Starving in France!

   Hello all, this entire post is going to be about one thing, food! So we're still trying to get used to the time schedules of our new home, and it's taking some time. However, one schedule that we really need to get used to and quickly is the times in which the French eat. Breakfast does not really exist here, which is fine because we really sleep through the earlier part of the morning. Lunch time is around two hours spanning from 12:00 to 2:00. The issue with this is that with our busy schedule and trying to get school schedules figured out we eat shortly after this 2:00 o'clock feeding time. Thus, we're usually eating at a weird time of 3:00-4:00 PM. Therefore, when we go back home by 8:30 we're snacking and I'm sure people back home know how that goes. Today we decided to break this bad time keeping and eat dinner at regular time. What an adventure this turned into.

    First, I should say that we tried eating dinner the other night around 4:00. I know that is early and we look like tourists, but we were hungry and wanted some food. We found a nice restaurant and walked in and tried to order. We were told that it was not possible they were still only serving drinks. Tonight we set out a little later around 5:30 to head into the town center to find a place to eat. By 6:00 in the evening we reached the town center, and much to our dismay still all of the cafes were filled with people drinking and smoking cigarettes with absolutely no food in sight. Meanwhile, we headed to the Saint Leu district. This part of town has plenty of restaurants and is tourist heavy. When we arrived in the district around 6:15 there might as well have been tumbleweeds rolling around. It was dead not a person in sight, and no food to be found. Just restaurants and bars closed up waiting for the late night life to approach. So we turned around and headed back to town center. We took a short side tour by the cathedral which as it was now dark had been lit. It was a very nice view and we stopped and took it in the atmosphere. We even said a silent prayer that eventually we would find a nice welcoming restaurant who would serve us not only drinks, but food as well. As we strolled around town center we saw that still no one was serving food. This led me to believe that the French simply exist on cigarettes, alcohol, and coffee; the people here are not thin, they are starving.

     Finally, we found an Italian restaurant. We had pizza last night, but it was mediocre and if it's one thing that we learned from our trips to Italy, the Italians will always have food. We waited till the 7:00 p.m. opening time and eagerly headed in. We had quick service, excellent food and finally got to eat! Jess had an awesome linguini pasta with a red sauce made with a white wine and heavily seasoned chicken. Of course, I being the pizza fanatic I am had to try their pizza. It was a traditional Naples style Pizza and it was perfect! As a celebration ordered two creme brulees, thus ending in Jessica eating one and a half. We had a cold and windy 15 minute walk home, but it was a good since we had full bellies, and possibly for the first time since arriving here actually felt full. When we got home my pedometer said that we walked 2.25 miles total on our journey for food. One of the positive things is that we're doing staying in shape and working on our cardiovascular exercises since living abroad.

   I think a stand up comedian says it best about the French and their cuisine. His explanation is pretty much exactly how we felt, so I have placed the short video here. I hope you enjoy it and please know that no college students were starved in the making of this post (we were really hungry, but finally found food.)

