Penda

Saturday marked the beginning of the weeklong vacation of Toussaint here. All of my roommates are gone except Penda, who I am discovering more and more about and I think I may have made a new best friend. She is usually the only one home anyways, but she’s usually busy studying and I’m usually busy getting ready to go somewhere else, whether it be out to a bar with a few friends from California or traveling to a new place for the weekend. So here’s a little bit about Penda:

She’s originally from Senegal and is just beautiful. She’s taller than I am (but not by much) and has long braided hair. She has a sweet smile and a happy demeanor. She’s 22, I think, and is studying Math and Computer Sciences here. She thinks I’m lucky because I seem to never be in class and never have any homework to do and she is always working hard on her studies. But we manage to run into each other in the kitchen each night at about dinner time and this past week we have spent hours talking and getting to know each other. I am helping her with her English, which she speaks extremely well, and she helps me with my French, which I don’t speak as well, but she is very encouraging and is good at explaining my mistakes to me without making me feel like this is impossible.

Everyone in my apartment keeps their door closed, like our rooms are our own sacred spaces and you have to have a special invitation to come in. But I keep mine open because I love to have people come bug me :- ) So Penda has come and chatted with me in my room a few times and Friday night she was looking through my music. She mentioned that over-played Hoobastank song, “The Reason” and I told her I had the CD. She freaked out and we listened to the song about 5 times in a row. I really can’t stand it but I was happy to share with her and it seemed to make her happy too. I even typed out the lyrics so she could figure out what they were saying and she loved it! It was so funny.. It was like giving a kid a candy bar and watching her savor every bite.

Today she’s going to show me pictures of her family as soon as she’s done cleaning her room and she told me she had to pray first - it’s Ramadan and about 60% of the population in GRENOBLE, if not more, is Muslim. I’m looking forward to learning a lot more about her traditions and beliefs. She’s already told me that she has 6 other siblings because where she comes from they practice polygamy. She says it’s hard for the wife but in general it’s very common and accepted there. I really can’t wait to learn a lot more about her and what her life is like in Senegal.

I think she’s so funny though… In a lot of ways she’s just like a teenager. One of her friends was staying with us while she was looking for an apartment and one night had some friends over to study. One of them was a good looking guy and I walked in and Penda was all giggly and smiley. For a moment I thought maybe she was drunk, but that definitely wasn’t the case. She told me later that she is pretty much afraid of boys because she always ends up having crushes on them. So I’m pretty sure that applies to the one who was in our kitchen that night. It was so cute though, it reminded me of being back in junior high and turning beet red whenever Travis Cassidy would walk by. Ah, the trials and tribulations of being an adolescent. Sometimes we never grow out of it.

A bit after I wrote everything you just read I got to see all the pictures of Penda's family. With 2 older sisters, 2 younger sisters and a brother, her family is quite big. But they seem pretty tightly knit which is cool. There's nothing like knowing that no matter where you arein the world there's somebody (or in her case, 6 somebodys) back home who loves you. She and I spent the rest of the day going over pictures and talking about our families, and about how hungry she was - fasting for Ramadan would make me pretty hungry too. She has to do a presentation in English for one of her classes and she wants to do it on Madonna so she was asking me about her. I was sorry that I had nothing to report, but I think she'll do just fine. She speaks English much better than I speak French so she has nothing to worry about. It's difficult sometimes, when she doesn't understand what I'm trying to say so she asks me to speak in English because she understands it better than my French. It's very discouraging, but I'm thankful that she is being so patient with me.

Liv

These are a few of my favorite things...

I'm sitting here waiting for a cup of coffee, a vanilla latte to be exact, and feeling the urge to write something spectacular and interesting, but alas I have nothing. I leave for Copenhagen in 4 days and can't even begin to explain how excited I am. Emily could tell you though, since I called her at almost 12:30 last night because I just couldn't contain myself.

