allez allez allez le bleu et blanc!
So, this past weekend was Criterium, aka Krit, in Strasbourg, and it was where all the IEP's (Institut d'Etudes Politiques) in France get together for a weekend of sports competitions, parties and general debauchery. The other IEPs are from places like Paris, Lyon, Lille, Rennes, Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and a few other places I know I'm forgetting. Oh, Grenoble. So, yeah, all these schools get together and compete in sports like volleyball, handball, basketball, swimming, badmitton, soccer, you get the gist. I was supposed to swim, but I found out that I wasn't actually registered, so I didn't want to be stuck at the pool for 4 hours (you could only get to and from the pool by bus) if I wasn't sure I was going to swim. Quel dommage. So, instead, I watched volleyball. And I was told ahead of time that you really don't have to be very good to play, but I think I could've been an asset to the volleyball team lol. The men, on the other hand, were really good. Anyways, um, so it was really fun, it reminded me of the atmosphere at a rivalry football game, everyone repped their school's colors and painted their faces and bodies and just generally were crazy. Football games don't, however, last all weekend, so by sunday I was exhausted and couldn't make it out that night (I know, lllaaaammmeee haha) The only thing that was a little less fun than football games was that I didn't feel especially included. Because in France, the IEPs are pretty small schools, most have less than 1500 students total and they know basically everyone in their class. Whereas, coming from the US as a study abroad student, I know a few people and only for a few months. but it was still a fun atmosphere and fun to watch the sports and all that :)
Annnddddd tomorrow I leave for my Grand Adventure. Yes, that's the name I've chosen to give it. Caitlin and I are taking a train to Stuttgart, then flying to Budapest, where we're meeting Erin and her friend, Beria and my friend Olivia. We're staying there Thursday night till Sunday night. From there, Caitlin, Erin, Beria and I are flying to Istanbul to stay with Erin. Caitlin is leaving for Madrid on Thursday and then Erin and I are going to Thessaloniki Friday night until Monday morning. Can't wait! lots of updates and pictures coming in a few weeks!! :)
till then, Happy Easter! love you all :)
PS. Tomorrow is April. I'm not sure what happened to March and I'm not sure I'm ok with it disappearing on me like that... On the other hand, I seriously cannot wait for my adventure starting tomorrow! Guess I should get to packing...
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
just a rando
3/19
Just felt like posting a random blog about nothing in particular... well maybe about something in particular - I'm randomly feeling homesick this morning. Not really sure why either. The most pathetic part? I am CRAVING a gym. Like, CRAVING. Anyone who knew me last semester would understand, I love working out. And biking to the pool, swimming for 45 min and biking back just isn't cutting it. I want to go to a gym where I can go on an elliptical machine and then lift weights. So I think Caitlin and I are going to check out some gyms in the area and see if there's any that fit in our budget (so, the cheapest ones.) And then if we find one, we're working out allll day tomorrow. I'm kind of excited for that actually.
3/24
Well I didn't post the above post just because I didn't think it was worth it - it was short and didn't really have any significance other than I miss American gyms. But, this morning, I found another thing I miss from the States: GRADE INFLATION. I got a few grades back and while none of them were terrible (although one was close), I was just surprised at the grading scale here. They grade on a number scale from 1-20 and BC has an grid where they equate certain numbers with certain letters. The thing is, though, that an A is 14-20, and a 14 is a GREAT grade. An F is a 0-6, so really the only grades fall into 7-14. For example, a 13 is an A-, a 12 is a B+, etc. But my thought is, if anything above 15 is basically impossible to get (it is basically impossible to get), then why do they have it? I know its just different, but comparing it to American numeric and letter grades, our system just makes more sense to me. It's not possible to get above a A+ and an A+ is usually around 100%. Its impossible (with the exception of extra credit or bonuses) to get above 100% so that correlates with the highest letter grade, A+. I guess I just question why one would have a system where nearly a quarter of the grades are basically impossible to attain.
