Evangelia in Monet's Garden :)
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Je Suis Ici
Hey everyone! Sorry it has been so long but I didn't have internet the whole time I was in London and now I finally have it for a day! When I actually arrive in Nancy I'll be able to upload all my pictures and write blogs more regularly!
Well England was amazing if I can sum it up in one word. It was kind of cold and rainy when Eric and I got there (and for pretty much the whole time we were there) but that only added to the charm of England (most of the time). The first day we arrived we were so exhausted from our trip that when we got to Tony and Wendy's ( our extremely kind hosts) we konked out for a few hours. After that we were ready to do some exploring. We went with Lincoln and Misty ( the dogs) to a cozy little town near where we were staying (Ruislip) to do some walking. Then we decided to eat dinner and what else an English pub! The next day we explored London with Tony and Wendy; walking through Hyde Park, gawking at Buckingham Palace, trying to sneak a peak at number 10 downing street, walking beside Parliament, and strolling by the Thames, you know just normal things done in a days work :). Oh and of course going to Convent Garden and watching a mini orchestra play for a few pounds. The next day we decided to go to the London Eye and see all of the city. It went up unbelievably high showing us London from a completely different perspective. We then went to what I was dying to see and others ,ay ask why, the Underground War Rooms of Churchill. It was so interesting and inspiring to see all the places where Churchill ran and decided the fate of things in WWII ( thats the history loving person inside of me).
The rest of England trip consisted of us feeding swarms of pigeons, visiting my cousin who lives in London and eating some amazing Indian food, going to the gardens and grounds/palace of where the infamous Henry the 8th lived and married wives, drinking tea with the queen at Westminster Palace (maybe it was just seeing the palace from the outside), and visiting the famous Eton school for the extremely wealthy and one day prime minister boys of England.
Tony and Wendy also took us to a quaint little village where we saw black swans swim through the little river in the town. We also went to the top of a hill where the wind almost blew us down and looked out across the country to see Wales in the distance.
Now for the interesting part, we were supposed to go to Paris on the Eurostar, but the day before we left the chunnel caught fire and haulted all travel. The nice part was that we got to spend another day with Tony and Wendy, but the part that was hard was that we had to figure out a different way to get to Paris. Tony and Wendy ended up graciously giving us a ride to Dover where we booked a ferry to Calais. From Calais we were going to take a train to Lille and then a train from Lille to Paris. However because of the fire everyone had the same idea as us and the ferry was overbooked. So we ended up leaving 2 1/2 hours late and then just missing our train to Lille. When we left on the next train we were sure we were going to miss our last train to paris, however we when we arrived in Lille we ran to the other train station that our train was leaving from and literaly just made it. We got on and the train left a second later. Keep in mind we were doing all this while carrying our luggage for 6 months!
Well I will have to tell you our Paris adventures later because I have to get ready to leave for Venice now! Pictures are on there way, don't worry I took a ton!
Salut!
Well England was amazing if I can sum it up in one word. It was kind of cold and rainy when Eric and I got there (and for pretty much the whole time we were there) but that only added to the charm of England (most of the time). The first day we arrived we were so exhausted from our trip that when we got to Tony and Wendy's ( our extremely kind hosts) we konked out for a few hours. After that we were ready to do some exploring. We went with Lincoln and Misty ( the dogs) to a cozy little town near where we were staying (Ruislip) to do some walking. Then we decided to eat dinner and what else an English pub! The next day we explored London with Tony and Wendy; walking through Hyde Park, gawking at Buckingham Palace, trying to sneak a peak at number 10 downing street, walking beside Parliament, and strolling by the Thames, you know just normal things done in a days work :). Oh and of course going to Convent Garden and watching a mini orchestra play for a few pounds. The next day we decided to go to the London Eye and see all of the city. It went up unbelievably high showing us London from a completely different perspective. We then went to what I was dying to see and others ,ay ask why, the Underground War Rooms of Churchill. It was so interesting and inspiring to see all the places where Churchill ran and decided the fate of things in WWII ( thats the history loving person inside of me).
