Rennes with Irennes :D

Bonjour to all,
I'm been neglecting this guy a little so I'll try to get you all up to date on what's going on here in France. Chambery had gotten really sunny the past couple of weeks so my friends and I enjoyed every bit of it with walks in the park, bike rides to a nearby lake, and snowshoing (which is much harder than i had imagined). My friend from the states, Irene came to visit me for a week and it was lots of fun seeing her and we took a trip to Rennes as well. Luckily the weather stuck out for her too and we took a hike in the mountains, ate tartiflette and gorged ourselves at the market, before making a delicious quiche.

Tuesday morning we truged to the train station in the pouring down rain (ya sun's gone back to cloudy gray skies) and headed to Rennes. We couchsurfed and our host met with us before she had to go babysit. She told us her roommate needed models for a photography shoot so we headed to the park with her and dressed up as clowns for her photo. I'll try to show you guys the final product if I can get a hold of it, but we saw a preliminary picture but unfortunately Irene's face was cut off by the confetti we were throwing, so hopefully she's gonna fix it so we can see her lovely face :D. Couchsurfing is always a good time, hehehe. That evening Auriane, our host gave us dinner and we headed out to explore Rennes at night. Auriane is an English major and was so nice and welcoming, and unfortunately she was on her last day of "vacation" after her university's six week strike! Ya six weeks can you believe it? I understand the french's need to show their governement when they're mad or don't agree with something but six weeks of no school seems a little too much. Apparently Sarkozy wants to make a lot of changes to the system because right now it's pretty easy and there's too many students and not enough teachers. He wants to make it easier masters students to teach, but also wants to make it harder to become a masters student. There seem to be lots of other requests too, that I need to research into more.

Rennes is basically a big collage party town, 200 000 residents with 60 000 students and Auriane told us many people come to university here, just for the party atmosphere. There's a street in the center of town called the Rue de la Soif, street of thrist, that is just bars and kebab stands. It was pretty quiet during the week but Thursday nights are when it gets insane with college students. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling too great during our nights out there (just a little cold that's passed now), but it was still crazy to see so many students in one little area.

We also took a day trip Wednesday to Mont Saint Michel, which was pretty incredible. The weather wasn't perfect, but no rain so it was fine. We took a tour through the abbey and the tour guide was this bitter man who basically told us that no one really knows the history of the Mont because most of the documents were destroyed while it was a prison during the French Revolution. Either way it was really cool and amazing to see such an old and sacred place. The views of the bay were also incredible and we enjoyed looking at all the stupid souvenirs :D.

Back in Chambery now with Irene back in the states. Had a calm weekend just recovering from my cold and doing some research on zero based budgeting (facinating I know). This week (and next) is back to the crazyness of "majors" so not really looking forward to that but I just have to take it day by day and remember to breath :). With Irene here I'm really getting excited about moving back to the states. I was talking with another American friend, Grace, the other day about our experiances and both agreed that while Chambery will always be with us, our lives are back in the states. I could definitely see myself living in France one day but not in Chambery, and maybe when I find a job that can bring me back here.

Still no idea yet when I'm coming home, but it's looking like either June or July so hopefully I figure that out soon. I'm meeting with someone Tuesday about an internship so hopefully that works out, and I can have a project to do for May and June and then travel with my sister and her boyfriend in July. I'll keep you guys updated and can't wait to see you all back in the states!
Gros bisous,
Steph

They basically turned their union building into a squat.

Hola! Stories from Spain and how 7 hours of class a day is going...

Salut tout le monde! Hope all is well with everyone and sorry for the late update, I've been a tad busy with classes and an amazing trip to Spain with my friend Iida. I'll start with Spain first, it was fabulous! We flew into Madrid first and met up with my best bud Fiona, who showed us a fun couple of days. We couchsurfed but they were very busy and we didn't have a lot of time for interation but they were very nice and cooked us a yummy dinner one night. So Madrid is gorgeous I have to say. I think it often gets passed over because of Barcelona but it's really a nice, huge city with lots to offer. We saw the Palace and all the beautiful Plazas, ate plenty of yummy jamon (ham, the spainards are crazy for it), churros and hot chocolate and walked a lot.
Fortunatley the weather was beautiful and Fiona informed me that Madrid has the more trees then London and Paris combined so we definitely explored all the big parks. My favorite was probably Parc Retiro, which was enormous and full of life, and just overall a great place to spend the afternoon.We also checked out Museum Prado which had a lot of famous Goya and other Spanish artists I can't remember their names now :D. It was nice having a spanish speaker with us a lot of the time, because even madrilenos (citizens of madrid) don't speak english that well. Sometimes it was a bit tough on the language front but for the most part we got by with miming :). Madrid is one of those cities that doesn't have a lot of tourists or big tourist attractions but it's very lively and just had a nice vibe.

