As I prepare for Italy, I've begun to pack up... well, everything. I'm not sure I can properly express how depressing this is. First off, I am going to be paying at least $300 in shipping/baggage costs to get all my stuff home. How is that even possible?? I'm not entirely sure. It cost me $60 to get it here. Granted, I'm stopping in New York before heading on home, so that doubles my baggage costs already. Which then, doubles again because well, hey, why not?! (Also, I like to shop, so that doesn't help.)
In any case, I'm actually really sad to be going home. Which sounds weird. I think everyone I've talked to here is super excited about going home. I just...never really want to leave here. I came here as a student, to fulfill a dream about 6 years in the making, just to see what it's like living halfway across the world. The first few weeks were fun and exciting. Around the one-month mark, I really just wanted to come home. I made a countdown on my calendar of how many more weeks I had to endure before going home to see my family and friends again. Now, in the final weeks, facing my imminent departure, packing up my life here, wondering how I'm ever going to say goodbye to this family, I realize that I found a home here.
Maybe it's a little early to start getting nostalgic and thinking about this too much, but I really can't picture living the rest of my life anywhere but here, in France. I've been bitten by the wanderlust bug (a really, REALLY big one), and I honestly can't picture staying in the States for more than a few more years to finish my studies.
In any case, I figured I'd let you all know what's going on since I'll be leaving for Italy on Saturday (bright and early...just the way I like to travel!). Not sure when I'll have time to blog again--maybe when I get back from Italy, maybe in the airport waiting for my plane to New York.
This Saturday marks the start of almost a full month of travels--Italy (!!!), New York (!!!! [yes, New York is a little more exciting than Italy--I'll get to see my best friend AND my aunt!]), and Georgia (!!!). Then I get to trudge home and start real life again.
I can't wait to share all of my adventures with you. My final study abroad adventures! Stay tuned for pictures of Rome, the Vatican City, Pompeii, Florence, Pisa, and Venice!!
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
France, you can be a strange, strange cookie...
This week I went to Mont Saint-Michel and Paris with Angela!
Monday's weather was beautiful, except we were mostly stuck on the train the entire day. However, when we got to our hotel in Mont Saint-Michel, we were in for a pleasant surprise: 1. Our hotel was MUCH closer to the Mont than I had expected (it was also easy to get from our hotel to the train station) and 2. In our hotel room, we had a tiny little balcony that had a view of Mont Saint-Michel itself! Pretty classy for relatively cheap! We decided to head onto the Mont itself to find dinner and ended up eating the most expensive meal I've probably ever eaten in my life (read: that I've paid for).
There's this restaurant that my host mom told me about called La Mère Poulard. It's supposed to be pretty famous or something. I had never heard of it, but we decided to give it a try. Well, I was planning on ordering the cheapest menu they had... except the cheapest menu they had was apparently not available that evening, so I ended up paying 30euro more than I expected. (Oops...but you only live once right?!)
The food was pretty delicious. I tried a plate of 3 different pâtés. I don't know what they were. I don't know what was in them. But they were really good (except for one which I just really did not care for at all). Then, for the main course, I tried the famous Poulard Omelet with potatoes and ham. It was the weirdest omelet I've ever seen in my life. It was really REALLY light and fluffy--almost the consistency of a super light souflée. It tasted pretty good, though, despite the strange, unexpected texture difference. I didn't care for the ham, though--it was spiced in a weird way. :( However, dessert made up for everything--the one lost pâté, the consistency of the omelet, and the price. I got a plate of chocolate deliciousness, essentially. There were three different little chocolate dishes to sample. All I can say for sure is that one was a giant truffle--and if there's truffles involved, I'm a happy Katie.
The next day, it was rainy. That kind of sucked, but we headed out to the Mont anyway (after buying a sweater to combat the icy wind) despite a strong urge to go back to bed and sleep for an hour or two more. Luckily, the rain didn't last too long, and by noon the sun had come out. We explored the city, and some museums, then headed back to catch our train.
