Having Insight

From the very beginning I knew that I would save this blog prompt for last. Now that the semester is over I can truly look back and see if I experience any insight. Obviously my insight was not to the same extent that Greg Mortensen's insight in Three Cups of Tea. Though less significant to the greater population, to me it has had a vast impact on my life.
I think that Greg Mortensen's greatest moment of insight is when he wanders into that little village and sees the school children. It was that moment when he realized what he life was in the part of the world where he went for recreation only. That moment he discovered what he was meant to do and what he was going to spend his life doing. At a moment of personal disappointment and assumed failure he saw his calling. By gaining this perception of how the village people live Greg Mortensen's life is completely changed.
The moment that Greg saw the little group of schoolchildren he knew what he was meant to do, he gained insight into his life's meaning. The insight that I gain was not as remarkable as Mortensen's. Obviously it was of much less importance, but I am talking about how it was even unapparent to me. I did not realize that I even had insight into my life until I looked back over this semester.
I now know that I am completely capable to survive on my own. I know that this is insignificant but I feel that is an important aspect of my life. Before leaving for France I knew that I was going to have a hard time living so far away from home. The first days on campus were extremely tough and I almost regretted decided to come on this trip. Now I realized that I have been living on my own for almost four months. Time has gone by so fast that I didn't even realize how long I have been away from everyone thatt I love. Now I am leaving France in two days. I now know that I am completely capable of anything that I choose to do. This trip has helped me realize that.

Our Final Week of Classes and the Stress that it Brings

Our final week of classes has now come to a close and we are finally on the last stretch of this semester. While looking back some parts seem to have passed by very quickly. I feel like I have not had enough time to spend in France with my friends, but on the other hand the classes seemed like they were never going to end.
To be completely honest I enjoyed very few of the classes that I took part in this semester. I really love European Union, I like philosophy,and I enjoy my writing class. Other than that my other courses were quite unbearable. Now that it is December and I am leaving in less than a week it seems like a miracle that I made it this long. It was a real challenge at the end. Not the work load, I have grown accustomed to the massive amounts of homework, it was the extent to which it killed my soul to sit three hours at a time in these classes. Two of my classes absolutely nothing ever got accomplished. The teachers stood in the front of the room and talked randomly about a mess of things. Eventually they would announce a test and say all of the things that they supposedly taught during their classes. Mentioning a name once does not mean you taught the class about that person!
I just get frustrated when I think people are not doing there jobs. I am just glad that these classes are almost over. Finals are next week and I plan on spending the entire weekend studying. Come what may but I want to try to ace all four of them. As hard as that sounds I have set a personal goal that I will work to reach. At this point I am just ready to go home and after finals that is exactly what I am going to do.

The French Take Christmas Very Seriously

The French are a very tradition based cultural.France being a much older country than the United States these traditions are older and more widely spread. One of the most time honored traditions, at least for this region, is the Christmas markets. From mid-November through the end of December the Alsace region along with Germany is a complete Christmas wonderland.
Our little village of Robertsau is completely covered with lights. They are dangling from the trees, from the buildings, and even draped over bushes. The roads are arched with giant banners forming glowing stars and Christmas tress. In the center of the city by the church the Christmas spirit is truly at its highest. Every single business is not only displaying the Christmas decoration they are completely covered. One building can hold three dozen Santa hats and several giant teddy bears. It is crazy how into Christmas everyone is.
It is not only the decoration that makes the Holiday season special here in Alsace it is the markets. The entire town has gotten taken over by the festivities. Strasbourg is known as the "Capital of Christmas" and I can see that it truly deserves this title. There are maps displayed throughout town that show the entire layout of the market. Strasbourg is home to the first and largest Christmas market in France. Because of the market's size it is divided and is spread into different areas of the city. I have walked around the market here in Strasbourg and one in Freiburg, Germany both are wonderful, but I have to say Strasbourg is the best.
The Christmas Market is a wonderful place to buy presents, eat food, drink hot wine, and admire all of the beautiful lights and decorations. But First and foremost the Christmas Market gets you into the Christmas spirit. That makes me miss home. I cannot wait for a great, big New Hampshire Christmas with all of me friends and family.

