So apparently in my super short post I forgot to mention that I did make it back safely to Grenoble, in spite of the stupid SNCF (French railway company) and their stupid more-than-two-week strike. I actually got back on Sunday.
Also, a not-so-happy update on my knee:
I had my MRI on monday, and it turns out that I tore my ACL. That means that I will have to have surgery this summer, and then have 6 months or so of rehab before I'm ready to get back to dancing and being sportive. That has been a real bummer for me, as many of you know that dancing is one of my favorite things in the world, and going almost a year without it will be hard. Also it's hard because it has been so incredibly beautiful outside. The mountains are still white with snow, but the rest of Grenoble is lush and green, and covered in flowers! Of course, that just makes me want to go hiking or take a bike ride, both of which are not options for me at the moment :P
I'm doing my best to handle it, but would really appreciate all the encouragement I can get. One thing I know will make me feel better is we're going to Nice (how nice!) for the weekend, and we leave tomorrow morning! I plan on coming back as tan as possible for a white girl who doesn't tan, and I will at least get my feet wet in the Mediterranean (we've been warned that it's freeeeeezing cold at the moment). I thought about going over to Monaco for a few hours, but apparently it's like the European version of Orange County- just a bunch of big houses, and no real nice architecture. The beach is the same, but instead there are tons of yuppies driving around in huge SUVs..... not that interested!
I'll have another update soon!
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
How To Get A 4 Star Hotel Room For Free
Or, How I Earned The Name Hobblestiltskins
Basically this is going to be a super short update of my life in the past 2 weeks!
To start with, a quick story of how I hurt my knee:
I went skiing at Alpe d'Huez with my friend Gaëlle. Alpe d'Huez is indeed where they climb the famous 21 curves during the Tour de France. We drove those curves, and the whole time I kept wondering what kind of crazy person bikes up that mountain. We got our passes. We went up the mountain. It was white everywhere. I couldn't tell the difference between the sky and the ground up there at 3200 meters (just googled that, and it's about 10,500 feet). I fell, and heard 3 cracks in my knee (yes, I still cringe every time I say that). I couldn't get up, so the ski patrol came and rescued me. I went down the mountain on one of those stretcher-ski thingys. I was still in shock, and so I thought it was rather amusing! I got to the doctor's office about an hour and a half after the fall. She examined my knee (not very nicely I might add) and said that I've pulled some ligaments, but we have to wait for the MRI to see for sure how bad it is. (My MRI is tomorrow!)
I'm now wearing a knee brace, and hobbling around (hence the names hobblestiltskins, stumpy, and hop-along, courtesy of Lauri and Alastair) but I hope to be back to normal soon!
Story #2
My trip to the Netherlands
My trip was awesome. There is no other way to put it. I went and stayed with Lauri and Alastair (cousins) at Alastair's parents' house in Hoorn (north of Amsterdam). We toured the city, went to Tim (Alastair's brother) and Simone's wedding, went to a cheese market, saw a ridiculous amount of cute houses and windmills, and noticed quite frequently that "the water on that side of the road is higher than on this side!" I had a blast, even though I did get tired a lot while hobbling along.
Then I went to see my friend Nancy in Maastricht, in the very south of Holland. We ate a bunch of typical dutch food, and toured Maastricht (claimed as the oldest Dutch city) and hung out with her boyfriend and their friends. Dutch people are very nice, speak excellent english, and are very tall.
Story #3, or How To Get A 4 Star Hotel Room For Free
So I arrived at the airport on thursday rather early, and was completely shocked to find that my flight was canceled. I had even more of a shock when I realized that EVERY flight was canceled for the day!
Me: What on EARTH???
Man standing next to me: What on EARTH??
long pause...
Man standing next to me: OH! Iceland....
Me: Iceland???
two minutes later, I overhear that there is a volcano going off in Iceland (who knew?!) and that it had created this lovely cloud of ash that closed down airspace all across Europe. So I went and talked to EasyJet, and they gave me a voucher for a hotel- turns out it was a 4 star hotel and I got a huge room with a king size bed and huge bathroom all to myself! I also got free meals! So then I was able to explore Brussels some, and had a blast :)
Basically this is going to be a super short update of my life in the past 2 weeks!
