No I didnt write this, I am just in love with this quote, and I believe it completely.  It explains why I am out here better than I will ever be able to. Just thought I would leave you with this while I am out and about on spring break. Talk to you soon!

Love, Crystal

            We then headed to Vichy so I could go to classes and we explored Vichy in my spare time.  After all this we headed back up to Paris for another amazing weekend of sight seeing and amazing French experiences.  Paris never ceases to amaze me. It is definitely the most beautiful city on the Earth as far as I am concerned.   I guess I will have to see if I still agree with that when I make it back to the states after all my travels.  There is always more to discover, more to explore, and more to experience.  Clay and I found this AMAZING restaurant called Lyon’s of Brussels. Yes, it is a Belgian resto, but they serve mussels with french fries and dessert.  I got crème brulee (my new favorite dessert!!!), and that was definitely the most amazing meal here!!! I love mussels!! And for those of you reading this, don’t knock it till you try it! They are amazing when they are cooked in the right sauce!!  We saw more things than I ever imagined Paris had to see, and there is still so much more!!! I am in love with that city, and each time I go, I fall more in love with it!  But after an extremely eventful week with Clayton, I left him to catch his plane when I took the 6am train to Vichy to catch class Monday morning. 

            That was week one I suppose. Not much has happened since then; I have been in Vichy for the past 2 weeks.  Last weekend was my first full weekend here since I got here, and it was nice to have time to recharge, as I was becoming quite drained from travelling all the time.  Jana and I got to explore more of our little city and Sunday afternoon while we wandered aimlessly through the calm streets we came across the city cemetery which has been there since the early 1800’s!! It was amazingly beautiful and mysterious at the same time.  All the graves are built up with marble and granite, with massive crosses over them.  They stand high above the ground, unlike the cemeteries in the states.  It was huge, seemed to stretch forever.  It was incredible to be there, somewhere that has so much meaning to thousands of people over hundreds of years.

            This week was the same.  Just class everyday and tests and projects due since it was the week before spring break.  We went out with all the French people on Thursday (last night) because that is really the only day they go out here.  We went to a little going away party for a girl headed back to the states after 2 years.  Then we went to a bar and a club. It was quite a bit of fun, I was so so excited to be hanging out with so many French people and to get to practice my French.  I was asked a couple of times if I was French, so that was quite a compliment!!  I had a few of the French men amazed that I was American and that I was having so much fun even though I wasn’t drinking like everyone else.  Jana and I had so much fun with all the frenchies at the club and just being crazy. It is funny to go to places like that and people watch because their culture is so different and they all interact so much differently in social situations than Americans do.  It was amazing to get to really experience the student culture here, and to get to speak so much French. (Side note: Jana and I are still having a BLAST together, and I don’t think I could have hand picked a better roommate and friend to experience all this with.  She was definitely specifically chosen by God; it just amazes me how well we get along and how close we’ve grown.  We spend basically 24 hours a day together, and have so much fun the whole time!)  

            I feel like I am running out of time here, sometimes I wish I were here for a full year, like many of the other study abroad students, when I think about all the cities I will not get to experience.  I do miss many things about the United States, but I know that I will be back before I know it, so I don’t think about it much.  This has been flying by, and I know that after spring break it will only go by so much faster!! I am definitely still in love with travel, and hope I get to make it an important part of my life, for the rest of my life!!

            I am heading out on spring break this week. I get to travel around the Mediterranean, and I don’t think I have ever been so excited to travel somewhere before!! The specific destinations are a secret… you’ll all get to hear all about the whole adventure when I get back!! But I am going on a Mediterranean cruise, and I get to see more than I ever dreamed!! I will be back and blogging the week of the 20^th… but I don’t know what day exactly I will be posting.  Plus I might have some internet on the ship, so maybe you will hear from before then. Don’t count on it though.

I hope everything is going well for you, and know that you are in my prayers.

Love, Crystal

Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Monday: 11-1 French     2-4 International Trade