I got a lovely email from Beth about everything she misses in Santa Barbara. Maybe I'll list a few things too, just to keep y'all entertained for a bit (not in any particular order):

1. STARBUCKS. Would you believe that people here have never even heard of one? I think this one even deserves subcategories.
A) Working the morning rush and knowing about 98% of the people who walk in the door before 10am.
B)The beezies!
C)Seeking refuge and a steaming hot Grande Soy Zebra Mocha on a stormy day
D)The aroma when you first walk in and that sticks in your clothes after you leave, whether you were there for 15 minutes to grab a cup to go or 8 and a half hours for the longest shift of your life.
E) Megs and Brian sitting in the corner distracting me from my job
F) walking to Starbucks with Beth after our Holocaust class to meet Brian and grab a bite to eat.
G) Being a local quasi-celebrity: "Hey you're the starbucks chick right?" The list goes on and on, and we're only on number 1!
2) The beach. Need I say more?
3) The quasi-heat wave that comes at about the middle/end of February
4) 6572 Sabado Tarde Rd. #7 !!!
5) Walking through campus on a sunny day, watching the kids on bikes run each other over and feeling the rush of wind as the skaters blaze a path through the sea of people going to and from class.
6) Megs forcing me to go play in the ocean even when I don't want to, and telling me it's ok to not wear sunscreen, then coming home to find myself nice and pink.
7) Megs, Brian & Emily!
8) My bike
9) My skateboard (even though it was evil and tried to convince me numerous times that I could, in fact, fly.)
10) Parties at Ems' house, and "mellow" nights of drinking at my place
11) Bagel Cafe
12)Freebirds
13) Going to class (even if I didn't always pay attention)

It would be impossible to list everything I miss about Santa Barbara so maybe I'll stop here. Just know that I miss every last one of you with all my heart, and that I never forget about you for a moment no matter how much fun I'm having here ;)

Love, Olivia

Homeworking.

I’m supposed to be writing a summary for an article right now, but I’m listening to Mazzy Star and thinking about home instead. I suppose I could do both at the same time, and I have been doing exactly that up until now, but I was feeling the urge to write something in English for a few minutes. I talked to my parents this afternoon (their morning) and hearing their voices always makes me happy. My sister was lucky enough to be able to go home last weekend for an awards dinner my dad was invited to, and at which he was honored with 3 different awards for kitchens he’s designed and built! I was so proud of him, and I’m even prouder of my sister that she got to be there for it. She worked for him all summer helping with advertising and design, so she deserved to be there and reap the benefits of her hard work :- ) Congratulations Dad and Mandy!

The snow melted on the mountains today. It was freakishly warm here for some reason, although the skies are still overcast and cloudy and rain continued to sprinkle sporadically throughout the day. I’m hoping for some cool thunderstorms soon. They always come along with weather like this. I was at Marie Claire’s house studying when the last one passed through . The lightning literally lights up the entire sky, turning it bright pink and purple, and the thunder rolls on forever almost without stopping. It’s pretty awesome. Next time I’ll take video.

I rearranged my room today which is not really very exciting to the rest of you. But the heat in my building doesn’t work so I had to move my bed away from my window because it’s just way too cold. When we were younger my sister and I would always get really excited to rearrange our bedrooms, and we’d spend hours and hours getting everything just right. So I was reminded a little bit of her and of our youth today when I was occupying myself with that. :- ) It’s always nice to reflect on our younger days. We didn’t get along much, but we’ve grown up a lot and have accepted our differences and our similarities, and have become best friends. She tells me that she can never read my entries without crying, so I guess I’ll stop here to save her a few tears. I love you little sister!

More later everyone. Love, ME.

a relaxing weekend chez moi

Today was much better than yesterday. I can feel this wave of homesickness going away. There’s just something about staying busy that keeps me happy, and yesterday and today were definitely busy enough to do just that. Actually, yesterday I didn’t do a whole lot. It was Sunday, and nothing is open here on Sundays, so I slept until about 10 when Brian texted me telling me that it was time to wake up, go grab a coffee, and sign online so we could chat for a bit. Neptune doesn’t open til 1pm and I don’t have internet in the apartment yet, so he had to wait, but it was good to get up before noon (for the first time in about 4 days) and get some things done. I did my chores around the apartment and swept the floor in my freezing cold room… Took a nice hot shower and took my time getting ready. I got downtown a little early but there was a huge flea market going on in the neighborhood that Neptune is in so I cruised around there for a bit. There were a lot of old antiques for sale: lots of china dish sets, old silverware, old vases, candlestick holders etc. Nothing really appealed to me so I just looked, but it was nice to be up and walking around in the cool air of one of the first days of winter.

I got to Neptune about 5 minutes after they opened, and Nicolas - the guy who works there - practically had my vanilla latte waiting for me when I got there. It’s kind of sad that I’m there that often, but it’s comforting to me after having worked at Starbucks for so long where our goal was to never have to ask someone what they wanted to drink… And I got pretty close to achieving that goal during the morning rushes : - ) Anyways… I got to talk to Brian for a nice long time about what’s new in our respective corners of the world. Not much, as it turns out, but it was still great to chat with one of my best friends from back home who got out of bed at 4am to talk to me! Then Henri and Giles showed up and reminded me of what a bum I’m becoming, hanging out in coffee shops all the time. Some habits never die. My computer battery, however, was about to do just that so I packed up and headed over to MC’s to study until it was time to go see Dido in Lyon.