Anyways, this weekend is Criterium, aka Krit, and its a big sports competition between all the Sciences Po schools in France. It's apparently a huge weekend long party and I'm really excited for it. Oh, and I'm swimming in it. HA. that'll be interesting lol considering I swim 6 or 7K on a good week now. But, oh well, it'll be fun :) so I'll probably post about that next week and then I'm off on my Grand Adventure! My spring break starts next Thursday and I'm going to Budapest, Istanbul and Thessaloniki. SO EXCITED. More updates will definitely follow that. And then after that I start gearing up for finals! Crazy! and then my family comes and then I go home! It's going so fast and I can't even believe that today is my halfway point! Especially since I know the next month is going to absolutely FLY by! anywho, I should get ready for class so I hope you enjoyed this random post (I figured I should post something since I haven't in awhile) and I hope all is well! Oh and for all the CO kids - enjoy the snow! I'm not jealous at all since its finally warm here (high 60s yesterday = glorious! I tanned on the porch! :) ) but I hope you got a snow day!
later y'all <3
Just felt like posting a random blog about nothing in particular... well maybe about something in particular - I'm randomly feeling homesick this morning. Not really sure why either. The most pathetic part? I am CRAVING a gym. Like, CRAVING. Anyone who knew me last semester would understand, I love working out. And biking to the pool, swimming for 45 min and biking back just isn't cutting it. I want to go to a gym where I can go on an elliptical machine and then lift weights. So I think Caitlin and I are going to check out some gyms in the area and see if there's any that fit in our budget (so, the cheapest ones.) And then if we find one, we're working out allll day tomorrow. I'm kind of excited for that actually.
3/24
Well I didn't post the above post just because I didn't think it was worth it - it was short and didn't really have any significance other than I miss American gyms. But, this morning, I found another thing I miss from the States: GRADE INFLATION. I got a few grades back and while none of them were terrible (although one was close), I was just surprised at the grading scale here. They grade on a number scale from 1-20 and BC has an grid where they equate certain numbers with certain letters. The thing is, though, that an A is 14-20, and a 14 is a GREAT grade. An F is a 0-6, so really the only grades fall into 7-14. For example, a 13 is an A-, a 12 is a B+, etc. But my thought is, if anything above 15 is basically impossible to get (it is basically impossible to get), then why do they have it? I know its just different, but comparing it to American numeric and letter grades, our system just makes more sense to me. It's not possible to get above a A+ and an A+ is usually around 100%. Its impossible (with the exception of extra credit or bonuses) to get above 100% so that correlates with the highest letter grade, A+. I guess I just question why one would have a system where nearly a quarter of the grades are basically impossible to attain.
Anyways, this weekend is Criterium, aka Krit, and its a big sports competition between all the Sciences Po schools in France. It's apparently a huge weekend long party and I'm really excited for it. Oh, and I'm swimming in it. HA. that'll be interesting lol considering I swim 6 or 7K on a good week now. But, oh well, it'll be fun :) so I'll probably post about that next week and then I'm off on my Grand Adventure! My spring break starts next Thursday and I'm going to Budapest, Istanbul and Thessaloniki. SO EXCITED. More updates will definitely follow that. And then after that I start gearing up for finals! Crazy! and then my family comes and then I go home! It's going so fast and I can't even believe that today is my halfway point! Especially since I know the next month is going to absolutely FLY by! anywho, I should get ready for class so I hope you enjoyed this random post (I figured I should post something since I haven't in awhile) and I hope all is well! Oh and for all the CO kids - enjoy the snow! I'm not jealous at all since its finally warm here (high 60s yesterday = glorious! I tanned on the porch! :) ) but I hope you got a snow day!
later y'all <3
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
things I love
1. Gossip Girl. for so many reasons, not the least of which is the attractiveness of the entire cast and the scandals they all incite.
2. rediscovering old music
3. discovering new music
4. cooking
5. my family
6. my friends
7. Crémant d'Alsace
8. Chocolate
9. you get the picture...
Ok, well I noticed today that "blogger.com" wasn't one of my most visited sites, which means that I haven't been blogging as much, which obviously is a wrong that must be righted. Thus, here I am, after my Acualités français exam, blogging because I my brain is dead.
The only really notable things that have happened lately were that I cooked dinner last thursday and this monday, I took a test and I've resolved to lose the 5 ish pounds I've gained so far before spring break (ha that's not gonna happen lol).
Anyways, so on Thursday, I made dinner and it was so good, if I I do say so myself. I made rice, chicken with bell peppers, onions and broccoli stir fry, salad with Angelo Pietro dressing and brownies. And oh man, it was so fun and cathartic being back in the kitchen. Its sad, but cooking became one of my study breaks last semester, since if I started thinking about school while cooking I'd probably burn something or chop off a digit or something equally bad. And so that's how it was here too, I put on some music and got to chopping! and I loved it... I'm such a nerd in so many ways lol but then on Monday, I decided that since Thursday went so well, I'd cook again and I'd try something a little more adventurous. oops, not the greatest idea... I tried cooking with wine since I had some left over but I think I did it wrong. The dish (chicken with peppers, onions and tomatoes, it was different from thursday tho, I swear lol) turned out alright, but I definitely thought it was going to have a lot more flavor than it did. It basically had no flavor. I think I need to reduce the wine separately and then pour it over the dish, instead of trying to make it a sauce... I'll try that sometime (probably not when I'm cooking for everyone tho). I won't be cooking again for awhile though, sadly, just because my schedule doesn't really allow for it until after break, at which time I could make dinner like every other night. Oh well, soon enough, I'll get to cook whenever I want and then following that, I'll have to cook if I want to eat lol.
