Anyone who has ever been to a farmer's market should be a little jealous of me today. I spent my morning waltzing around the market by my apartment, buying lots and lots of produce for about 13 euros. I know you don't all know how expensive it is to live here, but this market is by far the best thing that could have happened to my wallet here. (To put it into perspective, a load of laundry at the laundromat costs around $5). I was amazed at how much produce I got.  And, I bought it supporting the local farmers. Two birds, one stone. If there is one thing France has the US doesn't, I think its that. Of course, I love going to the Davenport Farmer's Market, but I'm not always sure I get a deal there. Plus, they have a huge variety of local cheese (which if I can snag myself a cooler, I WILL be bringing back to the US), several different meat stands and what I like to call 'An Olive Buffet'. Its really too bad I hate olives, because I would be in heaven at this stand. Definitely one of the things I will miss here.

You will also be happy to know that no one else has awkwardly approached me this week. YAY!

This weekend in the National Festival for France, so that should be fun and I will definitely tell you all about it. A classmate of mine from St. Ambrose also arrives this weekend to join the same program I am in, so I will have a familiar face :)

A Bien-Tot!

Yesterday I was reminded of one of the reasons I wanted to come to France. I had an amazing day with great friends and saw one of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen.

When the program I am studying with mentioned a trip to Chamonix, France, I didn't realize the extent to which I needed to attend. It seemed expensive and I wasn't sure about it, but my roommates and friends convinced me that it was beautiful and would be worth the cost. So, I agreed to go. All I knew was that there was a mountain and it was pretty. Alas, I hopped on the bus to ride the 1.5 hours to Chamonix and Le Mont-Blanc.

Turns out, it is the tallest mountain in all of Europe, topping out at 3842 meters. Never in my life did I think I would do this, but I rode to the top. It took two trolley-like rides up a zip-line in a car holding somewhere around 40 people. This definitely pushed my phobias to their limits, but I told myself I HAD to do this. At the top, the temperature dropped around 25 degrees and the air was very thin, making the task of breathing somewhat difficult, but my friends were right. It was definitely worth it.

After returning home, I went out with some friends to the "vielle ville" to enjoy some drinks. Lene and I decided to walk to town, as we have many times in the past, but remember, we are in a foreign country. Instead of taking the way we know, we thought we would be innovative and try a new route. This resulted in our having to scale the side of a very grassy/ prairie-like hill to reach the highway. In dresses. It was a success, but I can only imagine what all of the car drivers were thinking seeing two young women climbing a hill in dress clothes. As most of our 'innovative ideas' go, this was also a bad one, leading to nowhere, requiring us to scale back down the hill. Not our best moment, but we justified it by saying we needed to see more of Annecy. So we took the scenic route to town :)

Another week of class is about to start and I am preparing. I am using the internet connection at McDonald's today, which is less than prime, so I can't upload photos. I tried, for a couple hours, to no avail. On the brightside, during my much overstayed welcome using their wifi, I did learn that McDonald's in France sells Heineken. Hmm. They may be ahead of the US with that idea....

I PROMISE to do it tomorrow, as I have many to share with you. You can see them on facebook as well.

Lene, Olga, Clara and I downtown

View from up the mountain. All of those spots you see are crazy people hiking and doing like mountain rock climbing with ice chips and stuff. Nuts.

Lene, Fabrisio and Me at the top of the mountain. Could hardly breath up here and freezing cold!!



Thats Chamonix down there! 4000 meters!

3 weeks to go!
Au Revoir!

Hi!

How bad have I been trying to write this blog? Well, I am sitting outside of 'Quality Burger Restaurant' stealing their internet as we speak. And probably looking like a fool just sitting on some steps to this random building with even more random shops in it. They include the library, this fast food restaurant and a tourist store.

And let me tell you what just happened. This older gentleman just sat by me, yes on these random stairs and started talking to me. At which point I decided that I don't speak French, hoping that he would leave me alone. No success. I tried to tell him I had to write this to you, because my battery is dying very quickly, and he proceeded to try and read my post. When I continued to ignore him, he thought he better leave and tried to shake my hand. I know it may sound rude, but I'm not really into shaking some strangers hand who is creeping me out. With that, he told me I wasn't nice and then patted my head and walked away. Weird. I thought I had seen it all in Annecy, but clearly I was mistaken.

