Melanie, living la bonne vie en France!

2008-01-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I’m back in the States in good old Seattle and can’t say I’m feeling the effects of culture shock that much. To be honest, I think I had a bit of culture shock traveling through Amsterdam, Prague, and Vienna just as they were so different from my life in France. So maybe my travels cushioned my fall.

Anyway, I figure I’ll start where I left off: Clariece and I were just exploring Prague and taking in the sights. After getting girly drinks at a nearby bar (tequila sunrise has quickly become my new favorite drink, besides beer of course), we decided to go to a concert that we had seen advertisements for earlier in the day. The concert featured a saxophone quartet playing classical and jazz arrangements. Normally I’m not the biggest fan of saxophones, but this was really incredible and held in the gorgeous Mirror Chapel, complete with amazing acoustics. I had no idea saxophones could even make the kind of beautiful sounds we heard. The concert ranged from Bach to several selections from Carmen and ended with Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. I love that such high-quality music is just the cultural norm in Europe. When the concert ended, we went back to the hostel and waited for Mike to arrive. He did, luckily, but only after a confusing mix up with the hotel. When everything had calmed down, he showed us pictures of his trip to London and Seville, we talked about various adventures in our journeys thus far, and eventually went to bed.

Monday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and set out to explore Prague. First we stopped at the bus station so Clariece and I could purchase tickets to to Vienna. Let me just say that I love Czech Kroners -- the bus ticket cost the equivalent 12 Euros. Amazing. In high spirits after such a cheap discovery, we took the metro into the center of town and walked around. We wandered into Wenceslas Square, where they were setting up for New Year´s Eve celebrations and listened to a Czech group rehearsing what sounded like an odd combination of folk music and hip-hop. From there we meandered to the Opera house and found another square. Prague is really incredible in that really, wherever you go, you just happen to run into another building with breathtaking architecture sitting modestly below intricate spires and monuments. In the second square we happened upon, one of us noticed that there was an exhibition on Mucha and Dali... quite possibly my two favorite artists. So wonderful! Seeing Mucha’s work in such vivid detail made me indescribably happy. I’m such a nerd.

From the exhibition, we decided to go buy "supplies" (read: alcohol) for the night's activities. We even bought a somewhat nice bottle of champagne to ring in the New Year. We walked back to the hotel and hung out for a while, until it was time to pop the champagne and start the festivities. Around 9 or so, we left our hotel and went downtown, where we ate the Czech version of gyros (not at all like Greek gyros) and I sampled some of the local beer. We still had a ton of time until midnight so we decided to go to a bar and get some more drinks. Finally it was approaching midnight so we went to stake our claim on a spot on the Charles Bridge. After rubbing a statue for good luck in the coming year, we actually ended up standing pretty much on the center of the bridge. Somehow we ran into three (fairly tipsy) French guys from Nantes, of all places. The six of us happily chatted and somehow started talking to a Russian girl and two German girls as well. The Russian girl gave us sparklers and we all had a fun time just hanging out and twirling around with the sparklers until midnight. There wasn't a countdown, which was slightly disappointing, but a barge we hadn't previously noticed straight ahead of us on the river suddenly started setting off fireworks. So, there we were: nine international strangers celebrating New Year's Eve on a medieval bridge and watching an impressive fireworks show right in front of us. Once they stopped, there was a flurry of "Happy New Year!" wishes in various different languages and many cheek-kisses in typical French style. Mike, Clariece, and I decided to head back early after that so we would actually be awake for the next day's activities. It was probably the best New Year’s Eve celebration I’ve ever had.

The next day we woke up it was snowing! Happy 2008 indeed! It melted fairly quickly, but it was pretty magical, if that’s not too cliché. We first went to the Prague Castle and St. Vitus’s Cathedral. St. Vitus’s was actually one of the coolest cathedrals I’ve been in because it has a stained glass window by Alfons Mucha. It is completely unlike any stained glass I’ve ever seen, as it still retains his Art Nouveau style. After exploring, we ate a tasty and surprisingly cheap meal near the Castle and set back down to the Jewish Quarter. There are several famous synagogues in the area, but most had a very high visitor’s price… too expensive for broke college students. So, we saw the oldest synagogue in Europe and then walked from there back to the touristy area. That night we just hung out and got ready to head to our respective destinations.

On Wednesday 2nd, Clariece and I said goodbye to Mike and hopped a bus from Prague to Vienna. They played “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” on the ride, which was hilarious after all of the stories I’ve heard from the Greece program (not to mention having visited Greece myself). We got off the bus and managed to get lost in Vienna, though only for a little while. Eventually we found our hostel, which turned out to be amazing! It’s a very highly rated hostel, complete with Internet and laundry facilities. Best of all, there’s a bar with great Austrian beer and amazingly cute British bartenders. Yum. Clariece and I went to a nearby Turkish restaurant, ate kebabs, drank apple tea, and reminisced about our travels. When we got back to the hostel, we caught up online and did a load of much-needed laundry. It’s incredible how just one clean pair of socks can feel after days of wearing the same ones. After a beer and figuring out our plan for the next day, we went to bed.

The next morning we set out to tour Vienna. My host sister (the good one) had previously told me that Vienna was “simply gorgeous and worth seeing”. Seeing as she had also told me months ago that going to Turkey “wasn’t worth it” and that there were only “poor people” there, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Now I realize that a city with Charlotte’s blessing is simply a city that could belong in France. Vienna is certainly gorgeous, but incredibly Western European. Filled with impressively huge monuments and museums, it was easy to overlook the gorgeous details and become overwhelmed. Also, it was cold! We stopped in for Viennese coffee and then a “hearty” Austrian lunch later in the day. We had another low-key night and met a really nice Californian girl in our hostel who had been studying in Australia for three years. That’s one of the things I love about hostels – you meet the coolest people from all over.

Friday was another cold day in Vienna. Clariece and I went downtown, got some coffee, and wandered around for a while. Before I took the bus to the airport, we grabbed lunch at the same Turkish restaurant and contemplated what the next few months hold in store for us. Then it was time to sadly say goodbye. Clariece is now in Madrid, studying Spanish and living with a host family. I am completely jealous, but also really excited for her. Definitely living vicariously through her blog posts now and waiting for this summer when we’re going to live together in Portland. Good good.

Anyway, when I was planning my travels, I had realized that I wanted to go back to Strasbourg for at least a day or so. The only problem was that I wasn’t too keen on going back to the Crazy Host Family, nor did they probably want to host me for another two days. So, being the amazing person that she is, Sarah let me stay in her apartment for two nights. We met downtown Friday night and happily caught up on each other’s travels. After dropping off my stuff, we went to a bar and then got kebabs on the way home.

Saturday morning we slept in. Sarah and the rest of the Kalamazoo kids still needed to write their ICRPs, a large research paper for K College, and pack, something that I had managed to do several weeks earlier out of necessity. So we lazed around until we went downtown to Chez Christian for one last cup of hot chocolate. I met Mike after that to help him go shoe shopping, only for the two of us to realize that most French shoes for guys are too ridiculous and expensive to actually buy. After stopping by my favorite internet café, I meandered back to Sarah’s, where I finished my book. We got dinner at a nearby pizzeria and then went to Au Diable Bleu, one of our favorite bars in Strasbourg, to meet up with everyone. It was a night that I think really defines my bar experiences in Strasbourg: just sitting around and drinking good beer with good friends. I definitely took advantage of my last night, though, and bought every drink that I wanted, even a fancy (and delicious!) mojito for 6 Euro. It was worth every centime. Saturday night was the first of my real goodbyes and I got pretty misty-eyed as I walked away from the bar.

Sunday morning I savored my last few hours in Strasbourg. Sarah, her brother, and myself, climbed the Cathedrale around noon to get a look at the city. It was a national holiday on the 6th, not to mention the first Sunday of the month, so most of the bells in the city were ringing throughout the morning. As we walked up the winding staircase, I could hear the choir in the Cathedrale singing. That is, before I got out of breath. There are a lot of stairs to get to the top of that thing! It was worth it, though. When I got to the top, it was almost like I could see the semester in front of me. It was great closure, just to see the city that I had wandered and gotten to know in for the past four months. I took a few minutes to relive certain memories and take in the city. Definitely a bittersweet ending, but an ending nonetheless. We met Mike for one last meal of tarte flambée afterwards, discussing how heinously bad it is for your health and talking about future travel plans. I might try to go visit them in Kalamazoo at some point over the next semester. We all took the tram back together and then it was time to say goodbye. I cannot stress how important my friends were to me throughout the semester. I was so lucky to meet such amazing people just by chance, so far away from home. I can’t imagine my experience in Strasbourg without them.

Late Sunday afternoon I stopped by my host family’s house, where my second suitcase had been waiting for me for two weeks. I politely promised my host mother that I would write, though I seriously doubt I ever will. I don’t think I’ll exactly be missed. I somehow managed to drag two suitcases, a tote bag, and my backpack up to the bus stop, though I got quite a few weird looks. In typical Cohen fashion, I arrived at the bus stop an hour early. Maybe it was the fact that I had been holding in all of my emotions or maybe it was just because the incredibly sweet German bus driver let me on a good 45 minutes early, but the minute I sat on the Lufthansa bus, I promptly began to cry. I nodded in and out of sleep as we drove out of Strasbourg and into Germany, wondering when I would see the city again. I stayed the night in Frankfurt, made it on time to the airport, and spent 10 hours restlessly sitting in my seat. And I guess that’s the end of my journey.

Being home is very comfortable. I love having a familiar bed to sleep in and knowing how to work the shower. I’ve been sick on and off with Sarah’s cold, which I probably gave to the entire flight. Take that, United Sates. With the exception of a particularly nasty onset of jet lag, the transition has gone smoothly thus far. It’s been nice to be able to simply lounge around, though I’m ready for school to start.

So, that seems to be the end of it. Thank you for reading and sticking with me through these crazy four months, whoever you may be. I hope my ramblings weren’t too strange, but then again, it’s my blog. I’m pretty weird to begin with. I’m not sure if I’ll write again in the future. Maybe I’ll post the occasional entry when I feel like reminiscing, but until then, I hope you all have a happy 2008. It certainly looks like it’ll be a good year.

Clariece and I in Prague. We're adorable.

