The Long Road Home

I'm sitting in the London Heathrow airport right now and thinking about all that has passed since the last time that I was here, almost exactly 5 months prior to this very moment. I remember sitting in this same spot then because I had found free internet and I remember thinking about taking that first plunge into France. Alot has changed since then. First of all I have made leaps and bounds in my ability to speak and comprehend French. While my lack of vocabulary still holds me back, my comprehension of the spoken word has become quite good. On the plane from London to Lyon back in August, I remember being so nervous and hearing French spoken all around me I was just hoping that no one would talk to me. Now its hard for me not to speak in French even though this is Great Britain.
The other night I had a "last supper" of sorts with nearly 40 other exchange students. Some were leaving, some were staying, but in the spirit of solidarity we wanted to let those who were departing end their time in a unified fashion. Traditional Savoyard food was shared by all and they even got me to play my guitar for them. It was a great way to bookend the semester. Afterwards I started thinking more in-depth about the return home. This whole time I have been so excited for it, so ready (or so I thought), and so content to return. But I realized that its not going to be that easy for me to return to America. I will most likely experience an even greater level of culture shock than I did when I entered France. The more I take time to think about the differences in the pace of life that I have lived here and the one to which I return in America, the more I realize that I will literally be "hitting the ground running". Part of me wants to worry about my friends and our relationships. Will they be the same? Will they care about my life and the incredibly intensive experience I have just undertaken and completed? Will I be a different person?...on and on. I realize that these thoughts are only common and that maybe I am worrying a little more than I should. But at the same time they are all valid worries and I am interested to see how they will play out and how my questions will be answered.
Nonetheless I am ready to return. It is sad to leave behind what has become your life for the last five months. Somehow I greatly underestimated the power of this experience. I thought that I would be so ready to come home that saying goodbye would be easy but in reality it is anything but. I have made some great friends here, I have experienced that shattering of cultural misconceptions and false stereotypes of the French who have been open and kind to me so often. My best friends here have been German and they are some of the kindest and sincere people I have ever met, I will miss them greatly. I have been blessed countless times by the people and have been carried in the hand of God who has guided my steps and blazed my trail. I could go on and on. But home and family calls me. I miss all of them and it will be fun to get to hang out with them all. I will be seeing a blazers game with Judah, making meals with Ashley, hanging out with my parents and speaking French to my Mom. I finally get to see Connor and hang out with him, God knows it has been way too long. Then the best part comes on the 28th and in February I will see the Winter Olympics. Life will go on and this experience will move into the past. But I will never forget it. It has changed me in the best way possible and I am so blessed and thankful for it.
And for all of you who prayed for me and asked about me and who have been reading this I would like to say a big thank you as well. God bless you for your curiosity and concern about my life, you are all blessings.
Well I am currently waiting on a 9 hour flight across the Atlantic, followed by a 3 hour wait in Philadelphia, a 5 hour flight to Salt Lake City, a one hour wait there, and lastly a 2 hour flight into PDX. It will be a long day but that's the way these things begin and end. When I finally made it to Lyon in August I was literally shaking with fatigue, now I will still be tired but if I will be relieved to be home.
So this is the last post in what has been a blog full of great memories and great experiences. If you enjoyed reading this blog even a fraction of how much I enjoyed living it out then you have some idea of the joy I have experienced over here. Until next time..à la prochaine.

