LIVE from France

Since I have my iPod with me and this new app to write blogs, I figured I'd try writing bits and pieces this weekend as I go. Effectively it's a live blog! Woooo!

I'm on the bus to Bordeaux watching the rain pour down outside (thanks Bretagne). The forecast isn't looking too good, but I'm still excited to see a little bit more of France. From now til mid May it's nothing but travel travel travel...

Also, the bus has started dripping rain on me (thanks Bretagne).

It's funny how music can take you back...trip down memory lane. I'm listening to the Kooks and I can just remember exactly the first time I saw them in concert in Milwaukee. Everytime I listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers I can't help but imagine myself in Jake Edwards' basement junior year of high school. Queen's Don't Stop Me Now reminds me of a certain evening three years ago when I watched the stars from the roof of my high school with some amazing friends. I've decided math is not the international language, it's gotta be music. When you can have French teenagers singing Bob Marley at their friend's house at the same time as a man in Florence plays it in front of El Duomo, and they both play with the same feeling (whether or not they really get the lyrics...), it's pretty cool.

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So. Go France. We arrived in Nantes no problem. Ran into two CIEE kids too! Awesome. Then we notice our train car isn't listed on the board. Hmmmmm. Sali and Eduardo have tickets that make them take buses and other trains. Hmmmmm. They were told there were issues with this train. Hmmmmmm. We asked a worker if there was a problem with the train. "Nope." Cool. We look at the board. No stop at Bordeaux St. Jean. Hmmmmmm. We ask another worker. "I don't know, ask someone else.". Thanks SNCF. We finally got help from a nice little old French lady who told us that part of the line was down due to storms a little while ago. We're taking a train to La Rochelle and getting off. We don't have tickets for all of this but oh well. So, we're just going to have to follow the crowd and hope there's place on the bus at La Rochelle. From there we'll have to ride to some random town and take another train to get down to Bordeaux. Great.

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Currently on the last train of the day, about an hour from Bordeaux. So the SNCF didn't plan for the huge surplus of people needing to take the random train down to Bordeaux because of the rail problems and there aren't enough seats for everyone. Not even close. There are people standing in the aisles, in the doorways...people are pissed. Some guy was yelling about how it's scandaleuse. Way to go SNCF, way to go. Positive thoughts....

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It's Monday and we're heading back to Rennes in about an hour. We have to make the same train bus crazy stuff on the way back. Should be fun. This has been a good weekend, except for the rain. The first day we explored a bit on our own until it was time to meet up with Tristan (Taylor's friend). His roommate made us Iron Chef inspired cheesburgers and we hung out for a bit. Then Tristan took us out to his favorite bar in Bordeaux, Calle Ocho. Him and his roommate have been going there for years, so we got lots of free mojitos and shots up the wazoo. The bar played lots of Latin music and there was lots of dancing. It was a really great time!!!

The next day we went on a little tour of Bordeaux in the rain. It's a really nice town with lots of open green space. It also has the longest pedestrian street in France. The weather cleared up in the afternoon, we ate some cannelé, a traditional snack from Bodreaux and wandered over to La Locale. Tristan is a member of Ultramarines, the fan club for Bordeaux's soccer team and la locale is kind if like their headquarters. It's where they organize andmake banners and such. It kind of reminded me of a frat house basement. From there we went to the game. we were interviewed by some random press dude that ambushed us before we got into the stadium and asked questions about Yoann Gourcuff (about his looks more specifically). I responded with a "he's so sexy!" Maybe i got on the radio lol. There was a great ambience for the majority of the match, a lot of cheers led by the ultramarines and some good soccer. At the end, Nancy scored a second goal and Bordeaux fell apart. They lost 2-1. Sad.

The next day Tristan drove us out to St Emillion which is a town super famous for it's wine. We took a free tour of a wine cave and attempted to have a wine tasting...except I think the owner of this place had been having his own wine tasting all day. He was nuts. The man was speaking some bizarre franglais poured us a little bit of wine and then disappeared. We got ignored for awhile and then just decided to leave. The town itself was super cute and old and cobblestoney. After walking around a bit we left and Tristan showed us his grandpa's winery. It was outin the country and really pretty. Tristan's mom is American so when we went tibia parents house she chatted with us for awhile. It was a nice relaxing day. When we got back to the apartment we watched some CSI and went to bed.

