frunneymoon, part one - athens

never one to do things halfway, i wrapped up my birthday week with the boys juuuust in time for another wonderful trip – my college roommate / soul sista liz came over for a mediterranean-style friend honeymoon (we coined it the “frunneymoon”). for the sake of efficiency, she arrived into istanbul just a few hours after the boys had departed. we hung around for one night with my friend alex (of previous post fame), and then left together the following day for 10 wonderful days in greece!

our first impression of greece was highly favourable. it wasn’t necessarily unexpected, but it was certainly a pleasant confirmation. everyone was exceedingly kind and helpful, from the concierge at the airport to the bus driver in the city center (who let us ride for free because the ticket kiosk was sold out - what?!). moreover, most people spoke excellent english, which was a definite surprise (and relief) for me. we did put some individual effort into learning some basic phrases before we arrived, which always makes a huge difference; starting with a few words in someone’s native language can result in a major change in the attitudes of people you meet along the way! plus, it’s fun to learn new ways to communicate.

the first half of our frunneymoon was spent exploring the city of athens, another amazingly historic place. if you can’t see the trend here, i like history-cations. we had an absolute blast for four days in the city. my favourite part (no surprises here) was seeing the ancient ruins; the enduring presence of millennia of history never ceases to astound me. i loved climbing up the acropolis, seeing the remnants of what was once the shining city on the hill that birthed modern democracy. we stood under the shadow of the parthenon, and it wasn’t difficult at all to imagine what it must have been in its glory days. (the full-scale replica in nashville helped a bit on that front.) we walked along the same paths that some of the greatest thinkers in history – plato, socrates, aristotle – might have strolled down, expounding on their philosophies to the young men who followed in their wake. it was so easy to picture that ancient city, the thriving culture that truly believed itself to be the pinnacle of all human history.

even apart from the overwhelming historical significance, athens was wonderful. we had some truly excellent food – i never liked gyros until i went to greece! like morocco, everything was fresh and often made right in front of you… also, the feta cheese was incredible. the best thing we ate, though, was the yogurt. yes, greek yogurt. on the recommendation of one of liz’s belmont friends, we went and found the yogurt shop “around the corner from the acropolis metro station, across from the gelato shop” and it. was. incredible. we went the first day.. and the second.. and the third.. and the fourth. literally, we ate this yogurt every day we were in athens. it was so fresh and creamy and delicious, and you could add fruit or cereal.. and then the honey. oh my lord, the honey… i have never had anything so delectable. i got the same thing every day – regular yogurt with bananas, corn flakes, and pine honey. the last day i added strawberries. i had to ask panos (the worker, who i ended up friending on facebook because he was so awesome) to give me the same quantity in a bigger cup so i could mix it all better. sigh… i miss you, fresko yogurt bar.

our time in athens wasn’t just spent eating yogurt on the acropolis, though. we saw a good part of the city in those four days! everything from the more modernized “academy” and national library to the little shopping streets of the plaka neighborhood. we checked out a couple museums, the panathenaic olympic stadium (the birthplace of the modern olympics), saw an enormous group of soccer fans gathering in a huge park on their way to a game, and even made some friends in our hostel. on the recommendation of the internet, we took an afternoon/evening trip out to the coast, to the temple of poseidon at sounio. it’s this isolated little temple on the tippy top of a cliff, overlooking the mediterranean on three sides. kind of makes sense why poseidon would want a temple there! we enjoyed watching a gorgeous sunset before taking the final bus back to the city. our last night, we hiked (read: took the cable car) to the top of the tallest hill in athens, lycabettus hill. there’s a teeny little church on top, and a restaurant, and that’s about it! we treated ourselves to a nice dinner, looking out over the city as the sun set and the lights started to twinkle. seeing the parthenon lit up from a different vantage point was certainly awe-inspiring!

on the fifth morning, we headed to the port to catch our boat for the second half of the frunneymoon… but i think that’s a story for a different post. :) if you would like to see photos from greece, check out this facebook album!

the french riviera; it’s like florida, but way less tacky.

(continued from the post “getting down in barcelona”...)

tuesday, 3 may 2011

...we landed in lyon, a city in the eastern region of france. after the previous days’ housing worries, i was glad to have found a place for us to sleep! we took the tram from the airport to the city centre, and then the metro out to meet our host. her name is hélène, and she is an angel from heaven, i swear. she came to meet us at the stop and then walked us back to her flat. she live in a little neighborhood at the top of a hill, overlooking the main city.. and her apartment is incredible. we walked in and were immediately greeted with a deep red, textured-wall entry way. hélène said we’d be sleeping in her room, since it was at the back and furthest from the morning’s construction noises. her bedroom was this lovely eggplant colour with orange trim and awesome african-print fabrics on the bed and chairs. her sitting room was bright yellow, with funky and unique couches in purple, and a patio table complete with umbrella in the breakfast nook! the apartment went on for several rooms in the same style.. rachel and i were astonished. usually, the french are so demure and muted in their colour choices. but not hélène! she matched her apartment perfectly – bright reddish-maroon hair, ecclectic blue and green outfit, red lipstick and blue eyeshadow.. and a wonderful spirit! she immediately offered us food – fruit, cheese, bread, yogurt – and then let us get settled.

around 4pm, we left to go explore the city, as it was really our only chance! we walked down this huge set of stairs into the town, and then literally just walked up and down streets, along the river, through plazas.. trying to soak up as much of the city as we could. we stopped for a drink, and then grabbed some groceries before heading back up the hill around 8pm. since lyon itself isn’t actually very big, i feel like we did a good job seeing a large percentage of the city in such a small amount of time! once we got back to the apartment, we were exhausted.. hélène wasn’t home (she’d given us keys), but i cooked us a little dinner of pasta and then we just laid in bed reading until bedtime!

wednesday, 4 may 2011

i thought that i couldn’t sleep for more than 9 hours, but after many nights of sleeping on small pallets or couches, a real bed was enough to keep me out for more than 10 hours! it was luxury at its finest – but considering we’d gone to bed around 11, we still woke up earlyish at 10am. we packed our stuff up and then hélène surprised us with an awesome savory tarte for lunch! two kinds of cheese and garlic.. it was DELISH. she had to leave around 12:45, so said our goodbyes and left then too. we hung out in a park for about an hour before heading to the train station...

