Tautavel Cave, France

Tautavel was one of my favorite places on my Europe trip.  This was what really got me thinking about majoring in Anthropology in college (of course I changed my mind 1038945 times before settling on that).   The morning was spent on the bus and one of the girls smuggled some extra croissants from breakfast because they didn't feed us on the bus.

The day at Tautavel started with a brief lesson about mammals and bones.  After the brief lesson we headed up to the cave where archeologist were digging.   We were told what the archeologist were digging for and learned a little big about techniques used in digging.  The view from the cave was incredible and we were given ample time to take photos.

After the cave, we were given some free time to eat lunch and swim.  I don't remember this but apparently me and two other people did not like the lunch (tomatoes and mayonnaise, eewww) so we went to the bus to get some pringles and the bus driver was not happy that we woke him up.  After lunch we decided to join in with the people who were jumping in off of a rope swing across the river - got to cross that one off my bucket list.

After our break we split up into groups again and learned about the evolution of humans (which I would go on to study in college) and were taken on a short hike before getting on the bus and making the 4 hour drive to Barcelona.

(some photos are mine and some are from my friend Kara ... her camera took way better photos).

Carcassone, France

It's been quite a long time since I did any Eurotrip posts.  I figured now would be a pretty good time to start posting about the rest of the trip since was writing about travel all last month anyway.

I left off with my amazing time in Toulon, France with my homestay family.  When we left that morning we headed to Nimes, France for all of maybe an hour.  I don't have any photos and in my journal I said it was a pointless stop and I wish we could have had that time with our homestay.  So, I guess I didn't think that highly of Nimes.

Our next stop was to the aqueducts which I didn't write the name of.   Most of our time here was spent playing volleyball and relaxing for a bit before making our way to Carcassone.  We arrived in Carcassone in time for dinner then went right to our hotel where a few people went out for a bit and a few of us stayed in.  About an hour later a girl ran into our room yelling that Sting was putting on a concert up at the castle, so of course we all run up to see it!  We couldn't see anything since we didn't have tickets but we did hear it and it was pretty awesome.

The next day consisted mostly of touring the castle, which I loved!  There is a photo below of my friend Kris and it looks like she's standing in Diagon Alley!  After touring the castle, we got to choose where we went for lunch which was great and then headed to the new area of Carcassone which pretty much had nothing, so we went to McDonalds of all places, but we were all craving it!  We also ordered pizza to our hotel room when we got back because everyone wanted pizza.  Carcassone was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip because I feel like we got a lot closer as a group while we were there.  The awesome castle didn't hurt either ;)

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone Part 2

Way back at the beginning of the year, I talked about adventurous things I've done that have gotten me out of my comfort zone.  I have had this post in my drafts for months and completely forgot about it.  So, today I want to talk about other situations (mostly social situations) that made me uncomfortable but that had such an impact on my life.

Living with a host family in France
This was a scary experience for me at first.  I was very nervous when I learned that I would be spending a few days with a French family, especially since I didn't speak a word of French other than the key phrases I learned before the trip.  It was a little awkward at first but ended up being one of my favorite experiences in Europe!  It was such a great learning experience and Miti was definitely an interesting lady, we ended up having a lot of fun!  I wrote more about my homestay here.  Kara (pictured below with Miti), a girl from my group, was with me during my homestay, so we helped each other out quite a bit.  

Visiting the Elderly in Chicago
I am very uncomfortable around old people especially if they are ill.  Don't ask me why, I just am.  So when my youth pastor announced what we would be doing one evening while in Chicago, I was petrified.  The only thing that made it better was that we were going in groups of four. We were to go up to the upper floors of JPUSA's building and talk with the elderly who lived there.  This ended up being a great experience.  After being told to go away by several people, one old man finally agreed to talk to us, his name was Lenny.  I don't have anything written down about this experience and no photos, but it's something I'll always remember.  We walked into his room and he had a TON of dolls, which seems like an odd collection for a man, but every doll had a story.  We actually ended up staying longer than we had to because his stories were so interesting.   Lenny had stories from all over the world and definitely added to my love of travel.  This was a great lesson for me in respecting and learning from my elders.

Working with children who didn't speak English
 I always get a little nervous in a situation where I'm around a lot of people who don't speak English.  With adults it's not too big of a deal but kids sometimes don't understand that you don't know what they're saying. Though it did get a little frustrating at times, our few hours working with the kids in Costa Rica was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  The kids were so eager to learn and so excited that we were there.  After teaching them some English, we played games and had snacks with them and had so much fun.

All of these experiences turned out to be amazing and totally life changing.  I wouldn't change any of these experiences for anything.