So as you all probably know I arrived back in the US last Thursday after a great 2 1/2 week trip with my sister and her boyfriend, KC. It was pretty sad to leave Chambé for the last time, and now that I'm back home I'm starting to come to the realization that I won't see the friends I've been with for the past year in a long time. Hopefully I can make to over to Brazil and back to Europe soon to see them all again. I still had an amazing year though and one that I will never forget, I feel that I understand my American identity more, and I've learned a lot more than I ever thought I would about some European cultures and how they view Americans. I've come to the understanding that I'm very lucky to be born in the US, and it's an identity I never want to lose, even if I end up living in Europe, or somewhere else, in the future. I can't imagine living in a country where everyone looks the same, acts the same, and whose opinions and beliefs are the same. Before I moved to France I had the idea that Europe was just as mulitcultural and diverse as the US but really it's all very seperated by country, the czechs in the Czech Republic, the fins in Finland, etc. I feel that France is pretty diverse for Europe and everyone, for the most part, is accepted by their French neighbors.
I hope I can continue practicing my french because I definitely don't want to lose it after all the hard work I've put in. Hopefully one day I can use that skill in my future career, fingers crossed.
Well anyways I'm actually back in Pullman now which is pretty strange, after being gone from here for a year. Not much has changed, but I do have a really nice apartment with 2 close friends. So that's much more bearable than dorm life. Right now in mid-July it's pretty dead around here so I'm hoping the excitement picks up in August when school starts. My schedule looks pretty full this semester, with lots of Finance courses and the stress of getting my French credits to transfer over here. I also need to find a job but that's pretty slow going right now too so we'll see what happens. I'm going back to Seattle on Tuesday, and my cousin is coming to visit us for a couple days, and I'm going to a concert and then in August heading over to Chicago and Ohio to see family, so pretty busy summer plans. I'll prolly keep updating this once a month or so, so stay tuned :D.
Gros bisous,
Steph
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Long time no see
Wow sorry it's been awhile since I wrote. Been a little stressed with the end of school and everything, but so far I've passed all my classes so we're doing OK!
I visited the south of France last week, and it was a great little vacation from Chambery. My polish friend Karolina and I started out in Avignon a cute town in Provence that's surrouned by a medieval wall and of course the Pont d'Avignon (bridge of avignon).
Avignon also has the Pope's Palace that was built in the 1300s when the popes fled Rome. It's gorgeous and enormous, and we arrived just before a rose festival there so it was also yummy
smelling! A couchsurfer took us to the little town across the Rhone River from Avignon called Villeneuve d'Avignon which had adorable provancal houses and a mightly looking castle.
After Avignon we headed to Marseille the second biggest city in France. We started out by taking a boat trip to the Island of If where a famous castle sits, the setting of Dumas' book the Count of Monte Cristo.
It was a cute little castle and had amazing views of Marseille. We then wandered around the old town a little, and the old port, before meeting up with our couchsurfer. He was a great guy and was so nice and welcoming to us. He showed us some Marseille night life, and had an adorable little american themed apartment downtown. The second day we headed out to conquer the sites of Marseille and mounted the big church on the hill Notre Dame de la Garde. We were gross, hot and sweaty by the time we got to the top, but it offered amazing views once again. 
We then walked down to the sea, and took a walk along it, cooling off. The third day was probably the best. Our couchsurfer took us to the Calanques which are these beautiful cliffs just an hour bus ride from the center of town, on the Mediterranean. You can hike down the cliffs where there are little inlets to swim, and we took advantage of that even though there were tons of people. I really liked Marseille, it was a fun, active city, and seems like there's always something to do.
Right now I'm just chilling out in Chambery, relaxing at the lake, and catching up on reading. I only have about a week left here so I'm getting down to packing and figuring out what to do with all the stuff I've collected this past year. I'm pretty sad to leave, but at the same time really excited to travel with my sister and KC. On the 15th we fly out from Geneva to Amsterdam then it's Berlin, Prague, Munich and back to Geneva to fly home the 2nd of July. It's kinda surreal that I'm gonna be home so soon but i'm sure it'll hit me soon and i'll post another update :).
