Au Revoir!

So the end is near...and by near I mean tomorrow! I cannot believe that almost three months has already gone by since I arrived in France. Today was LDOC (last day of class for you non-college students) and tomorrow I leave for Munich, Germany. Then Monday night I'll travel from Munich to Rome by train to meet Chrissy's parents, then from Rome to Florence that same day. I've never been to Italy so I cannot wait to see it! However, I really do hate that I have to leave France. Luckily I know that I will be coming back. I don't know when, but I know that I have to. In French "au revoir" means goodbye but "revoir" means to see again, so when I say au revoir to my professors, French family, and new friends it doesn't actually mean goodbye forever. It means that I'll see them again! So that's what makes leaving not so sad (except it is still pretty stinking sad).

I realize that I haven't written a post in two weeks. Don't worry, I'll do a wonderful recap now.

Two weeks ago we visited the Musée d'Orsay and it was wonderful! I saw a ton of impressionist work that I loved and discovered some new impressionist artists that I didn't know before (that would be a lot considering I know Dégas and Money and that's about it). It was a great, sunny afternoon in Paris. The weekend after that the Furman group travelled to Strasbourg, the capital city of the Alsace region. Alsace used to belong to German so there was a ton of German influence in the food, the buildings, and the Christmas decorations. YES there were Christmas decorations and it was beautiful, even if it was a little early for me for Christmas. We visited the Museum of Fine Arts, the Alsatian Museum, la Petite France, and just walked around the city. It was such an interesting city because of German influence. We ate a lot of sauerkraut, sausage, and mystery meat and even tried warm wine which tasted like red wine and apple cider mixed together to make a magical drink. It was delicious! I even found some cute sparkly ornaments (one being a sparkly owl!) in a little Christmas store. Unfortunately the Christmas markets hadn't been set up yet because it was still a little too early for them. Fortunately the Christmas markets are up and running in Munich and there's a 90% chance of snow on Saturday so it will be wonderful!

A week ago from Wednesday we had a free afternoon to visit wherever we wanted. I decided to go to the Musée Rodin and the Musée Marmottan Monet and it was spectacular! The Rodin Museum had a special exhibition of Camille Claudel's work and it was beautiful. We even got a picture of the original "Single Ladies" (S/O to Beyonce)! After that we headed over to the Marmottan Monet museum where the whole basement is dedicated entirely to Claude Monet.  After that we made a trip to an all-American product store properly named "Thanksgiving". I got all of the necessary ingredients to make chocolate pie (for the second time), chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin pie! The chocolate pie was for the Family Party we had on Sunday, the chocolate chip cookies were for my French brother's 10th birthday, and the pumpkin pie was for Thanksgiving, of course!

Since Thanksgiving obviously doesn't exist in France and I can't be home to celebrate Thanksgiving my French family made me "thanksgiving dinner" last night to celebrate. My French mom made chicken with mushrooms and peppers because turkey is almost impossible to find unless it's closer to Christmas. Then for dessert we had the pumpkin pie I made. I'm not so sure if my family liked it because they had never tried pumpkin before (I don't know how anyone can live without having tried pumpkin),  but I know that I sure enjoyed it. It tasted like Thanksgiving on a fork. We had a great time and it really made me realize how much I am going to miss them when I leave to go home. Lucking tomorrow won't be the last time I see them because I'm coming back to Versailles for one night after Italy to say goodbye and have dinner with them. So leaving tomorrow isn't actually too sad! But it is sad that my semester is already over. I can't believe it has gone by so quickly!

It's been such an amazing experience and I cannot wait until I can come back to France to stay for an extended amount of time. I have seen and learned so much during the past three months, but there is still much for me to see and learn here! I'll post an update when I get back to America to let you know how all my travels to Germany and Italy went. I'm sure they're going to be great!

Au revoir!

Tapas, Paella, Sangria, and...Chocolate Pie??

Three of my favorite foods ever came together (kind of) in one weekend. It was wonderful. You might be wondering how and I am about to tell you!

I travelled to Barcelona, Spain this past weekend to meet up with some of the friends from Furman who are studying abroad in Berlin. I got there Friday night, had tapas, and went to bed early (too early for Barcelona), but I was exhausted and used to going to bed by like 10:30. Saturday was a blast! We went on a free walking tour of Barcelona, got lunch in La Boqueria which is a giant fresh market with fish, seafood, vegetables, fruits, candy, chocolate, and a lot of little restaurants, and then visited the Sagrada Familia, one of Gaudi's most beautiful structures. I was lucky enough to visit Barcelona in high school so I had already seen Sagrada Familia, but in at the time the inside was unfinished. Luckily they had finished the inside sometime after my high school visit. It was amazing getting to see the inside completely finished because before it was mainly scaffolding with a few stained glass windows peeking through, but now it's a massive Roman Catholic cathedral with plenty of space and light. It was a day full of Spanish culture and food.

