(the end)
78 pages of french were written this year.
4.5 journals were filled.
5 countries visited.
1000ish photos taken
4 AMAZING friends made
about 60 more friends made =D
thousands of memories lived.
I'm still not ready to go...but I have to. 'Il faut partir pour revenir,' as my host mum says - you have to leave to come back. tomorrow I leave to go to Paris to spend 4 amazing weeks traveling with mum and papa - and God knows I'm excited about that one!!
there will probably be a couple posts, but I promise nothing.
this year abroad has been my dream for 10 years - and I was NOT disappointed in my dream come true.
and now I'm off to one last sortie with my Nantais girls...il faut profiter!!
à +!
15 May 2008
12 May 2008
251 vs...4
days ago I arrived in Nantes...days until I leave.
those chiffres (numbers) scare the living daylights out of me. I can NOT believe this year is over. I'm in the midst of finishing my IS (25 pages so far, and still not *quite* done), taking final exams (only three, thank goodness) and trying to pack (HAH!). of course, there's also the trying-desperately-to-savor-everything that always happens at the end of a school year.
it's just that it's even more extreme than usual. the past two years, it's been to leave for the summer and then come back in a matter of months. now, it's leave for the summer...and come back eventually. sometime in the future. I know perfectly well I'll come back...it may be thirty years from now like mum (who arrived safe and sound, if jetlagged this morning!!), it may be shortly after graduation. on sait jamais (one never knows).
all the same, I'm a veritable jumble of emotions right now. I'm VERY ready to see Mum and Papa and travel with them. I'm DEFINITELY very ready to finish with this IS!! I'm ready(ish) to come home to the states, even though I know it's going to be a really rough transition -but I'm dying to see all my friends, so it'll be more than worth it!! I'm ready to face the summer and all the changes it's bringing to Whitman. I'm REALLY ready to go back to Wooster in August and see all the people I've missed so much this year.
but...(there's always a but) I'm not ready to leave France. I'm not ready to go back to no trams that'll get you anywhere you need to go. I'm not ready to go back to speaking english every day. I'm not ready to go to a place where I can't get fresh baguettes and pain au chocolat whenever I want. I'm DEFINITELY not ready to leave the AMAZING friends I've made here. I'm not sure I'm ready to face the growing pains that I know are waiting for me when I try to find a place for the new person that I am in the old settings.
on verra...(we'll see).
back to IS/studying/packing for me!
à +!
oh yeah...a couple more pictures!
those chiffres (numbers) scare the living daylights out of me. I can NOT believe this year is over. I'm in the midst of finishing my IS (25 pages so far, and still not *quite* done), taking final exams (only three, thank goodness) and trying to pack (HAH!). of course, there's also the trying-desperately-to-savor-everything that always happens at the end of a school year.
it's just that it's even more extreme than usual. the past two years, it's been to leave for the summer and then come back in a matter of months. now, it's leave for the summer...and come back eventually. sometime in the future. I know perfectly well I'll come back...it may be thirty years from now like mum (who arrived safe and sound, if jetlagged this morning!!), it may be shortly after graduation. on sait jamais (one never knows).
all the same, I'm a veritable jumble of emotions right now. I'm VERY ready to see Mum and Papa and travel with them. I'm DEFINITELY very ready to finish with this IS!! I'm ready(ish) to come home to the states, even though I know it's going to be a really rough transition -but I'm dying to see all my friends, so it'll be more than worth it!! I'm ready to face the summer and all the changes it's bringing to Whitman. I'm REALLY ready to go back to Wooster in August and see all the people I've missed so much this year.
but...(there's always a but) I'm not ready to leave France. I'm not ready to go back to no trams that'll get you anywhere you need to go. I'm not ready to go back to speaking english every day. I'm not ready to go to a place where I can't get fresh baguettes and pain au chocolat whenever I want. I'm DEFINITELY not ready to leave the AMAZING friends I've made here. I'm not sure I'm ready to face the growing pains that I know are waiting for me when I try to find a place for the new person that I am in the old settings.
on verra...(we'll see).
back to IS/studying/packing for me!