Busy Week

      This week has been really busy for us. We finished getting settled into our new apartment, and Jess has somewhat started school. Meanwhile, I 'm getting the bank accounts settled; in addition to figuring out this whole French language. Our main priority this week has been getting Jessica's school schedule figured out. It's nothing like the system back home, and because of this there is a lot of confusion. For instance, here the schedules are not made in advance, so when the first day of class starts, you walk into your department look at the schedule on the wall and pick your classes and start attending. To make this more difficult some professors write hand written notes that they will start a week later, some classes do not start until March, and finally some classes are just full. This makes it harder for Jess to choose her classes because not only does she have to find classes that make a schedule, but she also has to choose classes UCO will approve to crossover and count towards her graduation. Therefore, we've made lots of trips to the school. She took an exam on Thursday to help place her in the right proficiency class, so two of her classes are already set in stone. Next week she'll start attending class to make sure that they're what she needs to graduate in July.
     Another thing that has been occupying our week is getting the final things necessary for our apartment. This included some practical things like a dish drying rack, clothes drying rack, and a housse de couette for our bed. In France you have to buy a couette, which is a duvet then buy a cover to put over it. When we first purchased all of our bedding stuff it was quite exciting because we only had thirty minutes to find everything we needed. It doesn't help when you have to purchase the fitted sheet and top sheet separately, so we had fun trying to figure out what was what. We also made sure that all this happened on a very limited budget, so we have more money for food and a little bit of travel!
    Good news arrived at the end of this week when we went out with some friends we met here in Amiens. We had a great time and met some very interesting people at an Irish pub called My Goodness. I'm looking forward to going out again and I really need to practice my French, so I can participate a little a more in the conversations. Jessica's language skills are improving but she had to speak some Franglais at times. As one of our friends noted, it's interesting to see how much the French are into Americans and how Americans enjoy the French culture. While at the pub we had various conversations with complete strangers who were asking some crazy questions about America. One guy tried to argue with me that there are 52 states. We ended up agreeing on 50 states and multiple common wealths (the fact a city can be a capital of a country but not within a state blew his mind). Another conversation I had was with a guy who acted as a translator. We got on the topic of when the French learn English it's in the UK dialect, not American. After he gave some examples of words that were different from the UK to America, I gave the example of Chips and French Fries. He had no idea we called them "French Fries" and was astounded why an entire country, and all the restaurants/fast food chains would all agree to call the potato cuts "French Fries." I enjoyed blowing his mind for a bit over that, but the conversation quickly turned five more times before we left in the search for food.
     Finally, tonight I went and picked up our debit card from the bank, you have to physically pick them up form your branch. Afterwards, I met Jess at the laundry mat so we could clean our sheets and towels all in one load. Once we were done we went next door and ordered two pizzas and two drinks. It only costed 16 Euros which is pretty cheap for the amount of food we got. Note: Europeans eat their pizza with a knife and fork. Another one of our friends invited us out tonight, but we have decided to just stay in and relax and plan out our week. There's still a ton of stuff for us to see in Amiens, and I really do not want to travel to the surrounding cities without first getting to know more about the city we live in. I'll have more pictures of the city and more adventures to share later this weekend. Until then safe travels!

Cathedral Notre Dame d' Amiens: First Visit

       Today we decided to visit the main cathedral here in Amiens. A few fun facts about this historic Catholic church, the original construction plans were designed by a single person and was completed within his lifetime. Construction started in 1220 and was finished in 1288. During this time the chief engineer changed hands three times all within the same family. The Notre Dame d'Amiens is the tallest cathedral in Western europe coming in at 138.8 feet tall at the highest internal part of the vaulted nave and is supported by 126 pillars. The interior volume of the cathedral is 200,000 square meters, making it the largest overall cathedral in France. The cathedral is so large that the famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris can fit inside of the Notre Dame in Amiens, twice. The total dimensions of the monument are 476 feet long 230 feet wide and 138.8 feet high, with 1 spire reaching 370 feet into the sky. The stained glass currently within the windows of the cathedral is all original. The majority of the stained glass that is missing was destroyed during the two world wars. The cathedral was named as a UNESCO World Site in 1981, and in the 1990s crews laser cleaned the front of the church, thus realizing that the stone had originally been painted. Archaeological crews did meticulous testing to discover the original colors of the stone. Because of this work during summer nights and during the month of december, there's lights that turn on to show how the original colors would have looked on the cathedral.
       So what sparked the idea to build such a large cathedral in a small town in north France? Well it was John the Baptist, or I guess lets just say his head. The head of Saint John the Baptist resides within this cathedral. It was brought here after the fourth crusade in 1206 after the sack of Constantinople. The head was placed within a magnificent reliquary and is the focus of the entire cathedral. Also another focus of parts of the cathedral are to all of the countries who participated in the Great War within the Somme region.
       So now that the history lesson is complete, I will describe how our walk went and display some of our favorite photos. The rest of the photos can be seen in our photo section since there is about 70 of them from today. Pictures of the cathedral when it is lit are on there way, but that doesn't happen till June so it will be a little while. Also, there will be more pictures of the cathedral using the DSLR camera once it gets a little warmer and I can stand to be outside longer. This little trip took us on a different path than we usually walk, but it was nice to see a other parts of the city. On our way we saw a few green parks that might be nice to sit at, as well as several restaurants and even an Irish pub.

