Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...

If you know what this title is from, I'm sorry :) If you don't, consider yourself lucky... Or at least your ears.
Soooooo I skyped with Katie today and she told me I need to update this little booger more than just once a week after I go somewhere cool. So here you are -- a little update of my daily life here in Vichy.
The other day it was wonderful weather (I'm talking like 60s and sunny people) so Ellen and I decided to go have a picnic by the river before class! I made some pasta salad (needs work) but it was pretty dang good!! It was just pasta, bell pepper, onion, mozzarella, and some salt. YUM-OOOOO!!!!! And I of course took my new signature drink, Limonade. Yes, that's how it's spelled because it is French. You can buy it at the grocery store here and it's basically just a carbonated water that tastes like lemonade. I'm in love. I literally bought a giant 6-pack the other day at the store and the lady gave me the weirdest look like I was planning to feed an army or something. Strange. But anyway, we took our food, backpacks, and sunglasses (FINALLY!!!) and just went and sat and ate and enjoyed the beautiful day!! Then we went to France as a Tourist Destination -- best class ever. Tuesday night I had a Skype interview for a MIS scholarship back in the states. It was a total joke because they just asked me a bunch of questions about how I like France and whatnot!! Hahaha I wish all interviews were like that!
Wednesday, I had French class in the morning then came back to the dorm and it was again, a gorgeous day! So I decided to pack some snacks and go hang out by the river again, this time solo. I packed up some red ripe strawberries and my new bag of corn nuts (yeah, buddy) and my limonade :) I also brought along my French magazine that I read - yes, read. I didn't just look at the pictures, Katie. And my camera!! I met a duck and named him Hector. He was sitting on the piece of wood in the water directly in front of me and kept looking at me. I was just waiting for him to come over for a corn nut!! But he didn't... :( He was silly though because he kept standing on just one leg! At one point he stood on one leg and took a nap before his friend came and told him to come with him. Then they both left. There were also a bunch of people out rowing on the river!! That was really cool since we haven't really seen anyone out there since we've been here (granted, it's been freezing until now, but still). It started getting really cloudy and chilly so I decided to go home.
Thursday I had class at 8:30am!!!!!! Ughhhh... But surprisingly it wasn't too bad. After class I took a nap then skyped with Katie for nearly 2 1/2 hours! Hahahahaha love it. Then for dinner I really wanted pizza so I convinced Josh to go with me since BJ didn't want to go for some reason... Haha (love ya, Beej). Ally decided she wanted to come too so the 3 of us went to find some good 'ol pizza in this town. We ended up at a place called "Wok and Pizza" (say it fast and it's funny. HAHAHAHA!) Yes, Chinese and Pizza. Sweet. So we got a giant pizza and some cokes. It was fabulous! :) Just what I wanted! Ellen and I decided we needed to look into things we need to do in Barcelona next weekend [IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS PLEASE EMAIL ME!!!!] but all we ended up doing was looking for places to go the weekend after that :) Hahaha we are wanting to go on a wine tour in the Auvergne region (where we are) because they are known for their wine all over the world. Bad news, all of the vineyards are obviously in the country so there aren't trains that go anywhere close and obviously we don't have a car... bummer. But alas!! Travel Agent Ellen and I found some places up north by Tours, France that have excellent wine tours and CASTLES!!!! Google image this baby: Château de la Bourdaisière. It is absolutely breathtaking so we are trying to go there one day and do a wine tour in the neighboring city the next day. They use the grounds of that château to film movies! It's amazing. I still haven't found a cheese tour yet and I am getting very upset because it is the same problem - country and no trains... I'm about ready to buy a vespa.
I've been losing weight like crazy and really just want some fried chicken so if anyone is feeling gracious enough to attempt to mail some chick-fil-a or Canes, I'm always ready to receive a package like that :) Hahahaha I have ranch now thanks to Nico so all I need now is some good 'ol fried chicken!!!! I attempted to make chicken nuggets the other night and they tasted like rubber... I'm wondering if French chicken nuggets aren't really chicken... Hmmmm. One of the many questions I have started asking since being here.
Ummmmm so that's about all I've got for ya, folks. It's late and we are going to run by the river tomorrow morning then go shopping for our Masquerade party tomorrow night so I am going to say bonsoir mes amis and ma famille. J'espère que vous avez un bon vendredi!
Bisous,
Hayley

The dam of the Amstel (Amsterdam)

Well, this weekend was definitely one of my favorites so far! :) It was crazy fast, but we ended up seeing 3 capital cities within a matter of hours and also stayed in one of the coolest cities on the planet -- Amsterdam. It was incredible. Here goes the nearly play-by-play:

First off, we wondered all weekend what the 3 X's were on everything so naturally I wikipedia-ed it. Here's what it says: The official city motto is Valor, Resolution, and Mercy. The three X's, saltires (St. Andrew's crosses), are taken to represent these even though the X's are older than the motto. A popular tradition also links the X's to the three threats to the city: Water, Fire and Pestilence.

