and how do i even begin...?

well well well so last night we went on a night train from nice to barcelona. we were in a nice little 6 person couchette and our other 2 people were a nice older australian couple. sleepless night for me because the train kept stopping, but all in all it wasn´t bad. then this morning on the final train to barcelona (we had to switch trains at 7am) mallory went to randomly look in her wallet for some reason and low and behold she´s missing 300 euro and 120 american dollars. so that´s a great start to the day, then to make things just that much better we get in to barcelona and decide to make our reservations for the night train to paris the following night. first time we asked we were told that there were only double spots for 100 a person. YIKES! then we were told that there were only two seats on the whole train. then we were told the alternative route meant there were no seats at all, then we were told trains into france at all from barcelona were completely booked!!!!!!! they told us to go to seville (look at a map of spain and someone please explain why going from barcelona to spain helps me get into france). then we asked about the following day thinking that maybe it was just a new years´ thing. nope, the 2nd was totally booked too. panic started to set in and we thought we were stuck in barcelona with no place to stay. not a pleasant feeling. then the girl at the desk, in a movement of pure pity i´m sure, said there were some spots open on a night train tonight. tonight?!?!? what the heck... we didn´t really wanna do new years´up right in europe anyway, right? (please note heavy sarcasm) but we didn´t really have a choice, so we booked it. for a rather hefty price per person. then we called our hostel in paris and asked if, by any chance and gift of God, they had an extra four beds a day early. things started to turn the tide for us when the answer was yes. then we got to our barcelona hostel to tell them we were cancelling and he told us that we´ll likely still be charged... and i think it´s on my parent´s credit card cuz i booked it in july. isn´t that just peachy. well... all in all the day seemed like total crap and a half before noon, but once we dropped our luggage off and started touring the city of barcelona turned out to be better than we thought. too many people crowded into tiny areas, but there was a cool parade and some interesting, if talentless, street performers. and gaudi´s cathedral was pretty cool to look at, though too expensive to go in, especially with one memeber of the group out quite a substantial amount of money. more time in barcelona would have been cool, but stuck in barcelona indefinitely with only one night of lodging is definitely NOT cool, and i think the majority of the group is looking forward to paris... some have bad taste. lol pictures up later hopefully. laters!


kels - e-mail isn´t working at this computer, but hope you´re feeling ok from your teeth getting out. lots of soup and mashed potatoes and some ice cream. watch movies like nuts and do nothing is my advice. feel better soon. mom, make sure you get some good chipmunk pictures of her!!! lol see ya in 10 days guys :)

Back in France

Huge sigh of relief, we're back in France. But not for long, in fact we leave in 3 hours for Barcelona. I haven't had a chance to type anything out in Word, so this is gonna be a short entry to save on time and money, but I'll sum things up quickly and you can all check back later for more detailed info.

We left Rome with no problems and made it to the Cinque Terre, which is approximately a thousand times better than anyone could have possibly prepared us for. We had our own apartment and it was fabulous, we were able to do laundry, we hiked, we saw the Meditterannean, we saw vineyards, we saw everyday Italian life, we felt incredibly safe and laid back and relaxed... I wish we could have spent more time there. It is definitely a place I MUST return to and I don't think it will be too hard to talk my family into going with me after I tell a few stories and show a few pictures.

We got to Nice and had a fantastic Indian dinner, which we're actually repeating tonight, and settled in. Nice was nice (if I get one joke about that the joker will be smacked upon my return in 11 days) but there wasn't a whole lot to do, so today we headed to Monaco and checked out the touristy stuff, and then got stuck in Villefrance sur Mer for 3 hours. Now we're just killing time before more Indian food and a night train to Barcelona. New Years' should be fun as the girls all bought going out outfits (I brought some stuff with me) and now we'll all be decked out for the night.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy 2006!!!!

Keep checking for updates! (ps mom and dad i mailed some stuff home but DO NOT open the box... it has your presents in it and i'll have to explain them)

Longest Blog In the Entire World... EVER

Ok, so this is the posting (FINALLY) of things I've had on my laptop forever and a day waiting to post. Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. Enjoy reading the novel!!

December 17, 2005
And the European road trip has officially begun. My host family was kind enough to drive me to the bus station this morning to get to the bus to take to the airport, where I’m sitting right now. The weight limit for checked bags, of which you are only allowed one, is 15 kg. I put my bag on the scale here and it flickered high and then low and finally rested on 15.1 kg. At this point I thanked my lucky stars that I had bothered to put a little mascara on this morning, batted some long eyelashes at the rather attractive young airline employee who looked at me, nodded, and spoke the heaven-sent words “Ca marche.” Overjoyed I took my ticket, with a small sense of well-deserved self-satisfaction and continued to security check. I have certainly flown more in the past 4 months of my life than in all my other 20 years combined and this is my third time since October to fly out of Saint Geoirs so I automatically knew that security included taking off all jewelry, belts, scarves, jackets, bags, hats, and anything else that could in any realm set off the metal detector. Unfortunately the girl in front of me was not so keen on these regulations and after setting off the detector three times, each time removing more clothing and trying yet again, I finally got my chance. Then passport check. My passport is starting to look very full, which I am immensely proud of, so I actually had a little chat about my passport and my studies in Grenoble and the trip I was embarking upon with the passport control man. Oh… and did I mention this entire exchange was in French? Point – Dana. And now I sit here waiting for my plane to land so I can get on, cry about how much my ears hurt and go meet Joanna in London. So far it’s just nice to know I’m on my way. But we all know that peace and simplicity simply will not do on a trip of mine, thusly I expect something unexpected at any moment…

