LONDON, OXFORD, and Home!

What a great weekend! My experience in London was outstanding - stayed in a great hostel downtown near Waterloo, where I immediately met people and spent the day (and night) with - we saw Tower Bridge, St. Paul's, and some other things, then got Indian food (London specialty), and went out for drinks in Piccadilly Circus, where we stayed out til 3 chatting, dancing, making shenanigans, etc.
Next day was an early wake-up call for morning train to Oxford (about 1 hour by train), the famed university where my friends Brendan and Chi are doing a summer program. We walked around the town (which is surprisingly large), saw a lot of old buildings, went out to lunch (twice) and participated in a mini-pub crawl sponsored by the program directors haha. Overall a lovely day - though I was reeling from the lack of sleep the night before.
Then it was back to London for Monday, when I said goodbye to my new hostel friends (mostly Aussies and Americans) and saw a bit more of the city - the Imperial War Museum (pretty cool), Westminster Abbey (awesome, but packed with tourists), and Covent Garden. I met up with Max (from Georgetown) for lunch in Covent Garden, where I had the classic fish and chips. :) After that, it was back to the hostel to pick up my bags and then I took a train to Clapham Junction, where I met David (from the Tours program). We stayed at David's uncle's house for a nice chill night - a nice break from the running around.
Today began at 5:50am, when i woke up for a train to London-Gatwick airport, where I caught a train to Charlotte, where I am now. It feels eerily strange to be back in the States - not sure if I like it. I will miss Europe...a lot. It has been quite a summer full of experiences I will never forget.

Goodbyes

So it was that time - time to say goodbye. About half of the Georgetown group left this afternoon after a nice lunch we all attended (plus Guy). It was also the celebration of the end of our course - I received an A (no surprise considering the lack of difficulty of the course, though I certainly was probably only one of the few to get one in our class) and I enjoyed today just talking (mostly in French) with the profs and students in a casual setting.
Tomorrow it is off to London - I have mostly packed and am not looking forward to waking up at 6:30 tomorrow morning (for an 8am train), but I'll be travelling with Jacque all the way to London (sorta - we have seats that are not next to each other on each leg of the trip), which will be nice. Upon arrival in London, I will have to take the Tube (subway) across town to my hostel with a suitcase with a broken wheel...
I may be giving my friend Max, who lives in London, a call, and I hope to see the rest of the city that I missed last time - like Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and St. Paul's Cathedral. We'll see how it goes!
After that, I will be spending Sunday in Oxford visiting Chi and Brendan (Georgetowners doing a business program there)! And then Monday I will be meeting up with fellow Tours-program student David to stay at his uncle's house and hold a last hurrah in Europe before I depart the next morning for home!
Anyway, should be a fun weekend - hopefully nothing goes too wrong...
It will be sad to say goodbye to Europe - it truly is all its cracked out to be - the history, the culture, the food. Awesome. I'm so happy to have done this trip!! But of course, all things must end, and I am excited to go home as well - to relax, to see the family, etc.
So I may have spotty Internet service for the rest of the trip, but I will do my best to finish off this blog right!

PASSED!!!

So all 5 of us passed the proficiency exam, which is great news!! We celebrated last night and stayed out a bit too late, so today is a bit rough haha. 2 more days of class and my mind has all but checked out. I need to start packing soon for the London extravaganza/going home!

Oh, What a Day...

So the ever-looming nightmare - the SFS proficiency exam - finally struck today with full strength - between 11:35 and 12, I was barraged with questions on an article that somehow managed to cover just about everything in French politics - retirement age, social security, the Madame Bettencourt affair, the economic crisis, the Greek crisis, international relations, and a random part about a plan to tell parents to tell their kids not to walk at night (?). Craaazzzyyy. I was asked detailed questions about such things like tax loopholes and the progressive tax system and was forced to explain something nearly impossible to explain in English - the crash of the housing bubble in the US and how it affected unemployment in France. Wow.
And the funny part is: I think I held my own. Aside from not knowing what "bouclier fiscale" meant (which translates literally to "tangled money" but means "tax ceiling") and taking a long time to wrap my head around the fact that they were seriously trying to get me to explain the specifics of the global financial crisis, I think I did pretty well. I gave a pretty stellar summary at the beginning and held my own (it was mostly my wit that pulled me together haha) during the questioning period. And seriously - if I don't pass because I didn't know what "bouclier fiscal" meant or what the IPF is (a tax on rich people), then that's just nuts.
I should hear the results tonight via email! Thus the constant computer-checking begins...

