My year in France!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Bus Trip Espagne 2008 Part 1. Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, et Chateau de Carcassone.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

so I am about to leave for my trip to spain!!
It's an 8 day bus trip with Rotary... a bunch of exchange students are going!!

Before I left I want to tell about something I saw on Wednesday that I've never seen in my life.

GREVE DE TAXI... you may ask yourself what the heck that means..??

It means that all the taxi's in and around the city of Rouen went on strike... and decided to block all traffic for hours..

It's definately not the first strike or protest i've seen in france, but it's one of the most impressive.

I come to school like any normal day and i see all these taxis around the train station.. i say to myself... that's strange?? Then about five minutes later they all leave in a huge caravan... and i walk down the street to find taxi's EVERYWHERE! as far as i could see down every street.
All the taxi drivers got out of their taxis in the middle of the street.. lit up cigarettes... talked amongst eachother.. some stayed in their cars and honked their horns. It was crazy. They had things written on their taxi's about Sarkozy (president of france).

So i guess the reason they were striking is because the government wants to make it so you dont have to have a special permit to drive a taxi.. basically anyone would be able to drive one. Thus taking away any competion and the superiority of 'the taxi driver'.

Not sure how far that strike got them.. but I was pretty impressed that they were able to block rouen in a matter of about five minutes. Incredible.

Stay tuned for more manifestations... strikes.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The Netherlands

I just got back from The Netherlands about three days ago, and it was really a great trip. I don't have many pictures because my camera died shortly after we arrived... but I will post the pictures I DO have. I was fourtunate to stay with my friend Belen's Aunt and cousins, who showed us around Amsterdam. We did a lot of bike riding around the city, which was a whole new experience for me, but was so much fun. I can't tell you how many "tourists" I almost hit! haha. I also got to see the house that Anne Frank and her family hid during the war. On New Years Eve we got together with some friends of Belen's cousins. I also got to do a tradition from Ecuador, which was really interesting and fun! Overall, great trip. Lot's of fun times getting to know Belen's family, and really learning about Dutch people and culture! The Netherlands is really different from France. The people, the diversity, the food, and just their way of life. I am so glad I got to make this trip. I am also really thankful that I got to stay with Belen's cousins and Aunt because I didn't feel as much like a tourist, instead I really learned about their way of life, and got to meet a lot of dutch people... who by the way speak excellent English!

7 hours, 17 minutes, and 15 seconds until the New Year!! Amsterdam...

Laurens and I on New Years Eve

Belen and her cousin Jessica

Jessica and her boyfriend "chicho"

This is us on New Years making the "old man", we stuffed some old clothes with newspaper. after we burned it in the streets to burn away all the bad things that happened in 2007 and start a fresh year. We also jumped over it for good luck. It's a tradition in Ecuador. It was so much fun.