First full day in Limoges

Slept in and we left the house around 3 to go shopping downtown. Walked around and went in various stores and I bought a new bath scrubbie thing because mine was starting to unravel. We went to a bakery where I bought my favorite raspberry tart and also to Monoprix, where I bought my favorite cheese, pasta, and sauce that I can't get in the states. I also bought a new sim card for my french cell phone since my old one expired. Around 5:30 to go back to the house, and stopped by a bakery so I could get some baguettes. We ate a little bit at the house, picked up some stuff and, we left to go pick up Melanie's mom from work. Last night her car got broken into and I'm pretty sure I heard the sound of shattered glass in the middle of the night. And it wasn't even her car, she was borrowing it from her boss I think. Then we went to Melanie's brother's house to visit. Melanie has the cutest niece I've pretty much ever seen. She's 2 and absolutely adorable. I think we might even be baby-sitting her and her 2 older siblings tomorrow or thursday. We came home and had leftovers from yesterday, and I had to say goodbye to Melanie's mom because she's leaving for a trip to the south tomorrow. Then we watched a french romantic comedy, which I really liked.

From Marseille to Limoges

Today I woke up in enough time to get ready to go to Limoges. Stephane had to work this morning so Sebastien took me to Marseille to see me off at the train station. Took the train from Marseille to Toulouse, which went pretty well. When I arrived in Toulouse, I was waiting to see which platform my train would arrive at, and this random guy walks by me and says "Do I know you?" and I was like umm no. I was kinda stumbling over my words, because I hate it when guys do this and it catches me off-guard. He wanted me number and I was I said I didn't have a mobile phone, and I said I was leaving Toulouse soon anyway. But I wanted to say "in your dreams"... these sleazy guys who always target me in France... it never fails. I don't even remember making eye contact with him. I think he finally got the message and walked away.

On the train to Limoges, I sat next to a lady who had her little girl who sat on her lap, and they kept moving between their assigned seat and open seats as people boarded the train. So naturally I was constantly having to get up to let them out and so on. Kinda annoying. Not to mention the trip seemed to take forever and it was burning up in the train. I was also starving, because I'd only eaten a sandwich I bought in Marseille and refused to buy another on the train because it's highway (railway?) robbery.

But it was great to finally arrive in Limoges. Melanie was there to pick me up and drove me to her place where I met her mom and the three of us had an excellent salad, wine, bread and cheese, and ice cream.

Tomorrow it sounds like we're just gonna chill and Melanie will show me around Limoges, since I've never been here before.

Updates for the last 2 days

It's been a little hard to update the blog daily since I've been doing so much stuff and it's all been going so quickly. Yesterday I kinda accidentally slept in til around 1:15, and I thought Stephane and Sebastien were still asleep so I took my time, but it turns out they were up before I was and were already outside having lunch when I finally emerged. So we had breakfast/lunch with their parents (consisting of an excellent quiche made with mushrooms that they picked in the Alps on their vacation) and freshly made apple juice from apples they picked in the Alps too. Then Stephane and I went to La Ciotat to the beach were we met his friends. It was absolutely gorgeous. After we swam we had a drink at a restaurant nearby (more specifically, we drank Pastis). Then we went back to Stephane's were we all showered and got ready to go out. Of course it didn't take the boys long to get ready, whereas it took me at least an hour and a half. We left Stephane's and drove to Marseille, had some dinner, and then we had several rounds of drinks at an outdoor cafe. Then we walked to The Shamrock, which is an Irish dance-bar on the old port in downtown Marseille. I had a Guinness on tap for the first time in a long time, because I refuse to drink it that way in the US. I also had several glasses of rosé and we danced a ton. I always wanted to sing along to the music because a majority of what they played was America music but the boys kept telling me to be quiet hahaa. But they thought it was funny. Then we went down the street to the Trolleybus, which I actually really liked. Unfortunately Stephane wasn't feeling well around this time and didnt stay long with us in the Trolleybus and I was a little worried about him, and his friend Alex went to get his car so he could rest. I got tired too and probably headed back to the car around 5 or 5:30. We had a little bit of problems when we left because Stephan wanted to drive, and we wouldn't let him. So Stephane went home with Sebastien (because Seb met us in Marseille), and Alex drove me back to Stephane's in Stephane's car. I have to mention also that I was so sad because when I was walking back to the car to rest, I slipped and scuffed up the one of the sides of my brand-new stilettos. Hopefully I can have them fixed. We got back to Stephane's at around 7 am. In France you go out around 10 or 11, even midnight, and don't get home until as late as 8 am. The sun was definitely rising by the time we got back home. But that's completely normal. I wish Americans partied that way.

