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!

Titre de Séjour

It is official, I have finalized getting my long-stay student visa so I am now legal to exit and enter France at me leisure until September of 2012. But just as a side note as far as the French system is concerned, there was a misunderstanding by the woman in charge so the 25 students to whom they had given the 9am time slot all had to wait until 10am to get started. Yes, that included me meaning I had to miss yet another class to take care of this visa thing. That brings it up to 4 classes missed for three meetings. Oh well, I will miss no more and I can officially stay in France! Woohoo!

Although as far as France is concerned I am little overwhelmed right at this very moment because I am going to be giving a presentation in a couple of hours and I am just not sure if I can do it. I mean, of course I can what am I talking about?!?!? Well in about 12 hours the presentation will be behind me and then....... I WILL BE GOING TO PARIS TO MEET MY MOTHER!!!!! I am super excited! I would have been so much more excited for tomorrow if it weren't for that presentation weighing down on everything. But I guess I'll even be more excited to be on vacation because that means that I have no presentation leering over me!

I'll try to write tomorrow and let you know how it goes but no promises because I am going to have a lot to get done before I leave for Paris and I am not entirely sure about my internet situation once in Paris.

I'll take lots of vacation pictures! Talk later!

So glad that it is the weekend

Well I'll strart off to say that even though it is the weekend I was up at 7:30 (this is an hour later than usual, so I guess that is good) so that Tam and I could talk to our Geographie de la France professor to give him our presentation topic ideas and let him know that we wouldn't be there next Friday, and so we could go to the market, and then still arrive at the bar where we were meeting our French friends to watch the semi-final match of the rugby world cup. It was France versus Pays de Gaulle and France won, but barely, meaning they will play in the finals next week (which I so will not see because I will be with my mother!)

Secondly, I am sure that among you there are those who are curious how my presentation went in Techniques de Commerce. Well, I cannot tell you because the day before the presentation the teacher contacted everyone to tell them that everyone's presentation had been moved back one week, so I will not know until this Friday. Actually I was kind of upset that it was moved back because I was looking forward to having it out of the way, but I think that my partner and I are ultimately grateful that we will have a little more time to prepare. I think our presentation will be better this Friday than it would have been if we had given it yesterday. On the other side of things, however, my test in Geographie de France was ridiculously hard and Tam and I completely failed. Especially given how much time and effort we (or really more particularly, I) had put in to memorizing all the regions and departments and rivers etc of France. Yes, there were a few questions for placing them, and I got all of them correct, but the cities that we had to place in France must have been minuscule because I had not seen but one of them before, and I had studied a variety of different maps to learn cities around France. Also, the landmarks that we had to place were equally difficult. I only knew where one of the 7 were and I could make a logical guess about one of the others, but still, it is not like I hadn't studied! I had seriously studied and I just have no clue where he found his list of geographical landmarks because none of them were ever listed on the maps I studied. And finally he also put 4 of the ancient regions of France... only one of which I knew where to place, but rest assured, I put down guesses for each and every item that I didn't know (= On the bright side, Tam and I could not stop laughing thinking about our teacher's reaction when he gets to our tests, because Tam also put guesses for everything he didn't know, and there is just something more humiliation about putting a city completely in the wrong part of France, or marking an ancient province completely in the wrong territory, but I figured why not at least guess? I am sure that the professor is officially going to pity us as the two "special" students in his class now that we did so poorly on the exam. On the other hand though, I am not sure how the other French students in the class did, so I guess we will see, but none of them seemed as phased as Tam or I afterward. But only time can really tell what grade we will get since I have no idea how the French grading system works.

Finally, my blog posts have been less frequent because I have literally been spending hours every evening working out details and price quotes for all ten days of my mom and I's vacation, and doing homework, and trying to get some sleep, so I just haven't taken the time to blog. Sorry about that. However, before I close out this one I want to remind everyone who has not yet responded to my question in the previous post about my possible change of English to please respond because I would like to include the results in my blog!

