Home......

Okay. I am home, I am well rested, I am not on a funky French keyboard, and I am not paying a Euro for every 30 minutes of internet use, so now I will finish out the trip. And actually I just realized my last post wasn't deleted and it saved somewhere on my blog so let me just copy and paste! YAAAAAY!

So I have rented a VW Golf and am driving around France. And its a stick shift. And Hertz didn't give us the cord to plug in our GPS and so the battery died and we don't have it any more. After an hour of crying thinking I was going to be lost in the wilderness, I decided to embrace the adventure. And I'm going to write a thank you note to the road sign planners of France because they have done a superb job of not getting me lost. Plus I pretty much rock at driving in foreign countries, apparently.

So yes, I am in a killer blue Golf. we left Paris and after the meltdown over the GPS in Rouen we drove to Giverney to see the gardens of Monet. I tell you what those gardens could turn anyone into a famous painter because they are amazing. The waterlily pond is incredible and I could have stayed there forever. It was so peaceful and beautiful. I thought of Grandma Jackson the whole time because it looked like someplace she would have just adored. It was truly fantastic. Then we drove to some beach resort town on the English channel and had a picnic on the beach, ran down and put our feet in the water. It was really really windy but the water wasn't too bad! We had a good picnic just sitting on the boardwalk and trying to anchor down our food from the wind. On our way back we were treated to quite the break dance show from a bunch of Asian kids dancing to Black Eyed Peas. Again, lots of pelvic thrusts!

After that we drove on to Honfleur to find a place to stay for the night. Honfleur is a gorgeous town filled with lots of water and lots of boats. We kept finding intensly expensive hotels so we drove a little bit out of town and found a chain hotel called Premiere Classe. Oh boy. we got a room for 3 people but they wouldn't let us look at it before we checked in so we took our chances. We opened the door and simultaneously all 3 of us burst out laughing. It was 9 by 13 and we had to turn sideways to walk around the bed between the wall. the bathroom strongly resembled a bathroom on a trailer and the shower and the toilet were all up in each others space. We had one queen bed and one bed like bunk bed style up top. We quickly got out of there and headed to Honfleur to cruise the shops and the main street. It was an incredible town.

The next morning we left the classy Premiere Classe and drove on to the town of Arromanches, which is a good starting point for the American D Day sights. This city is absolutely amazing. We got a room in a little chateau up the hill and walked down to the main street that parallels the English channel. It has been cold and foggy, but we managed to find a crepe shop and eat outside. We walked around and then got books and read on the pier. It really was quite the French experience. These little towns have memorials all over the place. Every where you look there are American and French flags, paintings, sculptures, etc. Arromanches had soldiers painted on the buildings of the visitors center!

The next morning we did a tour of the D day sights which naturally means that I cried for about 6 straight hours. We started in the theatre at Arromanches and watched a movie that paralleled what Normandy looks like now and images and videos from the war. Then we drove to Longues sur Mer to see the German gun battery that still sits up on the coast. You can see the cliffs that the soldiers climbed and you can see the huge holes in these massive gun shelters where the Germans were bombed. The whole thing sits in this beautiful field of wildflowers right on the coast. Then we drove to the American Cemetery and Omaha beach. Oh wow. They showed a great movie about the stories of the soldiers and interviewed their families and then walked us through a museum showing the supplies and replicas of the ships and stuff. Then they had pictures of soldiers and told about how they had sacrificed and saved other lives, then you walk out into the cemetery with rolling hills of white marble crosses for the soldiers. It was incredibly moving. After that we drove to the town of St. Mere Eglais which is the town where a lot of the paratroopers landed and is the place of the story of the paratrooper who got stuck on the cathedral and played dead. In the cathedral they have amazing stained glass windows with paratroopers in them and messages to the soldiers who helped free the city. They also had the paratroopers museum with personal stories and letters. It really was an incredible day.

We dried our tears, hopped in the Golf and started driving until we could see the looming presence of Mt. St. Michel in the distance. Mt. St. Michel, which is about the biggest, creepiest old church Ever. It used to be an island but now there's just a big road out to it surrounded by quick sand. Yes, quick sand. According to our Rick Steves travel book. We got out there (luckily at low tide so our car didn't get swept away) and walked up the streets lined with gift shops staffed by Asian people until we finally reached the Abbey. Creepy McCreepster. We went for the night tour so they had on all of these dim lights and had live musicians playing in rooms throughout. They also had added in sound effects, like the sound of hearts beating in the room with the altars. Sketchy. we walked up all these winding staircases and were faced with signs about the dungeons and the prisons. That is not just the peaceful church its cracked up to be! There was also a giant room with the sounds of a clock ticking that had a giant hour glass in the middle so who knows what happens when that thing runs out. But dont go running to your Bishop just yet because it looked like we still have a while.

