Buon Natale, Joyeux Noël, and Merry Christmas!

David and I have been very much enjoying our Christmas vacation in Italy, and we were up at 9:00 this morning to start our celebration. Though this is not as early as usual, here in Italy there is a midnight mass that continues even until 1 or 2 in the morning so several members of the family would have been too exhausted to wake up really early. David and I certainly didn't mind getting a little bit of extra sleep. (=

After everyone was up, there was a little present opening ceremony and then breakfast was served. Everyone ate together and it was quite a happy and crowded morning as all 8 of us gathered around the table for a traditional European breakfast. David and I would like to say a special thanks to everyone who sent us gifts or letters while we were away because it helped us to still feel partially at home during this holiday time. It was great fun this morning, and felt very Christmas-y though I will mention that Torino has had no snow yet this year, so we are not exactly in a Winter Wonderland.

After breakfast we went out for a walk in one of the gardens close to the Fabbro home, which was very lovely. They also took us up to a hill where you could see all of Torino, and where we took the picture that I have chosen to include for today. Oh, and David and I took a picture of ourselves with all of our little presents arranged on the floor, so I put that in too. I hope that all of you guys had (or will have depending on the time zone) a wonderful Christmas day!!!

Love from David and Ellen!

Thanks family!

David and I in front of the Torino backdrop. Thanks to Mom and Dad Spence for my scarf, and that to Mom and Dad for David's scarf... they made for a great picture!

Merry Christmas Family!!!

Actually it is midnight Christmas Eve, but David and I have just got back from an internetless trip to Ivrea with friends of the family, Michele and Jacqueline. I am quite tired and David and I are heading off to bed, but I will surely write more either tomorrow or the day after to tell you about my travels. For now it is enough to say, Joyeux Noël, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

David and I are looking forward to opening our presents tomorrow, and thanks to our family all thinking of us even while we were in France, we greatly appreciate it!

David Safely Arrived in Le Havre!

David's train arrived perfectly on time and in his own words "but hey, I'm here". It seems like everything went pretty well concerning his travels, and he got off to a great start because  his plane arrived half an hour early into Charles de Gaulle, giving him the extra time he needed to navigate the French train system on his own for the very first time. Kudos to David. After successfully arriving "home" into my container, David settled in a bit, took a shower, and has decided to take a little nap to recuperate. When he wakes up we'll eat a bit and prepare for my little party tonight during which my friends are coming to meet my husband and say good-bye to me.

Also, to keep you up to date with current events. There is a possible complication with the trip to Cologne, so there is a chance that David and I (along with the other students from Le Havre) will end up not going there at this time.Although David and I were looking forward to our visit to Opa's town, if we are not able to go now, then we will certainly go there at a later date. And the positive side would be that David gets a little bit more relaxation as his welcome to France. But nothing is sure at this moment, I just thought I would let you know.

As far as I am concerned, I took my last exam at Le Havre yesterday, and I couldn't even believe it because it actually took all three hours that we were given. It was huge!! We had to write a detailed plan about the coastline of France (all three) and how it functions as an element of economic localisation. If that even makes sense. We were provided with about 10 maps of various things such as tourism, fishing presence, population density, and charts of importation and exportation, that we were to use for our analysis. After the plan, we had to create our very own croquis synthèse which worked out ok for me... I can officially say that I took my first college exam where colored pencils were required. haha. And then, after all that, we had to write a resumé summarizing both out plan and our croquis together. Needless to day, because in addition to map analysis and the formulation of my ideas, I had to complete all three of the tasks (oh and PS in a foreign language) I used right up until 10 minutes before the 3 hours expired. And basically that was the case for the entire class. The first person to finish used 2 and a half hours. It was a monstrous exam. However, I was just so so so so happy and relieved when it was done because I was officially finished with all my classes in Le Havre. Wow, Christmas Break has begun and I am reunited with my husband!

Thanks for all who prayed for David during his travel as everything went as smoothly as possible and he is off to a good start here in France.

WHAT A WEEK and it's not even over

I really haven't had any time to let you guys know what's been going on, and today is really no different as I prepare to take my last exam. But I figure I will try to give you a quick summary in the 10 minutes before I have to go:

Monday there was no exam, and it was my day of panic as I prepared for my three exams on Tuesday. Actually, the reason I was panicking was not because I had three exams, but because I had Chinese. I literally had been working on Chinese for like 7 hours a day for about 5 days at that point, and I still just could never possibly know everything that was required. Also, in class on Monday, my teacher turned to me (as she was talking about the schedule for the rest of the class) and said that I wouldn't be responsible for the information we didn't cover after today. WOW, THANKS! I am only responsible for everything you say today for my cumulative exam tomorrow. What a gift. And what is kind of sad, kind of funny, is that she said it like she really was doing me a favor. Haha.

Anyway Tuesday came around and my Chinese exam went ok. Normally I do awesomely on language tests (my Chinese tests back in Miami were usually scored at about 98-99% correct. And here I am feeling more of a 85 maybe. I don't know how she grades. What really aggravated me, however, was the oral because she tried to hold it like a conversation in real life. I am sorry, but we simply do not know enough vocabulary to do that. For example, we learn hobbies. She asks what do I like doing in my free time, and I say... being on the computer (we only know like 6 hobbies so that is the best) and then she says, "Oh, what do you do on the computer?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I am just proud of saying the hobby! We haven't learned a single morsel of vocabulary to describe what I could possibly be doing on the computer. And it just went on and on. She asks me if I was talking with someone and I responded yes because that kind of worked, and then she said were you talking with **** (I had no idea what she said, and in Chinese there is definitely no such thing as guessing) so I just repeated that yes I was talking, and then she was like Nooooooonnn, were you talking with ****. Finally I was just sitting there so hard trying to think of what that could be and she said in French , "your husband?" And I was just so mad because I DO NOT KNOW THAT WORD IN CHINESE and she said it like it was sooo obvious in the context. Why don't you try guessing words during a Chinese oral, it is not easy. Oh well, she likes me as a student and I did really well on the class work and the participation so I am sure I passed.

After that it was Recherche Marketing and I did brilliantly. He ended my oral with an interview about my expectations and my experiences in France because he was curious about my American perspective. So that was fun. He also said that I did really really well on the exam and he was going to give me a 16 or 17 out of 20 which is just enormous in France. I am very happy. Then there was my FLE (French) exam which of course I didn't study for and which was quite easy. So at least that is done.

Wednesday was Macro-Econ, and Tam and I took the exam together (teacher's idea) and that made it really easy because he basically just wanted us to have a conversation about current events concerning the Euro-zone and a little bit about our respective countries. It was a rather fun economic conversation, and in the end he also said we did really well and not to worry about our grades, so I guess that means we passed. Sweet.

