Home, Sweet, Home!

Home

Sweet

Home

After 3 weeks out of the country, it felt pretty darn good to step off the plane in Minnesota. My flights back from Paris were all on time & went smoothly. Even my 7 hour layover in Iceland went pretty fast. When I arrived in Minneapolis, I had been up for 23 hours straight. By the time I got home, it was about 7 pm... I walked into my condo to find that it was 86 degrees... I hadn't ran my a/c while I was gone, so it had gotten mighty steamy... To make matters worse, I had left an onion in my cupboard, which under normal circumstances would have been fine, but when it was sitting in the heatbox that was my condo, it was not a good environment for a perishable good... I think next time I leave the country for an extended period of time, I'll be handing my keys over to someone & asking them to turn the a/c on a day or 2 before I get home... and then they would have had to dealy w/ the rotten onion situation.

So given the smell and temperature of my condo, I left immediately & went to my 'happy place'... aka Chipotle. It tasted amazingly good. I had some awesome food in France, but there is no replacement for Chipotle (in my opinion).

I've been back for about just over 72 hours, and the jet lag just started to set in this a.m. Hasn't been too bad, though, so I consider myself pretty lucky. It's been pretty easy to get back into the swing of things and it's actually nice to be back at work.

Since I left France I've had time to reflect back on the trip... It was an amazing time and I am so lucky that I was able to spend that much time over there. At the same time, I am very thankful to be back home. I used to sort of fantasize about having some really cool job that required me to live in Europe... well, after spending 3 weeks over there, I can tell you that it would not be my cup of tea. I love traveling & learning about new cultures, but I have realized that I am an American thru-and-thru & am not quite as 'flexible' as most 27 year olds might be? So I think this officially means that my roots are firmly planted in the US, and most likely are planted right here in the MSP area. So that will probably make mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and all the other relatives that live in the area & read this pretty happy....

So, as part of my final entry of this blog, I am going to summarize what I will & won't miss about my time in France... here goes...

What I Will Miss...

• Pain au Chocolat
• Crepes w/ Nutella & Bananas
• Living with Adrianne & having Elsa just down the hall
• Feeling like I had been transported back to my college years
• Sandwiches on crusty baguettes.

What I Won't Miss

• Multiplying everything by 1.6 to calculate the price in dollars...
• The smell of urine that you find around subway stations & any sort of sheltered area
• The whole money system in general. People hated when I used bills... then on my 2nd to last day, I paid for my 3.5 Euro purchase w/ a 20 Euro note (they actually let me) and the chick gave me 16 Euro's worth of coins. Seriously? Seriously.
• Only understanding about 10% of what people said to me... and feeling of isolation that resulted from the language barrier
• The French Culture's respect for time... or lack there of actually. If a prof shows up for class 15 minutes late, students enact the '15 minute rule' and leave. In France, if you aren't 10-15 minutes late, you are probably not French (the only teacher that was on time was the teacher who was from Austria)

And that concludes the France blog. I had a blast doing this blog, and as a result I will be doing another blog. Details will be forthcoming, but the central theme will probably be book reviews. I tend to read about a book a week so figure I might as well write up a little review and help readers out there know what books to check out & what to avoid. This will require enlisting the help of my creative friend, Brooke. Once I've capitalized on her talents, I'll send out my next blog address.

Until then, au revoir!

Almost home...

I took a bus from Paris to the CDG airport so I could catch a shuttle from the airport to the hotel I am staying at tonight. My flight departs at 8 am tomorrow morning so I wanted to be close to the airport. The bus ride went fine, but I was once again reminded how much I overpacked for this trip. I can almost read people's minds when they see me wrestling my 2 suitcases. One is actually very small - carry on size actually. The other is actually a suitcase I inherited from Brooke when she upgraded her luggage. I think this is the last journey it will make as the handle broke yesterday, so picking it up is pretty challenging... luckily there is a handle on the side, though. So it will make it back to MSP, but will probably RIP after it gets emptied out... This trip has kind of had that effect on more than just my suitcase - I also wore out 2 pairs of shoes, both of which I had recently purchased, so that goes to show how much walking I did!

I got to my hotel and was pleasantly surprised by it. The room is large & it comes with an electric water heater & some packets of hot chocolate. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's little touches like this that I enjoy after the paired down accomodations I've been staying in! The coolest thing about the room is displayed in the picture to the left. Ok, maybe not the coolest thing, but the smartest thing! The 2 boxes to the left are light switches & then you have to put your card in the slot in order to get the lights to work. It's good for the hotel in that you can't have lights on while you are gone so will waste less energy.... and it's good for people like me who have a knack for loosing things like keys! I've never seen this before, but I think that more hotels should move to this system!

So now I am blogging away in the lobby. I just overheard a family of Americans that were asking where the pool was... The front desk guy kindly explained that there is no pool and that no hotels around here have pools. I'm guessing that these Americans are just starting their trip. They are in for a 'treat' if they expect swimming pools in their accomodations... It's times like this where I am thankful that I am somewhat well-traveled and know what to expect when overseas....

Tonight will be a quiet night for me - will probably try to burn up the rest of my phone card minutes and get to bed early. Tomorrow will be a long day. I fly to Iceland at 8 am, and then have a 7 hour layover there... :( Still undecided on whether I'll venture into the city.... Then I have my flight home from Iceland which departs at 4:30 Iceland time & arrives in Minneapolis at 6 pm CST. Which will feel like 1 am. I am going to try not to sleep on the flight so that I can get home, go straight to bed, and hopefully sleep thru until Tuesday a.m. when I get up and have to go back to work!