We drove on to Dinan and checked in to the Ibis hotel which was the best yet. Rick Steves just raved about Dinan but I was unimpressed for sure!! The best part was that i ordered a crepe with ice cream, yes ice cream, for breakfast. We left for this huge drive through straight fields of hay to find some valley of castles and after realizing how much driving made us want to take to the Golf with a set of golf clubs we changed our course and are now in Chartres which is a little bit outside of Paris. We slept in a cute little hotel and walked around the town. We must be getting more into city life and out of country life because that whole town just feels sketchy. There are weird people here! We ate some pancakes for dinner (French food is kind of the bomb) and walked around but decided to head inside the safety of our hotel after a while. The next morning we toured the cathedral (awesome. Love me some cathedrals) and then climbed up the 300+ stairs up the north bell tower. That is not a place for someone who doesn't like tiny winding staircases with no way out but climbing 300+ steep stairs. The view from the top was amazing and well worth it. Until we realized the only way down was back down the tiny stairway. Yea, people going up AND down definitely didn't fit and we had to get up close and personal a few times with some other tourists. They liked it.

We drove on to Versaille to go to the castle there. Wow. That is some big useless house. The hall of mirrors was awesome but it was just gold. Everywhere. The gardens were also pretty cool, but were a tad pathetic compared to Monet's garden. I was fairly unimpressed with the whole thing. It was impressive, but it wasn't my favorite stop. I did, however, love renting the golf cart and jetting around the gardens. And when I say "jetting" I mean "driving at almost the same speed as walking." They take no chances with those things. I also loved Marie Antoinettes house on the property. It was probably my favorite. I need to find myself a husband who will let me build my own house on the property and do whatever I want with it. It was beautiful and I loved those gardens a lot. We sadly returned the golf cart after almost losing the map, taking the wrong road and having the golf cart turn off, AND dropping my camera off the back (its just a little airborn! Its still good! Its still good!). We headed back to the REAL golf and started the most terrifying part of the trip:

Driving the Golf through Paris to return it to the airport.

I think I didn't exhale for about an hour and a half. Paris drivers are CRAZY. Luckily it was bumper to bumper traffic which was good for not getting lost because you can stare at road signs for about 20 minutes, but bad for driving a stick. Now I remember why I don't like those. We made it after getting lost in the terminal and having to reverse down an entire street. The nice Hertz man refunded my GPS after I kindly explained to him that his company was almost responsible for my untimely death if I would have gotten lost in the wilderness and eaten by French bears and that I was absolutely NOT about to pay the 65 Euro for a worthless NeverLost system that sat in the trunk. He was nice about it.

We caught a shuttle and checked into HEAVEN. Or the Marriott. Everyone spoke English, the room was monsterous, the sheets were clean, and I didn't feel like I needed to blockade the door with my suitcases in case the sketchy front desk people had a spare key. We rode into Paris to yet another rainstorm and ran for shelter in the nearest restaurant and dined on Pizza while watching people run through the rain. We walked down to the Latin quarter, window shopped, watch all of the drunk people table dance, and ended at the Notre Dame. Seriously, this city is absolutely amazing. I should live there. We got our last scoops of pistachio ice cream and headed back to HEAVEN for the best night's sleep in a very long time.

We flew out the next morning and I am home! It was an incredible experience and I am so thankful I got to see so much. It was incredible but it feels so good to be home! I'll put up pictures soon!

BAHHHHH

so i just typed this massive blog about the last 4 days of driving and it all got erased!!! So i will write it again soon but i wanted to let everyone know i am alive despite the fact that i am driving a rented stick shift vw golf all over france with a gps with a dead battery and no cord to charge it. i will re write either tomorrow before i fly home or after i get back on thursday. Vive le france!

Paris is for lovers.... And I am in love!

But not in love with a dirty Frenchman. Just in love with the city!

We left Bucharest at the crack of dawn and flew into Paris. While we have been travelling, I decided to extend my ticket to stay the 5 more days with a few people in my group to go up and see Normandy and Northern France. So when we landed I marched myself right over to the Air France counter. Oh wait, my flight is operated by Delta so I need to march myself to the Delta ticket counter in the next terminal which seems like roughly 68 kilometers away. I find myself face to face with Pasqual. A gay Frenchman who has been working for Delta for 20 years ("Can you beeeeleeeeeve I even look zat ooooold? I neeeeed to head to Loz Angeleeeez for some siiiiiilicone."). He tells me zat Air Frooonce has beeeen giving heeem headaches all morning and heeeez head is going to explode. I head to Air France who tells me no, Delta needs to take care of it. So I head back to Pasqual who looks up at us and says "Zey sent you back??? Lets go, girls. Iiit iiis too bad I cut my nails yesterday. MEOW!" Nope, not kidding about Pasqual. He takes over my marching and takes us right back to Air France to get us taken care of. Love heeeeem!