After Madrid we headed to the infamous Barcelona where we arrived chez Miguel a Peruvian couchsurfer. Again couchsurfing on this trip wasn't too fantastic, we were there during the week most of the time, so they were busy working but still very kind and had some intersting conversations all the same. Barcelona is fantastic, I loved it a lot, we started the first day at Las Ramblas, the main street in the city filled with somewhat obnoxious mimes, and a great market, La Boqueria, where we got some fresh fruit and fruit juice. I think we were able to hit up all the Gaudi architecture in center of town and it sure is cool! Spain has pretty crazy architecture, in Madrid too, every building almost is from a different era, with a different style. Nothing like France where it's all pretty much the same. We visited an architecture museum, Poble Espanyol, which was just a big outdoor city with all the architecture from each region. It was pretty interesting, and I hope one day I can return and check out more of the little towns in Spain.Anyways back to Gaudi, we decided to pay the 13 euros to enter into his Casa Batillo and it was pretty awesome. They say there are no straight lines in his architecture and I believe it now. We were told that on the facade of the building he didn't have any plans for the builders, just drawings so basically he was just shouting out orders until it looked right to him. Pretty crazy guy. We also visited Parc Guell, which was also quite magical and beautiful, all the mosaics are so gorgeous and the park offered great views of Barcelona.
Finally we visited Sagra Familia the crazy church but decided it wasn't worth it to go in since they're still building it. Iida and I also met up with my Bordeaux friend Emily and her friend and it was nice to have some new faces with us and we enjoyed delicious paella together. Barcelona is definitely one of those must visit places, it's just soo culturally rich and a beautiful place. I wanna go back ASAP :).

Well Spain was wonderful and I've now decided I must start learning Spanish, but before that gotta get through these business courses. The week we got back was "core courses" as they call them and I'm only taking one so it was a pretty relaxed week, but now for 2 weeks we have our majors, which is 8h30-16h45 (with a lunch break) for two weeks straight everyday. It's really exhausting and I'm getting a little discouraged, but I'm trying to keep in touch with my professors and asking for extra books, problems, whatever they can give me. I hope it all works out but right now it's just a little ridiculous, and finance overload!

Well that's about it for me, I went skiing again last week and I seem to be improving little by little but we'll see if I'll have the time or money to go again, need to start getting serious about these business courses. Irene, my highschool friend at UW is coming end of March and we're gonna head off to Rennes for a couple of days and see Mont Saint Michel so that should be a nice break from the maddness right now. For more pictures check out my picasa account, http://picasaweb.google.com/stephlach I've got loads on there. Ok until next time!
Gros Bisous,
Steph

Quoi de neuf?

Bonjour again all. Not too much exciting to update but I figured it was about time to say hello again and keep everyone in the loop.

I had an amazing weekend in Montpellier with my fellow cougar Emily. We decided to couchsurf chez Germain who's a music student from the Reunion, which is a little French colony east of Madagascar. It was a really great weekend, we got there and he cooked us a delicious Reunion meal, chicken and rice and veggies, it was delish. Friday we spent the day at the Musee Fabre which had lots of different stuff including some Monet and Manet. Then we spent the afternoon just walking around Montpellier. It's a very nice and compact city and it was much warmer than Chambery so a great break. That night we met some more Reunioners and went to a bar to listen to an African music group. Unfortunately a storm rolled through the next couple days so weather wasn't too good, but still fun times eating African food and chatting about music. I really think that couchsurfing is one of the best things about my travels here. It just makes all my experiances so much better and welcoming. When you stay at a hostel it's just a bed to sleep on, but with couchsurfing you make friends and actually get to experiance the culture of a city. I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to travel on the cheap, and it's not just for Europe but the whole world, so I definitely want to try sometime back in the states.

I've gone skiing a couple more times and the other day I tried snowboarding, but that was just really frustrating and annoying and after a couple hours of falling on my butt I gave up and went back to the skis. I don't really think winter sports are my thing but it was fun to try a couple of times and I'm glad I went. Lots of first semester students now are heading out which is a bummer, but we've got new students coming in so that's exciting and it should be a good couple of months. Also yesterday I took my first final in French, which was an oral exam for all the internationals and I definitely smoked it with 17/20! It was for my Int'l Relations class where the prof obviously didn't favor the US but hopefully he sees that we're not all stupid now after me :D. Next week is going to be intense with the majors, class from 8:30-4:45 everyday (with a lunch break of course), but then after that I'm heading to Spain for the week! Madrid for a couple days then Barcelona for the rest with my friend Iida, so it should be a great time!

