Carnival de Nice

The Carnival de Nice is a pretty big thing around the south of France and around the world. Nice is about a 3 hour train ride from Aix so for my friend Germans birthday we decided to take the train and spend the weekend there. The parades were so much fun the light parade at night was my favorite. Just being able to be on the beach was nice and i had so much fun just having the weekend away.

Here's the website if you want to look at more!

http://www.nicecarnaval.com/carnaval4.html

and now the pictures!

Morocco!

For our February break or in France their “Ski Break” I decided that not only should I travel all throughout Europe I decided to venture off to the next continent…AFRICA!!

Im really lucky because here it is really close and very cheap to fly to Morocco so a few girls from my program (Christa, Brie, and Pax) and I decided to make the trip. We were nervous at first because we received a ton of mixed reviews on traveling there on our own. A bunch of people told us not to because they didn’t think it was safe for a group of 4 girls, but then again people told us that it wasn’t that big of a problem. We all went there prepared for the worst but I think we were all more worried than we needed to be. We dealt with our fair amount of hassling and it did get VERY tiring at times but I just had to remember we were in a country that was extremely different from what I was used to and things were just going to be different and I had to take it with a grain of salt. Never did I feel as though I would be harmed or robbed, it was just the store keepers trying to get us to buy their products, it some what reminded me of going to Mexico. We would occasionally get followed by young boys trying to be our “guides” or men wanting to lead us to their stores, we were told the best way to deal with it was to just ignore them…so that’s what we did.

Okay now ill get to the actual trip!

We started our trip by flying into Marrakech the most popular and well-known city in Morocco. When we got there it was already night- time so we didn’t get a chance to do much so we found our hotel dropped of our things and then went out to find dinner. In the Medina (or the center of town) they had tons of food tents set up so after walking through and looking around we decided on one. The food is not bad, its pretty basic a lot of lamb, chicken and veggies nothing too crazy but my all time favorite thing was their mint tea it was heaven its hot sweet tea with fresh spearmint leaves on them, they have this long technique to making it and take it quite seriously. Most of week we were there we ate all the same things so it got kinnda boring but mind you it was extremely cheap around 25 dirrams for the meal and the tea which is around 2.50 Euro or $4.

The next morning we had all decided that we HAD to take an excursion into the Sahara, most of the excursions were about 3 days and you had to book them a day ahead of time so we had to search for an agency as soon as we could. After some time with no luck we went to an internet café and look online. We found one that we liked so we called and ended up meeting with this man who owned it. He turned out to be our lifesaver! He told us about every little bit of information we needed to know, he thought us about how much we should pay for everything and that EVERYTHING is negotiable! We were told that if we wanted anything to take the price the offered and 1/4th of that is what it is actually worth 9he saved us a lot of money), he also told us how to handle the hagglers and took us to his hostel made us mint tea and gave us shesha (hookah). We just spend the rest of the way shopping and exploring the town. The next morning we were to get up early for our excursion.

The excursion was 3 days and 2 nights we were to take a van first through the Atlas mountains then to a small town where movies like Gladiator were filmed and then up further into the mountains where we stayed in this nice hotel over looking a river and right in the clifs. For the trip we were with a driver a guide and 3 other people. Two of them were American girl students (one for northern Illinois university!) and a French student that was with them. It was nice to have them with they were fun to talk to and super nice. After the night in the hotel we woke up early the next morning (had an amazing breakfast) and started heading to the Sahara!!! We were in the car for a large amount of time in those couple days, but finally after hours we reached the hotel on the outskirt of the desert. We dropped off what we didn’t need at the hotel and then went out back to pick out our CAMEL!!! I was so excited this was one of the things I was looking forward to the most, we were to be lead into the desert on camels for 2 hours to our camp site. We were heading to the camp as the sun was setting so it was incredibly beautiful we got to the site after a couple hours and then immediately started climbing the sand dunes, and let me tell you those things are deceiving it looked like it would be no problem to climb but boy was I wrong I was so exhausted by the time I got to the top with every step in the sand you took a little slide down, I thought I would never make it! Once at the top we made it just in time to see the sun go all the way down, it was breathtaking, there are really no words for me to tell you to describe how amazing I felt at that time. To be sitting on to of a sand dune in the Sahara desert was something I had never imagined doing in my life and at that point I was so grateful and appreciative of the opportunities I have had this past year. It was an experience that shows you just how vast the world is and how much there is out there to explore. It is something I will never forget. The climb down was another story, I think that may have taken a total of 15 seconds. We were then made a dinner of couscous and veggies and mint tea and then head around the fire while our guides played the drums and sang to us.

