Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland!

Hello Everyone!

From February 4th to the 10th, my friends Emilia, Denisse, Mariana, and I went to Switzerland!!  This country is absolutely beautiful, and full of fun things to do!  Something I didn't know before going there was what language they spoke (which is kind of important to know!).  Interestingly enough, this small country has four national languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansh.  We stayed on Lake Geneva the whole time which is in the French section of the country.  It is at a lower elevation, so the weather was in the 40s-50s and there was no snow.  Up in the Alps, the temperature obviously dropped and there was lots of snow!  Also, Switzerland is one of the few European countries that does not use the Euro, they use the Swiss Franc.  I never even thought to look into that until the day we left, woops!  But everything worked out just fine!  We were able to exchange money at the airport, and use our cards for the rest.  While we were on the trip, I looked inside my wallet and just started laughing.  I had five separate currencies on me! I have: U.S. Dollars, Euros, Swiss Francs, English Pounds, and Mexican Pesos!  I think my wallet is confused as to what I am doing and when! haha!

On Tuesday the 4th, we got out of all day classes, grabbed our bags and headed off to the airport.  We left Bordeaux a little after nine and landed in Geneva a whole 55 minutes later.  We took a taxi to our hostel, got settled in, and planned out our next day.  This was the first hostel I stayed in where we shared a room with two other women, and had public bathrooms for the whole floor.  There were beds for about 50 people (4-6 to a room) on each floor and the men and women's bathrooms were separate.  Hostels are definitely an experience, and I have heard a good share of horror stories, but I have been lucky enough to stay in some really great ones! No horror stories for me...yet...  Also, it is Switzerland, just about everything is good quality there.

On the 5th, we woke up early and had breakfast at the hostel.  Then we were on our way to officially starting our trip.  We took a 45 minute train ride to Lausanne, Switzerland, which is also on Lake Geneva.  We checked in to our next hostel, which we had a private room for the four of us, but still shared public bathrooms.  We talked to the woman at the front desk who gave us some suggestions on what to do.  The first thing we went to do was visit the Durig Chocolatier! (Because hey...we were in Switzerland: the land of chocolate!)  We were able to go in the work shop area and learn how they make different chocolates.  We then got to make our own chocolate bear!  We decorated the mold with white chocolate, let it cool, and then filled it with milk chocolate.  We named our very handsome bear, Arthur (who is pictured above.)  As Arthur was cooling in the fridge, we were able to help make other truffles and such and try many chocolates.  My favorite was watching how they filled chocolates with a homemade sea salt caramel.  They packaged our creations up for us, and even gave Arthur a special pink bow tie.  For lunch, we found a pizzeria place that had more than 75 pizza options.  The names of pizzas were mostly of famous people.  My first option was the George Clooney, but I went with a "build your own" option instead.   

(Hall of all of the Olympic torches)

Next we went to the official Olympic Museum!  This is honestly one of the coolest things I have ever been to!  In the late 1800s, Pierre de Coubertain, a French educator and historian, had a big dream.  He wanted to revive the ancient games that took place in Olympia, Greece, over 1000 years ago.  In 1894, he created the IOC (International Olympic Committee) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and was its first president.  In 1896, the first modern games were held in Athens, Greece.  In 1993, the IOC named Lausanne as the official Olympic Capital, hence the museum.  There have been 5 games that have been cancelled: 1916 Summer Games, 1940 Summer/Winter Games, and the 1944 Summer/Winter Games.  These cancellations were because of WWI and WWII.  Also, the winter and summer games used to be held in the same year.  In 1986, the IOC voted to stagger the games every two years.  The year 1992 marked the last time both games would be held in the same year.  

(Uniforms and equipment from the actual athletes)

The museum had just reopened in November after renovations, so everything seemed so new and modern.  The museum starts off with the history of ancient Olympia and neat artifacts from 400 B.C.  The rest of the museum focuses on the modern games.  We were able to see a lot of paraphernalia, stories from the greatest moments, and watch interactive videos/games of interesting facts and stories.  One floor was dedicated just to uniforms and equipment worn by the actual athletes.  There was one room with a floor to ceiling screen.  It played an epic montage of the opening ceremonies.  My favorite part was the torches and medals.  They keep every Olympic Torch and all of the original medals from every games at this museum.  I was definitely awestruck by these rooms!!  The Olympics are truly an amazing thing.  For those two precious weeks, the entire world comes together to watch and celebrate one common thing.  Everywhere in the museum, epic music was playing.  There were random sound clips of powerful speeches and videos of some of the most famous events in the games.  It gives you an adrenaline rush, I guess you could say.  You walk out of that museum feeling like you personally just won a gold medal in front of the entire world.  We were so hyper for the rest of the day.  It was truly an incredible experience! 

(Olympic medals)

After we left the museum, we explored the city some more.  We went to some cathedrals, walked along the lake at night, and hiked to the highest point in the city and found a cute little fondue restaurant for supper.  It is so hard to eat fondue at first.  I mean, it's melted cheese...the entire restaurant smells like feet.  The cheese is just so good though that you get over the smell!

The next day we were up bright and early and took a train to a very famous castle: Chillon Castle.  We were blessed with sun that day, which made this place even more beautiful.  The castle is built entirely in the lake, and is only connected to land by a little walking bridge.  It is Switzerland's most visited historical monument.  There are no official dates of when building started, but records of the castle started around the 11th century, making this castle almost 1000 years old.  Chillon Castle was never taken in a siege, but did change hands through treaties.  The castle is made up of 100 buildings that were added on and connected in its early years.   

