Ma vie en France

United States time!

2006-09-04T20:31:00.000-07:00

So I realized recently that I never did a conclusion blog entry. Oh wait, I hate that word blog. I mean...journal entry. Sooo I got back to the States a-okay. As you probably guessed. I had a sweet seat on the plane, with like 8 feet of leg room. Literally. And then it was weird to be in the U.S. where everyone speaks English and is loud and stuff is really cheap. But I got over that fairly quickly and then spent my summer working like a dog to make back all the money that I spent abroad! And now I'm back at school, and it's fun and nice because I actually understand what's going on in classes and I can participate and be a real student! And senior year is scary.

Okayyy, so that is 3 months of my life in a nutshell. I'm good at summarizing when I have to! Sooo, bisous and a bientot! :)

France, take note:

2006-05-31T14:20:00.000-07:00

A little gem we found in Baux de Provence. Maybe France should actually take it to heart...?

Provence!

2006-05-31T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well, you know the year is really coming to a close when Dickinson takes its end of the year trip! We went to the legendary Provence region! We stayed in Arles for 3 nights, and took day trips around the area. When we got there on Thursday, we walked around Arles a little, and then ate dinner as a group ate at the Café de la Nuit, which was immortalized in this Van Gogh painting. Thus, the food is overpriced and not that good. But the atmosphere was nice! Van Gogh stayed in Arles from 1888-1889, and at the hospital there is where he cut off his ear (photo above). Sweet. But he also did something not psycho, which was paint over 250 canvases while in Arles, which is a huge amount.

Friday, we went on a magnificent hike in the Apilles Mountains! The Apilles are like the smallest mountain range ever, but the scenery is absolutely breathtaking, and we were lucky enough to have a gorgeous day! I understand why Provence inspired so many artists to paint, because it really is amazingly beautiful. Our guide during the hike was the cutest ever, and he told us it was his dream to do a “guide exchange” with a hiking guide in the states, because he really wants to visit the US. I was in love. Another cool thing during our hike was that we saw lots of wild thyme, rosemary, and lavender. I sat in some thyme during our picnic. Then after our hike, we visited the Cathedral d’Images, which is an old quarry where they now do expositions of photography and art. We saw a Cezanne exposition, and how they do it is really cool: it’s pitch black inside, and then they project the images in JUMBO size on the walls on the mine, and they are constantly changing. And there is classical music playing, which really helps to create a really cool atmosphere inside. Definitely the coolest museum I’ve ever been to! Then we visited the Baux de Provence, which is a cute little town, but I wasn’t too impressed because there were approximately 8000 other people who were visiting at the same time as us. Too crowded. That night, we were all pretty pooped, so we went out to dinner and then crashed. But I did eat some pistou soup, which is a provincial specialty with veggies and beans and basil and garlic, and I was in love.

Saturday was super fun market day! We had so much fun wandering around in all the stalls and tasting delicious delicacies and buying souvenirs! We bought picnic stuff, and had a delicious lunch of fresh bread, cheese, pesto, tapinade, and strawberries! Then while we were eating in
this park, I got pooped on twice by pigeons while sitting under the same tree. It was gross. Surprisingly, it did not put me off the picnic, and I still enjoyed myself. Then in the afternoon we went to Salon de Provence, which was promised to be some sort of crazy soap capital of the world, and as Michael put it, he thought “they would just be throwing soap at us, because there would be that much.” Unfortunately, we were a little disappointed by a somewhat modern town (earthquake in 1909 destroyed the old part of town), and not a soap shop to be found. No soap shops make Dickinson kids a grumpy bunch. However, we did see pretty houses where former soap makers used to live…if that interests anyone. Saturday night led us to a delicious dinner at Le Criquet, the cutest restaurant maybe ever in the world. And then we went to a sketchy bar that had a bunch of overly excited teens/early 20s in it that jumped around a lot and played with our hair…? It was odd. But entertaining nonetheless.

(fountain in Salon de Provence that was all grown over with moss, but water still comes out of it like it's raining from underneath the little tree part!)

Sunday we took a tour of Arles, which has a lot of roman history, including an arena where they have bull fights! Then we hung around in the intense heat while we waited for the train. Seriously, Provence was HOT. It’s not even summer yet, and we were probably pushing 90 all weekend. And then we got to the train, expecting relief from the heat, but then it turned out to be the hottest train ever known to man. It was an incredibly unbearable 3 hour return to Toulouse. It was gross.

So besides incredible heat (which was not actually a bad thing!) the end of the year trip to Provence was a great success, and a great way to spend some of my last days in France! But if one more bird poops on me…game over France.

The year is almost over...?

2006-05-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Last party of the year chez Kat! Oh, we had some great times over there. And Shana come through Toulouse on her way home from Cameroon to celebrate with us, yay! Here's her and Dan enjoying the guacamole and looking adorable. ;)

In other news, it's becoming frighteningly real that the year is quickly coming to a close. I'll be closing my bank account next Wednesday, then the end of the year trip to Provence, and then my oral defense for my internship on June 1st! Then just 5 little days until home sweet home. :)

Morocco!

2006-05-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

Wheeeee, Annie, Christine, and I went to Agadir,

Morocc

for spring break! We wanted to go somewhere to enjoy some nice hot beach weather, work on our tans (yeah right), and just relax! We got this really great deal through a student travel agency, sooo we packed up our bags and flew to

Morocco

(how cool is it that we can travel so easily to a different continent? Especially a crazy continent like Africa!)

We stayed for one week in Agadir. In 1960, Agadir was completely destroyed by an earthquake that killed 18,000 people. So, needless to say, the city itself is rather modern looking, and there isn’t really any nice architecture to look at. And it’s a very popular French tourist destination, so the city is very “tourist friendly”. The first day, Saturday, we enjoyed some great beach weather. To avoid a lot of harassing on the public beach, we opted to rent these comfy beach chairs and umbrellas on a private beach. It was awesome! For 20 dirham (about $2) we could sit in peace and be super comfortable while enjoying the beach! Then Sunday, the weather was kind of bad (go figure, like the only rain all year comes when we are there!) so we went horseback riding! We went through some brushy, deserty areas and some woods, and then we got out to the beach and ran along the beach! It was just like a movie. Especially when it started pouring rain (and hailing!) and it turned into a wet t-shirt contest on horseback. Neat. But still an awesome time!

Monday, it was rainy again, so we went to the Medina d’Agadir. A medina is traditionally the old part of an Arab city, but since Agadir was destroyed in 1960, this is a replica of what a traditional medina would be like. It was still pretty cool, despite the fakeness of it all, because they did a really good job with making it seem real! And you could watch artisans work at making sandals, tunics, jewelry, etc.

Monday evening we went to a “soirée berber”, which was organized through our tour company. We drove about an hour to this old Kasbah, where we would have a delicious traditional Berber (tribe in Morocco) dinner and enjoy some entertainment! The dinner was great; we ate everything with our hands and used this homemade flat bread as silver wear/plates/napkins! The French people were not into that, and looked at us three Americans like we were crazy as we dug in! Then after our first course and second courses (flat bread dipped in butter and honey followed by a tagine with fish in a delicious sauce!) we were called out to “watch” the entertainment, which actually mean participating, which we didn’t realize. So we get grabbed into this dancing circle, and at first we were all kind of like “umm…we look stupid! Bah!” but then we were like “oh, who cares!” and really got into it! And since most of the other people there were families or couples, we three young American girls got a lot of attention! We kept getting pulled into the circle to dance with the men, even when no one else was! Needless to say, it was a hilarious and fun experience. And the food was DELICIOUS! After the first round of dancing, we went back in to enjoy our third course (another tagine, of chicken this time) before we were called out to dance again! Crazy Berbers. And we met this one “native” guy who had worked at Colonial Williamsburg for a long time. (Funny story, we saw him the next day when we were driving around in a cab in Agadir!) Then we had dessert of couscous with cinnamon and sugar, and oranges.

Tuesday was finally another good beach day! We went to the public beach in the morning, and it wasn’t that bad! We had people coming up asking us to buy crap, but we weren’t bothered that much, which made us happy. Then in the afternoon, we headed to the souk! The souk of Agadir has 2500 sellers and is like a little city! Some sections were really cool, which lots of handmade leather good, spices, clothing, etc, but then other sections looked like rip-off land in China or something, with lots of fakes and stuff. So I ended up buying these handmade leather sandals and a white embroidered tunic! The prices were crazy good too. I like Morocco.

Wednesday, we did beach again. Yay! Then in the afternoon, we were going to try to go to a hammam, which is a Moroccan bath/sauna type thing, and we had read about a “good” one in Lonely Planet, but apparently LP hadn’t been there recently, because the place looked like sketch land. So we went back to our hotel and made appointments for massages and sauna-ing at our tourist-friendly hotel hammam! What an experience! So turns out that a hammam is actually a very wet version of a sauna. So we’re sitting in there just getting hot, trying to avoid getting our underwear wet (it was rather puddle-y in there) and wondering if anything else would happen when this large Moroccan woman comes in and proceeds to throw buckets of water on us! So much for trying to keep dry! And then we got all this mud/clay/apparently good for your skin stuff all over us, and then we got massages, manicures, and henna!

We did discover that pretty much every man in Morocco was interested in either: a) selling us something, b) killing us (for not buying their stuff and/or not stopping to talk to them…?), or c) giving us 5 million camels. We definitely got some interesting offers (and yes, the 5 million camel offer was really said), and everyone called us “les gazelles”, which at first we thought was a kind of cat-call thing, which it definitely was in some cases, but nice guys who worked at our hotel called us it too! So I guess it’s just a Moroccan guy thing.

So yay for spring break in Morocco!

Birthday Craziness in Nice!

2006-04-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well, this update is a week late, but oh well. I figured everyone would still want to hear about my birthday celebrations in Nice, France! I have a friend, Christine, who is studying in Nice for the semester, and we just so happen to have the same birthday! Soooo, it was planned long long ago that we would get together for our birthdays and have a beach party! Well, it happened! Annie and I took the train to Nice Friday afternoon, and got all settled into Christine’s apartment. And we also were incredibly jealous of her sweet apartment and location in the city and conspicuous lack of a host family. So Friday night, we all just caught up and drank delicious red wine and rang in our birthdays tranquillement. At midnight, I opened 2 cards from each of my grandmas, and diamond earrings from my parents! And an adorable necklace from Christine! Yay!

The next day (ie. Official birthday craziness day), we walked around Nice and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We went to a market in the old part of Nice, and Annie bought marzipan while Christine and I enjoyed cookies from another stand! We went in a bunch of little shops, and Annie and I were in heaven with the sunshine, because it hadn’t been that nice in Toulouse lately. Then, Christine went to the train station to pick up her friend from school, Sherry, and Sherry’s friend from her study abroad program in London, Jordan. While that was happening, Annie and I took a bus to the Matisse museum, which is in this neighborhood kind of overlooking the city of Nice with beautiful villas and mansions. I would definitely live there. The Matisse museum was in a cute park and a cute building, but the museum itself was kind of odd and not very well laid-out. Then we met back up with Christine, Sherry, and Jordan and went to an “early bird special” dinner, at 5pm-ish, which definitely doesn’t happen ever in

France

. But they gave us food, so we couldn’t complain. And also, Christine and I got “presents” from the bartenders. We saw these straws with butterfly cut-outs on them, and we really wanted some with which to enjoy the festivities later on. So Annie asked the bartender if we could have 2 straws for our birthdays, and he said yes, of course. Soooo we were overly excited about that for a while. Then we went back to the apartment, I took a little siesta, talked with my parents, and then the party started! We got endless amusement from “the bucket”, which was one of those drink mixes that comes in a bucket with a name like “Blue Hawaii”. Christine’s mom had sent it for a birthday present. In the directions on the back, there was the normal way to make it, where you freeze it for 8 hours or something, and then there was the “PARTY EMERGENCY” version of the recipe. We used the party emergency version and were endlessly amused by that. So we mixed up our bucket, along with some other drinks, and headed down to the beach for a beach party bash! ^ (enjoying the birthday bucket with the straws!)

