back by popular demand

So I guess it’s been a while since I wrote about my experiences here in Europe. So much has happened, and I’m starting the second-half of my experience abroad. So far I’ve traveled far and wide across Europe: Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Grenoble, Barcelona. Well, I guess that doesn’t seem like a lot, but these places have been truly awesome. London was a great weekend getaway; I got to meet up with my family for my uncle’s birthday. For spring break a bunch of us rented an apartment in Amsterdam for the first weekend, with every intention of traveling around afterwards. As a result of all of my stuff being stolen (i.e. my coat, wallet, and cell phone), I had a total allotment of 400 euros (including travel and accommodation), and found that it just doesn’t last that long. Kim stayed with me the whole week, where we had so much fun trying to budget our money with days of nothing but peanut butter and baguette, weighing the pros and cons of paying for a hostel. Well, we survived the week, and managed to make it back to Brussels for our last night before a 7am flight to Grenoble from an airport an hour outside of Brussels. Belgium was awesome, and instead of spending the night in the train station, we decided to explore the bars that never close in Belgium. Luckily, we found a bar willing to store our bags in the kitchen until the wee hours that we had to leave to catch our flight. I have so many memories of that week, as people came in and out of Amsterdam in waves, and Kim and I got to hang out with them all.

A few weeks later, I had another bit of a spring break. Abby came over to visit me and we had a ridiculously awesome time, just kind of hanging out and meeting all sorts of people. We played guitar and ate baguettes in front of the Eiffel tower on a beautiful afternoon, drank a bit of wine at night at Sacré Coeur with three red-haired brothers, and walked all over Paris. In Grenoble we had a crazy night with Swedes and Americans, watched the sunset at the Bastille, cooked a delicious meal, and missed a train. Our hostel in Barcelona put us right on the beach, close to all the Gaudí architecture and a killer bar scene where we drank Guinness with New Zealanders and Irishmen alike. After sending Abby back to Colorado, I stayed another night with Amy, a girl from USC studying in Barcelona. Good times, good times.

The reason I haven’t been keeping up with my blog is that I’ve been really busy trying to figure out what I want to do this summer. I know, I know, I should just be enjoying my time here in Grenoble, but all of the things I was interested in doing seemed to have had deadline dates towards the beginning of summer. I put a lot of work into applying for a certain scholarship, as well as a job leading trips for teens, possibly going to Africa for AIDS education, and applying for a stipend from my church to pay for the trip to Africa. Well, all’s well that ends well. I was accepted to Africa, and even received a nice stipend from my church, but I still didn’t feel right spending so much money going to Africa, when I can do that another time in my life. After an exhaustive application process for the job with Wilderness Ventures, I heard word that my phone interview (at 10 o’clock at night) was well received and learned last night that I’d been hired. Not for just any job, but I was asked to be a director for an incredible trip: Costa Rica Community Service! I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am! Not only do I get to lead an all inclusive backpacking, camping, whitewater rafting, sea kayaking, zip line through the jungle, volcano exploring, surfing trip, but I also get to engage in helping the Costa Rican community by helping with schools and children and rehabilitating sea turtle habitats—and helping teens do it too! I couldn’t ask for a greater opportunity, and I’m getting paid a decent amount considering that I will be the director for the trip! Now I just have to brush up on my Spanish…quite a feat when I’m in France. If you’d like to check out the trip I’ll be leading, go here:

http://www.wildernessventures.com/summer_programs/trip.php?id=57&cat_id=6

I’ll be in Costa Rica all summer long, leading two trips. I just can’t wait!

So, back to my adventures in France… We have our second spring break coming up in about, oh, 3 days, and I feel like I’m the only one without plans. I’d really like to go to Italy, but our program director is driving to Barcelona with my friends, and I might as well get in on the ride. Though I’ve been to Barcelona, it will still be great, and I’ll get to practice my Spanish, and hopefully not get confused with the Catalan spoken in the background.

