All Abroad!

  Alrighty… so I realize that I haven't exactly been the best at updating here lately, so this post may be a little bit longer than normal. I promise that I will try and be more punctual in the coming months!

  My first week back to class after Spain was fairly eventful. I had a presentation that was worth one hundred percent of my mark two days after I came home. In Canada I have never come across a class where we only had one evaluation, so I was definitely nervous! I think that the presentation went well, but I guess we'll see when we get the marks back! I caught a lucky break because the day before my presentation (when all I wanted to be doing was practicing) my three hour class was cancelled! I was happy because I was in a pretty desperate need of a grocery store, and the additional three hours gave me the time that I needed to practice and head over to the mall.

The following week my class headed over to a museum to have our class (very à la grade four field trip!). There's a program going on in nice right now where for the month of May, the city is promoting their museums to the public. My class was given the Chagall Museum, which I had never visited. We had a guided tour where we were shown some of the more famous Chagall paintings and were taught how to analyze his work (very interesting, this guy had some deep stuff going on!). After that we had our normal class, but in a very large auditorium that was located in the middle of the museum. It was difficult to pay attention because I was sitting beside a beautiful stained glass window that had been made by Chagall himself. What was the funniest thing to me was the fact that we technically were having class inside an exhibit. People were constantly coming to the open door and looking in on our class. At one moment I looked over and saw and entire tour group standing in the door!

  The weather here in Nice has been absolutely gorgeous the past few weeks! I'm talking around twenty degrees and sunny every day for the past week and a half! Last Thursday I went to the beach with a group of girls and we laid out in the sun for probably close to three or four hours. Very relaxing, but I did get a little bit of a sunburn! I made sure when I went back the next day with another group that I had my sunscreen with me! That was the day that I ended up going in the water! The air may have been warm but the water definitely did not get the memo! Nevertheless once we were completely in the water, it wasn't too bad…. until my top decided to come undone…. I love my friends who stood on shore and took pictures of the whole ordeal!

  Last weekend one of my friends threw a Spice Girls themes 90's party. I really had no idea what to expect because I never listened to the Spice Girls, but I had an amazing time! We all dressed up as different members of the band and took pictures in character. It was a great way to end the school week.

  I was able to make my way up to Mont Boron with Kristen and our friend Kimi last Saturday for a much needed day in nature. It was really awesome because we could take the bus all the way there (aka I could use my bus pass and not have to pay for other transportation!). Mont Boron is a big municipal park that sits between Villefranche and Nice. We went on a nice day (aka every day). So we got amazing views of both cities. Mont Boron also has its own castle. I have been looking at this castle on top of a mountain since the day I got here, so I was happy to finally go see it up close.

  Monday was St. Patricks Day, not exactly a celebrated "alcoholiday" here in France, but my class and I decided to have our own festivities, nonetheless. One of my friends is a very talented Irish dancer, and after a long day of classes we all headed over to our local Irish pub where she and a gig dancing. It was so cool to watch, and we all had a good time. After that, we headed over to Wayne's, our go to bar, for a fun Monday night!

  Eight hour bus rides aren't exactly the most fun activity in the world, especially when you're grappling with a bout of food poisoning (which is the exact situation that I was in that day). However this being said the bus did have wifi, which was a welcomed surprise! I must have annoyed my brother with my constant Facebook messages over the course of the ride. I also enjoyed the view that we got of the Spanish countryside over the course of the trip. Finally, it was nice to have eight hours of down time, aka eight hours of listening to Stuff You Should Know podcasts while constantly dipping in and out of consciousness!

  Our Madrid hostel met us with a pleasant surprise! We checked in and got up to our room, where we met an American student who is also studying in France. We were talking about our experiences and as soon as she learned that we are Canadians in Nice, she immediately told us that she had met a Canadian studying in Nice the night before. Initially we laughed it off because there are lots of international kids in Nice, but the more she described the guy she had met, the more Kristen and I realized that this sounded a lot like one of our friends from class. Not being creepy at all, I pull up a picture that was on my phone from Carnaval, and it was confirmed to us that this was our friend Ryan (And not only that, but he was also staying in the same hostel as us.)! We decided to go into super stalker mode and ask at the front desk for his room number. In Canada, I would think that people would be refused information like that due to "privacy", however in Madrid, I simply gave the name of my friend to the front desk and they casually gave me his room number. Not creepy at all…

  We ended up getting in touch with our friend Ryan, and while hanging out in the hostel, he asked us in passing whether or not we had taken any Spanish back in Canada. Both Kristen and I were in Spanish last year, and Ryan was pretty excited when he found out. It turns out that one of our Spanish TAs from last year is now living in Madrid, and Ryan had arranged to go meet up with him that night. We were invited to go, and were very happy to do so! That night the three of us went out for real tapas with Juan, who had taught all three of us the year before. It was great to catch up and practice the little bits of Spanish that I hadn't already forgotten! Also, the tapas were amazing, I am really happy that I went for tapas with a Spanish person, I feel like I had a really authentic experience.

  That night we hung out with our friend and some other travellers in the hostel until the wee hours of the morning. After a long day of travel it was nice to just kick back and relax for a while.

  The next morning we took another walking tour. I do have to be honest and say that I liked the Barcelona walking tour better, but it was still very informative. We saw Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, the Royal Opera, and the Royal Palace. I still stand by the walking tours because you learn all about the history of the area, which you wouldn't get from just a map. 

  After a quick lunch, we made the long hike up to The Parque del Buen Retiro. It's one of the biggest green spaces in the city and oddly reminded me of Canada. We visited the Crystal palace, which is exactly what you would expect it to be. We also visited the Monument to King Alfonso XII, which is situated on a lake in the middle of the park. The monument is absolutely massive and is made up of a line of curved columns. When I was there, the lake was full of paddle boats and ducks. It was very peaceful and a very nice change from bustling and noisy Nice. 