New Year's Eve! Mike and Clariece surrounded by vaguely drunk French guys. Quelle folie!

The crew out on my last night in Strasbourg at Au Diable Bleu. From left to right: Corey, Matt, Sarah, Mike, Jill, Dorothy, and Clif.

Not the best picture, but Sarah and I on the top of the Cathedral.

Au revoir, Strasbourg.

Bonne annee!

2008-01-02T12:38:00.000-08:00

Hey all, in Vienna now. I have a strong urge to sit down and write a long blog post describing in great detail how incredible Prague was, but I don't have the time (or money). Needless to say, New Year's Eve was brilliant. Our few days in the Czech Republic were some of the best thus far. Mike left to go back to Strasbourg and Clariece and I now find ourselves in Austria of all places. We have one full day here and then on Friday I fly back to Strasbourg and Clariece starts the trek down to Spain. I have a day and a half in Strasbourg to say goodbye to all the Kalamazoo kids and then it's off to Frankfurt. Then Portland, then Seattle. It's certainly been a crazy ride. Can't say I'm ready for it to be over...

Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know that we're still here and going strong. A longer post will come soon.

Česká republika!

2007-12-30T06:54:00.000-08:00

Wow, we're just jumping all over Europe, aren't we? I would say jet-setting, but that makes it sound like we're flying instead of taking 15-hour busses and staying at nice hotels instead of hostels. Actually, life here in Prague is pretty nice thus far. I had a lot of difficulty finding a hostel or cheap hotel here, so we ended up at a nice(r) hotel than I think either Clariece or I are used to. Both of us are hoping to make up for the price difference with the (relatively) inexpensive food and drinks here.

So, back to the beginning. Clariece and I made our way to the EuroLines bus station in Amsterdam and hopped on the bus to Praha. It was fine, actually, despite the initial apprehension. The bus left at 10:30 PM and arrived in Prague around noon, an hour earlier than promised. Both of us passed out around 12, maybe earlier, and woke up with only a few hours left to sit and listen to music. My iPod didn't even run out of batteries. It was a good deal, especially considering that was our housing for the night as well.

After sort of getting lost trying to find our hotel, a nice Czech woman helped us and we spent the rest of the day relaxing. I finished The God of Small Things, which I bought in Paris at an English bookstore. I've been reading more than ever on this trip and have had to go in search of numerous English bookstores in each of the cities I've visited.

Today we woke up fairly early and set out to explore Prague. Turns out it's a beautiful city with architecture that was heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau movement. What a coincidence -- that's my favorite movement! We even found an entire store dedicated to Alfons Mucha, my favorite artist. So I am, as my parents would say, in pig heaven. I might have to buy a poster or two. Otherwise, we wandered with no set goal in mind. We made it up to the castle district, where there just happened to be a ski competition in the middle of a square. The Tour de Ski, in fact. What? No wonder it was so hard to find a hotel! Clariece and I wandered around, laughing at the absurdity of it all, until the crowd became to immense and we meandered back to a cafe to eat lunch.

Anyway, my friend Mike from Kalamazoo will hopefully be joining us tonight and then hang out with us for New Year's. I'm sure we'll see some of the more touristy sights over the next few days and have a fun New Year's celebration. Despite having an amazing time here, the end is definitely in sight and I'm kind of glad. Clariece is going to Spain for sure next semester, which is amazing and awesome, and I'm ready to start real life again. We're sort of in limbo, but it's certainly a pleasant and cultured limbo so I can't really complain...

Amsterdam: What lovely architecture!

2007-12-28T06:20:00.000-08:00

Well, it's our last day in Amsterdam and the past few days have been pretty low-key. We spent Christmas Eve in Paris with Amelia and Rachel. It was really nice, actually. We drank nice wine and champagne, ate lots of cheese, and had pasta carbonara as a main course. It was the Quaint European Christmas I'd wanted since all this began. Parfait.

Christmas morning, Clariece, Chris, and I got up early and got to Gare du Nord in order to catch our train to Amsterdam. I already miss the familiar chatter of french around me, but that's another story. We arrived here around one and spent the majority of the day wandering around and orienting ourselves to the city. The layout of the city is actually pretty weird. Whereas Strasbourg feels sort of like a circle or loop, Amsterdam feels more like a grid. It's bizarre, but quite pretty. Many of the buildings are so old that they seem to be leaning inward or outward on each other. With the combination of the canals surrounding almost every block, it certainly is a unique place.

Maybe it's because I've been in a predominately Catholic country for the past four months, but Amsterdam still shocked me with its liberalness. I hadn't realized just how active and accepted the gay community is here or thought about the social implications of coffeeshops on every corner. Anyway, it's certainly different and makes me curious about the real culture here behind the advertisements for the best coffeeshop or Red Light District escort services.

Yesterday I found a small restaurant that felt incredibly like a Seattle cafe. I had a soy chai and pumpkin soup, which made me more excited to be back in the Northwest. Today I went to the Anne Frank House by myself, which was about as depressing as one would expect. I'm glad I braved the giant line, though, and actually went. It was worth it.

Tonight Clariece and I catch a 15-hour overnight bus to Prague, where we will spend New Year's and hang out with Mike from Kalamazoo. I have to admit that I'm more excited about Prague than any of our other destintations thus far. Hope everyone's enjoying their holidays.

Sunday à Paris...

2007-12-23T08:08:00.000-08:00

For the third time this semester, I now find myself in Paris. We arrived yesterday around noon and found our awkardly-built hostel. I'm almost positive there are no 90-degree angles in the entire building so all the hallways are sort of winding or sloping. It's fine, though, and perfect for broke college students. Yesterday we saw Notre Dame and then met Amelia and her friend Rachel for drinks. Turns out their apartment that they're renting for Christmas break is litterally across the street from our hostel. They can see our hostel door from their window. What a crazy coincidence! After that, Clariece, Chris and I went to the Eiffel Tower and then met up with Amelia and Rachel for dinner.

Today Clariece and Chris wanted to do a bunch of touristy stuff and I decided to stay behind. Being a tourist is fun, but I am still recovering from finals and have recently seen many things here already. Amelia and I went out to coffee and then Rachel joined us for shopping, more coffee, and lunch. It's been really great to see Amelia. She's been in Paris this semester and even though Paris and Strasbourg are completely different, they're both still incredibly French. I think we'll be able to help each other through the transition back to American life, just because we'll sort of understand where the other person is coming from... Anyway, after shopping I guess I just wandered for a while. I have never gotten that sense of wonder and amazement from this city, but it's quite pretty all the same and I enjoy wandering around looking into the boutiques around town. I went to the Shakespeare Book Company, an internationally-known english bookstore, and browsed for at least an hour. Then I went to a café on the Seine and read for a while.

And now I'm here at an internet café. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and it feels strange not to be in Seattle. Amelia and Rachel invited us over for dinner tomorrow night so hopefully we'll have at least one good meal and be in the company of good friends. Then Christmas morning we hop a train to Amsterdam. I love travelling, but I think by the end of all this I'll be ready to go home and have a somewhat normal life...

A few pictures from my last days in Strasbourg:

At Au Diable Bleu, one of our favorite bars. Jill, Matt, Sarah, and myself.

The famous part of Strasbourg I never actually see.

Me, being silly and taking a picture of myself. I'm just that cool.

A bientôt!

Au revoir, Strasbourg...

2007-12-21T02:28:00.001-08:00

I still can't believe that this is coming to an end. Finals have been over for two days now and I have spent much of that time running errands, packing, and saying goodbye to the city that has been my home for four months. It's definitely bittersweet... I don't think that I would have been happy here another semester and I'm looking forward to going back to LC, but at the same time this has been a life-changing experience.

I guess the most exciting news is that Clariece and Chris are here. They've steadily made their way up from Greece and I almost can't believe that they're in Strasbourg. I picked them up yesterday at the train station and we'll be travelling together in Paris and Amsterdam.

Last night I went out to drinks at Le Mosquito with Isabelle (one of my professors), Tomomi, Maiko, and Didier. I'll really miss experiences like that -- sitting in a bar for hours, speaking French, and sharing our respective cultures. And, of course, the occasional joke about how ridiculous Americans are. When I mentioned that I still have six months until I can drink in the States, Isabelle's friend pushed the pitcher of sangria towards me and said, "Drink up!" After an almost-tearful goodbye and promises to keep in touch, I went over to Les Freres Berthoms to introduce Clariece and Chris to the Kalamazoo kids. It was fun, though we all got tired fairly early and took the tram home. It's way too cold here to be walking around. Even with a shirt, a sweater, a jacket, leggings, jeans, and gloves you still can't stand outside for more than 5 minutes without shiverring.

Okay, well the time's almost up here so I guess my next entry will be from Paris. A bientot...

La folie continue...

2007-12-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me that I haven’t written about the latest craziness chez Rigaud in a while. Well, dear readers, let me tell you that a lot has gone on and none of it is what one might call “normal”. Firstly, Mme has three sons: Tim, Antoine, and Julian. Tim is the 20-year-old who lives with us, Antoine seems fairly normal, and Julian is the oldest, with two twin 7-year-old boys. Now, I don’t know all the details, but from what I can discern from conversation is that Julian has recently been through a divorce, is completely irresponsible, and has little to no respect for my host mother. He lived with us for about a week, barely spoke, smoked a lot of cigarettes, and went through several bottles of wine. Remember those 7-year-old twin boys? Well, they stay with us about once a week. The only problem is that Julian just drops them off at the apartment without warning, leaving whoever is around to argue about who will stay home and watch them.
One of the most recent debacles was about Grand Theft Auto. Yes, the extremely violent video game that apparently has been translated into French. Well, it turns out that the twin boys’ great-grandfather, my host-grandfather who is fairly old and crazy, offered to buy them a video game. So Tim, my host brother who smokes pot in his room and is supposedly going to find a job working with local French hip-hop groups, offers to go with them to the store and buy them a video game. Tim, in his infinite wisdom, buys them Grand Theft Auto. Of course what he didn’t realize was that 7-year-old boys can’t keep their mouths shut. So fast-forward to dinner with two twin boys, two awkward Americans, two angst-ridden teen girls, and a super-Catholic host mother and somehow the boys mention that they got a video game for ages 16 and over. And then Tim walks in… and all chaos breaks loose. Mme promptly announces she’s the only responsible one in the family (vaguely true) and that she’s going to return the video game to the store. The kitchen goes mad. Tim says Mme shouldn’t return it, that the game is harmless. Charlotte says that they’re seven and it’s ridiculous that he even bought it in the first place. The boys say their dad is fine with the purchase and finally Mme yells, “Because your dad is crazy! He is not responsible at all!” Eventually, Rachael and I sneak out of the kitchen dying of laughter. Just another night chez Rigaud.
It got me to thinking, though, about the French ways to discipline children. From what I have seen over the past few months, my situation is not unique. I mean, it’s probably crazier than most, but many people yell here. That was one of the biggest adjustments, I think, was just the amount of yelling you here walking around. Mothers will literally yell at their children on the street if they accidentally fall down or take a few steps in the wrong direction. Now, I am not a mother, nor am I a rocket scientist, but I am observant. I can tell when something is completely ineffective. When it’s so frequent, yelling seems to have little to no positive effect. It rarely stops someone from doing something, instead it just makes them either want to rebel some more or fosters a grudge towards the parents. In my mind, this explains a lot of French behavior in general, but that’s probably a stretch.
Enough rambling about that, I suppose. Time to go to bed in order to wake up early for my 8:30 a.m. oral exam tomorrow. I can’t wait. Bonne nuit.