Paris and the end of 2009

For the end of the year I decided to go visit Paris for a couple days to see the sights that I hadn't yet seen as well as create a memorable bookend for 2009. My original plan was to spend three days and two nights but since there were absolutely no openings in any hostel for the night of the 31st, I decided to spend only two days there. Leaving Chambéry at 5:30 in the morning was a challenge and before I knew it I had fallen asleep and was waking up three hours later as the train pulled into Paris' "Gare de Lyon". First things first, I spoke with the ticket counter to get my return ticket moved up one day. Next I went to the tourist information center and bought a Paris Museum Pass which saved me alot of money on Museum entry fees and automatically moved me to the front of the line for entrance into most of them (all for just 30 euros!). With those two tasks out of the way I descended into the underbelly of the city to take the metro to my first destination, the Louvre (see above). I won't try to describe the Louvre to you here aside from mentioning its overwhelming immensity. I will tell you that it was an amazing experience for me. Having taken three years of art history classes in high school, going to the Louvre was an experience which "a bouclé" ("capped off" or "brought full circle" in French) my understanding and study of art history. My favorite work of art here was easily the "Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace" (above), one of the most famous statues in all of history. You make think that this headless figure is just another "headless-figure" which hair-splitting art historians have somehow deemed incredible (as I first did when I studied it in high school). But until you face it in person yourself, you will never fully recognize the existence of the life still strugging to wrench itself free from its stone cage. The beauty will floor you... period. Throughout the rest of the Louvre (which itself is an incredible building rivaling any I had previously seen) were scattered more famous works of art, most famously Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", including the one you see here on the left entitled, "Liberty Leading the People" or "La Marseillaise".
Well after somewhere between three and four hours of walking through this goliath of a museum, being overwhelmed by the incredible amounts of crowding people, and developing some merciless hunger pangs, I decided to leave the Louvre. From the famous glass pyramid at the museums entrance I walked down through the Tuileries (famous French gardens) and visited the "Orangerie" where I saw Claude Monet's famous "Water Lillies" paintings. From here I took a walk through the city to a little street called "Rue Cler" which exemplifies the best of what outdoor market shopping in Paris has to offer. There were so many brightly colored fruits and vegetables filling the stands which lined the street, not to mention the vast array of cheeses whose odor was very overpowering. The rest of my day consisted of walking the streets of Paris, enjoying the sights and sounds and just taking it all in. When I finally headed back to my hostel I had an interesting run in with some potential pick-pockets who, thank the Lord, were unsuccessful in their attempts to steal from me (this experience heightened my awareness for suspicious activity and helped me be aware enough the next day to prevent a man from getting his wallet stolen on the metro, although it earned me a new understanding for Arabic curse words).
New Years I woke up and left my hostel early in the morning and took the metro out to the famous Chateau de Versailles, palace of the Sun King Louis XIV. The inside was incredible (see the famous Hall of Mirrors here on the left) but after seeing many of the chateaux of the Loire Valley it was not as interesting to me as the gardens outside. Versailles is incredibly vast and the gardens stretch on forever. There is not much I can really say about them except that wandering through them was my favorite experience in Paris, most of which has to do with my love for nature and landscaping experience. Here are some more pictures from the grounds (the Grand Canal that you see stretching into the distance in the second photo is over one mile long!). From Versailles I went back into the heart of Paris to visit the Musée d'Orsay, the city's second most famous art museum that is actually housed in what used to be a train station. It houses many of the most famous impressionist masterpieces in the world. Daylight was running out however and since the museum was closing early due to it being New Years Eve I left for the Montmartre district. As I made the way up Paris' highest hill I saw that the fog had rolled into the city making it nearly impossible even to see the Eiffel Tower, glittering lights and all. I did get to see Paris' second most famous church though, the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. This basilica is made out of locally quarried travertine stone, which constantly exudes calcite, thus ensuring that the exterior of the building remains white, even despite age and pollution.
Well, as you can imagine, after 11 days of traveling around Italy followed by two days in Paris I was ready to get home and get some rest. So I spent New Years Eve riding the train back to Chambery but it was not a sad thing in the least. I am so thankful for all that I have gotten to see and accomplish this year in Europe and not only that but looking back to all the things that have happened in my life this year, I am amazed and can easily say that 2009 has been the most fulfilling and rewarding year of my life to this point. May (not the month) 2010 be just as life-changing and rewarding!

Venice and the Return Home: Days 10 and 11

After a long and restless night spent with five others in the car (not a sleeper car) of a night train bound for Venice we arrived ready for the final leg of the journey. There is not alot to say about what we did in Venice for in reality we did not do much besides walk around the city. That is not to say that Venice was not amazing. The charm of the town was apparent immediately as we wound our way through the never ending maze of streets and passageways that comprise the city. The canals and waterways that wove through the islands were marked by hundreds of arched bridges and the morning sky was gorgeous. We went to see the Academia here as well which houses the finest collection of art in Venice. For me, Venice is a one-day experience, exploring the island in a relaxed manner and enjoying time near the salty ocean.