  We took it easy for the rest of the day. We were still tired from our travel day and I was still struggling with food poisoning. We tried out (what we think is) a Spanish fast food chain and headed back to our hostel to chill for the night.

  We only had two full days in Madrid, so our second day was technically our last day in Madrid. We started out in the morning with the free churros that our hostel made every morning (score!). Madrid has a really good shopping scene, so we decided to hit up all of the stores for the morning. I actually split the sole of my boot clean in two the night before, so I had a mission! 

  After our girly morning, we decided that we needed to get in a little bit of culture and education for the afternoon, so we headed over to the Royal Palace of Madrid! Because we are students, we had a reduced fare, which was great! Unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures on the inside of the palace, but the attention to detail and grandeur of every single room was astounding. Kristen and I ended up half joining up with a French tour group that was going through the palace. We were pretty sure that they had paid for it, so we stood awkwardly in the corner and spoke English for its duration. I still am very grateful that we covered a wide span of art and architecture history in class last semester because it makes castles and palaces much easier to decipher and understand when visited.     

     The palace took up most of the afternoon, so by the time we finished and made our way back to our area it was well after dinner time. We spent the rest of the night with some girls in our hostel before heading to bed early (hooray for two eight-hour journeys in three days!).

  For this semester's Reading Week, Kristen and I decided to jet off to Spain to enjoy a week in the sun! Since coming back, the weather in Nice has been significantly better, but before leaving we were getting a lot of rain. The Spanish sun was much appreciated!

  Our first stop was Barcelona! The flight from France took less than an hour but I immediately took note of how different Spain is from here! What I loved the most was how colourful all of the buildings are, it just gives the impression of everything being cheerful and happy!

  The hostel where we stayed in Barcelona was absolutely amazing! I had pretty high expectations for this one because I had stayed at another hostel in the same chain while I was in Copenhagen back in January, but this one was maybe even a little bit nicer! The hostel had a bar and a lounge (which were not the normal "you have a selection of three different beers which come from a mini fridge behind the front counter" hostel bars, they were real bars!), a massive TV room with the biggest bean bags that I've ever seem (Why yes I did line them all up and the take a running dive into them…. because I'm an adult who makes my own informed decisions), an internet lounge, a sports lounge, a games loge, and my personal favourite; the lounge room that had hanging swing seats!

  On our first night in Barcelona, we wandered down La Rambla, the main street of Barcelona, looking for some authentic Spanish tapas…. Yeah we kind of ended up getting French food, we just really missed home I guess!

  Neither Kristen or I had ever been to Barcelona before, so we decided to take a walking tour on our first morning there. I love the concept of free walking tours, they pick you right up from the hostel, show you a bunch of cool stuff to do, and at the end you pay whatever you think the tour was worth; perfect for a student on a budget! On our tour, we saw lots of the old district of Barcelona, many gorgeous churches, a square where Christopher Columbus made a public decree (my inner history buff found this to be super cool!), and Barcelona's famous Parc de la Cuitadella.

  Kristen and I spent a few hours in the park after our tour ended. Nothing against Nice (or any big city for that matter), but there is practically no grass here! This park was nothing but green space and beautiful gardens! We visited Spain "Arc de Triomf" while exploring. We also stumbled upon an amazing roman fountain, which was tucked away in a secluded corner of the park. If I had been in Barcelona for a little bit longer, I easily could have spent a couple hours just sitting in the sun and admiring the artistry of this beautiful fountain! It's really hard to express how incredibly big and magnificent the fountain actually through pictures! And not only the size but the royal and majestic undertones of the fountain as well, everything was plated in gold and the there were many Roman gods statuettes flanking the pool. 

  After a few hours enjoying the sun, we headed over to the port where we sat and watched the boats while eating dessert waffles! We had been told by our tour guide that there was a really cool old Spanish fort up on the top of a mountain that was "totally walkable". So why not try and hike up there, it can't be that bad! Oh boy were we wrong! We started to trek up Montjuïc (translates to "Jewish Mountain") and hit the first lookout point after about fifteen minutes. We were tired but proud that we had made it to what we thought was the top. We took some pictures and walked around for a bit before we realized that we we only about a fifth of the way to the fort that we wanted to see. So up we went, slow and sweaty wins the race! It probably took us another good forty-five minutes to make it to the top, and it was only when we were about five minutes away from the fort that we learned that there's actually a city bus that takes tourists up from the city centre. Although annoyed, we were happy that we made the hike!

  The fort was really cool! This castle used to be used as a barricaded lookout point. From there, we were able to see the sea, the whole city, the airport, and the industrial port! It was absolutely gorgeous and was a beautiful place to spend some time and enjoy the fresh air. By the time we made the hike bad down the mountain and then the long walk back to our hostel we were absolutely exhausted! We decided to spend the night in our hostel, where we got some authentic Spanish food (and sangria all the sangria) at our hostel's bar!

  The next morning we started bright and early! We headed over to see La Sagrada Familia, a beautiful Roman Catholic church that has been declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The church was much bigger and grander than I had previously imagined, it's something that I couldn't capture in words or pictures. Unfortunately because we went during off season, the church was being restored so it was covered in scaffolding and construction machinery. Nonetheless, it was absolutely breathtaking! 

  After La Sagrada Familia, we decided to head up yo Parc Güell, a beautiful garden that houses a lot of Gaudí architecture and artwork. You'd think that Kristen and I would have learned after our two hour hike up and down a mountain the day before, but we stupidly decided that we could hike to the park, which was at the top of mountain on the other side of town. Luckily, this mountain has a couple of escalators to aid us! 

  Gaudí is well-known for his work with mosaics, and we were lucky enough to see some of his original pieces. My personal favourites were the giant mosaic lizard and the entire lookout area that was made of beautiful multicoloured mosaic benches. We probably spent a good three hours just wandering around the park; enjoying the artwork, the views, and the sun!

