seeing blue - morocco, part three

after a few days in fez, we moved on to our final moroccan stop – a beautiful town called chefchaouen, tucked into the mountains in the north of the country. it is most known for one unique, unifying trait common among the buildings in the old medina – back in the 30’s, jewish refugees painted most of the medina  crisp, clear powder blue. in addition to creating a calming, cool atmosphere in the heat of summer, the combination of whitewash, blue accents, and orange-tiled roofs makes for some absolutely wonderful photography. our two days in chefchaouen were spent hiking up the surrounding mountains, wandering through the streets, taking photos every six seconds, and generally relaxing. since there isn’t very much to do in the tourism department, we took advantage of the atmosphere and had a wonderfully laid-back few days. we also ate – a lot. food in morocco is really good, and really cheap, so we didn’t skimp! the final tajine we had ended up being my favourite; something about the roasted chicken and veggies, swimming in spiced oils just begging to be mopped up with the bread… and all for less than 4 euro. drool.

chefchaouen also reemphasized another observation i’d made a few times throughout my travels in morocco – as a culture, moroccans are exceptionally kind and hospitable. having remarked upon that to a few different people (our friend zakaria, the bus driver for our excursion, the hostel workers, etc), each person responded with the same explanation: it’s part of the muslim faith to be welcoming to strangers. now, as someone who makes a very conscious effort to be globally minded and accepting, i have to confess that the circumstances of my american upbringing had not instilled that preconceived notion into my mindset. consciously, i had no worries about going to morocco, but i did recognize that it was my first foray outside of the mainly judeo-christian world i’d been immersed in up until then. i could not have been more unfounded in my expectations – no matter where we went, we were immediately offered a place to sit, or at least some tea. locals were friendly and liked to chat when possible, and i never, not even once, felt any kind of hostility towards me – not based on race, religion, or even sex. (note: getting harassed in the medina is a different story – that’s part of the market culture, and not, i believe, indicative of moroccan culture as a whole.) we had conversations about religious differences that i would have paid dearly to record and show to certain people back home – i’ve heard much worse come out of the mouths of self-proclaimed christians. but that’s a whole different issue, and i’ll go ahead and step down off my soap box…

after chefchaouen, it was time to head back to europe. during the planning of this trip, the history nerd in me had developed a sort of fixation on crossing the strait of gibraltar in a boat. i just couldn’t get over the amount of history – real, literary, mythological. that 8 mile stretch of water could be argued as the most significant water passage in the world, and i wanted to cross it! so, we took another (very, very uncomfortable and unpleasant 4 hour long) bus ride from chefchaouen to tangier, where we boarded the ferry and bobbed our way between continents. it’s amazing to realize just how close spain and morocco are at that point – you can see one continent from the other, even on a hazy day. the crossing was uneventful (except for my nerding out), and we arrived back in europe without much fanfare… except i could feel my wallet shriveling back up after the wonderful dirham. alas. with great luck, we made it from the port to the bus station exactly one minute before the bus we needed to be on was scheduled to depart, and so there was pretty much no waiting around in between modes of transportation! another 3 hours saw us pulling into sevilla, our “post-africa, reacclimation to europe” spot. 

all in all, we were in sevilla for about 36 hours – not nearly enough to really even count having been there, but a nice treat on the back end of our trip! after the insanely long and complex travel day we had on friday, it was all we could muster to meet a few people on our hostel rooftop, eat some paella, and have a little night cap before crashing into bed.  our full day on saturday was a lovely example of what a “spanish day” should be. first, we appreciated the monuments and visited the cathedral and the alcazar in the morning – i loved seeing the amount of detailing in the stone carving and tile so present throughout the city. after our historical touring, we enjoyed a nice, laid-back lunch of tapas and sangria, followed by some gelato in the early afternoon. then, we followed the spanish example and took our siesta in the mid-afternoon… a much-needed and welcomed pause. our big treat on saturday was a visit to the “world’s only” flamenco museum, located just down the street from our hostel. we got a private tour through the museum, and then had the opportunity to see two professional dancers do an hour performance in the museum. my thighs were burning just watching all the tiny, intricate movements – it’s no wonder those dancers were 100% muscle! such an incredibly passionate and emotive dance; we loved it! we finished the night with some pasta in the hostel and some hang-out-time with some of the other travelers. but it was early to bed again – no rest for the weary!

