Reasons I love France continued...

Here I will continue with some things I love about France...

Reason #4: Fresh croissants in the morning

 Sometimes, when I have class at 8 am, I don't have the energy or time to have breakfast at home. Especially now that I have started leaving extra early since if I get on the tram literally 10 minutes earlier its empty while if I go 10 minutes later I am packed in like a sardine for 5 stops... So instead of being a sardine (though the warmth is nice in this freezing weather) I like to stop at the bakery and get a croissant sometimes.  The first time I did this was the best because right when I walked in the door the baker pulled hot fresh croissants right out of the oven.  It made my day start off great :-)

Reason #5: Vin Chaud ie. Mulled Wine

The Christmas season is here which means Christmas Markets! Now I won't do a post on those yet because it needs its own reason and I haven't had a chance to go to all of them around Strasbourg yet and I am waiting for my cameras to get fixed... But Vin Chaud is amazing at the Christmas markets.  If you don't know, Vin Chaud is wine heated and mixed with spices and fruits, usually tangerines or oranges.  It warms the heart and soul in the cold.  They sell you the wine in collectors mugs that you can return at the end or keep (if you return them you get your deposit back, if you don't you just paid 1 euro for a really cool cup!) Strasbourg has plastic cups instead of the traditional mug but they are still pretty cool.  This year Strasbourg has I think 4 versions of the cup and of course I have to get them all. I am halfway there. :-)

Reason #6:  French bands that I have loved forever and finally get to see in Concert!!!

This year I have already seen 3 of my favorite French bands/singers and I will see one more in March!  I saw Aldebert, Emily Loizeau and Tryo.  They were all amazing (as I had assumed) and I am very happy to finally have gotten to see them.  Emily Loizeau is one of the first (maybe even the first) french CDs I bought when I first came to France and of course I had all her lyrics memorized.  Aldebert was one of the next along with Tryo.  Therefore they are all oldies but goodies in my music repertoire.  The best concert was definitely Tryo.  They put on a great show despite (or maybe due to) having been together for about 17 years.  Of course my favorite song "Desolée pour hier soir" played and I about went crazy.  In March I will be seeing Tété, who is also an amazing singer and who I happened to meet while in the Bahamas.  Maybe he will remember me!! :-P

Reason #7: French books

French literature has been around for a very long time and there are many great French writers.  I recently read the whole Count of Monte Cristo in French and it is now one of my favorite books.  I have also been reading a lot of other books in French (especially last year when I had a lot more spare time) It helps me learn some interesting vocabulary and also discover some good authors! My favorite book I have read recently is "Le Mec de la tombe d'à côté".  Its a translation from Swedish but it is a very very good book.  I just finished the sequel as well :-)

Reason #8: French movies 

Of course with the music and books has to come movies.  I need to watch more French movies but really it is hit or miss with them.  There are a lot of good French movies: "Le Dîner de Cons", "Bienvenue chez les Ch'ties", "Cap ou pas Cap", "Les Bronzés", and a lot of more recent ones also, but there are also a lot of very strange ones like one I saw recently "Dans la Maison".  Really did not understand where they were going with that… But I really do like French movies and need to take a lot more advantage of the fact that I live in downtown and there are movie theatres right around the corner from me.  However, those are not free, so I have begun to take a lot of advantage of the library where we can rent 3 movies and 3 documentaries at a time.  They really are amazing, libraries. J 

Reason #9: Théâtre National de Strasbourg

There are apparently 5 National Theaters in France: 4 are in Paris and 1 is here in Strasbourg.  Last week I finally got off my bum and went to see a play.  I went to see “Salinger”.  It was a very interesting play, and when I say interesting I mean I would have liked to understand it better.  It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the French, it was just that it was very symbolic and there were a lot of times that I couldn’t understand if something was really happening or if it was in someone’s mind, you know it was that kind of play.  But all in all it was a very cool experience, and the theater was really nice.  I will definitely go back.  

Reason #10: Cheese!!! 
I know I have done a blog post about this before but I really am a cheese addict, its bad.  I just thought I would show you how hard it is to quit this addiction! Here is an example of an ad in a grocery store magazine.  Look at how many cheeses and how big they are.  There are 4 full pages like this in said magazine.  And if you go to a grocery store there are entire aisles just for cheese! Its like they want me to eat cheese and get super fat! 



Ok I think that is enough reasons for today, I was on a roll!! But there are tons more so stay tuned! 

Reasons why I love France

This whole past week I have been walking around the city thinking to myself how happy I am here and how much I love this place.  France in general and Strasbourg specifically.  Therefore I decided to start writing down my reasons.  The following reasons are in no order, I am just going to write them down as I think of them.  So here we go!

Reason why I love France #1:  The pastries
I think I will never get enough of the quantity of pastries here.  I mean even if I had one every day (which would neither be good for my wallet nor my waist...) I could never taste all of the pastries.  Well I guess that goes for everything, including but not limited to the wine, beer, and cheese!! Ever since seeing a documentary on pastries I want to eat more so I can try ALL so I have begun again (slowly) my quest of tasting all the goodness I can. :-)

  
Reason why I love France #2: Wine tasting in supermarkets
Even though I have been here for awhile now and I am pretty accustomed to most things that the French do differently than us over in America, I am happy to say I can still be surprised.  Last week I went to a supermarket on a search for a turkey (a story for another time...) and was very surprised to find a man handing out wine samples in the  grocery store.  Given that it was the day of the New Beaujolais wine, it is not that surprising if I think about it, but something like that would never happen in the US!!! Also, despite what you may think, I unfortunately did not partake in this wine tasting.  I had tasted the Beaujolais Nouveau the evening before and was not in the mood for wine at 3pm...

Reason why I love France #3: Walking home past really old monuments and looking up and seeing the cathedral and realizing how old it is and how insignificant I am in this tiny slice of time
It really is amazing when I walk around the city.  If I don't think about what I am walking past, it is just a normal walk home along the river, past the downtown clothing shops and bakeries.  However, if I look around and think about all the things I pass just from my walk from school to my house it is insane!  I pass Place de la République which includes the palace where the emperor used to stay in Strasbourg and the National Theater of France (only one of which exists outside of Paris).  I also pass the Palace of Justice and the Opera as well as so many old buildings which are now apartments and stores.  I can also look up from many places along the walk and see the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg.  Construction on the Cathedral started in 1170 and took 300 years to build.  It is a beautiful Cathedral if you ever get a chance to come.  But it is just crazy to think about how many people have passed by that Cathedral on their way to work, taking their children to school or even going to war. 

Ok those are all the reasons I will put for today, though there are of course many more. :-P

Strasbourg

Hello everyone.  It has been a very long time since I updated my blog.  Almost a year!!! I am terribly sorry, I get distracted you know...  I'll try to do better. 