Hope everyone has a great weekend! Gros Bisous!
-Steph
I visited the south of France last week, and it was a great little vacation from Chambery. My polish friend Karolina and I started out in Avignon a cute town in Provence that's surrouned by a medieval wall and of course the Pont d'Avignon (bridge of avignon).
Avignon also has the Pope's Palace that was built in the 1300s when the popes fled Rome. It's gorgeous and enormous, and we arrived just before a rose festival there so it was also yummy
smelling! A couchsurfer took us to the little town across the Rhone River from Avignon called Villeneuve d'Avignon which had adorable provancal houses and a mightly looking castle.After Avignon we headed to Marseille the second biggest city in France. We started out by taking a boat trip to the Island of If where a famous castle sits, the setting of Dumas' book the Count of Monte Cristo.
It was a cute little castle and had amazing views of Marseille. We then wandered around the old town a little, and the old port, before meeting up with our couchsurfer. He was a great guy and was so nice and welcoming to us. He showed us some Marseille night life, and had an adorable little american themed apartment downtown. The second day we headed out to conquer the sites of Marseille and mounted the big church on the hill Notre Dame de la Garde. We were gross, hot and sweaty by the time we got to the top, but it offered amazing views once again. 
We then walked down to the sea, and took a walk along it, cooling off. The third day was probably the best. Our couchsurfer took us to the Calanques which are these beautiful cliffs just an hour bus ride from the center of town, on the Mediterranean. You can hike down the cliffs where there are little inlets to swim, and we took advantage of that even though there were tons of people. I really liked Marseille, it was a fun, active city, and seems like there's always something to do.Right now I'm just chilling out in Chambery, relaxing at the lake, and catching up on reading. I only have about a week left here so I'm getting down to packing and figuring out what to do with all the stuff I've collected this past year. I'm pretty sad to leave, but at the same time really excited to travel with my sister and KC. On the 15th we fly out from Geneva to Amsterdam then it's Berlin, Prague, Munich and back to Geneva to fly home the 2nd of July. It's kinda surreal that I'm gonna be home so soon but i'm sure it'll hit me soon and i'll post another update :).
Hope everyone has a great weekend! Gros Bisous!
-Steph
Sunday, April 26, 2009
21!!
Salut tout le monde!
Yay finally legal to drink in the states!! It's about time, had a good bday night with good friends and lots of laughs (and a pie in the face, no that's not a french tradition it's just my silly friends).
Unfortunately I'm in France where 21 is no big deal and where this week is finals, ahhhhh!! One test tomorrow, 2 Wednesday and 2 again on Thursday. I'm also starting some new classes which is a pain in the butt and not good timing at all. But at the same time, in reference to my finance classes, I feel like no other class I can take ever will be as hard as this is now. I'm deathly terrified of my finals, not even that I'm going to fail them all (which is a possibility, fyi our grade is based on one final exam) but just of getting into that classroom and the act of taking the test! I've been studying quite a bit and I hope I can squeeze by, but whatever happens it's been one crazy couple of months and I think I will never be as challenged by school as I am here. It's funny because I'm probably in the hardest group in my program (the finance major) and a lot of my friends don't have any finals, but they said they didn't learn anything in their classes. So at least I learned a lot from my classes, probably too much for my little finance brain, and I can hopefully take that knowledge back to WSU, even if I don't pass all my exams.
Fewww, well I'm gonna try to calm down a little and try not to get too stressed about it. What happens happens and I know I learned a lot and it was all in FRENCH!! woot! I'm excited to go back to the states as a 21 year old, fluent french speaker, well traveled, finance whizzz!
Have a good week everyone!
