Seattle

Just so that everyone knows, I'm home safe and sound. Well, the sound part is slipping a bit with wedding preparation, work, and trying to finish study requirements, but it'll all even out soon. At that point I'll try to wrap up the blog - maybe a couple different posts on Morocco and the coming home... but I don't have the time just yet...

Morocco Eve

It's always like this - the night before a big trip I'm anxious, and even though I'm tired I feel like I couldn't possibly go to sleep. I know I will, and so I should just go to bed, but it's like I'm afraid I'm going to miss something, forget about something if I let myself fall asleep.

My bags are packed, both of them really. My large suitcase I'm leaving behind in Grenoble, I'll recuperate it on my way to Amiens before heading back to the states. It's carrying all of my souvenirs and winter clothes (and I'm hoping that it's not going to be overweight!!!). My smaller suitcase is what I'm going to be living out of while in Morocco, and then Amiens/home. I can't forget my shampoo and toothbrush tomorrow.

There are a few things training around my room and closet, which haven't found their places in luggage. While I'm worried that I'll forget one of them, they help make the room still feel habitable. The little stuffed bunny from Easter is still on my nightstand, random things still litter my desk, along with my computer, my bag is still laying on the floor. But the hangers in the closet are empty except my clothes for tomorrow, and the shelves have been stripped of their contents - replaced by suitcases with layers of stuff. My train ticket to Amiens is waiting on a shelf for my return.

If I can get myself to turn off the computer, and my brain to slow down, the butterflies will eventually settle down, and I will be able to go to sleep. It's all about the first step.

My last week in Grenoble

I knew this time would come, and I knew it would be hard to believe that so much time had passed, but it doesn't cease to amaze me that my time here in Grenoble is so close to being finished! Today is Wednesday. Tomorrow I have class with Victor at the University. Friday I will be finishing up my packing. Saturday I leave for Morocco. An afternoon + two days + a morning = three days.

The weather has gotten a bit better in order to see us off nicely. Yesterday was gorgeous! I met up with Christian and we hiked up to the top of the Bastille for a picnic lunch. It was a good hike - translation, I'm a bit sore today!

Last night was our end of the program diner with API. We all met up at "Les dix vins" (The ten wines in English, but it sounds way better in French). Marie and Sarah from API were there to celebrate, but not Anna. She's on maternity leave (which is the reason for Sarah's job with API) and as a matter of fact just had here baby girl last Friday! Victor was there as well, and Paul will return on Friday to come with us to Morocco. Three students were missing, as they are taking advantage of exam free days by spending some time Nice - aka the Mediterranean.

I'm about halfway through the massive packet Victor gave us to read. Some information on Morocco, and a lot of poetry and introductions to the poets. We are going to meet all three of the poets we are currently reading.

Right now I'm kind of in an in-between mood. I know I want to go to Morocco, and I know that once I get there it is going to be amazing. However, at the same time I'm rather exhausted: I have just spent 5 months in France, culminating with 5 days of exams, topped off with trying to work out registration for Seattle U for Spring Quarter - it has been more complicated than it should me, plus I'm in a different time zone and can't knock down peoples' doors. At least I've got pretty much everything organized here. I think I'm going to have everything packed and ready without any real last minute crazed rush, which is rather impressive for me.

By the way, while I'm in Morocco, I really doubt that I'll have time to or the option of using the internet. Therefore no new posts, no uploading of photos. However, I should have time once I get to Amiens, and if not, I will really, really, really try my hardest to post stuff before my life in the states picks up again... Really, I'll try!

Exam update...

I'm done!!!

I just finished my last French exam this afternoon! The last five (school) days I sat a total of 8 tests: University and National language proficiency exams, plus finals for History of French Art, Vocabulary, Contemporary French Literature, and Twentieth Century French History.

I decided, for the National Exam, to take the next level down (B1) from where I was placed - the logic being that it's 50 Euros less expensive, and I'm not sure I could pass at the next level I've been taking classes (B2), mostly because of a 10 minute oral presentation, for which you are given 10 minutes to prepare from a short text, and upon which you are subsequently questioned for 10 minutes. Comparatively, the B1 oral was a cakewalk: I'm sure I passed! In fact, now that I'm on the other side, I probably could have passed the B2, but it's still more expensive...

