The Big Finale

So the adventure is over. I’m stopping now and looking back, thinking “wow.” I had looked forward to studying abroad for a couple of years, and then about a year as a serious consideration. This time last year, I had almost finished my application and was rearing to go. Cally and I were giggling about all the exciting adventures we would have in Europe. Did we? Hell yes. I’m not wondering where the time went, or regretting anything, because I had a great time overall, despite a few (mostly academic) mistakes. But live moves on.

The last week or so in Bordeaux was filled with life. I had to see everyone before I left, do everything one last time, and pack my entire life into four bags. For the last one, I knew I was in trouble when my souvenirs alone filled up more than half of my giant suitcase… but I threw quite a few things away, so it all fit after time. The rest was not quite so simple, but still a lot of fun. Despite continually being bailed on for plans, I managed to go clubbing in Bordeaux twice, once with my housemates and once alone. Both times were “experiences” and the alone one brought me the closest I had ever been to being pickpocketed. The friends one brought me walking three miles home barefoot. But that aside, I had good times. The weather had cooled down, so in the past week (as everyone has heard me say numerous times) it never really got above freezing. I was loving it; I was less loving hearing everyone else bitching about it. The cold did bring one wonderful thing: Snow! The first time it snowed, it was fairly light, and we went outside and watched it for a while. The second time it was much heavier and during the day, and we were outside in it for a bit, then we just watched it from our window. Neither time did it pile up, but it was still pretty. The other last thing I have to mention is what I did on my last night in Bordeaux. The logical thing to do would be to stay at home and pack… but the even more logical thing would be to already be finished packing and go to a football game! It was amazing, the Bordeaux Girondins won 4-1, we screamed, we couldn’t hear ourselves think, our toes froze, I saw the guy from clubbing the night before in McDonalds after… The whole thing made me dearly wish that I had gone to a game sooner. Next time I’m in Europe, I promise.

Coming back to the States was a bit of an adventure, not too much. The biggest physical strain was the kilometer getting to the tram. I had my giant suitcase, about 50 pounds, my duffle bag on top of it (about 25 pounds), my backpack (around 30 pounds), and then my purse. Rolling the 75 pounds of luggage was FUN, my arms were absolutely killing me. But I made it! Goal number 2 was getting to the airport, which was uninteresting. Once I was there, I waited, checked my baggage, and went through security. While waiting around, I met two Scottish guys, had coffee with them (they bought me one and I decided to just drink it. Still hate coffee, sorry all), waited with them. They were very upbeat, I actually recognized them since they worked at a bar I went to a couple of times… Bad? Anyway, we had a fun time. I was a little miffed when our plane was supposed to leave at 16h45 and at that time, we were still at the gate waiting to board. But despite our plane being delayed, it was a fine flight. Goal 3 was to get to the hotel, and this was a very big goal. I had hoped to get there around seven… But with the wait to get on the bus to Heathrow, the traffic on the way there (due to the iciness), the different stops, then the time waiting for the bus to the hotel, I didn’t get into my room until nine. In order to go into London like I had wanted, I would’ve had to walk about a km back to the airport, taken the hour-long Tube, then had to catch the last one around 11. Not gonna happen. So I just relaxed at the very nice hotel, had a buffet dinner (including haggis!), took a bath. Watched British mythbusters.

Goal 4 was to get on the plane back to America. This wasn’t that big of a deal; I woke up early, played in the snow, got on the bus to the airport. Let me note that I think all London bus drivers are cooky old men and I love it. I made it there, I checked in, I checked my baggage, I got breakfast, I browsed shops, I got carded on a whiskey tasting (the ONLY time in Europe!), I got on the plane. Very uninteresting. The flight was equally uninteresting; I was in the middle seat with a British guy on my right and a Swiss guy on my left. I watched The Hangover, Harry Potter 6, and 500 Days of Summer. I read a bit. Our flight had been sitting on the taxiway (I have no clue what that’s called) for an hour, there was ice on the wings or something. It did make it so we were on that lovely plane for about twelve hours, my butt was KILLING me by the end of it. But luckily, we made it out of there safe; I am VERY glad that I missed the weather mishaps, and the BA strike threat, and the terrorists and the security amps after… Anywho, waited in long custom line number 1 talking to a guy from Texas and the British guy who was next to me. Got my baggage quickly, then was waiting in long custom line number 2 (about thirty minutes) when a guy pulled me over, saying it was a random in-depth check. I was panicking because I had only declared about twenty dollars of souvenirs (I was lazy and didn’t want to list everything), but he didn’t even care, he just looked at the card and let me bypass the line. I’m okay with this. So I go out, have the reunion with the best friend and the sister, and then freak out when it’s boiling outside. (Relatively… 20 degrees C verses negative five? Come on.)

