Bonjour!

This past weekend was filled with markets, shopping, quite a few boats (including a kayak), fireworks, and oh yeah, a prison. Starting off the weekend with Friday evening, our whole group went out for a nice dinner at the Bistro Romain on the Cours Mirabeau, and it was delicious! After eating too much and exploring Aix at night we got back to our rooms for some sleep before our early rising Saturday morning for the markets. Let’s just start out by saying this: if you think you aren’t going to buy something at the markets, or maybe that you have this thing called self control, you’re wrong. Plain and simply wrong! From clothing, to jewelry, to food, and literally anything you can want, it’s all decorating the streets throughout Aix and it’s impossible to avoid. But who can complain? So after we all spent a little (or a lot) more than we were planning on, we headed off to grab some coffee at our newly favorite Australian coffee shop (yup, Australian haha) before catching the bus to Marseille. From Marseille we hopped on a boat out to the Chateau D’If, which is basically an amzing historic castle-like prison you can walk around in, and then on to the island of Frioul, a place now known to me personally for its incredible white chocolate and nutella ice cream (real chunks of both!!!), and from which me and a friend rented a kayak for some Mediterranean exploration :p

SAMEDI

Les Calissons – A traditional candy of France, and specifically, Aix-en-Provence. Calissons are made of candied fruit, ground almonds, and are topped with a special icing.

Vibrant pottery at the Saturday street market in Aix

Lavender sachets for sale at the Saturday market in Aix

Port at Marseille

Chateau D’If

Port area of the Chateau D’If

Chateau D’If prison door

Kayaks at Frioul!

 

DIMANCHE – LE 14 JUILLET…AKA BASTILLE DAY!

Our Bastille Day consisted of lavender fields, sunflowers, beaches and fireworks, and who could want it any other way?! Sunday morning we took a school organized bus from our university out to Valensole (which for the most part looks like a fairytale land of lavender and sunflowers with small old stone homes here and there) and then continued on to Saint Croix du Verdon (a small lake village with a few cute rock beaches to relax on and plenty of boats to take out onto the water). When we finally got back home in the evening, we were just in time to shower, make ourselves some dinner, and get on our balcony to see the fireworks in celebration of Bastille Day! So joyeux 14 Juillet tout le monde! A plus tard!

Lac Saint Croix

Lac Saint Croix sailboats

Bastille Day fireworks over Aix

 

 

Ciao tutti!

I cannot believe that this is going to be my last week in Rome! Time flies when you’re having fun and seriously, I’ve been having so much fun that it has been feeling like a dream. I feel like none of these posts really capture my adventures, which is why they are so difficult to write. This week I’m going to tell you about getting lost in Rome, because that is the only way to truly experience how magical and wonderful the city can be!

This week was wonderful for numerous reasons, but for the most part I enjoyed this week because (almost) every night, I would get lost in Rome. I would always go out with a small group of people and we would never really have a destination (except for dinner, we planned that out so we would be eating the best food in Rome!).

One night, walking around aimlessly with my room mate, we ended up in a piazza where a giant stage was set up in front of a church. It was this famous Italian orchestra. We got to sit down and enjoy wonderful music in the middle of an Italian piazza, which we never would have gotten to do if we hadn’t gotten lost.

I have stumbled upon many things in the process of getting lost in this vast city; delicious gelato, a movie showing in the park near Castello San Angelo, a festival in that same area with a ton of nice street vendors selling beautiful things, pretty famous land marks that were beautiful and amazing.

We also got lost in Villa Borghese the other day, which was WONDERFUL. Villa Borghese is probably bigger than Central Park and better. It’s full of rich history and beautiful trees and a replica of the Globe Theatre in London! It wasn’t crowded or touristy at all, which made us feel like real Romans.

If you get lost in Rome, you are bound to come upon many churches that seem like they are small or a hole in the wall compared to St. Peter’s Basillica. GO INSIDE THEM ANYWAY! Sometimes those churches can be the most beautiful (I honestly can’t say that I’ve seen an ugly church in Rome yet!).

Although there is a lot of hustle and bustle around the main streets of the city and near the touristy areas, if you go a few streets off the main ones, you will find yourself wondering if you’re even in the same city anymore.

The best way to experience a city is to get lost in it, so next time you go somewhere, don’t just go to the land marks. Get yourself away from them and off the busy streets and you’ll find the real life of those who live in the city around you, and you’ll most likely fall in love with it!

