Hello. This will be a rather quick update since I'm catching a train in a hour to go to Nice for the weekend.
The weekend of May 8th-10th was spent in northern France in a small town near the town of Vannes. It was one of the best times I've had so far in France.
We left Thursday evening (after my classes) and we had to take three cars in order to get all of us there (we were 14 in all. 5 french, 1 british, 1 irish, 7 americans). Along the drive we stopped and had a picnic/dinner at a rest stop. We'd packed chips, sandwiches, drinks and cookies, ect. We didn't arrive at the cabin until around 1am friday morning. So we basically made our beds, gossiped a while and then went to bed. Elodie's cabin is awesome. There aren't a lot of neighbors and all the houses surrounding us were huge summer houses. Its also located right by the beach and one of the most huge castles in France. Her house came fully loaded with plenty of beds (including bunk beds), bicycles for all, picnic tables in the back yard, BBQ grill, sea kayaks, everything! I've decided I want a weekend get-away cabin like that when I get older.
Friday, our first day we woke up to a huge breakfast before spending the day at the beach. At the beach we enjoyed some beach volleyball, sea kayaking (it was my first time sea kayaking) and laying around soaking up the sun. The weatherman had predicted that it was going to being rainy, bad weather for us all weekend, but actually it turned out to be was nothing but sunshine. When we finally returned home we sat down for a huge BBQ dinner. In the evening we sat around chatting and playing games. Some of the boys played botchy ball and some others went for bicycle rides to the Castle down the road.
Saturday we took a ferry boat to the Ile d'Arz and spent the day walking around the entire island, soaking up some sun, having a picnic and playing more volleyball. After leaving the island we drove to Vannes and explored the town. In the evening we went to a Creperie restaurant which made both dinner crepes and dessert crepes. They were awesome.
Sunday morning we spent cleaning the entire cabin (so we'll be able to come back again sometime hopefully) and then we had a huge american breakfast including hashbrowns, bacon, eggs, pancakes, ect. Then headed into Sarzeau to visit a famous biscuterie (cookie store) where we tried all the free samples we could get our hands on. In the evening we jumped in the cars and headed back to Angouleme.
Monday was Nalleli's last day so we had a slumber party at the LISA tower. Tuesday was work. Wednesday we had a large BBQ at Elodie's to eat up all the left over food and alcohol from the weekend in the North. Thursday was school (boring). I can't remember what I did this weekend but I think I did a lot of reading and laundry. Tuesday Natalie and me went to watch a movie at the cinema (Angels and Demons).
Last night we had a huge BBQ at Emilie's house for Matt's going away party. It was so much fun. We literally kidnapped Matt off the street. He had no idea we were throwing him a party. We had some friends wearing nylons over there heads grab him and throw him into a camper (I was in the camper watching it all go down). We'd covered his head so he wouldn't know who was there and tied him up. We only spoke in spanish the entire time so he actually was freaked out thinking he'd been kidnapped. It took us about 25 mins to drive to Emilie's house which is outside of town so by the time we got there he was a little shakin' up and completely clueless to why everyone he knew was standing around laughing at him. It was one of the best kidnappings I've seen (not that I've seen a lot).
Today is a holiday so I didn't have to work. And now I must go in order to catch a train to Nice. I'll try to make sure to write everyday while I'm in Nice. LoveYa.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
More Pics
Bordeaux
Sitting at a park in Bordeaux
The Grand Theater of Bordeaux
Some old ruins called Palais Garnier in Bordeaux
Misty's last night in France. Paris.
St. Michel Monastery
An old windmill outside of Pontorson
St. Michel at night...
Public gardens in Rennes
Eating our lunch by a river
An old chateau that we discovered while driving.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Spring Vacation
Hello everyone. Long time, no write. Sorry about that, keeping a blog isn't as fun as it seems. ;)
So the first week of my Spring vacation (April 20th-24th) was spent teaching at "le stage" which I've mentioned before. It was a lot of fun to teach older kids (these ones were 16 year-olds) since I can actually talk to them in english and make jokes, as opposed to repeating the same five words for an entire class (which I do with my little kids). I think it was good experience for next year, since I've asked to teach high school next year instead of elementary school. My kids really liked me. I basically just B.S. with them for three hours and played games. On the last day I brought in some movies, candy, chips and soda and spent the three hours watching american films (superbad and v for vendetta). I was all alone for the week because everyone had left either to go home or on a road trip south. I went on a cleaning frenzy and cleaned-up/organized the common room and kitchen.
Saturday April 25th the tower was once more filled with life as the girls who were road tripping made a special stop to pick me up and take me north with them. they arrived late in the evening, but I had hot, homemade lasagna waiting for them (it was my first time ever making lasagna, but it didn't turn out to horrible...at least the girls were polite enough to eat all of it and tell me it was good...).
Sunday April 26th we awoke first thing in the morning and started our journey north. We stopped in a town along the way to have a lunch picnic along a river (I'm not sure which river it was). We drove through Nantes which is a gorgeous town, but we were in a hurry to get to Rennes so we didn't stop (I'm planning on heading there for a weekend before I leave so I can check the town out more thoroughly). When we arrived in Rennes there was a bizzilion rollerskaters. Apparently we'd arrived just at the end of some huge rollerblading competition, so there were men running around in tight spandex everywhere. :) The city center of the town was beautiful, but we decided we wanted to head a little further north before night fall so we jumped back in the car and drove to Pontorson which is small town near the St Michel Monastery. That night we snuck into the town/monastery (we found a door that wasn't locked and let ourselves in. We were going to play stupid tourist if we got caught, but there was no one around). St Michel Monastery is actually a small town and former Monastery on a very small island/hill. During high tide the island is completely surrounded by water. They've recently built a bridge that connects the island to the mainland at all times though, so that's why we were able to access it.
Monday April 27th we began our day by visiting St Michel again (this time when it was open, full of tourists and souvenir shops). I didn't actual go into the old monastery which sits at the top of the hill/island like a crown, because I didn't want to pay and we were also on a time crunch (we had to be to Paris by 8pm). We spent the day driving through different towns and occassionally getting out to explore the towns we went through. We made it to Paris just in time. We had reservations at my favorite hostel 'the peace and love' (actually we tried to book reservations but the internet said they were full, so I called in some favors to my friends who work there and they hooked us up). It was Misty's last night in France so we all went out to dinner and then stayed up drinking and gossiping at the bar until the wee hours of the morning.
Tuesday April 28th we dropped Misty off at the airport before heading back to Angouleme. We basically drove straight from Paris to Angouleme, because we had to have the rental car turned in by 6pm. So our only pit stops were for gas, pee breaks and a lunch stop at 'Quick' which is the french version of McDonalds (I'd never eaten there before and promised myself I'd try it before I left France, so I was actually happy to be chowing down on a greasy, over-processed piece of hamburger). Even though we did mostly driving during the trip it was a lot of fun. For one thing, I actually got to drive, because I was one of the few who knew how to drive a manual and I was also the best/safest driver (I've wrecked two cars, so you can imagine what the others drive like if I'm the best...let's just say we almost died multiple times...). It was also lovely to hang out with everyone in a small enclosed area because everyone is leaving soon so we just chatted and relived the memories of the past year.
The following couple of days (April 29th-May 2nd) were spent resting and relaxing. I was suppose to be leaving for Barcelona for the weekend, but plans kept on getting pushed backed and finally we decided to cancel it since we had waited to long to book a hostel and there weren't any trains on the days we needed. Another factor for not going to Barcelona is the Swine Flu scare. The french government advised its citizens not to visit infected countries (like spain) so we just hung out in Angouleme instead (they are actually trying to ban all flights to Mexico from France, but hopefully that won't happen or one of my roommates isn't going to be able to make it home). I still plan on visiting Barcelona, but on a later date (probably end of May or beginning of June if I can get the money together for it). There is only three of us left in the tower but the other two leave next week, so then I'll be all alone. We've been having a lot of fun with just the three of us here. Every night we have a family dinner (using up all the food that the others left when they left) and usually a movie after. We've been going on walks, shooting hoops at the park and we even had a slumber party in the common room the other night.
Sunday May 3rd Nalelli and me went to the cinema and watched the biography of Coco Chanel. It was a really great french film. The name of the film was 'Coco Avant Chanel' which means 'Coco before Chanel' it was the biography of her before she became a celebrated designer.
Monday May 4th Nalelli and me spent all day shopping. I was looking for sandals, but ended up buying another pair of boots. Oh well...
