Au revoir France, Hello Texas!

I flew half way around the world yesterday just to be home in time to surprise my little sister for her graduation. Pretty much everyone in the family knew, but luckily my little sister is pretty oblivious so she had no idea. She had been a bit sad that I wasn't going to be home to see her walk across the stage. So I got home before she did yesterday, and I hid in her room. My parents told her there was a surprise upstairs, and she said she'd go see it later. But they told her that she needed to go see it now (otherwise she'd probably find me passed out asleep in her bed!) and as she was walking up the stairs she asked if she was going to like it. When she walked in I jumped up (I was ducking, I'm good at hiding) and she started screaming and then she grabbed me in a big hug and wouldn't let me go. She was thrilled, and I was happy to be home.

Say Cheese!

So I actually wrote this before I got back to Texas, but I guess it didn't get posted, so here it is now :) 

So here's the raclette at the beginning before it started to melt. Ana and Vanessa are ready to eat it!

And here's the raclette after we ate most of it. So good.

So being in France, I now have a better appreciation for cheese. I had an awesome salad the other night with this wonderful St. Marcellin cheese wrapped in phyllo dough, formed into little pockets of greatness, and pan fried. It is the best cheese in the world, and it is a local cheese for the Rhone Alps region. So I thought I would post some pictures I found online of my new favorite cheeses. You should check out Central Market and see if they have any of these wonderful products. Oh yes, I really eat cheese with practically every meal. Last night, the main part of my meal was cheese. It was raclette. I've had some pretty nasty raclette here, but there is also a great restaurant that serves it.

So this is reblochon cheese. It smells like gym socks, but one restaurant we went to thought it would be fun to serve it as raclette but it was not a pleasant experience. 

This cheese is the St. Marcellin.
This one is a special kind of goat cheese, chevre in French, that is aged with this weird skin that you can eat, but it is kinda nasty. The cheese is excellent though.

Yay for brie cheese.

Last Sunday

It's sad to be moving on. This will be my last Sunday at church in France, so hopefully I'll get to say goodbye to the people I've met there. I'm grateful for the missionaries here in France and for all the work they do. It's definitely a challenge for them but they somehow find a way to keep motivated and continue on. Even with the language barrier, people have been super kind to me and always try and practice their English with me, so I will miss that. Other than that, I have to study (well, cram) for my final tomorrow. It is open book, but it's only 90 minutes while most of them are twice as long. I'm also going to attempt to pack up all my junk today, which will definitely be a challenge. And, to top off the lovely day, I've got to get a bit of deep cleaning done before I leave, and that will probably happen tonight.

Half Way to the End

I've finished two of my finals, so I'm halfway done in that regard. I had my first one on Wednesday, and I had been studying for about a week for it. And I should add that I studied exactly what was on the exam, so I should get a very good grade on it. Everyone was stressing out which was completely unnecessary because exams here are different. The teacher generally provides you with 5 essay questions, and you pick 3 to answer. And they told us which topics to study, so I picked 3 topics and hoped for the best. And it worked for the exam Wednesday and the one I had this morning. It is such a relief to open the exam and see exactly what you studied right there in black and white. I was the first one finished with my exam today, so that was good. I got really lucky on the exam today because I had written a paper for this class on the exact topic of one of the exam questions, and I did a presentation for this class on one of the other topics so I could write tons of things about it. It's my last weekend here in France, kind of bittersweet. I'm going to do a bit more souvenir shopping tomorrow and I'm going to finish packing on Monday.

Exam Prep and Other Random Fun

I did laundry for the last time today. Yay. No more $20 laundry mats for only 2 loads of laundry... ridiculously expensive. And I defrosted the freezer yesterday in an attempt to avoid studying... it works. (If the freezer isn't defrosted, CEA charges a huge fee, I believe it is 50 euro!) I had the greatest tiramisu ever today at the bakery by the laundry mat, I probably mentioned it before because this was definitely not the first time I've stopped in there. I love French bakeries and bread shops, that is something I will definitely miss. But, I have decided to pick up some bread and brie and a couple of pastries for my lovely long flight back home. I can countdown on two hands now the number of days left! My first final is tomorrow at 9, for Market Research and Consumer Behavior. It is mainly common sense things that I've learned in all the marketing classes I have taken thus far, however, our professor insists that we learn about a dozen "models" that each have a dozen steps or so, and I think that will be my biggest challenge--keeping everything straight. But surprisingly I'm not too worried, I'm more worried about getting all the pictures/souvenirs I want before leaving. I just have to make a 10 (out of 20) to pass, which is virtually a 50%, so that shouldn't be too hard. I did start to pack and I have a ton of stuff, not really sure where it came from either. I guess I shopped more than I realized :) So now I've got to get back to some studying, wish me luck on finals!

So Close to Home

Less than 2 weeks left in France, and I'm definitely ready to come back home. Its been fun for the most part, but there has been a ton of roommate drama all semester which makes me very grateful to only have one roommate during the rest of the year. Living with 8 others can be fun (like at Disney) but this time it has been the most challenging part of the entire experience; the program just threw nine random people together without taking anything into consideration, like lifestyle preferences. So I've been preparing for finals this past week, I've had a ton of time to get ready so I should do very well. I'm just ready for them to start, I have one Wednesday, Friday and then the following Monday and Tuesday. Then a few days to pack and I head back to Dallas. So ready.

