Time flies when you're having fun...

I feel like Greece was forever ago, and I can't believe I'll be home in less than 20 days now. I was back at school this past week and it was weird having a schedule again. All of spring break was so spur of the moment and unplanned, so having a specific place that I needed to be at a specific time was a little weird.

Oh, I promised I'd update about our hospital adventures...
Kate, one of the girls I went to Greece with, got really sick. She was tired and had a cold in Greece but we didn't think anything of it. She said she felt a little nauseous but we figured it was sea sickness. It wasn't until we got to Athens on our way home that we got a little worried: The whites of her eyes had turned yellow, and she was throwing up. When our plane (finally) landed in Marseille, Kate pointed out that her ankles were completely swollen, and we had noticed on the plane that she had bruises all over her body. We had a hotel for Saturday night in Marseille and then an early morning train to Montpellier, but instead of going to the hotel we decided to take her to the hospital. Long (tiring and stressful) story short, Kate ended up having to stay in the hospital in Marseille until this past Friday because she is so sick. She has Lupus and another auto-immune disease, and her kidney's are hardly functioning. She got a plane back to Pennsylvania on Friday, and I'm glad that she's back in the states where her doctors speak English and where she has lots of friends and family. SO, that experience was definitely not in the plans for spring break, but it sure was an adventure.

Since then I've just been going to school, having picnics by the river, drinking wine, and enjoying my last few weeks in France. The weather has been beautiful, and I even got a little sun burn from an afternoon at the river.

On Thursday night Sabine (host mom), Jules, and Léon came to The Wok (delicious Chinese food) with my friends and I. It was a really fun night, all of my friends fell in love with Léon right away, obviously, because he is the cutest ever. My mom also bought us some wine and it was just a very relaxing and nice dinner. After we were all done, we headed to an ice cream shop (recommended by Léon) and my mom bought all of us ice cream. She's the nicest lady ever. The Nutella ice cream was delicious, and I'll have to make my way back there again before I leave.

The next morning my mom was talking about taking me to the airport for my flight, and I got really sad. Especially after such a good night with the host fam (minus dad) the night before, thinking and talking about leaving made me feel really sad. I called my real mom and talked to her about it for awhile, and it made me feel a little better, but I just know that when May 15th rolls around I'm going to be a wreck trying to leave this amazing host family.

They took me to the last rugby game of the season yesterday and I just feel like everything I'm doing now is for the last time before I leave. "Make sure I do this before I leave, go here, see this person..."

I guess I'm just not a fan of the count down.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm definitely ready to be back in Minnesota with all of my friends and family... and most importantly, Sunny :)

I have a list of food I want when I get back to Minnesota:
-puffy pancakes (that my mom makes)
-chocolate silk soy milk
-tacos
-taco bell
-Burrito Loco! (or Chipotle I guess)
-boneless buffalo wings
-bread sticks from olive garden
-OSF
-chai tea
-peanut butter
-cam rahn bay/curry/cream cheese puffs/chinese in general
-shells and cheese
-Jamba Juice
-Subway
-eggs Benedict
-puppy chow
-baked potato

So feel free to greet me with any of those the first time you see me :)

See you all in 19 days!
-Kelli

19 days until I'm reunited with the love of my life:

Greece: Spring Break '09

Phew, so much has happened in the past few weeks!

I sailed the Ionian Sea and the Greek islands with some of the most amazing people in the world last week. The trip could not have been more perfect, and I think I'll always wish I were back on that silly boat.

Jess, Bridget, Kate, and I started our day of travel on Thursday night on a train to Marseille. After trying to find our hotel, we decided to just give up and spend the night at the airport. This seemed like an ok idea at the time, but really, it turned out to be a bad idea. We tried many different sleeping positions, curled up in chairs, curled up on the cold, hard, tile floor... in a nut shell we didn't really get an sleep Thursday night. We had a flight early Friday morning to Prague where we had a short layover and then a flight to Athens. During our layover in Prague we ate at a breakfast restaurant in the airport and it was mediocre at best, but a TERRIBLE decision. Our waiter came by and put a bread basket on our table (like most restaurants do) so naturally, we ate it. He also gave us bottled water when we asked for water. Long story short, our breakfast cost us 20E EACH because he charged us for the bread, the water, and he also decided to add his own tip onto our tabs. SO annoying. Oh well, at least we got some food in us. We got our flight from Prague to Athens and of course, Kate's baggage was lost. Our trip was not starting well. We found Huston and Kara, the others that were traveling with us, and ended up just giving the airport our number in hopes they'd locate the bag. We still had a 5 1/2 hour bus ride to the port, and we were all exhausted. We FINALLY arrived at our boat at 2am on Saturday and we were so relieved to be there.

