Au Revoir, Mes Amis July 18, 2011

Good Bye, My Friends

To everyone worrying for my travels overseas, or those who just want to know whether I made it back home alive, I am home with my family!  It has been a long day, but definitely a good one.  I didn’t know that I would be able to say: I spent my 20^th birthday in Geneva, Switzerland, Newark, NJ, and St. Louis, MO all in the same day!  Granted, most of this time was spent on a plane, but it still is the longest birthday I’ve ever had.  My family excitedly picked me up at the airport after my long day of flying.  We decided Pizza Hut was about the most American type pizza we could get and had that for dinner with birthday apple pie for dessert!  Yumm!

All in all this whole experience has been truly incredible.  Now, I’m looking forward to my next journey and wherever else my travels will take me!  Au revoir and thanks for following throughout this trip!

Le Dernier Jour July 16, 2011

The Last Day

So today is unfortunately my last day here in the beautiful spectra of Europe.  Yesterday morning I left with a friend from Chambéry to go to Geneva and set up her hotel room for her flight home early this morning.  We walked around Geneva essentially saying goodbye to the beautiful landscapes and waters surrounding us.  Around dinner I met up with an old friend from home, who let me stay the night at his apartment right outside of Geneva.  He just happened to be here on internship work while I was studying abroad so we figured it would be awesome just to catch up and meet, see a little bit of home in a place so far away from there.  I met a lot of the other people he’s working with this summer at one of the local bars and then we headed back for a good night’s sleep.

Today, I’m hanging out with my friend again, not really sure what our plans are, but we shall see.  I have to check into my hotel tonight and make sure my luggage doesn’t fall in the overweight range causing fees in the airport tomorrow.  Tomorrow I’ll head out around 6:30 or 7:00am for my flight at 9:50am.  I’m excited to be heading home, but still sad about leaving here.  I’m hoping one day I’ll be able to come back and enjoy this all again.  Well next time I post, I’ll probably be back in the States, so until then, safe travels!

 

La Fête National July 16, 2011

Bastille Day

Today was the national holiday of France known as Bastille Day.  This day would be the equivalent of Fourth of July for the United States.  During the day I really didn’t do anything but pack for heading home on Sunday, but around 5, we met up with all the other people still here for the Study Abroad trip and took a bus to Annecy to watch the fireworks shoot off over the lake.  We had dinner (at Subway!) and walked around Annecy which has to be one of my top favorite places in France and found a spot on a dock along the edge of the lake to watch the fireworks.  The fireworks were gorgeous and really awesome to be seen against the mountains and over the lake!  The only thing that kind of messed with our night, though, was the cold temperatures.  On the lake it probably dropped to about 55-60 degrees and most of us didn’t prepare for the chill.  After the fireworks, we stopped at a small café to get hot chocolate just to warm us a little.  I think I can honestly say, I haven’t specifically requested a hot chocolate in the middle of July just for its warmth.  Either way, though, it was a great night.  Heading to Geneva tomorrow to meet with a friend and then home on Sunday.

Aileron D’Alerte July 13, 2011

Spoiler Alert!

Harry Potter was amazing!  Seeing the first one in French definitely helped me to better understand the language in the second one (who knew a wand translated into une baguette?).  I cannot wait to see it again, and in English this time.  The theater was full, but it was very different than a premiere in the States.  There were very few people dressed up for this premiere and most people were very quiet in the theater.  I think the most dressed up people I saw were wearing sorting hats or witches hats; a few people had scarves in respective wizarding houses.   Either way, it was still a really fun experience and seeing the movie before the USA premiere was pretty cool, too.

Today, we had our last day of class.  It was a very bitter sweet moment knowing that class was ending and shortly followed by our program.  Our program is officially ending on Friday morning.  We still have one trip left which I am looking forward to tomorrow.  We are going to Annecy for the Bastille Day and watching the fireworks shoot off the lake.  I’m really excited to spend the last night I have truly in France like this!

Unfortunately, three of the five girls I’ve been hanging out with throughout this trip left today to head to Paris and then on to other journeys in Europe.  It’s always hard saying goodbyes, and even harder when you have no clue what happened to the past six weeks, but either way, they had to move along on their journey and me on mine.  It has been an awesome trip and I’m still looking forward to the next few days to come!

Le Mer Méditerranée July 11, 2011

The Mediterranean Sea

This weekend has been quite relaxing and fun. Friday after school we left for Nice, France which is a 7 hour bus drive from Chambéry. It was a long trip and we stopped twice for little breaks, once in a cute little city and another time in the middle of nowhere. We made it to Nice around 8:30pm so it wasn’t awful but it was long time to be sitting in a bus. We then checked into our hostel and moved our backpacks into the rooms. The hostel wasn’t very nice, but it was a place to sleep, so I can’t really complain. We went out for dinner at a small restaurant outside of downtown nice and then just decided to head to bed. We wanted to be rested up for the next day’s exploration of Nice.