In other news, after lunch, I went on my semi-spontaneous day trip (absolutely FREE, and thus the best kind of trip) to the nearby towns of Angers and Saumur. Overall, a lovely experience, though I didn't have time (or the desire to pay 10 euros) to enter the chateaus at each of these places, so I guess I didn't truly experience the two places. But oh well - it was a nice break!
Saumur was my first stop and reminded me a lot of Amboise, except with less people and not quite as cool. It was very nice, however - I walked up a good-sized hill to the chateau overlooking the town and the Loire river - but again, didn't go in due to time and money constraints. The rest of the town was nice as well - particularly the town hall (le mairie), which had similar architecture to Chambord, the most famous chateau in the area.
Angers was the former capital of the state of Anjou, which hit its stride close to same time as Touraine - 13th, 14th century. The town itself reminded me a lot of Tours - around the same size - about an equal amount of attractions, etc. However, I think Angers (pronounced Ahn-jair) might be slightly prettier, as there were roses everywhere and less ugly grey-white buildings. There were also some tremendous gardens and parks, many of which I didn't even get to see but they look cool in photos.
In other news, I got an interview for a fall internship in DC with the Stimson Center - which i have to do Friday night at 8pm! Inconvenient time, but good news nonetheless!
So depending on the results announced tonight, I may be having a celebratory drink with the rest of the test-takers tonight in Place Plumereau!

Proficiency Exam Tomorrow!!

Ahhh! It's just one day away: the light at the end of the tunnel - the test that could lift a great weight off my shoulders - the School of Foreign Service language proficiency exam in French. At 11:15 tomorrow, it will be just me, Professor Spielmann, and an article - and for 20 minutes I have to talk about the article, answering questions about French politics, society, etc. and formulating arguments in response to the article.
Well, the weird thing is...I'm not really nervous. I figure this: I have been in France for 6 weeks now and have been speaking it almost every day for most of the day and have been reading Le Monde (French newspaper) every day - so there's not really much more I can do. Plus, I am thinking maybe the test will be easier because it is monitored here by a professor who normally doesn't monitoring them and is rather relaxed and easy to understand. So on the whole, not too stressed. But only time will tell how I will do...
After the test, since I have the afternoon off and a bunch of free train tickets remaining, I have decided I will be visiting the nearby towns of Saumur and Angers. Not sure why i picked them - but they both have large chateaux and a good deal of nice churches and whatnot. Since I only have less than a week in Europe left, I might as well take advantage while I can, eh?
On that note, I am also planning the final few days of the trip, when I will be in London from July 31-August 3. I just booked a hostel near Waterloo station (unfortunately not the station I get into from Paris on the Eurostar, so a connection is necessary) and am in the works of planning a day trip up to Oxford University to visit Chi, Brendan, and compnay on August 1. Also, David was kind enough to offer a place to sleep for August 2 with his uncle in Chapham Junction, so the two of us will hopefully have a little last hurrah (pub crawl, maybe? haha) that night before my flight the next morning out of Gatwick Airport.

Geneva - Day 3

So last half-day in Geneva - we spent the morning taking a gondola to the top of a nearby mountain (in France, actually), where we got a magnificent view of Geneva and a so-so view of the Alps to the south and east - unfortunately it was too early in day, so all the mountains showed up only as silhouettes and clouds were blocking the view of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps and always a dream peak of mine to see and eventually hike. Well, both would have to wait for another time - but the trip to the top of the Telepherique (Gondola) de Saleve was nice enough - we breathed in some fresh mountain air and descended around 11:15 before taking the bus back to the hotel, where we picked up our bags. Then it was the long train ride back, during which I slept, read Le Monde, studied up a bit for the SFS Proficiency exam I have Wednesday, and chatted.
Overall, it was a nice trip - not the best by no means, but nice. I am hooked on Switzerland and feel I have only scratched the surface - yet to see snowcapped peaks and stunning valleys - unfortunately these are in the German-speaking part, and as is my rule, I hate going places without knowing at least a bit of thee language - so maybe I'll have to add German to my list of languages to learn. Rosetta Stone maybe?
So now it's back in Tours for a week - taking off for London on Saturday and flying out on August 3!

Geneva - Day 2

Ahh, a full day in Geneva. We didn't have a strict agenda, but we had some ideas in mind as to what to do. Of course, we got off to a late start as we finally were able to sleep in a bit and took our time with breakfast (Speculoos mmmhmmm). But after awhile, we made our way to the entrance to the United Nations - European hub. We crossed into the dead-zone: international territory - not sure what nation to call it? - for a tour of this great place where nations hold thousands of meetings and get surprisingly little done. We saw the new section first - with gifts from many countries - and then the old, home to the big assembly hall, security council chamber, and relics from the time of the precursor to the UN: the League of Nations.
After the UN, we stopped for lunch and eventually found our way via the complicated bus system to CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research - home of the famous particle accelerator, which seeks to recreate the Big Bang and discover "antimatter" (anyone read "Angels and Demons"? - this is the same place). Here we checked out a couple exhibits - definitely worthwhile but as someone who is not so amazed with science, it wasn't paradise for me. The others enjoyed it very much though.
At this point, we were pretty darn tired - so we headed back to the hotel and chilled, napped, and ate for a bit. Around 7pm, we walked up to Vieille Ville, the old part of the city perched atop a hill and home to John Calvin's famous cathedral, which was architecturally interesting because the facade did not at all resemble a church - but rather a museum with large columns.
Old Town truly is beautiful and full of great little fountains, parks, statues, etc. We settled on eating at a salad place, which somehow made Hansky and I sick later but was good at the time (though, like usual in Switzerland, expensive).
About 20 minutes later, after we walked down to the festival again, I really wasn't feeling very good - something wasn't settling well in my stomach - and the rest were tired, so we didn't hang out for too much longer. We walked along the lake until we got to a pathway leading out to the Jet d'Eau (which wasn't on :( ), where we got a nice view of the city. It was so peaceful here - and I took 10 minutes alone to appreciate it - at this point, I went into reflective mode - thinking about my 6 weeks in Europe thusfar, the great time I have had, and the sadness of leaving as well as the stress I know this next semester will bring in comparison to this relaxed summer. I spent the walk back to the hotel in silence - sick, tired, and reflective.

