Noel avec mon Fiance! PART 2

Vorrei due biglietti per Venezia Santa Lucia, per favore.

Yeah, that's right...I speak Italian! :)

Actually, that's about all I know: I would like two tickets for Venezia Santa Lucia (the train station) please. And Grazie...and Prego (you're welcome, but can also be used as please)...and a couple other little things...(like vino!)

Venice was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! It really is a romantic city with all of the bridges and canals and gondolas! My favorite part (after the fact that I was there with Zac!) was that there were ZERO cars! Can you imagine an entire city with no cars?! It was so quiet! No honking, no racing, no stop lights, no sirens...actually that's not true. We heard ONE siren, and it turned out to be an ambulance...a speed boat ambulance!

To get to Venice, Zac and I took an overnight train. The train ride enough to not be tired the entire next day, and when we arrived, we checked into our hotel and headed into the city! We walked and walked and walked andwas 12 hours long, and actually not so bad, considering there were 6 or the smallest beds you've ever seen in a tiny compartment. We slept well eventually figured it might be a good idea to get a map. So we got one and then got some dinner. I had Lasagna and Tiramisu and wine and coffee...yum! The next day we walk, walk, walked some more and ate Italian pizza, Gelato, and saw St. Marc's square. It was such and great trip!

Year's! We stayed up,The train ride back was another 12 hours, overnight on New kissed at midnight on the train somewhere in Italy, then went to bed to be rocked to sleep by the train.

Noel avec mon Fiance! PART 1

He finally arrived, safe and sound! Thank you to the Browns for driving Zac to the airport...in the blizzard...with chains on the freeway...whoa! We spent Christmas Eve day walking around the city. We saw the Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens, Fontaine St. Michel, and Notre Dame...among other things! The next morning we had a cozy little breakfast in our hotel room complete with croissants, pain au chocolat, pears, cafe, mimosas, and Peanut Butter(!!!!!!...it was in my stocking :)) That night Zac and I went over to Denise's house for an amazing Christmas dinner with Denise, her son Ceril, Roxana, and Katherina. The food was AMAZING: Hours d'oeuvres of shrimp, and avocado with a mint sauce, hummus with pretzles and champagne, appetizer of fish soup, main dish of confit de canard (duck), with liver (maybe ?) and potatoes and salad, then a cheese plate with bread and wine, followed by two types of cake (one chocolate and the other cafe) and finally, little chocolate truffles. WOW!!! The next day we took a walk to La Tour Eiffel, the Champs-Elysees, and then we went to the Louvre and saw La Jaconde (Mona Lisa) after a dinner of French pizza and Gillatto. More to come soon!!! xoxoxoxo

Espana

Hola!! Nosotros estamos en Barcelona, Espana...at least we WERE! It was so fun to hear a different language and be in Spain! It was so laid-back and warm! I went with Colleen and Roxana, who was our saving grace!! Roxana's family is from El Salvador, so at home she speaks Spanish...and obviously that comes in very handy in Spain!! :) She has been teaching me a little bit (mostly how to tell guys to get lost because she said they will think my blond hair and blue eyes are pretty :)) and I like it a lot!! Its fun to pronounce all of the Rs with a roll and you actually pronounce every letter!! In french you don't pronounce about half of the word...its a constant joke between the two of us.

When we arrived in Girona (a small town outside of Barcelona that has cheaper flights) it was warm and sunny. We took a bus for about an hour to downtown Barcelona. We walked around and found a place to eat. We had Mojitos and Nachos and Tapas...yummm!!! We saw the GIANT statue of Chirstopher Colombus and walked around the market. We found our hostel (I thought it was really funny that my pillowcase had two holes in it) and we got ready to go out for a walk!

