Hey everyone! First off, thanks to everyone for the wonderful birthday cards and presents and messages!! It was so great to come back from my first break and have all that waiting for me! Please let me know right away if you didnt receive a thank you card or postcard because those should have gotten to you by now and i dont want them floating in the mailroom abyss somewhere...
Secondly, this blog might not be that interesting because I think I've reached the point in my semester where things are settling down into a bit of a routine. It's really nice actually to go to school, eat lunch, head back to school, go for a nice coffee or hot chocolate after school, and then finish off the day with dinner and homework. The pace has sped up recently due to the fact that I had FOUR midterms this week! The midterms themselves,I found very difficult, but the grading in all my classes has no real rubric - its 100 percent subjective - and from the results Ive gotten back, most of my professors seem very lenient. Its interesting though, its like the test will be 50 questions, the final grade will be out of 20 and each question has no real set point value...So basically the professor looks at all your errors in the end and sort of sums up where you fall on an invisible grade spectrum in their head and gives you a score out of 20. Different, but working in my benefit for the most part...
Aside from that crazy midterm week, stuff has been rather slow here. I'll be taking a day trip to Versailles next weekend, then the weekend after that to the Loire Valley with my program to see all the castles! It was gorgeous here this past week - in the 60's every day! Most afternoons we would sit in the grass and eat baguette sanwiches for lunch. It was all very French. Now its back to raining, but still warm, so I'll take it.
After I finished my midterms I went and got a library card at the public library here and got lots of French books. I feel its really boosted my reading comprehension, and its so much fun to just lounge in the park reading a good book! Also, I have a friend here who has a 10 year old host brother who heard that I loved comics and has been nice enough to share his manga collection with me. It's so funny to learn phrases like, "Where you think you're going, Bub" and "Today's your unlucky day, Mister" in French. Who knows, maybe I'll need them?
So all and all things have been great, the weeks are flying by and parents have started visiting Rennes from the states, and other friends in Europe have programs that are ending in less than a month, and its just two easy to look at the few weekends we have left here and feel a little panicked! Theres still so much to do and see and learn!! Hopefully we'll get it all in!!
Alright well thats all I have for you! Missing you all lots and can't wait to see you again.
Lots of Love
~Ashley
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Winter Vacation Pictures!!
New Pink Shoes from Prague
Napping on the green in front of the Louvre
Opera House in Paris
Cemetiere Pere Lachaise - I couldnt find anyone famous...
Some dancers performing the "seduction" canival dance = super cool!
Winter Vacation Pictures!!
Charles bridge in Prague
Castle in Prague
Me sitting on the Charles bridge in Prague
A newlywed couple putting their lock on a bridge in Prague
Huge famous church that I don't know the name of in Munich
Winter Vacation Pictures!!
Arc de Triomphe in Paris
Car on the wall in the Toyota store in Paris
Where I spent my birthday lounging in the Tuileries outside the Louvre
Some pretty gross Weinblatter that I ate in Vienna
Monday, March 7, 2011
First Vacation!!!
Alright, so here it is - the long-awaited talk of my travels....lets start at the beginning...
RENNES
My vacation started with four days in Rennes in which I bummed around watching "Sicko" and "Knight and Day". Sicko made me equally sad and furious, and Knight and Day was a cute, fun romp - though I still believe that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz lack chemistry and are incompatible as a movie couple. This was about as exciting as those four days got...
PARIS
I went to Paris on my birthday and had about a ten hour lay-over before my night train to Vienna. So I did what I had been planning for a month - I went to the Louvre to spend my day gazing at and analyzing msterpeices...but it was closed. Apparently, every Tuesday is "every museum in the city is closed day." I should've read the guide book more carefully. So I went to the next best thing - The Champs Disney Store. I spent two hours in this two story disney merchandise castle, picking up things I thought about buying (like this awesome Marvel Superheroes backpack) and then putting them back down. I think the employees thought I was a little touched. Then I went to McDonalds. Call me a big spender, but there's nothing wrong with living the high life on your birthday. Then I went to the train station for about 4 hours, and spent all my money on food, an Xmen comic, and the bathroom.