 This is a quick picture of our apartment building form the entrance to the complex. It is pretty nice looking compared to some of the other buildings around us. We were excited about our walk today because we could actually see blue sky!

 This is a picture of our street Rue de Tienturiers. The buildings on the right are part of the University Jessica is going to this semester, although it is for the school of arts and design.

 The Somme River runs right through this town and intertwines several times with a majority of the main roads. This is one part of the river where people can walk down by the river and feed the ducks as they pass by.

The church of Saint-Leu is an older church that is on the way to the cathedral from our apartment. We tried to go inside and check it out, but the doors were still locked even though the hours said it should be open. Oh well, that is just one of the quirks about living in Europe. I am sure we will catch it open at a different time.

These two pictures are of Jess and I standing in a spot where you can see the church of Saint-Leu and the Cathedral in the background!

The cathedral is massive and with a small point and shoot camera coinciding with the excitement to get inside makes it kind of difficult to get a great picture of the exterior. We got a few others in the photos section, but I kind of liked how the sky looked behind the Cathedral in this one. As a side note they do give guided tours, but it is only in French. However, I think the tours allow you to climb up one of the towers so it may be well worth the 7 euros even if you don't know what they are saying!

 I like this photo for a size comparison. I have been to several cathedrals in a few different countries here in Europe. Besides the Basilica of St. Peter no other cathedral stands out to me as having such massive proportions. Jess looks so tiny in front of the entrance and that is just a portion of the front of the church.

This is the west window inside the church. The stained glass is original and makes the inside really glow with all shades of blue, purple and yellows. Next time we go visit the cathedral we plan on going earlier in the day, so I can get better lighting for the photos. It started getting dark inside the cathedral as we finished up. Jessica and I, would like to say thank you to everyone for reading the blog. As always if you have any suggestions please let us know in the comments section. If there is anything you want specific photos of just let us know and we will do our best to get them. Until next time safe traveling!

A Day for Shopping

Hello everyone! So on the first Saturday of our stay here in Amiens we decided to go out and do a bit of sight seeing and perhaps a little bit of shopping! We slept in just a little and then decided to get around and head out the door. SO as we were going to be doing our normal route into town we decided to stop and take a few pictures. First we have a photo of the park we walk through. It is a nice path with plenty of light even at night. It feels very safe and cuts about 7 minutes off of our walk to town.

The next picture is a picture of the estuary that breaks off from the Somme river and runs right outside of our Kitchen and main living are windows. it is sort of like an old canal complete with a lock system. 

 Then we come to a foot bridge that we walk across and from it we can see the Somme River as well as the more central part of Amiens.

We walk right past this power station, but this is a better spot for a picture. We have yet to see the gates closed but the river runs pretty fast through this area 24/7. 

Finally, here is another picture with the power station but also a little more zoomed out. If you enlarge this picture you can see a dome almost in the center of the photo. That is the town center. It only takes a few minutes to get there from where this photo was taken. 

