Barcelona- Shenanigans up the wazoo

My trip to Malta and the subsequent time in Girona was exactly what I was looking for in a vacation: low-key, stress-free living with fabulous weather :)  However, I was really looking forward to seeing Wenlu, Mike, and Andrew in Barcelona and I’d heard lots of interesting things about the city, so I was anxious to see what kind of shenanigans would go down once I arrived in town.  First indication that Barcelona was different/more lively than where I’d been previously?  I was catcalled three times, honked at twice, and propositioned by a man on a motorcycle within my first hour of arriving.  And let me assure you that I didn’t even look good at this point, so I can’t imagine what women who’ve taken the time to pull themselves together go through! 

Mirador de Colom

This is not a joke.

Anyway, I took advantage of yet another beautiful day to walk around town and do some exploring to get the lay of the land.  Barcelona’s an interesting mix of past and present, as they have some amazing monuments and buildings but also a very young and vibrant population, from what I saw.  I of course headed down to the harbor, where the sailboats were packed in like sardines.  Honestly, I have no idea how they maneuver out of port!  There’s a mall along the gangway that I walked through to get to the other side of the port, and I was surprised to see a giant statue… of a man that had pulled down his pants and taken a dump.  I wish I were kidding about this one, but apparently, the “Caganer,” which literally means the “Shitter” or the “Crapper” is a typical figure of Catalan Christmas cribs and his stool is fertilizer that portends abundant crops for the New Year.  That means that the semi-inappropriate statue is a symbol of “happiness, good luck, and above all, growth.”  … Yeah, I thought it was pretty strange too. 

Parc de la Ciutadella

I stayed up late (aka 3:30am) to chat with my family in Chicago, celebrating Christmas Eve together.  It was tough, but good to hear all of their voices.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to miss Christmas again- we’ll see!  Andrew and I walked pretty much all over town on Christmas Day while waiting for Wenlu and Mike to arrive.  One of the coolest things we found was an enormous fountain in a park that we didn’t even know existed!  That’s the fun part of doing some random exploring.  We also played around with some photos- you’ll see what I mean below. 

I'm pretty much a giant.

Pretty close, right?

We had an interesting evening, to say the least.  We met up with some cool guys from North Carolina and a brother/sister pair from Arizona and drank a respectable amount of wine in the hostel before deciding to go out to a club that had been recommended to the NC guys.  It probably would have been best to take a taxi, but since there weren’t any minivan taxis available, which meant that the 9 of us would have had to split up into 3 different vehicles, we decided to go it on foot.  I’ll spare you the sordid details, but suffice it to say that the walk included beers bought from Spanish street vendors (which we later learned is illegal), getting lost and attempting to ask for directions without a real map or more than “un pocito” of Español, various levels of wading/swimming in the Mediterranean which led to several members leaving early to avoid hypothermia, and only three of us (Andrew, Will, and me) successfully making it to the club by, oh, I don’t know… two thirty in the morning maybe?  The club was absolutely ridiculous- hundreds of young (remember- they only have to be 18, not 21) Spanish clubgoers grinding to the beat of American songs blasting through the loudspeakers.  The guy to girl ratio was probably 7:1, so the two boys didn’t have much luck finding any Spanish sugar mommas ;)  The walk back was much less eventful, although we did have the chance to sing along to some Katy Perry with a group of three girls on their way home from a different club.  Biggest downside?  Reeking like smoke… it never fails to make me more glad that smoking in bars and restaurants is banned in Wisconsin!  I ended up showering at 5:30am, when we made it home, before hitting the sheets at 6am. 

Wenlu and me with Flora 

Our last full day in Barcelona was no let-down, that’s for sure!  We dragged ourselves out of bed to get to the Go-Car- yes, the Go-Car, place by 10am.  These vehicles are street-legal in Barcelona, so once we put down our deposits and put on our helmets, we were able to tear all through the city, following instructions given to us by a computerized GPS tour guide.  Well… some of us did, anyway.  Wenlu and I were the only ones who successfully went on a tour with “Flora” (we had to name her, of course), because we split up and the boys ended up in a different section of the city.  One of the cars didn’t realize that you had to push the ON button to get the lady to start talking/helping you out, so that may have been the cause of their difficulty ;)  Wenlu and I especially enjoyed when Flora decided to have a little fun on La Rambla, one of the busiest streets in the city.  She told us to turn our volume as high as it could go and then proceeded to wolf whistle and told us to wink at the cutest person we saw.  We weren’t really expecting that, and were both looking at a fat old man in a wheelchair haha :) 

Love it.

