le mot "ski de fond"

On Saturday, my fellow crestoises and I did some "ski de fond," or cross-country skiing.  It was a lot of fun and a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be.  For some reason, I thought it would be easier than downhill skiing ("ski de piste").  I had no idea it was even possible to ski uphill!

Look at me go!

Lots of jumping photos.  At one point, the person taking the photos set it on auto (not sure what it's called), so we have a series of photos that look like a flipbook if you go through really fast!

Success!

Also wanted photo evidence of my colorful outfit. :)

le mot "requin" - (London)

Arrived in London at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 23, and went "straight away" (as they say in England) to my "mate's" "flat."  We went to the grocery store and had a delicious home-cooked dinner of roast chicken with chorizo and roasted leeks, broccoli and sweet potatoes.  Wow, I want the recipe.

My friend went out of town the next day, but his "housemate" said that Nikki and I were welcome to stay the next two days.  They were really welcoming, and it was great to save some "quid" on housing.

I didn't take too many photos in London, but here are a few...

Buckingham Palace!  Nikki and I were standing between two French families somehow.

Also, "loads" of people seemed to be waiting around for something, so we did, too, for about fifteen minutes. Nothing happened, and the "bobbies" (is that what they're called?) didn't seem to know either, so we left, and ran into this:

Regal!  We overheard that there have been "loads" of practice events for the upcoming Olympics.

Or maybe it was the changing of the guard.  Not sure!

Saw Legally Blonde the Musical!

Unfortunately, my camera has "a bit" of a delay, and this girl stood up right when I took the photo, and right before I got yelled at for taking a photo.

Some kind of Occupy protest going on near St. Paul's Cathedral.  Couldn't "manage" to "sort it out," but I also "couldn't be bothered" to ask anyone.

"Brilliant" store with lots of items in floral prints.

10 "quid."  Bought this dress at a boutique that was going out of business!  I liked pretty much everything in the store, but limited myself to this one and the one below.

8 "quid."  "Safe."

Bought at a "shop" called Coolway.

One thing I thought was funny is how British people tack on questions to what they say sometimes.  For example, when I was buying the half-price Legally Blonde tickets, I had a lot of questions, and the guy would answer, "Oh, but that's the full price ticket, innit?" and stuff like that.  Then, at the amazing-going-out-of-business-everything-must-go boutique, one of the salespeople came to check on me in the fitting room, and I asked how much the pink dress was originally.  She replied, "Probably 45 Pounds.  But it's because we're going out of business, aren't we?"  Funny.

We also went to the National Portrait Gallery.  It's huge and free!  Two hours was definitely not nearly enough time there, but we got a good overview.  Also, we met our goals of eating fish and chips and Indian food from Brick Lane, a street with a lot of Indian restaurants.  So much so, that each restaurant tries to entice you with a free something to get you to come to their restaurant.  We got complimentary drinks.

Another thing I learned is that when you order coffee in London, they ask you if you want it black or white (with milk).  Makes sense, but I'd never heard that before.

Early Saturday morning, we took the National Express bus to Stansted airport for our third (and final) EasyJet flight of the trip.  We got to the airport about three hours early for our flight and there were no lines at check-in or security, so we decided to get a drink and sit in the airport Starbucks.  We had been sitting there for awhile, and I go, "I think that's one of my students!"  Oddly enough, it was a girl from the class of the teacher who took me to her family's home near Annecy two weeks earlier.  So, her mom passed by, and I go, "Excuse me, do you live in Aouste?" and she was shocked, but she had heard of "Rebecca, the English teacher" before, so we started chatting.  Too funny!  She's British, and they were "on holiday" in England visiting her family.

So, we were talking for awhile, and she said she was going to go to the gate because it takes them "ages" to get there, but right before she had offered to drive us to Crest from Grenoble, which of course we said yes to!

Once Nikki and I got to the gate, we didn't see her anywhere, and then when we got off the plane, we didn't see them anywhere either.  We figured out they must have been on an earlier flight.  Too weird.  So, on Monday, I had written a note for the girl to give to her mom.  I was getting it out of my purse to give to her, and she came up to me with a note from her mom.  Apparently, their flight was at 11:45, and ours was at 12:50, so we just missed them.

