Dijon

On Wednesday Sarah and I went to Dijon in the Burgundy region of France. It is a beautiful city. We went on a walking tour that went by 22 sights. I really enjoyed the Duke’s palace where they had a tower that we climbed to get a better view of the city. I also liked the Notre Dame cathedral. It has a little chouette, or owl, in the wall, and it is believed that if you rub it with your left hand you and your family will have good luck, so you’re welcome family!

Dijon is of course known for its mustard, so I decided that I would have to try some. I bought some gingerbread mustard. I know it sounds gross, but Dijon is also known for its gingerbread. I knew I probably wouldn’t ever find it again, so I decided to give it a try. In the end it was quite funky tasting. It was really spicy, strong mustard with an aftertaste of gingerbread. I am glad I tried it, but I don’t think I would buy it again.

All in all we had a good day in Dijon. The train ride back was a little long though. It was an old train so there wasn’t any air conditioning. We had to ride 2 and a half hours with only a little air blowing in from the cracked windows. I was pretty sweaty by the time I got home. Good thing it wasn’t too crowded or I am sure it would have really smelled.

It has been really hot here all week, in the high 80s to lower 90s. I can’t wait for it to cool off because our bedrooms are at the top of the apartment building, so it gets really warm and stays like that all the time. It will be nice not to sweat when I sleep.

This weekend it the FIMU, Festival International de Musique Université, in Belfort. They have concerts going on from Friday night until Monday night. I guess it is a really huge thing and people come from all over to see the acts. Tonight we went to a concert where all they had was drums. The group was from Ecuador, and it was really amazing. I am excited to see what other acts they will have this weekend.


The duke’s palace



Duke's palace square



Notre Dame Cathedral



The Chouette, he has been rubbed a lot!



Sarah is hoping for some good luck.



This is where we ate lunch.



The famous rooftop design of Burgundy.



The view from the top of the tower. It was 316 steps to the top.



Gargoyle

Rainbow!

We just had a huge thunderstorm pass through. It rained for about 20 minutes, and then we had this beautiful scene. It was one of the brightest rainbows I have seen in a long time.

Summer Plans

I can’t believe I only have six weeks left teaching left. I don’t know where the last eight months have gone!

This week I finished planning the rest of my time in Europe. My last day of teaching is June 29. Then my family is coming out to visit me. They arrive July 2. We are going to spend a couple of days in Paris then we are going to rent an RV and travel around for another week.

They leave on July 12, and then I am heading up to England to visit Sarah for two weeks. We are going to visit London, Oxford, Stonehenge and Brighton among other places. We are also planning to see a play at the Globe Theater and a West End musical. It will be fun to see England with my own personal tour guide!

I will be back in the US on July 27, which is pretty exciting because I haven’t been there since January 5. I brought my plane ticket a couple of days ago. I can’t believe how expensive it was. I looked everywhere to see what was the cheapest. I guess it is not a good idea to buy a one-way ticket in the peak of tourist season because the cheapest ticket I could find was still $850. That was the price on STA Travel, which has a special price for people under 26. Otherwise the cheapest I found was about $1200. At least the flight I booked is nonstop. That just makes life easier.

Well, I am off to plan the rest of my lessons for the week. I am working on countries with the older kids and doing food with the little guys. It will be the first full week I have worked since the beginning of April because there have been so many days off! I hope I can handle it!

Flower Market

In Belfort this weekend there is a Flower market. It has flowers, crafts and food for sell. Also since it is Belfort’s 700th birthday they also had a flower design contest. Most of the towns in the Territory of Belfort came up with a design then they put them up all over town. They all looked so pretty.

Flower Market


Some of the entries for the design contest






This one was my favorite. I really loved the lion.



There was also a wine tasting exposition, so Sarah and I decided to learn about wine. It was pretty interesting. We learned quite a bit about how to tell how old a wine is and how to “properly” taste a wine.

Last night I was also able to experience for the first time the Eurovision song contest. All the countries in Europe write and then perform their songs then everyone votes for their favorite song. In other words it is like an even cheesier "American Idol" in a whole lot more languages. It was quite enjoyable to laugh at all the really bad songs, outfits and dances. My favorite had to be Ukraine, who was the heavy favorite to win. Here is a link to check it out for yourself. I am sure you will laugh.



