Tour de Normandy 2

After Rouen, a short train ride to La Havre and i found a friend! My Italian friend Tiziano, fellow traveler and my company/human gps unit for the rest of the trip. We spent Easter day walking La Havre, eating Nids, drinking a little apple juice in the park and then proceeded South. Ulitmate destination was Granville, then Mont St Michel. La Havre is a huge port town that takes care of the shipping for a good portion of the european union. There are many war memorials on the Normandy coast from the last world war. The most notable is in Bayeux outskirts. There are many buildings here that bear the marks of shrapnel damage in thier marble or foundation stones.
La Havre has one of the biggest squares in France, thanks to the extensive bombing and rebuilding the next 50 years afterwards. The Seine that runs through Paris and Rouen empties here in La Havre, or does it start here? Unsure, but the Seine on its connection with the atlantic/english channel, is spanned by the largest bridge in france. The Pont de Normandy. Only shorter than le tour eiffel by a few feet. It was thrilling to drive across and I can only assume that it took a pretty penny to design but it was worth every french franc. On the opposite side of the bridge is a quaint little town,village really, Honfluer. Worth visiting if you have the time. We didn't, but I've heard good things. After getting across the bridge we made our way to Caen, then further south to Avranches, after Avranche we met some italians that just so happened to be going to Granville and we rode with them to the top of Granville, looking at the harbor while the tide was out and the boats were resting on the sea floor.
high tide>
We couch surfed with a lovely lady and her sailor just above the bay here. We ate crab and spent two days with them in their apartment they were just getting ready to move out of. Talk about a kind heart. Granville was fresh and cool, full of sun and sea air. A perfect place for the in- between time, spring before the summer transition.

Tour de Normandy

William the Conquerer would be a little upset. If he knew that Normandy was now in the hands of the Franks, subject to Parisian rule. Completely understand why ol' Will. Turns out the Normands were a hard country to conquer in the 10th century . Visiting the capital city of Normandy, Rouen, I was able to visit some sights that I remember learning about in High School French class. It was the most nostalgic city I've never visited! First up in Rouen, Le Grand Horlage...which was built in 14th century and ran perfectly until 1928. It covers the street directly that leads you to the best places to visit, The Cathedral of Notre Dame (every city has a notre dame) built in the 12th century on 4th century foundations.
Monet painted this gothic cathedral many times in his famous studies of light. So Monet bunked here for quite a while and used the light in Normandy for the other worldly impressionistic masterpieces. The cathedral also has the Dukes of Normandy in thier burial repose best. I attended Easter vigil here and was quite moved by the lumiere processional and mass inside a darkened cathedral with only the candles of the other faithful guiding your way and listening to latin chants sung by a choir.
This is not only the city of Dukes and churches and famous painters but also of a saint. Jeanne. Jeanne D'Arc. Joan of Arc. It was here that she was burned at the stake for being a witch, heretic, there were lots of words being thrown around, mostly though she saved her country and helped reinstall the monarchy of France. Which at that time, was a good thing. The Normands of course were about the same as the English so once captured she was shown little mercy, held in a large turet which still stands today, given a brief trial and burned here. There is a beautiful, non-traditional church built at this site. So much of France has been destroyed and rebuilt during wars and invasions, that there is always a part of the old with the new. Joan's church has 14th century stained glass from a destroyed cathedral during the air raids of WWII. This church was only very recently built in 1970 and Joan has been publicized as a saint since the 1920s.

"O Jean sans sulpechure et sans portrait toi qui savais que le tombeau
des heros est le coeur des vivants"

Bulgaria

So after we have covered the calf and upper thigh of italy (you know it's shaped like a boot) we headed off to Sofia.... A very italian name for a city that has about the same amount of beauty you would expect from a lovely title.

