French classes and scuba masks

My first day of real french university classes is officially over. It wasn't too bad. Very different from Dickinson classes, in more ways than the obvious language one, but juuuust fine nonetheless.

My first class was international economy, which was really boring and I don't think I'm going to end up taking it for real. But it was definitely an experience because about 10 minutes into the class, a group of about 6 or 7 girls came in, and at first I didn't notice anything odd, but then a girl came in wearing a scuba mask, and then I realized that all the other girls we wearing bathing suits over their clothes, and hats, and carrying towels and stuff. So they kind of parade around the room a little bit, and then they come up to where the professor is sitting giving his lecture into a microphone (there are actually two rooms for this class, and one only has a loudspeaker, not the real professor....crazy!) and one of the girls spreads her towel out onto the professor's desk and lays down, while the other (scuba mask girl) grabs the microphone! She starts speaking really fast french, which I couldn't catch any of, and then everyone is laughing, and then she starts doing this weird thing with her hands behind her head, and she's like "everyone do it, yeahhh, even you professor!" and everyone starts doing it, including the professor! Annie and I were just like "whooooaaaaa, what is going on?" And then the girls thanked the professor and proceeded out, and the professor just smiled and continued his lecture. We asked the girl next to us what was going on, and what we gathered was that it was some sort of freshmen hazing thing...? It was absolutely hilarious. And we had heard all this stuff from our professors at the Dickinson Center about french professors being very strict, and not compassionate, and don't even try to make friends with them, don't eat in class or leave in the middle, etc, etc. So this whole distruption made me feel a little more at ease that a scary french professor wasn't going to eat me or something. Too bad I'm not taking that class, maybe it's that exciting all the time....?

The next classes were Cultural Studies and Theory of Communication, which are back to back in the same auditorium, with the same professor, who is fairly young, and seems pretty cool. And he also speaks very clearly and pauses a lot with a lot of "ummmm", which gives me time to catch up and figure out what he's talking about! And the Cultural Studies class is actually a seminar, because these classes are both "senior" classes (except the IEP, institute of political science, and I guess the French university system in general is crazy and has "1st year, 2nd year, 4th year". I'm like, where did the 3rd year go?), so we get to do group work the whole time, which will be a lot of work, but I think I'll like it. It'll be a break from the other lecture classes, and I'll get to meet some REAL french people! I'm just worried that I will be that dumb foreign girl who has nothing to contribute to the group, but hopefully they'll be understanding! And I'm from America, that's gotta give me some extra points or something in the coolness rating, right? All the French people like to wear American clothes, listen to American music, and watch American movies and TV shows, so they should like me. I can talk at length about all of those things. ;-)

Then before dinner Annie and I killed some time, which isn't odd because French people eat so late we feel incredibly conspicuous going into a restaurant at like, 6:30 for dinner. For the French, that's still happy hour. And in our random wanderings before dinner, we discovered the church of the Jacobins, which we had heard about but never really knew where it was. Well, turns out........it's amazing! It's right in the middle of the city, but kind of more towards the Garonne river, which we don't really go to that often, and it's not really a church anymore, but a museum displaying all these old churchy things, like chalices and stuff, and then also they have a concert series there called "Le piano aux Jacobins", which they were setting up for tonight while we were wandering around. It was a really amazing building, and I would have liked to see a concert, but we weren't really sure if it was free or you needed tickets or what, and at one point when we were walking around in the garden where the concert was being held (cloister? garden? not really sure), a woman came over and was like "blah blah blah something something leave soon!" so we took that as a cue to skeedaddle. Hahaah, I just said skeedaddle. And then we had dinner at a cheap restaurant, and I like cheap good food, so everything was great.

In other news, I'm trying to get my Ofoto website to work so there can be more pictures to look at, but it's being kind of dumb and making everyone sign in. Sooo, if you want to sign in, please look! And until then, I'll try to get that fixed. Now tomorrow will be scary because Annie and I are....wait for it.....going to classes separately. This should be interesting. ;-)

Berries make the world go round...

Well I am about to officially start my university career in France tomorrow! How exciting! I mean, the first day of classes was technically today….but hello, I didn’t want any Monday classes….so Tuesday is Monday for me! ;-) And how the French system works is this: The first week, it’s completely allowable to go to as many classes as you want and do a little test run, and then decide the actual classes that you’re going to take later. It’s especially great for me, and all the other international students (totally weird, I’m an “international student”) because I can see how well I can understand the professor, and how interesting the material is before I have to officially commit to a class. Great! So that’s tomorrow, starting with International Economy, which already sounds really boring. Hahahah.

So this weekend we had our first excursion to two little towns called Conques and Cordes-sur-Ciel (literally, Cordes in/on the sky, and look at the pictures to see why!) and it was so much fun! We left ridiculously early on Saturday morning, got to Conques, had a tour of the town, and then had free time for lunch and to walk around a little on our own. After lunch, we went on a hike in the woods up to this little chapel build waaaaaaaaaay up on a hill overlooking the town. Very cool, and we got some great views of Conques. Also, I couldn’t believe that women used to hike all the way up there to get some of this supposedly holy water that flows in this stream near the chapel in high heels and big skirts! After spending the afternoon in Conques, we departed for Cordes, where we were spending the night. And p.s. the big charter bus that we were on had standard transmission (as do all cars in France), and man, our bus driver really drove like a champ through all these narrow twisty roads way up in the mountains!

