Hola Family and friends!

I say hola because I have ended up in Spain, to my surprise.

I´ve been traveling for 16 days and I have 12 more days of adventure. I began my trip in Vienna where I stayed with the niece of a friend of my grandparents. Their flat was only five minutes on foot to the center of town. I loved Vienna and I have added German to my list of languages to speak so that I can go back to Austria and spend more time there. Vienna is a city full of architectural and artistic beauty. I went to many museums and I did quite a bit of walking. I went to a museum with many works from Gustav Klimt who happens to be one the artists I love. I saw The Kiss and before arriving, I didn´t even know that Vienna housed so much of Klimt's work. It was also really fun to stay with someone my age and go out to dinner with her and her sister where I got to get advise from some real Austrians and have good laughs and make new friends.

I popped into Bratislava for a day before heading to Budapest. Bratislava was an interesting place but I didn´t quite get the feel of it and also spent too much time getting on wrong buses and ending up in the middle of no where. I did get to meet a local who was very excited to use his English. I headed to Budapest the next morning and had a really great time. I stayed in a hostel and right after I checked in, I met a really nice Hungarian guy and had a great conversation right away. I met a lot of people in this hostel and it made traveling alone not feel lonely. I also visited the traditional Turkish bath and spent a long afternoon there.

From Budapest I flew back to France and stayed in Paris with Mikka and Sonya (my dad´s good friends) for one night and then went to Caen with Heather, an American friend from Strasbourg. We CouchSurfed, meaning we slept in someones home for the three nights we were there. Her name was Dorothee and she is such a nice person. She took us to the Normandy beaches, she cooked dinner for us twice and invited her friends. It was really great to meet some extremely friendly french students and keep practicing french.

Heather went back to Strasbourg and I headed to Bordeaux. Bordeaux is beautiful. Contrary to my early notion that I would be arriving in a city surrounded by vineyards only steps away, I found myself in a quite substantial city. I would love to be able to return to Bordeaux and experience outside of the city. I occupied myself by going to all the beautiful Cathedrals and Theater and all the spectacular architecture that is protected bu UNESCO. People in Bordeaux are incredibly friendly and I got approached multiple times by people wanting to strike up conversations. There were so many friendly people that I even got a ticket to a wine tasting for free! It was all in french, with many french couples but I learned quite a bit and next time I have a wine from Bordeaux I might be able to say something about it.

I am now in San Sebastian, Spain. This was a completely unexpected adventure but a decision that I am truly happy to have made. It started out rocky as I came with only 60 euro left to my name and a credit card (Now don´t get scared. I am not running up my credit, I´ve just forgotten my debit card). The first night I pretty much just went to hostels until they had room and then have to pay in cash. The next night I made my way to a hostel where I could pay with card and I love it there. The first day I talked with the owner and after 20 minutes we made plans to go hiking.

We went on a 15 minute bike ride along the boardwalk, then we went on a 2 hour hike and had lunch on a clif that looked out into the ocean. This man works for six months then travels for six months and has lived his life this way since he graduated university. We took the bus back to the city and it was a load, air conditioned, packed bus, the complete opposite to our tranquil afternoon. I´ve been pretty much just relaxing on the beach and getting horrible sun burn but it is a great change of pace.

Tomorrow I am off to Montpillier and from there I am not sure yet.

All my love and a really big hug. This is something that I miss most about America. I miss really good hugs... The french just don´t get it.

XOXO

Last three weekends

U.S.A. and an eagle at the elections breakfast














Sharing a crepe














I am the Eiffel Tower


















Steph and I


















Michelle, Jane and Me

Last weekend I went to Paris with my Art of Romanticism class. It was really interesting to go to a museum and actually know what I am looking at, who the painter was and the stories behind the paintings. We went to the Museum D’Orsay, Le Louvre, Le Musée de la vie romantique, and Le Musée Jaquemark-André. Our teacher gave us a guided tour in each museum and I knew she was intelligent because she has a PHD in Art History and she has written at least on book, but she is also a passionate and mysterious French woman. During our few breaks I walked around with my Friends, ate creeps, went to the Sacre Cour, Eiffel Tower at night and my favorite thing was sitting in a café drinking hot coco and talking with my friends for hours. This weekend I was with a couple of my favorite people in the program and we had such great conversations about compassion, economics, politics, religion, emotion and philanthropy. It is a wonderful experience to have intelligent and cleaver people to have great conversations with. Even though I was in Paris, the highlight of my trip was conversing with my friends.

