The calm after the storm

After the crazy time getting there, we had an amazing weekend at the beach! The little town we stayed in reminded us very much of small town beach Florida filled with families which is exactly what we were needing at this point. The apartment we stayed in was very nice and I am pretty sure we were the first people to ever stay there considering all the cooking equipment was still in its wrappers. The owner was also very kind and helpful… he checked on us a few times throughout the day to make sure we were okay and we even got to meet his wife and play with his dog! On Sunday, he also called a cab for us since none of our phone are really usable over here. Saturday we spent the day on the beach after sleeping in for the first time since we have been to Europe really and then we went out to a super yummy sea food dinner! The salmon I had was so good! We then went and got some really fun beach drinks and sat and people watched for a bit. Sunday brought another day of sleeping in and then we decided to make brunch which was amazing considering that is definitely something I really miss from home. We hit the beach again where I swam for a long time even though the water was pretty darn cold but super clear. I also built an awesome sand castle that was basically an exact replica of la la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. All the kids that passed it commented on how cool it was…. Yes I'm 20 and in France and built an awesome sand castle! We called it a day and got ready to leave pretty early so that we could arrive at the train station very early this time to avoid a repeat of Friday…. We arrived more than 2 hours early but just found a little café to have a snack and wait so it was okay. We were all just happy to not be rushed and frazzled like last time. On the way home though, I did sit next to this guy with the worst BO and the air on my car was not working…. It was a very long hour and a half to say the least. But Sunday night around midnight we made it home safely! It was a great and relaxing weekend filled with 9 scoops of ice cream, ocean swimming, and a massive sunburn to remind me of the good times for a few days now…..

salmon dinner Saturday night

Fruity drinks on the beach!

Look at that rocken sand castle!! 

Traveling adventures

Well I am writing this post right now while sitting on the train about to take off to Bezier, France. My hands are shaking and my heart is beating at 100 miles per hour. And here is why:

Bre, Lindsey, Morgan, Cooper, Wyatt and I decided a few weeks ago that we were going to spend our free weekend on the Valaras beach near Bezier. We began to book our train tickets and our condo and seemed to run into problem after problem. Last week we all finally got our train tickets settled (which called for me to make the trip out the train station and wait in the long line to buy my tickets in person). After many frustrating failed attempts, we finally reserved an apartment to stay in on Wednesday. We thought we were good to go and were all really looking forward to this relaxing weekend.

Friday we got out of class early and so took that time to pack and prepare before leaving for the train station an hour and 20 min before it was to depart. We thought that would be plenty of time to get there and print the tickets that still needed printed. Little did we know, we were in for a heck of a time in the train station.

It started when we were trying to find where the other 5 could print their pre-bought tickets at. All of the machines that are made for that were not working for them so we had to go and get in the forever long line to have someone behind the desk help us. During this whole process, I went to retrieve my tickets from my bag and to my extreme embarrassment, I didn’t have them. I forgot that I had locked them in a different folder away from my passport traveling case when we went to Barcelona. I was so mad at myself and all I wanted to do was throw up and cry… Why had I not checked to make sure I had my ticket before I left! UGH DARCIE. That is the first thing I should have done. I can tell you that this will be the last time I ever am this careless again. After about 30 seconds of panic, I grabbed a number and joined my friends in the unending line praying that they would be able to reprint my tickets for me.

The minutes were ticking down and our 19h49 departure time was getting closer and closer. With 7 minutes before our departure time, our line of numbers finally were called to the desk. The guy at the deck was one of the kindest I have encountered and immediately sensed my distress and helped to calm me down. He swiftly reprinted my tickets for me and gave me a pep talk that everything was going to be okay. After everyone got their tickets and we raced to our platform, we saw that the train was delayed 5 minutes…. Truly a gift, God is looking out for us. I am starting to calm down now and can now start to get excited for the hopefully relaxing weekend we have in front of us. I know we can all use that especially after that chaos that just occurred. I think its safe to say that we will be at the train station extra extra early for the ride home so this does not happen again.

We are still not sure how we are going to get to the train station to our apartment but hey we will figure it out. Wish us luck…

Here's to learning life lessons! 

I GOT MY HOST FAMILY AND INTERNSHIP!!!

