London

Hey Everyone,

Well, I made it to London but I'm exhausted. I left Vichy at 2 pm and then I sat next to the window on the train but it was hot and they guy next to me didn't smell that great. I got to a Paris train station and then had to take the metro to the other train station. (One train station services the south, while the other services the north.) I checked in with the train and went through the French and British customs. To be honest, I heard the British lady's accent and struggled to hold back the laughter. Anyways, I waited around for my train and I was going to go to the waiting area for my coach even though my train wasn't there yet. But the guy who was checking the tickets called up somebody and said I could just go on this train. So I caught an earlier train and there was nobody sitting around me and I even had my own power outlet so I could plug in my laptop. Went through the chunnel-it wasn't too spectacular. I got to the London train station and got on the Underground-Both were better and cleaner than the ones in Paris. In Paris they didn't have any luggage carts so I was sweating like crazy trying to get from one train to the other. But they had them in London. London>Paris. I foung my hostel very easily and there are a lot of Americans here. They have a couple of tv lounges, free internet, free breakfast, and a restaurant and bar in the basement. It's really nice. Tomorrow I plan on going by Trafalger Square and hooking up some walking tours to do all day or maybe the bus tour-haven't decided yet. Then I'll come back and get up early for my flight. For me it's going to be like 5 a.m when I get back. Can't wait to get home!

I'll see y'all soon,


Zach

International Children's Day

Today is International Children's Day and of course France closes down for it. I hate holidays, I can't get things done...and the 3 euro cafeteria is closed.

Anyways, I leave Vichy tomorrow and will be without means of communication until I get back to Tulsa. My plane gets in at 11:15 pm on Thursday, June 4th. It's going to be great to be back.

See y'all soon.

Zach

P.S.

I did some research and it looks like I'll be flying from London to Minneapolis on the same model of plane as the Air France one that they think crashed on its way to Paris form Rio. I checked some more and it looks like it has a pretty solid safety history, so I'm not too worried.

Hey Everyone!

Well, finals went OK. Sorry it's been awhile. I'm done with school and on Tuesday I'll be going through the chunnel to London for a couple of nights. I can't wait to get back home. I applied for some jobs at OU and I checked my voicemail and they wanted in interview for an Upward Bound/teaching assistant job for the summer. So I might be going ahead and going back to OU pretty soon, but it really depends when they need me for the job whether it be for June, July, or both. I'll come visit everyone on the weekends except for Natalie and Klayton, but maybe sometime I can fly out there for a little while...maybe after the baby's born.

We've had some good get togethers here in Vichy. A couple of weeks ago we had a graffiti party where everyone wears white t-shirts and everybody writes something on everyone's shirt. The week after that we had a formal get together where we all dressed up and went down by the river and talked, ate, and drank. Last night, we had another as kind of the final get together because people were leaving today and plus yesterday was the last day of finals.

Oh, and 21 Oklahomans are here now for a month long summer program. It's been nice to talk to them every now and then. Anyways, I'll talk to y'all later.

FYI

Hey Everyone,

This post is mainly for Dad and Paul-I heard the new Star Trek movie is really good. So...Dad and/or Paul want to go see it in theatres then I wouldn't mind going with you when I get back. But if you all can't wait that long that's fine, too. I'll be home in a little less than 4 weeks.

Zach

Tired.

Hey everyone,

I made it back from Paris okay. It was very tiring especially since we had a party the night before we left for a Swiss and French girl who were done with their sememster and were going back home. It was about a three hour train ride there and we found our hotel just fine. We went to Notre Dame (it's like most of the cathedrals in France, nothing too special), Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart), which was a neat church high on a hill, the Arc de Triomph, Eiffel Tower (we took the stairs to the second level and then you had to take an elevator all the way to the top), Pere Lachaise which is a cemetery with a lot of famous people like Oscar Wilde and Jim Morrison, La Defense which is the business district right outside of Paris. They had some tall and interesting looking buildings. It was kind of weird because we went on a Saturday and there were hardly any people around compared to NYC where there are always people everywhere. On Sunday, we went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo and then we waited for our train in a cafe at the train station and birds would fly around inside and would come by and take your food if you weren't paying attention. I don't think I got any diseases from it though. All in all it was a pretty good trip.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you when I get back. Talk to you later.