2007-12-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't started crying about having to leave yet. I only have six days left in Strasbourg, three of which will be taken up by finals. It feels really strange. There's so much I still want to do, so much still to see and explore... Four months feels like a long time until the end when you realize it's all gone by in a flash. I've been pretty mopey the last few days at the prospect of leaving. I love life here.

Last Tuesday was the Institute's annual Christmas party and it was amazing. International language students are insane. Our language group did a dance/skit to Foux de Fa Fa, a Flight of the Conchords parody of French culture. All the girls wore black and white, with headbands and neck scarves. All the guys wore striped shirts and berets. We stole the show. After we performed, people were yelling "Encore! Encore!" and we did it again. It was so much fun and so silly. When all the performances were over, we ate food from around the world (mostly France, though) and drank vin chaud. From there we went out to Bar Exil, where I drank too much and realized just how much I love life here.

Wednesday morning we visited the European Parliament, which was pretty cool. We saw them in session and got a brief tour. Definitely a great oppurtunity. Then Thursday was the last day of class, which was just sad. I'm going to miss all of my international friends and Isabelle, our wonderful professor. Last night our entire group had a holiday dinner to celebrate the end of the semester. Have I mentioned how much I'm going to miss this group of fantastic people? I am. We gave flowers to Beth and all exchanged secret santa gifts. I gave Clif a bottle of Bailey's and gummy bears, Ciel gave me a super cute Alsatian mug. It's perfect because now I'll be able to think of Alsace whenever I drink tea back at LC.

This morning I got up earlier than I had intended and went down to Petit France. Even though it's the famous part of Strasbourg, I really hadn't been down there (sober, at least) since our boat tour. I took some pictures and also went to the Museum of Contemporary and Modern Art, which was a little bizarre, but nice. Now it's time to start studying so, naturally, I am downtown at an internet cafe. These next few weeks should be a bit hectic, as I'll be travelling a lot, but I'll try to post from internet cafes around Europe. Or at least have a final farewell post when I get back to the States.

Here's my plan for the next few weeks. I'm going to be travelling with Clariece, Chris, and Mike at various points...
Dec. 15 - 22 -- last days in Strasbourg
Dec. 22 - 25 -- train to Paris
Dec. 25 - 29 -- train to Amsterdam
Dec. 29 - Jan. 2 -- bus to Prague
Jan. 2 - 4 -- train to Vienna
Jan. 4 - 6 -- Fly back home, final goodbye in Strasbourg
Jan. 7 -- Return to Seattle... cry a lot (dramatic much?)

Most of the girls in our class before performing Foux de Fa Fa... from left to right:
top row -- Isabelle (professor), Elizabeth, Ciel, Alison, me, Katherine, Kae (Japan), Hanna (Belorus)
bottom row -- Kelly, Maiko (Japan), Carolina (Guatemala), Aurelie (professor)

European Parliament building... it's pretty cool.

Walking to class one morning... For some reason they cut all of the leaves off of the trees here during the winter so the roads are sort of ugly, but it's become sort of endearing to me.

Okay, time to go study for real. Or take a nap... that sounds like more fun. Does anyone want to take my psychology classes next semester so I can stay here a while longer?

Un petit voyage en Ecosse.

2007-12-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

This is the last time I can that say that I’m back in Strasbourg after yet another weekend trip. That’s pretty sad. Anyway, I went to Scotland for a few days to visit Merit. She and several other friends from high school are at St. Andrews, not on exchange but actually getting their undergrad degrees. I didn't get to see as much as Edinburgh as I would have liked, but that's okay. I still have plenty of years ahead of me to go back. So, I’ll start at the beginning, as usual:

Thursday morning I woke up and told my host mom I was leaving for the weekend. I don’t actually see her that often lately, as I tend to stay in my room and she isn’t here for dinner that often. So I told her as I walked out the door that, “Oh by the way… I’m going to Scotland!” She scolded me for missing my classes and I shrugged it off. Classes here are a joke, especially after I aced all of my midterms without studying. Then it was off to the airport! I hopped a plane to Charles de Gaulle, then another one to Edinburgh. Once in Scotland, I somehow managed to make it to the train station and then met Merit when I got off the train in Leuchars, a small town near St. Andrews. It was a long day, but it was really good to see Merit! I was exhausted so we got takeaway from a nearby Indian restaurant (still not as good as Bengal Tiger, dad) and Simon, Merit’s boyfriend, came over. As the night wound down, we got a drink at a local pub and watched an episode or two of Sex & the City before bed.

Friday morning, Merit showed me around the town and its three main streets (no joke). Adorable town, but I don’t think I could stay somewhere that small for four years. She gave me a mini-tour of the historic buildings, the ruins of the castle, and cathedral. The cathedral ruins still have a tower standing so we climbed up the vaguely dangerous stairs and I got to see the whole town spread out before us. It was gorgeous. St. Andrews is so different from Lewis & Clark or even the Université de Strasbourg just because it obviously has so much more history. Pretty incredible. After our thoroughly touristy day, we went to Starbucks and had a really good conversation about life. That night, we got fish and chips with Andrew, Betsy, and Simon. All of us, excluding Simon, were in the same UPrep class so it was like a mini high school reunion. The fish and chips could easily cause a heart attack at age 25… which of course means they were delicious. After dinner we decided to head out to a pub, where Simon and Andrew tried to teach me how to play darts. It was really fun, though I can go to every country in the world and there’s no denying that I will still have horrible hand-eye coordination. I also had some good Scottish beer that was on par with German and Alsatian beer. Eventually Merit, Andrew and I head back to Andrew’s flat to watch a hilarious British TV show called “Peep Show”. Finally Merit and I returned to her flat and promptly fell asleep.

Saturday was surprisingly relaxing. Merit had work all day until five and I was left to wander by myself (and perfectly happy to do so). I went to Starbucks, bought a gingerbread latte, grabbed a comfy chair in the corner, and sat down with my book. Surrounded by stressed out university students and jazzy Christmas music in the background, I felt more at home than I have for a long time. People criticize me for going to Starbucks abroad, but it’s a wonderful feeling for me to feel so at home so far away from the Northwest every once and a while. Anyway, I read and wrote in my journal for several hours until I realized that I was close to finishing my book. I met with Merit for her lunch break, went to purchase another book, and made my way over to the café where Andrew works. After sitting there for another hour or so and finishing one of the books, I went back to meet Merit. We went grocery shopping at the infamous Tesco and then ended up going back to Andrew’s bar. He made us some yummy drinks and after a while we said goodbye. Merit and I went back to cook dinner for Simon and us. I must say, it was really nice to be able to cook. I’m definitely looking forward to that next semester. Simon had to go do some work after dinner so Merit and I decided to have a girl night. We watched some more Sex & the City, drank wine, and ate far too many brownies. It was wonderful… sometimes you just need those nights.

Sunday was fairly low-key as well. I met up with Alice, another friend from U-Prep who is now a freshman at St. Andrews, for lunch at a small café nearby. It was really nice to see her and catch up before I left Scotland. I spent the rest of the day shopping and reading with Merit. I quickly realized shopping, however, is not worth it in the UK. Pounds make everything seem cheap… until you do the math and realize that the 20 pound shirt you’re holding is actually 40 dollars. Crap. We made dinner again and around eight, we walked over to the bus stop and sadly said our goodbyes. Then it was onto the train, onto another bus in Edinburgh and I finally arrived at the Edinburgh airport at 10:30 pm.
It seems like it all went fairly smoothly, right? Well, here’s where the fun part begins. My flight didn’t leave until 6:10 am the next morning. Ugh. So I settled down in an airport café and read my book. And read some more. And checked my email. And read some more. I didn’t actually sleep, as I was too nervous that I would sleep through my plane. I did, however, consume a lot of caffeine. Some people pull all-nighters easily, but I am sadly not one of those people. Around 4 am, people started to groggily line up to check in. I managed to check in, get through security, and then waited for the plane until 5:45 am when they started boarding. The minute I got onto the plane, I shut my eyes… except the flight was only an hour or so and I grumpily got up to brave the nightmare that is Charles de Gaulle airport. An overpriced espresso later and I was waiting at the gate for another two hours. I managed to arrive back in Strasbourg around 2:30 pm and then the trams weren’t functioning properly. It was clearly not the best day so I opted to skip my remaining classes. I spent the rest of the night recovering and passed out early. And that’s the end of yet another crazy European adventure. The moral of the story is that I hate Charles de Gaulle airport more than life itself.

Now that I’m back in Strasbourg, the past two days have actually been really nice. I only have two weeks left and I am quickly realizing how sad I’m going to be to leave. That always happens, I suppose. Still, every minute seems valuable all of a sudden. I’m trying to walk more places and take unexpected routes to soak up as much of Strasbourg as possible. This may not be the smartest option possible, as I have a ton of finals quickly approaching, but I know I’d regret it if I spent all my time studying (not likely anyway). Instead, I am discovering new stores like Le Serpent Vert, an organic store that feels much more like the Northwest than I would have ever expected to find in France, and I am enjoying leisurely conversations at Chez Christian, Café Brant, and Café Broglie over chocolat chaud and café au lait with good friends. It will definitely be hard to say goodbye to all of this and return to the pressures of real life.