London! (and our challenges getting there)

I have not faced many challenges since being in France. Aside from the usual adjusting to college life and missing home living abroad this semester has been quite easy. The most eventful part of this experience has been this past week.It is Thanksgiving break and we all had a week to go off and do whatever we chose to do. Gregory, Dave and I decided to go to London. Not one of us had ever been before. It started off horrible and turned into one of the biggest adventures of my life. We arrived in London without a knowing where where we were going to stay. We knew about a few hostels but foolishly never got around to actually booking one. That was the big mistake of the trip. Our flight got in at around eight and then we had to take an hour and a half long bus ride into London proper. We were having a great time just knowing that we were in London. When we arrived at the train station we had dinner and relaxed after our travels. London looked absolutely gorgeous all lit up and sparkly. After about an hour or so of admiration we decided it was time to look for a place to stay. Not only did we find a hotel or hostel,found street after street completely lined with just hotels. We thought it was are lucky night. Oh, on the contrary. For ever single hotel, inn,or bed and breakfast had signs stating 'no vacancy'. After three or four hours wandering around with all of our bags I began thinking that this trip was a bad idea. We had been in London for 6 hours and still had no place to stay. Finally at about six in the morning we found a nasty over priced flea bag hotel to spend the night. It was horrible but I suppose much better than outside in the freezing rain.
The next morning, semi-rested we found a Internet cafe and spent a few hours searching the Internet. We finally found a place that could actually accommodate us. It then took us three hours of walking around to find the actual address. It is above a bar and it is the coolest hostel any of us had every stayed in (well it is the only hostel any of us had ever stayed in). It was a huge relief having a place to stay, we could finally relax and enjoy London.

A New Moon Has Risen

I know that I did the ‘What is the most amazing thing you have seen this week?’ prompt last week but, I just have to do it again this week. I have been awaiting this occurrence since the beginning of last year and it went completely above and beyond my expectations. Have you read the Twilight Saga? Well at the risk of sounding like a pre-teen girl I will happily say that I am a huge fan. I started reading Twilight when it came out in 2004 and eagerly awaited the three following books. Now that the series is complete and all four books have been read and re-read multiple times it is time to focus on the films.
I am not usually a person who likes movie adaptations of books. Reading is a passion of mine and I find most book-to-film projects to be a disgrace to the original piece of art. The Twilight films seem to be an exception for me. The books are so full of detail and description that you cannot help but be completely sucked into their world while reading it. As my mind processed each word on the page a movie played in my head. It is wonderful having a true visual representation of the material.
I truly enjoyed the first movie; of course things could have been done better. There were important parts left out and unnecessary parts added. New Moon, the second film, is a completely different story.
Yesterday a group of friends and I went into the city to go to the cinema. It was my first time every entering a movie theater in France. For the most part they are very similar to the US; long lines, candy, and ticket rippers. As the room darkened and the screen flickered to life we knew we were in for an amazing experience. The theater was packed and from the second Edward appeared on screen the crowd was in frenzy. It was so much fun seeing all of the mania that accompanies these movies. It is blatantly obviously in the US with the t-shirts and the ‘Team Edward’ or ‘Team Jacob’ memorabilia. Here the fandom is just a crazy, maybe just slightly less material based.
We attended the VOST showing of the film so we could hear it in English. It did not surprise me at all that the original English version sold out way before the French dubbed version. Everyone there, French or English, wanted the true experience of the film with the characters sounding like they were meant to. My roommate and I were almost hyperventilating the entire film. If you are not a fan this will sound mad but if you are you will know exactly what I am talking about. The film was beyond amazing. It followed the book as closely as possible and found creative ways to incorporate the little things that make the book special. Being able to see it two days before all of my friends back in America adds to the fun! This week made many people very jealous.