So, now that I've finished all of my exams, my semester in France is officially over, BUT, the quarter (Seattle University time) is not yet over. SO, we have Victor's travel study class - boohoo! While I do have an enormously thick packet I need to start working through - should have already started working through actually - we'll be talking the actual class in Morocco. We leave the 22 of May. I'm terribly excited! But I plan on relaxing, reading some French BDs (comics books), and watching the French film series of "Les Miserables."

Life is good without stress...

Finals week(s)

So. Finals have started. We had our French language exams Thursday and Friday. This weekend I am going through my art history notes, because the final is on Monday, and as many times as the professor told us he does not want us to memorize everything, deep down inside he does. So I am diligently refreshing my memory of French painters – starting with classicism during the reign of King Louis XIV (17th century) all the way through the beginnings of modern painting (think Picasso and eventually abstraction).

On the Brightside, after Wednesday I will be finished with all of my testing - some people have exams through the next week. On the dimmer side, I have 6 exams squeezed into those three days! The DELF (the national French competency examination) is split into two tests: oral and written: Monday and Wednesday morning. Tuesday morning I will have off, but that means both vocabulary and literature in the afternoon. Monday afternoon will be the history of art final and Wednesday afternoon will be Contemporary French History.

Evidently we should get our grades mid June – just enough time to get over the trauma of exams before reliving it! But in the mean time, I will get to study Moroccan literature and culture, in country, for almost two weeks! Then I’ll come back to France, pick up what’s left of my 5 months in Grenoble, and head to Amiens to see the Avronsart family one last time before leaving the country. Juliette will still be in exams, but I’ll be able to relax a couple days before my flight leaves from Paris June 6 – Anne told me that she’d drive me to the airport, which is a huge relief to me. It wouldn’t be too difficult for me to get myself to the airport, but I would stress about it.

Here and Home

As my time in Grenoble starts to come to it's end, I find myself more and more sentimental. It's a complex mix of thoughts and feelings.

I miss home.

I'm anxious about finals.

I'm ready to be done with classes.

I'm excited to go to Morocco.

I know I'm going to miss my life in Grenoble.

I made a list of the things I miss from home:

backrubs, easily expressing myself, my family, my other family (co-workers, friends, Sunday School, the CDC, etc), my sister's bridal preparations, working, Seattle University, simplicity, doing my own laundry.

At the same time I made a list of the things I'm going to miss from Grenoble:

Claire and the whole family, day-to-day use of French (I need to find French books to read over the summer), a cafe et chocolat after lunch, doing something different with my life, Samira (my prof), the kids I babysit here, public transportation, reading in the garden, comic books.

Some of the things in each of the lists are silly, and some are more profound. For example, who would miss doing the laundry?! but it's the independence which that simple act represents that I miss. And my French professeur, Samira: she is, hands down, one of, if not the best, professors from which I have had the pleasure of learning.

I have to say, the outlook of "This is where I'm going to live for the next five months." is much different from that of "This is where I have lived for the last five months." (Okay, at this point it's only been four, but that's still significant!)

In just over one month, I'll be back in Seattle. While I know things there will have changed, and I know that I will have changed, it's tempting to think that life will go back to "normal" - not that "normal" actually exists! But I think I would be denying myself these five months if I were to say that. In reality, I'm going back, but to a new life. After-all, every morning we awake to a new day and new opportunities, whether we take the time to realize it or not.

Here's yer sign...

I can totally tell that our time here in Grenoble is winding down. The most obvious sign: I'm getting sick and tired of everyone around me! Okay, not really my host family, I'm actually growing more and more fond of them - leaving them will be difficult. It's the other American's with whom I spend so many hours of so many days - I've just had enough and need a change of pace. I'll be happy to be back in Seattle where I have a much larger social circle!

The second most obvious sign: FINALS!!! Starting very very soon - way too soon in my opinion - final exams will be upon us. This is not exciting (of course, I don't know anyone who likes tests) and rather frightening.

Sign number three is not as obvious, but at the same time, the most exciting of everything going on right now. Victor has arrived, and we've started talking about our trip to Morocco. This trip in the carrot dangling on the far side of the three weeks of testing. Once May 19 hits, that's all I'll have to think about, and that will be a very happy day!

