Hey, hey, hey!
I know it's been awhile, yet again. I've had a lot of school work to do lately, and not much time to blog. But, I had two finals today, which means I only have one class left. Finance and Marketing are officially over! The exams weren't bad at all, so I'm not worried. I scheduled my classes for fall quarter today. I am taking two accounting classes, one (hopefully two if I get pink-slipped in) MIS classes, and an econ class. I was stressing about being able to get into all the classes I needed, but it all worked out.
Last weekend was a lot of fun. After class Friday we went to Tarbes, about 45 minutes east of Pau. I went with two other Americans: Jerome and Ashton, and three French students: Florence, Celine, and Mickael (a boy). We stayed in Florence's (we call her Flo) house. I was very surprised when her mother came to the gate and she was... British! Well, she's French, but she lived in London for three years so she has a British accent when she speaks in English. She was so nice and hospitable. We bought her an oil distiller and two different oils as gifts for letting us stay in her house.
On Friday night we had kiesh for dinner (I probably spelled that wrong). It was really good! Then we had ice cream for dessert and went to bed soon after. We didn't eat until around 9 and were exhausted for some reason. The next day we went to the open market. It was really cool. Local farmers come and sell whatever they grow, goat cheese, spinach, honey, what have you. It was a really neat experience to see it.
Then we drove to Toulouse, which is about an hour and a half away from Tarbes. We met Danielle's (Flo's mother) friend there, and she showed us around the city. We saw an art museum and the town square. There was a rugby game that day, and we saw all of the supports in full-out team gear and face paint. It was pretty rowdy. We walked all over and got lunch (Danielle paid), which was really cool. After that the adults let us walk around by ourselves for an hour, and I found a cool store in which I bought my Dad's father's day present. (Don't worry Mom, I didn't leave you out).
Then we went home, rested and waited for dinner. Danielle (by the way, she insisted that we call her that because the Americans couldn't pronounce her last name) made shepard's pie and it was delicious! Afterwards we had goat cheese and honey for dessert- something I didn't think I would like, but I enjoyed very much. That night we met Flo's boyfriend at a bar and then went to O2 or Oxygen, the biggest discotechque in the area. It was really cool, and we danced and had a really good time. We only stayed until 2:30, though. (Thank goodness!)
The next morning Danielle let us sleep in and we had an American breakfast: sausage, scrambled eggs, croissants with jam, and goat cheese and honey again. Then we had chantilly and fresh strawberries afterwards. Soon after we headed back to Pau and our fun weekend was over. It was really nice, though, to have some time with the Frenchies outside of class. The six of us have become really good friends and it will be sad when we all have to part ways. But, we have made a pact that 5 years from now, when we have good jobs, we will meet up somewhere and see each other again.
Okay, that's it for now! Less than a week left!! Love you!
jeudi 29 mai 2008
dimanche 18 mai 2008
Nothing exciting lately..
Hey everyone!
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, nothing really exciting has happened since I got back from Italy. We had another long weekend for the first weekend after the break. Traveling is expensive and I kind of wanted to take a break from everyone, so I opted to stay in Pau and maybe travel to surrounding cities that are close by. Well, I only made it to one because the weather was pretty crappy. On Friday Ashton, Mike and I went to Lourdes. It was so breath-taking. It brought tears to my eyes, especially because I went to Magnificat. It was just overwhelming to see the place that I've heard and read about since grade school at St. Angela's. We saw the Cathedral, the life-size stations of the cross, the grotto where Mary first appeared to Bernadette, and I got some holy water. I said special prayers for Grandma and Mr. Gaspar and Kevin Healy, and I even got to light a candle for Grandma.
The rest of the weekend I stayed in Pau and worked on the mountain of homework that seemed to accumulate.
I have no other major plans really. I have a mid-term tomorrow in my Strategy class, and on-going work for a project that is due at the beginning of June. I have only two more trips planned, aside from when my family joins me. This weekend I am going to Tarbes, one of the French girls invited a couple American students to go to her hometown with her. So the good part is that I won't have to pay much, if anything, for meals, and I have a free place to stay! The second trip is to Pamplona, don't worry not for the running of the bulls or anything. Our program ends on June 4th, but my family doesn't arrive until June 7th. So I am going with Ashton to visit her host family from when she studied abroad for Spanish in Pamplona last year. More good news, free place to stay and little to nothing for food!
That is all for now, I will hopefully get a chance to write later. Love you all!
Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, nothing really exciting has happened since I got back from Italy. We had another long weekend for the first weekend after the break. Traveling is expensive and I kind of wanted to take a break from everyone, so I opted to stay in Pau and maybe travel to surrounding cities that are close by. Well, I only made it to one because the weather was pretty crappy. On Friday Ashton, Mike and I went to Lourdes. It was so breath-taking. It brought tears to my eyes, especially because I went to Magnificat. It was just overwhelming to see the place that I've heard and read about since grade school at St. Angela's. We saw the Cathedral, the life-size stations of the cross, the grotto where Mary first appeared to Bernadette, and I got some holy water. I said special prayers for Grandma and Mr. Gaspar and Kevin Healy, and I even got to light a candle for Grandma.
