Hey all! Just wanted to say I made it safely to St. Louis. We drove through a scary storm yesterday and it took us a few extra hours to get here, but we made it safe and sound, and even had a bit of time to make ourselves at home. It's great to finally be able to visualize where I'll be for the summer!

Today's been a busy day of running around trying to figure out our surroundings, meeting people, buying a few supplies, and doing inventory. My staff is great, and I think we'll work together really well this summer. If you want to pray for Joel, Chrissy, and Kristin, and I, it would be greatly appreciated, because we have our work set out for us! The first week of kids starts next Sunday (in 9 days), but we'll have the Chattanooga site staff as well as the St. Louis site director from last year with us for that week, so that will be lots of help!

I felt very blessed to get to see a few friends before leaving for St. Louis... thanks to my family, as well as Kate and Mike for stopping by! I was (and still am) a bit homesick for friends, since it has been a while for most of you and I'm just diving right into the summer, but August will come, and until then I know that God wants me here =). If anyone does want to stop by St. Louis this summer though I would LOVE to see you! I know I will find wonderful friends here too though, especially in my staff. The other girls and I bought a Bible study book to start on, revolving around the topic of grace. Granted we haven't had tons of time together yet but I think we'll really be able to build each other up this summer.

I'd love to hear what each one of you are up to if you'd like to drop me a line =). I'll post my phone number when I know it (we are in the process of looking in storage for the phone), but you can write or e-mail hagsmi01@luther.edu. Love y'all! Have a blessed summer.
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 4:52 PM

 
Well, I'm back in the good old USA! I just barely made my flight from Philadephia to Minneapolis, but it all worked out, and I have another 45 minutes at home before leaving for YouthWorks! training. It's great to see everyone here, but it's gonna be hard to leave again so soon. I think the time change thing is pretty much taken care of... just went to bed when everyone else did yesterday despite the fact that it would have been 7 am in France =). I'll be keeping up this blogspot over the summer, so I don't have to bug everyone with mass e-mails, but I'm not sure how often I'll have computer access. My address for the summer (May 25-August 10) will be:

St. Louis Charter Academy
c/o YouthWorks! - Mikhal Hagstrom
5223 North 20th St.
St. Louis, MO 63107

I'd love to hear from everyone this summer!
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 12:14 PM

 
Again going back a few weeks =), Thursday May sixth we had a banquet at IES for all the host families and students. It was fun to get to show off my cute host family =). Mimi, Baudoin, and my host mom came, but I spent most of the time reaching over other food to get Baudoin strawberry tarts, which he would not stop asking for =). It was neat to meat some other people's host parents and families too that I hadn't met yet. The next day we had an American BBQ at Adrienne's (I had a veggie burger). Even though I'm not the hugest fan of BBQs in the states, it was good to eat chips and dip again. They even tried to make guacamole and salsa!

That Saturday was the IES trip to the Vignoble Nantais. We went to the town of Clisson, and the castle there, which is from medieval times. It was much more torn apart than the others we've visited. It was hardly covered, with grass growing inside, but really awesome because just standing there you know it's so old. We had a picnic lunch, and then went to a vignoble that makes Muscadet wine. He explained how they go about growing the grapes, and then what they go through to make wine, as well as what makes for a good wine year and such things as that. It was interesting, but honestly a little hard to follow some of the French vocab he used.

After the vignoble we came back to Nantes, and some of us went and got pizza before the Fez Noz, which is a traditional French dance that takes place outside. It reminded me a bit of a square dance, but different... more complicated, if you ask me, but that may also be because it was being explained in French, and I don't really know many French square dance terms. It was way fun though, learning some sweet dances, meeting some cool people, and spending some time outside (it was gorgeous out!).

That Sunday I went to church, and then to Andrew and Claire's again (the pastor and his wife) for lunch, and stayed there most of the afternoon. They have another English guy staying with them, so I attempted to play basketball with him and their daugher Kathy, and then they taught me how to play cricket =). Educational experience I'd say, more than fun. I still can't really imagine how the game would really work (I guess it makes a big difference if people are good or not). Anyway, we went for a walk then and threw the frisbee around a bit, which was great. Yay for spring weather!

