Sorry about not updating more regularly. Thankfully I keep a journal so I don't forget anything and you don't miss out on anything.
January 4th-10
My first week back from Spain, I was sick and tired so I basically just laid around trying to get better. I think all my traveling and partying across Spain had finally caught up to me. It snowed Monday night (January 4th) so all my classes were canceled for the week, so I basically had another week of vacation, which worked out great for me because it gave me time to lay around and get healthy again. It actually snowed a couple of times during the week, which is why my classes kept on getting canceled. I got to love the french for their inabilities to deal with even the littlest sprinkling of snow. The reason France shuts down when it snows is because it usually only snows once every 5 to 6 years and only a light sprinkle that melts off in two days, so they never bother to buy snow plows and salt. This year has been a weather anomaly with it snowing multiple times and lasting for more then a couple of days. I'm beginning to think global warming is a myth ;) During the first weekend back (January 8th-10th) Leidy had a Colombian friend who's living in the south of France (along the French/Spain border) come to visit. Unfortunately, since I was sick I didn't really get to do anything with them, but they did cook up an awesome Colombian dinner for me one night.
January 11th-14th
Monday night Leidy and me went to the local cinema and watched a french comedy with Dany Boone called "Micmacs A Tire-Larigot". I'm really not that big of a fan of french films, in fact Leidy flat out refuses to go and watch anymore, because we never enjoy them. This one was suppose to be a comedy, but honestly it was rather depressing and really strange. On Tuesday I started Spanish lessons with Leidy. So I'm hoping my Spanish will be pretty good by the time I head to Spain with Dad in April. We had a new roommate move in on Thursday. He's only going to be staying on Thursday nights (like our other roommate that we never see) and he has a car so he always drives us to the good/big grocery store on the other side of town to do our shopping. He's the sports teacher here at the school. For his first night in the apartment we cooked him a dinner (its not very often that we get to host people for dinner) and got to know him.
January 15th-17th - Weekend trip to Angouleme
Friday afternoon Leidy, Caroline (a Colombian friend of Leidy's who works as an assistant just north of Poitiers) and me went to Angouleme. Normally I take the train but this time we tried out a thing called "Co-voiturage" which is basically like couchsurfing, but with cars. Its a website to find someone that's headed to the same town as you and you catch a ride with them. Its a lot cheaper than the train and you get to make new friends. Friday night their was a house party at the boys' place so we all hungout there. I turned in around 2am (that's early in Europe) and headed to Michaele's house where I was staying for the weekend. Saturday morning Michaele and me spent the morning gossiping and catching up, before I headed into town to meet up with the other girls for a bit of shopping. Unfortunately I was the only one in the group that actually likes shopping, so it wasn't that enjoyable :( In the evening I met up with a friend from last year named Brittney and her husband Alex at a new bar that just opened up in Angouleme. We had a few drinks and caught up, before they retired for the night and I met back up with Leidy and Caroline. We were suppose to go to the boys' house to meet up with everyone, but we decided to head out to Kennedy's Irish Pub instead. About 30 minutes after we arrived at the bar, everyone from the boys' house (~15 people) decided to join us. I guess the party just follows me where ever I go :P We all stayed at the bar until it closed at 2am. Fortunately the owner of the bar loves me, so I asked her if she could call over to the club "La Moon" to get us all in for free. She made the call and the huge group headed to the club (normally the guys don't go out to the clubs with us because they don't want to pay to get in, but I worked my magic and everyone got in for free so we were a huge possy). Our numbers slowly started to dwindle around 3:30am, but Leidy, Caroline, Roman, Benoit and me kept dancing until the club closed a little after 5am. We returned to the boys' house but didn't sleep. We ended up staying up even later playing a "word association" game in french (its where someone says a word and you have to find a word that is similar, but not to closely related for example: if I say 'church', the next person might say 'religion' and the following person says 'crusades'). Anyways, it was a very long night like usual in Angouleme (ha! and I had originally planned on turning in early Saturday night) ;P Sunday morning we woke early (surprisingly enough) and Nalleli, Roman and I headed into town to find an open boulangerie (bakery) to buy croissants and pastries for breakfast for everyone. After our communal breakfast, Nalleli, Leidy, Caroline and me headed to Misty's house to visit and catch up before meeting up with our "co-voiturage" driver, who drove us back to Poitiers, thus ending our enjoyable weekend in Angouleme.
January 18th-24th
Monday was spent in Chauvigny like usual. Eric, the science teacher who drives us back and forth between the towns on Monday, has decided to have me give english lessons to his little daughter. So I'll be making a little extra money on the side tutoring. In the evening I was struck with a "bonne idee" (a good idea). When we'd driven from Spain to France we had stopped at the border and loaded up with cheap alcohol, which we had yet to consume. So around 11pm I was extremely bored and offered a glass of vodka and orange juice to Leidy. Pretty soon our "one glass" turned into one liter of Vodka. We stayed up all night drinking until 5:30am just chatting, watching YouTube videos, trying to learn the dance to the Thriller music video, etc (basically just being silly drunks). Unfortunately the next day my "bonne idee" didn't seem so great anymore. Leidy had class at 8:30am and ended up going to class with only 2.5 hours of sleep and still completely intoxicated. Fortunately my first and only class of the day wasn't until 4pm, but it still wasn't a very pleasant class since I was hungover and not feeling that awesome (I ended up releasing the kids 10 minutes early so I could return home and recuperate). Thursday there was a STRIKE in the schools so my classes were canceled! Leidy and me decided to go into Poitiers for the day and do some massive "Soldes" shopping. The "Soldes" are the time of year when all of France goes on SALE because they are trying to get rid of all of last years/seasons designs/collections. I don't think Leidy realized what she had volunteered herself to go through when agreed to go shopping with me (which is why my friends in Angouleme refuse to go with me, because they know I'm a hardcore shopaholic and they aren't that into it). First we hit up every store and I mean EVERY store just looking at what they had and prices, then we returned to the stores where I'd found things that I liked and tried everything on. Leidy had never seen anything like it as I walked into a changing room with 20 articles and end up leaving with half of them (she thought she'd bought a lot when she'd only purchased 3 little things and a pair of boots, I dropped around 200 euros!). We literally shopped all day from when the stores opened at 10:30am until around 6pm. After I finished shopping we met up with a couple of assistants who work in Poitiers for a coffee before heading to the train station to catch a ride back to Montmorillon. Ahhh, its amazing how a much better a little "retail therapy" can make you feel. Friday morning I ended up having a new group of students in my 2nde class (that's about the equivalent to juniors in high school). The are really great and actually try to speak in english, so I really like the new group, except there are a few students in it that are always hitting on me which is not only embarrassing, but extremely uncomfortable. Leidy was suppose to be heading to the south of France to see a friend and go skiing for the weekend but she was not feeling well so she ended up staying the weekend in Montmorillon with me. Saturday I hungout at the apartment cooking all day (shrimp, yum!) and in the evening Leidy and me went to our favorite bar here called "Le Buvard" to watch a live pop/rock band play. I randomly started talking to some french people at the bar and they invited us to go drink at their table with them. Yeah!! We finally made some french friends in Montmorillon!! We're all planning on getting together after the vacation and going to a club together. So I'm looking forward to hanging out with some new people. Sunday was spent cooking again. Beef egg drop soup: Success!