France on lock down

I think most people have heard about the volcano which erupted in Iceland. I haven't heard of any injuries resulting directly from the eruption, but the resulting cloud of ash has shut down air-traffic all across Europe. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8625813.stm visuals from BBC News) Add to that the rail syndicate strike in France, and nobody is getting very far very fast.

My host parents drove all the way from Grenoble to Toulouse and back so that their son, Jean, could spend part of his vacation at home. I have friends away on vacation in Scotland, Ireland, even the Canary Islands; none of them can get flights back into France, because there aren't any flights into or around Europe. Victor (our other SU prof) was supposed to get into Grenoble tomorrow, but I don’t even know if he’s been about to get into the country, or even the continent! Maybe it's much better that I didn't go anywhere for this vacation - I don't know when I'd get home!

And in fact, I've been very pleased with my week off - j'avais bien reposé! Plenty of sleeping in, films most nights, reading out in the sunny garden during the day, and I even got to call my parents a couple times! Starting tomorrow, it’ll be back to the grinding stone, right up through May 5. Then, à partir du 6 mai, les examens finaux! Not looking forward to finals… but that’s how I’m going to get my grades, so I’d better’d buck up and get it done when the time comes.
Afterwards, I can look forward to spending a week and a half in Morroco with Victor and everyone else. That will be fantastic!

We’ll be looking at Moroccan, Francophone (refers to other French-speaking countries) literature with Victor (whenever he happens to arrive) beforehand, and potentially meeting up with some North African writers while we’re in the area.

Springtime!

I realize that, once again, I've been falling behind on posting. To catch everyone up to date, not much of anything in particular has happened in the last week or two!

Last weekend was Easter. My host family celebrated by attending the Easter Vigil (veillé de Pâques) with hot chocolate to follow. Easter morning we didn’t go to mass, though our record until then was complete (Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday). Instead we all slept in and had our breakfast together, complete with special sweet breads and crèpes. Of course, there was plenty of chocolate! Claire put together a very cute plate: a chocolate hen surrounded by chocolate eggs and the marshmallow Peeps the Easter Bunny gave me to share. (Thanks “Easter Buuny” – Marguerite especially liked the Peeps!)

The next day was Easter Monday, still a bank holiday here in France, thus no work (for most) and no school. It was a beautiful day! I’ve been spending more and more time in the garden, as the weather is tending to be more and more often agreeable; I finished a book sitting outside in the sun that particular day.

Our four day week pasted quickly, though every week seems to past faster than the last regardless. Thursday afternoon I went to the OFII (Office Français de l’Immigration et l’Integration –Office of French Immigration and Integration). As of September 2009, a student visa by itself does not suffice to legally study in France. My student visa is labeled: legal 60%. We had to turn in all sorts of documents proving our identity, lodgment, and health. Thursday I presented the final paperwork to the officials, who in turn put a carte de séjour (residence permit, like a green card) in my passport. My documents will be filled at the Préfecuture de Grenoble (the city’s administrative center) as a legal French resident. What does this mean? Basically I jumped through a bunch of hoops so that I won’t get in trouble trying to reenter the country in the future, because I didn’t do what the bureaucracy told me to…

In any case, that is behind me, and I’m looking out into a week of vacation! I don’t have anything specific planned; funds are a bit too tight to do anything very exotic. But the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and my host family doesn’t mind that I’m staying. Plus, I have yet to get much of a chance to check out the hiking trails around Grenoble – we’ll see what kind of trail heads I can find within walking/bussing distance of my house. I’m not about to go on any multiday expositions by myself, if I had a couple other people with me I’d love too, but solo is just asking for trouble!

Oh, and I cleaned my room yesterday, and am doing laundry this afternoon. I can be productive every-once-and-a-while!

Dimanche des Rameaux

I was busy the end of last week! Thursday night I went with API to the cinéma. Most of us saw “La Rafle,” but a few of us saw it with their class, so there was an alternate, “L’Anacœur.” Friday night I finally made it to Kelly’s house for dinner. Saturday was our excursion to Lyon with API. This morning our clocks lost an hour just in time for Palm Sunday. Oh, and the Easter bunny dropped off my box shaped Easter Basket a week early, since it was a special delivery.