Today, we met up for lunch at Sur Les Quais, and we both got the plat du jour.  I guess I already knew what the word "requin" meant (shark!), but today I learned what it tastes like.  It was good and served with a puree of a root vegetable....another word that I need to look up.

Overall, a great vacation.  Vivent les vacances!! :)

la phrase "Leg ferfi!" - (Budapest)

On Saturday, Feb. 18, we hopped on the Student Agency bus at 7 a.m.  They showed five movies (a Czech movie about a rural village invaded by pirates and fairies or something, some cartoon that I didn't watch, a coming-of-age girl and horse movie called Moondance Alexander, Prince of Egypt, and an episode of Gossip Girl).  The steward also came down the aisle about every hour asking if we wanted hot drinks.  I took advantage of this and said "Yes" every time.  The bus trip only cost 4500 Hungarian Forint (approx. 16 Euros!)

We stopped in Brno and Bratislava, and I couldn't help thinking of this scene from the movie Eurotrip.  I mean, to be fair, we didn't get out of the bus, but everything looked really industrial and grey!

Anyway, we arrived in Budapest at 2 p.m. and went straight to our hostel.  Don't want to brag too much about how cheap this leg of the journey was, but for four nights at a hostel, each person's share of the bill was just 18 Euros!  The staff there were really helpful and gave a lot of advice about what to do and where to go.  By the time our four days in Budapest were over, I think we had done everything they had recommended!

It was fun going to the ATM and withdrawing 40,000 Forint!  I had to pay for the entire hostel bill in cash, so I withdrew a little more than the other girls.  Also, enjoyed the look of the money.

1000 Forint = approx. 3E50

Budapest was my favorite part of the trip for several reasons, but one thing that made it even more fun is that the four of us knew several other people who would be there at the same time.  The first night, we went to dinner at Koleves with a language assistant from Lyon and his friend.  The next day we met up with a language assistant from Privas, and later on with two language assistants from Pierrelatte.

On Sunday, we visited the Basilica.

Inside the Basilica...Beautiful!

It was a Sunday, and not a lot of things were open.  We walked up a street where the Opera was, stopped for a coffee, walked by the Terror Museum and decided not to enter, made our way up to the park to check out the Szechenyi Baths we would be visiting the next day!  It was a grey day... Here is a photo interpretation of the ambiance of the park.

Re-enactment of park ambiance.

And then.... this!

Photo evidence that fun does exist in this park!

This is across from the Szechenyi Baths.

Fun sound at every subway stop in Budapest (and a photo of my purse).

On Monday, we went to the baths!  There are several to choose from in Budapest, and we chose one of the more famous ones, the Szechenyi Baths.  It was so cool!  We arrived around 3 p.m. and stayed until 7:30 p.m.  It was probably 30 degrees outside, which made the water feel even warmer, and it looked really neat after it got dark with the steam coming off of the pools.

Szechenyi Baths.  So cool!

There were tables in a couple of pools where people played chess.

There were quite a few indoor pools and some saunas, including an aromatherapy one, a "solarium" one, and one that was 80-100 degrees... Celsius!  Only stayed in that one for about a minute.

The next day we went to the big indoor market for lunch.

Cabbage rolls and stuffed peppers.

Side note: The day before I discovered how much I like poppy seeds.  This is a pastry full of poppy seeds!  Or maybe this was the sour cherry/poppy seed one...  I went there for breakfast a couple of times.

Beautiful day for a walk to the Buda side of the Danube!

The group near the castle on the Buda side.

Our hostel was on the Pest side.

Cathedral on the Buda side.  Loved the colors on the roof!

Parliament building.

After our walk on the Buda side, Katrina and Anna went to the opera, and Nikki and I and an Australian from the hostel went to a "progressive dinner" at two restaurants we really enjoyed from the days before.

A great restaurant that the hostel receptionist recommended.

