Spring Break part 1

For Spring Break, mom and dad came to visit me in France and we went to Cinque Terre in Italy and then drove around Provence.
One of the best parts about having them come to France was that they got to see where I live. There is nothing quite like the Collège, it's just one of those things that you have to see to believe. We really are right next to the Mediterranean, everyone is happy and having a good time, and we really are speaking and learning a lot of French.

Cinque terre is incredibly beautiful. We took a chance on our hotel, which got rave reviews, but was situated far away from the main town, wo we had to take a bus to get to it. Although the views were definitely to die for, I think if I had a choice I would have liked to have been more accessible in terms of my mobility. The thing about Cinque Terre is that it is a series of towns built in the side of the hill on the Mediterranean that are not easily accessible by car, so for the most part they are very quaint and well perserved. There are hikes along all five of the towns that overlook the sea and the views are amazing. While we were there, one of the hikes was closed, so we had to take an alternate route. Sometimes, unexpected roadblocks make for a richer, more fulfilling experience, and this was certainly one of those times. We ended up taking a more difficult hike that proved to be the best one of the day: extraordinary view and almost complete isolation. Very cool.

Another thing that I learned while in Italy as how dependent upon my French I am. I'm very used to being able to understand most everything around me here, and I forgot what it was like to be in a place where everything was completely foreign. I guess it means that I need to start working only next language ;)

More later on Spring Break, my weekend in Provence, and life in general. tout à l'heure.

Thoughts on a voleur

Once again, apologies on not writing in sooner. The most pertinent thing at this point is to give my point of view on the Spring Vacation. As some of you know and many of you don't, my parents and I were robbed on the last day of our drive through Provence. All of our baggage was stolen and the rental car window was broken apart as well. At this point, I have replaced everything that was of importance and believe that I can look on it with some sort of distance.

My first thought is that getting robbed sucks. It is also a very surreal experience. It's one of those moments where you feel like you should be in a movie and the music should start to get very dramatic and the shots get quicker, but in fact, all that really happens is that moment of silence where it dawns on you that yes, in fact you've been taken advantage of. You try to think of the right thing to do, how did this happen and what am I supposed to do now? The biggest problem is that no one quite knows what to do either. You call the police, but they've got more important things to worry about, they're not going to come to you, you have to go to them. So you find out where to go. Then half an hour later, you get there and wait and wait. Don't they understand? Everything I own is GONE. What do I do? So you go and file a report and that's it. You try to remember everything you had in your bag, you drive home and you try your best to get over it and start replacing stuff.

So what did I learn from this? That I'll be ok. That stuff is replacable. That in the end, we're still alive, able to recuperate from a bad experience. Do I look down on the French as a result? Certainly not. After all, there are depserate people everywhere and we all can only do our best in any given moment. Do I regret my naivete in thinking that our stuff would be ok, if only for a few hours? Sure, but I can learn from that.

I guess in the end, I'm also proud of my abilities to cope and my abilities to speak French. If I can get us through that, ordering a sandwich and having a chat en francais won't be so bad either.

Quick

Sorry for the delay tout le monde, I've just returned from Provence for the weekend with my group. Altough I have a lot of updating to do, I can't do it just yet, becaus I don't have the time as per usual. This weekend we went to Avignon, Arles, St Maries sur le mer, chateauneuf du pape, etc. mus go. will tell you about it soon.

Little Chats

I can hardly believe that it is almost Spring Break time. After we get back from vacation, we will be changing teachers, which is a real bummer, because my teacher now is so great. Yesterday, she went on and on about how much she liked our class and how great we were. She also said that she rarely gives out compliments, so it was pretty rad. Hopefully we will get this other professor, Sylvie who is supposed to be pretty good too.

My friends Jo (AKA Josie) and Andres are both leaving next weekend. I will be sad to see them go, I wish they could stay longer. I think some of my friends are going to Amsterdam in a couple of weeks and will visit Josie then. That's always the most difficult part of meeting new people: so often you have to say goodbye to them. As you get older, you have to deal more and more with the fact that you may not see them again, or it may be a very long time until you do. It's ok though, we you realize how you've changed or bettered yourself because you got to know them.
We were talking about the wat our views had changed since we've been here and met each other. It's funny the things that people never think about until they finally do. My friend Emily from Scotland, for example, told me that she never really thought about what a big deal it is for Americans to go to Europe. How much money it costs, the time, the planning that it takes for the average American to get to Europe, or outside of the country at all. I think once you get perspective about that, it makes it easier to understand shocking nuances of a culture, for example, how so many Americans don't even have a passport or how so few speak just one other language from their own. It doesn't excuse the culture ignorances by any means, but it does help to understand why things happen the way that they happen.

