Last Few Chapters

Last Monday, I visited Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne which was beautiful but they were doing some restoration work on the North tower as you can see in the following picture.

Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne

It was beautiful inside, just like most gothic cathedrals, and there was a crypt, but it looked like you had to pay to go in, so I didn't go down there because it is a little creepy to me and I didn't want to pay for it.

Inside Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne

Then this weekend we went up to Lille for Augustana football game against the French national team! It rained in the morning, but by the time the game started at 4pm, it had cleared up and was hot and sunny. Surprisingly I had a great time cheering for our time even though when we would start the french around us would completely overpower us with their cheering. 

For the game we got VIP passes to get free drinks and have a free dinner with the team after the game.

Augustana football team and a random man supporting America.

We won the game 20-14! It was very exciting, and it was not as long as a football game usually is in the US, which was nice.

 On Sunday, we walked around Lille just to see more of the town, which is very different from Dijon and bigger than Dijon as well. I think I like Dijon better than Lille though.

A square we had lunch it; the French seem to like their large pots.

We went into a book "market", and there were a lot of old books and pictures and records and toys. It was also in a beautiful, old building.

There is a canal in Lille.

We went to the zoo since we had time and it was in the park.

Someone carved a whole little village on this fallen tree.

A beautiful building in Lille

Lille was a nice, relaxing weekend because everyone was tired so we didn't want to go crazy on trying to see all of the sights. Instead we just hung out and played a French card game and enjoyed our weekend.

This week is different because there are new students here, so on Monday we didn't have class because the new students were taking the placement test. We slept in on Monday, and then just hung out with some friends at the residence hall, and then saw the movie Joséphine, which is a romantic comedy: it was cute. Today I had class again with new professors and they moved everyone up a level, so now I am in level 6 which at first sounded scary, but it really is not that different and it is only for a week and two days now, and there is only one more test to take, so I think I can do fine for a short time in level 6.   I can't believe that I am almost done here! Time is going by so quickly and there is still so much that I want to do and see! I am just going to enjoy the time I have left here and make the best of each day.

Memories and New Experiences

These past few weeks have been routine and semi-busy since I am in class for most of the day. Classes are still going well; this week is the last week for many of the students in my class, so next week I will have many new students to get to know. It will be interesting since I feel like I am just starting to get to know some of the people in my class. On Thursday the 18th the whole program had a picnic for everyone to get to know each other. It was fun, but it started to rain, so we didn't stay for very long. Then on Friday the 19th I visited some museums by myself: Musée de la vie Bourguignonne, Musée d'Art Sacré, and Musée de Beaux Arts. All three were very interesting, and very different from each other. The first one was a little scary for me because there were mannequins that looked very life like, and I had a flash back of being in the wax museum in Texas in the President's room when the power went out just like in the scary movies. Thankfully, the power didn't go out this time and if it had, there wasn't any music playing to do the scary winding down when the power goes out. I ran into some people from my French class at the first museum, which was a fun surprise. All of the artwork was beautiful in each of the museums. Then on Saturday the 20th some of us Augie students had a BBQ with the Brazilians in our classes, which was really fun. There was a lot of good food, and we had to speak in French since we don't know portuguese and only a few of them know a little english. We had a great time eating, talking, and listening to music as well as each other talk in our native language. Then I went to the movies with a few other people from Augie: we saw Marius, which is a love story—Marius has always loved the sea, and he falls in love with a woman named Fanny, and it is sad and good and girly. Then on Sunday the 21st the Augie group went to Annecy! We spent five hours getting there (with an hour break in Lyon) and when we got there another Augie, French professor met us at the train station. We walked around and had lunch and went by the lake and just enjoyed the beautiful city. While we were there, we took a boat tour on the lake for 2 hours, and it was just the most amazing scenery with the mountains surrounding the lake. It reminded me of how great our God is that he created the mountains. It was a wonderful day of breathtaking views, but when we were leaving there were some problems with the trains and we were delayed 40 minutes in Lyon and didn't get home until 1am. Then we went to class on Monday, which was hard after not much sleep.

The quaint courtyard in Musée de la Vie Bourguignonne

Me facing my fears of the mannequins in the museum (thankfully they were only on the first floor, so I was fine on the second and third floor looking at art and displays of different stores).

Musée d'Art Sacré

Interestingly, they had modern and traditional religious art next to each other.

Me inside the Musée de Beaux Arts, there were many different styles of art from different time periods.

Annecy!!

There is a beautiful park that we sat in before our tour.

Beautiful mountains

An old castle that we had to walk up hill to see

Beautiful Lac d'Annecy and mountains

On the tour boat

This mountain is called the sleeping Indian although it is a little hard to see in this picture. On the right of the picture is the "head and feathers" and on the left is the "body" lying down.

The group in Annecy, our professor's hometown!