The evening was especially gorgeous as the sun set over the neighboring islands. After buying a giant pizza for dinner that cost us a mere 7 euro, we waited for our 9:30 train at the station. This train brought us to Milan at midnight and we spent the night in the Milan train station, an experience I would never care to repeat again in my entire life. There was no heated waiting room in the station so we were forced to stay awake with our things for 8 hours in freezing temperatures until our morning train to Geneva, concluding an amazing voyage.

Rome: Days 7, 8, and 9

After enjoying the Uffizi earlier that morning, we took a train to Rome and checked into our hostel right away. The hostel was close to the train station and brand new (and when I mean brand new I mean you could smell fresh paint on the walls and they were in the midst of constructing lockers when we arrived). That evening was in fact Christmas Eve and so we had the opportunity to take in the Christmas Eve Mass ceremony at the Vatican (photo on right). I have to admit here that the ceremony itself was was quite dull and boring, doing little to hold my interest save for when a lady breached the security barrier around the Pope, knocking him over. Leaving the Vatican was an adventure in its own right as we made our way through the swarms of mass-goers we finally found the most crowded bus in the history of mankind to take us back to the train station. That night we watched its a wonderful life while eating panettone, an Italian Christmas cake.
On Christmas day we slept in for a long time and finally got out of the hostel to walk around the city. It was amazing to see how many ruins could be seen everywhere somehow finding the ability to integrate harmoniously with the modern parts of the city. The real treat came when we climbed to the top of a hill in a nearby park and were able to see this amazing sunset set the backdrop for the Coliseum (left). We walked around the Coliseum and then through more ruins, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Trajan's column/forum, etc. It was really amazing to get a feel for a city with such a rich and ancient history that still is so blatantly evident today. That night we had made dinner reservations at a little restaurant not far from the Pantheon. While we enjoyed yet another great Italian meal there we met a group of Americans, all pilots and flight attendants for American Airlines, who were spending a layover in Rome. To show just how small this world really is one of the pilots was from a small town called Loon Lake that is not far from Spokane. When we told him we went to Whitworth he had nothing but praise for the school and invited us to come visit him sometime. It is truly amazing who you can run into, even on the other side of the Atlantic!
The next day in Rome was not nearly as pleasant as Christmas day. First of all we were met with very unpleasant driving rain that lasted throughout the day and soaked us through and through. We were able to go back to the Vatican City and tour St. Peter's Basilica (you can see the view from the top in the photo below) which was amazing. But after this our luck began to run out.
The Vatican museum ended up being closed due to the fact that in Italy the day after Christmas is also considered a holiday (who knew?) so I was not able to see Michelangelo's Sistene Chapel which was a real bummer. Also the Pantheon ended up being closed as well. After seeing the Trevi fountain and the well-known "Spanish Steps" we trekked back to the train station where we were met with an even more serious dilemma, all the trains back to Chambéry/Lyon from Italy were booked until the 4th of January. After some quick research and creative thinking we came up with a round-about way to get back home. We would take a train from Italy to Geneva, Switzerland, and from there we would return to France. That night we left Rome on a night train bound for Venice, the final city of our journey.

Florence: Days 4,5, and 6

What a city! Florence was amazing from the very beginning. After leaving our backpacks in our hostel we headed out to explore the city beginning with the Duomo. The exterior of this church is covered in pink, green, and white marble and quite the spectacle. The interior was rather empty, save for a magnificent dome (designed by Filippo Brunelleschi). From here we continued to explore the city at nighttime. I had my first roasted chestnuts and an amazing gelato (Italy’s best is found in Florence). That night we ate an amazing Italian meal. Patrick’s uncle had directed us to a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that he recommended higher than any other in all of Europe. Here we enjoyed four courses, an appetizer (I had a local type of salami), a pasta dish (tortellini in a wonderful meat sauce), the main course (a ½ kilo steak), and dessert (local dwarf strawberries with cream and sugar and a scrumptious meringue pie). At the end of the meal we had amassed a 108 € bill (that is $150 folks!) but since we had both been given Christmas money for this very purpose I was not at all regretful and the meal turned out to be one of the most amazing I have ever had.