That’s my advice for now! Ciao!

-Lydia

Ciao tutti!!

My weekend was certainly wonderful. I ended up going to Lucca with my room mate, which is in the Tuscany region of Italy. It was a good three hour train ride but it was worth it!

Lucca is a small walled city that is full of great shopping, wonderful food (when I say wonderful, I mean it!) and a lot of streets that happen to look the same! I learned that last one the hard way.

The last time I came to Italy (which was three years ago) I went to Lucca with my parents. Thankfully, that time I was just along for the ride and didn’t have to figure out where the heck I was or how to get back to the train station. They did all of that for me. However, this time around, my room mate and I were pretty lost. We probably should have brought a map.

But we started the day out well, we found the city easily from the train station. We walked inside the walls and were greeted by a street bakery, selling all sorts of chocolates, candies, and delicious treats. We bought ourselves some hazelnuts that had been roasted and glazed with something sweet. They were to die for.

We started shopping, walking and wandering around the city. We then realized that we should probably stop for lunch at some point. So, after searching desperately for the restaurant my parents and I had eaten at when we were there, we gave up and ate at a small restaurant that was near the main piazza. We ordered spaghetti with chianti wine sauce and cheese. It was not what we were expecting, but we enjoyed it for the most part.

We then wandered up onto the wall for a while. We didn’t really know where we were but we didn’t really care. We were having some nice conversation and the weather was looking good.

We made our way back (somehow) to the main piazza, after hiding under a building as it poured rain for a good 10 minutes. Then we needed to find a place to eat dinner after watching a wonderful street performer play guitar and sing 90s music. Again, we found ourselves lost and looking for the piazza that had a lot of food (I wish I could tell you the names of these piazzas…we seriously had no clue what we were doing), which we eventually found. We both ordered pesto and it was AWESOME. We also ordered dessert.

Our train was leaving at 7:41 to Pisa for a connecting train to Rome. We decided if we left at 7:20 we would be able to find our way back and get on the train without a problem.

You can probably guess where this is going.

No such luck, we ended up on the completely opposite side as the train station when we exited the city. This led to panic, which led to us running as fast as we could (and me giving up somewhat quickly) to get to the train in time. We missed it. By probably about 5 minutes.

We asked when the next train to Pisa was. It wasn’t for two more hours. So we caught a cab, which was thankfully air conditioned, unlike our train would have been. We made it to Pisa with time to spare, and I even got to see the silhouette of the Leaning Tower without actually having to go to it. So that was a pretty productive trip.

We got to the train station when Mallory realized her water bottle had leaked all over her purse. This included the hazelnuts that we decided to save for the train. So her purse was wet AND sticky. We just started laughing hysterically because seriously, this WOULD happen after having such as successful day.

Anyway, it was a good day for the most part, and we can look back on it and see how hilarious it is that we missed our train and everything. We made it on our train back to Rome, which was the only thing that mattered.

Moral of the story: get lost in a city, but not so lost that you miss your train!

Ciao for now!

-Lydia

Bonjour everyone! Hope all is well!

This weekend was a week of adventures and sleepless nights (that were incredibly worth it!). The fun started Thursday, after class let out, with an afternoon trip to Roussillon. We hopped on the bus for the 45 minute drive that let us out in front of a breathtaking view of old auburn homes and rusted cliffs embellished with vibrantly green brush. The Ochre Cliffs of Roussillon are definitely a unique sight, and even the trees with their orange trunks create a mystical ambiance unlike any other.

Friday we were back to school as usual except this time, after class, our desire to tan led us to the Park Jourdain right by our university and residence. We took a shortcut through an amazing graffiti covered alley up to the grassy park to lay out and get some color (and yes, as weird as it seems, the French do lay out in parks in their bikinis on weekdays, no joke, so we weren’t alone haha). Of course, we fell asleep at the park (and let’s just consider that a necessary cultural siesta) so thankfully were able to recharge a bit before hitting the city at night. And boy, let’s just say 11pm is dang early for the French.

