First part of February

Since we are half way through February I thought I would catch you all up on the first part of vacation. Out of the four weeks of the month of February we have two weeks of vacation. I love France! I guess I will give the highlights and low points of our trip up North.

Highlights:
1. Dijon, France is great. I look forward to visiting that city again for the wonderful mix of architecture and people. I wish we could have walked more of the city so, back to Dijon we will go this spring. Although we did not eat mustard, or drink Creme de Cassis (a local liqueur), or visit vineyards. Most of the vineyards head south from town so we will see those this spring. Patrick and I have already figured out the backpacking trip from Dijon to Beaune through the burgundy wine region. Also the people we stayed with were wonderful. They taught us a great party trick involving your fingers moving to create a "sausage bridge". It is hard to explain so ask us to show you when we get back.

2. Couch-surfing was a great way to meet people in each of the towns we visited. For the most part it was a wonderful experience and I felt we got to meet a lot of great people. I look forward to meeting other wonderful people in our second part of our trip to Nice.

3. Traveling with Grace and Kelsey, two of our great friends here, is always a pleasure. Although we all had our moments of "I want to kill you!" they have truly become our little French family here, regardless of the fact that we are all American, and I am grateful to have met such great friends here.

4. Tasting real champagne in the champagne region. I can check that one off my list of things to do before I die. Why does champagne have to be so expensive? Maybe it is a good thing that is so expensive or I would drink it all the time. Not that it is a bad thing but probably not the best for my health.

5. Walking around all of the cities and seeing them unfold before my eyes. Strasbourg is so German from the food to the lay out of the city just feels very German. Strasbourg also has the most beautiful church; I think the most beautiful I have ever seen. Dijon is a mixture of French and German influence as well as the church but everything just fit so well together. Reims (pronounced rinse but hold your nose while you say it) was very Roman and had a lot of new buildings. I say Roman since it is built on a grid. A lot of new buildings due to the war and updating the city. Reims is under construction so I wouldn't go to visit again until after 2012, but worth the trip for the history alone.

6. The long train rides around the area allowed me to see the country side and the smaller towns of the region. I also had time to read since there was nothing else you could really do on the train.

7. The last pull-out bed that Patrick and I slept on was the most comfortable bed we have slept on in France.

Low points
1. The first group of people we stayed with in Strasbourg put a sour taste in my mouth as well as the city. They were...um...how do I put this...strange. Yeah, I will go with strange. I will never be able to look at pink elephants quite the same way since they had a collection of them in their living room. Did I mention that they were two grown men? No, yeah they were two grown men with a stuffed animal pink elephant collection. The second group of folks we stayed with saved us, to say the least, and were wonderful people.

2. It was cold, really cold. I can only hope that the warmth of Southern France will thaw the chill left over from the cold wind of the North.

3. I was really tired from having to go from one house to the next. This is the down side of couch-surfing. Every time you move to a new place it is a new set of getting-to-know-you conversations. Now add speaking in French and I get tired just thinking about it. So, the lesson has been learned that maybe weekend trips or long stays are the best for couch-surfing.

4. I heard from University of California Santa Barbara and I didn't get in so that sucked. The downside I am now worried about the rest of the schools I applied to but only in those silent moments of doubt which occur either late at night or afternoon. The upside we all went dancing and had a lot of fun. Yeah both Patrick and Kelsey (two people who claim not to like dancing or say they can't dance)danced which was so much fun, so it was more of a highlight after all.

So that is a quick summary of the first part of our trip. More to come later.

Peace,
Molly