Tuesday May 5th was a beautiful day. It was so sunshiny and warm that even the fact that I had to work didn't get me down. After my classes I went to a huge park and met Matt there for some hotdogs and cool beers, while we chatted, read and edited some papers. I then met Emily in town and we grabbed a slushy before I headed home.
Wednesday May 6th was yet another beautiful day. In fact the perfect weather day. 75 degrees, no clouds in the sky and a light breeze that would blow occassionally to cool you down. Nalelli and me caught a train to Bordeaux today (actually we missed our first train because we're silly...we sat for almost ten minutes starring at this train and make fun of the people coming on and off it and as it started to pull away Nalelli jumped up and started following it saying 'I think that was our train'...oops, so we exchanged our tickets and caught the next train). Bordeaux is a beautiful city. The entire old town is listed as a World Heritage Site and there are huge theaters and monuments and parks around every corner. We walked around for a while stopping occassionally to look in a store or have a cool drink in a cafe. Then we grabbed some ice cream and headed for a park. We looked around for a while longer then headed to another park to enjoy the sun, read and watch people juggling. We took a six o'clock train home again (it's only a hour train ride home to Angouleme) and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching movies.
I'm going to be busy for the next couple of weeks because I have lots of plans in the work. Tomorrow I have classes in the morning and then I have to give oral exams in the afternoon. from there I'm leaving right away to head north for the weekend to a little town called Vennes. My friend Elodie's parents own a 'weekend get-away cabin' there, so 15 of us are piling into cars and road tripping up there (wait didn't I just get back from a road trip to the North?? Oh, well). It should be a lot of fun. It's near the coast and a lake, so were planning on picnicing and rowing and biking and all sorts of fun stuff. The following weekend I'm going to try to go to the Cannes Film Festival (depends on funds however, so I'll have to do some budgetting). I'd hate to miss it, because its one of those things that if your in France and you have the opportunity to go, you really can't pass it up (plus I want a photo with Johnny Depp who will definitely be there). TTYL. LoveYa.
So the first week of my Spring vacation (April 20th-24th) was spent teaching at "le stage" which I've mentioned before. It was a lot of fun to teach older kids (these ones were 16 year-olds) since I can actually talk to them in english and make jokes, as opposed to repeating the same five words for an entire class (which I do with my little kids). I think it was good experience for next year, since I've asked to teach high school next year instead of elementary school. My kids really liked me. I basically just B.S. with them for three hours and played games. On the last day I brought in some movies, candy, chips and soda and spent the three hours watching american films (superbad and v for vendetta). I was all alone for the week because everyone had left either to go home or on a road trip south. I went on a cleaning frenzy and cleaned-up/organized the common room and kitchen.
Saturday April 25th the tower was once more filled with life as the girls who were road tripping made a special stop to pick me up and take me north with them. they arrived late in the evening, but I had hot, homemade lasagna waiting for them (it was my first time ever making lasagna, but it didn't turn out to horrible...at least the girls were polite enough to eat all of it and tell me it was good...).
Sunday April 26th we awoke first thing in the morning and started our journey north. We stopped in a town along the way to have a lunch picnic along a river (I'm not sure which river it was). We drove through Nantes which is a gorgeous town, but we were in a hurry to get to Rennes so we didn't stop (I'm planning on heading there for a weekend before I leave so I can check the town out more thoroughly). When we arrived in Rennes there was a bizzilion rollerskaters. Apparently we'd arrived just at the end of some huge rollerblading competition, so there were men running around in tight spandex everywhere. :) The city center of the town was beautiful, but we decided we wanted to head a little further north before night fall so we jumped back in the car and drove to Pontorson which is small town near the St Michel Monastery. That night we snuck into the town/monastery (we found a door that wasn't locked and let ourselves in. We were going to play stupid tourist if we got caught, but there was no one around). St Michel Monastery is actually a small town and former Monastery on a very small island/hill. During high tide the island is completely surrounded by water. They've recently built a bridge that connects the island to the mainland at all times though, so that's why we were able to access it.
Monday April 27th we began our day by visiting St Michel again (this time when it was open, full of tourists and souvenir shops). I didn't actual go into the old monastery which sits at the top of the hill/island like a crown, because I didn't want to pay and we were also on a time crunch (we had to be to Paris by 8pm). We spent the day driving through different towns and occassionally getting out to explore the towns we went through. We made it to Paris just in time. We had reservations at my favorite hostel 'the peace and love' (actually we tried to book reservations but the internet said they were full, so I called in some favors to my friends who work there and they hooked us up). It was Misty's last night in France so we all went out to dinner and then stayed up drinking and gossiping at the bar until the wee hours of the morning.
Tuesday April 28th we dropped Misty off at the airport before heading back to Angouleme. We basically drove straight from Paris to Angouleme, because we had to have the rental car turned in by 6pm. So our only pit stops were for gas, pee breaks and a lunch stop at 'Quick' which is the french version of McDonalds (I'd never eaten there before and promised myself I'd try it before I left France, so I was actually happy to be chowing down on a greasy, over-processed piece of hamburger). Even though we did mostly driving during the trip it was a lot of fun. For one thing, I actually got to drive, because I was one of the few who knew how to drive a manual and I was also the best/safest driver (I've wrecked two cars, so you can imagine what the others drive like if I'm the best...let's just say we almost died multiple times...). It was also lovely to hang out with everyone in a small enclosed area because everyone is leaving soon so we just chatted and relived the memories of the past year.
The following couple of days (April 29th-May 2nd) were spent resting and relaxing. I was suppose to be leaving for Barcelona for the weekend, but plans kept on getting pushed backed and finally we decided to cancel it since we had waited to long to book a hostel and there weren't any trains on the days we needed. Another factor for not going to Barcelona is the Swine Flu scare. The french government advised its citizens not to visit infected countries (like spain) so we just hung out in Angouleme instead (they are actually trying to ban all flights to Mexico from France, but hopefully that won't happen or one of my roommates isn't going to be able to make it home). I still plan on visiting Barcelona, but on a later date (probably end of May or beginning of June if I can get the money together for it). There is only three of us left in the tower but the other two leave next week, so then I'll be all alone. We've been having a lot of fun with just the three of us here. Every night we have a family dinner (using up all the food that the others left when they left) and usually a movie after. We've been going on walks, shooting hoops at the park and we even had a slumber party in the common room the other night.
Sunday May 3rd Nalelli and me went to the cinema and watched the biography of Coco Chanel. It was a really great french film. The name of the film was 'Coco Avant Chanel' which means 'Coco before Chanel' it was the biography of her before she became a celebrated designer.
Monday May 4th Nalelli and me spent all day shopping. I was looking for sandals, but ended up buying another pair of boots. Oh well...
Tuesday May 5th was a beautiful day. It was so sunshiny and warm that even the fact that I had to work didn't get me down. After my classes I went to a huge park and met Matt there for some hotdogs and cool beers, while we chatted, read and edited some papers. I then met Emily in town and we grabbed a slushy before I headed home.
Wednesday May 6th was yet another beautiful day. In fact the perfect weather day. 75 degrees, no clouds in the sky and a light breeze that would blow occassionally to cool you down. Nalelli and me caught a train to Bordeaux today (actually we missed our first train because we're silly...we sat for almost ten minutes starring at this train and make fun of the people coming on and off it and as it started to pull away Nalelli jumped up and started following it saying 'I think that was our train'...oops, so we exchanged our tickets and caught the next train). Bordeaux is a beautiful city. The entire old town is listed as a World Heritage Site and there are huge theaters and monuments and parks around every corner. We walked around for a while stopping occassionally to look in a store or have a cool drink in a cafe. Then we grabbed some ice cream and headed for a park. We looked around for a while longer then headed to another park to enjoy the sun, read and watch people juggling. We took a six o'clock train home again (it's only a hour train ride home to Angouleme) and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching movies.