The front of St. Andrews Castle.

Merit and moi!

St. Andrews beach... very cheery at this time of the year.

More castle...

The ruins of the Cathedral, which were really cool. We climbed the tower to the right.

St. Andrews is pretty.

Un weekend fou.

2007-11-26T07:46:00.001-08:00

Yet another crazy weekend!

I guess I’ll start on Friday. I woke up bright and early in order to catch our bus to Nancy. As soon as I stepped outside, I was reminded of Seattle as it was pouring rain. Happy Thanksgiving indeed. We arrived in Nancy around 10:30 am and were greeted by even more rain. After a brief introduction to the city, we were given time to look around the Musee des Beaux Arts near the main square. By far the coolest part of the museum was a small room that looked fairly inconspicuous until you entered. When you enter (only one at a time), you walk into a room covered in mirrors. Each wall, the ceiling, and even the back of the door are all covered in mirrors. The floor is actually a pool of water and you stand on a small platform. Then there are lights that could easily just be fancy Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling, but the mirrors make it look like there are thousands of lights surrounding you. It was really incredible and vaguely trippy. By noon, we were starving and ready for our feast. Beth and Ron, our two directors, led us to a small restaurant where we joined the other Lewis & Clark students studying in Nancy. Our Thanksgiving meal was wonderful, complete with salad, potatoes, yams, turkey, chestnut stuffing, and pumpkin pie. Plenty of wine as well… it may be an American tradition, but we are still in France after all. I ate far too much and had a great time with everyone here. After lunch, Laura and Clio, two of the LC Nancy students took us to the Artist’s Café where we got tea and sat in a turkey-induced stupor until it was time to go home. When we returned to Strasbourg, everyone went to their respective homes and I spent a relaxed night catching up on some TV shows from home.

Saturday I slept in and finally rolled out of bed to meet Sarah and Clif downtown. It was officially the first day of the Christmas Market here and let me tell you, Christmas in Strasbourg is a big deal. It’s the oldest and biggest Christmas Market in France and one of my professors likes to refer to it as “Disneyland”. I can see what she was getting at… walking through the market is completely overwhelming. The German tourists come out in full force and you can barely move through the hoards of people. Every stand is lit up with lights and decorated as a small wood cabin. There are tons of food vendors that sell vin chaud (hot wine) and other traditionally Alsatian/German food, whereas the other stands sell tchockies or handmade gifts. Personally, the vin chaud wasn’t as amazing as I was hoping it would be, but I’m a big fan of the overpriced roasted chestnuts. I can’t see myself getting that many gifts for people, just as a lot of it is useless trinkets, but I think I’ll be stocking up on Alsatian cookies and candy. Merry Christmas, have some French candy… After the market, we met up with Mike and stopped in at Chez Christian for some hot chocolate. Later that night, I grabbed a bite to eat at a vendor and we met up again to see a choir/organ concert at the Cathedral. It sadly wasn’t the warm Christmas concert I was hoping for (I think Northwest Girlchoir has spoiled me for the rest of my life), but it was good regardless. We left early to grab drinks and meet up with the rest of the group. I have discovered my new favorite beer: Delirium. It comes from Belgium and I’m going to have to hunt it down when I get to Portland. The rest of the night was a wonderfully blurry time filled with taking silly pictures, good friends, and dancing at a club on a barge in Petit France. Jill and I managed to find our way back home after walking across all of downtown Strasbourg late at night. What a good night.

Sunday morning I managed to get out of bed in time to meet for a trip to the Maginot Line with the Institute where we study. As usual, I slept on the bus and when I woke up we were out in the middle of the Vosges next to a French fortification from World War Two to keep out the Germans. Crazy how that happens here. Anyway, we were given the option of getting the tour in either French or English and I, stupidly, opted for the French tour. I really wish I could tell you all what the Maginot Line did exactly, but unfortunately I have no idea what our tour guide said. He had the thickest Alsatian/mountain accent I have heard since being here. Even my professor Isabelle who was born in Alsace couldn’t understand what he was saying. The next two hours were spent wandering around the underground fortifications and laughing at how confused we were. It wasn’t exactly a cheery place, though. I can’t imagine having to live there… soldiers were three to a bed and one hundred to a shower. Many got serious depression from lack of exposure to the sun. Still interesting, though. After the tour, we piled onto the bus again and drove to a local village where we had some tarte flambée and wine. When I finally got home I had some work to do for classes, which has recently become a foreign concept. Homework? Studying? What? I’m sorry, je ne comprends pas.

Only three days until I take off for Scotland! Hurrah! Now I just need to figure out the French bank system in order to withdraw Pounds... huh.

Nancy's rainy main square...

Crazy cool light exhibit.

Sun in November? What is this?

Chez Christian... amazing hot chocolate.

Christmas market madness.

A group of us at a bar. From left to right -- Stephanie, Mike K., Corey, Sarah, Matt, et moi.

Maginot Line -- not the cheeriest place.

A plus tard!

How is it almost December?!

2007-11-22T02:16:00.000-08:00

Joyeux Thanksgiving! It’s just another rainy day over here, but tomorrow we’re taking a day trip to Nancy to see the other LC kids and to have a big Thanksgiving lunch. I’m definitely sad I won’t be in Seattle this weekend, but at least I’ll be with good friends over here.

Life in Strasbourg is back to normal, or at least as normal as it ever was. I’ve stayed here for the past two weekends and I’ve somehow developed a social life here. My friends from Kalamazoo here are still amazing and I’ve even managed to make some international friends at school. Kaé, Tomomi, and Maiko are all from Japan and Carolina is from Guatemala. I know them through our language block and they’re all really cool. As much as I adore my American friends here, I’m excited to have more diversity in my social life.

Speaking of diversity, last Thursday night I attended a wine and cheese soirée put on by the Institute of French Studies where I study. There were surprisingly few Americans, which gave me a chance to branch out and talk to some other international students, not to mention my two rather tipsy professors. When the soirée ended, I went out to a bar with a group of Canadians, a New Zealander, and an Australian. After that I went and met up with Kaé, Tomomi, and Maiko at a dance club. I wish I could have taken advantage of my first French dance club, but I was a little too sober and surrounded by chic French girls. So I opted to catch the last tram home at 12:15, but I was still pretty proud of myself for such a diverse night.

The wine and cheese night also involved what was maybe one of the best interactions I’ve had in Strasbourg yet. At one point, a fairly drunk Turkish guy started talking to a group of us and trying to guess our nationalities. After loudly declaring that he can’t speak French at all and incorrectly guessing that the Japanese girls were Chinese, he looked at me:
Turkish guy: Spain!
Me: Nope. The United States.
Turkish guy: You are American? I don’t like America! Your politics are not good. You ignore everyone else! All Americans think they’re the center of the universe! But I am surprised you are American, you don’t seem like that. I mean, you are just standing there and you just seem normal. You must be from, like, Seattle or something!
Me: Uh, yeah… I am from Seattle!
At this point everyone sort of laughed out of disbelief. It’s not as funny when I write it down, but it was just such a strange, random coincidence. One of his friends, a Polish woman, kept apologizing for him, but I thought it was hilarious.

It’s weird being from the States over here because you either get a really positive or really negative reaction. People are either thrilled to meet an American (I once got a rousing “I love the United States!” from a tipsy French girl) or want to tell me everything that we’ve done wrong as a country. Most of the time I agree with them, but that doesn’t always make it easier to tolerate. It’s hard to hear people constantly bash your country, especially if they have problems with the society as well as the politics. I know we have issues, but everyone does. Just living in France has shown me that. Anyway, I’ve actually ended up having a little bit of pride towards the US, which feels very strange. I’m sure that will all go away once I return to the States and have reverse culture shock. Not really looking forward to that.

Other than that, life has been pretty low-key. I’ve been shopping a lot, mostly in an attempt to stock up on sweaters. It is cold here and all I can say is that I will have an impressive collection of sweaters and scarves when I return. Retail therapy works wonders, who knew? I also have discovered what may be one of my favorite places in Strasbourg – Chez Christian. It is a little restaurant near the Cathedral that is incredibly girly, complete with fuchsia and maroon walls, and serves amazing hot chocolate. I have daydreams about spending hours there just drinking hot chocolate and reading.

Next weekend, I’m flying to Scotland to visit Merit, who goes to school at St. Andrews. It’s kind of insane, I know, to fly up to Scotland for the weekend, but… well, why not? Stay tuned…

La Turquie et La Grèce!!

2007-11-07T03:13:00.001-08:00

I don’t really know where to start. I guess I should apologize for this insanely long post. It was a crazy whirlwind of a week… I guess I’ll pick up where I left off last Sunday.

After writing and sleeping for a few hours, we woke up and went to dinner with some of the other students from the Greece program who were also in Istanbul. After dinner we went to a hookah bar next-door where we sat on pillows outside and were able to people-watch. We were all ready for a low-key night so eventually Carolyn, Maddie, and I went back to the hostel, watched Music & Lyrics (a horrible movie by the way), and went to bed.

Monday morning we woke up, grabbed breakfast at the hostel, and walked to Topkapi Palace, which was the official and primary Istanbul residence of the Ottoman Sultans from 1465 to 1853. The best part of the palace was the definitely elaborate Harem where the Sultan’s concubines lived, though there were several rooms filled with jewels from the Sultans that were also pretty amazing.
As we were leaving the palace, the sky looked stormy so we decided to go home. We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch and then some of us (me) took naps. When I woke up, Clariece and I decided to grab tea down the street. We chose a restaurant that was playing the Amélie soundtrack, which made me feel very at home. We went back to the hostel and decided to go to Taksim, a neighborhood across the city, for Turkey’s independence celebration that night. We sadly missed the fireworks as we were meeting Charles, another student from the Greece program, and his friend from home. Nevertheless, a group of us set out trying to find Taksim. We took the tram to what we previously thought was Asia, but turns out is actually just another part of Europe. We got off a stop too early and ended up walking up and down several hills. It was nice to see some other neighborhoods in Istanbul that weren’t as touristy, but it was pretty strange at times as there were literally no women outside. It was definitely an adventure. Finally we got to the correct tram stop, walked up another hill, and found Taksim. Taksim seems to be one of the bigger shopping areas. There were tons of people just wandering around and definitely not as many tourists. It was pretty overwhelming, actually. We found Taksim Square at the end of the street, which was mostly dead after the celebration earlier. At some point we realized we hadn’t had dinner so Chris, Clairece and I decided to stop in a restaurant on one of the side streets. Finally after such a long night, we took the tram back and went to bed.