January 25th-31st
Monday I worked in Chauvigny like usual. One of the english teachers asked if I'd be willing to work more than my contract of 3 hours if they paid me more, I said "OF COURSE!" Tuesday my class was canceled because they were having a test, so I started a thorough cleaning and reorganizing of my room. Wednesday Leidy and me visited the 'Salon de The' (The Tearoom) for some tea and cake in the afternoon after my classes (we hadn't visited since before Christmas break and we were starting to have withdrawls). In the evening I made fish for dinner, yet another success in cooking. Thursday I made egg drop soup: success (did I mention that I've been doing lots of cooking lately?). Our new roommate took us shopping and then made us supper, which was very nice of him. Since he's the sports teacher he's offering to let us take a woman's self defense class that he's teaching in the evenings and he's also set up a workout machine in the living room for us. Yes! During the weekend Leidy left to go to Angouleme to see the Bande Dessinee, which is a huge comic book convention. I went last year and decided I'd rather stay in Montmorillon for the weekend, since I'll be in Angouleme next weekend to see Pamela and Celine who are flying in from Scotland and Switzerland to see us all. I didn't do much over the weekend except organize everything for my trip to Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Other than that, just a lot of cooking :)
I'll try to write again soon. Loveya! xxx
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Roadtrip: Spain to France Photos
Adrian, Marion and Yapunkie crashed out during the drive
Beto driving and Kevin giving directions
View of the countryside as seen out the back window of the camping car
Beto and me in Toulouse watching Avatar in our "cool" 3D glasses
Yapunkie and me in Toulouse watching Avatar in our "cool" 3D glasses
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Month of November
Sorry for the long delay between posts. Basically I haven't written anything about what I've been up to since I arrived back from my excursion to northern Europe, so here's the 411 on November.
During the weekdays
I've explained before that Montmorillon is a very small town, so there is not much going on and there isn't much to do. So my weekdays all seem about the same. They are filled with teaching, preparing lesson plans, grocery shopping, watching tv, reading, wandering around the town exploring and running basic errands. I've been living very cheaply this month, because I spent all my money for the month on my trip to Norway and Sweden...oops.
Cooking
I've started cooking regularly because its something to do to fill my evenings. Don't get me wrong, I still suck at cooking and all my food tastes horrible, but occasionally I prepare something that is eatable. Leidy's mom owns a catering/restaurant business in Columbia so she's been instructing me on how to prepare different types of food. If it wasn't for Leidy I'd be eating really unhealthily and probably only sandwiches, but she's always cooking up something delicious and we always share what we prepare (I think I'm getting the better end of the deal, because my food is awful). So I've been eating lots of Columbian food specialties.
Writing a book
I've also began writing a book/novel to fill my free time. I never saw myself as a novelist writer (maybe a travel writer, but not a novelist writer), but I got an idea for a book stuck in my head and the more I've tried to ignore it the more it develops in my head and consumes my thoughts. So I decided it was necessary to write it out so it gets out of my head before I go crazy (I hope this isn't how all writers feel). In order to start writing my novel I've had to do a lot of research like "how to write a book". I've never written a book before so I had to research how to start and what to do, hints and tips, etc. I've also been doing historical research like studying up on the history of my town because that's where the book takes place. Studying life in medieval times, studying the history and legends surrounding old documents and scrolls, the history of the old buildings in Montmorillon, black market trading, etc. Its like a huge research project.
Weekends
The weekends in Montmorillon are a little more interesting. Leidy and me usually go to the cinema in town and watch whatever movie is showing, our friends come to visit from different towns, and we go out to the bars or have a dinner and a movie night and Sundays tend to be the day we thoroughly clean our apartment after a trip to the "Salon de The". Yes, it is a bit boring sometimes and not nearly as fun as last year, but I'm saving a lot more money, by not shopping and going to clubs all the time . And we do have a good time organizing little excursions like picnics by the river and concerts at the bars.
Tea Room / Salon de The
Leidy and me have started a tradition of visiting our local "Salon de The" (Tea Room) every Sunday for tea and cake (Marie Antoinette would be proud). Its a charming little place that's located at the entrance to the "Medieval City". There's a terrace to drink your tea on that overlooks the Gartemps River and gives a perfect view of the medieval city (but since its fall/winter we tend to stay inside where its warm). The inside is filled with plush, dainty, comfortable couches and armchairs. Doilies on tables and a cat that lounges around and will plop down on your lap for the duration of your stay. Needless to say its very girly and feminine and owned by a very chic, friendly british lady with a horrible english accent on her french. The proprietress is always organizing little events at the cafe, including a speed dating night that she insists that we go to (we agreed we'd go simply because its a great way to practice our french and meet new people).
