Montpellier, Nîmes, and Pont du Gard!

So I am back in Dijon after my weekend in Montpellier! The weekend was very, very fun, but now I am very, very tired and am very much looking forward to going to sleep. We changed our clocks last night and lost an hour, so that didn’t help.
Friday I arrived in Montpellier around 2 and Paul gave me a whirlwind tour of the city (if you need a tour guide in Montpellier, he’s your man). It’s a really nice city and the weather was beautiful. Just made me wish I was studying there (or anywhere in the south, really)! Unfortunately, I didn’t get any great photos of the city. Sorry! After the tour, we had dinner at his house, and went to a bar with some of his friends.
The next day, he had a group excursion to Nîmes and Pont du Gard and, since it was free, I decided to tag along. Nîmes is another really pretty city and I’m so glad I finally got to see Pont du Gard (for free!). I’ve been seeing pictures of it since 6th grade when I started taking Latin!
Paul in Nîmes:
Pont du Gard (I like the shadows in this one):
Me, Paul, and Pont du Gard:
So we spent the day touring and that night went to a friend’s apartment for a birthday party. There was quite a diverse group of people at the party: American, British, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, and French. As you can imagine, there was a mélange of languages being spoken (I only spoke English and French…and sometimes English in a British accent which totally counts). It was fun and I met a lot of people, but we didn’t get home until very late.
Today consisted of sitting on a train for 4 and a half hours trying to concentrate on my Rimbaud reading while across from me sat a 3-year old French boy (sooo cute). It was reasonably productive.
Overall it was a very good weekend. I could have done with more sleep, but the only thing I paid for all weekend (other than train tickets) was lunch on Saturday, there was lots to see, and the weather was gorgeous, so I really can't complain.
Definitely a city to put on your list!

Trip to the Loire!

I'm losing steam, but really trying to keep this up.

This past weekend we had our group trip to the Loire! It was fabulous. The group really bonded and we all had such a great time together. Oh, and the scenery was nice, too. We spent about 14 hours total on a bus, saw six Chateaux, and ate a LOT of food, all in 3 days. Not necessarily productive, but it sure was fun. We stayed in Tours and did trips on the bus from there.
Friday was Chambord:
Saturday was Chenanceau:
Azay-le-Rideau:
and Villandry:
Sunday was Amboise:
and Clos Lucé (Leonardo Da Vinci's Chateaux):

Friday night we went out to a Mexican place for dinner (where I randomly had the best caramel ice cream of my life) and Saturday we did tapas (where I had one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted: foie gras with fig jam on cinnamon bread. So incredibly good. The problem with tapas: you only get a little taste of everything. It was a great night, though--the food and wine flowed (thanks to Colgate!).

And this week has been full of work and planning. Senior housing stuff is due soon, so I've been figuring that out. I'm also dealing with the fact that I have nothing lined up for this summer yet, so I've been sending lots of e-mails and trying to get my résumé out there. Had my first paper due and first midterm this week, as well. But it's all done, and tomorrow I'm off to Montpellier for the weekend to visit Paul. I'm really excited for that. And then it's back to Dijon for just 4 days and then it's our two-week spring break! Lots to do before then, though (including pack!).

The time is really flying. I can't believe it. The weeks in Dijon are going by faster and faster and the weekends are all so busy. After spring break, my dad will be here, and then my brother will be here, and then it's May already! Only a handful of weekends left for traveling. Trying to plan it all now...while also trying to make the most of Dijon. The weather is finally getting nicer and it's feeling as though spring has finally sprung, which is making it easier to really experience this city. It feels like a whole new place with 60-degree weather and sun! The people are changing, too. I've finally met the neighbors with whom we share a driveway (and whom I hadn't laid eyes on until about two days ago). They seem nice...they're young and hip (just like me).
Speaking of, must go pack for my weekend!

Florissimo!

Another new post? Can't be...
I just wanted to write quickly about a flower show I went to today. There were tons of exotic flowers beautifully displayed surrounded by water fountains shooting in crazy formations while interludes like Flight of the Bumblebee and andantes from Swan Lake played in the background...I felt a bit like I was Alice in Wonderland. Anyway, Florissimo is a flower festival that takes place once every 5 years in Dijon. The host brother of one of the girls on my trip helped put the show together so we all went as a group today to show our support. The show was wild, to say the least. Here are a few photos:

The last photo is of something I find particularly impressive. Each one of those little flowers has its own little receptacle of water to keep the flower fresh. So cool! Wish you all could have seen it. Such a cool exhibition!

Busy week!