Tuesday we had a lazy morning and then walked to the ferry terminal to buy tickets for Wednesday’s travel. The walk was along a nice trail on the waterfront and was actually quite beautiful. We took a taxi back up to the Grand Bazaar, where we got a cheap lunch of lahmacun. It’s like cheese-less Turkish pizza with more meat. Yum. Tuesday was definitely the day for shopping so several of us wandered around the Bazaar finding random presents for people. I successfully haggled with several vendors, something I’m quite proud of. The Turkish vendors continued to be hilarious with their obscure cultural references. At least two vendors called me “Spice Girl” and several others commented on my looks. I know they’re just doing business, but a girl could get used to so many random compliments, hehe.
After the Grand Bazaar, Clariece, Chris and I decided to find the Egyptian Spice Bazaar. We ended up probably taking the worst path possible and walking through what seemed like Istanbul’s textile district. Each street was impossibly crowded. Every once and a while, a car would try to get through the throng and take five minutes to go one block. It was definitely a sensory overload, but also great to see some of real life in Istanbul. After asking at least five people for directions, we found the Spice Bazaar and were greeted with heaps of spices on tables and in bins. It was wonderful just to see and smell. The Spice Bazaar itself was a lot smaller than the Grand Bazaar so after a while we took the tram back to our hostel, where we met Maddie and Carolyn at the hookah bar. Maddie, Clariece, and I had made plans to go to the Turkish bath that night so we set out on our own little adventure.
The Turkish bath deserves a paragraph of its own. It was incredible. We walked in and were greeted by friendly Turks who ushered us into a changing room. We each changed into only a towel, then were moved to a sauna/bath room where we removed out towels (it was a single-sex room) and had hot water to pour on ourselves. So the three of us sat and talked long enough for all of the dead skin to appear, which I guess is the point. Eventually an older woman came in and gestured for me to follow her. Normally I think I would be a lot more self-conscious, but she was extremely professional and I barely felt uncomfortable. She took me into a smaller room and had me lay on a marble table. She then scrubbed off all of the dead skin, washed it off, and applied the most amazing body wash that felt like pure velvet. The most incredible aspect of the entire experience was that she sang most of the time and her voice was incredibly beautiful. Most of her songs were in Turkish and incredibly relaxing. Every time I felt myself tense, she would start singing again and I would feel calm again. When she was finished, she led me back to the lobby where I was served hot apple tea and met up with Maddie and Clariece. It was such a wonderful experience. Just a side note, Turkish apple tea is amazing. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance to taste it. All clean and soft, the three of us went back and met up with Chris. We went to a restaurant nearby and then packed up for our early-morning voyage the next day.

Wednesday morning we were up in time to catch a 7 a.m. ferry from Istanbul to Banderma with most of the other Greece students. From there we hopped a four-hour bus through the middle-of-nowhere Turkey to Ayvalik, a port city across the water from Lesvos, Greece. The original plan was to take the ferry on Thursday, but we actually managed to get onto the Wednesday ferry and arrived in Lesvos one day early, after more than 12 hours in transit. So most of the Greece program ended up back at Hotel Votsala, the amazing hotel that the program was at for the past month, and they even made us a dinner. Clariece showed me around and I was thrilled to see where they had been living for a month. We were all exhausted after the long day of travel, so Maddie, Chris, Clariece and I settled in and watched Pirates of the Caribbean III and drank some rum in celebration. Not a bad Halloween, if I say so myself.

Thursday was my first official day in Greece! I woke up early and sat on Maddie’s balcony with a gorgeous view of the sea. All of the students insisted that it was chilly there, but compared to dreary Strasbourg, this was a tropical paradise. Not bad for November. We got breakfast and then took a bus into Mytilini, the biggest town on the island. Greece is a lot different than Turkey, but still really great. Life seems to be even slower than in France, if that’s possible. Also, the islands seem to have some special sort of light surrounding it. The air just seems clearer and there’s so much color everywhere. It’s gorgeous. Clariece and Chris showed me their usual haunts, such as the House of Tea where we got tasty hot cocoa and a local gyro place. The three of us took the bus back to Hotel Votsala, where we broke open some local wine. Eventually we met up with some of the other students at a nearby taverna and I had my first real Greek dining experience. Greek food? Amazing. Delicious. It’s also easy to eat way too much. Way too full to do much else, Clariece and I went back and talked for several hours before going to bed.

Friday morning we packed up all of our stuff and left Hotel Votsala. We took what was possibly the craziest taxi ride I’ve ever been on to the airport. Our taxi driver took what seemed like the smallest winding streets through Mytilini that probably exist. After that, I wasn’t really worried about the possibly sketchy flight to Crete… until I saw the plane. Our flight from Mitilini, Lesvos to Heraklion, Crete was aboard the smallest plane I’ve ever been on. There were seventeen passengers, one stewardess, and two pilots. If you know me at all, you know that I’m not the biggest fan of flying, especially in small planes. Well, this was definitely a test. Maddie was amazing and let me hold her hand for take-off and some of landing. Luckily the flight was only about an hour, but still. It was terrifying. Hopefully I won’t have to repeat that experience for a while.
We arrived in Heraklion, Crete having no idea where we were staying. A woman at the airport information desk gave us the name of us a local youth hostel and off we went. We checked in, dropped our stuff off, and went out to explore Heraklion. I’ve really enjoyed this trip because everywhere I’ve gone has been different. For instance, Heraklion is still really different from Mitilini, though they’re both in Greece. Heraklion seems much more touristy, despite it being the off-season. We found a small market while wandering, got some coffee, and then gyros (my new favorite food) and beer. I’ve made it my duty to try the different kinds of beer in each country. In Turkey it was Efes and here it is either Alfa or Mythos. So far none of them have really compared to German or Alsatian beer, but I’m probably biased.

Saturday was our last full day in Crete so we got up bright and early to catch the bus to Knossos, the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization back in the day. I suppose it’s only fitting that as I was with three people on an Ancient Studies program I should go to at least one archaeological site in Greece. I enjoyed it, though I really had no idea what I was looking at. All the significance was definitely lost on me, which is probably too bad. The scenery around the site was gorgeous, though, and at least I could fully appreciate that. After Knossos, we decided to go to the Crete Aquarium. I know, I know, going to an aquarium when you’re in Greece. It sounds lame, but it was actually really fun and each of us loves aquariums. It ended up being at least 20 kilometers away by bus, which made getting there an adventure in itself. We goofed around there for a while and then made our way back to Heraklion. Chris, Clariece, and I tried to find a local bazaar, but weren’t successful. We then parted ways and I had my first few moments alone in what seemed like forever. I love my friends, but I almost wish I could have explored more on my own. Just those few minutes walking through some side streets alone were wonderful. That night we wandered around in search of a restaurant to eat at and instead found Rianna, another student on the Greece program, and her boyfriend Mitch. We all went out for way-too-expensive drinks (Tequila Sunrise is my new favorite) at a fancy bar and the four of us ate gyros for dinner. After another drink at another bar and talking for several hours, I was ready to go back to our hostel and pack.

Sunday morning was rather uneventful. We checked out of the hostel and, as everything else in Greece is closed on Sunday mornings, we ate at the local Starbucks. I sadly said goodbye to Maddie, Clariece, and Chris and took a taxi to the airport. I had several uneventful flights to Frankfurt and caught the Lufthansa bus back to Strasbourg.

Now it’s back to life as usual. This week we have midterms and yesterday I gave a thoroughly embarrassing presentation on rugby in France. I’ve started planning even more trips now that I have two months of free weekends ahead of me. Back to my normal self, I’d say.

And now, pictures!
The view from the top of the Orient Hostel in Istanbul.

Clariece at a very Portland-esque cafe... in Istanbul.

Hagia Sophia. Amazing.
The Imperial Gate of the Hagia Sophia... and me next to it, for perspective.

Obligatory tourist shot from the Palace.

Blue Mosque lit up on their independance day. I wish I spoke Turkish.

Outside the Grand Bazaar.

Lovely friends! Clariece, Chris, Carolyn, and Maddie.

Heaps of spices at the Spice Bazaar.

View from Maddie's room at Hotel Votsala (Lesbos, Greece).

Mytilini, Lesbos.
More Mytilini.
Knossos on Crete.

More Knossos.

And that's about it for now! I'm off to plan a trip to Scotland. Au revoir...

I'm in TURKEY. WHAT.

2007-10-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

What an eventful few days!

Friday morning I brilliantly managed to sleep through my alarm and missed my bus, therefore missing my flight. Smart, right? Anyway, I panicked for a few hours and finally managed to change the tickets for a flight early Saturday morning out of Frankfurt. So I hopped on the Lufthansa bus to Frankfurt in the afternoon and spent the night at a Holiday Inn by Frankfurt International Airport. A French girl on the bus thought I was Russian, which made me happy. Whenever someone thinks that my French accent is something besides American, I consider it a big accomplishment. When I arrived at the hotel, my room hadn’t been cleaned yet and they ended up upgrading me to a nicer room with a king bed and a bathtub. Woohoo! I was pretty happy about it. Also, as I was waiting in line, an entire professional German football (soccer) team walked past me. That pretty much made my entire day. They were all amazingly attractive, athletic, men in their early to late twenties. Uh, hi. Ich heisse Melanie?