Day 2 in was a blast as well. We were able to walk around the city some more and see it in the daylight and also climb the many stairs to the Piazzale Michelangelo and a beautiful panorama over the city of Florence. Then we made our way across town to the Academia where I saw my favorite work of art, Michelangelo’s sculptural masterpiece, David. We concluded that night with some gelato from Florence’s highest acclaimed gelateria, Vivoli’s.

Our last day in Florence was a short one. We got up early in the morning to get over the Uffizi Gallery, one of Europe’s most famous art museums. After our quick tour we headed straight for the “stazione” where we hurriedly boarded our train for ROMA! (with some Italian gusto).

Pisa: Day 4

We came to Pisa for the sole purpose of seeing its famous Leaning Tower. However we arrived there in a bit of a quandary, we had no place to spend the night. With nothing but an address of a possible location that I had spied out online the night before, we set off in search of beds for the night. We passed by the Leaning Tower, all lit up in the night sky, and then found the hostel. Once again God blessed us mightily! There was a room open for us and for less than we had anticipated. Although it was freezing cold in the room we were able to buy a pizza a bring it back to the room and then eat it while watching Home Alone 2, just one of the few Christmas-themed movies that I had brought for us to watch. The next day we got a late start but had ample time to see the Leaning Tower and its neighboring cathedral (which was stunning!). Walking back to the train station we enjoyed a wonderful Italian pastry before being whisked away to Florence!

Cinque Terre - The Italian Coast: Day 3

To reach the Italian coastal towns that make up the Cinque Terre, Pat and I woke up at 3:45 am (after only 2 hours of sleep) to make the 45-minute walk to the train station where we caught another 5-hour train. When we pulled into the tiny town of Monterosso we were glad to have warmer weather but disappointed to be greeted with rain. Caught in a downpour for which we were ill prepared (no umbrellas or ponchos), we sought refuge in a small café in the center of town. Here we finally had some breakfast and I tried Italian hot chocolate (basically liquid chocolate) (here also we were finally able to get some cash with our debit cards). When the rain died down, we began our hike to Vernazza, the second of 5 consecutive seaside villages. The views we saw here were absolutely incredible. Far beneath us the Mediterranean stretched into a mass of ominous grey rainclouds and the sight was unforgettable. The sea pounded against the coast, unleashing its blue-green rage in majestic fashion and we were stunned and amazed. The towns we visited along the coast were quaint and small and as it grew dark we left the Italian coast for Pisa.

Torino: Day 2

The temperature in Torino was even colder than in Milan, a chilly -10° C. It took about an hour and a half to walk to our hostel (which misinformed us over the internet that it was located near the “stazione”). Upon our arrival we stored our big packs and ventured out to explore the city. Braving the cold we wandered the surprisingly organized and grid-like streets of Torino (I have never seen a more organized city in all of Europe, it felt very American). There were multiple Christmas markets open throughout the city and whole streets were closed off to traffic to facilitate shopping, the unofficial pastime of the Italian nation. During these first two days we were faced with a fairly grave problem…the aforementioned lack of cash. Without cash it was practically impossible to buy any sort of cheap meal so we were forced to eat very little during these first two days. The real highlight of our time in Torino came that night when we were searching for a restaurant that would accept cards. Thinking we had finally found one in “L’Obelix” we set off. The philosophy of this restaurant was to have each customer buy a drink for 9€ and then have unlimited access to a diverse buffet. Patrick and I had ordered our mojitos before we found out that they did not accept cards. I went back out into the cold to try and get some cash but once again was thwarted at every attempt. When I returned empty-handed the bartender decided to give us each a free meal! It was so good and we were so blessed to have full stomachs once again. This meal was definitely one of the highlights of the trip

Milan: Day 1

After a gorgeous 4-hour train ride that brought us across the Franco-Italian border and through the Alps we arrived in Milan. As I stepped off the train the air was sucked out of my lungs as a rush of freezing cold air hit me. Here was Milan, the so-called commercial capital of Italy. We purchased some 24-hour metro passes and headed toward the commercial center. Emerging from the underground we found ourselves in a huge square completely decked out for Christmas. On one end of the square was the Duomo of Milan, one of the largest cathedrals in the world. A Christmas concert was in full swing on another side and a huge shopping center formed a third side of the square. Rarely have I ever been as cold as I was walking around Milan that afternoon/evening. We checked into our hostel later that evening, lucking out on the fact that we had just enough cash to pay for it (no cards accepted, we literally only had cents left). After exploring the city that evening we came back to the hostel, bought pizzas (our first meal in 12 hours) and made ready to leave early the next morning for Torino.