Anyways....school is going well. I study French so much during the day that it haunts me and keeps me awake at night. But I suppose I am learning something!

My roommates are great as well. Lene is from Norway and also studying to be a nurse. Christian is Italian and speaks little English, requiring me to actually practice my French skills. It is getting better and easier every day. I have also made friends from Russia, Brazil, England and Scotland!

(btw...someone else just approached me and a similar thing happened...wtf)

My current favorite ice cream flavor is 'vanille brownie'. Yes, its what is sounds like and totally American. But after my last ice cream experience, I had to play it safe.

Tomorrow includes a day of Alps exploration with some classmates, followed by what should be an adventure at the diskotheque. I will post pictures of my week soon!

Bonjour mes amis!

I have finally gotten settled in France and it feels good to finally sit down and tell you all what I have been up to! It has been quite the journey so far and I promise you it started out in classic 'Mollie' style.

After saying good by to Maggie, Dom and the twinnos I made my way through security at the Santa Fe airport, only to find that I have left our pink nalgene water bottle sitting on a chair in the waiting area....thank goodness Santa Fe has a total of 5 flights out per day and security takes about 1.5 minutes to get through. The very kind TSA man let me go get my bottle....

I then hopped on my super duper tiny plane to Dallas. I do not recommend flying out of Santa Fe. It is very bumpy. But, I made it and spent the next 9 hours on a plane to London. International flights are pretty awesome. I got 2 meals, and got to watch tv and movies. It was great. By the way...what is it about talking to British people that makes us all start pretending we are British? I'm sure its offensive, but I can't seem to help it. My accent from another life just comes out of nowhere. I can't control it.

Other than school, I haven't had much chance to explore, hence the lack of photos at this time, but I have learned a lot....

1) A 'cafe' in France, means espresso. And it comes in a cup proportionally sized to someone around the age of 5.

2) 'fromage blanc' is not yogurt. It looks like yogurt and is in the yogurt section at the grocery store, but instead tasted like a cross between plain yogurt and sour cream. apparently, it is similar to yogurt without active cultures,  and can be baked with or served with fruit, but i'm not sure i get it yet. However, I have a pint of it, so I suppose I should find something to do with it.

3) I will be returning home 10 pounds heavier due to the bakeries and ice cream shops on every corner. (I will be keeping a running list of my favorite desserts). So far...I have tried 'amarena', or 'sour cherry'. I of course, was not aware this was the flavor when I ordered it. It will not be on the top of my list :)

4) when at the grocery store, you must weigh your own produce and ask for plastic bags before the cashier scans your food, or the line of 10 people behind you that you hold up will be VERY upset and you will be embarrassed.

5) The show 'toddlers and tiaras' is still ridiculous in French

I promise I will be taking pictures and having adventures once I get myself more oriented. But I wanted you to know I'm alive :) I also have no internet at home, so my posts may be fewer than normal, but I will do my best!

Mag and I the day I left. Hot bicyclists.

Sayin' bye to my boys.

Wo-wo tried to pretend he was mad I was leaving....

But then he gave in :)

Bon Soir!

We made it home safely to New Mexico yesterday afternoon. What a long day of traveling! I didn't realize how exhausting sitting on the beach could be ;) We were all pretty worthless today. We were very sad to see Dad and Megan leave, and even more sad to have to get on the plane ourselves. We made some pretty good friends down there and they will truly be missed!

Two of our new friends, Tyler and Taylor. Both diving instructor interns. They had a lot to talk about with Dom. 

Saying 'good-bye' to Dad at the airport :(

Sunrise on the last day. Gorgeous.

Sunset. Much less gorgeous. Dang cloud cover!

Due to our pre-departure depression, we took LOTS of beach photos.

And our very last adventure was learning how to climb a palm tree.

Tyler. Pretty much rockin' it out. 

Maggie rocked it our a little less; but to be fair, she already tried like 10 times prior to this photo.

