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!

School begins...

Today was our first full day of classes. I have been so spoiled to have the last week free of structure & commitments! I am glad I had the time in Paris before these classes started as jumping right into them while dealing with jet lag would have been difficult. While here, we'll take 4 classes - EU HR Practices, Cultural Differences b/w the US & France/EU, European Strategy, and European Marketing. The Cultural Differences class is taught by a professor from Carlson. We had our first class today and she is AWESOME. She is from the former Yugoslavia, but has taught in the US for prob about 20 years, so has a great perspective of both cultures. I think I am going to really enjoy that class.



The HR class is very much a lecture style, so gets a little long; all of my undergrad classes were mostly lecture style, but MBA classes are always collaborative, so I am not used to a class with no interaction between the student and teachers. I think that is the European way, though? Not sure. We had the HR class today as well, and it sure is interesting. We did a lot of head shaking throughout the class when learning about the French approach to HR. For instance - companies basically never fire employees. Even if they are underperforming, they'll keep them on, or if they are really bad, they will continue to pay them & tell them to just stay at home. I guess it is a very long process to fire someone & is expensive so that is why it never happens. Many of the jobs, like our professors, are guaranteed for life; you move up the ranks based on Seniority. They are working on reforming this as the labor market is just too rigid but the professor said it's tough because the French are extremely resistant to change. We looked at a chart that ranked the countries by the ease of hiring/firing, and France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal were all towards the bottom of the list. And also have the highest unemployment. So they know that something needs to change... what & how, they aren't 100% sure about.

I had my first 'moment of frustration' today. Long story short, I had alot of difficulty in the computer lab. Was trying to print some articles that Carlson neglected to give to us... the whole thing was unsuccessful & let me just say how thankful I am that I brought my beloved laptop! I will be avoiding that lab at all costs... Never did figure out how to print. I need to make friends with the French guy in our class and see if he'll show me the ropes! We have lots of papers to write, so I am going to need to learn how to print eventually!

After the frustrating experience in the lab, and the long day in class, I am feeling the need to have a quiet night at home. I actually haven't really 'stayed in' for an evening since I arrived a week ago. So I am going to make some comfort food (pasta!), start some reading, and hang out with Pete. I think with a quiet evening & a good nights rest, I'll feel alot better tomorrow. My snafu in the lab this afternoon was such a small little thing, but it's interesting to see how having trouble w/ the smallest things can lead to such a high level of frustration. Kind of makes you realize how much we take for granted the simplicity of life back home where virtually nothing is really that confusing/challenging!

Tomorrow night we have dinner with a local French family; I am really excited about this! Should be fun to have a traditional, multi-course meal! Will definitely come back from this with pictures & a story or 2 to tell most likely!

Bonsoir everyone!!

What's with all the Lions?

Today the 'vacation' is officially over. We had orientation followed by a few introductory classes. Luckily the walk over went about 1,000 x's better and took about 1/4 of the time it did yesterday. We met up w/ the study abroad coordinator in the courtyard of the school & went on a tour. Saw the pretty standard stuff - classroom, computer lab, cafe area. After that, we went into a classroom and had 3 hours of lecture. They don't have a/c since they don't have any students besides international students in the summer. And it was 90 out today. So it was likea sauna in there! The lecture went pretty fast, then we went to a cocktail hour. At noon. Because apparently it's common to serve champagne and such at 12:30 on a Monday! Was kind of random, but nice of them to have a little welcome reception for us.

After that, we headed out for a bus tour of the city. The guide spoke english & the bus was air conditioned, so it was heavenly. We have come to the conclusion that we are in one of the least picturesque areas of the city. Luckily, we are only a 20-30 minute walk from the neat part of the city, Lyon Vieux. That translates into Old Lyon. We drove thru that area & then up to a hill that overlooks the city.

First stop was to see some remains of a Roman Theater. Was really neat - dates back to 15 b.c.!!! They didn't actually discover it until 1933. At that time, a convenant was built on top of the ruins, and one day the nuns were digging in their garden & started to unearth some odd looking things. Low & behold, it was the remains of a Roman Theater. There are 2 & they use both for live performances during a summer festival.

Next stop was the top of the hill where the Notre Dame was located. It's a gorgeous church that was also built because of the Franco-Prussian war. Turns out that some guy prayed to God & said that if He would spare Lyon, he would build a temple out of gratitude. The Prussian army stopped their attack in Dijon, and never got to Lyon, the man kept up his end of the promise & built this gorgeous church. The exterior & interior are like night & day. The exterior is all limestone, and the interior has thousands upon thousands of mosaics. Unfortunately it was pretty dark in the church so none of my pictures turned out. They probably wouldn't have done it justice anyways. Just gorgeous.

