France

Pictures I edited :]

2008-12-14T16:33:00.006-05:00

Ahh. A picture of the fields, on a beautiful day in France.

Our Animals :) Well... The dog is here to stay. She was Tim's daughter's in Lyon.
But, she was living in an apartment and the monastery has so much more room for her to run! Speedy. hehe.
Well, he is somewhere! He was a nice pet for 10 minutes :)
Blanket is our goat that eats the grass so we don't have to cut it!! :) She's finally doing her job.

This feels like it was soooo long ago!! It was our first day here!!

We're going to be friends forever guys, so get use to it now!

Just some silly pictures of us throughout our time here :)

This was in the Princess' house. Just sitting on a couch. It was cool there
because although everything had the same historic story to it that all museums have;
it wasn't a museum so we could actually touch things and sit down! Kinda cool!

This was while we were waiting to go see the Pope!

This was all at the Princess' Palace in Rome.
THANK YOU FATHER JOHN!!!

This was a few nights ago.. Our way back from Lourdes we stopped and ate at Peter and Margret's house.
They are seriously the nicest British couple that you will EVER meet!!

haha, this was a night in Paris at the Metro Station.

... just over the months :]

GIRLS!!! :) :)

What a group you guys are. I'll miss you all <3
Calins et Bisous!

This is Lucie. She's probably one of those girls I'll keep in touch with...FOREVER!! She's soo soo sooo nice!!! I think she was one of the ones I got along with the most. I'm praying she gets to make her way to the States, soon. :D
If not... I'll be back here to visit her for suureee :D

This is Duygu (pronounce: Do-You-Go....real, fast!) She's from Turkey and is also studying in France but for a full year. She lived in MA and has family in NJ. She's coming this summer!! ROADD TRIPPP!! :D

Haha, This is Christiane. Again, she is one of the ones I clicked with the most. The first night we went out... (the first time I ever met her), she was the most welcoming and really made me feel...comfortable. I needed money, and never meeting her before, she put her coat on and took me to the ATM. :) Then. We were discussing what we liked to drink. Neither of us like beer, but the bar had a sweet beer. She liked it, so she got it and let me have a sip to see if I wanted it or not. In the meantime, she is ordering in for me and helping me since I didn't speak French. I'm really going to miss her <3 But she is planning on doing a year or so in the U.S. She'll be kinda like a nanny for a family with children. Let's pray she comes to Pennsylvania! :D

This is Laurence. She has a big test on December 20th.. then, she'll know if she is coming to SAINT FRANCIS!! NEXT FALL!! WOO HOO!! GOOD GOOD GOOD LUCKK!!! <3

GROS BISOUS (big kisses) from Christiane and Lucie!! :)

haha. I'm going to miss these girls tooo much <3
They learned a 'goofy-face' pretty well!

Friends Forever :)

Almost Time...

2008-12-14T16:19:00.004-05:00

Well, it is 10:20 pm here, Sunday December 14th. Sure enough we will be leaving in a matter of hours. We plan to hit the road by 4:30am, Monday December 15th. 6 short hours. Then, begins another journey of our trip back home. Sitting in the airport with Jim and Teddy, with the same feelings of sadness and excitement...but this time, we will be going the opposite way. Teddy left today for Paris. We will meet up with him in the Paris airport for our flight overseas. I cannot believe our time here is coming to an end. Looking back on everything we've done and how much we have grown..

I want to say 'thank you.' Thank you to all of you for supporting me through these four months of my life. Thank you to all the new people I have met and have welcomed me into their country. Thank you to Tim for being understanding that I am the only girl, for always giving us a good laugh, and for being so open to us and making us feel at home. Thank you to Gerry for always putting a smile on our faces and really making us feel as though we were apart of your family. I want to thank my parents for being the biggest supporters of all... and a biiigg thank you to my boyfriend who has stuck beside me through everything.

It's been a blessing. I really don't know how else to describe it to you. I can't put into words all of the things I have done. I am looking forward to showing you pictures and telling you about different places and of different stories... But over all, the biggest blessing is this journey has allowed me to become the woman I have grown to be.

I must be going now... I will let you know about our travels back to the U.S.
Can't wait to see you all soon <3 <3

God Bless.

Our journey is coming to an end...

2008-12-13T08:47:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a busy day for all of us. The packing has begun. This morning ta 4:30.. Jim, Teddy, and myself woke up to say our final good-bye to John. Sure enough, he is on his way to the States. He should have left Paris by now and be in the air.

This trip has truly been one of the biggest blessings in my life. I cannot express to you how grateful I am to have had this experience. As our time is coming to an end, we are all a little sad but cannot be more excited to reunite with family and friends.

Tomorrow Teddy is leaving Le Prieure around 12pm. Jim and I will go to church in the morning, Teddy will join us to say his final good byes to our friends we've made there. He will stay in Paris for the evening and join back up with us on Monday. Jim and I are leaving Le Prieure around 5am Monday morning... It's coming fast.

For the most part, we are all packed and getting ready for our departure. My suitcases and carry-on's are heavy! Our checked luggage is allowed to be 23kg. Right now I have one suitcase at 21 and one at 18. The only problem, is the one at 18kg can't fit anything else! I literally had to sit ontop of it to close it!! haha. I still have a few more things that need packed. Fortunetly, for me, Jim has a few pounds to spare (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU). I will place a few articles of clothing on the top of his bag and be able to take it out at the Pittsburgh airport and home with me... It was extremely nice of him to consider me and help me out.

Well, this is all for now... Gerry and Olga are in Albi. So today is literally me Jim and Teddy. We've spent the past hour and a half down stairs talking. It has been a nice day so far.. There isn't too much else going on. Well I'm going to go enjoy a nice hot shower (I'll tell ya...I'm really going to miss this shower!) I think I've mentioned before, my shower itself is the size of some small bathrooms at home! My shower is in one of the towers! It's pretty cool and I'm going to miss it! haha.

Well I hope you have a great day and a wonderful week... guess what!
I'LL SEE YOU SOON : )

It's never 'good-bye.' It's always 'see you later.'

2008-12-12T15:25:00.008-05:00

Well...simply put "it is never goodbye, it is always see you later." And I cannot be more sure that I will see these friends later on in life. Although it took so long to meet them and finally make plans. The best nights we had were always with them. The girls here (and the guys) have been soo welcoming and so nice to hang out with us on some evenings. Saying bye at tex mex was hard. It is this little bar that is right across the university of Albi (where all of these pictures were taken). It was a great evening. Kisses and hugs were everything this night. I couldn't help but start crying. These girls have truly made our study abroad trip wonderful. We couldn't have found a better group of students our age to get to know. Some plan to come to the United States within the next few years. I can only hope they are near Pennsylvania... the road trip would be so worth it! I am positive, in the near future I will be back to this part of France. I would love to come see what this program has become in 3 or 4 years. And see France all over again. I know...that when I return, I will be visiting these girls. Thank God for facebook...we will be able to keep in touch regularly.. Here are some photos of our last night with them (December 10, 2008) .... <3

Lourdes & dinner :)

2008-12-08T18:13:00.002-05:00

So we made our last trip as a group together. It was a 3 hour car ride but so worth it. Gerry took us to Lourdes today. Boy was it amazing!! You could just feel the energy when you reached the town. The city itself was beautiful. Along with the basilicas. John, Teddy, Gerry, and myself got a 'bath' there. Where you are cleansed with the holy way from the Spring of which the Virgin Mary appeared. There were two lines: girls & guys. Of course, the girls like was 3 times as long as the boys! From the time I got in line, I was there for at least 3 hours from the beginning until after my bath. They say miracles occur by, doing what Bernadette did whenever the Virgin Mary appeared and drinking the water and splashing your face. Another step is the bath in which we had. It was a great experience! Here are some pictures of the town. I do not know how much you know about Lourdes; but I recommend looking up the story :)

Here are two basilicas that are literally placed on top of each other!

