[mood| Lazy] [music|Bastogne- Band of Brothers miniseries ]
I've been on a bit of an LJ hiatus because last week I was on holidays. Yes, again. Just 3 weeks or so after my last vacation. This is the part of the French uni system I like :D I'm always so slow at uploading photos because my posts are often massive and it takes so long. Brargh! So, my moment of genius this evening was to do picture posts for each day of our trip, it'll be much easier.
[mood| Frustrated] [music|Crossroads, Band of Brothers ]
*sigh* Livejournal just ate my entire entry. Today's not my day. Last night I was awake until 7 am because I couldn't sleep and then woke up again at 10 am. So now it's 5:20 pm and I'm yawning like crazy but somehow unable to nap. Sleep =/= my friend right now.
[mood| Christmas-y] [music| Liam Neeson on Sesame Street! ]
I got a Christmas card from Florrie today! It really made my day and it's so prettiful! I have it hanging on my wall. Now it's up with Aunt Marg & Uncle Jim, Grandma and Carolyn & Dave's cards.
I decorated my apartment today when I got home. It's now pretty festive! (And I'm up again!)
I've finally got my hands on the Il Divo Live at the Greek DVD (my friend Jen still owns my soul with her fantabulousness) and finally found Siempre. My Divo-related emoness has now pretty much evaporated, so everyone can stop hiding under their desks ;)
-- Last night we headed to Jen's for a movie night in her new residence in town, instead of out in Bourget where she was all alone. Martin, Jenny, Jen, Lauren, Sally, Sanni and I watched Johnny English and had a good laugh. John Malkovich should stop playing with accents. I really hope that was supposed to be an extremely exaggerated French accent. And why do they insist that female spy characters wear stiletto-heeled boots? You can't run or fight [realistically] in them, it just looks ridiculous.
-- Today Sally and I worked on our Greek history presentation for Friday before we headed out to hunt trompe l'oeils for a couple of hours.
I have a gajillion more photos to make into posts, but right now I'm going to make some popcorn on the stove (best kind!) and finally watch my Il Divo DVD.
Hey guys! I'm finally not being a weenie and catching up on posting my photos from my Toussaint vacation. Here in France there are the Vacances de Toussaint which are a week long over the week of Hallowe'en. Sally, Lauren and I went to Bern, Venice and Italy. I'm posting my Bern photos tonight. It's 12:40 and I should be going to bed, but I want to put these up first!
I tried to make a DVD last night with all of my photos on it but for some reason it wasn't working, so I'm trying something else. I've compressed my photos in their folders and set them up for you to download. From there just unzip them and delete after viewing or burn them all onto a cd, whatever works for you. The download links are valid for one week, so if you click and they're expired, just drop me a line and I'll re-upload them for you!
Video files should be at the bottom of each folder and they open in Windows Media Player.
Hey everybody! I'm in Batiment 23 with my laptop and hopefully I uploading some photos. Sally, Lauren and I went to Turin, Italy, yesterday! Sort of a random day trip with nothing planned, no special must-sees or anything.
We arrived in Turin and realized that um, none of us can speak any Italian (well, I know all of Il Divo's Italian songs by heart, but I don't think that counts...) and I only had 57 centimes in my pocket. That's right, I went to a foreign city with only 57 cents to my name. *kick French bank* And I came out alive and full of pizza at the end of the day. Lauren 1, Italy 0!
I'm sitting in Batiment 23 with my laptop right now since they have wireless internet. I couldn't get it to work earlier but then an awesome German exchange student named Martin helped me and fixed it, so now I can post some photos! It's 4:40 pm right now and I'm not sure how long the building's going to be open, so I'm just posting the photos with where they were taken and a couple of details instead of a huge story (I can see you rolling your eyes at me, Dad!) I'm starting with all my Chambery photos instead of Grenoble (where I stayed first) because I'm dying to show you where I live.
It's 5:20 and I'm famished, so I'm going to walk back home and grab some supper. I've run out of baguette to make a sandwich but luckily there's a bakery on either side of the residence, so I can grab something there. I'll bring my laptop back to campus again tomorrow and post more photos!