Behind the church there is a great place for Panoramic views of the city. Lyon has 2 rivers, the Rhone & the Saone, so you could see both and really get an understanding of the lay of the land. This is when the tour guide explained that the Part Dieu (where we are staying) was the industrialized area which explains why we didn't see anything worth checking out yesterday...

After the church, we went back down to Lyon Vieux to check out some secret passageways, called 'Traboules'. A few date back to Roman times but most were built in the 19th centurfy. You basically push a button & a door opens that will either take you under the street or will take you to a passageway that connects 2 houses. These were really put to use during the Occupation times of WWII. The guide said there are over 400 of them throughout Lyon & most of them are still open to the public. So if you walk down a street & see a little medal button, she said to push it & see what you will find behind it! Kind of neat!

The 'traboule' that we looked at was in a part of the city that was settled by Italians and had a very Italian feels to it. There were lots of neat little narrow streets, lined with cafes and shops. I knew this was an area that we needed to come back and check out!

We headed back to the hotel and went grocery shopping down the street. We wandered thru, picking up some fresh bread, cheese, and some other random things. When it came time to check out, we came to realize that they don't have bags... you either bring your own or carry it out. So I had no choice but to carry it out... really glad we only had 2 blocks to walk!

After that, we headed out to dinner - we headed back to the little area w/ the Italian vibe to it and found a restaurant. Luckily they post the menus outside the restaurant so you can find something w/ a good menu in our price range. Alot of the menus has dishes w/ tripes... wasn't sure what those were. Um, they are the intestines of pigs (I believe). I wasn't quite adventurous to eat that, so stayed with a chicken dish that was really yummy.

On the walk back to the hotel, the quote of the day came into play. I am sort of famous for making these sort of dumb comments with absolutely obvious answers. As we were walking back, we kept coming across Lions. I was like - 'um, what is up with all the Lions?' Adrianne looked at me with a 'are you serious look?' and then said - "Um, we are in Lyon? Lyon, Lion? You know?"

So I guess my dumb comment of the week is out of the way.

lost in Lyon...

I awoke on Sunday and found my way to the Train Station. Since I have so much baggage, I decided to take a Taxi so I wouldn't have to do the stairs in the metro. I got to Gare de Lyon with plenty of time to spare. Even the train stations in Paris are beautiful! The train arrived and I hopped on. I was a bit wary about where I should sit. Last time I took a train in a foreign country, I was with Brooke. We had 2nd class tickets & totally thought we were in 2nd class. Wrongo batman. We were in first class & got kicked out. Felt incredibly stupid, and then the odd part was that we thought the 2nd class seats were nicer. Anyways, I found my seat number and sat down. About 10 minutes later, a lady came by & started talking to me in French. Turns out I had the right seat number, wrong car number... Whoops. Luckily the train was not full so she just sat in another seat in the same car. Crisis averted as it would have been a pain to have to drag my luggage out & into another car. A luggage porter would be real handy right about now!

I got off the train in Lyon & meandered thru the streets, eventually finding the hotel. It is about 90 degrees here. And there is no a/c in our hotel. So it's HOT. I actually ended up taking 3 showers yesterday - morning, afternoon, and evening. Pretty sure that is going to be a ritual for me while I am here since we wil be doing quite a bit of walking.

The front desk was closed from 1-3 on weekends (random?) so I hung out in one of the other students' rooms. I walked in to see this room that looks like a sitting room. I was like - sweet - this is huge & it's just the sitting room!!!

Wrong, Lisa. What looks like a couch is actually a bed with a stow-a-way bed underneath! But our room is actually bigger than most people's so I have room to pull it out & set it up perpendicular to my roommate, Adrianne's. I must say, I couldn't have a better roommate. Adrianne and I like 2 peas in a pod! She's not a morning person, is an avid reader, likes to have a clean/organized room, and best of all - she also LOVES nothing more than a Mountain Dew at 8 in the a.m. So we can both commiserate over the fact that they don't have Mt Dew here. So I am officially weened off of Mt Dew since it's not available to me... I hoping to not pick up the habit when I return to MSP!

