June 25

Monday, June 25, 2007

It was totally gross out today. I hate rain…and when everything I want to do is outside, and when the only way to get anywhere is by bike or by foot, the rain sucks even more! As a result I sure didn’t do a lot today!!!
I got up with Sophie and we had cereal for breakfast and she left before 9am. I had a shower and went biking not long afterwards…it rained during the night, but the clouds weren’t that dark, so I figured it’d be okay – yah not so much…
The canals are totally perfect biking because there are no hills. And no hills is a good thing when I am borrowing bikes. Both Sophie and Dani are TALL people = bike is way too big for me! It was good to use it though, I’m not complaining…it is just a good thing that there was no real work involved!! Anyway…I biked a good 2 hours down the canals in the opposite direction from Toulouse. I made it to a little town that starts with an M (don’t remember what it is)…but it wasn’t exciting at all!! In my France book it says that Toulouse is really the only decent sized city in the region, and I think that is probably true…because even the little towns were, well, very little!
The canals are cool though because this canal connects the Ocean to the Mediterranean (man alive that took me a while to get the spelling…). There are 63 locks along the way too…and lots and lots of big river/canal boats. So, that is kinda funky, I think!
Well…just as I was leaving my M village it started to rain, so I turned back around towards Toulouse and Sophie’s place. I was a good 2 hours away from anything though, so I was nice and wet by the time I got back.
And because there was no food at Sophie’s either, I had to go out of the way in the pouring rain to get food! I lucked out there, though because the grocery store closes every day at 12:45 and I got there at about 12:41…If it hadn’t been open I would have been really sad and hungry! And…the grocery store is really cool…I’ll go again tomorrow (for dinner food). It is like a mini Costco version with great prices, but smaller quantities! So that made me nice and happy!!! (doesn’t take much, does it?!)
And then, after I ate my crackers and cheese for lunch, I had a wonderfully long nap (without an alarm clock). And I have just spent the last couple of hours planning what I need to do when I get home and making lists and organizing files on my computer – kind of sick…but I like organizing things and without a car, I am kind of trapped when it rains!
Hopefully it won’t rain tomorrow…I am planning to go do all the tourist-y things in Toulouse because Sophie and I didn’t really cover everything! We were too caught up in the shopping to get excited about churches!!
I’m off to meet Sophie…

Later

-Allison

June 24

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Today was a rather relaxed day – yet again!! And since it was Sunday and France ceases to function on Sundays, that added to the do nothingness of the day.
We slept in – rather I stayed in my bed – until 9am, so that Sophie could sleep. Wasn’t that nice of me?? And for breakie we had another picnic on my bed…the res room here is kind of entertaining because it is so small and so…ulgh…in comparison to what I was used to!!
The plan was to rent another bike so that we could both go biking today, but when Sophie called the bike rental place, we found out that it too was closed. Go figure. Instead, we walked in the opposite direction from Toulouse Centre down the canals for about an hour. We made it to the South Port and spent a good little while looking through the garage-sale type market that was there. Sophie bought a really old book full of old comics and adds from 1929 and I almost bought this really beautiful porcelain doll…but decided that it wasn’t really that exciting to buy a doll like that from a garage sale. And bringing it home would not have been fun, either!! So, no dolls.
We walked back to Sophie’s place and I had a little nap while Sophie attempted to get a hold of Dani – because he has a fridge and therefore food for us starting people who have nothing!! So, finally at 3pm we were able to eat…it was an excellent sandwich, I must say!!
After our afternoon lunch we went to Toulouse. I borrowed Sophie’s roller blades and she biked. The blades were definitely not as nice as mine are and ended up hurting my feet by the end, but going on wheels rather than walking was a very nice change! He he he…and this morning at the garage sales I bought a helmet – a bright red helmet that is about 5 sizes too big for me. But Sophie and Dani didn’t have one, so I thought that for 1 Euro it was a decent investment!! And it was even new, so I added all the extra sponge things to make it fit my head a bit better. Not excellent, by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m happy to have one!!! Anyway, so blading with wrist guards and a red helmet downtown, dodging people everywhere was pretty funny!!
We went to our awesome ice cream place again for dinner…I had Tiramisu and Strawberry today. Sophie had this weird combo of Mango-mint and yougart – both of which I thought were totally disgusting.
And after returning the blades to Dani’s and checking e-mails we came back to our little house and just finished watching “Love Story” on my computer. We both had a nice cry! I am going to give Sophie both of the movies that I bought while I was here before I leave because they won’t work at home. I didn’t know this when I bought them, but DVDs have international codes on them. North America is code one and this part of Europe is code 2. It is too bad, but they weren’t expensive and I’ve watched them both enough to have made it a good purchase!!
Tomorrow I think I am going to bike down the canals until I don’t know where…and visit all the little towns along the way! It is my kind of biking because canals are flat. No hills for me!! And it is great because the bike has a lock and everything, so I can get off and explore when I want too.
And Sophie has told me I am on grocery duty for dinner while I am here as well because she finishes “work” late. So that promises to be another adventure tomorrow as well!!

Night

-Allison

June 23

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Today was such a great day!! It was totally the stereotypical “girls day”! Shopping, talking, eating….all good things!!
So, we woke up at 9am to my alarm – that Sophie noticed right away is the same one as I had in France 3 years ago!! We had a picnic breakfast on my bed…juice, apples, and cinnamon bun things (always without the cinnamon) and took some awful morning pictures!! Sophie always cracks me up in the morning because she is completely dysfunctional. Yep…pretty funny!!
We started the walk along the canals to go to Toulouse around 10 and the temperature was perfect. In fact, all day it was perfect! And the canals are a perfect running spot – and there were a lot of people running along there…in fact the most people I’ve seen doing exercise during my entire trip!! I guess it helps that we are on campus, because that is a different population!
After finding the tourist office we wandered around, stopping in all the stores possible. I don’t really know if we were on any specific mission, but we both did a significant amount of damage! We are definitely not a good influence on each other for shopping! In this one store we stopped into before lunch there were the French equivalent of “Dogs” for less than 10 Euros and I, obviously, went a little nutty! I debated which colour to buy, and I ended up getting a pink pair! I am quite impressed – and very happy I didn’t by a pair in Calgary before I left!!
We found a great restaurant for lunch. It was a crêpe place – and for 10 Euros we got an amazing salad, a lunch crêpe, and a dessert crêpe. I couldn’t eat everything…and, as it was, I was insanely full at the end! But, it was really the only restaurant I’ve gone to while visiting cities, so it was a great change. And the crêpes were totally awesome too!!
After lunch the shopping continued…we walked down by the river and listened to the Spanish music that was playing on the other side. At the moment there is a Spanish music festival in Toulouse called “Rio Loco”. We visited one church along the way and there was a couple getting married at the time!! (And the church was still open to the public!! Weird? I think so!) Anyway, we stopped for a bit and watched. It was a rather small affaire, but Sophie concluded they must be really rich because it is rare to be married in a church like that!
In this one store I bought a little jacket, vest thing – very French (now it will go with my scarf that I bought in Blois – same price, in any case!!). And then I bought another pair of shoes – I know…I am not supposed to buy any more shoes…but it is really hard, you know!! There are shoes everywhere here!! They are the funkiest pair of shoes ever, by the way. Bright, shiny blue shoes with pointed toes!! I am quite excited to wear them at home! Mona would be impressed with my choice in shoes, I am sure.
Sophie bought a wooden jewellery box with little ceramic drawers (that we tried to exchange with another box that was also on sale and ended up getting in trouble)…as well as a T-shirt dealeo for herself. Then, because she hasn’t seen her parents in a while, she needed to find a Mother’s and Father’s day present for them – a metal sign that says “mom’s the boss” and a bottle of wine ended up being the presents.
We were pretty tired from all our shopping around 6:30pm, so with our hand full of bags, we walked back along the canals to go “home”. I went to our place and Sophie walked to Dani’s place to drop off all her stuff.
I went for a run along the canals…it was really hot, but it was nice. Way too many crazy fast runners that made me feel really slow, but it was good, in any case!
Ohhh…I forgot stuff!! M. S. called this morning and I had a nice little conversation with him! I made sure he remembered his contract! It was good to talk to him…and Mme S. said she’d make sure he didn’t break the contract. So, all is well in that department!
As well…for “dinner”, Sophie and I found this amazing ice cream store with a gazillion flavours of ice cream and sherbets. Because we were both still really full from our huge lunch, we shared one – Straciatella and Grapefruit. They were both amazing…and the grapefruit was so fruity – very awesome.
And…after my run…we ate an apple, looked at my pictures on the comoputer and went to bed!

