DaVinci Code in Nantes?

A coded manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered in a public library in the French city of Nantes.

Cliché : France vue de l’étranger

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Europe Photos

Here's some pictures from my trip to Germany, Belgium, and France this summer...

Dusty's Den (authorized personnel only) in the Atlanta airport

Hanging out in Bremen

Along the Elbe River near Hamburg.

Ducks In Action! in Brugge, Belgium.

And we visited Jill in Kandern, Germany right before leaving - here we are creeping on butt soccer in the gym at the Black Forest Academy.

Une histoire à suspense

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

Cute little French girl! Une petite, mignonne fille francaise!

Le der des ders

Today is the last day here in Nantes, and fortunately it only rained for about an hour this afternoon.

It was in general a very good day - I was able to sleep in, do some last-minute shopping, and send a few postcards.

And see below, I updated my blog by one whole day! Considering the fact that I was running around quite a bit today going out for my last crepes, printing out boarding passes online, saying goodbye to my friends and the IES staff.

I'll be leaving in about 9 hours for the airport - a very early morning for me - then 5 hours at Charles DeGaulle, a two-hour transfer time in Heathrow and I'll be home! I'm so excited to see my family, but since I'll be observing this whole next week in school and my work starts in southern Indiana the 27th, I really don't have a lot of time to be at home. Boo. I know it will be a great summer though and hopefully the blog will keep going and be slowly brought up to date...

Diplomatic Travels

Today Julie and I tried to make the most of our last day in Strasbourg. First, we went to the cathedral again because we both wanted to see the astronomical clock with the movie (it was 1 euro to go again), so we bought tickets early and then kind of walked around for a bit stopping into various papeteries to see if she could find a cool fountain pen for her boyfriend. Unfortunately, many papeteries later, our search was still going.

We then went back and saw the movie again at noon, after which, we headed back to the hostel to rent bikes for the afternoon. We then rode over to the EU sector of Strasbourg and saw all the EU buildings (the human rights building was particularly cool). We also found out you can't get tours unless you're with a group of 25 or more. Booo. I did feel very French riding around on my bike that afternoon though. Yay!

Then we tried to find the Orangerie, but the signs kept leading us in circles and when we looked at the map, we should have passed it numerous times, but it wasn't there. Only later did we find out we were about a block away the whole time! So instead, taking our impeccable map-reading skills, we realized we had 2 hours left on our rentals and had done everything we wanted, so why don't we see if we can bike across the Rhine into Germany? And indeed, we did! The ride was a little dubious at the end with all the industrial parks around and us sneaking by the customs booth on the highway, but we made it, took lots of pictures, and then it started to rain. By the time we made it back to the hostel, both of us were significantly less dry and wind-chafed than before we left. But it was worth it; we biked to Germany!

A Jolly Holiday with Mary!

Today was wonderful! It was just amazing seeing Mary again and being able to pick up like we hadn't not seen each other since last May! We started out the day by almost missing breakfast at the hostel, but a nice guy let us in even though we had technically already checked out and didn't have our keys as proof that we were guests there.

Then we walked over to the island that is the olde towne of Strasbourg and saw the cathedral. We stopped by the tourism office first to grab maps and see if anything cool was going on in the city and then we hiked up to the top of the cathedral (not the very top, because it's being redone, but we were very high up there. It was good weather for that again, so it was great for picture taking and general viewing. Mary and I were able to leave our own special mark in the guestbook of the cathedral tower.

We were able to go and see the astronomical clock for free since it was Sunday but it was only sort of working (the lights went off for a while randomly). It was cool to hear the announcements in French and German.

Then, the plan was for us to go on the riverboat tour, but it was closed for high water, which somehow turned into "haeut Haeuser." Whoops. A small reversal of syllables and combining French and German makes for funny sounding words. Another indecisive lunch followed, but pizza baguettes turned out to be quite delicious.

Also, today was the main filming day for an up-and-coming new feature series on Animal Planet... okay, not really, but Ducks In Action will be a huge success. Especially the special editions.

The afternoon instead of going on the boat tour was spent at the Strasbourg city museum where it was heartily emphasized that Strasbourg has always considered itself an independent city and that the people from Strasbourg are the best ever. Made me laugh.

We then ended up going to Flan's for dinner, which is apparently the place to go for flamenkuche(the sort of creme-based pizza tart) where our neighbors left a few pieces of their dessert banana-chocolate one and since the tables were so close, we were able to sneak a piece.