I am now living in Strasbourg, France doing my Masters degree in International Relations.  I love this city and I am really happy to be getting a degree in French and taking classes in French again. :-)

 One of the churches in Strasbourg and the river that surrounds the center of the city

 The view from my apartment

 My apartment for the moment

 A view from the river on a boat at night :-)

Strasbourg is a very international city with a lot of important monuments and administrative building.  The European Parliament and the Council of Europe are here which is really cool.  Last week I went to a debate at the Parliament with some people from my classes.  We saw a debate on 'Parliamentary Responsibility'  Fun stuff. 


Last weekend we got the first snow of the year (and its October!!!! So early and so cold!!!)  So a few of us decided to go on a hike.  After almost missing our train (and by almost I mean we were running and jumping in the moving trains doors...), changing trains, and waiting for a bus that never came, we ended up doing a hike around the city of Munster.  The city was cute but the hiking was better.  It was so beautiful with all the snow and all the walking made it less cold. 

 The group in the train station before the hike

 On the trail

 One of the views from the top

We found a really cool restaurant at the top of our hike.  We had a many course meal including soup, salad, blood sausage, ice cream topped with schnapps, sauerkraut with meat, cheese, and finally dessert.  We split meals and we were still full at the end.  A great meal to give us energy for the hike down :-)

Now I am on vacation, going to be studying a lot and probably visiting some friends from last year. :-) They set up the big Christmas tree in the main plaza right next to my house so the Christmas markets and all the holiday stuff will begin soon!  Anyone that wants to come visit is welcome :-)

The holidays begin

It is December in France and the holidays are upon us full swing. The Christmas markets both in Sarreguemines and in Saarbrucken give us something to do all the time, complete with vin chaud or gluhwein in the respective countries. My roommate and I have been doing a lot during the week and the weekend. We have been meeting a lot of great people and we are never bored. Here are some tales of some of our adventures.

For Halloween we went to a haunted house in a citadel. It was great and they didn't have to do much to make it feel haunted since it was in the basement of a really old building. Halloween isn't largely celebrated over here, but some places do some things. We also carved a jack-o-lantern that turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself. :-P








We celebrated Thanksgiving twice, once in Germany with many people and once in France with less people but more Americans:





My roommate and I both like eating and sometimes we'll just go to a cafe and get a drink and a little somethin to eat. This was one such day at a tea house.



I haven't taken many pictures of the other stuff we do but we have gone to museums, made cookies at a friends house, had a few dinners with people, gone to the movies, discovered some of the 'night life' of Sarreguemines, done a little Christmas market shopping, decorated the house for Christmas and much more. We like keeping busy.


The ceramics museum in Sarreguemines

I have also been traveling around a little bit. Since I have been here I have been around near Strasbourg with some friends, to Belgium with another friend, and to Metz and Nancy. Its been a lot of fun.


The Pompidou Museum in Metz


The ocean as seen from Belgium. In the far distance is England but it cannot be seen with weather we had.


The car rally I went to with my friend in Belgium

Besides that, I have started running with a running group. We run at nights which is good for me and even better that I finally have people to run with. I get to speak French and get exercise :-D.

Also it is becoming more and more like winter. It rained this whole weekend but it was still a great weekend in general, complete with ice skating, italian food, christmas market, and fireworks with a friend :-)

Cheese, Fromage, Queso, Käse, Formaggio ...

... you get the picture

One thing I love about France is the number of cheeses there are to choose from. We are all familiar with the popular French cheeses: Bleu cheese, Chèvre, Camembert, Brie, Boursin etc. But what I love is that there are enough cheeses and brands of cheeses here to try a new one every day!! Not necessarily only French cheeses either. Now, I don't quite have the funds for a new cheese every day, but I have been trying at least one a week since I got to France. Now I have decided to share some of these new cheeses I try so you can all follow along on my wondrous journey through cheeseland. Let's begin with the two most recent ones I bought:

Le Tomme de Savoie
This is a French cheese whose origins date back to before the 16th century when the peasants of the Savoie region (in the Alps in the east of France) started making cheese out of the skim milk left over after making butter. The word "tomme" is slang and it means 'cheese made in the high mountain regions'. Each household would make their own tomme, resulting in many different varieties. Even today, many different varieties still exist and the cheese can be found classified from 'light' to 'fatty'. The one I tried is great. The smell threw me off at first, it's a little strong, but the taste is smooth and a has a little bite to it. I would give it a 7 out of 10.








Le Rustique
This brand of Camembert is a newer cheese, dating all the way from 1992. It is also a French cheese and is made from pasteurized milk. Camembert in general is one of the most well known French cheese. It is smooth and creamy on the inside with a rind around the whole cheese that is rough and waxy. Some choose to eat the rind, some do not. My number one choice would be to put it in the oven for a little while and then eat the gooey cheese with some bread. But cold it works just as well. This specific brand was very nice, better than the last Camembert I had which was more generic. I would give it a 7 out of 10 as well.




Now these are only a fraction of the goodness to come this year. And of course no cheese is complete without bread or wine (or both) so be prepared for some fun. There will be more cheeses to come soon I'm sure.

As for the rest of life, it is going well. The weather has made another turn towards the cold (though it was really nice again this past weekend) and I am fearful for when it gets into the negatives. But I am prepared with my scarves and boots and extra pounds I will put on if I keep eating this much cheese... :-P

Oh Germany

What a strange feeling to be surrounded by a language I know nothing of. German, though slightly similar to English, is proving to be difficult for me. Yes I am taking a course, I live with a German speaker, the German border is a 2 minute walk away, and I go a few times a week across the border, but still I am floundering.
Example: Last night, at a bar in Saarbrucken I decided to overcome my fear of ordering in German. I went to the bar, ordered 2 beers for my friend and me and went back to the table to wait for my order, satisfied with myself and excited for my beer. A couple minutes later, what I had ACTUALLY ordered arrived: One beer and a croissant.... At least I got the one beer, unfortunately for my friend. :-/ I didn't even know bars had croissants!...welcome to Europe. Better work double hard on the German this week.

As for work, it is going well. I have started teaching, and my experiences are completely different every day, especially between the Collège and the Lycée. It has been fun playing games and talking about things like American recipes, music, and Halloween. I sometimes feel like a celebrity walking around town and hearing shouts of "Hello!" from people on the street who are my students. It really is a small town and I usually see them around semi often, however I have about 12 different classes so I don't know all the students yet.

I have found the forest, and I love it. It is beautiful this time of year, with the leaves changing colors and the early morning fog. The trails are perfect for hiking, biking, running. I have been running and going to the pool pretty often to cancel out the amount of bread and cheese I eat and just to get in shape again. Last weekend there was a 10k run in Sarreguemines. At the Collège we had a "team" of people who all participated and there was an all around good ambiance. I'm sure the good weather that day helped. :-)

Next week the school has a vacation in celebration of All Saints Day. We get a week and a half off, so I will be doing a little exploring and traveling!

