Final Post/Back to Reality

I figured I would follow through with this blog and write one last post so I have documentation of my entire 6 months in Europe. My last 2 and a half weeks there were a complete whirlwind. After Austria we stopped in Italy (which my mother kindly compared to rural Mexico of all places) before driving to Nice, France. Nice is one of mine and my sister's favorite places in the world. It is completely beautiful and reminds us both of our wonderful France trips from high school. It was also one of my dad's favorite places which surprised me a little. My dad has never really had much interest in France despite my love of the country. The way I looked at it we were going to France mostly for me and sort of for my sister but my dad's place would be Slovenia. However one look at the beach and a freshly made baguette sandwich and he was hooked. Nice was really the first time that my parents have ever heard me speak French. They had heard me say really basic phrases in Italian while we were in Piacenza, but my Italian is horrific compared to my French. This was to be expected considering I have been taking French classes for 7 years and have only completed 2 semesters of Italian. I think they were a little surprised to hear me speak another language and be able to understand what the person said back to me, but I know they were thankful. The moment we stepped out of the car in French territory I became the tour guide, the one who had to ask for directions, and the one translating the menus. It was kind of daunting to have all that responsibility (especially when it came to driving directions) but I was glad to be speaking French again after a few weeks. After two wonderful, hot days in Nice it was time to head back to Nantes!

Nice Market

Nantes was a bit of a shock, a 30 degree difference shock to be exact. It was much colder than Nice which for me was perfect. I love any weather that requires jeans, flats, and a sweater. On our first day I gave my family a tour of all my favorite places. We ate lunch at Heb Ken to give my family their first taste of galettes, visited the IES building, and saw the cathedral and chateau. I was incredibly happy to be back and to show them the place that I love so much. After our tour my family headed back to the hotel while I wandered the streets for a while and found a few postcards. That night we went to my host family's house for dinner. To be honest I was slightly nervous. It was a little strange to have those two separate parts of my life come together. However, the night was wonderful. It was one of everyone's favorite parts of the trip. My host mom even invited my sister to stay there if she ever studied abroad. Maybe if I keep obnoxiously speaking French to Natalie on a daily basis she will be inspired to go abroad one day. If my French doesn't inspire her maybe the shopping she did our second day in Nantes will. I think she bought out half of Bershka, she should be the president of the company based on how much she now owns of Bershka. While me and Nattie were on our own to shop and hangout near Commerce and Bouffay, my parents ventured around by themselves. What they found without me was quite interesting. After stopping in John McByrnes (my dad's 4th or 5th Irish bar of Europe) they came across a very interesting street performer. My dad shows this picture to EVERYONE. I'll let the picture speak for itself, all I will say is the subject of the picture is a woman and that I have never seen her in 5 months in Nantes. 

Family trip to Noops

The next day before leaving Nantes we stopped for coffee at my typical Nantes spot, Noops cafe. The waiter even recognized me when we sat down. A cafe au lait, a flight, and a traffic jammed car ride later we were back in Italy. 

We spent the next day in Venice which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (I think I have said that about 5 different cities at this point but Venice is truly beautiful). We took a million pictures, ate really good pizza, visited San Marco, and enjoyed the city. While we were walking around I stumbled across a sign for a Gustav Klimt exhibition. One of my friends from IES sort of introduced me to Klimt and after seeing the exhibition I completely fell in love with his work. It was amazing. It was hard to leave Venice so quickly but we had to start making our way to Slovenia.

My sister's shorts were deemed too scandalous for San Marco's Cathedral. This was their solution

Slovenia should be called the land of the impossible "no." I was not allowed to refuse food the entire 10 days we were there. Everyone just wants to feed you amazing food and make you feel loved and the older family members get really offended if you don't eat what they made for you. There was one day where we visited 8 different houses and we ate something at every single one of them. I really thought I was going to die right there at the table. Luckily we did some mountain climbing to balance everything out. All of our family was really nice even when I couldn't really understand what was going on in Slovenian. It was so weird to hear my dad speak Slovenian. I knew he could understand but to really hear him speak was new for us. It was funny, a few days in I could pick out Slovenian phrases or understand conversations he was having just because I know his mannerisms and way of speaking in english. There was a day where my dad was talking with his cousin and said my aunts name and my mom asked what happened. Before he could answer, I automatically translated for her (correctly I might add) but everyone looked at me like I was nuts. It's crazy how you can pick up parts of a language just by being surrounded by it for a few days. Overall, Slovenia was completely wonderful. I think my favorite part was Ljublana. I can't help but love bigger cities. I'm sure we will be back before long, I don't think my dad will be able to stay away. Me and my mom already have it planned. Next time my mom, my sister, and I will start in Paris while my dad and my uncle bike through Slovenia for a week. Then we will all meet up in Slovenia.

