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Postings from resident directors and students currently abroad, important announcements and useful infomation for planning your study abroad experience.
May 2007 Entries
Hey everyone! Sorry this is kind of late but we have been very busy with finals and getting ready to come home! Woohoo, that's right everyone, we are coming home! I am so excited and can't wait! We will be enduring the long 16 hour flight on Saturday May 26th which we are not really looking forward to.
Anyway, Barcelona was great! The city had this kind of laid back easy going feeling to it and I  personally felt like I was on a vacation somewhere tropical. We encountered many things that were not expected to be seen such as cheap food, many topless women on beaches and a fight (that was scary!). Ok, when we got into Barcelona we discovered that they have a very complicated metro system and ended up having to buy two tickets to get to one destination (that was a little frustrating). Later the metro became a little easier for us to understand though. We got to our hostel and dropped our stuff off just in time for dinner, 9:30 pm (that is the earliest they eat dinner in Spain). Our hostel was really cool because it had this really fun atmosphere to it offering free internet and it had a really cool bar with super cheap sangria and beer! After dinner we went back to the hostel and I got a sangria and Brandon got a beer. Then we hit the hay.
The next morning we got up early, ate breakfast and then headed out to check out the city. We first went to Las Ramblas which is this very famous street that has everything from flower shops and restaurants to stands that sell bunnies, chickens and lizards. Also, you will see lots of street  performers on Las Ramblas from magicians to Michael Jackson impersonators. It was definitely the most interesting street I have ever been on. After Las Ramblas we went back to the hostel, ate lunch and then went to the beach! It was beautiful with palm trees along the boardwalk. As we were laying our stuff down we noticed that there were a few women who were sunbathing...topless! It was pretty funny, but to them I guess it's no big deal. After the beach we went back to the hostel, showered, ate dinner and then just relaxed at the hostel down by the bar drinking more sangria and beer. There was really no need to go out to any clubs and bars because our hostel was a big hangout place with lots of young people and the bar was so cheap I don't think anyplace could have beat that.
The next day we went back to Las Ramblas to hang out some again while also shopping up and down some little streets we found full of cute little Spanish looking pottery and Inca jewelry. After that we went to the beach again. It was Saturday so the beach was really crowded and I don’t even know how may topless woman we saw... so many that it became normal to us. After the beach we went back to shower eat dinner and just chill at the hostel again. The sun is so draining and we were always so exhausted in the evenings. We both got a lot of sun that day. The next day we got up and went to see some of the sites. We first went to the Picasso Museum which was really neat because it showed a lot of his work from his beginning years up till he died and it was neat to see sketches that lead up to a final piece. After the Picasso Museum we went to the  famous Sagrada Familia. Then we made the long hike up the steep hill to Parc Guell (Gaudi Park) which was really neat had a great view of Barcelona. Everything there was just so Spanish, I don’t really know how else to describe it, there were a lot of the colored tiles that look really neat. After the Gaudi Park we were going to go to the beach but the weather became overcast and we decided not to. Instead we went down to the waterfront and just walked around. Oh yeah and we found Dunkin Donuts on Las Ramblas and so we treated ourselves. Also, our roomates at the hostel were twin brothers from Scotland! I loved their accents even though it almost sounded like they were speaking another language because at times it was hard to understand them. Overall it was a great trip and a great way to end the traveling part of our study abroad experience. ~Cortny
This is my addition, our Scottish Roommates were here for the Catalunya Grand Prix (Formula 1 racing), so 2 days prior to the race, one of the Spanish racers, who was sponsored by BMW, had his car on display and was doing time trials (drags), we didn't get to see the drags, but we got to check out all of the cars, motorcycles and everything else that BMW brought in for the race weekend! It was awesome, I even got a cool entrance pass! I felt official! ~ Brandon
The Spring 2007 Granada students put together a great montage of photos from all t heir excursions in a salute to Jaime, the Abroadco Onsite Director for Granada. Kate, the student who put this together, told me that the student group gave her their favorite pictures from trips with Jaime. She writes, "We showed it to Jaime at our dinner last night, it was the last dinner we will have as a group. It was emotional and sad. We are all going to miss Spain and Jaime and everything he has done for us. We will never forget this trip because he has made it so amazing."
