Just Call Me Princess-- Loire Valley

March 8 and March 9

 Well the Loire Valley trip has come and gone. It was on the 9th and 10th. For the most part it was fun. The longer I am here there more disconnected I feel. Like everyone is close and I have to force myself to get an invite or be acknowledged. I will go through this later. The castles were beautiful. We started our day at 5:50! I got my own seat and slept the majority! This trip was different. We had to stay with the tour guide class and walk around the city, which was cool for a bit. But, its tiring and starts to sound the same. Our first stop a place was a place I wanted to visit anyway. I loved it. I saw the castle and Joan of Arc! We had lunch and saw the most magnificent church. I literally took my breathe away! Around 2 we headed to Tours but we stopped at a castle. It was one we learned about in school and was HUGE! The inside of the castle looked liveable. Up to this point the trip was OK. I hung out with Yafei, Jasmine, and Helen. They were hilarious!

The main and only problem is the hostel. It was better than the last one aka not as many stairs. I was in the room with the guides and they were too tired to speak English. They would have a conversation and summarize it in one sentence to me. I left. The nice guide who was in another room asked if it was OK and told me I got placed there because I'm American. FML. What am I supposed to say? I spent as little time as possible in the room. I did experience the French stereotype. When my roomies took her jacket off it smelled so bad! She did use spray deodorant, which did nothing. It just mixes and makes the smell even worse! Once we smelled ok! We headed to the best dinner I've had since I got here!!! There was medieval performers. We got 2 appetizers and a billion of this patty biscuit stuff. There was also wine. Of course, I always kept a full glass,

One thing I noticed was the difference between myself and the Russian girls. Everyone to poured them wine  and served them. The guy next to me continuously got asked to refill their glasses and serve food. I just did it myself.


The Next Day

We went to a castle and a city tour. This one guy guide was fun. He is really nice and actually good at guiding.

Villanary Gardens
It was so pretty even if it hadn't grown in yet. There is a reflection pond. The bushes shapes have meeting! The heart is love and squares are daggers,

Loire Valley is beautiful! If you ever have a chance to go take it! This trip is definitely worth it!

American Boys Take Notes

March 8, 2012

International Women's Day. Every COuntry or majority have heard of this holiday and celebrate except America! This holiday is to celebrate women. Men's is in September. fyi. The buys at school planned a surprise dinner for the girls. American boys take note. They went out and bought everything. It was so precious. First, Olli the greeter gave all of us  a salute and we sat down. Then they had a place setting. They served noodle like we were in a resturant. Followed by graded cheese. They the best pasta sauce ever!! While we were talking about how sweet this was. They were preparing dessert. There was a "women's" playlist with songs like who runs the world and You're so Beautiful Girl. Once everything was done. They had one last surprise. Right what more could they have done! They did all of our dishes! By far the most memorable and best day ever!!!

As far as school-- the classes are getting tougher more classes longer days and more information to remember. My typical school day looks like this. I wake up and have class at 8 or 9:30 am. That would not be so bad if my classes didnt end at 5:00. Regional is tough-- you have to remember the histry, region, and sites, and how is all goes together. French culture is fine we mostly look around Angers and take trips. Managerial Accounting is tough. She gives us problems and after failing for about an hour, she will tell us the answers. Then we repeat with a new type of problem. Tourism Management is ok just boring. Tour guiding is fun but we have to price tours and the information is never clear enough, COmmercial Negotiations is about to become hard. We are getting a case and have to negoiate it with an opposing team. Two classes are already finished. Food culture is boring and we may have a final in it and I have not learned a thing.

Our newest class is wine. This seems fun. Wine tasting who can complain right? Sports Management is just repeating the same lecture again and again. We have a test the day after spring break fml! The last class is French Language. It is terrible! The class has way too many levels so most don't even try and do well. Then there are people like me and fail! I talked to Stephan the instructor today. He said normally there are people at lower levels. Okay and? He said talk to the teacher who speaks no English. Right,

Major Update Coming TONIGHT

I have been very lazy about updating my blog but will be caught up by the end of tonight! I have a lot to say. I will also be staring the 21 reasons I am excited to be coming home and 21 things I will miss. Get excited!