Saturday we woke up early because the girl I stayed with and I had to move to a new room to consolidate our group. The new room was okay but we figured we’d only be sleeping there so it was good enough. We then began our adventure throughout Nice. We wanted to see the old village so we found our way downtown and then explored the numerous markets and little shops crowded into the streets of le Vieux Nice. We then decided to get some lunch at a small restaurant and watch the street performers do their thing. I literally felt like I was in a movie walking through those streets, listening to the music and surrounded by the market and people. The restaurant we went to offered French toast as one of their menu items so I couldn’t pass up the irony and ordered that exact dish. It was delicious and hit the spot!

After a relaxing lunch we decided to go straight to the beach and the gorgeous blue sea. The beaches were all rock, so I still haven’t actually seen a sand beach, but it was still beautiful. I forgot how awesome the water was since the last time I visited the Mediterranean Sea. It was really hot outside so the water was a perfect temperature to keep cool. We spent probably a good four hours there before we decided to head back to the hotel to change before going out for dinner. We met up with some other people in our group and talked to them for a while before heading back down to the beach area to see the beach at night. After walking along the beach we found a little restaurant in the older part of Nice to eat and then headed to a discotech international pub for the later evening.

Sunday was another early morning because we had to check out of the hostel for good. We were able to leave our bags in a locked room though, so that was definitely nice not to have to carry them around with us. Sunday was also the hotter of the two days in Nice so we decided we wanted to spend a majority of the day near the water. We also wanted to visit the Russian Cathedral in town and see the different architectural influences the church portrayed against the French architecture. It was a really beautiful church and very, very different from any other church I’ve seen. We then headed to the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon there enjoying ourselves and relaxing. Before we left, we decided to ride a little train that took us around Nice showing us all the different parts and history of the city. It was extremely interesting, especially when it took us up to the remains of the medieval Château located on top of the city. From that point we could see all around Nice including the mountains, the beach, and the harbor. It was beautiful. After the train we took one more dip into the Mediterranean to say good-bye and headed back to the hostel to go ‘home’. The bus ride was long again and painful from our awesome sunburns, but we made it back to Chambéry safe around 5am. It was truly an awesome trip, exhausting, yes, but awesome.

It’s a sad feeling knowing this trip is beginning to end. I’ve had so much fun here and part of me doesn’t want to come home. At the same time, though, I’m definitely feeling ready to come home to see my family and sleep in my bed again. This week still has some fun yet to bring, so more updates are coming your way. The plan for this week: Thai dinner tonight, Harry Potter Premiere tomorrow night, last day of class on Wednesday, Bastille Day on Thursday, and Geneva on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Until then, à bientôt!

Cette Semaine July 7, 2011

This Week

It has been a quiet week since my family left Monday afternoon.  I spent the week in Chambéry catching up on homework that I missed from class and walking around downtown and doing some shopping.  Tomorrow we are headed to Nice, France and I get to see my first sand ocean beach!  I’m really excited about this trip, so more updates and pictures to come on Monday, most likely.   Depends on how tired I am after the overnight bus ride back to Chambéry Sunday night.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend; I know mine will be quite enjoyable sticking my toes in the sand and the Mediterranean Sea!

Les Photos July 5, 2011

The Photos

Here are some pictures from Paris and Geneva this weekend.  I couldn’t get them up in the previous post, so I figured I’d just make a new one so you all can see a little bit of where we went and what we did.  Enjoy!

Un Week-end Parfait! July 4, 2011

A Perfect Weekend

Vendredi (Friday)

Yesterday, part of my family came to visit me here in France.  I picked them up from the train station after they successfully navigated their way through Geneva airport and onto the bus that brought them to Chambery.  Everything went smoothly and we grabbed some dinner and called it an early night.

Today, after going to class for a little bit, I met up with my family and we started our packing for Paris this weekend.  About 4:30 or so we were on our way on a long three and a half hour train ride to Paris.  We definitely hit some confusion once we hit the airport sized train station Gare Lyon in Paris, but with some help from the wonderful information people, we were able to navigate the metro and eventually make it to our hotel.  Our hotel was extremely tiny; the hallways alone were only one person wide.  But, the hotel placement was totally worth the claustrophobia, especially when we found out that from our hotel we could walk to the Eiffel Tower in under 20 minutes.  Once settled, we found a place to eat and then ventured up to the glorious tower.  I really wanted everyone to see the tower light up like it does every night.  The strange thing was that at 10:30pm it was still light outside and I clearly remembered the tower not lighting up until it was dark.  Well, much to our delight, at 11:00pm the tower lit up the sky and sparkled so elegantly.  It was really incredible to watch.  I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the night with the part of my family that visited in Paris!