Being back has been interesting, it’s definitely reverse culture shock. For the first few days all my English was with a bit of an accent, I would be weirded out when I heard only that language around me, it’s freaking hot here yet everyone’s complaining about being cold… It’s definitely been fun. It’s been nice to see all my friends at home, though there are a few more that I need to catch up with though I don’t think I have time before returning to Irvine on Saturday. Christmas was very nice, though this all is made a bit more annoying because I got some kind of cough when I got back. It’s nothing that keeps me awake at night, it’s just a pain in the ass. I’m much too lazy to take medicine though; it’ll go away eventually. It’s mostly gone now anyway. Nothing else really great to mention about home… my sister did a fantastic job cleaning before I got home, which is nice. Driving is weird – I realized that while American drivers aren’t as crazy as Europeans, they are much, much more stupid. I went ice skating with Cally on Christmas Eve, and that was a bit of a shock… it was so different than in Bordeaux! The food, while it’s great to be back in America, is going to kill me, I swear. I think I’m going to stay far away from fast food (except In-N-Out) for a while.

Which brings me to the fact that it’s New Year’s Eve. Corny resolutions much? What can I do, though… if I don’t write them down I’ll forget them like all the rest of them. It’s interesting to think that this time last year I was looking forward to a great time in Europe… and let me say, it really was. Not quite what I expected it to be, but I don’t think any of the major things in life are what we believe they will be. Moving on to the resolutions, which are more for my own purpose than anything else.

Resolution Numéro 1 is to lose weight.
I’m not one of those people who loves talking about my weight and shoving it into people’s faces; we all know someone like that. I don’t like talking about it much, and I know that others don’t want to hear it. But damnit, I lost twenty pounds in France, I’m allowed to gloat! The big challenge will be keeping that off in the very different American environment, and I wouldn’t mind losing another twenty. This involves keeping the exercise up (belly dancing, yoga, and running) as well as watching what I eat – shouldn’t be too hard, since I’ll be paying for all my own food and I’m kind of a cheapskate. (Though the “alcohol and pastries” diet seemed to work well…)

Resolution Number 2 is to get a job.
Yeah, I know, that’s everyone’s resolution. But I’d like something to get me through the rest of UCI, nothing too special. It would have been wonderful to get my tutoring job back, but the position’s not there anymore, probably just due to budget cuts. Sigh. I’ve applied to a couple places online, but I’ll get on that once I get down to Irvine. I just really need to get some income that isn’t my parents so I can start really standing on my own.

Resolution Number 3 is to party more.
Sounds like a terrible resolution, doesn’t it? But with my turning 21 this year, I think it’s reasonable. I’ve spent my first two years at university passing most of that stuff up, but I really enjoyed all the clubbing and partying I did in Europe, and I’d like to continue that. In moderation, of course, I promise to never appear on TFLN or FML or anything like that as the girl puking in weird places… This also includes meeting more people.

Resolution Number 4 is to do well in school.
Especially after the catastrophe that was my education at Bordeaux, I really need to work my ass off these next few quarters to get my GPA back up. Next quarter I’m taking five classes, all looking relatively difficult, so I’ll really need to get it in high gear and stop messing around… maybe I should actually apply myself? (And no, this doesn’t conflict with Resolution 3 – you can do both!)

Resolution Number 5 is to start working towards what I want to do after Uni.
Here’s when you start wondering what the future holds in store. Especially after studying abroad, I’m thinking about taking a year or two off before heading to grad school, using that time to do something productive abroad… something like the Peace Corps or other organizations where you “work” abroad for several months. My logic is that I expanded my horizons with studying in Europe; now I need to throw my comfort zone out of the window completely and get out there. Africa or something would be nice. Hopefully my French will help me with that, since it’s a fairly strong international language. We’ll see where that gets me, but I don’t think I can follow a boring path into my middle-aged life. At the very least, though, I want to spend a month or two backpacking around Europe after I graduate and seeing everything I didn’t see before.

Will I accomplish all this? Who knows. Possibly. An unofficial resolution is to keep this blog up… will my life be interesting enough? Maybe. I’ll see you all next year.

Don't Bring Me Down

I considered doing a long, deep blog entry, but I’ll sum it up into one sentence: Commitment looks big and scary and I think I’m going to avoid it for the next ten years and live my own life.

