Monday, January 28, 2008
Beginning of yet another week...
well last night was amazing! mike, sam, and i went to the FEU ( college group) in Grenbole. We go there once or twice a month for a crepe soiree thingy. We ate wayyy too much and then got to talk to these incredible two canadien girls...in english! they are amazing and are planning on meeting up with us a few more times before we head home! we also got to see some random people from this summer and other friends from FEU throughout the past week. That's been pretty sweet in itself! The wedding party is beginning already and we have guests arriving by the carload. Kristin and I made a trip to Grenoble today for wedding gear and dresses. So that's Sunday! Right now we have 17 bubbly american girls here for a work camp which should be tiring, but nice as they also speak and understand english! Other than that we're planning on getting some skiing in at least one day this week and then we're doing wedding stuff and then winter season begins in full with some ski camps!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Roadtrip!
so this past week we found out we would have 4 days off before the whole winter season takes over our entire lives. Mike, Justin, Kristin and I decided this would be the perfect oppertunity to see the South of France and get out of the cold for a bit. We left Sunday hitting Avangon and Aix en Provence where we stayed at a cheap french hotel called the Formular 1. Both cute little towns with a lot of history and some amazing chinese/thai food that we found at a little out of the way cafe.
Monday we got up pretty early and headed to Marseille. According to our 4 maps and directions we should have gotten there in about 30 min. yea it definitly took us 3.30 hours to get to our hostel. We ended up stopping at this random centre commercial in the downtown area for shopping ( my first french mall....exactly like all of them back home) and a parking lot picnic lunch....yes we're cool like that. There was even some mood music playing in the lot that we decided to have a dance party too ;) When we found our hostel we stopping in awe for a little while. A pretty nice view, an amazing old restored villa run by a family and these rooms with chrystal chandeliers. It was incredible. The guys gave us the princess room with the beautiful patio and breakfast area and we gave them the room with the built in kitchenette and living room where we all chilled most of the time. After we finally got to the downtown area. We walked the old port, walked around these old fortresses and saw chateau d'If, then strolled these little side streets and visited Longchamp palace (which is really a big statue and stairs and pretty gardens with a sick playground which we totally tapped). In the evening we were all really tired so we returned to the hostel for our pasta creation ( aka ramen) and this card game we are all obsessed with.
Tuesday we got up....once again pretty early....had breakfast delivered to our room (courtesy of the gents) which we all ate at the pretty breakfast area set up in our room as the sun rose. We headed out to Nice next, but got rather sidetracked along the way. We ended up stopping in a little fishing town called Cassis (my favorite town we saw) and for a hike in the Calanques (series of inlets, secluded coves, and beautiful views of the Mediteranean Sea). We had another picnic here at a little cove we found and ended up almost going swimming, but in the end decided it was just a bit too cold for us. Needless to say we enjoyed the sun and sea. Finally we checked into our next hostel in Nice. It was quite a bit different than the first two places we stayed. This one was a REAL hostel complete with all english speaking foreigners who we got to chat with. We stayed in a dorm and shared it with a Canadien girl. We ended up eating dinner in the monastery ( did i mention it was a restored monastery) with some other travelers our age. The chef was a line chef and he was such an amazing cook. He made pizza and chinese stir fry noodles. I took some great pictures of his antics. We enjoyed hanging out for a while and then headed into Nice for the evening. We say a Russian Chapel, the beach, the Chateau overlooking the city, the old town, the light up buddah's and ended by sitting and watching the stars and talking on the beach. It was a pretty sweet evening. Plus Mike and I found a fry place on the way back to the hostel and that was pretty sick too.
Wednesday morning we once again got up pretty early, had a quick hostel provided breakfast and then headed out. We drove to Monaco and walked around for a bit. We saw the castle and Grace Kelley's grave. Then headed back out towards Italy. Along the we ended up taking the coastal route and stopped in nearly (or it felt like) every town we drove through that had a cute beach. Either way we got some ice cream and walked some beaches. Then we drove into Italy and hit Ventiglia ( the first Italien town we hit) for a late lunch of pizza and coffee flavored Gelati as we walked the beach. Finally we headed back home through the mountains. It weas a really long trip home...emphesis on REALLY. It took us about 7 hours to drive back to Grenoble from there. But the view was amazing and we saw a killer sunset. We ended up stopping for dinner and cafe in a little town and had a very entertaining experience with the locals. When we did get back we unloaded, read out 10 emails from blain (you might think im exageratting, but im sooo not), had a really really late dinner of pasta and all collapsed.
