My Life Be Like...Ooh Aah

I am SO blessed that God has sent me to amazing places like these! The Cinque Terre is utterly sublime and highly recommended by yours truly:

http://s884.photobucket.com/albums/ac43/kolormekatie/Cinque%20Terre/

Everybody's working for the weekned!

....the title of this post actually deserves some rephrasing. Everyone is not working for the weekend. Everyone is cheating, and enjoying the weekend, knowing they got 100% with zero effort...except me.

Latest episode with this school:
I busted out this massive, enormous project because the rest of my group members were totally MIA, and then I arrive in class to discover everyone passing around the answers that they took from the teacher's computer. I spent hours putting together an INSANE compilation of accounting spreadsheets and will receive an A or a B while everyone else spent 1 hour and will get 100%.

I am so sick of this. There is no academic integrity at this school, and it's driving me insane. I have to work SO HARD to get my grades, and everyone else just has to know someone who knows someone who has the answers. And in all honesty, I don't want to hear, "oh, but they won't make it in the long run, you'll be more prepared in the real world" or any of that business. That knowledge will not change the current circumstances I am in and will not change the fact that 85 to 90% of students here at SKEMA cheat their way to an A. If it's not possible for them to cheat, everyone in the class just fails. The teachers are terrible, no one curves the class, and there are plus minus grades here.

I never thought I'd say this....but I am excited to get back to UF and it's shortcomings. At least there they have office hours, tutoring zone, and a student body that doesn't cheat on EVERYTHING.

On another note, I got a B on my corporate finance midterm, which was a HUGE improvement from the first test I took in that class.

No need to be worried or try and comfort me on this issue. There's really nothing to be said that hasn't been said to me before, and I'll get over it. We're almost done with the semester anyways.

Time has gone by so quickly! It's so depressing!

As far as life outside this hell hole named SKEMA is concerned, Shae and her friend Katie are over this week for some Cote d'Azur chillage, which is sure to be a lot of fun. Also, Devon and I leave tomorrow for a weekend of super cheap and super amazing lazing around in the Cinque Terre! (google image it, it's awesome).

I love you all more than words and hope you're doing well! I can't wait to see you all when I return. At this rate, it'll be that time in a blink of an eye!
<3!!!!

So fire up that fiddle boy, and give me one last drink!

So it’s been FOREVER since I updated this thing, sorry about that. I’ve been so exhausted and updates have become a chore. Since Morocco I’ve been to Carnival in Nice which was AMAZING. Lots of floats, fireworks, setting the king on fire and dragging him across the Med, and a city-wide silly string/confetti fight. It was really fun, and I absolutely love festivals; I really wish we would have more of them in the states. Lauren also came over for a weekend and we took her to Eze, which was really fun, I love it there. We had a nice picnic on top of a cliff viewing the Med, then explored the medieval town and the parfumerie. The next trip we had was Ireland! And this is the one I feel deserves a blog out of the three, because it’s a place that I haven’t been and one that I enjoyed the most.

Devon and I left the night of the 16th and spent the night in Heathrow Airport in London to make our 7am flight out to Dublin on time for St. Patrick’s Day. London was exciting simply due to the fact that they speak ENGLISH there. OMG how we love being able to communicate with people lol Heathrow itself was kind of a meh experience. We initially arrived in London Gatwick and had to take a 22 pound bus (killer!) to Heathrow, and once we got there we soon discovered that there were hardly any places open for overnighters. Plus, all the chairs had metal arm rests separating them, so there weren’t any places to lie down. Devon and I got a few hours of sleep before our flight that morning, and needless to say, the entire plane was super excited to get to Dublin for Patty’s Day.

When we arrived in Dublin (a place I will now refer to as Publin), we got on the bus to go to our hotel. As I looked out the window at the massive crowd trying to also board the already packed bus I am on- I see Shae!!! So naturally, I start hitting the window and frantically waving to catch her attention. Her friends are the first to see me, and by the looks on their faces think I’m a total spaz lol, and then Shae sees me, but doesn’t recognize me, then she does, and we have this minute or so of “omg! You’re here! Wait….what do we do? We’re both not on the bus! I don’t have your number! What do we do?” miming through the bus window…..and then it drives away, both of us making sad faces at each other. We both appreciated the irony (my phone doesn’t work in Ireland and we had made no plans to meet at a specific place, so we were pretty much outta luck), but it was kinda a bummer we didn’t get to enjoy the parade together.

The parade. Yeah. That was a total let down. It started late, had nothing to do with St. Patty’s day, green things, or leprechauns, and was super crowded. I really didn’t enjoy it at all, and if Devon and I weren’t so close to the front, we probably would’ve left half with through. The night scene however, was AMAZING. Everyone is all dressed up, ready to party, and in an awesome mood. Devon and I did a pub crawl that night, but as we were soon to find out, St. Patrick’s Day drinking isn’t too much fun if you don’t have a big group of friends to do it with. It’s hard to party with two people lol Plus, everyone ALWAYS thinks we’re dating, so people tend to avoid us, and since everyone else came with big groups of friends it was hard to jump into social circles. Oh well. We still had a fun time checking out the pubs and talking with a few people. Drinks were WAY pricey though, so we bailed on that before everyone went to the night club. I’d say the best part of that day was eating dinner at Eddie Rockets lol Ireland soon became a place to satisfy all of our American food cravings, and it was the best thing ever! That’s right. Chicken wings, milkshakes, cheese fries, bagels, you name it, they had it. It. Was. Awesome. :)

So far Devon and I aren’t really feelin’ Publin. You have two main stretches- O’Connell street and Temple Bar, but other than that, there’s not much to do without going broke or drinking. We spent the next day in Publin, cause we had to wait for Lauren to arrive from Germany (and she couldn’t get in until Friday morning), so naturally, we went to the Guinness storehouse. That was also meh. Granted, I don’t like beer, let alone dark ones like Guinness, so paying 11 euros for a tour of what was basically a museum of Guinness was not the most exciting thing ever. Afterwards we did some more souvenir shopping and then headed back to the hotel for a nap before dinner and a movie. Domino’s pizza for dinner was delicious but we were struggling to decide what to go see for the movie. We both wanted a comedy, but all the good movies from America hadn’t been released yet, so we eventually narrowed it down to Shutter Island and I Love you Phillip Morris. We couldn’t decide, so we asked the guy who sold us our tickets, but he hadn’t seen either, so we ended up seeing Shutter Island. That movie sucked. I don’t recommend it at all. Now, I bet after a page of “the best thing in Publin is the American food” rants, you’re starting to wonder, “Katie, why did you like Ireland do much? It sounds like you’re not having the best of times.” Well, this is where the trip begins to pick up. After the ticket ripper flirted with me, and after encouragement from Devon, I went back and asked if he wanted to go out with us that night (we were planning on scoping out a few clubs). After some awkwardness with cutting the massively long line to buy tickets and skipping someone to ask this in front of everybody, he said yes and we met up after the movie. It was awesome meeting the locals, they are so amazing and so funny. Liam (ticket-ripper guy) and his roommate Robin were SO fun to talk to, I felt like we had been friends forever and I was back home. They also were huge fans of Joss Whedon (director/creator of masterpieces such as Buffy, Angel, and Serenity), which was the best thing ever. Anyways, that was a super fun time, and it made me sad to leave them, but Lauren was arriving.

Lauren met us up at our hotel, and though our original plan was to hitchhike the Ring of Kerry, we were worried about time constraints, so Devon and Lauren came up with the idea of biking the Dingle Peninsula instead and then going to Killarney (which is the first city on the Ring of Kerry) and hitting up things there, like the national park. Ecstatic to get out of Publin, we all take our leave and train it to Tralee where we then take a bus to Dingle. We leave around 1 and get to the bus station at 6 for our bus that leaves at 8. The weather has been forecasted to be dreary and rainy, which it is, but we’re all in pretty good spirits nonetheless. We take the bus ride over, and as we get off the bus, the driver asks us, “do you guys know where you’re going?” I have no idea why he felt compelled to ask us this, I suppose we just look like the kind of people who would show up an dwing it, but since that’s EXACTLY what we were doing, we were glad he asked! He ironically recommend “the Grapevine Hostel” and gave us directions. We thanked him exponentially and headed on our way, not exactly knowing where he was talking about, but figuring that the town is so small (I mean, hello, it’s named Dingle lol) we’d eventually stumble upon it. We did, it was cute, and we stayed there for the night.

