Aix-en-Provence, France

Geneva

2009-06-22T15:30:00.011+02:00

Kinda blurry, but there we are! This is from the weekend of the 13th, when I went to Geneva, Switzerland to stay with Georgia and her mom and Julia. It was so much fun!

The view from our hotel room, swisotel metropole.

Swans everywhere!

Lake Geneva, looking out onto the street where our hotel was.

The fountain in the middle of the lake.

The view from our boat ride to Yvoire, a little French town on the lake.

The view from Yvoire.

A castle on the lake in Yvoire.

The U.N. building.

Le Mont St. Michel

2009-06-09T01:08:00.012+02:00

This is my friend Anna. We were excited to finally be here because we had to take two buses and the metro. haha

This really is one of my favorite places in the world.

The city inside the castle walls.

The cloisters in the abbey

I love this picture because the light makes it look like a painting
Le Saint Michel

Sigh....

The reason I don't have any pictures of myself here is because Anna took them all! When she gets her picture up online I'll add some : )

Cannes Film Festival

2009-06-09T00:59:00.006+02:00

Cannes

The beach in Cannes.

The main movie theater with the red carpet.

My friends and I : )

Paris, Venice and Athens

2009-06-08T23:04:00.035+02:00

Paris

In April, my friend Eva and I went to Paris, then Venice and Athens. This is the view from the street our hostel was on. It was in Monmartre, which is really one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Paris. Lots of hills and stairs, which wasn't fun with our suitcases!

C'est beau, non?!

Eva and I were going to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower but I freaked out when the elevator started moving so I got off at the 2nd floor. Eva went all the way to the top, though!

I always end up cutting off half of my face when we try taking pictures of ourselves.

The square outside the Louvre.

Les Pyramides

I love this painting! It reminds me of Romeo and Juliet.

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing, Roman cavalry choirs are singin.... : )

For some reason we thought this was the Arc de Triomphe at first, but we figured out it was down the road a ways ; )

The real Arc de Triomphe : )

Le Sacre Coeur!

The view from the Sacre Coeur.

The Moulin Rouge

The Musee D'Orsay

One of my favorite paintings in the museum.

Degas' Petite Danseuse de 14 ans

The mirror creates a cool effect here. This was in the Musee D'Orsay too.

L'Opera Garnier, where the Phantom of the Opera takes place!
Duuuh, duh duh duh duh duh!

Venice

Rialto bridge

My friend Eva. We were on the water buses that take everyone where they need to be. There are no cars on the island.

This picture is funny because I asked this Italian boy to take it; his friends were with him, and I think he was embarrassed so he stayed right where he was.

The gondolas looked amazing, but I think it was about 50 or 70 euros a ride.

Dad, I took this for you : ) I guess Italians like Jackson Browne! haha

Venice at night is just gorgeous.

To get to Athens we had to take a ferry, and this was it. Ikarus Palace.

We had to camp out here for the whole 35 hours because our tickets were for the deck. When it got really cold during the night we snuck inside and slept on these airport chairs though ; ).

Athens

A mini-Acropolis thing in this park you go through to get to the Acropolis.

Theatre of Dionysos

The Acropolis

Eva and me at the top of the Acropolis

This mineral lake we went to on our last day in Athens. It was gorgeous there.

La Ciotat & Les Calanques

2009-03-15T20:03:00.012+01:00

La CiotatI went to a little city called La Ciotat today with my friend Laura and a group of study abroad students. This is where the Lumiere brothers filmed the first movie and thus invented the cinema. It was gorgeous weather and the sea looked so calm. It was just a great day to be outside.

A tropical-looking park we walked through on our way to a view of the Mediterranean Sea.

There were scuba divers and snorkelers down there somwhere!

The white sand at the bottom made the water look green here and it was so pretty!

Les Calanques
We did some pretty intense hiking along these cliffs, called les calanques, in between La Ciotat and another little city, Cassis. We were up so high - it was just incredible.

You can't even tell where the water ends and the sky begins.

Me and my friend Laura. We hiked for over two hours straight today, at times going up at a really high incline.

What a view, right?

Winter vacation!

2009-03-02T17:39:00.022+01:00

Barcelona

Our first stop on this trip was Barcelona, Spain. I didn't expect it to be such a cool city, but it was amazing! We visited the Park Guell, where these columns are located. It's really a magical place.

This is Park Guell too. The friends I traveled with, Celina and Laura, and I found a secluded area in this park with a playground and we sat there and ate our lunch of Subway sandwiches..haha. You gotta make sacrifices sometimes when you're traveling on a tight budget!

There were mosaics like this one everywhere in the park. Gorgeous!

The Gaudi cathedral, Sagrada Familia.

This is the other side of the building.

