Brest.

I arrived in Brest late Thursday night, exhausted after 12 hours of travel. My friend from my first stay in France, Jules, met me at the train station and took me back to his home where I stayed for the weekend. On Friday we woke up early and relaxed around the house for a few hours. After having lunch with Jules and his parents, we went to a beach near Brest (Plage de Moulin Blanc). Afterwards we met Jules’ friend Guillaume and visited the American monument in Brest, and the old castle. Who knew there was an American monument in Brest? Not I! It is in memory of the World Wars, and the alliance between France and the United States I believe. The castle is also a maritime museum now, it was rather interesting.

Saturday we spent at a different, much prettier, beach about 30 minutes from Brest. The weather was perfect for the beach, I was lucky in that aspect, because Bretagne is notorious for clouds and Jules’ said it wasn’t good weather before my arrival and wouldn’t be after my departure. The water of the Atlantic was a bit to cold for my taste so I just dipped my feet. We returned to Jules’ house after a long day at the beach for dinner with his parents. After dinner we went to see Melancholia, a movie that appeared at the Cannes Film Festival. It was a bizarre film about the end of the world. I cannot say I liked it or disliked it; it was just interesting.

Sunday we visited Oceanapolis, the aquarium. It was great, I absolutely love watching seals, they are so playful! Overall, it was a relaxing and nice weekend in Brest.

Germany.

Well I spent 9 days in Germany and it just flew right by so quickly I didn't even write about it! I arrived Tuesday afternoon, exhausted from only 3 hours of sleep the night before and 6 hours of travel starting at 6 am. So when I arrived at Lena’s house, I had a little snack, and took a much needed nap. I was served a traditional German dinner of meatballs, potatoes, and cauliflower before heading to one of Lena’s friends houses. We hung out and got to know each other a bit and then we returned home.

The next days flew by before I knew it. We visited the city where Jules (Lena’s boyfriend) will study, the huge mall nearby, the Ikea in the Netherlands to shop for everyone’s new apartments. We also went out to Germanys largest Nightclub on Friday for a night of dancing. Saturday we celebrated Philips birthday at his house with a barbeque get together. Monday we went to Amsterdam, and gawked at the prostitutes in the red light district, and laughed at the souvenir shops selling marijuana paraphernalia. Tuesday, Lena and I visited her new apartment to take measurements for wallpaper. Wednesday, my last full day, I visited a nearby castle with the family and for dinner we went with all of Lena’s friends for an all-you-can-eat spare ribs buffet.

Dinner at the Portugese restaurant.

 Lena and her dad in front of the school.

 Index, the gigantic night club.

 One of Amsterdam's beautiful canals

 The castle near Nordhorn.

I had a fantastic time. The best part was that for the first time in forever I didn’t feel like a tourist or a guest, I felt at home. I have Lena and her parents to thank for that. I guess she’s returning the favor for her time spent with us.

Paris

day 1:

We arrived in Paris Saturday evening settled into our apartment and then went out to a nice dinner near by. We are in the 1st district, so we are right by the Louvre and right in the heart of Paris! We had an expensive, but delicious, dinner. I figured I've got to splurge one night in Paris. We had Duck breast in raspberry sauce with potatoes, DELICIOUS! Then Chris, Brad and I shared 2 desserts: chocolate cake with a hot fudge center and vanilla ice cream on top, then a slice of amazing cheesecake with a bit of a cinnamony crust and a scoop of salted caramel ice cream on top, and a drizzle of amazing raspberry sauce. So worth the 22 euro we spent! Then we went back to the apartment to wait for May, who arrive at around 11pm, we then all played French Scrabble for a few hours until bed.

day 2:

We woke up at 9 got ourselves ready and finally out the door by 10:30, then we went to search for a market to buy food. We found some places open on Sunday thankfully. I bought some chicken veggies and potatoes to make dinner (for a much more modest price) and I also bought some croissants, bread, and yogurt for breakfast. We dropped the food at home, quickly ate breakfast, then headed out to get into the Louvre for free on the first Sunday of the month? NOT, the 3 hour line wrapped entirely around the building, which is HUGE. So we took a bunch of pictures of the outside and the garden. Then set out walking towards the Arc de Triomphe. We got sidetracked and looked at a few more beautiful buildings, and eventually made it over to the Eiffel Tower instead. Then we had a delicious Chinese lunch before heading to the Arc de Triomphe finally. We stupidly did not realize there was an underground path leading to the Arc from the other side of the street, since it is in the middle of an enormous round-about, so instead we played a little game of Frogger and ran as fast as we could when we saw a break in traffic. After the Arc we took a little stroll down the Champs-Elysses, looking at stores much too expensive for us, but sadly many were closed because it was Sunday. We strolled a little more and finally decided to head back home to relieve our exhausted feet and make dinner. We spent the night, once again, playing French scrabble.

