Praha & Genève

Hello from the Geneva airport! I thought my flight to Rome left 2.5 hours earlier than it actually does, so now I have a few minutes to put up some pictures from the last couple of weeks. Have limited time with the internet here, so it'll be quick. My weeks in Prague and Geneva were incredible-- my hosts amazingly hospitable and generous, the weather and cities and countryside beautiful, the cities full of interesting history, the food delicious, and in the case of Prague, the beer absurdly cheap. The photo above is me on the Charles bridge, built around 1345 in Prague.

Old Town Square:

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 The changing of the guard at Prague castle

 Stained glass in St. Vitus cathedral in Prague Castle

 St. Vitus Cathedral

My wonderful friend Lucka, who I stayed with in Prague! There were a lot of statues in Prague that you touch for good luck-- this one was particularly funny.

 Day trip to Liberec-- view from a funky Cold War era tower on the top of a mountain, with views into Germany and Poland.

 Sad alien, far from home :'(

 Bara and Jakub, more dear friends who live in Liberec (I met all these Czech people in France, in Saint Quentin. I tutored Bara and Lucka, and played basketball with Lucka. Jakub and Lucka's husband Lubos play professional volleyball in Saint Quentin.)

 Beautiful museum in Liberec

 Prague Zoo!

 Surykaty-- one of the few words I know in Czech. (meercat)

 omnomnom

 Lucka, Lubos and I with Lucka's two nieces after their basketball game-- in the gynmasium where Lucka and Lubos got married :)

 Karlstejn Castle! Constructed by Charles IV in the 14th century, about an hour outside of Prague.

 Goulash + fried cheese + beer omnomnom

 Old Town Square

 Our Lady of Tyn Cathedral

 The Charles River

 Labirynth (or however you spell that.)

Prague castle from the park on Petrin

 Geneva! Friends of Tim and Teresa, our family friends, under low hanging umbrellas after a big fondue lunch

 Lake Geneva

 Speedoed man chatting up two ladies in conservative Muslim attire

 Les Bains des Paquis

 CHACHA the cat, with Tim and Teresa

 Climbing up le Saleve, a mountain in France next to Geneva. Here is Max, Teresa and Tim's son, looking out over France from the top.

OK running out of time!!!! Wish I had more minutes to sing the praises of my incredible hosts, but for now I must dash. In 4 hours I'll be in Rome, meeting up with my dear friend Betsy, and tomorrow we're heading to the farm in Ponteginori.
Lots of love across the ocean <3

Germany and my Last Week en France

So, here I am sitting in front of a restaurant in Reims enjoying my last few hours in France. Which happen to be sunny ones! Quelle chance. From here on out I think my posts will become mostly pictures and probably a lot less frequent, because my internet access is a bit spotty now that I'm traveling. Haven't got much time before my train leaves, so here's a very very brief summary of the last 3 weeks-- When I got to Germany, I spent the week with Tabea in Osnabruck before leaving for a long weekend-- one night in Bremen with her sister, and two nights in Hamburg. From Hamburg I went back to Osnabruck for the better part of a week, then spent 3 nights in Berlin, which I think has been my favorite city of my trip so far. Things to know about Germany: 1) It is awesome. 2) There are no speed limits on the freeway 3) Beer is just as cheap and as good as you imagine Things I did in Germany, probably out of chronological order: Visited one of Tabea's French classes, went to the Osnabruck zoo, saw various beautiful cathedrals and churches, enjoyed many meals in Tabea's small apartment, strolled through several Burgerparks (Peoples' parks/public city parks), went to a Biergarten, rode on a boat in the Hamburg harbor, saw Brita's brother perform with the Hamburg Philharmoniker, enjoyed museum night in Hamburg, visited 2 botanical gardens, ran, learned so.much. about Berlin's incredible history, saw the East Side Gallery (longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall), the Topography of Terror (museum about the Nazi seizure of Power), the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, did a walking tour of central Berlin, sang with Tabea and enjoyed listening to her play guitar, went dancing, went to a singer/songwriter competition in Hamburg, took advantage of an amazing carpooling website to move around Germany, saw an artists' colony in an abandoned building, saw some mad cool djs, met cool people in my hostel in Berlin, and also spent time with Tabea's parents, her boyfriend Jonny, her sister Franzi, Jonny's sister Friederike in Hamburg, + Brita's brother Erik in Hamburg! I am already planning my return trip to Germany, definitely one of the places I most want to go back to. Last Sunday I made the long journey back to Saint Quentin, where I have been working this past week. Me and 5 other American assistants lived in the school and helped a group of middle and high school students studying advanced English to memorize and act out scenes from English films. I had a group of 6 boys, and we worked on a scene from the movie 'The Untouchables' with Sean Connery and Kevin Costner. The scene was really fun, and included gun fights and swearing and throwing punches, which the boys really enjoyed. They were all quite sweet and I really enjoyed working with them, and the other assistants. Highlights of the week included practicing the pronunciation of such choice phrases as "why don't you kiss my butt", "piss off," and "you dirty son of a whore"; having the kids dance the ChaCha Slide and Soulja Boy; spending the evenings watching movies and singing karaoke with the other assistants; seeing my basketball team and some teachers from Tergnier one last time; and watching the kids perform their scenes (the others were from 'Twilight', 'Harry Potter', 'Mamma Mia!', 'Mean Girls', and 'School of Rock') in front of a full house at the final performance on Friday. Yesterday I spent my last day in Saint Quentin with Stéphanie and her children, and this morning they dropped me off at the train station. It was sad to say goodbye to her, she has been so kind to me since my first days in Tergnier-- but she said, "Nous se reverrons, je le sais." (We'll see each other again, I'm sure of it.) I'll be back here, and maybe next time during the summer when its not cold and rainy :) In a couple hours I'll take an extremely long bus ride to Prague, so CIAO for now. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading this, especially mine!