Leaving so soon

Salut from France perhaps for the last time!
     Its been a lovely 5 months here in France and its very difficult to believe that it really is basically June and I am headed home in two days. Mentally I think I am still in March! The weather here is staying nice and we are all enjoying our last few days in the sun and our last few amazing coffees before we all ship out for our various home countries. These last few weeks have been a headache of paperwork and banking but with my last cash out at the bank today I think I am finally out of the woods. I borrowed an extremely old vacuum and washed down my entire closet of a room to be left only with a pile of old shirts and some recyclables. My bags are about all packed and of course massive and the amount of clothing I will have to wear onto the plane may suffocate me before I even arrive in the USA but hopefully they will drop down one of the oxygen masks and I'll pull through. Not looking forward to my 8 hour and 40 minute flight as it lands me in Philly and I am assured to get flagged for some stupid reason and dragged through US Customs with my luck. However chin up I will be happy to oblige the hard working (meaning work more than 30 hours a week) english speaking customs workers. Heck they will be friendly faces compared to some of the people I've dealt with here. There will be many things I miss here, for instance a public transportation system that goes where you want it to as opposed to the one in Burlington which uses the strangest routes imaginable. And the Beignets which put any jelly donut in the states to shame. And coffee coffee coffee, no idea how I will get my fix from the drip nonsense we have in the states. The theater was lovely, the restaurants offering lots of specialities and my classes filled with international students from places I hope to someday visit. Most everyone lived up to their stereotypes, the American Skateboarder, the loud drunk and louder spanish speakers, the organized always putting everyone to shame academically asians, the germans with their constant talk of communist political parties, Lithuanians and their basketball (was not aware of that one but apparently its huge there!) and the french with their striped shirts, Bread, snotty attitudes and closing everything constantly for whatever random holiday or sunny day they liked.
 
      Seriously though this trip has made me appreciate a lot of things I take for granted at home, peanut butter cups and decent cheeseburgers! Seriously though an American education geared towards building character and the ability to debate ones classmates is seriously lacking in the french system and I think they are missing some crucial we locked on to long ago. I will be excited to have an actual conversation with a professor when I get home and to write a paper that hits on a topic applicable to the course. Honestly the french seem to do a lot of blabbing and busy work and a lot less educating and leaning than I am used to. But its beautiful here and I think they take a lot more time to appreciate that then we do at home and so I will try to bring that philosophy back with me. It is a humbling experience for sure to live in a foreign country and not really understand very much and to constantly seem like a fish out of water.    

   But it is an important experience and one that comes with many surprises like the few amazing french people who graciously helped find class notes and met for coffee and spoke frankly about french politics. Surprises of gorgeous churches and architecture around every corner and parks filled with people and animals as soon as it got warm enough to stay outside for any meaningful amount of time. I will miss the jam, and the food without massive amounts of artificial ingredients and enough preservatives to pickle my insides. I will miss the market with all its lovely shouting and colors and families and food. My cheese guy will be eternally behind the counter of his lovely wares and the creepy rabbits with their eyeballs still in will haunt my nightmares for years to come. And when I want to believe in incredible feats of humanity I will only have to glance at my photos of Mont St. Michel to know that somethings must be seen to be believed.

      What I am gaining though is no small thing, UVM beckons along with my senior thesis and an apartment shared with two of the greatest friends I've got. Dad's chicken parm will certainly soften the blow of no more french cuisine and as long as I can run out and grab a reeses cup whenever I want I will be happy. Target will feel like heaven a store where I can buy cough syrup and a dvd and plates and cereal all in the same place! Good old bessie and I will be cruising over there very soon I am sure. I will struggle to be as eco friendly as I was here, being green is built into many things the french do every day but honestly if the health of the environment hangs on whether or not the shower shuts off automatically every 60 seconds I'll live through the death of every tree in the world before I give up my regular shower again. (Not really but I do hope it doesn't come to that). France its been lovely, Rennes its been a blast, Spanish people stop waking me up at night and University its been interesting. USA I will see you sooner than seems possible. I will be sure to post one last time filling you in on what I am sure will be a variety of travel antics.
All my love from France !