Now it's back to Rennes for three days of school and then off to Brussels on Friday! It's the start of our two week spring break. Wow.
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Happy April Fool's Day/poisson d'avril!

Can't believe its April already.....

Lucile and my best fishy face

Traditions

Tonight I'm going to a fest noz sponsored by the CIREFE, which should be interesting. The last fest noz I went to was a lot of fun, even though I felt like a tool waving my pinkie around and running in circles. For those of you out of the Breton loop, Fest Noz means fête de nuit in French, which means nighttime party in good old English. It's a Celtic tradition from way back in the day, and it involves traditional dancing (ie pinkie holding) and music. Oh, and traditional Breton cider!!! You know Bilbo's birthday party in the beginning of LOTR with all the hobbits running about and making merry? They're kind of like that. Brings out the hobbit in you, I swear.

This weekend Leah, Taylor and I are headed to Bordeaux! We're staying with Taylor's friend and he's getting us cheap tickets to a soccer game!!! He's one of those soccer hooligans and will hopefully teach us all the cheers. Also exciting, our visit coincides with a bunch of other CIREFEers, so a bunch of us will be in Bordeaux together. It should be fun!

This weekend is also the weekend of Easter (Pâques en français). In France, it's not a big friendly bunny who brings kids chocolate, it's a bunch of flying bells. Yep. Bells. I had my mom send me an Easter egg dye kit so my family can dye eggs. They don't do that on France, which I think is a tragedy.

Another funny French tradition: for April fools, kids cut fish shapes out of paper and try and stick them on each other's backs without the person noticing. Lucile's class is planning an ambush on their maîtresse, so she made a huge one complete with stickers and scales.

Being over here has made me really appreciate how into traditions americains are...we know how to do holidays right! Decorations and Christmas carols, Easter eggs, thanksgiving dinner and the Macy Day Parade (that one isn't really france's fault, but I did have two failed turkey day meals attempts here in November)...

But beware: next April Fools, I might just bring this fish idea over the sea...and I'll be pinkie dancing the whole time.


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Life goes on...

So, I've decided its been a little too long since my last update (I made a New Years Resolution!) so here ya'll are.

Last weekend was a CIEE day trip to the south of Bretagne, the land of the mégalithes.  Mégalithes are these giant stones (think Stonehenge) that were left by who ever lived in this area 6000 years ago.  At Carnac, there are around 4 kilometers of these rocks left in rows.  There are no written records left from these people, so no one knows what the purpose of these rocks really was.  They don't line up with the moon or sun like Stonhenge does, and they're actually a lot older (by about 1,500 years).  Word on the street (or French comic books) is that Astérix and Obélix (click to find out more about it) brought the giant rocks themselves.  Obélix, this huge (and I mean HUGE) dude carried them on his back.  I tried to re-create the magic of this idea, but since I was completely out of potion magique, I just pretended to be that strong.

We also visited Vannes, a city by the water that was pretty much the capitol of Bretagne way back in the day (way way wayyyy back).  It was really crappy weather though, so the highlight was eating lunch at an AWESOME crêperie and getting a delicious galette.  Just can't get enough of those things.  We got a tour of the city, saw some people doing a scavenger hunt dressed as leprechauns, tried to stay out of the rain, and then went home.

I'm sensing now is the time for another photo....wait for it.........MONTAGE!!!!!

Vannes

A sign in both Breton and French  

Your everyday, average leprechauns

Hey Hank!!!

Last weekend was also Springtime of Movies (don't really know what to call it), which meant all movies were 3.50 euro!  Leah and I took advantage of this deal and saw La Rafle, a movie about the Holocaust.  In 1942, the Nazis tried to capture 24,000 Jews that were living in Paris.  Thankfully, Parisians were able to help hide about 10,000 so only 13,000-14,000 were actually caught.  But, sadly, out of the 13,000-14,000, only 25 survived.  25.  No children.  All adults.  The film follows the story of several people involved, a Jewish family, a Jewish doctor, a nurse who tries to help them all....it was really well done.  I cried throughout the whole thing...but its a very good movie.  I'd recommend it! 

