Ma Vie En France

Wellllll that was fun!!

2010-05-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

I'm finished with exams!!
Everything is done a bit different here in France....when you have a final exam at ucf you go to the classroom that the class is in and take the exam with your teacher present. The exams here are in the auditoriums and there are multiple classes in there. It was my entire class with a bunch of french students, and none of our professors were there. There is assigned seating and you have to keep your bag/backpack/purse at the front of the room during the exam. Luckily our professor, who is also in charge of our study abroad program, was there for all of our exams to help us fill out papers. There's a special packet that they give you to take your exam and you have to fill it out a certain way.

Yesterday I had Management Accounting....which can be compared to taking an exam in Finnish...it was foreign to me. HORRIBLE! The girls from ucf that came here last year said they all failed the exam, but they ended up passing the unit...(I'm not sure if that was with the help of ucf or not). Oh well, I tried my best, that's all I can do. What will be will be....

Today we had Regional Tourism at 9:00am. The class is taught by the person in charge of the study abroad program. That exam was MUCH better than I thought it would be...thank god!! I felt bad for the students in my class who aren't native english speakers though. It's so much harder for them because they have to first read the question over and over again until they understand what is being asked and then try to provide the correct answer. Speaking english well is completely different from having to take an exam in english. Most of the American's thought it was pretty easy, the non-americans thought it was a bit difficult.

At 2:00pm we had our last exam (for unit 5). We were told that the exam was going to be one of the 4 classes in unit 5. So we needed to study for all 4 classes, but we would only have 1 test for 1 class...it would be a surprise! I love surprisessss
These were the 4 classes:
- The Loire Valley Castles
- Food Culture Management
- Getting to know a destination
- Wine Studies
So yes, we should have prepared for all 4 classes, but who does that?!? We're college students...in France. Considering we only went to the last 3 classes (listed above) maybe 4 times, and didn't learn much AT ALL, we had a feeling that it would be on the castles. The students last year had an exam on Loire Valley Castles, so we assumed that's what our test would be on. WE ASSUMED WRONG! It reminds me of what my 10th grade biology teacher, Mrs. Atria, said: If you assume you make an ass out of u and me.

Sooo we all studied like crazy for Loire Valley Castles. We get to the exam and they pass the paper to the first person. I think Katja was the first person to get the exam and she said "It's food culture management!" We all burst out laughing...you've gotta be kidding me!! Soooo we took an exam that NO ONE studied for! Luckily, it was food culture management so I was able to bs my way through the thing with knowledge from classes i've taken at ucf. Hopefully I did ok....i'm just glad it's over!!!! :)

I have a presentation tomorrow afternoon and then the semester is over!!!!
Heading to Prague and Vienna on Thursday :)

Beautiful Barcelona

2010-05-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

We took a taxi around 5:30am on Friday to get to the airport...we were greeted by prositutes once again. lol When we looked at the weather for Barcelona it said it would be rainy all weekend and it was the opposite! We were so lucky! We found our hostel and grabbed some lunch nearby before we were able to check-in. After we checked-in at the hostel we went to La Sagrada Familia (by Antonio Gaudi)which is a temple that has been under construction for years, and will continue to be under construction for years to come. I remember visiting it in high school...I forgot that it was (& is always) under construction.

La Sagrada Familia

After La Sagrada Familia we took the metro and then walked to Park Guell. It's crazy because you take 3 or 4 escalators (that are outside in the middle of buildings) up to the top of this hill. Once you get to the top, you have an amazing view of Barcelona.

Escalator going up to Park GuellThe girls at the top of Park Guell

Park Guell
Jazmin recommended a tapas restaurant called Inopia for dinner so we decided to try it out. It was AMAZING! It was worth every euro cent! Everything we ate was delicious! After dinner we walked around the city and down by the water for awhile. With no luck finding a bar we wanted to stay at, we decided to call it a night.
Saturday was Henna's birthday!! We had to check out of the hostel that morning, so we left all of our luggage in their luggage room. The weather was perfect so we headed to the beach!
Katie and I at the beach
We didn't realize the weather would be so perfect so no one brought their bathing suits, but we just laid on the beach in our clothes. We decided to lay out on the sand....for 2 hours! ...with no sunscreen! All that wine we've been drinking in France must have taken all of our braincells from us. I have NO idea how, but out of the 6 of us I think I was the one who was the least burnt...and I have the fairest skin. I don't know how it happened, but I'm so thankful! We all got sunburnt though! The last 20 minutes or so we were on the beach Amy and I went for a walk. We couldn't get over the fact that we were hanging out on the beach in Barcelona...we loved it! Henna, Anna, & Megan and I grabbed some lunch by the beach...pasta and?! you guessed it! Sangria! When In Rome.... After lunch we walked along the beach and then took the metro to the Picasso museum. It was awesome! There was a section of the museum that had Picasso's interpretation of the painting Las Meninas by Velazquez. I thought it was cool because we saw Las Meninas at the Prado in Madrid. :) After Picasso we headed back to the hostel to change clothes and get ready for a LONG night! Since we already checked out of our hostel we had no room to get ready...so we got ready in the public bathroom in the lobby of the hostel. All 6 of us.
The whole time we were laughing at everyone's stupid sunburn's and the horrible tan lines we would have. It was actually a lot of fun, and only person walked in to use the bathroom. After everyone was ready we went to put all of our bags in lockers by the bus station because we had to take a bus at 3:45am to get to the airport to leave. Like I said...it was going to be a long night! Megan's friend has been studying in Barcelona and he recommended a place for us to go to dinner. We attempted to go there, but didn't know you needed a reservation so we found a place down the street. Dinner was a lot of fun! We surprised Henna with a cake :)

Henna's birthday dinner!

After dinner we met Megan's friend and he took us to a shot bar called Chupitos. They have the craziest shots! The place is VERY small and VERY crowded, but once you get a spot at the bar it's a lot of fun. We took a shot called Boy Scout....They place the shots on the bar and start a fire directly on the bar. They give you a marshmallow that you roast until the fire is out. Then you dip the marshmallow in the shot (to help it cool) put it in your mouth, then take the shot! All of the shots are crazy like that, and usually involve fire.
Boy Scout Shot After Chupitos they took us to a club. We stayed in the club for an hour or so until 3am when we had to leave to go to the bus station. Katie, Henna, and Anna and I were waiting at the entrance of the club for Megan and Amy...but they didn't come. We weren't going to miss the bus (and our flight) because of them so we just left. We cut it really close on time! We got on the last metro to get to the bus stop at 3:40am. When we got off the metro we literally sprinted our way out of the metro, across the street, and to the bus. Katie said she would go first to make sure the bus wasn't leaving, while the 3 of us got our bags out of our lockers. Luckily we made it just in time....without Megan and Amy. The funny thing was that Henna and I shared a locker with Megan and Amy, so we had all of their stuff with us. There was nothing else to do but take their stuff. We could have put it in the locker again, but I would have still had the key. When we got to the airport we weren't even sure if our flight would be going to Paris because the flight to Paris that evening had been cancelled. Luckily our flight was scheduled to depart! One problem...we still had the girls bags. I was trying to figure out what we were going to do with their stuff, when they walked into the airport! They were very lucky because they were able to take a bus at 4:10, which we didn't even know about. The schedule that we had from the bus station said that the next bus (After 3:45am) left at 5am...which would have probably made them late to the airport. I travel with a bunch of monkey's! haha
Soooo luckily we all made it to the airport, now we just had to make sure we didn't kill each other lol. We got on the plane and made it to Paris. We had to take a bus into the city, which took about an hour. Then took the metro to the train station where we had about 4 hours until our train left to go to Angers. We all napped in the train station. Then we napped some more on the train! When we got to Angers we were all exhausted, gross from going out and not showering, and ready to be back in our rooms. Overall it was a wonderful trip and we all had a blast! I will definitely have amazing memories from my London & Spain trip! :)

Madrid, Spain :)

2010-05-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Madrid late Tuesday night and took a taxi to our hostel. We had a warm welcome by a million prostitutes lining the road that our hostel was on...awesomeee.
Wednesday we had breakfast at our hostel and then made our way to the Royal Palace to see the changing of the guards.