Our boat was super cute, and was named "Moonshine." Bridget and I shared a very small cabin at the front of the boat, Jess and Kate had one next to ours (but they slept in the living room/kitchen every night), Huston and Kara had one of the cabins at the back of the boat, and the other cabin had a sign that said "Skipper" on it. The beds were really quite tiny, and Bridget and I had more of a wedge. It's ok though, it got cold at night and we got good at cuddling haha.

We woke up the next day to a beautiful sunny day in Greece. We took showers at the port and met our Skipper named Dan, but we called him Skippy or Skip for the entire trip. We made our first grocery run and met a fantastic old woman who gave us excellent advice: Swim well. Go Naked.

And then we set sail...

We could really do whatever we wanted because there were not many boats out since it is the very beginning of the season. Skippy recommended places for us to dock and stay the nights and cool islands where we could explore. We sailed around for awhile and then anchored in a little bay area. Seeing as it was our first day, we all decided to jump in the water. It was SO COLD! It was that kind of cold that when you jump in you feel like your lungs have frozen and you can't breathe. However, we decided to man up and after a few minutes it really didn't feel that bad (whether that meant that we had gone numb and just couldn't feel it or it really got warmer, we're not sure).

That night we docked at a place called Nidri. Turns out this would be our port for interesting nights. Bridget made us a wonderful dinner and then we headed out to a place called Bubbles Bar. We met some of Skippy's friends, and they brought us to another place called Byblos. We had an amazing night of dancing, singing, and meeting English sailors. We returned to Nidri for our last night, which I'll get to later...

The next day we sailed around and found some little caves on random islands that were very cool, but it was kind of overcast and cloudy so we decided not to swim at all or explore too much. Skippy heard from his friends that there was a good place to dock about an hour away, so we headed over to the little town called Sivota. There were typical cute Greek houses with blue shutters and we decided to eat a traditional Greek meal. It was pretty delicious, especially the Greek salad with feta. Mmm.

We basically had the same routine everyday: Wake up, have English breakfast tea with too much sugar, eat granola and yogurt and some fruit, head upstairs to the top of the boat, tan, laugh, talk, sail, eat lunch, tan, laugh, dock somewhere, play cards, eat dinner, hang out, play games, talk... laugh... it was just SO great. The group of people I was with was amazing. We learned so much about each other... we just bonded so well.

Our trip ended again at the same port we started at: Nidri. We played some games before heading back out to Bubbles/Byblos. We met the same crew of crazy English sailors and had another crazy night. I got back to the boat at 5am to pack my things since our taxis were arriving at 6am. We had another long day of travel and we were running on empty. 5 1/2 hour bus ride to the bus station in Athens, 1 hour bus ride to the airport in Athens, flight to Prague, flight to Paris, flight to Marseille, one very very long night spent in a hospital (I'll blog about that later), and then a train ride back to Montpellier the next morning.

All in all it was an amazing trip. I couldn't have asked for better company and I'm so excited for our reunion parties that we've already planned.

Now, I have 28 more days in France before I come home. I'm starting to feel ready to get back to the states, even though I know I'm going to miss this place like crazy. 4 months is a long time to be away from the people you love, though.

Hope all is well back home, I hear spring has sprung, so enjoy the beautiful weather.

Love,
Kelli

Trying to sleep in the airport on our first night
Bridget and my very tiny wedge of a bed

Swimming in the Ionian Sea!Some cool cave/cliff things
Our Greek dinner
Everything was beautiful

Found an agate in Greece
Also found some pretty sweet ruins
The water was SO CLEAR... you can barely tell I'm standing in it

Love from MN :)

This week leading up to my Greece trip couldn't have been good. I had two tests Monday, two Wednesday, and one Thursday. I guess it's like mid terms back home. I'm anxious to have two weeks free of school, even though that means I'm two weeks closer to being done here. I had this weird stomach flu this past weekend and just overall wasn't feeling too well, and to top it off today (Wednesday) when I woke up (after only 6 hours of sleep because I stayed up far too late talking to Kirby) it was raining.

However, when I got home today I was greeted by a letter on my desk and a package on my chair. It was the perfect thing to get me through the rest of today and tomorrow until I leave for the sunny islands of Greece.