“La Rafle” is a film portrayal of real life people and events: July 16, 1942, 13,000 Parisian Jews, men, women, and children, were taken captive by the Vichy government on Nazi orders and placed in Paris’s Vélodrome d’hiver (indoor bicycle racetrack), before being shipped off to the French camp, Beaune-La-Rolande, and later to their deaths. The movie was very difficult; we were emotionally exhausted by the end, crying before it was halfway through. And yet, it did not leave us with the impression that the world is evil. Instead, it reminded us that some people struggled against the persecution and terrors of the Holocaust, and, while thousands of people were beyond their grasp, they reached some people, and those few people were worth it! I feel that this film ties in appropriately with the celebration of remembrance and determination: the film’s opening falls in-between, International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27) and Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) (April 11).

Getting myself to the movie theater was a practice run for finding my way to Kelly’s house the next night – I have to take the C tram, instead of the B, aka she lives on the other side of town! Kelly is a former student of Paul and Victor – she came to Grenoble 10 years ago with the same Seattle University program I am currently following. She met a French guy, and ended up getting married, having three French-American children and living in Grenoble. (I believe this situation is my parents’ worst fear, so I would like to assure everyone now that I miss home too much not to come back. Seattle is my home.) Kelly would like to expose her children to as much English as possible, since they are surrounded by French, so she asked Paul if he would recommend one of his current students in Grenoble as a babysitter – he introduced me to her as his response. I went to dinner Friday night as a way of meeting the family (Kelly and Eddie plus two boys and a girl) and getting to know everyone. It was quite delightful, and I’m going back to play with the kids/play support troops for Kelly who will have hers plus two all afternoon by herself. Hopefully it won’t be pouring down rain, so we can go to the park across the street and play!

Speaking of rain, it rained all day Saturday. We left at 8:30 from Grenoble to spend the day in Lyon. It was raining while we were on the bus, then stopped as we drove into Lyon, but was drizzling a bit on our tour guided by some French students. For lunch and the afternoon, we were set free. Luckily for me, Michelle, and Christian, who picnicked on a bench, we had about a half an hour of dry, before it started pouring! We didn’t really know where to go, and we didn’t have a ton of money to spend on museums and restaurants, so we spent quite a bit of time in le Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste. We visited two churches in Lyon: St. John’s, which has an astrological clock, and la Basilique de, Notre-Dame de Fourvière, the interior of which is covered in mosaic. I didn’t really take many photos – between the rain and the cold, I was not inspired. Plus I kept getting rain drops on the lens of my camera the few times I tried.

France observed the switch to Daylight savings the next morning, so I am once again 9 hours ahead of Seattle. Palm Sunday evidently is almost as big as Easter here in France, at least for the church goers. The church I go to with my host family was packed! We started outside, and processed in, with our rameaux (branches). They don’t use actual palm fronds here; I guess they would have to ship them in from too far away. Instead, parishioners clip greens from their gardens – it looked to me as though everyone had clippings of boxwood, but I might have been mistaken. Claire gave me a piece afterwards, to put in my room. She told me that she always puts a piece of the rameaux in each of the four corners of the house. My sprig is hanging above the head of my bed.

Meike

I couldn’t get enough of the weather this week – it was absolutely gorgeous, and warm! It was over 60˚F the better part of the week, and almost hit 70˚ - this translates to the upper Celsius degrees by the way. It clouded over this weekend, and was raining this morning, but it has remained warm. Perhaps we have in fact left winter behind!!! I realized today that next week is Palm Sunday, which means Easter is just right around the corner… The forsythia in the garden here in Grenoble is in full bloom, is our forsythia blooming before Easter too?Marguerite is studying German, and her school has a sister school in Germany. Each year the Germans studying French and vice versa partner up as correspondents, and do an exchange. Marguerite’s correspondent, Meike, is here for the week, and Marguerite will visit Meike’s home sometime in April. Since the first day was a bit rocky for all of the students, with regards to integrating between themselves, a few of the Moms who know each other have been organizing little events, this way some of the girls can be together and therefore feel more comfortable. Yesterday, I got to profit from all this! Claire took Marguerite, Meike, me, and my friend Adrian to the ice rink (patinoire) at Grand Place to meet up with two other correspondent pairs. It was a ball! I love ice-skating (patiner / faire du patinage), it was Adrian’s first time, and there were absolutely no tears involved, even when we fell on our backsides (though I’m proud to say I myself am not included in the general “we”).
I can’t help but place myself in Meike’s shoes: I was just like her when I was in 8th grade. It was my first international trip, and it was with Mme. Asman’s eighth grade French class. This is of course the same class with which my dear friend Samantha is about to leave for France. Kinda makes me feel old…