France is great, I’m definitely getting used to it. I was speaking with my friend Amy who is studying in Barcelona, and we were just realizing the adaptability that we have been required to exude. It’s really cool to look back and realize all of the qualms I had with the French culture and all of the cultures I’ve encountered in my travels, and know that I’ve been very open to them. There are still some things that I can’t get used to, like the fact that all of Europe smells like a toilet, and that few Europeans have a problem with the fact that there is never a toilet seat at your disposal, or soap in the public bathrooms. It’s like hygiene was invented when Columbus crossed the ocean. Nah, just kidding. But seriously. And l still don’t understand why dogs don’t even have to decency to do their business outside of the sidewalk. And I still don’t understand why everyone feels the need to suck his or her lover’s face off in the middle of a McDonalds line. Really? You feel the need to show fast food restaurants your undying passion? It makes me want to lose my milkshake. And I still don’t… well, you get the point. There are many more cultural differences, but they don’t bother me like they used to. Except that laundry costs more than 7 dollars a load—that, I will never appreciate.

Well, I will try to keep up the blogging, thanks for being interested in my life abroad. I just needed a jump-start, I didn’t think that I could everything, but I guess it doesn’t matter. Much love to you all,
Gabby

strike one

One thing I’ve learned about the French is that they’re hard workers. There are only two things that the French could be doing when they’re not working—they’re either on vacation or on strike. Today was my first touch of that latter part of French culture—their unions. Grenoble has a very efficient public transportation system considering that it’s not a big city like Paris or New York: a network of trams and busses that run until about 1:30 in the morning. It’s a very efficient system and is the reason that my friends have all been able to get together here within 20 minutes notice. It also gets me to class on time without having to pay for any sort of transportation—our passes are paid for monthly by our study abroad program. The trams are all above ground with large windows and clean, rarely crowded cars. They’re fabulous, that is, until the tram-conductors go on strike.

Today we got snow! Last night I couldn’t sleep because I was awaiting the moment I would look out the window and see light. Alas, I woke up barely in time for my class to find a dreary rainy day. At about 6 or so tonight I learned of snow outside of the grocery store and I dropped my stuff and ran out like a little child on Christmas morning. Snow for me is one of the greatest feelings of nostalgia. When you grow up in Charlotte, NC, a snowfall can only mean the greatest of things—free holidays from school. Snow Days are days of mismatched layers, sledding on the golf course without our parent’s knowing, big bowls of chili from generous neighborhood parents, hot chocolate by a fire, attempted snowmen from 3 inches of snow, power outages that cause 50 neighbors to huddle in the closest friends’ house with central heating, and slumber parties on the floor with 10 or so of my favorite neighborhood boys and girls. Ahhhh snow. Too bad it only lasted for a little bit, but I don’t think anyone else that is here in Grenoble could understand just how much snow is a reminder of the best days of my life growing up. I looked like an idiot spinning around in it, but I just couldn’t stop giggling and smiling. It kind of made me miss home.

But not too much—snow means that I can go to a ski resort less than 30 minutes away and practice my snowboarding. Wahoo! I’m pretty sure I’m going to do that on Thursday afternoon after my classes are out. This weekend my friends and I are going on a 22 mile biked wine tour in Burgundy. Oh France, despite all of your strikes I love you. What a life I have right now…

a week in grenoble

Wow, I've already been here for a week, but it feels like I'm already a citizen of this mountain town in France. I've started classes already, and I have to say, they're one of the bigger shocks of how different my life is right now. I'm taking French classes every morning from 8:30-10:30 Tuesday through Friday, and two electives on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons: History of Contemporary France and French Economy (or something like that). The electives are both taught in French, and there's no hope of getting any English translation help in any of our classes because Anglophones only make up about half of the program. There are a lot of Asians in my classes, which makes it interesting to know that our common language is French for the first time in all of the French classes I took.