Tuesday: 1:30-5 France as a Tourist Destination

Wednesday: 9:30-12:30 French

Thursday: 9-1 International Marketing

Friday: off

Ok, so this weekend…was amazing.  Friday at about 1pm we caught our train to Avignon; a city about 4 hours south of here by train.  We arrived and walked around the city, which is surrounded by walls built in the 1300’s.  We just wandered the city and stumbled across a free museum and walked around that. We had dinner and went to the hotel for the evening.  Saturday morning we were up and on our way to the main city by bus from our hotel at 10am.  We strolled around the ridiculously windy city (45-50mph gusts).  We got to see the “Palais des Papes” or Palace of the Popes.  This is where the pope lived when there were 2 popes, one in Rome, and one in Avignon, in the 1400’s. It was awesome because the day we decided to go to the palais, it happened to be the 700^th anniversary of the pope coming to France, so it was free, and they were serving a medieval soup and there were little acts going on around the palais, with people in costume from ancient times. Pretty cool.  Then we hiked up a hill and took in the view of the city and climbed yet another set of spiral stairs down to see the bridge of Avignon.  This bridge is fairly famous, there is a nursery rhyme here about it, and it was built for the first time by the Romans, but by the fourth time it was flooded, the people of the city did not build another one. So half of it sits there, as an important historical sight to the south of France.  After all of this, we found ourselves out of things to see or do, we had already seen many of the churches, we went into a few museums, and walked random streets of the city.  So we found ourselves at a movie theatre, and we saw “volt” or “Bolt” in French! Yay! It was really fun, and super cheap.  We had dinner and made our way back to the hotel.

Sunday we woke up, and I hadn’t slept well all night because I kept having dreams we missed the bus to the train station then the train to Nimes.  I woke up and as we got ready went over and over in my head if there was any way we could miss the bus.  Then I realized…. Things are closed here on Sundays; I bet the bus doesn’t run.  And sure enough, it didn’t.  We rushed down to the front desk to ask them how to get to the train station, and there was an alternative bus, but at a further stop from the hotel, and the only pick up that would get us to our train on time left in 9 minutes! We grabbed a croissant and ran for it.  It was a beautiful day, and it was a great way to wake up, to run for 10-15 mins to the bus station (which we didn’t know where was located).  We found the stop and caught the bus by 2 minutes. YAY Jana and Crystal! So we got the bus, and then hopped on our train to Nimes.  Only a half hour train ride, we got to Nimes (the city I travelled to my senior year) and started touring.  We saw the roman temple, and went to the “Parc des fontains” and took pictures and hiked to the top of a hill behind the park to see and go up into a roman tower built 450AD.  The tower was used to look over the city, and the view from the top was even more amazing than I remembered.  The hike and the view were beautiful, and not only because the weather was amazing.  The sun was shining, it was probably in the mid 60’s and the sky was clear!  It was so amazing to be outdoors again, and to be in a green park.  After all this we went to lunch and after that we took out map with all the sights on it, pointed to one and walked there.  It was quite fun! We saw a lot of cathedrals and protestant churches.  Also there were numerous art galleries open for free, so we wandered around those as well.  We had planned all day to wrap up our visit of Nimes at the Roman arena.  And that is just what we did.  We arrived there at around 1pm and took the audio guide tour.  The arena was the most amazing part of the day for sure.  This particular arena is the best preserved in the world, and it is one of the oldest.  After the 1 ½-2 hour tour we returned our audio guides and we climbed to the top and sat in the sun.  Jana napped and I (with a short attention span) took tons of pictures and just soaked up the sun and the remarkable view.  It was so amazing to be just laying around on a Roman ruin, where actual gladiators used to fight, and where Romans used to spend their leisure time.  After this, we headed back to the train station and got on the 5pm train home.  This one was a TGV, a high speed train, so it only took us 4 hours to get back to Vichy.

 I was so happy I got to go back to Nimes, the city I fell in love with 3 years ago.  And the best part is that it was just as amazing as I had experienced it the first time.  I love Nimes to death, and it is still my favorite city I have ever visited! So that was my weekend in a nutshell, I hope everyone in the states is doing well, and that those of you about to embark on your spring break adventures have a great time, and be safe!

Love, Crystal!

