Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I have to say this is the most uneventful Thanksgiving of my LIFE.  I am at a film festival with my students who are in the "cinema option" for the week.  I have seen some good films but I have gotten to the point where I cannot SIT anymore, but there is absolutely nothing to do in this town.   So far here are all of the movies I have seen on the big screen: 

North by Northwest (I think I'm in love with Cary Grant, definitely missed the boat on that one)

Mission Impossible

Born to Lose (a depressing story about a heroine addicted rock star)

39 Steps

Starship Troopers

Memoirs of an Invisible Man 

THX 1138

Notice they all were made before the year '96?  French people are a little different...

I am in a town called Belfort, which is only famous for a large lion sculpture that was built by Bartholdi (the dude that made the Statue of Liberty, who is actually from the town where I live).  So today I woke up for breakfast, went back to sleep for 2 hours, ate some lunch, saw some movies, ate again, and then ate an entire Belgian chocolate bar in my hotel room.  Very exciting.  I hope that all of you are having a more eventful day than I am!  On a serious note, I have seen some good movies, and I do appreciate the fact that by being here I don't have to work (once again) all week!  I think I just have to be here by law for the school, because I don't seem to spend much time watching the kids :)  Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!  Miss you all.

Here's Bartholdi's Lion.. stunning isn't he?

Les Marchés de Noël

This past weekend was the beginning of the famous Christmas markets in Alsace, particularly Colmar where I live.  On Friday night I went out in Strasbourg with some other assistants.  There isn't much to do in Colmar so we decided to try to go out in Strasbourg,  it is a bigger city with more students.  Saturday we woke up to a big surprise, the first SNOW of the season!!  How appropriate for the Christmas markets!  We woke up around noon, got our lives together and headed home to Colmar to check out the markets.  There are about 4 markets in Colmar, once of which is literally right outside my front door.  The markets just have little stands that sell random items, christmas decorations, food, and most importantly, "vin chaud" or HOT WINE.  I am not a big wine drinker, but this stuff is dangerous!  It is hot wine with spices in it, and it tastes like candy.  When I got home and walked through the pastry shop that I live above, I walked by a huge vat of hot wine.  I casually asked if it was this famous "hot wine" I have been hearing about.  Of course the owners are the nicest people ever, and they proceeded to give me an enormous JUG of delicious hot wine for me and my friend for free.  Love them.  After that, we walked around, ate some sausage and sauerkraut, and just browsed through the markets.  All of the Christmas markets are soo cute, I walk around in disbelief that I actually live in this fairy tale town!  The entire town is lit up and decorated with lights, santa claus and fake snow.  After some vin chaud and a colddd day, I had some of the other assistants over and had my first official "party" here in my new apartment.  My apartment is teeeny so things were pretty cozy, but it was still good times :)   Click on the pictures if you want to see them better! 

My first glimpse of French snow 

Quick postcard shot on the walk to the train
French dogs are even allowed in the trains

Drinking hot wine out of a new coffee mug from my Mom.  Thanks Mom!

The markets 
No day in France would be complete without a STRIKE.  This time the post office is unhappy.
My apartment building above the pastry shop :)
Right around the corner from my apartment.. how do I live here??
hmm tooo much vin chaud, pretty sure my teeth are the color of my jacket at this point
"party" in my huge apartment. 

Daytripping

Since I have a Eurail pass from Matt's friend, I have taken a few day trips along the way.  I don't work Wednesdays or Fridays, so that gives me plenty of time to go places.  The pass is good for all of Europe, as long as you are traveling by train.  The first place I went was Lucerne, Switzerland which is only a few hours away.  The only thing I really wanted to see there was the famous bridge, which you can see pics of below.  I also went to a place called "glaciergarten" which describes the changing of the glaciers in the Alps over the years.  The only part that really entertained me about the place is that there was a "labyrinth of mirrors" that I spent about an hour in.  It was the most confusing experience of my life.  You think that you are walking into another hallway and you literally walk right into a mirror.  There were little kids in there too, and it was so funny!  They would see their Mom, run to her and end up running right into a mirror.  I'd like to think I was laughing with them, but in reality, they actually were not laughing, they started crying after a few times!  Poor little guys. 

The Bridge. 
Paintings inside the Bridge 
The labyrinth

The last trip I took was to Geneva, Switzerland this past Wednesday.  It was not at all what I expected, but it was really pretty!  I love Switzerland, but it is soo expensive, I don't think I could spend more than a few days there at a time.  It was funny taking the train there, because half of Switzerland speaks German, and the other half speaks French (another part speaks Italian but I haven't been there yet).  So in France, the train announcements were in French, then they changed to German, and back to French.  It's so crazy how people here can speak so many languages.. part of me hates them for it!

