Short, sweeet.

So today I ate cheese and a baguette under a tree by the Eiffel tower, but it was soooo hot. It was crazy hot today. So I decided to watch a movie at the theater. I saw Midnight in Paris and it was excellent. Very much not what I was expecting, but very very good. The coolest part was that it opened with a montage of shots around Paris, one of which was the very theater in which I was sitting at that moment. How cool is that!

Then I walked around the latin quarter some more, took alot of pictures of the sunset, ate a gyro (just not as good as a kebab, but all they have here is gyros for some reason), then walked around for a bit until heading back to the hotel where I met two guys from Virginia and a girl from Jersey and we talked for a long time and now its late and I gotta get up to go to Versaille and have my last great night out on the town tomorrow night.

But Im tired so Im gonna keep this short. See you all soon.

Paris I missed you...

So after some problems with checking out of the hotel, I headed over to my hotel which it turns out is kinda in the boondocks in some suburb of Paris. It kinda nice to have my own room with a big bed though. After checking in I decided to head back to Paris, cause it was too hot to stay in the room (it was cloudy and rainy all month in Tours, suddenly it's bright sunny and hot the moment I get here).

I headed to the jardin du luxembourg, with a baguette and Nutella, and it turned out there was some performance with two singers and a pianist, who were all amazing. Everyone all over the park was sitting on the grass, but cops would wander around and tell people to get off, which they would, until the moment the cops left, then everyone would get right back on the grass. It was kinda funny. I was able to get a spot on the lawn by the stage where the performance was, and for a moment it looked like they were going to kick us all off, but they gave up at the last second since there were way to many people to remove. I laid back and listened and dozed off for a second. Once I woke up, I decided to just wander until I found the Latin quarter, where I sat at a cafe that was relatively cheap and just had some cold drinks, cause it was still pretty hot. While there I talked to some funny german guy until the sun started to go down.

I left the Latin quarter and walked along the seine until I got to Pont d' Alexandre, just as the sun was setting, which was very beautiful. I just watched the sun go down, then found a metro and headed back to my hotel and here I am.

I was going to go to Versaille tomorrow, but I just checked and found out the Palace is closed on Mondays, so Im going to try for Tuesday instead.

Anyways, Im really tired so Im going to go to sleep now.

Less than 3 days to go now...

oh the pretty lights

I am at an internet cafe so to be quick, im in Paris, last night was awesome, i stayed lastnight with another student, and tonight I go to my own little hotel, to sleep alot hopefully, thats called Hotel Cheap Beds. Sounds sketchy but its cheap and has a high rating on hostelworld.
All is excellent and amazing, and im gonna go to versaille tomorrow, one ,ore day after that in Paris, then I fly home.
But Ill post again at the other hotel.

Last class of Bacc

So today was the last day of classes. A bit sad actually. A bunch of people left for Paris this afternoon, but the last of us are going to hang out at the Ganguette (sp?) which is the regular place. I'll try and take some pics, cause it's quite a neat place. Everyone is really tired though and we all travel in the morning so I think it'll be just a short goodbye get-together.

And so for classes today, I had a four hour break until a history of art class at 3:30-5:30pm. Last class on Fridays, so the ten of us in the class were the last ones to finish with the courses. We'd actually all gotten our certificate things. The history of art class was one of the various non-graded classes, but we still had to take them in order to fill out the hours to get credit. I was really tempted to just not go since I hadnt been absent yet, but I decided that since it was going to be my very last class of my BA degree that I should go and see it through to the very end. As I sat there in the dark (slideshow class) trying to stay awake, I started thinking about how long this degree process has been going on and it's still crazy to me that it's actually over. Of course I still have my masters but I'll think about that later. When I left the class room it was a totally surreal feeling...

But anyways, tomorrow morning I take the train to Paris and meet up with a couple fellow Utahns to split a hotel for the night. Then I have a cheap (but nice) hotel to myself for the next couple days until I go, but I can talk about when it comes up...if there's wifi.

Ciao

Some last pics of the Institut

This is a shot of the cathedral (with the little dude on it) and the bell tower that guided me to school everymorning for the first week or two. The bell tower is the only remaining piece of some huge old basilica that burned down a dozen times and was eventually destroyed. It looks cool though.

Another pic of the bishop guy that spied on us during class.

This is the little plaza that's right in front of the Institut. It's empty cause its like 5:30pm and there was only one class that still had anything going on (and I happened to be in it...)

A peek inside the gate to the courtyard of the Institut where most everyone hung out.

Chenonceau, in full color!

The internet is cooperating right now, so Im gonna load some pics of Chenonceau too.

