Wow, so much traveling! First of all, sorry for the lack of posts...I feel like I posted about both the Netherlands and my visit to the Holka household, but evidence shows otherwise since I can't find the posts even saved on my computer :) Whoops!
So I'll start with my visit with the wonderful Holka family. It was great to spend a relaxing weekend just outside of Paris right before my birthday with the entire family. Mme. Holka cooked amazing food, as always, which was a real treat! And Victoria baked me a cake for my birthday! Overall it was a fantastic weekend :)
The next weekend, I went to visit my awesome friend Debby in the Netherlands!! I stayed with her in Rotterdam and took a day trip to Amsterdam and Kinderdijk (the town with all the windmills). I officially drank my first beer, which I did not enjoy at all haha, but still went to the Heineken factory where I was able to draft (and drink) my own beer =) I even kept the glass as a souvenir! It will definitely be making the trip back to the states with me :) I also visited the Van Gogh museum - yeah, he's Dutch, not French (so many people have told me Van Gogh's French....shame shame...I'm not even an art person and I know that haha). Took a contraband photo of his sunflower painting ;) But don't worry, no artwork was harmed in my photo-taking process! Sadly, the line to the Anne Frank house was too long, so I didn't get to visit that, but I still enjoyed Amsterdam a lot =)
Rotterdam was also a lot of fun: known for it's cube houses (I took a picture, if you don't know what I'm talking about, which hopefully will be on Facebook eventually, if I ever conquer my laziness and procrastination haha). We walked through the market in the morning, which was fantastic! I love all the open markets over here...I will be missing that a lot when I come back. Then, in the afternoon, we went on a little boat cruise to Kinderdijk where we saw all of the windmills. It was beautiful :)
As for Dutch food, well any diet I had before going was sufficiently ruined :) Kroquets, stroopwafels, fries, poffertjes....it was all awesome :) Except for the raw herring, which I did try, much to my displeasure haha. And, while getting addicted to all of the amazing fried food, I also got addicted to The Hunger Games!!! Debby had the books, and we had plenty of time on the trains to/from Amsterdam and on the boat to/from Kinderdijk to get me sufficiently hooked =) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by some stroke of luck the movie is playing on the plane back, despite secretly knowing it's wayyy too soon for that to happen haha.
Then, it was my last week of classes, where I passed most of my classes and have my fingers crossed that I didn't fail the other 2 ;) Seriously though, when your entire grade rests on one exam, and that exam proves to be deathly hard, passing is a serious concern! I think I find out this coming week...which is also the week in which I have my first proficiency exam: Oral Exam Number 1. Not excited. Actually terrified out of my mind and nervous as a fish who is about to take a test on how long he can breathe out of water. And I thought my IB Expose was hard...this one lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes - 1 hour of reading the document and preparing and 30 minutes of making up crap in front of a panel of hopefully only 2 professors. :O
Now onto more traveling, because there is no study in study abroad haha! For my Spring Break, which was these past 2 weeks, I traveled all around France with my mother. First stop was Paris, where we saw the big stuff like the Eiffel Tower and all that jazz. Then we went to Dijon, where we had mustard and the amazing wonder that is kir :) We also had a pizza with the most amazing topping ever, especially considering we're in France: CHILI!!!! Yes, real green chili on our pizza!!!! =) Next was a day trip to Versailles, since my mom had never been to a castle before. Might as well go to the big one, right?? ;) It was very nice, especially since I got in for free as a French student, until it started pouring horizontally and we got soaked! We ran back to the hotel to change, because that night we had dinner at the Holka family's house (so lucky - I got to see them twice so far, and I get to spend one more night with them before I leave!!). We had fantastic champagne, followed by escargots from Bourgogne (which were also fantastic), duck (ok, everything was fantastic), and chocolate cake, all accompanied with a wonderful wine. I was stuffed by the time I left!
We also took a day trip to Belgium - Brugges, to be exact. Of course, I loaded up on Belgian chocolate while there, all of which is gone now :P Surprisingly, I only just ate the last piece! That's a long run for chocolate around me haha. While in Brugges, we went to a brewery to try some Belgian beer (not very pleasant haha, but at least we tried) and just kind of wandered the streets. I'm pretty sure we went to a museum or church or something too, but I honestly can't remember which one haha. I also got to eat a Belgian waffle =) Yes, my trip was centered around food, not historical monuments. Sorry, but I'm a chemist, not a historian or artist ;) And I love food!
Anyways, after that little stay in Paris, we headed down to Avignon, which was a quaint little town in Provence. We toured Avignon the first day, and the second day we headed to Arles for a little day trip. Both areas were Roman-influenced - even got to see some pretty cool Roman-style ruins (since I never actually made it to Rome when in Italy...haha).
And now for the best part of the trip...THE FRENCH RIVIERA!!! It was so beautiful, and it was actually warm! For once in my semester, I got to take my coat off and enjoy the sun =) I even got sunburned, and not from sun reflecting off of snow!! (Which, coincidentally, I think it snowed in Paris after we left...yes, it is still that cold over here) Nice was nice ;) However Monaco was definitely my favorite! We toured the Prince's Palace, and I decided that he needs a son so I can marry him and become a princess =) And of course, what's a trip to Monaco without a trip to the casino?? Monte Carlo woohoo, where I'm actually old enough to enter and play (if I wanted to haha)!! I found my new car in front of the casino - I tried to convince my mom to let me play a few rounds inside so I could actually afford my new car, but I decided simply marrying the owner would work, too, especially if this thing with the prince's son doesn't work out haha =) (Trusting everyone can sense the sarcasm here...I'm not this shallow in relationships haha)
After Nice was Barcelona, Spain =) I attempted to try the local cuisine - tapas and paella - but apparently I'm highly allergic to paella!! So that back-fired haha. Luckily, I'm not allergic to Sangria :) We ended up spending Barcelona relaxing, since we were there on May Day, a European holiday of protests haha. My mom and I saw a protest, and my mom turns to me and says "Look, there's a parade down the street!" I just looked at her, shook my head, and told her she thinks like an American...because it was indeed a protest. We did get to see Park Guell, the Catedral (the h is left out on purpose - it's a famous cathedral right off of La Rambla), and of course walked the famous Las Ramblas. I even bought a scarf at the market there because the merchant was nice and gave me a discount (I'm pretty sure all his "playing with the scarf" was his way of flirting with me...which worked out for me since I got the scarf cheaper than the woman in front of me!!). We also bought really fresh fruit at the food market for breakfasts and dinners in my attempt to stay away from the typical Spanish foods that nearly killed me. And, of course, CHURROS AND CHOCOLATE!!! Although I must say, French and Belgian chocolate is better in my opinion (and Swiss...but we didn't actually go there haha). On the last day, due to crappy weather, we decided to just go to the aquarium (it's the largest in Europe) instead of climbing the mountain, afraid it would rain. It was a very nice aquarium =)
Traveling day sucked, but isn't that always the case haha. Plane was about an hour late, they opened my luggage so all my stuff was kind of everywhere and then dropped it somewhere in something (it was covered in dirty white powder), train was half an hour late.....but the bus was on time! Haha :)
Overall it was quite a successful vacation! And now I'm back in Limoges, with just under 3 weeks left before I come home. Time to study my butt off for my terrifying exams - 2 oral proficiency exams, 2 written proficiency exams, 1 written stereochemistry exam, and, worst of all, 1 oral stereochemistry exam. Yep, that's right, me making up chemistry in French as half of my grade. Uh oh...
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