Today is the kicker, it is Geo de la France and it is going to be painful. It is a 3 hours exam to do something, but no one is really sure what, so I guess we will see. And Tam and I are getting together to study for that right now in fact, right up until we take the sucker. lol. We will see how that goes. Unfortunately it is a huge class and it is going to provide me with important transfer credit I hope, so let's pray it goes well.

Ok I'm off!

Cooking Class Success

A picture of fellow American Nicole Sheldon and I. Actually, this is another student from Miami University back home, I just never knew her until we met up in France. Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know that it was a fun fun fun cooking class, and I learned some pretty high-class cooking techniques which I am going to take back with me to the US. Also, I am officially on the hunt for "pommeau" a special Normandy apple-flavored cooking wine (though it can be drunk as a table wine too) which helped in making a killer fish sauce for our Turbot. If you are not familiar with this delicacy of a fish, It is an enormously fat flat-fish, renowned for its tender white flesh. Overall we had a great time, and I just thought I would share this photo with you.

Even though I have a very very very busy week ahead full of exams, I can't help but be in a great mood because David is coming out to France!!!!! Also, I did get to sleep in this morning which felt really good. 

Phew!! I feel great!!

First of all, I didn't have my exam that I was supposed to have yesterday. Literally at midnight the night before I got an e-mail from the professor saying that he had a conflict and would have to move the exam date. I like the professor well enough, though I was a bit frustrated since he had set the date, and we had decided on it nearly three weeks ago. Also, since I don;t start studying at midnight the night before an exam, usually, I had already put a lot of effort into memorizing details and stuff for his exam over the course of the last two days. Therefore all that effort is basically pointless. Not entirely, but really close because I will have to go through all my studying again, and I definitely felt that I was ready to take that exam. Oh well, what can I do. Now I take it literally right after I get done getting spanked by my 3 hour Chinese exam next week. Woot!

However, I am in an extremely chipper mood because I totally totally rocked rocked rocked my oral exam for Management International. I was given ten minutes to prepare for a ten minute "exposé" which is the French term for I guess "informative presentation of viewpoint" basically, you could have presentation on how a certain printer works (shouts to Dad!!!) but you couldn't have an exposé on how a printer works. Therefore basically all scholastic presentations are called in French, exposés. Anyway, I thought that seemed like it was going to be difficult because I knew that ten minutes to prepare would be so short, but ten minutes of talking would be so long. (I had my oral commentary from high school as a reference - and we were given twenty minute of prep for a 10-15 minute commentary, and that was in our first language!!) Also I brought up my concern at the lunch table yesterday and Margot said that usually students have 30 minutes of prep for a 10 minute exposé, so I am just not sure why he only gave me, a foreign student, 10. So knowing that this would likely prove to be difficult, especially since I wouldn't know the subject until right before, I opted for the Ellen Full-Blown-Memorization Technique, in which I literally could recite to you about 10-15 minutes of the skeleton of the material that the teacher had presented in class. In other words I put a logical order to the information, and then just memorized and made it coherent. I figured that at least that way if I had no clue how to directly respond to his question I could indirectly cover all the highlight of his course in an attempt to impress him. haha. I can list the 5 determining factors in the attractiveness of a foreign country, including the 4 types of distance, The 6 reasons why more and more companies are going international, the 3 personalized choices that enterprises make when they have decided to go abroad which includes the 4 different strategies for attacking an international market and the Ricardo and Heckscher-Ohlin Theories, the 7 stages involved in going international, the internal (3) and external (4) factors that affect the speed of those stages, the 3 types of decentralization as related to going international, the 7 dynamics that are found more frequently in the world thanks to globalization, and the 3 types of disinvestment in a foreign country, AND, I am quite capable of providing examples, implications, and further knowledge for each of the above ideas.But yeah, I am pretty sure that sums it up (I have only practiced reciting them like a hundred times in the last 24 hours).

Either way my technique served me well because I had a general sort of question that I could respond to in using my abundant lists. I used all of my ten minutes and would have liked more (I literally just got through writing as many of the list factors as possible) because I knew I would speak more coherently if I didn't have to try to think of the list items. I didn't finish but he said to begin so I did. And I really did well. I spoke quite coherently, made a point, responded to his question with an opinion (instead of a weaker mix of both yes and no) and even made him laugh by making up a vocabulary word - don't worry, it was the kind of word that you understand easily, like what a kid would say because they haven't learned all the words yet so they use the rules to invent. This word just didn't follow the rules. Overall, I would define that as about as successful an exposé as possible and I am very satisfied. He did also ask me some questions at the end and I was able to respond quite well. Also, I didn't have a time piece on me (and no clock in the room) but I would say that I did speak for about 10 minutes, and with questions we probably spoke for around 15-20? I don't know... but I'll say it again, either way I'm happy.

In one hour I'll be heading out to do a cooking thing with Nicole, which should be a lot of fun, I am quite looking forward to it!

Also, in case you have lost your calendar, it is officially one week until David joins me in France! Woohoo! We are both terribly busy with school and whatnot, but in one week he arrives and we celebrate his arrival and my going away party in my shipping container. Well have a great day I am off to get some other work done!

I've got good news and bad news

Bad news first so that everyone is up to date: my group (and all the other groups in my class) didn't apparently understand what our teacher wanted for our presentation in Analyse de Données and so she didn't like our presentation. I just hope I pass the class because otherwise I don't care. And luckily the presentation is offset with a dossier that we turned in and that I feel we did very well on. Ok, well I am still really mad about it because this never would have happened if we had been given a syllabus and/or if this teacher had better explained her expectations, so I am refusing to talk about it any more that that.

The good news, which is extremely exciting, is that David and I will get to take a 2-day excursion to Cologne (yes in Germany) right before we leave France for the holidays. We are both really excited. And I am double excited because David will get to really meet two of my friends during the trip, and I will get some quality time with my friends before saying good-bye AND we get to spend some time in Cologne. All in all, it will be quite a fun little adventure. It does make our departure a little chaotic so we will have to do some mad cleaning, organizing, and packing beforehand so that we are all ready to go, but it is definitely worth it.

Tomorrow I have my oral exam for Recherche Marketing.... wish me luck!! I have been studying basically all day and I don't think that my head can take any more of it. However it is teaching me a new skill - to review in French. I automatically was reviewing in my head while I was in the shower and then I realized it was in English and that just wasn't going to cut it because of course I knew it in English!! I need to make sure that I actually registered everything by its french term. Either way I am not too worried about it because the professor is awesome so I am sure that he will help to make the test as informative but non-intimidating as possible. It should be kind of fun, if I actually remember all this information.