I woke up yesterday at 4 a.m., having set at least five alarms just in case. My flight left at 7:25 a.m. and everything went fairly smoothly, except for a very rough patch of turbulence on our ascent that had me literally shaking. I arrived at Istanbul’s airport, bought a tourist visa, and managed to get a taxi to our hostel. Once I got the hostel, I found Maddie, Clariece, and Chris just chilling in our room. It’s really good to see them. They’ve already been here for a few days, but were amazingly nice and waited to do all the super touristy stuff with me. Aww. We went out to lunch, which for me consisted of lamb shish and Turkish coffee. Turns out Turkish coffee is pretty much espresso with lots of sugar. I’m a fan. After lunch we went to the Grand Bazaar, which is just completely overwhelming. The Turkish vendors are both funny and unrelenting. They also come up with completely bizarre cultural references, such as exclaiming “Angelina Jolie!” or “Charlie’s Angels!” I didn’t buy anything, but I’m sure we’ll go back for another opportunity for me to spend all my money. After we got back, Clariece and I went for coffee in our neighborhood. The place was about as Portland/Seattle-esque as I think Istanbul could get… turns out the owner was from Canada, which explains a lot. One of the Turkish baristas/waiters gave us his whole life history and told us about school here. It was pretty cute. Men here seem a lot more forward, but I think they’re just trying to get business and actually much more formal than American guys.

Last night we met up with Carolyn and grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby place. After that we took the tram over to Asia (how cool is that?) and found a really cool hookah bar. Hookah is a really big part of the culture and nightlife here. Anyway, this hookah bar was actually just sort of a tent thing with rows and rows of beanbag chairs. You sit down and someone brings you apple tea, hookah, and then vendors walk around with various types of food to purchase. It was a lot of fun and really relaxing. We eventually left and went back to our hostel’s bar, where I had some of the popular beer here – Efes. I think France and Germany have turned me into a beer snob… anyway, had some good conversations and eventually went to sleep.

As a side note, I should say that we’ve been saying that we’re Canadian and we get a very happy response every time. It definitely seems like the thing to do… especially with the recent political turmoil here. I mean, it’s not that far away from the truth. I’m only three hours from the border at home…

This morning we slept in, got brunch at the hostel, and leisurely got ready for a touristy day. Our first stop was the Hagia Sophia. It was formerly a basilica, then a mosque, and now a museum. It was stunning… easily one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. It had so much natural light through the windows and so many different colors, which was definitely a contrast from the dark cathedrals of France. I loved that there were both Christian mosaics of Jesus and the usual cast of characters and Islamic scripts everywhere. So cool. After being completely awestruck by the Hagia Sophia, we made our way to the Blue Mosque… literally right across the street. It’s still used as a mosque today so we had to take off our shoes and make sure we were conservatively dressed before we went in. Finally, I’ve found a use for all of my French scarves! It was beautiful, but not as breathtaking as the Hagia Sophia (a tough act to follow). The exterior of the Blue Mosque is gorgeous, though. From there we went to the Basilica Cistern, an underground reservoir from the Roman Empire. It felt like descending into Moria (from Lord of the Rings… yes, I’m a nerd). There were a lot of epic columns and creepy reflections in the water. They set up a small café in a corner of the cistern, where we grabbed some tea and coffee. I’ve had coffee in a Roman cistern. What a crazy world. We were going to go to a palace after, but I think we’ll go tomorrow instead. For now I’m just taking a few hours to rest before another crazy night.

So, in short, I think I’m in love with this city. Granted, I’ve only really seen the touristy areas, but I will definitely come back. One of the things I love the most is the call to prayer from the minarets. It’s amazing to walk through the city and just hear the music echo around.

Okay, that was my past three days. I’m sure there’s much more to come. Until later…

The craziness continues...

2007-10-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

After weeks of apprehension, I finally got up the courage to walk into a local coiffure this morning and ask for a haircut. This was terrifying on a number of different levels, as I had no idea where to go, if I needed a reservation, or how to describe what I wanted. So! After being rejected by the coiffure across the street for not having an appointment, I tried a coiffure closer to school. Luckily they had time for me so I sat down and looked through a hairstyle magazine. I eventually found a style that I liked and managed to ask for it with some adjustments. My hairdresser combed through my hair and asked me what products I use on my hair. I had no idea. We eventually established that they were drugstore products, which apparently are unacceptable. She said that my hair was too damaged from coloring it (yeah I know that, thanks) and that I should be using a hair mask every shampoo. This is a great example of how French women swear by their creams and masks. It is also a great example of how I am just too lazy to use most of them. Finally she washed my hair and started cutting it, though every once and a while she would scold me again about the abysmal state of my hair. As she cut my hair, she attempted to have a conversation with me about the state of education in the US and in France. Meanwhile, I was so overwhelmed by the whole process that I forgot most of my French. She evenutally finished and somehow coaxed me into buying a (relatively cheap) nourishing shampoo, which will hopefully help in the dry months to come. Even though my first experience with French women and their infamous beauty regimes was frightening, my hair does look a lot nicer now, if I do say so myself.

Last weekend, my adventures continued as I traveled to Paris and to visit my parents and Amelia. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. The transportation workers of France, as it turns out, decided to go on strike last Thursday and Friday. So last Friday I woke up at six a.m., walked to the train station (the trams weren’t running), and discovered that my 8:15 a.m. train was cancelled. The first train of the morning was at 11:15 a.m. After freaking out, I went to a café downtown, got a cup of coffee and read for an hour. After that café, I went to another one. Eventually I meandered back to the train station and waited in line with the other passengers from the four trains that had already been canceled. I managed to get a “seat” in the aisle, which was still better than those who had to stand for two hours. Meanwhile, I met a cute guy from Strasbourg in a seat near me who jokingly said, “Welcome to France!” as we were all cursing the strike. I’m still annoyed that I didn’t get his number, or give him mine. I arrived in Paris in one piece, surprisingly, took the metro to the correct stop, and promptly got lost in a shopping district. After an hour of dragging my luggage around the confusing streets, I arrived at my hotel and saw my parents, who had to deal with my horrible mood. The day got better after that, though. We went to Starbucks (love of my life), I took a nap, and we went to a yummy restaurant. Getting to the restaurant is another story… finally I got back to the hotel and found Sex & the City in French on TV. It was a good end to a crazy day.

Saturday morning I met up with Amelia, my lovely roommate from Lewis & Clark who is studying with another program in Paris for the semester, and several of her friends. We went out to brunch at a diner called Breakfast in America. It sounds obnoxious, but it was actually pretty cute and it was nice to have some real breakfast food for once! After that I wandered back to my hotel and then to a nearby mall, where I bought a cute black shirt. I then met up with my parents for some more shopping and wandering around. The neighborhood around their hotel was pretty adorable and filled with drunken Englishmen getting ready for the England vs. South Africa rugby final that night. Later I met up with Amelia at Notre-Dame and we explored a little. We went to Shakespeare & Co., a famous bookstore on the Seine, wandered around the Latin Quarter, and got drinks at a café. It was really good to catch up, since I hadn’t seen her since June. We eventually met up with my parents and the four of us went to another good restaurant that was quite yummy. Amelia and I left to go meet her friends at a bar, Sister May, and after several hours I went back to the hotel for some much-needed sleep.

Sunday was pretty quiet. My parents left early to head back to Seattle and I met Amelia for brunch at Ladurée (adorable, yummy, and expensive – a dangerous combination). From there we walked to the garden outside the Louvre and got coffee in one of the cafes. If you couldn’t already tell, drinking and eating are a big part of life here. I’m not exactly complaining. We said goodbye and I made my way back to the hotel and then to the train station. I got a seat on the train and was able to appreciate it much more this time.

So I’m back in Strasbourg, but only for two more days. I have a ton of things to do before I leave for Turkey, but the weather here has suddenly turned very cold. Apparently it’s snowing already in Munich and it feels like snow is a possibility here, even though it’s rare. I can barely bring myself to do anything besides curl up in my (warm) bed and read. Mike said I'm just being wimpy about the weather, but I can't help it if my friends here are from Michigan and I am from Washington. Two different winter climates, thanks.

Wish me luck in my travels to Turkey and Greece for our Toussaints break! I’m not sure if I’ve ever traveled this unprepared before, as I don’t know the language and barely know my itinerary, but that’s what a semester abroad is about, right? Sometimes I just have to let go of my organized, vaguely obsessive Cohen ways, though it may seem impossible (or improbable). Here’s the itinerary I know thus far:

10/26 → Bus from Strasbourg to Frankfurt. Plane from Frankfurt to Istanbul.
10/26 – 10/30 → Istanbul, Turkey.
10/30 – 10/31 → Leave Istanbul and go to Avylik, Turkey. Spend a day in Avylik.
11/1 → Meet the LC Greece group and take a ferry to Lesvos. Stay the night there.
11/2 → Fly from Lesvos to Crete!
11/2 – 11/3 → Chill in Crete.
11/4 → Take a plane from Crete to Athens, Athens to Frankfurt. Bus from Frankfurt to Strasbourg. I arrive at 11:30 pm and I have class at 8:30 am the next morning. It should be fun.

Well, it will certainly be an adventure and that’s what I’m here for. Here are a few pictures:

La Seine doing what it does best and being gorgeous.

Parents et moi at a restaurant.

Amelia and I at the bar Saturday night.

Until next time.

Mon voyage en Allemagne!

2007-10-15T05:50:00.001-07:00

Well, I’ll start out this entry with the sad news of the week: England beat France in rugby. I sort of knew that they had a fluke win against the All Blacks, but it was still disappointing. Tant pis, I’ll just have to find another ridiculous French pastime to get obsessed with.

In happier news, I went to Munich last weekend! Three of my good friends from school, Mary, Dakota, and Alice, are all studying German there for the entire year. So when I got restless a few weeks ago, it seemed only natural that I’d visit them and I’m so happy I did! I woke up at 5:45 am on Friday morning and barely caught my 6:54 train. Several hours later, I arrived in Munich! After a giddy reunion, we dropped off my stuff at Mary’s room, and went downtown where we ate some amazing tomato soup and caught up. After lunch, Mary and Dakota gave me a tour of Munich. It’s a gorgeous city. It’s amazing how (relatively) close Strasbourg and Munich are and how different the architecture is. Strasbourg has one huge Cathedral, but Munich has several smaller, phenomenal churches downtown. That night I met several of the other students studying with them and we went to two bars, one near the student city and one in downtown Munich.