We left at about 6pm on one of the most traumatic car rides I’ve ever been on. The guy who drove us - a friend of MC’s roommates - had rented the car and stalled it about 3 times before we even got on the freeway. Once we finally did get on the “auto route” he was going about 80 km/hr (I’m not sure what the conversion is into miles/hour but it felt like we were going about 40mph) and everyone else around us was going at least 120 kmh. I thought someone was going to run us down on the freeway! Then he pulled off on the wrong exit and stopped at the roundabout and we almost got rear ended by the car behind us because he slammed on the brakes. The next wrong exit we took he wasn’t paying attention and we almost slammed into the car in front of us. THEN - oh yes there is more - he was in the center lane on the freeway and was trying to look at the directions and crossed into the fast lane and was about to hit the divider when MC had to tell him to pay attention! I nearly had a heart attack. The man did not realize what his mirrors were for and we cut off about 4 different people… It was horrible. I have never wished so badly that I could drive a stick shift so I could kick him out of the drivers seat. But we finally made it to the concert which was amazing! I have never been a big fan of Dido, but she’s an amazing performer and she had an awesome band backing her up. She changed up the style of most of her songs so that they were more funky and put a great beat to them so I ended up loving it when I thought I might not enjoy it much at all. So it was great to get out of Grenoble and see something new, even if I almost did have to die to get there. The car ride back was much better but still a little scary.

We got back at about 12:45 and I missed the tram back to my house so I ended up staying at MC’s and we went to class together this morning. Mondays are my busy schedule days so it was pretty nice. My classes aren’t to crazy and one of them was actually cancelled today so I took care of some final registration business and pretty much took it easy. I met Garrett for a demi-peche around 4pm and we had a nice chat. I haven’t hung out with him since we moved out of the dorms. That’s about all that’s going on in my life right now but it’s bound to get more exciting soon. There’s snow on the mountains so that means that I’ll be re-learning how to snowboard in no time and hopefully will have exciting stories from up on the mountain. It’s freezing here and my heater in my apartment doesn’t work so send warm thoughts my way. -Liv

A few scattered thoughts.

I’m happy because I finally found soy milk! Or, rather, MC found soy milk and told me where to find it. I tried making some makeshift Chai on my stove, but to no avail. There’s nothing like the real thing. Chai would make an amazing xmas present! (*hint hint) Today I was sitting in Neptune and they had the best soundtrack playing… First I remember hearing the Smashing Pumpkins cover of Landslide (Fleetwood Mac), then they played a song called “Hallelujah” that we had on our Christmas CD at Starbucks last holiday season, and it reminded me of Linda because she and I would always love it when it came on.

Even though I’m happy, I am feeling more and more homesick lately and I don’t like it. I hate that I can’t control the way I feel in certain situations and that there’s not really anything I can do to make myself feel better. All I really can do is keep reminding myself that I’m lucky and that this is a beautiful place, and that this is the opportunity of a lifetime. But it still doesn’t take away the fact that none of my family or best friends are here to share it with me. I’m aching for something or someone familiar. It’s not like I want to pack up and leave and come home so I’ll feel better, I love the fact that I am here and that I am living like a French-girl, J I just wish some of you were here to share it with me.

I think a bunch of us are going out dancing tonight. That will definitely take my mind off of things for a while! Should be lots of fun to just get out and release some energy. I have been wanting to go for a run but the weather has been very dissuading. The mountains got their first snow of the season two days ago and since then it’s just been overcast, drizzly and COLD. My property manager hasn’t turned on the heat in our apartment yet, so my three roommates and I are walking around the apartment with sweaters and scarves. It’s not too bad yet, but if it keeps getting colder outside I don’t know what we’re going to do. Probably pack up and head south for the winter ;) haha! If only…

I’m going to Copenhagen in one week to visit Emily! I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself. She came here and we had the time of our lives, and I just can’t wait to see her again. I don’t know what I’m going to do after Christmas when she goes back to California. Life is going to be rough, but I suppose I will manage.