So this is my final blog entry. I will probably do one last one when I get home, but it will probably be a 'this is what I will/won't miss'. So thanks to you all you faithful blog followers out there! It's been fun recording my time in France, and hopefully you've enjoyed virtually joining me on my adventures! I've had a wonderful time here, but am very, very excited to get back to the good 'ol US of A. Everytime I leave the country, I am reminded of how good we have it back home; this trip is no exception. I will probably dream of Mt Dew, Chipotle, and currency-friendly shop keepers tonight! ;)

So au revoir - I hope to see all of you soon!

Final weekend in Paris

My final weekend in Paris was alot of fun! Was nice to be back in a familiar area. I had already checked in when I wrote my last post, but had basically dropped my bags & left immediately so I could get the tickets & get ahold of Anna. When I came back to get ready for the evening, I had more time to check out the room.... and the lovely view! (see photo on the left) I wish I had a picture of my last room at L'Ouest as it was like night & day. This one was about 1/2 the size, and I could not see anything besides other buildings when I looked out my window. Not a big deal as I was just staying here for a night. I am glad that my 4 nights when I arrived in Paris were spent in the bigger room with the better view!

After getting ready for the evening, I met up with Anna in the Notre Dame/Saint Chapelle area. It was just a short walk to Saint Chapelle where we attended a concert. I had posted pics of Saint Chapelle from my time in Paris before - it's a gorgeous church with all of these amazing stained glass windows. Absolutely gorgeous and a very neat place to take in a concert. This will probably go down in history as the coolest venue for a concert. It was really intimate - I think I counted about 10-15 rows of chairs, with 12 chairs in each row. So a very small audience. The musicians played a Mozart piece & then a Beethoven piece. Both were beautiful!

After the concert, Anna and I walked thru the area around Saint Chapelle and found a street that was lined with restaurants on either side. We had a hard time choosing a restaurant since all the fixed menus looked good & most had menus that were in the 10-12 Euro range which is pretty good considering the fact that you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert! We settled upon a place that we both thought looked good. I started off with some delicious French Onion Soup. The cheese on it was probably the star of the dish - much better than the cheese you usually see on French Onion soup back home. Anna had mussels which also looked fantastic. After seeing them, I am craving them so may need to hit up this restaurant in Maple Grove that has the best mussels (in my opinion).

Next came the main course - we both had pork in a mustard sauce. It was a huge portion & was delicious! The mustard sauce was wonderful & I was pleasantly surprised to find that the meal included mashed potatoes which a total comfort food for me. They tasted like they were made with Yukon Gold potatoes. I would have probably eaten it all had I not know that dessert came with it.

Next came dessert which was a wonderful chocolate mousse. A perfect way to cap off a wonderful evening. I've had wonderful mousse over here, which Anna assures me is very easy to make! We'll see... might need to get my mom's help on perfecting that. A few people from my department at work are going on overseas trips to places such as China, Russia, and Italy. This fall when we finish our budget season, we are going to have a little 'multi-cultural' diversity event & we will each make a dish from the region we visited... so hopefully I can master a mousse recipe by then! ;)

Anna and I both went home to our respective places and decided to meet up the following morning to attend Mass at Notre Dame. We attended the 10 a.m. Mass which featured the Gregorian chant. I enjoyed Mass here more than when I attended at Sacre Couer, but it still wasn't as great as I had imagined to be. Part of the reason for that might be that visitors are constantly wandering around the perimeter of the church, taking photos. So hearing them shuffling around & seeing the flash of cameras is pretty distracting.... but I know everyone wants to see Notre Dame. It's just too bad that they don't close the church to visitors during Mass. After Mass I lit a candle for Heidi since she has a big job interview this week (everyone, pray that Heidi gets this school social work job she's interviewing for!!!). Then we headed out and walked along the Seine from the Notre Dame all the way to the start of the Champs Elysees. It's much cooler in Paris than it was in Lyon, so I was enjoying the breeze that came off of the water.

Since Anna had some along to a Catholic Mass for me, she took me to an area of Paris that is inhabited by many Russians. She took me to a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church. I went inside briefly - couldn't take pictures but it was gorgeous. There were many people in there praying and I noticed alot of people making the sign of the cross, so there must be some similarities between Catholicism and Russian Orthodox?

After grabbing some lunch, Anna and I parted ways so I could find my way to my hotel room near the airport. I had a wonderful time with Anna - it was great having some company on the final leg of my journey. Helps to stave off the homesickness I always feel at the end of the trip. Hopefully I will see her again - perhaps when I return to Paris or maybe in Russia some day as I'd love to come to Russia with my co-worker, Yulia, and see the country she speaks so fondly of..... Time will tell!

Back in Paris

After 2 weeks in Lyon, I am back in Paris! Even though I spent more time in Lyon, coming back to Paris was almost like coming back to the familiar - almost like coming home in a way. Perhaps because I found my way around the city pretty easily? Not sure. I am staying in the same hotel that I stayed in last time I was here, so there is a feeling of familiarity. The reception woman actually remembered me which was pretty cool.