Saturday morning, Mary and I slept in a bit. Around lunchtime, we met up with Dakota and the three of us went to the English Gardens, one of the largest public parks in Europe. It had a very different feeling than the carefully trimmed Orangerie of Strasbourg that I’m used to, but still very nice. We had some coffee at one of the many Beer Gardens within the park. I was sort of amazed to see so many locals with steins of beer at 1 pm, but I suppose that’s just a part of German culture. On the way back, we bought some bread and cheese and had a picnic in Studentenstadt, the area that all the students live in. After a somewhat lazy afternoon, we went to a local restaurant/bar and I had my first maß (big stein of beer). I must say, I’m a big fan of German food and beer, though I don’t know how anyone manages to stay skinny there. A few hours later, we took the subway downtown and met up with Hayden, one of Mary’s friends and two of his friends. We went to Skyline, a rather posh bar/dance club. It was pretty slow at first, but ended up being really fun. I’m always a fan of dancing. I ended up dancing with a Swiss guy named Marco, who went away when I told him I was from the US. Next time I’ll say I’m Canadian.

Yesterday, we lazed around in the morning and went downtown for pizza. We went back, sat around for a while, and then it was time to go to the train station. I arrived in Strasbourg last night around 9 pm and it was really refreshing to be surrounded with a language that I (kind of) know. Then I ran into Sarah and Mike on the tram on their way back from Baden-Baden, which was a fun surprise. All in all, I’m really happy that my first adventure outside of France went so well. I hadn’t even realized how much I’d missed Mary, Dakota and Alice until I saw them and felt very at home in the middle of a foreign country. I hadn’t actually seen Mary for more than a few hours since December, so it was phenomenal just to catch up and see the city I’d heard so much about (she went there for two years of high school). It was a very good trip.

Now I’m back in Strasbourg, chez moi, and just trying to make it through the week. With any luck, I’ll be going to Paris this weekend to see my parents and Amelia, though the transportation workers are holding a strike this Thursday. I really hope it doesn’t carry over into Friday, but there’s always a possibility. The French people really love their strikes… a month ago that would have really bothered me, but now I just sort of find it amusing. Maybe that means I’m finally adjusting? That’s probably a good sign.

So here are some random pictures from Munich. I don't know the names of a lot of the buildings, as most of them were in complicated German. They're pretty, though.

Town Hall steeple in downtown Munich.

Mary and I in front of the Munich National Theater.

I forget what this building was, but there was a concert on the steps. Pretty cool.

Trying not to laugh inside a church.

Dakota and I at Manhattan, drinking good German beer.

Walking in the English Garden.

Mary being adorable in the beer garden.

Being silly.

Dakota, Mary, Justin (another student on their program, and Alice. What a good weekend.

Until next time, salut!

An absurdly long post to make up for my absence.

2007-10-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

In the past few days I have purchased tickets to Munich, Paris, Turkey, and Greece. Oh, my poor bank account. I told my host sister about going to Turkey and she looked at me like I was crazy, "Why are you going there? Honestly, there is nothing to see in Turkey." I disagree. There are wonderful friends and amazing sights in Turkey. Why wouldn't I go there? It is a once and a lifetime opportunity, like I would pass that up. French people are so elitist. Liking your own culture is one thing, but not being able to at least appreciate another culture is just sad.

Speaking of other cultures, I have found a new love: Rugby. It is like a brutal combination of soccer and American football, except with no pads and it never stops. What a good sport. France has been hosting the Rugby World Cup for the past month or so and last Saturday they beat the All Blacks, the hardcore New Zealand team, in a surprise victory to get to the semi-finals. It was a really good game and I happened to be walking to a bar when they won. Seriously, people went nuts. Every bar was full of people screaming and cheering. Practically every car was honking in celebration. Passengers were leaning out of windows and even sunroofs as they drove past. One driver had a french flag that he was waving as he drove... and these were just the quarter-finals! Next weekend France plays England, which is always a fun rivalry. With any luck they'll make it to the final game! Allez France!

Last weekend my parents also visited! It was crazy having them here in Strasbourg. My host mom recommended a good restaurant for Tarte Flambée, an Alsatian specialty, so we went there with Mike and Sarah. Other than that I can’t say I was the best host, mostly because I was sick and completely exhausted, but I think they had a good time. I’ll get to see them again in two weeks in Paris! Definitely looking forward to that.

Also, we had our first excursion last Friday. It was... intense? The first stop of the day was Struthof, the only concentration camp on French soil during WWII. I guess in retrospect I'm glad I went, but it was very upsetting. Not the best start to the day. The next stop was Chateau de Haut-Koenigsbourg, a chateau that was built back in the day and then burnt down by the Swiss. Then the Germans came at the beginning of the twentieth century and rebuilt it to look like an ancient chateau. The only problem is that they didn't really know what an ancient chateau would look like so it was sort of... tacky. I think I'm spoiled, having been to Mont Saint-Michel. Finally, we ate in Kaysersberg, an Alsatian town very similar to Ribeauvillé. Not really a thrilling place, but I guess it's quaint or something.

In other news, my classes are finally sorted out. Lewis & Clark is sort of ridiculous and requires me to take six electives, all in french, in addition to my ten hours of language per week. The good news is that each elective is only one hour of class per week and has fairly little homework. The bad news is that each class has one cumulative exam at the end of the semester and that’s your grade. Oh god. So anyway, here’s a brief list of what I’m taking :

Phonétique
One of my better classes, surprisingly. It’s actually really interesting to think about the phonetics of french and the professor is pretty funny. The last class was all about the rhythm of the language and how the syllables are grouped together equally in a phrase. She also talked about french being one of the only languages that places emphasis on the last syllable of a phrase. Definitely a cool class.

Littérature du XXème siècle
I’m not a big fan of literature classes, but Lewis & Clark adores them and so I’m in this class. The class covers the important french literature in the first half of the twentieth century, which has the potential to be interesting. The last three classes have been focused on poetry, however, which pretty much the opposite of interesting to me. Hopefully it’ll get better. I’m looking forward to the lecture on Albert Camus.

Philosophie en France
For some reason, and don’t ask me why, philosophy is better en francais. I’ve never liked it in english, but I love this class. The professor is this hilarious guy, who looks like how I would picture a french devil – round body, vaguely pointy head, and really devilish grin. My favorite class thus far was all about Sartre and existentialism. Existentialism really confused me in english, but it just seems to make sense in french. It’s almost like it’s more appropriate here in its original context.

Société français
A completely absurd required course on french society. It’s pretty painful and almost completely useless, as we’ve been learning about the media and sports in France. I feel like if you’re living in France for more than a few weeks, you figure out most of this stuff for yourself. Ah well… the professor is an amusing middle-aged woman who seems very disgusted with the current state of french society, hehe.

Histoire de l’art
This class would have potential, were the professor not completely timid and neurotic. It’s actually pretty painful and I am becoming increasingly pessimistic about it. One of these days I’ll need to take a real art history course.

Littérature thématique
Oh boy, another literature class! We’re studying short stories this semester, which I guess is fairly intriguing. The professor is a woman in her late twenties and brings a lot of energy to the class. The class isn’t bad, but it isn’t incredible either. I think I just have high standards.

Now that we have school, it’s even easier to just go to school and then hide in my room for the rest of the time. Most of the time when I get home, I really don’t have the energy to go back out. I’ve found, however, that when I force myself to get out of the apartment I generally have a better time. For instance, tonight Sarah, Clif, and I discovered Le Kafteur, a local « théâtre d’humour » (literally : humor theater) and saw a Québécois group perform. It was brilliant and completey hilarious. Most of it was physical comedy so comprehension wasn’t really an issue. We’re definitely going back there for their next few shows. Sarah and I have decided to try to go to something cultural once per week so next week it’s the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra. The best part of all this is that we have "Culture Cards", which give us great discounts on everything from museums to movies.

Again, here are some random pictures from the last few weeks:
At the Orangerie, an amazing park here close to the European Parliament.

Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg. I don't know how to pronounce that.

The Chateau again, but this time with pretty Alsatian landscape.

Les parents at a cafe near the Cathedral.

The Cathedral in the daylight. It's big.

Okay, enough of my ramblings for now. Sorry for the crazy long post. A bientot.

Classes, family, and wacky adventures.

2007-09-27T04:37:00.000-07:00

After some significant angst about classes and culture shock, I have gotten back on my feet. Thus far, my schedule for the rest of the semester actually looks pretty amazing. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are all fairly intense, but Thursdays only have four hours of class and then Fridays are completely free. Yes, that’s right, I have a semester of three day weekends ahead of me in Europe. I am so, so, so happy.

Anyway, I haven’t really talked that much about my host family, but they’re so crazy that I really should tell all you wonderful readers about them. So! I live with a divorced woman, Mme. Rigaud, who until this point has remained a little distant and cold. I suppose that’s just very French. Mme. Rigaud has six children, but only the three youngest live with us. Timothy, 20, is her youngest son and I’m still not entirely sure if he actually lives here or what he does, besides work at a bar. He never eats meals with us or says more than “Salut!” to me, but is normally around in the afternoons. For those of you wondering, and I know who you are, he is not cute. Not at all. It’s very sad. Tragic, even.

And then there are The Twins, who are 18 and deserve a paragraph of their own. Upon my arrival, Beth told me that there is a Good Twin and an Evil Twin. I thought this was a joke and boy was I wrong. The Good Twin is Charlotte, who I’ve actually started talking to recently. The Evil Twin is Bérangère, who is moody and yells a lot. At the end of high school, the French have a huge test called the Bac that they need to pass in order to go to university. If you don’t pass it, you essentially don’t pass high school. Anyway, last year Charlotte received her Bac and Bérangère didn’t. That’s where a lot of the craziness comes in, as Charlotte is currently starting law school and there’s a good possibility that Bérangère will have to repeat her last year of high school. I actually feel bad for Bérangère, as she is obviously not the Good Twin, but she doesn’t exactly make life easier for herself by shouting, “I hate this family! You blame me for everything! Why is everything always my fault?!” at dinner and storming off to her room. Ah, teenage angst.

As for the latest wacky European adventure, last Saturday four of us decided to go to Ribeauvillé, a local Alsatian village on the wine route. We thought it would be a pleasant day trip, but little did we know that the train station was actually four kilometers away from the village. So that’s how I ended up walking along the side of a French highway to a town in middle of nowhere and back. The village itself was pretty cute, except for the masses of crazy German tourists, but we didn’t stay very long. Ah well, at least it’s a pretty good story.

This weekend should be pretty low-key. I feel a little guilty about not traveling, but staying warm in bed is almost irresistible now that the rain has started. I must say, one of the things I miss the most about LC is just sitting in Odell on rainy days, drinking hot cocoa, and listening to indie music with friends. I suppose there will be plenty of time to do that next semester.