So the second interesting thing was my actualités test. The class is about french current events and its really made me pay attention to the politics here - people are much more involved and informed than in the US (I'm pretty sure some people even follow American politics, and EVERYONE follows American presidential elections and politics, it's interesting). Anyways, for the class, we have weekly assignments in which we get 3 articles and we have to analyze and compare them by using journalistic clues like different signatures, title styles, paragraph lengths, etc. Plus, on top of that, we have to "evite tout les fautes evitables gramaticales" (= get rid of all the grammatical problems you can, aka. agreement, conjugation, idiomatic phrases, cliches, etc mistakes). If we don't get rid of all of them, we get counted down a lot because those are the mistakes that are easily avoided by looking in a dictionary. It's a good lesson in discipline, but it is kind of difficult, because you have to pay realllllyyy close attention to everything. So, we had to do that for our test - compare and analyze the 3 articles, but without computers (we could bring dictionaries though). I think I did alright. I really can't tell though because it depends on how he grades, but I feel like I wrote the best I could in the given time and with the conditions.
Oh and regarding the list above: I just haven't made a fun list in awhile, so I figured it was about time...
10. good food
11. good grades
12. smiling :)
13. that's all for now, I'll continue (i'm sure) later!
2. rediscovering old music
3. discovering new music
4. cooking
5. my family
6. my friends
7. Crémant d'Alsace
8. Chocolate
9. you get the picture...
Ok, well I noticed today that "blogger.com" wasn't one of my most visited sites, which means that I haven't been blogging as much, which obviously is a wrong that must be righted. Thus, here I am, after my Acualités français exam, blogging because I my brain is dead.
The only really notable things that have happened lately were that I cooked dinner last thursday and this monday, I took a test and I've resolved to lose the 5 ish pounds I've gained so far before spring break (ha that's not gonna happen lol).
Anyways, so on Thursday, I made dinner and it was so good, if I I do say so myself. I made rice, chicken with bell peppers, onions and broccoli stir fry, salad with Angelo Pietro dressing and brownies. And oh man, it was so fun and cathartic being back in the kitchen. Its sad, but cooking became one of my study breaks last semester, since if I started thinking about school while cooking I'd probably burn something or chop off a digit or something equally bad. And so that's how it was here too, I put on some music and got to chopping! and I loved it... I'm such a nerd in so many ways lol but then on Monday, I decided that since Thursday went so well, I'd cook again and I'd try something a little more adventurous. oops, not the greatest idea... I tried cooking with wine since I had some left over but I think I did it wrong. The dish (chicken with peppers, onions and tomatoes, it was different from thursday tho, I swear lol) turned out alright, but I definitely thought it was going to have a lot more flavor than it did. It basically had no flavor. I think I need to reduce the wine separately and then pour it over the dish, instead of trying to make it a sauce... I'll try that sometime (probably not when I'm cooking for everyone tho). I won't be cooking again for awhile though, sadly, just because my schedule doesn't really allow for it until after break, at which time I could make dinner like every other night. Oh well, soon enough, I'll get to cook whenever I want and then following that, I'll have to cook if I want to eat lol.
So the second interesting thing was my actualités test. The class is about french current events and its really made me pay attention to the politics here - people are much more involved and informed than in the US (I'm pretty sure some people even follow American politics, and EVERYONE follows American presidential elections and politics, it's interesting). Anyways, for the class, we have weekly assignments in which we get 3 articles and we have to analyze and compare them by using journalistic clues like different signatures, title styles, paragraph lengths, etc. Plus, on top of that, we have to "evite tout les fautes evitables gramaticales" (= get rid of all the grammatical problems you can, aka. agreement, conjugation, idiomatic phrases, cliches, etc mistakes). If we don't get rid of all of them, we get counted down a lot because those are the mistakes that are easily avoided by looking in a dictionary. It's a good lesson in discipline, but it is kind of difficult, because you have to pay realllllyyy close attention to everything. So, we had to do that for our test - compare and analyze the 3 articles, but without computers (we could bring dictionaries though). I think I did alright. I really can't tell though because it depends on how he grades, but I feel like I wrote the best I could in the given time and with the conditions.
Oh and regarding the list above: I just haven't made a fun list in awhile, so I figured it was about time...