I talked to one of my roommates last week and she’s helping me get internet set up in our apartment. Actually, she’s doing all the work since I don’t speak the language and I don’t think I would get very far if I tried calling around looking for the best rates. But it will be cool when it finally gets set up. There’s a lot of research I need to do for some classes since there’s a lot I miss in lecture because of the language barrier. Although, I am coming to understand more and more every time I go to class, and I was reading one of the books for my European Union class today and was doing okay with it. I’m looking forward to the end of the year when I won’t have to think twice about what this or that word means, or in what order to put my nouns and verbs in my sentences, or how to conjugate this or that verb to make sense of what I’m trying to say. I have a long way to go until then, but I’m looking forward to it. A few of us actually went to a party last night and I was carrying on a full conversation with a guy from Tunisia who speaks fluent French. It was great until he asked me for my phone number so we could “go out to coffee sometime” and I freaked out so I gave him the wrong one! (Shh… don’t tell ;)) Sorry buddy, not interested.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what direction I want to go in when I leave here, or if I will ever leave here. Once I finish this year in France I will be done with school and waiting for my diploma to arrive in the mail… But I don’t know that I will be ready to jump head-first into the real world. I have been thinking a lot about taking an extra quarter at school while I research careers/grad schools. I have always been very indecisive about the direction I want to go in after I graduate, and have switched back and forth from International Relations to Foreign Service Representative to all sorts of different stuff. But I honestly don’t know how I’d even begin to get into those fields. Lately I’ve been thinking about International Journalism because I love to write, I love to travel, I love to research and experience new things. We will see I suppose… It’s funny how when you’re young you know exactly what you want to be, and as you get older the uncertainty grows along with you.

I suppose that’s enough for now. Love to you all! -Liv

I hate computers

I had a huge entry drafted and I saved it as a draft, or so I thought, and when I signed on again it was gone. Sorry guys. So to re-make a long story short, Versailles was great, Ems came back to Grenoble with me and we just chilled for a few days and then I sent her on her way back to Copenhagen. It was great to see her and remember good friends and good times back in Santa Barbara.

Last weekend the UC kids went to Annecy for the retour des Alpes, which is basically a traditional festival for when the sheep-herders bring the sheep down from the mountain to lower and warmer pastures for the winter. It was pretty cool, there were lots of people in traditional dress, and lots of craftsmen making wood sculptures, lots of people making edible goodies like beignets (doughnuts) and fresh apple juice (which I would've jumped on if I wasn't allergic to apples) and there were people selling jars and jars of honey... YUM. It was awesome. Lots of cows and sheep and geese, and you remember those Ricola cough drop commercials with the guys playing those really long horns up in the mountains? They had lots of those and they make the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. If my camera hadn't died as soon as I got there I would've recorded it, but unfortunately it did, and I have only 3 pictures from that day :(

Brian asked me to write about the people here... French people really aren't that much different from Americans. Contrary to popular belief, most of the people here actually smell really good. They definitely enjoy their perfumes and colognes, and there are only a select few who don't know what deoderant is. Everyone here does smoke, however, and while it's disgusting to me I'm slowly getting used to it and aside from the smell it leaves in my clothes, I don't mind being around smokers too much. I don't really have a choice though, since everyone here does it. The girls here are all so thin that it makes me wonder... We think they live off of nicotene and diet coke and we call it the FGD: French Girl Diet. If we could publish a book on that it would make millions in the US. Goodbye Atkins! But seriously, it's gross. French people are pretty cool though. I've made a few French friends and they all love the American accent. Most of them are really excited to practice English with you, so much so that you have to insist on speaking French so you can learn something. We went to a party last night and one person MC was talking to told her that her accent is "Charming". HAHAHA... who would've though that an American accent could ever be charming? I love it!

The UC kids are all really awesome though. We all get along great, and hang out a lot. Too much for our own good I think. A lot of us have kind of branched off into our own groups.. Lately it's been mostly me, MC, Phil and Henri. We don't really do much, which is cool with me because I'm not the type who has to be going out every night spending all my cash on drinks and entertainment. That's not to say I never do, but the other girls here go out about 6 nights a week and I don't know how they can afford it. 2 of them are from UCSB and definitely live up to the stereotype. Not saying it's a bad thing, it's just not MY thing. All of us see each other twice a week in French class but that's about it. Other than that we're usually just in our own little groups. MC and I have been taking turns cooking for each other almost every night during the week. It's always easier to cook for 2 than for 1 and it's nice to have the company, AND it keeps us from spending tons of money on going out to eat every night which is probably what I would be doing if we weren't cooking together all the time. She was going to come with me to Copenhagen for the week of Toussaint (I forgot to mention I'm going to visit Emily for 5 days!) but her mom's going to be here. She's been my travel buddy since Munich and we're going to a Dido concert in Lyon tomorrow. Should be fun. Phil is a cool guy.. easy to talk to and funny! And Henri is just raunchy and a typical guy. But that's what's so cool about him. What you see is what you get. The other people here are cool, there are only a couple that I can't be around for very long but I won't get into that right now. I guess that's all for now, but I'll try to write more often.