I'm going to be busy for the next couple of weeks because I have lots of plans in the work. Tomorrow I have classes in the morning and then I have to give oral exams in the afternoon. from there I'm leaving right away to head north for the weekend to a little town called Vennes. My friend Elodie's parents own a 'weekend get-away cabin' there, so 15 of us are piling into cars and road tripping up there (wait didn't I just get back from a road trip to the North?? Oh, well). It should be a lot of fun. It's near the coast and a lake, so were planning on picnicing and rowing and biking and all sorts of fun stuff. The following weekend I'm going to try to go to the Cannes Film Festival (depends on funds however, so I'll have to do some budgetting). I'd hate to miss it, because its one of those things that if your in France and you have the opportunity to go, you really can't pass it up (plus I want a photo with Johnny Depp who will definitely be there). TTYL. LoveYa.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Pics
At an outdoor concert on our last Friday night all together
At an outdoor concert on our last Friday night all together
At an outdoor concert on our last Friday night all together
Walking into town for our last night all together in Angouleme
Visiting the ruins of the Roman-Gallo Theater
Visiting the ruins of the Roman-Gallo Theater
Visiting the ruins of the Roman-Gallo Theater
The ruins of the Roman-Gallo Theater
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Life in Angouleme
Hello. So I've been keeping busy but I'll try to fill you all in.
Friday April 10th Anna and Dad arrived in Angouleme for the weekend. They arrived in the evening so I quickly checked them into thier hotel, so that we'd make it in time to watch the french film festival at the Espece Franquin (the Espece Franquin is a large community hall where different exhibits and exhibitions are held). The show was suppose to start at 7pm, but i should have known that we needn't have rushed to make it there on time. We were almost ten minutes late and they still hadn't started it yet. We have named this phenomenon "french time". Meaning that if a french person tells you to meet them at a certain time (for a drink, dinner, shopping, ect) always add at least fifteen minutes onto that time, because they are always late. The film festival ended up starting at 7:25pm instead of 7pm. We stayed and watched the first half of it before leaving to get dinner. They were so amusing that even though Dad and Anna who don't speak french still enjoyed them all. From there we ate dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant (we had to eat Italian because french put meat into everything and it was sabbath or something so they being good catholics couldn't eat meat). My roommates and I found this restaurant back in January its got great food and even better ambiance. We ended up eating and drinking wine there until almost midnight. The french tend to eat late dinners (and large ones that consist of lots of alcohol and at least three courses and ending in a cup of coffee to help with digestion), so lots of restaurants don't start serving food until after 8:30 at night and don't close until 1am, so its very normal to go out all night just for a dinner. Dad and Anna still haven't got used to this trend.
Saturday April 11th I gave dad and Anna a tour of Angouleme in the morning and in the afternoon we picked up Michaele and Pamela to go to the roman-gallo theater ruins which are 20mins outside of town. Yes, the Romans conquered France back near 1AD (there are also some roman baths nearby, but we didn't go to see those) and decided to build a huge amphitheater on the "Via Agrippa" which is the old roman trading route that connected Lyon to the Atlantic coast. In the evening we went out to dinner at a new restaurant that I hadn't tried yet but specializes in seafood and traditional Alsace regional dishes (the Alsace region is in Northern France and is very cold and mountainous...I believe it's near or in the Alps). Dad and Anna dropped me of at the LISA and we said our farewells because they were leaving the following morning really early to head to Bordeaux.
Sunday April 12th was a really uneventful Easter. We laid around all day and did nothing because the weather was terrible and rainy. In the morning I made pancakes for everyone, but other then that there were no festivities.
Tuesday April 14th I had classes like usual and then I went to a conference on "How Americans living in France view the European Union". I was just going to to support a friend who had to do the question and answer part of the conference and little did I know that the moment they heard I was an American living in France they were going to throw me into the conference too. They made me sit in front of a room full of close to 40 people with the local press snapping pictures and videoing. I was so terrified and as everyone probably knows I have a huge fear of public speaking (I thought I was going to throw-up or passout the whole time). The entire thing was in French. By the time they passed me the microphone to speak my mind drew a blank on how to speak french to where I could barely say "my name is (je m'appelle)" which is the first thing I ever learned in French. But thankfully I was able to stutter my way through it after a couple of minutes of complete silence and internal panic. The conference ended 90 minutes later with me only having to speak 2 more times (thankfully the other americans who had actually volunteered to speak at the conference did most of the commentary and answering of questions). Honestly it was more like a hour and a half bash on America and "us causing a global depression", so I wasn't too impressed with the conference. In fact I had a lot to say on the subject so I'm very sorry my french isn't good enough to hold a heated debate with the main instigator (some snotty 50 something year old french man who was born in the USA so he thinks he knows everything and can bash the USA as much as he wants since he was born there...I would have put him in his place if my french was better). So needless to say my nerves were pretty rattled after the conference so us Americans went out and grabbed some drinks to reflect and rant.
Friday April 17th was our last Friday night all together in Angouleme. Everyone is leaving soon so I'll soon have this entire tower to myself for two months. I think its going to be quite lonely, but thankfully I still have quite a few friends around town so I'll still have people to go do stuff with. Pamela leaves Monday. Celine and Carly on Wednesday. Nalleli, Misty and Kena are leaving for a road trip on Wednesday which leaves me all by myself for a week starting Wednesday. Thankfully Nalleli and Kena will be returning until the 14th of May, so I won't be all alone until then. So Friday night we all went downtown to celebrate together. We grabbed some drinks at one of our favorite pubs "le Girafe" and then stopped by a grocery store to buy some champagne before heading to the "Marche Square" where a live band was playing. After watching the band for a while and meeting some new french people we went to "L'havana" to dance.
Saturday April 18th I awoke surprisingly early and got dressed in order to join Nalleli who was going into town to do some shopping. I bought two new dresses and a pair of capris. By the time we returned to the LISA I was exhausted and went back to bed. In the evening we had a huge group dinner with lots of homemade traditional french food, before heading into town to meet up with some other assistants who will also be leaving soon. We decided that we'd hit-up all our favorite bars, so the evening began at the first bar we ever went to in Angouleme the "Kennedy's Irish Pub", then "l'Havana" and finally "le Girafe" where we met some new friends. our new friends are from Mexico, Brazil and France and go to University here. They accompanied us back to the LISA and we drank and talked until the wee hours of the morning (I actually went to bed at 4am because I was tired, but everyone else was up until 7am...theyz crazy).
Sunday April 19th is a sad day because it's our last night all together. Pamela leaves tomorrow morning, but we're trying to make the most of our last night all together. So this evening we are taking all the mattresses out of our rooms and putting them in the common room and we're going to have a huge slumber party. It should be a lot of fun.
So right now we are on vacation again. School doesn't start again until the 5th of May (I love having random two week breaks every couple of months). You might be wondering why I'm not joining the others on their roadtrip or off to explore some other area of Europe by myself. The reason is because I'm teaching at " le Stage" next week. Which is kind of like a week long english camp during the vacation. I'll be working 3 hours everyday this week from 9am to 12pm teaching oral english to high schoolers. I agreed to do this because they are paying me 30 euros a hour for helping them out, so I couldn't really resist. Another reason I'm not planning on doing much this vacation is because my travel funds are very low, but taking on these courses will give me a little extra spending money so the weekend of May 1st to May 4th I'm probably going to Barcelona with a friend to hangout for the weekend. So that will add another country under my belt (I live close to Spain, but I still haven't visited it yet). Also the following weekend Nalleli, Matt, Noreen, Nicholas, Elodie, me and a few others are headed to Vannes in Brittany which is in northwest France. We are going to crash at her grandma's house which is along the Atlantic Ocean, so we'll spend the weekend lounging and sunbathing by the ocean. I'll make sure to write and let everyone know how the vacations go.
Friday April 10th Anna and Dad arrived in Angouleme for the weekend. They arrived in the evening so I quickly checked them into thier hotel, so that we'd make it in time to watch the french film festival at the Espece Franquin (the Espece Franquin is a large community hall where different exhibits and exhibitions are held). The show was suppose to start at 7pm, but i should have known that we needn't have rushed to make it there on time. We were almost ten minutes late and they still hadn't started it yet. We have named this phenomenon "french time". Meaning that if a french person tells you to meet them at a certain time (for a drink, dinner, shopping, ect) always add at least fifteen minutes onto that time, because they are always late. The film festival ended up starting at 7:25pm instead of 7pm. We stayed and watched the first half of it before leaving to get dinner. They were so amusing that even though Dad and Anna who don't speak french still enjoyed them all. From there we ate dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant (we had to eat Italian because french put meat into everything and it was sabbath or something so they being good catholics couldn't eat meat). My roommates and I found this restaurant back in January its got great food and even better ambiance. We ended up eating and drinking wine there until almost midnight. The french tend to eat late dinners (and large ones that consist of lots of alcohol and at least three courses and ending in a cup of coffee to help with digestion), so lots of restaurants don't start serving food until after 8:30 at night and don't close until 1am, so its very normal to go out all night just for a dinner. Dad and Anna still haven't got used to this trend.