We met a lot of cool people from Christine’s program, waded into the sea (it was cold), and had a great time! What a cool way to say you spent your birthday—on the French Riviera!

The next day, Sunday, we recovered until 3 pm, and then we took a walk up to the “Parc du Chateau” that overlooks the city. There was a huge waterfall with seagulls sitting on top, and lots of kids playing and running around, and a beautiful view of the harbor and of the beaches. There were huge boats in the harbor, and we saw a huge cruise ship leaving! And also, I saw Elton John’s house up on a hill. It didn’t look very nice from super far away. What’s up with that, Elton? For dinner, Annie and I (read: Annie, while I watched) cooked dinner for Christine and her roomies as a thank you for hosting us! We made a delicious sauce for the pasta. I would like to replicate it sometime. Then the next day, we got up to catch our train and said goodbye to Christine and Nice! Overall, a SUPER fun birthday celebration, plus a gorgeous city to celebrate it in!

Les Corbieres!

2006-04-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we took a Dickinson excursion to Les Corbières region of France! Located about 2 hours southeast of Toulouse, Les Corbières is a well-known wine region that produces 80% red wine, and the other 20% rosé and white wines. Our trip was a ton of fun, with sooo much beautiful scenery, it was pretty landscape overload!

We left early Saturday morning, and went straight to the Abbey of Fontfroide, which is no longer an abbey but it used to be, obviously. The abbey was started in 1093! It was an abbey that grew its own wine and was basically a little self-sufficient farm. Then the monks had to stop being peaceful, wine growers and go into battle during the Crusades against the Cathares. Then they got to go back to growing wine and other products and it became one of the richest abbeys in their order! Now you can walk around and see the beautiful cloisters and chapels, and scenery!

Next we headed to Gruissan and the beach! Gruissan was a cute, if somewhat abandoned, Mediterranean fishing village! The only reason it looked abandoned was due to the off season, not actual abandonment. We took off our shoes and played on the beach and ran around and acted like 5 year olds! And we also saw a lot of little beach houses on stilts, which was apparently supposed to be a special thing, but I thought it looked like a trailer park, just a little higher off the ground. Oh well. Then we went to lunch in the village of Gruissan, and the restaurant was cute and had an enormous dog walking around. Unfortunately, the food was not that good. I had chosen “meat” for my main dish, before we had left for the trip. The other choices were “fish” or “vegetarian pizza”. I found it odd that they didn’t specify what kind of meat or fish would be served, but then I found out it was because they decided to put EVERY kind of meat/fish on the plate. I got a plate full of grilled lamb, sausage, steak, and chicken. And I’m not talking small portions. My steak was practically a whole cow. And there wasn’t any sort of decoration, or sauce or anything. Just meat. We all had a good laugh about that. And the fish plate had a big old fish in the middle, with other smaller sea life stationed around it, all with heads, legs, etc. I made fun of Thierry (Dickinson Center assistant Laura’s husband) because his fish was looking at me with a dead fish look.

After lunch, we headed to Narbonne, where we were scheduled to spend the night at this weirdo hostel type hotel for big groups where they didn’t give you towels (luckily, we knew beforehand and brought our own!) Oh well, it was a fine hotel, if a little strange. We went on a tour of Narbonne with the cutest tour guide ever, and we saw a roman market from 1 B.C.! It was all underground, and since I enjoy caves and tunnels, I was into this old roman market. The rest of Narbonne was okay; we had a hard time finding a restaurant for dinner! The whole town was asleep at 8 pm, I guess! But we ended up finding a good French/Italian place called “Le Joker”, which was worth it just for the silly name!

In the morning, we woke up not way too bright and early and went to Talairan to enjoy a day of hiking, wine, and sunshine! Quelle vie! It was excellent. We went to a vineyard called “La Rune”, which is owned by friends of our literature professor from last semester at Dickinson! The man and his wife who owned it could not have been cuter and more outdoorsy and lovable. First, we took a hike with the wife in “la garrigue” which translates to “scrubland”. I guess it’s a typical landscape found in the Mediterranean area, and it’s really good for growing wine! We found wild asparagus, and walked all around in the vines and the sunshine was so bright, it was heaven. We later made omelets over an open fire with the asparagus that we found on our hike! (Okay, clarification: I ate an omelet that had been cooked over the open fire by the winery man with asparagus that other people had found. I was not a good asparagus-finder.) When we got back, we learned about how wine is made, and then we tasted! I liked the rosé and the white, but not really the red. Maybe it was just that bottle, or type, or something. Then we had lunch! I am amazed that this little winery was able and/or willing to host more than 40 people for a tasting and lunch, and a hike! That is definitely not a normal day at a wine tasting, and I was really thankful that they agreed to host us for the day! So we all got some color in our faces and arms while eating delicious food off the grill, drinking delicious wine, and having great conversations with friends.

On the way back to Toulouse, we stopped in Lagrasse, which is an adorable little village with an abbey that dates from the 8^th century! Since it was Sunday, the village was fairly quiet, but Annie and I had a fun time exploring the little streets and taking a little walk in the countryside! We wanted to go to the abbey, but you had to pay to get in, so we just looked at it from outside, and then continued up this road that went to who-knows-where. But it was such beautiful weather and scenery that we walked for a good 30 minutes! We saw vineyards, olive trees, horses, and priests/monks (the abbey is actually still an abbey!)

Overall, what a great weekend! Now I don’t look like a pale monster from winter land (just a freckly/red one!) and I got to see a gorgeous region of France! A bientôt!

BIG NEWS

2006-04-04T14:58:00.000-07:00

The big news of the week is that I (finally) switched host families! Yaaaaaaaaay! For those of you who I didn’t endlessly complain to, things were NOT going well with my old family. It all started with my room being too cold, and me wanting to change that, and it ended in shouting matches and incredibly bad blood between me and the Marfaings. My host mom just became a huge heinous bitch, out of nowhere, and was very immature, and insulted my friends, my boyfriend, and me. So I decided enough was enough, and I started the process to find a new host family! My new family couldn’t have me until today (Monday), but things got so bad with the ‘Faings that I couldn’t stay there a minute longer, so Gersende (Dickinson Center assistant) found me a “transition family” from Thursday through today. My transition family was amazing, and they really helped remind me what French family life should be like, not like the hell I had been living in for the past 3 months. We had conversations, and made jokes, and everything was great! I realized that I didn’t really ever talk at dinner with the Marfaings, and they never seemed to care about me at all, and it was totally different over the weekend! Even though I was only staying with them for a few days, transition family (they had a crazy last name that I can’t even begin to remember) showed so much interest in me and my welfare that it was completely refreshing! So I left there today with many good feelings and memories from my couple of days with them, and I headed to my new family! My new “family” is actually just an older woman named Francoise, who lives on a gorgeous “allée” (i.e. long tree lined avenue type thing) that is in the same neighborhood as the Marfaings. But I’m happy, because it’s a great neighborhood, close to everything that I need to be close to, and it’s a beautiful and huge apartment in a gorgeous old building! My room is all in pink! And I have a desk, a closet, a nightstand, and a bureau! I never thought I would take those things for granted, but after the “shed” at the ‘Faings, I am ecstatic! Francoise is so nice, she is just like a little host grandma who wants me to be at home and wants us to be in love. And it’s funny, because there are 2 British friends of hers living in the apartment too! But they are taking classes with Alliance Française (an exchange type program where Francoise works), so we only speak in French! But I like that at dinner, I am actually involved in the conversation, and I’m also not the only one that doesn’t speak French perfectly! I AM SO HAPPY!

So that’s the big news. Wish me luck with the new fam! Bisous!

Once I was the King of Spain...

2006-03-30T00:59:00.000-08:00

I never thought that I would actually have any opportunity to sing that song and have it make any sense, but yesterday I got my chance! Well, it still didn't really make sense, because obviously I'm not the king of Spain, but at least it was somewhat applicable: the King of Spain, King Juan Carlos I and his wife, Queen Sofia visited Toulouse yesterday! We saw all these spanish and french flags flying at Capitole, and then we remembered that we had read in the paper about their visit! So we waited around in the bright sunshine, saw a bunch of faux-motocades that were only there to tease us and were not actually accompanying the king, and then finally the king and queen showed up! We couldn't really see that well, and we're not sure which one he actually was, because he brought his huge posse with him and they all got out of their cars at the same time, but he was definitely in there somewhere! Also, Jaques Chirac's wife, Bernadette, was here to welcome them!

Annie and I caught them later as well, by chance, as we walked by the Prefecture and he was apparently going there for a visit! It was exciting, I like seeing famous/important people in Toulouse! His security officers were all over, on roofs and stuff, and his guards wore pretty uniforms with tassles and boots. Wheeeeee

The boyyyyy in Toulouse!

2006-03-29T12:28:00.000-08:00

Yaaaaaaaaay! It was an incredibly happy day when Jason arrived in Toulouse, after some plane confusion and missing flights in Paris (not even kidding, bad airport luck STALKS me!) For the first like, day and a half, Jason was a zombie and was not motivated to do anything because he had been missing sleep for approximately 10 weeks. Sooo we chilled out for Friday and Saturday, just walked around Toulouse a little and enjoyed the sunny weather. Then Jason's new world germs attacked me, and I got sick from Sunday-Tuesday-ish. Like, fever, sore throat, dying sickness. It was not pleasant. But I managed to become alive long enough to go celebrate Dan's birthday at the park with wine (or in my case, orange juice. I'm a party pooper) and American football! It was a gorgeous day! And while we were in Toulouse, I tried to show Jason good french cuisine! We went to a fancy restaurant called "Le 19" and we had an amaaaazing meal of duck, some sort of fancy steak, delicious chocolate cake and macaroons for dessert and red wine. Mmm mmm. We also ate kebabs (my favorite on-the-run meal), crepes, and fondue! My tummy and I love France.

Jason also got to experience the awesomeness that is France on strike. For the past month, French students have been on strike against the CPE, which is a law that would allow employers to fire a young worker under the age of 26 within the first 2 years of employment, with a good reason (ie. financial hardship within the company). This seems all very normal and mundane to us Americans, but the French are up in arms, and today was actually the first day that I've had class in 2 week! Students block the universities, and professors go on strikes, and there are huge manifestations (like big marches of students and other non-CPE supporters) every day that block all the streets and basically mess everything up. I'm sure you've seen on the news that things have gotten violence in other French cities, like Paris and Lyon. Fortunately, we are without violence (or much violence, anyway. There are broken windows and burning stuff every once in a while, but nothing too serious). So Jason got to experience real French society, en grève!

Then on Wednesday night, we left for Paris on the night train! This was my first experience with a couchette, or a sleeping car with actual beds. Well.......sleeping platform is how I would actually describe it. You are in this little compartment with beds stacked 3 high on both sides! But you get a blanket, pillow, and little "night train kit", complete with ear plugs, tissues, and water bottles! Not too bad of experience, but I didn't sleep that well, as I was still getting over my sickness, so the next day I was kind of zombie-like. But we made the best of it! We couldn't check into our hotel until 2 pm, and we arrived at 7 am, so we dropped our stuff at Hotel Armstrong (like Lance?!) and went to Centre Pompidou and a Willy Ronis photography exhibit at Hotel de Ville. I love his photographs! This exhibit was actually on when we visited Paris in November, but the line was too long to visit. Luckily it got extended! Then we were super lazy and went back to the hotel to check in and take a 4 hour quality nap. Oops! Then that night we visited the Eiffel Tower, all lit up! It might be my favorite site in Paris, it's so beautiful!