Visitors
We had two friends visit us in November. The first one was a mexican spanish assistant during the weekend of the 13th-15th. Saturday night we all went to "Le Buvard Pub" and watched the band "Las Vargas" play again. I really enjoy going to their concerts, because the music is very good (50s rock) and they have a following that always dress-up and dance like they are at a sock hop. So we spent the night twisting (dancing) the night away and then went star gazing in the large soccer field next to our apartment. The weekend of the 20th-23rd Nalleli came to visit (Nalleli is one of the assistants from last year from Angouleme). We had a blast together. We started the weekend off with a mission. "Twilight 2: New Moon" was playing at the cinema in Poitiers in ENGLISH (not french), so we made it our mission to watch the movie in Poitiers. You see last year in Scotland Nalleli and me watched the first Twilight movie together and we took an oath to see the second Twilight together in english too, even if it meant flying to London for a weekend. But since it was playing in Poitiers in English, it wasn't necessary to fly to London (saving us a lot of time and money). Unfortunately our first two attempts were foiled. We originally planned on going Friday night, but Nalleli realized she had to give a tutoring lesson Saturday morning so her arrival in Poitiers was delayed until Saturday (attempt 1: FAILURE). We both arrived on Saturday afternoon ready to see the movie, but then realized that there wasn't a bus that would take us back to Montmorillon if we stayed to watch the whole movie. I tried to find a friend that we could stay the night with in Poitiers but to no avail, so we ended up missing the movie again (attempt 2: FAILURE). Finally Sunday we caught a bus into Poitiers and watched the movie (attempt 3: SUCCESS), I guess the third time is the charm. Stupid bus schedule. We were literally running from the bus station to the cinema to make it to the movie in time. The movie was even more horrible then the first one (Nalleli and me both thought it was extremely amusing that we knew the movie would be awful like the first one, but it was absolutely worth all the trouble we went through to see it), we giggled and made fun of the movie the entire way through it and left the theater laughing at all the work we went through to see such a terrible movie. Nalleli stayed until Monday and went to work with me in Chauvigny and we walked around the old castle ruins between my classes before she caught a bus back to Angouleme. We had a great weekend together. We even slumber partied, because even though we have an extra bedroom and bed she decided we should slumber party so we took the mattresses off the beds and stayed up gossiping and watching movies like little pre-teens.
Beaujolais Party
The Saturday after Thanksgiving (28th), Leidy and me decided to have our own little Beaujolais Party. Beaujolais is a type of very sweet, cheap, awful wine. Its a french tradition to throw Beaujolais parties during the month of November, but since we don't know very many french people we didn't get any invites to the parties this year :( . So we decided to throw our own. It was kind of an impromtu party because we'd walked to HyperU to buy groceries (which is on the opposite side of town) and I'd seen some beaujolais and explained the holiday to Leidy, pretty soon we'd bought a couple of bottles, along with a bunch of different types of cheese and sausage for an "apero" (apero=appetizer and wine party). We stopped for some fresh baguettes on the way home to accompany our cheese, sausage and wine. We started on our drinking and celebrating right away and pretty soon had finished a couple of bottles of wine between us, so we headed out the door to a bar that was having a band play. Unfortunately we arrived late (11pm and the show started at 9pm), so the band was just finishing up. But that was okay, because nobody was there and they were playing modern country like Leann Rimes, so I could definitely do without having to listen to that. So we finished our beers before heading to our favorite bar "Le Buvard Pub". Its located in the heart of the Medieval City, below the old Cathedral. We sat in the back area which is really cool because its like a cave, because the walls are made of rock/stone (the building is built into a cliff, so the back wall is actually the stone cliff). We had a few more beers before calling it a night and stumbling and singing our way back home. For it being just the two of us all the time, we sure do have a lot of fun when we go out.
So that basically sums up what I did during the month of November. I'll write again...soon??? We'll see ;)
During the weekdays
I've explained before that Montmorillon is a very small town, so there is not much going on and there isn't much to do. So my weekdays all seem about the same. They are filled with teaching, preparing lesson plans, grocery shopping, watching tv, reading, wandering around the town exploring and running basic errands. I've been living very cheaply this month, because I spent all my money for the month on my trip to Norway and Sweden...oops.
Cooking
I've started cooking regularly because its something to do to fill my evenings. Don't get me wrong, I still suck at cooking and all my food tastes horrible, but occasionally I prepare something that is eatable. Leidy's mom owns a catering/restaurant business in Columbia so she's been instructing me on how to prepare different types of food. If it wasn't for Leidy I'd be eating really unhealthily and probably only sandwiches, but she's always cooking up something delicious and we always share what we prepare (I think I'm getting the better end of the deal, because my food is awful). So I've been eating lots of Columbian food specialties.
Writing a book
I've also began writing a book/novel to fill my free time. I never saw myself as a novelist writer (maybe a travel writer, but not a novelist writer), but I got an idea for a book stuck in my head and the more I've tried to ignore it the more it develops in my head and consumes my thoughts. So I decided it was necessary to write it out so it gets out of my head before I go crazy (I hope this isn't how all writers feel). In order to start writing my novel I've had to do a lot of research like "how to write a book". I've never written a book before so I had to research how to start and what to do, hints and tips, etc. I've also been doing historical research like studying up on the history of my town because that's where the book takes place. Studying life in medieval times, studying the history and legends surrounding old documents and scrolls, the history of the old buildings in Montmorillon, black market trading, etc. Its like a huge research project.
Weekends
The weekends in Montmorillon are a little more interesting. Leidy and me usually go to the cinema in town and watch whatever movie is showing, our friends come to visit from different towns, and we go out to the bars or have a dinner and a movie night and Sundays tend to be the day we thoroughly clean our apartment after a trip to the "Salon de The". Yes, it is a bit boring sometimes and not nearly as fun as last year, but I'm saving a lot more money, by not shopping and going to clubs all the time . And we do have a good time organizing little excursions like picnics by the river and concerts at the bars.
Tea Room / Salon de The
Leidy and me have started a tradition of visiting our local "Salon de The" (Tea Room) every Sunday for tea and cake (Marie Antoinette would be proud). Its a charming little place that's located at the entrance to the "Medieval City". There's a terrace to drink your tea on that overlooks the Gartemps River and gives a perfect view of the medieval city (but since its fall/winter we tend to stay inside where its warm). The inside is filled with plush, dainty, comfortable couches and armchairs. Doilies on tables and a cat that lounges around and will plop down on your lap for the duration of your stay. Needless to say its very girly and feminine and owned by a very chic, friendly british lady with a horrible english accent on her french. The proprietress is always organizing little events at the cafe, including a speed dating night that she insists that we go to (we agreed we'd go simply because its a great way to practice our french and meet new people).