The next morning we were up before sunrise and back on the camels. This time the camels were not so exciting, let me say camels are not the most comfortable things in the world to ride. They sway a lot and by no means walk fast. Once back to the hotel we quickly gathered our things and were back in the car heading back. We were all a little sad to be leaving our guides they were so incredibly nice and fun. The 4 of us girls were flying out of Fez while the van was to head back to Marrakech we didn’t want to do that because it would mean we would be going about 6 or more hours out of our way so out driver and guide being the amazing people they are took us to a town where they got us a taxi that would take us to Fez, which is about a 5 hour drive. Before we knew it we had said our good bye’s and was on the road again with a driver who spoke neither French nor English. A good amount of people in Morocco speak French (and tons of other languages for that matter its actually quite amazing) only Arabic. It was an interesting ride filled with lots of nonverbal communications and the small amount of French that he did know. He was very nice though he stopped when we asked to take pictures and laughed at us while we were doing things to him that he was obviously not used to, such as Christa brushing her hair, us throwing pieces of bread out the window to the stray dogs and us taking pictures of just about everything we saw. When we finally arrived in Fez we were completely lost. We were all super tired form the long drive and waking up at around 5am so when we got to Fez and had NOOO idea where we were where we were going to stay or haw to even get anywhere you can definitely say we were all a little stressed. Once again we found a nice man to help us and lead us in the right direction, after a short cab ride and being hassled by this extremely obnoxious little boy who would not leave us alone we found a hotel and ever bargained the price down a little bit. We wandered around a little for the first night but in the end decided it was too late to go out and not that safe so we just went to bed early.

Fez was completely different that Marrakech, the Medina was set up much differently and Fez was known to be way more old-fashioned. It took us a little bit of getting used to but in the end turned out to be amazing. Here are the highlights of what we did: Fez in known for their tannery so after we met up with Jules from our program and some other travelers they had met so far we all made our way to the tannery and learned how they made leather. We also went to this amazing spot where there is an old tomb and overlooks the entire city. Met a Moroccan women who spoke to us about how things actually are for the women in Morocco. Had luck at this beautiful restaurant where Christa and I split a camel burger. Christa, Pax and I went to a Hamman, this incredible place where simply put old women bathe you. You are just in bathing suit bottoms and the women give you massages and scrub you down like you’re a little kid in a bathtub minus the bathtub just tile floors with buckets of hot water. I have to say it was unlike anything I have ever done but so interesting and so much fun!

Saying Morocco was another world is an understatement. I have never felt so far removed from anything in my life, with their religion (for example the call for prayer 5 times a day), their way of living, their food, and their traditions I never appreciated the modern convinces I take for granted everyday, hot water for my showers, being able to walk down the street being and unmarried women, being able to travel as I please, even tap water. It was am amazing experience and I recommend it, I know not everyone had the great experience I did and there were hard times (Brie got really sick we think because of the food and a couple days after we returned to France so did Christa) but all in all we had a great time and defiantly would do it all over again!!



…Now you have to check out all my pictures to see it for yourself!

21st Birthday in LONDON!

I know that I always say sorry for writing so late but this time it is really bad and WAY to late. I really don’t even know why it has taken me so long to update you I have been busy with school and what not but I think I have just been putting it off because I actually hate writing and am not very good at it! Haha

Moving on…
For my 21ST BIRTHDAY I decided a while ago that I really didn’t want to stay in Aix. I figured that its not like all of a sudden I can go buy alcohol or go to bars like in the States, it would pretty much be like any other weekend if I stayed. Instead I decided that I wanted to go spend the weekend in London for a change of scenery, my friend Christa came along with me to celebrate.