Take a couple of minutes and see what made their experience so amazing!
"Goodbye to Jaime": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXC8tvrK1RQ
Last Posting from Aix
Okay. The last writing from France. Time for some reflection of my time here. I've written this a million times in my head already... trying to figure out what to say and what I even think of everything, what I've learned and what I am going to really miss. We'll see what happens...get ready.
So, France. Aix-en-Provence. It was good to me, no doubt. I suppose I was just fabulous in return. During my last break when I went traveling all over the place and fell in love with Budapest, Prague and Berlin, I was not excited to return to Aix/France. It had become too familiar, too  comfortable. It was a place in which I could communicate, be it badly, whereas these other cities were new and exciting, surrounding me with strange tongues that I severely butchered when merely trying to thank someone and so many new sights to experience. So without much passion for France, I returned grudgingly. Aix was still Aix, except, wait! The plain trees that had before been bald, awkward nubby things lining many of the streets had bloomed and leafy green goodness and flowers were everywhere. My host family's house has been consumed by vines and bushes growing all over the exterior. Aix looked different (better?), and I was relatively excited about this. Of course, the weather was so-so (RAIN!) for a while, but I managed because now it has become simply gorgeous and nearly too hot.
I only had about a week and a half of school left upon returning. I got my tests back that I'd taken before break (I believe it was that week right before leaving that I had six or seven tests in one week, so clearly little studying for ALL of them went down), and my results were relatively, um, not so impressive. Trying to get back into French was slightly difficult after confusing my brain with trinkets of phrases from other languages, not to mention that I'd spoken English the entire time away and hardly a word of French. So the first few tests were a little rough, but I'm a survivor. Soon enough I was having my "last class of [blank] EVER"s. I was happy to get Translation and Phonetics over with. Probably the worst classes I took for various reasons. Last class of Romanesque Prose was filled with me creating fantastic answers for our final test and last class of Fifth Republic sorta just...went. Everything was pretty nonchalant about ending, maybe because some people still have real FINALS to get a special diploma, so nothing was really over for them.
 However, for my language class... things were getting sad. I absolutely adore my professor, Mme Maréchal, and our class. At first I was so skeptical and basically terrified, but it couldn't have worked out better. We had a makeup class on Friday... my very last class at the Institute EVER. We all gave exposés (oral presentations) about something weird we do or others do. [Don't worry... definitely explained my summer job of selling books for everyone]. An hour after it ended, Mme Maréchal invited us to bring some food or drink and come over for a little get together at her apartment. And that we did and had a marvelous time. She is truly a fabulous and highly intelligent woman and I have a RIDICULOUS amount of respect and admiration for her. She sang some French for us, some Japanese (she's trying to learn that now too), told us some stories, we all talked with each other... it was fantastic.
During this little fête (party), it became quite obvious that my time in France was coming to a close. I won't be waking up for language class at 8am tomorrow, it'll instead be for catching the shuttle to the airport to leave the country for the US. I won't be complaining about the classes I don't like or having great stories about those I love. I won't walk 25 minutes to and from class, past the high schoolers and middle schoolers and random landmarks I've come to know so well. I won't walk past the fish market in town that always smells SO bad, or the other markets of fresh fruit and vegetables and whatnot that always look so delicious. I won't be able to sit around having a drink at a cafe and have it be totally okay to stay there for hours. And no more three hour meals. The sandy tan color of all of the buildings in Aix... won't see those much more except maybe a little on my way to the bus station tomorrow. And no more fountains EVERYWHERE. The girl that plays the violin outside of the institute and the accordian player, the homeless guys with their dogs or the  ones that sit and say 'Bonjour' to every single person who passes... won't be around to run into them here and there. Seriously... it's getting sad.
