The Sahara Desert and Camels

we took an early morning bus from tinghir to get us most of the way to the desert. it took us to a town, that honestly i'm not sure i ever knew the name of. after many different people tried to be our guide and choose their taxi, we finally got our own cab and drove for a bit. got out. grabbed all our stuff and walked to the other side of town. to get back into the exact same cab! i guess he wanted a lot more money than our friend nabile thought we should have to pay, especially when we could walk to a location where a cab would be cheaper. i believe it was simply a coincidence that our cab driver beat us to the location and ended up driving us anyways! we were really glad to have our own guide with us because he was able to make sure we didn't get ripped off.
as we drove i thought it was interesting that there would be nothing anywhere nearby the road, then suddenly a clump of billboards, then nothing, then a clump of billboards again. i did my best to take a picture, but it didn't turn out all that well:

we finally arrived at an oasis and our hotel, le soleil bleu.

we were welcomed by the owner and surprise surprise, fed lunch!

we were also greeted by hama the cat, who tried to join us in our meal.

after relaxing for a bit, it was time to be introduced to the camels that we would be riding into the desert. i was very excited about this. i had tried to stay as uninvolved in the planning of this trip as possible, but i had told my mom that if we didn't get to ride camels i would be very upset.

we got to pet the camels, and they got to meet us.

after saying an initial hello to the camels, we went to get our warm clothes together and use the restrooms one last time before heading into the desert. but the hotel owner had a surprise in store for us as well. turbans for everyone, and a kaftan for me!

how moroccan are we?! haha

soon enough we were ready to mount our camels. i would like to point out now, that getting on and off a camel is a little bit like riding a roller coaster. the camel is sitting when you get on. and when it stands up you better hold on tight because first you almost fall off forwards as he stands on his hind legs, and then you almost fall of backwards as he gets is front legs up as well. or something like that.
one we were all on our camels (mom on bob marley, dad on a camel he named einstein, and me on jimi hendrix), we were led off into the dunes.

i don't think i've ever seen that much sand in my life. it seemed to go on for eternity. and it was a color so different from the sand i see when i go to the beach. orange. with hints of blue in certain areas, that i have been told is natural. oh and some of the finest sand i have touched. i suddenly wanted to make a sand castle, but seeing as it's the desert and not the beach, there wasn't exactly water to make a potential sand castle possible, so i gave up on that thought pretty quickly.
so we walked (well our camels, our guide, and nabile did - mom, dad, and i were riding the camels) for over an hour into the dunes in search of the bivouac (tents) where we would be sleeping that night. how our guide new which way to walk, i will never understand. considering when its windy the dunes change, and therefore the same path may not always be taken, i was quite impressed.
finally though we arrived, my butt already feeling bruised from the ride. but my excitement about getting to ride a camel had certainly not diminished because of this fact.
we dismounted and our guide parked the camels for the night. how do you park a camel, you might ask? well you simply tie one of it's knees which prevents it from standing up! (don't worry, they didn't do this back at the hotel because there was actually something already in the ground they could tie them to).

camp was already set up when we arrived, and while we waited for our guide to make some tea and food for us, mom and nabile decided to try out sandboarding!

when we all gathered near the tents for the evening, we discovered there were two kittens who lived out in the desert! they were so little and cute, but were a little skittish around us.
tea was brought out, delicious tajine was served for dinner, and drums were played. just your average night in morocco of course.
later a fire was even made, which i thought smelled really good haha. but i was exhausted and a little cold so i stayed covered on the mats under blankets. finally we did head into the tents for bed. i took off my shoes and was not surprised at all by how much sand i found in them.

i was a little surprised when i woke up in the morning and realized that though we were sleeping in a tent and it was pretty cold out, i had actually been the warmest i had been in a couple of nights. i guess when you spend that much time in the desert you realize how warm the blankets you bring for your tourists need to be!
soon after getting up and getting our few things organized, we were mounting our camels again and preparing to head back to the hotel.
during the night some of the camel tracks on higher dunes had already disappeared because of the wind. but as soon as you saw the poop, you knew we were on the right track.
ensuring that we got to experience a little bit of everything, it even started sprinkling for a few minutes when we were getting close! didn't think i'd see rain in the desert, but i guess i should be prepared for anything!
when we finally returned, our guide took us aside for a minute and explained to us that being a guide for the hotel might be his job, but his real interest is in fossils, and he promptly pulled out some he had found and polished. my parents of course bought some, and we thanked him for everything.
then, we got to take showers! in showers that actually had consistently hot water! i was so excited. i got to feel cleannnn again. we relaxed for awhile after that, played some music with the owners, then went for a walk to see "town" and the other hotels in the area. by the time we got back to the hotel, it started getting a bit windy, and then the wind got pretty bad. we couldn't believe our luck! the weather had been perfect for our arrival and our time in the dunes, and was only getting bad as we were about to head to our next destination.
we ate some dinner and were finally driven into town where we would be catching a bus to catch a train to head to casablanca.
goodbye sahara desert, hello final destination of our week long moroccan adventure!