Good to know. Thank you, Wikipedia :)

THURSDAY March 24th:

Our train left Vichy at 6am... Now if you know me, you know I'm definitely NOT a morning person. Yeah. It sucked. But we all made it with all our luggage and boarded the train to Paris!! We had a 4 hour layover there so of course we had to go see some stuff!! We bought some metro tickets and went to La Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower)!!!! :) I was in absolute heaven and almost started crying. The Eiffel Tower is my absolute favorite thing in the world and Paris is my favorite place in the world and is the whole reason I even started learning French and wanted to study abroad here :) and thank goodness it didn't let me down!! It was great because we got there before all the other tourists and tour groups so we basically had an almost private viewing of the majestic metal icon. We took a ridiculous amount of pictures because it was an absolutely gorgeous day and hey, it's the Eiffel Tower. You have to. Then we walked around and took the metro to the Champs-Élysées just to see it. Again, it didn't let me down and I couldn't stop smiling. I officially feel like I am in France now :) Literally, that made my life and nothing could bring me down - not even an 8-hour bus ride.
About that bus ride... We had decided to go to Amsterdam just because we had found a bus (the European Greyhound) for super cheap and thought it sounded fun. It actually wasn't too bad!! It's not a train, that's for sure, but it wasn't as tight as I imagined it would be. I slept most of the way anyway so it really wasn't bad... Hahaha! About halfway through we stop in Brussels, Belgium for a rest break and people were getting off there too. We drove past all of the really cool stuff so we didn't get to actually SEE it, but we got a taste :) It sort of reminded me of San Fransisco oddly enough... I don't really know why, but it did. It was cute. But the bus stop is in the business district so that's what we really got to see. Hahaha typical. But back on the bus and about 4 hours later, we were in Amsterdam!!! :) :) :)
It was so cool at night! A little creepy, but cool. there were little lights on the bridges over the canals that were reflecting and whatnot and all the little bars had people in them and were all lit up but other than that it was pretty quiet. So we found our apartment and settled in! It literally looked like it was straight out of an IKEA catalogue... So basically it was epic. We walked around our area of town a little bit and found the local McDonalds (duh) and KFC of all things!! Right across the street! How convenient.


FRIDAY March 25th:
Friday morning we woke up and decided we wanted to rent bikes for the day. We found a place that rented them for 10 Euros for 24 hours and no deposit so we said "YES!" and went and got our bikes! Let me just preface all of this by saying that EVERYONE rides bikes in Amsterdam. For real. It's nuts how many bikes are in that city. Every bridge, light pole, tree, trash can, you name it - there were bikes locked to it. Nutso, but awesome. So we started riding our bikes around town obviously having absolutely NO idea where we were going, but that's half the fun right?! It was great. Unfortunately, as Rick Steve's had warned me, they are crazy bike riders here... crazy as in, they WILL run you over if you are in their way. There were definitely a couple of times we thought we were going to die -- either by being run out of the bike lane or people coming and finding us later. But we found our way to the square in the center of town (the "plaza" if you will) where are the food and tourist shops were. So yes, that's where we parked our bikes :) There was a van selling American hot dogs and behind it was Burger King and McDonalds with KFC not too far away - ummmm hi, America. But being the worldly crew that we are, we found a local little café/restaurant to eat at that sold the local dish "pancakes" :) WOOOO BABY!!!! I had one with spinach, tomato, cheese, and bacon! Basically it was just a giant crêpe the size of a pizza with all that on it, but whatever. It was legit and delicious. So after lunch, we walked around a bit and shopped then decided to go on Rick's bike tour that he planned for us in his book. It took us all around town and really didn't make much sense so we ended up only hitting 1 of the places on his list, but oh well. We were just enjoying the beautiful day in a beautiful city! Our bike tour lead us to the infamous Red Light District... Yeah, pretty self-explanatory I believe. Hahahaha Literally, it is what you would imagine it as. It's so hidden that if you didn't know where to look, you wouldn't find it. I mean, I guess the crowds of people and sudden burst of liberalism in every form basically attacking you kinda give it away, but it's a lot more hidden that I expected. You have to go through creepy little alleys to get into it, but once you do, there's no second guessing of where you are. The name says it all - Red Light because there are literally red lights above the doors of the, lack for a better term, prostitutes. After we made a walk through, we all came out feeling so sorry for them!! What an awful job. But, it makes me appreciate even more how great of an education I am getting so that I can do something better than that for a living!! Hahahaha!! 
So we just sort of walked around the neighborhood for a bit then went to Anne Frank's house. That was so cool. Very sad, but very cool. It was so surreal actually being there and IN the place where she hid with her family before being taken away. It's like a tour through the Secret Annex and also a museum all in one. And at the end there's a bunch of information about the family and a lot of the actual pages from her diary. Again, it made me very appreciative of my life.
After Anne Frank, we rode home and made dinner then just hung out there. Hahaha chill night.