Bittersweet Goodbyes

Salut!
   It has been a long time since I last posted, apologies for that but it has been a busy busy time here in France! Once I got home from my big trip it was time to settle down and get some work done. Two papers were due in the first week I got back so I busted out 6 pages on the opposition in parliament in France, England and Germany and 5 pages on state building in Haiti. Both were fairly interesting but tough in French and my bibliographies had to been quite detailed. Monday was my oral exam for European Union Law and I had to speak for 15 minutes on the superiority of European Law over the national laws. Interesting for sure but I think I did okay. No real way to tell in these types of things. Wednesday was Constitutional Law of the 5th republic and I got some of the most ridiculous questions ever, like naming all the presidents and years of parliamentary dissolutions. Yeah I know that off the top of my head...not. But hey as the idiot american I am sure my professor will give me a break (fingers crossed). Then Thursday was the big written exam, all 75 of us international students struggling through an hour and a half of History and Civilization of France. Lets talk about how there were three short answer questions, and then an essay question that I am not kidding was "The strengths and weaknesses of the left party in France 1918-1981". I couldn't have written that entire history in 3 hours! The left in France comprises three major parties and sometimes more. I wrote for the hour and a half and got out of there. So glad that the exam is worth 100% of my grade! (not) But its over so I cannot complain too much. Then there was a bit of break to study for my last two exams, The israeli palestinian conflict and comparative politics. A written and oral exam respectively. The written went really well and then in the middle of studying for my last exam I was struck with a horrible stomach illness and did not get out of bed for the next 5 days except to drag myself in for my 15 min exam. My teacher was not pleased with my inability to function but when I explained I was quite ill and the faster the exam was over the less likely I was to puke in his office he tried to get it over with as quickly as possible. And with that I finished junior year of college! A little anti climatic because I couldn't celebrate or go to the end of the bbq but these things happen.
     Once I was feeling better I made it out to the park and around Rennes some to start saying goodbye to all my favorite places in the city. Other students have been hosting goodbye dinners and parties so there has been no shortage of things to do and people to say goodbye to. Tuesday I did a revisit to Mont St. Michel, and let me say its even more beautiful when the weather is better! We got lucky and had a nice day of sun although it stayed cool with the wind off the ocean. This time I took the french tour of the abbey which had some more architecture information and a few other anecdotes. I spent some time shopping for souvenirs and then had a snack before heading back to Rennes on the bus. Au Revoir Mont St. Michel! It has taken almost as much effort and paperwork to leave this country as it did to enter it. Good thing I had another week after exams because between the bank, the dorm and school I have filled out enough cancelation forms to owe the world a new tree or so. Apparently official transcripts are not necessary for things in France so my school is currently trying to convince me that when I apply to law school I can just make photocopies of the one transcript they will send me and it will be fine. I have half a mind to tell them they can tell law school that, see how it goes. Crazy french bureaucracy. At this point I am going to let UVM handle yelling at the registrar here, they won't listen to some idiot american girl.
         Last night Matt and Cindy organized a dinner out to a restaurant I had not been to yet but they had some really good food! I had a warm brie and pear appetizer with a main course of Duck with potatoes. Yum! Cindy got some nice marinated pork and Tom had Kangaroo. Seriously it looked like beef. Strange. Then drinks and coffee with Karen who left for Ireland this morning. So that brings us to today which was the last big market day while I am here so I headed out to get my last big bag of olives and a chunk of cheese to enjoy in the sun. Honestly the calamata olives may be what I miss most. My friend Matt leaves this evening so we had a lunch out at Coffee Crepes to say goodbye to him with whoever is still roaming around. I got my go to crepe, bacon goat cheese, nuts and honey. Never disappoints! I had earned a free dessert crepe with my loyalty card so I got one with Nutella and a little butter on top. Also lovely. I also spoiled myself with a nice glass of hard cider to round out the meal, its perfect with a crepe and they have some from a place not far from Rennes so hey its local! It was a tough goodbye to Matt but we are hopeful that we will see each other again in the future so crossing my fingers I have money again some day I will have a place to stay in the UK! This evening there is a big soccer match between Manchester United and Barcelona so the group still around will round out the week with a fun night cheering for our chosen side. Its amazing but I will be home in less than a week! Time has flown and I am trying to make my last few days count. Won't be too long now till I am back to the land of bagels and SUVs. Excited about the bagels, could care less about the big cars. Good luck to everyone at Proctor with all your exams, congrats to the UVM Grads who I missed last weekend and hopefully I will be seeing everyone very soon!

