Back in the Saddle

Well, I am back at it, blogging that is.  I know while I was in Paris and Spain I was rather lacking on the blog entries but unreliable/no internet access made it difficult at times to accomplish such a task.  Now I know you are probably wondering why I am going to be blogging again and that is a good question.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean that I’ll be back in France (my other home) but I’ll get the next best thing…Chicago!  I am going to be spending my last semester as a college student student teaching in a Chicago Public School.  I will be helping out in a French classroom of course and am so excited for this opportunity and what lies ahead.  I know it will not be easy but are things that are worth it ever easy?  Just looking back on my experience in Paris makes me realize how difficult it was but how much it was all worth it in the end.  I will be moving into the city in January (of course it will be freezing) and will be living downtown until the beginning of May (and will be moving out of course when it finally starts warming up).  I don’t know much else at the moment but don’t worry there will be many stories to tell throughout spring semester.

I´m still here!

So I need to apologize for the lack of blog entries. I am sure you all are pry wondering what has happened to me (or maybe not) but nonetheless don´t worry I´m alive and well and now living in Spain (well I have been since the 26th of May).  I always told myself that I would never be one of those study abroad students that says they´ll put up blog entries and then never does.  Well unfortunately that is exactly what has happened... I do have some good excuses though (well not that good), the best one of all is the lack of internet (I think that can justify my lack of blog entries, right??). I have been without internet where I live (my foyer in Paris and now the apartment that I live in in Spain) for so long that it is kind of a luxury being able to get internet access.  It has made me realize how dependent I am on the internet and that isn´t always a good thing. Don´t worry though I want to keep all of you guys updated on my life that has changed quite a bit (well in the fact that I am now living in Granada, Spain and no longer Paris, France which is really quite the change) but walking the half hour in the scorching heat with a huge laptop on my back doesn´t sound like fun to me. I will eventually get up all the posts that I am missing and don´t worry you´ll get to see all the pictures that I have taken.  When I get back to the States you can ask me to see all of them (and then I think you´ll be overwhelmed by the amount that I´ve taken lol).  Well, I should get going I have Spanish homework to do.

I Brought an Umbrella Just In Case

Well I was invited to go and visit Versailles with the three lovely Canadian girls in my foyer.  I have already visited but there is always more to see in the gardens.  So we went on Saturday, March 31^st to the Château of Versailles.  It was a really overcast and dreary day so I brought an umbrella just in case if it decided to start raining.  Thankfully it didn’t rain at all while we were out there.  I was joking around with Janine and Julia that if I hadn’t brought my umbrella it probably would’ve poured on us.  The other Canadian girl, Sarah, joined us but she likes taking a lot of pictures so she was always falling behind (good thing we have cell phones!).  Anyways, we got out to the château and finished walking around it in about half an hour (well except Sarah).  But we went out into the gardens and had some lunch and walked around for a bit.  Then Sarah joined up with us and got her food.  It was kind of a funny day because I ran into three different people that I know at Versailles and wasn’t expecting to see any of them and I knew all of them from different places in Paris.  It was a pleasant surprise to say the least.  Well we went over to where Marie-Antoinette had her little village and château and gardens.  Let me tell you, I fell in love with this area!  It was so lusciously green and felt a lot more natural compared to the rigidity of the hedges and gardens at Versailles.  Seeing as we are in early spring there were unfortunately not many flowers and that is another reason why I think I loved the Trianon where Marie-Antoinette lived because there were just open areas with amazing soft squishy grass.  You can almost say that grass is a commodity in Paris and so going somewhere where the grass is in abundance was refreshing.

                                         

The Chapel in Versailles

The impressive ceiling of the Chapel

A dreary day out at Versailles

There were some daffodils though

The gardens of Versailles

The Grand Trianon (one of Marie-Antoinette’s residences)

Marie-Antoinette’s bedroom (she must have been tiny because her bed is so short!)

Le Temple d’Amour

Janine and I at the Temple in Marie-Antoinette’s gardens

Marie-Antoinette’s gardens

Such natural beauty

A cool tree

The cute little village that Marie-Antoinette had built in her gardens

Janine, Julia & I exploring the little village

A cute little house/Moulin

More of the little village

We then came across this beautiful magnolia tree

Janine, Julia & I (probably my favorite picture of us)

That was some the softest grass I had ever been on

At the Grand Trianon (Julia & I had a lot of fun sliding down this hallway)

What I like to call the little lake in the gardens of Versailles

We had a really nice time exploring Versailles despite the fact that it was cold and dreary out.  It was nice though because there weren’t hordes of tourists unlike when I visited in the fall with my program.  I so much enjoyed just walking around and finding out more of what the gardens of Versailles have to offer.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Well the month of March was rather uneventful; it just consisted of going to classes, doing homework, the usual.  Not a lot of exciting things went on but I didn’t mind.  However the weekend of my birthday was a lot of fun and I got to spend it with a really good friend of mine out in the countryside at the cousins’ house.  Well I had invited my friend Laura to come out to Les Sièges for the weekend with me and just hang out in the countryside.  Françoise and Manu were gracious enough to welcome two girls in their house for a weekend.  We took the train out to Sens in the afternoon on Friday March 23^rd.  Françoise came and picked us up and when we were in the car the song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” came on the radio and I was joking around with Laura that should be our theme song for the weekend.  It was so nice to get outside of Paris and see green rolling hills.  We had awesome weather that weekend!  It was 70s and sunny the whole weekend, we weren’t complaining one bit.  We just hung out and went for a lot of walks around the town and countryside and would also go into the backyard with a blanket and just lay out soaking up the sun.  On Saturday the 24^th of March, Françoise and Manu took us out to a nice restaurant for my birthday.  It was very nice of them.  We just had a relaxing day and had fun just walking around and exploring the tiny town of Les Sièges.  Then on Sunday March 25^th we went on a picnic with Françoise and Manu’s friends in the neighboring woods and had a nice time.  It was a very French picnic to say the least but Laura and I loved it!  It was also really cool for me to see how much more I could understand and respond since the last time I was out there was in October.  Then Françoise and her friend took us back to the house to get our bags and then we headed off to the train station.  When we got on the train it was packed!!!  It was so full that Laura and I had to sit on the ground the whole ride like a bunch of other people; thankfully it is only an hour long train ride and it was direct to Paris.

