Monday February 1st - Sunday February 7th
Monday
I spent the day teaching in Chauvigny like usual. Teaching in another town is a bit of a bother sometimes. First off, I always arrive early at the school because I ride there with another professor who starts teaching earlier then me and then instead of being able to return when I'm finished teaching for the day I have to wait around for our driver to finish teaching too. So basically I spend an entire day from 10am (sometimes earlier) until 5pm at the school even though I'll only have two to four hours of teaching a day. Then sometimes (like today) the teacher has meetings after classes so we end up waiting around for an extra hour or two. Not worth it considering lots of times I only go there to work 2 hours. This evening during the extra two hour wait I did happen to learn a very valuable/embarrassing lesson. Apparently in French you can't say "I'm so excited" because its taken in a sexual context (i.e. that you're sexually aroused/excited). I've been saying this in french (Je suis trop excite) for two years and no one ever bothered to correct me before and explain why you shouldn't say it. Needless to say I said this in front of all my colleagues and afterward turned bright red and was extremely embarrassed after they explained to me the cultural differences with this expression.
Tuesday
I received a care package from dad packed full of goodies and Valentine Day gifts. I was signed up by Jean-Pierre (the CDI teacher) to help with an expo being put together to explain 'Development Durable' in March by a program called 'Lafi Bala' (I agreed to supervise a group of students, but refused to build and give a presentation in french on the topic).
Wednesday
All my classes were canceled for the day because the teachers were once again on strike about something. I gave my first tutoring lesson to Eric's 9 year old daughter Lisa in the afternoon(Eric is the teacher who drives me to and from Chauvigny every Monday). She already knew a lot more english then I had expected so I ended up 'winging' the lesson because the things I'd prepared for the lesson she already knew (good thing I've had a lot of practice at winging lessons). In the evening I made sugar cookies to take with me to Angouleme this weekend. By the time I was finished I was covered in flour. I didn't decorate them however because I wanted to get some decorating ideas off the internet first, but the internet hadn't been working all day. In the evening the internet still wasn't working so Leidy and me watched one of the movies dad had sent me for a Valentine's Day gift and played some card games afterwards (we get so bored when the internet doesn't work in the apartment, what did people do for fun before the age of internet and cellphones? I can't even remember anymore how to entertain myself). I fell asleep reading materials that make me contemplate what I'm going to do in the future for a career (a good read, but always a little stressful/worrying to think about the future).
Thursday
I had an extra class of BTS (post-graduation, similar to community college in the states). It was great to meet a few more people around my age. They invited me to go out with them in the evening to have a drink and play pool and I gratefully accepted. While waiting for the hour of rendez-vous with the BTS I decorated my sugar cookies I'd made the day before, some of them turned out pretty cool. I'll post pics. At the prearranged hour Leidy and me met the students outside the school and they drove us to the bar. Once at the bar I realized that 'billards' is different from pool in the states. The table is a little smaller and so are the balls. There are wierd lines drawn on the table and the balls are yellow and red (not stripes and solids and there are no numbers). I explained to them that I didn't know the 'rules' and they'd have to teach me, which they took to mean 'that I'm a silly american girl and I don't know how to play pool'. Big mistake. They quickly decided that I was a 'pool shark' pretending that I didn't know how to play and then cleaning the table better than the boys. But I explained to them that not knowing the rules and not knowing how to shoot are two totally different things ;) After playing a couple of rounds of billiards the students went home to have dinner and Leidy and me walked to the creperie in the medieval area of town to have a crepe for dinner (these aren't sweet dessert crepes, they are dinner crepes with cheese, egg, potato, meat, etc in them). After dinner we met back up with a couple of the students and we all went to Civaux to go bowling. Civaux is a town nearby where the nuclear power plants are located and the bowling alley is right next to the power plant, literally in the shadow of the two towering nuclear towers.
Friday
I went to my morning classes (extremely tired because we hadn't returned from bowling until around 2am) and then caught a train to Angouleme for the weekend to see Pamela and Celine. In the evening we had a huge slumber party at Misty's apartment with all the assistants from last year (well only the ones who had returned to France). We spent the evening gorging ourselves on food (Celine had brought a lot of Swiss chocolate with her, I'd brought my sugar cookies and Michaele brought a Galette de Roi and Misty made an awesome roasted veggie stew that put all my recent cooking adventures to shame), gossiping, telling each others 'love fortunes' by using playing cards and drinking. I couldn't have asked for a better evening in with the girls!!
Saturday
In the afternoon Nalleli and me did a little shopping and then we met up with Pammy and Celine for dinner at La Cabana mexican restaurant (mmmm, chicken fajitas). After dinner we met up with everyone (around 20 others) at "le Girafe" bar for drinks before going to L'Havana to dance (holy deja vu from last year, visiting all our old haunts). After Havana we headed to Kennedy's Pub, but it was closing for the night so we decided to take the party back to the boys' house where we stayed drinking and dancing until leaving at 4am to walk across town to Misty's apartment.
Sunday
Sundays in France are always lazy and uneventful. Celine had to leave early in the morning to catch a train back to Switzerland. Misty and Kena made us a lunch of tossed greens, garlic eggs and chicken salad accompanied by fresh bread from the boulangerie. We spent the day at Misty's being lazy and gossiping (there's nothing else to do on Sundays, especially when its cold outside). It was Superbowl in the USA, but it didn't come on until midnight in France because of the time difference. I stayed up watching it, but everyone else turned in for the night.
Monday February 8th - Thursday Februay 11th
Monday morning I caught an early train back to Montmorillon in order to see Leidy before she left for her vacation to Italy on Tuesday. I spent the evening with Leidy helping her plan out her itinerary for her vacation. Telling her the best routes to take to see all the sights of Rome and how long it would take, recommended hostels and things to see and do, etc. After she went to bed I stayed up job hunting on the internet trying to find something to do this summer. Leidy left early in the morning on Tuesday and I woke up sick, so the rest of the week was spent getting better before I had to leave on Friday for my vacation to Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Thankfully I recovered quickly and was even able to make some chocolate chip cookies for my vacation ;)
Monday February 22nd - Sunday February 28th
Lots of my classes were canceled for the week (I don't know why and I don't complain) so I only ended up working about 5 hours total. Thursday night there was a kick ass thunder and lightening storm that was awesome. In fact it was storming the entire weekend, which was cool to watch and listen to, but I later learned that it flooded a lot of areas in our region of France and had killed around 40 people and destroyed many houses. We had a 'South American Invasion of Montmorillon' during the weekend. Our friend Yupankie (Brazilian) and Caroline (Colombian) came to visit. We met them at the train station Friday evening and gave them I evening tour of Montmorillon before returning to the apartment for dinner and drinks. Saturday afternoon Liedy gave them a tour of Montmorillon while I stayed at the apartment to clean and take care of a few things. In the evening we made empanadas (a colombian specialty) for dinner and then headed to the bar. Sunday morning I woke up and made french toast and bacon for breakfast for everyone. We spent the afternoon chillin' in the apartment (there was a lot of spanish being spoken so I'd excuse myself occasionally in order to get some things done on the internet and work on planning my April vacation). In the evening Leidy made fried chicken and fries for dinner before our two guests had to leave to catch trains home.
