Excurion Un.

Okay.... So, Friday August 29th was our first Field Trip!! We went and saw two different churches. One, Saint Bertrand de Comminges: the Roman city and the gothic cathedral and two, Saint Just de Valcabrere: the romanesque basilica. These churches were a little over two hours away. Down by the Mountain range that borders France and Spain. We got to see those too!! The architecture of these churches/cathedrals is truly amazing. With all the designs and small detail, you could stare at each part of the church for hours.. It makes you curious to all the thoughts and time that was put into everything from the alters, to the door ways, to the tombs. There is just sooo much. here are a few of the better pictures taken on our first field trip....

In the background, the mountains in the distance

are the ones that border Spain and France!

Saint Just de Valcabrere
(That's Gerry, our french teacher!! woops!)

Saint Bertrand de Comminges.

Here was an image of Jesus, 3 wise men to the left, bishop on the right,
12 apostles below. This was the architecture above the entrance.

Stained Glass Windows..

This was the choir where the noblemen
& important people sat for mass

Here is a tomb of a bishop.. If you look at his robe, you can tell when
designing this, they designed it so that he looked as if he
were standing (the way the creases are in his robe!)

This was the alter inside of the choir

Well, now you have a little bit of an idea of some what we are beginning to see!! There were tombs on the outside of the churches (basically put into the walls). That were in Greek writings, I believe and were dated back to the 1300's!!

It's amazing.. We have another trip, only an hour away, Monday September 1st!! I'll be sure to add more pictures of it :)

a little bit of this, a little bit of that..

Let me begin by telling you.. there is sooo much more that I can only hope to mention in these blogs and to tell you about!!

Let's go back to the beginning....



The privileges of being the only girl: bathroom ALL to myself! haha I have two toilets, three sinks, and two showers; one of which is just too big! haha.

Tim calls me the Princess. haha :)

Most hallways and some rooms have automatic lights! It's pretty neat. We have a maid that comes 3 times a week. She's soo nice too! She straightens everything up in our rooms & makes our beds perfect for us!

Well, if anyone I've worked with this past summer in Raymond hall could tell you I'm not a large eater.. oh has that changed!! We eat soooooo much here! I'm learning how to cook as well. That is always a good thing to know how to do! :)

I did my laundry for the first time tonight by myself!! haha I better get use to this!! Dad would be proud :)

This journey has taught me so much, and to think...it has only begun!

what a work out!

the bottom of our mountain!

Okay.. so to begin I'm nooottttt athletic AT ALL. I'm completely out of shape!! Well. I can truly say I am looking forward to these few months of outdoor activities and loosing weight! Today, we woke up around 8:00 am and went for a walk down to the village and back. You've seen the pictures of the monestary...to get back up here, stinks! Then we went for a bike ride this afternoon and even got to play some tennis!! My goal is to be able to ride my bike up the hill to the monestary. I'm about 1/8 of the way there, now! haha then I have to walk the rest of the way!

haha i tried!

& this would be the guys...

Well, anyways! We were coming back from the Tennis courts today and ran into Tim. The news paper people where there and we got to be interviewed! Everything was in French, but we got our first chance to be tested on our knowledge! I must say this isn't easy. I've never had any French course throughout high school so this is all new to me. We gather at night and do our homework together and the boys help me. I appreciate it more than they know.

So, the only real class we had these past two days is our French class. I must say Gerry is one of the best professors I've had. Gerry, his wife, Olga, and their 2 month old son Daniel live here with us in the monestary! It's very exciting. Olga is so fun to be around. She is fluent in Russian and French. She does well on her English. She is soo nice to me and looks out for me. :) She told me the other day since her and I are the only girls here we can have girl talk!! I will be looking forward to this soon! Being stuck with these 3 boys is quite a hoot!

Today Tim's daughters and their grandparents came. The one is 8 and the other is 13. (OH! ps. I can count to 20 now in French!) But.... The 8 year old puts me in mind of my little sister. I miss her soooo much. His 13 year old is 6' tall!! I look younger than her!! haha

Well there is soo much to write about and it's getting too late. I'll update you guys with more exciting news soon! :)

"Neva" vs "Water"

Well, the beginning of our day began going to church. The church is right beside us! It was a very nice mass, there was a baptism today as well. It was rather confusing because EVERYTHING was in French! AH! When we first walked in the priest asked us our names; I messed this part up completely!! I think I ended up saying "I love to call myself Lindsay" No wonder he was so confused with me!! He gave up and moved on to the boys. hahaha.