Friday I have my oral for Management International, but I am little worried for that one because the class material is a little specific and not very broad, if that makes any sense. Plus it is currently set up to be a ten-minute prep for a ten minute exposé which I am taking to mean just me talking for 10 minutes.... no guarantee there my friends, especially with only ten minutes of prep. That isn't even easy in English! But I figure this my be my first exposure to BS in a foreign language for an extended period of time while I fill my remaining ten minutes with every possible link to every part of material throughout the class. lol. I will find the connections!

So this is a busy week for me, and I have three exams next week as well, but it is also important to think of David who is still in the US but is preparing to take all of his exams, pack for France, and move out of his housing. Did I mention he is working part time too? So I am sure that he will have an even more hectic time than me. Ok well I have taken my break and now I must return to my studying.

Another day in the Le Havre

Well it rained all day today. Absolutely all stinking day. Also I didn't get as much homework done as I wanted mostly because Tam has my notebook and I was too lazy to go over an get it. So I only did Chinese even though my Chinese exam isn't until next week. Oh well, I guess that is what tomorrow is for.

Tday was a bit of a bummer because there was a soiree that I really wanted to go to with my friends but it was far away and I could find no one to be my walk back and forth. It is definitely a bummer having a housing placement so so so far away from the center of the action. David and I's placement next semester is also a twenty minute walk from campus, but I don't mind as long as though twenty minutes are in the direction of the centre ville. Because here I am 25 minutes from campus and then another 20 from the closest parts of the down town area. So basically around 45 minutes to an hour one way for me to meet up with my friends. And it is only a 5 minute drive.And the buses in Le Havre don't run past 8 usually, which is before soirees even begin. The "night lines" run until 10... still not that great. Oh well, just saying that it would have been fun, especially because I have nothing else to do.

By the way, David arrives in France in 13 days!!! That is exciting for the both of us I should think. (=

Getting Closer to the End...

First thing before I get started on this post: I was writing the title and I started laughing to myself because it includes an element very Anglosaxon, or, at least, not French. And rather than tell you right now and ruin the surprise (because I know how quickly we read in our native languages and by now you would know what it was without any time to actually think about it) I am going to wait until the end of this post so that you can really think about it and put for a guess as to what in the post title is not Frenchish.

Now I continue. Today Tam and I had our enormous presentation in Geographie de la France, and we did really really well. I am really proud of us. It was a solid presentation and the only critique that the teacher had was concerning the color of our pie-chart segments. I just used the default excel ones, next time I'll try to coordinate better. haha.

I am excited to take advantage of this weekend to catch up on some well-needed sleep and hopefully talk to David who has had a very hectic week going through the student visa process in Chicago. It is even more difficult when you leave for a second semester placement because everything has to happen much quicker. But on the the bright side we are officially two weeks away from being reunited again!!

I made carbonara yesterday for dinner and it was extremely good. I would make it for dinner again today but I over-garliced myself yesterday so I am not sure if I can convince myself to eat it again. Of course I could just make it without garlic. ... hmm the night is still young, I'll consider it a possibility. For the most part I would say that I am quite well adapted to cooking out here and eating, though I might say that having my grocery store, a real kitchen, and all my cooking utensils is one of the things I am most looking forward to about returning to the US. As of 2 days ago I still have 7 months left though, so that American food is still a ways in the future.

Linguistically speaking I would say that my life is very well adjusted to speaking French. I no longer think at all about it, it is extremely natural, and I would say that it is much improved. The biggest improvement is still going to be my vocabulary, in terms of both words and phrases, but I figure I still have a while to ameliorate my pronunciation. Actually, other than having a slight accent, most people would say that I speak almost perfectly. It is fairly rare that I have to come to a stop to conjugate a particularly difficult piece of grammar, but at least I can do it with a pause, I suppose.

Also, I am having a bit of difficulty typing on the American keyboard because I am getting quite used to the French one. Plus I have quite a few French friends and I instant message them - as a side note I recommend instant messaging when abroad in a foreign country because you can see how they type/abbreviate/say things quickly. It is quite interesting with French - and that has increased my French typing even more, so I am totally stinking with the American keyboard, lol, am I even sure I'm American anymore? YES - I can't stand bureaucracy, I work very very hard, and I like toilet seats on my toilets. Yup, I'm American all right.

Emotionally I am quite happy because I just finished giving a huge presentation which has been looming over my days, but there is always the knowledge that I will be losing the friendships that I have made here in just a few weeks, and that is a little hard for me to deal with. But hopefully all will go smoothly and we'll be able to maintain a connection through all the forms of communication that are available today.

General scholastic update: I start taking my final exams next week, and will be finished with my courses of Analyse de Données, Recherche Marketing, and Management International. That leaves three finals for my last week of school at Le Havre: Geo, Chinese, and Macro-Econ. We'll see how all of this goes, but I should be able to pass my courses. The only one that is iffy... hmm... make that two, are Geo France (even though the presentation today was great, we have a massively weignted final which just seems really difficult) and Management International because the course was just so.... easy and yet specific (not a lot of info learned, but a lot of specificity for that info) and plus the teacher is not very accepting of foreign students so my grammatical mistakes won't make me a 'mignonne étudiante étrangère"...

Ok, I think I have said enough for today, but always feel free to send along any questions or comments as you have them. PS I just gave up and I typed the last half of this message on the French keyboard. lol

ans PPS (thanks to an email from Ohio Mom, the thing that is not French about my title is.... it has capital letters. The French; at least for their powerpoint presentations, do not use capital letters for their titles. It weirded Tam and I out but we removed all of the capital letters from our page titles for our presentation. The French...

Back from London!

Well other than the fact that I broke my record for the longest time ever without sleep, I really really really had a great time visiting London. To be honest I even really enjoyed the travel, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Overall, my Friday started off at 6:30 in the morning when I got up to go to class. I only got about 4 1/2 hours of  sleep because I tried to get some of my homework done before leaving for the weekend. This is relevant because it, of course, is the starting point for my lack of sleep. At 11pm I left my shipping container to meet up with Yubo and his friends who would be my travel group, as I knew no one else in the large group because they were mostly from other other classes or another university (Rouen). One of his friends was Benoit, who I ended up spending all of the day in London with as Yubo was constantly getting distracted and was not an efficient traveling buddy (= (I'll get there too). I just wanted to introduce Benoit so you weren't all confused for the rest of the story. We left Yubo's apartment at midnight and headed to La Maison de l'Etudiant, a building a part of the campus, where we got on the bus to start our journey. And so it began.

