Where the Jet d’Eau would have been if it was on.
Our weird little group: Me, Melissa, Helen, Grayson, and Claire
United Nations building
Big chair in front of the United Nations building
Again, our weird group: Claire, Helen, Melissa, Grayson, Me
This appears to be a mountain
Houses across the street from the Anne Frank House.
‘I amsterdam’ sign
Red light district
The lovely ladies I went with: Yaya, Me, Emily, Michelle
Street graffiti
So the week after spring break (still back in April, sorry!) my dad was over here in Europe for various business reasons. He spoke at a conference in Spain and then was back in Germany at the Eppingen office. So I decided to skip my class on Friday morning to go meet him in Germany. But bien sûr, there were travel complications (have I ever not had travel complications?) Philippe drove me to the train station that morning because I was bringing my dad one of my suitcases full of winter clothes and things I wouldn’t need (which was my dad’s idea because he figured it would be easier for me to travel home alone with only one of my huge suitcases). So I got to the train station with my ticket already printed…
I would like to add a quick side note-I had planned on leaving Friday morning and returning around 3:30pm on Monday which would mean that I was missing my class on Friday and also missing my first class on Monday, but of course I had to have a test in theology on Monday so I had had to exchange my ticket coming home for one that got me in in time for my theology class on Monday. And that train left at 6 in the morning 😒
…but I could tell that there was something going on because a ton of people were standing around staring at the departures board where most of the trains before mine were marked as delayed at least up to 40 minutes. My train was not marked as delayed, but the train before mine which was the 8am train for Paris (which was the same train I was taking but 45 minutes later) was delayed an hour, so I figured that my train would also end up being delayed. Luckily I had wifi in the train station so I looked up the train traffic and, of course, there had been an accident-a train had hit a truck or something like that-so all of the trains on that route (the route I was taking) were delayed. My train was eventually posted as being 40 minutes delayed so I knew there was no way that I was going to make my connecting train in Paris.
Another side note so that you all can understand how the trains work in Paris. There are multiple main train stations-Montparnasse, Gare du Nord, Gare de l’Est, etc-and each of these stations take you to different places. For example, I will only ever find a train going to Angers leaving from Montparnasse. To go to Germany, which is to the east of France, I would have to leave from Gare de l’Est. When I went to Amsterdam through Brussels in the north, I left from Gare du Nord. I think you all get it.
So I texted my dad letting him know that I was delayed and that our plans were most likely going to change. Like I said before, there was a train that was supposed to have left about an hour before mine that day that was going to Paris Montparnasse, which is where I was going. That train finally pulled into the station, and I thought to myself: “Why should I wait for my train to come in 40 minutes when this train is going to the same place?” So I hopped on board and grabbed an open seat and starting running in my head how to explain my situation to the train contrôleur when he came to check my ticket, but luckily for me, he never came. So I got to Paris Montparnasse and made my way to the metro as fast as I could-keep in mind that I have a pretty large and heavy suitcase, and going in between metro stops can entail many steps and long walks in between them. So I got to Gare de l’Est probably 10 minutes after my train left, so I went to the ticket booth and explained to the woman that there was an accident so my train was late so I missed my next train and could I please exchange my ticket, hopefully for free. She took a little while because she had to verify that I wasn’t making up my story to just try to get a free exchanged ticket, but eventually she was able to exchange it for no cost.
So I had about an hour to wait until my new train, so I went to the Starbucks that they have in the station and got myself a coffee and a muffin.
Ok another side story just because it’s actually really funny. So I was ordering my drink and the barista could tell I was American by my accent so he started talking to me in English. This usually really annoys me because just because I have an accent doesn’t mean I don’t speak French and doesn’t mean I don’t understand you, but whatever. So I spoke back to him in English, and when he asked me my name, I said it the way I would in English, which is not the same pronunciation as in French (the difference is in the first E in my name-American’s pronounce my name like Muhlissa and the French pronounce it like Maylissa so when I spell my name in French it’s spelled as Mélissa because an E with the accent é is pronounced ay). So I told him my name and was waiting for my drink and my dad called me, so I was talking to him, and a difference barista was standing there with a drink and calling out some name/word that I didn’t know, so I ignored her. Eventually no one was claiming the drink so she beckoned to me and asked what I had ordered. I told her and she handed me the drink and said, “Merci, Moussa.” Moussa? Who in the world is Moussa? I looked at the side of the cup where the other guy had written my name and it did indeed say Moussa. At first I was extremely confused, but I realized that since I had said my name in English, he really must not have understood and heard me say Moussa instead of Melissa.
