Birthday Break

Well kids, its official. I have finally purchased all my tickets and booked [most] of the hostels needed for my week of birthday festivities. Who am i kidding? its not really for me because of my birthday at all. it just so happens that my birthday falls during our really long vacation... niiiice. so, here are the well laid plans

-Leave clermont for paris via train on feb 12 at about 2pm.
-Leave Orly for Prague at 8pm, spend the 12th-16th in prague with some german and italian trackers
-Leave Prague for Stockholm on the 16th, spend 16th-19th in prague
sleep soundly as 7am purchased ticket leaves stockholm for milan
-Leave Stockholm for Milan at about 3:30pm on the more convenient 2nd ticket purchased
-Spend one or two nights in milan and head back to clermont on the train either friday or saturday.

So, if anyone wants to meet up with us at any point, thats where we're going to be. and PS, the hostel in Stockholm is amazing. who wouldnt want to stay here?

whew. what a weekend. what we saved on the flights, they were like $3 each WITH taxes, we definitely are going to be spending on hotels/hostels which are at least $25-$30 per night in stockholm and milan. we should have some damn good pictures, thats for sure!

Things I know I'm going to miss...

So, we've only been here a few months but there are definitely some things that I am going to have to figure out how to import or smuggle enough in my suitcase to hold me over. in no particular order:

1. Moutarde. French mustard is dirt cheap and is more amazing than grey poupon could ever be.
2. chocolate muesli w pepites de chocolat. its chocolate granola with chocolate flakes that leaves your milk chocolate. bet you wished your day started this awesome.
3. Sirop. concentrated flavors rangeing fron strawberry to lavender these delightful additions make any glass of water, beer or vodka all the more delightful. Lisa and i are currently enjoying pamplemousse, grenadine, cassis, pêche, fraise and framboise.
4. Cheese. Daily.
5. Saveur Moutarde Chips. Casino Brand. the french potato meets its most DELICIOUS flavor yet!
6. Good wine. For under 3 euro. ok, fine, any wine for under 3 euro.
7. French bread. le sigh.
8. Pain au chocolat.
9. The Instant Coffee Dispensers at school that give you that extra kick with a café vanille for only 0,40. perfect for when you are dragging after... well... we only have 3h of class a day...so, good for the morning?
10. 7,4 and 1. TOGETHER.

Only in France

So, history check; when was the last time France had a huge, full scale grève [strike]? well, before Sarkozy was elected president in april 2006... which is exactly the time i was here last, jan-may 2006... and what is going to happen on thursday? full scale grève. all of the govn't workers are catching early morning busses and going to Paris to...to...hell, i dont know what they are trying to prove. the economy sucks, but it sucks for EVERYONE so there's really no need to strike. interestingly enough, france is not the nation most likely to go on strike. its the spanish who are more firey and willing to fill the streets for a just cause followed by the Italians. i think the french come in third... but they are waaay more organized so their strikes are more irritating bc they involve every sector of daily life. not just some bread factory outside madird or something.

anyways. maybe not going to spain this weekend after all. looks a weeee bit pricy. maybe switz or something like that. but cant take the train thursday bc of the strikes... so dont even get to benefit from my long weekend that starts at noon tomorrow. le sigh. les français.

PRAGUE!!

Lisa and I booked our tickets to prague tonight. 109 euro for both of us to go to Prague from Paris, and 63,50 for the train to paris.

now, what to do after prague? here is lisa's proposed plan of action:

Paris -> Prague 60 Euro
Prague -> Stockholm $40
Stockholm -> Warsaw $12
Warsaw -> Paris ??
Paris -> Clermont $30

did i mention it all goes down in about 10 days? maybe if we take overnight flights we wont ever need to pay for a hostel....

Mai Lan

So lisa and i went to a little vietnamese resto for dinner tonight. it was good. service took about 2 hours... for spring rolls and beef and broccoli... oh how the french like to take their sweet time. also, sping rolls [rouleau de printemps] arent what we consider to be spring rolls. interesting how this little nuance has played out across continents. i wonder what they're called in argentina...

we were going to go out... but no one wanted to, and the usually happening bar was dead... so we decided to double back and head home. we are now planning the trip to San Sebastiàn with much more fervor than before!

Discobitch

So, everytime we go out we hear this song "C'est beau la bourgeoisie" [listen to it here] and cant help but dance our asses off bc its a nice mix of french and english... and how the french love it. so we hear that everyone is going to this club, Le B.Box, the largest disco in europe... so they claim... and we decide that it would be really fun to go, esp since they are providing buses and we would otherwise have to take a cab [expensive] if we wanted to experience this marvel.

we talk to our one and only french friend, Albin, and he says that him and his friends are going to go and that we should come. they probably just needed 2 girls to get 4 dudes in, but whatever. we get home that evening and decide to check the club out online and there is an event saturday night, Discobitch en live. our only french group is going to be performing! how perfect! so, now we HAVE to go. the long and short of it, we go to Albin's friends place [Hugo, like Hugo Boss, he tells us] and enjoy some pre-dancing bevs there. we ask them if they know any drinking games and Albin tries to describe this game that is 'very simple' but also very boring... ask lisa about it. she was a pro... and then we played buzz so lisa could practice her french numbers... yeah, exactly...

and you dont really care about the rest, you just want pictures!

