Getting back down to business

So, all my visitors are gone, I'm back in school (at least until the end of February when we get another week of vacation....), I've actually got homework (for once), things are starting to get back to normal here in Rennes, France. Yesterday was another one of the world famous CIEE excursions, which usually end up with us spending wayyyyyy to long in the most random of places and then sleeping on the bus. We went to Saint Malo and Mont Saint Michel, and even though I'd already been both places, they're really interesting towns, so it wasn't too bad. The only downfall was the weather, which decided to be gray, cold, and windy. And a sad change from last semester, CIEE is only doing one overnight excursion (to the Loire Valley) in lieu of 2, but now we get two day trips (the one yesterday and another to Vannes/Carnac). I always had a lot of fun on the overnight trips, and it was a good way to get to know the other kids in the program. Ohhhh well.

Leah and I recently tried to plan out our trips for the upcoming semester. So far we've got: Barcelona in March, Amsterdam and Copenhagen/Aarhus (maybe Brussels/Belfast???) in April, Bordeaux (who knows when), Paris and Versailles in May (we already bought the tickets for this one!), and then we want to try for Rome/Prague/Dublin at some point in the semester if money holds out. Although you always hear about cheap travel in Europe, it never really ends up being all that cheap.....You have to get to the airport, usually Paris (or Beauvais for RyanAir, which is a HUGE hassle), and then the cheap airlines don't really fly into the main airports, so you have to get from the airport to the city you want to go to, if you don't know anyone in the place you're visiting, you have to pay for a place to stay, food, cool things to do, etc. It adds up fast. But, Leah and I decided we have around 100 days left here, we need to make the most of it and not worry tooooooooooooo much about the cost. It just means we have to resist the glowing lights and fashionable clothes of H&M a lot more this semester. PLUS the euro is down to $1.36. Best. News. Ever. Well......

Maybe even better news than the falling exchange rate: Hank got an internship in Stuttgart, Germany starting MARCH 1st!!!!!!!! Which means I have to add Germany on my list of travels. This internship was such a last minute thing, and its a great opportunity for him. Knowing my love of tigers, Hank promised me a trip to the zoo in Stuttgart, so I'm pretty excited :) I'm hoping he'll be able to stop by Rennes before he starts work, because it might be kind of hard to plan to see each other when both of us our busy with our European lives. Its pretty cool that we'll both be over here at the same time, and I hope that we can at least meet up once or twice before I fly off at the end of May.

I'm starting the job search for summer in Madison, because after all these destinations I'm hoping to see I'm going to be BROKE. I turned in my application for the desk job I had last summer, but I'm a little worried that since I'm coming back home so late I won't be able to get it. So, if anybody knows anybody who are employing nice, hard working, French speaking, awesome people, let me know.

Til next time,
Katie

Thats so owl.

We're so cute on the Champs Elysées

So, my resolution to post more = 2 posts in January (whoops). BUT to make up for it, you get 2 bloggers for the price of 1!!!!

Elise is here in Rennes with me, and we've been hanging out and seeing the sights of Bretagne for the past week and a half. We started with a whirlwind tour of Paris. Off the plane, we dropped our bags off at our cute little yellow hotel room with a crooked door and headed straight to Notre Dame to chill with Quasimodo. We got up close and personal with some gargoyles (although we learned that they aren't really gargoyles but in fact are chimères. Darn you cartoons for your false information [anybody else watch that besides us?]). They were pretty cute. We named a few, such as Stan (he was on a postcard, we never actually found him). There were lots and lots of spiral stairs, 400 to be exact, because French people like making tourists climb steep dark stairs. We like to call this the Paris workout. We also saw a HUGE bell. I was tempted to lick it, just like Barney, but it was too far away. The following photos are a few of our favorite new friends from atop Notre Dame:

After climbing the towers of the cathedral, we hopped on the métro over to the Eiffel Tower, just in time to see it light up. We dodged several dudes trying to sell us glowing souvenirs, took some awesome pictures and then Elise saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle!!!!! She didn't know it did that, so she was pretty pumped (and thats an understatement).

SPAAAAAAARRRKKLLLLLLEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! You know how a lot of time the really cool touristy things aren't as cool in person?!? The Eiffel Tower does NOT fall into that category- its sweeeeeet. Since it was Friday, the Louvre was open late (AND FREEEEEEEE - for people under 26...sucks to be old) so we went to hang out with Mona. We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. The Louvre is kind of overwhelming and basically is a lot of paintings of Jesus, so its hard to find the really cool stuff. It probably took us half an hour to find Hammurabi's Code (the first written law). We managed to hit all the important things, and we even tested out Mona's eyes. They really do follow you around the room. By the time we made it out, we were exhausted from all the stairs, and we headed back home and went to bed!

The next morning, after a somewhat slow start and slightly dreary Paris weather, we went to Musée D'Orsay to enjoy impressionism, among other things. It was easier to differentiate paintings/artwork, given some range in subject matter other than religion. We really enjoyed the room of all of Monet's work, including some of the lily pads. It was really cool to see some of the paintings that took up a WHOLE wall and some of the furniture was strange (and a tease, since you could not test out the comfort levels of each item. Some of the chairs looked really promising too). There was a special exhibit by this special dude, who after being harshly criticized by the public, became obsessed with painting these masks represented the distortion of the evil masses of the cruel public. Obviously he did not handle criticism well- but some of these masks were SUPER creepy. On a lighter note, one of the paintings we enjoyed the most, was The Orgy Painting. Basically, a whole bunch of Romans were having too much fun one night, drinking, making out, you know- the usual, and there was just a lot of drama going on among these young drunken Romans.