The next morning we woke up early to go get a bike rental, we’ve headed out at about 8am. Nothing is open til 10am. Well that was a mild fail. So we wander around playing tourists and checking out how absolutely adorable the little town is. We explore the harbor, and walk the colorful streets, and even come across where the Dingle Film Festival is being held (in a “mobile cinema”)- a truck with screens inside lol Eventually we head back to the bike rental place, where we go in to find the owner drinking a beer at 9:30am- not even kidding . We pick out our bikes, and make our way to circle the peninsula! Our two goals are to see the cliffs and to see an oratory that everyone keeps telling us about. Half the reason this trip was so amazing, was for the scenery, it was absolutely gorgeous. Another reason was that the Irish weather gods were smiling upon us! Despite the fact that it was forecasted to rain the entire time we were in Ireland, it was sunny, cloudless, and at times WARM! It was a miracle, and there was no one more appreciative than us Floridians (one of which who comes from Manheim, Germany). We rode by the cliffs, a BUNCH of sheep (which made the entire peninsula pretty much smell), the sea, and rolling green hills. By the way, rolling green hills are awesome…..until you realize you’re biking them. That got rough and the three of us are in pretty decent shape. We stopped to take pictures pretty much every five minutes (me obsessing over the sheep, the green, and the yellow daffodils that were everywhere), and we stopped in a small town for lunch (we were all famished). In fact, I was pretty sure that if Devon didn’t get food, he was going to pick off one of us lol After the food boost we continued to the oratory. Upon getting there, we were told to go watch the informational video, so we stumbled over shakey-legged and exhausted to this wooden building to see the video. This video was the most hysterical thing ever. It could’ve been that we were exhausted, so all we could do was laugh, but basically, this oratory is a ten by ten stone place of worship for monks back in the day. That’s all it is, an ancient man-made formation of rocks. This video…..I have no idea how they could talk for 45 minutes about this thing. I mean, after FIVE minutes, they were already running out of camera angles, it was just the same shot over and over again! Needless to say, we only stayed for five minutes, and then went to go see what was called in our guidebook, “the highlight of the peninsula.” Wow. To put it gently, the oratory was not worth biking all that way to see. Moving on…. The final stretch home was this HUGE, STEEP upward hill and then you coast the rest of the way back to Dingle. At the point, we’re closing in on 20 to 25 miles of biking. Devon’s totally over being third wheel (something that tends to happen if you’re stuck alone with Lauren and I- even though we really try hard not to let it happen!), we’re all EXHAUSTED, pissed about that stupid oratory, and not really in the mood to hike up a giant, steep hill. But, it’s the only way so that’s what we do. Devon, being the former Yankee that his is, is always a step ahead of me (literally- he walks way faster than my southern stroll) and soon leaves Lauren and I in the dust. This is when I see a patch of daffodils and insist that we go take pictures and play around. We’re having a great time, when we realize that it’s this guy’s yard….evidenced by him staring out the window of his house at us. We get up and awkwardly leave to go tackle the big hill, and later I saw him checking to make sure his flowers were okay. I think it made him proud that we wanted to stop and take pictures with them, because he later waved to us from his car. I love the Irish. We finally meet Devon at the top of this giant hill, panting and walking our bikes, and earn a scolding look. Finally it’s time for the downhill coast back into town. Yay!!! …..too bad we took a wrong turn and ended up back in the middle of our loop. Oh yes, it was a joyous occasion and really helped our moods. Lauren and I also had total wipeouts on our bikes. Mine was a groin injury, she fell into thorns. We have skills  The good thing about this whole thing, is the scenery truly was amazing the entire trip, which made missing our bus back to Tralee so we could get a train to Killarney a little more bearable. We end up hitch hiking (this really does come in a lot of handy in Europe, and I love it) and this cute little old lady and her dog Rocky take us half way to Tralee where we then take a 30 euro cab ride make our train on time. This old lady was quite a character, in all honesty, I’m not sure she was all the way there, but she was chatty and fun, and it was an enjoyable ride.

We get to the hostel in Killarney and it’s a great place. We go grab a late dinner and plan on going out to the pub after a power nap. What started as a power nap, with the goal of waking up an hour later at 11, ends up turning into 8 hours and we wake up early the next morning to go to the park. The park is really cool. We run across Irish springs, more hills, and a lakeside castle (that’s not really a castle. Why do they put “castle” in the name if it’s not a castle?!) We decide to take a boat ride across the lake to go see the famous “Muckross House”, and upon getting there are unwilling to pay the 7 euros to go inside, so we just look through the windows lol we are such cheap students. We then do some more shopping and go hike to where the Torc waterfall is. After enjoying that amazing scenic walk, we head back to town….an over 13km walk. If you ever go to Ireland, make sure you’re over 23 so you can rent a car! After getting back to town, we get icecream (at a place ironically started in Dingle), enjoy the shops, grab our luggage from the hostel, and grab a bite to eat before heading back to Dublin. We stay at a friend of Lauren’s in Dublin, which was super nice, and then the next morning depart ways to head back to France and Germany. It was SO nice being able to see Lauren again, and so terribly heartbreaking to have her leave knowing I won’t see her till we’re back in Gainesville.

The airport in Dublin was an airport with not only a bagel place, but the starbucks had chai tea lattes! I have not been able to find these anywhere in Europe!! So yeah, Ireland was a really fun and amazing place (outside of Publin, anways). The people are wonderful, the food is American, they speak English, have a beautiful landscape, and though we didn’t have the luxury of a car, it was really fun biking and walking across a country. Okay…not across a country, but randomly, sporadically, often pathetically throughout it, enjoying the scenery.

I miss you all terribly! I feel like I haven’t talked to you guys in ages, and that makes me really sad. It also makes me really sad that this semester is almost over, I’m so not looking forward to coming back to the real world! Love you all and sincerely wish you could be here with me!


Pics:
http://s884.photobucket.com/albums/ac43/kolormekatie/The%20Emerald%20Isle/

Shake shake shake...

So here's the only kind of emails I get from SKEMA (the actual email had all these crazy colors in it, but I'm not tech savvy). This one had me laughing SO HARD, so I thought I'd share with you all:

Hi folks, i have good news for you: the hottest party of the year!!!

Dear SKEMA students,

Don’t give a damn to the shape of your booty: it doesn’t matter. The thing is: a sexy booty is a booty which shakes. It’s simple.

You couldn’t wait for the greatest fun anymore? Don’t you worry for THIS IS IT. The 3Styles association always delivers its promises and its members are going to offer you a night of pure, full and crazy joy.

Booty Shake Night on Thursday 4 March at Le Village in Juan-les-Pins. Let’s all shake ours booties until the morning.

About music, there will be of all kinds: R&B, Rap, Rock, House, Ragga, Zouk

The party starts at 23H00.

You don’t need to have any particular talent in dancing. Nor do you need to be self-conscious about the way you move your body. There is only one rule: be cheeky and generous while swinging. Let’s all make this party a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

BECAUSE LIFE STARTS WITH THE BOOTY, LETS’ CELEBRATE THE BOOTY AND ENJOY OURSELVES!!!

Warm Heart of Africa

Here's a nice picture of the markets in Fez. In reality, it's dirtier, more crowded, and there are no white people. The other picture is a map of the Fez markets. As you can see from the actual picture and the map, there is simply no way you could navigate these things!








*Disclaimer: I just reread through this post, and I apologize for how choppy it is. It's really scatter-brained, but what I have already took me two hours to write and I'm really not feeling editing this to perfection. Sorry you have to deal with my internal monologue :)

Here's the song I picked. I refused to pick Rock the kasbah or such cliches!:


So I’m finally getting to write about Morroco, the trip that kind of changed my life. As Devon and I were flying into Fez, I was definitely a bit nervous. I’ve never been to a developing nation before and I was really hoping that it went well because I’d hate to be responsible for Devon spending all that money and having a terrible time. As we fly into the airport, Devon leans over and whispers excitedly, “did you see the guard towers?!” No. I did not see the guard towers. We definitely were not in Kansas anymore, and while I’m a big girl and don’t need mommy and daddy holding my hand the whole way (I love you guys!) it was a huge adrenaline rush and kind of scary taking the reins of our trip in northern Africa. Plus, I was a bit worried about being a female in a place where they’re treated like property- Thank God Devon was with me!

