Professor Katherine is at it again!

So this week I had two exams--one in civilization, one in grammar. Civilization was pretty easy (got my grade back already--18/20!). Grammar was....not so easy. I'll get my results tomorrow, but I'm really expecting the worst. Oh well. I tried.

Wednesday (after the horrific grammar exam), Angela and I went to see The Hunger Games! Oh my goodness. It was so good. Granted, I'm not terribly critical of movies, but still. I enjoyed it immensely (and got to see it 2 days before everyone in the US!). After The Hunger Games, we were hungry (badum-ch!) so we headed out to the Rue de Borgogne for some food. We found a cute little place that offered tex mex, so I was all over that. Except their "tex mex platter" consisted of 4 onion rings, 4 things I thought were onion rings, but were actually donut-y, 2 chicken wings, 2 chicken nuggets, french fries, salad, and a couple teeny weeny crab cake things. Oh, with chips and guacamole. ....Not exactly "tex mex". But poor Angela decided to go with something she didn't know--well, turns out it was intestines. And it was disgusting. I honestly tried to take a bite just to try it, and it smelled so bad that I knew that there was NO way that it was going in my mouth. So, that was Wednesday's adventure--Hunger Games, "tex mex", and intestines.

Friday I had another intervention at the local middle school. So I ate lunch with the teachers again, then went and observed a French class just to kind of see how it worked. Then for the last two hours, I had two groups of students (mostly the same kids as last week, with a couple additions) and I got to try to get them to talk for an hour each.

The first group of students is pretty great. I had prepared a game that I had played in high school when learning French, and just reversed it into English. Essentially, I picked about 30 words (there were between 12 and 15 students in each group) and wrote them on little slips of paper. The students then had to come up in front of the class, one by one, pick a word and explain that word (in English) so that the rest of the class could guess. They were really good sports, and did extremely well. I know how hard it was when I was first learning French, so I imagine it was similar for them.

Then, I had prepared a couple theater games. One of them was suggested by a friend from Oakland (hi, Jessica!) and it's called "What Are You Doing?". Essentially, player one stands up in front of the class and mimes an action (like brushing your teeth). Player two comes up to player one and asks "What are you doing?". Player one responds with an action other than the one he/she is actually doing ("I'm brushing my hair"). Player one then leaves while player two begins miming the action that player one said (brushing their hair). And it continues. It took them a while to catch on. The first half of the class would make up their own action to mime instead of taking the suggested one, but eventually they got it. We ended up going through the whole class twice because they really liked doing it, but then they said they were out of ideas for things to do. It was such a blast! We were all laughing and having a really good time.

Then the second group came in. They went through the description game pretty fast. Same with "What Are You Doing?". They caught on right away, but only wanted to play it once. So then I taught them a game called "Questions". If you've seen Whose Line Is It Anyway, you probably know this game. Essentially, you have to interact entirely in questions. Example:

P1: When is your birthday?
P2: Why do you want to know?
P1: What, is it a secret?

Now, this game is hard for even native speakers of the language. So I wasn't terribly harsh in judging. A lot of the game with the students went like this:

P1: What's your favorite color?
P2: Blue, and you?
P1: What's your favorite food?
P2: Pizza, and you?

But I was just happy that they were talking. And I think most of them enjoyed that, even though I'm sure they found it super difficult.

So that was that. It'll be a couple weeks before I'm back at the school since I have theatre most Fridays.

Saturday was SO beautiful out. Maddie, Angela and I all went out shopping. I got hit on by some creepers (oy), but overall it was pretty fun. After getting back from Kiabi (clothing store just outside of town), Angela and I were parched, so we got a smoothie in the mall before heading home to change before dinner. Oh my goodness, that had to have been the best smoothie I've ever had. It was passion fruit, mango, and orange. Mmmm. Maybe I was just thirsty and hot, but it was perfect, and just what I needed.

So after that, I headed home to change before dinner (so as to avoid more creepers). I must have changed my outfit twenty times. Sometimes it's hard figuring out what to wear! In any case, Maddie, Angela and I met up again and headed over to the Rue de Borgogne. Angela led us to this nice little French restaurant and it was so nice out we even ate outside.

