Surreal

Sometimes I have to question is this all really happening, I am in France...this is my life right now or is it? It sounds odd but at times it feels like I am living the family's life not mine. For instance E and S had a dinner party and the guests included a Cyprus representative a Greek consulate representative the director of the Syracuse in Strasbourg program and the respective spouses. It's exciting to meet all these people who are in jobs that I would love to have living these foreign lives that I am sort of living as well. I wonder if I am in over my head.

An interesting opportunity came up and I am going to find out more information this week. I am apprehensive about what the future holds.

8 yrs old!

This is the cake we had for Ir's 8th birthday, it was the best cake I have ever had, fruit with cream soooo delicious!! You are actually supposed to eat the flower petals as well.

Congratulations Josh!

Last night my little brother Josh graduated from high school! I guess he isn't that little anymore but to me he will always be the annoying little tag-a-long brother no matter how old he gets or how many achievements line his door. When I was a senior in high school he was a freshman, I can't believe he is finished already! In the fall he will be attending Iowa Central as a swimmer and begin studying history and teaching...I think? Congrats Josh!

We are French

I went to the train station to buy a ticket to see Alex in London! The girl helping me was my age and super super nice. At the train station there are several different tellers and there is a screen above each window stating which language that specific teller speaks. Well I decided to be brave and go to a French speaking window. Which actually turned out great. Almost the entire conversation was in French, which really isn't too impressive since trains and travel is probably ch. 3 in everyone's French 1 book, but still my life is all about the small victories. Anywhoo this girl was explaining to me that before I get on the train I have to validate my ticket, essentially put it in a little machine that stamps that date and time on the ticket. Where I got lost was when she was trying to explain why I didn't have to do it in London because France is somewhat unique in that requirement. Sensing my confusion and disbelief that France would dare to be the one European country that requires this she laughed and said, "We are French" as if that alone explained and justified all the craziness that foreigners experience here in France.

Roses

The Alsace region is known for its flowers of all kinds. Right now roses are everywhere, it so happens that roses are my favorite flower. Everywhere I go there are roses of all colors and sizes it's stunning. When I was little I would weed my Ipa's rose garden and watch as my grandmother tended to her roses. Of course D being the little sweetheart that she is likes to run by the flowers and rip them off...

Tennis

Thursday was a holiday. Despite France aggressively touting it's separation of church and state it is a country deeply steeped in Catholic tradition. Thursday no school and no work because of "ascension". Friday in most parts of France people still have to work but the mayor of Strasbourg decided that it should also be a holiday. This is the third holiday this month and there is one at the end of the month as well. I suppose it's gets everyone ready for summer...
I went to a pool here in France and it's pretty much the same except speedos are the norm here. I really don't like pools that much a bunch of screaming crazy kids all in one confined area. D, one of her friends and I played tennis on Thursday which was hilarious. D and her friend don't play that well and while I can play decently enough, I certainly can't teach tennis so they were just chasing the ball around the court. People take tennis very seriously here and we were laughing and messing around while the people on the other courts were clearly phenomonal players. But we did have someone offer to give me free lessons. I politely declined :)

Strasbourg in Spring

Chicken Pox and Rain

It has rained every single day this week. Scattered showers, torrential downpours, we have had it all. How incredibly dreary. The weather of course puts the girls out of whack as well. So thank goodness it's Sunday. It was nice to go to church this morning although I usually am unable to relate to the pastor's sermon the songs and fellowship are extremely uplifting.
All three of my flatmates have the chicken pox. It started with Simona, a couple of her co-workers kids had it and she thought "O wow I hope I don't get it, I've never had it". Well she definitely got it and then Hong and Reza got it as well. Simona's mom came all the way from Romania to help (she is a retired doctor). I had the chicken pox when I was little, so hopefully I won't get them right? So far so good at least. If I even have a cold I want to be with my mom so you can imagine how terrible it would be for me to be here in France with the chicken pox without my mom. I know, I know, I am almost 21 I should grow up a little, but have you met my mom? Anyway Simona's mom and I went to the pharmay to get stuff for the three invalids but while her English is very good her French is nonexistent, even more so than mine so needless to say we struggled. In the end we got what we needed we think :) So hopefully they are on the road to recovery by now!

