Quinzieme semaine

Salut tous!

Sorry, I’m a little late on this blog, but I had finals this week and as you all know, I am sure, it was a very stressful time. But anyway, they are over and that’s all that matters. Fortunately, my exams were spread out pretty well, except I had short notice on the subject for the last one. My dissertation for histoire de l’art was due the first week of December, and so I completed that with two other girls in my program. My next exam was my harmonie écrite class. I had a “devoir sur la table” or, what they call in music, a “mise en loge,” for four hours last Friday. I hope it went well, but I always think I have checked my work over a million times, but then realize that I have made a bunch of “bete” (stupid) mistakes. Also on that day, I had a geography dissertation to turn in on “les échanges extérieurs de la France.” On Thursday, I had an oral exam (singing) for my solfége class (which I think I passed…which is always a positive thing, even though I studied the wrong song) and finally Friday, today, I had to turn in my final exam for histoire du cinéma. The only problem with that exam was that I was given the subject late Monday night and I couldn’t find the book I needed to do the paper until Wednesday (I was running back and forth between the library of Bordeaux and the university library and it was quite annoying…especially when I couldn’t find the book that was supposed to be at the library because someone stupid hide it…boooo those people). But I got it done and even was able to go to the newly formed ice skating rink in the downtown area and make a fool of myself (because I’ve never skated before….I fell twice! But the second time it wasn’t my fault….I was pulled down in the chain we formed…haha). But it was fun and relaxing (although I still am an embarrassment to penguins everywhere). It was also very sad because it was the last time that I was able to see all my friends before I leave France!

So yes. It is true. It’s my last week!! Actually, I leave Bordeaux Sunday and I am siiii triste (sooo sad). I can’t believe time has passed by so quickly! I feel like I’ve only been here a couple weeks!! Well…actually, I take that back. I know I’ve been here longer, but it hasn’t felt like long enough…I wish I could stay the year! Or forever. Forever would be nice…

Anyway, last weekend I stayed at home and worked on my geography dissert, having been stranded due to a transportation strike in Bordeaux (no trams or buses circulated ALL weekend and Friday). Classes that week were fairly normal and I can’t remember anything significant that happened to me…this past Wednesday we had a cocktail night with the Centre de Californie to say “goodbye” to everyone and wish everyone “happy holidays.” I was so tired from running back and forth between libraries that day that I was completely exhausted by the time I got to the cocktail and all I could think about was food….which was actually, very good (oh cream puffs you are heaven). I also found a vachement (really) cool songbook of Judy Garland songs and now I have tons of music to practice when I get home..!! Sooo excited! Here I come Middle Earth!

I am getting ready for my winter break travels with my friend from Cambridge and so have been doing a lot of research and trying to figure out the pronunciations for Czech (not an easy task!). I will let you know how my trip went with my last blog when I come back to the states….ahhhh crazy! I can’t believe I’m going back! I don’t want to!! I wanna stay!!! But, I guess I have responsibilities that must be taken care of, so there. I hope to return to France next year (but of course it depends on what kind of job I find), or at least Europe. It hasn’t really sunk in that I am actually leaving France and all my new friends…but I know it will soon. I’ve been organizing (and throwing away many papers to try and lighten my bags) all my luggage to figure out how I am going to fit everything into my two bags (not an easy task). I leave on a train to Paris Sunday night, stay with an old friend from my hometown who lives in Paris that night, then take a flight to Prague the next morning. I stay in Prague for Christmas and then leave on the 27^th for Berlin for two days. After Berlin, I fly to Brussels and then take a train into Paris on the 31^st, ready for the New Year. I fly to Salt Lake City on the 2^nd to visit a friend and will be back in the Bay Area that next night. I then move to San Diego on Saturday and start classes on Monday. Oh lordy. This will be a fun time. I know my culture shock when I get back is going to be bad and I still refuse to speak in English (although I have a feeling that will be hard to do in America). I have exciting news that I was accepted in I-house for the coming quarters and so will be rejoining the ERC/I-house community shortly!! Sooo happy!!

I wish everyone happy holidays and a great and safe New Years…!!
See you soon!!! (unfortunately…and I mean that in the best way possible…)

Sherilyn

Quatorzieme semaine

Bonjour tous!

I hope you are all doing well and getting through your finals week without many “noirs blanches” (all-nighters). My finals aren’t until the third week of December, the week before Christmas, and half of them were due last week or this week in “dissertation” form, so that has relieved the weight-especially after the strike.

This past week has gone by quite fast, just like this entire experience in Bordeaux (I’m so sad to leave!), and since it was our first week back after our 3 week strike, there was a lot of catching up (rattraper) to do and classes seemed shorter. In fact, the blocage students tried to block the university again on Wednesday afternoon, where, apparently, they held a vote that nobody knew about (that’s democracy!). When I came into my class on Thursday morning, I was met with a massive crowd of students standing in the courtyard because they couldn’t get into the buildings (they were blocked again). After about an hour of waiting around for the President of the uni to make a decision, they were able to unblock the buildings. I remember on Tuesday when the blocage students went through the halls of the buildings screaming, singing, pounding on walls and just making all sorts of disturbances because they were angry that we voted to unblock the university and (I guess), wanted to “express” themselves (politically)-yes, by having a tantrum (which is what it seemed like). But anyway, the uni remains open, although they are having problems handling the “rattrapage,” (catching up) of three weeks worth of work. Apparently, they had decided to have their first semester final exams in May, after their second semester exams…does anyone think that is silly? Or is that just me? Well, it definitely est nul (sucks) for them because I surely wouldn’t remember anything if I had learned it 4 months ago! Well, anyway, I guess UFR- the administration, is deciding, but in the meanwhile, I have 10 extra hours of class each week to try and rattraper (catch up) the time lost. Not a fun result of something I (and the majority of students at Bordeaux 3) didn’t want to begin with.

Other than that, I finished my dissertation on Giotto for my histoire de l’art class (which wasn’t an easy task…) and got owned in my harmonie écrite class (apparently there isn’t na equal phrase to “got owned” in French) on Thursday. I have been setting up my finals exams with my professor and I actually have my final exam this Friday for that class. I made Christmas cookies with friends this past weekend (which were sooo good…ahhh…ate so many “biscuits de noel”) and I was planning on going ice skating at the newly formed ice skating rink in the downtown, but decided to stay in and write my geography final due this Friday. On Thursday, I went karaoke-ing with some Frenchies at an English pub downtown which was quite fun- even when the power went out because of the electricity sucking but quite beautiful and oh-so-holiday spirited Christmas lights which now adorn the streets and trees of Bordeaux. I also have been getting all my plans ready for the end of this month since I am traveling after my program with my friend who is coming over from England, so I have spent a lot of time searching for hostels on the computer. And I’ve also discovered www.watch-movies.net. Dangit.