Visitors
We had two friends visit us in November. The first one was a mexican spanish assistant during the weekend of the 13th-15th. Saturday night we all went to "Le Buvard Pub" and watched the band "Las Vargas" play again. I really enjoy going to their concerts, because the music is very good (50s rock) and they have a following that always dress-up and dance like they are at a sock hop. So we spent the night twisting (dancing) the night away and then went star gazing in the large soccer field next to our apartment. The weekend of the 20th-23rd Nalleli came to visit (Nalleli is one of the assistants from last year from Angouleme). We had a blast together. We started the weekend off with a mission. "Twilight 2: New Moon" was playing at the cinema in Poitiers in ENGLISH (not french), so we made it our mission to watch the movie in Poitiers. You see last year in Scotland Nalleli and me watched the first Twilight movie together and we took an oath to see the second Twilight together in english too, even if it meant flying to London for a weekend. But since it was playing in Poitiers in English, it wasn't necessary to fly to London (saving us a lot of time and money). Unfortunately our first two attempts were foiled. We originally planned on going Friday night, but Nalleli realized she had to give a tutoring lesson Saturday morning so her arrival in Poitiers was delayed until Saturday (attempt 1: FAILURE). We both arrived on Saturday afternoon ready to see the movie, but then realized that there wasn't a bus that would take us back to Montmorillon if we stayed to watch the whole movie. I tried to find a friend that we could stay the night with in Poitiers but to no avail, so we ended up missing the movie again (attempt 2: FAILURE). Finally Sunday we caught a bus into Poitiers and watched the movie (attempt 3: SUCCESS), I guess the third time is the charm. Stupid bus schedule. We were literally running from the bus station to the cinema to make it to the movie in time. The movie was even more horrible then the first one (Nalleli and me both thought it was extremely amusing that we knew the movie would be awful like the first one, but it was absolutely worth all the trouble we went through to see it), we giggled and made fun of the movie the entire way through it and left the theater laughing at all the work we went through to see such a terrible movie. Nalleli stayed until Monday and went to work with me in Chauvigny and we walked around the old castle ruins between my classes before she caught a bus back to Angouleme. We had a great weekend together. We even slumber partied, because even though we have an extra bedroom and bed she decided we should slumber party so we took the mattresses off the beds and stayed up gossiping and watching movies like little pre-teens.
Beaujolais Party
The Saturday after Thanksgiving (28th), Leidy and me decided to have our own little Beaujolais Party. Beaujolais is a type of very sweet, cheap, awful wine. Its a french tradition to throw Beaujolais parties during the month of November, but since we don't know very many french people we didn't get any invites to the parties this year :( . So we decided to throw our own. It was kind of an impromtu party because we'd walked to HyperU to buy groceries (which is on the opposite side of town) and I'd seen some beaujolais and explained the holiday to Leidy, pretty soon we'd bought a couple of bottles, along with a bunch of different types of cheese and sausage for an "apero" (apero=appetizer and wine party). We stopped for some fresh baguettes on the way home to accompany our cheese, sausage and wine. We started on our drinking and celebrating right away and pretty soon had finished a couple of bottles of wine between us, so we headed out the door to a bar that was having a band play. Unfortunately we arrived late (11pm and the show started at 9pm), so the band was just finishing up. But that was okay, because nobody was there and they were playing modern country like Leann Rimes, so I could definitely do without having to listen to that. So we finished our beers before heading to our favorite bar "Le Buvard Pub". Its located in the heart of the Medieval City, below the old Cathedral. We sat in the back area which is really cool because its like a cave, because the walls are made of rock/stone (the building is built into a cliff, so the back wall is actually the stone cliff). We had a few more beers before calling it a night and stumbling and singing our way back home. For it being just the two of us all the time, we sure do have a lot of fun when we go out.
So that basically sums up what I did during the month of November. I'll write again...soon??? We'll see ;)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Stockholm, Sweden
Sorry for the long delay, but here is the 411 on the remainder of my trip to Stockholm, Sweden. I arrived in Stockholm on Monday November 2nd at 9:40 am. I had to take a long bus ride from the airport to the actual city of Stockholm so I didn't check into my hostel until around 11:30 am. This is the first time I've traveled without my Lonely Planet guide (I'd ordered one, but it didn't arrive in time) so I had absolutely no idea what there was to do or see in Stockholm. So I immediately got on a computer at the hostel and began researching what I should do while I was there. I found directions to the tourist information center and quickly made my way in that direction. I grabbed some brochures and maps and bought a 24 hour "Stockholm Card" which gives you free access to museums and public transportation, then headed to the old part of town (the island of "Gamla Stan") where the Royal Palace (aka the Castle of Tre Kronor before it burned to the ground and was rebuilt) is located. Along the way I strolled by the Opera house, Jacob's Church, an outdoor ice skating rink and the National Museum. The island of Gamla Stan is one of the oldest parts of the city and the most beautiful. When crossing the bridge to access the island the first thing you see is the royal palace. The Royal Palace is the largest royal palace in the world with 608 rooms that are regularly used today. Next to the palace is Storkyrkan, the Royal Cathedral of Sweden. Inside the cathedral is the famous statue of "St. George and the Dragon" (which is now one of my favorite statues I've seen). After taking a look around inside the Cathedral I found a cafe across the street from the Nobel Prize Museum and sat down for something to eat and to look over all the brochures I'd gotten from the Tourist Information Center. By the time I left the cafe it was already dark. Normally I try to be back to my hostel by the time its dark when I'm traveling by myself, but since it was only 4:30pm (it gets really dark, really early) I finished wandering around the island before making my way back to the hostel. At the hostel I met an Aussie and a bunch of Belgians. We all ended up staying up until around 2 am chatting. I've decided that I like staying in hostels more than CouchSurfing. Not that I have a problem with couchsurfing, but you meet so many more people when you stay in hostels and you can choose who you want to hangout with or if you don't want to hangout you can be left alone and not feel obligated to mingle and talk.
