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