The first pic is what the chateau looks like when you walk up to it. The second and third are of the grand gallery (from the inside & outside) that straddles the river. The river was the dividing line in this area between occupied and unoccupied France during WWII, so it was used alot by resistance fighters to cross the river, then it was used as a hospital when the allies took it back, so they cleared out all of the sculptures & paintings which never were returned, hence why it's empty. The fourth pic is my friends walking into the maze, and the last is a pic through a window overlooking the balconies of the grand gallery.

It's workin' !

Some here are some pics. One is from yesterday when I sat in a park and ate a whole baguette with nutella (it was awesome but my stomach didnt appreciate it). In the park they had a small group of giant sequoias. You can see a couple Japanese students near the base that Im pretty sure were from my school.

The other pics are from a huge flea market that was in Tours today. It was big and lots of cool stuff. The sculpture of the monster/yeti thing is pretty much hated by all the french ppl in Tours, but I kinda like it. Its something i'd have wanted to put up when I was a kid. Apparently the artist is a friend of the mayor, and he's got a little public art nepotism thing going. Quite the controversy.

Here's a Panoramic photo I made of La Rochelle. The towers on the right lead to the old harbor, while the tower on the left is called the Chain Tower, because it used to raise and lower the giant chain that closed the harbor at night. In between is the old city wall.

And it loaded! Yeah, I'll have to try some more now.

Life's a holiday...except there's homework

So this week was mainly just school... and sleeping...when not out on the town.

On Wednesday there was a "spectacle" [show/presentation] of talents of students at the cafe down on the Loire (THE happening place in town) and let me tell you what: I felt like a lazy jerk. Luckily all the other students not performing did too. Turns out we have world class opera singers, saxophonists, violinists, poets... But I've gone without blinking for over a half an hour once (true story) and Ive never met another person who could do that. And it was a good night anyways. I talked to this girl from Italy and a guy from Australia about politics and various things, which was tough because the girl from Italy spoke almost no English and her French was so-so and the Australian's french was... not so great, but it was very enjoyable.

As far as my french goes, somedays I feel awesome, especially when Im hanging out around town with friends from lower class levels, and other days I feel like Im getting worse. But Ive talked with a number of ppl who feel the same thing (the higher the level the more prevalent for some reason). The somewhat frustrating thing is that my French in the real world is getting better, but in the class room I swear Im getting dumber. My writing skills have definitely decreased, since I can't seem to recall little grammar rules as well (my brain feels full), and the listening comprehension tests Ive totally plateau'ed. I think its because in their tests you have to be able to pick out a single word or phrase to answer a question and Im better at getting the general sense of a comment. The new prof from the U came on Monday and said she thought I'd really improved. I also held a long conversation with three local drunks at the cafe around the corner (the guys who normally bug you, but when you need practice it's great) but in class it's not so good. My accent is quite good though, probably one of the best in my class, and Ive been told similar by various French ppl in Tours. But the whole class thing is a bit of a bummer.

The students here are awesome though, and Ive decided I love Italian accents and the sound of the language (yes and French too). There's a group of Italians here and I love hearing them talk. Also, Ive become completely habituated to having bakeries everywhere that are totally cheap, and an actually night life with people and everything. It's sadly a bit lacking in Small Lake City.

My family has been cool. Its just a woman, Nadia, and her son Paul. Nadia watches American tv at full volume all day and they seem to fight almost every night about something, but only occasionally is it anything significant. I think at least some of it is fighting over the fact that the son only likes to eat kebab and hamburgers (which are craazy popular in France now). But I actually love it. I got really lucky. I get my privacy for the most part which I completely appreciate, and the mornings are quiet, which I require for my sanity (Im not such a morning person normally), and they're both really nice. Some of my friends have much more unfortunate stories.

Anyways, less than two weeks left then I return to a life that seems strange indeed.

love,

Adam

I do miss Saturdays with movie popcorn though...

ps. blogspot is not letting me load pictures for some reason, I keep trying and it never lets me, so pics may have to wait for when I get back.

In a World So Cold

So for the weekend:

My host mom had all week been hinting, then suggesting, then practically telling me I needed to go somewhere for the long weekend (today/monday was a holiday, some catholic thing). I think it was related to her mother having her 82 birthday or something, or maybe because her boyfriend and her wanted some alone time...

Anyways, I had some friends who were going various places, but I just happened to not be there when the final decision was made, and there was no more room at the hostel, so I ended up just going to the train station and picking a place that sounded good.

I ended up going to La Rochelle which is on the Atlantic coast. I'd heard alot of ppl talking about it, so I thought it'd be nice and a place to sit on the beach in the warmth (it's south of here).