Zach

Update

Hey Everyone!

Friday morning I'm leaving for Paris. I'm going with Crystal and Jana (Americans), Lucia and Martin (Slovakian), and Jiao (Chinese). We're spending two nights there and then leaving Sunday evening. Classes are going good.

Well, watch out for the swine flu...

Zach

Coming to America

I booked my flight back home today. I'll be in flying in from London and will arrive in Tulsa at 11:16 p.m on June 4th. Unfortunately, I have 3 hour layover in the great city of Minneapolis. I'm going to spend two nights in London with one day travelling to and from and one full day to sightsee. Flying out from London turned out to be a lot cheaper than flying out from Paris and that's including the price of trains from Vichy to Paris to London.

It's beginning to look a lot more like Spring and Summer; I can finally where shorts and T-shirt outside. I remember Paul and Lyndsey telling about how to dress in France, but the funny thing is when we went to Lyon I saw Crocs store. It was surprising.

It's common to get potatoes on your pizza.

Even though Coca-Cola is well known over here none of my friends have heard of Coke floats and they've never heard of Root Beer floats let alone Root Beer. So, I was thinking we might get together and have some. Some of my friends were put off a little by adding liquid sugar to solid sugar and eating it. But it is gooood.

Also, I have confirmed you can buy beer at McDonald's or "McDo" as the French like to call it. Speaking of beer I haven't seen any Budweiser. The main brands seem to be Heineken, Kronenburg (Danish or German), and 1664 (French) and you can find Coronas but it's not standard to serve them with lime.

I found out (via Wikipedia) one of the wineries we visited had committed wine fraud in 1998 by adding water, milk, and fruit additives to their wine.

My Norwegian friend brought me back some Norwegian brown cheese which is really good. It's made with cow's and goat's milk with some caramel (I think) which gives it the brown color. The Slovakian girl brought us all back a little bottle of 40 proof Slovakian alcohol.

Well, have good day.

Zach

Good News and Good News

Well, the first bit of good news I have is that my internet is back on at my apartment building. The second bit of good news is...I've got pictures online and you can see them here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007235&id=1448310001&l=2c3bcd916d

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007237&id=1448310001&l=f4d97256d8

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007239&id=1448310001&l=5b2cfc735b

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007240&id=1448310001&l=de0cdea257

Good News and Bad News

Well, I have returned to Vichy. We had a good trip this week. We left Tuesday morning and got back early Sunday morning. The first day we went to Avignon and visited "Le Palais des Papes" or Palace of the Popes which was built during the Avignon papacy and we also visted the famous Pont d'Avignon or Bridge of Agivnon. Then we went to Pont du Gard which is a huge ass aqueduct and bridge. After that we went to Nimes and visited the best preserved Roman colloseum and we went to Montepellier, but there wasn't really anything there. It's just a big city. Then we went to Toulouse and drove the way we came to a wine chateau south of Narbonne and we took a tour of the winery and tasted about 8 wines. After that we went drove to the Mediterranean Sea and walked out to the beach and then to a lighthouse. Then we went to Carcasonne which has a fortified city with a wall around it and a castle and church. We then went back to Toulouse and walked around the city there and met up with a friend of ours that we met in Vichy. After Toulouse we went to Bordeaux walked around the city a little bit and then we went to the wine region north of Bordeaux (Our driver, Dimitri, is a wine enthusiast) and we learned about wine and wine making, and took a tour of the chateaux, and at the first one we tasted 4 wines, and then we went down the road to a higher rated and biggest chateaux. There an English guy gave us a tour and we tasted their wine. Each wine tasting was about 6 euros or 8 to 9 dollars. After that we went to the Great Dune of Pila (tallest sand dune in Europe), west of Bordeaux along the Atlantic Ocean. We climbed up the dune and went down to the ocean and then we left there at about 10 p.m Saturday night and drove for 7 hours and arrived back in Vichy at 5 a.m. Sunday morning.


