like woah

wow, so i really don't think i'm ready for tomorrow to come... and even less prepared for saturday to follow

je sera trop triste.... putain merde. :(

simply for your amusement

here are two videos i'm sure you will all enjoy:

first, me dropping in on my friends to say hey in the french alps



and second, only the most french display of love



and why not finish it off with an ever-so-accurate description of the french man:

"The men of France - known internationally as God's gag gift to women - are legendary for their amorous nature. However, they are often compared to French soldiers: Both come on strong, make a few quick mistakes, regret getting involved, lose all interest, and ultimately give up, but still have the temerity to brag about their conquest to their allies for years."

with that being said, how have i not tombé amoureux already?

cuzy, the hottest new tourist destination

this weekend has been incredible! we finished off first semester with a day of games on thursday, followed by a picnic with the other neaveau deux class on friday.

after the grandest photoshoot of life it was time to head back to centre-ville, scoff down some food and meet up with antoine and katherine to hit the road to annecy.
after about a 3 hour drive we arrived at antoines amazing house in cuzy, surrounded by winding roads and gigantic mountains. it was marvelous! we headed out into the city of annecy to check out lac d'annecy (the second biggest lake in france)

and old annecy city. this is where the reality of the fact that we were actually surrounded by the alpine mountains finally set in. the lake was gorgeous and i can only imagine what it looks like in the summer time. back to antoine's place to have dinner avec sa famille. eventually it was time for bed in preperation for the early rise in the morning. woke up and geared up and were on the road by 9 heading to margériaz mountain to faire du ski pour le jour.

skiing is fucking sooooooo much fun! holy hell, i now understand what all you boys out in whistler are going on about (expect a visit next winter)

by the time our ski pass expired i'm pretty sure my body and soul had expired also and i'm still not sure how i managed to hobble along back to the car! but i did gain a free pair of ski boots from the day as the rental place forgot to give me a slip for renting them and we just casually walked away.... sweet, one less piece of equipment to rent next time! when we made it back to cuzy we prepared a sweet traditional dish - tartiflette (dish with potatoes, onions, lardon and beaucoup - and i mean beaucoup - de fromage) for dinner. as always, there were lots of apertifs flowing and of course more wine with dinner, which lead to an essential game of fooseball where my skills (or complete lack there of) were sadly displayed. the next morning we went out and met the horses and helped antoine feed them

(seriously mum, you would love their house. if you ever make it to france you must visit the nicot's, because it would be your heaven) and then we got spoiled with even more cheese (as if my body thought that was physically possible) when we had proper fondu for lunch. real fondu is nothing like the excuse for fondu we eat in canada and the glorious taste of three delightful cheese melted together with wine and oil can't even be described. after lunch it was back in the car for another 3 hours of winding up and down and in and out as we drove out of the mountains and back to dijon.
and now, here i am seven minutes after midnight, with an exam tomorrow that i have yet to really, truely study for. but somehow i don't really care. it's oral, and what comes more naturally to me than talking? if i know it, i know it and if i don't... well i'm pretty sure i can still do better than my crazy timid korean partner that i'm up against. c'est la vie.

a la prochaine fois bitches,
bisous xx

puff the magic dragon

well after drunkenly stating that "i would love to buy 60 euros worth of weed" on friday night, bruno decided to be ever so nice and get me the hook up... only to realize that if i actually buy 60 euros of weed it means i can not eat for the next month.... time for some problem solving
so after having made all of my money back in less than 24 hours and still having the 2 grams i originally wanted for myself left over... i've decided that the ideal job for me here in france is to be a weed dealer. its easy, its something i'm passionate about, and living in a town with this many canadian students craving the grass they can not find, it just seems perfect.
i will have to chat up bruno tomorrow and see how we can go about establishing my empire
god it would be so nice to have some money... and weed on the regular, holy life would be better!