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Monday, March 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
January 2010
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
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
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
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Christmas Vacation
Thursday December 24th 2009 - France
Leidy and me spent the day packing and getting ready for our trip. Then in the evening we caught the last bus from Montmorillon to Poitiers. So we arrived in Poitiers around 9pm. We were catching an overnight train so we still had 2 hours to waste before our train. However our train was a hour late due to the weather, so we sat around for another hour waiting impatiently. Blah. Finally the train rolled into the station at midnight and we quickly boarded, found our beds and nestled in for the night. Leidy went straight off to sleep, but I stayed up reading through my trusted Lonely Planet travel guide for a while planning what we'd be doing once we arrived in Madrid.
Friday December 25th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
Merry Christmas!! Leidy and me woke up with the sun and watched the Spanish countryside slide by. It wasn't how I'd imagined Spain. I'm not quite sure what I expected Spain to look like (maybe a chic Mexico), but what I watched fly by the window was definitely not what I'd had in mind. There were rolling hills with what looked like olive trees covering them. It was very beautiful. We arrived in Madrid around 10am. Milton, Leidy's friend from Colombia, met us at the train station and then we all headed off to the hostel to drop off our bags. From there we grabbed a map and headed to "Plaza Mayor". The plaza has a rich history and the beautiful "Royal Bakery", which is a building covered in intricately decorated murals, but other than that it seems like a huge tourist trap. People constantly offered to draw your portrait for a 'small fee', people were running around in Disney character costumes who charge you money to get a picture with them, vendors were selling souvenirs and junk. When exiting the plaza we took the wrong exit and started heading south instead of west to the Cathedral and Palace. We'd only walked a few blocks before I realized the mistake and we quickly back tracked, but not before finding one of my favorite squares in Madrid, where the building had brightly colored drawings on them. Next stop of the day was "Plaza de la Villa," one of the buildings was where Francois I (King of France) had been held after being captured in a battle and was ransomed back to the French. We ended up at the Cathedral next. Which really wasn't that interesting, because its actually really modern (it was finished being built in 1992), but we checked out the inside anyways and Christmas Mass was being held, so that was kind of neat. Right next to the Cathedral is the Palace. However, since it was Christmas it was closed to visitors, so we snapped some photos and continued on our sight seeing promenade to "Plaza de Oriente" which is a park beside the Palace with a lot of marble statues. Behind the Palace was another park called Jardines de Sabatini which is full of lush, labyrinth gardens with lots of fountains. Once we'd finished our little stroll we started heading back to Plaza Mayor. We found a store along the way and grabbed supplies for sandwiches, then found a bench by the plaza and had a late lunch before heading back to the hostel to catch a couple zzz's before meeting up with my friend Gloria (a Spanish assistant in Angouleme last year that I lived with). We woke up and freshened up, then we went headed out again. We were meeting Gloria at "Puerto del Sol," which is a popular meeting place for everyone so needless to say it was packed. This is also the same square where the Spanish gather on New Years to watch the Gold Ball drop at the stroke of midnight, while eating their 12 grapes. We arrived super early so we choose a road to walk along to see if we could find something to eat. The road we took ended up being "Calle Alcata" which turned out to have a lot of famous sites along it like "Plaza de la Cibeles" which is a huge fountain where the "Real Madrid Soccer" team always gathers and celebrates after a victory, the beautiful "Palacio de Comunicaciones", "Banco de Espana" and ends with the "Puerta de Alcala," which is was built as a 'triumphal gate' (it looks a lot like the bradenburg gate in Berlin). After our walk we headed back toward Puerto del Sol and stopped by a restaurant along the way to eat some Paella, which is a 'must-try' spanish food (specialty rice with some type of meat, I had it with seafood, yum!) before meeting up with Gloria under the 'Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree' which is the symbol of Spain (apparently Madrid used to be full of bears). Gloria took us on a walking tour to the "Templo de Debod" which I found to be really interesting because it is an actual Egyptian Temple that was given to Spain by Egypt (instead of stolen from Egypt like what the Brits, French and Americans did to acquire all the Egyptian artifacts we currently have in museums) when they helped save the Temple of Abu Simbel when Lake Nassar was created by the dam. I actually visited the Temple of Abu Simbel last year and knew all about the history and story behind it, so I really enjoyed this. From there we started heading back to Puerto del Sol via the "Plaza de Espana" on the street called "Gran Via" which is kind of the 'Champs d'Elysee' of Spain. We also passed by a street that is famous for prostitution and was easy to spot because there were girls wearing hardly anything in huge hooker boots. We went looking at Christmas lights for a bit before finding an irish pub for a quick drink and then turned in for the night.
Saturday December 26th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
First stop of the day "Palacio Real de Madrid" (the Royal Palace). When the plans for the palace were originally drawn up it was going to be the largest Palace in the world, even grander than Versailles, but when the King died before completion the plan was thrown out, so the palace only has 2800 rooms. I tagged along behind a english speaking tour group so I actually found out a lot of interesting facts about the palace (and I also now remember why I never pay for the tours, I get bored after a while and wander off). I was glad that I'd shelled out the money to visit the palace, because even though it is much like every other palace I've ever visited (extremely extravagant and over the top) it still had its own 'flair' of extravagances. This palace imparticularly was filled with really amazing clocks. After the palace we decided to grab lunch (we'd been there for 3 hours). I'd read about a cheap little restaurant near Plaza Mayor that I wanted to try, so we headed in that direction and quickly found the little restaurant which is called "100 Montaditos Cerveceria". Montaditos are little bite size sandwiches. We ordered a sampler platter and tried a little of each. After our lunch we headed to "Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reine Sofia" which is a world famous art museum. It holds many famous Spanish artists like Salvador Dali, who is one of my favorite all time painters (he's right up there with Van Gogh in my books) and Picasso (who I'm still not sure if I like his works or not because I like that his works actually make me feel something, but what they make me feel is usually not a very comfortable feeling...if that makes sense). It also introduced me to the works of Jean Gris which I really liked. By the time we finished with the museum it was dark and getting late so we grabbed some dinner to-go as we returned to the hostel to rest before meeting up with Gloria and her friends to spend the night out on the town. Gloria took us to a rowdy, cheap bar to meet up with her friends. This bar was great. Not only were the drinks really cheap and large, they also gave you free food to eat while you were drinking. After hanging out there for a while we all piled into a car and drove across town to a night club that was decorated like a large pirate ship on the inside. We were there until 6am when we finally caught a night bus back to our hostel.