Light in Art

All throughout the museum today, I noticed light plays a part of the sculptures. Art is the my favorite thing in the entire world. I have always appreciated the beauty, creativity, and talent that goes into making art. Being an art history major I spend a lot of time looking at and analyzing art and its meanings I have never taken the time to see the science within it. The most amazing thing that I have seen this week was this exhibition that explored science and art together through the ways that they are interconnected and used to improve eachother.Light has been haunting me everywhere since starting this pathway, DBT will be proud of my new observations.
Though it was a museum of science, art was a big part of its collection. The most amazing thing, that I saw, at the museum were the pictures that changed from a distance. Standing close the photographs they were all the same shot of Albert Einstein, but by backing away from the wall in which they were hanging each of the pictures transformed into a different person.
After taking five or six steps backwards, the face of Einstein started to change. He transformed into Marilyn Monroe, Harry Potter, Salvador Dali, and a few other famous faces. At first I was completely astounded, how could this work? Hanging beside the pictures there was a sign explaining the science between the changing faces. In the end it had everything to do with light.
Light travels at different frequencies, by making the pictures be on two different way lengths the pictures so up at different times. I think it has something to do with the eye not being able to interpret the two wavelengths at the same time. The eye processes one picture and then the other, creating the transition between the two different people. To be honest I was not very enthusiastic about the museum at first, science is my least favorite subject, but the museum was amazing. I had a really great time today.

The Moon and the Stars

This week has been a very crazy and hectic week. All of our classes have been moved or extended to accommodate an excessive amount of pre-scheduled school activities. Early mornings and late nights had drained me into an uninterested blob of tiredness. I had no real desire to listen to people talk about the French government. One of the speakers that we went to see actually avoided a question by saying that he did want to risk losing his job. It was the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard. It reminded me of why I hate the political game so much. People are not real. As much as they try to become real they are just puppets for the most part.
To relax on night a friend and I went outside at 1:30 in the morning. Lying down on a bench looking up at the sky I saw the most amazing thing this week. The moon was full. The bright glowing sphere was surrounded by clouds that it illuminated into a circular rainbow. This is real; the moon, the stars, the clouds. It is so easy to forget all of your troubles when you are looking up at the beautiful dark sky. Compared to New England the stars are barely visible. Looking up you can probably see one hundred stars twinkling in the blackness. Staring up at the clouds that made it seem like the moon was moving at tremendous speeds I just felt this overwhelming sense of calm. Seeing such a beautiful moon it becomes obvious what a small role humans have in the universe. Taking time to observe and appreciate helps bring a person into a correct perspective.

Losing Personal Restraint

This week has been a challenge entirely in itself. Halloween has never been so stressful. In America we have a big party and handout candy to trick-or-treaters. I never thought that Halloween was such a big deal in France. For that last two weeks we have been working until at least 11pm every night putting together a ghost train. I have never hated a holiday so much in my life. It was a lot of fun in the beginning and night after night it got worse and worse.
I had to lie underneath a table for two hours at a time grabbing people’s ankles. The ghost train was just the tip of the iceberg. Personal frustrations have also made this week almost unbearable. A person, lets call her RA, has been getting on my nerves a lot this week. I am a very easy-going person. I let things roll off of my back for the most part. This girl is always getting on my case. It is very frustrating to have someone who thinks that just because she is older she automatically knows better. I do not put my nose in other people’s business and I do not want other people putting their nose into mine. Condescending voices telling my things that I already know is the most frustrating thing that I have encountered on this trip. Hopefully next week is a whole lot better than this o

Taking Challeges Head-On

Greg Mortenson’s journey depicted in Three Cups of Tea is the farthest thing from easy. One of the first things that Greg does when trying begin gathering resources was write letters. While writing letters does not seem like a headstrong, difficult approach to his help efforts it truly was. Mortensen did not write just one or two letters, he wrote over five hundred letters. Lacking the personal resources to type even one letter, He had to pay to word process at a local computer lab. It was a long and mostly fruitless process. He spent a great deal of time trying to notify the most prominent figures in the country to help his cause. Though most of the letters were unsuccessful, the few that did bring help made all of his time and effort well worth it.

