Heyyy Barcelonaaaa!

Hello friends! Sorry I took me a few days longer than I would have liked to get this out to you, however I’m here now! Hurray! So we’ll start with the boring school stuff first then I will tell you all about Barcelona!!

                Classes are going great! I really enjoy all of them and they are definitely keeping me busy. Mostly because I am a chronic overachiever and have been doing exercises on my own. But I was rewarded for all my hard work because I finally dreamt in French!! I was so excited I woke myself up…oops. This week I have to study super hard though because next week is midterms and my family will be here so I’m trying to get the bulk of my studying out of the way before they get here (OMG TWO DAYS !)

Okay now Barcelona:

                So I may or may not have skipped my classes Thursday and Friday (okay I did) but I checked with my professors and got the notes from other students so no worries; anyways it was totally worth it. There were five of us that went, myself, three other Americans; Casey, Emma and Kallie, and my friend Min from South Korea. Our travels went smoothly (train, plane and bus) and we arrived Thursday night at the hostel without incident. The language barrier was virtually non-existent because apparently everyone in Barcelona speaks English in addition to Catalan and or Spanish. Europeans and their multi-linguists amaze me to no end.  

                Anyways we started bright and early Friday morning with a free tour! Our tour guide was amazing and you could really tell that he loves Barcelona and loves sharing that passion with others.  He was incredibly knowledgeable of history of Barcelona and where all the buildings, monuments and parks fit in. After our tour we found the most beautiful fountain (second most beautiful place I have ever been), saw the Arc de Triomf and hit up the beach! It was a fantastic day. Saturday also started bright and early because we wanted to get to the Sagrada Famillia before the lines got outrageous. If you ever have the opportunity to go there, do it. It is THE most beautiful place I have ever been. The outside is sweet but the inside is stunning. Seriously amazing.

                Next we found a huge market full of fresh fruits, vegetables and meats of every variety, so of course we got lunch there. Nothing like freshly squeezed fruit juice and authentic Spanish food on a Saturday afternoon. Next we were off to see Park Guell, where we saw Gaudi’s house, two other houses and other various creations of his. It was so incredible!! Once we were done there we found a little Chinese restaurant to eat at in peace while the Barcelonans gathered in every public facility that had a TV to watch the Barcelona-Real Madrid game. Holy cow do they love their soccer!! We hit the hey early that night because our train was at 8am the next morning and while our hostel experience was really good, it was still really hard to sleep for longer than a few hours at a time without being woken up by someone. So that’s it for our adventure, no one got pick-pocketed, I saw my top two most beautiful places and now here are some pictures:

Mont St. Michel!

This week we started to get into the rhythm of classes and so far things are going smoothly! I really like all of my classes and I think they will all be really helpful! I was a little sad though because I signed up to go a conversation partner and Tuesday we were supposed to meet them and the school threw a big soiree for us but mine did not come :( There were a few like me who didn't have partners so we grouped together and hung out but it was still disappointing. They sent us the emails for our partners though so hopefully I hear back from her soon!

Other than that things have been going great! I made a new friend! She is from China and we have a few classes together. She invited me and a couple other girls to come over and eat real Chinese food sometime soon. I’m so excited! I told her that I love the American version of Chinese food so I would love to try the real thing!! I am also going to sign up to go to an International Dinner on Wednesday! Everyone has to bring a dish or dessert from their country so I need to think of something to make… Maybe pumpkin pie or something.

Yesterday was my excursion to the town of St. Malo and the incredible Mont St. Michel!! It was my favorite trip thus far! We visited the fortified part of St. Malo where we toured the ramparts, saw the cathedral where Jaques Cartier is buried and had delicious crêpes! Unfortunately it rained for most of this part of the trip to we got soaked but it was still beautiful. Next we hopped back on the bus and went to Mont. St. Michel! For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mont St. Michel, it is an island off the coast of France that has been entirely turned into a giant abbey and tiny town. The French have built a bridge out to it so that tourists like me can go whenever to check it out.

When we arrived it was still pouring, so we had to triple task; avoiding puddles and streams of water, climb lots of stairs trying to stay under the umbrella and still look around and take pictures. Fortunately by the time we got to the top it had not only stopped raining but the sun came out! Benefits of oceanic weather; wait five minutes, the weather will change. The rest of the day was absolutely beautiful and the island and abbey was even more so! Here are some photos:

New Classes, New Adventures

Hello friends! This week has been a lot of things; exciting, stressful, fun, to name a few. We have started the real fall semester this week and that means we get all new classes! However that meant that Monday I had to take another placement test (boo!) but only the “superior levels” had to take it so I guess I should be flattered my language skills are considered “superior.” (Woo!) The test really wasn’t too bad though so I can’t really complain. There are five superior levels, 331, 332, 341, 351 and 411; I got placed in 332! So that is fun and we get placed in a lot of the same electives as the other superior levels so that’s fun to switch things up.

            We have to take at least 18 credits but we can take up to 21 for the same price and this week we got to sit in on as many (or as few) as we’d like, so of course I went to as many as possible! It was really hard to decide but I have finally chosen the following: Langue (required), Theatrical expression, English-French translation, History of France, History of Art and Socio-cultural studies. 21 credits total, because I couldn’t resist! Here is a copy of my new schedule:

            Next week I will be going on my next excursion with the school to Mt. St. Michel et St. Malo!! I am so excited!!!! I have wanted to go here since I did a project on it in high school (thanks Mme. Kelly!)! And the week after that I am going to Barcelona!! And the week after THAT my family is coming and I’m meeting them in Paris!!! These next couple of weeks are going to fly by and I can’t wait to tell you all about them!! Hurray for exciting times!! Here are a few pictures from Nantes:            In travel news, I went to Nantes for the day yesterday with a couple of friends! It was so fun! We saw their castle which is currently a museum of the history of the city and an exhibit on the World Wars. It was so emotional to see it as the French do. For Americans it was a huge war we helped fight in for our allies but for the French it was a fight for their lives and for their country. It was really moving to see from this new perspective! We also saw the Nantes Cathedral, seriously stunning, the Gallery of Machines, a very interesting place full of machine versions of animals like elephants, birds and bugs, and finally a beautiful garden near the train station! We had a great day!

