Smellin' Lavender in Provence

I just got back from my last AIFS sponsored trip throughout Provence, and again I can't say enough good things about these trips!  

We weren't leaving until Saturday morning, so Friday we had a wonderful beach day in hope of perfecting my tan before Festival time!  After this we decided to watch a school volleyball tournament being held in the courtyard.  It apparently turned into a mini Olympic games with students from Sweden taking on the Mexican students followed by the Dutch, etc.  Very entertaining to watch!  Somehow, team America (lead by my friend Tanner) was a little too confusing for the foreign students and we became Team Tina! After several matches, we were wiped out (well ok we didn't play, but we sure watched a lot of sweating going on!) so a few of us hiked it down the beach to grab some cocktails!  I ended the week with a delicious bloody mary-go figure!

Friday night we just hung around in a friend's room enjoying each other's company!  It was a really low key night but reminded me how much I am going to miss all my new friends!

The next morning we were up early for an 8:00 departure.  Our first stop was Arles where we were able to see their colosseum (built 400 years before Christ!), the eclectic market, and explore the city on our own. 

 After this we had a short bus ride before arriving in Baux-de-Provence.  Alright go ahead and add this to your bucket list-it was AMAZING!  One of the main attractions to the little village is an old quarry.  Artists have transformed it into a living art exhibit!  Every year a different artist is spotlighted  (This year Picasso) and there are giant projection slide shows that take place all over the quarry creating a 3-D moving art exhibit accompanied by music.  The space is dark and chilly, similar to a movie theater and it really is a must see!  After this we hiked it over to the town's castle ruins.  It was a very windy day, but the area had amazing views and we were even able to see a catapult show .     

Our final stop for the day was Avignon.  I was delighted to learn that we were staying in a cute little hotel that had a shower AND A BATH! What a wonderful treat for us weary travelers.  That night we had a group meal that consisted of 3 courses (tried foie gras yuckkk!) and wine all paid for by AIFS and then some of us found a local bar.

The next day, unfortunately, we awoke to pouring rain.  But that didn't stop us and we sloshed on over to the Palais des Papes (Pope's Palace).  This was pretty cool to see (alright kind of boring but again paid for by AIFS so who cares!) and then walked around and grabbed a bite to eat.  Sadly I chose the wrong shoes for the day- my rainbow flip flops- and was literally drenched up the the knees, and somehow my shoes died my little feet a nasty chocolate brown color that has yet to come off!

Our final stop on the trip was chateauneuf de papes vineyard, which is ranked among the top 3 best wines in the world!  We had a wine tasting and were able to purchase vineyard goodies to take home!  We were all exhausted for the bus ride home but it was a great final group trip!  

Sadly I only have 1 more trip to Munich this weekend before the Festival and the end approach!

Paix,

Leah 

Easter in Dublin

Well I must say this Easter was unlike any I have ever experience and it was absolutely wonderful!  Friday afternoon I traveled with 4 other friends to Dublin.  We were a little surprised to learn that every pub and bar in the city were closed due to Good Friday, but we were assured that this meant everyone was EXTRA crazy on Saturday.  So we grabbed some Chinese food then had a pretty low key night.

Saturday morning we were up super early for a full day bus tour of the Irish countryside.  This was such an awesome experience.  The guide was a bubble older Irish man with a robust gut and a little tiny tie but he was very informative and made the day very enjoyable.  We were able to see the bogs, scenes from p.s. i love you and braveheart, monastic ruins, and beautiful countryside.  We stopped for lunch in a quaint little village and were able to enjoy our first Irish meal! (Alright I had Salmon and a beer but still wonderful).  After the tour we explored the city some more on our own and were able to see St. Patty's Cathedral (sooo beautiful), Christ's Church, Henry Street and other Dublinish sights.  The weather was absolutely wonderful and it was such a relaxing day.  That night we hit some Irish bars around the Temple Bar area and were able to see live Irish music and drink plenty on Guinness!

      

Sunday, being the good children that we are, we decided to wake up at 7:00 (yikessss!) to catch the 8:00 service at St. Patty's for Easter; however, apparently we had the times confused and the service wasn't until later.  No problem, we decided it would be a perfect time to head over to the Guinness factory!  Apparently God caught wind of our plan, and on the way over he sent a giant bird to poop on my friend Grant's head! Quite funny, and we still decided to visit the factory.  This is a really cool interactive brewery tour and concludes with a free Guinness at the Gravity bar which overlooks the entire city.  After the brief stint at the beer factory we headed back to Church only to find we had the times wrong again!  Again no problem, we headed to Trinity College and explored the city on our own!  Again it was another beautiful day (pretty rare in Dublin) and we were so excited to see all the Irish locals and happenings of the city.   