La Boqueria

Earlier in the day we signed up for a cooking class where we learned how to make the famous Spanish dish paella. We accompanied the chef to La Boqueria where he bought fresh clams, mussels, calamari, prawns, salmon, vegetables, and saffron for our paella. We then went to the restaurant had amazing tapas that featured iberico ham, two types of chorizo, manchego cheese, tomatos, bread, potatoes braves (fried potatoes with a spicy cream sauce on top), and fire roasted green peppers. It was all so fresh and really delicious! I was in heaven. We also got unlimited sangria so you know we all took advantage of that. While snacking (technically devouring) on the tapas, I made four new friends who are awesome! There was a big group of us so the girls I sat with and I sat with people we didn't know. That was one of the best parts of the night: getting to know really interesting new people. Soon after we finished the tapas the chef started cooking the paella and the room immediately filled with the mouth watering smell of onions, garlic, and peppers. Once the chef finished the paella he had to let it sit for about 30 minutes for the rice to soak up all of the flavor and broth from the seafood and spices. During that time he taught us how to make sangria. I'm most definitely going to be taking that recipe back to Furman with me for next semester! Finally the paella was ready to eat and let me tell you, it was one of the best things I have ever eaten. I had had paella before, but nothing as fresh and flavorful as this. It is definitely going down in the books as my favorite meal ever, which is quite an accomplishment because 1) I am terrible at deciding my favorite color, movie, book, etc. and 2) I love almost all food. Overall, this weekend was an amazing one spent with wonderful friends and amazing food in a beautiful country!

You might be thinking to yourself, "How does chocolate pie have anything to do with this?" Just you wait. This weekend was a long weekend for us because we didn't have class on Monday, so last week my "French sister", Béryl, and I decided we would make my mom's chocolate pie on Monday! It was quite an adventure. I slept in that morning and found out that it was Saint Martin's day and since my "French family" has a son named Martin, we were going to have a big lunch for him. It's like a mini birthday celebration. I didn't have much time to make the pie, but luckily I only had to get a few things at the store and my little "French brother", Stan who is 9, accompanied me. It started off smoothly but then we realized that the dough we had was for flaky dough, not the normal pie crust we have at home. Also, they don't have cream of tartar here, which is kind of essential to have a really pretty, big meringue. But we decided to go ahead and do the best we could. There also wasn't a mixer like I'm used to at home so I tried using a food processor that worked well enough, but I unfortunately mixed the eggs whites too much the first time so they were just soupy. Then when I was putting more egg whites into the food processor, they fell through the little hole in the food processor and then proceeded to quickly slide off the counter and into the dishwasher...just my luck. I quickly grabbed a paper towel and cleaned it up, but I knew the meringue just wouldn't be the same. At the end the pie came out tasting fine even if the chocolate filling was kind of runny, the pie crust not completely cooked, and the meringue almost non-existent. But Béryl and I had a great time! Definitely a bonding moment.

Tomorrow we're heading to Paris to visit the Musée d'Orsay, which is one of my absolute favorite places in Paris. It used to be a train station so the architecture is beautiful. Also, the best collection of impressionist art in the world is at the Musée d"Orsay (impressionism's my fav). I'll be sure to take lots of photos. This weekend we're traveling as a group to Strasbourg and I have my fingers crossed that there will be Christmas markets. Although I do not support celebrating Christmas by listening to Christmas music or decorating before Thanksgiving, I would love to see what little things they have that I can buy because I can't go to a new place without buying something. I can't believe this will be our last weekend traveling together as a group! We have a little less then three weeks until we leave France to travel for 12 days around Europe on our own or with our families. It's unbelievable how quickly time has passed since I arrived at the beginning of September. I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun, because I know that I've had the time of my life.

"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end." -Ernest Hemingway

(I just finished The Paris Wife by Paula McLain last night. It's a fabulous book about Hemingway's first wife. If you have the chance, you should read it. It's very easy to read and I learned so much about Ernest and Hadley Hemingway.)

Also, I am unable to add anymore pictures to the post! I don't know why, but blogger won't let me right now. Sorry for the lack of pictures! :(

P.S. I have officially succeeded in asking and receiving sushi without seaweed in France. Therefore I know that I could live here forever.

12 students, 1 professor, 23 cities, 2 weeks

What a crazy two weeks it has been! Starting bright and early October 19th, we set off for our two week "Tour de France". During October the french have a two week vacation called "Toussaint." This means that most of the schools are closed and most of the working people don't have to work. It's a time for rest and relaxation, but I can assure that we got very little rest or relaxation. However, we did get to see 23 amazing cities in just 16 short days. It was a little overwhelming at first waking up at or before 7:00 every morning, but after the third or fourth day, I got used to it (kind of). We are incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity. The cities we visited were:

Orléans
Poitiers
La Rochelle
Bordeaux
Pau
Lourdes
Toulouse
Carcassonne
Durfort
Montpellier
Aigues Mortes
Nimes
Arles
Marseille
Aix en Provence
Pont du Gard
Avignon
Orange
Lyon
Vichy
Beaune
Dijon
Vézelay

         fair in Bordeaux

A few of my absolute favorites were La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon, and Vézelay. From wandering around looking at boats in La Rochelle to going on crazy fair rides in Bordeaux to going to the beach in Marseille to going to Catholic mass with a thousand boy scouts from all over Europe in Vézelay, there was never a dull moment on the trip. Even when I wanted nothing more than to sleep all day because I was so tired, I got up and went on the tours and loved most of it! Lyon was probably my favorite city overall. It's a huge town, but it's not all cramped together like Paris is. The Rhône and Saône rivers both run through Lyon and it's just beautiful. There's also a radio tower that looks exactly like the top of the Eiffel Tower. It looks like the top of the Eiffel Tower was blown off by super strong wind and brought to Lyon. We only spent two nights in Lyon, but I definitely could have stayed much longer.

