-Lautrec. They gave us time to walk around the museums before each session and look at other works too. It’s such an overwhelming feeling to be surrounded by such amazing talent. I saw a beautiful portrait by Van Gogh that he completed in 45 minutes! I’ve never felt such awe and incompetance at the same time. I will never look at art the same way again. I am so thankful for the past 5 days.
This week I am back in the swing again in Aix. Thanksgiving is coming Thursday and I can’t help being sad that I can’t spend it with my family. I realized when I was in Paris talking to my friends about the holidays that I will not be cuddled up on a couch wrapped in a blanket watching It’s a Wonderful Life with you all on Thursday night and it brought me to tears. I love you family and I wish more than anything that I could be with you on Thursday. Happy Thanksgiving and remember…
Every time a bell rings an angel gets it’s wings.
Gros Bisous
Recovering from Break
Last week came and went very quickly. Time is starting to be that way here. Only five weeks until I come back. I remember thinking 3 ½ months was a long time. The first half of the week I spent catching up on all the sleep I missed out on over the break and the rest of the week I spent enjoying Aix. Thursday night I went to a cocktail party with a mix of American students from IAU and French students from some of the universities in Aix. I ended up talking with a student who studied in Austin for a year about local bars and living in west campus. What a small world, huh?
Friday I went wine tasting again with another group of IAU students. We tried some really great Rose, a red that I didn’t care for and a really good dessert wine. This time around our host was not so drunk so it was slightly less entertaining but fun all the same. Later that night, after a nap and dinner Annabelle and went out on the town. We ended up running into some other students from IAU and going to a party for an art exhibit with free drinks and appetizers. It was a lovely free evening.
Saturday I woke up and headed out to La Rotonde to meet Annabelle and Jenna to go olive picking. We took a bus into the country and were dropped off with no clue where we needed to go. We walked around a bit and finally a car drove by and it happened to be the woman whose farm we were looking for. She took us up to her house and gave us our baskets and sent us out into the fields. We picked olives all afternoon, breaking only for lunch, which the woman made us. While some might see this as slave labor we looked at it as a true cultural, provencal experience. We headed back into Aix at 5 and I got ready for our dinner party.
Marie T’s nefew and his fiancee came over for dinner and it was quite an event. They arrived just before 7 pm and I have no idea what time they left. From 7 to 8 we had drinks and appetizers in le salon. I drank pastis, which is a provencal specialty. It’s a liquor that you water down that ends up tasting like black licorice. A little after 8 we headed to the table for wine and our amuse bouche. It was crab and shrimp over some sort of sauce, very refreshing. Second course was roasted chicken and rice with apples and raisins. DELICIOUS! Next Marie T. brought out crème brulee hot from the oven. After that we each had a marangue and finally to top it off we had chocolate covered raisins and peanuts and some other chocolates. It was delicious and we sat eating and talking for hours. At midnight I was completely shattered. I said goodnight, put on my headphones and went to sleep. I have no idea what time their guests ended up leaving but when I woke up at 10:45 Saturday morning neither Maries were up yet and the table looked like it did when I went to sleep. What a great night.
I spent Sunday reading at an outdoor café, walking around Aix with friends and going to a movie that night. We went to see the Assination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. We saw it in a tiny French theater, in English with French subtitles. Their translations were crap but I guess there isn’t really any way to convey “Howdy partner” in french…
Friday I went wine tasting again with another group of IAU students. We tried some really great Rose, a red that I didn’t care for and a really good dessert wine. This time around our host was not so drunk so it was slightly less entertaining but fun all the same. Later that night, after a nap and dinner Annabelle and went out on the town. We ended up running into some other students from IAU and going to a party for an art exhibit with free drinks and appetizers. It was a lovely free evening.
Saturday I woke up and headed out to La Rotonde to meet Annabelle and Jenna to go olive picking. We took a bus into the country and were dropped off with no clue where we needed to go. We walked around a bit and finally a car drove by and it happened to be the woman whose farm we were looking for. She took us up to her house and gave us our baskets and sent us out into the fields. We picked olives all afternoon, breaking only for lunch, which the woman made us. While some might see this as slave labor we looked at it as a true cultural, provencal experience. We headed back into Aix at 5 and I got ready for our dinner party.
Marie T’s nefew and his fiancee came over for dinner and it was quite an event. They arrived just before 7 pm and I have no idea what time they left. From 7 to 8 we had drinks and appetizers in le salon. I drank pastis, which is a provencal specialty. It’s a liquor that you water down that ends up tasting like black licorice. A little after 8 we headed to the table for wine and our amuse bouche. It was crab and shrimp over some sort of sauce, very refreshing. Second course was roasted chicken and rice with apples and raisins. DELICIOUS! Next Marie T. brought out crème brulee hot from the oven. After that we each had a marangue and finally to top it off we had chocolate covered raisins and peanuts and some other chocolates. It was delicious and we sat eating and talking for hours. At midnight I was completely shattered. I said goodnight, put on my headphones and went to sleep. I have no idea what time their guests ended up leaving but when I woke up at 10:45 Saturday morning neither Maries were up yet and the table looked like it did when I went to sleep. What a great night.
I spent Sunday reading at an outdoor café, walking around Aix with friends and going to a movie that night. We went to see the Assination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. We saw it in a tiny French theater, in English with French subtitles. Their translations were crap but I guess there isn’t really any way to convey “Howdy partner” in french…
Monday, November 12, 2007
The Last Leg
I woke up a few hours later and crawled to McDonald’s for a quick dinner. I’m not proud of this but I was groggy, hungry and it’s the first time I’ve eaten since before I left so don’t hold it against me. I headed back to the hostel and spent at least an hour if not two catching up in my journal. I’d been sitting in the common area the whole time and eventually a guy came up and asked me if I wanted to come over and sit with him and his friends. Turns out they were all studying in Lyon, France and were on their fall break as well. There were 4 Australians (one guy and 3 girls) and a girl from Seattle. We sat talking for a while and invited me to come out with them for the night.
We met up with some of their friends who are studying in Madrid for the semester at a bar and moved around a bit until about 3 in the morning when we headed back to the hostel. They invited me to hang out with them for the rest of the weekend and they were all really cool so I agreed.
Saturday we spent shopping. I was on a mission to buy boots and I succeeded! Finally! Spanish boots of spanish leather. ☺ We made lunch at the hostel and continued shopping. That night we ate on the terrace at a restaurant north of Las Rambla. I actually thought it was pretty bad but they all seemed to like it. My ravioli dish was cold, the sauce was bad and there was very little of it. However I did eat some spicy potatos that were really good but I think it’s pretty hard to mess those up. Then again they messed up ravioli so who knows? Anyway after dinner we met up with their Madrid friends again and hung out in the hotel room before moving the party to a bar. The bar we went to had a forrest theme and was pretty cool. It was a little weird because there was no music…at all. But we had some good conversations going on so it was good. When the bar closed around 3 we walked around for a while before we decided to head home and crash out. I nearly cut off my own legs on the way home because my wonderful new boots were killing me but eventually…slowly…I made it home.
Sunday morning we woke up and headed out to see some more of Barcelona. The first museum we tried to go to was closed and after that our group ended up splitting in two because we wanted to see different things. They wanted to go to the Picasso museum and I was really not about to put myself through that again. (I really didn’t enjoy it if you can’t tell.)
So Steve, Gillian and I went to a parc, whose name I forget, and took a gondola up to Castle Montjuic. The view of the city was incredible from the gondola and from the castle. We could see in all directions and the ocean looked beautiful. After the castle we spent about 2 hours looking for the Cultural Center to see a photo exhibit Andrew had recommended to me. It was a rough two hours but it was well worth it. It was a collection of the best pictures in photojournalism in the last year. It was incredible. I got a packet that described the background story for each picture because all the plaques were in Catalyn sp? And Spanish. These pictures were so amazing, I can’t even describe it. Good recommendation Andrew.
We headed back to the hostel to meet up with Priyaka, Lizzie and Sammie and I got my stuff together because I had to go to the bus station at 9:30. We grabbed dinner at the same place Andrew, Emma and I went to, funny enough, and it was just as good the second time around. I was in a serious rush so I just got 2 plates of tapas for myself, some water and ran out the door before half the table’s food had arrived. I had a blast with the Aussies and Gillian. They were a good laugh and really friendly.
I made it to the bus station in plenty of time and hopped on the bus at 11 pm. Elsie and Elle, from my program, were on the same bus so we caught up on the rest of our week and then I took some tylenol pm and passed out until we arrived in Aix at 6 am Monday morning.
I crashed on Emma’s floor with Elle until my 9 am Art History class because Emma lives very close to the bus station and I live about 15-20 minutes away, Elle lives about 50 minutes away. Yikes. I am proud to say I made it to my class on time and then headed home where Marie T. fixed us a wonderful lunch on the balcony overlooking the East and South of Aix in all it’s fall glory.
What an amazing 10 days it has been!
We met up with some of their friends who are studying in Madrid for the semester at a bar and moved around a bit until about 3 in the morning when we headed back to the hostel. They invited me to hang out with them for the rest of the weekend and they were all really cool so I agreed.
Saturday we spent shopping. I was on a mission to buy boots and I succeeded! Finally! Spanish boots of spanish leather. ☺ We made lunch at the hostel and continued shopping. That night we ate on the terrace at a restaurant north of Las Rambla. I actually thought it was pretty bad but they all seemed to like it. My ravioli dish was cold, the sauce was bad and there was very little of it. However I did eat some spicy potatos that were really good but I think it’s pretty hard to mess those up. Then again they messed up ravioli so who knows? Anyway after dinner we met up with their Madrid friends again and hung out in the hotel room before moving the party to a bar. The bar we went to had a forrest theme and was pretty cool. It was a little weird because there was no music…at all. But we had some good conversations going on so it was good. When the bar closed around 3 we walked around for a while before we decided to head home and crash out. I nearly cut off my own legs on the way home because my wonderful new boots were killing me but eventually…slowly…I made it home.
Sunday morning we woke up and headed out to see some more of Barcelona. The first museum we tried to go to was closed and after that our group ended up splitting in two because we wanted to see different things. They wanted to go to the Picasso museum and I was really not about to put myself through that again. (I really didn’t enjoy it if you can’t tell.)
So Steve, Gillian and I went to a parc, whose name I forget, and took a gondola up to Castle Montjuic. The view of the city was incredible from the gondola and from the castle. We could see in all directions and the ocean looked beautiful. After the castle we spent about 2 hours looking for the Cultural Center to see a photo exhibit Andrew had recommended to me. It was a rough two hours but it was well worth it. It was a collection of the best pictures in photojournalism in the last year. It was incredible. I got a packet that described the background story for each picture because all the plaques were in Catalyn sp? And Spanish. These pictures were so amazing, I can’t even describe it. Good recommendation Andrew.