This year my birthday was conveniently on a Saturday so we flew into Gatwick Airport in the early evening and then had to take a bus for about an hour into town. It was really nice to be able to speak English and find our way around easily and everyone was very nice and helpful and we just asked tons of questions…well because we could and everyone could understand us. By the tiem we got off the bus it was dark and we were both super hungry so we figured it wouldn’t be to hard to find a place to eat. Well of course we were wrong and we ended up walking around with our huge backpacks forever just trying to find a place. Finally we wandered into China Town and had some Chinese food, which was a first for me in quite a long time. After dinner we got a hold of our couchsurfers, got directions to their place and headed there. Our couchsurfers mane was Mauricio and he lived in a house in Queens Park with 2 other guys and 3 girls. Marico is from Brazil and has moved around a lot but has been living in London for a few years. Before we went out he introduced us to his roommate Hugo who was also from Brazil and one of Marico’s best friends. These 2 guys were amazing to us the entire weekend and im so glad we met them. After a few beers and getting to know each other at there place they wanted to take us out to a bar called Barfly, we stayed there for a while had some more drinks watched a band called The Darkest Hour play (the most awfully funny thing I have seen) and then decided to go. Hugo is a manager of a sushi restaurant in London and Mauricio works with him, down the street for the bar was one of the restaurants so Hugo let us in at about 2 in the morning along with other coworkers of his and got us FREE Japanese beers, sake, and (birthday cake) edamame. We were there until lat into the night and the took a cab home for my big birthday day tomorrow!

The next morning me and Christa got up around 9 to start seeing the sites because we really only had Saturday to see anything because we were to leave early Sunday morning. We started by getting on the Underground and heading toward Buckingham Palace we ending up getting there right during the changing of the guards so it was pretty crowded. I have to admit it wasn’t nearly as beautiful as I thought it would be it was a little bare and really just this Huge building. I guess im just bias because I am so lucky to be in France with all these amazingly beautiful old buildings. After the Palace we just kept walking along the park towards Big Ben. I loved Big Ben! I thought it was just amazing to actually get to see it in person, there isn’t a lot to it because it is just a clock tower but still it was incredibly beautiful. We continued to walk toward the London Eye, where we intended to get on but because of the line we quickly changed our minds. Now we were a little stumped on what to do because we didn’t really plan the trip all to well we just wanted to see the city and have a a good time so we asked a Taxi driver where a good place to get fish and chips were, he led us in a direction and we sat and had lunch. After lunch we got back on the Underground and just headed towards Tower Bridge. Just off our stop there was the Borough Market, filled with tons of food stands and venders selling all types of delish looking foods. After we walked through the market we passed through the coolest little streets that take you back to way back in the day when things were probably so much more relaxed and there were no such thing as starbucks. Once we got to the edge of the river it was just a short walk to Shakespeare’s Globe, we didn’t get to go inside because we didn’t really want to pay for the tour so we just wondered on our own and took some pictures. After that we got back on the Underground towards Big Ben, we then walked some more where we ran into the National Gallery right while the sun was going down, it was incredibly beautiful and huge. We decided to take a break and went into a nearby bookstore to just rest for a while. We stayed there for a bit looking through London travel books and then decided to head back to the house to take a nap before we went out for the big birthday night!

After the nap Hugo told us that he would take us out to dinner in Notting hill where his restaurant was, we werE SO excited because both of us hadn’t had sushi sense we left California so it was way overdue. This dinner was AMAZING! Hugo paid for everything and ordered us just about everything on the menu! We had about $300 worth of sushi, Japanese beer, and ice cream! I really can not believe how night he was to pay for everything. London is just such an expensive city there is no way we could have been able to have any of it if it wasn’t for them. After we stuffed our face with Sushi Christa was dying to head down into Notting Hill because she is in love with that movie and wanted to see the bookstore and the house that belonged to Hugh Grant in the movie. I am actually really sad that we didn’t make our way there during the day when the market was going on because Notting Hill was wonderful! It was so nice and all of the shops even thought they were all closed at the time. Hugo then paid for a cab to take us to a club close to his place called Paradise, I have never really been a fan of clubs so I was skeptical but this club was great the second we walked in I fell in love with it. It is like this huge old Victorian mansion that is a club all of the rooms are decorated like you are in someone’s house and are incredible. The boys paid for all of our drinks that night while Christa and I spent the night dancing away. We stayed till it closed and then walked back to the house along with a bunch of their work friends.

The next morning we had to get up early and catch our flight back to France.


I could not have asked for a better 21st birthday. I was able to spend it in London an amazing city, and stayed with Mauricio and Hugo who we so ridiculously nice to pay for every single thing. The city was breath taking, the sushi diner was delish, and the club was absolutely perfect for me. I had the best birthday with Christa and am really sad that I will not get the opportunity to go back there this year before I go home. But I have made it a new goal to go back one summer and live there and try and find work, or even move there one day.

What can I say I LOVE LONDON!

New Years!