Also this week, I was very cultured and went to see the Orchestre de Bretagne play at the opéra in Rennes.  Jamie was going with her friend from home who was in town visiting and Leah and I decided to join them.  The opera was a really neat building, all golden and luxurious and opera like, although smaller than I thought.  Our seats were in the front row, which really means front row.  Any closer and I would have been in the violin section.  It was my first time being at an orchestra concert (that I can think of) and I really enjoyed it.  I didn't know that violins did so much plucking and the synchronization of the bows was really cool to watch.  I'd definitely check it out again.  On a cultural experience note that was kind of funny, before the show Jamie wanted to get dinner at around 6h15, which seemed SO early to me (its become such a habit to not eat until 8) and Jamie quickly realized after we made the tour of restaurants, that no where serves dinner until at least 7 here.  Hungry at 6h30?  Subway is pretty much your only choice.  Oh, France.

After the orchestra, Leah and I checked out the "Apéro Géant" that was going on at Colombier.  Apparently there is a competition going on between a lot of cities in the area, such as Nantes and Tours, to see who can throw the biggest party.  Thursday night was Rennes turn to show what they got.  From the headlines I saw, about 4000 people showed up.  When we got to Colombier, there was just this massive crowd of young people hanging out, drinking, smoking, joking around, throwing glass bottles (a Rennes favorite pass time...).  In was sort of like what Mifflin looks like, minus all the cop hugging and general complete absurdity, and instead of a block, its was in a square.  There was a guy juggling fire, lots of people trains, a makeshift pirate ship, and some guys running around with a banner that said "Rue de la Soif is not for sale!" (but in French, obviously...Rue de la Soif is Rennes version of State Street, only smaller, and minus the ethnic restaurants.  Basically just bars.  And some guy in town is trying to buy out the bars to reduce the drinking in Rennes, which has upset the local student population).  Leah and I just kind of observed, ran into our friends Gabriel and François, met some crazy Frenchies who "LOVE AMERICA!" "WISCONSIN!  LIKE THAT 70s SHOWS!?!"  They were very, very nice, and very, very enthusiastic.  But, I wasn't feeling that great (my usual cold...Sophie's stopped force feeding me essential oils and my immune system is getting low), so we headed home pretty early.

Louis' birthday is today, and Lucile and I made the usual preparations.  We made our own card for him with TWO birthday cakes, balloons, and confetti all over it.  We wrapped presents (she searched in her dresser and found a coloring book to wrap up and give him lol) and taped candy to them.  Everything is set!  Tomorrow, he's going bowling for the first time in his life for his birthday party!  11 years, no bowling?  This kid has been missing out.

Other than that, I've just been suffering through school...lots of tests this past week, and I still have 2 more to go (plus a paper and a speech to get working on....).  Ho hum.

Next week, its off to Bordeaux!!!!!  I can't wait.  We're staying with a friend of a friend and we're going to see a soccer game.  This means I'll get to see this lovely man, Yoann Gourcuff, in person:

   
What a stud.  Next weekend also starts my whirlwind travel time (6 weekends in a row in travel, including 2 whole weeks of vacation).  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.  Also, I officially have less than 2 months til I leave.  Tonight at dinner, Lucile asked me if I was coming to Agathe's synchronized swimming gala...Sophie asked "When is it?"  Agathe replied, "In June."  Guess I'm not going.....so weird........time goes by way too fast here.....

Here I am, at the end of a long (3 day), busy (I mean, I did go out for St. Patty's Day), stressful (I took two tests!), exhausting (see St. Patty's Day) week.  Its crazy how fast a week can fly by, especially when you spend part of it traveling.  This past weekend, Leah and I adventured to Barcelona to meet up with her friend Becky and to eat tapas.  It was quite the trek; the trip there took 18 hours, most of which was spent in a train or waiting for a train.  But we travel like pros and therefore had enough energy to see the sights right off the train. 