We headed back to the hostel to meet up with Priyaka, Lizzie and Sammie and I got my stuff together because I had to go to the bus station at 9:30. We grabbed dinner at the same place Andrew, Emma and I went to, funny enough, and it was just as good the second time around. I was in a serious rush so I just got 2 plates of tapas for myself, some water and ran out the door before half the table’s food had arrived. I had a blast with the Aussies and Gillian. They were a good laugh and really friendly.
I made it to the bus station in plenty of time and hopped on the bus at 11 pm. Elsie and Elle, from my program, were on the same bus so we caught up on the rest of our week and then I took some tylenol pm and passed out until we arrived in Aix at 6 am Monday morning.
I crashed on Emma’s floor with Elle until my 9 am Art History class because Emma lives very close to the bus station and I live about 15-20 minutes away, Elle lives about 50 minutes away. Yikes. I am proud to say I made it to my class on time and then headed home where Marie T. fixed us a wonderful lunch on the balcony overlooking the East and South of Aix in all it’s fall glory.
What an amazing 10 days it has been!
Adventures with Andrew and Emma
Thursday morning we ate a crappy breakfast at the hostel and headed out to check out some Gaudi. First we went to his park, I think it was called Parc Guell but I am probably spelling it wrong. It was massive. We to the metro from the hostel and then had to walk up a GIANT hill. There were actually 4 or 5 escalators that take you up because it’s that steep and I think a lot of tourists complained. I was thankful because intensive hiking and red wine hangovers do not mix well. We got up to the top and could see the whole city. It was really overwhelming. We walked around the park, through nature trails, a playground, a game court, a wide open area with some really interesting architecture and some really cool houses that he designed. There were musicians spread out everywhere. One guy sat playing a type of drum I had never seen before. It had the most beautiful sound, so peaceful.
After that we went to Sagrada Familia (also probably spelled wrong…my apologies). It’s the gigantic church Gaudi designed. They began building it in 1886 and it is scheduled to be finished in 19 years. I was thinking about how strange it would be to come back for my 40th birthday and see it completed and look back on my time here this semester. It’s a scary thought but if I have the money I think I’ll do it. Anyway, the church is so intricate you could study it for years. It’s the most beautiful building I have ever seen. We went inside and we happened to go at a really good time of day. The light was exploding through the stained glass and making the most amazing colors on the scaffolding inside the church. Downstairs there is a museum with Gaudi’s sketches, photographs of progress through the years, models,, etc. It was really cool. We spent our entire day checking out Gaudi and it was all incredible. We headed back to the hostel around 5 pm and I checked out and we dropped my stuff off at my final hostel for fall break, Centre-Rambla Barcelona. It was better than the White Tulip in Amsterdam but that doesn’t really say a lot. The food was complete crap, the computers were constantly broken and the staff wasn’t very nice. Plus it wasn’t really a youth hostel, there were a lot of people staying there that were much much older.
After I locked my stuff up in my room we walked around Las Rambla, the main street. This road has it all: little souvenier stands, pet stands, artists, musicians, beer vendors, prostitutes, drug dealers and street performers. We stuck to the artists, musicians and street performers. I actually hate this road and will be happy if I never see it again. Every five feet a tourist is stopping to look at something or take a picture. You move to keep walking and run into someone pushing beer in your face or trying to steal your purse or sell you sex or drugs…ahhh so stressful! I loved Barcelona but I wish someone would blow that street off the face of the earth! Anywho…
We stopped to watch a Michael Jackson impersonator because he had quite a crowd going. We waited for about 30 minutes while he ordered people to pay him immediately or he wouldn’t dance. He was such a jerk. At one point he walked around with his hat and shoved it in people’s faces, one in particular…mine. I told him no (mind you he hadn’t even done anything yet). I guess he preferred it when people avoided his gaze and felt ashamed that they didn’t pay him to my response because he stormed off “Incroyable!” What a jerk. Finally, after he had walked around to everyone and shoved his hat in their faces he started his dance, which was terrible. When his mother shoved his hat in my face we decided we’d wasted enough time there and left.
Next we watched an Australian guy who was more of a comedian than anything but also did some acrobatics on a pole he had set up that was about 25-30 ft tall. He was really really funny and Andrew, Emma and I were standing front row. When he backed up to take a running start at the pole he backed into the giant camera Andrew had slung around his neck. He played it up like someone pinched his butt and turned around flirtatiously pointing back and forth between Andrew and a girl next to him. Emma and I immediately threw Andrew to the wolves, like any true friend would. The Aussie turned to Andrew and said, “In Barcelona it’s customary for a man to kiss another man on the cheek when you meet.” He stuck out his cheeck for Andrew to kiss. After a little hestitation and some encouragement from Emma and I, Andrew leaned in to peck him on the cheek. All of a sudden Aussie turned and planted one right on Andrew’s mouth. God I wish I had a camera because his face was priceless. None of us were expecting it. The whole rest of the show Aussie kept turning around to blow kisses at Andrew and wink at him. It was great.
After that we walked around, had a beer at an Irish pub, and explored the Gothic Quarter. We sat down in the Place de Rei and talked and listened to a man play an amped up spanish guitar until abour 11 when we decided to grab dinner. It’s actually completely normal to eat dinner at 11 at night, some even consider that early. Even most of the stores are open until around 11 at night. So we sat down at a nice restaurant off Las Rambla and ordered a few different plates of Tapas. We ordered a bottle of wine and had eggplant with tomatoe and goat cheese, smoked salmon stuffed with seafood, potato stuffed with cheese and kind prawns and an egg and potato omlette. It was sooooo delicious! It was the first time I have had eggs in probably years and it was really really good. The meal was absolutely incredible. To end the evening we took a long walk down the pier to look at the yatchs and then Emma and Andrew walked me back to my hostel.
The next morning I met back up with Andrew and Emma and we headed out to see the Picasso museum. The exhibit was 85% early work and 5% porn and 10% cubism. I really didn’t care for it at all. I hope to see more Picasso in Paris when we go next week and maybe I will change my mind but right now I don’t really care for his work at all. By the time we were done it was 4 o’clock and time for Andrew and Emma to head to the train station to go to Brussels. We parted ways and I headed back to my hostel for a much needed nap. I’d been getting an average of about 5-6 hours of sleep since I arrived, except when I stayed at Anna’s, so I was pretty exhausted come Friday evening.
After that we went to Sagrada Familia (also probably spelled wrong…my apologies). It’s the gigantic church Gaudi designed. They began building it in 1886 and it is scheduled to be finished in 19 years. I was thinking about how strange it would be to come back for my 40th birthday and see it completed and look back on my time here this semester. It’s a scary thought but if I have the money I think I’ll do it. Anyway, the church is so intricate you could study it for years. It’s the most beautiful building I have ever seen. We went inside and we happened to go at a really good time of day. The light was exploding through the stained glass and making the most amazing colors on the scaffolding inside the church. Downstairs there is a museum with Gaudi’s sketches, photographs of progress through the years, models,, etc. It was really cool. We spent our entire day checking out Gaudi and it was all incredible. We headed back to the hostel around 5 pm and I checked out and we dropped my stuff off at my final hostel for fall break, Centre-Rambla Barcelona. It was better than the White Tulip in Amsterdam but that doesn’t really say a lot. The food was complete crap, the computers were constantly broken and the staff wasn’t very nice. Plus it wasn’t really a youth hostel, there were a lot of people staying there that were much much older.
After I locked my stuff up in my room we walked around Las Rambla, the main street. This road has it all: little souvenier stands, pet stands, artists, musicians, beer vendors, prostitutes, drug dealers and street performers. We stuck to the artists, musicians and street performers. I actually hate this road and will be happy if I never see it again. Every five feet a tourist is stopping to look at something or take a picture. You move to keep walking and run into someone pushing beer in your face or trying to steal your purse or sell you sex or drugs…ahhh so stressful! I loved Barcelona but I wish someone would blow that street off the face of the earth! Anywho…
We stopped to watch a Michael Jackson impersonator because he had quite a crowd going. We waited for about 30 minutes while he ordered people to pay him immediately or he wouldn’t dance. He was such a jerk. At one point he walked around with his hat and shoved it in people’s faces, one in particular…mine. I told him no (mind you he hadn’t even done anything yet). I guess he preferred it when people avoided his gaze and felt ashamed that they didn’t pay him to my response because he stormed off “Incroyable!” What a jerk. Finally, after he had walked around to everyone and shoved his hat in their faces he started his dance, which was terrible. When his mother shoved his hat in my face we decided we’d wasted enough time there and left.
Next we watched an Australian guy who was more of a comedian than anything but also did some acrobatics on a pole he had set up that was about 25-30 ft tall. He was really really funny and Andrew, Emma and I were standing front row. When he backed up to take a running start at the pole he backed into the giant camera Andrew had slung around his neck. He played it up like someone pinched his butt and turned around flirtatiously pointing back and forth between Andrew and a girl next to him. Emma and I immediately threw Andrew to the wolves, like any true friend would. The Aussie turned to Andrew and said, “In Barcelona it’s customary for a man to kiss another man on the cheek when you meet.” He stuck out his cheeck for Andrew to kiss. After a little hestitation and some encouragement from Emma and I, Andrew leaned in to peck him on the cheek. All of a sudden Aussie turned and planted one right on Andrew’s mouth. God I wish I had a camera because his face was priceless. None of us were expecting it. The whole rest of the show Aussie kept turning around to blow kisses at Andrew and wink at him. It was great.
After that we walked around, had a beer at an Irish pub, and explored the Gothic Quarter. We sat down in the Place de Rei and talked and listened to a man play an amped up spanish guitar until abour 11 when we decided to grab dinner. It’s actually completely normal to eat dinner at 11 at night, some even consider that early. Even most of the stores are open until around 11 at night. So we sat down at a nice restaurant off Las Rambla and ordered a few different plates of Tapas. We ordered a bottle of wine and had eggplant with tomatoe and goat cheese, smoked salmon stuffed with seafood, potato stuffed with cheese and kind prawns and an egg and potato omlette. It was sooooo delicious! It was the first time I have had eggs in probably years and it was really really good. The meal was absolutely incredible. To end the evening we took a long walk down the pier to look at the yatchs and then Emma and Andrew walked me back to my hostel.
The next morning I met back up with Andrew and Emma and we headed out to see the Picasso museum. The exhibit was 85% early work and 5% porn and 10% cubism. I really didn’t care for it at all. I hope to see more Picasso in Paris when we go next week and maybe I will change my mind but right now I don’t really care for his work at all. By the time we were done it was 4 o’clock and time for Andrew and Emma to head to the train station to go to Brussels. We parted ways and I headed back to my hostel for a much needed nap. I’d been getting an average of about 5-6 hours of sleep since I arrived, except when I stayed at Anna’s, so I was pretty exhausted come Friday evening.