Saturday April 11th I gave dad and Anna a tour of Angouleme in the morning and in the afternoon we picked up Michaele and Pamela to go to the roman-gallo theater ruins which are 20mins outside of town. Yes, the Romans conquered France back near 1AD (there are also some roman baths nearby, but we didn't go to see those) and decided to build a huge amphitheater on the "Via Agrippa" which is the old roman trading route that connected Lyon to the Atlantic coast. In the evening we went out to dinner at a new restaurant that I hadn't tried yet but specializes in seafood and traditional Alsace regional dishes (the Alsace region is in Northern France and is very cold and mountainous...I believe it's near or in the Alps). Dad and Anna dropped me of at the LISA and we said our farewells because they were leaving the following morning really early to head to Bordeaux.
Sunday April 12th was a really uneventful Easter. We laid around all day and did nothing because the weather was terrible and rainy. In the morning I made pancakes for everyone, but other then that there were no festivities.
Tuesday April 14th I had classes like usual and then I went to a conference on "How Americans living in France view the European Union". I was just going to to support a friend who had to do the question and answer part of the conference and little did I know that the moment they heard I was an American living in France they were going to throw me into the conference too. They made me sit in front of a room full of close to 40 people with the local press snapping pictures and videoing. I was so terrified and as everyone probably knows I have a huge fear of public speaking (I thought I was going to throw-up or passout the whole time). The entire thing was in French. By the time they passed me the microphone to speak my mind drew a blank on how to speak french to where I could barely say "my name is (je m'appelle)" which is the first thing I ever learned in French. But thankfully I was able to stutter my way through it after a couple of minutes of complete silence and internal panic. The conference ended 90 minutes later with me only having to speak 2 more times (thankfully the other americans who had actually volunteered to speak at the conference did most of the commentary and answering of questions). Honestly it was more like a hour and a half bash on America and "us causing a global depression", so I wasn't too impressed with the conference. In fact I had a lot to say on the subject so I'm very sorry my french isn't good enough to hold a heated debate with the main instigator (some snotty 50 something year old french man who was born in the USA so he thinks he knows everything and can bash the USA as much as he wants since he was born there...I would have put him in his place if my french was better). So needless to say my nerves were pretty rattled after the conference so us Americans went out and grabbed some drinks to reflect and rant.
Friday April 17th was our last Friday night all together in Angouleme. Everyone is leaving soon so I'll soon have this entire tower to myself for two months. I think its going to be quite lonely, but thankfully I still have quite a few friends around town so I'll still have people to go do stuff with. Pamela leaves Monday. Celine and Carly on Wednesday. Nalleli, Misty and Kena are leaving for a road trip on Wednesday which leaves me all by myself for a week starting Wednesday. Thankfully Nalleli and Kena will be returning until the 14th of May, so I won't be all alone until then. So Friday night we all went downtown to celebrate together. We grabbed some drinks at one of our favorite pubs "le Girafe" and then stopped by a grocery store to buy some champagne before heading to the "Marche Square" where a live band was playing. After watching the band for a while and meeting some new french people we went to "L'havana" to dance.
Saturday April 18th I awoke surprisingly early and got dressed in order to join Nalleli who was going into town to do some shopping. I bought two new dresses and a pair of capris. By the time we returned to the LISA I was exhausted and went back to bed. In the evening we had a huge group dinner with lots of homemade traditional french food, before heading into town to meet up with some other assistants who will also be leaving soon. We decided that we'd hit-up all our favorite bars, so the evening began at the first bar we ever went to in Angouleme the "Kennedy's Irish Pub", then "l'Havana" and finally "le Girafe" where we met some new friends. our new friends are from Mexico, Brazil and France and go to University here. They accompanied us back to the LISA and we drank and talked until the wee hours of the morning (I actually went to bed at 4am because I was tired, but everyone else was up until 7am...theyz crazy).
Sunday April 19th is a sad day because it's our last night all together. Pamela leaves tomorrow morning, but we're trying to make the most of our last night all together. So this evening we are taking all the mattresses out of our rooms and putting them in the common room and we're going to have a huge slumber party. It should be a lot of fun.
So right now we are on vacation again. School doesn't start again until the 5th of May (I love having random two week breaks every couple of months). You might be wondering why I'm not joining the others on their roadtrip or off to explore some other area of Europe by myself. The reason is because I'm teaching at " le Stage" next week. Which is kind of like a week long english camp during the vacation. I'll be working 3 hours everyday this week from 9am to 12pm teaching oral english to high schoolers. I agreed to do this because they are paying me 30 euros a hour for helping them out, so I couldn't really resist. Another reason I'm not planning on doing much this vacation is because my travel funds are very low, but taking on these courses will give me a little extra spending money so the weekend of May 1st to May 4th I'm probably going to Barcelona with a friend to hangout for the weekend. So that will add another country under my belt (I live close to Spain, but I still haven't visited it yet). Also the following weekend Nalleli, Matt, Noreen, Nicholas, Elodie, me and a few others are headed to Vannes in Brittany which is in northwest France. We are going to crash at her grandma's house which is along the Atlantic Ocean, so we'll spend the weekend lounging and sunbathing by the ocean. I'll make sure to write and let everyone know how the vacations go.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Pictures Galore
Versailles Palace
Hall of Mirrors in Versailles
Typical room in Versailles
Outside the gates of Versailles
Eiffel Tower at night
Eiffel Tower at Night
Moulin Rouge at night
Hennesy Cognac Factory in Cognac, France
Old town Cognac with Nalelli
City Hall in Cognac, France
Sunset in La Rochelle
Out on the town in La Rochelle
Abbey ruins in Angouleme
Picnic in Angouleme
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Paris and Cognac
Waz up?! Sorry I haven't written for a while (I've had a few complaints so I'll try to update more regularly) I've actually been quite busy since I last dropped some lines so sorry I didn't fill everyone in.
Wednesday March 18th was another gorgeous day, so a group of us headed to a park for a french picnic (baguette sandwiches, quiche lorraine and a popsicle from the park vendor). I think everyone had the same idea as us because the park was crawling with little frenchy picnickers everywhere (it probably didn't help that nobody ever works on Wednesday afternoons and all the little kiddies are out of school by noon, so they all decided to congregate at the same park as us). We ate, read, sun bathed (I got superly sunburned) and gossiped for a few hours before I had to head back into town to meet dad at the train station. I ended up waiting at the train station for almost 2 hours because dad hadn't made the train I expected him to arrive on, so it was late by the time he arrived. We had some problems with the hotel I'd booked him to stay at, so after about an hour of arguing with a lady in french (at least I got to practice/show off my french skills to dad) we grabbed a taxi and headed to the tower that I live in. Dad ended up staying the entire time in the tower with us, instead of getting a hotel because one of our roommates was moving out and offered the room to dad (talk about good luck).
Thursday March 19th I had the morning off because one of my schools was on strike (like I said it's a national pasttime to strike here), so I took dad to the best boulangerie (bakery) in town to grab some breakfast (luckily the best boulangerie happens to only be a block away). After breakfast we walked into town and then to my school for my afternoon class. After I finished teaching we headed back in to town and I gave dad a brief tour of Angouleme. That evening we booked a hotel for our weekend in Paris.
Friday March 20th we woke up early and caught a train to Paris to spend a four day weekend there (I love only working 3 hours a week and only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because it makes every weekend a four day weekend). I spent the day giving dad a tour of the western half of Paris including the Louvre, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Grand Palais, Eiffel Tower, Hotel des Invalides and other notable areas in western Paris (like the Place de Concorde where Marie Antoinette lost her head). In the evening we went to visit the Louvre to have a look around (after 6pm I get in for free which is the only reason I went...I'm not a fan fo the Louvre), but dad found it about as interesting as I found it which is not at all (its ovecrowded with people and so much art and artifacts that its too overwhelming).
Saturday March 21st we were planning on visiting Versailles this day, but unfortunately we jumped onto the wrong RER train so by the time we arrived back in Paris (after illegally riding on two trains and having to jump some turning exit gates) it was too late in the day to attempt Versailles (Versailles is the palace of Marie Antoinette, Louis, Napoleon, ect). I'd been warned that it's so massive that it actually takes a couple of days to see it all. So instead I finished the tour of Paris by showing dad the eastern half of the city. We started by grabbing a baguette and some cheese and heading to Luxembourg Park for lunch. From there we visited the Pantheon (that's where all the famous dead authors are buried), the Sorbonne, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, ect.