We were able to explore the passageways under the castle.  They were used for storing wine, a pantry for the kitchen, dungeons, a small chapel, and random other storage places.  The picture below is of the only door in the basement of the castle.  It was the emergency escape door to the lake if the castle was under attack.  We were able to explore bedrooms, courtyards, passage ways, visiting Duke's quarters/private chapel, a ballroom, the formal dining room, look-out towers, and their version of a bathroom.  Toilets were a wooden bench over a hole in the floor.  If you looked down, it was about a 4 story drop!  Thank you for modern day plumbing!  It takes people about two hours just to walk through this place.  We had been a little over halfway through our exploring of this maze (floor plans make absolutely no sense,) when we discovered that Emilia had left her purse somewhere.  Talk about an intense game of Where's Waldo!  But we eventually found it and continued on our journey.  

 (Emilia and I trying to escape the castle dungeon)         (A guest's bedroom)

After our castle visit, we took another train and went into the Alps.  It was a beautiful winter wonderland.  We had to make a stop in a small village to switch trains and had a few minutes to spare.  So naturally we made a snowman and had a snowball fight!  Then we were off again to the small medieval village of Gruyere, tucked away in the Swiss Alps.  Gruyere is famous for making Gruyere cheese.  We visited the cheese factory and then went up the mountain by the Gruyere Castle to have lunch.  We had more fondue of course!  We were seated by a window which overlooks a valley, it was beautiful!

To get back to Lausanne, we needed to take three trains.  It was a little scary because it was at night.  At one stop, we had to wait an hour for our next train to arrive.  We were lucky because there was a building at this train stop.  It was a room with benches so you could wait in a warm area with light.  So here we are, 4 girls, waiting for our train at night, in a Swiss village with a population of less than 100, way up in the mountains...talk about a lack of life!  Denisse and Mariana had brought along two decks of cards, so we did that while we waited.  I taught them how to play Black Jack!!  We had a lot of fun and time flew by.  We got on our train and made our way safely back to Lausanne!

(The village by the Gruyere castle) 

The next morning we stayed in Lausanne to explore and shop.  One place we went to was the Notre Dame Cathedral of Lausanne (a very high part of the city) and looked at all the beautiful views.  Then we took a boat to the French side of the lake to Evian, France.  Here is where Evian water comes from!  We did some shopping here also and ended up having drinks in a bar.  The girls wanted to enhance their new found skills in Black Jack, so I acted as if I were a dealer from a real casino and dealt them the cards...just like my family does at home!  We had some onlookers who were amused by our game.  We went back to Switzerland for supper.  We wanted to eat at this small place we discovered the day before, it was called Holy Cow.  They only make gourmet burgers, and they were amazing! Any burger you could possibly think of was on this list!  I won't lie, some looked way out there, but the ones that we got were delicious!   

When we got back to the hostel for the night, we discovered that there was a special event about to take place.  The Olympic Games in Sochi had just started, and because we were in the Olympic Capital, they had a fantastic firework show over Lake Geneva.  There we stood on our balcony, friends from different countries, watching something very special that only happens once every two years.  It was one of those moments that a person will just never forget.

The next day we were on our way back to Geneva.  We checked in to the same hostel and started our journey to explore the city.  We went to the lake and walked on the beach.  There were a lot of ducks and swans that we watched for a while.  Then we went to look at the famous fountain in the lake that shoots water high into the air.  We took a water taxi across the lake and went to the Patek Philippe Museum, the watch museum!  Again, because we were in the land of watches!  It was interesting, we got to see watches that were from the 1500s!  I have never seen so many watches in my life!  I am glad that we were able to see it, but it isn't something I would necessarily recommend.  You just stare at thousands of watches, after a while they all look the same! 

To end our night we ate a nice Italian supper, walked along the lake, and got delicious ice cream.  A man, about our age, stopped and stared at us.  He was in awe, then smiled and said "Ice cream?! But it is freezing outside!"  Little did he know that we had a Wisconsinite and Canadian in our group.  Eating frozen foods in 43 degrees simply does not faze us. ;)  We went back to our hostel and watched Pitch Perfect on my tablet.  This is because earlier in the day, we had discovered that Denisse and Mariana hadn't even heard of the movie!  This surprised me because Mariana can beat-box just like the girl in the movie!  I thought that was were she learned it from.  So Emilia and I decided we needed to give them a "movie education, they needed a movie-cation."

(Denisse, me, and Mariana at the Botanical Gardens...not quite sure what we were going for haha)

Sunday was our last day in Switzerland.  Almost everything was closed so it was a relaxing day.  We slept in pretty late to let our bodies catch up on much needed rest.  We went downstairs to eat some breakfast, and were still in our pajamas.  So of course, I had on a Clay Matthews t-shirt.  Two girls saw my shirt, came over and said "Oh my god! I am sorry, but are you from Wisconsin?!"  We had a nice conversation and I found out that they were from Marquette University in Milwaukee, and studying abroad in Madrid.  One of girl's brothers goes to UW-Green Bay.  I find connections wherever I go apparently.  Later, we took a bus to the Geneva Botanical Gardens, saw a lot of fun animals, and hiked through the park.  It was a sunny day out again, and when we reached the top of the hill, we saw the pretty view in the picture below.  

(Hiking in the Botanical Gardens)

We went to a pub, and sat there for a few hours with some yummy drinks.  We told each other stories of our homes and laughed so hard our stomachs hurt.  We slowly made our way back to the hostel.  We ordered delivery pizza, and it was very good.  We went back to our room, and since Valentine's Day was almost upon us, we decided to watch Sweet Home Alabama.  I was the only one who had seen this movie, one of my favorites, and I decided they must all see it too.  They loved it!  While we were watching the movie, we finally broke Arthur apart (who hadn't been touched until now) and enjoyed our very own Swiss chocolate creation.  It was delicious!  

The next morning, we had to get up at 3:30 so we could walk to the train station because public transportation wasn't running yet.  We took a train to the airport and our flight left just before 7.  The minute we got to Bordeaux, it was back to classes and working on group projects and presentations.  That is always fun to come back to...haha, or not!

In a few days I will be going to Paris to meet a group of family members!  We will be exploring London and Paris for almost 10 days.  It is sure to be an amazing time and I can't wait to see everyone!!  