Customs and passport control were a total joke, like everywhere else in the world, a fact which both makes my life easier and simultaneously blows my mind. So once we were there I went to get the hostel reservations to show a cabbie- omfg…there was no address on it! Granted, I should’ve checked this before, but these reservations ALWAYS have that info on it. Thankfully, I picked a very well known hotel in the medina (a walled old town) so the cab driver knew exactly where to take us. We get in the cab and drive to the city, a fairly long drive of about twenty minutes through the rather poor outskirts of town, and arrive safely at the hostel to check in. That all went fine, though on the inside I was still nervous about the unfamiliar culture and people, especially since we hadn’t seen any tourists. Now, I knew going in that I’d be a minority, a white person surrounded by a mostly Arabic population, but I was expecting some tourists to be around. Nope, it was mostly us. We decided to explore the markets (the longest in the world!) and they were insanely awesome. You do get heckled a lot with people asking you to look at their merchandise or go on a tour, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal.
Let me take a second to explain to you what these markets are like. They’re crowded, colorful little stands all cramped together and usually have bags, shoes, food (olives, dates, disgusting meat, spices), etc for sale. They’re enclosed by clay and shoddy wooden planks for walls and ceilings and the floor is mostly mud and dirt. At first we were kind of intimidated and didn’t want to get lost so we didn’t explore too far, but then once we decided to embrace our now standard “what the heck” philosophy, we had a pretty fun time wandering through. You all would be amazed the sheer size of this market. That, and there’s NOT A SINGLE ROAD THAT GOES STRAIGHT THROUGH IT! Seriously, you CANNOT navigate, you just have to hope you find your way back, which Devon and I managed to do….after SIX HOURS. Everyone tells you you’re supposed to get a guide, but us being bored and cheap considered ourselves above it. We wanted to discover the REAL Fez, and do the fun way, on our own. Well, it was definitely fun for the first two and half hours, but after that we were sick of the Morocco smell (I’ve pinned it down to cumin, Mexican blanket, and wet camel), of seeing the same stalls over and over, we’re starving, exhausted, tired of being hassled, and just want to get back to the hotel. After about four hours total, we managed to get out of the markets, but the last two were trying to figure out how to get out of the residential area we found ourselves in and how to get back across the medina to the hotel. You would think a taxi would be the way to go, but they refuse to take you anywhere inside the medina if you’re already there, it has to be somewhere like the airport or across the new town Fez. We finally managed to get to Hotel Batha, but the journey wasn’t pleasant. We did see the real Fez though! Pretty much all the Medina, actually. It’s impossible to go without a guide though, because not only is it insane to navigate, but all the mosques and awesome architecture is randomly thrown through out the markets, so you have no idea how to get to it. You just have to keep your eye out. Oh yeah, and I bought some head scarves for the trip. I was worried about keeping up with the traditions and blending in.
By this time it’s coming to about 4:30 so we go to a café across the street from the hotel to get a snack. The host hardly speaks English or French, so when I’m asking him for a table he has no idea what I’m saying. That’s when this man already sitting down at a table asks, “What do you want? Tea? Coffee?” and helps us order. This is where I am introduced to Moroccan whiskey, or mint green tea with sugar. It’s so amazing!! It was really nice to sit down and have a hot beverage, and the random guy at the café was pretty pleasant to talk with. He was kinda sketch after a bit, and we were worried about being scammed (and yes Dad, I was skeptical!) when he offered to show us some shops and restaurants. Knowing of course, that some of his family must have worked at this places, we politely refused the shops but let him show us a restaurant, which was actually pretty nice and we never would’ve found it on our own. We thanked him and went our separate ways and decided to skip lunch and just eat a nice, big dinner when we pick up Lauren from the airport. It was actually getting close to 6, so we take a taxi over and have him wait outside til she arrives. I’m starting to panic because we’re going to be late (due to a miscommunication with the first taxi we took- apparently we needed to take a grand taxi, not a petit taxi) and I’m worried Lauren’s going to freak out if we aren’t there. First thing that goes wrong is we discover there’s a time change coming from Spain to Morocco- whoops! So in actuality, we’re an hour early! Well as far as problems go, that’s actually a good thing, so we chill for a bit and excitedly wait. Here’s when things start to go wrong. Lauren never gets off the plane, and I am watching everyone who gets off with incredible endurance to ensure that I do not miss her. Maybe she’s stuck in customs? Omg, where is she? Phone isn’t working. Did she miss her flight or did we miss her and she’s in the city by herself? Which one is worse? Why aren’t the freaking phones working?! Before we know it, the airport is closing and I’m numb with panic. We talk with some airport people and they (bless their hearts) go find the flight roster and tell us she was on the flight. Here’s where my cursing starts to get pretty bad. I’m totally freaking out. We go back to the hotel, the cabbie over charges us but I was really sick of dealing with him, we figure out the payphones, we go to an internet café and try to facebook Lauren, and I try calling her family (a 10 euro charge to call from the hotel phone….awesome), hoping someone will know where she is. By this time it’s 9pm, we finally figure out the payphone, I call my family in a panic so that they can call her family so at least some one knows what’s going on, and then there’s nothing Devon and I can but wait. Actually, we’re famished at this point. I was NOT going to eat the market food (things I saw previously on Andrew Zimmerman’s bizarre food) and we hadn’t eaten since 6 that morning (an orange) and I was weak and shaky form lack of food and insane stress. So we go to that restaurant that guy showed us which was in a pretty sweet set up, had live music, a massive five course meal, and cost us about the same as it would to eat out here in France. Then I hear from Dad that Lauren is safe, hallelujah! Next problem…what do we do about the tour? I’m determined to get Lauren to Morocco, so we stay up til 1 am hopping between payphones and internet cafes trying to get ahold of her and the tour manager. We never get a hold of Lauren (pretty much the most frustrating thing in the world), but we do get in contact with the guide and manage to push it back a day so we can give her a chance to get there. Long story short, Lauren does not come to Morocco and Devon and I wait in Fez.
Devon and I now absolutely detest that God forsaken city, most of it not even being related to the tourism of the city. But between getting lost, starving, being exhausted, the incredibly stress of having a friend be MIA, and all the money we spent trying to make things work, it really left us with a poor taste in our mouth. But it gets better (as it always does with Devon and I). That night there’s a windstorm. A crazy wind storm with howling winds, things breaking all night, and doors slamming. I’ve been through hurricanes, and I was pretty shaken. Devon, being Devon, slept through almost all of it. There was once where he woke up startled but I was already awake to remind him there was a crazy windstorm. Did I mention that 45 minutes away this storm blew down a mosque and 100 people died? Oh how we loved Fez. A few hours later, at 5:30am sharp, I am woken by the entire city praying. This was actually pretty cool. I REALLY loved hearing the prayers from the towers and the entire city chanting along. At first, I admit, it was creepy and unexpected, but then I loved hearing it! To me, it was a city unified by their respect for humanity and their god, something totally foreign to me. It’s been a while since I’ve been surrounded by such religious devotion and commitment. Then we go back to bed for a bit and have to decide how to spend the day in a city we’ve already seen and felt no desire to be in. F that. We stayed in the hotel ALL day. There was a TV in our room that had one English channel- BBC, wohoo! And that was all I needed. There was no way I was going back out there til I had too. It’s sad, I know, but if you were there, you’d totally understand. Devon was so miserable. I thought he was going to suffocate me in my sleep!!

The next day we start our tour with Mr. Yager, and other than the extra expenses we incurred, I was sooo excited! Mostly to leave Fez, lol, but still. Our destination that day was the dunes is Merzugoa , and the weather we encountered on the way there was totally unexpected. It snowed. That’s right, Devon and I go to Morocco, and what happens? Freak wind storm, the sun, the rain, then snow!! Lots of snow. So much snow the road is closed and we have to take an alternate route. We take a bunch of stops along the way, the scenery is phenomenal, and Mr. Yager plays his really wonderful Arabic music the entirety of the 9 HOUR car ride (this isn’t sarcasm, btw, I really liked his music). We had a stop for lunch half way through, and that was a new experience. (we’re still the only white people for miles around, btw) We get there, talk with a butcher, he chops us off some ribs from a carcass, it gets put straight on the BBQ, and fifteen minutes later, we have an AMAZING communal plate of grilled ribs seasoned with grilled onion and tomatoes! Seriously, this could’ve been the best BBQ of my life. There was fresh cumin and pepper to put on it, we ate it with the amazing Moroccan bread that’s served with every meal, and you eat it enthusiastically with your hands. It was the best thing ever, and the tea that went with it (this time with a part of the absinthe plant as the flavoring, instead of the mint leaves) was just the icing on the cake!

As we get to the dunes, we have to go off-roading to get there. I swear, this kind of stuff only happens on trips with me, but our SUV gets stuck in the dunes five minutes from our destination! At this point, Devon and I can do nothing but laugh, and we get out and play in the sand and take lots of touristy pictures while we wait for another driver to come pick us up. Btw, Mr. Yager is pretty awesome, and I loved talking with him and asking him a million questions about everything. This is where the trip starts to go from really fun to OMG AMAZING!! We trek to our camp in the desert during the sunset, which was pretty nice. Going with us is this really great family from Indiana (but the just finished living in Strousburg because the wife’s company moved her there for a bit) who we could not have loved more. The dad, Bryan, is an artist and musician and the mom is a bio/chemical engineer who works in pharmaceuticals (and is an opera singer and a good cook) and their two kids were quite cute. We loved talking with them (omg! Americans! This means we can talk about the Colbert Report and good Mexican food and they’ll understand!) and the camel trek was super fun and thankfully only an hour and a half or so (that camel hump hits you right between the legs). The camp was pretty fun, the tents were made out of thick blankets, we had mattresses with sleeping bags and more blankets, and we had a wonderful tanjine dinner with our American family. Afterwards we all played the drums, but Devon and I were so bad it was actually pretty embarrassing lol. The best thing about the camping in the desert (other than the camels) would have to be the scenery. It was so beautiful, and omg THE STARS!!!! I’ve never been in such an isolated place before. The night sky was unlike anything I’d ever seen before and was simply breathtaking. The sunrise over the dunes was also really magical, and though it was way too early and Devon and I were total messes, it was definitely worth it.