In terms of food: I had a tatin au tomates avec du crème mozzarelle. Essentially, this was a little pastry with tomatoes on top smothered in a creamy mozzarella sauce. This also came with a salad. After that, I had tartiflette--a traditional French dish that is basically scalloped potatoes with ham, smothered in cheese. It was delicious. SO good. For dessert, I had a fondant au chocolat. This is a little chocolate cake, filled with melted chocolate, topped with vanilla ice cream. I could just eat here forever.

After dinner, we decided to head over to a bar and have (another) drink (we shared a bottle of wine and had an aperitif before dinner). I had a Guinness (woo!). It was really good. So pretty much we just sat around outside and chatted. All in all, a very successful day.

Today it was gorgeous outside, so I ate lunch with my family on their patio outside, then sat with my host mom, my host dad, and the puppy outside and read for a while. Then I got to Skype with my parents, then I went back outside and read, played Uno with my host mom and Agathe, and then we ate dinner outside. Needless to say, I am sunburned. But oh well. It was just a gorgeous and relaxing day.

But back to school tomorrow--only three weeks left!

Introducing...Professor Katherine!

Hello! So, after all those exciting travel updates, we're back to the mundane ones again. AND, on top of that, I have no pictures of my latest adventures, so. Sorry!

In any case, after we got home from our crazy two weeks, I pretty much went on an oreo diet and slept all weekend. Welcome to my life. xD Then I had classes all week--mehhh. Well, I actually do really enjoy my classes for the most part. But, I came to the shocking realization that we have FOUR WEEKS left in the semester. That's terrifying guys. It really and truly is. So, I've got a couple exams this week that I need to study for, yada yada. But I will do that tomorrow.

The most exciting thing this week (other than the weather--HELLO paradise) was that I got to do an "intervention" at a local college (read: middle school). Basically, my temporary host mom works as a math teacher at a local middle school and she asked her English professor colleagues if I could come talk to their classes. So, that's what I did.

Yesterday, my temporary host mom picked me up after my class in the morning and took me to the school where she works. I got to eat lunch with some of the teachers in the teacher's lounge which was really cool. They actually have a little courtyard with a big table so that they can eat outside. It was pretty cool.

Then I went with Cécile to her class of students in the 5th....level (I have no idea how to express this in English, but it makes sense in French, I promise). Essentially, it was a class of 12 year olds (so 6th grade/7th grade ish). They had prepared some questions for me (in English, of course) and then I told them a little about myself and tried to get them to talk. This proved to actually be quite difficult. They talked amongst themselves quite a bit, but when it came to speaking in English in front of the whole class, they were pretty shy.

After the 12 year olds, I had two different groups of 14 year olds. This time, the professor did not stay with me. So I was on my own, at the mercy of 12 adolescents. They were actually remarkably well behaved, but had the same problem--too shy to talk much. In the middle of the "lesson"/conversation, there was also a fire drill. That was interesting. But it all worked out.

After that, there was a little break and then I had a different group of 14 year olds. This conversation went much the way of the first two. By this time though, I had loosened up a bit, so even if I couldn't get them to talk, I could at least get them to laugh.

Next week I get to go back. I'm hoping I get to see the same kids since we know each other a little already. This time will be a real challenge though--trying to actually get them to open up and talk in English. I'm thinking of having them play some improvisation games.

Last night I also got to have dinner with my temporary host mom and some of her English professor colleagues (who are now retired). It was actually really fun. We interacted mostly in French, but since the two professors spoke English quite fluently it took the pressure off a bit--if I didn't know how to express something in French, I could express it in English and have them help me put it into French. I know sometimes this isn't so good for French--obviously having to find another way to express what you're trying to say is a really good exercise for language, but sometimes that doesn't work so well.

In any case, we had a little aperatif--a before dinner drink. One of the English professors made us all whiskey sours. My temporary host mom made spaghetti bolognaise (spaghetti with meat and tomato sauce) for dinner. It was so delicious. Red wine in spaghetti sauce--who'd've thought?! We then, of course, had cheese and bread. YUM! Goat cheese. Then we had pears smothered in melted chocolate with pear sorbet for dessert. You guys, I LOVE the food here.