  After the morning in the sun, we decided to take things easy and explore all of the little shops in the old part of Barcelona. We finished off our perfect day with a visit to the St. Josep, La Boqueria Market! This place was so fun! It was an absolutely massive open air market right off of the main street. You could buy anything there, and because we went later in the day, everything was on sale. I got some freshly squeezed fruit juice, some fresh coconut, and some fruit cups for our bus ride (and all for one Euro each!). 

  That night we hung around our hostel bar for a few hours, then packed up our stuff for our departure! All was good, and I was happy to be leaving in the morning for Madrid. However, we had the worst snorer  in our hostel room that I have ever come across in my whole life! And after falling into a very shallow sleep, I woke up, throwing up, at 4:30 in the morning. Turns out there's a reason why fruit is sold at discount prices at the end of the day, and I got to experience some long lasting food poisoning to prove it, fun times!

  All that being said, the next part of our trip was coming. Madrid, here we come!  

  The past few weeks have been very eventful for me! During my slow recovery from the double eye infection and double cornea lacerations that was oh so fun, my aunt Jane and cousin Margaret arrived for a week long visit! Initially, Margaret was supposed to stay with me, but due to my high infectivity she wisely opted to stay with my aunt in the hotel next door. It was amazing to have family visit from Canada again, I am one lucky exchange student (Plus I got my hands on some Kraft Dinner, which is worth its weight in gold around here.)! I still stand by the theory that it's fun to be a pseudo-tour guide because you get to act like a tourist in your own town; I went up to the monastery, I rode the big ferris wheel in the centre of town, and I even went to Italy for an afternoon. I think it's kind of funny that I've settled into such a routine here that it really does take a week with couple of tourists to make me remember all of the amazing things that Nice has to offer!

Flowers in a Ventimiglia/Vintimille market

Ventimiglia/Vintimille 

Unfortunately I wasn't able to go to the Opening Ceremonies of Carnaval because they were taking place while I was having fun being temporarily blind (good times, better memories). However, I did get the chance to go to one of the night parades with some of my classmates, as well as my cousin! We arrived at the town square a little bit too late to get seats in the stands, which we were initially a bit disappointed about, but we got to stand in the square with the floats and characters going right around us. It was such a cool experience to see all of these amazing floats up close, especially with their beautiful lights at night!

A line of Vladimir Putins?

One of many colourful floats.

Another fun float!  

One fun addition to the parade was the confetti and silly string! Vendors were all over the place during the parades, so it wasn't too hard to get our hands on either silly string or confetti. Being there with a group of semi sober friends, a silly string war obviously ensued, not to mention other spectators who thought it would be fun to attack us themselves! I'm not sure which was more entertaining to me; the actual parade, or full on attacking my friends with confetti and silly string.

  Although fun at the time, I now speak from experience when I say that dried silly string is not easy to get out of hair! The confetti is even worse! Literally all of Nice is blanketed in a layer of little pieces of colourful paper right now. A few days after the parade I was at school and opened my wallet during a break to get money for the vending machines and a good amount of confetti fell to the floor when I unzipped a pocket. Even tonight on my way to a dance class, the floor of the bus was covered in confetti! I have a feeling that I will continue to find the damn things all over the place (example of places so far…. my bed, my school books, my underwear… sad reality) for another few weeks! 

  I'm now back at school after Spring Break (updates and pictures to come soon). The beginning of this week was fairly intense compared to prior weeks, but I am in the home stretch. I had lots of work to do on Sunday (for the next day )when I returned from Spain, but I was able to finish it all. This afternoon, I also completed a presentation that was worth 100% of my final grade, not something that you want to slack on. I am happy to say that I believe my presentation went well (Although at this point I'm just thrilled to be done!). 

  One of the nice things about living so far from home is that you have more of a chance to censor and modify what you parents hear about and see about your everyday lives(Not that I ever do that, Mom and Dad!). I assume that because they don't hear about the daily stresses of my life, they don't worry about them as much. However when something does end up going wrong I know for a fact that they worry more because they truly can do nothing that would directly help. I already gave my parents a bit of a scare back in November when I was admitted to the hospital with some lovely and fun kidney issues but I think I one-upped that this past week…

    I wear contact lenses so I am definitely used to having occasional eye irritation. That's what I thought was happening last Monday night when my vision was a little bit cloudier than it should have been. I thought nothing of it until the next afternoon when one of my eyes suddenly (and I'm talking suddenly) started watering and itching like there was something in it. I was at a friend's place and he was concerned enough to make me go directly to the pharmacy. They thought that maybe i just had a minor eye infection. They told me to leave my contacts out, gave me a wash and a medication, and sent me on my way. Unfortunately my vision continued to deteriorate and my eyes became more and more irritated as the day went on, so I ended up going to a doctor later that night. this doctor basically told me exactly what I thought he would, that I had a double eye infection that was more severe than Pink Eye. He prescribed three different medications and sent me home. Problem solved?

  That night and the next day was rough. I felt like I had sand wedged under both of my eyelids, and my eyes themselves were irritated, in pain, and swollen. All of this mixed with the fact that I could't even see, my roommate and I figured that maybe we should go to the ER, just to be on the safe side.

  The staff at the hospital were all very friendly and even let me wait in a back room where they could turn off all of the lights (because, of course, extreme light sensitivity was become a problem for my now almost completely swollen-shut eyes). I got seen by a doctor fairly quickly and I only started panicking when he became a bit flustered and talking about how "most eye infections are bad, but this infection is very very bad". That was the point in time that the panic attack started. Then he told me that I would need to go to a different hospital, one with a better emergency Opthalmology wing. That was when the panic attack got a little bit worse. It was only when the nurse at triage told me that an ambulance had been called and that I would be leaving shortly that I basically went off the deep end (important side note, I am not the best in medical situations). Poor Kristen, who had been trying to calm me down the whole time made the wise move to call our Canadian prof to let her know what was going on and she very kindly and definitely unnecessarily offered to meet us at the other hospital to make sure things were going okay. I am so grateful for the fact that she came, I think it calmed both Kristen and I down a bit to know that we would not have to navigate the system blindly (pun intended).

