Yay! Part 2 of my castle tours has finished! This time we saw 4 castles in one day. I was SOO tired afterwards. There weren't as many students on this one, since a lot of the programs (like mine) didn't include this tour in their package originally. I paid 50 euros but thta is pretty good for seeing 4 castles. Now I have seen 7 castles on the Loire in France. The names of the castles this time around are Amboise, Chaumont, Blois, and Cheverny. On the way to Amboise I was able to catch a really cool picture of the houses in the mountain. As you can see, there are little windows in the mountain. There are these small towns where they actually dig holes in the mountains and live there as their home. I dont think I could ever do that, but some people do I guess. It's real easy if a new baby is born tho I guess, just dig a new room, and sell the rock you get from it (which is really good quality and used to make houses). However, I really love sunlight, and would hate having a room with no sunlight o_O;

First stop, Amboise. There were a lot of Leonardo de Vinci references there since he stayed there when he was invited to France by King Francois the First in 1516. Here I am standing under a bust of Leonardo De Vinci that was just outside the castle. Every castle has a chapel, and this one, Chapelle St-Hubert, was really cool. Here I am by a suit of armor. I took this picture just before I got yelled at that there are no photo-taking allowed inside the castle. Gah I can understand no flash, but no pictures at all? that sucks :(

On the way to the next castle, Chaumont, I got a picture of the little french gardensh. This is a very typical french thing, people rent out a small lot of land and grow vegetables, flowers, and other things (really whatever they want) in their garden. They are very cute, and very peasant-like. They have them in Angers too, all over France, in any city you will find these little lots of lands and you'll see the gardener and their family working on their garden.

The next castle, Chaumont, was ok. It had some artist's art exposition there. He does art with flowers, so that explains all the flower pictures. This castle was mostly inhabited by queens of France, so it had a kinda feminine feel to it. It was also being renovated so that's why there is scaffolding on the front. We picniced in the park of this chateau and continued to the next one.

Moving right along to Blois. This castle has a very rich history. The Estates General was called here 2 times in the 16th century (1576 and 1588). This is unusual because they didn't get called a lot being that the king would just make all the decisions and be done with it. I really liked how this castle had a lot of artwork that illustrated what happened in the castle. Henry the Third was the main king that lived there, and he was assassinated by a monk. There is also a lot of intrigue of another assassination that took place in this castle, that of the Duke of Guise on 23 December 1588, which was linked to the War of Religions (Catholicism vs. Calvinism). OK enough history rambling. You can look up more if you are interested, it certainly peeked my interest. But I liked Blois a lot for it's artwork and historical value. I think the people that renovated it did a good job even tho they had no furniture to work with. They turned it into a sort-of art gallery/museum. It's amazing how much history you can learn from art.

Now on to Cheverny. I slept on the way to this one, since we already did like 3 castles I was getting really tired! So I kinda rushed through it. There were people still living in this castle and they had their wedding pictures and pictures of their kids up around the castle. This castle is also surrounded by forest where they would hunt. And they had their hunting dogs too that people could go look at. I thought the dogs were the coolest part actually. Me and my friend sat down close to the dog quarters, and this one dog started barking at me and was totally focused on me. Even when people would walk up to him and cut off his view of me he would move so he could see me and bark at me. He wasn't growl-angry barking, since he was wagging his tail. I wonder if he thought I was someone else? A lot of people found that funny. :) Also another cute thing that happened was in the chateau this little kid was asking his mom what room it was and she was like "this is the salon!" and he was like "where's the TV?" I thought that was soo cute (since most of the rooms that tourists were allowed to see were decorated in old style). soo cute ^^ Oh and the pic of me in a room filled with antlers, that was the trophy room.. I guess trophies are in the form of antlers if you are hunting. It was kinda bizarre :P

Okies, that is all for my second tour of the castles of France. I think I'm kinda castle-ed out now tho. :P It'll be a good while before I go to another castle I think. I do wanna see Versailles again, but that may be the last one. Maybe if some more time goes by I'll warm up to the idea of going again, but geez Saturday's visit was very tiring. I think I'll keep it to 2-3 castles a day if I'm gonna go on my own. :P Until next time! Ciao!

Anyhoo I thought Id give everyone a little update on how things are going now that its been like almost 5 weeks. No pictures today, but more to come soon, this saturday I'm going on part two of our chateaux visits.

Things are going pretty well here. My host family is really nice, they let me eat dinner with them every night (which is not a common thing with the other host families from what I heard). PLUS they clean the bathroom and wash my clothes.. its like I'm on vacation! They are really great people and totally used to having foreign students stay with them (they have had foreign exchange students for 10 years).