София
Sofia
Capital of Bulgaria, highest capital city in Europe, sits at the foot of Mount Vitosha settled by the Thracians more than 500 years before Common era or as I like to say, before our savior Jesus Christ. In that amount of time the Turkish invasions and communist soviet era rule have been the most recent inhabitants of this part of Bulgaria. Yet the Bulgarians stay the same, continuing to be the the walking contradiction. Ancient monastary's and churches everywhere, while a third mall is being built with an IMAX already in a theatre. You see horse buggies still taking berbers or shepards, wood for stoves to thier homes and mercedes benz g-wagons clamor by on a yellow brick road, now pale golden, a century old gift from Viennese royalty as a wedding present to the last monarchy of Sofia. A few of the most beautiful buildings in Sofia are the Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral

The former royal palace, now the National Art Museum.

There are many neo-classical buildings within the city center. Most of these were built after the Ottoman rule, in other words as soon as they kicked out the Turkish monarchy and leaders, the Bulgarians were free to build as they pleased. They did so for about 30 years until the soviet era. The buildings that were built post 1930's reek of communistic facades, nothing inventive all just plain concrete drab and boring. The most of these type of buildings are housing and a few larger buildings housing national or governement offices. Although the National Assembly of Bulgaria is held in a great Viennese type building surronding the oldest church in the country, St. George. It dates back to the 4th century and has roman ruins exposed you can walk around on pretending you are emperor Justinian.
Sofia is a modern city with a great appeal to nature lovers as it has so many beautiful green parks and a forest surronds much of the city and seperates it from some of the different neighborhoods. My friend, Zach has lived in Bulgaria for over 3 years working for a company that aides foreign investors interested into expanding into the Bulgarian marketplace. We stayed with hime our whole time in Bulgaria and Sofia. He skis whenever he can, as Mt Vitosha and it's ski lifts are about 10 minutes from his front door. (nice) He was our tour guide along with his lovely lady and a friend who attended school in the states and now is back in Sofia.

The most suprising thing for me about Bulgaria was the food. OH! THE FOOD IS AMAZING! Imagine tons of different dishes all tasting like heaven and I think more than half of it is good for you. The drinks were scary first but delicious. We drank yogurt-milk, looks like watery milk, add a little salt and peppar and voila! the perfect company to what's coming next. RYKIA. Be warned, this is brandy made from grapes, figs, any other type of popular bulgarian fruit i'm geussing, and it is the smoothest liqour you could ever have. Delightfully inebriating. I honestly would go back for the brandy alone.

However, there is more to Bulgaria than Sofia, rykia and churches. There are monastaries and wine. Ha. After a few days in Sofia we took a car ride on the only road leading out of town (south towards greece) and visited the Rila Monastary on our way to Melnik near the greek border.

The Rila Monastary is tucked back into the Rila Mountains and is the home of Monks who began thier hermitage inspired by St. John of Rila who ascended into the mountains seeking spiritual release from the modern life of the 8th century. Thanks to its secluded nature it has been safe from the many Ottoman and other invasions in the last 1000 years.


The paintings on the inside of the monastery were done in the 1800's and are so vibrant and completely different than western religious paintings. The icons behing the two people ^ are depictions of saints and angels, jesus, mary, apostles, all for prayers and blessings while in the church.

When in Rome...

Rome
City of ancient civilization! Oh how every place you step has known someone yet before. There is not a crevice, stone, molecule of air untainted in this fine city. Modern Rome is not the same size as ancient Rome but it seems not much has changed.
In Rome we stayed with Miss Lindy Long from Ohio. She is a good friend of Lisa's and gave us a place to sleep in her apartment in Trastevere the south eastern portion of Rome.
The first day we walked up Janiculum Hill, second tallest hill in Rome and viewed the layout of the city before us. Afterwards we walked down to the streets of Trastevere where the beautiful Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere stands keeping a warm shining face to the square that holds many restaurants and gelato stands.
Afterwards we walked across the Tiber river and found ourselves in Argentina, one of the many roman temples that has been made into a square because of the encroaching modern buildings and roads. Lindy volunteers at the Roman Cat Sanctuary where a home is for the abandon cats of Rome. They need help and are a non-profit working to spay and provide medical attention to the felines that rule the cobblestone streets. Walking around the streets of Rome the first thing that strikes you is the warmth of the sun, the amount of people no matter what time of day it is, and of course clergy members everywhere.