So back to the shopping. Jess loves shopping and I mean really loves it. If I made enough money and let her chase her dreams she would be an international professional shopper with a PhD. Alas I do not run around with large bags of money like the monopoly man. Our first place to visit was the Saturday market. Here you can buy pretty much everything you need. There are vendors for purses, bags, clothing, drapes, bedding, beauty products, electronics, and of course food. We walked through the market and bought a few items which totaled only a few dollars, a dollar may not get you much in the US anymore, but in Europe a Euro can still get you a few things you might need around the house. However this market did not have everything we needed, but fortunately we have arrived in France during a "sales season."
             This is a very foreign idea to most americans. We think of sales as a one or two day event, some are better than others and you have to really look out for the sales at your favorite store. Here in France they have sale seasons. This season is running from about mid January to mid February. In addition to the very long and announced sales period, the date of the sales are posted on almost every store window, they are very heavily discounted sales for almost everything in the store. Majority of the products are typically 50-70 percent off normal retail. It is like Black Friday sales but for an entire month! We ended up store hopping for much of the afternoon, and since the sun goes down fairly early still, we decided to call it an evening and go to the grocery store to grab a few things for dinner and head home. By the end we had each purchased a pair of shoes and a pair of jeans as well as gotten a few things for the apartment and ended up only spending about 140 Euros. Not bad considering full price we would have spent nearly 300. Tomorrow we plan on finding some of the more historic buildings and making some visits there so we can see some of the older culture. Until then I hope everyone has safe travels and we will talk to you soon!

Adventures with Ametis!

      Ametis is the name of the bus system here in Amiens. I honestly have no idea how this name came about, but after today i do know a little bit about how the system works. So a quick overview, Ametis operates within Amiens and its surrounding suburbs. It has roughly 18 lines with just over 100 buses running those lines all day. It operates six days a week and a few lines operate till almost midnight. All bus stops are fairly well marked and all of them have up to date time schedules and maps, so it is a fairly user friendly. The price is not bad at all, it only costs 28 Euros a month for unlimited use.
     So now that we have the information out of the way we can get on to our experience. So to start of with we decided (well not so much decided but did this activity on a very rainy day) to do this adventure. We walked to the top of the hill outside our apartment complex where Bus number 9 stops by periodically. Jess was kind enough to model how the bus stops work!

We also have a pretty nice view from the bus stop right by the apartment! We only had to wait about ten minutes at the bus stop for our bus to arrive heading in the correct direction. We got on and scanned our passes and of we went to meet the second bus we needed to take to get to the southern commercial center of Amiens. 

So after we took the first bus we had to wait at a smaller buss top, which is one of the ones that is a little less marked. It was raining so we huddled together under the umbrella. Luckily we only had to wait about eight minutes for our second bus to make its appearance. 

Our second bus, the L4,dropped us off right across the street from the commercial center, but on the side it dropped us off on was this massive, vibrantly green field. It kind of reminded us of some of the fields back home. Just not this time of year since most of them are very, very brown. 

Our ride home was eventful as well. We had a local friend that Jessica knows from UCO offer to give us some plates and coffee cups. When we reached the stop we needed to get off at to meet her the bus driver just kept driving. Finally we got off at the next stop and walked a short distance back to the meeting point. once the exchange of the freebies had been accomplished we jumped back on the L4 and started heading towards home. Just a few minutes later our bus came to a stop because someone had parked their very small van to far away from the curb and the bus could not go around it. Luckily several people passing by and eating in a little diner called "Quick" came out in search of the driver. When it was obvious he was not going to be found quickly one of the passengers on the bus called the police so the car could be removed. The younger crowd however decided that this plan of action would take to long and began to all rock the car so they could eventually pick it up and move it over about a foot so the bus could pull around it. I wish we had gotten a few photos of the people as they moved the van, but it happened so quick that by the time we noticed what was going on it was over. 

    This weekend will be our first here in Amiens, and I think we have some plans made to go do some touristy things. We are wanting to go see the cathedral in person as well as some of the other local sites. Also there is a really nice looking market that sets up in town center every saturday and so we are going to go check it out as well! We will have pictures of these things in upcoming posts. So until then we hope everyone is enjoying the blog and if you have any suggestions please let us know in the comment section! Thanks everyone and safe travels!