(post script for the fam, don't worry i'm obviously not actually going to sell weed... but everything sounds like a great idea when you're stoned.)

trou de mémoire

well i would love to be able to tell you about last night... if i could possibly remember any of it

par usual jeremie et moi faired les betises and had a bunch of people over to pre-drink a chez anges

where camilla, jeremy and i polished off a fair amount of vodka and i stuck to my promise i made jeremy of getting blackout drunk with him
apres the pre-drinking we headed off to the bar to meet up with everyone for the birthday celebrations for regina and hyo where we then sang kareokee (i told you i was hammered) ... unfortunatly my memories of being at the bar do not exist at all, but from what i'm told i was the star of the entertainment.... fantastic!

my night was short lived when danielle made the executive decision that it was time to carry my drunk ass home.. i'm really not sure how i'm going to survive in this town once that girl leaves me

since being in france i've realized that my tolerance levels for everything have gone down significantly.... i'm gonna get my ass kicked when i come home.. literally a bottle of cheap polish vodka and i'm wrote off for the night and if i smoke a pinner to myself i'm flyin' high for hours... its amazing hahaha at least i've managed to become that cheap drunk i always wished to be!
luckily i am starting to come around a bit now, although this morning i had une gueule de bois from fucking hell.. holy shit. and thankfully my room is starting to smell less and less like a homeless man took a shit in it... as i so politely stated to jeremy this morning hahahaha
i should probably start studying for my civilisation exam on tuesday... but i really don't think today's the day... looks like tomorrow will have to do

until the next time! bisous!

there's a reason that i love this town

last night was ridonc.
started out the night with a bottle of wine a chez-agnes avec jeremie, benjamin, kasia et danielle and then proceeded onto chez nous for la fete de regina.. started slow and progressed into translating the most vulgar songs possible and playing drinking games with beers we didn't have to pay for? i knew there was a reason why i love that little drinking hole
apres chez nous, camilla and i decided the night was far from over, so off we went to freestyle to dance avec des amies.. once the lights came on and the bar was shutting down, it was obviously time to find a late night club! we managed to rangle billy along with us and off we set for la jamaica... only to be stopped en route so people could inquire about us speaking english... turns out they could also speak english, had a norwegian flag on their wall and we're offering us drinks... so it only seemed appropriate that we join them!

ended up staying there drinking with them for hours, drunkenly playing guitar hero (i know, i feel ashamed and dirty this morning... but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do), and drinking god knows what... i do remember drinking some norwegian poison shots that tasted like a mix of black licorice and mint..... and smoking weed!! oh thank god, how i loved those people.

around 4 30am we decided it was probably time to leave, so we staggered our way to camillas to make sure she found her way home and then had the joy of experience the french jungle when some dude decided to drop his pants to his ankles and do a little dance..... it was obviously time to head home at this point!

today i feel like death has become me... and its only going to become worse. we're gettin on the vodka train tonight in approximately 4 hours from now, and its sure to get messy... especially if i'm expected to sing kareokee tonight... which i will be the star of once i finish that bottle of vodka! hahaha just another weekend in the dij.. i love this city

j'ai peur.... hold me!

well tonight i realized what a big pussy i am.... and also that i have the best roomate in the world (yeah, that's right jeremy, you're the man!)

"give me a break, i've been drunked, stoned, and scared today! ALL AT DIFFERENT TIMES!"

finalement, four months later....

donc, i finally caved and made a damn blog... mostly because i came to the realization that with danielle leaving me in two weeks i will no longer be able to follow her life as my own and i will probably want some way to remember this messy year en francais! don't count on me updating often but i will do my best to keep it at least semi-entertaining (sorry in advance mom and dad!)

mad love, yo! xx

la fin de la décennie

after amsterdam, things were pretty hazy for a little while. but that didn't stop things from happenin'
we started off december by celebrating jeremy's birthday at bocadilla bar with beaucoup des bieres and beaucoup des amis.

the following weekend it was sadly time for the first farewell fete, olga was heading back to the states. we all gathered at chez nous, par usual, and as the bar closed out we headed off to atmosphere to finish off the night.

with antoine also leaving us to head back to australia and it being the last weekend before christmas break, we clearly had to have another big celebration. so we spent it partyin it up chez camilla style one last time in 2009.

before we all left for christmas break camilla, danielle and i wandered around dijon taking in all the lovely lights and decorations that the city puts up for the holidays, and of course, enjoyed some authentic vin chaud at the christmas market.