our next stop was a city called nice (pronounced neese, like geese), situated right on the mediterranean coast, almost all the way to italy. we had several hours on the train, though, since we had to go out of our way and change trains in marseille. we finally arrived in nice around 8:30, where one of our hosts came to meet us at the train station. we stayed with an awesome french couple, valentin and yasmine, in their incredible attic apartment. it was the fourth floor of this beautiful old villa building, on the north side of the city. they have a sweet cat and an adorably decorated place. rachel and i enjoyed every minute of our stay! we talked for a long time after arriving, especially about the 3-week tour they are doing of the southwest USA, starting in a few days! they are starting in albuquerque and visiting several national parks, vegas, and eventually making their way to san francisco.. couchsurfing all the way! i hope they have an absolutely marvelous time – i know they will! valentin even helped me plan out our touring for the following day – he had some awesome suggestions! yasmine made an awesome quiche and salad for dinner.. yum. after dinner, i took a much needed shower before skype-calling my parents and heading to bed.

thursday, 5 may 2011

thursday was a long day!!!! so much walking. but totally worth it! we woke up around 9am to the sound of oranges being juiced... and walked out to the living room to find breakfast pastries and goblets (yes, small crystal goblets) of freshly squeezed orange juice. more praise for couchsurfing, can i get an amen? awesome. we ate and then walked down to the train station to catch our 17-minute-long train to the swankiest little principality on the planet – monaco. what a freaking FANCY place! we spent the morning wandering around monte carlo, marveling at the amazing amounts of money on display. i literally lost count of the number of bentleys i saw.. but i am absolutely sure than i saw probably 25 million dollars worth of car.. so many bentleys, rolls royces, ferraris.... my word. and then there were all yachts in the harbor... plus the stores – gucci, prada, hermes.. all in a row. SO MUCH WEALTH. even the banks were called ‘wealth management’ places.. geez. we went up to ‘old’ monte carlo and watched the (rather unimpressive) changing of the guard, grabbed some sandwiches for lunch, and taking in the amazing views before hopping a bus back to the train station.

we took the train 8 minutes back towards nice, getting off in a town called ‘eze’. this stop was purely on valentin’s recommendation, and it was SO worth it. we had to take another bus up into the mountains, but once we got there, we were rewarded with a teeny little stone village, perched high up on top of the hill, overlooking the medeterranean and the beaches below.. each little street was so cute, with art shops and other merchants. we got ice cream and wandered around for an hour before heading back down to the beach. on the bus ride down the hill, rachel realized that every single passenger on the bus was an anglophone – we were on a bus with probably 40 middle-aged to elderly american tourists. haha. we got back to the train station and walked down to the beach and dip our toes in the water for a bit before our train arrived. once it did, we had a short ride back to nice!

once we were back, we still had lots of time to kill before yasmine was off work. we ended up walking allllll over the city, carrying the groceries we had bought while still thinking we could drop them off at the apartment.. whoops. this was our best time to see nice, though, so i’m happy we did so much walking. we even got to sit on the beach for a while before yasmine called us and said she was home. we got back and chilled for a bit before breaking out the supplies we’d purchased – because we promised to make yasmine her favourite treat.. blueberry muffins! i even persuaded everyone to let me do half the batch as raspberry muffins. they turned out well, if just a little crispy due to some temperature confusion and a super hot oven. they were definitely edible (more than edible!) and we all enjoyed them immensely! it was nice to do some baking, too.. i’ve missed it!

after the muffins, we all went out for drinks and snacks in old nice, at a really cool bar. it reminded me of being inside jules verne’s sketch book, somehow.. really interesting décor. we walked there and back though, completing a VERY long day of walking! once we got back, i looked for a few hosts in cannes, our next stop, before heading to bed.

friday, 6 may 2011

in retrospect, i would not have done this day the way it happened. but i cannot tell the future, so when it started i was still pleased with my plan! we woke up to muffins and orange juice around 9am again. we ate, packed up, said our goodbyes, and left around 10am to catch our 10:30 train to cannes, of film festival fame. the ride was short, but unfortunately, the luggage holding area in the station was closed. so we had to lug our bags around with us as we strolled the beach walk for a while. we got to see the set up preparations for the film festival, which began a few days after we were there. the city was nice, but the beach itself was gorgeous. i’d just like to insert a comment here that can be applied to every time i saw the ocean during this trip – the colour of the medeterranean is incomprehensible. it is blue.. but it is turquoise, and green, and purple, and indigo, and navy. it is the brightest body of water i have ever seen.. i could have stared at it for hours. anyway, we got sandwiches for lunch and headed back to the train station.

our next stop was st. tropez, the famed beach destination for stars of every generation. it’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful beaches in europe. too bad it’s next to IMPOSSIBLE to get there!! ugh. we took the train from cannes to st. raphael, the nearest city with a train station. from there, we had to take a bus. if i had known how long the bus ride was, i would have just suggested we stay in st. raphael and go to that beach. but, we commited to st. tropez and got on the bus. an hour and a half with a crazy bus driver later, we finally arrived in st. tropez.. only to realize that, in order to be back in st. raphael in time to make our train to our next host, we had to be back on the bus in an hour and a half. and we were on the exact opposite side of the city from where we needed to be.. and we still had our suitcases. struggle. after walking for a while (in the wrong direction, as it happened), we finally decided to give up on the “famous” beaches, and just find ANY beach to lay on for the 45 minutes we had left. so we took a nap on the beach and then woke up just in time to make it back to the bus. the ride back was twice as bad as the ride there, because there was so much more traffic and complaining from the driver (of course it was the same guy). he yelled at people for talking too loudly.. and by that, i mean talking. at all. we FINALLY made it back to st. raphael, got some food for snacks, and got on our train to marseille.

our next host was actually a friend of ours, not a couchsurfer. her name is laure and she is awesome! she had done a semester abroad at belmont, where both rachel and i met her. i only knew her in passing from the language lab where we both worked, but she and rachel became good friends during her stay. rachel even spent a week at her house in january before coming to angers. laure picked us up from the train station and drove us back to her house, about 25 minutes away. we got there and i got to meet her parents, who are both so sweet! we talked for a while, had snacks, and then rachel and i gratefully got into bed.

saturday, 7 may 2011

we slept in quite a while (for girls with things to do!) and woke up for breakfast around 10am. we had time to shower and get ready before laure drove us into aix-en-provence, another town nearby, to explore. it is a beautiful city! we toured the fine arts museum, which had several cezannes, as aix was his hometown. we found an awesome english bookstore/tea room, exactly like the one i would open if i were to open a bookstore. since it was saturday, the town was bustling with activity – terraces full of café-going people-watchers, shoppers with arms full of their latest hauls, tourists snapping photos of statues and church spires. we stopped for drinks at laure’s favourite bar before heading home. on our way, we grabbed some groceries to make burgers for dinner. the burgers were great, but the fries were soggy. i don’t know how i made my first batch of fries earlier this semester, but i haven’t been able to make them crispy ever since! i don’t understand it. anyway, we had some ice cream for dessert before settling in for a ‘friends’ marathon before bed! such a fantastic show. after a few hours, we called it a night.

