Monday, January 31, 2011
Me and my roommate Catie with our host mom, Sophie at the beach in Montpellier
Long Time No Update
Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this thing..its been kinda crazy..were in the middle of trying to find internships in Geneva for the month of May...im of course behind on it
Last weekend I went to Lyon to visit Julie and the LeFeuvre family who I stayed with Senior year, and who came to visit me a few times..shes one of my very best friends so it was amazing to see her and the rest of the family. plus a visit to Lyon always means good food and good shopping. i bought a new coat. sorry dad. (above should be a picture of her and I)....we walked around the city, ate, and saw a movie..it was perfect
Now it is around 6 at night, and me and the other girls in the program are at a cafe planning our trip for next week. The last day we are allowed to be in Montpellier is Friday (we were here for a month at an intensive french program, living with families) and we start classes NEXT monday night (like in 10 days) so we have a lot of travel time in between. This is what were planning....give me some input in your comments!!
Friday February 4
- leave Montpellier for Barcelona, train 3:30-7:30
- Hostel for 3 nights- SUPER BOWL ON SUNDAY (it doesn't start till 1:30 am our time)
Monday February 7
- leave Barcelona for Granada at 9:30 pm, arrive in Granada, Spain 8:45 am (night train)
Tuesday February 8
-spend the day in Granada
-night at a hostel in Granada
Wednesday, February 9
- Granada-Madrid train (9:45 am-2:29 pm)
- spend the afternoon in Madrid
- Madrid to Lisbon night train (10:25 pm-7:41 am)
Thursday February 10
-arrive in Lisbon
-spend the night at a hostel in Lisbon
Friday February 11
- leave for Paris on a night train around 4:30 pm
Saturday February 12
-arrive in paris around 1:50 pm
-spend the day in Paris and see friends from Colgate
-spend night in Paris hostel
Sunday February 13
-spend the day in Paris
-possibly go to Versailles, the Louvre, or Normandy beach
-spend night in Paris hostel
Monday February 13
-take train from Paris to Geneva
-check in at university and settle into dorm
-have first class of the semester (European Nations and Nationalism) from 6:00-8:30 pm
What are your thoughts? it is a little crazy, but I with my Eurorail pass, I have free train rides (I think night trains cost $30 extra though) so i might as well take advantage of being here with free travel!!
I'll post again soon with more info!
-Steph
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Thursday, January 27, 2011
So, it is 10 at night here, and we are getting ready to go out...I just thought id update a little bit while I had some free time...
last weekend we went to Nice and Monaco which was amazing...and I WON...only like 20 euros, but still...its pretty cool to win money at Monte Carlo...we stayed in a real nice hostel and spent some time walking around getting to know the city. ALSO Friday night, I had one of the best meals ive ever had in my life. It was cheese ravioli in a tomato creme sauce with seafood (mussles, calamari, clams). It was unbelievable and I cant wait to have another meal that is truly that good.
Another food that I want you all to try and is easily accessable in America is a baguette with Nutella on it. Thats what they eat here for breakfast, and its amazing. Go try it right now. You'll love it.
I am not completely sure what is in store for this weekend...its possible that we'll take a trip to Toulouse, but I'm not sure yet...
Talk to ya'll soon!
p.s. to my beautiful cousin Jordin: can't wait for you to come visit! I'm already planning out where were gonna go....
last weekend we went to Nice and Monaco which was amazing...and I WON...only like 20 euros, but still...its pretty cool to win money at Monte Carlo...we stayed in a real nice hostel and spent some time walking around getting to know the city. ALSO Friday night, I had one of the best meals ive ever had in my life. It was cheese ravioli in a tomato creme sauce with seafood (mussles, calamari, clams). It was unbelievable and I cant wait to have another meal that is truly that good.
Another food that I want you all to try and is easily accessable in America is a baguette with Nutella on it. Thats what they eat here for breakfast, and its amazing. Go try it right now. You'll love it.
I am not completely sure what is in store for this weekend...its possible that we'll take a trip to Toulouse, but I'm not sure yet...
Talk to ya'll soon!
p.s. to my beautiful cousin Jordin: can't wait for you to come visit! I'm already planning out where were gonna go....
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Nice and Monaco
So, as you can tell from my pictures, were staying at Nice for the weekend, and spent the day in Monaco today. We got a real nice hostel right on the beach, and the food in Nice is amazing. Last night, we went to a great dinner (I had ravoli with seafood) and then to an awesome bar called Waynes (picture below)...the live band that was at the bar was awesome and we had a great time. Today we found a big breakfast (hard to do in France), and headed to monaco. We bought bread, cheese, fruit, and wine, and ate it in the harbor of Monte Carlo alongside all the yachts. It was surreal. We went to gamble, and I put 5 dollars in, and won...not too shabby
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Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Roman coliseum from first century
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Nimes
So we hopped on a train at 930 this morning to nimes, only a half hour away...its gorgeous...the best preserved roman coliseum is here, its built in the year 1
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Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Friday, January 14, 2011
Our french teacher teaching us about wine, how its served, and made
Friday!!