sunset in Lyon

Now onto the food. I'm kind of a food snob, but I love trying new things. The one thing I tried for the first time on the trip that left a not-so-positive impression on me was stingray. I actually ate a piece of stingray. We were in Pau, which is not known for its stingray (I don't know if any area is known for their stingray). We started off the meal with an awesome onion quiche and I was really excited for the next course! Then the stingray came out and at first I just thought it was some kind of fish so I cut into it and realized it was most definitely not "some kind of fish." I finally realized I was eating stingray and had vivid flashbacks to seeing the back of a truck filled with dead stingray in Africa which then led to me not finishing the meal. Other than that, the food was AWESOME. In Bordeaux Chrissy found the best spaghetti ever. I still think about it all the time because it was so good. For some reason we decided it would be a great idea to go ride rides at a fair after eating a ton of pasta and each of us having dessert. That was not the best idea I've ever had. Fair rides in France are nothing like they are at home. The ride lasted no less than five minutes, which doesn't sound like a long time, but when you're being thrown through the air at an incredible speed after eating enough pasta for two or three people, you feel like you're going to die. At one point about 2.5 minutes into the ride it stopped, so I thought it was over. Little did I know it had just gotten started. We then got thrown backwards and it was no longer enjoyable. Somehow I still managed to have a great time even though I thought I was going to get sick.

I had to throw in a picture of Lauren and I in Marseille!

I have just a little bit of time this week to rest and then Friday afternoon I'm off to Barcelona to meet up with some friends who are studying abroad in Berlin and Spain! I got to visit Barcelona for a few days in high school and had a blast. I'm so excited to go back and hopefully get some paella and sangria! When I get back I'll have just three short weeks until it's time to start the travel at the end of the program. I'm lucky enough to get to travel with Chrissy (the spaghetti finder) and her family! Chrissy and I are first going to Munich for four days and then meeting her parents in Rome. We'll then travel around Italy until the 10th of December and then we'll leave for the U.S. the next day! I'm excited to go home but I know I'm going to miss everything about France so much.

sunset in Marseille

'Ello Guvnah

Welllll cheers! Once again it's been a crazy two weeks. Let me start with the weekend trip the Furman group took to the Loire Valley. We had a very interesting (and testing) bike tour of the Loire Valley for a whole weekend. We first stopped in Blois to pick up our bikes and quickly set off, sans guide, on our three day tour of multiple chateaus and the French countryside. We got lost countless times, but the scenery was so beautiful. We were able to see amazing vineyards that ordinarily we wouldn't have seen had we taken a bus to each chateau. We hit a bit of a speed bump Friday afternoon when Victoria's bike got a flat tire, which turned out to be much more difficult to repair than we thought. We had been stopped for about an hour when it started pouring rain, so we went to the nearest house we saw to see if they could help. The nicest French man did the best he could to help, but we ended up having to call a car from the hotel to pick up the bike and one person while the rest of us road the rest of the way on our bikes in the pouring rain. It might sound miserable but it was actually a really fun time. It seems like nothing can make France ugly (except for the crazy thieves in Paris), especially the rain. During our weekend in the Loire Valley we saw Chambord, Amboise, Beauregard, and Chaumont-sur-Loire. They were all beautiful chateaus and it was great getting to see Chambord for a second time.

Last weekend was out first free weekend to travel wherever we wanted. I travelled to London, with five other girls from Furman, and it was a blast. I had never been to London before, but I absolutely loved it and can't wait to go back hopefully soon. Friday night we saw Wicked and it was AMAZING. It was my third time seeing it and I guess third time's the charm because it was the best performance I've seen. The British accents definitely helped because they make everything sound way cooler than it is. Saturday was a busy day that started with visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum. We spent about an hour and a half there, but unfortunately I stayed in one exhibit the whole time. They had a special exhibit dedicated to London fashion from the 17th century to modern day. It was incredibly interesting and it was so easy to spend all of my time there that I wasn't able to see the other exhibits. After that we had lunch and then visited Kensington Palace (nothing compared to Versailles :)), walked past Buckingham, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and got beer in a little pub. We then set off to find a supposedly delicious fish and chips place, got very lost, and just went into the first restaurant we saw because we were all starving and exhausted. We spent Sunday morning in Richmond, right outside of London, and walked around and did some shopping (but not too much, father :)). Overall it was a great weekend, although not very restful, but we're young and can rally pretty well!

Yesterday we started our two week tour of France at 7 in the morning (yikes) and driving to Orléans, which is the town that Jean d'Arc from the English. It was great getting to see a town that's so different from Versailles. We ate lunch in Orléans and then drove to Poitiers to spend the night. This morning we woke up bright and early to tour Poitiers a little bit. Now we are in La Rochelle for the rest of today and tonight and tomorrow we head to Bordeaux. I'm so excited for Bordeaux because they have some of the best wine in France! If the rest of Toussaint continues like this, I'll be a happy camper because we're eating delicious food and seeing a lot of really historic and interesting places. Until next time!