We headed to a really sweet Spanish food market for lunch, where we found delicious bread and killer fruit boxes, which even included coconut!  Mmm :)  Most of the crew took the opportunity to do some resting and relaxing in the afternoon, but I took the opportunity to talk to the best little brother in the world (love you, hon!) and then to do some souvenir shopping.  I pretended that I was French, which was both good practice and good entertainment for me.  Most of the vendors speak English reasonably well since there are so many English-speaking tourists, but their French is limited or nonexistent, so I didn’t get hassled as much as I would have otherwise.  The Christmas lights were gorgeous!  I came back, expecting a quiet night since I was tired and starting to feel a little under the weather, but was talked aka guilt tripped into coming on an all-included pub crawl, which took us to three bars (with a free shot at each one of the bars) and then into a club.  The “flaming asshole” shots at the second bar, which were literally lit on fire, was quite the crowd pleaser.  Four Moroccan guys and three Tunisian guys discovered that I spoke French and thought that was pretty much the coolest thing ever, since none of the other girls there did, which made my night all the more entertaining.  I ended up pulling an all-nighter, getting back to the hostel around 4:30am and showering before catching a 5:30am bus to the airport!  Moral of the story?  If you’re looking for some extreme shenanigans, Barcelona, and specifically the hostel we stayed at (which was full of young travelers who wanted to have a good time) is definitely the place to be.  I said Hasta Luego, Spain and headed to Venice next!

Girona- Quiet Class

I arrived in Girona without any problems and caught a bus to the center of the city.  After briefly consulting my map, I took off to find my hostel and accidentally ended up right outside.  Quelle chance!  I dropped off my backpack and set off to do some exploring.  First impressions:  wow.  In Malta, everything was old, but felt like it was just in disrepair and was starting to fall apart.  Girona, in contrast, has that beautiful “aged” look of a place where you can practically feel the history coming out of the walls to greet you.  If you were comparing cities to celebrities, Malta could be Farah Fawcett, while Girona’s more like Meryl Streep. 

Some of Girona’s highlights: 

1.        The commercial part of the city.  The names of streets and places are named after the activities that happened (and in some cases, still happen) there- ie the placa del Vi (wine), placa de l’Oli (olive oil), and carrer de l’Argenteria (silversmiths), which I thought was pretty cool.  It was an all-around sweet place to wander.

2.       El call.  This is the old Jewish quarter: not a place to visit while wearing stilettos, as I’m sure you’d catch your heel on the cobblestones and break your ankle unless you’re a French woman born and raised in sky-high shoes :)  This area is a bit of a maze, but it’s one of the places I was talking about where you can feel the history if you just close your eyes and imagine a bit!

3.       The bridges over the River Onyar, which let you see riverside houses up and down the water. 

View from La Catedral

4.       La Catedral- I didn’t go in, but the view from the outside was spectacular.  It’s also one of those places that is kind of hiding until you just turn the corner and, boom!  There it is :)

5.       El parc de la Devesa.  This is apparently one of the largest city parks in Catalonia and I would love to see the riverbank market that happens on Tuesday and Saturday mornings !

6.       The Christmas market.  The merchant stands had some really cute handmade jewelry and actually things that I’d consider buying, rather than stand after stand of tourist-trappy things :)

I was so proud of myself because I went to a boulangerie and pointed at the bread that I wanted and the lady told me that it was one fifty (in Spanish) and I both understood her and was able to give her the correct amount!  My crowning moment was at the market, when a woman asked if I had another 2 euros so she could give me a 10 instead of 8 in coins.  She kept talking to me the whole time in Spanish and I’m hoping that she thought I spoke Spanish and was just mute ;)  I was actually really impressed with how well I was able to both understand things and get around.  Because Girona is part of Catalonia, most of the signs are both in Spanish and Catalan and one or the other invariably has a strong resemblance to either French or English or both, so with the help of cognates, I was able to manage pretty well with my primitive Spanish level.  This was in stunning contrast to Malta, where even though technically they spoke my language, I felt lost looking at any number of signs!  Funny how those things work out. 

Me on the walls of Girona

Possibly my favorite part of Girona was the torres del passig de la Muralla, the wall walkway’s towers.  It was really cool to be able to walk all along the old walls of the city, and it was a fabulous way to look out onto the city and the surrounding area.  I was even able to snap a few pictures of myself on the walls due to the ‘delay’ setting and some stable rocks.  I’m sure that I could have spent much more time in Girona, but I actually felt like I saw a lot of things that I wanted to in the short time that I was there.  I was really excited to get to Barcelona to meet up with my UW friends!

