Wow it's hard to know where to start after this last week... my journal now contains about 34 more pages of writing, but I'll spare you that =). I spose I'll start from the beginning... Saturday (the 14th) we took the 6:45am train to Paris, and spent a full day walking around. We started at Montparnasse, walked to the Eiffel Tower, over to the Champs Elysées, walked up in the Arc de Triomphe, then walked past the Louvre and Musée D'Orsay (saw the pyramid of the Louvre but didn't go in... that'll come later this trip hopefully) to Notre Dame... we walked around inside there for a bit, and then met the others in our group for dinner (Jill and Laura spent the day at Musée D'Orsay while Anne-Tiphaine, Cal, and I did the self-guided walking tour thing). It was Cal's birthday, and the wonderful people at the Créperie we ate dinner at helped us celebrate w/ a candle in a crèpe =). Little different than a cake, but as they say here... ca marche (that works). We then took the metro to the shuttle, the shuttle to the airport, the airplane to Milan, and the train to Florence (after a cold 4 hours from 1 am to 5 am in the sketchy train station in Milan, sitting in the safest place... the floor of the waiting room of the police office =)).

After that long virtually sleepless experience, we continued to spend the rest of Sunday getting a good start on seeing Florence =). We went to mass at the Duomo, an amazing, huge cathedral in Florence only a block from our hotel. The outside is all done in colors... white, green, and rose, and is absolutely incredible. We then checked into the hotel, checked out some shops and the markets for a bit of a slower paced day since we were TIRED, and then met Cal and Laura (who had done their own thing) at the Piazza Michaelangelo... a beautiful place at the edge of the city where you can see back over the whole city, and some of the countryside around it. We ate a wonderful Italian dinner that night... I discovered gnocci, which I absolutely LOVED, and finished off the night sipping tea in a café before going to sleep fairly early!

Monday we got to the Duomo nice and early to avoid the lines to climb up in the tower. It was an incredible climb... SO many stairs, but about half way up there's a balcony that goes all the way around the inside of the dome so we could look at the ceiling of the dome more closely (all of which was painted with cherubs and horses and so many other things), and also down at the floor, which consists of dyed stones of white, rose, and green like the outside. We climbed the rest of the way up and felt like we were at the top of the world... all of Florence was way beneath us, and we could see clearly where we had been and wanted to go, plus the spectacular view of all the red rooftops! That day we also saw the Palazzo Strozzi, and the Santa Trinita- the oldest cathedral in Florence, done in Florentine Glothic in the 11th Century. From there we went to Ponte Vecchio, which is just covered in jewelry shops. Definately found myself a few beautiful wedding rings... hmm too bad I have no need for such a thing at this moment =). But if you are planning to propose to me anytime soon, I really wouldn't mind if you went to Florence and looked along Ponte Vecchio (Ponte means bridge by the way... yes, this BRIDGE is like it's own shopping district. It's pretty sweet.) We then went on a search for the Boboli Gardens but ended up walking up a hill looking for the entrance, but ending up in a beautiful Italian residential district, which was just as good... it was nice to get away from all the tourists, and watch cute Italian kids run around in the street! We met up for lunch afterwards... thanks to Jill's guidebook we found a cute and cheap little restaurant where we got a three course Italian meal. We then sampled our first gellato... a WONDERFUL ice cream-like substance that's very popular in Italy, and then took the bus to Fiesole... a small town about 3 miles away from Florence. Fiesole was probably my favorite thing we did in Florence... it was great to be out away from tourists in a small Italian town up on a hill... surrounded by beautiful Italian landscape with mountains in the background. We went up to the very top of the hill that the town is built on, and watched the sun set over Florence, while having a picnic dinner of bread and cheese with Italian wine.

Tuesday we hit up the Uffizi Museum... the biggest Museum in Florence, with several DaVinci works, and the biggest collection of religious art I've ever seen! (Not that I've seen a ton of museums, but it was a lot. More Madonna and Bambino paintings than I could even look at.) After the Uffizi I took a long walk around the city looking for some lunch, which I was being strangely selective about, then went back to the hotel for a nice long nap around 3:30. Yes, the middle of the day and I was in Italy, but the night in the train station and the walking and the start of a cold all caught up with me, so I took a long nap and took it easy for the rest of the night as well.

Wednesday we got up and got on the 6:45 train for Rome, which arrived around 9:30. But, for the sake of getting my homework done for tomorrow and not making the longest blogspot entry known to man, I'll leave Rome for another day...
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 6:52 AM

 
Whelp, classes are over for the week and next week is vacation time!!! I'm headed to Paris early tomorrow morning, spending the day there, and flying out to Milan tomorrow night! The next day we head to Florence, spend three days there seeing the Palace de Medici, Palace Strozzi, wonderful works of art by Leonardo da Vinci and Michaelangelo, and then to Rome for another three days! The itinerary is not complete, but I'll be sure to post all of my adventures when I get back Sunday the 22nd... not sure what the internet access is gonna look like until then, so it may be a week or so before I can make another post. I love you all back in the states and think about you often. Lots of love... on Valentines Day and always!
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 4:59 AM

 
Classes are now in full swing, although I just added one at the end of last week... France and the Atlantic beat out The European Union and France =). Classes are going well... my host mom seems to think I don't spend enough time in class... it really is kind of a nice schedule. My earliest class Monday is 10:15, Tuesday 10:30 (but way out at the university), Wednesday 1:00, Thursday 1:15, and Friday 10:30. Wed and Thurs though I also have classes until 7:30 at night. There's lots of open time in between to explore the city though... I usually leave my house by 10 am and don't return until 7:30 (later Tues Wed Thurs when I have sports classes at the University), so I've seen quite a bit of the town. The weather has been really nice here, especially last week, it got up to 70 a couple of days! Usual for this time of the year though is around 35-40... they think it's WAY cold when it gets below freezing! It's kinda funny.