 

 We started off with some Gaudi buildings (he's a famous architect who designed pretty much all of Barcelone), namely the famous Sagrada Familia and some random houses.  I will say, his stuff isn't boring.  Its covered with (sometimes creepy) statues, very gothic, but cool.  Its one of a kind stuff.  Leah and I got our tapas and sangria fix, and we also all went out to see a Flamenco show.  It was a lot of singing, which I didn't expect, so I really didn't get what was going on for the majority of the time.  The loudness of there clapping really impressed me, along with their furiously stomping feet.

The next day we got some fruit at this crazy huge market and then headed up to Parc Guell, another Gaudi creation.  Its way up on the hill, so you could see all of Barcelona, really really pretty.  Another plus, America's Next Top Model filmed the runway finale with Caridee and Melrose there, so you can strut your stuff just like the pros.  Leah and I definitely did, and we rocked it, if I do say so myself.  It was a really beautiful, sunny day, so it was nice to enjoy the sun in such a picture perfect place.  We also went down to the beach; March is not swimming weather, sadly enough.  I put my feet in and we sat in the sand.  Good enough pour moi.

Barcelona tip:  GO SEE THE MAGIC FOUNTAIN!  I don't care how lame it sounds, it is the coolest fountain show (maybe the only one...) I have ever and will ever see.  Awesome.  I couldn't get enough of it.

Another Barcelona tip of a more non-lame nature:  Go to the Olympic Port for the night life.  So worth it.  Earlier in the evening, we all went to a bar by La Rambla, this giant road with lots of shops, street performers, rabbits and turtles (really.  people were selling them there), and tourist shops.  It was fun, but the bartenders spoke in Spanish to Becky (Leah's friend) and Becky's friends and Leah and I just sat in the corner and commiserated about our lack of comprehension.  Becky and crew headed back to the hostel around one, but Leah and I decided to profite bien of our trip and we went down the the Olympic Port.  Lots of dancing, Spanish bands pretending to be Irish bands, cool St. Patricks day hats, and you didn't have to pay to get into these places!  Perfect.  And lots of fun (we didn't get back til 5 am).

Quick synopsis of the next day:  Lots of climbing up and down hills, more beautiful views, 1992 Olympic Stadium, beaches, soccer game (Barcelona won!  Messi had a hat trick!  I wore my jersey!), sleep.

 The next day we spent in transit, but we finally made it back to France, land of yummy cheese and baguettes, where I understand things and people don't smoke in public buildings (I had to air out my coat and scarves after this trip...).  It was weird not understanding what was being said at all for a couple days and not being able to ask the simplest things....Spanish is not my forte.

Another cultural happening:  ST PATRICKS DAY!  Which is celebrated with much less green and much less enthusiasm than in the US.  I told my host siblings that in the states, if you don't wear green you have to suffer through an entire day of pinches.  Lucile thought this was hilarious until I pointed out the fact that she was wearing nothing but red.  After an assault of pinches from Louis and I, she changed clothes.  It was weird to not see green everywhere you went!  Sophie told me, "That just isn't our thing here...."

Last night, Leah and I grabbed our Leprechaun hats, which we acquired in Barcelona, and headed out.  O'Connells, the big Irish Pub here was the busiest I have ever seen it in my life!  There were people all over Place du Parlement because there wasn't enough room in the bar for everybody, and the line for the bar took FOREVER.  They had a Celtic band playing music and free Guiness gear to hand out, plus the bartenders are legit Irishmen with adorable accents.  Everything you could ever want.  Everyone was in good spirits in honor of good old St. Pat.  It was good to see the Frenchies dress up like silly people and have fun, although it was much less crazy than St. Patty's Day aux Etats-Unis.  We spent the evening having conversations with random Frenchies (although most of them would only speak in English back....).  It was a good time!

