that week i fell in love with a country

Eek, finally updating on the rest of my time in Scotland!

Well morning after a great night meeting Sarah’s friends, we decided to do something with our day & hiked up to the National Wallace Monument.

“Standing high above the fields where William Wallace led his troops to victory at The Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 is The National Wallace Monument, a magnificent tribute to Scotland’s famous patriot and martyr.” –Brochure from the visitors office

The hike up was really pretty, moss covering the trees & peeks of the monument through the woods. There was a beautiful view of Stirling from the bottom of the monument, but the vista from the top was unreal. There were 3 floors of exhibits: the first detailing William Wallace’s life & Scotland/England at the time, the second with busts of famous Scotsmen & some quotes that made me wish I was Scottish, and the third with pictures of other Wallace monuments over the UK & even in NYC! The stairs up were classic medieval/just really old – tiny spiral staircase the entire way up with little window slits so you could see how far off the ground you were. Not the most pleasant of experience if you’re a bit wary of small spaces & heights. The top was worth it though, and I can imagine how much more beautiful the view would be with a snow dusting across the hills or in the summer with a clear blue sky.

from the very bottom of the hill

Peek of the Wallace Monument on our way up!

Nîmes-ers in Scotland - Freedooommmm!!!

some great quotes that made me wish I was Scottish

Gorgeous hills

:)

To follow that, we went home & cozied up to a fire & Braveheart! I’d never seen it before, but seeing it that day in Scotland – ha by the end I was desperate to be Scottish! Similar patriotism comes from seeing The Patriot for us Americans :)  And yes, I know that much of it is not historically accurate, but still a great story & movie. Sarah’s dad was hilarious, he kept coming in to quote the lines…about 15 seconds ahead.

The next day we were off to be super-tourists with a full day in Edinburgh. It’s only about an hour train ride, so we got there around 10am. Walked from the train station up the hill to the Royal Mile, ducked into Starbucks so Marshel could buy an Edinburgh mug, and then went to a museum called the Camera Obscura. “Enjoy the fascinating Camera Obscura Show, fantastic views of Edinburgh, and three galleries packed full of an amazing range of optical experiences which have been amusing visitors of all ages and nationalities since 1853!” It was funny, full of pictures and fun optical illusions...we felt like kids & it was great! After that we got a bit more serious & walked up to Edinburgh Castle for a tour. To read more check out the fab Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Castle

Here are some pics:

3 in a row?! Just had to!

Edinburgh Castle

In the Camera Obscura Museum

Castle

Mons Meg - Huge cannon

After the Castle we wandered the Royal Mile for awhile longer, stopped into the Childhood Museum (bunches of old toys), & then trained back to Stirling.

I. Love. Edinburgh. Classy, historic, cultural, beautiful, old & fashionable.

The boys left to return to London that night, and Sarah & I watched Love Actually. Hooray for Christmas in the UK!

Thursday was great! My aunt’s friend lives in Elie, Scotland (in Fife) & he volunteered to pick me up & take me around to see a different part of the country. My choice – St. Andrews! I wanted to see the Old Course in particular, but we also got to go into the British Golf Museum, see the Cathedral, part of the University, & walked around the town a bit. Lunch was delicious, some of the best food I’ve had in the UK! Unfortunately my memory is a bit fuzzy & I don’t recall what the name of the place was. Here’s a bit of St. Andrews though:

Old Course!

The North Sea!

By the time we got back to the car it was getting dark, so we weren’t able to make any major stops in the villages back to Elie. We did drive through a couple really cute fishing, coastal villages. During the summer the population over there expands with all the tourists flowing through for the beaches & seafood. Speaking of which, when we got back to Elie we swung through the house for a bit, went to a tiny pub for dinner where I had the best fish n chips of my LIFE. Perfection, the fish was. I also tried a Scottish beer, called Tartan, which was pretty good. Oh & the drive to & from Stirling was absolutely stunning. Rolling hills, green countryside, occasional cliffs or peeks at the beach, small villages, old manors and estates, grazing sheep…turns out Scotland is more beautiful than I imagined.

I got back to Stirling in the morning & did some skyping before Sarah & I started getting ready for a classy night out in Edinburgh! The four of us (Sarah, her boyfriend, his friend & me) went to an amazing dinner at The Outsider followed by drinks at The Dome (equivalent of The Drake in Chicago) before heading home. Even more love for Edinburgh after that!