Bringing the South to France, y'all

First of all, I never say y'all (it's always you all), but I deemed it appropriate for this post. Last night I decided to finally make cornbread for my French family! I figured even if they didn't enjoy it, I could eat all of it myself and feel kind of like I was home. Before leaving home for Versailles I bought a packaged cornbread mix from Completely Kentucky so I could easily bring the south to France. Unfortunately easy is definitely not always better; my mom's homemade (gluten-free) cornbread is soooo much better than the packaged kind (shout out to Pam!). However, my French family seemed to enjoy it considering they ate all of it! Unfortunately I ended up leaving the oven on (a thing I do even when I'm home in Kentucky) so my French dad was not too pleased with that. At least I tried! The next item on my list of delicious things to make is my mom's chocolate pie. You could say I'm pretty nervous about 1. ruining the pie and 2. burning the house down in the process, but fingers crossed everything runs smoothly.

apple cider from Normandy-DELISH

The past two weeks have been crazy! We've been super busy and time is seriously flying by. Within the past two weeks we have visited the château and gardens of Versailles, gone to the Louvre, visited many WWII monuments and special places in Normandy, visited Mont Saint Michel, we saw the Bayeux Tapestry, visited Claude Monet's house and gardens in Giverny, visited l'Hôtel des Invalides, and had classes and homework to fit in there as well. Plus, we have to do all of this while speaking French.

Honestly it can become quite frustrating and it's definitely tiring, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's still hard to me to believe that I'm in France, let alone that I have been here for a month. Since coming to France in high school, I couldn't wait to come back. The places we visit are amazing and they are places that many people won't have to opportunity to see. It's incredible how many sites we'll see in the course of three months.

This past weekend was full of beautiful sites. First thing Saturday morning we visited Pointe du Hoc-the area where the Germans prepared an "Atlantic Wall" of defenses against Allied invasion. The cliffs and beaches were beautiful. We visited Omaha Beach-one of the beaches of the landings of the Allied invasion-after Pointe du Hoc and before the American Cemetery of WWII soldiers. The cemetery was one of the most breathtaking places I've ever been. If anyone reading this ever comes to France, they must visit the American Cemetery. It was a pretty heavy morning, considering American soldiers had fought and lost their lives exactly where we had stood. Fortunately, Sunday we visited Claude Monet's house and gardens which made for a much lighter mood!

the view from Pointe du Hoc

Omaha Beach

American Cemetery

Monet's house and gardens come in a close second to the various WWII sites in Normandy in terms of beauty. The flowers were absolutely beautiful, and we even saw the bridge and water lilies that were the centerpieces for many of Monet's paintings. His house was actually pretty normal, but the kitchen was amazing. It was a blue and yellow theme, which sounds kind of overwhelming, but it was awesome. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside of his house, so you'll just have to trust me how cool his kitchen was.

THE BRIDGE

ooooh ahhhhh

I've had my fill of really embarrassing and awkward moments since I arrived a month ago, but after encountering a woman at l'Hôtel des Invalides, I feel a little more comfortable about my awkward moments. We were following our tour guide around Napoleon's tomb and a woman walks up to our guide and asks him where Napoleon is. The tour guide stops for a moment and in broken English tells her that it's the red tomb to her right. The woman then continues to ask how she can see Napoleon and the guide responds (again in broken English) that he is inside of the red rock. Then the woman asks where the stairs are to go see Napoleon and finally another student and I explain that Napoleon is inside of the tomb and there is no way to get inside with him. It was quite an amusing situation.

This weekend we're heading off to Loire for a grand tour on bikes! We go from hotel to hotel on our bikes all day. We get to have another wine tasting as well as a cookie/biscuit tasting (good thing we'll be forced to do physical activity all weekend). The countryside should be really beautiful and the weather looks like it's going to cooperate as well! Until next week, y'all.

"People discuss my art and pretend to understand as if it were necessary to understand, when it's necessary simply to love." -Claude Monet

flowers from Monet's garden

Just Call Me Heidi

Heather. It seems like an easy enough name in English. It rhymes with many things: weather, feather, leather. But unfortunately for me, it is incredibly difficult for the French to pronounce. One reason is because they don't pronounce H's at the beginning of words and the second reason is that they don't have words with the "th" sound in them. So far I've gotten Ezzer, Heda, Edder, Eezer, and finally Heidi. My French family finally decided within the past few days that they were just going to call me Heidi since it's 1) easier for them to pronounce and 2) it's a Polish name and they're apparently part Polish. So from now on in my house, my name is Heidi (but without pronouncing the H).

It seems like the time is flying by here, which is good because it means we're busy and that I'm very much enjoying the experience, but it is also unfortunate because I don't want this semester to be over. Of course I miss my family and my friends at Furman, but I'd be perfectly fine if they could all just move over here with me.

Within the past week we have been to Paris twice, Chartres once, had a wine tasting, and learned about French geography, theatre, and grammar. Last week on our free Friday afternoon a group of the students went into Paris to visit Cimitière Père-Lachaise where Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison, Édith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde are buried. It was a very beautiful and peaceful cemetery. After that we did a little shopping in the biggest and most crowded department store ever and took the train back to Versailles. Saturday was our day trip to Chartres, an exquisite cathedral with amazing stained glass windows. We had a tour in French of the cathedral, and although I had already seen it in high school, it was wonderful getting to see it again. After lunch we had another tour that was only focused on the stained glass, which was fortunately in English. It was fascinating hearing about the stories the windows tell, plus the tour guide was amazing. He had even been to Furman! Plus he had a British accent. Precious.

