jeffineurope's Xanga

Monday, June 07, 2004

Mon, 07 Jun 2004 17:52:46 GMT

Switzerland

Awesome place. Well, near the end it was. We arrived on Friday in Interlaken. The plan was to stay in Interlaken a night, do some canyoning on Saturday, then go to Bern on Sunday to look around and maybe see the Pope if we were lucky. As it turn out, it rained a lot that week and on Saturday, causing the water levels to rise. Our trip was cancelled for Saturday so we had to make a decision. We ended up going the next morning and staying an extra night in Interlaken. More on that later, though.

So back to Friday night, we get there around 11 and check into our hostel called Balmers. Now, this is the first time here that I've actually stayed at a hostel. It was okay. Nothing can compare to Youth Camp conditions, so I guess I don't expect much in terms of living conditions haha. Anyway, the only bad thing about it was that they didn't supply towels, which quite frankly sucked. The place was very American, meaning that there were a ton of American college students there. Almost forgot you were in Switzerland. It was cool, but also lame because it was way too touristy. On Saturday we ended up wasting a lot of time because we couldn't figure out what to do (everyone had different plans) and the trip was cancelled. The only cool thing we did was ride bikes out to the lake, and I have a nifty video of me doing a powerslide!

That evening we went to a casino (a first time here that I could actually play). That crap is ADDICTING. Remind me never to go to one again, or at least make sure I spend like a few bucks in the slot machines for kicks. Something very psychological about not quitting when you're down, and it kinda snowballs and by the time you realize what happened, you walk away with nothing. Out of the 5 of us that went, only one of us gained money. I mean, come on, even the Tech nerds know that statistically the Casino will always win. I guess people think they can beat the odds. Luckly we didn't go all out, maybe a meal's worth of cash. So because we failed to reserve the space for Sat night, we end up staying in some tents that were also Balmers property. It was different, but not bad.

On Sunday we had to wake up early to go canyoning at 9:30. This made the whole thing worth it. Basically, canyoning is just going down rapids/rivers without the raft. You walk down, cross certain parts, rappel off others, jump off cliffs, etc. Very fun. The water levels were at the maximum they told us (don't know how true that was, but they DID cancel the afternoon trips because it got too high, so I guess it is) and they even said it was stressful for them. The current is a LOT stronger than I thought it would be. Basically, you're putting your feet down and tryin to get footing where you can't see. This is harder than it sounds, because 1) you can't see the rocks 2) the current is going at you and if you don't find your footing quick you will be swept away. A couple times I slipped and it was only because my foot randomly caught a rock that I didn't totally lose it. Some of the girls we went with kept getting swept away but luckly the guides had them haha. Overall, it was awesome. Rappeling, jumping off mini-cliffs, zipline, going down rapids head first. I want to come back and do the 6-hour trip.

We ended around 1:00. Got a photo-cd. Shopped a little bit before catching the train back at 3:30. Fun times. Now I'm not sure whether to go to Paris or Interlaken again. I really want to try Para-gliding too.

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Tue, 01 Jun 2004 16:28:19 GMT

So about my travels to Brussels and Amsterdam. I think I'll switch up the format this time.

Brussels

Very nice city. You can basically walk down one part of down and see something cool, walk over there, see something else, etc. There was a part of the city that reminded me of the Latin Quarter. Tons of restaurants, shops, very very tourist-y. Saw the "peeing boy" statue which was pretty cool. Apparently people make costumes for the little guy every so often. We only stayed there for a night, but it was worth it. Our four star hotel (which we got for 60 bucks booya) room was NICE. Hahaha, overall, I'd go back to Brussels just to relax.

Amsterdam

So we arrive in Amsterdam on Saturday night. Sergio met us at the station and we went to the hotel. Everyone there pretty much spoke English. They had these cool tram things that went around the entire city, so we used those instead of the metro. I'm still not sure if we had to pay to use it, because everyone would usually just go through the doors just like the metro. On Sunday we just rented bikes and biked around the city. Bike lanes are EVERYWHERE. It's pretty cool, but sort of scary because I was all paranoid of being hit by a car or another biker or something. Plus, my bike had the stupid reverse brake system instead of the handbrake. Ate at this nice pancake place, then watched "The Day After Tomorrow". The movie was okay, if not a little cheesy in some places (the wolves? ahhaa). Went to the Van Gogh museum on Monday before heading back to the train station to head home.