Looking back, I did not know French, and struggled through that family stay, all four days! BUT, some of my most vivid memories from that first trip to France are of my host family and my snapshot of their life. I grew from that experience, and look, here I am, in France, once again!

I can't say awkward in French, so I did in English.

I should be studying or something school related, of course, but I cannot quite bring myself to do anything so atrocious. Therefore I will do something almost as productive – blogging is almost as good as homework, right? Kids, don’t use that one on your parents or teachers, they would never forgive me!

As fearful of the awkwardness this weekend presented me, from Friday’s side of things, it was actually okay. My host parents were out of town, at a church retreat this weekend, leaving me with the other kids and no one specifically in charge of cooking. Claire thought that I’d be out of town with API – there’s a trip to Dijon for all the students, except those from Seattle since our SU profs didn’t think the trip was worth our money. She was not happy when she found out that she’d be leaving me here almost alone – I think for my sake. I feel like she would have consulted me about leaving beforehand if she’d known that I wasn’t going with the rest of API.

While it was kind of weird to be in the house with just the three kids Friday night and then just Rémi Saturday night, it was okay. The weekend was very mellow! We all kind of just did our own things, and figured out meals as they came – Claire left a list of options which we worked from.

And now, Claire and Pierre-Jacques are back. They are going to vote (local French elections) and pick up Marguerite from her friend’s house (this is where she spent last night/today). We’ll have a more normal dinner tonight, as a family around the big table in the salon. I won’t feel like the Mom checking the doors before bed, opening and shutting the shutters in response to the hour, and tidying up the kitchen after everyone else. Though I have to admit, that I enjoy taking care of people – there was something satisfying about putting away the teakettle and jam jars after everyone had eaten breakfast and left the kitchen.

Ahhh, someone is playing horrible American music! It’s probably Benoît since Rémi tends to play a mix of classical, Disney, and old French songs. Hmm, but I hear "Pirates of the Carribean," so either they're switching on me, or I really have a clue! I don’t know where Marguerite’s music tastes lay, her brothers usually dominate the computer and CD players. I myself tend towards a mix of show tunes, classic rock, and alternative. I added some French to my repertoire today – iTunes classifies most of the songs as French pop. Thierry Amiel, Amel Bent, Pascal Obispo, Patrick Fiori, et Dalida.

Also today, I talked to a former student of Paul’s and I’m going to have dinner with her and her family this Friday. The point is for me to meet the family, the three kids especially, so I can start babysitting. Kelly wants her French, American children to be exposed to as much English as possible, since they live in Grenoble and are surrounded daily by French! Paul got us in touch, and while it took me a while to get in touch with her (my fault, not hers!) I called her today, and we set up dinner! I’ve been a tad worried about money, and being able to earn a bit here and there will be a huge weigh lifted off my shoulders. But I don’t want anyone else worrying about me with regards to money – I’ll be fine! I’ve got it all worked out, it just stresses me out, like a lot of people!

Boy, I’m hungry for diner! Our déjeuner was a bit more simplistic, sparser than usual, due to the lack of a real Mom. I guess a plate of spaghetti pesto and a banana isn’t enough to last me from 1:30 until dinnertime around 8 (it’s almost 7:30 as I write this, but it won’t necessarily still be when I post it). I did eat an orange I had left over from lunch on Friday – I’m not supposed to eat in my room, but I was really careful not to make a mess and I’ll destroy the evidence by throwing the peels in a garbage can at school – “Crafty Cress!”

I hope everyone was able to cope with Daylight Savings Time this morning! We, here in France, won’t spring forward for another two weeks. Therefore, until March 28, Seattle is 8 hours ahead of France, instead of the normal 9. I was confused earlier, thinking it was a 10 hour difference, the whole time difference is confusing enough without switching it back and forth! Thank you to Katie for helping me figure out what's really going on!