No, we didn't go into the Abbey itself. I suppose maybe we should have, but I tend to like things better from the outside anyway, so it just would have been a waste of Angela's money. In any case, the museums were pretty interesting. And by interesting, I mean, I thought I was in a horror movie on 2 separate occasions.
First, the Archeoscope where we're sent to wait in a deserted hallway, then enter into a huge room that smells like chlorine, sit on the most uncomfortable benches ever while the door automatically shuts behind us, lights start flashing, and the bench starts shaking. As you can tell, no, we were not murdered. But you'll just have to go to Mont Saint-Michel and experience the Archeoscope for yourself. >:D
Occasion number 2: The wax museum that I was not expecting--and of course it was the wax museum of the prison and dungeons. Then there was the unexpected mirror where I scared myself half to death, creepy monks weaving, standing around, praying. Needless to say, wax museums are no bueno. Do not like.
It was a pretty enjoyable day, nonetheless. And, for your exclusive viewing pleasure, gratuitous pictures of YOURS TRULY in front of Mont Saint-Michel!
We had to spend the night in Paris since our train arrived so late, so this morning we went to Père Lachaise cemetery before heading our separate ways (Angela to Lyon, me home to Orléans). Père Lachaise is absolutely beautiful. It was HUGE, but I took a picture of the map with my phone, so we could get around without getting (too) lost. We never could find Sarah Bernhardt since we ran out of time, but we saw a bunch of other famous dead people!
That's all for now! I should be laying pretty low until I take off for Italy in a little more than a week. (I can't believe I leave for Italy in a little more than a week.) Not sure if I'll have time to update while I'm gone. I'll at least update before I leave, but after that, I might not see you guys until June! It'll be almost time to go home!!
Monday's weather was beautiful, except we were mostly stuck on the train the entire day. However, when we got to our hotel in Mont Saint-Michel, we were in for a pleasant surprise: 1. Our hotel was MUCH closer to the Mont than I had expected (it was also easy to get from our hotel to the train station) and 2. In our hotel room, we had a tiny little balcony that had a view of Mont Saint-Michel itself! Pretty classy for relatively cheap! We decided to head onto the Mont itself to find dinner and ended up eating the most expensive meal I've probably ever eaten in my life (read: that I've paid for).
There's this restaurant that my host mom told me about called La Mère Poulard. It's supposed to be pretty famous or something. I had never heard of it, but we decided to give it a try. Well, I was planning on ordering the cheapest menu they had... except the cheapest menu they had was apparently not available that evening, so I ended up paying 30euro more than I expected. (Oops...but you only live once right?!)
The food was pretty delicious. I tried a plate of 3 different pâtés. I don't know what they were. I don't know what was in them. But they were really good (except for one which I just really did not care for at all). Then, for the main course, I tried the famous Poulard Omelet with potatoes and ham. It was the weirdest omelet I've ever seen in my life. It was really REALLY light and fluffy--almost the consistency of a super light souflée. It tasted pretty good, though, despite the strange, unexpected texture difference. I didn't care for the ham, though--it was spiced in a weird way. :( However, dessert made up for everything--the one lost pâté, the consistency of the omelet, and the price. I got a plate of chocolate deliciousness, essentially. There were three different little chocolate dishes to sample. All I can say for sure is that one was a giant truffle--and if there's truffles involved, I'm a happy Katie.
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| The inside of La Mère Poulard |
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| My pâtés: the white one on the right was delicious (prune in the middle, not an organ like I originally thought) |
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| Half crepe, half omelet: total deliciousness |
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| That was the most disgusting ham I've ever tasted--the potatoes were good, though. |
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| Left to right: Truffle, macaron, some sort of delicious chocolate concoction |
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| Outside the restaurant, right at the entrance into the medieval city. |
No, we didn't go into the Abbey itself. I suppose maybe we should have, but I tend to like things better from the outside anyway, so it just would have been a waste of Angela's money. In any case, the museums were pretty interesting. And by interesting, I mean, I thought I was in a horror movie on 2 separate occasions.