sunday, 8 may 2011

american mother’s day! i have the best mom ever!

we got up for breakfast pretty late, and made our way out to the little pool in laure’s backyard for some sun time in the afternoon. beautiful. around 5pm, we headed into marseille to do some shopping and walk around, hoping to ultimately find a place to watch the marseille/lyon football match later in the evening. we found this awesome bagel shop (lol!) and ate there for dinner.. i hadn’t had a bagel in over 4 months, so it was pretty phenomenal. the pub across the street was playing the game, so we went over and posted up at a corner table for a few hours! the game was great – started out slow but had several goals near the end! unfortunately, marseille ended up losing the match, but for a while the energy was pretty electric! it’s always so fun to watch a match with locals. after it was over, we walked back the car and headed home. we had another ‘friends’ mini-marathon before bedtime. :)

monday, 9 may 2011

our last day of the trip! we had purchased tickets to do a boat cruise of the ‘calanques’ along the coast near marseille. we took the train into town, to avoid having to find a place to park, and got lunch before heading to the port. we got on our little cruise boat and headed out to sea! after the 3 hour tour, i still wasn't sure what a ‘calanque’ is.. i've since learned that it translates to mean ‘rocky inlet’. but the whole thing was so pretty! we bobbed up and down the coast, snapping photos of the dramatic cliff faces and peaceful inlets.. again, incomprehensibly blue water, with broad, white cliffs as a background now! near to the end of the tour (we saw 12 calanques in all), the three of us got a teensy bit seasick, so we all laid our heads down for a while on the ride back. but we perked up enough to see the ride back into the port, through the massive entry corridor, framed by hilltop fortresses. just outside of the harbor sits the castle where edmund dantes was imprisoned in ‘the count of monte cristo’! three cheers for literary history. after our boat tour, we walked back to the train station and headed back to st. victoret, laure’s little town.

once we got back, we napped for a while before getting up for dinner. laure’s parents had friends over, a nice french couple who had no troubles speaking with us! we joked around for a while until dinner was served – a delicious sort of shepard’s pie type thing.. it was this huge casserole dish with duck and vegetables topped with mashed potatoes and baked.. YUM. we had salad, radishes, and bread as well. SUCH a great dinner! i have missed home-cooked mom food so much! after dinner we sat and talked and ate cherries from the garden for a long time before we three girls retired to our bedrooms downstairs. since it was our last night there, laure agreed to sacrifice sleep for more ‘friends’ bonding. :) we went to bed around midnight, though, so it wasn’t too bad!

tuesday, 10 may 2011

laure had to leave for work early, so we woke up to say goodbye. she was such a great host, and i am so grateful and happy we got to stay with her! she left around 8am, and rachel and i went back to sleep for a few hours. around 11am, i got up to take a shower. we both went out to lay by the pool for a while, and then came in to get our bags packed up. laure’s mom took us to the train station for our 3:30 train, gave us bags with food and drinks and cookies, and sent us on our way back home to angers.

the train ride was direct, but 5 hours long.. we were both so happy to be off that train by the end of it! we got back to our dorm around 9pm, and spent the rest of the night visiting with friends who we hadn’t seen in 2 weeks! i even went out that night, just so i could spend some time with them.. every minute counts!

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the days in between my return and next departure have been filled with friend time. i’m trying to have as much as possible! i DID have a great free dinner on wednesday night, courtesy of the university of angers. free crepes are the best!! and i also got to read to SUPER AWESOME books – the first two books in the ‘hunger games’ series by suzanne collins. i highly recommend them and i can’t wait to get my hands on the third one!

i’m heading off to ireland in the morning! well, my flight isn’t until the afternoon, but i’m out of the dorm around 11! i’ll be there for 10 days, and i’m so excited! stay tuned for that post somewhere around the 28^th.. :)

--jill


ps - as always, check out my facebook album for photos of the trip!

teenager no more!!

first off, i’d just like to thank the many, many people who made my 20^th birthday so very special. it was a birthday i’ll not soon forget!

here’s what my weekend looked like.. :)

thursday, 14 april 2011

i had two exams on thursday – my LAST two! they were both translation tests, french to english (aka the easier kind!), so there was no studying involved. how can you study for a translation exam? you can’t. once i finished those tests at noon, i was freeeeee! i came back and chilled out for a while, doing some planning and requesting couches for my upcoming trip. the evening was spent cooking with friends and hanging out. my friend shane had a visitor for a few days – his best friend from ireland, named rowan. they showed up around 8pm and we all stayed in the kitchen, talking and goofing off. around 10:30, we went over to say goodbye to lucy, one of the girls from the UK, who went home on saturday. when we got over there, though, everyone was going out! as it ended up, me, jessie, claire, shane, and rowan biked into town to hang out with everyone at this bar called ‘okapi’ – it was PACKED with students, because thursday night is student night. we had fun though! it was a slow bike ride back, and we finally got home around 2:30. i pretty much passed right out – so tired!!!

friday, 15 april 2011

friday was my first “birthday excursion”. joined by five of my friends (rachel, newton, claire, ariel, and laura), i took a bus to a chateau about 18km outside of angers, called the chateau brissac. it’s actually the tallest chateau in the loire valley – 7 floors! we arrived in brissac, which is seriously small, around noon and went straight to the tourism centre. the plan was to have a picnic and walk around until the chateau tours opened back up at 2pm. the women told us to try the bakery/butcher in the town plaza, unless we wanted to walk 2km to the supermarket. we bought baguettes, cheese, and salami and had some great little sandwiches! well, i just had bread and cheese.. only one week left of my vegetarian lifestyle!! but yeah, lunch was great. it was a little overcast, but we had fun regardless. after lunch, we walked all over the town, killing an hour. after stopping for some hot chocolate, we made our way over to the chateau. for 8 euro, we got a private guided tour of the chateau, a free wine tasting, and access to the huge gardens! not too bad. the building itself was beautiful – extremely detailed carvings, classic fairytale architecture.. after seeing several chateaux in my time here, i would definitely say it was the most “beauty and the beast” looking castle i’ve seen so far. :) the tour was cool, too. we got to see the main reception room, the sitting parlour, the “ballroom”, the dining room, the king’s bedchamber, the grand theatre.. it was AWESOME. the coolest part was that the noble family of brissac (the duke and his family) still live in the castle! they occupy 10 of the 204 rooms. how neat is THAT! we spent the whole day looking for laszlo, the 16 year old future duke of brissac. :) after the tour, we went and had our little wine tasting before going to play around in the gardens for the afternoon. we had a great time taking silly pictures and sitting in the grass. around 3:30, we left and went to finish our walk around the town before taking the 5:20 bus back to angers. the walk didn’t take that long, so we ended up sitting in the sun again for about 30 more minutes near the bus stop. it was so lovely though.