So a 3 hour long train ride later I show up in La Rochelle, and it's definitely beautiful. Its a bit touristy though and the prices of everything but things like pastries and kebabs (which are always cheap) were a bit steep. I went to the hostel and found it was full, but they had an opening for the next night. I reserved it and figured I'd just spring for a bit more for a hotel (i'd gone to the city's tourism office and had a list of hotels and basic prices). Then I headed back to the old port where are the action was (this was about a 20 min walk btw). There were tons of ppl, lots of good ppl watching and a million cafés. I wandered around for awhile, got a pain au chocolat, then headed to the beach. Turns out the beach is quite small (and probably man made) but it was nice. In fact I spent the majority of my time there staring at the ocean, even though it was overcast most of the time. Once it got darker and the nightlife picked up I went to oldtown and just sat at a cafe for awhile.

Eventually I knew I needed to find a hotel. I had the map and locations of a bunch of places and set out, lugging my laptop bag (no comp) with three days of clothes, toiletries, etc.

So it turns out that no where under 125 euros had any vacancies (I found out its always a big weekend for them). I had been walking from hotel to hotel forever and it was getting cold, yeah it being south didnt help at all. I put all three days of clothing on (which helped), and tried to find a place to get caffeine. But by now (2am or so) the only places open were clubs with a cover and I figured probably only served alcohol anyways. I remembered there was a cheap hotel close to the hostel and thought Id give it a go, even though it was a bit of a walk. It was all full. No surprise. There was a field with tall grass near by, so I thought I could at least get a couple hours of sleep before the sun came up and the tall grass could hide me. I had an old roommate who did this a couple times.

I snuck into the field and laid down. Not too bad actually. I was right on the verge of sleep, but it was too cold to actually go to sleep. Instead I was on the edge and it was trippy. For awhile the only way I knew my eyes were closed was because there was a shadow of a tree above me, but I knew there wasnt actually one, idk, its tough to describe.

I laid there for an hour or so almost cat napping, when I was just too cold, so i got up and walked back to the center of town. I figured I could crash at the train station for a couple hours, at least it was heated and often they're open late. Yeah, the whole thing was closed. But I saw a sign for a McDonalds that was open 24/7. and figured i could hold out there for awhile. I followed the signs for awhile until one finally said that it was actually in the next town. Too far. Instead I followed the signs that said "Centre-ville" thinking that something downtown had to be open to atleast get hot coffee or something. I followed them for awhile, but it kept just leading me around until I lost the trail. I pulled out the map from the tourism office and couldnt find anything that indicated downtown, but it was now like 4am and i decided to just head make to old town where I knew at least there were patisseries that would open at some point.

I walked all the way back, in the end making a gigantic loop through the french suburbs. Once back, I looked to see the opening times. but now being Sunday they were all for later, not until 8am or so at the earliest. With now about 3 hours to kill I just kept walking to keep myself warm and so I wouldnt get a vagrancy charge or something (turns out this wouldnt have been a problem, lots of vagrants/drunks about). In not too long the horizon started to lighten so I headed back to the beach, where I figured I wouldnt be hasseled by cops (in my sleepy state I was really worried about that). I laid on the beach, on the verge of sleep while I watched some old guy with a metal detector, just hoping for the sun to shine out and warm me up. I was wrapped in my towel with my hoody all cinched up, which must be why these two girls with a camera took my picture and then talked to me for awhile. They didnt seem too surprised by a a foreigner without a place to the stay for the night, but they did say it happened to be unusually cold that night (just my luck).

Once the first boulangerie opened up I got a pastry and a café au lait and sat inside. It was bliss. It eventually warmed up after I walked around for a few hours, but it took longer than I thought cause it was overcast. Once 2pm rolled around I could check in the hostel. I trekked back over there, checked in, laid on the bed, and slept until the next evening.

After that it was pretty standard fair, lots of pastries, a café or two, a kebab, lots of crepes. And of course more sitting on the beach. Then today I took the train back to Tours and here we are.

So there's the adventure. Sorry for not posting sooner, I didnt bring my laptop (thankfully, my bad was heavy enough and had to lug it around all night) and a group of Arabs and a group of Japanese were always on the hostel comps. They were nice ppl though.

Adam

Oh oh Chenonceau!

So yesterday I went on a little excursion through the school to Chateau Chenonceau. It was trés pretty. And the gardens were awesome. They even had a maze, but sadly we didnt have time to walk in it, but i got some pics.
And class is getting hard. Boo.
But I did buy some Nutella today, and yesterday because of some mix up with the host family, for dinner I had some veggies and alot of baguette and camembert. It was my kind of dinner. And today for lunch I had a kebab, which was excellent, but way too much food. All I wanted to do was sleep when I got back to class.