Relaxing Weekend

This weekend, we went to a small town only 20 minutes away, by train, called Beaune, and there we walked around and did a wine tasting. We also went to the firemen's ball in Dijon on Saturday night, which was very hard to find considering that we asked directions three times, and people would sometimes point us in the wrong direction. There were mostly older and very young people there, so we did not stay for very long; plus it was cold outside, since it was late and just in a little courtyard outside the fire department. Then on Sunday it was Bastille Day and we spent the whole day on the beach relaxing and waiting for the fireworks! The sand was really hot and the water was really cold, so I spent most of the time lying on the beach chair, which I rented for a euro, reading. It was a nice weekend of not running around to see all the sites, like in Paris. The fireworks were great, and before they started many people where just shooting off fireworks from their home, so we saw many little firework shows before the big event! Unfortunately, a woman sat in a chair right in front of us, so it was harder to see the lower fireworks, but it was still a great display. They also played music with the fireworks, but it was a little too loud for me. Once they were done it was chaotic trying to get home because the streets were so crowded, and we were stuffed to the max in the bus, but we had a great time anyways.

The little town of Beaune was very cute to visit.

Wine tasting at Marché aux Vins

It was a self tour of the cellar with information on the walls and areas for tasting wine.

Outside was the vineyard

Beaune is also famous for an old hospital that is now a museum.

Most of the Augie group at Lac Kir in Dijon

We stayed all day to watch the fire works!

Typical Day in Dijon

Not much is going on besides exploring the city so here are some pictures of the area I am living in and what I have been up to:

Our first group dinner I had boeuf bourguignon and it was amazing.

Place Darcy: there are flags lining the street (along with shops) and at the end is the Arc de Triomphe.

The second group dinner I had escargot for an entré. It was also very good.

Parc Darcy is a nice little place I walked around.

The back of Notre Dame; the front is a little creepy with all of the gargoyles.

A building that seems to be a typical design for the Bourgogne region.

These petites chouettes (owls) lead all over Dijon to different popular locations/plazas.

Place de la Liberté has a lot of restaurants, but it is hot during the day because there is no shade.

A typical tile roof for the Bourgogne region.

A plaza just down the street from me that has some good restaurants.

We walk around every day for a few hours or more just to find new, exciting places. People say Dijon is a smaller town, but there is so much to see and find. Dijon has a lot to offer, and I am enjoying each day taking in the new sites I find. I think I might like Dijon more than Paris because there is a lot here, but it is not overwhelming like Paris can be sometimes, and there are not nearly as many tourists. Although, today Lizeth (my "roommate") and I did laundry, and another American woman walked in and was so excited to hear us speaking English, so she asked about the laundry machines and where some good restaurants are. We were excited because that seemed to take us one step away from being called tourists since we gave some information and could show her on the map where things were! That is it for now; until next time!

Re-bonjour, Paris

This past weekend, I went to Paris with a group from the school I am attending here. We left Friday morning at 6:30am and came back Sunday at 10pm. It was about a 3 hour drive on the bus. We spent a lot of time touring around on the bus on Friday—so my pictures are not the best since they were taken on a moving bus—, and then later we stopped and visited the monuments.

One of the views from the bus

Then after touring around the bus, we toured around on the Seine in a  Bateau Mouche (which is just a tour boat).

We walked around the Luxembourg garden after stopping briefly at the hotel to check in. In the garden, we saw the model of the Statue of Liberty that you can see in New York, obviously, and next to it was a tree dedicated to those lost during 9/11.

Then we walked over by the Panthéon, but we could not go in since it was late and closed. Right down the street we got amazing ice cream from a place called Amorino (Amelia, you will have to try it! It was so good!)

Saturday, we stopped and visited a lot more: first we went to an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower.

Augie Group in front of the Eiffel Tower

Then we briefly stopped at Notre Dame because we had to get to the Louvre at a specific time, although I did not understand that because we did not have a guide there, but we went and saw the major works: Winged Victory, Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and many other Greek and Roman statues. We had a few hours there, which is not enough time to see a third of the art work in the museum. From there we walked through the Jardin de Tuileries and walked to Musée D'Orsay. There I saw some of my favorite Impressionist works, which I would share with you, but we are not allowed to take pictures in the museum. After spending an hour or two there we walked down the Champs Elysees and went under the Arc de Triomphe but not up it, since we didn't have the time. Plus we would have to pay for that ourselves.

Then some of us went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner, which was very good and well priced. Afterwards, we stayed and watched the Eiffel Tower light up.

On Sunday, we first parked by les Invalides and walked to the Musée Rodin. This time I was able to see the beautiful gardens in full bloom, rather than in February when everything was dead and half of the garden was closed off. I also went inside of the museum this time instead of just walking around the garden. There were so many beautiful/interesting works that I had never seen or heard of before. I also saw Amelia's favorite tree!

After that, we parked by the Moulin Rouge and walked up to Sacre Cœur, although we made some stops along the way. For example, we saw this statue of a man stuck in the wall, which comes from a popular children's story, as well as, the first Cabaret and the only vineyard in all of Paris.

After that we left Paris.

Augie friends in Paris that I have become closer to because of this trip.

Now I am back in Dijon, continuing classes which are difficult at times, but I am learning a lot. Then after class, my "roommate" and I explore Dijon. Monday, we walked along the river which was beautiful. We found out that where we are living is very close to the center of town called Place Darcy which has a lot of shops and restaurants. I have gotten some homework, but it is not nearly as much or as time consuming as what I get at Augustana, so there is plenty of time to explore. I am really enjoying Dijon and finding new, exciting areas!