So that is the brief and not explicite version of our travels. It was sooo much fun and we all had a great ( if not tiring) time. The south is very different and soooo pretty. Plus it was very warm and the beaches were amazing. It was neat to explore some of the places we had heard about for so long. And now we're preparing for the wedding and learning Brazilian to be prepared for the experience. Tonight Juniors fam gets here and his bro has been living with us today. This weekend consists of a group run by Mike, Kristin, and I and then Monday-Fri is a group from a Christian school in Ohio. Should be crazy busy, but fun all the same.
Monday we got up pretty early and headed to Marseille. According to our 4 maps and directions we should have gotten there in about 30 min. yea it definitly took us 3.30 hours to get to our hostel. We ended up stopping at this random centre commercial in the downtown area for shopping ( my first french mall....exactly like all of them back home) and a parking lot picnic lunch....yes we're cool like that. There was even some mood music playing in the lot that we decided to have a dance party too ;) When we found our hostel we stopping in awe for a little while. A pretty nice view, an amazing old restored villa run by a family and these rooms with chrystal chandeliers. It was incredible. The guys gave us the princess room with the beautiful patio and breakfast area and we gave them the room with the built in kitchenette and living room where we all chilled most of the time. After we finally got to the downtown area. We walked the old port, walked around these old fortresses and saw chateau d'If, then strolled these little side streets and visited Longchamp palace (which is really a big statue and stairs and pretty gardens with a sick playground which we totally tapped). In the evening we were all really tired so we returned to the hostel for our pasta creation ( aka ramen) and this card game we are all obsessed with.
Tuesday we got up....once again pretty early....had breakfast delivered to our room (courtesy of the gents) which we all ate at the pretty breakfast area set up in our room as the sun rose. We headed out to Nice next, but got rather sidetracked along the way. We ended up stopping in a little fishing town called Cassis (my favorite town we saw) and for a hike in the Calanques (series of inlets, secluded coves, and beautiful views of the Mediteranean Sea). We had another picnic here at a little cove we found and ended up almost going swimming, but in the end decided it was just a bit too cold for us. Needless to say we enjoyed the sun and sea. Finally we checked into our next hostel in Nice. It was quite a bit different than the first two places we stayed. This one was a REAL hostel complete with all english speaking foreigners who we got to chat with. We stayed in a dorm and shared it with a Canadien girl. We ended up eating dinner in the monastery ( did i mention it was a restored monastery) with some other travelers our age. The chef was a line chef and he was such an amazing cook. He made pizza and chinese stir fry noodles. I took some great pictures of his antics. We enjoyed hanging out for a while and then headed into Nice for the evening. We say a Russian Chapel, the beach, the Chateau overlooking the city, the old town, the light up buddah's and ended by sitting and watching the stars and talking on the beach. It was a pretty sweet evening. Plus Mike and I found a fry place on the way back to the hostel and that was pretty sick too.
Wednesday morning we once again got up pretty early, had a quick hostel provided breakfast and then headed out. We drove to Monaco and walked around for a bit. We saw the castle and Grace Kelley's grave. Then headed back out towards Italy. Along the we ended up taking the coastal route and stopped in nearly (or it felt like) every town we drove through that had a cute beach. Either way we got some ice cream and walked some beaches. Then we drove into Italy and hit Ventiglia ( the first Italien town we hit) for a late lunch of pizza and coffee flavored Gelati as we walked the beach. Finally we headed back home through the mountains. It weas a really long trip home...emphesis on REALLY. It took us about 7 hours to drive back to Grenoble from there. But the view was amazing and we saw a killer sunset. We ended up stopping for dinner and cafe in a little town and had a very entertaining experience with the locals. When we did get back we unloaded, read out 10 emails from blain (you might think im exageratting, but im sooo not), had a really really late dinner of pasta and all collapsed.
So that is the brief and not explicite version of our travels. It was sooo much fun and we all had a great ( if not tiring) time. The south is very different and soooo pretty. Plus it was very warm and the beaches were amazing. It was neat to explore some of the places we had heard about for so long. And now we're preparing for the wedding and learning Brazilian to be prepared for the experience. Tonight Juniors fam gets here and his bro has been living with us today. This weekend consists of a group run by Mike, Kristin, and I and then Monday-Fri is a group from a Christian school in Ohio. Should be crazy busy, but fun all the same.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Random...