after a few different buses, we made it back to campus and headed right to superU to get stuff for dinner – we had decided to do a big fajita night! so i bought some things, and got cooking around 8:30. since shane’s a real vegetarian and i’m not eating meat for lent (and because meat is expensive), we just made veggie fajitas. but i made guacamole and we had some other toppings, and the whole result was super delicious! it’s such a great feeling when you cook for lots of people and then at the end of the meal, literally all the food is gone. i love it. we hung out in the kitchen some more and then once the night guard came to close it up, we moved to shane’s room. i stayed for about 20 minutes of ‘the shining’ and then headed to bed. not my kind of movie, and i was so tired!

saturday, 16 april 2011

about 2 weeks ago, i signed up for a ‘daytrip to the sea’ excursion that the international office had organized.. the trip had places for 50 people - for 10 euro, we got to visit 4 cities/sites, get dinner, AND it included transportation! seriously, it was a ridiculously cheap trip. the spots filled up in like 3 hours, but luckily natalie, claire, rachel and i got spots. we met the tour bus at 8:45 outside the school and hopped on for an hour and a half ride toward the atlantic. our first stop was in a preserved village called ‘kehrinet’ – a tiny, tiny place in the middle of nowhere, with about 18 thatch-roofed cottages and some animals. it was really cool to see what those little villages looked like centuries ago! it felt even MORE like beauty and the beast. (i realize that i make this comparison all the time.. but seriously, you can’t understand how often i feel like i’m living in the movie over here!) we walked around looking at the restored cottages, marveling at the fact that thatch roofs actually work, and checking out the artisan shops. after an hour and a half, we all piled back into the bus and headed to the next stop, about 30 minutes away. it was a fortified city called ‘guerande’ – all contained within fortress walls. we got there right in the middle of the saturday market, which automatically means AWESOME LUNCH. we got baguettes, some brie, and roasted potatoes. the girls got some meat for the sandwiches, and i got spinach. and we sat in the sunshine in a courtyard in front of the church and ate one of the most delicious meals i have consumed here in france. there is literally nothing like a market lunch. i am going to miss it so much. i bought raspberries for dessert, which i ended up putting on the waffle that i bought later (see the picture). DELISH. after lunch, we explored the city some more before lying down in the grass for a little nap. at 3pm, we hopped back on the bus – this time on our way to do a drive-through tour of a city called ‘le croisic’ – with gorgeous rocky beaches. our last touristy stop was ‘la baule’. according to our guide sheet, it is the “most beautiful beach in europe”.. i beg to differ. they also said it was the longest beach in europe, which i’ll believe – it was like 12km long. the little town seemed pretty ritzy – i got the feeling it was a pretty standard “rich people come here in the summer” kind of beach town. it was cloudy, sadly, so we layed on the beach for just a little while and then walked around until ti was time to get back on the bus at 6:30. on the way home, we stopped for dinner at what was essentially a mall food court, except they only had one thing to eat. i didn’t get the fish – just veggies and rice. the dessert was this weird marshmallow cube thing in some cream sauce. the bus ride home was long, but i just listened to music. we finally got home around 10pm, and i was EXHAUSTED. i talked to my friends on my floor for a while and then went to bed bed bed.

sunday, 17 april 2011

i didn’t even set an alarm on sunday. i just wanted to sleep. i woke up around 11, feeling wonderful. i worked on some couchsurfing stuff for a while and then showered, etc. i worked on third year writing stuff and layed out during the afternoon, and then went over to my friend rachel’s room around 6pm.

rachel is a youtube guru – she has two channels (one in french, one in english), where she posts videos giving people fashion, makeup, and just all around style tips. she has nearly 6,000 subscribers! a few weeks ago, rachel had a great idea.. she wants us to do a “european adventure” channel, where we document our summer travels. so.. we’re doing it! on sunday, she gave me a little makeover and we took pictures for our channel. it was a lot of fun. :) after the photo shoot, we made dinner and hung out for a while, planning some video ideas and talking to people. i came back to skype around 11pm. i got to talk to my best friend, also named rachel, who lives in california. and then, i skyped drew at midnight – officially my birthday! :) we talked for a while, and then shane came to invite me to a movie night in his room. when i walked in the door, about 6 of my friends started singing ‘happy birthday’ to me! so sweet. :) shane has a blow-up mattress, so his tiny room can actually fit like 10 people for a movie night – stadium seating! we watched the movie ‘snatch’ – always great. afterwards, shane put on his ‘virtual fireplace’ recording and played guitar quietly. it was so lovely – natalie said later it was the most ‘at home’ she’d felt since she left winnipeg. and i know what she meant.. it was just so comfy and nice and awesome. around 3am, i finally roused myself from my semi-sleep state and went to bed.

monday, 18 april 2011

birthday!!!! all my monday classes finished last week, but i still woke up early (painfully) to go to the store and get some things for BIRTHDAY BRUNCH! several of my friends came over around 10:30 and all contributed to a freaking fantastic birthday breakfast. we had crepes (and nutella, strawberries, kiwi, bananas, and whipped cream), french toast, cinnamon apples, eggs, potatoes, juice.. it was amazing. and the best part was that we ate it ALL! yummyyy. after brunch, i hung out with friends and said goodbye to shane’s friend rowan. i took a post-brunch coma nap for a bit before heading over to rachel’s for our girly get ready party at 5:30. i had made a reservation for a big group dinner that night, so a bunch of us got makeovers from the makeup queen herself, rachel martino. and we all dressed up and it was so funnnn! we took the bus into town, stopping by the fountain at the cathedral steps to have a little photo shoot. it was kind of like prom, actually! haha! we hopped back on the bus and got to the restaurant right on time. they had the back room set up for us, because the reservation was for 18 people. i think it ended up being 15 people total! shane had ANOTHER friend named danjoe come visit on monday – he arrived just in time for dinner! and, one of the girls from last semester came back to visit, so she joined us too. :) we had a great time – the food was delicious (and not too expensive), everyone looked beautiful, and it was just a fantastic night. we took one of the last buses out of town, and i scurried upstairs to skype my parents before my birthday was officially over. GREAT DAY!