DISCOBITCH!!

oh yeah, and we met her! told her we came all the way from america to see her... she was really excited. its ok to lie, right?

Les Bronzés Font du Ski

ask any french person and they've seen it. 1979 cult favorite. "the tanned go skiing"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078907/

that is the theme of the party we are about to attend...

here is a sneak peak of the 'maddness'

yes, these photos were shot in the hall of our residence. super classy!

Winter Break

So, we're thinking:

Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, St Petersburg and maybe one other place....

very exciting.... also very cold...

Diner Chez David Marker

We had the wonderful opportunity to go to David Markers house for dinner last night. David is our American connection at ESC. He is a professor of management at ESC. he has been living in clermont for about 6? years now with his wife and 2 kids. so, we got to eat french food in an American environment... it was kinda like going to the embassy...i would imagine.

we had boeuf au vin, which is beef in a red wine sauce with mushrooms and those little baby onions. our side was green beans and almonds, and it was awesome. def my favorite thing i had that night... and then there was the cheese...











lisa is in HEAVEN. all the cheese...



we had at least 8 different kinds of cheese. soft cheese, blue cheese, goat cheese, hard cheese. it was awesome. the entire time we were eating we were like 'save room for the cheese !' my favorite of the cheeses was a small very very very strong cheese that had garlic and black pepper in it. not really for everyday consumption since its kinda powerful... but damn good. another good one was one of the hard cheeses that tasted like a cross between cheddar and pecorino romano. it was also pretty delicious.

after the cheese we had the galette de roi, which is traditionally had after the Epiphany, which is jan 6. its like a king cake from new orleans, but much less gaudy. we had 2 and leslie and emily got the feves. the feve is a little trinket and can be just about anything. it can be a little jar of jam, a stormtrooper, wiseman; you name it. i think the ones we got were wisemen...














after our delicious meal and hours of talking we crammed into davids honda supermini van and headed into town. lisa was connor and erins baby for the evening, smashed btwn the two of them. what a lucky girl....



from there, lisa and i went to the house of one of the people we had met friday and saw again on saturday. it was nice to go and have all these people go "i was hoping you would come!" and "I'm so glad you came!". so we hung out with them for a while until we decided to call it quits and head home.

On est Sortie!!!

we finally had a night out in Clermont!! it involved having dinner at old people time; 5pm, followed by 5 liters of kronenbourg and a fischer. mon dieu. some peeps came over and were well behaved and indulged in the 'fruit du pays' le vin! and then we decided to dress connor up like a french person... probably not the most correct thing to do while living in france... mais... c'est la vie!




then we went to Nemossos... some little bar by the cathedral. it was pretty cool, but there was no music, and drabes and i wanted to DANCE. so i think we irritated the crap out of everyone and nagged the french ppl about going dancing to the point that they took us to a club at like 10 or 11 to shut us up!



Lisa and i had some awesome eye makeup and we wanted everyone to see it...




and for your viewing pleasure... some pics of us being ridiculous and shaming america in general

France has Wal Mart..... kinda

Today it was bitterly cold again, like yesterday... actually, it wasnt quite as cold, maybe we are getting used to this; i hope not! we decided to wake up 'early' and hit up day 2 of the soldes. headed out just before 11 and made our way to G. LaFayette [to check on my longchamp bag] and then to Zara. we each got a couple things at zara, but it was such madness we were forced to leave.







we decided to take the tram to this place the Fnac lady told us about the other day. in search of a curling iron we went to Fnac, which has SOME appliances, and were told to take the tram and go to "ocean". so we got to the tram, and got our money out to buy a carnet [book of 10] tickets, 10,40. well damn, the machine doesnt take bills. so we scramble to find 10euro of change as the tram is coming. it stops we get our tickets and then try to cram on, but its obvious that we BOTH arent going to make it. so we decided to just wait for the next one.

we made it to our destination and discovered "Auchan" the french wal mart. they had everything you could ever want. its actually better than wal mart since you can buy booze there [liquor, liqueur, champagne, wine, beer] and all for SUPER cheap. so we made only a few purchases since we didnt have our bags with us. i got hangers, dish soap, sponges, detergent and chips for 5,53! wooop wooop

and lisa got her curling iron. on sale.

the end

Froid de Canard

Yes, it is snowing and COLD here in Clermont... Maybe we should've done Portuguese or Spanish... it looks warm there...

