Mr. Friendly, Dr. Pepper, and more pictures

I'm home again. I got in to Tulsa around 9 p.m. on the 19th, after 20 hours of airport shenanigans and travel. The strangest part for me was arriving in Detroit ... everyone was speaking in English and they were smiling and very friendly and it was chilly in the airport. Air conditioning!

I didn't even realize that I'd gotten used to people not being particularly friendly, as I never thought I'd been slighted by a French person and also thought they did smile a lot despite what we'd been told. However, it was like coming up out of water to take a breath when the customs officer was friendly and smiled and said "he didn't bite," which was very different than the way I was greeted by the French equivalent: silence and a placid half-smile. It didn't really matter to me either way; it's customs, it's annoying, and I didn't care to have anyone make small talk with me.

Getting used to being around a lot of Americans again was strange for a little while ... and I was unhappy to be in Detroit of all places (my connection from France to Tulsa), rather than Paris. I did not want to leave Europe at all, so I sat and cried about it for a little bit, which was also due to a massive lack of sleep and total exhaustion.

The first thing I did when I got back to the U.S. was buy a Dr. Pepper. I never ever saw Dr. Pepper anywhere in France or Italy. The rest of the OSU group and I pretty much love Dr. Pepper more than any other soda, so we were all suffering with the soda choices of Coke and Coke Light for an entire month. It was sweet consolation. Another strange thing: in Europe, Coke was almost as expensive, and sometimes more expensive than, alcohol. About 7 dollars, and often more, just for a regular 16 oz. Coke. Lucky I don't really like Coke at all, so I was never tempted to pay that.

Here are some pictures from our last full day in Paris:



A Paris Metro sign. I think I saw more of the Metro subway system than any other part of Paris itself. We'd finally gotten a good handle on the routes when it was time to go home. Of course.



On our last day, we decided to take a BatoBus, or bateaux (boat) bus, to tour the city down the Seine River. I would definitely do this again ... except I'd wear sunscreen next time, as I got a pretty good burn from standing out on the deck. The cool thing about the little water bus was that you can get off at different sites like Notre Dame or the Eiffel Tower, tour around, and then get back on whenever you want. We got off at the Notre Dame stop, the St. Germain stop (to eat lunch at a classic French cafe), and the Champs-Elysees stop. A long day of sightseeing!



Actually this wasn't the last day in Paris, but the day before. I like it because I was having fun with everyone at the Louvre. A lot of the kids tried the Da Vinci Code audio tour after I said it was the bomb, and everyone loved it. I tried the regular audio tour on my second visit, and it was extremely dull and obvious.



On the last night, the whole OSU group met at the top of Sacre Coeur, or the Sacred Heart Church, on top of a hill in Montmartre. It was a crazy hike, involving a walk up toward the hill and then another 180-200 steps up to the top, but worth it to see the city as the sun was setting on our final day. We all ate dinner at a little French cafe (it was gross and reminiscent of the cafeteria food we'd eaten in Dijon every day) and hung out one last time before we all splintered into little groups ...



My little group and I headed over to the Eiffel Tower for one last visit. I went to the Tower about 4-5 times while I was in France, and I could definitely see it many times again. But my final plan was to take the elevator up to the top to see the entire city lit up at night. So, Shane and I got in line about 2 hours before the Tower closed down for the night. It was really busy there, of course, and the sign was threatening an oversaturation of people but we didn't pay attention. However, as we kept waiting in line, suddenly the sign flashed "Troisieme etage ferme" which means "3rd stage closed." There was no more going to the top of the Eiffel Tower at all ... it was extremely disappointing. But that's only one more reason to go back - I have to take that elevator to the top someday!



Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. I'd always wanted to go to this airport after seeing the U2 video for their song "All That You Can't Leave Behind," which they filmed entirely in this futuristic place. Since I was the last person to fly out that day, I had some extra time to take pictures and take a good look at everything. I ended up being at the airport about 7 hours before my flight took off! But only one bus took all of us from our hotel to the airport, and I was worried I'd get lost if I didn't go with everyone else at 6:30 a.m. ... it was worth it.



This is an advertisement in Charles de Gaulle, which I thought summed up my trip. Next to the funky shoes it says "journey," and to the right of them, it basically says "To be open to the world is to understand the differences in points of view." And that was the note with which I ended my amazing month-long adventure in Europe.

Last night in Dijon ...

Here are some pictures from our closing dinner in Dijon, hosted by the Millers. It was at a French cuisine restaurant, which I had not been to yet, surprisingly. No one really likes official French food ... it's really heavy. But I did like trying Escargot. It was really rich and delicious. I didn't really like my beef burgundy, but loved my salad paysanne and the creme brulee, of course.



Here was my table, which we all decided was the most fun one. :) Left to right: Dana, Paige, Jen, Shane, Hilary, me. I was wearing a dress I borrowed from Jenna, which everyone loved...



Hilary and I goofing around at dinner ... we shared a bottle of red and had a great time.



The Three Nasty Amigos, as we prefer to be called. We are all sitting in the Paris hotel room right now as I post this ...

Eiffel Tower, 1:30 a.m.