Tuesday November 3rd was a beautiful, sunshiny, warm day. The perfect day to take a boat ride around all the islands that make up Stockholm, but I read the time schedule wrong so when I arrived at the docks there were no boats leaving :( I had planned to come back later to take a different boat, but I never made it back to the docks. Instead I traversed through the streets of Gamla Stan again in order to visit the island of Sodermalm where the famous (and free) "Stockholm Stadsmuseum" (city museum) is located. The museum was alright. One floor had old black and white photos of Stockholm back in the old days and the third floor had the Swedish film history. So there were tons of old props and costumes from Swedish films and around 12 small theater rooms each showing a different Swedish film with English subtitles. It would have been a good place to visit and hideout if the weather had been nasty, but since it was so nice out I didn't stay long to watch any of the movies (I needed to take advantage of the good weather while it lasted). The island of Sodermalm is located on a cliff that overlooks all of central Stockholm so I walked around the old ramparts and through the neighborhood which is described as the "coolest neighborhood jammed with up-and-coming boutiques and galleries and hip cafes and bars...trendy with indie cool and old-school shab" which I think sums it up pretty good. After finishing walking around the island I met up with one of the Belgian boys for a cafe and then we went ice skating at the outdoor ice skating rink in Kungstradgarden (I hadn't ice skated in a long time and never on an outdoor rink before, but it was a blast). On the way back to hostel we stopped at a grocery store to grab some supplies to make dinner at the hostel. That night I ended up staying up late again (around 3 am) talking with a whole new bunch of people (mainly Australians and a few Belgians I'd met the night before and a gorgeous blond haired blue-eyed Swedish hottie).
Wednesday November 4th was my last day in Sweden and by far the coldest day of my trip. It actually was snowing a good part of the day and the wind was howling. Good thing I hadn't used my 24 Stockholm Card yet. I spent the day popping in and out of museums and taking the public buses to get around thanks to the Stockholm pass. The first place I headed to was the island of Djurgarden in order to visit Skansen and the Vasamuseet. Skansen is actually the world's first "open-air museum" which means I was stuck walking around outside in the snow for the first part of the morning. It basically consists of a bunch of old Swedish structures like farm houses, stores, schools and houses from the late 1800s and early 1900s. It also has an aquarium and zoo with reindeer and other Swedish wildlife. I didn't spend to much time there because it was freezing cold, snowing and most of it was closed because I was visiting during the off-season (normally you can enter each of the buildings and look around to see what the insides looked like). After I finished looking around Skansen, I headed to the Vasamuseet (Vasa Ship Museum) which houses a huge war ship that was built in 1628 and sunk on her maiden voyage. This was my favorite museum I visited in Sweden. The boat was retrieved from the sea in 1961 and is almost entirely intact. It looks like it belongs in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie (but they'd have to rename it Pirates of the Baltic Sea). I spent a long time wandering around this museum. They had two theaters that showed different movies (one on theories surrounding why the Vasa sank and another on the history/resurrection/reconstruction of the ship). There were also six floors to the museum each showcasing different things, like items found on the ship, the history of the boat, what life was like for the sailors, who were the people who died when the ship went down (they actually found around 15 skeletons on the ship and they studied the bones to find out what type of life they'd led and they also did facial reconstructions to find out what they looked like...pretty interesting), etc. After the Vasa museum I headed to the National Museum. It was pretty weak for a "national" museum. It lacked a lot of really famous artists and artwork, but they were having an exhibition on Caspar David Friedrich which was quite excellent. I'd never seen his work before, but I really liked it and I think dad would too (you should check him out dad and maybe gets some prints for the house). He paints what they call "nature animated", but what I call scenery pictures. From there I visited the Moderna Museet on the island of Skeppsholmen which was having an exhibition of Salvador Dali's works. I'd never liked Dali's work before (mainly because I don't understand modern art very much), but each painting had explanations for the work and I am now a huge fan of Dali's work. The rest of the museum sucked, but Dali was awesome and well worth the visit. By the time I left the museum it was dark and cold, so I headed back to the hostel and hung out with a whole new group of people who were all Erasmus students studying in Amsterdam ("Erasmus" means that they are Europeans studying and going to college in countries that are not their native country, which is really common in Europe).
Thursday November 5th was a very long day of traveling. It started by walking to the train station first thing in the morning to take a long bus ride to the Stockholm airport, then a flight from Stockholm to Paris then the metro to the Paris train station, then a train from Paris to Poitiers, then a bus to Montmorillon and finally I had to walk 30 mins to my house. So my day of travelling started at 7am and finished around 10:30pm. Not a very fun day, but I did buy the Dan Brown book "Digital Fortress" so that helped make the voyage a little more bearable.
I'll post the pics and try to write again soon. XOXO.
Tuesday November 3rd was a beautiful, sunshiny, warm day. The perfect day to take a boat ride around all the islands that make up Stockholm, but I read the time schedule wrong so when I arrived at the docks there were no boats leaving :( I had planned to come back later to take a different boat, but I never made it back to the docks. Instead I traversed through the streets of Gamla Stan again in order to visit the island of Sodermalm where the famous (and free) "Stockholm Stadsmuseum" (city museum) is located. The museum was alright. One floor had old black and white photos of Stockholm back in the old days and the third floor had the Swedish film history. So there were tons of old props and costumes from Swedish films and around 12 small theater rooms each showing a different Swedish film with English subtitles. It would have been a good place to visit and hideout if the weather had been nasty, but since it was so nice out I didn't stay long to watch any of the movies (I needed to take advantage of the good weather while it lasted). The island of Sodermalm is located on a cliff that overlooks all of central Stockholm so I walked around the old ramparts and through the neighborhood which is described as the "coolest neighborhood jammed with up-and-coming boutiques and galleries and hip cafes and bars...trendy with indie cool and old-school shab" which I think sums it up pretty good. After finishing walking around the island I met up with one of the Belgian boys for a cafe and then we went ice skating at the outdoor ice skating rink in Kungstradgarden (I hadn't ice skated in a long time and never on an outdoor rink before, but it was a blast). On the way back to hostel we stopped at a grocery store to grab some supplies to make dinner at the hostel. That night I ended up staying up late again (around 3 am) talking with a whole new bunch of people (mainly Australians and a few Belgians I'd met the night before and a gorgeous blond haired blue-eyed Swedish hottie).