Truly an amazing and memorable trip. Beautiful area and amazing, happy people to be around (both family and locals included). I will be in Santa Fe with Maggie and Dom for the next couple of days and leave for France Saturday evening. I will keep you posted on my life there for the next 4 weeks, so check for updates. I love you all and will see you soon!

Dropped Megan and Dad off at the airport this morning. Sad day. We are absolutely not ready to leave! We are just starting to get the hang of life down here and its about to end. But I supposed I miss the states a little too, so Mag, Dom and I will be heading back to Santa Fe in the morning. 

So Saturday night we ventured out to a club called IMAGINE. It turned out to be a really large dance club, underground, with go-go dancers, and it was pretty amazing. We had a wonderful time dancing.

Meg and I at the entrance. 

Dom and Mag inside. You can see some of the cave in the background.

Sunday was spent at the Hard Rock Casino and Resort. Easily, the most fun we have had the entire vacation. It is a private, very expensive resort, but Dad had been to the casino a couple nights and was given day passes for all of us to enjoy the pools, food and drinks. Of course, as a business ploy to try and get us to purchase some time to spend at one of their resorts, but who cares. We spent a couple hours listening to the salesman's pitch and getting a tour and in return got to spend the entire day pretending to be rich :)

The resort offered like 'beginner diving' in the pool, so Megan and I tried it. Pretty cool. Of course, the actual ocean floor would probably be much more interesting.

Just a view of some of the resort area.

So this picture. We were all sitting by the pool and heard some 'contests' going on nearby. The first one we saw was an underwater contest, seeing who could hold their breath the longest. Dom could have easily one that one, but we figured out what was going on too late. So awhile later, they did another one. Asked for 8 girls to come up and do this contest. The catch is, you have no idea what its going to be. We just assumed it would have to deal with water, so Maggie convinced Dom that she had to go up and participate, then turned to me and said, "if this turns out to be a bikini contest, you have to go take her place because she's going to kill me". Well, I ended up going up anyway, to find out this is a Reggaeton dance contest. Don't know what that is? Look it up. Long story short, I am up here dancing some hip-hop latin style dance, ALONE in front of the entire pool population up against all Brazilian and Columbian girls, and I won. Go figure. As the black lady that stopped me later said, 'white girl can throw down!' haha. So, I won a bottle of rum for us. (Dom ducked out as soon as she heard 'dance') Can't blame her. I didn't think I had a chance up against that population.

Maggie playing volleyball in the pool. Free drinks and food all day was a pretty amazing and relaxing day.

Yesterday was spent reading and doing some souvenir shopping. I did end up getting a gorgeous Amber stone that is specific to the Dominican. It turns blue in the sunlight. And I got some gifts for you all too ;)

Time is going by so fast! We only have 3 more days here :( And I have ALOT to tell you!

Today was one of those epic disaster days that you cannot help but laugh at. Originally, we had all planned to go to an island on the Caribbean Sea, called Catalina. It is an hour an a half drive across part of the Dominican and then an easy boat-taxi ride to the island. Dom had planned to dive there, so we thought, what an easy way to get there! We will just follow the diving excursion down to the island and explore/do some snorkeling while Dom dives. Then, we found out we had to be up at 6 am....not so bad until you hear how last night was. You would have chosen to skip that sunrise nonsense too.

So, we decided us 5 female Americans were intelligent enough to find the island ourselves. Nevermind that we are in a foreign country where 1 of us speaks the local language....

We packed up and shipped out around 10 this morning. Not bad. But, imagine the 5 of us in a Hyundai Accent and you will soon see that this ride was not prime. It started with speed bumps. Have I told you about these? I can't recall. Least favorite thing about the Domincan....the speed bumps every 10 ft. As if we are going to gain enough speed in 10 feet to need another speed bump....and we aren't talking the logical-sized speed bumps you are used to. We are talking speed bumps on steroids. 5'8", in the middle of the backseat = headache.


We spent the next 30 minutes listening to some kind of techno-mixed Spanish music and to Maggie laughing at a book that distinctly describes the mannerisms of my father. I recommend "Are You There Vodka, Its Me Chelsea" by Chelsea Handler. It is in this book that she describes the trip she took with her father to Costa Rica where she refers to him as "Bitch Tits". I will let you read the rest on your own. If you know my dad, it is well worth it.