Getting to the Hotel was a challenge in itself, though. I did NOT pack lightly for this trip, so am not super 'mobile'. I didn't want to navigate countless sets of stairs/escalators, so set my mind on splurging and getting a taxi. I really hate the approach to taxi's in France. I am really glad that we can just hail them back in the US... it's just a pain, to be quite honest. I found a taxi queue pretty quickly, but then found myself in the middle of what I describe as 'policeman pandemonium'. I do not know what was going on, but there were police everywhere. I started to count, and there were 14 police vans in this intersection. No idea what was going on, but policemen were running all over the place - many with very large guns & wearing those 'turtle' outfits... so pretty much any cabbie in his right mind was avoiding the area, so I gave up & went bck to the train station & decided to just take the metro. I wasn't sure what line to take, but I must have looked lost as this Frenchman approached me. I must do the 'I have no idea where I'm going' look mastered as this is not the first time I've been approached to see if I need help. And it's usually by a 'suave' French man.

I'm going to take time now to discuss how incredibly different French men are. They are direct. And full of 'lines'. They love to take your hand & kiss it. It's what you see in movies when French men are portrayed, and I thought it was probably an exaggeration. It's not. After telling me which line I needed to take to get to where I wanted to go, the gentleman, let's call him Frenchy, asked if I knew 'what the source of my elegance' was. I was like - excuse moi? I was wearing a comfy travel outfit, had no make up on, had flip flops on, and my hair was in a messy up-do. Not exactly the stuff of elegance. He then proceeded to tell me that the drama of my eyes was the source of my elegance. Right, Frenchy. As I have done the other times I've been sort of 'approached' by French men, I made up a boyfriend back home... which I've learned isn't the most effective way to scare them off, as they start saying things like, 'and how could your American boyfriend let you come over here alone?' etc, etc. So yah, French men are pretty confident & persistent. Maybe since they can't really get anywhere by being enthusiastic at work, given the rigidity of their employment system, they have to have an outlet for it....


Anyways, so after getting to my hotel buying tickets for tonight's concert at St Chapelle, I figured I earned myself some dessert. So I stopped at my favorite little bakery near my hotel & had this delicious little tart. Sort of like a cheesecake with a different sort of crust - almost pie crust-like, but more firm. Was delicious and a nice way to treat myself.




Tonight I am meeting up with Anna, Yulia's friend. We are going to a concert at St Chapelle, the church w/ all the stained glass windows that I saw on the first lag of my trip. I believe the musician being featured is Beethoven. After the concert, we are going to have dinner in the area. St Chapelle is located on the same island as Notre Dame; it's a really cute area with lots of little restaurants. I am planning on playing it safe tonight with my meal - actually am really hoping to find some roasted chicken. The French have allegedly mastered this, and I have yet to have that dish since I arrived so hopefully we find a restaurant that serves it! It's nice to know I'll have my own personal translator, Anna, to help me navigate the menu!

Au Revoir for now...

How does one go about eating bone marrow?

Friday night was the last night that Adrianne, Elsa, and I would all be in Lyon together, so we went out for one last meal together. Elsa's fiance, whose name is also Adrianne, flew in that day so the 4 of us went out for a traditional French meal.

We walked from our hotel to the Old Town area, which is our favorite part of Lyon. We were all a little sad that we didn't have more of a chance to enjoy Lyon while we were here, but that's the way it goes when you cram 4 credits into 2 weeks.

We wandered thru the Old Town area until we came upon a grouping of restaurants. After checking out the menu, we decided on this one since it had alot of 'French' dishes. I believe the name of the restaurant translates to "Beef Master" or perhaps "Teacher of Beef"? Not sure, but the menu looked interesting, so we sat down.

As has been the case in many restaurants, the waiter didn't speak much English. We tried to get by with our phrase book & the little French we knew between the 4 of us, but that only got us so far. So eventually, the waiter grabbed the phrase book & tried to find the French words he was saying. Then we find out that his first language is actually Italian; Elsa's fiance is from Malta (island near Italy) and is fluent in Italy, so for the rest of the evening, Adrianne served as our tranlator which worked like a charm!!

Since this was probably going to be my last nice meal in France, I decided to be a little bit adventurous with what I was going to order. We all did the fixed menu which came w/ an appetizer, entree, and dessert. I had a tough time deciding on an appetizer... and a tough time translating the menu (no English translation was provided). I figured out that one of the choices featured the bone marrow of a cow... not something I'd ever venture to eat back home, but I figured - heck, I am in France, might as well give it a shot. Plus, I had read about the use of bone marrow in cooking in the book "Julie & Julia"; the author had raved about how good it was, so I thought - why not give it a try. When I ordered it, I never imagined that it would actually come in an actual BONE though!!! I can't really describe what it tasted like. The top was kind of crusted over, but once you got thru that, it was pretty soft. Wasn't the most delicious thing I've eaten, but was definitely 'interesting'. I am glad I tried it, though.

After dinner, I went to find the restrooms, and came to realize how far this restaurant took their "beef" theme. I walked down these spiral steps into the basement of the restuarant where the bathrooms are located & came face to face with a life-size replica of a cow!!! Not something I was expecting to see. It was so odd & hilarious. The 4th wall of the restroom was a glass wall so that you'd have a lovely view of the cow while going to the bathroom. Just odd & not something you'd see in the US (unless you were in some sort of theme restaurant). Inside the restaurant, one of the walls was covered in cow hide, as were the booths. Also, they had a gigantic cylindrical container that appeared to be full of Rose (popular wine in this region) with a fish swimming in it.... how that fits in w/ the cow theme is beyond me....

We headed back to the hotel after dinner since we were all pretty tired out. Was probably one of my most interesting meals since I have been here, so a good way to finish off our time in Lyon.

On Saturday I will take a train to Paris and will stay there until my flight leaves early Monday morning. I have enjoyed my time in France but am definitely looking forward to returning to the states!

An evening of celebrating!

