So we left Paris...

Paris was a great experience, and I can't wait to get back there after this program is over, but there's so much more fun and excitement to be had in other areas of France!

I spent my last day in Paris just hanging around. I walked around a lot, mailed my way-too-heavy ski jacket home so I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore (that is a story in itself but involves lots of half-French, half-English jokes with the post office worker), and did laundry.

Hello, Parisian laundromat! 

That was actually really fun. (And I freaking love front load washers and dryers where you can watch the clothes when you're not reading Harry Potter in French.)

I also encountered a Parti de Gauche demonstration regarding constitutional changes (with the whole Euro-Greece issue, I gathered).

There was a tug-of-war. 

This is the sign to mark the opposing side of Parti de Gauche's stance.

Here's the video:

That was fun. There was some singing afterward which I also filmed.

This morning we left at 6:30am to reach the train station to travel to Avignon by train then to Barcelonnette by car. This year the group was given 2 minibuses rather than the usual minibus and car. It was easy to fit the luggage, but there ended up being some Franglais (mostly English after a while) explanation of the "manual" mode on what was supposed to be an automatic vehicle by me to Carla. It was automatic, but one could switch to manual if one wished, which was suggested by M. Dubernet to Carla. It sort of worked, but it wasn't all that necessary. The roads here, while in the mountains, are well thought out and not as hilly as they could be. The vans did fine.
Pics from traveling:

Picture of me (as requested by my fam.) in Gordes.
I couldn't see anything! The sun was in my face!

Pretty kitty in Gordes.

More of Gordes.

Did I mention that this is the most expensive city to live in within France? 

Also, did I mention that Johnny Depp has a house here? (We didn't see him.)

Photo of the Alps from the minibus.

Another picture of the Alps.

And then my camera died, so I have no pictures of our actual arrival in Barcelonnette or of Jean CHAIX (where we are staying). We passed the equestrian center where I will be working though! It looks awesome!

Now it's bed time, so I'm signing off! Bonne nuit!

A Handful of Pictures

Inside of Notre Dame de Paris

(It's not actually that bright in there - camera settings)

Stairs to the top of l'Arc de Triomphe

Welcome to Paris! This is your parking tutorial!

La Tour Eiffel before it started raining AGAIN.

Rose Line in Saint Sulpice.

Sacré Coeur in the rain.

Carla, Kim, & I on the Metro.

More of Paris

Since I am trying to blog as much as possible before I am no longer able to do so as often, here's another post :) :

Our program officially started today at 5pm, so that means no more speaking English anywhere in France for us; although, most of us were already trying to speak French most of the time anyway. :) I'm sure that this will cause quite a few made-up words that just stick. Apparently there's at least one with each group that goes every year. Wonder what ours will be... ?

Yesterday was hang-with-MoMo day. It was awesome. We went to l'Arc de Triomphe, la Grande Arche, a couple of fun cafes, and a few other places.
Picture:

That's MoMo!

Today was fun, but I'm glad to be done walking around. We didn't get on the metro or RER once today. We walked to a flower market, walked to Notre Dame, toured Sainte Chapelle church and the Conciergerie (prison where Marie Antoinette stayed before her execution), got sandwiches, and hung out in Luxembourg Garden. The last to arrive was M. Dubernet, so the program started once he got to our hotel. After he arrived, we had some celebratory drinks followed by a couple of bottles of wine in front of the Pantheon and running from the rain (it's supposed to rain on and off for the rest of our time in Paris :-/ ).
And of course there are pictures:

Pretty flowers!

Lunch in Luxembourg Garden - Jessica, Kim, Julie, & Carla.

Carla, Kim, & Julie

Wine in front of the Pantheon.

Tomorrow we start our self-guided tour of Paris including student presentations at each site. Mine is Sacré-Coeur. :) Wish me luck!

PS

I miss my friends back home! <3

No luggage. No worries.