10. good food
11. good grades
12. smiling :)
13. that's all for now, I'll continue (i'm sure) later!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Belgium: the land of chocolate, waffles and frites
Alright, I apologize for how long it's taken me to post about Belgium, but I am finally getting around to it, and I wrote about it in a notebook while I was on the train coming home so I wouldn't forget anything :)
Ok, so here it is:
Starting from Friday, we had an afternoon train to Brussels leaving from Strasbourg at 2:30 and we didn't get in until almost 8 - it was *long*. But we got there and had a half hour to kill before out next train to Bruges. So we went and got food - I found a banana nut muffin and was in heaven (I got a random craving on the train lol). Then we got on the train for Bruges and got there around 9:30. We got taxis to the hotel, checked in, got our keys and rooms and basically went to bed (we hung out a little before, but didn't go out, at least I didn't).
Saturday we got up and got breakfast and while it was nothing compared to Prague, it was good and we got fresh coffee. Then we had a guided bike tour of Bruges, which was really cool, but it was sooo cold! We were all frozen by the end. But, we did learn a lot about the city and its history:
- it has the first stock market ever which was founded around 1273ish I think
- The "Lake of Love" has a very Romeo and Juliet-esque story: a rich girl and a poor boy fell in love (why is it always rich girls and poor boys and never the opposite?) but her family got upset and so they got him sent to the war front thinking she'd forget about him. Obviously, she didn't, and so her family told her that the boy died in the war, thinking that would make her forget about him. Wrong again. She was so heartbroken, she drowned herself in the lake. Well, then the boy came back and found out that she had drowned herself, so, naturally, he drowned himself. See? the Bruges version of Romeo and Juliet.
- There are lots of old windows that aren't flush with the wall, they hang out over the river (easy to see, harder to describe), those are former toilets.
- The Belgians have over 300 different kinds of beer
- The term "daylight robbery" (the american equivalent is "highway robbery") comes from the taxes levied on windows - people with more windows paid more taxes. So, people used to brick up their windows to avoid the tax, and thats why they called it daylight robbery. There are also lots of bricked up windows in Bruges.
So, yeah, it was a really neat tour and our tour guide knew a lot of interesting history.
After that, we went back to the hotel to warm up (slash thaw out) and then went searching for lunch. We went to a sandwich shop with soups and salads and sandwiches and desserts called Humpty Dumpty. I got soup and a waffle :) The soup was really good - I really miss soup with vegetables in it, I feel like all I have here are cream soups (like cream of mushroom type soups) and it came with whole grain bread. I haven't seen whole grain bread in so long! It was like a dream come true. And then to top it all off, I got my waffle with chocolate sauce and a little bit of ice cream.. ah-maz-ing.
So after gobbling down all that goodness, we went to try to climb the Bell tower, but it costs 6euro and it was a long wait and we weren't into that, so we decided to just wander a bit. I got chocolate - a box for my host fam, a bag of fruits de mer (chocolate with praline on the inside in the shape of seashells) and a few random truffles (delish!) Literally, every other store was a chocolate shop, so I just chose one and it ended up being really cheap, at least, compared to other peoples' purchases. Anyways, from there Kelly and I went to the chocolate museum (lol I was a bit obsessed with chocolate), which was really cool and very well done - it chronicled the history of chocolate starting from the Aztecs and how it came to Europe and we got to about the 19th century when the last demonstration started, so we went down and got our free piece of chocolate :) We only had about an hour there and I wish we had had more time, but oh well, such is life. then we went back to chill at the hotel for a bit before dinner.
For dinner, we went to this cool restaurant, Restaurant le Passage, and had a nice dinner. I got the chicken stew, which was hunks of chicken (by hunks I mean I stumbled across a wing - skin and bones included) in a light cream sauce with potatoes and veggies and bread (more whole grain bread!) on the side. Then for dessert I got another waffle with ice cream and whipped cream and a dish of chocolate sauce on the side (I gave away most of the ice cream and whipped cream since I figured that'd be asking for trouble...) and it was SO good.
Then that night, we all went out together (all the BC kids) and it was really cool because our hotel was right in the middle of the nightlife area, there were tons of bars and clubs within 100 meters of our room, it was awesome. First of all, we went to Cathedraak, and I'm still not sure what kind of club it was... I think it might've been a gay club. Because we were literally the only girls and most of the people there looked to be in their 30s. So, we were a group of 12ish girls and 3 guys, all 20 or 21 in a club full of 30something men. Yeah, interesting... but it was fun, they played good music and we had fun dancing [only with each other]. After that, it kind of went downhill, we went to a few different bars but none of them were much fun, so Caitlin and I went home relatively early.