SATURDAY March 26th:
Saturday was a lot of fun!! We woke up a lot later than we planned, but what do you expect?! We aren't on a schedule in Europe!! Hahaha But we had to go return our bikes so we did that then went and found lunch! On our way to find food after returning the bikes we saw a street band performing on a bridge and they were hilarious!!!! They were 3 old men playing classic songs (that I don't know the name of, of course...) and really putting on a show. They were great. Then we went to a flea market down the street and 3 of us bought new scarves! They're so cute and can be worn through the spring especially in France :) I'm super pumped about that. So since we were all getting cranky and couldn't decide on a place to eat, we went to Burger King to switch it up a bit from McDonalds. Hahaha I was really mad because I asked for "no ketchup" on my burger and she repeated it to make sure yet what do you know?? There was ketchup. I almost vommed. But of course, I just scraped most of it off and sucked it up and ate it because I was STARVING! And they had mozzarella sticks!!!!! WITH MARINARA SAUCE INSIDE THEM!!!!!! Genius.
So after lunch we went back to the apartment and showered and stuff then went to Heineken!!! That was AWESOME!! It was very laid back and chill so we just sort of meandered around taking a ridiculous amount of pictures with stupid things like goblets and medals just because we could. We learned a lot about how they make beer which is actually kinda interesting. And we got to taste the different ingredients like hops and barley then go see the massive tanks they use to brew it and stuff! So cool. They have this thing called the "Brew You Ride; Be The Beer". It kinda speaks for itself I think, but it was hilarious. It's just a video you watch but it's one of those interactive ones where for instance, when the hops get thrown in the water, you get misted with water. And when they heat it all up, there are heat lamps that heat you up. So it was really funny for all of us to be doing. Then we got free beer!! (Well I guess it wasn't technically "free" but they make you think it is). There was a bartender and he poured too many so as he was teaching us about how to drink it, he would ask questions about things such as "What do you smell when you sniff it?" and I for some reason answered "HOPS!!!!" and won a Bonus Beer! Hahahaha Who would've thought that I would ever in my life a) answer a question correctly about beer and b) actually win free beer?!?! I was ecstatic. Hahahaha
Following our free beers in there, we went into a room that had couches and videos and, wait for it, the ceiling was 100% Heineken bottles!!!!! YES!!! The famous green bottles were in a wavy pattern on the ceiling with lights shining through them. [Mom and Dad -- decorating idea for the lake?! :) HAHA] It was great. Leaving that room, we went to the interactive area and made a really funny video of us trying to sing in Dutch... Yeah, not so much. It was funny though! People were laughing at us. Finally we made it to the real bar!!! At the end we were allowed 2 free beers with the buttons on our bracelets. But sad to say that by that point, I could not drink my 2. Hahaha I think Tyler was the only one who drank his 2. But hey, I had my Bonus Beer so it evens out right?? Hahaha
After Heineken, it was getting dark so we started wandering around looking for this sign that Carlos wanted to see. Apparently it's kinda famous?? I don't know. Haha but it really was cool!! All of a sudden we turned the corner and there's this park and a giant set of letters saying "I amsterdam" (I am Amsterdam... get it?? Hahaha it's ok. Took me a while too) So of course we climbed on them to take pictures! Haha After having our photoshoot, we began the hunt for food. And heya!! We spotted Hard Rock Cafe yonder and began walking towards the pretty lights. Unfortunately, it was a Saturday night and it would be a 2 hour wait... Not cool. But, fortunately, there was a hot dog cart right outside :) Oh yesh. You bet your bottom dollar I got me a hot dog!! Josh did too so I had a buddy on my side of that argument. It was delicious! I have been craving hot dogs and was so happy to have one!! We then went into a more populated part of town and found a little Mexican restaurant (????) that of all things had a Texas Burger... I am literally still dumbfounded by this. I would be weirded out by it IN Texas, but being in Amsterdam raised the weird meter about 1000 times. Duh, I took a picture and thought it was hilarious. And of course, we went in. Hahaha It was pretty good too, surprisingly!! Ally got some fajitas that I had one of (since I had already had my hot dog) and the waitress was NOT happy with us for doing that. She had issues. But, moral of the story: we ate, we paid, we went on our way. Hahaha Coming out of the restaurant we heard music and were drawn to it like bugs to a light. It was a boy singing and his buddy was playing the guitar. OMG. He was Irish and so good!!!! We stayed and listened to 2 songs and then he was done :( boo. But I recorded a song :) Don't worry.
The boys really wanted to go see Red Light District at night... Now, Rick Steve's told me to not go after 10pm because a) it's Red Light... and b) it's just not smart to be out after then anyway!! Duh. ;)
But, alas, we went. Seriously, 100x sketchier than the day before. I was appalled at some of the things I saw. Not only was it just craziness, but you remember how I said it was like a little hidden area with all of them?? Well, apparently as soon as the sun goes to sleep, Red Light comes to life and expands... As in, not only was it just the hidden alleys, but on the main street as well. Just out of control. I don't understand. Hahahaha Guess that's my conservative Texan self talking. But we survived and went to a bar down the street to hang out and people watch. Then we walked home :)


