peacin' out

It’s almost over. Four days, one exam and a nine hour plane ride and I will be home!

Saturday I had my big Grammaire exam, the one that the entire semester was leading up to. I studied HARD CORE and I think it paid off. I didn’t do fantastic, and I’m already kicking myself for small mistakes I know I made, but I’m sure I did well enough to pass, so I’m content. I know that I learned a lot this past semester, and I hope the profs see that when they’re marking my exam. This afternoon I have my oral exam, and then it’s all over. I’m pretty nervous for this one, ‘cause oral’s not my strong point. I have enough trouble forming sentences in English…so it should be interesting trying to make stuff up on the spot in French. My prof is one of the people who mark me, and she seemed nice enough, so hopefully she’ll give me a passing grade.

Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll probably spend walking around the city, taking it all in for one last time. I’m definitely going to make a trip to the Latin Quarter and Montmartre again; those two are my favourite areas because they have so much character. They’re rich in history, and full of crowded streets with colourful shops. And I’m treating myself to one last amandine (almond tart) from a ritzy patisserie just up the hill from my apartment.

Thursday I’ll be doing laundry, cleaning and packing before room inspections. Then we’re heading off to the hotel (the Radisson!) to stay there for the night, since we have to be at the airport early Friday morning. We made sure we booked a hotel with a pool, and I am PSYCHED to go swimming! We’ll probably spend the night chilling and swapping photos, so I’ll have lots of pictures to show you all when I get home.

I’m absolutely itching to leave! I think it may have something to do with the fact that I’ve cooped myself up in my room for the past couple weeks to study, and now I’ve got more energy that I know what to do with. I wanna work, run around and get dirty! Even tree planting sounds appealing to me at this point.

However, I’ve definitely enjoyed Paris—it’s a beautiful city with tons of things to see and do, and I hope to come back with Jordan someday. But I’m a real sucker for Canada—for its food, for its friendly people, for its fields, forests and beaches. I’ve got so much to look forward to this summer, and I can’t wait to get started the minute I get back. Ok…maybe the day after. And I can’t wait to catch up with everyone again—to find out all the university gossip from my friends, to spend a Sunday afternoon at Grandma’s, to make fun of all the Hayhoe employees, to see the Burgsma’s new place and to be silly with my sisters (and Michael too of course). I can’t wait to see ALL of you!!!

Ok, so this is me officially signing off. My blogging days are over. And if you don’t mind, keep me in your prayers for safe travels on Friday. It’d be a shame to survive this long and then not get to drink an icecap ever again.

Je t’embrace, bisoux, ciao-ciao!

exam time

Steph and I at La Défense

My new "spot" in the Jardin Luxembourg

The "Port Stanley" of Paris

Sharon and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower

View from the top; I go to school just left of Montparnasse, the tall building

Waffels in Belgium

And of course, sea shell chocolates!

Nate's finger...keep reading...

Grandes Eaux Musicales at Versailles

Versailles

L'Arc de Triomphe on Liberation Day

I realize it’s been a couple of weeks since I last made an appearance here, so I’ll quickly catch you up on what I’ve been up to since Spring Break.

Well, I came home from Holland to sunny skies and shorts weather—absolutely amazing! Paris is finally showing her true colours, and it’s fantastic, I can’t get enough of the sun! The first week back I spent most days after class sitting in the Jardin Luxembourg, reading my book. It’s quite the hot spot, since it has a nice grassy “pelouse” that you can sit on. It’s like Port Stanley beach, except without any waves or metal detectors.

It was a short week at school, only 3 days, so Thursday Nate and I took a trip to Versaille. I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the palace…it was nice, but not worth the number of euros I spent to see it. But the gardens were definitely worth seeing—we went on a day when they performed the “Grandes Eaux Musicales”—where all of the fountains were going full blast to classical music. I felt like royalty walking around to the music, and could barely contain the urge to waltz around like they probably did 300 years ago. But for Nate’s sake, I did contain it…he’s had a rough enough time being the only guy in the group.