On Thursday we woke up raring to go. Well I did. Jason was harder to convince, that boy really likes to sleep. But we finally got up and going, bought some pastries at a boulangerie for breakfast, and headed to Notre Dame to check that out! The morning was kind of rainy, but luckily we didn't get too wet! We walked through Notre Dame DURING a mass! Visitors were still allowed to go in, and I just can't imagine trying to pray and stuff with 8 million tourists wandering around! Crazy. Next we headed back to La Tour Eiffel, to climb up! We were brave and took the stairs (I think you should get a discount for doing that), and then marveled at the view! Absolutely beautiful. In November, I went up at nighttime, and that was cool to see all the lights, but during the day you can really appreciate all the signage they have identifying the different monuments and buildings that you can see! Then we went to rest up at the hotel (we are old people that can't stay out all day without a nap!) before we went to the Louvre at night! One of Jason's Parisian classmates in China tipped him off that the Louvre is free on friday evenings for under age 26, so we decided to take advantage! It was a lot more crowded than I expected (I guess it's not a secret!), but it was still cool to see at night, and it was definitely WAY less crowded than during the day! The Louvre is so enormous though that it absorbs crowds pretty well. We saw Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and that famous statue of Aphrodite with no arms. And a bunch of other stuff, obviously. Then we went out to get sushi! And Jason's came in a boat-shaped dish and I was highly entertained.

Saturday we went to Pere Lachaise, which is a huge cemetery where a lot of famous people are buried, the most well-known and frequently-visited grave being Jim Morrison's. But also Edith Piaf, Molière, Balzac, and Oscar Wilde are buried there, so there is a hefty amount of famous people in this one cemetery! We found Jim Morrison's grave fairly easily, but the cemetery is a maze with haphazardly numbered sections and graves, so we were not successful in finding anyone else! But the cemetery is immense and crazy looking, and I can imagine it would be really fun to wander around in better weather, but unfortunately it was kind of drizzly, so we headed to the Louvre to meet Katie, Missy, and Jason H. who are friends of mine from Dickinson that are studying in Bologna and Malaga, and just happened to be in Paris the same weekend as me! Wehate a mediocre lunch at a cute restaurant, and then we parted ways so Jason and I could go get soaked up at Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. I would have enjoyed it a lot more without rain, but it was fun nonetheless! I hadn't been up there before, so that was exciting. And the view IS gorgeous, despite the rain! Our last night in Paris, we celebrated with a delicious meal at Chez Clement, at Place St. Michel, right on the banks of the Seine! Lovely. And then we wandered around and ooh'd and ahh'd at Notre Dame all lit up at night!

The next day was crazy because daylight's savings time started a week earlier in France than in the US, so we didn't realize we were running an hour behind until we got to the airport! Oops! But luckily, Jason caught his flight (with some sweet-talking of the security people, courtesy of yours truly) and I got my train, and everyone ended up where we wanted to be! Well, where we were supposed to end up, because I definitely wanted to stay longer in Paris and be more in love! <3

Jack Johnson in Barcelona!

2006-03-15T12:20:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, Annie and I went to Barcelona to see JACK JOHNSON in concert! wheeeeeeeeee! Since we have both been to Barcelona before (me in high school and Annie over Christmas with her parents), we decided to make a flying trip there just to see the concert, stay the night, and then come back! That kind of seems to be our thing, doesn't it? But I do regret that we didn't have a little more time to explore, because Barcelona is a beautiful city, and probably one of my favorites in Europe!

So we took the train Saturday morning to La Tour de Carol, right on the France/Spain border, hung out in the nice train station there for a little while, then continued on towards Barcelona. Total travel time: 7 hours, ouch! We ended up getting into Barcelona around 4:30, and went straight to our hostel, which was RIGHT off Las Ramblas (the big pedestrian walkway). This hostel was recommended to us by Stewart, another student in our program, and he was right, it was really good! They even serve breakfast AND dinner, and it's included in your room fee! Unfortunately, just with the time of the concert and then our train the next morning, we were unable to partake. :-( So we got our stuff settled in our nice 4-person room, then we headed out to wander on La Rambla before we had to get to the concert (doors were at 7). So we looked at all the funny street performers, including a lady in a pink fat suit and a funny cowboy man who did a cute dance. Then we got falafel for dinner and headed to the concert, which was in the old olympic basketball stadium.

(Jack's opening number...look at all the digital camera screens in the audience! they are like the new lighter for concerts)

As we're heading to the concert, we realize that every single person going there is American, or British. Jack Johnson appears to be some sort of Anchorman "NEWS CREW ASSEMBLE" type of call (he must have a magical conch shell) because I think every college student studying in Europe went to this concert. Which was fine, but Annie and I got to see some prime examples of how we try NOT to be typicalAmericans. So the concert itself was amaaaaaaaaazing. ALO and Matt Costa opened, and I really liked Matt Costa. And Jack came out and played a song with ALO, which was good and I had never heard it. And then during Jack's part, he played a bunch of old stuff, and surprisingly nothing from the new Curious George album (which is really cute and good, so I'm mad!) So fun fun concert happened, and then afterwards everyone was hanging out outside the stadium, and Annie and I randomly run into some Americans that Annie met at her hostel in Malaga that are studying in Italy! So we hung out with them for a few minutes, Annie ripped down part of Jack's face from a poster, and then we bought enormous hot dogs, which were delicious (hot dogs are not really a popular part of french cuisine, surprisngly). So we had good intentions of going out and dancing and being crazy, but we both got hit with such a wave of exhaustion that it would have been impossible. So we were lame and went back to our hostel, and then proceeded to be woken up at 6 am by a bunch of loud, drunk Americans in our hallway, and Annie yelled at them. GO ANNIE.

Then in the morning, we walked around in the beautiful sunshine, and it was nice because it was early (around 8:30 am) on a sunday, so not that many people were around, which is a real contrast to Las Ramblas usually! Then I sat on this huge lion. And then we bought the most expensive breakfast ever (but the churros and chocolate was delicioius! But I don't know if it was 22 euros delicous...) Oh well, that's Barcelona for you. Then we RAN to catch our train because we are stupid and apparently can't tell time...? But all went off okay, and we took the long trip back to Toulouse after a great weekend!

Family Visit!

2006-03-15T11:55:00.000-08:00

So I have done my good deed for the week, and I exposed my parents and sister to European culture! My family came for a week, during my February break from school, and they stayed in this little apartment that is in the basement of the Dickinson Center and is available for families of students for a ridiculously good rate. So after some plane craziness (apparently airport drama stalks our family), they arrived on Sunday, February 19th. We stuck around Toulouse that evening, obviously. Then the next day, after my dad and I went for a run, we noticed that our rental car had a flat tire. So began the car bad luck. We dealt with it, then hung around Toulouse all day Monday. We saw St. Etienne Cathedral, St. Sernin Basilica, Les Jacobins, and basically just experienced Toulouse.

Day #2
Cordes-sur-Ciel & Albi

On Tuesday, we drove up to Cordes-sur-Ciel, which is a medieval town from like, the 12th century. We had gone there on a Dickinson trip, and I was impressed by it, so I took my parents there. It's all perched up on a hill, and in the mornings, it's misty and it looks like the town is floating (hence the "sur ciel"). We bought this walking tour guide, and then followed along with the signs they have posted on the buildings, and ended up finding out a lot of cool things about Cordes. It's just so old, yet still intact. And people still live there. It's unbelievable.

Next stop was Albi, on the way home from Cordes. Albi is the birthplace of Toulouse-Lautrec, and also the home of an impressive cathedral called St. Cecile. Something that we read called it a mix between an ocean liner and a cathedral, because it was actually built to keep out bad catholic hating people. Or something. This was another Dickinson trip that we took that I wanted to show my parents.

Day #3
Foix et les Grottes de Niaux

On Wednesday, we took a trip to Foix, which is about an hour south of Toulouse. The town of Foix is lovely, and the best part is a large chateau right in the middle of it on a rocky outcrop! But first, we drove past Foix to Tarascon, where les grottes de Niaux are located (grotte = cave). Apparently, caves like this are numerous in Europe, but what makes this cave special, besides just the sheer size and depth of it, is the fact that there are prehistoric cave drawings on the walls! These drawings date from 14,000 BC. Isn't that incredible? I guess the cave provides a perfect environment for preserving the drawings, which is why they are still visible today. And they are actual drawings of recognizable animals and stuff, not just random lines and shapes. So obviously, no one knows why ancient man came deep into this cave (which was much more difficult to access way back then) and made these drawings on the wall. But I'm glad they did, because it was really. And the caves aren't lit, so they gave us flashlights to carry, and it was dark and sort of scary but awesome at the same time.

Then we headed back to Foix to look at the castle. This castle is cool because you can actually climb up in 2 out of 3 towers, which you normally can't do (because I'm actually an expert in castles...) So we could see amazing views of the town of Foix and also of the Pyrenees! Driving around in all these little mountain towns made me want to live in one! They are so picturesque and cute.

Day #4
Carcassonne

On Thursday, we went to Carcassonne! Carcassonne is actually fairly well-known, because it is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe (or the world, maybe?). So I guess in the summer, it's packed full with tourists, but in February, we didn't have to worry about crowds too much. Though there was a surprising number of people braving the cold! So we went to the chateau, and got our tickets for a tour which left at 3:30. And the tour is the only cool thing
about the castle, because they take you out on the ramparts, and that's the only opportunity you have to explore them. And the rest of the castle just has a museum and is kind of boring. So we went to grab lunch while we waited for 3:30 to roll around. Unfortunately, we got the most delicious lunch ever that ended up causing us to miss our tour! We ate cassoulet, which is a toulousain/carcassonian specialty, because it was first made in a tiny town located between the two of them! It's a stew with white beans, duck, sausage, and sometimes other random things get thrown in there as well. Basically, it's delicious. So we missed our tour, but had an amazing lunch, and then ended up being able to get on the next tour anyway! So after we finished up in Carcassonne, we head back to the car, only to discover that someone has so nicely broken our window and stolen my sister's mp3 player. awwweessoommmeeee. so that was kind of just a hassle we had to deal with (driving around carcassonne trying to find the police station, then calling the rental car company, then having to bring the car back to the airport the next day, etc.) But it could have been worse, and it didn't end up costing us that much time or money. Fortunately! So the next day, we dealt with the car stuff and stuck around Toulouse to do some more sightseeing and museum-ing (much to Brenna's delight).

Day #6
Collioure

This might have been my favorite day! We were ambitious and drove all the way to the Mediterranean! We visited the little town of Collioure, which was very popular with painters, such as Matisse and Picasso around the turn of the century. So the town has put up replicas of some paintings from various artists in the actual spot where they were painted! So we could look at a Matisse and be like "oh yeah, I see where he got there, or whatever" (where usually with Matisse, you would be like "what the heck is that") And the town itself is soooo Mediterranean and adorable! The houses are all crazy colors, like pink and yellow and orange, and you could explore the little streets for hours! And luckily the day we went, it was bright and sunny and fairly warm, so all the outdoor cafes lining the beaches were open, and everyone was out and about. So we ate lunch outside, and then walked all around. And then my dad and I hiked up to Fort St. Elme, which is on a hilltop overlooking the city, with beautiful panoramic views! Then afterwards, we got ice cream and walked around a little more, then had a drink in a bar overlooking the bustling pedestrian walkways and the castle!

The next day (sunday) we just hung around Toulouse, went to lunch above the market at Place Victor Hugo, walked around Toulouse a little more, and then my mom and I went to the Musee Georges Labit, which is right across from the Dickinson Center, and at one point, they were owned by the same man!

Overall, it was an EXCELLENT visit with my family, and I know they had a great time too! Hopefully sometime we can all come to Europe again. bisous!

TORINO 2006!

