gobble gobble

Happy post-Turkey Day!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and it wasn’t s bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be the worst “homesick day” of the entire year, but I managed to avoid feeling too lonely. I woke up early and took care of a few chores, then went to the grocery store to look for a few key ingredients for a small but humble Thanksgiving dinner. I bought a few turkey legs and some potatoes, and hustled and bustled about my kitchen for about 2 hours until Henri and Phil showed up. MC and Ellen were supposed to come too but didn’t make it. So the three of us polished off all the turkey and the better part of the mashed potatoes (dad’s special recipe!). It was delicious, and comforting at the same time.

There’s nothing I miss more than being home for Thanksgiving. It’s the one holiday that my family gets REALLY into, and we do it really well. In fact, 26 members of my family, including our closest family friends, all got together at my house this year for the feast. My mom called me at 2:30am my time = 5:30pm California time, after everyone had finished eating, and she passed the phone around so I got to talk to almost everyone! It was such a warm and fuzzy feeling. It almost felt like I was there with them all. I can’t wait til next year’s celebration. A friend of mine wrote in her blog that she thinks holidays like this should only happen every 2-4 years. I can’t even begin to imagine a year without Thanksgiving at the Baker house.

If my entry seems a bit scatterbrained today it’s only because I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. I went to bed considerably early, but between the 2:30am phone call from my mom and the other call I received at 4:00am from Megs (which I actually didn’t mind at all) I’m a little sleepy. Today is going to be full of more baking… I have to make pumpkin pies - or at least try to - for the dinner that the University of California has arranged for tonight. Since they don’t have pre-made pumpkin mix here, I had to do it from scratch and I can only hope it turns out okay. In fact, I better get started on that right now so I have time to start over if I mess up, which I probably will! Haha…

Happy Thanksgiving to all. -Liv

Master Procrastinator

Being the professional procrastinator I am, I have just spent about 2 hours rearranging the walls in my room (I bought a huge map of Europe that takes up the better part of a wall so I had to accommodate for it!) and putting up Christmas lights, and now I’m going to take just a few more minutes to write about what a lovely day it has been. It may be cold here, but let me tell you that there is not a cloud in the sky and this afternoon as I was walking home from my tram stop I happened to glance over at the snow-capped mountains and notice a full moon rising over them, even though the sun had not yet begun to set. It was phenomenal and I wish I had my camera with me. But, alas, we can’t be prepared all the time. The entire weekend was lovely, actually. It’s been sunny yet chilly - an odd combination for one coming from sunny and mild California.

I haven’t been up to much lately. Just trying to catch up on some studying I suppose. My first two finals are next Monday (one week from today) and they’re my Erasmus finals (for my classes especially for foreign students) so they shouldn’t be too scary. It will be nice to get them out of the way early so I can devote more time to studying for my real finals. I have been talking with Megs about where she wants to travel over Christmas, and it looks like we’re going to try to do Vienna, Prague, maybe Berlin and possibly Amsterdam, then London for New Years. After she leaves to go back to sunny California, I might meet a friend in Paris for a day or two then take a train to meet MC and our good German friends Tommy and Christine at Tommy’s chalet in Bourgogne! I’m sure you all remember reading about that (if not, I think it’s the blog titled “Oktoberfest, Part 2” ). I can’t wait to see them again and it was nice of them to invite us back! Christmas break is looking very promising. But I really can’t believe that the school year is already halfway over! It feels like it’s been no time at all since I got here, but then it feels like I’ve been here forever. Funny how things work that way.

I actually had a dream the other night that I was back home driving around Sacramento and I was feeling homesick for Grenoble. My dad made a comment on my last blog about things “clicking” for me. I think that things have actually finally clicked into place here… I’m starting to feel more at home. There’s a great movie, which I have seen many times now, called L’Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment). It’s about a French university student who studies for a year in Spain through the European exchange program -Erasmus. In the beginning of the movie there’s a scene in which Xavier, the student, first arrives in Barcelona and is talking about how everything that is so strange and unfamiliar when you first arrive in a new place becomes normal and part of your every day routine after you have been there for a while. The names of places that seem so bizarre at first, and the accents of the people around you seem so foreign. Even though I’ve only been here 3 months I’m beginning to see exactly what he was talking about. Watching that movie was so comforting to me… I think any of us studying abroad here can relate to it. Watch it, and you will know what I mean (warning: it’s mostly in French so don’t forget to turn on the subtitles!)