Last Friday the 14th, I went to a class of 10 and 11 year olds to talk a bit about the US. Their class has a sort of pen pal relationship with one of the entry level French courses at Luther, so they wanted Jen and I to talk about Luther, and Iowa, and the mid-west. It was really fun. We taught them the itsy bitsy spider, and then answered questions they had prepared for us. It was really fun to see that they were so interested in something that seems so normal to me... just Decorah, a little town in Iowa, but they were really fascinated. The next night we went to dinner at the teachers house, and I was SO brave. I ate not only fish, but also other little sea creachers that had eyes and everything, plus little tiny snail type things. It was way not OK w/ me, but I sucked it up and was polite, and nothing actually tasted too bad, it was just hard to get past the idea of what I was eating.

Sunday Brian and Jen and I went to our favorite Kebab shop for the last time (yeah, getting kinda sentamental about all the lasts...). Monday I had my last pain o chocolat, as well as two rather painful finals. Difficult, but I know at least I didn't fail them =). Yesterday we went to our favorite créperie for the last time, and I had a 12 page grammar final! Today I've taken my phonetics final and the translation one starts in 5 minutes so I better finish up! Tonight is the fancy dinner sur l'Erdre, and tomorrow I leave for Vendée w/ my family. Still can't believe this is my last day at IES, and in Nantes really. I'm glad I don't have to say goodbye to the IES peeps and my host family all at the same time though, I get to spread it out a bit since I'm going to be with my family for the next couple days.

Well, see ya on the flip side =)... of the world...

- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 6:39 AM

 
As promised... the rest of spring break =). Just a note to those who may call me this week, I am out of minutes on my cell phone which means I can not recieve calls, but not send them, nor can I check my voice messages. Someone from the US called me yesterday but I don't know who you are to call you back because I can't get my voice messages w/o buying another ten euro rechargement for only 4 days.

Prague... we arrived late Tuesday April 13 (my wonderful Kimmy's birthday!), and met our friend Dusan (the guy we rented the apartment from). Note to those wanting to stay in a nice place for a good price... go to Prague, it's great! It was pretty sweet to go from staying in hostels sharing rooms w/ other people to having a whole apartment to ourseves (and for the same price as a hostel)! We were obviously pretty excited. We had a living room, LARGE bedroom, kitchen, bathroom (with a bath tub!), balcony, and a big entry. Definately fun. Jen didn't have a great night, however, as she left her credit card in the machine, and the machine sucked it back in before she went back to look. So she went back to the apartment to worry and Anne-Tiphaine and I went grocery shopping. We got back from shopping, made dinner... Jen must have taken a walk or something. Ate dinner, watched TV for a bit... Jen made some friends, sat down in a cafe or something? Turned off the TV, chatted for a bit, wanted to start getting ready for bed, but where was Jen? So by this point we're way worried. We start going through her things looking for pictures to give the police, emergency telephone numbers of IES, her boyfriend's e-mail address... we walk around the area for a bit thinking maybe she's wondering around lost, but we can't find her. We tried to go to the police station right across from our appartment, but the policeman didn't speak any English, and didn't seem to interested in what we were trying to communicate. So we stopped by some hostels in the area to ask what to do, because we knew we could find English speakers there. Unfortunately, they were completely unconcerned as well. We go back to the appartment to check if Jen has showed up. Anne-Tiphaine is thinking about calling her mom to ask what do cause we're freaking out. Finally, Anne-Tiphaine gets a text message that says "I'm lost and at the police station. Meet me at... (some restaurant we had walked by earlier)." We go to meet her, and sure enough she comes from the direction of the appartment. Turns out she had walked around for about 3 hours, then went to the police station, telling them she had a key but didn't know what appartment it went to. They made her wait forever, talk to a translator, and wouldn't let her go when the police man we had talked to got the point across that he had seen two English-speaking girls looking for someone. Finally she got the point across that we were going to meet her and they let her go, but it was pretty funny when we walked back to the appartment and she saw that the police station was right across the street. Note to self: don't leave Jen alone w/o an address right when we get to a new city, even if we're only two blocks away and she says she's going back to the appartment! That lesson learned, we went to bed and slept in the next day!