My effort to learn French, though much less extreme, reminds me of Greg Mortensen. I have been trying to speak French for a little less than two months and it is not going very well. Much like what I said about Greg’s letter writing, it is a long and for the most part fruitless process. I know very little, I can see the words and know the meaning but I cannot speak them at all. It is very hard for me to learn other languages. I took four years of Spanish in high school and didn’t retain hardly any of the speaking skills. It is frustrating to spend time practicing and not being satisfied with the results. Eighty percent of the time I really do not like French, but the twenty percent of the time where I say something and actually get my point across makes it all worth it.

Explore the Chateau's grounds in the dead of night in a forest of trees with ears

On Wednesday night Classy, Josie, and I decided to go on a walk at 11 o’clock. Out behind the chateau there are hundreds of acres of trails weaving into the woods. It was dark and cold outside. We bundled up and headed out into the cold. It was the first time that we actually really explored the grounds. It was a brilliant idea to first explore in the darkness of night. We had so much fun.
Every few meters along the roads and the trails there is a streetlamp but in between is dark. Scattered all throughout the grounds are very interesting sculptures. There are bunny rabbits, ladies in long dresses and a forest full of ears. During the day the experience is amazing, but at night it takes on an entire different. It is scary but in a good way.
The wind sounds like creatures running through the woods. It is creepy. We are thinking about making these midnight walks a regular thing. We had so much fun. Walking in the cold, huddling together to keep warm, and scaring each other. It was the most incredible experience that we had this week. The nightlight completely changes the atmosphere of the chateau and its grounds.

Work Load

This week was an extremely long school week. It started at six o’clock in the morning on Monday and will probably last until past midnight tonight. Everyone had those weeks that feel like they will never end. This week was definitely one of them.
I have five classes this semester, which is quite reasonable. It just so happens that I in every single class, except writing, the teacher assigned me an oral presentation. I had to present my analysis of four poems in my philosophical literature class, I had to teach my pathway class about Greek polytheism, and I had to present the ancient Olympic games to my culture class. I certainly had my hands full.
It was a very hectic week, but it helped my learn something about myself. If I stay organized and keep my focus I have no problem completing an insane amount of work. It took a lot of effort on my part. I actually had to make a chart of the work that had to be done and when I had to do it. My desktop was covered in Stickies reminding me what to do and when. It was crazy. But after a week of very late nights I never had a day where my homework was not done.
I completed my work in a nice and timely manner. I was very stressed out. I was afraid that I would not get everything finished. Time management is definitely a learned skill. I am and have always been a procrastinator. Waiting until the last minute to complete assignments is a very bad habit that I am trying to drop. I am working very hard to become a better time manager. I think that these steps will greatly help improve the way that I spend my time.

Challenges With Public Transportation

To get into the town of Strasbourg in less than an hour public transportation is a necessity. Walking it takes an hour to get from the chateau into the city center. That is fine when you do not have a place to be, but when in a hurry taking the bus and the tram is the only was to get there.
It is only a ten minute walk to from our front yard to the bus stop, it is really nice. The French countryside is so beautiful with its trees and cornfields it reminds me of my hometown in New Hampshire. Taking public transportation is normally no problem it is efficient and very helpful in a time crunch. The other day was unbelievable, the bus was like one of those little clown cars at the circus.
In Paris the Metro was always crowded, people would keep getting on at ever stop and the train cars would soon fill up. I thought the Metro was crowded but, that was nothing. The other day we were going to the Aslacian History Museum which is about a 25 to 30 minute bus ride from our stop. The bus was empty as we first boarded and we just all sat down.
At the first bus stop there was a group of about ten people, which was fine the bus could easily house that many. But as we kept stopping at stop after stop, at least ten people got on each time. It was unbelievable how many people squeezed their way into that small city bus. We offered our seats to the older travelers and took standing positions and soon there was not even room to stand. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen and people just assume that you can get out of their way when they want to move. It was shoulder to shoulder, leg to leg for the last 10 to 15 minutes of the commute. I would have much rather walked the hour and saved myself all of that trouble.

