Update- December

Hey everyone sorry it has been such a long time since the last time I have posted anything up on the blog! Let’s see, a lot has happened since the last update when my Mom was here visiting me. I’ll start there.

Between Dec 8th - 12th like any other school week I would have classes to teach. However during this week, the students across France decided to go on strike as they were unhappy with the changes the government was making in the high school system. President Sarkozy from what I understand was trying to take out some high school subject options for the students, and since they did not want that to happen, high school kids all over France got together and put up big planks of wood and metal in the entrances of their schools. Luckily, this happened to my school Paul Cornu as well, so I basically had the entire week off from teaching. This worked out perfectly because as my mom was visiting me for 2 weeks, we had a week to use the car and explore the beautiful cities of Normandy. In our first excursion we drove to Caen (Normandy’s captial) to revisit the city where my mom did her study abroad when she was a college student in England. It was really cool because we got to see her old host mother her was 91 (more or less) and still healthy and who had a good memory from what I gathered if she could remember my mom when she stayed with her in the 1970s.

Since my mom rented a car during her 2 week stay, the typical short distance weekend trips that Cecil and I had gotten used to were no more! On the first weekend my mom was here, all 3 of us got in our small little French Peugot Car, and drove about 3 hours to Mont Saint Michel. For those of you unfamiliar with this French monument, it is essentially a castle/town/abbey from the middle ages that is especially unique because it was built on an island a couple hundred yards from the mainland. In the day when the tide is out, many tourists make the bare-footed trek across the sand to reach the island. During the evening the tide comes back in making the trip back a little more damp and actually highly dangerous. They say the tide comes in like “galloping horses”. YIKES. Since we were visiting Mont St. Michel in december, we chose the drier option to get to the entrance by using the one road that leads up to the main entrance and parking close by. Unfortunately the season in which we were visiting this monument is notorious for bad weather. And the day we were there Normandy did not disappoint. IT POURRRRED down!! I was lucky to throw one umbrella in the car before we left Lisieux. Although it was cloudy and rained during most of our visit, the one good thing about seeing the Mont St. Michel during the winter is the crowds. We were told since this monument is the second most vistited in France (after, you guessed it, the Eiffel Tower), that in the summer it is PACKED with people. So luckily for us we traded the crowds of tourists for rain. In the end it was a good trade, and we enjoyed all that we got to see on this historic castle/island. Essentially you walk in a narrow cobble-stoned path, lined with little stores, shops, and restaurants featuring the best regional cuisine, as it gradually slopes upward toward the central abbey. There are places to stop, rest, and take pictures along the castle walls which became fantastic look out sites over the British Channel and back across mainland France. Finally the path takes you to the abbey where for only 5 euros, you get to explore the famous cloister (a type of enclosed-garden), church, bell tower, refectory (dining hall), and some outdoor areas that let you have an even better view of the sea and land around you! Suffice it to say we all enjoyed the it a lot - we were even lucky enough to be in the abbey at the perfect time to see a local monk ring the massive bell to call the other church members to mass! (Check out some of the pictures below.) We finished our weekend visit staying in a cozy motel right near the island and enjoying the local seafood for dinner. I think I may have had the best French food in my time here so far - I ordered Moules-Frites, which translates to Mussels and French Fries. mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The next adventure I went on was visiting Paris with my mom, before she left to return to the States, and before I left with Cecil on our trip to celebrate Christmas in Barcelona. My mom and I got to spend a couple days in Paris, before our plane flights, and we crammed as much as we possibly could into those few days. Our hotel was situated in the Mont-Martre neighborhood, so one of the first things we did was hike up to Sacré-Coeur, which is this beauuuuutiful cathedral situated on top of the famous Mont-Martre butte that overlooks Paris. We had a small picnic of baguettes, salami, and brie on the steps of Sacre Coeur while listening to the music of local street musicians. I wanted to show my mom the Moulin Rouge without tell her...but she soon figured out where we were heading as we walked past several sex shops and brothel type businesses in this notorious risqué neighborhood. In the late afternoon, we visited the famous Musée D’Orsay and got to see some of the prettiest paintings ever! Since coming to France, I’ve learnt a lot more about art and have taken a real interest into Impressionist artwork. Since my mom likes impressionism too, we were simply amazed at the famous paintings by Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Manet, Degas, and my personal ‘post-impressionist’ painter, Van Gogh. Though I don’t know that much about art, I couldn’t help but feel goosebumps on my neck and a chill down my spine as I entered a room and saw Monet’s waterlillies, Renoir’s ‘Dance at the Moulin de la Galette’, and Van Gogh’s ‘Room at Arles’. The famous paintings you always see in textbooks or in magazines, but this time - we stood just a few meters (ok feet for the american crowd) from them!!!! It was probably the best museum I have been to so far.