Barcelona stories on the way :) xoxo

Malta continued and Gozo: Sketchy buses, toy boats, and beautiful sunrises/sunsets

Palace Guard

Wednesday I headed out and caught a ferry to Valletta, which is the capital city of Malta.  It was pretty neat and definitely has a different vibe than the areas I’d been in the day before.  The center of the city was buzzing- one of the streets (“market street”- appropriately named) had a big market all the way up and down it and there were people EVERYWHERE!  However, when I walked around the perimeter, it was like the dead zone… not scary, but just strange because the sound is trapped inside the city too so it was like there was no one anywhere, and then I turned a corner and boom!  There’s the crew.  There was a Buckingham Palace and guards outside that aren’t allowed to smile at you or anything, as well as red photo booths.  Definitely some British influence that remains! 

One extremely obvious way you can see it is that the people drive on the left side of the street.  This messes with my head for two reasons:
1.  I always look the wrong way when going to cross the street.  I can’t tell you how many times I looked right, looked left, started to cross, and- whoops!- almost get run over by a car coming from the right.
2.  I have the (false) impression that everyone in the country is carpooling.  I was so impressed with the dedication to decrease excess driving!  And then I realized that it wasn’t a passenger in every one of those cars, but the driver that is on the other side.  I just assume that there’s someone in the ‘driver’s’ seat (the passenger seat here) because I’m so used to looking for the driver there.

Malta bus

Valletta is also the main hub of the bus system in Malta.  The buses are extremely old-school and were really intimidating to me at first- hence one of the reasons I walked everywhere!  There aren’t doors, so you just hop on when it comes to the bus stop and hand your money to the driver and then when you want to get off, you pull a cord or push a button (depending on how new your bus is…) and then cross your fingers that the driver’s feeling nice enough to come to a full stop for you.  I saw multiple situations where this wasn’t the case and people literally hit the ground running ;)

Anyway, my one regret of my Malta trip is that if I would have known what the tour/cruise packages were ahead of time, I probably would have gone straight to Gozo rather than hitting up Valletta.  There is a package that is only 15 euros and includes one of those ridiculous get on/get off the bus tours in Gozo (which would have been nice just to transport around and to hit up all of the major areas) and it includes a free harbor cruise, which goes in and out of all the harbors across from Valletta.  The cruise itself is normally 16 euros (but they’ll go down to 10 in trying to get you to come)  and the ferry out to Gozo is 5 euros and the buses there are ~2 roundtrip, so it’s a pretty good deal.  I didn’t have time to take advantage of the special- maybe another time!  It was interesting to ride the bus because we really went in and out of a lot of the towns in the country, so I got a good view of the countryside.  The more rural areas are so extremely different from the cities that it feels like a whole different country.  The ferry I took out to Gozo was nothing like the ferry to Valletta- this one was really large and fit cars and trucks in too.

Crazy colorful boats

Sunset- wow

The Mgarr harbor in Gozo is full of these boats that to me look like toys.  It must be a Malta thing… I’ve seen them in lots of different harbors.  They’re painted so many different bright colors that they look too pretty to actually be functional!  Gozo has a different feel than the other main island… both places have a lot of large, old churches and small, winding streets, but Gozo seems like it’s more laid-back and low-key and less developed.  I mainly stayed in the 3 or 4 "cities" closest to the harbor, but I think I’d enjoy exploring the rest of the island.  It was like I had the place to myself- so quiet!  I tried Kinnie, the Maltese soft drink… yuch.  It’s kind of like Fanta but less sweet with a strong bitter aftertaste.  On the bright side, it’s probably better that I didn’t like it- now I don’t have to worry about finding it outside of Malta!  The sun was setting as I took the ferry back- absolutely gorgeous. One more incidence of friendly people… I met a Czech guy who was on the same ferry back and then took the same bus back to get us back to where we were staying on the main island, and he talked me ear off about everything from traveling to foreign countries to learning English and why we had come to Malta.  By the end of the 30+ minute bus ride, he asked me to dinner, but I didn’t think that it would be an especially good idea to go out by myself with a stranger late at night (I am capable of making rational decisions sometimes!) so I politely declined and told him to enjoy the rest of his trip. 