The three of us ordered three things to share: rabbit, chicken with beets, and "curd cheese" pasta.

We had plans to meet up with Katrina and Anna after dinner, and we ended up meeting earlier than planned because the opera in Budapest was in Italian with only Hungarian subtitles (unlike in Prague where they had both Czech and English), so they had left at intermission.

Budapest is known for "ruin bars," which I guess means a bar owner took over an abandoned... apartment complex or something and built a huge bar with lots of different rooms, and there are exposed brick walls.  I'm not exactly sure what the definition is, but we went to two of them, and it was something like that!

This was at a place called Instant.  They have a brochure that advertises their "Enchanted Forest," which refers to the flying rabbits in this photo.  I love the wording in their brochure:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Let's not exaggerate, Instant is the best place in Budapest.  Newer or noisier places? Possibly.  Places more out-of-the-way?  Surely.  Cheaper or more expensive places? Probably.  But in the true sense of the word, there are no better places."

I'm sold!  Let's go!  :)

Hungarian I picked up (spelling?):

thank you - koseynum

women - noi

men - ferfi

toilets - toalety

Cheers! - Agasheg!

I would like a large coffee. - Kerek eg hosou kaveet.

Leg ferfi! - Be a man! (learned this when I had some trouble trying the local drink called palinka)

I highly recommend Budapest!  On Wednesday morning, we made our way to the airport to head to London!

le mot "děkuji" - (Prague)

On Tuesday, I took a train from Annecy to the Lyon airport, where I met up with my fellow travelers.  Two English assistants (Nikki and Katrina) and Anna, Katrina's friend from when they studied abroad.  EasyJet really is a no frills airline.  I opted to just do a carry-on and not pay the extra 15Euro fee per flight to check baggage.  They really do only allow one bag, so it involved a lot of rearranging (putting my purse in my bag with the zipper open, hiding stuff in my coat that I was carrying, wearing extra layers for what I like to call the "EasyJet look").

This is all I took for the Prague-Budapest-London leg of the journey.  And I was wearing the boots!  I left a bag of ski stuff with my teacher.

Nikki had printed off basic Czech words and expressions, and we all practiced "děkuji" (thank you) right away.  It's pronounced "dyay-koo-yi."  We got into Prague pretty late, so we went next door for dinner.  We stayed at the Pension Brezina.  If you ever go to Prague, I highly recommend it!

Anyway, the next morning, we wanted to make sure we could at least say thank you correctly. Nikki and I went to talk to the front desk guy.  The exchange went something like this.

Me:  Hi, we have a question for you.  How do you say thank you?
Czech Man: Thank you.
Me:  No, but how do YOU say thank you?
Czech Man:  Thank you!  You should say thank you in your own language.  Otherwise you won't be smiling.
Me: But really, how do you say it.. Dyaykooey?  Dyekooyeh?
Czech Man: It doesn't matter!  Speak with your mind and your heart.
Me: Okay, I'll take three postcards.
Czech Man: 15 crowns.
Me: Děkuji.

Walked around the main square.  Tried to get a photo of it snowing while it was really sunny out.

Walked up the stairs in the Prague Tower.

View from the Tower

Another view

Now that's a coffee!  This is how an espresso is served in Prague.

Famous Charles Bridge.  It was cold!

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral, as seen in the background of the previous photo.

Anna had the idea to go to the opera.  Front row seats for Il Trovatore.  It was fun, I'd like to go to the opera in Chicago sometime. (Famous part I recognized: YouTube clip.  Wow, the production we saw was a lot more sparse than the one featured on this video.  It was pretty much just the actors and one set of risers that they moved around!)  The subtitles were in Czech and English.

Main square at night, with astronomical clock.

Cool logo at the Office de Tourisme.

I kept saying I wanted to see live music.  We ended up going to Jazz Republic, which was sort of underground, not in a cool way, but in an "on your way to the metro" kind of way.  Haha.  To my dismay, we had just missed "Stan the Man Bohemian Blues Band."  He had played the night before.  There was a big band with many horns in small, enclosed space.  The music was fun, and my group took advantage of the exchange rate and got some White Russians for probably a third of what it would cost in France!