The rest of the weekend I stayed in Pau and worked on the mountain of homework that seemed to accumulate.
I have no other major plans really. I have a mid-term tomorrow in my Strategy class, and on-going work for a project that is due at the beginning of June. I have only two more trips planned, aside from when my family joins me. This weekend I am going to Tarbes, one of the French girls invited a couple American students to go to her hometown with her. So the good part is that I won't have to pay much, if anything, for meals, and I have a free place to stay! The second trip is to Pamplona, don't worry not for the running of the bulls or anything. Our program ends on June 4th, but my family doesn't arrive until June 7th. So I am going with Ashton to visit her host family from when she studied abroad for Spanish in Pamplona last year. More good news, free place to stay and little to nothing for food!
That is all for now, I will hopefully get a chance to write later. Love you all!
mardi 6 mai 2008
Italy on Speed
Hey hey hey!
Long time, no post. The internet has not been working at the hotel since I got home from the break. Finally it is back up, but who knows for how long. So I thought I would fill everyone in since my last post after Barcelona.
Over the ten day holiday, I went to London and all over Italy. I traveled with three other girls: Jenna, my roommate, and Lauren. We had to fly to Italy, and to use the cheap airline you have to fly from Pau to one of the three other cities in Europe that it goes to from there. We picked London. Unfortunately, it was not that great. We didn't get there until about noon, and we had lunch right away which took about two hours. After that we went exploring, but I didn't see anything. We wanted to buy a bus tour that goes all around the city, but by the time we thought of that we realized the buses stopped running an hour later. But I walked around Picadilly Circus, which is like Times Square, and went into some of the little shops.
After London, we flew to Florence. Well, we flew into Pisa and took a bus to Florence, which was only an hour away. Florence was really, really cool. The food there was amazing, and we got to stay with Lauren's *a girl in my program who went with us* friend who was studying abroad at NYU there. Her friend's name was Rosie and she was so nice and guided us around everywhere and took us to the best places. It was awkward constantly getting harrassed to buy fake designer handbags or sunglasses or belts, though.
We stayed in Florence for two nights, and we didn't see a whole lot of monuments or things that Florence is famous for simply because the lines were so long. We walked around the markets and got gelatto and tuscan food.
After Florence, we took a train to Venice. We only stayed in Venice for one day, but we saw a lot of the city. We took a gondola ride around the canal and walked around Saint Marc's Square. We headed back to the hostel early to get up the next morning really early to take a train to Naples. By the way, the hostel situations in Italy were MUCH better than in Barcelona. The rooms were all private, just for the four of us, and clean and sanitary.
Now, our original plan had us staying in Naples, but we heard from Rosie that because of a terrible ongoing garbage strike, Naples might not be an ideal vacation spot. So we quickly reconfigured our plans. Instead, we went from Naples to Sorrento, and took a ferry from Sorrento to Capri the next morning. Capri was so beautiful. I've never seen such clear water, but the beaches are all rocks. We went on a two hour private boat ride around the island, and saw the Blue Grotto and other cool caves and stuff. After Capri, we were headed to Rome. But not before having some interesting stories. The first, my gelatto experience from Hell. Now, for those who have never ordered gelatto in Italy before, here is how it works: typically, you choose a size of cone or cup and fit as many flavors as you want in that size. By this time I had eaten gelatto every day of vacation, and it was the seventh day, so I was no rookie. So I am the first to order, and I point to a waffle cone and ask how much it is to get it. The man tells me Three Euro. So I tell the woman that I want the waffle cone, with three flavors. I choose my flavors and she hands me a monstroctiy of an ice cream cone. It was at least as big as my head. Instead of filling the cone with my three flavors to the edge, she piled about 12 scoops in it. I was so mad, I had to pay ten euro and the gelatto was so bad I ended up throwing most of it away anyways. I'm sure they just conned me out of my money, and I tried arguing, but to no avail.
The next story is about our run around trying to hike Mount Vesuvious. Now, we go to climb it on May 1st, a major holiday in Italy. Therefore, the Pompeii ruins are closed so the people who wanted to see those went to Mount Vesuvio instead. So it was PACKED. To make matters worse, due to the holiday, there was no guarantee that a bus would actually come to take us there and back. So we take a taxi, the driver tells us it will be 35 euro total. Halfway up the volcano, still in the taxi, the driver tells us that we can't get in because it is too crowded. So we have to turn around and go back, but he gives a discount on the price. We found out later that it was probably a complete scam because people we met had went to Vesuvio that day and said it was just fine to hike it. ARG! I hate being foreign where people can take advantage of you.