So, what am I forgetting..... Ah yes.

The "coffeeshops" were everywhere. Basically, they call it a coffeeshop but it's basically a weed shop where you can smoke and buy. I could go into why I don't really like it, but that'll be reserved for my the other xanga. No deep stuff here;) Red Light District can be described in one word. Crazy. You just walk down these two streets and the few allies attached to them. It's just how it's described. Women line the buildings up and down behind glass doors that have a big red light. Curtain closed = in business, curtain open = open for business. Porn shops, Sex shows, etc etc. It was like a huge overload of the senses. Really tests you, and I'm not gonna lie and say I succeeded. But again, I'll save the deep stuff for some other time.

Overall, the trip was more relaxing than anything. Since Amsterdam and Brussels didn't have any "must see" places we weren't just spending the whole day walking around like in Paris.

Monday, May 31, 2004

Mon, 31 May 2004 16:59:06 GMT

Just got back from Brussels and Amsterdam. Interesting weekend, post some up later.

Friday, May 28, 2004

Fri, 28 May 2004 02:52:57 GMT

Brussels, then Amsterdam this weekend =)

But first I gotta go to classes haha

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Wed, 26 May 2004 06:55:59 GMT

So here we are again, a little time before I have to go off to class. Apparently I have xanga premium for a month or something.

Sunday

I sort of forgot what we did right after we woke up, which was around 11, but I think we ate at the Latin Quarter..wait, yess...we did. We ate at another cafe and I had chicken and fries, I remember now...

So anyway, after we eat we go to Musee D'Orsay, which a museum that used to be a train station. It wasn't quite as big as the Louvre, but it had a lot of nice art inside. I'm not really a huge art buff so I don't think I could have appreciated it as much, but it was cool to see the Van Gogh and Monet paintings. I wanted to see Starry Night but it wasn't there. A friend said it wasn't in Amsterdam either. Hmmm. After spending a few hours in the museum, we decide to go to Versailles. The train ride was really long, I must have fallen asleep like 20 times during it. (Okay, so it's not THAT long, but pretty long for the metro...which, btw I keep calling the marta). So we finally get to Versaille, and what we want to see is the big castle that is here.

Words cannot describe how huge this place is. It was about as big as the Louvre except with big extensions going off on the sides, and this was only the building. The other 5/6 or something of the property was garden. Just tons of garden and lake that you could walk around. Unreal. That would be the awesomest place to live in. Unfortunately, the inside was closed (we got there around 6), but the gardens were open until 8 so we just walked around there. Wanted to go the next day to see the inside, but it was closed on Mondays=(.

So we get back on the metro and go back to downtown Paris to see the Eiffel Tower(!) next. The Eiffel Tower was huge. It was just crazy standing under the base. I had ideas about how big it was, but it surprised me still. I think it was taller than the Tokyo Tower, not sure, but definately much cooler. So we end up eating sausages and fries at the stand before buying the lift ticket up (since we didn't want to walk the hundreds of steps up to the 2nd level). Kind of crowded getting up, but once we were up there it was amazing. It was freaking cold, but I took a ton of night shots. I was also really paranoid of dropping my camera over the edge, which would have been VERY BAD. Eiffel Tower was probably the high point of the trip. We ended this night early, and after the tower headed back and just crashed

Monday

Ahhh, last day. Didn't plan much for this day. Walked around and visited some stores for clothes and stuff. Saw a pair of euro style shoes I thought were cool, and now that I think of it, should have bought (25 euros). Then we visited the Arc de Triomphe (to see it during the day). After that we just went to La Defense, which was more of the business sector of Paris. Lots of tall modern buildings, and a huge square "arch". Spent some more time just walking by the river looking at the street vendors. Bought a key chain. Soon, it was time to catch the train.

Overall, an awesome trip. I hope the other are just as great. Not sure where to go this week. Maybe Amsterdam, but I don't know what I could do for three days except chill, and that would seem sort of like a waste. I don't want to go to "coffeeshops" (there is a limit what I can tolerate comfortably, and while refusing a drink is one thing, not breathing is something I'm not really skilled at haha), and the red light district is probably just interesting to walk through a few times. Van Gogh museum is also there, but I heard you have to pay crazy to get in, and the fact that some of his more famous paintings aren't there...well... I heard that one could bike ride around the whole city, that would be fun. The other alternative is to go down to Nimes, where they are having a bullfighting festival type thing. That would be fun as well. Decisions, decisions! Oh well....it is time for class now.