To start with, a quick story of how I hurt my knee:
I went skiing at Alpe d'Huez with my friend Gaëlle. Alpe d'Huez is indeed where they climb the famous 21 curves during the Tour de France. We drove those curves, and the whole time I kept wondering what kind of crazy person bikes up that mountain. We got our passes. We went up the mountain. It was white everywhere. I couldn't tell the difference between the sky and the ground up there at 3200 meters (just googled that, and it's about 10,500 feet). I fell, and heard 3 cracks in my knee (yes, I still cringe every time I say that). I couldn't get up, so the ski patrol came and rescued me. I went down the mountain on one of those stretcher-ski thingys. I was still in shock, and so I thought it was rather amusing! I got to the doctor's office about an hour and a half after the fall. She examined my knee (not very nicely I might add) and said that I've pulled some ligaments, but we have to wait for the MRI to see for sure how bad it is. (My MRI is tomorrow!)
I'm now wearing a knee brace, and hobbling around (hence the names hobblestiltskins, stumpy, and hop-along, courtesy of Lauri and Alastair) but I hope to be back to normal soon!
Story #2
My trip to the Netherlands
My trip was awesome. There is no other way to put it. I went and stayed with Lauri and Alastair (cousins) at Alastair's parents' house in Hoorn (north of Amsterdam). We toured the city, went to Tim (Alastair's brother) and Simone's wedding, went to a cheese market, saw a ridiculous amount of cute houses and windmills, and noticed quite frequently that "the water on that side of the road is higher than on this side!" I had a blast, even though I did get tired a lot while hobbling along.
Then I went to see my friend Nancy in Maastricht, in the very south of Holland. We ate a bunch of typical dutch food, and toured Maastricht (claimed as the oldest Dutch city) and hung out with her boyfriend and their friends. Dutch people are very nice, speak excellent english, and are very tall.
Story #3, or How To Get A 4 Star Hotel Room For Free
So I arrived at the airport on thursday rather early, and was completely shocked to find that my flight was canceled. I had even more of a shock when I realized that EVERY flight was canceled for the day!
Me: What on EARTH???
Man standing next to me: What on EARTH??
long pause...
Man standing next to me: OH! Iceland....
Me: Iceland???
two minutes later, I overhear that there is a volcano going off in Iceland (who knew?!) and that it had created this lovely cloud of ash that closed down airspace all across Europe. So I went and talked to EasyJet, and they gave me a voucher for a hotel- turns out it was a 4 star hotel and I got a huge room with a king size bed and huge bathroom all to myself! I also got free meals! So then I was able to explore Brussels some, and had a blast :)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Le Poisson d'Avril
So, this is just a quick note to let you all know that I'm actually not coming back to Texas after I finish in France. Instead, I've decided that I'm going to take another couple of years, and go live in Iraq. I think I will have a good time there! Papaw, no need to worry: I've heard that it's actually quite a lovely place to live, and very safe.
NOT!!!
haha, April fools! Or as you say in France, "Poisson d'avril!" (this translates directly as april fish). In fact, the tradition of April Fool's started in France in 1564, when Charles IX decided to change the date of the new year from April 1 to January 1. People joked around with this though, and used the day to give out fake gifts to each other. Also, in April, you're not allowed to fish (they're reproducing) but in the middle ages, people thought it would be funny to throw fake fish in the rivers to taunt the fishermen. These days, french children use the day to try and stick a paper fish on other peoples' backs (especially their teachers'!)
I hope you're all doing well, and have a happy April Fool's!
Love,
Em
NOT!!!
haha, April fools! Or as you say in France, "Poisson d'avril!" (this translates directly as april fish). In fact, the tradition of April Fool's started in France in 1564, when Charles IX decided to change the date of the new year from April 1 to January 1. People joked around with this though, and used the day to give out fake gifts to each other. Also, in April, you're not allowed to fish (they're reproducing) but in the middle ages, people thought it would be funny to throw fake fish in the rivers to taunt the fishermen. These days, french children use the day to try and stick a paper fish on other peoples' backs (especially their teachers'!)
I hope you're all doing well, and have a happy April Fool's!
Love,
Em
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Glassigt! (and a haircut)
Salut!
I thought I would share my thoughts on my favorite expression ever- Glassigt!
I learned it from my swedish friends (I have a lot now!) Translated into english, it means Ice cream-ish, but basically it implies everything that is going right in your life. That has definitely been the case for me this week. The weather has been perfect, I haven't had too much homework, and I discovered a new ice cream place downtown that makes incredible home-made ice cream. They have all of the traditional flavors, along with things like Cucumber, curry, Sake, and any other weird flavor you could imagine. For some reason, I always end up trying the weirdest mixes. Last weekend I had Cassis (black currant) with Speculos (a yummy cookie) and yesterday I had Mango with Caramel.... They were weird together, but separately very good! I'm going to have to start limiting myself to two times a week :P
So this is just a short post on how wonderful life is right now. I also got a haircut today (for free!) My friend Inga (she's swedish) has been saying for weeks that she would cut it for me, and we finally made it happen. Just maybe an inch or two, so you can't really tell, but that really took off some of the weight, which will be nice with the coming hot weather.