Discoveries of the French Culture

In most ways France is very similar to where I am from in New Hampshire. Before coming to France I had a completely different picture in my head. I built France up as a sort of dream world, like it is in old movies. Everything is beautiful and had old world charm, and it is true that some areas are like that but most look like any other city in any other country. I thought that the moment I stepped off of the plane I would be in a completely different world, it was a little tiny bit of a disappointment for everything to seem the same as it did at home. But among the features that are similar to any other place I have been noticing little things that separate the French culture from American culture.
Unlike America that always seems to be on the go, people in France sit outside on patios and enjoy their lunches for hours. People watching is a big feature of French life, parks are always full of people enjoying the sunshine, watching people stroll by. One of the bigger differences between French and American culture is shopping hours. Walking through town on a Sunday I noticed that almost everything is closed. Small bakeries might be open in the morning, but other than the occasional gas station nothing is open. Sundays and Mondays are restful days, which is hard to get used to at first.
Everything in the U.S. is open all of the time. Stores stay open twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. It is a big change going from that to having stores with very limited hours. In a lot of ways it is nice, not to be running around doing errands. The more small town life of Strasbourg/Robertsau is much more relaxed then the hustle and bustle of Paris; I really enjoy the French country life.

New Challenges

The week is the two-week mark of my time in France. This entire experience had been amazing. I have seen so many amazing things and done things that I would have never dreamed of doing. The only part that is really difficult is the language barrier.
Being in a new, unfamiliar place is always hard but not being fluent in the language makes it a challenge sometimes. The other night a group of us went out to dinner and it was so much fun. We went to a fancy, sit-down restaurant and ordered without being exactly sure of what we were getting. I am a strict vegetarian, no animals of any kind, that can cause some problems in France. Being vegetarian is not something common in France, so I have to be very careful. I ordered a ‘lardon salad’, which we all decided was a type of bean. The waiter set in front of my this giant plate of salad with a huge heap of bacon on the top.
We soon discovered that lardon is a type of pork not a type of bean. It was so hilarious when that giant plate of meat was put on the table. It all ended well, I had ice cream for dinner which is way better than salad anyway. Everyday I am learning more words, though it is a slow process every time I use a word and the person understands me feels so good. This trip is such an amazing learning experience, I know that understanding French is going to take a lot of practice and that I will make a lot of mistakes. I am completely fine will learning from my mistakes, mistakes can add fun twists to everyday boring things.

My Most Amazing Sighting This Week: The Eiffel Tower

A cliche as it sounds the Eiffel Tower has been the most amazing thing I have seen this week. I have seen so many unbelievable things these past few days. Everything in Paris is beautiful; the architecture, the paintings, the sculptures, and the gardens. This is a really hard decision, but I would have to pick the Eiffel Tower.
It doesn't even look real, it is completely surreal. When you are looking at it from distance or looking up from underneath it, it doesn't look like an actual object. Do you know that look that green screens give in movies? That is exactly what the Eiffel Tower looks like. I cannot explain it but, that is what it reminds me of. It is unbelievably beautiful, it delicate detail is so amazing. For such an immense structure it is incredibly delicate. Looking through binoculars the little arches and little holes are so pretty.

I have no idea if the Eiffel Tower will still be my favorite thing tomorrow but today, it is the most amazing thing that I have seen so far. Probably because it is so iconic for Paris and it full lives up to all of the hype. I find it funny that when it was built everyone thought it was a disgrace and now it is one of the most famous landmarks in the world. I suppose that could be said about a lot of today's most famous artists and pieces of art, before they were loved they were hated. Of course now, we could not picture the world without it.

Packing My Bags

Packing luggage is so hard. I have spent so much time trying to figure out what to keep in my bag and what can be taken out, it is quite a challenge. Four months is a long time, I cannot really anticipate everything that I will want or need over the whole semester. The weight limits add to the difficulty, two bags of fifty pounds each. After quite a bit of packing and repacking my bags are all done. I am ready for the airport. I have everything that I think I will need,with room to spare for the amazing things that I will find to bring home.

