Blog Hault

Due to Jennas parents who do not understand the interweb... this blog will no longer be receiving updates.

June 30th Photos

Bullet. Devil dog. 

Vines w the g-parents home/cellar behind.

Peach Tree

Vineyard

Polux? Pollucks? Potlucks? Not sure. I just mumble his name.

Boys in the pool

June 29th 2009

Hi all,

So here's the address here. C'est tre facille.

Domaine St Laurent de Saurs

81310 LISLE SUR TARN

FRANCE

As far as I understand, that's all you need. If you send anything (doubt anyone will! Expensive prolly!) just write my name on the back of the envelope or whatever so the parents don't open it.

Mom and Dad, do you think I should have you send something for the family? Maybe white sox baby clothes! That would be super cute! Is there a way you can get ur hands on anything like that? And fast?!? The boys wear 18 month clothes. We went to the supermarche today for groceries and shorts for the babies. Il fait chaud ici tout le jour!! (Its hot here all day!)

Momma, I watered the flowers w Magali today. Reminded me of you! I enjoy watering flowers! Didn't realize how I would miss it!

I had a legit convo w them tonight at dinner finally. During the day I talk w Magali but when Laurent is around I get all nervous. I have just sat there for the last few meals and observed. I can throw together enough words to explain some things. Like what I learn in school, what kind of job I can get and I even explained Edible Arrangements to Laurent while Magali was putting the babies to bed aka no translator! I think he understood! Bravo!

I watched tv last night after dinner. An over dubbed version of Cast Away was on. Thankfully Tom Hanks doesn't talk much so I actually enjoyed myself.

I was able to use the bottle labeling machine today. It puts the foil caps on the bottle and then the sticker on the front and back. Very sophisticated machine w sensors and hydrolics. I boxed them and I also made gift baskets w wine and fois gras and jam and other treats. Then I went online, the boys played in the baby pool, we went shopping and ate a dinner (lunch and dinner are always a many course extravaganza w wine and lots of bread and cheese! Fatties! Running tomo morn!) And watered flowers and I got to see their new logo ideas on the computer. Very fancy. Then watched French news - very different! Graffic! Bodies and blood! AND they showed images of Iraq where the people there are actually happy and enjoying life. You never see videos of festivals or celebrations in the US. Our media is super biased. Now bed and tomo there is a lady coming to cut the boy's hair and then Magali's grandmother and aunt are coming. The granny is making rabbit for dinner... Uh yay?... Ugh pigeon and now rabbit. When in Rome!

Kristen, start planning or looking at what you want to do when you come. Don't plan on bring anything w you. You can wear my clothes. A lot of what I brought is gonna go unworn. We can't dress the same here as at home. Gotta be conservative. Not cause the french spanish chicks are (cause many are not at all!) but because these dudes can smell americans a mile away (especially being blonde doesn't help) and they are perves and harass. The american stereotype w many guys here is that we are hoes. The women here are more shy then the talkative and loud american women. Its difficult and degrading. Anywho!  I want boy gossip stat!!

Dad, I saw the articles! Better than I expected! I was super nervous! Hope you have a few copies! I like how she quoted me hah. Did she think I was emailing her this whole time? Or did she know it was you and mom?

Jack Pot, send me a postcard from Michigan or something. I really miss coming up there w you and your family. Hope we can go when I get back. 4th of July is going to come and go here w no mention :( sad.

Did I mention they have like 5-7 dogs or something nuts. Bullet (or at least that's what I think they are saying) is adorable! But he bites! It drives me nuts. I want to (1st bathe him) then snuggle w him!

Wanna hear a funny French joke. You have to know what French accents sound like tho but here goes...

There's a french man and irish man. Both speaking english in their respective accents. The french men asks the irish man to draw "33". The irish man takes a pen and draws a tree and colors it in brown and goes "there you are. Dirty tree". The french man shakes his head and says "okay. Draw 33 and 1/3" the irish man takes a pen and draws another tree colors it brown and draws little black dots on the ground around it. He goes "There you are. Dirty tree and a turd"

Ha-ha? One of my professors at Purpan told us that one. He kept saying turd when talking about manure or something and when the kids laughed he explained how he learned the word. From the funny joke.

Okay. Bed time. Everyone needs to email me lots so I don't get home sick!!

Day 3 over! Day 4 here I come!

Xoxooxxoxooxxoox

Jenna-Bee

June 29th 2009

Maxime and Tomas!!

June 21st 2009

Hi fam! 