Jeremy sent me a letter (finally! ;) haha) and it's just always exciting getting snail-mail. It seems much more personal and I just really enjoy it. When someone takes the time to write to me it makes me happy.

To add to that, Stephanie sent me a wonderful, amazing, lovely care package (which also included a letter). Oh, might I add that Alex also helped with the care package, included a homemade bracelet, and wrote a little note, too :)

It included all sorts of delicious goodies, and I'm excited about all of it. My little brother is pretty excited about it too, since it included Double Stuf Oreos and many chocolates. Since I'm leaving for Greece tomorrow night, I decided I can't open the Oreos until I get back otherwise I know they'll be gone by the time I return.

So, I just wanted to post about how happy getting these things made me.

Thanks, guys :)

Jeremy's visit and Paris

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."

I've got sort of a nasty cold now, so I've just been bumming around the apartment lately, hopefully I'll be 100% healthy for my trip to Greece.
Some photos from Paris...
The Arc
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.

Nice!

The weekend of February 20th I went to Nice with a bunch of girls from my program. It was probably the best weekend I've had so far here in France. We were in a hostel (that provided towels!) and that had four bunk beds. There were some girls at another hostel too, so I think all together we were a group of about 14. We left Montpellier on Friday morning and arrived in the afternoon in Nice. It was a pretty long train ride, but I slept most of the way.

Our first stop was the Roman Orthodox Cathedral in Nice. It was kind of just stuck in the middle of the city, we walked up a road and all the sudden out of the trees there was this beautiful cathedral. A few of us paid 3E to go inside and it was totally worth it. The inside was covered in gold and paintings and lots of color. Also, the ceiling was SO high, all the way to the top of one of the globes. It was one of the cooler things I've seen while here.

Our only real plan after that was to experience Carnival on Saturday night, which we'd heard was insane, so we just wandered around for awhile on Friday and ended up finding a Ferris wheel, and the beach! We also found a little mini cotton candy/popcorn/etc. stand that reminded me of the state fair in Minnesota. Lily and I each got a gaufre (waffle) with nutella and whipped cream and it was DELICIOUS. We enjoyed them while riding the ferris wheel and gawking at the sea. We walked down to the beach after (which was a rock beach, maybe not ideal, but still... a beach!) and just enjoyed the ocean breeze for awhile. It was a beautiful day.

We headed back to the hostel to meet up with our friends who took a later train and got ready for dinner. We ended up finding a cute little Italian place and since we were all starving we just went in and ordered. I got a pizza and it was pretty delicious, I think everyone was pretty satisfied with their meal. We were ready to go out and find the night life. We ended up sitting in some bar where there was some live music, but we didn't stay out too late knowing that Saturday night would probably keep us out pretty late.
Saturday a few people woke up early to go to the contemporary art museum, but I stayed back with two of my friends and got lunch near our hostel. We walked around the town for a little and did some shopping, which is always a good idea in France. I think we all found something we liked and then headed to Monoprix to grab some wine and champagne for the night. We met up with the rest of the girls at the hostel and got ready for the night. I made the mistake of wearing my friends shoes without socks, and realized about 8 blocks into the walk that the shoes were just slightly too big, and I was very quickly forming very painful blisters. Not fun. Oh well though.

The parade that night started around 9 pm, so we got there early enough so that we could have prime standing spots. I guess we chose correctly, because we were RIGHT in the front next to all of the chaos. We all bought masks and were ready for some crazy Nice Carnival. I thought I was ready for the parade, but nothing could have prepared me for this. I thought that having gone to the Eveleth street parade on the 4th of July back home would have prepared me for the silly string, confetti, and crazy floats.... however, this parade make Eveleth look like an ant parade. There were thousands of people, the floats were ALL huge, insane, and slightly frightening, and there was more silly string and confetti than I have ever seen in my entire life. No, seriously, SO MUCH SILLY STRING! We were constantly picking it out of each others hair and masks, until we eventually just gave up. The floats were so intricate, and most of them had moving props or people. There were also a lot of people walking in costumes between the floats. It was truly one of the craziest parades of my life, I'm so glad I had the opportunity to experience it.
This guy in particular reminded me a lot of the Eveleth parade. I have a picture of his thong, too.
After the parade we stayed out for awhile, but most of us were pretty exhausted and eventually headed back to the hostel to call it a night.

