SNOW!

Salut! My mood has made a complete 180 since my last post. Thanks to all for your concerns and well wishes! Getting responses to my posts (especially encouraging ones) makes me feel so loved! ^_^

Place de  Zurich in the snow!

Yesterday I moved in with a new host mom and love it. Her home is an actual house in Strasbourg, not an apartment, and she is a botanist! When she realized that I study biology and she told me that she works with plants, we talked for almost 15 minutes about plants, our favorites and where we've studied them. I think we bored my friend Chris (whom I now live with) a little bit. I haven't gotten a chance to unpack my suitcases yet, but that is planned for this weekend. My outfits for the next few days will be chosen by the use of one of my favorite methods: close eyes, reach in suitcase, ohp! you're wearing that randomly bejeweled teeshirt (which you forgot you even packed) today! It adds a little excitement to the start of the mornings.

The Christmas tree in Place Kléber

This morning I was able to shower before class! It hadn't work for us to do that at the last house because the bath was right next to our host mom's bedroom. But no more! It was great; I was able to wash my hair and wear it down and curly for the entire day. I hadn't done that it way too long. I'm not sure how well you, fair reader, know about curly hair. It has a mind of it's own. And the best way that I have found to tame such mutiny is by the use of water and potent conditioning. Hats are a no-no and humidity is like adding gasoline to a fire; if it's already big, you're not getting by unscathed. A good washing at the start of the day works wonders.

Me and my friend Dan
in front of the tree.

As the title of this post may lead you to deduce, it has been snowing in Strasbourg! There is snow falling from the sky and covering the ground and landing on my coat and making me happy. It's a wonderful change from the brown and dying surroundings of late fall to the white wonderland of winter. I heard today that Strasbourg doesn't usually get snow in December, let alone in November (the last time there was snow in November was in the mid-late 80's!). There will be pictures soon. I just have to find the cord that connects my camera to my computer... That will be located as soon as I finish planning my interview questions for my ICRP project meeting tomorrow. Which means I'll find it sometime next week. À plus!

Warning: Complaint Post

A street in Colmar, France.

This last week has been really hard for me. Because of some problems with my host mom, my roommate and I are moving to different host families on Tuesday. Dealing with the situation and trying to figure out the best solution with our program coordinator while worrying about our host mom finding out has taken a toll on me. I'm glad to be moving, but the whole thing is stressful. We are getting nervous for how our host mom will react when she's told about us leaving. Our coordinator is confident that we'll be fine, we just hate awkward confrontations.

With that whole fiasco and the fact that classes are winding up towards exams, I'm wishing I could just be home. Missing Thanksgiving this year almost killed me. Thanksgiving is a big thing in my family; we all get together and share the time and delicious food as a celebration of just that: being together. Being gone has made me realize how much the holiday means to me and has also kicked off a pretty intense bout of seasonal depression. No need to worry about me though, I know how to deal with it. And working at the knit shop forces me to get out on the weekends instead of sitting on my butt watching movies.

Ducks in Colmar on a program excursion.

I have gotten to the point here in Strasbourg where I've started "living" here instead of simply being a visitor. My schedule has set in and the magic of the trip is lost. The hardest part of "living" here is the fact that I have a schedule and things that I have to do, but none of it is specifically what I want to do. At K, I take classes that interest me (biology, theatre, history...) but here, I have to take the classes that are planned into the program. I'm getting sick of EU politics, comparing my culture with France's, and reading random passages in French class that have nothing to do with anything at all. I want to dissect something! I want to spend way too many hours copying notes in Dow (science building). I want to memorize the Latin name of 50 different species and bore my friends with their genetic/evolutionary history. I want my major back!

At least I know it will end. I didn't have a lapse of sanity and transfer to a political science school where I will have to study this and only this for the rest of my life. I only have one more week of classes, and two weeks of exams followed by a week for writing a paper and three weeks of travel (two with my family!). Then I'm homeward bound to see the people I love and work off the extra lbs that Europe has added to my figure. I can see the light!

On a positive note, it snowed yesterday! Lots and lots of beautifully huge flakes, and they've forecast more this weekend! Snow makes the cold 100% worth it. Now, I'm off to brave the cold and the weekend crowds to hang out at the knit shop before working on a presentation for class next week. Wish me luck! À plus!

Humdrum Autumn

Ginkgo and Oak leaves mixing
on the pathways of the park.

Hello to all you adoring fans! I would like to apologize for my lack of cool and interesting activities which leads to few blog posts. The past few weeks here have been filled with monotonous classes and cold, rainy weather. I have still been able to enjoy myself for the most part. Since returning from Italy I have appreciated the ability to communicate so much more, even with my meager French skills. It's similar to the fact that one feels more American when they leave the States; I realize how much French I understand when surrounded by Italian (of which I know very little).