Venice
(a.k.a. the most amazing city in the world!)

On the water buses in Venice.

Me and my friends, Laura (left) and Celina (right) on San Marco island. It was Carnevale that week so everyone was dressed up in masks and costumes. Lots of fun, but sooo many people!

Piazza San Marco, the main square on this island. It was packed!

Again, really crowded. But so much fun!

Us with our friend Maria from Spain. She was staying at the same hostel we were, so we spent our two days in Venice together. She was so sweet! She didn't speak much English, though, so communicating was a challenge.

For some reason, there were still Christmas decorations up everywhere. They were pretty, though!

One of my favorites. We all bought masks for Carnevale!

Our hostel was right on the water. This is our view!

The last day of the festival, actually I think it was the day of Mardi Gras, there was a special surprise event in the square. It turned out to be cover bands for the Beatles and Abba! It was SO much fun!

Florence

This was our hostel, called the Archi Rossi (Red Arch). It was such a neat place. There were murals like this on all the walls, and people wrote their names/notes all over the place too after staying here.

Il duomo, the huge cathedral that everyone comes here to see. I love the sun and the shadows in this pic.

The front of the Duomo.

Il Ponte Vecchio (The old bridge) : )

The view from the Piazza Michelangelo was absolutely gorgeous! I have a million more pics, so just email me if you want to see some more!

Le Luberon

2009-02-14T22:17:00.006+01:00

Here are some pictures of our program's trip to Le Luberon yesterday. The movie Jean De Florette was filmed in this region.

The guide told us that the mineral found in the rock here is what makes it look orange. It was really pretty.

I thought this was such a cool painting on the front of this old door. We stopped in a little village for lunch and to get out of the wind and cold.

This was taken at L'Abbaye de Sénanque.

L'Abbaye de Sénanque.

Inside the abbey.

I really like this picture for some reason.

This is the abbey's courtyard. We were all freezing, but it was a really peaceful place.

Our tour guide told us that these are the only two columns with different designs at the top. The column on the left was, at one time, located at the very center of the abbey - which explains why they gave it its own design.

We had some time to kill after our visit at the abbey, so we stopped in another little city in Luberon. I took this one from the bus.

For me, at least, this day was mostly cold and uneventful until I saw this view. That made it worth it.

Saint Paul de Vence & Antibes

2009-02-10T02:29:00.016+01:00

Saint Paul de Vence

We went to a little modern art museum in Saint Paul de Vence, which is about a two-hour bus ride directly east of Aix. This painting is called "La Vie," by Marc Chagall.

Here is a really pretty stained glass window that we saw in the museum as well.

Haha....this one's kind of funny because this painter had three or four really weird ones like this. They all looked completely different and crazy, but had the same title: "Bird woman," or something like that. My friend Rachel is holding up 2 fingers because this was supposedly "Bird woman" #2.

The museum had some very nice gardens with lots of sculptures. There's something beautiful and yet haunting about this one, I think.

I had to make this one bigger. It's just so gorgeous and you have to see it up close. All I can say is that it doesn't even compare to seeing the real thing.

I didn't go up there to see the church, but we had a nice view of the bell tower from here.

This is at the foot of the hill the small city was on. Literally, that's all it was - a hill.

I loved this place. It was so quiet and quaint. It's a pretty touristy place, though.

This was in one of the shop windows. It's great, right?

I walked around in this cemetery. It was really pretty and peaceful, although some of the coffins were falling apart. That was a little bit creepy.

I think this is my favorite one right here.

Antibes

This is the view from the balcony of another modern art museum they took us to...this is the third one we've been to so far. It's a bit excessive if you ask me. But it was worth it just to see this view.

Me and my friend Celina.

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the musem which is why I don't have very many from this city, but here's what it looks like from the outside. (I didn't take this). It's supposed to be a Picasso museum, but there actually weren't very many of his paintings and they were all on the very top floor. It took us forever to find them.

It's SNOWING!

2009-01-07T11:04:00.003+01:00

This is incredible. Here I travel across an ocean for Christmas break in hopes of seeing snow in the midwestern United States, where it snows ALL the time, and not a flake. But as soon as I get back to Southern France we get a blizzard! There is probably 3 inches of snow on the ground here, and it's still coming pretty steadily. Everyone who had exams today has had them canceled!

London!

2009-01-05T18:09:00.003+01:00

This has almost all of my London pictures and most of the video I took there! You might want to turn down your volume before playing it. The music is probably a little loud. I hope you like it : )

Pictures from 2008 (Christmas concert and Nice)

2009-01-05T17:10:00.010+01:00

This is the view from the back of the Cathedrale Saint Sauveur, where I had a Christmas concert back in December. One of my friends invited me to sing with her church choir and it was a lot of fun! It's an international church so all the carols were in English.