The program concludes at noon on Friday, so most of our group got together last night (Thursday) to go out to dinner. Finding a restaurant that could seat 26 on such short notice was a challenge, but luckily one of the French students in our class found a place that was willing to take us on. The weather FINALLY cooled down so I was able to wear trousers and a long-sleeved shirt! Was wonderful! The restaurant we went to was more German than French actually. Had a good time - food was so-so, but it was more about the people than the food.

The girls in the picture above & to the left are Elsa & Adrianne, the 2 girls I became closest to. Adrianne & I were only one door down from Elsa, so that worked out really well. We spent quite a bit of time together, working on homework & complaining about homework!

Melinda, (on the right) one of my group members, ordered a seafood dish... which came w/ a huge serving of sauer kraut in the middle. Sort of random!! She doesn't like sauer kraut so we happy to let us all try it - it wasn't very good so I am glad I stayed away from that part of the menu!





All in all, it was a very fun evening - we hadn't had much of a chance to sit back, relax, and enjoy each other's company, so I am glad we all got together one last time before everyone goes their separate ways.

Being chased down by a floor cleaner....

So last night, I went to grab dinner with 2 other girls so we'd have a proper break from all the studying. We've all had it with the grumpy convenience store guy on the way to school, so decided to buy some soda to have in our room (caffeine is a must when you have about 8 hours of class a day!!).

The grocery store closes at 8:30, so we got there no later than 8:15. Closing time is definitely different in France compared to the US. In the US we definitely do a few things to prepare for a closing, but I don't think any store actually thinks they'll lock the doors & leave at 8:30. Well, in France, things are a little different. Possibly becasue of their 35 hour work week? So maybe they don't pay their employees past the 8:30 closing time? That's my educated guess. When we walked in, the guy at the till was counting cash & doing some cleaning around his station, so we knew they were starting the closing routine. Well, when we got to the back of the store where the coca cola is located, we encounter the floor cleaning guy. He had a big machine, sort of similar to a street cleaner. We thought he'd see us consumers in the soda lane & pick another route. Not the case. He came forging ahead right at us. I actually sort of squeeled & jumped out of the way.

It kind or reminded me of when I was a child - for some reason, I was really afraid of the vacuum cleaner, so sometimes when my sister Emily would vacuum, she'd come towards me & I would jump out of the way due to a strange sense of fear/danger. Well, this was apparently a repressed fear that resurfaced when I came head to head with this floor cleaner guy. It was like playing chicken with oncoming traffic - who was going to move out of the way first?

So that was our interesting experience for the evening! I got quite a bit of teasing from Elsa & Adrianne - they thought it was funny how fast I moved & sort of 'hid' from the floor cleaning guy in another aisle.

After the grocery store experience, we stopped off for some savory crepes at a place down the road. The one I had was DELICIOUS. Had steak, ratatouille, and gruyere cheese. Was the perfect way to cap off what was a sort of long day. Actually, when I ordered the steak one, it actually said 'Steak Hache' on the menu. With my limited French, I thought this meant the 'hash' dish mom makes back home with leftover steak quite a bit since it's one of my dad's favorites (basically finely chopped meat w/ potatoes & onions - a delicacy in the eyes of my father). I was ordering it to sort of feel 'close' to my dad since it's something he absolutely loves. I was wrong on the translation - Steak Hache actually means ground beef. Was still wonderfully delicious.

The challenges of getting change

Alright, so I have been in the country for about 2 weeks as of tomorrow. And I am a bit befuddled by their relationship to money here. Namely, their inflexibility when it comes to making change. Example - this morning I stopped off at a convenience store to buy a coke & a water. The total of my purchase was 3 Euro. I never seem to have the 1 and 2 Euro coins, so I had to pay with a 5 Euro bill. In the US, paying for a $3 purchase with a $5 bill is just fine. In fact, paying for a $3 purchase with a $20 bill is not a big deal at all. Um, not the case here. The guy looks at me w/ the most pained look and asks if I have coins. I physically show him that I have none since it was too early for me to translate "I don't have any coins" into French (I'm running on less than 5 hours of sleep). So he painstakingly took my bill and gave me my change. This is not an isolated incident. The same thing has happened to me multiple times, and has happened to my roommate & others I have gotten to know over here.

So what's the deal Europe? I understand that alot of these convenience stores & "Tabacs" are ran by small business owners, but I still think it's a bit odd to throw such a stink about giving someone 2 Euro change out of 5 Euro bill! Plus,this has happened to me in large grocery stores & other chain stores. To add to this frustration, when you withdraw 100 Euro from an ATM, regardless of the bank of the ATM, you always get a 50 Euro bill, 2 20's, and a 10. What is a girl to do with a 50 Euro bill? I'm on a bit of a budget, so I am not exactly wracking up 48 Euro tabs. So I have found that McDonalds is the only place that will make change for me. I made a personal goal to not go to McDonalds while over here, but given my need for smaller change, it's become imparative for me to go & get an ice cream cone every time I withdraw cash from an ATM so the friendly McDonalds employee will give me change for my 50 Euro bill.

Alright, that's my rant for the day! I seriously have encountered very little rudeness here, but this money-change situation has gotten a bit old. I would just resort to using a credit card, but it's more economically beneficial for me to take out 100 Euro at a time & eat the fee, rather than pay 3% on every foreign transaction.

Perhaps I should write to the major banks of France & ask them to please revise their ATM distribution policy & only distribute 5 Euro bills. Or actually, I am envisioning a 'Chucky Cheese' coin distribution system where on every corner or major street, they have a change machine so you can turn your 50 Euro bill into 25-50 coins. Pretty practical and it would be nice to avoid these uncomfortable exchanges.

