Of course you Caen

Hello from Normandie!

We have arrived safely in Caen, Normandie, to blustery Oregon-like weather and much better food than that of "Le Triomphe" (NOT a triumph in our opinion).

Its nice to be out of the city for a while. The last couple days of our first Paris tour were filled to the brim! It seems like the entire world is traveling abroad as I was blessed enough to see Julia, Sarah, Elizabeth, AND Marta in the span of, oh, I don't know, three days. It was fantastic but tiring. (ps the weather in Paris has turned its face toward sun!!! I even got a random sunburn!)
Sarah, Julia, and I walked around Pere Lachaise cemetery. It is so beautiful and GIGANTIC, housing the graves of Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust, Guillaume Appolinaire, Moliere, Jean de la Fontaine, Balzac, Maria Callas, Jim Morrison, Chopin, Heloise et Abelard, the list goes on and on. However, some of the most beautiful, breathtaking tombs were dedicated to random families. It is interesting because one doesn't just buy a grave. Its more like you RENT a grave, and have to pay continually.
Then we had dinner at Chez Papa and basically crashed. The next day I attended an Evangelical church service with my class and met up with mes amies as we walked all around the latin quarter, visited the Pantheon
(home to the crypts of Voltaire, Jean-Jaques Russeau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola, Madame Curie, etc). Also, it was really cold in there. So of course we had to stop for gelato on our way to the blossoming Luxembourg Gardens. Then it was a sprint to about three different closed metro stations and the hotel so sarah and julia could catch their train. Which I don't think they did...

Then the next day Marta came into town! We set up to meet at Notre Dame, which was not very smart as there are two sides and about a gazillion people. After 30 minutes of searching we finally found each other! It was beautiful. We walked all around, to the Luxembourg Gardens (again, BEAUtiful), Shakespeare and Co, Les Jardins des plants, the Flower Market, and the Paris Mosque tea room for some delicious sticky sweet mint tea. This was followed by a brief visit inside the mosque and then me going back to my hotel room to do laundry in the bathtub. Later that night we all met up with Elizabeth and walked all along the Eiffel Tower and had wine and chocolate.

The day after that was wonderful as well (aside from the seam on my pants ripping at Versailles). We got up early and took the metro and RER to Versailles. After being in the Loire in the off-season, the palace itself was a bit of a let down. We felt slightly like a herd of cattle, surrounded by twelve tour groups of people breezing through each room running after their tour guide's uplifted umbrella.
However, the grounds outside were not disappointing in the least. Seriously, if you ever visit Versailles, RENT A BIKE.
Best. Decision. Of the day. We rode through the countryside by fields of sheep and Marie Antoinette's hamlet where she played "little poor person", on bumpy old country paths through woods and wide field expanses, and next to the gigantic reflective pool, under rows of trees in a group singing sound of music.
I am so joyful that I will be able to remember this experience for the rest of my life. It was one of those moments.

...But its no espresso in front of a chateau

Or maybe it is.

This past weekend, three other girls and I decided profit from our time in France (and our free Friday) by visiting something uniquely European.
Early Friday morning (very very very early) we met up in the lobby of our hotel and hustled on over to the metro. We sprinted through the hallways and arrived to our connecting metro line just in time to see the doors close, and with it our hopes of making it to our train on time. Ok, so maybe that was a little dramatic, but unfortunately since it was so early, the next metro didn't come for another 15 minutes. At this point we were slightly resigned to the fact that we were going to miss our train. However, through team work (there's the composter! quick the tickets! we are on voie 17! where IS voie 17? there's voie 17! On y va!) we made it. From that point on, our two day adventure was the most relaxing part of my time so far in France.

We watched the sun rise over the countryside trough our train windows and arrived in the sweetest town where - get this - people in cars STOP for YOU to cross the street. Are we even still in France? I wondered. Our hotel was a leisurely 5 minute walk from the station and we were greeted by the most helpful hotel guy, Jerome. He talked with us for roughly 20 minutes while our rooms were getting ready and gave us fantastic dining suggestions and good logistical information. We walked across the garden to our huge room and could not help but literally jump up and down with joy.