Barthelone
I arrived in Barcelona and took an hour bus ride into the city. I managed to find my hostel, Barcelona Sound and it only took me about an hour. It should have taken about 20 minutes but that city is very poorly signed and makes no sense whatsoever. Streets sprawl out in all directions. My advice…fork out the cash and take the metro. Anyway so I met up with Andrew from IAU and we waited for few hours for our friend Emma but she never showed up so we went scouting for boots and a jacket for Andrew. We ended up having tea and coffee by the pier until it was time to meet up with our other friends who were staying in Barcelona. Thankfully Emma finally arrived, her flight had been delayed for 6 hours in Charles de Gaulle. I really do hate that airport. So we met up with Elsie, Katie, Elle and Elle’s boyfriend and celebrated Halloween over cheap wine in the square at the start of Las Rambla, the main road in Barcelona. When it started raining on us we moved the party to Elle and Stan’s hostel. Their room was up about 10 flights of stairs, if I would have stayed there I think I would have never left the room because it takes way too much effort to leave or come back. So anyway, Halloween was good but it hurt a bit the day after. Cheap red wine is great if your shooting for a massive hangover.
Last Day in Amsterdam
Elsie, Katie and her friends left for Barcelona Tuesday morning and I checked out of my hostel and into the last hostel for Amsterdam, The White Tulip. The White Tulip was SHADY! Zach booked it because it was the only place he could find that could accommodate 7 people on such short notice without costing an arm and a leg. It was on the outskirts of the Red Light District and across the street from Dirty Dick’s, the gay bar. I reluctantly locked my belongings in my locker and headed out to spend my last day in Amsterdam. The weather was beautiful which was a nice change from the gray, overcast and drizzly sky that I’d seen since I arrived. I walked to a bike rental shop and got a classic dutch bike and tooled around for about 3 hours. I spent most of my time at Vondelpark. I went a little picture crazy but it was so beautiful and I couldn’t help myself.
After my bike adventure I headed back to the hostel and had a beer in the bar. I met up with Libby’s friend Chris and we hung out until Libby, Annabell, Mike, Zach and Jenna arrived from Dublin. We had dinner and went to a hookah bar. When everyone else from my program arrived we sat in a coffee shop and caught up on everyone’s travels. I stayed out with them until about 2:30 or 3 when I decided to grab a quick siesta before I had to get up at 4:15 am to catch a bus to the airport in Eindhoven. I woke up and hurried through the streets to the bus stop and slept the whole way to the airport and throughout the filght to Barcelona.
I was really sad to leave Amsterdam. I loved it there. I can’t wait to go back again someday.
After my bike adventure I headed back to the hostel and had a beer in the bar. I met up with Libby’s friend Chris and we hung out until Libby, Annabell, Mike, Zach and Jenna arrived from Dublin. We had dinner and went to a hookah bar. When everyone else from my program arrived we sat in a coffee shop and caught up on everyone’s travels. I stayed out with them until about 2:30 or 3 when I decided to grab a quick siesta before I had to get up at 4:15 am to catch a bus to the airport in Eindhoven. I woke up and hurried through the streets to the bus stop and slept the whole way to the airport and throughout the filght to Barcelona.
I was really sad to leave Amsterdam. I loved it there. I can’t wait to go back again someday.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Elsie and Friends
After getting my stuff organized at the Pig I headed out for some dinner and to scope out the night life. I ate at Walk to Wok and it was delicious! I actually ended up eating there three times which is sad but everytime I hung out with someone else they really wanted to eat there and it was always good so I didn’t argue. After dinner I went to The Bulldog which is a bar and coffee shop and hung out there for a while. Outside is Leidsplein Square where I listened to a couple different musicians and watched a guy juggle a football. He was really really good. I headed back to the hostel, took a nap and woke up to go down to the bar and see what was happening. They were showing movies so I watched the end of Sin City and ran into Elsie and her friend Katie. Elsie is in my program at IAU and we planned on either running into each other on Sunday night or meeting up Monday morning at breakfast. We hung out for a few hours in the bar until I crashed out.
Breakfast at the hostel was actually really good. Simple but good. After breakfast we headed out to explore. We went to the Foam Museum to see their photo exhibit which was really good and then met up with some girls Katie is studying with in Lyon, France. We had lunch and some tea and found out that the Heiniken Experience and most of the Rijkstad Museum were closed. To console ourselves because our plans were shot we bought waffles and I soon forgot about our foiled plans. Later we had dinner at Walk to Wok, still amazing, and went out to enjoy the night life. We returned to the hostel and drank in the bar while they played more movies and games.
Breakfast at the hostel was actually really good. Simple but good. After breakfast we headed out to explore. We went to the Foam Museum to see their photo exhibit which was really good and then met up with some girls Katie is studying with in Lyon, France. We had lunch and some tea and found out that the Heiniken Experience and most of the Rijkstad Museum were closed. To console ourselves because our plans were shot we bought waffles and I soon forgot about our foiled plans. Later we had dinner at Walk to Wok, still amazing, and went out to enjoy the night life. We returned to the hostel and drank in the bar while they played more movies and games.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
With Anna
Anna and I crawled out of bed around 11 on Saturday morning and it felt great. I treated myself to a hot, stand up shower and ate toast with peanut butter! PB is really expensive in France so I never eat it. I actually bought a jar in the Netherlands to bring back with me. It was .70 Eurocents whereas in France it would have cost me about 8 Euros. I am in heaven!
Anna took me to Haarlem for the day, which is a city about 20 minutes away from Hoofddorp with some cool shops, a really nice big church and a market. I tried two holiday specialties. The first were little cookies that tasted like gingersnaps and the second was two thin waffles with something similar to caramel inbetween. They were both really good. Then we had movie night and vegged out in front of the TV. It was so nice to watch a movie in english and not have to do all the mental work of translating.
Sunday morning we enjoyed our extra hour of sleep, thanks to daylight savings. We got up, I ate more peanut butter toast ☺ and we drove into Amsterdam. She used to work at the hostel I was staying in so showed me the way there and I dropped off my stuff in my room. I stayed at the Flying Pig, which is a really popular hostel in Amsterdam. It’s my favorite hostel so far. Then Anna showed me around that end of town, the shopping areas, the really expensive street where all the celebrities shop and the Red Light District. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough for a hooker so I just window shopped. Lovely.
Anna left around 5 pm and I headed back to the hostel.
Anna took me to Haarlem for the day, which is a city about 20 minutes away from Hoofddorp with some cool shops, a really nice big church and a market. I tried two holiday specialties. The first were little cookies that tasted like gingersnaps and the second was two thin waffles with something similar to caramel inbetween. They were both really good. Then we had movie night and vegged out in front of the TV. It was so nice to watch a movie in english and not have to do all the mental work of translating.
Sunday morning we enjoyed our extra hour of sleep, thanks to daylight savings. We got up, I ate more peanut butter toast ☺ and we drove into Amsterdam. She used to work at the hostel I was staying in so showed me the way there and I dropped off my stuff in my room. I stayed at the Flying Pig, which is a really popular hostel in Amsterdam. It’s my favorite hostel so far. Then Anna showed me around that end of town, the shopping areas, the really expensive street where all the celebrities shop and the Red Light District. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough for a hooker so I just window shopped. Lovely.
Anna left around 5 pm and I headed back to the hostel.
Tackling Amsterdam Day 1
I spent the morning drinking tea in a hookah bar, reading more of my David Sedaris book and writing in my journal. I met up with Debbie and her friends who go to IAU and Debbie’s friend Eva who is studying in Amsterdam for the semester. We walked around exploring different shops and eventually arrived at the Van Gogh museum. By then it was just Debbie, Eva and I and we spent a good 3 hours walking around looking at Van Gogh paintings. As cliché as it is, Van Gogh is one of my favorite painters and the exhibit was incredible. I loved every minute of it. After we finished there we decided to make a new route back to Central Station but got insanely lost, for about 2 hours. Since I had to catch a train to Hoofddorp to meet up with Anna from camp I gave up and hopped on a tram back to where I needed to be.
I grabbed my train to Hoofddorp, which was about a 20 minute ride. Anna’s brother Tim picked me up from the station and then we went to get Anna from work. I had the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted at the restaurant Anna works at. The hot chocolate in France is crap so it was a nice change. Tim cooked me a burger and fries for dinner and we hung out at their place until about midnight drinking beer and watching Tim’s friend do his impressions of Elvis, which by the way were fantastic. Around midnight we decided to go to a couple bars in Hoofddorp. Anna let me use her bike and she rode her mom’s. I felt like a native weaving through the back streets, along the canals on a classic dutch bike in a pack to the bars. The first bar we went to was a pretty average bar. We drank and played pool and eventually decided to change our scene. Tim said I had to go to the next bar because it was a true Dutch bar. The Dutch are officially crazy. I can’t really describe it but it was loud and packed. People were bouncing off the walls, dancing, singing and drinking. It was fun but unbearably hot. We headed home and passed out around 2 or 3 am.
I grabbed my train to Hoofddorp, which was about a 20 minute ride. Anna’s brother Tim picked me up from the station and then we went to get Anna from work. I had the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted at the restaurant Anna works at. The hot chocolate in France is crap so it was a nice change. Tim cooked me a burger and fries for dinner and we hung out at their place until about midnight drinking beer and watching Tim’s friend do his impressions of Elvis, which by the way were fantastic. Around midnight we decided to go to a couple bars in Hoofddorp. Anna let me use her bike and she rode her mom’s. I felt like a native weaving through the back streets, along the canals on a classic dutch bike in a pack to the bars. The first bar we went to was a pretty average bar. We drank and played pool and eventually decided to change our scene. Tim said I had to go to the next bar because it was a true Dutch bar. The Dutch are officially crazy. I can’t really describe it but it was loud and packed. People were bouncing off the walls, dancing, singing and drinking. It was fun but unbearably hot. We headed home and passed out around 2 or 3 am.
Fall Break Begins
Well midterms week is nothing but a blur to me now. I managed to get everything turned in and so far my test grades have been much better than I expected. I headed for the airport on Thursday afternoon after a long day of two tests and finishing a paper at the last possible second. I saw it rain in Provence for the first time since I arrived in September. Unfortunately it was pouring down rain all over our baggage for about 20 minutes while they waited to load it onto the plane. Ryan Air, the airlines I fly with in Europe, is dirt cheap and for good reason. The only fly a limited number of places, the seats don’t recline, not even the peanuts are free, they can cancel your flight without reimbursing you and they don’t have tarps for their luggage carts. Luckily for me my REI bag is waterproof, others were not so fortunate.