My socks! (and me being lazy
on my bed).

One of my latest accomplishments was knitting a pair of socks last week. The project only took me the week (another sign of how uneventful it was). It's exciting though because I hadn't gotten myself to finish a sock before coming to France. Personally, I think it has to do with working at the knit shop twice a week and with the fact that the other excellent knitter on my program just happens to live in the next room. It was really funny when we found that we have knitting as a mutual passion. We have had continuous projects going our entire stay and have gotten many of the other girls on our program knitting as well. The other international students must think that Americans knit like crazy!
My classes for the most part have been going well. I say "for the most part" because I have lately found myself growing quite bored with them. The language classes are the same most days; we read aloud from our text book, work on exercises and listen to lectures on grammar. I am becoming a huge fan of the 10 week quarters at K. Semesters are so long! It's almost over though. Only three more weeks of classes and one of exams! Then I'm off to Paris to meet my family!! I bought my ticket from Strasbourg to Paris just the other day so it's official, but still hard to believe. And so exciting! À plus!

A Trip to Remember

Salut! I think that I have finally caught up on my sleep from traveling and am now back to classes at the university. The week off really helps make school less repetitive. But we have six more weeks to live through, so we'll see how long that lasts...

The Duomo 

On a different note, I last left off in Florence. What a city! There was a completely different life in Florence than we saw in Pisa. Both are tourist destinations, but Florence had so much more to offer and it's a bigger city in general which resulted in a more lively, and better lit area. There were countless churches filled with beautiful pieces of artwork and sculptures around every corner. Sadly, many of the churches and museums didn't allow picture taking inside. But that's okay! I still took ended up with over 600 photos on my camera by the end of the trip, so I think there was plenty of documentation going on.

Strawberry Gelato!

On Thursday, we (me and my friends Nick and Stevie) got a late start from the hostel (we slept in until 10ish) but spent the entire day wandering around the city. We explored many of the beautiful churches including the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore (duomo = cathedral). That thing it huge! There is an entire plaza around it that constituted the centre of town. We ate many a gelato in that plaza. That was actually one of the rules we came up with while in Italy; everyday, we must have some gelato (Italian ice cream for those who aren't familiar with this heavenly dessert). Another rule that we devised after eating a delicious lunch of pizza, is that we were only going to eat at restaurants situated in alleyways. Those were the best ground rules of any trip I've been on.
Friday was a wonderful day. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and we spent the entire afternoon in a gigantic garden on the outskirts of Florence! I seriously could not have found better travel buddies if I tried. It was Nick's idea to check out the gardens and he had wanted to go since we received the city map from our hostel. They were fabulous! There were areas of forest with dirt paths and open grassy hills as well as large fountains, all with interesting sculptures scattered throughout.

My new friend

I met a cat while we were there! When I first saw it, it was crossing the path in front of us (don't worry, it was a tortie, not black). It didn't respond when I first started calling to it, but I was persistent and it warmed up to me and slowly made it's way over. I was so happy to have some cat contact! I knelt on the path and got to pet it for a few minutes before some other people came by and my cat continued on it's way. Soon after the day was christened "The Best Day in Florence". And we had only made it half way through our trip.
The afternoon in the gardens continued with hiking through woods, sitting by fountains and laying in the sun and we finished it off with going through a museum that was connected to it for a little while. After leaving we spent the rest of the day looking around, talking to street vendors and hanging out at our favorite night spot, the Dublin Pub. It became our favorite because their TV always had a game of soccer on and they had a dart board in the back. Many a game of darts was lost by yours truly at that very board.
One night we had a very uniquely Italian experience there. It was a night that there were two Italian soccer teams playing against each other on the TV. The pub was filled with Italians watching intently and getting quite worked up over the goals made by their team (or lack there of). It was quite obvious to us foreigners who the members of each fan base were. At some points in time, I was vividly reminded of Americans watching the Super Bowl in the states. The viewers would get worked up over a play and start yelling at the TV. Even though I couldn't understand exactly what they were saying, I knew they were coaching  the players from hundreds of miles away.

Nick, me and Stevie on a terrace
in the Boboli Gardens

Saturday was overcast and chilly so we spent the day in the Uffizi Museum. I went in thinking "Oh, this is a large, popular art museum in Italy. This will be neat." Little did I know how many amazing pieces are actually there. Including the Birth of Venus!! My mind was blown. Sadly, pictures weren't allowed in the museum. But that didn't stop me from taking one of the main hallway!

