Emotionnnnsss

I've been taking the time to read the blogs of the other people here lately, and the common thread throughout them is how emotional and personal they are getting. I think I've done a pretty good job of recounting trips and activities, and certainly analyzing the Northeastern co-op process. However I have to say that "personal reflection" is not typically something that makes it into my blog posts. The main reason for this is...me. If you know me, then this fact shouldn't be much of a surprise. I'm often told that I don't "open up", or that I am not much of a "sharer". My best friend likes to make the joke that she literally forced me into being friends with her. Of course this isn't entirely true, I did like her. But I'll give her the credit, she basically beat information out of me until I had no choice but to become comfortable talking about almost everything. So in the spirit of being a good blogger, here is my best attempt at getting "personal":

1. Is this it?

'We only have 3 months left! OMG this experience is half gone already! The one month marker?!' I would say for the first half of this experience I was consistently waiting for it to really begin, waiting for something to click, something to happen. Finally a few weeks ago I had to come to the realization that this is it. This isn't to say that I have had a bad time here, however I can't say that life in Lyon has really been all that riveting. Bland would be a good word for it. We have our occasional spurts of creativity, but for the most part every day is the same. We get up, go to class, complain, go home, get bread, and then retreat to our separate rooms to chat online, download movies, or spend inordinate amounts of time on Sudoku. Everyone that I know who has studied abroad previously returns home with at least a few crazy stories from where they were, and most are dying to go back. I can honestly say when I leave here, I will very likely never return to Lyon. And as far as stories go? Sure I have some good ones, but the ones from times actually spent in Lyon are few and far between. It's a weird feeling. I can't say that I'm disappointed, more just neutral and indifferent...but is that really how I'm supposed to feel when I'm finally living a dream that I have had since middle school???

2. Am I the bitch?

I'm not sure if it's validated, but I have this nagging feeling that the French kids think I'm a bitch. It's not that I'm mean to them, however I'll be the first to admit that my days of putting in effort to get to know them are long since over. At the beginning I really did try, but somewhere between the culture shock, home stress, weekend trips, and eventual frustration with just about everything French, my motivation deteriorated. Coming into this experience the prospect of going to school with all French students really excited me. I had an idyllic vision of myself speaking fluent french (ha) and making a slew of international friends. However upon arrival it did not take long to figure out that the reality would be far from that. I have made a few French friendships that I truly do hope continue, but the vast majority of them I don't even speak to. I don't really have anyone to blame for this but myself. Can I honestly say that I've been putting in a lot of effort to improve my French? No. Have I really tried to reach out and understand these people? Not really. Have I been using my best friend as a crutch? Yes.
One factor in what has made this bonding difficult is the fact that I am rarely in Lyon on the weekends. Out of 17 total weekends, I will have spent 5 here in Lyon without any visitors (two of which were before we even met anyone). I've been thinking lately that maybe I regret going away so much. Maybe I regret not spending time here practicing French and building friendships. But when I'm completely honest with myself? I don't. When I signed up for this program I said that I wanted to travel and really see Europe. By the time I go home, I will have 9 countries and 17 new cities under my belt. This is what I really wanted, and I'm doing it. So does it bother me to be the quiet one/bitch/outcast? For once in my life...not really. That may be rude, but quite frankly, I just don't care anymore.

I don't know if that really suffices but hey, it wasn't just me recounting another trip. Take it or leave it.

Brussels & Amsterdam

This weekend Meredith and I went to Brussels and Amsterdam. We spent two days in Brussels and only about six hours in Amsterdam and I wish more than anything that that had been reversed. Brussels was pretty but I have to admit it was boring. Whereas I was expecting Amsterdam to be skeezy and kind of a joke, and it ended up being one of the most beautiful and interesting places I've ever been to. The best part of this trip was going to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. We had to wait in line for almost an hour but it was totally worth it. It was so intense walking through the attic and seeing where she had hid...definitely a memorable experience. Here are some pictures:

Meredith and I in Brussels

Town Center

Manneken Pis - they were obsessed with this little guy

Brussels Town Center by night

Bar with 2000 beers! Including some great Belgian ones!

Day 2 in Amsterdam!

Entrance to the Anne Frank House

Beautiful

Just trying on some Dutch clogs


And of course...Belgian Waffle! Yum!