Here are people (one the left) gathered to see the Shrine and where the spring began..
Further ahead is where the bathhouses were.

Where the Virgin Mary appeared, multiple times.

and the spring that began because of her appearance..

Finally, here is a picture of Peter, Margaret. We had dinner with them this evening after we arrived
back into Ambialet. They are truly, the nicest couple I've ever met.
God Bless Them Always. Thank you so much for everything :)

ah... less than two weeks! already

2008-12-02T19:05:00.002-05:00

So. I cannot believe how fast our time here is going!

We had our presentations last night which went great!! They were all very interesting topics and a lot of information! After words, we sat around with Tim enjoying the last night here with him. We drank champagne and reminisced of our journeys from Paris to Spain. It has been quite an adventure. Through all the laughs and arguments. It was fun to sit down and talk about them..

As 2:00 approached this afternoon, it was time for Tim to leave. Our last hugs, and good byes with him. Although we have not sat in a classroom with him for hours on end, he has truly taught us all so much information that we will forever carry with us. We all wish him a safe trip back to the United States and a wonderful holiday. So, Tim....as the French would say.. "Bon voyage!" :) :)

Tomorrow we will help Gerry get settled into his new house. We will have dinner in Albi and met up with our friends, again! :) I will keep you posted throughout these next few days :) Take care!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEXI!

2008-12-02T11:48:00.002-05:00

Okay Okay, so I know this is suppose to be about France. But this is my little sister's first birthday that I have missed. And she is turning 10!! AHH!!! So.. I wanted to dedicated a post just for her.. telling her
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" I love you Lexi, so so so much!!

100 days in!

2008-11-30T17:41:00.003-05:00

Well here we are.. Day 100! Do you know what that means?! There are only 15 days left! Wow. Where has the time gone? Looking back over the last 3 months. I can't believe the things we have done, the places we have seen, and the people we have met. This journey in my life has truly been one of the largest blessings.

As the days go by, I am realizing how these strangers, turned to friends; and these friends, turned to family. We say our first 'good-bye' on Tuesday. Tim is departing and heading back to the States. It'll be hard.. and weird in a way. We've said by to him a few times.. it'll take a few days to realize he won't be coming back while we are here..

These next two week will be full of emotions... between all the excitement of going home and see my family and boyfriend ... to saying bye to people who mean so much.

I guess tonight it is starting to click on how fast these next 15 days are going to go.. I started packing a suitcase the other day... wow.

It feels like just yesterday I was coming home from work (the Phone Program at SFU) and telling my dad "I think I'm going to France." Never thought I would really do it.. I think it started out more as a joke. But...sure enough here I am.. and almost time to go home..

I'll keep you guys posted on our last few days here. Lately we have been working on an Economic project for Tim. We will present our power points tomorrow at 3:00! Wish us all luck! :) :)

Well, I'm going to head to bed now..
good night :)

Thanksgiving 2008. :)

2008-11-29T07:10:00.007-05:00

Okay... So Thanksgiving this year was a little different... for all of us. Although we were not able to spend it with our friends and family back home; we were able to spend it with new friends, neighbors, and people who turned into family. It was truly a Thanksgiving I will always remember. The day began around 3pm and we didn't get to bed until near 4am! What a day.. Let me take you through it with some pictures & details.. Hope your Thanksgiving was truly as great as ours :)

First it all began when students from a near-by town (Gaillac) came. They attend a school of wine. They will be in the wine business, one day. Most of them were our age. They gave a presentation on wine and we ended up having a wine tasting! It was a lot of fun. We, also, gave a presentation on the wine exports and imports in the U.S. and in Pennsylvania.

Here is a picture of all the wine students & us American students :)

The two guys are professors from Giallac and that's Sandrine in the middle, one of our professors :)

White Wine Vs. Red Wine!

Here is the table!!!

Everyone gathered around as Gerry gave a speech.

We had around 40 people here. As you can see, everyone is going to get food! We had 3 turkeys. Unfortunately, I did not partake on the turkey :( haha. But Tim did find me some meatballs! THANK YOU!! :) :) It was set up buffet style so everyone could help themselves. It really worked out perfectly!

Here are some of our neighbors and friends that we have met throughout the past 3 months.

Here are the Wine Students!

Our friends from Albi! We were so glad they could make it!! We had such a GREAT time!!
For some of them, this was their first Thanksgiving!

Ohhh me & Gerry :) We matched that night, yano! haha

Teddy A.K.A. the new James Blunt. He practiced all week preparing for this.. You did GREAT TEDDY!!!! :) :) :)

Nadine & the Mayor. He really enjoys playing that guitar. She basically had to force him to go home! He likes to play George Straight (famous country singer back home). Teddy knows all the words so they make a good pair! haha. When the Mayor sings, you would think he can speak English very well, but believe it or not...he doesn't! Nadine will speak a little English with us, but she likes to test us on our French when we go to her cafe and eat :)

Here, John, Peter, and Margret are singing Christmas carols. We explained to many of the French that right after Thanksgiving everyone starts to prepare for Christmas. The girls from Albi couldn't believe that! Some of the carols sounded familiar to them; but they have never heard them in English. It made for a good time and great conversation learning about both cultures :)

The Mayor playing..again! :) hehe. Along with Tim singing! :)

Two of the girls from Albi and a history student from Albi, as well, were singing some comman French songs.
All of you have great voices!!

hahaha. Jim carved a pumpkin and thought it would be fun to make it...his face!

They pick up on the "goofy face" pretty well ;) This is Sandra and Christiane. You girls are too much fun!

Here is a good one of me and all the girls. They stayed later...well, til 2:30am! We had a blast singing and just being silly! Here it is me, Christiane is on the floor. Marjolaine (spelling??) is beside me in the black shirt. Lucie is in the wayy back. Sandy is in the white shirt. And Sandra is on the far right. They are such a fun group of girls to hang out with! Sometimes they will start speaking French.. and when I don't understand I go "wait wait wait.. what did you say?" and they will translate everything for me :)

Me, the girls, Jim and John, and two boys who are studying history at the University of Albi
(which is the same school the girls go to).

This Thanksgiving has been one that will be remembered forever. It was such a great night of eating, laughing, singing, and being silly. Thank you all for attending and making it such a great day!!! :) :) Hope yours was just as great!

God Bless.. see you all soon!!

Jim's 20th birthday!

2008-11-19T18:37:00.003-05:00

Well Jim was lucky enough to spend his 20th birthday in Paris! We went to the Hard Rock Cafe to eat. And we went to a movie and saw the new James Bond movie! At the Hard Rock Cafe we told our waiter who was named "Home Boy" that it was Jim's birthday. He brought out the fellow workers and they all sang Happy Birthday.. they even got the whole Hard Rock Cafe to join in!! Here are a few pictures from Jim's birthday!

The Big 2-0!!

Albi. A night out with some girls :)

2008-11-19T18:08:00.002-05:00

Well.. I'm a little late on updating you. But I wanted to tell you about our night on the town in Albi. A few nights before we left for Paris we meet up with a few of the girls we had met at the University. Some of these girls are studying English. Basically that is their major. They all speak English quite well.. especially compared to our French! haha. A few of the girls we had met before, there were also a couple new ones. They are all so so nice. We will have them over and show them what a real thankgiving is like! We went to a bar and had a drink. Then we went out for ice cream.. here are a few pictures of our night!!!

Weekend in Spain!

2008-11-13T06:25:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures from our weekend in Spain!! :)

The first place we went to was Girona. Before entering the city you must kiss the lioness' butt..
we literally 'kissed-ass!' haha

We visited a class of Spanish students learning French. This made for some interesting conversations.
We were only allowed to speak French! In the picture above we were mingling around and talking
to different students; some had paper & were actually interviewing us!