Tinghir and the Todra Gorge

we took a 6 hour bus ride from marrakesh to reach our next destination, tinghir, which seemed to me to be a modern day "downtown" to the village we were staying at in the todra gorge, which is actually a few villages away by cab.
joy of joys, this lovely bus ride started at 7 am and wasn't all that comfortable. but i did try to get some sleep, and luckily there were two stops - one for coffee and to use the bathroom (during which the lack of western toilets did not please me), and another for lunch (where i was overjoyed by the presence of western toilets).
there was some nice scenery along the way though.

and i got to watch mom attempt to text our host. look how hard she concentrates on it! haha

finally, however, we arrived in tinghir and just had to wait for our host's friend to come get us (long story short our host ironically had to head to marrakesh to visit the consolate while we were on our way to meet him, but anyways). while we were waiting though, we had a few people try to talk to us and a couple guys even tried to tell us they could find us a place to stay. one (and one of the younger ones i might add), turned to me and told me he had a guest house where i could sleep. i told him no thanks, but thanks for the offer haha.
the friend did arrive though and drove us first into the gorge to check it out before taking us to the hotel we would be staying in the first night.

we arrived at the hotel and met the very welcoming owner and his nephew (who would actually become our guide and go with us to the desert). we started off with some food. typical bread with amazing honey and butter so creamy and light when i first looked at it i seriously thought it was brie cheese. and some olive oil. and olives and apricot jam (though i didn't either of those).

we then got to go up to the roof of the hotel and get a view of the village. i have to say it's MUCH smaller than my view from fourviere in lyon, but it's nice.

mom and dad ended up taking a hike while i decided to crash in our room since i was already completely exhausted. and we weren't even halfway done!
that night we had dinner with other guests as well as the owner his nephew/our new friend nabile. drums were brought out as well as some other guitarish looking thing that i have no idea what it was called.

as the evening came to a close i was ecstatic that i would be able to take a shower (we hadn't had a working one available to us in marrakesh), though i didn't learn until after i had taken my fairly cold shower that warm water was available if i asked for it. but at least i was clean again!

and stylish too...

we slept in until 9 the following morning and took our time eating breakfast (the same food we had been provided with upon arriving). but soon enough we were getting ready for our day and heading to the school near by with nabile where our host, abdelaziz, teaches so we could see hi and when he would actually be ready to see us. he teaches a class of fifth graders and they were all so cute. they were excited to see americans and tried to teach me numbers. in bereber and arabic i might add, which made it even more difficult for me when i was struggling in the first place haha. i think i'll stick to french for now.

then we met nabile's uncle in my dad's search for new batteries for his camera. which ended in his inviting us into his shop for tea, us reading him postcards that he had received, and my parent's buying a carpet from him.

we ate lunch back at the hotel when abdelaziz finally came to join us, and then went on a hike to move all of our stuff to his apartment where we would be staying that night. (other than in marrakesh, we wouldn't be spending more than one night in the same beds).
remember how i said "downtown" was a cab ride away from the village we were staying in? well we walked about halfway there as we tried to catch a cab to get us there more quickly. luckily this meant walking more downhill than anything, because it was far more enjoyable than having to walk would have been. and nabile even made my mom an oragami camel with grass!

i also particularly enjoyed the different signs warning cars to be careful.

and eventually we got a cab to take us the rest of the way. i was able to buy postcards which i had been forgetting to do on past trips, and we picked up some food our host would cook for us later. my parents also bought some wine which only exists there so the tourists can buy it because i guess it's illegal for muslims to drink.
after making plans with a cab driver to come up to the village to get us early the next morning so we could catch our bus to the desert, we headed back up to the village for the evening.
evening festivities involved hanging out with the hotel people, but this time at a blind mans house, and listening to them play their music.

and around 10pm we finally headed back to our host's place to eat some dinner. oh yea, they eat dinner pretty late here. and then bed time! because of the whole snoring situation i was allowed to sleep in a separate room from my parents which made me super happy of course. :)

Orika - mountains and a waterfall

Day 2 in morocco was probably the only day we slept in even a little bit, and by that i mean we woke up at about 9 am. After a lovely breakfast with the family, we grabbed a bus back into vieux Marrakesh. mom had to run to the consolate as a favor to our future host, so dad, khalid, and i wandered around the big square. first we stopped because dad saw snakes and felt obligated to get his picture taken with them.. which of course cost us a little bit of money, and i somehow ended up with a snake around my neck too.