We headed in a taxi and got into this totally charming hotel. Its tucked away on a street about 2 blocks from The Tower and is right next to all of these fantastic bakeries and restaurants. We check in and immediately get started. First we headed to the Musee D'Orsee (far too lazy to look up correct spellings) and it was fantastic. It is so cool to see all of these things youve seen and studied in every Freshman art history class in real life. I loved this museum and it just added to the ambiance that it is in a train station. I loved it. We headed after that to stock up at a grocery store to have lunches for the next week and came back to our hotel for a picnic.

After a good nap we walked over to the tower. Now heres the deal with July 14. Its Bastille Day. The French Independence Day. So millions and millions of people all make the trek to the Tower for free concerts and apparently the most amazing fireworks show on the planet. We fight through the mobs of crazies and find ourselves a spot on the lawn. Right next to a group of people who have brought in the makings of a full service bar, including cutting board and knives to get limes in the drinks. And they also brought about an acre field worth of pot. So we had quite the show! People get quite passionately patriotic with that much help. We sat on the grass and listened to the music and were completely enchanted with people watching. There are some crazies in this city.

The sun set behind the Eiffel Tower, it lit up and started sparkling, and then it started. The most incredible fireworks show on the planet. They had projected scenes up on the tower and set it all to music and it seriously was amazing. I cant even explain how amazing it was! After the show the masses all started moving and we were lucky to get out alive and even luckier to find our way back to our hotel!

The next morning (Wednesday? I think?) we headed out to the Louvre for the morning. Oh wow. Priceless works of art EVERYWHERE. Overload. Totally amazing. The Mona Lisa room looked like the fireworks scene the night before. Mobs and Mobs of people all clicking away and shoving and yelling to see it. We wandered around, got lost a few times and probably only saw about ten percent in the 3 hours we were there.

I cant for the life of me remember what we did after the Louvre so hopefully it will come back to me...

Later that night we walked over to get some fantastic crepes made by a lady with flaming red hair on a side street about a block from our hotel. We ate with the other ladies in our hotel and the headed out to the Pompediu (again, sorry for the spelling) to see that. We got there after the main exhibit had closed and only got to see the Kandinsky gallery but it was awesome.

We left there and headed to the Tower to go to the top. We couldnt go all the way because it was closed but we got up there and got to see the breathtaking view of Paris at night. It is so awesome to see everything lit up and the lights off the Seine. Amazing. Offset by the group of Brittish teens on a school trip who were screaming at each other. With the Brittish accents you cant really take any of them seriously and keep expecting someone to pull out a wand and conjure up some spells Harry Potter style.

Thursday morning we SLEPT IN. It was definitely needed. We took the metro to the Arc D Triomphe and then walked down the Champs de Elysees to do some shopping. Oh the shopping is amazing. Billion dollar items line the streets like glittering beacons constantly reminding me that I chose to teach school instead of choosing to be a billionaire. Sigh. Fortunately for us we came right in the middle of summer sales so we picked up a few things from the back of the sales rack so we could claim "shopping in Paris."

We then had decided to to a bike tour of Paris so we hooked up with the Fat Tire Bike company at the Tower and walked over to their office to pick up some bikes. Its run by American college students and we had a group of about 20 of us with our fearless Captain Rohan to navigate us through the city. We started out on the bikes and I am telling you that is the way to see Paris. We rode past so many amazing landmarks and saw so many beautiful sights all while pedalling along on my red Beach Cruiser. We ended on an hour boat tour on the Seine, complete with wine (or Cokes and Sprite for the 3 Utah girls and the 2 underaged boys). We are on the boat and start to notice clouds rolling in and lightning behind the Tower which added to the whole ambiance. When it started to rain we were talking to Captain Rohan and stayed outside to brave the elements. The rain steadily got heavier and we were soaking it all in as part of the experience when QUARTER SIZED HAIL STONES STARTED PELTING US!!! Then we decided it was time to take cover. The problem is that everyone else decided to take cover round about the first rain drop so there was no room in the inn for us. We huddled by the wall and as soon as the hail went away we decided to make the most of it and be the only people out on the deck in the torrential downpour. We took pictures and danced and got completly soaked. Our boat docked right as the rain stopped.