Yep…quite an excellent girls day!! Made me really happy!! I don’t think I’ve talked that much in one day in a long time! I’ve definitely missed Sophie…

Night

-Allison

June 22

Friday, June 22, 2007

Today will be simple to write about. It went something like this:

-Woke up at 6:30 because I wanted to go for a run. But, it was raining so I went back to bed until 7:30.

-Braded Eva’s hair before 8am and said good bye. She was really, really sad! She is so cute!!

-Went for a run until 9am…it had stopped raining by that point

-Had breakfast. Made a sandwich for dinner. Finished packing. Showered.

-Mme Lenfant was at the house not long after 10:00 to pick me up and take me to Paris. I didn’t even say good bye to Elisa because she was basically not at the house for the past 2 days…and didn’t bother waking up to say bye!

-At the train station, I said good-bye to Mme Lenfant, reaffirmed the fact that I want to continue helping out with OSEF, and proceeded to sit in the train station for 4 hours! It was long…but it’s the “hurry up and wait” philosophy!

I arrived in Toulouse after 2 trains and 7 hours in them…it was long, and I am happy that I am sleeping for the ride back to Paris. That will help the time go by. Sophie was there waiting for me – she hasn’t changed at all! It was totally great! And so great to see her too!!
Dani’s friend has a car, so they also came to pick me up – a good thing, because my “carry-on” weighs a ton!! Dani is at an engineering school for airplanes here in Toulouse and Sophie is doing her summer internship for Chemistry here in Toulouse so they can actually see each other.
Sophie is renting a little (and I mean little!!) residence room at the “University Paulsabatier”, which is a huge campus next to the canals that run to Toulouse centre. It actually only costs her 75 Euros a month to rent the room (which is a good thing because tonight will be the first night she actually sleeps at her place)!!
Anyway…we are sleeping in Sophie’s little “cupboard” for the next 6 nights. It promises to be an adventure with no fridge, microwave, and showers and toilets down the hall…kind of like the Venice camping all over again! So, technically, there won’t be any problem at all!!!
It is sooo good to see Sophie again!!

Night

-Allison

No Blogs!!!

Hi

Well...just so you all know...I am in Toulouse, but I don't often have internet access...so I doubt there will be any entries in here until I return home - which will be this Friday, the 29th. And today, because I was able to use the computer, I forgot my USB key.

It is beautiful here and very hot. Sophie and I have been busy walking, biking, rollar blading, and shopping!! It's been a great couple of days and my last four look pretty fine as well!!!

See you later!!

-Allison

June 21

Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wow! My ability to "relax" has reached its all-time high – or low…I don’t really know! I did absolutely nothing productive today at all!! Nothing.
I woke up at six am this morning. I was not impressed with myself at all! It didn’t really help that the three smaller cows were busy mooing right under my window either! I read some stupid-girl magazines in bed until 8am – it is against all of my rules to get out of bed before 8 O’clock!!
Yep…ate breakfast and spent a good ½ hour attempting to connect to the internet. I don’t really have any luck with that connection here! And then, I spent until noon attempting to burn CDs and when that didn’t work, transferring Elisa’s songs onto my computer with my clé USB (can not remember how to say that in English at the moment…). The only problem with those USB things is that mine is only big enough to hold 3 songs! I had 73 to be transferred!! Oh well…I didn’t really have all that much going on!
Celine and I ate sandwiches for lunch – it is weird to me how much I appreciate eating like we do at home. My body likes eating less at lunchtime too…some things are hard to change, I guess!!
I did not want to go running after my very long nap…so I went for a 2 hour walk along the small roads between the fields and the cows this afternoon. It was very pleasant! I really like how the birds appear out of nowhere in the fields when I walk by.
Uggg…packing was amusing as well! Everything STILL fits into my 2 bags, but they are way heavy! My plan is to pack everything into only those two until I get to the airport next week, and then I’ll put stuff into my duffle because I know I am overweight on both bags at the moment!
Speaking of the train…I am super excited because next Thursday I am taking the over night train from Toulouse to Paris! How cool is that? I get to sleep on the train. I am very excited about that!!
Tomorrow is Paris – Toulouse on the train to see Sophie! I am quite excited about that as well!! Yeah! She’s got school/project/work until 6pm during the week, but we’ll have all weekend as well as the evenings, so that will be pretty cool. And they have to come to Canada next year, so I should be able to see her then!!! A contract is a contract!
Later
-Allison

June 20

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
I am getting a lot better at relaxing…practice, I guess!!!! And I actually did stuff today too, so it was a good combo!Elisa and I went to Rouen this morning. Since Celine isn’t working she was able to drive us there and pick us up this afternoon, which was great because I don’t really like paying for the bus! I can not get over how much time she spends running around! It is absolutely nutty – she is perpetually driving people everywhere…I feel bad that I am adding to her driving time, but she insist that it would be the same even if I wasn’t here!
I was in such a shopping mood today too!! I could have done some serious damage, but I restrained myself and managed to only buy one pair of pants! And pants really aren’t off limits…it is just dresses and skirts that mom said I shouldn’t really buy any more (I know, I have a lot of everything…)!! But these are linen pants and are very cool – and they are black, so they won’t even get dirty like typical linen clothes!! So smart, I am J.
There was this great pair of blue ballerina shoes with square toes that I was really tempted to buy, but they were at a national store, so when I am wandering around Toulouse, I can go look for them there and make a decision about them! I quite like ballerina shoes – they don’t hurt my feet or knees at all…so that is kinda nice!! Now the only problem is that all my pants will be too long!! (More shopping – just kidding…I don’t have money to do that!)
Elisa did quite a bit of damage…two skirts, one pair of pants, a pair of shoes…she even had to borrow money from me in order to pay!!
I also went and got my ID bracelet that I’d bought 2 weeks ago. I was a little disappointed at the beginning because it isn’t like Kendra’s – and that’s what I’d had in my head! But after I did my "analysis" of it I decided I like it! (I’d better like it, it cost enough!!) No, it is very cool. I am very glad that I got one this time!! Makes me happy!!
I had a nap when I got back to the house around three and after spending a couple hours going through Elisa’s music to make a French CD for myself (hard to do when she has more English music than French!) I finally decided to go for a run…I was really not motivated! But, actually, it ended up being a really good run! I did some nice hill intervals and all the cows got to watch me semi-die! Quite nice!!
And we had a cool dinner again tonight. It was a hot stone plate in the middle of the table where we cooked little pieces of meat. Kind of like fondue, but without the chicken broth part! It was very fun. I like making food like that at the table…a lot more interesting!
And now bed!!
Night
-Allison

