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I made it home safely on May 20th. I've not much to say now, besides that my life is going normally, and that my time in France happened in the span of a blink of an eye. I'm going to be working this Summer. I'm looking for a car (as mine stopped working in the middle of the highway yesterday). I'm enjoying my time with my friends and family. I can tell it's going to be a fun Summer. I'm excited to start school again. I'm considering turning my Linguistics minor into a major (double major!).

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read my posts and experience my time abroad with me through this blog. I'm glad I could share. When I see you in person, ask me anything about France besides "How was France?" How can that be answered? France, quite frankly, was everything I needed it to be. Will I go back? Eventually, but I'm not in a rush. After all, I've a newfound patriotism for America and feel I need to dedicate some years to the Motherland.

(Pour la Fin)

From a letter written to Melissa on 23 January:

Really though, life outside of America is refreshing. However much I felt un-American or unpatriotic before, all this time away has made me realize that as much as I felt like I didn't belong in my home country, it's just that - home. I've never felt more American than now, during my time in France.
   But oh, how happy I am here! France is so, so lovely a place to live. These months have felt like a long vacation: every sight saw, every meal tasted, every café occupied, every French word uttered, every faux pas committed, has been appreciated and forever adopted into my soul. I am enormously grateful to have had this opportunity, and I hope for myself and the people I've met here that this isn't the culmination of our luck and good times, but the cusp of a life of fulfillment. I wish it for all of humanity.

What I've Been Doing Lately

Turin, Italie

Turin

Turin

Egyptian Museum - Turin

Cookie baking at Allison's

Farewell Dinner - Year kids/Anna & Marie

Turin

Last hoorah with Stephanie S. (right)

Just Dance 2 at Stephanie's.

Before the translation exam

After francophone lit. exam. We shouldn't be smiling.

Stormy weather outside my window.

Pie baking

Burger dinner (another 'goodbye Grenoble')

Libitom (last hoorahs are expensive)

Did I Ever Tell You About that Time in Nice?

Nope, I surely did not. It's a wonder I haven't - I even had a week of break from classes to update and I didn't. Just goes to show how lazy I can be! Oh well! I'm updating now.

Nougat tasting

We left for our trip to St. Tropez, Nice, and Eze on a Friday. We hit the road pretty early, and our first fun stop was in Montélimar, where we went to a nougat factory and watched a demonstration of how nougat is made. Then, of course, we got samples! We made a quick lunch stop later on down the road and then arrived in St. Tropez. This place is full of wrinkly, bronzed old ladies sporting outrageous outfits, big hair, and bright makeup. And yachts - lot's of yachts with funny names like Funky Town from London.

Carrie, Me, Stephanie N.

Shawn, Allison, and I went with Marie to a little museum and saw lots of lovely pointillism paintings, and then went up to the city's big hill. We made our way up the little steps, and got to the top where there was an old citadel. By this time we had met up with Carrie and Stephanie, too. There was a fee to get in so we just went around it and found our own little piece with a great view of the sea. I picked wild poppies there! It was great!

It was then time to get on the bus to Nice, and once there we parked at the hotel and went our separate ways - which really just means that everyone went to the beach and then out to dinner. It was a beautiful night!

Saturday morning we had breakfast and then went out to see the Matisse museum. Now, I appreciated the opportunity to go there - I've just never been the biggest Matisse fan. I enjoy the colors he uses but other than that... Ok, here's the deal - if it looks like art I could have done when I was four, I don't particularly like it. There's an element of talent missing. So now you know how I feel about Matisse and Mrs. Guerry is probably going to give me a proper lesson when I get back.

We then went to the famous flower market that's open year-round and browsed all the goods and foods, and (of course) flowers. We then went to the beach again, where Carrie got in and splashed around a bit. Seemed a bit cold though, so I stayed on the beach and collected some rocks. We met up for a tour of Old Nice (where Shawn and I made a game out of touching old things we weren't supposed to. We've been here long enough. We can allow ourselves a breach of conduct here and there.) which was very interesting. We were allowed free-time afterward so Allison and I went on a hunt for ice cream (I got lavender flavor as Carrie and I had been hunting for it all year - you might recall) and a table cloth. Both successful endeavors! Oh, we bought some olive oil too (I got some regular extra virgin, and... lavender!), because Marie said that it was absolutely the best.