Me, Lynnette, and Cathy

I came back and Cathy, Lynnette, Michael, and Lynnette’s sister (Katrina) and I went out to the clubs.  I realized that it was one of those days where I’d forgotten to eat an actual meal, so I kept an eye on how much alcohol I was taking in.  But I can never turn down tequila shots! ;)  We didn’t end up going to the strip club (ladies night at Stiletto) but did end up visiting the Aussie girls’ cousin at a pub where we got a pitcher that was kind of like Wando’s fishbowls, a club where we were given 2-for-1 tickets, and a club where the guy outside (not really a bouncer since they obviously aren’t checking IDs and things… more like PR?) gave us free cocktail coupons and 2-for-1 vodka redbull pitchers.  It was an interesting evening, and involved pole-dancing, shots, girls that couldn’t figure out how to flush toilets, and metro Maltese boys.  All in all, a great way to go out, even if it meant that I had less than 3 hours of sleep before heading to the airport!  I was up to see sunrise, which was a definite plus. 

Malta sunrise

When trying to sum up Malta, the best way that I can describe things is that I feel like the whole country is playing a joke on me.  I already described my confusion with the cars, but the language is another key trick.  The majority of the signs are in English but then every now and then, they just mix things up and throw one in that’s only in Maltese.  And no one speaks in English, so I can’t understand anything they’re saying, but then when I ask them a question or order something in English, they respond in English, with a very strange accent that somewhat resembles British English, but at the same time sounds like they’re not native speakers.  Maltese sounds kind of like Arabic, but borrows words from Sicilian, Italian, French, and English, which makes it all them more frustrating because I pick up words here and there and I kind of have the impression that if I listened really really closely, I would understand… but when I listen really really closely, I have the impression that I’m not listening closely enough and I still don’t get it!  It’s a very difficult language to learn.  All that I picked up on my brief stay was the word for street (Triq) and the word for hill (Telgha) because I was trying to find Birkirkara Hill, but ended up at Triq Birkirkara instead of Telgha Birkirkara.  The one other word I learned was xita, which is prounced “shitta” (shitter in an Aussie accent ;) haha) which means rain.  So when you’re in Malta next, you can look up at the sky and say, shitta! 

Hoping for no xita near you  J  xoxo Allison

Malta: land of friendly people and stray cats

So, as most of you already know, I decided not to go home for Christmas this year.  When I started looking for tickets, they were over a thousand dollars… I kept my eye out and saw prices go down to 900 or so, but felt that it was still too much to spend, especially since I was lucky enough to have been home for a bit in October with med school interviews.  I also saw this break as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where I’m living in Europe and really have very little/nothing that I have to do during this time.  So… I decided to go for it and planned a whirlwind European tour: Marseille to Malta, Malta to Girona (Spain), Girona to Barcelona (still Spain), and Barcelona to Venice (Italy).  It’s been a bittersweet decision:  I’ve been both extremely excited to have the chance to take such an awesome trip, and also really sad to not be with my family.  “I’ll be home for Christmas” has come on several times on my itunes holiday playlist and has induced several bouts of tears.  Anyhoo, enough of the Debbie Downer business.  Malta! 

In case you don't know where Malta is...

Flying with Ryanair is great as far as your checkbook goes (my flight to Malta cost a grand total of… 24.99, in euros obviously.)  However, the glitch is that they charge you literally an arm and a leg to check a bag, which is great incentive to travel with only a carryon.  I’m packing all of my clothes, toiletries, technology, and other necessities into one small hiking backpack that just fits within the 55x40x20cm carryon travel restrictions.  How did I make it work?  I’ll fill you in on the secret later! 

Anyway, I had all of my things together early in the day, but my flight didn’t leave Marseille until 9:30pm.  The story is much longer, but in the interest of time/space, suffice it to say that when I arrived at the train station at 6:05, the trains had been cancelled (due to weather, I think) and my only option took a long detour and would get me to the aiport by 9:10... for a 9:30 flight.  I checked in with a cab driver just for kicks and giggles… He looked at me like I was crazy and told me, “plus de 100 km; plus de 200 euros” Eek!!  I didn’t know what to do, so I called my host family for advice.  Steve didn’t even hesitate and told me to wait there and that he was on his way to bring me to the airport himself :)  He and Renaud showed up about 35 minutes later and drove me straight to the airport.  I was plenty early and didn’t have any problems checking in.  Whew!  They’re angels for sure. 

Yes, it is December

Our flight took off half an hour late, but still arrived ten minutes early, which reminded me of a Ryanair trick.  They advertise that over 90% of their flights arrive on time or early, more than any other European airline… which I am convinced is due to the fact that they consistently overestimate how much time it will take to get there.  The passengers applauded when we landed, which also makes me laugh.  Since it was almost midnight, I took a taxi to get to my hostel, which at 20 euros cost almost as much as my entire flight :)  At the hostel, I met Lynnette and Michael, an Aussie girl and a Canadian guy who live and work at the hostel, and Cathy, an Irish girl on vacation. 