Bon courage on finals!
Sherilyn

Deuxieme/Trezieme semaine

Salut!

Sorry this blog is a week late…! I have been a little stressed and so I totally forgot about writing my blog!

Well, the blocage continued, through Thanksgiving as well, and the Centre de Californie had a meeting last Wednesday to discuss what would happen to us students if the blocage didn’t stop. We unfortunately found out that it was possible for us to receive “aucune de credit” (no credit) for the semester if the teachers wouldn’t be able to give us a grade. If we started an independent research project with our director, Professor Chandeller (of the Poli Sci Dept. from UCSD), we could, at most, get 4 units or we could try and contact the professors to ask to write an essay instead (but it’s hard to contact them when they don’t always give out their email addresses). So, we weren’t too enthralled to hear that news (at least the people who actually needed the credits-like me!) and so we were getting a little bit anxious. The vote that was supposed to happen on Thursday was blocked by the students who were for the blocage saying that it wasn’t fair to have the vote on a day when there was a manifestation (protest) in the downtown for the university students. So, nothing got done that week and the vote was put off until Monday.

Thursday night we had a Thanksgiving dinner at a high school in the downtown area with the rest of the California students and some other community members helping with the French-American alliance. It was nice to see everyone again (since it had seemed like forever since I saw all of us in the same room) and it was a good FREE dinner (well, I think we did pay for it in our fees, but still…). We had turkey, French fries…haha (first time having French fries on Thanksgiving I think…maybe not actually…), pumpkin pie (yes! Tarte à la citrouille!!), and a bunch of other stuff. It was pretty filling and we had some French students at our table that we chatted with.

Over the weekend, I went out with my friends to go do free things because I’ve run out of money. So, on Saturday night, two other friends and I went to a free book reading by a Lebanese author. It was pretty cool and they had a guy playing music as well. We even stayed for a Moroccan singer afterward, accompaigned by a Russian pianist. I remember seeing a movie sometime that week (I think) with my friend Megan too. We pick the best movies…haha. We just pick random movies with interesting French titles (that’s our lovely system) and so we picked this one called “Faut que ca danse” which turned out to be a love story between this elderly couple and a weird sideline plot about a 40 year old pregnant daughter….yeah…..again, we pick the best movies. I think we knew it was awkward when we walked into the theatre and we were the only people under 50 years old. Interesting….nevertheless, it was in French and it was a cultural learning experience (that’s my excuse for everything…even bad movies. Well, it wasn’t that bad actually…it was cute, but not something I would probably pick by myself).

The vote that happened on Monday sucked and the blocage continued until Friday. I was fed up with it and wasting my time doing nothing around the house (I was sooo bored….I have been watching Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin on YouTube for the past 2 weeks…I LOVE them, but still, I should be having a better French-ified experience…), and so I got my reservations on the train for Paris (for that first time! That one time changing train stations for my trip to Nice doesn’t count….) for that Thursday. I met with the two students I’m working on a paper about Giotto with for my art history class on Tuesday, used Wednesday to get organized for my trip, and then left early before 7am on a 3 hour TGV ride to Paris.

I thought traveling alone would make it a kinda glum trip, but it wasn’t that at all, mostly because I knew how to keep myself busy. As long as I’m busy and have things to do, I barely notice or care that I’m by myself. The first day, after checking into my hostel which was pretty far out of the way, I tried to find a Tourist Office but found that they were all closed (don’t ask me why…it was Thursday, it’s Paris…but then again, it’s also France). So I wandered around and followed signs that looked like they had important buildings written on it. I tried to use my metro map (the only map I had) to find monuments and was able to find my way to the Arc de Triomphe and les Champs des Elysées, Notre Dame, and La Sainte Chapelle. I also got to see a bunch of other things on the way walking around, including half of the Eiffel Tower (it was very very foggy that day…which was the reason why I didn’t climb it that particular day).

The next day I got up early, ate my free breakfast and found a map (at my hostel...yeah lame. They should have given it to me before), and went to the Sacre Coeur…a GORGEOUS basilica. I absolutely loved it! It was sooo pretty AND was where they filmed a scene in Amélie…which is always cool. After the lovely sunrise at the Sacre Coeur, I headed to the Eiffel Tower, climbed all 700 steps…or however many it was (I know it’s more than 650…), and took many pictures of beautiful Paris. I was really lucky too because the line was really short when I got there (no wait at all!), but when I came down, it looked like it was at least a half an hour! Perfect timing on my part. After the Eiffel Tower, I went to the Musée D’Orsay, got lunch on the way (did the whole supermarket sandwich bit since I’ve already tasted French cuisine and I have no money), and then went to check out the line at the Louvre. Since it was Friday, I knew that people less than 26 got in free after 6pm and so I walked around that area until 5:30pm, and then went back. I stayed there until 9pm (a good three hours), and got dinner at an expensive café inside (I didn’t want to go out and I was sooo hungry). I saw the Mona Lisa and the Lady Liberty painting as well as something from the workshop of Giotto, which was cool since I am studying him in my art history class. I got through the majority of it and because I had walked sooo much that day, I didn’t feel guilty not staying until it closed. I went back to my hostel, exhausted and got up early again the next day.

That morning, Saturday morning, I went to the Basilica of St. Denis. This was another basilica that I studied in my art history class and so I was pretty keen on going. I felt like it was worth it, even if I didn’t see the other half of it and the crypt because that cost money, and it was very beautiful with very early stained glass windows! After St. Denis, I went to La Defense, the modern part of Paris. I wanted to check out all the huge corporate buildings there to see which one I liked best and wanted to work in. Haha. That’s not a joke. I actually sat there and wrote down every single company name of the huge skyscrapers and I plan on researching them online to see what they are about and if I can get a job there. La Defense is pretty cool and I loved the modern city-like feel. They also had a Christmas market going on and so I walked around there and saw things that I couldn’t afford and watched people make crêpes that I couldn’t buy….after that, I went inside this awesome Centre Commercial (mall) and got lunch (yes supermarkets!) and ate it in front a large life size gingerbread house. Christmas comes very early in France because they don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving…so decorations start going up the last 2 weeks of November!

