This week was a pretty relaxing week. On Monday I got home from Amsterdam just in time for my class. Monday night after happy hour we just spent the night relaxing after our crazy weekend. Tuesday and Wednesday I went to my classes and both nights we had a nice quiet dinner with Karen since my host sister Alexia is gone for the week. She is a lot of fun, but I'm not going to complain about a little time without her here;-) Thursday I met the french girl I'm going to start tutoring. She is 18 and now going to school to be a graphi designer, she wants to learn english because it will really help her in her career. We talked for about a half hour so I could get a feel for her english skills(or lack there of). She is at a very low level so we spent most of the time speaking in French, which is nice for me! We're going to start meeting every Wednesday for two hours, so I need to start brainstorming some lesson plans...
After the tutor session, Kelly and I went over to my French friend Clarisse's house. She made us dinner and we exchanged some pictures from the last month or so. After dinner we hung out until about midnight, but she had to go to bed after that because she has to study for the english exam. To study in an english speaking country you have to place a test with a 95/120 to be allowed to go to a University there. My friend Pauline has chosen UW-Madison, but missed passing the test by 5 points, and now she is going to England instead. England is so lucky!!!
Today I went to Marseille with a few kids from CEA and my program director for the chocolate fair! She somehow managed to get us free tickets to ride in really old cars from the vieux port to the fair. The cars, and owners are part of a old car club in Aix. I got to ride in a 1966 jaguar with a really awesome French man!!! We drove along the coast, and for everyone else with me in the car it was the first time for them to see the Med! We're so lucky to live right here!! Once we got into the fair it was chaos, everyone wandering around all hopped up on sugar! I tried about 6 million different kinds od chocolate:-) We all had bad stomach aches by the end. I got some really nice presents though!!! After the fair we took the metro back to where the bus picks us up and headed back to Aix. I'm home now, and I'm staying in tonight to try and finish my homework before my mom gets here because I know once she gets here I won't have any free time! I'm so excited for her, Rhonda, Chris and Cheryl to get here!!!! I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about after the week is over.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Adventures in Amsterdam
This past weekend Kelly and I went to Amsterdam. We left our house at about 7:40am, which isn't my favorite time of day. We took the bus from the bus station in Aix, which is about a 10 minute walk from our house, to the airport in Marseille which took about 25 minutes. The Marseille airport is pretty small so we got to our gate pretty quickly, checked in/went through passport check and then waited for an hour or so. Once we got on the plane both Kelly and I fell asleep for the two hour flight to Eindhoven. We both just brought a backpack, so once the plane landed we were set! Right outside our gate there was a info desk for buses to the center of Amsterdam...everything is set-up so nicely for us foreigners! We took the AirExpressBus from the Eindhoven airport to Amsterdam central train station which took about an hour and a half. We used Ryanair(a cheap European Airline) which is why we flew into Eindhoven and not straight into the city. Ryanair flights are always really cheap but you always end up in a city close to where you want to be.
It actually was nice that we got to take the bus because we got to see a lot of Holland's countryside. Lots of cute little cottages, sheep and horses. I didn't get to take any pictures because we were on the bus and it was rainy so the glass was blurry. We arrived at the train station a half hour after expected. There was a bus arrival at 2:30 and 4:45 so Evan and I planned on meeting at platform 7 at both times. We missed him by 5 minutes for the first meeting time and since my cell phone only works for calling france telephones I had no way of getting ahold of him. Kelly and I wandered around for a while but it was rainy out so we mostly stayed in the station and then 4:45 finally rolled around and we headed back for platform 7 and there he was! It's sad being away from him, but everytime we get to see each other it's so exciting! Looking forward to the next time we get to see each other almost makes up for the missing each other until next time. We're really lucky it worked out for us both to be in Europe together.
The three of us bought 3 day bus passes and then headed to the hotel. Our hotel was really nice for the price we paid. There were fresh towels and a great breakfast. I've gotten used to hostels, so this was a nice surprise! Once we checked in and got settled we went back to the center of Amsterdam and explored for a while, but after a long day of traveling we were all tired.
Over the next two days we spent a lot of time just walking around the city, looking at all the beautiful buildings and touring the canals. It reminded me a lot of venice. We went to the Van Gogh museum which was amazing, and then the Anne Frank house. I've learned so much about her and her family it was really unbelievable to actually go there and see what it was really like. On Sunday after the musuems we all went back to the hotel to relax for a bit before Evan had to leave for the airport. He took a bus right outside of our hotel straight to the airport. The public transportation was wonderful, there were buses and trams passing our hotel going in all directions at all hours. Once Evan left Kelly and I went out to dinner and then came back to the hotel because we had to leave really early the next morning.