We had a final dinner for Abroadco. The Last Supper. Unbelievable. Gave Carol, our absolutely amazing program director, some presents. She's been great and I'm pretty sure we'll all miss her. Most everyone in our group has left to either travel or has already returned to the US. Crazy. It's just weird to think we all won't be having super long dinners together or getting a drink at the cafe, Happy Days anymore. Goodbyes are never fun. You always know this time will come at some point, but keep putting it off in your mind until you really, absolutely must do it.
And then there's my host family. Yesterday we went to the island Frioul (by Marseille, near the one Chateau d'If is on) to enjoy the beach. It was absolutely marvelous. A very good last event, and perhaps the first one where all of us went together somewhere. All in all, it's been fantastic having them. I can't even imagine what my experience would've been like without Patricia (mom), Alain (dad), David (14 yr old), and Hugo (9 yr old). It's no doubt been family life... Hugo and David always yelling and fighting, Patricia getting exasperatedly angry with them, how the Simpsons and football (soccer) causes so many problems (mostly how if it's on, no one does what they're supposed to do, like come to the table to eat), Alain just being pretty indifferent to whatever is happening until Patricia reaches a certain point and he'll step in to regulate kinda, everyone saying "I'm fed up! I've had enough!" all the time about, oh, basically everything. I pretty much just sit there while anything and everything happens and laugh because it's sort of hysterical how dramatic everything gets. Clearly I am not much help.
It's been frustrating at times because I'm pretty sure David thought I was the biggest imbecile ever, though, we've since cleared that up, I think. During our Monday lunches together, he would often throw some word that I don't know at me without any context and I'd then be unable to answer it. I'd ask him to explain what  it meant, but to him, that was just repeating the word over and over. Quality conversations, I'd say. Alain is still hard for me to understand, but I'd like to say my comprehension of whatever it is that makes his speaking so difficult to comprehend (accent? mumbling? Not sure) slightly improved. Still don't talk to him toooo much.
Then there's Patricia. The best French mom I've ever had. I have a ridiculous amount of respect for her and all she does. She works, takes classes, is the disciplinarian, cooks, cleans what her sister doesn't, takes weekend breaks with friends in Marseille and "goes out", escapes to Rome for Easter without telling her husband (haha... my favorite... he probably still thinks she was just in Marseille like she'd told him), runs the boys around to school and other activites, makes sure everyone is healthy, alive, and kicking, etc. She constantly corrects my bad French and is an excellent resource to figure out what the French word is for the English word... basically a living dictionary. It hasn't set in for them either that I'll be gone tomorrow. Patricia said it feels like I'll be there for, well, a lot longer; it doesn't seem like it's already time to leave 'cause I've become such a part of the family. At dinner, Patricia and David were talking about how weird it's going to be if they, for example, call me for dinner and I don't come. And of course I won't, because I'll be gone. Oh man... that is sad. So, if it's not obvious enough, I'm going to miss the fam tons.
I don't know where I'm going with this. That I love France? Yeah, let's go there. I truly do. At least Aix, though the other places I've had a chance to visit are awesome in their own ways. I thought being comfortable was a bad thing before when I had no desire to come back here from vacation, but France just sorta feels like home...and that's incredible to say after only four months here. The French have a ridiculous amount of cultural rules (like how coffee is its own course at the end of the meal, so don't dare order it with your meal or dessert), but it's not so bad once you're aware about these things. And, really, France would not be the same without them. A lot of people have come away saying the French are mean or cold, and I completely disagree. Maybe I didn't deal with enough or maybe it's just through insight from my host family or Mme Maréchal, but... no, they are not cold. They just see things and do things differently. It's not bad. I've had plenty of cute old French people strike up a conversation while we're waiting at the bus stop. One man was really concerned that I was traveling by myself to Barcelona (when I went to visit my friend Derek when he was there) and kept telling me to be careful because he has a daughter my age and is always worried about her. I'd say that's not rudeness at all. Also, they're not lazy, as perhaps many think they are with the 35 hour work week. For example, the people at the market come and set up their tables nearly every day bright and early, lugging all of their stuff with them, then take everything down in the early afternoon and haul it back home. The French just take more moments to enjoy life, through activities like sitting in a cafe for good portions of the day. Nothing wrong with that.