First, the Archeoscope where we're sent to wait in a deserted hallway, then enter into a huge room that smells like chlorine, sit on the most uncomfortable benches ever while the door automatically shuts behind us, lights start flashing, and the bench starts shaking. As you can tell, no, we were not murdered. But you'll just have to go to Mont Saint-Michel and experience the Archeoscope for yourself. >:D
Occasion number 2: The wax museum that I was not expecting--and of course it was the wax museum of the prison and dungeons. Then there was the unexpected mirror where I scared myself half to death, creepy monks weaving, standing around, praying. Needless to say, wax museums are no bueno. Do not like.
It was a pretty enjoyable day, nonetheless. And, for your exclusive viewing pleasure, gratuitous pictures of YOURS TRULY in front of Mont Saint-Michel!
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| Monday night, Angela and I leaving Mont Saint-Michel |
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| This is the tiniest alleyway I've ever walked down |
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| The Abbey |
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| Low tide |
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| The Abbey, once more |
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| Once more with feeling! |
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| I don't know why I liked this door so much |
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| It was so windy. |
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| Still windy, but with a blue sky at least |
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| Just before getting on the shuttle back to our hotel |
We had to spend the night in Paris since our train arrived so late, so this morning we went to Père Lachaise cemetery before heading our separate ways (Angela to Lyon, me home to Orléans). Père Lachaise is absolutely beautiful. It was HUGE, but I took a picture of the map with my phone, so we could get around without getting (too) lost. We never could find Sarah Bernhardt since we ran out of time, but we saw a bunch of other famous dead people!
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| Balzac |
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| Delacroix |
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| Me and my buddy Guillaume Apollinaire |
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| Where's a madeleine when I need one? |
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| Yes, Oscar Wilde, you get a kissy face. |
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| The one and only Edith Piaf! |
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| On Rue du Molière and La Fontaine |
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| Molière tried to hide from us |
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| But we found him and La Fontaine all the same. |
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| The family Batcave! I found Batman! |
Saturday, April 14, 2012
During exams, life is dull--and then I make cake!
Hello there, neglected blog. I know, I know, I'm the worst blogger ever. Unfortunately, unlike the last time I took a couple week hiatus from writing, I don't have 4 posts worth of pictures and exciting travel news. Essentially, I've been going to classes and that's it. Until Thursday, when fun stuff started happening. So yay! Fun stuff! I even have pictures!!
For my Francophonie class, I wrote a paper about my relationship with French cooking. I had typed it up on one of the computers at school, and one of my other professors decided to read it. Well, she got all excited and told me about this cooking lesson that was going on at the university on Thursday night (this was Tuesday afternoon). Well, I didn't get the information about it until Wednesday afternoon, and even though I had missed the deadline to sign up, I decided to email them to see if they had any space left, just in case. And boy, was I lucky!
So Thursday night, I wandered around campus to find the Polytech building (that I had never been to or seen before). Luckily, I had a map and got there a bit early. I helped everyone set up the makeshift kitchen and we all got to cooking. Our menu: navarin d'agneau légumes printaniers and some sort of cake (I can never remember the name of the cake). The class was really fun, and the chef was super helpful (considering I don't know pretty much anything about French cooking terms--I only know them in English).
The class was about 4 hours long, so by the time I got home, it was like 10. And I still hadn't had time to eat any of the deliciousness that I had made. I found dinner waiting for me on the table (<3 my host family), so I ate that and stuck my yummies in the fridge to take to the collège for lunch in the morning.
So Friday I got to go to the collège (middle school) to teach students for the last time this semester. I ended up eating couscous with the teachers (instead of my lamb and cake), and then headed off to observe a French course for an hour. After that, I had my usual two groups of students. We played theatre games, and it was so much fun. I'm going to miss them. :(
This morning, I was up early (5:30 x_x) to head off to the Chateau Amboise and Clos-Lucé (the home of Leonardo DiVinci). The long and short of it: Amboise is beautiful (mostly the gardens; I tend to prefer the gardens to the actual chateaux themselves) and Clos-Lucé is probably the coolest place anyone could ever go. The house itself is cute, fairly interesting. What's awesome is that they have a HUGE park surrounding the house with live-size working models of some of DaVinci's inventions that you can try/play with yourself. Unfortunately, we were exhausted and didn't have terribly much time to play, but it was still fun anyway.
