"Francetastical"

I had a great weekend.

On Friday morning: got up to catch a 9:00 bus ride to Blois, France. The girls and I grabbed some breakfast from the local bakery and enjoyed the bus ride that was about 25 minutes. It was a lot of fun for a bus ride. We toured a chateau and learned a lot of info! We had our own tour guide so it was pretty sweet!

After that, me and some friends grabbed lunch at a cafe nearby. It was so yum. I had a ham sandwich. I'm pretty sure that's all I ever order because it's so much better than sandwiches back home. We toured the city a bit more, went to the St. Louis Cathedral, went by the river, got coffee and all had a great time before we caught the bus ride home at 5:45.

The bus ride home was so funny. We were all scattered around the bus with a whole bunch of 14 year old school boys. Long story short, they all talked crap about us and we found it so funny because some of us were about twice their ages. It was a good memory and we still get a good laugh at it!!

Later that night, the girls (Alexis, Shelby, Katie and Lindsey), Nathan and I went to a local's house for a little get together. Johan and Pauline are locals who speak pretty good French and are around our ages. It was fun, we played a lot of fun music and had a few glasses of wine. Around 12:30, we thought it would be fun to go to a nearby Disco Tech. It was SO MUCH FUN!! There were strobe lights, techo music, fun drinks and we all had a blast dancing till 6 am. Sorry Mom :)

The next morning, we woke up around 12pm and attempted to cook lunch in the infamous abbey kitchen. The kitchen is gross, cold and full of dirty dishes that people don't clean up. We had no food, but together we had swiss cheese spaghetti. Gross, but it did the job.

We spent the rest of the afternoon showering, homework, hanging out and reading. We had dinner at Le Commerce and called it a night pretty early. Lindsey and I watched a movie and went to bed around 12.

This morning (2-3 am), there was a wind storm like you would not believe. It was the scariest/oddest sound I've ever heard. The Pontlevoy sirens went off and the building held up fantastic. I'm surprised no window broke open.

Today was a good lazy sunday. Attempted lunch. Read. Slept. It was nice!

"France is delighted at this new opportunity to show the world that when one has the will one can succeed in joining who have been brought closer"

Quick blog today, I'll be busy for the rest of the afternoon!!

Yesterday was a good day. I booked 75% of my spring break! Here's my plan so far:

March 30-31: Fly into Dublin.

April 1-4: Fly into London.

April 4-7: Fly into Rome

April 7-9: Train to Venice (Not booked yet!)

April 9-10: Either Paris or Amsterdam (Not booked yet!)

It was very stressful to find the cheapest rates and the safest, yet cheap hostels. I did manage to find the best deals! I HOPE!

Some friends and I decided last week that we wanted to host parties every Tuesday at the local pub, Le Commerce. We have made friends with the owner/bartender and he loved the idea. So, we decided that the first party would be called a Black and White Affair. We thought it would be fun to get out and attempt to look cute.. Nothing too special.

When we arrived to Le Commerce last night, Julian *the owner*, had full on decorated the bar. Pearls, lace, strobe lights, fabrics, all in black and white. He invited the locals, and they even dressed up! It was so AWESOME. He asked one of us the day before to make a playlist on our Ipod, so he hooked it up on to the main speakers. It was a legit party and we all had so much fun. Some of our teachers even came. Next week is Tacky Tuesday!

Tonight we all have to watch a foreign film. It's going to be in a special, locked room in the Abbey called the Flying Buttress. Can't wait. I have to write a small paper about it too.

If any of you have any suggestions of what to see or what NOT to see while I'm in any of my locations during spring break, please let me know in the comment box!

Audie :)

"If you are lucky enough to have lived in France as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, France is a feast"

I am VERY overdue on my blogging from this weekend!!! I have been busy (not an excuse) but I now have the time!

Friday: We all woke up from a fun night beforehand at Le Commerce. Our entire student body was visiting Tours, France and the cheateau de Chenonceau. A group of friends and I were planning on staying the night in Tours since we already had our transportation paid for. We all arrived at the Montrichard ( a neighboring town) train station around 9:00 and our 10 minute train ride to Chenonceau was over before we knew it!

Chenonceau is absolutely beautiful! It is a beautiful property and we had a blast taking pictures, walking through the HUGE gardens and we walked to this little town and had some coffee to kill time before our next train arrived at 1:30. It was a beautiful day in general, the sun was shining and the weather was a good 45 degrees or so, so it was all just lovely.