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day or Single's Awareness Day...depending on how you look at it! 

Thank you for reading!

-Krysta

"The only thing that stands between you and your dream is the will to try and the belief that it is actually possible."

-Joel Brown

"Rule #1 of life, do what makes YOU happy." 

-unknown 

Nice and Cannes, France! ... Monte Carlo, Monaco!

Hello everyone!

On January 16th one of my best friends from home, Sara, came to visit me!  We both wanted to travel somewhere, and after a lot of research, we decided on Nice, France!  It is a place we both wanted to visit really bad!  So on the night of the 16th, I picked her up from the airport and the next morning we were off to the train station.  We took a train from Bordeaux to Marseille, and another to Nice.

We got to Nice at night and walked to our hostel in the rain.  We had reserved two beds in a six person all female room.  Upon checking in we were informed that we were upgraded to a private two bed room with a private bathroom for the same price.  What a good way to start off the trip!  We threw our bags in our room and headed off to find some food.  We came across a little kebab place, ordered something random (not completely sure what it was) and sat down.  A waiter brought our food to us and we started eating.  As the food was in our mouths, the waiter realized he brought us the wrong sandwiches.  He came over, smiled at us, and took away our plates as we were "mid chew," and offered our food to someone else.  The other table obviously didn't want it, so he returned our food to us...how thoughtful of him.  We laughed, finished, and set off to walk on the beach at night.  As we got closer and closer to the sea, we could hear the large waves crashing on shore, it sounded like thunder at first.  When we finally reached the sea, I was practically jumping up and down I was so excited!  My favorite thing to do is swim, and I am obsessed with water.  I have always dreamed of going to the Mediterranean, and it just didn't seem like it was real.  So, for my amusement, we sat up on a cliff for about two hours and watched the waves in the glow of the city lights.

We woke up the next day to dark clouds and a constant down pour.  We decided to stay in Nice and find things to do indoors.  First we went to the Marc Chagall National Museum.  Marc Chagall is a famous Russian-French painter known for his works in surrealism and neo-primitivism.  Sara and I went to buy our tickets and were asked where we were from.  We told the woman we were from the United States and she smiled and asked if we could help with the grammatical formatting of a sign in English that they wanted to put on the desk.  Sara and I read the three sentences and told them how to correctly format them.  As a thank you, they gave us free access to the museum, which was very cool!  Next we went to another art museum: Matisse Art Museum, and right next to it was an archaeology museum that we also visited.  This museum had ancient Roman ruins and bath houses.  After that we went to a beautiful church on a hill that was built in 1662.  It was still raining, so we went shopping for food and made supper at the hostel.

The next day, on the 19th, we took a train ride about 30 minutes to the west to Cannes, which is famous for the Cannes Film Festival in May.  When we got there, Sara and I got very yummy pizza for lunch, walked around for a while, and looked at a lot of incredible yachts in the harbor.  Then we went on a boat ride in the sea and went to an island called Saint Marguerite.  It is a small island that is known for its old prison, Fort Royal, that was built circa 1624.  This prison held one of the most famous prisoners in history: The Man in the Iron Mask.  After more than 300 years of research by countless people, this man is still unknown.  The prisoner was put in a mask and held in complete isolation for three decades until his death by direct orders from King Louis XIV.  So the million dollar question still stands:  Who was this man that the king himself went to such great lengths to make sure his identity would remain a mystery? We may never know!  The picture I have below is me standing in his cell.  It was incredible to have gone in that prison cell.  It was almost difficult to process!  The rest of the building, built on an ancient Roman cistern, is now the Cannes Museum of the Sea.  Here we got to see a lot of artifacts from ship wrecks in the area and Roman ruins.

As we were walking back down to catch our boat, we couldn't help but laugh at the complete lack of people on the island.  It is off season, and it was raining pretty hard, so we were two of probably ten people on that island.  Sara and I were the only two visitors the museum had the entire day!  It was actually kind of creepy (perfect horror film set up) exploring an old prison while it is raining and dark out and this so called "famous island" is virtually deserted...hmmmm So it was back to Cannes for more exploring and then another train ride to Nice.

(Cannes from Saint Marguerite)

On Monday the 20th, we woke up to sunlight!  Finally!  So we took a 20 minute train ride to the east to the little country of Monaco.  Monaco is the second smallest country in the world, only bigger than the Vatican City.  It is about 3 miles long and 1.5 miles wide- similar to the size of Central Park in NYC.  It has just under 40,000 residents, making it the most densely populated country in the world.  It is nestled along the Mediterranean Sea on the French Riviera in the Alps, making it one of the prettiest places ever! 

Sara and I started off our day by walking along the sea looking at the beautiful city, mountains, and boats.  Our plan was to go to the Oceanography Museum first.  We walked along a man made path that was built in to the cliffs over the sea.  As we got around a bend, we saw a really cool view of the back of the museum sitting on a cliff over looking the water!  Once inside the museum, we went straight to the large aquarium and watched fish swim for half an hour.  *Relaxing*  When we were done with all of the exhibits, we went to the roof of the building and saw yet another spectacular view.  The cool thing here was, from the top of the building, we could literally see the entire country.  That is extremely rare if you ask me!

As we were going back to the first floor to leave, we saw that there was a room with a large tank of sharks and you could...wait for it...pet them!!  Yes, pet them...like a dog.  The museum's mission is to change some of the fear that humans harbor against sharks.  I mean, if you are swimming in the ocean, seeking out a shark to cuddle with probably isn't in your best interest, but they really aren't that bad of creatures.  These sharks were about two feet long and would swim right up to you to be petted.  Some even did an excited little dance to get you to play with them!  As we were standing there, one shark did sneak up on me.  I was waiting for a shark that was coming on my left, but there was also one closing in on my right.  Sara said "One is coming your way," I turned to look and jumped!  There is still something about a shark swimming at your hand that makes you a little jumpy!  And of course...Krysta now wants a pet shark...oh boy ;) (Picture above is me petting sharks!)