It's weird being at another school for a semester...I almost feel like I'm cheating on USC. I've already joined the ski club, and yesterday learned how to snowboard with my friend Taylor. If you join the club, called Ecole-de-Glisse for 30 euros, you get super cheap lift tickets, transportation from campus, and free all day lessons in French. I'm sore as can be right now, but I defintely can make it down a bunny slope on a snowboard. I can't wait to go again! I've also joined the school's general student life club called Espace Vie Etudiante [student life space] for 3 euros and i get discounts on beer on campus : ) oh I love Europe. Being on the slopes yesterday was just incredible. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life--and there wasn't even that much snow. I was burning up in my lightweight soft shell, but there was some great powder until the end of the day when I slipped on some ice going too fast and faceplanted and almost broke my neck. No more than five minutes later did I almost give myself a concussion just walking on some ice. Funny, yes, hilarious, definitely, at the time however, I was having the worst moment of my life. Oh well, I'm going snowboarding this week again. By the time I get back, you'll be watching me on some pro-snowboarding videos. I'll catch you up on stuff, and maybe post some pictures later. We're about to go watch some French football since American football doesn't come on until 12:30 tonight. Love--Gabby

might be living in the greatest city ever

Imagine a city totally surrounded by mountain tops, some jagged and covered with snow, some that look like a stone’s throw away with a national monument on top. From every window of the city, those mountains stand to form a postcard-worthy view and the clear river flows through the city, taking everyone’s breath away as it reflects the mountains reaching for the sky. Welcome to Grenoble, France, where I will be living for the next five months.

I’m in my dorm right now, which is in the center city, looking over those mountains. I live with Karen from Boise, Idaho in our small dorm room complete with lofts and a sink and French windows and shutters that make the visit back to a freshman-year living situation so worth it. Just two minutes away is everything we need: a tram stop (above ground metro system), a bakery, tons of bars, the EUS office, a grocery store, and a market. We’re set. We’re even less than 50 meters from two churches, which chime their huge centuries-old bells on the hour, every hour except thankfully in the middle of the night. You just can’t have a better alarm clock.

It’s been really great to know that I’m in a perfect city for me: it’s not crazy like Paris, but it’s no boring old-peoples’ town in a cold part of France. There are so many opportunities for an adventure. We were actually going to go skiing and snowboarding today, but surprisingly, there isn’t enough snow at the 20+ resorts within an hour from Grenoble. I think a hike is in need for later today; it’s just going to be hard to decide which mountain in our 360-degree view the best for our first hike.

A lot of us are in home stays; some in apartments with French students, and some in dorms. We’ve been having a lot of fun learning about where everyone else lives and getting together to hang out. The first night we got here, everyone just passed out. We’d had a crazy night in Paris the night before our train ride to Grenoble, which included but was not limited to: tequila shots, tropical drinks, a jazz concert, Ron Burgundy quotes, an American cover-band, going to the red-light district at 3am for tattoos, and somehow being shocked when the tattoo stores weren’t open on a Thursday in the wee hours of the morning. Needless to say, we all needed a break.

We had a weird speech from Alexis highlighting some things to be wary of, and then just walked around, eventually making it to the river where a strip of probably 25 pizza parlors awaited our appetites. Nothing too special for the rest of the day, but we decided to hang out and drink wine that night at James’ apartment, where he lives with some other French guys.

We’re an interesting group, all of us here at EUS. There are two others from USC, Casey from Philadelphia and Taylor from Texas. Kim is one of my good friends from Minnesota, Michelle comes from New Hampshire, Sharon is from LA, Rafael calls Canada his home (I think, why else do we call him Canada?) James is from Vermont, Laura hails from Minnesota as well. I can’t even begin to say where everyone else is from…those are just the people that I’ve seen a lot over the past few nights. A few of us were at James’ having a ridiculous time and never managed to get on the tram by midnight when it stops running, so Michelle, Kim, and I had to stay over that night. The partying has already begun.