Although Ukraine was favored to win, it was Serbia who got the glory. I guess each year there are problems with the voting because all the countries vote politically, and it has nothing to do with how good the song is. Sarah was pretty upset because the United Kingdom only got 12 points and ended up 23 of 24 countries. I guess there is always next year.

A new president and hair style

Not much has been going on here. I have today off because it is a holiday. It is actually the anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe. It is also raining today, so I haven’t been up to too much. Maybe tomorrow the weather will be nicer, so I can do something.

The presidential elections were held in France on Sunday, and yesterday in my schools all anyone could talk about was the new president. Nicolas Sarkozy won the election, but from what I have gathered this area was much more in support of Segolene Royal, the Socialist candidate. French people are more open about their politics, and they love to talk about them, even the kids. I don't know how many kids asked me who I voted for. I had to explain to them that I can’t vote in France. Then they all had to tell me who they wanted to win. I don't remember being that interested in politics when I was 9 or 10 years old!

Also on Sunday we went to see “Spider-Man 3.” I thought it was pretty good. It was really happy because I found that I could understand it easily. There were even parts where I wouldn’t even realize they were speaking French! It is exciting to see how I have progressed in the last 7 months! I have seen other movies in French here, but I think this was the easiest to understand yet.

Yesterday I went to get my hair done. I really needed a trim because I hadn’t had it cut since the beginning of January, but I was a little nervous about getting it cut in France. I have seen some disturbing hair styles since I have been here.

Sarah and I decided to just go get it done, so we made appointments at Atmosp’Hair. (It still makes me smile every time I say it.) The French love to put English words in wherever they can. In the end I think my hair looks all right. It is a little shorter and choppier than I would have liked, but it could have been worse. I could have come out with the ever-popular European mullet!!

Also I have updated my Web site with the pictures from Barcelona, Rome and Venice so check it out when you have the time.

Back to work...

Well, all my visitors have gone home now, and it is time for me to go back to teaching. I can’t believe how fast three weeks went, but I have had a really good time!

Lat week I visited some new towns in the Franche-Compté region with my grandparents. I really enjoyed it. There are some really beautiful places in this region. It was also nice to see trees and hills again after going to such big cities.

On Wednesday I showed them around Belfort. Then on Thursday we went to Colmar. It was nice to go there again. It was beautiful at Christmas time, but I think I prefer it in spring when all the flowers are blooming. On Friday we went to a little town called Ornans. It is a really tiny town, but the scenery is gorgeous. It is also the birthpace to the painter Gustave Courbet, so we visited the museum dedicated to him. Then on Saturday we went to Dole, which was another nice little town. It is the birthplace of Louis Pasteur, so there is a museum about him in the city. Unfortunately it was closed until May, so we missed it by a couple of days.

The last couple of days I have just been enjoying the beautiful weather and running errands.

In France there are a lot of holidays in May, so I actually only have one full week of teaching for the entire month. I think June will be a hard month for me because I will have to teach the whole month without a day off!!!

Here are a few pictures from the last few places I visited. Hopefully I will be able to get all my pictures up on my Web site soon.

Colorful houses in Colmar



The Petite Venice part of Colmar



The Loue River in Ornans



Cathedral



This bridge is found in a lot of Courbet’s paintings.



Country road



The small town of Ornans



Dole


Notre Dame Cathedral in Dole



The inside

Home again, home again

I’m baaack!!!! It was a great trip, and we got to see so many places. There was lots of sun, but everywhere we went was so HOT!!! I hate to think what Rome must be like in July!!!

My favorite place I visited was definitely Venice. We had so much fun just getting lost in the streets because you will just be walking and you cross about 8 bridges along the way and then the street just ends. The colors and buildings were also so unique. The only bad things were some of the smells and the prices. We had fees for everything. In restaurants they even charged a table fee. I was wondering if you decided to stand and eat if they would still charge you that fee.

Rome was also a lot fun. There was just so much to see there. We saw the Coliseum, Forum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps and the Vatican (including St. Peter’s Basilica, museums and Sistine Chapel). By the end of those three days we were completely exhausted, but very content with all the gelato we ate!!!

Barcelona was also gorgeous. It is mostly just sites where the artist Gaudi built a something, but everything he made was so bright and colorful so the entire city has the same feel. We also went to the beach and up to where they had the stadium for the 1992 Olympics.

Most of the hostels were all right. In Paris there wasn’t any hot water, so we had to take extremely quick showers. None of them were as bad that the Aloha hostel where we stayed in Paris in February, so that was good.

