A Little Bit of Haute Savoie

I have to be honest, until recently France was not a country that I ever really paid any attention to or planned to visit. In my efforts to learn Spanish, I didn't even really have Europe on my radar...but I am learning quickly what beautiful and amazing country France really is. My first two weeks here have been a surprise and unpremeditated vacation as my French-partner-in-crime has been playing tourguide for me in his home region. I have now really and truely fallen in love with the French Alps...and here are some of the reasons why...

Not uncommon in the Alps to see ski poles used as fence posts! They are everywhere. The poles are always laying around so people pick them up and use them.

Une bonne photo of Grenoble...the city where I am currently living...from above. :D From this site you can see my french-partner-in-crime's house and the city's most expensive rotary. haha

I had a day on my own to explore Albertville...a nearby city that felt every bit as European as an old time movie. I even gained the confidence to finally order an iced tea in french...(although mostly all I did was point).

Took a day to explore Mont Joux near Megeve. It was beautiful with the Mont Blanc in the background, small mountain villages, and really loud goats roaming around. This is one of those places where you would want to spend your life as maybe a sheep herder who gets around by motorbike and passes their time playing cards with elderly french farmers.

Most recently spent a day hiking to Lac Blanc near Chamonix. All the tour books highly recommend this as a must-see. It was amazingly beautiful with a different side view of the Mont Blanc. We took Les oeufs (the ski lift thing) up halfway and hiked the rest. The top was crowded but by scaling some rocks to the other side of the lake, we were able to have a nice, tourist-free, picnic of bread, cheese, sausages, and of course, wine. We walked all the way down, which we dont recommend because the lower half of the mountain is a loose dirt road that is just a pain. Our decision to RUN down resulted in me loosing my camera (from where i stupidly left it in my pocket). It wasn't until later that night that I realized it was missing and too late to go look. Instead, the next day we got up at 6am, like crazy people, to reclimb the bottom half of the mountain to search for it. Miraculously after an hour of climb, we found it!!! It must have had an exciting night in the mountains. Unfortunately, it took no pictures on it's own. :D Glad to have the camera back, but now I can double-ly recommend that if you go to Lac Blanc, take the lift up and down for the first half of the mountain.

I end today with an amazing foto from Lac Blanc that would have been lost forever with the camera, but thanks to our borderline insane efforts, I can share with you. Bonne Nuit!

Taken from - no lie - about 3ft away, no zoom...National Geographic anyone?

England in the Morning, a Switzerland Afternoon, and a French evening...and lots of Jetlag...

Hello all,

Here begins the "Laura Leaves NH" adventures in France. I got here via London into Geneva Switzerland. The flight was fairly uneventful except that I almost never sleep enroute so I was very very tired and I got this funny piece of cheese as a part of my dinner in the plane.

For the moment I am staying in Megeve...in the middle of the French Alps...although I was told it would be beautiful, nothing could prepare me for what I was about to see. Beautiful does not quite cut it in the way of adjectives. Though it does not quite do it justice, here is the view from my bedroom.


I feel like I belong in the sound of music. The first morning I woke up to see hot air balloons floating over these mountains and my first hike was filled with the sounds of cow bells from the many cows grazing throughout the Alps.

More news when I have time!!!

<3

Packing Procrastination

The next "Laura Leaves NH" are taking me in a new direction. Instead of going south I am heading across the Atlantic and going to Europe!


That's right. In two days I am moving to France and I have not yet begun to pack.


It is funny that I am moving to france since I spent my high school and college focusing on spanish, lived in Chile for a semester, and worked as a spanish translator in Nicaragua. The reason that it is funny is because now I am attempting to learn french. French is hard. It is especially hard when you are still learning Spanish. When I am in the shower I like to think to myself in Spanish so I don't forget, but all of my french learning is getting in the way.



My french partner in crime has taught me a few key phrases that will be very useful in getting me into trouble in bars. For normal everyday conversation, I have resorted to listening to french lessons on my Ipod that i downloaded from the cheap version of rosetta stone (the $49 dollar version). It insists on continuously teaching me how to talk about a girl names stephanie (Stephanie habite a Paris...Stephanie est blonde...stephanie a trois frere...Stephanie voyage souvant...La famille de stephanie habitent a bordeau) and about how to find my hotel or the bank (Ou est le banque?...dans quelle rue est l'hotel?...ou se trouve le banque?)


All in all, I am going to make good conversation in France. Hah.


Despite my worries about mastering French and my lack of packing, I am extremely excited about this new move. I feel a little insane about moving to france without having even been to Europe before, but life needs a little adventure right? If you are interested to know, why the sudden move to France?, you will have to inquire in person. :D


So the next time you hear from me, it will be from France (which is a feminine country...referred to using la as opposed to le according to my fake rosetta stone).


Bye All!

