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!
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!
posted by Caitlin @ 1:30 AM
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