The next day was……CHRISTMAS EVE!!! Of course it was very strange not to be home, but I couldn’t have been in a better place in Europe for the holidays. We made cookies, listened to Christmas music most of the day, watched the Michael Bublé special, went to a church service at a Catholic Church that Mr. Philliben goes to & went to dinner at an Italian restaurant that Mr. & Mrs. Philliben have been going to for nearly 30 years now!! & then of course came CHRISTMAS! Pretty traditional day: wake up, open presents, have a lovely breakfast, see family & more family, back to the house to prepare for dinner (I skyped with some of my family & friends), fam hang out, dinner, games, bed! It was nice to meet more of Sarah’s family, and I had a few amusing conversations about Chicago & America with her grandpa & her young cousin. The cousin started imitating my accent once we became friends (she was about 9), veeeerrry funny for me. She was cute though, and I realized I missed my kiddies back in France! Boxing Day came next, my last (for now) day in Scotland :( Most of it was spent packing, hanging out in pajamas, and then going to a bar with some of Sarah’s friends.

Overall, if you can’t tell, I had an amazing time in Scotland & am itching to get back once it starts to warm up a bit. I want to go to some of the lochs & up into the highlands, as well as see more of Glasgow & Edinburgh. I loved England, but after only a little over a week, Scotland is just as much a favorite country as England. Guess the UK is just making all sorts of great impressions! Next stop – Ireland!

Currently I am safely in Paris with Lauren & Swags for New Years (!!!!!). Will update once we get back to Nîmes! 

Lots of love!

Freeeedooommm!!!!!

I’m in Scotland! And, surprisesurprise, I am loving this country & these people :) For those of you who don’t know, I’m spending Christmas in Scotland with my friend Sarah this year since I can’t go home (too expensive). M, C, Anna, Sarah & I all flew from Nîmes to London Luton on Friday night, then Sarah & I flew up to Glasgow early Saturday morning. There we were greeted by snow on the ground & her mom & dad!! They were so funny, had signs saying “Sarah Philliben” and “Audrey Wood” for us at arrivals. The snow was lovely to see while touching down, but it didn’t extend from Glasgow to Stirling. Oh, here’s a map of Scotland!

I flew into Glasgow, it was about a 45 minute drive over to Stirling (home of the Wallace Monument). Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland, with Edinburgh and Aberdeen following. Saturday was pretty chill, had a lovely breakfast at Sarah’s & chatted with the fam before going for a quick haircut. Then – YAY – got to have coffee with two Kappa sisters :D Amy & Brenna, it was sooo good to see you two! Brenna was studying abroad in Stirling this past semester & Amy is doing grad school in Aberdeen. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching Christmas movies, hanging out in front of a cozy fire, & going to bed early. Sunday we went into Edinburgh to meet a few of her friends for the German Christmas Market, some shopping, and a late lunch.

Ice Skating Rink in Edinburgh!

after lunch

It was freezing there & I was a bit sick, so round 2 of Edinburgh (a few days later) was a lot better. Still, loved getting to meet some of her friends & lunch was really nice! Monday morning we met M & C at the station, they came up from Surrey for a few days to visit us & see a bit of Scotland. It was nice to have some more Nîmes-ers around! This was another lazy day in front of the fire since the boys were exhausted from a night of bus travel up the UK. Aaand Monday night – huge party at Sarah’s with most of her high school friends! I loved meeting all her friends, the accents throughout the room, great chats about Scotland & the States, and we all had a fun night out. Made me miss my own “prom group” reunions that we have every winter break back in Evanston! I’ll end with that for now, will update on our more cultural/touristy outings tomorrow.

Lots of love from Scotland xoxo

Lyon ~ La Fête des Lumières

I hadn’t heard of this festival until I got to France, but I’m so happy I did because it is magnificent! I’d say it was the best travel experience I’ve had so far in Europe this year. The weekend went smoothly, no travel hiccups whatsoever (a first)! Melissa (who I went on the roadtrip with) and I booked train tickets about a month and a half ago after we were able to find a few couchsurfing options. Since we both have Monday off, we decided to make it a long weekend – arriving in Lyon at 4:30 on Friday & leaving Lyon at 2:30 on Monday. Melissa’s friend, M (who went to Clemson!...like my brother Ben for those of you that don’t know), was able to join us for Friday night. We rode 1^st class on the way up because it was only  2 more, turns out there’s not much a difference between the two classes (slightly disappointing). Train ride was nice, I love watching the countryside change from the dry, brownish south to lush green hills further north. When we arrived our couchsurfer, C, wasn’t ready for us to come up yet so we went to a nearby café for… du café. It was nice chatting for a few hours, I hadn’t spent much time with M before this weekend & loved getting to know her! We then searched out the bus up to C’s – turns out Lyon has a tram/bus combo…they’re electric but have wheels instead of tracks. Haha our driver on the way up was awful, he kept stalling the tram/bus and it took about twice as long as it usually did. We arrived at her apartment in one piece & all (her boyfriend, N, was with us for the weekend as well) chatted a bit before mapping out a plan to see the light exhibits. Oh! Ok in English the festival is called the “festival of lights”. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but turns out its about 50+ light exhibits all over the city. The center, the varying neighborhoods, and even into the suburbs a bit. Since M was only going to be with us on Friday night, we decided to do the center lights…with about 30 to see! The 5 of us took the metro to the north side of the center & started the lights-viewing! There were so many exhibits…so I won’t describe all of them. The atmosphere the entire night was perfection, and soo much fun! Millions of people view the lights, and most of the streets are flooded with people drinking vin chaud (hot, spiced wine)or snacking on freshly-made crêpes, churros, or some lyonnaise specialties. In addition to the light exhibits, there are Christmas lights up everywhere! Streets are lit in various ways (glowing lanterns, butterflies, colored lights, white lights, sparkling lights…), bars & cafés & vin chaud stands are around every corner, and everyone in the city is out. Here are some of my favorites:

 For dinner we ate a Lyonnaise specialty - potatos, cheese, sausage stew-thing. Definitely heavier than most food you see in Nîmes, but perfect for a cold night of walking. The vin chaud is, of course, the best I’ve had (much better than what I had in Bath). But France does wine right, all the time :) We made it back to C’s house around 1am, after walking since about 7pm! Needless to say, I slept incredibly well that night.

We slept in until around 10, and were greeted with a lovely breakfast from our hosts! Toast with all the possible toppings (nutella, honey from the south, framboise jam, fromage blanc) delicious green tea with a hint of chocolate, & orange juice. Hung out for awhile, then got our things in order & went back into town for the one thing you MUST do in Lyon – eating at a bouchon. A bouchon is a type of restaurant in Lyon that serves traditional lyonnaise cuisine, often serving dishes focused on meat. We went for a late lunch to a bouchon called Abel that C recommended. 

Melissa, me & M after lunch!

It. Was. Excellent. We stayed for 2 ½ hours, like proper French women & enjoyed every minute of it. The building is really old, with gorgeous wooden walls & paneling, old photos and paintings. I started with a Lyonnaise salad, then had __ & finished with a caramel crème brulée. Mmm. We also ordered a pot du vin, and since our waiter forgot our aperitifs – he gave us each a glass of champagne to replace the aperitif! & it was delicious, expensive champagne! When we finally emerged from the bouchon, we started the long trek up to the Basilica on top of a huge hill. Stairsstairsstairs. The views were worth the trek, as was the Basilica! Here are some photos:

After we admired the view for awhile, we made our way inside the basilica where there was a service going on. Candles were lit for Mary "Merci Marie", since the festivals’ history is religious as a thank you to Mary.

 It’s a beautiful church and I enjoyed sitting & listening to a bit of the service (en français, bien sûr). M then had to start heading down to catch her train, so we all walked down back to the center & Melissa and I saw her off in le place du Bellecour (HUGE square on the lower end of the center, with a ferris wheel & a statue of Louis XIV). Since Melissa and I had no set plans after that, we decided to just wander the streets of Lyon for a second time. We revisited some of our favorite displays, and saw a couple new ones. I liked the “Luminous Seaweed” exhibit on the banks of the Rhone River :)

Sunday morning we, again, slept in a bit and then went to find a museum. Decided to start with the Gadagne Museum that had the history of Lyon & puppets, and then if we had time we’d continue on to the Musée des Beaux Arts. Turns out, the Gadagne was free for us AND there was an exhibition on the history of gastronomy in Lyon. Also, the history took over an hour to get through…it was interesting, but definitely overkill. So we emerged from the Gadagne thoroughly done with museums for the day – and starving. The Gadagne is in Vieux Lyon, and we wandered the skinny streets until we came upon:

 We got a meal of that, a sausage, salad & vin chaud…mmmmm. Walked around a little more & then went back up to C’s to prep for an America party! Our hosts had traveled to America this past summer & wanted to have a few of their friends over to share their pictures & some of the food they brought back. “American” food consisted of: PB&J sandwiches, pigs in a blanket with BBQ sauce, raw veggies with homemade ranch dressing (didn’t taste like ranch, but good!), s’mores, red velvet cupcakes Melissa & I made, Reese’s cups, Jello, and mac n’ cheese! We had some funny conversations about America & it was a good night!

Monday was relatively unexciting, we decided to sleep in & hang out till the train back. A nice relaxing day, ending with lesson planning back at home before bed.

The rest of this past week was busy! Teaching Christmas, packing, prepping for Scotland & Paris, & cleaning.

I’m now in Scotland, but will do a separate post about that!

bisous

pictures from england!

[*Oops just realized I had already posted pics from England, haha. Sorry for the repetition!]