Time to go to class. Au revoir.

PS. If there’s something specific you would like me to write about, please let me know. I really have no idea what’s interesting and what’s not so feedback is always appreciated. :)

A weekend in Paris and more.

2007-09-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

Our two-week stage finished last Friday and so the group went to Paris for a long weekend to celebrate! It was a great trip, though thoroughly exhausting. I’m getting to know some of the Kalamazoo kids a lot better and I feel much more comfortable with them. I really love our group and that’s definitely worth a lot.

So! Paris:
Saturday morning we took the new TGV directly to Paris from Strasbourg. Everyone settled into our hotel in the early afternoon and wandered around that afternoon. We ended up visiting Notre Dame and watched a band play in one of the side streets. After that, the entire group ate at an Indian restaurant (Bengal Tiger in Seattle is better) and then went to see La Lecon by Ionesco in a small theater in the Latin Quarter. Oddly enough, I saw La Cantatrice Chauve in the exact same theater during my high school trip to Paris. Funny how things work out.

Sunday morning we were off to the Musée D’Orsay, one of my personal favorites. We didn’t have a guided tour this time, unlike in high school, which made my second to the museum much more enjoyable. I didn’t get to see everything, but I loved wandering into random exhibits and exploring. My favorites were the Art Nouveau collection and a photography exhibit exploring “La Main” (The Hand).
After that we ate a great lunch at the Musée’s restaurant and took some touristy pictures before leaving. France is hosting the Rugby World Cup and so there was a ferris wheel set up by the Place de la Concorde in its honor. Naturally, six of us decided that we needed to go on it. I’m pretty sure this was my first time on a ferris wheel and what a place for it! The sun was shining, we were in the middle of Paris, and I had a great 360-degree view. It was pretty spectacular. From there we walked to the Louvre, though we didn’t get to spend much time there. I don’t actually like the Louvre as much so that’s okay.
That evening we had dinner at a nearby café and then took a much-needed nap. Eventually we all got back some energy and took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower. It was pretty incredible, actually, to be there at night. We hung out underneath the Tower until we got too cold and made the journey back.

Monday morning we set off to the Palais Garnier aka the Paris Opéra for a guided tour. I wasn’t very excited about it, but it ended up being really cool and I could understand everything our tour guide was saying in French. It was fun to see Box No. 5 where the Phantom supposedly sits, though I didn’t realize that this was the Opera from Phantom of the Opera until halfway through the tour. Oops.
After the Opera, four of us set off to go shopping. Honestly, you can’t visit Paris and not go shopping. We eventually found a mall my mom told me about, which was huge and confusing. I didn’t buy anything, but found some prospective purchases for back in Strasbourg. Jill and Stephanie had already gone back on the metro, but for some reason Sarah and I decided to walk back to the hotel from the mall. It ended up being a really nice walk past the Louvre, the Seine, and Notre Dame back to the Latin Quarter.
That night we went to a mind-blowing restaurant located near our hotel. Seriously, this was one of the best meals of my life, though that might have also been the wine talking. I love all of the French food, though I think I should start walking more rather than using the tram every day.

Yesterday we had most of the day free until our train left at 4:30 so I decided to make the journey to Montmartre, something I’ve wanted to do for many years. A group of us went to Sacré-Coeur, which was stunning. The view was gorgeous. I could have just stayed there for hours looking out over the city. Then we went inside the church and the nuns were singing during a service. It definitely made me miss Italy, hearing the religious choral music in such a resonant church, but it was also gorgeous music and I loved listening. I just miss singing.
We then wandered to a small Salvador Dali museum. I adore Dali’s work and the museum was completely worth it. I really want to know even more about him now. His work is incredible, though I can’t even begin to comprehend most of it.
Finally, we walked down the hill to the Moulin Rouge. It was sort of unreal seeing it after so many years. I definitely thought about Cressa while we were there taking pictures, as the two of us spent countless hours in high school obsessing over the movie. From there it was back to the hotel and then to the train station to hop on the TGV.

So that was my weekend, more or less. A few of us are thinking about adventuring somewhere around Alsace this weekend, but we haven’t made any plans yet. Also, plans are starting to shape up for my free week at the end of October. I’m probably going to go to Turkey (Istanbul and Kusadasi) and then Crete with some of the LC kids in Greece. I’m excited.

Before I go, here are a few pictures from the past few weeks. I have to figure out a better way to post pictures.

The Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg had a light show the first weekend we were here.

Some of the group at Irish Times, a local bar. From left to right - Mike K, Mike Z, Corey, Shannon's sister, Shannon, Stephanie, Jill, and Sarah.

I live towards the end of this street.

Jill, Sarah, and I on the terrace at Musée D'Orsay.

La Tour Eiffel from the ferris wheel. Pretty cool.

The end of our first week.

2007-09-06T13:25:00.000-07:00

A 57-year-old german man called me a walking dictionary today. I'm not entirely sure how I know so many random french words, but apparently I do. C'est bizarre.

So I've been here for a week and am finally starting to get settled. It's surprisingly cold here, which has been hard to adjust to. Even the residents of Strasbourg have been complaining. As September is not usually this cold, the residents here generally don't turn the heat on until October. I guess they adhere pretty strictly to this since nothing, including our classrooms, is heated.

Anyway, our two week stage has been pretty miserable, but that was to be expected. The classes are really easy for me and thus, incredibly boring. Still, I am making friends with other students, though mostly Americans, and am attempting to enjoy the time when I'm not in class. We eat lunch most days at Resto-U's, which are university restaurants around the city with cheap food. Not the best dining in the world, but great for students on a budget.

For our "socio-cultural" class, we have to do a small research project on Strasbourg's cathedral. This afternoon we ended up "researching" downtown. After a half-hour of interviewing total strangers, something I would be too shy to do in english but somehow managed in french, we all went to a nearby cafe for coffee. I can definitely see myself making a habit of an afternoon latte and croissant in the coming months. I'll probably be a coffee snob once I get back to the States.

On a completely different note, the women here are incredible. They are skinny, gorgeous, and impossibly graceful. The other day it started pouring down rain randomly and I found myself without an umbrella. We were walking downtown and by the time I had purchased what I needed at Monoprix, I was literally dripping. I didn't think it was that strange, but when I boarded the tram, every woman was perfectly dry and elegant. I have since learned that umbrellas here are not taboo, as in Seattle or Portland, but are used with even the slightest drizzle. I am now starting to get into the habit of using mine, as I don't want to risk another hair disaster amongst such chic women.

I have much more to write about, but I'm tired and ready to go to bed. This weekend will hopefully give me some time to catch up and breathe a little.

Bonne nuit.

2007-09-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been here since Friday and Mme Rigaud continues to be very nice and welcoming, though you can definitely tell she's a mother of six and very french. She's just very matter-of-fact, but tells me that my french is good. Dinner with her son and her son's friend Friday night was pretty hilarious. The topics ranged from The Simpsons, Desperate Houswives (which Mme says is very à la mode in France right now), and the drinking age in the US. Good times.

There's another student living with us this semester too, Rachel from Eastern Mennonite University. She seems nice, but fairly quiet. There's also another girl from Cornell on the Syracuse program, Rebecca, who will stay with us until Monday, when her host family returns from their vacation. It's been good to get to know her and hopefully we'll see each other after she leaves the house. Mme. hosted a dinner party last night with some of her friends, who all have students with them, so there were around six American students there. Everyone is either from BCE or Syracuse, other American programs here in Strasbourg, which is kind of cool because the L&C program is really small.

Speaking of the L&C program, yesterday I met the rest of the students in the group. Most are from Kalamazoo, but there is one girl from Bryn Mawr, Ciel. It seems like I might not actually see the Kalamazoo kids a lot, except for our trips. We’ll see.

We walked around the city and it's so amazingly wonderful. Everything is overwhelming and the buildings are amazing. French people are so elitist, I love it. You're not supposed to smile at anyone in the street or people think you're either flirting or dumb. I need to get used to the "I'm-too-cool-to-look-at-you" walk, but I think it'll grow on me with time. The cathedral here looks magnificent and ancient and I sort of can't wait to explore all the little shops.

As for the next few weeks, we're going to have a two-week stage, which literally means internship. What it really is, however, is intensive french. We have a language placement exam Monday, which will place us in language groups in which we have french all day, every day for two weeks. Beth says it will be rather miserable for the first week, but it is intended to immerse us. On the positive side, we have a group trip to Paris at the end of it with the Nancy students to look forward to. I'm also hoping to meet students in my language groups.

So, everything's going great so far. My french is actually better than I thought it would be and I am starting to enjoy speaking it. We've been walking a lot and I'm just going to have to suck it up and accept that my feet will hurt for the next four months straight. Still, I might attempt the tram soon, which would reduce my travel time to and from school each day. Thank god for public transportation that actually works. Seattle could learn a thing or two from Europe.

Okay, that's it for now.

2007-08-31T10:42:00.001-07:00

I’m here!

I somehow made it safely to Strasbourg, though I have no idea how. I started the voyage at 7 am Thursday morning and arrived around 2 pm on Friday afternoon. It’s all sort of a blur. After a three-hour car ride, a ten-hour flight, and a two-hour bus ride, Mme. Rigaud picked me up from the bus stop. She seems very nice and I attempted some french, but I think I was more awkward than anything else. Tomorrow we have orientation, which will be good. It'll be nice to see more of Strasbourg and meet some other American students.

More to come when I'm not completely exhausted.

Counting down...

2007-08-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

Bonjour tout le monde! I thought I would follow the trend and start a blog so everyone can keep up with my wanderings abroad. For those of you who don’t know, I’m going to be living in Strasbourg, France for the fall semester of 2007. At this point, I don’t know anyone else in the program. I have many good friends studying in other European cities/towns (Paris, Nancy, Nantes, Munich, Athens, St. Andrews), but there is no one in Strasbourg. This is both thrilling and terrifying.

I leave August 30th from Portland, Oregon for Frankfurt, Germany. From there I take a bus to Strasbourg. I have a lot to do between now and then. Packing for such an adventure can be overwhelming. I need to brush up on my French a little before I leave, but it seems to be the least exciting option possible right now. Ah well.

Stay tuned. A bientôt!