first thing sunday morning, we made our way to the airport, for an 8am flight to toulouse. originally, we had planned on staying in toulouse with a friend of lauren’s… but the moment i stepped foot back on french soil, i just wanted to be home. so, i did a little impromptu train research and ended up heading home a day early! what’s another 5 hours on the train, really. my guardian angel friend mathilde came to pick me up from the train station in perigueux, and i was home in time for a late dinner and my beeeed! in keeping with my previous travels, i was happy to be home, so i could finally relax after all that vacation! :) aaand that’s the end of my moroccan adventure – in a word, wonderful. pictures from chefchaouen and sevilla are here (starting at 148)!

vacation life.

hola amigos!

it’s been far too long since i’ve posted on here – but, i’ve been busy (read: on holiday in spain)! here in franceland, vacation days are plentiful. usually, schools go for about six weeks, and then the students get a two week break. this pattern continues from the beginning of september to june. as a teaching assistant, i have the pleasure of benefitting from this lovely little schedule, which means i get 8 weeks of vacation this year (fall break, christmas break, winter break, spring break). the halloween break snuck right up on me… i felt like i’d only just started work (because i had) and then boom! two weeks of vacation. being the proactive little traveler that i am, i had to take advantage of the time! i was pretty exhausted from the constant vagrancy of september, so i decided to go easy and plan a trip to see two of my friends from nashville, who are living and teaching in madrid for the year! it was much simpler than planning a big tour through scandinavia, which was my other idea.

before i left, however, i did have a very interesting teaching experience. as the only english assistant in the school, i was offered the chance to teach an optional english camp during the first two days of the vacation. the school puts on this program each semester, and they usually find a native english speaker to plan the lessons and run the two-day camp. this time, i had 15 high schoolers, ranging from 10^th-12^th grade, to entertain for a total of 10 hours. i was exceedingly pleased with the lesson i created, which centered around a “roadtrip across the usa” theme and touched on all aspects of language acquisition (reading, listening, writing, conversing, public speaking). in theory, it was great. in reality….. it was alright. some things just didn’t work in practice like they had in my head (ie – group vocabulary research, roadtrip itinerary creation). if i had known that the students expected these camps to be mainly focused on speaking practice, i would have planned differently… however, considering the fact that i was given literally no guidelines or instruction, i thought it was pretty successful. the first time trying something is always going to be awkward, and now i know better for next time!

the moment my camp was over on tuesday, i hit the road for my vacation! since excideuil is so far out into the country, it’s kind of a process to even get to an airport. i’ve found that the best thing to do is get into bordeaux for the evening and then fly out the following day, so that’s exactly what i did. plus, i got to hang out with my friends in bordeaux for a night, which is always, always a plus. :)

europe is so fun, because international flights can be amazingly short! we crossed a mountain range and completely changed cultures in less than an hour… i’m not sure we even got up to full altitude. but anyway, i got to madrid in about an hour and fifteen minutes, and promptly got to partying! the friends i was visiting, mitchell and nicole, met me at the airport, brought me home to drop my bag, and then led me to this fantastic area of madrid called lavapies. this particular neighborhood just haaaappened to be in the middle of a week-long event called “tapapies,” in which dozens of bars were offering signature tapas for 1 euro each. convenient. we ended up bar-hopping through lavapies for a couple nights of my stay, because it was just too good for one visit.