Sunday December 27th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
Needless to say, we ended up sleeping in even though all the museums are free on Sundays (oh well, I wasn't really that bummed to miss them, because I'm not a huge museum person anyways). We finally rolled our hungover butts out of bed around 2pm and then met up with Gloria at 3pm. She took us on a tour of "Parque del Buen Retiro" which was a really busy, lively park full of things going on. We passed by Christmas carolers, some Italian clowns, people playing bongos, magicians, etc. and there were lots of things to see like a massive lake that has a huge monument to Alfonso XII at the end of it, the "Palacio de Cristol" which is a large glass house and the statue/fountain of "El Angel Caido" (The fallen angel; aka lucifer) which is one of the only statues in the world to the devil. After the park we visited "Museo Nacional del Prado" another world famous art museum (Madrid holds 3 of the top ten art museums in the world). Even though this is suppose to be "one of the world's top museums" I wasn't really that impressed, in fact a lot of the works were really 'hit or miss' for me. After that we all turned in for the night. Gloria caught a bus home and Leidy, Milton and me grabbed some dinner before heading back to the hostel to rest (we were all still pretty exhausted from the night before).
Monday December 28th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
We packed up our bags and checked out of our hotel by 11am and then headed to the train station to put our bags into a storage locker. Then we headed back into Madrid to see a few more sights before our evening train to Barcelona. The first place we visited was a square known for its two leaning towers and then off to the "Real Madrid Soccer Stadium". We didn't actually go into the stadium, because there was a really long line and it was really expensive, but we did walk all the way around and watch some kids get busted for smoking pot. Then we jumped on the metro to "Plaza del Toros" which is the stadium where the famous spanish bull fighting takes place. Leidy and Milton are both against bull fighting and think its cruel, but I'd like to see it at least once. Oh did I mention that during the entire trip to Spain I was only talking in French 24/7 so by the end of the day, my brain was always sooooo exhausted. After that we headed back to the Puerto del Sol area to look around in different stores, grab some food (calamari sandwiches, ummm it was delicious) and buy some souvenirs before meeting up with Gloria. Gloria took us out for some real Madrid Hot Chocolate, which she insisted we try before we left. The hot chocolate is actually made from pure melted chocolate so its really strong. We also ordered some churros to dip in the delicious beverage. After we finished our drinks and gossiped for a bit we headed to the train station to catch our train to Barcelona. The train we took to Barcelona was an overnight train, but it only had chairs, not beds so it wasn't that comfortable of a night. Thankfully I've travelled by train like this many a times before so I didn't sleep in my seat, but I snuck out and headed to the Cafe car and fell asleep on a bench laying down instead, so I had a much better night then everyone else (I'd tried to let Leidy and Milton in on the secret of where to sleep, but they had already been sleeping for a while, so when I woke them up and tried to explain to them its better to sleep in the cafe car they were to groggy to understand my french) .
Tuesday December 29th 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
We arrived in Barcelona at 8am, tired and groggy. We slowly made our way out of the train station and to the hostel in order to check in. Everyone took showers before we headed out to see Barcelona. First stop of the day was "Parc de la Citadella" (along the way to the park we also saw the Torre Agbar which is a large egg-shaped skyscraper that lights up different colors at night), which is where the Catalyna Parliament is located. First thing we saw when we entered the parc, was the monumental "Cascada" which is a large fountain designed by a young Antoini Gaudi (my new favorite architect). The park was filled with lots of things like the parliament building, a gigantic mammoth statue, a lake, a zoo and lots of other things. Once we exited the park (after stopping into the "Castell dels Tres Dragons" to look at an exhibit being showed there on zoology) we headed to the waterfront and walked along the boardwalk until we came to the "Port of Barcelona" where there is a huge monument to Christopher Columbus (the people of Barcelona claim that when Columbus sailed and found America, he actually left from this port and not a port in Genoa, Italy). From there we headed along "La Rambla" which is a large pedestrian street that is lined with people dressed in crazy outfits who'll take pictures with you if you drop a few coins into their hats. Then we entered into the "Barri Gotic" (Gothic Neighborhood) to check out the old Cathedral (which we didn't bother entering because you had to pay to get in). We grabbed some lunch at a cafe in front of the Cathedral and then continued to wander the streets of the gothic neighborhood looking at the architecture for a while, before heading to "Placa Catalunya" to take a break and people watch. After the break, we had a long walk to "Sagrada Familia", a huge church designed by Antoni Gaudi. It is still under construction and sadly Gaudi died before its completion. Along the way to the Sagrada Familia, we passed by some other famous houses designed by Gaudi including "Casa Batllo, which I really wanted to visit and see the inside of, but its really expensive to enter and with a forever long line to even get in. After walking around Sagrada Familia (we didn't actually enter, because it was really expensive) we stopped in a cafe and had a coffee and croissant. We wandered around for a bit after that before turning in for the night. At the hostel at 4am, some really obnoxious french boys started pounding on every door in the hostel waking everyone up yelling fire. I was in a room with 8 other people including 2 other french boys, who got up and started yelling at the drunks. Pretty soon a fight erupted which continued out into the street in front of the hostel. That was definitely one of the more amusing hostel stories I've now collected. There were close to 30 people from the hostel brawling in the middle of the street.
Wednesday December 30th 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
I woke up early and checked my luggage into storage and then checked out of the hostel. I was suppose to be meeting up with everyone at the Cathedral around 12:30pm and I wanted to do some shopping and wandering around before the rendez-vous. I meet up with Leidy and Milton outside the Cathedral and shortly afterwards Beto, his brazilian friend Yapunkie and a french boy Kevin showed up. We all decided we wanted to go see Park Guell, which is a park that was completely designed by Gaudi. Gaudi began to design the park in 1900 when Count Eusebi Guell bought up the entire hillside and wanted Gaudi to create it into a miniature garden city of houses for the wealthy. However the project was abandoned in 1914 but not before Gaudi had already constructed 3 km of roads and walks, steps and a plaza. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, which is why Gaudi is now my favorite architect. There are also two houses here that he built (one of which he lived in until his death) that remind me of how I always pictured the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel story. We spent a long time wandering around the park before grabbing something to eat at a nearby cafe and then headed to the metro to go see the Barcelona Soccer Stadium and then a quick walk by the palace. After that it was dark and we decided to head to the camping car to rest before a long night out on the town. When we made it back into town we meet up with the others (three of my french friends who were also staying in the camping car with us: Victor, Adrian and Marion) in front of the Cathedral. There was a small drum circle going and we quickly joined in. We hungout with the group (which included a 5 french people, a guy from the czech republic and a few others that I don't remember where they are from) for a long time before we all headed toward the waterfront to find a bar. We found a bar along the waterfront and stayed there for a while before catching a metro back to the camping car (I have no idea when we arrived back at the camping car but it was late, I think past 5am).