Today we had our internship presentation where we finally found out where we are going to be spending the month of July. I will be interning at the Chateau-Carbonneau Winery located in Pessac sur Dordogne. This is very close to Bordeaux which is one of the most renown wine regions in the world! My host dad's name is Wilfrid Franc de Ferriere and from what I have been told, he has a wife and children that are around my age. On of his sons actually studies at Purpan (where I am studying now) but I have not met him yet. Their winery and bed & breakfast looks amazing and I am so excited for all the learning I have in store for me working for them. I also found out that there will be another intern there that I will be staying with and she is from Germany! That makes me so excited especially with how much I loved Germany and the people there! I am very eager to meet them and to absorb everything I can in the month to come. Here is their website if any of you are interested in learning more about where I am going to be!

 http://www.chateau-carbonneau.com/

A week of vineyards and wine!

Monday:

Monday morning came early after the weekend in Barcelona with a 7 am bus ride to go visit the Abbaye de Fontfroide near Narbonne. The first part of the day was dedicated to touring the old Abbaye and learning the history behind the use of the building. Hundred of years ago, there was a cloister of around 15 {} monks and a couple hundred brothers. The monks and the brothers did not interact due to the monks vow of silence and since they were cloistered, and the two groups were separated into two different living courters. The brothers were in charge of working the land that the cloister owned where they grew much produce but focused mainly on wine. The building itself was beautiful and settled right up into the hills. The Church was lit by magnificent stained glass windows and the gardens on the groups were some of the most beautiful I have every seen. In the rose garden, I can now say I have officially found my favorite flower… it is a beautiful mix of soft pink and yellow and orange and smells so sweet and heavenly. The signed that marked it in the garden named it "Rose des Cisterciens (Delbard)"… I will be on the look out for more of these! After our tour we ventured into the old kitchen where we were treated to a wine tasting of three of their fabulous wines they produce there on sight. They had us try a Chardonnay, Rose, and a spicy red wine. Given this was our first tasting, we were  somewhat taught the proper way to taste and appreciate wine and began to learn what we should be looking for. It was fun, the wine was spectacular (especially the Rose) and I felt very fancy.

We then had a typical frustrating French lunch break (one where we finish eating in about 30 minutes yet wait around for TWO hours until we get back to business). After our forever lunch, we took a tour of the vineyard and the winery. Unfortunately, we hadn't had any viticulture classes yet so most of the details he was talking about went right ever my head. I still thoroughly enjoyed this visit and it made me very excited for the weeks ahead of me dedicated to learning all about wine. 

courtyard of the Abbeye

The fabulous wines we tasted

I found my favorite flowers!!!!

The vineyards

Tuesday:

Today was our first lecture on viticulture! I find these classes very interesting and I hang onto every word in hopes that I learn it all. Our professor has a background in biochemistry and then went back to school at 40 for viticulture and flavor science. He has lived all over Europe and the states teaching and running vineyard and wineries. We have been learning all about wine from its chemical composition to the wine regions of France and the world. We have studies the anatomy of the vine and have gotten into the economics and details about the wine certifications and classifications. I am in awe about how much I have already been able to learn.

In the afternoon we had another winery visit and tour. This time, we went about an hour outside of Toulouse to the Cave de Fronton. This winery is a coop where multiple different vineyard send their grapes to this central winery where they are processed into wine. Compared to the winery we saw the day before, this one was much more industrialized and made for a larger production quantity. I was shocked though by the lack of concern having 30 people walk through the plant… there was no hairnets, not safety or sanitation line to stay behind and we were even left at one point to walk around and explore. I was standing over a fermentation tank and inches from their bottling line with no hairnet or any sanitation barrier. I found that very different from anything you would find in the states. After the tour, we were once again given a wine tasting. They served us four different wines: a very light Rose, a fruity red, a spicy malbec, and a super sweet Rose. My favorite was the first Rose called ines. It was a fun visit and when we got home, it was off to the market to stock up on my fruits and veggies and peanut butter to get me through the next two weeks.

the top of the wine fermentation vats

the single bottling line

the wines we tasted

Wednesday:

In the morning we had another field trip to the Purpan experimental farm just outside the city. I was not a fan of this visit given that it had nothing to do with wine and I had very little interest in the farm. Yet, I did get to see dairy cows up close and personal for the first time in my life! They also had this super fancy milking machine that was all automated and allowed the cows to just walk up to it whenever they wanted to be milked. That seemed very human and cool. We then spent a few hours looking at corn and stevia and farm equipment… wooo. After lunch brought another French lesson trying my best to pick up anything I can and presenting a project we had been working on. After dinner, a group of us decided to go downtown and check out this big music festival happening in Toulouse this weekend called Rio Loco. Each day is themed with a different regions music with multiple acts playing on different stages. We got down there pretty late though on Wednesday and didn’t feel that it was going to be worth it to buy tickets for the hour we had left, so instead Lindsey, Audrey and I went and walk around the outside of the festival and enjoyed the music. It was very fun though and made me very excited to come back Thursday to actually go in! It was also a great place to people watch and observe the French people around us.

my new dairy cow friends

I took this on my phone. No filter. Toulouse is beautiful!

