Barcelona

Just got back from Barcelona last night. It was very fun and a lot different than any other place I have been so far. The paella and sangria were delicious, the architecture was insane, and the street performers were awesome. Watch the video.

Sorry Snail!!

So I think I talked about how crazy and large the snails are here in another post. Well the inevitable happened, I stepped on one. :( I feel really bad about it because I can't even imagine the pain of having my exoskeleton crushed and my internal organs leaking out onto the sidewalk. However since I am a believer in Darwinism I like to think that by crushing all the weak shelled snails that venture onto the sidewalk during the rain, eventually the snail population of Montpellier will develop such tough shells that they will be un-crushable. On a lighter note, the Montpellier Zoo is pretty awesome. They have tons of animals and a bunch that I don't think I have ever seen in person before, such as rhinos and kangaroos.

I also tried a new candy, called smarties. I know what your thinking we have smarties in the U.S., but these are different. They come in a cardboard tube and they taste like Easter. "Easter?" yes they taste like Easter, the holiday. They are basically M&M's in the sense that they are candy coated chocolate but for some reason they remind me of Easter. Since I can't remember what Easter is like since I missed it this year I will be unable to tell you specifically what Easter candy they taste like.

Montpellier Zoo

Went to the Montpellier Zoo yesterday. It was free and awsome.



I killed a snail with my foot the other day. It was an accident of course but I feel really bad about it. :(

SPRINGBREAK 2009!!!

Spring break was pretty relaxing... except for when my dad was around. We were either running in one direction until he figured out that he didn't know where he was going, or else we were stopped, asking people who don't speak English which direction to go and then ignoring whatever they say.

or an example of asking directions
Dad: ex ex pardawn excuse me pan-thae-on pan-thea-on
Italian stranger: take your second left and then it's straight ahead
Dad: grazzyass
<< walks about a half block stops in the middle of the street to consult the map for 15 minutes>>
Dad: alright I think we need to walk further up this way
Me: .... dad .. he said to take a left up here





Here is a list of things that we saw that I think are worth mentioning.
Paris:
The Eiffel Tower,The Louvre,The Montparnasse Tower, The Catacombs,The Andy Warhol exhibit,A photography exhibit,The Arc de Triomphe, The Champs Elysee,The Moulin Rouge, The subway system, Notre Dame de Paris, and Sacre Couer

Italy:
Lake Como
a flower garden, an owl, some mountains, a castle thing
Cinque Terre
some towns on hills, a cat, some rocky beaches, Jesus,and a sunset
Siena
a tower, some stores
Roma
The Colesseum, The Vatican, The Trevi Fountain,some other Roman Ruins,The Pantheon,The Darwin exhibit!,The cat sanctuary!!

Canal du Midi

So the study abroad program had a few trips planned for us over the semester, and today was the last of those trips. The first trip was the tour of Provence including a windmill, the Pont du Gard aquaduct, and something else I can't remember. They also took us on a tour of Nimes and one of our hometown,Montpellier. On all of these trips it was cold and rainy, which is pretty rare here in the south of France. Naturally today for our boat cruise it was also cold and rainy. The boat tour would have been pretty awesome and relaxing if it hadn't been for the weather causing us to cram over 60 people into a half in closed boat for over two hours. I made a video of the highlight which was the écluse (I can't think of what it's called in English).They also gave us around three hours for lunch, at which time I took the opportunity to discover french dessert. I have usually been sticking to the crème brûlée or mousse au chocolat since I know what they are, however today I was feeling adventurous. Other than the usually CB or MauC I have frequently seen Ile Flottant on the dessert menu. I think we even asked what it was once and were still to afraid to order it. Today was different. The waiter was charming and smiled more than any french person I have ever seen. He assured us that it was good, so I decided to try this "floating island" thing. When it came out I recognized it right away since I had actually eaten it many times in the school cafeteria, and hadn't known the name for it. It was the same, ohhhh, realization you get when you finally put a name with a face... a really delicious face. What it actually is, is crème anglais (English cream? If you know what that is. I didn't) and a fluffy island of meringue floating on top. It sounds kinda weird (why I didn't order it before) but it tastes good.

P.S. I didn't get a pick of her doing it but, Fanny, the dog was doing the mermaid thing and it reminded me of Smoky.

Strike = No Barcelona

Caroline and Andrea were here visiting me this week for their spring break. Caroline is just packing up to go back home at this very moment, she leaves about 7 hours from now. We got to see Carcasonne which is the largest walled city in France, I think. We also went to Nimes which I have already seen but it is a beautiful city so I enjoyed seeing it again (and the weather was much nicer this time). The whole week here was actually the warmest weather we have had so far, it stayed about 70 all week. We also got to go to the beach, however that was a little cooler due to the wind. There were tons of kite boarders at the beach, it was pretty exciting. I would like to try kite-boarding but it looked very scary, cold, and difficult. We also had planned to go to Barcelona on Thursday and come back today (Sat), but unfortunately due to the national strike on Thursday we were forced to stay here in good old Montpellier. It was interesting to see the strike though.


I just got my video figured out from Carnaval de Nice if you want to see it it's on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSYs0R76QKQ
It's not very long but it's kinda interesting. You could also just YouTube anyone's Carnaval de Nice and see what it's like.

Sorry I wrote this post like a couple days ago but I was trying to put the video directly on here and it wasn't working so it's being posted a little late

ESCARGOT!?!

I saw a real live snail. It was HUGE, he was like the size of a mouse. I did not realize how big and crazy they were. I kind of wanted to take him home as a pet, but I was also kind of freaked out. I wonder what they eat...