Most of us just hung around the hotel tonight after eating Chinese food in a little hole in the wall restaurant. I was just drinking some kir (I'm making it for you all when I get home - white wine mixed with creme de cassis, or blackcurrant, a delicacy made specifically in Dijon) and watching bits of the Daily Show with some of my classmates ... when right around 1 a.m., my friend Red got a bit antsy. He gets antsy a lot. Many would say he is incredibly impatient. Bored easily. He said he just wanted to go walk around, so I said I'd go because I was bored and wanted to see more of the city. Even though it was the middle of the night. Which it still is. So, we went downstairs and Red decided to ask the night manager people how to get to the Eiffel Tower; check. It was a straight shot from a Metro station right near the hotel. But the Metro also closes down at 1:50 a.m. So, we only had about 45 minutes to go there, see it, and come back before that time.

It was really fun. Yes, I already saw it last week, but it was also fun going with someone who hadn't seen it before. Plus, it looked different. It didn't have the goldish glow to it - it was all bright, sparkly disco lights. I love doing stuff like that. Just totally, completely random, in the middle of the night.

It's 2:50 a.m. now, and we all have to get up early (for real this time) to hit the Louvre (again), the Champs-Elysees, Notre Dame, etc. We've got to get our sightseeing on because we're leaving on Tuesday! Only two more days and then it's back to Oklahoma. It's going to be weird, to say the least ... but no weirder than going to the Eiffel Tower at 1:30 a.m. on a whim.

Jennie

Shane to French bee: "Surrender like the rest of your countrty!"

We are now in Paris after riding in a bus from Dijon. Everyone went to Hard Rock Paris last night, and we had a great time eating chicken and other American foods and also drinking out of souvenir glasses. Expensive, but a good time nonetheless. We're all glad that our classes are done. We got these little certificates from the Burgundy School of Business, as well as crappy free t-shirts, which I promptly wore.

So, today we went to Versailles. No one could really get up early enough, so we weren't able to see the whole thing. We essentially only saw the main palace, and weren't able to go into the gardens or to Marie-Antoinette's private estate. That was a bummer, but I liked everything I saw. It was beautiful and expansive ... and there were tons of annoying souvenir sellers practically blocking our path into the palace. It's about the most irritating thing about Paris: the souvenir hawkers. And they sell the most idiotic crap, like cheap scarves with Paris written all over it, and icky little Eiffel Tower key chains as well as light up Eiffel Towers ...

We all had a good time buying souvenirs (in the shops) and seeing where Marie-Antoinette used to live with Louis the 14th, but the most fun was on the Metro train on the way back to the hotel. We were standing in a pretty full train, when Hilary spotted a large bee on the window above her head. Thus, we all moved out of the way while Shane tried to beat it to death with his ... umbrella. Not exactly a weapon of choice when it comes to stinging insects, but that's all we had. As soon as he smacked it once, he'd basically just pissed it off and it started buzzing around angrily. He had to smash it with the umbrella approximately 12 times before it died ... and in the meantime we were all screaming and laughing hysterically after Shane shouted, "Surrender like the rest of your country!!" Even some of the stoic French passengers were chuckling ...

Well, I'll try to post more pictures soon. Shane, my Paris roommate, wants to use our shared Internet, and we're trying to decide what to do for dinner.

Love,
Jennie

Pirates des Caribaes

I decided to go to the French cinema to see Pirates of the Caribbean III. There were two reasons for this: 1 because I really wanted to see it and couldnt wait any longer and 2 because I was curious about seeing an American movie dubbed in French in a French theater. I was not disappointed on either count.

First of all, French theaters do not serve snacks or drinks. That is the key difference between the French and American cultures: we eat at any and all opportunities while the French never seem to eat at all, unless you count smoking. Thus there are not cup holders in the seats. As a matter of fact, there is nothing snazzy about the seats in general. No rocking chair-cup holder-arm rest mobility action. Its just rows upon rows of living room chairs, soft and fuzzy, but with very straight backs.

In addition, we watched several trailers, and only one of the movies was an actual French movie in French with French actors. The rest were either Fantastic Four-type American films or German movies with French subtitles. There seems to be a big market for German films in France, as there's an entire theater in Dijon that only plays German movies with French subtitles.

After the trailers, the theater turns the lights BACK on for a moment, then slowly lowers them back down and you get that little ad for the theater, like Welcome to Cinemark, or what have you. Usually there's a little star or filmy thing that's the theater's mascot ... well at this theater the mascot is Pinocchio with a pickaxe. Pinocchio. And in his hand a pick axe. And he rides a roll of film to the movie theater. I was and am extremely disturbed by this image, and do not understand what a weapon-wielding Pinocchio would have to do with the movies. Only in France, right? But the more and more we experience of French culture, the more I also understand why they import so much of ours: theirs really sucks.

So, on to the movie. It was fully dubbed, and I didn't really notice their mouths moving at drastically different rates ... I had trouble imagining their voices as being different than what I was hearing. Plus, Pirates of the Caribbean doesn't really need actual words because it doesn't really have any dialogue to speak of. Or, like, any that means anything.

Well, I've got to go back to class ... can't wait to see Pirates in English to compare. Anyone see it yet? I've got a little bet going regarding a scene I swear would not be shown in the U.S. version ...