The plane ride went well. I read my first David Sedaris book and it was hilarious. I actually had to stop reading it because I was laughing uncontrollably and people were staring. I sat next to a musician from Montpillier, France who was traveling with the 85 person orchestra he plays in to Germany for a concert. We spoke in french about school, his music, traveling and Bush, of course. Everyone in Europe wants to know what Americans think about Bush and how the hell he got re-elected. When the plane landed the passengers all cheered, as if they seriously doubted that we would actually land safely. This lack on confidence did not reassure me for my flight with Ryan Air to Barcelona.
From the airport I hopped on a bus from Eindhoven to Amsterdam. It was about 1 ½ hours long and I ended up talking to some people from France. There were 5 guys and 1 girl all traveling together for the weekend to Amsterdam. They were a couple years older than me and really funny. They didn’t speak any english so it was pretty cool. They ended up inviting me to hang out with them for the night and stay in their hotel since I traveled alone. So I went out with them for the night but decided to just stay in my hostel since I already paid for the bed. We went to a coffee shop for a couple hours and grabbed some food and then parted ways. It was really awesome hanging out with them. I actually ran into them the next day when my friends and I were walking to the Van Gogh museum. Small world.
After I left the frenchies I headed to my hostel. At this point it was about 2 in the morning and so I put my stuff down and sat down in the bar inside the hostel to have a beer. As soon as I put my purse down this drunk Canadian kid waved me over to sit next to him so I went and sat down. He told me the most ridiculous stories I have ever heard come out of someone’s mouth. They were really entertaining so I just nodded and oohed while he told lie after lie. At one point he told me he was photographing a riot from a rooftop and a helicopter spotlighted him so he jumped off the roof, sprained his ankle and started running. Then suddenly one of the police officers from the helicopter, in full riot gear hunted him down, threw him on the ground, pinned him down with his shield and took him to jail. Right. Earlier in the evening he told me he wasn’t able to smoke, drink caffine or eat chocolate because he had a heart condition and they would cause him to have some sort of anxiety attack. An hour later when I busted out my Beuno Bar (my personal version of crack…chocolate style) he practically drooled all over me until I offered him some. He snarfed half my bar and I kept waiting for him to pass out but it never happened. Damn. Around 4 am I got tired of hearing his rubbish so I crashed out.
End first night in Amsterdam.
The plane ride went well. I read my first David Sedaris book and it was hilarious. I actually had to stop reading it because I was laughing uncontrollably and people were staring. I sat next to a musician from Montpillier, France who was traveling with the 85 person orchestra he plays in to Germany for a concert. We spoke in french about school, his music, traveling and Bush, of course. Everyone in Europe wants to know what Americans think about Bush and how the hell he got re-elected. When the plane landed the passengers all cheered, as if they seriously doubted that we would actually land safely. This lack on confidence did not reassure me for my flight with Ryan Air to Barcelona.
From the airport I hopped on a bus from Eindhoven to Amsterdam. It was about 1 ½ hours long and I ended up talking to some people from France. There were 5 guys and 1 girl all traveling together for the weekend to Amsterdam. They were a couple years older than me and really funny. They didn’t speak any english so it was pretty cool. They ended up inviting me to hang out with them for the night and stay in their hotel since I traveled alone. So I went out with them for the night but decided to just stay in my hostel since I already paid for the bed. We went to a coffee shop for a couple hours and grabbed some food and then parted ways. It was really awesome hanging out with them. I actually ran into them the next day when my friends and I were walking to the Van Gogh museum. Small world.
After I left the frenchies I headed to my hostel. At this point it was about 2 in the morning and so I put my stuff down and sat down in the bar inside the hostel to have a beer. As soon as I put my purse down this drunk Canadian kid waved me over to sit next to him so I went and sat down. He told me the most ridiculous stories I have ever heard come out of someone’s mouth. They were really entertaining so I just nodded and oohed while he told lie after lie. At one point he told me he was photographing a riot from a rooftop and a helicopter spotlighted him so he jumped off the roof, sprained his ankle and started running. Then suddenly one of the police officers from the helicopter, in full riot gear hunted him down, threw him on the ground, pinned him down with his shield and took him to jail. Right. Earlier in the evening he told me he wasn’t able to smoke, drink caffine or eat chocolate because he had a heart condition and they would cause him to have some sort of anxiety attack. An hour later when I busted out my Beuno Bar (my personal version of crack…chocolate style) he practically drooled all over me until I offered him some. He snarfed half my bar and I kept waiting for him to pass out but it never happened. Damn. Around 4 am I got tired of hearing his rubbish so I crashed out.
End first night in Amsterdam.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
It's Midterms week and I'm not studying.
Bonjour tout le monde! The past week has been pretty tame. I stayed in Aix for the weekend to prepare for my midterms this week, though somehow I didn’t end up doing much studying. Go figure. I guess I wouldn’t be a college student if I didn’t procrastinate.
I went out to Le Sunset during the week and enjoyed the happy hour special with my friends Zach and Mike. They have girafes for 10 Euros before 10:30 so we went out a little early and ordered a couple at 10:25 to keep on reserve. We got into an argument with some Englanders that turned out to be pretty amusing. They were talking about how stupid Americans are and how we don’t even know our own history and what not. One of them was determined to prove to us that we were idiots because we said we have 50 states instead of 46 states and 4 commonwealths. Anyway it was pretty funny watching everyone get worked up. Some people just shouldn’t drink.
I spent another night walking around Aix with Zach and Mike looking at all the buildings and admiring how they are all crooked and hover over the streets. After we got tired of walking around we stopped in at the hookah bar for some tea and Apple Hashish (I think that’s how you spell it?). As usual we were the center of attention because no matter how hard we try to blend in at the end of the day we are just loud Americans, Mike especially. You practically have to whisper everywhere you go in this country or you will get stared down.
Friday I went wine tasting with a group of about 30 people from IAU. We went to a small restaurant with a room upstairs where you can sit and learn about wine tasting. After that you go downstairs to a special area with about 50 different wines you can taste. We went upstairs where the owner taught us about different wines, how they are made and how to taste them. He had another session before us and I guess he didn’t spit out the wine because he was pretty drunk come the middle of our discussion. He spoke english pretty well but he kept forgetting what he was trying to say, which I think was more the fault of the wine than his language skills. He smacked one of the girls in the back of the head when her phone rang in the middle of his lesson. It was pretty funny but I think everyone was pretty shocked. It wasn’t that hard but I could never imagine that happening in the US. Anyway, we tried a Rosse, a desert white wine, and a red wine. Then we went downstairs and I tried probably four or five other wines. It was really interesting and tasty and I learned a lot though I’m not sure how much I retained…I’ll have to go to more wine tastings.
Over the weekend I watched the French put up a pathetic fight against Argentina in the match for third place in the Cup du Monde for Rugby. I also watched the championship game, England vs South Africa. Marie kept saying, “Elizabeth et moi, nous destons les anglais…allez allez Afrique du Sud!” Translation: We hate the English…Go South Africa! She is pretty funny. She was happy South Africa won and it was a really good game. It was the first match I’ve watched that I actually enjoyed, lots of heart. I have also found a new love. His name is Johnny W---something. He’s the kicker? For the English team and he’s gorgeous. Too bad rugby is over.
I spent most of Saturday on a second quest for jeans since the only pair I brought have a broken zipper. In my two searches I must have tried on at least 35 different pairs of jeans and none of them fit. So you know where I ended up? At the freakin Gap. Ya, that’s right. I’m in France and I went to the Gap. Oh well, they fit, they were cheap, and the zipper works. Done. The rest of the weekend I spent trying to stay warm.
I’m not sure what happened but it all of a sudden became really cold here. Sunday I wore a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, sweat pants, gloves, a hat, knee-high snowboarding socks, and slippers…and I was in bed. FREEZING!!! There is a weird white metal thing in my room that I finally figured out is a heater and not simply a towel rack ☺. Unfortunately it’s not working at the moment. I’m dying.
Last night I watched one of the worst movies ever made, “The Day After Tomorrow”. I had successfully avoided watching that movie until yesterday but with French TV you take what you can get. It was on public television and even though it was dubbed in french and I couldn’t totally understand the terrible dialogue, it was horrible…to the point that I couldn’t stop laughing for the last 20 minutes. Next Sunday Harry Potter comes on but I’ll be in Amsterdam. Darn. ☺
Every host family operates differently. Some families never have wine, some have wine and don’t give any to the students, some have wine only at dinner parties and some, like mine, have wine every night and always offer it to me. My family lets me watch TV with them, which seems obvious and natural but some families don’t let their students sit in the salon with them so I’m very thankful. Just watching french tv at night with Marie et Marie T. makes me feel more like I’m in France. I just get absored in what I’m watching and I sometimes forget I’m listening to another language and translating it in my mind. Something like breathing…until I hear words I don’t know and then I’m sent gasping for air, snapped back into reality as American student in a foreign country. I watch the news, the weather, a couple shows I really hate, whatever movies are on, sports and a hell of a lot of Cold Case dubbed in French. Tonight I finally noticed a real improvement in my french. I didn’t realize it until the episode of Cold Case was over but I understood nearly every conversation, not word for word but well enough to know each person’s story and motives and what not. It was such an awesome feeling. Just thought I would share that with you all. I’m learning and I’m not even studying. ☺
Ahh 3 days until departure! I’ve sorted out where I’m staying in Amsterdam. I am staying in a few different hostels in Amsterdam, moving as friends come and go and Friday and Saturday night I am staying with Anna, a girl I met at camp that lives in Amsterdam. I can’t wait to see her. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures! I can’t take any of the prostitutes unfortunately, I was informed that is frowned upon. Sorry all. Only 3 more tests and one more paper until I’m free!
Can’t wait to tell you all about the Netherlands and Spain!
Bisous! Bisous!
I went out to Le Sunset during the week and enjoyed the happy hour special with my friends Zach and Mike. They have girafes for 10 Euros before 10:30 so we went out a little early and ordered a couple at 10:25 to keep on reserve. We got into an argument with some Englanders that turned out to be pretty amusing. They were talking about how stupid Americans are and how we don’t even know our own history and what not. One of them was determined to prove to us that we were idiots because we said we have 50 states instead of 46 states and 4 commonwealths. Anyway it was pretty funny watching everyone get worked up. Some people just shouldn’t drink.
I spent another night walking around Aix with Zach and Mike looking at all the buildings and admiring how they are all crooked and hover over the streets. After we got tired of walking around we stopped in at the hookah bar for some tea and Apple Hashish (I think that’s how you spell it?). As usual we were the center of attention because no matter how hard we try to blend in at the end of the day we are just loud Americans, Mike especially. You practically have to whisper everywhere you go in this country or you will get stared down.