Which leads me to a random rant I've been having lately....I'm reading this book for lit class written by a Canadian chick who lives in Paris and half the time she bashes the States (even though she lived there for the majority of her youth)..."I hate being associated with the idea of an 'American in Paris.'" "I hate English.  Americans think everyone should speak English.  They're stupid pigs." (not really direct quotes, but you get the gist).  I HATE when people say that we think everyone should speak English.  I HATE when people complain about America 'taking over the world.'  If people hate English so much, then when I come up them speaking in French, don't speak back to me in English.  If people hate the idea of American consumerism, stop listening to the Black Eyed Peas and start listening to Carla Bruni (who is Italian, but she sings in French, so close enough).  Young French hippies with guitars are everywhere, all you gotta do is go to your nearest parc.  But do they jam out and write songs in French?  Nope.  English.  Even if when they sing it's incomprehensible, whether its because of the pronunciation or the words just don't make sense, they do it anyways.  Its à la mode.  I don't think everyone should speak English (although speaking English is rather helpful when you're, say....in Barcelona for example....and don't speak Catalan or Spanish....), why else would I be making all this effort to speak French, its just frustrating when you can't even really practice it.  As soon as you make a mistake or they hear your accent (which is a telltale sign, most Americans have a very distinct fake French accent....), they switch to English.  Which, oddly enough, is a lot harder to understand than if they just kept speaking in French.....

Anyways.  Thats my complaining for the month. 

I'm off to eat some dinner....à la prochaine yo.

PHOTO MONTAGE!!!!

Pretty awesome...

My motivation for writing this is that I finally found an app so I can write blog posts from my iPod. What will they think of next.

Earlier this week, Leah, Jamie, and I volunteered at a retirement home near my house called Les Roseraies. We didn't really know what to expect and didn't really have any sort of game plan. When we arrived, we met two ladies who were excited to talk to us. One came prepared with an atlas and her first question was "Where are you from?". Amazingly enough, her daughter studied abroad in the US nearly fifty years ago in a wonderful little state up north called WISCONSIN!!!!!!!! Even cooler, she visited her daughter in Green Bay, which is where Leah is from (Bon, she comes from De Pere, close enough). It's rare to meet a français(e) who knows what Wisconsin is, much less meet someone who has actually been there! This lady was pretty crazy, she has been ALL over the world and has the photo albums to prove it. When her kids were all grown up and she was in her retirement, she decided to get out of France and see what was out there. At 66 she became a global explorer. She'd been to China, Alaska, Machu Pichu, India, Serbia, Egypt, Australia, she even went dog sledding in Canada. She's seen all corners of the planet, multiple times. Incroyable. Next Monday she said she'd get some little drinks and we could go through some of her albums. I am excited and extremely jealous!

Rennes is showing signs of spring, namely a little bit of sunshine. I played soccer today and it got me super excited for the warm weather to come!

COUNTDOWN TO BARCELONE: 5 days!!!!!!!!!!!

Bisous!

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Mousse au Chocolat

So, by popular demand of Elise's mom :), here is the world famous recipe that I received from a friend in Strasbourg. It was her mother's recipe, so you know its good!

Mousse au Chocolat
Serves 4 people

Ingredients:
125g of dark chocolate
1 big chunk of butter (directly translated my recipe calls for "One fat nut of butter"....just put in a fairly large slice and you'll be fine)
4 eggs
1 pinch of salt

1. Melt the chocolate and the butter chunk on low heat
(I used the whole "boil water and place another pot in the water" thing that acts like a double boiler)

2. When the chocolate is soft and melted, take it off the stove

3. Separate the egg whites and the yolks (keep both parts!)

4. Mix in the yolks with the chocolate using a wooden spoon (I don't know if the wooden part is all that important, but its the recipe....)

Attention! This part is important: Make sure not to cook the yolks!!!!!! The flame can't be too high when you're melting the chocolate!!!!!

5. Put the chocolate/yolk combination in a medium sized serving bowl

6. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt.

7. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate little by little.

8. Let the mousse sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours, which means you can't eat any of it for at least 3 hours. This is the hardest part....

Et VOILA! Mousse au Chocolat! Hope it works out for you guys!

Side note: I'm messing around with flickr to see if I like it. Here is the site for my pics if you're interested.