Sunday March 22nd we finally made it to Versailles, but unfortunately Sunday is one of the worst days to visit because everyone and their dogs (literally) go there on Sundays (because everything else is closed). So the line to get tickets stretched on forever and two hours later we actually were able to enter the rooms that were the ancient halls of royalty. Versailles was stunningly huge and everything was covered in gold, frescoes, statues, ect. The Palace was enormous and extravagant (although its only possible to access one wing of it right now, because the rest is still going through restoration after being left abandoned for centuries), but the grounds were twenty times larger (infact they were so large you couldn't even see the boundaries of it even when standing in the middle). The grounds are covered in statues, finely trimmed bushes and trees (literally all of them were pruned to have a specific crazy design shapes) and enormous fountains (some the size of lakes, literally, people were actually out rowing around in them). There are three other smaller palaces on the grounds. One is where Napoleon and his wife lived because they didn't want to stay in the huge palace, one was Marie Antoinette's private get-away house that Louis gave to her and the other was the queen's house/get-away. All were way overly lavish (no wonder people chopped off their heads) but really fun to wander through. Visiting Versailles took the entire day and we still didn't get to see everything. By the time we arrived back in Paris it was getting dark and dad kept on bugging me about seeing Paris at night (granted he'd got the idea from me because Paris is known as the 'city of lights') so we left the hotel around 8pm. I took dad on an extremely long walking tour of Paris at night, hitting all the best spots. We made it back to the hotel a little before 2am.
Monday March 23rd was our last day in Paris. I wanted to make it back to Angouleme a little early because I had lesson plans I needed to prepare before my classes on Tuesday. So we took a metro to the "Bastille" (that's the old prison where Marie Antoinette was held before her date with the guillotine and the prison that was stormed by the citizens during the revolution, but now there is only a pillar as a monument to the infamous structure) and then made our way to Pere Lachaise Cemetary which is where the greats like Jim Morrison, Balzac and Oscar Wilde are buried.
Wednesday March 24th dad, Nalelli (one of my roommates) and I took a 45 minute train to Cognac to see the town. The town is rather small so it didn't take much time to explore every street of importance. Dad and I visited the Hennesy Cognac Distillery and went on a tour that included a tasting of a couple of Cognacs upon finishing. All in all a good day (even though I'm not really a fan of cognacs).
Friday March 26th we had a lot of visitors crashing at the tower for the weekend (Celine had two swiss friends in town, I had dad and Pamela had two british friends visiting so needless to say it was pretty crowded). Since we had so many visitors we decided to go out to a french restaurant for a huge dinner Friday evening (that and I don't think our little kitchen could have held that many people cooking in it). It was a fun evening (its always fun to try new restaurants and menu items).
Saturday March 27th I took dad to visit the ruins of an old Abbey in town. I had never been there (my roommates had told me about it) so I enjoyed it a lot. It was really beautiful. We stopped by a huge shopping mall on the way home to buy groceries for Sunday (remember nothing is open on Sundays so we have to do Sunday's shopping on Saturdays) and some wine and lots of cheese. In the evening we drank at the tower for a bit before heading out to the bars/clubs.
Sunday March 28th we had a huge wine and cheese party. Dad had mentioned since he'd arrived that he wanted to try a variety of cheeses and wines (since that's what France is famous for) so we'd bought some of the smelliest cheese (yes, apparently the smellier the tastier) we could find and a variety of wines and pineaus (some from this region and some from the Bordeaux region). So about 15 of us sat around all afternoon sampling different types of cheese and wine (we had to make several bread runs to our favorite boulangerie for all the cheese). All and all it was a complete success. I found a couple of new cheeses that I like and now know which ones to stay well clear of.
Monday March 29th dad left for Bordeaux to meet Anna at the airport. They are planning on travelling around France for two weeks and then coming back to spend easter weekend with me before they return to the states. After I dropped dad off I went to the local bookstore and grabbed some new books which I'm currently trying to trek my way through.
I've moved into a new room in the tower, because it's closer to the kitchen/common room floor (I moved from the 8th to the 5th floor. The common room is on the 3rd floor) which is handy since everyone is leaving at the end of April so I'll have two months of this huge tower all to myself. I'm not sure that I'm really looking forward to that however. I think its going to be awefully lonely. Other than that not much has happened this week. Spent the past couple of days researching jobs I could do for the summer (if you have any suggestions let me know), moving into my new room, reading and generally just being lazy. I received a care package from mom yesterday with the "Twilight" movie and movie snacks (popcorn and theater candy), so we're planning on having a movie night soon to indulge (nobody knew about twilight before I got here, but I introduced everyone to the book series and now they are addicted). TTYL. LoveYa.
Wednesday March 18th was another gorgeous day, so a group of us headed to a park for a french picnic (baguette sandwiches, quiche lorraine and a popsicle from the park vendor). I think everyone had the same idea as us because the park was crawling with little frenchy picnickers everywhere (it probably didn't help that nobody ever works on Wednesday afternoons and all the little kiddies are out of school by noon, so they all decided to congregate at the same park as us). We ate, read, sun bathed (I got superly sunburned) and gossiped for a few hours before I had to head back into town to meet dad at the train station. I ended up waiting at the train station for almost 2 hours because dad hadn't made the train I expected him to arrive on, so it was late by the time he arrived. We had some problems with the hotel I'd booked him to stay at, so after about an hour of arguing with a lady in french (at least I got to practice/show off my french skills to dad) we grabbed a taxi and headed to the tower that I live in. Dad ended up staying the entire time in the tower with us, instead of getting a hotel because one of our roommates was moving out and offered the room to dad (talk about good luck).
Thursday March 19th I had the morning off because one of my schools was on strike (like I said it's a national pasttime to strike here), so I took dad to the best boulangerie (bakery) in town to grab some breakfast (luckily the best boulangerie happens to only be a block away). After breakfast we walked into town and then to my school for my afternoon class. After I finished teaching we headed back in to town and I gave dad a brief tour of Angouleme. That evening we booked a hotel for our weekend in Paris.
Friday March 20th we woke up early and caught a train to Paris to spend a four day weekend there (I love only working 3 hours a week and only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because it makes every weekend a four day weekend). I spent the day giving dad a tour of the western half of Paris including the Louvre, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Grand Palais, Eiffel Tower, Hotel des Invalides and other notable areas in western Paris (like the Place de Concorde where Marie Antoinette lost her head). In the evening we went to visit the Louvre to have a look around (after 6pm I get in for free which is the only reason I went...I'm not a fan fo the Louvre), but dad found it about as interesting as I found it which is not at all (its ovecrowded with people and so much art and artifacts that its too overwhelming).
Saturday March 21st we were planning on visiting Versailles this day, but unfortunately we jumped onto the wrong RER train so by the time we arrived back in Paris (after illegally riding on two trains and having to jump some turning exit gates) it was too late in the day to attempt Versailles (Versailles is the palace of Marie Antoinette, Louis, Napoleon, ect). I'd been warned that it's so massive that it actually takes a couple of days to see it all. So instead I finished the tour of Paris by showing dad the eastern half of the city. We started by grabbing a baguette and some cheese and heading to Luxembourg Park for lunch. From there we visited the Pantheon (that's where all the famous dead authors are buried), the Sorbonne, Notre Dame Cathedral, Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, ect.
Sunday March 22nd we finally made it to Versailles, but unfortunately Sunday is one of the worst days to visit because everyone and their dogs (literally) go there on Sundays (because everything else is closed). So the line to get tickets stretched on forever and two hours later we actually were able to enter the rooms that were the ancient halls of royalty. Versailles was stunningly huge and everything was covered in gold, frescoes, statues, ect. The Palace was enormous and extravagant (although its only possible to access one wing of it right now, because the rest is still going through restoration after being left abandoned for centuries), but the grounds were twenty times larger (infact they were so large you couldn't even see the boundaries of it even when standing in the middle). The grounds are covered in statues, finely trimmed bushes and trees (literally all of them were pruned to have a specific crazy design shapes) and enormous fountains (some the size of lakes, literally, people were actually out rowing around in them). There are three other smaller palaces on the grounds. One is where Napoleon and his wife lived because they didn't want to stay in the huge palace, one was Marie Antoinette's private get-away house that Louis gave to her and the other was the queen's house/get-away. All were way overly lavish (no wonder people chopped off their heads) but really fun to wander through. Visiting Versailles took the entire day and we still didn't get to see everything. By the time we arrived back in Paris it was getting dark and dad kept on bugging me about seeing Paris at night (granted he'd got the idea from me because Paris is known as the 'city of lights') so we left the hotel around 8pm. I took dad on an extremely long walking tour of Paris at night, hitting all the best spots. We made it back to the hotel a little before 2am.
