The end of the most amazing 4 months of my life...

I don’t think it really hit me that this semester was actually ending until last night and this morning. After this week, people that I have seen every day for the past four months I might never see again… or at least not for a long time. IES will no longer be apart of my daily routine, and well, I will no longer experience the amazing French culture on a daily basis.  Last night, as a going away party, IES took us all on a boat cruise for dinner. Everyone was dressed up, camera flashes were a consistent part of the evening and it was an incredible night with the people that we have all come to know and love so much. But I think that is also when it hit us that we are really leaving.

The night before I left to come to France 4 months ago I sat in my living room at home and cried. I was so worried that I wasn’t ready for this experience, that I couldn’t be away from home for 4 months, scared of the French culture and what would happen. At that time, May seemed so far away. I remember thinking to myself- there is snow on the ground outside and I won’t be coming home again until it is summer. That is such a long time.

Oh how I wish I could take those words back. Now that night seems like just yesterday and this semester seems like a short dream. I can’t believe that I have lived in French for 4 months, finished classes taken completely in French (and didn’t to too bad in them!), and met some of the most amazing people, not only from all over the United States, but from all over the world. They say studying abroad changes your life? Well- it’s more than that. All semester we have made a joke about the IES abroad slogan. The slogan is “your world- redefined” and they ask all of the students to come up with something that has been “redefined” while they have been in France. All semester we have been making fun of it and no one has taken it seriously. Well, now I know what my slogan would be. "Life- redefined." I literally couldn’t imagined my life without this semester. I grew up, matured and handled things that I never would have been able to in the past. And who could have ever guessed that I can carry on a conversation completely in French?

No matter what our grades are (hopefully not bad) or what we wish we could have done while here, the experience was incredible and the memories will last a lifetime.  

Thank you to everyone who has done so much for me to allow me to come on this trip. Thanks for the prayers, the cards, the money, the packages, and most of all, for believing in me. While I will miss France so much, I am ready to get back to the good 'ole U.S.A.  

This morning, as I started to cry because of all the things I am going to miss I remembered a little quote from Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." 

Paris!

Since I'm not sure when I am going to have time to post again because of all the work I have coming up, I am going to go ahead and write about our trip to Paris. Gina came back to Nantes after leaving Nice but Erin and I headed to Paris for the weekend. We had an eventful trip getting there.

When we boarded our train, a boy that looked to be about our age got on beside us. He asked me for a piece of paper and started making a million phone calls. I was able to understand most of his conversation- he had just gotten through with an interview and was heading to St. Rafael for the weekend. On one phone call he switched from French to Italian, which Erin can understand a little bit of. She told me that he was talking about us and how we had told him that we were studying in Nantes and that I gave him a piece of paper. After about an hour of the ride we reached his stop. As he got off he handed the piece of paper to Erin. It was written in very awkward English and said, "girl, I think you are very beautiful and nice. Above all you are very pretty. I want to stay contact with you. Here is my number phone." I think we laughed about that for the rest of the ride.

About halfway through the ride there was a technical problem with our train. The trip was supposed to be 6 hours long but it ended up being 7 hours and we got to Paris at 11 PM. We took the metro and when we got to our stop we got lost. We had all of our luggage and were miserable from the long train ride so we finally flagged down a taxi. Well the taxi got lost and couldn't find the hostel which ended up being in a pretty sketchy part of town. Well we finally made it at about 12:30 AM and were exhausted.

Saturday morning we woke up pretty late and went and ate a very French picnic on the Seine. It was so nice! We had baguettes and cheese and turkey and wine. Afterwards, Erin had to go to a ballet that she had tickets for so I just walked around a part of Paris that I had never seen until 5:00 that evening when I had made reservations to take a wine tasting class. One of my future goals in to become a wine connoisseur so this class was very interesting to me! We tasted wines from the different regions of France, learned how to pair wine with food, how to read a wine label and lots of other interesting facts! I was the only one there by myself but it didn't matter because everyone was so nice! I loved it. Afterwards I met back up with Erin and we ate crepes before heading back to the hotel.

The set up of my wine class

Very sunburnt from Nice, but enjoying the wine class!

Sunday morning we had planned to go visit the Catacombs in Paris but May 1st is a holiday in France called festival de Muguet (which is a type of flower). Once we got to the Catacombs we realized that they were closed so we ventured into the nearby Luxembourg Gardens until we had to leave for our train back to Nantes. Unfortunately we didn't judge our time very well and thought we were going to miss our train. We ran all of Paris and in the metro and throughout the train station to make it on time. Well, sweaty and exhausted we finally did. 