the majority of my time in the city proper was spent walking (as is my habit in new cities), visiting some seriously fantastic art museums (mostly for free, thanks to the handy free-admission hours that most museums offer throughout the week), and eating. my lord, did we eat. here in excideuil, it’s hard to cook for just one person… i invariably end up making the same couple meals, because they’re easy to make in small quantities. but in madrid, we got to cook for four, which led to some wonderfully creative dinners and snacks. it was great to get to see my friends and spend some quality time together in such an exciting and vibrant city!

consequently, we did get out of town on two separate day trips, which were both fantastic. one of the days, we took the train out to avila, a medieval city with a giant wall surrounding the old town. we did a little taste test of the typical pastry of the town and then walked along the top of the walls for over a kilometer. it was interesting to see how closely it resembled the walls of the chateau in angers, where i used to live. they were constructed around the same time, so i guess that was just the style back then! our other day trip was to toledo, another town about an hour south of madrid. we went on a sunday, so it was pretty quiet, which meant fewer tourists but also earlier closing hours. we saw a lot, but i definitely want to go back one day and see all the churches and museums that were closed! even so, it was great just to walk around and see the tiny streets and hidden plazas.

my last day in spain was halloween, which was so fun. i went with nicole out to the school where she teaches, so i could visit her classes and help spook the kids in this haunted classroom experience one of the teachers had set up. it was so entertaining, because the kids immediately came up to me and started asking questions and trying to figure out who i was. i even bonded with one of the girls when i told her i was from the same town as taylor swift. i was particularly interested in seeing the differences between her school and mine here in france – the educational systems are really quite different! all in all, i’m happy with my decision to teach middle/high school… as cute as the primary school kids were, i just don’t have the energy for that kind of mayhem every day!

if you would like to see photos from my trip to spain, check out this facebook album, starting at picture number 77!

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after i got back to excideuil from vacation, i worked for 4 days (for a grand total of 10 hours) and then had a 4 day weekend, thanks to armistice day. #france. my upstairs neighbor, mathilde, invited me to her house for the break, which was super kind of her. we left friday afternoon and made the 5 hour trek up to her town, which is called ‘les sables d’olonne.’ it’s a beach town on the atlantic coast, and it’s so lovely! luckily, we had a few hours of sunshine on saturday and sunday, so she got to show me the beach, the boardwalk, the harbor, and some of the more rugged coastline. the weekend was filled with exceptional food (oh, how i missed home-cookin’) and lots of french practice for me (note: conversations in loud bars and comedy shows containing political satire are even harder in a foreign language). mathilde and her parents were so hospitable and fun – i had a great time. (for pictures, click here!) and now, somehow, my christmas break is only 5 weeks away. so, naturally, i’m already planning. that’s pretty much how things go here… finish one vacation, start planning the next! 

getting down in barcelona!

alright, team, i’m back! i just spent the last two weeks on my “easter vacation” – which is actually just the first two weeks of summer, because i had no school to come back to. woo! two weeks away from my computer has yielded many stories to tell. i’m going to split my trip into two blog posts – barcelona and the french riviera. here’s the first installment!

the days leading up to my departure were filled with preparations, friends, goodbyes, and planning. there’s always planning when i’m involved. rachel and i had many goals for our two week excursion to the south, and i wanted to make sure we did as many as possible! it was tough to say goodbye to friends, especially the few that i wouldn’t be seeing again! fortunately, i still have the chance to see the majority of my friends once more before we all go back to our corners of the world.

wednesday, 27 april 2011

i woke up early to finish packing, check my computer stuff, and say goodbye to shane (he moved back to ireland the day before we returned – but i’ll see him next week when i go visit!) rachel and i left the dorm around 11am.. with many  miles to go before we slept. we took several modes of transportation (bus to train station, train to the paris airport, plane to barcelona, bus to city centre, walked to apartment) and then arrived at our first of five lodgings for the trip!