Narnia

Well, I thought spring was on its way: trees are budding, snow drops and primroses appearing, and my eyes itching like crazy! I woke up last Sunday morning to snow falling, and it continued to fall, fairly steadily, all day. My friend Adrian took up the search for two daughters of Eve and two sons of Adam in order to banish the unending winter.

It was a truly quiet Sunday. We went to morning mass as usual. I’m working on learning the Lord’s Prayer in French. A couple rounds of Rummikub after lunch and café. Homework. We watched “Le Petit Nicholas” before dinner – I think the snow was making Claire feel a bit stir-crazy.

Saturday, I went with Claire and Pierre-Jacques on a hike. We went up into the mountains, and then through a rural area. Our path took us by a pasture with two Haflingers (I’m pretty sure that the horses were Haflingers). One of them came right up to me when I clucked at her, sniffed me, and then let me pet her. She really enjoyed having her forehead scratched, and would but my shoulder to ask for more when I stopped. We also saw an Appaloosa, a paint, and the filthiest donkey ever – it had dreadlocks!

Rewind to February 26 – the Friday after break. We met up with API right after our vocabulary class, many of us with sandwiches, as our class ended at 12:30. We all loaded onto an autocar, and drove about a half an hour away to the town of Voiron. This is where the liqueur, Chartreuse, is distilled. It has historically been made by the Chartreuse – an order of monks whose monastery rests in the Chartreuse Mountains. Today, there are a few monks who continue to mix the secret recipe of herbs, allowing the rest of the community to focus on prayer and meditation. The mixed herbs are then transported to the distillery in nearby Voiron, where the actual alcohol is distilled, using computers to monitor temperatures and such.

We toured the distillery, including a couple horribly cheesy films, and some terribly cheesy displays. However, at the end of the tour, we got to enjoy a degustation – a tasting. We had various choices: the standard vert et jaune – green and yellow – as well as a vintage green, mix of green and yellow, and other specialty liqueurs from the area. I tried the mix, as I tasted the yellow Chartreuse with my host family on a couple of occasions, and wanted to try something a little different. The yellow is very sweet, and the green has a very herby quality. All Chartreuse is best served cold, either chilled, or served with on ice, though with varying ideal temperatures. Of course the exit, as always, was through the gift shop – however, the prices for plain bottles was quite reasonable, however the gift boxes were rather exorbitant.

Our next stop was the Grand Chartreuse. The monastery is situated in the mist of these mountains, the site chosen by St Bruno, because of its desolation – he called the area a desert. Typically, we would have visited the museum, but as it has been closed for repairs, we hiked to the location of the monastery, and then climbed the hill beyond it, in order to have the best possible view. The whole area was magnificent! The monastery is closed to visitors – when the brothers have visitors (the occurrence of which is limited by the order) they meet their visitors outside of the walls of the monastery. From the hill, we could see the small, individual houses, which are in addition to the communal buildings within the walls. Each monk keeps his own residence and garden, aiding the practice of individual silence, mediation, and prayer.
On our way back down to the autocar, the clouds were breaking at the same time as the sun began to drop behind the mountains. The effect was a magnificent golden light, which would fall here and there, constantly changing and calling to attention different elements of the landscape. It was breathtaking, and I couldn’t take enough pictures. Unfortunately, a camera just can’t capture everything, and I’m not the best photographer either. Therefore, my photos are not nearly as grandiose as what we experienced!

Mal au pays...

I'm sorry for having not posted in so long. I seem to be tired all the time, and bogged down with homework. I think I just hit a point of being gone long enough, to want to go home. That's not to say that I'm giving up on the program, packing my bags, and catching the next plane home! I'm just homesick, and should really put my nose to the grind-stone and work my way through this rough patch.

In just over a week Victor Reinking (US prof #2) will arrive in Grenoble. Soon enough, we'll be to final exams (probably before I really feel ready...), and then after that we'll be off the Morocco!!! I might get to spend some time with the Avronsart family before I leave the country, and then once I get back state-side there's the wedding, and going back to the Child Development Center and St. Peter's (I'm excited for all of these things, just to be clear)!