A main hall in the Uffizi

Sunday was my return day home. And by return day, I mean it. There were a good 12 hours of straight travel in there. So after a bus to Pisa, a plane to Paris, metro, metro, a train to Strasbourg and a bus home, I was down for the count. Not to toot my own horn (but to toot my own horn), I was pretty proud of myself by the end of the day. I was on my own when I navigated the Paris metro to get to the train station and for catching a later train since I had missed the one for which I had a ticket. I even made some small talk with some other English speaking students who I met on the metro. And it was only slightly awkward! Two thumbs up. I will never be intimidated by public transportation again! Take that Chicago L!

Fall is here in Strasbourg!

The next day was spent at home, catching up on sleep and uploading pictures. This week we've been back in classes *grumbe grumble* but the week off has taken the repetitive edge off my schedule. At least for the time being that is. Tomorrow our program has another excursion planned. From what I've heard, we're visiting a church and a museum in another Alsatian town and then going out to dinner. Mmmm, food. À plus!

Catching Up

The theatre where La Lecon
has performed for 53 years.

Wow. So… I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in over two weeks. I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, I promise! Right now I’m in Florence, Italy, but let me start with my visit to Paris (for the second time!) with my program. We had a blast! The way that our program planned out the trip, we had one activity to attend everyday and the rest of the day free for exploring. We also had dinners all together (all 24 of us) at a restaurant where we were served a full three course meal. Those were delicious!

We arrived on Saturday in the late morning and checked into our three star hotel. I shared a room with two of my close friends but it was easy to jump around visiting my class mates throughout the rest of the building. The hotel served a small breakfast of croissants, cereal, yogurt and hard boiled eggs.

A hall of gold in
the opera house.

Our first planned activity was attending the play The Lesson (La Leçon) by Ionisco in a tiny theatre hidden between tourist shops and restaurants on a small side street of Paris. The play was interesting in content but it was preformed quite well. It was great to see since I would never have done that if I was visiting Paris on my own. Before the play we had dinner at an Indian restaurant. Before the meal, we were given a pitcher of this delicious yogurt drink to share per table of six. I don’t think I can explain how good this drink was. It was the consistency of sweetened condensed milk but had the best yogurt taste ever. At first I thought it was a specialty drink that we would only get about a glass of each, but soon they refilled the pitcher and I was overjoyed. It was better than the coconut and French vanilla ice cream we had for dessert.

The building of the opera
house was so ornate.

On Sunday we didn’t have any obligations until the afternoon when we were visiting the Muse d’Orsay. So, that morning I went with my two roommates to mass at the Cathedrale de Notre Dame. The service was wonderful! It was given in French and Latin. It was a special mass because along with the regular rituals, there was a group of Gregorian singers who sang and led the hymns. The entire experience was hauntingly beautiful. Spending the afternoon at the Muse d’Orsay was quite fun. In comparison to the Louvre, I found it to be more enjoyable. Mostly I contribute that to its smaller size and higher concentration (wow, did I really just use that term… a little love note to the bio I miss so much) of sculptures to paintings.  

Monday was fun. It began with a late start at 9am (yey sleeping in!) and after breakfast we took a tour of the Paris Opera House. That place is amazing! As we went through, I tried to imagine what it would be like to see a show there and what it would have been like to have seen a show when it was new. The entire place was gorgeous. There was a gigantic hall/room completely decked out in gold, the stairways were many different shades of marble, and it contained countless busts and sculptures. Because were we part of a tour, we got to go into the house of the theatre! It was a dream come true for a theatre lover like me. I couldn't believe that I was sitting in a seat where audience members had sat and watched operas and the Paris Ballet perform for years and years. So wonderful!

Pisa!

I think this picture
explains itself

Yesterday was a little crazy. Since our program's trip had ended, we all had to check out of the hotel and travel to our respective places for the rest of vacation. My plans are to travel in Italy for a few days. I'm with two guys who are also studying in Strasbourg with me, and we're having a good time. We overcame the challenge of getting to the airport where our plane was taking off (since it's a cheap airline, we have to leave from a small airport 50km out of the city) which consisted of walking, metro-taking, and bus riding. We made all transitions and destinations in good time and soon landed in Pisa. The three of us checked in to our hostel in Pisa and explored the little town that night. 

Pizza!

This morning we checked out of the hostel and went back out to see the town during the day. We visited the Leaning Tower(!) and found an alleyway pizzeria for lunch. I have officially only eaten pizza since I've been here. It's so much better than the greasy, cheese and sauce overloaded bread they try to pass as pizza in the States. And it's the cheapest, most filling thing that I've found to order (even with four or five different toppings).