Tipping?

In France you don't really leave a tip for anyone, taxis, hairdressers, waiters. I guess it is polite sometimes to leave a couple of euros after a meal if it was exceptionally good or if the bill was really big. Just in general though there is no tip. I worked at a restaurant for 4 years, since I was 16 and I hate people who don't tip back home. I always wonder what the people in these service jobs make without the tips, since I have paid for most of my college and previous Europe trips, and a summer in China almost solely off of tips.
My neighbor and I ordered Pizza Hut pizza for delivery (online = awesome) and when I went down to get the pizza it crossed my mind that maybe I should tip him. He did drive all the way across town on his little motor bike in the rain to get us our fatty American food piping hot in less than 30 minutes, back home he would have gotten a great tip..but here who knows. My hesitation and my French combined did not clear up the confusion so I just handed him 3 euros and got a really strange look in return, so maybe they don't get tipped, or maybe it was a "thanks for the crappy tip"look. I don't know.

The Reader

I watched the movie The Reader on itunes the other day with a Bulgarian friend, a Romanian friend, a Spanish friend, and a German friend. I have Itunes on my computer which allows me to download movies even though they haven't come out in theaters here in France yet. The movie is about a German woman who was a Nazi gaurd during WWII, she is put on trial for her war crimes and eventually imprisoned for life. The movie is seen through the eyes of a man who had an affair with her when he was a teenager and is a law student observing her trial and eventually sends her tapes of books while she is in prison.
Kate Winslet won best actress for the movie. I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, yes she convningly played the part, there was a certain feeling of sympathy for her but part of me was just like...yeah so what she killed people and now she suffers the consequences. I understand that my reaction to it is a bit crass because who knows what anyone would have done in that situation, in that day and age, we like to think we would have done the right thing but it is easy for us to judge when we are completely removed from the situation.
Anyway I thought the film was interesting but not one I would particularly recommend HOWEVER all of the other girls watching it thought it was fantastic, they were able to sympathized with the protagonist. Perhaps it's just me or maybe it's a deeper cultural difference between Europe and the US. I am not sure. I just found it surprising that I was the only one at the end of the film who was still thinking....well justice has come full cycle

Luxembourg

The family and I went to Luxembourg Friday morning to visit E's sister and her son. I debated whether or not I was going to go with them, but decided to because I had never been to Luxembourg and I haven't actually traveled with the family yet, because every break I have had I went to see Alex. Well, Alex is back in Iowa until June when he goes to London soooo you know. Luxembourg is about two hours away from Strasbourg by car. Ir gets airsick, boatsick, and carsick before the trip D and I had a contest to see who would sit in the middle, I lost and so I got to experience her car sickness up close and personal for two hours. Gas here is bought by the liter which is insane, we bought 37 liters which is about 9 gallons for 50 euros which is about 67 dollars and we had to fill up twice plus almost 50 euros for tolls, yikes!
Anyway we got to Luxembourg which is a country that has uumm one city. It was beautiful trees hilly and Luxembourg is extremely rich so the roads where nice and the builldings were modern and new and all the old ones are well preserved I couldn't believe it. Not that France is dirty or particularly poor, just in comparison. We had lunch with E's sister at the European Union which is another government building that seems to do exactly what the Council of Europe does, S was trying to explain it to me, they are apparently two completely seperate entities that do pretty much the same thing...or at least that's what I got out of it. We walked around the city center of Luxembourg which is clean and beautiful with shops and very typically European. Afterwards we went to E's sister's house and met her son, Chris. They live in a gorgeous large home in a village near the city. Chris is 16, he is definitely a typical 16yr old, awkward and all of that. I loved him haha he reminded me of my little brothers or my big brothers at that age haha we got along fabulously. We all went to dinner with another Greek family and had a blast. I hear more Greek than I do French, and I am learning new words every day, who knew!
After dinner I went downtown with Chris and his friend Costasdinos, Constantine in English or Costos for short (I don't know how to spell his name). Costos was exactly how I picture a Greek adolescent boy, patriotic, loud, awkward, cocky, a little stupid, and completely lovable. His English was superb and he made it his job to introduce me to everyone on the street. Luxembourg is very small so we met a lot of people. It was a lot of fun. When I go out in Strasbourg with friends they are all international mostly older than me (late 20's) expats who have moved to Strasbourg because of an urge to learn about another culture. We speak in English because we don't know French and despite our desire to learn about another culture we hover together and speak English because it's comfortable and safe in a place were we are completely out of place. When I went out in Luxemembourg it was with high school students who live there. We spoke in English because they were able to do so and make me comfortable. Despite them being between 15 and 17 the conversation switched from French to Greek and English. I guess it is the difference between learning about a culture and being part of a different culture.I really had a good time and I can't wait for the summer when I will learn more about Greek culture and spend more time with the people I met.