Clothes are just clothes, if in December my bags are too full with clothing and souvenirs, I will through them away. You can always buy new clothes, the little things that I will find when I am over there will have much more importance. I am so excited to see everything and do as much as I can. Packing is just such a pain in the neck, I am glad that at least for now, I am done doing it.

The Orientation Is Finally Over

The last two weeks have been an intense experience.A lot had to be done in a very short amount time. I have really enjoy this ordeal. My classes are interesting and the people are fun to be around. I have fallen into a routine. I know where all of my classes are, when I have to be there, and what I am expected to be doing. I am a little scared that after this orientation is over,upon my arrival in Strasbourg, everything will be different and I will have to start over from the beginning.

These two and a half weeks have been my barrier. Since the beginning, I have told myself that I had this time to process my thoughts and prepare myself for departure. Now that this orientation is over everything is starting to dawn on me. I am no more mentally prepared than I was before, aside from the fact that I did indeed survive these weeks without my dog. Hopefully this is a sign that four months will not be as hard as I think it will be. On that note arrives my biggest fear....I have been on the Colby-Sawyer College campus for thirteen days and it feels like much longer then that. In a way, it is hard to remember back when I could sleep in my own bed. That is what scares me the most; if two weeks feels like forever, how long will four months feel?

Whenever I think about things that stress me out or scare me, I just remember all of the amazing, unbelievable experiences that I am going to have. The thought of touring the Louvre and climbing the Eiffel Tower keep me sane. I know that I have to work through the hard times, but it will be well worth it. This is a once in a lifetime experience and I want to get the most out of it.

Instrumental People

Though she was not a physical presence through Greg Mortensen’s journeys in Pakistan I believe his sister was the one person who was completely instrumental in his success. Without his desire to honor Christa’s life, he might have never stumbled in Korphe and found his life’s calling. Greg traveled to Pakistan as a way of celebrating his sister and paying reverence to her on the summit of K2. At the beginning of this trip he saw it as a failure, he didn’t make it to the summit and he had no idea where he was. He thought he failed his sister’s memory, little did he know that he would find a much better and fulfilling way of honoring his sister. He decided to dedicate his life to helping girls in the Middle East receive proper education. With his sister always in his mind, “ I felt like my heart was being torn out. There was a fierceness in their desire to learn, despite how mightily everything stacked against them, that reminded me of Christa” (Mortensen 32), he did everything in his power to help improve their lives.
I could have never prepared myself for the Global Beginnings program without the help of my mother. She has always been the most crucial person in my life. Mentally preparing myself for this semester abroad has been difficult to say the least. To be completely honest, I spent very little time thinking over the decision to spend this time in France. I heard about the opportunity and just jumped at the chance. It wasn’t until last week when I arrived on campus and spent my first extended period of time away from home did I realize how difficult this was going to be. Within the first forty-eight hours I missed my dog, the thought of being away from him for four months made me want to cry. If it wasn’t for my mother constantly reminding me of all amazing places that I will have the chance to go and all of the things I will have the chance to see I would be going out of my mind. My mother keeps me sane, without her who knows what my current mental state would be.


Mortensen, Greg and David Oliver Relin. Three Cups of Tea. London, England: Penguin Books, 2007.

My First Experience With Roomates and Communal Bathrooms

This first week of college has been interesting to say the least. I have never had to share a bedroom before. At home my bedroom is my sanctuary, the place where I can be by myself and have everything exactly the way that I choose to. It is hard to get used of having to share that space with someone who you barely know. On the other hand sharing a bedroom is no where near as difficult as sharing the bathroom. I am a very cleanly person, I organize and sanitize everything before I use it. The same cannot be said for the other people who use that bathroom, it is slightly frightening. Piles of dirty towels, hair in the sink, and water on the floor is almost enough for me to give up going to the bathroom altogether. But putting those two things aside my first week of college has been really great. I can see that Colby-Sawyer is a place where I can be very happy. I just have to get used of the living situation and then everything will be great.