So I was talking to my dad and told him the times that I was getting in the Germany. We had originally planned for him to pick me up in Heidelberg, but I was getting into Mannheim first and then was going to have to wait an hour for my train to Heidelberg, and my dad realized that getting to Mannheim would be just as easy as Heidelberg, so he decided to just pick me up there, which saved me about another hour and a half of train travel. So I had about a 3 hour train ride from Paris to Mannheim. I finally got in and my dad was sitting there at my platform waiting for me, just as I assumed he would be. We then drove back to Sinsheim where we just hung out at the hotel and got dinner.
On Saturday, after a lot of driving around, we went back to visit the castle in Sinsheim, like we did the first time we were there 10 months ago (yes, already 10 months ago). This time we actually explored the castle and I climbed up the very steep and sketchy steps of the tower, which really does give you a beautiful view of the country side, but those steps were not fun.
After the castle, we drove to Nuremberg and visited the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteitagsgelände (Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds Museum) which was actually very interesting. It is in what was the site of an unfinished congress building for the Nazi party. We learned that there were actually very elaborate architectural plans for buildings and parks and arenas that were all going to be built to show the power of the Nazi party, but the plans were never completed obviously because of World War II and the ending of the Nazi party. Most people know of Nuremberg because of the Nuremberg Trials after the war, but most people don’t know that the trails were held in Nuremberg because it was considered the most German town in all of Germany and was the site for many of the Nazi party rallies.
After Nuremberg, we drove to Munich to have dinner at the Hofbräuhaus. It was CRAZY. First of all, you walk in and are hit with a wall of hot air. The Hofbräuhaus is set up in the traditional German restaurant style, which is just a bunch of long tables next to each other in a giant room, and you sit down and eat wherever there’s room. People (not servers as my dad thought they were) were dressed in lederhosen and dirndl (traditional German outfits), people were walking around with giant baskets selling pretzels, and the smallest beer you could order was a liter. Dad got a light beer and I got a dark beer, but we both ordered pork schnitzel with cranberry sauce and German potato salad. It was sooooo good. 
We stayed the night in Munich and went to the Olympic park the next day, from the 1972 Summer Olympics which were in Munich. We walked around and saw the buildings, the pool, the stadium, etc. We then decided to drive a few hours to see the Castle Neuschwanstein in Schwangau, Germany. This castle was the basis for Dinseyland’s Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Hong Kong and in Paris. Driving to the castle, we took a lot of backroads and it reminded me why Germany still is the prettiest countryside in my opinion.
The Castle Neuschwanstein is located on a hill so we took a horse carriage up to it and then did an audio tour. Pictures inside the castle aren’t allowed but being that it’s a fairly new castle, being constructed in the late 1800’s, it is truly amazing. Everything about the castle itself, the waterfall underneath it, the countryside it looks down on, everything was just picturesque. Walking back down the hill was not as fun, but we somehow made it, and then drove back to Sinsheim to spend the night before I had to go back to Angers the next day.
We had to get up around 5 the next morning to get to Mannheim for my early train, and that’s where we parted. Traveling back to Angers was fine, and much easier without my giant suitcase (thanks dad!). We had a really good weekend and got to see and learn some really cool and interesting things, and I always like Germany. I was of course also happy to see my old man after about 5 months, and from today, I’ll see him in 14 days!
Check out Places to see some more pictures of the countryside and the castle 🏰👍🏼
Bisous 😘
Hey everyone,
So I have been awful at keeping up with my blog this past year but of course now that I only have 14 days left in France, I want to update all of my posts, so in the next couple of days I am going to be updating my photos and places with more of the pictures I didn’t include in my posts throughout the year, not only to give you guys more of an idea of everything that I’ve done turning my time in France, but also because I’m getting nostalgic and want to go through all of my pictures and memories!
Bisous 😘
I’m not sure why I haven’t posted about this since it was a month ago, but during our spring break in April, my wonderful boyfriend Gabriel came to visit me since it was also his spring break. It was also during Easter, so we ended up doing a lot with my host family and their family, but I’ll just start from the beginning.