2006-02-13T21:15:00.000-08:00

Annie and I went to the Olympics in Torino! They were amazing! The whole atmosphere is so cool, just like millions of people from all over meeting and talking and watching amazing athletes. Very cool.

We saw women's moguls on Saturday, February 11th. For the qualification round, we were kind of down below the slope and could see the bottom pretty well, but not the top.

So we had a great view of the 2nd jump, which was awesome, because they do some majorly awesome tricks off of those. The qualifiers ended around 4, and then the finals weren't until 7, but you weren't allowed to leave the venue, for security reasons, I guess. So everyone (except the people with the special press or sponsor passes) crowded into this majorly too small food tent. But it was heated! So we all crowded together and made nice. We met tons of other Americans, a lot of them students who are studying abroad in Europe like us, but also real people too. Like this one guy whose whole family was there, and he had been to every Winter Olympics since Sarajevo in 1980 (right?), and even brought his 8 month old son to Nagano in '98. We thought that was slightly excessive. I can't even imagine the money that would go into a trip to the Olympics like that. They were staying for ALL 3 WEEKS, and going to countless events, and paying like, 10 euros for a meager piece of lasagna in the food tents. Not to mention flights and hotels. CRAZY. Then we went back outside for the finals, and went off to the side of the slope, and also higher up, so we had a great view of the whole run. A Canadian ended up winning, a Norwegian in 2nd place, and a French girl in 3rd place. Yay!

(la piste all lit up at night for the finals!)

After the event ended around 8pm, we all stampeded to the buses. Annie and I managed not to die, and made it back down to the train station at Oulx to catch a train back into Torino. On the train we met two NBC guys from New Jersey and North Carolina who were in Turin for 4 weeks to cover the Olympic Games. What a cool job! And speaking of cool, we also met a bunch of college students who were doing a 5 week internship with NBC and were helping out at the games. I want that gig immediately. Back in Torino, we met up with Christine and Trevor (two friends of Jason's who were also going to the Olympics the same day as us!), and together we ate amazing pizza (probably best I've ever had), went to an Italian bar where we were given free wine, wandered around Torino at all hours of the morning, went to the "Texas Ranger" bar, where we ordered amazing greasy food at 4 in the morning. Then we headed back to the train station and slept in uncomfortable chairs. Trevor snored. And then Annie's wallet got stolen, which sort of put a damper on things. So we ran around the train station for a while, filing police reports, trying to communicate in whatever language we could, and making necessary phone calls to cancel her credit cards.

Nevertheless, we perservered and managed to survive the next 12 hours until we got back to Toulouse! From Torino, we thought we had train tickets (we must have been fooled by the fact that we bought them at a TRAIN station and they said TRAIN on them) and actually ended up taking a bus to Lyon. In the bus' defense, it was a very nice bus and they showed the movie "Ray", of which I watched none at all because I passed out for all 3 hours to Lyon. Then we waited an hour in Lyon and finally get back into Toulouse at 10 pm Sunday night. It was sure a whirlwind trip, but worthwhile nonetheless! Now we have total bragging rights: WE WENT TO THE OLYMPICS!

^(moon over Torino)

Super Bowl, France style!

2006-02-06T14:05:00.000-08:00

Well, it was actually half France-style, half American-style (with some United Kingdom thrown in there...very international). De Danu is an Irish pub right near my house, and this France/Etats-Unis group organized a little American fiesta to watch the Super Bowl! They had Budweiser and this guy made some amaaaaazing chili. It was all very American and loud and smoky. Not that I've ever actually watched the Super Bowl in a bar before...but I'm assuming it would be something like this. ;-) There was a French football (as in, American football) team there too, and they were more into the game than the Americans! Unfortunately, it was televised on a British sports channel, so there were no good commercials and the announcers really sucked at talking about football (ie. calling a "tackle" something ridiculous like a "conflict"), so it was not exactly like in the US, but it was good enough. And then Michael and I got these ridiculous looking hats with no brims for free. We obviously wore them. There was even one of those little baseball cap holes in the back for my ponytail, how convenient!

Unfortunately, I could not even stay up past the half time show (mind you, the super bowl didn't even start until midnight here, so we're talking around 2:30 am, not tooo bad), so I had to find out online who won the next day! Not that I even cared at all. :-)

bisous! <3

Snow!

2006-01-29T10:52:00.000-08:00

On Saturday morning, I woke up to something I thought I'd never see in Toulouse - snow! A fairly good amount of it too! My host mom said this is the first time they have had a snowfall in 9 years! I should feel lucky that I got to see it....except a) I'm from Rochester, so snow doesn't really excite me that much, and b) Saturday was the day we were going on a Dickinson excursion to the Pyrenees (actually, back to Bonascre!) to do snowshoeing and skiing! So I wake up at the crack of dawn early, which is NOT my favorite thing, drag myself to the bus at 7:45 am, and as we're heading down the highway (a good hour and a half out of Toulouse), we get word that the road to Ax-les-Thermes is closed. So there is no way to get to Ax/Bonascre! And the roads really were pretty bad, because France apparently cannot handle snow. We were going at a snail's pace on our big old bus, so it would have taken us about a day and half to get to Bonascre anyway. So we had to turn around and come back to Toulouse, and then we all had nothing to do all day. And isn't it funny that France just closes a road? And not a little road either - a highway. That would not happen in the real world of snow, a.k.a. upstate NY! And the real irony is that if we had been able to GET to Bonascre, the snow would have been amaaaazing for snowshoeing and skiing! :-( Oh well. They are going to try and reschedule our trip to either the 11th or 18th of February, and I'm hoping for the 18th, because I'm otherwise engaged on the 11th (going to the Olympics in Turin!) And meanwhile, Dickinson allowed us to go to the movies and out to eat, on them. So Annie and I caught "Good Night and Good Luck" with George Clooney this afternoon, because it was majorly miserable again today. The movie was kind of boring. Annie fell asleep.

Well I guess that's it. bisous!

Skiing at Bonascre!

2006-01-22T11:13:00.000-08:00

Wheeeeeeeee! Sorry for the lack of updates, I haven't really been up to anything exciting until this past week. Exams were the week right after I got back from break, so that was a nice welcome back present...or not. They were pretty hard, I'm looking forward to seeing my grades, but I have no idea when they will be posted!

So two exciting things have happened since I've been back: Eiko (one of my roommates from last year) came to visit for 5 days, and Annie, Christine, David and I went skiing in the Pyrenees for a week!

Eiko's visit was great. She was doing a little European tour to see a bunch of friends that are studying over here, so Toulouse was the 2nd stop. We walked around, and went shopping (lucky for us, the semi-annual sales were going on when Eiko visited!), and of course, partied! It was so great to see her, and it made me really excited for senior year! Wheeeeee. That picture is of us, enjoying the beautiful weather on the banks of the Garonne.

Second awesome thing of january (so far): going skiing for a week at Bonascre, in the Pyrenees! Annie and Christine have an internship at SupAero, the premier aeronautical engineering school in France. Every year, SupAero takes the first-year students (who are our age) on a week of english immersion and sport, and they use native english-speakers as interns to help with the classes. Since there are only 2 interns this year, SupAero asked for 2 more students from Dickinson to come. Obviously I volunteered, because it was only the sweetest deal EVER. A week of skiing, staying in a hotel with a jacuzzi and sauna, delicious food, and meeting really cool SupAero students...all for free? Done. SupAero has its own chalet in Bonascre, so 60 students stay there, and the rest of the students stay in apartments throughout Bonascre. And the professors and interns stayed at the Hostellerie des 3 Domaines, which was the cutest little mountain hotel ever (see the view from our window, above). The food was out of this world, and the jacuzzi felt amazing after a day of skiing! So our only "job" was to teach english for 3 hours each morning. We were each paired with a teacher, who had planned the activity. Unfortunately, the teacher I was paired with had a death in the family right before the trip, so I ended up doing my class with Andrea, Alan, and Pierre, who are first year students at SupAero who are native english speakers. My game was "The Weakest Link", and the students wrote the questions and then asked them to each other. Everyday I just danced around the room and talked with the students and made them think I was crazy. I think it was a good method. And since SupAero is like, 99% boys, having 3 cute american interns was heaven for them. That sounds conceited, but it's true. We would go out to parties, and just be surrounded by the guys, because we were the only girls at the party. Fun! ;-)

(at the top of the mountain on the icy Thursday)

I ended up taking 2 afternoons of ski lessons, and then it rained on Wednesday, so we did english class all day, and then skied all day Thursday. Unfortunately, because of the rain, it was rather icy on Thursday morning, which was really rough on my feet and legs. Thursday afternoon was better, and then Friday was good too. It was pretty much the sweetest life ever. We were always really dirty, and we ate delicious food and hung out all day long. AMAZING. And we made some new friends, so hopefully we'll hang out with them in Toulouse!

Now I'm not looking forward to starting classes for the 2nd semester this week (they actually started last week, but I was kind of busy...) ;-) But oh well, c'est la vie. And I have so many fun things coming up! Bisous!

JFK airport = land of hell

2006-01-06T02:03:00.000-08:00

Sooooo.......happy new year! I spent the first 3 days of 2006 stranded at JFK. My Jet Blue flight got in to JFK late on Monday, so I missed my flight to Brussels, and then spent the next 2.5 days crying to every airport official that would listen. I actually almost made the Brussels flight on Monday night, because I cried hysterically to a nice, incredibly New York police man was like "okay, i'll make some phone calls for you" and started calling all the American Airlines officials! He rushes me past security, with my two huge suitcases that I wanted to check, but didn't have the chance, and then we run down to the gate, but I JUST missed the flight. The plane was still there, but they had just "closed the door" or some nonsense like that. LAME. So Jet Blue put me up for the night at a hotel, then the next day I came back to the airport, was put on stand-by for the 6 pm flight to Brussels (same one I had originally missed), but didn't get on because the flight was oversold by 20.

Meanwhile, there were like 8000 other American Airlines flights going out to various European destinations, but since my plane ticket was actually held by SN Brussels Air (a partner of AA), I couldn't take any flight except an SN flight, and there was only that one SN flight per day (SN doesn't even have a ticket counter at JFK, so I couldn't even go plead my case to them!) Awesome beauracracy stuff. So after convincing Jet Blue to put me up for another night, because this was totally all their fault, I go back to the airport on Wednesday and am ready to take my totally confirmed, no way I'm not getting on flight. However, when I checked in, they didn't assign me a seat, and told me I was the first person the stand-by list. I flipped out. Of course, throughout all of this, my mom is placing a million phone calls for me, to Travelocity, SN Brussels Air, American Airlines, but nothing is working. So I end up going back out to the AA ticket counter, talking to a supervisor, who checks on a computer and is like "Yes, you have a seat tonight, here's your ticket." I somehow got off the stand-by list (don't ask me how), and got a seat. Yay!

Then, of course, our flight was delayed 5 hours and I missed my connection in Brussels. They gave me a new connection through Amsterdam when we were still in JFK, then our flight got delayed again, so I would have missed the new connection too. Then they gave me another (very tight) connection through Frankfurt, and a back-up direct flight to Toulouse that wouldn't have gotten me in until 10 pm! P.S. I don't know where any of my bags are throughout this whole ordeal, I hadn't seen them since Tuesday at noon when I put them through security to be put on stand-by. Anyway, all this fun had to end sometime, so we finally leave JFK, get to Brussels, I easily make the connection to Frankfurt, and then arrive in Toulouse at 6 pm Thursday. Through some miracle, one of my bags was actually on the Lufthansa flight with me! I picked it up right at baggage claim. The other bag had apparently gotten on the standby flight that I didn't get on, and was at baggage services waiting for me. And Annie Donovan was there waiting for me at the airport as a surprise and I love her a lot!

The end. That saga is complete.

Christmas time in Toulouse!