So this weekend… Friday night we went to some of the dorms here and one of the guys had a little get together in his room. We played cards and enjoyed wine, and by the end of the night, there were heated debates going on about anything from culture and politics to morals and ideals.  It was so interesting and fun considering all the different nationalities and cultures people are coming from. I can now use the line “its cuz I’m and American, isn’t it?” which is fun to drop every once in a while, cuz people laugh, then agree. Haha! Saturday we woke up and took a 30 min train to Clermont-Ferrand which is a city just south west of here.  We saw a cathedral made of volcanic rock, so it is completely black.  It was first built in 450AD and reconstructed in a gothic style starting in 1248.  They made the church out of this rock (because of the natural bubbles throughout the stone) so that it would be lighter and they could make it taller.  Also, Clermont-Ferrand is really close to the extinct volcano range.  We could see the highest volcano throughout our day while we walked through the city.  By the way, the weather was REMARKABLE! It was so warm, and the sun was out all day, and we could walk around without jackets on! We strolled around the city in the nice weather, got lunch at a kebab place, took a million pictures, and saw a million fountains.  We walked to a plaza where there were fountains coming out of the ground, and at points the water would shoot higher than me! (not hard I know) It was so much fun in the sun; I can no longer wait for summer! I saw numerous fountains (and “spitters” don’t worry, I took pictures Lori!!)  At the end of our day we found ourselves back at the cathedral, and we climbed the 252 steps to the top of the tower and drank in the most beautiful view of the city.  Sitting up at the top of the cathedral made completely of volcanic rock, the sun shining on my face, if I didn’t know why I was here thus far, I did at that moment.  The city was breathtaking, and the sun rejuvenating! Then we strolled around for a few more hours browsing stores and just enjoying the culture.  Saturday night there was a party held at another dorm for Cara’s birthday, and we played more card games there (card games are always fun when you are teaching people from different cultures games you grew up playing.)  We all just sat around chatting, and of course talk of culture and travel were the hot topics of the evening.  Sunday Jana and I took the chance to sleep in and to stroll around our beautiful city in the fairly warm weather.  Though everything is closed here on Sundays, it gave us a good chance to relax and walk for like 2 hours to get some McDonalds. Basically, that was my weekend; I hope next weekend is even better!!

A bientot,

Crystal!

So it is the 3^rd week I’ve been here in France. 2^nd in Vichy. Things are going well here, as usual, and I hope they will continue to go so smoothly. Last week and this week classes consist of only French for 4 hours a day, which at first was awesome, bus starting to get a bit monotonous. It is nice to have the French immersion to aid us in our experience with the French people, and the everyday interactions we encounter, but 4 hours every day of the week… is a tad bit too much. I got my new schedule today.

Monday: 11-1 French

2-4 International Trade

Tuesday: OFF (at this point, but that may change)

Wednesday: 9:30-12:30 French

Thursday: 9-1 International Marketing

Friday: OFF (this may also change)

Other than that, I am still loving this city, though it is small and there is not much to do. I love walking everywhere, and I love the way of life here, it is so relaxed, and relational. The only thing I miss is how Fort Collins wakes up at night, doesn’t go to sleep at 8pm. The streets here clear at about 7:30 and then there is no one around. I miss the people all over the place and just starting to hang out at 9pm. Soon enough. I already feel like I am running out of time here! I only have 3 months here to accomplish everything I want to do and see!!

This weekend Jana and I went to Lyon. It is a city 2 hours by train south of here. We wanted to have a little adventure to get a feel for travel, and for costs, timing, trains, and getting around a city. We arrived Friday night and went to the hotel and caught up on journaling and things like that. Saturday we woke up at 10 and got ready then had lunch and started out touring. We walked to Place Bellecour and were excited to find a GIGANTIC ferris wheel there!! (which of course we rode!!!) Along with encountering numerous statues and fountains on the way, we enjoyed the cute buildings, cobblestone streets, and the countless shops this city had to offer. We headed over to Pont Bonepart a bridge where we started our way up to the Notre Dame basilique (basilica) on the hill, and also the Roman theatre ruins not far from the church. We took our time touring these places and took tons of pictures in the ruins. And we also got to go through a Gallo-Roman museum with a TON of Roman ruins, pillars, and artifacts like gladiator swords from the days when Lyon was the Roman capital. It was unreal to be among all these artifacts and to imagine all the things that went on and the people that lived near these artifacts. Then we headed down to Vieux Lyon or old town Lyon to explore. Though it doesn’t sound like a full day, it was. With all the shopping we did, and the walking, it was quite a full day of touring. Sunday we woke up and had lunch and wandered around the city in the rain, and for those of you who don’t know already, in Europe, things close on Sunday. So there were no shops open or restaurants, or much of anything. We walked across town so we could go to this mall that was supposedly open on Sunday only to find out that only the restaurants are open. So we window shopped and then since the mall was so close to a train station on the opposite side of town than our hotel, we just hopped on a train back to the other station near our hotel. Then we headed home.

We came home to relax and to rest up for another week of French classes. Our trip was successful, and we made it on the trains and around town perfectly. We are now ready to conquer the next thing that comes our way.  The weekend was a blast, and I don’t think I could have a better roommate out here!! We have so much fun together and she is so chill, we just get along well. I hope you are all doing well in the states; you’re all in my prayers! Have a great week, and I’ll be in touch soon!