It's been an amazing four months of, gosh, I don't even know what. It all just sort of happened. Improved my French, probably more than I realize now. Come to the conclusion I will never be completely fluent, as far as I define the word (perfection-- understanding of all aspects of the language, including slang, and being able to nearly flawlessly use it in writing and speaking and comprehension). Was always kept humble, that's for sure. Am excited to improve though and return and wow the Aixois with my skills. I think I'm going to be majorly disappointed with my classes back in Oregon after being here. I was terrified of the "all classes are taught in French" thing, but it's been great and I don't ever want another teacher to translate anything for anyone from French to English. It's just not necessary. I've seen one of the girls in the program come here hardly knowing a word of French now speak like a pro. It's so cool. You just have to jump into the language, struggle a little, and soon enough something amazing happens, whether you know it at the time or not.
I'm a little scared of returning to the US. I'll have at least 10 hours for preparation during my voyaging from airport to airport though. But, really, my mind is warped. Every time I think of buying something in a store, I think, "Oh man... how would I ask for that?" or thinking of trying to talk about, really, anything... I try to figure out if I know the vocab to do so. Then I remember that I speak the language of the United States. It's going to be weird to understand EVERYTHING once more. Not sure I'm ready, as it's sorta fun to guess the meanings of words and use an excessive amount of sign language, but I'll deal.
Anyway, I leave tomorrow. It's gonna be good. Over and out from France.
Reflections of a Semester in Paris
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"-- This quote from the classic Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities about revolutionary Paris is kind of a good way to summarize my time here, as long as the emphasis is on the best of times. I have been living in my favorite city for four  months now and traveling all around Europe (6 new countries in all) and been having incredible experiences. At the same time this was perhaps the most challenging time of my life. I forced myself to push myself beyond where I previously thought possible, deal with being away from my friends and family and missing stuff at school. All the while trying to truly manage my money for the first time (often, quite badly).
I have learned invaluable lessons that I will keep with me and I have become a person who will return home very grateful for and confident in my experience. I return home to the US in a few weeks and I do not know where the time has gone! In one sense, I feel like I was just on the plane coming over here....but in another sense this place has gotten to feel like home and I feel like I have been here forever.
I have made memories that cannot be explained nor any picture can ca pture (no matter how hard I try). I have stood face to face with history and loved every minute of creating my own. I have been from Abbey Road in London, to the beach nightclubs in Barcelona, to the lavender fields of Provence, to eating real pierogies with my mom in Krakow, to walking down the pub filled streets that make up an Irish St. Patricks Day, to learning how the EU works at the source in Belgium, to touching what left of some of the biggest historical moments ever in Berlin, to the land of tulips and wooden shoes in Amsterdam, to catching a glimpse of my own reflection in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, to experiencing the glitz and glamour of being backstage at Paris fashion week.
I am going to go home a changed person, and while I will be so excited to see my family and friends for the first few weeks I am home, I know I will be craving the bakeries on every corner, picnics under the Eiffel Tower, and the excitement of never quite knowing what the day will bring. It will be a hard transition back but I will always treasure every moment I have had here, the good, the bad, and the amazing.
Last Blog Entry from Paris
What does one do when one of their major goals has been accomplished? Find another fun adventure of course :) This has been the most amazing experience I have ever had and I hate that it is already over. It is a big accomplishment to me to go somewhere where you know basically no one and learn to live as if you are one of them. I have learned more about the French than most Americans will in their entire lifetime, no matter how many times they visit or how much they study.  It is something that will aid me in my studies and guide me through my life.