Its finally friday morning here in montpellier, its been a week since we landed in geneva and were stranded because our prof didn't show up.
Montpellier is great- its been like 50 during the day...for those of you not in front of a map of france, montpellier is in the south not far from nice, avignon, nimes, and arles. Its gorgeous here and you should be jealous. The food and wine are super good and the people have been really nice
We went to the australien bar last night and just hung out for a while...I really like this city, but it shuts down super early.
Today I think we might get some wine and cheese and chill in the parc...we were gonna go to bordeaux for the weekend, but we decided to just hang out here this weekend, and plan our other trips...wait till you hear what were gonna do
-steph
P.s. Gotta give a shoutout to the cutest and best sister ever, I miss you
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Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
update on Montpellier
We've had 2 days of classes here in Montpellier, and it has been real fun so far, our group of 17 is spending lots of time together. We have class from 9-12 in the morning, and on tuesdays and thursdays again from 130-4 in the afternoon. Basically we are taking French at a language school, and it seems to be real helpful for the people who didnt know french coming into this program, but for the 4 or 5 of us who did, we pretty much just meet to have conversations about the news, politics, and stuff like that. it's cool, but a little too much.
it also looks like this weekend were going to try and go to a wine tasting in avignon which should be cool, but we'll see if we get our act together enough to do it.
it also looks like this weekend were going to try and go to a wine tasting in avignon which should be cool, but we'll see if we get our act together enough to do it.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Finally in montpellier
So me and my roomate from colgate, catie, were picked up at the train station by our host mother and 3 brothers today (edouard is 6, charles is 9, and alexandres is 12).
So she lives in this absolutely gorgeous apartment right in the center of town- seriously the best location possible, and you can tell the building is super old. Couldn't be staying in a better place.
It is like 50 here tonight and there are palm trees even...we have french class like every day, but I can tell were going to have a great time here- its stunning, ill post pictures tomorrow
So she lives in this absolutely gorgeous apartment right in the center of town- seriously the best location possible, and you can tell the building is super old. Couldn't be staying in a better place.
It is like 50 here tonight and there are palm trees even...we have french class like every day, but I can tell were going to have a great time here- its stunning, ill post pictures tomorrow
After exploring the areas of geneva yesterday, we bought 5 kinds of cheese, bread, wine, tomatoes and basil, and we sat and ate dinner for a few hours together with another friend from colgate who happened to be in the city. It was great.
After, we went with this british guy and german guy to a club called l'usine, and we definitely got a taste of the local culture. It was real fun, but we got in pretty late and had to wake up early to catch our train to montpelier france
Now were on the tgv, and we should be in france in about 4 hours to meet our host families we will be living with for the next month..hope we got a good one
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Saturday, January 8, 2011
Penne aribbata is really hot
So last night we were looking for somewhere to eat, and after looking at about 6 resturants that had food at 30 francs each, we finally settled on this pizza and pasta place. The waiter was real nice and helped us out with picking out what's good. We asked him about the penne aribbata and how hot is was- he said it was too spicy and not to get it, we thought he was bluffing, so 3 of the 6 of us got it (me and my friend split that and a pizza).
Not only was the waiter right, he challenged us to finishing the whole bowl. He said if we did, hed buy us each a beer. Me and adam finished our bowl and won the prize, but the other 2 didn't. It was one of the most painful things I've done in a while. My throat and insides began to burn, and that lasted a couple hours. Not the greatest choice in retrospect
After that, we went to a pub and hung out with the group for a while.
The time change has been hard, so we went to bed at 11 and just woke up..more later
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Not only was the waiter right, he challenged us to finishing the whole bowl. He said if we did, hed buy us each a beer. Me and adam finished our bowl and won the prize, but the other 2 didn't. It was one of the most painful things I've done in a while. My throat and insides began to burn, and that lasted a couple hours. Not the greatest choice in retrospect
After that, we went to a pub and hung out with the group for a while.
The time change has been hard, so we went to bed at 11 and just woke up..more later
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Friday, January 7, 2011
First day
So we got here at 715 europe time and went through customs and got to our hostel. We went to immigration to get our residency permits, and now were back at the hostel, its only like 1 and were already tired...we'll probably hangout for a while and then go to dinner as a group of 15. Tomorrow we have the day off before we go to france on sunday, so were gonna try to get to know the city.
Check back in later!
SLN
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Check back in later!
SLN
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Packing
So...its 930 on Wednesday, and I am leaving madison at 12 tomorrow (thursday) for a 545 flight...i havnt started packing yet..probably not a good decision
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