We road our now very clean bikes back to the shop, said our goodbyes to Captain Rohan, and walked home...

So much to say using a weird French keyboard...

I apologize in advance for spelling and grammatical errors, but I cant really figure out this keyboard but I have much to discuss!

We left Barlad with a bang. We finished our shopping and then met a rollerblader on the streets named Florin. He followed us for a while, crashed into a tree, and then came and talked to us because he could tell we were Americans. In our ten minute encounter we learned the following: Florin hates Barlad, wants a Japanese girlfriend, is trying to grow his hair out like the Japanese guys so he can get a Japanese girlfriend, he thinks I am incredibly old but luckily dont look that old. He also almost walked us into a dark alley and almost walked us into the gypsy neighborhoods. Luckily we made it back to the hotel without too much sketchiness.


We ate dinner with the foundation guys, slept, and headed to the train station where the guys were there to see us off. I gave them my Michael Jackson People magazine and you would have thought it was pure gold for them. We arrived in Bucharest 4 hours later and were met by the missionaries with the mission van to take us to the hotel. We had Sister Lundberg, the mission presidents wife with us, so it wasnt as sketchy as it sounds. Those missionaries have definitely bailed me out a time or two! Our hotel was amazing. Not to knock Hotel Moldova because its served me well over the years, but this hotel was the Plaza compared to it. We unloaded our stuff and headed out to the Peasant Museum. This museum is awesome. It had art, clothing, inventions, dishes, and a bunch of other stuff that has been made by the peasants of romania. While we were eating lunch at the museum, I got bit by a mosquito on my lip. If you remember what happened to my ear, picture that on my lips. No need for lip injections for me! I took a Benadryl for the swelling to go down and then promptly fell asleep leaning against the wall of the museum.

We had dinner at the mission home with the Lundbergs and I cant even begin to tell you how much I loved having actual home cooked food. It was incredible.

The next day we went to church in Bucharest and had missionaries translate for us. And by translate I mean they translated while I slept. We had an English Sunday school with the guy who runs the CES program over there and then went to relief society. After church we went to a baptism of a new member in the ward and then left for the hotel. We boarded a train and headed to the town of Brasov, which is like the Park City of romania. It was absolutely beautiful. Our hotel was kinda weird but we had excellent views of the city. It was raining like mad but the hotel let us borrow some umbrellas to take out on the town. I had only packed flip flops and the rain was turning my shoes into ice skates, so I was thaankful that the Nike store stayed open late so I could stop skating around the main street! We ate dinner in this absolutely amazing restaurant called Bella Musica which was this underground cave thing. What madi it even better? Mexican food. Nothing says romania like a sizzlin fajita.

The next morning we awoke to more rain and more things to see. We saw the black church, whivh is a cool color of black thanks to a fire in like the 1600s, and did some more shopping. We took awesome pictures of us jumping off the fountain but apparently they dont take pictures like that often because we became quite the spectacle for those romanians in the town! It was incredible and we were sad to see it go but we boarded yet another train back to Buch.

Back in Buch we did some more shopping in this super super sketchy market place and then made the best decision of the trip. Hard Rock Cafe! Everyone spoke English, the menu was in English, I had actual ice in my drink and the meal took less than an hour and a half. Absolutely unheard of in Romania. Not to mention they had MJs red jacket from Thriller on the wall. Our taxi driver almost killed us multiple times on the way home and insisted he take us out to find Romanian boyfriends before we left because we all have very rich parents back in the states. Yea.

I am getting very sick of typing on this and I have a hot date with the Louvre in about 12 minutes so I will catch you up on Paris later. I love you all!

Dumbo...

So yesterday started with a whole lot of Sorin's legs, went with some modern ballet from an orphan manchild and ended with an oversized ear.

Sorin is the director of the foundation here and has been since it started. He's in his early 40's probably and is a large Romanian man. Incredibly nice, constantly cranky, but hilarious. We love him. So yesterday morning Heather and I decided to walk to the park so we wouldn't have to take 2 trips in the car. We were about a block away and only a few minutes late when Sorin drives up in his Octavia and says to get in, he needs to run into the bank but he will be out shortly. So Heather and I wait in his car while he goes in the bank. He jogs on out and gets in the car and drives a block in the opposite direction and tells us he needs to stop at the Supermarket to buy cups and water for the kids at camp. Again, Heather and I wait in the car. He comes out and we are now half hour late and 2 blocks away. He jogs to the car while on his phone and says that Roxana needs some supplies from the foundation and we have to go now. While camp has started. The foundation is on the other side of Barlad. While we're driving he offers us some gum. I put it in the cup holder but he dropped it on the mat under his feet. I was a little surprised when he asked me to retrieve it for him... While he's driving a stick shift. Uh... Okay. So I quickly realize just how flexible I'm going to have to be to and take off my seatbelt. While he's driving about 50 miles an hour (wearing shorts, mind you) I have to maneuver myself under his legs (while one is punching on the clutch) and pull out the gum. Please tell me you have the visual representation of what this must have looked like to Heather in the back seat.