When we arrived in Cordes, we got cleaned up and then went down to the hotel restaurant for a really delicious and French dinner (I chose the vegetarian option because I don’t like duck or salmon, and those were both being served!), complete with an aperitif, red wine, and a course of cheese before dessert. But here’s a weird thing: so they bring out the bread with the aperitif, before the salad. Okay, fairly standard. Then 10 million years after we all ate the bread, after our entrée and everything, right before dessert, they bring out brie and Roquefort cheese for everyone. Apparently, in this crazy country, they bring out the bread before the meal, put it at your place, and then expect you to look at it the entire meal, and wait to eat it until the cheese course comes, literally 2 hours later. Come on France! In the United States, we believe in instant gratification, and I am not a patient person. So we ended up asking our waiter for more bread, which wasn’t a problem, but I feel like someone should have given our table a memo about that bread thing.

The next day, we went on a tour of Cordes with a very knowledgeable and adorable guide, and it was so fascinating. The town was built in the 13th century! And people still live and work there today. It’s absolutely incredible and mind-blowing. Then we had 3 hours free for lunch, so Daniel, Tyler, Annie, and I decided to go exploring in the “lower” part of Cordes. So we went down the humongous hill that makes it possible for “upper” Cordes to be called “sur ciel”, and then we ended up finding this little hiking path through some fields that ended having absolutely breath-taking views of Cordes. And then, best part of all, Daniel found some blackberries and we all frolicked over to eat some, except for Tyler because he thought they were going to kill us all. Except, then they were positively delicious, so it was all his loss. ;-) After some shopping in the cute little stores, we left for a wine tasting in Gaillac, which is apparently really big wine country. But I mean, c'mon, France is really big wine country. So we got to go behind the scenes and see these big vats of grape juice, and then taste it, and then taste the actual wine. It was really cool we followed all the rules of wine tasting and probably looked very pretentious. Note: the winery smelled really weird.

That was our awesome weekend! Look at all the pictures. Wish me luck for classes tomorrow! Bonne nuit!

Annie, me, and Christine at the Gaillac wine tasting (and all observing proper wine tasting etiquette, of course!) ;-)

And then Dan found the blackberries, and life was good. Tyler, however, is not having any of that.

View of Cordes that we saw on our hike!

Annie and me with the view behind us!

Annie loves the foie gras!

Gate into Cordes from Medieval times! Again, cutest town that anyone could ever imagine, with so many little alleys and stairways to explore, and all perched on the top of the hill!

Same view from our window the next morning! Fog had covered the valley, so you could only see the hills in the distance. Incredible

The view from our hotel room in Cordes-sur-Ciel!

Looking down on Conques during our hike

So imagine the cutest little french town that you can, and now multiply that by 8000, and you'll have both Conques and Cordes. They were so precious, I couldn't even handle it.

A little area with a well (Annie and I threw a dime in with all the euros!) outside where "Le tresor du Conques" is kept.....the treasure being a bunch of old relics that monks made here a really long time ago. Kind of a let down, but at least it was really gold and sparkly! ;-)

The whole Dickinson in France group, including our incredibly cute and outdoorsy guide (on the left) after our hike in Conques!

Walking down the path to Conques.....gorgeous hills!

Letter:

Dear French University system:
Be harder to navigate. If you don't want me to take courses at you, then I will just be on vacation for 10 months, it's really not a problem.

Thanks!
Caitlin


But I'll survive. ;-)

Food is amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing

A lot to update today, this is what happens when I get lazy and don't write for a while....oh well, it will be a concise version. ;-) This weekend was great, it was les jours du patrimoine (like....heritage/patrimony? I'm not familiar with the word patrimony in english, but apparently it exists), so all the museums and old houses were free and open to the public. Very cool. The Capitol building is absolutely stunning on the inside, with beautiful works of art and frescos on the walls and ceilings. And we saw a lot of marriages too, it being the town hall and all. And this is one civil ceremony that I wouldn't mind having! And we saw a really pretty bride in a really pretty dress, so you can imagine that us girls were going craaaaazy for that. We also went to St. Etienne Cathedral, St. Sernin Basilica, The Museum of Augustins, and Raymonde Museum. The two museums were kinda of boring, because it's all just old roman stuff that people found in and around Toulouse, but they are both housed in very old and very pretty buildings, so that makes it worth while. Oohhh and in St. Sernin we got to go in the catacombs and it was creepy! Well, actually not because there were approximately 10 million other people down there. But it could have been creepy under different circumstances. And then on Sunday we went to the Prefecture (government type building....apparently where you go to get your driver's license too, but this is definitely not like any American DMV!) It's an old "hotel" (big fancy schmancy house) that has been decorated according to the times (18, 19th century, I think), and it also still used today for government receptions. But the craziest thing ever: so there are these beautiful gardens in a courtyard at the Prefecture, and all these people are milling about, and there are a lot of older people in large tour groups, kids, families, that sort of thing. All of a sudden, we hear a mic check and think "oh, there's going to be a concert in the garden, how cool!" So we're all ready to stick around and hear some classical music, maybe some chamber singers or something. However, then the large and incredibly ghetto DJ starts blasting some 50 Cent, L'il Jon, all those family favorites. Annie, Christine, and I were cracking up, and also very confused. Weirder still, no one else seemed even slightly phased. Like these old people are just walking around like they came especially to listen to this rap music. Hilarious.