after leaving everyone after a night at chez nous, danielle and i decided that it was the night we would fulfil her dream of clambering ontop of a rooftop. and where better to do it than ontop of my seven storey building! with anges gone away we figured we'd have the top floor to ourselves at 1am and decided to venture up into the attic and out onto the roof (yes, it really was as simple as that). luckily when my neighbours decided to come home at 1:30am we had decided to leave a note stating that if anyone were to show up, they should leave the pull-down stairs down, as "maintenace" was doing some late night work. but after hearing them arguing in hushed whispers we came to the drunken conclusion that they were obviously going to call the cops on us and we were officially screwed. the second they were in their apartment we jumped down and took off outside for about 3 hours until we were sure that if the cops had infact showed up, they should certainly be gone by then. in the morning, when we weren't arrested we managed to have one hell of a laugh about it all.

on the 16th danielle and i took off to spend a night in paris before heading our seperate ways for the break . we didn't have much time there, but as always we made the most of the time we did have. we tried to make it to le louvre intime to see the lists (because without lists, we will die) but didn't quite make it in time, so instead we promenaded down the champs elysees to check out all the fuss, and then headed to the eiffel tower to see it do its hourly christmas shimmer. since it was the last one of the night we got treated to an extra special light show, which after my christmas cadeaux to myself, really was extra special!

then it was time to head back to the hostel to catch 4 hours of z's before it was time to be headin out on the first metro of the morning.
danielle and i parted ways at the metro station and i was off to the beauvais bus stop in order to catch the shuttle to the airport. on the metro i met an italian guy named savio who was heading to beauvais also, and who was super cool. thanks to all the snow france decided to get that morning we got to spend about four hours getting to know each other while we waited for our delayed flights. luckily my flight wasn't too late, and when i landed in girona, spain i only had to kill about an hour before catching my connection on to malaga.
seeing grandpa and nana jeanette was great, but the weather was absolutely miserable the whole time i was there. it was nice to be spoiled a little bit while though, especially after having no money to my name for almost 4 months. we tried to do as much as we could in the shitty weather, but mostly we just spent time together. going out for meals and checking out some sights i hadn't seen before. we did manage to walk along the waterfront once, but as grandpa put it, it was "bloody freezing". on my last day we managed to see the sun for about 3 hours, so grandpa and i spent it wandering around the park together.

five days with grandpa and nana jeanette was not nearly long enough, but we decided that i would be back in april, and hopefully the weather will be slightly nicer then as well.
on the 22nd it was back to the malaga airport for some teary goodbyes and then off to england for christmas. i was lucky to make it to england at all considering all the troubles they were having with eurostar breaking down in the chunnel and every airport in england cancelleing practically all of their flights coming in. thankfully, east midlands, where i was flying into, was the only one accepting flights. j'ai eu la chance! uncle simon picked me up and before i knew it i was back in misterton like the last 3 months hadn't even happened.
it was great to be with the extended family for the holidays, although i missed my family and friends back home something wicked! but it was nice to be in england for once. i spent christmas eve/day and boxing day at aunt jane and simon's with nana and the girls. and we all went bowling with some of jane and simons friends on christmas eve, followed by a massive chinese dinner. thankfully they know how to celebrate the holidays as i like to, lots of beer and even more food! between christmas and new years i was back down at misterton with grandad and marlene. but i was constantly on the go visiting everyone, catching up and of course making sure that the tavern stayed in business. for new years i was back at jane and simon's to ring it in with a delicious chilli supper, beaucoup des bieres, lots of wii dancing and god knows what else, and lots of friends. after walking lisa and her kids home i met a bunch of people on the streets outside and hung out with them for a bit... eventually the night gets blurry as it always does. and although it was nothing like new years at home, i still had a grand old time.

by the time the hangover was finally wearing off it was already the 3rd of january and i was jumping back on a plane at east midlands to head back to frogland. the begin of the decade in dijon commenced with obligatory chez nous catch ups and the best fete of all when danielle, camilla and i got beyond drunk off vodka together on thursday, and thanks to jeremy waking me up i still managed to make it to my 9am class the next morning. still slightly intoxicated, but i'm pretty sure my french was even better than normal. life is good.

here's hoping this next year proves to be as good as the one just past!

bonsoir mes amis, je vous aime x

le deuxieme chapitre - amsterdam, like woah.