Jennie

Last few days in Dijon ...

And I have definite mixed feelings about it. I'm happy because I want to see everyone back at home, and I'd like to stop having stomach cramps and I'd also like to eat chicken again and stop living out of a suitcase. However, I also love all my new buds and enjoy being abroad. Here's a picture we had the waiter take tonight at dinner:



This isn't the entire group. It was just the people who wanted to eat at the little Italian place that Lauree, Jenna and I fell in love with a few weeks ago. We had our wine tasting session earlier in the afternoon, and then afterward as we were milling around in the classroom, we told people we were going out for Italian afterward, and everyone sort of wandered over there with us. We had a lot of laughs and good food, which we do a lot. Around the table starting on the left front: Amy, Reddy, Meghan, Christie, Jenna, Shane, Hilary, Jen, Lauree, Ashleigh, Katie, me. Anyway, there aren't many boys as you can tell, but they don't seem to mind ...

This has been a pretty great experience, all in all. I may be downing Pepto-Bismol tonight, and sweating because there is no air conditioning in this dang college, but it has been pretty great. We haven't all gotten along all the time, but we've done the best we could considering the circumstances (around each other 24/7 for weeks at a time). I'm wearing a dress I bought at Monoprix, the grocery store/Target sort of place here.

See you all pretty soon!

Love,
Jennie

I even procrastinate in France!

Well, I've got a presentation due tomorrow morning at about 9:45 a.m. And one of my group members is sick to her stomach and sleeping, another one is in the lobby of our hotel playing cards, another is completely MIA, and then there's me. Blogging at school. So, I guess we'll be putting together our PowerPoint presentation on EU-US trade relations at some point tonight. But not now.

Now it's time for some pictures of Paris. Here we go:



After getting into Paris via train, we promptly had to get onto the Metro and try to figure out where our hotel was. We asked an information person at the train station and she snubbed her nose at us and told us to "call the hotel." This picture is of Jenna laughing hysterically when we realized we got on a Metro going the wrong way. Everyone else had gotten off and we had to sit in an empty subway train, waiting for it to reverse directions and start its path over again ... we had fun with it.



The Paris Metro ... we finally found our stop: Victor Hugo. It was funny because our hotel in Lyon was on Victor Hugo Way, and then our Metro stop in Paris was Victor Hugo as well ... it seems this writer is "popular" or "famous" in France for some bizarre reason.



Pretty classic shot of ole Eiffel. Hard to get something "artsy" when it's so enormous, and every picture in the world's been taken of it. This was after the sparkly white lights had turned off. They turn off and turn on at intervals.



Another shot of La Tour Eiffel.



The picture I'd been waiting all trip to take: the self-shot in front of the Eiffel Tower. Who knows what that lady was doing in the background. Ruining tourists' photos, I guess.



Julie and I in a Paris cafe, right across from the Louvre. I think I was the only one who actually liked my food. Everyone says I'm the one who will "eat anything," which those of you at home will hardly believe. But it's true: when I'm hungry, I will eat it. Plus, I like the food here. I don't know what they're complaining about half the time. I also have an upset stomach more often than the rest ... perhaps there is some link I'm missing out on.



I am a huge tartlette fan! This is a tartlette fraises, or strawberry tart. Sweet!!!! I ate about three tartlettes that day. They are so much better in France than at home, because the crust is sweeter and more graham-crackery delicious. At home it always seemed like the crust was waxy. At any rate, that's also an espresso in the shot. Since this is how they serve it here, I've gotten used to just drinking shots of espresso with sugar, or avec sucre. I've learned coffee French. :) I just say "dou-blay expresso AVEC SUCRE!!!" I had to have my strength up for walking around the Louvre all day!



The Louvre! This is after you walk into the courtyard. All four of us were so thrilled to finally see the glass pyramid ... it really made our trip. We spent a lot of time just milling about taking pictures of it and looking around and just generally being awed.



This is the entrance lobby of the Louvre. The entrance is inside and below ground underneath the pyramid. Then you go to whichever wing you want by taking an escalator back up. There are, I think, four floors of stuff. Someone said you could spend six months inside of the museum and still not see everything. So I just did the Da Vinci Code stuff, milled about, and saw the Vermeer paintings. It took hours just to do that.




Julie and I in the sculpture garden. There isn't much modern art in the Louvre at all, but this was there. And it was odd. We had one of the security guards take this picture. :)



We'll be back on Friday!

Gay Paris, the Tour Eiffel, and Da Vinci's Louvre

The plan for this weekend was to go to Lyon and then Normandy, to see more of France ... well, we made it to Lyon. It was oooookkkkkkaaaaaayyyyyy. It was like a huge Dijon, only uglier, more busy, and REALLY hot. Plus, I was coming down with a cold, so I took it out on the city itself. We did get to see some Roman ruins, and went to a museum with more Roman ruins, which was cool. But I got sunburnt and my throat killed me all day. That is neither here nor there, however. The bottom line was, we wanted to see Paris. We had to see Paris. Screw Normandy, it was all about the Tour Eiffel. We went to the train station in Lyon and changed our train tickets before sunset. We spent two hours trying to get cheap hotel rooms near the Tour Eiffel. That was Lyon for us: Paris overshadowed it. And yes, we are going to Paris on Friday. But all of us wanted to see it NOW. And I'm glad we did.