Friday I went wine tasting with a group of about 30 people from IAU. We went to a small restaurant with a room upstairs where you can sit and learn about wine tasting. After that you go downstairs to a special area with about 50 different wines you can taste. We went upstairs where the owner taught us about different wines, how they are made and how to taste them. He had another session before us and I guess he didn’t spit out the wine because he was pretty drunk come the middle of our discussion. He spoke english pretty well but he kept forgetting what he was trying to say, which I think was more the fault of the wine than his language skills. He smacked one of the girls in the back of the head when her phone rang in the middle of his lesson. It was pretty funny but I think everyone was pretty shocked. It wasn’t that hard but I could never imagine that happening in the US. Anyway, we tried a Rosse, a desert white wine, and a red wine. Then we went downstairs and I tried probably four or five other wines. It was really interesting and tasty and I learned a lot though I’m not sure how much I retained…I’ll have to go to more wine tastings.
Over the weekend I watched the French put up a pathetic fight against Argentina in the match for third place in the Cup du Monde for Rugby. I also watched the championship game, England vs South Africa. Marie kept saying, “Elizabeth et moi, nous destons les anglais…allez allez Afrique du Sud!” Translation: We hate the English…Go South Africa! She is pretty funny. She was happy South Africa won and it was a really good game. It was the first match I’ve watched that I actually enjoyed, lots of heart. I have also found a new love. His name is Johnny W---something. He’s the kicker? For the English team and he’s gorgeous. Too bad rugby is over.
I spent most of Saturday on a second quest for jeans since the only pair I brought have a broken zipper. In my two searches I must have tried on at least 35 different pairs of jeans and none of them fit. So you know where I ended up? At the freakin Gap. Ya, that’s right. I’m in France and I went to the Gap. Oh well, they fit, they were cheap, and the zipper works. Done. The rest of the weekend I spent trying to stay warm.
I’m not sure what happened but it all of a sudden became really cold here. Sunday I wore a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, sweat pants, gloves, a hat, knee-high snowboarding socks, and slippers…and I was in bed. FREEZING!!! There is a weird white metal thing in my room that I finally figured out is a heater and not simply a towel rack ☺. Unfortunately it’s not working at the moment. I’m dying.
Last night I watched one of the worst movies ever made, “The Day After Tomorrow”. I had successfully avoided watching that movie until yesterday but with French TV you take what you can get. It was on public television and even though it was dubbed in french and I couldn’t totally understand the terrible dialogue, it was horrible…to the point that I couldn’t stop laughing for the last 20 minutes. Next Sunday Harry Potter comes on but I’ll be in Amsterdam. Darn. ☺
Every host family operates differently. Some families never have wine, some have wine and don’t give any to the students, some have wine only at dinner parties and some, like mine, have wine every night and always offer it to me. My family lets me watch TV with them, which seems obvious and natural but some families don’t let their students sit in the salon with them so I’m very thankful. Just watching french tv at night with Marie et Marie T. makes me feel more like I’m in France. I just get absored in what I’m watching and I sometimes forget I’m listening to another language and translating it in my mind. Something like breathing…until I hear words I don’t know and then I’m sent gasping for air, snapped back into reality as American student in a foreign country. I watch the news, the weather, a couple shows I really hate, whatever movies are on, sports and a hell of a lot of Cold Case dubbed in French. Tonight I finally noticed a real improvement in my french. I didn’t realize it until the episode of Cold Case was over but I understood nearly every conversation, not word for word but well enough to know each person’s story and motives and what not. It was such an awesome feeling. Just thought I would share that with you all. I’m learning and I’m not even studying. ☺
Ahh 3 days until departure! I’ve sorted out where I’m staying in Amsterdam. I am staying in a few different hostels in Amsterdam, moving as friends come and go and Friday and Saturday night I am staying with Anna, a girl I met at camp that lives in Amsterdam. I can’t wait to see her. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures! I can’t take any of the prostitutes unfortunately, I was informed that is frowned upon. Sorry all. Only 3 more tests and one more paper until I’m free!
Can’t wait to tell you all about the Netherlands and Spain!
Bisous! Bisous!
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
A cup o' Tea, a bacon sandwich and one break up please
Bonjours mes amis! I spent this past weekend in England and as some of you may know, it could have been better. I went to visit Marc and we are no longer seeing each other. So Sunday pretty much sucked but I will focus on the good aspects.
I arrived in London on Thursday and navigated my way to Southampton by way of two trains and a couple busses on the Underground. It was actually not as scary as I thought it would be, I managed to not get lost. Ahh success! The entire trip took about 3 ½ hours. The trains were pretty cool because I got to see some of the country side and the weather was pretty clear. I saw sheep for the first time, of course they were way off in a field but still I thought it was pretty cool.
Friday I went to London and around seeing the city. I ate a waffle with ice cream on top of it for lunch. It was too sweet for ME to finish! Jeeze. I can drink 10 Dr. Peppers a day. How is that possible? Anyway, London is alright. I wanted to go so I could say I’ve been and now that I have I can honestly say I don’t really care to go back. I got to see some of the sights like Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace, which was massively disappointing. They didn’t even have the guards out in the stupid outfits! Dang it. Anyway, on the way to Buckingham Palace I walked through Queen’s Park (I think) and it was my favorite part of the city, probably because it looked nothing like a city. All the beautiful flowers, the water, the Willow trees and the animals made it very enjoyable. I saw a bird I have never seen before, it was freakin huge and looked extremely out of place. Cool though. I walked through some of the Tate Modern Museum of Art. Hmm not really the art I’m interested in but some of the sketches were really cool. I also saw a couple paintings by Pollock which made me think of my wonderful sister. I also saw my first Monet, Water Lillies. It was gigantic. I’m more excited about Le Louvre and Le Musee d’Orsey, much more my flavor!
After London we headed down south to Bournemouth to visit one of Marc’s friends. I tried my first cup of English tea, complete with milk…aww man it was good. Then he took us to a delicious Chinese place. I’ve been craving Chinese since I left the US so it was perfect. After that I went to a local bar before heading back to his friend’s place for the night. His friend showed me some great pictures of Whales. I really wish I could have made it over there, it was so beautiful. Also I wish I could have tried a crumpet, I still don’t even know what they look like. A waffle meets a pancake meets a scone? What the hell? Hmm forever a mystery.
Saturday I had my first bacon sandwich, which is apparently big in England. The bacon is much much thicker than in the states, just big cuts of ham that you crisp like bacon then put on bread with ketchup. It was surprisingly good. After my cup of tea and sandwich the three of us went to an Aquarium by the beach where I got to see some pretty cool marine life. I got to see them feed sharks and turtles. Did you know in the last Olympics some swimmers wore suits designed with Sharkskin Technology which made them 4% faster through the water? Just a bit of fact for your day. My favorite sea creature was a red and white starfish, pretty sweet. The rest of the day I watched the English beat Estonia in football at a pub and then I watched them beat France in the Rugby world cup. Poor France. I felt a little tear coming on. Marie was very disappointed. ☹
So to sum up I got to see some cool things, spent a hell of a lot of time on the trains, mastered the Underground and got to try English tea and a bacon sandwich. That’s England in a nutshell. I’ll take Texas any day.
I spent yesterday reworking my fall break which I will be spending in Amsterdam and Spain. I am so excited! I hear Spain is far cheaper than France so I am looking forward to doing a little shopping! My one mission is to buy a couple cartons of cigarettes for my Marie’s. ☺ After the trip planning I went with some girls from school to a ballet practice for a show that is opening this weekend. I have never seen ballet before so it was cool to watch. After the practice they had a Q and A session and a woman from the audience reemed the Choreographer for setting modern dance to classical music and it was pretty funny.
This week I am pretty swamped preparing for my midterms next week and writing a couple papers. Don’t fear Auntie Kathie, I’m still making time to go out for drinks at Le Sunset and I'm going to my first Wine Tasting Friday afternoon. Ahh college. La bonne vie!
Wish you all were here! Oh and Howdy to Grandpa Butch! Mom told me you were keeping up with my blog. Come visit me in France?
Muah!
I arrived in London on Thursday and navigated my way to Southampton by way of two trains and a couple busses on the Underground. It was actually not as scary as I thought it would be, I managed to not get lost. Ahh success! The entire trip took about 3 ½ hours. The trains were pretty cool because I got to see some of the country side and the weather was pretty clear. I saw sheep for the first time, of course they were way off in a field but still I thought it was pretty cool.
Friday I went to London and around seeing the city. I ate a waffle with ice cream on top of it for lunch. It was too sweet for ME to finish! Jeeze. I can drink 10 Dr. Peppers a day. How is that possible? Anyway, London is alright. I wanted to go so I could say I’ve been and now that I have I can honestly say I don’t really care to go back. I got to see some of the sights like Big Ben, Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace, which was massively disappointing. They didn’t even have the guards out in the stupid outfits! Dang it. Anyway, on the way to Buckingham Palace I walked through Queen’s Park (I think) and it was my favorite part of the city, probably because it looked nothing like a city. All the beautiful flowers, the water, the Willow trees and the animals made it very enjoyable. I saw a bird I have never seen before, it was freakin huge and looked extremely out of place. Cool though. I walked through some of the Tate Modern Museum of Art. Hmm not really the art I’m interested in but some of the sketches were really cool. I also saw a couple paintings by Pollock which made me think of my wonderful sister. I also saw my first Monet, Water Lillies. It was gigantic. I’m more excited about Le Louvre and Le Musee d’Orsey, much more my flavor!
After London we headed down south to Bournemouth to visit one of Marc’s friends. I tried my first cup of English tea, complete with milk…aww man it was good. Then he took us to a delicious Chinese place. I’ve been craving Chinese since I left the US so it was perfect. After that I went to a local bar before heading back to his friend’s place for the night. His friend showed me some great pictures of Whales. I really wish I could have made it over there, it was so beautiful. Also I wish I could have tried a crumpet, I still don’t even know what they look like. A waffle meets a pancake meets a scone? What the hell? Hmm forever a mystery.
Saturday I had my first bacon sandwich, which is apparently big in England. The bacon is much much thicker than in the states, just big cuts of ham that you crisp like bacon then put on bread with ketchup. It was surprisingly good. After my cup of tea and sandwich the three of us went to an Aquarium by the beach where I got to see some pretty cool marine life. I got to see them feed sharks and turtles. Did you know in the last Olympics some swimmers wore suits designed with Sharkskin Technology which made them 4% faster through the water? Just a bit of fact for your day. My favorite sea creature was a red and white starfish, pretty sweet. The rest of the day I watched the English beat Estonia in football at a pub and then I watched them beat France in the Rugby world cup. Poor France. I felt a little tear coming on. Marie was very disappointed. ☹
So to sum up I got to see some cool things, spent a hell of a lot of time on the trains, mastered the Underground and got to try English tea and a bacon sandwich. That’s England in a nutshell. I’ll take Texas any day.