As I woke up I looked out the window of the plane. Everything I could see was so flat in the early morning haze. However, in the middle of that haze, barley visible at first, stood a tiny triangular figure. And I realized that I awoke over Paris. The airport was less romantic, as they often are and the train station even less so. Nonetheless, I got to the city, found a hostel and called up some friends. I spent a few days in Paris before heading to what was to me my home for the next few months: Sarreguemines.

My first impression of Sarreguemines: It is adorable.

The main river near downtown

Here is a little bit of information about the town: Sarreguemines is a city in the North East of France in the Lorraine region. It is in between the cities of Strasbourg, Nancy and Metz but along the German border, north of all those towns. The nearest big town is Saarbrucken in Germany and Sarreguemines has gone back and forth between being a French and German city throughout history. There are about 25,000 people who live here.
It reminds me a lot of Chico in many ways: The small city feel, the fact that everyone is so nice, it has two rivers running through it (though the first day I crossed one of them and realized 20 minutes later that I was in Germany haha), there are great running and biking paths that at this moment are covered with colorful leaves that have fallen off the trees, and everyone knows each other.

Downtown on a Sunday, when everything is closed

I am here to be a language assistant, basically to speak English to Jr. High and High School students and make sure they understand what is being taught by the English professors. The first couple weeks I will only be observing, but after that I get to have my own groups of students and try to pretend that I speak no French.

The Jr High.

When I first got here, I was welcomed by one of the teachers at my school and he explained a lot about the city and hosted me for the night with his family. The next day I was reminded about French grocery stores and how much I love French cheese. :-) I also got to move into my apartment and meet my roommate, who is from Turkey / Austria and is the German language assistant. The apartment is amazing, with windows that let in plenty of natural light (unlike my dungeon in Aix) and it is spacious with a large living room and kitchen, great for dinner parties :-) It is also right on the Jr High campus so I have to walk a total of about 2 minutes to get to work, depending on which classroom I am in. That will come in handy in the rainy season, which is apparently all the time though right now we are in a very unusual sunny time.


Our living room

My room, well half of it.

It has been really nice outside, we have been very lucky.

A race with kayaks the weekend I got here

A really cute garden next to the river

The main river, The Saar.

Since we are so close to the German border, I decided to sign up for a German course at a local College. Sometimes I feel like I am not in France, by the amount of German that I hear around me. Most of the people here speak at least a little bit of German, though French is still spoken everywhere. I have not heard any English around town, which I am very happy about.

The differences between Sarreguemines and Aix-en-Provence are many, but I feel that this will be just as great of an experience though a completely different one.

It is also completely different from Club Med, where I have been living and working for the past year. I have missed cooking dinner and having a glass of wine while preparing the meal. I missed being able to go to sleep early and get up early and have a cup of tea. I missed having the time to read at least 1 book per week. All of these will be done many times throughout this year I hope. I am looking forward to perfecting my French, learning a new language and culture by being so close to Germany, and progressing personally in many aspects.

Cooking Time

So its been a long time since I have "blogged" as the saying goes. I am still in Chico for the moment, planning on going to France in June. My boyfriend and I have been cooking a lot, which is the main reason for the revamping of the blog. So here we go with the foods...

Peppermint White Chocolate Chip Cookies


Chicken Pot Pie


Lamb Kebabs, Spanikopeta, Cucumber Salad


We've also been making a lot of bread. Stay tuned for more yummy photos.

Back to school in Chico

So for all of you who asked that I keep this up here you go....

School started for me in Chico at the end of August. I am taking plenty of classes: Photography, Sociology of Gender, Women in Contemporary Societies, French Culture and Civilization, French Linguistics, and Anthropology. I like most of them and I'm excited that I get to keep up my French by taking 2 classes. I am hoping to do some tutoring as well. I got a job at a portrait studio called The Picture People and have already done some sessions with a baby and a couple. It has been going pretty well and I am happy to be getting more photography experience. I also have an internship with Study Abroad so I get to promote it and tell everyone about how exciting my experience was :-D I am getting reacquainted with Chico and seeing some old friends. I am keeping busy and having fun!

Italie and more

Sorry for the delay. It has been 2 months since Italy, but I have been busy enjoying the rest of my time here. I have moved out of my appartment and am now traveling around before I come back to the states.

Italy
My friend Kristin and I went to Italy for spring break. The first city we went to was Genoa. It is a port city where Christopher Columbus was supposedly born and grew up. We only stayed there for a night. It took us forever to find a hotel and while we were looking we saw all these amazing pizza and gelato places. We finally got settled in a pretty cool hotel and then we headed out to check out the town. There was a cool little market that was exactly like the Christmas markets in Germany, complete with German food and everything. So unfortunately, our first night in Italy we ate German food for dinner, but it was still really good :-D

The next day we headed off to Venice. I loved Venice. It was so beautiful with its canals! However, it rained most of the time we were there. I actually felt really dumb when I first got there. I asked at the tourism office how to get to the San Marco Plaza and she asked if I would like to walk or take a boat. And I said a bus would be fine and she gave me a really weird look and said "There are no buses in Venice" haha. I felt dumb. So their "bus" system is really a system of boats but it does the same thing. It has schedules and different lines. It was pretty cool. Everything pretty much took place on the water. Even the garbage "trucks" were boats. The taxi's too. It was fun. The first night we met up with some friends and finally got some pizza :-D The next day Kristin and I took a boat over to a little island called Murano that is known for its glass blowing. It was really beautiful there and there were so many glass blown pieces. We then went back to Venice and hung out a little more. There really wasn't much to do in Venice because it is such a small city. We did meet up with some friends though and met a couple cool people.

Our next stop was Rome. The first 2 nights there we stayed with a couchsurfer a little outside Rome. He drove us around the Colosseum the first night and it was so beautiful!!! It unfortunately rained a lot in Rome too. :-( But we took advantage of some of the good weather to go to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum (where all of the ancient ruins are) It was really cool there! Its so old that its amazing. It kinda sucks that everything is so dilapidated though, but I guess that thats the cost for still having it there. We stayed in Rome for about 5 days. It was a pretty good amount of time. We got to see everything that we wanted to without feeling rushed. We spent a lot of time at Trevi Fountain people watching. :-D It is such a good place to people watch.

After we left Rome we decided to stop in Pisa on the way to Florence, because it is a must. We stopped for just a few hours, saw the leaning tower of Pisa, pushed the tower down, even tried to kick the tower down and drank some wine. There is not really much to do in Pisa besides see the leaning tower so we hopped back on the train and headed to Florence.