The next day we woke up and headed to the Musée Matisse. It ended up being a pretty long, and consistently up hill voyage, but it was a beautiful day again, and the view of the city getting smaller as we got closer to the museum was so worth it. We finally got to the top of the very large hill after about an hour, and we found the museum. It was in this very cute old house that overlooked a garden. There were also orange trees outside, and that made me happy in itself, because orange trees only grow in warm weather. The museum was pretty cool, a lot of interesting art and sculptures, but nothing that I would put on a "must see" list. We headed back towards town and made our way to Vieux Nice to eat lunch. The old part of town was adorable, tons of little shops in very narrow streets... exactly what I expected. The entire town is beautiful though, I love the fact that all the houses are the same shade of color with vibrant shutters. Who even uses shutters anymore? I'm not sure, but I love them. We ate some ravioli at a restaurant and then unfortunately had to book it back to the train station to head home.

It was a very successful weekend, and I would recommend that everyone make it to Nice--specifically Carnival, if they're ever in France.

Weekend in Toulouse

Ok, I'm just going to start this off by apologizing about my lack of blogging. I just never find the motivation to sit down and do this.

Two weekends ago I traveled to Toulouse with some girls from my program. We took the high speed train and it ended up taking about 2 1/2 hours to get there. We left on Friday around 11:30 in the morning and returned Saturday night. The trains here are pretty comfortable... the only downside is that sometimes your seats face backward, and for those of us who get motion sickness Dramamine is a must. We left on Friday the 13th and since it was our first trip without any adults, I was nervous that something would inevitably go wrong. However, I was informed in one of my classes that Friday the 13th is a day of luck in France rather than a day of bad luck and poor chance, so I knew it was going to be a good trip. (I saw on the news that the lottery sales had gone WAY up on the 13th because everyone thought that they'd win with the lucky day). When we arrived the sun was shining and we were ready to be tourists. We found our hotel quite quickly and I was pretty pleased with the quality. It was a hotel, not a hostel, so the beds were made and they provided hand soap and towels, which is always nice. The hostess at the hotel was very friendly and she also spoke English. She recommended a restaurant for dinner and also showed us on a map where the night life of Toulouse was.

After checking in, we ventured out in search of some churches/museums. We walked toward the capital and the center of the city and I noticed a few differences about Toulouse and Montpellier: 1. There are a lot of cars in Toulouse. Having to stop at stop lights and wait for traffic to drive was weird (even though I do that on campus all the time in MN) since I hardly ever encounter a car in Montpellier. 2. There was hardly any graffiti in Toulouse. I think that Montpellier is a special city in the amount of graffiti it has, but it was just strange to see blank buildings (and nice at the same time). Some things were similar though: 1. There were homeless people with dogs on the streets begging for money 2. There was a lot of dog poop on the streets 3. There were a lot of little cafés and sandwich shops, of course.

Toulouse is a larger city than Montpellier, and it felt bigger. Toulouse is the 4th largest city in France and is given the name "la ville en rose" which is "the city in pink." There is a phrase in French "la vie en rose" which means basically "life is good" or "life is beautiful." So, the city of Toulouse has kind of adopted that meaning. Toulouse is also called "la ville en rose" because many of the buildings are constructed in pink or red shades of brick. We just so happened to be there on Valentines Day, which I thought was very fitting.

We walked through to the capitol and then headed for our main tourist activity: the Basilique Saint-Sernin which is the largest basilica in Europe and also the largest Romanesque structure in the world. My friend Maddie pointed out that the entire structure was in the shape of a crucifix which was apparently really common in the olden-days. I guess it makes sense, it is the house of God. I had read that there were a series of tiers that gradually decreased in size as they got taller making them appear like a wedding cake, and I thought that was pretty silly until I saw it and then I decided that it was actually really cool. The church was beautiful from the outside, and equally as beautiful from the inside. It was HUGE on the inside, I can't imagine how many people used to fit in there. The altar area was roped off so we couldn't actually walk up to it, but it was really remarkable. We ended up paying 2E to go into the crypt and I'd say it was worth it. There were a lot of really interesting relics and some information on Saints that held places in the crypt. I toured a lot of different churches when I was in London and Scotland Junior year, but I think this might be one of my favorites. Although, the stained glass wasn't as cool as I was hoping.

Here are some photos of the outside, the organ, the alter, and some relics:

We walked around some more searching for more churches, but we didn't find anything as impressive as Saint-Sernin, so we grabbed some chocolat chaud at a café just off the capitol area. It was delicious and a perfect drink to tide us over until dinner. After that, we made our way back to the hotel to change and get ready for a night out.