Wednesday November 4th was my last day in Sweden and by far the coldest day of my trip. It actually was snowing a good part of the day and the wind was howling. Good thing I hadn't used my 24 Stockholm Card yet. I spent the day popping in and out of museums and taking the public buses to get around thanks to the Stockholm pass. The first place I headed to was the island of Djurgarden in order to visit Skansen and the Vasamuseet. Skansen is actually the world's first "open-air museum" which means I was stuck walking around outside in the snow for the first part of the morning. It basically consists of a bunch of old Swedish structures like farm houses, stores, schools and houses from the late 1800s and early 1900s. It also has an aquarium and zoo with reindeer and other Swedish wildlife. I didn't spend to much time there because it was freezing cold, snowing and most of it was closed because I was visiting during the off-season (normally you can enter each of the buildings and look around to see what the insides looked like). After I finished looking around Skansen, I headed to the Vasamuseet (Vasa Ship Museum) which houses a huge war ship that was built in 1628 and sunk on her maiden voyage. This was my favorite museum I visited in Sweden. The boat was retrieved from the sea in 1961 and is almost entirely intact. It looks like it belongs in a "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie (but they'd have to rename it Pirates of the Baltic Sea). I spent a long time wandering around this museum. They had two theaters that showed different movies (one on theories surrounding why the Vasa sank and another on the history/resurrection/reconstruction of the ship). There were also six floors to the museum each showcasing different things, like items found on the ship, the history of the boat, what life was like for the sailors, who were the people who died when the ship went down (they actually found around 15 skeletons on the ship and they studied the bones to find out what type of life they'd led and they also did facial reconstructions to find out what they looked like...pretty interesting), etc. After the Vasa museum I headed to the National Museum. It was pretty weak for a "national" museum. It lacked a lot of really famous artists and artwork, but they were having an exhibition on Caspar David Friedrich which was quite excellent. I'd never seen his work before, but I really liked it and I think dad would too (you should check him out dad and maybe gets some prints for the house). He paints what they call "nature animated", but what I call scenery pictures. From there I visited the Moderna Museet on the island of Skeppsholmen which was having an exhibition of Salvador Dali's works. I'd never liked Dali's work before (mainly because I don't understand modern art very much), but each painting had explanations for the work and I am now a huge fan of Dali's work. The rest of the museum sucked, but Dali was awesome and well worth the visit. By the time I left the museum it was dark and cold, so I headed back to the hostel and hung out with a whole new group of people who were all Erasmus students studying in Amsterdam ("Erasmus" means that they are Europeans studying and going to college in countries that are not their native country, which is really common in Europe).
Thursday November 5th was a very long day of traveling. It started by walking to the train station first thing in the morning to take a long bus ride to the Stockholm airport, then a flight from Stockholm to Paris then the metro to the Paris train station, then a train from Paris to Poitiers, then a bus to Montmorillon and finally I had to walk 30 mins to my house. So my day of travelling started at 7am and finished around 10:30pm. Not a very fun day, but I did buy the Dan Brown book "Digital Fortress" so that helped make the voyage a little more bearable.
I'll post the pics and try to write again soon. XOXO.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Oslo, Norway
Friday October 30th I arrived in Oslo, Norway after a very long journey from France (trains, metros, planes, buses and more buses in order to reach my destination). I got into town rather late or at least it seemed late because the sun hadn`t been shining for a while (there`s not very much daylight here, but I really hope to be able to see the Northern Lights while I`m this close to the Arctic). I took a bus from the Oslo city center in order to meet up with Ellen (the couch surfer who`s hosting me while I`m here), we dropped my stuff off at her apartment and then we walked back to the city center in order to meet up with some other couch surfers. We all ended up going back to Ellen`s and making pizza and having a few mixed drinks (strawberry sherbert blended with vodka and russian schwepps...very good) before heading out to the opening of a club in Oslo. Ellen is well known on the Oslo nightlife scene and gets us VIP passes into elite clubs and openings, so it was pretty cool. We didn`t stay out too late though (we were home by 2am) because I wanted to get some site seeing done the next day and the other couchsurfers had an early morning flight to catch.
Saturday October 31st HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Halloween is by far my most favorite holiday whether I`m dressing up to go to a party or sitting at home watching Halloween movies and handing out candy to the little kiddies. I woke up early even though I`d been out moderately late and commenced my day by grabbing an energy drink and a cinnamon roll at a cafe around the corner from where I`m staying. From there I walked into the city center. First stop of the day the Oslo "Opera House" which is located along the water front and is architecturally really awesome to look at (you can also climb to the roof and take amazing photos of the port). From there I went and visited the "Akershus forstress and castle" and watched the changing of the guard in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier. After that I visited a few museums like the "Film Museum" which showed the history of film making (from the telling of stories on cave walls to the first optical toys to the 1920s hollywood cameras to present day). It also had a small theater in order to watch short ten-minute norwegian films (I watched one called "Ackornet" the Squirrel in english which was very good). I also visited the privately owned museum of "Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art" which was having a showcase of Nate Lowman`s work. I`m not usually that into art museums (especially not modern/contemporary art, I just don`t get it), but this one showed a movie of the artist explaining the meaning behind the works so it actually made it quite interesting. I also visited the National Gallery and was introduced to the artist Gude and (I forgot the other one`s name so I`ll have to look it up again) who I really liked and they painted realistic scenery pictures. The gallery also held one self portrait of my favorite artist Van Gogh, a couple Manets and Picassos and Degas. I did lots of walking around (in fact I only walked everywhere like usual) and saw the Royal Palace, the City Hall (where people recieve the Nobel Peace Prize, they currently have an exhibit of Obama there, since he most recently won the award), the National theater and lots of places. I returned home around 5:30pm because it was already getting dark and also I needed to get ready for the Halloween partys.
This year for Halloween I dressed up as a 1920`s flapper girl (think Great Gatsby style, I`d read that book in the spring, which is what gave me the idea). Ellen dressed up as Edie Sedgewick and her friend went as Andy Warhol (they looked exactly like them too) and Johanna (Ellen`s roommate) dressed up as Ziggy Stardust (her makeup was awesome). Ellen is friends with the host of the Norwegian tv show American Idol, which they call over here "the X-factor". So she is basically the Ryan Seacrest of Norway. Anyways we stopped by her Halloween house party for a while before heading to another Halloween party at Johanna`s university and then we went to club called "the Living Room" where we were on the VIP list (Ellen had called ahead and put us on the list) so we got to use the VIP entrance and get right in even though the line was forever long. We hung out there for a while before calling it a night (I couldn`t stay out to late, because I still had a lot of site seeing to do especially since I only have 2 full days to see all of Oslo). I had an awesome Halloween!!