next up i made sure we got more of that amazing orange juice. one sip the day before and i was obsessed. the bills we had to pay for it were too large for the man to give us change, so khalid ran off to get change for us. meanwhile, we stood there. a woman came up to me and offered me henna. i said no, but seeing as i couldn't actually walk away and go anywhere else, she had me cornered. she grabbed my hand to demonstrate and there wasn't much else i could do. first she pointed out it doesn't hurt (yes, i know that), then continued the design, then asked for my name, and before i knew it, my hand was covered and my name was written in arabic as well (i am sure she did it correctly because for the rest of the trip people were reading my hand). then of course we had to pay her, even though i had tried to get out of it in the first place. i guess its all part of the experience!

when we were all together again, we headed into the souks again to say hi to saiid 2. mom took a picture of saiid 2 and i, and then decided it was some picture marriage? don't ask. it didn't make sense to me either. but i've decided my parents are wayyy to ready to be grandparents and need to stop looking at me. im only 20 people, this is not ok! haha

finally we started heading out of town to go to the mountains. on the way to finding a cab though. i ran into a couple of my eap friends! (there was a whole group going to morocco through a program, so i knew there might be a small possibility of running into people, but it was still a surprise).
the cab ride to the cascades was about an hour long i believe and gave me my first glimpse of camels.

when we finally arrived at Orika, i found more eap students! surprise again! we soon began our hike to see a waterfall. it felt kind of nice to be in nature again, or at least in much less of a city setting.

on the way back down the mountain we saw some amazing bereber (i believe they were bereber) women. every other day they hike up the mountain and bring back food for the animals, carrying it all on their backs. it's bigger than they are! and they walked faster than we did! i was so impressed.

finally, around 5pm, we got around to having lunch. i didn't think we'd even had that big a breakfast, but it was some kind of miracle breakfast since i wasn't falling over from starvation even with our hike. though i was hungry. if i haven't mentioned it enough, of course the food was delicious. my favorite part being the tomato salad.

khalid, who is a vegetarian, though solely because he dislikes the taste of meat, even decided to try some.

after tasting it, he decided to continue being a vegetarian. but you shouldn't judge the food based on his opinion lol.
and even before the food came, we got a little music while we waited!

after lunch it was time to head back to marrakesh. we wandered into the souk to see if saiid 2 was still there, and i was pretty proud of myself for recognizing the shop even though we walked right passed it without stopping since it was already closed up.
we took a collective taxi home again. and though mom's legs didn't fall asleep this time, we did have other problems. transmission problems to be more specific. which involved waiting around for awhile and eventually getting into a different cab. but hey, what can ya do?
we finally got home and were fed an excellent dinner by khalid's mom. and soon enough it was bed time since the following morning would be an early one as we headed off to the todra gorge.
it was cute though, as their mom was making sure we had enough blankets and were comfortable, she started calling me saiida. not sure what that was about, but i took it as a sign of endearment :)

Marrakesh and the beginning of a week long adventure

Marrakesh was the first stop on our Moroccan adventure, and i have to say it was my favorite city overall. the people were welcoming, the sun was shining, and the food was delicious.. what more could you want?

In order to get there though, i left lyon and headed to paris to meet up with my parents the night before because our flight was going to be early in the morning. i almost messed the trip up completely by showing up to the wrong train station in lyon (part dieu instead of perrache) because it's what i'm used to and closer to my house. good thing the train stopped at it anyway, and so i simply got on a stop later. a little extra stress, but overall it ended up alright.

upon meeting up with my parents i learned we would be having to leave my mom's friends house at about 5am to get to our flight in time. yes, i may have been the one to book the tickets, but no, i did not realize how early i was going to have to be waking up. i was not entirely pleased. i may be a morning person, but waking up before 5am is not morning.
so we got up and got to the metro before it was even open (the first metro came later than we expected), found the bus to take us to the airport, and arrived with a little bit of time to spare.

my favorite part about this plane adventure though, was that i finally got my passport stamped again!

the plane took off a couple minutes late due to some discrepancy between the number of people checked in and the number of people on board. not sure how that happened. makes me wonder if they just forgot how to count for a little bit.
otherwise the flight was fairly uneventful.

so we arrived in marrakesh and went through customs which led to me receiving another stamp!

soon our host met us and we were in a cab on our way into town. we first got out of the cab near the main plaza Jamaa Elfna.

we took a short break and bought some of the most delicious orange juice i have ever tasted. seriously. it was so good. and a big glass was only 4dh! which is about 40 cents. amazinggggg.

