mickmick
Michael Salas Joined: November 22nd 2008
Logged in: November 22nd 2008
Logged in: November 22nd 2008
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Travel Blog Posts
This was one hell of a break. As some of you know, I left for Germany before I made it to Egypt to visit my aunties. It’s been around 13 years since I’ve last visited them in Germany (they would come to America instead during those 13 years), and all the memories I had as a kid came flooding in the moment I entered their apartment complex. The same sights and smell were still there…way back when I was still 7 or 8 years old!! I spent around six days in Germany until I finally left for Cairo. On the way to the airport from my Aunt’s town, I met some random German girl in the train who also happened to have studied in San Diego State last semester!! Weird. I asked her for directions and ... read more
Another thought. I just want to say how much pressure it is to be really the ONLY student in class. I’ve never known anybody to be the only student in their class/have I known a class with only one student in it. At first, it started off with two people…. this other French chic and me. Now normally, if a class is under enrolled, they cancel it (back at SDSU, at least). But much to my surprise, they kept the “class” going. Since the faculty only offer two classes that has any correlation to my multimedia major, I had no choice to stick it out and stay with it. And I knew it was only a matter of time until that other girl will stop showing up. And I was right. She was gone the next ... read more
Never in my life have I ever missed a flight. And I was PISSED beyond belief. So I stayed over at my friend’s pad in Paris the night before so I would have ample time to get to her place (instead of coming all the way from my school, which is located over an hour train ride north of Paris) to the airport at Paris Orly. I thought I had PLENTY of time since I left her apartment more than 2 hours before my flight. What should’ve taken AT MOST 40 minute metro ride from my friend’s house to the airport took me a good 2 hour ride!!! I’ve taken the RER metro before and it normally makes fewer stops than the regular Paris metro line, but apparently the line that I took was longer than ... read more
Quick update, since I really don’t have time to be babbling about what’s been happening the last 3 weeks!! From the pictures, it seems like I’m not doing any studying (half true...I hardly have any work to do, but now that I do... I feel lazy). But these trips are taking place on the weekend since I only have class Monday- Wednesday, meeting once a week (I’m taking six classes!). AMSTERDAM I got stoned...for the first time. That was basically the trip...hahaha. This ex-model Russian guy that I met at the hostel invited me to smoke, and I just went for it since I’ve never been stoned. It’s actually kinda hard not to when they have a hash shop on every corner and sit down on a cafe-like setting and order a gram or two ... read more
Morocco Wow. What a week!! There were so many events/drama/other factors that lead up to this trip, all of which caused the adventure to start way before we even left Paris! Where should I start…? As some of you know, the French Universities were on strike for six weeks starting on the latter part of November 2007. This meant that the students from the first semester were still trying to finish their semester into the first week of February!! How did this affect me?? Before leaving for France, they gave me the school calendar for the second semester with a vacation scheduled for the week of February 15-22. Knowing that I wanted to travel somewhere that week, I knew that I will be going to Morocco. BUT BECAUSE OF THE STRIKE, they canceled that week ... read more
We finally had our first official orientation today after being here for 3 weeks now... and the President of the international students association was naming all the countries that were attending the university here. He mentioned Vietnam...and for some reason I was the only asian guy in the room, so there were heads turning for a while trying to find this Vietnamese guy until all eyes finally laid on me. lol. Then i realized what just happened...so then i had to say out loud, ummmm....im from chicago or en francais "Je viens des Etats-Unis"! After I said that, people had this look on their face like they were kinda confused. lol. And then they served us lunch. We went around introducing ourselves and then of course the first thing they said was "ah, tu viens de ... read more
Feb. 03, 2008 BONJOUR A TOUS!! Well, January is done!! I don't think I've ever had a month as busy as this...and I still have five more months to go!!! Anyway, this week's excursions were Belgium and Switzerland...land of the chocolates!! This past Tuesday, I decided to tag along with the other American students for a mini trip to Brussels, Belgium (I swore I would never hang out with American students for the pure purpose of immersing myself in France and forbidding myself to speak English...obviously, that's down the drain). I think it was a good decision...not only did we have fun but I got to know them better. It is rather depressing when I found out that I am the oldest one of all the American exchange students...it's times like these that makes me cringe ... read more
Jan. 13, 2008 Hi! Well, I can't believe this journey has already been two weeks! As some of you know, I left Paris on Dec. 28th and arrived in Paris the next morning without my luggage…AGAIN!! I fly United quite often because I've accumulated some miles, but I gotta say that this flight takes the cake for the "worst flight" experience, ever. At check-in in Chicago, I had to wait for around 40 minutes for the attendant to check me in because apparently he didn't know what he was doing. I had already accumulated enough miles for them to upgrade me to business class for this flight. I asked if he could change me to a window seat, but for some unknown reason, the moment I asked for another seat assignment is when he told me ... read more