I spent yesterday reworking my fall break which I will be spending in Amsterdam and Spain. I am so excited! I hear Spain is far cheaper than France so I am looking forward to doing a little shopping! My one mission is to buy a couple cartons of cigarettes for my Marie’s. ☺ After the trip planning I went with some girls from school to a ballet practice for a show that is opening this weekend. I have never seen ballet before so it was cool to watch. After the practice they had a Q and A session and a woman from the audience reemed the Choreographer for setting modern dance to classical music and it was pretty funny.
This week I am pretty swamped preparing for my midterms next week and writing a couple papers. Don’t fear Auntie Kathie, I’m still making time to go out for drinks at Le Sunset and I'm going to my first Wine Tasting Friday afternoon. Ahh college. La bonne vie!
Wish you all were here! Oh and Howdy to Grandpa Butch! Mom told me you were keeping up with my blog. Come visit me in France?
Muah!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
PROUST!
I'm pretty sure that's how you spell it...That’s cheers in German. Germany is AWESOME! I love Germany and I have to go back! Not this year but I will definetly return.
We arrived on Friday night and found our hostel, The Tent. My first experience at a youth hostel was great too. The Tent is a large camp ground where people can set up their own equipment outside or they can rent a bed. There is a huge tent set up with 150-200 bunk beds set up inside with lockers for your stuff. Outside there was a bonfire each night, some hammocks, picnic tables, and a café that served cheap beer. There were people from all over and I met some really cool people from Australia who were traveling in Europe then in the states for 18 months.
Saturday and Sunday morning we spent walking around Munich and at Oktoberfest. I had no idea what to expect from Oktoberfest and it was great! It’s basically a huge festival with rides, carnival games, delicious food vendors, gift stands and gigantic beer gardens and tents. Of course, everything is centered around beer and German culture. My favorite part, besides the beer ☺ were the people walking around in authentic german outfits. Everyone did it too: little boys and girls all the way up to people in their 70’s! It was great.
Another great thing about Germany is that people drink beer everywhere! On the trains, in the supermarkets, walking down the street…it doesn’t matter. I thought that was really cool. AND things are so much cheaper in Germany. God France is expensive. In France I can buy a pint of beer for 5.5 Euros and usually the beer is crap. In Germany I got a mug of beer, which is a liter, for 4 Euros. Everything is cheaper here and the sausage was delicious! At the Spaten beer tent on Sunday I ate a roasted half chicken and tried some potato salad. I have never tasted potato salad like that before. Ahh, I miss it already! I love love love love love Germany! The people are friendly, the food is great, and the beer is delicious.
We left Sunday afternoon, sadly, but I was glad to get back to a real bed in a heated room. Munich is a bit colder than the south of France.
Tomorrow I am heading out to England where I will be shown around by an authentic Englander. ☺ I can’t wait to try Tea with milk and hopefully I will get to try a crumpet as well! I’m going to check out Southampton, Bournemouth ? and we are spending a day doing the touristy London thing. I’ll tell the Queen you all said Hello.
Also I wanted to say Congratulations to Tree! I’m so glad to hear you won’t be outnumbered so badly anymore!
I love you all,
Dizzy
We arrived on Friday night and found our hostel, The Tent. My first experience at a youth hostel was great too. The Tent is a large camp ground where people can set up their own equipment outside or they can rent a bed. There is a huge tent set up with 150-200 bunk beds set up inside with lockers for your stuff. Outside there was a bonfire each night, some hammocks, picnic tables, and a café that served cheap beer. There were people from all over and I met some really cool people from Australia who were traveling in Europe then in the states for 18 months.
Saturday and Sunday morning we spent walking around Munich and at Oktoberfest. I had no idea what to expect from Oktoberfest and it was great! It’s basically a huge festival with rides, carnival games, delicious food vendors, gift stands and gigantic beer gardens and tents. Of course, everything is centered around beer and German culture. My favorite part, besides the beer ☺ were the people walking around in authentic german outfits. Everyone did it too: little boys and girls all the way up to people in their 70’s! It was great.
Another great thing about Germany is that people drink beer everywhere! On the trains, in the supermarkets, walking down the street…it doesn’t matter. I thought that was really cool. AND things are so much cheaper in Germany. God France is expensive. In France I can buy a pint of beer for 5.5 Euros and usually the beer is crap. In Germany I got a mug of beer, which is a liter, for 4 Euros. Everything is cheaper here and the sausage was delicious! At the Spaten beer tent on Sunday I ate a roasted half chicken and tried some potato salad. I have never tasted potato salad like that before. Ahh, I miss it already! I love love love love love Germany! The people are friendly, the food is great, and the beer is delicious.
We left Sunday afternoon, sadly, but I was glad to get back to a real bed in a heated room. Munich is a bit colder than the south of France.
Tomorrow I am heading out to England where I will be shown around by an authentic Englander. ☺ I can’t wait to try Tea with milk and hopefully I will get to try a crumpet as well! I’m going to check out Southampton, Bournemouth ? and we are spending a day doing the touristy London thing. I’ll tell the Queen you all said Hello.
Also I wanted to say Congratulations to Tree! I’m so glad to hear you won’t be outnumbered so badly anymore!
I love you all,
Dizzy
Monday, October 1, 2007
C'est bon comme ca
Bon soit mes amis! I’ve been here three weeks now and time is starting to fly by. Last week was pretty tame for the most part. Nothing too exciting except there is a bar here called IPN that has beer pong on Wednesday nights and afterwards there is a DJ who plays a bunch of rap music. How american can you get? I showed up for the dancing and I think in the entire time I was there I heard 1 French rap song. All the rest were American rappers. It was strange. I don’t think French people actually go to IPN. The presence of American music here is insane! I almost NEVER hear French music. Not on the radio, in the bars, in the clubs…it’s actually kind of annoying. I was hoping to uncover some amazing French artists but they are harder to find that I anticipated.
This weekend my plans changed quite a bit. Originally I was going to Paris but the ticket prices shot way way way up so I bailed out. Then I planned on hiking Mount St. Victoire, which is the mountain Cezanne painted hundreds of times. However, when we showed up to the bus station we were informed that the trail was closed Friday because Le Mistrale (the wind that comes through Provence) was FIERCE and there was a high chance of fire. Bummer. So instead we decided to enjoy an afternoon of frisbee and people watching at the parc over some wine and cheese. YUMMMM.
Then on Saturday we were supposed to go to Cassis where there is a beautiful beach and big rocks to jump off of. However, it was really overcast and a little chilly, damn Mistrale, and we missed the bus. SO…we spent the day exploring the market and shops in Aix. I finally found a warm winter jacket! I really could have used that this past week. Le Mistrale snuck up on us Wednesday and I went from wearing shorts and a tank to sweaters and scarfs! Out of no where! None of the American students were prepared for the ferocity of Le Mistrale. Thankfully the weather is back to normal now. Beautiful!
My french teacher Margaux says that Le Mistrale effects your mind and emotions and some people start acting funny. She said she’s seen people walking around completely naked. Hmmm….I haven’t seen it yet but I’ll be sure to take a picture if I do. I felt pretty tired for a few days and kind of out of it but I don’t know if the wind is to blame. All the stories of Le Mistrale remind me of what mom says when there is a full moon, “All the crazies are out!”
Today Marie and Marie T. invited me to hike a different mountain about 30 or 40 minutes out from Aix. They organized a hike with some people Marie used to work with. It was about 12 of us I think and it took us almost four hours. It was beautiful! From the top I could see Aix, Mt. Saint Victoire and Marseille…it was really really cool! The best part was stopping for lunch. We packed a picnic and Marie made me a sandwich and I had was drinking from my water bottle when they busted out the wine. Who drinks wine while hiking?!? Hahahah. How great are the French? We also had some wicked good bread ;) that Marie T. made. It was like Strawberry bread (sigh) but made with Figs. Oh man…so delicious!
Needless to say I am freakin exhausted and not ready to go back to school tomorrow. This week I actually have a test, a quiz, and a really short paper due. ☹ I have a feeling I’m not going to be able to walk tomorrow as I can already feel the soreness creeping into my thighs.
Off to watch some French TV!
Holla.
Post Script My mother’s first born has informed me that the actual spelling of my name is Franc-Ass.
This weekend my plans changed quite a bit. Originally I was going to Paris but the ticket prices shot way way way up so I bailed out. Then I planned on hiking Mount St. Victoire, which is the mountain Cezanne painted hundreds of times. However, when we showed up to the bus station we were informed that the trail was closed Friday because Le Mistrale (the wind that comes through Provence) was FIERCE and there was a high chance of fire. Bummer. So instead we decided to enjoy an afternoon of frisbee and people watching at the parc over some wine and cheese. YUMMMM.
Then on Saturday we were supposed to go to Cassis where there is a beautiful beach and big rocks to jump off of. However, it was really overcast and a little chilly, damn Mistrale, and we missed the bus. SO…we spent the day exploring the market and shops in Aix. I finally found a warm winter jacket! I really could have used that this past week. Le Mistrale snuck up on us Wednesday and I went from wearing shorts and a tank to sweaters and scarfs! Out of no where! None of the American students were prepared for the ferocity of Le Mistrale. Thankfully the weather is back to normal now. Beautiful!
My french teacher Margaux says that Le Mistrale effects your mind and emotions and some people start acting funny. She said she’s seen people walking around completely naked. Hmmm….I haven’t seen it yet but I’ll be sure to take a picture if I do. I felt pretty tired for a few days and kind of out of it but I don’t know if the wind is to blame. All the stories of Le Mistrale remind me of what mom says when there is a full moon, “All the crazies are out!”
Today Marie and Marie T. invited me to hike a different mountain about 30 or 40 minutes out from Aix. They organized a hike with some people Marie used to work with. It was about 12 of us I think and it took us almost four hours. It was beautiful! From the top I could see Aix, Mt. Saint Victoire and Marseille…it was really really cool! The best part was stopping for lunch. We packed a picnic and Marie made me a sandwich and I had was drinking from my water bottle when they busted out the wine. Who drinks wine while hiking?!? Hahahah. How great are the French? We also had some wicked good bread ;) that Marie T. made. It was like Strawberry bread (sigh) but made with Figs. Oh man…so delicious!