Love you all and miss you more than ever. -Liv

Emily, Part 2

We hit up another corner cafe (there's one on about every corner in Paris, kind of like there are Starbucks on every corner in the states) and Emily managed to catch the attention of some funny old men who really liked her American Eagle t-shirt. We left the old men when we finished our coffee and walked about 15 minutes through the residential area of Paris until we happened upon the Ecole Militaire, which just happens to be right in front of the park that leads up to the Eiffel Tower. We paused to take a picture, then started walking, our pace getting faster and faster with each step as our excitement continued to build.

Once we got to the base, we paused to take a quick video for the beezies and for our families (as soon as I can get a good enough internet connection to put the file in an email I'm sending it out!) then we ran to the ticket booth to buy our way to the very top of the Tower! About 10 minutes later we were there, looking out on the entire city of Paris realizing how small we really are in this world, but feeling like we were larger than life itself. We were probably up there for about 45 minutes, taking picture after picture of the [unfortunately] foggy city, and trying not to slip in our own drool from our mouths hanging open with amazement. It was nothing short of awesome. I hope you all got to see the pictures.

Before too long we started to feel a rumble in our tummies and it was time for lunch. We took the stairs back down - a dizzying yet gratifying experience - and started walking. We found a little Italian place that was more than happy to have us, and we ate. I had the most expensive Coke of my entire life there (6 Euros! no wonder I didn't see it on the menu, no one in their right mind would ever pay that much for a Coke!), but the food was good and not too expensive. A word of advice, Don't ever buy Coca Cola products from a restaurant in Paris.

After lunch we got back on the Metro and found our way to the Louvre. We probably saw about 95% of the museum, including all the most popular pieces: the Mona Lisa, the Venus di Milo, Nike, Venus & Eros... it was great. We were there from probably about 1pm to 5:30 or so, and decided to get another bite to eat at a cafe just across the street. I don't really remember what happened after that, but before too long we were back at our hotel draining a bottle of wine that only cost 1.90 euros and didn't taste half bad. That re-awakened our appetites, so we hit up an American-style pizza joint across the street bought another bottle of cheap wine (not as tasty this time) and ate some more. I've never eaten so much food in one weekend! It was fantastic :) We hit the sack a little early that night, because the next day we were planning on taking the RER (like the metro but goes farther with fewer stops) to Versailles before catching our train to Grenoble.

The next morning it was back to another corner cafe then off to catch the RER to Versailles. The ride took about 20-25 minutes and before we knew it there we were staring the "chateau" in the face! You would never believe how huge this place is but it's amazing. We debated on paying for a tour and finally decided that we would probably never be there again together so we went for it. We saw the Hall of Mirrors, a bunch of bedrooms, the old throne, and lots of sculptures and paintings. It was awesome! I had been there before but wasn't able to enjoy it as much. Things are just so much more fun when Emily is around!

-I'm off to meet a friend now but I will write more later and I'll try to squeeze the last of Emily's visit into one entry so I can start writing about recent events! I know you all are anxious to hear, and don't worry Brian. I'm preparing a critique of the froggies (French people) especially for you;) Ciao!

Emily, part 1

Oktoberfest is over, but the excitement doesn’t stop there!

MC and I got back to Grenoble pretty late Tuesday night, but went to class all day Wednesday feeling open minded and ready to settle back into the swing of things. Wednesday was pretty easy since all I have is my Sociology class (which I am really enjoying) and my French class (which is coming along nicely). I didn’t have class the next day (Thursday), but I had huge plans for my 4 day weekend: EMILY WAS COMING!

I boarded the train to Paris at about 2pm that Thursday so I could pick Ems up from the Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris when her flight got in at 8pm. I arrived at the Paris train station at about 5:30pm and was very proud of myself for figuring out the metro system and thus arriving at the airport with plenty of time to find my way to the right terminal. It turns out that CDG has 3 different terminals and all I knew was that Ems was flying in from Copenhagen at 8pm. I didn’t have a flight number or the name of the airline or anything else to go on. So I decided to try the terminals in numerical order and was proud of myself yet again for seeing her flight on the arrivals screen at the first terminal I tried. I figured it was just my lucky day! I still had about an hour until she was to arrive, so I paid way too much for an Orangina and settled in to a not so comfortable chair with next to a family whose 3 year old had pooped in his pants and they acted like they couldn’t smell it… But that’s another story.