d'accord, so after stressing out all day about how i have to spend every second of today and tomorrow studying for mes examens at the start of next week (because i'm too busy going to Annecy to go skiing in the alps this weekend) i have instead procrastinated doing sweet fuck all for the past 5 hours.... (kudos to you danielle, you we're right... however, mom and dad, i did get a solid study sesh in with danielle earlier today for very serious, studious work. i promise) but now after i have worked so hard i figured what better way to end the night (and procrastinate a little more) than to puff the drag and continue on with chapitre deux... enjoy!

after italy i continued on the theme of livin' la vida loca and was anxiously awaiting the infamous trip to amsterdam. i mean this is the trip that would make dreams come true. amsterdam. cannabis cup. gorgeous boys. and bicycles galore... what more could a girl need?
so naturally being my fuck up self, i decided to go to la chat noir the night before and get absolutely wasted to check out sebastian and mr. oizo. clearly for a show like this its not going to be tame. next thing i know i've guzzle two bottles of wine (neither of which cost over .86 centimes - aka less than a buck) and i'm stumbling (or should i say danielle's carrying me) to the bar.

judging by the pictures i clearly had an absolute blast and made quite a few friends for one night... but from a certain point on, the night becomes an absolute blur. needless to say, anges' attempts of shaking my toes to wake me up for my 6am train failed miserably ("tu était presque mort!"), and when my pulse finally kicked back in and my eyes opened at 8 i knew i had really fucked up this time. booked it to the train station as little as my still drunk legs could take me and rambled off some slur of words en francais that somehow got me a new ticket - and a new hefty hole in my wallet. had the most horrendus train ride of my life to belgium and then to amsterdam. but then i was finally there, at heaven's gate!

amsterdam was so fucking god damn unreal i dont even know how to describe it. just wow. if there's ever a place that i truely belong, this is it. within the first 10 minutes of being intown i found myself sat in dampkring downtown coffeeshop rollin' up a gagger to myself to relieve how terrible the day had been thus far.

next thing i know i'm sitting outside on a bench bartering with some homeless guy about how he'd steal me a bike on the black market if i just gave him some of my baugette hahhahah some of the things i saw in amsterdam were ridonculous... people do everything while riding bikes! pulling suitcases behind them, chattin on the phone.. i saw a MIDGET driving a KIDS bike and it was the funniest thing in the world at the time. "speaking of midgets... there are also some of the NASTIEST women you will ever see in the red light district... even if we're not including the midgets i still stand by that statement." (actual quote from my journal while in town hahahaha) and let me tell you, madame toussard's wax museum gets pretty trippy after a few good tokes.

also managed to check out the sex museam and the heineken brewery

and mostly just get lost around the city all while trying to find myself again and smoking in every coffeeshop along the way. eventually made it to the cannabis cup and it was gloooorious!!! soooo many free samples of heavenly goodness and a new vapourizer to smoke everytime you turned around.

i was pretty much wrote off after this, but still managed to do a bit more sight seeing and have a few more "coffees". i met some pretty dope people on the trip (no pun intended) and then also some just straight up weirdos hahaha went out with peter, the dude who's couch i was crashing on, to a couchsurfing party at the famous dampkring uptown coffeeshop and that was really cool. walked for about an hour outside of amsterdam city one day so that i could find a typical dutch windmill, mission was a success.

other than that i mostly ate a bunch of waffles and smoked a loooooooootta weed. definatly a trip of a lifetime and everything i had ever imagined it to be and more. this is for sure on my list of places to visit again... and soon. and next time i think you should all come along for the ride ;)
it was definatly hard to adjust back to everyday life in the dij once i made it home, but slowly and surely, here i am. still living... just with un petit trou dans mon coeur.

but i believe i have successfully procrastinated enough for tonight and its now late enough that i should go to bed without considering ramming my brain full of grammaire, as fun as that is.

a la prochaine fois, mad love x

le premier chapitre

donc, after sampling the new bud de francais, i figure there's no better opportunity to take the time away from studying to procrastinate by telling you about the last five months that i've failed to mention before i created this blog.... be prepared for the longest post you will ever read!

where to start off... well i guess leaving for the airport was the most ridiculous moment of my life... i don't think i've ever been so happy and excited, yet miserably sad at the same time when we put the blunt out at the apartment and i said goodbye to everyone... and well, saying goodbye to the fam and emma and inferno at the airport was a whole 'nother level... i'm pretty sure by the time i actually made it on the plane i was so emotionally drained that i had no choice but to sleep the entire way, so sleep i did.