Blahhh

After a bit of nagging, I finally heard back from my interviewer at State Street about the interview that I was supposed to have a week ago. We decided to reschedule for this coming Monday. Also today, I was scheduled to have an interview with Commonwealth Financial Network. About a half an hour after it was supposed to start, I received a phone call requesting to reschedule until tomorrow. That would be fine except for the fact that I am going to be in Brussels tomorrow! I told him I would be traveling and may not be able to find a perfectly quite space, and he said that was fine with him so that should be interesting. This whole phone-tag-interview-shuffle business is really frustrating...and stressful. Schedule a time, stick to it, is it really all that difficult?? I guess so. Anyways here is a nice little timeline of my next few fun filled days:

Friday - Monday: Trip to Brussels and Amsterdam
Friday: Commonwealth Financial Network Interview in Brussels
Monday: State Street Interview an hour after we get back
Tuesday: Management Project due (30% of grade)
Thursday: Art History project due and oral presentation (30% of grade)

As for now...I have to go find what scraps of food I might have left for dinner, and I should probably consider packing, oh and starting those projects would be a good thing too....

Berlin!

I can't say that Berlin (or anywhere in Germany for that matter) was on the top of my desired list of places to visit this semester. The only reason we ended up going was because a friend had to switch a flight, and Berlin was the cheapest place that he could switch it to. The flight was only 50 euro and I had nothing planned for the weekend so I figured, why not? Definitely one of the BEST decisions of my time here. Berlin was absolutely incredible, my only regret is that we only stayed for 2 days...I would have loved to stay longer. On Friday, we walked around Hackescher Market and took care of the first order of business, trying a real bratwurst. Delicious! We also walked all along Oranienburger Strasse, a very popular street, and took a tour of the Neue Synagogue, which was one of many synangogues destroyed during The Night of Broken Glass. That night we picked out a restaurant from one of our guidebooks to eat at. A drunk man on the metro gave us directions and after about ten minutes of walking were rethinking our decision to listen to him. However just as we were about to give up we saw some twinkly (aka Christmas) lights behind a gas station. Bingo! The drunk guy was right after all. Despite its initial location, the restaurant was fantastic. Great food, incredible beer (that's an understatement) and it was on a deck over the Spree river.

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early to see more of the city. We ended up taking a 5 hour walking tour, led by a kid from Ireland who knew just about everything about German history, all for FREE! It was to date the best and most informative tour of anything that I have ever been on, and it was the cheapest :) In my opinion they should have these in every city because it was a great experience, and really made me appreciate Berlin. We got to see all of the famous (and infamous) sights in Berlin, some of which I didn't even know existed. Unfortunately I forgot my camera for this trip...stupid...so here are some of Meredith's pictures:

The Reichstag

Hotel Adlon
(where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from a window)

Holocaust Memorial

The sight of Hitlers bunker

Berlin Wall

Us with the Berlin bear :)

Checkpoint Charlie

Bebelplatz - sight of Nazi book burnings
"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings"

Berliner Dom

Bratwursts!

Brandenburg Gate

We definitely covered a lot of Berlin, but theres always more. Had we been able to stay an extra day, we would have gone to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, revisited some of the spots of the tour, and gone back to Checkpoint Charlie to get a 'West Berlin' stamp in our passports. All in all though it was an unforgettable trip, and for me it was incredibly touching. Although Berlin wasn't an original attraction for me, it is one of the places that I think I would love to return to in the future.

Pleasant Surprise

This past weekend was the first in over a month that I've spent in Lyon. After traveling so much I was definitely looking forward to some down time, but I also expected it to be incredibly boring. So it was a pleasant surprise when it was actually a lot of fun. It helped that most of my friends were also staying here too, so we got to spend some time together. On Saturday, the weather was absolutely gorgeous here, so a group of us decided to take advantage and head to the park for a picnic. This was my first time really experiencing Tete d'Or and I loved it, I can't wait to go back. Especially because the ice cream there is delicious! On Sunday we took an impromptu trip to the Alps for some late season skiing. I went once with my family over spring break and it was fantastic. I thought that was the end of my skiing for the year so it was awesome to get to go again, and it was a lot of fun to go with friends.

This week has been pretty calm. We were supposed to have a BLAW make-up class with my favorite professor on Monday morning. We went, we sat, and surprise surprise...he didn't show up. This morning I was supposed to have an interview with State Street for their Trading Intern position. The job looks great and I was really excited about it. However, after about 10 minutes of waiting I received an e-mail requesting to reschedule. Ugh...frustrating, but at least she was courteous.

There has definitely been a buzz around CEFAM this week because tonight is their 'African Dinner'. We have heard about this since day one and I would equate its significance to prom in high school. It's a pretty big event and supposed to be a lot of fun. So tonight should be exciting and then its an early wake-up call tomorrow morning because we are off to Berlin!!!