Nice!

Nice is Nice! haha had to say it. Samantha and I made it safely to Nice, France and it is absolutely beautiful. We spent the day on the beach enjoying the sunshine and eating good food. Pictures and stories to come!

Goodbye Angers, Hello Summer!

So this blog now draws to a close my time in Angers, France. The past two weeks really have just flown by. After Barcelona was the final week of courses, and during this past week we had our final exams. Since, I admit, I had not studied as hard this semester as I have in the past (can you really blame me?), last week was filled with a lot of cramming and little sleep. But not to fret, we still found plenty of time to enjoy the sunshine and our last days together in Angers. The weather has been absolutely amazing, in the mid 70s if not higher everyday.
As for my courses I feel like I really made a great deal of progress this semester. I am not to the level of speaking I would quite like to be, but even that has improved a lot and my writing in French is much better. To recap, the courses I took this semester were my mandatory six hours of language class per week, French grammar, history of France, history of French art, and French Utopias and Utopian visions. My most difficult class by far was my French grammar class. Even English grammar is a struggle for me, so French grammar was very difficult. Having sad that, I am really glad I took it because I feel much more comfortable with a lot of different components that I did not know how to use at all before. History of France and History of French art were both great courses and I learned a lot. My Utopia class was very enjoyable as well. We will get our grades for this semester in about a month, so hopefully they are as good as I am hoping they will be.
I had my last final on Friday and now it is officially summer and vacation time. I have not had this much free time in I don’t remember how long. It is going to be fantastic!
Sadly Friday was Jayne’s last day in Angers. So to send her off, we had a picnic down by the river with a lot of our close friends. It was another beautiful sunny day and it was just a good quality time with some amazing people I have met here.
Saturday and Sunday were met with more send offs and tearful goodbyes. Everyone is going their separate ways and back to where they came from. The friends I have made here I know I will have for years to come. Even if we never physically see each other again, we will always have Angers.

Last night was my last night chez Annick and this morning she brought me to the train station to send me off. It is not goodbye yet because when Mom and myself come back through Angers in about 2 weeks she is going to have both of us over for dinner. I am really excited that Mom gets to meet my French Mom!
At the moment I am sitting in the TGV station in Charles De Gaulle airport anxiously waiting for Samantha’s flight to get in. it is 2:02 and her flight lands at 4:50. I could not possibly more excited to see her! Tonight we are spending the night in Paris and then tomorrow morning we depart early for Nice in the South of France. We will spend three days there and then head to Antibes for two more days before coming back to Paris to meet my mom.
I will try my best to keep this updated during our travels!

Sun and Sangria

I was lucky enough to spend this past weekend with Adam in Barcelona, Spain! We left Angers around noon on Friday and arrived in Barcelona around 6:30 pm. It was a beautiful sunny day and after only being slightly lost we found our way to our hostel. After some down time after the day of traveling we decided to take advantage of the remaining sunlight and went out to explore the town a bit.
We walked to the main square ‘Place de Catalyuna’ and took a couple of pictures and looked around a bit. By then it was about 9 and we decided it was dinnertime. We found a little place on a side street and got some delicious food and a generous jug of Sangria, which helped cool the night off. Perfect first night in Spain.
Day two we were out and about by 10 and decided to go see the Sagrada Familia:
the Cathedral that started being constructed in the mid 1800s and is still undergoing construction today. It was very neat and unlike any other Cathedral I had seen before with such interesting details. We took lots of pictures and headed off to walk La Rambla, the famous street in the middle of downtown Barcelona. It could best be described as the Champs Elysées of Barcelona. There were lots of stores, vendors, street performers, and other visitors like us enjoying some cold beverages at various street side cafés. We walked through a neat little market just off the side of La Rambla that had every fruit and seafood imaginable. It was so colorful!

At the end of La Rambla ran into the Port of Barcelona. Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine and all shapes and sizes of boats were docked. In the distance we could see the sails of dozens of sailboats bobbing on the clear blue Mediterranean. (Dad – the boat definitely needs to make it to the Mediterranean!)
After exploring the port we luckily stumbled upon the beach and took the opportunity to get our feet in the sand and cool them off in the water. It was so tempting to jump in but I decided dry clothes was a better option and there were also a few jellyfish floating around which was terrifying for me. They are sneaky.