Plans for this weekend: going on a Scouting trip! I'm not exactly sure what that will entail, so more details later.
Well Thursdays are the start of the weekend for me, so bon week-end tout le monde!
A plus!
Emily
I thought I would share my thoughts on my favorite expression ever- Glassigt!
I learned it from my swedish friends (I have a lot now!) Translated into english, it means Ice cream-ish, but basically it implies everything that is going right in your life. That has definitely been the case for me this week. The weather has been perfect, I haven't had too much homework, and I discovered a new ice cream place downtown that makes incredible home-made ice cream. They have all of the traditional flavors, along with things like Cucumber, curry, Sake, and any other weird flavor you could imagine. For some reason, I always end up trying the weirdest mixes. Last weekend I had Cassis (black currant) with Speculos (a yummy cookie) and yesterday I had Mango with Caramel.... They were weird together, but separately very good! I'm going to have to start limiting myself to two times a week :P
So this is just a short post on how wonderful life is right now. I also got a haircut today (for free!) My friend Inga (she's swedish) has been saying for weeks that she would cut it for me, and we finally made it happen. Just maybe an inch or two, so you can't really tell, but that really took off some of the weight, which will be nice with the coming hot weather.
Plans for this weekend: going on a Scouting trip! I'm not exactly sure what that will entail, so more details later.
Well Thursdays are the start of the weekend for me, so bon week-end tout le monde!
A plus!
Emily
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Still Alive
Hey there Everybody!
So the last time I wrote a post was the first week of the semester! I realized that my problem is that every time I write, I feel like I have to write a novel or something, and so then I keep putting off writing, until it got almost overwhelming. So I'm going to kind of change my format, and start writing little posts with interesting things that happen to me, or with general observations about my time here. To start off, I'll give y'all a recap on these past few months :)
January was spent skiing, a lot! I really improved a ton. Once I took a private lesson, and actually got some decent technique tips. After that I was able to start doing reds (in between blue and black here) quite easily. The alps are just awesome.
February we had a week vacation, and I went with my friend Christine, and we went to Bretagne (Brittany) for 1 week. We went to Nantes, and then met up with Mianda and Delaney, two friends. Then with Delaney, we rented a car and drove up to the Emerald Coast, and saw Saint Malo (the most amazing resort town ever!), and Mont St. Michel (checked off my life list). Bretagne was one of the best vacations I've ever had, and we even had the benefit of perfect weather (a rarity in Brittany). Also in Feb, I went to Toulouse with all of the Grenoble swing dancers for the Crazy Rhythm Challenge. I had a blast, and got to meet dancers from all over!
March started off with me visiting CERN and Geneva, and then a weekend trip to Dijon and Beaune in the Bourgogne (Burgundy) region. We had a wine tasting of 5 different wines and 2 liquors (that was a fun bus trip back!) and I learned how to be even more of a wine snob. Too bad I can't afford good wines anyways :)
So anyways, that was a 2 month update that's been needing to get finished. I'm going to start posting at least once a week now, with shorter posts. Also, I've been loading all of my photos onto my picassa account, and you can see all of them (there are lots, you have been warned) HERE! In other news, school has been moving along nicely, and I'm starting to prepare for my exams in May. I'm going to be taking the DALF C1 test, and if I pass, then I have proof for life that I have a fluent level of French. Basically, it means that I have to study, a lot! But that's not stopping me from enjoying our lovely weather and going on 2 hour bike rides by the river (did that friday).
Ok, à la prochaine!
Emily
So the last time I wrote a post was the first week of the semester! I realized that my problem is that every time I write, I feel like I have to write a novel or something, and so then I keep putting off writing, until it got almost overwhelming. So I'm going to kind of change my format, and start writing little posts with interesting things that happen to me, or with general observations about my time here. To start off, I'll give y'all a recap on these past few months :)
January was spent skiing, a lot! I really improved a ton. Once I took a private lesson, and actually got some decent technique tips. After that I was able to start doing reds (in between blue and black here) quite easily. The alps are just awesome.