Thursday December 31st 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
Happy New Years Eve!! We woke up surprisingly not that hungover, but we still hung out around the camper resting through the early afternoon (we wanted to make sure we were plenty rested for the NYE celebration). By the time we headed into town, it was pretty late. We all met up at the Sagrada Familia and were planning on looking around inside, but apparently it closed early because of the holiday, so we didn't get to enter :(. From there we just aimlessly wandered around the streets trying to find a open, cheap "Tapas" restaurant. But to no avail, so I headed to Placa Catalunya to meet up with some others and the boys bought a few pizzas and brought them along shortly afterwards for everyone. We spent the New Years Eve celebration in Placa Catalunya, where it was necessary to have the police check our bags for bottles before entering, but I don't think they did a very good job, because I know we snuck in a few bottles and when midnight struck champagne bottles were exploding everywhere and we were soon drenched in champagne. People were lighting off firecrackers right next to us and it was just a crazy, awesome time. We stayed in Plaza Catalunya for a while celebrating/hooting/singing/shouting and generally just being silly drunks before walking down "La Rambla" in search of who knows what (honestly I can't remember where we were headed or if we ever made it there, I think we were just wanting to stroll and see what everyone else was doing). La Rambla was covered with a foot deep of broken glass (I think mainly from champagne bottles). LITERALLY!! You had to step up onto a level of glass instead of sidewalk, it was crazy, I guess that explains why they checked your bags before entering Placa Catalunya or it probably would have looked even worse. When we headed back to the camping car at the end of the night, we took the wrong bus and ended up 4 km away from our camping car so we had a long, cold walk back. This might seem like an unlucky start to a new year, but actually in Spain they say that if you walk a lot during New Years then it means you'll travel a lot in the upcoming year. So I hope that turns out to be true!! We made it back to the camping car at some ungodly hour in the morning and passed out. What an exhausting evening ;-D but definitely another New Years Celebration for the record books.
Friday January 1st 2010 - Barcelona, Spain; Carcassonne, France; Toulouse, France
We had already decided not to stay the weekend in Barcelona, so that we could enjoy the roadtrip back to France. I picked up Leidy at the train station and then the boys went for a very, very, very cold dip in the sea before we started our long journey north. We did a lot of sleeping along the way (we were all pretty tired from the night before). At the border of Spain and France we stopped at a store to buy supplies for lunch and really cheap alcohol, then we continued on our journey. It was my first time ever road tripping in a camping car and it was so much fun, because you're not stuck in one place, you're able to get up and move around, there's a table to play games on and you can drink alcohol if you want too. I think its fun as long as you are not the driver (and thankfully I wasn't!! Beto did most of the driving and Adrian did a little too). We arrived at the Medieval City of Carcassonne after nightfall, so the old city was lit up. We wandered the streets for a while, before stopping for dinner at a little restaurant in the heart of the old city. After dinner we continued on our roadtrip to Toulouse, France. I was a little sad that we didn't stay the night in Carcassonne, because I've always wanted to go there and I'd have liked to see it during the day and done a little more exploring, but oh well. I guess I'll just have to return another time :) We pulled into Toulouse around 10:30pm. We were staying the night at Marion's parents' house (well at least the girls were staying in the house and the boys were staying outside in the camping car). Marion's family greeted us, made us some tea and talked with us for a while before heading to bed. Then we all went out to the camping car to play a french board game. Which I'm guessing is something like Dungeons and Dragons, without the dress-up, so needless to say, I didn't like it very much. But it was fun just hanging out and chatting, before turning in for the night.
Saturday January 2nd 2010 - Toulouse, France
When we woke up in the morning we all showered and got ready for the day. We sat around talking with Marion's family while they prepared a large lunch for us. The lunch consisted of a huge pork roast, potatoes, salad, wine, bread, cheese, coffee, fruit, cake dessert, etc. Basically you're average (way over the top compared to the USA) french hospitality meal. After the delicious, enormously huge and filling lunch we headed into downtown Toulouse to wander around and browse through some shops. We stopped by a boulangerie (bakery) and bought a "Galette de Roi" (King's Cake) and then found a cafe to grab a drink in and have a small Galette de Roi party. Galette de Roi parties are a tradition after the New Years throughout the entire month of January. Basically its a silly holiday, where you buy a cake that has a little figurine cooked inside it and whoever gets the slice with the figurine becomes the king and has to wear a crown. It was a fun, little intimate party. At 6pm, Beto, Yapunkie and I seperated from the group to go watch "Avatar" in 3-D at the cinema (it was playing in english with french subtitles). It was the first time I've ever watched a film in 3-D. I liked the film alright, but I don't understand what all the hype is about. After the film, we met back up with the group (and 2 more french people joined our numbers) and wandered around looking for a place to eat. We finally decided on a kebab shop. After our dinner we hunted around for a private bar (not packed with loud music and lots of people, so we could all sit and talk). We finally found one, had a few drinks before turning in for the night.
Sunday January 3rd 2010 - Toulouse, Angouleme, and Montmorillon
We left Toulouse around 11am after a very filling breakfast of bread and jam and coffee. It was a fun ride back to Angouleme we snacked on food and rocked out to music, took naps and gossiped. When we finally arrived in Angouleme around 4pm everyone was so relieved to be home and done travelling, but as for Leidy and me, we still had a long day of traveling left in front of us. We stayed in Angouleme for a little while visiting, before catching a train to Poitiers and then a bus to Montmorillon. By the time we made it home it was 11pm. What a long, fun but exhausting trip. I hope you've all enjoyed hearing about it. I'll post the pictures soon (although I'm guessing most of you have seen them already on facebook).
Leidy and me spent the day packing and getting ready for our trip. Then in the evening we caught the last bus from Montmorillon to Poitiers. So we arrived in Poitiers around 9pm. We were catching an overnight train so we still had 2 hours to waste before our train. However our train was a hour late due to the weather, so we sat around for another hour waiting impatiently. Blah. Finally the train rolled into the station at midnight and we quickly boarded, found our beds and nestled in for the night. Leidy went straight off to sleep, but I stayed up reading through my trusted Lonely Planet travel guide for a while planning what we'd be doing once we arrived in Madrid.