December 21, 2005
So we’re all sitting in a train station in Venice waiting for our train to Florence to arrive. It is absolutely flabbergasting that we’ve been traveling for four whole days already. I guess I’ll go back and kinda start from the beginning a little, since I have more time to talk about Munich and everything.
We all met in Munich on Sunday and ever since things have been going rather swimmingly. Munich was wonderful. Our hostel was certainly happening; we even met two guys there and ended up going out to a beer hall with them one night, but all that later. There was lots and lots of snow!!! Since Grenoble didn’t get any snow and I hadn’t really seen anything that really reminded me of Christmas it was so nice to be kinda cold and snowy.

The Christmas market at Marienplatz, the main square in town, was another highlight. All sorts of Christmas crafts and decorations for sale and people dressed up, and local foods and drinks for sale… too bad my backpack is already full, I certainly could have bought some things. There were even some carolers near one of the big churches and the big snowflakes were falling and it was really really cool.
Then on Monday we went to Neuschwanstein, which is King Ludwig II’s pride and joy castle in the Alps. It was actually only built about 150 years ago, but it was built in an old style so it’s really a throwback in time. The train ride from Munich to Fussen was gorgeous, with the Alps getting closer and closer and the snow covering everything… from Fussen we took a bus for a little and then got tickets. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, the busses up to the castle itself weren’t running due to snow and slush. So we walked all the way up. It took about 45 minutes and we were still WAY early for our appointed tour time so we started looking around. Off to one side there was a giant sign and a fence that said “Danger Ahead”. What does this mean to a bunch of 20-somethings? Something really cool must be over there. And we were right. After climbing over the fence and walking through knee-high snow for a little bit we got to the BEST views in the ENTIRE WORLD. Breaking the law was totally worth it.

We're so naughty...

Made it back to the castle for our tour (short and kinda lame, though the interior of the castle is pretty outrageous) and then back to Munich to meet the guys. Oh… Kim’s luggage finally showed up by the time we got back, yay AirFrance.

Eric was from Illinois, studying in Barcelona for the year and just happened to be in Munich on a trip, Erwin was from Stuttgart and living in a hostel while he looked for an apartment. So the six of us headed to a beer hall for a little beer and a lot of good German food. What an experience! Loud, crazy music, people everywhere… service was really really bad and we almost walked out without paying because we had to wait over an hour for our check, but the food was good. Kim and I couldn’t read the menu (all in German and Erwin was trying to help everyone else translate) so we asked the guy behind us what he was eating since it looked so good and he just grabbed a new fork and let us try it and ordered for us and everything… it was great! New friends everywhere.

Night train to Venice!! Waking up in Italy is pretty crazy. Took us forever to find our hostel since it wasn’t in old-town Venice, but when we were finally all checked in we headed to the Venice you see on postcards for the day. We kept having to remind ourselves that we were really in Venice, Italy. It’s almost surreal because you’ve seen it and know about it but being there is totally different. We learned very quickly that maps and directions are completely useless. It’s best to just wander randomly until you happen upon one of the large yellow signs that point you to either the train station (Ferrani), St. Mark’s Square (S. Marco), or the Rialto Bridge (Rialto). Then you play the “try and find the next sign” game and guess which road the arrow on the sign is really pointing to. Though I’m convinced that whoever put up those signs decided to take the longest way there possible, passing Uncle Luigi’s shop and Aunt Maria’s bakery before dumping you out where you wanted to be an hour after you started.
It’s really hard to describe Venice; pictures just do it a lot more justice. The buildings along the outer edges of the islands really look as if they’re just floating on the water.

View of Venice from the Vaporetti.

From far back you can’t see the foundations or the steps down to the water or anything. It’s an amazing phenomenon that they were able to build on the water anyway. We’re all pretty lucky that we got to see it since it’s sinking rather quickly. The vaporetti are amazing as well. The canals have a series of boats that take you all over, but they’re so slow and cold in the winter. We took one out to another island in the lagoon, Murano, to see the famous glass blowing workshops there and it took over an hour.

Vaporetti are great for people watching, especially the ones that go to the other islands in the lagoon, because then you’re seeing native Venetians. Fur is really big here and apparently the bigger your fur coat is the better. Some of the elderly ladies and their fur coats, fur hats, scarves, and high heels were utterly comical. We had a really long day so we went home early and slept for a very very very long time and finished touring some cute little things and now we’re here and waiting for a train to Florence. Good times, good times.