So we had fun at night time too, seeing as how we spent our days doing educational things, it was very apropos that we spend our nights doing college things. Friday, we ventured to Place St. Pierre, which is right near the university, and there were so many students there, it was great. Very very fun. And then we were going to try to go to the infamous Bodega Bodega, but we headed there so late that they had closed the doors because they were too full (I guess that means it's a good place, right?) So then we tried our luck at a club called "Le Frigo" (ie. the fridge), and at first we got turned away, but then Miss Christine flirted her face off and made friends with the bouncer, so we got in and got an invite back for anytime we wanted! And apparently this club is fairly exclusive, so that's is pretty much amazing. Saturday night we just hung out at Christine's house because her host family wasn't there. Very good times.

On Sunday night, Megan Hess, who stayed with my host family two years ago, came back to visit with her mom and grandma, and I got to play translator, which was surprisingly fun! Her mom and grandma don't speak a word of French, and Megan was obviously busy catching up with the Marfaings, so I was filling in her mom and grandma about what was going on, and then translating questions between Valerie and Gauther and them. And I have to say, I did a really kick ass job. Anytime I speak French well I feel it's a personal victory and everyone should bake me a cake. Speaking of cakes, the Marfaings made the most delicious dinner ever, complete with delicious cake for dessert, and I thought I was going to die of food happiness. I am so impressed with the food here, because so far I really love everything that the Marfaings have made for me (lots and lots of little cakes and cookies....watch out world, Caitlin is going to get fat in France!) and we have discovered lots of little lunch places that are delicious and inexpensive, and also I am discovering interesting things at the grocery store that we don't have in the United States. All in all, French foods is amaaaaaazing.

And I'm really happy with how Skype is working out for talking with people (mainly Jason) from home. Skype is a program where you can talk free if the other person has skype too, and it's through your computer with your internet connection. Very easy, and you can't beat the price. Jason and I thought we would spend a fortune on international phone cards (he's in China), and it turned out to be much easier than I thought! And this morning when I was getting ready for school, I got a surprise call from Jason's roommate at Union, Carl, and we were both in love with the fact that it's soooo easy to talk to someone on a completely different continent! Yay technology!

And now I'm in the middle of choosing courses at the University, and oh, how I miss the organization of Dickinson. I thought that registration was bad there, DOC was so slow, you got waitlisted all the time. It's nothing compared to the lack of knowledge and disorganization here! I can't even find out what times classes are offered until this Thurday...and classes start next Monday! But apparently it's the thing to go to all the classes that you are interested in (that fit in your schedule), and then at the end of the week submit your final class schedule. And I think I'll be taking one class at the Dickinson Center. It's a literature class, which I'm not so interested in, but I heard the professor is really nice, and the center is so convenient for me to get to, and I'll get to have a small class with other Dickinson students, which will be a joy after the 200-300 person classes at the University! And apparently the thing to do there is to make friends with a French student, and then ask to photocopy their notes. I guess everyone does it, and the French kids don't mind helping out poor, not fluent foreign students. So I'll have to work extra hard to make some (smart!) French friends in class!

Well, after the amazing dinner last night, I got to bed kind of late (it was the typical "sit at the table for 4 hours" kind of french dinner!), so I'm off to bed. Bon soiree!

St. Sernin Basilica and Annie and me!

Inside of St. Sernin....the tomb of St. Sernin is at the very end of the church. Is the real dead saint guy in there? That's kinda gross.... ;-)

Annie in front of St. Sernin Basilica

Amazing ceiling in the grand hall of the Capitole building. When we were here, there were a bunch of weddings going on, one right after another! What an amazing room to have your wedding in!

Statue of Henri IV at the capitol building (exact dimensions of the real Henri IV because it was built when he was still alive!)

At the capitol building, they had an exhibit of glass artwork, and I liked this one.

Christine and Annie in front of a roman fountain!

Musee des Augustains....lots of very old stuff from the Middle Ages, with a Roman garden in the middle (I don't know what was so special about it, it was a fairly normal looking garden with plants, but hey.....apparently it's old). This was the open walkway that ran around the perimeter of the garden that was lined with old statues.

I apparently forgot how to hold a camera still so my pictures wouldn't be blurry.....but this is the inside of St. Etienne, which is one of the most well known gothic cathedrals in the south of Europe!

I love that there are palm trees everywhere! I love palm trees!

Cute little cherub guy in the salon of the prefecture! Adorable!

La prefecture of Toulouse, which, if I understand correctly, is still used today for governmental affairs. Very cool, amazingly decorated inside. (St. Etienne Cathedral in the background)

Les jours du Patrimoine--everything in the city is open to the public, and free to enter! Including old "hotels" (aka: really enormous old houses, which have now been converted into really nice apartments). Very cool to be able to enter these essentially private homes and look at all the amazing architecture!

SPEAK!