Friday we went to Brussels for the day, since it’s only a 1 ½ hour train ride away, and spent another nice day in the sun, wandering around the city. I ate a REAL Belgian waffle, and of course, bought some REAL Belgian chocolate. On a sort of related note, do any of you remember the show “Tin-Tin”? (he’s a French cartoon character). Well the chocolate stores sell truffles in decorated tin boxes, and I saw one selling “Tin-Tin tins”! I thought that was pretty funny…Tin-Tin tins…

Saturday Nate and Steph headed off to Holland for a few days, so I was back in Paris solo. Sharon Heuving and her sister were in town for the day, so I met them under the Eiffel Tower, and we went up to the very top. It was a great view—much better than the second level; I’m glad I waited to go all the way up! Later I took them up to Montmartre and showed them my quartier—we did the tour through the painter’s square, the Sacre Coeur, and then down through the red light district to see the Moulin Rouge. It was such a treat to tour people around, and to show them a bit of what my life’s been like for the past few months.

This past week has mostly been a lot of studying. Exams are next week, and we don’t get any study days, so most nights I’m at my desk typing up study notes. Friday we had a final test in Grammaire (which I think I rocked…in French standards…ie, 70% hopefully?), and it made me feel pretty confident for the exam, since it was a copy of last year’s exam. And in Phonetics my French prof told me that I pronounce my nasals “très, très bien”. It’s always great to hear some positive feedback, ‘cause I can be pretty critical of my French accent. So at least I’m doing one thing right!

Anyways, I was talking about Friday…Well after a long week of study-study-studying, Steph and I were in the mood for a girls nite. So we enjoyed a chick flick, and then some Shawn Paul with facials and magazines. Girls nites have kind of become a monthly tradition, and I look forward to them because I love being silly with Steph.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention one of the most exciting nights! Nate will kill me if he reads this, so hopefully he won’t read it (and if you’re nice, you won’t tell him to!). Well, we were sitting in my room, showing each other our pictures from Spring Break, and Jordan called, so I turned away to talk to him for a moment. When I turned back, both Nate and Steph looked like they were about to faint; Nate had cut his finger real bad with his Swiss Army knife, and was bleeding all over. I quickly hung up as they were going out the door, Nate’s finger all wrapped up in paper towel. They’d barely made it to the hall before I heard a big “thunk”…Nate was down. Steph got her neighbour, who happens to be a nurse, and by the time he came up, Nate was doin a bit better…although his face was still about the same shade of white as my sheets. Julien quickly assured Nate that all he’d need was a couple stitches, so we went next door to the fire-fighters to get him fixed up. Apparently they don’t do stitches, so instead he just came back with a huge band-aid. It was an exciting way to the end the night, and thankfully it wasn’t any worse. We laughed it off, and now Nate’s finger is doing just fine. If that’s the worse of our injuries abroad, I think we’ll have done just fine…cross fingers.

Well…it’s time for me to hit the books again; unfortunately my study notes aren’t gonna write themselves. I’m gonna finish this semester off on a great note, and then smile all the way home on the plane!

…2 days later…

Well I wrote that blog on Saturday (I pre-write my blogs to save internet time) and now it’s Monday and I’m about to post it. Just thought I’d give you a quick update: finished my first exam and I think I rocked the socks off of it in just under 10 minutes. Off to a good start!

Home in Holland

breakfast in the sunroom

my big bed

a water mill

a windmill


windmill

boat ride through the canals in Amsterdam

old houses along the canals

Herman in the tulip fields

me in the tulip fields too

rows and rows of tulips

Herman

Houses along the canal in a little town in Friesland

at the beach along the North Sea

sun bathing on the deck with Ypie

That hat says "Captain"...that's me, Captain Danielle

Herman and Ypie

The real captain

First mate

in Friesland again

Sunday I traveled from what felt like home back to my temporary home, all the while thinking about my real home. To translate: I travelled from Holland back to Paris, all the while thinking about Canada.