December 22, 2005
Thanks for hanging in there everyone while I waited to save all this stuff to my camera so I could post it. Internet spots abound in Europe, but my mind never seems to remember to save it all on my camera and take it along in the morning. Hope you all enjoyed the pictures from last time, they were kinda randomly assembled from Mallory and Kim’s cameras but I think it turned out very well. Ok, so Florence. Amazingly enough we were able to hit all the highlights we wanted to see in just one day!! We’re learning really quickly that it pays to be organized and have a list of general things we want to see. And the Rick Steves’ guide to Europe is pretty much our bible. We even had a little “prayer circle” after a reading from Florence 874:1 last night that the wisdom of Rick Steves would be with us in our travels the next day. And I think it worked.

We saw the Duomo… one of Mallory’s friends told her that if she saw anything in Italy it had to be that. I think we described it as “gorgeous”, “massive”, and “weird” all at the same time. The inside is so huge that you end up feeling itsy-bitsy, which is nice for Mallory and I since the average Italian is about 5’2’’ so we always feel like Gulliver in the land of the little people.

After that we ended up getting lost and walking across the river to see some residential Florence and some neat (and not so neat) churches. The Florentines do like their domes and they love to paint murals in the domes. Chiesa di San Frediano in Cestello had some really cool 3-D paintings on the ceiling that gave the illusion of more galleries and windows higher up. The Ponte Vecchio was surprising because it’s hard to tell you’re on a bridge. There are some many shops along the sides and it’s covered over on the top as well, so the only place you can see the Arno River is in the very middle. It was decorated for Christmas and they had American Christmas music playing and it felt very festive. In the middle there’s a statue and the fence around the statue is covered in padlocks. The custom, though it seems that only tourists really partake which is fitting, is that you bring your loved one to the bridge lock the lock and throw the key into the Arno as a sign of your undying love. Funnily enough, there are some combination locks as well… I suppose if you break up at least you can come get your padlock back?

Lock on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

We saw Michelangelo’s David first thing this morning which was a blessing as there were no lines when we got there and almost no one in the museum. He’s much larger in person (and smaller in other ways if you catch my drift) but Kim and I discussed how he was pretty close to the perfect man… he probably cooks well, likes to cuddle, isn’t afraid of commitment, and likes kids too. Too bad he’s made of stone. *sigh* As our last place to visit for the day we walked out to Piazzale Michelangelo. It’s a park on the other side of the river at the top of a hill and has magnificent views of the city.

View of the Duomo from the top of the hill.

Unfortunately there were a few men that thought we’d like the view of themselves better… but quickly walking away seemed to get rid of them unless Mal yelled the obvious. lol On the way back to the hostel to warm up, rest up, and get some logistical things done we stopped for the world-famous Italian gelato. We had three different flavors and decided that it really is as good as people say.

And now we’re chillin’… or rather warmin’ in the hostel before some pasta for dinner. And tomorrow we’re heading out for Pisa. Since we have an extra day here and not enough to see in a whole day we thought taking the obligatory “I’m holding up the leaning tower of Pisa” photo-op would be fun.
Later that night… Interesting fact really quickly. Tonight at dinner we found this tiny little pizzeria near our hostel and while we were there an American woman came in. We asked her where she was from and why she’s in Italy. Turns out it’s a very Under the Tuscan Sun type story. She’s from Hawaii but she was working too much at her job there and didn’t like it, so she quit and came to Florence to teach English at her friend’s school for a year. How cool is that?

December 23rd, 2005
So I went to the internet today to try and put all of this up, but of course I’m a complete idiot and forgot the connection cord for my camera making it impossible to put anything online. So now you all just get a million more things to read through Christmas. We went to Pisa today to see the leaning tower and guess what? It’s leaning. That’s all the town really has to offer though. The train ride wasn’t too long and when we got there we walked across town to the town in under half an hour and got to the plaza that has the tower and church and everything. Did anyone else not know there was a church there?

The obligatory holding up the tower pose. You end up looking like an idiot to take them, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Interesting fact about Pisa as well… it is nearly impossible to get a group picture in front of the tower. I’m not sure how this happened, but both tourists we asked to take a picture of us got nice pictures of us… but failed to include the tower. Pictures we tried to take of ourselves in front of the tower got random body parts, cut off faces, lots of sky, and very little tower. We also got some really good gelato and a walk through a very cute little market. Kim and I went out to see Florence at night this evening and had some more WAY overpriced gelato, but the city was really lit up with garlands and lights in the alleys and a Christmas tree in the main square and everything.

Ponte Vecchio in Florence at night all decorated for Christmas.

We have to get up at 5am tomorrow to catch a train to Rome so I’m gonna leave you all now. Have a great night!