Royal Palace

It only happens on the first Wednesday of every month, so we went on the perfect day! It was cool to watch, but we were watching from the outside of the palace so we missed some of it. They start the whole thing on the outside and work their way to the inside of the palace for a performance...we probably would have watched from inside if we would have known. After the changing of the guards we went inside the Almudena Cathedral right next to the royal palace. We then walked by Plaza de la Villa to get to Plaza Mayor.

Plaza Mayor

It was crazy seeing Plaza Mayor again and remembering my last trip there. (The summer before my senior year of high school I went on a trip with Mrs. Journey and two of the cities we visited were Madrid and Barcelona). I definitely enjoyed my trip in high school, but since I've gotten older I have a greater appreciation for everything! We had lunch in Plaza Mayor. Sangria and sandwiches.
Enjoying lunch in Plaza Mayor

After lunch we strolled the city and worked our way to the Prado that evening. A lot of the museums are free for students after 6pm. A lot of the art in the Prado is different then what I am used to. I think it's much darker and gloomier, but I'm definitely glad we went. We had sangria and paella for dinner in a plaza not far from our hostel.

Paella!

It was deliciousssss :) We were all SO full after dinner that we went back to the hostel to rest...and we ended up sleeping for a couple hours lol. We had all planned to go out that night, but Anna and Amy weren't up for it after the nap. Katie and Megan wanted to go out and they somehow convinced Henna and I to go too. Bad ideaaaa...the amount of creepers in Madrid is RIDICULOUS! We went to two different clubs (we got in free thank god!) and were constantly being approached by guys. We weren't having that much fun so we decided to head back to the hostel. We were able to walk by the prostitutes once more on our way back...we actually saw them doing their job when we woke up to have breakfast, when we would take a break in the middle of the day, and when we would go out at night...sad, but true.
Thursday we headed to the Parque del Retiro. It was so nice! We each got an ice cream and walked around the park. We walked around the lake and sat on the steps of the Alfonso XII monument for awhile enjoying the amazing weather. Then we decided to take a ride in the paddle boats...it was a lot of fun! :)

After the 45 minute boat ride we walked through the park making our way to the botanical gardens.

Palacio de Cristal All the girls :) We walked through the Botanical Gardens, which was very pretty! We all agreed that park was just as beautiful though..and the park was free! After the botanical gardens we split up for a little while to eat dinner, do some shopping, etc. and then met back up around 8:30pm. On the tourist info map it said that the Templo de Debod was the best place to watch the sunset so we decided to check it. It was BEAUTIFUL! It was the perfect way to spend our last night in Madrid!

View of Madrid as the sun was setting

Templo de Debod

Hello London!!

2010-05-10T04:39:00.000-07:00

I left on April 30th for a 10 day trip to London, Madrid, & Barcelona! It was SO much fun!

Friday we left Angers in the morning and made it to London in the late afternoon. Once we got to the airport we all went our separate ways because Anna was staying with friends, a few of the girls were staying with Amy's family, and Henna and I were staying in a hostel with 3 other girls who were on a different flight. We took a bus from the London-Stansted aiport to London which took a little over an hour. We walked for quite awhile along Hyde Park to find our hostel, checked in, and went to dinner at a Thai restaurant down the road. We thought the whole situation was kind of funny considering that an American girl and a Finnish girl (who have been studying in France) were visiting London, and eating Thai food. I love it! After dinner we took the tube (aka metro)to Notting Hill and walked around for a little while. We headed back to the hostel to meet Charlotte, Kim, and Shannon who had taken the later flight to London. We talked for awhile about our journey's to London and then went to sleep to get ready for the next day.

Saturday we had the free breakfast at the hostel which usually means cornflakes and white bread with jam lol then headed to Starbucks to energize ourselves. Some of you may be thinking that I shouldn't have had Starbucks, but it's literally on every corner in London. It was a cultural experience haha! We took the tube towards the Tower Bridge! We walked past the Tower of London Castle and right around the corner was the bridge.

The Tower of London Castle

The Tower Bridge

We crossed over the bridge and walked along the River Thames to St. Paul's Cathedral. We took the infamous phone booth pictures there.

St. Paul's Cathedral

In a phone booth outside of St. Paul's!

We walked back across the river and walked by the Tate Modern Museum. We were going to go inside, but decided to save it for another day when the weather wasn't so nice. We never ended up making it back there which is a little disappointing, but I'll just put it on my list of things to do on my next visit to London! :) We went to a place called Eat. and grabbed a sandwich and some snacks to eat outside. The weather was beautiful! After lunch we continued to walk along the river towards the London Eye. There were a lot of street performers which was fun to watch. There was a group of hiphop/break dancers, people playing music with aluminum trash lids, a woman with over 1,000 peircings(..gross!), and the typical people who are dressed up as mickey mouse, a mime, and other characters. After reaching the London Eye we headed back across the river towards Westminster Abbey and Big Ben! There was a protest going on right outside of Westminster Abbey. It was crazy and awesome! lol
The London Eye

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Protest outside of Westminster Abbey

We walked to St. James Park and took a short nap in the sun and then walked through the park. We saw Buckingham Palace from a distance, but were saving that for another morning so we could watch the changing of the guards. We walked from St. James Park to Picadilly Circus, which slightly resembles Time's Square, but on a much smaller level. Anna met us there and we went on a search for a place to eat. We found a local pub and I had fish & chips which was delicious!! :) We then attempted to find a place to go out for drinks, which was relatively unsuccessful. It was raining outside, we were exhausted from walking all day and every place we went to was either really crowded or the wrong age group. We ended up staying at a bar that wasn't too crowded so we could sit down inside and have a London ale. We met a guy whose dad lives in Tennessee and one of his favorite bands is Sister Hazel..small world! We hung out at the bar for a little while then decided to call it a night when an old creeper spilled a beer on Charlotte.
Sunday we met Charlotte's friend Priscilla in the Liverpool area and she took us to a couple markets. The markets were huge and amazing! Henna and I wanted everything we saw!

We walked around there for a little while and then had a late lunch at an Indian restaurant. After lunch we went to another market which was just as amazing! After a couple hours at that market, Priscilla left, and the 5 of us (me, Kim, Shannon, Charlotte, & Henna) walked around for a little while longer. We were heading back to the tube when we spotted these amazing looking drinks in the window of a bar called B @ 1. There was a sign that said they have 2 for 1 happy hour on Sundays until 12am soooo we decided to go inside and see how it was. We were sitting at a table and my camera fell off my lap onto the ground and dieddd! :( And we had just ordered our first drink so NO it was not caused by drunken debauchery...just stupidity! My camera was 4 years old and was missing 5 out of the 11 screws that held it in place, so its not shocking that it died. The bar was so much fun though! They played great music, the drinks were amazing, and the bartenders were a lot of fun! Six hours later, with no money left in our wallets, we decided to call it a night.
Me and Henna...last picture taken with my camera :(

Monday we headed to Abbey Road to take the infamous Beatles picture walking on the crosswalk. I was suprised that nothing has been done with that crosswalk because there were at least 40 people there trying to take pictures while cars were driving by. The whole thing was a little bit chaotic, but it was fun! There was a guy there that would take a polaroid pic for you for 5 pounds. I bought it so we could all get in a picture, and so we didn't have to deal with stopping traffic again lol We then attempted to go to Kings Cross Station which is where platform 9 and 3/4's is from Harry Potter. We ended up not going in because we would have had to pay for a metro ticket..not worth it! Kim, and Henna & I walked around and did some shopping while Shannon and Charlotte went back to Westminster Abbey to see a choir performance. We all met back at Picadilly Circus and went to dinner at a Chinese restaruant with Priscilla (Charlotte's friend). It was a lot of fun going with Charlotte! We told Priscilla and Charlotte to order for us, so they ordered around 6 dishes for all of us to share. It was fun listening to them speak Chinese to each other and to the servers. The food was delicious! Charlotte said that it was real authentic food that she would have in Hong Kong, which made her miss home a little. She told us about a couple dishes that were popular just in Hong Kong and others that were popular in China. We walked around Soho after dinner and enjoyed the city.

Tuesday we checked out of our hostel and headed to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. It was awesome! There were so many people there! After the changing of the guards Shannon, Kim, and Charlotte left to catch their flight to Ireland. Henna and I headed back towards the hostel to do some shopping and pick up our bags at the hostel. We mostly window shopped because we had already packed our bags and knew we didn't have room for anything else. We met up with Anna and took a train to Gatwick-Airport to head to Madrid! We met up with Megan, Katie, and Amy at the airport and shared stories from our trips. It was weird seeing them in the airport because we had expected to hang out with each other in London. We ended up not seeing them at all because we had no way of communicating with each other.
Overall London was AMAZING!! I fell in love with the city! I didn't want to leave and I want to go back already!