our friend natalie and one of her friends visiting from canada were in barcelona with us for the first few days, so the four of us rented two rooms off of airbnb.com from a sweet spanish family in lieu of a hostel or hotel. natalie and alyse arrived only a few hours before us (they were flying in from bordeaux), so we all got to explore together. the bed and breakfast option ended up being pretty cheap (only 20 euro per person), and we got breakfast every day! having real beds is a nice bonus. :) the family was so sweet – three generations of spanish women; a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter. they were all so kind and funny – the five-year-old aurora was so spirited and engaging! we loved staying with them, because it gave us a feel for “real” spanish life.. not crazy hostel traveler life.

once we got settled in, we all decided to go out and see the nightlife a little bit. the night of the 27^th was actually an important one in barcelona – the football club (that’s soccer team for you non-followers :P) was playing their biggest rival (madrid) in the semi-finals of the playoffs. as we were sitting in the apartment resting, we heard the streets absolutely erupt with cheers after the star of barcelona, lionel messi, scored two excellent goals. it was so cool to go out on the balcony and see people jumping and dancing and celebrating on all the surrounding balconies, in the streets, in cars – yelling, honking horns, blowing air horns. it was insane. when we left the apartment and got to las ramblas (the biggest streen in barcelona), we arrived literally minutes after the end of the match. there were probably thousands of people in the street, all cheering and singing.. some ardent supporters were even climbing lamp posts and waving flags from the top. it was an amazing welcome to an awesome city. we walked around some more before heading home and going to bed.

thursday, 28 april 2011

thursday was wonderful! we woke up and ate our breakfast before getting ready for the day. the four of us left around 11am and walked the 30 or so minutes down to barceloneta beach, one of the most popular beaches. it was really beautiful, but pretty annoying – every four minutes, a small asian woman came up to us offering a massage, or a henna tattoo, or something. we got really good at saying “no, gracias.” like we were professionals. there were some clouds in the sky, but it was still nice enough to lay out for a little while and soak up the beachy atmosphere. around 1:30, we left the beach and took the metro to the passeig de grácia, which is kind of like the 5^th avenue of barcelona. there are several buildings on this street by the architect antoní gaudi, probably the most famous figure in barcelona. there is one block with three different modern-style buildings, by three different architects, right next to each other. it’s called the ‘illa de la discordia’ – the block of discord. the three buildings are very different in style, and each very unique. it was so neat to see the contrasts between such interesting architecture!

once we took our photos, we walked around for a while in search of some lunch. eventually we landed on a little corner store that sold these pizzas.. on baguettes. heaven! they were delicious. we ate as we walked back to the metro, and then hopped on to the base of the foothills on the edge of the city. we headed to one of the most famous landmarks in barcelona – park güell. there was an unbelievably steep hill to climb, but fortunately half of it was by escalator. but my goodness.. i couldn’t believe the incline! once we got to the top of the escalators, there was still a good bit of pathway before we reached the tippy top. we climbed up this stone structure to take in an amazing panoramic view of the second largest city in spain. from there, we descended into the park to check out all the gaudí designed elements. there was one part with these crazy concrete columns that looked like trees, but different.. i can’t describe it. there are pictures. from there, we went to the plaza with the craziest bench ever! it’s a super, super long squiggly mosaic bench that forms the edge of an entire rooftop plaza. it is SO beautiful! people brought their old dishes and tiles and whatever they wanted, and it came together to form one of the most unique pieces of art i have ever seen. underneath that rooftop plaza was a hall filled with giant columns (and more mosaic on the ceiling). the entryway to the park has two more gaudí buildings – which look straight up like gingerbread houses. again, check my album for photos! after the park, we made our way DOWN the steep hill (much nicer), stopping in souvenir shops along the way.  we hopped on a bus to the apartment, picked up some food for dinner, and made a nice meal. around 8:30, we went back out to catch happy hour at a bar off of las ramblas. it was called ‘betty ford’ and had a really cool 50’s vibe. plus, the drinks were great. we went to one place afterward to get a tapas snack (first experience with patatas bravas, GLORIOUS) and then walked home and headed to bed.