We also visited the Communist Museum.  It was interesting, and at the end featured a video with a song that said "děkuji" many times.

Czech words I learned in Prague (spelling?):

exit - vychod

please - proseem

ATM - bankomat

thank you - děkuji

strawberry - jahoda

strawberries - jahody

soup - polevka

coffee - kava

hello - dobre den

hot chocolate - horka cocolada

of - od

fried cheese sandwich - smaszeny syr

On Saturday, we got up early and took the 7 a.m. bus to Budapest...

le mot "combinaison de ski" - (Annecy)

Just got back from a whirlwind two-week winter break to Annecy, Prague, Budapest and London!  I still can't believe I was able to do it.  Thanks to EasyJet airlines (the "Southwest" of Europe), Student Agency Bus (their website has a lot of exclamation points, and it's kind of hilarious, but it's ALL true!  I took advantage of five movies and five "hot drinks" aboard the bus!), an Eastern European hostel, a good exchange rate and the hospitality of an old friend, it was actually not as expensive as you'd think.  Because it sounds like such an expensive/luxurious trip, I decided to only tell my teachers I was going to Prague, which ended up being a bad idea because I ran into one of my students at the airport on the way home from London, and I'd like to tell a teacher about that, but she doesn't know I was in London....but more on that later! :)

A few weeks ago, Catherine, one of the teachers I work with invited me to her family's house near Annecy, France to go skiing.  She said I just needed to bring sheets and a pillow case, and some money for the ski lift.  So, on Saturday, Feb. 11, she and the Taiwanese high schooler she's hosting this year picked me up at 9:30 a.m., and the vacation officially began!

After about three or so hours, this is where we arrived...

The family house in Saint-Jorioz

Catherine, her parents, and her eight brothers and sisters own this house.  It basically used to be two houses, and then they built a galley that connects the two upper floors and there is outdoor parking beneath it.  Here's a tour of the house...

Stairway up to the room where I stayed.  On the wall is a chain of little books.

The room where I stayed.  I did the math, and there are about 19 rooms that can accommodate 2-3 people each!

One of several bathrooms.  

This is the galley between the houses.  It doesn't have heating, so people don't stay here during the winter, but there are about five bedrooms and a kitchen.  I did a lot of running through this part of the house because it was so cold!  The shutters on the right are open during the summer.

The main kitchen.  Through that door is...

The dining room.  There were at least 18 people at dinner every night.  Every lunch and dinner included a cheese course.  So good!

One night Catherine made a "courge farcie" (stuffed pumpkin).  It was filled with rice, ground meat, and dates.  It was big enough to provide dinner for 18 people and lunch the next day!

Walked around Annecy the first day.  The centre ville where we walked around was really cute and colorful.  I bought a large green scarf, which will be featured in future photos.

I went skiing on Sunday and Monday.  They let me borrow skis, so I just had to rent the ski boots.  They also let me borrow a combinaison de ski, which.... well.... I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Stayed very warm, saved a lot of money, but did not make any friends on the slopes. :)

Parking lot of the ski slope before it got filled with cars.

Taking a break from the slopes.

Tuesday, before I left, we took a walk to Lac d'Annecy, about a five minute walk from their house.  Beautiful!

I mainly hung out with Catherine's 19-year-old daughter, their Taiwanese exchange student and their high school friends.  I was the only one who had a brought a seche-cheveux (hairdryer), so I made friends really fast.

It was really cool how different people would arrive or leave each night.  Every day it was a different group of people and you could tell everyone felt really welcome in their home.  I feel really lucky to have been able to go.  I stayed from Saturday to Tuesday, since I had already made plans to go to Prague, but it sounded like she expected me to stay the whole week!  The whole weekend reminded me of a genre of French movie where 10-12 people from different walks of life arrive for a vacation at a house, resort, etc., and hilarity ensues.  Luckily, hilarity did not ensue, and it was just a fun, board game- and ski-filled weekend!  The French really do know how to vacation.