Me & John Ready to Hit the Town :)Albi, France

Well then most of our afternoon was spent in our bedrooms. We didn't do much, at all. Then this evening Tim took us out to Albi. A young British girl, around the age of 15 was at the Bar BBQ last night. This was very convenient for me! (A girl who speaks english?! yessss!) I asked Tim if she could spend this evening with us! Oh we enjoyed her accent too much. After Jim played 20 questions with her, he learned his favorite word she says is "Neva." Within 5 minutes she said "Neva" at least 20 times.This is my British friend, Maddy :)

Oh, Jim had her going! I had to ask her what was the weirdest word we said, being American, compared to her. She said "Water." Well this word is quite the word because John says it silly because of his New Jersey accent! But the British say "Wata." This was an eventful evening, we went and got Pizza & Salads. I forgot to mention in my last blog that Wine is served with EVERY meal. After walking around Albi for a few minutes to find the Pizza shop and get a brief view of the Cathedral, we headed back into the car. Then went to another part of Albi to watch fireworks! There was a little festival going on. We stopped down and the boys played a game where they had to punch a punching bag to see how hard they could hit. We went up to the remains of a castle to walked around. Jim tried to walk up to the caslte ruins when three French guys started yelling at him MISTER MISTER! The fireworks were set up right there! So, we ended up watching the fireworks real real close :) The ashes fell on us after going off, is how close we were.

Here is a picture of the Cathedral in Albi.

Well, I will write more tomorrow. First class begins at 10 am :)

Indescribable.

Okay. First off, let me begin by describing what I was thinking... What was I thinking?!! Going away for 4 months with 3 guys!? Ah! To be quite honest with you, I think it will be one trip I will never forget. I know today is only the second day, but we all get along very well.

To begin. Leaving Pittsburgh oooohh bboy. Good-Bye's are never easy. Leaving behind my mom, sister, and boyfriend (Kyle) at the airport was very hard. A lot of tears were involved, but we all know this is a journey that has been put in my path for a reason. I'm strong enough to do this and was meant to do this for a reason. Leaving Pittsburgh was not soo bad. We sat around for a few hours, grabbed a bite to eat and took off to Detroit. Here is where my trip began. Well, need I mention a few weeks ago Jim and I picked seats. Somehow, I was already booked on 39 B so he picked 39 A. After arriving to Detroit, and the boys playing golf. Jim and I go to our gate and Teddy goes to his. He was on a flight that left 25 minutes before mine and Jim's. Well it was near 8:15 so I thought I should start calling my parents and saying my last good bye, in America [ on my own cell phone, need I mention ] -- any of you who know me, know that is is attached, ALL the time! Well, I call my dad first and he mentions my flight leaves at 8:55. I was like oh, no I don't leave until 9:20. He's like "No, Linds you leave at 8:55." I glanced down at my boarding pass and sure enough. I was at the wrong gate. I was suppose to be on the flight with Teddy!! Now, by this point I'm 30 plus gates away and they are loading onto the plane now! I had two carry on's and one was wayyy to heavy for me! But, sure enough I made it. I was one of the last three to board the plane! Not my ideal way of starting my trip.

Well we reach Amsterdam. The planes were pretty cool. We each had a screen in front of us and one up by the bathrooms that showed were we were at all times. Well, I remember looking at seeing we were about to touch the ocean!! I started watching "Over The Hedge" and fell asleep. By the time we woke up, we weren't too far away from land....on the other side! I slept almost the whole way across! I went to the bathroom several times looking for Teddy to tell him I was on his flight; however, I never found him

I was unsure where to go in Amsterdam and what to do. I knew I had4 hours before my next flight. With no idea where Teddy might be, I ventured off and tried things myself. I printed out a self service tab which told me what gate I needed to be. When approaching customs, sure enough, Teddy was only a few people in front of me. Me and my big mouth started yelling "TEDDY! TEDDY!!" He turned around and I said " I WAS ON YOUR FLIGHT!" Well, this made me feel a whoooooole lot better. I wasn't by myself anymore! After finishing customs and all that fun stuff we walked down to our gate. Strangely, it was on the bottom floor. We sat there for a minute and decided to go sit at a cafe type place and wait to find Jim. Oh sure be it. There he comes, not ten minutes later. And again, my big mouth "JIM! JIM! JIM!" He heard me, alright. And there we were, all together again.

We flew from Amsterdam to the Southern Part of France. All of our Luggage was there and Tim was there to pick us up!

Our trip has been amazing so far!!

Today we got up, had lunch and went on a walk. We walked up a mountain, basically, to the remains of an old castle. chances to do so!

The views around here are marvelous. Amazing. Words simply cannot describe them.












A lot of walking for someone like me who is compleeetteelllyyyyyy out of shape! I stood ontop of a 3 foot wide platform on top of a mountain! I'm touugghh, duh! ;) I hope to conquer my fears of heights while I'm here. I have a lot of chances to overcome this, here.














Here is a picture of the monestary we will be in for the next 4 months!! ( way on top of the hill!! )

















We went to a bar bbq tonight. Everyone spoke English. They were all soo warm hearted and kind. Kissing on the cheek is normal around here, something new I must get use to!

Well it's wayyy too late and I need sleep. We are going to church tomorrow around 11.


so long for noww :)



( Me & The Boys ! )