next thing i know i've landed in rejkyavik, iceland; and the adventure had begun! went and caught the bus i needed to get to downtown rejkyavik (which is by far the weirdest town i've seen.. its all just like volcanic tundra and barren land, i don't know how people live there!) once at the bus station i had the pleasure of killing three hours in an un-heated, practically outside building. after watching the sunrise in icelandic skies it was time for the blue lagoon hotsprings.

that place was incredible... mind you it would have been cool to have a friend instead of just floating around. note to you, if you ever do go here, do not put your hair in the water... my hair was a mess for a month afterwards, too many minerals and shit goin' on in there! wow. but so beautiful. after three hours there i was so exhausted that i'd head back to the airport until i had to catch my flight in a few hours. when the plane took off i got to watch the sunsetting

once i arrived in england i was reminded of just how retarded trying to communte with two suitcases that are both bigger than me was going to be.


trying to find my way onto the bus instead of just getting the metro like usual was near impossible! finally i managed and was off to the train station and up to rugby, where i got a cab onto misterton and was finally home.

my time in england was super chill, not a whole lot changes over there so it's pretty casual when i go. but it's always nice to see the family and friends and catch up with everybody!

i think it was a good transition decision to go to england first though, because although its not home, its not some random country with a different language and nobody i know. it was definatly a fucked up feeling though being there knowing i wasn't going to be home in a month or so like usual, and it took some serious getting used to! after the month though the fear wore off and i was itchin' to get to france and start the big adventure and see what it was all about!

saying goodbye to england was hard, but not as hard as usual. it was definatly a nice feeling knowing that they're not so far away this time. getting the train to to london and through the chunnel to paris was no problem (although going through the chunnel is nothing to write home about, and it's certainly not one of those things you should feel is neseccary to bother trying unless you need to) getting off the train in paris and realizing i had to figure out how the fuck to get to gare de lyon was a huge kick in the face. luckily, i somehow pulled it off just in time to catch my train to dijon. and once there it was a hunt to find mr. sanders. my awesome roomate, jeremy, was waiting for me holding a canadian flag and a sign with my name on it (you bet i felt important!) we walked back to chez anges, which is only about a 10 minute walk from la gare because our house is so fuckin' central it hurts! chose my room and started to get settled in. i met anges and her boyfriend marc later on that evening, and then jessica arrived shortly after. jeremy took us out to a dijon soccer game that night which was a spectacle in itself

and then we were off to chez nous, a random hidden gem of a bar located conveniently enough, just behind my house. met a bunch of his friends and then it was definatly time to call it a night.

the weekend was pretty chill just trying to get my bearings straight and checkin out a movie. then there was the monstrosity of the entrance exam at school, which was interesting to say the least..... but after that we had a week to just hang out and meet a bunch of people in the same boat as us and do fun things like organized class trips and tours of beaune and dijon, it was ever so sweet!

luckily on the day of the entrance exam i met a bunch of really sweet people so life was pretty decent from the get go. it was amazing to see how good it felt to hear someone speaking your native tongue when you're in a country surrounded by frogs, so this made it super easy for people to get along and mingle.

naturally, the first friday after meeting everyone it would only be appropriate to help camilla throw a housewarming party for her new apartment. this was a horrible realization of how many different customs we're going to have to get used to, and fast, if we were ever to survive in this country. the night was hilarious and a total blast, even if about 4 million randoms showed up at the end and danielle almost fell off her chair screaming because some random dude tried beezbeez her hahaha golden. from then on, it was like we'd been friends forever. camilla's place became the obvious hang out and party central. next on the list was canadian thanksgiving, which was celebrated with cheap wine, turkey sandwiches, apple pie, and good company.

the next week or so was pretty much consumed with hitting the town and checkin' out la salsa and dancing on table tops, or partying it up with camilla until 4 in the morning at la jamaique... oh yeah, and of course school.