Within about 45 minutes, everyone one the bus was asleep except our group of four, because we were talking, and by about an hour and half it was just Benoit and I talking and Yubo listening to music/sleeping. It was good that I ended up sitting next to Benoit because I could not sleep at all and neither could he, so I ended up speaking conversational French for 4 hours! It was the coolest thing. I have never ever ever had the opportunity to speak French conversationally before in my life like that. Normally you tell little stories about what you did yesterday, or what the weather's like, or what homework is due, but you don't get the opportunity to just talk like that. To be honest I don't even remember all of what we talked about, but I certainly remember talking about sleeping habits because we were both so impressed that everyone could sleep on the bus. I could not at all, though we did take sporadic breaks to try, especially since we were in the very first row of the bus and there was a cloud of heat from the driver's controls that kept us quite warm, uncomfortably so actually. Either way by the time we arrived in Calais, where we went through border control and boarded our ferry (in the bus because we kept our bus with us in England) I felt like I had just witnessed and improvement in my French in 4 hours. It suddenly seemed like the natural language to be speaking. It was, as I said, a really cool experience.

Once we were on the ferry we did less talking because Yubo and his other friend (whose name I have forgotten) were asleep within minutes, and Benoit had foudn a couch and so was able to sleep as well. Me I first went to the bathroom where I could take care of putting in my contacts and doing my make-up (because I started the trip with none because I thought I might sleep...) because after the ferry trip we would be back in a bus and then arrived in London, and I did want to look somewhat normal, even with no sleep, in my London pictures. When I cam back everyone was asleep so I tried to curl up in a chair but that didn't work either. Even though I was exhausted, all in all I think I got about 30 minutes of "sleep" between all 6 hours of bus rides and that ferry trip on the way to London. Before leaving the ferry I did go up to the top deck, but as we did all of travel during the night, I really couldn't see anything except the distant lights of England and the water right by the boat. It was still cool though. I have never been on a ferry like that before.

After the ferry ride, we had our remaining 2 hours of driving to get to London, and during that trip Benoit and I did continue to talk a bit, though we tried a little harder to sleep during that part of the trip - to no avail I might add. I just suck at it, I do not understand how people do it - I simply cannot. When we arrived in London we were literally at the foot of the Big Ben and the giant ferris wheel, where we were served a complimentary breakfast of a croissant and orange juice (very typical French breakfast) before being sent off on our own ways. To start off the trip it was the four of us and also the director of the trip because Yubo had been in charge of a lot of the details, meaning that he and the director were basically always together, and the director was young, so it wasn't like some random adult was hanging with us, haha. But unfortunately our group grew bigger by one person who had already lost the person she came with (we are talking like within 5 minutes) and so they were looking for her. She was responding to texts and all, she just had gotten turned around I guess.. either way, I wasn't in London to stand around and look for a girl who got herself lost in 5 minutes, so I was a little mad, but obviously I wasn't going to go off on my own. Well, we were quite close to Westminster station and we bought day-long metro passes and finally we got going. I saw that we were quite close to Westminster Abbey, so I suggested that we start there, and they said we would, and that we would take a bus to get there, and I was surprised because they started walking the opposite direction and also the sign had the person symbol on it which usually means "within walking distance" I told them this about three times but Yubo and the director just insisted this was better. Finally, after never actually having taken a bus, we arrived at Picadilly Square, (which is really funny to hear the French try to pronounce) and there was a map and they were like "oh we were wrong, sorry" I mean, it was fine because I saw another part of London I was just frustrated because the two of them (Yubo and Director) were always too busy talking to listen you know what I mean? After that we went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards, and after waiting about 30-45 minutes (so that we would have a good position they informed us that it wasn't going to happen today. We still have no idea why, so that was a bummer, but I mean, I still saw the palace and the guards. But, after that, Benoit and I could no longer find Yubo, Director, and rest of group so we tried calling and texting but our service was a bit slow, so finally we decided to go off to keep exploring because I wasn't going to waste my day looking for them. Later when we spoke to them about it they claimed to have looked for us, but we know that they left before we did because of the texts we exchanged, so basically we ended up with a divided group, but I was super grateful in the long run because Benoit and I were much more efficient and saw so much!

At this point it was already about 1 in the afternoon, so we started with lunch (because the others ate without us) and we did a Chinese buffet which was quite good. Even though it was Chinese food it reminded me of America which was good. That was my gastronomical goal in London, to eat something American. Then we went on to see the London Bridge and the Tower Bridge (which is the really famous one) and walked around to see London Tower, which is quite a cool chateau-looking building. After that we went to St Paul's cathedral, which was probably the most gorgeous cathedral I have ever seen. And now that I have done some more touring of France, combined with some of what I saw as a 10-year-old, I have a decent repertoire built up, and this one was by far the most astonishing and beautiful. Also, it was cool to stand in the place were Will and Kate got married. We stayed and listened to "the singing of the choir" which was at 5, but to be honest we both determined that we needed to leave because we were falling asleep in our seats because we were just so exhausted (at that point I had been awake for 34 and a half hours) and the pretty music was too much for us to overcome. As it was I had to wake him up for an exit on the metro and we only had about a three-stop ride. We were just really getting tired near the end. After the cathedral we went to Westminster Abbey and saw it all lit up at night. Then we returned and saw Big Ben at night, and took a little walk over the bridge so we could say we crossed the river, because we had previously stayed entirely on the other side. We had dinner at KFC (SOOOOOOOOO good, I seriously have been aching for American food for so long) and at 9 we were all back on the bus and on our way to Le Havre.

Funny story though, about being in London... I sucked at speaking in English!! I am not even kidding. I spoke to four different people in French by accident, and that is if you only count actual sentences. I don't think I said "excuse me" once, it was all "pardon" (with the French accent) and I said merci instead of thank-you and on and on... so if you count all those people then I sprolly spoke to a thousand people in French while in England, even though I am an anglophone! But, as for the four that I really spoke French to, the first was when I ran onto a bus to ask for directions to the nearest metro stop, because we couldn't find one. I ran on and said the entire sentence in French and then I was like - "Oh my gosh I'm sorry"....and I restated the question in English, but the guy must have thought I was French because he tried to respond to me in French with a simple "gauch, droit" Meaning go left then right, but still I can officially say that I, an anglophone, asked for direction in London, in French, and got responded to in French. Yeah, I suck. Then I asked someone if I could take a picture for them (because it was a couple trying to take a picture of themselves) and I asked and they didn't respond, and then Benoit looked at me and said "anglais" and I was like "oh crap" in my head and I re-asked in English (on the bright side they prolly thought I had an amazing American accent, haha) and I also responded twice to the waiter for our lunch (even though it was a buffet) where I asked a question in English, but then followed with a French response, and I also said something in French to the woman taking my order at KFC even though I tried so hard to remember to speak in English. I guess I am just really out of the habit! even though it is so embarrassing that I kept using French to speak to people in England, I guess it speaks well of my immersion here in France. Also, I don't think it helped that I spent all day speaking French with Benoit. either way, because of all that immersion -- it ended up being a total of like 36 hours of travel -- I vote this as one of my favorite trips ever because I got the best French-speaking experience yet since I've been in France, and I got to do some fun touring at the same time. C'étiat génial!