SUNDAY March 27th:
Sunday morning our bus left at 9am. We didn't think this would be a problem considering we just needed to hop on the tram by our apartment... We were wrong. Hahahaha First of all, we lost our hour for daylight savings that night, so that kinda threw all of us off. Secondly, we woke up later than planned but thought we were still fine. Thirdly, come to find out that on Sundays, the trams only come by every 30 minutes... and we got to the stop at 8:07 -- 7 minutes too late and we needed to be at the bus stop by 8:30. Cool. Hahaha But we eventually made it after walking a ways and then finding a bus to take us. This bus ride to Brussels though was a complete blur because I literally passed out the whole way except to get up at the break to eat. Win.
Once we got to Paris, we got trapped in the parking garage, walked on the highway, then proceeded to ride the metro alllllll the way across town because we were too lazy to move :) We must have been quite a sight to onlookers.
But obviously we made it safely back to Vichy by Sunday night and were welcomed by rain. Sweet.


This was a wonderful weekend and I am so glad we decided to go to Amsterdam!!! It was an absolutely beautiful city with amazing sights, people, and adventures to be had. It was so much fun from start to finish even including the most painful couple of days following our bike riding experiences... Hahahaha yes, I am still sore. But it was incredible. I finally feel like I am really in Europe and am enjoying every bit of it! The weather is supposed to finally start to be nicer here so that is very exciting news. New goal -- try a new type of cheese every week :) and maybe a wine or 2 ;) Hey, it's France.


C'est la vie, mes amis.

It's A Wonderful Life

Salut mes amis et ma famille!!
Every day is an adventure over here in France. It's incredible to wake up every morning in a foreign country knowing that I will learn something new that day. This past week has been ridiculously amazing so this is going to be a ridiculously long post to tell you all about the great things we have been doing over here. :) Sit back and enjoy.

Tuesday, Ally and I didn't have class so we decided to go have a picnic down by the river since it was finally sunny!! So we went walking through town to find some bread to make sandwiches then made our way to the river. We had a wonderful lunch and then went to the giant grocery store across the bridge. It's called L'Eclerc and literally looks like Walmart... It was almost scary how much it looked like Walmart, but I liked it :) We wanted some tortilla chips for that night (details following) and had heard that they had them -- we didn't find them. So we just bought some stuff we needed and left.
Tuesday night was Mardi Gras, and being in France we figured we would have a little celebration of our own. So naturally, we had a Mexican fiesta. Everyone had to bring something so that we could all eat, and it was amazing!! There were 4 things of guacamole (1 of which I made, thank you), chicken tacos, queso (made with French cheese of course!! Haha), mixed lettuce/fruit salad, a Spanish dish Carlos made along with his Sangria, banana crepes from Ellen, and the Mexican girls made mini burritos and guacamole -- OMG they were INCREDIBLE!!! It was soooooo delicious!! Oh and Tyler and Ally made "Beeritas" (margaritas made with beer?? They were good though) Hahaha. So there were about 20-25 people there and we all just hung out and ate wonderful food. It was fantastic!