  So I got to ride in the back of a French ambulance. It wasn't like it was anything that I enjoyed, not even remotely, in fact I don't even know what it looked like because my eyes were swollen shut. But hey, that's not something that you do every day. Aside from the fact that my ambulance was MIA for a while and the kind triage nurses had a fun time trying to track in down, they got me to the other hospital lightning fast. Once we arrived, they separated Kristen and I, telling her that she had to go to the waiting room while they checked me in and got me up to my new room. We didn't think anything of it, this happened back in November, plus she was going to go meet our professor and let her know exactly what was going on. I was put on a different stretcher and had all my vitals taken, but then was left in a busy hallway (or at least I think I was). I was definitely fine with this because I knew I was eventually going to be seen so I curled up and made a pathetic attempt to bury my head in my arms without touching my eyes.

  After maybe fifteen minutes in the hallway, I started to hear one nurse in particular repeatedly ask people "Qui est cette jeune fille-là? Où est-ce qu'elle va? Pourquoi est-elle ici?" (Who is that young girl there? Where is she going? Why is she here?). I guess they thought i was asleep because no one said anything to me, I probably should have said something but I was having a hard enough time dealing with the pain. Little did I know, but Kristen was having a difficult time finding me as well. After waiting for a while, she asked the ER nurses who were in charge where she could find me. They sent her two separate places on two separate occasions, insisting that I would be there each time. I guess she eventually met up with our professor and they set out with a couple of workers to yet a different area of the hospital when they came across me where they had left me in the hall.

  The rest of the night was a bit of a painful blur to me. We were taken up to a special wing of the hospital and had to wait for a few hours because a specialist had been called in to see me and she was apparently in a different town at the time. Our prof brought Kristen and I some snacks and water along, as well as hand sanitizer (which in the past few days has become my best friend!). we both really appreciated that because we left for the first hospital long before dinner! The doctor saw me and told me that I had a very severe infection in both of my eyes, as well as a lacerated cornea, which was probably caused by the inflammation. She also told me that I had a virus. We weren't sure where it came from, nor will we ever know, but I'm pretty sure it came from the bad sinus cold that every other person in my class, including me, had the week before. I was given some painkillers and a prescription sheet for eight different medications before being released. 

  If anyone has ever tried to use an ocular wash on swollen shut eyes, or better yet, if anyone has ever tried to but eyedrops in with swollen shut eyes, my heart goes out to you or the poor person who had to take one for the team and do that! Just saying…

  I ended up having to go back to to the same hospital the next day because one of my eyes had become significantly worse overnight. Turns out, the infection had given my not previously lacerated cornea and nice big cut. The ophthalmologist even called in a couple of other doctors to show them my eyes because "it had been a long time since she had seen one that bad". I got to learn the hard way that there really isn't anything that can be done for pain that wouldn't effect the medication that I was on to keep the infection in check (But I did learn some new words, I also picked up on a grammar point that we had been talking about in class earlier that week, looking on the brighter side!). 

  Although quite painful, I did gradually get better over the following six days. I was able to get the blind assist setting on my phone, which was a lifesaver. With the assist on, every time you touch something on the screen it tells you what it is. This way I was able to open the few apps that I could use without vision, I listened to a lot of podcasts over the course of the week (being bedridden and without vision for an extended period of time can get very boring). After four days I was able to slightly open one of my eyes, which was cause for celebration in my apartment! Two days after that I was able to slightly open the other eye! Unfortunately I was still having problems with my vision, I guess when your eyes don't work at all for six days it takes a little while to get them working again, not to mention the fact that there is still a little bit of a residual infection in my corneas.

  School is now back up and in full swing! I am in the midst of my third week of classes right now, which means that I have solidly established my courses for this semester (Like last semester, we were told to effectively audit any classes that we might be interested in. After about a month or so, we sign up for exams, this is how the French register for courses!). This term I am in school from Monday to Thursday instead of Monday to Wednesday like I was last semester, I know, cry me a river. I'm taking a French Language course (think a mixture of advanced grammar and Linguistics) and two literature courses aside from my two mandatory Canadian classes, all of which are going well so far. This semester my lass is also taking part in a conversation program with French students who are looking to improve their English oral sufficiency. We've only had the meeting a few times so far, but I am enjoying them because it's another great way to meet people and practice my French. I am also taking a dance class this semester, Jazz! I have been missing dance since arriving in France, so a few of my Canadian dancer friends and I decided to sign up for a class through our school. I feel great getting back in the studio, as basic as the classes are, we even have a recital later on in the semester, I can't wait! Plus, you know, all in French, so learning some fun new words.    

  I love the format of this exchange because I have been given the opportunity to get to know a group of people really well. However one of the very few disadvantages of being in constant close contact with this group is that once one person gets sick, it spreads… and FAST! Early last week the first few people started showing signs of bad sinus colds, and it only took a few days for most of us to come down with the same illness, myself included. Getting sick definitely isn't fun, but misery does love company! And I guess that being sick and homebound is an excellent excuse to stream the Olympics for hours on end, go Canada, eh!

  Since coming back from Hamburg and Copenhagen,I have booked my Reading Week trip to Madrid and Barcelona! I am absolutely thrilled to be going to Spain and even more excited because many other students from my class will be in the two cities during the time that I'm there, so we will more than likely be meeting up while we're there. 

  Nice is host to an annual carnival (appropriately named Carnaval). I'm not completely sure what Carnaval will consist of, but through social media and chatting with locals, it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun; daily parades down the Prom, parties in Masséna, all different types of fun events! I am lucky because I live only a few minutes away from the Prom so I will be able to get to the parades easily. A few weeks ago they started to set up a some temporary grandstands at the end of my street for the event. It starts this Friday and lasts a few weeks. The locals are starting to get pretty excited, so by proxy, I am too!