After La Defense, I took the metro to check out Chinatown, walked around a bit, smelled the really really good food…oh yum, and then went to Place d’Italie. There was another mall there and I chilled for a bit and then went back to reclaim my baggage I left in the baggage room (I checked out that morning). Then, I went to meet my friend who is studying at UC Paris from UCSD for an early dinner before my train left that night. So, we had dinner…went to a crêpe place after our falafel dinner didn’t work out, and chatted a lot. It was super nice seeing a familiar face again and catching up and it was very interesting to compare our programs because they are so different and we get such different experiences out of them! Then I got on my train at 7:50pm and went back to Bordeaux, getting in at around midnight from the night bus. Today, Sunday, I just caught up on all my homework since I found out that the university REOPENS tomorrow (Monday)!!! Yay!!! The blocage is over!! So happy! So I have school tomorrow and everything should be back to normal…sweetness. I never thought I would be this happy about school starting again, but the past 3 weeks of doing nothing and paying so much money for nothing and not seeing my French friends that often or getting the experience that I came all the way over here for to get, has been horrible and I hope I never have to do it again. Lol.

It’s late, better be off…
Sherilyn

Onzieme semaine....is that how you spell it??

Bon soir tous!

Well, at least, it’s “bon soir” for me. I have just gotten back from a 12 hour traveling day! It has been quite a week!

Last Tuesday, the university “voted” and decided to do a “blocage,” that is; the students decided to close the university and go on strike. They had an assembly in the courtyard and at first, had people raise hands for the blocage and against the blocage, and then, after that didn’t work (of course..! Are they ridiculous..? They DID actually try to count everyone one-by-one), they divided people up by sides. Pretty much they said, “well, it looks like there is more people on this side and therefore, BLOCAGE!” Yeah, lame. I know. I was and still am against the blocage because I don’t want the university to close! Number one, this is where I get my French experience, see my friends, and speak and hear French! Number two, the French students aren’t paying UC fees like we are…I pay good money for my education (theirs is obviously free…they can’t argue, but I can!) and I want to go to school! And although they link the blocage to whether you are against Sarkozy or for Sarkozy, they shouldn’t. Because preventing people from learning and annoying others isn’t, in my opinion, the best way to show you don’t want higher education fees or the privatization of your university. But whatever, it’s hard to argue against them. They have a different mentality (although I found plenty of French students with similar thoughts to mine!) So after they made the decision to block the school, the students kicked out all the students and teachers from the buildings (completely disrupting any class that was in session) and started piling up tables and chairs in front of the doors, blocking their access. I almost got locked in because I had gone inside to check with the Centre de Californie for a little bit and I couldn’t find an exit! Luckily, there was one in the building still open and I could use that. Then they chained the doors shut and now there are students living outside of them, not letting anyone in.

Classes were cancelled until Friday when they had another vote. I actually wasn’t here for that vote, being on a random train to Nice, but they voted to keep the university closed until Wednesday when they will vote again. For the rest of the week, I studied and tried to get some more work done at the Bibliothèque Municipale de Bordeaux (main library in Bordeaux) for my paper on Giotto for my art history class. I also went shopping with a friend for someone’s birthday and then just met up with other friends for coffee. Although it seems to be nice not having school, it isn’t. I like school. I hope it reopens soon. We have exams coming up!! And the professors have nothing to do with the blocage…they were kicked out of their own classrooms by the students! It’s kinda scary because the students have so much power over the university…! They seriously dictate whether the university remains open or not. The police haven’t even come yet, although my friend said they probably would. I’m sure they are busy with all the grèves at the train station. Which is a nice lead in to my next story…I tried to go to Nice this weekend, and although I succeeded, it wasn’t easy (or that nice…haha. Yeah I know, I’m not punny).

I had been planning on going to Nice for the past 2 months when I bought my train tickets (for really cheap too!) and was meeting my friend from UCSD there (she was flying from Sweden with her friends). Unfortunately, while about 12 other universities, including mine, were on strike in France, there was another grève starting. A national train strike. Oh fun times. Joyous. So, SNCF, the train company here in France, went on strike starting Tuesday night. Now, train strikes here don’t necessarily mean that all trains are cancelled. I know, it’s weird. It’s a strike, but not. Some trains run and some don’t, but you never know which ones will or when the grève will end. They vote everyday at 5pm to see whether they want to continue their train strike…oh so organized and you don’t know which trains are running until the morning, or maybe the night before. But anyway, I had no clue whether my train would run or not but soon found out that night before my train was supposed to leave. It was cancelled. But I found another path to Nice. I could take a train from Bordeaux to Paris at some ungodly hour in the morning, and then change train stations in Paris and take another train form Paris to Nice. So, that was my plan. To add to the adventure, my French dad let me know that there was (and still is) a metro strike in Paris….oh great. This will make things even more fun. I only had an hour between my trains to change stations and without the metro, it had to be either the bus or a taxi (and I’m really poor right now so that wasn’t making me any more happy). So, I stayed at a friend’s house in the downtown area that night and then woke up at 4am, took the first tram to the train station at 4:45am and got on a train to Paris at 5am. I got to Paris a half an hour late (they are on strike…they don’t really care) and so I only had a half an hour to change stations. So, taxi. But the taxi didn’t come until 9:13 and my train left at 9:34 and if you have ever been to Paris, traffic is not light! I got there at 9:30, my taxi driver rushing like mad the entire way, ran around the train station finding my platform and just barely made my train, totally out of breathe and exhausted (and out 13 euros for a taxi ride).

I got to Nice, found my hostel, found my friends and we had a grand time. We went to the beach, I saw the cool Russian church I wanted to see, the Musèe Matisse and the Archeology museum, including more ancient Roman ruins (I told you…they were everywhere!), the Chateau (had to climb an extremely large hill to get a pretty pleasing view), some more beautiful churches (although we went at the wrong time on Sunday since they were all about to start mass and I didn’t really get to walk around and look at the art) and saw some of the night life as well (bars and live music). It was on Sunday where things started to get stressed since my train back wasn’t running either and the people who were at the train station told me that the only train that was going to Bordeaux was not until Monday from Marseille at 6am. I asked explicitly about a Paris to Bordeaux train and they said there were none, just the Marseille one. So I went to the bus station and found the schedule to get a bus to Marseille (the only way to get there) for that night. The schedule for Sunday said the last bus was at 20h24. Since it was Sunday, no one was working at the bus station (the office was closed) and so I couldn’t ask anyone to verify it for me. But I was pretty sure I could read. So, I went out, had a lovely day, and then went to the bus station to find….no bus. A bus from Marseille arrived and I asked the driver when he would be leaving again and he said he was done for the night. When I confronted him about the schedule at the office, he just shrugged it off saying that he just drives when he was told and he doesn’t know anything about that schedule. I asked another guy there if I was reading the schedule correct and he said he agreed with me that the bus should have been here…so, I have no clue what happened. Actually, I know what happened. They are wrong. That’s what happened.