So sometime in March I was being whiney and complaining about who knows what, and had told Gabe that he should come visit me during his spring break. While I thought that I had just said something anyone in a long distance relationship would say to their boyfriend, Gabe, being the planner that he is, started scheming and figuring out how he could actually make it work. After asking his parents who amazingly said yes, Gabriel broke the news to me that he was coming to France! I cleared everything with my host family who graciously offered that he could stay with us, so on March 30th, Gabriel got onto an airplane to fly across the world to come see me 🙂 Now of course there were some minor complications:
So, I picked him up around 3:30 and I felt so bad because he was exhausted but I had a test in another class at 3:45 so instead of taking him home first he had to come straight to school with me and sit and wait for me to finish my test (I also did well on that test), but I had given him a charger for his phone. Once we got back to the house, I showed him around and introduced him to everyone. His shampoo had exploded in his suitcase so I had to wash all of his clothes for him. I’m pretty sure we had pizza that night and then he went to bed early of course. The next morning he got up and came to classes with me, but during my lunch break, he was not feeling well-probably a mixture of stress, traveling, and sleep depravation-so I took him home and gave him some medicine and he slept the rest of the day while I went to the rest of my classes. He was feeling better on Thursday so after my 8am class we went into town to this little hole-in-the-wall crêperie that I like and we had brunch. Afterwards I had one more class (another test-let’s just say I had multiple tests this week but I did well on all of them) and then we walked around town a little bit to see things like the cathedral and town center.
On Friday, I finally had one more class in the morning and then I was done, so I took Gabe to get kebabs for lunch (no, it’s not French, but it’s still totally part of this culture) and I believe it was raining so we walked around to different shops so Gabe could do some souvenir shopping. We went to dinner that night with my host family to my favorite restaurant in town La Côte de Bœuf where they make burgers de maison (de maison means that they make everything by hand…homemade I guess is how we would say it in English). We actually went to eat there with my dad when he first dropped me off. Gabe loved it-I actually think he said it was the best burger he’s ever had. After dinner, Claire came over so I could do her makeup and then we all went to the bar so Gabe could meet everyone. On Saturday, we had a picnic at the castle and even though it was kind of rainy we had fun. Even though Gabe’s birthday was in February, I took him to dinner that night to celebrate it anyways. I took him to this little Italian restaurant in town so that he could get lasagna because that’s his favorite
.
On Sunday for Easter, Gabriel, me, Tamao (my Japanese roommate), one of her friends, and the whole family went to Sables d’Orlonne to meet up with Cecile and Philippe’s family for Easter lunch. Sables d’Orlonne is on the seaside and it was a beautiful day so we got to walk on the beach and visit the piers. I actually even managed to get a little sunburnt. It was just a day trip and we took the train both ways but it was fun. Monday is France’s equivalent of Good Friday so everything was closed. Gabe and I had wanted to go visit Versailles on Monday but it was impossible to find a train, so we stayed at the house and had a big lunch with the family and then went on a walk down the river walk. We did manage to find an open restaurant in town for dinner even though the entire town was basically closed. On Tuesday we went to Paris to visit Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, L’arc de triomphe, we went on a boat tour that I’ve actually done multiple times that takes you past many of the major sites in Paris like the museums Le Louvre and Le musée d’Orsay, Notre Dame, etc. We went on the boat tour right at dusk so when we turned back around and went back towards the Eiffel Tower there was a beautiful sunset behind it and we got to watch it light up and sparkle so it was perfect.
Wednesday was Gabe’s flight back home so I took him to the airport and dropped him off at the security line. I had dropped him off around 11-11:30 i believe so I was planning on taking the 12:49 train back to Angers but of course when I went to buy the ticket, the train was full except for super expensive first class tickets, so I waited for the train that left around 3pm and got back to Angers around 5 something.The rest of the week I just stayed in Angers, saw some movies, tanned because it was beautiful out, and hung out with other people who were still in town.
So overall, I was obviously ecstatic to be able to spend time with Gabriel since I’ve now only seen him for about 2 weeks in the last 10 months, but I’m also happy that he was able to travel the world a little, since he had never been out of the country before, besides Mexico. It was funny though, and I realized how much I have progressed in my French, because there were countless times that someone would ask him a question in French and I would just look at him waiting to answer because I just assumed he understood them and he would just look at me like “what?” or there were even a few times where I would say something to him in French without realizing it and when he would say what? because he obviously didn’t understand, I would repeat myself again in French, because I honestly didn’t realize I was speaking French. It’s weird to hear something and completely understand it as if it were in English but it’s not…..I don’t know it’s cool and weird I guess. But it really did show me how much my French has improved so that was cool for me at least.
Stay posted for adventures at Disneyland Paris and in Rome!
Bisous 😘
So I thought that I had already posted about Switzerland, but clearly I did not as I just found the unfinished draft in my saved drafts. So I apologize for not posting my Switzerland shenanigans sooner. Also, I went to OFII today and I’m finally a legal foreigner! I will explain…
First of all-Switzerland. Of course, this turned into an interesting journey. What else is new.