I woke up before the others and went to buy groceries. Being a good friend, I even bought and made them bacon, as they'd been talking about how much they miss it. We had a nice big brunch of eggs, pancakes, and bacon, and then took off for the markets. We did the markets, Old Town Square, and walked down to the musuem that day. It was quite a walk, but it was really neat to just walk around and get a feeling for Prague. Once again, the architecture was very different, but fun too. I hear Prague is supposed to have more of an Eastern European feel. I have no other Eastern European cities to compare it to, but I'll believe those I've heard that from. We had a long dinner that night, as we had a bit of trouble getting the oven hot enough to cook our chicken. So we had the biscuits, chicken, and vegetables all separately, over a span of about 3 hours =). I then took a bath!!!, and Jen and I started our long project of staying awake until two am to go register (7 pm might be a nice convenient registration time if you're in Iowa, but 2 am in Prague was a little tough). We found a hostel that would let us use their computers at that hour, as there were no internet cafes still open, and finally got to bed around 4:30 am. (Jen's registration time was an hour and a half later than mine). Needless to say we slept in a bit the next day too...

Thursday we started walking toward the Prague castle in the late morning and had some excellent pizza on the way. We walked across the St. Charles bridge, and got a tour of the Prague Castle. The inside was definately pretty neat, but I have to admit I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. I think two weeks is nearing the maximum span of time for which I can be excited about traveling! It was definately still fun though. Afterwards we went ring shopping (Prague is famous for it's amber), and went out for dinner. It was a cute little place, but all I can really remember is that it had the HUGEST lamps I've ever seen in my life!

Friday... we took the train to Berlin, found the hostel, had dinner, and went to bed. Unfortunately the train ride took most of the day, but we were ready for a pretty chill night when we got there, so it was fine.

Saturday we went on a bike tour and we saw TONS of Berlin. For anyone wanting to visit Berlin quickly, this is a great idea. The city is bigger than the others we visited, and more spread out. It actually had kind of an American feel to it, moreso than the other cities we went to. We saw... the Memorial to the Murdered European Jews, Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt, Tiergarten, Russian T34 Tanks, Hitler's Bunker, Nazi Topography of Terror, sections of the Berlin Wall, Potsdamer Platz, Victory Column, Bellevue Palace, Humboldt University, Marx and Engels Statues, Alexanderplatz, Reichstag, Museum Island, the Berliner Dom, the Pergamon Museum, Unter den Linden, DDR Palast der Republik, Soviet War Memorial, Bebelplatz- Site of the Nazi book-burning, Marienkirche, Nazi Luftwaffe, Lustgarten, Deathstrop and Watchtower, "Red" Town Hall, House of World Cultures, and more. It was a pretty crazy 4 hours, but it was great to get to see all that, being that we only had one day in Berlin! Afterwards we went back to the hostel, got our luggage, and took the overnight train to Paris and then Nantes, and got home around 2 pm Sunday! It was nice to have that afternoon and evening to let it sink in that the traveling was done and school was starting again the next day. It was a great trip, but it was nice to be home too, even though Nantes isn't HOME home.