And now I am back in Nantes preparing for my final couple of weeks here! I cannot believe that it has gone by so fast. But I will be back in America on May 18th and can't wait to see everyone!! Pray for me during these last couple of weeks and for a safe flight home! 

Nice!

Sorry I wasn't able to get this post up yesterday... things are crazy around here with exams coming up! But now to tell you about our trip to Nice...

Early Sunday morning, Erin, Gina and I left Lyon to head to Nice on the southern coast of France. I had been to Nice once before in high school and was so excited to go back! When we first got there, we dropped everything off at our hotel and headed to the beach. The beaches there don't have sand- it is all pebble- which isn't too bad for the first little bit but after a while it starts to get uncomfortable. But the Mediterranean was beautiful! The weather was nice so we ended up just sitting on the beach the whole day. That evening we ate at a delicious pasta/pizza place and headed in to get rested up to spend the next day on the beach!

On the beach!

The Beautiful Mediterranean Sea

Tuesday morning, Erin and I woke up to walk to the top of the Chateau in Nice so that we could look out over the water and the city. We walked through Vieux Nice (the old town) which was really cool and French looking with small streets and colorful buildings. After that, we met up with some of our other friends who happened to be in Nice for spring break to lay out on the beach all day once again. The weather was so nice!! That night we ate a cheap, quick dinner so that we could prepare for our journey down the coast to Monaco and Eze village on Wednesday. 

Vieux Nice

Standing in Vieux Nice

The city of Nice from the top of the Chateau!

Wednesday morning, we decided to head to Monaco and Eze Village for the day. In Monaco we saw the Monte Carlo Casino and the prince's castle. The city is beautiful! unfortunately we didn't have much time there but the city is small and we still got to see a good bit of it! After Monaco we caught our bus to Eze Village for the afternoon. This is a very small village between Nice and Monaco. We love it here because the old Chateau had been turned into small little streets with shops everywhere. After walking through the Chateau we toured the Fragonard perfumery (very famous in France) and we each bought a Perfume at the end. After the perfumery it started raining so we sat down for tea and tiramasu until our bus came to take us back to Nice! That night we met up with our other IES friends again for a delicious meal because it was our friend's birthday! We had a great time together and really enjoyed the meal! 

The Monte Carlo Casino 

In Monaco!

One of the guards to the Prince's palace

Eze Village- so cute!

Thursday was our last full day in Nice! We went to the beach that morning but then it got a little chilly so we left and found this adorable little olive oil shop that we had read about because olive oil is very popular in the south of France. This really old French man wearing suspenders owned it and when we walked in he asked us if we wanted to taste some olive oil. Of course we said yes so he gave up 3 different olive oils and bread to try and they were all delicious but so different! My friend Erin and I ended up each buying a bottle of our favorite. I didn't do much that afternoon but that night we went to a restaurant that specializes in Nice foods. I got a steak type thing which was delicious and Erin and Gina got beef stew cooked in red wine sauce which was delicious and I was incredibly jealous of. After dinner we went back to the hotel to pack up.

Friday morning we checked out of our hotel and went to the beach before our train left at 4:30. And thats when we headed to Paris for the last leg of our spring break!

Vacances de Pacques et Autres Choses

I just got back from Spring Break and it was amazing! Me and 2 other girls decided that we just wanted to travel around France for the week so we went to Lyon, Nice, and Paris. Friday morning, we left Nantes at 9:05 AM to head to Lyon. The city was beautiful! There are 2 rivers in this area (The Rhone and The Saone) and so many pretty cathedrals!

In Front of the Rhone River

The first day, we hike up to the top of a huge hill to see some old Roman amphitheaters and a basilica. It was exhausting but we made it! The view was well worth the hike, you could see the entire city.

Cathedral from the bottom of the city

Lyon is a very large silk producer so Saturday we went to a silk workshop. I bought the most beautiful silk scarf! 

The rest of Saturday we just kind of wondered around the city. In Vieux Lyon there are these really cool covered passageways called traboules so we wondered in and out of those for a bit. For dinner that night we decided that we wanted to eat in Vieux Lyon because it is so famous for it cuisine. What we didn't realize was that the famous cuisine consisted on blood sausage, horse intestines and cows head, so we decided on a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant where I had the best duck with fresh pineapple. 

On Easter Sunday morning, we decided to go to Easter Mass at a beautiful cathedral in Lyon called St. Georges. The Mass was very traditional and I really enjoyed it. And I could actually understand the parts that weren't in Latin! After mass we sat down and had a coffee and tea and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon outside. 

Church where we attended Easter Mass

Monday morning, out train left for Nice so we could go to the beach!! But because my spring break was so long and because I really need to start studying for my finals next week (ahh!) I am going to split spring break into 3 blog posts. I will try and write about Nice tomorrow! A bientot!