2005-12-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

Oh, I love Christmas. And the city of Toulouse goes all out, with lights and decorations everywhere! It's so charming and cheerful to walk around at night and have everything all lit up! This picture is of Place du Capitole on Saturday night. And every year (well, I actually don't know seeing as how I'm only here right now for the first time, but I'm assuming) there is a christmas market on Place du Capitole. They set up these elaborate little cabins (you can sort of see them on the right side of the picture), and then each cabin has different types of food to buy, or crafts, or whatever. And it's set up all these two weeks before Christmas. This afternoon, Annie and I went to check it out, and apparently so did everyone else in the city! It was packed, but that kind of just added to the exciting feel in the air. And we tried some regional food for lunch, namely "aligot" (a delicious potato and cheese mixture), and something that started with an "E" (I forget the name and tried to get it out of my host parents, but they didn't know what it was called either) and was toasted bread with a bunch of different cheese and oil on top, all melted and made delicoius. To quote Annie: "Did angels make this?", cause no kidding, it was that good. We shared one between the two of us, and probably set a record for fastest eating ever. Then I bought a soft pretzel, a speciality of Alsace (or actually, as it's called in French, a "bretzel", which is just silly), and then just to top it off, we each bought a chocolate crepe with hot cider. Total damage for the afternoon: 8.50 per person spent on food alone. Ouch. Oh well, it's Christmas, and it was delicious and warm and cozy in my tummy.
Also this afternoon, we went to another Christmas market that was held in the Parc des Expositions on an island in the Garonne. This one was pretty classy, with lots of artisans and crafty people who had pretty awesome stuff. You had to pay to get in, but Annie's host mom got free tickets from her bank and gave them to us. Look, host parents can be really useful sometimes! :-)
So on Friday night, we had our cultural outing for the month of December (every month, Laura at the Dickinson Center plans a different outing for us, usually theater or a concert, or something that will make us more cultured). This outing was to the Theatre Sorano, which is a very modern theater. The play was "Peer Gynt" (which is pronounced kind of like "Pair Goont", but the French totally made that up because the play is by a Norwegian guy). Anyway, the play was incredibly weird and strange, and the fact that it was being put on at this incredibly modern and avant-garde theater didn't help the fact. And the play is not exactly about happy things either, so this all added to a kind of creepy atmosphere. It didn't help that I was sitting in the front row, on the end, and characters in the play kept coming down these stairs at the front of the stage into the audience. I didn't realize it at first, but soon I learned that there was an entrance door directly kitty corner behind me, so I nearly had a heart attack when these pilgram/puritan/norwegian characters ran in from that door, right in front of Shana and me! And there was barely any room between us and the stage, so we had to move our legs all out of the way, and it was incredibly awkward and kind of scary because these actors were RIGHT there, and I was afraid that they would touch us or yell in our faces. Oh wait, then the main actor (playing Peer Gynt) exited by way of the door right behind me and touched me (he was kind of lurching around and being drunk the whole play, so it was a kind of "I'm trying to look authentically drunk and grab onto things for support", one of the things being my leg/butt area (my legs were crossed, and I was turned sideways trying to let the people by, so it wasn't as impossible a feat as it sounds), and then the same guy crept back in and scared me again by grabbing onto my shoulder! Totally scary, and also I couldn't stop laughing and neither could Shana and we were probably incredibly inappropriate. But helloooo, don't grab me if you don't want me to laugh, Peer Gynt guy, because stuff like that is funny.
So that was our weekend, in a big nutshell. And this is my last weekend in France (I am leaving next Saturday for vacation to the USA!), and most likely my last entry before Christmas, because I don't foresee anything exciting happening this week, so Merry Christmas, Happy Hanakah, Joyeuse Noel, etc. and see you after break! <3

Carcassonne!

2005-12-04T20:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to Carcassonne! It's a city/town that's about 45 minutes away from Toulouse. It was first settled in 6th century BC by some crazy Gauls! And then in the 11th, 12th centuries, real people began to live there and it was a major fortress for a long time. And there is some story about when Charlemagne beseiging the town for years, just when the food was about to run out, some townswoman thought to throw the town's last pig out over the walls. Charlemagne's forces were so amazed that the town still had enough food to just casually toss a pig over a wall, they decided to call it a day and end the seige. Maybe that explains why there are pigs everywhere...(including a whole exhibit at the Musee des Beaux-Arts dedicated to pigs!)

So we get to the train station in Carcassonne and hike through the lower town (called "La Bastide St. Louis"), which is basically like the lame counterpart to the awesome medieval city located on the hill. There are just normal shops, and normal streets, and nothing to write home about. But then we get to the Pont Vieux ("Old Bridge", which is odd because every other bridge in France is named Pont Neuf, or "New Bridge", and I think old bridge is much more accurate). So anyway, we see these firemen who have a zipline set up from the bridge down to the river bank. So we think they are doing some sort of training exercise or something, but then when we get up onto the bridge, we see this little girl in a harness and a helmet! So turns out they were having a fundraiser to benefit handicapped children, and for 2 euros you could take a ride down the zipline! Annie and I were soooo in. So we got all strapped in and down we went! Way too much fun. And there were lots of cute firemen who thought we were cute because we are Americans. And we are cute, just in general. So that was super fun!

(Me looking oh-so-graceful going down the zipline!)

So after that fun start to the day, we were off to the walled city. It was cool, lots of old walls and turrets and other castle-y things. We explored the little streets for a while, then we went to the chateau, and walked around the little museum inside there that has history of the town. Then we took a tour (in english, with a tour guide that spoke terribly...always enjoyable!), and during the tour we got to go out on the walls! And it was really windy! And we got some great views of the Pyrenees, and lower Carcassonne. Then we went to a delicious candy shop, and got crepes at a different shop. We ate a lot in Carcassonne. During lunch at this little pizza place, there was an English couple next to us with an adorable baby, and these two little French kids (think ages 3 and 5-ish) kept coming over and being like "french french french french french", and being all cute with the baby, and the British couple had no idea what they were saying! So they just kept saying "yes...baby...umm...bebe....oui" and it was incredibly adorable. And then the baby looked at me and smiled. And I liked it. :-)

So that was our trip to Carcassonne! It's so great that these little historical gems are all over France, and so close that we can easily access them for a day trip! I love it. And I am going home in 13 days and I can't wait! France may have some great things, but home has amazing ones too.

Irish Pub

2005-11-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

Sooo tonight Annie and I had the best meal EVER in France. I don't need any of that crazy french food, just find me an Irish pub that serves burgers, and I am alllllll set. Bacon cheeseburger with onions, curly fries, and cole slaw. And cute irish bartenders. Right around the corner from my house. I'm in heaven. And the bartender tried to deter us from eating dinner there with "but it's just pub grub." Pub grub? Exactly what the doctor ordered. Cross cheeseburger off my list of "must eat" food while I'm at home. Found them in France! ;-)

Thanksgiving--France style

2005-11-28T20:35:00.000-08:00

Sooo Thanksgiving was last Thursday, as every american ever knows. But French people are like "what are you talking about, what is thanksgiving?" I explained it approximately 500 times to various french people! And it sounds pretty silly: "Well, the indians and the settlers [don't know word for "pilgrims"] ate a big meal together. And then they were friends. And no one knows if this actually happened. And now all families get together and eat a big meal." And the french people are like "that's it?" But hey, I love Thanksgiving! And the Dickinson Center put on a really nice dinner for us, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, and a massive amount of desserts. And it was so nice to get together with everyone on Thanksgiving, because at least we were with other Americans, being all together and lovey! I think everyone was a little homesick on that day.

So it was the job of the students to provide the desserts. Alright, great. So Annie and I decided to jointly make TollHouse Chocolate Chip cookies. An American classic. And we also decided to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too, just for good measure. So we looked up the recipes online (I love the internet), procured some american style measuring cups from Laura at the Dickinson Center, and set off the find the ingrediants. Umm hello, France, be more difficult. We went to FOUR different grocery stores trying to find everything. Apparently, baking soda doesn't exist (afterwards, we were told to try a pharmacy to find that...crazy), brown sugar as we know it is a big old veto, and chocolate chips, the foundation of our amazing recipe, were no where to be found. Well, I'm lying. We found these things that claimed to be "pepites au chocolate", but they were sooooo not even close to America-style chocolate chips. They were in these tiny little bags for about 3 euros each. We would have had to buy 6 bags just to get enough for the recipes! I was like "hellooo...Nestle, you are a brand available in France, I've seen you, why don't you introduce your TollHouse chocolate chips and start a revolution!" So we ended up buying these bigger Nestle chocolate pieces, which were less expensive, and then we cut them up. Which worked fine, but created lots of painful blisters from holding knives in awkward ways. And then after we made the cookies we were like "oh, these are such crap, they don't taste good at all!" And by "good" we meant "they don't taste like when we make them at home". But apparently, no one cares! Our cookies were a huge hit! So that boosted our egos a little bit, and I liked it.

And then on Friday, we particpated in very traditional post-Thanksgiving activities: eating the leftovers! And even though the gravy had turned a strange green color overnight and sort of congealed into a gel-like substance, I didn't care. And neither did anyone else. In fact, we ate it with relish. And also on Friday, I went and got my carte de sejour, aka residency card, aka i can stay in the country past November 30th when my visa runs out! Yaaaaaay! So that's neat. And I will be back in the United States of America on Dec. 17 and I cannot wait! I'm going to eat a lot of food, and have a lot of family and friends and Jason time, and be the happiest girl alive. And then come back to France and take finals? Umm...let's not think about that just yet. :-)

Bordeaux!

2005-11-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

Rick Steves: "'Bordeaux' must mean 'boredom' in some ancient language. If I were offered a free trip to that town, I'd stay home and clean the fridge."

He might be right. Not gonna lie. I went to Bordeaux this weekend to visit my penpal (p.s. hate that word). Heloise and I have been corresponding since 5th grade! It's really crazy. So anyway, I thought I would pay her a visit, and it was really great to finally meet her! But Bordeaux was kind of boring. On Saturday, we walked around for a really long time to see the city. And it's different than Toulouse, because there are less inhabitants than Toulouse, but the size in physical area is bigger. So we pretty much drove everywhere in an old mini cooper (it was great! I miss driving around!), even though it looks like Heloise just lives right in the city (not in the suburbs or anything). So we saw a lot of Bordeaux, including everyone who was shopping on this nice pedestrian shopping road. It looked like someone was giving away candy at the other end, because you look down this road and it's literally a sea of people. We kind of avoided that. But Bordeaux did have some nice things, such as this turtle. Which I was in love with. And kids played on it! Too cute. Then Saturday night, we went out for a (loooong) dinner for the birthday of a friend of Heloise. The food was marginal, but the waiter was from L.A., so I enjoyed that. But I was sooo tired (stupid medicine for my cough has codeine in it), so I think I was fairly boring. And also, I could not follow the conversation whatsoever.

Anyway, on Sunday we did the museum thing. I didn't really like the first museum. It had an exhibit from this one photographer who did a lot of erotica weird stuff. And then the second museum was cool, it was housed in an old German submarine building thing from WWII. And it was an exhibit of Rene Bouilly, who did these really cool sketches, and used a lot of perspective and shadows and stuff: Look at the one at the very bottom, it's my favorite! The ones on top are awesome, they looked like you could pick the cloth up right from the canvas! It was cool. And then the third museum was like the Centre Pompidou, with contemporary art, which I just find hilarious, for the most part. I mean, I think it's really ugly and I don't understand how it's considered art, but it's pretty cool anyway. I especially liked the piece that was two blow up wading pools with all different size bowls and glasses floating in it, and then they would bang together and make really these really beautiful sounds. And it was continuous, so it sounded kind of like a windchime always played.