What’s “home” anyways? In Paris it’s where my bed and all my belongings are. However, Holland FELT like home. Holland has Weesjes’ and other names I recognize; it has spiced cake, King peppermints and home-made tomato soup; it has cows and grassy fields. It’s a little piece of home.

Before I stepped off the train on Wednesday afternoon, I had a feeling I was going to like Holland. And after meeting Herman and Ypie at the station, I was convinced even more of that feeling. I could not have asked for more generous hosts!

Upon arriving at their house, we sat down for tea to get to know each other a bit better. I wasn’t a tea drinker when I left Canada, but in Holland I drank an average of 4 cups a day…not bad. Because it was Queen’s Day (I already forget the Dutch name) there were big celebrations in every town, so that night we went to see fireworks. They put on a pretty good show for a little town!

Thursday I was allowed to sleep in, in my big room with a big queen-sized bed that was alllllllll for me…. After breakfast and tea in the sunroom we headed out to see the area—a water mill, a wind mill, and the town of Zutphen. Herman has a bit of a sweet tooth, but Ypie doesn’t let him eat too much sugar and salt (“because he has to watch his health of course!”), so any time he wanted something sweet, he’d ask if I was hungry for ice cream or fries or a milk shake. I’m not one to turn down sweet food, so I said yes to icecream (for lunch) and I ended up eating a soup bowl-sized portion of the best gelato in the world. Yes, it was even better than gelato from Italy. All weekend, as Herman kept on finding out more about me, he would classify my traits as either Weesjes or non-Weesjes. It turns out I’m pretty Weesjes, and preferring sweets to healthy food is no exception. I’m also Weesjes because I like meat, because I lose things a lot, because I’m emotional, and because I don’t get seasick. Glad I live up to my name (not for too much longer though!!!)

The afternoon and evening saw lots more tea drinking, a visit with his twin brother Sietze, a delicious supper and then a relaxing night in front of an English movie (“Two Weeks Notice”…lame. Don’t ever watch it).

Friday we were up early for a day in Amsterdam. We had a nice cup of tea beside one of the canals and then went for a boat ride through them. I love the old Dutch houses—they’re colourful and so different from anything else I’ve seen in Europe. We walked around a bit, through the red light district, past Anne Frank’s house and later enjoyed a pancake lunch. After Amsterdam we headed to the tulip fields, where I was amazed to see rows and rows and rows…and more rows of tulips of every colour; it was absolutely beautiful! We also took a drive out to the sea for a walk along the beach. We stopped at a nice little restaurant for steak, fries and icecream cake on the patio (Herman’s choice…I promised not to tell Ypie).

Because it was close to Liberation Day, there were lots of war movies on TV, so that night we watched Schindler’s List. I had never seen it before, and although I had to stay up late to see it all, I’m glad I did. It was a very touching movie, one I would recommend.

Saturday morning we were up early again, this time to go sailing on their boat. We drove up to Friesland, where it was docked in a town called Heeg, and then took it out to sea. Well, more like out to lake. There was no wind for the first couple hours, so we moved at about a pace of 2 sea miles per hour. On the way back there was more wind, but it was head on, so completely useless. We putted around with the motor though, and I got to be captain for a while. On the way back there was a nice restaurant right along the canal, so Herman parallel parked the boat and we disembarked for some…no, not tea…we switched it up for some hot chocolate, yum!

Saturday night we swapped photos—I showed them what I’ve been up to in Paris and some photos of Jordan and the family. They’re big travellers, so I saw some photos of their trips to Australia, Argentina and Antarctica.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast, and then headed back to the train station. Ypie even packed me a lunch with gouda sandwiches and suikerbrood (sugar bread from Friesland), that’s how well they took care of me.