The weekend before Paris and this past weekend, I stayed in Strasbourg. I love staying here because it is like a vacation away from vacation. I have time to discover Strasbourg and I have also made some friends who study at the French University. I made dinner for one of my friends one night, went ice skating and dancing with them, went to a concert and meet a friend for tea. I’ve practiced my French with them a lot and they also practice their English with me.

Fall Break

London

Right after midterms this past week my friends Jane, Sydney and I caught a plane to London. It was my first time flying on RyanAir which is a cheap way to fly around Europe. A one way ticket to London only cost me 20 Euro. In London I slept on Sydney’s Friend’s couch for two nights. Jane and I were only in London for two days so we did as much as we could in our allotted time. We walked along Thames river, took the London Eye, walked across parliament bridge, took pictures of Big Ben, walked around Westminster Abby, took pictures of Buckingham Palace and the guards, wandered around St. James park and Hyde park. In Hyde Park we saw a monument to honor the Canadians who fought in the Great War. This was my first time seeing someone recognize Canadian participation in the War with a monument. Jane and I visited the National Gallery where I saw paintings by Fragonard, Boucher, Vigee La Braune, Charden (all whom I’ve been studying in my Art class so it was really interesting). I also saw paintings by Van Gogh and Monet. My favorite paintings were: A Coastal View by Berghe and Psyche Showing her Gifts from Cupid, by Fragonard. We only had an hour in the Museum before they closed and kicked us out. We were lucky enough to be in London during a film festival called LondonLoves. In Trafalgar Square they played 16 clips from 1904 to 1997, which were all about London in some way. My favorite clip was a silent film called The Smallest Car in the Biggest City, quite a self-explanatory title. Our last day in London we visited Noting Hill, where we had a delicious red velvet cup cake that is allegedly pretty famous from a bakery called The Hummingbird. That night we visited Patrick and Jutta, family friends of approximately 50 years I believe. It was a great dinner and Patrick was really helpful with suggested activities in Ireland and gave me a good stack of maps, broachers and even bus schedules for Ireland. Jutta made a delicious dinner and she told me all about growing up in Europe and leaving East Germany in 1959 right before the Berlin wall and working as an au-pair for a French family in Paris. Patrick told me about Grandpa and Grandma getting married while Grandpa was still in a stretcher.

Cork

We got to Cork, Ireland on Sunday where Jane and I began our Irish Adventure. We started off with a tour of the Butter Museum which was right next to our hostel. Cork used to be the number one exporter of Butter in the world. We came at the end of the Jazz music festival so there were still a lot of people in town and lots of music and food and specialty vendors on the sidewalks. We walked threw Bishop Lucey Park, down Oliver Plunket street where all the pubs are, and to St. Finbarres’s Cathedral that had a beautiful gold angel on the top. We went to a pub that we thought was going to play jazz but we ended up listening to a techno group called Snowmen. We took a day trip to Blarney Castel where I kissed the Blarney stone, which is supposed to give you eloquent speech (I am still waiting for it to kick in). We ventures threw caves, waterfalls and the woods of the castle for most the day then back in Cork we visited Cork University, which is a stunning campus full of statues, old buildings with vines crawling up the sides and beautiful, green, flawless grass. I saw a lot of this grass traveling around Ireland. The next morning we caught a bus to Killarney.

Killarney

We just missed the bus tour around the Ring of Kerry so we ended up renting bikes and riding around for five or six hours. We biked to the Ross Castle, Muckcross Abby, Muckcross House and garden around the lake and to Torch Waterfall all together we rode about 20 kilometers. It was more of an adventure though because apparently this season they got more rain than usual and our path was blocked by small bodies of water multiple times but we just pedaled threw it getting our feet and ankles soaked. In retrospect this was a pretty risky event as it was approximately 40 degrees outside. It was just too beautiful not to continue down our path and the beauty was almost enough to distract me completely from my freezing situation. At night we wandered around the city and had a good Irish and Guinness Stew. The next afternoon we took a 7 hour bus journey to Kilkenny.

Kilkenny

The hostel we stayed in was by far my favorite one of our trip. It was called the backpackers hostel and it was a smaller hostel were there was only fifteen guests staying there. After exploring the not so active, night life of Kilkenny on a Wednesday night we headed back to the hostel. I sat in the kitchen and talked with five Australians and an American for most of the night and the next day we all visited the Kilkenny Castle and had lunch together. I wish I was staying longer but we headed to Dublin that same day.