After we left the museum, we went to the Cathedral of Monaco.  This also over looks the sea and is really pretty.  Just down the street was the Prince's Palace, but it wasn't open to visitors, so we just took pictures of the outside.  The House of Grimaldi has ruled "with brief interruptions," since 1297!  That is quite the reign for one family.  The picture of Sara and I above is the view from the Palace!

Then we took a bus and went across the country (hehe) to the Monte Carlo Casino!!  This casino was one of the very first major casinos and remains one of the most famous and prestigious casinos in the world.  If you are a James Bond fan, this casino was used in the filming of some of the franchise's movies.  It was opened in 1865, and an opera house was added in 1878.  The style of the building is baroque and is gorgeous.  The extravagant designs of both the interior and exterior are nothing short of amazing.  I have always heard that a real "touristy" thing to do is to take pictures of the incredible luxury vehicles that the casino goers park out front, so we did just that.  The place was crawling with Lamborghinis!  We hiked back down to the sea and looked at a lot more yachts, which were also spectacular.  Then it was time to go back to the train.  We had a really great day there!

The next day we were on a train heading back to Bordeaux.  Both Sara and I had been really busy for the last month, so we decided to stay in Bordeaux and just relax.  I know what you are thinking: Hard life right?  ;)  Both of us are pretty dang good cooks, so we had a lot of fun making food.  I showed her around Bordeaux.  We went shopping on Sainte Catherine, visited my favorite cathedral, went out with some of my friends, explored, tried French pastries, had drinks at the opera, and went to a circus!  Sara will be studying abroad in Australia this semester and I won't see her until August, so it was awesome that we could travel together first!  Her flight left at 6:05 on Monday morning.  The problem was, I don't have a car and public transportation doesn't start until 5:30 a.m.  We looked at calling a taxi, but they were very expensive.  So we went to the airport on Sunday night and managed to keep ourselves entertained until it was time for boarding.  Always an adventure here!  Now it is back to real life! Well, kind of...

Thank you all for reading!

-Krysta

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."

-Eleanor Roosevelt 

Round Two: Ready Set Go!

Hello Everyone!! I am back again!

I had such an amazing time being home for the holidays!!  Getting there seemed to take forever though.  First, I flew from Bordeaux to Madrid.  Then I sat in the airport over night for 11 hours before getting on my second flight, which went to London Heathrow.  I already knew that Heathrow is the second busiest airport in the world (behind Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta), and I only had an hour to get on my connecting flight to Chicago O'Hare, so I was very nervous! I got to my gate right as they were boarding the plane!  I was so relieved and happy!  London Heathrow is a monster of an airport, it is huge!!  I finally got to relax and enjoy my flight back to America then.  I was seated next to a very nice gentleman who was from Wisconsin and graduated from UW-Madison two years ago (such a small world.)  He now works in Dubai.  We had some very nice conversations on the way back to our homes.

By the time I finally reached my house, I was running on about 50 hours of little to no sleep at all.  I had the darkest circles under my glossy eyes.  It was a weird feeling, I was so incredibly happy and on an adrenaline kick for the first night, but my body was done and had absolutely no energy.  I felt like a zombie!  The first night at my home was just how I knew it would be: loud, obnoxious, busy, loving, and hilarious as always.  The last night at my home was just how I knew it would be: sitting around a table with my family and best friends, playing Black Jack until 3 in the morning, and just having an amazing time!   

During the break, I was busy the whole time.  It was the longest two weeks of my life, while simultaneously being the shortest two weeks of my life.  During this time, I allowed myself to acknowledge just how much I missed my home.  I missed spending time with my family, I missed Chicken Mondays and Wing Thursdays with my cousins, I missed seeing all of my friends whenever I wanted, I missed my small town.  I missed hugging my parents and then going into my brother's room while he was gaming, and I would steal his microphone for his group Skype call and say goodnight to all of my brothers at the same time, and then hearing their cheerful "Night Krys, love you!"  I went to our dentist in Mayville for a check up, and while I was there, an assistant came in to the waiting area to announce the birth of a baby to a family we all knew.  As I drove down the road, I could name the people in 9 out of every 10 passing vehicles.  Being back made me realize just how much I love my home, and the safety, security, and comfort that come with it.  When I am in France, I can't just run to my neighbors to get some sugar, or say "Hi" to Sally as I take a walk, or call someone when something goes wrong or I break a leg.  There is no truer form of "being on your own" than when you move to a foreign country by yourself, and honestly, it is extremely scary.  No worrying though, I seem to be doing just fine!

Also, I just want to thank everyone again for all of their love and support!! I couldn't do any of this without my amazing family and friends! Love you all!!

Getting back to France was a lot smoother than the first time!  I flew from Chicago to Dublin.  While I was sitting in the airport, there was a crazy rainstorm that was followed by a very beautiful rainbow!  Then I flew to Paris, and hopped on a train back to Bordeaux.  I got to my apartment just before midnight, took a hot shower, and then crashed for the night!

Starting my second semester was very similar to starting my first semester here.  A lot of my friends have gone back home, and now there is a whole new group of international students.  Over the last few days, I have met so many more people from all over the world!  Also, we now go to school in our brand new building!!!  In fact, it is so new they are still putting the finishing touches on our school.  Already twice in the past few days, my class has had to move rooms because people are hanging from ropes outside our windows and drilling things into the walls.  It was loud and a little bit distracting.  