When we left the Orsay, it was already quite late, so we decided to head back to the hotel room. But instead of hopping on the closest metro, my mom and I took our time walking along the Seine. Fortunately we headed in the perfect direction and ‘stumbled upon’ ...... The EIFFEL TOWER. I had been to the eiffel tower once already with my dad back in 2003, but that was in the day. At night it was a whole different story! The were crowds of people standing around taking tooons of pictures I think partly because at night the tower is completely lit up. It really changes the image of the monument and I discovered that I prefer it best at night time. We joined the tourists and took several pictures. Finally we had a savory french crepe for a light dinner and slept. In the morning I did not have much time to explore more of Paris because my friend Cecil was meeting me there in the early afternoon to catch our flight to Barcelona for christmas. So after we met him at the train station, we all made our way to the airport shuttle pick up area. I said goodbye to my mom, before Cecil and I boarded the bus for our next trip - Barcelona. But I had a woonnnderful 2 weeks with my mom here and I was sooo happy she came to visit and see france, speak french, eat cheese, drink wine hhaha, (rent a car so we could travel easier :) ) and see her old region where she studied abroad when she was a college student. I look forward to seeing more of my family when they come this summer to visit Europe.

That’s it for now, I will try to update again really soon describing a little bit about barcelona and also about the next adventure that I am embarking on tomorrow during the Feb. vacation: AMSTERDAM!!!

p.s. go BARACK OBAMA!!!!!

UPDATE!

SORRRY guys....It's been sooo long since I have had the time to update the blog, and tell everyone how things are in France. And it's not that I was able and chose not to. But of course it is again due to the on going struggle with obtaining internet in the apartment. It has been almost 2 months since we made the request, and the people at the store tell us each week we go to ask them what the problem is...'sorry you are really unlucky, this has never happened before, it has happened with every customer that requested internet on the same day that you did, you just have to wait one more week etc' and more excuses like that. Suffice it to say we are STILL internetless, and have almost given up all hope. So I am in an internet cafe, hoping to spend most of the time updating you what has been going on since the last blog (mostly in november).

I took Thursday off from classes to go to London and visit my uncle, cousin, and some friends. I bought a round trip train ticket from Paris to London and got to go under the British Channel for only 60 euros! Cecil, my roomate, didn’t come with me unfortunately because he had classes, but it was ok because it was still very fun to be in a country that spoke English!!!!!!(A break from a foreign language does some good from time to time) ... Ironically I spoke very little English in London because 5 people from Lyon (people I met last Christmas when I went to France) stayed with us in my uncle's London apartment near Tower Bridge. So I ended up actually speaking more french than english, which was actually really good because I was able to improve a lot and learn more french words (some cool slang words which I probably shouldn't mention here - haha).
In London, my cousin came drove from Bristol to visit me on the first day. The rest of the weekend I spend taking the underground with my Lyonnais friends, visiting typical London monuments like Big Ben, London Bridge, The London Eye (a huge ferris wheel), Oxford Street (a road famous for its shopping), and my personal favorite...Wembley STADIUM. The soccer field where the England National team plays. Since I love soccer so much, I decided to pay 8 pounds to do the full tour. I got to sit in the highest chairs in the stadium, touch the field, visit the MVP room, sit where the players get interviewed after the match, and even check out the dressing room with all the players' jerseys on the wall. It was SOOO WORTH IT.

So that was my biggest trip during November. For the rest of the month, I continued working at my high school in the week, and taking small train trips with Cecil to visit other Normandy cities/villages that we hadn't already seen. One weekend we traveled 1 hour to Dives Sur Mer - it was Absolutetly BEAUTIFUL. I have to return here! The train from runs through the green countryside in the first half of the journey, and then moves almost directly on to the sandy beaches, the train tracks running just parallel to the shore, just 200 feet from the sea! Cecil and I spent the day speaking french, picnicking, enjoying the blue waves, and taking pictures of a spectacular sunset.