June 19

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Today was a really great day!! I went to Honfleur with Elisa and two of her friends. I was a little scared about spending the day with 3 sixteen year olds, but it ended up being okay!! In fact, one of them has a slightly overprotective mother and I am the only reason she was allowed to come with us – so that was kinda cool!
We left the house around 10:00 this morning and Cleline drove the scenic route to the city, which was really nice because I got to see all the little villages and different houses and everything. I also got a nice picture of Le Pont de Normandie, which is the bridge that connects Le Havre and the other side of the fleuve (mainly Honfleur).
It is a really cute little town. Definitely a lot better than Le Havre, which is so close! Honfleur is known for all of its little fishing houses connected together as well as its old port that is basically inland because there is only one tiny way out! I really liked it, and it definitely helped that it was sunny and beautiful for the majority of the day as well.
All four of us kind of wandered around together until lunchtime. We visited the little shops and walked a bit by the water. The Eglise Ste-Catherine was interesting just because it was not at all like most churches here. It was destroyed during the One Hundred Year’s war and when it was later rebuilt it was done out of wood instead of stone in order to conserve the stone for fortifications instead. It was supposed to be only a temporary structure, but it is still there today. And, the roof is shaped like the hull of two overturned boats side by side. As well, the clock and bell tower aren’t part of the church itself, but rather are across the little square so as in case of a lightening strike the church didn’t burn down!
We walked by the Maisons Satie which are supposed to be quirky houses that are now the museum of a weird composer called Erik Satie. The houses weren’t anything that exciting (maybe I missed them, who knows!) and we didn’t go into the museum, but I saw what I was supposed to see there!
We ate sandwiches sitting along the walls of the Old Port and then I abandoned the girls so I could do some walking! On the map from the tourist office there were three walking routes laid out and I wanted to visit the cemetery. So I walked up to the cemetery and it wasn’t that great. Not nearly as cool as the one in Venice!! I then walked up one of the hills to visit le Manoir du Desert but was cut short of seeing the house because there was too much road work being done. Instead, I walked over to the other side of the town and up the other hill to visit the Chapelle Notre Dame de Grâce. It was a nice little hike up a really twisty road where I got some nice views of the entire town. And the sense of satisfaction of making it to the top! (Especially when all the other tourists that were up there had arrived in their cars!)
The houses on top were absolutely stunning and huge. I call them mini-castles because they are pretty much just that. I continued walking along the top of the plateau until I actually made it to the Church. It was a cute little thing – the ceiling was all painted blue and there were different types of mini boats hanging from the roof!! The coolest part was this huge ensemble of bells that was outside of the church. It was an entire tower structure made of different sizes of bells that all were engraved and embossed with different sayings. It was pretty cool. And I had the chance to be there on the ½ hour, so I got to hear them ring a little bit.
I went down the hill to meet the girls at the boat that goes under the Pont de Normandie that we had planned to go on at 3:30, but because I saw the view from the top of the hill, I realized it was not worth it to go on the boat ride (especially after Venice…not really any comparison!). Instead we bought ice cream cones and ate them on the opposite side of the port from where we ate lunch.
There is an old fashioned carousal in the middle of down town so we decided to all go on that! Made me really happy!! And because we could buy four tickets it cost a lot less…which also made me happy!! Took lots of pictures while on the carousal too…
We still had time to kill before one of the girl’s dad’s came to pick us up after work so when it started to pour we went to the library! It was actually a pretty cool library because it was all glass. Everyone else sat upstairs and did whatever and I found a book downstairs and read for a bit until the library closed at six o’clock.
When we got home we had mini crepes for dinner. Like a raclette dinner, but with crepes instead! I had fun and definitely ate way too much…made me happy!!
And now I really need to get onto the computer to see if I have my train tickets for Toulouse for Friday so that I can let Sophie know when my train arrives there! Oh! And I looked I my France book for things to do in Toulouse for next week and there is so much stuff!! It’ll be a busy week, I have a feeling!! I am excited! They even have bike rentals for 2 Euros per day! How cool is that – You have to put a deposit from a French bank account, I think…so I’m hoping Sophie will help me out with that!!
Anyway, after I let my dinner digest a little bit, I am going to bed!
Night
-Allison

June 18

Monday, June 18, 2007
I think I now understand the difference between quality and quantity. I mean I got it before, but it pretty much hit home today…
I went to the "gym" with Celine and Elisa this morning. I don’t even know where to start. I knew it was in a little garden house in the backyard of some lady, but I asked Elisa if it was the same kind of thing that we’d had in Italy and she said yes, so I was excited to go. Ummmm….yah, not at all like Italy! There were tonnes of machines, that’s true. But none worked properly and they were slightly substandard – to put it kindly!! Yah, the "stairmaster" was one of those things you see on those shopping TV channels that you can slide under your bed where you basically move your heals up and down. There were about 5 bikes…none of which really actually worked. A couple weight machines that were made with cords – and unfortunately the cords were all so stretched that there was little weight to actually be moved!! My favourite part was the sitting down abs machine: You held onto the little handle things that were by your ears and bent over sideways and around…yep, pretty useful for those abs!!
The best part were the people that were there and their way of exercising! So, yah, I definitely did not get a work out, but I had fun…One lady spent practically the entire time with the massage machines (Ohhhh…I forgot that one…after you’ve done all your hard work you can step onto these machines, tie a belt with mini wheels on it around your leg or shoulder or whatever and get a massage…pretty classy!). Another spent about 2 seconds on each machine before moving onto her next activity. My favourite is the one that put out her cigarette just before walking into the place!! Oh! And another lady was there in high heeled sandals! It was quite entertaining. I actually had to control my laughter as I was attempting to use some completely useless machine that you tie your legs to or something!
If I had a busy schedule I would have been really frustrated with my waste of time…but considering I have lots of time to go ahead and waste, it was quite fine by me!!! I do hope that it doesn’t rain all afternoon though, so I can go for a run!! Mom definitely has an excellent gym in comparison to what was at that place today…that is where my quality over quantity thing comes in…I can actually get a decent work out in at home!!
Well…after lunch I had my nap and then went for a run. The run just about killed me, but besides that slight detail, it was good, I guess! Although I actually almost like running at the moment (most of the time), I am still looking forward to a good chlorine fix once I get home!
And then I pretty much hug out for the rest of the day…pretty sick, eh?! I had another little nap and watched Pretty Woman again – I really like that movie!!! And it isn’t even dinner time yet! Well…considering dinner time is at about 8:30, I still have another little while left to wait until my next "activity"! Uggg…I feel like that sentence belongs to people in a senior’s home!!! J
In any case, tomorrow we’re going to Honfleur so that will be a good thing! It was nice here all day today, so I hope tomorrow is nice as well because then I’ll actually be able to see the ocean with sun instead of rain!! I like that option.
You know that I have too much time to think when I start wishing school would start already…and when I start thinking about dentistry again …I could go for some nice levels of homework and stress at the moment! Not too much, just to get me thinking a little bit!! J
Sick.
Later
-Allison

June 17

Sunday, June 17, 2007
I had a very relaxing day today!! Go figure, me saying that! I ate, I ran, I ate, I biked, and I ate again…pretty decent, I guess!
Yah, so after breakfast I went for a nice long run (just longer than an hour – that should practically go down in history for me…although I don’t think I was moving very fast by the end!!) and had a nice look at all of the cows. Then everyone else left for the day. Elisa was at her boyfriend’s sister’s communion and the other four went to Regis’ brother’s place for lunch. It was kind of nice for me because I had the house to myself.
I decided I was going to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory while I ate lunch. I couldn’t turn on the TV! I hate televisions. An excellent reason to keep Erin around in Edmonton (don’t worry, among other reasons too!!) because she knows about working TVs and VCRs and all that good stuff. I hate them! Anyway, I tried the remote…I unplugged the stupid thing…spending a good 45 minutes trying to turn the TV on! I was really frustrated! It is one of those flat screens so there wasn’t even those dummy buttons on the front of the TV to turn on the machine! I gave up. (Turns out they have a switch around the back/side that actually shuts it off –even to the remote…who knew?!)
So I decided to go biking instead. It was still sunny out by that point, which was really nice because I was not prepared to be biking in the rain! The bikes here are all for small people because everyone in the family is small!! I managed to put one of the seats up high enough that it pretty much worked and I went for a nice little, calm ride around the little villages in the area. My best discovery was a beautiful castle in a little town called Bosgouet. Made me happy. And I saw lots and lots of cows. I’m pretty sure that in this area there are more cows than people!
I got home and because it was still sunny I sat outside on the lawn chair (another bizarre occurrence for me!!) and read my book. It is/was a really good book…I finished it later today. Made me happy.
When the flies bugged me too much I went and had a nice relaxed shower and finished my book in bed because it was now pouring rain outside and the house gets really cold!! I was happy…and I cried at the end of my book, so you know it was a good one. I really like this author!
I was having a nice little nap when the rest of the family got back. They showed me how to work the TV and Eva, Toni, and I watched the movie. It is really good – a really nice message about family and materialism. I almost cried in it too…apparently it was the day for sappy things!
And now it is almost bed time…and it is still raining. It is crazy that it rains so much. Drives me nutty, but at least it was beautiful for a good part of today. That was nice.
…I have a project for the rest of this summer…relearning the flute!! After watching Eva play last night it made me want to be able to play again – and I picked up her flute tonight and I really don’t remember anything! Makes me sad…so I’ll try to work on that as my "keeping busy" project for July and August. We’ll see!!
Later
-Allison