It’s time for dinner and a little more procrastination. À bientôt mes amis, et bonne journée! -Liv

Parlez Vous Franglais?

I spoke more French today than English! Or at least, I spoke more broken French today than I spoke any other language. Yesterday I was feeling so frustrated because I feel like I’ve reached a stopping point. I feel like my French is not getting any better and feel like it might actually be getting worse. I’m sitting in the car going full speed on that metaphorical roller coaster they drew out for us before we left to come here! It’s so weird. But the good thing about actually feeling all these different phases pass is that I know what point I’m at and I should have a pretty good idea of what phase comes next. Now if I could only find that drawing…

One of the people I’m here with (I can’t remember who said it) made a good point about this point on the roller coaster. Whoever it was said that the only reason why we feel like our French is getting worse at this point is because we know enough of it to try and start turning more complicated thoughts into words, and that’s difficult in any language. So apparently I’m past the “Bonjour, je m’appelle Olivia. Je voudrais un croissant” phase, or at least I’m stuck in limbo between that phase and the “Avant la deuxième guerre mondiale, l’idée d’une Union Européene était pensée comme trop en avance sur son temps. Mais après que la guerre a presque ruiné toute chance d’unification européene, cette idée a été plus serieusement considerée, et une demarche sur les traités foundateurs de l’Union Européene a commencé.” (Short excerpt from an essay I’m writing for my European Union class). It’s frustrating to be stuck in this middle ground, wanting to say so much but not quite being able to. I’m constantly being corrected when I try to talk to my roommates and I feel like by the time I finally figure out how to say what I want to say it doesn’t matter anymore. At least I can speak Franglais (French/English) with Penda, who knows a little bit of English. But I am anxiously awaiting the moment in which I will just blurt something out and it will make perfect sense. However, I have a feeling it will be a while before I reach that moment.

The holidays are coming and a few of the people are going back to California for Christmas. I’m kind of jealous but at the same time all advice I’ve received has been to not go back to the states for any amount of time. The holidays are a great time to travel around Europe, get some good skiing/snowboarding in, practice speaking French… Megs is coming and that is exactly what I plan on doing when she gets here! We’ll be in Vienna for Christmas and will probably take a train over to Prague and maybe Budapest, and we’ll be in London for New Years. So I guess I won’t actually be speaking much French then, but fun-filled times await. Life is always a blast when Megs is around!

I always seem to find lots to say when I’m supposed to be studying, so I should probably stop for now and get back to my books. More to follow the next time I try to sit and study, that’s a promise :- ) -Liv

Paris... again (click here for pics)

MC and I were on the train to Paris and I was supposed to be studying, but I couldn’t concentrate so instead I wrote this:

It’s as if I can feel myself changing… emotionally, mentally, physically (but only because the food here is so good :- )). It’s an odd sensation, really. A week ago I was on the verge of tears whenever someone or anything reminded me of home. This week I’m beginning to open my eyes more to what surrounds me, and accept the fact that I’m going to be here another 7 or 8 months. A lot has yet to change and to come about, and sure it’s a scary idea, but it’s thrilling at the same time. It’s an idea that would have scared the crap out of me last week. But this week I feel like I’m finally ready to take it on.
I’m creating a life for myself here and it’s bizarre, but I think I can feel myself falling into it. I am hesitant to say that everything is perfect and that I’m completely comfortable here because sometimes it seems that way and then things revert back to being far from perfect and extremely uncomfortable. It happens in a heartbeat. But I think it’s safe to say that those switches have been occurring less often lately.

That’s about as far as I got on the train before I fell asleep. But Paris was great! I just can’t get enough of that city. And when you have connections there you can easily spend three days there without spending more than $50... Total. MC has connections to wonderful families all over Europe, it seems. We lived like royalty in Munich when we stayed with Christine, and this weekend we were fully taken care of by a woman named Marie and the Orland family.

