#decemberbreakdiary

January 12: Exploring Berlin. I had breakfast, then took the subway with the girls to Museum Island. It was a pretty nice day and we got to relax and have some time to explore and take pictures. We also went shopping at the Mall of Berlin. I bought a scarf from H&M. We had dinner at an Asian restaurant near our hotel, which was alright. The environment was nice. Berlin was my favorite city that we visited.

January 13: We had our last breakfast at the nice hotel, then went to the airport for our flight to Brussels. There wasn't much to do at the airport - I bought a BLT sandwich which was pretty good, and Minute Maid orange juice. The flight was only a little over an hour, so I just napped. We arrived in the evening, and it was a little tiresome figuring out the train from the airport to Brussels Central, but we got it done. The hotel was close to the train station, it was small though. Sadly probably the least fancy hotel during our trip. The Wifi was down when we arrived, but they had it fixed the next morning.

January 14: I have to say I didn't really enjoy the agenda in Brussels, although I did like exploring the Grand Place which was right outside our hotel. It had a lot of shops and restaurants and pretty buildings. The things planned on the agenda were made by Audencia, which included lectures that I was not interested in ... they were mostly historical. We went to the Parlamentarium Museum which was alright. Then they drove us to the Audi assembly plant where we got a company tour. It would've been interesting cool if I liked cars - but I don't like overpriced things and it was really similar to the Scania company visit. Aimee and I stayed in the back and had our own fun not paying attention during the tour haha. By the time we got back we were tired - so we took a nap. Then we went out for dinner which was waffles! It was delicious. 

January 15: We went to the European Parliament and the National Bank of Belgium today. The Parliament was better because we got to see the actual conference room, but at the bank they just stuck us in a lecture room for 2 hours. It felt like I was wasting my time in Europe and I did not appreciate it. I think for dinner I had waffles again.

January 16: After hearing about the events in Brussels, I was even more unwilling to leave the hotel to attend boring lectures. We went to the EU Economic and Social Committee and then to a hotel conference room to listen to a guy who works at the Brussels World Trade Center. We were quite disappointed that a lot of the stuff on the agenda were just lectures instead of company tours. We ended early though, so Janae and I walked around the Grand Place and to the Mall Strip for a while. We bought chocolates and desserts to bring home. For dinner we met up with all the girls at the hotel, and walked down a street that greatly resembled what we saw in Paris. Since it was our last dinner in Europe, we ate at a nice place called Lobster House. It was pretty inside and had good menu options, and the food was good. The only downside is that it was very "French" meaning that the food took forever. We were there for over 2 hours because we had to wait for the appetizer, entree, then dessert. They really don't emphasize customer service in Europe. I heard it's actually gotten better in recent years. I can't imagine what it was like before. Our professor from last week told us that French businesses have a "take it or leave it" attitude, meaning that everything is set, you can't customize or substitute or request special things when ordering, and they really don't care whether you buy their stuff or not. Anyway, it was a nice and relaxing ending to our trip though. 

January 7: We had class at 9 am, a case study about bicycle sharing in Europe. That went on for almost three hours, then we had free time until 1. My friends and I brought lunch to school which we had bought from the supermarket, so we didn't leave the comfy auditorium. They're like theater seats. Sometimes I take up 3 seats to lay on them and take a nap. Our next instructor came in and my first impression of her was that she was really cool. She is from America and she is really chill. The topic was Intercultural Management so she talked about the differences in culture between US and France. I have an interest in things like psychology, personality, and personnel management so I paid attention during the entire lecture. After class, Aimee went exploring so Ivette Janae and I went to the mall again. We could not find anything to eat in the mall - it's all bakeries. We were so sick of bread. So we went to the supermarket.

January 8: We had time to work on our marketing presentation, then we had 2 classes with the cool instructor. She is quirky but also very laid back and very American. She's been living in France for 22 years and she looks young but she really relates to us. We talked about stereotypes and more cultural differences that we observed in France. Just to name a few - they don't believe in sharing food at restaurants in France, their language is really nasal-y, and they are a culture of negative feedback and do not understand the concept of compliments.

January 9: In our Intercultural Management class, we did a negotiation workshop. It was fun, the instructor gave each of us different managerial positions and cultural identities to negotiate a budget cut of 2 million pounds in total. It was very entertaining. Then at the end of class our instructor gave us cake! It was a good start to the day, but then we had to work on our marketing presentations and study. We had 4 hours of free time so I watched Running Man and took a nap. The presentations went well but our evaluator was mean and no one liked him. Afterwards, we went shopping in the mall to relax. 