day 3:

We slept in a little out of necessity today. We finally go out of the apartment around 11:30 and headed to Notre Dame. We waited in the line for not too long and went in an then back out. We had lunch indoors at a restarant because it was starting to rain. We waited out the rain and I had my first ever Croque Monsieur (slice of thick bread, ham, and cheese toasted). Afterwards we walked over to the Centre Pompidou which is a museum of modern art that is seriously the most disgusting piece of architecture on the earth. We had ice cream for dessert: caramel pecan-toooo delicious! Then we did a little bit of window shopping. We were exhausted, and Brad wasn't feeling well, so we made it an early day and headed back to the apartment to rest  at 5pm.

Overall it has been a satisfying Paris experience. Being my second visit, I am not as anxious to see everything there is to see, but rather just relax and enjoy the beauty of Paris and the fact that I am on vacation! Tomorrow early morning I leave for Germany, 6 am, so I will have to the leave the apartment at 5 am to be safe. I am very excited to see Lena and see a new place with new people.

c'est fini.

Well, my final paper is turned in, my stuff is nearly all packed, my final dinner in Grenoble is being digested. The trip of a lifetime is coming to a close...NOT! Now the fun starts. Not that Grenoble wasn't fun, we had our great moments together, and the weekend getaways were fantastic, but now off to new things. The best part? No reading, no homework! If you were wondering why I've been so absent on the blog lately, its all the dang school work! I guess that's why its called study abroad.

But now I'll have wonderful time to read Quatre Filles et un Jean (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants in French) on the train to Paris, and time to throroughly soak up my last few weeks here in Europe.

So here is the agenda:
Tomorrow I leave Grenoble for good at 12:05pm on a train to Paris. I'll arrive just after 3pm, and wait for one of the friends I'm staying with until his train arrives an hour later (more precious reading time!) We will then set off for the apartment we'll be staying in. My three friends have rented it for the week, and are graciously letting me stay for just 3 days to get my taste of Paris for a very good price. We'll spend Saturday evening exploring The City of Light at night, which is a side of Paris I've had yet to see. Sunday we hope to go to the Lourve because it is free the first Sunday of each month, and other than that, our plans are in Chris' hands. I am up for anything, as I've already been to the city once, so I'm not immensely concerned about missing anything iconic.

Tuesday morning I'll leave Paris for Germany! I'll arrive in the Munster train station where one or more of the wonderful Ostendorps will pick me up and bring me to their home in Nordhorn. I left the plans in Lena's hands, so we will see what she has in store for me. I believe an Amsterdam trip was in the plans though.

On Thursday the 18th I'll leave Germany for Brest where I will visit Jules (a friend from my first stay in France). He has graciously offered to entertain me for 4 days, once again my laziness in planning is apparent, as I am leaving that up to him. Then finally Monday the 22nd I will return to Paris for one last night. I think I may decide to stay closer to the airport for easier morning commute and a cheaper room. finally my flight will leave Paris around 11 or so Tuesday morning and I will finally be on my way home. It will be bittersweet, but I will definitely be ready. I'm missing my wonderful family, friends, and kitties so very much!

Hopefully I will have time to share my wonderful experiences as they happen. Until then it's Goodbye Grenoble, Hello Vacation! :)

A photo of the old church and the farm market from one of my last days here.

final week.

Today marks the start of my very last weekend here in Grenoble. I absolutely cannot believe how time has flown by. Today was the last day of CUEF classes, so I'm going to go out with my fellow UMich classmates to celebrate. We are hoping to find a nice new restaurant to try, but knowing us, we'll end up at "The Mist," our favorite spot.

I took a walk through town alone yesterday, and saw so much I'd never even seen before. Its amazing I've been here over a month but haven't even scratched the surface of what Grenoble is. I hope this next week will be full of new discoveries and adventures, as well as plenty of reading and paper writing for my UMich class. I have no fun travel plans this weekend, so I hope to visit the farm market FINALLY tomorrow morning, and do some more downtown strolling. Then, one more week of class and it will be Goodbye Grenoble Hello Paris! Although its a bit sad to be finishing up for good in Grenoble, I can;t say i'm not eager as ever to begin my travels.

I'll start with 3 nights in Paris with some friends, then head to Germany for just over a week to see the lovely Lena and the rest of the Ostendorps. Then for my final few days, I'll head over to Bretagne where I was 3 years ago, to visit and old friend and revisit some cherished places. Until then, I'll have plenty of work to keep me busy.

Au Revoir!

Opposites.