That's all for now...I'll post more pictures from London (after I steal pics from the girls) and blog about Spain soon.

2010-04-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

I wasn’t planning on blogging about the last couple weeks, but then I realized that I’m writing this blog almost entirely for me (and for those of you who are reading too!). I know when I’m reading my blog in 5 or 10 or 20 years I’ll be glad I wrote it...

My Grandmother got very sick in the last couple months and I flew back to the United States on April 8th in hopes of spending a day or two with her before she passed away. Unfortunately she passed away on April 6th. When she got really sick I knew there was a possibility that I wouldn’t get to see her, but I wanted to fly home either way so I could spend time with my family.

The journey home is a story in itself:
The French train stations decided it would be a fabulous idea to go on strike the week I was flying to the US! I woke up at 4:30am on the 8th (that’s 10:30pm on the 7th in the U.S.) to take a taxi to the train station in Angers. I wanted to get there early just in case my train wasn’t running. Luckily I did because, guess what?! My train wasn’t running! My original train ticket would have left Angers at 6:45am and taken me straight to the airport…that would have been too easy. There was a nice woman that worked at the train station who gave me a ticket for the 6:08am train (I’m so glad I was early!). It took me to a different train station in Paris. Once I got to the train station I took the Metro and then I got on the RER (the city train) which took me to the airport. It was a long journey (much longer than anticipated!) carrying my luggage around! I finally made it to the airport in Paris and had to take an airport shuttle to the main terminal. Luckily, I made it to the gate with time to spare to grab a bite to eat…of course with the way my day had been going I didn’t eat the 1st sandwich I bought because it fell on the ground, but I enjoyed the 2nd sandwich I bought! Lol I flew from Paris to Amsterdam to Atlanta with hardly any problems. I landed in Atlanta at 5:30pm (US time) and my flight was leaving for Tampa at 7pm. I was very anxious because I had to go through border patrol & customs, wait for my bag at the baggage claim, re-check it, go through security, take the airport shuttle to my terminal (AND get Chickfila haha). I was sweating when I arrived at my gate, but I made it! I made it just in time to hear the announcement that my flight was delayed 2 hours!! As if the 10 hour flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta wasn’t long enough! lol! My cell phone didn’t work in the U.S. because my plan is suspended until I get back in June. I attempted to call my mom collect to let her know it was late and have her tell Monica because she was picking me up at the airport. I attempted to call about 4 times and failed. I could hear my mom say “hello” on the other end and press all the buttons the automated voice asked, but it never worked. I went and bought Chickfila 1) because I wanted it 2) It would give me change to make a phone call. So I tried to pay to make a phone call and it said that her number had been disconnected. Noo! Actually it hasn’t because I just called and heard her say hello on the other end! I also tried calling my sisters number and that didn’t work either! I was so frustrated so I decided to take a break and eat the chicken sandwich and waffle fries..delicioussss! I decided to try the pay phones at a different gate and it worked! I have no idea how! The pay phone was a different model so maybe that’s why…I’ll never know. If you’re ever at gate A10 in the Atlanta airport don’t use the payphones!!! The time went by quickly in the airport because I spent most of the time trying to make phone calls lol…no but really it was nice (and strange) to hear ENGLISH everywhere around me. I bought a couple gossip magazines (to catch up on news only American's care about..like Kate Gosselin ha!), and a big inexpensive bottle of water! I felt spoiled! When I walked back to A10 I noticed that the gate for my flight had been moved to E17…thank you Atlanta! There were many cranky people at the gate complaining about the changes. I obviously never wanted to have my flight delayed, but there was no point in getting mad at anyone. It wouldn’t have made anything better. One woman sitting by me at the gate was complaining because she got to the airport too early and she could have taken a nap…she lives in Atlanta. I wanted to hit her! At that point it had been 24 hours since I got up to start this journey…and she’s mad she got to the airport a couple hours early!?!? I finally got on the plane and made it to Tampa. I was SO excited to see Monica!! It was so nice! She was such a cute big sister! She had a “Welcome Back” balloon and a bag of goodies…Starbucks gift certificate, D’lites (frozen yogurt) gift certificate, some more delightful gossip magazines, and Bumble & Bumble hair products that I couldn’t bring to France with me. I loved it! We stayed the night at Uncle Phil’s house. I think I went to bed 27 or 28 hours after I started my journey. The next day we went to a Mexican restaurant (my choice!) for lunch with Aunt Sally, and Sam and Paula. After lunch we went to my Grandmother’s house to watch a slideshow of pictures from her 80th birthday party; I knew I would cry. Monica and I got on the road shortly after so we could get to Gainesville and have dinner with our Mom. Thank god we rushed because we got a flat tire as soon as we got on the interstate in Tampa...AWESOME! I usually don’t say this, but I just have the BEST luck! We stopped at a gas station and a nice man helped us put the spare tire on. It was a “donut” (? I act as if I know anything about cars) so we weren’t sure if we could drive all the way to Gainesville on it. The guy who switched our tire thought we would make it, but I’m sure he didn’t want to be responsible if something happened so he never gave us a definite answer. The owner of the gas station told us he called a guy that was coming to look at our tire and give us a used one to make it back home. He told us to sit in the café next to the gas station while we waited. While we were in the cafe Brad called us and he told us that we would be fine to make it back to Gainesville. As soon as he said that we immediately relaxed. Even though we had gotten opinions from other people, we had complete trust in him. Thank God he didn’t tell us to drive off a cliff because we may have done it! Haha! As we were leaving the gas station trying to come up with a lie to tell the owner on why we were leaving, the guy who was going to give us a new tire pulled up. When we came out he said “I knew you must have been cute because he usually doesn’t go out of his way to help people.” Oh yes! Please help us! NOT! He was in jeans and a t-shirt and drove a van that looked like one of the kidnapping vans in movies. No chance in hell I was going to let him do anything with my car! Lol

Thanks to Brad (and Monica for driving!) we got on the road and made it safely to Gainesville. We went to Dragonfly Sushi with Mom and it was better than I remembered! I spent the next several days in Gainesville…seeing some friends, renewing my license, doing my taxes, sleeping and eating food I missed. My dad and Kirsten came back from France on Monday the 12th. I was able to see him while he was in France and we had a wonderful time. I met them in Paris the weekend before I left and they came to Angers during the week. I know it was hard for him not being by my Grandmothers side when she died, but I hope in 10 years he’s glad he made the trip to France.

Grandmother’s funeral was on the Saturday the 17th, and Dad and I went to Dunedin on the 15th. It was really nice to spend time with my family. We laughed, we cried, we reminisced, and cried some more. It was just weird. That word was said a lot. We all knew it would eventually happen, but we didn’t think it would. We spent most of the time in her house which also made it strange. Her house was the center of every family occasion. We always spent time there. Grandmother is really what kept our family so close. Throughout the weekend people said things like “I feel like she should just walk around the corner.” “I feel like she’s just on vacation and this isn’t really happening.” “It was weird not having her greet us at her door.” The funeral was really nice. My dad spoke and it was perfect. I heard him read the eulogy about 7 times before the funeral and I cried every time. It described her perfectly...it made us laugh and cry...she would have loved it!

I was heartbroken to know that I wasn’t able to see her before she died, but in a way I feel lucky that the last memories I have with her are when she was happy and healthy. I know she didn't want me to fly home to see her in her state, and maybe I wasn't suppossed to. Now the last memories I have with Grandmother are from Christmas. The whole family was together. There were little kids running around the whole time, which she loved! It was such a wonderful holiday and everyone enjoyed it. She was the PERFECT Grandmother. She was beautiful on the inside and out. She had the biggest heart; she was warm and kind, gentle and loving, funny and witty. She loved to know what we (her grandchildren) were doing in our lives. She loved hearing stories and I never felt judged about anything I was said. I’ve spent weeks at her house and I could talk to her about so much. When I worked in Atlanta for the summer she was excited to hear all about it. If there was any drama with work or roommates, she always listened to me vent about it. When I got my first tattoo she wanted to see it, and (although I’m not sure if she was telling the truth or not) she said she liked it. I’m not sure when, but she bought strawberries on one of my visits and I told her I loved them. From that point on there were strawberries in the house every time I was there. I remember when I was younger and we would go out shopping. She always wanted me to pick something out that she could pay for. She would get mad because I usually didn't pick anything out. I didn't want her to spend money on me, the time we spent together was what mattered to me the most. Fortunately, I have been able to spend a lot of the past 22 years with her and I will always cherish the memories I have. I know when I’m older and I have kids, and grandkids…I won’t be nearly as “Grand”, but I hope I’m a fraction of the Grandmother she was!