So our break was a week, but we (Claire, Helen, Melissa, Grayson, and me) went only for 4 days…I don’t think we could have afforded any longer. So we travelled there on Wednesday Feb 4 (I just remember that because we left on Julien’s birthday) and travelled basically the whole day. We took multiple trains, leaving around 1:30 pm and arriving in Switzerland around 8-9pm. We rented an Airbnb-basically a guy who’s in Cambodia for the year is renting out his apartment and it was super nice and not far at all from downtown Geneva. The first night, all the grocery stores were closed, so we went to a kebab restaurant thinking it would be cheap, and it wasn’t at all. A meal you can get for €5 in Angers cost about 15 CHF (Swiss Francs)! So we realized we would be buying cheap food and eating in during our time there, which ended up being fine because Grayson is like a master chef. So the next morning, we woke up and went to grocery store and decided to make french toast and eggs and coffee and the whole bit. Well, when we got home, right as we started cooking, we ended up blowing a fuse, but only in the kitchen and half of the living room, including the outlet with the wifi router. So (as we thought) the kitchen didn’t work and the wifi didn’t work, and our French phones didn’t work, so we had to go to the neighbors asking if we could use their phone to call the girl who had let us into the house for the Airbnb guy, because she had the only key to the closet where we thought the fuse box was. Well, we couldn’t get ahold of her right away, so the nice (but kind of crazy) old neighbors let Claire and Grayson cook in their tiny kitchen, so we at least still got to eat. However, once everything was cooked, I had opened the fridge to get milk out, and noticed that the light was still on, which I knew was weird because if the power was out, the fridge light wouldn’t turn on. Then we tried the stove, and, guess what? That worked too! So as we had blown a fuse on the wall with the microwave, tea kettle, and light, everything else did in fact work. Not soon after we finished eating, the girl came over and showed us the fuse box, right next to the front door (it really didn’t look like a fuse box-more like a vent) so we could have fixed all of our problems all along, but it was still an adventure. We had planned on visiting some mountain while we were there too, but the neighbors had informed Claire and Grayson that because of the snow and bad weather, the mountain was not easily accessible and we would need snow shows-and not just snow boots, but actual snow shoes-like the tennis racket ones. So we decided to veto the mountain, and stayed around town. We went to a natural history museum, the St. Peter cathedral, the historic (old) part of town, we did go to see the water sprocket that Geneva is famous for but it was closed down because it was too cold, we got some Swiss hot chocolate, and then we went home, Grayson made dinner, and we called it a night.
The next day-Friday-Melissa, Helen, and Claire went to meet a Brother that Melissa knows, so Grayson and I went to the Museum of Beaux Arts, then to the United Nations building. That night we all just hung out, ate, drank, etc. We got up on Saturday and cleaned the apartment, then started our trek home. Everything went fine until we were on our train from Lyon to Angers, when, around 9pm, which was supposed to be an hour and a half before we arrived in Angers, the conductor came over the speak saying that there had been a “personal accident” and that the trains would be stopped until about 11:30pm. We found out that a “personal accident” meant that someone had jumped in front of a train. It wasn’t our train, but when that happens, all the trains in the route are stopped. So they gave us food, and we were thankfully in the more comfortable first class, and we didn’t end up having to wait all the way until 11:30pm to start moving again, but we still didn’t get home until around 2am. Nonetheless, it wasn’t the most eventful trip, but it was fun and I was able to spend time with people I hadn’t truly bonded with before.
So that Monday we started classes again (February 9), well kind of. The new students who arrived for second semester had taken their placement exams the week before, but the returning students had to either go to various meetings or for students like me who were placed in the “superior” level had to take a placement exam. So basically, there are different levels in my program, CIDEF. A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and each of those levels have more sub-levels like B1.10-B1.25 for example. So I was in B1.25 last semester, which is the highest level of the B1 level, and this semester I tested into B2.22 which is the highest level of the B2 level. So that means that yes, my classes are harder, but I also have more options. I am taking some classes for credits back at St. Mary’s, but I am also able to take classes that I want. So I’m taking philosophy, theology, French, translation, and history of art. I know I already took translation and history of art, but I liked the courses so much that I decided to continue following them. Oh, and we recently got our grades from last semester, and I got all A’s and a mention Très Bien, which is the highest mention you can get in the French grading system. And my classes are going fine. They’re not all super interesting, but it’s still early in the semester so we’ll see what happens.
Last weekend I was able to go to Paris to visit Allie and some other smicks who are studying in Rome this semester but were visiting Paris, so that was super fun. For those who don’t know, Allie is one of my best friends and was my roommate last year, and I haven’t seen her since last May, so I was really happy that I got to see her, even though it was only for a few hours.