The passengers from Emily’s flight started arriving and my heart started racing faster and faster with each person who walked through the door. I waited… and waited…. And waited some more but Emily did not walk through the door. My heart sank and I started to worry that maybe something came up and she wasn’t able to call me to tell me she had missed her flight. Another flight from Copenhagen was coming in exactly one hour later, so I decided to wait for that one to see if maybe she might miraculously appear. I must have called her cell phone at least 10 times by the time the next flight arrived, and she still did not appear. Finally, about an hour and a half later (I’ve been at the airport for about 4 hours by this time) my phone rings: “Olivia? Where are you?” Turns out I’d been waiting in the wrong terminal for 4 hours and apparently CDG receives about 6 flights an hour every day from Copenhagen and they all arrive at different terminals! I told Ems not to move an inch, and I hopped on the next shuttle bus to the correct terminal.

When the shuttle finally stopped, I ran off and into the airport which was still pretty crowded for 10:00pm. I was looking around, and then it was like the crowd parted and everything got quiet and there was a spotlight shining right on Ems (a little melodramatic, I know)! I literally shrieked and ran to her and almost knocked her over! I was so happy to see her (finally!) and she was definitely a sight for sore eyes. We decided to get out of there as quickly as possible, found our way back to the metro station talking 40 miles a minute to catch up as quickly as possible on recent events, and found ourselves on the longest metro ride of our entire lives. We must have had to change metros 8 times to get to our hotel, which was literally all the way on the opposite end of the city. When we finally exited the Paris underground, we looked up and directly across the street from the metro exit was our beautiful Hotel Yllen Eiffel! We quickly checked in, ran upstairs, threw our bags in our room, gave the mini bar a quick glance and decided that 8 euro was way too much to pay for anything that was in there, then set off to find something to eat. It was about 1am and everything was closed except for a tiny market just next door to the hotel. The little guy working the counter was very happy to help us – I think it was Ems’ blonde hair and big blue eyes – and gave us free bin candy as a “cadeau”. We bought pitas, lunchmeat, babybel cheeses, and Pepitos (the best chocolate covered cookies in all of France), and had a picnic on our bed back at the hotel. We stayed up forever talking about what great times we had in Santa Barbara, how much we miss our friends, and what life is like in our respective countries. It was great!!! When we finally crashed, we crashed hard, and woke up the next day to the sun shining through the clouds and into our window.
To be continued…

Oktoberfest, Part 2

We woke up at about 7:30 to catch an 8:30 train to Munich, and true to form, Christine’s mom had another elaborate breakfast all set up for us. MC and I were distracted by the food and by the time we looked at our watches it was about 8:15 and the train station is about 15 minutes away from Christine’s house. So we threw on our coats, ran to the car and sped off to catch the train just as it was blowing it’s whistle. We jumped on board and we were off!

We met a bunch of Christine’s friends on the train. Tommy and Stefan were there, and we met Anne and Maggie, who are two sweet girls who don’t speak much English. Christine was an excellent translator and we all became fast-friends. We rolled into Munich at about 11am, took the S-Bahn (subway) to Christine’s apartment to drop off our bags and so Christine could put on her drendel (traditional German dress), then we hopped back on the S-Bahn and when we resurfaced, we were at the fairgrounds. Looming before us was a huge carnival with all sorts of rides, wurst (sausage) stands and tents. We worked our way through the crowds and was our “tent” towering in the distance. The beer tents at Oktoberfest are nothing like I imagined them to be. They are more like huge barn-like structures with sawdust lining the floor, tons of tables, a band set up on an elevated stage in the center of the room, and beer and lederhosen EVERYWHERE! We found our table and squeezed together so we could all fit, ordered a beer and began drinking. It was about 12pm.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the beer mugs Germans drink from, but they’re HUGE! I’d say they hold a liter to a liter and a half of beer. MC, Christine and I started on our first one and by the time we were halfway through with them we were singing and laughing right along with the Germans, even though we had no idea what they were singing or laughing about. It was great! We challenged Stefan to a chugging contest and he beat me only by a hair. He was very impressed. Of course, the mugs are so big that you can’t’ chug very much, but it was fun. So we kept drinking and laughing and laughing and drinking, and before we knew it Tommy was buying us another round, so we drank and laughed some more, and sang along to about 12 rounds of “hey hey baby (ooh-ah!) I wanna know-ow-ow-ow-ow if you’ll be my girl!” The Germans love that song for some reason. I have it all on video too so if I can figure out how to attach the file to an email I’ll send it out. Before we knew it, it was time to go catch our flight, which left at 6:50pm. MC and I were talking about leaving, and all of a sudden Tommy and Christine say, “You guys should stay! We are driving to Tommy’s uncle’s house in France tomorrow; you can catch a train from there.” It wasn’t too difficult at that point to convince us that it was a great idea, so we kept drinking and skipped out on our flight back! The rest of the day was absolutely amazing, full of drunken fun and debauchery (not too much debauchery). We left Oktoberfest at about 10pm and boarded an over-crowded train back to Fussen (that’s the train station by Christine’s house in Steingaden), and after sitting on the floor in the corridor for about 3 hours, we finally arrived. The drive back to Christine’s house from the train station was one of the longest in my life… It was only about 30 minutes because we had to drop a couple of people off on the way, but my beer buzz was wearing off and I was hungry and exhausted and still sick from my cold, so all I wanted was to go to sleep and I was stuck in the back seat of a tiny BMW between MC and Stefan. We finally got back to Christine’s, made some scrambled eggs, ate and slept.