This is "snow" ;)

Stray cat haven

I really had nothing in mind for the following day, so I just started walking.  I used my awesome sense of direction and went completely the opposite way that I thought I was going, but my only real goal was to get to a beach and since I was on an island, if I walked long enough in any direction, I think I would have been able to succeed.  I ended up at a picnic area in Pembroke, where I took off my sundress and hopped in the water, reading a “smutty” (holla if you love the Music Man!) French book for a couple of hours.  The water was way warmer than I was expecting, so I actually was sitting in the water while I read. 

After that, I explored Paceville (which is pronounced more like Patch-a-ville) and St Julians and Sliema and Manoel Island, walking along the seashore and enjoying the 65 degree weather.  Several examples of the extremely friendly people; while I was eating a slice of pizza at the waterfront for lunch, not one but two guys came up to me- one of them told me that my pizza looked good and the other asked where I was from and how I liked Malta and talked a little bit about the lack of snow at Christmastime.  And I legitimately felt that neither one was hitting on me and they didn’t outstay their welcome… no awkward, “well… I’m going to go now” or “I hope you have a nice day!” to encourage them to get a move on.  One other extremely common phenomenon?  Stray cats EVERYWHERE.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  Cathy said that in Valletta there’s an area where people come to feed stray cats, kind of like the way that people will bring bread to throw to ducks in harbor areas.  Speaking of ducks… Manoel Island had quite the interesting display. 

Duck gardens at Manoel Island

In case you couldn't read that sign... hahaha

Cathy and I grabbed dinner in Paceville at a cute little pasta place- it was a good example of the difference in cost of living.  I think that things in France are generally fairly expensive… you’ll rarely find a restaurant where you can get something for less than 8 euros, and 10-14 is probably more common.  However, here, we were able to get HUGE pasta portions AND a drink for less than 7 euros!  We tried to check out a place where we had seen advertisements for salsa dancing, but it didn’t look like much was going on-maybe because it was a Tuesday night.  Cathy and Lynnette and Mike and I chatted for a while and then watched Mamma Mia- it was so nice to have such awesome people at the hostel.  More to come from the rest of my Malta excursion!  

Track-Tripping en Suisse

Mary and I were too busy having fun for me to stop and blog about it, so it’s taken me a bit to chronicle all of our adventures :)  Once this post’s up about Switzerland, more European adventure stories will be soon to come! 

Joelle captured Mary and me having a little picture fun!

Unfortunately, I still had to work a little bit when Mary was here- Tuesday when I was in class all day, she headed to Avignon and toured with Hannah.  On Wednesday, the Patris family took the two of us to Fountaines de Vaucluse, which is a nearby city with a famous spring.  Apparently, even though they’ve sent divers way way down, they haven’t been able to locate the source of the water yet… *cue the creepy music* but in all seriousness, it was a really neat place!  They also had a paper-making factory, and there were several water wheels which helped to power the factory.  So cool!  

Breaking out my inner child

After I finished work on Thursday, the two of us took off and caught the train to Grenoble.  We couldn’t see much because we arrived late at night, but in the morning, we realized just what a spectacular place we were visiting!!  One of the best things in Grenoble is la Bastille, a fortress finished in 1592 up at the top of a mountain that overlooks the city.  It bears the same name at the famous prison that was overtaken in Paris during the French Revolution (and the French national holiday, Bastille Day, on July 14) but that’s just because the word bastille means fortress in French.  There are cable cars that go up to the top, but we decided that the hike was probably prettier and man, was it ever gorgeous!  We started things off playing in an adorable playground and the two of us climbed on one of those pyramid structures that Hannah and I saw in Nice (the one you don’t let your kids on if you value their lives!)  All along the way we had awesome views of the surrounding city and it was an absolutely beautiful day… zero regrets.  When we arrived at the top, we were rewarded with five things:

Obviously had to have a lil' fun

     1.   Paintings of men in strange, somewhat provocative poses on random walls/surfaces

     2.   Plaques explaining the history of the fortress and also pointing out different places in the city, including sites that were used when Grenoble hosted the Olympics in 1968

      3.  A giant replica of Schuss, the first Olympic mascot, and hence Mukmuk’s ancestor (If you don’t know who Mukmuk is… shame.  He was very important in the Vancouver Olympic Games this past winter and my roommate Kara and her man, David, are both obsessed!)

4.  An Alpine Soldiers museum.  It was 100% free and one of the coolest museums that I have ever visited.  We didn’t take pictures, but if you ever end up in Grenoble, I highly encourage you to check it out! 