  

Anyways, in Geneva, I walked around the city and the port, bought some delicious swiss chocolate, climbed the church tower and took a boat ride on Lake Geneva.  I made a nice friend, who was a 70 year old French lady from Nice.  It would be great if I could make friends my own age every once in a while, but what can I say, old people love me!  The boat was more like a yacht, and there was a 10 person minimum to go out on the lake.  There were only 4 of us, so this was a big problem.  We waited an hour, and me and this French lady hassled the captain so much that he finally took us out!  We drove around to the different residences around Geneva, and had a beautiful view of the Alps.  

My Eurail pass is finished tomorrow, so I tried to take a day trip to Paris today.  Unfortunately there were no more seats available to come back to Colmar tonight, so I had to forget about it.  I'm going to be lost without that pass!  If anyone else can hook me up with a Eurail pass for the rest of my stay, that would be great, thanks. 

The Port of Geneva

The famous "clock of flowers" sans flowers.  traveling in the winter has it's setbacks..
View from the cathedral tower 
Maggie and Morgan's Swiss cousin
Some contemporary art in the streets 

Belgium

This past weekend was the last full weekend that I could use my Eurail pass, so I was looking for a place to go.  I really wanted to go to Belgium, but it was going to be a huge pain to get there, changing trains over 3 times.  On Thursday night I was back with the host family doing my laundry (a true replacement daughter) and they mentioned that actually, there is a direct train from Colmar that goes to Brussels everyday!  So, naturally, I got up the next day and headed for Belgium on my first solo trip of my stay.  The train ride there was about 6 hours but it was a pretty ride.  

The first night I got there, walked around, ate an amazing Belgian waffle, and visited some shops.  The next day I went to a city called Bruges (apparently there is a movie called "In Bruges" if anyone has ever heard of it).  I went with someone I met at the hostel who was also traveling alone.  We walked around the city, climbed 366 steps to the top of the Belfry, drank some white belgian beers and headed back to Brussels.  The night before I was bummed out because all of the bars looked SO FUN but I didn't want to go alone.  If Belgian men are anything like creepy French guys, there's no way I am stepping foot into a bar alone.  Well back at the hostel, I met a girl from Pittsburgh that wanted to go out.  So we headed for a bar called "Delirium" which is in the Guinness book of world records for having almost 3000 different kinds of beer.  Wow, seriously ANOTHER dream come true.  I wish I had time to try them all!  We got to talking and figured out that we both have summer houses up in Canada on Georgian Bay, and she has been going up there her whole life too.  I don't even meet people in Cleveland who know where Georgian Bay is, so it's pretty funny that I met a girl in Belgium who knew exactly what I was talking about!  After the Delirium bar we went to the Absinthe bar to try out a shot of Absinthe.  They don't make absinthe with hallucinogens anymore, so don't worry. It's just like any other liquor now, not like when it made Van Gogh chop his ear off and send it to his girlfriend.   

Sunday was miserable and rainy, but I managed to walk around for a little bit, and went to see the Atomium, which is like the "eiffel tour" of Brussels.  I thought it was kind of boring, but it made for a nice picture!  I also had some good finds at a huge flea market that I came across, I have never seen so much JUNK in my life, but it was fun to look at. 

Overall I have learned that when you're staying at hostels, you are never traveling alone.  I had to sleep in a dorm room with 3 snoring boys, but that's what ear plugs are for.  

"Grand Place" in Brussels at night

The famous peeing boy statue. Small and not impressive, but makes a nice postcard
Bruges 



Peeing dog made of Belgian chocolate.  
The chocolate museum, showing how truffles are made
Delirium 
All the different kinds of Absinthe 
Lighting the sugar on fire for the absinthe shots 
Flea Market 
Atomium 

Freiburg

So once again, French people love vacations.  Last Tuesday and Wednesday we had 2 days off for an unknown holiday.  Something having to do with a war?  I didn't really care to find out.  All that matters is that I have more vacation!  My friend's boyfriend lives in Freiburg, which is right over the border in Germany about an hour away from Colmar.  It's a big college town basically, and we went for the shopping.  Apparently French people realize that everything is cheaper in Germany too, because I heard more French than German the whole time we were there.  Once again another dream of mine came true, and that is that I finally got to go to an IKEA! I went in intending to only buy a few "necessary items," and obvi ended up buying way more than that, forgetting that I had to carry all this crap back to France with me.  I think I also forgot that in some point in time, I am moving back to the United States and I have NO clue how I will be getting these things back.  Carrying my bag back from the train station I thought I was going to die.  However, my apartment was missing a few necessary items, and now it feels much more like home :)  Here are some pictures of the actual sightseeing we did in between all of the shopping! 