Later in november, we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with the other american assistant in Lisieux. Even though no french person celebrates thankgiving, the american teaching assistants (3 of us) came together and bought everything we could find from the local supermarket with the word turkey on it (in french 'dinde'). And since we have no oven, we used the microwave and 2 stove tops to cook cordon bleu (with turkey), mashed potatoes, canned corn, and mexican chicken wings. VERY THANKSGIVING if you ask me hahaha. I hope all of yours was a little more traditional. I definitely felt myself longing for a slice of turkey and stuffing, doused with gravy after the French Thanksgiving meal was over...

Teaching has been very enjoyable as well. I work Monday to Thursday every week, and get Fridays off so I can enjoy 3 day weekends. My busiest days are Tuesday and Thursday when I have 4 hours of classes. I have 5 different English teachers I help out with, and they have different teaching methods and ways of using me, the English assistant. Sometimes I am in the same class at the same time with the teacher, helping by going around the room and talking to the students, or helping them with activities. Other times I take a small group of students for an hour in another classroom and try to get them to talk in English, on conversation topics (their favorite subjects are when we discuss the differences between the U.S. and France - like high schools; american students have the same schedule every day and get out of school around 3 o clock, while french students have different classes every day of the week and get out of school by 5 or 6 pm. And finally other teachers have me take half the class and talk to them,, or design English activities to engage them for half an hour. I really enjoy talking to the students and find them all to be friendly and nice, and excited that there is an American around their same age in the classroom. It's weird, it kind of feels like being a movie star since the town is so small. Even the Librarians at the local 'bibliotheque' recognize the two american guys that come in once a week, and always say 'Hello' in a french accent (instead of Bonjour), followed by 'Go Obama'.

What else... that was mostly it for november, besides some other weekend bus trips to small French town.

What's really cool is that last monday, Dec. 8th, my mom came to visit me in france!! In fact she is here next to me, working on her own computer, and she is staying for another week, for a total of about 2 weeks here in Lisieux. It has been wonderful having her here. Since she is a french teacher at the U of O, her french is obviously very good and so it makes living and traveling around france very easy for her. We have already seen many things together, and it is really nice because she has rented a car. Normally Cecil and I do not have the luxury to go to too many places in france, especially if they are far or inaccessable by train. But having a car makes all the difference. And in fact last weekend, we 3 drove to the second most visited touristic site in France - le Mont St. Michel. For those of you who haven't heard of it, it is this incredible castle/abbey/town that was built about 1200 years ago on an island out in the middle of the British Channel. When the tide is low, people can access the island on foot by crossing on the sand, but later in the day when the tide comes in, the castle/town is almost completely surrounded by water (making it extremely difficult to attqck during the middle ages). It rained the entire time we were there, but we took a TON of pictures because it's truly a specila monument, and I was told my a teacher of mine that it is considered by some as 'la ouitieme merveille du monde" - or the 8th wonder of the world. We have many more adventures planned before she goes back this weekend, such as visiting Caen, the city where she studied as a student for study abroad back in the (olden) days, and also Paris of course.

That's it for now, now time for some pictures...

Hey everyone. I'm really sorry I haven't written in a while, but I have been waiting and waiting for 4 weeks and one day now for our wifi internet to be set up in are apartment. They told us it would take "about 3 weeks" but obviously they lied to us!!!! hahaha. ohhh FRANCE. But we discovered lundi (monday) we will get the password in the mail. So I will have a major update very soon. For now I will upload some pictures...

Vacances de Toussaint

France is great. Last Friday the Vacances de Toussaint (All Saints Vacation) began, and it lasts for about a week and a half. Since the vacation started cecil and I have been having a lot of fun. It actually started off on a very interesting note. I woke up on friday morning, was in the middle of taking a shower, and then my roomate cecil knocks on the bathroom door and says 'Uh tom, we have a new roomate'. I was pretty shocked, but just responded 'Uh OK!'. The school did not warn us but, apparently a spanish assistant was coming to live with us in our apartment. So Cecil and I spent the morning cleaning up and moving all of his stuff into my room - the apartment is a 2 bedroom, but they are squeezing 3 people into it. I don't mind too much, since the rent is really cheap, but it was definitely a surprise. The spanish assistant's name is Milena and she is 29, from Columbia. Her french is really good since she has already been an assistant last year, and has been living in France for a year now. She goes to university in Caen 3 days a week, and will be helping at the same school as me on the 2 other days. She is nice, but having 3 people share an apartment is a lot different/more difficult than just 2. The fridge is stuffed to the limit, the washing machine is going constantly, and the dishes get used up pretty quickly. But I suppose it's something everyone has to get used to; I'm learning how important the skill of living with people really is - especially in an apartment where english is not the language spoken most often.