On the way back I tried to sleep and I achieved a little better than before but mostly I was just trying and failing the entire way back. For the last two hours Benoit and I ended up talking again because by then we had officially given up. We arrived in Le Havre at 7:20 in the morning, and I was back to my box by 7:50 and asleep a bit after 8. Given that, I went 50 hours straight without sleep. That is my record, and I hope never to have the occasion to beat it. (=

Already it is 1:25 in the morning and I have class tomorrow and a bit of homework to do, so I should be off to bed. Here are a few picture for you to enjoy though:

Me blending in the with red phone booths. I loved them!

This is the London Tower, and it has an ice rink right beside it (left-hand side)

This is me in front of the Tower Bridge. I was starting to show my 40+ hours by then I think haha

Happy Thanksgiving (for real)

Well just a quick update from my part... Tam and I officially put in hours 10-15 today (and I am saying 10-15 hours in this just week) towards our presentation for Geo de la France and it still isn't done. We are, on the bright side, making progress though. I will be leaving for London tomorrow night so we won't be working on our presentation, which should be a nice break, though at this particular moment I have to be working on my presentation for Analyse de Données.... ahh! So much to do! But I should be taking a break when my friends get back to make some tacos by which to celebrate Thanksgiving. And even though there will be no warm hard taco shells, no sour cream, and no cheddar cheese... I am sure that they will be quite good. haha.

I just thought I would use my public communication network to honor my Dad's massive catch this morning down in Florida - a 49.5" bull shark. See the picture below. Apparently it was a 40 minute battle to land this baby, (just a wee bit longer than it took me to land my 15" puppy shovel nose shark...)

Here is the shark just hanging in the boat.... Notice the cooler next to it!

Here is the shark next to a 12" fillet knife. Congratulations Dad!

Ok. Well I am off to get some homework done so that I can merit my mini vacation this weekend. 

PS. I am arriving in London via ferry, which I just think is so so so cool.... I just hope I don't have problems with seasickness. Hopefully all will go well though, because I am really looking forward to this little excursion!

Thanksgiving!

Well tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I think we will be doing some sort of get together out here in the the shipping containers to celebrate but I am not really sure what since we have no oven (no turkey, no pie, no stuffing...) But we will work something out I'm sure. I guess this is just one instance where the thought really should count.

I played in a badminton tournament today. Unfortunately it was singles and I was the only girl that showed up.... yeah, way to go for my gender's representation!!! But, not so way-to-go in terms of performance. I am not entirely sure what the French guys eat for breakfast but OH MY GOSH! They were so good at badminton ! To be fair, in my pool I actually did win one of my games, but seriously, I have never felt so incompetent in my life at a sport that I am generally decent at. These guys were phenomenal. I didn't even know that you could put that much skill into a sport like badminton. I have officially crossed it off my list of prospective sports for going to the Olympics in. I always thought I would make a formidable olympic badminton player. Though I was not playing anyone of my noble sex, I still have decided that it is probably not a sport I can take to the super competitive level. That leaves only one olympic-bound sport for me: Equitation Freestyle. If I get rich enough to afford a horse of the necessary quality and can afford lessons as well, I think I might actually be able to compete in this area; and it is soooo wonderfully beautiful. If you have never seen Freestyle dressage routines, the idea is that you are dancing with your horse, to an entire routine set to music. I suggest the following youtube link if you want to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQgTiqhPbw

Anyway back on topic. So badminton was fun. Also, I just found out that my classes got cancelled for tomorrow, so that is my little Thanksgiving treat!! I will still be getting up early though because Tam and I, as usual, will be continuing our work on our presentation for Geo France. I have gotten up before 8 every day this week though I have had none of my usual 8am classes due to weird cancellations specifically to continue work on this project. It is going slowly but thoroughly and I think in the end it will be a project we are proud of. At least I hope so. We will be giving a practice presentation on Monday, so I'll tyr to let you know how that goes.

The other thing I will be doing tomorrow is helping out our ISEP coordinator with the interviews for students who want to study abroad in America. They will be conducted in English to asses the candidates foreign language capacity. So anyway I thought that it would be fun to help out, so I am going to and I think I should rather enjoy myself.

Finally, everyone with a TV needs to make sure that they watch the ever so important MICHIGAN-OHIO STATE game this Saturday... I am too upset that I will miss it, because I hear we have a chance of winning this year! Ok, well it is late so I am going to get off to bed, so that I can get up bright and early, even though I have no classes tomorrow. Lame.

Just an Update on French Bureaucracy

I just thought that everyone would like to know that I am only just now actually receiving information regarding finalizing my payment into the Sécu (the French Social Security) and getting my card that represents my medical coverage. I would guess that I should have everything worked out within the next two weeks, but either way that means that I will have spent at least 3 MONTHS in France before their paperwork-bogged government could work out processing my payment and providing me with my proof of coverage. I suppose that it is all for the better that I haven't fallen seriously sick and had to deal with who knows how much more paperwork if you show up without the card.... Oh I do not even want to think about it. I would probably die of my appendicitis before they could finish having me sign all the necessary documents. Now, on the bright side, it should prolly only  cost me three and a half trees to claim my health benefits if I go to the doctor. How fantastic!

Also, it looks like there will be a little bit of a complication with David and I and leaving my shipping container because they are so crazy about what all has to be done. I have to write like 3 different letters to all the different places informing them that I will be leaving on "such and such a date" at "such and such a time" and it is looking like I will need to find a representative to stand in for me for the last evaluation of the "state of housing".... Anyway, I will keep you updated as things continue.

Finally, I am going to be spending Saturday in London, (WOOT) because through a group sponsored through  the school that one of my friends participated in, I can go there round-trip for the day for 29E!! Pretty undeniably awesome price, and I am excited because I have never been to England at all, so might as well see London once while I am so close!

Ok, well I am going to get some homework done so that I more merit the little vacation that I am going to get to take this weekend. Keep enjoying Thanksgiving all y'all Americans!

Getting Ready for Exams, Kinda

Well the exam weight is starting to feel heavier and heavier as I get closer and closer to December. Right now I am basically spending almost every free hour with Tam, my partner in Géographie de la France, working on our presentation, because not only is a relatively large and complicated presentation (in a foreign language) but it is also imperative that we get a fantastic grade on it because we need the security for our final exam, which is going to hard, really hard. And even more so for me because I am going to have to take the exam either within one hour of David arriving in Le Havre or during his arrival to Le Havre, depending on which train he manages to take. AHH, I do not know how I am going to be able to stay concentrated! So anyway, if I think I even have at all a chance of passing what is likely to be the hardest final exam I will ever take, with that kind of distraction, I am wrong, so it is super duper necessary that Tam and I rock the socks off of this presentation, which is equally weighted with the final.