Oh yeah, the bad news. I guess the company that supplies our internet at my apartment building decided to quit supply the internet there. So, now I have to use the school's internet which is slower. At my apartment building there isn't any tv either, so there isn't a lot to do. But luckily they have American movies at the library and when I flew to France I left my SimCity 2000 game inside of it, so at least I can play something besides minesweeper and spider solitaire.

Here are the places we went:

Palace of the Popes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_des_Papes

Pont d'Avignon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_d%27Avignon

Pont du Gard (Roman Aqueduct): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_du_Gard

Arena of Nimes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arena_of_Nimes

Roman Temple in Nimes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maison_Carr%C3%A9e

Nimes ( in General): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimes

Portel-des-Corbieres (wine tasting): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portel-des-Corbi%C3%A8res

Port-La-Nouvelle (mediterranean sea):http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_la_Nouvelle

Carcasonne (fortified city):http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcasonne

Chateau Giscours (wine tasting): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chateau_Giscours

Chateau Rauzan-Gassies (wine tasting): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chateau_Rauzan_Gassies

Great Dune:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilat_Dunes

So, a German, Slovak, Chinese, and an American go on a road trip in France...

This trip was exhausting. We would usually wake up at 8:30 am, drive, visit, drive, visit, and we wouldn't get to our hostel until after 1 am. Anyways, we had a good trip and here are the places we visited:

Champagne region and Dom Perignon's resting place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dom_P%C3%A9rignon_(person)

Cathedral in Reims: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre-Dame_de_Reims

Palace at Versailles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles

Battle of Normandy Museum in L'Havre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Havre#Museums

Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandy_American_Cemetery_and_Memorial

Omaha Beach: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Beach

Mont St. Michel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Saint_Michel

Fontevraud Abbey, Contains the graves of King Henry II of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Richard I of England: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontevraud_Abbey

We also went to a couple of chateaus and took some pictures.

Last Weekend and Spring Break Plans

Last Weekend
We had a great time in Lyon last weekend. We took a 2 hour train ride, found our hotel, then went exploring. We visited the Basilica there in Lyon. The story behind the basilica is that the archbishop made a promise to God that if Prussian forces didn't capture Lyon (or something like that) then he would build a church and devote to the Virgin Mary. So, of course, you could see Mary everywhere in the church. We also a nice french dinner (Lyon is the French capital of gastronomy) which was my first since I've been here. The food wasn't spectacular, but parts of it were good. We did most of that stuff on Friday and by the evening we were really tired. I slept really good in the hotel, probably because they had just gotten new mattresses and I had a rectangular pillow like back at home. (The one in my apartment is basically a long, round pillow; it's annoying sometimes). The next day it rained real bad and was cold. The girls decided to go shopping and Bryan (American) and Martin (Slovakian) and me went to the French Resistance and Deportation museum. It was very interesting. We ate lunch and we met up with the girls and they wanted to shop some more, so us guys went ahead and caught a train back to Vichy and took it easy.

Spring Break Plans
I don't have school the next two weeks so Monday I'm leaving with Demetri (German) and Martin and taking a road trip to northern France. Demetri drove over here so we're taking his car. We're going to Rouen (wine country), Versailles, Mont St. Michele (old monastery, I think, but very beautiful), and Normandy. That's going to last from Monday-Thursay. We're staying in hostels in a different city each night. It costs 30 euros for one room, but each room has 3 beds, so it's really only 10 euros a night for each of us and then we'll also pitch in for gas. We have tentative plans to do the same thing the next week except for the south of France to Toulouse, Nantes, and one other place.

