Zürich

As for my photos: I created an album on Photo Bucket because it’s a lot easier for me to display the photos (there is a link some below).

At the beginning of the week, I went to Zürich, Switzerland with Tracy and Kristen. The city and the trip were both amazing. We arrived on Feb. 28 (Monday), and we stayed until March 2.

As for the trip, it was about 4 hours on train from Besançon to Zürich (two stops – Mulhouse Ville and Basel/Bâle). We left at 9 a.m. Monday morning and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night.

Monday: After arriving, we went to the hotel (a bit of a distance from the train station and the city). It was really cold! For snacks, we went to a nearby supermarket and got some awesome cheese and bread. For dinner, we had some Swiss pizza. After exploring the town, that was it for the night; it was way too cold.

Tuesday: We explored the city – churches, stores, etc. Starting at 2:30 p.m., we took a tour of Zürich: first, the bus drove us throughout Zürich to different sites and the nearby cities. Afterwards, we climbed a mountain in a cable car for other views of the city, the lac and the mountains all around. Next, we drove the bus onto a ferry, parked, and crossed the river (in the bus, on a ferry)…awesome (and weird). Finally, we drove next to the lake for a view of the “Gold Coast.”

Photos of Zürich

Wednesday: This day was awesome. We went to Zürich Zoo. I will post numerous pictures of the zoo, so I’m not gonna talk to much about it. After the zoo, we took the train back to Besançon.







– Matt Lipinski

Leaving New York (and Why It Was For Madrid)

January 2011

Throughout the winter break, “I’m leaving for Spain January 23rd” was something I said all the time but didn’t know its meaning until two days after I unpacked in Madrid. I was excited to leave, of course I was excited, but fall and January swept past in a blur of To-Do lists and goodbyes without giving me pause to grasp, “I am going to live new country for half a year… I am going to live new country for half a year.”
Regardless, I suppose mental preparation can only yield so much until you finally leave! I did all kinds of other planning up until spring, such as choosing what country to study and how I wanted to live there. During class I would draw lists in my notebooks that looked like this:

PRAGUE _______________ MADRID
Pro – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Pro
* nice bridges – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – * I can speak some Spanish
* humanities program – – – – – – – – – – – * paella
* it’s got that gritty, sad-poet cool vibe

Con
* How long do I think I can live
on meat and potatoes?

My values might be questionable (and largely food-based), but they did help me discern what I wanted. A few Quito/Madrid, Monterrey/Madrid lists later, Madrid was my winner. Money and program availability factors aside, my guiding concern was finding the place I could make the most of; ie, finding a culture I thought I could immerse myself in rather than observe from a distance all semester. Speaking the language was going to be key (and I knew some Spanish) and if I could choose what sort of attitude I was going to come away with, I wanted a Madrileño one! To me, the Spanish capital epotimized a playful and relaxed mentality that I aspired to learn.

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And thus, January 23rd I was flying to Madrid! It was night as I took off from JFK and from my window seat I could see the length of Hometown Long Island outlined in street lamps, passing by below. Being a LI gal, it was a meaningful send-off, so I sketched a memory and said goodbye to every county.

The Fort Bregille and Chalezeule

Saturday, Feb 19, Tracy and I did some intense hiking. We arrived at the start of the trails around noon. On the outskirts of Besançon, there are tons of trails, forests, etc. All the trails are beautiful.

 

At the start is this obnoxiously long staircase, of course. At the end, there is an intersection of a few roads. To the right is Fort Beauregard, with an amazing view of Besançon. Afterwards, to the left, is a road that turns into a trail which runs through the forest. At the end of the forest…we finally arrived at the Fort de Bregille. It’s a huge old fort, with tons of trails all around it. 
Fort Beauregard
Fort de Bregille
 
Then, behind the fort (after lots of scenery that looks like Helm’s Deep from LOTR Two Towers), we crossed the “Grand Desert” (that’s the French name, even though it’s the same in English). Really, it did feel like a desert.
The Grand Desert !
Right after the “desert,” there are a lot more trails through the forests behind it. Some of the trails go towards Centre-Ville (of Besançon), et some others go towards tiny towns (like Chalezeule and Boissy D’Anglas).
Now for something actually hilarious and interesting: in these forests, there are work-out stations. No, I’m not kidding. After the second one, we understood the purpose of them, and had a surprisingly really good time with these ridiculous things. I put some of those photos below for example. We walked 3.5 km (2.5 miles or so?) through the forest; at the end, there is a big lookout point with a wonderful views of the Doubs river and an old destroyed castle. Next to this lookout point is Chalezeule, an old and small town. I took a photo of this cool lookin’ church there.
To Chalezeule !
The views of the Doubs River

Information (assuming you can read French…)
That old destroyed castle
The church in Chalezeule 
So, that’s about it. We returned to our dorms sometime after 17:00. The weather and the views were ridiculously cool. I went back yesterday (Monday) and took some of the other trails. I was there for about 7 hours yesterday! For now, that’s it. Enjoy the photos.

