So.. I can honestly say i don't have any hilarious stories. Darn it. But I have done some pretty dang cool trips lately. First off, I went to Rouen for my art class and I saw the place where joan of arc was held in prison before she was executed. Also, we went to a museum there and looked at tons of art from the medieval ages. Personally, my favorite paintings I saw there were not the ones we looked at for art class but the impressionist paintings.... My favorite was Monet--- His paintings were so amazing and I cant believe that all the individual strokes makes up such a gorgeous painting. SO pretty!

I also had my first religion test which wasn't too bad, but it was all essays-- and lets just say i am not a writer. At least I have trouble with essay questions that ask you to tie in the big picture. So I'm just crossing my fingers that I did well on it. I'm hoping to boost up my GPA while i am here so I am kind of depending on good grades. It is looking pretty optimistic so far, but it is very hard to concentrate on school when I am in Paris. All I want to do is play!

We also went  on a trip to La vallee de la loire, which is known specifically for its numerous castles along the loire river. We went to Chinon, Blois, Chaumbourd and a few others. Chambourd was huge and the surroundings were gorgeous! Although we didn't go inside to see the castle because it is just a bunch of empty rooms, I had a blast just walking around it. THere was this long walk(probably about 2 miles)around it and half way through the walk you end up on a bridge with a breathtaking view of the river leading up to the castle. I just can't get over how beautiful everything is.... I am just feeling so much gratitude to be here and not just to be in France but to be alive and to be able to see everything around me. The world is so different everywhere, but i am finding that each place i travel is different and beautiful in its own way.

Besides traveling around France, I am also making a lot of good friends within the program. THere are some really awesome girls on the trip and i don't think that the trip would be as fun without them. In fact, I decided that nothing is really that great unless you have good company with ya.. anyways, sorry for not having any amazing stories to tell but i will post them as soon as they come!

having tr0ouble cut and pasting my blog that goes with these pictures

Trips, museums.. France

I'm Scurred...

So my roommate tested positive....to her blood test for Mono. Unfortunately, she might have to go home from paris and i am really sad for her:( The other bad thing is the fact that I drank out of her water bottle on the way back from Nice. So i'm pretty much in big trouble.

My director of our program wants me to get blood test as well due to the circumstances and for those who know me well. Well, I'm scurred. I have memories from my childhood of my mother and father holding down my body on the medical table while they poke me with needles. it was pretty much a wrestling match when it came to shots. I am going to admit I cry almost everytime I get shots and I am going to say proudly/ embrassingly that this last may 2008 was the first time I was poked and did not cry. You wanna know why? There were two event that led to my bravery. The first event was in the summer of 2007 and I had to get a shot in my shoulder in order to work in the food buisness(zaba's-the job from heck). I think it was hepatitis A shot. Anyways, I got the shot and although it didn't hurt that bad I cried as always. It's a mental thing: I work myself up before the shot, then i go into the room to get the shot, I see the needle, I watch the needle go into my skin, then eyes start to water, tears flow, I get faint...etc etc. Back to the story. I walked outside to where my sister was picking me up and hopped into the car. I looked back and my nephew saw my tears and so did everyone else. I decided I really needed to pull myself together when I saw my 9 year old nephew laughing at me because he didn't even cry when he got shots. The second event happen right before my knee surgery when I had to give a blood sample for some pre surgury thing. Having been one of the first times I had been poke since the hep A shot I once again I worked my self up. But my mother came and knocked some sense into me and gave me a smack down on how I need to BUCK up. So from then on I learned to not look and take a deep breath. Although I still do feel faint, I still can manage with out crying. And let me just add that I was poked for an IV like 5 times this last semester when I had ovarian cyst and still didn't cry.

Anyways I will reveal the results of my test to you in a later blog. I really hope I don't have mono. and I guess if I do, it will show up in 4 to 6 weeks or it will lay dorment in my body and i will probably give it to the next boy I kiss.... haha

Some more french stories and stuff

This one is copy/posted from Allison/Karin's blog, because i am to lazy to type it up and i think it is funny.
"Jill, Karin, and I did one of our walks at the flea markets in the ghettos of Paris. On the way there, our metro decided to screech to a stop throwing us all basically onto each other, and then all the lights went out. We heard some unidentifiable screams which we then identified as our own, then fumbled around in the dark for a minute to find each other. This then prompted the following conversation:

Allison: Who would've guessed that we would've died in a metro in the middle of Paris...
Karin: What if when you died, people saw you in your casket in the same position that you died in?
Jill: We should've colored my hair before we left...my roots are so long. I don't want to look like this in my casket.

Needless to say, less then a minute later the lights turned back on and we were on our way."

One other funny note from me: when the train stopped, a message came on the intercom that I didn't understand one bit. A man who knew a little bit of English caught my eye, knew I was American, and could tell I was freaking out. He just looked me in the eye and translated the intercom message for me "One hour. They are going to sleep and we're staying here." Don't you love people like that? Hahaha, he made me laugh.


We went to the Patterson's for dinner. Here's a picture of Jill, Allison, and I with the baguettes we brought.

Hey Folks, I'm Back

Once again I have been inspired by friends to start up my blog. I didn't get very far last time: just one post and i was done. Sad I know. But I figure since i am in France I need to start it up again. Anyways, This last weekend I went to Nice, France. Which is in the Cote D'AZUR aka the Mediteranean Sea and it was gorgeous. We went to the beach a bit to sun bath, but it was too cold to swim. Althought I did decide to pull my pants up and stick my legs in which was a horrible idea since i had just saved my legs. Lets just say that the salt water gave me excrutiating razor burn. Needless to say the water was clear and beautiful, so i can't complain. We also visited some ancient ruins, went to the famous carnival and walked around the flea market on Saturday. BUT, I would have to say my favorite moment was when we rented bikes and I got in a bike crash with a native Niician. Lets just say that the rules in France are the same as in the US: Stay to your right. Which i understood completely, but as i was going into the right lane of the bike lane, this french guy on a bicycle who was tugging a box of huggings on the back of his bike(who knows why because he had to be about 60 years old) came at me at a million miles an hour. And the only thing he did was scream AHHHH and then crash. Ya thats right. He didn't even try to move out of the way or swerve or anything. So his low pitch AHHHH was followed by my hi pitch AHHHH and then CRASH. Luckily I walked away with only a sore thumb, but he had a few holes in the clothing on his elbows and knees.
After the crash, he was pretty much in shock or he was trying to act like a drama queen because he just stayed on the ground for 5 mins and moaned. Also, as soon as he came to he asked me if I had bike insurance..which made me laugh. Who has bike insurance? At least i never have heard of it. PLUS, I didn't even ruin his bike. The chain had just fallen off and we popped it right back on for him. But he insisted that we take it to a bike shop to make sure that we didn't ruin his bike. So we did and NOTHING was wrong. But that is the French for ya. That day continued to get funnier because when we dropped our bikes of Allison, my friend, said, "Bon journee" to the guy at the shop and he thought she had said, "Bon Annee" so he laughed and said it back.
Well Nice could not have been better and I want to go back so bad! ... except when it is warmer.
Tomorrow we head of to Rouen, Fr for art class... I am half excited and half ugggh...