Yesterday we kind of laid low, doing a little shopping and driving around in Alexis. Alexis drives like a maniac—we ended up four-wheeling it through some bushes. It's been crazy, we're about to have a dinner party actually tonight at my dorm, so I've got to go get ready! I'll be sure to update everyone on my experiences, wish you were all here.

yay...we're all together now

I never thought that I’d be looking forward to a new experience while in Paris, but I proved myself wrong. The night before last I was working for a few hours on an application when I was interrupted by my program director, Alexis. We went out to dinner, and I was lucky to get the chance to know him one-on-one before the whole group arrived. I offered to help at the airport the next morning—at 6am. We ended up sleeping in a bit (oops), but got there in time for everything to run smoothly. We split up around CDG and welcomed wide-eyed students with our EUS signs. I saw the surprise in everyone’s faces when after the nervous “Bonjour” I replied in English. A lot of us girls walked around killing time before the whole group arrived. The rest of the afternoon was spent avoiding the inevitable effects of jetlag, which I felt after having woken up at 5:45.

Everyone is really friendly in the 15-person group, and I’m really happy that we’re getting the opportunity to know each other in Paris, though I’m ready to move on to Grenoble. Three of us are from USC, and others are scattered all around the US. Last night we enjoyed a nice dinner close to the hostel and towards the end meal, most had succumbed to the temptation of bedtime. Four of us remained strong, and we went to that jazz club I went to a few weeks ago about 20 minutes away for some digestifs. It was a ridiculous concert with highlights from the likes of Ray Charles and some composed pieces. The company was great and the drinks were as well.

In a group as large as 14, it’s rare that everyone will get their belongings safely and on time. Naturally, a snowboard was a few hours late and as of this morning, two girls still didn’t have anything. Alexis accompanied one of the girls to the airport and put yours truly in charge of showing the whole group Paris. It was stressful for a bit there, we almost lost a group member on the metro, but we ended up catering to everyone’s needs and everyone is now accounted for at 7pm. Much news later…tomorrow we’ll head to Grenoble and I’ll be sure to update everyone on the living situation. Life is great now, and it’s sure to get better.

By the way, emails are fabulous. I love getting them from my mom, and I’d love some from everyone else! kouchacj@mailbox.sc.edu and I’ll be sure to respond!

last bit of solitude

Ahh. It's another cloudy day in Paris, but I'm at the top of the Georges Pompidou center with a panoramic view of all of Paris, complete with free wireless internet. Meagan left today :( but I guess I've gotta start looking towards the semester. We ended up having fun in Strasbourg, and we had every intention of going out hardcore (which we did...for an hour), but it's hard to get in the mood when it's 7 euros for a pint of beer. We had fun pregaming in our room though with 2euro bottles of wine, but we didn't feel like indulging too much. I think that trains are the coolest form of transportation. You can move around, you've got tables, and you can watch the countryside pass you by while lounging out with a book.

The book I'm reading is perfect for me right now. It's called, A House Somewhere, and it's a collection of excerpts from books about life abroad (ie A Year In Provence, Under The Tuscan Sun, etc.). They're all about the same, the authors start out freshfaced with glorious expectations of starting over in a culture/environment completely different from the world they've always known. Some of the stories surpass their expectations, and some are disappointed, but none would ever give up the knowledge that grows with them in their cultural immersion. Either way, my experience will be like none other.

My program starts tomorrow. I've gotten emails this past week from my program director with explicit instructions on how to handle the Parisian airport experience. I reread the email, and it seems I missed the part about everyone writing something about themselves to each other. I figure it's too late, most of the people in the group are already on their way to the airport by now. Those that aren't can wait another night to meet me. I've now been in Paris almost three weeks, and I can't believe I'm about to experience the sightseeing..again. I saw the sights with my family, again when I had nothing else to do by myself, again when I showed Meagan around, and now I'll see it with 15 other people my age. 3 guys, 13 girls. Should be interesting.

I got my cell phone number, and I should be getting the phone tomorrow when I meet up with the program.
06 86 28 57 59

To call from the United States, you dial:
0 11 33 6 86 28 57 59

Don't waste your minutes, though. Download Skype, and talk to me for free! I downloaded it and I have no friends on it yet, so go for it!