Then today, I went to Nantes, which is a town about an hour from Angers. If you all recall, during Christmas (I CANNOT believe it’s already been 3 months), I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to go home because I didn’t have my visa stamp from OFII (French office of immigration and integration) and today I finally got it! I had to go to Nantes, wandered around for a while trying to find the right tramways and the OFII building, and finally I got there. My appointment was at 2:45pm, but I didn’t actually get called in until around 3:30pm. It was a basic medical checkup, I had to strip down and have my chest x-rayed, and, since I’m completely healthy, there were no problems and I got my stamp and left. So I waited A LOT but it was easy and now it’s finally done! There was a girl in the OFII office when I was there who then I saw on the metro and she asked me for directions, and we started talking and realized that she also lives in Angers. So we grabbed a coffee and talked a little before heading home to Angers. She was really nice, her name is Esha and she is from India but she speaks English also. Small world!
Well I think that’s all I’ve got for you all right now. But I guess it’s kind of a lot. Anyways,
Bisous 😘
Well this past week was my finals week. It was a little stressful, but overall I felt good about my tests. I had my last test Friday morning (an oral exam that lasted about 20 minutes) and I’ve been on vacation since then. I honestly haven’t done much, but sometimes that’s nice. Last weekend we went to Nantes to see Cassiopée and have lunch with her to celebrate Lilamay’s birthday. We went to a beautiful restaurant called La Cigale (cicada) and the food was absolutely amazing. I’m not really sure what it all was but that didn’t stop me at all. Then we walked around the city and saw the castle and cathedral there. Lila’s actual birthday was on Monday, and we celebrated with homemade cheeseburgers, french fries, and a chocolate-speculoos cake with caramel frosting. I never complain about the food here.
Last night, my new Japanese roommate, Tamao, arrived, and Hiraku left this morning. He couldn’t stop thanking all of us last night and this morning for giving him such a wonderful experience and for helping him ameliorate his French. It was sad having to say goodbye to him and I really will miss hearing him say “oui oui” all the time. But Tamao is very sweet, and a little shy, but I am going to show her around the city today. Courtney and Meredith, two girls from Saint Mary’s, also arrived today so they may come with on our little tour.
It’s funny actually because I went to elementary school with Courtney. I’m pretty sure I’ve known her since kindergarten, and then we went to the same middle school and swam on the River Rats together for a little while. We obviously didn’t go to the same high school since I transferred to WA, but we ended up going to the same college! So I’ve pretty much known her my whole life and here we are studying in France together. And Meredith went to high school with another girl who I met here. It really is a small world.
Tomorrow, to celebrate Julien’s birthday 😉 I’m going to Switzerland for the rest of the week! I’m going with Helen, Claire, Melissa (not me obviously) and Grayson. We’re going to Geneva (or Genève in French) until Saturday. None of us really know what’s there, but we’re planning on visiting the castle there, maybe climb a mountain, eat some swiss cheese and swiss chocolate. Who knows. But we’ll have fun.
Then I start second semester on Monday, the 9th. I have to take another placement test to see if I can place into the higher levels (which I should be able to easily unless I completely flunk the test) so hopefully that goes well. I’m not sure what classes to take. I know I want to take Philosophy and I may even continue my History of Art class (who would have ever expected me to say that) and maybe my Translation class as well, but we’ll see.
Otherwise, everything is good here. Cecile is working a lot on art pieces for an upcoming exhibition so that’s fun to watch. Nougatine decided to be clingy this morning (I think she misses Hiraku) and this is what happened:
I’m excited to meet some new people next week when everyone arrives, but I’ll definitely be happy to see some familiar faces too.
Bisous 😘
I don’t think I’ve posted since October or November and I apologize for that. I have done so much that I should have written about, not only for you all but for me to remember in the future as well. I am going to try to recount a few funny stories from the past months that I’ve missed out on as well as recent events.