Overall today is a 100 because I get to talk to David, I booked a hotel over the phone in France (and actually had to cancel right at the end because it was 20E more expensive than online so I just booked it online), did all my laundry, walked for over an hour, spoke French (that doesn't always happen on the weekends), and cleaned every square centimeter of my box.

And finally finally, I just wanted to leave a linguistic note that at this point my comprehension is basically flawless except occasional vocabulary words or idiomatic phrases, but that my production has become a little worse (in particular my accent) and here is my evaluation: I am quite sure that my mental processing of French has gone up exponentially, so I am now mentally capable of producing French at a very fast pace, but my mouth cannot keep up with the rate at which my brain wants to speak because the sounds are different from English, and are therefore harder for me to form in my mouth. Anyway, I think it is a good step forward in a sense, because soon my mouth will catch up I think.

Oui, ça va aujourd'hui

I had quite a productive day today, going to my 8am Macro-Economie class, my 10:30 appointment with the Office of French Immigration and Immersion (OFII) where I had to to the absolutely most in-depth physical I have ever had (read below), went to the library to recheck-out my Chinese books, went to SRI (Service des Relations Internationales) to get my OFII stamp which I paid 55 Euros for as part of my long-stay student visa, made some corrections to my pedagogical contract for the university, went to and succeeded in my Chinese class, and did my shopping (but forgot to buy butter). *Phew* Sadly enough I also needed to go to the train station to ask about some details for my mom and I's trip but I just couldn't muster the energy to take an extra 15 minutes of walking. That's on tomorrow's to-do list. Left for tonight is some French Geography - by the way it's official that I can name all 96 department of France on a map (not to mention the 22 regions, 22 capitals of those regions, 40 rivers, and all major natural landmarks). But I try to review everyday given that my test is this Friday. Also this Friday is my presentation for Techniques de Commerce and I am so worried!! But I know that when the moment arrives I'm going to do fine. Either that or completely be horrible, I guess, lol we'll call it 75-25 as opposed to 50-50.

Before I tell about my slightly invasive, definitely way in-depth medical exam, I wanted to make a linguistic note for when I look back to my blog as reference point. Not only I, but all my anglophone friends with whom I spend a great deal of time while at our containers, are getting fed up with feeling "stupid". Though I am told many times a day that I speak French very well, the fact of the matter remains that I speak below the level of a kindergartener when I mix up the genders of nouns, and I hate not being able to participate as actively in group conversations (actually that basically kills me since usually I lead them - actually to continue on that point I still lead them even out here, because I just cannot sit back and follow, I just don't lead as defiantly as normal, because I need verification that what I said was correct, etc). But back to my original topic, After being here almost a month and half, I have had to feel under-competent in social situations for that full month and a half. And as of quite recently it finally occurred to me how excited I was to go back home and do homework, a group project, a presentation, whatever, in my native language. It will seem so easy, I will feel more intelligent; all in all it will just be so gratifying. It is amazing how stupid I feel because my French friends never hear me speak English (because of course I am here practicing French) and therefore they really have no idea about my scholastic/experiential knowledge because these things are too difficult to really express in a foreign language. Right now I am concentrating on actively participating in conversations, telling stories, and understanding the spoken scholastic material of my professors (which actually up until now has been quite easy for me). But I guess you could just say that all of us are a little tired of feeling like we have to speak at the level of a middle schoolers, because we are university students, and our friends here are university students, on comprend?

