Tuesday, September 20, 2011

je pense que



Definitely need to get this thing up to date; so sorry about the overload right now. These are all from my trip to the south of france. We visited a lot of different cities, {i don't remember the names of all of them} and saw so many amazing things. I fell in love with the south of France, all before I even able to experience Paris.
[p.s. these will be very out of order as well]

Basque town. I thought it was called "espellette" but that might just be what the peppers are called. The basque use these peppers a lot. We tried and bought some deliciouuus pepper jam here.

^^^
We stayed at a bed &breakfast for one night, near Rocamadour. It was amazing, definitely one of my favorites. It was a beautiful location and the rooms were very nice and quaint. I loved it, &it seemed like a real home.


I looooved Pau. We visited this tiny town after church one sunday. It was a large property with a chateau of ..[of course I don't remember any of the history now] somebody/something. Beautiful place though. They had amazing gardens, architecture, and gift shop:), where I found the perfect present for my grandparents &I'm very proud.
I could show you a million pictures of cathedrals. And not just from my trip to france. Cathedrals are absolutely amazing, but this might be the last time I post pictures of one. I take way too many when I'm there and eventually they all mesh together, looking the same. . stained-glass windows and a lot of organ pipes. But this one was pretty cool, it was in Albi maybe? Don't remember. But it was the largest brick building in all of France, maybe Europe, possibly the world. I'm not completely sure, obviously.
Cute little town we walked around for just a short hour or so. The whole town was pretty much uphill, my feet hurt real bad that day. We walked all the way up to the tip top point. Also it was about 400 degrees that day. But still worth every second.. I'm in FRANCE.
I ate this entire fish. &it was delish.


This still isn't all the pictures I wanted to put up. Someday that'll happen.
My exciting life in Paris is just continuing too fast. Loving it though.

<3

Monday, September 19, 2011

preview


had church near versailles on sunday,
so spent the whole entire day there.

best day ever?
obviously.


Saturday, September 17, 2011

bonjour Paris

Oui, I made it to Paris; again.
Last night was pretty rough, &the biggest shock for me. But things went a whole lot better today.
I'll try and get up to date on the blog soon, prom.
Finally saw Paris today. I think I cried once we got to the top of l'Arc de Triomphe today &saw this view. I'm in love with it.


<3

Friday, September 16, 2011

helpme.


Good thing I speak french. Not.

First night back in Paris.

No
english.

So lost.

Goodnight.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

this one time I went to Spain



The country, Spain. I went there. It was an amazing place, &I loved every minute of it. We arrived and walked around a bit &got the whole tour of where all to go. Checked out some beaches then headed into the town just to walk around.
We crashed three whole weddings in one day. One had a group of basque dancers and it was so much fun to watch. I got some good videos
Then we shopped the streets a bit, checked out an amazing cathedral, [where the second wedding was taking place.], and then got some delicious food; always my favorite part.
Spain does not have mexican food, only disappointment. I miss my greasy tacos and salsa.
But they did have these things called "pinxos" in every restaurant off the street. Its where they have the bar filled with plates of food, little appetizer/sandwich type things. The one we went to had a bunch of fish assortments. It was all really good, interesting, but good. We had our friend Aaron with us, who works in the ISP office, who just goes from study abroad to study abroad visiting them and checking up on everybody. The worst job ever right? He gets to go to Vietnam, Italy, and China all after being in Paris for a weekish. jealous. But now he's gone and we miss him dearly. But he speaks spanish and showed us the ropes on the whole pinxos thing.
We hung out at the beach the rest of the day, loved it.
The men in Spain are b.e.a.utiful. Saw some veryattractive people, and a lot of boobs at the beach. I miss the beach, and I can't wait to be back on a beach sometime soon.
Of course we got some churros, a cute little churro stand right off the beach. These weren't you're typical disneyland churros, they were just dough with sugar, but still pretty delicious. And we dipped them in some chocolate, mmmm.

I loved spain, and I wish we could've been there much longer. I plan on going back over while I'm here. My cousin and her family just moved to Madrid, so I am dying to visit them. And some girls want to go to barcelona. Can't wait for that.

<3

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

beauty



Okay, I'm so off track with what has been going on here overseas in Francia. [yeah i made that up, its probably not real]. Our internet connections have not been so fantastic. But good enough that I could Skype with my family on Sunday night to be a little part of my sister's reveal party. - it's a boy. Totally called it through this whole pregnancy so far.
Anyways, my posts will probably be very out of order for a little while, just because I'm trying to get everything up and I just don't really have the patience right now.