Beach Party

We went back to the hotel to rest in the lobby for a while and watch Glee. Not at all my favorite show, but we didn't see the remote control until well into two episodes. You're tricky, Nice. I got a kebab in town and ate it in Shawn's room while we chatted with Carrie. We then went to the beach for what turned out to be a party with most of the API kids. We had a rock throwing contest to see how far into the water we could throw them. Everyone had a sore arm the following day.

Eating by the church.

Sunday we had breakfast and tried to head off to Eze but got blindsided by a marathon in town and had to stay put in the lobby for a bit. Once in Eze, though, we went to the Ragonard perfumery where we got a little lesson and then bought things in the gift shop. I'd been wanting to get some soap in town but Marie said that the best ones were made at Ragonard. So, I bought three there: honey, lavender, and honeysuckle. Shawn and I (Anna came too but left us to eat) climbed up the hill afterward, to see the old streets and buildings and tacky tourist shops, and stopped near the church to eat our lunch. We saw the lower part of a cemetery and then climbed some stairs to find another section of it overlooking the sea. It was so beautiful we could do nothing but say all the combinations of profanities we could come up with. Such are the lives of young adults.

By then it was time to go, so we headed down and eventually got on the bus for our long ride to Grenoble.

Brussels & Brugge, Belgium

Fries, and beer, and waffles, and chocolate, oh my!

Unfortunately I didn't write anything down during my trip to Belgium two weekends ago, but I'll try to adequately inform everyone on just how spectacular this place is.

Tastes like apples!

I went there with 7 of my friends - which makes mostly all of API Grenoble's year students - plus our friend Stephanie's boyfriend from the Netherlands, Alex, who joined us later. We did this thing called couch surfing, which allows travelers to stay with residents of a city for free. As a large group we stayed with a nice guy named Mathijas, and then later we split into two smaller groups, and my group stayed with an amazingly nice, generous, intelligent guy about our age named Lennert, while the other group stayed with this pretentious, arrogant, Frenchman named Dimitri.

During our time in Brussels we ate the fries, waffles, and chocolate that are so raved about, and drank the beer that is usually exalted. Yes, Aunt Cathy, I tried the cherry beer! It was good, but I have a notion that you liked it better than I! We pretty much survived on these foods the whole trip, or very nearly. I could do without eating fries for a while.

Also, Brussels, as a bilingual city, is a very interesting concept. People speak French and Dutch, and a lot speak English as well. Lennert told me that outside of Brussels, in the predominantly Dutch speaking areas of Belgium, French isn't second, but third following English! Dutch is just between German and English when looking at linguistic lineage. Belgians are very nice, too. Much less hostile (read - more welcoming) than the French. Though, surely, the French are welcoming too (just watch out for those Parisians)!

We drank beers in a park, and one day went and visited the Atomium which was good to see, but we just goofed around. Sometimes while in Europe, you actually forget that people take vacations here - living out dreams. We actually live here, and the idea is just bizarre. One night, while in our separate groups, we took ourselves (couch surfing host included) to the other group's place, as their host was having a party. We got there at 11, and the party was dead - not to mention that Dimitri was rude to Shawn when she asked where our friends were. Oh well, we had fun sitting in our corner making fun of his apartment.

One day we took a train to Brugge, which is said to be the Venice of Northern Europe. It's full of canals and cute houses. That's another thing - I really did love the architecture in Belgium (from what I saw). Lots of brickwork that reminded me of what I imagine America's big colonial cities to have. Once we got of the train we bought things for a picnic, and after a stop for fries, we walked a ways and found a nice grassy patch to sit on. Then, after walking around a bit, we found an open air market.

This isn't even everyone! Atomium.

Still not everyone. Big group, one room.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip and a very lovely city. I would definitely go back, and I even read that 23% of Brussels' population is foreign, so you never know. I could stay!

Grottes de Choranche

In mid-March we went to see the caves of Choranche. Everything was lovely! Though, I don't have any pictures of the actual insides, but let me assure you that there were stalagmites and stalactites aplenty! Here's one from Wikipedia: click!

Pictures from Spain

Reading by the fire in the farmhouse.

Orange picking.

My room in the farmhouse.

Part of the million buildings of Al Alhambra.

On our hike.

Hike continued.

Twenty candles!

View from the farmhouse.