After unpacking & taking my 2nd shower of the day, the whole group of Carlson students headed out to find our school. I didn't get a chance to find a map, and wrongfull assumed that someone knew where they were going. Yah, not at all. We wandered around for quite awhile. What should have been a 25 min walk tooks us about, oh, and hour & 15 minutes. It's kind of funny that my first time getting lost was when I was with a group of 20 people. I actually navigated our way back & we got back to our hotel in about 25 minutes. So for once in my life, I seem to have a sense of direction. Can't tell you how odd this is. Oh, and while we were lost, we walked thru THE scariest square. It must be the hangout for homeless people or something? They were gathered all over this place & then there were piles upon piles of dirty, rolled up clothes all over the place. I am glad that I was in this square w/ 20 other people and not by myself! I definitely won't be exploring that area any more!

Our group went out for dinner and after that, we headed back to our rooms to look over the maps and figure what the best way to get to the school actually was. Orientation starts tomorrow, so with a full day ahead of us, we went to bed early!

Saturday Night at Sacre Couer

After my afternoon in the Marais, I showered up & headed out to the Sacre Couer area. I was trying to remember why 'Sacre Couer' was a word that was so familiar to me & one that I knew how to pronounce. Then it dawned on me.... I was a HUGE Beauty & the Beast fan when I was young. Seriously, Abby & I would watch it everyday. We'd sing along to the songs & knew alot of the words. Yes, we were dorks, but anyways. There is a scene where Lumiere (sp?), the candle stick, sees something scandalous or surprising & remarks, 'Sacre Couer!' So that is why the name of the church is so familiar. Random, I know...

Anywho, back to France... I took the Metro up to the Mont Martre area where Sacre Couer is located. The Fete de la Musique Festival had gotten started so the streets were full of people! I got to the base of Sacre Couer (SC from now on), to see that I had 2 choices. Stairs or the 'funicular' which is a little tram that takes you to the top of the hill. I had just eaten some pasta for dinner so decided to take the stairs.

When I got to the top, the views of the city were just gorgeous. SC is perched at the top of a hill that is probably at the highest elevation in the city. So the panoramic views of the city were just gorgeous. I had read that this was a popular place for people to hang out at night and watch the sunset. There were probably even more people than usual since there was a band performing at the base of the SC.



SC was absolutely gorgeous. It's extremely massive! Construction began in 1873 but was not completed until 1919. The Catholics built it as contrition for the Franco-Prussian war. Not sure what the war was all about but must have been pretty bad if they built this beautiful church in retribution for their actions in the war!

I walked up the rest of the steps of the SC & turned around to a gorgeous view of the city which made all those steps worth it! I sat down & did some journaling. Talk about a great place to sit back and take it all in. A band was performing at the base of the SC so I had some nice music to listen to while writing... including Stairway to Heaven. Very appropo considering the fact that I was sitting on the steps of a church. :)

At 9:30 I headed into the church. Unfortunately since it is a place of worship, photography is not permitted. The dome of the interior had a gorgeous painting of what looked like the Resurrection possibly? Another time I wished my mom was along as I think she'd know what they were trying to depict.

The Divine Office (a prayer that is sung) was sung at 9:30 and then Mass started at 10. Of course it was all in French, so I didn't understand a whole lot. The beauty of being Catholic, though, is that no matter what church you go to, the order of the Mass is the same, so

even though I had no idea what they were saying, I knew what was going on & could say the prayers in English. An odd thing occurred at the end of Mass - after Communion, which is a time of quiet reflection, this old lady turned around and started yelling at the people in the pew behind her. She looked like she was a few fries short of a happy meal.... I felt bad for the people she was yelling at - it was clear that they didn't speak English. They were wearing "North America Student Volunteer" shirts, so I assume they were Canadian or Americans. She carried on for at least 2-3 minutes until a lady in the front yelled back at her to shut up (I presume). Very odd, and definitely a time when I wish I spoke French!

I headed by the hotel and hit the sheets since it had been another long day! Next stop. Lyon!

A Day in the Marais

Greetings! I hope everyone's weekends have gotten off to a good start! This morning I woke up to very sore feet. 5 hours in heels last night put the last nail in the coffin - my feet are a-hurting. I am in bad need of a pedicure, so that is first on the agenda when I get back to MSP. I can just imagine the barrage of Vietnamese (or whatever language) comments I will get when they see my feet. I have worn pretty comfortable shoes so far, but have stayed away from wearing my running shoes - they don't exactly look good w/ anything but jeans or running shoes, and I really don't want to see the sites of Paris in either wardrobe... but today, well, I gave up & am wearing my comfy Mizunos (the best running shoes for women, in my opinion).

