Greece

the boat we took to go to the island
the Acropolis
the Olympian Temple of Zeus
The Parthenon, the crowning achievement of Greek architecture was built between 447 and 432 B.C.the Theatre of Herodes Atticus (it has been restored and is now used for performances of drama)

Bastille Day...Le Tour de France...le Tour du Lac

livestrong..why not?


yay our camerades for America
this is Lance Armstrong at the end of the speed course in Annecy
warmin up
Lance warming up
la championne

les vélos!

Le Tour de France

watching the fireworks on Bastille day
mes rolleurs. (I bought these patriotic roller skates for 3 euros at a thrift store :) hehe)

Some personal thoughts. Kind of like a journal entry

Oh la la. Who could have imagined that after piles and piles of paperwork, hours of meetings, orientations, reading packets, pamphlets, appointments and applications that the day would actually come that I had been planning for for so long? After doing all of my demarches to get my French visa (remuer ciel et terre), applying for all 3 or my study abroad programs, getting my passport and 4 kinds of insurance (‘cause France is just like that...) and finally after making 10,000 copies of everything, I was ready to go (except for packing all of my stuff for 1 year, 2 climates, and 4 seasons in 2 bags, and of course, I did that at 5 in the morning on the day I was leaving for Paris...2 days after my sister's wedding haha)

Of course, my mother was a wreck and my little sister probably thought we were going to Disneyland or something, but finally I said goodbye to my family for a year and got on a plane begin my adventure. It is like magic or something. Sometimes I forget I'm in France, but then I look around at the lake and the Alps, all the crazy awesome Frenchies everywhere and I have to think to myself, pause for a minute and say “Oh my heck, I'm in France. The blessed land of cheese and wine, the home of the Eiffel tower, the Louvre, a bunch of awesome people (who all speak French, imagine that!) who really are nice, despite the snobby stereotype, the Alps, l'amour, art, bakeries, and cafés.”

If you ever want to feel fat, just come to France. Everything is smaller here, seriously. And I'm not saying it is a bad thing, but the rooms are smaller, passage ways, parking spaces, the people. I swear French girls are so skinny because they smoke all of their calories and only drink coffee and burn all of their calories shopping or something...but whatever their secret is, it works. Even on the French old ladies, they definitely still have got it going on. If I were going to rewrite the famous sound of music song it would be "These are a Few of my Favorite Frenchy things" and it would go like this:

Fromage (cheese) and vélos (bikes) and bakeries on every corner.

Smart cars, and Paris and no public bathrooms (joke...I really hate that one)

Walking all over and taking the metro,

These are few of my Frenchie favorite things.

No air conditioning, people smoking everywhere,

people who treat their dogs like they are their children,

eating nutella with a spoon, bread with every meal,

markets, bisous, and musées (museums) and stinky European B.O.

and pique niques au parc.

(And just today..listening to Debussy in the rain)

Being in France for the D-Day Commemoration, the fete de la Musique, the French Open, Bastille Day (the 14 Juillet), the Tour de France, and of course the funeral of Michael Jackson, has been so awesome. (That is a joke. But it is surprising what a big deal it was here...and of course in the U.S. it was a ridiculously big deal.)

Study abroad is the best thing anyone could do. I'm learning a beautiful language, getting to know this beautiful country and making fun friends from all over the world already!

Mes voyages (my voyages :D hehe)

the view from our crazy mountain hostel
yay I love sunflowers! I took this out of the train window so it didn't turn out so well
look how blue the water is!

mmmm Pesto Mozzarella and tomato pizza
seafood spaghetti











the lemons from this region are AMAZING and really famous




Riomaggiore
the boats
the first village or earth (Cinque Terre is five earths or lands)
pretty market
yay for the Mediterranean
a nice little waterfallish thing
cute gardens
old houses on the way to our hostel

the beach

the beach that we slept on instead of paying for a hostel
(much cheaper than a hostel :) hehe)
In Monterosso in Cinque Terre we slept on the beach. It was quite the adventure!
a man carved out of the mountain
mmmmm bruschetta with pesto, fresh basil, sundried tomatoes, and mozzarella!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yummmm

the chacos and the Mediterranean sea
il duomo
cool rasta bike.
cool graffiti art on the train
beautiful flowers in Monterosso

the leaning tower of Pisa

Pisa

beautiful house in Pisa
la bella casa that we stayed in
trying to sleep on the 4 hour train ride to Pisa from Rome
the Colosseum in Rome
a little town in Switzerland
the Red Cross Museum in Geneva


the happy land of banks and chocolate (Switzerland that is..) oh yes, and knives



in Geneva
So right now I live in France in a town called Annecy. I've been here for a month and it has flown by so fast, but I am very glad that my french has improved a lot. Annecy is really close to Switzerland and not too far from Italy, there is a beautiful lake and the Alps are really near by. There are lots of fun things to do here like go to the lake, go hiking, bike everywhere, eat delicious food, and go to music festivals and things like that.
There is a thing called La Fete de Musique and in all of France there is music all day long, all sorts and in every major town or city. It is the 21st of June and it is really cool!
My host family here is so nice I really love them. The house is beautiful and the people are really nice. Whoever said French people are mean was wrong hehe.
But Geneva is really close so I went there and saw the big fountain they have in the lake and last week for my break from school I went to Italy. My friend lives in Pisa so we started there and then went to Cinque Terre, then Rome. All of it was amazing. Brushcetta, piazza, gelati, panini, focaccia, mmmmm italian food!!!