After some lunch, all 50 of us jumped on board to Tours. Tours is FABULOUS. I had no idea that it was so "downtown-ish". The first thing we all did was visit the Musee des Beaux-Arts. It is a 3 story art muesum in downtown Tours. It held a lot of famous paintings that I don't even know who made them.. Should have looked!Next door was this AMAZING cathedral (I don't remember the name!) that is currently being renovated, but still, it was beautiful. We got to walk all around inside and it has this huge organ that was pretty cool too.

We then checked into our little hotel that was last updated in 1970 probably. However, it was right on the main square area so it was a convienent location. By this time, it was close to four and we were all exhausted so we sort of cat napped and got ready to wander the city again. We wanted to see our Professor's art gallery that he had in Tours. Lindsey and I never made it so we people watched and walked around for a bit. We all met up for this Vietnamese cafe that was pretty good.. Or so I thought.

The plan was that night was to go to this American bar where a lot of students and tourists went to. As I was getting ready, however, I started feeling those shrimp dumplings make an encore. And then the migraine started. I'm not even surprised it happened. I didn't have any advil so I tried to make the best of it, so I ended up staying home while the others went out. I didn't mind, I was up all night the night before so I enjoyed getting a good night's sleep for once!!

The next day basically consisted of shopping, lunch and people watching. I found a H&M so I was PRETTY excited. Bought a black cardigan and sunglasses. We walked around the streets and a lot of my friends bought a LOT of stuff. I didnt (which is good!). After lunch, some more walking around Tours, I decided that I wanted to sit at a cafe, open a book and people watch. So I did. And I had a damn good time doing so.

And this is where the weekend turned on us.

We were given a train ticket back on Friday from one of our campus leaders. We all assumed that there was a train Saturday night at the same time from Friday.

Boy were we wrong.

Another group that we went with calls my group (Lindsey, Erik, Ashley and I) and says that the last train to Montrichard was no longer. They had caught the last one.

LONG story short, 130 euro cab ride later, we arrived to Montrichard. After an attempt to walk home (mind you, it was 9:30 pm), we gave up and called a professor to come get us. He found it very funny and did not mind coming to pick us up. We spent the rest of our night nursing our wounds with a little white wine and going to bed!

Sunday was a day of LAZINESS. And it was great. Napped, did homework, planned our weekends, etc. It was great.

It was a good first weekend, learned a lot of lessons that I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

Lessons learnt:
1. Check the train schedules. Don't assume.
2. If you do spend close to 200 dollars on a cab, find the humor in it.
3. French sandwiches are a thousand times better than American ones.

I'll blog later on this week!

"Mardi Gras"

I have lots of extra free time today so I figured I would go ahead and post an extra post. :)

So last night, two really cool things happened. First, we had our last (thank god) orientation meeting for school. They aren't bad or anything, they are just later in the evening and we're all so tired by then. Poor us. After a quick meeting, we were told that we would be having our initiation ceremony sort of thing. We got to go to the actual Abbey around 8pm when it was all dark and quiet. So so quiet. It was almost a bit creepy, but mostly really nice! Dr. Macaman said a few things about the history of the place and things about us finding out who we are as people, that sort of thing. It was VERY cool. We all each held a lit candle. It was cold, but it was nice.

And at last, we were all finally true Abbey-ians. Of course, what better way to celebrate anything in life than to go to a little bar called Le Commerce? The big group of us, which was about 55 or so, walked across the street and had our own little Mardi Gras party to kick off the semester in the right way!

It was very very fun. We all dressed up and wore beads and masks. Took tons of pictures. Drank a couple glasses of this strawberry infused beer that the locals drink. It was so yummy. My favorite thing of the night though, was seeing our professors (there's about 8 of them) all hanging out with us at the tavern. I talked to a few of them. One offered to buy a round of wine. It was so cool to talk to them as a person or a mentor, rather than the person who eventually grades you at the end of the semester. My French teacher was talking to us about a French bourbon, her kids, our French, our lives. Not one teacher in my life has EVER talked to me about what I want to do when when I'm older or what my favorite book is. My 80 year old da Vinci professor, who's so interesting and SO nice was drinking a beer and eating a banana. He is so funny sometimes.

So the night eventually wrapped up and we all came back to the dorms and all hung out for a while. I went to bed pretty late cause I couldn't sleep.

