I've decided that the three million photos I put up of my Toussaints break wasn't enough. Chelsea let me steal some of the pictures she took of the trip, here are some of my favorites:
Genoa/Bocadesse:
Budapest
The Aussie we met in the hostel
Florence/Fiesole
We had this thing where when we saw a hole, we had to take a picture in it... don't ask
The famous bridge in Florence, the whole thing is lined with ritzy jewelry stores. We are travelers in our 20s...we can't have nice things
View off said bridge
Rome (This is where my camera really sucked, I'm glad Chelsea's was better)
Colosseum
The night we lost our minds and took a million selfies and had a great time
Pictures of the trails behind Echirolles that go up to Haute Jarrie and beyond. I know, I know, I've already posted a bunch of photos from this place, but it's amazing and deserves more.
One of the assistants hosted an "international dinner" (basically a pot-luck) tonight. There were some other assistants, a couple French girls, and a girl from Portugal. I spend 95% of my time here with people either under the age of 11 or over the age of 35, so I sort of started thinking that French people my age didn't actually exist. It was really nice to prove that theory wrong. And it also made up for this year's failed Thanksgiving (I'm pretty sure I ate enough to last me the rest of the week.)
And people also complimented my food, which was a big deal considering how self-conscious I am about my terrible cooking.
It made me feel old...in a good way, if that's possible. Up until now, pot-lucks in my mind were this: one person brings the cheapest bread they can find, another person brings a cheap Nutella knock-off product, a third brings some chips, we meet under a tree in a park somewhere because we have nowhere else to go because either we live at home or our apartment is too small, and there you go. But we had real food, like...a chicken and fish and stuff. It was great.
This weekend a few of us took a trip up to Lyon to go to the Fête des Lumières (the festival of lights). I took a few videos but they were really choppy on my camera so I'm just going to steal some from YouTube to give you an idea of what it was all about. This first one was my favorite.
There were four of us that went together, each from a different anglophone country, which inevitably meant half of the conversations went something like "wait, you think pants mean what?" "Okay, who says it's a lift? Who says it's an elevator?" Very confusing. (And this week I had to teach a lesson on clothes and I almost gave them a mini-lecture on why they shouldn't use "pants" in the UK the same way we use it in the US... and then I figured that my mini-lecture on the different pronunciation of the letter "Z" was enough for their brains.)
The Fete started at six. We walked around and found some food (bread and mayonnaise, lots and lots of mayo, with a little bit of tuna), and then we went from one light show to another. They were spectacular, really intricate and creative light shows displayed on the sides of buildings all throughout the city. And it was CROWDED. At one point we were standing in a huge mob of people and we didn't move for a good five minutes. Totally worth it thought.
By ten we couldn't feel our feet and we headed back to our place. We rented a whole apartment though Airbnb, so we made some tea and watched Miss France and confusing French "comedy" until 2 am. Then, despite being in the most comfortable bed I have ever been in, I couldn't fall asleep until 5 am. But besides that it was a really great trip. I missed the lights festival last year when a few other study abroad-ers went (the semester was coming to an end and finals were coming up... oh wow, it's been almost a year since I came back home from Mont. Geez, time flies by fast), so it was nice to make up for it this year.
I only regret not taking more pictures. They would have been awful without any good lighting, but still... should have at least done a group one. Ah well, tant pis.