Sunday was the first sunny day we had in a while. It was in the mid 60s and really nice outside so I decided to go on a run that was off my normal path. I decided to run around the château and ended up getting super turned around and lost. My 30 minute run turned into an hour trek around Versailles trying to find the right street because every avenue and boulevard looks the same. I was exhausted and starving (but when am I not hungry?). Luckily we had a lunch planned and it was buffet style. Oh yes. We had salad, tomatoes and mozzarella, roast beef, sausage, ceviche, cheese, fish, pork, mystery meat, and plenty of desserts. Good thing I had to run for like an hour that morning. Anyway, the mystery meat turned out to be tête de veau...I had no idea what this was so I ate it. It ended up not being favorite and no one could really tell me what it was. So yesterday during our conversation group I asked Madame Chauchat what it was. It turns out it was the intestines/head of a baby calf. Yikes. Thankfully after that we had a wine tasting where we tasted nine different wines: four white, four red, and one that was aged since 1998 and was super sweet. I liked most of them and was able to learn a lot about wine. We had to spit out the wine between bottles or else we probably wouldn't have been able to walk afterward. Such a waste of good wine.

Our second week of classes started on Monday at 8:30am and it was rough, but knowing that I'm in France made waking up early a little better. This coming weekend we stay in Versailles again and tour the château and the gardens. We had the opportunity to this when I came with Mr. Johnson in high school and I'm really looking forward to seeing everything again (especially the gardens because they make me think of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire during their final task). 

"Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages."

-Louis Pasteur

Excuse My French but I'm in France

Well I have been in France now for a week and it has become significantly less frightening, although I still get super nervous speaking French to my family (even though I shouldn't because they're very helpful).

I can't believe all that we've done in one short week. Last Thursday we went to Paris for 4 nights and did more walking than I've done in my whole life combined and saw some incredible places and monuments, did some shopping (unfortunate for Joseph since he's the only guy on the trip), and ate some amazing food (who knew foie gras sauce could be so amazing??). However, I am very happy to be back in Versailles with my French family. I am not so happy about having to start classes, but our professors seem really interesting and are kind enough to speak slowly!

Today was a really busy and exciting day because after our civilization class we had lunch at the house of one of our professor's, Madame Chauchat. She is actually from America but married a French man and has lived here ever since (my dream...). We then went to la maison de parfums and got to smell a TON of French perfume, which  kind of gave me a headache but also made me want to buy some perfume called "La petite robe noire" or little black dress in English. Honestly, what girl doesn't want perfume called little black dress? After that we went to a restaurant called Monument Cafe and tried almost all of the desserts France is known for including les macarons, les choquettes, les petites madeleines, les beignets, and a lot of French candy. This was seriously any girl's perfect afternoon and I loved it.

Unfortunately and fortunately (but mostly fortunately) all of the food here is amazing and I eat all of it all of the time, which means I have to do some sort of physical activity. Today's physical activity including going for my first run in Versailles and it just happened to be next to a field of sheep and goats. I almost felt like I was back in Kentucky. Then I got home and my little French brother, Stan, gave me a cookie so that kind of canceled out my run, but at least I tried.

So far my time in France has been so amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better trip. I'm sure it will continue to get better!

"Voice mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le couer. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yuex."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince

Bonjour, Versailles!

Oh. Mon. Dieu. I arrived in Paris yesterday around 10:30 am French time after getting about 2 hours of restless sleep on the plane and I honestly still can't believe that I'm sitting in my French family's home. I feel like I should still be freaking out about packing, bringing too much stuff (which I did) and what my family is going to be like (they're AWESOME by the way). 

After arriving at the airport we traveled straight to Versailles to meet our families. Needless to say most of us were freaking out the entire bus ride, but for me at least, there was absolutely no reason to worry. My French mom, Brigitte, and one of her SEVEN children, Aponine, met me at the bus and quickly took me back to their house so we could eat a delicious lunch of lapin et champignons (rabbit and mushrooms) before Brigitte took her youngest son, Stanley, to school. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking to other members of the family and being led around Versailles by Margeurite (another one of Brigitte's daughters) and her friends. I pretty much just listened to them speak incredibly fast French most of the time with Margeurite taking short breaks to translate a few things for me. 

I can't really describe how amazing it feels to be here and I don't even know why I was worried at all about coming. Versailles is so beautiful, the food is amazing, and my host family is so incredibly nice and welcoming. I don't think I could have asked for a better family for me. I wish I could spend more time with them before we go into Paris for the orientation, but really I'm pretty excited about seeing Paris again! 

(P.S. Surprisingly, I have not taken any pictures yet so I'll definitely be getting on that so I can post some on here!)

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

I often think about freshman year orientation and how nervous I was about leaving Frankfort. Before moving to Furman I received an email with the schedule for orientation and the theme of it was "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" and I immediately felt so excited for college. At the time I knew Furman had an impressive study away program, but I had no idea that it would be able to take me to Africa. I'm finally home from 7 inspiring weeks in Tanzania. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to see and experience a different culture, meet wonderful people, and learn a little bit about myself as well.

After the three week May Experience came to a close, Grant, John Michael, Kylie, and I headed back to Zanzibar to start our research. We all spent a few days in Stone Town, Zanzibar before venturing out to our home stays in a village. Kylie and I spent our two weeks in a village by the name of Bweleo that is at the southern tip of a peninsula on the eastern side of Zanzibar. After spending those two weeks living in a village I can't begin to describe to you the effect it had on me. I realized how many simple things I take for granted at home. It was an incredible experience that, while being very difficult, was not one I would take back for anything. It was so important for me to see how other people live and how incredibly happy they are. In my last post I talked a lot about culture shock after visiting a Maasai village, but that was nothing compared to what I experienced while living in Bweleo.