Ok, the medical visit. So I show up expecting that this was just going to be a basic, basic exam (blood pressure etc) and for the most part the verification that my previously taken blood sample, urine sample, and lung x-rays were normal and therefore permitting of my resting in France. Was I ever wrong. First of all I would just like to say to all girls who ever want to travel abroad to France and have to go through this bureaucratic inauguration to stay for the duration of their studies, DO NOT WEAR TIGHTS! As I was not expecting this to be any sort of big deal, plus I never have need of bare ankle accessibility at home when I go to the doctor, I didn't even think that this would be a barrier this morning when I was thinking rather at keeping warm. Well, I am starting to get out of order so let me start at the beginning. So I enter and the nurse and I have a 15 minute discussion about family health history, my personal daily habits (which I think is weird because obviously I have been in a brand new country for a month so my "habits" are all completely different, in particular those pertaining to eating and hobbies, but oh well). Then we did an eye exam (as if someone is going to send me back because I can' see clearly....) Then a hearing exam where I was shut up in the room -that I thought was sound-proof until someone entered during my exam and I could hear them walking around so I wasn't sure if I was hearing the little beeps or the other activities - and I was wearing headphones that were too big for my head, but I still passed with flying colors, though the same evaluation is still applicable: is someone going to send me back to America because I can't hear? Maybe actually, knowing France. After that the nurse asked me to take off my shoes and all my shirts except bra so that I could be weighed and have my height measured. The good news is my weight is accurate I guess, except my bra, tights, and underwear... darn it how I hate when they don't go for perfection! And after I found out that I now weigh 53kilos and am 1m68cm tall, I was asked to lie down on the exam bed thing because we were going to check my heart. I was thinking to myself that this probably meant my blood pressure, which it did, in addition to having nodes (I guess, I'm not really sure what they were actually) suctioned all over my chest and left side of my stomach, including clamps on my wrists and ankles. That was when the nurse noticed my tights, after she had already stuck all these things all over my chest area and arms and therefore she had to personally remove my tights for me so that she could clamp the things on my ankles. At this point I was just close to laughter for three reasons, one because no one told me what to expect so I was so poorly prepared, two, because they have to take such detailed information to verify that I am not contagious with some dangerous disease that is going to infect all of France, and three, because those suction cup things on my rib cage were totally tickling me. Oh, and I forgot to mention that there was a blood-pressure band on my left arm. So then at this point I am ready for the heart exam which they do three times to compare. Really I didn't feel anything at all (except those darn suction cups) but I did have to lie there awkwardly just trying to not think about my heart beat or breathing, something that is very difficult to do when in these types of situations. Then before the heart tests were finished she took my blood pressure three times, once in the left arm and then twice in the right arm, and finally I was done. Don't forget that at this point I am still in my bra and underwear and now get to dress myself, which is just another reason why I so wish I hadn't worn tights. They are just not easy nor graceful to put on, but I managed in a fairly short amount of time to put all my clothing back on. Then I was asked to wait again in the waiting room to see the doctor who would interpret all the results..... and need me to get undressed again. Luckily the second time I got to keep my tights on but in order to listen to my lungs and measure my waist (again.... sending me back to America because I am too fat? Why take this measurement?) she required that I take off all shirts except bra. Again I can point out the obvious positive aspect of the situation; my waist measurement wasn't made any larger by a single garment on my body - what a relief, but overall I just feel that this whole process was over the top. Overall she said that all my tests were normal except that my blood sugars were a little high which I completely blame on my daily helpings of Nutella, so I am officially trying to cut out some of the sugars that are so available in France from my diet, something that I have never paid attention to before. Of course, this was not a serious level of sugar at all, but I took it as proof that there is not enough food for me to cook in France that I raised my sugars count by eating pastries. Well I'll make some changes and I'll probably go back in a few months to get another blood sample done since it is free for me in France before I return to the United States, and I want to verify that they are back down. But, all that to say, I definitely passed my medical exam and I have all my results to keep as proof, including the lung x-ray which is actually really cool to look at.