Sunday November 1st: it was very hard to wake up this morning and get going, but I did. I had the motivation of only one more day in Oslo and a bunch of fun museums to go visit, so I rolled out of bed, got dressed, headed to the cafe for an energy drink then made my way by bus to the Kon-Tiki Museum.
The Kon-Tiki museum both enthralled my imagination and ambition, but at he same time saddened my spirit a little. The museum is a dedicated biography of an explorer/adventurer/zoologist named Thor Heyerdahl who would prove his theories by testing them out himself. So in the first half of the 20th century he went on many adventures including building a raft of paper (papyrus like ancient the egyptians boats) and sailing across the Atlantic in it (the egyptians always said the boats would sink after 51 days or something like that so they never dared the journey out to sea, but Thor believed it would actually be possible and he proved that it could have been possible). In the 1940s he also built a raft out of balsa wood that was constructed like how the ancient civilization of Peru used to build them to prove that the peruvian could have been the first inhabitants the Polypolisean Islands. It was a success. The reason that he`s both inspired and saddened me is that I now would very much like to visit Easter Island (which he helped build to its current granduer), but I`d also like to undertake some kind of heroine operation like that, but have no idea what (which is what saddens me, I feel like all the world has been explored and discovered already in every way).
After the Kon-Tiki, I visited the museum that holds "The Polar Ship FRAM" which was a large ship used to try and reach the North Pole of the arctic circle. They failed miserably, in fact no one has ever even come close to making it to the North pole, the closests they`ve ever got was to the 86 degree latitude 14 degree longitude. The building exhibited a lot of information on attempts to reach the North Pole and also explore Antarctica (which made me really excited to go and work in Antarctica for a while, which is on my list of things to do in the next couple of years). The ship the FRAM is actually inside the building and I was able to walk around inside of the ship and see what it would have been like for the men who went on the voyage (they were out to sea of over three years, part of that time frozen and unable to move the ship until summers came).
After that I visited the Viking Ship Museum, which house the remains of three old viking ships that were used as funeral boats. Then I took the bus to the Vigeland Sculpture Park which is famous for having tons of sculptures. I really liked it. There is a bridge that is covered with statues of naked people engaging in normal human activity (I don`t mean that in any sick/perverted way at all, were in Norway, not France ;) I`ll make sure to post pictures in the next couple of days so you can see what I mean. I think Amanda would really have liked it because the statues reminded me of the "Willow Tree" sculptures that Amanda collects (except without clothing on). By the time I finished looking around the park it was getting dark and really cold (it had been really cold all day, but I`d been inside visiting museums so it hadn`t been that bad) so I caught the tram back to Ellen`s. I wake up really early tomorrow in order to walk to the bus station, take a bus to the airport and then a plane to Stockholm. So the next time I write it will be from Sweden. LoveYa. Ciao!
Saturday October 31st HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Halloween is by far my most favorite holiday whether I`m dressing up to go to a party or sitting at home watching Halloween movies and handing out candy to the little kiddies. I woke up early even though I`d been out moderately late and commenced my day by grabbing an energy drink and a cinnamon roll at a cafe around the corner from where I`m staying. From there I walked into the city center. First stop of the day the Oslo "Opera House" which is located along the water front and is architecturally really awesome to look at (you can also climb to the roof and take amazing photos of the port). From there I went and visited the "Akershus forstress and castle" and watched the changing of the guard in front of the tomb of the unknown soldier. After that I visited a few museums like the "Film Museum" which showed the history of film making (from the telling of stories on cave walls to the first optical toys to the 1920s hollywood cameras to present day). It also had a small theater in order to watch short ten-minute norwegian films (I watched one called "Ackornet" the Squirrel in english which was very good). I also visited the privately owned museum of "Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art" which was having a showcase of Nate Lowman`s work. I`m not usually that into art museums (especially not modern/contemporary art, I just don`t get it), but this one showed a movie of the artist explaining the meaning behind the works so it actually made it quite interesting. I also visited the National Gallery and was introduced to the artist Gude and (I forgot the other one`s name so I`ll have to look it up again) who I really liked and they painted realistic scenery pictures. The gallery also held one self portrait of my favorite artist Van Gogh, a couple Manets and Picassos and Degas. I did lots of walking around (in fact I only walked everywhere like usual) and saw the Royal Palace, the City Hall (where people recieve the Nobel Peace Prize, they currently have an exhibit of Obama there, since he most recently won the award), the National theater and lots of places. I returned home around 5:30pm because it was already getting dark and also I needed to get ready for the Halloween partys.
This year for Halloween I dressed up as a 1920`s flapper girl (think Great Gatsby style, I`d read that book in the spring, which is what gave me the idea). Ellen dressed up as Edie Sedgewick and her friend went as Andy Warhol (they looked exactly like them too) and Johanna (Ellen`s roommate) dressed up as Ziggy Stardust (her makeup was awesome). Ellen is friends with the host of the Norwegian tv show American Idol, which they call over here "the X-factor". So she is basically the Ryan Seacrest of Norway. Anyways we stopped by her Halloween house party for a while before heading to another Halloween party at Johanna`s university and then we went to club called "the Living Room" where we were on the VIP list (Ellen had called ahead and put us on the list) so we got to use the VIP entrance and get right in even though the line was forever long. We hung out there for a while before calling it a night (I couldn`t stay out to late, because I still had a lot of site seeing to do especially since I only have 2 full days to see all of Oslo). I had an awesome Halloween!!
Sunday November 1st: it was very hard to wake up this morning and get going, but I did. I had the motivation of only one more day in Oslo and a bunch of fun museums to go visit, so I rolled out of bed, got dressed, headed to the cafe for an energy drink then made my way by bus to the Kon-Tiki Museum.
The Kon-Tiki museum both enthralled my imagination and ambition, but at he same time saddened my spirit a little. The museum is a dedicated biography of an explorer/adventurer/zoologist named Thor Heyerdahl who would prove his theories by testing them out himself. So in the first half of the 20th century he went on many adventures including building a raft of paper (papyrus like ancient the egyptians boats) and sailing across the Atlantic in it (the egyptians always said the boats would sink after 51 days or something like that so they never dared the journey out to sea, but Thor believed it would actually be possible and he proved that it could have been possible). In the 1940s he also built a raft out of balsa wood that was constructed like how the ancient civilization of Peru used to build them to prove that the peruvian could have been the first inhabitants the Polypolisean Islands. It was a success. The reason that he`s both inspired and saddened me is that I now would very much like to visit Easter Island (which he helped build to its current granduer), but I`d also like to undertake some kind of heroine operation like that, but have no idea what (which is what saddens me, I feel like all the world has been explored and discovered already in every way).