I'm sitting at Trocadero, on a beautiful spring day and I can't help but think of everything I have seen and experienced! I am soo thankful for everyone who helped me have such an amazing experience. I know I could never have done this totally on my own and I can't express how grateful I am of my parents, family, and friends. This is something that will change my life forever and I know I will never experience anything like this again. No matter how many other trips I take, none will compare to living in Paris for five months at the age of 20. When I really think about it, it totally amazes me how much I have learned and grown in the last five months. In January, before I left, I never could have imagined this experience being as amazing as it has been.
At first, I had a huge list of things I wanted to see and do once I returned from Russia, but once I got back and started walking I realized there is nothing more I want to do besides walk around and enjoy my favorite places. There are so many things to see and do in Paris, there is no way five months is enough time, shoot a year wouldn't be enough time. I have enjoyed nothing more than sitting at Sacre Coeur, listening to a harpist or guitarist, and looking out over all of Paris.
I am looking forward to continuing this experience in Italy with Mizzou and hope it is just as enjoyable as this has been!
This is the second entry Kate sent us as she has been reviewing her own personal blog and reflecting on her experiences in Granada.
These are a few things that I wish I knew before coming here a few things i wish people told me before coming to Spain....
They don't use the letter “S”, like ever. Start deleting it off the end of all your words. They even randomly delete it in the middle of a word. Start practicing..it’s hard to do
adios becomes adio
gracias becomes gracia
hasta luego becomes hata luego
mas o menos becomes ma o meno
You would think after being here for over a month it’s something you get used to but its not.
Learn vosotros. Like seriously learn it and know it like the back of your hand. Everyone says it’s not important or that they never use it but that’s a lie. It’s always used. Teachers use it every day, families use it, people in the streets use it. It’s used often
Bring comfortable shoes..and I don’t mean like oh these are kinda comfortable. I mean like the most comfortable shoes you can find. All of the streets are made out of rocks and if you walk on them enough they will break through your brand new Nikes.
Bring a random costume. You never know when you'll need it.
Bring more money than you think you need. Seriously. Bring twice the amount you planned on bringing and bring three times the amount Abroadco tells you to bring. It goes by FAST.
Start learning random sounds because Granada is like known for the random sounds people make. In the streets, in class, during dinner...they make weird noises.
Get used to eating one piece of toast for breakfast with some cola cao. Lunch at about 2. And then no food again til 9 (or later) dinner. It’s a different schedule but after being her a while you kinda get used to it.
For breakfast all you will find is chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. But when they ask you if you want dessert after lunch it’s always fruit.
Stop eating any type of sauce now. They don't have it here. Only ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise.
Bring little travel packets of crystal light and ice tea. They drink water with everything and nothing else. Only water. The juice is super super thick here and they don’t really have any normal types of juices here.
I had asked the Spring 2007 students to send in some reflections of their experiences now that their programs are ending. Kate, who is studying in Granada, took a look back at her personal blog during the semester and sent in some postings about her experiences during the semester. Here's the first one:
This is from our first weekend in Granada
Hola Amigos!! I am in Granada! I have been here since Sunday and I LOVE it. It’s the best place in the world! Everyone here is really nice! I absolutely adore mi familia. I have a madre, a padre and two super adorable little brothers named Jose and Curro.
On Sunday we arrived in Granada. We went to our family’s house and me and Allie were a little nervous. Allie unpacked her things while I watched (I STILL HAVE NO LUGGAGE!). After that our madre made us some nice salami sandwiches and we watched TV. (There is a room in the house and we do everything in it. There is a circular table with a blanket on it and a space heater underneath it. When you sit to eat or watch TV you put the blanket on your lap to keep warm because they have no central heat.) We met up with some of the other girls and went shopping in the streets after lunch. Spain only has sales twice a year and that’s it. The first once started on Sunday. and WOW.. I love it. We went back to our house and our mom made us cheeseburgers with French fries. They were different but SO GOOD!
On Monday we had a very long day. We went to the university and took our placement test. We had a small tour of the university and then a huge lunch! They just kept bringing more and more tapas! it was great! After that we had orientation for about 2 hours. We went home for dinner where we met our aunt, uncle and cousins. They are crazy and are always over. i love them! WE talked to them for about 2 hours!