I'll try to write more tomorrow because I definately have more to say about these last few weeks that I've been bad about writing! Basically, I have two more finals tomorrow and then I'm done w/ classes. Tonight we're going to our favorite créperie for the last time, and tomorrow we're getting all fancied up and going out for dinner (courtesy of IES!) on a boat on the Erdre. Should be fun! Tomorrow is my last day in Nantes, as I'm going with my host family to their vacation house in Vendée for Thursday and Friday, and then my host dad will just take me right to the train station in Nantes way early Saturday morning. It was pretty weird getting a train ticket to Paris and asking for an "aller-simple" (one way ticket). Well I'm getting kicked off the computer but the computer maintenance guy... more soon!
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 8:45 AM

 
Hey crazies. Just thought I'd let y'all know I'm going to be spending my summer in St. Louis, MO! Not too terribly far away from Iowa/Wisconsin/Minnesota if anyone's looking for a fun road trip =). More coming on spring break next week...
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 6:07 AM

 
Sorry to those of you who have been checking my blogspot and finding nothing for the past few weeks. Luckily, I journaled a lot over spring break, so you are still gonna get the story of everything after Venice as well!

Wednesday April 8 was spent mostly on the train on the way from Venice to Salzburg, but the ride was totally worth it, as Salzburg was awesome from the first minute. Riding the train through the mountains first of all, was incredible. I kept saying to myself "If I could live here I'd want my house to be right... there". Then two seconds later I'd see another spot and think "no, there", and then a few seconds later... well you get the point. It was gorgeous. Salzburg once again had all sorts of bright colored buildings, beautiful churches, plus the sights from the Sound of Music. I didn't quite know what to do with myself =).

We met some guys on the train named Craig and Drew that go to Iowa State and are studying in London for the semester. They were backpacking for a whole month, as they had a month-long spring break. It was fun to meet some more good old midwestern boys =). We talked to them quite a bit on the train ride and discovered we were staying in the same hostel in Salzburg, as well as going from Salzburg to Vienna to Prague to Berlin, all pretty much at the same time. We made a tricky 2 minute train change in Villach, found the bus and the hostel with them, and found a great little Austrian restaurant called St.Pauls' stuben to eat at since the grocery stores were closed. That night we signed up for the Sound of Music tour for the next day, and watched the movie at the hostel.

Thursday April 8- We had breakfast at the hostel this morning, made a trip to the post office to mail off another batch of post cards, and walked around a bit to figure out our way around the city. I got a German phrase book in hopes of being able to communicate a little bit in Salzburg, Vienna, and Berlin (at the time I thought I was going to be able to use German in Prague too, little did I know that Czech is actually a language). Perhaps it is just because I'm so used to studying French now, but German words seem very hard to remember... so many syllables in each one! I felt rude not being able to say anything in German though, and I really wanted to pick up some of the language being in German-speaking countries. Fun doesn't have to be the opposite of educational, right? Actually I learned a lot of history in each city I visited. It's much easier to retain information about something when I can actually see the monument or building or countryside that is concerned, as opposed to just reading the history in a book.

We were picked up at the hostel at 1:30 for the Sound of Music tour, and met up with the rest of the group by the Mirabell gardens. The first stop was Hellbrunn Palace, were we saw the gazebo and the alley Maria walks down while singing the confidence song. From there we went to Palace Fram-something (again, it had too many syllables), which they used as the front of the house in the movie, when Maria arrives for the first time, and when Maria and Captain VonTraap get back from their honeymoon. A cute little story about that, apparently when the movie was filmed Christopher Plummer (Captain VonTraap) was supposed to pull the Nazi flag down and wrip it up when they got back from the honeymoon. The first time it was attached too well though, and he ended up trying so hard he was hanging from the flag. Another little side note about Christopher Plummer (bear w/ me if you don't love this movie as much as I do) is that he wanted the part in the movie so he could sing, but they ended up dubbing over his voice in the songs b/c it wasn't strong enough w/ Julie Andrews. He also didn't want to carry the girl who played Gretl over the mountain at the end of the movie because he said she was too heavy, so they had to go borrow a little Austrian girl who was smaller to stand in for that part. (That mountain they climb over in the end to "Switzerland" actually overlooks Salzburg, and is on the border to Germany! Good thing that wasn't really how they tried to escape).