Then on Sunday, we got up and had to check out by 11, so I got up, showered, got bfast, changed and packed.
We checked out on time (barely) and Caitlin and I ended up just sitting in the sun until the cabs came to get us at 12 to take us to the train station
We went to the train station and took a 12:30 train to Brussels, where we met Susan and her daughter (Susan left early to figure out a problem with the tickets) who then took us around Brussels. We saw Grand Place and it was amazing - all four sides of the square were occupied by some architectural beauty: a cathedral, guild houses, a museum, etc. I can't even describe how overwhelming it was to see it. I took pictures, but those don't do it justice either. Oh well, after that, we saw the statue of the little boy peeing that's a symbol of Brussels for some reason. Then we got frites. Oh goodness, those were the best french fries I've ever had. They were so good and the sauce was amazing - it was called samurai sauce and it was some kind of spicy sauce with hot chilis. They were messy but so worth it. That was my lunch on Sunday - healthy I know lol. Then we went to a square where all the chocolatiers have stores (I didn't get any though, I still have chocolate leftover) and then from there we headed back to the train station, and a bunch of us got subway for the way home. I've missed American sandwiches with vegetables SO MUCH. In Europe, it seems like there's always one piece of lettuce and one piece of ham and one piece of cheese. I asked for extra veggies on my subway sandwich when the guy was making it because I've missed them so much.
In conclusion:
waffle: check!
chocolate: check!
frites: check!
Belgium: check!
It was a fun (if quick) weekend trip. I would like to go back sometime with Mom and Dad and go see the house where we used to live and where the cows scared me all the time, but I have a feeling that won't happen for a while. So, all in all, it was fun :)
Tomorrow I'm going to Nancy, a town about an hour from here, just for a quick day trip and I'm excited for that, it should be fun, and hopefully I'll post about that quicker than I posted about Belgium ;)
So, hope all is well with you! laterrr
Ok, so here it is:
Starting from Friday, we had an afternoon train to Brussels leaving from Strasbourg at 2:30 and we didn't get in until almost 8 - it was *long*. But we got there and had a half hour to kill before out next train to Bruges. So we went and got food - I found a banana nut muffin and was in heaven (I got a random craving on the train lol). Then we got on the train for Bruges and got there around 9:30. We got taxis to the hotel, checked in, got our keys and rooms and basically went to bed (we hung out a little before, but didn't go out, at least I didn't).
Saturday we got up and got breakfast and while it was nothing compared to Prague, it was good and we got fresh coffee. Then we had a guided bike tour of Bruges, which was really cool, but it was sooo cold! We were all frozen by the end. But, we did learn a lot about the city and its history:
- it has the first stock market ever which was founded around 1273ish I think
- The "Lake of Love" has a very Romeo and Juliet-esque story: a rich girl and a poor boy fell in love (why is it always rich girls and poor boys and never the opposite?) but her family got upset and so they got him sent to the war front thinking she'd forget about him. Obviously, she didn't, and so her family told her that the boy died in the war, thinking that would make her forget about him. Wrong again. She was so heartbroken, she drowned herself in the lake. Well, then the boy came back and found out that she had drowned herself, so, naturally, he drowned himself. See? the Bruges version of Romeo and Juliet.
- There are lots of old windows that aren't flush with the wall, they hang out over the river (easy to see, harder to describe), those are former toilets.
- The Belgians have over 300 different kinds of beer
- The term "daylight robbery" (the american equivalent is "highway robbery") comes from the taxes levied on windows - people with more windows paid more taxes. So, people used to brick up their windows to avoid the tax, and thats why they called it daylight robbery. There are also lots of bricked up windows in Bruges.
So, yeah, it was a really neat tour and our tour guide knew a lot of interesting history.
After that, we went back to the hotel to warm up (slash thaw out) and then went searching for lunch. We went to a sandwich shop with soups and salads and sandwiches and desserts called Humpty Dumpty. I got soup and a waffle :) The soup was really good - I really miss soup with vegetables in it, I feel like all I have here are cream soups (like cream of mushroom type soups) and it came with whole grain bread. I haven't seen whole grain bread in so long! It was like a dream come true. And then to top it all off, I got my waffle with chocolate sauce and a little bit of ice cream.. ah-maz-ing.