The Duomo, a famous cathedral
in Florence

From lunch, we headed back to the Pisa airport and caught a bus to Florence. I fell asleep on the bus (a common theme for me in Europe), and we arrived shortly. So here we are! We checked in to our second Italian hostel and went out to wander around Florence. I am very excited to go out and see the city during the day tomorrow. There is a huge open-air tourist market just down the street from our hostel that I hope to strip bare... or at least create a crater sized hole in. À plus!

Strolling Between Countries

Bonjour à tous! Today was a fun, lazy finish to this weekend. It was lazy because I didn't do a lot, and it was fun because what I did do was go to Germany! The weather was beautiful; there was plenty of sun, few clouds, and a subtly cool breeze making it the best day we've had in a while.

The bridge in the Jardin
des Deux Rives.

This afternoon my roommate and I biked to the Jardin des Deux Rives which is seated along the Rhin river that separates France and Germany. We locked up our bikes in France and walked across the bridge, switching countries. It was as simple as that. No one was checking passports or anything.
It was a pretty abrupt change when we got to Germany. We went from hearing French, to German. Even the surrounding houses looked very different. We found a patch of grass in the sun and sat for an hour or so, doing homework, knitting, or enjoying the rays. Hunger overtook us and we decided to walk around look for a restaurant that was open. As we searched, we realized that we were in Germany. People speak German in Germany, not French. Or even English for that matter! Uh oh. I don't know about you, but I don't even know how to say "I can't speak German" in German. We've been use to finding our limits with French and being able to ask (in French) if someone could speak English, but looking for a French speaker seemed a little counterintuitive.

A German street.

Luckily, we found a sandwich shop that was open which had a sigh out front reading "ici, on parle francais" (here we speak French). We could not have been more excited to know that someone could speak the language we've been struggling with everyday. Our food was yummy, and not too different from the sandwiches we've often had for lunch, and we made our way back into France and on our way home. It was funny heading back. The way to the park seemed mostly uphill so we were excited to have an easier way home. Sadly, going down slight declines into the wind isn't as gratifying as one would expect. But we made it home only slightly winded and were able to mirror our lazy mornings.
T'was a good 10.10.10! À plus!

Finding my Place

I cannot get over how wonderful this city is. Who ever said Paris is the "city of love" never lived in Strasbourg; it's small, but the university and history give it so much diversity, you never get bored.
Yesterday was nice because it was Friday, giving me only three hours of class in the morning and the entire afternoon to enjoy. I went out to lunch at a Mediterranean place with a couple friends and we ended up talking for a couple hours about science and history and their connections through the natural human tendency to organize. This led into a conversation about religion and we lost track of ourselves. Friday night was a fun evening out on the town with fun people.

My attempt to show off the flowers
on the webcam in my dark room.

Today was fantastic! I slept in, as should be done on weekends, and went to my favorite knit shop for my ICRP in the afternoon. When I go on Saturdays, I attend a class that changes its theme every week; this week's theme was crochet. So, I learned how to make crocheted flowers that are going to be connected and filled in with other yarn. It was so much fun! There were four other women learning at the shop with me. We were seated around a table in the back of the shop and the teacher walked around answering any questions we had.
As we were working and chatting (some more than others), I realized from my history of spending time in knit shops, that there are the same types of people required in a group to make it fun. They could be looked at kind of like the "stock characters" found in written literature or in plays. My incomplete list of knitting characters is as follows:

• The Knowledgeable One: This person knows a lot about practically any given topic, especially the one at hand, and offers help to others. She can be the teacher, but not necessarily, and shares her wisdom openly. Her facts are often diluted by interesting stories about how she attained her information.
• The Learner: This person asks the most questions and is often a step or two behind the group. Usually sitting next to the Knowledgeable One, she helps keep the pace balanced by slowing her down by asking for help. She is not necessarily slow though, just in need of as much info as possible on each step before moving on.
• The Quiet Wit: This is the character who sits in the corner, observing the group and silently measuring the dynamics. She keeps to herself, listening to and following instructions easily. But at just the right moment, she can say a perfectly calculated comment that sends the entire group into fits of laughter, lightening the mood for those having technical (or lingual) difficulties.

  

  The Strasbourg Cathedral
  in autumn.

By the end of the class, I was very comfortable with crocheting and listening to the French terms. I also got really good at reading the pattern and diagrams. If you ever want me to teach you how to crochet, you will have to deal with mostly French terminology, that's what I know. After class, I bought the hook I had been working with and two balls of beautiful yarn!! Some of my friends surprised me by showing up at the shop and we went out and got crêpes. Mine had Alsatian white asparagus with ham and cheese inside. Mmmmmm! As we headed home through town, there were many street performers playing music (guitar, violin, drums) and one large group was a band dressed up in festive clothing with dancers and the lot. Europeans sure know how to have fun. À plus!