next we headed into the souks (the market). now i have to say we probably made about a hundred turns passing even more shops before reaching our destination. there was no way i could have gotten us out again if i tried, because i just really had no idea where we were anymore. old marrakesh is all enclosed within big walls, and it truly felt like a maze to me. i'm so glad we were with a local because otherwise i'm not sure we would have made it to the rest of the places on our trip! i felt completely lost, but in awe of the city at the same time. i loved the colors and the atmosphere. you could find almost anything you needed there! shoes, clothes, food, scarves, copper, silver, teapots, anything! assuming you know your way around of course..

but anyways. we got our little tour on the way to our host's (Khalid) beau-frere's (Saiid 1) family's house. (beau-frere meaning i guess that they shared each other's mother's milk when they were babies and were basically raised together). we were given our first taste of moroccan tea there, some conversation, and a little bit of time to relax. moroccan tea, by the way, is delicious. and we were provided with lots more as the trip progressed.

next up was food. i was glad because i think it was about 3pm by then and i was starving. let me start by saying moroccan food is amazing.

after a while, we decided to explore some more and khalid took us to the shop his brother (Saiid 2) runs and he his an artisan. we of course were provided with more tea. all three of these guys were super nice and so generous to us. calling me la princesse, my mom la reine, and my dad le roi haha. we even tried to buy a teapot from them to thank them. they in turn decided we could have it as a gift plus stuff to go with it, and not sure what happened in between, but i don't believe we ended up with it at all! oh well. it's the thought that counts i guess. (pictured is saiid 2, khalid, saiid 1)

then we headed to a cafe to get some coffee, or in my case some lemonade. i liked this place a lot. it had a giant teapot for a rooftop decoration, and hats for us to wear!

as the sun set, there was also a lovely view :)

because we were actually going to be staying outside of the main city of marrakesh, we got to wander through the maze again in order to find the main gates.

to get to where we were actually going to be spending the night, we had to take a cab. now in marrakesh, and much of morocco, a cab can have 6 passengers, and because each person pays only a small amount, they always want to make sure the cab is full. well we hadn't quite figured out the best way to squish four people in the backseat yet, and so we decided that i would sit on my mom's lap.

we later realized this wasn't one of our brighter ideas when mom realized she couldn't feel her legs as she exited the car. personally, i thought it was hilarious as she stepped out and suddenly fell over a bit, tried to stand up again, and once again fell over. i really wish i had had my camera out and on video at that moment. don't worry, she didn't get hurt or anything, so it is ok to laugh. probably a 'you had to be there moment', but it was still funny a few days later. we did, however, realize we were going to have to figure out a better way to get four full grown people into what i believed was a three person backseat.

when we arrived at khalid's house i learned that he actually lives with his mother and saiid 2 and three other brothers. and this is perfectly normal for a moroccan family. they welcomed us to their home, made us more tea, and i even got to practice how to pour it. i must admit i wasn't very good at it. then we got some dinner, which of course was delicious, and eaten with our hands in true moroccan style.
we showed off california books that we had brought as gifts and got to show a little bit where we are from.

finally, our first day was over and it was bed timeeee. only problem? my parents snored like monsters. which means i didn't get as much sleep as i would have liked that night. oh well.

oh, and some new words we learned in arab!
chokran: merci: thank you
biciha: sante: cheers
salame: bonjour/au revoir: hello/goodbye
souk: marche: market.

Morocco, my overall impression

alright, so i spent a full week in morocco with my parents spending time in marrakesh, tinghir, the todra gorge, the sahara desert, and casablanca. due to the large number of places and morocco/africa being entirely new to me, i have decided to first give my overall thoughts on the trip, and then write my individual blogs by city which i usually do.
plus, this can give you a small taste while it potentially takes me a couple days to get everything else written up.

but anyways.
this was my very first time in morocco, and in all of africa for that matter, and i have to say i was not disappointed.
to start, i finally got more stamps in my passport! love the european union because of the euro, hate it because it means i don't get stamps every time i switch countries. but i digress.