Alright, this is my one & only rant for the day. Like I said, I'm low on sleep, have written 2 papers, have 2 left to write, and 2 presentations to do tomorrow. I expected a heavy workload, but the disorganization of the French approach to school has started to get to this type-A, anal retentive American. :) And yes, I have confirmed that the disorganization that we are experiencing is the norm and most certainly NOT an isolated experience.

Alright, rant finished! Hope everyone's week is off to a great start!

First bout of homesickness

Today we slept in a little again. We know we have a busy week ahead of ourselves, so figured we better get some sleep now. We already know we have a presentation, individual paper, and 2 group papers. And we have 2 classes we haven't started yet, so this next week is going to be total crunch time.

We had a big day the previous day, so decided to grab some lunch, sit by the canal, and read for a bit. I started reading a book called, "Waiting for White Horses". It is set in Minnesota (the Leech Lake area to be exact), and is written by a Minnesotan who typically writes for Outdoors magazines. Anyways, it's sort of the story of the bumps in the road of this man's life. I've been out of the country just shy of 2 weeks, and have only talked to my mom for a brief couple of minutes. So I haven't had a whole lot of contact with people back home. I guess it started to catch up with me. Reading this book and hearing him describe the scenery around his lake cabin just made me think of mom, dad, and my siblings that are all back at the cabin. Don't get me wrong - I feel incredibly lucky to get to spend 3 weeks in Europe, but I guess the feelings of homesickness snuck up on me. Also, in the book, the author talks quite a bit about hunting and fishing, so it made me think of my brothers and dad... and where I came from, and I guess that just snowballed into making me miss home.

It's probably inevitable that I would feel like this at some point. I think the site of the lake and the similar smells really made me think more of home. I haven't been anywhere that has reminded me of home until we got to Annecy. But really, I am pretty lucky to even miss home. There are countless people out there that don't have that closeness with my family that I do; so I was actually a little thankful that I felt homesick, if that makes any sense at all? And nothing clears up homesickness than being busy... which I will be this week. Plus I got a chance to talk to my mom which really helped!

The posts from here on out will be pretty sporadic. Don't think anyone would get much entertainment out of a photo of me pounding away at the keyboard! I am really looking forward to having all the paper writing behind me! We'll be done around noon on Friday, and then I head back to Paris on Saturday until my flight out on Monday morning. But if I encounter anything interesting (like dancing clowns or more weddings), I'll be sure to post!

Au revoir until next time!

Another day in paradise

Saturday got off to a later start than usual. The nice thing about France is that everything seems to start a little later. So we usually don't eat until around 10 pm here, so not starting your day until 9 or so isn't too big of a day since you still have 12 hours to get things done. We headed out to have lunch and then walked around to look for a place to rent bikes. The main attraction of Annecy is, of course, Lac d'Annecy. It is huge and is nestled into the French Alps. Makes for a pretty picturesque backdrop. The water is sort of an ocean blue and is unbelievably blue.

Aside from the Lake, Annecy is also famous for it's old town area, Vieux Ville. This area of Annecy gives it it's reputation as "The Venice of France." And is it ever, complete with the canal ways and adorable bridges. I have never been to Venice, but this is how I imagine it looking. It's quite a romantic backdrop, so is full of quite a few couples; one of the bridges is even called "Pont d'Amour" which translates to bridge of love. But there were also alot of families so we didn't feel too out of place.

It took us quite awhile to find a bike rental place. I had to ask 3 different people; I know how to say "I am looking for a bike to rent" but I definitely could NOT understand what they said back to me. We tried to utilize hand gestures, but it still took us a good hour to find it. Which was fine, because often times, you come across the most interesting sites when you are lost. Like this wedding couple that we came across. I felt like quite a voyeur taking a picture, but it was just such a Parisien moment! You can't probably tell in the pic, but the bride's dress has some purple gossimer or some sort of material (Aunt Betty, the fabric pro, would know!). She also was wearing purple glasses. And purple shoes. And the groom's shirt is purple. Not something you'd ever see in the States, but it was so, well, Parisien! :)

After that, we finally got our 3rd set of hand gesture directions & figured out where the bike place was! Success! The guy had lived in the Mt Hood area for a few years so spoke wonderful English. We rented our bikes and were off. There is a wonderful 2 lane bike path that winds around the lake. Annecy is actually just one of many towns on the lake. They are each a few kilometers apart, and are the most adorable little villages. We had been biking for quite awhile and were out of water so decided to stop at a little cafe off the bike path. We were trying to figure out where on the map we were, so I approached the guy who sold us our waters & asked. He got quite the interesting grin on our face, and then pointed to way off the map & said, um "ici!" which means here. Yah, we had underestimated how far we'd biked and were off the map! He had a good laugh about these 2 sort of lost Americans. The map above is sort of small, but if you click on it, it will be a larger image - we biked from Annecy at the top of the map, down to Duigt, which is towards the bottom laugh. Granted, these towns are pretty close together, but still - we'd gone quite a ways!

We kept going a ways as we could see a castle. We came upon this cool little tunnel that you had to bike thru. Was a weird sensation to bike thru a tunnel, but also cool at the same time!

We came out on the other side and kept going until we got to this castle that we could see from the cafe where we'd stopped for water. We got out but unfortunatley it was a private residence so we couldn't get very close. We were still able to snap a decent photo of it.

After that, we figured we better head back since we had to have the bikes back within 2 hours. We got back into Annecy with plenty of time to spare, so we hung out around the canal area and stubled upon yet another wedding! Had to be a voyeur again and take yet another picture since this struck me as very Venetian since they are getting into a gondola-esq boat.