The Mont, in Sun!

Just off the Bus

View from the Top

Cloture with the Summer Gardens in 

Where the Monks ate

St Michel

Party at Leoni's

Goodbye Party!

Love From France!

Two Americans in Paris the Remake

Bonjour,

    Here is part two of mine and Elle's european trip. Our flight to Paris at 7am Dublin was quite eventful because of the slew of little kids on their way to Disney Land, there was applause at take off and landing. Adorable but loud! We arrived in Paris very early in the morning on Wednesday and made our way into the heart of the city on the RER which took us another hour so by the time we got into the city it was time to find some lunch. We grabbed a quick lunch in a traditional brasserie, very interesting people watching to be sure. Burgers were a little raw but thats how it is in this country, either you order medium and its still bleeding or you order medium, they realize you are a foreigner and they still do it well done. Not sure what is worse! After lunch we headed to do what every girl really wants to do in Paris... Shop! After touring through an quick and overwhelming look at Galleries Lafayette which we decided we would leave for a day when we hadn't woken up at 4 am we headed to get our hair cut. I have been waiting on this for awhile and it was so nice to finally have my hair look normal. Elle was extremely impressive and decided to get hers done even though she could only really communicate with the hair dresser with hand motions. It was slightly easier for me but I still don't really know hair cut vocabulary so still a bit of a murky area. Our hairdressers were very nice and while they started by making faces at our hair as if had never seen a hairbrush by the end we had all come to some sort of strange interlanguage agreement that things were now, "much better". Once our hair was done it was time for some window shopping, moving into our hotel and hopping on the metro to find some dinner. We decided to start in the Latin Quarter and payed a visit to Shakespeare and Company, now mandatory for anyone who comes to Paris with me. Then we headed towards the food and found a little italian place, quite kitchy inside and the waiters could be pushy but the food made up for it and it was fun wandering around the tiny streets. The tortellini with a mushroom and white wine sauce was awesome and after a few laps of the area we were ready to hit up the Amorino Gelato shop. These shops are all over Paris and while a chain have maintained some of the best quality gelato you can find. Some chocolate and coconut gelato later it was time to turn in for the night and so ended our first day in Paris. The next day we got up early to grab a quick breakfast in the hotel and headed out for a true day of shopping now that we had our new hair and could blend in the well polished crowds of Paris. Breaking for lunch we found an amazing and quick sandwich place which was obviously a favorite with the local business people. The only oddity was the bathrooms in the basement which required jumping into an extremely small and strange elevator. In addition some phantom worker put a bag of garbage on the elevator on our way back up but never showed up to claim it. Well tired from our 16 hour day Wednesday and our shopping Thursday we returned to the room to drop off our purchases and hang out in the square near our hotel. Some more good food at a nearby chinese restaurant and we were well settled for the day. Friday we decided to go out to the Eiffel Tower to walk around, have a picnic and see a few other sights in that area. We grabbed some fruit, cheese and bread from a mono prix and then a crepe for dessert. Some asian food also accompanied us our on trip to enjoy the sun in the park near the eiffel tower. There were lots of people out and about, some pick up soccer games (boys only) and lots and lots of dogs. My favorite were the massive tour groups seeing Paris from the windows of buses (not recommended). After a quick trip back to the hotel, obviously we had to check in on the royal wedding (not true we were trying to find the weather report and got sucked into