Bonjour! Today Daniel (a boy in our program who has dredlocks and one of our professors calls him "Medusa") had the foresight to plan a simply marvelous picnic in the Jardin des Plantes (side note: Jardin des Plantes means “Garden of Plants” if you couldn’t guess. Excuse me French naming system….but seriously. That is very weak. They are not very creative with the names here. I live on Rue Jacques Labatut, which is acceptable because apparently this Labatut fellow did something noteworthy, but the surrounding streets are: Rue des Vases, Rue des Jardins, Rue des Pottiers (potters). I think someone pulled an Anchorman and was like “I love [looks around room]…..vases! Let’s name a road after them!” End of incredibly long side note.) So we all went there after class and it was soooo beautiful out after the incredibly yucky rain we’ve been having. And I was French and I ate a baguette (bread here is absolutely to die for, even at cheap little supermarkets!), cheese, a mix between yogurt and applesauce with raspberries type thing that I absolutely love, a nectarine, and a pastry. Ohhh, so delicious! And some people had wine, it was all very cute. And then we went to Darty, the electronics store, and while speaking very poor French, tried to purchase an adaptor/converter for various things that we had that didn’t work in France. I think I might have hit the jackpot, we’ll see tonight if I don’t burn the house down from some electrical circuit thing!

That was pretty much today. I had a long conversation with my host mom about various things, and I think I was having a pretty good “French day” today, because we managed to have a lovely conversation during which I was only confused a couple of times. Yess, go me! And I commented that I thought fruit here was really good (it’s delicious!), and my host parents told me it’s because France is smaller than the United States, so fruits get places faster and are more fresh for the buying. Excellent! I thought that made a lot of sense, and I wondered why I didn’t think of that. Also, a woman approached me on my way to the Dickinson Center today and asked me where some tea room was, and I was like “I don’t know, sorry” and I think she thought I just didn’t understand her because the minute I open my mouth it’s obviously that I am not a native French speaker, but I can handle “I don’t know, sorry”. So she asked again, and I reiterated that I was sorry, but I didn’t know where that place was. I think she wanted to continue our lovely little encounter, but I had to get to class, so I apologized again and walked away, and while I walked away she goes “SPEAK!” in English. Excuse me, crazy woman, what does that even mean? I giggled on my way to class.

C’est tout. Bonne nuit!

Entrance to the Jardin des Plantes, complete with huge, old and picturesque gate. Looks kinda spanish, doesn't it? And a silly little tree too. Oooohhh France you are sooo cute!

Christine and me....sunglasses twins? ;-)

Picnic in the Jardin des Plantes today!

Drinks and St. Etienne

Yesterday, being Monday, was nothing really that exciting at all. But Annie, Christine, and I tried to be very French and for dinner we bought baguettes, cheese, and some yogurt and ate in the park! Very fun. It would have been complete with some wine! But as we were eating, we saw the same exact american students that we met in the club on Friday night! They were eating in the park too (apparently Americans think that eating in the park is an appropriately French thing to be doing!) So that was funny, but we didn't say hi because we thought it would be fairly creepy seeing as how we didn't really talk to them for all that long. And then there was a little Dickinson excursion to the cinema to see "Les Poupees Russe" (which to my knowledge means: "The Russian Dolls" or "The Russian Puppets"). It's the sequel to "L'Auberge Espagnol", for those of you who have seen that. And it was free too! All Dickinson outings are free, so I am definitely going to all that I can, because my tuition is paying for it! And I'm glad for this one, because my host family told me that movies are expensive in France, around $12. Yuck! And on the way to the movies, we saw that bar, Bodega Bodega, that my host dad says is the happening spot on the weekends. So it's good to know where that is!

Today is Tuesday, which means we had the most boring class in the world: History of Toulouse. It doesn't sound that bad, except it's not actually the history of Toulouse, it's the history of all of France, I guess. So we did quite a bit of talking today on the middle ages, and the Renaissance, none of which specifically applied to Toulouse. If it was Toulouse-specific, I would have been more interested. But alas, I was falling asleep. Thank goodness this class is only 2 times a week, and the other time are our little tours of the city to see historical things, which I am definitely not opposed to. And also, we are doing this play in our oral expression class, and it's the craziest play ever. None of us understand the play, not because of the language barrier, just because it's so weird! And we actually have to perform it, costumes and all, for the staff of the Dickinson Center. Thank goodness that's only 3 people! And our professor was like "ohhh, maybe you should invite your host families, that would be fun!" And we were all like "NOOOOOO, that's okay". Sooo embarrassing. And p.s. everyone, I'm an old man in this play. Just thought you should know. And after class today, a bunch of us went to a cafe near St. Etienne, see pictures below! P.S. Today I bought a sandwich at Casino (such a good place to buy lunch, because instead of buying one yogurt at a boulangerie, you can buy a whole pack for practically cheaper, and then eat them other days! Yesss for saving money!) and it was the strangest combination, unbeknownst to me until the first bite: Tuna.....and hard boiled eggs? C'mon France, what is that. Who decided that two potentially foul food items would make a good pairing? Surprisingly, it didn't taste half bad! Except for the excess of mayonnaise, and probably butter too. Craziest French habit by far: putting butter on every sandwich imaginable. Like, oh, you have a ham and cheese sandwich? Obviously putting butter on it would improve it greatly. Tuna? Yeah, that too, bring 'er over here for some good old fashioned grease. GROSS France. Je ne l'aime pas. How do you people stay so skinny?!