We had the chance to figure out their extensive Metro system; we got to see the Louvre; we got drunk on American food and drink at the Hard Rock Paris; we watched the sparkling Tour Eiffel at midnight. All in all, a great time. I literally teared up when I saw that Hard Rock menu, and all of the American foods on it. We've been eating so many baguettes, so much jambon (which I pronounce hambone just for fun), so much butter, that we spent over 3 hours hanging out in there. Plus, there was American rock music. And yes, the French love their American music, but all we've heard in Dijon is that Glamorous song, Rihanna's Umbrella, and Justin Timberlake, and that's it. Over and over and over again. Mixed in with some awful, truly awful French pop. Don't even ask.

So. We were in the Hard Rock Paris for so long that we made friends with the waiters and they invited us out after their shift was over ... they even drew us a map on how to get there. And we fully intended to go, but once we got back to our hotel to get ready, we all fell promptly to sleep. It had been a long day of train riding and Metro riding, and we'd come in from Lyon that day (Saturday). Before we'd even left the Hard Rock, I started (kind of) shouting, "I want to see this damn Eiffel Tower everyone's talking about!!!" Yes, everyone was staring at us because we were loud and hysterically laughing about everything. So, with a few drinks in us, we headed to the damn Eiffel Tower. And it was amazing. I knew this was going to be a moment I'd always remember, so I was in each moment. Walking up the steps of the Metro to the tree-lined boulevard above. I could see this sparkling on a building and wondered what it was ... I followed my eyes across the street, and it was the Eiffel Tower that was sparkling. I had no idea that it periodically starts sparkling with white lights. I even filmed it with my camera. It was amazing. We oohed and ahhhed all the way down the street and took tons of pictures and were begged to buy stupid things from street vendors. It was beautiful, and it was much bigger than I ever imagined. We didn't get to go up into it because it was too late, it closed at 11 p.m. It's 11 euro 50 to go all the way to the top, which I fully plan on doing next weekend. So, we spent the rest of the evening sitting in the grass nearby, joking around, laughing, and soaking in the sights.

The next morning, we got up and returned to the Eiffel Tower. We had to see it again and it was only 1 km from our hotel. Not as pretty in the daytime, but still a sight to behold. Plus, we didn't look as icky for the pictures. Then we headed to a little French cafe to fill up before a long, long afternoon in the Louvre. We were so psyched.

It made our trip to be able to go into the Louvre ... all of us, Lauree, Jenna, Julie and I have all been waiting our whole lives to see the things inside. So, we again took tons of pictures and then waited in the extensive lines to get inside. Julie and I split off from Lauree and Jenna and got the Da Vinci Code audio tours at 10 euro a pop. We both loved the book and wanted to see everything from the book and movie ... and it did not disappoint. It was really fun, and made the whole thing really mysterious and exciting, with audio bits from the movie, and it was narrated by Jean Reno. Of course it involved going to the Mona Lisa (Oh Lame Saint!), and I elbowed my way right to the front so I could stare for a long time. It was amazingly beautiful in real life. There were also lots of other Da Vincis, Caravaggios, Raphaels, Berninis, Vermeers, everything you'd ever want to see.

The audio tour only lasted an hour, and then Julie and I felt a bit lost ... there's just so much to see and without a tour guide, it's daunting. So we poked around, went to see Vermeer's work, and then hit the gift shops. I bought a souvenir for Johnny and Grandma and of course, myself. Had to get a shirt with the Venus de Milo on it. And for Johnny, a goofy compass that looks like the one from the Vermeer painting L'Astronome. Hope you like it, bro!

After the Louvre it was time to head back to our hotel to collect our baggages (as they call it), and then through the maze of the Metro, finally to the train station, and back to Dijon. Which is when I decided to call everyone ...

I will post pictures hopefully in a few minutes, but if not, soon!

Jennie

Venezia in a few short pictures

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from Venice. It was extremely hard to choose which ones to post, and even harder since my online time is almost always limited. Right now we're in Lyon and actually have free wee-fee, which is why I'm writing now. All of us are pretty homesick. I feel like I'm coming down with a some kind of cold and have a headache, stomachache, and heartache all at the same time. I just took about 5 different medicines and hope to go to bed pretty soon. We're heading out for another 3 hour train ride to Paris tomorrow. I almost want to just head back to Dijon and lay down for the rest of the weekend, but I'm already in, payment-wise, for the hotel in Paris so there's no going back now. And it's incredibly hot here, and I'm sunburned, and we've been sweating for about 15 hours straight. Oh well.

Venice. I'm already missing Italy. It was like a dream come true ... we almost went back again this weekend because everyone loved it so much. Must go back there as fast as humanly possible. Here are a few pictures:



One of the first pictures I took in Venice, on the waterbus. I loved taking the water taxis everywhere. Riding down the Grand Canal was one of my favorite things because you could see a lot of Venice.



My traveling companions: Jenna, Reddy, and Lauree. The others in our group were me (of course), Brian, Katie, and Amy.



Gondolas on the Grand Canal. A busy day on the water!