When we FINALLY got to camp things went really well. I'm blogging for the foundation so if you want those stories check out romaniabridge.blogspot.com because I don't want to retype everything!

After that we visited the artist guy again (who still hasn't forgiven me for accidentally calling him Mr. Cheese in Romanian back in '06) and then headed to the Elena Farago center. Our boys in our program live there so we usually go to check it out. Now, we have this guy who hangs out with our boys who's name is Constantin. He's been telling us about how he's a very good ballet dancer and he wants to go to Bucharest to study ballet. He's a character for sure. So while we're there we asked him to dance. Oh. Wow. After finding the perfect Michael Jackson song, he proceded to show us the mother of all ROmanian Modern Ballets. Please, if you will, picture the flowing blonde hair, tight jeans, pelvic thrusts, and jazz hands set to the soundtrack of MJ's "Heal the World." That is forever burned into my mind.

That night we took the staff out to dinner and I absolutely love them. They are incredible, again check the other blog for details.

So you all know that I get eaten by mosquitos. And some of you probably know that my mosquito bites swell and blister to the point where I look like I have some form of leprosy. So how about the fact that some special mosquito found his way to my ear. First it itched. Then it burned. Then it swelled. Then it was about twice the size of my other ear, blistered, burning, and itching. I have pictures.

I am currently being told by Sorin that it is time for me to hurry so I guess that means I'm done for the day. I love you all and am heading out to Bucharest tomorrow so I don't know how much I will be able to blog. Buh Bye!~

Jackpot!

Okay, I apologize for the lazy post last time! I'll try and spice it up a bit to make you think its very exotic over here. So Tuesday we unloaded boxes. 19 of them, each is 50 pounds. That is a whole lot of supplies. We brought birthday presents, Christmas presents, blankets, pajamas, school supplies, backpacks, new clothes, etc. It is truly amazing to me how we got everything here and just how many people are willing to donate to these kids without knowing them. They are amazing and are being so blessed through the goodwill of complete strangers. Without getting too sappy, it really is touching how much STUFF we had to bring to them.

After that we ate at the best pizza joint in Birlad. Alonas. Mmmmmmmmm. We went back to the hotel and watched a little bit of the Michael Jackson funeral (enough to see him being compared to MLK Jr...... hmmmm....) and then we watched a Chucky movie. Yes, you read that right, Chucky. In English. With Romanian subtitles. But our dear sweet Heather had the remote and kept freaking out and flipping rapidly back and forth between that and a cell phone commercial. So it was like cell phone, knife, cell phone, freaky doll, cell phone, decapitation, cell phone, rolling head, cell phone, blood. We were alternating between laughing and screaming about as fast as she was pushing buttons.

After a good sleep (and 3, yes 3 middle of the night phone calls from Comcast) we woke up and got ready for the first day of camp. We have some sweet shirts that say the theme of the camp, which is Curaj! (It means courage. With less vowel patterns.) And the kids looked so cute in them! We rotated between a theatre station and two craft stations. They had a blast and it was SO good to see them again. They are getting so old!

We at lunch at Happy Time (mmmmmmmm) with the Bridge to Success teens and had 2 of them come back from college in Iasi to see us. We hung out for a while and talked music (MJ and Rhianna are personal favorites) and learned the moonwalk in the middle of the restaurant from Claudiu.

The rest of the day should have a few more visits of the Special Needs orphanage and a few home visits. We're having a good time.

Love and miss you all!

Sleep? What's that?

I am here! Finally! We were delayed an hour out of Salt Lake City and weren't super smart in planning and only gave us an hour to make our connecting flight in Paris and we definitely didn't get there in time. So they couldn't get us on a flight until 7 at night instead of 12:30! So we sat in Paris (and sat and sat and sat) until we left. Flights were good, we made it into Bucharest around 11:00 and then boarded the bus (along with 19 boxes of supplies) and drove the 4 hours to Barlad. Hotel Moldova was a welcome sight and even more welcome was the air conditioner in the room. We checked in and slept for a few hours and are now faced with the daunting task of unpacking and organizing the 19 boxes! Wish us luck!

Love you!