After getting to know each other a little, we gave a presentation about the United States, Pennsylvania, and Saint Francis. Universities in the states are completely opposite than universities over in Europe. Dorms, sports, and activities are all different. It was nice to show them us. And then we were able to see where they were from and their area. Only downfall...everything was in French!! AH! I couldn't understand much of what they were telling us about...but I got the gist of it all :)

Later in the afternoon we went...KAYAKING! WOO HOO! haha.
As you can see we were all dressed appropriately.
With the coats, life vests, and boots. We were ready to hit the water!
I got a nice little wetsuit to keep me warm! I must admit it worked out very nicely!

Me & Jim...hittin' the river! I was waving 'good-bye.' A little farther down, I mentioned to Jim.. "I feel like a duck." Jim's response was... "Lindsay, YOU LOOK LIKE A DUCK!!" haha. Thanks Jim, Thankssss.

BARCELONA!! We went to the top of a cathedral. This is a picture overlooking the city. Beautiful!

Next was off to a Cathedral that is still being built today! After over a hundred years from when they started it, they still are not finished. This is no ordinary Cathedral by any means. If you look closely, you will notice there are no straight lines or right angels. Gaudi was the designer of this Cathedral & boy is it different!!

Here is the picture of the ceiling. The walk ways were pretty neat too.
As I previously mentioned; not too many striaght lines!!

The stained glass windows were really pretty. They were a different color than ordinary ones.

Okay.. Time for an exlanation. There was this crane going up. And while we were there we watched it from beginning 'til the end. This same piece in this picture, ended up being around 200 meters in the air!! It was remarkable!

Here is a statue of Christopher Columbus in Barcelona. He is pointing in the direction he traveled.

On our way back... Here are the Perenez Mountains.
They border Spain & France. That's snow on the tops of them!!

Here we are with a picture of US in the background. These are the signs to aware drivers what departments (cities) they will be arriving to. We are "Valley du tarn" (vally of the tarn). The Tarn is a river. Although this picture is far away, you are able to see the river, the town of Ambialet & most imporantly.. our monastery!! :)
[ps. My hair is a mess because I had been sleeping in a car for 2 hours!]

Gorgeous day in France!

Back to home. I must admit after spending so much time here and getting use to this place.
I can say, it truly feels like this place is home.. :)

Well our travels are coming near an end. We have one more left.. Paris AGAIN! :] We are leaving this Sunday (November 16th) for another 9 days. I will be sure to keep you posted on all that is going on!

Off again...!

2008-11-06T18:22:00.002-05:00

Well we can't get settled in and too comfortable! Sure enough tomorrow is Friday morning and we are off to Spain! AH! Tim, Gerry, Sandrine, John, Jim, Teddy, and I... in one car for 5 hours! haha this will be an exciting morning! Oh boy. We may be going kayaking for a day! As long as the weather permits and the water is well too. Today we made a presentation that the 4 of us will present to some on Sandrines students... but wait. There's a catch. We must do it in French. oh but wait wait wait a second! They don't speak English...at all! They are Spanish students who are at the levels we are in French! AH! haha this should be exciting! We will be gone Friday morning until Monday evening. I will update you guys next week before we leave for Paris!

Well there are a few things I want to update you on before we leave! We have a dog now, since we have been back from Paris and Rome. Her name is Brun. She is a chocolate lab and is too cute. She doesn't understand much English so we work on our French skills with her. :) Also, we have an oddly shaped back yard, which would require too much work to cut. So....instead of cutting the grass we have a goat!! Her name is Blanket... well in French you do not pronounce the t.. so no its not blanket haha. Gerry got a new car! It is very very nice. It is a van; with a DVD player, an adapter in which he can hook his phone up and can make calls, a navigation system. We'll be rollin' high class now! :) That's what I'm talking about haha. Also!! Best part... Gerry is moving to Albi!!!! He will no longer have his apartment in Paris. I'm so happy for him and Olga. This is an exciting time in there lives and will be so greatful for it as Daniel grows up. :)

Well I must be heading to bed now, it is late and it will be a busy busy weekend!

Take care and have a great weekend!! :) :) :)

I'll update you soon ;)

Continuing our Journey in Rome

2008-11-05T16:29:00.010-05:00

Well! Let me explain to you all of my pictures... These were taken throughout our entire stay in Rome.. :]

Me & The boys.... Day 2. Waiting outside Saint Peter's to go and see the Pope's Mass!! :)

The Pope during Mass.

We were really this close!! This isn't even zoomed!!

After Mass there were probably near 45,000 people! Waiting to see the Pope come out of the window in his office.

There he is... came out at 12:00, for 10 minutes!

This is the Trevy Fountain. Theory has it if you throw 3 coins in, you will return to Rome... Let's see if it works! :)

Day 5 we were apart of the Pope's audience. Father John got us VIP tickets; we were pretty close!

After seeing the Pope we went and met the Princess of Rome! :) She was very, very nice!

After meeting the Princess, we got to tour the Palace! This hall we are in in the picture above was actually the last scene of the movie "A Roman Holiday." A few days before visiting, we watched this movie.
It's pretty good; it is black and white- but I highly recommend it!

Me & Father John. He is the priest who helped us with everything in Rome. :) THANK YOU!

Considering the fact we are from Saint Francis University; we thought it was a must to go see Assisi!! :) Here it is!

"San Francesco" is Italian for Saint Francis. GORGEOUS! :)

I think this picture is just breath taking. Whenever we went inside to eat; it started raining...right as we came out to start walking and continue our journey through Assisi, the sun started shining and this is what it looked like!

The famous Colosseum.

Here is a picture of the church at the Catacombs of Saint Sebastian. We visited here on Halloween. The Catacombs were an underground place where all the tombs were stored. They had placed all of them outside of the city. However, the way the ground is, you cannot be inside the Catacombs for longer than 30 minutes in case in caves in.

Our last day in Rome, we visited a few places but saw so much.
Here is the holding cell "prison" of Peter and Paul.
The figure towards the left was where they were chained to.

Next we visited another church. Here Father John got us into an area only certain people are allowed.
If you look behind the figure of the Last Supper.
You can see the wood in the glass; this was the wood from the last supper table.

This and the next two pictures were all in one case. I wanted close ups and couldn't fit them in one picture. On the left is a nail that was used to hold Jesus to the cross. On the right is the original piece of wood that read "INRI."

In this cross are pieces of wood from the original cross that Jesus was hung on.

On the left is the doubting Thomas' finger. In the center is what was used to push the nails into Jesus.
Finally on the right are thorns that were in the Crown of Thorns.

To completely end our time in Rome, we had one lass mass over looking the Vatican at night... truly amazing.

I want to take a small section, and just say "thanks" to Father John who, without him, our trip would never have been so successful. Without him, we would have never experienced the opportunities we did, nor would we have learned all that we did.

I have many more pictures, if you are interested in seeing, let me know! I just found a few that I thought best showed our trip and journey through Rome.... hope you enjoyed looking at them.

God Bless.

I must catch you up!! :) :) :)

2008-11-05T13:03:00.004-05:00

I have oh so much to tell you!! First off, let me begin by explain why I haven't stayed updated lately!

We went to Rome from 10/24 - 11/2! Unfortunately, our apartment did not have internet access and we had to use public computers and internet to get on, so I was not able to upload pictures and we didn't get on for long when we were on..

Well anyways! John (one of the boys here with me) had his former youth group leader from high school studying in Rome! Father John. He is truly amazing. We were so blessed to have John introduce us to him. He helped us in so many ways. He got us tickets and guided tours, he personally hung out with us which was always a great time. Although he is a Catholic priest, he is not an ordinary one, that's for sure! He's probably 6'4", looks like a lineman, gels his hair, and is still pretty young! But boy did he have us busy!! Although our days consisted of waking up at 5am ( on our break!!! ) it was soooo worth it! I am probably going to use a few different blogs to show you pictures. I took so many!