June 16

Saturday, June 16, 2007
Well….not that exciting of a day overall…but I shouldn’t really start off like that, I guess!! Especially because the next 5 days don’t really plan on being all that exciting. And I am the pro at finding exciting things. So, let’s see what was exciting today!!
I can’t sleep in. It is official. I mean, I knew before that I didn’t know how to sleep and I have tried on several occasions this holiday to sleep in…but this morning all I wanted to do was sleep in and I woke up at 8:16. Drives me nuts. How come other people can sleep in until ungodly hours like 11am and noon and I can’t even make it until 8:30 in the morning??? Another "genetic flaw" – because I know that one is mom’s fault!!! J
Welll…I had breakfast done by nine and didn’t really know what to do with the rest of my day! I looked at my France book in attempt to find something that I could do over the next 5 days and made out a little bit of a plan. Sunday is nothing. Monday I get to go to the gym with Celine (the mom) and go to the OSEF office to get my Toulouse train tickets. Tuesday Elisa and I are going to Honfleur. Wednesday I may go visit a couple of little towns. Thursday is Rouen again (to get my bracelet). I figure that is exciting enough!!
Around ten I decided to go running…15 minutes away from the house it started to pour…it made me mad because I had it in my head that I should run for a long time today. I headed back to the house though, not that it mattered because I was soaking by the time I made it back in any case. And then, for the rest of the day it rained off and on. I am definitely not a fan of this weather!!
So I had my shower and braided my hair!! That was exciting!! It is the first time I’ve been able to do the two braids since I cut my hair in October. So that was definitely cool. Made me happy. Physical proof that my hair is growing. Now I just have to be determined not to cut it and all will be well.
Lunch was amazing…potato skin type things (maybe they’re called stuffed potatoes???) – when the filling is taken out and mixed with cheese and then put back into the skins and baked? Anyway, they were really good. I think that this family cooks the most like how mom cooks/bakes at home. There are always cookies and cakes and stuff too…which is nice because it is like home, but not necessarily good to eat all the time J.
After lunch Tony and Elisa and I helped the dad take the old slate tiles off the barn roof. The part of the barn where the milking machine does its job is being redone and that was the job for today. It was fun…something to do. A lot of dust and very high, but it was cool. I like doing stuff, so I was happy. I just feel bad for Celine because she now has more clothes of mine to wash. She does laundry every day in this house…I don’t like adding to the situation!Then I had a nice little nap and woke up to the smell of chocolate cake, which we had for snack. It is the snacks that cause me the most problems because they are when I’d like to be eating dinner…not just a snack!
In ½ an hour all the girls are going to Eva’s flute concert. I’m excited for that. And then it is crock monsieur for dinner!!!
That was a pretty exciting day, after all!!
Later
-Allison

June 15

Friday, June 15, 2007
I just got off the phone with Mme Lenfant and I am really disappointed!! I was supposed to do the meeting tomorrow in Rouen, but she doesn’t need me, so I am not going! I like the meetings a lot…they make me feel useful and I like talking about Canada and seeing the kids and stuff. So I was already sad about that. And then she said that I don’t get to go to Quimper with her either! I really wanted to go to Bretagne because I’ve never been there and there is lots to see and blah! And the worst part is that I don’t know what to do here now for the next week before I leave to Toulouse to see Sophie! I’ve already exhausted all my visiting options that are do-able(does that work for that "word"??) in the area. I guess I could look into Vimy again…I’d have to stay over the night though…we’ll see I guess. I just hate doing nothing and I don’t like plans that change, either. I was all excited to go. I know that I can’t complain though – this has been an amazing trip…so really, 5 days of semi boredom won’t kill me! I’ll just have to be friends with the cows, I guess!! (It’d help if I wasn’t allergic to them though!! J)
Anyway….I woke up this morning at 11…a nice 5 hour nap. I know I’ll still have a great sleep this evening though, because 5 hours of sleep doesn’t really cut it for me!! And all day I have typed in here to catch up! That is really all I did! Read some e-mails. Replied to some e-mails. Typed up journal days. Downloaded tonnes and tonnes of pictures and attempted to go through some of them!! Pretty relaxed.
Tomorrow night I am going to Eva’s flute concert, so that will be cool…she is so cute…and I like concerts, so that’ll be exciting!!
And that is about it!!
Later
-Allison

June 14

Thursday, June 14, 2007
It was a crazy long day today…we got up and packed up all of our stuff because we had to check out by 11am. And our flight wasn’t until 8:45 pm!! We had a nice breakfast by the pool – cinnamon bun type things. We planned all our food last night when we did our last grocery run so we wouldn’t have to eat at the restaurants on site.
I did a really great work out – I had the time, so I did ½ hour running and then ½ hour on the spinning bike – and I have NEVER sweated that much in my life. I didn’t know my body was capable of producing that much water! It was quite phenomenal, actually!! And then I did some nice weights for a good hour as well…and then some abs…took up the entire morning. It was great.
I had planned to go into Venice for a couple hours in the afternoon before the shuttle left for the airport at 4:30, but as it turns out there was no bus to Venice at the time I’d planned (good planning, there Allison!), so I hung out at the pool instead. It is a pain because I didn’t bring a 2-piece suit with me, so I stayed in shorts and t-shirt instead, which was hot, but better than my one piece suit!! Go figure!! Anyway…then it started to rain, so all was fine.
At 4:30 we got back on the shuttle to go to the airport with the same old guy that picked us up. He was pretty cool…it is times like that it makes me really sad that I don’t speak the language because I would have really liked to talk with him!!
We were at the airport plenty early…man alive…let’s see. So our flight was scheduled to be at 8:45pm. Before we checked in there was an accident on the escalator! It is the first time I’d ever seen something like that happen. There was a bus of elderly people that were all going up on the same escalator and one guy at the top got his suitcase caught and all of them toppled one over the other. It was unbelievable. Lots of people rushed to help, so we stayed put. Finally, someone pushed the emergency stop button, but there were a lot of people and suitcases all in a pile before that happened! And elderly people get hurt so easily. There was bleeding and bruises and swollen ankles and concussions…no broken bones though. We saw the lady that got hurt the worst though – ½ her face swollen and as black and blue as possible. I have never seen something like that before.
So we were able to check in at 6:45 and get rid of our suitcases and get through security (which, for once, didn’t take as long as I wanted it to!). On the other side we hung out and ate some of the fruit and crackers we’d bought for dinner. We went down to the "lounge" about an hour before the flight and had some nice conversations with all the elderly ladies! I really like old people! They were all from France, and we talked about what to see and what Canada is like and their trip to Venice and everything. It was great. And the best part…the flight got delayed by 2 hours and I was the only one on the entire floor (out of about 75 people) that spoke English…so I was the only one that knew the flight was delayed (they only announce things in Italian and English) so I became the hero!! Everyone wanted details and to know what was happening and all that good stuff! He he he…made me happy!!
Elisa and I went back upstairs and bought sandwiches for dinner and I had the most amazing hot chocolate I have ever had. It was so rich and so good! I was a happy girl. We played cards and hung out for a bit…after she got tired of cards I went over to a group of guys that were playing cards on the floor and asked if I could play – turns out they were from Quebec!! The accent! I couldn’t understand a thing!! Drove me totally nutty because I rarely have comprehension issues now (except when I’m really tired!). But we played Hearts and I learned the rules (they don’t explain the rules when you play on the computer!!) and it made the time pass.
Our plane arrived (finally) and we were able to board around 11pm. We took off around 11:30 and made it to France at 1am…the only problem being that we weren’t in Paris! We had to land in Lille because the Paris Beauvais airport was closed because it was so late! The airline had arranged for buses to take us back to Paris, but that was another 2 hours in the bus!
Soooo…we made it to Paris at 4am…and Elisa’s dad was there…he’d been there since midnight! She’d called him to explain what was happening, but the change in location was unforeseen, so he still showed up early! It was 6am by the time we got back to Rouen!!
And I went to bed!!
NIGHT!!
-Allison