My luggage didn't make it on my flight to France, and according to Charles de Gaulle airport, it didn't make it on the next flight out of Houston either. It's a little frustrating, but I'm actually not that worried about it. True, I have only one other change of clothes, but I didn't have to worry about navigating the RER from CDG to our hotel with luggage the first time I did it. Now, it's easy, so if I have to go get it, there won't be any problem. (They are supposed to bring it to me free of charge though once it comes in, so I still probably won't have to worry about it.)
My only slight concern is that they don't seem to think it's any sort of priority even though there are 20 or so other bags that got left from my flight (they forgot an entire carton thing that they put the bags in), and I'll only be in Paris until the 28th. After that, they'll have to get my bag to Barcelonnette, which will take way longer.
[EDIT 24/05/2010 12:08pm: They found it! It did make the flight, and it's being delivered today!]


So far, speaking French has been difficult - mainly because I get very frustrated with the fact that it takes me a while to formulate sentences correctly, especially when jet-lagged. Bleh. I trust that in a few days it will start to come more easily, especially if I can remember just to chill out and not worry about using perfect grammar all the time.

Yesterday was pretty insane after the whole bag fiasco then waiting for 4 hours at CDG for Jessica (only to not be able to actually find her), whose flight got delayed when leaving Chicago. We both made it to our hotel separately though, so it all worked out. After that, we walked around Paris, and I played with my camera.
Here are a few pictures of my first day of adventures:

Caleb, Jessica, Julie, Kim, & Carla at the fountain on Place Saint-Michel.

Jessica & Julie

The Champs Élysées was closed to traffic for an agriculture festival! Crazy!

Eiffel Tower & the Seine

Lessons already?

Thus far I have learned three very important things before even setting foot on the plane:


1) There are tons of groundhogs in the French Alps.

Yes, it is true.
This is important only because one of our instructors talks about them ALL THE TIME. We talked about them at least once, usually more than once, every day during our 5 prep days (the last of which was today) for the trip and several times this semester in each of the two classes taught by this man.

Groundhogs = les marmottes
They are cute. Sorta.


2) When someone mentions actually using hiking boots on a trip, inquire about it.

Basically, I heard someone mention using hiking boots on this trip once before this week and thought that they only used them just because they had them. Wrong. We will actually be doing some climbing! Super fun but OH NOES! NO BOOTS!
I remedied that issue today and didn't buy boots (no time to break them in & they're insanely bulky) but hiking shoes.
They're lime green, kickass, and WAY cheaper than I expected (which always makes me happy).

They look like regular sneakers, but they're not!
I think they're pretty awesome! (And non-bulky!)

PS
There are a whole lot of options to choose from between hiking boots, hiking shoes, and hardcore, waterproof, reinforced sandal things that are pretty amazing as well. It gets confusing!


3) My French vocabulary is VERY general.

In other words, I know next-to-no vocabulary relating to the two things that I will probably talk about the most. Those things being horses/horse-related things (because of my internship) and Quidditch (because I love to play and talk about it and bringing it up at all creates the need to explain what the game is, the rules, and how it can possibly be played if one can't fly).

Luckily, I can solve this problem with a little effort:
-SS has kindly started teaching me all the horse-related words she knows in French as we talk about objects in her barn and has given me a bunch of websites and a couple magazines to read to learn more vocabulary.
-Re-reading the first few Harry Potters in French gives me all the vocabulary I should ever need to explain the basic aspects of the game.

Now I just need to remember all the words. :)

AND FINISH PACKING!
(Plus 12 hours for actual departure time!)

Countdown to Adventure

My adventures officially start when I fly out of New Orleans next Saturday morning - May 22!

Official countdown:

I actually fly out at 12:18pm, so add about 12hrs to the countdown time if you want to be super precise. :)

I can't wait!

Before we leave though, we have a prep week that started this past Thursday and will last until this coming Tuesday.
Yesterday, to learn about the links between Louisiana and Ubaye Valley, we went to Arnaudville, Louisiana - a little city on Bayou Teche essentially founded by the Arnaud brothers who lived in the Ubaye Valley region. (There are also ties from Mexico to Ubaye Valley because of these men.)

Angela, Kim, Sarah, and Chris.

Carla (one of our fearless leaders), Caleb, Kaitlyn, and Julie.

Jessica with M. Dubernet (our other leader) and Mavis, our tour guide in Arnaudville, in the background.

Really awesome ham and fig panini from this cafe/restaurant/performance venue called Nu Nu's. It's adjacent to an art gallery with art by a very talented local artist.