Day 1: Boy was this a long day! We woke up around 5 and met Father John in the Vatican at 6:30!! We had our own private mass in the Vatican. There are small chapels that priests can give mass whenever they want. Very convenient! We saw all 8 apostles tombs who are in Rome....within one day!! One of Father John's friends (who is also studying here) didn't even know there were 8 in Rome!! haha. Well enough of me rambling on.. let me show you some pictures!! :) :) :)

Here it is... Saint Peters! The sky looks pretty cool :)

Here it is.. INSIDE!! Now I have some explaining to do...
This is the aisle the Pope walked down whenever we went to Mass on Sunday, first of all.
Secondly, Saint Peter's is approximately 2 football fields in length!!
Allsoooo! Do you see the letters that are under the window? They are 8 FEET HIGH!!

Here is the Dome inside! Father John told us you could fit the Statue of Liberty & the base inside of this dome!!

This is the Alter the Pope uses during Mass.

Here is the Cross that Pope John Paul the 2nd used!

Here is where Pope John Paul the 2nd would always kneel to pray.

I have many pictures...but here is one from the Vatican Gardens. They were absolutely gorgeous... and huge!!
They have trees from everywhere! They have their own Palm Trees for Palm Sunday.
The soil here is holy; therefore, anything can grow on it! Somewhere near by, must had Parrots...
well, they escaped and are now living in these gardens! There are tons of them now and a bunch of nests!!
It was pretty cool :)

Here is a picture of Saint Paul outside the Wall. This church was gorgeous inside.

We also visited another church and saw (inside the gold case) the actual Crib of Christ.
If you look closely, you can see the wood!

I'm not sure how many pictures this will hold...
so I'll start a new post with more pictures of throughout the week :) :) :)

Night Out! :]

2008-10-22T15:48:00.003-04:00

Me & John before we left :] Being silly!

1. We were trying to be tough guys.
2. I realized we looked like we could get a picture for a Christmas card. hahaha

CHEERS!

Me & my Tequila Sunrise. It was pretty :]

Teddy & I waiting for our food!! :]

Well as you can see from the photos above we had a good evening out! It was our first night on the town doing something besides touristy things! It was fun to sit down and have a drink. Need I mention, A drink haha. One of those sunrises were 8 Euros! I figured I'd have one, sip on it and call it a night. We ended up being back to FIAP (the university we are staying at) by 11-11:30 ish. We got some Nachos and just had a good time sitting around a table and talking! Maybe these boys are too bad, afterall :]

Well...that's not a decision I can make yet... I have to share a bathroom with them for 9 DAYS!!!! AHHH!!! haha.

Well today was a pretty calm day. I slept in until 12. Then I was having the craziest dreams I didn't even wanna sleep any longer! Plus, I figured by that point it was time I start my day.. I did some laundry and started some homework. Being Americans, we went to McDonalds (out of all places in Paris!) for lunch. haha. Their McDonald's in France are a lot nicer than at home! It doesn't feel like a "fast food restaurant." It was good though.

Umm.. So that was today. Tomorrow Gerry is picking us up at 9:30 here. He is driving, so I'm assuming where we are going is too far for the Metro / train. I'm not exactly sure what it is...guess we'll find out!! :]

Tomorrow will be a full day, then packing and guess what.. FRIDAY = ROME! already!!! I cannot believe it's here. Well I better get to bed early tonight next week is going to be crazy doing this and that! Saturday John says we have to be at a church by 6:50 AM! Oh boy this should be fun! haha. I'm looking forward to my travels to Rome... I may not be able to update my blogs daily as I have been privaledge enough to do so here in Paris. We rented an apartment for the week and will have to use an Internet Cafe to get online.. It shouldn't be too bad, but we'll wait and see what happens!!

Well have a good evening! I'll update you tomorrow!! :)

Oops! I skipped a day!

2008-10-21T18:05:00.004-04:00

haha. Okay well as I was reading over some of my previous blogs, I realized I forgot to tell you about yesterday.. our sixth day in Paris! Well we were orginally suppose to visit Versallise (which we ended up doing today). We went to the train station and stood in line to buy tickets. We glanced over and they were closed!! Of course, the only day..

So instead we just switched days and went to another church.. this one was called Montmartre I think.. ha, well that was the name of the museum.. and.. it was closed too!! AH! haha. So we ended up doing a lot of walking around; which wasn't a bad thing because it was an absolutely gorgeous day out in Paris!! Here are a few pictures of the church, it was beautiful.. It was in the Northern part of France and overlooked the city...

Rain, rain go away

2008-10-21T13:20:00.003-04:00

8:30 am comes way too fast! Going, going, going.. That's all we do here in Paris! I can't complain. I enjoy it more than sitting around bored out of my mind. The metro (like a subway) is PACKED with everyone going to work. Man oh man, you are squeezed so tight in there with so many people! Ugh!

Well anyways. We meet up with Gerry and headed off to Versailles. Wow! This place was huge! Gorgeous! It was King Louis XIII hunting lodge; King Louis XIV changed it into a central government palace. It was soooo big! There were beds and dinning room sets that were still on display, today! Then not too far away, the Queen had her get-a-way to stay away from all the visitors. Boy was this pretty! They still had, ducks, rabbits, swans, horses, cows, and chickens running around. It was a huge garden but was soo pretty! The only downfall to today was the rain. Everything was so muddy and dirty. YuCkK!

The Gold gate to enter the palace in Versailles. Here is where the saying came from something like...
"if you don't have bread, come eat cake."

Here was some of the houses for the Queens get-a-way.

We were really this close! I wanted to get down to see if I could pet it! BAD IDEA!
I put my foot down towards him: he hissed and opened his mouth. AH!
I freaked out and went back up away from him! haha

After that we had the option of going to the sites we were to visit tomorrow or head back to FIAP (the university that we are staying at). We chose to visit the sites this way tomorrow is a free day! WOO HOO!

Well we went to the Rodin Museum. Here were a bunch of sculptures on display. It was very interesting; again, would have been much more enjoyable if the weather was nicer. There were sculptures outside.

Where Nepolean is burried.

Then we were going to go to the place where Nepolean is burried; however, Gerry made a phone call and got us into meeting a sculptur[ist]...is that a word? haha. Well, he's a guy who does sculptures..by hand! He has the block and pounds away. He starts with a tree trunk and just goes to work! It is amazing!! He is 80 years old and is a survivor of the holocaust. His work is truly amazing. All four of us were in awe of seeing him at work.

Here he is...doing his work!

Well now that we have tomorrow's visits out of the way we are going out tonight and seeing Paris at night!!

catching up..

2008-10-19T17:10:00.004-04:00

So yesterday was full of excitement! Shopping with the girls was a blast! I have to explain to you this mall!! Well it's not even a mall; it is a department store. This department store takes up two city blocks!!! And has 3 buildings too it!! The one building is 7 stories high! It' is huge! The whole center of it is taken out so when you walk in you can see 5 floors! It is huge. One hour was just enough time to browse 6 floors, not look just see what is where. haha. It is wayyy overwhelming!

Soooo then I came back here got ready within 15 minutes. I was running a little late but made sure I was still ready to leave at 6:30.. I walk over to the boy's rome and they aren't ready!! They figured that I wasn't even back yet, so then I had to wait another 15 minutes. We hopped on the Metro, meet up with Jim's family and headed off to Gerry's!

Gerry's was great!! He sang and played the baby grand piano. It was soo much fun! After that we went to see Notre Dame all lit up at night!!

This morning we attended mass there at an International Mass. It was HUGE! We could barely see the priest up front! It was a great experience. There was a cardinal there. I'm not real sure who he was, but John was surprised he was here.