Here is a story that I found quite funny: The school apparently thought it was cute to paint all of the railings in the stairwells...while we were in class...not tell anyone...and then put a little itty bitty sign where no one would see it, and only in French...so people like me wouldn't know what is was anyways.  So there goes Krysta, having a good day, walking up the stairs and I grab the railing.  I froze, knowing perfectly well what had just happened, but giving myself time to be shocked and say "I cannot believe that just happened."  I looked down at my hand which was now covered in very dark gray paint.  This, of course, was no ordinary paint.  No, it was the thickest tar-like paint I have ever encountered.  I panicked and headed off towards the bathroom to clean it off.  In the hallway, I saw my friend from Nashville, and I held up my hand and said "Hey, railings are still wet!"  She laughed really hard and held up her dark gray hand and said "Don't worry, me too! And good luck, mine isn't coming off!"  So I washed as much as I could off and then went to class.  As I sat down, another friend leaned over to me and said "So...the railings are still wet."  I laughed really hard, held up my hand and said "Me too."  For the rest of the day, the majority of students walked around with dark gray hands.  A week later you can still see people cautiously checking the railings before grabbing them! hahaha

The other day, I went to a brunch that was held for the international students to meet one another.  While there, I had another "I feel kind of like a celebrity" type of moment!  A girl came up to me and asked where I was from, I told her Wisconsin (I recognized her American accent) and she responded with Minnesota.  Then she stopped and said "Wait!  You are that girl, that girl from Wisconsin.  Oh!  You are Krysta from Wisconsin!  I have heard about you!"  I just looked at her as my other friends turned in our direction, intrigued as to how she would have possibly heard about me.  I finally answered with "Good things I hope!"  She laughed and said "There is another student from my school and his uncle or something works for your mom, so I have known about you for months!"  I didn't get to say anything else to her as we were being moved, but I am still looking for this guy from Minnesota so I can figure out how he knows me!  That is my second crazy connection with people here in France, it is such a small world!!  I told my mom about it, but we couldn't figure out who it would be. 

This sequence I am in Fundamentals of Investing.  It is the hardest class I have had yet, but I like it so far.  We had a guest professor from North Carolina, so naturally I like him a lot!  He has talked and worked with Warren Buffet on several occasions, and when I heard that, I was almost a little star struck just because of that!  I find Warren Buffet, who is arguably the greatest investor of all time, a fascinating person!  I once watched an hour long Youtube video of his life.  I did this voluntarily and because this is one of my versions of fun.  Wow, I am cool.  In all honesty though, it would be such an honor to meet him!!

It has been hectic starting life in Bordeaux again, but exciting as ever.  Tomorrow one of my best friends from home, Sara, is coming to visit me for 10 days!!  This weekend we are going to take a train and explore the Mediterranean coast.  We will be going to Nice, Cannes, and the little country of Monaco!!  I am super excited!

Thank you all for reading, and welcome to this half of my adventure!

-Krysta

"You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose site of the shore."
-Christopher Columbus

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
-Anais Nin

Semester One: Complete!! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!!

This past week I finished my fourth sequence, which means....I have completed my first semester as an exchange student here in France!! Holy crap...where has the time gone?!

I had another presentation to give for my last class, and our group rocked! Then we took the final on Thursday and for the first time, I am positive that I did really well.  That was a good way to end semester one.  That night, some friends and I went out to eat raclette to celebrate.  This is a French cuisine.  You melt cheese in a little fire and put it over your food.  It was very good!  We had some drinks and went back to Ale's to hang out.  We had some good laughs and then went to a club where most of the exchange students were going to party that night as our last big event, and so we could all say goodbye!  It was a fantastic day, I laughed harder than I have in a long time, made a lot of memories, and by the end of the night we all had had so much alcohol, just walking was a serious project.  But man did we have fun!

Now I am sitting in my room, all packed and ready to go!  I am writing this and reflecting on the last four months of my life.  It is truly incredible how much my time here has changed and living here is now normal.  (Don't worry, not that I am going to stay, but in the sense that I am no longer completely lost!)  I have learned so much about myself, life, how to survive, France, business, and the world in general.  

Saying goodbye to friends these last few days has proven to be very difficult, especially with having a high probability of saying goodbye forever.  We all came here, most of us in very similar situations, and immediately friendships were born.  We were in a foreign place, without friends and family, so the other exchange students you are with really become family.  You lean on one another, support one another, and really mature together.  We have vowed to keep in touch and have made plans to visit each other and travel the world!

I leave for the airport in about an hour!  (So this post is going to be a lot shorter than I had wanted...I have so much to say!)  I fly out of Bordeaux and then go to Madrid, London, and then Chicago.  It is going to be quite the day, but soon enough I will finally be home!  I am super super excited to see family and friends! I have missed everyone so much and wouldn't have been able to do this without them.  I cannot thank everyone enough for all of their love, support, and kind words.  I AM JUST SO EXCITED TO COME HOME!!

Thank you everyone for reading, and for most of you, I will see you very very soon!

Joyeux Noel! (Merry Christmas)

-Krysta

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle."

-Albert Einstein 

"It's okay to be homesick.  It means you come from a good home.  There are plenty who would envy that."

-Downton Abbey

Disneyland Paris!

Bonjour Everyone!

This past weekend, I ventured north to Disneyland Paris!!  Just so everyone knows, I am a HUGE Disney fan!  Most of my family even calls me "Belle" or "Krysta Belle." (Although, I am pretty sure most of them don't know where my nickname actually comes from.)  I got that nickname because I was obsessed with Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" when I was younger, and that name has stuck with me ever since.  Even as a 20 year old, and I love it! ; )  And if anyone wants to take me on in the game "Disney Scene It," bring it on! The only person who I know that can beat me every time is my older brother Justin, there is just no winning against him...darn you! Ok, yes, but my point...I LOVE Disney!!

*Little Fact: Disneyland isn't actually IN Paris.  It is 32km (about 20 miles) away from the city.  So I wasn't able to see Paris yet, but that is another trip for a different time!