After our first day, our second was a bit more ancient.
The Roman Forum, Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus
Early morning wake up call for sightseeing. The sun was shining and we bought our tickets into the Roman Forum, only French maps where available (they always run out of english) so Lisa and I made use of that extra language we have.
The ancient birthplace and civic center of Rome sits between the 2 biggies of central Rome, the Colosseum and Capitol Hill.
After the Forum we drifted up Palatine hill while the sun was shining and looked out over the vast expanse of the circus maximus. The museum at the top was interesting, housing many of the found sculptures, pottery and materials found at the sight. There are even bronze and iron age huts that have been found underneath the Roman senators palaces here. The hill of Palatine is thought to have housed the first tribe of Rome and gave the myth or possible real history of Romulous meaning.
As the sun continued to shine we noticed omnious couds of rain in the distance and thinking better of it, moved to start our tour of the Colosseum. Only after a late Roman lunch did we start the tour, which gave us plenty of sunshine until the very end of our hour inside the Colossol theatre of gladiators and place of entertainment. I had to use the word colossol.

Italy- Venice, Padua, Verona

Vacation !
My friend Lisa Beebe joined me for a two week adventure through Italy and Bulgaria. These are our stories.
Why?
Italy because Lisa has a friend studying in Rome and Bulgaria because of my friend Zach who lives in Sofia.

It all started on an early February morning. Walking out of my tiny apartment in Montataire with my necessities for two weeks vacuumed sealed and squished into my big green backpack. After taking bus,train,taxi and almost missing our flight (nice work of arguing Lisa!) we arrived safely in Milan, the valley of the Italian Dolomites.
Huge mountains and sunshine, constant sunshine from when we parted the clouds above France to when we touched down in Italy. Oh, how I missed the sun.
Speaking Italian proved to be a bit interesting for me and Lisa. We forgot that we left France (it was only an hour plane ride and neither of us had slept for 24 hours, to say we were tired and a bit groggy is true) and continued speaking in French to Italians, until one of us realized they had no clue what we were saying. Haha.
We struggled and laughed with our si's and oui's constantly changing them back and forth. Learned dov'e? et chinquay but to say italian is similar to french...no. Italian is similar to spanish. But we made friends everywhere with our fren-talian. The Italians are tri-lingual easily and probably nicer than they seem.
Italy has amazing cappucino's and brioche. These saved our lives many a dire moment. Mmm nothing compares to that nice milky foam that you can scoop up with your tiny spoon after you have finished the dark liquid adrenaline that is italian cafe. Tangent! Anyways....

After our cafe wake up call we headed out to Milan Train station about an hour away and to get on a train headed for Venice. This was our ultimate planned destination. Venice during Carnival. Luckily before we left, Lisa contacted a couch surfer named Guiseppe who was kind enough to let us crash with him a few days on the condition that we make peanut butter pasta for him. It's quite the american delicacy.
That cute Italian man is Gusieppe and the bowl Lisa is holding is full of peanut butter pasta.
Sidenote: Couchsurfing is a network of people throughout the world that offer their homes as a place to stay for travelers (for free) in the belief of sharing one anothers culture and being able to have a place to stay with someone who is willing to contribute to your experience of thier home and country. In other words, friends you haven't met yet. All fellow travelers and world traveling supporters.

So far.... Milan> Verona> Padua> VENICE!!

On the train to Venice looking out across the northern Italian countryside were many farms and small villages. Then, slowly, the mountains faded and we entered into Venice.