After walking around downtown Amboise (which includes a chateau, by the way), Jerome called us a taxi and we visited Le Chateau de Chenonceau. We spent FOUR HOURS just looking around the chateau and its grounds, going through a little farm and a hedge maze, and stopping for some espresso at a tiny immaculate white table situated in front of the chateau. We decided this was the experience to which every experience after would have to be measured. Like, Thats pretty cool, but its not exactly espresso in front of a chateau...
And after all this it was still only 4 o'clock! The next day we spent in a similar fashion, at the Chambord Chateau.


Needless to say, we had a wonderful time. We didn't stop laughing nearly the whole trip, and it was a rejuvenating outside-the-city experience.

pictures now, stories to come

these pictures are made possible by:
Kelsey "the amazing" Toy and her camera lending
Rachel "the magnificent" Kelly, for her picture sharing.

little of good little of bad

So hello

Good news:
Tomorrow at 6:30 I leave on a train headed for the Loire Valley!
Today was lovely. We visited the the Paris Mosque and the Paris Tea Room (which may be my new favorite place in all of paris)
I had THE best ice cream I have ever tasted in my life. I had raspberry and coconut and was in a heavenly ice-cream induced coma walking back to the metro.
Best saint patricks day ever, by the way. I drank fire through a straw. I am not kidding

The bad news:
That is early tomorrow and I still have homework/journal to do
Some idiot on the street stole my free awesome giant saint patricks day hat right off my head and ran off with it

The worst news:
I am pretty sure I lost my camera. It was in my room one day. Not in there the next. Suck big time.

Anyway, I probably should have ended with the good news. But still. I am loving it here.And am very excited to see all the beautiful castles this weekend! And THEN I see Sarah and Juila!!
Gotta get to bed. after I do homework. and pack. and shower. oops.

Now for something a little more coherent

Hello all

It looks as if I am starting to get over my head-cold/sick/thing. This is very good news! However, another sickness is striking other members of the group, which is no good at all!

Friday: Mia, Rachel, Kaori, and I bought our train tickets for our trip to the Loire Valley! I am so excited to go and visit amazing castles like this one. That night some of us went to a tiny wine bar by the Eiffel tower for dinner. It was adorable, and we had a very satisfactory meal of omlettes and wine (and a shared dessert...yum!) Then we got to see the Eiffel tower sparkle. It is magical. No, really.


Saturday: a couple of girls and I visited the most gigantic flea market I have ever been to! There are the typical sections, with multitudes of scarves and cheap shoes. Then there are the really sketchy sections (Julie was especially enchanted with a particular alleyway. I know this because after going through it she whispered, disgusted, "I think thats where people pick op prostitutes!") After going through the sketchy-ness, we found ourselves in the beautiful, but expensive, antiques section. Seriously mom, it was like garage sale finds on steroids. You would have gone crazy. Of course, as we walked further the items became more and more out of our price range. We saw books for over 400 Euros and a small pendant for 250. Still, it was nice. AND it was here that I ran into Elizabeth Farrell!!! This miraculous meeting brought to you by my hair (I knew it would come in handy sometime).

After talking with her and exclaiming over and over how crazy and cool this meeting was, I had to go because I was NOT feeling well. Unfortunately, from that point until this afternoon (Monday) I was sick and not very coherent. We were supposed to go to Notre Dame as a class on Sunday for mass. I, however, slept until noon. Then I managed to get out of the room and look for some French people to talk to, because we have to do that for our speech. I came back and basically rested the rest of the day, and worked on homework and my presentation.


Today:Monday: I gave my presentation and in class we were visited by a missionary in France. I came back to my hotel room, had lunch, took a delightful nap, and then rode the metro to Monmartre where I met up with Kelsey P. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time walking around and people watching. Then tonight, we watched Anastasia (that one is for my housemates!)


Anyway, in summary, the sickness is going away (lets pray!), and how lucky am I to be given this opportunity??? Very, very lucky indeed.