View of Bath :)

ASE - my academic home for a semester!

the Abbey & Bath Christmas Market

Bath Abbey

some of Bath's best

So lucky to have lived here for a semester! & to have returned 2 years later! 

julia child - you inspire me (should have posted last week)

Fantastic weekend! (Dec 2/3/4) On Saturday I went to les Halles with M, searching out bacon (not as easy as you’d think), chicken, & veggies for coq au vin! M & I wanted to cook something fabulous, challenging, and French. So – we look to Julia Child – who else?! I wish I had her cookbook here with me, but I can’t imagine lugging that home with me in May. While at the market we got to talking to one of the meat men about America, France, Paris v Rome for vacations…he had a friend that went to Wooster! Such a small world sometimes.

The dinner was a smashing success, here’s the recipe we used:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/12/magnificence-au-vin/

Note for next time: get the broth with reduced sodium, it was a bit salty, but other than that it was absolute perfection. Mmmm the onions and the mushrooms…just wow. Cannot rave enough about it! So now I am a bit obsessed & bought the movie Julie & Julia on iTunes & have been looking up more of her recipes to try.

Monday was pretty chill, went to the gym with A & then went over to S’s to do a practice round of sugar cookies (YUM). Haha we had quite the time making shapes with no cookie cutters. Some of our creations: funky Christmas trees, a heart, a wreath, Jesus in a cradle, an angel, C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S, a crooked wine glass, and a grumpy snowman.

Tuesday I was back in school, after nearly two weeks gone with Thanksgiving & strep. I taught family, and had the kids do family trees. In hindsight, I probably could have thought of a less-complicated activity with all of the varying types of families…but after presenting their tree I think all of the students know the main vocabulary (brother, sister, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, family) and presenting phrases (This is me.; This is my…). It was not the best day of work, the kids were especially roudy & one of my teachers was in an awful mood. Oh well!

Tuesday after dinner S came over for some wine & we hung out with A & her friend in from Montpellier for the night. A bunch of us went up on the Ferris Wheel next to the arena, the view of the city was so pretty with all of the Christmas lights that are up! Wednesday – Secret Santa shopping with S! The crew of 8 of us decided at last week’s Christmas party to do a Secret Santa for this week’s Christmas fete. Yes, we have had a Christmas party every Thursday in December. It’s fabulous, but definitely still doesn’t feel like Christmas…it’s still 50 degrees here! We shopped, had lots of successes, and went to my official favorite place for a coffee in Nîmes. It is the cutest boulangerie/patisserie in the city (in my opinion)…it’s feminine with a huge mirrored wall, only 8 or so tables, and has a full counter of chocolates on one side & baked goods on the other. I got the “Gourmand” which is a little coffee, the tarte of the day (lemon meringue), a macaroon of your choosing, and a small chocolate for the finish. Mmmmm.

Thursday - teaching! Had the kids present their family trees & then we started on clothing for the older ones and faces for CP. 

*Will post about this past weekend in Lyon later tonight or tomorrow! 

xoxo

american strep v. french strep

England did me in! Due to being sick, I didn’t end up working at all this week. Thursday I finally went to a doctor here, after I called in sick again to both of my schools & emailed Gilles, our main contact here with the program. He recommended a few doctors and I chose one the closest (just around the corner from my place). Some interesting tidbits about life here in France:

-       Doctors have their offices in normal looking apartment buildings. All over the city.

-       Most consultations range between 20 and 25 Euros.

-       They don’t do that awful throat swab for a strep test! Or mine was just so bad it was obvious…

-       The French LOVE their dissolvable pills. I got 3 different types of pills to take, tallying up to 9 per day, 5 of which are dissolvable. And no, they do not taste good.

-       All of these pills were only 20 Euros

-       I will be reimbursed for all of this when I get my social security number!

Overall, certainly a different experience than it would be in America. But as of today I can swallow without immense pain, so whatever works!

In other news, Happy Fireside to Kappa’s back at Denison! L&L

Today I slept in, finally cleaned my room, made a weekend to-do list (necessary steps to feeling fully recovered), hung out with A a bit, and then went for a movie with some friends. We saw “Intouchables”, a French film that was amazing. To be honest, I understood about 50% of the language, but as it’s a movie I understood the whole plot by the end. Cried a bit (surprisesurprise), laughed a lot, learned a bit more French, and am really looking forward to seeing more French films in the future. We then went out for a drink (of course which I did not partake in) & dinner at a crêperie! Yumm.

Tomorrow: gym with Anna, les halles with Melissa to prep for a big cooking day on Sunday & potentially buying a winter coat to better prepare for the winter weather I’ll encounter in Scotland & Paris.

& I'll leave you with some Frost :)

Bisous!