5.  Last but absolutely not even close to least… Breathtaking views of mountains all around us.

Not bad, eh?

We had to head out to Geneva, Switzerland later in the day (rough life, I know) so the Bastille was our main attraction for the day.  We breezed through customs (literally… they didn’t even bat an eye as we walked by, let alone check/stamp passports or make us declare goods) and set off to explore the city by night.  The Christmas lights were sweet!  Rather than normal lights along the streets, they had Pac-Man images set up all over… so the lights were the “dots” that Pac-Man has to eat and there were ghosts interspersed trying to catch him.  Love it.  We hit up a French Chinese restaurant for dinner- so good! 

We joined in on the celebration, of course!

When we first arrived, we saw a couple of random children wearing costumes, but didn’t think much of it… but then the following morning, the whole city was dressed up!  And there were sections that seemed almost like a Renaissance festival- grownups and children alike in costume, roasting animals on spits and firing off cannons.  Apparently we lucked out and had stumbled upon L’Escalade, which is a festival that celebrates Geneva’s defeat of a surprise attack in 1602.  Traditions include the making of giant chocolate cauldrons (which cost an arm and a leg, so I’m not sure how they taste), the drinking of hot wine, and general ridiculousness.  We also heard that children go around trick-or-treating and that instead of being given candy, they get money.  Not sure if it’s true or not, but it sounds like a good tradition to me!

Mary and I also took advantage of a super-size chess set to play a game.  I was about to make a move that probably would have lost me the game when two old Swiss men sprang to my rescue and insisted vehemently that I should not move my king there!  Haha :)  Several other things we visited in the city were the United Nations Grounds (although we couldn’t visit, since we were there on a weekend), the Broken Chair exhibit which represents opposition to land mines and cluster bombs, and the Jet d’Eau aka Water Jet, which shoots water 140 meters into the air!!  We also went to the Red Cross International Museum, which had awesome potential, but was a total bust.  Especially after visiting such a cool museum the day before, we were thoroughly unimpressed by the exhibit.  It’s a bit sad, because there are so many cool things the Red Cross does and it had so much potential! 

One thing I haven’t mentioned in all of this is the absurd amount of Swiss chocolate we consumed.  In case you’re wondering, yes, it absolutely is that good.  I may have gained a good 10 pounds just due to chocolate, but it was totally worth it!  We figured, when in Switzerland… :)  All in all, one of the best weekend trips I've ever taken, in no small part due to such fabulous company!

La vie à Carpentras

Just one little example of a stand at the market

The weekend after Thanksgiving was also la fête de Saint Siffrein, the patron saint of Carpentras.  What does that mean?  A huge market taking over the entire city!  This was on a much larger scale than the Friday markets which take place every week.  I don’t really know why, but the street that my school was filled with all sorts of horses.  Other than that, however, it was really just a very very large market.  Fun to walk around, but not a whole heck of a lot to do if you didn’t need to buy something :)

Some of the BTS boys at the play- they're such sweethearts :)

I went to a play with the BTS boys during the week: “Ne te promene pas tout nue” which means “Don’t walk around naked.”  It was a really interesting experience- the play was about a man who was trying to get promoted and his wife was just wearing lingerie in every scene and then some sort of bug bit her on the butt, so she kept walking up to the other characters and bending over and sticking her butt (no worries- she had on a thong, so she wasn’t actually naked) in their faces to try to ask them to take out the stinger that she was convinced the bug had left.  Yeah, I thought it was strange too :)  I joined David, Sébastien, Guillaume, and Benjamin for dinner afterward and ate my first ever double cheeseburger!  Seems strange that it was in France and not in the US…

The crew at wine tasting/appetizers

Atop the tower

I briefly left Carpentras to pick up MARY KOLARS who had come all the way to France to visit me.  Hannah, Mary, and I headed up to Notre Dame de la Garde and ate some fabulous food for dinner.  Mary and I stayed in a hostel right next to the train station, so that we had an easy exit in the morning.  We caught the bus in Avignon because we had to get to Carpentras for a full day of events with the France-Etats Unis (US) association.  My host dad, Steve, is the president of the organization, and Joelle is really involved in all of the operations too, which is why I had been invited.  There were four students from the IAU (Institutes for American Universities) in Avignon who came along with us.  We first went to Moulin à Huile in Saint Hippolyte le Graveyron, where we saw olive oil being made!  Then Steve drove us over to Chateaux de Barroux so that we could take some pictures of the region.  We went from there back to Beaumes de Venise for appetizers and wine tasting.  The wine was delish and so were all of the little treats.  Michel, a French man that I had met at the Thanksgiving dinner, was there and invited us to go olive-picking the next day.  (Remember this detail!)  We spent several hours enjoying French wine (tough life, right?) and then went to the town hall in Carpentras, where we had some more pastries, more drinks, and had a photo shoot in the mayor’s office.  A nice girl took us on a walking tour of Carpentras from there.  We were able to go up into the Porte d’Orange, which is normally not open to visitors.  It was a really great view of the city and the region!  It was pretty chilly, so we went to get some hot chocolate and to warm up before attending the inaugural lighting of the Carpentras “Christmas tree.” 