Friday December 25th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
Merry Christmas!! Leidy and me woke up with the sun and watched the Spanish countryside slide by. It wasn't how I'd imagined Spain. I'm not quite sure what I expected Spain to look like (maybe a chic Mexico), but what I watched fly by the window was definitely not what I'd had in mind. There were rolling hills with what looked like olive trees covering them. It was very beautiful. We arrived in Madrid around 10am. Milton, Leidy's friend from Colombia, met us at the train station and then we all headed off to the hostel to drop off our bags. From there we grabbed a map and headed to "Plaza Mayor". The plaza has a rich history and the beautiful "Royal Bakery", which is a building covered in intricately decorated murals, but other than that it seems like a huge tourist trap. People constantly offered to draw your portrait for a 'small fee', people were running around in Disney character costumes who charge you money to get a picture with them, vendors were selling souvenirs and junk. When exiting the plaza we took the wrong exit and started heading south instead of west to the Cathedral and Palace. We'd only walked a few blocks before I realized the mistake and we quickly back tracked, but not before finding one of my favorite squares in Madrid, where the building had brightly colored drawings on them. Next stop of the day was "Plaza de la Villa," one of the buildings was where Francois I (King of France) had been held after being captured in a battle and was ransomed back to the French. We ended up at the Cathedral next. Which really wasn't that interesting, because its actually really modern (it was finished being built in 1992), but we checked out the inside anyways and Christmas Mass was being held, so that was kind of neat. Right next to the Cathedral is the Palace. However, since it was Christmas it was closed to visitors, so we snapped some photos and continued on our sight seeing promenade to "Plaza de Oriente" which is a park beside the Palace with a lot of marble statues. Behind the Palace was another park called Jardines de Sabatini which is full of lush, labyrinth gardens with lots of fountains. Once we'd finished our little stroll we started heading back to Plaza Mayor. We found a store along the way and grabbed supplies for sandwiches, then found a bench by the plaza and had a late lunch before heading back to the hostel to catch a couple zzz's before meeting up with my friend Gloria (a Spanish assistant in Angouleme last year that I lived with). We woke up and freshened up, then we went headed out again. We were meeting Gloria at "Puerto del Sol," which is a popular meeting place for everyone so needless to say it was packed. This is also the same square where the Spanish gather on New Years to watch the Gold Ball drop at the stroke of midnight, while eating their 12 grapes. We arrived super early so we choose a road to walk along to see if we could find something to eat. The road we took ended up being "Calle Alcata" which turned out to have a lot of famous sites along it like "Plaza de la Cibeles" which is a huge fountain where the "Real Madrid Soccer" team always gathers and celebrates after a victory, the beautiful "Palacio de Comunicaciones", "Banco de Espana" and ends with the "Puerta de Alcala," which is was built as a 'triumphal gate' (it looks a lot like the bradenburg gate in Berlin). After our walk we headed back toward Puerto del Sol and stopped by a restaurant along the way to eat some Paella, which is a 'must-try' spanish food (specialty rice with some type of meat, I had it with seafood, yum!) before meeting up with Gloria under the 'Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree' which is the symbol of Spain (apparently Madrid used to be full of bears). Gloria took us on a walking tour to the "Templo de Debod" which I found to be really interesting because it is an actual Egyptian Temple that was given to Spain by Egypt (instead of stolen from Egypt like what the Brits, French and Americans did to acquire all the Egyptian artifacts we currently have in museums) when they helped save the Temple of Abu Simbel when Lake Nassar was created by the dam. I actually visited the Temple of Abu Simbel last year and knew all about the history and story behind it, so I really enjoyed this. From there we started heading back to Puerto del Sol via the "Plaza de Espana" on the street called "Gran Via" which is kind of the 'Champs d'Elysee' of Spain. We also passed by a street that is famous for prostitution and was easy to spot because there were girls wearing hardly anything in huge hooker boots. We went looking at Christmas lights for a bit before finding an irish pub for a quick drink and then turned in for the night.
Saturday December 26th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
First stop of the day "Palacio Real de Madrid" (the Royal Palace). When the plans for the palace were originally drawn up it was going to be the largest Palace in the world, even grander than Versailles, but when the King died before completion the plan was thrown out, so the palace only has 2800 rooms. I tagged along behind a english speaking tour group so I actually found out a lot of interesting facts about the palace (and I also now remember why I never pay for the tours, I get bored after a while and wander off). I was glad that I'd shelled out the money to visit the palace, because even though it is much like every other palace I've ever visited (extremely extravagant and over the top) it still had its own 'flair' of extravagances. This palace imparticularly was filled with really amazing clocks. After the palace we decided to grab lunch (we'd been there for 3 hours). I'd read about a cheap little restaurant near Plaza Mayor that I wanted to try, so we headed in that direction and quickly found the little restaurant which is called "100 Montaditos Cerveceria". Montaditos are little bite size sandwiches. We ordered a sampler platter and tried a little of each. After our lunch we headed to "Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reine Sofia" which is a world famous art museum. It holds many famous Spanish artists like Salvador Dali, who is one of my favorite all time painters (he's right up there with Van Gogh in my books) and Picasso (who I'm still not sure if I like his works or not because I like that his works actually make me feel something, but what they make me feel is usually not a very comfortable feeling...if that makes sense). It also introduced me to the works of Jean Gris which I really liked. By the time we finished with the museum it was dark and getting late so we grabbed some dinner to-go as we returned to the hostel to rest before meeting up with Gloria and her friends to spend the night out on the town. Gloria took us to a rowdy, cheap bar to meet up with her friends. This bar was great. Not only were the drinks really cheap and large, they also gave you free food to eat while you were drinking. After hanging out there for a while we all piled into a car and drove across town to a night club that was decorated like a large pirate ship on the inside. We were there until 6am when we finally caught a night bus back to our hostel.
Sunday December 27th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
Needless to say, we ended up sleeping in even though all the museums are free on Sundays (oh well, I wasn't really that bummed to miss them, because I'm not a huge museum person anyways). We finally rolled our hungover butts out of bed around 2pm and then met up with Gloria at 3pm. She took us on a tour of "Parque del Buen Retiro" which was a really busy, lively park full of things going on. We passed by Christmas carolers, some Italian clowns, people playing bongos, magicians, etc. and there were lots of things to see like a massive lake that has a huge monument to Alfonso XII at the end of it, the "Palacio de Cristol" which is a large glass house and the statue/fountain of "El Angel Caido" (The fallen angel; aka lucifer) which is one of the only statues in the world to the devil. After the park we visited "Museo Nacional del Prado" another world famous art museum (Madrid holds 3 of the top ten art museums in the world). Even though this is suppose to be "one of the world's top museums" I wasn't really that impressed, in fact a lot of the works were really 'hit or miss' for me. After that we all turned in for the night. Gloria caught a bus home and Leidy, Milton and me grabbed some dinner before heading back to the hostel to rest (we were all still pretty exhausted from the night before).
Monday December 28th 2009 - Madrid, Spain
We packed up our bags and checked out of our hotel by 11am and then headed to the train station to put our bags into a storage locker. Then we headed back into Madrid to see a few more sights before our evening train to Barcelona. The first place we visited was a square known for its two leaning towers and then off to the "Real Madrid Soccer Stadium". We didn't actually go into the stadium, because there was a really long line and it was really expensive, but we did walk all the way around and watch some kids get busted for smoking pot. Then we jumped on the metro to "Plaza del Toros" which is the stadium where the famous spanish bull fighting takes place. Leidy and Milton are both against bull fighting and think its cruel, but I'd like to see it at least once. Oh did I mention that during the entire trip to Spain I was only talking in French 24/7 so by the end of the day, my brain was always sooooo exhausted. After that we headed back to the Puerto del Sol area to look around in different stores, grab some food (calamari sandwiches, ummm it was delicious) and buy some souvenirs before meeting up with Gloria. Gloria took us out for some real Madrid Hot Chocolate, which she insisted we try before we left. The hot chocolate is actually made from pure melted chocolate so its really strong. We also ordered some churros to dip in the delicious beverage. After we finished our drinks and gossiped for a bit we headed to the train station to catch our train to Barcelona. The train we took to Barcelona was an overnight train, but it only had chairs, not beds so it wasn't that comfortable of a night. Thankfully I've travelled by train like this many a times before so I didn't sleep in my seat, but I snuck out and headed to the Cafe car and fell asleep on a bench laying down instead, so I had a much better night then everyone else (I'd tried to let Leidy and Milton in on the secret of where to sleep, but they had already been sleeping for a while, so when I woke them up and tried to explain to them its better to sleep in the cafe car they were to groggy to understand my french) .