Cooled off a little and ready for more we walked to the Parc de Catalyuna where we found some really neat fountains and a statue of a Mastadon. I am not entirely sure what it was doing there as the sign was in a language I do not speak, but it was neat nonetheless. Finally we made our way to the Arc de Triomph of Barcelona and it was back to the hostel for a bit of a rest.We found another good restaurant with more great Sangria and it was time for bed!
Day three we were greeted yet again with clear blue skies and sunshine. We started the morning off by going back down La Rambla and checking out the old Barcelona Cathedral. We wandered the streets for a while after that simply enjoying the weather and then decided to head up the hill and see the Olympic Village from 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona. We went up and saw the stadium and all of the main venues. The stadium is still in great condition and it is clear they still use it.
We walked back down the hill and took a long stroll back down one of the main roads in search of a house we had seen in the guidebook. After about an hour we found it, took some pictures, and then it was siesta time!

We had a big lunch that day so we decided to just grab a couple of things at the grocery and call it an early night so that we would be able to wake up for our 530 am shuttle to the airport.
This morning we woke up just fine and made it back to Angers, which greeted us with equally sunny weather! It is supposed to continue to be nice and warm here throughout the week.
This is my last week of classes and then next week is finals. I really do not understand how time passes so quickly but I am not ready for this to come to an end. It has been such an incredible experience and I would not trade it for anything.
I will be hitting the books hard this week so wish me luck!

The Small Things...

Like actually finding an open bakery on a catholic holiday when everything else is closed. The Baguettes were definitely worth the walk and the search.

La Discothèque

So the past two weekends I have become well acquainted with a certain Discothèque in Angers called Le Dome. Last weekend a few of my friends and I just decided to go for fun. A few of us had never been to a nightclub before and decided it was time since we have been here for a few months and our weekends are running out.
Friday night we had a bit of a gathering at a friends house and headed to the club around 1. It was a lot of fun we all just danced until around 330 in the morning and caught a cab home and were back home by around 4.
The atmosphere was a lot of fun and it was just fun to dance. I am pretty sure the last time I really danced was my senior prom - so it was time!
This past Friday was one of our friends, Nicole's, birthday. We all met up at the bars around 11pm and headed to the Le Dome around 1 or 130. This time there was a group of about twenty of us all ready to celebrate Nicole's 21st.

The nice thing about Le Dome is there is a shuttle that takes you from downtown Angers to the outskirts where the club is. It is cheaper than a cab as it only costs a Euro each way. So all twenty of us pile into the bus and are ready to head out. We are loud and excited of course and the security guard on the bus just gave us that look and said "vous êtes tous américains?" (You are all American?) with a quizzical brow....yea he caught us. Then he said "Américains boivent beaucoup" (Americans drink a lot)...a generalization that isn't entirely false. But we all used our best french and convinced him that not all of us were drunk and so he gave the bus driver the OK and we were on our way!
The night was a ton of fun, everyone danced and had a great time. This time we stayed a little later and took the 5am shuttle back to Angers. Jayne and I had our bikes locked up downtown so we unlocked our bikes and started our chilly 530 am journey back home. The sun was definitely starting to peak its head out around 6 when we made it home. We were hungry, as we usually are, and our host mom already had breakfast out so we had some delicious bread and butter and crawled into bed.
Unfortunately our sleep time was limited due to an excursion we had saturday afternoon which I might as well talk about now.
Yesterday we had a tour of the Cointreau factory in Angers. Cointreau is an orange flavored alcohol, much like triple sec, that has been produced in Angers since 1849. The distillery has always been located in Angers and even with the high demand for the liqueur the distillery has remained here in Angers. We toured the facilities and I have never smelled anything so good in all of my life. Cointreau is made from both bitter and sweet orange peels and the whole factory smelled like delicious oranges. We saw where the distillation takes place, where it is bottled, and all of the advertisement campaigns over the years. One interesting thing about advertisement in France is that they are not allowed to have a picture of a man or woman holding the alcohol in the advertisement. It has to be advertised in another way. When they do make adds like that it is for other countries like the United States.
After the tour we had a tasting which was very involved and really interesting. We had a bartender and he had us first try it neat, then with ice, and then in two different cocktails. The first was called CointreauBubbles which is cointreau, sparkling water, and a little lime. The second one was a CointreauPolitan which is a cosmopolitan with cointreau and without the vodka, because our bartender informed us that the French do not like strong cocktails.