Its Paris, what else? (George Clooney)

(George Clooney)
So, you would think that all the hype about Paris would give me such incredible ideas that my experiences would inevitably lead to disappointment. However, not the case.
I. Love. It. Here.
Reasons why?
1. Even in the sketchier parts of town, it is still pretty
2. Fresh baguettes on every corner
3. The metro is liberating
4. Breakfast at the hotel
5. Shower at the hotel
6. The monuments and their rich history
a. Sacre Coeur
b. Eiffle Tower
c. Arc de Triomphe
d. Les Invalides
(and those are only the ones we have visited so far)

What I dont like?
1. Getting sick in Paris
2. Dog poop on the street

and other stuff probably that i cannot think of right now because my head feels weird.

talk soon. too tired.
(we are always go-go-go here)
love nat
PS I bought tickets to go to the Loire Valley next weekend!!!

since shutterfly takes so long...

hey everyone!

I am uploading pictures and it is taking so long! So I thought i would give a little update.
Well, we made it to Paris! After our three-train adventure and a brisk little walk, we finally arrived at our hotel! (its a Best Western...tres francais?)
Our hotel is lovely: with pretty nice rooms, fridges, and a WONDERFUL breakfast! Mike arrived to greet us yesterday and it was so nice to see him! He even brought with him a Whitworthian for us to look at.

After checking out a supermarche, Mia, Rachel, and I decided we wanted to get out of the hotel and explore! We booked it to Monmartre (because we had to be back very presently) and got our first glimpse of the Eiffel tower from the the top of Monmartre. AND we walked all the way up to sacre coeur! It was beautiful and it finally sunk in that we were in PARIS. GAH!

Today we had class with Mike. It was great and informative and organized: yay! Then we had lunch and had our first metro experience!!! Having never been on the metro, this was soooo exciting for me! It is liberating. We stopped off at Trocedero and turned around the corner and there was the eiffel tower!!! after taking a lot of touristy pictures doing things like jumping, popping our collars, or pretending not to be impressed, we took the elevator up to the very tip top! It was awesome and very very windy. It was not a good day to forget my scarf. However, it would have been worse had I forgot my camera.

This might be a little lenghty...

Bon soir, tout le monde.
(PS- When it is evening, you don't say bonjour. you say bonsoir. I am very bad at remembering this).

Right at this moment I am sitting in the lounge-area of our Strasbourg hostel, Ciarus. As sad as I am to be leaving the beautiful city of Strasbourg, I am not quite as sad to leave the Ciarus. Tomorrow we leave for Paris, doing what the French call a "saut de puce" which literally means a "flea jump". We will ride the train to Saverne, then on to Nancy, then finally to Paris.

A lot has happened since I last posted. We have been so busy!
Official Excursions:
1. Strasbourg Cathedral and the "guided tour of Strasbourg"
This last part is in parentheses because we never actually got guided past the cathedral. While the weather was gorgeous the day we arrived, the "vent du diable" was so ever present the day of our tour. This was especially disappointing as we had a lovely tour guide who taught us many an interesting fun-fact.
2. Struthof
This is the only concentration camp left in France. This trip was the hardest. Our guide spoke very rapidly and with a specialized vocabulary, but I think it was for the better that we were not able to understand a large portion of what he said. I think we were all emotionally drained after that visit. Luckily I got an almost-nap on the ride back, and we were set back to rights with our disco party later that night.
3. Ligne Maginot
This is the impenetrable fortress France built so Germany wouldn't be able to invade during WWII. Needless to say, it kind of didn't work. The Germans ended up just going through the forest. I wish I could say the visit was more interesting than it actually was. The best part for me were the guidelines about how the soldiers were supposed to go to the bathroom.
4. Haut Koenigsbourg
This castle was AWESOME. Spencer brought his guitar along for the bus ride and appropriately strummed a little of the Harry Potter theme as we pulled up. We had fun, and it was a sunny day. Unfortunately our tour was not guided, so we never did get the answer to why there were paintings/figures/pictures of llamas all over the place...
5. Colmar
A tiny little Alsatian town that inspired the popular Alsatian artist Hansi. It was really too cold to do much other than run to find a place inside where we could sit for a while. We found a petit cafe and drank some cafe. Then we stopped by some shops, took pictures, stepped inside the cathedral, and got free perfume samples (a new pass-time, perhaps?) Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the awesome museum, but I think we will get enough of those once we arrive in Paris.
6. Requir
I found this town much more charming than Colmar, but unfortunately we only got to see a little bit of it. The good news: the bit of it we saw was awesome. We went wine tasting in one of the many wine caves in the town.
7. Conseil de l'Europe
This visit to the lesser known of the official-European-important-thingies was actually quite enjoyable! Much more so than, say, our visit to the Parliament. None of us really wanted to go on this last excursion, myself included, but I was pleasantly surprised. We were greeted with taxis to take us there, a pleasant surprise in the face of a brisk cold walk across Strasbourg. There we received official visitor badges (!), and were greeted by a kind, humorous lady who practiced her English by giving us the information in our mother tongue. After a tres sympa tour of the classically 70's interior, we waited in a room for another speaker. Little did we know that our presenter would be the charming, interesting, thirty-something Scottish press officer, Angus. Oh, Angus. I think more than one of us girls wished that Angus could have given us all of our tours...
Anyway, it was a lovely visit, and I walked back with Kaori and we had a grand old time at bookstores and cafes and markets and that restaurant we always walked by and said "we have to go here it smells so good!" Oh, and we randomly saw Lucie, my host sister, in her giant purple hat on a field trip with her school. Its kind of a small world, you know?