The rest of England trip consisted of us feeding swarms of pigeons, visiting my cousin who lives in London and eating some amazing Indian food, going to the gardens and grounds/palace of where the infamous Henry the 8th lived and married wives, drinking tea with the queen at Westminster Palace (maybe it was just seeing the palace from the outside), and visiting the famous Eton school for the extremely wealthy and one day prime minister boys of England.
Tony and Wendy also took us to a quaint little village where we saw black swans swim through the little river in the town. We also went to the top of a hill where the wind almost blew us down and looked out across the country to see Wales in the distance.
Now for the interesting part, we were supposed to go to Paris on the Eurostar, but the day before we left the chunnel caught fire and haulted all travel. The nice part was that we got to spend another day with Tony and Wendy, but the part that was hard was that we had to figure out a different way to get to Paris. Tony and Wendy ended up graciously giving us a ride to Dover where we booked a ferry to Calais. From Calais we were going to take a train to Lille and then a train from Lille to Paris. However because of the fire everyone had the same idea as us and the ferry was overbooked. So we ended up leaving 2 1/2 hours late and then just missing our train to Lille. When we left on the next train we were sure we were going to miss our last train to paris, however we when we arrived in Lille we ran to the other train station that our train was leaving from and literaly just made it. We got on and the train left a second later. Keep in mind we were doing all this while carrying our luggage for 6 months!
Well I will have to tell you our Paris adventures later because I have to get ready to leave for Venice now! Pictures are on there way, don't worry I took a ton!
Salut!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
T Minus 60 Seconds!!
So I am officially freaking out! I leave in less than 24 hours and I still have to pack all my clothes! I have all the clothes I want but i have to narrow it down, which is extremely hard. Time felt like it just completely flew by and what was a month until leaving is now only a few hours!!! Packing for winter when its 90 degrees is a whole lot harder than it may seem. But I have to keep telling myself that I'm not going to the middle of nowhere and they do have stores in France, so if I forget something I wont be left stranded.
I'm getting so nervous, but I know that this is going to be an amazing experience. I can't imagine being away for 6 months in a completely different country but I'm pretty sure that I will never regret going. Everything will be new and very European, which will be a nice change from the the America that I have been in my entire life. That reminds me I applied to get an absentee ballot sent to me in France, because there's no way I'm not voting in this election!! For those of you who aren't registered, go out there and do it!! No matter what your affiliation get your voice and vote out there! I'm going to be sporting my Obama shirt in Europe :).
Well the next time I put a post up I will be in Europe, which is still pretty hard to believe. I'll start posting all my adventures and stories and don't worry I bought a memory card for my camera with like a thousand pictures I can take so I will be posting them up as they come. Ok well everyone wish me luck!!!
Au revoir pour maintainent!!
Evangelia
I'm getting so nervous, but I know that this is going to be an amazing experience. I can't imagine being away for 6 months in a completely different country but I'm pretty sure that I will never regret going. Everything will be new and very European, which will be a nice change from the the America that I have been in my entire life. That reminds me I applied to get an absentee ballot sent to me in France, because there's no way I'm not voting in this election!! For those of you who aren't registered, go out there and do it!! No matter what your affiliation get your voice and vote out there! I'm going to be sporting my Obama shirt in Europe :).
Well the next time I put a post up I will be in Europe, which is still pretty hard to believe. I'll start posting all my adventures and stories and don't worry I bought a memory card for my camera with like a thousand pictures I can take so I will be posting them up as they come. Ok well everyone wish me luck!!!
Au revoir pour maintainent!!
Evangelia
Monday, August 11, 2008
VISA!!!
Ok so I realize that my last entry was almost a month ago! Sorry things have just been crazy, I mean trying to move to another country for 6 months is a lot harder than it may seem! Plus I had my birthday so that took up some time :). Well good news... all my Campus France stuff went through and ... I got my visa!!!