We woke up the next day to the promise of a traditional Bavarian breakfast prepared by Tommy. So we got up, threw in a load of laundry (MC and I had only packed enough to last us to Sunday) and anxiously awaited Tommy’s arrival. We crawled downstairs and set up camp in front of the TV and watched The Emperor’s New Groove (excellent, I must say! – “Huh! My shoulder angel!”) Tommy arrived shortly thereafter with Weisswurst (white sausage), freshly baked soft pretzels, and honey mustard, which he prepared for us in true Bavarian fashion, and we dined. It was the best breakfast I’ve ever had! So good, and not too heavy or rich. We finished up breakfast, did some dishes, packed the car and set off for France. We left Christine’s at about 1 I guess, and drove for about 8 hours to Bourgogne – the heart of French wine country. The drive was pretty uneventful, except that I was nauseous the whole way from my damn head cold (not because I was hung-over, I managed to escape having a hang-over), and we stopped on the way out of the country to get some liquid fun for the evening, which included German tequila (not like the tequila we know in the states), Malibu rum, and Absinthe.

We arrived in Beaune (Beaune is the name of the city; Bourgogne is the name of the region) at about 9:30pm, and it was dark but Tommy gave us the grand tour of the estate. It’s huge and nearly indescribably beautiful, but I will try to give as accurate a description as possible:

When you get there, you have to stop the car outside of the wall and open two huge wooden doors that allow you to drive onto the estate. You park the car, get out and let your eyes adjust to the darkness. To your left is a guesthouse, I guess you could call it, and directly in front of you is the main house. The entire place is being restored, but Tommy took us inside the main house so we could see what they’ve done. The staircases are all handcrafted, the floors are hardwood with really cool designs laid in, there are fireplaces in nearly every room, and it’s just beautiful and old. The estate is about 450 years old I think. We exited the main house and walked past a small reflecting pond to the old church (it’s a small church, more like a chapel) and went upstairs to where MC and I would stay for the night. There are sleeping quarters above the chapel and I guess that’s where the priest would sleep back in the day. It was pretty cool. We had our own bathroom and a small kitchenette (which we didn’t use) and blankets and pillows. It was cozy and warm. We dropped our bags off there then went back outside to a little veranda that overlooks the vineyards, which we couldn’t see because it was so dark, put on some music and poured a few shots of tequila. I usually don’t enjoy tequila but the kind we got was actually kind of sweet, and you chase it with a slice of orange and then you’re left with a very pleasant cinnamon aftertaste. It would be very easy to drink too much of that stuff. We decided to play charades/pictionary – instead of drawing the word you have to act it out – and drank Malibu with cherry juice (too sweet for my tastes). I know you’re all wondering about the Absinthe, so I’ll tell you. I only had one shot… It doesn’t taste as bad as some people say. It tastes like liquid black licorice, but burns going down. I had been coughing and clearing my throat because of my cold so it burned too much for me to drink any more of it. And it didn’t get me drunk, but kept me warm in the cool evening air. Kevin, Tommy’s friend who was visiting from Chicago and who wasn’t very pleasant to be around – that’s why I haven’t mentioned him until now, drank about half the bottle of Absinthe and was not looking to healthy the next day. MC and I went to bed a little earlier than the others because we knew we had a long day the next day.

