Stuffing my Face in Stras

This weekend my friend Megan came up from Zurich to visit. Literally all we did was eat amazinggg French food! I have been eating so bad here but I still have managed to already lose weight. I mean I could live off cheese and bread. Gotta love the Frenchie's lifestyle. I also walk like 5 miles a day here just to get to where I need to go so I guess that's why.

Meg came up Saturday afternoon, and as soon as she got here we found a nice patio to settle down on for lunch. It was pretty cold but they supplied us with some nice Ikea blankets so it was all good. I of course chose one of my all time faves: goat cheese salad. You can never find anything quite like the French version at home. We had lunch for a couple hours, complete with an espresso afterwards. The rest of the day we strolled around the city, walked for about 4 hours, did lots of shopping, and then came back and got ready for dinner. For dinner my roommate Kristen chose an Alsatian restaurant right on the river. We ate mussels and the region's specialty called "Tarte Flambée" (means flaming tart) which is kinda like a pizza, but it is made with a cream sauce, a super thin crust, and they put bacon and onion on it. So. Good. Next the dessert...ohhh the dessert. We chose a hot fudge lava cake and another ice cream/chocolate dish. You really just can't find food like this at home!

Today we slept in, and then.. went to lunch! I think I found my new fave restaurant. It's a 50's themed bar, they have milkshakes and sandwiches and stuff. And the prices are super cheap! It reminds me of a place that would be in Tremont at home. I will def be spending a lot of time there this year.

So did I mention lately that I love food? And of course I also love visitors. It was so good to see Megan, it's always a good feeling to have some familiarity when I'm over here thousands of miles from home! Here are some pics of our fat-free weekend.

Pre-binge eating

Delicious goat cheese salad. This pic should be in a magazine or something

Me Kristen and Meg

The end of our Tarte Flambée

Moules Frites

Hot Fudge Lava cake

clean plate club!

I forgot to mention the fact that we accidently lit meg's hat on fire.. luckily I caught it in the early phase.

Roomies!

The 50's place

Reflecting over an afternoon game of Boggle.

To whomever has me for the xmas exchange this year: This is the only gift I'm asking for

This one's for our Moms! I'm sure this blog will be discussed at church next Sunday

Dreams really do come true...

After wanting to go for over a year, I finally made it to Europa Park on Wednesday! Europa Park is the biggest amusement park in Europe and it's in Germany about an hour away. Last year ALL YEAR I wanted to go to this place soo bad, and I could never get anyone to go with me. Well I mentioned it to my roommate and another assistant, and they were just as excited about it as I was! So of course we hastily planned our trip to the Disney-esque amusement park. We left Wednesday early in the morning, and trained it down to Rust, Germany where the park is. Right when we entered we knew it would be a magical day! The park is overly decorated for Halloween, with hundreds of pumpkins and creepy dressed-up people walking around pretending to stab you with their knives and swords.. The park is split up into different countries, so they have France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, etc. The best two countries are definitely France and Iceland because the have the big roller coasters! Now of course they aren't as good as the Cedar Point coasters, but it was pretty cold that day so I was okay with the fact that they weren't going 100 mph.

As for the other rides, they all had a theme to go along with the country. It's pretty much an Epcot with roller coasters. It was funny, they totally copied Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion from Disney World. Both rides were replicas down to the small details. Also the mascot of the park is a mouse.. he doesn't look anything like Mickey but they're def stealing the idea. I have to say that we weren't disappointed by any of the rides there, I would definitely go back again if I get the chance.

We spent about 6 or 7 hours there, and after that decided we had enough. We were wearing ski jackets and gloves because it was so cold! Luckily, unlike most amusement parks, food was extremely cheap there. I got a burger, fries and a coke for about 4 euros, which is around 6 bucks. Not bad! I obviously ate my way through the rest of the park after I discovered the low prices.

Overwhelmed with Joy!

The entrance all decorated for Halloween

So many pumpkins

Couldn't resist

Kristen getting chased by the stilts dude and the guy with swords.. it's funny at first but after a while it starts to get pretty scary

The new roller coaster, the Blue Fire

Part of the "nightmare before christmas" parade

bahahah

We tried to find an elf ride and ended up on a creepy puppet boat ride

Kristen & Gina

Where am I living?

Ever seen the cartoon version of Beauty and the Beast? This is pretty much where I live..

Click here for the vid

Obernai & La Route des Vins

Hey friends and fam! Just an update on what I've been up to.. things at school are okay. The English teachers are really nice and the students seem pretty cool too. I am in two different high schools, I really love one of them and the other one is just so-so.

My apartment is working out really well. I get along really well with my roommate and our building is so nice! They're still working on getting everything working since we're the first to move in, but so far so good.

Since I've already been here over two weeks, I obviously have found time for a few excursions. My roommate and other friend, Gina, both have Wednesdays off like I do. So we've decided to start up "wednesday excursions" like I did last year. This past Wednesday we checked out a town near Strasbourg called Obernai. It's a smaller town, but very quaint and extremely similar-looking to that little town in "beauty and the beast.." as most towns here are. I don't know if I ever mentioned that first scene from the movie but every time I visit small towns in this region I start singing that song.

Anyway, Obernai was cool, we just hung out, drank some beer and ate some French food! There wasn't much to see there, so we just walked around, checked out some shops and bakeries and then headed back to Strasbourg.

This past weekend, I was invited by my "french fam" to do another bike ride on the wine route. Last year we did the same thing, and I seriously almost threw up by the end I was so tired from it. It's about 30 miles, and it's really hilly and difficult. However, it's a beautiful view of the wine route and the Fall is the best time to see it! So I invited my roommate Kristen and we headed out into the vineyards. We stopped at a few towns, all which I had already been to a few times, including Ribeauvillé and Riquewihr. We had a nice lunch in Riquewihr, looked in some of the Christmas stores which have already opened (we decided we needed to go back with the car another time to haul all the stuff we wanted to buy!) and unfortunately we didn't drink any wine, but it didn't seem like that great of an idea considering I was struggling biking whilst sober. I think my favorite part about the towns was looking at all of the huge geraniums hanging in all of the windows! That's something you definitely don't see very often in the States. So anyway we had perfect weather, it wasn't too hot, and we had a really nice time.

Tomorrow for our "wednesday excursion" we're off to a place called Europa Park in Germany. It's like Epcot at Disney World only with roller coasters! More to come..

Strasbourg! My new home :)

Weds excusion to Obernai
A quick carousel ride seemed like a good idea after a few afternoon brews..
Ribeauvillé
my roomie, Kristen! love her.
the French fam, Gérard and Marie-Agnès
Storks bringing the black and white babies. at least they represent both races..

Geraniums!!
The Wine Route
Kristen and me on our bikes.. this shot could have been dangerous
Riquewirhr