Finally, when I got home from the excursion on Saturday (finally, finally) I got to eat my lamb and cake. (EXCITING). It was pretty freaking delicious. I have the recipes and fully intend to make more when I get home.
Other than that, I am starting to plan my trip to Italy (bon-JOUR-no -- this is actually how my Italian sounds). Definitely getting really excited about that and my trip back to London for the Harry Potter Studio Tour. My classes will be over as of Wednesday (the exception being theater). And then hopefully I'll have much more fun frequent updates for you! I think we're going to Guédelon next weekend, and possibly a trip down to Bordeaux to visit a vineyard.
À plus, mes amis! :)
For my Francophonie class, I wrote a paper about my relationship with French cooking. I had typed it up on one of the computers at school, and one of my other professors decided to read it. Well, she got all excited and told me about this cooking lesson that was going on at the university on Thursday night (this was Tuesday afternoon). Well, I didn't get the information about it until Wednesday afternoon, and even though I had missed the deadline to sign up, I decided to email them to see if they had any space left, just in case. And boy, was I lucky!
So Thursday night, I wandered around campus to find the Polytech building (that I had never been to or seen before). Luckily, I had a map and got there a bit early. I helped everyone set up the makeshift kitchen and we all got to cooking. Our menu: navarin d'agneau légumes printaniers and some sort of cake (I can never remember the name of the cake). The class was really fun, and the chef was super helpful (considering I don't know pretty much anything about French cooking terms--I only know them in English).
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| Cooking my lamb |
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| In the middle of the navarin |
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| Comparing the finished products (mine's on the bottom) |
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| My little mini cake. |
The class was about 4 hours long, so by the time I got home, it was like 10. And I still hadn't had time to eat any of the deliciousness that I had made. I found dinner waiting for me on the table (<3 my host family), so I ate that and stuck my yummies in the fridge to take to the collège for lunch in the morning.
So Friday I got to go to the collège (middle school) to teach students for the last time this semester. I ended up eating couscous with the teachers (instead of my lamb and cake), and then headed off to observe a French course for an hour. After that, I had my usual two groups of students. We played theatre games, and it was so much fun. I'm going to miss them. :(
This morning, I was up early (5:30 x_x) to head off to the Chateau Amboise and Clos-Lucé (the home of Leonardo DiVinci). The long and short of it: Amboise is beautiful (mostly the gardens; I tend to prefer the gardens to the actual chateaux themselves) and Clos-Lucé is probably the coolest place anyone could ever go. The house itself is cute, fairly interesting. What's awesome is that they have a HUGE park surrounding the house with live-size working models of some of DaVinci's inventions that you can try/play with yourself. Unfortunately, we were exhausted and didn't have terribly much time to play, but it was still fun anyway.
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| Chateau Amboise |
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| Why does this tree remind me of the Lion King? |
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| The bust of Leonardo DaVinci. He used to be buried here, then they moved him somewhere else. |
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| More Chateau Amboise |
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| Me with my bag of cake. |
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| Beautiful columns around the fireplace |
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| I want to build a wall in my garden someday, just so I can have one of these. |
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| Clos-Lucé |
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| DaVinci's Garden |
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| Clos-Lucé |
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| This bridge is awesome |
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| I don't know what this is for, but you run around underneath it, and make the top turn. |
Other than that, I am starting to plan my trip to Italy (bon-JOUR-no -- this is actually how my Italian sounds). Definitely getting really excited about that and my trip back to London for the Harry Potter Studio Tour. My classes will be over as of Wednesday (the exception being theater). And then hopefully I'll have much more fun frequent updates for you! I think we're going to Guédelon next weekend, and possibly a trip down to Bordeaux to visit a vineyard.
À plus, mes amis! :)
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