Then back to the hostel to pick up Mary's bag and check back in for Julie and I (we ended up in the same room as before!) and we went to the Bahnhof together to say goodbye. After much picture-taking, the night train left with Mary safely ensconced in her compartment like in Harry Potter.

Spring Break in Strasbourg

This morning started out bright and early doing last-minute packing before catching the 8h34 train to Strasbourg. Unfortunately I didn't have an assigned seat, so when we got to Angers and lots of people boarded, I was kicked out of my seat only to find one next to a very kind older French woman. Then a little boy that got on the TGV in Le Mans bumped me out of that seat and I ended up sitting in the jumper seats by the toilets for two hours until Julie came and got me to sit by her.

Before, when I was still buddy-buddy with the toilets, we had to pull into the CDG TGV station because somehow the radio transmitter on our train fell off or was swiped off by a vengeful tree we went by.

Well, we got into Strasbourg around 2pm and met Mary! It was so great to see her and we had such a good time catching up! She had been in the city since 7 that morning, so she was able to show us the way to our hostel pretty quickly. After checking in and dropping off all our stuff, we just went out and walked around. The weather was lovely and sunny the entire afternoon. We found a cool old covered bridge that spans the River Ill (yes, as in sick) that used to house syphillus patients. (I think the pun is quite funny.) Then we saw the old part of the city with all of the half-timbered houses, called "Petite France," and eventually found ourselves wandering closer and closer to the suburbs. A strangely difficult period of trying to figure out what to eat followed, but we compromised and found a lovely place that wasn't too expensive but still offered traditional Alsacian food. We got something called "rognons" covered in a mustard sauce with fries on the side and a pizza sort of tart. The rognons looked like either solidified pate or funny little sliced mushrooms. Turns out rognons = kidneys, but we didn't find that out until a few days later. Even if the taste was questionable at times, it's good to be adventurous and try new food!

Granola is good, but crunch time is not

Excusez-moi for my long absence from the blog. This week has been a little busy what with spring break starting tomorrow and my last real paper due Wednesday. There was much researching going on and I haven't even been online to talk to people at home for a while. But now my self-deprivation and crunch time are over!

In other news, scheduling is tonight at midnight, so I'm going to see if the wireless stays up that long...if not, I suppose I can send one of my friends my info and see if they can schedule for me. A catch though: do I take German or French next fall? Technically, my major is finished here, but I really do want to take another French class before student teaching. However, I do need to finish my German minor and the only times Curriculum and Instruction is offered is during my French and German classes - so I must make a choice. Booo bad scheduling.

I got my TA job back for next fall as well, so things seem to be working out! I just need to finish my essays for my camp counselor application.

Cheesy Noodle Bake!

It's Friday!!! And two of my papers are done! I only have two more - one is due this Wednesday, the other is due May 5th. Today was very relaxing and fun - grammar, then a quick trip to Laurel's house with her, back to IES for lunch, and then off to the apartment for some fun times. My host mom is in Paris this weekend, so Laurel came over to keep me company, with the permission of my host mom of course.

We ended up sharing basically all our music, which took a few hours, and then we went downstairs to the Marche U and got food for dinner - cheesy noodle bake! Mmmm - I'd forgotten how good cheesy pasta is. While we ate dinner, we watched Mission Cleopatra, the Asterix and Oblelix movie from about 4 years ago - it was really funny! I liked it better than the newest Asterix movie, and it really is as good as everyone says it is. Then we also watched Enchanted, again. It was that good. And the second time around, I noticed more references to the other Disney princess movies - they were quite creative and you had to really look for some of them.

Double-spacing saves the day!

After the art paper, I took a night off and went to bed around 9ish Tuesday. But then Wednesday arrived and I realized my Middle East paper was due today. So, I got some books from the library and worked on it a bit last night and then went to bed early, got up early this morning, and was at IES a little before 8am. Then the real work began and I worked on revising and adding information to my paper until 11:30am, when class started. Phew! I think my paper was alright though, the Crisis of Suez has a lot of information and there was no way I could limit it to 4 pages, double-spaced. Instead, it ended up being around 6 1/2 pages, double-spaced, a little long, but comparatively short to my Art History paper and some other people that wrote close to 12 pages.

Now a short break between paper writing Friday and Saturday and back to the grind on Sunday. Then break starts next Friday, April 12th and mom is coming on the 21st! Yays!

