Home away from home: Angers, France

So my last post was just before I arrived in Angers so now you need to hear about my wonderful weekend with family and friends.  When I hopped of the train, I went straight to L'Universite Catholique de l'Ouest.  This is where I studied abroad almost 3 years ago and where you can most of the time find Sue in her office.  Sue and Annika were there waiting for me.  We had a nice catch up session while I had some lunch and waited for Leann.  Leann is a friend from my club volleyball team at Oregon, who is studying in Angers right now and staying with the Berthelots this semester!  She came to get me from the university and we went out for a drink before heading home.  Therese and Jean were waiting for us when we got home.  I hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving so it was wonderful to catch up and talk with them.

I was so excited for dinner that night because it had been awhile since I had Therese's amazing meals.  This one did not disappoint.  For the starter course with the aperatif, which is the drink before dinner, there were little pieces of bread with salmon and spread, peanuts from Senegal, and chips with a greek dip.  Then, we had the entree, which is not the main meal in France but the meal before the plat principal.  So for this we had fish, that was almost in a cake like form, with sauce and a little salad. And then we had the plat prinicipal which was a quiche with lardons and leeks.  Now, quiche is pretty simple and most of the time taste the same but oh my goodness, this was the best quiche I had ever tasted.  And of course after I was completely stuffed, we had dessert which was a chocolate cake.  And throughout the dinner, Jean kept our wine glasses full.  Needless to say, I slept very well that night.

The next morning, Leann and Hillary, the other student staying with them went on an excursion with the university so my plan was to get lunch with Sue.  In the morning, Therese and I walked to the supermarket and to a few other places to shop for lunch the following day.  It was still nice out at this point so it was lovely walking around Avrille with Therese.

Right across from the Berthelots house is this little place to sit and relax

Sue and I met up for lunch in centre-ville and found a cute little salad bar place.  You pick all of your ingredients and they mix it for you.  It's like Subway but with salads.  And, everything at this place is completely green so they don't even have a garbage can, just a recycling bin.  It was awesome.  Then we walked about for awhile and went over to the Jardin des Plantes because it was such a nice day out.

Pretty church turned into gardening shed

pretty colors

beautiful day

Sue checking to see if this tree was the California Sequoia...it wasn't

me on a pretty day in Angers

After walking around for quite a bit we met up with Therese and Muriel at a cafe/bar called Chez Toi.  It was still nice so we sat outside and people watched. It was also the first time since Thanksgiving that I had seen Muriel so it was great to see her too.  But of course, we missed Valerie!

Hanging out with some of my favorite ladies!

Muriel and me...Wish you were here Valerie!

That night, I hung out at the house with Therese and Jean because Leann and Hillary hadn't gotten back from the excursion yet.  It was probably the first time I was ever alone with them because I had always had either a roommate with me or someone who was visiting.  They are probably the sweetest people I have ever met.  Therese was insisted on me trying the soup that she makes because I didn't get to try it when I was studying in the summer.  And it was amazing!  I would come back to have some home-made soup any time she wants!  Then, we sat down to watch a variety show on TV to wait for the girls. It was a lot of people singing and dancing which is always good fun and it didn't really matter that it was in French. 

The next morning, Leann and I were invited over to Muriel and Philippe's house for tea and maybe a walk.  They are now building a pool in their backyard and when I building, I mean that Philippe is actually doing all of the work himself.  I had to get a picture of this to show Valerie because it was hilarious. 

working hard at building the pool 

their new pool, will be ready by summer

Then Muriel, Leann and I went on a walk to the private château that is right by their house. That was pretty cool.  I guess a count lives there and most of the houses in Avrille are on his land that he has rented out.  

The back of the chateau

Then it was back to the Berthelots for lunch with the five of us, another host mom and her student, and Sue.  Big lunch.  I remembered to take pictures of this meal so here we go:

entree: salmon, tuna, avocado, salad plate

plat principal, potatoes

plat prinicpal, potatoes, duck, and cooked apples

leann with salad that goes with the cheese

Sue and me taking a break from eating this amazing meal

dessert: cocunut cake with a berry sauce. i had 2 pieces

leann and therese, adorable

et voila, cafe to finish it off

Then I brought out my video camera and we had even more fun!  They were all fascinated by it, and it was fun to take some videos too. 

 

After lunch, we looked at pictures on the TV from their trip to Senegal which they do every year.  And then we somehow got on the subject of singing and all of the adults wanted us to sing.  We are speaking mostly French in the video but here is what was going on.

And then it was time for me to leave, and my weekend was over already.  I had to get a few last pictures with Leann and with the Berthelots.  

Leann and Me

Jean and Therese...Love them!