I'm really excited for this weekend, not only because of Bodega Bodega ;-), but also because I guess it's some special thing that they do once a month (once a season? not really sure, language barrier thing) and "all the doors of Toulouse are open." Meaning, museums are free and you can go into places you normally wouldn't be allowed on a regular basis, like the capitol building, which is actually not anything to do with government as far as I can see and it actually a theater. And there are a lot of "hotels" (aka: big fancy old houses) that I think you can go into their gardens and stuff. Not really sure about that last one, but definitely the museums and all public buildings are open, for free. Which is really great, especially because this weekend is supposed to be rainy and cold (hellooo, it was beautiful the weekend I arrived, and it really hasn't been since! Cold and rainy every day!) But if the rain does hold off on one weekend day, I think Annie and I might try to ride bikes along the canal and see a little more of the city. I have a bike already from my host family, and Annie will have to rent one, but that's okay. Everyone here rides bikes everywhere. It's crazy, I almost get run over by a bike on the canal path on my way to class every day! And since I'll mostly be riding my bike to classes at the University, I need to get some practice! Maybe I'll buy a baguette and put it in the basket and then ride around and be super French! And other news, I have been running every day this week! I'm so proud, I love being in a good routine, and usually it takes me a week or two in a new place to get into it, but I think I'm finally okay now! Yessssss. It's so awesome, everyday when I start running all the street lamps are on, and then at some point early on in my run, they all go off! It's like magic, and I love it. And everyday I see the firemen (the station is very close to my house) getting all their equipment ready, and all the stores are beginning to open, but otherwise it's really quiet, and as my run goes on, it gets continuously more busy. It's really cool to see a usually bustling city all fast asleep!

Well, seeing as I how I go to bed ridiculously early here because I have nothing else to do (awkward arrangement of the television in my host parent's room makes it difficult to watch any TV----not that I really like French television, it's really bad, but TV passes the time!) But they have a DVD projector (very complicated) in the living room, and they said this weekend I could have some friends over and watch a movie one night if it's rainy and gross! yaaaaaay!

Au revoir!

St. Etienne

Julia and Ellen, same cafe

Annie, Harmony, and Melinda at a cafe this afternoon! (St. Etienne in the background). And cool tables too!

Oh, hello French boy in my house!

Well it is now Sunday and I have been in France for one week. It’s amazing it seems like much much longer. So I’m finally settling in, some what, to French life. Everyday I get up, maybe go for a run along the canal and in the gardens, go to the Dickinson Center for classes, and go to lunch with friends. It’s a nice schedule! Oh yeah, speaking bad French is a major part of every day too. But whatever, I’m over it. Fluency will come with time, so I’m just going to keep practicing!

So Friday night was the start of our first real weekend in Toulouse (last weekend everyone was too stressed and jet lagged to do anything, obviously). So we met at Place du Capitole and ended up having a fun night, bar hopping and clubbing (We ended up at Club Shanghai—that’s for you Jason!) We met some other Americans who are studying abroad too, so that was fun. It’s weird, we’ve only been here for a week, but we’re craving for American things already! Well, American interaction I guess. It’s very easy to get “Frenched out”, as I like to call it. I know speaking in English all the time isn’t going to help my French, and I suppose sometimes I’ll have to make an agreement to only speak French with my American friends, but not now. Hahaha.

Then on Saturday we tried to go to this festival in one of the suburbs of Toulouse that Gersande (assistant at the Dickinson Center) told us about. Well, she failed to mention it is a nighttime festival! So we get there around 2, and it’s like dead. There are some tents and food places, but everyone is giving us crazy looks and some people we wearing bizarre clothes. So Annie, Christine, and I felt incredibly out of place and like we were crashing some private party. Soooo we promptly returned to the bus and went back to Toulouse and ate at our favorite cheap sandwich shop and then walked around for a while. I don’t know how we passed the afternoon, but all of a sudden it was 5:30. We came back to my house for a while, then went back to Place du Capitole to try and hook up with some other people for the night and get something to eat. Unfortunately, it did what it has done every day since we arrived: rain. Poured, actually. So Annie and I hurried into a little café and sat under the umbrellas and watched the rain while we ate quiche and hot chocolate. It was very romantic….too bad it was with Annie! So I decided to make it an early night and I came back around 11:30 and was somewhat surprised to find a boy sitting on our couch! Apparently, I should learn how to understand French because I knew that my host parents were going out for dinner (which entails leaving at like, 9:00, so they were still here when I left). And Valérie told me something about the son of one of their friends who baby-sits for Alix and Manon on a regular basis. But I did not put two and two together, and was like “oh, hello strange French teenager on my couch!” But he ended up being very nice, and I don’t know how old he is, about my age, I think. He wanted to ask me all these questions about American culture, and politics and I was kind of bored. But whatever. And he also wanted to speak English to practice, and I was not pleased to find that he was absolutely fluent in English. Maybe he just heard my really bad French and was like “I cannot listen to this girl for the next hour!” So Valérie now thinks that we should be in love and go out all the time, which I can’t say I’m opposed too because it would be fun to have a real French friend! Wheeeeee.

Okay, every place ever is closed on Sundays here, so I don’t know what I’m going to do for lunch, but I’ll figure something out. A bientot!

We went on a tour of a very old section of Toulouse with one of our professors from the Dickinson Center. We went in many of these old courtyards of houses (now apartments) that are from the Renaissance age! And people still live there! It's absolutely amazing. People are driving their cars on cobblestones that are literally centuries old! It's a very striking contrast.