LYON, FRANCE

Greetings from Lyon!!! Yes, that is real (not the coloring, but the actual picture) :)

Wednesday we went to Lyon for the day!! Ellen's friend, Catherine, came to visit for 3 days during her spring break so we took her to Lyon considering we hadn't even seen it yet and were told we needed to. It was so cool!!! Basically, Lyon is like a smaller Paris, sort of. It is the 2nd largest city in France, so it's not like they are lacking anything... Except Tom's shoes. I looked. But anyway, Ellen, Catherine, Ally, and myself left Vichy at 9:30 and got to Lyon about 11:30 just in time for lunch!! But silly us, as soon as we got off at the train station, we went outside and saw skyscrapers... Well, that did not seem correct, so we called some of our friends who went to Lyon Tuesday and were still there for the day. We had to go buy a metro ticket for the day and find our way to the part of town where all the interesting stuff was. Haha we thought we had really messed up!! But we were fine :) So we met up with them at a little café and went and had lunch! It was really good and they showed us around the part of the city they had seen Tuesday on our way. Lyon is gorgeous!!! And it was a gorgeous day so that helped :) We went to a little restaurant by the river and I got a CHEESEBURGER!!!!! Yes. Unfortunately, the French process their meat differently so it wasn't what I expected, but it was still good and filling. After lunch we hiked up the hill across the bridge to the Basilica de Notre-Dame de Fourvière. The walk itself was amazing! With every step we got a new view of the city down below. We walked through cobblestone streets with little shops and cafés lining them and they were so small the sun couldn't even come through. It was marvelous. It's times like that that really make me feel like I'm in Europe. So as we made our way up to the Basilica, it's sheer majesticness was astounding. It was white so it almost shined as the sun hit it and it was right on the edge of the hill so it almost looked as if it might fall off!! So going in, we had no idea what to expect as far as what it would look like on the inside... Were our wildest expectations met!! We walked in and it was so ornate and elaborate, it literally took my breath away. Every inch of that place was covered in either tiles or paint and it was utterly incredible. There aren't even words for how gorgeous it was!

Front

Inside

So after experiencing that wonderful Basilica and the crypt under it (yes, a crypt!) we started to make our way back to the metro stop, but on the way we were told to go see the Roman Ruins. WOW is all I can say. They literally look like part of the Coliseum in Rome! But we came to the conclusion that the steps/seats weren't actually ruins because they were too perfect. Hahaha but there were some really cool ruins right beside those steps that were legit. And there was a little bit of a park in the area where people were just sitting and either eating, reading, or playing with their kids so that was cool.

Upon leaving the ruins, we decided to go get some crêpes just because hey, this IS France after all :) So we got our crêpes and went and sat on the fountain in the plaza in the center of town before heading back to the train station. It truly was a perfect day.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Geneva. Oh, Geneva. How I love thee. I have officially found my 2nd favorite city in the world, assuming money is not an issue of course... Hahaha Geneva is the epicenter of the world for business and the ultra melting pot of every different culture. Being the home of the UN, it caters to people of every nationality -- we heard French, English, Italian, German, and Spanish while there for 3 days. It was incredible. It is a beautiful, clean, über European city that unfortunately is insanely pricey and not recommended for the college kid on a budget haha. But seriously, when we were walking down by the lake after getting off the train, I literally almost cried at how gorgeous it was (and I do not cry). Ellen was laughing at me because I was speechless except to say "I love this city" or "this is incredible". They had little water fountains that were just flowing Alp water so duh, I refilled my water bottle like 4 times!! Hahaha it was delicious!!

How could this NOT take your breath away?!

AWESOME

Fresh Alp water!!!