This whole school thing is getting in the way of my life...

2010-03-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday morning I had my French oral exam. I had to speak in French for 10 minutes! Ahhh! I was shaking I was so nervous! But I made it out alive without throwing up or passing out so that's good! I had to spell my first and last name, tell her what the date was yesterday, talk about myself and my family, and talk about the United States (she gave us a list of possible things she would ask us) Let me just remind you though that she's asking me all of this in French so it wasn't that simple. I've definitely learned French since I've been here, but since all of my classes are taught in English and I speak English to all of my friends I haven't learned as much as I thought I would. I wish I knew more French, but I definitely wouldn't trade it for the friendships I've made with Anna (from Sweden) and the Finnish girls :)

Our afternoon class was International Tourism and it was the first day of our presentations. Each group was given a specific destination to research and we had to write a paper and make a powerpoint presentation about the tourism within the destination. Luckily I did not have to present yesterday (I'll be presenting on Tuesday) because the professor (who doesn't even deserve the title!) was SO rude to all of the groups that presented. She interrupted people while they were in the middle of talking to criticize them. Our class has more or less become a family since we've been here so were were all getting really mad and defending each other.
We are not required to dress up for our presentations, so most people don't dress up. One of the guys, however, did dress up in a suit and tie. She called a girl out in front of the entire class (who was in the suit & tie's group) and said she was dressed poorly, had bad posture, and wasn't presenting the work correctly. She was dressed the same as everyone else who presented besides the guy standing next to her. Regardless of what the teacher thought, she shouldn't have said it in front of the entire class. When she interrupts a person to criticize them it throws them off track of what they were talking about, which makes them more nervous. Our presentation is only supposed to be 20 minutes long and if a group went over 20 minutes she would get mad and act as if they were wrong for going over the time. All of the groups went over 20 minutes because SHE continued to interrupt them while they were talking!! The entire class had their jaws dropped for the majority of the class. She only gave one compliment the entire class (which lasted 3 hours) and that was to the girl who she made cry! And the girl who cried was not the girl who was called out in front of the entire class. Most professors will let you present and will give comments AFTER you're done. The Finnish girls said this and Charlotte from Hong-Kong agreed too. And this isn't a French thing either because we've already had 2 presentations and neither of the professors interrupted or criticized while a group was presenting.

Stiina told me that in her classes in Finland they follow the "hamburger method" for comment/critique.
Bun-positive remark
Beef-critique/negative remark
Bun-positive remark

This woman needs to add a little more bun in her life!
I don't know how she calls herself a teacher either! She's given us about 60 sheets of paper that is all in French. The reason she gives it to us is so we can look at 2 small graphs that are so hard to read because the copy machines at school are awful! And half of her powerpoints are also in French which is ALSO useless to us! We are in the English course! But according to her she knows everything!

I'm just going to have to breathe on Tuesday because I would love to tell her how I feel! The whole class was on the verge of telling her that yesterday. One of the girls suggested (in a much nicer way than I would have been able to) that she leave her comments to the end of the presentation because that makes the person presenting lose focus of what they were talking about. Other people asked her if our 20 minute limit for presenting included her interrupting us. I think she realized how heated we were because she had to ask us to be quite and calm down lol and she said she would try to be better on Tuesday. Good god! She's ridiculous! I wish I could have recorded it just to show you how awful the class was!

Ok I hope you enjoyed my ranting! lol I think I could have written it all in caps to show how mad I was! Wish me luck on Tuesday! haha

On a happy note: My Dad and Kirsten are coming to France on Friday! I will be meeting them, and the Killians in Paris on Saturday! :)

Hanging out in the police station is awesome!

2010-03-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Amsterdam and Brussels!! Originally we were planning on spending Friday & Saturday night in Amsterdam and Sunday & Monday in Brussels (yes, we were going to miss school!) But after we bought the tickets we found out that we had to be in class on Monday...so we ended up only being in Brussels for the day, but it was still fun!

Our train left early Friday morning from Angers. We had to take the 6:03am bus to get to the train station and one of the girls missed the bus. Long story short-she had to take a later train to Paris and a different one to Amsterdam, but she ended up making it to Amsterdam 45 minutes after the rest of the group. Kim and I got Starbucks at the train station in Amsterdam! It was the first time I've had it since I've been here and it was delicious!! :)

Kim and I decided to get IAmsterdam cards because we wanted to go to the Van Gogh Museum and do a couple things the other girls didn't want to do. For the price of the card you get free transportation, free entrance to a ton of museums, a free canal cruise, and discounts on a lot of places. We checked into our hostel which was a very cozy suite with three bunkbeds! lol We were lucky enough to walk past some "red lights." The hostel wasn't in the redlight district, but that night we realized there were about 6 buildings on our street with red lights in the windows haha. After checking into the hotel we went to the Heineken Factory. (Kim & I got 25% off our tickets!) I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it ended up being a lot of fun (and beer was included!) On the way there we found the infamous IAmsterdam sign so of course we had to take some pics...

After the Heineken tour we grabbed a bite to eat for dinner and then went on a canal cruise. It was so pretty going at night and seeing all of the buildings lit up! I loved it!
Saturday we all got up early and headed to the Anne Frank House. It was surreal being there...I just couldn't believe I was actually there. I'm so glad I went though, it was really neat. Kim & I separated from the group and went to the Van Gogh museum. The line was really long to buy tickets, but we had our IAmsterdam cards so we got to pass the line! The museum was awesome, it was fun seeing so many of his paintings in one building! We grabbed lunch at this cute place called Bagel & Beans. There are no bagels in France, so it was exciting having a bagel lol...but it was this cute little coffee shop (not the "coffee shops" where you can smoke) that was really tasty! I got a fresh juice smoothie and a bagel with cream cheese, sundried tomatoes, tampenade, pesto, and pine nuts..delicous! After lunch we went to the Rijksmuseum. It's a collection of Dutch artwork, dollhouses, silverware, statues, etc...it was actually really cool! Of course I don't have any pics from it though since camera's aren't allowed in the museum. Kim and I then went on a search for some type of birthday cake for Katie. Her 22nd birthday was on Sunday, but we celebrated Saturday night. We ended up getting what looked like a huge twinkie from this candy shop..it was the best we could find! It actually was pretty good though! We sang happy birthday to her in the hostel room and made a toast with some champagne...but since we are SO classy we drank the champagne out of plastic water bottles. haha it's all we had, and it worked out just fine!

We went to dinner at this pancake house. We heard about these pancakes that we had to try while we were there. They had sweet and savory options and it was about a foot in diameter. Kim and I shared the Italian pancake and the Tropical pancake (they were both savory). The food was great, but the service was horrible..the woman running the place was so rude! We headed back to the hostel after dinner, before heading out to the redlight district for Katie's birthday.

These are the red lights that inform you of the street you're about to walk on...and to let you know that you can't take any pictures past it! lol
Sunday (after a couple hours of sleep) we headed to Brussels! We were all exhausted when we got on the train and fell asleep immediately. When I woke up I looked up at the luggage rack above us and noticed my backpack was missing. I did a double-take and then didn't really know what to do. I told Kim that my backpack was gone and once the other girls realized what had happened they immediately took their luggage off the racks and put it on their seats. lol Luckily I was holding my purse while I was sleeping which had everything that I needed (passport, credit cards, id's, money, camera, flip camera, and ipod) I was just in shock that someone took my bag, but luckily Kim was there! A woman who worked on the train walked by and once Kim told her what happened she directed us to the front of the train to talk to someone else. He told me to file a police report when we got to Brussels. He also said that that would be the only time I got my stuff stolen..."it only happens once." I believe him! I went from shocked-->upset-->mad-->oh well! shit happens! I could have easily let it ruin my day, but I was in Brussels! I wanted to have fun! Kim came with me to the train station to file a report. I know I won't get it back, but at least I did something about it. I joked about it a couple times during the day. The girls were complaining that their backs hurt from carrying their backpacks and I said "you must be so jealous of me!" haha :)

Brussels was fun :) We had waffles, bought way too much chocolate, and enjoyed the beautiful city for several short hours.
Grand' Place

Manneken-Pis: naked little boy peeing (the statue is literally 1 ft tall)
It's supposed to be very symbolic to Brussels.
There were many tourists there taking pictures!