I think I’ll start with my journey to Amsterdam. I honestly don’t even remember when we went. I think in November. I went with Yaya, Michelle and Emily. That was my first experience with a Bla Bla Car I believe. A Bla Bla Car is where you pay someone who’s going to the same city as you to drive you there because they have extra spots in their car, and it’s significantly cheaper than taking the train. And yes everyone jokes that they’re going to kidnap you and whatever, but I’ve only taken them with friends and choose the drivers who have good reviews and everything so it’s a lot safer than it may seem. And it makes sense. If you’re driving somewhere far away by yourself and can get 3 or 4 people to pay €20 to drive them there, why not. So anyways, we took a Bla Bla car to Paris, then the train to Brussels, then to Amsterdam. We had a 5 day break from Friday until Tuesday, so we had a few days to kill. We got there on Friday night/Saturday morning (so midnightish) and walked around forever looking for our hostel which ended up being 2 minutes away from the train station and we were just idiots. So we stayed in our hostel just for Friday night, and were staying in an apartment we rented for the rest of the weekend because it was nicer and actually cheaper than hostels. So on Saturday morning, we got up and got Starbucks and then had to figure out the bus system to get to the apartment because it was too far to walk (the only downside about it) but we mastered the bus by the end of the weekend. Anyways, we found our apartment and got settled in, and then went and grabbed some brunch at a bagel shop that’s popular there. Afterwards, we went back into town to go to various museums. We, of course, went to the Anne Frank museum, and then went to smaller museums like the Prostitute/Sex Museum (hey, it’s Amsterdam) and a torture museum. We of course walked through the red light district. We went and saw some famous plazas and churches, and everything was extra pretty because it was decorated for Christmas. Then on Sunday, we spent most of the day walking around looking for the I AMSTERDAM letters, which we did eventually find. After that we went on a boat tour of the city. It was really cool because it was at night so everything was lit up and we got to see all the famous locations and learn some history of the city. Did I mention that all the people also speak English and are super nice, so that was an added bonus. On Monday, we got up to do some souvenir shopping, and then planned on leaving that day to go home so that we could just relax at home on Tuesday before classes. Well, this is where my trip turned into Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Yaya had an earlier train so went to Paris and would meet us there later, and Emily was taking a whole Bla Bla Car route so it was just Michelle and I going from Amsterdam to Paris, which was fine. When we got to Paris, we grabbed some dinner right outside the train station and were all happy and doing totally fine until, 20 minutes before our train left, we realized we were at the wrong train station. We were at Paris-Nord and had to be at Montparnasse, which is about 20 minutes away by metro. So we bought one metro ticket and all three of us squeezed through the gate and ran to metro to go to the correct station, but we ended up missing our train. That train was at 9:20pm and the next train to Angers wasn’t until 6am the next morning, but we were able to exchange our tickets without paying anything extra. So we ended up spending the night in the train station with the other homeless people because we didn’t want to pay for a hostel. So we got on our train the next morning and all ended up passing out and of course, missing our corresponding stop. So in some random town, we finally realized that we had missed our stop, so we had to get off in some little town in the middle of nowhere, buy another ticket to Angers, and wait about 4 hours for our train. We did eventually make it back to Angers and our friend picked us up from the train station and drove us all home. I think I went home, passed out, and slept for like 27 hours. It was a good trip though, and I am now a pro at French transportation.
A few weeks later, Yaya and I went to Paris for a weekend because she hadn’t been before. Again, we took a Bla Bla car there and back (no problems). We were only there for a weekend, but we saw just about all the major monuments. We went up the Eiffel Tower, saw Notre Dame, Le Louvre, Le Pont des Arts (Lover’s Bridge), Arc de Triumph, Marché de Noël (Christmas market), and probably some other places that I can’t think of, but we saw a lot, and walked all of it. The hostel we stayed in was eh, but it was cheap and only for 2 nights so it was fine.
Before Christmas, a lot of people (mostly Americans) were leaving for good, and that was sad. On our last day of classes before break, everyone stood in the Foyer of school saying their goodbyes, crying and hugging and the whole lot. Yaya was the first to leave. Her host mom drove all of us to the train station (where she managed getting her car stuck on a curb and then stalling it so we had to get out and push it off) and we said our first sad goodbye to Yaya and some other people we saw there. I left the next day and Michelle came to the train station to see me off, and then she left that night. My trip home was fine. My train was delayed at one of our stops, but I had plenty of time when I got the Charles-de-Gaulle to find where I was going, check my bag, go through security, and find my gate. I sat next to an old Greek lady on the plane and she slept pretty much the whole time. I nodded off a few times but stayed awake most of the flight to try to fight jet lag. I got to Atlanta and through customs and onto my flight to Chicago pretty quickly. I did sleep on that flight but it was only like two hours. Gabriel picked me up from the airport (after he went to the wrong terminal and got lost for a little bit but he managed). Christmas break was super fun and it was good to be home 🙂 but most I talked to most people while I was home.
