Week 4

Saturday we went to a rugby game. It was a great time especially with Owen and Ian being obnoxious cheer leaders... everyone was laughing at us but we had so much fun. Sunday a few of us stayed up to watch the Steeler's game. It might have been late but totally worth it, just for Harrison's freakin awesome interception and Holmes being a Rockstar!!!!!! Monday we went hiking and found a nice little cave that was probably someone's hut at some point because the rocks were roughly cemented together and packed too orderly to be natural. Tuesday we had a nice surprise in getting a snow day for our first class, French. We couldn't go to Albi so Tim taught us some "survival French" for an hour then we had most of the day to ourselves. It was our last class with Eric though, and I am a little disappointed because I thoroughly enjoy his religious pilgrimage class. We are going to Toulouse for our excursion so it should be great!


Wednesday was extremely busy but it was a nice trip. We left for Toulouse before 9 and visited two churches with Eric. The first was the largest Romanesque church. It was the second most popular place for pilgrimages in the Middle Ages for its collection of relics, however, during the French Revolution most of those relics were stolen. It is also known for having one of the first depictions of the seven deadly sins. The second church was in the Gothic Style and was the head of the Dominican order. It is no longer used as a church, but it does contain the relics of St. Thomas Aquinas. After that we went to lunch at the University in Toulouse which was a mad house. There were so many people it was hard to get your food and find a seat. But what really struck me was the diversity in the student population. There were students from all over the world. Airbus was an interesting tour. We were in the largest building in Europe and the room we over looked contained three A380 planes side by side. These planes were HUGE and they are double deckers so they can hold over 800 passengers at once. It is the largest passenger plane in use at the moment. After our tour, we went to meet student from Dickinson College at the French Resistance Museum. It was a very enlightening tour of why WWI and WWII are still difficult topics here in France. It also tied in with Thursday night's movie, "It's a Beautiful Life," which was about how a father did everything he could to protect his son from the horrors of the Holocaust.

Week 3

This week things have been easier, I think I am finally over all the jet lag. We have been watching movies and Scrubs, playing boccie, running, bike riding, and hiking. Not to mention the cooking class we have is AWESOME. We make the best desserts (pears baked in wine, chocolate mouse, and baked apples with cinnamon sugar and caramel on top). We have had meetings with Margaret, a sweet English lady down the road, who has been helping us with our singing and we are going to sing in the church choir on Sundays. This week the power and water were not working because of a terrible storm. We spent two nights in a hotel but we made the best of it and it didn't end up being too bad. I am really excited to be with the people I am because no matter what happens, everyone just deals with whatever comes our way. A group of us decided that for spring break we are going to England for 5 days then Rome for seven. We are staying in a hostile called The Clink in London, which is a remodeled jail. For Rome, we rented two apartments so we have somewhere to cook and don't have to go out every night. We got a really great deal and I am so excited to be going, but that's not until March...

Week 2

Our classes are in full swing and finding I am trying to find a rhythm. Everything is a little overwhelming, we have an extremely full schedule but it all takes getting used to. We had Chuck Olson and Jim Donovan come to visit and they put on a lovely show after dinner the one night. We visited Conques for our religion class, it had the most fascinating engraving over the entry way into the church.

The First Week

I am not good at keeping up on writing so expect more pictures than anything from me. It is absolutely beautiful here, and once we got over the jet lag exploring the surrounding area was a great time.



Our first pilgrimage class was interesting. I like being able to experience things hands on rather than just taking notes all the time. We got to see the remains of a Roman town including the ruins of the oldest church in France. The churches that we visit are all beautiful and highly ornate. I just cannot get over what detail went into the buildings.

















The town here is so rustic. I love just being able to walk around and get acquainted with the town. We have some pets here too. Two dogs and a goat. The dogs are adorable and will follow us EVERYWHERE they can :)