friday, 29 april 2011

friday was natalie and alyse’s last day in barcelona, so they got up really early to do some more touristy things.. rachel and i slept in a little before getting up and eating our breakfast around 9:30. we headed out around 11am to go explore a beautiful park in the gothic quarter – there was an amazing fountain, a pond with rowboats, a zoo, a botanical garden, and a geology museum! it started out rainy but the weather improved gradually throughout the day. we found a really cool burger place for lunch and split 4 fancy mini burgers and a plate of patatas bravas (number 2) while looking up photos of william and kate, who got married on friday. she.. looked.. AMAZING. we met natalie and alyse at the picasso museum around 2pm and looked around there for a few hours. it was a great museum, but the vast majority of the works were pre-cubism.. it did have the entire las meninas study, though, which was awesome. we left around 4:30 and walked around the gothic quarter for a while. rachel and i had read in our in-flight magazine (thanks easyjet!) that there were free tapas during happy hour at this certain bar.. so we went there at 5pm, only to learn that tapas were only offered in the summer. LAME. we kept looking and then eventually decided on a bar called ‘rosa negra’ – they had amazing margaritas (says rachel), plus great nachos and burritos.. she is as much of a mexican food fiend as i am, so we were pretty happy with this decision. we all ate and talked for a while before heading over to the olympic park to watch the magic fountain show. there is a beautiful and very large fountain in front of a very large judicial building.. every night, there is a water and lights show, set to music. it was REALLY awesome.. and i went a little crazy on the photos. :) we left the show around 8:45, and went on an epic (and ultimately unsuccessful) search for churros. we walked WAY too long.. by the end, my back was hurting worse than it ever has in my life. i was near tears by the time rachel and i took the metro back to the apartment. i took a super hot shower and fell into bed. natalie and alyse stayed out a little later, but came back to back before too long.

saturday, 30 april 2011

a very calm day, thankfully. we had already done SO much walking! natalie and alyse woke up really early to go to the airport, but rachel and i didn’t check out of our apartment until around 11am. we said goodbye to our little spanish family and then headed across town to find our couchsurfer’s apartment. we had to walk a little way from the metro stop, but once we got there, we were super excited! the flat was in a REALLY nice apartment building, just 3 blocks from the sagrada familia cathedral (gaudí’s masterpiece of a modern cathedral, which has been under construction for over 200 years and still has 100 to go!). i can’t tell you how great this location/apartment was. plus, our host was so, so, so nice (offered us chocolate within 5 minutes of our arrival!) and his roommates were all great as well. the weather was gorgeous, so we did some brief grocery shopping before going on a nice leisurely (but also stupidly long) walk.. actually, i’ve just done some clever google maps-ing, and i’d estimate that we walked between 7 and 12 miles every day. for 6 days.. we DEFINITELY walked more than 60 miles in barcelona. YEESH. anyway, we went on a long walk and then came back to cook dinner with one of the roommates carine and her friend axel. our host was at work until super early in the morning, so it was just the 4 of us. here’s the best part – the roommate was from angers! where i live in france! and her friend was french too.. so we spent the whole night speaking french. it was awesome. we even watched a (fairly depressing) french film as well. i had to stay up to let our host benjamin in the building (we had taken his keys earlier that day), so we arrived around 2:30am. we stayed up talking until nearly 4am before crashing on the couch/fold out bed!