After that we visited a small museum. There were no specific works in this one that we were looking at, just browsing the whole thing.

Then souvenir shops! These were just along the roads, some nice little gifts we bought for our families.

We came back here ate dinner and were going to meet up with Jim & his family. He wasn't feeling too well, so I went to bed after dinner and got up and wanted to update you!! It was a nice few hours of extra sleep that was definitely needed!!

Well, tomorrow we don't have anything planned until 2:00 PM!! WOO HOO!! :) We are going to meet Gerry at his house and hop in his car and head to a monument. I forget how it's spelled, so I'm not even going to try! hah :)

Have a great night everyone! Sorry there were no pictures again, I forgot to download them onto my computer earlier! I will do that tomorrow!

God Bless.

PICTUREESS!!!

2008-10-19T11:36:00.006-04:00

gorgeous.

2008-10-18T04:37:00.004-04:00

Okay, Well I couldn't upload pictures. I've tried 3 times within last night and today. It continues to tell me "bad request." I don't know.. I'll try to get some up here as soon as I can. Yesterday was great!! As I mentioned we went to the Louvre and d'Orsay. Two large museums and beautiful museums. Umm.. After that we came back here, hung out and what not..

Then we meet up with Jim's mom, sister (Christine) , and sister's best friend (Leann). It was so nice to see them!! You could tell how excited Mrs. Ondesko was to see Jim! Well, we took some pictures of the Eiffel Tower.. As Leann said to me "You can't take too many pictures of it." And it's the truth, you really can't. They all look the same, maybe from a slightly different angle or something but.. it's just so beautiful, you can't get enough! We went and got something to eat. John was talking French like always.. and the waiter goes "Anglais?" YES! haha. We got an English menu.. and of course there were still questions of what everything was! hahah. How sad is that?! Well we went back to the Eiffel tower and it was lite up white!! We took more pictures and finally got in line.. WE'RE GOING UP!! AH! It was sooooo high up there. But the point and the over look of the city was amazing. Words nor pictures can begin to describe the view. (I did take pictures, I'll have to show you later!) Then we walked Jim's family back to their hotel. We wanted to make sure they found their way safely. They actually arne't too far away from us! It's even nicer that they are on the same metro that we are!! After that though, we came back here. It was a day FULL of walking! My legs were pretty tired! haha

I decided I wanted to sleep in today. So this morning the boys meet up with Mrs. Ondesko, Christine, and Leann at the Louvre and toured it again. I figured a few hours of extra sleep for me might be best! So, I wrote this for you ... and I'll hop the metro (BY MYSELF) and ride to meet up with them! I'm excited to finally do this myself! It's day time, so I'm not worried. Plus to get to the Louvre you only use only two metros. It's not bad at all! After I meet up with them we are going to grab lunch and me and the girls are going SHOPPING! FINALLY! GIRLS + SHOPPING = YESSSS :) haha. We will shop for a few hours and then head back. I'll make sure they get off at their metro and I'll come back here. We then have to get ready and out again! This time we are going to Gerry's apartment! He is having a bunch of people over, I believe including us & Jim's family, there will be around 20! I'm looking forward to this. Of course, it will be a normal "French dinner." So, with us arriving at 7, we probably won't be leaving until 12! haha. Well I better go get ready to leave soon!! I'm meeting up with everyone at 12:30, it's 11 now.. I want to ge ta few more things together and hit the metro up!! I'll write back tonight.. and hopefully upload some picturesss!!

Paris .. Day 3

2008-10-17T10:51:00.002-04:00

I will upload pictures tonight. I've figured out it's best to do it later then I can upload them all.

It seems like our days are pretty much planned out for the morning. We come back to Fiap and usually have dinner here. I sign on for a few then and will put a small detail about the day. Then we'll have dinner and go out for the night on the town! Checking out monuments and places we want to see (plus doing some shopping here and there ;]). But I'll add pictures at the end of every night!

So today we went to the Louvre & d'Orsay. Two museums full of wonderful arts. The paintings that can be found in them are breath taking. And truly amazing. The Louvre was HUGE! I mean HUUUGEE! Words cannot describe how big this building is.

We walked and walked and walked to find somewhere to eat during lunch. Around this area most of the restaurants are expensive or extremely busy. We ended up finding one and sitting outside to eat.

Gerry left us at the museum and we found our own way back here to Fiap.

We are meeting up with Jim's mom, sister, and sister's best friend here soon! So we must be getting ready and hitting the town! Tonight we are going to the top of the Eiffel tower and overlooking the city.. I'm so excited!! :)

Paris. Parisss!

2008-10-16T18:07:00.005-04:00

Well.. I had a few extra minutes so I thought I would show you guys a few pictures from today!

here we were standing on a bridge and were able to see
the Eiffel Tower on the right and the Statue of Liberty on the left!

Here is this gorgeous walkway I was describing earlier! :)

Today we learned why the Eiffel Tower was lit up in the color blue last night....
If you look closely there are 12 stars in a circle, and the blue was representing the European Union flag.

Here is the opera house.

Me & the boys at the metro ready to hit the town!

Strike a pose John!

Okay.. I have to explain this. This is the monument that Napoleon built and there are two unidentified soldiers buried here. Well we realized you had to get tickets to go. So we decided we weren't going to pay to go up.. we were just going to leave. Well John found stairs so we went up.. Jim mentions, "I may not know a lot of French, but I know that a red circle with a white line threw it means do not enter." Well turns out, we entered in the exit! So illegally!! OOOPS! We took a few pictures and I said lets get out of there. There were police and I'm not ready to be arrested in Paris! So we casually walked down the exit and left :) haha

Well this is it for now, bon nuit (good night!)

Paris.. Day 2!!

2008-10-16T12:23:00.002-04:00

Well, I didn't upload the pictures from today yet.. But I will do that soon!

Soo.. my morning started off kinda rough. I woke up an hour late! I wasn't late, I just didn't end up eating breakfast. Stupid me, last night, set my alarm for 7:00 PM!! Duh, Lindsay!

Well anyways we went walking around the city all day!! Wow, it was a long day. But it was soo much fun!!

We went on an island that many tourists do not see.. It was soo pretty.. the pathway had trees on each side of it. Their leaves were turning colors because of the season. There were rivers on each side of us and the Eiffel Tower was in view. It was absolutely gorgeous.

We went and saw the opera house today along with the story of Paris. We bought a CD for the computer that you can tour Paris on you're own. It's pretty cool!

Well I'm going to go eat now.. I'll update you guys soon!!! :) :)

Paris: Day 1! :)

2008-10-15T17:41:00.004-04:00

AHH! WE'RE HERE!! FINALLY! So the flight and day have been great!! I added a few pictures.. Well anyways.. I got a few of the Eiffel Tower up! Hope you like them, and I will add more soon!!

So MY DAY!: We flew here, the flight was pretty nice and wasn't much longer than an hour. Then we came here to the Fiat. It's an university. We meet a few American students who are from Chicago, they were soo nice!! We decided, since we had the night to ourselves to hop on the metro and go out! We saw Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower! It was definitely a great first night!

Well we have a really busy day tomorrow. We're touring the city by foot and checking out an opera house. I'll add more as I can. We'll be busy, so if they are short.. sorry!! I'll update you guys as soon as I can, promise! :)

God Bless You All.

Just a Monday... a little bit of here, a little bit of there!

2008-10-14T12:17:00.008-04:00

Okay.. well you give you a little information of the last Monday in Ambialet before we left for Paris!

First we went and visited a castle called "Chateu De Brousse." Unfortunately their hours had changed because the season changed and we didn't get to tour it, but looking at it from the outside was pretty cool!

Here was the stream that ran infront of the castle.

