Hi, it's been a while!

Wow. So I’m pretty sure that it has been a month or so since I have written. I hope that this is the kick-start I need to continue on a weekly pattern again. Anyway, this is what I started writing weeks ago, and I will just update it to current times!

I feel silly that I haven’t written in two weeks! It seriously feels that only one week went by and that I didn’t just miss my duties of a weekly writing. Last Monday I spent the night writing my first two assignments for my art history classes (so I was writing a bunch, but just not in English…) Boy, there is a lot to catch up on! I just don’t know where to start. The last two weeks have felt like a giant blur- in a nutshell it has been filled with planning out trips (spent four hours in my favorite tea salon trying to plan out train and plane tickets, then going to the actual train station to exchange old tickets and buy new ones- I wish that I had a travel agent genie that would just appear when needed!) doing homework (yes, mom I actually do go to class and do homework!), and just running around getting things done. I finally ordered my new phone- the sim card arrived and my actual new phone is theoretically coming tomorrow! I’m so excited! With my new plan I can call the states anytime and I don’t have to continuously be buying credit ALL THE TIME. I’m excited to be able to call my parents more frequently and not have to feel weird about using my homestay family’s phone.

I think that most students who are abroad (I know my friends here do it all the time) use Skype to call their families back home- but I don’t quite have that luxury because it is not supported by our satellite internet that is our only option at home. So therefore I am, once again, either behind in the technology or unable to use the technology that is present for use today (example: did not get texting until college, didn’t get picture texts ‘til a few months ago…).  It just amazes me though that we have all this technology at our disposal. The other day I was thinking about how I now have my new phone that allows me to call anywhere in the world, yet when my mom studied abroad she could only call home one every month or so from a payphone. And it had to be quick phone call. I can’t even imagine how we will communicate with our children when they go abroad for college!

Okay… Now to present times!

Where to start? First of all, my new phone is all set up and I loooove being able to call home/cell phones anytime and anywhere. It’s just great and makes me feel a little bit more connected to my family.  I have truthfully had a bit of a struggle being away from home for so long- it has now been 11 weeks. I’m proud of myself for going abroad, but I am such a homebody and a family person that it has been hard to have so much distance between me and my loved ones (including my amigos!!!). I was so happy to see Syd over my Toussaint break! (she even got to use my new phone to call home! Yay!)

I just got back from my Toussaint trip. I spent five days in Paris then took the chunnel to spend three days in London and then I spent two days (shortened from four…) in the countryside of Luxembourg. I love, love, love Paris. Charley, (who was my travel partner during this trip!) said the other day that when I used to say that I love Paris he thought it was because of all the cliché aspects, but that after seeing me interact with the city, he understood that I loved Paris as a city- not just the glorified idea of Paris. I loved spending time running around the streets of Paris, visiting my old neighborhood Le Marais, going to museums and exploring places that I hadn’t been before! (Charley stayed with his friend Julian, who took us for lunch one day to a little village inside of Paris- it was great!) and of course, I GOT TO SEE SYD! I went to church on Sunday with Sydney and spent the afternoon and evening with her walking around beautiful Paris in the nighttime.

I had such a great time in Paris and I got to visit with my de Limur family, see Syd and stay in Karin’s apartment. I was so sad to have to say goodbye and hop on the train to London. But I loved London so much more than I expected I would, that now I am a bit torn between Paris and London. But I still love Paris a bit more I think… they just speak English in London…. I had a lovely, lovely time in London though, I stayed with Flynn and Diana (LOVE THEM!) and visited a bunch with my friend Emma from UCLA. It was a great trip and again when I came time to leave, I was so sad! It was lovely getting to know London as a city beyond the tourist sights (though we did spend time visiting them!) I just felt like there was so much more we could have seen and done and that three days was very, very short. I am planning to come back to London though soon! Luxembourg was next… it was interesting to say the least. We arrived at the airport in the late afternoon to discover that the buses that would take us to the village where our hostel was weren’t running that day due to a holiday…. We had a bit of a panic as we were told that to take a taxi out to the village it would cost more than 70 euros! We decided to take a shuttle into the actual city of Luxembourg and after much debate (we were thinking of just getting a hotel in the city, which would have been around the same price as our hostel and the taxi ride) we decided to take a train into the closest city to Hollenfels. Once we were in Merch we took a short taxis ride into the 400-person village. He told us some history about Luxembourg, which is always a treat! The hostel was cute, but a bit isolated and the village, well, was tiny with only one restaurant…. We laughed each time we went because there was obviously a communication issue with the waitress each night (we tried to speak French, but she we think spoke German or “Luxembourgish”….) but we laughed so hard when on our last night we overheard her saying to some English folk “Oh I speak English….” WHAT? We have had quite a few of those situations… haha. Luxembourg was chilly and rainy and we hiked the first day we were there. Even though it was beyond freezing in Paris and London, Luxembourg seems colder and damper to me. The hiking made me homesick because I felt like I was back home and would eventually stumble upon my house and have hot chocolate by the fire with my family.