About France...
So this week has been nice, because milena has been going to Caen (another big city 20 mins away) for university on monday and tuesday so we have had some time to ourselves. In fact on monday we decided we have to get out, so we went to deauville. It was only a 20 minute train ride (2.90 euros!) to the beach, and this city is basically a ritzy beach town. The thing was we didnt realize it was going to be the worst weather EVER. Instead we brought our swimsuits, a nice picnic lunch in our backpacks, and short-sleeve t-shirts. All of a sudden while we walking through town, it absolutety POURRRED and we got drenched! Out backpacks, our jeans, even the baguette that we were eating got soggy. But we just laughed and continued walking to beach. Nothing was going to stop us from swimming in the ocean. And so we did. AFter a quick baguette cheese and salami lunch, we changed into our swimsuit, and ran to the ocean and dove straight in! You can probably imagine - its very similar to the oregon coast in the winter. Something normal people just dont swim in, but we did and it was very memorable! and cold!

Just yesterday we decided to leave lisieux again and go into Caen, just me and cecil, because I discovered online that there was a soccer game on wednesday night - Caen vs. Nice. Although cecil doesnt love soccer, he was content to come along and we both got pretty into the game. Although the caen team is no where near as big as a soccer club as Liverpool, the atmosphere was still really great. We got tickets for 10 euros each, and got to sit right near the raucas crazy young hooligans who were standing up and singing songs the whole game, some with their shirts off. And it was COLLLD. I dont know how they did it. Im guessing alcohol could have been invovled. anyway the game ended 1-1 and i was very glad to watch my first european soccer game in a stadium. I hope there is many more...Since the game was late, there were no trains back to lisieux from cean. but we had already planned for that and reserved a 'cheap' hotel - it was 32 euros total, 16 each, but had only one bed and a shower in the room with no curtains. hahhaha. we opted not to shower, but the bed was fine cuz i have slept in a doulbe bed like that with 2 other guys before (college trips to san fransisco and lss vegas come to mind)!! It was a great trip, and we just got back to lisieux this morning. However, we reserved another night in the hotel for friday (tomorrow) becuase cecil bought two tickets to go to a pretty famous french/english musician who has a concert on friday night. Her name is Camille, you may have heard of her. It will be interesting because i think she makes music with her body parts, as well as of course singing, but I will just be glad to bet out of our apartment and explore more of caen again.

I guess thats it for now. Cecil and I have decided that we have to start planning trips to take and do in our 2 week vacations that we have free, because everyone says you can get really cheap tickets if you purchase in advance. since the next two week break is during the christmas holidays, i dont know if i can go anywhere with him, since i might be celebrating it in the alps with uncle john. But for februrary we our looking at train tickets to the south of france, specifically to NICE, which is supposed to be beautiful. We were thinking of spending 3 days exploring that area (day trips to Monaco and Antibes), then taking a train across the border into Italy (GENOVA). And from there,we would spend the rest of the week on this great hike that cecil found in his travel book. Its called cinque terre, and it's basically a hike (not too hard) through small Italian villages on the coast line and it looks absolutely beautiful, and it says since its not really a touristy place, its cheaper so that sounds great. Then were thinking of getting a ryan air from pisa back to paris at the end of the hike. We want to do at least one big trip each 2 week vacation (once every two months) and then smaller weekend trips via ryan air at least once a month. For the april trip we were thinking of going to scotland (edinbourgh) to visit his friend, but it could be nice to visit greece, or spain might be really beautiful. Theres plenty of time to decide though. That's it for now :). I have included some pictures.


Deauville, notice the gray clouds looming.



Cecil and me.


Behold La Manche (The Channel).


The beautiful harbor between deauville and trouville.