So after I last wrote, I gave my presentation (done!) and had a wonderful weekend in Paris. Last week was Paris Fashion Week, and since I've never been in a city during its fashion week, I decided I'd give it a whirl. Luckily my Colgate friend who was so kindly putting me up (love you, Kristen) is taking classes at Parsons in Paris for the semester and her roommate just happened to have an internship working for a designer for the week (Halston? Heard of him?). With the help of Grace (the roommate), my two-days' exposure to the week of fashion was lots of fun. She gave us handy tips on how to get into fashion shows (such as shouting "I'VE GOT THE SHOES!!"--apparently it works all the time in NY fashion week. give it a try.) and what to wear to get photographed by fashion bloggers. Our attempts to get into the shows were fruitless, but we were asked a total of two times (that's two more times than I've ever been stopped on the street for my photograph before), which was very exciting. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find our photographs on any blogs. Here's some on mine though!

Fashion Week in the Tuileries:
Me and Kristen:

And Friday night Grace also got us into an Armani Privé fashion show/party. We missed the fashion show, but we did have the experience of partying with models, both male and female. It was a little surreal....

Armani Privé Fashion Show at Le Cab:Saturday, after brunch at Ladurée (soo chic), I picked up Jim at the airport! We had a great week together.

Me, Jim, and Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie:

We got a lot of time in Paris and he got to see my digs here in Dijon. It was so great having someone to show around, especially having it be him. Last night we had our last dinner at this really good (though not cheap) restaurant in Paris called "La Gare." It's in an old train station and it's huge, but it's very chic and the food was delicious (as was the wine). After a lazy Saturday in Paris together, he got on a flight home and I got on a train back to Dijon.

And now it's time to step back into reality. Having had Jim here and now having him gone is making me a little homesick for the first time this semester. Part of me is envious that he gets to return to the comforts of home while I stay here in Dijon living with my host family. But there is still that part of me excited by the development of my French and eager to continue improving it. But suddenly the semester seems really long, which is something that I never felt when I was in Venice, and I'm not quite sure how to shake the feeling. I think I just need to get back into my Dijon regime and hopefully things will feel normal again. I have a hard week of classes ahead and then Friday I'm off with the group to the Loire Valley to spot some châteaux and, as usual, eat some good food (on Colgate). À toute!

Long overdue...Normandy and Alsace!

I have absolutely no business writing in my blog right now, what-with all the things I need to be doing, but I haven't written in far too long and don't want to neglect my readers (all 3 of you). I've decided that since I don't have much to write about what I've been up to, I'll just put up pictures with a little description.

So break was fabulous! Normandy was beautiful. The only place we visited that I hadn't already seen was Caen, but I didn't remember all the places very well, so it was great to see them all again. We went to Caen, Bayeux, Omaha beach, American cemetery, Pont du Hoc, Rouen, Mont St. Michel, and St. Malo. It was a very full week and we certainly made the most of it. The place we stayed in Caen was a little apartment (for 15 euro a night!) and we had a little kitchen, in which we made very tasty dinners. Here we are making crepes:

My very successful (and delicious) nutella crepe:

A view of Mont St. Michel:
The weather was beautiful every single day, so when i look back over all of my pictures they're mostly of blue sky. Here's a picture from the beach at St. Malo (the walled city):

Me and m wind-blown hair in St. Malo:

So that was my break! Upon my return to Dijon, I had an e-mail asking for a Skype interview for a summer job I had applied for. I spent the Saturday preparing for it and Saturday evening had the interview (which was in French, I might add). It went pretty well, under the circumstances, but I (unfortunately though not surprisingly) got an e-mail a few days ago saying I didn't get the job. I then had a week of classes and then this past weekend a few of us went to Strasbourg! An absolutely beautiful city where we rented bikes, wandered around open-air markets, and enjoyed the food (and I bought a pair of shoes!). I also got to see Alexandra, again, who happened to be there the same weekend visiting a friend.

Me in Petite France:

A swan I didn't necessarily get along with too well:
A view from my bike:

And now it's back to the grindstone! Although, my friend MaryBeth, who is in Geneva for the semester, had the day off today and came to visit me for the day (with her eurail pass it was virtually free for her to come). It was so nice to see her! She's the first person to whom I've had the chance to give a little tour of Dijon.

Thursday, after a stressful day of class and a presentation, I'm off to Paris to stay with my friend Kristen for two nights until Saturday when Jim arrives! Sunday it's back here to Dijon for the week with Jim and Friday we return to Paris for the night and then he flies home that Saturday. I can't wait for this weekend to get here, but in the meantime I have lots of work to do.

I would just quickly like to say, though, that I can already feel a huge difference in my French conversation abilities. My comprehension has immensely improved, as has my confidence in speaking and that makes me really excited to see how my French will be come May. Even though I didn't get that summer job, I was proud of the way I handled myself in the interview. It was my first job interview, and considering it was in French over a bad connection on Skype, it went over pretty well. I would never have been able to go through with that a month ago, and for that I'm so grateful to have this opportunity in France. Speaking of, I've already been here over a month! Crazy!

Must go research the various forms of theater in Paris. I need all the encouragement I can get!