quick vacay in the pair-e

Stained Glass in Notre Dame

Ohh look at that organ!

Montmartre

Notre Dame Cathedral

Lamp in the Tiffany's exhibit

Kisses on Oscar Wilde's grave! presh

Metro entrance

Well since I am obvi already on vacation, I decided to go to Paris for a few days. I was trying to go some other places I haven't been yet, but everything was so expensive, and I really haven't spent much time in Paris since I was here in 2006. My French fam offered me a ride there so I couldn't pass it up! We left last Monday, the drive was about 6 hours. Which is weird because it's only a 2 1/2 hour train ride. I decided to just stay in a hostel on my own, I of course opted for the one that had a bar so I could easily meet people :) They dropped me off there around 8pm, and it took me about 5 minutes to meet someone. I ended up hanging out with this Canadian girl from Ontario most of the nights that I was there.

The next day there was a late start- things can get rowdy in those hostel bars! I got up and went to the Musée d'Orsay, which is in an old train station. I arrived there around 11, and to my surprise there was a HUGE line to get in. I waited in line for over an hour. The nice thing is that I got a teacher's card from my school which entitles me to free entry into all national museums! So I wasn't as angry about waiting for an hour since I knew it was free anyway. I wandered around the museum for a few hours, the actual structure of the building was even more interesting than the art itself. But it was still a good place to say I've been to!

Next I decided to go up the Arc de Triomphe (or shall we say the "triumphal arch") I knew that there would be a pretty view from the top, and since it was a clear day I decided to take advantage. Oh, and also it was free. Score. Well it was a lonnggg climb up and my lungs were burning, but every like hundred stairs they'd let you take a break and read about some of the history. In case you were wondering, it was built in the early 1800's by Napoleon after the victory of Austerlitz. That means nothing to me either, by the way.

That night I was invited to my host mom's mom's house! She is 87 and lives in the suburbs of Paris. It was cool to meet her family. It was funny to see, no matter what country you live in, all families are the same. Her mom was so funny, just a crazy old Parisian lady. She was graciously offering me liquor and snacks that had possibly been in her cabinet since shortly after the 2nd world war. She even brought out the nicest china and silverware for me! So, so cute.

The next day was spent at yet another museum, Centre Pompidou, which is the modern art museum. Definitely one of my favorites so far! The building itself looks like it's all built inside out. They put all the pipes and everything on the outside of it. Also, from the top there was yet again another ridiculous view of the city! I spent over 3 hours just wandering around in this place. It is massive inside. Later that day I found out that there was a Tiffany exhibit in the Luxembourg gardens. I obviously decided to hit that up too, however, I was sadly disappointed that it wasn't free. Boo. I went in anyway, and it was pretty cool. I seriously wanted to steal the lamps, they were so awesome. I have some knock-off's from Target but they just aren't quite as pretty.

This night I went to a Pub Crawl with some other people from the hostel. I think we'll skip over the details of the night.

Moving on, the next day I went to the cemetery called "Père Lachaise" which is where Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, and many others are buried. After that I devoted my entire day to Montmartre, my favorite area in Paris. This is where artists like Van Gogh and Picasso used to hang out before they were a big deal. I ended up doing a guided tour with the Canadian chick. I was really glad I did it, because I learned so much! Just one little fun fact for you: instead of cleaning his paint brushes with water, Van Gogh used to suck the paint off them and eat it. There was lead in paint back in those days.. so this explains why he went a little kooky there in the end.

Well that's all for now! Paris was great, this really is a city that has endless things to do. Hmm I might have to go back in a few weeks..

Musée d'Orsay

Starving artists in Montmartre

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

Finally..

Finally back in France! I arrived yesterday morning, I flew into Zurich. I've been back staying with the family who I was with for a month or so last year. They're in Turckheim, about 40 minutes away from where my schools are this year. The biggest dilemma coming back this year is that I had no place to live once I started school! I have been searching online for almost 2 months now, and I barely got any responses. A few months ago I started talking to another english assistant, who is from Wisconsin. We got to talking and decided it'd be easier if we could help each other find a place, and it seems like we're going to get along really well. She finally got a response from an agency about a month ago, and that is the ONLY option that we had. So today we met up (her mom is here too) and went to look at the place, praying that we would like it. It's pretty expensive, so we were kind of unsure. Well we definitely lucked out, we decided to rent 2 studios in the same building for a few months, and in November we'll move into a 2 bedroom apartment in the same building. We cannot believe how lucky we are! The places are literally brand new, we're the first tenants. Everything is top of the line and we're the only 2 living there for now! They are completely furnished, even including towels, sheets, pillows.. hair dryers, everything. And my schools are only a 15 minute walk from the apartment. I never knew I could be so lucky! We're so excited :) We have 2 studios across the hall from each other and then there is a common kitchen and living room that we'll be sharing with the other tenants.. if there ever are any. Here are some pics of where we'll be moving on Saturday:

As for next year...

I've been home for two weeks now and trying to stay busy.  I went up to Canada with my Dad and sister, and also I started working again about 3 days after getting back from France.  I'm working at the same restaurant, Pizzazz, where I was working last year.  I miss France sometimes but it's good to be home with family and friends!  Also everything seems so easy to me.. before I was used to figuring out how to communicate and live in a new country, and now I'm back home where everything is nice and familiar.  It's a good feeling.  

I'm pretty sure everyone knows this already, but in case you don't, I have renewed my contract for next year!  I got my job back, but I am moving schools and cities.  I requested to work in a high school in Strasbourg (the big city north of Colmar).  Well my wish came true, and I will be teaching at a school RIGHT in the city center.  I talked to my old principal and a few other teachers and they all say that it is a great school and that I should have a good experience there.  I went to visit before I left and took a picture of the building.  This next year will be a whole new experience because the school is about 4 times the size of my school last year and I won't be teaching my little country bumpkins anymore.  But I'm sure it will be different in a good way! I already got my plane ticket.. so September 17th I'll be on my way back to France!

My new home in Strasbourg
     Lycée René Cassin, the new stomping grounds