There are no cars on the old island just thousands of boats, gondoliers, skiffs, I think we even saw a few kayaks. The city when it first appears to you seems so tiny. Get lost a little bit in any of it's backstreets and you will be assured it is anything but that. It's just a myriad of mazes, bridges and canals. The air smells so fresh and clean and the canals do all they can to seep out into the lagoon surronding the fish shaped island. On our first day (Friday) Lisa and I stumbled around eating gelato and admiring the booths set up for Carnival. Masks, capes, toys, souveniers, food and milling about were people already dressed up as fairies, royalty and clowns. We retired back to Padua, where Gusieppe lived, about 30 minutes by train from Venice. Arriving there we dressed up to the best of our travelers ability in masks and painted our faces for a Carnival party in Verona. An hour drive later we arrived in Verona, the middle of a vineyard with about 30 other people dressed in the most imaginative things. There were pigs, amoebas, a cactus, phantoms, clowns, bellydancers and puss in boots. A lot of competition for the best dressed and most original prize to be awarded at the end of the night. Take a look at the photo and geuss who won. So that was Verona and the Couchsurfer party.
The next day we walked around Padua, enjoyed Europe's largest square full of Roman inspired architechture and beautiful statues surronding (what else?) a canal and beautiful fountains. Padua was very peaceful and gave us a taste for the Northern Italian lifestyle.

Venice for the Carnival weekend was packed. Honestly. If this city is sinking slowly then it goes a little bit faster during carnival. The sheer numbers of people, mostly italians, who attend the masked balls, dressed up and walked the streets of Venice is nuts. So the tourists were of course sore thumbs do to our lack of appropriate costumes. Even though on our trip we made the best of it by buying masks, we came no where close to fitting in. By hitting up the big tourist spots (St.Mark's square, Grand Canal etc.) early, we spent most of our time in the side streets and wandering. We were taking pictures, eating gelato, which is a huge theme of this trip, and just enjoying the atmosphere. Best way to enjoy a city is to jump into the melee and then retreat. A little flavor of both. No matter where we went Carnival found us. Such as a drum corp of smurfs, Uncle Scrooge ducks that want a hand out from Obama, and hundreds of others.

My visit to Chantilly and the town Gouvieux home of The Bouhanas

It's February.
NOT POSSIBLE.
I was supposed to have finished scarves and hats for so many people, become more fluent in the language of the country I am living in and find a church to attend in my village. Alas, it seems that time can fly by much too fast.
The last few weeks I have made more friends and commitments to myself to become a better ex-pat. I have started reading the Bible, and am writing a lot more than usual. A friend suggested a prayer journal so I am going to try and give it a chance to become part of my routine. With the lenten season approaching it seems like a better time than any.

Grandma, the weather here is nice. Good wet, albeit a little cold, european weather. The smell of burning wood and bread baking in the boulangeries early in the morning when the earth is still grey and the sky is hanging mist will always be imprinted in the memory as quintesential france.

Today was Sunday and I was invited to a dinner, really Sunday repas, lasting for about 5-7 hours with my professor and her family. She is my favorite teacher at the college. Mostly because she has so much experience and I appreciate the way she teaches. She is full of energy and ready to engage the class any way she can. I feel as though I am learning more from her style of teaching than any class could teach.
So I arrived at her home, which was absoloutely beautiful, 3 floors, small by american standards but rather large by french. Her furniture collection was astounding, all pieces from before the turn of the century. Also a beautiful black lacquered chinese wardrobe with wonderful handpaintings converted for the television and also A FIREPLACE!! I miss fireplaces so much. Not many houses here I have been to actually have them and france is so damp that I don't know why this is. Her whole family was there to greet me, two sons and daughter (all about my age), her husband, who was so charming, her mother in law, her mother and her aunt. All just lovely and amazing people. I felt so at home and they even printed and made a special Menu with the courses of the evening listed inside, with a photo of Chicago on the front.