My home stay mama was named Safia Hashim Makame. She is easily one of the most welcoming and warm-hearted people I have ever met. Although she spoke very little English and Kylie and I spoke even less Swahili, she made every effort to make us feel comfortable in her home. Safia has six children-four daughters and two sons-and then she took Kylie and me in without hesitation. Living in Bweleo with Safia and her children was a huge growing experience for me. I learned to always be appreciative for what you have. I also learned that I could probably live with WAY less stuff than what I have. It was unbelievable to see how creative Safia and her friends were. There were no stoves or ovens so they would make a little fire and cook all of their food overtop of it while sitting the pots and pans on rocks they have found. It worked perfectly. They made do without any ovens by baking their homemade break outside with the hot coals and somehow the bread came out perfect every time.

          This is a picture from our last day with Safia. Safia is the woman to my left in the green kanga.

                                       

During our down time Kylie and I would read books, watch Sofia cook, play around with henna with some other women from the village, teach some of the children card games, or just sit around with the family while they watched tv. Everyday at Sofia's was a chance for me to learn something new about another culture and also something new about myself. Before coming to the village I was quite nervous. At home I adapt to change pretty well, but this time the unknown really frightened me. Luckily, I had an awesome host family who taught me very much and hopefully I was able to teach them a few things as well.

Safia's youngest daughter, Ghania (pronounced Rania).

I have been home for almost a week now and honestly I'm so thrilled to be home. My first night back I slept like a rock (which probably had to do with the 43 hours of travelling before getting home) and anything I ate tasted like heaven (especially the club sandwich from Chili's in the Detroit airport). It's so nice being able to have consistently warm showers, air conditioning, and being able to eat any raw vegetable I want to, but I have to admit that part of me does already miss Tanzania. The people there were so entertaining and there was never a boring day. From people harassing me trying to persuade me to buy a souvenir to the babies crying right when they saw me because they had probably never seen an mzungu (Swahili word for white person; pronounced m-zoon-goo) before to getting lost in all of the tiny, identical alleyways, I never had a dull moment in Zanzibar.

So if you're reading this and you are either in high school, preparing to start your freshman year of college, or already in college, I strongly recommend that you take advantage of every opportunity in college you have to study abroad in another country or to study away in the United States. You never really have another opportunity to drop everything you're doing and go away to Africa, France, Washington, D.C. or anywhere else you might want to go once you graduate from college. There is so much more to the world than just Frankfort, KY, Greenville, SC or wherever your hometown might be and the more you travel the more you will come to appreciate where you started out. I know that travelling to Africa for seven weeks has really made me appreciate Frankfort so much more than before.

Safia on the left with her oldest daughter, mother, sister-in-law, and her sister-in-law's son.

Now only about 2 months separate me from my next study abroad adventure: Versailles, France!

À bientôt!

Culture Shock

The feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes. This definition that I quickly found on Google is the perfect description of my feelings when leaving the Maasai boma we visited right outside of Ngorongoro crater. The visit started off with a traditional welcome song that was performed by the men and women of the boma. The performance consisted of the men grunting and jumping while the women sang. I really enjoyed this part of the visit because to me it seemed very genuine and traditional. Once the welcoming part of the visit was finished we were taken into the boma and to the kindergarten school where the boys and girls were separated down the middle. It was hilarious to see how clean the little girls were compared to the little boys. Once we all were in the "school" the children sang songs and counted to 50 in English for us. After that we were taken by pairs into different houses by a Maasai man. He quickly explained to Nick and me how the houses were made and the few functions the houses had. We were then quickly taken outside and strongly encouraged to buy beaded jewelry made by the Maasai women. Upon leaving the Maasai boma I began feeling more and more confused about what I had just experienced. I was very appreciative that the Maasai were willing to open their homes to us and to show us a small part of their lives, but it all seemed like a rehearsed show rather than their actual lives. I felt as if we were invading their privacy. I could only imagine how I would feel if people were paying money to come into my home just to take pictures while I danced and showed them around. After I talked to some of the other students I realized that most of us seemed to be feeling pretty confused. Later that night all of the students, our two professors, and one of the drivers, Julius (who is a Maasai warrior), sat around a fire to talk about what we had taken away from the Maasai boma visit. I came into the talk feeling very shocked with how and where the Maasai live, but Dr. Beymer-Farris made an excellent point that there are most likely many aspects of American culture that would probably be very shocking to the Maasai people. Honestly while I was in the boma I had never stopped to even think about how the Maasai would react if they came to America to see how I live. They probably wouldn't be able to comprehend our large (in comparison to their huts) houses and trivial accessories that we think of necessities. Neither way of living is better than the other; it's simply how we each grew up. Visiting the boma was difficult not only because of how different it initially seemed from the culture I'm used to, but also because the Maasai people seemed more like entertainers putting on a show for tourists so that we would buy their jewelry instead of people who wanted to teach us about their rich culture and history. I went into the visit very curious about their everyday practices and struggles, but I left instead with three bracelets and more confusion. Dr. Suresh pointed out that because the Maasai are no longer allowed to live in the Serengeti and their expenses are increasing dramatically, they must find new ways to survive and tourism is a very big part of the Tanzanian economy. The particular Maasai boma we visited had to pay $400 every two weeks to get the water they needed for the whole community. Although the visit seemed more like a rehearsed show than an educational opportunity, I now have a better understanding of why they must do that. In order to survive the Maasai must adapt to a changing environment. Just like some of us felt like intruders, some of the Maasai might not enjoy having foreigners constantly coming into their homes. This was the first time I have truly understood what culture shock feels like. From it I've learned that when going into any new culture it is imperative to keep an open mind and to also think critically about what is happening. While I learned many things during this May Experience, I know that going to the Maasai boma was the greatest learning experience I had. I know that the visit and what I took away from it will stay with me for a very long time.