Hahahahahaha

So Friday, we were supposed to leave Vichy at 9:30am and we did... But Michael didn't make it. Hahahaha he literally was running through the train station doors as it was pulling away. Sad day. But when we got to Lyon (our layover) we were delayed so we thought maybe he would be able to make it and ride with us to Geneva! No such luck. His got delayed too. Bummer. But eventually we all made it and met up and all was well :) So we walked around, I fell in love with the city, and we tried to make our way to our hotel (which we had absolutely NO idea where it was)... Haha but luckily public transportation is free!!! So after purchasing an unnecessary ticket, we hopped on the tram to try and get there. Ally and Tyler had already gone ahead while me, Ellen, and BJ waited for Michael so we asked them where to get off. Funny story, we didn't get off at the right place. We were across town. But did we care?! Not really, because it was still kinda light outside and we were in SWITZERLAND!! So we walked around asking people where we were supposed to go and no one had any idea what we were talking about. Cool. All we knew is that it was IN a mall, but there are like 5. So after having an adventure walking around town, finding a guy selling the best rotisserie chickens out of a van, and walking across a creepy highway, we finally found it! So we went in, freshened up, and headed out on the search for food!!! Remember, this is a ridiculously pricey city so there is no such thing as "cheap food". McDonald's was even 11-13 Francs ($13-$15) for a combo meal.... Not ok. But we found a cute little restaurant/café that was still open so we went in. Want to know the best part?? The owners were Italian!!! Haha it was so cute and they loved us. We all ordered our food and decided it was going to be Michael's birthday :) So they got the whole restaurant to sing Happy Birthday to him and gave him a free tiramisu (amazing btw) that we all ate. It was so fun. Now that we were full and happy again, we headed back to the hotel. We had talked to some locals earlier who told us about a club called "Bypass" that we had to go to... Yeah. If you know me well, you know that a) I love to dance but b) not in public at a club... But since we didn't have any cute clothes, we put on what we had (sweaters, jeans, and boots) and headed to Bypass. Hahahaha what a joke. It's Europe. So people were decked out in short dresses, heels, jewelry, the whole 10 yards. We stuck out like sore thumbs. Michael and BJ had to switch shoes because the bouncers were not going to let them in!! But we got in just the same, girls with our mom-bags and everything, and were shocked by the inside. First of all, we got there at like 11:30. Things don't START in Europe until at least 1am... Sweet. Secondly, there were old people there!!! Seriously, men in suits hanging out in the VIP couches. AWKWARDDDDDD. So we just sort of stood around. But the club was really cool looking!! on the downstairs, there were VIP couches surrounding the dance floor and upstairs was VIP only (but we went up there to check it out ;) haha). But while we were standing around we looked at the menu at the bar and OMG. A beer was 16 Francs!!!! And for the VIP tables, a bottle of vodka was $500... Ummmmmm WHAT?!?!?!?! How do these people afford to live in a place like this?! We were all in shock. It was craziness. But once things picked up, we joined the party and they started playing American music so that was fun :)

Saturday was our exploring day. We got up, found some food at the grocery store, and set off. We started just walking around, thanks to the free public transportation for allowing us to get from our hotel to downtown without walking, and saw a flea market in the big park!! So obviously we had to go. I found a couple of precious owl things and a cool owl for my house next year!! :) :) I'm very excited. I made a bargain with the old lady on it in French!! Check me out! Hahahaha so from the market we just started walking and found the famous Flower Clock of Geneva!! It was pretty cool I guess... Haha

Flower Clock

We then headed to St. Pierre's cathedral. It is in a very ritzy part of town (by ritzy I really just mean expensive). It was really cute!! Honestly, it was kinda letdown after Lyon, but it was still really nice. I enjoyed the area around it more than the actual cathedral. Haha typical. On our way up to it though, we were just walking and saw a little park so Ellen and I went over to play! They had one of those toys you sit on and it spins like the teacups at Disney World (my favesies!!!) so we did that. 2 boys came and joined us and one ended up getting sick!! :( but after he got off of course. We felt bad so we left. Haha Then we found some swings instead :) But we explored all the little side streets from the church and Michael and BJ went and tried on expensive watches in a little shop -- one was $45,000!!!!! Ridiculous. After that, we grabbed some paninis and went shopping!! We went to H&M and all I ended up buying was a shirt... Hahaha again, typical. It was pretty expensive though so I figured if I found something, I could find it at a cheaper H&M. 

Giant chair... UN behind it.

We then began the search for the UN!! That was cool. When you get off the tram at it, there is a giant chair (I'm not exaggerating) in the square out front. It is symbolic of something but I don't know what... Hahaha it's missing a leg and I think someone said something about it being about land-mines or something like that. I don't know. I just look at things :) But it was really cool and random at the same time so it was something different than the same old thing that you would expect.