Technically speaking I'm working right now. My job is to keep Junior in this Grande Maison at all costs! Today is the day of his bachlor party and our job was to get him to come here and stay here until everyone arrived. Hard to believe that on February 2nd they will be getting married! It seems as though everyone is getting married these days....strange. We also have a baby to be born to camp. Theresa Anderson ( our secretary, and bosses wife) is going to have her first child this coming March right before Kristin and I head home! Please pray that this pregnancy goes according to plan as It has been a rough few months for her healthwise and has made it pretty stressful for both she and Buan (our boss).
Tonight Mike get's back from England. He was meeting his Tear Fund Missions group thats headed to Peru this spring! And Verena has saftely arrived in Romania to visit her friends.
Tomorrow after church Mike, Justin, Kristin, and I are headed off to the South of France and Italy! We are just a bit excited! I booked our hostels yesterday and we are going to be seeing/ staying in Avangon, aux de provence, marseille, nice, toulon, monaco, and wherever else we end up hitting as we road trip along the coast. We hope that there is time to hop across the border into Italy and exlore before heading home through the alps. It should be a pretty neat trip as we've mapped out some things we wish to see, some neat places to stay, and have bought tons of snacks and prepared music for the road. Hope everything goes well. We will be borrowing the camp car so just be praying that it stays together for our trip and we can have a smooth relaxing vacation! We are truly looking forward to the time off!
On other notes...
Two and a half months left. We begin the winter season next week and that means neverending camps and work groups are here. The entire month of February we have groups here, not one day without visitors! Then the beginning of March is much the same and then the season ends. We will be getting 5 days off and then we work a bit with Joshua Expeditions work group and perhaps will tour Austria before heading home. The neat part is whenever we travel here we can do it on the cheap as we have a car and have found some amazing hostels in all the towns we are visiting! It's so strange to see the rest of our time here booked up. Hard to believe I will be returning to ya'll so soon! On that note thank you all for your support, emails, messages, and prayers. It has meant so much to Kristin and I. You have all been sooo helpful throughout these past few months! God Bless ya'll.
A cool thing is that when we go home Thierry ( the old head of camp) will be touring around MA talking about France and the missions field here. It's going to be pretty sweet to have him meet friends and my family so they can get a taste of the place I love so much!
When Kristin and I get home we are both planning on waitressing and saving up some money for college! I am debating soulfest again this year with the group and perhaps get in some raking as I will be around Maine this summer with the fam. Then August 25th is Orientation! I am sooo syched for BIOLA! The future looks lovely and I can't wait to get home and catch up with everyone back there.
On a random note...
things we have become addicted to at camp lately...
HEROES!!! (thanks to blain our director who owns the whole first season)
our new projector for camp has been helping us to greatly enjoy our evenings!
Age of Empires (im not actually including myself in this one, but everyone else joins in the for annual evening wars)
oranges (what can i say we like our fruit)
skiing in the alps
the new hillsong united cd...it rocks check it out!
and I think that's all for this update. Time for a little bit of chicken po po ( or pot pie) and brownies to celebrate Justin's almost leaving! hehe.
Tonight Mike get's back from England. He was meeting his Tear Fund Missions group thats headed to Peru this spring! And Verena has saftely arrived in Romania to visit her friends.
Tomorrow after church Mike, Justin, Kristin, and I are headed off to the South of France and Italy! We are just a bit excited! I booked our hostels yesterday and we are going to be seeing/ staying in Avangon, aux de provence, marseille, nice, toulon, monaco, and wherever else we end up hitting as we road trip along the coast. We hope that there is time to hop across the border into Italy and exlore before heading home through the alps. It should be a pretty neat trip as we've mapped out some things we wish to see, some neat places to stay, and have bought tons of snacks and prepared music for the road. Hope everything goes well. We will be borrowing the camp car so just be praying that it stays together for our trip and we can have a smooth relaxing vacation! We are truly looking forward to the time off!
On other notes...
Two and a half months left. We begin the winter season next week and that means neverending camps and work groups are here. The entire month of February we have groups here, not one day without visitors! Then the beginning of March is much the same and then the season ends. We will be getting 5 days off and then we work a bit with Joshua Expeditions work group and perhaps will tour Austria before heading home. The neat part is whenever we travel here we can do it on the cheap as we have a car and have found some amazing hostels in all the towns we are visiting! It's so strange to see the rest of our time here booked up. Hard to believe I will be returning to ya'll so soon! On that note thank you all for your support, emails, messages, and prayers. It has meant so much to Kristin and I. You have all been sooo helpful throughout these past few months! God Bless ya'll.
