Jeremy came to visit from March 12-20th and it was very nice to see him. The only bad thing was that I still had class during the day, so he was stuck in a strange city all by himself at times. My host mom and I picked him up at the airport (where his flight was an hour late...) on Thursday and I got him all settled into his little hotel/apartment thing. It was a pretty cute little hotel with a little kitchen and balcony. That night we went to Le Wok, a fantastic Chinese restaurant in Montpellier and ate with my friends before heading to Vert Anglais for quiz night. I think Jer was a little tired from all the traveling so we didn't stay out too late his first night. We spent quite a bit of time with my host family... my host mom invited us over for every meal, and we decided that eating for free was better than risking a strange meal at a restaurant. We went to a rugby match with my host dad, Jeremy got to see the Australian bar where I go every Tuesday night, and we also went to the local aquarium. The weather was beautiful the entire time he was here, he really lucked out... we even biked to the beach and got a decent tan. I'd say the biggest event was making cheeseburgers for my host family. I promised my host brothers that when Jeremy came we'd make them cheeseburgers and they didn't forget it. I think they were actually counting down the days until we made them. It was a hit, my host mom bought every condiment ever created, and everyone was pleased, I think. It was a little weird because my host dad and brothers don't really like their meat cooked, so we ended up making a few mostly raw hamburgers for them and then cooked hamburgers for us. All in all, it was so nice to have him visiting, and it was harder to say goodbye when he left Friday morning than it was when I left Minnesota in January.
I'm half way done with my stay here and I know that the time is really going to fly now. I've booked my flight to Athens, Greece for my spring break trip, and I'm going to buy some train tickets to Barcalona soon. It's strange that I can see the end of the trip now, and I'm not looking forward to leaving. Of course I'm looking forward to seeing everyone back home, but I'm going to be a wreck trying to leave my host family. They're really great.
I went to Paris two weekends ago with three other girls and it was a ton of fun. We only had two and a half days to see all of Paris, so we had quite the schedule.
Friday we arrived in the afternoon, checked into the hostel, and mapped out our day. We took the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and paid to climb to the top. It was a great view of the Champs Elysées and the crazy traffic around the Arc. I had yet to see the Tour Eiffel, so when I got to the top of the Arc and turned the corner I was so excited to have a full view of it. We took a lot of pictures and then we were all itching to get to the Tour Eiffel. We walked from the Arc to the Tour Eiffel and it was really cool to get closer and closer to it and watch it get bigger and bigger. They were doing construction on the very top of it, and the lines were crazy long, so we decided not to go up it, but we took quite a few photos before heading out. We headed back to the hostel to change and then made our way over to the Louvre because it's free for students on Friday nights. We saw all of the famous sculptures and of course, the Mona Lisa, and we spent nearly two hours in the museum until we were just too hungry. We tried to go to a restaurant that my friend had recommended, but the wait was over an hour and we were starving. We walked up the street and had some of the most delicious hamburgers ever at a French restaurant. It almost felt like we were back home with big juicy cheeseburgers. We got home around midnight and went to bed almost immediately.
Saturday we visited the national opera house which was stunning in the sunlight. The inside was pretty incredible too. I'm jealous that these older countries have such amazing buildings. Then we headed over to Sacré-Cœur and we fell in love with the Montmatre area. There were tons of little shops and narrow streets and we wandered around for quite awhile buying souvenirs and gifts. Sacré-Cœur itself was pretty impressive, and the view from the steps was really great.
We headed over to Notre Dame which was also neat, unfortunately my camera had died by this point, I'll have to steal some pictures from my friends.
Sunday we went to Starbucks and I had a chai tea with soy milk, and it was quite possibly the best thing ever. I forgot how much I love chai tea, especially with soy milk. It was actually just really nice to sit in very comfy chairs sipping on warm drinks and relaxing a little. Our train left that afternoon to take us back to Montpellier, and I was happy to get home to my own bed again. It's kind of weird that I now associate my host families apartment with my home now, and I love coming "home" to my room, my things, my "family."
La Tour Eiffel
Louvre
Part of the outside of the Opera House
Oh yeah, we went to the Moulin Rouge too... Turns out the streets surrounding it are full of sex shops and strip clubs... it was an interesting walk.
Like there would be anything else in the streets surrounding the Moulin Rouge?
ReplyDeleteI'm impressed with your photo skills. I like the Louvre one a lot. And it seems as if you're having the time of your life there, and that's awesome!
ReplyDelete