sunday, 1 may 2011

after staying up so late, we definitely had a bit of a lie-in on sunday. i woke myself up around 11:30 and did some travel notes, etc for a while. two weeks away means i have to keep track of everything, or blogging would be impossible! i also got some planning done before rachel woke up around 1pm. we ate some cereal and got ready for the day, leaving the apartment around 3pm to explore some more! we walked around the gothic quarter, which is an amazing neighborhood in barcelona where the majority of the old, old buildings are. we also looked around the surrounding areas.. throughout the afternoon, we nibbled on waffles with ice cream on top and some more patatas bravas. i finally broke down and bought a barcelona football club jersey (with messi’s name/number!) – there was a place with a sale, and i got a kids’ size, so it wasn’t expensive at all! we met carine around 6pm outside the old cathedral to supposedly watch some traditional dancing.. except it didn’t happen. instead, we saw an awesome street dance performance with some jaw-dropping stunts! carine gave us a tour of the university area, which we hadn’t seen yet, and we went for a drink at the sister bar of rosa negra, called rosa raval. carine headed back to the flat around 8pm, and rachel and i went to find our dinner restaurant.

since i do most of the planning for our trips, i put rachel in charge of deciding where/what we eat.. she’s such a great foodie, i’m never disappointed! we went to one of the most popular restaurants in barcelona – les quinze nits. there was a big line, but it moved quickly. unfortunatly, they had NO chicken, so i never got my chicken and rice.. but we had good food anyway. :) after dinner, we stopped by a bar called ‘els cuatro gats’, one of picasso’s old haunts. it was so swanky! live piano in the back dining room, awesome murals, LOADS of picasso sketches.. i really liked it. we stayed for dessert and ended up sitting and talking for over 2 hours. we left around 12:30am and went to meet up with benjamin, our host, and his date for the evening – another frenchie! i swear, the french are everywhere! we met up in a central location and then walked over to a little area on the outside of town to a bar. rachel and i only stayed for a little while, and then got a cab back to the apartment. unfortunately, no one was there to let us in.... so we were locked out. after a few minutes of uncertainty and nerves, i finally decided to buzz the next-door neighbor (whose lights were still on at 2am, thank goodness) to ask them to open the outside door. i rang her, explained that we were friends of her neighbors staying for a few days, had no keys and no way to get inside, and could she please buzz us in? except i did that all in spanish. WHAT?! thank heavens that my spanish education was enough to get us off the street in the middle of the night. benjamin arrived back not too much later (after several phone calls) and he let us in the apartment. we stayed up talking pretty late (again) before i declared bedtime.

monday, 2 may 2011

our last day in barcelona! we woke up around 8am and left for sagrada familia by 9am, stopping by the bank on the way (but the ATM was broken.. lame). the line to get into the cathedral was long, but it moved really quickly.. we were inside by 9:30 or 9:45. the exterior of the building itself is breathtaking – so much absolutely mind-blowing detail! it’s actually OVERLY detailed.. you just can’t take it in all at once. it seems so busy! the inside, while still very busy and overwhelming, is much simpler in design. there was so much light inside, too. the overall effect was so beautiful. we stayed for about 45 minutes before hopping on the metro out to camp nou, the home stadium of the football club. camp nou is actually the biggest stadium in europe, with a 100,000 person capacity! it is ENORMOUS. we walked around the outside and then looked through the megastore, because the actual tours of the stadium were about 20 euro and there was a 3 hour wait! sheesh. we left the stadium around 12 and headed down to montjuïc park, where all the ’92 olympic buildings are. we didn’t really get to see the park, though, because our search for lunch ended up taking us in the opposite direction and we never doubled back. but we did get to run several errands (bank, post office, zara to get shoes) before heading back to the flat for a nap. we slept for a few hours and then woke up and wrote postcards before heading back out around 7pm. as an (ex)employee of the ritz-carlton in barcelona, benjamin gave us two spare room keys and some cards that would get us into any club for free! so we went to a café for dinner before doing some souvenir hunting down las ramblas. we walked all the way to the olympic port (where the hotel/clubs are) and then checked out the area and two super awesome clubs. the first one was a salsa dance bar, which was incredible! i seriously just sat for about 45 minutes and watched these beautiful people dancing like they were professionals. it was so wonderful! once midnight rolled around, we headed to the club that benjamin suggested – opium (pictured; outside beachfront seating). we had to show the keys to the bouncer, but he let us right in! sweet! it was by far the swankiest place i have ever been – beautiful décor, beautiful location, beautiful people.. i felt a little out of place, but it was great. we danced for a while and then took a few laps before heading out. after calling benjamin to figure out which bus to take, we hopped right on the bus.... except it never stopped at our stop. sooo we ended up riding the bus for about an hour and twenty minutes, on a FULL circuit of the city. whoops. we got back around 2:45 am and were in bed by 3:30. long day for sure!