But besides that class, I have a lot going on everywhere else too. I have a large presentation in Analyse de Données, which is due very soon, not this week but next, which seems to be coming along quite well, but is quite terrifying since it is worth 100% of my grade! I hope I pass!!! Then I have three exams, one for macro-econ, one for Recherche Marketing, and one for Management International and I am not entirely sure what I should study for them, but I am quite sure that I am going to have to memorize a lot before I take them, because when in doubt I figure it is best to make sure I know everything... hahahahahaha, except that I am not sure if my brain can hold everything necessary. I guess we will see. Then of course there is Chinese, the course for which I know exactly what I have to know and I know that it is simply too much for me to possible master. But I will try quite hard!! I will have my exam for Chinese on Tuesday the 13th of December, Macro-Econ the 14th, Recherche Marketing the 15th, and Geo France the 16th. I still do not know when I will be taking Management International because he wasn't sure last week, but I should know this Thursday. I think it would just be best for my sanity if I stopped thinking about all this. I am quite nervous about failing some of these exams and then bot being able to get credit back at Miami. That would be quite tragic because this is the key to me being able to graduate on time.

Ok, so new topic. I was speaking with some of friends over lunch about my accent, and how interesting it is how I can't hear it unless it is a recording of my voice (that is, I cannot hear my accent while I am in the process of producing the language, or speaking, but only when I have the opportunity to listen to myself). And then I noted that I hoped that my accent would get better while I spent more time in France... then they told me that my accent had already improved! I was super excited! Also it is unbelievable how many vocab words you learn on a daily basis. Today it was inondation (flood), economie herbagère (the act of farming based on grasses - livestock etc) and pipelines (pipelines), but technically speaking I had no idea that pipelines was the word for pipelines in French until today, lol. And in fact I am sure that there were others but I just can't think of them. And there will be more tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. It is awesome being abroad in terms of vocabulary acquisition.

Oh, and one more topic for today. I got my first e-mail of the semester from Savoie, preparing my welcome for next semester. It was great, actually awesome, because I got to learn about the skiing excursion in the Alps. It will cost 110E but I think it is well justified because in fact it is actually combined with a 2ECTS course on winter/alpine economy/tourism/management or something like that, for 5 hours each morning, (actually this sounds quite interesting) then the afternoons are open for free unlimited skiing. And transportation and meals are included, including a special dinner gala. Also, I didn't know this until this e-mail, but this is the first year that foreign students have been invited to this, so I am more than excited to go. I think David is also planning on going, but in his case it is more to experience the skiing. Luckily, the classes will provide useful exposure to French no matter what. So anyway I am quite excited and I definitely plan on participating, assuming the finances hold up.

Finally, (sorry I thought of one more thing) I am starting the process of sensitizing my Miami professors to the courses I have taken abroad in the hope to receive transfer credit, at least as far as the business department is concerned. It is not as imperative that the courses in the French department be transferred as rapidly, because I know what I should get and therefore what I need to take to graduate. However, in order to secure an on-time graduation, it is extremely essential that I have certain classes transfer successfully (or know if they will not transfer) so that I can take what I need in order to fulfill credit requirements. I literally have just sent the first e-mail even asking if it would be possible to start this talk online while I am still abroad. The response may be no, and may have nothing more to say on the topic until later. But just letting you know.

Oh, and finally finally, I would like to wish all my American buddies a Happy Thanksgiving, since of course there is none out here, and I wish you a belly full of turkey. To Mom, Dad, Karen, Grammy and Grampy in Florida, to Mormor and Opa in Michigan, and to David and all of his family enjoying a splendid get together in.... Tennessee right? This is embarrassing but I have forgotten...

Eat up for me!

Another typical day in the classroom?

I meant to post this yesterday, because I thought it was so funny, but I was busy doing homework and writing my letters of appreciation to my scholarship donors and it was suddenly very late so I had to go to bed. Anyway, my very short but amusing story:

So yesterday morning Tam and I are in our 8am lecture for Géographie de la France, and I look down before the lecture had started and I see that instead of his usual computer and projector, today the teacher has brought a sort of "high-tech" traveling overhead projector. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I am referring to the old-school projectors which display individually printed overheads and pump out heat more effectively than most heaters. And he used it for the whole presentation. I just want to recall to everyone that I mentioned a month ago or so that there was an overhead projector that sits in the back of one of my classrooms, which was representative of the less frequent use of higher-level technology in France, even though it was never used. Well, now I can officially say that I had a lecture with an overhead projector. And all I really know is that if someone showed up at Miami with one, I don't even think that students could take them seriously. Not to mention I do not know where they would get there overheads printed.... oh nevermind, they probably haven't updated their lecture in years either.

So that was my story from yesterday, and I can tell you that today was quite a successful day as I got up early (even though I didn't need to because Wednesday is my day off of school) so that I could get together with Tam and work on our Geo presentation. And work we did. We still haven't actually put that much into the presentation because it takes so long to find the exact numbers, maps, charts, and correlations that support our statements or lead to an indicative comparison, but we are accumulating resources and we are making progress, three-and-a-half hours of progress, to be exact. Then after a small lunch I went and did my three hours of babysitting - the girls are wonderful and I look forward to my babysitting each week. And it will certainly be nice when I get paid... finally a little bit of pocket money!

In general I am entering a turbulent time in my academics because the semester is drawing to a close - ahhhhh I can't believe it - and therefore I have a lot of assignments due in the next few weeks, including three presentations and three exams (two of which will be given to me orally) for my business classes, and then whatever kind of test I'll have for Chinese. Definitely a lot of work ahead... but that is really the first time I can say that for the entire semester because the French school system just doesn't have a lot of homework. Though I will mention that as this semester is drawing to an end I am already starting to think about how much I am going to miss the friendships that I have made here when I go to Chambery... though part of me is excited because it will be a cute and typical French town, and I will get a perspective on a different French accent and a different French school so that I can better formulate my cultural judgments.

PS: (which technically isn't a post-script but oh well) David is accepted into his program of study abroad is is now working rapidly to do all that is necessary to come to France (such as go to Chicago and apply for a French visa) so wish him luck! And, excitingly,our host university has started preparation for our accommodation and so far it is looking quite good, like we will have a two-person studio to ourselves in Chambery; what fun!

Finally, I am looking into David and I's Christmas plans which became a little more complicated because of the changing timetables after December 11th. But hopefully everything will work out and we will get to spend some time in Italy and celebrate Christmas with family.

Even though it is only 8pm I am really tired and I will probably go to bed somewhat early. Part of me wants to get some homework done, and the other part of me just had so much fun thinking and writing in English that I don't want to go back to French just yet. I could always just sleep and break the tie.... (= Ok well, I'll keep you updated! Thanks for following along, and always thanks for your comments!