We arrived in Paris having no clue where we were going to stay because the girl we were trying to contact never called MC back. We had coffee at the nearest Starbucks (Avenue de l’Opera, and oh my god was it delicious!) and made a few phone calls, and chatted for a bit. We were walking around the Tuileries gardens thinking about looking for a hostel and MC called her mom to see if she knew of anyone we could stay with. Turns out she did, and after a bumpy bus ride we found our way to Marie’s little Parisian apartment. She offered us wine and a snack, which we gladly accepted, and afterward MC and I walked to the Champs-Elysées where the National Guard’s Band was paying a tribute to the Unknown Soldier underneath the Arc de Triomph as part of the Armistice celebration (Thursday was a national holiday). We were trying to sneak up and get some good pictures and I managed to get some pretty good footage before we were shooed away by a guard. We found a tasty pizza place and were on our way home when we happened upon a couple of free passes to a male strip tease show just down the street. So we went, of course, made a few new French friends and had a great time. We got lost walking back to Marie’s apartment, and probably walked about 8 miles total that night. It was cold and my feet were killing me! For future reference, Doc’s don’t make good walking shoes. We got back at about 2:00am and slept until noon the next day.

Since MC and I have both already done the major tourist things in Paris, we spent the next day just walking around and enjoying the sunshine. We walked from Place de l’Opera to the Louvre, to the Latin Quarter, had a Greek Gyro there (loved it), saw the Hotel de Ville and the Palais de Justice. We headed back to Marie’s at about 5pm to meet Henri Orland, who I guess was a host professor in the Physics department back at UCSB a few years ago. A brilliant man, with a brilliant family, and they took us out to dinner that night and gave us a place to sleep. We were out until 2:30am that night with Jonathan (Henri’s son) having drinks at a place somewhere near the Place de la Bastille. I was so tired at that point that I wasn’t much fun, but it was a quiet evening and when we got back to their apartment (not so tiny but very Parisian) I crashed hard. We woke up to a great petit déjeuner à la français (French breakfast) and made it to the Gare (train station) with a little bit of time to kill before we caught the train back to Grenoble.

Today is Sunday, and I have lots to do. Between homework for French class that is supposed to take me 3 hours to do, 6 paintings I need to start and finish by Christmas, chores around the apartment, and studying for my other classes (finals are coming up in exactly one month!) I am feeling a little bit stressed out. And it doesn’t help that my heater in my room still isn’t doing its job, and my roommates shutters are being blown against the windows by the wind but she’s out of town and locked her door so there’s nothing I can do about it. Aggravating, but I will live through it. Love to all! -Me.

And all that jazz

I woke up today feeling better than I have in 2 weeks. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that I talked to 4 of my favorite people last night: Emily, Brian, Kelly and Beth (in no particular order) and they put me in a good mood. Talking to them always makes me feel like I have the best friends in the world (haha my friends are better than yours! (just kidding around)). Anyhow, today I didn’t have class until 1:30 so I got up early and decided to take care of some things that have been on my list of stuff to do forever, like go get my residence permit. But the place was closed (grrrr) so I have to go back tomorrow and I don’t really have time. *sigh* life is such a pain sometimes.

I discovered the best homesickness cure ever today while I was eating lunch in my cozy little kitchen: Jazz and a hot cup of tea. I found a great radio station that plays lots of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Edith Piaf (we are in France, afterall). It added to my good day today, and I’ve been all smiles since I woke up.

This Thursday is another “jour feriée” (school holiday) so I booked train tickets for Paris. They were relatively cheap, and I’m going with MC who seems to have connections everywhere and so we’re not spending a dime on some crappy hostel or over-priced hotel. We’re staying with some friends of hers in their little Parisian apartment. I’m so excited! People keep asking me “why Paris?” and I have to respond with 2 more questions: 1) why not? And 2) guess how many Starbucks’ there are in Paris? 4. That’s right, and I’m finding the one closest to the train station and am not leaving until I’ve had enough gingerbread lattes to last me until Megs gets here and we can drink some more! Hehe…

Well, I gotta go cuz it’s time to start home working. Love to all!!! -Liv

Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen...