we spent most of our time hanging out with locals and letting them show us what moroccan culture was really like. we had the opportunity to meet some of the kindest most generous people, willing to take us in, feed us, and generally welcome us into their culture. oh, and drink tea at every possible moment.
we traveled by plane, by train, by bus, by cab (where often 6 passengers was normal in what i personally believed should be a 5 person car).
there are two kinds of people i had the chance to meet, the arabs and the bereber people.
they are very family oriented, and it is perfectly normal for thirty year old men to still live at home, helping to take care of the family. also, it is a much more male oriented-society. and by that i mean that i met only one woman the entire time i was there (and she was the mother of our host and didn't speak any french or english). sure i saw plenty of women, but when we were actually spending time with people, the women were never really around. i also learned that men may have up to four wives, though they must consult earlier wives before marrying more women.
as far as languages go, the arabs begin school in arab, and then begin learning french. the bereber people start with bereber and arab (bereber is not a written language really) and then move onto french. we spoke french with many people. for the most part, the people we met who spoke any english had learned it from being around tourists enough. but i found it interesting that there were often french phrases thrown in instead of the english equilavent (par exemple, for example or sable instead of sand).
the oranges and tomatoes in morocco are amazing. no joke. oh and the rest of the food too.
the markets are incredibly colorful.
there is great attention to detail.
almost everything is incredibly inexpensive compared to what i am used to.
you really can't plan all that much in advance.
shower when you can, and enjoy hot water when it's available (or you know about it).
cats are everywhere. seriously, everywhere.
somehow all the locals know to ask us for ibuprofen. you got pain? we got your solution :)
appreciate western toilets. and toilet paper. you won't find them everywhere. you will also get charged to use public toilets, even if you have to squat and are not provided with toilet paper.
every village has a mosque. and even if the village looks pretty run down, the mosque looks like it's in pretty tip top shape.
tourists may not enter the mosques (there is one in casablanca for that purpose).
one week, over seven hundred pictures, and tons of new experiences.

a look into what's to come

i. am. exhausted.
5 hours of class then buying a million tickets and printing other tickets will do that to ya. especially when you are purchasing them from three different websites. and when these websites are a pain to deal with. between comparing prices, prices changing, fees being added on, certain routes not even existing, it becomes a longer process than one would hope. but at least at this point, my friends and i have kind of figured it out (even if it still takes forever).

but anyways. with the exception of a cheap bus ticket in between two cities, and a ticket to get myself to the airport once, i have officially purchased all of my plane/train/bus tickets through may 12. so where am i going in the next couple months?

march 5 i leave for paris, where i will meet up with my parents who are coming to visit me.
march 6 i fly to morocco with the parental units. we will visit three cities (i believe) during the following week. marrakesh, casablanca, and rabat if i am not mistaken (i guess i'll have the real story in a future blog). with so much else going on, i have left most of the planning up to them. other than actually purchasing the tickets of course.
march 13 i return to paris alone.
march 14 i return to lyon.
march 16 my parents will actually come visit me in lyon and i'll be able to show them some of the city as well as introduce them to my host parents before they leave the following morning for the rest of their own trip.
then i get about two weeks of my lyonnais life returning to normal before i take off again.
april 1-4 i will be visiting dijon and beaune, adding to my list of french cities i have visited.
april 8-11 i will be seeing toulouse and bordeaux, continuing to lengthen that list. i am pretty excited about bordeaux because i will finally get to see what my other option for studying abroad in france could have been.
april 16 of course is my 21st birthday, and i've decided to stay in lyon for that. plus, i mean, i still want some weekends in lyon. travelling all the time is tiring!
may 1-11 i take off again. this time heading to paris (again) because it is the best place to get other places. but really i will be visiting edinburgh and glasgow, scotland. and dublin and cork, ireland. spending hours in a london airport (again), but not actually having time to see the city (again) before returning to lyon in time to make it to my last salsa dancing class (which chloe and i decided was very important).
then i might have a final the third week in may (i still don't really know), and my semester will be over. leaving me three weeks to potentially plan a couple more trips as well as enjoy my last weeks in lyon as much as possible.

how has time gone by so quickly that i have already purchased tickets for up until my last month here?! i mean, in part it's because it's important to buy tickets early before prices go up, but still!

6 months!

6 months. that's half a year. and a little less than 2/3 of the time i will be spending abroad. each day i ask myself how time can pass so fast. sometimes i wonder if i should be pinching myself to prove that this is really real. this is my life. i am living my dream, and sometimes i have trouble believing it.
i feel like i have grown up a lot since being here. changed a lot, and yet remained the same. i am more open minded and down to try new things, in part because that is what this whole experience is about.
i look back and am amazed at how much i have accomplished in the past six months that have sped by while i wish time would slow down just a little bit. i have seen five different countries, and have tickets for a sixth (which happens to also be on a different continent). but more tickets need to be purchased, more cities need to be seen. particularly in france, though i do have tickets to two more french cities purchased already as well at least.
i have learned to call a foreign city home, and try every day to not think about how soon i will be leaving.. though often i fail.
i've eaten foods i never thought i would, and plan to eat more i didn't think i possibly could. escargot to be an example of one i've already eaten. grenouille (aka frogs) as one i know i still need to try.
my french has improved remarkably since being here, though i still want it to be better.
i have made incredible friends, created amazing memories, seen inspiring places, and been truly grateful and thankful for everyone who has made this trip everything it has been.
(for those of you that i have promised to send postcards to, don't worry, i haven't forgotten! buying them has just slipped my mind a little bit in the last couple cities... my bad.)
i am so glad i chose a host family, because i get to experience french life more fully. and i'm glad they were willing to keep me for the year. i really start to feel like i'm part of the family. just today my host mom and i were whispering about there not being any mail today (she has asked me to hide it from my host dad for a few days since i usually retrieve it in the morning and she has a surprise for him), when my host dad walked in. he said something about two friends whispering about stuff like girls do, and my host mom corrected him saying that no we weren't copines, she is my maman-d'accueil. i thought it was so cute :) i remember earlier in the year when i referred to her as my host mom and she had thought it was so kind, a term of endearment i guess. to be honest it had never really occurred to me at first that the term would be anything special, but after learning the relationships others have with their host parents, i was glad she felt so complemented. so i thought it was great when she pointed it out again.