The "Christmas tree" with the Carpentras mayor!

Mary and I and our olive man

Chestnuts!

The following day, Michel came to pick Mary and me up to go olive-picking.  I should note that at this point, we thought that we were going to learn about the olive harvesting process and that we might be helping out a little bit.  As it turns out, Michel dropped us off and said, “I have to go… I have family things today” and left us with his friend, who led us to where the 4 IAU students were already hard at work.  Apparently they only harvest olives two days a year and it was one of those days… and we were the slave labor to do all of the picking!  We spent the next two and a half hours using rakes and our fingers and pulling olives down from trees onto a net down below.  When the tree was sufficiently bare (we always left a couple of olives for the birds), we pulled together the net and dumped the olives into a bin.  As far as slave labor goes, it wasn’t all that bad- we had a lot of fun just chatting and it was really low key.  After we finished, our host brought us in and gave us châtaignes/marrons aka chestnuts and we roasted them over an open fire.  (Literally!)  Mmm- very tasty.  Michel showed up after that to pick us up in an ENORMOUS pickup truck that must be some sort of delivery vehicle.  He insisted on bringing us to see something in the region, so we ended up driving to Orange and taking pictures by the Arc de Triomphe.  Then we went to Avignon to drop the others off, and Michel drove me and Mary back.  He took a ton of roundabout back roads and I think it took us more than an hour to get back, instead of the normal half an hour trip.  The most comical part was that even though Mary must have told Michel a half a dozen times that she didn’t speak any French, he kept forgetting and ended up chattering on and on and on in French.  We talked about everything from the dance club he offered to show us around to how he used to use a dog as a chick magnet.  He was a hoot and a holler for sure.  Hopefully I’ll see him and his wife, Mireille, more often this year- they were both so nice!

Skary Jack-in-the-boxes

Other Carpentras news?  Santons, little figurines, are extremely famous in Carpentras and there’s a huge display… and the city was actually really lively for Christmas!  Caitlin came to visit me last weekend (December 17^th).  Notable events included visiting the Christmas market, seeing several of the roving displays (“spectacles”), taking pictures with Pere Noel, ice skating, visiting the market in Isles sur Sorgues, and going to a Christmas concert with 100 guitars.  The spectacles were absolutely frightening- especially this one that involved life-size jack in the boxes.  There was a little baby in front of the display and I have no idea how he was keeping from bawling his eyes out.  I would have been so scared!  We helped some adorable little children that were having trouble with their skates at the patinoire.  One of my favorite parts of the day was that they were blasting music over loudspeakers in the whole city.  They also have gorgeous lights that decorate the entire city.  Beautiful! 

Pere Noel :)

All in all, it’s been really interesting to see how France celebrates Christmas- it’s somewhat different and somewhat the same as our celebrations in the states.  I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that I won’t be in Provence for Christmas because the tradition is to make 13 desserts!  And obviously you have to eat all 13… you wouldn’t want to be rude ;)  I’m posting from Barcelona Spain, so Bon Nadal (Catalan) and Joyeux Noel (French) to you all!  I hope that you are able to celebrate with family and friends- I stayed up late to skype with mine :)

Teaching, Training, Terrible Teams, Thanksgiving, and Terminales

The week after I went to Nice was my very first “normal” week of class with my complete schedule.  I’ve already said this, but I can see that teaching is going to be a definite challenge!  I’m quite sure that I don’t want to be a French (or English) teacher as a career, but I’m looking forward to learning as I go.  Some highlights from the time: teaching the RLHS fight song to groups of students and some interesting discussions about our Homecoming customs.  It brings back fond memories to hear so many people singing the “Blue and Go-o-old, Hey!” but also creates new memories… I don’t recall my peers ever having a problem remembering if it was “march ON to victory” or “march AND to victory” or turning “quite a sight” into a tongue twister J  Everyone enjoyed the Powderpuff tradition and there were quite a few students intrigued by the ideas of car smashing, which I understand is not necessarily a universal tradition.  I had a ton of fun preparing for lessons and finding pictures of my class members and I decked out for class colors.  Our French 5 class was particularly intimidating!  I wonder what ever happened to Coco, the Belgian foreign exchange student… Anyone with info, feel free to contact me J 

