Finally in Italy!

Okay...I absolutely loved Nice, but I'm sorry I haven't had time for pictures. We couldnt really find any internet place in Rome, so I couldn't update the last part of France!
These pictures are from Rome. This picture is in front of the Trevi fountain. Legend has it that if you throw money in this fountain, you will return again to Rome...I threw one in for myself! But remind me NEVER to go back to Rome in the summer time. It's so hot!!







Of course walking around all day would make one hungry. As I was walking in and out of the tiny winding streets, I saw a plethora of small, terraced restaurants. The hosts stand outside and try to get customers to come and sit with them for a meal. It's like contacting!! Ha. We seriously got asked to sit down by every host we passed!
Anyway, Marnie and I finally found a place that had good looking food and wasn't too expensive, and we ordered delicious pasta. Buonissimo!





This is my great aunt, Suor Emanuela. Yes, she's a nun. For real. In Rome. Cool, no?
I stayed at a nunery while visiting Rome. This place was a villa (a large house/hostel with a gate enclosure). 4 nuns live here and take care of the villa. She gave us a tour of the place and even showed us her kitchen. It even had a small elevator and she insisted that we use it (even if our room was on the 2nd floor).
Suor Emanuela is my grandmother's sister, and she was amazingly sweet. Every night we came back from sightseeing she would have cold water ready for us to drink. She even had ice cream one night too. She sent us off every day with fruit and extra water because she knew h0w hot the day would get. When we left, she sent us off with a kiss and a bag of candies!






We arrived in Taranto this afternoon. We spent all morning and early afternoon on trains. One train was so crowded...All these military boys got on with their huge bags of luggage (I'm pretty sure they each had 5 bags each)! Some sat right next to me too. A couple of them were cute, but I felt too silly to say anything to them. What was I supposed to say?!
Anyway, Nonna Emma took us to see some beaches this evening. This one is called Gabbiano. You would not believe how beautiful the water was or how warm!!! It was incredible. We're going back tomorrow ;)

Marseille; France's Harlem

Marseille is definitely NOT my favorite place so far. Before we left Troyes, Soeur Sopi warned us that Marseille wasn't going to be so great. In fact, it was she who told us that it's normally compared to New York's Harlem! At first I just laughed, but not to worry...Upon arriving and finding our hotel, I understood what she meant. It's just a hot, dirty, crowded city. Now, it had it's cool points; Le Vieux Port was cool with its hundreds of boats all lined up, the little merchant stalls lined up along the port were pretty sweet, and of course, L'île d'If was especially awesome.
This picture was taken from the famous Notre Dame de la Garde. It has a great view of the city because the church sits on the highest hill. You can see it from any spot in the city.




Although I didn't get any good shots of the chateau d'If itself, here are a couple of good ones to throw in the blog...
This is the shore the ferry brought us too; breathtaking, right? It was so hard not to just jump in!!
The chateau d'If was a former prison...The same famous prison that held the legendary Count of Monte Cristo! We got to wander around this little island and even go inside the chateau. It was so cool to go in and out of those cells and see where actual prisoners had to sit.




Awww....Someone threw me in a cell!!! Marnie!! I'm so sad, so she took a picture.

After wandering around and taking pictures, Marnie and I went to the little bar/café the island had and just sat and had a sandwich and an icecream. Ahhhhh....lovely. Don't worry, we asked for a sandwich with ham, and that's literally all we got; baguette and a piece of sliced ham. Nothing else. Really. I expected that, but it was just funny.

This is a picture from the ferry that took us to the island. As you can see there are just tons of people there! There were merchants selling everything from fish to hand made soap. Really cool.

Cayo fait une tête

One last picture. Here's our awesome after church picture. Cayo likes to make faces, but as long as me and Marnie look good, je m'en fîche!

Troyes

This is Troyes; the city of 10 churches. Literally. It's got 10 churches all clumped in one downtown radius. This is not including the Mormon church, however...Anyway, this picture is just a small taste of the cuteness of this ville. It's got so many cobblestoned and windy streets. There are cafés and shops everywhere too. Marnie and I had fun getting lost in the streets, but found our way out when we met our friend, Cayo, for a banana-pineapple smoothie at a café.
We went to FNAC (a music, book, electronic store) where I bought my first rap CDs. I bought them for school, so I hope my students will like it. I think it's pretty funny, but I'm not too worried if it's inappropriate (although I was assured by Cayo that they were good). My students probably wouldn't understand the lyrics anyway...