By the time I got home, it was almost 1am. And I was exhausted. I made the mistake of wearing heels yesterday (wanted to look professional; professionally killed my feet). So I pretty much passed right out when I got home.

This morning I went to see The Woman in Black with Daniel Radcliffe. I have to say, I did not think it was going to be that scary. But it was slightly terrifying. Daniel Radcliffe was, of course, impeccable. I'm definitely super impressed with his transition from Harry Potter star to big time actor. Not that I really had any doubts. He's pretty wonderful.

When I got home from the movies, I was exhausted, so I napped for a good three hours. This teaching stuff is HARD! Hopefully it gets easier as it goes on. Yesterday was actually my first time ever really "teaching" a class. I thought it went pretty well, all things considered.

After my nap, I made no bake (chocolate oatmeal) cookies with the resident chef, Ines. They actually turned out really well, in spite of my ineptitude (accidentally doubled the amount of peanut butter... oops!). It's also really hard to translate cups into...not cups here. So I kind of eyeballed the oatmeal, and the rest I hope was right. I mean, the cookies turned out well, so I'm guessing it all worked out.

And that's pretty much all I've done this week. Next week I have two exams, another English "intervention", plus registration for classes next year. Plus it's Springtime at the Cinema! So tickets are only 3.50 instead of 5 euro tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. So maybe I'll go see some movies.

À la prochaine!

Tiddly Dee, Potatoes!

When we got to Dublin, we found our way to the house we were staying at and met our host, Rachel. She was so nice--immediately got us some tea when we got in. We then relaxed a bit and unpacked before heading into the city center to go to the Guinness Storehouse.

Pint of Guinness--sort of disgusting, but not as bad as I was expecting.

Slightly tipsy in front of St. James' Gate (never pint on empty stomach).

After Guinness, we headed up to Temple Bar district and grabbed dinner at Quay's restaurant (pronounced "keys"). The food was pretty freaking delicious--I just got a hamburger, but after having a pint, the hamburger hit the spot. Then we got the bus home (lame grandmas, we retire early).

Monday morning we left on a tour of Glendalough, Kilkenny, and the Wicklow mountains. Glendalough is home to the ruins of a pretty beautiful monastic city. Not to mention parts of P.S. I Love You and Braveheart were filmed there. Kilkenny is a cute town with a gorgeous park and castle.

At the site of the monastic city in Glendalough.

The views here were gorgeous!

Another view from Glendalough.

My hair is crazy from the wind, but that's pretty much what you get in Ireland.

We had lunch in Kilkenny and then I wandered off by myself to explore a couple shops. I bought myself some pretty delicious Irish fudge and then headed out toward the castle and strolled around the gardens for about a half an hour. By this time in the day, it was sunny and pretty warm, which made for a very agreeable afternoon.

Kilkenny Castle

The other side of Kilkenny Castle.

 When we got back to Dublin, Maddie and Angela suggested Pizza Hut for dinner (pretty freaking delicious). Then we got to bed early because we had an early early early start Tuesday morning for Blarney Castle (had to get a taxi to the city center at 6am).

On the way to Blarney Castle we also stopped in Cobh (pronounced "cove") which was the last port of call for the Titanic. There was a pretty cool museum about passenger ships that included information on the Titanic as well as those condemned to Australia and immigrants from the famine.

The first person through Ellis Island was this woman. There's also a statue of her in New York to commemorate the occasion.

 After Cobh, we stopped in Kinsale for lunch (again, yum) and headed out to Blarney Castle. I was expecting the castle to not be in... for lack of a better work... such ruin. The roof was mostly gone so it was raining all over the castle. Plus it was covered in moss and other greenery. It was actually kind of refreshing after seeing all these perfectly kept castles, and really cool. I would say that it's easily the most beautiful castle I've ever seen.

Blarney Castle!

Looking to the top of Blarney Castle.

There's the Blarney Stone right now!

If anyone is curious, I have footage of me leaning out of a building to actually kiss the Blarney Stone--though I almost ended up kissing the one right above it, which would have done nothing. Apparently I now have the gift of the gab--as if I really needed to be able to talk *more*.

Once again, we returned to the house fairly early. The next morning, we left for Giant's Causeway up in Northern Ireland. Our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge which we were able to cross once the storm passed by us.