After a pretty fast break, I was a little nervous to come back to Angers knowing that most of the friends I had made and people I knew are now gone. I did get upgraded to business class on the flight to Paris, so that was amazing. I had a seat all to myself by the window, had shrimp cocktail, eggplant lasagne, an ice cream sundae, granola, and fresh fruit for the food they served me, and was able to get some sleep. I admit I was nervous to go through customs being that I don’t technically have the correct stamp on my visa yet, but there weren’t any problems. I had to wait a few hours for my train to Angers, but everything was fine. The last long trek was walking from the train station to my house with my suitcase full of toiletries to last me six more months (which did make my suitcase 10 pounds too heavy, sorry dad!) but somehow I managed. I then went home and slept from about 5pm that afternoon until about 1pm the next day, so it’s easy to say I was tired. I slept for most of the weekend because I was pretty jet lagged, and then started classes again on Monday. There are significantly less people in my classes, but I still have some friends who are also here for the full year so I’m not completely alone. I also know some more people who are coming in February for second semester, so that’s nice too.
I’m sure most of you have heard that this past Wednesday there was a terrorist attack in Paris where two men went into the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s building and shot 12 of the journalists. This came about because of a caricature that Charlie Hebdo published that was “mocking” Mohammad. It’s been all over the news everywhere, so I don’t think I need to recount all of it. But today I went to a demonstration in Angers (like they were having all over France) where basically most of the city got together with “Je Suis Charlie” signs and flags and we all marched through town. It was fun, but we left early because we got cold.
Well that’s all I have for now I think…my finals are coming up soon so I’ll probably be studying a lot soon 
but that’s school.
Bonne nuit et bisous 😘
Well, I have been here for a little over a month so far, and I still absolutely love it. Yesterday (Monday) was my first real days of classes, so I’m starting to have a more routine schedule and things are calming down. Last week was a week of “trying out” classes. Basically, depending on what level you placed into, you had certain classes that you could take-more or less depending on your level. I placed into B1.25, which is the last level of Intermediate, so I had 13 class options. So after testing out a bunch of classes, I decided to take:
French (this one was obligatory), French history, art history, French business, and translation between French and English. The history classes are mostly to fulfill gen-ed requirements at school, and the business and translation classes are just because they interested me.
So some days I’m at school for most of the day, and others I only have one or two classes. So, for example, on Wednesdays, I have one class at 5pm, so that gives me the day to do homework and laundry and sleep in and what not. I’ve even been doing some cooking! The other night, Michelle, Yaya, and Claire came over and we cooked my family a hearty American meal of baked mac n’ cheese, green beans, garlic bread, and salad. It was actually really good being that it was the first meal that I cooked ever.
I am pretty much just trying to live the French way of life. Today I was stopped by an old woman and asked for directions. I wasn’t as surprised that I was actually able to give her the directions and that she understood me, but more than I understood her right away and knew exactly where she was looking for. So I guess I have learned some French since I’ve been here 😉 Hah, kidding. My host family (while never failing to correct me!) has told me many times that I am improving everyday. While I am still timid when it comes to talking (I’m sure none of you would have ever expected to hear me say those words) my comprehension skills have improved immensely. My host parents laugh, however, because there have been many times where they try to explain something to Hiraku or ask him something and he doesn’t understand, so I repeat the question and he understands me perfectly! It is still frustrating when I’m at a restaurant or a store and I say something in French and, hearing my oh-so-clear American accent, the waiter or whoever it is talks to me in English. Like, come on guys I’m learning here!
Mais ça va.
Well, this weekend, the St. Mary’s girls were invited on an excursion with the Notre Dame students, and this blog is public so that’s all I’m gonna say about that. We’ll be gone Saturday and Sunday visiting (more) castles and cathedrals and what not. It’s free though so I can’t complain.
I’ve been having a lot of fun and making so many new friends though. Now for the don’t tell my parents section 😉. I tried absinthe (don’t worry, it wasn’t true absinthe so no hallucinations over here) and went to my first dance club! Woo! I am also thinking about getting another tattoo, but we’ll see because they are mighty cher over here (my mom knows about that, don’t worry, because we’re getting matching ones!)
I apologize (again) for not writing often, but I haven’t been doing things that are extremely exciting to hear. I mean for me, I was excited when I bought my first baguette on the way home from school and looked/felt super French, or even the lady asking me for directions. Simple things are exciting for me, and I love it. I do miss everyone back home, but I am toujours happy that I am able to live this experience.
Bisous 😘
P.S. I am truly happy that I was able to write all of this, because I am honestly starting to lose English….I’m fluent in Franglais, however!
Hello all! I am again sorry for my delayed posting, but I have been busy! My last post was on my birthday, and after that was my final week of the September Prestige courses, and this week I’ve been on vacation! A lot has happened, so hopefully I will be able to remember everything.
Friday, the 26th, was our last day of classes, and then we had our international soirée. It was basically just a variety/talent show kind of thing where people perfumed different dances, songs, etc. from their country. No, I did not do anything-that’s not my thing. The show was pretty cool though.