This trip was organized by my school and most of the students that went were exchange students.  In total, there were 100 people that went.  We met close to the train station in Bordeaux, at 10:30 p.m. on Friday night for our departure.  We rode in two coach buses.  Yes, that was our "hotel" for the night.  We arrived at Disney at 7:30 in the morning, and we hit the ground running!  We all put our bags in the baggage room, had about sixty girls in one bathroom brushing their teeth and hair, and then jumped back on the bus to be transported to the parks.  We got there before they opened, so we ate a little breakfast in the parking lot while trying to find our roommates for later on that night.  We were randomly assigned and the girls in my room were all strangers to one another.  We said hi, and then everyone split up into groups and started to rush towards the gates to get in line.  In Disneyland Paris, there are two theme parks: Disneyland Park, and Walt Disney Studios Park.

None of my close friends came on this trip, but I really wanted to go.  So it was time to jump outside the box/comfort zone once again!  As our group was making their way to the park, I found my friend Marine.  I joined their group for the day.  There was seven of us, and two of them are exchange students who are also staying the entire year!! ( I believe there are less than 10 of us.)  So I was really excited to get to know them this weekend.  Once we entered the park, it was run run run all day long.  We went to as many rides as possible, grabbed a ridiculously overpriced lunch, went to more attractions, and watched the daily Disney parade, which of course is now Christmas themed, so we got to see Santa also!  After the parade, it was about 5:30, so we all walked back to our hotel, Hotel Cheyenne, and took a break.  Once we got there, we discovered that most of our keys didn't work, so we had to get that sorted out.  The hotel was cool, themed to look like the Wild West.  It was, however, incredibly spread out.  It took forever to walk to our building!

We went back to the parks to have supper together and then we pushed our way through the packed crowds to get a good view of Sleeping Beauty's Castle for the show.  The light/water/firework show that they put on was incredible!  I thought they did a great job, I was very impressed.  That was probably my favorite part of the trip!  Then we made our way back to the hotel around 11.  Everyone was extremely tired at this point! Once we got back, we discovered that there was a problem with the rooms.  Everything had gotten messed up and people were getting moved around and trying to find their lost luggage, it was a complete mess and quite the ordeal!! It provided for some good laughs and stories though.  The three girls I ended up staying with were all different people than who I was originally supposed to stay with.  Two of them were from Quebec in Canada and the other was from France.  They were all very nice and we ended up getting along very well and spending the next day together.  Late, late at night, with sore, aching bodies, and very heavy eye lids, we finally got some rest.  Then ring ring ring, the alarms went off at 6 and we were back up!  We got ready, packed, put our luggage back in the luggage room and were at breakfast at 7.  We ate, formed our groups, and it was back to the park to do as much as possible before we left at 3!

The weekend was very tiring, but completely worth it!! I had such a fun time, and met a lot of new people!!  The parks were pretty much what I expected them to be like.  I have also traveled to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneyWorld in Florida.  DisneyWorld is by far the best, and I believe it always will be.  It is also a lot larger than the other ones.  I think my next favorite is Tokyo and then Paris, but that is a very close call!  They all have a lot of similarities and many of the same attractions.  On another note, the hotel that we stayed at this weekend was not very impressive.  It honestly looked as if it hadn't been touched since 1965.  It definitely was not what I was expecting for a Disney hotel on Disney property...but hey it was all for the experience!  No matter where you are in the world, and regardless if you are a Disney fan or not, DisneyLand/World is an experience everyone should do at least once in their life!

Leaving the Wonderful World of Disney was very hard to do, especially because homework and an intense group project and presentation awaited my return.  How thoughtful of them.  There they were, all too eager to greet me when I finally got back to my apartment around midnight on Sunday night.  I had to wake up at 6 for class on Monday and was there until 4:45, that was rough.  Tomorrow my team and I present our half hour presentation, but I feel good about this one!  Wish me luck! : )

My countdown: 10 days until I leave...11 days until I am home!!!!!

Thank you everyone for reading!

-Krysta

"Today's special moments are tomorrow's memories."

-Genie, The Return of Jafar

"I am on my way, I can go the distance.  I don't care how far, somehow I'll be strong.  I know every mile will be worth my while.  I will go most anywhere to find where I belong."

-Hercules 

Saint Emilion, France

Bonjour Everyone!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I sure did! My family sent over a little package with all of the ingredients to make a wonderful, and proper, Thanksgiving meal.  On Thursday, some of my relatives were at my house for a party, so I was also able to Skype with a group of them and see their lovely smiling faces. Words cannot describe how much I love and miss them! They are so loving, supportive, and well...awesome!  I am so thankful for them.  I also got to watch my Packers play, but after that game, I will not dive into details.

Last week, I finished my third sequence!!  I had to give a presentation with another student.  It was very nerve-racking, but I think it went well.  We had to look at a case study for a company, and then explain through a power point how the company used a sub brand to target new emerging customers and how they changed and adapted their industrial marketing segmentation techniques in a business-to-business environment.  Then we had to defend our case in a Q&A session.  Super exciting stuff right? haha No.  Then it was final time.  I think my final went well also, but I won't get my grades for a few months...so let's hope it was good! 

To celebrate the end of our sequence, some friends and I went out to eat and get a few drinks.  After, we went walking around town and ended up at a very cute Christmas Bazaar.  We shopped around for a while, got some desert, hot wine, and sat under the Christmas lights.  We then decided that the next day, Saturday, we should venture out of the city and into the country.  So we made plans to head to a very famous little village, Saint Emilion.  

On Saturday morning, we all met at Gare St. Jean, Bordeaux's train station.  It was about a 45 minute train ride into the country.  When we got off of the train, we were kind of surprised at first.  There was literally just a little shelter, and a sign that said "Saint Emilion."  My friend Alejandra said "Oh my God, we are literally in the middle of nowhere..."  There were a few other people that got off at that stop also, and they too looked confused.  The strangers started to walk down a road and we followed them.  We didn't know what else to do.  After a little bit, we could see the little village in the distance and we were at ease once again.  It was about a twenty minute walk from the train station. 

