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.