Sunburns are not cool. Ice cubes are. The two together often work out quite nicely.
It’s a little weird to think that I’ve been in France almost a whole week. Weird because it seems so long, yet so short of a time. It’s a good thing that I’ve still got a good amount of those left. The past one has been really fun, though, I have to say. I’ve been meeting people, doing different things, using public transportation *gasp!*, sleeping with the window open every night and letting the sun wake me up (though alarm clocks help), and a myriad of other things. (Did I just use the word myriad? Really?) Anyway. It’s slowly starting to connect that I’m actually in France; it’s taking a while, despite that everything’s in French and is very Frenchified.
So today was a good deal of fun. We went on our big excursion to le Bassin d’Archacon, a bay south-west of Bordeaux that specializes in oyster farming. We ate at a little cabana right on the water, and the main part of the meal was oysters. I was very brave… I tried one! After that I don’t think I could handle anymore, so I stuck to the wine and bread for a while. Good dry white wine. Other things included the Dune du Pyla, the largest sand dune in Europe. Climbing it sounded easy enough, it didn’t look that huge… imagine climbing up a ridiculously steep hill, but in sand. Yeah. I thought I was gonna die. But I made it to the top, which was worth it for the view. Then we went to a lovely French beach, where we all went swimming in the cold waters. The beach was in this really adorable French neighborhood, so I just enjoyed all the cute houses. A fun adventure for sure, except that now I am ridiculously sunburned on the top of my head and on my face. Blagh.
Other big adventures include having to walk from l’Hôtel de Ville all the way back to Village 3, about 8 km walking on google maps. The trams were down due to an accident, and didn’t look to be going up anytime soon. That was fun, and that got me a little sunburned to begin with. Another time I had gotten back to my room and got my key into the lock, but it wouldn’t turn and I was panicking. After a couple people came over to help, someone asked me if I was sure if they were on my keys… sure enough, I had accidently picked up a friend’s keys from her desk and was trying to use those. Embarrassing. Another adventure was going to an Irish pub together and trying to figure out how to split the tab (I got my first Guinness! Sorry Dad). Grocery shopping, figuring how things work and then bringing all our groceries back on the tram, was quite exciting. One night, the tram ticket checker-thingy ate my ticket, which made me very angsty, as I still had two trips on that thing.
Alas! The very biggest thing, I would assume, is that we now kind-of officially have a place to live. It’s four studio apartments together, two smaller and two larger. One of the smaller is habited by a French student who’s studying for some Engineering degree, so he’s always busy. The other will be Lisa by herself, since the very kind landlady lowered the price for her (after hearing about the other place we were looking at, which was apparently very amazing). Then in the two bigger studios, me and Danita will be sharing one, and Saudith and Jennifer will be in the other. Each studio has its own bathroom, closet, and kitchen, and there’s a garden and a laundry machine and… it’s really freaking cool. Pictures will come when I get them, we don’t move in until September 11th.
Random things: Does anyone recognize the phone number 805-497-7833? They decided it would be a great idea to call me not once, not twice, but four times a few days ago. Which would be fine and dandy except they didn’t seem to realize that I’m in a different country, meaning that they called at one when I was sleeping, and that it’s ridiculously expensive to call me. Also: food is cool. I am still working on my pasta, canned vegetables, apples (which might go bad soon, I worry), and bread. Drinking lots and lots of water – I bought a 1.5 litre thing of water for 0.25 Euros! It was super sweet. It’s sufficing, though. Still eating the cheese that they gave us, which is like string cheese but with god added. So good.
And with that, I feel like I’ve blathered enough. There’s always more to be said, but I feel this is nice and jumpy enough. The intense language classes start tomorrow, and I’m a bit terrified – both to see where I’m placed, and to get my ass whipped into Frenchiness. I shall hopefully be in touch before too long.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
First Encounters
Bonjour, tout le monde! Greetings from McDonalds, Square-Victoire, Bordeaux, France. I'm alive and well, I suppose you could say. It has been wild and crazy, meeting lots of people and forgetting most of their names, no internet so no contact with the real world until I get moved in elsewhere... which will hopefully happen, and I hope to not become a French hobo.