June 13

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Today was such an amazing day!! We decided to spend the day visiting all of the little islands that surround Venice and it was such a good decision. We were tired of walking, so this required minimal walking, and it was really hot again, so being on the boat totally helped that situation!! It was very cool!!
We had our usual picnic breakfast on the bench looking at the gondolas go by…I’m sure the gondola guys will miss us tomorrow when we’re not there!! We then went and bought our boat-buss pass (I call it that because all the buses are boats…so it works quite well!!) for 13 Euros! It was such a good deal. We couldn’t believe that we got 12 hours of boat use for only 13 Euros…such entertainment and it was so cool and so much fun – yah, we pretty much really liked the boats!
They worked just like buses – because that is what they are!! The bus stops are little docks and, just like buses, they don’t stop for very long – people just hop on and off. So hard to get my mind around, but so very cool! Anyway…we went down the grand canal a bit before we headed out onto the main "road". The roads are all marked with wooden pillars – and the speed limits and other driving signs are all posted! The main speed limit is 11km/hour!! I wish I could have found a sign that said that to take home! I got some nice pics of that though.
The first stop we got off at was the Cemetery! An entire island that is the cemetery. That is basically the coolest thing ever! I thought it was awesome. And the graves were pretty cool too!! We all know how obsessive I am with cemeteries – and on an island…yep, pretty much the best graveyard ever!
Our next stop was the island called Murano, where all the glass is made. We rushed off the boat to get our free visit to the glass blowing factory…it wasn’t that great of a tour (I still remember the one we visited when we were in Mexico all those years ago – I was in grade 5! That one was amazing!!), but it was still cool to visit. All the stores on the island were glass stores – for about 5 times the price that I’d seen things in Venice. I was happy that I’d already bought my necklace and that I paid so little for it!!
The best island was Burano. It was very colourful and very clean. There was every colour of house possible: turquoise blues, bright yellow, red, dark blue, purple, green, orange…it was awesome. I think that I took the most pictures in an hour here than I had at any other place. It was so picturesque and very quaint. We both really liked Burano.
We hopped back on the boat (These boats were so frequent and so easy to use, it was awesome. Like, not hard to use at all – I love it when things like this are easy!!) and headed off towards Punta Sabbioni. It was a really big island (We decided it must be connected to land somewhere…) with lots of cars! I am not used to seeing cars…totally ruins the idea of an island and of Venice if there are cars! We ended up staying a grand total of about 5 minutes. I found some sand (so that I can say I got sand from Venice!!) and got back on the same boat that we got off of…it stayed longer there than at the other islands.
Our last island visit (that we didn’t really even visit) was Lido. It was too big for our tastes so all we did was change boats so we could ride in the same boat through the entire Grand Canal and see all the sights from the boat. That was another really cool part of the trip because we’d seen all the sights from land and walking through the maze of streets to get there…but everything is so much closer by boat! It was cool to see St Marc square from the water – a bigger perspective on everything. And the temperature was much more reasonable on the boat as well, which was really nice!
We headed to the COOP for dinner again…and bought a baked chicken for 5 Euros!! When we were having our picnic at the tables by the pool when we got back to camp around 6:30 everyone was really jealous! It was awesome…and we had a basket of cherry tomatoes too! Made me happy!!!
And then it started to rain …so we played cards in the tent until bed!! Such a great day!!
Night
-Allison

June 12

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
It rained most of the day today…but we still saw lots of stuff and walked quite a bit! Even though 5 days in Venice is a lot, it is turning out to be really nice because we can take our time and not feel like we are running around all over the place, which is really nice.
We were supposed to do my plan #2 but in search of a really cool looking staircase we got lost in the random roads and ended back at St Marc’s square. We kind of gave up following the plan because of the rain and decided to head to the market and try to find masks that we wanted to buy. That was a challenge unto itself!!
I found a mask in the market that I liked (and was way less than the beautiful 200 Euro ones!!) and bought it but Elisa was a lot more difficult than I was!! There are a lot of mask stores on the roads back to the bus stop, and I’m pretty sure we stopped into every single one in search of the perfect mask at the right price for her! She finally found one and all was good!! I know that here, where I can compare the mask I bought with all the crazy priced ones, mine doesn’t look that great. But, when I get home, I am sure it’ll be magnificent! The same thing happened to me in Guatemala! When there are all the options sitting there it was hard to appreciate what I’d already bought, but once I got home the 5 carpets and blankets I’d ended up buying were all great (too bad the prices here aren’t at all comparable to the prices in Guatemala! It would have made my life a lot easier!!).
I also debated buying a blank mask that I could decorate at home. I really like the idea now and I think it would be really fun, but I don’t think I’ll buy one…it is a cool idea, but I know I’ll never get around to it!! Doing a semi-scrapbook for this trip will be enough of a challenge!!
We went back to camp and had a great time in the sun (of course, it gets beautiful once we leave the city) and working out. I have to stress the fact, again, that the exercise place here is to die for! I’ve never sweated quite this much before, but it is still pretty awesome! We ate a quick pasta dinner at the restaurant before taking the shuttle back to Venice so we could see it at night.
The city at night was really spectacular. The lights reflecting in the water from the restaurants by the bridge and the lights on the bridge itself were pretty cool. But, by far the best part was St Marc square. The tide gets so high at night that the entire square is flooded. The tide was already starting to go down by the time we got there, so there were some dry walking in the square, but a lot of people were taking off their shoes and walked through the ocean that was on the land…kind of a cool idea, actually.
There were lots and lots of lights in the square and the reflection of the water made it just that much more stunning. On all sides of the square there were little restaurants (like, the most expensive possible…we’d looked at some of the prices during the day and little appetizers started off at about 45 Euros!!) with live music. I don’t really know how to explain it – It was a very amazing experience to stand there in the middle of all the lights, listening to the music coming from all sides with the smell of the ocean and the reflection of lights off the water – and knowing the ocean isn’t really that close at all…very, very cool.
I didn’t really like walking back through the maze of roads to get back to the bus by 10:30, but there wasn’t much choice. At least there were two of us and I knew the road by heart now, so it wasn’t that bad…there ended up being enough other people that it wasn’t really that big of a deal. And I am really glad that we went and saw the city at night. It was definitely worth it.
Night
-Allison

June 11

Monday, June 11, 2007
We "slept in" until 8am this morning…it is always hard to sleep in late in tents, I find. They always heat up so fast once the sun comes out!! I’ve never really been that good at it! Anyway, we got to do our little sleep in because of our picnic and visit to the COOP once we arrive in Venice. That was our plan before it rained all night long…
Even though it was still grey and drizzly this morning we actually ended up sticking with our plan. We bought these little croissant things in packages and sat on the bench across from the gondola service by Piazzale Roma (where the busses stop) for our little breakfast picnic. It was actually really nice. Because we felt more oriented and organized it was a lot more relaxed, and sitting there eating breakfast was pretty perfect.
We did plan #4 in my book today and it covered everything around Piazza San Marco, which is the big, famous square. We walked the same streets as yesterday, so that simplified my life a lot. It is nice to not follow a map all the time! Although, I have never been in a city where I have seen so many people with maps in hand! It is kind of funny, actually – and nice to know that the majority of people are just as lost as you are (if not more!). And, the other thing I’ve noticed is that people eat ice cream here all the time. When we arrive at 9:30 there are already people eating ice cream! Pretty cool!!
We knew we were getting close to St Marc square because of the shopping!! There started to be stores like Gucci and Prada…and lots of banks! The square took my breath away when I first saw it. It is huge and full of people and pigeons. On three sides there are buildings, office type, built by various governments over the years with classy stores on the street level. On the far end is the Basilica di San Marco, the huge Evangelist church from Alexandria in 828…and was rebuilt in 1060 following a fire. It was stunning.
I paid the 1 Euro to buy a bag of corn kernels to feed to the pigeons. It was probably the coolest thing of the day…I put a few kernels in my hand and hundreds of pigeons came flying onto my hand! It was very, very cool. They fought to get to the corn and pushed each other off in the process. I loved it!!
We went and stood in line to get into the Basilica. We didn’t pay, so we just saw the main parts of the church. It is really hard to describe because it was gigantic and beautiful. The roof and walls were tiled in gold tiles and the ceilings were insanely high and domed parts everywhere. Lots of pillars and stained glass windows and stair cases and I don’t know what else! We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but church pictures never work that well, anyway. What was cool was that the outside of the Basilica was as beautiful as the inside. And so huge. It was hard to get over.
It was way past lunch time by the time we walked over to the Grand Canal beside the Basilica. So we found some ice cream and plopped down beside the water and watched the people go by. In the process of people watching there was a gondola that pulled up with a newly wed couple in it! The couple and their photographer got out of the gondola and walked around taking pictures and stuff. It was cool to see!
We walked along the water (Riva degli Schiavoni) and saw lots of important bridges and art galleries and libraries along the way. There is a lot of shopping along here as well and Elisa bought a mask for her sister and I bought a glass necklace. Those are the two main things here – Murano glass (from one of the islands) and the carnival masks. We walked until we got to the Giardini Pubblici (Public Gardens) where we rested our feet for a bit before making the decision to purposely get lost walking back and enjoy the sights along the way.
At one of the churches there is a Vivaldi violin concert and I really want to go. We went into the violin museum in one of the churches, which is where I heard about it. I can’t though because it ends at 10:30 and it is located in the middle of the city and I don’t want to be walking around the dark streets of Venice by myself at night!! And, the last shuttle to go back to camp is at 10:30, so I’d have to pay for a taxi and that really complicates life. I would have really liked to do something fancy like that here, but not really going to work this time. I guess that gives me a reason to come back.
We ended up finding our way back to the bus without any real problem – my sense of direction is beginning to kick in now that I understand how all the canals work!! We stopped at the COOP and spent a grand total of 5 Euros each on dinner food for tonight. I love supermarkets!!
Once back at camp we ate an early dinner so the meat we bought for the sandwiches wouldn’t get all hot in the sun! It was nice to eat at a "normal" hour for me! We had a great little picnic beside the pool before it started to rain. I did another workout (much cooler after it rains, so I didn’t die as much as yesterday!) before we played cards in the tent before bed.
Elisa knows how to walk, and I am very appreciative! It would have been really hard to do this with someone that didn’t like to walk…she is pretty good!! And we are both picture maniacs too, so that helps the situation as well!
Later
-Allison