On Saturday I went on my last CUEF excursion to Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, and all I can say about the two cities is that they are complete opposites. 

Marseille is a huge city (2nd largest in France), with a very high immigrant population. It is a port city on the Mediterranean. My first view upon entering Marseille was a homeless camp underneath an overpass. Their were tents set up and mountains of trash everywhere, not exactly the beauty one expects from France. We hated to say it, but we all felt a little bit like we were visiting a third-world country. We spent half of our time at the beach, which would have been nice had it not been for the "Mistral," what they call the wind that brings in the cold water and kicks little rocks and debris at you while you try to bask in the sun. After a brief stay and picnic at the beach, we headed back to the Vieux Port (old port) part of town, which was busy with tourists and vendors selling just about anything the tourist would buy. We weren't sure what to do with our time, so we split into groups of those who wanted to eat and those who didn't. I picnicked at the beach so I went with the non-eaters, and we decided to check out the old part of town. We got sidetracked my H&M and Starbucks on our way. I bought a skirt and a dress, both for 10 euro, and then we headed off in search of this old neighborhood. We finally found it and it really wasn't all it was chocked up to be. Just old apartments, an old looking church, a museum that we didn't visit, and a LOT of dog poop. The French generally don't clean up their poo, and in Marseille it was particularly bad, you have to watch with every step. We finally left Marseille just after 5:30..well that's when we got on the bus. We then proceeded to drive around the city for over an hour trying to apparently get somewhere else, not sure where. The bus was too big for the narrow streets, we ended up backing into a pole and breaking off a huge piece of the bumper, and then we just gave up and headed out of town.

Beach in Marseille

 Old part of town (complete with the characteristic graffiti of France)

 Le Vieux Port

Now that I've drawn a good picture of Marseille for you, you can be assured that since Aix was the complete opposite, it was an absolutely beautiful, tranquil, and clean city. Aix is much smaller than Marseille, and is a very expensive high class city. The Monoprix (grocery/convenience store) was even glamorous looking. There was a little artisan market going on in the middle of the main street where hats, paintings, and other beautiful things were sold. We ate at a nice restaurant (that had a bathroom-the main reason for our choice.) and the service was excellent and the people friendly. We wandered around town while the sun set for a while and then, very content, boarded the bus for home at around 10pm.

Fancy Monoprix (imagine a Meijer looking like this)

 Pretty little fountain in the middle the main street

We finally arrived in Grenoble at around 2 am. The bus made many stops as to avoid forcing the students to take taxis, which are expensive, and the buses and trans stop before 2am. thankfully, the driver was kind enough to take me right to my bus stop because apparently I don't live in the best area for walking alone at night. So I got home by 2:30, but some others didn't arrive home till 3:30 because they had to use more creative ways of making it home safely. Overall, it was an interesting day filled with contrast and new impressions of France. I can say, one day when I have a lot of money and can return to France, I will make a point to stay a few days in Aix, but I will definitely skip over Marseille!

adventurous eating.

Clearly the workload in my classes has begun to pile up and I've had less and less time to write. However, today I thought I'd procrastinate and jot down some thoughts before writing my two small essays. The first is that I have become much more adventurous in my eating since arriving in France. I try almost everything-hot, cold things sometimes still give me the creeps to try. I've tried things that I didn't think I could possibly like, for example, cooked red cabbage with ham? It was actually good, not filling enough as the only dish, but tasty. Anyway, here is my promise I've made to myself, don't let me become lazy and break it when I return to the States; I promise to try more things that you cook Nancy! I know sometimes if you think outside of the box and make something new, I am not very welcoming of your efforts, so I promise I will be better about trying things.

Also, I can't let myself forget again how much I love raspberry jam. I realized I liked it 3 years ago when I was in France, and somehow forgot and never really ate it between that time. Now I've rediscovered my long lost love. Speaking of raspberries, there better be plenty left on Grandpa's bushes when I get home!!!

What else do I have to say? Nothing really. Classes are boring this week. Its been cold this week. Finally it didn't rain today, but we had to go to the store and buy more warm clothes yesterday because its so cold in the morning when we leave for class. I bought a pair of loose brown cotton pants and a cardigan with zebras all over it. Its going to be highs of mid seventies for the next 10 days, so says the forecast. everyone is a bit stressed and homesick at this point. One girls dad arrived last night for a visit and to see the Tour de France. We were all pretty jealous. The Tour de France will come through town Saturday, sadly I'll be in Marseille with my program, but I figured, I saw the finish of the Tour on the Champs-Elysees the last time I was in France, and I have never seen Marseille, so it takes priority. hopefully it will be a fun trip!

Okay now maybe, just maybe, I'll get some work done before dinner.
A toute suite!