January 10: After breakfast, we took public transport to the Nantes SNCF train station. It was a 3.5 hour train ride to the Paris Airport, where we checked in and waited for our flight. The flight from Paris to Berlin was only 1.5 hours. We went through the worst turbulence I have ever experienced in my life and I was really scared. We landed in Berlin and I realized I can't even guess what the German words mean. At least in French some vocabulary is similar to English/Spanish so I could interpret it. We arrived at our hotel around 11pm so we just went to sleep

January 3rd: We had to be ready by 8:30 to leave for Normandy from Paris. We took a coach and Aimee and I started watching the Princess Diaries on the bus. Always a great movie. We arrived at the Colleville Sur Mer and Omaha landing beaches. A national tour guide led us, who had been working for 25 years. She was really cool, although I did fall asleep on the bus when she was talking about some history stuff. I couldn't help it, I was tired and bus rides are relaxing. We walked outside and saw the bomb craters and bunkers that are still on the beaches. It was really cold and raining. I felt uneasy the entire time because of the weather, and she showed a picture of an aerial view of the impact of the war which had all the bomb craters and I was scared because of my trypophobia. So I couldn't really enjoy the beach part, but I did enjoy the part where we went to an American memorial. It had a really nice view of the ocean and a nice pond in the middle. It was still rainy and windy and my umbrella flipped inside out a few times but I was glad I had it (thank you vien!). We arrived at our hotel Novotel Bayeux around 6:30pm and ate dinner in the hotel. I had steak and fries. It was soo good. You know what's weird, everything is extremely sweet here. The others ordered pasta and said it was weirdly sweet. Everything else I've eaten has been sweeter than I'm used to. Things are sweet and cheesy here.

January 4th: Again by 8:30, we had to be ready to leave on the coach - this time to Mont St. Michel. Until arriving there, I thought it was another memorial site. Aimee and I watched Princess Diaries 2 on the bus this time. They dropped us off and said we had 4 hours to explore before getting back on the bus. Aimee and I were confused why we were given so much time when there wasn't much around us, but after taking a bus to the island it made sense. It was pretty cool there. The birds are cute. I went up to the church, and there was mass so I stayed there with Aimee and Ivette for a while. It was in French! I still don't know much French. I've only been saying bonjour, bonsoir, and merci. I walked through the monastery and it was very nice. I was impressed by the architecture and how they put together all the rocks to build this place in the middle of nowhere. There are also restaurants, hotels, and shops on the island. I didn't buy anything though. At 4 we left for Nantes, and watched National Treasure. I love those movies too. It was a good thing we watched movies with earphones the entire ride because there were students from other schools (from Argentina and George Washington University) who were talking so loud the entire bus could hear them, and they were the only ones talking, and right next to each other. It was so uncomfortable with their loud voices and awkward flirting. It's okay because Aimee and I were too into our movies to notice them that much. We arrived at the 7 Urban Suites hotel, and it seems like everyone likes their room, which I'm glad. Each room has a kitchenette and living space with a queen sofa bed and another queen bed in the bedroom. With 2 people in each suite, it's pretty comfortable. We took the bus to get closer to the center the city, and brought back chinese food. It was good.

January 5th: First day of classes at Audencia. We took the bus and tram to school, and were there from 8:30 to 5pm. School in France is intense. We got a free lunch but it was not that good. It was like a hamburger/steak patty but it was rare. It came with fries which were alright and dessert which was really sweet. I slept during the short break afterwards, and during the last lectures. When we got back, we went shopping at the mall which is a 5 minute walk away from our hotel. They have some high end stores, claire's, h&m, quicksilver/roxy, and a supermarket inside. There are 120 stores in total so its a pretty big mall. The supermarket, Carrefour, is as big as a Walmart and looks a lot like one. Aimee and I spent $72 on groceries. It was great, we bought fruit, vegetables, snacks, sushi, dessert - anything that looked good and reasonably priced. We also bought a rotisserie chicken and baguette to eat for dinner with Ivette and Janae. That was the best part of the day.

December 28th: The entire day went by quickly - Breakfast, checked out of the hotel, waited until it was time to go to the airport. The flight from IAD to LHR was around 6 hours. British Airways is so nice. I actually liked the meal they gave us. I got pasta, salad, a roll with butter, carrot cake, and water. I watched Guardians of the Galaxy for the first time during the flight. I liked it :) Then I napped.