After the Vesivious disaster, we were headed for Rome. Agh. Talk about chaos. The lines for everything were SO long. The only things we got in to see was the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. We walked by the Colesseum during the day and at night, but we didn't have time to see anything else. Not to mention no one was helping Jenna and I plan where to go and how to get there, and I was sick of everyone's complaining.
Finally we left Rome at midnight and got to Genova very early the next morning. We spent a few hours on a beach there, and then left to come back home to Pau.
So there you have it, Florence, Venice, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii, Rome, Genova. All in ten days. Phew, it was too complicated and if I had to do it over again, I would just stay in Capri. That's all for now, I love and miss you all!
Long time, no post. The internet has not been working at the hotel since I got home from the break. Finally it is back up, but who knows for how long. So I thought I would fill everyone in since my last post after Barcelona.
Over the ten day holiday, I went to London and all over Italy. I traveled with three other girls: Jenna, my roommate, and Lauren. We had to fly to Italy, and to use the cheap airline you have to fly from Pau to one of the three other cities in Europe that it goes to from there. We picked London. Unfortunately, it was not that great. We didn't get there until about noon, and we had lunch right away which took about two hours. After that we went exploring, but I didn't see anything. We wanted to buy a bus tour that goes all around the city, but by the time we thought of that we realized the buses stopped running an hour later. But I walked around Picadilly Circus, which is like Times Square, and went into some of the little shops.
After London, we flew to Florence. Well, we flew into Pisa and took a bus to Florence, which was only an hour away. Florence was really, really cool. The food there was amazing, and we got to stay with Lauren's *a girl in my program who went with us* friend who was studying abroad at NYU there. Her friend's name was Rosie and she was so nice and guided us around everywhere and took us to the best places. It was awkward constantly getting harrassed to buy fake designer handbags or sunglasses or belts, though.
We stayed in Florence for two nights, and we didn't see a whole lot of monuments or things that Florence is famous for simply because the lines were so long. We walked around the markets and got gelatto and tuscan food.
After Florence, we took a train to Venice. We only stayed in Venice for one day, but we saw a lot of the city. We took a gondola ride around the canal and walked around Saint Marc's Square. We headed back to the hostel early to get up the next morning really early to take a train to Naples. By the way, the hostel situations in Italy were MUCH better than in Barcelona. The rooms were all private, just for the four of us, and clean and sanitary.
Now, our original plan had us staying in Naples, but we heard from Rosie that because of a terrible ongoing garbage strike, Naples might not be an ideal vacation spot. So we quickly reconfigured our plans. Instead, we went from Naples to Sorrento, and took a ferry from Sorrento to Capri the next morning. Capri was so beautiful. I've never seen such clear water, but the beaches are all rocks. We went on a two hour private boat ride around the island, and saw the Blue Grotto and other cool caves and stuff. After Capri, we were headed to Rome. But not before having some interesting stories. The first, my gelatto experience from Hell. Now, for those who have never ordered gelatto in Italy before, here is how it works: typically, you choose a size of cone or cup and fit as many flavors as you want in that size. By this time I had eaten gelatto every day of vacation, and it was the seventh day, so I was no rookie. So I am the first to order, and I point to a waffle cone and ask how much it is to get it. The man tells me Three Euro. So I tell the woman that I want the waffle cone, with three flavors. I choose my flavors and she hands me a monstroctiy of an ice cream cone. It was at least as big as my head. Instead of filling the cone with my three flavors to the edge, she piled about 12 scoops in it. I was so mad, I had to pay ten euro and the gelatto was so bad I ended up throwing most of it away anyways. I'm sure they just conned me out of my money, and I tried arguing, but to no avail.
The next story is about our run around trying to hike Mount Vesuvious. Now, we go to climb it on May 1st, a major holiday in Italy. Therefore, the Pompeii ruins are closed so the people who wanted to see those went to Mount Vesuvio instead. So it was PACKED. To make matters worse, due to the holiday, there was no guarantee that a bus would actually come to take us there and back. So we take a taxi, the driver tells us it will be 35 euro total. Halfway up the volcano, still in the taxi, the driver tells us that we can't get in because it is too crowded. So we have to turn around and go back, but he gives a discount on the price. We found out later that it was probably a complete scam because people we met had went to Vesuvio that day and said it was just fine to hike it. ARG! I hate being foreign where people can take advantage of you.
After the Vesivious disaster, we were headed for Rome. Agh. Talk about chaos. The lines for everything were SO long. The only things we got in to see was the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel. We walked by the Colesseum during the day and at night, but we didn't have time to see anything else. Not to mention no one was helping Jenna and I plan where to go and how to get there, and I was sick of everyone's complaining.
Finally we left Rome at midnight and got to Genova very early the next morning. We spent a few hours on a beach there, and then left to come back home to Pau.
So there you have it, Florence, Venice, Naples, Sorrento, Capri, Pompeii, Rome, Genova. All in ten days. Phew, it was too complicated and if I had to do it over again, I would just stay in Capri. That's all for now, I love and miss you all!
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