Saint-Etienne Cathedral. Really really impressive.

Canal again, and those boats are all restaurants and clubs (I think? One is called a "Disco Pub", that's high class!)

The canal that I walk along to get to the Dickinson Center everyday!

A cow!

Hahaha, so I think everyone should know that as I’m writing this, I am watching a French reality show that has all these kids live in a boarding school like it’s the 1900s. Isn’t that hilarious? I love reality television, so this is great. Except I understand zero of it. Television is hard, they speak WAY too fast. And you can’t ask a TV to repeat itself. But they are wearing funny clothes on this show! Excellent.

So big news of the day: I bought a cell phone! It was a little more expensive than I would have hoped (120 Euros for the phone and a prepaid card), but completely necessary. Especially because I only have dinner with my family three times a week, it’s a definite must to be able to make plans with other people. And a safety thing too! What if I suddenly become lost and need to call for help? I’m definitely rationalizing for my parents, by the way! J So that was fun, and Annie and I negotiated ourselves successfully through that whole situation too…all in French, of course! My days consist of little battles, and if I can speak French well to someone while I’m ordering my lunch or buying a cell phone, my whole day is complete! And speaking of lunch, we found the cutest little sandwich shop for lunch, and they have a special where you get a sandwich on delicious ciabatta bread, a drink, and a dessert (most delicious pastries ever) all for 3.50 euros! And that’s amazing, because I am stressing about spending too much money. So we are doing some trial and error. Yesterday, we went to the Casino cafeteria, and it was not a good choice—too expensive. So for these first few days, I’m not worried about spending too much as I discover what places are good. But as time goes on, it will definitely be a concern.

Let’s see….what else? I didn’t go for a run, I was too lazy. And it has literally been raining since Monday. And everyone is like “wow, this weather is really weird!” And I’m like “Hello, Toulouse! Can you please have nice weather for my first week here?” Ohhhh, and we had this very normal and good orange juice that I was drinking with breakfast, but I guess we ran out of that stuff. So this morning I come into the kitchen and there’s another bottle in the fridge, so I’m like “okay, that works…” Umm, turns out, it doesn’t work. Because it was some “Vita-juice” that really tasted like people shouldn’t be drinking it and it was full of chemicals. Gross. That’s my orange juice story. No more French weird vitamin juice.

Well I guess if I’m talking about orange juice, I really don’t have much to say. But one last story, and I’m really proud because I understand all of what was going at the dinner table: Manon is 6 years old, so learning how to read and spell and that sort of thing. And also, she goes to a speech pathologist, so Valérie and Gauthier are always working on her speaking with her. So today she was reciting this little poem, and then Valérie was asking her what words start with “A”. And Manon was giving a variety of answers, such as “Les chausseurs?” [shoes], “Un chateau?” , etc. And then Valérie was like, okay Manon, listen to me, what starts with an “A”, like “les animaux” [animals]. And Manon thinks for a moment, and then says all confidently “Une vache!” [a cow!]. Well everyone starts laughing, so she thinks she did something funny. And we just could not stop laughing, and it was hilarious. She never did quite get the hang of that whole exercise.

Well that’s all for tonight. Bonne soir!

There is a museum right across the street from the Dickinson Center and it has old things in it. I thought it was just egyptian things, but I think it's all African things? Or Asian? I don't know. But I do know there is a mummy in there. And I want to see it. Also note the plethora of palm trees that are everywhere. And I love palm trees! There's even one right outside my window. :-)

Some building in la Place des Jacobins....A museum, maybe? And the man in the picture had a really cute dog that Annie and I wanted to pet.

Annie and me eating lunch in a pretty park! (I think it's called La place des Jacobins)

Annie and Christine before our first encounter with Le Tisseo (Toulousian bus/metro system!) p.s. Annie is not actually 10 feet tall, despite the fact she looks it in this picture. And the woman is the background is crazy looking!

La place du capitole (not the actual capitole building, it was very crowded on the streets and I felt too conspicuous to stop and take a good picture....so one day when it's nice I'll take a better one!)

La la la

Well, I lost the entry that I wrote yesterday because the internet is not very reliable in my petit bungalow! So, quick summary: Classes were really boring; we are reading some French play that is really not necessary. I have the part of “the second old man”. Score! And then after classes ended, Christine, Annie, and I took our first venture onto the bus into centre ville, and it was not scary at all. We were looking for cell phones at a store that was recommended to us, but the store ended up being sketchy and they were out of the phone we would want to buy anyway. So maybe another day. And I finally got to see the place du capitole while walking (We drove through it on the way home from the airport). It’s pretty amazing, and I’ll try to take a better picture when it’s a nicer day outside!

Today (Wednesday), our classes ended at 1:00, so we went to get lunch at Casino (a Wegmans-type chain that also has a little cafeteria) and exchange some dollars at the bank. And I successfully traversed my first official and important French conversation with someone other than a person associated with Dickinson or in a restaurant. And I got what I wanted, which was to exchange the dollars, then place the Euros directly in my account. Très bien pour moi! Then we wandered around a little, went back to the Dickinson Center to do some grammar homework for our written expression class (good practice, but boring and repetitive) and then Annie came back to my house with me, which was the first time I’ve had a guest! And Alix and Manon were soooo cute, and they were asking if Annie was going to spend the night tonight, or some other night, and then they both gave me kisses when I left (I really like the French “bise”, it’s very lovey and cute). And then Annie and I went to Kat’s (a Dickinson girl who studied in Toulouse last year and has her own apartment this year) apartment for a very good dinner and some cheap wine (2.78 euros [about $3.50] for a good sized bottle! Amazing!) And that’s all.