THE NIGHT TRAIN
Finally the train came and aboard I went! Oh man were they the smallest bed compartments I have ever seen!! I have no idea how they fit six beds in an area smaller than my closet and then expect six people to manoeuvre themselves into them and sleep. But as long as I remained laying down, it really wasn't that bad. I slept pretty well despite the rocking of the train and the worry that the two very large men in the bunks above me might crush me in the event of a sudden stop. But not a worry, I arrived safe and sound for my transfer in Munich 10 hours later. I also arrived late, which meant I misssed my connection on to Vienna and had to find the ticket counter and get a reservation on the next one out. The staff was very helpful and so was a starbucks coffee. While I was sitting there reading all the signs, I decided that the German language looks a lot like English if you smush like three words at a time together and then scramble them. I think this was the first time I had had to communicate in a country by only using hand gestures. Its hard to talk much when you only know how to say "please", "thank you", and "two" - at least I think it was two...
VIENNA
So my friends met me at the train station in Vienna and it was so great from the get-go! I dropped my luggage off at this hostel where we were staying with 16 (!) other people, then headed out to see the Hapsburg Palace and this outdoor market that went a ways. We ate dinner at this great restaurant where we all split fried potatoes, fried chicken, fried onions, and sausage wrapped in bacon. You dont find this kind of meal everyday in France!! Unfortunately, that was all I had time for in Vienna because our bus left right after our morning pancakes.
THE BUS
The thing about getting to the bus is - it took a lot longer than we thought to get to the station. In fact, we got off the metro with about 5 minutes before our bus (which is known for leaving early and is the only one of the day) was going to depart. So our friend Carter is practically sprinting ahead of us, while our friend Margaret is leisurely pulling her suitcase a good distance behind us. It was only when we came to a large set of stairs that this became an issue. Carter was almost to the top of the stairs, me and Cate were about half way up, and Margaret decided to go around the stairs to find an escalator. That's when, with five minutes to get to the bus, we realize that Margaret is completely gone behind us and Carter has disappeared ahead of us and me and Cate have no way to contact Margaret (because her phone is out of minutes) and we have four minutes and counting to find her and sprint to the bus. We handled it with an efficiency and collectedness our mothers would be proud of. We called Carter and told him to hold the bus, we split up for sixty seconds, one upstairs - one downstairs to search and reconvened without Margaret sixty seconds later at the donutshop. We ran to the bus to see if she had made it there, and alas, nothing! She was just gone! Her escalator, whichever one she had found, had taken her somewhere else completely. Now at the bus with 3/4 of our party, the bus driver was indicating that he had to go and we were all pretty resigned to the fact that we would be spending another night in Vienna. In one last effort Carter ran to the end of the street to see if he could see anything - and there was Margaret!! Sprinting down the street across from the station! We couldnt believe it! We all just collapsed into laughter for about twenty minutes once we were all seated. And the bus only left ten minutes late. What a way to leave in style!
PRAGUE
I loved Prague. It is my favorite big city that I have visited in all of Europe. The hostel was cheap, the food was delicious, the architecture was incredible, the weather was warm and sunny, the art vendors had some amazing crafts, the stores were huge and awesome, the castle was amazing. It was like being in a fairy tale. We ate pizza the first night that was sooo good, and then the second night I had this incredible pasta that was delivered on a bike and it only cost $3!! I couldn't believe it! Then in the morning we went to this incredible bagel breakfast place (which are nearly impossible to find in France) and had bagels and bottomless coffee! So fantastic! I honestly tried to change my ticket to Munich in order to spend just a few more hours there - but it was not to be! I really hope I get back there some day and highly recommend it to anyone who will be visiting Europe!!
MUNICH
So I parted ways with my friends once again and headed to Munich where I would spend 8 or so hours waiting for my next overnight train back to Paris. I got in and stored my bag in the locker at the train station that decided to take 6 of my euros and not lock in the end! I was so mad! So then I got another one to work but never got my money back. Then I went to the bathroom - which costs 80 cents - almost twice as much as anywhere else, and I put my money in, walked in and this old man walks out of the stall. And Im like - oh man - I totally paid to go into the mens bathroom. So I have to leave and go over to the women's, and pay another 80 cents! Sheesh. By this point I was getting rather weary of putting my money into machines I didnt really understand, so when I came to the metro ticket machine - which was filled with all these German/English hybrid instructions about how you can buy 1 ticket for four stops, but only in one zone, and how you can only get off at stations labeled S or U in a certain 5 stop zone, I decided to just walk. In this case, it turned out surprisingly well. I walked until I ran into this huge square with this enormous statue of a woman with a lion - I think she was called "Bavaria" or something, but I couldnt find any plaque telling me who she was! So I sat there for a while before walking some more. I ran into a five story furniture store with FREE bathrooms before moving on to the three story Toys R Us next to that. I found this lovely cathedral named St Paul and then walked back to the train station. I found it very odd that the place I had walked through was so very residential and quiet and concluded that I must have been walking away from downtown. So after lunch, I took the opposite direction and sure enough, it was like Time Square! There were people everywhere, getting off work, trying to catch the bus or metro or whatever. But I made it to the Glockenspeil (which I cant spell) and it was soooooooooooooooo very beautiful! It just took my breath away! The whole Karlsplatz area was so lively and architecturally stunning! I really all in all had a wonderful afternoon in Munich.