So the dorms. The dorms are very interesting... I moved in early on Tuesday morning, and immediately started meeting people. I'm up on the 3ième étage, which is the equivalent of the 4th floor. It was SUPER fun dragging all my luggage up... But anyway, I have a typical dorm room, with a very hard bed, a huge window, a sink, etc. etc. The bathroom facilities are equivalent to a gas station, maybe worse because I don't think the French believe in toilet seats. No internet, which is not as bad as one might think, I've been spending a lot of my time "being" rather than "doing" (AKA trying to be less typically American). In other words, I've been reading. And lying around in bed doing nothing.
I've had several excursions into centre-ville Bordeaux; the main university and Village 3, the dorms, are technically in Pessac, a suburb. There's a very nice tram that goes straight into the heart of Bordeaux, and it's quite amazing, actually. I've been having a good time so far, making plenty of friends (I suppose many of whom I might not see after we all move out of the dorms...). The first day here we got groceries, since the program feeds us a grand total of three times over three weeks, and we have no fridge and no microwave, just a stove. My food consists of pasta, bread, cheese, and canned vegetables. This will be a very slimming three weeks.
Nothing major other than that to report - simply been wandering the city, meeting people, attending meetings, taking LOTS of pictures. The connection here is quite terrible, so don't expect pictures until I'm able to move out and find a different place, but it suffices for a little bit. I ate out for the first time at - sadly - le MacDo, mcdonalds. I had a couple of sandwiches before at different French places, which were quite good, but I told myself that I would try French McDonalds... despite not having eaten it in the States for something like ten years. And let me tell you - it was not that much different, especially for 5.70 Euros. But France itself is amazing - did I mention that? My legs are dying from walking at least several kilometres a day (even more when I had to walk back to my hotel cause I left my phone charger there...), I'm usually at least a little hungry (bread and cheese just doesn't cut it - sorry, stereotypes), the weather's been either gorgeous and sunny or gorgeous and cloudy/rainy, the other Americans are fun, the French are very cool and very chatty and I can usually understand them and chat right back with them... Beaucoup de choses.
Anyway, I'm gonna head off. I'm in an awkward place, sitting right next to the bathroom and people keep passing by and looking over my shoulder - despite that they probably don't speak English. Au revoir!
So the dorms. The dorms are very interesting... I moved in early on Tuesday morning, and immediately started meeting people. I'm up on the 3ième étage, which is the equivalent of the 4th floor. It was SUPER fun dragging all my luggage up... But anyway, I have a typical dorm room, with a very hard bed, a huge window, a sink, etc. etc. The bathroom facilities are equivalent to a gas station, maybe worse because I don't think the French believe in toilet seats. No internet, which is not as bad as one might think, I've been spending a lot of my time "being" rather than "doing" (AKA trying to be less typically American). In other words, I've been reading. And lying around in bed doing nothing.
I've had several excursions into centre-ville Bordeaux; the main university and Village 3, the dorms, are technically in Pessac, a suburb. There's a very nice tram that goes straight into the heart of Bordeaux, and it's quite amazing, actually. I've been having a good time so far, making plenty of friends (I suppose many of whom I might not see after we all move out of the dorms...). The first day here we got groceries, since the program feeds us a grand total of three times over three weeks, and we have no fridge and no microwave, just a stove. My food consists of pasta, bread, cheese, and canned vegetables. This will be a very slimming three weeks.
Nothing major other than that to report - simply been wandering the city, meeting people, attending meetings, taking LOTS of pictures. The connection here is quite terrible, so don't expect pictures until I'm able to move out and find a different place, but it suffices for a little bit. I ate out for the first time at - sadly - le MacDo, mcdonalds. I had a couple of sandwiches before at different French places, which were quite good, but I told myself that I would try French McDonalds... despite not having eaten it in the States for something like ten years. And let me tell you - it was not that much different, especially for 5.70 Euros. But France itself is amazing - did I mention that? My legs are dying from walking at least several kilometres a day (even more when I had to walk back to my hotel cause I left my phone charger there...), I'm usually at least a little hungry (bread and cheese just doesn't cut it - sorry, stereotypes), the weather's been either gorgeous and sunny or gorgeous and cloudy/rainy, the other Americans are fun, the French are very cool and very chatty and I can usually understand them and chat right back with them... Beaucoup de choses.
Anyway, I'm gonna head off. I'm in an awkward place, sitting right next to the bathroom and people keep passing by and looking over my shoulder - despite that they probably don't speak English. Au revoir!