A cool thing is that when we go home Thierry ( the old head of camp) will be touring around MA talking about France and the missions field here. It's going to be pretty sweet to have him meet friends and my family so they can get a taste of the place I love so much!
When Kristin and I get home we are both planning on waitressing and saving up some money for college! I am debating soulfest again this year with the group and perhaps get in some raking as I will be around Maine this summer with the fam. Then August 25th is Orientation! I am sooo syched for BIOLA! The future looks lovely and I can't wait to get home and catch up with everyone back there.
On a random note...
things we have become addicted to at camp lately...
HEROES!!! (thanks to blain our director who owns the whole first season)
our new projector for camp has been helping us to greatly enjoy our evenings!
Age of Empires (im not actually including myself in this one, but everyone else joins in the for annual evening wars)
oranges (what can i say we like our fruit)
skiing in the alps
the new hillsong united cd...it rocks check it out!
and I think that's all for this update. Time for a little bit of chicken po po ( or pot pie) and brownies to celebrate Justin's almost leaving! hehe.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Catching up :)
So i feel as though life has been kind of hectic ( okay it always is) around here and i have not had time to do anything. I have exactly 24 emails i need to respond to. my best friend and i have been putting off our phone date for 2 weeks!!! i have not yet sent christmas thank yous...they are still sitting on my bed. i have no folded or put away my laundry from last week. i still have not charged my ipod and its been about 2 weeks. i have yet to throw out leftover wrapping paper from our second christmas with the nimon clan. my life is sooo cluttered!!!!
but thats okay.
because every day i get off i go skiing with mike or kristin in the french alps. and i learned to say i went skiing today in the french alps in German. so life is good again!
and i will get everything done. Its just that between the Nimon family visiting, work, the Chosen group visiting and just life and friends I have been busy here. For the record Chosen is amazing. They are a group that sponsers pro snowboarders and they stayed here this weekend. The guys where wicked funny and nice, although i am not awake in the morning when they were trying to be sooo funny. insight into pro snowboarding...there is a scene its called plastic braclets all up your arms, wearing your goggles backwards, bandanas all the time, black and white are the new colors, hip hop pumping out of your hatch while you all beat box and break dance is a common sight, photography is in, dropping in is a common catch phrase. yes i have been hanging out with too many snowboarders lately. and i didnt even see that much of them between their boarding and modeling haha! alright now im going to go make kristin go to bed because i didnt get my nap today as chosen was late and there was just a bunch to do. meaning this emily is wicked tired and in need of some beauty sleep asap because she is not a morning person AT ALL! But i just wanted you all back home to know we are alive and well, just very busy. Only two and a half months left. ooo and next week justin, mike, kristin and i are roadtripping across france and into a little bit of italy. yes for a few days off this month!! hope all is well. god bless ya'll. em
but thats okay.
because every day i get off i go skiing with mike or kristin in the french alps. and i learned to say i went skiing today in the french alps in German. so life is good again!
and i will get everything done. Its just that between the Nimon family visiting, work, the Chosen group visiting and just life and friends I have been busy here. For the record Chosen is amazing. They are a group that sponsers pro snowboarders and they stayed here this weekend. The guys where wicked funny and nice, although i am not awake in the morning when they were trying to be sooo funny. insight into pro snowboarding...there is a scene its called plastic braclets all up your arms, wearing your goggles backwards, bandanas all the time, black and white are the new colors, hip hop pumping out of your hatch while you all beat box and break dance is a common sight, photography is in, dropping in is a common catch phrase. yes i have been hanging out with too many snowboarders lately. and i didnt even see that much of them between their boarding and modeling haha! alright now im going to go make kristin go to bed because i didnt get my nap today as chosen was late and there was just a bunch to do. meaning this emily is wicked tired and in need of some beauty sleep asap because she is not a morning person AT ALL! But i just wanted you all back home to know we are alive and well, just very busy. Only two and a half months left. ooo and next week justin, mike, kristin and i are roadtripping across france and into a little bit of italy. yes for a few days off this month!! hope all is well. god bless ya'll. em
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