La vie est belle

So fixing up the internet at our apartment has been the most frustrating thing to set up ever. I dont kno why it really has to be this complicated in france, it's almost as if they enjoy it. i swear ive gone to that french telecom store 4 times and i'm still really confused. but yesterday it was nice because my favorite classof guys, who i eat lunch with in the cafeteria, walked with me at lunch time into the city so they could help me out with the fast speaking french emlpoyees at France Telecom. But we found out the store was closed until 2 pm which was the time the store re-opened after lunch. all of them had class at 2, but they stayed to help and skipped a class to help me which was really nice of them. i finally got my carte blue from my bank which is the credit card yesterday (which was the only thing holding me back from the internet), but after talking to the guy i discovered we have to re-open the phone line for 110 euros, then pay 40 euros a month for just internet and phone - which seems expensive, but then again internet in the apartment would be really helpful for creating lesson plans, keeping in touch with everyone, and buying plane/train tickets online. anyway it was confusing and the reason it takes so long is because the store is reallllly crowde and we dont understand everything at the stores! As of now, a technician is coming this week, but because its France, it will take a month before it actually works in the apartment!!!! Somethings about France really frustrate me like the customer service and the bureaucracy of opening any account (i had to sign and initial 20 pages before i could have a bank account).

But France is great in a lot of other ways too. I have been really enjoying our weekend adventures. Cecil and i have been finding cheap train rides and bus rides to nice normandy cities on the weekends. Last weekend we took a bus to Honfleur, which is this cute little fishing village on the coast. We hiked to the top of the biggest hill, and ate chesse, avocado, and ham baguette sandwhiches (i dont think i will ever get sick of french food), and admired the view. Then just this weekend we went to a much bigger city called Rouen, the city where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake! We saw the church dedicated to her, and we also visited the museum of Beaux Arts (fine arts) and got to see some Monet!!! I didnt think i was much of a museum/art guy, but i enjoyed the paintings a lot more than i thought i would. I wish i could have taken some of them home with me. Suffice it to say we have been loving the weekends. And guess what, at the end of this week, we have a 10 day vacation because its the vacances de Toussaints (all saints vacation). God I love the french school system.

Random story: My roomate Cecil says really funny things like the otehr day he was talking about the musical CATS and how ridiculous of idea it was. he was thinking...what do they do throughout the play? just lick temselves and meow a lot? well we found the dvd in FRENCH at the mediatheque (the library), and we spent a night watching the movie, drinking cidre (a local alcoholic specialty of normandy) and laughing at how ridiculous it was!!! we also love going to the supermarket and bakeries, so we make up lame excuses to go everyday or everyother day.

The night life in lisieux doesnt really exist. There is one club but I havent gone yet, and the students all tell me that its not that good in lisieux, and i should go to other cities for discotheques. it doesnt bother me too much, because cecil is not much of a partier and so i dont really feel the need, since we buy wine cidre and beer chez nous. Thats all for now.

Bikeride to DDay beaches

Last Friday was the best day i think we've had here. Me and my roomate cecil had the day off cuz i dont have work on fridays, and we took a train to bayeux - which is closer to the ocean but not right on the coast. it is the city that has this famous 70 meter long tapestry. so there are a lot of tourists for a town of only 13,000. but we were wanting a less touristy visit, plus we were cheap, so we didnt see the tapestry and instead rented bikes and biked all the way to the dday beaches. it took us about an hour, but we passed corn fields, small villages, cows, horses, french cafes, locals, and the sun was out and it was just gorgeous. i said ti cecil OUR WE REALLY DOING THIS, is this real? cuz it was just so beautiful, and we were biking in france to the beach! then we could see the blue ocean on the horizon, and we just zoomed down hill into this cute little village called arromanches. It was really an epic journey. We also brought baguettes, cheese, and salami in the bag, as well as yogurt and rice and we had a picnic just watching the waves and all the historic things on the dday beach like old boat parts. Then we put our swim suits on and went swimming - but we were the only ones, i think people thought we were a little crazy but thats alright. we had a sweet time, took so many videos and photos. Then we strolled around the small town for a bit, before riding back to bayeux. it was truly a memorable day - one i wont forget for a while. The nexy day we were tired from our epic journey, so we stayed in lisieux. This weekend we might go someplace, the people in caen want to see us, but cecil and i are quite content not to be around too many americans, and explore stuff on our own. we just laugh a lot - he cracks me up cuz he's really expressive in a sarcastic way. and together we are good cuz we will just dive right in and say hi to french people, try to start up conversations and laugh a lot when we mess up. they are pretty nice though once u try speaking french. anyway thats it for now, classes are nice. i like helping the french students. its really not too hard yet. im also lookin forward to going to london in november in a month, to see uncle john and all the people from christmas that i saw. oh yea an about internet, we found out from someone else that if we use a differnet company it would cost only 20euros for the installation, and 30 euros a month - oh yea plus it comes with phone service so i could call the us for cheap (maybe unlimited), and 30 mins for cellphones free. also comes with a few tv channels, hopefully some soccer! but most importantly internet. the only drawback is its a year contract so i would have to pay for months after i leave, but i think its worth it to get it. plus im thinking of staying til the end of june now, cuz thats when cecil is done with his contract and i could probably stay in our apartment with him til then, so i could still have internet. but im not sure, that would be 9 months instead of 7 months. But I am just loving France so much that i think i might stay, and maybe reapply for the same program next year. Maybe go to the south of france next time :). Bye for now...