Florence was the last stop on our Italy trip. We stayed with some of Kristin’s friends who were studying there. We walked around the city a little the first day and kinda chilled out. The second day we decided to take a day trip to Siena. From there the trip just went downhill. The guy on the train was a jerk. We had bought tickets even though we had a railpass because the tickets were so cheap we didn’t want to waste a day. However, in Europe they have a system of validation where you have to validate any ticket before you get on a train. Well we were in such a hurry to the train because we got there just in time after having run, that we forgot to validate our tickets. The ticket taker informed us of our mistake and proceeded to tell us that we owed him 20 euros each….however, we had railpasses so we decided instead of paying 20 euros we can just use a day on our railpass. So we filled in a day and then he came back and said we couldn’t do that because it was too late, you have to fill in the date before you get on the train. So we had two options: we pay him 20 euros each or we go to the police station when we stop and deal with them…So we chose the police station figuring that the police would be able to get this guy off of our backs, since we knew he was just going to pocket the money. Nope. The police could do nothing against him, since apparently he was in the right. So we ended up paying 50 euros each for a meager day trip from Florence. I left out the gruesome details because it makes me mad to think about it but in short, we were angry the whole time in Siena and it was pouring rain and windy, so therefore not a good time….We headed back to Florence afterwards and stayed there another couple days before heading back to Aix for the last few days of our spring break. I spent them relaxing and not thinking of crazy Italians.



I have done a lot of stuff since then but seeing as I am almost home I am sure everyone will hear about everything soon enough. I have recently gone to Ireland, Amsterdam and London with Saqib and his brother. I had a lot of fun in each place with lots of crazy stories. I am in Strasbourg now, a little over a week left until I go back to the states and I am planning on spending that time in France :-D

Presque Printemps

Almost Spring...

As April begins I have come to the saddening realization that I have only two more months of school and about three more months in Europe. Now this may seem like a long time, but it is going to go by super fast for me. I have already gotten emails from the CSU director telling us how to close out accounts and electricity and things like that. Not happy...Ok but on to exciting and fun news :-D

As I write this I am sitting in our favorite burger place after having finished my burger and moved on to drinking pastis. For those of you that don't know pastis is a drink native to this region. It is a mixture of the alcohol pastis and water. At the moment my pastis also has grenadine in it. Its a wonderful thing. :-D Anyways, the last few weekends have been full of fun and friends. For the weekend of Easter break I had a friend come from Germany to rock climb with me. He came on thursday night, just in time for our "Fete du fromage et du vin" or Wine and Cheese Party at our house for our French Couchsurfer friends. They brought us lots of wine and cheese of different types and even a list of which wines are good with which cheeses

On Saturday Nils (the German friend), Raul (a friend from Nicaragua) and I went rock climbing up at Mont Sainte Victoire, a mountain great for hiking, climbing and camping that is about 20 minutes outside of Aix. It was great fun, I hadn't climbed with people that I liked and that spoke English in awhile so it was a nice change. We tried climbing again on Sunday and we brought some more people with us, but it was much too windy, we could barley even walk up the mountain, much less climb on it. It was fun getting out to Sainte Victoire again though. Monday we didn't even try, instead we stayed at my house and joined in the Easter Festivities (we had the day off of school), which included eating dyed easter eggs, eating chocolate, eating food from a potluck, pretty much just eating. :-P We played some games as well though. It was good fun.

This past weekend I took a day trip by myself. I needed to get out of Aix and have some time to myself. I paid the euro that it costs to get to Arles on a bus and headed out at 8 in the morning. I got to Arles and explored downtown for a little while. I went to the amphitheater, which is one of the oldest in France.

Then I took a bus about 10 minutes outside of Arles to an old Abby. I am so glad that I went out there. It was so beautiful, it was in the middle of fields and it was so old.


It had a crypt underneath that looked really cool as well. I got to go up in the tower and it was such an amazing view! Arles is the city far away in this picture:

After visiting the Abby and waiting around for the bus to come get me, I had a really nice lunch back in Arles. It was the second best meal that I have had in Europe I must say, the first being in Lubeck, Germany. It was roast beef sitting atop a bed of delicious noodles, followed by homemade caramel creme.

After lunch I explored some of the cafes and areas where VanGogh had painted. Apparently Arles was one of his favorite subjects. Before I caught the bus back to Aix, I had to check out one more thing, Les Alychamps, an old cemetary. It had old tombs and trees lining the walkway to a chapel


And it was in general really cool. No one is buried there anymore, but it was the perfect time of day for the light to jump off of the stained glass windows in the chapel and to notice the silence that still held the area in its grasp.
I grabbed the bus back to Aix in the late afternoon, but not before grabbing some banana gelato. :-D

The last couple days have been filled with laziness and a lot of reading because of the rain. I have begun to read a lot again, especially with the sale that just happened at the English bookstore. I got 5 books for 7 Euros. Amazing. I have also started to swim again. I finally found a good pool and I am going to start going there as often as possible, I had forgotten how much I missed and loved swimming. However, the pools here are a lot different than in the states. Yes they look the same, but its the people that make it so strange. As some may know, France is not big on exercise. Yes there are the giant rugby and futball teams that are super fit, but in general exercise is not a big thing. So the picine (pool) is mainly for socializing and "leisure swimming." Groups of two or three will get in the public side of the pool (which is about 30 feet wide) and will just swim leasurely along, talking about their day, about their new boots, and probably about that strange American girl who is trying to swim laps peacefully but has to keep trying to dodge the chatty French faux-swimmers. *whew* can you tell that it frustrates me? Just a little? Its just very strange having to dodge people while swimming laps. But it is good exercise and is a lot of fun.

So my friend sent me an email this week and he asked me what daily life here was like. And I realized that a lot of you guys back in the states are probably interested in that and I have just been lazy and been writing alot about my travels and not alot about my life here in Aix. So now is the time for that I think.
I know that I have written some about the cafe's here and that is one of the main things of daily life. There are plazas that are just surrounded with little cafe's and there are also little cafe's down random streets, something that is totally foreign to the states. A lot of people can be seen at cafe's throughout the day but the main times are in the morning (when they "prend un cafe" take a coffee and read the newspaper) and in the late afternoon (when they take a beer or coffee between lunch (2pm) and dinner (9pm). Now when I say "coffee" and when you order a "cafe" at a cafe here they bring you the American equivalent of a shot of espresso. If you want an American Coffee you have to order a "cafe au lait" or a coffee with milk. And as much as I hate to admit it, I have begun to like them. Before I came here I hated coffee. But sometimes I just have a craving to get a cafe au lait while I sit and read my book or write.
The marche or market is also a big thing here. I might have said this before but there is a fresh food market every day, not just one or two days a week like in Chico and Fullerton. This everyday market has stuff like fruits, vegetables, cheese, meat, honey, fish, breads, and some other specialties. There is also a bigger market that is held in certain places around the town on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. In addition to the normal market goods, the big markets have organic foods, flowers, clothing, spices, books, trinkets, soaps, and much more. Whenever I need to buy fruits or vegies or other essentials I usually wake up early and go to the market, since there is one about a minutes walk from my house.
My daily life here also obviously consists of school. I go to classes 4 times a week, I don't have class on wednesdays. I live about a block from my school which is nice, I can roll out of bed and still make it to class on time.
Boulangeries (Bakeries) are also scattered around the city. They have all sorts of wonderful bread. For dinner or breakfast we just go to the bakery and get a baguette (70 centimes) to eat with our food. The bakeries also have tartes. The strawberry tartes are my favorite. They are amazing. I will definitely miss bakeries when I go back to the states.
Hmm besides that I suppose that life here isn't that much different, besides the obvious French element. I go to school, make food or go to a restaurant, hang out with friends etc. I think that the things I mentioned, the cafes, market, and bakeries, are some of the main things that I will miss just because they aren't the same in the US.