Laura and I out at the cousins’ house

Our Last Few Days

Well Maissie and I got back on Sunday February 26^th in the evening and unfortunately she only had a few more days left to spend in Paris before I had to take her to the airport so she could go back to home in the States.  I knew it would go by quickly since she was leaving on Thursday the 1^st of March but I didn’t realize that it would pass by that quickly!  I had school and so Maissie would go off and visit different places while I was in classes.  But we did go and visit some more monuments.  We went to Sacre-Coeur and visited this area. 

Maissie and I at Sacre-Coeur

There was such green grass at Sacre-Coeur

Maissie and I on Pont Alma in front of the Eiffel Tower

On Maissie’s last full day in Paris, which happened to be a Wednesday, which worked out quite well because I don’t have classes on Wednesdays so we went on a chocolate tour and got to eat some delicious chocolates.  We also did some shopping and eating of pastries and walking through the Luxembourg gardens.  Then on Thursday the 1^st of March I skipped my morning class to take Maissie to the airport and it was sad to see her go but I knew that she couldn’t stay forever.  I was so grateful though for the time that she did get to spend with me and whatnot.  Also I know that she will be arriving in Spain this summer with our parents and then we will have an adventure exploring Spain and France.  We always have to visit France when in Europe (it is like a required stop but I don’t mind!  It’ll be nice to get back to France after being in Spain for 5 weeks studying Spanish).

Hello Warm Weather: Marseille and Arles

Well I am shamefully behind on my blog entries and it has gotten to that point where it is so embarrassing that I didn’t even want to get around to writing but here I am at it again trying to catch up in my blog entries so that you can know what I have been up.  The last place I left you at was while Maissie was here.  Well the weekend that she was here we went with my program to Marseille and Arles in the south of France.  On Friday, February 24^th we took the TGV (which is a train) down to Marseille.  It was a really nice weekend because it was warm and sunny, which was a major improvement to the cold winter weather in Paris. 

Maissie and I made it to Marseille

Our program stayed in a cute hotel in Marseille where Maissie and I shared a room.  Now unfortunately Marseille is not a beach town, it is a port town.  It was nice but I personally like the beach and so was a bigger fan of Nice.  But we still had a nice weekend.  We dropped off our bags at the hotel and then went on a guided tour of Marseille. 

Marseille

A church

A cool mosaic of the city

Walking through the city

More of the city

A museum of some sort

A cool church, unfortunately we didn’t go in

More of a front view of the church

Looking over the port of Marseille

Maissie and I enjoying the nice weather

The port of Marseille

Another view of the port

A boat getting fixed up

Then later in the day Maissie and I weren’t really sure what to do so we went over to the port for the sunset and it was breathtaking. 

Watching the sun slowly working its way on setting

Maissie and I at the port

The sun setting over the port of Marseille

On Saturday, February 25^th Maissie and I were hoping to go to Château D’If (where the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas takes place) unfortunately we didn’t get up early enough and had just missed it.  We could have made it if we didn’t have breakfast at the hotel but I decided it was best to have breakfast since it is just best if we eat in the morning.  So we had a bunch of time to kill before our train to Arles and so we walked around and did some shopping. 

In the morning it was really cloudy and dreary looking

A few hours later it was clear skies and sunny

We then took a train to Arles which wasn’t far at all.  This was a cute little town where Van Gogh painted the majority of his most famous works of art.  After Maissie and I dropped our stuff of in our hotel room we went out and walked around Arles.

A town square in Arles

A cool gate we came across

There is a river at Arles (I believe it is le Rhône)

Roaming around Arles

The streets of Arles

Exploring Arles

Les arènes

Once it got dark Maissie and I went and found something to eat for dinner since we were both starving and we then hung out in the hotel room and watched the French version of The Voice on tv since we didn’t know what else to do.  On Sunday February 26^th we had some time before our train back to Marseille and then Paris so we went on a guided tour of the city of Arles and then explored around some more before we had to head home.  It was really windy though because of the Mistral (at some points we thought we might blow away lol). 

The view from our balcony

A church in Arles

We then headed over to an abbey in Arles and got a tour of that while on our tour of the city.

The hallway in the abbey

The courtyard

Up on the roof

We then headed over to the amphitheater in Arles, it was a cool place to visit.

The amphitheater in Arles

Sitting and looking onto the stage

Another view of the amphitheater

We then walked over to the arena and got to learn the history of that.

In the hallways of the arena

In the arena (they were doing restoration work)

It was really windy even in the arena

Maissie walking down the streets of Arles

We had a nice weekend exploring the south of France and getting to know some cities that we had never visited before.  We headed back home to Paris and it was cold again but we were very blessed with awesome weather down south.