Monday, May 24, 2004

Mon, 24 May 2004 19:09:34 GMT

Woooo, weekend is over! And to think this is only the first week. So, let me try to recap the weekend events (maybe I should have written them down then transferred them).

Friday

So we get done with classes and decide that we are going to skip the Metz tour the following morning so that we can arrive in Paris Friday evening. Blah balh insert some stuff about how we are all paranoid about getting punished, but we decide the extra day is worth it (and it was of course haha). So we arrive in Paris around 9 with another group, then we split up to do our own thing. The hotel that we ended staying up at was called Geoffroy MaRie Opera Hotel, pretty close to the opera (duh) and good walking distance from downtown. This place was pretty sweet. We got a quadruple (4 beds) and it had most of the comforts. Not bad for 30 euros a night. So we decide to go eat and head down to Latin Quarter to look for a cafe. The amtosphere can only be described in one word. Chill. Everything is so relaxed. You can sit there for ours and just hang out or whatever. It was very nice, except (again hahaha) for the fact that the food was freaking expensive... ESPECIALLY the drinks. I had the tap water for the majority of the meals because it was like 4 euros for a bottle of water or something. Ridiculous. But whatever. So that night ended with us walking back around 1 or 2 AM. Very fun just walking through the streets kind of unstructured. Some places were kind of sketchy, but it was nice walking through the streets and taking pictures of the monuments and buildings.

Saturday

We decide to visit Notre Dame in the morning. This is a very huge cathedral, but I don't know much history about it. Seems like every French city has their own Notre Dame. It's just a beautiful place, to walk inside and see the ceilings and everything. The one in DC was bigger (I think), not sure. It was sort of strange because when we went there, there was a catholic outreach group (which surprised me because I've never seen one) and they were talking to us and asking us if we wanted to pray with a priest, just like a blessing or something. So we walk up to the priest and he asks us if any of us are Christian. Gavin says no, I say yes, Serg says he wasn't really. Then the priest is like were you baptised when you were little? Serg says yes, so the priest says "then you are Christian". So we're all like uhh, and I think Sergio was about to argue but then he just gives us this generic prayer, which was nice I guess. Just an interesting experience overall. Outside there were a lot of people selling these Paris keychains (with the Eiffel tower). I mean these were EVERYWHERE. It also saddened me to see the beggars. It would usually be a lady walking around with a sign that said the exact same thing, something about having to feed kids, as the lady we met a few minutes ago. What can you do in a situation like that? Blah.

So aside from that tangent, which is best left in my head or somewhere else, we next went to the Louvre. This place was HUGE, we just walked around the outside for a bit, then we went inside. It would take forever to tour the whole thing and actually STUDY the stuff inside it. We spent about 4-5 hours inside and saw maybe about 1/4 of it. We were also just blazing through the other rooms to see the famous stuff. Amazing. I saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. Just a very unreal feeling. I probably took 1/3 of my pictures here.

So after visiting the Louvre and being completely amazed we start walking toward the the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysee. This street was also pretty cool. Lots of shops (can we say expensive?) here and we sat down and ate at a nice place. Took a picture of my salmon dish ahahha. It turned out to be TWENTY EUROS WTH. Man, it was good, but maybe not that good lol. Maybe if the thing was like, 4 times as big, too. So its getting to be evening and we take pictures of the Arc, go under it and look at the tomb of the unknown soldier. See the Eiffel tower in the distance being lit up, that was cool.