So, I thought it was too cold to sleep out on the streets (the train station closes at 1am and the airport was too far away), so I went back to my hostel and asked if I could stay another night. Luckily the guy let me, but after a frantic text message to one of my friends in Bordeaux to find information on trains to Bordeaux on the internet, I found out that there was another train to Bordeaux the next day! She gave me a plan and I would have to catch a train at 7am the next morning. So, I forfeited my deposit on my keys (therefore, not only wasting money on an extra night I didn’t plan in Nice, but giving up my deposit because of an early train I didn’t know about and apparently, the people who work for SNCF didn’t know either), and caught the train to Paris. My friend texted me that I could take this train to Paris, change train stations, and take another train to Bordeaux. It was the exact same route I took to get to Nice. Ridiculous. I got into Paris (late again, of course), and even though I had 2 ½ hours between my trains, I just made it to my second train in time after a long bus ride through Paris (I didn’t have money for a taxi...just enough to eat once for the day!). So, I got in around 7pm, took a bus home, and now am sitting in my PJs, showered, warmer (but still cold) and exhausted (even though I managed to sleep a lot on the trains).

I guess the trip had its ups and downs, but I have just learned from my other friend that there will be a tram strike in Bordeaux tomorrow and possibly one with the buses. So, I might be stranded at home. Well, I don’t have school, so it doesn’t matter…and I guess I would rather be stranded at home, warm with food, then in Nice, poor and hungry.

A plus,
Sherilyn

Neuvieme/Diexieme semaine

Hey everyone!
Sorry, I haven’t written forever! Or, more like two weeks…I think. Anyway, I’ve obviously have been very busy and I had my petit vacances the other week as well, so that was a factor in the missing blog. Also, when I got back from vacances, I had to rattraper (catch up on) all my homework, including an 8 page dissertation! But now things are calming down (not by a lot) and I can write to you more leisurely…kinda. Hehe. So, let me catch you up on my life…shall we?

So, I think the last time I wrote you was the week right before vacation. Nothing much happened that week except for me trying to finish my dissertation (French gothic architecture on the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice d’Angers), which didn’t happen unfortunately…I really tried! Trust me! I also faintly remember going to SNCF-the train company here, to try and get all my tickets in order for my trip, including making a couple mistakes for my train in Switzerland, but then getting that cleared up. I also bought a winter coat (finally! I have been absolutely freezing here!) and some more sweaters (I was so afraid of the cold in Switzerland!). After class on Friday (I had my geography TD in the morning), I packed and got ready to leave. My uber nice French mom offered to drive me to the airport and so we left around 3. Unfortunately, I am the stupidest person in the world and forgot my Eurail pass and so we drove back to the house after I remembered about halfway there and I got it…I felt sooo bad! I kept apologizing endlessly!!! I am soo stupid! It was just that the vacation came up on me really quickly or else I would have had more time to organize all my plans…and ohhh…I felt sooo bad! Well, anyway, I got on my flight from Bordeaux to Geneva en Suisse and got there around 7:30pm.

Now, I was absolutely starving when I got there, not having eaten anything since noon and my baggage took a really long time to collect and soo….I missed my train from Geneva to Interlaken (most likely the result of me stopping to get something to eat…but I was so hungry and I knew I would arrive in Interlaken at 11pm where I was pretty sure nothing would be open…!), but yes…that was my downfall. Food. Boo. Anyway, I was really stressed and angry that I missed my train and thought I would have to sleep at the airport that night, but luckily, after explaining in exasperated French to the women at the ticket office, found out that there was another train I could take about 45 minutes later. So, I took that and rode for about 2 hours to Berne and then 3 hours from Berne to Interlaken. I got in after midnight, tired, cranky (having tried to do my music homework on the train ride but…that didn’t work out very well), hungry, and with my contacts very dry….also, slightly confused as I found that I had entered the German territory of Suisse and French would not help me much. Because it was so dark and I couldn’t really see because of my dry contacts, not to mention that I couldn’t pronounce half of the streets names on my googlemap because they were all 14-15 letters long and in German…I couldn’t find my hostel; I tried to find my way around but I couldn’t find any street signs…!

So, I walked into the only thing that was open with any sort of light on at the time and that happened to be a Best Western hotel restaurant. Inside, I found a really nice guy (half Filipino and half swiss!) who walked with me around the town, searching for my hostel with me. When we found it, I was enthralled…except, it was locked and all the lights were off and …yeah, there was no one home. Because my cell phone didn’t have network in Switzerland-it kinda had one in Geneva (only because I was so close to France I think), I couldn’t call them. I had warned them ahead of time that I would be coming around 11pm because that was when I thought my train would get in, but because I missed my train and had wandered around for a while, it was nearly 1am. So, the really nice worker and I walked back to the Best Western where he used his own cell phone to call the hostel, speak to the owner in German, and get him to open the hostel for me. He was soo nice! It made my night! Especially after I was so tired and hungry and exhausted from traveling…it was just nice to find someone who was this generous and kind. So, I got into my room finally and crashed.

Next morning, I met the people who were in the room with me. 2 Americans from Virginia, just having graduated from college and traveling around Europe for 2 months. We went down to breakfast together and then they left on their trip to go hike up a mountain. Now, I was supposed to meet my friends there originally, but plans didn’t work out and they wouldn’t come until that evening and I, unfortunately, would be leaving early the next morning for Geneva because that was where I flew out of. So, I was alone. Luckily, I introduced myself to a group of people who looked rather friendly at breakfast and they allowed me to hang out with them for the day. They were students at a hospitality school in Switzerland…2 from Singapore, 1 from Hong Kong, and the other from Indonesia. They were really nice and their English was great so we had no problems communicating. That day, we just walked around town (because it was their first day in Interlaken too) and shopped for souvenirs. Even though the main language was German, most people spoke English and in fact, really good English, so it wasn’t a problem. I tried to speak French to them (in order to keep my real immersion program feeling), but I could tell they weren’t comfortable with it all, so I guess English was a better bet. Anyway, my new friends decided to go to Lucerne in the afternoon after lunch and because it was too expensive for me (they had Swiss railpasses), I went to Lauterbrunnen instead. It was 18 francs roundtrip and I got to go into the Swiss Alps!! Well…not “up” and into….but more like, just “into.” See, to get some height, it costs a lot more…so I saw the Alps…from the bottom. But it was pretty cool…and there were pretty waterfalls! I walked around for nearly an hour and a half, going into the mist which, of course, kept moving away from me…but I got some really cool pictures and got to bond with the cows! I saw Swiss timbermen too! It was gorgeous and not that cold (just about as cold as Bordeaux…which actually, is pretty cold) and I saw the supposedly highest peak in Europe which had snow on it…so that was cool.