Saint Emilion is a small medieval town that produces a lot of wine and is a popular spot for tourists.  While we were there, we did a lot of exploring and sightseeing.  It is such a pretty town, exactly what I pictured an old French town to look like.  It is built in the hills, so all of the buildings are close but on different levels and the little stone streets wind and curve.  The architecture is captivating and you really feel like you are in the Middle Ages.  I loved it!  We decided to grab a late lunch while there, which was delicious, and looked at a few shops.

On our hike back to the train station, we ran into some exchange students that we go to school with.  Our group then grew from 6 to 8.  When we reached the train station, we realized that it is so remote, you can't even buy tickets.  We panicked a little at first, but others said it was normal to just get on the train at this station.  Alright, I guess.  There were about 20 other people waiting for the train, which happened to be a half hour late.  Another time of minor panic.  We just kept saying "Stranded in France." 

On the ride back, we decided to have a party at Alejandra's.  We all went grocery shopping together and headed to her flat for a fun filled night.  There were 6 nationalities, and conversations in 4 languages.  There was a lot of alcohol, laughter, and games.  We tried playing a card game where you have to count numbers out loud.  We thought it would be fun to give the game a twist and count in 3 mixed languages.  Let me tell you, trying to play a game and count "Uno, two, trois, quatre, five, six, siete, huit, neuf, diez" is a lot harder than you might think!  We also learned some phrases and words in Polish, and taught the little Dutch we learned from Amsterdam.  Once the alcohol got to the right level, there was dancing, so much dancing...but it was such a fun night! 

This week has been pretty good so far.  I started my 4th sequence yesterday!  I am now in "Decision Making for Supply Chain Management."  I have 3 really close friends in this class, so this class shouldn't be too bad.  Last night, Alejandra and I went out for some crepes, a French desert.  Very yummy, and a good way to start our last sequence together.  

Something else that has just been a bundle of fun is that my bank accounts decided to have a mysterious problem this week.  Conveniently right when I needed to pay my rent.  I sent a message to my mother that my newest adventure could be "Homeless in France."  She didn't seem to find the humor in that statement.  So I guess it is a good thing that everything was straightened out and I am still allowed to live here. ; )  Just another notch to put on my "What Else Could Possibly Go Wrong While Abroad" list.  That list seems to continuously grow...

Now that we are in December (already?? yikes!!) I have allowed myself to officially have a countdown until I come home for Christmas break!! Here it is: 19 Days Until I Leave...20 Days Until I am Home : )

This weekend I am off to Disneyland Paris and I am super excited!!!!! I should have some fun stories from that!!

Thank you all for reading!

-Krysta

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."

-Lao Tzu

Amsterdam, Netherlands!!

Hallo!! (Hello in Dutch!)

From November 16th to the 19th, my two friends, Alejandra and Daniela, and I went to Amsterdam in the Netherlands!!  We had an awesome time!  The city is spectacular and so beautiful.  It is built on a bunch of canals and water ways.  The picture above is literally what it looked like wherever you went!  There were cute bridges all over, and swans were always swimming in the water.  It was very picturesque.  Also, as many of you may know, Amsterdam is a very...well, uh...open place.  A lot of things are shown if you catch my drift, so it was definitely an experience.  

On Saturday, we met at the airport in Bordeaux.  Once there, we were told that our flight, on RyanAir, was delayed four hours due to the heavy fog in Eindhoven!  When we finally got on the plane and were flying, they still didn't know where we were going to land.  The pilot said we would probably land close by in Germany, and get bused to Holland.  At the last minute, they announced that we would be able to land in Eindhoven (the original plan.)  We were one of only two flights that were able to land there that day!  

Since our flight was delayed so long, we didn't get into Eindhoven until around 9:00 pm.  Then we took about a twenty minute bus ride to the train station, and an hour and a half train ride to Amsterdam.  Finally we arrived!!  It was a good thing we decided to wait to buy transportation tickets until we arrived, otherwise we would have lost all of our tickets and money from being late!  From the train station, we walked for about twenty minutes in search of our hostel.  That was the first time I had ever stayed in a hostel, and it was better than I was anticipating, which was a relief!  Also, our hostel was located directly on the Red Light District.  I was not aware of this until we arrived!  Talk about a surprise. hahaha If you are not completely sure what it is, Google it, but at your own risk. Seriously.  It isn't appropriate for me to write about. ; ) We dropped our stuff off and headed out in search of a bar! 

The next day we went in search of breakfast and got incredibly lost.  It is an old European city built on water, so of course it doesn't make sense.  We had a map, asked multiple people where we were, and we still couldn't tell you which way was north.  Being my father's daughter, I have an excellent sense of direction, but this city was kicking my butt.  After a few hours, we gave up.  We walked until we found a tram, made our way back to the Central Station, and just started completely over.  *A tip that I have learned in Europe: as soon as (or even before) you arrive in a new city, become good friends with the city's public transportation.  It really does make everything a whole lot easier!  For just 12€, we were able to buy a ticket to have complete access to the metro, trams, and buses for 48 hours.  

*Side note: every single person we talked to spoke perfect English.  I loved that!  It made it so easy to get around, and for the first time in months, I heard people speak English regularly!  What a change! : )

*Second side note: for the places that we visited, we bought our tickets online before we left for the trip.  This was very nice!  We could carry less money on us, and we didn't have to worry about getting in, or waiting in the long lines.  We just walked in like we owned the place. ; )

After finally finding where we were, we got something to eat.  I had a muffin, the other two had a bagel.  We ate that on our way to the Vincent van Gogh museum.  This was very cool.  The museum was quite large, 4 stories.  We saw most of his artwork, old paint brushes, materials, everything!  We spent hours there.  My favorite piece by Van Gogh is "A Starry Night," but it wasn't there.  I believe it is in New York City at the moment.  

From there we made a quick stop at the famous "I amsterdam" sign for a nice photo opportunity!  It was very crowded, but we anticipated that!