Dinner last night was an absolute blast. I met up with Anna and her roommate around 10:30 last night. Parisiens in general eat later; truth be told, I'm usually in bed by 10:30! But, you know, when in Rome... This trip has been good for me as I am a bit of a creature of habit,. so it's been good to mix things up a bit. We met up at a metro stop & luckily recognized each other right away (Yulia had given me a picture of her). We took a short walk to the restaurant, Kong. For those SATC fans out there, this is the restaurant where Carrie meets Alexandr Petrovsky's ex-wife, Juliette. It did not fall short of any expectations I had! The restaurant was on the 5th floor & then you went upstairs to eat dinner - it sort of had a globe-shaped, glass roof, so the views of Paris were wonderful. I had a dish I would never order in the US - Duck - and it was wonderful! After dinner we headed back down to the main level of the restaurant which turns into a Discotheque. They pretty much only played American music, from hip hop songs that are popular to now, to Thrilller.... for those of you that were at Ashleigh's wedding, I did NOT do the Thriller dance here! :) I lasted until about 2 am which is about 2 hours later than I usually last!

This morning I went on a walking tour of the Marais area. This is a district that is located on the Right bank. It has a rich history as much of the court of the royalty lived in this area. It's also where the Jewish population seems to be concentrated. I was here briefly yesterday when I had my Falafel, and from my brief encounter then, I knew I was going to love it. I met up with the walking tour at 10:30. I am definitely glad that I did a guided tour as I learned way more than I would have if I had just done it on my own.

Our guide talked alot about the history of the area, especially the 'Hotel des Particular' which are basically huge mansions that housed friends of the Royalty & some of their staff. The 'Hotel' usually has a huge courtyard & a garden. Each one seems to have its own interesting story. One that we looked at was the residence of the mistress of one of the Kings of France! Since most marriages in that time were political, it was pretty much standard practice for the King to have mistresses. And they definitely took care of their misstress and her husband! I guess the husbands profited from this close relationship to Royalty so tended to just turn a deaf ear to what was going on! After touring this area, I am interested in reading more about the history of France. I read one history book before coming over here, but will definitely be doing more reading.

This is what a garden of one of them would look like. The residence was usually sandwiched by a courtyard & garden so that the residents would feel like they were waking up in the country!

If I ever were to move to Paris (not going to happen... love it here but I couldn't leave my parents or nephews!) I would most definitely live in the Marais. It is how I imagined Paris looking. Lots of narrow streets lined with 16th-17th century buildings. You can't walk very far without running into a Boulangerie or Patisserie, there are outdoor cafes everywhere, and lots of neat little shops to pop in & out of. Of course, this 'chic-ness' comes with a hefty price tag. It is a really neat area, though, and is by far my favorite area of Paris that I have seen.

On our walking tour, the guide took us by a bookstore that sells books in English. Being the booklover that I am, I had to go back to check it out after the tour. The lady who owns it is originally from Canada and has lived here for 18 years!! I picked out a few books to purchase (I just couldn't resist!!) and she chatted with me about what it is like to own a business in France. The French are infamous for their bureaucratic ways - especially when it comes to employment. In my World Econ class this spring, we talked quite a bit about the rigidity of labor markets in Europe, and France definitely has one of the most rigid ones in Europe. The owner said that every time she hires someone, she has to work with her lawyer to complete all of the necessary legal paperwork. Talk about a hassle. Last night, Anna spoke about how hard it is to find a job here; I can understand why if the business owner needs to work w/ a lawyer everything they hire someone!! It's times like this that I appreciate the simplicity of America's Labor markets!

Our tour ended in Place des Vosges, which is where I am currently blogging from. It's a beautiful park w/ a few fountains and a Satue of Louis XIII. People are sprawled out all over the grass, taking in this gorgeous day. I am guesstimating that it is 80? So the warmest day since I arrived. There are lots of groups of people sitting on blankets, eating bread & cheese, and sharing wine. So it strikes me as an authentic Parisien hangout!

I've kind of had a busy couple of days so have decided to spend my afternoon here, reading one of my new books, and basking in the sun. I figure with all the running around I've done, today is a good day to relax. This evening I plan on checking out the Montmatre Area & going to the 10 pm Mass at Sacre Couer. Today is Fete de la Musique, and that gets started off around 6-7 so I am really excited to see what sort of music I encounter!