I`m sitting in my university`s computer lab right now trying to figure out the strange keyboard. Half the keys aren`t in "the right place" so it takes a couple of tries to get words right. Hopefully I`ll have internet in my residence soon so I can upload all my photos and little videos. Today we have an appointment to set up our bank accounts and once we fill those up then we`ll call France Telecom. (We`ve been saving our money to buy food.)
I`ve been keeping a written journal fairly faithfully, so I need to type up those entries and post them on here with all the photos when I can. Can you see my little icon for this entry? We had lunch in front of the fountain the other day, but I have bigger clearer pictures of it.
It`s really amazing here and I don`t think it has really sunk in yet. It`s almost like British Columbia and the Sound of Music were put in a French blender. But with more shutters on every window. I`m completely surrounded by mountains on all sides and I practically have to climb one to get to get to class every day. I`ve met two great new people in our residence, Valerie from Queen`s and Brian from New Mexico. The 5 of us (Lauren + Sally) have been figuring things out together and it`s just great. No roommate yet, I don`t think she`ll move in for another 2 weeks maybe.
In other news, I am completely and terribly addicted to Nutella. It should be its own food group! It`s especially good in crepes or on brioche, which I think is like an egg bread. But I`m still eating good and fairly balanced meals everyday (Mum!) There is a massive market every Saturday that`s pretty cheap (a head of lettuce, 4 tomatoes, a kilogram of carrots, a kilogram of peaches, and a cucumber for 4€! And you can buy a bottle of fresh apple or grape juice, like 2 or 3L for 1€50) I can buy a whole cooked chicken for a decent price, but I`m going to rent a little oven for 15€ and cook my own.
I`ll post again soon with proper news, hopefully with pictures to show you all! Take care of yourselves. I love you all very very much and I miss you.
Love, Lauren
P.S. At the end of every entry I make on here there`s a little "Post comment" link, so if you want we can chat using that too!
P.P.S. A few quick things I`ve found to be different here than in Canada: - you buy milk off a shelf, it`s not refrigerated until you open it. And most people here like it room temp anyways. My roomate`s going to think I`m a little odd from the get-go. Cold milk? Qu`est-ce que cèst? - Mustard comes in little glass jars. Mayonnaise comes in tubes. - It`s common to see everyone (businessmen, old women, students) walking down the street with a fresh baguette. - I live on the 4th floor in residence, at home it would be the 5th because we count the ground floor as "1", here it`s 0. - Plain yogurt is sugared, which can be a little odd if you`re not expecting it. - Everything is closed for lunch, generally 12-2. Everything! (Except for lunch places, but other than that!)
[mood| Relaxed] [music|Pour Que Tu M'aimes Encore- Il Divo ]
I've found more Chambéry info and a bunch of the different museums and galleries have free admission days! Musée des Beaux Arts, you will be seeing me every 1st Sunday of the month! *is excited*
[mood| So light] [music|Di rigori armato il seno- Der Rosenkavalier- Plácido Domingo ]
Dear Lauren:
I am pleased to inform that you have been nominated to participate in the Guelph/Universite de Savoie, Chambery Exchange Program for the Fall 2006 and Winter 2007 semester(s).
YES!!!
They told us we'd hear back in early March, the language evaluations were due on the 3rd (Friday), and I got the e-mail at 10:45 am this morning. That's as early March as you're going to get!
Now I just need the final letter of acceptance from l'Université de Savoie, which is practically done already, and then to pick my courses! I'm so close! Lauren³ is going to Europe! All 3 of us got our nominations! And Sally too! *dances*
Looking at the map of Chambéry, all of their major roads are named for people and they're all so long. Rue J.J. Rousseau (roundabout), Rue V. Hugo, Rue St. François de Sales, Quai Sénateur A. Borrel (ok, that one's not really a road, per se). And we have the Musée des Beaux Arts! (Oh, look at that, it's "we" already.)
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laurens_travels's journal