speaking of school, i got placed in neaveau 2 out of 5, which is just slightly above where they put the retards that struggle to say bonjour... so i felt like my placement was adequate to my abilities. my school schedule is easy as hell and i have class from 9-11 and 1-3 30 on mondays and wednesday, 11-1 and 2-4 on tuesdays, 11-1 thursdays and 9-11 fridays. when i'm at school my life consists of grammaire, comprehension orale, comprehension ecrites, expression ecrites, expression orale, and then of course, a little more grammaire. i've learned an insane amount since arriving at the start of october and find it hard to believe how far i've come... although i am still tres loins away from being fluent in any means... i'll keep dreaming!

on the weekend of october 24th we decided it was finally time to hit up paris. there's a sweet deal from dijon where if you take the first train in the morning and then last train home, its only 15€ for a return ticket! it turns out to be the longest day of your life though, but totally worth it in the end. having never been before we hit up all the typical tourist spots; the eiffel tower (which was too foggy to bother venturing up)

notre dame, musee d'orsay (from the outside at least), le louvre,

sacre coeur,

and who could forget, moulin rouge.

it was amazing to actually see it all in person, but really it just gave me the urge to want to see more, see further... and start exploring the countries around us. by this time we'd already caved and bought tickets with ryanair to fly to italy for 20€ (or so it seems when you're hastily booking it, until you realize that the plane ticket will actually be the cheapest part of your trip.. but you live and you learn, and we we're stoked regardless.
however, before the travelling could commence, we still had to celebrate halloween! everybody knows that halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, so i gotta say i was totally bummed to find out that they don't celebrate it here. no costumes anywhere, no decorations up, rien. i made it my personal mission to find every shop window in dijon with a halloween display, and was over the moon when i found a pumpkin i could carve. of course a holiday as epic as this, means an equally epic party at camilla's. the night was insane and everyone dressed up. definatly one of the best parties to date still.

then comes november, and what a month november was. i don't think i spent a single weekend actually in france this month, and it will be a month i will never forget. first i caught a ride up to brussels, belgium with a bunch of friends, and stopped in luxembourg on the way.

luxembourg was a really pretty city, but since il a pluet comme une vache qui pisse (one of my favorite new phrases francais - it's raining like a pissing cow) it was hard to appreciate it and enjoy it a lot. but nice none-the-less.

belgium was not long enough. i loved this city, it was so diverse and really cool. there were sweet art galleries everywhere and so many different cultures blended into one, it was great. and so much beer... and the waffles, oh my god.

how could you not love this place, especially when every chocolatiere in town offers you free samples when you walk in the door! my first hostel experience was about an hour outside of brussels in tournai, and it wasn't bad at all.

it had an incredible breakfast and the town was really quaint. we spent the next whole day touring around brussels and checking out all the sites and taking everything in.

then that evening it was back to dijon we go! definatly on my list of places to see again!

the next weekend after belgium it was time to head to italy! we knew getting on the train to paris that this was going to be one hell of a trip. we had four days, four nights and four cities to get through... two of those nights with no where to sleep and planning on winging it and sleep en route through the night, or simply at the train station. we took off from dijon to paris mid afternoon on the 11th and had the fiasco of making our way from paris to "paris beauvais" airport, which is really about an hour's drive through the black forest and completely outside of paris. from there we fly to pisa, italy; and on the bus we jumped to take us on to florence. took us a while to actually find the hostel in florence and then took us even longer to wake up the owners of the hostel to actually let us in. by the time we went to bed i think it was almost 2 and we were up and at 'em no later than 8. having only a day in florence we hit it hard and made our way around what i would consider a pretty hefty portion of the city. saw so much there; the duamo (the 4th largest cathedral in europe),

pointe vecchio,

hiked up the 163 steps to make it to the top of piazzale michelangelo (twice! with a view that incredible we just had to go back one last time)

where met a lovely pervy old man who apparently tries to seduce all the young ladies at the top of piazzale michelangelo... but he did give us a good tip to check out the grave at the top where we could find the grave of E. Cherubini, the author of pinocchio (which we actually couldn't fine in the end, but it was the most incredible grave yard i've ever seen), checked out the chiesa di santa croce, ate one of the BEST meals i've ever had in my life at trattoria il contadino

(seriously, that food will live on in my dreams) and of course rubbed the snoz of the wild boar outside of the mercato nuovo to ensure that one day we will return to that beautiful city.