Even though it was all the way across town, we decided to walk to the Sangrada Familia. Along the way we stopped and got some yummmmy ice cream, and Roxana helped us order our very own ice cream cones...it was really funny!!! But eventually we got our ice cream and kept walking, walking, walking. When we finally got to the Church (it took us, well, Roxana, asking for directions a couple of times to get there), it took our breath away! It was the most beautiful building I have ever seen in my life. The picture on here really doesn't give it justice. There are certain parts that look like the building is melting, and other parts with white concrete doves flying to the heavens. It was just stunning.

The next morning, we woke up early to watch the sunrise in the harbor with the great big palm trees behind us. It was just perfect.

...and then it began...

It wasn't a language barrier- Roxana speaks fluent Spanish. It wasn't stupidity- it just doesn't work like that. No, it was our innate sense of being exactly at the wrong places at the wrong times, and fate's fun little game of throwing us some adventure. That's what it was... Fate's sense of humor...Do you remember the bus ride that I talked about? Well, the thing is that we needed to get back to that little town of Girona. The woman who was working at the bus stop gave us the wrong time (not all buses were running becuase it was Sunday), so we ran, ran, ran to the train staition and BARELY...missed the train. So we ran, ran, ran to get a taxi, finally got one, but they only take cash in Barcelona. So we ran, ran, ran to find an ATM and found another taxi. We BARELY made our flight (thank goodness)! But that's not all. Fate has a VERY good sense of humor. Paris was too foggy, so we couldn't land. We circled and circled, and then finally the pilot decided to land in Lille...AKA Belguim. (Not really, but its about 5 minutes by car from the border) So, we had to take a 4 hour bus ride back to Paris...OH what a trip!!! But we made it!!! :) And it was a great trip! But next time, I'll take the train. :)

Le Grand Palais

Last weekend, Roxana and I went to the Grand Palais to see an exposition of artists of all mediums. It was SO cool to see all of the new, up-and-coming artist of Paris! There were sculptures, watercolors, oil paintings, acrylic paintings, children's art, and more! During the exposition, I took a few pictures of the pieces that I really liked. Some of the artists were there watching people look at their artwork. After taking a picture of a painting, a man started speaking to me in French, asking me what I thought about the painting, where I'm from, what I'm doing in Paris, etc. It turns out that he was the artist of my favorite painting, and he gave me his card and said, " I live right next to the Sorbonne, so send me a text some time if you would like and we can go out for a coffee!" Wow!

The picture to the right was my favorite. If you click on it and look at it up close, you will see that each little bump is actually a little letter, like alphabet soup. Right next to it was the same painting, complete with alphabet soup, but all white (picture to the left, upclose). I loved the two side by side like that. I liked them so much because it was a perfect representation of what my brain feels like when speaking French. Sometimes it is gold and blue and flowing and beautiful. Then, sometimes it is a blank jumble of random letters- stark white. I try to think more in gold and blue. :)

Chicago Pizza!

It took me going to France to learn how to make REAL Chicago pizza! A couple weeks ago I made Chicago Pizza and Apple Pie (American Food) for everyone at the house, by request of Djalal. He found out that I used to work at a pizzeria, and he remembered eating Chicago Pizza one time here in France at an American restaurant and he loved it, and asked me to make it. It was his last day there (sad!!), so we had a party with Roxana, Denise, Djalal, Kathrina (from Germany), Adam (Kathrina's boyfriend from the Netherlands), and me! After doing a little research that should have been done YEARS ago, I found out that the Chicago pizza crust is made with cornmeal and canola oil. I made two giant pizzas with something resembling Canadian bacon, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions, mozzerella, provolone and parmegean cheeses, and a homemade sauce...it was DELICIOUS!! And for dessert: Apple Pie! We had a long, long, long discussion about the differences between tartes, tortes, and pie. We concluded: we love them ALL! I don't have a picture of the pie because it was gone before it even hit the table...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