45 minutes in:
We are right on track in a town called Higuey. My 2nd least favorite thing about the Dominican...Higuey. Its a hot mess, and did I mention there are no traffic laws enforced here? This means drivers make their own lanes while trying to avoid the millions of motorcycles swerving in and out, all while carrying several people/items on them. And by this I mean, we actually saw a tiny motorcycle carrying a couple and their two children, also including the driver. This town also contains a store entrance sign with the word COLON written very largely on it. I can only assume there is some alternative meaning to this in Spanish, but I think other languages should consider their word choices prior to displaying them for tourists. Anyhow.....I had to pee. Using public restrooms here is an awful idea. They are dark, have no windows, missing toilet seats, no water and 99% of the time have no toilet paper. These are the moments when I wish I had come out with other genitalia.

After this things got a little questionable. Our 1.5 hour ride turned into about 3.5 hours. It was at the point of laughable but was about to turn into an explosion of estrogen, so we stopped. No one could tell us how to get to Catalina, which is incredible odd considering all of these people live here! But what do I know, I don't speak Spanish. Maybe we weren't asking right. When we did find our way to an option for getting to Catalina, it was a 45-minute boat ride. No bueno. So we sat on the beach there and had some drinks and snorkeled before returning home to fry some yummy fish.

So let's back up. Two nights ago, we are all sitting on the patio relaxing after a long day of fishing (for Maggie and Dom). Oh...btw...they caught a Marlin! Dad was ecstatic. All he wanted was to catch a Marlin and it was a success. 6 feet long and 25 kilos (about 60 lbs). So Mag and Dom went to bed and Megan, Michelle and I decided to investigate some loud music we had been hearing for several previous nights. Unfortunately at the end of our walk through the streets of Bavaro, we found it to be a belly-dancing show that we were not allowed to watch. Bummer. But on the way home, Megan found herself a new dog (This is relevant later). There are wild dogs everywhere here. It is very sad, but this one had a collar. So obviously she belonged to someone at some point, but my suspicions are that she ran away or something. So, she followed us down the beach to our favorite bar here to have a drink, where she was scared off by the local dog of the bar. I won't bore you with another detailed story this round, but in sum, Megan got a mole bitten off her back by a bug, which I cleaned with vodka given to me by the bartender, Michelle cut her toe open on a log in the sand and I got to practice speaking french to Belgium Bartender Geoffrey.

Yesterday, Mag, Dom and Dad did some fishing on the reef, which was also a grand success. We got gelato and relaxed. Dad convinced Maggie and Michelle to take him to the casino, which he has been asking about since his arrival. We figured since he has dealt with the hormones of us all, he deserved a chance to play cards. In the meantime, Megan, Dom and I played on this inflatable playground in the ocean near our condo and sipped some rum and vodka in the pool. We also got to entertain Dom with some youtube blogs of Jenna Marbles, also a must see. Specifically, the one where she teaches you how to get rid of people you don't want to talk to. Very useful life-lesson. Our evening involved a short expedition to find pops at the casino and having a guest appearance by our dog-friend. She absolutely made herself at home on our patio furniture. If she revisits, you will know!

I think that covers the high-points and hopefully gave you some entertainment for your evening. Tonight includes a tentative itinerary of live music and visiting a cave-bar. I have no idea what that means but it MUST be fun, I assume.

6 ft. Marlin!! Way to go girls!

Reef Fishing

This was the inflatable playground. It was in about 3 ft of water and the deepest parts....so super unsafe.

Trampoline!

Slide (Me and Meg)

Attempting to climb the giant rock thing. It was not inflated enough, which pretty much meant every time we got higher, there was a huge shift of air underneath us. No bueno.

This is of me coming down from the mountain. Meg got really high tho!

Mini-mountain. 

This we soon referred to as the 'giant condom'. My apologies to those pg-readers out there. But it was funny. We all 3 fit in here. It was also what I like to call a hot mess. Very slick and difficult to climb in.

Action shot of the mountain!

Teeter-totter

Swimming on the beach today.

Just gettin' our tan on!

Site from snorkeling today. 

Attempting to dance where we had some drinks.

View of the ocean from today, note the little hummingbird on the tree branch!