UNOFFICIAL Excursions: (explanations to come next blog post. I gotta pack!)
1. Friday Nights
2. Petit France/Day with Julia!
3. Disco
4. Mozart: L'Opera Rock
5. Cafes and Musees

A Traveling Fool (from my entry for the class blog)

There are a few things to which the title of this blog post makes reference.
1. This is a class after all...
A group of the students here just finished reading the tale Tristan et Iseult. For those of you not familiar with this medieval French soap opera, this book concerns Tristan, a loyal knight of the king Marc, and Iseult, who is engaged (for political reasons) to Marc. Unfortunately, due to some heavily "herbed" (magic) wine and a long and lonely boat ride, Tristan and Iseult find themselves given into the passion of the "sortilege" (spell). The resulting story includes love, trickery, suspense, Marc perched atop a giant pine tree, some pretty creepy statues, equally creepy "Irish customs", and about five different words for dwarf. Seriously, if you haven't read this book, you should. In one of the final chapters, entitled Tristan Fou, Tristan disguises himself as a fool. By this point, it is clear that he is going a little crazy. The complexities of the medieval novel amazed me: nothing was quite as black and white as I had anticipated, and the didactic morals about fidelity and social stability were intricately woven throughout the entire story. It was great reading this novel in Alsace of all places, as it has the most Medieval chateaus of any region in France (over 400!). I love Alsace, and find it a bit sad that we are leaving it in just a week!
2. Traveling
For some, this is the first time having ever set their feet on European soil, while others have returned from Thailand just in time to get over the jet lag before leaving again. Regardless of previous travel experience, I think this trip is going to make traveling fools of us all. I find myself very fortunate to be with a group of people who are excited to be here and who are ready and willing to try new things, like a Mozart rock opera, escargot, or hiking through a forest in the snow to visit Haut-Barr. This group of students, and dare I say, future travelers, have been pushed way outside our comfort zone in at least one aspect. And speaking of being outside your comfort zone...
3. Just being a fool in general...
So, there must be something in the French air that causes a few more embarrassing moments than normal. Rachel has been documenting a few of these said incidents, and sadly most have to do with my clumsiness. These include: my falling down an entire flight of French stairs in front of my host sister (but hey, I learned new vocabulary like "bruises" and "buttock"), accidentally setting off the elevator alarm in the hostel, and pieces of the delicious tarte flambee that just seem to hop off my plate.
But despite the momentary red cheeks (or the rather long lasting bruises), these events really make for some great stories. They humble me, remind me to not take myself too seriously, and provide great bonding experiences. Because once you have made a fool of yourself in front of others, its easier for them to be okay with making fools of themselves in front of you. And then you get to the fun stuff.