The whole trip was amazing- I just love Paris and London- but it all made me a bit homesick to not have my family there with me. It was the first time I have had to plan and implement an entire trip by myself (of course I had Charley, but it wasn’t like having a parent there to help when need-be and seeing family friends made me homesick too because I would remember all the times we would all spend together). 

Well, I am back in Lyon and though I like the city, I don’t feel that innate feeling of being at home here… maybe it will come? I don’t know. At this moment I am feeling like going home to California and part of me wishes I was just a semester student here, but I am so grateful for being here and the amount of amazing adventures that are on the horizon (I’m going to Madrid this weekend to see Anjali and our “Moroccan cousin” Abdel!) and I know that I will learn so much about myself by staying here the full academic year, I just have to overcome these feelings of separation. Don’t get me wrong, I love being here, there are just little ruts that I have to maneuver around…Originally, I thought I would stay for 12 months, but I might go home at the beginning of the summer, haven’t decided yet and I have plenty of time to figure it out!

Oh boy, this is a long post! And it only scratched the surface!

Chloe and Syd, I miss you two a lot and I can’t wait ‘til we are all back together again!

xoxox

Don't forget to Remember!!!

What. A. Phenomenal. Day.

But I'll get to that in a bit.

I'm having one of those days where I really don't want to forget what it feels like for things to go well.

This shouldn't insinuate, by any means, that things aren't going well but today was an example of things that went SO well!

A lot of what I've been working on lately has been lots of preparation for a single, short event. Looking back, it's hard to believe how much effort, planning and stress went into planning something that would last an hour. There have been meetings, detailed email correspondences, practices, rehearsals, safety waivers, arts and crafts, (but no tears), loss of sleep and definitely sweat that have gone into an hour and a half long event today.

And I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

There are few things that I find as satisfying as things going well, and few things give me that over-the-top happy feeling in my stomach when I can see other people enjoying something about as much as I am. Finding others who get excited and enthusiastic about all the goofy things that I do really keeps me motivated to keep foraging ahead and doing bigger and better things.

So this was our Quidditch team and Stanford after our Match.

I am soooo grateful for the whole team, how enthusiastic the staff and faculty of my school was, to all the Parents, families and students that hung out cheered on our team and for Stanford's team for being gracious, patient and FUN!

We played a Quidditch match.

And then it was done!! And we gathered up our brooms, quaffles, bludgers and hoops, shared a meal and sent them on their way. 

And it all happened before 1 PM.

I'm totally on cloud nine (and very VERY sleepy) but, as I spoke with Sydney about the other day (on Facebook chat) I'm so excited to be at the point I am in my life! I'm learning so much, having so much fun and just incredibly happy to be here!!!

Miss you girls so much, but I really do hope you're having incredibly adventures!!!

Sydney || How to Properly Eat a French Pastry

This week, we were each challenged by our professor to take buses around the city instead of just the metro. 

I would like to say that I love this challenge.

It makes me happy inside.

The metro is fun, but it gets old. Sometimes it is hot, and smelly, and squishy, and not all that pleasant. But only sometimes.

The bus is great because you can sit and look o u t s i d e. My professor and I were talking and he was saying, "Anyone can know the metro. That's not much of an accomplishment. But to know the city...now that's what we should all aim for."

So I took him up on it. 

Today I am spending the day writing papers. Exciting, no? For my art history class. (It's actually very exciting. Yesterday I spent about an hour in the Louvre, looking at the pieces I am using in my paper IN REAL LIFE. Who does that?!). So...I wasn't being sarcastic about the paper being exciting.