Then Sunday that night, Heloise and I went to a modern dance/theater thing at this big arena that ended up being really interesting. It was singing, and speaking (some in english!), and dancing. I couldn't really follow the story, and I don't actually know if there was a story, but then all of a sudden it was over. So it was definitely weird, but very cool nonetheless. Then today I came home today! And it was the first time that I rode the train by myself, and I did it successfully and felt pretty awesome!

Pyrenees!

2005-11-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

Dan and I decided to take a hike in the Pyrenees this weekend! They are very accessble by bus or train, so it was a great opportunity to take. We took a train to Hospitalet, which is almost right on the border with Andorra, and also the last train stop before reaching Andorra (no trains run into Andorra, only buses!) Unfortunately, when I woke up on Sunday morning, it was rainy and cloudy and overall not a day you would choose to take a hike on. But we had already bought our train tickets, so we went anyway! And I am so glad we did! We got there around 11:30, and chose a trail that would take us around 4 hours. Probably took us a little longer, because I (naturally) stopped to take pictures every 5 seconds. And we also took the trail for the lazy people, because our trail only had "2 footprints" next to it, which apparently indicated that even the most out of shape person ever could do it. Which I think was a little much, because I huffed and puffed a little going up the hill! We didn't climb a mountain, per se, but when you start in a valley (such as the one in which Hospitalet is located) you kind of only have the choice of going up. We chose the "Refuge des Besines" trail, which took us to (you guessed it) the Refuge des Besines. So on the way up, it kind of rained and was really foggy, and generally fairly unpleasant. I was plenty warm in my 800 layers, but my feet got wet as we slopped through slushy snow and mud. And we could every once in a while see a peek of a peak (oh tehehe), but that was about it.

(getting a "peak" - really cracking myself up, btw)

Also, we hiked through this meadow that was apparently surrounded by beautiful mountains, but we couldn't see anything, because they were all obscured by fog! But don't worry, we got some great views on the way down! Anyway, so we get to the end of our hike, which was not the usual "I just climbed up a mountain and feel so satisfied, look at these great views over the landscape" because we didn't really climb all that much. But the Refuge des Besines did have a lovely lake that was surrounded by snow-capped peaks, that finally decided to come out of the fog obscurity and be pretty for us. We also met a fellow hiker, who was really way more hardcore than us (he laughed at Dan's sneakers and my jeans - hey, guy, I could only bring so many clothes, and I chose jeans over any sort of mountain man hiking clothes, gimme a break!) ;-)

But he was very nice, and told us a little about the area, and how there are these huts sprinkled all over, and some of them have wardens that live there and I guess kind of take care of the place. This one at Besines did not have a warden. So we picnicked by the lake, and got sufficiently cold because we weren't doing anything, and then started back down. And since all the fog had cleared, it was almost like taking a different hike altogether, because we got some amazing views! In that same meadow from before, we felt the need to sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music" because it seemed like it was right out of The Sound of Music! Mountains surrounded the meadow, and it was crazy because we had no idea they were there before! We were continually stopping to be like "whoaaaa, look at that one!" as another peak would emerge in front of us. I wish I knew the names of these mountains. If they have names, that is. They were nice. I liked them. And we walked by this weird like, concrete-y area that had some tracks running up to it. Did trains used to go up there? We tried to figure it out, but just couldn't. And I really liked seeing snow everywhere, because apparently it doesn't snow in Toulouse, and that upsets me. So anyway, after we got back down to the bottom, we got a hot chocolate at the one open hotel in the town (literally this "town" was probably about 20 buildings in total, teeny weeny!), and then we went to the train station to wait. And we saw our mountain man hiker friend! Turns out, he's from Toulouse and must have come down the mountain shortly after us because he was taking the same train as us! Funny and cool. Oh, and on our way down, we saw this man who was heading up who was wearing: loafers, jeans, a button down shirt, no jacket and no back pack. And we said "bonjour" and he answered with a nice american "Hi", and kept going. It was incredibly bizarre, seeing as how it was probably around 4 or 4:30 and it was going to get dark soon, and a lot colder! So we worried about the other American a little bit.

Anyway, incredibly successful hike, and I can't wait to do it again! Maybe when it's not so rainy, but the fog cleared, so I was a happy camper!

Burning cars

2005-11-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

So everyone would think that going to France for study abroad would be really safe, but now there's all this crazy violence going on. Don't worry, I'm perfectly safe, as is everyone in our program, because the rioting and burning cars is only in the ghetto areas of Toulouse where all the immigrants live (sad, but true). So background info: there were these two black teenagers who were chased by the police into a power plant outside of Paris, and they were electrocuted to death. So now the poor, mostly immigrant, population of France is up in arms because they are not given the same opportunities as the rest of France, and there is a 50% unemployment rate, and that these kids were chased unfairly and they aren't even given a chance to succeed, etc. But this problem has been brewing for years, and now it's just manifesting itself because of the deaths of those two kids. Kind of reminiscent of the United States at various times in recent history? The violence started in Paris, and now has spread to over 200 towns in the rest of France, including Toulouse. And unfortunately, the Mirail University is located in the ghetto part of Toulouse. I don't take classes there, but a lot of people in our program do, so they have been given directions to come home before 4:30 to make sure they get a ride on the metro, because the metros and buses have been shutting down early to avoid going to the rioting areas at night. Kind of scary, but nothing goes on during the day, and I think things are starting to die down anyway, now that the French police/military has gotten its act together.

So that's just a little update on my life in Toulouse. Never a dull moment!

Paris--Day Three

2005-11-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

Finally, Monday! On Monday morning, we met to go to the Centre Pompidou, which is a modern art museum. Like, really modern, as in there was literally a blue square made out of fabric that was supposedly art. Whatever. But there were some really cool things. First of all, the building itself is hideously ugly and cool. The pipes are all on the outside! So it's in this really swanky and nice neighborhood of Paris, with all these beautiful buildings, and then there's Pompidou with all these industrial pipes all over the place. Crazy. And then on the top floor of the museum, they have this kind of overlook place with really amazing views of the rooftops of Paris, and the Eiffel Tower! As for the arty part of the museum, our guide was amazing, and very informative. And she had us sit down in every room, which I loved because usually I get so antsy standing up all the time that I can't really pay attention. And another great thing was that our tour took place before the museum actually opened at 11 am. So we could actually see the art, and not just be herded around in a crowd. So after our tour ended, we had a few minutes with the museum all to ourselves, which was great for being silly with the art work. Because let me tell you, most of the art was fairly ridiculous. Hahaha.

Then after Pompidou, we were going to go to a free exhibition of this photographer, but then the line ended up being really long (Christine waited it out), and Annie and I went and strolled on the Champs-Elysees. Which really isn't that big of a deal, except that it's so famous. There are just a lot of stores, most of which I can come nowhere near to affording. But there is that whole Arc de Triomphe thing at the end, which is pretty amazing! I like this picture cause it looked like I just walked out into the middle of the road and took it. Maybe I did? Or maybe there was a median...you decide. But the Champs is basically just a very busy road. With weird shaped trees and a big old monument at the end. We went up on top of the Arc! That was cool. You could see really far! And, as with most things in Paris, you could see the Eiffel Tower really well too!

Then we kind of just walked around for a little while, and then went to H&M, which is a European store that we are so lucky to have at Eastview Mall, but not anywhere in Toulouse? That confuses me. So we went there. I bought some gloves. It was fairly exciting. Then we went back to the hotel to get pretty for the ballet that evening! We went to the National Opera House (top) to see "Joyaux", which means "jewel", and each act was based on a different precious gem. The first was emeralds (kind of boring, but I mean....emeralds are kind of boring too, right?), the second was rubies (incredibly cute and saucy and not ballet-like), and of course the last act was....diamonds (bottom)! And for the grand finale they had the whole company out on stage, and there was some majorly complicated choreogrphy. It was amazing. And that's Paris! A very successful excursion, and I can't wait to go back!

Sunday in Paris

2005-11-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I ended off with Saturday night and a hilarious party. So even though we got an extra hour of sleep (yay turning the clocks back!), we were all feeling pretty rough for the 8:45 rendez-vous at the Louvre. We had a guided tour of the Egyptian collection, which ended up being pretty cool. We saw all this stuff they took out of the pyramids, including thousands of years old food, jewelry, and tools. And a mummy! Now, I really like mummies and bones and things like that. But it’s not like I want to decorate my house with them, I just like them in a “this is really gross, I can’t help but look at it…..cooooool!” way. Like little boys like snakes and stuff. So anyway, I think I frightened our assistant Laura when I was like “I love mummies!” Oh well. I do. So then after our guided tour, we were able to look around the Louvre for as long as we wanted, so we saw the Winged Victory statue (picture), which I think is absolutely gorgeous, and the Mona Lisa, and lots of other paintings and sculptures. But obviously, it being the Louvre, it was the most ridiculously crowded place I’ve ever been to. So it was kind of difficult to enjoy fully, but I think I got the most out of it that I could. So after we finished, we excited via the horrendously ugly yet still cool Louvre Pyramid. It’s just such a contrast to the centuries old Louvre building. And even though it doesn’t match whatsoever, I still really like it. And it was a really sunny day, so I think it was a great day to see a huge glass pyramid.

We then went to the Musée d’Orsay, which is more modern art than the Louvre, but still has 19^th century stuff. And good stuff, like Degas, Monet, and Van Gogh. Not like thecrazy “I put this blue square on the wall so now I deserve to be in a museum” art (that’s the Centre Pompidou, which we visited on Monday! You can probably tell I’m somewhat critical of modern art). But I really enjoyed Musée d’Orsay because it is housed in an old train station, and there were beautiful pieces of art, including this crazy Van Gogh and another artist combined piece. The other artist (can’t remember his name, something crazy like “kakakhegkhads”) took Van Gogh’s famous self-portrait and like, put it in a wheel barrow full of plastic oranges and lemons. I kid you not. It was kind of weird. I didn’t really like it that much, but I did think it was amusing.
After Musée d’Orsay, we become super-tourists and went to see Notre Dame and the rest of the goods on l’Ile de la Cité. Notre Dame was cool, but again so crowded that you couldn’t really appreciate it fully. And also, we’ve been seeing so many amazing cathedrals (ie. Albi, Conques, and our own St. Etienne of Toulouse) that it’s kind of hard to be impressed by another cathedral when we can visit these cathedrals and have the places to ourselves. But it was impressive just in the fact that is Notre Dame, and everyone in the whole world knows that name. We wanted to go up in the towers, but the line was really really long. So hopefully next time! Then we went to a Holocaust deportation memorial, which was very moving. Then we went to the archeological crypt that is housed underneath Notre Dame. I was hoping for some bones and stuff, but all that is there are the remains of ancient Paris, pre-Notre Dame. It’s pretty cool, and they had a really nice and informative presentation on it all. Then we went and met Katie to go to St. Chapelle, which was built by Louis IX to house relics from the Holy Land. We were all really excited because apparently it’s amazing when it’s a bright sunny day outside. So obviously it had been gorgeous all day, and then started to rain when we were going inside. C’est la vie. But the chapel was still incredibly breathtaking, with walls pretty much made of stained glass (hence the breathtaking-ness on a sunny day). Still, the collection of stained glass was still very impressive.

So we returned to the hotel for dinner and a little break, because my feet were killing me! Being a tourist is serious business! Then Sunday night we did probably my favoritething of the whole trip: visited the Eiffel Tower at night! Even though it’s so touristy and built-up, it’s still anincredibly amazing monument, especially all lit up at night! And it sparkles on the hour for about 10 minutes, so that amazed us for a while. We decided it was worth it to fork over 10.70 euros to go all the way up to the top, and I think it was definitely worth it. Seeing Paris all lit up from 275 meters was breathtaking. And they had these panoramic photos that identified what you were looking at. So you could be like “hey, what’s the blob of light right there” and look down at the photo and it corresponded almost perfectly with the window you were at. Very cool. And it was so windy at the top! I’m glad they had those grate things all over the top, otherwise I think I would have gotten blown away. So now I really want to visit the top of the Eiffel Tower during the day so I can see some really awesome views! But seeing all the lights was like being in a magical fairy land of wonderful sparkly-ness. Hahaha. And I liked it.