We returned the bikes, and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. We had biked quite a ways so had worked up an appetite. We walked along the path along the lake, enjoying the evening sun. This is definitely a place that I will return to. I thought to myself - someday, I will return here when I am married so I can show this place off to my husband. It's like a combination of Battle Lake, New Zealand, and Steamboat Springs (all places very near & dear to my heart) all rolled into one.


We walked into the Old Town area to find a place for dinner. Each side of the canal is lined with cute little sidewalk cafes and restaurants, so choosing a place to eat is pretty tough. We stopped along the way to take some more pictures. Strange thing - as I was waiting for Adrianne to snap a photo, a breeze blew thru and the smell that came off the water was virtually identical to the smell of Battle Lake. Your scent of smell is the sense most closely linked with memory, so I was definitely thinking about mom & dad & what they were up to back at the cabin...

After looking at multiple places, we settled on a place that had a mixed menu that looked really good. It was call Petit Chatelet. We sat outside, but could see inside & it reminded me of something you'd see in northern Minnesota - sort of a log cabin feel. Both Adrianne and I settled on the fixed menu, and chose the duck breast. Well, it didn't really turn out to be a breast of duck. It was liver. Which is fine, but not what I was expecting, and I am just NOT a liver person. I guess I couldn't confirm this until I tried this as this was technically the first time I had eaten it. My mom never prepared it growing up (thank Mom!!!), but I had seem plenty of it when I worked at Whitey's in college since one of their specialties was chicken or calves liver. I know this is a delicacy, but it's just not my cup of tea. But at least now I can say I tried it. Mom & Barb - can I sub this in for trying tripes? Or do I still need to do that? ;) The liver did come with Ratatouille which was really good... and made me think of Andrew and James since I had recently watched that movie with them.

After dinner, we headed over to an ice cream place we'd spotted so I could get some gelato. We walked past a guy in a clown suit, making balloon animals. Don't know what his deal was, but he was convinced it was my birthday (no idea why...) so grabbed me & sort of spun me around and tried to sing Happy Birthday. He probably just wanted to dance with a young girl? It was pretty awkward and funny at the same time. Wish I had a pic of that - he was decked out, complete with face paint, a wig, and all. Creepy in a way, but also pretty funny.

Overall, it was a pretty perfect day. Gorgeous weather, a beautiful city, an interesting dining experience, and a little twirl-around with a clown. What more could a girl ask for?

Paradise is found

After the WTO tour, the bus dropped us off at a train station so everyone could go their separate ways. Some were going to Interlaken, some were going to the south of France to check out the French Riviera. Adrianne and I decided to do our own thing and went to Annecy. I had struggled to come up with an idea for our free weekend, but luckily I stubbled across a forum that discussed Annecy. Let it be said that the guide books don't dedicate nearly enough space to this gem. I have been to London, Prague, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Geneva, Paris, and Lyon, and this place, by far, takes the cake. This might have to do with the fact that I'm more of a slow paced, outdoors kind of girls. Part of me wants to write to Lonely Planet or whoever & say - why the heck don't you say more about this gem? But then another part of me doesn't want everyone to know about it... so that when I come back some day, it won't be filled to the brim w/ tourists. And as is usually the case, pictures are not going to do this gem of a city justice!

Don't get me wrong, this place is not undiscovered. It just wasn't full of Americans & other tourists from outside Europe (at least that's how it seemed). I feel like this is where the French & Swiss go to get away. Which you can sort of see by the picture on the right. I had to take a pic of this thru the bus window because it really reminded me of the traffic you see heading up to the lake on 94. Granted, this is a small little road, but man was it backed up! Luckily our bus driver knew of some back roads to avoid some traffic, but the trip still took about 40 minutes longer than it was supposed to.

We got to Annecy and successfully navigated our way to our hotel. Despite the fact that Annecy doesn't get much coverage in publications such as Loney Planet, it's not undiscovered - we had to call 3 different hotels before we found one that had room for us. So the hotel we stayed at wasn't quite in the city, but was a nice 15-20 minute walk, along the lake :), from the city center. We were pleasantly surprised by the size of our room! Originally another person was going to come with us, so we had a room that accomodated 3. It had a double bed & then another murphy bed that was folded out. After checking things out a little closer, we discovered that there was another murphy bed next to the other one! So EXTREMELY spatious by American standards and downright palatial by European standards!!

So we really lucked out. The only interesting thing was the bathroom situation. We had what we joking referred to as a 'bower'. aka a shower that wasn't really a shower... As you can see from the pic, it's basically a tub w/ a shower attachment, but no curtain... So maybe the French like baths better? I have no idea. So it made for some awkward showers; Adrianne basically flooded the bathroom after her first shower, but after that, we got it down. I have a good friend that spent the last 6-8 weeks (not sure how long, sorry Matt!) who has been in Tai Pei - he just had a shower head on the wall - no tub or anything, so it could have been alot worse.

After cleaning up, we walked into town to grab dinner. Even though we are sort of on 'vacation' it had been a stressful week, so Adrianne and I really enjoyed a quiet evening. On the way to our hotel we had already found a restaurant that served really good pizza and inexpensive wine, so we decided to head there for dinner. It was pretty fun trying to decipher what the various ingredients on the menu were. The French phrase book definitely came in handy (thanks, Brooke, good bday gift!). We ordered some pizza & some wine. It was a little cooler here than it was in Lyon, so we were enjoying the outdoor dining, and wonderful food.