It was so hard to leave this time because I don't know when I will be back.  They have been so sweet to me and they really family to me. Walking through the train station, I was remembering the first time I saw them and Sue as they waited for me to get to Angers to study abroad.  I remember being so scared that first day I got there and having to speak French with them all of the time.  And now, I think about the past 3 years and how much I have changed since then.  Part of me will always be in Angers because it was my first real home in France.  Until next time, Angers!  I will miss you dearly. 

C'est la belle vie! :)

On a train, destination: my future

So for this blog post, I thought I would do something a little different.  Not in my writing style, not with my genius comments but with my location.  I am currently on a train to Angers where I am going to spend the weekend with my host family and my friends in Angers.  Trains in France are probably my favorite method of transportation in Europe.  They are comfortable, fast, and all you need to do is sit back and relax and you are to your destination in no time.  It helps that there is always beautiful scenery on either side of you.  Right now, I'm looking at the French countryside, there are a few very old, rustic looking houses, lots of farms.  It's a beautiful day too so the colors are amazing as well.  Clear blue sky, lots of green grass, and the neutral tones of the cottages, and farms.  Let's not forget about the animals. Horses and sheep in any direction you look.  Oh and of course, the little, cute, old French man who we just passed as he was relaxing in the morning sun.  Trust me, riding the train through this beautiful country is just as amazing as it sounds.

Seeing as I have time until I get to Angers, I need to tell you about my past two weeks.  Well, I got back from my grand vacation (from my year long vacation as some people have said) refreshed and invigorated.  I was not happy to go back to school, in fact I was dreading it.  But I was still on a high from my amazing trip that I didn't care that much.  Classes have gone pretty well actually.  I have been bonding more with my classes by speaking more french to them.  And it was nice to catch up with them because I hadn't seen them for at least a couple of weeks.  I have some that are taking their final English exam in just a couple weeks, some just got back from Spain because they are studying Spanish too, and some new kids that are going to London in May and are interested in improving their English before then.  It's been a long two weeks of class with lots of students and lots of repition.  I'm very glad to be doing something different this weekend.

Another major event that has passed since I last wrote is, of course, St. Patrick's Day.  Now, at every college in the US, this is a major party day.  Wear green and drink lots of Guinness, right?  Well, the French really don't feel the same about the holiday.  So where did we go to celebrate this famous day?  The Irish Bar in town, O'Donnell's.  They were for sure going to celebrate.  I met up with Nicole, Sam, and Elisa who are teaching in Lisieux this year, at the bar about 5 pm on Thursday.  It was also Nicole's birthday that day so we had to celebrate for two reasons.  As the night went on, more and more assistants came out to the bar. Soon we had our little corner of Americans at the bar.  We made new friends and had a lot of fun!

Nicole and me

Friends on St. Patty's Day

My new friend who brought me a glow stick

Margaux and me

The girls

It has been absolutely gorgeous in Normandy for the last week.  The sun comes out everyday and it's so warm.  I have been going out without a jacket for the first time since September.  Spring is here!  Last Sunday, Parisa, Margaux and I met at Parisa's appartment for an afternoon of high tea, french style.  We had tea, baguette, cheese, strawberries, nutella, and pasteries.  Lovely afternoon with two lovely ladies.

High tea in France

But of course, I have also been dealing with a few things these past two weeks too.  First one is obvious: I had to go back to school.  Then, I decided that it was probably time to start job hunting in the US for when I get back in June.  While it's annoying and time-consuming, it's necessary and actually going pretty well so far.  And I also have some wonderful teachers who have offered to help me by writing letters or being references.  They really are so sweet. Last Friday, three teachers from my middle school and I went to dinner at a wonderful pizza place.  They didn't let me pay for any of my meal or for the drink that we got afterwards.  They are hysterically funny and really great people with some pretty wicked senses of humor which always makes being around them great fun.

And that was just yesterday so now you'll caught up!  About to get to my first stop to get to Angers.  It's still really pretty out there, a lot more trees now and little towns that we pass by.  Just a cluster of houses, and a church steeple peeking out.   Simple but lovely.

Yes, it's truly a beautiful life.  :)

Berlin - C'est Bientôt la Fin

I have been putting off writing this last part because once I have Berlin documented, my vacation is officially over.  Although, now that my travels have been posted, I can re-live them any time I want!  What did I do with all of my time before Facebook and blogging?  A discussion for another time because right now, I want to talk about...Berlin!!