June 10

Sunday, June 10, 2007
I didn’t sleep all that well last night because I was too cold all night! I forget that my body tends to go into hibernation mode at night and that tends to lead to freezing! I didn’t think it could get that cold in Venice, especially because by the time we woke up this morning it was already a good 20º.
We both had showers – really impressive and hot showers, actually – except that the entire cubicle is the shower, so finding a place to put the dry clothes is kind of a challenge. I’ll have to work on developing a strategy for tomorrow.
We found the on-site supermarket for breakfast. I bought yougart and fruit for breakfast and we ate while we were waiting in line for the bus that leaves at 9am to Venice. We found out from someone else waiting in line that we don’t actually have to wait in line, but it didn’t matter because there was lots of room on the bus when we finally got on.
It was insanely hot in Venice today. And there were masks – lots and lots and lots of beautiful masks. I didn’t realize when I decided to come here that my souvenir was going to cost the same amount as my hotel!! It is obvious that I’m going to have to buy a mask, but I really don’t know how I am going to make a decision. They are all so beautiful and no mask is the same…my favourite masks are (of course) the most expensive – starting at about 200 Euros…so I think I am going to have to decide on one that I like by price elimination, say starting at under 40 Euros!! I couldn’t stop from going into all the mask stress – they were everywhere…thankfully Elisa was as obsessed as I was, so it wasn’t frustrating to be going into the stores all the time!
And we walked a lot! Mostly because it was challenging to continuously follow the map!! All the bridges and all the water definitely put a kink in my super navigation skills!! We pretty much just wandered around for the first couple of hours just attempting to take everything in. Every street is different and all the bridges have fantastic views. It is all so breath taking and beautiful and mind boggling at the same time. A lot of pictures!! And Elisa is even worse for pictures than I am!!
At one point I saw two ladies trying to negotiate a gondola price. I eventually went up to them and asked if we could go with them…they were super nice and we ended up walking all the way to Ponte di Rialto (which is the famous bridge there) where we negotiated 17.5 Euros per person for the ½ hour ride!! The gondola ride was pretty cool…I don’t really know what I was expecting it to be, but it was fun. It was crazy picture time – and I took a lot. The ride wasn’t as smooth as I thought it’d be, there are a lot more motor boats (taxies and buses) all over the place. But our "driver" had the striped shirt and hat and all that…yep, it was pretty cool!!
After that was done (it was really fast!!) we were in the middle of the action so we benefited from that! There is a huge market with masks and other Venice stuff galore on one side of the bridge, so we had a good look at everything. It was overwhelming. I really don’t know how I’ll go about choosing a mask! I bought an ice cream in the market (Italian gelato, of course!) and we went and found a quite, shady spot next to the canal to sit…(It was a lot harder to find a quite spot than you’d think! Especially one in the shade.)
This random American sat down beside us and we chatted for a bit. It was his second time in Venice so I thought he could give us some pointers to what we were actually supposed to see. Yah, not really all that helpful. But he did suggest buying a book on Venice – like duh, Allison! I had thought of that in the airport, but had consequently forgotten about that with the excitement of actually being here!
And guess what?! 8.5 Euros later I knew everything I needed to know about Venice! My book even has 4 daily plans made out for ME with explanations of what we are seeing and everything! And each plan has its own individual map too! I so totally love maps. I am happy!!
So for the afternoon we covered the entire peninsula (plan #4 in my book!). It was really, really hot and a lot of walking – but really beautiful!
On the way back to the bus around 4:30 we both stopped to buy a pair of shorts – decided for around camp in this heat it was a good thing!!
And the excitement of my entire day (not even really joking here!) was finding the supermarket!! I had to ask 4 different people in order to find it, but we did and it made me very happy!! I think I may have actually done a little dance to celebrate! We bought some popcorn and pretzels for happy hour at our place and decided to buy breakfast stuff here tomorrow morning and have a little picnic.
We went and sat by the pool when we got back to our place. It is a really nice pool…a decent size, but not 25meters, which is too bad, but it was nice for cooling off. I don’t "sit by the pool" very well, so I went and played volley ball with some Aussies and English for a while before doing a little mini-workout. It was mostly weights because it was still way too hot to do any decent running or biking!! Very nice machines though. I am very impressed with their gym here. It has everything…2 treadmills, 2 bikes, 2 stairmasters, all the different weight machines as well as mats and free weights. It is a lot better than most hotels I’ve been at – never mind the fact that this is Europe and in a Hostel! Yah, very impressed with our 10 Euros a night!!
We ate dinner in one of the 2 restaurants that are on site. We had pizza – it was really good…pizza in Italy, I guess it should be good!!
Night
-Allison

June 9

Saturday, June 9, 2007
This morning got started early enough – 6:30 am, actually! Breakfast at seven and on the road to the Eiffel Tower by 7:30. Paris driving that early on a Saturday was great…especially compared to the last time we were driving through Paris in rush hour!! It was cool to see the Champs d’Elysées with hardly any people on the streets.
The meeting was pretty much standard. Except because Elisa was there she also talked a bit about her exchange and answered a few questions…but she definitely is not a fan of talking in front of others. There is also another Canadian here – she is supposed to be "working" for Mme Lenfant for the next two months!! I asked her to update me on the "work" that she is doing – I have a feeling that she won’t really be doing all that much!!
We ended up leaving Paris around 2:30, which was a really good thing because the airport was a lot further away than I thought it was. A good 45 minutes out of Paris, actually! I felt bad that Fredo drove us all the way out there – I didn’t realize that it really wasn’t in Paris. It was a cute little airport though – so little that we had to wait a while before we could check in and even then the gates weren’t announced until about 2 seconds before boarding. And we got to walk up to the plane too. I’m always a fan of that!
I slept – surprise, surprise – most of the way. The plane has a lot of yellow in it! Easy Jet is all orange and I guess Ryanair is yellow!! We arrived ahead of time, around 8pm, got both of our bags no problem and went to the shuttle to go to the hostel. I decided not to bother booking the shuttle and it was there anyway! I was happy!! Way easy!
And the place here is totally great too…and we are paying only 10 Euros a night. So awesome. We are in this little "House Tent" (#41) that has a floor and two beds in it. It is tiny, but that doesn’t really matter because I don’t really think we’ll be spending all that much time in the tent! At least I hope not…
The camp itself is huge, but there isn’t people everywhere and it is relatively quiet. It is a campground as well as a hostel and there are everything from tents to small cabins to big cabins to houses. It is quite the mix. There is even a pool and a gym – I’ll give updates on those later on after I figure them out tomorrow!
We are nowhere near Venice itself, but there is a shuttle bus with quite regular hours, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem…Venice tomorrow!!
Night
-Allison