Looks just like an ordinary statue.. but look closer at the one on the left. 

MONKEY MOUNTAIN

In Alsace, about an half hour drive from Colmar, there is a place called "La Montagne des Singes" or Monkey Mountain.  I am kind of obsessed with monkeys, so this place is literally a dream come true.  My friend who is in the army and stationed in Germany came to visit over the weekend.  Since he shares a similar love for monkeys, it seemed necessary to get a group together to head up to the mountain over the weekend.  There are over 300 monkeys roaming around in a huge park, and you are free to feed them popcorn.  It is so funny watching these little guys!   I think it was mating season, because these were some frisky little monkeys.  We were walking down the path and 2 brawling monkeys fell on the ground out of a tree, practically landing on us.  Then one of them proceeded to paw at my friends arm.  So entertaining.  Here are some pics of a real dream come true.. 

Hanging out with Mom. 

Twins? 

Salzburg, Austria

Last stop of the trip was Salzburg.  I have heard so much about this place from my family and I am soo glad that I finally got to go!  Unfortunately Kate had to go back to work in the States so she flew back on Sunday from Prague.  Even though she got sick during the trip she was a real trooper and was a great travel buddy :)  On Sunday I got on a train in the morning, and no joke, I am pretty sure Kate got back to the States before I even made it to Munich.  Those Czech's need to work on their trains.  It was a very pretty train ride, though, and traveling on trains is MUCH better than flying anyways.  So my friend Kara (the person I was meeting in Salzburg) and I ran into each other at the Munich train station on the way.  We of course were overly concerned about eating and missed our train to Salzburg.  Whoops!  Luckily there is always another train within the hour, so we got on the next one and were on our way.  

Once we got there,  we found our hostel which was called the YOHO hostel.  Once again, best hostel ever!  For 17 euros a night it was really clean, nice and even had an inexpensive hotel bar with austrian food and HEFEWEIZEN beer, which is my favorite kind of beer ever.   They even had discount prices on the famous Sound of Music tour which took us to all the places where the movie was filmed in and around Salzburg.  

The first day, we did some sightseeing around town.  I finally saw this McDonalds that I have been hearing about for years.  It is just your standard McDonald's, but the sign is the fanciest McD's sign you'll ever see.  My grandpa refers to it as the "club" so I went there in his honor.  We also walked up the mountain and got a great view of the town, as well as the alps on the other side.  Mozart was born and grew up in Salzburg, so we saw his house and apartment too.  Once again, we were SO lucky with our weather.  Nothing but sunshine the whole time.  One thing is for sure, this town seems to have a lot of money!  It is built right on salt mines so I am guessing that had something to do with it at one point in time.  

The next day, we decided that since we were in Salzburg, we had to go on the Sound of Music tour.  Now I'm going to be honest, I'm not even sure if I've ever even seen the movie.  But it was still cool to see everywhere, and they took us to the lake district out of the city too.  I could have gone without the 4hour sing-a-long that basically was our tour guide belting out every word and note of every song in the movie the entire time that we were in the car.  I tried including a video of that but it wasn't working, so hopefully that will be coming soon.  I also have to say that one of the most exciting points of the day was when we saw signs for the show "The Amazing Race."  It was being filmed at the palace where the famous Sound of Music gazebo now is.  I took a picture of one of the signs that I saw, but there also were about 15 matching white Mercedes out front that were supposed to belong to the people in the amazing race. After I took a picture, an angry man came and put a garbage bag over the sign.  Another oops!  If anyone watches that show, let me know when this episode is on! 

The last night we went to the Augustiner Brewery and had our last fix of Austrian weinerschnitzels and beer.  I had such a great vacation and I feel so lucky to be able to do all of this and get PAID in the mean time :)  I do have to say though, this was the most exhausting "vacation" I have ever had!  

UNICORNS in the Mirabell Garten.  

This might look familiar to some of you Sound of Music fans
I love a good pegasus.
This was an entire garden of DWARF statues.  basically a dream come true. 
The fancy McD's sign
Getreidegasse-famous for the rod iron signs
Inside the cathedral that had 5 organs 
          View of the other mountains from the top!
The city from the mountain


The Amazing Race sign 
Gazebo.  Something happened here with a Nazi and a Von Trapp daughter.
Cemetary at St. Peter's Church 
Enjoying some sausage and beer at the Augustiner Brewery