Gros bisous,
Steph
Yay finally legal to drink in the states!! It's about time, had a good bday night with good friends and lots of laughs (and a pie in the face, no that's not a french tradition it's just my silly friends).
Unfortunately I'm in France where 21 is no big deal and where this week is finals, ahhhhh!! One test tomorrow, 2 Wednesday and 2 again on Thursday. I'm also starting some new classes which is a pain in the butt and not good timing at all. But at the same time, in reference to my finance classes, I feel like no other class I can take ever will be as hard as this is now. I'm deathly terrified of my finals, not even that I'm going to fail them all (which is a possibility, fyi our grade is based on one final exam) but just of getting into that classroom and the act of taking the test! I've been studying quite a bit and I hope I can squeeze by, but whatever happens it's been one crazy couple of months and I think I will never be as challenged by school as I am here. It's funny because I'm probably in the hardest group in my program (the finance major) and a lot of my friends don't have any finals, but they said they didn't learn anything in their classes. So at least I learned a lot from my classes, probably too much for my little finance brain, and I can hopefully take that knowledge back to WSU, even if I don't pass all my exams.
Fewww, well I'm gonna try to calm down a little and try not to get too stressed about it. What happens happens and I know I learned a lot and it was all in FRENCH!! woot! I'm excited to go back to the states as a 21 year old, fluent french speaker, well traveled, finance whizzz!
Have a good week everyone!
Gros bisous,
Steph
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Sunny Days in Chambé
Salut tout le monde,
So I've had a great couple of weeks here in Chambery. The weather's gotten amazingly beautiful and it seems when that happens the population of Chambery doubles. Everyone's eating outside, walking around, and it's just more fun and lively.
Last weekend was really great. The sun came out for an all day "jeu de piste", which was basically this crazy scavenger hunt that one of the classes organized for us. We started off the day being blinfolded and kindnapped by 15 or so French guys, then led back into the school where the scenario was that we were escaped convicts trying to prove our innoncence against a murder that had been committed. We had to solve puzzles, walk backwards with eggs on spoons and run around the campus in the hot sun. It was lots of fun and my team was 2nd place! woot. That night we were pooped, but decided the next day to head to the St. Cristophe Caves about a 30 minute bus ride out of Chambery. Unfortunately on the bus ride we realized that it's Sunday in France and the bus wouldn't pass for another 6 hours after we had arrived. So we got to the caves took a tour around, it was pretty and stayed sunny for us. We then ate our lunch and pondered how we would get home. My two brasilien friends and I decided that walking back the 20km was out of the question so we hitched hiked home with a young guy heading off to a rugby match. He lived near the caves but worked in Chambery, and was heading there to pick up a friend, since we didn't have plans for the afternoon he invited us to join them at the rugby match and after he would take us back to Chambery. He seemed like a good guy so we went for it and I experienced my first rugby match at Montmelian. The guy, Mathieu, was a rugby player so after the victory we hung around, and drank beer with his friends. They kept giving us beer and while delicious and refreshing, around 7pm we were tired and ready to head home. So that was a pretty exciting weekend and I was much pleased with my first hitch hiking experience!
This weekend my friend from preschool, Allyce, came into town and we spent a nice relaxing weekend basically catching up on our lives since preschool. It's kinda sad that it takes us to be in Europe to finally get together, but hopefully we can start meeting up when I'm back in Seattle. It's crazy how much time we spent together when we were 4-10, and we talked like no time had passed! I love great friends like that, they're few but I really cherish those moments. We spent another sunny weekend riding bikes to Lac du Bourget and visited my friend's adorable one room apartment with a great backyard to soak in the sun. We also cooked delicious market fresh food, and I'm really impressed by how well we ate, Allyce is one mad vegetarian cook, and was more than comfortable with the French way of eating lunch for hours on end. I'm definitely making that stuff again! Unfortunately the Easter weekend ended this morning and it's back to another couple weeks of school.