So we stayed there for about 10 minutes then were over it. Haha the boys and Ally headed to the Geneva Auto Show but Ellen and I headed back to the hotel because we really didn't feel like looking at a bunch of cars for hours. But on the way home we decided we wanted some Swiss chocolate!!! :) So we found a shop right next to Versace and bought our bars of Lindt Premium Swiss chocolate :) It's scrumdiddlyumpcious!!! We then went back and had nap time to prepare for the evening festivities. We met the crew at McDonald's for dinner (btw they have a RANCH chicken wrap!!! Yes, I ate it and was in heaven) before heading back out to the club for round 2. This time, we dressed a little nicer, lost the mom bags and jackets, and got in free!!! :) What up?!?! It was so much more fun Saturday night. Hahaha There were actually people there and people our age!! There were these guys on stilts and dressed up in these outfits that lit up (think BEP Super Bowl halftime show) that were walking through the crowd on the dance floor dancing and stuff. That was really cool. It was so fun. We stayed a lot later before calling it a night this time. 

Swiss chocolate and cheese!! :) Yummmmm!

Sunday we slept in, cleaned up, and checked out by 12:30 then headed back out into the town. We went back to that park and they were having a Farmer's Market!! I was on the hunt for some Swiss cheese and we saw cheese vans. So we went walking through there and we went to the first cheese guy. I wanted Swiss cheese so I asked Ellen and Ally what I should ask for... because hi, it's ALL Swiss cheese. Hahahahaha so I didn't know what to do! I ended up buying some asiago because it was delicious. :) We then went to McDonald's because we didn't know what else to do and I had a Ranch Chicken wrap again... Haha Ally had to catch a train 2 hours before ours so we just went to the one by the train station and used the wifi. Boring, I know. But we googled Daylight Savings because we saw people's facebook status' talking about losing an hour of sleep and whatnot. So turns out, North America did it yesterday, but France doesn't do it until March 27th. Weird?! Yes. But good to know. Hahahaha

We got on our train back to Lyon and the Vichy and for the first leg of the trip we had a couchette (sleeper train)!!! :) It has been on my bucket list to ride on one of these so now I guess I can mark it off! It was so Harry Potter-esque that I was tickled pink to get to take a nap ON A BED, ON A TRAIN!! Hahaha It was hilarious.

So that's what I've been up to!! It's been so much fun and the next big trip is Amsterdam in 2 weeks!!! I am so excited!! We are going to stay in Vichy this weekend since we spent so much money this weekend, but I'm sure something exciting will happen during the week... hopefully. Hahahaha

Love you and miss you all!!! :)

Another Week, Another Set of Adventures

Week #2 in France is dunzo. Put it in the record books, folks. My name is Hayley Corbitt and I have survived the French life for 2 weeks now :) It has been so much fun actually. I absolutely LOVE it here and all the random stuff that people do on a normal basis!! Life is so different than in the states... SOOOOOO different. The lady who owns the bakery across the street already knows us, the security guards at the local grocery store/Target wannabe follow us around the store, and everybody stares at us as we walk down the sidewalks. Cool. It really is awesome though. As I walk down the little streets that wind between worn-down apartments and cafés nestled between a kebab store and a hair salon, I actually feel like I belong here. It feels right just meandering without meaning with the sun on my face and no cares in the world. I have met so many great people already and we have booked multiple European excursions for our weekends!! So here are the updates of the happenings in the Veeshinator from this week. Enjoy:

So the actual week was pretty boring... As usual in this town apparently. We went to French all day, e'ery day and had our first test Friday. That was interesting. Hahahaha I ain't in Oklahoma anymore, that's for dang sure. But whatevskees, I'm in France dang it, so a dumb test won't get me down!! :)

Nutella crêpes = HEAVEN

That being said, Thursday (pre-test) we went walking around town because we were bored. Ellen, Ally, Tyler and I all went down to the river behind the school because we hadn't seen it yet!! On the way we stopped and got nutella crêpes because we hadn't had them yet!!! And Ellen had never had one so obviously we hit that up. INCREDIBLE.


We then proceeded to the river. It's so cool. And when I say that, I mean that it will be beautiful as soon as spring finally arrives and we can go have picnics down there and play on all the mini-golf courses!!! Haha Naw, it really is pretty and peaceful -- sort of what you expect from a sleepy French spa town. It's very relaxing and oh so French :) Loves it.