Too me, what I’ve written so far is the most interesting part of the trip, and this post is already too long so the rest of the tour I’ll be brief about. The next day we trek back out of the desert, stop at a cool fossil place, stop at these insanely high gorges, and drive through the Rose Valley, all the while stopping at a bunch of Kasbahs for photo ops. The next day we drive some more all through the Atlas mountains (we did the low, middle, and high Atlas Mountains on this trip), saw a bunch more kashbahs and amazing scenery, and I have some pretty awesome conversations with Mr. Yager. There was one point when we were driving that there was a funeral on the road and that was pretty interesting to see. Only the men walked because the women always cry and make noise, so they’re left behind. Mr. Yager said you come into this world surrounded by happy people and that’s how you want to leave it. More of the celebration type of deal than the mourning. We also picked up a hitch-hiker while in the gorge, and that was pretty fun. It was this guy from Sicily who has traveled all over Europe and now he’s doing Africa. I love people. Another fun fact, in Morocco you can buy 10 grams of weed for 2 euros and it’s supposed to be really high quality stuff. We, of course, did not have any, but I thought that was INSANE.

This is where I get to why this trip kind of changed my life. This was a radical way of traveling for me. 1- when I plan traveling, it’s never with a tour. Mostly because I’m cheap, but also because I really just want to explore a lot of it for myself. However, in Morocco, you HAVE to have a tour because there’s essentially no safe or reliable public transportation from city to city, and the tour we went on was like having a driver for our own, personal three day road trip. And what made the difference to me (quite a dramatic difference, actually) was we were living like a local. We had a Moroccan man drive us to secret places, show us what and how to eat, tell us about customs, the way of life, and you better believed I asked a lot of questions. I’m so curious, sometimes I worried I was pestering him, but we had some pretty amazing talks about religion, life, family, friends, military/gov, etc. and it was so nice to see through the eyes of a local! Especially in such a different culture- they still have arranged marriages there! And Mr. Yager was living on his own when he was 11! The whole experience was just fascinating and awe-inspiring (once we were out of Fez, that is lol). It’s not good, because it really made me want to travel more, and I already want to travel quite a bit. And as usual, my love of humanity was reinforced every day. Between picking up hitch-hikers (who were awesome), giving to the poor, inviting people over for dinner, the Moroccans are so friendly and chill. Granted, there are those who are there to scam you and get your money, but we didn’t really come into contact with them too much. So what you should’ve gotten out of that paragraph is I have discovered a new way of culture and have REALLY seen through different eyes into a different world, and that profoundly affected me.

When the tour ended, we switched drivers and had a slightly-comical-now-that-it’s-over experience on the way to Marrakech. Our new driver couldn’t speak English very well, and we’re driving all through the way too curvy Atlas mountains. I only say that with such bitterness because I get motionsickness. Within twenty minutes, I’m ready to vomit and I’m sick of trying to decipher this guy’s English. Every five minutes he would just point something out on the side of the road that we could clearly see. Like so: Ten minutes of driving. “Look, sheep! Baa baa!” “yes. Sheep.” Omg im going to be sick. Kill me now. Five minutes of driving “Almond trees!” “Yeah.” “Rain!” Wow. Thanks for that observation. “so green!” Yes. Grass is green. If I wasn’t so sick it would’ve been comical, but I was just ready to get the heck out of that car! Oh yeah, and then he asks us, “how many turns are there from here to Marrakech?” And thinking, why the heck would anyone count the millions of turns on this road I’m like “I don’t know.” “Guess!” “I don’t know” “Guess!” “um..1500?” “No. Guess again!” Omg, I am going to kill you if you do not shut up. I’m sick and I have no idea what you’re saying. This blows. “Guess again!” he repeats. Devon pipes in “1700” “No! 2! Right and Left!” hahaha….soooo funny…not. Omg, I was so irritated.

We finally got to Marrakech though, and found the hostel (which looked really sketch from the outside) and thank the Lord, Marrakech was touristy! Hooray for no longer being a minority! The hostel owner was such a sweetheart. She’s a british traveler who came to Marrakech a few years ago on vacation and fell in love with a guy working at her hotel and she never left! They just opened up a hostel there and have been happy ever since! Anyways, Marrakech was amazingly touristy, and the markets were insane, but way better than Fez. They were more open and you could always find your way back to Djamaa El Fna, the main square. Devon and I did some insane bargaining with the crazy stall owners, which made Devon really excited. He wanted to stay and bargain all night (he gets it from his father, so I hear  ) while I was like, nope…time to go! We had a nice dinner, wandered around the belly dancers and snake charmers and food stalls, and then headed back.
Morocco was absolutely amazing, and I’m so glad we decided to do it! I really recommend it for whoever can find time to go, as I will NEVER forget it. Getting to know the people and culture of a place instead of being like…oh here’s that monument, let’s take a picture and bust butt to get to the next monument! Was fantastic. Sorry this post was so long, I just felt it deserved it. Love you all! I’ll post up about Carnival in Nice by the end of this week- that was a great time. Not exotic, but really happy and festive.

As usual, take care and take it easy! Miss you!

Devon and I have SO many pictures combined, but here are a few:
http://s884.photobucket.com/albums/ac43/kolormekatie/Morocco/

In all honesty, I wouldn't read this post, it's boring.

I've become really tired of writing in my travel journal- it's become such a chore! And since Morocco totally outdid Spain, this post is mostly a list of things we did so I can go back one day and refresh my memory. So yeah, I really wouldn't worry about reading this, all you need to know is I had fun in Spain and like sangria :)

As far as a song goes, Im going with the flamenco music, and here's a clip from the place we saw a show:


So Spain was pretty fun. We arrived in Barcelona late Friday night, at like 1 am, and the owners of the hostel we were staying at picked us up! They were SO amazing, and it’s a brand new place so not only were we the second guests, but they were super involved in our tourism. Analese gave us an hour long spiel about all the things we need to do, places where and food we should eat, and plotted everything on a map for us.

The first day we went to Las Ramblas and the Mercat de Sant Josep/ La Boqueria. Seeing the market was pretty amazing for a bunch of reasons. 1- I’ve been to Barcelona before, but the market was closed last time I was there. 2-it’s HUGE, colorful, and has an amazing amount of food. 3- the food there is so good, and oh so cheap! We had breakfast there (half a pineapple for 1 euro! Woo!) and it was awesome. Afterwards, we decided to go on the bus tour in the freezing cold. Yes. Spain was cold. Too cold. So on the top of the bus we turned into icicles while admiring the work of Gaudi and Olympic renovations. We got off at the Sagrada de Familia but the line was waaaaay too long so we decided we’d come back. So instead we headed to the shopping district, which was eerily empty, where we had an amazing 10 euro meal that included bread, an appetizer, an entrée, a dessert, and a drink. For the appetizer, Devon and I had black rice- black because it’s made with squid ink! And omg it was to die for! Mirko, the Italian husband of Analese, recommended it and boy was I glad we took his advice! Afterwards we went back to the hostel, where we met two people also studying in France and in Barcelona for spring break- Mike and Anna. They were really fun and we decided to meet up for a flamenco show later that night. So Devon and I wondered around for a few more hours throughout the city, noticing a surprising amount of costumed Spaniards and grabbing a few snacks along the way. The Flamenco show was a lot louder than I thought it’d be and the musicians had MAD skills, I was very impressed. Afterwards the four of us went out for tapas and sangria 

The next day Mirko, bless his heart, drove us all around Barcelona- from Mont Juic, all the way across the city and up a mountain to Tibidabo Sagrat Cor church, and then to Park Güell. Mont Juic is the top of the Jewish quarter that offers some crazy awesome views of the city, the Sagrat Cor church is two churches on top of another mountain with amazing views and carnival rides, and Park Güell is an AMAZING park complete with gardens and Gaudi masterpieces. Mirko was so nice about everything, and the four of us had a wonderful time exploring! Afterwards we were totally exhausted, I passed out for a three hour nap, and then we went out again after being told that Mirko was going to cook us dinner! The hospitality of these people was overwhelming (and we only paid 17 euros a night)! When we were wondering around, this is when we found out why everyone was all dressed up- it’s carnival over there! Ooooh, it all makes sense now. When we returned a few hours later, we discovered Mirko used to own a restaurant and the NY Times did a write up about it because it was that amazing! So we go to Barcelona, and the insanely amazing owners of this hostel pick us up, drive us around all day, and cook us dinner. I love them. Analese was always telling us stories and showing us places we need to make sure to travel, and Mirko is a total badass, but you’d never know it because he was always so quiet and modest.

The next morning we got up early to go see the inside of the Sagrada….which was a HUGE fail lol. Yes, I know it’s still being constructed, but I thought a decent amount of the inside would be finished!...nope. It’s ALL construction. They had some cool stained-glass windows, but that was pretty much it. So yeah, if you ever go there, I don’t recommend waiting in line and paying 10 euros to see the construction process.

So off we went, leaving Barcelona behind, and heading to Sevilla. When we got there it was POURING ( and I have no water-proof shoes) and dark and we struggled quite a bit to find our hostel (the sister hostel of the one in Barcelona). The rain in Spain does not fall mainly in the plain…it falls wherever Katie and Devon are travelling. However, the hostel was a really nice set up once again, with free internet and a nice interior, and we were glad to finally be there so we could sleep.