tuesday, 19 april 2011

no class, still. spent the morning catching up on sleep and then the afternoon working on travel plans. dinner was salad and soup and time with friends! after such a weekend, i needed a quiet night. :)

wednesday, 20 april 2011

yesterday was awesome. i got up and went to class (haha) at 10am, but he only kept us for like 10 minutes. long enough to say that it was the final class, and to ask if the exchange students would be interested in attending a dinner next month. wahoo! that meant that summer officially started yesterday. HOLLAAA! i came back and worked on more travel stuff before going over to superU with emma, shane, and danjoe. we came back to eat lunch, and then shane, danjoe and i biked over to the lake nearby to chill out with some people for a while. we even had a soccer ball, so i FINALLY got to play some soccer. it was marvelous. around 7:30, we made our way back, stopping by the store to pick up some wine for danjoe. we came back and i skyped drew for a while.. around 9pm, i made a quick dinner and then got ready for our GREASE SING-A-LONG party!! about 10 of us dressed up in 50’s clothes and watched grease together. it was shane’s idea, and it ended up being SO fun! i haven’t laughed so hard in a while.. we were positively belting out those songs.. high notes and all. some people left after grease, but a few of us stayed and talked/half-watched ‘rocky horror’ for a while. i finally went to bed around 3. this whole staying up late thing is starting to become a habit! luckily, i start traveling soon, so i’ll get back on track. :)

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the rest of the week is going to be travel-preparation! i’m happy to spend a few more days with people in angers, as several of my friends will be gone when i get back from this next trip! rachel and i leave for barcelona on the 27^th, and will be gone for just under 2 weeks – staying in barcelona for a week and then the french riviera for about a week as well! we’re so excited! :) 

ps - see pictures of this weekend here. and my pictures from bordeaux are finally up as well! :)

a little bit of heaven on earth.

i have this theory – that heaven is made up of all the people and places that inspired you in some way during your life on earth. while most of the time, we don’t realize we’ve found a small bit of paradise – occasionally, that overwhelming sensation of peace and wonder is just too strong to go unnoticed. last saturday, i found a piece of heaven.

my journey started on friday night, when my friend claire came over to my floor to hang out for a while. her mom and sister had been visiting for the past week, so she was a little sad that they were gone. in a spur-of-the-moment decision on friday afternoon, she bought a train ticket for a day trip on saturday to ward off the inevitable homesickness brought on by the departure of her family. she was telling me and my friend shane about how her aunt and uncle had visited this little town called ‘amboise’, which is about an hour and a half away, and absolutely loved it. shane had actually been there as well, and he confirmed their appraisal. so claire was talking about how excited she was to see the town, and i thought to myself – “jill, this is an opportunity that will not walk by you again.” so i asked if i could join her, and bought a ticket! hooray!

saturday morning i woke up around 8 and met claire at the bus stop at 8:40. we got to the train station in pleeeenty of time for our 9:30 train, so i got a little snacky snack at the café – pain au chocolat (which is a roundish croissant with chocolate in the middle), a hot chocolate, and a little bottle of orange juice. for 4 euro! not bad at all. we got on our train and made our way east towards amboise. we arrived around 10:45, got off the train, and made our way across the river to the town center. the station was pretty much on the opposite side of the whole city (which isn’t big at all, but still), so we walked through one part of town, across a bridge to a mini-island in the middle of the maine river, across ANOTHER bridge, and arrived pretty much right into the main drag of town. which is the street alongside the chateau-fortress. this sounds like a long process, but really it was like 15 minutes – including all of the stops for photos. which were many. we walked down a little street so claire could find something to nibble on, and ended up walking by some really awesome shops and people. there was one place called the ‘dentellierie’ – lace shop – that had AMAZING, hand-made lace concoctions.. the delicacy and detail was mind-boggling! we also saw like 15 people dressed up in renaissance-period clothing, walking through the streets of a town that was in its prime during the renaissance. talk about a mind trip – it was just a testament to how cool a renaissance festival would be in europe. because i think that stuff is cool when it’s on a farm in middle tennessee. anyway, i digress..

claire found her snack (quiche lorraine.. yum) and we headed for the main attraction of amboise – the chateau. now, i’ve visited a few chateaux at this point, ranging from ornately palatial to your average looking fortress. this one was definitely up on the scale of prettiness! we walked in and were immediately impressed by the beautiful gardens, lawns, and towers. it’s so cool, because the chateau is built up onto these cliffs, so you feel like you’re walking around in a garden in the sky. we sat down at a little table to reflect and regroup, and then began our tour. the first stop was the st. hubert chapel, which is perched on the very edge of the cliffs.. actually, it hangs off a bit. but the chapel itself is in the ‘flamboyant gothic’ style – lots of frilly carvings and stained glass. the architecture was nothing compared to what was inside the chapel though.. that being LEONARDO DA VINCI’S EARTHLY REMAINS. yes, leo is enterred in amboise. he was invited there to be a part of the french court, and spent the last three years of his life living in a cool place called the ‘clos lucé’ (more about that later), drawing and designing and inventing and being awesome. so yeah – i stood within a metre of leonardo da vinci on saturday. no big. after marveling at that fact for a few minutes, claire and i walked around the outer walls, taking in the views of the river and small town sprawled out below us. we took a few pictures and then went into the actual chateau for a look around. the amboise chateau is actually a castle-looking place – not a fort like the one in angers. it has white walls and that classic slate roof, with lots of italian-renaissance-inspired frilly work blending in with the french gothic styles. my favourite room in the castle was the council chamber – it had a row of carved columns running down the center, holding up these beautiful vaulted ceilings. the fireplaces at each end were actually lit, which made me feel like i had been transported back to the 16^th century and was waiting for the monarch to enter and hold his council. we walked through the rest of the chateau, checking out a legitimately “king-sized” bed (har har har), some royal portraits, and a sweet view from the top of the tower. the best part of the visit was walking around the gardens, though. the sun came out in full force by the time we finished our interior tour, so we just walked around and soaked up all the warm, sunny goodness. the grounds were beautifully manicured.. my favourite bit was the ‘porcupine’s gate’ – an entrance to the grounds that was flanked by two slopes dotted with little, perfectly rounded bushes – i said that they looked like hedgehogs before i knew it was called the porcupine’s gate! so awesome. after some more garden exploring, we sat down in a sunny patch underneath the ‘cedar of lebanon’ and i took a little cat nap while claire wrote in her journal. it was absolutely divine. we had to tear ourselves away, just to make sure we’d have time to see the rest of the town before our 3:45 train.