I had classes this morning. French is getting easier and easier. Thank god! Lunch was good, we had fish and this salad with capers, tomatoes, vinegar and this cabbage stuff. Not bad. Very French.

Right now I'm just in my dorm doing some homework and doing some laundry. The weather is very foggy and damp and cold right now, so I probably won't go walk around today. I'm tired too!!

Can't wait for this weekend!!!

"Oh France, How I Love You"

Wow. So these past two days have been SO long and full of things to do. I absolutely adore France beyond words. Top three reasons:

1. The people. Even the ones who stare endlessly at my American self. The ones in this small town I am living in are absolutely amazing. I love that they try to help us speak our French. I love how they love that we are here. I love how they dress. The dress with simplicity and comfort and it's a way of expressing themselves, rather than pleasing others. The women mostly do this. My French teacher, who is about 30 or so, is my favorite example. I'll hopefully show pictures to prove my point later. Nonetheless, the French are very used to tradition and I love how they live their days in this small town of a 1000 people.

2. The landscape and the architecture. Since I am in a town so far from Paris and Tours, we all see a lot of the land in the horizon. The buildings are beautiful to me and the land has hundreds of trees that have been there for hundreds of years. The Abbey campus has a carefully landscaped property that has tons of shrubs and gardens and a little creek that flows through the back. The building itself has tons of history and the arcs throughout the building are divine. In the town of Pontlevoy, the houses are one story with flat fronts, lots of long windows and most have a gate too. I'll elaborate on my point too, after I get back from Paris so I can take pictures. :)

3. The history. In Fort Worth, where I'm from, the oldest building I can think of was made in the late 1800's. In America, the oldest standing house today couldn't be more than 200 years old. The Abbey has been here since 1034. 1034. It blows my mind. My friend Erik and I were talking about the history of this building and all the people who have sat where I am, walked the property like I did and who's born and died here. The French history has lots and lots of glorious moments and horrific ones too obviously. I don't know that much about the whole country itself, but my World Lit class is there for me to understand it. I started it today actually.

Yesterday:

Woke up around 8 because I had class at nine. It's so nice to have a class that's one floor under me. Erik, Lindsey had a cup of coffee beforehand. It was yummy coffee.. Cheap too. We then went to French 2 and my teacher is a French born citizen. She's fluent in English but I don't always understand what she is saying. She is a very VERY nice professor. She is about 30 or so, married with kids and she is going to live in New Zealand after this semester is over. French 2 will be a bit of a challenge but I'm sure it'll all go well.

I then had a two hour break. I pretty much facebooked and attempted at unpacking. We eat lunch everyday around 2 at Le Commerce. Lunch was SOO good. We had mashed potatoes and beef bourguignon. I've never had it before and I'm pretty sure nothing in the world tastes better than it.

After that, I had my first da Vinci class. Our teacher is probably half of the reason why I took the class. His name is Terence Netter. He's a 80 year old man with the heart of a 20 year old and looks like a 60 year old. He's German born, a French Citizen. He was a priest in the early 60's and left to marry his wife, and they are still together today. He's a renowned visual artist as has several galleries aross the globe, one being in Tours. Go to his website at www.terencenetter.com. He has taught all over too. Georgetown was one. He's brilliant and open to any questions we have for him. He has so many stories to tell and knows everything about Leonardo da Vinci. I'm SOOOO excited for this class.

After that class, we all kinda just hung around the campus and went and got a Coke from like a general type store. We had dinner that night (CHEESEBURGERS!) and had a meeting about traveling and some of the things that we're doing this semester. I had a horrible headache by then (go figure) and pretty much went to sleep as soon as we were done that night.

This morning consisted of my French class, which was better than yesterday, and my World Civ class. My professor in that class is so awesome too. She's a 25 year old woman from Toronto has her doctorate's in something that I don't remember. She dresses so well. I love it. Scarves, long pencil skirts, lots of grey and black and wears the cutest dark rimmed glasses. She's incredibly smart and is currently writing a book about women's objects from the beginning of British history. Crazy cool.

We just had lunch about an hour or so. I've been cleaning my room and finally finished unpacking. We're going to go to the grocery store later on.