The famous bayeux tapestry. We only walked passed the sign sadly. The next time in Bayeux I'm sure we will see it.


In the front you can see the two bikes we rented, and in the back of course 'La Manche' (the channel). This is the Dday beach of Arromanches


baguette + Normandy Beaches + Sun = awesome


Here's part of a huge ship left from the invasion.

Life in Normandy & in a High School!

Im sorry i've been so busy lately - i havent been able to get onto internet much for a long period of time. but now im in a cafe in lisieu, the only one open on sunday! but yea im hear with cecil and lizzi. Cecil my roomate is really really nice. hes really freindly - from washington, artsy and interested in museums, festivals, and traveling so I think our time in france is going to be very memorable. hes interested in things i do even if he doesnt like soccer hes like YEA lets go totally. and i would go with him to see a camille concert (french singer) so we're getting a long really well. and lizzi is the british girl (another assistaant in another high school, but she also lives in lisieux). She's nice so we 3 anglophones havee been hanging out together, but also speaking french with the locals. anyway what else. i went to the first day of classes - there were five of them. it was pretty simple i just sat in front of the class and they asked me questions about america, oregon, my hobbies, my music interests, if america was like American Pie the movie, if i have a girl friend etc. They were mostly pretty interested, but their english was really poor, at a low level. I liked the classes with more 16 17 18 year old guys cuz they were not as shy to ask questions, where as the girl classes asked very few qeustions! it was not bad at all. and then there was another class called BTS which are the people after lycee, aged 20, 21, some 22 but their english isnt that good either. the guys were asking me if i like clubs though, and gave me an address for a club they go to on thursdays haha, all were pretty helpful and friendly. i pretended i knew zero french so they were forced to try their english. Oh yea and the first class i was in the 16, 17 year old guys class, were the friendliest and funniest - they invited me afterward to have lunch with them in the cantine, or cafeteria, and one guy richard who had the best english was trying to communicate with me and ask me all these questions. their group is really nice. they know another girls group - and the girls were really shy to meet me in the cantine, but they did the bisous (kisses on the cheek) it was funny. but they like me and cecil, and play guitar on their breaks and are always eager to have lunch together and play the guitar with us in the hallways.

whatelse - k quickly... me and cecil decided to go to Caen (a much bigger city than lisieux!!) yesterday - we took a train in and met some of the elementary school assistants cecil met at orientation. a really freindly girl from new zealand emma had us over, and invited all the other assistants who were mostly american. there were about 7 of them. i think they had aparty last night were recovering from hangovers saturday haha but they were nice, one guy was from missouri, one girl from califronia, one from michigan, and another from alabama, newyork. it wouldd be nice to visit them from time to time, if we are in caen because caen is really a nice city. its a lot bigger than lisieux. and i wanted to watch the caen cs. marseille soccer game with cecil in the stadium but i discovered at the office de tourisme that it was an away game that night, playing in marseille. Oh Well, another time. ill post pictures when i get internet in the apartment, but still wont have a bank account til wednesday, so internet not til later.

im starting to like to explore a lot more though with cecil, we like to go around and travel so im happy about that. this weekend we want to go to Bayeux and also visit the D-Day beaches. Its perfect because i get fridays off, so i have 3 day weekends to travel and see as much as possible!! im liking our set up though, and the classes so far, so if i really like it i might decide to stay somehwere in france for the summer and reapply for this program next year, but yea that would be a lot of time in europe without coming back to the states, so i dont know if im gonna do that, there is still a lot of time. but part of me is thinking, why not, europe is so great, and while im young if i was in europe for two years it would be really cool. thats it for now. more to come...