Saturday had a rude awakening with my alarm clock going off at 6:30am after some major lack of sleep according to my book (granted I guess I just need to become better acquainted with European strength espressos and remind myself that the French don’t sleep and therefore need some stroooong coffee), but it was well worth it. We got on the bus for a two hour drive to Fragonard, a famous French perfumery, and further to Cannes, the city of beaches, film festivals, and all things posh [unroll red carpet here] (just google “Cannes” and you’ll understand). At Fragonard we learned how perfumes and soaps are made from the extracting of scents to their packaging and were able to see it all first hand. After testing out some interesting scents we were back on the bus for our second destination. Once in Cannes, we were free. We grabbed some food and then hit the beach for some more tanning (score!). The bus ride back home functioned as yet another nap time in preparation to keep up with the French sleepless lifestyle that our bodies have yet to fully accept. Luckily all that napping paid off once we hit the streets at night in search of some dinner (or hmm, if we’re being honest here, some nutella crepes) and our French friends Christophe and Robin to go out with. If anyone ever thought American nightclubs were nuts, lets just refer to the fact that the French don’t even start dancing until about 2am (that’s like a “hey it’s morning” celebration! haha). After blasting through one of the greatest DJ’ed playlists out there we checked out to head home for some sleep (and luckily some sleeping in on Sunday).

On Sunday thankfully my alarm clock rang a whole lot later than Saturday, and this time signaled a day at the markets in Aix. We hit up a special antique market filled with unique jewelry, artwork, furniture, and well, pretty much anything else antique (including old TV remotes, yes, that’s correct, the ones that literally wouldn’t even connect to a TV anymore. So anyone out there an antique remote collector?? Well you know where to go!).

Enjoy the photos!!!

JEUDI (THURSDAY) – ROUSSILLON

Ochre Cliffs

 

VENDREDI (FRIDAY)

Graffiti Alley in Aix

 

DIMANCHE (SUNDAY)

Fragonard Perfumery

Fragonard Perfumery

Cannes Beaches

 

DIMANCHE (SUNDAY)

Lunchtime!

Aix Streets

Antique Market Painting

Antique Market Art

Antique Market Jewelry

Antique Market Frames

Innovative French Wine Cooling System?

(yup, indeed that is a fountain pouring into a bucket of rosé)

Random Street Art

A plus tard mes amis!!! 🙂

 

Well here it is: my final entry. I have no idea how all this time flew by in what seems like an instant, but I can say that it has changed me as well as the way I see the world. From the international colleagues encountered in classes, to the friends both from around the world and Loyola that I hope to keep in lifetime contact with as we somberly return back to our realities, I have been impacted. What started out as a short study abroad program in a beautiful city to alleviate my schedule and polish my French somehow became a turning point in my life. There is no way I could ever say I regret a single instant of my adventure, and I am beyond thrilled and so incredibly grateful that I was able to experience all that was offered.

 

My last week in Aix was memorable to say the least. Monday after class we headed out to the Atelier Cezanne (or Cezanne’s studio) to see the inspiration and workplace of one of the most well known painters in the world. In the atelier still stand some original pots, sculptures, skulls, and fabrics that were painted over and over again by Cezanne and hang in museums near and far. Only by seeing his inspiration in person have I come to truly appreciate and recognize his artistic genius.

 

On Wednesday, Professor McKenna was generous enough to organize and host a wine and cheese evening in the gardens outside his apartment building in Aix. All the Loyola students purchased some specialty French cheeses together at a fromagerie in town and headed to the garden soiree. The evening was filled with wine tasting, cheese sampling, a whole lot of talking, and oh, ice cream too! We can only thank our professor for his wonderful generosity, thoughtfulness, and continued sharing of knowledge.

 

Thursday was a little bit different from our standard day. Instead of going to class, we attended a Gregorian mass at the Cathedral Saint Sauveur in Aix to hear monks chant in honor of St. Jacques. It was an experience unlike any other. Grand cathedrals are hard to find around Chicago, and the mass was well worth attending if even to only admire the colossal turquoise organs, gothic architecture from ages passed, and glorious voices filling the nooks and crannies of this long-standing cathedral. Once mass finished, we headed out to scour the markets one last time and wander through the streets of Aix before washing up and heading to a soiree hosted by the university (which we got to communally DJ!) and then move further on to some night escapades in centre ville. Remember what I said about the fact that the French don’t sleep? Yeah, well then consider us now very French haha (yay for cultural immersion?! …and coffee!).