Well I guess that is all for now. Hopefully everyone is doin well. Leave some comments dangit.

La Maroc

La Maroc

Alex and I took a trip to Morocco for my February break. We went to a number of cities and it was pretty cool. I suppose I will begin my blog with some highlights of the trip because I talk a lot about these things throughout the blog. :-P

Highlights:
Mint tea: The most amazing drink in the world. We drank it about 5 times a day, and that’s not even an exaggeration. With every meal we got it, we got it at random times in the day when we were bored in cafés, and sometimes when people were trying to get us to buy stuff in stores they sat down with us and offered us mint tea and just sat and talked to us before discussing business. That is one really cool thing that I liked. Example: when Alex and I were in the store looking at hookas to buy, the guy called his friend over who brought us mint tea from a café next door. They just give it to you like you are family, it is really cool. We talked for awhile about our lives and then finally got down to business. ie. haggling
Haggling: For those that don’t know, haggling is talking down the price of something that you want to buy. Definitely big in Morocco. Everyone does it, and I apparently am not very good at it at all. I was a lot better at the end of the trip then in the beginning, but even then I wasn’t very good at it. I know I definitely could have gotten better deals on things. But such is life, I’ll do better next time. :-P
Speaking French: It was really cool to get to speak so much French. A lot of the time a lot of the taxi drivers or store owners spoke better French than English so I got to talk to them. Alex unfortunately just had to stand around and look confused. It was funny though because I got so used to speaking to people in French that even if they would talk to me in English I would answer in French. Alex thought I was insane. :-P
Traveling on Trains, Buses, and Taxis: We spent a lot of our time in Morocco traveling from city to city, which wasn’t really cool. The train rides we took were about 8 hours each, and it was super boring. The trains were pretty nice though. They were all cabines and not seats. The bus that we took from Chefchaouen to Fez was really nice. We got to see a lot of the countryside and we met a guy who graduated from Humboldt State in CA who was traveling the world for a year. He stayed with us in Fez and we randomly saw him again in Marrakesh. Taxis around the cities were generally really cool. The drivers were really really nice and they were super cheap. For a normal ride no matter how far we usually went it was about 10 durhams which is about a euro. It was awesome. However, the grand taxis, the ones that go from city to city, were a little weirder. They overcharged and I just didn’t like them.
Food: There was the same food pretty much every city we went to. The main things were tajines (dishes cooked over a flame that can be chicken, beef, or vegetarian. They are really good), couscous (a dish with couscous and either chicken, beef, vegetarian etc), soup (Moroccan soup or vegetable soup), kebabs (pieces of meat/vegetables on a stick), and mint tea (an essential to every meal). But seriously there were the same things in every restaurant so we got to eat a lot of good stuff. I loved all the food. I got an amazing vegetarian couscous in Fez but I was so full from the soup that I had had as an appetizer that I couldn’t finish it. :-(
People: I met a lot of people in Morocco. Natives and tourists. I had both good experiences and bad. In general, the people that I went up to and initiated conversation with and the taxi drivers were always really nice and helpful. However, the people who were just trying to get money or trying to sell you something were really bothersome and annoying for me. I talked with a lot of people and learned a lot while I was there too.
Durhams: The currency. It is 11 durhams to the euro and 7 durhams to the dollar so it was really cheap. :-D It rocked. Food was usually around 25 durhams and hotels were usually around 80 or 90 per person.
Faux Guides: People who try and get you to give them money for leading you around the city. They come up to you and won’t leave you alone. It is illegal for them to hassle you but they do it anyway. There are also “official guides” which I guess are legal, but they do the same thing and its still annoying.
Shopping: There are so many shops and so many things to buy in all the cities. They mostly have the same types of things: Purses, shoes, tajines, shirts, hookas, lanterns, tea sets, pottery, drums, leather, scarves, lots of things. I bought stuff that I probably didn’t need and some stuff that I really did need and that I really like.

Morocco was a very interesting experience for me. Alex and I flew into Fez at about 9 in the morning. My friend had told me that we would have people coming up to us telling us to stay at the “brothers hotel” or eat at their “cousins restaurant” and it was very true. We were followed for a little while and we decided to just chill out in a little café. The guy there was really nice and gave us really good soup and mint tea for 8 durhams each, which is about 80 euro cents. We then grabbed a taxi. The taxi driver was really nice and when I told him that it was our first time in Morocco he started to explain everything that we were driving by. It was really cool. We got to our hotel finally, and it was really nice. We had such a sweet room with a roof terrace and a roof café. However, from our hotel that first day just went downhill. The guy that gave us our room introduced himself as an “official guide” and as much as we said no, we ended up with a guide taking us around the city. And while it was good to get to see all of the things with a native, it was annoying because he kept taking us into shops and trying to get us to buy things. Alex and I were both really frustrated, and by the end we just wanted to get out! We did get to see a bunch of cool things though like a bunch of artisan shops. We got to see the tanneries, which are big in Fez and was also really cool to see. We ate lunch at a nice restaurant which was waaaay too much food but I got to try my first Moroccan tajine :-P It was pretty good. We visited a spice shop, a rug shop, a wool blanket shop, hand carved plate shop, a clothing shop, and a few more. By the end we were just so sick of saying, “no we can’t afford that” that we just wanted to leave. But finally it was over and he let us go off on our own. We took a walk up to a hill that overlooked the city and it was really nice. We heard the first call to prayer from there. It was really cool because we were so high up so we could hear how it started out in one mosque (all the way to our left) and then got carried on and repeated to the right until they were all doing the call. So we could hear it almost surrounding us. It was weird though because we didn’t see anyone stop what they were doing to pray, which I though would happen. That night Alex and I hung out at our hostel and just chilled out from the stressful first day.