so around 12:30, we left the chateau and just wandered around for about an hour. we stumbled upon the town church, ‘l’église st. denis’. we were seriously the one people inside for like 80% of our visit. the alter was this little alcove absolutely covered floor-to-ceiling with paintings and sculptures and frilly decorations. it sounds like it would be gaudy, but it was actually really beautiful. the rest of the church was lovely too, but we only had so much time! the only other thing on our list was the ‘clos lucé’- where da vinci lived. we didn’t have a map, but we figured the town was small enough that we’d find it before too long. so we just kept walking around until we saw a sign with ‘clos lucé --->’. handy! we followed that direction, stopping to get a ‘take-out’ pizza for a picnic lunch. at one point, we thought we’d found it – the arrows were pointing up this verrrry long, steep staircase. we started up but soon realized that it was in fact the staircase to the ‘lookout point’ – also worth seeing. so we kept going. these stairs took us by some amazing sights – houses that were literally carved into the cliffs! they were the homes of servants in the chateau back in the old days, and now most of them are empty. but it was so cool to see the little colorful shutters dotting the cliff face. we finally made it to the top, out of breath and quite warm. i ended up spending the rest of the afternoon in just a tanktop! at the lookout point, we sat and ate our little pizza in near silence, gazing out over the lovely little town. i was starving, too, so i was pretty focused on eating. once we finished, it was time to head for the next stop – and luckily for us, there was a ‘clos lucé --->’ sign pointing us down a hill (not the crazy stairs!) so we didn’t even have to back track. we walked down the street, passing more of the cave-houses, and ended up right at the front door of the clos lucé. now that i’ve mentioned this place like ten times, let me explain what a ‘clos’ is – it’s essentially an enclosed field or green space. there is a big gate, and then you walk in to the courtyard of a beautiful old orangy-brick house overlooking this huge park. unfortunately for visitors, the admissions people thought it was decent to charge an arm and a leg to visit the house and grounds. but unfortunately for the admissions people.. they made the fence SERIOUSLY easy to stoop under. and since we didn’t feel any desire to see the inside of the house, we just followed the lead of some (adult) spanish tourists and popped under the gate into the garden. :) so we got to walk around the park that leonardo da vinci walked around while he dreamed up the designs for a machine gun, a rotating tank (which we saw in real life and which i actually got inside and spun around), double-decker bridge (which we ALSO saw in real life), and SO MUCH MORE. the man was serious about his inventions and designs. oh yeah, and art. honestly, it was surreal. i kept having the sensation of standing somewhere that he probably stood about 495 years ago. crazy. it was MUCH cooler than the mona lisa. we meandered through the gardens, checking out the working models of things that da vinci designed that were placed along the trails. around 3pm, we finally had to leave.. the walk back through town, across the river, and to the train station took about 30 minutes, because we were walking slowly, trying to soak up the last few minutes of awesomeness. but finally, we got the the station, and a few minutes later, the train came to take us back to angers.

sigh.. i don’t know exactly what it was about amboise that i loved so much. certainly, there is the obvious – beautiful architecture, amazing historical significance, wonderful sights. and the weather was great to us – hot and sunny and happy. but it was so much more.. the peaceful ruggedness of the tiny cobblestone streets, winding through town. the pleasant surprise of seeing little doorways that lead to a rooftop garden tucked into a cliff. the chateau, perched above it all, overlooking the daily life of the 12,000 people who live there. whatever it was, it wooed me – amboise is definitely a little bit of heaven.

***for pictures of this daytrip (and of last week's trip to brest), check my facebook album march in france!*** 

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and for a brief update in regards to school – it’s almost over! this whole 12 week semester thing is pretty rad. but this week, i have more work than every other week of the semester combined. and by that, i mean i have two pretty big presentations and two minor ones. it’s a rough life. but i’m still stressed about the presentations, because i really dislike speaking in front of people. even speaking in english, in front of english speakers. but having to talk in french in front of a classroom of french students.. horror.

at this point, i have gotten through one of the two big presentations.. it went well! the next one is tomorrow. thankfully, it’s a group presentation. i just have to keep telling myself that tomorrow night, it will be over, regardless of how it goes. and then i just have two classes on thursday, and then i’m headed to bordeaux for the weekend! hoorayyy. :)

so, that’s life for now. somehow, it is already march 29^th.. i’m not sure how that happened, but time is passing SO QUICKLY. i feel like i’m coming home next week.. but i still have 3 and a half months of awesome travels ahead of me!

stay tuned... :)

jill

picnics and elephants.

i’m fairly certain the majority of humankind agrees with me when i say that weekends are one of God’s greatest gifts to His people. weekends in france are definitely no exception. actually, they’re a little better, because the french took it upon themselves to boost the weekend relaxation quotient by ensuring that NO ONE can do anything on sundays, and then many businesses are closed on monday as well. it’s a hard life.

anyway, this weekend (just like the last one) was faaab-u-lous. friday was the most beautiful day of all time. ok, not really, but the weather was STUNNING (60F/16C – blue skies) and i was a little high on sunshine. since i don’t have class on fridays, i decided to make it an outdoors day. natalie and i stopped by superU to get some lunchy things, and then we packed picnics and biked into town. i still can’t get over how beautiful angers is – in the 20 minute, 4 km ride into town, i pass by some of the prettiest, most historic buildings i can imagine. and the rest of the town is all that great, classic french architecture, scattered with the random stone wall or timber-framed building. i love it. we biked a little further into town than usual, so natalie could run a couple errands before our picnic. i popped into monoprix to complete my picnic with a baguette and a tarte. we headed down a little park right near the river, at the base of the cathedral steps. there is this huge fountain and a little garden too. plus, there’s a cliff that some of the oldest buildings in town were build on top of. it was a picturesque setting, to say the least. we spread our little picnic out and soaked up the sun for a solid hour – it was awesome. i had my baguette with cheese, yogurt, an apple, raisins and some apple juice. for dessert, we split the tarte. can you say perrrfecttt? yum.