On Tuesday was the first day of classes. Our family owns a restaurant so for lunch me, Allie (my roommate) and Lindsay (our across the hall neighbor and daughter of our grandma) went there. The food was fantastic. The first thing we had was some kind of soup with macaroni, calamari, clams and some other fish. It was really good and then we had some fish stuff. It was crazy. We had another tour of the city and then had dinner with our family. Our aunt, uncle and cousins came over again.
Then we talked to our family about everything that’s cool in Spain. I asked them about botellon (three days of nonstop drinking. about 40,000 people did it last year. You wake up and drink from bottles in the streets all day. It’s illegal but since so many people do it the police don’t do anything about it! It’s crazy and in March and we can’t wait!) Normally our dad is really quiet and probably thinks Allie and I are crazy but yesterday he opened up and I love him. We found out that he is a bull fighter! How cool is that?!
Jaime, our onsite director in Granada, took some of the students horseback riding one weekend and made a video of it. It's on YouTube - check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GW672dprns
Are you interested in a career in international education, working in study abroad or with international students here in the U.S.? Are you confused about how to get in the field or what opportunities there are? NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the professional association for all of us involved in international education, has established a new on-line career center.
The NAFSA Career Center, http://www.nafsa.org/career_center, provides career resources and a job registry for those interested in this field. The Career Resources will address the questions of who are international educators, what education does an international educator have/need, and what else does NAFSA have for international educators. If you are interested in exploring what international education is all about, the NAFSA Career Center is a great place to start!
I found this really fun site - http://www.earthcalendar.net/index.php. It's called Earth Calendar and every day you see what holidays are being celebrated around the world. For example, today's holiday celebrations include:
China: National Youth Day
Netherlands: Remembrance Day
Namibia: Casinga Day
Denmark/Greenland: Great Prayer Day
You can look up holidays by date, country, religion, and lunar phases. Have fun with it and learn what holidays are happening around the world!
In case you missed it on our homepage, we now have a study abroad program in Nanjing, Ch ina! We are all very excited about this as one of our major goals was to expand our program offerings into Asia. We are working with the Yangtze International Study Abroad (YISA) program at Nanjing Normal University.
Yangtze International Study Abroad created the program in collaboration with the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Political Science, the Department of East Asian Studies, and the Office of Study Abroad and Student Exchange of the University of Arizona. We are very pleased to be able to offer this academically focused program to our students as well.
Students can take Chinese language, as well as electives taught in English in anthropology, business, and political science. We will offer academic year, semester, and summer programs.
I hope you'll take a few minutes to look at our new Nanjing program. If you have any questions or want more information about this program, please don't hesitate to contact me at halpin@abroadco.com.
Speaking of accents, I think it's time to discuss my language professor once more. Oh, Madame Maréchal... she has really been a riot lately. I have started writing little notes in my notebook during class when she does something noteworthy so I can remember it and laugh about it later. So the next million stories are all her and her Frenchy self. I'm glad it's through her that I am not only learning French, but also culture. Not sure if it can be transferred to all French people, but I'd like to believe it could be.
Okay, I was going to talk about accents. Right. So over the past couple of weeks we've had to give oral presentations of at least ten minutes to our class. Most of my language class is Asian, but are pretty good speakers. I am awful, but it's not a big deal because there is this other guy. He's American and has the most American accent when speaking French ever. Pretty sure he doesn't even try. He's the nicest guy, super sociable (I think he's talked to about everyone at least once in our entire school), and can spurt out French like crazy. Only thing is it sounds, um, not so Frenchy and his grammar is treacherous. During orals, Mme Maréchal never really interrupts anyone when they're speaking and doesn't correct us unless what we've said is totally off. However, during  his oral, she stopped him after the first few words and translated for the rest of us what he had said. And continued to do this the entire time, getting more and more exasperated and laughing at his overuse of 'apparemment' (apparently) which was about every four words. He can handle all her nagging, and he'd try to resay the words but they just wouldn't even improve. It was hysterical because it was just our prof translating his badly pronounced French into real French for us. We were all in tears. (Photo: Valerie and Lindsey enjoying Nice)
I have come to the realization that my professor really likes demonstrating what she means, but tends to reeeeally demonstrate, uh, well. She was explaining the word 'meuble' (noun for 'furniture' and adjective for 'light') and how it became the French word from Latin (we do that a lot... including the phonetic morphology... which is her just making weird sounds from the Latin to the French with about six other random sounds in between). Anyway, she ended up picking up one of the desk tables (they're big enough for three people to sit at, so we're not really messing around here) and put it on top of her head, legs up in the air. Why? I'm not sure, but it's always fun when you have a professor making weird noises WHILE she has a table on her head.