Overall, it was an amazing time, and I didn’t come back completely broke which is always good.

I met up with my grandparents yesterday in Paris. They will be staying in Belfort until Sunday. Today I took them on a tour of Belfort, and tomorrow we will be going to Colmar. Then we have a couple more day trips. I think it will be nice to be out of the tourist areas for a while, so I have some room to breathe again.

Here are a few pictures I took on my adventures. There will be more to some soon!!!!!



Waiting in line for the Eiffel Tower




Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona




The Coliseum




The Forum (old Rome)




St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican




Swiss Guards who protect the Vatican. (I think they are only there so tourists can make fun of their outfits!)



Sarah and Vicky at the Spanish Steps




Trevi Fountain



A canal in Venice



Another stunning scene from Venice




St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice




The Grand Canal at dusk

Off We Go...

I have spent the entire day doing laundry, packing and cleaning, and I think I am finally finished and ready to go on my next big trip.

Sarah and I are leaving for Paris tomorrow at 5:39 am. (Mandy is not coming with us because she only had a 7-month contract, so she is finished and going home. I can’t believe it has been seven months already!) Then we are going to the airport to meet my friend Vicky who is flying in from Denver for the trip. They were expecting a ton of snow in Denver, but the storm stayed south, so she left all right. We have two days and one night in Paris then we leave Sunday night for Barcelona, and we get there at about 8:30 am. I am sure we will be very tired, but we will have to fight through it and take in all the sites.

Then we head to Rome and on to Venice then back to Paris by April 24. Then I meet up with my Grandparents in Paris. They are coming back to Belfort to visit for 5 days, and I am going to show them the sights.

It will be a couple of busy but really fun weeks. I can’t wait until I leave at 5:30 am tomorrow!

Bern

Happy Easter or rather Joyeuses Pâques!

Yesterday Sarah and I went over to Bern, Switzerland, and we had a great time. Every time I go to Switzerland I like it more and more. The scenery is gorgeous, the people are friendly and it is amazingly clean.

It is hard to believe that Bern is the capital of Switzerland because it is quite small. I think only about 120,000 people live there. The town is located in the bend in the Aare River. The architecture is interesting too because all the building match, which makes all the streets so pretty.

We first went to the Munter Cathedral and climbed up to the top. The views were amazing even though it was a little hazy. The climb up wasn’t too bad although it was almost 400 steps. Coming down was probably worse because the staircase was so narrow and steep.

After we had lunch we went to the bear pits. Bern is named after the German word for bear. Apparently they named it that because when the area used to be hunting ground the first animal killed there was a bear. They have had bears in Bern for hundreds of years. I guess they are kind of like city mascots.

We also went into some shops in the afternoon, and I bought some good Swiss chocolate for Easter. I don’t think there is anything better.

This week I only have two days of work because tomorrow is Easter Monday. In France it is a holiday, and people don’t work or go to school. Then I don’t have to go to my two classes on Friday because they are going somewhere. That means I have lots of time to do laundry and pack my stuff for my trip. I only have 5 days until I leave. I am really excited. I think I have everything finished, so now all I have to do is actually go!!

I will leave you with some pictures from Bern that Sarah took. She likes there to be people in her pictures, so she usually just has me stand in the street and smile, although I also had her take some with the two of us.


I didn’t know what else to do…



On the bridge to the bear pits



Bern makes a great backdrop


I have updated my Web site if you want to check out more pictures of Bern.

Sunday Stroll

I went for a very nice stroll today. The weather was gorgeous, nothing but blue skies. I went with Sarah and her parents, who are visiting from England until Thursday. We walked along the path that goes along the Savoureuse River in town. It went all the way up to a lake, which is about 5 miles outside of Belfort.

There were so many people all over, and some people were out sailing their boats on the water. I guess I have finally found out what people do on Sundays in Belfort!

In the end we walked about 6 and a half or 7 miles (we caught the bus halfway back), but it didn’t seem that long to me. I guess I have gotten used to walking more since I have been here.

Here are some of the pictures I took of the river and the lake.

TGIF!

I am so glad it is Friday!! This week had been really long, and I have not been feeling well either. Plus the kids have been so loud and misbehaved. I also gave them all a test this week, which probably made it even worse.

I think it all started with the time change Saturday night. Now it doesn’t get dark until almost 8:30! It has really thrown me off this week. I think that is the latest it has ever stayed light anywhere I have lived and that it in the middle of summer. It is going to be really weird this summer when it is light until 10 pm.