June 8

Friday, June 8, 2007
It wasn’t too much of an exciting day today…I managed to sleep in until almost 9am this morning though – I’m getting good, aren’t I?! Then it was pretty much a standard day – breakfast, packing (seems like I do that an awful lot!!), and running. It was actually quite a nice run too – some nice intervals!!
We were supposed to be picked up at 7am, but at the last minute, Mme Lenfant changed ideas and decided to have Fredo pick us up at 2pm instead – but it actually ended up being closer to 3 instead. It worked well though because that way I was able to fit in all the stuff I did in the morning (including a nice nap after lunch) before we left for Paris.
It was the Hotel Campanile again in Paris. We got there around 5pm and it was pretty calm after that. It was Mme Lenfant’s birthday (I wish I’d known) so everyone went to Fabrice’s house for dinner. Because Elisa was with me we weren’t invited, but that was pretty much okay by me – I think I’ve done my fair share of long dinners for one holiday!!
Instead, Elisa and I went over to the supermarket across the street and bought some chip-type things for happy hour. We sat in our hotel room and played cards…quite nice!! After our buffet dinner we went for a walk. I didn’t mind at all that we were left at the hotel!
And….because I was here right at the beginning of my trip everyone knew me! I had super special treatment and everyone was super nice to me. I felt special! The best part was being able to order anything we wanted for dinner and have someone else pay for it. It was cool leaving the restaurant and saying that the bill is for Mme Lenfant! Yep – that was pretty awesome!!
That was pretty much my "exciting" day!!!
Later
-Allison

More COW pictures

I have to prove that I did this, you know!!!

June 6

Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Dieppe was really beautiful today…despite the weather not being great at all and me having another terrible cold! I was happy that I visited…even though I didn’t get any beach time (yet again!). In fact, I used mom’s "magic" blanket that I’d brought with me in case it was beach weather as a scarf instead!!
I made it there after a huge panic at the train station in Rouen…The ticket machine’s don’t accept my visa because it doesn’t have that little metal "pouce" in the end of it and the line for the ticket counter was insanely long! So in the 12 minutes that I had to spare before my train left I was running around trying to find someone to give me change for a 20 so that I could pay with change (in other machines). I asked one lady and I think she was practically ready to buy my ticket for me…but when she said she didn’t have change I went and asked one of the SNCF guys that was hanging around and he put me at the front of the line so that I could get my ticket in time. While I was waiting for my turn though, the lady that I’d asked for change came up to me and said she could buy my ticket for me out of the machine!! I thanked her and said I’d be okay for time now…made my day though!!
It was insanely windy at Dieppe but I walked along the water and down on the rocky beach anyway! I was the only one on the beach…no one else in their right mind was going there!!
I walked along and looked at all the Canadian Memorials that were scattered along the walkway. It was pretty cool to be Canadian!! There was even a Canadian flag flying at the park next to the beach!! Just under the castle there is a Canadian war memorial and gardens. It was awesome to be Canadian and walk around in there. It was pretty moving, actually. Made me proud!!
I walked up the hill to the look out behind the castle to get a good look out over the city, but because it was so foggy, there wasn’t really that much to see! On the way down, I gave up blowing my nose and went to the pharmacy (again) and got Advil Cold and Sinus – or the French Advil equivalent and it really helped for the rest of the afternoon!!
The church wasn’t open when I went by (I forget about the 2 hour lunch shut down that happens here!), but I had a nice lunch on the grass behind it – I was nicely sheltered from the wind! I pretty much just looked around for another couple of hours, having really seen all the sights…I bought the coolest placemats ever though (just two of them…) that say stuff in French on them! Made me happy.
It took me three hours to get back to the house from Dieppe: 1 hour for the train to Rouen. ½ hour walking to get to the bus. 1 hour on the bus. ½ hour walking from Bourg Achard to the farm!! It was long…but it was nice here today, and I had a good nap on the train!
When I got back I had a quick little nap and then Eva (the youngest) and I went and fed the cows…it was pretty cool! I had fun getting the milk to give to the little ones and straw for their little houses! Totally out of my element, and I am INSAINELY allergic to everything and couldn’t stop sneezing, but I had fun!! It would be a lot better if I could breathe, but it was good never the less!!
I get to sleep tomorrow because I can’t go to Vimy. I really wanted to, but it is too far away to do by train. It would take me eight hours of travel to get there…I am kinda sad because I would have really liked to go, especially this year, after The War movie and everything. But, it has been here for 90 years so far, so I’m sure it’ll still be here when I get back next time. I actually looked into renting a car so that I could go see it…but they ONLY have standards!!! So, don’t worry, I won’t be driving anywhere. Par contre, next time I come to Europe I would like to know how to drive a standard!
Night
-Allison

June 5

Tuesday, June 5, 2007
I went to le Havre today…and it was a long day!! Fredo had to go pick up an OSEF kid from le Havre, so I went with him this morning and I got a ride back from Rouen with Mme Prisette at 8pm this evening – so I ended up being gone for a good 12 hours!!
It was good to visit le Havre, but I won’t go back. It is almost what I’d call ugly…and is really the only city in France thus far that I didn’t like!! It is on Unesco’s World Heritage List and my handy little book on France suggests that it be visited, but it is definitely different. It felt like I’d left France and was in some Eastern European country (from what pictures I’ve seen, of course!). It didn’t really help that today was gray and windy…but I don’t think, even with the sun, le Havre could have become one of my favourite cities!!
Anyway…When Fredo picked up the Canadian the dad of the family made his daughter take me around the city!! I felt kind of bad for her because I was sure she must have had plans or something, but she didn’t really seem to mind. And it was really nice because I had my own tour guide for the entire city – which we walked in about 2 hours. There isn’t really much to see there…but there is a statue for a war memorial that was interesting, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the ocean, and the Volcano. I didn’t get a great picture of the volcano, but the tourist book says that it has been compared to a toilet bowl – and I can totally see the similarities too!!
The best part was walking down by the water and looking at all the fishing boats. On Fridays there is a fish market, but today all the stalls were empty except for one very stereotypical fisherman – who let me take a picture of him! Made me really happy – one of the best things of the day!
I left the girl (Cecile) at lunch time so she could go back to her real life and so I could eat my sandwich on the beach!! It wasn’t very warm out, but I could not, not eat lunch on the beach…so I did! It was fun anyway!
After I’d more than exhausted all visiting options in le Havre I got on the bus to go to a little town called Harfleur, which was about 10km away. I fell asleep on the bus and totally missed my stop…It has to happen sometime, I guess!! So I got off and walked the 5km back to the town that I wanted to visit! It wasn’t very big and everything was closed for some reason, but it was a lot nicer than le Havre itself. They are doing a scientific experiment on or about the Cathedral there, and I didn’t really understand the idea of it – but anyway, seemed interesting!
I had a nice nap on the train back to Rouen…I set my alarm on my watch so that I didn’t end up in Paris though!! Gotta love sleeping. And then I went and bought my ID bracelet that I said I was going to buy. I knew that if I didn’t order one now, I’d be leaving France (again) without one…my big purchase of the trip! And as it is, it will only be ready for me to pick up a couple days before I go down to visit Sophie. So it is a good thing I didn’t leave it any longer.
I went for a nice little run in the country this evening…the cows really do stop eating to look at you! It was really funny!! I quite liked it, actually. And after having not that great of weather all day, it was finally nice out for my run, which was great!
Tomorrow is Dieppe!!
Night
-AJ