German Expressionism shall haunt me no more!

My art history paper is done! I have never enjoyed and hated a paper more at the same time before. And that was not supposed to rhyme.

This paper was crazy - 8 pages, single-spaced, no margins. In French, no less. It was a lot, but the good thing was there is a lot of information on German Expressionism and I was able to include small jpgs of the paintings I referenced within the document, so it made it look longer, even if it wasn't actually.

Thankfully, it is finished. Only now I have to write a 4 page (double-spaced!) paper on the Suez Canal Crisis of 1956 for Thursday and then another paper on my favorite French, Catholic theologian for Religion next Wednesday. That one should be very interesting to write, especially since I'm not Catholic. Hmm... I must ponder this subject....

Even more good news is I recieved my first ticket from die Deutsche Bahn in the mail yesterday! At least I know I'll be able to get from Strasbourg to Ansbach and I guess we'll see if I'll get the other ticket and be able to get back!

Spring Ahead!

This weekend was officially the time change to "heure d'été" or "summer time" in France. Yays. Actually, not yays because I have an 8am on Monday, make that body-time a 5:30am wake-up alarm and a 7am class. Boo. Also boo to my unproductiveness over the weekend as far as my devoir à la maison is concerned. I'll just have to really buckle down tomorrow and research, type, and work. I also saw "Astérix et les jeux olympiques" this weekend with my host mom - it was a little hard to follow sometimes with all the puns, but I did get some of them and it was very entertaining with lots of cameos by famous French singers, atheletes, and other celebrities.

Yays for Julie and me finally finalizing our Germany plans for the first week of Spring break! We're going to Strasbourg (which I realize is not actually Germany) for 4 days and I'm going to see Mary there! Many, many, many yays!!! Then we're going to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (which is actually Germany) for 5 days (one day will be spent in Ansbach visiting where Julie's family is from) and then we split up and Julie heads to Zurich to visit her sister and I'm off to Strasbourg and then Paris to meet up with my mom! More yays! Yays for us figuring out how to work the Deutsche Bahn website and more yays for us booking our hostels for all except one night, which is currently in negotiations with the hostel reception.

In all, there is very much to be thankful for, not including my non-motivationalness. Which reminds me, I should maybe get to work. Perhaps. Possibly.

Ele-fun!

Today after my second grammar midterm (How can you have two midterms? Does that mean there are two middles of the term?), I hung around IES basically procrastinating and doing some intense Spring break planning with Julie. We booked everything except our hostel for Rothenburg ob der Tauber and our return trains. I am sooo excited about this trip to Strasbourg and Germany and especially because we're taking trains! It is my absolute favorite form of transportation and there's no stress like there is with airports and flights. You also get to see the countryside and towns as you go, it's very relaxing and just nice all-around. Hopefully by the end of this weekend we'll have the loose ends tied up and everything will be taken care of.

In the meantime, Julie and I were busy planning, eating lunch, and then we went over to Les Machines de l'Ile with about 20 other IESers and rode the elephant. It was so cool, literally. It was soo windy today! But the elephant was ele-fun and we all had a great time even if it did take 45 minutes to go what would take me 10 mins to walk. I'll try and upload some pictures or a video soon!

Hamburgers, how I missed thee

Today was a little less long than yesterday (no hanging around at IES until 10:30pm anyways) and I didn't really get any work done (I am going to bemoan that this weekend when I have to write 3 papers), but it was fun and worth it!

This morning class; this afternoon, class. Then after grammar, I went with Julie to Monoprix and bought lots of yummy food and a bottle of Bordeaux, went back to her house and started cooking. There were 5 of us there and it was so fun just to get together, cook, and speak English! We made real, American-style burgers and it was delish! We also had salad, cheese, baguettes, tater tots, and an apple tarte I helped make. Just thinking about all the good food has my stomach grumbling. Mmmm.

And since I don't have class until 2pm tomorrow, I'm sleeping over and sleeping in. Woot.

Les Visiteurs

Today was the first day of classes this week! How nice to have only 4 days of classes. On the other hand, a three-day weekend before meant my govt. professor went a little loopy apparently, because he showed up randomly today and we had class. He didn't tell anyone what was going on, so I was just sitting upstairs, getting ready to go grocery shopping when Molly ran in and told me we were having class right then. Goodness.