Im having problems loading pics, but I'll work on it when i can.

Ciao

Hitchcock Was Right!

So sunday I had a more laid back day, after running around almost everynight last week it was quite nice. Then today was class all day, because we were making up for the classes we missed because of the holiday thursday. Then I just walked around town for an hours or so after dinner and came home. Nothing exciting to report except...

The birds here are totally nuts! Not only do they wake me up every morning with their excited squawking (it sounds oddly like a blaster fight from star wars but sped up to a high frequency...hard to describe) but they fly around constantly at high speeds in large loops and figure eights chasing each other or evading some invisible predator or something. They're flying as fast as they can, barely missing buildings, squawking constantly, and grouping up together, then just zooming around on their own, before grouping up again. Its weird. I think they're swallows, from the look of the tail. The only thing i can figure is maybe they're catching bugs or something, but i swear it's all the time, except once it gets dark. Ive never seen anything like it.

Anyways, that's all for today. Until next time...

Il Pleut!

And here are some pics from the huge rainstorm that hit last night. I was heading home when it hit, and ended hiding in a building having an art expo for some artist (with free food), but everyone was watching these little french cars try and get through this pond that formed in a depression in the street. It was very entertaining.

Mo' Pics

I got a few photos for you. There's some of the Loire river, one of the main square in Vieux Tour (old town), and one of the trees on the walkway by the river. Oh, and a panoramic I stitched of a Monet scene from the l'Orangerie.

Well well. I went for a little bike ride yesterday. We were trying to get to the chateau Ambroise, but we got a bit lost and ended up stopping in some little town at a cafe for lunch. It turned out to be quite an excellent day, but wow, I am outta shape. Anyways, it was a beautiful day and there these quaint little gardens along the way (in theory my friend will send her pictures to me, which i can then send to you). I was incredibly tired by the end, but that didnt stop the party! After I headed home for dinner, then left to meet up again and we got gellato [yum].
Today was just class, and but we're meeting up again tonight to go to a cafe or something. The only problem is that I have to get up REALLY early in order to get to a bus for a school excursion to Mt St. Michelle. Its a chateau on its own little island right off the french coast in the atlantic. You can walk to it when the tide is low, but if you time things wrong, you're kinda stuck on the island. It was the one excursion that ppl kept saying I needed to go on, so it should be good. I think a ton of people are going though, since it seems like half the people I talk to are going. Plus its a five hours drive there, we're there for about four hours, then a five hour drive back. At least I'll get to see the ocean. In fact it'll be the first time that I'll see this side of the Atlantic (except from a plane). Im pretty excited though I think it'll be a long day, and Im afraid that Im going to stay out late, then get hardly any sleep. I just cant seem to get myself to get to sleep early. Not when I could be out in Tours.
Oh well, we'll see how it goes. And there should be good pictures.

Sorry for the delay. Ive been all busy and stuff. And sadly this will be just a quick post.
Today is some catholic holiday so we have school off, so a friend and I are going to try and rent bikes and go to a château. The place to rent bikes may be closed though (along with everything else apparently). And also I think that the other person is in much better shape than I am and I have a feeling the château is quite far away (by my standards at least).
Oh well. It'll be an adventure I guess.
Oh, and classes are going well so far and all of the students are pretty cool.
Amazing time dance!

So here are some pics of a café we had breakfast at, Monet in L'Orangerie, and one from the local train we took after the TGV. The girl is the one I stayed with (and you can see one of the bags of hers we pulled around the metro).

Anyone got a map?...anyone?...