I would never say this in the US, but I think I'm sick of castles...

2010-03-24T02:07:00.001-07:00

This past Friday I went on an overnight field trip to the Loire Valley castles. We left Angers (by charter bus) at 6am Friday morning. We stopped in the town of Saumur to pick up a bunch of French students who were going to be giving us the tour of the castles. We went on the field trip with the professor of our Loire Valley Castle class and the French students were taking a tour-guiding class with the same professor. They were getting a grade for the tours they took us on. We started at Chateau de Blois, in the city of Blois. The castle wraps around a courtyard and is divided into 4 parts and the architecture of each side represents a certain time period: Gothic, Flamboyant, Renaissance, and Classicism. It was cool to be able to see such different architecture on one castle. We also took a tour of all of the rooms inside the castle and the students gave us the history of all the kings that had lived there.

Afterwards, we took a short tour of the city and ate lunch in a park. The weather was beautiful!

After Blois, we headed to the Chateau de Chambord. The building of Chambord was initiated in 1519 by King Francis I. I thought it was beautiful on the outside, but compared to the other castles we saw, the inside was kind of boring.
Me and Katja in front of the castleThe "back" of the castle

After Chambord we headed to a chocolate factory in Bracieux, called Max Vauche :) We got to sample some chocolate and buy some too of course!
Riina, Me, and Aura with our samples of chocolate mousse!
After a long day, we headed to the hostel that we were staying at for dinner and sleep! I was in a 6 bedroom hostel with Anna, Shannon, and Mary-Dare (we had 2 extra beds). We played a trivia game that night with everyone. I was able to help my team with 2 questions. 1) what is FL's nickname--The Sunshine State and 2) What country is closest to the United States (i think on the westcoast)---Russia. I will give credit to Sarah Palin for that answer since she told the world that Russia was in her backyard. ;) After the game we hung out for awhile and the Finnish girls taught me some Finnish. They said I made it sound too pretty though, so I'm working on making it sound harsh lol.
Saturday morning we headed to Chateau de Cheverny
It was really pretty! I think I liked the inside of this one the best because people still live there, so you can tell that the castle still has life! Cheverny is also known for hunting, so there were about 100 French hounds in a big kennel. It was raining that day so the dogs smelled FABULOUS!
After Cheverny we headed to the Chateau de Amboise--yes! another castle!! We didn't actually go inside this one though, we just stopped to take pictures.
We took a lunch break and then headed to the Chateau du Clos Luce which was the home of Leonardo Da Vinci during the last few years of his life. It was the home of many French Kings and King Francois I invited Leonardo Da Vinci to live there. We saw his bedroom and study room. There was also a museum dedicated to him that had models of his inventions. It was really neat!
After visiting the home of Leonardo Da Vinci we headed to the gardens of Villandry. I thought they were really pretty, but I can't imagine what they would look like in the spring! There are people that live in this castle too...
Our last stop was the Chateau de Usse, which inspired the story of Sleeping Beauty. We just stopped to take pictures...
We got back to Angers around 8:30pm...It was a fun weekend full of castles! But...I think I would be okay if I didn't see castles for awhile. We're going to see more April 27th though so I think I'll wait until then!

I'm just an American celebrating an Irish holiday in France...

2010-03-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a new class called Marketing Wine Related Products. The professor is from England and is very nice. She laughs a lot though. Yes, I know laughing is wonderful, but she laughs a lot...a lot!! It's distracting! Henna & Katja counted how many times she laughed in a half hour...45 times!! She laughed 45 times in 30 minutes!! I think she may have been laughing because she was nervous. The class was 3 hours long so we took a break halfway through...when she came back from the break she said she was nervous to teach us, but once meeting us she wasn't nervous anymore, so I thought the laughing might calm down, BUT it DIDN'T!! She continued to laugh! I know that's not an awful trait to have, I'm actually laughing right now thinking about it...but it is a little distracting!!

During our second class we went on a field trip to the Musée de l'Ardoise (slate museum) with Monsieur Danion (everyone's favorite teacher). We were given a demonstration on how they cut/slice/chop slate. It was interesting, but we were at the museum for 2 and a half hours...slate is not that interesting.

Our guide, teaching us how to cut slate

Everyone wrote "Welcome!" (on the slate chalkboard) in their language! I love it!

Last night we went out to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Angers. It was a lot of fun!! I've never seen so many people out at night since I've been here. I found out that the French do celebrate St. Patty's Day, BUT they don't wear green!! There were a couple people wearing green, but for the most part they were in their normal attire...black, brown, or gray lol We went to James Joyce, an Irish Pub that we've been to a couple times. It was PACKED! We wanted Irish Car Bombs, but they didn't have any so we had Guiness. After hanging out there for awhile and listening to the French band play Irish music we walked to K'lypso (not an Irish Pub, but an Irish bartender) And they had Irish Car Bombs! It was my first time trying it..not too bad! I also tried the Irish Flag shot..it was just too pretty to pass up! After K'lypso we walked to another Irish Pub called Irishmore. There was also a band playing at this pub and it was also packed full of people! Many people...including our professor who is in charge of our exchange program. It was hard to find him at first because he's about 4 feet tall (like a leprechaun!..ok, that was mean lol) but it was funny running into him. He was drinking "apple juice" aka whiskey and he asked us if we could just pretend that we were at home sleeping and he was at home preparing for our class (that we had this afternoon) We took a picture with him that I would love to share with you, but it was taken on someone else's camera. I'll post it later.

James Joyce

Elizabeth, Aura, Kim, Stiina, and Me with our Guiness at James Joyce :)"Irish Flag" shots...they were so cute! I HAD to get one!

Tomorrow we're leaving at 6am to go on a field trip to the Loire Valley Castles. We're visiting many castles, and going to a chocolate factory :) We'll get back to Angers Saturday night.

Have You Ever Thanked The Sun Just For Shining?

2010-03-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day that I haven't worn a scarf since I've been in France. It was ah-may-zing!! It was about 50 degrees, and the sun was shining!! We had French class from 9:30-10:50am and then we had a long break before our next classs. Me, Henna, Anna, & Katja went to Jerico's, which is a sandwich shop that was recommended to us by a guy who used to live in Angers. They have the BEST sandwiches EVER!! We bought our sandwiches and then ate lunch and enjoyed the sun on some steps by the river.

Walking to Jerico's

Henna, Me, and Katja eating lunch

Our 2nd class on the Loire Valley Castles was from 2:00-5:00pm. When we took a break halfway through, we convinced our professor to teach the rest of the class outside since the weather was beautiful! I think this is the first class that everyone stayed awake for!

fyi: the title of this post is from a Sister Hazel song called Change Your Mind :)

Cocktails & Chocolate is a great combination!

2010-03-08T09:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday we got up early to make it to a 10am Cointreau tour at the factory. Cointreau (for those who don't know) is an orange flavored liqueur that started and is produced in Angers, France...where I live :) The tour consisted of a short video about the history of how it started, a walk through the distillery, a look into the bottling area, and a tasting! yumm! The tour was a little long because it was done in both French and English, but I was very thankful that it was in English! When the tour ended, our tourguide left, and the Cointreau bartender took over. He made a Cointreaupolitan: Cointreau, lemon juice, & cranberry juice and a Cointreau Bubbles: Cointreau, lime juice, & sparkling water. They were both very tasty!

The distillery: where Cointreau is produced

Our table for 12 at the tasting

The Cointreaupolitan with a sample of cheese, dried apricot, cherry tomato, and macaroon

After the Cointreau tour we headed into town for the Chocolate Show! They had tables set up representing a lot of chocolate and pastry shops around Angers. Many tables were giving samples, and some were selling delicious pieces of heaven...I took part in sampling and buying :) As you can imagine, it was amazing!
I wasn't able to stay long (which is really for the best!) because I had to be at the English Library at 3pm to help a woman with her English. This older woman called me earlier in the week and asked if I could help her with her English..ok she didn't really ask me, she told me. Her English wasn't great and (I hate to break it to all of you) my French isn't great either, but we were able to communicate well enough for her to tell me to be at the library at 3pm. I knew that it wasn't going to go well. And it didn't. But oh well, she was a sweet woman and I think she might try to meet with me again with a friend who speaks English.