We had to sit down at several points during our concert so the speakers could say their verses, and at one point we sang the 12 days of Christmas from right there. We stood up for each verse according to birth months. For example, all January birthdays stood up when we sang "a partridge in a pear tree," and Feb. birthdays stood up at "2 turtle doves." It was fun!

My friend took some video of us singing! Enjoy : )

Our group took a trip to Nice back in December, and of course I'm late in putting those pics up too. There was a carnival set up downtown for Christmas. For some reason, the French associate Christmas with ferris wheels and carousels. There were rides and everything downtown in Aix before break too.

One of the prettiest pictures I've taken so far. This is in Nice too.

Christmas tree in Nice.

Nice

2008-12-15T18:38:00.005+01:00

This is a short movie I made using video I took on my digital camera! I know it's dark- bear with me. I would have taken video when we were walking outside (when it was still light!) but I didn't think about it then. I'm going to London on Friday to visit a friend, so you can expect more video blogs soon. I tried to upload more pictures to this post but my internet is being really slow. Check back tomorrow!

Embarassing stories and Christmas decorations!

2008-11-21T15:18:00.004+01:00

Haha...so, being in a foreign country and all, I am bound to make stupid mistakes. This week has been full of them. I was sitting on a bench waiting for the bus and this woman comes up to me; I thought she was begging for money so I shook my head, no. What she actually asked me was if she could sit next to me. So I basically insulted her. Luckily she sat down and started talking to me, so I think it was no big deal.

I bought some Christmas decorations at the store the other day so here are a few pictures. On the left is a little Christmas tree. I needed some red in my room! Then I put some lights shaped like snowflakes around my bulletin board. I'm all ready for the holidays now! : )

Obama, weather, and the French education system

2008-11-13T01:42:00.002+01:00

I don't have any pictures, but I have plenty of things to talk about! For one, the election! I never really realized how involved the rest of the world is in American politics until I got here. The day the election results were announced, I had random French people ask me if I was happy about Obama's win. I don't think most Americans could even tell you what kind of political system France has, let alone know Sarkozy's name. The French people in general were all Obama supporters, and they were pretty excited. People were yelling his name in the streets that night, I heard. Let's hope he earns all their enthousiasm.

Next item up for discussion- the weather here in "sunny" Provence. These past few weeks have been rainy and cold! I honestly thought I could leave my red rain boots at home in my closet, but I have needed them more this semester than ever, I think. I heard there are about 200 or so days of sunshine here (more, I think) but when it rains it rains. And rains. And doesn't stop for a whole week. And all of the gutters here drain onto the sidewalks so you get even more soaked. Cold weather with no snow is not, in my opinion, any fun. Apparently they don't believe in heated classrooms here in Europe, so tomorrow during my litterature class I will probably be freezing!

I will never again complain about the price to attend college in the United States. If you could see the building I have classes in, you would understand what I'm talking about. I will take pictures and post them soon. Imagine an old, abandoned building- a place with graffiti on the walls, unisex bathrooms that always smell like urine and that rarely have toilet paper or toilet seats, and you've got the FAC. Because no one pays for university here, and the government doesn't provide the school with any money, they can't do anything about it either. The teachers are amazing though. I think this is supposed to be one of the best universities academic-wise in France. I think they are all tired of teaching in such awful conditions, too, but they are more used to it than I am!

It is very late now and I have a 10 a.m. litterature class in the morning so this is where I sign off. I hope everyone is doing well!

Love,
Meredith

Moustiers Sainte Marie et Les Gorges de Verdun

2008-10-19T02:18:00.013+02:00

So I know it's been a really long time since I've posted, but the last few times I tried to upload pictures it wouldn't work for some reason. And I've been really busy with classes so I haven't had a lot of free time. But I have some now, so here you go! Yay, it worked!

To the right is a picture I took in a little village called Moustiers Sainte Marie. I went there on a trip with a bunch of other study abroad students on Sept. 28 (I remember because it was my birthday). The city is known for being really picturesque and also because there is a church there where miracles are supposed to happen all the time. It's on a mountain and it's really pretty there, which you can see from the picture on the left. I took a bunch!

This one was at Les Gorges de Verdun. It's basically a smaller version of the Grand Canyon. And it's not holes in the Earth, it's like mountains. We rode the bus up them so we could take pictures there. They said we were going to be able to climb a little but it was kind of dangerous so we just stopped by the side of the road to take pictures. That's me and my friend Celina to the right. And that's her down there to the left. We rented these paddle boats and were able to go out on the river! There's Celina trying to push us off the beach.