San Marco's Plaza, just after the rain began ... all of the pigeons that flood the square flew off as soon as it started raining. It continued raining for more than 24 hours afterward ... as I've mentioned, my "souvenir" from Venice is a new umbrella.



From the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal. Breathtakingly beautiful.



On the Bridge of Sighs, inside the dungeons of the palace in San Marco's Plaza. It's the bridge that prisoners walk over just before they're executed, and this is the last view of Venice and the outside world that they see before they die.



Me, just excited to be alive and in Italy and with my buddies ... and also wearing about 17 items of clothing since it was cold and rainy!



An aerial view of San Marco's Plaza from the big bell tower (as seen in an above picture - the reddish tower) ... it was 6 euro to go up to the top, but it was so worth it to see almost all of Venice from above. You can see the pigeons pecking around down there.



Me, in a new French shirt, on the one sunny day we had in Venice. Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.



More waterfront Venice.



Jenna, me, and Lauree on a little bridge in Venice ... we were rocking our new umbrellas! Reddy made us stand and wait for a gondola to come by before he took the picture ... the gondola rides were about 120 euro, so we didn't end up doing it! (120 euro = about 180 bucks)

Well, that's all for now ... I'm about to get some rest here in Lyon. We had an ok dinner that was cheap, all of us are tired, and we're going to sleep in tomorrow. A very rare occurrence. Love to all, and don't forget to write me!

Jennie

Fun France and Italy facts!

In France, Cool Ranch Doritos are called Cool American instead.

At crosswalks, the button you push to let you walk across the street says "Appel."

Everyone knows we are Americans because we wear flip-flops everywhere ... no European wears them.

Elevators are TINY here. Or non-existent.

The first floor in any building is consider 0 floor; the second is the first, and so on. We walk up 3 flights of stairs to school every single day, to class, after class, and for breaks.

Basically every French person owns a dog. And lets them poop in the street. And takes them everywhere.

The Italian accent isn't really exaggerated. They really do talk like everything's a party, and say Mama Mia!, and add an "ah" sound to the end of everything.

Store hours are completely random. Sometimes they open at 9 and close at 5, and other times they close early or open late, and sometimes they don't open at all. Everything really IS closed on Sundays.

Right now as I'm typing this at the school, the security guard is just standing behind us, watching us chat and surf the web. Our rapid-fire English draws attention everywhere we go especially since Americans talk louder than any other nationality. I think he's just a creepy guard though. Glad there are a few of us here...

Bus drivers in France get breaks every 2 hours ... so no matter where we are, he has to stop and we all have to get out while he smokes or whatever for a half an hour.

No one eats dinner until really late. Restaurants don't even open until 7. It really bothered us at first, but then last night a group of us were out at a restaurant and I said, Wow we're eating dinner early, and it was 10 o'clock! Also, it's difficult to get the check. You have to specifically ask for it, and dinner is always a 2 hour affair, minimum.

The French don't have hand towels in hotels at all. No matter how nice they are.

In many places, there is only one public toilet for women and men to use together. Sometimes I'd run into American men in the toilets, they'd look up in shock and then say, I just can't get used to sharing bathrooms with women! It is weird, but not as weird as you think.

In Italy, they don't really have toilet seats. Their toilets look like ours, but without the seat part. I chose the hovering option, while some of my traveling companions covered it in toilet paper a few times and then sat down.

Last night I was chatting with a French student from the school here, and he was completely disbelieving that if he went to America people would LOVE his accent. He hates it, but I reassured him that he'd have many girls to choose from if he went to the United States...

This is your body on travel

I wanted to write a little about health, feeling good, and what goes wrong while traveling. Clearly it's different for everyone, but I haven't even slowed down enough to consider how I've been feeling really ... so I wanted to take note of what's different and what's the same about how I feel while traveling for an extended period.

Several people in our group of OSU students took ill right after we got here, but not in the way I'd expected. I figured someone would get traveler's diarrhea or something, but no, I haven't heard any complaints about that. And all of us drink out of the faucet. No, two of the students have severe colds with a really bad cough. Both of them are my good friends, Hillary and Reddy, but I haven't gotten anything like it from them. Several of us also have severe allergy problems. I've taken an allergy pill almost every single day because sometimes it's hard to catch a breath and I'm always stuffy or sneezing. It's not a big deal overall. What's funny is when my friend Reddy went to the pharmacie here to get something for his cough: we discovered that most drugs are sold over the counter. He asked for something to help his cough and they gave him a cough syrup WITH CODEINE in it. He has it with him at all times now, and says in his Indian accent, "I love eet." Anyway, maybe it's the mold from all of the rain here in Dijon, but many of us cough, sneeze, and hack every day.

Just a few days ago, another few people got bad stomach cramps, which I think was from some food they ate. But overall, no one's been sick enough to stay home from school or miss out on anything due to stomach problems. Today was the first day that I felt nauseous and had to lay down, and we're already two weeks into the program. I already feel much better.