Clermont, Day 1

long story short we made it to our train moments before it pulled away from the station, although im convinced that if we missed it we could have chased after it since it was going soooo slowwww... lisa and i were seated next to eachother in a row of 3 facing 3 strangers with a tiny table to separate us. the guy across from lisa kept staring at her, and the kid next to me had a black eye and more scars on his hands than i could count. needless to say, if there was an altercation, we wanted him on our side.

we arrived in clermont, and, like paris, it was freezing cold. we shuttled our luggage down the stairs under the tracks and then back up. made our way to our hotel and called it a night.

the next morning [monday] we were supposed to move into our residence and then go to school, but at 9am we received a call from Gaetan telling us we were to leave our luggage at the hotel and go to school and we would move into our residence at 4pm.

we had our tour of the city, which we covered in under an hour on foot, and then talked about classes. we had a mini class on advertising which wasnt really interesting enough to keep my mind off the fact that i didnt really have a home yet and had been living out of a suitcase for over a week at that point. we excused ourselves at 4pm and raced to the hotel to get our things and wait for gaetan.

he arrived, punctually french, and about 10 minutes late. we loaded our suitcases into his tiny car and the car of his friend and drove around the corner to our residence. we then walked through about 3 buildings such that the back door of the residence was across the street from were we had just left... they should us to our rooms and then we signed our names and wrotr "lu et approuvé" at least 12 times. apparently the french like to have you sign the original and the copy, not make a copy with your signature. oh well.

6pm, we have finished paperwork and now need food and other room essentials: sheets, pillow, towels, comforter, blankets etc. we head out into the city only knowing the name of a cheap store and generally where it is... we managed to find it and i bought a comforter and pillow which i had to lug all around town and to the grocery store to buy staples for the next 24h.

did i mention clermont is situated on an old volcano with the cathedral at the top and everything else around it... this means that to go anywhere you have to go up the hill and then to get home you must climb the hill again... with all your purchases. quite tiring to say the least.

made it home, tucked into bed, plugged into the internet and good to go by 10pm. and that was only the 1st day....

More Paris

After an uneventful new years we attacked the city full...half force. each day started about noon and we were in bed by 11pm, after an hour of interneting. on our travels we visited the Louvre for free [lisa, 6euros], dined on kebabs [again] in the latin quarter, enjoyed a fine meal at Moliere by les halles and witnessed a 21,000 person demonstration that turned violent!

the top of the Galeries LaFayette is a terrace that gives a beautiful view of the city. it is not to well known so its not completely clogged with tourists. while atop this famous 'grand magasin' we heard chanting and loud voices.
we looked over the edge and saw what looked like a march. thinking nothing of it we continued to take pictures of the city and then went down to the cafe below to enjoy an overpriced coffee while gazing at the sunset out the window.




at about 6pm we decided to get back to our hostel, but when we got outside we realized the march was blocking our route home... we braved the masses and pretended not to notice the israeli flags with the star of david replaced with swastikas...

we made it to our hostel safely and did some more interneting before packing our bags for clermont. the next morning we checked out at 930am but stayed around to play online until calling a cab at 11 to take us to gare de lyon to catch our train. whilst perusing the news lisa discovered that there had in fact been a march the night before and at 6pm 500 youths turned violent burning cars and smashing store windows. what fun.

we then got our cab [read; minibus for luggage] and headed to the train station. we got there and waited for the other 2 students to join us, but the line was kinda long so we figured we should just get our tickets and they would do the same.

Paris

The city of lights on new years... one would expect a better fireworks display than what was provided... i thought they were kids in the park behind the eiffel tower shooting off roman candles... oh well, we can teach the french a thing or two.


lisa and i basically froze to death waiting for midnight. we indulged in 6,90 pizzas and a pitcher of tap water for our new years meal. we looked all over for a supermarket to buy champagne but failed to find one. on the metro to Champs de Mars, where the eiffel tower is, we saw one and when we exited we made our way back to the tiny store. after paying waaay too much for champagne and beer we headed to the tower. we werent sure if it was ok to drink in public, but after we saw the Gendarmerie [police] hassling people with champagne we decided it had to be a covert operation.



we went in search of cups since there was a mini fair going on, and the best we could find was 2 euro cups of tea which we swigged and promptly used the cups for champagne. we found a bit of land near some english speaking folks and set up shop. not dressed for the bitter cold we huddled and sipped champagne to stay warm. it was nice having your beer not get warm...



the stars on the eiffel tower were a countdown to midnight, which was kinda cool. so we shouted bonne annee with all the locals then headed back on the [free] metro to find a kebab joint in the latin quarter. staggering home we passed some old church and posed for photos and then promptly returned to our hostel at about 3:30am. no wonder we didnt wake up until at least 12 the next day...




Posted by Liz at 1:13 PM 0 comments
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