I'll keep in touch and hopefully I can live through next week and be in Spain ASAP! Bisous to all, a plus!
-Steph

L'Hiver en Chambery

Bonsoir tout le monde!
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, been pretty busy and just haven't gotten around to it... till well now :). I guess I'll start with the most recent news and work my way back, that being of course our new president Barack Obama! My American friends Grace and Max came over as well as a local Chambery radio reporter to record our reactions. Grace and Max are both pretty moderate, and don't follow politics too much, but they we were definitely all excited about Obama which was awesome. My roommates even let us watch on their big screen on CNN (until they kicked out about an hour later, sigh) so that was nice to watch it without french dubbing too. Overall an amazing historic moment and I was glad I could share it with some Americans and French. I'm anxious to see how the next couple months pan out and I hope all goes smoothly for Obama.

I've also started some French business classes in the past month and that has also been interesting and much harder than my French classes. I'm taking international economy and international relations both in French. The economy class is pretty straight forward, and the teacher uses powerpoints so it's reasonably easy to follow along and take notes. My international relations class is a bit different. The teacher talks with a lisp and way too fast so by the time I can write something down he's moved onto a completely different topic. He also hates America (welcome to Europe right) and isn't afraid to say it. He also isn't a big fan of Israel, which has also angered my jewish/french friend, Elodie, who came up to me one day in a huff, complaining about him. So it's a very different experience but I find the material of interesting when I understand because I like history, and he's obviously knowledgable on the subject. Oh funny story, the other day we were doing a little geography quiz and he called us up one by one to point out a random country in the world. I was called and he asked where Venezuala was and I knew that one (I would not say i'm good at geography) and he proceeds with "well people say Americans are bad at geography and Europeans are the smart ones but it seems to be the opposite in this class". That drew some groans and well, noise from my classmates, to say the least.

I will say though that French classes are waaayy too long. Most classes are three hours, in the morning or afternoon and a lot of the time people have a full six our day. Three hours a day in one class is too much and it shows. By the end of the day most people around me are chatting online or to their neighbors paying very little attention to what's going on in the class. Which is another obstacle for me trying to understand the professor. I have encountered some very nice people though, who have been willing to offer me their notes or just answer my questions so that's really good. I think I will need that next semester with a full load of French classes.

Last thing I want to tell you about is my first ski experience in my life!! It was probably one of the most exhausting things I've ever done, but a lot of fun and I definitely want to go back. I was with another first timer, my brasilien friend Luciana so it was nice to have a beginner buddy. Also a french friend came with and he was probably mine and Luciana's savior because he is/was a ski instructor and helped us out soo much. I don't know what we would've done without him there. Skiing is a lot harder than I imagined and definitely takes a lot out of you. By the end Luciana and I were pooped! But it was definitely awesome to say I've now skiied in the Alpes, and man was it beautiful. I decided not to take a lot of pictures for fear I would destroy my camera, but I got a couple and I'll hopefully steal some off friends soon.

Well that's pretty much all for now. I start all my finance courses the second week of February and I have a feeling it's gonna be intense so I'll update about that when I have the time. My friend Emily who's in Bordeaux and I are meeting up in Montpellier this weekend so I'm excited about that, getting out of Chambé will be nice. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend, à plus!
-Steph

Bonne Annee!

Salut tout le monde,
Happy new year to all, hope everyone had a happy and healthy vacation, and I hope the snow wasn't too much of a bummer. It just started snowing again in Chambery too, but it's not too bad, just very cold.
Winter break was amazing. It was great to see Tyler and my parents and I wish it could have lasted much longer. Tyler and I started out break in Paris where we stayed 4 nights with some great couchsufers. The first guy wasn't there very much as he was packing for his vacation and working, but our 2nd hosts were very nice and cool young students so that was fun. They spent most of the time while we were there working on a homemade twister board for the boy's niece so that was pretty cute, I hope she enjoys it. Paris was great as always, the weather wasn't too bad, it was a little warmer the first couple days and then got sunnier and colder the last but Paris is always amazing for me. We visited the Pere Lachaise cemetary for my first time which was great, soo huge and pretty (sounds weird but it was!). Also went to the Musee D'Orsay again which was great as well.

From Paris we came back to Chambery for two nights, including Christmas and just chilled out and slept. We then headed off to Cannes on the 26th to meet up with my parents and drove from there to Menton, a coastal town close to Italy, and stayed in a gorgeous condo right on the beach. It was pretty cool being able to hear the waves laping up on the beach from our appartment. Menton was very pretty and we also made day trips from there to Monaco and Cannes. I have actually visited both of those cities before in high school but very briefly, and the weather was horrible, so it was nice to spend a whole day in each. That squinty picture there is Tyler and I in Menton, it was really sunny and windy, not a good picture taking combo but I think it's a funny picture.