Another time she yelled 'Merde!!', paused, and then peered out the door to our classroom which opens to the courtyard where people mill around between classes... to see if anyone heard her.
When we were learning the French equivalents to 'wherever, whatever, whenever, whoever,' she said the words in English and called them the 'Shakira syndrome.' And has continued to call the French equivalents as such since then.
Just recently, it was explained to us that rap is not good. Saying (and she said the following words in English): 'shit, bitch, whore' does not make a song of quality because most of the time the rhythm is off. There is 'an art to being vulgaire', and it requires putting words together in a certain way, and people suck at it. Shakespeare was the best rapper, she thinks. So she's a little old-fashioned, whatevs. Apparently she speaks German like an author from the 18th century as well, just because that's the kind of books she reads and she told us we will speak in a manner that matches what we read. And so when she's gone to Germany, she gets laughed at for sounding archaic, but she doesn't care. It'd be like trying to have a conversation with someone who's speaking Old English or Shakespearean type English, I assume. Absolutely bizarre, but perhaps a little awesome.
Hmm... those might be the majority of the French language professor stories for now. Wait, one more. We got a lowdown on why it is that maybe foreigners think French people are rude. They are not rude, they are merely honest. You don't smile at someone you don't know in the street because that leads you to think, "Who was that and why were they smiling at me?" And she doesn't get why everyone else has to pretend they like people if they really don't. "You have the right to not like people... you're being honest." What wisdom.
After being quiet for a couple of months, Valerie is back with several submissions. This is the first one....
Let's start with my host fam. After my American family dropped me off to continue on their way to Paris and then to the US, my French fam (Patricia, Hugo, and David) were going to this little carnival/fair thing in Aix and I was invited along. There were a ton of games...the sort where you try to shoot things, for example. I'm not sure how these are done in the US, but they were shooting these metal pellets, which I'm gonna assume were BBs, from these rifles to try and pop balloons. I learned Patricia is an expert because she learned when she was young from her family or  something. Hugo was about to shoot the eye out of the lady behind the counter, as his stabilization skills for this enormous rifle weren't quite where they should've been. I'm not sure how these workers don't have more pellets lodged in them (or maybe they do and are just excellent at hiding them... or maybe it was just the fact that they were completely clothed that I couldn't tell. Okay, moving on). And David was talented too. After this gun shooting thing, they won imitation Tamagotchis (though another option was a gun... A GUN?! For a young child? I'm assuming they weren't anything that could do a lot of damage, but they sure looked scary and I'm not sure giving a gun to a child is smart, especially for Hugo or David 'cause I'm sure when they get in their rages, one would try to shoot the other's face up). Anyway, point being: I want a Tamagotchi too. Take me back to 6th grade please. I would take better care of it than Hugo or David, both of whose have died several times already. I think they're over them now. Whatevs. The other fun part was Patricia freaking out that David was going to die when he wanted to go on some ride... not that I would ever go on it in a million years. It was high and fast and not what I look for in order to have fun. But Patricia was really not going to allow him, until his friend's dad convinced her that the two boys (David and the friend) wouldn't die. Like, seriously. 'Cause she was convinced something awful would happen, and the ride would slaughter them. Haha. So she went and bought churros (she couldn't bear to watch) while I took pictures. I love her. And churros.
