Christmas Vacation Part 1

Well finals are now over... well they have been over for a week but I've been in recovery mode. Anyways, the end of finals marks the beginning of christmas vacation which is a welcome concept.
This weekend marked the first of I hope many adventures I will be having this break. The school took all the IFLE (foreign language students) to Alsace, France. We left super early on sunday morning and headed north. The first day consisted of traveling and then christmas markets in the evening. We walked around the city looking at little shops and lazily walking through the christmas markets. Needless to say there was a lot of random christmasy items that I wanted to buy, but I had to contain myself. For the most part we just adventured around the city until later into the night when everything had closed. Then went back to the hotel and practiced french with some good old fashioned cartoons.
The next day had a little less of a "happy" start. We went to a concentration camp. It was something I'm glad I have seen but not somewhere I need to go again I guess I can say. It was freezing rain and windy which seemed only appropriate for such a place. Later that afternoon, we visited a chateau atop a hill, which was very beautiful. I peered in all the different rooms and lingered in the armory and the room with all the canons allowing my inner child's imagination to come out a little bit. That night was filled with more christmas markets and overall holiday cheer.
Third and final day was possibly my favorite. We went to visit a large car museum. I'm quite sure I enjoyed this more than anybody else there. There were large rooms filled with old european cars, Ferrari, Bugatti, and Mercedes for the most part. I spent two hours walking around, absorbing all the images I could. Besides old cars they also had the significantly newer and faster Bugatti Veyron. If you don't know what that is well google it I guess. Anybody who does know what this car is knows that it took a lot on my part not to jump over the barrier and try to touch it, but I refrained knowing that my french skills are not quite at the level where I could talk myself out of such trouble. Anyways it was amazing and I stood and stared for quite a long time.
For now I am back at school, temporarily stuck. There are a couple students still here waiting to go on their own trips or waiting for family. Thats what I'm doing, waiting for family. Ryan should be back in the good ol' hometown of Dayton come tomorrow. Then the whole family is coming over to visit me for christmas. Until then I'll just have to make my own entertainment.

A very foreign thanksgiving and a few more things

Before I start I would like to say that I know you or people you know may be in panic mode because you are no longer able to read about island adventures with Ryan's adventures being over. Have no fear you can still read or direct others to read this blog. I know its mediocre but it can probably suffice until you meet somebody else who is doing something more interesting.

Lets start with Thanksgiving. No I didn't get a Thanksgiving break but us americans at the school had the honor of sharing our wonderful holiday with everybody who so chose to come to our event for the day. It was a very new experience for many. I had to explain to many though that it doesn't really count for multiple reasons. 1 most people weren't with family. 2 Most people only ate 1 plate which we all know doesn't count. 3 there was no football or parades. 4 It kind of helps when you actually celebrate in America. But no matter, it was good evening trying to share our cultural differences.

Honestly, besides there have not being many things going on here. I have been studying quite a lot as of late. This is all in preparation for finals here which take place next week. Everything I do has been french-related even more than usual. I did get out one evening to go to the cinema but the film was still in french so I count it as study time. If anybody has any interest its a very good film called "Intouchables" about a paralyzed man in a wheelchair and his unlikely young helper. It becomes a comedy... I think... people were laughing at least in the theater and I had enough trouble keeping up with the story let alone the jokes. But for the most part it was a very beautiful movie.

Well, thats about it for this week. Sorry no major adventures but come next week after exams comes a long winter break. I know for sure I will be going to Lyon, Alsace, and Paris possibly some more places so until then just read some re-runs of Ryan's Blog haha.

Crossing Borders / Climbing Mountains... The Usual

Well, new chapter, new country, and new flag to place on my wall. I'm happy to say I have now been to Austria. Innsbruck to be specific. And not for any average tourist event. No. I went for a volleyball tournament. An Adventist volleyball tournament. If I count I believe that there were people from at least 14 different countries around the world. This is the point in the story that I would love to tell the story about how the two teams from Collonges placed 1st and 2nd in an epic (adventist) battle, a story to be passed down through the ages. However, by some higher power, I am obligated to be honest and tell you that this was not the case. To be honest, Collonges 2, my team, did not do as good as I hoped. I'll just leave it at that because I do not wish to cry on my laptop. After all, I shock myself nearly every day with my converters so no reason to do it even more. Anywho... it was a very good time despite our lack of winning. Also, I was able to have my first experience with the German language which is a bit confusing and also my first experience with Christmas markets which are so awesome.