à +!
oh yeah...a couple more pictures!
06 May 2008
sometimes life is just about making a fool of yourself
So this evening, instead of going to conversation club, Brianna, Vanessa and I performed a little sociology experiment. Near the opera house, there is a roundabout - essentially there version of a four way stop, except that it joins 6 streets, is a heck of a lot more confusing, and has this little grassy circle in the middle. actually, it's a pretty big grassy circle. Since it was a nice, sunny, warm evening, we decided, for lack of anything else to do, to sit in the middle of this roundabout center. So for a good hour, we sat around talking - and people watching from the middle of Place Graslin.
After a few minutes, we turned it into a game. French people can be very...stubborn about showing emotion in public. They live in their own little bubbles - getting a smile on the street from a stranger is UNHEARD of, believe you me. I'm personally convinced that they WANT to smile - they just don't. So we started trying to MAKE them smile. We started by just waiting to make eye contact with people in the cars and smiling. Sometimes they smiled back...and then we started waving. The idiotic, overexcited little kid wave. And trust me, we got more than one laugh out of people!! The best ones were the people that saw us...and then we saw their facial muscles twitch, trying not to laugh. And sometimes, they even waved back! The best ones were the buses that drove by...we got some of the BEST reactions out of the passengers. You could practically see them thinking "what on EARTH are they doing?!"
and it was one of the best spent hours in a long time =)
(a couple more pictures, by the way!)
à+!
After a few minutes, we turned it into a game. French people can be very...stubborn about showing emotion in public. They live in their own little bubbles - getting a smile on the street from a stranger is UNHEARD of, believe you me. I'm personally convinced that they WANT to smile - they just don't. So we started trying to MAKE them smile. We started by just waiting to make eye contact with people in the cars and smiling. Sometimes they smiled back...and then we started waving. The idiotic, overexcited little kid wave. And trust me, we got more than one laugh out of people!! The best ones were the people that saw us...and then we saw their facial muscles twitch, trying not to laugh. And sometimes, they even waved back! The best ones were the buses that drove by...we got some of the BEST reactions out of the passengers. You could practically see them thinking "what on EARTH are they doing?!"
and it was one of the best spent hours in a long time =)
(a couple more pictures, by the way!)
à+!
27 April 2008
down the homestretch
It's difficult for me to believe that this semester is almost over. I've been here since september, and now it's almost may. I'll be in Paris with my parents in less than three weeks! While I'm uber excited to see them and go on our whirlwind tour of France and excited to see everyone back home and spend another summer at Whitman and go back to Wooster...I'm not ready to leave France. As frustrating as things have been sometimes (I can't wait to go back to the American education system) and tiring (speaking in my maternal language will be a plus as well) and overwhelming, I've come to love this country so much.
Fortunately, there are still a few more weeks to profite bien (enjoy well)! and I plan on doing just that...as well as finishing my IS, of course =D
the second round of break pictures are up! I didn't take as many pictures as I had thought in egypt, simply because Bri and I were already conspicuous enough, taking pictures of random things probably wouldn't have helped our cases. ergo, it's essentially the tourist areas that we have pictures of...but that's okay! and the album is titled SPF 100 because I did, indeed, wear SPF 100 sunscreen. good thing I did, too...cause even still I got a little pink!
SPF 100
back to IS...à+!
Fortunately, there are still a few more weeks to profite bien (enjoy well)! and I plan on doing just that...as well as finishing my IS, of course =D
the second round of break pictures are up! I didn't take as many pictures as I had thought in egypt, simply because Bri and I were already conspicuous enough, taking pictures of random things probably wouldn't have helped our cases. ergo, it's essentially the tourist areas that we have pictures of...but that's okay! and the album is titled SPF 100 because I did, indeed, wear SPF 100 sunscreen. good thing I did, too...cause even still I got a little pink!