A Learning Experience

Prior to coming to Africa for this trip I had no idea what to expect as far as the trips we would take, what we would learn, or the type of people we would have the opportunity to meet. I knew this trip was going to be incredibly educational but I had no idea the amount of information I would be presented with over the span of one week that seemed to fly by. 

We've been on multiple informational and also entertaining trips to a spice farm, Jozani National Park, a mangrove forest, a local village, snorkeling, and a number of other visits. Even during the time we haven't been on trips we have had lectures on the history of Tanzania and Zanzibar and on the coastal ecology of East Africa from Dr. Ian Bryceson and also a guest talk with Dr. Saidi Salhina on what it is like to be a doctor on Zanzibar. 

Dr. Saidi Salhina started off by telling us the three most common diseases within local villages, which are digestion problems (to put it kindly), malaria, and under-nutrition (different from malnutrition) mainly among children. The main reasons for these diseases are a lack of medical doctors on the island, the fact that the medical doctors are primarily concentrated in towns and not villages, and a shortage of medicines that are not the traditional medicines in villages. If someone falls ill in a village they will most likely try traditional medicine before consulting a doctor, which they usually do when the problem becomes worse. It's very unfortunate to think that the three common diseases in villages could be prevented if only there were more doctors closer to villages as well as more access to medicine in villages. It is also a big problem in Tanzania as well as on Zanzibar that many students who go to medical school and become doctors decide to move abroad to find better work and more pay. 

When asked why he decided to become a doctor Dr. Salhina laughed a bit and then paused to think about his response. His primary reason was because his father was a doctor so he grew up surrounded by medicine. He added onto that saying he really enjoyed helping the people in the villages since they are so underprivileged. I found this amazing because he could probably move abroad and find a job that would easily pay more than what he is making now traveling from village to village. 

I believe Dr. Salhina is the perfect example of the majority of people of Zanzibar-they really prize helping others and I have been lucky enough to have experienced that firsthand during the scavenger hunt. We met taxi drivers and vendors who took time out of their day to help us when they could have easily turned the other way or said no to helping us. Since we encountered so many people constantly trying to sell us gifts during the first couple of days, it was hard to see another side of them, but the scavenger hunt was definitely an eye opening experience. It taught me a lot about being more accepting of new experiences. 

Since I am a political science major it is easy for me to relate my time here observing the people of Zanzibar to participant observation. I had never heard a whole lot about Zanzibar before coming so I don't have any prior expectations to relate my observations to. Because of what I have learned through this participant observation I am so excited to have the opportunity to stay for an extra month doing research. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to meet more warm hearted and kind people in the village where I will be staying. What an amazing learning experience this has been thus far. 

Mr. Butterfly

So I'm a few days behind on my blog posts so I'll be posting a few in a row. This post is about our trip to the spice farm and meeting a very unique man named Mr. Butterfly. 

We headed out to the spice farm which was about 30 or 45 minutes away from our hotel in Stone Town. Almost right when we arrived it started pouring rain. Considering it's the rainy season here we were lucky it waited that long to rain! We had a guide who took us through the forest/jungle area and showed us vanilla, tangawizi (ginger), turmeric, cinnamon, pili pili hoho (hot peppers), curry leaves, karafu (cloves), local iodine trees, dragon fruit, lemongrass, cardamom, bananas, mlongi longi, peppercorns, anato, and many other plants and trees. We had a guide taking us around and another man carrying a knife who would run out to the plant or tree and take either some of the leaves or fruit from the tree for us to smell or taste. It was incredible that the guide knew what every plant was and the uses for each plant and what spices could be made from it. I found the local iodine tree the most fascinating because the sap could instantly make bleeding stop if you have a cut or scrape. Another favorite for me was the tangawizi which is actually ginger. I enjoyed this one so much because 1) it's made into one of my favorite drinks at home, Ale 8 One, and 2) it's made into one of my favorite drinks here, Stoney Tangawizi!

After the spice tour we were introduced to an entertaining character named Mr. Butterfly. He ended up climbing up a 40 foot talk coconut tree to get us fresh coconuts for us to try. He put a loop of rope made out of the coconut husks around his feet and just started flying up the tree. He sang and yelled down at us the whole time he was climbing. Then on the way down he started adding some dance moves in with the singing and it was interesting to say the least. When he made it back to the ground he cut the coconuts for us so we could try the water and the meat. Mr. Butterfly asked us if anyone wanted to try to climb a coconut tree and one of the guys in the group, John Michael, volunteered. Unfortunately he only made it about 3 feet off the ground. 

After meeting Mr. Butterfly we went back to an area where we could try all of the different types of fruit they grew at the spice farm. We tried little bananas, cucumber, dragon fruit, cacao fruit, oranges, grapefruit, star fruit, and pineapple. My favorite was the dragon fruit! I had never had it before, but it tasted a lot like a Sweetart and had a very strange texture. 