My classes are ok. Things are a lot less organized and drawn out here as my university in the US. I have classes that change rooms during the week, and there is no organization whatsoever with the times they meet. Like today (Monday) for example, I have one class, Grammar, that meets at 10:15am, and my only other is Translation at 6:00pm. However the other times these classes meet is Translation 8:00am on Wednesday, and Grammar 9:00am on Friday. Its really confusing and I have been having problems remembering when and where my classes are. After 5 weeks now tho, I'm BEGINNING to get it down. The thing that kills me the most is the fact that we have one class that meets 6 hours a week and there is no equivilant class at ISU. So I basically will get credit for some random class that wont count towards graduation with this. *sigh* the joys of college.

Daily life in general is very good. I get breakfast and dinner everyday and the students from ISU get to meet with the director of our school every Monday for lunch. So if I have any problems it is very easy for me to talk to him. I had a bit of a problem with opening a bank acct, I think it was because I went there initially without one of my host family and the lady at the bank had problems with Americans. So she mistrusted me.. but whatever we went to another bank and it was no problem. Its just a bitch because I have to wait for an ATM card AGAIN. I wish there was some way i could go without having a bank acct, but since they pay for my food by giving me a check, there is no avoiding it. oh well.

Okay I think I've pretty well updated you by now on my life here... This past weekend was really fun, I went with Jin, the Chinese girl that lives with me, and Chikako, a Japanese girl in my class, to the Cointreau (http://www.cointreau.com, an orange liquor which originated in Angers) factory in Angers. It was very interesting, and we got to taste a cocktail with cointreau at the end of the tour. Its really yummy. I bought a cocktail recipe book and a regular recipe book from the boutique there. On Sunday it was so gorgeous that me, Odile (host mother), Audrey (the three year old daughter), and the two other students in my house went out by the river and walked around. They have a really nice little path and it was so pretty! I brought my camera but my battery ran out. I plan on going back tho, dont worry!

ok thats all for now! I miss everyone and big *wubbles* to you all!!!

Time for round 2 of Angie-pictures! Firstly I took some pictures of my school and of Angers. you can find them here. For a quick cap-up of it.. voila Place Andre-Leroy (the traffic-circle my school is located on- my bus stop is just behind the middle thingie), Catho (the school I go to), the building where all my classes are, downtown Angers, the Chateau of Angers, the house I am living in. Oh, and just for those wondering what the random wrecked car is in the middle of my college's campus, that's promotion against drunk driving.

Okay, now on to this Saturday's excursion! We went to see 3 chateaux, Azay-le-Rideau, Chenonceau (my fave of the three, where we had a picnic), and Chambord (a really really HUUUUGE castle which housed France one of the kings of France.. I think Franceois the First). All the pictures are here. Anyways, there were other random sites, I took some pictures on the bus. The sunrise over the Loire is sooo pretty, it's nice and rose-colored, tres romanTIQUE~ (as my professor would say). I took some random pictures of Saumur too, which is the horse-capital of France, there were TONS of buildings that just held horses, and tracks for them and stuff there, but we didn't stop so I was only able to take pictures from the bus. :( We stopped just before our first chateau to take a breather by this one castle where Jean-de-Arc went to convince the future king of France to raise arms and chase the English out of France. :D The people that took that picture were Japanese.. and I talked with them in Japanese after they took that picture! :D I did a poor job getting the chateau of Amboise, but it's ok cuz that's on the next excursion, and I plan on going to that too even tho it's not included.. cuz looking at castles is so fun! it's like a piece of history :D

I just finished a very tiring day. I didn't start til like 5pm but I am still really tired. I think I'm overly stressed. Oh well. I will get used to this place eventually and then it'll be ok. On the bright side my classes are going well. This Saturday is my next excursion. Then we have a long break from excursions. I think I need a break so that's good.

I've been thinking about where to go for my spring break in April. I think I might go to Italy. I have to see where the cheap student trips are. I'm sure I could go anywhere, I just wanna find the tours. That would be best. And where my friends are going too, I wanna get to know people better.

*megawubbles*

This weekend, on Saturday (which also happened to be my 23rd birthday), I went on my first excusion with CIDEF (the school I go to here). We went to St Malo and Mont St Michel, which is up north in Brittany and on the border of Normandy and Brittany. Those places have some of the most beautiful and old buildings I've ever seen. The history behind them is just amazing. I took a ton of pictures, I was a little photo-happy, so I cant go over them all, since some are repetitive anyways. I'll go over the what pictures I can here, so it'll be like I'm showing them to you!

First stop: St. Malo, a city-island, in Brittany and on the Chunnel (for those of you that dont know, the Chunnel is the little stretch of water separating Great Britian and France). For a little history, St. Malo had to be almost completely rebuilt after World War II. It was bombed by just about everyone during the war. In my opinion, as you will see in the pictures, they did a pretty dang good job rebuilding it. :) St. Malo is also the birthplace of Rene de Chateaubriand, one of the greatest french writers of all times, and Jacques Cartier, the person who discovered Canada.

Here is the chateau that we saw just as we pulled up to the port that we were parked at. This is the front. It was closed off, so we werent able to go in, but I still got a couple other pictures of the outside here and here and here.