Next we went to Leopoldskromf, which served as the back of the house in the movie, for the pink lemonade scene, where they dance the Landla, where the gazebo had formerly been, where they arrive to after canoing, and where the balcony is where Captain VonTraap finally calls off his engagement w/ Baronness Schraeder. The Nonnberg Abbey was next, the abbey that Maria was at in real life, and also in the movie. It was used for all the convent scenes except for the wedding, which was at a church in Mondsee that we went to later. We passeed the bridge that's in the DO RAE MI song, which was actually very close to our hostel. We also passed by lake Fuschel, where Red Bull was invented. The first Red Bull actually had water in it from this lake. Then they took us up into what is called the "lakes and mountains district", which was absolutely gorgeous. It was on a hill up there that the beginning of the movie was filmed. We stopped at two little towns up there and walked around a bit. The second town was Mondsee, on lake Sanktgilgen, where the wedding scene was filmed. It's a huge bright yellow church on the outside, and the inside is incredible ornate, and huge, as you can tell in the movie.

After the tour we headed back to the grocery store w/ Craig and Drew (they went on the tour with us as well) and walked home (the long way, as we got a bit lost). We had dinner, and then watech the Sound of Music again =). It was really neat to see it again after having been to most of the spots shown in the movie!

Friday April 9 we started off with walking down Hellbrunn Allee... the beautiful tree-lined allee that leads to the front of the Sound of Music house. I got to see it even closer that day, and even stood in the gate that Julie Andrews opens when she first comes to the house! We then walked further down the Allee to the gazebo and Hellbrunn. We got the tour of the trick fountains and the inside of the house there. Some Archbishop had way too much time on his hands, and designed this house with trick fountains ALL OVER the place, including a party table where water even comes out of the seats of the chairs! We walked around the gardens there, which are beautiful, then said goodbye to the guys, but w/ plans to meet up in Vienna, as they went there a few days before us. We went back to the hostel for lunch, and then walked up to Hohensalzburg fortress, which overlooks Salzburg (we had a great view of it from our hostel). We saw the Dom cathedral next, the Neptune fountain, the market, and the life-sized chess set next to it. Also just outside the cathedral is the fountain that Maria stops at briefly on her way to the Von Traap house, and again with the children during DO RAE MI. We stopped by Mozart's birthplace and the markets outside it on the way to the Mirabell gardens, which is where the bright flowers and the steps they jump down and the statues they imitate and the tree covered path/tunnel they walk down are.

Saturday, April 10- we got up brigh and early so we could summit a mountain. We climbed the Geisberg (1288 m), and it actually took much less time than we expected. It took about 2 hours up, and 1 1/2 down. Not quite the mountain we summited in Montana, but it was definately fun (minus the packed down snow the last couple kilometers). The view was gorgeous all the way up. Several times we had nice Austrian people point us in the right direction, and the whole way up we could hear birds chirping. About 20 minutes up we had a spectacular view of Salzburg. After that we lost sight of the town, as the path was pretty straight and went behind another mountain. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great at the top... we didn't have a great view as we were in the middle of a cloud, but it was fun nonetheless.

God's beauty and presence just seem so close to me when I'm in the mountains. He made so much, and it's all so beautiful, but mountains touch me ni a special way. I had to be sure to stop once in a while to listen to the birds, notice a little green lizard, or watch the bird throwing around leaves w/ its beak. The combination of the huge mountains in the distance and the little details each step of the way made an absolutely stunning pair.

After the Geisberg, I changed out of my wet shoes and socks and went to the Old Town for the tour of the festival halls (Anne-Tiphaine and Jen opted out of that tour). I got to see the open air "horse riding arena" where the festival in the movie was filmed and the VonTraap family performed. It was really neat to actually be there! Afterwards I took a nice long walk and found a church with an English service to go to the next day (Easter). Then I went back to the Mirabell Gardens, and walked back over the bridge in the movie. That night we went out to a well known brewery in Salzburg for dinner with an Austrian girl (Julia), and a French guy (Americ) that we had met at the hostel. We came back pretty early that night and went to bed so we could get up nice and early for Easter.