 

Our last day of class was bittersweet, filled with the excitement of finishing school contrasted with the need to say goodbye. But as we started losing friends who were embarking on their travels back home, we headed on our last excursion to the Chateau Val Joanis vineyard. There, we learned about everything from planting the grapes to the fermentation process of producing white, rose, and red wine. That was all followed by a amble through beautiful gardens in which with had a wine tasting. The colors and ambiance throughout the vineyard were vibrant, unique, and inviting of slow promenades in an effort to take in and appreciate everything from the buzzing of bees to the colors seeping out of every crevice.

 

Now, I sit in the corner of the Brussles airport waiting for my connection delayed by storms knowing that I will forever be nostalgic of these three incredible weeks. I know that I will be back soon to visit friends, revisit memories, and write new adventures in a city I fell in love with.

Until next time,

Bisous,

Monique

 

Another great thanks to all the professors, staff, and friends both international and from home that played a roll in making all of this possible. I can’t thank you enough.

 

ATELIER CEZANNE

 

WINE & CHEESE

 

CATHEDRAL ST. SAUVEUR

 

STREETS, MUSICIANS, MARKETS

 

VAL JOANIS VINEYARDS

So I had a wonderfully thoughtful and personal post that I had typed up on the plane just before actually stepping foot on the soil (or airport) of the United States again but…. I accidentally deleted it.

So in lieu of that, I present you with a small list of funny words that myself and funny girl Antonella Terraccina came up with on one of our study breaks from finals.

——-

These area a few colloquialisms that Chileans use that unique to Chile and are sometimes hilarious.

 

_______ es/sería/era la raja! (RA ha)

‘La raja’ literally means ‘buttcrack’ but people use it to mean ‘the best’ or ‘awesome’.

Fome – boring (FO may)

If you don’t want to go out to a party, you’re being ‘fome’

Party – ‘Carrete’ (car AY tay)

Also can also be used as a verb : carretear

Palta = Avocado

In all other spanish speaking countries, avacado is ‘aguacate’

Lata = boring

Pa/para

People rarely say ‘para’ in its entirety. Rather, it’s shortened to ‘pa’ and used that way even on menus sometimes (‘pa comer’ = to eat)

Weon(wn)/Huevon/Gueón (way OWN)

A very interesting word, and one which I’m unsure how to spell. It’s meaning can vary from ‘dude’ (you will hear it every two seconds when listening to any conversation between pubescent to adult males) all the way to the much less polite ‘F**ker’ if someone uses it with the intent of insulting. Shortened to ‘wn’ by locals.

Bacán (buh CAN)

The Chilean word for ‘cool’. Some say it comes from the American slang ‘Rock On’, and my host mother insists that it comes from Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and party. Either way, hilarious. Shortened to ‘bkn’ when written.

Flaite (fly-tee)

‘Lower class’ for lack of a better term. Chileans use this word to describe people exhibiting behavior that they consider as completely lacking class, with the same mental cringe that we get when thinking of the antics of the characters from the Jersey Shore

There you are! You are now equipped with words to help you understand Chilean culture, or at least help you understand Chilean speech, a lot better.

Abrazos,

Dela

SILK ROAD TRIP HAD ARRIVED

I was extremely excited yet also very nervous. I was about to embark on a two week trip that I now know changed my life. We were given a brief presentation on the trip to come during Orientation week and a booklet filled with the itinerary, extra information about each place, and the TBC rules. The booklet is referred to by all as the bible, and bus rides were punctuated with “pull out your bible” or “check your bible.”

 

I flipped through the “bible” and read it front to back in all my excitement with my fantastic roommate Beatrice (check out her China Vlog: http://www.youtube.com/user/01beabea). Packing was definitely difficult since I’m a “just-incase” packer but also a “minimalist” packer. I packed every medicine and band-aid I brought to satisfy my “just-incase” side first and fore-mostly(I was not going to let any kind of illness prevent me from seeing China!). After rolling up the rest of my two-week articles into a small suitcase and a back-pack fit to burst, Beatrice and I fell into a restless sleep. At 5:00pm the next day, TBC students met in the lobby of the dorm building (Building 6) and headed to West Train Station!