Anyway. I'm writing this paper. And I decided that I didn't want to just sit in my house to write it. So I got up, skyped with my daddy for about an hour, and then I packed up my things and got on a bus to go to Dr H's apartment. His wife and I are both doing work together. 

But when I went to get on the bus...turns out I had missed it by 2 minutes. 

And I said, "Zut," a French phrase which here means, "Darn." 

So what was I supposed to do while I waited 10 minutes for the next bus?

Find a good pastry shop. Duh.

So I found one. And I was quite pleased.

Enjoy the attached photo of me, eating my pastry properly :)

This week has been fantastic!!

Last Friday, I volunteered at the American Church of Paris where a few friends and I were able to serve lunch to the homeless. It was such a neat experience. A lot of times, I am wary of the homeless here. There are the people who beg for money, check their watches, and take a coffee break at McDonald's (which is much more high class here than in the states). Then there are the people who are genuinely hungry. Who genuinely are in need of help. They pull at my heart strings. Like the little old man who sits in the metro station and tries to sell worn out maps of Paris. And he always has a bow-tie on, but you can just tell that he needs help. So when I was given the opportunity to serve this lunch, I jumped on it. It was such an amazing opportunity to work with good people and give back to people who really truly need it. The lunch was a three course meal. None of that lunch-line-slop, this food was prepared by chefs who went to culinary school. With a cheese course and a salad and dessert and coffee. It was really wonderful. And so many people thanked us. There was one man, who when my friend Sage tried to clear his paper napkin, said, "Oh, I'd like to keep that. I need to shine my shoes later." It just got to us. I'm definitely going back. 

On Saturday night, it was La Nuit Blanche, which is the annual all-night art festival! It was super cool. People were out all night long, and there were art exhibits at most of the major museums and monuments around Paris. I LOVED it. We didn't see many of the art exhibits (bad planning on our part, we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into), but I loved seeing Paris alive at night. I'll be posting more about that on my other blog, if you'd like to read about it it more detail!

The rest of the week has been fairly low-key...just a lot of prep for mid-terms! Whoo! Sometimes I forget that I'm here for school. Oops. But it's okay, the classes are designed to let me do that every once in a while :)

Love you all, hope you're doing well! Chloe, give my love to the valley. I miss the fall colors. Every single day. Sasha, will you go to a mass at la Basilisque Notre Dame La Fourviere? I miss that place, too.

xoxo,

Syd

Sydney || I'm back!

Hello family and friends!

So...I forgot to blog last week. I'll admit. I just completely forgot. Last Thursday, my study abroad group took a 3 day trip to Normandy and we had a really early start. I wanted to make sure I got in bed on time (and did that happen? no...) and I just completely forgot. I'm so sorry!

But I'm here to make up for it :)

If you want to read about my Normandy trip, go to this page :

http://sydneyvoitlemonde.blogspot.fr/2012/10/normandie-normandy.html

This is the blog I have been using as a class project. We're required to journal about significant experiences, group travel, and the walks we take for our Paris Walks class. It's all pretty detailed, so I understand if you don't want to read all the details. Ha. But it is there, nonetheless!

Now, on to other exciting things.

This week for the BYU students in Paris is FRENCH CHALLENGE WEEK. This means that (with very few exceptions - blogging being one of them) we are only allowed to speak in French. Oh la la la la la la, it is hard. But - and here's the cool part - I can tell that I am actually improving. You see, starting Sunday morning, I really haven't spoken that much English. Only to a few people back home, on my blog, and sometimes around the city if someone starts a conversation in English. Other than that, it's been in French! I carry my French-English dictionary around with me like it is my Bible. That thing has saved my life so many times. But I have found that despite how frustrated and confused I have gotten, I am actually better able to speak. I have more confidence and I am able to tell people in audible tones what I want to say. Hahaha. Oh, and a big plus, each day we complete the challenge, we get a macaron! Now THAT is incentive.

On Tuesday a group of my friends and I went on one of our walks around Montmartre. We got to wander around the neighborhood, stop into one of the best chocolate shops in Paris, and we ended it with a long tour of le Jardin du Luxembourg. I love that garden. The last time I was there, it was spring. Everything was green. Now it's fall. While I loved the garden in the spring, I think I might love it more in fall. There are still flowers everywhere, but all the trees are changing color. Seriously, they're all orange and yellow. It was gorgeous.