Monday March 23rd was our last day in Paris. I wanted to make it back to Angouleme a little early because I had lesson plans I needed to prepare before my classes on Tuesday. So we took a metro to the "Bastille" (that's the old prison where Marie Antoinette was held before her date with the guillotine and the prison that was stormed by the citizens during the revolution, but now there is only a pillar as a monument to the infamous structure) and then made our way to Pere Lachaise Cemetary which is where the greats like Jim Morrison, Balzac and Oscar Wilde are buried.
Wednesday March 24th dad, Nalelli (one of my roommates) and I took a 45 minute train to Cognac to see the town. The town is rather small so it didn't take much time to explore every street of importance. Dad and I visited the Hennesy Cognac Distillery and went on a tour that included a tasting of a couple of Cognacs upon finishing. All in all a good day (even though I'm not really a fan of cognacs).
Friday March 26th we had a lot of visitors crashing at the tower for the weekend (Celine had two swiss friends in town, I had dad and Pamela had two british friends visiting so needless to say it was pretty crowded). Since we had so many visitors we decided to go out to a french restaurant for a huge dinner Friday evening (that and I don't think our little kitchen could have held that many people cooking in it). It was a fun evening (its always fun to try new restaurants and menu items).
Saturday March 27th I took dad to visit the ruins of an old Abbey in town. I had never been there (my roommates had told me about it) so I enjoyed it a lot. It was really beautiful. We stopped by a huge shopping mall on the way home to buy groceries for Sunday (remember nothing is open on Sundays so we have to do Sunday's shopping on Saturdays) and some wine and lots of cheese. In the evening we drank at the tower for a bit before heading out to the bars/clubs.
Sunday March 28th we had a huge wine and cheese party. Dad had mentioned since he'd arrived that he wanted to try a variety of cheeses and wines (since that's what France is famous for) so we'd bought some of the smelliest cheese (yes, apparently the smellier the tastier) we could find and a variety of wines and pineaus (some from this region and some from the Bordeaux region). So about 15 of us sat around all afternoon sampling different types of cheese and wine (we had to make several bread runs to our favorite boulangerie for all the cheese). All and all it was a complete success. I found a couple of new cheeses that I like and now know which ones to stay well clear of.
Monday March 29th dad left for Bordeaux to meet Anna at the airport. They are planning on travelling around France for two weeks and then coming back to spend easter weekend with me before they return to the states. After I dropped dad off I went to the local bookstore and grabbed some new books which I'm currently trying to trek my way through.
I've moved into a new room in the tower, because it's closer to the kitchen/common room floor (I moved from the 8th to the 5th floor. The common room is on the 3rd floor) which is handy since everyone is leaving at the end of April so I'll have two months of this huge tower all to myself. I'm not sure that I'm really looking forward to that however. I think its going to be awefully lonely. Other than that not much has happened this week. Spent the past couple of days researching jobs I could do for the summer (if you have any suggestions let me know), moving into my new room, reading and generally just being lazy. I received a care package from mom yesterday with the "Twilight" movie and movie snacks (popcorn and theater candy), so we're planning on having a movie night soon to indulge (nobody knew about twilight before I got here, but I introduced everyone to the book series and now they are addicted). TTYL. LoveYa.
Monday, March 16, 2009
La Rochelle
Howdy. So this past week I've been keeping rather busy. Wednesday night was Celine's Birthday. We made her a huge surprise birthday dinner (I made cupcakes) and then we went our for a drink at L'Havana bar. Thursday I worked like usual and it was Noreen's birthday so in the evening we went out to the bars again. I awoke early Friday to do some laundry with Pamela before catching a train to La Rochelle for the weekend. When I was pulling my laundry out of the dryer Pamela informed me that we only had 20 mins before we were suppose to be leaving (I hadn't packed, nor showered, nor put my contacts in, nor done my make-up, NOTHING, I was still in my pajamas!!), so I ran home with my laundry, dumped it onto my bed, grabbed a big pile of it and throw it into a suitcase, then threw my make-up in. I literally had no idea what I had packed. We opened up my suitcase once we got on the train to see what I had ended up with and needless to say we all got a good laugh out of it. Thankfully it had all the necessities (like socks, undies, toothbrush, ect), but lacked certain things like a towel, jacket, scarf, ect. Thankfully the weekend was lovely so the missing jacket and scarf weren't that big of a deal. Friday afternoon after we'd arrived in La Rochelle we checked into our hostel and then went to wander the town which is right along the Atlantic Ocean and lined with every size yacht one could imagine. We stopped at a Creperie (a place that makes crepes and sells coffee) for some crepes and ice cream along a pier and people watched for a while. The weather was gorgeous: bright, warm and full of sunshine. We returned to the hostel (which is a 2km walk from the center of town) after picking-up/meeting some other friends at the train station. We got dressed for an evening on the town, then headed back into town to grab some dinner (at a restaurant along the boardwalk) before meeting up with a group of La Rochelle assistants at a bar called "Le Mauvais Garcon" (the bad boy). We had a couple drinks there before heading to another bar/dance club called "the Piano Pub", we spent the rest of the evening dancing there. It was packed with people and the bar had apparently never heard of A/C because it was sauna hot in there. The moment you walked into the club the sweat starts pouring. We retired early (if you consider 2am early) knowing that we had a lot of places to see and visit the following day. Saturday wasn't the nicest weather in the morning. A thick, thick fog had set in during the night and it took it until around 1pm before the sun was able to burn it off. So the beginning of the day was spent shopping at various stores around town (in order to avoid the cold and the sprinkling rain) instead of at the beach like originally planned. I bought some new boots, a scarf and avaitor sunglasses. The afternoon was warm and sunny however so we caught a "water taxi" (a hourly ferry) back to the hostel and threw on some clothes for the beach. We played some games at the beach and then some of the group decided to go swimming (they were crazy, there was no way I was going in that water, it might have been warm out, but with the wind blowing it was still pretty chilly and necessary to wear a light sweater). After the beach we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the evening. We were meeting up with the La Rochelle assistants again, but this time at the beach (not the one close to us, but on the otherside of town) for some pre-gaming drinks before the bars. Drinking wine on the beach was lovely and some guy had built this huge sand turtle (the turtle was wearing armour, kind of like mario brother turtles) and the man had put lit candles in the eyes so it looked totally amazing. That night we visited a few bars before ending up at the Piano Pub again to spend the evening dancing until 4am (so we didn't make it back to the hostel until 5am...it was a very long night). We awoke bright and early Sunday morning to make the most of our time left at the coast. We decided to spend the day at the beach since it was extremely warm. This was a gorgeous day spent at the beach and I have the sunburns to prove it (everyone else got tan, I only got red). Of course on Sundays there is nothing to do in France, because everything is closed (except in tourist towns like La Rochelle and Paris, but still practically everything was closed so the pickings are slim), so everyone in town was at the beach soaking up the rays (and in case you didn't know, public nudity at beaches isn't frowned upon in France, in fact it is highly accepted so needless to say you see a lot more at the beach then you really want to). We caught a 6pm train home to Angouleme and thus ended the weekend at the coast.