A door that was built in 1629 (if I remember correctly..)
It was only about 6' high. Tim couldn't fit in it!

Here is where the women did the laundry.

Here is a picture of the castle!! :)

Next.. we went to see the worlds largest bridge!

Amazing.

Getting closer!! Still HUGE!

The scenary below the bridge was gorgeous.

At this point, we were standing beside it.. It's seriously soo pretty. Breath taking.

Next on the agenda was to look at another castle!

Here was a smaller model of the castle and the wall surrounding it.
Basically it's a wall surrounding a small village. This is an excellet view to understand what it is.

Here is where we first walked in.. some of the buildings.

Some more..

... and again! :)

After this castle we went and saw a cave where cheese is made. Photo's were not allowed to be taken. But it was such a long process.. It was different.. It takes a few months to prepare the cheese in order to sale it.

Then we went back to Ambialet and started our packing and finishing papers. Soon..PARIS!! :)

I'm soooo excited & I just can't hidee itt =P

2008-10-13T15:04:00.002-04:00

:] :] :] :] <-- Basically describes my mood right now!!

It's a little after 9:00 on a Monday night here in Ambialet. I have pictures that I will have to post later on what all we did today! It's been an eventful day! Right now I SHOULLLDDD be working on a paper that is due... tomorrow! yikes! Well, technically it's not really. But I want to get it done tonight.

Well, anyways! I just can't focus.. because the next part of our journey is coming up..QUICK!

Wednesday, October 15th we are leaving Ambialet and flying out of Toulouse to Paris. We will be staying in an English-spoken University. The boys have to share a room, but I get one to myself :] hehe We will stay in Paris until October 24th. THEN!!

ROME HERE WE COME! We are flying to Rome! John should basically be a travel agent! He found an amazing aparment and airline so we aren't paying a lot of money! The apartment we ended up getting even has a taxi service that will pick us up at the airport and take us back! how cool! Well, Tim suggested we each pick a day in Rome and create it. Wednesday we are going to the Vatican and hopefully going to see the Pope. My day is Saturday (the second day there!) Well well well.. Since I'm the only girl, I HAD to make my day... SHOPPING! hehe :) John chose Assisi for his day; and I'm not quite sure about Teddy's or Jim's yet. But It should be a fun week!

We are flying out of Rome and back to Paris. We will stay at the University for one more night. Then November 3rd we fly back to Toulouse and coming home to Ambialet.

Well it doesn't stop there!

We are here from November 3rd until the 7th. Thennnn. We are going off to Spain with Sandrine and Gerry! WOO HOO! We are going to do a day trip to Barcelona and see all sorts of things! We will come back to Ambialet on either the 9th or 10th.

But way! Then we are in Ambialet until November 15th and Paris! HERE WE COME..agaaaiinn! We will stay in Paris for another 9 days. Finally coming back to Ambialet.

Although we have no other large excursions after that, we will have Thanksgiving. We have invited all different people to come to our feast! We want to show them what American meals are like :)

Well, I had to share all of this excitement with you! After all, I just can't focus on writing my paper :) figured I'd take a few minutes!

I'll keep you updated while all of my travels are occuring!! :)

University of Albi

2008-10-10T16:08:00.003-04:00

Well, we were able to finally go to the University of Albi on Monday, October 6th. We went to an English class. There were 18 girls! haha. The boys were in heaven! It was nice to be around some girls, finally! Their English was really good! Basically we sat there and just held conversation in a large circle with the group for an hour in a half. It was kinda cool. We talked a little about..everything! We told them we would be back on Thursday (Oct. 9th) for lunch. Some of them told us where a good place to sit is. On Thursday, we sat upstairs in the lunch room and some of the girls sat at a table near us! We ended up taking a cake to celebrate Teddy's birthday which was the day before. We had some cake left over, so Teddy, being a gentlemen, walked the rest of the cake over and offered it to the girls. Next thing we know 8 of them came over and sat with us! Being such nice girls...they sang "Happy Birthday" to Teddy!! We ended up exchanging emails to keep in touch over the next month. That way, when we come back to Ambialet, we can get ahold of them and hang out with them! It will be a nice shopping day for mee! :) haha. Anndd you knooowww the boys will all be in heaven again.. ;) Here's a picture of us and some of the girls!!

I'll keep you posted on our friendships we maintain with our fellow French students! :)

Have a good evening... God bless all!

A Saturday Night in Albi!! :)

2008-10-08T13:08:00.003-04:00

October 4th - Saturday Night in Albi!! Well Tim took us and dropped us off for a while. We were able to do some shopping; however, everything basically closes by 7! Not much fun, but I was able to get some shopping done.. Of course I took this time to my advantage and departed from the boys! During the night (after 8ish) there was like a marathon going on. There were runners everywhere around the city. They had stands set up, TV screens. The whole works! We really weren't sure what was going on.. But it was neat. People were dressed up at different things. There were hippies, grapes! (they were cool.. they put purple balloons on their backs), umm matching outfits, all kinds of things! It was neat to see. Here are a few pictures from throughout the evening!

Ready to go to Albi, got my little scarf on... trying to look 'frenchy' :)

me & the boys at Tim's apartment! :)

We out out to have a drink, after dinner..
I wanted to try a Pina Colada.. Check out how cool it is!!

Okay, I have to explain this picture.. Jim laughed at me for 10 minutes straight.. literally! We were reading the menu. Obviously, it is all in French. As I've told you before during dinner a course that is served is cheese. The word for cheese in french is "fromage." This is one of the first words we learned.. also a highly used word. Well I was reading the dessert menu and I was confused.. I knew the word fromage, but I forgot what it was and it didn't seem to make sense in the sentence.. So I go.. "Guys, what's fromage?" Then I realized it was cheese before they even answered me. But they got a good laugh out of it.. haha

After having a drink, we decided it was time for a dessert!! :) I decided to try a vanilla ice cream with chocolate & whip cream! LOOK HOW BIG! Haha. I liked this restaurant, and how they made everything fancy! :)

Boys will be boys..

Mining.

2008-10-08T12:08:00.006-04:00

Thursday, October 2nd. We had a trip to the Mines with Gerry & Sandrine (another professor of ours). This mine was in Albi, near 20 minutes away. The actual Mine itself was shut down completely around 1987 and torn down so no one could have any memory of it. Not long after, they decided to rebuild a piece of it so that people could come to see it. The "elevator" the miners took went near 7 times faster than the speed of an elevator today. Our tour guide (who spoke great English!) told us we would be going down one of these shafts at 6 meters per second and would be going down 200 meters. I was sooo nervous!! Here... check out some of the pictures and see what a mine in France is like!

Here is our tour guide... and the elevator we would be going down! AHH!

First walking into the mine.. some of the halls were kinda small.

haha. Me & Teddy!! We had to wear those helmets incase rocks fell!

The group standing around what was once the train the miners rode in.

some tracks..

A close up of the train cars.

LUNCH TIME! (eww)

Some of their equipment.. you can see in the wall, the line of light grey. This is stone, it is not the coal. For a long time, when they had the stone in their carts that they collected, they did not get paid for that cart. The miners couldn't tell a difference from where the coal was to where the stone was because it was dark and there was dust flying everywhere..

These were called "Swings." Originally designed so that the workers could hop on them and it would be a quicker ride back to the exit. Unfortunately, it was a harder process than what it looks like. The actually "swing" weighed a decent amount. The would be leaning against the wall. The minor would have to place it on the rope that was continuously moving at a decent speed. So the minor would place it on and have to jump. But be aware of the person behind him. This was more difficult than it sounds because it was pitch black and you couldn't see who was where... Then jumping off was another challenge because you had to take it off with you. And, again, you didn't know where the person was behind you and had a chance of being hit. This ended up not being a good means of transportation in order to leave. Instead they would walk. Not long after, they made a game out of this so they could have a good laugh now and then, too...