Next it was off to the original Heineken Brewery, now called the Heineken Experience.  This was easily one of the coolest museum type experiences I have ever had!  It starts off as a normal museum with all of the interesting facts and history.  We got to see the old parts of the factory and the old tanks.  We walked past the Heineken Horses, which are still a part of the brewing process today!  Then it turns into a more modern and interactive experience.  We went into a theater that explains the brewing process, but from the beer's point of view.  We became the beer!  We stood on a platform that moves (freaked us out because we didn't know it moved.)  As we were poured from place to place, the platform dropped and moved so we felt like we were in the movie.  When anything splashed, water and bubbles came out of the ceiling.  When we were being cooked, giant heat lamps turned on.  It was quite fun and we got a good laugh out of it.  Next we were off to our beer tasting.  As we drank, we played a game where we could win more beer.  Ale won two additional glasses of beer, so her and I gulped down two glasses each.  Let me just say, probably the best tasting beer ever! We don't know if it was just the environment, or the thought of being there, but the beer was fantastic!

The rest of the Experience we went from room to room where we could take fun pictures, sing karaoke, make videos, play games, become a DJ in a club, sit in a theater and watch Heineken commercials, and watch bottles be filled and capped.  The last room is a cool bar where each person gets two additional free glasses of beer.  May I remind you that we had very little to eat, about eight hours prior to this, and then drank 4 glasses in a very short amount of time.  Let's just say we were having some fun.  Then we toured the gift shop, bought some fun things, and went in search of food, lots of food!  What a great business tactic though.  Give the tourists free beer, just enough to the point of "fun tipsy," and then lead them straight into a fun gift shop where everything now looks "super cool" and "must have" because hey, "when will I ever be able to come back?!" *Gold mine*

Above picture: Our fourth round of delicious beer!

Below picture: my very own customized Heineken beer bottle, made at the original brewery, with my name on the label! Yeah, I am a little proud of it!

The next morning we found a Starbucks for some breakfast and did a little sightseeing again.  We then went to the Sex Museum.  I don't have pictures of that for obvious reasons.  It was interesting, only cost 4€, and hey, when in Amsterdam...

Then it was the fun task of searching for our next location, which we only had to stop and ask directions for four times.  We were getting better!  But we finally arrived at the Anne Frank House and Museum!

We opted for an introduction to the museum, for just a few euros more.  The introduction was a half hour, and in English.  We sat in a room that had pictures and stories all over the walls.  The presenter followed a timeline of pictures and explained Anne Frank's story, as well as events that were affecting the world.  On a table was a book of names of all of the Holocaust victims from the Netherlands.  This book is very large and is read out loud every four years.  They don't do it every year because it takes four days and four nights to read it.  This is only for one country.  There was also an original yellow star that the Jews were forced to sew onto their clothes, laying on the table.

Once in the actual museum, we could no longer take pictures, but I will never forget it.  The building in which her family hid was her father's business building.  We walked through the whole building, where all of the storage rooms and old offices were.  On all of the walls were quotes from Anne Frank's diaries.  There were pictures to show what the building used to look like, and videos that you could stop and watch.  One video was of a friend of Anne's.  This friend was not Jewish, therefor she was not in the camps.  She did manage to find Anne through the fence when Anne was later put in Auschwitz.  The friend threw a small package of necessities over the fence to Anne, and that was the last time she ever saw her.  

The hiding place of the family was located in the back house of the building.  The entrance was covered up by a movable bookcase which is still there today.  We passed through this secret opening, and were in the actual hiding place of Anne Frank.  When the family was discovered, the Nazis took all of the belongings from the family. Anne's dad Oscar, the only survivor, wanted the rooms to stay empty.  He wanted  to show how they were empty of belongings, empty of life.  Everything had been ripped away from them.  When the museum first opened, Oscar set the rooms back up to the best of his memory for the sake of taking pictures, but everything was removed again.  On the walls of these rooms were the pictures of what the rooms once looked like.  In the room that Anne and her sister stayed in, there were still the drawings and magazine clippings that they put up to make the place more cheerful. 

We got to look around the entire living quarters, and then we entered another part of the museum.  Here were interviews of her dad, Oscar, as well as others.  The final room had the actual diaries of Anne Frank on display.  The room was very dim so the light wouldn't damage the books, and they are kept in very thick glass cases with high security.  The book has been translated into over 70 languages! (Who even knew the world had that many) A lot of these different versions were also on display.  

In 1959, there was a movie made, called The Diary of Anne Frank.  That year, the actress Shelley Winters won The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in this movie.  This Academy Award is on display and is the last thing you see before leaving the museum.  As a major movie buff, and an avid viewer of the Academy Awards, seeing one in person was absolutely awesome.  But it was a complete honor to have seen one for a movie such as this.

It is hard to properly express what it was like to have an experience like this.  It was a humbling, amazing, truly once in a lifetime experience.  For that, I am deeply grateful.

  

The rest of our night was more sightseeing.  We went to a cute park for some pictures.  We got a traditional Dutch pastry from a street vendor and stopped by the "I amsterdam" sign one last time.  We went back to the hostel, had more beer and had some "girl time."  Then we were up bright and early to make our way back to France.  On the journey back, I took control of the group and showed them what it was like to be on "Krysta Time."  Krysta, being one of the most punctual, over prepared people you will ever meet!  The two people I was with are almost always late to everything!  I made sure that we were not only on time to everything, but early with time to spare!  They laughed when we finally arrived at the airport and said "I will have to say, Krysta, this is nice.  Being here on time, not having to stress, and actually being able to stop and get food and coffee is nice!!"  It is a lot less stressful on "Krysta Time." : )

Amsterdam, you treated us well! Thank you for a fantastic time!!

Thank you to everyone for reading, hope you enjoyed my stories!

-Krysta

"Those who have courage and faith, shall never perish in misery."

-Anne Frank