Yesterday we made our way on our basque bus to the middle of nowhere to stay at the most beautiful bed and breakfast in the world probably. I think the Lee's had stayed there sometime before and knew of it. And thank goodness. It was definitely made the top of my list for places we've gone on this trip.
We shared a four person room - more like cute apartment, on the first floor right next to the pool. First pool I've seen up close here in France. ..and yeah it was freezing cold.
We settled in for a bit, took a nice little walk around the property, then headed out to Rocamadour. Google that, my pictures won't even do it justice. It was remarkable. We did some walk, of course I don't remember what exactly it was, but it had something to do with the number 12, Christ, and people doing the walk on their knees. It was a bunch of switchbacks, and each corner had a different saint, and then we reached Rocamadour - its all built on the side of a cliff. Incredible.
We got lucky and were able to eat as a group out there, at a restaurant overlooking the whole cliffside. It was so stunning once the sun started to set and the city lights came on.
Dinner's emphasis was duck [the french seem to love duck]. First, a salad with some duck giblets? Then duck cutlets for the main course, complete with french fries on the side, goats milk cheese [smelled foul and tasted just as gross.] and carmel/vanilla-ish ice cream for dinner. And somewhere in there we had some pate to try, which, from the very first time my french teacher told me about this stuff I've thought sounded nasty although she reassured me it was delicious, .. complete lie. it was not appetizing at all.






This morning we got to sleep in later than usual. We went to breakfast then boarded our loved bus to the Gouffre de Padirac, caves that we rode through on boats. It was amazing, they were way deep into the ground, we climbed so many stairs.
Our boat driver - Fred, liked to tip our boat a lot. He asked us if we wanted to swim in the water then pushed his oar against the side to give us the scariest tip of my life. And he continued to do it the whole ride. And it was kind of like disneyland because they took a picture of us on our boat passing by and had it later for purchasing. We planned the whole picture, and were so ready, posing, until we came right up to the camera and Fred tipped the boat again. I freaked out. And am screaming in our picture holding on for dear life. I cried laughing at it. Then walked up a million more flights of stairs.

Now were in Figeac, where we went to the Musee Champollion [the guy who deciphered the rosetta stone] and it was super boring. Pretty interested in the beginning, but not for too long. We had audio sets that described all the parts of the museum. I got to 18 then quite because I wasn't really listening anyways. But it was fun to look at all the hieroglyphics and a couple mummy caskets.
We headed to our hotel, which is maybe a hostel I'm not sure, but its huge and I love it. Dinner was delicious, we went as a group again to "la puce a l'oreille."
First they brought us out a little taster, it was a small cube of some more duck - pate, which again, is really not good, and some carrot &honey mousse. It was kind of crazy for me, I didn't like either of them. And I'm the most unpicky eater there is. So I was scared about dinner.. but it was probs the best dinner we've eaten so far. We got a puff pastry type thing next, with goat cheese [good this time], tomatoes, and an olive paste. It was sooo good I loved it. Then a white fish for our main course, with some vegetable paste over top, with a baby quiche on the side and the greaaatest vegetables.

After dinner we were walking back to the hotel as a group, but somehow the group I was with got way behind the rest of the group and we got very lost. Which, thats not really a big deal when you're in France, I would love to get lost every single day.
But two girls went and laid in the middle of the street for a split second and some guys yelled something in french at us/them so we decided to keep walking. . aaand they decided to follow us. It was pretty creepy, but just another experience :)
I love France, and sometimes I forget that I'm here.
I miss my family, and I wish I could've been a part of all the chaos I'm sure went on planning meghan's party.
I miss my friends, just when I was having a good time I had to leave.
But I've never been opposed to making new friends. Which I've done a lot in college.
Once again, I'm so blessed to have this opportunity to be studying abroad, in Paris, France. Its unbelievable to me still every time I repeat it in my head. . or outloud. I'm so grateful for this trip, that I can have this new experience in my life and be able to learn and laugh and grow. This entire year has been a huge one for me, although i have always been very responsible, I've gained a lot more responsibilities and learned a ton about myself, my life and the things around me.
Well sorry for the whole journal entry, and the lack of pictures on here for now. Internet is not working at all.
Au revoir!


<3