We walked around the city on this wall-walkway thingie. It had a lot of gunner posts and cannons and holes and stuff. Aren't I cute? The view from it was amazing, you can go see those pictures at my site.

Next we walked up this big rock thing that jutted out into the Chunnel, just to explore. Here I am at the top of it. Here is a pic of me and the ocean.

Finally when we finished site-seeing around the outside of the town, we sat down for lunch and I had a local treat called a "galette", which is basically a crepe but bigger. It totally didn't fill me up tho.. so I had a crepe for dessert (sugar and butter), but that didn't do a good job either. Crepes are too light! I also recieved a phone call from someone in the states, I think it was Julie, and I was stupid and accidentally hung up on them -.-; My cell phone pisses me off sometimes! Just like in the US.. *siigh* Anyways, after lunch we wandered for a bit, and found the cathedral. I took a bunch of pics of it, so feel free to look at the list on my site hehe :) Near the cathedral there was a war memorial, of which I took a bunch of pictures too! Here I am hanging out by the memorial. It was such a pretty day! Tho it was still cold, dont be decieved ;)

Now for the second wing of the trip! Mont St. Michel! This place is in neither Brittany nor Normandy, it's kinda on the border. It was once a isolated commune where monks lived. Nowadays it's mostly a tourist attraction, but it is still a very cultural part of France. The architecture is just beautiful, as is the view. I mostly just walked around and took pictures of the view and the building, you can just go and look at the pictures if you want. Here are some pictures with me in them: on one of the decks (for lack of better word for it), in a courtyard, and again in the courtyard. Oh and something else noteworthy.. before people used to have to walk to Mont St. Michel to see it since there was no parking. Some people still do. However, now there is parking right up front, and there is a sign saying when the tide comes in so people know when they'll have to move their from the outer parkings.

Well that's all the pictures I took. The bus ride back was rather uneventful, tho I got pretty carsick. That's the last time I follow the other Illinoians and sit in the back of the top of the bus. Front and bottom for me next time! I easily get motion sickness. All in all tho it was a good birthday! My host family actually got me a present! They gave me a recipe book for quiches and tortes. I cant wait to try them out!! They also made a very special meal that they say usually in France is made on Christmas.. but they like to have it anytime. Man I have a great host family :D

Well that's about it for my Saturday / my birthday. *BIG HUGS!!!* I love you all I really do! I can't wait for my welcome-home party! ;) lovelove~ je t'aime! <3

I'm at school now just waiting for class to start so I figure why not put up an overdue blog about my trip to France? hehe a lot has happened, and I'll try to go over it as well as I can.

Okay the first thing that happened was my main suitcase with all my clothing decided it didnt wanna leave Chicago. That was worked out though; United sent it back to me promptly. When I arrived in Angers, my host parents were waiting for me at the train station. Yay! I adequately communicated to them when my train came in! When I arrived to the house they showed me my room then promptly took me to get my bus pass, since they live kinda out of the way from the school and downtown. Angers is a much bigger town than I thought it would be. It's much more established and bigger than Normal. It's almost like I am going to a city school. At least it's a lot more of a city school than ISU.

I mostly eat dinner with my host family, and have recently worked out what is going on with the money I paid ISU for my food. CIDEF, the school I go to here, is going to give us checks for the money required to eat. I just opened a bank account today, so now I'm totally relieved, I was kinda worried about that since I didnt budget in food costs.

The first weekend here I mostly spent exploring and stuff. I am so happy I have a bus pass! I think even if I lived walking distance from the school I would get one, because it is good for any bus to go anywhere. I made friends with one of the girls who shares a family with me. Her name is Yeon Soo and she is from Korea. The other student is from China, and she had already been here 2 years. So her french is very good, and she's already pretty established here with friends and stuff. But shes really nice too. Another friend I made is from Sweden but she speaks no french! she has really good english though, so she tends to cling to people who are from the US or Sweden. I hope she learns french well, since that is her goal. There are so many Korean, Chinese, and Japanese students here. I'd say 2/3 of the students here are asian, if not more. It's truely a multicultural experience abroad I'm having.

Classes started on Monday, and I tested into the intermediate-superior level of the classes. I'd say I'm well placed, having studied french for as long as I have. Its required that I register for 18 or more hours of class a week. That is just insane to me who is used to 16 hours being a lot. I signed up for 19 hours, hopefully I wont have a heartattack or a nervous breakdown. I dont have to worry about working though; so I should be ok. I already have taken language class, a slang class, english-french translation, and history of France. Today I have socio-cultural studies and tomorrow I have grammar (along with history and language). The language class meets 6 hours a week, and the rest 3 hours. All in all I think I'll do ok with class at least.

OK that is all I can think of to write as of now. On Saturday (my birthday) I'm going on an excursion to Mont St- Michel! I dont know exactly what that is, its a mountain in Brittany I'm pretty sure and I think there might be a castle. Either way everyone tells me its gorgeous there, so I think thats a nice birthday trip. XD I wont forget to write postcards! wubbles!!