Today we went to Saint Denis, the oldest Gothic church in France. This cathedral really started the Gothic movement in all of Europe, actually. The neighborhood outside the cathedral is a little sketchy...and I wasn't expecting to love the chapel as much as I did. When I got inside, I fell in love. Les vitraux (stained glass windows) were amazing. I loved the crypte, too. I'm pretty sure that was my favorite part. As creepy as it sounds, it was way cool to see Marie Antoinette's grave, Louis XVIII's heart, and the slightly gruesome carvings on some of the stones. And we had audio guides of the whole thing (for those of you who don't know...I LOVE audio guides with my whole heart).

I may or may not have taken a 2 hour nap today, as well.

I guess I needed it. Just as much as I need to blog! (It's funny saying "I HAVE to blog...but it's true! It's for school! Ha!)

Tomorrow my friends Annie, Sage, and Alicia, and I are going to volunteer at the American Cathedral of Paris. We are going to be serving lunch to the homeless and we're all super excited about it. It's going to be such a great experience.

I love you all, I hope you're doing well! Paris is treating me very well, I think France suits me. It makes me so happy. :)

Plein de bisous,

Syd

Alicia and me at Giverny

Sage, Annie, Alicia, and me at Gold Beach

American Cemetery at Normandy

Annie, Nate, Carine, and me at the beach! It was just as cold as the beaches at home. Haha.

macarons!

Sage, Alicia, Annie, Nate, Noah, and me.

The cutest photo ever - Alicia, Annie, Sage, and me in le Jardin du Luxembourg!

Home says hi!

I'm happy to report that: 

home is doing just fine :)

But back to the beginning!

This week was exciting! We had our first round of interviews (which was SO exciting and fun for me). They're group interviews that allow us to get to know everyone a bit better and laugh a fair amount.

I AM ALSO SO PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE PACIFIC QUIDDITCH TEAM IS PLAYING STANFORD THIS SATURDAY.

I'm so excited I could die. It will be spectacular.

Classes are going very well also! Copious amounts of group projects, creating websites and discussions but it's so much fun and I'm getting really excited about figuring out ways to apply what I'm doing to Grown Up Life.

I went home this weekend and the valley is looking beautiful. The vines are about to start to turn colors, but the trees are all green and yellow and it smells like the woods and misses you very much!! (So does Jean - I stopped  by to say hi and she sends her love)

Hopefully I'll be able to dump a whole bunch of quidditch pictures this time next week.

Happy week to you all!!

la fille qui parle avec ses mains

This week has been very different from the others that I have spent here in Lyon. I really feel like I am getting settled here and I'm getting into a routine of all things normal (well, life here is the least bit normal, but normal is relative- so my normal at the moment is just saying 'yes' to everything and seeing what happens...) And I just got off the phone with my mom after a much needed catch up session! Feeling happy.

Here is how my week went:

Tuesday:
My first SLM (suivi langue et methologique) class.... the teacher was an hour and a half late (out of a FOUR HOUR CLASS, yes, four hours.... today I had the full four hours and it was tedious...) and he was very strange and used hand gestures to 'talk' to us. Today he made me place my hands on the table while I spoke (I use my hands to talk. a lot.) and started calling me 'the girl who talks with her hands': la fille qui parle avec ses mains.... endearing? haven't quite figured that one out yet.
Then I had my geographie class- favorite class of the week!

Wednesday:
6 hours of back to back lectures: History of Photography, Art History and then Linguistics Française. A very sweet french student sent me lecture notes for both the photography and art class! yay for new French friends!

Thursday:
Day 1 of my four day weekend. *BOTH FISTS IN THE AIR, rocky style* Lounged around, slept a lot, listened to french radio in the kitchen and just enjoyed the day. I love my friends here and love being with them, but it was nice to have a day where I literally didn't have to interact with ANYONE. hit the reset button for sure.

