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