  As promised, the following outlines my travels through Denmark and Sweden! I apologize in advanced for any grammar or spelling errors that I will most definitely be making! I just got back from my first day of school after Christmas vacation. Apparently my body did not react to waking up early and then sitting through three long classes. On the brighter side, my class is now participating in a pilot program in which we meet on a weekly basis with French students who are studying English. Today was the first day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! It really does make a difference when the people that you're talking with understand the effort that goes into communicating in a non-maternal language. Hopefully that will continue for the duration of this semester! Anyway, onto Scandinavia!

  If I had to describe Copenhagen in one word, that word would be cold. I feel like I can't really complain about the temperatures in Europe because I have been spared this year's harsh Canadian winter. However, as I was explaining to a few of my friends, it was still -10 degrees with the windchill in Copenhagen while I was there. Also, I didn't move to the Mediterranean equipped for winter weather, so I only had a fall jacket and a hat who's purpose really is only to look cute. Finally, we don't walk around for hours on end in the Canadian weather, whereas in Copenhagen and Malmö that is exactly what we were doing.

  I think that my absolute favourite part of Copenhagen was the Nyhavn, a bright and colourful harbour that is on practically all the postcards sold. The area is home to lots of colourful buildings that all have white trim. It's just so picturesque and, in my opinion, is something that is impossible to caption with a camera, it's just something that you have to go see yourself!

  One morning in Copenhagen we decided to go and visit the Rosenborg Castle, a real renaissance castle that was located just a few minutes away from our hostel! The castle was used by the Danish royal family as a summer home. On our way in we caught the tail end of a changing of the guards ceremony. It was really cool to see the men in their uniforms and in their formations, but it was nowhere near as impressive as the ceremony that I saw at Buckingham Palace this past November! The inside of the museum was filled with old artwork and artifacts. I am really appreciative of the crash course that I got last semester in European history, especially history that pertains to art, architecture, and literature. I feel like, thanks to these courses, I have a better understanding of the history and context that is presented in almost every museum or historical site that I visit!

  On our last full day before heading back to France, Lindsey and I decided to take a day trip up to Sweden, why not? I equate the train ride to Malmö with the train from Nice to Monaco, it only took about half an hour and it seemed like it was a pretty common route. We did a little bit of exploring in the city once we got there, however Malmö was freezing so we ended up store hopping and having lunch in a cozy restaurant. We decided to head down to the city's museum after our lunch; partially because it was free, and partially it was indoors! It turns out that the Malmö museum (which is in a medieval castle/fort!) is in the middle of some massive renovations right now. There were bits and pieces of different exhibits all placed together, so the museum, although interesting, wasn't very cohesive.

  One museum that I would go back to time and time again was the Danish National Museum in the heart of Copenhagen! We also decided to go there based on the fact that it was something free and indoors, and I'm so happy that we went! The museum examines both the natural and humanistic histories of Denmark, starting with pre-history and going right up to current times. My favourite part of the museum was definitely the Viking exhibit! One interesting thing that I learned about the Vikings was that up to about two-hundred years ago, the Vikings were not exactly a point of national pride to Denmark like they are now. According to the exhibit, the Danes were looking for a way to revitalize their national spirit and decided to exhume their past.

  In between the museums and castles we also got in a little bit of shopping. Right now in France we are right in the middle of the bi-annual sale season that happens shortly after Christmas (or as I like to call it, "Boxing Month". I have been doing a pretty good job of staying away from the shopping areas here in Nice, but it was a little harder to do so in Copenhagen. I hadn't been aware that there were going to be big sales in Denmark, just like there were in France. Plus, the fact that I had already taken a specific amount of Danish money out of the bank that couldn't be used once I returned back to France made it a little bit harder to resist the sales!

  Our last and coldest morning in Denmark Lindsey and I trekked to the main harbour to go and see the Little Mermaid statue. The Little Mermaid was written by Hans Christian Andersen, who comes from Denmark, and the Danish are quite proud of him! We were told by Danish citizens, international students studying in Copenhagen, and the hostel workers that the statue was not something that we could leave out of our trip. We ended up walking through a park and an old military base on the way to the harbour, which was really cool to see (however the open area and the wind were not so cool). When we finally made it to the statue, we were so cold and battling the strong winds that were coming straight off the water that it was quite difficult to enjoy the view. I snapped a few pictures and tried to take in the sights, but we really weren't willing to stay longer that two or three minutes.

  School starts back up tomorrow morning and I have strongly mixed feelings. Sure I'm excited to have more of a structure in my week but I haven't been in a classroom for over a month and I'm pretty sure that the last time I set an alarm to wake up was in December. Getting back into a routine might be a little bit of a baptism by fire, but in all, I am excited to start my new classes.

  I just got back from my most recent trip. This time, I got a chance to explore more of Germany, as well as Denmark and even a bit of Sweden (a year ago if you told me that this was going to be my life, I would not have believed you! Hamburg was first on the agenda. My friend Lindsey and I headed out on a Friday afternoon and after a quick layover in Vienna we reached Germany. In a surprising turn of events, we were able to find out hostel with virtually no effort, which was nice.

  Seeing that neither of us really knew anything about Hamburg (Did I mention that this trip was a last-minute, impulse decision?), on our first morning we decided to take a free walking tour. The tour was great because we got to learn a lot about the history of the city and surrounding area, as well as get some tips and ideas about other things to visit in the coming days. There were so many interesting facts and tidbits of information on the tour, too many to really share here, however some of my favourites were…

Hamburg's origins began around the year 800 AD with the foundations of the Hanseatic League.

There are more bridges in Hamburg than in Venice and Amsterdam combined!

Hamburg's famous "Rathaus" (that means town hall, for you non German speakers!) was not destroyed in the Second World War, unlike most of the city, because it was covered in a giant tarp and made to look like a forest.

