Lyon

home of the mini-Eiffel tower, which sits at a higher altitude than Paris'. Take THAT Paris!

 French countryside, as viewed from the night train we took. It was boiling hot in our room, and I had food poisoning. I think it was the most uncomfortable 12 hours of my life, or maybe just the trip, but it was not fun.

 Fountain in Lyon, around the corner from our hotel. 

 Courtyard of the museum next to our hotel, which we did not visit. A local told us it was for the best, as it is quite boring.

 There were lots of old buildings and interesting architecture throughout the city. This is just one of many streets we wandered through.

Pretty poppies

 The river than runs through the old part of Lyon. It was all very pretty throughout the entire city.

This is about where we were when an exchange student walked up to us and starting speaking in French. Luckily Matt knows French, and was able to talk to them. They invited him on a scavenger hunt of sorts geared towards students who want to improve their French. How perfect! Matt is just that! Turns out, it was a bit boring. Oh well.

See the tower in the right side of the photo? That is the mini-Eiffel tower. Believe it or not, the top of it IS higher (elevation wise) than the Parisian Eiffel tower. Or so the story goes anyway... there is more to it, something about a feud between Paris and Lyon... I wasn't quite filled in on the details.

Heading up to the cathedral way up there on the hill. It was a holiday... so public transportation was out of the question... so we hiked.

The hike was well worth it, what a gorgeous view!!

I am in love with this city, it was just so gorgeous, friendly and clean.

The front side of the cathedral, which was possibly the most intricately decorated one I have ever seen.

So fancy!!

No single square inch was left undecorated

And lots of gold foiling in the artwork

Even the floors were uber fancy with mosaics everywhere

Outside again, this is the smaller chapel connected to the main cathedral

A short walk from the cathedral led us to an old roman amphitheatre. Matt is there in the yellow shirt. Thankfully he chose a brightly colored shirt that day!

Pretty cool. Actually it was fairly hot that day, and this is from someone who has been living in the Caribbean for the past 2 years!

More arm-outstretched pictures of us 

Sigh... can I go back yet??

A picture from in town... I didn't take many of town for some reason. This was a random fountain and carousel in the middle of the shopping district. 

So that was Lyon. Gorgeous city, absolutely loved it. It felt like it was Portland, Oregon sized, but in reality, it is the 2nd largest city in France next to Paris (or so I hear, don't quote me on that). I think it spreads out very wide, and there is an industrial/office sector of the city which we didn't visit.

Up next, Paris. Crepes. Nom nom nom nom nom.

Florence

our traveling buddy almost got mugged, but we met some really nice Albanians and a Tunisian instead.

Freedom Square, near the hostel we stayed at

Not supposed to take pictures.... oops...

The Duomo. It has a loooong name that I can't remember. It is huge, this picture doesn't do it justice.

So intricate, I can't imagine the work that was put in to create this. The inside was just as fancy.

We climbed the bell tower of the Duomo, it was pretty tall!

So many old buildings nicely laid out in straight lines (much different than Venice!)

Leaving the most awesome hostel ever. See the big wood door on the left with the giant metal door knocker? Yes, that is the entrance to the hostel!

Some famous bridge in Florence....

Some famous place where lovers add a lock and throw away the key... again I don't know much about it.

Be sure to look at the size of the people on top of the dome... this building is GIANT!

Florence at night, from atop a hill at the edge of the city. We proceeded from here to walk a LONG way to a restaurant only to find it closed. That's okay, we found an awesome restaurant around the corner.

I suppose I can't leave the mugging story untold...

We (Matt, Megan, Megan's friend and myself) went out one of the evenings to meet up with some friends we met at the hostel. The meeting place was at the steps of a cathedral we had all seen earlier. While waiting, Megan's friend decided to go looking for cigarettes, and walked off by himself. Some local drunk kids came up to him and tried to mug him. Matt ran off to assist, and soon they were out of our sight. The drunk kids noticed that Megan and I were watching their actions, and headed towards us. We felt like we were in a safe place, it was a well-lit open plaza with lots of people around. As they drunk kids approached, we walked over to the next bench and introduced ourselves to a group of (presumably)  nice 20-something guys. Turns out they spoke very little English, and were students in Florence visiting from Albania and Tunisia. Matt and Megan's friend soon returned and thanked the guys for their assistance. We all went for some drinks and got to know some very nice Albanians and a Tunisian. 

Next up, Lyon, where Megan learned an important lesson about tripe.

Venice

Water buses, gelato, my first gnocchi with mussels & clams, gorgeous views...

Venice Beach... the real one!

View from our hotel window at dusk

Real Italian pizza being eaten properly.

After dinner, Matt bought us roses!

View from the bell tower

View from dinner our second night in Venice

Walking to the train station, leaving for Florence.

Up next, the best hospitality of the entire trip, Florence!

6th Semester

I interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you this important update...

or not so important.

6 weeks into 6th semester, only 60 some days left until the end, and I am writing this on the 16th. Too many 6's for my liking, but our class did get some good news today. There was some drama created over our class' attendance record, but luckily everything turned out okay and our class is still intact. Whew!

Rocky, my sheep is doing great. He is adorable really. He now comes up to me when I come into the pen, lets me put the halter on his head and then I give him grain. He astutely figured out that I keep the grain in my pocket, and managed to pull the baggy of grain out of my pocket while I was examining this morning. What a smart little guy. In just two weeks I'll be prepping him for surgery, and becoming a surgeon. What???? It is crazy. I hope I can keep it together!

The classes are going better than I had expected. It is all very relevant and important material, and I'm finding that it comes easier to me than other subjects have in the past (namely immunology, bacteriology, virology...). I think I'm actually enjoying surgery lectures, and even the large animal medicine lectures which are solely dedicated to the equine patient.

I think I've had enough excitement for one week, I'm just hoping the rest of the semester runs smoothly from here on out.

In other news... the doves from last year nested on our porch again, and there are two tiny white eggs on the same chair being incubated day and night by the dove pair. Its a wonder they even need to be incubated considering the heat we've been having, but I'm sure it is also good protection against big lizards that climb around the porch as well.

The car broke down again.... this time it was the ignition coil which had cracked all the way around. Points is an amazing mechanic and had it back to me all fixed up and running great today. I am definitely thankful to have such a reliable mechanic! Having a car is invaluable at this point to get myself to SOAPing in the mornings. I can't be letting Rocky examine himself now, can I??

Now I return you to our previously scheduled programming...

London

a story in pictures.

Only because my journal from the trip somehow got deleted off of my iPad. Sigh. Sometimes technology lets you down and can not replace good ol' pen and paper.

The historic restaurant and Inn where we had our first British meal!

And drank some of my FAVORITE cider in the world. 

Sightseeing

Meeting up with old friends...

Being nerdy, visiting the water pump which caused a Cholera outbreak back in the day... Thanks John Snow for saving London from an epidemic!

The pub named after John Snow

Excited to see Keira Knightly act... which turned into regret by the end. She does a HORRID american accent haha

Matt getting his nerd on

Tower of London was crazy busy that day, but without fail the tour guide was awesome.

Pretty trees outside of the Tate Modern Art Museum

Illustrating how quickly we had to move through the museum due to time constraints. Can't wait to go back and see more!

The hostel we stayed at. Looks great from the outside... much less impressive on the inside.

Dinner at a corner pub, with pear cider in the bottom right corner.

Coming soon!

Venice: the city of floating taxis!