Dinner was set to be at the West Train Station itself. It wasn’t exactly luxury dining, but we all dispersed to find the Fast-food joint that best fit our appetites.
Beatrice and Samer headed for McDonald’s, while my friend Cameron and I headed to a Korean Cafe we had seen (he’s vegetarian). I ordered vegetarian bibimbap. Actually, Cameron did most of the ordering with his fancy 4 years of Chinese language experience (so resourceful), I merely pointed to things at the menu and said zhe ge (this) whenever it was deemednecessary. The food was actually pretty good, but we didn’t have much time to savor the mixed veggies and rice.

We hurriedly stuffed our faces and headed back to the Trian T43 gates, which was set to depart for Xi’an at 7:50pm. I had never ridden an overnight train, so I was fascinated by the seating arrangement we would see. We were handed our tickets and HALLELUJAH I was in the same train cart as Beatrice. We were in Train Cart 1.

We were in what are called the hard-sleepers.The carts had two walls and each side had 3 beds (bunk beds). The top one was pretty high up, as in much taller than me and I’m 5’5”. The bottom one was by far the best (it’s the most expensive to purchase) and you could sit all the way up straight without banging your head on another bunk. The middle bunk was not super high but a jump down, and you banged your head on the top bunk if you sat up straight. Luggage could be put under the bottom bunks or on the foot area of the top bunk.

Each bunk had a reading light at the head. I stuffed my luggage under the mini table under the window, and the rest of the TBCers in the cart: Jesse, Julia, Angie, and Jean. I was in the middle bunk (no room to sit up!) so I sat on the bottom bunk with Beatrice. The cart had squat toilets near the exit doors, and sinks and mirror (no soap or toilet paper though! Thank God I packed gallons of hand-sanitizer). Lights out at 10:30pm! I woke up at 7:00am after a surprisingly deep sleep, and the view outside was gorgeous! I plugged in my headphones, munched on some chocolate-chip granola bars, stared at the gorgeous scenery, and journaled a bit.

 

…And then the cutest kids came to our cart shouting MEI GUO REN (American people!). A bunch of us spent the rest of the morning  talking to the kids. They were hysterical! They kept playing tag and hide-and-seek and attempting to speak English while I equally attempted to speak Chinese. One of them had a tiny, little baby turtle (which I was a tad bit worried about considering he kept shaking it around).
After saying our sad goodbyes to our new Chinese friends, we rushed out of the train at precisely 8:34am sharp. The train station was bustling and crowded and we all stuck close to one another…and after 12 hours on a train and probably 5 staircases, we were finally emerging in Xi’an!!!

OK, so many people that I have talked to (catholic or not) have said that The Vatican is not worth it. “It’s too hot.” “It takes forever.”  Blahh blah Blah… FALSE! The Vatican is beautiful and very much worth seeing! Being catholic myself, it was very cool to see and something that is apart of my religion and has so much art and history, but I had friends with me that were not catholic and really enjoyed it too. I would definatley recommend that you buy your tickets online before you go. It is only 12 euro (because you get a student discount) and you get to skip the massive line that wraps around the walls of The Vatican. You go straight to security and you’re good to go!

Side note: To all the ladies out there… cover your knees and shoulders when visiting The Vatican. Yes, its hot. But you will not be let in to the Sistine Chapel or St. Peter’s in your short shorts and tank top. I would suggest wearing a dress and carrying a scarf with you to cover your shoulders when you need to. Don’t make the mistake I did and wear pants, it is way too hot for that.

That being said, I actually went through The Vatican twice during my 4 weeks in Rome and I’m pretty sure I still didn’t see everything. My first time at The Vatican, I went through the main parts of the museum as well as St. Peter’s Basilica and climbed the dome of St. Peters; all which took a grand total of 8 hours. Yes, you read that right, 8 hours. I had some people in my group that were readers. They stopped and read almost everything in every room, which was informative but it took a while. My second time going through only took about 3 hours and I actually saw more of The Vatican than I did the first time. So don’t worry, it doesn’t actually take 8 hours to get through the museum.

All in all, The Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica are a MUST SEE in Rome (Catholic or not). They are two of the most beautiful and intricate pieces of art and architecture I have ever seen. (I was actually convinced that St. Peter’s wasn’t real until I actually went inside.) It is that beautiful. Rome is that beautiful. No picture does anything justice and if you look at something too long it ends up looking like a 2D painting. But don’t forget your cameras at home because you’ll defiantly want to at least try to capture the beauty to show your friends and family. Be my guest and check out my pictures of St. Peter’s and The Vatican museum 🙂 Enjoy!