We ate at a small restaurant that our hostess recommended and it was phenomenal. I order a kebob ladder with all sorts of meat, cheese, fruit, vegetables... it was really good. It also came with a glass of sangria, and you can never go wrong with that. We were at dinner for a good two hours and it was so nice to just sit and chat and tell stories with all the girls. The restaurant had a very relaxed atmosphere and I think everyone had a really great meal. After dinner we headed to an area where there were a few bars and made our way around a few. The first one we went in was quite bizarre, there were small statues of a little boy.. well... I'll put up a picture. So, we headed across the street where we found a bartender who ended up loving Americans and Obama, so he gave us some free shots. We asked him if he could make us some drinks and he said very joyously "YES I CAN!"... all in all it ended up being a really great night.


The next day we just walked around and got lunch before our train took us home around two. We actually went into the capitol building and discovered that it's quite impressive on the inside too. When we got back to Montpellier, we got home, showered, and went right over to our friend Chelsea's apartment. She had us all over for a fondue party for Valentine's Day. It was the perfect way to spend a Valentine's Day when you're not with your boyfriend. We all brought a little something... cheese, wine, chocolate, strawberries, etc. and it was just very relaxing and delicious. It was fun to get a little dressed up too, we all looked very chique, as my host mom would say.


(side note: I just heard the TV show House theme music coming from my living room... turns out my host dad is a fan! It is so hilarious watching American series in French... all the voices being different and stuff. Anyway, now I can watch House with my dad!)

I also got some V-day cards from Jeremy and my parents, as well as a box of chocolates, sweet tarts, and Gopher Hockey cards.

All in all, it was a very successful weekend and a good Valentines Day.

School and The Alps

So I'm just starting the third week of classes, and things are starting to make a little more sense. Everything is in French, which is nice, but sometimes it's hard to understand things. In all the French classes I've ever taken in the US, when we didn't understand a vocab word we could always just ask the prof and s/he would tell us in English. However, in my class here, we have students from all over: China, Japan, Croatia, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and lots of other smaller countries that I don't remember. So, when we don't understand something, our professor can't just respond in English. Although most of the students understand a little bit of English, the classrooms are French only. Because of this though, we're learning to work around the language barriers instead of just relying on other English speakers. Another interesting thing about having so many different people in classes is that it seems like everyone has a very unique opinion on things. We talked about superstitions the other day and I was explaining to people the bad luck of walking under a ladder, opening umbrellas inside, and the #13. Most of the other students thought that the #13 thing was ridiculous, especially when I told them that there is usually not a 13th floor in buildings. One of the Chinese girls said that the #4 is unlucky for them because it's pronounced the same way as the word death. Also, Chinese people apparently wear white to funerals, and black to weddings. Hearing the differences in people's cultures was really interesting for me. It is kind of hard to understand some people's French though, because the accents from the different parts of the world are crazy.

All in all, school is going pretty well. My grammar class is kind of kicking me in the butt, but my professor reassured me today that it will get better and I can't expect myself to be perfect right away.

Both my host brothers are on vacation from school, so the apartment is a little quiet. I couldn't figure out why it felt different until I realized that it was because Léon hadn't been running around the apartment or complaining about having to do homework. Dinner was also a lot different without those two around. Usually they talk and argue, but when it was just me and my parents it got quiet sometimes. My dad really likes making fun of my French, too. They don't understand why I can understand it fine, and I can write it pretty well, but when it comes to speaking I'm not as good. I tried to explain that we didn't speak as much when we learned it in high school, but they didn't really get it. They have faith that I'll keep improving though, so that's good. Also, my host mom said she ate octopus today for lunch... too bad I missed out on that one! Ha. She said that some night she's going to make oysters, snails, shrimp, and other various seafood. I'm not sure how much I'll enjoy that dinner.

So, the French people really enjoy striking. I experienced my first national strike the other day, but I wasn't effected by it that much. The trams ran every half hour instead of every five minutes, and fortunately I caught one right when I needed it. I got to school and the front gate was closed, but there was a small door open where students were handing out fliers about the strike. It's a pretty common thing here, I guess, but I thought it was crazy that students could just not go to class. On my way home, the tram just randomly stopped and the driver said that we had to get off because of the strikes. We all got off and started walking home, which was rather annoying, but then another tram magically showed up. I'm not sure how effective the strikes are here, because they warn people ahead of time, but oh well.