The following Monday was terrible. Over the whole weekend there was a poor sleep to activity ratio going on and it hit me the day classes started. But I guess that I had to pay for having my fun. Today, whats left of it, is Tuesday and that meant that I did not get anything accomplished. Why? you might ask. Well tuesday is the day when I go to ESM class where my mountain studies class goes out and does some form of ecip rock climbing or hiking. This means that my entire afternoon is taken up by some activity which is very fun indeed. Today was a technical hike across the Salève involving some rock climbing and repelling which was good times indeed. Why, you might ask, is this a problem? Well because I should be studying and catching up on all the missed homework fromt this past weekend as well as preparing for my oncoming tests and presentations. Also, I should not be wasting even more time by blogging, but thats a different story. Fortunately, all of these things are Future-Derek's problems. That is why Jonathan and I have decided to call Wednesday "Hangover day." Because on Tuesday we have all the fun and partying and when we wake up on wednesday we have deep regret for what we did yesterday... Minus the drinking that is implied with the word "hangover."

Well thats about it for now. I'm going to keep this one short because I need to study/catch up on my sleeping. So chao for now and thanks for reading.

I Have to go to Class on the Weekend... Sort of.

Before we commence this week I wish to assure everybody, but mostly my parents, that despite my many ventures I am still in school. Mom, Dad. This is not just a year of random travelling and using Europe as a playground, I assure you I am learning so much and working very hard. I feel as if I have never been this busy. I had to get special permission to take an additional two credits here so that I can get the most out of my experience and have been doing additional work in order to learn the most from this year abroad.

Now. Enough of that nonsense, less talk more play.

This past week consisted of a few tests (I told you I still had school) which I believe I did fairly well on. After all its not incredibly difficult to do well when you can't do anything, at least that involves talking, without it reinforcing your studying. There are definitely benefits to that aspect of french immersion. This last Friday, the 11th of November, was Armistice day. And, yes, this meant a day off of school. Somewhat. My ESM (studies of mountain sports) class ended up having a class activity for this weekend though. Technically this means I was in class but I'll let you decide. This weekend retreat meant that we were to head out into the wilderness behind our school and pretty much walk in the woods finding clues to different points and rendez-vous. Having done things like this before, because I was raised right (thanks Dad), it wasn't as difficult as it could have been. All the directions and puzzles were in french though. Fortunately I had two other team mates who were fluent and definitely knew what they were doing. After multiple puzzles and clues we came to the place we were to rest for the night. It was magnificent. We stayed atop a mountain where the summit pushed through the thick layer of clouds that had been covering Collonges for the past week or more. It was beautiful, the only way to describe it was a sea of clouds with mountain tops for islands, truly amazing. Saturday involved more hiking and a good repel off the side of the mountain, using some knots and forms we had learned in previous classes. It was still absolutely beautiful outside and that made it all the more enjoyable. We spent another night camping out on the top of the mountain, where I will admit it was quite cold but definitely not worth complaining about. Sunday involved an early rise and a quick hike down where I spent the rest of the afternoon doing the mass of homework that was intended for our "long weekend".

All in all it was definitely a good weekend and I don't know that I can even convince myself to consider it as "class" but no matter I probably learned more french in those two days then I did all week. Say what you will but high schoolers are good teachers.

Well that'll be all for now. Keep reading and commenting. Next week comes some stories about what I'm sure is going to be an amazing trip to Austria with my volley-ball team!

France, Belgium, Ireland, and England... what's not to like

Alright Madames et Monsieurs... this is going to be a big one so I have to decided to separate this into chapters. You may read the ones that have a title that strikes your fancy or if we are actually good friends / you are obligated to read all of it based on some relation to me (Mom). Either way be prepared for a good amount of travelling follies. For a picture adventure and to live vicariously through me visit my facebook

CHAPTER 1 : VENTURES IN PARIS

My recent voyages began with my school and fellow IFLE on our way to Paris. One of our first stops was the chateau Chambords. It was incredible, we arrived there in the morning and the chateau was engulfed in fog making it look quite mystical. We went to Versailles which was beautiful but far too crowded for my taste.

The freedom to walk around Paris was fantastic. I am quite sure I saw 90% of Paris in 2 days. Day 1 included Versailles as well as a long walk up the Champs Elysees Avenue where there were amazing shops and easy access to L'Arc de Triomphe. On this day I also got my first view of the Eiffel Tower. Day 2 was the big one, I think I did just about everything else there was to do all in a sprint. Morning commenced with the Louvre where I ran through each wing. I felt sick by the end because I had seen everything but not spent any time actually looking at anything and trying to comprehend all that I had seen. Next on the agenda was the Catacombs of Paris. It starts with a large spiral staircase spinning into the depths of Paris. After that there is a long walk through damp and dark hallways deep beneath the surface. Then you see it, a doorway with an inscription "Arrète! C'est ici l'empire de la mort" basically "Stop! Here is the empire of the dead." Thats not a doorway I would normally walk through, but when in Paris I guess. Through the doorway there were piles of bones lining the corridor, arranged in quite a creepy fashion, each stack labeled by which graveyard they originally came from. After quite a long walk and many more stacks of former people, we reached another staircase back towards the surface.

