Switzerland Photos

You can actually rent out these boats for dinner parties and they stop in the middle of the river for your dinner.



This boat is pulled along a rope that takes you back and forth across the water for a small fee.



River



River



River



River



Old Town



Old Town



At the Irish Pub



Hotel de Ville



Hotel de Ville



Hotel de Ville



Hotel de Ville



One of many fountains



One of many fountains



One of my favorite clubs ever. The colorful streamers going on are decorations for Carnival.



One of my favorite clubs ever



At the Club



Church



Church



Church - I really like the roof design of this church



A building decorated for the Carnival



You can't see it very well, but there is a little guy in there dressed up for Carnival, because the Carnival was two days after I left so the whole town was decorated for Carnival while I was there - This is a little monument of some sort on in the middle of a bridge



Billiards Hall



Billiards Hall

Basel, Switzerland

Wednesday February 17th
I arrived in Basel, Switzerland around 2:30 pm after a 3 1/2 hour train ride from Luxembourg. Celine was at the train station waiting for me with a big hug. We quickly grabbed a sandwich (I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast at the hostel), an all-day transportation pass and some money since they use Swiss Francs here and not the Euro (the francs are about the same value as the American dollar right now). Then we jumped on a bus to take us to Celine's house to drop off my bags. We rested at Celine's for a bit in order to decide what we'd be doing for the day and so I could take a quick shower (I always feel so gross after riding on trains and traveling) and then we headed out to a restaurant on the top floor of a really nice department store to have some tea and cake and catch up with the latest gossip and news. After we finished our tea and cake we walked around the center of Basel for a bit, jumping in and out of shopping stores and running some errands before heading back to Celine's to rest before going out to dinner. Basel's center is covered in cobblestone roads, trolleys and fountains. There are tons of fountains in this town!! For dinner we'd planned on going to an Irish Pub that's known for its food, but it was full so we moved on to a different restaurant that was really chic. Celine and me both decide to have the 'menu' of the day. Our starting dish was a bowl of a soup made of finely chopped veggies in a chicken bouillon, then the second course was a white veggie cream wrapped in ham and a side of salad. The main course was chicken risotto (chicken on rice). All this was accompanied with wine, beer and an after dinner espresso. All of it was amazing tasting, so needless to say we gorged ourselves. After dinner we hit up a couple of bars (it was hard to drink the beers, because there was absolutely no room left in my stomach after our enormous dinner) and were later joined by Celine's boyfriend and some of his co-workers for a few drinks before calling it a night.

Thursday February 18th
Celine and me spent the morning sleeping in and watching the winter Olympics (they had the Olympics and other programs in almost every language in Basel except English. There was German, French, Spanish, Italian and some eastern European, but no English! WTF!!)When we finally got up and ready for the day we headed into town to do a little shopping (I bought a new gray peacoat) and do a little sightseeing, but our first stop of the day was at a food court in a shopping center. This wasn't like the food courts in the USA. There was no stereotypical Mcdonalds and chinese place that indicate an American food court. It was almost like a huge cafeteria and all handmade swiss specialties...ahhh bliss... So after once again gorging myself on Swiss food we hit up the old 'pedestrian only' area of town which is all cobblestone paths, the Cathedral, the frescoed Hotel de Ville and passed many, many fountains while sightseeing. Shopping was entertaining. I basically would find the most hideously atrocious clothes in the store and then try them on for giggles. When we finished sightseeing and shopping for the day Celine and me stopped in a grocery store to buy the ingredients to make some homemade pizza for dinner. Once back at the apartment I watched the Olympics some more, replied to some emails, had some pizza and then got ready to go out for the night. Nightlife in Basel is a little different. People dress down instead of up when they go out. So I would wear my nice fashionable french dresses and clothes during the day and then change into jeans and a t-shirt for my evening wear. Which if fine by me, because they still allow smoking cigarettes in all the establishments, so I'd come home from the bars smelling like stale smoke and I wouldn't want my nice clothes drenched in that smell. First stop of the night was at a billiards hall to shoot some pool and have a few drinks with some of Celine's friends, then her boyfriend dropped the two of us off at a club for the evening. This is definitely one of my favorite clubs I've been to in Europe. Its hard to describe the place but I'll try. It kind of reminded me of a pirate ship. It had wood carved statues of mermaid lining the walls of the second floor where there were balconies to watch the people dancing below. The tables that lined the walls were wood and shaped like barrels and there was rope hanging here and there. But best of all was the music. They had all the new hits that I love to dance to, but also all the classics and the DJ was great at remixing and spinning. Celine and me stayed there dancing and drinking until around 2am when we finally walked back to Celine's.

Friday February 19th
Celine and me slept in and watched the Olympics in the morning. In the afternoon we met up with her boyfriend in order to buy a Raclette Grill for the Raclette Dinner Party at Celine's in the evening. We also stopped by a grocery store and picked up all the supplies for the dinner and I bought swiss chocolate for all my friends who requested it. The rest of the evening was spent watching the Olympics and getting everything ready for the Raclette Dinner Party. Maybe I should first explain what is a 'Raclette Dinner Party'. Raclette is a type of cheese which you melt and place on or mix with a variety of things like potatoes, sausage, pickled veggies, eggs, etc. Its amazing. I've decided that when I return to the states I'm buying one of these machines in order to introduce this amazingly savoring chic 'meat and potato' meal to my fellow Americans. Hours later after we'd all finished gorging ourselves (no wonder why I gain so much weight when I'm in Europe) we hungout at the apartment drinking for a bit longer before making our way to an Irish Pub called Paddy Reilly's to drink and dance until the wee hours of the morning before taking a taxi home and calling it a night.