I depart for Lyon tomorrow, so today is my last day of real 'vacation' time. I have no idea what to expect for a work load for my classes in Lyon. 2 years ago it was fairly lax & a student complained about it being too easy - so last year they made it ridiculously intense! So hopefully this year they don't make it too intense as I feel one of the most important aspects of studying abroad is to take in the culture of the city you are visiting. So we'll see what happens. I have no idea how easy it will be to have WiFi in Lyon. We are definitely spoiled to have such easy, free access to it in the States! So hopefully the library or school has wireless access.... we'll see!

Au Revoir from Paris!

Random Observations...

This section will be dedicated to random observations that I've made. This blog is sort of serving as a virtual scrapbook for me as well as a way to keep everyone at home up-to-date, so I figured I better start recording things that I notice now before I forget them!



- I landed in Iceland around 6:30 a.m. I went to grab something to eat - they had this little a la carte area w/ some pre-packaged food, yogurt, etc. Then they had a buffet line. I figured - probably eggs or something like that. Oh no. Not quite. They had lots of non-traditional breakfast food (in my opinion) such as salami. The ODDEST thing I saw, though, was baked beans. Hmm... can't really imagine eating baked beans at 6:30 a.m. but apparently it's common there as I saw a guy loading up his plate....



- Alot of the men over here ride motorcycles. But not the scooter type, and they are definitely not riding them due to their fuel efficiency. They are HUGE. I feel like these bikes over here are the equivalent of pick-up trucks in the Midwest - the bigger, the better. Oh, and even though they huge bikes, they still will take the sidewalk if the street is backed up, so pedestrians, beware!



- Coffee is even more of a part of life here than America. I know Starbucks/Caribou are a staple of many people's lives in the US, but it's nothing like here. Each morning I have gone to this little Boulangeries across from my hotel for my habitual Orange Juice & Pain au Chocolat. The first day, I only ordered those 2 things & there was a whole lot of confusion over the fact that I wasn't ordering a cafe. I couldn't even understand what she was trying to say the first day - I kept pointing at the Orange Juice machine, she kept pointing at the espresso machine. We went back & forth for quite a while until she finally realized - oh, she doesn't want a cafe! Now I know this, so each day, I order my orange juice & pain au chocolat & as soon as she starts to point at the espresso machine, I start saying no so as to avoid that painful exchange again.



- You can get around surprisingly well by knowing 3 key phrases: I would like, I am going, and I am looking. These phrases have been KEY to my getting around. And the people seem to appreciate the fact that I am trying to use their language. So I have not experienced any rudeness. However, by using some French, they assume I speak French, so I usually only understand about 20% of what they say,but I usually get enough of a gist of what they say & can figure out what they are saying.... usually.



- Grass must be sacred here or something. I've been to a few parks and you simply do NOT walk on the grass. It's kind of chained off with signs saying not to enter. Kind of odd... But today I am at Place des Vosges & people are sprawled out all over the place.

A day on the Right Bank of the Seine

Happy Friday everyone!

Day 3 in Paris, and I still haven’t gotten lost… I think since I am on my own, I pay attention to things better or something? Not sure. Or maybe the compass that hangs off my new backpack is some sort of good luck charm. Seriously, it’s been great. Hopefully this trend continues when I get to Lyon. It sure helps having landmarks like the Eiffel Tower to look for if I need to figure out where I am. I sort of have my dad’s genes & don’t like to ask for directions, but I have been pretty good about approaching people & asking if I am heading in the right direction. Luckily, I know how to ask this in French. If I didn’t know how to ask it in French, I probably would have been slightly lost a few times. I know Americans generate a lot of Tourism revenue, but I still feel guilty/bad about making someone talk to me in my home language.

The bike tour last night went great – the weather cleared up right when I got the Eiffel Tour which is the meeting place. The weather over here is very weird – it changes even faster that weather in MN does (in my opinion). During the bike ride, it went from being a perfect evening w/ no clouds in the sky to clouded over & lightly raining. And then it cleared off again. Weird.

The bike ride was a lot of fun though. I hadn’t rode a bike since, well, it’s been a really long time. After riding around Paris, I kind of want to buy a bike when I get back to Minneapolis… Anyways, we rode our bikes around Paris and saw lots of the main sites. It was a good way to get a feel for other locations I want to check out while I am in Paris. We would stop along the way so the guides could tell a story & give us time to take pics.

After riding around, we parked our bikes & got on a Seine River cruise. The guides brought along multiple bottles of wine, so we enjoyed a glass of Vin while cruising down the Seine. Paris is known as the 'City of Lights' so it was a great way to see it all. Of course the Eiffel Tower at night is probably the most photographed attraction. It is really beautiful when it starts to sparkle. It's kind of funny that they give you all this wine & then an hour later, you are back on your bikes! I didn't have much, but I am sure some people did as they just kept coming by & re-filling your glass unless you told them not to!