As you can see above, alcohol leads to no good. The older Romans obviously think these young-ins can't hold their own, there are love triangles, make out sessions, jealous emo kids- a high school dance gone wrong. Just looking at the picture makes me giggle.

In search of food and coffee, we walked along the Champs Elysées (one of the chic-est streets in Paris), where we stopped to admire (or laugh) at Louis Vuitton, especially because we both already own, you know, like 35 pairs of sun glasses each (at 350 euro a pop). We picked out our favorite trunks (because we are on the Titanic) to ship back home (and use as furniture on our porch, to copy the mannequins). The Champs Elysées was probably the start to this weird obsession with leather and boots, even the desire to wear cool high heels, that France seems to have instilled in me (Elise). At the end of the Champs is the Arc de Triomphe, a GINORMOUS monument built by Napoleon to compensate for his dwarf status. See the man in a blue letter jacket? Elise decided to flash a smile in his direction.


French boys are creepy. No smiling- ever. Lesson learned.

The Arc is HUGE and very cool to look at, especially the ceiling (like all the other cool ceiling in France- seems to be a requirement). There is a flame always lit, for the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. The intersection around the Arc is terrifying, since all the main streets intersect here, thus to cross the street, there are underground tunnels to get to and from the Arc. By the way, we found the Ericson family of France to take the above photo (creepy man included). They were at least 10 feet tall- even the mom. Also the by the way, people in France really like, like obsessed with, How I Met Your Mother- which is wonderful. Everyone loves Barney.

We went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where lots of famous French and international people are buried. Its huge and complicated, with tons of different sections. We took a picture of the map with our camera, hoping to take advantage of zoom, but we still couldn't find stuff. We visited Jim Morrison's grave first, once we found it. Then, meandered towards Oscar Wilde's grave, which also took a while to find because we overshot it. Once we were in the right section, it is fairly easy to find because it is covered in lipstick and kisses. It is a popular tradition to kiss his grave; a tradition we decided to take part in. Never have I ever kissed a grave....Shoot.

We were rushed out of the cemetery as it started to get darker- probably because of zombies, so, we left and decided it was probably safer in the sex district of Paris, Montmartre. Some day, when rich and famous, we will return to the actual Moulin Rouge.

While meandering more cobblestone, dangerous even in flat shoes, we bought some HOT WINE to keep warm. The wine is warmed, has some spices and orange slices and is delicious. Yum.

We continued to wander, saw the Sacré Coeur, a beautiful white church, whose service was in progress while we quietly walked around the outside. This was another example of the stair climbing for the Paris Workout. At the bottom of the hill, there were a bunch of guys with string, who tried to grab your wrists and make you a bracelet for lots of euro. No thank you.

Katie made me (elise) try more French-y things, like KIRS. It is white wine and a fruity syrup. We drank it at this cute little cafe over by our cute little hotel. We had crepes that night. I had NUTELLA and BANANA- it was messy, but brilliant. We had a train early the next day, so we headed to bed, and woke early to quickly carry all of my stuff to the sketchy metro stop at 7am. Saw a homeless man penis (my favorite early morning surprise) and the cops stopped the metro to search for some man, who we then saw them handcuff. Cool. Good morning.

Other noteable Paris things: Where's Waldo is actually... Where is Charlie?!?! And Quick Burger has lots of signs for STRONG BACON, as well as strong cheese. Not as exciting as STRONG BACON.

Our first afternoon in Rennes was filled with an intense...wait for it....ping pong tournament. Yeah. It is hardcore. We watched Yoann destroy a wall in hot pursuit of a ball, lots of french swearing, followed by beer and baguettes. Yoann's family cooked us a delicious meal, a chinese-inspired dish of Beef and caramel, with wine, as well as a delicious fruit crumble desert and french cheese. This was my first French cheese experience. Nothing like Wisconsin cheese. But the Munster was DELICIOUS.

Monday, I (Katie) had to sign up for classes because my month and a half vacation came to an end this week. Tragic, really. In French style, Leah and my schedule ended up getting messed up, but, I guess we're used to France disorganization. For our long stay visas, Leah and I needed to go get x-rays of our lungs. WHICH WE GET TO KEEEEEEP!!!!!!!! Proud to say, I'm tuberculosis free! Check. I'm putting my x-ray up on the fridge when I get back to Madison. Also, we had to get a doctors appointment. Our doctor was about 12. Wore skinny pants, pointy boots, and had his scooter helmet on his desk. I think his backpack had red spider webs on it. I told him about Milwaukee (he'd never heard of it) and I almost tipped over the medical table, whoops. He told me the x-ray was a "beau cadeau" (beautiful present) and to take care of it. Awesome.

Katie, Leah and I took a day trip to Saint Malo, a walled beach town which is about a 45 minute train ride. I really like the trains- they make me sleepy. The weather was surprisingly nice, it was SUNNY, and we walked along the wall and adventured along the beach. Apparently the tide rises really quickly and its easy to get stuck out on the little island like forts- but we didn't get stuck. Just enjoyed each of the forts. We found Chateaubriand's grave overlooking the ocean. He was a moody French author who was born in Saint Malo. We agreed that it was a fitting and very EPIC place to be buried; very beautiful. It was also completely lovely to walk along the water, with lots of little kids bundled up playing, as well as dogs running about. We wandered about in the town searching for a place to eat and eventually ate wonderfully delicious Galettes, which are crepes, with egg, ham and cheese in them. We eat them a bunch, because they are super yummy. We also drank cider and had a sugar crepe for desert (Leah splurged and got a caramel crepe). We mostly hung out, looked at the ocean, and enjoyed the sunshine. It was peaceful and wonderful.