tuesday, 3 may 2011

waking up was very hard. but we had to, because we had a plane to catch! we packed up and left the keys on the table. i’d been stressed due to a couchsurfing cancellation in lyon for the night of the 3^rd, which still wasn’t solved when we left our flat in barcelona at 8:45am. i sent out one message, pretty much blind, to a woman in lyon who had logged on just 30 minutes beforehand. i wasn’t sure the next time we’d have wifi for me to use my ipod to check emails, so i left my phone number, asking her to call or text when she got the message. we made our way across town to the bus stop where the airport line would pick us up.. we got on the bus around 9:30 and were at the airport by 10:10 for our 11:40 flight. perfect! check-in was non-existant, and security took about 4 minutes, so it was a relaxing airport experience. we had some snacks at the terminal before boarding.. and i got a text from the woman in lyon! she wasn’t able to host us, but she had a friend who could!!! i texted the friend and let her know that i would call when we arrived in france. SO much pressure and stress off of my mind! we boarded the plane and took off back to franceland...

(to be continued in the next post, ‘the french riviera; it’s like florida, but way less tacky.’)

ps - to see photos of this trip, check out my facebook album!

and off we go!

hey everyone!

this is going to be a quick post, because in an hour.. i’m starting my journey to SPAIN! i’ll be catching the bus from my dorm to the train station, getting on a train to the airport in paris, and flying to barcelona. :) by the end of this day, i’ll be sleeping in a whole new country!

the last week has been filled with as much friend time as possible.. when i get back from this trip, several of my good friends won’t be here. :( it’s been really hard to say goodbye.. i feel so close to all of these people and i can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when i can’t run down the hall and scratch on a door in the middle of the night. plus, i’m going to miss all these canadian and irish accents! i actually had a bit of a panic-attack break-down sort of thing the other night, thinking about this whole ‘parting ways forever’ business. it’s so tough. but i’m doing my best to make the most of every moment – and i know that goodbye doesn’t mean forever with these people. there’s no way.

easter sunday was FABULOUS here in franceland. i biked into town in the morning to meet my friends andrea and jane (and andrea’s parents) and attend easter mass at a beautiful old church. the stained glass was making reflections on the pillars above the altar, and the slightly incensed air and smoke made the whole thing look like a painting. it was interesting to see the differences in what an easter service at a french catholic church was like in comparison to what i know the easter service is like at rolling hills, my church at home. after the service, i biked over to the only store that was open to pick up a few things for easter brunch! we did the full thing, just like for my birthday last week. it was delicious, and so fun to meet/spend time with andy’s parents!

after brunch, i worked on a few things for this trip – there is a lot of preparation that goes into a 2 week excursion to the mediterranean! :) i skyped with my parents and drew as well. since lent was officially over, i had planned to make an awesome easter dinner – i ended up deciding to do an orange-glazed chicken with spring veggies and pasta salad. it was REALLY good – jessie, rachel, and danielle ate with me. my vegetarian life is over! i’ll definitely be eating less meat now, but it’s good to be back. :)

rachel and i will be meeting up in about an hour to head to the train station.. i’m about 95% packed and ready to go! but here’s some BIG NEWS; we’ve started a video log about our travels in europe – it’s a youtube channel called TheEuropeanAdventure. watch the intro video to learn more, and subscribe to catch us at the 

next stop!

off i go... :)

x jill