Samedi (Saturday)

After a late night last night, we knew we had to get up early to take on Paris, the tourist style, of course!  The first thing on our list was going up into the Eiffel Tower.  We had reservations at 10:00am to journey to the second layer of the tower and look over the vastness of Paris.  It was a chilly morning but the sun was shining bright, so it proceeded to keep us warm.  We walked around the Eiffel Tower early that morning waiting to meet with the reservation people.  It was just awesome to be able to walk under the tower and enjoy our surroundings.  Once up in the tower, we got to overlook Paris and take a lot of pictures of what we were going to see later on in the day.  We made sure to eat a snack and shop a little while we were up there, which was fun, too.

Coming back down from the Eiffel Tower, we knew we had to catch our tour bus (a double decker, open topped, lime green bus) to take us around Paris.  While waiting for the bus we ended up running into someone who knows my brothers from their high school… it truly is a small world, especially when you can see millions and millions of people and still run into someone from home!  Our bus had four different routes around Paris all that we could take to see as much of Paris as possible.  The main line – which we rode around probably 2 times today just by way of getting to other lines – took us to the main attractions of Paris such as the Louvre, Napoleon’s Military School, the Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triumph.  We also took another line that drove us by the Moulin Rouge and some famous churches and railway stations of Paris.  We decided to get off at the Arc de Triumph stop and do some shopping down the main stretch.  We also took this opportunity to walk under the crazy four-lane roundabout surrounding the Arc de Triumph.  We then found ourselves under the great monument.  We ended our tour back at the Eiffel Tower and had a nice stroll back to our hotel.

Dimanche (Sunday)

Today we took our turn visiting the Notre Dame.  The part of my family that wanted to come really wanted to attend church in the Notre Dame, so that is exactly what we did.  I wasn’t sure how it was all going to work out since seeing the lines wrap around the building yesterday didn’t sound promising, but we were able to attend mass and see the outside architecture from a close distance.  After mass we were able to catch a few pictures of the inside walls of the church, which was pretty cool.  The church was very simple, yet had a grandeur that only a church in the center of Paris could have.  After mass, we decided to do a little souvenir shopping before catching the ‘blue-line’ of our bus tour to drop us off at the train station.  After shopping and taking our round about on the blue line, we arrived at our train station quickly finding our way to our train to take us back into the mountains of Chambéry.  I was definitely glad to be getting ‘home.’

Lundi (Monday)

We took today pretty easy, especially coming after our eventful trip to Paris.  I took my family back to Geneva, Switzerland so they could find their hotel and figure out the transport system to get to the airport in the morning.  Unfortunately we had a little hiccup in our trip losing one of our cameras, but having two cameras with us on our Paris excursion definitely was a blessing in disguise. We will still forever hold the memories of this trip, with or without pictures to prove.  After that, we had the opportunity to look around downtown Geneva for a little bit and buy some Swiss chocolate and window shop at all the high-class stores like Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Armani.  We grabbed a quick dinner and headed back to the airport so I could catch my bus back to Chambéry and my family to their hotel.  I’m hoping they have a safe flight tomorrow and everything goes smoothly for them.  It was truly a wonderful weekend having them here, and I’m looking forward to sharing the stories from this trip with others from home.  I think I’m ready to face this week and see what class has in store for me!

Parapente! June 28, 2011

Paragliding!

Words cannot explain the day I have had! I’m just going to have to put some pictures up and let you decipher my words. In a simple phrase, I jumped off a mountain with a strange French guy guide with French directions I didn’t totally understand and then proceeded to be taught how to fly my own parachute! We were up in the air for about 45 minutes flying over the lake and the mountain side and surrounding village. We did some circles in the air and then landed with a thud. Apparently my running with another person results in me landing face to the ground and knees and legs scraped up a bit, but every last bit was totally worthy it! It was the most thrilling, exciting, dangerous, and extreme thing I have probably every done, and my adrenaline is still pumping furiously through my body. This memory is one that I will forever and ever hold, because I have no idea if I will ever make it to a mountain to jump off of it with just a parachute again! I love life!

Pic on Top: Right before Jump

Pic on Left: Me Guiding My Own Parachute

Pic on Right: Me and My Guide Flying

À La Plage June 26, 2011

To the Beach!

Today was a wonderfully hot day spent at the beach near the lake in Chambéry!  It was so beautiful and perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.   This beach wasn’t a sand beach, but rather, a grass beach touching up against clear blue water.  Even in the deeper parts of the water you could see the bottom pebbles lining the lake floor.  The water was cold getting in but was a perfect complement to the 95 degree weather outside the water.  There were so many children and families also swimming which made for great entertainment throughout the afternoon.  After about 4 hours on the beach and lake, we decided to head back into town and check out the African festival in the park.  It seemed like whoever wasn’t at the beach today could have been found at this festival.  Apparently, people come from all over the world just to see the performances and cultural activities in this festival in Chambéry.  The music was great, the food was even better, and the dancing was phenomenal which made for the perfect evening in Chambéry.  All in all today was extremely relaxing and fun!  This week is going to be very hectic but I am really looking forward to it.  Tomorrow we hike to a waterfall, Tuesday we jump off a mountain to paraglide, and this weekend is Paris!  Let’s bring on the week!