The first thing we did when in Sevilla was go to the main church, which is supposed to be one of the biggest in Spain. We didn’t really know what Sevilla offered before coming (the main reasons for us going there were because we could fly into Fes for 10 euros and Devon has two friends studying abroad there) so it was an adventure trying to figure it out. But anyways, we went to the church….in the pouring rain…and were mildly impressed when we got inside. Yeah, it was big, and yeah, there was a MASSIVE wall that told the story of Jesus in pure gold, and there were some random statues and baptismals. After about 15 minutes Devon and I were done and wanted nothing more but to sit, so we just hung out a bit there and read what our guidebook said about the church. Columbus’ remains are there! We almost totally missed that (because all the plaques are in Spanish so we couldn’t really read anything)! That was pretty cool, I admit. When we left the church, it kept raining for a bit, but then, miraculously, it stopped. Despite me being incredibly grumpy because my feet were soaked all day, we really enjoyed going to old town (where I had paella and more sangria) and the Moorish Palace we found. The gardens in the palace were AMAZING!!! It was possibly my favorite part of Sevilla, the greenery, the fountains, and the random animals (peacocks especially) we’re really happy and fun. The sunny skies definitely helped too. We also explored the college there and parts of the main city, which were really nice, and then…surprise….Katie needed a nap. So we went back to hostel so I could change shoes and have an hour power nap, before heading out to meet up with Devon’s friend and company. They were all Americans doing homestays there, and it was fun hanging out with them. They were stereotypical American college kids, and that was refreshing after being surrounded by the French (and the really polite Holland girls). The next morning…off to Fez we went!

Alive and well back in Antibes!

Well.....not well exactly because I have a midterm in five hours. But nonetheless, I just thought I'd let you all know I'm back safely in France! Ill do my best to post up an update about spring break as well as some pictures sometime this week. Carnival this weekend! Woo! So excited to have a chill week!
Love you all!

My British Tour Diary

Cheerio!



So Devon and I journeyed over to London this weekend, which was a blast. Though….not at first

First I had to take a midterm that I just found out I had less than 24 hours before (despite me continuously asking the teacher for the date). Then we had to catch the 200 bus to the Nice airport. No big deal, but when we go to get on the bus, they tell us that starting Feb 1 (two days before) the system was changed and we now have to take the 250. Okay, a bit of a bust, but no big deal. A 250 arrives, we go to get on, the bus driver doesn’t let us get on, and all I get out of his massive French rambling is “huit”. Eight. Eight what? Euros? The next buses is in eight minutes? That’s what we think, so we wait. Another arrives after an hour of freezing cold temperatures and insane wind…it slows down, we go to get on it, it accelerates and drives away before we even get to the door! At this point, we’ve waited over an hour and a half in the terrible weather to get a bus to the airport. We finally get on a 20 hoping to move down the road, so we can at least make some progress. We arrive at a train station that we hope we can take to Nice so we can get to the Nice airport. Guess what? Trains are on strike. No cabs either, because we tried calling and they would not pick us up in Biot, only Antibes (even though these are literally 5 km away if even). So Devon and I are standing in the middle of no where, in the dark, the cold, no cab, no bus, no train, no hitch-hiking, plane leaves in two hours. Naturally, we are panic-stricken. Is this trip even going to happen? Omg we’re going to miss it, goodbye plane tickets. Neither of us wanted to be the first to say it, but we didn’t think there was anyway to get there.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel! A 250 is coming our way! We frantically flail our limbs with all the glory of a spastic cheerleader, and miraculously, the bus stops. Thank. God. As usual, we get the “this is not a bus stop!” lecture, but we’ve come to learn that if they still stop, and all you get is a lecture, who cares if it’s not a bus stop. It’s been a while since I’ve been so grateful to hear English. The very kind bus driver explained to us that when the bus systems were changed, the price escalated to 8 euros. OOOOOOOOHhhh. Eight EUROS. Gotcha. A small price to pay to avoid the price-gouging of a cab and a safe trip to the airport on time. She drops us off at the Terminal, I say “thank you will all of my heart!” …though I might have said “thank you with all of my body”. Either way she seemed to appreciate it, so it’s all good. We go through security and get to the terminal, desperate for English and only moderately curious if we’ll get back into the country. (We’re missing some paper work, that we’re technically not supposed to leave the country without. Supposedly, you can’t get back in unless you have documentation of a residency permit, which we have started, but will not receive for 3 months).

Once we get to London, rejoicing that we finally made it, we miss the last train into the city (from Gatwick) by literally 30 seconds. Gotta love it. So we wait 40 minutes and catch the last rail into the city, just in time for the metro to close. Joy. So we make it to a bus station, starving and exhausted, but still grateful to be there. We figure out what night bus (aka Knight Bus! SO awesome J ) to take to our couchsurfer’s stop, but you need exact change. We have no pounds….we just arrived in the country. So we go to Burger King to get exact change, and as soon as we step up, they pull down their metal gate to close up shop. Awesome. Okay, no worries, let’s go ask those cops what to do. Okay…no help there. I ended up (quite audaciously) asking a cab driver for change, which he was very sweet about and gladly helped me out. Our bus takes about an hour or so to arrive, but we finally catch it and trek to our house, arriving at 1:30am. Did I mention we left the apartment at 6pm? Good times.

The house we stayed at was home to seven students who attend London University, and who were all absolutely lovely. They were all so nice and so charming, I just wanted to constantly hug them and them how amazing they are, despite only knowing them for a day. We stayed up with Tim til about 2:30 after getting a grand tour and meeting its occupants, and then passed out.

The next morning….way too early, at 7am, we head out for a full day of cliché tourism. We’re so exhausted and I am incredibly sick. But you know me, being sick is NOT going to stop me from exploring a new place, no sir! Well we start of taking the metro to Trafalgar Square so we can meet up with our tour group for changing of the guard. After almost throwing up on everyone in the metro (I am not exaggerating, but I’ll spare you the rather gross details) we make it to the square, explore, take pictures, and talk with the tourist office guys. They were very nice. They gave us the tour for free if we bought out Tour of London tickets from them, which we had to do anyways, so it was a win-win. So we met for the tour (with me barely surviving. I kept shaking and could hardly stand) and started on our way! The tour was 2 hours, and our guide was very knowledgeable and charming, sprinkling some British humor here and there. As for changing of the guard, it was probably because I was the sickest I’ve been since swine flu, but I was not feeling it. There were like 5 changings of the guard and half the time the ceremony was rather empty (i.e. handing over the keys to Buckingham Palace….but there are no real keys) with lots of short sword movements and yelling. I loved the band, and marching along with them was fun, and the Palace was spectacular. I suppose I’m just not one for empty traditions, especially while on death’s door. Afterwards, we find a place to eat, Devon taking magnificent care of me because he’s amazing like that, and then I have the “there’s no way on Earth I am doing anything else” moment. That’s right. I finally called it quits, and trudged home with Ziploc baggie in hand. Devon stayed out and hit up some sights, and the weather was the best London has seen all winter. When I got back to the house, Sasha answered the door (she didn’t meet me before) and all it took was “Hi, sorry to bother you, I’m the couch-surfer” and before you know it, I had blankets, water, lots of meds, reminders of “our house is your house,” and a good friend. This is where I remind you that people can be absolutely amazing. They truly are. I pass out for three hours, and then Devon comes home! Yay! After that we both take another hour to ourselves, and then head out to Soho for dinner and a comedy show.

I am still rather ill, so I didn’t get to enjoy the meal too much, but it’s undeniable that the adorable Italian restaurant we ate at was amazing. And I LOVED Soho so much! It was so nice to see the city abuzz, actually understanding what they’re all saying (lol), and just walked around, letting our eyes feast on the surplus of culture, color, and lights. We finished dinner a bit early, hit up an internet café, and then headed to the Soho Theater….very small, but there was a nice bar/lounge we could find comfort in while we waited. Finally our 11pm show started, and to my surprise, it was really enjoyable. It was called the Pajama Men, and it was these two guys acting out a comedic skit full of some truly bizarre characters on a train. At first it was really weird. Straight up weird. But as we got into it, embraced our weird side and British side, we really liked it. It was really refreshing to be introduced to a new type of humor, the British can be so witty….and so odd. Loved it. After than we made our way back to the house and PASSED OUT once again at 2:00am (after talking some more with Tim).