Well that’s enough for tonight; next time I will give you all the details on Monday in Paris! Bonne soirée!

City of Love!

2005-11-01T22:15:00.000-08:00

Yay Paris! We just got back today, and it was an amazing and completely enjoyable trip. I’m pretty much going to give a play by play, and hopefully update pictures soon, so you should all check everything out! Friday: After arriving late to the train station (yes, I’m retarded), we left for our 6ish hour trip to Paris! I slept. When we arrived, it was craziness and we had to leave the train station, and jump on the metro to get to our hotel. But as well-run as the Paris metro is, you pretty much have to switch trains at least once anywhere you go. So I, being a country girl through and through, was like “wow….there are a lot of people here and it’s crazy”. And all of this was done carrying our bags. A ridiculously heavy bag in my case, because I do not know how to pack lightly. I must really buy a hiking kind of backpack and be a real college backpacking through Europe girl. So we get to our hotel, which was a short, but not short enough, walk from the metro stop (I thought my whole body was going to fall apart……what in god’s name did I have in that duffel bag?) Our hotel was kind of funny, in that it was kind of like a young people conference center, so most of the guests were on high school trip type things, and there were a lot of cute young British people. I liked it. Then we went to dinner in a mosque/restaurant. It was kind of crazy: it was a real mosque on one side, and then a restaurant on the other. Then after dinner we went out Parisian style in the Latin Quarter, and had a great night. I saw Notre Dame for the first time at 2 in the morning. ;-)

Saturday: After getting not enough sleep on Friday night, we had a rendez-vous at the Pont Neuf for our cruise on the Seine! We went as a whole group, and it was totally touristy and corny, but I loved every second of it. You can really get some great views from the Seine, and I went crazy with picture taking! We saw the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Baudelaire’s house, the smallest house in Paris with two windows that some artist lived in, and the memorial right by the tunnel where Princess Di died (the memorial is an exact replica of the flame on the Statue of Liberty). And some other things, but unfortunately, I can’t remember what they were. But it was a gorgeous day for a nice cruise on the Seine, and I enjoyed it immensely. Then, in the afternoon, we were supposed to have a tour of an exposition of some sort as a group, but that ended up not happening, so Annie, Christine, and I went to Versailles, which was incredible. I slept on the train (that is kind of a theme for Paris for me; I slept on a lot of trains). Versailles is just so incredibly enormous, it boggles my mind. It cost so much to build, that the kings of France had to do some major fundraising afterwards to make up for it (like build elaborate bridges over the Seine, and then charge tolls to go over them). We had this nifty museum pass that let us bypass all the lines and get in to like, over 30 museums for free (well, Dickinson paid, so I guess I should ultimately say “thanks mom and dad!”). It’s an amazing pass, and anyone going to Paris (or most other major European cities—they all have one, I’m pretty sure) should invest, because you save so much time by not waiting in lines, and it’s a great deal! We also had unlimited metro cards for 5 days, which also made everyone’s lives sooo much better.

Anyway, Versailles was gorgeous, but very, very crowded so it was kind of hard to experience it fully. I mean, I guess seeing the ridiculous amount of crowds is kind of a part of experiencing Versailles, but you kind of felt like a herd of cows moving through various rooms in the chateau. Oh well. Oh, and the Hall of Mirrors was undergoing renovation! So I would like to go back to Versailles just to be able to see that in all its glory! Then we looked around the gardens and marveled just at the sheer size of it all. We looked in one direction, down towards this lake (see picture), and it literally stretched as far as the eye could see. The fountains were off, unfortunately, but the gardens were still very enjoyable on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Saturday night, we ate with Katie (yayaya! A friend from home studying in Paris, for those of you that don’t know) at a crazy combination Greek/French restaurant, and had a fine meal, then went to a party that was…interesting! And ended up being a really good and hilarious time. ;-)

Well, I’m too tired to continue writing a quality summary right now, so I will continue with the adventures of Sunday and Monday tomorrow! Bonne nuit! (P.S. I took over 600 pictures in Paris....I think I have a picture taking problem! I might need to get some help for this...) ;-)

Paris!

2005-10-27T22:38:00.000-07:00

We are leaving for Paris tomorrow morning! I'm incredibly excited. We won't get back until Tuesday, which is a "jour ferie", or national holiday. Unfortunately, I won't miss any classes.

I am going to be the dorkiest, most enthusiastic Parisian tourist ever, and I can't wait to see everything. Unfortunately, we are not riding the TGV, we are riding the slow, stupid train that is actually only 30 minutes longer than the TGV. And I really hope it's a train with cabins, like in Harry Potter. Except I don't even think those exist in real life. But it would be cool. And Annie and I are going to do some major planning. We actually have a good amount of free time away from Dickinson planned activities, so I want to use it wisely. Especially because with Dickinson, we don't hit the major tourist things (ie. Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysees, Notre Dame), and I definitely want to see those. And take 8000 pictures. :-) And Annie and I bought a sachet for the train, which is the greatest invention from French bakeries since the pastries themselves. It's a bag full of like, day-old pastries which still taste delicious, and it's only 3.50 euros. Amaaaaazing. So I have all that to look forward to tomorrow, which is a lot. ;-)

Fancy a ruck?

2005-10-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

I don't really know what that means, but it's related to rugby, and we went to a rugby game on Saturday! It was really fun! And we were told that we had really bad seats, but we were right on one of the "endzone" lines! So we had a really good view whenever they were down in that end, and for the 2nd half, it was a lot because the Toulouse team is awesome. They are the European champs or something. We played Wales, and pretty much kicked their butt. I think the final score was like 55-21 or something. Yaaaaay! And the ambiance is pretty much like any American football or soccer game: really loud, lots of painted faces, and crazy! I really want to buy a Stade Toulousian jersey, but they are really expensive! Maybe as a birthday present to myself. But I actually really did end up enjoying the game, because my dad (former rugby player!) gave me a great run down of the rules and players and stuff. Thanks Dad! ;-) The Toulouse team is red.

After the game, we went out to dinner at a Chilean restaurant and I got....chili! And it was delicious. And we walked over the Pont Neuf to get there, so we saw the Garonne River at night, and it was beautiful! You could see all the bridges lit up, and I liked it a lot. In other news, I'm sick again. I think the germs in France are really strong. Yuck! And we're going to Paris this Friday and I'm soooo excited because I've never been! I'm going through guidebooks and everything to get good ideas where to go. Yay!

Sup'Aero

2005-10-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Sooo the gala fete craziness that was the Gala Sup'Aero last night was made ten million times more crazy by the confusing events that surrounded it. So we are all at Kat's, hanging out, etc. and we had planned to get the 12:30 shuttle to Sup'Aero. Then the shuttle bus left early. So after that, it was a frenzy of taking the metro to try and catch the shuttle at the next stop (didn't work), taking the metro back to Esquirol and taking a taxi to Sup'Aero. But along the way, we lost like, half our group, and Annie, Kat, and Shana ended up not even going! Which was really sad because Annie and I had gotten ready together, and we looked really pretty. ;-) We ended up having a good time at the Gala, they had 12 bars with different themes, like Oriental, Disco, Karaoke, etc. and they did a really good job of transforming the school (I mean, I guess it was transformed....I've never been there, so maybe they always have rockin classrooms like that...) So we danced for a while, and then came back home. And the other separated group had a good time too, so everything turned out fine! Harmony, Ellen and I had a great time dancing, and it was really super hot in there!

In other news, my host parents went out last night, so one of these two brothers that often babysit for them came over, and had his little girlfriend over without asking, AND smoked in the garden and left butts everywhere. Manon had said something to Valerie, like "Mommy, I saw a girl in our house", but Val just assumed that Manon had seen Annie and I all dressed up, and didn't recognize us or something. But then, I felt like Valerie's little spy, because she was asking me all these questions to verify what actually happened, and I gave her the goods. Obviously I saw everything, seeing as how I was at home until 10:30 when we went to Kat's house! So guess what, little french babysitting boy? You aren't coming over anymore, and I feel that my information was really what tipped Valerie off the edge. And also, I feel like Val and I had a good bonding moment, and we said that this kid was really dumb, and if he had just waited until Annie and I left, everything would have been fine! You can just call me Nancy Drew.

Also, Valerie is obsessed with this Avian flu thing, which I really don't know much about because I'm really bad at following the news, but she is always like "Caitlin, make sure you don't touch bird feathers in the garden!" "Caitlin, tell your boyfriend not to eat chicken!", and today I told them that Jason said it wasn't a big deal, and even his professor wasn't worried. And she said something like "oh...well he's actually over there, and it's not a big deal, so we maybe shouldn't worry so much!" And does she really think that I would be like "Oh, that's a pretty pigeon feather, I'm just gonna go ahead and pick that up as a souvenir of Toulouse!" Hahahaha. So don't anyone be expecting a bird feather present.

My feet have a wild life when I'm not looking

2005-10-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Lack of updates = Caitlin had a fairly boring week. On Thursday, we had the opening reception at Dickinson, which was fun, because all the host families came and professors and other Dickinson-affiliated people, and everyone got to meet everyone else. My host family didn’t come because Gauthier was out of town and Valérie didn’t want to have to bring the girls. But I did see one of my professors from the ISTR (Catholic Institute), and I made somewhat retarded conversation with him…but oh well, maybe I’ll get a good grade now! Also, for lack of a better picture for the week, I wore these really uncomfortable shoes to the Dickinson reception, and walked half a mile to the center in the rain, and my feet now look like they got in a knife fight or something. Hahaha, but also ouch!

And I also met my new “boss” type person for this English class that I’m teaching in a suburb of Toulouse, called Pechabou (it sounds sort of like “peek-a-boo”, and I like it). Yes, I am teaching an English class (with Kat, a Dickinson student who is studying in Toulouse for the 2nd year in a row), and no, I do not have any experience with being a teacher of any subject. But I figure I speak English natively, so I have a leg-up on any random person they could have gotten! But they pay is fairly sweeeeeet, and Kat and I are switching off weeks, so I can handle getting up early on Saturdays twice a month for a little extra pocket money! We just had our first class today and it was so much fun! I was really nervous going into it, but the kids are really sweet (there were only 4 of them today, and probably 6 will be coming on a regular basis), and they already had a solid basis of the “hi, how are you, my name is” kind of stuff, which Kat and I didn’t know would be the case. We heard they had never learned English before! So luckily we asked at the beginning of the class what English words/phrases they knew, and they rattled off a whole bunch, including some funny and random ones like “Stop it!” and “Give me!” All in all, a positive first day, and I’m not really that nervous for next time!
Tonight we have big plans. There is a “gala” at an engineering school called Sup’Aero that is apparently a huuuuuuge deal. Like, budget of 85,000 euros kind of big deal. And it’s a dress up thing, so automatically I’m there. There is an entrance fee of 16 euros, but Dickinson is graciously paying for whoever wants to go, because we have a good relationship with Sup’Aero, and Dickinson students do internships there every year (this year it’s Annie and Christine!) So I’m pretty psyched for that tonight, I’ll have to update and tell how it went!