Dublin

In Dublin Jane and I had dinner together and walking home it turned midnight and I was suddenly 21 years old! I know I am going to laugh at this in fifty years or even five but I am kind of sad that I am not a kid anymore. I am fully responsible for myself and I can’t just blame my mistakes on my adolescence. But I don’t make mistakes so I guess I’ll be fine. My friend Stephanie came and visited me in Dublin for my birthday. She was only staying for one night but we stayed up late talking and had breakfast together before she left for Galway. I have made some really good friends in Strasbourg and I am going to miss them so much when they all return to the respective schools next semester.

In Dublin Jane and I walked a lot and not surprisingly saw a lot of churches including St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I love pedestrian only streets so we wandered those a lot. We visited Trinity College, saw the book of Kells, the oldest harp in Ireland and the long hall two stories high and filled with 20,000 books. We celebrated Halloween in the Hostel because they were throwing a big party. Dublin loves Halloween. I also visited the Guinness Brewery and learned a lot about beer. I was one of the few people who walked threw the whole thing reading and trying to take in as much information I could. At the end you get a pint of Guinness and I was carded in a country that serves alcohol to 14 year olds. I also saw some really good musicians performing Irish music at a pub. It was a great week but I am really happy to be back in Strasbourg and in my own room and I can’t wait to sleep.

Luxembourg and Brussels

Hello everyone! Last weekend I went to Luxembourg City and Brussels with my European Policy Seminar class. We stayed one night and afternoon in Luxembourg where we stayed in a great hostel. I walked around all night with my friends to see some of the tourist sights because we only had a few hours the next day to do anything. It is a beautiful city and there were breath taking views all over. The next day we all went to the European Court of Justice where we heard a court case about Value Added Tax and deductibles. It was an amazing unique opportunity however hard to pay attention for an hour on non-business transaction. The rest of the afternoon it rained so once we gave up on touring threw the rain we sat in a bookstore and I read about Ireland and it made me even more excited for my fall break this week.

Brussels had such a beautiful Grand Square, defiantly one of favorite so far. My friends and I went to two really great bars. One was famous for having artwork from Rene Magritte who painted The Son of Man. The other bar had more that 2000 different types of beers and I met so many people from Brussels, Paris, America and all over the world. I spent a lot of time there that weekend. With my class, I visited NATO and the US Mission. They both had amazing speakers and by the end of the day I started considering jobs in foreign affaires. We also had a really great group dinner in the center square. Speaking of food I am sure you all have heard how excellent the waffles and chocolates are, and it is true. However I recommend if you go you don’t even have to pay for chocolate you just have to go into a lot of stores and they all let you test some. I saw the Mannequin Piss, which is the little gold statue of a boy peeing and I also saw Marat by David. It was a great weekend and my friends and I are still talking and laughing about all our adventures.

Sending my Thoughts to Matt's Family

October 8, 2008

I apologize for waiting so long to update my blog. In addition to being lazy, life has been extremely busy. Last weekend we had a class field trip through Burgundy. We went to Dijon, Boune and some place hidden in the country. I tried escargot and a liquor called Kir which is a mix of white wine and cassis (currant liquor) and of course bought some mustard. In Boune we had a wine tasting four red, one white and we tasted straight cassis which tasted like cough syrup. We stayed in a hostel in the middle of the country with a population of maybe 25 people. Amazingly enough it turned out to be one of my favorite nights. We had dinner all together and again it was a regional specialty of Burgundy, beef stew. After dinner, we had a “talent” show where anyone could perform where some students did gymnastics and some sang. My favorite two shows were Nick and Kate who performed Mama and the other was Matt “singing” My Girl with his backup singers Alex, Nate and Peter. I can easily say that those two performances were more entertaining than any shows I’ve seen. Later that night my friends and I wandered down dirt road and saw the clearest night sky since I’ve been in Europe. The Milky Way looked like it was painted and ever second you looked at the sky another star revealed itself.

Friday, October 4, 2008

On this day at 4:30pm I received the horrible news that our friend Matt Wanetik passed away that same day at approximately 5am. The cause of death is still unknown but the most reliable information we received was from our advisor, that he had a heart mutation and his heart failed him that morning. Matt was an amazing person and a friend of anyone lucky enough to be in his presence. He was a truly unique character always making life more exciting and more humorous than you could imagine possible. Every moment you spent with him would be with a smile on your face, even when you didn’t understand his humor but his laugh would make you laugh. His smile was contagious and you would catch it even in passing. I feel cheated that I don’t have the chance to get to know him better but I feel incredibly lucky that I had the pleasure to meet Matt August 20^th, 2008.