Tuesday December 29th 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
We arrived in Barcelona at 8am, tired and groggy. We slowly made our way out of the train station and to the hostel in order to check in. Everyone took showers before we headed out to see Barcelona. First stop of the day was "Parc de la Citadella" (along the way to the park we also saw the Torre Agbar which is a large egg-shaped skyscraper that lights up different colors at night), which is where the Catalyna Parliament is located. First thing we saw when we entered the parc, was the monumental "Cascada" which is a large fountain designed by a young Antoini Gaudi (my new favorite architect). The park was filled with lots of things like the parliament building, a gigantic mammoth statue, a lake, a zoo and lots of other things. Once we exited the park (after stopping into the "Castell dels Tres Dragons" to look at an exhibit being showed there on zoology) we headed to the waterfront and walked along the boardwalk until we came to the "Port of Barcelona" where there is a huge monument to Christopher Columbus (the people of Barcelona claim that when Columbus sailed and found America, he actually left from this port and not a port in Genoa, Italy). From there we headed along "La Rambla" which is a large pedestrian street that is lined with people dressed in crazy outfits who'll take pictures with you if you drop a few coins into their hats. Then we entered into the "Barri Gotic" (Gothic Neighborhood) to check out the old Cathedral (which we didn't bother entering because you had to pay to get in). We grabbed some lunch at a cafe in front of the Cathedral and then continued to wander the streets of the gothic neighborhood looking at the architecture for a while, before heading to "Placa Catalunya" to take a break and people watch. After the break, we had a long walk to "Sagrada Familia", a huge church designed by Antoni Gaudi. It is still under construction and sadly Gaudi died before its completion. Along the way to the Sagrada Familia, we passed by some other famous houses designed by Gaudi including "Casa Batllo, which I really wanted to visit and see the inside of, but its really expensive to enter and with a forever long line to even get in. After walking around Sagrada Familia (we didn't actually enter, because it was really expensive) we stopped in a cafe and had a coffee and croissant. We wandered around for a bit after that before turning in for the night. At the hostel at 4am, some really obnoxious french boys started pounding on every door in the hostel waking everyone up yelling fire. I was in a room with 8 other people including 2 other french boys, who got up and started yelling at the drunks. Pretty soon a fight erupted which continued out into the street in front of the hostel. That was definitely one of the more amusing hostel stories I've now collected. There were close to 30 people from the hostel brawling in the middle of the street.
Wednesday December 30th 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
I woke up early and checked my luggage into storage and then checked out of the hostel. I was suppose to be meeting up with everyone at the Cathedral around 12:30pm and I wanted to do some shopping and wandering around before the rendez-vous. I meet up with Leidy and Milton outside the Cathedral and shortly afterwards Beto, his brazilian friend Yapunkie and a french boy Kevin showed up. We all decided we wanted to go see Park Guell, which is a park that was completely designed by Gaudi. Gaudi began to design the park in 1900 when Count Eusebi Guell bought up the entire hillside and wanted Gaudi to create it into a miniature garden city of houses for the wealthy. However the project was abandoned in 1914 but not before Gaudi had already constructed 3 km of roads and walks, steps and a plaza. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen, which is why Gaudi is now my favorite architect. There are also two houses here that he built (one of which he lived in until his death) that remind me of how I always pictured the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel story. We spent a long time wandering around the park before grabbing something to eat at a nearby cafe and then headed to the metro to go see the Barcelona Soccer Stadium and then a quick walk by the palace. After that it was dark and we decided to head to the camping car to rest before a long night out on the town. When we made it back into town we meet up with the others (three of my french friends who were also staying in the camping car with us: Victor, Adrian and Marion) in front of the Cathedral. There was a small drum circle going and we quickly joined in. We hungout with the group (which included a 5 french people, a guy from the czech republic and a few others that I don't remember where they are from) for a long time before we all headed toward the waterfront to find a bar. We found a bar along the waterfront and stayed there for a while before catching a metro back to the camping car (I have no idea when we arrived back at the camping car but it was late, I think past 5am).
Thursday December 31st 2009 - Barcelona, Spain
Happy New Years Eve!! We woke up surprisingly not that hungover, but we still hung out around the camper resting through the early afternoon (we wanted to make sure we were plenty rested for the NYE celebration). By the time we headed into town, it was pretty late. We all met up at the Sagrada Familia and were planning on looking around inside, but apparently it closed early because of the holiday, so we didn't get to enter :(. From there we just aimlessly wandered around the streets trying to find a open, cheap "Tapas" restaurant. But to no avail, so I headed to Placa Catalunya to meet up with some others and the boys bought a few pizzas and brought them along shortly afterwards for everyone. We spent the New Years Eve celebration in Placa Catalunya, where it was necessary to have the police check our bags for bottles before entering, but I don't think they did a very good job, because I know we snuck in a few bottles and when midnight struck champagne bottles were exploding everywhere and we were soon drenched in champagne. People were lighting off firecrackers right next to us and it was just a crazy, awesome time. We stayed in Plaza Catalunya for a while celebrating/hooting/singing/shouting and generally just being silly drunks before walking down "La Rambla" in search of who knows what (honestly I can't remember where we were headed or if we ever made it there, I think we were just wanting to stroll and see what everyone else was doing). La Rambla was covered with a foot deep of broken glass (I think mainly from champagne bottles). LITERALLY!! You had to step up onto a level of glass instead of sidewalk, it was crazy, I guess that explains why they checked your bags before entering Placa Catalunya or it probably would have looked even worse. When we headed back to the camping car at the end of the night, we took the wrong bus and ended up 4 km away from our camping car so we had a long, cold walk back. This might seem like an unlucky start to a new year, but actually in Spain they say that if you walk a lot during New Years then it means you'll travel a lot in the upcoming year. So I hope that turns out to be true!! We made it back to the camping car at some ungodly hour in the morning and passed out. What an exhausting evening ;-D but definitely another New Years Celebration for the record books.
Friday January 1st 2010 - Barcelona, Spain; Carcassonne, France; Toulouse, France
We had already decided not to stay the weekend in Barcelona, so that we could enjoy the roadtrip back to France. I picked up Leidy at the train station and then the boys went for a very, very, very cold dip in the sea before we started our long journey north. We did a lot of sleeping along the way (we were all pretty tired from the night before). At the border of Spain and France we stopped at a store to buy supplies for lunch and really cheap alcohol, then we continued on our journey. It was my first time ever road tripping in a camping car and it was so much fun, because you're not stuck in one place, you're able to get up and move around, there's a table to play games on and you can drink alcohol if you want too. I think its fun as long as you are not the driver (and thankfully I wasn't!! Beto did most of the driving and Adrian did a little too). We arrived at the Medieval City of Carcassonne after nightfall, so the old city was lit up. We wandered the streets for a while, before stopping for dinner at a little restaurant in the heart of the old city. After dinner we continued on our roadtrip to Toulouse, France. I was a little sad that we didn't stay the night in Carcassonne, because I've always wanted to go there and I'd have liked to see it during the day and done a little more exploring, but oh well. I guess I'll just have to return another time :) We pulled into Toulouse around 10:30pm. We were staying the night at Marion's parents' house (well at least the girls were staying in the house and the boys were staying outside in the camping car). Marion's family greeted us, made us some tea and talked with us for a while before heading to bed. Then we all went out to the camping car to play a french board game. Which I'm guessing is something like Dungeons and Dragons, without the dress-up, so needless to say, I didn't like it very much. But it was fun just hanging out and chatting, before turning in for the night.