We got up the next morning and got a better view of the estate. Tommy took us around the perimeter of the property and it’s not really that big, but it feels that way if you are standing in the middle of it looking around. We went and saw some of the workers houses that are being fixed up, and we went down to the wine cellar where there is a coffin with a real skeleton in it! They found the skeleton when they were remodeling one of the buildings on the property and I guess didn’t know what else to do with it. Exciting! When we finished looking around we drove into town where we had a delicious 4 course French lunch. We went to the train station and ended up missing our train back to Grenoble by one minute because I was looking at the Arrivals instead of the Departures and we were on the wrong track… So we caught the next train an hour later and were on our way back to Grenoble. It was a long ride, but we found our way home and were fully equipped with stories to share with our friends and family the next day.

To be continued…

Oktoberfest, Part 1

Hi everyone, Liv here. Who else would it be? So I owe you a lot of stories… I somehow have to cover Oktoberfest and Emily’s visit before I move back to the states. Brian told me that my journal entries are too long though, so to spare you all a few more minutes in your life I will write in installments so it doesn’t get too boring. But then, how could Oktoberfest and Emily ever be boring? So here it goes.

Oktoberfest, Part 1.

I left for Germany on Friday, September 26th (?) with 2 of the girls here, Morgen and MC. We hopped on a train for Lyon, and when we got there jumped on the plane to Munich. We landed in Munich at about 2:00 in the afternoon, and that’s where we met Christine, who was to be our hostess for the weekend. Morgen left to meet her friends shortly after we arrived, so Christine – a friend of MC’s family who has lived all but 5 months of her life in Germany and is half-American – took us to downtown Munich to see the sights and do some window shopping. It was drizzling there, but the sun broke through the clouds just long enough to reflect off of a huge clock tower right in the center of town. The tower almost looked as if it were plated in gold, and the contrast against the small patch of blue sky and the purple clouds on the horizon only made it look even more amazing.

We walked around for a bit then decided we were hungry, so we stopped to eat at a restaurant that served nothing but pure, authentic German food. Christine translated the menu for us, and we ordered some Weinerschnitzels (breaded filet of veal served with fried potatoes!!) and Radlers (half beer, half lemonade), and stuffed our faces. After dinner we headed back to the tiny studio apartment Christine’s dad stays in during the week when he works in the city, and where we were planning to stay for the weekend. But Christine was anxious to show us her family’s house out in the country and we decided that would be a great idea! So we threw our backpacks into her little Mini Cooper and hit the road. I was sick and from a nasty cold I had caught earlier in the week and she promised me I could take a nice long bath when we got there, so I was all for a little drive out to the country.

We drove about an hour and a half to Steingaden. By the time we got there I was definitely ready for my bath and it turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever taken! I slept better that night than I have since leaving home, and woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, but severely congested. We came downstairs and found an amazing breakfast waiting for us in the kitchen: big soft German pretzels, berlinas (doughnuts), scrambled eggs, coffee, nutella… (You name it and Christine’s mom had it prepared for us). We decided while eating to stay in Steingaden and explore the country for the day, and hit up Oktoberfest before our plane left the next night.

After we ate and showered, Christine took us to meet her friends Lucas, Stefan and Tommy, who were all hung over from the night before and in need of some friendly company. We went over and said hi, and agreed to meet later in the day when they were feeling a little bit better. From Lucas’ house we drove to Tommy’s house, which looked like a historical landmark that you would usually have to pay to get into. It’s not huge or anything, just old and really cool. He lives directly next door to an old church, so we went to check it out. From there we drove to a little lake Christine hangs out in the summer. It’s a pretty touristy spot because there’s a castle just up the hill that attracts people from all over. We didn’t go into the castle, but we got a pretty good look at it from where we were standing (see shutterfly site for pictures!). Next we drove over the Austrian border just so MC and I could say we had been there :-) and stopped by a little gift shop where I bought a little boot-shaped shot glass that says AUSTRIA on it, and MC bought a pair of red slippers with the Austrian crest on them. On our way back to Christine’s for a little snack and R&R we stopped and said hello to a gang of adorable German cows. I know you’re thinking, “since when are those smelly patty-dropping-machines adorable?” Just look at the pictures and you will see what I mean. They really are cute!

That night we all made pizzas, watched a few movies and crashed a little early to conserve energy for Oktoberfest the next day! Christine gave me some Theraflu and I was out like a light before I knew it. We got up the next morning and raced to the train station. We were on our way to Oktoberfest!

to be continued...