but what have i been up to lately? i have been keeping myself busy, that is for sure. i have been going out on friday and saturday nights, hanging out with americans, french people, and even other foreigners - trying to get the most out of what this city and its residents have to offer. i have been going to classes and doing homework (yes, i actually have homework this semester). participating in p.e. classes and wishing i were more coordinated, but having fun nonetheless.

as far as classes go, it occurred to me i might actually want to be able to look back and see what an assignment looked like when i was here, so i figured (for those of you who speak french), i would give you a little taste. in my creative writing class we were told to write a poem, so this is what danielle, chloe, and i came up with. the guidelines were that it must be 4 stanzas with an ABBA ABBA AAB AAB rhyme scheme, and that each line have 12 syllables. we learned you can play with the syllable part because you can turn one syllable words into two syllable words by pronouncing the e at the end if you need to. i warn you, it is not very good and goes downhill around the end of the third stanza. oh and putting it in a translator makes it sound worse.. but anyways, here it is:


Regarder la pluie, elle tombe du ciel tout gris.
Un vieux couple mignon nourrit les petits oiseaux
Observe les enfants jouant dans les flaques-d’eau
Ignorant leurs parents sous de grands parapluies

Les gros nuages s’écartent, apparaît le soleil
Un arc-en-ciel éclaire doucement le beau paysage
Les enfants maintenant veulent aller à la plage
Le sable, la mer, sont une beauté, une merveille

Une par une les gouttes commencent a mouiller le sol
Un coup de tonnere, les oiseaux s’effrayent, s’envolent
Un éclair frappe le sable, un verre se manifeste

Les parents trouvent le godet ; ils boivent un peu de vin,
Ils invitent les enfants à manger du lapin
Le jour se termine. On ne connaît pas le reste…

so many pastries

another week has gone by. another day in the life.
once again i think my schedule will be changing. so i guess those last two blogs saying i figured out my schedule were kind of lying. but this is what happens when you are trying to figure out what you can get to transfer for credit for back home, and then what happens when you realize you aren't sure if you will survive a class that there is only a good probability you can get credit for. oh the joys of studying at a different university.
so at this point it looks like i may only be trying to get credit for one of the two education classes i could get credit for while abroad. why? because with the classes i have found, the other one would involve writing a 20 page paper. IN FRENCH. and i'm just not sure i could handle that. especially when i already know part of the paper is going to involve me comparing this class with a class similar to this i've taken at home. problem with that? i haven't taken any similar classes at home.
unfortunately, this will make my hopes of finishing all of my classes by next june even more difficult, if not impossible to accomplish, but i don't think i really feel like torturing myself with a scary class this semester. call it a cop out, call it whatever. but i'd actually like to continue enjoying my time abroad. there is so much more to being abroad than simply the courses i take, and i don't want to forget that.
and i have really been enjoying my time. this past week, i have even been speaking more french! and eating wayyyy too many pastries. i think i'm going to try to not eat a pastry for a week (unless provided by my host parents of course). we'll see how that goes though. they call to me sometimes, i just can't help it.
in part though this whole pastry business has been because my friend minerva left today, and before she did, we wanted to try a few more pastries. most of which were delicious. a couple less so. i've discovered i much prefer flan nature to flan chocolat. and the patisserie near the park that has always looked so delicious, really isn't all it's cracked up to be. especially since it's a little more expensive. but at least now i know!
so friday once again involved pastries and wandering all over town with minerva. one of her last chances to take in this beautiful city before she went home.
then friday evening i headed to samina's apartment for dinner with her, her italien roommate, and her italien roommate's french friend. which meantttt we spent the entire evening speaking french! it was a ton of fun and makes me realize i really wish i had more friends here who don't speak english. i've also discovered i'm a lot more confident in my french speaking abilities when i'm not in a classroom. for some reason when i am, i always seem to choke up a little.
saturday afternoon i had tea at milena's with minerva and patrick. plus milena played her cello for us! it was a lot of fun and a nice way to say goodbye to minerva until the rest of us return to california. though really, this whole people leaving france thing needs to stop.
by the time i got home early saturday evening, i was kinda tired and wasn't sure that i would be going out again that evening. until i realized my host parents were going out, and i felt that meant i should be doing something as well. so i sent chloe a text to see what she was up to, and soon had plans to meet her downtown later in the evening. and i am so glad i did. chloe, her friend, and i bought some wine (breaking one bottle and having to return to the store to buy another - i swear it wasn't our fault. the bottom of the bottle completely came off!) and then looked for a bar where people were dancing. the guy who sold us the wine was super nice though. he even opened our bottle for us and gave us free plastic cups! we are very classy people, obviously.
in the first bar we went to we met a french girl and ended up spending the rest of the evening dancing with her and her friends, at one point even following them to another bar. they were all really nice, but at one point it occurred to me they kind of needed us because there boy-girl ratio was not working in their favor without us! it was also nice to be forced to speak french again since most of them didn't really speak any english. i do hope chloe and i run into them again sometime in the future. we even had such a good time that although chloe and i had already decided we would return home in time for the last metros (around midnight) that as midnight came we changed our minds without thinking twice, and ended up realizing it might be worth it to pay for a cab for once. this was actually the first time i had ever taken a cab by myself!
after such a long vacation, it's been nice getting back into the swing of life in lyon again. yknow classes, going out, and wandering around town. eventually i might actually have a real schedule. this whole picking and choosing classes mess will have to end soon.. i mean we are about to begin week three.