Things We've Explored in Rennes:
-We walked through the garden to hang out with the birds. They were chirping up a storm; I reckon they like to gossip.

-The HOT CHOCOLATE specialty place. They have soooooooooo many different types of hot chocolate. YUM. I got raspberry flavored hot chocolate and Katie got honey and vanilla. They give you a little bit of brownie too. There are board games to be played and a lovely warm ambiance.

-The CHAI place. We've been there twice. Also delicious. They play good music and we snagged a table with cushions the second time we went. We've also decided to open our own little hippie coffeeshop some day when we are old- sometime after Katie has worked at Curves/Hollister and I've lived in a cardboard box somewhere? Ooooh the places we'll go.

-The Saturday Morning Market: We wandered through the fruit section, where Katie got a FREE apple, a quite tasty one, and I got a super yummy pear. We tried galette saucisse, which is a brat wrapped in a galette. While in line it started to HAIL, then snow, a little bit of rain and then it was sunny again. Bretagne has weird weather. They have EVEN more cheese than the farmers market in Madison, which is impressive. Also, a lot of honey. We also walked through the meat part of the market, which was pretty gross, with HUGE slabs of meat, cow eye balls and chickens with their heads still on. Yikes.

-Katie and I ate at this cute little restaurant in Rennes that we happened to meander into. We got a lovely student deal for pasta (which had corn in it, which was apparently debated about among the cooks/waitress, and they went for it, and it was a good addition), wine and coffee and we bought a dessert too. To our luck, they didn't have the dessert we wanted, so we got a super fancy and wonderful fancy dessert (it was really fancy) for the price of the cheaper brownie one. Awesome. Seated next to us was a man dining alone. Dun dun dun.....and he wouldn't stop talking to us. Unfortunately for me (Katie), Elise doesn't speak French, so I was stuck having to answer his questions. Upon leaving, the waitress asked me if we were bothered by him. I said no, it wasn't a big deal. She replied "Good. Because usually we don't let him in. He likes to chat up young girls." Great. The dessert was totally worth it.

-Magical Bakery: everything is jumbo sized, chocolately, and magical. End of story.

-Funny assortment dinner- We needed to pick up dinner before heading to Leah's, so we stopped to get sushi. We also got clementines (probably the yummiest clementines i've ever eaten). We also got brownies. Yum. Elise's sushi had mango and mint in it. Weird combo, but was delicious. I got one with cream cheese, avacado, and salmon. Called the Philadelphia. Also yummy.

-Sneaking wine in my room like 2 high schoolers. We also did not have the corkscrew to open it. Thus, we discovered, all you need is: a fork, a pen, nail clippers, tweezers...and a tad bit of DEDICATION.

So. Thursday night. You see...i've been hearing about how Thursday night is THE night to go out, wander the cobblestone, hang out in the other Mad Ave (not that any place could ever even touch the classy-ness of the wonderful Mad Ave Dance Club that we often frequent in Madison), take some smurf shots, drink a beer, dance in the streets. Viva la revolution. To start our night out solidly, we ate some pasta and got FREEEEEE dessert. Leah, Katie and I then enjoyed some cider and cheap red wine in a rando alleyway, because, we are obviously, a) super classy and b) we can. I really did enjoy the Madison Avenue here on the Rue de la Soif (Thirsty Road....interesting. Thirsty Thursday, France style). The conveniently cute bartender kept dancing to all of the Shaggy songs that played. We also saw a hobbit, who talked to us, mooned the bar, and tried to get with this chick. Good work, Frodo- protect that ring. We met up with Joanna and Adelene, two lovely French friends, hung out til bar time, and then, when kicked out of the bars, everyone moves to the streets. We had to move, twice, due to the impeding doom of fights getting close to us. So, this guy, came by and opened a seemingly locked door with his butt. So....obviously....we did too. We took turns, around the circle, opening the said locked door, with our booties. It was great fun. THEN! we met Barney Stinson, or so he claimed. Insisting that he was awesome, he demanded validation as the French Barney Stinson. However, he had no suit. No Suit = No Barney Stinson. Suit up, man....duh. VIVA LA REVOLUTION. We slumberpartied (yeah, verb) at Leah's, tried to watch a How I Met Your Mother even though Leah and I fell asleep pretty prompty and Katie finished it, and then awoke for an adventure to NANTES.

A Trip to Nantes: We went there. Most importantly, there is a CASSSSSSSSTTTLLLLEEEEEEEEEEE. We are princesses. The castle belonged to the Duc de Bretagne back in the day. He was pretty cool. Rebellious, viva la revolution, and all that. The only let down was the lack of dungeon. No dragons, but there was a legit moat. And machicoulis, these holes in the floor of the walls that people used to throw shit through to smash invaders!!!!! SOOOOO cool. (Katie is obssessed, if you can't tell).

Like stated above, PRINCESSES

We wandered a bit, although the weather was iffy (it is Bretagne after all), and stopped in a bunch of random shops to look at shoes (Elise wants leather boots. I just bought some.). We found this random indoor mall that looked like some Victorian awesome thing. We learned about it in the castle. We found a big bell tower, a cool fountain, drank some cafe where we discovered that Katie may in fact be the devil, if not at least related, due to her 6.66 of change, saw a huge cathedral that was slightly lame (I think they rebuilt a lot of it), PLAYED WITH PUPPIES, drank a beer with some Irishmen, ate Thai food SUPER FAST (we had a train to catch), and then headed home to watch some How I Met Your Mother (obviously). Its been fun to explore parts of Bretagne that I haven't been to yet, even though they're super close and I've been here 5 (almost 6...holy cow.) months. Its been an adventure for both of us!!!! Plus we'll have cool pics to put on our porch next year (on top of the Louis Vuitton trunks).