SPF 100
back to IS...à+!
26 April 2008
vive le beau temps!
so it's currently about 75 and sunny here, so I'm going to profite (enjoy) the good weather by doing some work out in the garden instead of cooped up in my room. but first...
pictures!
la dolce vita -easter weekend in Italy with Pete and Andrea
athenian adventures - the grecian portion of spring break with Bri...egypt should be coming tomorrow!
and now I'm gonna go (try to) be productive for a bit before dinner
à+!
pictures!
la dolce vita -easter weekend in Italy with Pete and Andrea
athenian adventures - the grecian portion of spring break with Bri...egypt should be coming tomorrow!
and now I'm gonna go (try to) be productive for a bit before dinner
à+!
23 April 2008
don't forget the sunscreen!
Where to begin?
The adventure to Greece and Egypt was, essentially, amazing. Though I'm going to need to do a cliffnotes version for my own sanity...I haven't even finished journalling it all, and it's already at a dozen pages!
Grecian highlights (we were only there for a couple days, so there arent quite as many as Egypt. that's not at all to say I didn't absolutely love it, though!!):
-hanging out at the Acropolis for a good four hours. Bri and I were sitting in the remnants of the for a couple of hours, just chilling and talking and basking in the sun before we even made it up to the acropolis...and then when we did, we lingered for a couple more hours! It really was amazing to see the things I studied in 6th grade social studies classes literally in front of me...its a shame transatlantic field trips are too expensive!
-swimming in the Mediterranean Sea! We went to Aegea (...or something like that...) which is an island near Athens and sorta just...chilled on the beach! and despite the fact that the water was QUITE chilly, we decided we couldn't NOT go swimming =D then we spent an hour or so talking in broken english -since we're french, of course - with a couple of Grecian boys who came over =D it was utterly random but highly entertaining!
-the yogurt. I'm already a fan of yogurt, but I had the most incredibly yogurt there...it's the consistency of frozen yogurt and when you drench it in honey, it's amazing!
Egyptian highlights:
-the Khan al-Kahlili: Brianna is a MASTER at haggling, so we got a ton of cool stuff for very little money =D including some lotus flower perfume and some gorgeous papyrus paintings
-the Citadel...the mosques are beautiful...and ornate. and very peaceful, actually, once the tourist crowds disperse a little. There was something about one of the smaller ones that reminded me very much of the ashram described in Eat, Pray, Love.
-the various politically-incorrect catcalls Bri and I got: Chocolate and Milk, Chocolate and Cream, Chocolate and Mayonnaise (thanks, Reda...), Brown and White Sugar, and (my favorite) Nefertiti and Cleopatra
-going to Alexandria with a group of students from Algeria and Iraq. Interesting experience for me as an American, but it just reinforced the fact that the conflict between our countries is NOT the people's conflict - we all just want to live our lives in peace. plus the dance party on the beach was uber fun as well =D
-tea. everywhere you go, you get offered tea as part of the Egyptian hospitality. We drank a lot of very sweet tea
-the various misspellings of english words...things like narkin, looby and caffee
-of course I saved the best for last...and this will be more than a bulleted item, since it deserves a proper telling of a story!