The Past Week

This last weekend, Ana and I went to Avignon. It is in the Provence region of France, not too far from Aix en Provence where we went on an earlier trip. We spent all day Friday in Avignon, and we went sightseeing at the Pont du Avignon, Palais du Papes, and the gardens (can't remember the exact name). We stayed at a really cute little hotel right in the center of town by a really nice park. We ate at tiny cafe right next to a shop that sold lavender (it is one of the specialty products of the region) and we had the best ice cream ever (I had a chocolately kinder ice cream, that was homemade! The ice cream here is really soft and creamy.) After a long day of shopping and being touristy, we had the dinner of champions... McDonald's. We were so exhausted! The next day we got up, went back to this wonderful ceramic shop and bought a few gifts to take home. Then we headed out to the market to pick up some things for a nice picnic lunch on the train--fresh bread, cheese, meat (salami is really popular at the markets), olives stuffed with almonds, clementines, and cherries. Then we hopped on the train to Montpellier, which is a coastal city in the Languedoc region (opposite to the French Riviera). In Montpellier, were were met by Jeff. So the first day was spent sightseeing (as you can tell from the pictures below)-- we went to a cathedral, the arc of Montpellier, and other very touristy sites. That night we had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in the old part of town. We got a good night's sleep, and got up early (for us anyway) to hit the beach. Before we hit the beach, we thought we would hit up the market (the manufactured goods market) but as we were looking at the map (mind you, we were all dressed in shorts, tshirts, swimsuits and flip flops) I felt something warm flooding my feet. I looked down, and I saw this massive dog urinating all over me. That's right, urine. It was a lovely start to the day, I'm freaking out and Jeff is throwing water at me from a distance, and Ana is trying to find her hand sanitizer so I can clean my feet. And I'm pretty much going hysterical.. and the man with the dogs just kept walking like nothing happened. How rude. So Jeff gave me his other pair of sandals and we decided to forgo the market and just get straight to the beach. We stopped in a little bakery first and picked up some sandwiches for lunch. Then took the tram to the very end where we had to catch a bus down to Palavas, which is the beach city. It was beautiful, the Mediterrean was such a sight to see, and the weather was a bit cloudy but it was warm enough to lay out and soak up the much needed sun. Ana and I spent most of our day strolling along the coast and picking up perfectly shaped seashells, while Jeff decided to sunbathe. While he was asleep, Ana and I snuck into town and got ice cream.. and Jeff never found out (we all couldn't go because someone had to watch our stuff, and we couldn't bring it back because it might melt... :) Then I decided to lay out for a bit so I douzed myself with sunscreen and fell asleep for about 30 minutes. When I woke up, I was burnt to a crisp, and it hurt. I was finally able to make it to the pharmacy 2 days later (holiday weekend) and they apparently don't have aloe so I bought this after sun cream that was 15 euro. Pretty pricey if you ask me, but when you're in pain it doesn't matter so much. I spent Monday and Tuesday writing papers and studying for my French final, which I feel good about (I took it last night and I was the first one done). I also got my grade back for the Marketing Research project that consumed my life for a few weeks, and it paid off. Considering most of the grades were between 45-60, we did excellent. We made B's on both parts, which apparently is really hard to do in France, so we were all excited about that. Now I'm officially done with all my classes, I just have finals starting next Wednesday. Wish me luck, only 2 1/2 weeks til I am back in Texas!

Avignon and Montpellier

Stuttgart Photos

Yay for Vacation

So after recovering for 3 days, I'm about to jet off again, this time to the south of France. Ana and I decided we would wait until Friday to leave so we'd have an extra day to work on essays/projects/presentations before having a fun weekend :) So Thursday is crunch time to start one essay and finish one I've already started. The end is in sight! We decided that we're going to go to Avignon on Friday and then spend Saturday and Sunday in Montpellier. It is not the same direction as Nice, Cannes, Monaco and all the other famous French Riviera cities, but it Montpellier is along the beach and it is supposed to have breathtaking cliffs and gorgeous views of the water. It will be another great weekend!

Weekend in Germany

So last Tuesday I decided to join to of my friends from school for a weekend in Germany (May 1st is a big holiday in Europe). And I left Wednesday. It was a very spur of the moment trip. I have family in Stuttgart, so I called my Oma (grandma) and she gave me their number so I could call and see if I could stay with them for the night before my friends got in. Luckily they were free and I got to meet them for the first time. After a nearly 12 hour day on the train (with a few stops) I made it to Stuttgart and was picked up at the train station. That was the first time I had been in a car in four months. The relatives are the nicest people ever; they were excited to have me and I was excited to meet them. I stayed with my dad's cousins and their two kids. His aunt and uncle also live nearby and I was able to spend time with them as well. Well, Thursday night rolled around and my two friends came in to Stuttgart and we picked them up to stay the night as well. The next morning we were all supposed to leave for Fuessen, which is where the castle that Walt Disney modeled the Cinderella castle is located, but I decided to stay the rest of the weekend in Stuttgart. So my one day trip in Stuttgart turned into about 5 days. I got to spend alot of time with the family; we went to an outdoor festival for May Day and had bratwurst and apfel shorle (sparkling apple juice). The little kids (5 & 9 yrs) were teaching me German words. On Saturday I got a walking tour of downtown Stuttgart with my dad's aunt and uncle who only speak German; that was interesting, we used tons of hand signs to communicate, but it was really nice. Saturday night the cousin had her birthday party with all her friends, and she made tons of great food. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.