After the south of France it was off to Florence for us and my dad rented a car so we didn't have to deal with long train rides. On the way we stopped in the Cinque Terre, and while the turning rodes made me a little sick, it was gorgeous and we even stopped in an adorable town called Vernazza and had delicious pizza. It was cool cause they don't allow cars in the little beach towns so it's very quite and beautiful. We finally arrived in Florence at our cute hotel in the center of town. Florence was also beautiful with ancient buildings and amazing art. We saw the Uffizi Museum with lots of Jesus and Mary paintings as well as the Birth of Venus and lots of old scuptures. We also saw David at the Academia which was pretty cool and quite large as well. We probably ate too much Tuscan food though, and by the end of the trip we where Italian fooded out. It was all delicous though, just too much. We also spent New Years there which was definitely and experiance with fireworks everywhere and these loud bomb like things people lit off in garbage cans, it sounded more like a war zone than new years eve. Florence was a great place to visit with all the culture and history it's pretty amazing to think about all the important people that have walked its streets.

Then it was back to good ol' Chambery where my parents got a chance to see a little of the Savoie region and my town. It was back to school for my on Monday, where I started my first business class in French and it doesn't seem too hard yet so we'll see how it goes. Only one more month of my French program then I'm going full force into the finance courses so that should be pretty exciting. I think I may venture out to ski this weekend, and my friend Iida and I are planning a trip for Febuary to Spain, Madrid and Barcelona, so I'm pretty excited for that! I've definitely been missing home more since Tyler and my parents left, but hopefully I get back into the swing of things soon and have a good end of the first semester. Hope everyone had a good week and good luck to all for getting back to Pullman, miss you lots, gros bisous!
-Steph

Fete des Lumieres en Lyon

Some videos I took at the festival in Lyon:

Coucou

Salut tout le monde!
Not too much exciting news to share but I thought it was about time to keep you guys informed of the goings on. Last weekend me and two American friends toured the great town of Torino Italy. We couchsurfed chez Camilla and Giacomo and they were wonderful hosts with an amazing apartment, we really lucked out. Italy is great, the people are funny and interesting and they're culture is amazing. I really want to start learning Italian now, it's such a pretty language and I can already understand a little bit when my Italian friend Erica talks. The highlight of Torino for me was the National Film Museum. It's in an amazing looking building, the Mole Antonelliana, and the inside is just as gorgeous. There was a great exhibit on Roman Polanski while we were there with great photos of him directing and it's just a really nice museum. We also got to enjoy Bicerinos which are these amazing chocolaty, coffee drinks that were delicious. Torino is famous for it's chocolate so it was great to try that.

This weekend we got to enjoy the Fete des Lumieres in Lyon or the Light Festival. It was really great, with lots of cool light sculptures and light shows all over the city. There were also tons of street vendors and yummy food to eat, which is rare for the French since they're not big fans of walking and eating. Chambery has also gotten a lot more festive with Christmas lights on every street, piped in Christmas music and the Christmas market which is pretty freaking adorable.

I guess what I really wanted to share with you guys is a little about the French and they're crazy language. The other day I was telling my roommate, Laura, that my friend Fiona is coming in from Madrid next week and staying with us a couple of nights. I told her that she doesn't speak French, only English and Spanish and her response was a frank, "why doesn't she speak French?" I didn't know how to respond to that... but I think it kind of sums up the attitude that the French have, and the reason people have a negative view towards them. My friend's host mom in Bordeaux told me a joke, if you're trilingual you speak three languages, bilingual two and one language you're French. The French are notoriously bad at speaking English because they really don't have a need for it. They're country is big enough they can travel around and see everything they could want without leaving, and without practicing another language. I don't have a problem if a French person can only speak French, because well look at the US, but the French have a very strict opinion of their language, it's the best. France has a organization called the Academie Francaise that actually regulates the French language http://www.academie-francaise.fr/ (sorry no translation for english, hehe). They're two missions are translated literally "take care of their language and carry out acts of patronage", or give out literary prizes. I'm not sure if an organization exists like this anywhere else in the world but government documents and any public documents, I believe, must adhere to strict guidelines from the Academie. Ending a letter for example, can be very complicated, almost a paragraph in itself. The French citizens also take this very seriously and apparently the French are constantly correcting each other's grammar and speech. A friend told me in bathroom stall graffiti sometimes you can see someone has crossed out a sentence and rewritten it correctly. While this obviously isn't always the case with most college aged students, I find it very foreign and somewhat annoying for me. While the French language may not change as much as English, making one little grammatical mistake can make you look stupid. At the same time this is what makes the French well so French and it's somewhat fascinating. I tried to explain to my French professor that the US had no official language and she just couldn't grasp that concept "all government documents are written in English right?" "well yes, but it's not technically the official language," "well if they're all written in English then it is." For the French there's nothing comparable to their language, and that's definitely a trait unique to the French.