Sunday April 11- We woke up to a nice little surprise on Easter- big, wet snow flakes falling, in large quantity! It was definately an Easter that was different from any I've ever known... without my family, in Salzburg, Austria, walking to church through heavy snow! I had to make the effort all day to not think about missing my family and to remember the real reason that we celebrate Easter. I went to the little church I had found by the Mirabell gardens. It was great to be able to understand the Easter service-- I had been slightly worried that I wouldn't be able to find a service in English or French. The pastor had moved to Salzburg from Arkansas and joined up with a church already there. The service was even Lutheran, so it was that much more familiar to me!

When I got back from church, we headed to the train station to catch our train for Vienna. At the little convenience store at the station we found some colored hard boiled eggs, and bought them for a little taste of Easter at home =). Easter ended in Vienna with a wonderful pancake dinner that we had been excited about making for the whole trip!

Monday April 12- We got up and headed for the old city of Vienna right away. We were sidetracked by a Starbucks (!), but made it downtown and saw lots of famous sites. The architecture was again very different, but I really enjoyed the huge old buildings there. They were all clean and white, and pretty clean-cut as well. Definately very well taken care of. We saw the parliament building and the city park (Stadt Park), memorials of Beethoven, Strauss, Mozart, and Sigmund Freud, the Opera huse, the Concert house, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and more. It was a lot of walking, but lot of fun too. We met up with Craig and Drew again in the afternoon and chatted a bit w/ them. I have to admit that that day we went to Starbucks, Subway, AND McDonalds. Oops. It was good to have some little tastes of home though =). That night was probably my favorite part of the whole trip... we went to a FRENCH BALLET in the VIENNA OPERA HOUSE. It was called "La Fille Mal Guardée". It was a fun story, and the dancing was incredible! I felt like royalty just being in that building. It was just Anne-Tiphaine and I that went, but I felt like I should have been in a fancy dress with a big skirt on the arm of Prince Charming just walking up the stairs to our seats. The building itself was absolutely amazing... red carpet, white stone walls, long staircases, and a gorgeous inside as well... then they put ballet dancers on the stage in the midst of all I was already in awe of, and it was incredible. I thought the Sound of Music sites in Salzburg were going to be hard to beat, but the ballet did it!

I'll have to save Prague and Berlin for another day, as I've been on this computer for way more than my share of time. The time after break can be summed up a little more quickly though... the school part is going well. There has been more work since break, but it's still not difficult to stay on top of. A couple of weekends ago I went with my host family to their vacation home in Vendée (the region just south of Nantes). We were there for two full days, and pretty much just relaxed the whole time. It was wonderful! They own quite a bit of land around the house, and the home is very old, w/ a stone staircase and a very airy feel. I was amazed though that this house as well had enough bedrooms for each of their kids! They also have a pool there, but it was too cold to open that up. We got lots of sun sitting outside reading though, or just staring at the beautiful countryside all around us =). I'm going there with them again the last few days that I'm in France, since I get done with finals two days before my flight out and wasn't able to change my flight. This weekend I actually got to the point that I thought the weekend was too long! I never would have imagined EVER having those thoughts, but the weather was just not great all weekend, and I'm getting to the point where I wouldn't mind having my classes a little more condensed and adding a little bit of stress if it would mean that I could leave earlier! I'm still loving it here, but I do get annoyed w/ little cultural things sometimes (mostly just that the guys here are obnoxious... all kinds of strangers just think they can come up and talk to you, and no one here respects personal bubble space! My personal bubble isn't usually that big, but with people who don't even know you you'd think they could stand back a bit to talk). Saturday I was planning on going to the beach (it takes about an hour by train), but the weather was gross. So I went for a nice long run and wrote a paper that's not due until Wednesday, as I couldn't find anything else to do. I often wish there was somewhere I could go w/ other IES students to just hang out, but there isn't really, as most of the host families aren't too receptive of American guests. Sunday I went to church, and then went canoing w/ a group from IES, but it decided to storm then too. Coincidentally, the first time I saw lightning in France, I was in a canoe on l'Erdre (a channel that runs through town into the Loire). Brian and I got kebabs afterwards, and then I returned home for more time of trying to figure out to do with myself =). Oh well though, now it's Monday, and I once again have classes to keep me occupied. Wednesday at 5 pm your time (midnight mine) is when the YouthWorks placements are coming out, so I'll have to post again on Thursday when I know where I'm going to be this summer... I'm getting antsy to find out! I guess that summary wasn't as short as what I was going for, but there it is =). Take care everyone, I love you all and can't wait to see you in 19 days, for those of you I get to see before leaving for the summer!
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 6:55 AM