Other observations: Escalators, while prominent, are always broken. French women can walk in crazy high heels and dress quite nicely- almost annoyingly nice. Lots of funny little inserts of English, such as STRONG BACON, and GO. There has also been many debates about PIRATES v. NINJAS- although we don't particularly understand the debate (Pirates would obviously be way more fun to be at a bar with.) Or...zombies v. vampires?!?!

Lucille and I engaged in a very serious and intense TICKLE FIGHT. She is crazy. We also played a game where one person was blind folded and had to run around and grab someone else. Katie and I had the advantage, since she is tiny and easy to guess. Lucile also thought it was funny that Elise couldn't understand what she was saying. I had to translate a lot.

I REALLY like all the graffiti on all the walls. I don't have any idea how they tag some of the places that they do, like the really high up ledges and such, but it think its super sweeet. (even the sorta lame ones are still pretty cool).

We hope you've enjoyed our witty banter, as we've enjoyed our adventures. And always remember, VIVA LA REVOLUTION. À bientôt!


-Katie and Elise

Warming up by the fire

I'm at home, sitting by the fireplace, enjoying a bit of peace (after a pretty peaceful day)....

Today Leah and I bought our plane tickets home. Doesn't seem like that big of deal, but it got me thinking. Up until now, I was just going about my days here in Rennes, which has been kind of just like a giant vacation from the real world, with out much thinking of how one day I am in fact going to have to go back. Sure, I've thought of the things I want to do when my plane touches down in Chicago (Mickey's Dairy Bar and a BIG GIANT NON ESPRESSO REAL COFFEE from Indie), but home seemed very very far away. I now have a deadline. May 24th I'll be heading non-stop to Chicago in an airplane, waving goodbye to Rennes and a fantastic year abroad.

Leah and I counted the days. 124 (soon to be 123). I now have 124 days to do absolutely everything I want to do. All the cafés and pastries and traveling and galettes and chaï and silly French people I can handle. I'm hoping its enough. I've always been that person that writes a million lists and then never looks at them again. This time, I'm going to write that list of things I want to do and I'm going to cross them off. (well hopefully most of them)

Other exciting news: Elise is coming on Friday (as in a day and a half!). I foresee lots of adventures in France (and possibly elsewhere?). Its been so great to have visits from home. After 5 months away, seeing Hank and now Elise has been a big boost of morale. I'm leaving Friday morning to get her from the airport and we're going to spend the weekend in Paris, doing awesome Parisian things. The Louvre is open late on Fridays, so I think we're going to take advantage of that, and if the weathers holds, maybe a picnic with La Tour Eiffel herself on Saturday. J'ai hâte de la voir!!!!!

Random French quirk: They like to change the titles of English movies into different titles, in ENGLISH. Not even in French. A few examples:
The Hangover = A Very Bad Trip
Pirate Radio = Good Morning England
Whip It (which I saw yesterday) = Bliss
I can understand translated titles into your language, but really? A Very Bad Trip? C'mon.

Well, its getting awful close to my bedtime. Being in a house with kids has lead to me catching un rhume several times this semester....even Sophie's (my host moms) essential oils and teas can't ward of all illness. So, its off to bed to battle a cold I go......

2 weeks gone by way too fast

Tomorrow I head to Paris to say bye to Hank, who has been visiting me for the past two weeks. We've done a lot of fun things, spent New Years Eve in Paris, drank lots of coffee (and wine) in Strasbourg, hung out at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich, and relaxed in Rennes with my host family....

It went by way too fast, and I can't believe I'm going to have to say goodbye to Hank (for the second time) on Sunday. But, we made the most of our time together, and I know that this next semester will go by just as fast. Pretty soon, I'll be back in Madison hanging out on the terrace, just like usual.

One of my New Years resolutions was to keep this thing more up to date, because I failed at it first semester. So, hopefully this means more awesome posts by moi in the future. I'll put up some pics for those of you without facebook to see of my trip through Europe with Hank and write a more detailed post later. I will do it. Promise.

Ta ta for now.

Katie and Hank

Joyeux Noël

So, apologies as always, its been a month since my last post. With exams last week and saying good bye to all the fall semester students, I barely noticed how fast time flew by. Now it's Christmas, and I'm left scratching my head wondering where December went.

I guess I should do a quick recap of this past month:

1. Waffle houses. I wanted to do some festive holiday things with the kids in my host family, since I love Christmas and everything. I thought to myself, well gingerbread houses, thats a GREAT idea. Upon quickly realizing I would have to make gingerbread myself and after having messed up plain old sugar cookies (they turned into a giant mass of melted butter in the oven...), I changed my idea to graham cracker houses. Oh wait, small issue, they don't have graham crackers in France.....

Some fast problem solving at the supermarché led to Leah and I buying lots and lots of waffles and lots and lots of candy. The kids all invited some friends over and they got to make their own creations, and eat lots of sugar. The Gingerbread houses à la française weren't quite as pretty as the ones we make at home, but they definitely had their charm. Most impressive was Louis' friend Guillaume who managed to eat 6 waffles.