I'm excited about this weekend. The whole staff and student body are going to Tours. We're seeing Clos Luce, which is the house (well, mansion) that da Vinci lived the last three years of his life. Some of his own original inventions are still there. How freakin' exciting. We're also visiting some famous chateaus and Professor Netter's art gallery there. Some friends and I are also staying an extra night to see the city another day. We all need to buy somethings we can't get here and going to visit an asian restuarant there. YUM. It's going to be so fun!!

I still can't believe I'm here. I'm going to be incredibly sad when I leave this place. Love and miss you all that read this :)

Days 1 and 2 of France.

Bonjour all!!

I have finally arrived to the lovely country of France. It has been so beautiful- everything from the buildings to the people. I have been planning this trip since June, so you can only imagine how ready I was to finally arrive yesterday.

On Feb. 12, Lindsey and I met up with our families at the DFW airport. Security went very smoothly, no lines or anything. We grabbed a couple of drinks and chilled for a while, since we arrived at 2pm and our flight didn't leave till 5 (which was delayed till about 7:15). We eventually made it to our gate and Erik and Ashley were there. We all had met one other time beforehand. We were all so excited and just talked and were extremely anxious to get on the huge plane.

When we finally got on board, we all found our seats. Lindsey and I sat next to each other and Erik and Ashley both had their own rows. Little did we know, we wished that we didn't sit by each other. The flight crew were really nice. Our flight was 9.5 hours and we were awake for 98% of it! We were SO uncomfortable after 2 hours. We would get SO hot, and then cold. We would be comfortable and barely asleep and then the captain would get on the intercom. My long legs were not going to have it. They needed space and I sure as heck did not have any. It's funny now. NOT THEN!

After a longggggggggg night, breakfast was being served and we were getting ready to land. I gulped down coffee and a diet coke cause I KNEW it would be a long time before I would be drinking anything else for a while. Customs was really easy and quick. Took 5 minutes. All of our luggage was there too. Thank god. We were all convinced that the bus that was getting us was leaving at noon and we arrived shortly after that. Thankfully it was there and unfortunately was not leaving until 4 pm, which meant we had lots of time to kill. We just walked around the airport and tried to used to the fact that all of the Frenchpeople kept looking at us like we were wearing the American flag on our backs.

Finally the bus arrived and we all practially ran on. By then, Jacelyn and Amanda (two other people from my school) had arrived. We all sat in the back of the bus and got ready for our 3.5 hour ride to the campus in Pontlevoy. I feel asleep as soon as we left the airport, thinking I would wake up in time to see the campus. HOWEVER, strange sounds kept waking me up and sure enough our bus driver had decided to take us on a mini bus tour of Paris. Um, hello thanks people for waking me up!! I woke up and saw the beautiful Effiel Tower looking at me, so talk about a culture shock. It was SO huge. The city itself is absolutely beautiful. We didn't see much of it, but what we saw was divine. We'll be spending a week there in about a month or so. We were all just so thankful to have gotten the oppertunity because the others didn't.

After we got out of the city traffic, we had about a 2.5 hour drive. Slept about half of that and we all in the back of the bus just joked around and took in the French landscape. We then FINALLY arrived around 8pm. I had to haul up my 100 pound suitcases up of three flights of stairs. We immediately went to dinner. Le Commerce is where we eat and there's also a local bar there too. We all ate our dinner, which was spaghetti, and met some more students and a few professors. After that, we went back up to our rooms and attempted to unpack and shower and all that good stuff. I then practially dive bombed into bed and was sound asleep by about 11:45.

This morning we woke up around 9 am and got ready. We had a mini tour of Pontlevoy at 10. We went straight to the grocery store, which was so cute. I bought some coffee and bottled water and oranges. We brought our stuff back and then went around the campus and the town and took tons of pictures. We talked to a few locals and attempted speaking French a bit. I'll get there sometime.

Exhausted from the cold, we came back to our rooms and I went on the internet for a bit. An hour or so, Erik, Lindsey and I grabbed a bottle of champange and went to the common room. Some more people met us there and we all played a game of uno (LOL) and got to know each other a bit more. Most of the students are from Southern Mississippi University. All really nice people. We're going to have a great time here. Right now, I'm just killing time until my orientation at 6pm.

I can't believe I'm finally here!! I have loved every minute of it and I know I'm going to miss the hell out of it when I'm gone. Erik and I joked about getting married here. Separately of course, but still, how fun would that be!

I'm so tired right now..Still adjusting to the time difference.

More later! :)