I returned to Interlaken in the afternoon, showered, packed, got food, and ended up watching Dr. Who on BBC in my hostel room which was now just me. Later that evening, 2 people from Taiwan came in and I talked with them for a while but went to bed early since I had an early train at 7am. Now, I totally could got have gotten more sleep if someone told me about the daylight savings time here in Europe, but no…since my phone didn’t have a network, my time didn’t change automatically and so I arrived at the train station at….6am, looking for my train which left a little after 7. However, it wasn’t a problem since there was another train heading to Berne and then to Geneva at that time and so I just took that and arrived in Geneva an hour earlier than expected, which wasn’t a bad thing.

Geneva was gorgeous and I had a really nice hostel which gave me a map and list of things to do as well as a free travel card that I could use to access all means of transportation (tram, bus, and even one train trip to the airport from the central train station). It was not bad traveling alone this time since I had a list of things to do…and so….I just did them. First, I walked to the jet d’eau, a huge shooting jet of water from the lake. Afterward, I walked around and found my way to the old part of Geneva and had some coffee at a small café outside the cathedral while I waited for it to open. After visiting the cathedral there, I had lunch at a restaurant nearby, and then went walking in the park to visit the Luther Reformation Wall. There was a huge life-size chess set there as well and it was cool to watch the intense old men playing chess and just kicking each others’ pieces aside. It was a gorgeous park as well and all the leaves that littered the very clean ground were brown and golden red…I really liked Geneva, especially in the Fall…and also because people speak French and not German and therefore, I can understand them…

I then took a bus back to the hostel and got into my room (I had to put it in luggage storage before because it wasn’t time to check in yet). After I got into my room, I took the tram to the Red Cross Museum and the United Nations building. I got half price tickets at the Red Cross Museum because of my hostel which was great since everything is so expensive in Geneva! After that I went to the downtown area to try and do some souvenir shopping but since it was Sunday, there wasn’t much around. That night, after I showered, I told myself that I had to get fondue for dinner since Samantha Brown of Passport to Europe on TravelChannel did that and therefore, I must do it too. So, I found the most inexpensive fondue I could for one person, (which was 24 francs) and got that for dinner. It was pretty sad eating fondue by myself, but it was really good (3 kinds of melted cheese with white wine) and I didn’t mind eating alone. I returned to the hostel and went to bed, ready to leave for my flight the next morning.

My flight was stupidly (yes, it was stupid) 40 minutes late and since I got them super early, like all international flights tell you to, I waited around staring at ads for watches until they announced my gate. All went well though and I got into ROME alright. Yes! 2 countries off my list…! I actually flew into Rome Ciampino and then took the metro into Rome, which was quite a confusing process since there is absolutely no information help around (people or machines) and also, I don’t speak Italian. But with the help of other confused English speaking travelers, I found my way into Rome and using my googlemaps, found my hostel. My friend from my program who was supposed to meet me in Rome was already waiting in the hostel and it was perfect timing that I arrived there only minutes after she had got back from walking around. We left straight away for the Coliseum after buying our Roma Passes (travel passes for 3 days on transportation and 2 attractions for free…a great deal actually!).

So Megan, my friend, and I saw the Coliseum…but didn’t get to go this time since it closes at 3:30! We walked around the Roman ruins though and went into one of the oldest churches in Rome (we think…oh gosh we were so bad at history!) and walked around more. Oh…so much walking. Then we walked up the main street back to our hostel in order to make it on time for dinner…we got free pasta dinners at the hostel! I picked a good hostel…so we had dinner and then went to visit the Trevi Fountain, went on a search for good gelato, and ran into the Pantheon (which we didn’t realize what it was until we saw the word Pantheon...it was more, “oh…this looks familiar. I wonder what it is…? Oh! It’s the Pantheon..! Go fig!”). The next day, we woke up early to head to the Vatican and see the Basilica. We tried to go see the Sistine Chapel but the line was extraordinarily long and it began to rain and we were unprepared, so we ran back to the hostel to get umbrellas. We went back to the Coliseum and saw that as well as the other Roman ruins, the Circus Maximus, and the walked around on the other side of the river. We found a cute restaurant to dine at and saw people filming an Italian movie! That night we stayed in and watched Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck’s Roman Holiday with girls from the hostel.

The next morning, another early rise, we went to try the Sistine Chapel again. The Pope was speaking that morning so there were a lot of crowds, but we hoped that would mean less people in the Sistine Chapel…not really. We ran through the Vatican Museum to the end, saw the beautiful artwork of Michelangelo and then went back through the museum leisurely. After that, we got a formal Italian lunch and then walked around. We found ourselves at the cool Castle di Sainte Angelo which was a mausoleum, a castle, fortress, opera house…and a bunch of other random things. It was enjoyable and we got in for free, which always makes it better. We then went on a search to find my Italian souvenirs and I had some amazing hot chocolate! OMG…hot chocolate in Italy is the best ever! It’s so thick! Like thick chocolate melted pudding….yummmm….anyway, I found some souvenirs, nothing for me though (I tried to bargain but I refused to pay more than 20 euros for at track jacket…so, yeah. That didn’t work. Lol.) Then we went to the Spanish Steps and another beautiful church. We found some more gelato after that and then returned to the hostel to shower and have dinner. It was Halloween and so some girls we met at the hostel and Megan and I went to a wine bar to celebrate. Italian wine is really good! Very different from French wine…more full bodied. Megan and I went our separate ways the next morning as my train left for Torino to go see my friend and she went to Florence.

My train ride was 6 hours long and I was in a compartment with a family in which the mom spoke French, the dad Italian, and the little 6 year old girl both. It was amazing to see the little girl distinguish between the two languages so perfectly…I was jealous. I wish I could be raised speaking Italian and French…! I tried to do my homework on the way, but it was a bit distracting in the car and I wasn’t in the most comfortable position. After I got to Torino, I met one of my best friends from high school who was studying there. It was a happy reunion! I stayed with her for the night and she showed me around Torino a bit, we got amazing gelato (as usual) and some good pizza as well! The next morning, we left together for Lyon in France for the Michael Bublé concert (of which we purchased tickets for in February). We checked into our hotel (after getting a bit lost finding it) and then went to go find the theatre and eat. We went back, showered, dressed, and left for the concert, extremely excited because…WE GOT TO MEET MICHAEL BUBLE!!! Sigh….it was amazing! Absolutely amazing. My friend, Alyssa, had won a contest and we got to meet him right before the show! We had a little trouble getting in since the box office messed up our tickets and only gave us the backstage passes and not the tickets, but after I explained ourselves (in French, bien sûr), we got in and sigh…got to meet him!!! EKK!! It was SOOO COOL! And I totally freaked out afterward…wish I could have gotten that on camera. But anyhow, the concert was absolutely PHENOMENAL!! Sooo good…no wonder his tickets were so expensive….but so worth it! No doubt! He puts on such an amazing performance! So much character and personality…gènial!