2. SNOW!!!!!!!!! It snowed for the first time in 3 years here in Rennes, all 2 inches worth. I'd like to say it was all because of me, I brought it from Wisconsin, but who knows. All I know is that it was wonderful! Agathe woke me up last Friday and said, "Hurry and see the snow before it melts!" I helped Agathe make her very first ever snowman, a slightly crooked, cute little guy with almonds for eyes. Sadly, he toppled shortly after. France in general is not well equipped for snow, and even though with my Wisconsin vision, it looked like nothing, French people all over were terrified. The buses stopped running, schools closed, people walked hesitantly on the sidewalks, bundled up for the frozen tundra. Par contre, Leah and I made snowballs. The next day, Leah, Lucile, and I had great big snowfight. Lucile really loves the snow, and she keeps telling me she wants to come to Wisconsin to see all of it.

3. Haircut! Nothing much to say, I went and got my haircut at Stephanie's host dad's salon. I was really scared because I didn't know any of the vocab and I didn't want to end up with a super short bob/faux hawk haircut and purple highlights or something. Thankfully, Steph's père was great, and he gave me a good haircut with bangs (!). He cut Leah's hair the other day and she loved it too. We survived our first French haircuts!

4. CIREFE end of the year party/Depart of the semester. So, last week was a pretty chaotic time. It was the last week of classes, which meant everyone headed home before Christmas. CIREFE (the university) held a big end of the year party at a discothèque. It was a lot of fun, very eventful (people got kicked out!). But, most importantly, Leah, Larissa, and I sandwiched Daniel Audaz, our program director (Madison alum, and possibly the cutest Frenchman on the planet). On Thursday, a bunch of us went out for last galettes at Creperie St. Anne, which were delicious, and then went to O'Connell's Irish Pub to say goodbye to all the people who were leaving. It turned into a giant American dance party, and we got free Guiness shirts and man thongs (hey, it was a Christmas party after all). It was a lot of fun, and a good way to say goodbye to all the CIEE kids. Its weird to think that most of my friends here are back in the states. Saddest of all was saying bye to Larissa. Friday night her family had Leah, Yoann, and I over for a dinner of raclette and afterwards we helped pack her stuff. Well, Leah packed her stuff, Larissa and I pretended to help. The next morning (as in 6:30 am...), the four of us, plus Larissa's host parents walked her and her heavy suitcases to the train station. Georges (her père) insisted on walking because of icy roads (obviously George has never been to WI). It was a quick, unorganized goodbye at the gare due to frozen doors on the train. She ended up having a lot of travel problems (snow in Paris) but is now safely back in the US! Leah and I are a little lost without her :(

5. Wine with Guillaume Marbot. For our last class of civilisation, our professor taught us how to taste wine. So, at 10:30am, we all had a little wine and discussed its many fine qualities with my favorite Frenchy ever, Guillaume Marbot. I learned that you should open red wine at least half an hour before you drink it, and that the more alcoholic a wine is, the more larmes it leaves on the glass when you swirl it. He scoffed at Sarkozy and Mitterand, who, as he told us, don't drink wine. "A French president who doesn't like wine?!?!?" ....I love this man. I actually did learn a lot from this dégustation, and the wine he picked was delicious. After the class, he let us take the left over wine, so, thanks to Monsieur Marbot, I have wine in my closet. Only in France.

Other honorable mentions: the mairie all lit up with a Christmas spectacle, chichis from the Christmas market, almost having a heart attack before my arhitecture oral exam and then somehow surviving, trying to call the French government and no one answering..., endless episodes of How I Met Your Mother, helping Sophie out with the inventory at the pharmacy, movie night at Yoann's consisting of white russians made with bailey's and Elf dubbed over in French, helping Lucile leave out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer....

Christmas deserves its own paragraph. The most obvious differences between the holiday here and in the US is the lack of decorations (at least for me). You walk around the neighboorhoods and no one has lights up outside. Most homes have a tree and a manger set, but thats about it. Not too many put lights all over the outside of their houses, or put up endless amounts of decorations on the inside. There is also a distinct lack of singing. They don't have very many songs for Noël. No Frosty, no Rudolph, no Rockin Around the Christmas Tree. While the Christmas Market and the lights in town do add to the festiveness, its a little hard to feel like its really Christmas. To help celebrate, Hugue's parents came over. In comparison with my family in the states, it was a lot more tame. No buffet style munchies, no cousins and aunts and uncles. It was weird to not be with everyone back home and to not have snow. At first, when I woke up, I was kinda sad about it all, and I wasn't sure I was going to have a good day. Luckily the day was full of things to do, so it kept my mind off all the people I miss.

Last night, we all placed our shoes under the tree, and this morning we found chocolate stuffed inside them and little piles of presents. I will say, at least in my host family, there were a lot less presents than back home. I guess it proves the whole "US = consume consume consume EXCESS!" idea. For example, Agathe got pens and a board game. She seemed a little disappointed nonetheless...Lucile was so happy with Père Noël's present of a barbie camera, she pretty much forgot the rest of her loot. Lunch was very structured, multiple courses, Agathe had planned entertainment in between. I ate foie gras for the first time, and I actually liked it, even though I felt bad for the little geese. We also ate fish, which they told me isn't typical. In France, its usually a turkey for Christmas. Agathe made a bûche de noël that was AWESOME! In between the main course and dessert, the kids put on a little Christmas spectacle. Agathe read a story out loud, and I helped Louis and Lucile make the sound effects. I think everyone liked it :)

Lunch took a good 3 hours, and afterwards all I wanted to do was sleep. I took a skype break and talked to my Mom. After that, I went back up and joined the family for a stressful game of Jenga. I forgot how nerve wracking that game can be. Hugue's dad is this funny little old man who is super interested in English pronunciations. He asked me to repeat the name Julia Roberts at least five times so he could try and get it right. Jooola Bovers. Jula Roset. He just couldn't get it. Dan Rather was a toughy too. The French and those darn -th- sounds.