Other Stuff
I found out that plane tickets and things in general are cheap in Poland, so some weekend I might go there and visit Auschwitz or something.

You know that badass presentation over Estonia I told you about? Lucia and me made a 19 out of 20 on it, or 95%. We have the highest grade so far. The next highest grade was a 17. My next presentation is one by myself and its over Defense and the European Union. We all have to do a presentation and a paper over some aspect of the EU such as transportation, environment, enterprise, etc.

I should be arriving home at about 11:07 pm on June 10. I'll probably go back to OU at the end of June and take a July summer class.

Today was the last day for my first international marketing professor. We'll have a new one after vacation that will teach another aspect of international marketing. Our first teacher was the former head of worldwide logistics for Michelin Tire Co. He has a castle now near Vichy where guests can stay and today he gave us all information about it and gave us a pass for a free visit.

Oh yeah, we switched to daylight saving time last week, so we're back to a 7 hour time difference at least for those of you in the central time zone.

Pictures: I'll try and get some together and make albums on facebook, and then I can post the link on here and should take you to them. I'll try and have it up by Sunday night.

No Class Today

Funny story...One of my friends that while in France I should go to the town square and march around doing the Nazi salute. Then another friend said, "Well, they'd probably just give you the country." I thought it was funny.

I watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. It was good. I've started watching season one on the interwebz.

Bears beats Battlestar Galactica.-Jim Halpert, The Office

Oh, I also watched the movie "Marley and Me" except it was "Marley et Moi" and it was dubbed in French with no subtitles. It was pretty good, but sad. And they gave me a bucket of popcorn that was halfway between kettle corn and caramel popcorn-wasn't that bad.

In relation to the title of the post there was no class today, but I don't have class on Tuesdays anyway but we still used it as an excuse to have a party. WooHoo!

I give a powerpoint presentation over Estonia tomorrow. Yeah, it's going to be badass.

Travel update: I probably won't be going to Germany (Sorry, Lyndsey). But I am working on atrip to see some badass aqueducts in Avignon.

well hello

To be honest, I don't think the women in Auvergne are as attractive as the ones in Oklahoma. So American girls: 1, French girls, 0. But back to business. I really don't feel the need to travel that much. I mean sure I want to visit places like the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and Big Ben but it seems like for me to travel other places is to just pay a lot of money to say, "I've been there." That seems ridiculous. And any information I could get there I could just as easily get in a book. Maybe I'm still getting used to it, but I must say that I prefer Oklahoma, American, etc. life to Vichy, or most of Europe.

Anyways, in recent news the UN drafted a resolution to ban speech criticizing religion. I think it was brought up by largely Muslim countries. Are they that insecure about their religion that when someone insults it, they have threaten death to the perpetrators? Never mind that this would completely go against our constitution. Earlier this week diplomats took out the defamation of religion clause to help bring in Western nations for the vote. Free speech for the win.

Oh yeah, I watched that movie "Slumdog Millionaire." It was OK.

OK, so...

I finally heard from the State Department about my internship applications...Unfortunaly, I did not get the job. Some 6,000 applicants applied and the job would've been in Washington, D.C. but oh, well. I'm not really sure what I want to do for the summer yet. I'm thinking about staying home and working at the pool, mainly so I can make some money and maybe try and fix some things with my car. I doubt any summer classes would be available for me to take. Shit, I just remembered I have to enroll for Fall classes. I'm ready to be done with school. I've really been missing American food. I know French cuisine is supposed to be good, but it's not...well, it's okay. Yesterday, I was watching an American television show and there was a box of pizza on the table and I couldn't help but think about a good Papa John's, Pizza Hut, or Pizza Port pizza. They don't have any fountain drinks here, and the coke doesn't have that much carbonation to it. So, when I get back I'm going to go to a restaurant where I can get some American food with a glass of coke with ice. Can't wait.