The next day we had to ourselves in Lyon and so we wandered around, tried to find the tourist office, found ourselves in old Lyon and found the Roman Ruins, amphitheatres and a really cool church (as well as many others). We ate baguettes and chevre (goat cheese) on the steps of the Palais de Justice and took the metro everywhere, getting confused where the entrances and exits were all the time (or just me, Alyssa was pretty good at it). That night, I met up with my friend from UCSD who is studying in Lyon doing the same EAP program I am and we went to dinner at an awesome crêpe place we found in our guide after finally finding the office of tourism. It was really good and we tried to get gelato afterward, but we couldn’t find the select place that my other friend had in mind. We went back to our hotel and had hot chocolate in the bar and talked and then said goodbye to my friend and went to bed. We left the next morning on different means of transportation: a bus to Torino and a train to Bordeaux…my train, however, was 2 hours late and so my 8 hour train ride did not get into Bordeaux until 11:30pm on that Sunday night (I had class the next morning). The night bus didn’t come till after 12 and I arrived home around 12:40…unpacking and washing up and getting to bed around 1:30…exhausted.

I just had regular class that past week and worked on my dissertation for my art history class. I had a 3 hour final in my history of theatre class which is now turned into a history of cinema class starting tomorrow, and kept being confused and bored in geography, and felt dumb and embarrassed in my music classes…but that’s okay. I actually just realized this past Thursday how much I love being here in France. It’s really cool because on Thursdays I have my music classes and we all go to lunch afterwards. It is such a chill atmosphere, being able to have lunch on the grass next to the Maison des Arts, speak in French and listen to our wonderful guitarists play and sing and just…chill. It’s nice to have French friends, and it’s also good for me because they don’t study English and therefore, don’t speak English. I went to go find the Bibliothèque Municipale de Bordeaux (the main library of Bordeaux) and bought, yes bought, a library card for 9 euros, (it’s not free here…although education apparently is nearly free) and tried to find the movies I need to watch for my history of cinema class, but found them all checked out. I also bought new boots that past week and saw these really cute Tiger PJs at the Disney store that I am very tempted to buy…

Friday was my 20th birthday and it was amazing to be able to spend it in France. My family celebrated with champagne for me and the mother gave me a set of jewelry and the father a CD of a cool Italian jazz pianist. It was really sweet of them seeing that earlier that day I had gotten my key stuck in the front door and because they couldn’t get it out, had to take it apart and change it to a new lock…(again, I felt soo bad!). I went to dessert and coffee with my friends that night which was fun and relaxing. I had planned to go to Paris for my birthday but since I had so much homework to catch up on, I felt it was best to stay for the weekend. And that’s exactly what I did all weekend. Homework and saw a really bad movie…Les Portes du Temps which is called Seeker: the Dark is Rising in America...and don’t see that movie! It’s bad in French and I’m sure it’s even worse in English!...It had a good trailer…I felt so misled.

I turned in my dissertation today…felt great…until I realized that my dissertation wasn’t due until NEXT WEEK…dang it. But that’s okay, because I’m going to Nice this weekend and probably wouldn’t have had time to do it anyway. That was my vacation and I can’t believe I only have 6 more weeks of school left and then only one week more until I have to leave! I am now fully adapted…took a while…and I really love it here..! Don’t want to leave!! I will try and make it last and I need to find some time to do some real job searching because the UCSD’s career center job search in France sucks…seriously…I only found 4 jobs and they were all for biotech peeps…dang, I wish I was one of those peeps. I could live in France then. I will continue to search and if not…the business school in Toulouse is amazing…we shall see.

There might be a grève (strike) tomorrow for the university…oh these political French students, but I hope not…if they block the school, who knows when it will reopen?

Much later,
(wow, my English doesn’t make sense…sorry)
Sherilyn

Huitieme semaine

Hello Everyone!!!
I heard about the wildfires in San Diego!!! It was in our LOCAL newspaper here in Bordeaux!! Insane! Also, everyone’s facebook status was like…. “I’m running away from the fire”….so, yeah, I got the news alright. I hope everyone is safe and doing okay!!! I can’t believe it! That’s ridiculous!! Please take care and watch out! I feel even more sad because I can’t be there to support you guys through it…I’m there in spirit…!

This past week wasn’t so bad. Classes were long and semi-interesting, but I have found that almost every other lecture I get. That is, I didn’t understand the first week’s lecture, and then the second week it was better, and then back to confusion, and then not so bad…and now this week…yeah, confusion again. I don’t know why it has taken this pattern. We are doing exposés in my art history class and I have the hardest time trying to understand all the students who are presenting. Number one, sometimes they are just not good speakers in general and so they either pause a lot, speak really fast, drop their voices at the end of the sentence or a bunch of other common speaking malfunctions. Number two, it’s in French. Duh, problem. And number three, some have weird accents as well, which makes it more complicated. So in other words, my art history TDs have been a frustrating experience where I keep saying over and over again in my head, “what are you saying??? Speak FRENCH!!”

My geography class is going okay since we are now getting into the economy part and are departing from the climatology part of the course (where I was and continue to be totally lost). Music theory is hard still, but I am learning and trying to build my confidence. My harmonie écrite class is plus compliqué and the teacher speaks extremely fast. Fortunately, I have a friend in that class who is a real sweetheart and is helping me learn all the rules by explaining them to me. We spent nearly 2 hours in front of the Gare St. Jean, drinking coffee, and got through about 3 pages in our packet of harmonie écrite. It was tough. But I like it…it’s good for me.

I had my first exam in my Histoire du Théâtre class on Tuesday. The teacher wrote a question on the board and we just answered it on these packets of paper she gave us. I was a little confused because I saw people writing on regular sheets of their own paper and wasn’t sure if I was supposed to write on my own paper or THAT paper the prof gave us. So, I followed the other students…but then, 15 minutes later they all switched to the test paper. I can’t believe they actually do rough drafts here! So…I wasted 15 minutes rewriting the same stuff. The prof is new and so she doesn’t know exactly what to do with international students, so she is just making them take the tests with the rest of the students. I wrote ETUDIANTE ETRANGERE in huge letters on the top of my page (foreign student)…so, I hope all went well. I knew limited information about the question (only from what I read)…and tried to make a comprehensive essay…but I don’t think it showed very much critical thinking. But I don’t think it matters because there were 3 girls in front of me who were using their notes throughout the entire test! And I asked the guy sitting next to me if we were allowed to use notes and he said, “jamais” (never) and then I asked WHY those girls were using their notes then…and he said something about them being cheaters. So, that was stupid. I can’t believe the professor didn’t do anything…I’m sure she saw it! But nevermind that, I can’t believe the students would openly cheat like that! It wasn’t like they were hiding their notes…they had them up on the table and were searching through them openly…incroyable! Today, during class, too, everyone was talking and pissing me off. I can’t believe the behavior of these students! And the teacher was up there APOLOGIZING…saying that she was sorry the material was so boring but to bear with her…and I was thinking…WHY should the teacher be apologizing at all?? That’s ridiculous!! It isn’t hard to pay attention…it really isn’t. You either want to be here or you don’t…it’s not like she takes role. So, anyway, I was mad at the class today because the students were being ridiculously loud and rude (even in the first 3 rows…it didn’t matter, they talked the entire time and didn’t even look sorry when she confronted the class). The universities here have a much different expectation from their students I think.