Now, I know this might provoke a lot of eye rolling out there, but one of my favorite parts of the tour was seeing this bridge, Pont d’Arts (Pat - I can just imagine you shaking your head at me right now). Why was I so excited? A scene from the final episode of Sex & the City was filmed here!! It just happens that this is the bridge where Big said, ‘Carrie, you’re the one’. All the girls on the tour (including me of course!) were gushing over this little factoid. I can pretty much say the lines from that part of the episode verbatim.

This morning I started my day with another Pain au Chocolat. I knew I’d be climbing both the Notre Dame Tower & Arc de Triomphe.

After breakfast I headed over to the Notre Dame. I got there early since my guidebook had the wrong opening time for it… it worked out well that I was early since the line was already starting to form. They only let 6-10 people up at a time so it doesn’t get too crowded, so it’s kind of a long process to get up there. I was in the 2nd group of people. We climbed around 400 steps up – was worth it as the view of the city was amazing! Of course, pictures don’t do it justice.

Next stop was St Chapelle. This is an old Catholic Church with the most amazing Stained Glass Windows. The church is no longer used for Masses; now it is a tourist site during the day & they hold concerts there in the evenings. . I am hoping to take in a concert when I am back in Paris after my time in Lyon. The Stain Glass Windows are beautiful – each section illustrates a chapter from the bible.

After St Chapelle, I headed over to the Marais area to grab lunch at a place I had read about. The Marais district has probably been my favorite area of Paris so far. It sort of looks how I imagined Paris to look – lots of narrow, winding streets with little shops, Patisseries, & Boulangeries. I am taking a Walking Tour thru that area tomorrow morning so am looking forward to getting a closer look at it. I found the Falafel place I was looking for & had an amazing falafel sandwich – it was huge and only 5 Euro which is pretty good considering how expensive everything is around here! A Falalel is basically ground up chick peas that have been deep fried. Probably doesn't sound too good, but it's very tasty! They serve it w/ shredded cabbage, cucumubers, and other 'stuff' (no idea what,though!) & then put a sort of yogurt sauce on top. It was awesome!

Next I took a metro to the Champs Elysees area. I had seen part of the Champs Elysees on my first day in Paris, but hadn’t gotten very far down, so I decided to head back there & walk up to the Arc de Triomphe. CE is lined with stores, many of them upscale like Cartier. I don’t have a ton of room in my suitcase so wasn’t too tempted to buy anything. I had read that the CE is supposed to be similar to Michigan Avenue in Chicago; I had even read that some people thought Michigan Ave was far superior. I have to disagree, though. They had so many cute cafes & restaurants long the CE & the trees & greenery were just beautiful. One interesting thing I noticed was that all the chairs in the restaurant were facing out towards the seat. So people who were eating lunch together weren’t facing each other – they were facing the CE. Kind of different, but cool.

I made it down to the Arc de Triomphe & climbed up to the top of that. I think it’s around 250 step; the Nortre Dame has about 400 steps, so I have been up & down over 1200 steps!! The view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe was really neat – it is in the middle of the intersection of 8 roads. So a pretty neat thing to see. The road here in Paris are crazy. I could never drive here. It seems like it’s never just 2 streets intersecting , so it’s pretty complicated.

After all the walking & steps, I am relaxing in my usual spot, the Trocadero. My feet are pretty much out of commission for a few hours w/ all the walking & step climbing. Tonight I am meeting up with Yulia’s friend, Anna. She speaks English, so I am looking forward to having someone to talk to while I eat! I have gotten pretty good at eating alone, but would definitely prefer to have some company. We just spoke & she's taking me to a restaurant where a scene from the Paris Sex & the City episodes was filmed. If you haven't caught on, I'm a bit of a fan of the show... so I'm excited to see where she's taking me. Our reservation isn't until 10:30 so luckily that gives me time to catch a quick cat nap.

I don't have too much planned tomorrow. Doing a walking tour of the Marais, and then the afternoon is open. Tomorrow is "Fete de la Musique" here which is an annual music festival. As I write this, it sounds like a band is doing a sound check by the Eiffel Tower. Basically, there is live music all over the city - lots of amateurs but also some good musicians from what I've heard so I am looking forward to checking that out. Also, 3 Carlson students arrive tomorrow & are staying in my hotel!! So I am really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces!

Salut until tomorrow!!!