Day Trip to Nantes

2010-03-03T03:27:00.000-08:00

Nantes is about a 40 minute train ride from Angers so we decided it would be a good day trip on Saturday. There were 11 of us that went to Nantes together. We went to the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany). The weather was beautiful when we first arrived so it was really nice walking around the Chateau.

We also went to the St. Pierre Cathedral.

Nantes is well known for French butter cookies (similar to shortbread cookies) called Petit Beurre biscuits. I think they're pretty popular in France, but they originated in Nantes, so of course we had to try them! They were delicious! We walked around town for a little while and all went our separate ways for lunch...and then it started raining! We did a little shopping indoors and then went to the Musee d'histoire de Nantes (History Museum) which is located in one of the buildings within the Chateau. It was really interesting! Much better than I was expecting...They had this short video in the beginning of the museum that was really cool. It's hard to explain, but it kind of looked like someone was painting a picture as the video was playing. Here are some pics..

After we got home from Nantes I went to a place called Soft Bar with the Finnish girls. If you howl like a wolf, your beer is only 2 euros (I think it's normally 3). I wasn't drinking beer so I didn't howl. If I get a beer the next time we go, I'll make sure to let you know how the howling goes haha
Sunday was the USA v. Canada gold ice hockey game so a bunch of us watched that. USA lost...the Finnish girls were very happy! lol

***If anyone has any ideas of something I could make for 20+ people, let me know! We have a stovetop, but no oven...

"I think chocolate is healthier for you than vodka"

2010-02-26T15:38:00.000-08:00

(You must read further for the explanation to the title of this blog)

This week I went to the English Library in Angers and I have contacted a couple people who want help with their English. I'm going to help them with English and in return they're going to help me with my French. Wish me luck...teaching & learning! lol

Thursday we had a crepe dinner party for most of the group + some more. Henna went home this past weekend to Finland and she brought back some of her favorite Finnish chocolate for us to try. It was delicioussss. Afterwards we went out to a new bar. It was fun as always!

Henna and I with Karl Fazer chocolate from Finland

Me and Katja

Me and Stiina

Tonight was the USA v. Finland Ice Hockey match! We attempted to find a bar that we could watch it at, but there is a rugby tournament going on that dominated all public tv's. We ended up watching it live on a computer. All the commentary for the game was in Finnish..I thought it was cool. There were 10 of us in Cahal's room. 10! I have to post pictures of my room soon so you'll understand how crazy it would be to have 10 people in a room...watching a computer. There were 4 of us from Orlando, 2 from Texas, 1 from Indonesia and 3 of the Finnish girls watching the game. The girls got very frustrated with the game (it was 6-0 USA for awhile)and would yell in Finnish. They reminded me of myself during Gator games..except they don't cry when they lose. haha.. When the game ended Stiina decided it would be a good idea to eat nutella to make her feel better so she smoothered a banana in nutella and after one bite she said she felt better already. As you can imagine, we get along very well! :) While we were drowning ourselves in Nutella, Stiina said "I think chocolate is much healthier for you than vodka" I guess it might be one of those "had to be there" moments, but we thought it was hilarious! It was completely random (we weren't even drinking, for those of you who are speculating!)

We're taking a day trip to Nantes tomorrow.
It's about a 45 minute train ride from Angers.
I can't wait!

2010-02-21T07:28:00.000-08:00

Thursday
Some of the Finnish girls and Elizabeth and Cahal (from Texas) made us spaghetti and meatballs for dinner! After dinner we all went to salsa night at the bowling alley. I didn't bowl, but I had fun watching everyone. After the bowling alley some of us went to another pub for a little while and then called it a night. It was a very fun night! I didn't set an alarm on Friday because I wanted to sleep in...I slept until 5pm!! I loved it!

Aura, Me, Stiina, and Riina at the bowling alley

Saturday
We all headed to the market in the morning. I'm still amazed by it! I bought a lot of fruit, some veggies, and some cheese.

The selection of seafood is amazing! and SO fresh..some animals were still moving lol

Just one of the cheese vendors...

Last night I went over to the other dorms and watched the olympics with the Finnish girls (Aura, Stiina, and Riina) and Elizabeth. It was a lot of fun watching the olympics with them! Afterwards we all went to a new Irish Pub. It was definitely an older croud..kinda quiet, but still fun. They had ESPN America on tv and the Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt basketball game was on. It was a lot of fun watching that! I felt like I was at home :) After the pub we met up with a couple of French guys that Aura and Stiina had met before. We went back to their apartment and hung out and watched the Olympics some more!
Today
My little nephew Spencer was at my Dad and Kirsten's house this weekend and I skype'd with him this morning :) I loved talking to him! He's so cute! He has changed so much since I saw him last!

It was a nice and relaxing weekend. I think we all enjoyed staying in Angers since we have been gone the last two weeks. Not sure where we'll go next weekend...

2010-02-16T17:12:00.000-08:00

Today was the first class for financial management...it lasted 3 hours. Definitely my favorite thing I've done since I've been in France! It was awesome learning about accounting for 3 hours...not! The professor was nice though and she was actually very nervous to teach our class. It was the first time she had taught an english class and she mentioned how nervous she was several times.

We had sushi for dinner tonight!! Danny, Charlotte, Endang, Daniel, and Yize made sushi for all 20 (or so) of us! It was delicious!! I learned how to make a sushi roll :)

Cupid's Arrow Landed In The Gelato...

2010-02-15T14:14:00.001-08:00

Friday morning we took a train and plane (with other forms of public transportation in between) to Milan! I got sick right before we left which was annoying, but it was still a very fun weekend! When we arrived in Milan we tried to find the hotel that Shannon, and Kim and I were staying at. It should have taken us 30 to 40 minutes to walk there, but we got lost...I think we walked for about 3 hours until we found it! The other girls were Couch Surfing so they went to meet up with the guy who was letting them stay at his apartment.
(wwww.couchsurfing.com ---You create an account and ask people who live in the city you're planning to visit if they have a couch you can sleep on. It's free, but most people give the host wine or take them out to dinner. It can be risky since you're going to sleep at a strangers house, but that's part of the adventure! lol I haven't couch surfed yet, but I'm sure I will soon) When we got to the hotel the three of us crashed for a half hour or so..we were exhausted! We knew the other girls were eating dinner with Marco (the couch surfing host) so we went to get some pasta at an Italian restaurant by the hotel. It was delicious!! When we got back to the hotel we called Marco to see what their plans were for the night and to get in touch with the girls. It was a little difficult communicating on this trip because we all have French phones and we couldn't use them in Italy. We realized (after we had eaten dinner) that Marco was planning on cooking dinner for all 7 of us!! Luckily dinner wasn't ready until 9:30pm so we were able to digest our dinner and enjoy more pasta :) We hung out at Marco's apartment for awhile with his roommate and a couple of his friends. It was interesting hearing what the stereotypical American was to them. One of them said a cowboy, which was just a little embarrassing.

Saturday we walked around the park and went to a castle.
The castle was really nice and I'm sure we would have spent more time there, but there were a ton of guys trying to sell us bracelets (it was just a piece of thread that they braided) and asking us if we wanted a husband. I came really close, but don't worry I'm not married! Due to the fact that they were all coming up to us trying to sell us something we were speed walking through the castle. We went to the cathedral called Il Duomo.
It was beautiful! We walked inside and climbed to the very top to see the skyline of Milan. In the mall area around the cathedral there were piano steps which we found to be very entertaining. As you walked down the stairs they made the sound of keys on a piano. We did a little more shopping and then met Marco for dinner at a place called Noon. It kind of reminded me of restaurants in Atlanta.They had a buffet set up on the bar of the restaurant and if you bought drink, the buffet was free. So I had to get a drink! After dinner Marco took us to a couple bars. It was a lot of fun! They played American music in both bars which surprised us.