My friend Emily from New York is applying for transfer to the American University in Paris, and is waiting to here from them any day now. She wants to move to Europe and is very excited about being an Expat. I gotta say, I hope she gets in, because I know she'll really like it. I don't think I could do that--move away from the States to a foreign country to live there and take up the culture. It's just not in me to work that way. I think I'm just a little to American. That, and mom would not be down for it, lol.

Alright, enough for now, I'm finished rambling.

I Love Paris in the Spring Time...

So, on to Paris. I did a lot so first I will summarize:

Thursday:
7 am: Bus to Nice airport, flight to Paris
walked to ile de la cité and saw Notre dame and palais de justice
boat ride down the Seine
Cabaret the Musical in French

Friday
Walking Tour of Montmartre
lunch in Montmartre
walked past Moulin Rouge
Up Eiffel Tower
Louvre
delicieuse falafel for dinner in the Jewish Quarter


Saturday
Orangerie
Orsay
lunch in Latin Quarter
Façade of Notre Dame/inside Saint Chappelle
Rodin Museum
Angelina AKA the greatest hot chocolate ever
Strange dinner suggested by Rick

Sunday
Picasso Museum
Lunch
Flight from Paris to Nice, bus to Cannes
Home in time for dinner

Whew! Talk about packing it all in. I felt really good about everything we did, we managed to see everything we wanted to see and we didn't feel rushed by any of it. It helps that I've seen the big stuff already, so i could either bypass it or glance past it quickly if I wanted.

The Picasso Museum was a highlight--I never realized how prolifict of an artist he was. I found many of his more surrealist paintings to be rather inspiring.

Seeing Cabaret at les folies bergeres was exciting, especially since it was all in French and I understood what was going on! (it helped that I've seen the show in English, I must admit) The songs were great and the story inspiring.

My friend Emily and I went to Angelina, probably one of the most French places ever. They have renown hot chocolate that very much resembles a dark chocolate bar melted and called hot chocolate. It was incroyable, very very good. There was a line out the door, but the tables turned over quickly and the short wait was worth it. The decor was typically francaises, with tiny tables and pink and green aura that all these french places seem to have.

We went by the Jewish Quarter, La Marais, on Friday night (maybe not the brightest idea, seeing as how most things were closed) but nonethless stumbled upon a falafel stand that was awesome. It cost 4 Euro if you took away and 9 if you sat down. Suffice it to say, we ate our falafel on the side of the street. It was pretty fun.

That's not everything, but I m running out of time to write.

Hope life is good y'all. I hear it's warm in Sactown, I'm jealous, it's pretty freakin' cold here.

Quick Note

Hello all,
Had a fun time in Paris this weekend, will update about it in a day or two. Basically a fast-paced trip in which we crammed a lot of good stuff into a small amount of time. I really enjoyed!

Parentals: About Spring Break
Cinque Terre sounds good to me. We can do the South of France, too. I'm not really sure what, we might just take Rick's advice. Cannes is a one day place for sure, Monaco I think is one to pass up, Eze is cool, but only worthy of a couple of hours Aix might be worth a go. I don't know what you're really into either, we could also do more of Italy or Northern France. It will be chillier in Northern france though.

Also, we've had a bit of a cold spell, so if I were packing, I'd bring a little warmer weather stuff just in case. It is still a bit early for that though, so it may change.

Going to Paris

Demain, nous irons à Paris et puis j'espère qu'il serais très intèressant. (Tomorrow, we are going to Paris. I hope it will be very interesting). Did you know that the French don't have a word for exciting? At first it seems weird, but we've all pretty much decided that the French don't really get excited, so it isn't that difficult to not have a word for it. Moi, je suis amèricaine, puis je préfererais s'il y aura un mot qu'on peut utiliser (Me, I'm american so I would prefer to have a word that I could use for it.)

I can't remember what I have and haven't written about...so I'll just go for it. The wine tasting dinner was excellent: I had smoked salmon filet for appetizer, some other sort of delicious fish and vegetables for the main course, and rhum cake that wasn't my favorite, for dessert. For each course we learned about how to look at the wine, smell it and taste it. So watch out, y'all I'm a real sommelier now (haha).

I have my cours de cuisine class tonight and I think I recall him saying that we were going to learn how to arrange flowers with the floral arranging students. pas mal de tout. Should be informative.

Meeting about our Paris trip in a few minutes. Things we want to do: Saint Chappelle, Rodin Museum, Angelina's (best hot chocolate in the world, apparently), and general wandering/shopping. In addition, I believe we are also getting visits to the Louvre (mais, bien sur) and the Orsay.

Must go, running out of time. Hope home is loverly.