I have booked a lot of trips for coming up and I just went to SNCF (the train station here) yesterday and got a bunch of train tickets for upcoming travel plans. I can’t believe vacation starts next week!! I am leaving for Switzerland Friday! Imagine that! I need to get warm clothes!!! I think I’m going to die! Ahh…coldness here. It is SOOOOO cold here! In the morning, it is normally around 40 degrees when I leave for school and stays in the 50s throughout the day. In the very early hours of the morning when I wake up, its in the high 30s…I am very scared of what December will feel like….I need to buy more warm clothes but I just don’t have time to go shopping! So much homework and reading! And planning!!

My family’s oldest son came to visit this past week. He was sooo cute!!! He is 22 and goes to a University in Holland which is pretty cool. His British friend came to visit too and spent half the week with us. It was a lot of people living in one house, but it was nice having some younger people around to talk to…even if they didn’t talk that much (the son was extremely shy!!). There was a lot crying this weekend too because the older brother and the little brother kept rough-housing and therefore, the little one would keep getting hurt. So crying, rough-housing, shouting…along with a lot of blood (bloody noses too….dang). I tried to get work done this weekend and only went out once to a friend’s house to watch the final Rugby game…boooo England lost. Oh well I guess. Good for Afrique de Sud I guess. I talked with my friend’s host mom for a long time too while at there house and she was soo funny! She had the best conversation topics...and her oldest daughter (13) was looking through a Toys ‘R US catalogue and making her Christmas list…I am so tempted by the Spiderman toys and Harry Potter ones…hmm…

I think I am pretty set for next week’s vacation and almost for winter vacation. I am going to wrap up plans before I leave for Suisse. I have to finish my art history paper before I leave this week so I need to get cracking! I have two to write, a geography exposé, harmonie écrite music to fill in (we’re filling in 4 part harmony…it’s hard stuff…too many rules!), memorize songs for solfége, and study for my midterm for histoire du théâtre which I have to take when I come back from vaçances (vacation). Ridicule! Examens après les vaçances…je ne peux pas le supporter!

Bisous !
Hope everyone survives the fires !! And your houses too!! And our BEAUTIFUL university…I would CRY so hard if it burned down…

Sherilyn

Sixieme et Septieme Semaine...

So, I am sooo sorry!! I totally forgot to do my blog last week and I didn’t even realize it! I must have been so busy and stressed about school that I didn’t even think about it. My bad! I feel horrible!! I can’t believe I’m late…I never thought that I would be late for my blog. Darnit! I’m sorry once again! And so, I guess, this means that this update will be double the normal size and that’s usually long anyway. Whoops…my fault. I feel horrible…

Now, I don’t even remember what I did last week. I remember getting mad because my wine that I sent to my parents got sent back because apparently, you cannot send food to the United States. If I had known that rule, of course I wouldn’t have tried to send it. But the girl who worked at la poste totally allowed me to send it…took my money, stamped it, packaged it…she knew it was wine, and she still sent it. It is outrageously stupid that postal workers don’t even know their own rules. If I had known before, of course I would have chosen something else to send to my parents for their birthday (yes, it was a birthday gift on top of that!) and therefore, it wouldn’t be late. But now they receive nothing. And I feel even more horrible. The week before last was not my week…I just remember that. Maybe that’s why I didn’t write…

Classes went alright I guess. Except, I found out that I had been going to the wrong TD-like a section, for my geography class. The schedules are so unorganized and I thought I picked the most logical TD for my cours majestral (lecture), but I guess I didn’t. Since the first week I thought they didn’t have class, I missed one of the TD’s for the one I was supposed to be in. And then the second week, I finally realized that I was sitting in the wrong TD for 2 hours and that I am not in Population and Development, but in Amenagement and Territoire. So yeah…now I have class on Friday mornings which really angers me because I really wanted 3 days weekends for travel. I don’t think I will be able to travel that much since it is so expensive and I won’t have much time anyway to really see the sites if I have to be back by Sunday night. Especially if I plan on taking the train since the train takes so long.

Besides the wine fiasco and the geography class mix up, I met some really cool frenchies who are studying English and Spanish and we met for coffee that week. They are soo funny and are really nice. It was so cool being able to talk with them. They spoke in English, well, at least the guy did (the girl was sooo shy she wouldn’t even speak one word of English!) and my friend and I spoke in French. I was able to recharge my aquipass (student card) so I have money on it for food which is good. And also money for making copies at the library…but that was a bit complicated. I didn’t know that there were two accounts on your student card, one for food and the other for printing. I actually could have just used money to upload my card with money for printing, but nobody told me that. They just told me I had to have money on my card and since I didn’t know there were two accounts, I just went to one of the restaurants, tried to charge my card, couldn’t because I don’t have a carte bleue and then waited another day to go to administration which is only open between 11 and 1 to put money on it. But since it wasn’t the same account, I had to do it separately at the library for my printing account…and bah…it was just complicated and a mess and quite annoying.

I also met a really cool guy in my Solfège class (music theory) who has half citizenship in America. His father actually lives in California, LA to be exact, and so he visits every 3-4 years for a couple months during the summer. He loves it there…however, I think he’s gotten a skewed impression of America only seeing LA. He keeps telling me how much better the system of education in America is compared to the French system and wants to go to music school there after he finishes his studies in Bordeaux. He is a first year and his English is really good…and he studied music in CA and so he can help me translate some of the music terminology that I’m not familiar with (which is almost everything). So we had lunch after my placement test which didn’t really go that well, but I don’t really care, and talked.