For our break we had about 2 weeks off so during that time I was lucky enough to have my parents come visit. They’ve never been to France before or Europe for that matter so it was nice to be able to show them around. It was hard at times because I myself am just starting to get used to everything here and I don’t even have everything down, but I did my best. They ended up flying right in to Paris so I had to take the TGV (our high speed train) and meet them at our hotel. It only takes me about 3 hours to get to Paris so I was there by about 12 and they had already had a delay so I knew they wouldn’t be getting in until about 3pm. They had no phone or didn’t know how to get around Paris all to well, and neither did I because it was also my first time there, well about 7pm rolls around and I have NO idea where they are. There’s really nothing I can do besides just wait cause there was no way for me to get a hold of them. They finally show up a little before 7:30pm they get a little settled and we talk for a bit and they tell me about what had happened. We decide to take the metro down to the arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élyées. We were able to go to the top of the Arc, and it was absolutely beautiful Champs-Élyées is usually always lit but during Christmas it was just amazing. After that we walked around for a while trying to find some food and then headed back to the hotel to get up the next day.

Day 2
The weather was so much nicer today; they day before it was pretty dreary out, you couldn’t even see the top of the Eiffel Tower. We started off the day by going straight to the Louvre, its one of the most famous museums in the world, known most for having the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The building was just incredible on its one let alone everything actually in the museum! I absolutely loved it you could honestly spend days in there and get so lost. It was the most amazing thing to actually be able to see these world famous pieces of art in person. Ive heard how small the Mona Lisa is in real life and its true it was super small, there were just so many people around it just trying to take a picture it completely took away from the painting. It was actually really sad and a little disappointing…but still it was the Mona Lisa and completely mind blowing. After we were finished we walked for a while down to Notre Dame. It was really pretty because it had a huge Christmas tree right in front, there was a huge line of people waiting to go in so while my parents waited me and Kels went to get some snacks, by the time we got back we got right in. It’s huge in side and very pretty but again just SO many people. We stayed inside for a while until we figured out our next place to venture off to. We decided to head up towards Luxemburg Gardens…once again beautiful. It was the middle of winter so the flowers weren’t in bloom but the park was still so nice the sun was starting to go down so the sky was so colorful. We were only there for a little because the park was closing. I had made plans to meet up with Christa because she was in town with her boyfriend Cody who was visiting from home. We had decided to take a river cruise on the Seine. It was nice to be able to sit for a while and get to see all the sights from the river, it had gotten dark so the Eiffel Tower was lit and sparkles every 45 minutes. After the boat we were all pretty hungry so we started walking around looking for a place to eat. We ended up coming upon this restaurant with a line out in front, we heard people speaking English and asked what the deal was. Well it turned out that the restaurant (which the name has totally escaped me) was in some travel books as a really good spot. We decide to wait in line and see what all the excitement was about. Everyone in the restaurant orders the same thing, you get steak haché and fries covered with this gravy, and as much as you want (a very un-french-like thing). The food was really really good and worked out perfectly. After the long day we all decided to call it a night and head back and get some rest.

Day 3
EURO DISNEY! Kelsey insisted on going to Disneyland Paris while they were here so on our 3rd day we slept in for a bit and then headed there on the train. It took around 45 mins to get there because it was outside of town. We arrived later in the afternoon and had to wait in line forever to get tickets. Once we finally got inside we just kinnda ventured around. It is a lot different from the one in California I thought they would be more similar. It was kinnda rainy out so that wasn’t the best and we ended up having to wait in line for like 2 hours for one ride so that was also not so much fun. I really did love going there and I know Kelsey was really excited to be there; also it was nice to kinnda feel like I was back at home, minus the line cutting and the massive smoking. We stayed there for the whole day and headed home once the park closed.

Day 4
This morning we wanted to get up pretty early and finish seeing all the things we have yet to see. Mom wanted to go to Sacré Coure, which is a huge church on the top of a hill that overlooks all of Paris. It was really pretty up there but still a little gloomy because it was still early. It’s a huge tourist spot so it was fairly busy and known for a popular spot of pickpocketers. We started walking down a the hill and headed for Moulin Rouge took some pictures and then got on the Metro and headed toward the Opera house we weren’t lucky enough to go see an Opera but it was incredibly beautiful inside. Next we just continued to wonder around for a while more until we made it to Napoleons tomb, which took forever to get to! By this time I had gotten a hold of some of my friends from my program who were also in Paris for new years, they decided to come meet up with us. This is where we split up for a bit and my parents went to the Eiffel Tower while I wondered for a bit with my friends. We met back up with my parents at the hotel and rested for a while before heading over to the Eiffel Tower for the “countdown.” We ended up meeting up with even more of my friends from school. There were a ton of people hanging around with their bottles of champagne and noise makers ready for the new year. All of a sudden we look and its midnight and the Tower starts to sparkle…no countdown. We were all super bummed, we thought there was going to be this big countdown and ball drop time thing and major fireworks. Instead it just lit up and we all just started yelling…it was a little awkward but still a lot of fun because I mean we were in france at the Eiffel Tower so it was amazing. I guess normally they have a big firework show but it was canceled because of security. After me and my friends wandered around for a while watched the crazy drunk french people run in the streets push cars and break bottles all over the streets. We weren’t out for to long because we all had to get up early to leave in the morning.