- Hamburg was almost completely burned down in 1842 in a great fire. I actually got to visit the exact sight of the start of the fire and it was really interesting because on one side of the point were many old buildings, while on the other side of the point, new buildings. It wasn't something that you would notice just walking down the street, but after it being pointed out, the differences are impossible to miss!

  Above, you can see the exact starting point of the fire. See that little wooden plank that says "Brandanfang"? In English that loosly translates to "fire beginning".

  Apparently Hamburg takes the term "2 for 1" quite seriously! One night we were out at a cute little restaurant during Happy Hour and decided to each get a drink because we thought that being "2 for 1", we would only have to pay half of the price. I shouldn't have been surprised when the waiter brought me out two strawberry daiquiris, but I did laugh about it! Plus, there was no way that I would let that extra drink go to waste, thanks Hamburg!

  Taking the advice of our tour guide, Lindsey and I decided to ascend St. Petri Church which was said to have one of the best panoramas in town. Our guide did warn us that those who did not like heights would not like the experience, but we laughed and told ourselves that we could do it… BOY WAS I WRONG! I have never been one to shy away from tall heights, and I pride myself on enjoying thrill rides and lookouts, but I have never been so uncomfortable, maybe even scared, in my life! The ascent started out completely fine. First we climbed up an old, stone, spiral staircase. No big issue. The spiral staircases opened out into a big open room that had artifacts from the church's past, which was both interesting and gave us a break from the climbing. It was at this point that I started getting uncomfortable. After this point, the open, wooden, stairs hugged the sides of the square building. We were still kind of laughing at this point, joking around that it would be bad to trip. There were intermittent lookout points along the way and our guide was correct in saying that the view was beautiful, but there's just something unsettling about walking around on wooden beams where you can clearly see down through the cracks. We thought that we were done at the last lookout point, but we were wrong! The last part of the ascend was a straight up spiral staircase made of wood (not to mention the fact that some of the steps were held together with Duct tape), open, and only had a railing on one side. I must have looked quite funny while I was going up because I was clutching onto the railing with both hands, side-stepping up the stairs all while re-assuring myself that I wasn't going to die. Tonight while I was Skyping with my parents, they asked me if the view from the top was worth it and I told them that I honestly couldn't say. One we got to the top (which reminded me of an old lighthouse), we were only focused on getting down because we could feel the steeple moving in the wind. When we finally got to the bottom, we realized that they had cameras placed all over the tower and that there was a monitor in the church's store. I still wonder if the nice little German lady who was helping me out ever watches people cry as they climb the tower!

  The Hamburg Harbour was something fun that I could experience from the group! The harbour runs down the Elbe River and can be seen for many kilometres. Lindsey and I walked down the length of the harbour on one of our first days and it was definitely a sight to see! There were cranes as far as the eye could see, as well as lots of brightly coloured shipping containers!

  Something weird happened the when we were walking back to our hostel from the harbour, and we did not realize the magnitude of these events until much later! As we were walking down a riverside street we started to notice some weird signs 1984 ist jetzt (1984 is now), kein Mensch ist illegal (no person is illegal). We then tried to walk in front of a police station and a man made us cross the street. We noticed that there were news cameras in front of the station so we thought that maybe they were making pedestrians cross because they were filming. As we walked further down the street we noticed that the number of police vehicles was getting ridiculous! One street was completely lined with cars, trucks, and even a few tanks! It wasn't until we (without knowing) entered Hamburg's Red Light District (the Reeperbahn). There were cops every direction you looked, as well as a protest that appeared to be happening. We ended up walking down and almost right through the protest. We felt safe the whole time, there was no violence and there was a strong enough police presence that I felt safe. It wasn't until a few days later that we learned that the protestors were protesting the eviction of some squatters (RENT, much?) and the general mistreatment of citizens by the police. In fact, the USA actually had put a travel advisory out to their citizens warning them about Hamburg! Crazy to think that we walked right through the reason why people are avoiding the city without really even knowing about it! This is a message for my mother, yes we were completely fine the entire time, and no we did not go and join a protest in a foreign country!

  The train ride to Copenhagen was another interesting experience! I was a little bit tired on the day of our trip, so I decided to try and sleep on the train, seeing that it was going to be almost five hours long. Firstly, I couldn't sleep because just looking out the window was too interesting. Then it was because some people came through our cabin to do Danish customs. I had just drifted off when the conductor came over the PA system and started speaking to us in German. Now I have about five years of German language classes under my belt and I am proud to say that this past spring I finished my university's advanced class, but when the conductor is speaking over a crackly intercom and I am half conscious I tend to doubt my ability to understand. What I did hear was that we had to get off the train "but there would be a wide variety of shops to keep us occupied while we waited to cross the sea". I was very confused at this point, but then the conductor switched into English just as our train crawled right into the side of a ship! Turns out the way that trains cross the sea from Germany to Denmark is by ferry! We left our train, which was in the belly of the ship, and went upstairs and explored the boat a little before settling down for the ride over to Scandinavia!  

  In the hopes that I might actually get a good night's sleep the night before the first day of term (One can only wish, right?), I think that I am going to leave my adventures to Copenhagen and Malmo to a later post! Here's hoping that it warms up for all of my Canadian friends and family out there, I miss you guys!

  For the first time since I arrived here in France, the seemingly disorganized system has finally worked in my favour! This week marked the start of the exam period and I was supposed to write two this week; Monday and Wednesday. I wrote my exam on Monday with no issues (that I know of) but I was exhausted when I came back and didn't study as much as I wanted to for my Grands Textes exam that was taking place on Wednesday afternoon. 