One of the other quotes that Kim sent me reads "I rather like my stumblings. Sometimes they lead me to some pretty great places." This quote essentially epitomized our first day in Egypt. We left our youth hostel with the intent of finding (eventually) a tourism office so that we could get a map. Our stumblings led us instead to the Four Seasons hotel where we asked if they had a map. Not only did they give us a map, but they also gave us free water (quite the blessing in Egypt!) and asked where we were headed. When we said Giza, they offered to call a cab for us! Said cabdriver was so nice...when he saw us oohing and ahhing over the view of the Nile, he actually stopped and pulled over to take a picture of us! We got to Giza and he took us to the tour guide that I have to assume the Four Seasons sends all of their clientèle! The man in charge described the tour to us, told us how long it would be, that sort of thing. We agreed (after getting the price, he didn't want to volunteer THAT information up front! it wasnt bad, though) and next thing I know there are two horses standing in front of us!! We toured the Pyramids on horseback!! What pleased me was that when the tour guide saw that I was actually riding and holding the reins and everything, he told the handler to take the lead rope off =D The Pyramids are absolutely breathtaking to see...I can't imagine how something like that was accomplished...and how they're still standing today! As we were wandering around, drinking in the sights and baking in the desert sun, we saw a couple of people literally race by on their horses. I looked over at Bri and said "you have NO idea how much I want to do that!!" Our tour guide heard me and told me with a sly grin "We can. Once we get to softer sand...we'll race." and race we did! The tour guide latched onto Bri's arm (who isn't a rider in the same way I am), spurred our horses into action...and we literally galloped across the Sahara Desert on horses next to the Great Pyramids! It was unbelievably exhilarating...I've never in my life been given the chance to just...run like that. It's always been in a ring, an arena...and this was nothing but empty desert. and we ran.
and it was amazing.
à+!
The adventure to Greece and Egypt was, essentially, amazing. Though I'm going to need to do a cliffnotes version for my own sanity...I haven't even finished journalling it all, and it's already at a dozen pages!
Grecian highlights (we were only there for a couple days, so there arent quite as many as Egypt. that's not at all to say I didn't absolutely love it, though!!):
-hanging out at the Acropolis for a good four hours. Bri and I were sitting in the remnants of the for a couple of hours, just chilling and talking and basking in the sun before we even made it up to the acropolis...and then when we did, we lingered for a couple more hours! It really was amazing to see the things I studied in 6th grade social studies classes literally in front of me...its a shame transatlantic field trips are too expensive!
-swimming in the Mediterranean Sea! We went to Aegea (...or something like that...) which is an island near Athens and sorta just...chilled on the beach! and despite the fact that the water was QUITE chilly, we decided we couldn't NOT go swimming =D then we spent an hour or so talking in broken english -since we're french, of course - with a couple of Grecian boys who came over =D it was utterly random but highly entertaining!
-the yogurt. I'm already a fan of yogurt, but I had the most incredibly yogurt there...it's the consistency of frozen yogurt and when you drench it in honey, it's amazing!
Egyptian highlights:
-the Khan al-Kahlili: Brianna is a MASTER at haggling, so we got a ton of cool stuff for very little money =D including some lotus flower perfume and some gorgeous papyrus paintings
-the Citadel...the mosques are beautiful...and ornate. and very peaceful, actually, once the tourist crowds disperse a little. There was something about one of the smaller ones that reminded me very much of the ashram described in Eat, Pray, Love.
-the various politically-incorrect catcalls Bri and I got: Chocolate and Milk, Chocolate and Cream, Chocolate and Mayonnaise (thanks, Reda...), Brown and White Sugar, and (my favorite) Nefertiti and Cleopatra
-going to Alexandria with a group of students from Algeria and Iraq. Interesting experience for me as an American, but it just reinforced the fact that the conflict between our countries is NOT the people's conflict - we all just want to live our lives in peace. plus the dance party on the beach was uber fun as well =D
-tea. everywhere you go, you get offered tea as part of the Egyptian hospitality. We drank a lot of very sweet tea
-the various misspellings of english words...things like narkin, looby and caffee
-of course I saved the best for last...and this will be more than a bulleted item, since it deserves a proper telling of a story!