after the picnic, we headed back up the hill next to the chateau. we parked our bikes and walked down a little side street to the “galerie david d’angers”. rachel met us there, and the three of us toured (for free!) one of the coolest little statue galleries i’ve ever seen. it’s in a renovated church, with a glass ceiling! since it was so sunny, there was a bit of a greenhouse effect (it was sweltering in there) but the effect of all that light on the statues was breathtaking. it was so bright and vibrant, the work seemed to come to life a little. there are really only two main rooms, so all these statues are just gathered in the main hall. some are lifesize, some are wayyy larger than life, and there are lots of little ones too. david sculpted quite a few major figures in angevin and french history. it was cool to see the people whose names i’ve been seeing on bus stops, roads signs, even dorm residences. while we were there, a class of probably 1^st or 2^nd graders was visiting as well. SO CUTE. they had to draw a statue, pick one to imitate, and do some class exercises. i wanted to steal one to bring home, they were so stinkin’ precious. but i feel that way about all french children. rachel, natalie, and i did a few statue impressions of our own, and then headed out. natalie went back to school to nap, and rachel and i spent an hour or two walking around town, shopping a little bit (the semi-annual sales are ending this week :( ), and soaking up the sunshine. we stopped by the train station to buy our tickets for saturday’s daytrip (details later!) and then biked back home. there is a hill about three-fourths of the way back to the dorm that is BRUTAL. i still haven’t made it up all the way – i have to walk it. i’ve made it a personal goal to bike up that hill before i leave angers this summer. anywho, after we got back, i rested for a bit and then skyped with my family. around 7:45, shane and i ran down to superU to get things for dinner. we made the usual, and chilled out in the kitchen with jessie and emma. around 11, the four of us walked over to the other belle-beille residence, where the spanish students had organized a party of sorts. i suppose it was fun, but that is just so not my scene. i didn’t really enjoy it too much, and headed back to my dorm around midnight. being around that many people and being so out of my fun zone put me in a bit of a funk, so i was not in a very good mood when i went to bed. but, sleep is always good for the brain! i did a little research for saturday and then hit the hay.

i woke up pretty early on saturday, because rachel and i had planned a daytrip to nantes! and for only 16 euro return - yay! nantes is about 90km south of angers, towards the atlantic ocean. it is the capital of the pays-de-la-loire region. it’s much bigger than angers, but just as pretty! our train was at 10:36, so we met at 9:45 at the bus stop. we made it to the train station in plenty of time, got our tickets stamped, and hopped on the train. the ride was only about 30 minutes, through the beautiful loire valley countryside. at one point, we passed a little manor house that looked like it should have been in a jane austen novel – it was gorgeous! i only got a glimpse of it as we passed by, but i remember marveling at the thought of who lives there. probably an old couple, who tend their animals and gardens and live 45 km from the nearest anything. we arrived in nantes around 11am, got a map from the welcome desk, and headed towards the closest “office de tourisme”. through my research, i’d found that the city of nantes offers “day passes” that can get the cardbearer free entrance into museums, complementary treats at various restaurants, and unlimited access to the public transit system. for students, the 24 hour pass is only 9 euro!! it’s an absolute steal, and pays for itself in a few tram rides plus one museum entry. we bought our passes at the office located on the same plaza as the cathedral. once we had our nantes guide/passes, the game plan was to go grab some lunch, head to the “ile de nantes”, and then work our way back. we ate at this great restaurant called “le molière” – rachel had a croque monsieur and i had a ham/butter baguette. the sun was shining right onto our table, so we stayed warm and enjoyed the atmosphere of a bustling french cafe on saturday afternoon.

after lunch, we walked down to the island for what proved to be an amazing experience. in 2007, the city of nantes started on a project they call “les machines de l’ile” – the machines of the island. the designs are inspired by the drawings of jules verne (native of nantes) and da vinci. the first phase of the project was the construct a 40 foot tall, 50 ton robot elephant. i’m not exaggerating, this thing is enormous. and it’s completely hand-crafted, with beautiful artisanship. luckily for us, saturday was the opening day for 2011, so we got to ride the elephant on its maiden voyage for the year! we got to the hangar where the elephant lives around 1pm. since the box office didn’t open until 2, we sat in the little cafe/gift shop to chill out for a bit. at 1:45, we got in line to ensure our places on the elephant. sure enough, by 2pm, the line was pretty long! we bought our ticket (the only thing i purchased all day besides the pass!) and went upstairs to watch the video about the machines project. it was fascinating! the amount of talent that goes into these animals is incredible. the next phase of the project is a giant tree called “the heron tree”. they’ve only built on branch so far – the prototype branch. it is attached to the hangar, right above the cafe. it’s probably about 60 feet high at the highest point, and has three off-shoot branches. seriously impressive. the artisans are also working on a marine-themed (thanks, jules) carousel. amazing. at 2:45, we boarded the elephant, making our way to the top deck. it was so cool! the whole ride lasted 45 minutes, but we only went like 200 yards. it’s not a very quick robot elephant. but it was neat to see the head move around, the ears flap, the trunk raise up and spray water, etc. there is an engine that propels the elephant, but the legs still move like the elephant is walking. the experience was worth the 5 euros – now i can say i’ve ridden a robot elephant! yes!

after the elephant, we decided to pass on the gallery of other animals, because the line was much too long. we walked back into town and caught the tram to the chateau. it’s a beautiful building, with outer fortressing and pretty and ornate interior buildings. our passes got us free entry to the chateau museum, so we decided to check it out. it was SO NICE. seriously, nantes has to have some money, because this was the nicest, most technological museum i think i’ve ever seen. plus, it was enormous – like 35 rooms! we followed the flow of the tour and came out about an hour later. sidenote – france has some very attractive public servants. all of the employees were quite easy on the eyes. this is not an uncommon trend. anyway, after we finished touring through the chateau, we took a lap on the top of the outer wall and then took some pictures by the moat. there is a street in nantes called “rue crébillon” that is famous for its window displays – they’ve even invented a verb (crébillonner – to window shop on the rue crébillon). the shops are verrry luxerious and fancy, so that was a pretty street. :) we ended our tour with a little treat at “la cigale” – one of the most famous restaurants in nantes. it opened in 1895, and still maintains its old-time charm. the interior of la cigale is AMAZINGLY ornate and fancy, with lots of gold trimming, mosaics, and mirrors. our pass got us a complementary hot chocolate and two little slices of cake. WIN. the hot chocolate was VERY rich – almost like pure melted chocolate. and the cakes were chocolate too – i hate to say it, but i experienced a bit of a chocolate overload that day. we meandered back down to the tram way and headed back to the train station to go home. there is so much to do in nantes that we hardly scratched the surface, but i had a great time visiting a new place!

after hurrying to catch the last bus back to campus, we made it home around 9:15. i was EXHAUSTED but hungry for real food (not chocolate). shane hadn’t eaten yet either, so we made pasta. somehow, i’m not sick of it yet! it was delicious. we sat in the kitchen and talked to djamel and danielle, who had gotten a pizza. around 11pm, i came back to my room and got ready for bed. it was a very long but fun-filled day.