THE NIGHT TRAIN
On the way back, my night train was filled with a family of five. There were three younger kids and all the hubbub, though it was in German, completely reminded me of family trips at my house. There were toys falling from the top bunk, someone was hungry, someone else had to pee, someone else was getting mad the mom wasn't listening to their story. It made me miss my sisters even more than I already do!!! I was thinking, though, before bed, that if this was one of our family vacations, someone would probably throw up in the most inconvenient place possible. Sure enough, about 1am there was a silence-breaking, "I'm going to be sick!" It was the weirdest thing, cause even though the girl said it in German, it was like I knew the tone and sat bolt upright and started scrambling for this plastic bag I had with me. The mom was faster though and got the bag and the daughter out in the hallway in one swift motion, avoiding an in-the-compartment catastrophe. It was just one of those familiar night-time scrambles that are horrible at the time, but that you laugh about later, I mean we can talk for hours in my family about puking mishaps. In the end, they were all very nice and the kids liked saying "Bonjour" to me and offering me candy. I just couldn't believe how similar the family dynamic was to my own, it made me feel so comfortable and like I could even understand them.
PARIS AGAIN
This time I was headed for an all day trip to the Louvre and nothing was going to stop me!! Except a 5 and a half hour line. DRAT! Stopped again! Apparently, the first Sunday of every month, the Louvre is free for everyone. That would explain the exceptionally long line. So off I went to Musée d'Orsay, which I had never seen before. It was wonderful, but it certainly didn't take all day, so I had a little nap in the park outside the Louvre and then took the metro to the cemetary of Pere Lachaise. It was really pretty with gorgeous, grand headstones that just went for miles!! While I was walking back to the train station, I ran smack into a Carnivale parade! I took sooo many pictures, more than all the other cities combined! But there were so many different costumes and dancers and musicians! It was fabulous!! After that, I made my way back into the center of town to meet with my old friend and tutee, Seungyoo, for dinner. It was a wonderful way to end the vacation.
RENNES AGAIN
But it wasnt over. Sorry folks. I got on the last train to Rennes, but what shouldve been a nice, restful journey back home turned into a fiasco. The train in front of us hit a cow. Apparently cows are rare, 20-car-train-destroying machines, because their train was totally out of commission. So we had to wait an extra hour while they emptied that train, cleared it off the tracks, and then gave us the ok to swing through that stop and load all those stranded people onto our train. An hour doesn't seem so bad, except for that now I had missed the last bus home and I live about an hour walk away from the station. Luckily, the station provided busses for us that went all around town, dropping people off near normal bus and metro stops. So the bus dropped me off at 2:30 am about a fifteen minute walk from my house. Its a completely safe, suburban area - boasting a nursing home, a sports center and an elementary school - but it was just an awful long walk after two days of near continuous travel. But I made it home with just enough time to throw down my bags before I fell asleep.
The end.
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts! It was so nice to hear from you and see your emails when I got back from my travels. As always, I would love to hear what you've been up to and what is new, so feel free to message me! Im very tired tonight so sorry about the typing errors. Pictures will be up by Wednesday!!
All my love -
~Ashley
RENNES
My vacation started with four days in Rennes in which I bummed around watching "Sicko" and "Knight and Day". Sicko made me equally sad and furious, and Knight and Day was a cute, fun romp - though I still believe that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz lack chemistry and are incompatible as a movie couple. This was about as exciting as those four days got...
PARIS
I went to Paris on my birthday and had about a ten hour lay-over before my night train to Vienna. So I did what I had been planning for a month - I went to the Louvre to spend my day gazing at and analyzing msterpeices...but it was closed. Apparently, every Tuesday is "every museum in the city is closed day." I should've read the guide book more carefully. So I went to the next best thing - The Champs Disney Store. I spent two hours in this two story disney merchandise castle, picking up things I thought about buying (like this awesome Marvel Superheroes backpack) and then putting them back down. I think the employees thought I was a little touched. Then I went to McDonalds. Call me a big spender, but there's nothing wrong with living the high life on your birthday. Then I went to the train station for about 4 hours, and spent all my money on food, an Xmen comic, and the bathroom.