the park and scheduling

i spent practically the entire weekend at parc de la tete d'or. it was so beautiful out this weekend, i just couldn't stay away.
at lunch my host mom even pointed out it was sunny out and asked if i would be going to the park. she knows me so well. of course i said yes! marc-philippe, who was home for the weekend, said he never goes there, not since he was little. i really don't understand this! why do the locals stop going when they reach a certain age?!
saturday i went with chloe. we told ourselves we were going to walk all over, but the sunnyness of the grass called to us, and we figured why risk having to walk through the shade for awhile? as we took off our coats because it was so warm we didn't need them, i wondered why i hadn't thought to wear a t-shirt. so i rolled up my long sleeves and was just so happy that it seems like spring might finally be arriving (i am trying not to think about the fact that i am not in california, which means the cold could return).

chloe and i are in love with the sun :)

 we regretted not thinking to bring a frisbee or a soccer ball (though neither of us owns a soccer ball), but decided that soon we would return and get a game going. assuming it stays warm, i will probably find myself at the park quite often :)
as the sun started to go down we wandered over to the islandish thing in the lake and watched the sunset. but mannn the temperature drops when the sun sets.

 meanwhile, chloe demonstrated the rules to badminton for me so that i would be prepared when we took that class later in the week. more on that later.

the badminton court, of course

saturday evening i found myself bursting at the seems as i left minerva's apartment after she had fed a few of us an amazing dinner. turns out she will be returning to the states instead of staying for the rest of the semester, so she had a lot of food in her freezer to use up. and by a lot, i mean enough for 5 of us plus some left overs. and alllll of it was delicious. i was still full hours later! duck. potatoes cooked in duck fat. home made baguettes. lentils. palenta. chocolate cake. pumpkin pie. some almond cake dessert. and some other chocolate cake that patrick had brought.

then sunday after lunch i found myself returning to the park. it wasn't quite as warm as the day before, but it was still a perfect day to wander around. i even visited parts of the park i had never seen before!

but even with the park and sunshine trying to take my mind off school, knowing i still needed to figure out my schedule for the semester plagued my weekend. i wish there were two of me so i could go to all the classes i want at the same time so that i could make a decision without having to miss classes. my schedule has probably changed 5 million times at this point. why? because my classes are at two campuses on completely opposite sides of town. so even if my classes aren't actually at the exact same time, it makes classes that are back to back impossible to get to unless they are at the same location.
so after two weeks of classes and having been to a few extras/missed the first week of one class, i think i have finally figured out which classes i will be taking. notice it's a little different than when i was so proud that i had figured it out before classes had even started. why am i even surprised? so i am taking:
theme: traduction francais -> anglais
psychologie: education-formation
psychologie cognitive: education
version: traduction anglais -> francais.
so two classes that i am hoping will help me make progress toward my education minor, and two classes to help improve my french (seeing as i can't get any other classes to go toward my major/minor anyways).