ooo yeah, in the city center there was a McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Chi Chi's, and a Subway

Name Days

Today was Ir's name day. Her saint was from Iran and was tortured by five rulers because she refused to give up her faith. I guess here in Europe you get a name day as well as a birthday, so we had cakes and pastries for lunch delicious! D was mad because the week before break was her name day and her parents forgot, well it was her second name day so I guess they didn't really forget because they though two name days was a little much. The girls had chocolate eclairs, I had foret noire which is a typical Alsatian dessert that is made of chocolate cherries and cream it was awesome and E and S shared a faust cake which is just rich chocolate.
The month of May has a lot of holidays, so I hear, this weekend I am going with the family to Luxembourg to visit E's sister who lives there. Then in another week or so we have another holiday. Then the last weekend of May is another holiday and E and S suggested we go to London to visit Alex but since it will be his first days there we won't because he will be busy getting adjusted to his schedule and internship.

Are you okay?

I am back in Strasbourg, my break was fantastic! I studied a lot during the week and bombed my stupid Latin final bleh. I saw friends (sorry I missed you Vicki). My little brother Josh had his graduation party which gave me a chance to see relatives and friends and my little sister turned 16!!
There are so many distinctive things about the US I love it and miss it. On my flight from Detroit to Cedar Rapids the lady I sat next to struck up a conversation (American style) i.e. what's your life story and let's pray, she was sweet and simply kind. Stores are open past 7 pm, I hate that about France. Styles are more conservative and people are more hurried. When I am at the grocery store in France the checkers sit on a chair behind the cash register and take FOREVER to ring up all the items, then everything has to be bagged by you in a bag or box that you brought from home. It annoys me to no end. In the US if we are in line for ten minutes people start complaining and wondering what is wrong with the cashier or the store in general. I am not saying that being in a rush is a good thing...I just prefer fast service.
Throughout my entire life I go out of my way to avoid embarrassing situations, perhaps this is why I constantly find myself in them. For example when I got to Cincinnati on the way back to Frankfurt I was pulling my backpack out of the overhead compartment. The plane was really small so my bag barely fit up there, I had to pull really hard causing it to hit my head and knock me over on to the person in front of me. Luckily this guy thought I was the funniest thing on the earth and pretended I had mortally wounded him and begged me to resuscitate him, meanwhile I almost died from embarrassment. When I got to Frankfurt I had to take a bus back to Strasbourg, it was super crowded so I had my feet hanging over the ledge into the aisle, I was also exhausted so my head kept slipping and waking me up and to my horror my whole body slipped and I woke up as I was falling into the aisle. Consequently my fellow passengers frantically asking me if I was alright in German, French, Alsatian, and Chinese...the only place in Europe where apparently no one spoke any English. I of course was so flustered combined with my week long French hiatus resulted in everyone continually poking me to make sure I didn't fall asleep in case I had a concussion or something I don't know. The couple in front of me kept offering me beer (oh Germany) and I finally accepted so they would leave me alone, but I don't really like beer of any kind but they insisted I drink all of it which made me want to barf. Since when is beer good for a concussion.
Finally we made it to Strasbourg with nothing on me hurt but my pride...which is pretty used to being humiliated so you know no harm.