This weekend IES had a trip to Normandy planned (free, so of course I went...). It was a great experience, and I got to see the ocean for the first time, but we saw a lot of sad things too... the Memorial Museum for American soldiers who died in France in Caen on Saturday, and the American Cemetary at Omaha beach (HUGE, w/ white crosses that line up every direction you look), and Point D'Hoc (a German camp on a beach close to Bayeaux... lots of underground shelters, and the ground is super bumpy w/ big holes caused by all the bombing there). I learned a lot about the history of WW2 in France though. It is always amazing to see the ocean, but it had a different kind of significance this time, as at each place we went there were maps of how ships were lined up and which countries owned the coast at which points during the war.

So all is well in France at the moment. It's interesting to continue noticing cultural differences, even those that don't really matter... such as the fact that a bathroom "stall" doesn't really exist here... each toilet that I've seen, even in McDonald's, has walls all the way to the floor and the ceiling, and a door like a door to a room. So if you're out of toilet paper you're out of luck, there's no passing under the stalls! I'm getting more used to avoiding eye contact w/ people on the street, although I still feel unfriendly doing it. It's definately true that it's safer that way though... you're much more likely to be approached by someone you don't want to be if you make eye contact with them. We stay in groups though, and everyone has been safe so far.

Last week I went to gymnastics, trampoline, hip hop dance, and ultimate frisbee at the University, all of which were very fun. The trampoline coach though I should start w/ pike jumps, straddle jumps, seat drips, and turns, but that's ok... I'll show him what I can do one of these days =). Gymnastics was just like open gym, which is exactly what I was hoping for! There's another ex-gymast at IES, so we had fun playing around on the equipment and seeing what we can still do. It inspired me to get in shape again, cause there's a lot of stuff my body still knows how to do, I just need the muscles back! Hip hop was just out of control fun, and it felt so good to play Ultimate again! One thing that makes me kind of sad though is that it's worth TWO points when a girl scores, and only one when a guy scores! Crazy, huh? Oh well, I suppose I'll ignore the sexism and just have fun. The guys are all really nice, and it's a great way to get to know French people!
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 6:12 AM

 
I just had another great weekend in Nantes, although I really missed the fam back home when my host family's extended family all came for my host brother's confirmation. To back up though, last week I saw Le Sourire de Mona Lisa (Mona Lisa Smile) in French and it was pretty hard to understand... watching their lips speak English made it very difficult to listen to the French. Friday night though I went to Frère des Ours (Brother Bear), and I understood the entire thing, and it was sooo good! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do. Kinda sketchy about people turning into animals, but hilarious w/ a great story line. It brings a whole new meaning to the game of "I spy..."!

Saturday it was rainy and cold here (cold for Nantes, that is... probably got almost down to freezing! =P) so I stayed inside most of the day, reading and such. Early in the evening family started arriving, so I met them, and went to Stanislas' confirmation. It was kind of scary for me just b/c it was a big French Catholic Church... it was very crowded, very big, and my family of course knew tons of people that I didn't know, and who wants to slow down their talking enough for me to understand them? That's kind of where the missing familiarity kicked in, but it was a good experience anyway. Everyone came over afterwards for dinner, and we had yummy little appetizers, then blended carrots and blended broccoli (in a paste... like baby food), with these fish and bread biscuit-looking concoctions (ok so they probably have a name, but I don't know it). Then the usual cheese with bread, a fancy ice cream thing shaped like a bundt cake for dessert, and on and on and on. I don't think people even started leaving until 11 pm or so! Mimi and Bauduain kept me company though, when I wasn't trying to talk to aunts and uncles and grandparents... they decided it was necessary to show me all of their family's pictures that have ever been taken! That was fun, but they take a lot of pictures, so they had a lot to explain =).

Sunday I went back to the same church as last Sunday, and met a very nice English girl named Susan just a little older than me that's doing her internship (appreticeship here) an hour or so away. It was just great to talk to a Christian close to my age though, and even someone who's in a similar position (but I don't have the really cool English accent). I was invited to eat lunch with the Pastor Andy and his wife Claire (they're also English) at their house about 20 minutes outside of lunch. We went to their house (Susan too, she usually stays at their house when she comes up), and a couple of other families from church came for lunch. Poor Claire though was under the impression that they were having a potluck, and had made just some stew and potatoes. Turns out she was given a plant! ...but no food. So... Susan and I helped raid their freezer and we pretty much just made what was in there =). It was a fun adventure though... 14 people, so quite a bit of food was needed. After lunch we went for a walk in the vineyards... doesn't that sound wonderful!? They're a place near their house where there are vineyards, and then a bunch of little lakes that are only there in the winter... they dry up in the summer. It was out in the country where the wind could blow and it was beautiful, but I think almost anywhere you go in France you'll still be able to see buildings. They were able to point out though which towns were where... we could see the steeples and tall buildings in the distance, which was neat, but it does make me appreciate openness a little more... maybe that "awful" drive through Nebraska w/ flat straight roads and few towns does have it's own kind of charm.

Sunday afternoon and into today I've been working on a 200 page book that I have 4 days to read... that's an awful lot for me, being that I read VERY slow in French. Hopefully I'll make it, but I better keep working...
- posted by Mikhal Rebekah @ 7:17 AM