There comes a time about halfway through every semester/quarter when I just need a vacation. I reach a point where I feel like I’ve had enough of the place I’m at and the people I’m with and I need a quick fix of something good. That time has come and gone for semester one here in Grenoble: I spent a week in lovely Copenhagen with the lovely and ever-enthralling Emily. The pictures soon to be posted on my shutterfly.com site explain it all, but for those of you who can’t see them I’ll do my best to tell you all about it. Keep in mind, however, that neither photographs nor words can do this last week any justice.

After about 10 straight hours of trains, layovers and airplanes I finally arrived in Copenhagen (to get anywhere for cheap you have to be willing to pay with time - the return trip was only 3 hours!). I hobbled off the plane with my overstuffed backpack and waited about 20 minutes until I saw Emily walk through the door (my flight landed early), and snuck up behind her - hehe :- ) I got the biggest hug of my life and was immediately handed a bottle of my favorite beer, which we opened as soon as we got off the metro and were walking down the street to her house. Apparently in some parts of the world humans are allowed to consume alcohol in public. It was great! When we got there I met all of her housemates who are some of the coolest people I’ve met in a long time. I brought Emily some cassis flavored vodka and a bottle of absinthe (don’t worry mom, it was of the drug-free variety and was only 55%- haha) Let me just say that the drinking didn’t stop until I left to go back to France a week later.

The next night we gathered up the housemates and went to student bar, where Ems bartends sometimes. She hooked us up with tons of free beer, and introduced me to more of her friends. We started making rounds to see who was there and I kept making eye contact with a hot guy who was cruising around in the crowd. We walked past him about 4 times before Emily said something, and he and I ended up talking the rest of the night. Turns out he’s a student at Dartmouth studying in Copenhagen for the semester. We followed him and his friend back to their dorms to play a game of beer-pong (don’t ask, I have no idea how to play or what the point of it is). There were a bunch of crazy Spaniards hanging out downstairs and crowding the student lounge so we just hung out for a bit and Dartmouth’s friend was getting a little “lurpy” (translation: creepy) toward Emily and it was getting late so we called it a night and headed home. BUT, the trams had stopped running and Ems had no idea how to get home from where we were so we ended up running on the train tracks for about a mile to get back to her stop (don’t worry mom, there were no trains running at that point in the wee hours of the morning). When we finally got to her stop we found ourselves locked in, so we had to climb down a holding wall to get out. It sounds worse than it was, it was actually quite an adventure. One that I’ll never forget [because I have video to help me remember - I love my digital camera!]. So fun!

Halloween was the day before I left to go back to France and we definitely celebrated! Ems and I dressed up as black cats and made our own ears out of pipe cleaner and construction paper. We dressed all in black and even made our own tails out of felt fabric. We painted our noses and whiskers and headed over to some girl’s Halloween party. Turns out the girl has something against Emily - how is that possible? Anyways… The party wasn’t that great, but there were lots of fun costumes. We left it kind of early and I got some more great video of Kurt (one of Ems’ roommates) hammer-throwing a bike into the street (don’t worry mom, harmless fun - no bikes were hurt in the process of my filming). We stopped for Kebab’s because we were all famished and headed home. The next day Kurt bought us chocolate and we all took it pretty easy.

I didn’t see much of the city during the daytime because A) Copenhagen is so far north that the sun starts setting at about 4 in the afternoon and B) We stayed up so late every night that we ended up sleeping until between noon and 2pm every day - by the time we got out of the house it was already starting to get dark. I did, however, get a nice tour of the “walking street” (no cars allowed) and saw lots of scenery on the bus ride back to the airport. Saying goodbye was especially difficult… Ems goes back to California just before Christmas and she’s my only link to home while I’m here. After she leaves I’m all on my own. Guess I gotta grow up sometime.

I made it back to Grenoble safe and sound, and when I got back I was refreshed and ready to work my hardest until the end of the semester. But my French teacher spoiled that mood when she handed back our midterms. Thanksgiving is coming up, also, and my aunt told me that we’re holding it at my house this year. This holiday season is going to be hard to get through. Good thing Megs is coming as soon as my finals are over :- ) That should make things more bearable. But there’s nothing like spending some good quality time with your family. I never realized that until I got here. -Liv