That evening Tona and Gavin decide they want to go to a club with some people from the other group. Since its not that late I decide to tag along. BIG MISTAKE. Now, I've never been to a really big club so this was a new experience for me. Apparently, someone in the other group knew this place called "Cabaret" that his friends recommended. So, the plan was to go to this place. We ask the manager downstairs if he knows where this place is. He says we are too young to go there and recommends this other place to go where all the college kids hang out. That should have been our first cue haha. BUT, instead we go meet up with the other group and take a taxi down to Cabaret. Since we have to take different cabs, by the time we get there the other half of our group is already at the entrance talking to the bouncer. To put it as short as possible, he basically tells us to get lost hahaha. So some of the people are pretty pissed and want to go to a club really bad. So, they decide they want to go to this OTHER club that they heard was good, called "Lido" on CHAMPS-ELYSEE. Now, I'm thinking, okay what the hell? This club by the Louvre just told us to take a hike, and you want to go to a club on the Champs-Elysee? So we taxi down there and club after club we are getting rejected. I also find out Lido and Cabaret are some kind of strip show. Uhhhh, excuse me, but no. This got me really pissed because no one bothered to tell me (or maybe they were clueless as well? heh). But Tona was cool about it and said he didn't want to go to one either. At this one club a lady was even picking people who she approved of and they were let it. Kind of like begging for scraps. Tres lame. So at this point, I'm pretty pissed because I just paid a lot of money for a taxi that I could have used for like a coke or a burger lol and also cracking up because I just find stupid stuff like this hilarious. We finally end up getting rejected from this last club and then decide to head to that place the manager recommended. (Tona and Gavin and I, at that point 2 of the group went home, 3 went to the other club, we got rejected - 3 guys duhhhh, and went home lol). That place was a lot better. Had a pepsi and chilled for a little bit then went home. At least we ended the night on a good note.

I might post Sunday and Monday later tonight. We don't have class tomorrow morning and I'm feeling sort of winded (winded?) thinking about everything that happened. Sooo much stuff...! Hopefuly I can find a good host to get these pictures up. Betweent the 4 of us we must have taken over a 1000 pictures.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

Thu, 20 May 2004 17:45:14 GMT

So what to update on today....hmmm

Not much went on today. I ended up staying up much later than I had anticipated. This equated to a me feeling like crap during the day yet again. Okay, so I didn't really feel like crap, but I was really tired. Tired as in, bags under the eyes (which I hardly ever get) tired. I also know I'm tired because I will take a nap, and if I wake up really groggy then I know I was really tired. So, enough about me being tired. Today was some type of French holiday whose name escapes me at the moment. As a result, most of the shops and stores were closed today. A lot of the locals were out running and just lying in near the lake by the campus. I think they get out and excercise a lot more than we do, which is nice. But this day also caused me a bit of grief, because I walked the 10-15 mins to CETE to eat lunch only to find out it was CLOSED (duh Jeff think!!) so I walked 10-15 mins BACK to ALOES (my dorm). Maybe I could eat some of the bread I bought. I then forgot that I had forgot to buy a knife, so I had nothing to spread jam on my bread. So being resourceful I took a pair of chopsticks I had handy and used the SECRET CHINESE TECHNIQUE™ to scoop the jam onto my bread. Overall, it was an okay lunch. Jam, bread, and water...nice.

So Serg, Tona, Gavin, and I decided this weekend that we were going to skip the tour of Metz (they put it on a Saturday?! And we're only going to be in Metz for about oh...TWO MONTHS) and just leave Friday night. Hotel is booked and everything. We couldn't reserve a hostel for 3 nights and for some reason they were all above 20 euros (maybe b/c it's in Paris?) So it should be a fun weekend with lots of pictures. Definately going to visit the Eiffel tower, Louvre, Champs-Elysee, etc. Almost forget that I'm still at school hehe, well until Tuesday.

An interesting thing also happened today. For dinner we went to a place called Kebab, which sold these sandwiches which were pretty cheap (well cheap for here, bout 3.50 euro) and were very good. So we're sitting by the lake eating our Kebabs when these two guys on scooters come riding by the path near us super fast. They stop and start asking us questions and after a while realize that we're America (probably from our butchered accents). Now his friend is Asian or chinese so the guy, I guess in an attempt to make some sort of connection, starts laughing really loud while pointing at me and him and going "Chinois! Chinois!". All I could really do was sit there and nod. Everyone else apparently thought this was funny as hell. No, but here's the kicker... The guy then starts saying "Hashish" or something over and over, and we get the hint that he's trying to sell us weed. In the middle of this park while he was riding his scooter around. Now this is common in the states maybe on the street or something, but this was just out of nowhere for me. Disturbing, yet amusing. My friend almost tried to buy some. Good thing they left (maybe they were out? duno). The strangest things, and it's only the 3rd day lol.

So that's pretty much my "adventure" for the day. Not really an adventure. If you've read this far congratuations, you're addicted to xanga. Hehe, time for bed.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Wed, 19 May 2004 19:26:02 GMT

So to recap the last few days.