Finally we made in back to the cathedral for a 3:15 service.  It was an awesome hymnal service full of beautiful singing by the all men's choir.  Unfortunately there was a slight slip-up on our part.  Several of the boys and men had solos.  Well one of the poor boys was clearly in a rather awkward stage on puberty and sounded like a drunk kermit the frog!  We could barely contain our laughter and had to focus super hard to get through that part of the service!  After this we headed back to the Temple bar area to enjoy the area.  We had another traditional Irish meal then were able to see an adorable, elderly Irish band complete with flutes, guitars and singing.  It was awesome!

Monday morning we walked around a bit then headed back!  I only have 3 days until I leave for Amsterdam so it's a very busy week!

paix

Leah 

Spring Break '09: Euro style

So get ready this is gonna be a long one.....

I just returned from Spring Break and had a fab fab time!  We landed in Rome Saturday afternoon and were met at the airport by our friends Edwardo (from Rome), Enzo Jeremie 1  and Jeremie 2.  They had brought us fresh Italian sandwiches and whisked us away to enjoy them in a park full of daisies!  After lunch we lounged, listened to music then rode these crazy four person bike things which were a ton of fun.      

That night Edwardo introduced us to delivery pizza Italian style (to show us how superior Italian pizza is).  We were able to meet his precious family and hang out for a while.  His dad was a hoot!  He is a well known elderly spine surgeon in Rome who speaks very little English but loves to meet Edwardo's friends.  Throughout the course of about 2 hours he apparently decided he wanted to show us everything in his life he had acquired so here goes the list of "treasures" he showed us:

-pair of bongo drums (which he attempted to play ha)

-Saber tooth sword

-painted ash tray/vase (don't quite know the connection between the two)

-picture of a man made waterfall in Italy

-Encyclopedia

-3 stacks of pictures (all prior to Edwardo's birth)

-a picture of him performing open spine surgery

-a book on the spine

-and finally his collection of Elvis albums

During the show-and-tell he also played dj with music he had mixed haha including some Spanish numbers, Italian ballads and even Barbie Girl! We were nearly in hysterics every time we showed us each new piece and had a great time attempting to guess what was coming next.

The next day we enjoyed some amaaaaazing Italian pasta then Edwardo showed us allll around Rome.  He was such a good sport considering the weather was rainy and he has already seen everything like 80 times but it was such a good day.  We were able to try the best gelato, cappuccino and pasta all in one day! That night Edwardo's kind mother cooked us all a giant Italian dinner then we were invited to the house of Edwardo's good friend (also son of an Italian ambassador).  Turns out he is also a hypnotist and wanted to test his skills on me.  This had to be one of the funnies moments of the trip-here is this Italian attempting to hypnotize me using some sort of grunts with an attempt at English and it did work to some extent (they said I went kinda cross eyed then slumped over-very cute) but I was getting distracted and it was not a complete success.  

Morning morning, the boys drove us back to the airport (super early!) to catch our flight to Athens where we would sleep for the night before catching our ferry.  I had heard this was a pretty dirty city and sadly I must agree.  However we were there long enough to see the Acropolis and enjoy the BEST GREEK FOOD EVER at a restaurant close to our hotel called Vitro.  We feasted on hummus, roasted peppers stuffed with feta, grade leaves, oven baked feta, gyros, and more.  The staff apparently loved us and brought all four of us 5 shots of ouzo each and free baklava! 

We were up super early Tuesday morning to catch our ferry to Mykonos but we were all super excited!  Our group consisted of 15 students from the college and we arrived on the island around 1:00.  After finding our precious hotel we were ready to run to the beach.  However, since it is not full tourist season there weren't that many boats traveling to the beach sooo we ended up having to catch a ride with the local school bus dropping kids off at home.  We felt more than a little awk in our itty bitty bikinis next to a bunch of 4th graders but hey when in Greece!  The weather was wonderful and the beach was deserted except for our group so we were able to relax!  

   

Wednesday it was a little chilly so this gave us a perfect chance to explore the town.  There were adorable shops and restaurants selling the local honey, olive oil products and souvenirs.  

Thursday and Friday were great beach days and I 100% enjoyed the chance to finally relax after some very busy months.  The locals were wonderful to us, the weather was perfect, the food was AMAZING and it was a great trip!                       

So I finally made it back to Cannes Sunday afternoon and on my beach run was surprised to learn that while I was gone the tourists had arrived which also meant that arrival of the boobies! I saw them all: old (very old) young, big, small, real, really fake, etc.  Makes it pretty easy to spot the tennage boys on vacation!

Im leaving for Dublin on Friday so better rest up!

Paix,

leah