After the Kon-Tiki, I visited the museum that holds "The Polar Ship FRAM" which was a large ship used to try and reach the North Pole of the arctic circle. They failed miserably, in fact no one has ever even come close to making it to the North pole, the closests they`ve ever got was to the 86 degree latitude 14 degree longitude. The building exhibited a lot of information on attempts to reach the North Pole and also explore Antarctica (which made me really excited to go and work in Antarctica for a while, which is on my list of things to do in the next couple of years). The ship the FRAM is actually inside the building and I was able to walk around inside of the ship and see what it would have been like for the men who went on the voyage (they were out to sea of over three years, part of that time frozen and unable to move the ship until summers came).
After that I visited the Viking Ship Museum, which house the remains of three old viking ships that were used as funeral boats. Then I took the bus to the Vigeland Sculpture Park which is famous for having tons of sculptures. I really liked it. There is a bridge that is covered with statues of naked people engaging in normal human activity (I don`t mean that in any sick/perverted way at all, were in Norway, not France ;) I`ll make sure to post pictures in the next couple of days so you can see what I mean. I think Amanda would really have liked it because the statues reminded me of the "Willow Tree" sculptures that Amanda collects (except without clothing on). By the time I finished looking around the park it was getting dark and really cold (it had been really cold all day, but I`d been inside visiting museums so it hadn`t been that bad) so I caught the tram back to Ellen`s. I wake up really early tomorrow in order to walk to the bus station, take a bus to the airport and then a plane to Stockholm. So the next time I write it will be from Sweden. LoveYa. Ciao!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Venice Verte
Venice Verte, Coulon
Venice Verte, Coulon
Venice Verte, Coulon
Venice Verte, CoulonOn Tuesday Leidy and I caught an early morning bus to Poitiers for the second half of the language assistant "stage". This time instead of going over documents and making us fill out a lot of paperwork they were training us on how to teach a class and prepare lesson plans. Needless to say I was extremely bored again. I already knew all this stuff, because I'd taught last year (of course I had to change my teaching style a little because I'm working with older students this year) and I'd already spent hours researching it all on the internet. The teachers constantly had us break up into pair work and come up with lesson plans. I seem to have a natural talent for coming up with things to do. People actually told me after we finished that my students are lucky to have an assistant like me in their classes (some actually told me they wished they worked with me, because I have all the best/creative ideas), go figure I'd be really good at something I don't really care about (I have absolutely no intention of becoming a teacher, although I might stay a language assistant for a few more years so I can do some more travelling...I'm thinking Asia next...). After the "stage" a few of us went out for a few drinks and tried out some new bars before catching our buses and trains home.
Wednesday I found a message in my teacher cubby hole stating that I was to meet the bus outside the school the following morning at 8:30am. I was at a total loss. Had I volunteered to be a chaperone and if so what for?? The teachers usually talk to me in french and I always think I understand everything, but then something like this occurs and I think I've missed something very important during one of our conversations (or maybe they'd just asked me a while ago and I'd forgotten). I went to one of my classes and tried to play it cool by asking nonchalant questions to the teacher about the field trip, but apparently they weren't nonchalant enough because she quickly caught on that I had no idea what was going on (I don't know what gave me away all I did was ask a few questions like do I need to pack a lunch with me). Thankfully I hadn't forgotten about the field trip, I'd just been volunteered and no one had bothered to tell me until the day before. That's France for you. But no complaints here. I free trip to another town, full of fun/free activities and they call this a job.
So bright and early Thursday morning I eagerly waited in the front of the school with 50 students standing around me (25 french and 25 british, it was some weird exchange thing they have set up with a town in England, the brits get hosted here for a week and the french are hosted in England for a week). I think I was looking forward to it more than the students even though I still had no idea where we were going. Once aboard the bus the teachers quickly filled me in what the plan was and where we were going. We spent the day in a town north of Niort called Coulon, also known as the "Venice Verte" or "Green Venice". Basically the area was built on huge wetlands/marshes so a bunch of monks in the 1300s decided to start building canals everywhere to take control the marshes. Now there are canals throughout the countryside, which why its called the "green Venice" because its in nature and not the city. We started our day in Coulon with a little walk and then a trip to a museum that showed us a video on the history of the region and some other displays about the region. After the museum we had a picnic in a park and then walked to a place called the "embarcadero" where we climbed into some boats and went floating around on a guided tour of the canals. It was very beautiful and tranquil. After the boat ride the Embarcadero provided us with some samples of the regional foods. All in all it was a very pleasant, relaxing day even though I had to share it with 50 students.
I had one class on Friday and then my two weeks of paid vacation commenced. YIPEE!! Since the start of vacation I've basically spent my time wandering around Montmorillon exploring all the streets and planning my vacation to Norway and Sweden. Yep, you read right I'm headed to Northern Europe for a week. I'll post my itinerary online here soon. Friday night Leidy and me checked out a band that was playing in one of the bars in town and it was really good, although really quite funny to me. The band was dressed as greasers and playing 50's rock music, but the best part was that the songs were all old american songs and the lead singer was singing them with a french accent which kind of sounded as if bugs bunny was singing the song. I was trying really hard not to laugh, but I couldn't help myself (thankfully no beer sprayed out of my nose). The band was great and they seem to have a following because the bar was packed with people dressed in 50's outfits (it was like something out of the movie crybaby) including little kids (who apparently are allowed in bars in France, I even saw one of them drinking). Monday night we went a saw a french movie called "Les Regrets" which I thought was a comedy because at least that's what it said in the movie listing, but it was a romance (there was no comedy about it, but lots of drama) and it sucked and like all french movies it didn't really have an ending and just kept you hanging. Oh well.
Here's a quick clip of the band that played Friday night. They call themselves Las Vargas. They are singing an oldie the goes "...but Memphis I won't do what my big sister does...". Check out the hair style of the lead singer and the huge cello they use. I actually really enjoyed the music (it made me want to sock hop ;P)
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