Berlin was the last stop on my epic adventure.  I left Prague very early in the morning to take the bus to Berlin.  Scary story about the bus ride, we were pulled over by German police and they made us get out our passports.  This was okay, but the scary part was when the lady police officer took our passports back outside and went to look at them in their cop car.  Now, I had no reason to be nervous but that didn't stop me. I just kept thinking, what if they just drive away?  What am I going to do then?  But of course I was worrying for no reason and they brought all of them back to us.  No stamp.  I have come to accept that I am just not going to get a stamp from any other countries.  They just don't care once you are in the EU.

Okay back to Berlin.  So when we hopped off of the bus, I went looking for a metro station and that was when I met another assistant who was also traveling from Prague to Berlin.  So Genna and I figured out the metro and made it to our hostels.  We met up later to walk around a bit but we quickly found out that Berlin is a very spread out city.  There is a lot to see and there is not just one center of town.  After walking a lot, we decided we would wait until the tour the next day to really get to know the city.  We had dinner at a traditional German pub and a drink at Genna's hostel bar.

The next morning, we met up with the free tour.  This was the largest group of people I had ever seen for on of these free tours.  The organization was pretty incredible.  We had a great host, George, who was from a small town in Missouri.  Not only did he really know his stuff, but he was also very entertaining.

We started our tour at Pariser Platz.  In this very famous square are different embassies of the world, as well as the Brandenburg Gate.  This gate has survived through many hard times of war and communism.  It is a very serious, almost daunting looking piece of architecture.  But beautiful just the same.

Brandenburg Gate in Pariser Platz

From Pariser Platz, we walked where the Berlin Wall used to stand until we came to the Jewish Memorial.  When you first see it, it looks like a bunch of pillars and nothing special.  But when you get closer, you can see that you can walk between them and they are in a grid shape.  I had seen this memorial the first day I was there and not thrilled by it at the beginning.  The architect of the memorial never gave a description of what exactly it was supposed to mean and how it honored the Jews that were killed during World War II.  But then George gave us a really good interpretation for what it could mean.  He said that as you walk through the grid, you get further and further away from the world.  When you are in the center, you can barely hear the cars on the street.  Maybe it could symbolize how the Jews were completely cut off from the rest of the world.  He also said how easy it is to turn a corner and be separated from your friends or family. He thought this could symbolize when the Jewish people were separated from their friends and family when sent to concentration camps. It was pretty amazing to walk around inside of the memorial while thinking about these interpretations.  

Inside the Jewish Memorial

Looking out on the memorial

Looking up, these pillars got really tall in the middle

a view from the outside

After the memorial, we went to the only part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing.  It was pretty cool to see this site.  Most of it has been torn down, but the part that stands is protected by a fence.  I find it a little ironic that this thing that people were so against and wanted gone so badly, is now protected from being torn down by a fence.  But it's history and we need to be reminded of what the wall stood for.  

This was where the "death strip" was called.  It was the 100 meters on the East side of the wall where you could try to get across with your life and then scale the wall to escape.  Very few succeeded in this. 

some graffiti still on the wall.  

the Berlin Wall

another view

From there we went over to Checkpoint Charlie.  Now everything about this checkpoint is re-created but it was cool to see where where a checkpoint from East to West was located.  This checkpoint was the 3rd along the wall and the only international.  This is what it looks like today. 

Checkpoint Charlie

We then went over Gendarmenmarket Sqaure.  There were two churches, one Catholic and one Protestant, and a concert hall in the middle.  Some say it's the most beautiful square in all of Europe.  In the summer time, the orchestra will sit on the steps of the concert hall and play music into the night.  Luckily, we had a gorgeous day to capture the true beauty of the square.  There was even a woman playing a violin.  Pictures couldn't capture it all of it, so thank goodness I had my video camera.

The square

me in front of the concert hall

Here are the rest of the sites we saw on the tour:

The memorial to the fallen of war

Protestant Cathedral on Museum Island

Humbolt University. Einstein taught here.  Also, this square was the site of the Nazi book burning

After we had finished for the day, Genna and I went back to a few of the free museums to look around.  That night we had dinner again and then we went to the bar at my hostel.   There was a soccer game on so there were a ton of people including George, our tour guide!  So we hung out with him for most of the night and made friends with new people.  I would definitely say this is one of the best parts of traveling by yourself. 

George, me and Genna

And finally it came to the very last day of my vacation.  Luckily, it was beautiful out and I walked around taking pictures of more of the sites.  It was more of a relaxing day than anything else.  I did go see another museum but walking around was really nice.  Here are the last photos from my trip.

View of Museum Island and river

tv tower next to an old church

And that was that.  Probably one of the best vacations of my life.  I was nervous to travel by myself but it turned out to be an epic journey where I met a ton of wonderful people.  It was a truly amazing experience and I couldn't have been happier.  Thank you to everyone I met and spent time with, and everyone who wished me a happy birthday whether it was on facebook, email, or by phone.  I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful life and I am so thankful for all the people I share it with!

