Les nouvelles

Salut tout le monde,
The past couple of weeks have been a lot of fun, last weekend I went to Paris with 10 friends, we took the overnight train on Friday night and arrived in Paris at 7am Saturday morning. It was actually a pretty nice way to go, the seats reclined and I slept pretty well, and when we woke up, Paris! It was a totally different experience from when I was there in high school, we spoke French the whole time and found the Persians to be quite nice. I also got to visit Montmatre this time, which is a really cool neighborhood, also ran into my friend Alex at the Moulin Rouge which was crazy random. She's in France studying but not in Paris and we just happened to be at the same place same time, small world this is. Paris is really an amazing place, but soo many tourists and it's not even tourist season. I don't know if I could stand it if I lived there (or afford to). We headed back Monday evening on the TGV, so much quicker than the other train.

This weekend was also fun and relaxing. Last night we (me and my italian friend Erica and my slovakian friend Martina) ate dinner at a French friend's apartment and they made raclette for us, yummy! It's definitely nice to hang out with French people too, I think my French skills improve tenfold that way. I'm starting to understand more and more when they talk but it's still difficult sometimes cause it's soo fast and I have to concentrate really hard to keep up, but it's good just to hear, it even if I can't understand everything. Today some friends and I took a hike in the mountains and it was tiring but really pretty. I have to remind myself sometimes what a gorgeous place Chambery is and how lucky I am to be here, and the hike today definitely proved that.

No big plans for this week or next weekend, but I want to venture into Italy soon so maybe end of November that will happen. Until next time, au revoir!
-Steph

OBAMA!!

Salut tout le monde,
Yay I'm soo proud of our country and I'm proud to be an American at this point in time. It's weird though that I'm not in the US to experience the real excitement of the election. The French are happy about it, but in my little town of Chambery it's hard to tell. The international day was yesterday and people kept asking me if I was happy with the results and of course I replied positively, but it's hard to express to them how extatic I really was. I'm not sure it's really gonna hit me the changes of our country until I get home, but hopefully I'll be able to see some changes all the way over here in Chambery.

So besides the amazing president everything here is going along nicely and I'm really starting to get settled down. Chambery is feeling more like home everyday, and not just some cute town where all my stuff is. I'm also interacting more with the french students and not being the shy little American wandering the halls. I think it'll take time, but hopefully I can come away with not only some great international friends but also some French ones. My roommates and I are also starting to get along better and while I think they think I'm kinda strange at times, they are nice and fun to be around. The other night I watched Holy Grail with them because Laura has to do an english presentation on it, but she doesn't think it's funny (now who's strange?!), but it was fun none the less.

So I'm off to Paris for this long weekend, we get monday and tuesay off so it should be a grand old time. Going Friday night with a couple friends and then meeting up with more people who are driving from Chambery Saturday morning. We found a cheap hotel and we're heading back Monday night. No real specific plans but it should be a good time and we'll be in Paris so that's what matters :). Until next time, bonne weekend et a tout!