Haha, so I thought I was taking a picture but I was actually taking a video. Just thought it was kind of funny : )

Marseille

2008-09-06T21:24:00.011+02:00

Today my program organized a trip to Marseille, which is apparently second only to Paris when it comes to France's biggest cities. It's on the Mediterranean, and I got a bunch of amazing pictures of the ocean! The sun was shining the whole day and I got quite sunburned! To the right is the view from our bus. It only took about 25 minutes to get to Marseille from Aix.

The picture on the left (2nd row of pictures) is of the little islands just off the coast. You can take a special boat just for tourists to go there and spend there. You can barely see it, but the little island that is just in front of the bigger island- to the far left- is where the Chateau D'IF is. This is the castle in which the movie/book The Count of Monte Cristo takes place- the one Edmond Dantes escapes from in the beginning.
Ok, I only added this because my mom wanted a picture with me in it. I look awful because it was really hot and we were all sweating really badly. The view here is gorgeous, though, isn't it? It makes the heat almost bearable. Here, I was walking up the steps to the Notre Dame de La Garde, Marseille's big church. There were so many different languages being spoken by all the tourists! It was the first time I really heard people speaking Italian and it was exciting for me! The bus ride there was a little scary because, like the Sacre Coeur in Paris, this church was on a HUGE hill. We were on one of those big greyhounds, and it was like going up the streets in San Francisco. I really didn't think we were going to make it!
This picture is of my two closest friends in the program so far, Katie (left) and Celina (right). Both are juniors at IU like me.
This one to the right is of the Notre Dame de la Garde. It was so huge!
This one in the middle is a fountain we stopped at for about ten minutes. I don't know what it's called, but it was so gorgeous. I've never seen anything like it.

My dorm room

2008-09-04T21:14:00.007+02:00

This is for you mom! Just some pictures of my dorm room.

The scenic tour of Aix

2008-08-31T15:25:00.003+02:00

Today two of my friends and I decided to explore a little in Aix, and we kind of got lost. We did see a lot of the city, though. To the left is the mountain we can see from our dorms (although this picture was taken about 10 minutes away from where we are staying.) We stopped at a patisserie along the road here for a pastry, and then we had to ask for directions. The man knew immediately that we were native English speakers, but my goal this year is to change that!

This picture on the right is the Parc Jourdain. It's really pretty during the day. People go there and have picnics, and we saw a guy singing and playing his guitar there this afternoon. At night, though, it gets kind of scary. There are supposedly a lot of drug deals that go on there.

I will post again as soon as I have something interesting to write about!

Bisous,
Meredith

Finalement! I'm in Aix!

2008-08-30T16:05:00.002+02:00

Salut tout le monde!

I would write in French, but not everyone who will be reading this blog can understand so I will stick to Anglais, maybe with a little francais thrown in here and there. I've got a few glasses of wine in me, so forgive me if I stop making sense! I got to Aix at about 1 p.m. on Thursday, so this is my second full day here. Everything is going pretty well so far. I'm in a dorm that is located about 10 minutes from the center of town.

The dorms here are so different from at IU! We have to buy our own toilet paper because there is none in the bathrooms! I've also come to appreciate toilet seats more than I ever thought I would- there are none of those, either. The showers go off after about 30 seconds, so you have to push the knob in all the time. We have sinks in our rooms, though, which is nice. I also have a bidet in my room, but it's kind of scary-looking and I haven't attempted to use it yet. It gets really hot here during the day and there's no AC, so that is taking some getting used to.

So far, we haven't really done anything all that interesting. We've had a few meetings, and there are about 35 of us- some from Indiana, some from Wisconsin, and some from Michigan. There are 29 girls and 6 boys in my group. Yesterday we had a guided tour of Aix, and we saw the building where we get our mail and where the program directors have their offices.

Then, we went downtown and saw all the fountains (Aix has over 40!) and shops. Our school is smack dab in the center of town, and there isn't a whole campus like at IU. There are just a couple of buildings and the rest of campus is way across town. So far I've made it everywhere I need to be without getting lost!

Today a few of my friends and I went downtown because they had "les marches" today. There are booths all over the place with fresh fruit and vegetables and all kinds of yummy stuff. I ate the best peach I have ever tasted in my life! We had breakfast at a little cafe with tables outside facing the market. Afterwards, we went to Monoprix, which is kind of like Target but bigger, to get groceries.

I dont' have any pictures yet because I keep forgetting to take my camera with me when we go places! I start my "cours intensif" on Monday, which is like an introductory/review class to help us prepare for classes in a few weeks.

I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all!

A bientot,
Meredith

FYI

2008-08-18T05:31:00.001+02:00

I'm only saying this because people have actually asked me if I thought Aix was really pronounced "Eggs." No, I don't- it's a joke.

Testing, 1, 2, 3

2008-08-16T03:02:00.001+02:00

This is just a test to see if it really works! Check back in about two weeks and I'll have my first real post.