Overall, I've eaten a lot less since I arrived. Mostly it's due to the fact that the free meals are not terrific. I eat them, but I'm not excited about it. Right now, I can tell that I'm a bit hungry but I'm in no rush to go find something to eat. The foods are pretty bland. I eat a few sweet rolls with butter in the morning with some coffee, and then a vegetable and rice with some sort of meat or entree at lunch, and then a nice dinner or nothing. The free food that we can access if we don't use our meal cards at lunch is pretty much the worst thing ever: there were actual FEATHERS on the chicken pieces we got, and it's extremely dingy. So, I only ate there once. We've had some nice dinners, though: I loved eating at the creperie. I miss the following foods: potatoes, chips and salsa, guacamole, cheddar cheese, big breakfasts from First Watch and chicken. Nothing here has chicken in it. I've eaten jambon, or ham, at meals where I have meat. At any rate, I go hungry, but I don't really notice.

Due to the fact that I'm around 20 college students all the time, there is alcohol around constantly. Last night, I wanted to start working on my presentation, but my other partner and someone else had broken open some wine. Thus, I started drinking instead. It's very difficult to get through a day without imbibing whatsoever. Which leads me to dehydration. I've been dehydrated since I left Tulsa. To be perfectly gross, there hasn't been a single time I've peed since I got here that it hasn't been intensely yellow. We sweat all the time, because we're always walking or in the heat, we're always on the go and have to pay for water, and we just can't keep up with how much water our bodies need. I try to drink as much as I can, but it's not even near enough. However, dehydration comes in handy becasue you have to pay for a lot of touristy-area bathrooms. I may go to the bathroom twice a day. Just writing about this reminds me of how thirsty I am. But there are no water fountains ANYWHERE, and I'm at school with no hope of getting some more water until I get home, a 10 block walk.

My two main problems have been sleep deprivation and foot problems. Sleep deprivation for obvious reasons: I'm always on the go and can't say no to doing anything. I love to have fun with everyone and want to see everything and do everything, so I'm always exhausted. I got 45 minutes of sleep on the train home from Venice last Sunday night, then got up, went to school, and went all day long and hung out at night until 1 a.m. By Wednesday, I finally broke down and took a two-hour nap.

My feet are an issue becasue they are my main mode of transport. Now that I have to walk everywhere, I'm very tuned in to their behavior and moods. They are grumpy a lot of the time. After our trip to Switzerland, I had some severe cramps in my feet, which caused shooting pains every time I stepped down. By the time I'd walked to school and back, I'd have tears in my eyes. And I was very upset because I needed to get around and wanted to sightsee but my feet were just torn up. All of our feet are ugly to behold. They have blisters, they are black on the bottoms, and they are rough. But they are well-used. My feet were constantly swollen while we were in Venice, and are better now but not the best.

I've been a lot less anxious than I thought I would be. I've taken a few Xanax, such as for the night train, but overall, less than I thought I'd need. I've been so busy, I don't have time to be nervous ... and even when I do feel some anxiety coming on, I'm usually distracted by someone or something enough for it to pass. I like it this way.

Well, it's getting late and I don't know where anyone else is right now ... we're getting ready to part ways for the weekend. Lyon & Normandy here we come!

Love,
Jennie

Since you've probably forgotten what I look like ...

I thought I'd refresh your memory! Yesterday we took a long, windy, but still beatufiul and entertaining, bus ride to the Abbey de Fontenay and to Auxois-en-Semur. Which meant only one thing: Scenario Pictures! My new BFF LOL Jen and I shouted phrases and made faces into my camera for at least 30 minutes ... here are some of the amusing results. Or at least amusing to us. :)



Before we left the school. All appears normal.



Decided to do the first thing that came to mind when we said various TV show names. This is titled, "Salute Your Shorts."



"American Idol"



I don't recall what this was all about. Try to think of something funny in which this picture would fit.



And, finally, what I feel was my finest acting moment: "Bad Hair Day." It was actually hard to get my hair back in order after that, but one must suffer for their art.

At any rate, we have a lot of fun. I will post more serious traveling pictures soon.

Love,
Jennie

Ridin' the Rails: Part Deux

So, we had a great time partying it up - 8 people squashed together in one tiny couchette (that's what they're offically called). However, as two a.m. rolled around, we really needed to try to get some sleep since we had class at 9 that morning (our train left Sunday evening at 8 p.m. and arrived in Dijon at 5:30 a.m., and then class started at 9 a.m.). So, we started pulling down the bunks and getting arranged. But then two of my college classmates decided to literally SHARE a tiny bunk - not even the size of a normal twin bed - which was maybe 3 feet away from me. Shenanigans ensued, which featured nausea-inducing slurp noises and such like. Also, the Italian man who spoke no English promptly fell into a sleep in which he frequently called out in either Italian or French random things. All of a sudden he'd turn violently and shout "Oh la la!" or some such. And he was in the bunk directly above me. I took to walking from car to car, as the train swayed dramatically. It was also going very fast, so the wind was whistling and rattling the cabin windows. Also, going between the coupled cars was an adventure, as they were shaking and getting the doors open and closed was difficult in the dark. But I couldn't sleep. I even went into the one of the bathrooms and sat on the toilet seat, writing in my journal for a little while until someone padded out in the night to use it. Here's some of what I wrote:

"Right now I'm sitting in the bathroom because Person A and Person B are sharing a bunk and being disgustingly loud. I've been so homesick today. I'm locked in a toilet in a dirty night train. It's so weird. Dr. Miller (our professor here in Dijon) said that oftentimes students on the study abroad program have a great first week, are up and at 'em every day, but then by the second week become massively depressed and homesick, and then sort of come out of it by the third week. I don't want that to be me. And I don't feel like actually going home; I just have a vague empty feeling that nags at me sometimes at night. It's stupid because I'm having a great time and I love everything I'm seeing and doing and all of my new friends ..."