Saturday January 2nd 2010 - Toulouse, France
When we woke up in the morning we all showered and got ready for the day. We sat around talking with Marion's family while they prepared a large lunch for us. The lunch consisted of a huge pork roast, potatoes, salad, wine, bread, cheese, coffee, fruit, cake dessert, etc. Basically you're average (way over the top compared to the USA) french hospitality meal. After the delicious, enormously huge and filling lunch we headed into downtown Toulouse to wander around and browse through some shops. We stopped by a boulangerie (bakery) and bought a "Galette de Roi" (King's Cake) and then found a cafe to grab a drink in and have a small Galette de Roi party. Galette de Roi parties are a tradition after the New Years throughout the entire month of January. Basically its a silly holiday, where you buy a cake that has a little figurine cooked inside it and whoever gets the slice with the figurine becomes the king and has to wear a crown. It was a fun, little intimate party. At 6pm, Beto, Yapunkie and I seperated from the group to go watch "Avatar" in 3-D at the cinema (it was playing in english with french subtitles). It was the first time I've ever watched a film in 3-D. I liked the film alright, but I don't understand what all the hype is about. After the film, we met back up with the group (and 2 more french people joined our numbers) and wandered around looking for a place to eat. We finally decided on a kebab shop. After our dinner we hunted around for a private bar (not packed with loud music and lots of people, so we could all sit and talk). We finally found one, had a few drinks before turning in for the night.
Sunday January 3rd 2010 - Toulouse, Angouleme, and Montmorillon
We left Toulouse around 11am after a very filling breakfast of bread and jam and coffee. It was a fun ride back to Angouleme we snacked on food and rocked out to music, took naps and gossiped. When we finally arrived in Angouleme around 4pm everyone was so relieved to be home and done travelling, but as for Leidy and me, we still had a long day of traveling left in front of us. We stayed in Angouleme for a little while visiting, before catching a train to Poitiers and then a bus to Montmorillon. By the time we made it home it was 11pm. What a long, fun but exhausting trip. I hope you've all enjoyed hearing about it. I'll post the pictures soon (although I'm guessing most of you have seen them already on facebook).
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
December Pictures
Leidy's first snow
A snowy Montmorillon
Sudoko player machine. A present from the grandparents
A snowy Montmorillon
A snowy Montmorillon
A snowy Montmorillon
Dancing at La Moon
Dancing at La Moon
Dancing at La Moon
Dancing at La Moon
Dancing at La Moon
Beto and me at Cinq Sens
Beto and me at Cinq Sens
Picture of part of the group in Angouleme
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 ;)
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)
Saturday, October 24, 2009
School, School and more School
Monday October 12th we met with a french professor at 10:30am and he drove us to Chavigny to meet the professors at our other school. This year I'm working in two schools (last year I worked in two schools too, but they were in the same town, these two are in seperate towns) the Lycee Jean Moulin in Montmorillon and the College de Gerald Phillippe in Chauvigny. Chauvigny is famous for the five castles that are located in and around the town. The day was spent, being introduced to the professors that I'll be working with and being given a tour of the school. A "college" is actually a jr high school in France (a Lycee is a high school), so the kids are all pretty young around 11 to 14 years old. The teachers were all very friendly and I look forward to working with them. In the evening after we'd hitched a ride back to Montmorillon (we carpool with other professors) we went to the cinema and watched "Inglorious Bastards" in french. It was pretty good, but I definitely didn't understand everything that was said.
Tuesday I went to a doctor's office to get my flu shot. Going to the doctors is always an interesting experience. I'm not impressed with the French's national health care which is probably why I'm not a big supporter of the Obama national healthcare plan. But I won't bother you with to much information. Lets just say that if I walked in and claimed I needed a prescription for anything, all I'd need to do is ask and I would recieve without having to have an exam or anything. Getting a flu shot in France varies greatly from in the states. First off you have to go to the doctors (no running to the safeway or costco pharmacy here), then the doctor has to give you a prescription (but first you have to wait in a line for your turn to see the doctor, there ain't no appointments here, so it usually takes at least a hour to get in), then you leave and take the prescription to a pharmacy and they give you the bottle containing the vaccination, then you have to return to the doctors (wait in line for your turn again) and have the doctor give you a shot. Needless to say it was a lot of work and time for something as simple as a flu shot vaccination.
The rest of the week was pretty basic. Going to classes, going to the store to buy groceries, going for a cafe, reading, etc. I finally spent a weekend in Montmorillon. I did absolutely nothing, but lay around, clean and read. I thought it was a great weekend, because it was the first time since I'd arrived in France that I was actually home and didn't have work to do. Plus its always nice to lounge around after three straight weekends of travelling.
Tuesday I went to a doctor's office to get my flu shot. Going to the doctors is always an interesting experience. I'm not impressed with the French's national health care which is probably why I'm not a big supporter of the Obama national healthcare plan. But I won't bother you with to much information. Lets just say that if I walked in and claimed I needed a prescription for anything, all I'd need to do is ask and I would recieve without having to have an exam or anything. Getting a flu shot in France varies greatly from in the states. First off you have to go to the doctors (no running to the safeway or costco pharmacy here), then the doctor has to give you a prescription (but first you have to wait in a line for your turn to see the doctor, there ain't no appointments here, so it usually takes at least a hour to get in), then you leave and take the prescription to a pharmacy and they give you the bottle containing the vaccination, then you have to return to the doctors (wait in line for your turn again) and have the doctor give you a shot. Needless to say it was a lot of work and time for something as simple as a flu shot vaccination.
The rest of the week was pretty basic. Going to classes, going to the store to buy groceries, going for a cafe, reading, etc. I finally spent a weekend in Montmorillon. I did absolutely nothing, but lay around, clean and read. I thought it was a great weekend, because it was the first time since I'd arrived in France that I was actually home and didn't have work to do. Plus its always nice to lounge around after three straight weekends of travelling.