Saturday February 20th
I woke up and started arranging/packing all my things in order to be ready to catch my train that afternoon back to France. Celine and me hungout in the morning. We headed to the train station a little early in order for me to stop by the candy store that Celine works at in the train station to buy some specially requested chocolates for Nalleli. I still had a lot of Swiss francs so we ran around the train station finding things for me to eat for lunch on the train, then we said our goodbyes and I boarded my first of three trains. The journey back to France was long and obnoxious. I had to switch trains in Strasbourg and had a 45 minute wait. Then I had to not only switch trains in Paris, but also train stations so I had to take the metro across Paris. By the time I arrived in Poitiers the last train to Montmorillon had already departed so I made arrangements to stay at my friend Moona's place. A french friend met me at the train station and we dropped my bags off at his place since Moona wasn't home yet and we headed out to the bars. We ordered a bottle of 'punch' which is rum mixed with tropical fruit juices. Some of Cedric's friends met us there so we hungout for a while and then Moona called and we met up with her and I headed back to her house to crash for the night.

Sunday February 21st
I caught the first train from Poitiers to Montmorillon. I could have stayed and hungout with my friends longer in Poitiers, but I was exhausted from all my travels and ready to be home. I arrived back in Montmorillon at 12:30pm and spent the rest of the day resting and watching tv. And so ended my February vacation :)

January 2010 pics

Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Le Buvard in Montmorillon with our new friends



Drinking at Kennedy's Irish Pub in Angouleme



House party at the Boys' in Angouleme.



House party at the Boys' in Angouleme. Caroline, Leidy and me



Drinking at Kennedy's Irish Pub in Angouleme



Dancing at La Moon in Angouleme



Drinking at Kennedy's Irish Pub in Angouleme



Drinking at Kennedy's Irish Pub in Angouleme

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

Madrid Photos

Templo de Debod at night



A view of the Royal Palace and Cathedral at night from Templo de Debod



It was possible to walk into the middle of the tree in Puerta del Sol, so I took a picture of me, Milton and Leidy



The Christmas tree in Puerta de Sol



Leidy and me standing under the famous "bear and strawberry tree" statue in Puerta del Sol



Christmas decorations at the square of Puerta de Sol (Christmas is celebrated January 6th in Spain, just like in the Ukraine)



Puerta de Alcala



The Royal Bakery in Plaza Mayor



The Royal Bakery in Plaza Mayor



The Royal Bakery in Plaza Mayor



The Royal Bakery in Plaza Mayor



Plaza del Toros



Plaza del Toros



Plaza del Toros - Bull fighting arena



Statue of Felipe IV in Plaza de Oriente next to the Palace



Plaza de Oriente a park next to the Palace which is filled with marble statues



Plaza de la Villa



The Communication Palace and Plaza de la Cibeles where the Real Madrid soccer team gathers to celebrate victories



The Communication Palace and Plaza de la Cibeles where the Real Madrid soccer team gathers to celebrate victories



Plaza de Castilla where the two leaning towers are located



One of my favorite squares in Madrid Plaza de Puerta Cerrada



One of my favorite squares in Madrid Plaza de Puerta Cerrada



Gloria and me outside the Crystal Palace in Parque del Buen Retiro



The Crystal Palace in Parque del Buen Retiro



The Monument to Alfonso XII in Parque del Buen Retiro



The Monument to Alfonso XII in Parque del Buen Retiro



The fountain "El Angel Caido" (the fallen angel) in Parque del Buen Retiro



Gloria and me being silly by the fountain "El Angel Caido" (the fallen angel) in Parque del Buen Retiro



Christmas carolers in the Parque del Buen Retiro



The Royal Palace



The Royal Palace



Museo del Prado



The labyrinth gardens of Jardines de Sabatini



The labyrinth gardens of Jardines de Sabatini and the Palace



The labyrinth gardens of Jardines de Sabatini and the Palace



First night in Madrid having a drink with Gloria at an Irish Pub



Real Madrid Soccer Stadium



Plaza Mayor



Painting in Centro de Arte Reina Sofia by Salvador Dali



Painting in Centro de Arte Reina Sofia by Salvador Dali



Painting in Centro de Arte Reina Sofia by Salvador Dali



Painting in Centro de Arte Reina Sofia by Picasso



Painting in Centro de Arte Reina Sofia by Jean Gris



Interior of the Cathedral where Christmas Mass was being held



Leidy and me outside the Cathedral



The Cathedral that wasn't finished until 1992



Every street was labeled with street signs made of tile with a picture on them like these



View of a well known street called Calle de Alcala



View of a well known street called Calle de Alcala



Some of the group at the club that's decorated like a pirate ship



Gloria and me at the club that was decorated like a pirate ship