We are on the bus back from BCN now. Its a great city! Lots of fun. The first night we kinda had a long dinner and drinks. Some of our group went clubbing till 7am...I did not. The next morn we had breakfast in the hotel..which was really nice. Shared a room w erika, martina and particia. Air conditioning was a nice luxury. It was raining a bit till noon so we went to see some sights. The famous Seduga de Famila church. Very creepy but amazing. Other stuff and shopping. Then off to the beach and we spent most of the day there. Sun burn. Topless ladies. Then we had an amazing dinner of Paella and sangria. Then off to Port Olimpico. Its a strip on the port where Barcelona had the Olymipics of 10 or so bars/clubs w no cover and it was just crazy w people every where and 9 euro drinks ha yuk. It was fun to dance our butts off as a group. We were up late so we slept in today and then went down to the sea and had lunch (kebabs! Ha yum) and saw some of the sights. Then on the bus for 6 hours! 
Tonight there is a huge music festival in Toulouse. People play music all over the streets and people are supposedly everywhere. Very fun I hear. 

Then we have our last week of class! :( and exams and one more field trip to a vineyard in the Gaillac region wednesday. We leave for our internship either Sat Sun or Mon. I'm nervous!! But compared to a lot of the other people internships descriptions mine sounds good. Hope they are cool people!

Miss you! Love you! More later! 

Xox

June 20th 2009

Good evening.   So its 5am in Barcelona and I just got home to my hotel room and I'm the first  person home. The moral is that Barcelona is nuts and my 3 roommates party harder  than I do.   I had paella for dinner tonight! Prawns and shrimps w their heads on! Clams  mussels and cuttle fish. Really good! I've been eating a crazy amt of seafood in  Europe. I figure its gotta be good this close to the ocean and sea!  First time in a sea. We saw a few sights this morn while it rained then moved on  to the beach for a good sun burning. Yippee. Ps beaches here are semi-nude.  Topless in a lot of cases. Surprising at first!  More later xoxoxox

June 18th 2009

Hii mom. France is good. Hot as hell. We are just leaving Narrabone which is on the coast of the Mediterranean. We went to the national institute of wine research. It was brutally boring. They didn't speak English and so my teacher who can't speak English either was translating. So everything took twice as long. We were out in the sun all afternoon. No water or sun block. I am very brown in the shoulder region. Lame wine tasting at the end tooo. Non-alcoholic wine! Grape juice! Laaammmee. But now we get to drive 2 hrs (and nap) and then max and hugo are taking erika martina and I out to dinner. Fun. Then tomo we find out about our internships!!! And leave for Barcelona. So exciting :) 


I'm excited to find out where my internship is. Nervous but I NEED to know. Hope its near other cool places (italy, the sea, germany) so I can travel on the weekends. Don't know what to do about the gift cause I hear its expensive to ship stuff here. 

I bought a cute top yesterday. We had a scavenger hunt downtown and it was so hot I'm my white wife beater that I bought this cute racer back brown top w braid details. Cute cute. 

We had a little party on a 3rd floor balcony last night and I got shot w an air-soft gun in my calf. Lame. This was 10 min after we blew the breaker in the apt and the power went out thank goodness. Actually, I believe the power went out midway through me playing M&R Rush for the party. 

Well gonna nap. Email me back if u wish. Love you! Miss you! Xoxoxoxo 

Can't wait to come home but I am def enjoying myself here while I can. Beautiful place :)

Tuesday June 9th 2009

I think they are mostly Lippazans. So pretty. There were 300 horses on this 6million euro compound. Really cool. We got to see them training, change horse shoes, hang out in the stables and do ultrasounds on pregger mommies (arm up da butt- disturbing!). We are on our way back now for lunch and french class. Then Carrefour later w the girl from Purdue who moved to Frankfort. She's really cool and we have been chatting a lot. 

We had the best dinner last night!!!! Authentic southwestern French meal. 12 of us went to to a place that serves Cassoulet (Toulouse's specialty). It was great! Google it. Its like a giant pot they bring to the table. Its essentially ham and white bean stew w duck con fit (on the bone) onions and two types of sausage. It puts you in a coma! But it was the best dinner yet! I tried fois grois too and the wine was a-flowin and I had salad and people got desert and cafe espresso. Tooo much food. Our bill for 11 or 12 people was 275 euro. Yikes!! Soo worth it. Dinner lasted from 8-11pm ha and none of us are hungry this morn hah. It was great great great!

Xoxox

Letters From France Saturday June 6th 2009

This is the most beautiful place ever. Seriously. I will take a million pics. We are staying at this amazing mountain refuge. They made us a huuugggeee dinner. Beef stew, cheese quiche, chicken and rice w raisins prunes and port sauce and a bread pudding w a custard. So good! We are literally in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. Lourdes was amazing too! Great weekend so far. Its raining so we are in playing cards. Very sleepy. 
 
Xoxo love you! 

Letters from France Friday June 5th 2009

Sooorrryyy. I was in class alll day. That was the best I could do. I'm back at my room now eating some yummy euro cereal. Its mostly cocoa puffs and then some bigger pod like puffs with like a nutella type stuff in it. Yum! I wanted something that would dye the milk and make it tastier and less creepy euro. 
 