One of the other quotes that Kim sent me reads "I rather like my stumblings. Sometimes they lead me to some pretty great places." This quote essentially epitomized our first day in Egypt. We left our youth hostel with the intent of finding (eventually) a tourism office so that we could get a map. Our stumblings led us instead to the Four Seasons hotel where we asked if they had a map. Not only did they give us a map, but they also gave us free water (quite the blessing in Egypt!) and asked where we were headed. When we said Giza, they offered to call a cab for us! Said cabdriver was so nice...when he saw us oohing and ahhing over the view of the Nile, he actually stopped and pulled over to take a picture of us! We got to Giza and he took us to the tour guide that I have to assume the Four Seasons sends all of their clientèle! The man in charge described the tour to us, told us how long it would be, that sort of thing. We agreed (after getting the price, he didn't want to volunteer THAT information up front! it wasnt bad, though) and next thing I know there are two horses standing in front of us!! We toured the Pyramids on horseback!! What pleased me was that when the tour guide saw that I was actually riding and holding the reins and everything, he told the handler to take the lead rope off =D The Pyramids are absolutely breathtaking to see...I can't imagine how something like that was accomplished...and how they're still standing today! As we were wandering around, drinking in the sights and baking in the desert sun, we saw a couple of people literally race by on their horses. I looked over at Bri and said "you have NO idea how much I want to do that!!" Our tour guide heard me and told me with a sly grin "We can. Once we get to softer sand...we'll race." and race we did! The tour guide latched onto Bri's arm (who isn't a rider in the same way I am), spurred our horses into action...and we literally galloped across the Sahara Desert on horses next to the Great Pyramids! It was unbelievably exhilarating...I've never in my life been given the chance to just...run like that. It's always been in a ring, an arena...and this was nothing but empty desert. and we ran.
and it was amazing.
à+!
10 April 2008
A picture's worth a thousand words
I'm failing at the updating this blog thing...it's been an IS week, so my writing capacities have been exhausted by writing about Merteuil and feminism and libertinage and Les Liaisons Dangereuses...but hey, it's at 8 pages already! so instead, you get pictures! Corsica, Monaco, a little bit of Paris and Normandy.
Day trippin'!
Gambling and Island hopping
you all should expect a flood of pictures in about 3 weeks, though...on Monday I'm leaving with Brianna for our epic spring break adventure - Athens and Cairo!! I'm SO excited it's not even funny! so you'll get all those pictures, as well as the pictures from Rome and Florence =D
quick anecdote before I head back to the IS:
apparently France has brought out my chatty side. I was talking with Tim before our religion class started about the book I borrowed from him, A Thousand Shining Suns (AMAZING, by the way). I was talking about how good it was, how it made me cry, etc etc etc. all of a sudden the cahier d'appelle (roll call notebook) is waving in front of my face...my prof was trying to get my attention. I apologize for talking, saying I didn't realize class had "started." before he starts the roll call, he looks and me and says "nous l'appelons une perrouche dans une cage. est-ce que vous êtes familier avec la perrouche?" when I respond that I don't, not knowing this particular vocab word, he informs me that a perrouche is "un oiseau qui fait beacoup de bruit!" (we call that a female parrot in a cage. are you familiar with the female parrot?...a bird that makes a lot of noise!)
essentially, I got burned by my 60 year old professor...cassée!, as they say here!
à+!
Day trippin'!
Gambling and Island hopping
you all should expect a flood of pictures in about 3 weeks, though...on Monday I'm leaving with Brianna for our epic spring break adventure - Athens and Cairo!! I'm SO excited it's not even funny! so you'll get all those pictures, as well as the pictures from Rome and Florence =D
quick anecdote before I head back to the IS:
apparently France has brought out my chatty side. I was talking with Tim before our religion class started about the book I borrowed from him, A Thousand Shining Suns (AMAZING, by the way). I was talking about how good it was, how it made me cry, etc etc etc. all of a sudden the cahier d'appelle (roll call notebook) is waving in front of my face...my prof was trying to get my attention. I apologize for talking, saying I didn't realize class had "started." before he starts the roll call, he looks and me and says "nous l'appelons une perrouche dans une cage. est-ce que vous êtes familier avec la perrouche?" when I respond that I don't, not knowing this particular vocab word, he informs me that a perrouche is "un oiseau qui fait beacoup de bruit!" (we call that a female parrot in a cage. are you familiar with the female parrot?...a bird that makes a lot of noise!)
essentially, I got burned by my 60 year old professor...cassée!, as they say here!
à+!
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