France! Week 1

Bonjour à tous!

So, I guess from now I will be throwing in some Franglais…lol. Anyway, this past week has been pretty nice…just getting used to the French atmosphere and making new friends (always a plus!). So I don’t really remember when the last time I posted (since I haven’t had access to internet for so long! Well…at least it seems like it, it’s actually been around 13 days…I think, but it seems like longer).

So the first couple of days we had meetings about our program and different aspects of it. I had a housing meeting about finding apartments the other day and they gave us a sheet with some numbers on it we can call. It’s a bit hard for me to do that without internet to find where the apartments are and without a mobile to call them. Besides, I’m still deciding on a homestay or not. It might be easier to do a homestay I’ve found, just because I’m a semester student, but it’s bit expensive and I really didn’t want the responsibility of a family. We’ll see…

Anyway, I mostly hung around and took the tram downtown a couple of time to walk around and explore with friends. We tried this Kebap place across from our university…lol…it’s supposed to be Kebab, but its spelt Kebap….it sounds like a discotech…hehe. Anyway, the past couple of days, we’ve been scrounging around for food most of the time and trying to entertain ourselves before the classes start.

I went to a movie Friday night after the test with some friends and we saw “Les 3 Amis.” It was trés bonne and quite comical and random. I couldn’t understand everything, but got the just of it. Besides, comedies are always easier to understand; facial expressions help a lot. It was very “French,” which actually means a lot of sex and synthesized funny “happy” music. Lol…not at the same time though... After the movie, we walked around downtown a little bit and got ice cream. The next day was a free day and so a new friend and I got up early and took the tram downtown. We checked out the cathedral, Saint-Andre, which was gorgeous and full of many gothic features (go French flying buttresses and rounded east ends!), and we also climbed a very tall tower next to the cathedral. We got some beautiful pictures of the centre-ville and Bordeaux (I got to see the modern part of Bordeaux for the first time…well, besides our university). After that, we walked around looking for an open market that my friend heard about on Saturdays. We checked the bureau de tourisme and found that it was in Saint-Michel. So, we walked along the beautiful river (brown river actually…however, it wasn’t brown that day! It was quite pretty, I think it was the high tide). Anyway, we finally found it and it was a huge open market! Lots of diversity! We bought some baguettes (flutes), du fromage (cheese) and fruit. We then found a nice bench next to the river and ate our lunch there! It was gorgeous and we felt trés Françaises! Then we took the tram back to the downtown area and I tried to find a SIM card. Unfortunately, the company Orange doesn’t work with my phone, even though I got my phone unlocked in England. However, I tried SFR and that company does work with my phone…so be careful! Even though you unlock your cell phone to other networks, there are still some networks which won’t “marche bien” with your phone. SFR looks okay, but I would have preferred Orange since it seems that everyone has that company and it would make calling people within my network a lot cheaper. It is really expensive to call people here! And there’s this weird plan where you have a certain number of prepaid credits that you must use within a time limit. It’s kind of annoying…I definitely prefer the English cell phone plans. Well, anyway, after that, we were pretty tired, so after getting my 2 month tram pass, we went back. I have been organizing my music and photos like crazy since I have no internet in my room and so I continued to do that all night. I went to dinner at the supermarché Géant which was about a 20 minutes walk from the tram stop a little ways past our university towards Pessac with a couple of friends. It was a huge supermarket in there and I got a piece of pizza and these chocolate crepes which were to die for!! Ahhh…sooo good.

The next day, we had an excursion with the programme. Ahhh…I’ve been spelling program with two “m’s” ever since England…crazy! Anyway, we went to the pier to take a tour of the Oyster Museum and learn about the cultivation of oysters. And then…the best part, we got free oysters!! Yum! I’ve actually never tried oysters before and so it was a first for me. I like them though! Although I’m not crazy about them like the French…lol. We were sitting with the adults because they ran out of tables which was actually pretty cool because we got to practice our French and we got extra huitres (oysters)! Then we traveled to the largest sand dune in Europe…don’t ask me…and climbed it. Lol. Actually, it was really cool and at the top you got a gorgeous view of the ocean and it looked exactly like the Caribbes!! Seriously, I thought we had traveled to the Caribbean because it was sooo pretty! Blue water…palm trees…white sand…lots of it…lol. Ahhh! We walked all the way down the dune…which was a really really really long way…and then were kinda bummed because that meant we would have to walk back up it. It was all good fun though and some people tried rolling down the dune…didn’t work out too well. Worked my calves walking up in the sun though…I felt like I was in a dessert with all that sand. After our dune experience, we went to the beach (la plague). It was quite pretty and I got some good photos. It was too cold to swim though…the water, as well as the weather was a bit too chilly because of the wind, but it was nice walking around on the sand and seeing a REAL ocean again for the first time in a few months! (Ahh…San Diego…please, enjoy the ocean!! You won’t know how much you miss it…well, until you get to England. Lol.) But Bordeaux is very beachy… well, this part was and we had a great time, even though we were only there for a short time. Then we retuned on a bus back to the dortoirs (dorms) and rested. I showered, and then we went to dinner with a new friend in downtown Bordeaux. We found a Chinese restaurant and ate there. I tried les grenouilles (frog) for the premiere fois! Asian frog legs…quite interesting. It’s a lighter meat than chicken, but not quite fish…somewhere in the middle, which is, well I guess, how one would describe a frog. Not quite a fish...but not quite a land animal. Lol. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable night and our new friend had already been there since last Spring and so he showed up around the town.

We had class this morning (our first DEFLE class). DEFLE is the department here for foreign language students…that’s us! We take classes here just for 2 weeks and then take a test to place us in university classes or DEFLE classes for the year. My class was okay, although dictation isn’t the most interesting thing, but our professor is trés sympa (nice). However, people were very shy and there was a lot of silence…which I felt was my duty to fill…lol. After class, we had a meeting about homestays and then I tried to find dinner with another friend. Making so many new friends!! Yay! Lol. But we were stupid and can’t read maps nor have any directional sense whatsoever, so OF COURSE, it took us 20 minutes to find a restaurant that turned out to be closed anyway. We ended up at a new supermarché that I wanted to visit and went shopping. Then afterward, we met some girls from Belgique on the tram and talked with them for a bit. It’s soo cool meeting international students..! Especially those that are learning French just like us! Anyway, we went to a Kebab place for dinner again and I have just gotten back. So, that was a round up of my first week. Not too bad? I have had some difficulties with the language barrier actually and I seem to be very intimidated when I am talking to adults in French I’ve noticed. I’m usually confident with the other students, especially the Americans, but when I go up to a mérchand, I get scared. I guess I just need more practice. They’re not mean anyway, usually very helpful…so all good! I had some trouble figuring out laundry this morning though but will try again tomorrow….

Anyway, must write to others…I think I got wifi tomorrow…I hope! Not in our dortoirs but in a room at DEFLE….still, it’s better than using the computer room which is always packed with étudiants (students) and French keyboards which are a pain, I’ll tell ya!

Au revoir!
Sherilyn