The weather over here right now is gorgeous and warm (sunny and in the 70s), so we've been staying busy. Today I went to the gym first thing to workout, then to Auchan (which is a huge mall) to buy some tennis rackets and later on Celine and me went to play tennis. Tomorrow I'll be staying busy with classes all day and then Celine and me are having another match of tennis tomorrow. Wednesday dad gets into town so I'll be busy coming up with ways to entertain him while he's here visiting. TTYL. LoveYa. Katie
The weather over here right now is gorgeous and warm (sunny and in the 70s), so we've been staying busy. Today I went to the gym first thing to workout, then to Auchan (which is a huge mall) to buy some tennis rackets and later on Celine and me went to play tennis. Tomorrow I'll be staying busy with classes all day and then Celine and me are having another match of tennis tomorrow. Wednesday dad gets into town so I'll be busy coming up with ways to entertain him while he's here visiting. TTYL. LoveYa. Katie
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Travel Back to France
Bonjour! I've safely arrived back in France. I took an overnight train from Luxor to Cario Saturday evening and arrived in Cairo around 7am Sunday. On the train I met some other Americans from Minnesota so we stayed up talking about our travels around Egypt most of the ride. They weren't overly impressed with Egypt as a country either, but we all seemed to agree that the temples and pyramids were impressive and worth the journey. Upon arriving in Cairo I immediately flagged down a taxi to take me to the airport, even though my flight wasn't until 2:45pm. I spent the remainder of the day at the airport waiting for my flight out of that god forsaken country. Waiting at an airport for that long, really wasn't that bad. I grabbed some breakfast, looked around at all the shops, caught up on some reading, had some lunch and then took a nap before my flight. I consider that a rather great day, because I wasn't being starred/glared at by people or hassled by people trying to sell me stuff, all the prices were marked so it didn't require me to haggle, the airport and restaurants were clean and a/c so there weren't bugs crawling everywhere, heat or the smell of pollution and people weren't beating animals, ect (basically all the things I hated about Egypt). When I arrived in Greece, I'd never been so happy to arrive back into a "civilized" country. I had to catch a bus into town to my hostel and when I went to buy the ticket the man pointed at a sign that read "women ride for free today" aaaahhh finally a country that knows how to treat women right! My flight for France left first thing Monday morning so I basically crashed at the hostel and then woke up bright and early to head to the airport. My flight only took me to Paris, so I caught a train to Angouleme. I arrived home at 7pm. I'd been travelling for almost four days so I was pretty spent. A care package from dad was waiting for me when I arrived home and everyone helped me eat all the goodies in it (the girls have requested more cheesecake hersey kisses, dill pickle pringles, teriyaki beef jerky and red vines licorice be sent immediately). The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and catching up with everyone on their travels (we are all just a group of world travelers, some went to the UK, others to Italy, some to the states, some to the Netherlands, others to Spain, ect). I also had to prepare my lesson plans because I taught all day Tuesday. Tuesday I went to classes all day, bought some groceries for the week and relaxed watching Season II of Gossip Girls (which I had illegally downloaded on Limewire before I left) with Pamela. Today I woke up and immediately started cleaning my room, putting all my stuff away, getting a bunch of chores done (addressing postcards, laundry, ect). I figured two days of rest after my three weeks of exhausting travel was enough and I need to start getting things taken care of and getting ready for dad's arrival, which is in a week. Today is Celine's birthday, so we're all going out for cocktails this evening. But her party is actually this weekend in La Rochelle, which is a resort town along the Atlantic Ocean. So I'll be spending the weekend there (we've already booked up a hostel and everything. There's a large group of us going). Ahhh the life of a world traveler. I've haven't even been home a full week and I'm already headed somewhere else. XOXO. LoveYa.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
More in Depth
Hi, so I figured I'd fill everyone in a bit more on the past couple of days since I didn't tell much in the last one. Like I said, I visited two temples the other day (Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple). I'd met some dutch girls who go to school in Cairo the night before, so they accompanied me to the temples. I wasn't hassled nearly as much, but since we were still a group of girls (even though we were extremely modestly dressed) we did recieve a lot of unwanted attention (some called us "spice girls" when we walked by and we didn't understand why at first but then we realized we had a black girl, a red head (me) and a brunette with us, so apparently that made us spice girls even though none of us were british). They spoke a little arabic so we got better prices on things like food, souvenirs and taxis. Karnak Temple is the largest temple ever built. It was really cool, because it was still really intact. We entered into the main hall and there were enormous pillars everywhere (somewhere around 164 pillars all in rows/columns), but my favorite part was the entrance which was guarded/lined by ram-headed sphnixes. After visiting the temples we grabbed some lunch at a little restaurant across from the Luxor Temple. I really getting tired of Egyptian restaurants. They are the most unsanitary places to eat (I always try not to imagine what the kitchen looks like). This particular restaurant had cockroaches, which we ended up killing two that crawled onto our table. I almost lost my appetit after that, but disgustingly enough I'm getting used to disgustingly unsanitary restaurants. Its very common for bugs to be crawling all over everywhere here. After lunch we hit up a couple of bookshops (I needed a book to read the following day on the beach along the Red Sea) and then took a hour long Felucca ride which was extremely relaxing and cool (it was a very hot day and I have to remain completely covered up so not to get hassled as bad). The girls left that night to head back to Cairo and I turned in early so I could get up early to catch a bus to Hurghada (a beach resort town along the Red Sea).
BAD DAY
I should have never attempted the trip to the Red Sea. It was my most horrid experience while travelling ever!!! The bus station is located out of town so I had to take a taxi there. The taxi driver was not a good person. As we were driving to the bus station he was harrassing me, I'll not go into details but basically it was the most threatening situation I'd ever been, I yelled at him to pull over and let me out when he wouldn't pull over I grabbed my stuff, opened the door and jumped out. I was then stranded for a bit in desert (5km from Luxor and 2km from the bus station). I ended up hitching a ride in another car and drove to the bus station. The person who picked me up was very nice and helpful. He didn't charge me for the ride and he assisted me in getting my tickets and putting me on the correct bus (I think he knew I was in a lot of distress). The bus ride was awful too. The bus ride to the coast is suppose to be a 5 hour drive but our bus broke down twice before we ended up having to switch buses and then that bus broke down too, so another bus picked us up. It ended up taking 8 hours to get to Hurghada. When I got there I hailed a taxi (although I was very weary of taxi drivers now) and droven to a couple of locations where I was suppose to be able to lay on the beach (fully clothed of course), but each place I went didn't workout. I wasn't in Hurghada long because I had to catch a bus back to Luxor that evening and since I'd arrived so late I basically had to turn right around to take a 5 hour bus ride back to Luxor (thankfully this bus didn't breakdown). What a waste of the day. I only had a few glimpses of the Red Sea and didn't even get to dip my toes in the water.
After such a stressful day the day before, I decided today I'd just go to a nice hotel and relax at their pool. The place I went to, I was surrounded by foreigners in bikinis so I was actually able to relax in the sun (in my bikini), swim, read (my book I'd bought a couple days before Agatha Christie's 'Murder along the Nile') and not be hassled by anyone. It was just what I needed after the horrible day before. I ate lunch at McD's before going to the pool (its the only restaurant in town that is clean and bug free). I catch an overnight train to Cairo in about a hour. I'll arrive in Cairo at 6:30am and then take a taxi to the airport. My flight leaves at 2:45pm. I'll arrive in Athens at 4:45pm. I'll try to write again tomorrow evening. TTYL. LoveYa.
BAD DAY
I should have never attempted the trip to the Red Sea. It was my most horrid experience while travelling ever!!! The bus station is located out of town so I had to take a taxi there. The taxi driver was not a good person. As we were driving to the bus station he was harrassing me, I'll not go into details but basically it was the most threatening situation I'd ever been, I yelled at him to pull over and let me out when he wouldn't pull over I grabbed my stuff, opened the door and jumped out. I was then stranded for a bit in desert (5km from Luxor and 2km from the bus station). I ended up hitching a ride in another car and drove to the bus station. The person who picked me up was very nice and helpful. He didn't charge me for the ride and he assisted me in getting my tickets and putting me on the correct bus (I think he knew I was in a lot of distress). The bus ride was awful too. The bus ride to the coast is suppose to be a 5 hour drive but our bus broke down twice before we ended up having to switch buses and then that bus broke down too, so another bus picked us up. It ended up taking 8 hours to get to Hurghada. When I got there I hailed a taxi (although I was very weary of taxi drivers now) and droven to a couple of locations where I was suppose to be able to lay on the beach (fully clothed of course), but each place I went didn't workout. I wasn't in Hurghada long because I had to catch a bus back to Luxor that evening and since I'd arrived so late I basically had to turn right around to take a 5 hour bus ride back to Luxor (thankfully this bus didn't breakdown). What a waste of the day. I only had a few glimpses of the Red Sea and didn't even get to dip my toes in the water.