Sunday We went to the Steve McCurry photography exhibit. It was really powerful! The pictures were amazing! I could have spent a couple more hours there. Afterwards we did some more shopping and then we went to two Leonardo Da Vinci museums and saw the original drawings of the Codex Atlanticus. We went to a restaurant near the cathedral and had pizza and pasta for dinner and gelato for dessert :)

Went on our first trip this weekend...to Bordeaux

2010-02-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesday Federico cooked everyone an Italian dinner..it was delicious! After dinner about 8 of us went to the Ducks d'Angers hockey game. It was so much fun!! Angers won 4-2! The city bus doesn't come as frequently late at night so we had about 45 minutes to wait after the hockey game. It was freezing outside so we found this really cute cafe to have hot chocolate in while we waited for the bus.
Thursday We had a field trip with one of our professors, Monsieur Danion. We went to the tapestry museum, Musee Jean Lurcat De La Tapisserie Contemporaine. The tapestries are displayed in what was once St. John's Hospital. They were really nice and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. We went to the Trinity Church of Angers afterwards and had a guided tour by this cute little French woman. She only spoke French so Danion translated everything for us. We ended up staying in the church for an hour and a half...which was about an hour longer than any of us wanted to be in the church! It ended up being kind of funny because we felt like it was a joke. We were all ready to leave (and freezing!), but our tour guide continued to find new bricks that she needed to tell us about. When the tour was over I'm pretty sure the entire class sprinted to get to the bus stop haha
Friday Our train left around 9am to head to Bordeaux! We arrived at about 1:30 and checked into our hotel: Hotel California (we did not choose this one on purpose, I promise!) We visited St. Andrew's Cathedral. Although I had had enough church viewing on Thursday, the architecture and stain glass in St. Andrew's was gorgeous! We climbed to the very top of Pey-Berland Tower which is St. Andrew's bell tower. It was SO high!! There was a huge market on the main street in town so we walked around there for awhile and then had a delicious dinner at Cafe de Arts. Anna, Katie, and Megan and I went out Friday night to a few different bars which ended up being a lot of fun
Saturday We went on a wine tour and visited two wineries: Chateau Prieure-Lichine and Chateau du Taillan.
The bus ride to the Chateau's was beautiful! We had a tour guide at each chateau that gave us the history of the winery, took us on a tour of the property, and then provided a tasting at the end. It was interesting to learn about the process of making wine. I drink enough wine over here so I might as well learn something about it! :) After we got back from the wine tour Anna and I went to this pasta place called Mezzo and I met my Fairy Godmother. She works at the restaurant and is the sweetest woman I've met since I've been in France.
Sunday It was such a nice day! It was pretty cold, but the sun was shining, so it was perfect! We walked along the river in Bordeaux. There were so many people outside running, roller-blading, riding bikes, and skate boarding. I couldn't believe the number of people outside exercising! Maybe that's why the French are so thin...We went to the gardens (which will be much prettier in the spring) and the ruins.
It was a fun weekend, but we were all ready to get back to Angers!
Today There was a reception for all of the hospitality exchange students who are in both english and french classes. One of the directors of the program mentioned to the group that he was very excited about the Saints winning the Superbowl and he also mentioned that he was an LSU fan...so of course I went up to introduce myself and I told him that I heard he was an LSU fan and I just happened to be born and raised in Gainesville...he responded with "I think my mother is calling me" and slowly started walking away haha :) He was very nice and we chatted for a little while..mostly about college football.

I kinda like my new home :)

2010-01-30T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a few days since my last post...
Thursday was Shannon's 21st birthday so there was lots of celebrating! The night before we put streamers and balloons on her door. That night Megan made bruschetta and chicken fettucini alfredo..it was delicious! While we were eating Katie, Kim, and Liza were decorating the kitchen on Katie's floor with streamers and balloons. We celebrated in the kitchen with a bunch of the exchange students before heading out to James Joyce. It was so much fun! There are about 25 students in the program that I'm in so we take all of the same classes...I think all but one went out for her birthday!
On Friday Shannon, and Kim and I went into town and walked around and did some shopping. I bought some chocolate from this amazing chocolate store...I keep telling myself I'm not going to buy any, but I can't help myself! :)
This morning when I woke up I opened up my window and saw snowflakes!! It was so exciting!! We all went to the market around 10am. It was huge! They sell everything from flowers, fruit and veggies, clothes, antiques, fish..the list could go on for awhile. I bought some delicious goat cheese, clementines, bananas, a 3 euro hair dryer (it works!) and a cute little thing of flowers to bring life to my cubicle!

We headed back to the dorms after the market to put our food away and then headed to the Chateau d'Angers. It was amazing! We were walking around the castle and it started snowing again! I don't think there's proof (fortunately) but I'm pretty sure I jumped with excitement haha When we walked around to the front of the castle it was bright and sunny which was very strange! It has been cold and foggy for awhile so the sun was definitely nice!

After the Chateau d'Angers we headed home to get ready for dinner. We went to a place in the center of town called Hippopotamus. It was a lot of fun! There were 14 of us total. This is Henna and Katja, two of the girls from Finland. They're really sweet! I had a really nice day and I'm glad we went to the market and to the Chateau d'Angers. It made me like and appreciate Angers a lot more!

Life in Angers...

2010-01-26T12:39:00.000-08:00

Well I've been in Angers for almost a week...It's a little ridiculous the amount of paper work and errands we have to do to get settled in. I'll be happy when it's all done! Saturday night we went to a bar called K'lypso with pretty much the same group of people that went to the Irish Pub on Thursday. K'lypso was fun! They have a row of flavored syrups at the bar that they put in beer. It sounded so weird to me, so I had to try it! I got cherry flavoring in my beer (Kronenbourg) because I had heard it tasted good. It was actually really good! I was shocked! After the bar closed we all walked to a local park. The bartender from K'lypso and a couple other guys were playing guitar and singing. They played some American songs that everyone knew, so everyone was singing along. It was a lot of fun!

Monday was the first day of class. There are 5 girls from Finland, 2 girls from Sweden, 3 people from Indonesia, 3 people from Hong Kong, 1 from Hungary and a girl from Thailand. It was a lot of fun meeting everyone! I look forward to getting to know them better. My first class was Commercial Negotiation and my professor is German, it seems like it will be a very interesting class. I also had International Marketing. Although I'm usually interested in marketing, I'm not so sure that I'll love this class..we'll see! Today I had my French language class. The professor walked in and spoke French to us for the first 10 minutes. I'm so glad someone told me she was going to do that because I may have either wet my pants or cried! haha! I'm sure it will be a difficult class for me, but it will definitely help me while I'm here. After the French Language class I had Sports & Tourism. The professor seems pretty nice and I think I'll enjoy the class...I just wish she would add a lecture on the Gators :) Nothing else is new...just trying to get used to life in my cubicle haha :)

The 1st picture: some of the group before we headed to K'lypso.
The 2nd picture: on the bus...our main form of transportation in Angers
The 3rd picture: School...I take all of my classes in the far left building.

Hello World!

2010-01-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a few days since I've posted something...we left Paris Wednesday and I haven't had internet access in my dorm room until this evening! So Wednesday morning we left our cute little apartment in Paris and headed to the train station. Our train ride to Angers was about an hour and half..it wasn't too bad, but I was getting anxious about getting settled in my dorm. The reality of being in France for over 4 months hit me on the train. One of the study abroad professors for Universite d'Angers picked us up at the train station. He seems very nice! I think he will be teaching one or two of my classes. We got settled in our dorms and let me tell you! They are small! haha It reminds me of a cabin on a cruise! I can literally brush my teeth, go to the bathroom, and shower all at once! Don't worry I don't think I'll ever be doing that :) But I have a bed and my own bathroom so I can't complain! We met up with some other girls from UCF, a girl from Sweden, and a couple girls from Missouri to go on a tour of the campus. We are about a 20 minute bus ride from campus. We ended up being late so we missed the tour...oh well, it wasn't mandatory. We all went to a cafe and grabbed some food for dinner then headed back on the bus to go home. When we got back to the dorms some of us went to Shannon's room and watched Euro Trip because most of us had never seen it. I'm shocked that we were able to fit 8 people in a room...6 were squished together on the bed, and 2 on the floor!
Yesterday we met with the professor in charge of the hospitality study abroad program and he gave us some information and took us on a very short tour. We also opened accounts at a bank that is affiliated with Bank of America, some of the girls got phones for Europe, and we went grocery shopping. After we got back to the dorms we met up with some of the other exchange students. We went to an Irish Pub that some of the other students have been to before. We took the bus to the pub; there were probably 25 to 30 of us going! It was a lot of fun meeting everyone, they all seem very nice! It seems that the majority of exchange students are from the United States. I met people from Virginia, Louisiana, New York, and North Carolina. I also met a girl from Scotland, two girls from Sweden, and a girl from Argentina. The Irish Pub was a lot of fun! It was really crowded, there was a live band playing, and people were dancing on the bar...it reminded me of a scene from a movie! haha
Today we had a few things to do with school and the bank. We got our student id's and activated them and then we went back to the bank so they could make copies of our id's. We didn't have great timing running our errands because both places were closed for lunch. When we activated our id's at school we were able to login to the computers in the library. They have a different keyboard, so it was very interesting and awkward typing on it! We stopped at CarreFour on our way back home. It's very similar to a Sam's Club or Walmart. It is huge! When I got home tonight my internet was working!!! It was so exciting :) I'm going to try to get some sleep tonight. Tomorrow I think we're going in to town to do some shopping and actually walk around Angers and take pictures. We realized that we've been so busy running errands that we haven't been able to enjoy it! I know this post wasn't very exciting, but I promise to post pictures as soon as I take some in Angers :)
Nicole

p.s. Every website is in French and when I translate it to English my last name becomes Fleming...haha :)

Until next time Paris...