and then the sports classes get involved. i am officially taking salsa dancing. never did i think i would ever say that, but hey, this i'm in france, and why not? this class wasn't a problem to get into because i managed to make it the first week.
but i am also trying to take badminton and table de tennis. because once again, why not? badminton got complicated when chloe and i showed up to a time that worked for us and found that class was already full. unfortunate but not entirely surprising since we missed the first week. yknow, because we were more concerned with figuring out our regular classes than making sure we got first dibs on sports classes. its a brutal cycle, really. butttt luckily. we showed up to a class on wednesday that had space in it, and were able to ask the teacher if there was actually space on monday, and he said yes! so i will be playing badminton monday mornings :) table tennis wasn't a problem at all to get into. sam and i showed up, asked if there was space, and we were in! sweeeettt. only problem was that for this week at least, i played an hour and a half of ping pong. then directly after an hour and a half of badminton. which means.... my shoulder really hurts. awesome. good thing they will normally be different days!


looks like this is going to be an ok semester :)
plus. now i can start making weekend travel plans!

life is good

what a lovely friday. i woke up at 9, before my alarm had even gone off. considering how much i have been not liking my alarm lately, this was a great way to wake up! plus the fact that i knew it would actually be kind of nice out today, not completely freezing. with even more sunshine in store for the weekend i believe! considering how cold i have been lately, this was great news.
i ate some breakfast, and found myself in a studious mood, so i actually read an article for a class i might take! impressed? i was. i read it, defined vocab i didn't know, and then wrote key points in english on the back so i could review more quickly later. plus this sometimes helps the info stick in my head a little better.
since it was still fairly early, i killed some time before meeting up with minerva and milena for lunch. i saw minerva first, and she handed me a box of hot tamales! she had told me before that she had remembered to bring me a box, but i had completely forgotten about that until she handed them to me. i was so excited! having friends return to the states for winter break does have its advantages lol.
once we were all together, we walked around looking for a cafe to eat at, and soon found ourselves at one that was quite crowded (we figured we didn't want to eat at a place that had no customers). i ordered the lyonnais salade, though i've decided as much as i like this salad, the end is too salty. but i did love the fact that once again water was free! a luxury i have not had while traveling to other countries. for dessert i had some chocolate cake thing with cream. yummmmyy. i hadn't eaten out in lyon for awhile, or seen milena or minerva much in a while, so this lunch was quite enjoyable :)
next up we wandered around awhile walking off our lunch and doing a little shopping since the sales are still going on.
soon milena had to leave us, and minerva and i wandered all around town exploring and checking out more stores. neither of us ended up buying anything, but when you have an afternoon free to do as you please and it's really nice out, you might as well meander from store to store enjoying the sunshine in between them. by the time we had wandered all the way from hotel de ville down to perrache and back to hotel de ville (check out a lyon map if you dont know what im talking about), we had decided we were ready for a snack. which meant it was time for some flan nature! minerva had also decided she wanted to compare flan at different places, so it seemed to make sense. and that was dessert number 2 for the day. well technically 1 1/2 because we split it, but still. we weren't done yet. oh wait, we had also split a pain au chocolat. anyways, we knew it was a good thing we were doing a lot of walking hahahah.
but back to adventuring. we decided to head to vieux lyon since neither of us had been there in awhile. i loved seeing the cobblestones again, but also appreciated that most of the city isn't paved with them. we located a bunch of buchon de lyon cafes (cafes with specifically lyonnaise food) and i decided that i must return there at some point to try them. and i am sure you can guess what followed this bit of adventuring. that's right, more dessert! minerva got another flan (to continue her comparison of course), and i got some pastry i don't remember the name of. and i forgot to take a picture of. it is white with drizzled blackness on the top. a fairly sugary frosting. then it has multiple layers of pastry and cream. delicious. though i had to save some for later because at this point i was super full off lunch and too many desserts in one day. after sitting and chatting for awhile, i thought to have us head over to the rhone river to get a picture of it for nathan. how nice of me right? he had been asking for it, and i figured as long as it was dark out and i was nearby, i would try again to get him his starry night picture (without stars since we were lacking in that department).
here's what i'd gotten him before that wasn't quiteee right:

here was my new version:

who knows if i'll ever get it right. maybe i'll just have to stay in lyon forever. i do love living in a city with rivers :)
after awhile we both headed home because our feet were exhausted from walking around all day. i have to say, this is my idea of a good friday. no class. good friends. adventuring around the amazing city that lyon has to offer. multiple pastries. relatively warmish weather. it is a good start to the weekend :) now if only i can find a way to keep myself busy like this every friday, that would be just amazing.