That was the most tiring day ever. We got up at around 6:30 am and left the house at around 7:30 for our day trip to Chicago. My dad was kind enough to drive me and Eric up and back all in one day! The drive to Chicago wasn't too bad, except for some very ominous clouds. Our trusty GPS (named Bouboulina by my dad) helped us out through some tough times. When we finally got to Chicago we were so excited and also like 3 1/2 hours early ! We scoped out the building where the French Consulate was and then decided to explore Chicago a bit. Well I don't know if you know Chicago parking but it was only the small sum of about 26 DOLLARS to park for like 2 hours!!! So we drove around for 2 hours trying to find something cheaper and then finally realized we had to give up and give in to the exorbitant prices. We ate a relatively quick lunch surrounded by pigeons and then made our way to the consulate.
It turned out to be a lot different than I had expected. The room we went in was pretty small and it looked like it was decorated in 1966 and then never touched again. I got there like 20 minutes early but I could have gotten there 20 minutes late because I wasn't called until 20 minutes after my appointment. I thought that they would take us into a little room and then interrogate us, but instead we just went up to this little window as if we were at a bank and did everything through a plate glass. At first it was just me, Eric and another young girl but the room started to fill up. The consulate woman took all my information, I was so nervous I would forget something that I took like a million extra documents. She then kept my passport and told me to come back at 4:00. So I sat there and waited for Eric to be called and as we did we started talking to the other people there and everyone started to get so enthused about where and when they were going to France. It felt like we were all in the same boat and it gave me and I'm sure everybody else a nice feeling, to know that we are not alone!
Well Eric finally was called and then he had to wait as well. I started to realize that they had told everyone to come back at 4 for their visas so the room started to swell! It turned out that there was even someone there from Nancy! He said it was the best town to study abroad (I'm sure he was only a little biased :)). Finally my named was called and they handed me my visa!! I felt so good and so accomplished, like it was my diploma or something, even though it was just a little piece of paper in my passport. I couldn't stop looking at it! Even though it is only valid until November because when I arrive in Nancy I have to go get my residency permit which will allow me to be there for the full 6 months. But it's still a big deal!
As soon as we got the visas we loaded up in the car and headed back home. The ride home felt soo long and I thought I never would be able to just fall asleep in my bed, but we finally made it home and collapsed! I was so tired but also so happy and content that my trip for the visa was a success. I know I still have many other things to get ready before I leave in less than a month but getting my visa felt great! Ill write again soon to keep everyone up to date on my pre France adventures!
PS. The picture at the top is one I took in Strasbourg the last time I was there. I hope I can go again this year it was so beautiful!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Bought Tickets!!!
So I am finally getting closer to having things ready! Everyone out there who is or will be studying abroad one day, don't get discouraged by all the hoops you have to go through before you can actually leave to study abroad. It seems like it's just one thing after another, but when its all done you have this amazing accomplished feeling.
I semi finished my campus France debacle and I finally turned in my grant application, so things are looking pretty good. Over the weekend we (Eric and I) bought the tickets for our trip to Venice in September! It sounds like we're millionaires jet setting across the world, but really our money is very limited. So we are staying with people that we know in all the cities we're going to except for Nice. We also bought our airline tickets on ryanair for only about $40! Anyone studying abroad in Europe in the future, look at ryanair or myair because they have amazing deals if you want to explore different countries. Also getting a rail pass might also be useful if you want to go to a lot of countries.
Well now I just have to make an appointment with the French Consulate to get my visa. I can't wait until the moment they hand me my visa, it will be like the gates of Europe Heaven are opening to me! Ok well I'll update on any new events as soon as they come my way!
I semi finished my campus France debacle and I finally turned in my grant application, so things are looking pretty good. Over the weekend we (Eric and I) bought the tickets for our trip to Venice in September! It sounds like we're millionaires jet setting across the world, but really our money is very limited. So we are staying with people that we know in all the cities we're going to except for Nice. We also bought our airline tickets on ryanair for only about $40! Anyone studying abroad in Europe in the future, look at ryanair or myair because they have amazing deals if you want to explore different countries. Also getting a rail pass might also be useful if you want to go to a lot of countries.
Well now I just have to make an appointment with the French Consulate to get my visa. I can't wait until the moment they hand me my visa, it will be like the gates of Europe Heaven are opening to me! Ok well I'll update on any new events as soon as they come my way!
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