Au revoir

Fin

Everything around me is wrapping up, yet it doesn't feel like it at all. I'm down to 11 days left here and to me it feels like I have a month left. It will feel really strange to try and pick up where my real life left off, but after 4 months I am definitely ready for it. Class has dragged on bigtime lately, but the free time has been more fun this last month than really any other point of my trip. I'm certainly not feeling the same as I was when I came here and almost everything has changed for the better. I feel complete and good about it all and plan on taking my enhanced adventurousness with me as long as I can.

I have to wrap up finals and pack up and be back to my good life in the States!

Pictures from Spring Break

Katherine lent me her camera so I can finally put some pictures up from it (remember to copy and paste if it doesn't give the blue hyperlink!)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=37688208&l=f1b0f&id=16804725 *Belgium and Germany*

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2236013&l=cd06c&id=16804725 *Strasbourg and Annecy*

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2236012&l=051dc&id=16804725 *Prague*

Dans le sud de france

I remembered why I wanted to be in France in the first place over this weekend. I met Katherine and her parents down in Avignon, close to the Mediterrean and full of vineyards. The area, Provence, has 300 + days of sunshine a year, and the people's attitudes reflect it. We stayed in a B&B with a private terrace overlooking vineyards and a village. The first day I was there everything was closed for some holiday (surprised?!) so we laid out by the pool sampling wines and relaxing. We ate at one of the best restaurants I have ever been to in my life the next night. Katherine and I made our way all the way up north of Paris in about 5 hours on a TGV the next day and we stayed in the Champagne region. We explored the G.H. Mumms Champagne Caves, and today she's on her way back to the US.
In a way, I'm definitely ready to have a home again. The other side of it is that I will always have a home to be in, and this quick 4 months is a great amount of time to take everything in. There is a reason this is the most visited country in the world, everytime I go somewhere new I come back impressed. It's in the final 3 weeks now, and I actually have to quit daydreaming of the south and get through my boatloads of class with finals yet to come.

French National Laborday

So Thursday is France's big day off, where they close everything to honor their hard work...No? Okay, they close everything for convenience sake. We are all getting a kick out of "French National Laborday" because the way things run on a Monday through Friday here are similar to the feeling of a late Sunday evening in America. They have the lowest amount of hours for any industrialized nation at 35 per week, and take around 5-6 weeks of vacation a year. So tomorrow should be a nice day off it would seem, but everyone (including me) is dreading it. It's going to be cold & rainy and nothing is open! It's like Sundays here, where if the weather isn't good you just hull up and pass the time. Last Sunday evening I was about ready to just go to sleep when I realized I still had about 2 hours before the sunset. Tomorrow, who knows, maybe I will count how many times I can bounce a ball without losing control of it.

I am still here!

Okay, I have made it back from Spring Break and it was exactly what I had expected, and that's going into it with high expectations. I met Katherine in Brugge, Belgium for her birthday weekend, and then made my way to Brussels. I would've probably traded away the rest of my trip to be in Kansas for the Brussels part of the trip because KU won the national championship...Still does not seem real to me over here, but needless to say I am pretty bummed about missing out on it.
I met up with Owen and we explored Germany (Dusseldorf, Cologne, Munich). We flew to Prague and stayed in the ultimate youth hostel, it seemed like I could live there. They had the greatest people and breakfasts, and the city itself is like nothing I have ever seen. It's certainly Eastern Europe, and it felt good to see something so different.
One of my favorite towns was Strasbourg, France, right next to Germany. It has all the structure and perfection that Germany carries but with the beauty and charm of a French village. To be honest, the streets were stone silent at night but at that point of the trip it was great to be in such a peaceful town. We stumbled across a great park and climbed a cathedral to the top to overlook everything. That was sort of a theme for Owen & my trip, we climbed everything: a gigantic cathedral in Cologne, a couple giant hills in Prague overlooking the city, and then two mountains in the Alps.
I finished the trip in the Alps, probably one of the neatest places I've ever been. Katherine, Owen, and I hiked around and explored. We wanted to paraglide but the potentially bad weather and cost kept us away, at least until the next time I get to the Alps.


And now I am back...in Angers...again. I guess I am settling back into it but I have probably hit one of the hardest parts of the trip. It feels like I should be finished with traveling and I really just need a dose of my own things. Instead, I remain at the whim of the buses and being treated like a high schooler as I sit through countless hours of French classes. I still have 6 weeks, so I am staying active, social and as busy as I can.