Just swingin' on the light pole :)

Loving life

So after we walked to river having photoshoots, we proceeded to cross the bridge to go to the cheap store named "Leader Price" - yes, in English. Basically it reminded me of Sam's but you don't buy anything in bulk because hi, we're in France. So yeah, we went there then headed back towards home. On the way though we found the Vichy fountain!! It's pretty cool. Hopefully they will make it start running soon so I can go take creepy pictures at it!! :)

Alright, Saturday. INTENSIVE FRENCH IS FINALLY OVER!!!!!!!! YAYYYYY!!!!!!! :) No more going to the same class all day every day. Thank goodness! We all woke up and decided to go explore more of the other side of Vichy, so we did. A big group of us went to lunch at this adorable little restaurant that we pass on our way to school every day but haven't been able to get into thanks to the weird hours that the French use... But it was well worth the wait :) I had a marvelous baked potato (specialty of this region) with a salad that was more than just a few pieces of lettuce!! It was a miracle. And free water too! So we all enjoyed our lunch then began our trek across town. We literally took a gazillion pictures just because we could and it was a gorgeous day finally!! Loved it.

girlies

We had so much fun trying to get this shot in front of the town hall :) It's basically epic. And we took plenty more around town on our way to the river!

Our massive cotton candy!!

cardboard sled race (I won)

We went across the river to McDonald's because BJ loves his MickeyD's and there is one over by where we were headed anyway. Then we went to the carnival!!! Yes, like a traveling circus! Hahaha it was super weird and expensive for the rides but cheap food!! Ellen and I got a massive stick of cotton candy (literally translated to "papa's beard" hahaha) for only 2 Euros and it was the "petit" size!! Hahahaha On our way back from the carnival, we saw a group of little boys sliding down a hill on pieces of cardboard so obviously we asked them if we could join in the fun!! It literally might have been the highlight of the day. First off, they were precious and thought we were all hilarious and secondly, who knew a piece of cardboard and a grassy hill could be so gosh darn amusing?! :) It was so much fun. Aaaaaaand then we walked home :) Hahaha

Sunday!!!!!!! WE CLIMBED UP A VOLCANO!!!!!!! :) :) Hahaha Seriously though, we did. It's called Puy de Dôme and it is "one of the youngest volcanoes in the Chaîne des Puys region of Massif Central in south-central France" Thank you, Wikipedia :) Literally, climbing to the top of that thing is one of the most rewarding and exhilarating things I have ever done. You just feel like you can do anything and you are literally on top of the world up there. It was absolutely incredible. 

It was really funny though because as we were riding in the bus driving up to the base of the volcano, we kept seeing snow on the side of the road.... yeah, white, cold, fluffy snow. Well, considering it was probably high 40s in Vichy, we just brought lighter jackets and were wearing tshirts, jeans, and tennis shoes. Sweeeeeeet... And when we got there, there was snow scattered in places around the base. Even better. But we but our big kid undies on and bundled up to begin our hike. 

Am I really hiking up that?! Yesh.

The hike was a little rough, not gonna lie. I am definitely not fit enough to literally climb a mountain. I'm gonna have to go with my girl Miley on this one though, "Ain't about how fast I get there... Ain't about what's waiting on the other side... It's the climb". Thanks girlfriend. It really was a great feeling reaching that summit despite the random icy slides on the trail and random old people passing us... Hahaha It was a fun hike with all my new friends :) Eeeeep.

I'm such a grizzly woman

Getting to the top = awesome. Enjoying the top = breathtaking. Seriously, now I understand why people do that for FUN. Maybe not for fun, but for the reward. So freaking cool. But at the top we had our little snacks, took tons of cool pictures, then began our descent because it was ridiculously cold and windy up there!!!!! Ughhhh my hands froze whenever I would take them out of my pockets! So worth it though.
At the bottom we went to get coffee at the little restaurant to chill out and warm up (oxymoron...) Hahaha


All-in-all?? Great weekend. We did so much stuff that I honestly had a hard time writing this trying to think of it all!! And I'm sure I left stuff out... It always tends to happen. Haha
I'm really excited to start our adventures to more places next weekend though!!! We are going somewhere... Maybe Lyon? Who knows. We'll see where the wind takes us! :)

Quand en France! ;)