Fete St. Michel

2005-10-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

For the past 3 weeks there has been the "Fete St. Michel" in the gardens which are right near my house. Basically, this "fete" which is commemorating a saint is actually a huge carnival with A LOT of carnies and other somewhat unfavorable people in the park. It makes the parks almost impossible to walk around in, due to the crowds and packed-in concession stands and rides. And also, it's really ugly. Nevertheless, I love carnivals and it was fun to do some quality people watching. And apparently in France people don't really care about safety, because Annie and I saw this one ride that was like a twirly circle that went on its side and up and down and stuff. Okay fine...until we saw that there was nothing even resembling any sort of safety belt strapping the people in! I guess it was part of the fun, flirting with possible death and all. But we really could not stop looking, because it seemed like at any moment someone was going to fly right out of it! People were bouncing, and sliding on the seats, and everything. Crazy. So for our ONE carnival ride (they were ridiculously expensive, and there was no sort of day-passes or anything), Annie and I chose the much more sedate Ferris Wheel. It was enjoyable and we got some cool views of Toulouse from the top.

And this was the last weekend of the carnival, so now we can enjoy the gardens again without hearing a lot of blasting American music coming from the rides! Though I was fairly psyched to hear a little Black Eyed Peas today.

Something that I really enjoy in France: Frommage Blanc and Natural Yogurt. I don't actually know what Frommage Blanc is (literal translation: white cheese), but it is very similar to yogurt, and natural yogurt is just yogurt without any flavoring. And both are absolutely delicious when you put a lot of sugar in them. My host sisters eat it all the time, and I tried it the other night, and it's so good! So now every night after dinner, me and my two host sisters have some frommage blanc or natural yogurt while my host parents look on. And I feel like a 5 year old, but I like it. :-)

For all of you who are interested in the Tour de France: I forgot to mention yesterday that Albi was the starting place of Stage 21 this past summer. I wish I had known earlier (I ended up just seeing a poster in a shop window yesterday), but I don't know what I would have done, go looked at some road that Lance rode on or something? Nonetheless, I think it's incredibly cool and I love Lance. ;-)

I want a big French hat!

2005-10-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

Today was our excursion to Albi, a nearby town. I realized I’ve never put a map on here, and I thought that would be fun, and Jason did it too, so look at this (Toulouse and other mentioned towns are in the "Midi-Pyrenees" region, waaaaay down south--note, enlarge the map to see it better). So we took the train, which was fun because I like trains, and the trains here are really nice and fast. We went into some sort of underground tunnel and for some reason, the pressure changed so much that all our ears went crazy. And then we resurfaced and everything was fine again. But it was weird! So then in Albi, before our first tour, we went to these gardens at the Palais de la Berbie, which has these great gardens overlooking the Tarn River. I took some pretty great shots, because the light was absolutely breathtaking at that time in the morning (around 9:45 am). Then we went on a tour of the Henri Toulouse-Lautrec museum, who is a painter very famous for a couple of his posters, and less famous for most of his other work. I’m positive you’ve seen this poster and this poster too.
And Toulouse-Lautrec was born in Albi, so they like him a lot there. The building the museum was housed in was kind of cool in its own right, because it’s actually partly in the Palais de la Berbie. And seeing those famous posters up close was fairly cool, except they didn’t have the cat one at this museum, I guess they had to share it with some other museum? So after that, we had a long break for lunch and we just walked around and I was in pain because my Pumas that I wear everyday decided to be like “oh hey, here are some blisters”. But I dealt!

And then we had another tour after lunch, of the St. Cecile Cathedral and the old part of Albi. But there was a wedding in the church, so we had to stall a little and look at some kind of boring things in old Albi before we got to go into the cathedral. But we did see the house where Toulouse-Lautrec was born, so that was neato.

Then we finally got to go in the Cathedral, and it was amazing. This cathedral is less like a church, and more like the most fortified fortress ever. It was built in the 14th century; I guess when all that crazy Crusade stuff was going on. So outside it’s fairly intimidating, and inside it’s beautiful. And the fact that there was a wedding just made it perfect, because during our whole tour there was beautiful singing and the organ and trumpets were playing. It was very dreamy, and then all the girls in our group swooned when we got a peek at the bride and groom. They were so young! And they had these adorable little kids in the wedding party, and these beautiful palm/white ribbon flower arrangments on each of the pews. And I was creepy and took a program that someone left in a pew. Sidenote: the French have a crazy custom at grand weddings, which is that all the women wear these crazy, fancy hats. Like, we’re talking hats…complete with feathers, spangles, dangly things and anything else that one would normally think should be avoided in all outfits. But somehow, it all works and makes everyone look really fashionable and amazing. Moral of the story: I’m going to have big crazy hats at my wedding and be really French.

Note: A french fashion statement thing that I'm not really into is the faux-hawk. I mean....what? When was that ever even popular in America, cause I think it was never, and therefore France should take a hint. I rode the bus home tonight with about 5 kids all sporting a faux-hawk, and I felt like saying "your hair looks stupid, and dirty because of all the gel you put in it to make it stand unnaturally on end." Hahaha, next time I'll snap a few photos. ;-)

2005-10-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

Organ in St. Cecile (during the wedding there was a man in the organ loft playing trumpet...absolutely amazing)

2005-10-08T11:01:00.000-07:00

Amazing ceiling in St. Cecile

2005-10-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

Me, on the bridge over the Tarn

2005-10-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

Annie and me, overlooking the Tarn River

2005-10-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

grape vine-covered walkway in the gardens....very Italian looking

2005-10-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

Gardens at le Palais de la Berbie, modeled after the gardens of Versailles

2005-10-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

The incredibly immense St. Cecile Cathedral in Albi. It was built like a fortress, and I would feel very safe in there if I was suddenly needing to hide from some heathens

Les greves

2005-10-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, so new French experience of the day: Les greves, or strikes that basically immobialize the city. They are announced ahead of time, to give people time to plan otherwise, I guess? But we were told through an email from the Dson Center that the Tisseo (bus/metro company) was striking, so plan extra time to get places, etc. Apparently, a lot of municipally-run things also strike in show of solidarity. For example: our university classes were cancelled, post offices and libraries were closed. So that was kind of nice, no classes for Caitlin today! But we really needed to do research at the big city library, so that part was kind of a pain. And then when Annie and I were walking towards Rue du Metz, a major road that runs across the city, the whole road was closed and huge crowds of people were marching down the road carrying signs and chanting and singing. And apparently strikes are a big part of life in France, and people kind of just deal with them like they are no big deal.

And also today, my host sister Alix, who is 7, asked me if I knew what Christmas was. Like I come from some crazy nation, not like the United States.

And for our project on the gardens of Toulouse, Annie and I "interviewed" my host sisters, because they always go to the gardens to play, and we thought it would be a cute angle to take. And it was. Alix, always the little unintentional comedian, when asked what her favorite part of the Jardin des Plantes was, responded: "The plants". Hilarious. ;-)

2005-10-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Cute old people feeding birds in the park! And nuns in the background! (This counts as research for our project....definitely)

Crepes galore

2005-10-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

Ohhh, and suddenly it's Sunday night, but I don't really mind because I don't have classes on Mondays! So Mondays are actually made even worse, because I have class on Tuesday hanging over my head all day....but oh well. P.S. as we speak, my family is giving me one crepe after another. Could I be any more French?

So this weekend was fun. Went to Bodega Bodega and Le Frigo on Friday night. We all felt like we were holding court because Annie, Christine, and I were sitting on this table and a steady stream of guys kept approaching us. Apparently guys like girls that speak english? Not really sure, but we got many drinks bought for us, so it worked out well. And Bodega Bodega plays American music, so you gotta love that. None of that crappy house music, of which I am not a fan. However, funny moment: Christine and I were dancing at Le Frigo and it was this retarded techno song that was like "I want you, I want you, I want you" over and over again. And then this french guy dances by and yells "I WANT YOU!" in our faces. And we were like "Do you even know what that means?" Then on Saturday we wanted to go to this free concert of this guy who is apparently like Moby, but then it started raining, and the concert was outside, and I wasn't really in the mood to subject myself to that. So we ended up hooking up with some other Dickinson kids and going out to the slowest Chinese restaurant on the planet. Like, it was laughably slow. Customer service isn't really that big in France in general. Cashier lines are long, store employees are unfriendly, it's basically like they are saying "yeah, we are allowing you to shop here, so you better behave". In one store on Saturday, a sales person literally ripped a scarf that I was looking at out of my hands with a barely a "pardon" so she could put it on a mannequin. Umm, hello, is that mannequin going to buy that scarf? Yeah, I don't think so. But anyway, back to the Chinese restaurant. We literally waited 35-40 minutes to ORDER, and then another hour+ to get our food, which was so poorly timed coming out of the kitchen that I was finished with my food before a good half of our 9 person group had even gotten theirs yet. And then when a dish got brought out that wasn't what any of us ordered, we explained it to the waitress, who looked doubtful, and then the little chinese manager lady came out and looked at us all suspiciously and examined our dishes to somehow ascertain that we were not trying to pull the wool over her eyes. Lady, we just wanted our food! And then we went to a cafe and bought hot chocolate for 3.80 euros. That's approximately 5 dollars. France, your prices are ridiculous.

So Annie and I have this project to do for our history of toulouse class, which is technically over because it was part of our Orientation which ended last week, but whatever. We chose the gardens of Toulouse, because Toulouse really does have a magnificent collection of gardens that are gorgeous and a wonderful asset to the city. However...we can't find any information on them. A lot of our report is going to consist of pictures, which is definitely my cup of tea. We also have to do interviews, which is absolutely hilarious. If you were sitting in a park, enjoying a beautiful day with your family or just by yourself, would you really want a couple of foreigners to come up and ask you for an interview, while at the same time completely butchering your language? Let me just say....it's awkward. But our professor specifically wants interviews, so we have to. Laaaaaaaaaaaame. In other news, my classes (or our classes, cause Annie and I decided to go the twins route and take the same classes) are going really well. The IEP is small by French university standards (about 1500-2000 students, I think), so we are seeing a lot of the same people in our classes, and it's nice to see some familiar faces! And this week, classes start at the Dickinson Center and at ISTR, the catholic school where we're taking a couple of religion classes. All in all, I'm taking 4.5 credits this semester, because most of the classes at IEP and ISTR are only half credits. But whatever, they only meet once a week for a couple hours, which is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet and has allowed our schedule to be completely not sucky at all. And it'll also be great for any weekend traveling we want to do, because we get out of class at 10:30 on Fridays and our next class isn't until Tuesday morning. Awesome. Speaking of which, I'm getting really antsy to travel somewhere. Annie just bought tickets to England for November, and I'm hearing about a lot of other students making travel plans. So if you are in Europe at the moment, tell me and then I'll come visit you. If I can find cheap air/train fare. ;-)

A Bientot!

French classes and scuba masks

2005-09-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

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...

2005-09-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-26T12:56:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

View of Cordes that we saw on our hike!

2005-09-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

Annie and me with the view behind us!

2005-09-26T12:52:00.000-07:00

Annie loves the foie gras!

2005-09-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-26T12:49:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Looking down on Conques during our hike

2005-09-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-09-26T12:01:00.000-07:00

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! ;-)

2005-09-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

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

Letter:

2005-09-22T17:48:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

St. Sernin Basilica and Annie and me!

2005-09-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

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.... ;-)

2005-09-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

Annie in front of St. Sernin Basilica

2005-09-19T10:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Christine and Annie in front of a roman fountain!

2005-09-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-09-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-19T09:54:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

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)

2005-09-19T09:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

Picnic in the Jardin des Plantes today!

Drinks and St. Etienne

2005-09-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

St. Etienne

2005-09-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

Julia and Ellen, same cafe

2005-09-13T12:29:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-10T02:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-09-10T02:37:00.000-07:00

Saint-Etienne Cathedral. Really really impressive.

2005-09-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-10T02:34:00.000-07:00

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

A cow!

2005-09-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

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. :-)

2005-09-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-09-08T08:27:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-07T23:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2005-09-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

Your standard French lamp post. Tres mignon!

Sleepless in Toulouse

2005-09-05T01:30:00.000-07:00

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!