After such a happy event it was time to do something a little less frightening I guess would be a good word for it. So my group met back up with the rest of the IFLE and went for a beautiful ride up to the top of the Eiffel Tower where we had a beautiful view of the city lights.

CHAPTER 2 : FIRES IN AALST AND BRUGES

Belgium was the start of the real adventures and before you ask, No I have no idea where Aalst is I just know I stayed there for a night because of a fire. Continue reading if you wish to understand.

The trip to Belgium commenced with a few missed trains. Honestly though, that wasn't really a problem just a minor inconvenience compared to what was to come. On the way to Bruges from Brussels I contemplated how to be a better traveller after missing 2 trains already that day. I guess it wasn't so bad after all we were going to make it into Bruges in time to reach our hostel and see the city by the night, right? No, quite wrong in fact. Approximately 15 minutes into our train ride from Brussels our train slowed to a halt. This was no normal stop, through the darkness outside the window I could barely tell that we were in the middle of nowhere (the lack of city lights helped me with my assumption). A voice came over the loud speaker saying something in dutch that I was unable to comprehend. Gauging the other traveller's reactions it wasn't good news. Seeing our confusion an elderly Belgian man said in broken english "The train burns." Oh bother this could be a predicament. "No" the belgian man corrected himself, "The train station, it burns." It turns out that the next train station had caught fire, this meaning that our train was stuck until the electrics were figured out in the next station. This took quite some time, actually it took about 3 1/2 hours and multiple more messages, where the only word I managed to understand was "evacuation." Who knew I spoke dutch. Anyways the belgian fire brigade came and picked up all the passengers of our train and since it had been so long they thought they should feed us. This was my first of many experiences with belgian waffles. The fire brigade dropped us off in Aalst which I still have not found on a map. The time being near midnight we found the first hotel we could and stayed there the night. The hotel was called the New Hotel and well, lets just say it has seen better days.

In the morning we caught a train to Bruges and walked around the city most of the day. Bruges is a beautiful medieval city with cobble-stone streets and horse-drawn carriages. I could describe it all day but honestly you should just go there or watch the movie "In Bruges" which does a decent job of showing the city. One of the many things you must do while in Bruges is get a waffle, I admit to buying more than one during my stay and it was magnificent, I don't know if I will ever be able to eat a waffle again. And that makes me sad because I know there is nothing better.

CHAPTER 3 : DUBLIN, IRELAND

Sadly I do not have much to report about Dublin, I got sick and didn't exactly get out a whole lot. It was my first time in an english-speaking country in 6 weeks though. The only thing I really did was watch "The Adventures of Tintin" at a special pre-showing which was super cool. Its a really good movie BTW you all should see it when it comes out in December.

CHAPTER 4 : LONDON, ENGLAND

London was some really good times indeed. By this time we were all super travelers and it didn't hurt that we were yet again in a english-speaking country. I got to see all the major sights of London, the London Bridge, Big Ben and Parlament, Buckingham Palace, had my first official experience with fish and chips, as well as all that other good stuff. I could go into great detail about all that, but honestly it probably wouldn't be that interesting. I can though tell you about my awesome burrito adventure. We were nearing the end of the trip which meant we were all feeling very poor and didn't have any clean clothes. Fortunately, I found a solution. In London there is a mexican restaurant that has a 2 foot burrito and a challenge to go with it. If you can eat the whole 2 foot burrito (basically 3 chipotlé burritos) in less than 15 minutes you get it for free and a free (clean) T-shirt. I was sold, free t-shirt and burrito sounded brilliant to me. So on Monday I ate a huge breakfast to expand my stomach and then fasted for the remainder of the day until about 7:30. I could go into gross detail but the end result is that I have eaten a burrito the size of my arm and for the last day in London I had a clean shirt.

EPILOGUE

Thus concludes my first of many major adventures. I must say I was quite relieved to return to my home in France. I learned quite a lot about different countries, cultures and travel in general (salute). Its been quite an adventure, one that makes me worry I might get bored when I go back to the states. But then again, maybe not, after all there is always another adventure.

"One day your life will flash before your eyes, make sure its worth watching."

Annecy and Preparation for Adventure.