Geneva - Day 1

And so ends the last weekend trip of Europe madness 2010 - we just got back from Geneva, Switzerland, where Hansky, Jacque, Lauren, and I trounced around, saw the sights, ate lots of Speculoos, crossed into international territory, learned about alternative universes, and went through way too many hypothetical questions brought to you by Lauren on the long train ride.
So the story begins on Friday with a lengthy train ride on a slow train from Tours to Lyon, through the countryside of France - towns I figured I would never see and that are so far off the beaten path they haven't heard of a tourist. But a lovely ride nonetheless, though we kept getting kicked out of our seats to pesky people with reservations haha.
From there it was a 2-hour ride through the beautiful Jura range from Lyon to Geneva, where we arrived around 10pm, crossing into Switzerland. On the train ride, we ran into a group of 4 girls we had no idea were from the same Tours program we were in until one of them recognized Jacque. Wow - small world - they were on the same ride back on Sunday too!
So anyway - we got into Geneva and found out that our hotel was of course in the red light district - full of sketchy prostitutes. Hmmm...we never felt unsafe, it was just a bit strange - the other, grittier side of Europe, if you will.
But our hotel was very nice - and a good deal, as we squeezed four people onto four twin beds pushed together - after Pamplona, this cuddle sesh was not so strange haha.
So that night we explored a bit - went down to the lake, saw the Jet d'Eau (a giant fountain) from afar, and danced for a bit to some American music at the carnival/festival in one of the gardens on the south bank. A nice time, but I guess we were tired and wanted to conserve energy for tomorrow - so we headed back, still franc-less (the Swiss currency), and hit the sack in our luxury hotel.

Back to Switzerland Today!

Well, so good thing I held on to my 10 Swiss francs I kept from last trip, as Jacque, Lauren, Hansky, and I will be heading back to Switzerland this weekend - this time to Geneva, just over the border (and a bit far from the mountains for my liking, but oh well, that's what the group decided). We plan to visit the UN, CERN (particle accelerator and scientific stuff), Old Town, and maybe the Red Cross museum. In addition we have discussed going up a ski-lift deal (télépherique) to a nearby mountain (though small), which will then afford us views of Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Europe outside of Russia. Overall, should be a fun trip.
The amount of days let in Tours has reached the single digits - it's really getting quite sad and I don't exactly want to leave Europe quite yet.
Anyway, gotta go to class before leaving - so I'll be back on Sunday night!

A Bit of School, A Lot of Vacation...

So here's how it goes - go to class each day, speak French all day, then return home to plan vacations. Basically how it goes each week - this week, after much debate, I decided to return to Switzerland this weekend, this time to Geneva, with different friends - Lauren and Jacque. Yes, I was just near there - but of the options (which we Strasbourg, Lourdes, going alone somewhere else, or nothing), this was the best. And since it's covered by my Eurail Pass, why not? I'm excited to return to the land of mountains, and hopefully this time we will get a peek at Mont Blanc, the highest point in the Alps, which will make the 6-hour each way trip worthwhile. Plus, it should be a fun group! All we need is to buy some Speculoos to make it amazing...
As far as school goes, I have received my tests from last week back and got good marks on all of them - anything about 15/20 is an A and I received 16's. We have another test tomorrow over some grammar which should be fine.
A little over a week til the SFS Proficiency Exam (11:15am on Wednesday the 28th), which is a little scary but I feel pretty confident as I have been reading Le Monde almost every day and could probably do well enough to describe an article given to me and even have an opinion on it.
Speaking of opinions, I had an intense discussion with my host family yesterday about religion. I defended Muslims as my host parents railed against their "endorsement of violence" and "way of life incompatible with Christianity." Hmmmm...it was interesting to hear their view (very similar to many in the US but maybe even harsher) and I think I did a decent job of explaining myself - though they are convinced that the Quran tells Muslims to "kill the infidel," which as far as I know, is a mistranslation. Anyway - it was interesting discussion, and while I am by no means Muslim, I felt like I had to argue the other side a bit. Meanwhile, the Swiss lady living her for the week basically sat out on the conversation. At the end, my host family gave me "homework": an excerpt from a book on "historical correctness," which attempts to correct for biases created over time, particularly about religious wars like the Crusades. So now I have some more reading haha...