THE NIGHT TRAIN
Finally the train came and aboard I went! Oh man were they the smallest bed compartments I have ever seen!! I have no idea how they fit six beds in an area smaller than my closet and then expect six people to manoeuvre themselves into them and sleep. But as long as I remained laying down, it really wasn't that bad. I slept pretty well despite the rocking of the train and the worry that the two very large men in the bunks above me might crush me in the event of a sudden stop. But not a worry, I arrived safe and sound for my transfer in Munich 10 hours later. I also arrived late, which meant I misssed my connection on to Vienna and had to find the ticket counter and get a reservation on the next one out. The staff was very helpful and so was a starbucks coffee. While I was sitting there reading all the signs, I decided that the German language looks a lot like English if you smush like three words at a time together and then scramble them. I think this was the first time I had had to communicate in a country by only using hand gestures. Its hard to talk much when you only know how to say "please", "thank you", and "two" - at least I think it was two...
VIENNA
So my friends met me at the train station in Vienna and it was so great from the get-go! I dropped my luggage off at this hostel where we were staying with 16 (!) other people, then headed out to see the Hapsburg Palace and this outdoor market that went a ways. We ate dinner at this great restaurant where we all split fried potatoes, fried chicken, fried onions, and sausage wrapped in bacon. You dont find this kind of meal everyday in France!! Unfortunately, that was all I had time for in Vienna because our bus left right after our morning pancakes.
THE BUS
The thing about getting to the bus is - it took a lot longer than we thought to get to the station. In fact, we got off the metro with about 5 minutes before our bus (which is known for leaving early and is the only one of the day) was going to depart. So our friend Carter is practically sprinting ahead of us, while our friend Margaret is leisurely pulling her suitcase a good distance behind us. It was only when we came to a large set of stairs that this became an issue. Carter was almost to the top of the stairs, me and Cate were about half way up, and Margaret decided to go around the stairs to find an escalator. That's when, with five minutes to get to the bus, we realize that Margaret is completely gone behind us and Carter has disappeared ahead of us and me and Cate have no way to contact Margaret (because her phone is out of minutes) and we have four minutes and counting to find her and sprint to the bus. We handled it with an efficiency and collectedness our mothers would be proud of. We called Carter and told him to hold the bus, we split up for sixty seconds, one upstairs - one downstairs to search and reconvened without Margaret sixty seconds later at the donutshop. We ran to the bus to see if she had made it there, and alas, nothing! She was just gone! Her escalator, whichever one she had found, had taken her somewhere else completely. Now at the bus with 3/4 of our party, the bus driver was indicating that he had to go and we were all pretty resigned to the fact that we would be spending another night in Vienna. In one last effort Carter ran to the end of the street to see if he could see anything - and there was Margaret!! Sprinting down the street across from the station! We couldnt believe it! We all just collapsed into laughter for about twenty minutes once we were all seated. And the bus only left ten minutes late. What a way to leave in style!
PRAGUE
I loved Prague. It is my favorite big city that I have visited in all of Europe. The hostel was cheap, the food was delicious, the architecture was incredible, the weather was warm and sunny, the art vendors had some amazing crafts, the stores were huge and awesome, the castle was amazing. It was like being in a fairy tale. We ate pizza the first night that was sooo good, and then the second night I had this incredible pasta that was delivered on a bike and it only cost $3!! I couldn't believe it! Then in the morning we went to this incredible bagel breakfast place (which are nearly impossible to find in France) and had bagels and bottomless coffee! So fantastic! I honestly tried to change my ticket to Munich in order to spend just a few more hours there - but it was not to be! I really hope I get back there some day and highly recommend it to anyone who will be visiting Europe!!