  Yesterday morning I was laying in bed dreading/procrastinating getting up because I knew that I would have to study all day when Kristen burst in to my room, excited and screaming. All I got out of her squeals was the word "exam". We were both in the same class and for a panicked moment I thought that perhaps we misread the date on the exam schedule and that it was a day earlier than we thought, meaning that we would have to go in that day to write it. It was only in the next thirty seconds of panic did it set in that no, our exam wasn't that day, but there was no exam for that class at all! Score!

  It turns out, the class was never supposed to have an exam however our prof didn't seem to know that until the other day when he sent us an email to let us know! Needless to say I was absolutely thrilled! 

  It may have taken me five weeks to get my hands on a new computer, but I am back and more enthusiastic than ever! Of course so much has happened to me over the past month and a bit, way too much to fit into one post, but I'll try and hit the highlights.

  Right now I am in the middle of my Christmas break from school. Here in Nice students don't start classes until later in September so we are in class right up until Christmas. This fortunately/unfortunately means that we don't write any exams until January (kind of like a high school schedule). I am used to having my Christmas vacation completely school free because in Canada I would be in between semesters so I'm not really a fan of having to cram studying into my vacation time. On the bright side, all of January is reserved for exams so I will have a good amount of time to travel before next semester starts up.

  This Christmas was my first Christmas away from home and my extended family. It really is a weird feeling on Christmas Day to wake up and know that you're halfway around the world (and in a totally snowless environment!). There were a few Canadians who opted to stay here in France for Christmas so we all got together on the twenty-fifth and had dinner together. It definitely wasn't anything that I was used to, instead of listening to Christmas music we watched videos of Rick Mercer and Rob Ford, ate baguettes, and drank expensive wine (five whole Euro, we splurged!). Even if it was foreign compared to Christmases past, I loved it and wouldn't change anything about the night. 

  I was lucky enough to have my parents and little brother visit me this past week! They arrived early in the morning on Boxing Day and stayed for a full week. It was so great to have them here in Nice, where I could show them lots of the daily aspects of my life and play the role of the tour guide instead of the lost foreigner (although I am pretty good at that!). I don't think I realized how much I missed the three of them until they arrived and for me personally, it was harder to say goodbye to them this morning than it was four month ago in Toronto.

  Despite being here for only a week, my family and I got to do lots of fun stuff in and around Nice! Among my favourites were…

Monaco

  Neither of my parents had even been to Monaco before, so it was a must do on the list! We saw a changing of the guards ceremony at the royal palace, explored the old town, and went to see the Monte-Carlo casino. We also went to see the prince's collection of cars which was not my choice whatsoever but it was still fun because my dad and brother really enjoyed it (side note, why is it necessary for one person to own so many cars?).

The Restaurants

  One advantage of having parents in town is that you get to try out all of the restaurants that you've been walking by for the past few months. I ate lots of good food although I don't think I will be eating any bread products for the next month…. so much bread! my favourite place definitely had to be a restaurant called "Le Québec" , which "blended the traditional Latin and American québeçois cultures", soooooo accurate (It made me reflect on how I have portrayed certain restaurants at home, namely Swiss Chalet!)!

The Monastery 

  This is a great place to take visitors to the city! The Monastery area is home to an old church that was built in the twelfth century, its beautiful gardens, olive orchards, an outdoor café and park, a museum dedicated to the life of Henri Matisse, an ancient history museum, and some ancient Roman ruins. The area was great because none of the individual activities takes more than an hour but together could easily be a day trip. Also, coming from someone who went with a group of four very distinct individuals, this was great because there was a mix of indoor and outdoor activities where everyone was able to find something to their interest.

Hanging Out

  This was definitely my favourite part of the week! As my mom mentioned, it really didn't matter where we were, as long as we were all together (however being on the French Riviera was a perk!). Even if the four of us were just chilling in their little hotel room watching the news, it was special. I'm thankful that they were able to come to see me, and especially grateful that they brought peanut butter (Although they could have left our family Christmas shirt at home- see picture below!) !

  It’s officially less than a month until Christmas, and what’s a better way to kick of the holiday season than by travelling to London? This trip started out a bit hectically. We were taking the bus down the Prom to the airport and when it came time to disembark, the driver drove right by our stop! I immediately went to talk to him, and he apologised, saying that he forgot there was a stop. He dropped us off at the next available bus stop, but unfortunately that was a ways down the road. We made it to our flight with lots of time to spare, but I will say this; running down the side of the highway in the rain at 7:30 in the morning isn’t a fun experience.

  What was a fun experience was the plane ride to London. So far, I’ve only flown EasyJet for my inter-European voyages however this trip the four of us were able to catch a pretty good deal for a direct British Airways flight. Compared to EasyJet, British Airways is like flying in the lap of luxury! The seats were comfy, they gave out meals, and you didn’t have to pay for a glass of water!

  We arrived fairly early in London so we had most of the day to explore and see the sights. The first thing that we decided to see was Trafalgar Square (which, evidently, is right next to the Canadian Embassy!). We saw Nelson’s Column, some cool statues (blue rooster, anyone?), and lots of Union Jacks!). From there we walked up to Piccadilly Circus which was beautifully decorated for Christmas. Even thought the municipal decorations have begun to go up around Nice, it doesn’t really feel like Christmas to me when the ornaments are hanging from palm trees and maintenance workers are spraying plastic snow onto the local coniferous plants. Piccadilly Circus is known as the British Times Square, and by the sheer amount of people that were there, I would whole-heartedly agree!

  England is considerably colder than Nice, but on our first night Kristen and I headed back out on the town for some nocturnal exploring. We walked across Westminster Bridge and towards the London Eye. The Eye was much bigger than I thought it would be, and every inch was light up beautifully. We also got a chance to see Westminster Abbey, and   Big Ben. It felt like I was watching a movie, not actually there. The entire night was beautiful, cold and surreal!

  The four of us stayed in an amazing hostel! The building is an old courthouse that has been converted, but still has many elements of its judicial past. The rooms were tiny, but we were really only there to sleep. There was a TV lounge that used to be an old courtroom. They kept the witness stand, and many of the old benches and fixtures, but just filled in all of the space with big comfy couches!