 
Wow I thought Winter Break was hard to describe in a blogspot, Spring Break should be about twice that, as it's twice as long! I will do my best though to be detailed, for those who are interested =). If you're not, I won't be offended if you don't read the whole book (all of which I will not be able to write tonight). To summarize, we are now on city number 5 out of 6, which happens to be Prague, in the Czech Republic. I am up at 3 am my time to register for classes, and wait for Jen to register as well. I'm getting ahead of myself though, I suppose I should "start at the very beginning, a very good place to start" (yes, I have seen the Sound of Music 3 times in the past week, on consecutive nights nonetheless, and no, I am not sick of it yet!)

So, we arrived in Nice Friday night after a long train ride. It was made a bit shorter though by a German girl named Nina with whom I spoke for most fo the ride! She spoke fluent French, and pretty good English as well, but we spoke in French for a good 3 hours! She even stuck with us through the Paris metro to change train stations, despite a slight delay involving Jen's ring being temporarily in the bottom of a dirty-Paris-train station-trash can. She was a lot of fun to talk to. It was surprising to me to meet a European who was so open on the first encounter. That is very unusual for a French person, so perhaps that is a difference between the French and Germans. Or perhaps that has just happened to be my experience the few times that I have met other German students studying in Nantes. We talked about the Sound of Music, stereotypes, being far from home for long periods of time, and what we thought of studying in France.

We arrived in Nice to a hostel worker who was so impressed and astonished to meet Americans who spoke French that he offered us free wine! Saturday we spent most of the day walking around Nice, which is a truly beautiful city. The rocky beaches and bright colors against the blue sky were stunning. Besides the added Mediterranean coast and brighter colored buildings, there were many other differences we noticed in Southern France. The people seemed a bit more easy-going, not always so hurried, and the accent was even noticable to me, the foreigner!

Sunday we spent more time walking around and saw the Passion of Christ, quite a powerful Palm Sunday experience. I was surprised by the graphics, but encouraged that it seems to stick pretty close to the gospels, and is getting more people talking about Jesus. Monday we went to Monoco (only a 20 minute train ride from Nice) with a guy from Wisconsin we met at the hostel. We saw Monte Carlo Casino there and the gardens surrounding, not to mention quite a few pretty incredible cars parked outside. We walked along quite a bit of coast, and spent the afternoon on the beach. After Monoco we grabbed some grocers, made dinner, and took the 8 pm night train out of Nice to Venice! I was a little worried about my first night-train experience, but we managed to get a compartment to ourselves, so even though we didn't have couchette tickets, we actually did have room to stretch out and sleep for the night without being disturbed.

We were a bit surprised by our accomodations in Venice. We stayed in what they call a "house-tent" which is really just an incredibly small mobile building that really might as well have been a real tent, but it was fun nonetheless. We only had one full day in Venice anyway, so we tried to spend as much time in town as possible. Venice really was as charming as I have always pictured it to be. I was amazed by the narrowness of the walkways, which is exaggerated by the lack of roads, as the canals serve as their mode of transportation on the island. Venice has a great Italian homey feel, despite the tourists.

I'll have to save the rest for later, but there's the first two cities worth of news! Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm safe and enjoying break. Hope all is well back home, I'd love to hear from all of you!
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 6:12 PM

 

- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 5:39 PM