Ok well I think this post is long enough for today because I had that rather huge story to tell. But I did want to ask for a reader response to the following question: Do you, my English speaking readers, notice a difference in my English as it is written here (and when I say English I mean everything that pertains to the language; word choice, grammar, etc) because as of late I have noticed that it is becoming more difficult for me to speak/write fluidly in English (I chose "fluidly" in place of "fluently" because obviously I am still fluent in English) because there are always words or phrases from French that insert themselves into my sentences. I actually typed a French word into my sentence and only noticed at the end that it was underlined in red and I couldn't figure out why, and then I realized that that was the wrong language. Anyway, I was just wondering if it is just something that I feel while I am writing in English or if it actually something that those who know me are noticing. Please just respond "yes definitely", "yes, now that you mention it", "no, I don't think so" or "no, definitely not" Or something like that and maybe even an explanation if you know why you think what you think. Thanks!!

General Update

Things are going pretty well around Le Havre, though I am getting ever closer to my presentation next Friday and it is definitely starting to loom over me. Not to mention the fact that I also have my first exam that day in my Géographie de la France class so I have to have all the regions, departments, rivers, geographical formations, and a good portion of cities memorized. AHH!

Overall I am planning on having a somewhat laid back weekend, even though I will have to work on my presentation for Friday and memorize WAY too much information about France, I do not think it will be too bad. Though the weather has returned to normal; it is gloomy, grey, and cold. Oh, and how could I forget to mention rainy. I will probably stay at home, I mean in my box, most of the weekend, get some sleep, plan mom and I's trip, and do homework. But a little bit of repose will be much appreciated.

Also, I was updating Facebook and I found this post about David appearing in a DuBois advertisement for an online coupon company in Cincinnati. You can follow the link here: http://www.groupon.com/deals/du-bois-bookstore?c=dnb&p=1 Though I am sorry to say that the coupon is no longer valid (sorry to crush your hopes) Anyway, I just thought I would try to make him even more famous than he is already going to become after being featured in an online coupon, haha.

Well I am off to get to work on some of this homework... which first? Chinese or Geo France? Hmm.... Geo I guess.

By the way, chicken is on the menu for either dinner tonight or lunch tomorrow... I am so excited! M-E-A-T!

It has happened

Barbie's arm has disappeared. As of this morning, the 4th of October, the day before my birthday, Barbie's arm has left it's charming place on the sidewalk. In fact, I can't really believe it because I was so accustomed to seeing it I have this little empty space in me in the morning when I walk by. *tear*

I would like to take this moment to quote my dear friend Tam who witnessed this event with me: "At least we know that Barbie's arm is now on a bigger, better round-about up in the sky" - May it rest in peace.

I guess this means that from now on I'll have to give only informational updates. Like, for example, the fact that next Friday I have my first exam and it is a 20 minute presentation in my Techniques de Commerce class and it, combined with its accompanying dossier is worth 100% of my grade, split 50-50 between the two. AHHH! I do not think I am quite ready to give a 20 minute presentation in French even if it is with a partner... but I guess I will have to be. I will try to let you know how it goes (if I am not too traumatized after the event)

Also, even though Chinese is still the same ridiculous amount of work, I am getting accustomed to it and I think that when I return to the United States I am going to know many more words than my peers. The only problem is I am not going to be able to implement them as well as I would if I were still being instructed through the American system. On the bright side, I will be able to compensate for that with time.

I am still pretty busy trying to do all my homework, research travel plans for my mother and I, and still have a little bit of time for fun and sleeping. Overall though I am really happy to be here in France, and especially happy that I have French friends!

A la prochaine!

PS. I hate mosquitoes.

Etretat

 Well I spent a beautiful day in Etretat, so I am even more excited to bring my mom now! Though I must admit that the bus ride was a little uncomfortable in the weather (1 hour each way) and it was about 30 degrees (celcius) outside and the bus was full and obviously there is no air conditioning... But it was well worth the trip. See some pictures below:

Also, I forgot to update you before but I have three more votes for me having a German accent when I speak French (this was on Thursday) and they came from two completely different situations. Now I have just started to ask people when I meet them and they ask where I come from if they can guess, because I am so incredulous that everyone thinks I am from Germany. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know.