So after gobbling down all that goodness, we went to try to climb the Bell tower, but it costs 6euro and it was a long wait and we weren't into that, so we decided to just wander a bit. I got chocolate - a box for my host fam, a bag of fruits de mer (chocolate with praline on the inside in the shape of seashells) and a few random truffles (delish!) Literally, every other store was a chocolate shop, so I just chose one and it ended up being really cheap, at least, compared to other peoples' purchases. Anyways, from there Kelly and I went to the chocolate museum (lol I was a bit obsessed with chocolate), which was really cool and very well done - it chronicled the history of chocolate starting from the Aztecs and how it came to Europe and we got to about the 19th century when the last demonstration started, so we went down and got our free piece of chocolate :) We only had about an hour there and I wish we had had more time, but oh well, such is life. then we went back to chill at the hotel for a bit before dinner.
For dinner, we went to this cool restaurant, Restaurant le Passage, and had a nice dinner. I got the chicken stew, which was hunks of chicken (by hunks I mean I stumbled across a wing - skin and bones included) in a light cream sauce with potatoes and veggies and bread (more whole grain bread!) on the side. Then for dessert I got another waffle with ice cream and whipped cream and a dish of chocolate sauce on the side (I gave away most of the ice cream and whipped cream since I figured that'd be asking for trouble...) and it was SO good.
Then that night, we all went out together (all the BC kids) and it was really cool because our hotel was right in the middle of the nightlife area, there were tons of bars and clubs within 100 meters of our room, it was awesome. First of all, we went to Cathedraak, and I'm still not sure what kind of club it was... I think it might've been a gay club. Because we were literally the only girls and most of the people there looked to be in their 30s. So, we were a group of 12ish girls and 3 guys, all 20 or 21 in a club full of 30something men. Yeah, interesting... but it was fun, they played good music and we had fun dancing [only with each other]. After that, it kind of went downhill, we went to a few different bars but none of them were much fun, so Caitlin and I went home relatively early.
Then on Sunday, we got up and had to check out by 11, so I got up, showered, got bfast, changed and packed.
We checked out on time (barely) and Caitlin and I ended up just sitting in the sun until the cabs came to get us at 12 to take us to the train station
We went to the train station and took a 12:30 train to Brussels, where we met Susan and her daughter (Susan left early to figure out a problem with the tickets) who then took us around Brussels. We saw Grand Place and it was amazing - all four sides of the square were occupied by some architectural beauty: a cathedral, guild houses, a museum, etc. I can't even describe how overwhelming it was to see it. I took pictures, but those don't do it justice either. Oh well, after that, we saw the statue of the little boy peeing that's a symbol of Brussels for some reason. Then we got frites. Oh goodness, those were the best french fries I've ever had. They were so good and the sauce was amazing - it was called samurai sauce and it was some kind of spicy sauce with hot chilis. They were messy but so worth it. That was my lunch on Sunday - healthy I know lol. Then we went to a square where all the chocolatiers have stores (I didn't get any though, I still have chocolate leftover) and then from there we headed back to the train station, and a bunch of us got subway for the way home. I've missed American sandwiches with vegetables SO MUCH. In Europe, it seems like there's always one piece of lettuce and one piece of ham and one piece of cheese. I asked for extra veggies on my subway sandwich when the guy was making it because I've missed them so much.
In conclusion:
waffle: check!
chocolate: check!
frites: check!
Belgium: check!
It was a fun (if quick) weekend trip. I would like to go back sometime with Mom and Dad and go see the house where we used to live and where the cows scared me all the time, but I have a feeling that won't happen for a while. So, all in all, it was fun :)
Tomorrow I'm going to Nancy, a town about an hour from here, just for a quick day trip and I'm excited for that, it should be fun, and hopefully I'll post about that quicker than I posted about Belgium ;)
So, hope all is well with you! laterrr
Thursday, March 11, 2010
updates on my life
1. update from Belgium coming soon
2. I am obese from chocolate, waffles and frites
3. Reslife hates me (as I do it) and I'm back in Edmond's next year.
4. yay caitlin got housing
5. I REALLY hate BC Reslife.
that is all.
2. I am obese from chocolate, waffles and frites
3. Reslife hates me (as I do it) and I'm back in Edmond's next year.
4. yay caitlin got housing
5. I REALLY hate BC Reslife.
that is all.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
just a quick one
just a quick update today:
yesterday we had our wine tasting soirée, paid for by BC :) and it was awesome! we went into the cellars of the hospital, which is one of the biggest wine cellars in france, with the oldest wine in a barrel in the world (I think) - it was from 1472 and it smelled wonderful... but we couldn't drink any obviously. Instead we had other Alsacian wines: Crement, which was like champagne but better, less sweet I think, I dunno but it was good; Reisling, which was also good, spicy and sweet, fruity but also woody... it was complex lol; and we finished with Gewurstraminer (sp?), which was really sweet, it was a late harvest wine, which means that it was extra sweet. I really liked it, though, it was really good. However, after I got home, it was a little harder to concentrate on following conversations and making intelligent replies after 4 ish glasses of wine right in a row (he refilled my glass with Gewurtstraminer a second time). It was even harder trying to do my homework after those 4 glasses of wine lol, but oh well, it was an awesome experience, i didn't do it justice in this little blurb, but I wanted to make sure I wrote it down :)
Also, heading to Belgium (Brussels and Bruges) this weekend - expect pics and updates after!