A weekend in Angouleme
Having a few beers by the Charente river
Entrance to the Jardin Vert in Angouleme
Having a drink in Cinq Sens with a few friendsWe slept in late Saturday, but then I took Leidy on a tour of the town around the ramparts and all my favorite gardens and stores. We ate lunch on the steps of the St. Martial church in the center of town (which was one of my favorite things to do last year, because its great for people watching). In the evening we met up with Nalleli, Michaele, Emily, and Emily's friend who was visiting from the states (weird story...I told Emily's friend that I was from Townsend, Montana and he said he actually knew some people from there {even though he is from North Carolina} because he'd dated a girl from east helena. I asked him who it was that he knew and he told me he knew Chris Ludwig who is a good friend of mine. but it was a little awkward because the reason he knew my friend was because he'd stolen his girlfriend...its such a weird small world that I'd be living half way around the world and meet someone who'd stolen my friend's girlfriend and happened to be friends with one of my friends in France...what a coincidence). Anyways, we had supper at a little italian restaurant and were there eating for a good three hours, before we headed to L'Havana to do some dancing. We got bored of l'havana a while later, so we grabbed some beers and walked down to the Charente river where we drank and chatted until the wee hours of the morning.
I woke up Sunday and began packing my suitcase full of all the things I'd left behind last year. Sundays are usually very boring and relaxing in France because everything is closed, but once I finished packing Leidy and I decided to walk into town real quick to see if anywhere was open to get something for lunch. As we rounded the corner to the center of town the streets were packed with people and venders. It was the weekend of the yearly bizarre. I was super excited that the one weekend I'd randomly decided to visit Angouleme happened to be the same weekend of the once yearly bizarre. Leidy and me looked around at all the venders and grabbed something to eat before wandering back to the house to grab our stuff and head to the train station. Kena met us at the house and helped me carry my stuff to the train station. She hung out with us and saw us onto the train before taking off. I was glad she stayed and visited with because she was one of my roommates last year and she hadn't seen her all weekend. All in all, I passed a great weekend in Angouleme and was able to see all my friends from last year and make some new friends too. I plan on visiting Angouleme at least once a month (hopefully twice) while I'm in France. My town is small and there's nothing to do on the weekends anyways, so it'll be great to be able to go to Angouleme, visit with my friends and always have a free place to crash ;P
Montmorillon
Montmorillon, Medieval City "Cite de l'Ecrit"
The new town that I'm living in this year is called Montmorillon. Its in the Vienne department in the Poitou-Charentes region of France (here's a breakdown of what each of those is basically equivalent to in the USA: town=city, department=county, region=state). Its about a hour north of where I lived last year. Montmorillon is very small with a population around 7,000 people. The only way to access the town is by car or bus (there is a train, but its under construction until January). The bus ride takes a hour to get to Poitiers and there is only about 5 buses that leave town a day, so I'm basically stranded here. Montmorillon is known for its "Cite de l'Ecrit" (the city of books or the written city), which is located in the old medieval part of town. The Cite de l'Ecrit is basically just a whole lot of bookstores that sell really, really old books, documents, scrolls, etc. I think that there is probably some illegal black market trade going on in the 'caves' (wine cellars) and backdoor rooms. Probably selling holy grail maps/documents and old dead sea scrolls :P Which I guess is kind of cool. Otherwise the town is pretty dead most of the time. Its mainly filled with old retired people and brits (there are a lot of British people who live here. I have some of there kids in my classes).
Teaching Commences
After returning from Troyes to Montmorillon, I spent the remainder of the weekend relaxing and unpacking. My roommate Leidy had also left for the weekend so I had the place to myself when I returned. I tend to read a lot when I'm living in France so if you read any good books, send them on to me ;)
Monday October 5th all the assistants of the Poitou-Charentes region gathered in Poitiers for a "Stage". A "stage" is basically an informational meeting. They had us fill out documents all day for social security cards, health care stuff, housing assistance and things like that. It was extremely dull for me, because I'd already done all the stuff last year and already 'knew the ropes'. The one good thing about the 'stage' was that all the assistants who returned from last year were there, so I got to hangout all day with all my friends and roommates from last year who all returned to Angouleme this year (I'm the only one who decided to try a new town). We also got a free lunch so that was a plus. I met all the new assistants of the different towns and made sure to get emails and phone numbers so I'd be able to visit them and have a free place to stay (booyeah, La Rochelle here I come). After the meeting they held a little 'mixer' for all the assistants to mix and mingle (bless the french for always providing lots of free wine) and then me and some of my new friends headed to the bars for a drink before we all had to catch our trains home.
The rest of the week was basically spent going to classes and introducing myself to my new students. Basically I'd stand at the front of the class and they'd have to ask me questions about myself in english. I got 'asked out' by a few of the little 12 year old boys which made me laugh so hard it was a good thing I didn't have in liquid in my mouth because everyone would have had a shower. My students range from the ages of 11 to 19 years old. I think I like teaching the younger kids better because they are still a little afraid of authority, but mainly because they are at least willing to try to speak. Lots of the older kids don't really care or try and always say 'I don't know how to speak english' when you ask them something. Which is really stupid because they've been studying english for 6 to 8 years so they know how to speak, they just won't. They also tend not to pay attention or participate. But I guess I can't really complain that much because I know I was just the same (and probably even worse) when I was in High School.
Monday October 5th all the assistants of the Poitou-Charentes region gathered in Poitiers for a "Stage". A "stage" is basically an informational meeting. They had us fill out documents all day for social security cards, health care stuff, housing assistance and things like that. It was extremely dull for me, because I'd already done all the stuff last year and already 'knew the ropes'. The one good thing about the 'stage' was that all the assistants who returned from last year were there, so I got to hangout all day with all my friends and roommates from last year who all returned to Angouleme this year (I'm the only one who decided to try a new town). We also got a free lunch so that was a plus. I met all the new assistants of the different towns and made sure to get emails and phone numbers so I'd be able to visit them and have a free place to stay (booyeah, La Rochelle here I come). After the meeting they held a little 'mixer' for all the assistants to mix and mingle (bless the french for always providing lots of free wine) and then me and some of my new friends headed to the bars for a drink before we all had to catch our trains home.
The rest of the week was basically spent going to classes and introducing myself to my new students. Basically I'd stand at the front of the class and they'd have to ask me questions about myself in english. I got 'asked out' by a few of the little 12 year old boys which made me laugh so hard it was a good thing I didn't have in liquid in my mouth because everyone would have had a shower. My students range from the ages of 11 to 19 years old. I think I like teaching the younger kids better because they are still a little afraid of authority, but mainly because they are at least willing to try to speak. Lots of the older kids don't really care or try and always say 'I don't know how to speak english' when you ask them something. Which is really stupid because they've been studying english for 6 to 8 years so they know how to speak, they just won't. They also tend not to pay attention or participate. But I guess I can't really complain that much because I know I was just the same (and probably even worse) when I was in High School.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Champagne-Burgundy Pictures
Normal Architecture in Troyes
Medicinal monks garden in Troyes
Out on the town in Reims
Garden of Innocence in Troyes
Sightseeing in Reims
Stain Glass in the St. Madeline Church in Troyes
St. Madeline Church in Troyes
Cat's Alley in Troyes
Old outdoor spiral staircase in Troyes
Stain Glass in the St. Madeline Church in Troyes
Cathedral Notre Dame in Reims
Cathedral Notre Dame in Reims
Hotel De Ville in Reims
Cathedral Notre Dame in Reims
Cathedral Notre Dame in Reims
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