After the cointreau museum Jayne and I returned home and attempted to rest up for another night out for our friend Tyler's birthday. We got home, both probably looking like zombies, and our host mom just looked at us and laughed. We had told her on friday about all of the parties we were going to this weekend and she simply said "profitez bien pendant que vous êtes jeunes" (Enjoy it while you are young). After we rested a little we were ready for round two and Annick wished us "Bonne Chance" (good luck) on the way out. We both got home in the late morning again this morning. We are tired but we are enjoying it while we are young and in France.

Impromptu Trip to Brussels, Belgium!

So, a most of you have probably heard about the volcano in Iceland and how it was wreaking havoc on the airspace of Europe. Well I think it is safe to say that almost everyone’s travel plans got a little disrupted this spring break. I got sick and had to bail out on my spring break week one and returned to Angers last Wednesday. My week two of spring break was supposed to spent in Antibes in the south of France with my housemate Jayne and another one of our friends. Well the two of them got stuck in Amsterdam due to the ash cloud so there went my week two. Last Wednesday people started filtering back into Angers either by bus or by train, and by Thursday most airlines were flying again. Many people missed their second half of their planned vacation. But instead of just sitting around in Angers, Adam suggested we go to Brussels, Belgium Thursday morning. So late Tuesday night I bought tickets and Thursday morning we were off!

We got into Brussels around 1pm and walked to our hotel from the train station. It was a nice way to get a first glimpse of the city. Brussels is French speaking which was helpful in terms of being able to ask questions and get around. The rest of Belgium however primarily speaks Flemish. After we dropped our stuff off we went off to find the famous Grand Place or the Central Square. It was located fairly close to where we were staying so it was not difficult to find…or not too difficult. The Square was absolutely beautiful because the architecture was amazing. The square was rather lively, people were walking, sitting in little restaurants around the exterior, or sitting right in the middle of the square on the ground chatting with friends with a couple of beers. It was a great atmosphere. There was also this delicious smell in the air. Our noses led us to a waffle stand so of course we had to get a Belgian waffle in Belgium, and it was definitely worth it.
After we got a couple pictures of the square we decided we should actually find a map of the city. We found one at the tourist information center and decided our next destination would be the L’Atomium. We had both seen pictures and wanted to see it in person. Judging by the map it looked like it was within walking distance…. after walking for a while we realized it probably wasn’t so we hopped on the metro. It seemed that once we actually had the city map neither of us could read it anyway. I am going to blame the map in this situation because normally I am ok with those kinds of things.
The Atomium was really neat and a lot bigger than I had pictured for some reason. We got a couple of nice shots, hopped back on the metro and headed back for downtown. We grabbed dinner at a nice restaurant right in the Grande Place. The atmosphere and the food were both fantastic.
Day two we got started around 10am and our first stop was the Cathedral. It was very pretty inside and out. The stain glass windows were fabulous and it had one of the prettiest organs I have ever seen. Next we found our way to the Museum of Musical Instruments, something that was one my list of things to see. The museum was great. Everyone got a headset and when you stood in front of the case that held either violins, trumpets, bag pipes, pianos ect. You heard what music it played. There were the everyday instruments and some more obscure instruments. It was not focused so much on the history of the music, but more on the sound it made and just being able to enjoy it. If you are ever in Brussels I highly recommend it!
Next we made our way to the cinquantaire triumphal arch. It was situated at the back of a beautiful park so the walk was nice to reach it. Everyone was out and about either reading in the sun or running. We had fantastic weather both Thursday and Saturday. After the arch we ended up in another beautiful park on our way to see the European Union buildings.
After the checking out the EU we ended up in another park and grabbed some lunch and a beer at a little outdoor café. Rejuvenated we headed back to downtown to find another famous Brussels landmark, le Mannekin Pis. On the map it looks huge and they have large depictions of it in all of the gift shops so I was picturing a fairly large fountain of this baby peeing. When we found it, it was on a little side street and was actually really small. About child sized actually, which makes sense, but I had pictured something larger. We had a good laugh about that and were off to explore some more.
We saw all of these signs pointing to a certain flower garden so we followed the signs for awhile and when we arrived it was just the name of a square, no actual flowers. The walk was still enjoyable. And on our walk we found a Belgian Chocolate shop – soooo good! I had tried an orange chocolate piece, a raspberry, and a cointreau piece. All were delicious.
Later that night we grabbed dinner at a restaurant called The Drug Opera. The food and beer were great and we had a waffle with vanilla ice cream and chocolate for dessert to toast to our great weekend in Brussels.