C'est la belle vie! :)

Prague - You are just too Cool

I was a little worried on my bus ride to Prague for a couple of reasons: Munich was so amazing, how could Prague compare?  I was getting in at night, only knowing the general direction of my hostel.  And lastly, what is this weird form of currency they use?

But within an hour of getting to Prague, none of that mattered.  I found an exchange right away, received 2,300 Czech notes for 100 euro, and hopped on the super simple and user-friendly metro, and made it to my hostel.  Parisa was already in our room waiting for me!  It was so nice to meet up with a friend...and have the hostel to ourselves!  No one else in our room and we had a bathroom all to ourselves!  Sweet!  We immediately went out for dinner.  There were a couple of cool places just down the street from us in the Little Quarter.  We found an awesome restaurant that had a super good menu deal.  We got potato soup and roasted duck with dumplings for only 150 Cezch notes (about 6 euro/ $8).  Combined with a Cezch beer and this was a wonderful meal!

The next morning we met up with the free tour to see the sights of Prague.  Here are some of the highlights:

Astronomical Clock in the Old Square

St. James' Church.  There is a story that a thief wanted to steal an expensive necklace off a statue of Mary in this church.  As he was taking the necklace, the statue of Mary came alive, grabbed his arm, and turned back to stone.  He was stuck.  So the priest of the church decided the only way to release him was to cut off his arm.  Once the thief ran off sans arm, Mary realized she was just holding on to a blooding arm.  She dropped it and went back to her original position.  They kept the arm, and it is on display in the church.  Unfortunately, Parisa and I couldn't find it when we went inside.  After google imagining it, we realized that it's up high and we failed to look above our heads.  Next time!

The Old-new Jewish synagogue, Jewish Quarter

Rudolfinum, home to the Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague

Cathedral in the Castle, other side of the river

Interior of the Cathedral, people get married here! Save your date now!

Beautiful Mosaic on the Cathedral

Front of the Castle in Prague

Monastery on top of a hill in Prague, great views.  The monks also brew beer.

View of Prague from the Monastery

After our long day of touring the city, Parisa and I wanted to find a place to get dinner.  We were walking down a long hill back towards the Little Quarter, when we realized how close we were to our hostel.  Since we were right there and starving, we decided to eat at the same place from the night before.  The waiter immediately recognized us and I think was a little more than happy we decided to come back.  This night we had onion soup, beef goulash with dumplings and cheescake! It was probably one of the best meals I have ever had.  We had a different Czech beer this night but after our meal, our waiter brought us a Czech drink that apparently is good for digesting.  We didn't really question it, and since it would be rude to not accept, we drank the somewhat odd mixture.  When our bill came, he did not charge us for the after dinner drink (which he brought us, so that wasn't surprising) and neither for our beer.  It pays off to make friends! 

After dinner we went to the bridge to try and capture a few good night scenes of Prague.  Whether we got the good pictures or not, we had fun walking up and down the bridge in the freezing cold. Kind of..

Castle in the background, view from Charles Bridge

Beautiful Praha

Another view of the Castle

The next day was picture day.  We were going to go back to all of the places we didn't get enough time at the day before! Our first stop: John Lennon wall.  I like that this wall wasn't an organized thing, people just started to remember John Lennon by decorating the wall with all sorts of graffiti.  Parisa and I noticed such an immensely positive energy by this wall.  It was so gratifying to see something with so many positive things written, especially in our world today.  It was beautiful.

Parisa looking at the John Lennon wall

Peace

Loved this one

Left my mark.  Peace <3 E

Perfect day

After the wall, we walked back over the Old Town Square and got some amazing pictures because it was absolutely gorgeous out this day!

Old town Square on a beautiful day in Prague

Look at those clouds...amazing

More of the Square

The Municipal building, concerts are performed here 

Estates Theater, our tour guide said it was the only theater where Mozart ever played

Charles University, you can see the old part and the new

Prague is a small enough city that we easily did everything there was to see in just two days. After hearing so many of my friends talk about how amazing of a city it was, I am really glad that I could experience it for myself.  A truly fantastic city with a fascinating history. 

So for our last night, we decided why temp fate and have a bad dinner...so we went back to our favorite place.  They were pretty jazzed to have us back once again.  I had the same thing as the night before only instead of cheesecake for dessert, we got a tri-platter of strawberry sherbet, flan, and strawberries. And of course, our waiter brought us another free drink after dinner and this time it was a mojito! Yum!

Our wonderful little restaurant in Prague

And after two short days, it was time to say goodbye to Prague and Parisa and head off to Berlin in the morning. 

Ciao Prague, you were beautiful! :)