I'm pretty sure that's mainland Scotland in the distance there.

This is the rope bridge we crossed. It sits about 80 feet above the roiling Irish Sea.

On the tiny island connected to mainland Ireland by the rope bridge. It was pretty windy.

Rope bridge! Slightly terrifying, but actually wasn't that bad.

After Carrick-a-Rede, we headed over to Giant's Causeway which is essentially a bunch of basalt rocks that, when they cooled after a volcanic eruption, cracked in this really interesting way that is found nowhere else in the world, save the Scottish island that lies directly across from Ireland's Giant's Causeway. And even the Scottish one is not nearly as immense as that of Northern Ireland.

One part of Giant's Causeway.

The view from my perch--absolutely beautiful.

Some of the rock formations are REALLY tall. A couple kids were attempting to scale this.

After wandering about on the rocks a little on my own, it was time for a photo shoot!

Baby rocks!

In the process of getting to the top without falling in the Irish Sea.

King of the tiny mountain!

The sea was gorgeous.

Backlit and windy--yeeeeah buddy!

The sea by Giant's Causeway was really beautiful. There was a lot of seafoam that gathered at the edge of the rocks, and then the wind would pick it up and blow sea foam everywhere. It was actually pretty cool. After exploring the rocks, we headed back to the visitor's center and got lunch (Beef and Guinness Stew--yay!).

After our stop at the Giant's Causeway, we made our way back south to Belfast where we stopped for about an hour to explore the city a bit. We saw this really cool old bar and the most bombed hotel in Ireland (possibly the UK). Then we wandered around Mark's and Spencer's for a bit before heading back onto the bus and back to Dublin.

This is the most bombed hotel in all of the UK.

The trip was really pretty awesome. We saw lots of Giant's Causeway and our tour guide--Jim--was spectacular. He pretty much told us the entirety of Irish history in a day.


Thursday was our last day in Dublin, and our last day of vacation. We were beat. Angela and I were both sick and we were all exhausted. So we slept in, hung around a little bit, then headed into the city. We hit up the Hard Rock Cafe so I could get a guitar pin for my collection. Outside the restaurant, I saw a sign that took me back 10 years. (Story time!)

So 10 years ago (I think it was 2002), my brother and I went to London with my Aunt and Uncle. It was a pretty spectacular trip. One thing I'll always remember is going to Hard Rock Cafe (it's where my guitar pin collection got started!) and the sign that we saw in the window outside of the cafe: "No drugs or nuclear weapons allowed inside". My brother and I thought this was hilarious, so we took a picture (which I believe we still have).

So, back to Dublin, we walk outside and guess what sign I see. Hilarious. I immediately cracked up, though I don't think Maddie and Angela really understood what was so funny.

I wonder what incident made them think this sign was necessary.

Anyway, we were hungry and Maddie & Angela wanted breakfast, so we headed out to Temple Bar area and ended up eating at Quay's again. It was just as delicious the second time. Then we headed up to O'Connell street to check out the bus lost and found (Maddie forgot her rain jacket on the bus). After an unsuccessful romp to lost and found, we headed back toward the center of town. I found a guy selling claddagh rings so I bought myself one (this was my shopping goal for Dublin). Then we went to the tourist information center to see what else we could do. After hanging around for a while we decided to.....do nothing. So we went back home and ordered a pizza. In our defense, we had to be up at 3am the next day to catch the bus to the airport to be on time for our flight. And I still had to pack.

So our last day in Dublin was rather uneventful. Legend has it, though, that if you leave Ireland wearing a claddagh ring (ding ding ding!) you are destined to come back. So I guess: until next time, Ireland...

The journey home was also uneventful, but it felt good to finally be back in France.

Scotland the Brave!

So when we get off the plane in Scotland, the first thing we see are little sample shots of whiskey being given away. EVERY vacation should start like this. Other than that, since we got in so late (8pm), we didn't really do anything in Edinburgh Wednesday night.

Thursday was our Loch Ness adventure. We drove 4 1/2 hours through the Scottish Highlands. Words cannot describe their beauty, and pictures cannot do them justice. I fell in love with Scotland you guys.

Bridge used for Harry Potter--awwww yeah!