Ljublana

Mountain Climbing

This actually occurs in Slovenia

Well, that is basically it. After Slovenia we stopped in Salzburg Austria which was a great end to our trip. Then I flew home separately from my family. Towards the end of the trip I was really ready to get home. I was so tired and sick of living out of a suitcase and kind of wanted to get back to normal life after traveling for almost 2 months straight. I wanted clean clothes and my bed and to stay in one place for a while. Then the day came to pack to go home and all I wanted to do was rip up my plane ticket. I wanted to cling to Europe as hard as I could. But it was time to leave, after all my visa expired the day after I got home. It was definitely hard to leave and not know when I will be back there.

My sister in Salzburg

I have now been home for almost a month and it has been really nice to see everyone from home again. Some people say it's like I never left and others see a big change in me from before Nantes til now. It's a little difficult because I feel like the only people who can understand the weirdness of being home and how much I miss life in France are my friends from Nantes who are spread out all over the country. Thank goodness for googlehangout or I would miss them way too much. They were such a big part of why Nantes was so amazing. It's weird how small things are different now. For example the Wisconsin accent on radio commercials sounds crazy to me now. It sounds really really thick and I swear that I will never sound like that. I will do everything in my power to tone down the Wisconsin/Minnesota accent as much as possible. It's strange to deal with bureaucratic stuff or sales people without having to plan out what I will say in a different language or having to explain my self with hand gestures because I don't speak the language. It's weird to have to drive farther to get to where I want to be. This is one of the hardest parts about being home. I got so used to being able to just hop on public transportation and be in the center of some of the worlds most amazing cities in just minutes. Life in Waukesha Wisconsin seems really boring now. Especially since everyone I know is working like crazy or living in other exciting places. All I want to do is jump a plane to anywhere. I would even settle for Door County Wisconsin at this point. Oh well, for now I will have to settle for looking at pictures, reading other peoples blogs, and planning my inevitable return to Europe asap. I can't wait.

Catching Up While Crossing Borders

The last time I posted seems like a lifetime ago. Between then and now I have been to Berlin, caught up with my family, and visited 3 different countries. For now I will start with Berlin.

Zuppa Deutchland!

Holocaust Memorial

East Side Galery

Crazy karaoke in the park

Berlin was really fun. It was actually a lot different than I thought it would be. People who live there call Berlin "poor but sexy." They even wear t-shirts displaying this motto. Because of how damaged the city was during WWII they have a ton to rebuild but not a whole lot of money to do it so buildings sit half completed. That isn't to say that the city isn't beautiful, it is. Plus all the history and memorials are really interesting. I think my favorite "memorial" was the site of Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide. That sounds really morbid but the site of the bunker is now just a parking lot in front of these really ugly apartment buildings. And every day the tenants who live there take their dogs for a walk in this parking lot so they can poop on the ground where Hitler died. It was funny to hear stories like that to see how Berliners deal with their sad past. They remember what happened but still move on and deal with things. We were also in Berlin for a few of the Euro 2012 matches, one of which was a Germany game. We went to watch the game in the park behind the Brandenburg Gate along with what seemed like 95% of Berlin. The atmosphere was really fun and it was hilarious to hear some of the cheers. I don't speak a word of German so the only cheer I could make out was "Zuppa Deuchland" whatever that means. To me it just sounded like they were calling for soup. After a wonderful time in Berlin complete with soccer, tours, brats, beer, and a surprising amount of bubble tea, I packed up once again and had to say goodbye to Michaeleen after a month of spending just about 24hours a day together. I am actually pretty proud of the fact that we did so well with all of the stress of traveling and no separation from each other. I know for a fact that we both thought we were going to kill each other by the end before we met up but the whole month went pretty well!

From Berlin I jumped a plane to Munich to meet up with my family. I met them outside of baggage claim and had to call out their names before they noticed it was me. They all looked completely shocked when they saw me and all said that they didn't even recognize me. I don't think I will ever forget the looks on their faces, it was hilarious. After a few hugs we made our way out of the airport to our rental car where we had to drive around the parking lot 4 times before we could figure out where we were going. Trying to drive stick in a country where you don't speak the language after 9 hours on a plane and a serious amount of jet lag is no easy feat. I'm shocked my dad did as well as he did. Our first night as a whole family was spent in Innsbruck Austria which is a really beautiful town. It is surrounded by mountains and colorful buildings and has a river running through the center. I will definitely try and get back there for a longer amount of time some day.