Later, when I was back in my bunk and the shenanigans in the nearby bunk had subsided, I wrote some more by this weird blue light that are in all the couchettes. I suppose it's some sort of night light, and maybe they think that blue is the least disturbing, but frankly it makes everything look eerie and surreal. And there's no way to turn it off - we tried several times. Here's what I wrote by the eerie blue light:

"Still on the night train and can't sleep as the weird Italian man keeps calling out and moving or groaning. So. Night trains are first of all noisy: the creaking of the rails, a steely high-pitched whine and the howling wind. Earlier, when I was walking the narrow, slightly spooky halls, the windows were shuddering and teh steel floor boards fluttered from the wind. Then there's the sound of the snoring ... a pretty funny symphony of sleep, which between the Aussie husband and the Italian, is a chorus of bad sleep by itself. As for the smells - well, these bunks are clearly unsanitary, made of the same plastic-y material they use for airplane seats, but scratchier and older. They smell of world-weary travel - the bad kind. In my coach, it also smells of stale alcohol, spilled Fanta and the Aussie wife's fading perfume. Little bottles of grappa and Bailey's are rolling down the hallways because of our room's little party earlier tonight ..."

So, that was as far as I got before I fell asleep on my book. Only to be awakened a few minutes later by more French phrases and coughing. I'd look up once in a while and the Aussie wife, Sana, and I would just shake our heads at each other as if to say, What can you do?

I'm planning on taking a nap today and then doing some laundry. The laundry here is expensive. Must go eat lunch ... love everyone and miss everyone muchly. :)

A Beaune to pick

We went to the Burgundy region last week on a little bus excursion for class. We saw the small neighboring town of Beaune, a lot of vineyards, as well as one little family-owned vineyard, owned by the family of our own tour guide, the awesomely funny Claude. And believe you me, a funny Frenchman, a truly funny one, is very rare indeed. Here are the pics of the Burgundy region ...



The small town of Beaune ... Claude told us that the conservative townspeople didn't want the railroad coming through their city ... so instead, Dijon got the train and subsequently became much more modern and populized (a word?). Now Beaune is just this little antiquated city on the outskirts. Some people think it's good that way, some think it's bad.



A large vineyard we stopped at on the way ... it was a Clos du something (don't remember?). A Clos is very different from a Chateau, and one cannot just call themselves these specific names. There are definite reasons for both, which I do not recall at this moment ... I shall consult Wikipedia in the near future. :)



I took this while on a hill overlooking the Burgundy region near a beautiful old castle ... we walked through the remnants of where the moat used to be.



We visited an old "hopital" in Beaune ... not in use anymore, clearly, but it's still set up so that you can see how they used to run things. This was a large room lined with red-colored beds. The beds are all too short, because they thought it was a bad idea for sick people to lay down - they thought they would die, so they made them sit up in short beds.



Scenario picture! We were making the first face that came to mind when we said, "Someone just left this winery to you in their will!" Jen and I on the bus. I look a bit worse for wear, but oh well. That's travel. :)



Claude the tour guide's winery! Or at least his family's. He lives in the village nearby. We got to see all the workings of a tiny, 5-acre winery ... including the wine cellar underground. We also had a wine tasting - it was a bit dry for my taste but I still drank it all!



The wine cellar ... it was very dank and moldy and cold down there. Also, the ceilings were extremely low, and covered with a fine black mold and smelled strongly of alcohol. I liked it, but some people really felt claustrophobic down there.



And one more installment in the Strange Signs Across Europe Series ... a few little posters for some kind of who knows what, hanging in the doorway to an ancient wine press. Out of place much?

Ridin' the rails

and smelling like a hobo to boot! Last night we came home from Venice via another night train ... I was a little more anxious about this trip because my first experience was not that hot (the croupy little baby, the exhausted coach mates). However, last night played out more like I imagined: like a trip on the Hogwarts Express only with vodka and Fanta mixers, a randy, foul-mouthed Australian couple, and a lecherous Italian man who bought at least a dozen tiny Bailey's and Grappa bottles to get the girls in his coach more drunk ... at any rate, it was fun. There were some of my American cohorts and the aforementioned foreigners as well as a Romanian girl named Cornelia. We were extremely loud and mostly drunk which helped pass the time until about two in the morning which is when things got sketchy ... and this will have to be a two-parter because the lobby of the business school is flooding with black suited French students and it's almost time for lunch in the cafeteria, so time to see what kind of interesting food is being served today. It was ratatouille and couscous the other day ... not bad.

Pigeon blood and other unforeseen adventures ...