The next day we wake up, take forever to get to the Tower of London, and hit that up for a bit. It was a bit crowed, but we did the audio tour (only 1 pound for us to share it- haha!), and had a pretty good time. My favorite part was seeing where the Boleyn sisters were executed and hearing all the other gruesome details of the Britian’s past. Afterwards, we went to the British Museum, checked out the Rosetta Stone, and….FOUND BAGELS!!! That’s right, out of all the cafes on the road, Devon and I randomly select one that has crepes and bagels. Most expensive, and most desired bagel of my life. So. Good. Then we headed over to King’s Cross so we could see Platform 9 and ¾, and not going to lie, that was REALLY exciting (even though the Harry Potter part was moved due to renovation…so it was technically platform 12 and ½). We then headed to our hotel. That’s right…no more couchsurfing for us. We love doing it, but it must be done in moderation, combined with hotels or it will drive you crazy. There comes a point where you want to have your own room and reserve the right not to be sociable. So we dropped our stuff off (and got comped a free breakfast and upgrade to the biggest room in the hotel since they gave us two separate rooms instead of one double) and went Westminster Square. I missed it while ill and couldn’t go to London without seeing Big Ben. Then we went to dinner. We wanted to go to the Red Lion Pub on my Dad’s suggestion, but it was closed. So we went to this stakehouse across from our hotel because…behold….they had chicken wings and potato skins! Well….it turns out they only have BBQ wings, not buffalo, so that was disappointing, but whatevs. I got a bagel and potato skins, so I can’t really complain. It was good, but expensive, and then we retired to the hotel, watched ENGLISH TELEVISION (Family Guy!!!) and drank rather good English tea. It was a fabulous night of relaxation.

The next day we got up bright and early and bused over to Nottingham! It was really cool to get out of London and I was SO excited to see Shae! We met at the bus station, had a fabulously cheap lunch, and then went to the Nottingham Castle. It was a lot of fun learning about Robin Hood and the history of Nottingham and all its glory. There’s an extensive cave system under the city and we took a tour through that, which was pretty sweet. We were told this crazy story about the bisexual King of England, King James, and his 14 year old wife. It was chalk full of betrayal and danger. Feel free to read more on it here if you don’t believe me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_I_of_England. We checked out Shae’s university, which was really nice (though it has a full bar in the student union-shocking!), and headed to the nearby village of Beeston. Since it was Sunday and there was little activity, we went back to the main square of Nottingham where we found an AMAZING meal (where I had my first fish and chips! (and nachos. Good, real nachos!)) and then we went our separate ways. It was SOOOOOO fun hanging out with Shae, we had such a lovely time, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

So yeah, we caught the bust back to London, to our nice, cozy hotel, where we stayed in the biggest room of the hotel and watched the Super Bowl! It was so funny because I was sincerely excited to see the game, because either way, America wins. It’s sad, but I was so excited. That, and I really missed football, especially since I didn’t get to see the BCS or the Senior Bowl. We only watched a quarter and a half (it started at 11pm in the UK), and then we went to bed in preparation for our last day in London.

First thing we did was hit up Westminster Abbey which was AMAZING. Hands down my favorite attraction in all of London. It was really cool to see the architecture of the interior and the graves of people like Charles Dickenson, Queen Elizabeth, Darwin, and Newton. Plus, when we left and thanked the doorman, he realized we were American and commented, “the Super Bowl was a great game, no?!” It made us laugh really hard. My response was “Go Saints!” It was pretty funny. Afterwards we went to St. Paul, and then we headed to the airport. All in all, other than my health issues, it was a really nice trip. We LOVED talking in English, what with being able to have conversations with waiters and ask for directions, so we were pretty sorry to leave. We also both felt like we needed more time there, at least one or two more days. The people are SO nice and there is so much to do! Oh well, I have a feeling it will be there for a while.

Coming back in, we weren’t even checked for anything, we just flashed our visas and were pointed through to continue. It felt so nice to be home (except for the pending Midterms which are rather difficult) and getting there went smoothly. We’re so tired though, so broke, (I’m still sick), have so much to do, and yet we’re so excited for spring break on Friday. For those of you who don’t know, Devon and I are taking on Spain and Morocco! We’re SO excited and it’ll be a great time fo sho! Sorry this post was so long, I hope it wasn’t too painful! I can’t wait to hear about how you all are doing, as usual, I hope you’re having an amazing time and doing well. I love you all more than words!!!!

Katie

P.S. I’ll post up pictures later, for the moment it’ll have to wait

P.S.S.....I tripped about 50 times this weekend, no lie :)

P.S.S.S It totally snowed when we were in London on Monday!

can't think of a language-appropriate song lyric

But just know that no matter where in the world you travel, the total inadequacies of so called "higher education" will follow you.

...That is all.

Another Sunny day....

Hey everybody! Here's the song I chose to reflect how I felt about Ventimiglia, Italy:



This trip was pretty random, as we decided at 8 oclock on Thursday night that we should take the train 9 oclock Friday morning to Ventimiglia, Italy to catch the morning market they have there on Fridays. It was such a beautiful place, and the market was MASSIVE. Literally about a mile long. It was seaside, which was really cute, and it was really cheap. It was like an outdoor flea market (and yes I did buy something. A happy dress!) which we explored for a good hour or so. We had a FABULOUS authentic Italian meal at a street-side cafe (for me it was ensalada caprese, gnocchi, and tiramisu, yum!) and then continued on our way. Not before asking our server where the church was, however. Marit heard it was nice, so we figured it was worth asking about. Since Vintimiglia is on the border of France and Italy, it's common to find both French and Italian spoken there, and boy was that rough trying to keep the two straight! The host at our cafe spoke Italian, English, and French! I kept telling him "oui" instead of "si" and then correcting myself. Finally I asked him "Dove il duomo grande?" -"where is the big church?" and he was like, "Oh! You talk to me in italian, and I'll talk to you in english!" Success!

So we went into old town (because every city seems to have one here) and we just walked around, found the church, strolled through peoples yards, etc. It was beautiful for most of the day (until it got cloudy) and it was a bit cold, but it was a lot of fun.

It was just another sunny day, going off to Italy with some friends :) I absolutely LOVE Italy. Like, with all of my heart. But more on this later, for now, pictures!

http://s884.photobucket.com/albums/ac43/kolormekatie/Vintimiglia%20Italy/

Love you all beyond words!

Aux Champs Elysees...

Oh it feels so good to be home! As some as you may have noticed, the titles to my posts have been song lyrics :) So I think I'll start putting up a link to the song so you guys can check it out if you're not already familiar with it.

The title for this post is a famous French song by Joe Dassin about the Champs Elysees- it was the very first thing I learned about this year in french class lol Its also in a lot of movies, including the Darjingling Limited, and it's pretty popular here in France. Here's the link (and you better believe we listened to it on the Champs Elysees :) )!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAMuNfs89yE

So, about Paris. I will admit, the city was definitely better the second time around. Not only was my french and knowledge of the french culture better (though still minimal), but it was a weekend of casual tourism, which I really liked. When we went over the summer, we did and saw a lot, but I feel I got more of an appreciation for the city with more time. This trip we stayed with Hugo and Auxence who we met via couchsurfing, and they were fabulous! Their english was great, they were friendly, and they took us out to the club with their friends. They even left us a key to their apt because they were going to be out when we arrived in the city! All in all, it was a really nice time. Did I mention they had a cotton candy machine in their kitchen?

So the first day (Friday) we spent at Versailles, which was really pretty but we're definitely going back in the spring. The city was still beautiful, but Paris in the spring is pretty cold, cloudy, and grey like the rest of Europe, so a trip back when the flowers are in bloom is a must! Now I don't remember exactly when we hit up the clubs, but maybe it was the first night? Anyways, the boys had half a dozen friends or so over to socialize and pregame before we hit the clubs. At first everyone avoided Devon and I because not only were we strangers, but we weren't french speakers. This was a bit unnerving, but then they all eventually made their way over one by one to see what we were like lol they literally came by one by one to do this. They were all pretty nice, their english was fabulous and they were curious about America. One even knew about Tim Tebow! lol it was so funny. Apparently ever since Joakim Noah (whose mom was french), UF sports have been put on the map. They also knew UF to be a big party school because it's one of the schools available to be an exchange student at. Interesting fact: many schools over here require all their students to go abroad their third year and to get internships. It's really well done in my opinion. Anyways, we hit up the club (the theme was flourescent, and there was glow sticks and paint everywhere) and came back to the apt earlier than the rest (we are playing the tourists after all).

The next day....*gasp* we slept in til 11:30. This would NEVER happen on family vacation lol which made both of us feel guilty, but there was no denying that we needed sleep after staying out late! We started the morning with a metro ride out to the Arc de Triomphe (which we climbed!) and then we walked the Champs Elysees. We decided to eat lunch there, though we were banished to the bottom level of the restaurant with the other english speakers even though the first floor with windows had PLENTY of room. Oh well. After that we walked to the Louvre, which is by far my absolute favorite tourist attraction the city has to offer. I love it there SO much. Afterwards, we wondered around and made our way to the Eiffel Tower, which sparkles at night. Not going to lie, I'm kind of surprised how gaudy that monument is considering the elegance of the city. Once we checked that out, we were kinda lost on what to do. When you're with the family and you're only out til 9 or so, you don't need to have plans because you're going to bed. We, however, were not going to bed because we 1. were not tired and wanted to see more of the city and 2. sleep in the boys living room and cant go to bed until they do. So we went back to the apt (right in the heart of the city! It was amazing!!) and caught a bite to eat on the main stretch for a decent price. This is where I discovered beef with fried egg over it- SO GOOD. We also had hot chocolate and coffee and planned out the rest of the days ahead.