Then I crashed until around 2 pm. Today was a relaxation day. Around 4 or so, Stephane and I went to his friend's house to lounge in his pool and then we came back and Stephane got ready to go to a soccer game. While he was gone, Sebastien and I went to his friend's girlfriend's house, who also runs a pizza stand, and we hung out with her family, ate a lot of baguette, sausage, amazing dried tomatoes in olive oil, and had awesome pizza... and drank a lot of rosé and had a great conversation with the girlfriend's family and we watched the soccer game that Stephane was at. Unfortunately no one won and the score was 0-0. They asked me if it was hard for me to talk in French so much and I said no, because it's good for me. Seb and I got back around midnight.

I had to say goodbye to Stephane because he has to get up early for work and Sebastien will take me to the train station tomorrow and it's off to Limoges.

photos here

Les Rencontres d'Arles Photographie

Today started rather comically. It was such a beautiful morning and Stephane has a magnificent view from his room, so I wanted to open the window and the shutters. But as I tried to open the shutters, I set off this crazy security alarm to the house, waking everyone up. It was embarrassing but hilarious. I had no idea or else I wouldn't even have touched it. But they told me it was completely fine. I joked in saying that it was an "American wake-up call". hahaha Then Sebastien and I had breakfast with his parents and we drove to Arles, taking a little detour to drive through Aix-en-Provence, a town I was in in 2006 and absolutely adore. We arrived in Arles and bought our tickets to the exposition and I think we may have visited about 10. The expositions were located all over downtown, so we did a lot of walking. We met up with Stephane after he finished work and saw another big exposition. When we finished, we had a beer, and then went looking for a place to have dinner. Seb told me had a place in mind, but I think they didn't have a place to sit outside, so we ate at a really good Italian place, but before we went to get another drink because there was an hour wait. That's when I had a conversation with a woman from New York and her husband (I forgot where he was from) because I heard them speaking English and they saw me having some difficulties with the mosquitoes that were biting me, and they offered me (first in French) some mosquito repellant. I told them I was from Oregon and the husband called his friend who lives in France because he was from Pendleton and we talked on the phone, because the man was so stoked that he ran into another Oregonian. Dinner was fantastic and I felt like it was really authentically Italian because the employees were Italian. I had tiramisu, which wasn't cake like in the US, but more like cream with cinnamon on top and a little bit of a cake part underneath. We drove back to Peypin. Tomorrow we plan on going to the beach, maybe meeting Milena at some point, coming back to Peypin to get ready, and then going to a night club either in Marseille or in Toulon... not sure yet.

photos here

Back to Europe

Today started quite nicely as both my parents and Luke and his family came to say goodbye to me. Although I went through security a little late on the other side of the airport and had to slightly rush to get to the side where my gate was located. Turns out I had to wait on the side because if you check in online, you have to have your documents verified by an agent at the airport. So I basically tried to avoid waiting in lines, just to end up waiting at the gate while everyone else boarded and the people at the gate desk took their time to verify my documents.

Arrived in Amsterdam after a pretty decent 10 hour flight. I made a new friend who sat next to me, and he was happy to have someone to talk to since he was flying for the first time and was a little nervous. The food on the flight wasn't bad either. When I arrived on Amsterdam I couldn't see any screens to know where the boarding gate for my next flight was. So I tried to use this kiosk which only printed me a piece of paper saying the service wasn't available and that I needed to find a service desk. None in sight. So I just walked until I finally found the screens. Then security for whatever reason thought it would be hilarious to scan my carry-on suitcase about 3 times and make me open it up and take stuff out for them to inspect it. I've never had this problem before, and they said it was just because I had things they normally don't see. But still, I absolutely hated watching them take my stuff out and put it in those disgusting bins that everyone put their stuff in to get through security.

Paris went pretty smoothly. But once again I had issues printing my boarding pass. And security was much better too. And I'm so thankful I landed and departing in the same terminal, because with only one hour and 15 minutes between flights, I was kinda stressing.

Arrived a little late in Marseille, and Sebastien was there to pick me up. We drove back to Peypin. We spent the afternoon hanging out by their pool. Stephane came home later in the evening and we had dinner of roasted goat and ratatouille, which was delicious, with their parents.

Tomorrow Sebastien and I are going to Arles for a photography exposition and I think Stephane will meet up with us when he is off work. And I think we'll spend the rest of the evening there as well.

Quick update before heading home

I flew into Paris yesterday from Munich and made it alright to my hotel. This morning I woke up at 6:45 and left by 8, only to get to the airport to discover that my flight had been canceled, because of technical difficulties, or so I heard. I was very NOT happy. But that's my life. I found a small group of other passengers on the same flight who were with an airport rep who had US Airways on the phone, and one by one we talked with them to reschedule our flight for tomorrow. I feel kinda bad because an older french woman on the flight asked me to talk to US Airways for her, which I was fine with, but the person told me to tell them that they had to wait till sunday to fly to Charlotte. I don't know why the rep didn't just say to take the flight for tomorrow. The others (a couple women, and a father and daughter) waited at the airline desk and they gave us all a voucher for a 4-star hotel (usually like 300 euros a night) and lunch and dinner for today, and breakfast for tomorrow. And we had a personal shuttle to the hotel, although we had to wait over 30 minutes for it and it's less than a 5 minute drive away. We each got our own room and I'm pretty impressed. We all had lunch and dinner together, and earlier in the day I went for a swim and had a bath after dinner. Tomorrow we're meeting at 8 am to take the shuttle back, because they said to be there between 8 and 9. So it hasn't been too bad. I just really, really don't look forward to tomorrow.