Christmas Break Excursion to Italy

The following posts will concern my Christmas break trip to Italy with my friend Patrick Yoho. Unlike our bike trip around France in October, we had very little of our trip scripted before we left. The only thing that we really knew was the order of the cities we wanted to visit and so this resulted in last minute train and hostel bookings, including a night in Pisa where we basically showed up to a hostel with our fingers crossed that there would be room (luckily it was Pisa so the answer to our question was "yes"). We suffered no negative effects from this freestyle approach and making plans as we went was quite liberating...at least until we got to Rome. Here we tried to buy a ticket home to France from Venice only to find out that all trains to France were booked through the 4th of January. In a panic we researched every other mode of transportation, air travel, bus travel, even the cost of renting a car (an astonishing 1000 euros for a simple 3 hour drive...since we were crossing borders). The only way we found to get back was by taking a train to Geneva, Switzerland and another from there back into France, a trip that cost us easily 50 euros more than if we had caught our desired train from Venice. Another problem that plagued us for the first few days was the fact that in northern Italy (Milan and Torino) weather problems had interrupted the telephone/internet connection between the ATM's and headquarters of our bank. Because of this we had no way to get cash for the first two days of the trip which led to a variety of misadventures and two starving travelers.
Ok so that is some background and general information for you. I have divided the trip up into seperate entries according to the cities we visited rather than by creating one giant entry for the whole trip as I did for the France tour. I hope this makes it easier to read. Also I am going to be writing less and posting more pictures. This will please both your eyes and help me get these posts up quicker :). Ok well here it goes, I hope you enjoy hearing about it all. Comment and tell me what you think!

Snowboarding in the Alps

Well my friends. My time here is drawing to a close in about three weeks and so now I begin to wrap this blog up as well. However a description of my time here in France would not be complete if I did not include an entry on skiing/snowboarding in the Alps. Snowboarding, as many of you may know, is one of my bigger passions in life. I love riding in the mountains, all alone or with friends, through powder fields where I can pick my own fresh line, go "off-piste", and enjoy the silence that accompanies fresh powder. So being able to ride in the Alps is essentially a dream come true for me. The first time came at the beginning of November at Tignes, a resort about 2 hours from Chambéry. It was very chilly and the wind threatened to render all of my outerwear quite useless but it didn't take long for the sun to come out and then the weather is what any skier/snowboarder wishes for...sunny and clear with nothing but bluebird skies. It was still very early in the season so there was not an abundance of snow but being high in the Alps was absolutely unreal.
The next adventure in the Alps came the weekend before Christmas break at a world-renowned resort called Courchevel. This place was incredible! It is part of the famed "Trois Vallées" (the 3 valleys) which together boast 183 total lifts that range from giant, 40-person cable cars to 8 person, high-speed gondolas, regular open-air high speed lifts and drags. This weekend was sponsored by my school and was for students who wanted to learn to ski or snowboard. Since I have always wanted to learn to ski, I plunked down the 80 euros it cost for round-trip transportation, four hot meals, and a two day pass, rented some skis, and went to tackle the mountain. I had to admit I was quite nervous about skiing for the first time but that came mostly because I thought it would be relatively simple to learn and was worried I was underestimating the difficulty. Fortunately I was able to learn easily right off the bat and since bombing down the mountain on a snowboard isn't all that foreign to me, I found myself itching to open up the throttle on some of the runs. The weekend was great and we couldn't have asked for better weather. The views of the Alps were breathtaking, I have never been in the midst of such giants. I can't wait for January 9 and 16...I already have plans to go up again then!

And finally, on a parting note, even though I am a snowboarder, I really loved skiing as well and so I am excited to pursue both of them.