Adorable French street en centre ville that seemed to be in the middle of French hippie land....

Oh good, other people can't speak french either!

Today was the first day of classes at the Dickinson Center, and it was soooo great to see all my friends! And also it was amazing to find out that everyone seems to be having similar experiences to mine ("what, no shower curtain?" [never fear, I have one, but apparently some people don't!] "no toilet in my bathroom!" "we eat really late!" " I can't understand what my family is saying!"). But it's hilarious because at the Dickinson Center, you cannot speak english. It's absolutely against the rules, and if they hear you speaking it, you will be asked to leave for the day. I definitely don't want to be the first person to be asked to leave, so I will continue to speak broken and probably incredibly wrong french to all my fellow students. Except for the occassional word in english that gets slipped in for lack of a french alternative, we can do pretty well, and we all managed to tell hilarious stories about our first few days here without too much confusion! And "l'equipe de Dickinson" (the Dickinson team--aka, the director and her assistants) are incredibly nice and understanding, because of course, they've had students go through this before.

So we got all the paperwork for the bank in order, and I have money in my account! Still haven't gotten around to getting euros, so I have yet to buy anything at a french store, but I've been in one....that counts, right? After we had a little intro presentation, we had lunch, which was fun because I got to talk with Annie, Christine, Shana, and lots of other people. There is only one boy who does not go to Dickinson, which I can imagine would be the only thing harder than simply being in a foreign country, would be to be in one and not know anyone else there! (For all of you who are on a non-Dickinson program [Michelle!], I am in complete awe of you!) But his name is David, and he's British, and we actually live really close to each other, so it was nice to find someone to walk back and forth to class with (otherwise I was singing the "I'm so lonely" song with that crazy chipmunk voice! hahahha). So after lunch, we broke into little groups to get a little tour of the area right around the Dickinson Center: the bank, a bakery, a grocery store, a news stand, etc. Except, of course, it started to pour right as we started out. So everyone got wet and then my sandal broke. I mean, the poor sandal is about 100 years old, so I can't blame it. But still. And my feet got dirty.

Then I came home with the full intention of going for a run, because the rain seemed to have let up, but then it started to pour again, this time complete with thunder and lightning. So I decided to hold off yet another day, to prevent certain death by lightning as I ran along the canal. So I hung out with Alix, who talked a lot and I understood very little. Oh, and sidenote, I am retarded and cannot open the door to the apartment in which I live. Let me paint a little picture: It's a very old house that has been converted into apartments, and my family owns the whole building, rents out the top two floors and lives in the bottom (very very beautiful, like out of Better Homes & Gardens!). So there is this absolutely ancient big door that leads out to the street, and then a regular door that leads into their (my? our?) apartment. So this morning I'm rushing around trying to be at the Dickinson Center by 10 (I had some trouble with the crazy shower head that would not stop spraying my entire bathroom! But at least I have a shower curtain!). I said a quick goodbye to Valerie, and then rushed out the door. Or rather, I rushed to the door out into the foyer and proceeded to be stumped and unable to open it. I twisted, I turned, I fiddled with the key, but no. I was not leaving that apartment. So I went back to Valerie's bedroom where she was talking on the phone and said "Je ne peux pas ouvrir la porte!" [I cannot open the door! -- and yes, I realize this sounds retarded] and Valerie says "Pourquoi?". Umm, I don't know Valerie. So she comes and helps me and seemingly does exactly what I just did. oh well. So I'm on my way. Then, I'm walking back this afternoon with Kat, Shana, and David, and David goes further along to his apartment, and Shana and Kat go with me down rue Jacques Labatut. And I say jokingly "Now I have to get that door open, it's like a safe!", because the large outer door was scary and I didn't think I could open it. I was half expecting Kat to stay and help me because she lived with the Marfaings last year, but alas, she and Shana continued on, and I was alone with the scary door. Again, I twisted, I pushed, I turned, I pulled. I did everything, but that door did not open. And then just as I was considering calling to the apartment through the intercom and admitting again that I was obviously an incompetant human being, a woman came up and seemed to be heading towards the apartment. I say "C'est a vous?" [It's yours?], pointing to the door. She said that it was, and I was like "jkasdgh;asdlghasd, i live with the Marfaings, and my key doesn't work!" and she looked at me like I was crazy, and then opened the door. To my relief, I was able to open the door to the apartment on the first try! So I guess that woman wasn't completely astounded by my inability to open doors. So, tomorrow before I go for a run, I am definitely doing some experimentation because I do not want to get stuck outside in the morning before class!