December 25, 2005
Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale and all that jazz everyone. Greetings from Rome, Italy where we are actually pretty miserable. Not really sure where to even start, but for those of you that are sick to death of reading all of this and want to throw something large and hopefully blunt at me let me sum it up quickly by saying never ever ever ever come to Rome. Now I’ll elaborate:
We got up at 5 am to get to Rome early because we wanted to make sure we were able to see the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel before they closed since they’re closed today (Christmas) and tomorrow for whatever reason. All was going well, we caught the train with plenty of time and were happily asleep until the train fame to a screeching halt in the middle of nowhere and we started to freeze to death because the train stopped. After a lot of hand motions, broken Italian, and very slow English we were able to determine that the train was broken down and we needed to go back and catch another train. This meant sitting in a train station for an hour and a half and then getting on a train that was already packed to overflowing. We ended up standing in the aisle for two hours on the entire train ride to Rome. We were separated, Kim and I on one side and Mallory and Jo in the car next to us. Let it suffice to say that each of our cars had rather interesting characters standing very close to us for two hours. By the time we got to Rome it was 11:32 and we’d been on a train for 5 hours. We found our hostel (on the 5th floor of a building) and waited to check in until we realized that the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel were closing in 20 minutes. We ran down all the stairs, ran to the Metro station, got on the train, literally full-on sprinted all the way to the museum (which included a very large flight of stairs) and found out we were 10 minutes late. All the way to Rome and we didn’t get to see the Sistine Chapel. So now we refer to it as “that place we’re not talking about”. We did get into Vatican City however and St. Peter’s Cathedral.

What an incredibly massive building!! The opulence, the marble, the sheer size of it all was truly amazing. We even climbed all 501 stairs to the top of the cupola to get a view of the cathedral from the top and a view of Rome from the top of the cupola. That was fantastic.

View inside the church from up around the top of the dome.
View of St. Peter's Square from the top of the cupola.
The four of us in front of St. Peter's Cathedral. (A few moments later the Aisan man who took this picture wanted a picture of us with his family.)

Then we decided it would be a most excellent idea to eat and we checked our guidebook for a good place. Unfortunately the restaurant took us to the cleaners. Lunch cost us our food budget for all of Rome, which was certainly not a pleasant experience, but it did force us to cook our own Christmas dinner here at the hostel with our newfound Australian friends, one of the perks of this leg of the trip.
Christmas Eve Kim, Jo, our Australian friends and I headed out for midnight mass. I’d found an english speaking cathedral so we headed there to take mass. Since neither Jo nor I are Catholic we thought it would be easier to understand if it was in English. But somehow the cathedral that has cards advertising it as “The home for all English-speaking Catholics in Rome” had mass entirely in Italian. A little frustrating since even the born and bred Catholics we were with didn’t totally understand what was going on. And the poor nun on the organ had absolutely no sense of rhythm. She kept changing the beats, making it completely impossible to sing along with my favorite Christmas carols, but Kim and Jo and I had already had a mini caroling in our hostel room, so I still got to sing Christmas carols. After mass we walked home through a lit and ringing Rome which was very cool indeed. Merry Christmas.

I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.

Yesterday we were hoping for a better outlook since we’d since we’d had a good night’s sleep and it was Christmas after all. Rome didn’t have the same ideas. We expected things to be closed since it was a holiday, that wasn’t a big deal at all. But things that were supposed to be open to the public were closed… like the Roman Forum which was another big disappointment. And we walked forever and ever and ever and ended up getting lost 4 times. And there was no metro, so our plans to get back quickly were completely foiled. And all of the sights we saw, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum… none of them lived up to our expectations.

The four of us in front of the Colosseum
The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain (down)

Everything was a letdown. I don’t know if it was because these things were truly unimpressive, if we were all just in a foul mood, or if we had such grand romantic ideas of these sights of Rome that they could never live up to our expectations, but by the end of today we all decided that Rome sucks. Pardon the language… but that’s really the best word to describe it all. Don’t come to Rome. It smells like a truly offensive baby’s diaper, there are terrible beggars absolutely everywhere, people almost accost you trying to get you to buy things on the streets, it’s nearly impossible to navigate, people will and do rip you off for money at any opportunity, it doesn’t feel particularly safe at all, the crowds are bad even in the winter on Christmas day. Oh and did I mention the rain yet? Yes. No dreaming of a white Christmas for us. It rained all day… and not just a little. It absolutely POURED all day. And the temperature, while not as cold as some of the other cities we’ve been in, was cold enough to make it truly truly miserable. When we got back to the hostel every article of clothing we were all wearing was so drenched that it had to be hung up to dry and 8 hours later most of it is still wet. My passport and tour book… both of which were tucked securely inside my bag, next to my body are practically ruined they’re so wet. At the moment they’re on the top bunk under the heater trying to dry before we leave tomorrow. It was the worst Christmas EVER. Until we got back to the hostel, where we made our own fabulous Christmas dinner feast and watched movies and talked and hung out for hours upon hours. That made it feel almost like Christmas, but I still missed being home more than I thought I would. For not feeling like the holidays I really wished I was home. I don’t think I’ll be missing another Christmas with my family for a long time.
Tomorrow we’re off to the Cinque Terre, where we have our own apartment waiting for us in Riomaggiore. We had originally planned on taking a later train and getting to the town in time for dinner. Halfway through today we all decided that Rome was so horrendously awful that we’re taking one of the first trains out of Rome tomorrow morning. Lesson learned? We detest Rome. And this is coming from all four of us. I guarantee that neither Mal, Jo, Kim, nor I will EVER recommend Rome as a destination to anyone we truly care about.
The Cinque Terre should be a nice relaxing break and we have absolutely nothing planned for the entire time we’re there. Hopefully I will finally get to post this and all my pictures online… it’s starting to get ridiculous!! I hope everyone at home had a wonderful Christmas and is looking forward to New Years’! I get home in 15 days!!! Oh, and I got to talk to my family on the phone Christmas Eve and guess what?! They’re all coming to the airport to pick me up!!! That’s really exciting to me… whether or not I actually say it to them, I’ve missed them a lot this semester and it’ll be nice to be home. Well early to bed and early to rise to get the heck out of Rome and on to the best parts of this trip (read: back in France (Nice) in 3 days). Keep in touch with e-mail and comments everyone. Hope this wasn’t too much to read… and congratulations if you really did read all the way down to here. You deserve a medal or something when I get home. laters!