On Saturday, I met Michelle at the train station at 9am to leave for our weeklong vacation! Her parents came to France for her birthday and our first break, and they invited me along with them, which was too sweet! So we boarded the train which took us to Le Mans, and then we had a small layover before getting on our train to Chartres. I admit, we had some difficulties. We got to Le Mans perfectly fine, but once at the station, we waited and waited and waited for them to post which platform our train to Chartres would be at, and if we hadn’t asked information 2 minutes before the train left, we would have missed it! On the departure screen, the name of the train wasn’t listed as Chartres, so we did have to run to the train and jumped on as the doors were closing. We made it though! Once on the train, I took a nap and I think Michelle was reading when our next obstacle arrived. The ticket guy came by to check our tickets, and mumbled something about having to pay 45€. Neither of us quite understood him, so he had to repeat himself a few times before we finally understood. We both had had our feet up on the seats, which apparently in France is strictly prohibited, and this guy was trying to get us to pay 45€ for it! Even if that is the rules, we were not about to pay that, especially since we did not know that was a rule and there was nothing posted on the train or on the ticket saying so. This guy also didn’t speak any English, so we had to reason with him in French. We did manage to get out of it, and now we know not to put our feet on train seats! After that, we got off the train pretty quickly before any French po-po could come take us away.
Michelle’s parents picked us up at the train station and then we walked to a pizza place for some lunch. Afterwards, we went to the bed and breakfast that we stayed at for a couple of days to relax and little (her parents had flown in that morning so they were tired). Once we had all napped and freshened up, we drove back into the city center to go look at the Chartres Cathedral. It is a massive cathedral that is super pretty, and while we were there, I realized that I had already visited the cathedral when I was here 3 years ago with my high school group! So I personally thought that was cool. So we visited that church and then got some dinner at a little restaurant we found. At nightfall, the city of Chartres does a light show on 30 some of the buildings in town, including the cathedral, museums, etc. So we walked around and saw some of those buildings, which was super cool.
The cathedral during the day and then during the light show.
Our bed and breakfast room.
On Sunday and Monday, we visited Paris. On Sunday when we got there, we visited Sainte Chapelle, and then attended mass at Notre Dame. Even though it was in French, it was a really nice service, and at Notre Dame! I may not be Catholic but I still thought it was an amazing experience. We then visited Sorbonne, the university in Paris, and the Musée d’Orsay. Then, Monday was Michelle’s 21st birthday! So I think she really enjoyed spending that in Paris. We saw a few other churches, visited the Moulin Rogue (that was more for me!), Les Galaries Lafayette, the Opera house, and then took a boat tour of the city (which was also the same boat tour I took 3 years ago, but it was still super cool!). It was a long day, but very fun and Michelle had a really nice birthday.
The line going in to mass at Notre Dame.
Moulin Rogue | The Eiffel Tour
On Tuesday, we visited Versailles, which was probably one of my favorites so far! We took an audio tour of the palace, and saw the Hall of Mirrors, the gardens, etc. It was amazing. I did want to start punching the other million tourists who were shoving everyone out of the way to take pictures of everything, but I was able to restrain myself. After that visit, we came to Loches, where we are now, at a little campsite here. Don’t worry, we aren’t really camping. We have a nice little cabin with electricity and a bathroom and wi-fi, etc. We just relaxed for the rest of Tuesday, and then slept in on Wednesday, which was definitely needed with all of the running around and sightseeing we’ve been doing.
Versailles Palace | Royal Gardens
Mirror Selfie in the Hall of Mirrors
On Wednesday we went and visited the church, royal apartments, and dungeon here in Loches. They weren’t the biggest or prettiest of the other things we’ve seen, but it was the first dungeon we’ve been to, and I always enjoys things like that! Michelle’s dad cooked us a nice fish dinner and then Michelle and I watched the movie Moulin Rogue in honor of visiting it on Monday.
Today, we drove to Poitiers to visit some of the cathedrals there. We also had our first meal at a crêperie, even though we ate galettes, not crêpes. After Poitiers, we went to see one last cathedral in Tours, and then we came home. This morning we ran out of gas, which meant that I lost hot water in the shower, and we had no gas to use the stove. We think someone brought us more gas, so we are trying to cook dinner right now, but are still facing a few challenges, so hopefully we manage to get some food.
I have no idea what we are doing for the rest of the week (probably going to visit more castles and churches) but we are heading back to Angers on Sunday, and I start my real first semester on Monday! I don’t actually know which classes I’m taking though….I guess we figure that out on Monday? It’s a weird system, but I’ll figure it out.
Bisous 😘
P.S. I decided to get my belly button pierced! Michelle is a bad influence 😉
un belle voyage 