Moving on. A lot’s been happening today, hence why I haven’t been able to sit down and write a blog. I’ve been busy living it up for my last month in Bordeaux and Europe, which I suppose is a good thing. Thanksgiving was a couple of weeks ago, and for that the EAP program teamed up with the Bordeaux-America organizations, and there was a large dinner, with the French trying their hardest to give us a Thanksgiving dinner. It was very French, but their pumpkin pie failed pretty badly, though I liked it a great deal. (I had also had half a bottle of wine – I couldn’t let it go to waste, now could I?) I had a good time, though. It was food, it was people; you can’t really go wrong with that. It did, however, cause Becky, Katie, and me to go a couple nights later and bake home-made pumpkin pie. A good night was had by all. Also in this packed Bordeaux weekend, Danita and I went to a French opera, called “Le Balcon.” It was… weird. Very weird. It also included me discovering that my cocktail dress that fit so well back in January was now nice and loose. On top of this all, while walking down the smooth opera stairs, I slipped and fell down half of them, causing the population of Bordeaux to freak out and worry about me, only adding to my embarrassment. It was an experience. Yet another experience to add to the list was the medical appointment all visa applicants had to go through. It was uninteresting, except for the “dreaded” x-ray, in which you had to take all upper clothing off. I, being me, didn’t really give a damn. But many of the Californian girls were absolutely flipping out about it, complaining, whining. One girl went as far as to say she was Mormon so she wouldn’t have to do it, and I’m just kind of like, “…really? I mean, really? How old are you again?” It just seems ridiculous that this is that big of a deal. You get undressed in a little room, you come out, you cross your arms, you push against a cold wall-thing for the x-ray, you get dressed. The female doctor does not care, she doesn’t even look. She’s seen thousands of boobs, she won’t care about yours. (I also already don’t like this girl, so go figure.)

Then after this week, there was the weekend in Lyon for le “Fête des lumières,” or Festival of Lights. Not too much to say about that; I traveled EasyJet with Erick, we explored Lyon. It’s a gorgeous, cold city, but there’s not much to see or do there. We ate decent Chinese food, and at eleven at night we had to go pick up Danita from the bus stop and take her back to the hotel. No comment. We did end up going and getting a late dinner, though, which was nice. The next day we basically retraced our steps so Danita could see everything. Then for the night, we had an amazing two-hour French dinner, and the festival itself was amazing. So many people, and some incredibly creative light displays and shows. It was pretty magical. The only worry I had going in was that we didn’t have a hotel room for the second night, since something like four million people come in for the festival and we couldn’t find one, but apparently our hotel had a cancelation so we were able to snag one. It made me happy. Other than that, really, not much to report. A good time was had.

Then back to Bordeaux one last time. The other night I was walking back from Becky’s place after watching the Avatar finale, and it’s about a twenty-minute walk. And I just looked around and I realized how Bordeaux just has this golden glow about it. Sure, the novelty of the city’s worn off, and I’ve gone to other places and realized that Bordeaux isn’t the wonderful place that it first appeared to me. But I still love it in its own way, especially now that it’s decked out for Christmas. Lights everywhere, Christmas trees around every corner, shops open all the time… And on top of it all, it’s not that cold. This actually makes me very sad; I hear stories back home about people having to pry open their car doors since it’s covered in ice, or that peoples’ locks are frozen. Here, it’s a toasty 50 degrees, sometimes even warmer. This isn’t what I signed up for. It’s comfortable, though, I suppose. I’m certainly glad that I’m leaving Bordeaux in the holiday season, though, so my last memories of it will be very fond. Even though now, I’m getting a lot of melancholy at the thought of leaving this amazing country, I’m ridiculously excited to go home at the same time. Very mixed there. On one hand, I can’t wait to see my friends, my family, go back to a school that makes sense… on the other, I’ve made a couple of really good friends here that I’ll miss, I love France, I love traveling around. I think I’m just starting to feel less like a vacation and more like actual life, and then there I go back to home. But it’ll be nice to be back in the loop again…

The past week has been fun, and I have a lot more ahead of me to do. Trust me. Last night was our “end of semester” cocktail, which was a lot different from what I expected. It took forever to find the place, and then we just stood around chatting for an hour before being kicked out. There were no big speeches, no sad farewells, no closure at all. It’s interesting to think that at least ninety percent of these people I’ll never see again. But that’s generally what happens in life, isn’t it? As people move on through different stages in life, such as high school, college, work, you meet people, but then you change location, and they become only memories. Anyway. After this cocktail (which did have cute little food and lots of wine, which was enough to content me) Betty, Danita, and I all went ice skating. Next to St Andrès Cathedral, one of my favourite places in Bordeaux, they had set up an ice skating rink for three euros, so we went there. It was a great amount of fun; I got the hang of it pretty quick, despite having only gone ice skating once before. However, near the end of the night, I had an absolutely spectacular fall. It wasn’t a “teehee, I fell” type of fall, it was an “oh shit, losing balance, losing balance, slow motion, legs going out from underneath, I hope I don’t break anything” type of fall. Luckily I didn’t break anything; now I just have several bruises on my arm and my bum, and it’s pretty uncomfortable to sit too much on my right side.

So now I’m just looking forward. I’ve started packing my suitcases, traveling will certainly be an adventure. I have some scattered exams from what I can figure out, but we’ll see how those go. Not my biggest concern. I’ve got plenty of things left to do in Bordeaux, many things to explore, football games to see, shopping to do… It’ll be fun.

On a completely random note - whose bright idea was it to give up Figgy?! We're doomed, Angels. Doomed.