Mehr Deutschland und Rock im Park

Last weekend was RIP. What a great weekend it was. I woke up at 1:30 am on thursday and we were on our way to Nürnberg by 4 or so, after stopping in Munich to pick up some people in our group. It rained the entire day. And when we arrived we had to park a little ways away, then we stood in line to get in for about 2 hours I'd say. It took us a while to find the others in our group who arrived before us saving our camping spot, but we finally found them. Then we had to get the rest of the stuff and set up. The rest of the day was spent trying not to soak and keep warm. I was so scared it was going to be like that for the whole weekend.
That evening when the rain finally stopped, we went and saw Rage Against the Machine. The next day we saw Bullet for My Valentine, In Extremo, Rise Against, and Rammstein. Rammstein was absolutely monumental. Best concert I've ever seen. I feel like I could have paid the 150 euros I paid for my RIP ticket, just to see them. It was that good. I think during either BFMV or Rise Against, there was a few guys who got on the stage and ran across it, and you could see it on the big screens... them and a security guard or 2 chasing after them. It was hilarious. I actually saw/heard many, many interesting things at RIP. The first night I was woken up by someone very loudly and very drunkenly singing a German partying song with a ghetto blaster. I saw one guy running around in nothing but a thong made of tape. And another guy in a green Bruno-bikini. I was asked several times if there exists a festival like RIP in the states. There's none that I know of, but I do know that a festival like RIP in the states would absolutely not fly. EVERYONE drinking publicly and many people running around nearly naked could only be done in Europe. And it's not like there were no cops. Cops were all over the place. On saturday we saw Cypress Hill, Jay-Z, and KISS. We pretty much slept in the grass between acts. When Jay-Z came on, it was totally without any warning and it scared the living crap out of me. I really didn't care about the first 2 acts that much, but KISS was cool to see, although their music is a little too old for my taste, but they're classic so I had to see them. Plus I had to get some pics and videos for mom, who was a fan of theirs when she was my age. The next day we saw As I Lay Dying, Gossip, 30 Seconds to Mars, Volbeat, and some of Muse, although not as much as I would have liked. They were the last band to play on the center stage and we wanted a little bit earlier to beat the people and the traffic. But I'm so glad we didn't stay another night, which was possible. Since the first day, the weather was wonderfully hot, but that last night, all this wind and cold and light rain came from no where. It wasn't too pleasant leaving as the garbage of 60,000 people was blowing all over the place. There was a ridiculous amount of garbage. It made me really sad. But I know that they probably have a lot of people who come in after RIP to clean. Somehow a toilet seat made its way near our tent as well. When we were at any concerts, we mostly just sat at our sight relaxing and drinking beer. The Germans don't mess around with their beer. I saw people bringing cases upon cases of beer. One of the days, we went to the waterpark nearby. I wasnt sure if I was going to swim because they told me it was a swimming hole or something, and I thought gross... I dont want to go swimming in a big puddle of dirty water. But it actually was a nice park with 3 pools. We swam a little then soaked up some sun. We left a little earlier than I wanted to, but it was alright. I'm just so glad we went, because I never showered when I was there. It was 2.50 euros and there was always a line. And I was gonna get super dirty anyway. On sunday, Andy and I got back to his house at about 2 am or so. I wanted to shower but was just way too tired. The next day went to Andy's girlfriend's house and the his friend's house to hang out. Then I got my stuff together and we went to Munich. I checked into my hostel, and I was pretty bummed because according to the website I booked on, I was supposed to have a single person room for 25 euros a night, but I'm in a 6 person room. I guess there was a problem with the website, is what they told me. But at least I get free breakfast every morning. And I got a free welcome shot too. Today I woke up early enough to just eat breakfast, then I fell back asleep and took some time getting ready. I went to my friend's house who I haven't seen in 4 years, and she had no idea I was coming, nor that I was in Germany, so she was quite surprised. Unfortunately we couldn't go out for a drink or something because she was working on a big presentation. Then I went back to the area of my hostel and looked around in the shops. I saw a dirndl store and wanted to buy one sooo bad. Then I found a grocery store to get some snacks, since I didn't want to buy dinner. Tomorrow Andy's girlfriend is supposed to come to Munich to show me around since she went to school here and has some free time. I'm looking forward to that.

more pics here