It was sad to say good-bye at the station; I think I blinked back a couple tears as I boarded the train. I could blame in on an exhausting couple of weeks, but I think it was mostly because for a few days, I felt like I was at home. And then I had to say good-bye to home all over again, and to a couple who took care of me like my parents and grand-parents would. A lot of the tastes, smells, sights and sounds were familiar, and although at that moment it made me homesick, thinking about it now makes me excited about my return. Only 24 more days….only 24 more days.

Back for a day

beautiful Marseille

not so beautiful Marseille...

can you tell we miss the sun?

Nate and I had an inukshuk making contest on the beach in Nice (mine won). Canada represent!

Eze Village

Monte Carlo Casino (setting of Casiono Royale)

Me n' Monaco

Our hostel in Nice--looks just like a villa in southern France

You can't go to Pisa without making a fool of yourself in front of the tower

I told a huge lie right before putting my hand in the mouth, and he still didn't bite me; I think it's broken.

Coliseum

Poppies grow like weeds in Italy, it's beautiful!

Ponta Vecchio in Florence

I got home today from my trip down south; what a fantastic way to spend Spring Break!

Saturday afternoon we arrived in Marseille and we enjoyed the sun while walking around the city and the harbour. Sunday we awoke to another sunny morning, so Steph and I decided to take a little boat tour along the coast, through all of the beautiful calanques. The sun fooled us though, and just as we stepped on board, it started to rain. “No big deal”, we thought, and confidently headed to the very front of the boat to tough it out like true Canadians. About 20 minutes later, out on the open sea, we were practically blown off the front of the boat by the wind, so we headed inside where it was a bit safer…and just in time too—as soon as we sat down the waves started pounding over the front of the boat! Our island cruise turned out to be more like a rollercoaster ride, going up and down for 3 hours. I think Steph and I were the only two on board who didn’t end up getting sea sick (thank goodness!).

Nice was another beautiful city, probably my favourite of the whole trip. The hostel we stayed in was ridiculously cheap, and ridiculously fantastic. They had 12 cereals to choose from for breakfast, free internet, huge plates of food for supper for only a few euros, and staff the helped you plan day trips. On the second day we did a day trip up to Eze Village, a medieval village up on the highest point over-looking the Med; Monaco, home of the Monte Carlo Casino, and probably some of the worlds richest people; and finally to a little beach where we finally got to swim in the sea…for all of 10 seconds (it was freezing!).

Then it was off to Pisa, a city which has nothing to offer except its leaning tower. The tower was pretty cool though, it was leaning a bit more than I expected, so I didn’t dare go up it.

Rome, however, was a wonderful place to stay. We were taken in by some of Nate’s relatives, and we couldn’t have asked for a more generous family to stay with. They came to the station to pick us up, gave up the master bedroom for Steph and I to sleep in, cooked us huge, delicious meals, and even did our laundry! The two sons, Yvonno and Jean-Luca each took a turn touring us around the city. Hi-lites include the Coliseum, Saint Peter’s Basilica, and the Trevi Fountain. The line up to go into Saint Peter’s Basilica was ridiculously long, and we didn’t have too much time before our train left, so Jean-Luca told us in his best English: “Sometimes we go in the line.” Nate explained that he meant cutting in line (to get into a church of all places!) so we followed him towards the front, and somehow managed to merge into the line with an Asian tour group. What a wonderful tour guide, eh?

Then it was off to Florence, one nite on our own, and one with more family. The city was beautiful, although too expensive for my budget, so the hi-lite for me was probably staying with the family. They were just as great as the last family, except more “Italian”—loud and hilarious! Nate was always telling us about his grandparents in Canada who always force him to eat until he has to roll away from the dinner table; I have no doubts that they are related to the family we stayed with. All night I was told “mange, mange, mange!” until I had to say in my best Italian: “Io no poso; tu mange, mange, mange!” and handed over my plate to Michele to finish. They also served us some of Antoinetta’s home made liquor, and although I’m not usually one for hard liquor, this stuff was delicious! One was blueberry flavoured, and the other lemon; she even went and hand-picked the fruit herself. They were wonderful hosts, and even after I parted ways with Nate and Steph (they’re off to Venice and Milan yet), Antoinetta and her daughter brought me to my train to see me off.

