So this has to be the longest I’ve waited to write a blog, I’m about to recount my Provence road trip from the beginning of November … but better late than never! As you’re about to see, I took A LOT of photos on this trip, which of course added to the delay of this publication. Before I get to all of that, I’ll bring everyone to date. I just went back to work this week from my third vacation of the year. I spent the first week trying to do all the things I promised myself I would do in [View Full Entry]

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For those of you with whom I didn't get a chance to talk before I left - I'm back in France for another school year! I got here October 1st and so it's been a month and I'm already back in the swing of things. I'll give you a quick run down on what's been going on . . . I'm in the same apartment from last year (I've attached some photos this go round so you can visualize me here ) I have 7 classes at Champhol where I taught last year with my friend Christine and one class at [View Full Entry]

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Middle East 2007 Lisa Two months later I'm finally getting around to posting the final blog in my Middle East series. I believe I last left off on the night bus from Egypt to Jordan, a night which made its way to the list of "Longest Nights of my Life." Running a fever and still recovering from my bout of food sickness, I was not exactly feeling my best, so when the heat on the bus died (despite the photos of warm and sunny Egypt, the desert is far from warm at night) and then the bus itself died, I [View Full Entry]

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Here’s number two of my Middle East tour travel blog series which will cover Luxor and Cairo. An 18-hour bus ride from Dahab brought us safely to the Luxor bus station on Friday where Joseph, our hostel owner, met us. We received a similar “welcoming ceremony” to the one in Dahab at Joseph’s hostel, just less ocean resort theme and a lot more Bob Marley - because nothing says I’m vacationing in Egypt like Bob Marley décor. The plethora of soda cans (and upside-down McDonald’s cups) turned ceiling decorations was a nice touch as well. . . Joseph gave us [View Full Entry]

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Hello! After lots of requests and many weeks my latest travel blog is now up! I’ve decided to jump around and go ahead and publish the Middle East ones prior to the Christmas break one (the photos are done but not the writing, I’m working on it, things have been busy!). To give a brief summary, for winter break (in France winter break takes place during the last weeks of February) I traveled with the five other assistants to Egypt, Jordan and Israel for two weeks - a really amazing trip. As I took so many photos and it was [View Full Entry]

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No I haven’t flown back to US without telling anyone, I spent a weekend in Normandy and visited the American Cemetery which rests on official American soil. With the five other English assistants, we rented a car and embarked on our first driving adventure in France (which with the exception of a speeding ticket that I was not responsible for, went well). We left Friday night after everyone finished with classes and arrived late that evening in Bayeux. The speeding ticket incident did occur on this part of the trip unfortunately, we were driving along when there was suddenly a blinding [View Full Entry]

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More than a month after my weekend trip to Strasbourg I'm finally getting around to publishing the blog in my efforts to catch up to my most recent trip to Italy and Northern Spain. By the way MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!! I hope that you've all had a great holiday! Now to get down to business . . . the last weekend of November is the start of the Strasbourg "Grande Marché de Noël," one of the largest Christmas markets in France and the oldest Christmas market in the world - this year marked its 431st celebration. [View Full Entry]

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In contrast to the epic novels I usually end up sending out, this blog will be a short one I promise. I had a computer adapter problem (nothing a visit to www.ebay.fr couldn’t fix though) so I haven’t had computer access = couldn’t go through the hundreds of photos I’ve been taking, until this past week. So my weekend in Strasbourg at the giant Christmas market is coming, as is the road trip to Normandy and Mont St. Michel last weekend. As you can see in the photos, Chartres hosted a medieval festival in honor of the 1,000th anniversary of the [View Full Entry]

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I’m Suffering from Gelato Withdrawal. . . Finally, here is the much-awaited Italy Travel Blog. Due to high public demand, I’m putting out this one before the Chartres “1000th Anniversary of the Commissioning of the Cathedral” Medieval Festival that took place the week before I left for vacation, so stay posted for the Medieval Blog to come out probably next weekend. I really should write these blogs more often because I end up with so much to put in them they become very long - so here’s another long one, sorry! After only a week and a half of work, it [View Full Entry]

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This second edition of my travel blog finds me halfway through my 3rd week in France and I’ll go ahead and warn you this is going to be a long one as I’ve been a busy girl this past week (so for those of you who want the quick version, just look through the photos, I’ve got some fun ones) . . . I still haven’t started teaching classes, but that will come soon enough starting next Tuesday (French law requires we assistants have either a Monday or Friday off so we can have long weekends for traveling . . . [View Full Entry]

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