Ok, now onto this past weekend: Ski trip to the Alps!
About 12 of us from the language and culture track went on the trip with about 20 of the integrated students. We loaded the bus and had no idea what to expect because the people in the office really never tell us anything. All we knew is we were going somewhere in the Alps for a few days and we had a hotel and food provided. Six hours later, after driving through rain that turned into big thick snow, we made it to our "hotel." Turns out by hotel they meant hostel. Oh well. I stayed in a very small room with Danielle, Jessica, and Huston. We basically had a long hallway for a room, and a moldy shower that leaked onto the floor. Oh, and they forgot to tell us that we needed to bring our own towels... needless to say, we were pretty surprised when we got to our rooms. We got over it quickly and even though it was midnight, we went for a short walk in the snow outside. There was more snow than I've ever seen in my life, and I feel like that must be a lot after the one Halloween blizzard in Minnesota. We stayed up too late talking, but ended up finally falling asleep around 3:30am since we knew we had to wake up at 8:00 the next day.

One of the most entertaining parts of the trip happened the next morning... after the alarm went off, Jess wanted to come wake me up so she came over and bounced a little on my bed. It was then that we discovered just how classy our hotel was. My mattress was only being held up by a small piece of wood, which broke immediately when Jess sat down. I felt like it was some sort of sign that I was definitely going to break a leg.

Once we got out on the slopes, those of us who are beginners stumbled around on the bunny hill trying to figure out what exactly we were doing there. I went on a field trip in elementary school to Buck Hill, but the Alps are a bit different. I didn't fall at all until we took the chairlift to the Blue/Green slope. I thought I was doing fine until I turned a corner and discovered that I really don't know how to ski. I totally wiped out, skis flew off, poles went flying, and I landed in some sort of a mess on the ground. Miraculously, it didn't hurt at all. I think it's because my host mom gave me a snow suit with extra padding. I did feel pretty awesome on the slopes in the snow suit, especially with the aviators...
Jess has a picture of me in all my glory on the ground after falling, I'll have to get it from her and add it.

After the day was over, we headed back to the hostel for a party. It was basically just weird music and drinks at the bar, but it was fun. We were all pretty tired, I went to bed around midnight to try and get rest for skiing on Sunday.

Despite the fact that I'd hardly ever skied before, Jess somehow convinced me to take the chair lift to the top of the mountain. After having almost died on that blue slope the day before, I had second thoughts, but the thought of the view from the top and Jess' persistence got me to go. It was a pretty long chair lift ride, which was beautiful in itself, and after awhile we finally reached what I thought was the top. Here's a picture from about 1/2 way up on the chair lift:


We got off the chair lift (without falling, thankfully), and then I figured out that we then needed to take a T bar ski lift to the TOP of the mountain. I was petrified that I would fall off the T bar, but eventually made it to the top after a stressful ride. Once I got off, I was completely in awe. The view was really incredible. I think I may have fallen in love with the mountains. The direction that I took this photo is the direction we skied in to start out... yes, it does look like it just drops off into nothing... yes, I did fall about 20 seconds into the run.


It took Jess and I an hour to get down the mountain. We obviously weren't skiing fast, but it was still a very good time. My legs were very sore after we got to the bottom, and I was relieved to take off my skis and walk around. I only fell four times on the way down, and none of them were major wipe outs... just minor bumps. I was pretty proud of myself, since I've hardly ever skied before, but I can honestly say that I really have no desire to ski again anytime soon... I've had my fill for a few years.

We were all pretty exhausted after the day, so the bus ride home was pretty quiet. Most of us slept or read the first stretch. We stopped for dinner, which was provided, and it was tuna sandwiches...... for those of you that don't know, I HATE tuna. Oh well though, I ate half of it, I was hungry. We got back to Montpellier around 930 and I was very happy to get back home to a bed that had a mattress that was thicker than a dictionary and that hopefully won't break upon impact. I also came home to all clean laundry. My mom did all of my laundry while I was gone, which was super sweet of her. She also folded all of my underwear into little squares and bunched all of my socks. Oh, and she also ironed everything because they hang dry everything here and she doesn't like when things are wrinkled. I'm just hoping my host brothers were gone when she was hanging up my very colorful underwear in the living room.

My camera died on the ski trip, but Jess has some really awesome pictures that I'll get from her and post on here later, just fyi.

Phew, long post again. Anyway, hope all is well back home, enjoy your snow and freezing temperatures!! Miss you all!
-Kelli