Lazy Weekend

Yes it is 1:30 in the morning here, but I realized that I need to be keeping up more regularly with my blog for two reasons: 1) Because I am sure that you, my readers, love keeping up with the happening, and 2) because I need this for not only my Gilman Scholarship follow-on project but also my "ongoing reflection" for receiving honors credit back at Miami. So here goes.

I didn't do much this weekend, even though I really have quite a bit of homework, but I just enjoyed staying up late and sleeping in. On the optimistic side I did start work on my part of the presentation for Analyse de Donnees (which took way longer than expected and is going to pose some problems in the near future as I continue working on it) Although, on the bright side, it is one of my courses that I am learning the most in and which has the most practical application into real life. I also did ample Chinese homework, as usual, because we have started into "food" which has, I am quite convinced, an infinite number of vocabulary words.

I will mention that I celebrated the French Labor Day, November 11th, meaning that I had no school, which was great because I stayed up into 4am the night before with my friends, first at a welcome banquet put on by the university for all the foreign students, and then a birthday party for one of the friends in my group at a discotheque. It was great fun, though I was thoroughly exhausted at the end of it. And I have completely thrown off my schedule, as you can witness by the fact that I am writing to you at 1:30 in the morning. That 6:30 alarm is going to be brutal tomorrow...

On that topic, I would give today an 80 on my emotional contentedness meter because I do not feel that I was productive enough (I didn't accomplish enough of my homework this weekend as a whole) and I am not looking forward to getting up tomorrow morning. Also I am a little stressed with the educational system here in France. I think I will add a page about it, actually. Documenting my first semester observation and my second semester observations so that I can make a comparison between schools and length of exposure. Yeah, that would be cool. Ok, I am off to bed because if not my body is going to kill me. (=

Etretat - The Mommy-Ellen Trip

Well I have been really busy since my mom left Le Havre, after having done no homework during the vacation. Anyway, now I am starting to feel caught up so I am taking the time to do my blog post. First, here are some pictures from Mom and I's Etretat trip... we managed to get good weather again! Everything was wonderful while we were there.

Me in front of the other side of the Chalk Cliffs.

View of the beach and little town of Etretat from the cliffs that I was just standing in front of in the picture above. So quaint if I may so so myself.

 

Mom and I eating our typical lunch of a baguette sandwich. Unfortunately the picture is not that good because the sun was so bright and the guy taking the picture took a while to actually take it so we were both too busy squinting to really smile... haha

Mom and I on a bridge which connects one of the peaks to the main cliff face.

Me (=

So yeah, that basically sums up Etretat, and I will try to get some other posts up about life soon. 

oh but PS. I totally got 15/20 on my geography test so I am sooooo STOKED! All I needed was a ten (remember that grades are not percentage based here and in genereal anything above a 16 is like unheard of good, and between a 14-16 is really good. Therefore I am way happy! Tam and I are ready to crank out an awesome report on Normandy Economy as related to its geography... this will be my next French presentation and it is due in 2-3 weeks, we're not sure yet. Ok talk later!!

Carcassonne Recap

First of all, my mom and I arrived in Le Havre today and I was so ready to be "home"!!! It is great. She took me on a grocery trip so that I would be stocked for not only our breakfast and dinners but also have some supplies for a few extra meals, including a vegetable peeler so that I could get the skin off of my carrots. We are both happy to be in a relaxed atmosphere, and are looking forward to seeing my university's campus and having a little trip to Etretat to view the beautiful chalk cliff formations that I went to a couple of weeks ago with my friends. I am excited to see them again, but mostly I am glad to be back home because all that touring really did tire me out! Not to mention the fact that my showers were so infrequent... I literally look back through my pictures and I think about the fact that it had been 48 hours since I had washed my hair and I feel great about how somewhat normal I looked! (=

Anyway, it is a little late here in Le Havre; my mom and I cooked quite an extravagant meal and spent time moving all our stuff in, so I am really writing to share with you my pictures of Carcassonne. You can see them, with descriptions, below. 

 Me on the Old Bridge (Pont Vieux) which leads up to the medieval city. I am particularly fond of the wind which is trying to make my two-day unshowered hair even more attractive. 

A view of the city, its wall, and the surrounding houses.

Mom in front of an interior part of the city.

Me perched in a window sill of a building overlooking the city's houses and church.

Me outside the city, so you can see how tremendous the external walls were. I really like the medieval architecture because it makes this castle look so different from all the other ones that we see around Paris and the Loire Valley. Here the castle was built for practicality. At the time it would have been considered quite ugly, though I find it quite awesome just because of its sheer ferocity, but it was enough to dissuade invaders or other attacking forces. One of the things we learned during a tour was that this fortress never once fell into enemy hands, so I'd say it did it's job quite well.

An attempt at taking a night picture to show you how the city just lights up. This picture stinks but it was the best we could do. I thoroughly recommend a google search of the Carcassonne city at night because this was an absolutely astonishing view.

Me celebrating my entrance into the city after crossing a cool, but somewhat small bridge. Note to David: This is me proving my knighthood of the city, meaning I get all the points when we play the game Carcassonne next, sorry about your luck man (=

The Loire Valley

First of all, I am sure you are all wondering why I have not updated you about Carcassonne. That is because my mom's camera died so I can't get the pictures off of it to show you, so I will do a catch-up post about it tomorrow when I am in Le Havre and have my camera charger. So yesterday, after an exciting day exploring the medieval city of Carcassonne (and a museum on the Inquisition and medieval torture which was just a little beyond) we headed to the train station at 7:30pm so that we could catch our 10:30pm sleeper train from Toulouse to Blois, which is in the heart of the Loire Valley. Everything went quite smoothly except that 1) I forgot to take a picture and 2) I was a little "train sick" while I was initially trying to fall asleep, but eventually everything worked out so that I made almost the most of the 7 hours of sleep available to me.

Today in Blois we discovered that coming to visit the châteaux of the Loire Valley when it is out of tourism season is not a good idea because there is almost no transportation to the castles, and literally none at all directly between the castles. Therefore with our limited amount of time we had to skip out on two of the castles we were planning on seeing and just focus on the biggest and best (Château Chambord) and the closer one that we could walk to, Château Royal de Blois. This means that we have nothing left to see tomorrow so we are gong to try and catch and earlier train back to Le Havre which will actually provide us with a well-appreciated time of repose.

Up until today in our journey, we have brought fantastic weather with us wherever we went, but today it was extremely cold with an icy wind and no sun all day. Fortunately no weather can make the Château Chambord look unimpressive. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy, and as I said before I'll get our awesome Carcassonne pictures up tomorrow when I can revive mom's camera.