Ireland!!

The weirdest (and most incredible) thing about Europe is that conversations like this are totally normal:

"Hey! What did you do this week?"

"Oh ya know, just went to Ireland, it was alright. What about you?"

"I went to Belgium, the waffles were phenominal!!" 

And the reason Ireland was just "alright" was because I was sick and therefore did not go out much (boo!) However my birthday was awesome! We went out to a pub (obviously) and I go seafood chowder. Seriously delicious!! I didn't do much else though, roamed campus, crashed a few classes, made some friends. It was nice, low key. The traveling to and from was definitely the scariest part, and the most beautiful. If you ever need something to do, take a bus through the irish country side. Stunning. However coordinating train, plane and bus is hard. Especially when you are traveling alone and do not have a cell phone that works in said country. It was nice though that at least once I go to Ireland everyone spoke english, although that helped only a little because the irish are actually pretty difficult to understand. It didn't help that since I was used to speaking french, every time I had to ask someone a question I would get it all ready mentally in french then have to stop myself and switch back to english. My favorite things aobut Ireland was how it always smells like fresh rain (usually because if it is not currently raining, it probably has or will within an hour) and having a real sized coffee!! Coffee in France is great, my problem is that it is the size of a shot and I'm one of those people who likes to get a large coffee and do homework or procrastinate homework in a cafe somewhere for hours, that is not possible with a shot-sized coffee, therefore Ireland was amazing. I definitely would looove to go back and see a bit more of it, I hear Galway is one of the most beautiful places! So we shall see, my list of places to go is looong.

"Summer" classes have ended!

                Woo! Done with my first round of classes! Since the fall semester here starts in October and goes until the end of January, I had to take a September summer course in order to have a full US semester worth of classes when I come home right before Christmas. And I made it through September! The September class is a little different from the regular semester because it is very focused on the language and the only class I had that wasn’t language was civilization and class was almost always 9-5 whereas the real semester will have more diverse courses and less intensive hours. We don’t have our certificates back yet but we got all our assignments back and I think I did pretty well J

                Friday evening we had an International Soiree where people performed skits, dances or songs to represent their country. Seeing as my brother took all performing talents in the family, I just watched but all the performances were awesome! The funniest was a skit that a class did about the first day with your host family; hilarious. The cutest was a really awkward and adorable Taiwanese kid singing a song form a musical and he totally rocked it out and my favorite American group was definitely a couple who sung a duet of A Whole New World from Aladdin. Fantastic.

                Afterwards we all went out for the last time with the students who are not staying for the regular semester and the goodbyes were hard but we all had a lot of fun. We have a week until regular classes start so what seems like everyone is going on some sort of adventure this week. I’m leaving for Ireland in a few hours (can’t wait!!!) a group of kids are going to Marseille, some are going to Belgium, others to paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels, all over. So look out this week Europe, CIDEF is coming! (CIDEF is out program title.)

                So I suppose you want to know a little about my Ireland trip J I am leaving in three hours and am taking train, airplane and bus to stay at the University of Limerick until Friday with my friend Lauren from home! We both happened to be studying abroad in Europe this semester so we HAD to see each other and who needs a better excuse than that to see Ireland? My birthday falls during this week too so happy birthday to me! A good friend, a new country, and a week off, can you imagine a better way to spend a birthday?

                Alright well I have to go finish getting ready so be ready of lots of pictures and great stories when I get back J

Studying, beaches and castles, oh my!

Wow have they been keeping us busy! Class is (almost) always until 5 and there are (almost) always activities for international students afterwards. For example I went bowling last week and it was great! A lot of people had never bowling before so I felt like a champ! Yesterday was presentation day for these projects we've been working on... guess who saved the unfinished version to her USB instead of the beautiful finished one. You guessed it, this girl! My group took it well (we were in the middle of the presentation when we realized) and I hope we spoke well enough to override that little fiasco.. But other than that things are great! I went on an excursion Saturday to the Golfe du Morbihan on the coast in Bretagne!

It was amazing! We went on a boat tour of the Golfe, had lunch on the beach after which we got to explore a bit and I collected a few shells and saw a crab or two! Then we went and saw some megalithic rock formations. They were sweet! Huge and all lined up perfectly for a solstice? Haha no one knows what they are for. After that we went to Vannes, the capital of Bretagne. We had two free hours to explore the old village and try some regional pastries - SO GOOD! Then we headed back to Angers and I went out to eat with some friends! It was a great time but suuuuper exhausting. 

Sunday was great too because my host family took me to a castle 20 minutes away! I got to invite my friend Min with me, she is from South Korea. We had a great time! It was beautiful and an interesting mix of middle ages style architecture and 18th century styled rooms. There was a room with the ceiling painted and apparently one of the stories is a barber who talked so much that he accidently cut one of his clients and so the moral is to never do two things at once because you can’t concentrate on both at the same time. Haha it was a good time.

In other news my flat mate moved out…she got yelled at from trying to do the laundry (a past student tried and broke our host mother’s dryer so she is very strict on students not using her washer and dryer) and so Kacey got all freaked out and they just have very conflicting personalities to start so now she lives in a girls’ dorm. But things are well between me and my host family so no worries! Wee! Now it is picture time!