Well, since last blog I have gone on our surprise field trip. We went to Annecy, I love that town, its really beautiful. Its a really old-fashioned city with beautiful everything. I honestly don't think there is a way to look at it where it isn't absolutely stunning. There are so many old houses and buildings filled with boutiques and pastry shops. There is a chateau on a hill overlooking the city and there is a beautifully blue lake right by the city which on top of all that is of course surrounded by mountains. I liked it so much I already went back and even on a rainy day its still amazing. The second time was on a sunday and there were open air markets set up all throughout the town. I must have tried 10 different types of cheeses I only wish I could have justified buying a massive wheel of tomme. But maybe someday I can find a reason.

Let's see, what else. Honestly besides the random trip to Annecy there isn't a lot of stuff going on here. But there is a reason for that. For the past week most of the IFLE students here are just sitting around waiting and being bored. And the reason for that is that we are leaving for Paris tomorrow! I can't wait to see this place, its hard to think I have been in France for 5 weeks or so and have still not been to Paris. After that we get another vacation for another week too. A few other friends and I will be going to Bruges Belgium, Back to Paris, Dublin Ireland, and then to London England before coming back to school. With lots of activities that will be happening in each country. But that will all be discussed by Future Derek in the next blog.

I fear this blog has been overly brief, but thats because I have a lot of packing to do and by a lot of packing I mean decide which four shirts and three pairs of pants are best for the next two weeks of travelling. But no worries there... I'm here to see the world and the goal is being achieved.

Today's schedule: Français, French, Français, and French

Once again I can only continue to say how much I love it here. Days are filled with endless learning but I don't even care. For me a standard day goes like this: Wake up, go to class and speak french, go to my room and study french/read Tintin (which is the greatest comic ever) in french and of course the occasional trip down to Collonges or Geneva which involves many broken-french conversations, and at night we either play volley-ball or watch a film with french subtitles (last night was Tangled).

Fortunately I think that I am beginning to understand the language thanks to multiple hours of class per day, the help of multiple high schoolers and theology majors here, and hours of reading Tintin. I am pretty sure I still look like a complete fool but not matter.

Weekends are full of good times (and french) too. This weekend included church, where I am still completely lost almost all the time, a hike up the Salève and Laser Game which is just laser tag but awesome nonetheless. There I learned many important phrases such as "je vais te tuer" aka "I am going to kill you" which has its moments where it can be useful. Unfortunately I have no idea how to be angry in french besides yelling nonsense... Classes just don't teach how to say things angrily.

Another reason I love this school... Surprise field trips. This morning I was informed that we would be going to Annecy this afternoon and handed us a map of the city. Does this mean I have to skip my afternoon class... darn (sarcasm). That is one thing I miss I can't be very sarcastic here, which if you know me is sort of what I do all the time. Here everybody just assumes us americans don't know what we are talking about so its pretty hard to joke around, but oh well I guess becoming serious isn't the worst thing that could happen to me this year.

Well thats about it for now. Pretty soon I'll have something to actually talk about once the next break comes up and we all go to Paris, then Ireland and England. Should be exciting. Thanks for the feedback and enjoy.

I guess you can call it school...

My goodness… And to think I was actually a little nervous about coming here (I can admit that now because I’ve left). I absolutely love it in France for so many reasons. For starters the school is beautiful and the entire campus looks over Geneva, Switzerland which not exactly bad to look at day or night. I also learned that it is acceptable to skip a day of school for a hike up the mountain. Ya the entire school (elementary, high school and college) took a day off to climb up the Salève and spend the entire day up the mountain playing sports and socializing. The hike up was actually pretty intense, It only takes about 30-40 minutes but its pretty dang steep. Anyways we spent the entire day playing volleyball and attempting to tell everybody how to play “American Football.” At first it wasn’t that bad but as quarterback I soon learned that it isn’t extremely easy to make plays in French and English. But we played nevertheless and it was a good time, but also probably one of the worst representations of American football ever. Many of us also spent a good amount of time talking to the high schoolers trying to learn French and laughing at our cultural differences by trying each others accents and such. Whoever told me that the people in France were jerks who hated Americans obviously never came to this part of France.

Speaking of Geneva I finally got to go down there and it did not disappoint. It is a beautiful city and honestly I didn’t go into any stores just because I wanted to see everything. We did take a short stop in a cathedral, which was magnificent. Despite the fact that there were probably 20 people inside, it was hard enough to breathe quietly enough as not to disturb somebody.