The next day we woke up early and got on a train to Tangier. Tangier was the whole reason why Alex came to Europe. He wanted to see the place where the beat writers that he had read wrote their books. The cool thing was that we found the hotel where it is thought that William Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch, which is one of the books that Alex read before coming. :-P So it was pretty cool. We had a view of the beach and everything. And that was the most expensive hotel we stayed in and it was 10 euros per person, so it was amazing! We walked around Tangier for a little while, shopped a little, walked along the beach, got followed by another guy that wanted money for showing us around. Tangier is I think one of the touristy cities too. It is a port city so a lot of day trippers come over from Spain. It is a pretty interesting city. There are a lot of night clubs along the beach and there is even a catholic church. That night we went over to someone’s house and he made us dinner and we just talked for awhile, it was pretty nice. :-D

We decided that Tangier was not really what we were expecting so we decided to cut our time there short. We took a taxi up to the north/westernmost point of Africa, which is called Cape Spartel. We were in between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. We then headed to the Grottos of Hercules, where legend has it that he split Africa from Europe. There is a cave that has rocks shaped like an upside down Africa. It was really commercialized, but it was cool to see. After that, the taxi driver took us to another city called Chefchaouen. It is in the Rif mountains and it is a little backpacker city that is just becoming popular. The streets are all blue and it is really pretty. Everyone that we met was really nice there and I bought some cool things. I had a really good shrimp tajine too. :-D It was so different from Fez and Tangier and I felt like I could finally relax and not have people always bothering me to come into their stores or give them money. It was a good break. :-D I really liked Chefchaouen, I want to go back and do a 5 day hike around the Rif Mountains. We wanted to hike around a little but it was raining most of the time, so we just hung out and talked with people and shopped. We left on a bus the next day unfortunately.

We took the bus back to Fez and met up with my roommate and some other friends. The second time that I went to Fez was a lot better. I felt more comfortable because I knew exactly where I was going and didn’t feel like a lost tourist who is in a super foreign country for the first time. We stayed there just for the night and woke up early and took the train to Marrakesh. Marrakesh and Chefchaouen are tied for my favorite cities that I visited in Morocco. When we got there it was pretty warm (such a change from all the rain) and we got ice cream! It was amazing. There were a lot more tourists than any other city and there was a lot more to see. That night we just wandered around until it was dinnertime. At dusk they start setting up food stands in the giant square. When they open and you walk in you are bombarded with people telling you to come to their stands. It’s actually kind of fun. So we ate at one of the stands and had so much food! Good food too. It’s cooked right in front of you and is all fresh. :-D wonderful. They have all the food set up just waiting to be ordered and then they grab it and cook it. :-D We then went to a nice bar that was really touristy but we didn’t have a lot of money so we just got the cheapest bottle of wine on the menu. :-P The next day we took a horse buggy tour around the city. We got to see a lot of things that we went back to the next day. We saw the royal palace and some mosques and all of the rich touristy hotels, because Marrakesh is one of the really touristy cities in Morocco. There is even a Club Med right next to the Square. We met up with some people that we had met in Fez the day before and hung out with them for a little while until it started raining again. :-( We went to dinner in the square again and this time we tried snail soup. The thought of it was more frightening than the soup itself. It actually wasn’t bad. It was really really salty, but not bad. We had soup too for super cheap. I spent less than 10 durhams on dinner: which is less than a euro. Pretty sweet. The next day we did a lot of shopping and I got to take a bath in a Hammam. A hammam is a traditional bath in Morocco. I went to an all women’s one and it was really cool because people would just come with their whole family (grandma, mother, daughter) and bathe together. I got bathed and scrubbed down; I was really dirty from not showering for awhile. It was a cool experience to be in there out of my comfort zone. We took a night train from Marrakesh to Fez and caught a 9 am flight from Fez back to Marseille. We were so afraid we were going to miss the flight and we were so ready to go home. We did not sleep that last night and I passed out on the flight. Our train got in to Fez at 2 in the morning and the bus from the train station to the airport was not until 6:30, so we stayed up in a little café playing games and watching tv. No one in the café spoke English or French so it was really kind of boring. But finally we got on the plane, got back to France, and felt back at home. :-D



Nice

Last weekend we went to Nice for the last weekend of Carnival. Nice is a city in the south of France so it wasn’t that far. A group of 6 of us went and it was so much fun! We got into the city at about 5 on Saturday and watched the parade Saturday night. We got in so many silly string fights and we pretty much participated in the parade. :-P It was not at all like parades in the states. We could walk up with people and take pics with them and walk along the route. It was awesome! I even got thrown up in one of those circle blanket things, where people hold on to the edges and you get in and you get thrown in the air. It was amazing! At the end of the night we all had so much silly string and confetti on us and no one had batteries left in their cameras. :-P We woke up the next morning and hung out in Nice. It was perfect weather! Sunny, warm, lay on the beach with no shirt weather! Finally! I missed that weather. Anyway, Nice was beautiful! We got amazing pizza at a restaurant that Saqib had found the weekend earlier when he was there and we watched the parade during the day. It was pretty much the same parade with a few differences. Definitely not as fun as the night before. We lounged on the beach for a little while too. It was amazing. Then we got back on the TGV and headed back to Aix! It was the perfect amount of time, even though it made me miss the beach and sunny weather so much! I can’t wait until summer!!!!



Everything here in Aix has been going really well. As I write this I am sitting in a café not far from my house and people watching and drinking a thé au lait which is a tea with milk. I love going to café’s. Its just so cool to sit and talk for awhile and people watch. Its so much more laid back here. Nothing is rushed like it is in the states. At restaurants in the states you sit in a restaurant and they bring your check as soon as you’re done and they pretty much push you out. Here you pretty much have to flag them down for the check even after 2 hours of sitting in the café. Its great. I finally got my grades back from the first semester of school and they are A’s and B’s. I wanted all A’s but such is life. I am getting more involved, doing more stuff here. Today I went to the big Saturday market with my roommates and we just walked around tasting cheeses, meats, spreads. It was so great. I don’t know why I don’t go there more often. I am hanging out with more French people and I am trying to meet a lot more. I am listening to a lot of French music too. A couple weeks ago a few of us went to a French concert. We rented a car and drove to it. :-D It was a singer named Pauline Croze and she was pretty good. I am going to go to a Renan Luce concert too! I am so excited, he is awesome. One of my favorite French singers. Today was a beautiful day. It has been really cold recently in Aix, but today the sun came out and everyone was out and about and it was just a general good happy feeling. I got my hair cut as well. Super short. And dyed it. I look like a totally different person. :-P

my new hair


Girl's night. So much fun :-D

I am trying to plan the rest of my trips while I am here. I am planning on going to Italy for spring break and traveling around France in summer after school. I want to stay as long as I can. I really want to stay another year too. Really bad. But I also want to go back to Chico. Maybe that’s just because I long for In-n-Out and Burritos……:-P It sucks because I feel like I am just getting more acquainted with the city and going to try new restaurants and finding new friends and learning more every day and I am going to be ripped away from it all in 4 months…but I don’t like thinking about that…Hope everyone is doing as well as I am! PS: I’m always excited to get emails and letters….hint hint. :-P

The hectic travel month :-D

So ever since I got back from Amsterdam I have been traveling every weekend because of the railpass that I have. I get to go where ever I want for free as long as I take the trains. :-D It pretty much rocked.