French 5- Fall of 2005

Cirino in fine form :)

We had one more day of “formation” (aka training) in Avignon on the 17^th.  To be honest, I don’t think it was that helpful for us, but it was  nice to see the other assistants in the area again.  I got to meet Gavin for the first time- a Canadian girl never showed up to take her position in Orange/Bollene and Gavin came in from Ireland to fill the spot.  On the 20^th, I joined Caitlin, Laura, Catia, Belina, and Gavin in Orange to watch Cirino (my Sicilian friend) perform in a play.  I didn’t understand every single word of the play, but it was made up of a bunch of different short little skits and they were pretty hilarious for the most part.  We especially loved watching the parts that Cirino was in.  He did a great job!  It’s so much fun to spend time with such a diverse group of people- Italian, Sicilian, Spanish, British, Irish, German, and American cultures all blended together.  It’s my opinion that you can learn so much from others if you just keep an open mind! 

Smoke on the field

I had to keep an open mind the following day when I went to my first every European soccer game.  Arles-Avignon, “our” local team, is pretty terrible.  I’m not sure if they’ve won a single game yet this year.  They were playing Bordeaux, and there weren’t many Bordeaux fans, but the ones that were there were hard-core!  I have no idea how they did it, but every time they were excited, they lit fires and had fireworks.  At one point, I couldn’t even see the field because there was so much smoke from the fires the fans had set up.  It’s also a very different feel than sporting events in the US.  Rivalry is one thing, and wanting to literally rip out the other team’s throat is another.  At one point, about 30 security guards had to physically restrain Arles-Avignon fans who were trying to cross a section of seats (purposely left empty to prevent fights) to physically assault the Bordeaux fans.  My host dad told me that the people who come to soccer games are people who love to shout and get in fights- hence why the three other girls and I were definitely the minority in a crowd that was approximately 90% male.  In case you’re wondering, Arles-Avignon lost.  Big surprise!  But quite the cultural experience. 

Speaking of cultures… I know few festivities that remind me of the good ol’ US of A than Thanksgiving.  So… Thanksgiving in France.  I thought that since I’m living in Europe, my Thanksgiving experience would be less than exciting.  Guess that goes to show what I know!!  (Not much, in case that wasn’t clear…) I actually ended up fully celebrating the holiday not one, not two, but THREE times!  Wednesday night I was in Avignon with American, British, and Spanish assistants and a scattering of ‘real’ French friends that people have made, Thursday I was with the Patris family and the IAU students in Avignon, and Saturday, I was in Orange with friends from all over- mostly the same crew that was at Cirino’s play the week before.  It was a challenge to find all of the necessary ingredients, but I think we were pretty successful!  I had brought back a can of pumpkin from the states, which I used to make pumpkin bread- yum J

I taught Thanksgiving lessons in all of my classes, varying the difficulty and vocabulary based on the level of the students.  There are a lot of things that can be done with Thanksgiving lessons and a lot more complexity than the original “Pilgrims and Indians” version that we learned when we were little, but I stuck with just the basics, showing students short clips from “The Mayflower Voyagers” which features Charlie Brown and company in the roles of the Pilgrims.  It was so fascinating for me to see what students thought Thanksgiving was!  I heard everything from “it’s celebrated in America in fall and you give thanks with family and friends and eat turkey” (pretty good!) to “it’s celebrated in the UK after December 25 and you give each other more gifts” which is not exactly the holiday that I was thinking of…  Overall, students thought that they would like to taste all of the different types of food that we eat for the holiday.  Can’t say I blame them! 

The spread at Wednesday night's potluck Thanksgiving

As far as teaching goes, I feel like I’m finally starting to get into some sort of rhythm- just in time for the Christmas vacation… ah well.  Better late than never?  I’ve almost met all of my students at this point!  Teaching during the week before Christmas break wasn’t too stressful- I ended up going to the movies with one of the Terminale classes and with other groups, we talked about Christmas traditions, what gifts students hope to receive, and where/how they’re going to celebrate the holiday, It’s tough that I see some of my students so infrequently.  I really do think that the extra practice in talking with a native speaker is helpful, but it’s hard for me to see much of a difference when I only see some of the students about once every 8 weeks.  I think that January is kind of a turning point in many of the classes, so hopefully I’ll have more direction from both the students and the teachers as far as what they want from me so that I can best prepare them for the bac or any other exams that they may have to take. 

A plus!