Me with the highlands in the background at one of our bathroom stops.

After a drive through the highlands, we arrived at Fort Augustus--home of Loch Ness. We had about an hour to walk around (it was a tiny town so I spent most of that hour in a gift shop getting my mom some spoons). Then we boarded a little ship that took us out onto Loch Ness. It was really neat. There was a guy there who was really knowledgeable about Loch Ness and showed us pictures of weird things he'd seen on the Loch.

Nessie's real. Found her.

Officially at the banks of Loch Ness.

I tripped and fell on my butt trying to get this shot. This is why I am not a photographer.

Loch Ness is MUCH bigger than I thought it would be.

View from inside the boat on our boat tour.

Then Nessie showed up. :)

After Loch Ness, it was a long drive home, but still beautiful scenery to look at.

The next day we got up and did a free walking tour of the city through Sandeman's New Europe Tours. Our tour guide was amazing--really funny and knew his stuff. He was Australian, actually. Moved to Edinburgh after falling in love with it almost 2 1/2 years ago. We got to see lots of cool things, and he told us many cool stories about the city. I cannot recommend these tours enough. It was absolutely amazing.

That middle window is where JK Rowling once sat to write Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

This cute little dog sat next to his master's grave for 14 years. He's now a legend.

The café where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter novel.

After the tour, we went to get lunch with our tour guide. I tried haggis. It was surprisingly delicious. Maddie and Angela decided that they wanted to do a pub crawl later that night. Needless to say, paying someone else to get wasted is not exactly my idea of a good time. Besides, pub crawls can be done anywhere in the world. So, I decided to take a haunted ghost tour instead. It was so worth it. The views of the city were absolutely spectacular at night, and it was fun hearing all the different myths and legends.

On my way to the ghost tour, I saw this statue--with a traffic cone on its head.

Beautiful view from a cemetery in New Town (looking toward Old Town).

Another view from the cemetery.

This was the view from the top of Calton Hill (the entrance to the realm of the faeries).

The next day was time for Edinburgh Castle. We were all pretty tired, though. So we really didn't get our money's worth out of the castle visit. It was pretty spectacular, though. The position of it up on castle rock is incredible, and it's really a sight to see.

At the entrance to the castle.

Don't make me angry; I have a cannon.

Every day at 8 seconds to 1pm, they fire this cannon off. It's not as loud as I was expecting it to be.

After the castle, we went to Greyfriar's Cemetery where JK Rowling used to walk to get inspiration. 

The inspiration for a certain beloved Hogwarts professor.

This school is really close to the cemetery and was supposedly part of the inspiration for Hogwarts (the other part being Edinburgh Castle itself).

He Who Shall Not Be Named.

Mad Eye Moody

After Greyfriar's, we hit up The Elephant House cafe for a bite to eat. In the bathroom to this magical café is a whole bunch of Harry Potter themed graffiti. I like it.

(Weasley) is our king.

Once we were properly fed and watered at the Elephant House, we headed over to St. Giles' Cathedral to find the wooden carving of an angel playing a bagpipe.

This carving is only one of TWO in the world of angels with bagpipes.

Next we made our way toward Hollyrood House (all in being silly-ful).

My imitation of some writer or another.

Holyrood House itself. The queen's official residence in Scotland.

In front of the gates of Holyrood House.

 Over to the side of Holyrood House is a lovely huge hill that one of the other guys staying in our hostel suggested we climb. So we decide that we're going to climb all 251 meters of Arthur's Seat. The climb itself was absolutely gorgeous and rewarding (even if I am deathly afraid of heights).

Giant rock/hill overlooking the city.

Finally made it to the top of Arthur's Seat.

Climbing to the top of Arthur's Seat was probably one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. 1. I am terrified of heights. There was one part where there was only a tiny narrow little path *right* next to a pretty sheer cliff drop. I took about 5 minutes mentally preparing myself for that one. And 2. I am freaking lazy (not to mention that I picked up someone's illness in London, and was then sick from Edinburgh on). To climb all the way up without giving up is a pretty big accomplishment. Plus the view was spectacular. Here's some video of the view.

Early the next day, we headed to the airport for our final stop of the trip--Dublin!