  One of the highlights of my London experience was going on the London Eye! I wouldn’t have gone, but our hostel sold discount tickets so I really couldn’t say no! We were all lucky because the weather was amazing so we had great visibility. The pods offered a 360 degree view of London and I could see everything; Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and obviously the Thames.

  Earlier that day, we were lucky enough to see a changing of the guards ceremony at Buckingham Palace. By see, I really mean “experience”, the palace was jam-packed and it was very difficult to get a good view, but by the end of the ceremony I did have a pretty good viewpoint. The ceremony lasted about an hour and consisted of lots of lots of parades, military drills, and even some marching band routines! The music really made me laugh because I thought they’d play regal marching music but the guards played The Beatles and James Bond! It was also a really surreal and humbling feeling that we were sitting directly outside the Queen of England’s official residence!

  On Saturday, we did a Harry Potter walking tour. This ecstatic, Harry Potter obsessed, old man ran us all around central London and told us all about the filming and the inspiration for the Harry Potter franchise. Not only was the informational section of the tour enjoyable, but the tour guide himself was entertainment alone! For example, we were walking down a tiny little alley way in order to get to the inspiration for Diagon Alley and this man randomly takes out his iPod and starts playing the theme song from The Philosopher’s Stone.... “to set the mood”. A walking tour wasn’t something that I had initially considered, but it was something that I would recommend to anyone!

  On Saturday night it was cold and rainy. Samarra, Kristen, and I were in Piccadilly Circus right by the massive Odeon Theatre when Samarra had an awesome idea, why not go see Catching Fire? We were all pretty big fans of The Hunger Games, and it would be fairly hard to find a totally English version of the film back in France, so why not! We got our expensive tickets (seriously, I don’t understand why... it’s a movie!) and head into the giant theatre! One major difference that I noticed from Canada was that the theatre will give you a starting time on your ticket, but that’s actually when the previews start (all twenty-five minutes of them!). All in all, we loved the movie and were so happy that we saw it in English and on opening weekend!

  It really would be impossible for me to document every single little thing that I did in London, only because we did so much! Above were probably my highlights, however I also...

-          Had dinner at a traditional English pub.

-          Tried “Tofish and Chips” (thanks, Samarra!).

-          Went to the British Museum of Natural History.

-           Saw Shakespeare’s Globe.

-          Crossed London Bridge and saw Tower and Millennium Bridge.

-          Made friends with some local squirrels.

-          Went to Covent Garden Market.

  I went to Germany for the first time at the end of high school. I loved it, especially because I have family roots there, and because I could practice my German language skills. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would return so soon, just another one of the many perks of living in Europe!

  I arrived in Berlin on Thursday night. I know that us Canadians are supposed to be immune to the cold, but I definitely wasn’t mentally or physically prepared to take on the temperatures that we encountered (I need to buy a real coat)! Kristen and I were both determined to eat traditional German food while in Berlin, so naturally we went out for Mexican for our first meal! I am not exaggerating when I say that this was the best burrito that I’ve ever had! Other than the fact that it was the size of a small child, I loved it because it’s been very difficult to find ethnic foods here in Nice. So if anyone happens to be passing through Mitte Berlin, check out Dolores Burritos!

  After dinner, we ambitiously decided to walk to the biggest strip of intact wall, the East Side Wall Gallery. We made it to the wall and took a while to just walk and take in what we were seeing! I am still astounded on a daily basis that I live in such a historical and cultural area, and that seeing other major landmarks is only a hop, skip, and a jump away! We made the wise decision to stop at a grocery store and get some tea on the way back, at that point I was ready to try anything to keep warm!

  Our first full day in Berlin we saw everything. We started out in the morning with a quick detour to the Olympic Stadium from the 1936 Summer Games. The stadium was massive and definitely is a great example of the period’s architecture and style. We also saw Alexanderplatz and the Fehrnsehturm, Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and the Holocaust Memorial. My favourite part of the day was without a doubt the Reichstag. The last time I was in Berlin the building was closed for renovations and I remember being disappointed so, of course, I was ecstatic when we made our reservations. The Reichstag is the capital of Germany, quite like our Parliament Hill. A few years ago, a big glass dome was constructed on top of the main building with a panorama and a viewing area down into the congress, which is now open to the public!

  To get into the building, you have to go through airport-like security. Once through, you are never left alone! We took an elevator up to the top floor and got an audio guide, French of course! While walking up the spiral dome you pass over sensors that start your audio guide. It was really interesting because the guide would tell you where to look out, as well as lots of history and tidbits of information about the city. Once at the top you could look down over the building and see practically everything in Berlin!

  The Charlottenberg Schloß (castle) was another favourite. The building was modeled after the French Baroque era, which was cool because I studied that earlier this year. We were able to get audio guides that took us through room by room at the attraction too. I went to Charlottenberg the last time I was here, but I think that I am in a position where I can appreciate it more now!

   I am still loving the hostel lifestyle! The place where we stayed (the East Seven Mitte) was clean and had a great community vibe! On Friday night, they hosted an event called the “supper club” where the hostel staff and guests made a bunch of pizzas together and we all got to eat in the common room as a big group(for free, I might add! They sure know the way to a student’s heart.). The thing I love about hostels is that you get to meet cool people from all over the world who are at relatively the same point in their life. I also love discovering the cultural and daily differences that we face in our respective countries. At the beginning of this year I was apprehensive about hostels as a whole because I had never stayed in one, but now I can’t imagine lodging any other way!

  This morning at the train station on the way to the airport, we decided to have one last hurrah and find the most German foods that we could. I bought a soft pretzel that had been baked in Swiss cheese and Kristen got a wurst that was in a pastry. It’s probably a good thing that I’m back in France with access to a kitchen although I am going to miss the gastronomic choices of Berlin!