Halfway thru dinner we noticed that the tables next to us were speaking english. It was actually 2 different tables w/ a couple at each table. We could hear that they were speaking English, so asked them to snap a picture of us (the picture above). When we were done eating, they were still there, chatting, so we asked them where they were from - one couple was from Norway, one was from Austria. They started teasing us about how 2 girls had ordered a liter of wine to share (I guess they thought that was a bit much?), so after chatting back and forth, they insisted that we join them. It was so much fun. Adrianne and I joked that we were having our own little league of nations. We had an absolute blast with them and talked about various topics from the US Presidential campaign, to the French approach to work/HR, to maternity leave in Norway. It was an unforgetable evening and we walked home, talking about how we learned more from that exchange with them than we probably could have learned in a classroom. Here's a picture of our new found European friends... aka the Friday night League of Nations.

We knew we'd have a full day ahead of us on Saturday, so hit the sack for a wonderful 10 hours of sleep!!!!!

Friday in Geneva

On Friday morning, we took a coach bus from Lyon to Geneva; the purpose of the trip was to tour the World Trade Organization, which is located in Geneva, on the Lake. The drive from Lyon to Geneva was gorgeous - absolutely breath-taking at times. We basically had to drive thru the French alps to get there, so there were some amazing views along the way. We arrived in Geneva and started off our day with a short walking tour of the most 'touristy' area of Geneva, which is the old town area.


Our tour guide was an absolute hoot. There were 2 of them, both in their senior years; the older of the 2 started things off by saying she wanted all of the attractive, young men to come with her. And she was serious! So all the guys took off with her, and us girls stayed with the other lady. She had lots of interesting stories to tell about the area. We started off the tour looking at the Gentleman in this picture. His name is Henri Dunant; he basically inspired the creation of the Red Cross and also is said to have started the concept of the League of Nations.


We walked a little further and came to this little park area that has statues of different men involved in the Reformist movement. There are 4 men in this picture, the most famous of which was John Calvin. He was a reformist back in the 15th century and was a pretty important person in Geneva during those times. I didn't know much about Geneva, so wasn't aware of the Reformist history of that area. Calvin was actually a little bit extreme for the city was kind of banished, but when invited back later on where he enjoyed a pretty prominent role in all decision-making in the city. If you look at a map of Europe, the borders of Switzerland in the area of Geneva are pretty twisty... turns out that chose to have their borders like that to avoid Catholic villages in the area - otherwise, Catholics would have had the majority vote, and thus the power. So at the time of the making of the borders, Protestants had the majority. Now, however, due to immigration and such, the Catholic population is about 60%. I think at the time of the border drawing, it was somewhere between 10-20% so the demographics of the area have drastically changed.



After the tour, we stopped in the 'old town' area to have lunch. Some of my lunches in France have been on the smaller side - which is what I had expected to find in Europe in American portion sizes are pretty OOC (Out of Control!!). Well, apparently that is not the case in Geneva. Check out the salad I had for lunch. It was a salad w/ strawberries, goat cheese, and a balsamic vinagrette. I swear I had like 2 lbs of goat cheese. There were decent sized squares going all the way around the plate - just insane!!!





After lunch, the bus took us up to the WTO site. I actually don't have have any pictures from the WTO. The building was pretty plain, and very tattered inside. I guess they must run a pretty lean operation, which is kind of refreshing to see in an organization like that. It was right on the lake, though, so the setting was beautiful. We were expecting a tour of the WTO, but instead just went into a conference room & an employee of the WTO gave a presentation on what the WTO is and how it operates. It was actually pretty interesting. If law was my thing, this is an area I would really be interested in. She talked alot about the trade negotiations that happen there, and I couldn't help but think how negotiations in that room impacted people back home; she brought up farming and agriculture quite a bit, and especially other nation's opinions about government subsidies in the US. So it as interesting be 1/4 of the way around the world, listening to a woman talk about something that impact the farmers in my small town of Wyndmere, ND.

That was all for Geneva. It was a bit of a whirlwind day, but enjoyable over all! Next stop was Annecy!

Dinner, French style

Last night we had dinner with a local French family. I went with Kaushik, another Indian student that is in our program, and our Carlson professor. Phillipe & Monique were wonderful hosts. They lived out in a suburb of Lyon. Was nice to get out of the city for an evening. They lived on a hill and had a really big back yard. We started out the evening by sitting in their garden area, enjoying some olive tapenade and locally made apertif's (I think this translates to a before-dinner drink?). We chose to try some Vin Peche, which was a wine that Monique had made from peach leaves. She said in the fall, the sun shines on the fruit and the peach leaves actually start to smell like peaches and will take on the fruit's flavor, so you can make wine from them. Was pretty strong tasting stuff, but also very good.

After that, we headed into the dining room to have dinner. Since it has been so hot, Monique prepared a summer meal, which means all of the courses are something that is served cold. We started off with cantoloupe wrapped in Pancetta which was very good - not something I'd think to put together, but the sweetness of the cantaloupe and the saltiness of the pancetta made a great combination. Next came the main course, which was the most interesting course of the meal. I don't know what they call it in French, but it was basically a gelatin dish with chicken and tomatoes. Kind of like our jello molds with fruit in them that you might see in the midwest, but with chicken and tomatos instead! The gelatin that held everything together tasted like chicken, so that was a little different. It was pretty good, though. I recently read the book 'Julie & Julia' which is about an American girl who decides to take a year and make every recipe in Julia Child's, 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking'. In the book, she talks about the various recipes she made; there was an entire section of Julia Child's book decated to the making of these various gelatins so it must be something that the French are quite fond of! I can't say I'd order it in a restaurant but it was definitely interesting to try.