Firenze

Greetings from Firenze, known to Americans everywhere as Florence! It's cold here and I've got limited internet time not on my laptop, so I'm using Kim's camera to throw some pics up of the past few days, more detailed info to follow. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!

Note: All the pics were taken by Mal or Kim... thanks guys.

Christmas Market in Munich

Mal and I in a beer hall... that's a LOT of beer!!!

Neuschwanstein Castle, from our illegal lookout point.
Hohenschwangau Castle

Our new friends and us in our Munich hostel!!
Canal in Venice.Gondola in Venice.
Chillin' in St. Mark's square in Venice.
Jo, Mal, and Me (crazy ONU trio) in St. Mark's square... talk about too many pigeons.

View of St. Mark's from the bell tower.

On San Giorgio island across from St. Mark's Square.
Me and Mal on the train back out of the main part of Venice. It was a double-decker train!
The Duomo in Firenze. Crazy huge and almost overly decorated!!
Mal, Jo, and Me on the Ponte Vecchio.Mal, Jo, Me, and Kim on the Ponte Vecchio in Firenze.

and so it begins...

so we're finally all here in munich and the trip has officially started. joanna and i had a delaysd flight out of london and ended up getting in late, kim got here sunday, but the airport lost her luggage, so she's living off of us right now, and handling it incredibly well. i'd be a blithering mess, but she's just bright and cheery and havin' a ball. our hostel this first city was interesting, a very hostelly hostel. co-ed dorm and all. we met some cool people and are actually planning to all go to a beer hall tonight to get the full german experience. and because we're all from ohio, we thought it out midwesterly duty to teach the german guy the bunk below me how to play euchre. we missed our train this morning to fussen, but there's one every hour so right now we're just chillin' out waiting for the next train.
munich is fabulous. they're really into christmas here, which is nice because it didn't really feel like christmas before this. there's snow on the groun and it's been snowing since we got here. last night we were walking around the christmas market in town, which is right below the glockenspiel and there were carolers and huge fluffy flakes falling and a giant christmas tree all light up... very moving actually. kinda made me miss being home for the holidays. but then i remembered i was in munich. helped get over that. night train to venice leaves tonight at 11 so we're all looking forward to starting the italian leg of our journey, it's actually the country we'll be spending the longest in too! keep warm back home everyone. luv ya lots!

Last Day

So today is officially my last day as a student at the University of Grenoble. In about an hour and a half I will be taking (and most likely failing) my last exam and then it's all over!! I must say, I could not possibly be more excited to be done with these classes. A semester is so much longer than an ONU quarter. However, it was most exciting when I found out I didn't have to take one of my exams today. Apparently since I took it last week I was exempt this week!! Talk about exciting unexpected news! Also good news... I have my laptop with me at school right now! And do you know what that means? I can put pictures up!! So here ya go everyone!

Ok, so Patrick took us all out to eat last night on CEA (so technically on us I guess) but it was a really nice restaurant and this is me eating the FABULOUS chocolate dessert.
The group on our last night all together as CEA Fall '05.
Blurry, but a shot of the Christmast market at Place Victor Hugo at night.
My TP (Travaux Practiques aka grammar) class... well the ones that bothered to show up on the last day anyway.
Elise, my french mom!
My french family the night I made chili for them all. They actually really liked it I think. Or they all just had second and third helpings to be polite.

That's all from Grenoble right now. The next blog will probably not be from within France. The bus to the airport leaves at 11:15 on Saturday morning and then I'm off to explore Europe with Mallory, Joanna, and Kim for three weeks!!! Wish us luck! Thanks for all the comments from everyone so far, they've been very appreciated. Have a wonderful Christmas season!!

And the countdown continues

I am still sick.
I still have to take exams. The score after one day is Dana:1 Profs:1 Wednesday should show another victory for me. The good part is I know French well enough to effectively BS an essay question answer. That kind of excited me.
I am leaving on Saturday for Munich, Germany to start backpacking. It's four college-gals, three weeks across Europe, two thousand dollars, and one hope of getting out alive. Should be a really great time.
That's pretty much all. Sickness and studying have essentially consumed my entire being. It's really rather sad. What have all of you been doing out there?