I'll try and get some pics up on this tomorrow.

Now its after midnight and I am going to try and watch a little bit of "A Christmas Story" online before I head to sleep, visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. I hope everyone back home had a wonderful Christmas, full of family and food. Joyeux Noël!

Love lots,
Katie

Katie à l'école des sorciers

(First off, I haven't written in almost a month. Whoops. Time flies here. I don't even realize it and a week has gone by).

On a recent trip to BUDAPEST to visit Allison, my roommate from freshman year, I had a lot of time to sit and wait (on the train, at Charles De Gaulle airport, on the plane...) so I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone en français. The whole thing. I just thought I'd share a few things with you that I found interesting. The French people have a funny insistence on making things very French, including all the names. Professor Snape? No way. Let's call him professeur Rogue. The snitch? Well thats a Vif d'or, obviously. Even Hogwarts couldn't escape the French translator. C'est Poudlard, biensûr. Here's a quick list of a few more of them.

Muggles = Moldus
Oliver Wood = Oliver Dubois
The Sorting Hat = Le choixpeau (which is the word 'choix' (choice) mixed with the word 'chapeau' (hat)...and voila quoi, you get the hat that chooses!)
Hufflepuff = Poufsouffle
Ravenclaw = Serdaigle
Slytherin = Serpentard
Filch = Rusard

The list goes on and on. I asked my friend Brice why they would change the names, and he responded, "Le mot 'muggle' n'a aucun sens en français..." (the word muggle has no meaning in French). Since when does it mean anything in English? Oh you silly, silly Frenchies.

I experienced my first grève (strike) in France yesterday. All the restaurants on campus were closed. No lunch! I don't really know why there were going on strike, probably for money. It was more of an annoyance since I had to go buy food in town (we get lunch free with the study abroad program). But they were back open for business today! Maybe they all just wanted a day off....There were actually some elementary/middle/high schools that closed too, as well as parts of the post office.

This past weekend, like I already mentioned, I went to Budapest to visit Allison. She's studying abroad over there, and has her own apartment and everything. It was a very intimidating experience to land at the airport and to have to navigate my way to her apartment. Thankfully, people did speak English, a nice businessman I met at Charles De Gaulle gave me 1000 forints (about 5 bucks) when I told him I was nervous about the whole ordeal (he happened to have forints in his wallet?), there were some signs at the airport too, and I managed to take the right bus and make it to the right subway stop! An elderly Hungarian woman blabbed to me on the bus when I tried to let her sit in my seat, I gave her the "deer in headlights, I have no clue what your saying" look, and she just patted my knee and smiled. I don't know how Allison manages without knowing the language. I feel like life would involve a lot of pointing.

A bunch of Allison's friends who are studying abroad in Florence came to visit her too, plus some of Allison's roommates friends too, so all in all it was about 13 people sleeping in her apartment! I got a bed, so all was good. Without going into detail about everything, I'll just summarize my favorite parts.

1. Forints, the currency. Its about 250 forints to one dollar. So, if you pay 500 forints, its like 2 dollars. I felt like I had big bucks the whole time. 1000 forint? No big deal. Pocket change.


2. The awkward language barrier. One of Allison's friends ordered apple pie, and the waitress brought him pineapple juice. So great.

3. Business lunch! Monday-Friday, most restaurants have a cheap menu where you get 3 courses for about 600-800 forint. We got soup, chicken burgers and fries, AND dessert for 3-4 bucks.


4. Apple Strudel. Nom nom nom.....

5. The Baths. There are Turkish baths in Budapest all over the place. They're giant pools heated geothermically. The place we went had three big outdoor, wonderfully warm (basically giant hot tubs) pools and then 20 some inside. There were 2 saunas too. It was the most relaxing thing ever. It was also prime speedo watching. Lots of old men in speedos....Another great thing about the baths were the old men playing chess in the pools. I guess its a Budapest staple, they come and play chess all day. One of the people visiting from Florence was this tiny little girl from Korea, and one of the old guys asked her to play. It was a hilarious image, this small girl standing across this giant white haired extreme chess player. Guess who won? The girl! I could have spent forever there, just floating around in the water, but alas, I had to leave.


6. CHRISTMAS MARKET!!!!!!!! It was my first taste of Christmas since I've been here, as the market in Rennes doesn't open til this weekend. There were lights, vendors of gifts and food, music, people, a GIANT TREE!, everything you would ever want in a Christmas market. Allison, Cristal (her roommate), and I got some mulled wine just to get the super cute souvenir mugs that say Christmas in Budapest in English and in Hungarian. We also got some delicious cinnamon bread that was roasted over a fire before our very eyes. I was in heaven. A peculiar thing about the music....there was a little mini choir that was singing songs on a stage. First off, they were singing in English, but in a way that made it pretty obvious they didn't know what they were singing. I had trouble at first telling if it was Hungarian or English. De plus, their music choice was decidedly un-Christmasy. For example, Son of Preacher Man? But I loved it all the same.