Thursday:

Two long lectures today in viticulture in the morning and French in the afternoon. After class was over, we made dinner and then headed down to the Rio Loco festival. Today's theme was America's and was all bands from central and South America. It was fabulous! The carnival atmosphere mixed with beautiful weather and entertaining friends lead to a sincerely enjoyable night. The Latino inspired music just begs to be danced too and the friends I was with were all for dancing! With a night of light, music and dancing outside, how could you not have fun! The good vibes around me were intoxicated and even though I could barley make out any of the Spanish being sung on stage, I could feel it. I loved every minute of it. One of the bands that I loved dancing to is called Bomba Estereo. Here is one of their songs if you feel so inclined: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZXlgNMDK3E&index=3&list=PLjZLWNy4Hoi-3ZcCniapul2Dk-lbyzGJL

There was one very strange occurrence in which some French lady tapped my shoulder mid set and shhhed me…. We are at a concert lady, why are you telling me to be quiet?! I am going to cheer for the band when I think they are good. It was strange and happened twice which was very weird. I don’t know if I will ever fully understand the French.  

Rio Loco!

What a week!

Barcelona: June 12-14

Friday:

After taking a quick quiz over all the agriculture information we had learned that week, we were free to get ready for Barcelona and be on the bud by 1. The bus ride took around 5 hours with a stop in Andora (Wooo another country!) to allow us to buy some duty-free goods. Quite and interesting country. After arriving to our hotel, we got ready and found a local restaurant for dinner (it was around 9 o'clock and we were still way early for Spain's dinner time…). I ordered their specialty, seafood pallea and wow was it good. I need to learn how to make paella because my taste buds could not get enough of it! We then went back to the hotel and waited until 12 to go out to a club. When we got there, we were still just about the second people there. It was not until around 2am that it was starting to fill up. We had a lot of fun dancing the night away and meeting people from all over the world. We also ran into so many American college students out which was very fun. We got home at 4am and went to sleep around 4:30.

my Pallea 

Lindsey and I 

Saturday morning came early with a 8 am wake up call… Lindsey and I wanted to get the most out of Barcelona so we got up early and got at it. After a yummy breakfast in the hotel, we headed out to conquer the Barcelona public transportation to try and find the meeting point for the bike tour we were hoping to go on. Well, we had awful maps and couldn't find very many clearly marked signs pointing the way, but with the help of some very kind random people and a lot of luck, we were able to find our tour in time. Our tour guide was a young girl who was probably around my sisters age. She was originally from Texas and moved to Barcelona four years ago so her English was great. On tour we met two other girls our age from UNC that were studying abroad in Rome and a few young couples from the UK, South Africa, and Scotland. We had a lot of fun talking with them and learning about their experiences and telling them our take on Europe so far. On the 8 mile, 4 hour tour we got to see many of the big sights of Barcelona including:

Arc de Triomf

La Sagrade Familia

Place Reil

The Cathedral

Parc de la Ciutadella and the Cascada Monumental

Music Hall

Beach

After the tour, we attempted the public transportation again learned that the metros do not go in loops…. We ended up riding it all the way to the end only to have to get off and get back on going the other way. The inside of the Barcelona metro is great… haha. We spent the part of our day exploring the famous Park Güelle which features the famous and imaginative  architecture of Gaudi. He is the same guy that was behind La Segrade Familia. This park was up this huge hill which took 5 escalators, a large hill with about a 45 degree slope, and several more flights of stairs. But all that work was so worth it when we got to the top and saw the view…. All of Barcelona laid out below us in all its beauty! After the park, Lindsey and I were in desperate need of sleep, so we headed back to the hotel to get a nap before heading out for the night. When we woke up and got ready, we met up with a group for dinner at… with for it… 11:45pm! After dinner we attempted to go out to another club but after getting lost (again) and realizing there was a huge cover fee and already being exhausted, we ended up just chilling on the beach for a bit. Even in the dark it was lively yet relaxing. Also first time in the Mediterranean Sea so check that one off the bucket list! After hanging out for a bit, we made our way back home and fell asleep almost immediately.

bike tour!