June 4

Monday, June 4, 2007
Everyone has one noise they can’t stand. Kendra cannot stand the sound of Styrofoam crunching (egg cartons and those little popcorn packaging things) and other people can’t deal with nails on chalkboards. I can’t deal with clocks ticking or beeping. I go nutty. And it isn’t just because I don’t like the ticking – it is actually that my mind goes crazy with the noise! Anyway…in our long hallway of rooms the youngest girl (Eva) has 3 ticking clocks that, well, tick – non-stop!! I actually had to wear earplugs to bed last night because of it! Here I am in the middle of the country and I have to wear earplugs. How ironic is that?! It was a great sleep other than that, though!!
I got a ride with Mme Prissette (who, when we called her last night had no idea that I was coming…) to the collage Jean Zay which is on the outskirts of Rouen. Not really chatty and nothing organized for me to do at the school, which ended up being fine. Then I don’t feel guilty by having planned my own thing!
I spent a good couple of hours on the internet booking plane tickets and finding a hostel. I think the place that I found will be good quality (for a hostel) but I have a feeling it is a ways out of the centre of Venice. Maybe that will be a good thing, who knows!! They have a shuttle that runs regularly to the centre though, and even including 2 round trips per day (which I doubt I’ll do), it was a LOT cheaper than anything I could find that would be closer. So…we shall see!!!
There is a "Metro" in Rouen and I decided I would just follow the tracks down town instead of paying the 1.4 Euros to get a ride…it took me a lot longer than anticipated because I got lost on the other side of the river in no-man’s land! But it was still a nice walk. I had 9 hours to kill, so it wasn’t like my extra walking time prevented me from seeing anything I wanted to!
Finding the tourist info centre was another challenge…there are soo many churches in Rouen that I couldn’t figure out which one was the Cathedral so that I could get to the info centre! When you are so close to the churches they all look big and cathedral-like…so when I asked people and they said it was in front of the Cathedral it didn’t help at all!! I finally did find it though and got my standard map of the city! By the time I’m done here I’ll be able to make a book of all the maps of all the cities in France! Every city has a tourist info place, though, so it is nice and reliable that way!
Once I got orientated I found a sandwich place and ate my baguette sitting on the steps of the Cathedral – waiting for it to open at 2pm…Along with every other tourist in the city! It was pretty funny, actually. Once the doors reopened at two everyone that had been sitting around the square poured into the Cathedral! It was really quite spectacular inside, though, I was impressed. I think my favourite part were all the stone guys (I’m guessing they were saints…??) that were lining the one wall inside. Yep, kinda liked them!!
From there I walked down the Rue de la Grand Horloge and around all over the place…I saw everything to do with Joan of Arc. I walked along her street, went into her church, saw her museum, and her tower (where she was imprisoned before being burned). So that was all kind of cool!! I walked through a park and around the outside of the museums…pretty much all I needed to see of the museums, I figured!!
What else??? I bought something for 1 Euro at this awesome bakery – but what I bought ended up being like English Pudding…so I gave it to this homeless guy that was sitting on the side of the road wanting change. The look on his face was pretty amazing. Made me happy!! A lot happier than I would have been if I decided to eat it myself!
The only really other exciting thing is that I stopped at the supermarket on the way back to the school (I took the "metro" this time…) and bought a package of razors – and now my legs are beautiful again! It was getting sketchy there for a while!!
Night
-Allison

June 3

Sunday, June 3, 2007
I am in my new family at the moment!!! And it is sooo on a farm…like, there are cows grazing in the front yard! Is that not absolutely cool??? I was so excited when I got here! When I met the dad, he was busy attaching the milking machine dealeos to the cows! I happen to think that is pretty cool! I got the baby cows to lick my hand too…I was happy this evening!
But back to this morning! It was not too thrilling…I ate breakfast and packed. Packing took a lot longer than I’d planned and I did a horrible job of it too!! I still fit everything in the two bags I came with though, so that is impressive. I will be putting ½ the stuff from my backpack into the blue duffle to come home though because my carry-on weighs a ton!!
When I’d almost finished packing the people that had come to look at the house on Wednesday came back again. I thought it was pretty weird that they’d come back for a third time with no absolute commitment towards buying the house. They stayed for a good 2 hours and so we were rushed to eat lunch to get me out of the door to the train station by 1:40.
I made up a nice card though and said they could come to visit Calgary or Edmonton any time they want! And I highly expect they will take me (us) up on that offer!! They accompany OSEF kids sometimes, so someday they’ll accompany them to Calgary and visit mom and dad. I think there won’t be any problem though. AND they are totally happy to have any member of my family come here to visit too. Their new place is South of Bordeaux and is practically next to the ocean (30km away) and is almost on the Spain border too…right next to San Sebastian. So I still want to visit all that part of Spain and I haven’t really seen that part of France, so I plan on coming back and staying with them in the future!! (And mom and dad are welcome to as well!!)
Marie-Paul drove me to the train station in Blois and she even cried when I had to leave! I was so sad to see her go too…they were a really great family! There is a chance that I’ll still see Lise and Mathieu again over the course of the next four weeks though.
I still love the train! Hasn’t really gotten old for me yet. This trip was only 1.5 hours, so it wasn’t even a big deal at all. And Fredo was there waiting for me when I got there, so that was nice. As weird as he is, he seems to be really reliable. Mme Lenfant lets him drive her around the country, so obviously he’s trustworthy and semi-normal…trying not to judge a book by the cover here!!
We got caught up in a bunch of traffic jams leaving Paris so it took longer to get to Rouen than expected. Actually though, I am not in Rouen (I never actually am in the city they say I am in!!). I am in a little village called Bourg-Achard (I think…I’ll have to get the actual spelling and possibly the correct name later!). It is small…and I haven’t really seen any of it – except for what Fredo and I saw while driving around attempting to figure out where we were and where the house was! It took us a good while before we actually found the house (including asking the Police, the baker, and knocking on the wrong house!!).
And so here I am…back to the beginning of this…where I said I am on a farm. I totally am. The house is what I would call a typical farm house with all the rooms connected on each floor. In order to get to my room I have to walk through two other rooms…does that make sense? Basically it is one long corridor with walls to divide off rooms, but we all share the same hallway and the same front of the house. Downstairs there is a wood burning stove to heat the house in the winter! The freezer is kept in a separate shed. Out in the backyard is a garden and then the cow sheds! And there are lots of cows…from the little babies to the big ones! I sooo want to help out and do stuff, so I hope they let me! I made it really obvious at dinner time that I wanted to do work…we’ll see!!
Night -Allison

June 2

Saturday, June 2, 2007
It was a rather "lazy" day today. I slept in – and woke up without an alarm clock – until 8:00…apparently I am my own alarm clock!! I ate breakfast more or less by myself as the others kind of woke up.
I picked cherries all morning. Lots and lots of cherries. I plugged in my Ipod and listened and sang to music and it made the entire thing a lot more fun. Over the week the entire concept of cherry picking has gotten a lot less exciting – as the novelty wore off and as more and more cherries got rotten. It is too bad that it rained so much because that is what made the cherries go mouldy on the branches.
Remi and I went rollar blading down the road for a good 45 minutes…the roads and paths here are definitely not the same quality as I am used to back at home! It was fun to do, though. It is great – every time I go biking or blading I have to wear a helmet. So the people here go digging through their piles of stuff so they can find me one to wear! So there we were – me wearing a helmet and wrist guards and Remi wearing a Santa hat! It was quite the picture. It was fun though. And it is cool to see how less shy Remi is now than he was a week ago.
While on our blades the baker truck drove by and honked. I got sooo excited over that! The baker actually drives by once a day, with his truck full of bread and sells it to the people as they come out of their houses! Is that not the coolest and Frenchest thing ever?! I was pretty excited. I didn’t have my camera with me, but when we got home the butcher drove by and did the same thing, so I got some amazing pictures of him holding ½ a pig head in the truck! It totally made my day.
Oh! And then I decided to call mom and dad. Well, I didn’t really decide it at that moment - I had planned to call them at 5am Calgary time because I knew they were volunteering down at the police station for the motorcycle dealeo at 6am. So I figured I’d give them a nice wake-up call! It was great…Dad was really out of it!! J
Once Christian got back from returning the rental car (he drove back from Paris last night because he was in Romania all week) we took out all the pits of the cherries I picked so we could make jam. It was good…boringish…but good! Especially because I’d been eating his cherry jam all week, so I knew how good it was!
I went grocery shopping with Marie-Paul and we ran into lots of people she knew. I guess in a little village of a place, that must not be hard to do! She bought me a couple of chocolate bars from the Poulain factory that is in Blois – in case my next family doesn’t feed me!!
I slept and went running (and died on the run…not the day for it at all, apparently!) before company came over for dinner. They mostly talked about the new school changes and the house changes, so it wasn’t all that exciting conversation – and I was actually so hungry, I wasn’t sure I was going to live…so I didn’t even really hear the conversation! The dinner was really good once we got there though…made me happy to eat!!
Night
-AJ :)