from there we had to walk to the other side of the city to catch some z's next to the homeless people at the train station in firenze (which is not indoors what-so-ever, and its bloody freezing in italy in mid-november!) eventually we boarded the train at around 2:30am and were off on our luxurious ride to venice, where we literally had to pull some serious yoga type moves so that we could all get SOME sleep. 5:30 came much sooner then expected and we all rolled off the train and into the gorgeous city of venice. even if we couldn't appreciate it at the time, we got to experience the street all to ourselves before the city was even close to waking up. as the streets began to stir we stumbled upon san marco square just in time to watch the sunrise over the grand canal.

it was really neat to get to see san marco square actually flooded, made you realize that that town really is sinking... but it was also nice to have it all dry up and sort its self out as the sun came up. first stop was up to the top of the campanile (the bell tower) on the first ride up.

the view was utterly amazing! everyone says that the best thing to do while you're in venice is to just walk around and get lost, and appreciate the city on the way. i couldn't agree with anything more. every corner was breathtaking and there was constantly another canal to walk along or another bridge to cross. i loved it there. danielle and i were able to have some time in the afternoon to get out on our own together and we couldn't have been happier. we ate some delicious gelato and and a good old laugh when danielle decided to take a dip in the canal

(and take it like a champ considering how freezing it was!) i spent the majority of the rest of the day laughing my tits off everytime the image replayed in my mind in slow motion hahaha danielle and i did our best to see the outter parts of the city as we wanted to see as much of it as we could, i think we did a pretty good job, but really we did a better job of getting lost. we met up with the other girls for dinner and then found a local italian bar where we got some drinks...

one thing lead to another, and next thing you know danielle and i are determined to find a rooftop to climb upon. after searching around the town, and thinking about if it would be better to fall off a rooftop into a canal or onto the street, we decided to settle for climbing out the window of our b&b onto the shanty scaffolding that was outside our building and climbing up to the top.

once we reached the peak and realized they were retiling the roof and it was slightly raining at this point we made the wise decision it would not be wise to go clambering along the rooftop.. but it was quite the adventure regardless. it must have been at least 2am by the time we made it to bed again, and after getting about 9 hours sleep in two days it seemed like it would be impossible to move the next day. but being determined to enjoy every second we were in italy we managed to crawl our asses out of bed and walk the half an hour back to san marco square in time for 6am sunrise...

which in the end it was far to cloudy to be able to even see... but since we're up, might as well enjoy the day! went and checked out the fisherman's market

and then walked as fast as our little legs could take us to the other end of the island to see chiesa della salute, and stand at what i like to consider the edge of the world.

i could have sat there forever... but instead we had to race back to the train station to catch our train home. after some delays and a bit of grief we finally made it back to the pisa airport just in time to catch our flight back to paris.... and sweet jesus, isn't that a whole 'nother story! knowing that we had to spend a night in paris before heading home to dijon and thinking it would be no problem, our brilliant plan for the night was to bunker down in gare de lyon and try and finally catch some sleep. this worked for about 45 minutes until around 1am when very scary french security guards with even scarier dogs came to tell us that the train station was closing and we had to get the fuck out. parfait. what do you do at 1am in paris when you have the whole night to kill and nowhere to go? this is a very good question. at first we attempted to go from hotel lobby to hotel lobby trying to get a little bit of sleep, but after getting kicked out of about the 3rd lobby we quickly gave up and started looking for a plan b. turns out plan b is find a bar thats open all night long and enjoy it as much as you can. being beyond broke and completely exhausted makes this quite difficult... but somehow 1 beer each and 5 hours later we were settling our bill at the bar and traipsing off to gare de bercy to pray to god it was open an we could sleep. seeing as the train station didn't open for an hour we decided to say fuck it and sleep outside the doors, on the disgusting pavement in the freezing cold, until somebody felt sorry enough to let us in side. finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we were on the train heading home. i have never been so happy in my entire life to see my bed, and i'm pretty sure at that moment we became one. with 13 hours of sleep in 4 days it was hard to appreciate this trip at the time, but now it all seems like the perfect voyage. italy was amazing and its a definite must see place. if i could go back and do it all again, i wouldn't change a thing. many life lessons came out of this trip.

holy fuck, longest post of life, if you are still reading this somehow i congratulate you... and would just like to say, this is the end of chapter one. i hope you're ready for chapter 2... still to come... amsterdam and so much more!