Another thing... I've mentioned that The Simpsons is the most popular show in the world, right? And has anyone heard about a Simpson’s movie? Some Australians I met this past weekend in Barcelona were telling us there was a movie coming out, though I am not so sure about that. ANYWAY, I am curious how The Simpsons translates to foreign people who couldn't possibly understand all the American pop culture jokes. I guess it's still funny enough, because the boys love it. Patricia is fed up with it and will not allow anyone to watch it when she's around... haha. It is pretty annoying though, especially in French. But at one point she did sit down with me and the boys to watch it. It was an episode that showed one of the Simpsons watching TV and the Crocodile Hunter was on. I explained to her that this was a real show, but that guy, Steve Erwin, died and then made up some way to explain his death due to lack of vocab. I guess not knowing the details behind the little things in the overall show aren't a big deal (like how Raffi, my favorite kids' singer ever!, was also mentioned in the show), but I think it adds to it. Plus, French with an overdone Australian accent is great stuff.
Man I can't believe it is already May! This means that we will be home in 26 days...but in between now and then we have a lot to do, a big project for our International Marketing class (Marketing plan, implementing Wal-Mart into Italy...lol...Cortny and I came up with it!) But more importantly, we have more trips coming up, I am going back to London, because I loved it so much! Then Cortny and I are going on another vacation! Barcelona, Spain is our next stop and we are going for four nights, leaving on Thursday and getting back on Monday! Don't worry...we are not skipping any class, we just don't have any because it got cancelled on Thursday afternoon, and I don't have class until 4:45 on Monday! Oh the hard life!
 Well getting on to our trip...We left on Friday Morning for Geneva, Switzerland. We got in at about 10:30 and spent the day doing a walking tour of Geneva. We found a Starbucks and ended up spending $6.83 on our usual drinks...a piece. Even though the Swiss Franc is worth less than the dollar, things are very expensive, so we tried not to eat out a bunch, let me just say...we LOVE grocery stores!
There aren't very many things to do in Geneva, it is a place that you mainly take in the scenery and walk around the  old town. Regardless, we found enough to do for the day. On Saturday we grabbed the train to Montreux and Lausanne, two towns along Lake Geneva. They were really nice because we actually got to see the mountains, which is what we came to Switzerland for. Just past Montreux (45 minute walk along the lake), there is the Chateau de Chillon, it is a famous castle and all of you have probably seen it in pictures or on the TV at least once, it was very cool to see it in person.
After the spectacle of the castle wore off, we went back to Lausanne on the train and checked it out. It was very lively, because supposedly it is a college town and it WAS very busy. The whole town is built on a hill, so you have the view of the lake from the top, which was pretty neat. Lausanne is also the Headquarters for the Olympic Games and Museum so we made sure to go and see the Olympic Fire and grounds. Cortny and I really liked Lausanne the best out of the three towns we went to. It seemed like there was a lot to do and more people our age, which is always nice! Not just bankers, businessmen, and stuck up snobs with their Ferrari's. Everybody was very nice in Geneva and Lausanne, even though they all pretty much spoke French...lol! It was fun though trying to say, Bonjour, Merci, Si vous plah, or however you spell it.
Anyway, On Sunday I went to the United Nations for a tour, and then the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, these places were very interesting and nice to see, the Red Cross Museum was at times, somewhat disturbing, because of the Graphic nature.
Cortny and Andrea (a friend that went with us) went to the park for a picnic and relaxed while I was at the museums. When we met up, Cortny and I went on a tram ride around town and Andrea went to ride on a boat around the lake. On Monday we did more walking around and checked out this HUGE department store called Manor, which puts Wal-Mart to shame in size, but not in price...lol! Later in the afternoon, we went to the airport and caught our 3:05 PM flight.
There is our Switzerland trip in a nutshell. It was beautiful, but I think we could have done all of this in one day less then we gave ourselves, there was just not enough to do, so we had a lot of down time. We still enjoyed it though, and are glad we got to go and experience the Swiss lifestyle of high prices and beautiful scenery!
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