After Austria we made our way through way to many places in not nearly enough days but I will save that for the next post. For now I am going to enjoy Slovenia (where I currently sit) complete with way too much potiza and ignore the fact that in a week I will end my 6 month long journey through Europe as I head back to good old Waukesha Wisconsin.

A Tale of Three Cities

So I have been slacking with the posting lately. Since my last post 3 more cities have came and went on this great big European adventure. A lot has happened but for times sake I am going to lazily group these 3 fabulous cities into one big blog post. First up: Paris.
I absolutely love Paris. I could go there 15 times and would still love it every second of it. It was great to be back in a place where I got to speak french, eat my beloved cheese and pain au chocolats, and pay only 1.70 euro for the metro. Even though I had only been out of France for a week it was good to be "home." This time we were lucky enough to rent a teeny tiny studio apartment 2 blocks away from the Arc de Triomphe! We hung out in the beautiful Tuileries Gardens, walked all over Paris and visted the Moulin Rouge. We also climbed the steps to the top of Notre Dame, visited the Musee D'Orsay and Musee Pompidou, and re-enacted the bonjour, bonjour, bonjour oh my God scene from Passport to Paris in the original scene location thanks to the directorial skills of my Nantes friend Kristin who came to visit for the day. I also finally got to take my extremely cliched Eiffel Tower picture much to the amusement of all the other tourists around me. We actually went to the Eiffel Tower every night I think. We just couldn't get enough of seeing it sparkle, or the Nutella crepes that accompanied our nighttime viewings of the famous monument. After a week in wonderful Paris we headed to Barcelona.

our little apartment on laundry day

beautiful galeries layfayette

My super cheesy "French" picture

Barcelona kicked my butt. I was already super tired coming off of Paris because we had been walking probably 10-11 miles a day and that combined with the extreme heat and late nights in Barcelona wiped me out. It made both me and Michaeleen kind of lazy tourists. We saw the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, the statue of Columbus and tons of beautiful buildings but that's about it. We also went to the beach for the day. Big mistake. Well actually, the mistake was me thinking that with my "lilly white skin" as my mother calls it, that I could sit in the Mediterranean sun for 5 hours without sunscreen. I ended up burnt to a crisp and had sun poisoning the next day, so that was fun. Oh well the beach day was still worth it. It was beautiful and I had been wanting to swim for months.
I also finally got a taste of some real Spanish food! At least I think it was Spanish. We ate at a cute little restaurant called Pepitos. Pepitos are these grilled sandwich things that were super good. Mine had crushed tomato, cheese, and basil and Michaeleen got one with salmon. We also tried some sangria which was really good even if it was just made at our hostel. After Barcelona we got on a plane and made our way to Zurich, Switzerland.

Pepitos!

Zurich is probably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It has beautiful mountains, a lake, and really cool buildings. They even have tons and tons of swans instead of the typical pigeons which was a very welcome change.  It was weird but wonderful to be in a natural looking environment again after all our stops in big cities. There wasn't a ton to do in the city but we took a train to the top of one of the mountains to take in the view, walked around a lot, and just kind of explored the city. We met some really interesting people, including our host. We are renting a room from a retired swiss woman and she is hilarious and takes really good care of us. She keeps feeding us tons and tons of food, and making sure we have jackets before going outside, and that we know where we are going. We asked how she got into hosting people in her home and her response was hilarious. She said after she retired she didn't want to just sit in coffee shops with old women whining about things. So she started tending to a farm, but not a real farm, a farmville farm on facebook. She would play for hours on end and one night when she was playing at 2 am she saw an advertisement for airbnb.com which is the website we used to find her. And now she has been hosting people for 2 years and has learned english in the process. She is very sweet and is even waking up with us at 4am tomorrow morning to feed us tea and sandwiches before our 6 am flight to Berlin.

Well that's all for now. We only have one more week left until my family gets here and a new month of traveling begins. I can't believe how fast these last 3 weeks have gone but I really can't wait to see my family after so long!