the 20 minute news cycle of the kiss on the balcony) we headed to the Bon Marche to find some gifts for Elle's family and just to see another section of the city. Perhaps the strangest part of our day was riding the metro home at the end of the day were we encountered a man and what we thought was his dog in matching leather jackets. In fact his dog was a very ratty looking cat which was angrily meowing at everyone on our car and apparently rides around on this person's shoulders. As Elle and I tried desperately not to burst out laughing at this person we arrived at his stop and in order to communicate his need to exit the car he... meowed at us? I don't speak cat but apparently that was the only language this person could think to speak to us in and after several swimming like motions we moved out of his way to collapse on the seats near by in hysterical laughter. I really wonder about people sometimes but as Mom says, it takes all kinds and they are all here. Saturday brought a visit to Sacre Coeur, my favorite church in Paris and the beautiful views from the hill. After a walk around the artist fair in the square near by we found an adorable restaurant and tucked in for some very traditional french food. My beouf bourginon was amazing but I am sure Julia Child's could have topped it. In traditional French fashion lunch was long and drawn out with lots of time to simply sit and enjoy the amazing weather. It was our first day of real sun in Paris and I believe we all ended the day with a bit of a sunburn. Then it was off to the Arch de Triomphe and for a quick stroll down the Champs Elysee. We met up with Tom who got in from Holland that afternoon. That evening we grabbed some pizza and took in Thor at a local movie theater nearby and then called it a night. The next morning we met for breakfast and headed to one of the most famous cemeteries in Paris where the graves of such people as Oscar Wilde, Marcel Proust and Edith Piaf are buried. There are also several incredibly moving sites dedicated to the French jews and resistance fighters who died during WWII. We realized that morning that it was the French Labor day which means everything national is closed so there was not a ton to do as it was a sunday and a national holiday. The cemetery was packed with people, french and tourists paying their respects and enjoying the nice weather. Next we headed to Notre Dame to sit by the river, enjoy the gardens and get a glance at the famous architecture. Then our mission was to find some gelato which we did right near the Centre Pompidou which it being a national holiday was closed but the fountain was still on and there were lots of street performers. Interestingly enough it seemed the people who work at the centre pompidou had organized a soccer game in the lobby and seeing as how the building is almost entirely glass you could see some of it going on. Sun, Gelato, interesting music and puppets and an indoor soccer game and it was a perfectly eccentric afternoon in Paris. Too quickly time got away from us and in the interest of getting Elle to her hotel before to late it was time to once again brave the hot paris metro to find our dinner location. Those of you who have read the blog previously know that I took Harry to one of my favorite restaurants in Paris Chartier on my last visit and this one was no exception. The line had not yet formed at 6:30 so we got in quickly and started with some traditional escargot. One of my favorite dishes when done well Tom and Elle both braved the strange color and texture to enjoy what is a vehicle for lots and lots of garlic. We all enjoyed some simple but delicious meat dishes and then followed with goat cheese and chocolate cake. Once again quick, good, not terribly expensive and we were on our way. After putting Elle on the RER to her hotel near Charles de Gaulle Tom and I caught the late train out of Paris and we were back in Rennes that night. Au revoir Paris. See you in June!
It was a great trip and now its back to work for me. So little time left but I am sure I have one or two more adventures up my sleeve.
Love From France!