My Apologies

Sorry for the lack of blogposts. I've been a little bit busier with the business classes and the bad internet here has made it difficult to get in a good blog post. Not a whole lot has been going on. I'll go to class, go to lunch, go to my afternoon class if I have one, go back to the flat, eat, and in the evening play cards with my friends. Last weekend a group of us went to a nearby town and went sightseeing and the girls shopped. Usually on the weekend we'll go to a party and maybe the discotheque, or basically a club. Next weekend we'll be going to Lyon and staying the night there. We'll probably go sightseeing and things like that. Looks like the road trip isn't going to happen during the break, but the American girls here invited me to travel with them since everyone else will be going back to their countries. Today was actually a nice, warm spring-like day with the temperature in the 70s and the sun was out. Usually, it's in the 40s here and cloudy. I'm enjoying my classes, especially one about the European Union-it's very interesting. My class partner and me have to give a 5-10 minute PowerPoint presentation on Estonia on Wednesday which we'll work on tomorrow. a tout a l'heure. (See ya later)

Zach

Skyping and Glasses

Well, I finally got around to talking to family back in the States. It was nice even though I had to borrow someone's headset, well worth it. I talked to Lyndsey and Madelyn for a little while and was suprised that they could here me OK because my floormates have told me their skyping experience hasn't been that great.

The past few months I've noticed that when I'm in a classroom sometimes it seems harder than usual to read what's on the board. Moreover, when I'm on the street it seems harder to read signs. Today in class, my friends were trying on each others glasses, so I decided to see how blind they were and I tried a pair on and I could see really good. Apparently, I have worse vision than I thought. I think to get glasses here would cost around $150, so I think I can do without.

Tonight were going to a bar to celebrate someones birthday, I doubt I'll drink though. If I do all probably just have one beer. And...I haven't missed a class yet.

Views

I've had some discussions lately about European views of America. I tend not to say too much about the subject because I feel like I am a guest on their continent and more so because these are the same people I hang out with all the time. So, I will use this to express my opinions on the matter because they have been bothering me lately and there aren't exactly a lot of people here that I feel could relate. Anyways...

I hear an argument how America polices the world, etc., etc. when there are gang wars going on in America, and people are getting murdered, etc. So, they argue that maybe America should stop policing the world and take care of things at home first. (In this person's home country the military will sometimes patrol the streets and they have somewhat of a nanny state.) My reply back to this is sometimes people or events abroad pose bigger threats to national security than say a thief down the street. (Ex. 9/11, or the American military aid to Mexico for their war against the drug cartels that could leak over into the U.S.)

I've also heard criticisms how America goes abroad and rapes a country of its resources etc. Needless to say this was a very vague critique and I have yet to find out where this happened and with what frequency.

Then a final rhetorical question posed was along the line of why did the U.S. drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki if not just to say, "Hey! We're America and we have an A-Bomb!". I tried to say that the Japanese hadn't surrendered, but my opponent suggested that Japan had "formally surrendered". By this point the subject had changed. I did some research and no, the Japanese had not "surrendered" formally or otherwise. At Potsdam towards the end of July 1945, the allies issued an ultimatum to the Japanese which was either surrender or the Allies would attack Japan, resulting in...

"the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitably the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland."

The Japanese Emperor responded to his ministers that the Imperial Regalia of Japan had to be defended at all costs. Long story short, there was a planned manned invasion of Japan, but the estimated casulties were anywhere between 250,000 to 1 million. (There was also an order by the Japanese that if an invasion did occur, authorities were to execute all the allied prisoners of war which was approximately 100,000). Thus the bomb was launched to achieve a speedy end to the war and to reduce the loss of life. The bombing of Hiroshima was approximately 140,000 lives. More warnings were issued to the Japanese and the war minister refused to accept that the bomb was atomic and refused to surrender. Three days later Nagasaki was bombed kllling approximatley 80,000 people. Finally, the Japanese surrendered.

