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

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!