I'm in Venice right now. Just stopped into an Internet cafe because we had some extra time before dinner in San Marco Piazza. I still feel like I'm swaying back and forth from the water taxis that you take down the Grand Canal to get around the city ... but it's a nice feeling. We arrived in Venice yesterday morning, all bleary-eyed from the night train. If you're ever considering a night train somewhere, RETHINK the idea. Unless you know everyone else in your little coach, and even then, it's a pretty bizarre and icky experience. In a tiny coach, they fit SIX beds, three bunked on each side, with maybe a 1x3 foot extra space in the middle. It's really tight quarters, and a few of my friends and I were stuck with a sick family with a small infant who was also sick. We stayed in the "lounge car" for as long as we could stand up. It was like a violently swaying snack bar - a gross one. But we met other French people heading to Italy, and other Americans from different colleges. Overall, it was interesting ... but a bumpy ride and difficult to sleep.

At any rate, we got into Venice, checked into our hotel, and then went right to Venice. We rode in a water taxi all the way down the Grand Canal, a snake-like canal that goes all the way through the middle of the city. We got off at San Marco Piazza, where there's a famous basilica, and thousands and thousands of pigeons. You can feed them and they just jump into your hands. So, of course I was game to do that - but one of the guys in our group decided it would be a really fun idea to take off his shirt, lay down in the middle of the piazza, and have us pour bird seed all over him. It was a sight to behold and we laughed like crazy. However, after that some of us noticed that because the pigeons are fighting each other for the food we give them, they are bleeding in places. A few pigeons flew into my hands and got blood all over my arm! That was one of the weirdest substances I've ever had on my body ... I paid a euro to use a bathroom to clean off.

The pay-bathroom in San Marco Square was another experience in and of itself ... we saw that it cost a euro to get in, so we paid it to a man standing right outside. However, once we walked up the stairs to the bathroom, we saw that you had to pay THERE, to an actual official attendant ... so the guy outside taking our money was a total con artist. My friend and I RAN back down the stairs and found him just about to leave, and we got our euro back. Not so for some of the other tourists though. I thought it was extremely funny, though, as I'd never come into contact with such a con artist before.

Also, the food here is better than it was in France. I was losing a lot of weight in France because I didn't really like much of the food there - it's very fatty or just bland or the bread was really hard. But here, everyone makes cappuccinos all the time and it's just amazing. Also, the gelato is delicious, and the paninis are to die for ... I could get very fat staying here much longer. It's like my appetite's finally come back - I haven't seen it for awhile!

Today is a national holiday in Italy, so we're hoping for something interesting to happen in the square tonight ... we'll probably be here late after dinner. A gondola ride is planned for tomorrow ... so romantic, so beautiful, so ancient.

Time to go find some gelato, eat something cheesy and delicious and pasta-y ... and wait to see Venice at night.

Grazie - Bonjourno - Prego!

Jennie

Night train to Venice ...

We're leaving on the night train tonight at 11 pm and will arrive in Venice first thing in the morning. I don't have a lot of time to update but wanted to keep you posted on the travel plans! I will try to write again today, but if it doesn't happen, I'll try to write a big post when I get back with pictures too!

Jennie

just a-journalin'

Since I've arrived, I've been journaling constantly ... there's so much going on that there's always something new for me to process or think about or observe. For a writer, it's exciting because there's a lot of grist for the mill, a lot of new, meaty experiences to sink my teeth into. And right now all of my groupmates are searching the internet for hotel deals in Venice, which I'm hopeless at. Clearly. So here's a transcription of some of my recent journal entries.

From May 26, near midnight:
I think photographs can say so much more than my utterly incompetent words ever could. In fact, as I journal, I'm feeling extremely frustrated. The words won't express how I feel at all. So, let me try to set this small scene: it's near midnight, downstairs in the lobby/kitchen area of the Villages Hotel; the night manager has one of the glass doors open and he's talking loudly in French on the phone ... two of my classmates just came in from dinner and said they tried some bizarre mixture of liquer and beer. The outside street is quiet, but over my iPod I can still hear the clinking of tiny espresso cups from the neighboring cafe, and I can hear chatting and coughing wafting in along with a cool breeze from the open door ... a small red motor scooter revs down the road, past the red sign on the door to the hotel that says Bonjour! Entrez vous etes les bienvenus. As well as variations on that theme in German and English. My body is sore, my head is hot, I'm a mess ... but I'm also completely peaceful.

A castle, a hotel and a lake - it's Switzerland!

More pictures ...



For some reason, I've been taking pictures of every weird sign I see ... this one is probably my favorite. I'll have to post my Strange Sign Series at a later date, when I'm less scatter-brained.



Geneve, Switzerland ... everyone rides motor scooters around Europe.



The famous Lake Geneva. It was big, it was watery, it was a lake. It was beautiful, sure, but everything else was more interesting than it, really. Such as the chocolates.



Montreux, Switzerland ... I really, really loved Montreux. If I could go back, I'd skip Lake Geneva and just spend an entire day roaming the waterfront in Montreux. It had such an easy, breezy feel, and was just gorgeous. Plus, there were so many different types of people and foods and trinkets ... very cool.



The mountainous, watery vista on the cobblestone path toward the castle ...



The castle in Montreux ... it cost 12 euros to get in, and the line was enormous, so I had to enjoy just the outside. Which was amazing, in and of itself.