Down with the sickness...

So here in the life of Dana, what indicates that it's winter? Is it snow? Seeing as my 20 years of skiiless days continue due to intense fear of breaking major bones, no. Is it the sounds of Christmas filling the air? I live in northern Ohio where we make Halloween outfits to go over snowsuits, no. Is it dropping temperatures and a chill in your bones? Getting much closer, though Ohio is freezing one day and the next you're wondering when you moved to Bermuda, no. Winter officially sets in for Dana when she gets sick. Sooooo.... I am pleased to announce that it is winter. (And all you back home thought the freezing temps, snow and carols meant something; HA!) I am here with a lovely chest cold, but having this has made me realize a few things.
Premièrement: As an ode to my fun pharmacy friends out at ONU, pharmacists here can actually perscribe things!! Aren't you all jealous? But take heart, I'm sure you can count pills better than all of them combined. After discussion options with my program director I went down to la pharmacie and spoke to the cute little old man who worked there. After 5 minutes of questions about my symptoms I coughed and then he pretty much said the French equivalent of "Oooooo.... so that's what you've got. Ouch." He pulled somthing off the shelf behind him, told me when and how much to take (side note: how cute is this? you're supposed to take a 'grande cuillere de soupe' a big soup spoon full according to both him and the box. i love France!!!) and sent me on my merry hacking way with a cheerful yet hestiant "Bonne chance!"
Secondo: Wehn I'm sick I try and avoid dairy and sugar because both make my immune system say "What did we ever do to make you hate us so darn much?" In France it is possible to avoid sugar for the most part. No dessert (which is a LOT harder than it sounds since desserts around here are as close to heaven as one gets in this lifetime... and it's friggin' Christmastide dude!!!!) no sugary cereals, that kinda thing. However, not eating dairy is not only impossible, it's considered a mortal sin I think. Par example, a discussion with my host mom at dinner tonight:
(Loosely translated since the last round of French didn't go over too well here.)
Elle : You want some cheese on your pasta?
Moi : No thanks.
Elle : Why not? (with a look like I'm out of my mind)
Moi : Well, I'm sick and cheese makes my cough worse...
Elle : (looking at me like this is the most pathetic excuse of her life)
Moi : Ok, but just a little.
Elle : Chuckles and loads it on.
Also, if you're on the Atkins diet I think they deport you around here. Bread and cheese is a course of the meal for les français, c'est impossible de coire qu'il y a les personnes qui ne mangent pas le fromage et le pain. There, I'm done with the french. Y'all are gonna have to learn some when I get back though...
Righty o... I'm off. Tommorow is the LAST DAY OF CLASSES!!!! And then I'm off to Lyon pour le Fetes des Lumières. Ha ha I snuck more french in! What does it mean? Stay tuned and find out... Tcaio!

Two weeks and tears

I can't believe I leave Grenoble in less than two weeks now. Over the summer, when it was two weeks to leaving I was packed and ready, nervous as all heck, and planning everything. Now, on the flip-side, I'm in total denial. I refuse to pack anything, or even think about packing any more than "Wow, I have a lot of stuff, it would be hard to pack all that." The mere thought of leaving brings me to tears. I'm not looking forward to the harsh realities of reverse culture shock, of missing all the things and places I've grown to love here, not being able to speak French whenever I please... Don't get me wrong though, I'm looking forward to seeing friends and family but after a visit with some people I'd like to come back here ASAP. Is that so much to ask? Heck, I'd even take more long boring classes if it meant staying. I guess in the long run it will just mean more to me when I am able to come back to my beloved France. Amazing how my opinions have changed in 4 months, isn't it?

In other news the weather here is rain rain and more rain. Where's the frigid dryness? I'd like that back. Last week of classes. Hip hip hooray!!! Have a good week everyone!

Fa la la la la la la la la

Grenoble is decking the "halles" with boughs of holly in preparation for Christmas. The streets and "places" have light displays, the little cottages are set up for the "marche de noel", which starts tomorrow, and the entire town is really starting to look festive. ere. There will be concerts and parades and games and all sorts of stuff. Makes it feel like Christmas, since the weather has flip-flopped once again (it's as bad as Ohio here!) and today it's super windy but pleasantly warm.
Tonight is gonna be cool I think. There's a new exhibit opening at the Modern Art Museum for three "artists grenoblois", so I'm going to that opening party this evening. Should be a pretty nice lil' shindig. Then me and a bunch of friends are heading out to a bar called Le Bukana because one of our American friends got a one night job offer there... He has NO clue how to mix drinks or anything though, so we're totally gonna mess with him. Order drinks that don't exist and stuch. It'll be great. And I'm meeting my Norwegian friend Torstein... so we'll see how that goes.
Exams are quickly approaching however, and that's always in the back of my mind. Next week is the final week of classes and then the dreaded exam week... Each elective class has an exam (my grammar and techniques classes don't) and you just take the exam at the same time as you have that class since electives are only once a week. If I want, I can take the DEF which is the exam you take to get a diploma from the university here. There's two parts to that, and if I pass both of those parts AND all my elective exams then I get a diploma. I dunno if I'll take it yet though. It's Friday and Saturday afternoon and I usually don't have any classes then, so it'd be a pain, and I'm not 100% sure I would pass both of them without studying, and I don't want to study for them. And a diploma just from the CUEF doesn't really mean a whole lot in the real world... so it'll mainly depend on how I'm feeling on Friday, and if Tiffany's gonna take it. lol How bad is that? But overall I've just got 4 exams, and they're mainly essays which means I'm sweet if I study for a little bit.
Hope you all have fabulous plans for the weekend! Talk to everyone later!