I’m trying to remember other things that I did that week…but nothing extraordinary seems to come to my mind. I went to a movie on Friday night, “99 francs,” which was a movie about drugs. It was very French, but very interesting. Not my type, but well done. It was a little too violent/sexual/awkward for me I think…but nevertheless intriguing. Saturday night was another rugby game at Chartrons, a place in the center of the downtown where they have a huge screen that everyone watches the game on. It was France versus New Zealand and France won and it was insane. OMG….so many drunks, so much smoke…so much glass on the ground. People were singing and dancing and chanting…firecrackers everywhere, flags waving, music blaring…chaotic. We made the mistake of going to Victoire to meet some friends where it was even more chaotic. The trams had stopped because all the people were in the streets singing and chanting and so no one could go anywhere. All the bars were full so we couldn’t find a place to sit which was annoying as well. And also, people were getting so crazy that they started hitting cars which were passing in the streets and trying to turn them over when they slowed down as to not hit people who were recklessly walking around. Glass was shattered everywhere on the ground and people were getting out of hand…one guys picked up this one girl and started dancing with her, then running with her until he fell, she fell, and hurt her head. Fortunately, there was an ambulance on site to treat anyone who was injured. But it was definitely a night of celebration for France. I, unfortunately, didn’t have that great of a time since I didn’t have the best company and so retired home early.

Sunday I stayed in and tried to study and work on my architecture paper which hasn’t been coming along at all. I only have a month left now…eek! 10 pages…in French…about something I don’t quite understand. I’m scared.

Now, this actual past week that I recall a little better, wasn’t too bad. I’m starting to understand my classes a little more after reading the recommended books like crazy. Since I now have a small foundation for vocabulary, I have found it a lot easier to understand what the professors are saying, but still, there is a lot that I am missing. I still have my Italian friend in Art History which is cool and apparently he had a really bad weekend which didn’t get much better since the trams stopped that morning. Yeah…trams stopped in the main centre of Bordeaux all the way to university…in the morning…on a school day. On a Monday in fact. Now, that’s just a problem if I ever knew one. Everyone was late, including professors, and people were just angry at having to walk or take crowded buses everywhere. Luckily, my bus drops me off at a close walking distance from the university so it didn’t affect me that much. And that morning, while walking, I met some nice British students from Erasmus that are apparently in my Histoire du theatre/cinema class. That class, by the way, isn’t going that great. I think that is the class that I understand the least in and I actually have an exam this coming Tuesday…eek! And since she is a brand new teacher, she doesn’t know what to do with international students so she told me just to take the exam with the other students. It is going to be a composition (essay) based off notes, but my notes aren’t that great and I have been trying to read the books she recommended for us (that I bought and cost me around 40 euros!) but the don’t seem to be helping since they are also complicated and I’m looking up vocabulary words every sentence. So I’m scared. Ahh!!

Geography went better than the week before since the week before. That week, he was just rattling off statistics the entire time and it was really hard for me to catch all the chiffres (numbers) and to process them from French into English. I ended up copying some of the numbers from the guy sitting next to me which was really nice of him. This time was better though, although the TD for that class is all based on climatology right now and I am absolutely clueless on that subject. Thankfully, the teacher knows that I’m clueless on the subject (because I explained I’m an economics major and not a geography major- I don’t even think we have geography majors at our university), and so he doesn’t expect much from me. But I’m trying! And I’ve been reading the books he recommended as well which are, in fact, really easy to read, but not about climatology.

Solfège was fun, as usual, although a bit annoying because of communication problems with the schedule. We were supposed to have an 8am harmonie écrite (written harmony) class but the professor was sick and didn’t show. Even though it wasn’t his fault, I was still angry since I had to leave before 7am that morning to get to class on time (the stars were still shining brightly when I was walking to the bus stop…it was ridiculous!). Then I thought we had class for Solfège at 11, but it turned out my group wasn’t until 12:30….oh the extra sleep I could have gotten. We have to write the music (notes and rhythms) for this song entitled “Claire Fontaine” which apparently everybody in that class knows…except for me, for next week. It is a French children’s song that everyone learns when they are about 5 years old…seeing that I grew up with Old McDonald and Baby Beluga, I was puzzled. Luckily, I found an mp3 online that I can listen to and try to write the music, in Sol majeure, using that.

Thursday night, my friend from our program had a dinner party which was really fun. I brought a salad and we had pasta and lots of desserts! And wine! Of course. It was a mixture of Americans and Frenchies (and a Mexican, Brit, and German) and so we all had fun talking and getting to know each other. I found a really cool guy who is as nerdy and geeky as me and so we were talking the majority of the night. Friday I had my geography TD (boooo Friday classes!!) and I had lunch with one of my French friends at one of the university restaurants (the one who is studying English and Spanish). Unfortunately, I left my UCSD sweater in his car though, so I have to be sure to get that back. Friday night we went to a carnival that is in Bordeaux at l’Esplanade de Quinconces. It was actually really cool (French carnivals are just as fun, if not better!) and the food is amazing…you can’t find food like this at our carnivals back home (Crepes, mascottes, gaufres, kebabs!!...ahh, so bad for you. I love their “American” sandwiches too…they are so NOT American..and that is why it’s so lovable). They also had a huge copyright problem with Disney symbols on all the rides for little kids. They were Disney characters everywhere but you definitely know it was not trademarked…so it was funny to see all the wanna-be pictures of Jasmine and Ariel everywhere. We went on one ride (that was all I could afford…3.50 euros) which was a crazy turny ride which was really fun. I totally forgot how much fun rides like this could be…it was a nice memory from the time before I came to the university…I think it was called, “before MMW” (jk jk). Then I stayed over at my friend’s house since I missed my bus because we got back pretty late after going to bar and dancing for a while (it was goth night…so heavy metal was playing all night).
Saturday was the BIG rugby game: France vs. England. And oh lordy…it was bad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rugby game so brutal before! No mercy…oh man. And France lost on top of it, which sucked. It was such a different feel than the week before when France won. We were actually with a couple Brits and so we still got the celebration afterward. It was really annoying though because after the half time, people would cram into the center trying to steal the seats of those already seated and it was chaotic. We spent a good 15 minutes trying to tell people to sit down, yelling in French, and swearing at them. There was a family sitting in front of us and the little kid (must have been around 7 years old, maybe younger), kept getting up and yelling at them really loud and poking them with his blowup toy…it was hilarious. In the end, I just had to stand up because no one would sit down in front because they were too crowded together to sit. This, of course, made the game pointless for me since I couldn’t see anything. The last half of the game…I really have no clue what happened but I had a feeling that France didn’t win when I heard my Brit friends screaming at the top of their lungs after a while.

Today, I tried to catch up on homework but didn’t happen. My family was uber nice and invited me to a luncheon (they have lunches with friends every Sunday…it’s really cool) and so we ate for 3 hours (oh those Frenchies…). It was really good though and I felt full, but not overstuffed. So that was a summary of my past two weeks. Sorry for the length and the lack of details from the week before. I really didn’t realize that I hadn’t written until I looked at my blog again…I guess I just wasn’t having a very good week that week.

Hope you are all enjoying SD weather...it is freezing here! But my family says that this isn’t cold...it hasn’t even begun. Oh bugger…I’m gonna die. Eek!

Sherilyn