Annecy/Grenoble

This week Alex was in Paris visiting his Aunt and for the weekend he decided to go to Madrid. Since I have already been there, Christa and I decided to take a random trip
since we both had railpasses. We picked a city called Annecy, it was supposed to be de a wonderful dinner complete with ham, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and …….a raclette machine. Now raclette is a type of cheese that I have used before and I had heard rumors of the so called raclette machine. What it is is a type of oven to melt cheese in. You put a piece of raclette on a spoon type device and stick it in the raclette machine, which is heated from the top and the bottom. It melts the cheese and you can then pour it onto your potatoes, ham, mushrooms, and onions for a wonderful meal. I ate way to much because it was so delicious.


There is also a tradition in January in France that apparently happens in the states too. It is the tradition of the kings cake. A group of people buy a cake inside of which is hidden a little prize, usually porcelin or something like it. You cut the cake into pieces and then the youngest person goes under the table and dictates who gets which pieces (so as to not be unfair) Everyone then proceeds to eat the slice they have been given and the person who finds the prize inside wins! They get a crown and get to choose their king or queen. Well, Gils, Christa, and I played the game with the three of us and I won. It was pretty cool. There were actually two prizes, but the second one was in the slice that none of us got. :-P


The next day Gils took us on a hike to the top of a pretty cool mountain. On the top was the site of an old Nazi camp from WWII. Grenoble was one of the main Nazi holds during the war. To get to that part, Gils took us on the “shortcut” which required that we slip and slide UP a snow covered hill. It was intense. There was some snow on the top of that mountain too so it was pretty nice. The view was amazing as well.




After the hike Christa and I unfortunately had to catch us bus back to Aix and cut off our great time with Gils. The bus ride home took forever because there were no fast trains from Grenoble that day that we could take. However, it was well worth it, finally getting to see Grenoble and Annecy. ;-D

Switzerland
Geneva

The next weekend, another trip was in store. This time Alex did tag along, as well as my friend Krystelle. The first city we hit was Geneva. It was amazingly beautiful there. Geneva has a flower clock, the tallest fountain in the world which is called Jet d’eau (Water Jet), and some pretty cool chapels. We walked around the city exploring for the whole day. We saw shops that had swiss army knives in them and we even got to see the Guinness Book of World Records biggest swiss army knife. It was huge! Totally unusable, but it had everything imaginable. We got to go into the bell towers of the Cathedral de St. Pierre (something that we never get to do in any other countries) and the view was awesome. It was so exciting for me to finally get to go up in a tower, since I do have an obsession with bell towers. :-P We also visited Hotel de Ville, which is where the Geneva Convention was signed. That was pretty cool. It was kind of deserted, but still it was cool to get to go there. After seeing pretty much all that we wanted to see in Geneva, we found these giant chessboards. The chessboards were painted on the asphault and the pieces came up to about my knees. It was so great! We played chess for a few hours, walking on the chessboards in order to move our pieces. Then we realized that Geneva was also where Jean Jacques Rousseau grew up so we had to visit his former house. It is now a museum and Alex paid to go in while Krystelle and I stayed outside. Looking back, I should have paid the measley 5 euros as well. After that we went in search of food. We also (unfortunately) sat in Starbucks (yes Starbucks…they are taking over the world just like Mc. Donalds) for a little while, though I did have some of the best cheesecake of my life there. Finally we caught our train to Zurich, where we were going to spend the night.



Zurich

We got to Zurich and the guy that we stayed with showed us around town a little bit, even though we got there at night. He took us up to this really cool park where we had a nice view of Zurich. The next day he had work so Alex, Krystelle, and I explored on our own. Like in Geneva, we got to go up into the bell tower of the Grossmunster cathedral. It was just as great. The stairs were killer, but the view was worth it. We also got a chance to see the largest clock face in Europe, which was on the St. Peters Church, though it didn’t look THAT big to me. Then we went back to the park that we visited last night and they had the same kind of chessboards set up except this time the pieces were wooden instead of plastic. We played chess for a few hours then we met some people and hung out with them. We went to the top of this other tower, which was actually a bar, but we just took some pictures. We then went to a beer hall that was playing some sweet polka type music. We got some good food and some good liters of beer. :-D It was good fun. The next morning we woke up and took the long train ride back to Aix. On the way we had some gorgeous views. We passed by Lake Geneva and along the side were some gorgeous vineyards. I couldn’t get a very good picture because of the reflections on the glass but one turned out pretty nice. All in all, I am glad that I finally got to go to Switzerland. I picked up a Swiss Army Knife while I was there, super cheap I might add, and also some swiss chocolates. :-D Very nice.



21st Birthday!

The Thursday before my actual birthday, Saqib threw a toga party at Bulldogges (an English restaurant in Aix) Before the toga party, a little party was thrown for Kristin and I (we have the same exact birthday). It was pretty cool. My mom had sent me some birthday glasses so we all wore those and looked awesome. We joined the toga party later and Kristin and I got to dance on the bar while people sang happy birthday.


me and Kristin, the other birthday girl!