I'm excited. I'll take my placement test in a few days and start classes I think on Friday. Three more nights in Paris, then I say so long to the city of light.

hello alsace

So money doesn’t grow on trees, but it sure can burn like a bush. I’ve been in Paris since December 21st, but I’ve been spending my own money since the 29th. Meagan and I have been staying in a decent hostel with 6 others in our room for 27 euros a night, and it’s been awful. This morning I was woken up at 6am for the third morning in a row by the asian girls that get up so early. Two girls were out of the door by 6:04 this morning and the other two were rummaging through their bags and making incessant noise for 2 hours straight, it was miserable. So, after taking a shower at 7am just to get away from the annoyance, I went back to sleep. We woke up to the old man that cleans the rooms basically kicking us out (very nicely, of course) at noon. Unfortunately, we were rather late for the train that we wanted to take to Reims in the Champagne region. We were going to get there on the later train after the champagne tours were over, so we just decided to go someplace else. We’re at the train station with our daypacks, but we left our guidebooks back with our luggage. Oops. This is how the decision went:
“Dude, where should we go?”
“Um, how about Munich? Nope, that’s a 10 hour train ride”
“Luxembourg?”
“Nah, there’s probably nothing there”
“Well, Strasbourg seems cool, I went there in middle school, there’s a lot of pickpocketers”
“Straight, let’s go”


So we hopped on the four hour train with no plans, no idea about the town, and no place to stay. It’s actually a really cool town, all the streets are lit up, one with a big arch that says “Strasbourg, city of light.” We walked around, looked at all the German architecture and the big cathedral, and got Meagan’s favorite, Döner Kebabs. We heard from people on the train that there was a youth hostel a busride away, but we took our chances downtown and found a hotel with bathroom, toilet, and tv for 48euros for a double room. If you can recall, that’s 3euros cheaper than our plywood bunkbeds for 8. We love it. Now we’re going to get sleep in beautiful, cheaper Strasbourg.

a companion ain't so bad

Travelling alone is all about discovery, you're not held to commitments or obliged to the wants of somebody else. You do what you want. Well, I've been in the big city now for a while and it gets kind of old, especially in Paris when every other person in line at a museum is a couple and they're making out in front of you. Now, I didn't want someone to make out with, but after a day of touring the city alone, you realize after a while that you haven't spoken English to anyone in a few hours.

Solution? Meagan Aylward. Yay! My companion arrived from NYC yesterday morning, and in perfect timing. I was about to ask the burly Aussie brothers to accompany me in my sightseeing pursuits. I left the Young & Happy hostel on rive gauche and set out for rive droite to my new hostel right beside the Louvre. It's considerably nicer and has a central location. It's a nicer part of town, but it lacks the convenience of young student bars, cheap panini's and crepes, and the funky shops in the student neighborhood. It was a beautiful sunny day, so to take advantage, Meagan and I went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe for a beautiful view of the city. It was a good thing I took advantage of the weather because you can't trust a sunny morning in fickle Europe. By the time we were on the Champs-Elysees it started raining. It didn't bother us, so we just kept going, saw Notre Dame, and Meagan went back to take a nap while I did much needed laundry. I got to the Laverie, and felt like a freshman boy away from his mom a month into a dirty clothes pile. I had to ask for help on what to do, because I've never really done laundry at a laundromat. It cost me almost 10 euros for just one load of laundry.

That night we went to Victor's apartment, to pregame before going to a club. I didn't want to take the risk of being underdressed in a Paris club, so I wore a dress only to find the other brazillians all in jeans. We were running late to get to the club before they charged a cover, so we more or less hauled ass towards the champs-elysees, running across to the arc de triomphe, which is illegal apparantly, because Victor and I were almost across the 8 lanes of circle traffic when we heard, "Monsieur, Madamoiselle!" and turned to find Meagan right in front of two police officers, or "cochons". Oops. She managed to get out of it and not die in the traffic, but here's a hint: don't illegally cross a dangerous road onto the grounds of a national French monument at 12:30 in the morning.

The club was my first real dose of culture shock: the kind that really makes you realize you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Meagan and I were a bit shocked at the way the French act. First off, they really can't dance. Meagan and I were talking about this when we both said simultaniously in the same sense of shock: "Even the black girls can't dance!" I can't really explain the vibe, it was just very different from an American club, then again, I'm not much of a club person anyways, definitely more for the bars.