2010-01-19T14:33:00.000-08:00

Today we went to Montmartre, Which is a really high hill in Paris with an amazing view of the city. We walked right past the Moulin Rouge area to get to the top of the hill, I Considered applying for a job! just kidding! Montemartre was a really cute place with a lot of little shops. It was really cold, but the sun came out for a little bit Which was wonderful! We went inside the Sacre Coeur church Which is on top of the hill. It was really pretty! There was a guy playing a harp outside and there were also people dressed up in costumes with their faces painted begging for money (i do not know what they're called). After Montmartre we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. The weather was nice so we Decided to climb to the top. You should not be too impressed though Because we took the elevator! haha! The line to get tickets for the elevator was about a mile long and the line to climb the stairs to the top had about 2 people in it! It was crazy seeing the inside of the Eiffel Tower.
There are a couple gift shops and a little place where you can buy food inside too. And in case anyone is wondering, the bathrooms in the Eiffel Tower are disgusting! After going to the top of the Eiffel Tower we went back to the Champs-Elysees. Cahal's friend Lucy told him about this really cool wine store so we Decided to check it out. We also grabbed some lunch at a cafe nearby. On the way home we stopped at Monoprix to get some food for dinner. We all ended up getting some type of fruit Because we were all craving it. Fruits and vegetables is lacking in our diet! On a side note: France has pink and orange toilet paper. The orange is scented Peach ... kinda gross! We came home pretty early Because we all needed to pack and get ready to head to Angers in the morning. The train ride is about an hour and a half from Paris to Angers. One of the professors at Angers is meeting us at the train station so he can show us the way to our dorms. I absolutely love Paris! I think tomorrow it will finally hit me that I'll be living here for 5 more months. It's crazy to think about ...

I'd like to thank Michele Ferrero, the creator of Nutella!

2010-01-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

We (finally) stopped at a crepe station on our way to the Eiffel Tower and boat tour. I got a nutella and banana crepe...it was delicious!! It was really foggy outside and we couldn't even see the top of the Eiffel Tower so we decided not to climb to the top today. Hopefully the weather will be nice tomorrow so we can climb to the top! We took a boat tour which was really neat! We saw the Notre Dame from the water, along with museums and amazing buildings. It was freezing though!

We took a long walk to go to the Musee d'Orsay (an art museum), which we found out was not open on Mondays :( Oh well! One of the girls from UCF that is studying abroad, Shannon, lived in Paris for 3 years when she was little. We took the metro to her old neighborhood and saw her old apartment and the playground she used to play on with her brother. We went to this really cute cafe near her old neighborhood. I got a croissant and hot chocolate!! It was probably the BEST hot chocolate I've ever had! We went shopping afterwards...I got a few things from H&M (they have H&M's in the USA too) after a couple hours of shopping and walking we headed back to our apartment. We got dinner at a cafe right down the street from our apartment. I decided to be adventurous and get escargot. It was not the smartest decision I've ever made haha I'm glad I tried it, but I have no desire to order it again. It was a fun day! I think we're planning on making dinner in our apartment tomorrow night...it's our last night in Paris. We're heading to Angers on Wednesday morning...

I'm in love with Paris!

2010-01-17T12:06:00.000-08:00

Bonjour! Yesterday the weather was gross! It was rainy, windy, and cold so we decided it was a good day to go to The Lourve! French students get in free, so I showed my passport and student visa and was able to get in free!! The Lourve is HUGE and amazing!! We spent 2-3 hours just in one section of the museum which included the Mona Lisa painting. We're definitely going back! We went to this cute little cafe for lunch and got panini's. After lunch we stopped at La Cure Gourmande, which was a really cute candy shop. We each bought some bon bons and then went shopping at Galeries LaFayette, which is 6 floors! The store was having a big sale, so there were way too many people. After a few hours of shopping we headed back to our apartment to cook dinner. We had a lovely family meal of chicken fettucini made by Cahal and Shannon. :)

Today we went to mass at The Notre Dame, it's gorgeous! We were able to walk around the church and take pictures of the beautiful architecture and stained glass. After mass we met up with Elizabeth who was an exchange student at UCF last year and her cousin Adelle; as well as Lucy who is a friend of Cahal's. We got un sandwich poulet(chicken) at a Boulanger Patissier and walked the streets of Paris. The weather was beautiful!! It was such a surreal experience! I still can't believe I'm going to be in France for five months! We walked to Champs-Elysees which is an avenue in Paris full of restaurants and shops. Elizabeth took us to Laduree because she said they had the best macaroons in Paris. It was such a cute place! We each got a macaroon to try and they were delicious! After Laduree we said au revoir to Elizabeth and headed to the Arc de Triomphe. It was so amazing! We walked to the very top of the Arc de Triomphe and saw an amazing view of the Paris skyline. We did a little shopping and window shopping at Champs-Elysees, said au revoir to Lucy and headed back to our apartment. There was a place called Buffalo Bills near our apartment which served American food, so we went there because some of the group wanted something more filling for dinner. I would have rather not spent 10 euros for a hamburger, but oh well! We ran out of toilet paper Saturday night, and nothing is open on Sunday so tomorrow we will definitely be heading to Monoprix (the local grocery store) to buy some toilet paper!! Tomorrow we're going to climb the Eiffel Tower during the day, and take a boat tour around Paris. I still haven't had a nutella crepe or a croissant so hopefully i'll check one of those off tomorrow!

First discovery of France: the three food groups are wine, cheese, and bread!

2010-01-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

I finally made it to France! I flew from Orlando to Philadelphia with two girls from UCF, Katie and Megan. We met up with Shannon in Philly and the four of us flew to Paris together. It was about a 7 and half hour flight, but felt more like 24 hours ... it was miserable to say the least! When we got to Paris we met up with a guy named Cahal from Houston, TX who is doing the same Study Abroad program that we are. The five of us took a van from the airport to the apartment that we rented. When we got in the van, the song Replay-by Iyaz was playing in English so I didn 't feel like I was in France quite yet. We got to our cozy apartment ... Two small bedrooms, one bathroom for five of us! I really only felt bad for Cahal because he has to share a bathroom with four girls! After we all finished skyping/emailing our friends and family we took a walk around Paris to see what was near our apartment. The buildings are so pretty! We constantly look at each other and say "Oh my gosh we're in Paris!" It's such a crazy feeling. I had 'un sandwich fromage' (cheese and a Bagette) for lunch. We all realized we were in Paris because it took us awhile to communicate with the server ... and by "us" I mean Shannon and Cahal. My French is almost as good as my Chinese! After lunch we went to the grocery store to get food for breakfast. We went back to our apartment and enjoyed a complimentary bottle of wine that was left for us by the owner. We then took the metro and went to see the Eiffel Tower! It was absolutely beautiful! It did not look real! After admiring the Eiffel Tower and taking a million pictures we walked around and decided to eat at Cafe Brasserie. We shared a cheese plate and a charcuterie plate, and some more bread and wine! It has been a long, but fun day! Lots of cheese, bread, and wine! haha I'm not sure when it will hit me that I'll be here for 5 months...we're heading to The Louvre tomorrow!! I miss everyone!
Bonne nuite,
Nicole