Here's me & Sandrine, one of our professors!

Me & Gerry.. he's our professor that lives with us!

& the whole gang... plus our tour guide! :)

Okay, well I need to inform you all that the "elevator ride" that was 200 meters at 6 meters a second.. did not exist!! We didn't move.. at all! We just went out the door on the other side. There was a stimulator that made it feel like we were jerking around.. Talking about feeling dumb!!

God bless you all

First Impressions with Priests...

2008-09-30T09:04:00.002-04:00

As you recall from one of my first blogs when introducing myself to the priest that does mass at our church I messed it up ... completely!! When trying to say "my name is" I ended up saying something like... I love to call myself.. Well, being an elderly priest, the following weekend when we returned to mass, he forgot he even met us!! I was on the clear on that one! :)

So after visiting the cathedral in Albi, we invited the head priest over for dinner. (that's who our guests were....when I was setting the table and lost Speedy!). He had gone to this monastery as his schooling a long time ago. So Tim, our directory, and Gerry, our professor gave him a tour of the building and showed him what it is becoming into today. Well, earlier I threw in a load of laundry that didn't need dried, just needed hung. Being it was personal belongings, I wasn't going to put them out on the clothes line, rather in my room on the coat rack. So I get my stuff out of the washer & put it in the clothes basket. Truck along up the stairs, make a turn and what do I know... I see Gerry, Tim, and Father all standing... riighhhttt theree! So Gerry introduces me to him, mean while I have a basket full of bras!! Oh boy was I embarassed!!

Some reason these first time meetings, just haven't been going too well for me! haha. I asked Tim later, and he said no one saw what was in the basket... I lucked out on that one!! :)

Have a greaattt dayyy!!

Speedy :]

2008-09-30T08:35:00.004-04:00

Okay.. If you know my boyfriend at all, you know he loves his animals, especially reptiles! I guess you could say it kind of grew on me and I don't mind them now myself, either...

There are wild lizards here that just run everywhere.. They must have sticky things on their feet because they can run up and down the outside of the monastery!

I walked into my bathroom the other day and there was one in there! Well.. hahaha. the walls in the bathroom are smooth and he could not climb up them. So I had him trapped in a corner! :) :) Well I ended up catching him. Now, you have to understand these things are.. FAST! Like, really fast. So I was trying to be extra careful walking back into my room with him because I scared him the one time and he started running. I dropped him and he ran under a door.. Now I had to chase him and catch him again! No worries, I did! Jim gave me a shoe box so I could keep him in. I wanted to name him "fast" in french... but fast is rapide, and I thought that would just be silly. Teddy and Jim wanted to name him Pedro or something, I didn't like that either. So I stuck with Speedy. Well Speedy could climb the sides of the shoebox, so... I had him in Teddy's room and sure enough he got out. Uh oh! Well Teddy trapped him under his hands, I brought the shoebox over and we caught him! Thennnn, I had him on my desk and was trying to call my mom and he got out again! Well I got the shoebox and caught him myself. Then it was time to set the table because we were having guests over. So I put him in the shoebox with a piece of toilet paper to give him something to play with and put him in the corner of the bathroom & shut the door... I came back up after setting the table... & Speedy was gone. I looked and looked and looked, I couldn't find him anywhere. Janie, Tim's girlfriend, was nervous because he was in our bathroom!! Oh well.. I think Speedy is gone now and is living his own life :) Here are a few pictures I got of him, while I had him.. :) :)

Au Revoir Speedy <3

Albi

2008-09-30T07:51:00.004-04:00

Tuesday, September 23, we visited Albi. We've gone here to do shopping and hang around the city before, but this time Gerry took us into the cathedral called "La cathedrale Sainte-Cecile d'Albi." Saint Cecile Cathedral, built from 1282-1380, was consecrated on April 23rd 1480. The Last Judgement was painted at the end of the 15th century. The statuary, the scultpures of the Jube, the enxloser of the Great Choir were finished in 1485. The vault and the walls were painted in 1512. The Great Organ was built from 1734-1736, and restored in 1981. The new altar was consecrated in 1980. [Thanks to the brochure we received..with parts in English!! I thought it was interesting and you'd like to know.] We also learned this is the tallest standing brick builing as of today... check it out... :]

If you look reallll closely, you can see me at the bottom!! :)

The Organ. As you may notice all of these old cathedrals have amazing organs!

This is Saint Cecile. She is laying on her side, which is a very uncommon way to have a statue lay. Most are on their backs with hands on their chest. She is laying as so, and if you notice her ear is facing up. This is because she was the saint of listening; that everything in the world is just about listening.

The choir.

Excurion Quatre.

2008-09-29T16:11:00.006-04:00

Friday, September 19th: fourth & final field trip with Eric. We went to Toulouse and visited the Dominican order; Inquisition; Les Jacobins; Saint Sernin; and Place du Capitole. This is where Eric lives so he knew this city too well! Toulouse, compared to Pennsylvania, could be kind of compared to Pittsburgh.. Here are some pictures of our day....

We were ontop of a car garage; looking over the city

The one street was soo small that you could touch each side by standing in the middle!

Towards the back of the cathedral, there was a mirror so that you could look down and
see the ceiling, so visitors were not hurting their necks staring up.

It was an interesting day. Gerry then let us go shopping.. oh no!! I found this cute store full of shoes.. Well.... I ended up leaving with 4 new pairs!! :) haha it soo made my day! They're super cute, and it was a really good deal!
Well that's all for now.. I'll put more pictures up soon!!!

Au revoir!!
Dieu bénissent

boys will be boys

2008-09-17T17:20:00.007-04:00

Soo.. there are no pictures for this blog but some of the silly things that have been going that really didn't fit in any of the other blogs....

We were sitting in class one day before our 3rd field trip & Jim goes "I like castles." Well, Teddy being silly goes in the strangest high pitch, girly voice "i liiiike castles." So, this is an ongoing thing now, and every time it is still freaking funny!

Well... it's football season now and for any of you football fans, you probably know about the fantasy football leagues.. OH BOY! Breakfast, Lunch, Supper, in between.... this is ALLLL they talk about! It's soo bad that I actually had a dream a few nights ago that I WAS PLAYING FOOTBALL! Okay. This is enough of that! hahaha.

Then, if they're not talking about football, they are playing ping pong.. there is only so much ping pong a girl can watch, holy moly!

Teddy video tapes everything everywhere we go... Well Jim realized he can record videos on his camera too. Oh boyyy. They went for a tour of the house today. But silly boys, made their videos 25 minutes (+). The files are so large that they will not fit onto their computers haha.

Okay, there are these wasps here that are the size of like ugh i dont even know.. but they are like 10 times the size of a wasp in PA! They are HUUGEEE! Well, one got in the kitchen today and ooh boyyy. hahaha. Tim decided he would kill it.. Well he got a spatula and as the wasp was flying towards Tim, he took the spatula and hit it like a freaking baseball! haha. it was FLYINGGG across the kitchen! Oh my gosh, it was too freaking funny! It was a "you had to be there" type of thing..

Well now I caught you up on some of the silly things boys do... (:

Excurion Trois.

2008-09-17T17:20:00.004-04:00

Tuesday September 16th was our third field trip! We visited Carcasonne and Montsegur castles. It was an interesting day. It was a day full of breathtaking views. We wondered about the inside of a castle, which was basically a small village with all kinds of shops and places to eat at, and climbed the side of a mountain to see the remains of an old castle. On our way to Carcasonne (which was a two hour drive) Eric, our professor, told us we were not allowed to sleep on the way. "You Americans tend to fall asleep whenever going for rides," he commented. haha. I'm glad none of us slept or we would have missed out on some amazing views.. Here are some pictures of our day!

These were the views we stopped along on the way.
(both top & bottom)

Above is a picture of the castle we walked throughout. This was Carcasonne.