Love, Crystal

Proverbs 16:3

This weekend. Friday I met some people from my program. We went out to dinner with some girls from the dorms, and we had pizza in a cute little pizza place my mom and I had eaten at before, potentially my favorite place in this city. This was 3 girls from Radford Virginia, and I. Later we went over to a girl who used to be in the program but is now an English teacher here, we went to her apartment and hung out. Then we went clubbing, which even though the club was kinda weird, and had quite a few people over 30, we had a blast all of us our first night out of the semester. After clubbing and talking quite a bit with each other about how things are different in our own countries, we headed home. Saturday was more shopping and making sure everyone had cell phones and some cute French boots. The prices are so cheap here, its hard to resist buying cute cloths. Sunday we went to French mass and it was a great experience, though I couldn’t understand what they were saying, I probably won’t be going back considering it is at 10am and we will most likely be travelling every weekend, we already have plans for this weekend and 2 weekends from now. Though I don’t want to announce anything til its solid, it will just be confusing, people here keep changing their minds on where to go each weekend. But also Sunday we went exploring the other side of Vichy we haven’t been to yet, or just one part we hadn’t seen, and we got to go into one of the places where they have the hot spring mineral waters Vichy is famous for. Even back in the Roman Empire days, people would travel for days to Vichy for its waters and its healing properties. This water has been circling underground for thousands of years through volcanic rock and all the minerals beneath the earths crust. So basically people come from all over to drink these healing waters, and I’ve heard that people think the water is gross. Especially Americans. So of course we tasted it… and I loved it!!! If I could bottle it and drink it all the time I would. So we decided we would all take a Sunday afternoon walk every week and have a drink.

Anyways… this weekend was fun meeting a few people from the program, but I wanted to meet more people and have a few groups of people to go out with and to travel with. And just so you don’t worry…it is true… I miss you all a lot and at times long to be there in Fort Collins, Colorado hanging out with all my friends, but today I had a taste of what friends I can have here too. Today was the first day of classes. We started off the day with an introduction to the program and an early morning French test… I placed into the higher level, which is good, but anyone who knew more than one year’s worth tested into this level. We had a lunch break before we found out our results, and at lunch time I walked around town with some new people. The coolest part of the whole day was that I met people from all over the world, and we had lunch together and talked about different customs in our cultures, and it was just amazing. We have people from Slovakia, Germany, Russia, China, Norway, Colorado, Virginia, Oklahoma, Missouri, Canada, Spain, and I’m sure there are more, those are just the people I met today. There are 34 people in our program and it is gonna be so great to hang out with all these cultures at once. My prof is awesome though, and she really knows her stuff and I learned quite a few things today that my other French teachers had never pointed out, so I know this class is going to be awesome. And it’s not even like we are going to class, because it is with all these cool people we get to hang out with outside of class, and travel with. It’s already turning out to be a great experience. I love just exploring the town with all these new people. I have already started event planning here, and have a hang out/ shindig planned for tomorrow night, so that all of us from the program can get to know each other. I guess we all knew that I couldn’t really go 4 months without planning something for some people to do, or coming up with ways to get large groups of people together.

So these next two weeks is just French, and I can’t wait to go to class everyday! It’s gonna be a blast. So I have got to get to my bible study cuz it’s Monday night, and I want to keep up with Exodus with my bible study girlies, so I’ll be talking to you all soon! Don’t forget to keep me update with you and send me an email!

Much love! A bientot! Crystal

1. They let their dogs poop anywhere… aka sidewalks where you step.
2. On public transportation, you don’t smile, you look angry/sad.
3. It is not the sign of a “loser” if a grown man plays his PSP or whatever hand held games you boys are playing these days, on the metro.
4. Cheese is GREAT! (oh wait I knew that.)
5. Wine is cheaper than water. There are 2E bottles of wine… everywhere.
6. Everyone recycles…. EVERYONE. Otherwise you are ticketed if you throw a recyclable object in the trash.
7. They like Obama.
8. Cute boys are not numerous… the American boys are much prettier. (and more respectful up to this point… good job men, keep it up!)

            I arrived in Paris in the afternoon, on the 4^th  with my amazing mother. We had the worst time with out luggage in the metro and on the bus. A wheel broke off of 2 of the suitcases, making it only 10 times harder to get around. But we made it, tired and in a bit of disbelief about the “magic” of this European city. Showered and starving, we headed out for dinner in a Parisian café. We took the metro to the Champs-Elysees and walked around and toured the Arc de Triomphe.  Had dinner in a little side café and it was great. My French was proving much better than I had ever imagined. I was able to communicate with numerous locals and they could understand what I was saying and I could understand them as well, a relief. More than ready for sleep, we went to bed.