On Monday I had a very embarrassing moment in one of my classes. We were reviewing the parts of the body, and I wanted to kids to show me the words I was saying. I attempted to say “Montrez-moi,” which is show me, but instead it came out “Montez-moi.” Only one letter different, but inside of asking them to show me I told them to climb me. I then had 15 kids staring at me. I think they were trying to decide if I really meant to say that. The little troublemaker kid just sat there smirking at me, and he asked, “what” so I then said it again. Then there was a kid in the back who said “monTREZ-moi.” Then everyone laughed at me. I am sure it is a story they will remember for a long time. They will say, "Remember the crazy American girl told us to climb on her!"

Then on Wednesday I had to do laundry, but it seems that three homeless guys have taken up living in the Laundromat. Last week they were in there when Sarah was doing her laundry with a big 5-liter barrel of wine at about 11 am. They proceeded to tell her their life stories. I guess they are from Poland, and it is two brothers and a friend. They told her they were trying to find work, but apparently they are not trying very hard. This time when I went in they were sleeping in the only chairs available, so I have to stand while I did my laundry listening to them snore for an hour and a half. By the end I was a little nauseous from the horrible smell coming from them. I hope by the next time I have to do laundry they have moved on because I don’t know if I can take the smell again!!

Tomorrow I have a meeting with all the other English teachers. Matt, the other American assistant, and I are giving a presentation on a lesson plan for teaching sports we have come up with. We thought we would give a little explanation of football as a cultural aspect. I am not sure how that will go over in a room of European women, but we will give it a try!!

Finalizing My Plans

Well, it only took over two weeks, but I have finally finished putting up all my pictures from my trip on my Web site. So check them out…

I now have less than three weeks before my next big trip, and I think I have it almost all figured out now. I bought a Eurail Pass, which offers me 7 days of travel anywhere in Spain, France or Italy. When I bought it I thought it would take care of all my travel expenses, but I was wrong. For all the trains we want to take we had to make a reservation, which of course costs more money.

So Sarah and I went to the train station today, and we were at the window for about a half an hour. Needless to say the people behind us in line were not too happy. The first train we wanted was fully booked, so we had to take the train the next day. That in turn changed all of our hostel bookings, so in the end we had to pay about 85 more euros for our travels (on top of the 220 euros we already paid for the pass) and deal with changing or hostels. We are still waiting to hear back from the hostels about changing our dates. Hopefully it won’t be too big of a deal because we gave them about three weeks notice.

I am just glad that we almost have everything finished now. I know it will all be worth it in the end, and we will have a great time. I am just going to have to eat bread and cheese until we leave, so I can afford this trip!

Random Happenings

There has been some crazy weather here in France the past couple of days. Last week it was beautiful, sunny with the highs in the 60’s, and this week it has been snowing off and on since Sunday!!!! At least nothing is sticking, so the snow isn’t too bad. Right now it looks like a blizzard outside.

I read in the paper that this year has actually been the mildest winter in recorded history for this area. It seems all the bad weather has stayed in the US.

Today I have been working on planning my next big trip. I am going to Barcelona, Rome, and Venice in April. It will be another trip with lots of traveling, but it will be nice to go to some different countries. This afternoon Sarah and I went to FNAC, THE bookstore in France, and bought guidebooks for Rome and Venice (she already had one for Barcelona). I am getting very excited.

We haven’t planned any other trips before then because we are trying to save our money for this trip. It has been kind of nice just to have some down time. We only have about three weeks before we go…YEA.

Teaching has been going all right. We have been doing the parts of the body for the past week and a half. There have been some problems grasping the concept that you don’t pronounce the “k” in knee and it is mouth and not mouse. The “th” sound is really hard for the French to pronounce, so I have them really stick their tongues out and between their teeth, so I end up getting covered in spit. I have to make sure I stand far away.

Now it has stopped snowing and the sun is shining. It reminds me a lot of good, old Colorado weather!

Snails!!!!!

I am one step closer to experiencing all that France has to offer.

Yesterday was Sarah’s birthday, so we went out for dinner. She ordered escargot, and I gave them a try. I was not impressed at all! They have a very weird rubbery texture, and I think they tasted like dirt. I thought of flower gardens and soil the whole time I was chewing.

Here is some photographic evidence…



Here goes nothing…



Don’t think I will be eating more snails any time soon!