Inside of the walls...

This was looking out of the holes in the walls over the village.

This was Montsegur. The remains of a castle...WAYY up there!! We had to walk!

One of the amazing views from the Castle reuins.

Me & the boys

Yet another, breathtaking view.

Leaving the remains...THAT is where we were!

Girls day out!

2008-09-14T10:32:00.002-04:00

WOO HOO! Now this is what I'm talking about!! Me, Janie, and Julie had a girls day in Albi. Janie is Tim (our director)'s girlfriend and as most of you may know, Julie is the director for the study abroad program at Saint Francis. Her and her husband Bob (pictures of them were in the previous blog) came over for a week. It was a blast having them here! We did soo much. But anyways...back to the day out. It was nice to get away from the boys and actually go shopping with girls. Looking in the same stores, at the same stuff... it was soo much nicer than being stuck by yourself. Normally when we go out, the boys will go in their store, I will go in mine, and we'll meet up down the road.. boring! It was a much needed day. We stayed out a little later than planned but it was so much fun! After returning, we had dinner with the whole crew, sat around talking about a little bit of this... a little bit of that. Then came upstairs to watch Wedding Crashers. It was perfect. Unfortunately Julie and Bob left us today..but that's okay they have a few days in Paris! Now she can tell us a few hints about Paris to prepare us for our first trip! Well.... sorry there were no pictures, but I had to share this :) :)

Dinner & Music!

2008-09-14T09:34:00.004-04:00

Wednesday, September 10 We had a dinner gathering at our house. After the dinner we had people showing off talents left and right! Between guitars, fiddles, and singing the night was full of fun! The dinner, again, was a 5 course meal. Food food and more food!! :) At our dinner we had near 20 people. Nadine, she owns a cafe right down in the village. We go to her for lunch often, and ALWAYS stop in for some ice cream. ;) Her husband is the mayor. So between the two of them, they basically run everything that goes on! Then there were Peter & Margret. They are soo soo nice. They are a British couple who also live right in the village. They speak English, so it helps us out a lot! They are in charge of the choir at church. Very talented in the music field!! They brought one of their friends, Dick. He played the fiddle. Peter and Margret also run the bike shops where we rent our bicycles fromThen there were architects who came; they are working on the church and all the renovations going on within the monestary. Well that basically sums of the evening soo..here are pictures! :)

Music beginss!

This is Dick, Margret, and Peter

I was standing on the other side of the table and trying
to get a picture of everyone;
Teddy took one at the same time! It looks kinda cool :)

everyonee :)

Me, Margret, Jim, Peter, & Teddy

This is our professor in the red (Gerry) &
the director of the program in the black (Tim).
Here, Gerry was singing .. talk about amazing! I don't
think there is anything this man cannot do!

Peter & Margret. Nicest couple you'll ever meet

Julie & Bob :) Words cannot even describe these two. They are that great.

Here is the mayor of the town, Nadine's husband.

A night full of fun... a night that will always be remembered

Sister church

2008-09-14T08:54:00.004-04:00

Tuesday, September 9th we visited Notre Dame de la Dreche; it is a sister church to our church. Below are pictures of the church itself and of old pieces that were used in the church and a museum of animals. The church was painted by one priest; it took him 22 years to do. When finishing his product, his neck was permentaly stuck where his face was look up. The designs on the walls and on the robes are truly amazing. After our tour, we were invited for dinner. Here is a good time to tell you about the dinners in France.. WOW! haha. It is a 5 course meal (some of which have 5 different wines for!). First you start out with an appetizer, and kinda linger around talking to everyone. At Notre Dame, we were given the opportunity to taste homemade wine. Sweet and strong are the only ways to describe this. Then we moved on to the next course, this was simply a bowl of soup. Thennnnn, it was time for the meal. Unforetunately, they had chicken so I was given smoked salmon. Now comes the salad. Then the cheese course and finally the dessert. Afterwords, a blanket and pillow are looking good! :) It's a lot of food! Well, here are some pictures of the church and museum! :)

This was a picture of the ceiling; the church was shaped like an octagon.

The alter.

We got to walk around the top of the church & go into the bell tower

All of these robes and designs were hand stitched.

Women would often give up their eye sight in order to complete these.

Here are some of the animals that the "museum" had....check out that snake!

BUGGSS!

Here is a model of our monestary :)

** NOTE: I want to thank Jim for some of these pictures! My camera died..so I used his pictures :)

weekends :]

2008-09-13T13:48:00.005-04:00

Wellllll! Weekends here are always fun! Although I must admit, some Saturdays are just plain boring. But I cannot complain: laying in bed until 1:00pm and taking a nap that day is a pretty good day to me. ;] Saturday nights we usually do something. We have gone to a festival/carnival type of gathering which had games and tonight we will be going to a blues concert in the village below. Sunday mornings we go to church; it would not be so bad...if we could understand him! haha :) Everything is in French! The church we attend is connected to the monastery....very convenient! Well... Here's a few pictures of me and the boys!

Getting ready to go out!

Us being goofballs :P

oh you boys!

;]

Me & Jim!

haha, okay I have to explain this picture.... While we were sitting at the festival John decided to go off and play a few games. One of which had a gun, he shot the target and received a hand held B.B. Gun for his prize. As we were walking towards the concert, there was another game he decided he wanted to play. We were standing there watching him... took the first shot, not too bad.... went for the second on. Well I need to mention to you this is a riffle, a real riffle, with real bullets. John thought he had to reload. (He never used a firearm before this night.) When trying to "reload" the gun, he thought you had to pull this little trigger behind the main one. Welll! The gun shot off again, the lady went and lifted a trench coat and John shot her 6 pack of beer!! It was pouring out the side!! He didn't realize it was a double barrel shotgun and had two triggers. Well, need I say...this was his first night using a gun, and probably the last :) He tried paying the lady back...handing her 10 euros, she goes to him "8 rounds??" He's like no no no! haha :)

oohhh but we got a good laugh that night because of John.... and he will always be picked on for this!

Well....here were some pictures from one weekend... (:

God bless you all & I'll add more sooooon!!

a little look of where we live (:

2008-09-06T09:14:00.005-04:00

Well as you can tell from previous pictures and some explanations .. this place is HUGE! It seriously feels like we are living in a castle! A few days ago, I went around and took some pictures of throughout the place... soo have a better look at where I'm living for the next 4 months! :) :) :)

We're wayyy up there!! This was from a morning walk to the village to get a loaf of bread.

A view from the front...this one is up close!

A view from the back.

Our backyard.From my bedroom window.

This is the common room... we have some classes in here. It's kinda cool!

The boys playing Ping Pong.

One of the staircases!

We're all lit up at night time :)

Excurion Deux.

2008-09-03T16:21:00.004-04:00

Monday, September 1st: Well we had a two hour class with Eric again. He is our pilgrimage professor. He speaks English well & rolls his own cigarettes. It's kinda interesting! He goes to Spain for the tobacco. Well, anyways. We had our class and then went onto our field trip. It was a small little village called Conques. It was rather interesting for the fact they picked a random mountain, and decided to build a cathedral and village just on one side. There is nothing else near this small village.. Well, I can't go into detail about all of the interesting sites, so...I'll just show you them :)

Here is the front of the cathedral.

& the top of the cathedral

This is above the entrance.

Zoomed in a little..you can see it is Good Vs. Evil

Picture of through the village.

From above the village.

& From below the village

well, this is all for now.. I'll try to keep you updated!! :)

Au revoir!

Excurion Un.

2008-08-31T10:09:00.004-04:00

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..

2008-08-30T18:38:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-08-26T20:15:00.005-04:00

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"

2008-08-24T18:21:00.005-04:00

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.

2008-08-23T19:51:00.004-04:00

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 ! )