Boxer Rebellion meets Maryville girls

First off, I'd like to preface this blog with what just happened in my French and Communications class. My professor is ridiculous and just told some French people that she was surprised they were in college based on their presentation. It was hard to sit through because I'd hate to think of what she really thought of our presentation. I miss America where things make sense.

Now on to the good stuff-

Hungarian, Algerian, South African, Canadian, American, TENNESSEAN, Italian, Asian, British, Australian, and French: this is a list of all the different nationalities I encountered in three days. It started on my train to Paris where I met this amazing South African woman. She realized that I spoke English and she sat there and talked to me for the entire 3 hours it took to get us to our destination. She told me about her daughters, about life in South Africa, and about her travels. She cracked me up a few times too. I ended up helping her carry her things and find her way to the terminal because she didn't speak French and seemed directionally challenged when it came to navigating airports. I think she was about 60 and she kept telling me, "you have to remember, one day you'll be 60 too". I only rode on a train with her for 3 hours, but I think I'll probably remember her the rest of my life. Talking to her was so fascinating.

From there, I found Shaina in the airport and we started our Parisian adventures. The hostel we stayed in was really nice...you know, once you actually got inside. Getting there was a little stressful and full of very persistent ...gentlemen... assessing the level of my beauty and trying to somehow turn the word no into yes. No means no, fellas. No means no. Oddly enough, the hostel bed was about 100% more comfortable than my dorm bed in Chambéry and I slept like a baby. After, of course, I finally managed to end the conversation with the Algerian man who had the bunk bed beside me. He was actually really cool too and I learned a lot about Algeria. It sounds crazy, but honestly, every person I met in that hostel or on the streets that wasn't trying to sell me something or sleep with me turned out to be awesome.

The next day wehit some of the big sights and my favorite part was just laying under the Eiffel Tower forever. It was the only sunny day of my entire trip, but it was warm and beautiful and tickled my French-lovin' heart. That night we went to the concert, which was the original motive for this entire excursion.


BOXER REBELLION. They are an incredible band, and I have even more mad respect for them now. The show they put on was fantastic and it was in a bar type venue so we were able to basically touch the stage from where we were standing. Then after the show, the band went to their merch stand and sold their own things. I thought that was really awesome of them and definitely a cool way to connect with the fans. Shaina and I had something in common with them too.
The lead singer is from Maryville, TN. It was awesome and we were dubbed "the Maryville girls". He told us they played a show at the Clayton Center. I don't know when that was, but I hope someone from MC went to it and appreciated/enjoyed it.

Our next roomies in the hostel were Hungarian and definitely had no problem walking around in their underwear and changing clothes in the room. They were so nice though, and not at all creepy, so it just almost felt natural because honestly, that's not as taboo here. I kind of like that actually. I feel like Americans can be way too uptight about nudity sometimes, and I was once guilty of that, but I think being here has loosened me up a little bit. Even if I'm not as comfortable with it myself, I'm not as uncomfortable about others expressing their right to be naked. Hah.

We also met another girl whose mom was from Maryville when we took a picture for her and her boyfriend/fiance/husband/whatever-he-was. It's such a small world. They talked about going to the drive in. The rest of the Paris trip was rainy, but still cool. I've been to Paris a few times, but I think that this time was probably my favorite.

Montpellier & London!

Alright, big couple of weeks down and another one to go! March has absolutely flown by and I don't know that I've actually had a free weekend in a while. School and my social life have been in full motion. Since my last post I've been to Montpellier with Cyril which was AWESOME. The ONLY complaint that I have is that I hardly spent any time in that city dry. It rained the entire time, heavily and that is why in almost all of my pictures I look like I just stepped out of the shower with my clothes on. That aside though, it was really an amazing city and I had the best tour guide who took me to a pretty wonderful fondue restaurant where my age was put into question as seen in the photo- I was shown around the city and taken to a few parties too, and that was awesome. It's always better being shown around a town by someone who actually lives there rather than relying on a map.

This past weekend I went to London to see Meg. This is ridiculous, but one of the most exciting parts about the actual traveling itself was the fact that I finally got my passport stamped by someone. I've wanted my passport stamped for so long! I say the actual traveling because most of my journey was dealing with the public transportation system. From France I had to take a train to Lyon, a shuttle to the airport, a plane to London, a train to Meg, and then the underground to her place. I'm starting to miss the simplicity of having a car. I got there pretty late at night so I just crashed as soon as we got back to her place and then started the adventures the next morning with one of the highlights: WIMBLEDON TOUR! Being a huge tennis fan, this landed itself in the top ten of my "favorite things I did in Europe" list, right next to Roland Garros. The only thing that could have made that better (only two things, actually) would be if 1) my Dad was there, because next to me he's the only one I know that would have appreciated it and 2) if the actual tournament was going on and I had someone scored insanely impossible to get tickets to center court. After that tour, Meg showed me around town a bit and then we had some St. Patty's day festivities that night. I had a fantastic time seeing her. I hit all the big things, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and Buckingham Palace. God save the queen.

One thing I definitely noticed about this past weekend is how weird it is to hear everyone speaking English again. I actually experienced a little culture shock because I'm just so used to hearing people speak French. I would order something in English and feel wrong because I felt like they couldn't understand the language I was speaking. Coming back to America is probably going to be a lot like that, so go ahead and expect me to be confused and start my sentences with "Je voudrais".

And I mentioned that getting there took a lot of transportation, but I should comment just a bit on getting back. I took a bus to the airport, a plane back to Lyon, and that's where I got stuck. There were no more trains or buses going back to Chambéry that night and I ended up sleeping in the airport again. It was the same airport that Michael Gunther and I slept in before going to Rome and I even had my old sleeping spot on the bench. No matter how long you lay on those benches, they never EVER get warm and I now know by heart the 2 messages that play over the intercom in five minute intervals...in both languages. It took me 14 hours to get back home, but it was worth it.


Up next weekend I have a nice weekend in Paris. I'm going to a Boxer Rebellion concert on Friday which I'm really excited about and spending the whole time with fellow MC-er Shaina Arp. It should be really great, but I think after that I'm going to cool it on the traveling a bit. My wallet and my energy will greatly benefit from it.

Oh, and I just did my first presentation in French in France. It was a nightmare, I did horribly, but I passed. I hate presentations!

I apologize, select few readers, for the radio silence. There hasn't been much to say, though. My spring break was last week and as most of you already know, I was stuck in Chambéry alone for the duration of the vacation. I started to lose my mind a little bit, but a new dress and cute pair of shoes came out of the bit of pity shopping that I did for myself.

My stipend money from the school finally came in and I've stocked up on groceries, can eat what I want, and can travel freely again. This upcoming weekend I'm going to Montpellier to visit Cyril and I am super excited about it! The next weekend I'm traveling to London to spend St. Patty's Day with Meg Cotter and that should be epic. I'm even trying to get something in the works for the following weekend. There's a band that I recently discovered that I never knew I loved and they're playing a show in Paris. I've not confirmed that trip on paper yet, but there's a strong possibility that I will be there. March is seriously going to fly by with all this stuff I have planned.

Everyone always asks about classes, so I'll touch on that too. They're hard. At least they are for me because my French is minimal. They're hard, but I like a few of them a lot. Some I like a lot less than that, but that's the case anywhere you go. I'm just hoping that I pass. There's a lot of pressure with the grade solely riding on one final exam. I miss progress reports.

I've recently met a few really awesome French people - as some of you may already know ; ) or you can ask me about it if you don't and are interested.

I'm sure the post after I do all these awesome things in March will be better than this one.

And thought of the week - Raspberry macarons are reason enough to want to live in France forever.