Look below for more evidence of me slowing becoming more French than American!!!

A little recap

I realized that I never wrote about the rugby game I went to a couple of weeks ago…so here it goes.

We had a great time. The game didn’t start until 9 p.m., so before we went to an English pub near the Champs Elysées to watch some of the other games that were going on the day. When we were leaving we went by a hotel, and the entire Welsh rugby team was leaving to go to the game. It was really exciting, but I just wished I actually knew who the players were!!

When we arrived at the stadium we decided we had to buy a beret. It seemed that is what all the French fans wear. It was funny because the mascot of the French national team is a rooster, so the beret has a little rooster on it. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of ourselves in the crazy hats.

I enjoyed the game, and by the end understood everything that was going on. In the end France beat Wales 32-21.

Below are some pictures from the game. Also I have been working on all the pictures from my trip today. I have updated my Web page with all the pictures from my Paris weekend, Nice, Monaco and San Remo. I will continue working on the others. Hopefully I will have them all up soon!




The Welsh team, and a very excited fan, leaving their hotel before the game.



Singing of the national anthems



The rugby action



I guess I wasn’t quite sure about the beret yet.



It didn't take long for me to realize how cool wearing a beret really is! We look so French!



All smiles at the end of the game…sadly, the beret was a little tight on my head, so I had to trade it for another hat by the end of the night.

I'm back...

Well…I finally made it home just after 2 a.m. last night, after a very long day of traveling.

It was a great trip. We covered a lot of ground, but also saw a whole lot. The weather was incredible except for one morning of rain while we were on Corsica. The only bad thing was having to carry our stuff everywhere. Most train and bus stations have taken out all of their lockers for security reasons, so we didn’t have anywhere to leave it.

Last Sunday we left Nice and headed down to Aix-En-Provence, to stay with Mandy’s friend from school. I really like it there. It was different than the rest of France. It definitely had a "South of France" feel with more stone and adobe type houses.

On Monday we went to Marseille. I was not thoroughly impressed with it. It is the second largest city and France, so it was really busy and dirty. We did take the little tourist train up to a church on a hill overlooking the city. That was a lot of fun, and the view from the top was excellent. You could see all of Marseille, all the way from the mountains to the sea.

That night we took the ferry over to Ajaccio on Corsica. It was a long night because it was hard to sleep on the ferry. We were going to take a train to the top of the island where we were staying. They are working on the tracks, so they have taken all train routes and changed them to buses. It was probably better that we were on the bus because we were able to see a whole lot more. I was amazed at the scenery of Corsica. I didn’t know it, but they have mountains that are over 6,000 feet tall. We left Ajaccio and within about 25 or 30 minutes we were already in the mountains, which still had some snow.

The bus ride was almost 3 hours, but well worth it because I got to see a great deal of the island. While on Corsica we stayed in Ile Rousse. From there we visited Calvi and Bastia. All these places were little city with great beaches and a little port. Everything was really quiet because it was still the off-season. It was both good and bad. It was nice that it was relaxing, but there were also a lot of places that hadn’t even opened yet.

On Thursday night we took the ferry back from Bastia to Toulon, and from there we went back to Nice to fly into Bale. We actually landed just after 9 pm, but we had to wait for the next train back to Belfort, which wasn’t until 1 am.

Although I am still sore and tired I had a good time!!!! I really enjoyed seeing another region of France. I took so many pictures I don’t even know where to start with them. I will put them up as soon as I am finished. I know what I will be doing all week!!!!

Now it is time for me to go back to school. I have another 5 weeks before I have another two-week break. It really isn't TOO long. (Although it seems like it rigth now.)

Livin' It Up Down South...

I have been in the South of France for two full days now, and I am having a great time! Nice is in fact really "nice"! Tonight we are going to the last parade for Carnival. There should be lots going on.

Yesterday we went to Monaco. It was amazing because you can see pretty much the entire country from the top of a little hill. It was also really interesting to see all the really expensive cars. I have never seen so many Ferraris, Mercedes, and Porches in one place! The weather was so nice we even went to the beach and put our feet in the very cold water.

Today we went up the coast into Italy. It was the first time I have ever been to Italy, and I wasn't disappointed. The weather was once again fantastic, so we walked all around the old town and up to a church on a hill for some more fantastic views!

Tomorrow we are headed down the coast to St. Tropez and Marseilles. Then on to Corsica at the beginning of the week.

It is hard to believe I still have another week of vacation!