Just have two more weeks left of classes and not very many at that, so should go by fast! Then we have finals than I'm done! I've decided to stay in Chambery and take classes this May so I'll be taking a business French class, and then a class in English called Doing Business in France. Hopefully it won't be too boring, and keep my busy. Today I rented a bike for the next two months so I'm hoping the weather stays like this, and I can use it as often as possible! My sister and her boyfriend are coming June 14 and then we're off on the last hurrah trip in Europe. The plan is Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Munich and back to Geneva to fly home. I'll be home July 2 so not too long now. My friend from Bordeaux, Emily, is coming in this weekend and we always have a great time together so I'm excited for her to see my cute little town!
Hope all is well and thanks so much for reading! Have a great week!
Gros bisous,
Steph
So I've had a great couple of weeks here in Chambery. The weather's gotten amazingly beautiful and it seems when that happens the population of Chambery doubles. Everyone's eating outside, walking around, and it's just more fun and lively.
Last weekend was really great. The sun came out for an all day "jeu de piste", which was basically this crazy scavenger hunt that one of the classes organized for us. We started off the day being blinfolded and kindnapped by 15 or so French guys, then led back into the school where the scenario was that we were escaped convicts trying to prove our innoncence against a murder that had been committed. We had to solve puzzles, walk backwards with eggs on spoons and run around the campus in the hot sun. It was lots of fun and my team was 2nd place! woot. That night we were pooped, but decided the next day to head to the St. Cristophe Caves about a 30 minute bus ride out of Chambery. Unfortunately on the bus ride we realized that it's Sunday in France and the bus wouldn't pass for another 6 hours after we had arrived. So we got to the caves took a tour around, it was pretty and stayed sunny for us. We then ate our lunch and pondered how we would get home. My two brasilien friends and I decided that walking back the 20km was out of the question so we hitched hiked home with a young guy heading off to a rugby match. He lived near the caves but worked in Chambery, and was heading there to pick up a friend, since we didn't have plans for the afternoon he invited us to join them at the rugby match and after he would take us back to Chambery. He seemed like a good guy so we went for it and I experienced my first rugby match at Montmelian. The guy, Mathieu, was a rugby player so after the victory we hung around, and drank beer with his friends. They kept giving us beer and while delicious and refreshing, around 7pm we were tired and ready to head home. So that was a pretty exciting weekend and I was much pleased with my first hitch hiking experience!
This weekend my friend from preschool, Allyce, came into town and we spent a nice relaxing weekend basically catching up on our lives since preschool. It's kinda sad that it takes us to be in Europe to finally get together, but hopefully we can start meeting up when I'm back in Seattle. It's crazy how much time we spent together when we were 4-10, and we talked like no time had passed! I love great friends like that, they're few but I really cherish those moments. We spent another sunny weekend riding bikes to Lac du Bourget and visited my friend's adorable one room apartment with a great backyard to soak in the sun. We also cooked delicious market fresh food, and I'm really impressed by how well we ate, Allyce is one mad vegetarian cook, and was more than comfortable with the French way of eating lunch for hours on end. I'm definitely making that stuff again! Unfortunately the Easter weekend ended this morning and it's back to another couple weeks of school.
Just have two more weeks left of classes and not very many at that, so should go by fast! Then we have finals than I'm done! I've decided to stay in Chambery and take classes this May so I'll be taking a business French class, and then a class in English called Doing Business in France. Hopefully it won't be too boring, and keep my busy. Today I rented a bike for the next two months so I'm hoping the weather stays like this, and I can use it as often as possible! My sister and her boyfriend are coming June 14 and then we're off on the last hurrah trip in Europe. The plan is Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Munich and back to Geneva to fly home. I'll be home July 2 so not too long now. My friend from Bordeaux, Emily, is coming in this weekend and we always have a great time together so I'm excited for her to see my cute little town!
Hope all is well and thanks so much for reading! Have a great week!
Gros bisous,
Steph
Sunday, March 29, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
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
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
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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 ch
atting 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
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 ch
atting 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
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