After the main course, we had a cheese course. They served us various types of cheeses, some of which we had tried at our cheese party earlier this week. My favorite was one that was very soft and creamy. It was on the sweeter side so is considered a dessert cheese. They served the cheese to us with a nice crusty bread.


Lastly we had some nice strawberrries and a selection of sweets. One of the sweets they served sort of reminded me of krumkaka - I am probably buchering the spelling on that, but it's a dessert that is rolled so hopefully those out there reading this know what I am talking about!

All in all, the evening was a lot of fun. Monique & Phillipe actually spent 13 months in Wisconsin so were very familiar with the Midwest. Phillipe was a research scientest so came over to work in the lab at Madison during that time. They both spoke wonderful English and let me practice some of my French!

Getting home from this house visit was a little bit interesting. Phillipe dropped us off at a Metro station that Kaushik and I could both take back to our accomodations. Unfortunately I have been using up all of my coins since I was getting quite a collection, so I did not have 1.6 Euro in coins, and neither did Kaushik. Unfortunately, our credit cards do not work in automated machines, like ticket portals, since we do not have this chip in our credit cards. All I had on me was a 50 Euro note, so Kaushik and I headed over to McDonalds... they seem to be pretty good about taking large bills & giving change - I purchased a 1 Euro ice cream cone and they didn't give seem to care that I was paying with a 50 Euro note. If I tried to do that in a small little Patisserie, that would not fly, so I was really happy that they were so accomodating. With small change in hand, Kaushik and I headed back to the Metro. I didn't pay close enough attention, and had us get on the wrong line... so after going one stop, Kaushik figured out that we were going the wrong way, so we switched lines and got back on the correct line. See, this is the typical thing that would happen to me in my travels - I am frequently getting on the wrong trains, taking the wrong roads, etc. So this experience was more in line with how my travels usually go! After I got off the Metro I got a little turned around since it was dark (it was 11:30) and I wasn't completely familiar with the area, so it took some turning in circles to figure out how to get back to the hotel. I was very happy when I did get back to my hotel though!!!

Despite getting a little lost & making the journey home longer than it needed to be, the evening was alot of fun. Our hosts couldn't have been sweeter. I brought along some Maple Syrup and Wild Rice from MN. I had been told that the French love Maple Syrup, but that it is difficult to find here; Monique & Phillipe were very excited abou the syrup and said that the grandchildren would probably fight over it! (they have 4 grandchildren). They also were excited to try the Wild Rice.

Now I am off to class. Today (Thursday) will be a pretty uneventful day; I have class and then am hoping to write a paper while doing laundry. Tomorrow we head to Geneva to tour the World Trade Organization, and then Adrianne and I are off to Annecy for the weekend. I am not bringing my computer with me for the weekend, so this will likely be my last post until I return from Annecy on Sunday. Have a great weekend everyone, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother, Kevin! Wish I was there to help celebrate at the cabin!

Au Revoir for now!

An unexpected afternoon off...

Today we were supposed to have an extra long day of class. We had our first class of the morning with our Carlson professor, and then the next prof was supposed to lecture from 11 to 5:20 with a break for lunch around 1. Well, she was 10 minutes late, which we have come to expect as the norm around here... Then one of the study abroad advisors came in & said there has been a change of plans and the professor is unable to make it, so they are pushing all of those classes to next week (which is already a very full week), so we have an unexpected day off.

So I have a little break now before I will be meeting up with a group to work on a paper. We are hoping to get our paper and presentation done before the weekend so we don't have to worry about that next week when we have multiple papers and presentations to do.

On my way out of the courtyard, I noticed a lovely Lion, and couldn't resist getting a picture with due to that on-going joke I have with my dad; this one is especially spunky - it's sort of roaring,. So dad, this pic is for you! The little stand to the left of the Lion has pictures of all of the different lions you can find across the city, so dad, you'd be in heaven. :)

Hope everyones' weeks are going well!

Entertaining with Vin et Fromage!

Last night we decided to stay in to try to save some money. So we hit up the local Franprix (local grocery store a block away) and decided to have a little wine & cheese party! The cheese here is just ridiculously cheap so we figured we need to take full advantage of this while we are there & eat as much fromage as possible!!

Adrianne & I pretty have come to the conclusion that our room is palatial compared to others; we're talking like 2-3 x's bigger! So we really, really lucked out! So we decided to host since we had the most room for people. Our kitchen is also pretty well stocked with utensils, pots, and pans, and other essentials. Like a serving tray! Kind of a random thing to have in a kitchenette. I have what I consider a fairly stalked kitchen at home, but it has never dawned on me to have a serving tray. Adrianne was pretty excited about this, so we made her take a picture serving our guests!

We had quite the spread at the party - crusty baguettes, crackers, berries, apples, great chocolate, and of course, the cheese! We tried out some brie, chamembert, and blue cheese. All these were wonderful and very inexpensive. We also had some cheap wine from the region, called Beauolais. It tasted very similar to a Merlot; very good and it was less than 3 Euros so was a steal!

It was fun to sit around and have a low key night of eating and chatting. We haven't really been given any homework, aside from some reading, so have some downtime right now. That will definitely change next week, though. We already know we are going to have a 15 page paper, at least 3 other small papers, and 2 presentations, but don't know what we are writing about or anything so can't really get a start on that. So I am glad we took advantage of this free night to hang out & enjoy each others' company before we are all scurrying to get everything done next week!