Monday, August 24, 2009
The Start of the Adventure
Damn. How long has it been since I had a blog-type thing? Greatest journal, back in the very beginnings of high school?
Well. I decided that I'm having a big, exciting adventure, and I might as well tell the world about it. Plus, blogging makes me feel important and somewhat self-centered, thinking that someone might actually want to read something that just talks about my daily life. Which is going to be slightly less adventurous as time goes on, I'm sure, but for now it's all incredibly exciting.
So! The flight from Los Angeles, California to Bordeaux, France. On the 23rd of August, I got up about eight, went to breakfast with the parents, went grocery shopping (we continually ran into people, it was rather amusing), and then went back home. By this point I was completely packed - I was nervous before and I had nothing better to do. Saw Katie before leaving at noon. The drive there was rather uneventful; the whole family came along, which was rather nice. After being dropped off, finding where I was supposed to get my bags tagged was a bit of an adventure; I found the lines rather quickly, but it took me a little bit of guessing to get which one I needed (the one for people who like saving time and print out their boarding passes beforehand). Went through there, gave away my bags, went through security, waited at the gate. I had a couple of hours to kill, so I grabbed a bagel and a large bottle of water.
The flight itself was rather uninteresting. I had a window seat, and there was no one sitting next to me, with a lovely, very kind Greek woman in the aisle seat. We chatted during take-off, which was helpful for me with my silly fear of commercial flying, and then we mostly did our own thing. Dinner was served around six; I ate this so-so chicken, rice, and gravy thing, a salad, and a bread roll with some fairly bad white wine and tea to drink. Watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and (despite my better judgment) Dragon Ball Evolution - which was absolutely TERRIBLE. It was like Eragon meets Matrix meets something else I can't remember while trying to be epic like Lord of the Rings. Just absolutely terrible, but rather hilarious. After dinner they had turned off all the lights and I tried to sleep, but couldn't get comfortable enough. Breakfast was served once the sun rose, which consisted of orange juice, a rather terrible turkey roll, and some equally terrible strawberry yoghurt. We flew over Ireland, we had to stall for ten minutes by essentially flying in circles over this town (the first time we did, I joked to the flight attendant guy (who had a very awesome British accent) that we were heading back to America. I think he paled.).
We landed, the airport was neat, I went through customs quickly, waited an age and a half for my luggage, then bought a ticket to switch from Heathrow airport to Gatwick. There, I met a friend of Rosa's who also's on the same program, and we got tickets on the same bus. Getting on the bus was... a bit of an adventure. They're every fifteen minutes or so, and the one we bought tickets for was absolutely full, so the guy loading up yelled at everyone a lot, was very angry, and stormed off. We were a bit frightened, but we waited another bus or two and finally got on. It was exciting! They were driving on the wrong side of the road! The drive was about an hour, then at the airport it took me a bit of looking to find the check-in. I checked in no problems, got food, chilled, then went to my gate - which they only announced about forty minutes before the flight.
The second flight was even less interesting than the first. Again, I had a window seat, and again the seat next to me was empty. Sitting in the aisle was an extremely kind, chatty French woman, who ended up being a professor at Bordeaux 4, which is political science and that sort of thing, I believed. We chatted (in French, I'm very proud to say) the whole 1 1/2 hour flight, and we thankfully never had any communications issues, she said my French was very good! She told me about different things the city has during the year, and stuff about the U of Bordeaux... I was very happy, despite that take-off and landing were a bit terrifying.
Landed in Bordeaux, the customs person was very nice, I got my luggage immediately this time (so I guess the two times even out), and then got a taxi with a very good-looking French guy. [For anyone who would know, for taxis in France or even Europe, is it protocol to sit in front or back?] Twenty-five Euros to get to my hotel, where I checked in and then collapsed in my room. First things first; I made sure my adapter works (it very happily does) and let everyone know I was alive. After exploring the room a little bit (an average hotel room, a very big window with some neat blinds, a huge bathtub), I was looking for somewhere to eat online when I just conked out. It was 6pm French time, but 9am Californian and I had been up for over 24 hours.
I woke up at 6am... a full 12 hours of sleep, highly needed. I got up and was aghast that the sun wasn't going to be up for another hour and a half. I did an hour of yoga to wake myself up, checked things online, and then took a very relaxing bath. And that's where I am right now... I think I'm going to go blow-dry my hair, eat breakfast, and then head off to school. Not sure when I'll have internet next, but hopefully it won't be too long!