For my first Thanksgiving cooking everything on my own (with the help of some AWESOME cookies...a.k.a. Colleen, Matt and Roxana), I cooked an American Thanksgiving dinner, in a Greek restaurant in France with ovens without temperatures (hot or hotter) and no means of measuring, except a water glass, and ingredients that I've never seen before. But wait it gets better...It was for 65 people!!!! I baked 9 pies (5 apple and 4 pumpkin), 7 turkeys with homemade cornbread stuffing, kilos and kilos of mashed potatoes, green beans, and sweet potatoes, and 120 deviled eggs. WHEW! Amazingly enough, I had French people (the waiters in the restaurant) asking me for my apple pie recipe (thanks, mom!). How cool!! It was DEFINITELY a Thanksgiving to remember. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too! Bisous! xoxoxoxo

Jolie Holland

On Friday night I went to a concert with Colleen. We went to see a Texas-born singer named Jolie Holland. It was a mix of Jazz, Blues, country, and Marilyn Monroe, and it was AMAZING! We sat there drinking a glass of red wine and chilled out to some great music. What a great way to spend a Friday night!

Allez Les BLEUS!

This Wednesday we went to a Match de Foot! A.k.a. Soccer in the U.S. :) It was France versus Uraguay, and it was a LOT of fun! We had great seats that were really close to the field. Unfortunately, it was an uneventful game with no one winning... it was tied 0-0! But it was really exciting to see the players and 80,000 people packed into one stadium! WOW! I haven't really seen a whole lot of patriotism here in France until Wednesday...notice the flags? :)

Normandie

Last weekend we took a trip to Normandie (Normandy in English) with the rest of the ISA program. It was such a great trip! We started our journey at 7:30 am at the ISA office and headed out on a big bus packed full of 60 people's luggage. Our first stop was the War Museum, which has exhibits for commemorating WWI, WWII and the Cold War. While we were there they even had a traveling exhibit on September 11th. It was very emotional, and during our visit we were all invited to watch two movies on the history and happenings of WWII. One was on D Day and it was a great preparation for the next leg of our trip: Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery. When we first arrived there, I ran down to the beach with Colleen and Roxana. It was so amazing to smell the salty air and feel the sand on my bare feet! We looked up and down the beach in amazement and horror of what happened here so many years ago. I said a silent prayer for all of the fallen soldiers and headed up to the American Cemetary. I couldn't believe my eyes. There were rows upon rows upon rows of white crosses and stars of David. Some had names and dates on them while others simply siad, "Here rests in honored glory, A COMRAD IN ARMS, known but to God." Our next stop was just down the coast (I think it was Point du Hoc...I'll make sure) where there are still bunkers. Every single hole in the ground was one bomb that went off during the battles. We went through the bunkers, where there is still barbed-wire and bullet holes and fallen concrete from the bombs. It was a long day and emotionally draining, but a great lesson on history. At the end of the day we got to go to a local farm to taste some specialties of Normandie: Apple juice, Apple Cider, an Apple apperitif, and of course, Calvados! It was yummy! We checked into our hotel and set off to find dinner! We found a little restaurant off of the main strip that only offered dinner by the menu (not OFF the menu, but BY the menu). The menu I chose was an entree, plat, et dessert. They were all specialties of Normandie, and they were all delicious!!

The next day, we set off to Mont St. Michel. It was beautiful! Apparently, in the Christian religion there are 4 places that people make pilgrimages to: Jerusalem, Rome, a city in Spain (that I forgot), and finally, Mont St. Michel! It is an extremely old Abbey that is constructed on 4 crypts. It was beautiful!!! Afterward, we took a tour and had a tasting of local cookies...YUM! Which were, of course, specialties of Normandie! All in all, it was a GREAT weekend! Thanks, ISA!

Espagne

Guess what we found....FREE TICKETS TO BARCELONA!!!! That's right... I'm going to Barcelona on December 6th and 7th with Colleen and Roxana and the airplane tickets were FREE! How do we get so lucky?
I'll be sending postcards!!
Love, love, love xoxoxo