It's been less than one month since my last entry - I'm really starting to pick up speed on this thing! Except that my time abroad will be over in less than 2 months. I can't believe it's gone by so fast...but sometimes it felt as if it would drag on forever (usually that was in winter when I had absolutely nothing to do). I'm just finishing up my fourth and final 2 week paid vacation...I'll miss these! I went to Istanbul, Turkey and according to "Travel Blog" it's in the Middle East although it's also situated partly in Europe and [View Full Entry]

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Well it's been another 60 days and I'm updating again. I just seem to forget about this blog. Here are some highlights of the past 60 days: Prague: I went to Prague for the last weekend of January to see 2 of the Miami skating teams compete at their international competition. I traveled alone and everything went really well. I didn't realize how much I missed my old friends - it was really revitalizing to see them and spend some time with them. The teams did well - 5th place and 4th place. Unfortunately I caught a really bad cold and [View Full Entry]

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I received an e-mail from my travelblog recently - it told me it missed me after the 60 days during which I have not logged in. So, I'm back! I somehow just forgot to keep updating - it wasn't that I didn't have time, it's just that I began to forget... Here are some highlights since I last wrote: Beaujolais Nouveau: The first wine in a vintage to be put out is the Beaujolais Nouveau. Beaujolais is the region to the north of Lyon so there were some big parties around here. I went with a bunch of other assistants to [View Full Entry]

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I've been meaning to post my address in France for quite some time, so here it is: Cari Drake-Wittenborn Chez M. Thierry Duchêne 101 avenue Barthélémy Buyer 69005 Lyon, FRANCE I haven't writen about my daily activities in awhile so I thought I'd take a second to do that - especially after experiencing the US election this past week. Of course Obama was the favorite candidate of just about every Frenchman/Frenchwoman and on the 4th and 5th the election was all the French were talking about! I was very happy to wake up and find Obama the winner on November 5th [View Full Entry]

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Well we woke up to rain, gray skies, cold air, and a brutal wind...story of our vacation. By now we had learned not to let it get us down so we woke up early (it was actually Vince who woke us up so we knew it'd be a productive day...) and headed down to the port to check out the times for the boat tours. We wanted to take one tour to the two islands just off the coast - one named Isle d'If is where the fictional story of "The Count of Monte Cristo" is said to have taken place [View Full Entry]

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The next morning Kristi and I woke up early - as was the case this trip - and Vince slept in. I went for a run to see the train times since we had to check into the hostel in Marseille between 10-12 and then we gathered up our stuff and went to the station. Turns out there was a train leaving right when we got there and we sprinted to get on. The train was pulling away as we found seats. the ride was short but the walk was fairly long when we got to Marseille. We weren't sure what [View Full Entry]

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The train ride to Arles was very short and we soon found ourselves walking for about 40 minutes with very heavy backpacks to our somewhat secluded hostel that was much more of a real hotel. When I say secluded I just mean slightly removed from the town center because Arles is a very small town. The hotel was absolutely beautiful with a swimming pool and palm trees and a large room with refigerator and bath tub. We had a flat-screen TV with CNN on it that we watched whenever we could. After checking in we had a list of sights to [View Full Entry]

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It has been a very long time since I've written and I've been dreading this...there's so much to write about the All Saint's Vacation! To start, I'll tell you about two of the most HORRIBLE days I've had since I got here - the Thursday and Friday before I left for vacation. On Thursday I was supposed to leave for the metro at 6:50 a.m. and was instead woken up by my "French mother" at 7 a.m. asking if I was supposed to have left already. I got ready in 10 minutes and ran to the metro and then all the [View Full Entry]

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Last week I had my first REAL classes where I was alone with the groups of students and running my own lesson plans. Everything went very well and most of my students left smiling telling me they really liked the class. I had some sophomore classes where I showed them American stuff (like my driver's license, school ID, prom pic, dollars, etc.) and then played a game. They really like my stickers and I can use them as a bribe! My one class of juniors was easy - I only had 4 and they were very mature. My senior classes were [View Full Entry]

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I really shouldn't wait this long to write on here because I always have so much to say and I can never remember everything! This past Thursday I went to Grenoble with Laurie to help her pass out flyers and posters for two big snow skiing/snowboarding events coming up. Grenoble is about one hour est and a little south of Lyon. I really wanted to go there and I'm glad I went on this trip with Laurie because it's very small and I was able to see most of the city just walking around with her all day. And that's what [View Full Entry]

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