I want to share a brief memory of Matt that is clear in my mind and represents what a clear friend he is. When we stayed in Dinky Town, France there was this fantastic tree with braches longer than its trunk and weaving in and out of one another. Seeing the boys climbing the tree there was no way I couldn’t try to conquer this tree. Unfortunately I did not calculate the movements necessary to climb this tree and the clothes I happened to be wearing that day. Needless to say I got stuck upside down clinging to some branches. After egging me on to get up the tree, Matt came underneath me and told me to let go. Seriously. “Chev don’t worry I got you” Matt said very casually. Looking behind me I knew it could potentially be excruciatingly painful but without thinking twice I let go. Matt defiantly staggered but caught me none the less. This shows the amount of trust I had for him and how only a great friend would catch you from an awkward tree climbing situation.

Life is such a beautiful gift and each person is another cherry on top of an already amazing Sunday. I don’t think it is possible to heal from death but I do think that with death comes incredible growth and we should definitely not let these lessons pass us by.

Matt’s Father gave us some advice last night at the Memorial. 1. Always do something more because that is what Matt would do 2. Always let your parents know that you love them and 3. Always let your parents know that you care.

Jane, Me, Sydney, and Heather in Cannes

Friends on the train to Nancy (Chloe, me, Heather, Stephany)

Sydney and I on the Train to Cannes

Me and Jane on the Beach in Nice

Cannes, Nice and the Italian Alps!

I had the most amazing weekend!

On Thursday right after dinner with my host mother (Mme Rossette) I caught a train to Cannes. I went with four of my friends Jane, Sydney, Heather and Helen. But it turned out that ten more Syracuse students were also going to Nice that same night and staying in the same youth hostel. During my 12 hour train ride I drank wine, talked, read about Nice and Cannes and read my book New Moon. Sleeping was not the easiest thing to do on the train but I slept about 4 hours. I really enjoyed looking out the window and reading in a quite train.

Only Sydney, Helen, Heather, Jane and I spent the day in Cannes.

We walked to the top of the city to see the view and peeked into the church up there. Went to the daily market where I bought Breakfast/Lunch: a fresh tomatoe, apple/rain bread and goat cheese. Yumm! We ate on some rocks by the shore and took a little nap in the sun. We also wandered around some expensive yachts. We saw where the Cannes film festival is held and they were holding a modelling competition there that night. Jane and I walked down the boardwalk then met with out friends on the sandy beach. I dipped my feet in the Mediterranean, read and watched Sydney do a back flip on the shore. After we wandered threw some shops, we jumped on to a bus to Nice for one Euro!! I had to sit on the floor for a while but it was worth it.

Our Hostel in Nice was amazing.

It is called Villa Saint Exupery and was filled with young backpackers. I stayed in an 11 person dorm style room for 20 euro a night, it included breakfast and it had a really cool bar/cafe area where we had pizza for dinner, drank wine, talked with friends and met new people. On Saturday we visited the Matisse Museum, Russian Cathedral, walked along the beach (where I picked up really cool rocks!!). I had the most amazing dinner a little bit of q splerg of 10.50 euro but I had gnocchi and Sydney had Lasagne and we split it. Then we got ice cream from a place that had 96 flavours! I had honey and the darkest chocolate ice cream I've ever seen.

SUNDAY!

Was the most amazing adventurous day I can remember. I signed up for an excursion called cannoning. Myself and seven others staying in the hostel where driven to the Alps in Italy where we hiked for 30 mins in our bathing suits, it was about 60 degrees but we hiked to the cannon rivers put on wet suits and helmets and hiked back down the river for 3 hours. We climbed rocks, scaled cliffs, rappelled down cliffs, jumped off cliffs, swam, floated and walked down the river. I have to say I have never in my life experienced more in a 5 hour time period of my life. It has been 3 days and I am still sore and I have a huge bruise on my leg where I hit the water wrong. It was incredible!

Our train came at 7:30 the same day and you would have thought I would pass out from exhaustion but I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. If I knew I was going to be on the polar express I would have brought my fur trimmed Eskimo jacket. I will be prepared for next time though! I arrived in Strasbourg at 8:30 and had class at 9. Of course I made it on time but after class I went home, showered and took the best 30 min nap.

Back to school!

It is so hard to adjust my focus back to school when I am having such a great time, I love to hang out with everyone and I am planning my next adventure! I have booked my flight to London for fall break on the 23rdm for only 25 euro! From there Scotland and Ireland, not exactly sure where but it looks like I am going to spend my birthday in Ireland this year! I wonder if I am a little Irish.

I love and miss everyone tremendously and love hearing from you. I forgot my address book at home therefore I have unsent postcards and letters that I would like to send. Could you send me your address please?

You can write back to me at cheavenjroberts@gmail.com or send mail to:

7 Rue Schiller

Strasbourg, France 67000