February we had a week vacation, and I went with my friend Christine, and we went to Bretagne (Brittany) for 1 week. We went to Nantes, and then met up with Mianda and Delaney, two friends. Then with Delaney, we rented a car and drove up to the Emerald Coast, and saw Saint Malo (the most amazing resort town ever!), and Mont St. Michel (checked off my life list). Bretagne was one of the best vacations I've ever had, and we even had the benefit of perfect weather (a rarity in Brittany). Also in Feb, I went to Toulouse with all of the Grenoble swing dancers for the Crazy Rhythm Challenge. I had a blast, and got to meet dancers from all over!
March started off with me visiting CERN and Geneva, and then a weekend trip to Dijon and Beaune in the Bourgogne (Burgundy) region. We had a wine tasting of 5 different wines and 2 liquors (that was a fun bus trip back!) and I learned how to be even more of a wine snob. Too bad I can't afford good wines anyways :)
So anyways, that was a 2 month update that's been needing to get finished. I'm going to start posting at least once a week now, with shorter posts. Also, I've been loading all of my photos onto my picassa account, and you can see all of them (there are lots, you have been warned) HERE! In other news, school has been moving along nicely, and I'm starting to prepare for my exams in May. I'm going to be taking the DALF C1 test, and if I pass, then I have proof for life that I have a fluent level of French. Basically, it means that I have to study, a lot! But that's not stopping me from enjoying our lovely weather and going on 2 hour bike rides by the river (did that friday).
Ok, à la prochaine!
Emily
Friday, January 15, 2010
Coming Back
So, a couple of things to start off with:
1. I changed the name of the blog, because I finally found out how to say sweet-tooth in french, and that's Gourmande. It also means that you're a good eater, both of which I am.
2.Europe is awesome, but transatlantic flights suck. seriously. I just can't ever get comfortable enough to sleep, and then i have stupid connecting flights and so I end up being awake for more than 24 hours.... not enough sleep makes Emily NOT a happy camper!
3. I'm finally back here in Grenoble, so I thought I'd catch up on stuff. The last time I posted, I wrote about the Lyon fête de lumières, which was AWESOME!!!! But that was right before I left, and so I got super busy and didn't have time to blog again. so here goes:
Christmas break was fantastic. Getting back home was not! I have definitely learned my lesson with flights: no matter the cost, make your trip as close to one-stop as you can. Thinking I would save some money, I booked my flight home going Grenoble-London-Atlanta-DFW. By the end, I seriously thought I would scream if I had to spend another moment in an airport. But getting back to break... I got home, and my awesome fam was there to greet me, and Mags even made me a welcome home sign! We spent one night at home, before heading to Tennessee to have christmas with my grandparents. I was really really really really really wishing for snow, but instead, I missed probably the only white christmas that I would have ever seen in Fort Worth! (The last time that happened was in the 1920's or something!)
After christmas, me, my mom, and maggie all went to Lindy Focus for New Year's (Hey-Oooo!) I was so impressed with how smoothly that went, and I had a blast! After that, we drove home (all in one day- impressed?? You should be, because that's a 17 hour drive.) Then I had a week and a half at home in F-dub, and it was crazy packed! I got to see a bunch of people, but with most of them I didn't get as much time as I'd have liked. It was a right amount of time away though, because I was SO ready to get back to Grenoble. I missed hearing french all the time, and I missed my host family too, and I missed using mass transit, and I missed the oh-so-yummy pastries that I stuff my face with, and so many other things. I feel like I finally really live in France, like this is my city, the one I belong too.
Some things here are different- for one, there is snow EVERYWHERE!!!! I was super excited about it until I soaked my jeans AND my shoes and then my feet got cold. But still, it's such a neat experience for me. I mean, snow, in winter! What a concept. Also something new is the group of Americans that I'm part of. Only 4 of us out of 56 are year students. Everyone else went on the Paris trip together, and they are all friends, but us oldies don't really fit in. It's ok, because I'm not really looking for lots of American friends (does that sound snobbish?) because I'm here to practice my french anyways. But it is weird because there is a different group dynamic now....
By the next time I blog, I should have photos up of me and the Alps!!! Because Monday afternoon I'm renting skis, and by the end of next weekend, I will have gone skiing! WHOOP!!!! But since I don't have any pretty alp pictures to entertain you, here's some left-overs from last semester, when I went on a picture-taking trip of Grenoble. I tried (as best I could) to capture "ma vie quotidienne" (or my daily life, for all you non french speakers :P
The sun setting over the Alps- a daily view
My Bus stop, Jules Flandrin
The Statue of Les Trois Ordres, or the 3 orders of classes that existed before the revolution: The Clergy, The Nobility, and The Commoners. This is at Place Notre Dame.
The Tram B leaving campus.
Where I go to school, the University Stendhal.