It was a really great trip, I also learned a lot of the history of Budapest from both Allison and random drunk Hungarian men, and I got to see a part of the world I'd never seen before. It was hard to leave to go back to class :)

Tomorrow is THANKSGIVING (or "Sanksgiving" à la française...they have such a hard time with those -th- sounds). I'm eating lunch at a retirement home with Leah and Steph to talk about the tradition with some elderly Frenchies and then the Institut Franco-Americain is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant in the city. TWO THANKSGIVINGS!!!!!!! I'm exciting to see how they pull off pumpkin pie. Its absolutely unheard of here. Cody tried to find pumpkin pie filling to make pumpkin bread and failed. Lucile (my little host sister) thought it sounded horrible, but maybe thats just because we eat pumpkin an awful lot at my house. I showed my host siblings clips of the Macy's Day parade and I basically told them all you do on Thanksgiving is eat. They were sad they don't celebrate it here. It's weird not seeing turkey decorations and hearing all sorts of buzz about no school and the holidays, and it's even weirder that I'm not going to see my family. But, I'm going to celebrate it with my friends, which have basically become my family here, so hopefully it won't be too sad, just full of fooooooood!

Another quick observation: Little kids looooooooooove marbles here. I have played marbles more times in the past week than I have in my entire life. Lucile is obsessed. I can tell you all the different types (who knew there were multiple kinds of marbles?) and the types of defenses you can use while playing (mur, araignée, coquillage). I don't get it.

Bahhhh voila quoi. A bientot!

"Hey, are you guys French?" "No! We-a are-a Italianooooo!"

A LOT has happened. Which explains why I haven't written....First off, fall break.

I went on a road trip with Yoann, Leah, Larissa, and Cody to the south of France. After some mishaps with the GPS (fondly named Marie-Claire), which included her sending us down dead end roads and her suddenly deciding she needed a nap, we made it through mountain roads to Marseille.

Dead End Directions from M-C

But, alas, Marseille was definitely a sketch town. I'd heard from a lot of people that it wasn't that great. The old port was really pretty and nice, but once you went a block off of it, the safety level severely dropped. At least our hostel was nice, and the next day we went on a really nice boat ride to Château d'If, the location of the prison in Count of Monte Cristo. It was a beautiful day and the Mediterranean was gorgeously blue as always. The castle was also pretty neat. We saw prison cells and there were all these etchings in the walls that tourists had made, some dating back to the 1800s.

After that we said "Au revoir Marseille!" and headed to Nice. Which is A LOT nicer. Our hostel was called Villa Saint Exupéry, after the author of Le Petit Prince, and it was really nice. The place was over run by Australians, who love backpacking, and it was definitely weird after being surrounded by French for over two months to be in a giant English bubble. One of the workers asked us if we were from Québec because we were speaking in French to Yoann. We said no, he asked us why we were speaking French then. "Ummmmm, we're in France?" was our reply. I think Yoann felt a little out of place, but it was really cute to see him order stuff in English, "Sank you!" (ie thank you, those darn "th" sounds...). The hostel was a little ways away from downtown and the beach, but Nice recently installed a tram that was SUPER nice and efficient, and the hostel had a shuttle running to the tram and back, so no biggie. We spent the first night down on the beach. Leah and I attempted salsa dancing at a salsa bar, but just ended up running into everyone.

The next day, we met Alex (an Aussie, of course), and the 6 of us walked around Nice for the day. We wandered through the flower market, ate some yummy lunch and then went to the beach. Cody, Yoann, and I braved the cold and jumped in the water! It was nothing compared to the polar plunge, but still a weeeee bit chilly! But how could you go the Mediterranean and not swim at least once! After that, we climbed up this big cliff which a sign described it as having the most beautiful panoramas in the world. I'd agree. The sun was setting and Nice is really just a beautiful city. Sea on one side, mountains on the other. It was perfect. After a stop for some ice cream, we headed back to the hostel for dinner. This hostel was awesome, really. I recommend it to anyone traveling to Nice. The dinner was super yummy (and cheap) and they have one euro beers at the bar! We played a really fun game of shoulders, and then went into downtown and wandered for a bit. And so ended our time in Nice.

Us with our Aussie friend

Des plus beaux panoramas du monde!

The next day, we headed back out on the road, putting our trust in Marie-Claire once again to get us to our next destination safely. We took a route that followed the coast pretty much, so it was a beautiful drive! I don't know how some of the houses don't fall of cliffs into the sea. We made a pit stop in Eze, home of a famous French perfumery. It also has a really cute old city on a hill, with more beautiful views of the Mediterranean. And a lot of nice cars. After that, we made another stop in Monaco. We wandered into a carnival, which was surprisingly a lot like a 4th of July carnival in the states. Complete with carnies. But, they were giving out Wiis as prizes......We also stopped in at the Monte Carlo Casino. At first, we didn't know if they would let us in, since we weren't high rollers, but we got to go into the slot machine room. We collectively put in 5 euros and took turns pulling the handle. My first gambling experience! And we lost. Yoann played on his own and won 6 euro though! Big money!!!!!!!