            Alarm set for 8 am (in order to conquer my enormous plans to see the sights of Paris for that day…) did not go off… so we accidentally slept til 1:30 pm. Lame. Haha, but we got going and had lunch in a café, and I had fun talking to the Parisian owner, and talking to him about my future stay in France. AND… I got complimented on my French!! On my first full day in France… I was stoked. So we toured the island of Paris, and saw the Notre Dame, and Sainte Chapelle (a church), and the beautiful bridges, and then we walked past the Pompidou (the modern art museum many native Frenchies detest because of its modern look in a priceless historic area), and went to the Eiffel Tower after sunset and watched it sparkle from afar, then went to the top to see the city. It was amazingly beautiful. Then we headed to the Champs again for dinner on a side street, then home to bed.

            Day 2 in Paris we woke up on time, and went to Versailles, an old massive castle where many of the royalty of France lived, including Marie Antoinette. The gardens are massive, and I can’t wait to go back to see them in the spring. That tour took quite a bit longer than anticipated, and we headed up to Montemarte (where some of the most famous French painters used to paint and sell their painitings) and the Sacre-Coeur, an old basilica. We did loads of walking this day, and it was awesome even though our legs were aching like none other at the end of the day.  We then took the metro to the Louvre Musee and looked around the outside and the center of the pyramid, but only for about 15 mins, because we were both starved and exhausted from all the walking and touring all day. After dinner in the mall beneath and next to the Louvre, we went home to bed.

            Next morning, we missed our train to Vichy because of the snow and the lack of busses running to the metro. We took the next train to Vichy to tour my new home. We got there in the afternoon and I unpacked and then we had dinner with the Pays family, who are extremely nice and friendly. We headed to bed after many hours of conversation over a wonderful meal, wine, and French fromage (cheese). Wow this is turning into a novel… but the next day we walked around the city and it is so so beautiful!! I am so excited to have chosen this city, because it is exactly what I wanted in my French city! Its streets are so so beautiful and have that European quaintness to them. (See pictures) My flat is nice, and I have a fairly large room located next to the garden of my host family. For those of you who don’t know, I am living in a flat connected by a courtyard to my host family’s home. But long story short… I LOVE this city!! It’s just what I wanted!

            Mom and I headed up to Paris for one last day of touring on Monday. We had a really long dinner in a resto (restaurant) on the Champs again. Then we walked around looking for souvenirs, and then we went to the Louvre to walk around it again since it was closed for the day.  It was the most magical part of our Paris trip.  The whole thing was lit up, and it was raining, so no one was around. We basically had the whole Louvre Musee to ourselves besides 2 or 3 people.  It was lit up all over, and it was incredibly beautiful in an old, eerie way.  After taking billions of pictures, we heard some enchanting saxophone music off to one side, and we walked over to it, and saw another courtyard with a fountain in it, all lit up. It was so so SO gorgeous, and we stood there a few moments taking it all in. Then we just walked around the river some more and saw Paris all lit up, and then headed home via metro for bed. 

            Next day (now yesterday) mommy left, and it was sad saying goodbye, since we had so much fun and such an amazing trip together.  Because of the wind (le vent), (which I already detest…) my early morning train, which I had woken up at 6am for, was cancelled because trees had been blown onto the tracks and damaged parts of it. Great. But then I caught the 1pm train, where a 2 hour 52 min train ride to Vichy took 5 hours.  But I met a dude named Pierre, and we talked the whole way down, Franglish since he knew about as much English as I knew French. Then I went home to meet my new roommate Jana! We hung out and went grocery shopping.

            Today we hung out all day, and went more grocery shopping, I got a sim card for my phone the beautiful Brittany Bunker gave me from her travels in Europe.  Then we went shopping, because here they have controlled sales, unlike at home where the stores decide, I don’t know if the city decides or what, but today was the last day for the sales in Vichy. I got a shirt and that’s bout it, but I saw a really cute purse I might go back and get for 19E. J I know you boys are loving this part.  But Jana is super cool. We are really similar is a lot of ways. We both dress similar, and kinda have the same build, both LOVE volleyball, love the same things in the stores, and both have the same music likes and same pet peeves. Looks like its gonna be fun! Ok, well that catches you up on what I’ve been up to while I’ve had no internet… so there. Miss you guys, and I’ll be in touch hopefully soon! Oh, and it looks like I’m going to have a disgusting number of pictures when I get back… seeing as I have been here 7 days – a week, and I’ve already taken 530! Just found that out, surprising even me.

Much love, Crystal!

p.s. sorry there are no pics yet… I have to get internet before I can do that. And if you want explanations on the pictures… its gonna be a while as I am apparantly snap happy.

Much love, Crystal!

Chez M & Mme Pays

22 rue du Bourbonnais

03200 Vichy

France