Random Photos

Arm's-length self-portrait of me in Kensington Gardens, London, England. With the fab hat I bought at Petticoat Lane market!
Me and my girls. Tiffany, Me, and Aileen. Regular girls or the Three Stooges? You decide. And yes, I've gone ghetto my friends. West side for life (whatever the heck that means).
This one's at Thanksgiving dinner. I don't remember anyone taking this picture, but whatever. That's me, Edward (who owns the apartment space CEA rents) and our fearless CEA group leader Patrick.
I think this pictures perfectly epitomizes everything Tiffany and I are when we're near each other. Does that scare anyone else? And we're the travel buddies... amazing we're still alive, ain't it?
Me and my girls. Sorry it's blurry, but it's the only one we're all smiling in. This was at Thanksgiving dinner (which was really nice). Tiffany, Aileen, and Me.

Woke up on Friday morning and there's like 4 inches of snow outside!! Really beautiful. Tiffany and I may go snowboarding this weekend. (Any and all prayers very much appreciated.)

London Pictures

So here are my pictures from London, hope everyone enjoys them. I decided not to put up a lot of the pics I took mainly because they're just of monuments and such... if you want to see them watch a Rick Steves' show or get online. So here we go. The first one is Westminster Abbey. I was not a fan of the Anglican churches. It seemed more about the fame and the moeny than it did about religion. There's so many tombs in Westminster and so many tourists that it doesn't even look like a church at this point.
Most churches charge an entrance fee and don't allow photography. Or if they do, it's only for those that purchase a special pass (not that I followed any of those rules of course).
Next picture is an advertisment in the London Underground. They had a lot of REALLY funny ones. I liked this one, but since this is a family friendly site I didn't put up any of the off-colored ones, of which there were many.

Then there's me and Tiff in the British Museum. If we look exhausted, it's because we are. We pretty much went non-stop 15 hours a day while we were there because we wanted to see and do everything. While we accomplished our goals, it certainly took it's toll on us.







Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This is the theatre where it premiered and the same theatre we saw it in. What a thrill (and what a price!!!) but it was totally worth it. The theatre was as gorgeous on the inside as the outside and the movie was really really good.
The last picture of London is of Speaker's Corner. It's a place on the far end of Kensington Park (tho it might actually be Regent's Park, they're the same general piece of land, but one side of the road has a seperate name). Anywho... this particular corner was designated by Parliament in 184-something for oratory. I really wanted to go and see who was speaking about what. This man had an American accent, but was speaking about Islam. He was making good points I thought until he said that the West needed to "smell the peace". I had to walk away then, because I started giggling. That's all for London. Staying in Grenoble this coming weekend.

London

Well, I guess the French blog wasn't a hit with my readers and since it's you I aim to please I suppose I'll go back to english. Which is rather fitting considering this entry is about the capitol of the original anglophone world... London.

Left on Friday in the midst of a miraculous 4 inches of overnight snow. I guess it was a Thanksgiving present. Les grenoblois don't know how to deal with snow though, so it ended up being a ridiculously long adventure to get to the bus station, but from there on out it was easy sailing... or flying as the case may be. We were there Friday afternoon through this (Monday) morning and instead of giving you a detailed description of everything, I'll just do a quick list of all the highlights we covered.

- Picadilly Circus
- Westminster
- Tower of London
- St. Paul's Cathedral
- Southwark Cathedral - stained-glass window and monument to Shakespeare
- Trafalgar Square
- National Portrait Gallery
- Kensington Gardens
- Petticoat Lane Market
- Madame Toussaud's (just Tiffany)
- Royal Opera House
- British Museum
- House of Sherlock Holmes
- Speaker's Corner
- London Eye
- London Bridge
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - we saw it in the theater it premiered in in London which was REALLY beautiful. It was a highlight for sure.

I'll put up some interesting stories along with pictures in the next few days when I get a chance to take my laptop to school, so be on the lookout. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Hiver

C'est vraiment l'hiver en Grenoble maintenant. Le dernier weekend je suis allee a Avignon et Orange avec le groupe de CEA. C'est assez interessant, mais je ne suis pas catholique donc, le Palais des Papes ne m'interesse pas beaucoup. Le ville d'Avignon est tres jolie, et je pense que c'est presque comme Grenoble (mon prof de grammaire pense que je suis tres stupide pour ca, mais elle ne m'aime pas, donc je ne souci pas). J'ai presque perce mon nez, mais j'ai eu trop de peur de ca. Je suis desolee. Cet jeudi est le fete de Thanksgiving... et pour votre information les francais ne celebrent pas Thanksgiving!! Mais, le groupe de CEA mangeront un repas ensemble a l'apartement d'Amanda et Laura. Et ensuite, Tiffany et moi vont aller a Londres pour un longue weekend. Je veux visiter Stonehenge aussi, mais il y a beaucoup de choses en ville de faire. Et mon amie Priya et ses amies vont aller a Londres cet weekend aussi, nous voulons aller au bar avec eux. Avez-vous un bon Thanksgiving! A bientot.