Needless to say I am freakin exhausted and not ready to go back to school tomorrow. This week I actually have a test, a quiz, and a really short paper due. ☹ I have a feeling I’m not going to be able to walk tomorrow as I can already feel the soreness creeping into my thighs.
Off to watch some French TV!
Holla.
Post Script My mother’s first born has informed me that the actual spelling of my name is Franc-Ass.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Indescribable Feelings
Blog
My second week of classes are finished and things are going pretty well so far. I found out on Wednesday that my Art History class will be taking us on a field trip to Paris in November for 5 days and 4 nights. We will be visiting museums in the mornings and afternoons and have the nights to ourselves. Everything is paid for except our lunches and our evening activities. I am so excited! Tickets to museums can be pretty costly so it’s great that we don’t have to pay or wait in line.
This week I discovered a few new bars and a couple new clubs. From Tuesday until Saturday the bars are always packed. We take Sunday and Monday to recover before we go at it again. ☺
Friday a couple friends and I went to the park that’s about a 15 minute walk from chez moi. It was great to finally have a place to sit and relax outside the city. The park is pretty big, there is a pond and a lot of trees and open spaces for people to play badmitton and football (soccer). We spent a good four hours there hanging out with my friend’s dog. His name is Apache and he is being trained to be a seeing eye dog. He’s very well behaved and sweet but he ain’t nothin compared to that ole Murph. I’m headed off to the parc again this afternoon. I think I will be spending a lot of time there from now on.
Yesterday I went to Avignon with 5 other students from IAU. It was a cool old city. We went to the Palace of the Pope and I have never seen anything like it before! It was gigantic. It amazes me the skills and attention to detail people had 700 years ago. I can’t believe it. So we walked around in the Palace that is now a museum for a few hours and then headed over to the famous bridge Pont d’Avignon. We didn’t feel like paying to walk on a bridge that we could just as well see from the ground but it was cool to see. We walked around the city a bit more then headed back to Aix that evening for dinner and a few hours at the Hookah Bar. Over all it was a really great day. I am glad I chose Aix in the end, as I was debating between the two. Aix is a much younger crowd and a more happenin place it seemed.
This week I will probably be staying in and saving up for my upcoming weekend in…..PARIS!!!! Libby, Annabell are leaving Friday to meet up with Libby’s dad who is in France for the week for his job. MY FIRST TRIP TO PARISSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! I can’t explain how pumped I am.
Also I got my ticket to travel over the ocean to England the second weekend in October to see Mr. Philpott. I’m pretty much broke now and will not be eating lunch from now on but oh well. It’s worth it. ☺
Hope everything is going good back in the states. Wishing you all well, especially the Good Twin who supports my need to party by petitioning my mother the Beautiful Twin ;) for more money. I however am not wishing good things for my mother’s first born because I just found out he doesn’t know how to spell my name. Last I checked I was a girl and thus the spelling is FrancEs, not I-s. Nana is gonna be really mad at you. ☺ Your garlic stuffed green olives are on the line here.
Love Y’All
Je t’aime Monsieur Murph!
My second week of classes are finished and things are going pretty well so far. I found out on Wednesday that my Art History class will be taking us on a field trip to Paris in November for 5 days and 4 nights. We will be visiting museums in the mornings and afternoons and have the nights to ourselves. Everything is paid for except our lunches and our evening activities. I am so excited! Tickets to museums can be pretty costly so it’s great that we don’t have to pay or wait in line.
This week I discovered a few new bars and a couple new clubs. From Tuesday until Saturday the bars are always packed. We take Sunday and Monday to recover before we go at it again. ☺
Friday a couple friends and I went to the park that’s about a 15 minute walk from chez moi. It was great to finally have a place to sit and relax outside the city. The park is pretty big, there is a pond and a lot of trees and open spaces for people to play badmitton and football (soccer). We spent a good four hours there hanging out with my friend’s dog. His name is Apache and he is being trained to be a seeing eye dog. He’s very well behaved and sweet but he ain’t nothin compared to that ole Murph. I’m headed off to the parc again this afternoon. I think I will be spending a lot of time there from now on.
Yesterday I went to Avignon with 5 other students from IAU. It was a cool old city. We went to the Palace of the Pope and I have never seen anything like it before! It was gigantic. It amazes me the skills and attention to detail people had 700 years ago. I can’t believe it. So we walked around in the Palace that is now a museum for a few hours and then headed over to the famous bridge Pont d’Avignon. We didn’t feel like paying to walk on a bridge that we could just as well see from the ground but it was cool to see. We walked around the city a bit more then headed back to Aix that evening for dinner and a few hours at the Hookah Bar. Over all it was a really great day. I am glad I chose Aix in the end, as I was debating between the two. Aix is a much younger crowd and a more happenin place it seemed.
This week I will probably be staying in and saving up for my upcoming weekend in…..PARIS!!!! Libby, Annabell are leaving Friday to meet up with Libby’s dad who is in France for the week for his job. MY FIRST TRIP TO PARISSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! I can’t explain how pumped I am.
Also I got my ticket to travel over the ocean to England the second weekend in October to see Mr. Philpott. I’m pretty much broke now and will not be eating lunch from now on but oh well. It’s worth it. ☺
Hope everything is going good back in the states. Wishing you all well, especially the Good Twin who supports my need to party by petitioning my mother the Beautiful Twin ;) for more money. I however am not wishing good things for my mother’s first born because I just found out he doesn’t know how to spell my name. Last I checked I was a girl and thus the spelling is FrancEs, not I-s. Nana is gonna be really mad at you. ☺ Your garlic stuffed green olives are on the line here.
Love Y’All
Je t’aime Monsieur Murph!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Unbelievable Sites
Feeling a bit tired today after a long weekend and a VERY long day of classes. First, last Thursday I went to Interville. Interville is a french television show that is broadcast all over the world but has not yet been picked up in America. There is a similar show in the US called Most Extreme Sports or something that is really hilarious. Anyway in Interville 4 countries (China, America, Russia and Kazakhstan) compete in a series of ridiculous games to win each episode. The people from the other countries were not joking though. A lot of them were celebrities in their countries. For example, one of the Russian women was a world champion boxer. They were freakin huge. Our team was a joke. ☺ Anyway the game is like Nickelodeon’s Global Guts for adults in stupid costumes. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! 2 girls from IAU and I went on a giant charter bus to Nice for the evening to shoot two episodes. Normally there should be 6-10 girls but the rest of the girls bailed for numerous reasons so Jaqueline, Tracy and I got to participate in nearly every game for both shows. Because there are so few guys at IAU the TV producers got French firefighters to act as the American men. They were hilarious and had the thickest accents, “GO TEAM USA GONNA WIN” and such.
So over the course of the evening I was dressed up as a frog, a bunny twice, an old school fisher-woman and a crocodile. I can’t even begin to explain the games but I am supposed to get a copy of the 2 shows we filmed and I can’t wait to show you all how ridiculous this was. For example, in the crocodile suit I was zipped up into this giant plastic ball that was aired up so I could stand up straight in it. I had to run in the ball about 50 yards up a ramp and into a pool where things got a little crazy. I basically rolled across this pool and back to the start of the race. It was so SO difficult. My croc head was about 2 feet long and I couldn’t see a thing, especially when I was trying to crawl on top of the water. One of the girls from Kazakhstan just gave up at the end of the pool. Her body just looked limp in this giant kangaroo costume. It was hilarious. So basically all these games are created so the competitors make asses of themselves which we were quite successful at.
We won the first episode and had to leave before the second was over so I don’t know if we won or not. The first time was a fluke so chances are we lost. We filmed for about 5 hours probably and got back to Aix at 3:15 in the morning. It’s a tough life being a star.
So Friday night after dinner (about 9 pm) I went to take a nap so I could go out later and I woke up to my surprise Saturday morning at 7. Interville really took it out of me. Luckily I woke up in plenty of time to meet up with IAU for our trip to Nice and Cannes.
We spent Saturday in Nice and it was breathtaking. We ate lunch in a café by the market and the waitor lied to us and told us the pizza were sized as personal pizzas. They were definetly not, as you can see from the picture. Then we went and bought wine and headed to the beach. Again the beach was rocks, not sand. Thanks to my amazing chacos (sandals) I had no trouble walking down to the water. When I went swimming in the ocean I realized there was a lot more than in the beaches I have visited in the states. This was awesome! I was able to stretch completely out and float on top of the water with absolutely no effort. And the coolest part was that when my ears were submerged I could hear the shifting of the rocks as the waves crashed the shores. This is one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. So simple.
We left Nice at about 5:30 and headed for our hostel in Cape d’Ail. We ate and then hoped on the bus to go to Monaco for a couple hours. We saw the prince’s palace and stopped at the Monte-Carlo Casino. I have never seen anything like it. The cars, the jewels, the clothes…these people were dripping with money. Libby, Dash and I went into one of the casinos and they ordered a drink. I passed because I am a smart girl. ☺ When the bill came it was 15 Euros for a Gin/Tonic and 17 Euros for a Jack/Coke. I am too smart for that. How ridiculous! I could have bought an entire bottle. Ha. Anyway then we went outside and checked out all the nice cars, with names I can barely say, much less spell. Then we sat at a bar outside and split a bottle of really good red wine then headed back to the hostel for the “discotheque”. HA! We got there and they had pushed the tables to the edges of the cafeteria and set up a disco ball and strobe light. So of course I danced the night away with the IAU students and a couple German guys that worked at the hostel.
Sunday we ate a small breakfast and headed to Cannes, which is also a pretty cool city though I like Nice better. There was a big boat show that day so I got to see Yatchs that were enormous! We only had a few hours there so we wandered around, ate lunch and found ourselves in Old Cannes. It was soooo beautiful. We wandered up cobblestone streets and found a huge church set up high on a hill (mountain to the Texans) that had such an amazing view of the whole city, all the way around. Unfortunately my camera had died and I only got one picture of the church but my friends got some so I will try and post those. After that we walked along the beach, ate ice cream then headed back home.
The weekend was completely amazing. Every morning I wake up and I can’t believe I am here. I wish y’all could be here too to experience all this with me.
This week I am going to be pretty busy with school and planning a couple trips. I have yet to buy school supplies here because they are so different and it weirds me out. Why can’t I just buy a binder with dividers and pockets?!? And they don’t have regular notebook paper, it’s only graphing paper which is surprisingly difficult and confusing to write on. Ahh my life is so hard and filled with so much stress. ☺
I miss and love you all so much.