So after a 16 hour ride, I’m back. Paris greeted me with cloudy skies and rain, but I guess that shouldn’t have been a surprise. The Fondation is the same as always too—I got home to a broken elevator and a broken washing machine. So I lugged my 3 ton bag up 100 stairs and proceeded to do 2 weeks of laundry in my sink. Gotta love the Fondation…

But I get to escape again tomorrow, as I’m headed off to Holland to spend a few nights with Herman and Ypie, a couple of my dad’s relatives. All I really want from Holland is some mashed potatoes, but I’m sure that they will treat me wonderfully and offer me a lot more, so it should be another great trip.

And by the time I get back there will be less than a month left! Can’t wait!

Well friends, I’m finally off for Spring Break, as of 4:30 this afternoon. Tomorrow morning we leave for Marseille, we’ll spend some time in Nice and Italy, and then I’m coming home early for a solo trip to Holland to visit some family. I’m super excited, and although I’m sure this sounds silly, I’m hoping the next two weeks fly by. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to appreciate this trip to the max, but I’m just happy that every day spent completely occupied is one more that I can check off my count-down.

And is the countdown ever on—only 42 days left! I’ve already done all the major stuff in Paris…most multiple times…and now I’m exploring the less-known and less-seen quarters of the city. I wanna see and do everything possible with the time I have left here. I’ve spent lots of days wishing to come home, and I’m sure there’ll be more in the next few weeks, but I know that this is a one in a lifetime experience, so I’m trying to appreciate it all and make the most of it. I realize how cliché that is, but it’s what everyone has been reminding me for the past few months (and rightly so), so I think it’s finally stuck. Keep reminding me though, ‘cause seriously, on the homesick days it’s what I need to hear to keep me from saying “screw it” and jumping on the next plane to Canada. I’m so close though, eh? No sense giving up now.

One of the things I’m most excited to do in May is to find a park bench to read on in Jardin Luxembourg that will be “mine”. I get very attached to in-animate objects…call me materialist, call me immature…but I like to have things or a spot to call “mine”. My spot used to be at my window in my bedroom—every day I spent a few minutes with the windows wide open, rain or shine, and I’d just stare at the sky or the top of the Sacre Coeur (‘cause that’s all I can see from the 6^th floor). It was nice…but then one morning a pigeon left a disgusting present on the ledge right outside my window, and it splattered all over the window, and now there’s flies and…yuck. Even all Paris’ rain won’t wash it away. Anyways, moral of that unnecessarily long story is: my “spot” was taken over by a pigeon, so it’s time to find a new one. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes, ‘cause I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seats by now wondering how it will all end.

In all honesty, I didn’t really have anything to blog about; I just wanted to post some more pictures. So I’ll cut the crap and give you the good stuff. For all of you over 30, I apologize for my language…

I’ll be back in a couple weeks with more great pictures, and hopefully some better stories!

Pont Alexandre III

It snowed here…while you guys were getting sunburns.
PS, Jordan, sorry to speak on your behalf…but I figured it was safe to assume…

waiting early in the morning to get into the Louvre

One of my favourite pieces: “Psyché ranimée par le baiser de l’Amour”

After coming out the Louvre, and having seen Asians giving the peace sign in front of masterpieces all day, I felt the need to do it too. I just don’t understand how they still find that cool…

Louvre at nite

We had spring in Paris for one day! And it was lovely!

Trying to get the last drop out of a Tims cup sent to me byJordan. No luck, he drank it all.

I rolled up a winner!!!