We got ready and went to breakfast at 8am. We went through the line and found some seats when I suggested looking at our bus tickets just to make sure of the departure location. Kelly got the ticket out of her bag and handed it to me, and thats when I saw that the bus left at 8:15, not 9:15. I then looked at the clock which said 8:17, we had officially missed the only bus to Eindhoven airport that morning. We then rushed to the central station to see what our other options were and we were told there was a train that left in 6 minutes! We literally ran across the central amsterdam square to the station bought our tickets and then ran across the station and boarded the train and as we took our seats the train left. We got REALLY lucky! If we had missed that train we would have missed our flight without a doubt. I was so mad we didn't double check those tickets, but we made the train and got to the airport on time.
Our flight landed at 2:30 in Marseille, and my class starts at 3:00...talk about poor planning! Luckily my host-dad offered to pick us up and take us back to Aix because the bus would have taken forever! We made it back, and I was sitting in my desk at 3:30. I didn't quite make it on time, but close enough!
After my class we went to our weekly "happy hour" at a local cafe where I got a nice steaming cup of hot chocolate. Afterwards we went back home and ate a yummy homemade broccoli quiche and rice pilaf. So happy to be home:-)
Now I have to go do my homework....
It actually was nice that we got to take the bus because we got to see a lot of Holland's countryside. Lots of cute little cottages, sheep and horses. I didn't get to take any pictures because we were on the bus and it was rainy so the glass was blurry. We arrived at the train station a half hour after expected. There was a bus arrival at 2:30 and 4:45 so Evan and I planned on meeting at platform 7 at both times. We missed him by 5 minutes for the first meeting time and since my cell phone only works for calling france telephones I had no way of getting ahold of him. Kelly and I wandered around for a while but it was rainy out so we mostly stayed in the station and then 4:45 finally rolled around and we headed back for platform 7 and there he was! It's sad being away from him, but everytime we get to see each other it's so exciting! Looking forward to the next time we get to see each other almost makes up for the missing each other until next time. We're really lucky it worked out for us both to be in Europe together.
The three of us bought 3 day bus passes and then headed to the hotel. Our hotel was really nice for the price we paid. There were fresh towels and a great breakfast. I've gotten used to hostels, so this was a nice surprise! Once we checked in and got settled we went back to the center of Amsterdam and explored for a while, but after a long day of traveling we were all tired.
Over the next two days we spent a lot of time just walking around the city, looking at all the beautiful buildings and touring the canals. It reminded me a lot of venice. We went to the Van Gogh museum which was amazing, and then the Anne Frank house. I've learned so much about her and her family it was really unbelievable to actually go there and see what it was really like. On Sunday after the musuems we all went back to the hotel to relax for a bit before Evan had to leave for the airport. He took a bus right outside of our hotel straight to the airport. The public transportation was wonderful, there were buses and trams passing our hotel going in all directions at all hours. Once Evan left Kelly and I went out to dinner and then came back to the hotel because we had to leave really early the next morning.
We got ready and went to breakfast at 8am. We went through the line and found some seats when I suggested looking at our bus tickets just to make sure of the departure location. Kelly got the ticket out of her bag and handed it to me, and thats when I saw that the bus left at 8:15, not 9:15. I then looked at the clock which said 8:17, we had officially missed the only bus to Eindhoven airport that morning. We then rushed to the central station to see what our other options were and we were told there was a train that left in 6 minutes! We literally ran across the central amsterdam square to the station bought our tickets and then ran across the station and boarded the train and as we took our seats the train left. We got REALLY lucky! If we had missed that train we would have missed our flight without a doubt. I was so mad we didn't double check those tickets, but we made the train and got to the airport on time.
Our flight landed at 2:30 in Marseille, and my class starts at 3:00...talk about poor planning! Luckily my host-dad offered to pick us up and take us back to Aix because the bus would have taken forever! We made it back, and I was sitting in my desk at 3:30. I didn't quite make it on time, but close enough!
After my class we went to our weekly "happy hour" at a local cafe where I got a nice steaming cup of hot chocolate. Afterwards we went back home and ate a yummy homemade broccoli quiche and rice pilaf. So happy to be home:-)
Now I have to go do my homework....
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