After such a stressful day the day before, I decided today I'd just go to a nice hotel and relax at their pool. The place I went to, I was surrounded by foreigners in bikinis so I was actually able to relax in the sun (in my bikini), swim, read (my book I'd bought a couple days before Agatha Christie's 'Murder along the Nile') and not be hassled by anyone. It was just what I needed after the horrible day before. I ate lunch at McD's before going to the pool (its the only restaurant in town that is clean and bug free). I catch an overnight train to Cairo in about a hour. I'll arrive in Cairo at 6:30am and then take a taxi to the airport. My flight leaves at 2:45pm. I'll arrive in Athens at 4:45pm. I'll try to write again tomorrow evening. TTYL. LoveYa.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Luxor and Red Sea
Hey, just a quick message today. Yesterday I visited the Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple, but like I said before they are all starting to blend together. Today I had the worst day I've ever had travelling, but i don't feel like discussing it. I took a bus to the red sea. It brokedown twice on the ride there, so we switched buses, then that bus brokedown to so we had to get another bus. Needless to say it was a long journey there (7 hours) and I basically ended up having to just turn around to head back to Luxor which was another 5 hours to return. Tomorrow I'm finding a hotel with a pool and relaxing all day. I don't have much time to write because I'm at an internet cafe, but I'll describe these days more tomorrow hopefully. I take an overnight train tomorrow evening to Cairo and then board a plane back to Greece. TTYL. LoveYa
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Luxor and Valley of the Kings
Hello. Sorry for not posting anything yesterday the internet wasn't working. Yesterday I took a 7:30am convoy by bus from Aswan to Luxor. On the way we made stops at the Temple of Kom Ombo and the Edfu Temple. Both were beautiful and situated along the Nile so they had great views. I've noticed that all the Temples are starting to blend together. They all seem to be set up the same with inner and outer chambers and antechambers with pylons, nilometers, ect. They are all in pretty good condition which is shocking since they had to survive the flooding of the Nile for thousands of years. They all have huge columns with hieroglyphics covering them. At first it was really interesting to see all the different hieroglyphic signs and different drawings of the rituals performed in the Temples, but like I said, now they are all kind of starting to blend together.
Today I took a ferry to the West Bank of Luxor which is where the Valley of the Kings, Tombs of the Nobles, Valley of the Queens, ect is located. I rented a bicycle for the day (much cheaper then renting a taxi all day) and headed to the Valley of the Kings which is about 11 kilometers from the ferry dock (these ferries actually somewhat resemble ferries except they are basically huge metal fishing boats with wooden benches to sit on and a second story to the ship. It's not inclosed at all though). The bicycle ride today was so enjoyable. The breeze from riding helped to keep me cool in the HOT, HOT sun. I visited three tombs in the Valley of the Kings: Ramses IX, Ramses IV and Tuthmoses III (lots of the tombs I originally planned on visiting were closed for restoration) and also the tomb of King Tut (which I had to pay extra to see), which had one of his coffins (he was buried in four coffins one inside the other, which I saw the rest of the coffins at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo). His mummified corps is still in the tomb too, so I got to see him. King Tut's tomb was rather small. I entered down some stairs and immediately came across two chambers (one with the coffin and one with the body), there were two other small chambers which we weren't allowed to enter but they were empty and were the rooms where all the treasures that now lie in the Egyptian Museum were located. The room with the coffin had heiroglyphics and drawings all over the walls. It showed Tut as short and fat, which I found really amusing. I'd known he was short, but not fat. I think I know how he died (granted it's just my theory), all the kings were so imbreed from marrying their sisters/mothers that he probably had hemowhatever (that causes the blood not to clot, a common trait of imbreeding) and he cut him shaving and bleed out. The other tombs were more impressive with long entrance chambers, some with steep staircases and huge pits (to prevent thieves from robbing them) that they've now built walkways across. The walls are covered in colorful hieroglyphics (the coloring of the walls and cielings are still vibrant and amazing) that tell the lives of the pharoah and have drawings of the ceremonies surrounding his entrance into the afterlife. From the Valley of the Kings I rode my bike to the Valley of the Nobles (which is where the high ranking officials were buried). The hieroglyphics and drawings in these told the story of what they did during their lives as well. I visited the tombs of Serrenof and Rehkmet there. After that I rode my bike back to the bike shop near the ferry. It was getting to be midafternoon, so it was scorchingly HOT (but surprisingly I've managed not to get sunburned yet, but also have managed not to get a tan at all either, oh well). I don't think I'll be visiting the Red Sea like I originally planned because the bus schedule is silly, but we'll see. I have decided to take a hot airballon ride over the West Bank during sunrise however. I've always wanted to ride in one and I'll never find it so cheap to do again. Tomorrow I'm planning on visiting Luxor Temple and also Karnak Temple. TTYL. LoveYa.
Today I took a ferry to the West Bank of Luxor which is where the Valley of the Kings, Tombs of the Nobles, Valley of the Queens, ect is located. I rented a bicycle for the day (much cheaper then renting a taxi all day) and headed to the Valley of the Kings which is about 11 kilometers from the ferry dock (these ferries actually somewhat resemble ferries except they are basically huge metal fishing boats with wooden benches to sit on and a second story to the ship. It's not inclosed at all though). The bicycle ride today was so enjoyable. The breeze from riding helped to keep me cool in the HOT, HOT sun. I visited three tombs in the Valley of the Kings: Ramses IX, Ramses IV and Tuthmoses III (lots of the tombs I originally planned on visiting were closed for restoration) and also the tomb of King Tut (which I had to pay extra to see), which had one of his coffins (he was buried in four coffins one inside the other, which I saw the rest of the coffins at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo). His mummified corps is still in the tomb too, so I got to see him. King Tut's tomb was rather small. I entered down some stairs and immediately came across two chambers (one with the coffin and one with the body), there were two other small chambers which we weren't allowed to enter but they were empty and were the rooms where all the treasures that now lie in the Egyptian Museum were located. The room with the coffin had heiroglyphics and drawings all over the walls. It showed Tut as short and fat, which I found really amusing. I'd known he was short, but not fat. I think I know how he died (granted it's just my theory), all the kings were so imbreed from marrying their sisters/mothers that he probably had hemowhatever (that causes the blood not to clot, a common trait of imbreeding) and he cut him shaving and bleed out. The other tombs were more impressive with long entrance chambers, some with steep staircases and huge pits (to prevent thieves from robbing them) that they've now built walkways across. The walls are covered in colorful hieroglyphics (the coloring of the walls and cielings are still vibrant and amazing) that tell the lives of the pharoah and have drawings of the ceremonies surrounding his entrance into the afterlife. From the Valley of the Kings I rode my bike to the Valley of the Nobles (which is where the high ranking officials were buried). The hieroglyphics and drawings in these told the story of what they did during their lives as well. I visited the tombs of Serrenof and Rehkmet there. After that I rode my bike back to the bike shop near the ferry. It was getting to be midafternoon, so it was scorchingly HOT (but surprisingly I've managed not to get sunburned yet, but also have managed not to get a tan at all either, oh well). I don't think I'll be visiting the Red Sea like I originally planned because the bus schedule is silly, but we'll see. I have decided to take a hot airballon ride over the West Bank during sunrise however. I've always wanted to ride in one and I'll never find it so cheap to do again. Tomorrow I'm planning on visiting Luxor Temple and also Karnak Temple. TTYL. LoveYa.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Aswan Pictures
Ruins of the Monastery on the west bank of Aswan
The decor of the Nubian Beach Restaurant.
The Mausoleum near the Monastery on the west bank of Aswan
The tomb of Sarenput II had a little chamber with baskets full of bones of other family members
Hieroglyphics and drawings inside the tomb of Sarenput II
Inside on of the tombs. That hole goes a loooooong way down to a tomb
Some entrances to the tombs in the side of the hill
A view of the Tombs from the East bank of Aswan
Some entrances to the tombs in the side of the hill
A view of the Tombs from the East bank of Aswan
View of the Tombs at night from the East bank of Aswan
A view of Lake Nassar
Some Hieroglyphics in the Temple of Isis on Philae Island
The Temple of Isis on Philae Island
The Temple of Isis on Philae Island
The Temple of Abu Simbel. This is the one built for Ramsis II's favorite wife
The Temples of Abu Simbel. This is Ramsis II's Temple
A view of the Nile from the east bank of Aswan
The Temple of Isis on Philae Island
The Temple of Isis on Philae Island
The Temple of Abu Simbel. This is the one built for Ramsis II's favorite wife
The Temples of Abu Simbel. This is Ramsis II's Temple
A view of the Nile from the east bank of Aswan
The ancient Abu ruins on Elephantine Island
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)