Sunday: I really wanted to see a service in the Notre Dame so that's we decided to do first thing the next morning. We got there in the middle of a service, but they keep the church open while it goes on, so we got to soak that in. They still have a Christmas tree and nativity scene up, so that was a new happy sight there. What I was most excited for, however, was the big organ (5 organs put together) that they play. Boy was I in for a shock! Alright, so the Notre Dame means "our lady" referring to Mary, the mother of COMPASSION. The music they played that morning was wrath of god music. Like...horror movie scary lol I still feel it was an angry message to the tourists to leave. We also had crepes for breakfast! SOOOOOOO good. It was Devon's first crepe and he talked about it for an hour afterwards lol Then we walked through the latin quarter, which we both found a bit unimpressive and both originally thought was a section of the city Latinos lived in haha...yeah, I guess that shows how different our country's culture and history are. After that we headed over to Monmarte which was a great time! Amelie was made there, I believe, it was definitely a cute artsy place (though again, probably better when not in the off season and with better weather). We saw sacre course, walked around, ate, and saw the Moulin Rouge. I must admit....I was not impressed by that at all. I didn't get to go inside, so that is probably why, but I thought it to be very small and the outside totally looked like some cheap strip club. Nothing like the colorful place where Ewan McGregor serenades Nicole Kidman as seen in the american media! :) So at this point...it's Sunday....which means even Paris shuts down. The boys called it "their day of rest" Auxence didn't even get out of bed until 6 lol Just when Devon and I are realizing everything is closing...we pass a movie theater! That's right, I saw Avatar in 3d in Paris. It was in english, THANK GOD, and I absolutely loved the movie. It was absolutely brilliant! It was also fun to get the french movie-going experience, and we apparently had the right idea because the theater was packed full....nothing else to do on Sundays I suppose. Once we got home we just hung out with Hugo and Auxence and watched Lyon vs. Monaco soccer and then a show on the party scene of American campuses (it was called Cheerleaders, alchool, and hazing)...oh yeah, it was a great reflection of our culture. That really is the only kind of information they get about our culture though, so it's no surprise when get asked if that's what it's really like back in the states.

Monday: We woke up early the nexy day so we could get shots of the Eiffel Tower in the daylight. We were the only ones there! It was 9, the city was asleep, and there were on a dozen people on the whole plaza. It was pretty amazing, though still too cold for my liking (but I suppose I should get used to that), and we got some great shots! After that we headed over to the Notre Dame to get some more crepes for breakfast (omg. best.thing.ever) and sat on a bench on a bridge to eat. This epitomizes my favorite thing about Paris. I love being able to just walk around, eat crepes, and soak in the surroundings. The scenery and the food is what does it to me (but then again, you could say that for most of France), not the Eiffel Tour. As we headed back to the apt so get our stuff for the train ride home, we kept our eye out for a place where we could find a "golden book". Here's my new experience with French culture. Apparently over here they have "golden books" which you leave at a party or a house and people sign and say how much they enjoyed the event. Devon and I stumbled upon an BH, and not going to lie, this made the top of my list of things to do in Paris lol. This store is a 7 story dept store, that has the COOLEST THINGS EVER to buy. Devon and I both agreed we could easily stay half a day just rummaging through everything. It was really cool to see how the average Parisian shopped and the uniquely french things they have. Plus, everything there was really classy and fun and ON SALE (during the entire month of Jan the ENTIRE COUNTRY puts everything on sale). So yeah, as a thank you gift, Devon and I got the boys a " live d'or" which they really seemed to like. We figured it'd be good for the couch surfers that come through (and boy do they have a lot).

After we said goodbye and took pictures with the French flag (LOVE IT), we got to the Train station and almost missed it due to lack of a ticket and lack of english speakers to help us. It was very scary and nostalgic of almost missing every flight over the summer lol

Well there you have it! Sorry I have nothing too exciting to report. It feels wonderful to be home and we'll probably be going to a club/bar in Juan les pins tonight to attend a school-organized event :)

Take care and take it easy and know that I love you all bunches and bunches!
As far as pictures go, I think I'll just join an online photo sharing site, as it takes way too long to post them all here. Okay. It's done lol I don't have it in me to go through and label all these pictures, but I trust you can figure most of them out. Also...I apologize if this blog post is choppy, I have so much stuff going on and I'm losing patience to edit...I have to be up for class in less than 6 hours...ugh
LOVE!

Here's all the pictures I have from the trip:
http://s884.photobucket.com/albums/ac43/kolormekatie/Paris%20Jan%202010/

Here's a slideshow if you don't want to sort through all 145 pics:

http://s884.photobucket.com/albums/ac43/kolormekatie/

I keep on fallin' in and out of love with....

....France!

First off, I'm writing this in the apt which is pretty much the best thing ever (though the quality of skype is pretty terrible)

So not much really happened this weekend, a bit of clubbing and partying, but nothing major.

On Saturday Devon, Nicole, Marit, and I went to Nice :) It was a pretty good time, but we were all exhausted from the night before. It was crazy being back in Nice, not only because I've been there before, but because how different it is in the off seeason. It was grey and empty. No gelato stands or sunshine or flowers. It was still very beautiful, though, and it definitely holds the title for my favorite place in France so far. I just feel...a susprising reverence when I go there, I suppose because of the history? Its a peaceful place with lots of character, and I CANNOT WAIT til the spring weather arrives! This past trip, we ate at the usual over-priced cafe and walked around old town, which I absolutely adore. The best thing we did all day, however, was splurging for a ferris wheel ride. The sun was setting, and between the view of the mountains, the layers of the city, and the water, it was absolutely breathtaking. I'll post some pictures, though there's no way it'll even compare. OMG it was amazing!

Yesterday Devon and I found the big Carrefour in the city. Carrefour is the commercial grocery store (but of course not nearly as extensive as Publix because they eat almost everything fresh and from local markets/bakerys), and theres an averaged-sized one closer but we kept hearing we just had to go to this one. Holy smokes it was MASSIVE. Not only was the size absolutely overwhelming, but all of Antibes was there. You know how you go to a hick town where all they have is a super walmart, so it's the most populated and frustrating place to be? Yeah. That's how it is. Only this time it was worse because we had to navigate all 60 or so aisles (not exaggerating) of labels we couldn't read. That was rough because people were really pissed off. Plus, Devon and I got stuck with a cart that had a mind of its own lol It was a beast of a trip (but it was
successful!)

Also, I made pork chops with a cinnamon/apple dressing tonight for dinner- it was amazing. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I've totally been kicking ass in the kitchen lately. Heck yes!

So you may be wondering what the title of this post has to do with any of what I've written...well the answer would be nothing lol It does relate to what's coming up, however :) I came to France with heavy, hypocritical anti-France sentiments. I resented it because it was one of my only options, I had bad experiences in Paris over the summer, and mostly because I took the language class at UF and wasn't taught well and struggled and hated it. However, it has only taken two weeks for me to fall absolutely in love with the France I've lived in. I have this mentality for a good day or two, and then something happens where the opposite mood takes over. Let me explain :)

Reasons I absolutely love this country:
-its beautiful. I'm in awe constantly. From school (gorgeous, scenic forested-mountains), Nice, Cannes, Paris (yes, even Paris), all cast in the stunning sunlight France seems to have half the time, it's hard not to appreciate what I'm surrounded by
-the food is OMG SO GOOD. I've already talked about this, so I digress. But seriously, its going to be hard to go back (plus the cheese and crackers here have become like crack to me)
-the people. They're amazing and happy and nice and cute. Especially the cliche ones :)
-This is silly, but I've found the perfect album to listen to while absorbing all this in- the Garden State Soundtrack. I know, it's ridiculous, but I love it.
-its culture of saying hello to strangers and placing value on what really matters is comforting.
-it's location. Easy access to other countries....just a flight or train ride away!
-I'm sure there will be more to come :)

and then after I sit there, riding the bus to school idealizing this new nation I live in, it hits me:
- I have to go to the grocery store annoyingly frequently
-which would be fine, but its SO EXPENSIVE!! And not just because of the terrible conversion rate, a few of our international friends have complained about how much more it is in comparison to where they come from
-entire cities shut down of Sunday...not cool at all
-nothing is really open late at night
-so much paperwork and bs fees
-buses don't run after 8pm...also really not cool (and they hardly run at all on Sundays)
-the trees without leaves make me sad. They look like giant hands reaching from the ground, but have nothing to hold or grab at. I'll try to find a pic. Okay, I just looked and couldn't find one. I'll go take a picture of one though, so you don't think I'm crazy lol
-It would not surprise me if I die from lung cancer caused by second hand smoke
- I really want a bagel, one of dad's hamburgers, a real american breakfast, cheese fries, chicken wings, burrito bros...
-the cups here are so small

All in all, the things I've complained about really aren't that of a big deal...well...not the last four anyways, and I really do like it here a lot. I'm so excited for the rest of the semester and am already worried that it's going by WAY to fast. It also makes me consider wanting to live here at some point in my life (Europe in general, not France specifically). So yeah, life is good. Devon and I are going to Paris this weekend, and I think it's going to rock pretty hard. I've forced his expectations of the city down so hopefully he won't be as disappointed as every single person I know who's ever been. It's pretty, but the people there can be so rude, and the media builds up our expectations so high, it could never live up to it, ya know?