Then tonight there was a shorter than usual conversation club and we had snacks afterwards (my Babybell cheese had a purple bracelet in it). And then we watched Les Visiteurs with about 20 people who decided to stay. It's kind of a cross between Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Back to the Future - yes, it is as strange as it sounds. It was quite funny though and I enjoyed it.

3-day Weekends Should Have a Theme Song

Well, since I haven't written since my uber-exciting Thursday, I shall cover both Friday and today in this special-edition 2-for-1 blog post.

Friday was just as exciting as Thursday. Except.... I finally, finally, finally saw Enchanted!!! Woo! My host mom and I watched it together last night and it was sooo cute! I am now on an extreme Disney kick and listened to lots of Disney music last night before falling asleep.

Today, I slept in a little (first Saturday in about 2 weeks I've been able to do that) and then went and met Laurel at Commerce for a little store browsing. We ended up walking over to Bouffay and the pet store again. (The crazy chipmunk was still there and this time I had my camera so I was able to take a movie.) Then we went to the cute discount shoe-store and I bought a replacement pair of black flats for the pair that is pretty much worn out from all the walking I do in them here. We walked up rue de Calvaire and all the fancy shops there and then shopped for a bit at Monoprix getting dinner food. We caught the 51 back to the apartment, met up with Julie, and just hung out for a while talking, listening to music, and watching some sbmail - Strongbad makes me laugh. Then we watched the Matrix (so much for my Disney kick) and had some lovely sandwiches that my host mom had made (so much for the dinner food we bought too - I'll just use it for lunch next week). We also had a super-yummy dessert, a kind of no-bake rose-rum cake covered in melted dark chocolate. Mmmm. It was a good way to end the day.

What I've Learned

Since today was a little boring, I will not be writing about my wonderful time in class, but rather a small list of things I've learned (some serious, some funny) so far here in France:

- Boulangeries in the same neighborhood take turns being open on Sundays

- nothing is open after 9pm except bars, restaurants, and movie theatres

- small children are the same everywhere

- so are middle school students

- the French aren't cold in person, just very particular about their privacy

- the French know cheese

- and bread

- if you walk fast and look like you know where you're going you may get asked for directions. many times

- the cutest shoes are in Europe

- scarves aren't just a fashoin statement (like the cute, European shoes) but a necessity

It Takes Two...

...days for me to come up with something to write in my blog apparently. Well, after St. Patrick's Day, I had my religion class Tuesday morning and then I was supposed to make up a class ahead of time with my govt. professor (he'll be gone for a conference for a week in April) and after 15 minutes of waiting, we sent our class rep up to talk to the director of our program. She called our prof, and it turns out he forgot completely - after reminding us many times Monday night! How silly. Oh well, it just means we'll have to make up class later, right? Then that afternoon following my art class, I went out with two girls for hot cocoa at an "American-style" cafe - aka it's a lot like Starbucks, but incredibly, even with the exchange rate of $1.57 to a euro, still cheaper! I also bought stamps so I was busy last night and this morning writing letters and of course, decorating them with my treat to myself, markers.

Today I had the lovely experience of being showered in brown vinegar and mustard in the IES kitchen. And I had clean jeans on too - boo. Good thing tomorrow is laundry day. On another note, I am filling in for someone this week at the library and instead of getting 2 hours, I'll be working 5! This is very good news considering the exchange rate right now.

Top o' the morning to ya!

What does an American student in France do to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, you ask? Well, they don't dye their rivers green or anything crazy like that here, but I did wear green today. After many long hours of class, I left translation halfway through to go grocery shopping and also because I had all the work I needed already and the class isn't counting at GCC so I thought for the first time ever I am going to ditch a class. It was a thrill. What was even more of a thrill was finally going to see Juno. I went and saw the version originale with two other IES-ers at the Katorza because this past Saturday, Sunday, and today was "Cinema Weekend" in France - 3,50 euros for any movie, anytime, any movie theatre. We capitalized on that most definitely.

After the movie was over, we walked over to Bouffay together to meet up with some people at John McByrne's, the local Irish pub. It was packed, but in a good way - there were tons of people out on the street and about 5 bagpipers playing, everyone was singing and drinking lots of Irish beer. They were also giving out some prizes like ridiculous shamrock-covered hats. We saw a few Erasmus students from our translation class there and a bunch of French students we've met at conversation club. I didn't stay out too late, mind you, because I have class at 8:15am tomorrow morning. Happy St. Patty's Day!