vehicle 1 Tara 0

The girls are in Germany, I stayed in Nemours because I had to make up 2 days that I missed when I was in Rome with Geoff...so I've taken up running...a lot. I found the famous forest of Fountainebleau, not only that, I also found trails marked with yellow arrows...can't get lost! Yesterday I took a bunch of photos, not exactly the best way to get a quality run in, but by far the best way to get the most photos per minute spent outside. Today, well I got hit by a car, here's the story. I had to extend my run a bit, so I ran through downtown to get to the canals. The problem with this, is that the streets are only big enough for 1.5 cars to travel down. So this dude in a giant van decides to make a right hand turn into a parking garage. No biggie. I'll just jet to the left and run down the street until I pass the vehicle and jump back onto the sidewalk. Problem is the van decides to stop, mid stride...so I plowed into the back of the vehicle. And by "got hit by a car" I mean "ran into a car". Like a champ (severely embarrassed) I carry on as though nothing has happened and I can hear the dude in the van calling out, cue Tara runs faster.

Versailles

The last time I was here, I had a winter jacket on

Yoga in the park

Thats all she wrote

Yesterday...what a day. We went to lunch at the cantine and told Phillip (the cook) our plans...off to Versaille for the day. So he offered to drive us as far as Melun where we could catch a direct train to Paris. So we got in the truck with Phillip, only for him to tell us that in the afternoon, after he's done cooking he goes to his second job, LUMBERJACK. In the back of his giant truck were 2 dozen felled trees. Phillip siezes to astound me. Today we had bacon wrapped veal, can you believe that guy? Anyway fast forward to Versaille. We rented a row boat...in the Versailles gardens, it was hilarious. I reclined in the front for the vast majority of the row only to volunteer to row last...however I forgot that means legitimately rowing the boat back to a specified docking spot...BLAST! Afterwards we found a grassy spot, laid out our blanket, put some music on and just chilled all afternoon. And by all afternoon I mean until 8 when we decided to leave. We moosied on to McDonalds for a quick bite to eat and made our way back to Paris center to catch a train back to Nemours...found out we missed the last train by 6 minutes...BLAST TIMES TWO. So we had to wait for an hour, caught a train to Melun and then took a bus to Nemours. We arrived back in Nemours at 12:30 and I got up at 7:30 to teach today, while the rest of the girls got to enjoy a well needed sleep-in. Sigh, who needs sleep?

whirlwind tour

Luxembourg

Gent

i heart gent

Did you make a monster face? Cuz I def did

GENT

Erica - tell Neil I found the mother load

Mussles and fries oh my

Amsterdam - are those swans making a heart with their necks???

van Gogh museum - museumpleine

An homage to Courtney and her fingers

Polishing the Heineken kettle

Windmills in Holland!!!!

This past weekend was a blur, we rented a car and visited three different countries and then returned to France. We drove to Luxembourg and walked through down town. They have a huge pedestrian zone full of shops and cafes. You can drink your beer on the street, so we bought a can and walked up and down the streets. I found Birk's for 30 euros....soooooo cheap! Then we were off again at the end of the day to Gent. We found Gent based on tripadvisor.com, we had no expectations of it. But when we arrived it rocked our world. Its really hard to explain to Gent, there's nothing to see, no famous landmarks or anything just a normal European town. But Gent has LIFE, it's full of life, it feels like an ant hill, soooo busy all the time but you can't really see it. Gent stole my heart. While in Belgium we had all the specialities, mussels and fries, chocolate, beer and waffles - delicious. Sadly we had to leave Gent, off to Amsterdam. MY OH MY. Amsterdam is an experience. Besides the night life (which I'll leave out) there is so much to do. We went to the van Gogh museum and I have fallen in love. I would do away with the Louvre, just to spend more time in van Gogh. Its times like these that I wish I was by myself. The girls were done with the museum and we left, but I would have spent all day in there. van Gogh's the man! The last day in Amsterdam we went to The Anne Frank house. It was profound. On our walking tour the day before the guide recommended that everyone re-read The Diary as an adult. But just being in the house was enough for me for a while. To live in silence for 2 years without going outside would be terrible and all for naught, only to die in a concentration camp a month before being liberated...oh Anne.