Me in the Château Royal de Blois. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture in front of the château so mom and I are going back tomorrow morning to get another one since it is about a 3 minute walk away.

Me at the Château Chambord: Is that not the most amazing castle you have ever seen?  It is 156 meters long and 56 meters tall, it has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms. I can assure you that whle tourng my mom and I ended up lost and turned around on several occasions, but we are fairly confident (I'd give it an 85%) that we saw all the areas that were open to touring. It was really awesome. Definitely the most awe-inspiring building I've seen so far. Ohhh... maybe not, that Carcassonne castle lit up at night was spectacular...

This is me on the roof of the château, amongst the decorative spires and chimneys. The view from here was amazing and I have quite a few pictures that may or may not make it unto facebook depending on how much time I have.

For those of you that don't know, the Château Chambord was constructed as a hunting "lodge" (I use the term lightly) for François I, and so today there is a wing dedicated to hunting trophies. I included this picture specifically for David, Josh, and Ohio Dad who I thought would appreciate it the most. 

Mom and I posing in front of what is actually the back side of the castle. The fall foliage provided us with many beautiful pictures in addition to its harsh, chilling wind and cool temperatures. 

A little bit of fun? Me running/jumping across the back field while enjoying the view of the grandest château I have ever seen. I still can't believe that was a hunting lodge....

The Third and Final Day in Paris

Well today was our last day in Paris, and mom and I both feel that it was a successful trip, and we are both rather exhausted from all the walking, so we are actually looking forward to our 6 hour train ride tomorrow morning so we can just sit for a while. And my mom packed crochet supplies so we could actively do something, talk, and look at the countryside. It should be a fun morning other than the fact that the train leaves Paris at 6:24 and we have a bit of a trip across Paris to get to the station. But oh well, at least we got back early today and should be packed and off to bed by a reasonable hour.

Today's activities were a little less numerous than the days' before, but that is also because the third thing we had planned, a historical museum called the Conciergie, was temporarily closed to set up a new exhibit, we decided to see the remnant of the Bastille and head home for the day. However, we did start the day off in a very exciting manner by going to the Louvre, just a few minutes past opening, so we were able to view most exhibits in a relatively open environment. Even the Mona Lisa only had about thirty people in front of the viewing area. (You can see my attempt at a picture, showing me and the painting, below) Then we spent at least 4 hours viewing all that we could take in before leaving and searching out a lunch location close to the Arc de Triomphe. After lunch we actually went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe which did offer a pretty cool view, but both mom and I couldn't believe the entrance cost was 9 Euros. Luckily for us it was covered under her museum pass and I get in free to every museum and national monument except the Eiffel Tower since I have a long stay visa - this is super handy and David and I will definitely be taking advantage of that when we do our touring later.

Enjoy the pictures below:

Me in front of the Louvre. So exciting to finally be in all of the places I have had to study!

Me with the Mona Lisa. Don't mind the picture quality or my lack of a genuine smile; it was mom's 8th or 9th attempt to get one without a blur because it is always hard when you can't use a flash. But, nonetheless, you can see that I was there.

The is the view of the Eiffel Tower from the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Day Numéro Deux

Hey everyone! As usual it is very late here so a somewhat quick update. My Mom and I got around and visited the Palace of Versailles first thing this morning, then actually went through the Notre Dame Cathedral, (and may actually go back again tomorrow to climb the towers - important note: the cathedral is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment so it is not difficult for us to get there.), we visited the Pantheon too, which was a really cool old "church" that looked nothing like a church which has a very fantastic crypt holding the bones of several famous writers (Jean-Jaques Rousseau and Voltaire) as well as other important personages such as the commanders in Napoleon's armies, and the famous chemist Marie Curie. Definitely quite cool. Finally, we went and visited the Centre Georges Pompidou, a museum of very, very, very modern art, which can be thanked for the last picture included here.

Mom and I in front of the Palace of Versailles

Me, looking tired of smiling, in the main hall of the Notre Dame Cathedral

Me, way too brightened by the flash, in front of the enormously grand Pantheon

And here it is folks, one of the exhibits in the Centre Georges Pompidou.... 6 bic lighters, one of which is standing on its end, all lined up. By the time my mom and I reached this exhibit we were already kind of wondering who actually considered this real art, but when we got to this I literally laughed so hard I cried, even though I was trying so hard not to because I knew someone would be offended. I asked mom to tell me a joke so I would look justified and instead she informed me that the name of the work of art was: Ensemble of 6 Bic Lighters. Woah... you sure? I just died; I actually had to wipe my eyes with a kleenex to keep my mascara from being all over my face. Anyway, this exhibit alone made it worth the trip, which otherwise would not have been worth the time. Actually it still might not have been, but at least we got a good laugh.

First day in Paris

We went ahead and tried to hit a lot of big sites today, mostly from the outside, to kind of orient ourselves in the city and see some of the big things (Eiffel Tower) that are not included in Mom's 2-day museum pass, because we will be focusing on them for the next two days. Anyway, I am exhausted (it is past midnight and we got up early this morning) and I am about to embark on a journey of boiling enough water to take a semi-warm bath because the water heater in our apartment doesn't work, so neither my mom nor I have had a shower since Thursday (because I too showered the night before departure) and at this point I just can't go any longer without washing up my hair. So yeah, besides the broken water heater, all is going quite well, and here are some pictures to prove it:

Mom's Arrival in France

This will be a short e-mail because there was quite a fiasco with the arrival of my mother today. In fact, due to severe weather in Frankfurt her plane from Frankfurt to Paris was cancelled, and the one after, and since there was no internet at Frankfurt for my mom to access and therefore send me an e-mail letting me know what was going on. Also, of course, she had no phone. And I, at Gare du Nord, also did not have internet, so I actually had to call one of my French friends and get information and it was he that told me that my mom's plane had been cancelled.

After I learned this I rushed to Ludo's house to use my internet and figure out what was going on. I also tried to contact anyone and everyone related to mom to figure out if anyone had heard anything about where she was at or if she had gotten another plane. We finally decided to just use the airport itinerary of all incoming planes from Frankfurt to Charles de Gaulle and look for my mom at the train station at all possible appropriate times. Just then my phone rang, it was mom, because she had managed to use someone's cell phone and she had just arrived in Paris so we would be able to meet her at the Gare du Nord. After a minor mix-up on time estimations (her train arrived 25 minutes faster than expected) we arrived and met her and brought her to the apartment in which we will be staying. Now that she has eaten and preparing for a good night's sleep she is doing much better and I expect we will be able to get our Paris vacation off to a decent start, albeit a bit slow and way too hectic.

Thanks for your prayers as we start our journey!

PS. My presentation went SOOOO WELLLLLL! I did a great job and overall my partner and I gave a well put together, informative, presentation. But I'm off!