I just had to run home in a storm. Its supposed to rain all weekend. :( we are going to the Pyrenees mountains tomo morn for a hike and stay in a real mountain refuge. We are going to see Cirque de Gavarnie (google it!) And the Grande Cascade- the highest waterfall in Europe. We also have a picnic. At night they serve a real mountain dinner and we stay in a big hostel room I think. I really like hanging out w my group so I'm excited we will be stuck together. Then sunday we are driving to Lourdes w a stop on the way at Pont Napoleon. Lourdes is real famous in the catholic religion. Its a place for religious pilgrimages. 5 million people annually come to pray for miracles and cures for sickness. St.Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary and then water sprung from the grotto where no spring had flowed before. The waters supposedly have healing powers. These places are really interesting. I recommend you guys look them up!! Its gonna be a really fun weekend. I'm excited. Well, it will be fun if it doesn't rain/snow!! Yikes. 
 
Last night was soooo fun! We alll (the americans) went to a bar/dance club/french beer garden on the Garonne river that runs through Toulouse..wine garden prolly. Everyone was together and learning to do the european dance moves. Very funn. Our program coordinators came (they are my age or a few yrs older) and so did the frenchies from u of I. Very fun! We also walked around a bit after in the city and saw the capital building. Sooo prettyy! 
 
Tonight some us might go downtown w the frenchies (that's what ill call the guys that I know from u of i) and get a real french dinner and look around. We have only had 1 real french meal so far! Cafeteria doesn't count ha. No bars tonight. Gotta be up early tomo!! I don't know if plans will change tonight cause of the rain tho. I also have to pack for the weekend tonight. 
 
Burberry summer?? Do I know that? 
 
Kristen: they don't have coffee makers anywhere in this place. I bought instant coffee but I don't know much about it. Any advice? I want to have it cold but I'm not sure what should be my method. I wish I had starbucks instant! 
 
I love my peanut butter. I brought it to class today and everyone was jealous. They don't eat it here!! I had to go the international part of the grocery store. Instead they eat nutella on everything. My roommates have two 1 kg massive jars of it on the kitchen table next to the salt and pepper at all times. Yum. We were thinking of stirring some into our coffee and milk in the morn! Yum. 
 
What's up wit you peeps?? 
 

Letters from France

Sunday May 31st 2009

hey all. i either blew the outlet up in my hostel room or i blew up my 
converter/outlet thing. my phone died last night so i cant chrge it. 
its 11am and we are going togo to the ariport soon. flighs at 2;30. im 
on a brke ass computer at the hostel. 15 min for 1 euro. once i get 
to touloue i will figur out my chrger. and i will call aasap. 
looovveee u! im so excitedto get to toulouse! my own room and shower 
sound great. this hostel thing is fun...but only for 2 days ha i feeel 
gross. love you and tlk to you soon no worries boutthe phone thing. 
 
france is gret. we are doing fine and are surpisingly cofortble here 
even not being able to speak. everyones nice. foods yummy. tooo many 
stairs and walking. sore. we allwent out to a legit renchrestaruant 
lastnnight. i had duck in a peach cream sauce. yum. 
 
got to go!! love you! xoxox 

Letters From France

Friday May 29th 2009

So we are staying at this neat hostel (so I hope) and its pretty hip and happening ha. You have to be between 18-35 to stay. The people who run it are super cool and young. The first floors a bar/cafe place. The bartender just made us dinner pasta and salad and cheese and baguettes and wine.. all for 5 euro each! It was great. Just thought I'd share :) 

Letters From France

Friday May 29th

Hiii I have been getting them. Just super busy and didn't want to stop and text and offend anyone.  

Erika and I got in around 7am Paris time and we are sleeeepppyy but still getting things seen and done. The flight was fine. We couldn't find the train from the airport to the main train to the city. Then we couldn't figure out how to get out of the terminal after the train. We were trapped in the station. Then we got lost in paris cause all the streets change names and are winding and it was 80 degrees and I had 1500 lbs of luggage to drag around for and hour and a half. 

 

But once we got here to the hostle one of our people was already here. So the 3 of us went out to at bakery and got a crousant and ate it in a park. Then headed to the Sacre-Coeur. Its a church thats the on tallest hill in Paris and overlooks the city. We walked through the cutest towns to the Moulin Rouge... Not as cool as I would have expected we tried to buy a starbucks but w the exchange rate abd stuff a tall caramel mach was 7 dollars! Nooo waaayy. So we walked home and I just took a 2 hour nap and the rest of the group got here. The clouds cleared up and u can see the eifel tower out my window. We are going to get a sandwich and take a bottle of wine (oppen alcohol is ok on the streets here) and watch the tower sparkel at sun set. Then buussy day tomo. The Lourve- mona lisa. Norte Dame. The eiffel again and the arc du triumphe. Busy! 

 

This place is way cooler that I could have imagined. So gorgeous and not just sections.. Alllll of it. You'd love it. The people are cool and I am surpriisngly comfortable despite not knowing a word of the language. Ooops. Ha 

 

Love you. I will respond faster next time!