today (sunday) has been pretty lazy, after my active busy friday/saturday. i woke up early to skype for a while, since TWOG got to record their electric ep/album in Oceanway last night and i wanted to hear about it. drew and i talked from about 9am-10am (france time – he was up late!) and then i went back to sleep until noonish. yeah yeah, shameful i know. but i needed the rest. i got up and took a lonnnnng shower, which felt amazing. and i dedicated the rest of my day to getting chores/homework/blogging finished! so i’m in the middle of that. my first test is coming up on wednesday – it’s a translation test, which shouldn’t be too difficult. i’m just going to revise my homework and go from there! i'm going to try to watch my church service at 6pm - i really hope the internet is good enough!! :P

and last but not least, tomorrow is valentine’s day. i’d be lying if i said it didn’t absolutely SUCK to be away from my valentine this year, but physical separation can’t diminish how i feel. so, happy valentine’s day, froffie. i love you, and i’ll see you in 170 days. :P <3

and to all my other loved ones, happy valentine’s day to you too!

love from france,

jill

PS- i've linked a few pictures of things i'm talking about in this post, but my facebook album 'february in france' is much more thorough if you want to see what i've been talking about! :)

the french walmart and a ten-mile day.

have you ever walked into walmart and thought to yourself, “we are probably the only culture on the planet with a store like this – you can find anything you need under one roof, it’s cheap, the parking lot is perpetually packed...” no? well i have. but on friday, i learned otherwise.

rachel (a fellow exchange student from belmont) had organized a little shopping excursion for us with her friend mathilde, a french girl from angers who had studied at belmont two years ago. mathilde came and picked us up in her grandfather’s car (another tiny citroyen, comparable to a small civic, i’d say) and took us to the french walmart – carrefour. it was in a shopping centre that included clothing stores, electronics stores, jewelers, bakers.. it was pretty all-encompassing. i went into carrefour with several specific goals. 3m hooks, a curtain rod, pencils, NORMAL paper... sadly, i only found 2. they indeed have curtain rods, and way better ones for dorm rooms! and of course, pencils. but unfortunately, 3m hasn’t made its way to france yet. and let me tell you about the paper. i know it sounds silly, paper is paper, right? wrong. here, they do not use regular lined paper. instead, they have 2 options – regulation graph paper (even though they’re not doing math!) or this weird lined paper / graph paper hybrid. it has the regular blue lines, but then four thinner, lighter, purple lines in between them. and a vertical line every centimeter! rachel and i are extraordinarily frustrated. but mathilde explained that when french children learn to write, they learn to form their letters very carefully and specifically. that explains why every french person i know has ridiculously well-spaced and even handwriting.. but yeah, no luck on the paper. i decided to give the weird hybrid type a try. after that discussion, we picked up a few more things (grocery shopping in a different country is always an adventure) and then headed back to the dorm to drop our things off. once it was all put away, rachel and i went downtown to run several errands before the businesses closed for the weekend. we got back around 6:30pm. we had intended to go out, but i ended up eating dinner and just chilling out, i was so tired from this week! i hung out in the kitchen (the usual community hang-out spot) on my floor with jessie (from maine), emma and shane (both irish) for a long time. jessie invited me to join her group for a daytrip excursion to saumur the following day, which i was excited to do! a bit later, three NEW irish people showed up!! there are nine here this semester now! emma and shane couldn’t believe it. but the new students were very sweet (and overwhelmed!), and we all talked for a long time. sleep would have come easy for me, if it hadn’t been for the alarm going off in the room directly below mine. literally all night. thank goodness i had earplugs in my backpack still!!

saturday was a very long but marvelous day. i woke up at 7am (much to my chagrin) and made myself get ready for the daytrip outing. i met the group outside my building at 8, at the bus stop in the freeeezing cold. the sun doesn’t rise here in the winter until around 8:30 or 9 right now, so it was pretty frigid (not as bad as home though! haha.). we took the bus to the train station, bought our tickets (8 euro for the round-trip! not bad), and sat in the café waiting for the 9:30 train. after drinking tiny coffees and snacking, we headed to the platform. once we were on the train, we got this SWEET compartment that fit all 8 of us!! it was two half-circle benches with tables in the middle, one on either side of the aisle. we felt like celebrities. our little group was comprised of three irish (emma, keith, and john), two canadians (natalie and andrea), a german girl maggie, and two americans (myself and jessie). the twenty-five minute trainride to saumur was too short – that train was so warm and cozy! but alas, all good things must come to an end.. haha. we hopped off the train and got to walking across the bridge to the city proper. saumur is a sweet little village, around 30,000 people. it is full of history and beautiful architecture. we walked around the saturday morning market for a while, and then walked up the hill to the chateau. unfortunately, like most public sights, the chateau was closed for winter. but we still got to walk around the grounds and get some good pictures of the castle and surrounding scenery! afterwords, we walked around the town some more before settling on a café for lunch. there is nothing quite like quiche lorraine in france.. yum. our return ticket was for 5pm, and we finished eating lunch around noon. saumur is a small place, so we had lots of time to kill.. it turned into a day of aimless wandering through the little back streets  of the village, which was lovely. we found the horseback riding academy and sat at the base of a big monument for about an hour, just talking and laughing. the sun had come out, so we warmed up enough to be comfortable. after a while, we decided to keep walking. around 4, we headed back across the river for the train station, where we caught our return train at 4:55. once we were on the train, i realized how much we had walked that day – i’m not exaggerating when i say it could be ten miles. phew! but it was a wonderful bonding experience. another short train ride found us back at the station in angers. we got onto the bus and headed back to campus. since the markets are closed on sundays, everyone needed to go to the market (the superU) to pick up groceries for the weekend. i came back and made pasta with greenbeans and bread/cheese as sides – so easy, so good. a bunch of the group went out again after dinner, to a big party that some of the spanish students were having. but it was way on the other side of town, and they were going to be out super late, so i declined. which ended up being a great choice, because i had a fantastic time talking with emma and shane. (emma, i know you’ll probably read this, so don’t make fun of me. :P) they are just so awesome, and have made my first week in angers (and in this dorm) so much better. plus, i’m learning a lot about hiberno-english, the dialect of english spoken in ireland. it is so beautiful, and i love how much it makes me think about linguistic differences. hooray for more bonding! we talked for quite a long time, and around 1am, we decided it was bedtime.

as i got back to my room and was getting ready for bed, i couldn’t help but think about how quickly the last seven days has passed. i’ve already accomplished so much! opening a french bank account, visiting a chateau, going to classes, using public transit.. my tiny little shoebox room is even growing on me, with its space capsule of a bathroom. it’s wonderful. i feel so blessed to have met such great people here too, and i know it only gets better from here. it’s strange to think that in four months, i’ll be done with school. and then in a little less than six months, i’ll be back in the united states! ah! i am going to try my absolute hardest to make this six months count for as much as i can, because who knows when i’ll get an opportunity like this again? probably never. that’s a deep thought. i can already feel myself growing and maturing – and it’s only been a week. i can’t wait to see who i am at the end of this semester abroad.

-jill