Day 5
This was our last day in Paris and we had to catch the train pretty early so all we really had time for was to head back to the Eiffel Tower and take some pictures. After we did that we got on a train that takes about 3 hours, and headed back to Aix.For the rest of the day we just kinnda walked around Aix.

For the rest of the trip we just stayed here in Aix, took a day trip to Avignon, and went up into St. Victorie for a couple hours. My roommate Jordan also had his mom, sister, girlfriend, and friend, so our small 4 person apartment got pretty busy. We were lucky enough to use our neighbor’s apartment because they would be on vacation. We spent a lot of the time just hanging around the apartment and walking around Aix.

It was nice to have the family out here and show them where I live, and where all there money is going.

Christmas in Aix

I have to admit i think that Aix is one of the most beautiful cities during christmastime, they go all out. The string lights all over the streets, hang decorations down every side street and have mini white Christmas trees lined up everywhere, not to mention how they line Cours Mirabeau (our main street) with tons of mini booths selling everything from wooden toys, lavender, hand made crafts, and tons and tons of treats like cotton candy, suckers, chocolate and my personal favorite vin chaud (hot wine). Even though it doesnt snow here the weather at some points sure does feel like its about to. I loved it while all of this was up, and now that the time has passed and the decorations have been taken down it just seems to fill bare. I guess ill just have to be patient and wait for spring so the city comes to life again.

Being that a bunch of us werent able to be home this year to spend Christmas with our families we all decided to have a group Christmas dinner at my neighbor Celenas place. Not everyone from the program was here because some of them went on vacation or even went back to California to see their families so whoever was still in Aix ended up coming to our own little "family" dinner. We all just brought our own dish and just spent that night talking and laughing...it was nice to have a little home away from home and have everyone together for Christmas. It was of course not the same but still a lot of fun!

Thanksgiving...the French way

Menu:

Apéritif (wine)
Various entrées- wide choice, suitable for all
Canard à l¹orange or vegetarian option (canard=duck)
Tarte aux pommes et glace vanille (apple tart w/ ice cream)
Wine
coffee

...not the traditional thanksgiving meal right? Nope. Well this was the menu for our CSU group dinner that we had at a nearby restaurant. Don’t get me wrong it was very nice and great to be able to have dinner with everyone from the group but it just didn’t feel like thanksgiving so of course we improvised. Jenea and Christa (two of the biggest fans of thanksgiving ever!) decided to have there own thanksgiving dinner at their house. The wanted to invite people from our classes, who come from all over the world, to have their first thanksgiving with us. We were all to bring a dish to share (family, I brought the mashed potatoes which were a hit even though I had to chance the recipe a bit because they don’t have everything here) It was an amazing experience we had French, Swiss, Chinese, Vietnamese and Americans all celebrating together. The of course had no idea what thanksgiving was all about so we did our best to explain it to them and then just told them that they basically just have to eat so much that their stomachs wouldn’t even be able to fit any more food. It was so funny to watch everyone eat the Americans we SO happy to have a full hearty meal while some of the others like the French were to slow to catch on to how much eating we would be doing because they are so used to small meals a little at a time and we just had plates piled full of food. It was great to have as close to a traditional dinner as we could and be with what is my family here. After we were done eating we decided to play charades…which was hilarious because not everyone spoke English well.

It was a fun night with TONS of food and great company…but it will be nice to have a real thanksgiving back in the US next year!

Picture time!

Another crazy CSU day

So these are way past due just like all of my posts I put up here. A few weeks ago we went on our last CSU group trip for the year we went to the cites of Luberon, Apt, Roussillon, and Gordes. It was a very out-doorsy day and tons of fun even though it was freezing out. We didn’t do to much and nothing too exciting happened, we just made short stops in each city and wandered around. Heres a slideshow of the day! ENJOY!