To finish off our time at the spice farm we drove about 10 minutes from the farm to a little village for a traditional spice lunch. We walked into one of the buildings and say down on the floor. Then rice, beans, and octopus in a brown sauce was put in front of us and it was all delicious. After lunch some of us went outside to play with the children who lived there and they were so adorable and friendly! They loved when we would take pictures and then show them the pictures on the camera. They ran after us yelling Swahili phrases as we walked back to our bus when we were leaving-so precious. Luckily I got a really adorable picture of one of the little boys giving Nick a high-five that I cannot wait to put on Facebook when I get home!

Here is a picture one of our professors took while I was showing the children a picture I had just taken of them. 

Tiny planes, Narriman, & Zanzibar pizza

Hujambo! Habari gani? (How are you)

After staying in Tanzania for a few days we took the smallest plane EVER to Zanzibar, an island right off the coast of Tanzania. I wish I had taken a picture on my phone of the size of the plane so I could show you how tiny it was. The plane ride was only about 20 minutes and it was awesome getting to see parts of Tanzania and Zanzibar from above. Once we landed in Zanzibar we went to lunch at a local restaurant called Passing Show that is supposed to have the best biriyani in Zanzibar. Biriyani is a delicious Indian dish that has some kind of meat or vegetables in a spiced sauce along with rice that has also been mixed with spices. It reminded me of Indian curry, but it wasn't quite like that. I also tried tamarind juice, which I had never had before. I had only ever heard of tamarind but never knew what it was. It looked and even kind of tested like cranberry juice, but it wasn't as tart. It was actually pretty good! 

A picture of the menu from Passing Show:

Once we were finished with lunch we checked into our hotel and headed off to listen to a guest lecture from Narriman, one of Dr. Beymer-Farris and Dr. Bryceson's good friends. They both said she is quite famous on the island and after hearing her speak, I can understand why. She talked to us about Zanzibar a bit and then told us about a project she has started that is focused on empowering women. Since Zanzibar is a predominantly Muslim society, the women don't have nearly as much freedom and independence as we do in America. Narriman realized this and wanted to help change that so she is working on a very successful project right now that encourages women to collect pearl oysters and use the shells and the pearls to make jewelry to sell. She said that before the project many of the women would barely speak, but after working in the community and becoming a little more independent, they love to talk. Some of the women were even selected a few years ago to go to America to help present the project and their work. The project is much more complicated than how I'm explaining it right now, but it really is an amazing opportunity for the women. Narriman might actually now be one of my favorite people! She was very inspirational and well-respected by the community and someone I really enjoyed listening to. 

Later that night I got to try Zanzibar pizza in an outdoor park where a lot of local vendors were set up and it was so good! It's not at all what pizza is like in America; there's no pizza crust, marinara sauce, or even cheese and they are tiny. It was more like a cross between a crêpe and frittata, if you can imagine that. I got a vegetable pizza that had chopped vegetables, one egg, and mayonnaise in it. It sounds a little weird, but I promise it was delicious! I also ordered a banana, Nutella, and chocolate pizza and it was even better than the vegetable one. You honestly cannot go wrong with Nutella. 

Like the last post there's still so much I want to say but I feel like this post is already quite long. I'm definitely loving my time in Africa so far and cannot wait for what the rest of the trip has in store. It should be very interesting and a great learning experience. 

Karibu tena!

Karibu Tanzania!

Hujambo everyone!! We safely arrived in Tanzania on Thursday night. It's been amazing so far! The jet lag was a little difficult the first night, but yesterday it didn't seem to affect me at all.

Yesterday was our first full day in Tanzania at White Sands Resort. We woke up and ate breakfast outside looking at the beautiful beach. Since the tide was out we were able to walk out pretty far. We saw sea anemones, crabs, and many other little creatures. Since the weather was cloudy and overcast we had planned on staying at White Sands and hearing a guest lecture from Professor Ian Bryceson. Luckily around noon the clouds cleared up and we were able to take Prof. Bryceson's friend's boat over to Mbudya Island. Prof. Bryceson told us how he met his friend when he was 17 years old and they are practically like brothers. It was great getting to meet his friend; he was very kind and friendly.

That afternoon we took the boat over to Mbudya Island and as we neared the island we could see men out in their boats catching us fish for lunch. I was so excited for the fresh fish!! Once we got to the island we listened to Prof. Bryceson talk about how different sand can be on different islands and also he gave us a brief history of Tanzania. It was so interesting! After his lecture it was time to eat our lunch because they insist on eating the fish right when it is finished cooking. It was the best fish I had ever had! I'm not sure what kind of fish mine was but some people got parrot fish. We didn't have utensils so we ate with our hands, which is normal here. It was a little difficult but I got used to it. They had this amazing tomato based chilli sauce that went with the fish; it was delicious too.

After lunch we went out and swam in the ocean. Some of the guys snorkeled but the water was a little foggy so there wasn't much to see. We swam for a bit and then walked over to the cliffs which were coral reefs before the island was pushed up above the sea water. We were able to see fossils from fish, coral, and seashells in the cliffs. My favorite thing on the island was the baobab tree. It was huge!! I have some pictures of it, but unfortunately I'll have to wait until I'm home to post those. After we finished up swimming and exploring the island we headed back to White Sands and relaxed for the rest of the day before dinner.

I feel like there is so much I want to say about this trip so far, but we're about to leave to head to the airport to catch our plane to Zanzibar. Hopefully I can post some more after we get settled in over there. Asante (thank you) for reading!

Below is a panoramic picture of the beach at the hotel we stayed at the first two nights in Tanzania.