– Matt Lipinski

 

The Percée du Vin Jaune

La Percée du Vin Jaune
The 5th and 6th of February, there is a big festival in Arbois, a small village in the Jura region, where Vin Jaune (yellow wine) is produced. I went to this festival on the 6th. The festival was amazing and extraordinary. After arriving, you receive ten tickets for tasting (5 for vin jaune, 1 for macvin, 4 for red, white or crémant (similar to champagne)). I arrived at 9:30am. Starting from noon, you could taste some wines with the tickets. So, until noon, we walked around and we listened to some marching bands. Afterwards, we ate at a pizzeria (as always). Actually, we had not gone to the other pizzeria since the end of January.

Finally, it was time!
The vin jaune has a very distinct taste, but I thought it was delicious. Also, I really liked crémant, and the red and white wines that I tasted. Macvin essentially sucked, it was wayyyy too sweet.

To find the tasting stations, you could walk around the street, enter basements, or enter some stores. We saw a lot of drunk older people, and it was hilarious to watch them. Often, you’d see them walking around giving their extra tickets to younger people. I unfortunately was not so lucky as to be a recipient of such.
At the bottom of this post, there are some photos.

We left around 5pm by train. We had an awesome time!
One of the marching bands

The bathroom (NYC!)


 Wine bottle lights


 Ô la vache (holy cow).
…bizarre
 …still bizarre
– Matt Lipinski

 

Recap

I can’t believe how much time has passed! I only got here January 13!

First off, the first week was fun, simple, and not exciting. I met the others from the group that I did not know, as well as our “den mother,” Annick. She is incredibly nice, and every other time we see her she has money for us (our monthly “allowance” included in the Study Abroad tuition), so that’s always a good quality of someone. I discovered the “centre-ville” (center city) of Besançon quickly – it’s an old and beautiful city, with beautiful churches, incredibly delicious food and very cool stores. The second week, we all ate together (all the SUNY New Paltz kids, one SUNY Albany, and three SUNY Buffalo) as a group with Annick at the “Tour de la Pelote” (a really old restaurant). It was amazing! I tasted (ate) a rabbit pâté – delicious, even though it was very bizarre.


My classes started January 24 at the CLA (Center for Applied Linguistics). The CLA building was refurnished fairly recently. The first week was complicated: in France, you go to every course that interests you and you choose after having tried your courses. Anyway, I did the same thing, and my courses are interesting.
Monday – No classes!
Tuesday – General Linguistics
Wednesday – Oral Expression & Comprehension; French Modern Society; French Orality
Thursday – French Writing; Francophone Litterature
Friday – French Writing; Oral Expression & Comprehension; Contemporary French History

As for trips, I went to Zürich, Switzerland, which was amazing (I’ll post about it later). I also went to the “Percée du Vin Jaune” (in Arbois, Jura) in February, which was amazing; I’ll explain it in a later post too.

I love the culture and the food in France. Everything I eat is more fresh than in the U.S., and I have never had a bad meal. We used to eat often some “kébab” (it is not at all the same thing as “kebab” in English). Kébab in Besançon is referring to lamb meat in a little wheat wrap or bread roll. My god it is so good. Also, we eat at a pizzeria almost every week. The pizza here is definitely better than in the U.S. (sorry everyone!).
Ahhh, and then the bread. I eat at least a loaf of bread a day (usually 1-2). The bread here is so good. At the beginning of my stay here, I had at least one sandwich per day. Oh yeah, and by the way, I ate cow tongue one night…it was so good!

Finally, the culture and the people are fun and interesting. I still have a lot of difficult with conversation; the French language is still difficult. Nevertheless, I love France, and I’m sure that I’ll eventually be fine with the language.

Here are some photos of Besançon!

The café at the CLA

A café (at the CLA) !
The bridge of Canot (CLA to the right)
A waffle with Nutella
The statue of Victor Hugo (vandalized – poor guy)
Le phénomene hipster !
A bridge at Rue Veil Picard
The river
The other side of this bridge

– Matt Lipinski

 

Reverse Culture Shock

I’ve been experiencing some strong reverse culture shock these past few days. I have a strong longing for Melbourne. I miss my friends there. I miss the ocean and surfing. I miss having an entire city and it’s suburbs to explore. I miss the sunburned country.