It's snowing!!
Snowing at the tram stop Notre Dame-Musée. I love the snow!!!
1. I changed the name of the blog, because I finally found out how to say sweet-tooth in french, and that's Gourmande. It also means that you're a good eater, both of which I am.
2.Europe is awesome, but transatlantic flights suck. seriously. I just can't ever get comfortable enough to sleep, and then i have stupid connecting flights and so I end up being awake for more than 24 hours.... not enough sleep makes Emily NOT a happy camper!
3. I'm finally back here in Grenoble, so I thought I'd catch up on stuff. The last time I posted, I wrote about the Lyon fête de lumières, which was AWESOME!!!! But that was right before I left, and so I got super busy and didn't have time to blog again. so here goes:
Christmas break was fantastic. Getting back home was not! I have definitely learned my lesson with flights: no matter the cost, make your trip as close to one-stop as you can. Thinking I would save some money, I booked my flight home going Grenoble-London-Atlanta-DFW. By the end, I seriously thought I would scream if I had to spend another moment in an airport. But getting back to break... I got home, and my awesome fam was there to greet me, and Mags even made me a welcome home sign! We spent one night at home, before heading to Tennessee to have christmas with my grandparents. I was really really really really really wishing for snow, but instead, I missed probably the only white christmas that I would have ever seen in Fort Worth! (The last time that happened was in the 1920's or something!)
After christmas, me, my mom, and maggie all went to Lindy Focus for New Year's (Hey-Oooo!) I was so impressed with how smoothly that went, and I had a blast! After that, we drove home (all in one day- impressed?? You should be, because that's a 17 hour drive.) Then I had a week and a half at home in F-dub, and it was crazy packed! I got to see a bunch of people, but with most of them I didn't get as much time as I'd have liked. It was a right amount of time away though, because I was SO ready to get back to Grenoble. I missed hearing french all the time, and I missed my host family too, and I missed using mass transit, and I missed the oh-so-yummy pastries that I stuff my face with, and so many other things. I feel like I finally really live in France, like this is my city, the one I belong too.
Some things here are different- for one, there is snow EVERYWHERE!!!! I was super excited about it until I soaked my jeans AND my shoes and then my feet got cold. But still, it's such a neat experience for me. I mean, snow, in winter! What a concept. Also something new is the group of Americans that I'm part of. Only 4 of us out of 56 are year students. Everyone else went on the Paris trip together, and they are all friends, but us oldies don't really fit in. It's ok, because I'm not really looking for lots of American friends (does that sound snobbish?) because I'm here to practice my french anyways. But it is weird because there is a different group dynamic now....
By the next time I blog, I should have photos up of me and the Alps!!! Because Monday afternoon I'm renting skis, and by the end of next weekend, I will have gone skiing! WHOOP!!!! But since I don't have any pretty alp pictures to entertain you, here's some left-overs from last semester, when I went on a picture-taking trip of Grenoble. I tried (as best I could) to capture "ma vie quotidienne" (or my daily life, for all you non french speakers :P
The sun setting over the Alps- a daily view
It's snowing!!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Lyon, fête de lumières
Sorry to inundate you with two posts at once, but I'm finally getting caught up!
This one is going to be mostly pictures. Yesterday I went with Kaycee to Lyon for the annual fête de lumières (Light Festival). The festival is every year near december 8, to thank Mary, mother of Jesus, for saving the city from the Plague back in the middle ages.
We got there in the early afternoon, and walked all around the city. I saw the Cathedral, the Roman Ruins, and the Basilica- my favorite. It got dark around 5, and at 6 the festival started. They had these incredible displays up on many of the official buildings, and we had a blast. It was packed with people. We had to fight our way to each monument to see the 5-10 minute light shows, but they were so worth it! I think the pictures will say more than I ever could:
First off: the city during the day. Keep an eye out for these same sights at night :)
okay, now some night photos:
This one is going to be mostly pictures. Yesterday I went with Kaycee to Lyon for the annual fête de lumières (Light Festival). The festival is every year near december 8, to thank Mary, mother of Jesus, for saving the city from the Plague back in the middle ages.
We got there in the early afternoon, and walked all around the city. I saw the Cathedral, the Roman Ruins, and the Basilica- my favorite. It got dark around 5, and at 6 the festival started. They had these incredible displays up on many of the official buildings, and we had a blast. It was packed with people. We had to fight our way to each monument to see the 5-10 minute light shows, but they were so worth it! I think the pictures will say more than I ever could:
First off: the city during the day. Keep an eye out for these same sights at night :)
okay, now some night photos:
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