London: a city of fashionable people and funny words

The first stop on my world wind tour of Europe this summer was London England. Upon descending from the plane we were greeted with some extremely strange vocabulary. For example, we changed underground trains at cockfosters, were told to watch our step as we "alight from the train" and found that London does not have garbage like us American folks, no they only have litter. They also say cheers for everything. They say it like excuse me, like hello, like goodbye, like thank you.
London was wonderful. We did some typical touristy stuff like visit the queen and her guards, eat fish and chips, take a phone booth picture, and and see the tower bridge. We also got to see them finishing up Olympic Park for the summer Olympics and some of the sets from the Harry Potter movies! However I think my favorite part was a little outside of typical touristy London. Across the river from our hostel was Greenwich Park. On Sunday we took a really creepy tunnel UNDER the river to a beautiful area full of really old buildings, cool shops, and a market chalk full with incredible food from all around the world. It was a beautiful day so we walked up to the observatory at the top of the hill, layed in the grass, read, tanned and tried some of the food from the market. It was a perfect relaxing day after running all over London for about a week.
It was really interesting to compare London to both the US and other European countries I have seen. I have heard that some people consider England to be more similar to the US than it is to it's European neighbors. Just based on London I would definitely agree. It was strange to see everyone paying with credit cards for really small purchases, to see 75% of the pedestrians carrying around a cup of coffee (usually starbucks which was so weird to see), restaurants were closer to those in the US as well. In France for the most part waiters are not there to wait on you hand and foot. They will get to you when they get to you, drop off your food and then leave you alone until you ask for the check which already includes the tip. In London waiters seemed to check back a lot more often; 2 or 3 times throughout the meal which now almost seems invasive after living the french way for 5 months.

The Guards

Buckingham Palace

Platform 9 3/4

The London Eye

Overall London was beautiful. I am so happy it was our first stop seeing as I have wanted to make it to London since January. It was a city with tons and tons of interesting fashiony people, shops, and unique sights.

Last post from Nantes

Well this is it, my semester abroad is officially over. I actually finished school about a week ago but don't leave Nantes until Friday. The past week has been completely wonderful and full of fun Nantes things but it has also been incredibly hard. I have had to say goodbye to people I have become really close with, people whom I genuinely love. I never thought that the hardest part about studying abroad would be the leaving. To make things worse we somehow ended up picking extremely public places to say goodbye which led to a lot of people staring at me on the bus/tram as I tried my hardest not to be the crazy crying girl on public transportation. Even though the semester has been challenging I have learned a ton and can easily say that it has been the best semester of my life. I was ready for a huge change and a new environment and Nantes was just what I needed. Now I can go back to Minnesota in fall, refocus on school, and find a job because after this summer I will officially be broke. I plan on working my butt off all year long so I can move back to France next summer with some friends from my program. We just aren't ready to give up our lives here quite yet. With that in mind here are some things I have learned over the semester and some things that I will miss like crazy. (this is not even close to the complete list, it's just the few things I can think of at the moment)

Things I Have Learned:
-There is no classy way to eat a kebab. Especially if the bread is stuffed with cheese.
-I am not cut out for the French university system. I prefer to have my grade depend on more than just one in class essay (maybe I should wait and see my grade before I decide this for sure)
-American milk is just water with a little milk in it. French milk is the real deal. Same goes for cheese. And yogurt
-Dubbed movies are the most obnoxious things in the world
-I now have a way better grasp on our relationship with the Middle East, or should I say the Near East. Ironic that I had to come to France to learn about the relationship between the US and Israel
-I now know way more about how to analyze a theater piece than I ever cared to
-Foie Gras and pate are actually good if you don't think about it too much
-Ranch dressing should be banned from anything except chicken nuggets. oil and vinegar on a salad is way better
-Enough French to carry on a conversation
-Nantes is either Breton or not Breton depending on who you ask

Things I Will Miss:
-The biggest thing will be friends, my host family, and some of my professors
-Hearing French everywhere
-Sitting on the fountain by IES all the time
-Cafes
-Just the look of the streets in general. My daily surroundings here are worlds away from my surroundings in Wisconsin
-The food! pain au chocolat, all the previously mentioned dairy products, real baguettes, schwepps agrum, cidre, crepes, galettes

 Now that my program is over, at least I have a ton of fun stuff coming up to distract me from how much I will miss Nantes. On Monday one of my best friends is coming so we can travel for a month! Our first stop is London and then we are continuing on to Paris, Barcelona, Zurich, and Berlin! Then from there I go with my family to Austria, Nice, Nantes(!), Italy, and Slovenia before finally making it back to the US on July 8th. I will probably be dead by the end of this whole thing but I am really excited to see so many places! Until then here are a few of the pictures I have been taking recently as we wander through all of Nantes trying to see some of our favorite places for the last time.

Chateau des Ducs de Bretagne

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