The only way I can describe french hospitality is they make you feel like a member of a family and a honored guest at their table. The food is astounding, the conversations ranging from proper pronuciation of koala to china patterns and talk of films and books. I was sent home with a jar of homemade soup, flowers bought in Paris (mimosa's), a desert log her aunt made and a borrowed book, driven back to my village by her very handsome son (sigh). I don't know where to start to repay them, but thanking them profusly and hoping I am invited back soon.

It is days like this I feel I could be at home here. It is days like this I miss my family so much.

"The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning"
-Michel Foucault

January 7th 2009

Well the new year is here!

Welcome the year of change! The year of economic crisis! The year of a new american revolution? Or a high noon of the european union day of reckoning? Ah, 2009. I think you will bestow upon us a multitude of new learning experiences, being that you are the last year of the new millennium with a single digit, and certain realizations of the new world order. At least that's what my hopes are. Anyhow, since i think my grandma is about the only person who reads this blog (Hi my florida golfer!) I will tell you all about Paris at christmas and new years...
Christmas:
Everyone has somewhere to be! Most Parisians evacuate Paris for winter break which starts the week students have off school the 20th until the 5th of January. For Parisians escaping the city of 3 million people is extremely important, and many disperse off to Lyon, Normandy, Bourgogne, and so forth. To the country, where life is slow and they can relax. For those staying in Paris everything is open until Christmas Eve and then silence. Christmas day is a much more religious atmosphere than in the united states. You really don't see as much santa claus' and frosty the snowmen as you do everywhere you go at christmas. Mostly it's just wonderful holiday lights guiding you down tiny streets and a few decorations on store front windows of frosting and snowflakes. The pastry shops and bread shops all have the buche de noel, or holiday logs out front of their windows. These are the most delicious little cakes made in the shape of a log in any flavor you can imagine. Decorated with tiny little berries or gold leaves or fruit. I forced my family into picking one, they had no idea what it was and eyed it suspiciously and doubted the judgement of 25 euros on something that looks like a festive doorstop. However, soon as we cut into the cake, christmas eve in our tiny little parisian apartment, everyone enjoyed it. It was so rich you could have been full from eating half a slice. So we put half of it back in it's festive gold box into the fridge. The next day we pulled it out for dinner and it was empty. I suspect Mom. Or a Dad, Kelsey, Mom combo. They ate well. Crepes, mussels, ham, french pizza, steak frites, it is hard to say no to french cuisine. As a family we visited so many places in the city that we were constantly on the metro, which little sister was able to navigate by the end of the trip. We saw the Louvre, Centre Pompidou (modern art at it's finest) Champs D'Elysee, Arc De Triomph, Notre Dame, Sacre Couer, Montmatre, Eiffel Tower, Invalides, Catacombs pretty much everything to see in Paris. In a week. Poor family wore the tread out in their shoes, but we did it. My favorite part of having my family here was sitting around Paris, having no place to go and playing cards or the name game. I missed them all so much. They had to leave eventually, france is too small for this family. So after tearful goodbyes off they flew, back to everything i miss.

New Years Eve:

To the Eiffel Tower with all the other french, non-french and crazies! Bottles of champagne helped keep the cold away and 4 other assistants and myself had a lovely time watching fireworks go off and the tower change from blue to gold. It was bittersweet, but I am glad I was there. I will always remember the cold and the lights and how everyone was screaming and shouting Bonne Annee! After all the craziness and shuffling back to our respective homes we all experienced the bizarre chance (well it was planned) of FREE metro rides. Along with EVERY other living soul in Paris. Or it seemed like, while so packed into a little tiny metro car you can hardly move, I highly recommend starting the new year off right by getting very friendly with your french neighbors. Of course it was made interesting, by picking the wrong direction, laughing and joking around with strangers, good times.

So there you are, a new update to keep you in the know. It has snowed quite a bit here in the last few days as well, the kids are perfecting their aim with the snowballs and ice is everywhere. I'm really happy to be back at school and teaching. We're working on Martin Luther King Junior this week and starting our talk about civil rights and it's history in the United States. Hopefully enough to keep them interested until the inauguration.