Getting Settled in the Permanent Apartment

This post is attempting to make up a few days since my last post, so I tried to make it streamlined but at times it will probably read more like a shotgun blast.
        So we have been in Amiens, France for 4 days and we are starting to get more settled in our permanent residence. We went shopping today for groceries and other necessities and will finish up all the rest of the shopping and the pre-registration for Jessica's school tomorrow. A few notes on groceries here in France. Somethings are very cheap here, I mean really cheap. For instance, today we bout 8 pounds of potatoes for 90 cents and we also got 12 liters of bottled water for 1.00 Euro. However somethings we find as cheap back home, like sandwich meat, is very expensive and is sold by the slices! IT is interesting, but I am sure I will have an entire article on groceries and food in general here shortly.
      Tomorrow will be our first time venturing out and exploring the bus system tomorrow. It seems to be a very nice bus system and I am looking forward to trying it out. We have a bus stop just up the road so we at least do not have to go very far. To celebrate the settling of the new apartment we have purchased a small bottle of wine for very cheap and have chilled it in our baby fridge and are enjoying it as I type this.
        Fortunately since we are the first international students to arrive for the semester we got first pick at all of the household items that previous international students left behind. Out of this we got 3 sauce pans, 2 skillets, and some cooking utensils. Also we got to meet the co-ordinator of the international students and she seems like she is very willing to help us with any issues we may have. So we look forward to having her assistance as Jess begins the process of picking her courses.
       Finally, we got to eat at a little snack shack just a few minutes away from us. I must say that it was delicious and pretty cheap as well. We got two HUGE chicken Kebabs with fries and drinks for only 15 euros. It was great and I plan to go back at some time. There is another snack bar across the street from it that offers the same amount of food for the same price so we at least have several cheap options near by. So thats what has been going on. I think tomorrow I will make a much more focused post about our first experience with the bus system. Until then safe travels!

New Apartment:

Chicken Kebab:

 Our Celebratory Bottle of Wine:

Appart'City: Our First Apartment

After we arrived in Amiens, France Jessica's mentor Amy drove us to our first temporary apartment at Appart'City. This is a chain that caters to either one night stays, like a hotel visit, all the way to long stays for months. It is very convenient and also brand new. I'm pretty sure we are the first people to stay in our room. It is a little small, but it has everything you may need and has a spectacular view. I have posted pictures of the apartment as well as the view in the photo section as well as some in this entry. After we put our stuff in our room we went to get some food, we had consisted on airline food up to this point and were starving. Our first meal consisted of Panini's and a sandwich. After we had satisfied our hunger we moved on to the cell phone store where we got our new and incredibly cheap phones and our pay as you go plans. Finally we went by a grocery store and grabbed a few necessity items and headed home.
On our first day here a few things really shocked me. First of all even with calculating the exchange rate groceries are cheap here we got 5 items for 5.69 Euro or 7.76 USD and it included toilet paper which usually costs that much alone back un the US. Also I noticed that you don't have to wait for the other part of the retail sale to come in and kick you in the back. For instance when we bought our cell phones there was no activation charges, no hidden costs we simply paid 19.99 Euro per phone then the 15 euro monthly prepaid card and went on our way. They even applied the minutes to the phones before we left. It was a great experience and it really helps me know we made the right decision to come here. I hope everyone enjoys the posts if you have any suggestions please let me know, and also don't forget to subscribe to the blog so you get all of the updates. The subscription part of the blog is on the right toolbar of the homepage next to the news tab. Until next time safe travels!

View from the Appart'City Hotel:

Appart'City Apartment:

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Well the day has finally arrived! This morning we got our things together loaded our bags into the car and came to the airport. Our first flight is done so I am posting this while I still have the capability. We will arrive in Paris at 9:40 AM local time and 2:40 AM for our friends and family in Oklahoma. We will then take the TGV train to the train station in Amiens and then a short bus ride to the center of town. Jessica's mentor has kindly offered to pick us up and show us around the town so we can begin getting accustomed to our new home. We are really excited to start this journey, but we will miss all of our friends and family. I will update either this post or start a new one when we arrive at our hotel. Hopefully I will have pictures then as well! Everyone have a great night and safe travels!