Arc de Triomf

Cascada Monumental

Lindsey and I at La Sagrade Familia

The group ready to go out

Sunday we slept in until 9 when we had to get up and get ready to be checked out my 10. After breakfast, we had the whole day until 2 to do whatever we wanted again before the bus took off. Lindsey, Cooper, Wyatt, Maria, and a few others decided to go to the Picasso museum because it was free for students. We looked at art and felt cultured. I hadn't been to an art museum yet in Europe and since it was free I said why not. We were not allowed to take any pictures in the museum and there were security everywhere so no pictures… sorry. After the museum we headed back to meet the bus where everyone passed out on for the whole ride home.

no pictures allowed in the museum so here is me contemplating the sign for the museum... basically the same thing right?!

Barcelona was an amazing city that I will definitely be back to! With only two days there, I feel like I barley saw any of the city and there is so much more to explore. It was so lively and happy there, I loves it! Also, I was really looking forward to using my Spanish there but that proved to be much more difficult than expected… not only do they speak Catalan, but every time I went to speak Spanish, all that I could think to talk in was French. In France I cannot seem to stop speaking Spanish and in Spain I speak French?! I have so much respect for all those people out there that know multiple languages and can seamlessly switch between them. None the less, I loved the culture and atmosphere of Barcelona and even the late meals didn’t bother me… they just reminded me of our summer time dinner hours at home!

A VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE!

I FOUND PEANUT BUTTER!!!!

Like real American peanut butter. Skippy peanut butter! After searching every shelf in the supermarket, we finally found it tucked away on the bottom shelf of a random isle. I almost broke down in the middle of the store with tears of joy. This find was exactly what I needed to get a little comforting taste of home while also providing most my upcoming breakfasts and dinners. I couldn’t be happier!

I have been feeling a little homesick/culture shock lately so this peanut butter find is very important. Classes are long and I really don't have much background/need for all this Agriculture knowledge. Right now we are learning about the world egg production.... it's interesting but not what I ever expected to learn. Also, the sketchy wifi is tough when that is the only way I have to communicate with people at home. But I am in France and this is an amazing opportunity and I know I will be stronger because of it! I just need to keep in focus that culture shock is temporary and there are so many adventures out there waiting for me! 

Fermenting formage, milking ewes, and mating ducks

Today we had a field trip to visit the Rockford Cheese caves and the Rockford sheep farm. My group started the day touring  the caves which house 11 stories of ripening cheese! The caves where formed after tectonic plates shifted creating this naturally cool and humid environment that is perfect for fermenting cheese. We learned about the companies history including the Myth of Rockford (some Sheppard was eating in a cave but then got really distracted by a beautiful lady and left his lunch of cheese and bread there as he chased after her. He never was able to reach here and several months later, he was out tending his flock and was hungry. He remembered the cheese he had left a long time ago in a near by cave and went to see if it was still good. He found it, ate it, and decided the cheese was the best cheese he had ever had.) The caves where really cool but also super cold. We got to learn about the process of growing the bacteria from bread to put into the cheese which gives it its flavor and texture. The only ingredients used to make this famous Bleu Cheese is whole sheep milk, bacteria, and salt. The tour was very interesting and informative…. Also only in French! We got to try three of the bleu cheeses they make and I cannot say I am a fan. They where all super salty and extremely strong and bitter.

11 floors of fermenting formage! 

The sheep farm was a different experience all together…. First off, there were flies EVERWHERE. It was actually awful. Also, the farmer that showed us around (who runs the farm with his brother when they took over for their parents) only spoke French so thank goodness for my Lebanese classmates that are fluent in French and English and were patient enough to translate. We learned a lot of specifics about how they take care of the sheep and such which mostly went over my head not being of any ag background. It was still interesting to learn and it is always good to learn where exactly your food comes from. This whole week of classes is dedicated to animal production and the European system for the animal welfare. We also got the chance to observe milking time which I found very intriguing. I really liked the efficiency of the system.

Milking time!

One big culture difference I have been noticing (and really had to deal with today) is the French view on lunch. Today we spent an hour and a half eating lunch today. We had three different courses of sandwiches and chips and apples, cheese and wine, and dessert. It was all equivalent to what I could eat for a lunch at home, yet I would eat it in about 15-30 minutes. It takes a lot for me to stop thinking about how much time we are wasting and could be getting stuff done. Instead, I am trying hard to look to the French view of using this time as a break to relax and to deepen friendships. It’s very different and I know it is even going to be more different when I get to my host family so I am trying to use this time now to get into the right mindset.

Tomorrow we are heading into the city for French class to talk to locals for a scavenger hunt…. Wish me luck as I try to not completely butcher this language!