Thanksgiving, Ambialet style.

This was the first time that I spent Thanksgiving away from my family. Usually Thanksgiving is a chance for me to see all my favorite people in one location in good old West Virginia. This year I didn’t get to be a part of that celebration, but we did have our own thanksgiving festivities here in Ambialet. The day started out early with Art History class, yeah we didn’t get off because Thanksgiving is not a holiday here. Right after class French tv came to interview us and get a glimpse into our lives here at the monastery. Luckily I didn’t get interviewed or really have to say anything in French, I can’t speak it that well yet, but they did film us making pies. Once they left we ate lunch and figured out teams for our backyard American football game, blacks vs. white. I was on the black team. We all got dressed up and painted our faces (war paint) and headed down to the field, which was Margret and Peter’s yard since we live on a mountain with no flat land. We had a fun game, but sadly my team lost, even though we had Christophe who probably could have taken their whole team by himself if we were playing rugby, but he never played American football before and didn’t quite get the concept of two hand touch, let’s just say Hillary’s ribs hurt. He asked me before the game if he was allowed to grab people’s legs and tackle them that way, I said no, that could have been bad. It was really hard trying to explain the rules of football to him because we know little French and he knows little English, and how do you explain football anyway? It’s just football. But we all had a lot of fun and both Christophe and our chef Bernard, who also played with us, really want us to play with them again. Hopefully it will stay nice here so we get to play another game.

Black Team(:

                After the game we got washed up and ready for dinner. Students that study wine at a local University came and gave us a wine tasting lesson before we ate. Fun fact: the slower the wine runs down the side of the glass after tilting it, the more alcohol it contains. I also learned that the reason why you are supposed to spit it out is not only so you don’t drink too much before you taste the last glass of wine, but also because there is a secondary flavor that you get as it touches your lips. The students were really nice and they stayed for dinner. Some of them spoke some English but for the most part communicating was hard, but it was fun using the French that we know and trying figuring out what they were saying. We had an American style dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cranberry sauce (thanks to Uncle Tim!), and pie! Even though I really missed not being with my family on Thanksgiving, I still felt very much loved and happy with the family I have here in Ambialet(:

Its been way too long.

So I need to start blogging again. So much has happened I don’t even know where to start.

Let’s begin with Paris.

 Paris was great! Good food and good people made for a really good experience. I only ran into one man who gives French people their stereotype of being rude, and this man definitely had something wrong with him. I was walking with the girls, we were going shopping of course, and he walked up to me while we were crossing the street and he got all up in my face and yelled something in French which I did not understand so without even thinking I said what. Well he turned around got back up in my face and told me that I was not welcome here. He seemed really on edge and sketchy so I just walked away as fast as possible praying he did not have some sort of weapon on him. But other than that incident I had a really great time in Paris. The Eiffel tower is amazing, especially when it is all lit up at night and sparkling. My favorite part of Paris would either have to be the art district part or the area across the river from Notre Dame. I loved seeing all the artists and their paintings and the view of the city from Sacre Coeur. But I also loved the vibe and the liveliness of the shops and restaurants near Notre Dame.

After Paris I traveled with Hillary and her parents to Krakow Poland. It is so beautiful there! The town is so small and it looks exactly the same as it did 50 years ago. We went on a tour of the city and learned all about its famous legends the first day. The second day we went on a tour of Auschwitz and Birkenau. That was a pretty depressing day. Being in the gas chambers where Jews were killed, and walking through the camps made it very real. Our last full day in Krakow we went on a salt mine tour which was really cool because it took you three levels down into the mine where there were huge chapels carved out of the salt, which is still used every Sunday and for weddings. It was pretty amazing down there, and we only went to the third chamber, there are nine total. We then met up with my parents at my uncle Tim’s in Germany. It was so good to get to see them! We visited a couple of beautiful churches with them and did some shopping before dropping Hillary’s parents off at the airport. The next morning we left for Paris!! We took a train which wouldn’t have been bad except I had a lot of luggage! If you ever decide to take a train in Europe, make sure you pack light because there is not a lot of room. Our apartment in Paris was kind of small but I thought it was rather cute and cozy. It was about a ten minute walk from Notre Dame, we were about a block away from the Luxemburg Garden. We were able to go to mass at Notre Dame that night because it was All Soul’s day, my parents seems to really enjoy it except they almost fell asleep a couple of times. They weren’t use to all the traveling. The next day we went up the Eiffel Tower, ate banana/nutella crepes (delicious!), and went on a boat tour of the city. The tour was really nice, it was a beautiful view of the city and since we went after dark it was all lit up on the water. The next day we took another train to Toulouse which is about an hour and a half away from where I live in Ambialet. From there we were able to rent a car and drive to Lourdes, which was incredible. We didn’t get to see everything but what we did see was amazing! The town was beautiful, and my parents really liked driving through the Pyrenees Mountains. We did some more shopping the next day before it was time for them to take Hillary and I back. They were amazed by the monastery where I live and it was really fun showing them around.  I wish it would have been nicer and that we would have had more time because there is so much here that I wanted them to see. I guess I will just have to bring them back here someday so they can see it when it’s not raining because this place can seriously take your breath away, and pictures just don’t do it justice.

Parents, on the boat tour.

So there is a really brief summary of Paris and my fall break, but I am going to blog again this week, hopefully tomorrow. I want to try to keep everyone updated, plus blogging helps me remember everything, and I don’t want to forget any of my experiences here.