I have a lot to look forward to - and a lot to enjoy right here and now, if I can just get my chin off my chest and look around. Someone give me a coup de pieds why don't they! Hmmm... it'll be dinner time soon, what's not good about life?! I could go for a good shoulder rub though, I'm kinda tense...

PS I really, really, really promise to post about the end of my vacation in Amiens as well as an API outing to the Chartreuse (yes it's also the name of the color).

Wednesday - Thursday

My time in Amiens absolutely flew by! I can't say how wonderful it was to see Juliette again, and to meet her brother, Julien, and mother, Anne, for the first time. They all took wonderful care of me, and I am so very grateful for their wonderful hospitality!

I left off at Rouen, so I’ll do my best to pick up the strings there in order to tie them all off neatly. This might take several posts – or one REALLY long one!

Wednesday was a very mellow day, which I enjoyed greatly! We just lounged around the apartment all day, without doing much of anything. Anne would have preferred for us to go out and DO something, to profit from our time, but in fact I think we did just that – at least I did!

The next day Anne took me to see Versailles. She woke us up early (aka before 10 am), so that we could get a better start on the day! Juliette and I took breakfast together, but she and Julien stayed in Amiens, as they each had too much work to spend the day away from home. Our first stop was at a boulangerie bio (organic bakery) – Anne buys as much organic as she can, as she is very health conscious – we picked up sandwiches for our lunch because everything in Versailles (also the name of the city which now surrounds the palace) costs obscene sums of money! We then left Amiens on the autoroute, destination Versailles. Amiens is in the region of Picardy, and Versailles is outside of Paris, in the region Île-de-France; the car ride was a couple of hours, especially because we got a little turned around a couple times. It was past noon by the time we’d gotten to the city, found the chateau, and parked, so we picnicked in the car with our really yummy sandwiches. If I had had my visa with me, I could have proven my status as a French resident under the age of 25, and therefore gotten into the museum absolutely free! But I didn’t want to carry my passport around with me (I figured it was safer that way), so I left it behind. I now know that I should always have it with me while traveling – yes Anne, I’ve learned my lesson well!

The chateau, built by Louis XIV from his father’s (much smaller) hunting lodge, has been turned into a national museum. We followed along as our audio guides told us all about what we were seeing – mine was in English, but the decision included much considering, and I almost chose French. We were not sure if we could take photos or not; flash was definitely not allowed, and every once in a while there would be a sign prohibiting photography, but everyone else was taking pictures. I think there were certain areas where photography is prohibited, but it was unclear as to where those areas ended. As a result I don’t really have photos of the interior of the palace (and the postcards were WAY too expensive!), but I took some of the exterior (lots of gold and marble as Anne said!).

The first rooms were filled with paintings – many of them portraits, and all having to do with court life. One of the portraits was of a man named Gaston (Gaston de France, brother of King Louis XIII), and of course all I could think about was Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”
We finished our tour, and stopped to look at the gift shop. I considered buying postcards, until I saw that they were 1,10€ each, almost $1.50 for one card! No thanks! (Postcards from a Tabac cost around ,50€ each) Anne bought one postcard, as well as a little book of “Les Fables de la Fontaine” (a collection of folktales, written in verse, which most every French person knows) which she gave to me. It was very kind of her!

After searching for the car, we left Versailles with one last stop before home. We visited an old school friend of Anne’s, who lives nearby. They went most of the way through school together, and have kept in contact. Every time they have the chance, they visit each other, and so we did. Bernadette and her husband, Louis, are both very kind – I think I remember their names correctly, if not, then I am truly sorry! We had a very nice gouter (afternoon snack), and I got to play with their 2 year old grandson, Alexis, for a while – we were matching and identifying the shapes of different cookie cutters and chocolate molds.

Anne called Juliette, right before we left, to ask her to get dinner started so it would be ready when we got home. I ended up playing car secretary for Anne, not nearly as easy in French as it is with my own mother in the states. When we arrived back at the apartment in Amiens, Juliette had indeed finished making dinner, so we sat down à table (this is becoming the phrase that rules my home life). I slept well that night!

I think that this is long enough for one post. I’ll post again soon with a recount of tomorrow's API sortie to the caves of Voiron and the Chartreuse monastery.