Anyways, there isn’t a lot going on here yet I am always busy doing something it seems. Most of our time is filled with French class or French homework but that’s not all bad because homework is an excuse to go down into Collonges and study at the patisserie, which has some pretty awesome “study food.” Its easy to buy a baguette longer than my arm for less than a Euro., I think I have bought 4 since my arrival less than 2 weeks ago… The rest of our time is spent doing numerous activities such as making pizza (didn’t turn out well), slack lining, the occasional french film, rock climbing, and other various sports.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. I am sure there are many adventure to come but right now its just school except way more fun than regular school. I have a feeling I’ll be spoiled when I get back because I’m already complaining when I have a class in the afternoon, which is only once a week. But no matter… Life is good.

"Désolé, je ne parle pas beaucoup français"... Chamonix, Glaciers and French Security

Probably the most common phrase I have used since arriving in this beautiful country... Sorry I don't speak much french.  Immediately on arrival to the school Campus Adventiste du Salève we were immersed in french.  As the first American students to arrive many assumed we were ambitious and spoke french very well, and as soon as you respond to somebody who speaks french in french they assume that you speak it very well, for me thats not the case.  Don't get me wrong I aced french at Southern but when it comes down to it, well its just different when you're in France.
Anyways after quite a bit of struggling to understand what our dean was trying to tell us we figured out how to get to our room.  The room is pretty standard, nothing really special just a few desks, beds and a sink.  The part that makes it amazing is the view. Our room looks our onto the Salève which is the huge cliff that the school's name comes from.  Anyways its amazing.
After we had slightly moved into the room we went out to find the cafeteria.  Where we had a few more interesting (to say the least) "french" conversations.  We were invited to a vespers that night so we decided to go because despite the immense jet-lag we were suffering from we decided we shouldn't skip the first event of the school.  To be honest I may have been better off skipping.  First of all it was all in french and I basically fell asleep for the entire talk.
The rest of the evening was spent convincing the deans that we were capable of traveling.  This meant a lengthy french interrogation.  Between out lack of knowledge and having been up since the previous morning, well, you could say we didn't exactly impress them.  But no matter we signed our lives away and we were good to go.
In the morning we packed up and hiked down the hill to the border of Switzerland.  From there we spent about an hour trying to figure out how to buy a bus ticket and then from the bus we spent about another hour trying to find the bus to the train station.  People say that the French and Swiss aren't nice to Americans but so far we've met the nicest people whenever we've asked for directions (which is frequently).  Anyways, we made it to the train station and then to Chamonix. Chamonix is basically a ski town and it is beautiful.  We found a hostel for the night and for the rest of the evening just hiked around the town.  Jonathan and I played chess on a huge chess board in the middle of the city and checked out a small church  while a wedding was going on there.



We got slightly lost while trying to find our hostel because when we were at the office de tourisme the lady at the front desk forgot to mention that when she showed us where it was on the map that it was actually about 2 inches err... sorry 5 centimeters off the map ( either that or she just said it in french, I choose to believe she forgot though).  But no matter, we found the hostel and stayed the night.  The next morning we woke up and caught a bus to Le Tour where we took an extremely steep 4 hour hike to the top of the mountain where we stayed at a refuge that looked over an amazing glacier.  To be honest by the time we got up there we weren't looking at the view just because we were so exhausted.  By morning we were ready to explore a little so after breakfast we explored the glacier and then headed down the mountain.  The trip down only took like 2 hours, but I almost wish it had taken longer because the combination of being above the clouds and the glacier was amazing.
We took yet another bus back to Chamonix and then proceeded to buy train tickets, the problem was that there weren't any tickets back to the station we wanted to go to so we figured we could just find our way back from another close station... hindsight this may not have been the best decision.  But we had an hour and a half of train rides right? Surely we could find our way on a back on a map by then? Actually the answer is yes we did find a way back but when we were going to buy our tickets for the next train back to the school an extremely unhelpful security guard came up and insisted that we were going the wrong way and proceeded to show us a street corner we should wait at for a half hour when the right bus would come to pick us up he even showed us a non-existant bus route on the map we had.  We waited for about 15 minutes at the so-called bus stop, but I started to get confused on where the bus was actually going to get us back.  I went to question the officers logic and when I did he insisted that I go back to the security offices with him.  From there he asked the other officers if the bus would indeed go to location that we were looking for and they immediately informed him that no it was not going anywhere near that.  The officer that had been "helping" us kind of shrugged it off and said 'oh well' and then the rest of the officers told me go to the way we were originally intending to go.  Fortunately, after wasting about half an hour in complete confusion, we jumped on a train that took us back to Geneva and from there a bus back to the border.
All in all it was an amazingly beautiful trip and a good french refresher course before the first day test all the american students have to take here.  So from now on I am an experienced traveller.  Now I just have to conquer the rest of Europe!