We left this morning on the 8h30 train and were back in Angers by around 1. Brussels was a great and unexpected finish to my spring Break.
Now I have the rest of today and tomorrow to do some last minute homework assignments before school starts back up on Monday. I cannot believe I only have about a month of classes yet. This whole experience is going by too fast, but I know I cannot slow it down. I just have to try to soak everything up while I can.

A Few Things I Love About France....So Far

#1 - Cheese
So cheese has always had a special place in my heart, but here I have grown to love it even more. With every meal Chez Annick at least three diferent types of cheese are served. She always has Brie (my favorite), Chevre (Jaynes favorite), and then a third mystery cheese that we get to try. The mystery cheese is always wonderful as well, I have yet to try a cheese that I have absolutely detested.
#2 - Walking
Anchorage isn't a very pedestrian friendly city so living in Angers has been a nice change. I take the bus to get into the city and to school in the morning because I live out in the suburbs but everywhere else I walk. The nice thing is my mentality about walking has changed. It doesn't even seem to phase me anymore if it takes 20+ minutes to walk somewhere because that is the only way im going to get there, so might as well get started. Now as much as I love it, I will probably end up going back to Anchorage and driving everywhere again. That just seems to be the way it works, but we will see.
#3 - Reliable public transportation
Because I take the bus at least twice a day, I really appreciate how simple and reliable it is in Angers. However the bus drivers are just like any other driver in Angers. It is perfectly acceptable to go into oncoming traffic to pass a slow car, dump truck, or biker. Stressed me out a little at first but they have not hit anyone yet so they must know what they are doing!
#4 – Wine
Wine does not have to be expensive to be absolutely delicious. There are bottles of wine as low as .89 centimes that are a little hard to swallow, but as soon as you get into the 1.50 euro range its not half bad. Every Friday night Jayne and I have a movie night and we always get our favorite bottle of Chardonnay and watch a movie, luckily for our pockets our favorite bottle is only 2.50. It is pretty wonderful.
(view from my back window, everything bloomed in the backyard!)
#5 – Flowers
Right now spring is in full bloom and Angers is picturesque. Even though most people have modestly sized yards, it seems that everyone has a garden and everyone has beautiful flowers. All of the road medians are blooming with tulips and the public parks are a display of bright colors. When I walk to my bus stop in the morning I get hit with the fragrance of it all. The last three days the weather has been in the 70s here and it feels like summertime in Alaska. I could really get used to this climate.

#6 – Traveling
So I guess this isn’t just about France. But I do love that right now I feel like Europe is my playground. I am going to truly enjoy this feeling while I can!
#7 - Old Things!
I love that Angers is a perfect mix of old and new. You can be in the most modern feeling store or restaurant and then walk outside and be looking at the Chateau or the old Cathedral. It is fabulous and the excitement has not worn off for me. It is just that awesomely overwhelming feeling when you think how many people have lived here before you and how long there have been people living here. It is hard to get that feeling in a place like Anchorage where everything in terms of architecture is fairly new.


I will continue adding to this list as things come to me!