Friday: 
Met up with Charley and Kristy to meet with Sophia for Pho at a really, really good Vietnamese restaurant. Sophia is our new Austrailian friend. We met her in Monoprix. True story. Last week Kristy, Charley and I were debating whether or not to try the pre-made sushi in Monoprix (in the end we didn't...) and Sophia chips in and tells us about a good sushi place down the block. She has been here since April and has scoped out a bunch of good restaurants and after discussing our search for good Asian food, we decide to meet up for Vietnamese. It was delicious and indeed a great find.

Sophia then took us to her favorite cafe- a cupcake and tea salon. IT WAS SO GOOD. amazing cupcakes. I mean amazing- moist and not too sweet. plus they serve one of my favorite tea brands: Kusmi tea. I have declared that salon our new hang out spot (already have plans to hang out there this Thursday!)
After lunch C, K and I met up with Monica and Phoebe to go thrifting at Bric-a-Brac. It's basically a huge salvation army type place with really good stuff. I found a great leather tote/school bag (for 5 euros!) and a few other fun things.... a red wallet and some little jars.
Friday night rolled around and we sort of forgot all our plans that we made for the week (later when we realized we were kicking ourselves for it!) but we ended up going to see Savages. Terrible movie (too much violence and not a strong story line), but it was kind of hilarious (bad writing! "they don't call it a high jinx for nothing..." or "CAN I JUST HAVE A SALAD FOR ONCE" *declared by hostage....* too funny) so we did enjoy ourselves in the end. Finished the night up with crepes in Vieux Lyon (Kristy got a rhum crepe, but the guy forgot/didn't burn the rhum off- we tried to later, but it was a lost cause....)

Saturday:
Our program organized a day trip to Beaujolais, located an hour north of Lyon. Beaujolais is in Burgundy and know for its wine. We had a lovely day in the country at a family owned winery where we had a wine tasting in the morning followed by a 2 and 1/2 hour lunch. The main porc dish had been slow cooked for 10 hours!!! Delicious French cooking! Plus later we got a tour of the farm and were given fresh bread out of their stone oven! The family was so nice and sweet- and so happy!
We all got to romp around and play in the vineyards- felt sort of like coming home for a short visit, but of course it was all new and very different. and it was so nice to spend time in the country! It was a beautiful, beautiful day. A few of us finished up the night with dinner and watching Hocus Pocus at a friends' (beautiful!!!) apartment. Overall, it was a great day- I wish I could just have a million and one of those days, where everything is just fun and wonderful.

Sunday/Monday/Tuesday: (I confess I am a day late for posting!)
Charley and I got together on Sunday to plan our Toussaint- our week and 1/2 trip in October. (I'll write more about that another time- next week?) But over the last few days I have bought tickets for Madrid, Luxembourg, Paris, Geneva.... and sorted out most of my traveling this semester. I'll be doing a lot of traveling- which makes me exhausted just thinking about it- but then I get really, really, excited and I rationalize that I am here to also learn about the world and see as much as I can.

On the flip side, school has really kicked in- I'm getting more and more worried for the amount of homework I have to do- in French! yikes, but I am mainly here to learn French so I know that the more I have to do the better I will be in the long run.

Also, yesterday I bought myself an orchid. It's sort of my symbol for feeling settled and at home, making my new room more my home. It's beautiful and I love it!

Anyway, that's about it. 'Till next week!
Cheers,
Sasha

Better late than never...

THIS WEEK IS OVER!!!

It was inevitable. I should have seen it coming. But it was still such a pleasant surprise when it actually happened.

This was one of THE BUSIEST, CRAZIEST weeks of my life.

I have:
simulated growth and business population land grow based on land area
written a paper on the ethics of Nokia falsely advertising things that didn't exist
accepted 29 applications for ambassadors!!! :)
attended a staff meeting
put on two recruitment sessions
put on another, different recruitment session
went to a (sort of) quidditch practice
went to ALL of my classes
made a pretty dang good dinner
saw a production of Grease put on by the Stockton community

I'm pretty pleased with myself, and have been working the most on keeping myself on track today. (I tend to do the everything thing, and it can be very dangerous).

Lots of thoughts lately have been on the future, and as scary and far away as it seems, I also can't wait to see what happens. I really like work, really like elements of what I'm doing in school, and am so excited to find something that allows me to combine the two ways of thinking and really make a lifestyle of it.

I also think of my beloved friends, off having adventures and wonder what they'll do as well!!!

I'm off to watch Zoolander - living it up on a Saturday night!