Today we went to church, and we ended up staying at the church ALL day...No joke. We were there for over 8 hours. I guess that's France for you! On every 4th Sunday of the month, the Troyes ward has a potluck and eats all together. Church got over at noon, then everyone went home to prepare the food, but for some reason we stayed and chilled at the church til people came back. Since the weather was nice, we ate outside. Of course, eating lunch took a couple of more hours, then we just stayed and talked forever!!
This is a picture of Akréé, Soeur Sopi's grandson. He is hilarious! He's 2 years old, and we're actually still hanging out with this guy. After the potluck, he came home with us, and he's just playing around til his mom comes to get him.





Although it's not a flattering picture, this is Soeur Sopi eating at the potluck. There was an okay turnout. The way it works here is that people bring their own food and then after serving themselves and their families, they share their 'leftovers' with whomever would like to taste their food. Today I ate some sort of Portuguese minestrone, rice, chicken, and some type of ratatouille (I'm not quite sure what was in it, but it was good!).






This is Cayo. He's Soeur Sopi's son, and he's 20 years old. He thought it would be funny to wear Marnie's sweater and hold her purse, so I thought it would be funny to take a picture of him. I wonder if he'll ever read this blog and find this picture of himself online!!















Another picture of Akréé. Marnie let him listen to her IPod, and he was dancing around in his underwear. It was too funny to pass up. So there you go.

So no new pictures this post, but I just wanted to write to say that Marnie and I made it to Troyes this evening. I started the morning out lugging heavy luggage through Caen to the gare in order to make it to the trains on time. We tried to take the bus, but we had trouble finding the correct stop for the replacement tram buses; since, of course, the buses didn't go to the train station!! AHHH!!! Sometimes France can be a real pain! We made it on the train, but the real fun came when we had to drag our luggage through Paris. Let's just say that I have a greater appreciation to all those Elders who served in our mission who had to drag all of their stuff through those hot, sticky, crowded metros!!! My arms are still tired! So we made it to the gare and made it safely to Troyes, but we still had to get the member's house. That wasn't so bad. We actually found the sister missionaries at the bus stop and asked them how to get to a certain place. What a blessing! They had been talking to this one woman, and then after exchanging numbers, they took off. I caught them before they got too far so that they could help us, but I'm convinced they were guided by the spirit to talk to that woman so that they could be there when we arrived...Funny thing, however, the family's son was actually waiting at the gare for us. Oops. Oh well; good thing he had a cell phone; because by the time we got the house, he was still waiting for us at the gare! We called him toute de suite, and he came home. We just finished our dinner with them; fried plantains, chicken, and baguette. Yummy african food. Very good and very greasy. Good thing we worked out all day carrying heavy luggage all around freakin' France!

I think this is probably one of the most funny pictures ever. That's it. I just wanted to put that out there...

We made it to Normandie yesterday. On the way, I got eyed by the train conductor because my feet were on the seat in front of me...I quickly took my feet off and brushed off the seat. Just so you know, I wasn't the only one with my feet up, I just got lucky. I think Marnie and I are going to make it a point to see how many times we can get yelled at while in France. Oh well, live and learn.
This picture was taken at Omaha Beach today. It sits right below the American Cemetery. We brought lunch and ate on the sand. It was pretty chouette!

Here's the American Cemetery. There were literally thousands of these markers with soldiers name etched on them. It was a very remarkable place. There was a very reverant spirit there as people walked around. Marnie got yelled at when she knelt down by a marker to take a photo. Apparently you can't kneel on a grave AND take a picture at the same time.

It was just the most beautiful day.The sun was out, but it wasn't too hot. There was even a slight breeze. It was just perfect....serene even.

Sideways shot at Bayeux; the small town trains stop in. We took a train from Caen to Bayeux in order to take the bus to the Normandy beaches. This little town was so cozy, so quaint, so charming. It was so French! It had tiny streets, cobblestone, and cafés. And of course, it had pretty flowers everywhere. Fortunately, no one got yelled at during our quick visit here....

Beautiful, no?