Well. I decided that I'm having a big, exciting adventure, and I might as well tell the world about it. Plus, blogging makes me feel important and somewhat self-centered, thinking that someone might actually want to read something that just talks about my daily life. Which is going to be slightly less adventurous as time goes on, I'm sure, but for now it's all incredibly exciting.
So! The flight from Los Angeles, California to Bordeaux, France. On the 23rd of August, I got up about eight, went to breakfast with the parents, went grocery shopping (we continually ran into people, it was rather amusing), and then went back home. By this point I was completely packed - I was nervous before and I had nothing better to do. Saw Katie before leaving at noon. The drive there was rather uneventful; the whole family came along, which was rather nice. After being dropped off, finding where I was supposed to get my bags tagged was a bit of an adventure; I found the lines rather quickly, but it took me a little bit of guessing to get which one I needed (the one for people who like saving time and print out their boarding passes beforehand). Went through there, gave away my bags, went through security, waited at the gate. I had a couple of hours to kill, so I grabbed a bagel and a large bottle of water.
The flight itself was rather uninteresting. I had a window seat, and there was no one sitting next to me, with a lovely, very kind Greek woman in the aisle seat. We chatted during take-off, which was helpful for me with my silly fear of commercial flying, and then we mostly did our own thing. Dinner was served around six; I ate this so-so chicken, rice, and gravy thing, a salad, and a bread roll with some fairly bad white wine and tea to drink. Watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and (despite my better judgment) Dragon Ball Evolution - which was absolutely TERRIBLE. It was like Eragon meets Matrix meets something else I can't remember while trying to be epic like Lord of the Rings. Just absolutely terrible, but rather hilarious. After dinner they had turned off all the lights and I tried to sleep, but couldn't get comfortable enough. Breakfast was served once the sun rose, which consisted of orange juice, a rather terrible turkey roll, and some equally terrible strawberry yoghurt. We flew over Ireland, we had to stall for ten minutes by essentially flying in circles over this town (the first time we did, I joked to the flight attendant guy (who had a very awesome British accent) that we were heading back to America. I think he paled.).
We landed, the airport was neat, I went through customs quickly, waited an age and a half for my luggage, then bought a ticket to switch from Heathrow airport to Gatwick. There, I met a friend of Rosa's who also's on the same program, and we got tickets on the same bus. Getting on the bus was... a bit of an adventure. They're every fifteen minutes or so, and the one we bought tickets for was absolutely full, so the guy loading up yelled at everyone a lot, was very angry, and stormed off. We were a bit frightened, but we waited another bus or two and finally got on. It was exciting! They were driving on the wrong side of the road! The drive was about an hour, then at the airport it took me a bit of looking to find the check-in. I checked in no problems, got food, chilled, then went to my gate - which they only announced about forty minutes before the flight.
The second flight was even less interesting than the first. Again, I had a window seat, and again the seat next to me was empty. Sitting in the aisle was an extremely kind, chatty French woman, who ended up being a professor at Bordeaux 4, which is political science and that sort of thing, I believed. We chatted (in French, I'm very proud to say) the whole 1 1/2 hour flight, and we thankfully never had any communications issues, she said my French was very good! She told me about different things the city has during the year, and stuff about the U of Bordeaux... I was very happy, despite that take-off and landing were a bit terrifying.
Landed in Bordeaux, the customs person was very nice, I got my luggage immediately this time (so I guess the two times even out), and then got a taxi with a very good-looking French guy. [For anyone who would know, for taxis in France or even Europe, is it protocol to sit in front or back?] Twenty-five Euros to get to my hotel, where I checked in and then collapsed in my room. First things first; I made sure my adapter works (it very happily does) and let everyone know I was alive. After exploring the room a little bit (an average hotel room, a very big window with some neat blinds, a huge bathtub), I was looking for somewhere to eat online when I just conked out. It was 6pm French time, but 9am Californian and I had been up for over 24 hours.
I woke up at 6am... a full 12 hours of sleep, highly needed. I got up and was aghast that the sun wasn't going to be up for another hour and a half. I did an hour of yoga to wake myself up, checked things online, and then took a very relaxing bath. And that's where I am right now... I think I'm going to go blow-dry my hair, eat breakfast, and then head off to school. Not sure when I'll have internet next, but hopefully it won't be too long!
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