I'm glad to hear you're all doing so well! It makes me happy to read what you write and I really appreciate you all taking time out of your day to share with me!
Til next time mes cheres! avec l'amour!
Katie

P.S. This is my shout out to Uncle Matt (like I told you at Stonewood)! Wassup?! :) They have potato chips here that are rotisserie chicken flavored and it tastes just like the skin. It reminded me of you lol Love you!


So these pictures are of the flower market in Nice ( I would just like to note, that they really should make an air freshener that smells like a flower markert and fresh baguettes. That combo was amazing when we walked through!), me in downtown Nice, views from the ferris wheel, and the club we went to Friday night.

I'm so excited...and I just can't hide it....

Because Devon and I FINALLY have internet in the apartment now! WOOOO! I'll post a real update later tonight, but for now I just thought I'd let you know the great news! I'll also start leaving skype on 24/7 (or at least while at home) so we can chat :)

Love you all beyond words and have a fabulous day!
<3!
Katie

A whole new world! (don't you dare close your eyes)

Hey everybody! This entry is going to be a bit lengthy, just FYI.
SO... Devon and I are settled in the apt (still no internet though), and all is well. I guess I'll start off by telling you about France as far as I know:

1. OMG the food is SO GOOD! The baguettes are out of this world, as are all their breakfast pastries ( I had this raspberry tart a few days ago that was just to die for). Plus, I absolutely LOVE their dairy and fruit here. It's so fresh, and so amazing. It's like an entirely new food group. The milk, cheese, and ice cream is fabulous and the fruit is so amazing, that it's no wonder they eat it for dessert here! You really do go to the market every few days here, if not every day. The bread is made daily, and the fruit only lasts a few days (due to the lack of preservatives) so you have to keep going back for more. It's kind of nice because you get to know your shopkeepers and bakers and all the food is wonderful, but at the same time it's annoying to have to go so frequently. It's a new type of dining routine, but there's no denying the superb quality of the food. (plus, the other day Devon, some other friends, and I went out to eat, and we ordered mussels. We literally got 70 for 8 euros, and they were the best things EVER). The most annoying thing so far when it comes to dining here, other than paying for water, is the small cups. They're literally a cup. Which is what the rest of the world uses, but since we're used to our 2.5 cup glasses, it's been an annoying adjustment. But it's cool, we have a sense of humor, and we're just going to search for bigger glasses for the apt. Grocery shopping is always interesting (as we can't tell what half of it is), and cooking can be even more so if it's a product we've never heard of before. Thank goodness for pictures on the boxes! :)

2. The people have been surprisingly nice here. After coming to Paris in the summer and hearing all the hype about antiamerican sentiment, I'm pleasantly surprised by French hospitality. When Devon and I arrived at the airport, a CERAM student named Claire picked us up and drove us to Antibes, spoke with our landlord, helped us find bus stops and stores, and left all her info to contact whenever she could be of help. Also, CERAM (now SKEMA), has a group called INTERCULTURE here with the sole purpose of helping international students integrate into French society and feel at home. They've thrown a bunch of parties and they're all incredibly friendly. UF hardly helps us, let alone international students. Also, when we had to set up a french bank account, the tellers stayed after close to help us! The guy at the front didn't speak english at all, and my french is both minimal and terrible, but after a decent effort on my part he found two tellers who spoke english and they were absolutely wonderful! It seems to me that if the effort is made to speak french, they're inclined to be a lot nicer. It's also standard practice to say hello to strangers you interact with through out the day. I really like this a lot. Get on the bus? Say hello to the bus driver! Same when you enter a store, cross by someone on the street, etc. When you leave you say goodbye and thank you. It's so cute and happy.

3. A few french cliches I've heard are totally valid, take smoking for example. Our entire school smells of smoke. Everyone here smokes, for real. We drove by a high school and these 14 year old kids are lighting it up. We also have 25 minute breaks between class, which most chose to use as a smoke break. And my favorite example, when we were given a school tour, the kid who lead it had a cigarette in his hand the ENTIRE time. It wasn't even lit, he just used to point things out nonchalantly. Another cliche is the french paradox. Totally true, but with this one, I feel like it's not really a paradox. You know how everyone says, "oh the French are so skinny but all they do is eat that amazing fatty food all day! How is this so?" Seriously, I've even read articles on yahoo about this. Yes, they eat fattening pastries and bread all the time (as obvious by everyone carrying baguettes around on the street), but they walk everywhere. Or at least a heck of a lot more than we do. Also, they smoke ALL the time. They also eat fruit for dessert and all their portions (except for our crazy amount of moussels) are smaller compared to ours. I mean, we got icecream at the grocery store (the big one that has frozen stuff), and the icecream bars I got are half the size of the ones back in the states. Furthermore, I think my favorite part of the school day is eating lunch. All classes are stopped between 11:45 and 2 so the school can eat (just like French society does), and the food is pretty good. It's only 2.80 Euro a meal, which consists of an entree, a side, and a dessert (a steal, I assure you), and it's a high quality and cheap way to be exposed to real french cuisine. I also think it's absolutely adorable how they have the glass pitchers/vases of water (I forgot the actual term for them. Starts with an e I think?) for each table. You fill them up with water at the front and then bring them to your table, and use it to refill your glass. Also, they were black here almost every day. As if the weather wasn't dreary enough! I'm tempted to find a yellow raincoat or something :)

4. The weather isn't the bad here really (except for yesterday), especially from what I hear is going on down south in the states! It is in the 30's here almost all the time, but the cold here doesn't feel as bad as in FL. I also layer a lot, and wear a hat and a scarf every day. What gets me here is how cloudy it is. Since there are no leaves and no sun, it can be quite dreary, but I suppose it's no different from the northern states. Also, it's sunny about every 3rd day, and when it is, it's gorgeous and warmer. Like today! WOOOO! It's probably just the Floridian in me, but it makes all the difference. Yesterday was painfully cold, like I was physically in pain, but it seems like all of Eastern Europe got hit pretty badly.

5. Everything closes on Sunday. This epically sucks. We have no idea what we're supposed to do with ourselves.

So about SKEMA, CERAM, or whatever you want to call it. What a HUGE change from UF, omg. First off, it's in the mountains. Literally. We take a 45 minute bus ride into the mountainside to get here lol It's gorgeous and scenic, and SO SMALL. They say they have 6000 students, but I'm pretty sure they're skewing those stats some how because it seems like maybe 2000. I want to say more like 1000. Also, there are only 3 buildings here! Seriously! It's the size of a spread out elementary school! And you think the buildings would be full of classrooms. Nope. There's like....8 in each building. Maybe a dozen. It's insane. Classes are 3 hours long and we can only miss 2 days or they flat out fail you. however, there's a 25 minute break in between classes the classes are simple and easy. The 3 hour classes are really hard to sit through, especially when at least one wall of each class room entirely consists of windows, providing a stunning mountainside view. There's a cap of 30 students per class, and since most students are being taught in their second language, they really aren't that difficult. In fact, there's never homework, and we have open book quizes (which we can share books on), and I've only been to two classes so far, but the teacher said the tests are created from the textbook bank. Apparently we're also a party school, which I absolutely love. You should see the emails we get from INTERCULTURE. The first student event was meeting in a pub. Then it was a house party where it said, "by 12 you'll be so drunk you won't even remember coming to the party! wooo!" and then there was a get together at a club where the first line of the email is "let's get drunk! PARTY BABY!!!!" Omg it's so funny. Can you imagine the legal repercussions is UF sent out emails like that? Unfortunately, Devon and I have only made it to a few get togethers because of the bus schedule, but the onse we've made were pretty fun. We've become pretty good friends with these two girls from Holland and two other students from American University. There's also a school-wide ski trip next weekend. Glad to know the French have their priorities in order!

I think that's pretty much all I have that's worth sharing. Devon and I are DESPERATE for internet in the apt and for better, more frequent transportation. School's been well (all two classes anyways) and we've eaten like kings! It's really expensive to live here, which has been increasingly frustrating, but there's nothing we can do about it. Well there you have it! A summary of our first 5 days or so in France! I'll be sure to keep you all posted and share any good stories that I can think of. I expect some sharing from you in return! I miss hearing from you and about all your lives (especially with no internet) and as this is one of my only sources of communicating I expect some details of what's going on with my favorite people ever! I miss you all so much and look forward to hearing from you soon! I'm going to lunch now, but when I get back I'll post some pictures.
Love you all immensely!


Here's a video of Devon and I's apartment:



And here's a few pictures from the past couple days:




Me being sad at our sad bus stop.

Best meal in France so far! The mussels were pretty much the best thing ever (cooked and seasoned SO well) and there were so many of them!















Old town Antibes. On our way to the Picasso museum (where there were no Picassos lol). Us and Marit and Nicole outside oldtown!

Devon on a sidestreet of Antibes
Us at a really happy bar after our get together