We slept in, and I guided around Paris for the afternoon. I got to go to the music museum today which was cool, they had a guitar exhibit which was awesome: guitars from Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Jimmy Page, Ben Harper's slide guitar, Bruce Springsteen, well, I was enthralled. I learned a lot about classical instruments as well. Tonight we went to the Highlander, a bar my family and I frequented when we were here, and I was affectionately referred to as Miss Little, although I explained I'm just a Little niece, and more of a Kouchacji. The guitar exhibit inspired me, and I played open mic night, which was spontaneous, but I really miss my guitar. One of the bartenders, Jeremy, is British and really wants me to play some Sublime with him for next wednesday, so we're getting together on Monday and Tuesday to practice. I'm not gonna lie, he's pretty hot! I have no complaints... Paris is fabulous ;)

bonne annee!

Ahhh, a new year, a new chapter of my life. This was the first New Years I had outside of the country, and I must say it was rather incredible. A bunch of us pitched in some money and had a dinner party at the hostel. It was incredible...definitely worth the 5euros. We had wine, champagne, paté, antipasto dishes, pasta puttanesca, wine, lentils and sausage, champagnesmoked salmon, greek salad, wine and champagne, green beans, carrots, corn, champage, cheese plates, and smoked chicken, oh and bottles and bottles of wine and champagne. We didnt even get to the smoked salmon, salad, and cheese until lunch today for leftovers. A man named Carlos set it all up for us, which was great. Then about 20 of us went to the metro with our various bottles of togo drinks and made a ruckus. We were singing and yelling in all sorts of languages, and the metro was free last night for new years, so it was so crowded. We looked out the window and we were crossing the Seine (the river) and the Eiffel Tower was right in front of us, beautifully lit up. We ended up getting to the hill by the Eiffel Tower with about 20 minutes til midnight, and the energy was just incredible for our group of people (including people from America, Australia, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Finland, Japan, Germany, Ecuador, and India. There were only about 15 of us at that point. Midnight hit and the hundreds of thousands of people burst when the Eiffel Tower sparkled and exploded with fireworks. Then we walked down to the Champs-Elysees, which was even more insane.

It's definitely not safe to be a female walking around the streets of paris alone, especially on New Years Eve. One time last week when my family was around I had a guy come up to me at like 2am and offer me 100euros to touch my breasts. Not what you want to hear when you're slightly drunk and on your way home. On New Years, one of the customs in France is for strangers to kiss strangers. Guys will go up to girls and guys, say "Bonne Annee!" and try to make out with you. Luckily for me I had a few guys around me, but when I wasn't right next to them touching, people would approach me in a very scary way. The group ended up getting all split up as the night went on, but i was with my Australian friend Paul, which was great. We drunkenly danced our way across Paris, while he made sure I was safe from creepy French guys. The metro ran all night long last night, but it wouldn't stop at every stop. We were waiting for a train on line 7 for like 20 minutes until someone came on to say that the line stopped. I was so exhausted that I thought I was just going to pass out in the streets walking home, but Paul kept me going. Finally we arrived home to leftover Greek Salad, but I just wanted to go to bed. A great New Years, full with culture, good people, and crazy, big city fun.

Meagan comes tomorrow! I talked to her a few hours ago, she should be on the plane now. I hope I'll show her a good time. Though she studied abroad in Sevilla last year, she's never been to Paris, so we should have a ton of fun in the next few days. One of the guys that works at the hostel is named Victor, a really hot Brazillian model in France working on some jobs. He had to work last night which sucked for him, but I told him I'd come back and give him a new year's kiss and drink some champagne with him. Well, I wasn't up for it, even though he said he saved me champagne even though I was way too tired to stay up. Stupid me! He's invited me to go to the club with him and his friends tomorrow night, so Meagan and I are going to go to his house to pregame, and then head down to one of the elite clubs on the Champs-Ellysées named Duplex. I'm psyched, I haven't been anywhere nice to dance yet. Plus, Victor's hot. Really excited about it...

Hope everyone else's new year's festivities were as magical as mine!