Oh, and I finally got FB uploader to work, so pics are finally up :)
bisoux-
yesterday we had our wine tasting soirée, paid for by BC :) and it was awesome! we went into the cellars of the hospital, which is one of the biggest wine cellars in france, with the oldest wine in a barrel in the world (I think) - it was from 1472 and it smelled wonderful... but we couldn't drink any obviously. Instead we had other Alsacian wines: Crement, which was like champagne but better, less sweet I think, I dunno but it was good; Reisling, which was also good, spicy and sweet, fruity but also woody... it was complex lol; and we finished with Gewurstraminer (sp?), which was really sweet, it was a late harvest wine, which means that it was extra sweet. I really liked it, though, it was really good. However, after I got home, it was a little harder to concentrate on following conversations and making intelligent replies after 4 ish glasses of wine right in a row (he refilled my glass with Gewurtstraminer a second time). It was even harder trying to do my homework after those 4 glasses of wine lol, but oh well, it was an awesome experience, i didn't do it justice in this little blurb, but I wanted to make sure I wrote it down :)
Also, heading to Belgium (Brussels and Bruges) this weekend - expect pics and updates after!
Oh, and I finally got FB uploader to work, so pics are finally up :)
bisoux-
Monday, March 1, 2010
stories from a survivor of the BC excursion
haha you'll get the title towards the end.
Anyways, on Saturday, Susan planned an excursion for us with the Georgetown students and BCA (=Brethren Colleges Abroad, I think) students. Only Caitlin, Rebecca and Sam and I went out of the BC kids, but it was cool, definitely worth it, especially since everything was free.
We left from IEP at 9 and went on an hour ish bus ride to the Memorial of Alsace in Shirmeck, which was really cool and very well done. It chronicles the story of the Alsace region from the 1800s to now, and shows how the region changed hands from Germany to France multiple times. The most interesting section was definitely the WWII parts, which were really interesting and especially well done because that part was made to look like a battle scene, it was dark and there were [fake] trees and it sounded like you were being bombed. I'm butchering this exhibit, its really cool, a lot better than how I describe it. If you find yourself in Alsace with nothing to do for a day, go to Shirmeck lol.
From there we went and got lunch at this really good restaurant. We got a 3 course meal, complete with wine and coffee for free! We started with an entrée, which is like an appetizer plate, and it had grated carrots, beets, some other stuff and terriné, which is sort of similar to paté, I think. I didn't really like it, but oh well. The next course was a beef stew type dish and it was delicious, the beef was all tender and juicy and the sauce was delicious and it came with cabbage (bleh), mashed potatos (yay), a cooked pear (so good), and spaetzle! I love spaetzle, its a type of pasta that's made with egg, flour and water, basically. and its terrible for you because you usually fry it, but its really good. Then we finished with a dessert: some kind of cake with liquor and ice cream. I think it was a rum cake, but I couldn't tell what type of liquor it was. Whatever it was, it was amazing. That is one thing I'll miss about France - the food! haha then again, I do miss american food also... we'll see lol. oh yeah and then at the very end we got coffee or tea (I got café au lait, of course)
And then from there, we moved our massive girths (we all were stuffed) back to the bus to go on a hike. wellllll.... the road was closed. so we went on a scenic route to the same point, but from the back I think. We finally got to the convent where the hike started (Mt. Saint Odile) and looked around there for 30 minutes or so, took some pictures (it was on the side of the mountain overlooking cliffs) and then started our hike. The leader of our hike, Alex, was the leader of the BCA program. He knew the hike well, but we didn't. And he walked fast. The path was in the middle of the forest, covered with snow and ice and we were wearing regular walking shoes and regular clothes (I was in my pea coat, for example). So, obviously, many people fell behind. Well, that would've been fine if there was only one way in and out. Nope, lots of criss crossing paths going every which way. And did we have a map? of course not! That would be silly. Well, we luckily kept up with Alex, mostly by scrambling over rocks and jogging through ice and snow and hoping and praying we didn't fall or slip and break an ankle. Because if we did fall behind, we would've been on our own to find the way back to the bus. And a lot of people were behind and had to figured out their way back. Not to mention we started our hike at 4:30 and didn't finish until after 6, so the sun was starting to set and not everyone was back yet. Basically, it was a coordinator's nightmare, and the setting of a horror movie: dun duh duh dunnnnn: college students lost in the woods in a foreign country at night. And I could tell that's what Alex was thinking too, but he never stopped to wait for anyone, he just kept jogging along, at a quick pace and left people in the dust. Luckily, though, everyone made it back safe and sound and there weren't any broken ankles or really bad falls. They did straggle in for awhile, though, and if I were them, I would've been worried, because being lost in the woods at night is not my idea of fun. It actually could've been a disaster if someone had gotten hurt and couldn't get back to the bus or if someone had wandered off and gotten lost... thank goodness that didn't happen.