Monday

I arrive in France after a LONG day of travel. Basically, I wake up at 3 AM Sunday morning in Wichita, get ready and catch my flight to ATL at 5:20. I arrive in ATL around 8:33 ATL time. My flight to Frankfurt is at 6:20 in the EVENING. So I basically am stuck at the airport for about 9 hours. Luckily, I met up with some friends and we went to visit Tech for a while. The flight to Frankfurt was about 9 hours. Sat next to a woman from Somalia interestingly enough. She had these tatoos all over her hands which looked pretty cool. Anyway, I arrive in Frankfurt at 9:20 AM (with the 6 hour time difference added). From here we take a bus to Metz which was about 3 hours. Finally arrive at the dorms around 3:30 and check in. I had about maybe 4 hours total sleep for the whole thing. Needless to say I crashed hard when it was time to sleep.

It was pretty funny when we arrived in Frankfurt because somehow there was this running joke among us that European women were super hot. So we get off the plane and literally the first lady we see....we were all like wow.....turns out it was the CUSTOMS OFFICIAL lolol. Too bad we didn't know any German. I guess it was funny when it happened.

Tuesday

Basically, in the morning we had a lot of orientations and stuff like that. Morning classes were cancelled for the orientation, but we had our afternoon classes. The semester should be okay, provided that I concentrate on studying during the week. I also had a chance to go to Cora, which is the big wal-mart type store nearby. The grocery store (besides the gas stations) are probably one of the things I actually dislike about this place.

First off, everything is packaged in servings that are TINY. I'm talking about packs of ham that come in four. We were all excited when we found a ten pack of ham hahaha. Maybe that's why french people are so thin. Small serving sizes = less food to eat. But I am oh so hungry=(

Second, everything here is so expensive. I bought 2 six-packs of water, two boxes of granola bars (six in each wth), and an adapter. The total price? 18 euros. And that is not taking into the fact that after the conversion I end up paying even more. 18 euros for water and granola bars that will last me maybe a week. Can we say WTH?

Beside the food and prices, though, this place is amazing. My french was so rusty from high school that I forgot how to say fork (forchette btw). It was fun trying to ask for various items and watching the employees stare at you with blank faces because you probably butchered the accent.

So anyway, one thing I've noticed about French people is that they dress pretty stylishly. The American t-shirt + jeans makes me look like a middle schooler. Even at the grocery store its like a button up shirt or something. I saw a dude walking around in capris. That would NOT fly in USA (well, maybe if you were gay, and even then..)

So that evening we go eat downtown. The alleyways are filled with cafe's and various shops. It was very cool. We ate at this small place (forgot the name) and had awesome food, but again it was so expensive comparatively. I ate this lasagna dish (got a picture lol) and for the first time tasted wine. OMG I'm sorry but that was just wayy too bitter. I don't see how people get used to it heh. Afterwards there was this party/mixer thing back at the dorms. It sorta sucked at first, because no one was there, but it picked up later into the night. Overall, it was pretty fun. Except for the smoke ......and the overabundance of guys just dancing in groups (weirds me out, probably normal here).

Wednesday

Not much to comment here. Classes actually started for the full day. Took a few naps in the day, did some studying. We will probably start planning our trip for this weekend. Strasbourg or Paris? Hmmm, not sure.

Oh yes, and to add. I don't want to sound shallow, okay so it's going come off that way regardless, but French women are for the most part, BEAUTIFUL. I don't know what it is, I will post when I figure it out lol. But man...ahahhaa

The sucky thing is that we can't speak French very well at all. My friend tried to talk with this one girl and it was HORRIBLE. The combination of her not being able to speak English and he not being able to speak French was hilarious. She was talking in like broken words and he was just nodding and after a while was like "au revoir". I guess it would have been easier to understand her had she just spoke in French. At the cafe I ended up saying "Where is the restrooms?", which probably sounded ultra retarded. I must refresh my memory =p

Anyway, that's it for now. Gotta get ready for bed. Pictures will probably be up in a few days.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Wed, 19 May 2004 18:50:13 GMT

So I decided to make a new xanga for my stay in France=o This thing will mostly be for me, so maybe I can look back on it after the trip and remember all the cool things. Posts will probably be more lengthier haha, but I'm not forcing you to read it =p

Maybe I can find a theme to put up in the next few days.