Des Photos d'Avignon

Language

Living in a country where you don’t fluently speak the language really makes you appreciate both the powerful complexities of language and the huge gaps that it will never be able to cross. I feel like no matter how long I lived here, and studied the language, and learned new words and phrases I would never be able to accurately describe how rose smells, or be able to write a journal like this. My brain has been programmed for 20 years in English and by this time I think it would be hard to change to a new language. But by the same token, I don’t think there’s any language in the world that can express a sunset over the ocean. There are no words that will ever be able to really tell someone what love is. How is that in the millennia or so that language has existed we have failed to create words and verbal ideas for such things? Surely sunsets and emotions have been around long before language was born and will be around long after there are people who speak those languages are gone, but as humanity we have never deemed them worthy of words? Or are they among the rare collection of things that will never be expressible in written form? Maybe there are some things that humans have endlessly tried to explain but they are forever out of grasp and must be experienced to be understood. People take language for granted. Even when we are speaking to others who natively speak the same language we get things confused and mixed up. So what is the point of language after all?

Bordeaux

A nice calm post... but things might start to get kinda wild now... stay tuned everyone. :)

Whew. Finally back from Bordeaux. Tiffany and I went for the weekend. For some reason it is nearly impossible to get from Grenoble to Bordeaux by train. We took a 12 hour night train on the way there (which was MUCH better than the last night train) and a 10 hour all day train on the way back. At least I got all my homework done, I was able to read quite a bit of my book, and I got to nap too! Bordeaux was a really nice city, albeit incredibly cold. I wore two shirts, two pair of socks, a sweater, my coat, and gloves the entire time. Our hostel room was incredibly cold, and the heat never did work, and the walls were paper thin. We could hear the man next door snoring through the wall over the music from our headphones. The main cathedral in town is really beautiful, so we checked that out on Friday. There’s also a tower next to it that offers really incredible panoramic views of the city from the top. It was Bordeaux’s jazz festival so we got tickets to one of the concerts Friday night. Right beforehand we decided to go check out their park, which was rather extensive and beautiful, but apparently it closes at dark (there were no signs whatsoever) and we almost got locked in the park since it’s completely surrounded by a very tall fence. Luckily we got out, but unluckily we went to the jazz concert. My dad really likes jazz so I’ve heard a lot of different kinds of jazz. Tiffany lives in NYC and she’s heard a lot of jazz too… so we’re both wondering why this was jazz. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was only “music” in the very broad and technical definition of the term. The guitarist and saxophonist seemed intent on showing off the top 50 most annoying noises their instruments could make, and I don’t think they or the drummer were ever playing the same song at the same time. It can be most accurately described as sounding like a group of 13 year olds who decide to start a garage band, but have never played instruments before. The first song started and Tiffany said “Oh, they’re tuning”. No. No… it was the song. The 15 minute long song. Certainly a story though. Saturday we checked out one of the museums in town and walked around a pedestrian quarter for a while. Then we went on a Chateaux/Wine Tasting tour offered by the VERY helpful and modern Tourist Office in Bordeaux. If you ever go, make sure to stop in there. The tour was really nice because it was well narrated in both French and English (my brain kept translating each language into the other…) and it was on a tour bus which was good since it was FREEZING and raining and everything was included for a very reasonable price. I am not a fan of the Bordeaux wine from the Medoc region, but it was really interesting to see different ways of making it, and some of the chateaux there are amazing, especially because quite a few of them are still the primary residence for the family that owns the vineyard. Sunday was all day on a train. The last leg was a different train from Lyon to Grenoble and it was either overbooked, or a lot of the students were riding illegally without a ticket, because by the time Tiff and I got there there were no seats left! A note to any train riders out there: After about 20 minutes of sitting on the tiny stairs, your behind goes completely numb. And when we got back to Grenoble we realized that the trams still weren’t running at night as the city’s violence deterrent… Luckily my family loves me very very much and Elise sent my brother to pick us both up and drive us both home! A very relaxing weekend of travel overall. I reccoment Bordeaux to anyone travelling in France. The city has been completely re-hauled in the past decade thanks to a new mayor. The streets are wider and safer, the tram system is gorgeous, brand new, and very easy to figure out. The VAST majority of buildings are in the classical style which gives the city a very old-world feel and the tourist office is immensely helpful. Just take lots of warm clothes! Hope everyone is having a good week!

Bordeaux Pictures

Me freezing my behind off by some wine barrels

Town Hall in Bordeaux
Me in front of HUGE wine vats
View of the city from the tower
Cathedral de St Andre