Then, with everyone safe on the bus and no one lost in the woods, we headed home. I was exhausted, but it was a fun day with adventures... pics coming soon :)
Anyways, on Saturday, Susan planned an excursion for us with the Georgetown students and BCA (=Brethren Colleges Abroad, I think) students. Only Caitlin, Rebecca and Sam and I went out of the BC kids, but it was cool, definitely worth it, especially since everything was free.
We left from IEP at 9 and went on an hour ish bus ride to the Memorial of Alsace in Shirmeck, which was really cool and very well done. It chronicles the story of the Alsace region from the 1800s to now, and shows how the region changed hands from Germany to France multiple times. The most interesting section was definitely the WWII parts, which were really interesting and especially well done because that part was made to look like a battle scene, it was dark and there were [fake] trees and it sounded like you were being bombed. I'm butchering this exhibit, its really cool, a lot better than how I describe it. If you find yourself in Alsace with nothing to do for a day, go to Shirmeck lol.
From there we went and got lunch at this really good restaurant. We got a 3 course meal, complete with wine and coffee for free! We started with an entrée, which is like an appetizer plate, and it had grated carrots, beets, some other stuff and terriné, which is sort of similar to paté, I think. I didn't really like it, but oh well. The next course was a beef stew type dish and it was delicious, the beef was all tender and juicy and the sauce was delicious and it came with cabbage (bleh), mashed potatos (yay), a cooked pear (so good), and spaetzle! I love spaetzle, its a type of pasta that's made with egg, flour and water, basically. and its terrible for you because you usually fry it, but its really good. Then we finished with a dessert: some kind of cake with liquor and ice cream. I think it was a rum cake, but I couldn't tell what type of liquor it was. Whatever it was, it was amazing. That is one thing I'll miss about France - the food! haha then again, I do miss american food also... we'll see lol. oh yeah and then at the very end we got coffee or tea (I got café au lait, of course)
And then from there, we moved our massive girths (we all were stuffed) back to the bus to go on a hike. wellllll.... the road was closed. so we went on a scenic route to the same point, but from the back I think. We finally got to the convent where the hike started (Mt. Saint Odile) and looked around there for 30 minutes or so, took some pictures (it was on the side of the mountain overlooking cliffs) and then started our hike. The leader of our hike, Alex, was the leader of the BCA program. He knew the hike well, but we didn't. And he walked fast. The path was in the middle of the forest, covered with snow and ice and we were wearing regular walking shoes and regular clothes (I was in my pea coat, for example). So, obviously, many people fell behind. Well, that would've been fine if there was only one way in and out. Nope, lots of criss crossing paths going every which way. And did we have a map? of course not! That would be silly. Well, we luckily kept up with Alex, mostly by scrambling over rocks and jogging through ice and snow and hoping and praying we didn't fall or slip and break an ankle. Because if we did fall behind, we would've been on our own to find the way back to the bus. And a lot of people were behind and had to figured out their way back. Not to mention we started our hike at 4:30 and didn't finish until after 6, so the sun was starting to set and not everyone was back yet. Basically, it was a coordinator's nightmare, and the setting of a horror movie: dun duh duh dunnnnn: college students lost in the woods in a foreign country at night. And I could tell that's what Alex was thinking too, but he never stopped to wait for anyone, he just kept jogging along, at a quick pace and left people in the dust. Luckily, though, everyone made it back safe and sound and there weren't any broken ankles or really bad falls. They did straggle in for awhile, though, and if I were them, I would've been worried, because being lost in the woods at night is not my idea of fun. It actually could've been a disaster if someone had gotten hurt and couldn't get back to the bus or if someone had wandered off and gotten lost... thank goodness that didn't happen.
Then, with everyone safe on the bus and no one lost in the woods, we headed home. I was exhausted, but it was a fun day with adventures... pics coming soon :)
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