MUNICH
So I parted ways with my friends once again and headed to Munich where I would spend 8 or so hours waiting for my next overnight train back to Paris. I got in and stored my bag in the locker at the train station that decided to take 6 of my euros and not lock in the end! I was so mad! So then I got another one to work but never got my money back. Then I went to the bathroom - which costs 80 cents - almost twice as much as anywhere else, and I put my money in, walked in and this old man walks out of the stall. And Im like - oh man - I totally paid to go into the mens bathroom. So I have to leave and go over to the women's, and pay another 80 cents! Sheesh. By this point I was getting rather weary of putting my money into machines I didnt really understand, so when I came to the metro ticket machine - which was filled with all these German/English hybrid instructions about how you can buy 1 ticket for four stops, but only in one zone, and how you can only get off at stations labeled S or U in a certain 5 stop zone, I decided to just walk. In this case, it turned out surprisingly well. I walked until I ran into this huge square with this enormous statue of a woman with a lion - I think she was called "Bavaria" or something, but I couldnt find any plaque telling me who she was! So I sat there for a while before walking some more. I ran into a five story furniture store with FREE bathrooms before moving on to the three story Toys R Us next to that. I found this lovely cathedral named St Paul and then walked back to the train station. I found it very odd that the place I had walked through was so very residential and quiet and concluded that I must have been walking away from downtown. So after lunch, I took the opposite direction and sure enough, it was like Time Square! There were people everywhere, getting off work, trying to catch the bus or metro or whatever. But I made it to the Glockenspeil (which I cant spell) and it was soooooooooooooooo very beautiful! It just took my breath away! The whole Karlsplatz area was so lively and architecturally stunning! I really all in all had a wonderful afternoon in Munich.
THE NIGHT TRAIN
On the way back, my night train was filled with a family of five. There were three younger kids and all the hubbub, though it was in German, completely reminded me of family trips at my house. There were toys falling from the top bunk, someone was hungry, someone else had to pee, someone else was getting mad the mom wasn't listening to their story. It made me miss my sisters even more than I already do!!! I was thinking, though, before bed, that if this was one of our family vacations, someone would probably throw up in the most inconvenient place possible. Sure enough, about 1am there was a silence-breaking, "I'm going to be sick!" It was the weirdest thing, cause even though the girl said it in German, it was like I knew the tone and sat bolt upright and started scrambling for this plastic bag I had with me. The mom was faster though and got the bag and the daughter out in the hallway in one swift motion, avoiding an in-the-compartment catastrophe. It was just one of those familiar night-time scrambles that are horrible at the time, but that you laugh about later, I mean we can talk for hours in my family about puking mishaps. In the end, they were all very nice and the kids liked saying "Bonjour" to me and offering me candy. I just couldn't believe how similar the family dynamic was to my own, it made me feel so comfortable and like I could even understand them.
PARIS AGAIN
This time I was headed for an all day trip to the Louvre and nothing was going to stop me!! Except a 5 and a half hour line. DRAT! Stopped again! Apparently, the first Sunday of every month, the Louvre is free for everyone. That would explain the exceptionally long line. So off I went to Musée d'Orsay, which I had never seen before. It was wonderful, but it certainly didn't take all day, so I had a little nap in the park outside the Louvre and then took the metro to the cemetary of Pere Lachaise. It was really pretty with gorgeous, grand headstones that just went for miles!! While I was walking back to the train station, I ran smack into a Carnivale parade! I took sooo many pictures, more than all the other cities combined! But there were so many different costumes and dancers and musicians! It was fabulous!! After that, I made my way back into the center of town to meet with my old friend and tutee, Seungyoo, for dinner. It was a wonderful way to end the vacation.
RENNES AGAIN
But it wasnt over. Sorry folks. I got on the last train to Rennes, but what shouldve been a nice, restful journey back home turned into a fiasco. The train in front of us hit a cow. Apparently cows are rare, 20-car-train-destroying machines, because their train was totally out of commission. So we had to wait an extra hour while they emptied that train, cleared it off the tracks, and then gave us the ok to swing through that stop and load all those stranded people onto our train. An hour doesn't seem so bad, except for that now I had missed the last bus home and I live about an hour walk away from the station. Luckily, the station provided busses for us that went all around town, dropping people off near normal bus and metro stops. So the bus dropped me off at 2:30 am about a fifteen minute walk from my house. Its a completely safe, suburban area - boasting a nursing home, a sports center and an elementary school - but it was just an awful long walk after two days of near continuous travel. But I made it home with just enough time to throw down my bags before I fell asleep.
The end.
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and gifts! It was so nice to hear from you and see your emails when I got back from my travels. As always, I would love to hear what you've been up to and what is new, so feel free to message me! Im very tired tonight so sorry about the typing errors. Pictures will be up by Wednesday!!
All my love -
~Ashley
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