Yeah, so the plan to rest for an hour then go to the festival didnt quite work out. I laid down, and then got up, seeing it was dark out. I checked the clock and it was past midnight... Oops. I ended just getting ready for bed and sleeping until I had to get up for class the next day.
So when I first got here, my family's son walked me to the Insitut so I would know where it was, but he was trying to converse the whole time, which takes all of my mental energy, and I still hadnt slept at this point, so come the next morning I was quite lost. I knew I was in the right general area, but I had no idea where the Insitut was in relation to where I was. Luckily one of the 4 people Id recognize in the city walked by, the professor from the U that came with us. I ended up shadowing here for until we got to the school (which was only a couple of blocks, so it wasnt too creepy).
Then in the morning we did oral tests to see how our skills were, so they can place us in the correct class tomorrow. It was pretty easy. Apparently though they were quite impressed by the written portion of the online exam I took about a week ago [pats self on back]
Then we were supposed to go on a tour of Tours (tee hee) but I was signing up for an excursion thing, and they left without me. Turns out my friend I stayed with in Paris barely missed it too. Leaving without us...jerks.
Anyways, there was another one in a couple hours, so we wandered around for awhile until we found a café, had lunch, and ran back for the tour, which turned out to be quite basic. Mostly it was just us walking for long stretches, then listening to the guide for about 45 seconds, then walking again. We walked around for about an hour and a half (lots of walking today...again) and ended up back at the institut. My bag had been feeling heavier and heavier through out the day (that laptop is heavy) and it was getting hot. It rained this morning, so everyone wore warmer clothes, then out came the sun and poof! Hot and sweaty. I figured I'd head home, drop off my bag, change into shorts (which I eventually did) then read over by the loire.
Problem was I got a bit lost on the way back, and by the time I found my way, it was kinda close to dinner time (which is in a half hour), so I figured I'd blog instead and head out after, this time without falling asleep. I still havent gotten pictures of Tours yet, maybe that'll happen tonight, but I can post a few pics of the last day in Paris.

And tomorrow is when we find out what classes we're placed in and the real fun begins.
A bientot.

Runnin' on MT

So tired, so very very tired. So after not sleeping at all on the train and running around Paris until past 2am, I finally get to bed, only to wake up 4 hours later to the wondrous sounds of the guests in the next room making noise. Couldnt get back to sleep... Then today was full of running around first to L'Orangerie where they have these huge, amazing Monet paintings. Then running to the hotel to check out, then running with heavy luggage (I was helping my fellow student with her suitcases) and trying to figure out how to push yourself and a large piece of luggage through a tiny Metro turn-style without getting trapped.
The train was awesome though. The TGV (France's bullet train) freakin' rips! The best was when we passed another tgv going the other way. It was cool. And the country side was very serene looking.
And so I'm now in Tours and the family Im staying with is awesome (a woman and her son). It's a nice apartment and I get a nice big bed, which I cant wait to take advantage of.
Anyways, I think Im going to rest for a little while, then go down to the Loire river, because apparently there's some kind of festival going on.

Ciao

Some pics of a wonderful Paris morning from my Hotel balcony.

Lucy I'm Home!

So Im back in Paris and it feels so... comfortable... and amazing. Oh Its just so not slc (:

Anyways, the flight was not too bad, I just got a bit antsy and my butt got achey near the end but otherwise went well (thankgoodness for music, especially Bassnectar, sweet sweet Bassnectar).
I showed up in Paris and couldnt find my itinerary, couldnt remember the name of the hotel or the first name of the other student I was meeting up with. So what did I do? I winged it! I stared at a map until I saw a metro stop that I was 90% sure was the right one, wandered the area until I found a hotel name that I recognized, and I was right. Sweet intuition.
The classmate I met up with is very cool We get long with really well, which is good cause I was genuinely worried she'd bite my head off or something. A lucky roll of the facebook dice I guess. Hopefully the other people in the program will be as cool....
ANYWAYS, we went to the Louvre, went to street cafés, walked around some neighborhoods and basically kicked it, and it was so awesome. Such small yet essential changes make all the difference. And I finally had another donnerkebab. Ive been dreaming of it for so long... [Deep breath] I love it here. What a day.
Ok, Im now on almost 48 hours without sleep, and Im gonna go to bed. And tomorrow Im off to Tours.
YeeHaw!

Big Adventure Part Deux

So once again we find ourselves here, on my long distance gloating blog. The difference is this time I'll spend most of my time in one place (the city of Tours) and I'll be gone for over a month (woot).
So Ive got lots of time to kill because security went so fast. They weren't interested in my INR machine, they didnt turn on my laptop, they didnt even try to fondle me! I mean you build up expectations, I had a whole speech full of righteous indignation and plenty of references to human rights and yet here I sit, unfulfilled. Not even a full body "porno scan." I guess I didnt look Arab enough to be pulled "randomly" or normal enough to ensure people that they are being fair. The benefits of being somewhere in the middle I guess.
Anyways, this time Im going to try and post pictures and maybe video, since I should have more time (not paying by the minute helps). We'll see how savvy I turn out to be. I can already sense the feeling of inflated delusions of grandeur, because just maybe you'll tell your friends, and then their friends, and soon I'll be famous!
Ok actually, this will be to let you live vicariously through my amazingness, and maybe to alert you of the impending nuptials in case I find a cute French girl to woo. (I give it 50/50).
Well, I've got a long flight ahead of me. I'll land at about 3:10am SLC time.
Now Ive just got an hour and a half to kill...