The person I was talking with hadn't realized that the Japanese hadn't surrendered. However, it isn't surprising that they hold the view that America just wanted to show off their A-Bomb. They come from a country where I believe there are a few news outlets, if not just one and that almost (if not all of them) are government owned or substantially subsidized. Anyways, I found a really good essay about anti-Americanism in Europe and it's kind of long but you can find it here...http://www.hudsonreview.com/BawerSp04.html.

Road Trip...Maybe.

Well, I talked to Stephan today and he is going home to Slovakia over our two week Easter break. But when he comes back he won't fly but drive. So, towards the end of the break we might meet up in Vienna or Bratislava and then make some tourist spots on the way back. Lucia, the other Slovakian and friend of Stephan's would go but her parents don't want her driving back to France. Anyways, if I do go we might go to Munich and/or Zurich and some other spots along the way back.

A List Of Sorts

1. Almost everything closes down for lunch for about two hours everyday.
2. There are a lot of kebab places in France. Kebab sandwiches are very good.
3. Once again I have found myself in the entrepreneurial spirit and would like to start my own chain of of kebab eateries in the United States.
4. All you have to do to flush a toilet in France is easily push a button on the top of the tank. (To some of you this may not seem very different from the States...it isn't. -OK, maybe a little.)
5. Alcohol is cheap; I have fallen asleep with my shoes on twice already.
6. I've been avoiding brands of beer that I know I could get in the U.S.
7. Most of the beer here is 5% alcohol, however, I can easily get a liter of wine that is 11% alcohol for about 1.07 euros (~$1.36).
8. I am currently reading "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe; It was one of the few books I found in the library that was written in English.
9. At the supermarket you get your shopping cart from the corral outside. However, in order to get it you have to put in a .50 or 1 euro coin to unlatch it. After you put your groceries in your car you then take the cart back to the corral, latch it back in, and get your money back.
10. Banks won't charge you if you use their ATM.
11. I bought a French phone and I can convert just about anything with it. I check the exchange rate everyday and plug it into my phone. It also comes in handy when I'm talking with the Slovakians or Norwegians and they give me a temperature in Celsius or area in square meters.
12. It costs me 4 euros (~$5.10) to do one load of laundry not including the price of detergent.
13. I don't wash my clothes very often. (See #12)
14. It costs 3 euros (~$3.85) for a very small jar of peanut butter; I now eat Nutella and jelly sandwiches.
15. When in doubt I always show my student ID card --even at fast food places. We went to a Quickie Burger at the mall in Clermont-Ferrand, I showed the clerk my ID card and got a free burger.
16. Free burgers taste better than burgers you have to pay for.
17. "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put".-Winston Churchill on the fake rule that says you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.* This is in case I catch grammatical flack for #16.
18. People will often bring their dogs with them to shops and cafés.
19. There is dog shit everywhere. (See #18)
20. You don't talk about fight club.**

*The actual rule is that you shouldn't end a sentence with an extraneous preposition.

**This is actually the first and second rule of fight club.

Today was pretty uneventful. Elin, Dagny, Stephan, Lucia, Ana, and I all walked to class together like we've been doing. We went to the cafeteria for lunch and unfortunately all the french students were back from their vacation, so it was hard to find a place to sit where all the international students could be together. We went back to class and I taught Elin and Dagny how to play "Spades". Then after class we walked a long way to the supermarket. When we left I had my backpack full of groceries as well as another sack that I carried in my hand. I would post a picture of my stuff, but unfortunately the internet speed here is ridiculously slow. Anyways, so we went to the supermarket, hiked back, started the blog and now it's time for dinner. Au revoir.

Well, here it is...

I've made my blog and I am looking forward to updating it at least once a day. I hope you all enjoy it and I look forward to hearing from you. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.