us and the glasses


dancin on the bar :-D

Paris

I finally made my way to Paris for my 21st birthday. Alex, Saqib and I took the TGV (the fast train) on Friday night and made it to Paris in time to meet up with Saqib’s friend Tandra and her friends at a really cool café. While we were sitting there, an open mic night started. I finally got to hear French Slam Poetry, something I have wanted to hear the whole time I have been here. It was pretty awesome. Then we headed over to our hostel, that was right around the corner from Sacre-Coeur. We could see the famous church from outside of our door to our room. It was amazing! We dropped off our stuff in the hostel and headed out. We figured out that we were in the same arrondissment as the Moulin Rouge so it was obligatory that we head in that direction. When we finally got there it was not what I had imagined. There was a Moulin (windmill), but I had kept picturing the movie, which I didn’t actually remember very well anyway. But it was still cool to see. We then walked around a little more. Paris is so much more alive at night than Aix. It was about 3 in the morning and everywhere was still hoppin! It was pretty sweet. The next day (the day of my birthday :-D) we woke up and the first thing we did, after free hostel breakfast of baguettes with jam, was go to the Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre. After climbing the steps to the base of the stairs, we had an amazing view of all of Paris, except the Eiffel Tower. Now you must understand that ever since I arrived in France in August, I have been waiting to see the Eiffel Tower. I was glued to the window when we arrived in Paris on the airplane for our connecting flight to Marseille, and I was glued to the window again on the way to Marseille, and yet still I hadn’t even gotten a glimpse of the famous monument. So when we got to see a panoramic view of Paris without the Eiffel Tower, I must admit that I was a little disappointed. However, that disappointment turned to awe when we went inside the Sacre Coeur. Now usually, when I visit cathedrals, which I do very often cuz there is one in almost every city I go to here, they all look the same and I get the same feeling of churchiness. However, this one was different. It made me feel peaceful, welcomed, and alive again. The stained glass windows were amazing too, which was also odd since all cathedrals have some pretty nice stained glass windows. But these had little phrases in French describing the saints and it was just really cool to see. After we walked outside the church, I realized that we could probably see the Eiffel Tower if we walked a little to the right of the place we were before. I WAS RIGHT! I got my first view of the Eiffel Tower, and it was magical. It was little because it was so far away, but I just stood there in amazement for a few minutes, realizing that I was finally realizing a dream. Realizing how lucky I was to be here and how grateful I am for life. I had waited 21 years to see it, and I finally did. It was one of the happiest moments that I have had in France. That may sound weird, “why would Jules care so much about the Eiffel Tower, she has seen so many pictures of it and after all, its just a giant piece of metal…” but for me, it was something else. It was a life goal of mine that I had finally achieved, it is a symbol of a country that I love, of a city that is amazing, and it is something that cannot even be put into words. The rest of the weekend, every time I saw the Eiffel Tower, I would just stop for a moment and stare. Alex thought I was insane. But that’s just because he had already been there. I was so bummed that even he got to go to Paris before me….But on with the day. After the Sacre Coeur, Alex and I (Saqib had gone to meet up with Tandra) made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. That as well was spectacular, because ever since my French classes in high school, we have been learning about the lay out of Paris and all the famous monuments. So finally being in Paris for me was awesome. We hung out at the Arc for awhile then decided to walk down the famous street (the Champs Elysee) all the way to the Louvre. It was a long walk, but it was necessary for my first trip to Paris. Along the way we passed the Obelisk, which had replaced the guillotine that had been used during the French Revolution to behead all sorts of famous people. Now it is full of traffic. Odd isn’t it? We finally got to the Louvre, and it was a lot smaller than I had imagined. We didn’t go inside, because there were other things that I wanted to do and apparently you need more than a day to see the Louvre anyway. Then we hopped on a tram and headed to the Eiffel Tower, to finally see it up close and personal. We stood in the semi long line to get tickets to go to the top and finally took the elevator to the top. The first elevator stops on the second floor then you have to change elevators to go to the very top. We spent some time on the second floor, where the view was pretty good, then we went to the top, where the view was awesome. I couldn’t believe I was finally on the Eiffel Tower! I took a lot of pictures and stayed up there as long as Alex could stand it. Then we took the stairs all the way down. We stopped on the first floor, where there was an ice bar and a place to snow shoe on some snow that had been brought in. Yes, there was snow on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. I am not crazy. :-P We then met up with Saqib and Tandra walked around Paris. We got some dinner at a pizza restaurant that Tandra said was good. Later that night we met up with some people and went to see the movie Sweeny Todd. It was a very good movie, and I am even more in love with Johnny Depp. O:-D That night I had a couple drinks for my birthday, but nothing too exciting. Alex and I walked from the Sacre Coeur to the Eiffel Tower, a two hour walk, and then watched the sunrise from a really cool place in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was so beautiful. On Sunday Alex and I started our day off with choosing a random metro stop and getting off and getting a café. We stayed there and got warm and hung out for a couple hours then we headed back into the center of Paris for some more adventures. Our first stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral, which was not nearly as impressive as Sacre Coeur. I actually didn’t like it. It is so hyped up and it wasn’t even all that pretty. But I was glad that I went. However, outside of the cathedral there was a guy that was feeding birds. He would just hold up a Madeleine (a type of biscuit) in his hand and the birds would flock to him. I was thoroughly amused and, like a little child, decided that I needed to try as well. So I joined the 5 little children that were surrounding him and asked if I could do it was well. He gave me a piece of Madeleine and about 10 birds suddenly engulfed my hand. They would perch their tiny feet on my hand and nibble at the Madeleine. It felt so weird! But it was so much fun. :-D Alex made fun of me, but I loved it. After that we wanted to see the Catacombs, but unfortunately they were closed until March. :-( Instead we decided to check out what my book had called “Le musee des egouts..” Or the museum of the sewers. Despite how that sounds, it was actually really really cool. One of the coolest things that we did in Paris, and definitely better than Notre Dame. We got to go down in the sewers of Paris, learn how they work, and see some real Parisian sewage (ok that part was a little gross but it was still really cool to get to be there) My favorite part was the fact that they had a bathroom down there so it was really exciting to go to the bathroom because we were already in the sewers so it was weird to think about. Now they have down there these giant round balls of metal or steel or something. They are used to clean out the parts of the Paris sewers that are not accessible to humans. They throw them down in the sewers and they push out all the sediment and then come out of the other side. There was one of these balls on display down there and we couldn’t resist taking some pictures with it. We could be Indiana Jones or the cover of Atlas Shrugged. It was great fun. :-D After that we went back to the Eiffel Tower (I just couldn’t get enough) and took some more pictures. We then went and got some food and then headed to the train station to wait for our train. We were so burnt out from the lack of sleep and all the fun that we had had. I pretty much slept the whole way back home on the train and passed out when I got back home to Aix. It was a wonderful weekend and I will definitely be going back to Paris as soon as I can. :-D



Sweden

We decided to go to Sweden because we got free tickets with Ryan Air. Saqib, Alex, German, and I traveled together to Gotheborg. Our other two friends were on the same flight but we didn’t hang out with them. Saqib and I stayed together in one place with some really cool people and Alex and German stayed at another house with some other cool people so we split up on Friday night when we arrived. Saqib and I had some really really good fish that the guy we were staying with (Johan) made for us. That night we stayed up and talked to Johan and his wife Adriana for a long time and then we went to bed. The next day we walked around Gotheborg with Johan and Adriana and they told us a lot about the city. We walked up to the top of a hill and had a nice view of the city. Then we went into a cafe and got some giant cinnamon rolls. And when I say giant, I mean the four of us split one and were happy. We also visited a really cool museum. Saqib wanted to stay there all day, but instead we left after awhile and got some awesome Thai food. That night Adriana and Johan had a party at their house for Adriana’s birthday. A bunch of people came and we got to meet lots of awesome people! We played Nintendo Wii for awhile and had some fun. The next day we did some more walkin around and took a ferry ride as well. It was freezing cold but it was still nice. Then we went to a café and met a whole bunch of new people because a bunch of Adriana and Johan’s friends were there. There were blueberry muffins there too! First that I have had since the states. :-D Then we had to catch our bus back to the airport to go back to Aix. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to all of our newfound friends. :-/ But I’m sure we’ll all stay in touch. :-D



This weekend I finally got to stay at home and take a break. It was very nice. :-D Next weekend Alex and I leave for Morocco :-D I can't wait!