An afternoon at the Eiffel Tower with Elle

Tour Eiffel and Holocaust Memorial

Fountain at the Eiffel Tower

Don't walk on the happy grass

Pont Alexandre

Sunset on the Seine

View of Notre Dame

Gelato!

Vana White

Sacre Coeur

View from the top of Sacre Coeur

Our cute lunch spot

Arch de Triompe

Oscar Wilde's Grave

Holocaust memorial inside Pere Lachaise Cemetary

Side of Notre Dame

Notre Dame

Elle and I on our last day in Paris

Notre Dame

Flying Buttresses

Elle and I at Notre Dame

Tom and I at Notre Dame

Fountain?

Stopping to Smell the Roses

Smells Amazing!

Crazy Fountain near Centre Pompidou

Crazy Escalators at Centre Pompidou

Return to the Homeland: Elle and Morgan go to Ireland and England

Salut!
   It has been a long time since I last blogged and I have a ton of great stuff to cover! My trip started with a train to paris, a jump over the easy jet terminal and then a quick flight up to London. Once in London I met up with Elle to grab some dinner and head over to our hostel. Friday morning we headed out to see London Bridge, the Tower of London and grab some fish and chips (it being Good Friday and all). All of London was covered in memorabilia for the Royal wedding (thank goodness we got out before that) and we were navigating some large groups of tourists. It was a surprisingly nice day in London with no rain to speak of and once the fog burned off in the morning it was quite warm and sunny. It being good Friday most things were closed but we still managed to find a great pub to get a nice draft, and some fish and chips. Most of the day was taken up with wandering around near London Bridge and for me enjoying the novelty of a foreign but still english speaking country. I must say it was quite a mind bender for signs and such to be in English after 3 months of nothing but French.
    Before long it was time for us to head to Dublin  and as we had to get a train out to Gatwick airport we left in early afternoon. It was well worth it to avoid the huge crowds at Heathrow but still pretty crazy as there was a bomb dog that was directed to check everyones bag simply while waiting in the internet cafe while we waited to go through security. Late Friday evening we got into Dublin and took a bus into the city. While the directions on the hostel website seemed straight forward it was surprisingly difficult to find and though we asked several people it took us wandering around for quite a long time till we got lucky and hit the street we needed. In the morning I enjoyed my first real breakfast in a very long time (as according to the french all you really need in the morning is some coffee and a bit of bread) Some egg, bacon, sausage, white pudding, toast, beans and a fried tomato filled us up for the afternoon. Definitely a place we would return, Lovingspoon in case any of you are in Dublin in the future. Then off to Grafton street for a little shopping and some people watching. There were some great bands playing along the way so we stopped to listen to a few of those. After a few false starts we were headed to the Guinness Storehouse/factory for a tour and a pint of Guinness with what we were told were some of the best views of Dublin. The storehouse is set up so that you cycle upwards on your tour inside of the worlds largest guinness pint glass until you reach the top and get your free pint. Along the way there is lots of memorabilia, a room filled with barley hops, yeast and water (the 4 ingredients in guinness) and lots of people attempting to pour their own pints. I preferred to have a professional do it and was rewarded with the perfect pint with a nice four leaf clover in my foam. The 360 gravity bar was as good as was touted and indeed our best views of the mountains and sea surrounding Dublin were from the top of the storehouse. We grabbed a quick dinner at a fun diner and then met up with another kid from my program and some of his friends who live in Dublin. It was sunny and warm which is unheard of in Dublin so everyone was outside hanging out with friends, sitting at pubs and window shopping on Grafton Street. It all actually reminded me quite a bit of Church Street in Burlington. On Sunday morning Elle and I walked over to Christ Church Cathedral for Easter Sunday mass. The newly ordained arch bishop was there and the choir sang part of Handel's Messiah. Mass was very nice and the cathedral is beautiful inside. After mass we celebrated Easter with an amazing dessert at the Queen of Tarts, we split slices of blackberry apple pie and chocolate almond cake. Awesome! Then we went for a nice stroll in St. Stephen's Green which was packed with all sorts of people as it was again a sunny day in Dublin. On Monday we headed to Howth on the Dart which is just a quick half hour train ride but put us right on the ocean. The town is really cute and there were some great markets. After buying a giant carton of olives Elle and I hung out near the water and munched on olives. It was a quick walk over to the lighthouse and we hung out in the harbor for awhile. Lunch was another set of fish and chips, some chowder and my personal favorite, mussels. After lunch and a walk around the village we headed back into dublin to see a movie and grab some ice cream. After picking up some reading material we avoided some of our first irish rain spending the night hanging out in the hostel and reading. On Tuesday we woke up grabbed breakfast and headed over to visit St. Patrick's cathedral. Inside is really beautiful and outside in the garden is the supposed site of St. Patrick's well. After a little shopping we headed to Elephant and Castle a great place for lunch in the Temple Bar district and had some of the best sandwiches ever. After a quick goodbye tour of Grafton Street and the weird giant spire in the middle of town we went to get some pizza and stopped for a crazy new flavor of ben and jerrys. Then early to bed for our 4am wake up. Getting out of bed in the morning was a little rough but we managed and some german girls also staying in the hostel had early flights and offered to drive us in as they had a rental car. Flight out at 7am and off to Paris we went! Look soon for part two Paris in April!

Landing in Luton

London Bridge is falling down

Cool statue in the center of london

Indoor/outdoor market

Just cause I couldn't resist

Chain Mail Lions

Tower of London

Pub where we went for lunch

Christ Church Cathedral

Kilt for Hire!

Guinness Storehouse

Waterfall inside Guinness storehouse

Guinness storehouse

First pint in Dublin

The giant spire

OLIVES!!!!

Howth Lighthouse

Island near Howth

Lunch!

Howth Harbor

yes we found a sign that said olive lover totally my country!

Great restaurant

Milkshake parlor

St Patrick's

Inside St. Patricks

Love from France!