And now, a funny story to leave you with:
Yesterday, I was talking with Valerie and Gauthier and then Gauthier asked me something. I didn't understand, so I made my confused face. So Gauthier tried to say the english word, which to me sounded something like "ummsleck". I was like "whaaaaa?" And then he tried some variations: "omsleck? umseck? ummslick?" And I am at a complete loss. I'm like "umm, omlette? Are we talking about breakfast here?" So he gets the French/English dictionary out and unsuccessfully tries to find the word in there. At this point, this is fairly ridiculous and I'm sure the question won't even be worth all the trouble. So then Valerie jumps in with some gestures towards her head and her heart and some talk of "emotions". And finally, it's like bam: HOMESICK. ahahahahaha. The French don't have the "h" sound, so whenever they try to say an english word that starts with "h", trouble happens. Another example: I told Valerie about my friend Harmony, who is a Dickinson en France student. And then later I said something about Emily. And since she pronounced Harmony like "Armonie" and Emily like "Amilie", I guess (maybe?) you can see where the confusion starts, and I had to say "no, they are not the same person. at all". Hahaha.

Okay, so that's all for now. No pictures for today, too rainy and gross out. Bonne soir!

Me looking especially cute (...not) in front of a french fountain!

That Napoleon building, guarding against wars or something. What I could get out of this exchange with Gauthier was that it's old.

Un tres jolie lac. With ducks! (Which, I might add, do not taste good).

Your standard French lamp post. Tres mignon!

Sleepless in Toulouse

Sooo, it’s 1:30 in the morning France time and I woke up about an hour ago like, wide awake. Like, okay, time to get up now, right? And hungry too. Stupid jet lag. So I decided to use the time wisely and write down some stuff about today (except the internet isn’t working for some reason, so I am writing this in Word in hopes of publishing it later).

Today was a lot of fun, albeit I slept through the majority of it. I slept for 15 hours, and woke up at 12:30. My family was at Gauthier’s mom’s house for lunch, so I woke up to an empty house, which was kind of nice because my morning brain is not up for intense French conversations. So I hung up some pictures in my room and waited for them to get home. Once they did, Valérie and I walked to the Dickinson Center, which is only about 10 minutes away, and a very easy walk along a pretty canal. I took some pictures, and asked Valérie a lot of questions about bank stuff and getting some Euros (I have none because of stupid Frankfurt airport and their decision to put all the exchange places before security and thus when you actually get the time to exchange money while you wait for your connecting flight, it’s not possible).

When we got back, I had a little piece of cake that apparently is some sort of regional specialty, and it was delicious. Then Gauthier, Valérie, the girls, and I went to this beautiful park that is literally 5 minutes away. Valérie said that is where I could go running, and even though the park is big, it’s not exactly big enough to fill up 40 minutes of running, so we’ll have to see about that. Side note: I was too afraid to go running today even though I was fairly well rested and had some time because I think I will get lost. The street I live on looks like every other street in the city and the street signs are really hard to see. Hahah, so I figured I would wait until I had a better sense of where everything is before I embark on that adventure (maybe tomorrow). Anyway, the park was pretty with big fountains, and statues and an adorable café. I met some of Gauthier and Valérie’s friends who were there with their children, and they were very nice. One of them was named Pierre, which was exciting. And alllll the women do “le bise” which is the kissing on both cheeks and it feels very French and I’ve never kissed so many strangers. When I returned from one of my little excursions (see below), a new woman had come into the circle and she greeted Gauthier and Pierre with “le bise” and then me too. And she didn’t even realize she didn’t know me until Valérie was like “that’s our American, Caitlin”! And I like being called “our American”.

Then Gauthier showed me some old buildings from Napoleon’s time, and I gathered that it had something to do with protecting the city against a war. It’s funny, it’s like I’m in on a conversation but only for part of it and for the rest of it my ears are plugged or something, because my comprehension is that bad and I’ll only pick up one or two words. Like, I’ll guess the meaning of an entire sentence by the one word that I recognize. Sometimes that works, other times…not so much. Then Gauthier and Pierre took me to this street market that is set up once a month and sells lots of antiques, and old furniture, which was cool. And very expensive! Like, 300-400 euros for many of the pieces. (I have a bad grasp on the exchange rate so far, but that’s like……. $500ish, I think.) And then, it made me completely in heaven because I was sitting on the grass in the midst of a group of about 6 of the Marfaing’s friends, having everything go over my head and totally zoning out, when suddenly I see Harmony and Kate, two girls from Dickinson! I jumped up and ran over, and we had a nice long conversation. And I was relieved to hear that everyone seems to be having a similar experience to mine (as in, they like their family, room, etc. but are having a hard time with the language thing). And Harmony and Kate live really close to me, so that was a relief too. Especially on the first day of university classes, it will be nice to have someone to walk there with (or ride the metro/bus, which is something terrifying that I am not looking forward to!)

For dinner we had a big huge omelet with onions, and they eat it with salad. Like mix in the eggs with the salad. Weird, but delicious. And then I had a banana, because they have tons of fruit in the house, which I love. And then I had another “petit gateau” (cake—homemade too!) which had a weird texture, and was delicious. And apparently I’m the first student they’ve had who likes this cake! I felt special and adventuresome, because as most people know, I am a fairly picky eater.

Well, that’s today! See above for pictures of the park and Napoleon buildings! wheeee. Bonne nuit!

The garden chez Marfaing. Ivy covered walls and everything! The table with the little blue cloth is where we have eaten our meals so far.

My teeny weeny adorable french room (futon = bed). And the door in the background is to my own bathroom (sans toilet...weird?)

My little bungalow behind chez Marfaing. There is totally a furry palm tree outside my window!

The view of Toulouse from the sky! (I think...)