So over the course of the evening I was dressed up as a frog, a bunny twice, an old school fisher-woman and a crocodile. I can’t even begin to explain the games but I am supposed to get a copy of the 2 shows we filmed and I can’t wait to show you all how ridiculous this was. For example, in the crocodile suit I was zipped up into this giant plastic ball that was aired up so I could stand up straight in it. I had to run in the ball about 50 yards up a ramp and into a pool where things got a little crazy. I basically rolled across this pool and back to the start of the race. It was so SO difficult. My croc head was about 2 feet long and I couldn’t see a thing, especially when I was trying to crawl on top of the water. One of the girls from Kazakhstan just gave up at the end of the pool. Her body just looked limp in this giant kangaroo costume. It was hilarious. So basically all these games are created so the competitors make asses of themselves which we were quite successful at.
We won the first episode and had to leave before the second was over so I don’t know if we won or not. The first time was a fluke so chances are we lost. We filmed for about 5 hours probably and got back to Aix at 3:15 in the morning. It’s a tough life being a star.
So Friday night after dinner (about 9 pm) I went to take a nap so I could go out later and I woke up to my surprise Saturday morning at 7. Interville really took it out of me. Luckily I woke up in plenty of time to meet up with IAU for our trip to Nice and Cannes.
We spent Saturday in Nice and it was breathtaking. We ate lunch in a café by the market and the waitor lied to us and told us the pizza were sized as personal pizzas. They were definetly not, as you can see from the picture. Then we went and bought wine and headed to the beach. Again the beach was rocks, not sand. Thanks to my amazing chacos (sandals) I had no trouble walking down to the water. When I went swimming in the ocean I realized there was a lot more than in the beaches I have visited in the states. This was awesome! I was able to stretch completely out and float on top of the water with absolutely no effort. And the coolest part was that when my ears were submerged I could hear the shifting of the rocks as the waves crashed the shores. This is one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. So simple.
We left Nice at about 5:30 and headed for our hostel in Cape d’Ail. We ate and then hoped on the bus to go to Monaco for a couple hours. We saw the prince’s palace and stopped at the Monte-Carlo Casino. I have never seen anything like it. The cars, the jewels, the clothes…these people were dripping with money. Libby, Dash and I went into one of the casinos and they ordered a drink. I passed because I am a smart girl. ☺ When the bill came it was 15 Euros for a Gin/Tonic and 17 Euros for a Jack/Coke. I am too smart for that. How ridiculous! I could have bought an entire bottle. Ha. Anyway then we went outside and checked out all the nice cars, with names I can barely say, much less spell. Then we sat at a bar outside and split a bottle of really good red wine then headed back to the hostel for the “discotheque”. HA! We got there and they had pushed the tables to the edges of the cafeteria and set up a disco ball and strobe light. So of course I danced the night away with the IAU students and a couple German guys that worked at the hostel.
Sunday we ate a small breakfast and headed to Cannes, which is also a pretty cool city though I like Nice better. There was a big boat show that day so I got to see Yatchs that were enormous! We only had a few hours there so we wandered around, ate lunch and found ourselves in Old Cannes. It was soooo beautiful. We wandered up cobblestone streets and found a huge church set up high on a hill (mountain to the Texans) that had such an amazing view of the whole city, all the way around. Unfortunately my camera had died and I only got one picture of the church but my friends got some so I will try and post those. After that we walked along the beach, ate ice cream then headed back home.
The weekend was completely amazing. Every morning I wake up and I can’t believe I am here. I wish y’all could be here too to experience all this with me.
This week I am going to be pretty busy with school and planning a couple trips. I have yet to buy school supplies here because they are so different and it weirds me out. Why can’t I just buy a binder with dividers and pockets?!? And they don’t have regular notebook paper, it’s only graphing paper which is surprisingly difficult and confusing to write on. Ahh my life is so hard and filled with so much stress. ☺
I miss and love you all so much.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Or Say We're Only Dreaming
Well I have just finished my first week of classes and I had to write a freakin paper that was due today at five. Someone needs to tell these crazy professors that I did not come here to learn. :) So, my psych class is pretty cool. My first French Language class we went and sat at an outdoor cafe having coffee and such talking about Aix and the french culture so that was amazing. My French business class is ridiculously hard. One minute I look down to write down a vocab word like part time employment or something and I look up and she is talking about social security tax and it's all in French and very fast so I think I may shoot myself...or just fail. :) My french media class (also in french) is pretty sweet. It's really hard because he speaks so quickly but he's really cool and the subject matter is interesting. My other class is Art History and he seems cool as well. He tells a lot of really interesting stories about architecture and paintings.
I went to a bar the other night and watched a football (soccer) match with some people from IAU and another school in Aix. They had this giant flutes with a tap on them that you order instead of getting a pitcher. They are called giraffes and they are amazing. We need these in the states! Also tequila and all mexican beer is served with a lemon instead of a lime here which does nothing to help but it's just a little cultural knowledge nugget for you all.
Tomorrow I am headed off to Nice and Cannes, the coast, for a trip with the school. I am really excited it is supposed to be so beautiful! I will take lots of pictures for you!
Thanks Tree for your comment. I'm so glad you like it. My mom forwarded those pics of the boys, I love the one in front of the boat. It's my desktop now. :)
Love and Miss you all!
Bisous
I went to a bar the other night and watched a football (soccer) match with some people from IAU and another school in Aix. They had this giant flutes with a tap on them that you order instead of getting a pitcher. They are called giraffes and they are amazing. We need these in the states! Also tequila and all mexican beer is served with a lemon instead of a lime here which does nothing to help but it's just a little cultural knowledge nugget for you all.
Tomorrow I am headed off to Nice and Cannes, the coast, for a trip with the school. I am really excited it is supposed to be so beautiful! I will take lots of pictures for you!
Thanks Tree for your comment. I'm so glad you like it. My mom forwarded those pics of the boys, I love the one in front of the boat. It's my desktop now. :)
Love and Miss you all!
Bisous
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
No One to Tell Us No
My first day of class was today. I only had one but it was pretty cool. I changed my entire schedule so I could have Fridays off for traveling so now I am taking Psychology (today), Art History, French Language, Business French, and Contemporary French Media. Woo hooo.....
Psych was pretty cool. We will be learning a lot about infancy and how it effects you. I'm going to find out all the ways Mom messed me up as a child. :)
Last night my host family laughed at me becaues I used the dirty clothes hamper they put in my room as storage for my books. It looks like one of those boxes you set on the floor and put magazines in. They found it pretty funny...
Went out last night to meet with some kids from another school but it was lame so I sat down and got on the internet for a while. Once I decided to leave I ran into a couple girls from IAU and we walked around and ran into more students we knew. We sat down in an outdoor cafe and had some wine then walked around old Aix for a couple hours. It was the first time I had walked around at night so it was pretty cool. When we all decided to go home I found out one of the girls in the program lives in the apartments across the street from me so that's great, now I don't have to walk home alone when we go out! :)
Nothing really exciting. This fat old French woman was rude to me this morning because I couldn't figure out how to get into the currency exchange building. they have to buzz you into one door, then you close it and call for them to buzz you through the second. She was obviously much more intelligent than me because she was French and knew how to use this building. But for me to be here 3 days and that be the first time a French person was rude to me I think I am doing pretty well!
Like I said, nothing too exciting. Think I am off to Nice and Cannes this weekend!
Bisous!
Psych was pretty cool. We will be learning a lot about infancy and how it effects you. I'm going to find out all the ways Mom messed me up as a child. :)
Last night my host family laughed at me becaues I used the dirty clothes hamper they put in my room as storage for my books. It looks like one of those boxes you set on the floor and put magazines in. They found it pretty funny...
Went out last night to meet with some kids from another school but it was lame so I sat down and got on the internet for a while. Once I decided to leave I ran into a couple girls from IAU and we walked around and ran into more students we knew. We sat down in an outdoor cafe and had some wine then walked around old Aix for a couple hours. It was the first time I had walked around at night so it was pretty cool. When we all decided to go home I found out one of the girls in the program lives in the apartments across the street from me so that's great, now I don't have to walk home alone when we go out! :)
Nothing really exciting. This fat old French woman was rude to me this morning because I couldn't figure out how to get into the currency exchange building. they have to buzz you into one door, then you close it and call for them to buzz you through the second. She was obviously much more intelligent than me because she was French and knew how to use this building. But for me to be here 3 days and that be the first time a French person was rude to me I think I am doing pretty well!
Like I said, nothing too exciting. Think I am off to Nice and Cannes this weekend!
Bisous!
Monday, September 10, 2007
A New Fantastic Point of View
Bonjour tous le monde!!!
I have arrived in France and had orientation today. The home I am staying in is beautiful and Aix is a very cool old city. There are fountains everywhere, narrow streets, cathedrales, outdoor cafes and markets throughout the center of town. I live less than a mile from the school, which is in the center of town.
The weather here is perfect. Warm and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Marie and Mariette, my hosts, invited me to join them at the beach yesterday. It's about 45 minutes from their home and it too is amazing. The water is crystal clear and very refreshing. i.e. freakin cold. :) I had my first experience with topless beaches and it took a little getting used to. Perhaps one day I'll have the nerve to try it, though I doubt it.
The food here is delicious. I haven't eaten McDonald's once! :) Fresh fruits and veggies with lots of fish. Yesterday I tried Tellen. I think it's some sort of mussel but since I never tried mussels in the US I could be wrong. Anyway they are tiny and came broken open and seasoned with something. They tasted just like chicken with ceasar dressing. YUMMMMMM.
I've had some interesting lessons already. I learned how to flush a french toilet and take a shower in a tub without a curtain. Not exactly easy yet but I'm slowly mastering it. There is so much to say but I have even more to do so I'm off now...
Hope you enjoy my pathetic attempt at blogging. :)
Au Revoir
I have arrived in France and had orientation today. The home I am staying in is beautiful and Aix is a very cool old city. There are fountains everywhere, narrow streets, cathedrales, outdoor cafes and markets throughout the center of town. I live less than a mile from the school, which is in the center of town.
The weather here is perfect. Warm and sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Marie and Mariette, my hosts, invited me to join them at the beach yesterday. It's about 45 minutes from their home and it too is amazing. The water is crystal clear and very refreshing. i.e. freakin cold. :) I had my first experience with topless beaches and it took a little getting used to. Perhaps one day I'll have the nerve to try it, though I doubt it.
The food here is delicious. I haven't eaten McDonald's once! :) Fresh fruits and veggies with lots of fish. Yesterday I tried Tellen. I think it's some sort of mussel but since I never tried mussels in the US I could be wrong. Anyway they are tiny and came broken open and seasoned with something. They tasted just like chicken with ceasar dressing. YUMMMMMM.
I've had some interesting lessons already. I learned how to flush a french toilet and take a shower in a tub without a curtain. Not exactly easy yet but I'm slowly mastering it. There is so much to say but I have even more to do so I'm off now...
Hope you enjoy my pathetic attempt at blogging. :)
Au Revoir
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