Then it was on to Italy. The drive there was through mountains and really twisty turny. Then when we got to Florence, it was even worse. ITALIANS! They are crazy drivers. There was so much traffic and no one cared about lanes. It took us maybe 45 minutes to drive one km. Yoann nearly had a heart attack (I did too). Of course, Marie-Claire decided to nap right as we got into the city, so we had no idea where we were going. It was a tense moment. Luckily, we found the hostel, got the car parked, and everyone was happy (ish, Yoann was still kinda stressed). We ate some pasta, and then walked around the city at night. Florence is such a beautiful city. The bridges, the churches, the statues! There's this statue/fountain of a boar that your supposed rub for good luck and put money in its mouth, which we all did. I think it worked, because I feel pretty lucky to be here :)

We did more wandering the next day, included going up to the top of this hill which gave a great view of the city. Leah, Larissa, and I went on a search for Leah's perfect boots, but it was unsuccessful. Instead, we just went into Chanel and pretended to be fancy. The one weird thing about Italy is that they have a cover charge in restaurants. So, not only are you paying for food, but you're paying to just be there. It was annoying. But the food is good, especially the tiramisu, so no worries. We did get ripped off (those italiens, ils profitent de la situation...) because we're tourists and don't know the language. We bought gelato, thought we were getting the 3 euro cups, only to be charged SIX EURO afterward. Yeah. Boooo. Thats-a lame-a itaaaalia. We were all exhausted so we went back to the hostel (which had free wi-fi and breakfast btw) and watched How I Met Your Mother on Cody's laptop.

Florence from above

Yummmmmmmy tiramisu

Final stop: Lyon. We drove the next day through the Alps and I saw my first REAL MOUNTAIN! I was super excited. We stopped at a gas station and took pics. My host family says I need to try skiing, which I've never done. If it means I get to touch a mountain with snow on top, I'm in! The mountains were just so beautiful. We got to Lyon pretty late, just in time to watch some Simpsons Halloween (in French) because it was Halloween after all, get some dinner, and then the Americans (Yoann slept) headed out to our dear friend, Sirius, the riverboat dance club. It was a ridiculous evening, to say the least. Leah and I sandwiched a random man, we all spoke in awful Italian accents the entire evening, and we danced home through the streets of Lyon. A fitting way to end the trip I'd say.

We got back to Rennes on Sunday and ate a really good dinner chez Yoann. His mom made chili con carne, which just makes me want some Mexican food! It was sad to end the trip, and after being with everyone for an entire week, it was really weird to get home and be by myself! Leah and I had a test the next day at school at 8:15AM (Merci, Guillaume Marbot....), which I probably did awfully on. Who knows a cheese that comes from the Alsace? Not me...

Since the road trip.....

I got back my first test. 15/20, not too bad! Leah said it transfers back as an A, so I'm pumped! Its actually been a lot of tests lately, I had one in history Thursday that was pretty much my only legit test since its about facts and dates, not just "what sort of roof do houses in the south of France have?" I think I did pretty well on it too, knock on wood. Its also been a week of birthdays! Thursday was Lucile and Leah's birthdays (Lucile = 6, Leah = 21). It was pretty hilarious because Leah was more excited for her birthday than Lucile. I had to remind Lucile that it was her birthday! So, on Thursday, Agathe and I dressed up in coats and hats and scarves and brought the cake upstairs to surprise Lucile. Agathe pretended she was a delivery person, and Lucile thought it was pretty funny. I got her some jewelery and her parents got her a chalk/marker board on an easel. She immediately opened the easel and started drawing! After dinner chez moi, I met up with Leah and Co. They were out for dinner at this nice pizza place. I showed up just in time to see them bring out this ice cream dessert with a giant sparkler! The birthday girl decided it was obligatoire to wear party hats, so we all were birthday-ed out. After dinner, we hung out at Mad Ave on Rue de la Soif, played some shoulders, had random Frenchies come up and wish Leah happy birthday (we were seated next to the bathroom, so it was a high traffic area). Some guy in a silver sequence cowboy hat tried to convince Leah that it was a rule to get naked, and he took off his shirt to prove his point. Leah still said no. We went dancing after, and they played JUMP AROUND! Of course, Leah, Larissa, Steph, Cody, and I were the only ones in the whole club who know what it was. We freaked!!!!!!! Made me miss Madison so much.

Yesterday was another birthday, this time Agathe, my other host sister. She turned 13 (teenager wooo!!!!). During the day, Leah, Larissa, and I went to Mont Saint Michel. Its this crazy island Abbey that's well protected by the tides. We went with our school, and my architecture professor was our guide. Somehow, she has access to places that aren't necessarily open to the public. She told us that now we know Mont Saint Michel better than most français because we've seen more than the average person. We got to climb up to the VERY TOP of the abbey, which was awesome! You could see all around. It was a climb though, up a winding spiral staircase and then a narrow stone one up way way way high. We also saw a second church for the 11th century that people don't get to see either. Visible in this church is a section of wall from the first church on the island, built in the 8th century, that pilgrims used to have to touch before being allowed to enter the big cathedrale. And, of course, Leah and I couldn't resist. We touched the wall too. The only problem was the weather! It was bizzare. It was sunny out. Then all of a sudden, it would pour and pour. Then 10 minutes later, sun. Then HAIL! Yes, hail. Then rain. Then sun. Then wind. Then sun. Etc etc etc. My feet were freezing the whole time. But it was definitely a neat place, pretty incredible to see. There's something magical about it.

From high above Mont Saint Michel

Shadow of the mountain

MSM VIPs!

For Agathe's birthday dinner, we ate raclette. Its sooooooooo delicous, and somehow all French people have a raclette set at home. Its basically just potatoes and cheese and charcutrie, and you melt the cheese over everything. Sooooo good. We also had cake (my second gâteau of the week), so by the end of the meal, I was about ready to explode! Agathe got a radio from her parents to put in her room and I gave her a gift card to H&M. I think she had a good birthday.

Quick last thing: I'm going to Budapest to visit Allison, my roommate from freshman year in two weeks!!!!!!! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!