Montreal is Ugly in March

In my efforts to update more of my "Laura Leaves NH" adventures, I am describing Montreal in March even though it is June.

In a trip that had nothing to do with renewing expiring visas in the middle of the night across the Canadian border, my French partner in crime (FPIC) and I, spent two nights total going back and forth in bus and a weekend in Montreal.

Although Montreal, to our surprise, was one of the lesser attractive cities we have ever seen (ie: ugly) it didn't stop us from enjoying it immensely in our fashion.


We got off the (sleepless) overnight bus from Boston, checked into our hostel, and immediately began wandering around the city. We came across this gian hill overlooking the skyline were we spent a good hour sledding down on various bits of plywood and old shovels. The best way to enjoy a skyline if there is one.


Our hostel (Hostel Montreal Central - highly recommended) turned out to be amazing with breakfast, it's own bar, and free dinner and live music on our first night. These guys in the band ended their concert that evening by serenading me on the front step of the hostel.


The winter Olympics were held in Montreal in 1988 bringing this interesting (though still not particularly attractive) building to the skyline. We rented bikes and made our way out to see it and continue the yoga posing in cool places tradition. :D


After a spell of underground shopping, we walked out to discover a full blown pillow fight going on right in the street. There were feathers and people flying everywhere. We watched for awhile but the battle showed no signs of stopping. We have no idea how this all began but it seemed like a fun enough thing to be doing in the streets of Montreal.


And of course, no trip to Montreal is complete without a good healthy plate of poutine!! (Although I cheated and got the vegetarian kind...)

All the apartments did have these cool outside stairs.

And as a final note, the difference between Quebecois and Parisian French is slight, but amusing. In Montreal this sign means, "Danger! Ice" but to my FPIC it meant

"Danger! Ice Cubes!"
Oh Canada.

Until next time folks! :D

The Long Past Due Nicaragua Post

Sorry all for the long belated Nicaragua Post!! Between having to work the day after I returned from sunny San Juan del Sur and starting up the new semester two days after...I was really limited on time to update.

Upon arriving in Nicaragua (after a surprisingly short flight) I went through the customs line which was only made interesting by the crowd of French Canadians around me and the frequent turning off of all the power in the room leaving me and the French speakers in the dark.

I was a creeper on my flight in and took fotos of little Nicaraguan girls in matching pink jumpsuits sleeping on each other. Very Cute. :D


Landing in Managua meant a long van ride to San Juan where I spent the afternoon ogling the beautiful country. San Juan itself is particularly gorgeous with the beach on the end of the street of my home-stay. For the short time I was there I lived in an orange, green and blue hostel with Mama Sara, who was the Nicaraguan version of a Jewish mother. I swear, every time that I entered into her house she handed me a plate of food. The first morning I sat down in front of a spread that I thought was meant for every one staying in the hostel (two oranges, two bananas, a large chunk of pineapple, and half a watermelon) but actually she had made it only for me!! I saved some of the fruit to eat at lunch but was given so much for lunch that I couldn't even think about eating the fruit. I quickly learned that the best way to escape the table without having eaten enough food to last the week was to help make the meal and to serve myself. This method worked out quick well as I learned some pretty amazing recipes and was told hours worth of amazing stories by Mama Sara, who had her first son right on the kitchen table we were eating at.

Days were spent between the beach and the eye clinic. On days were I was not working I went with my house mates and host brother to swim and explore the city.
To get around we walked or thumbed rides in the back of pickup trucks. I played soccer and chalk with the neighbors, stumbled upon a free ukelele lesson in one of the local bars, and convinced my host-brother to take me on a hike to the top of a cliff that overlooks the city and the ocean.





On other days I spent up to 12 hours at a time working at an eye clinic. The clinic, which was run by eye doctors from Connecticut, was held in the the local school. Everyday people from San Juan and the surrounding areas came on foot and by bus to get a free eye exam and pair of sunglasses or prescription glasses. Each day over 800 people came through. I worked as a translator simultaneously for an eye doctor and a Berkley optometry student as they performed exams. It was amazing to witness these exams with such limited technology and space and time constraints. Sometimes translating was rewarding when explaining where the patient could go to receive their new pair of bifocals. Sometimes it was heartbreaking when explaining that the clinic had run out of a certain prescription, or that a person had cataracts and there was nothing we could do.

I have to say that I have a new found interest in optometry and a deep love for Nicaragua. The ten days that I was there felt like months and it was really sad to leave my host family. Now I have a few new aspirations for my pending public health degree. Optometry school? Nicaragua? Who knows? :D


Moms and their kids waiting
in line for their eye check-up.




People wait in line, sometimes all day, for their eye exam.

Me and my lovely assistant Roberto, the
sweetest kid ever who volunteered in the
clinic and sometimes brought us ice cream and our store of glasses!