Boston Reunion.

The four of us met in Boston over winter break.
Although we met up several other times throughout the 6 months since being home, Boston was the first BIG adventure.

It actually was lengthened by a day, too, because of a crazy blizzard- we all met up a day early.

Justine and Maggie live in the surroundings of Boston, so since they both came to CT and NY for my birthday and Marissa’s birthday- we figured it was time to reunite on their side of the states.

I picked up Marissa in CT, and we met Justine in her small town outside of Boston- where her lovely family hosted us. We spent that night and the next day snowed in, so we played tons of games, watched a lot of movies- and played in the snow. This extra day was my favorite, because it was just like old times, in Cardiff. Our friendships began casually, from just hanging out- so it was wonderful to do that again.

We met in Boston one week before our one year anniversary of arriving in Cardiff.
We have changed, but our friendships have only grown.
It’s so great to spend time with each other again and talk about how much studying abroad has changed our lives.

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AFL Joke

From Bill Bryson’s “In a sunburned country”:

A man arriving for the Grand Final in Melbourne is surprised to find the seat beside him empty. Tickets for the Grand Final are sold out weeks in advance and an empty seat is unknown. So he says to the man on the other side of the empty seat: ‘Excuse me, do you know why there is no one in this seat?’
‘It was my wife’s,’ answers the second man, a touch wistfully, ‘but I’m afraid she died.’
‘Oh, that’s terrible. I’m so sorry.’
‘Yes, she never missed a match.’
‘But couldn’t you have given the ticket to a friend or relative?’
‘Oh no. They’re all at the funeral.’

New Paltz International Orientation

It has been an exciting few days:

Tuesday
I moved back onto campus. It feels good to be back but I miss Melbourne. After some unpacking I walked to the Student Union Building to look at the new addition. It’s amazing.

Wednesday
I woke up in the morning and walked to the incoming international students office. I met up with Jeff, Warren, and Mo. We all got into a car and drove down to NYC to pick up students at JFK. I was given a list of people that we had to pick up, a sign (like in the movie at airports) that read “Welcome, SUNY New Paltz International Programs”. I was also wearing a shirt that said the same without the word “Welcome” and I had my New Paltz bag on too. I walked around the airport, going between terminals on the AirTrain. I would pick up a student, welcome them, and bring them back to Terminal 1. All of this was done with an excess of enthusiasm due to the large cup of coffee (caw-fee) that I had drunk in the car and finished on the AirTrain; drunk faster than a coffee should be.

At three, I went back to Terminal 1 and boarded a bus with roughly 25-40 international students. I communicated with the International Office back on campus via mobile; telling them where we were as we progressed back towards campus. We made a stop at a hotel where I got nervous that people were going to get off that weren’t supposed to; but I think everyone stayed on that was supposed to. We arrived on campus and I assisted the students to bring their luggage off the bus and into a dorm. The students were then given information and their room keys along with pizza and drinks. I had met Jo, one of my Australian friends, on the bus along with some other Australians I didn’t know. In the room where they were serving pizza and giving out information I met one of my other Australian friends, Cassie. After pizza I walked with Jo and Lauren to their dorm where they are staying. After getting their luggage into their rooms I walked to my room to pick up a spare set of sheets for Lauren who didn’t have any. On the way back to Lauren I ran across a student from Turkey who I helped find and get inside her dorm before returning to Lauren and Jo with the sheets. We went to Jo’s room and helped Jo get her WiFi set up. Jo and I then went back to the dorm where the pizza was served. I eventually ended up with Jo, another Australian, and some British girls in someone’s room where we played a word game, told jokes, and laughed about cultural differences.


Thursday
I woke up and met some of the students at Gage Hall because they didn’t know how to get to the dining hall. At 8:30 we all walked over to the dining hall for breakfast. I wish I had been given the welcoming that the international students are getting here when I arrived in Melbourne. I had lunch with friends and then at five we all went to the Poughkeepsie Galleria. I tried to organize a movie trip but the internationals needed to do shopping and I simply went with a group of my American friends to see a movie. My newest American friend gave me a ride back to New Paltz. We got a little lost and most likely got him into trouble for being out too late.

It’s been a great start to the new semester and what looks like the beginning of a very exciting year. I plan on applying to become an RA and an OL. I believe I would grow a lot as a person from both experiences.