Travel Log, First semester

Here's a list of all the trips I've taken since day one. (I wrote this a while ago and meant to edit and finish it but it looks like I won't have time to for at least another week or so. I'll just post the part I did do. Be sure to check it for added pictures and remarks later.)

August 23, 2010
London, England
Arrived at about 8am after a layover gone wrong in Dallas, walked around and explored the city, saw pretty much everything except for Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park, woke up the next day at 4am to fly to Bordeaux. I was obviously very tired when I arrived, but managed to take the tram to the city with a group of students before I conked out at about 5pm. I woke up in the middle of the night, suffering from serious jet lag. This was after my computer had crashed in Gatwick Airport so I didn't really know what time it was, plus last minute I had unpacked all my books to make my suitcase lighter. Don't really remember what I did but I managed to get back to sleep within a couple hours and wake up the next day for our noon orientation.

Late August/Early Sept
Don't remember the exact dates but the Centre de Californie took us on two excursions during our first couple trips. I'll add more later.

September 17-19, 2010
My first trip outside Bordeaux, three weeks into the year. Paris with the Octopus!!! (That would be the eight of us that really got along and hung out a lot, later made into OctoClaire when Claire started hanging out with us more. We're not clique-y at all....)

September 25, 2010
The next weekend I did a day trip with Kim, Claire, Nix, Kathy, and Tristan to St. Emilion, a small medieval town now famous for its wine. We went on a tour of the monolithic church, did a degustation at a cave where the owner was very excited to have Californians! We tried eight different wines and ended up taking a picture with him. Hung around and explored a little before taking the train back.

October 1-2, 2010
Trip to the coastal town of Biarritz, two hours from Bdx and half an hour from Spain. Such a beautiful place; I hope I will be back someday. We spent one day there, and the next in St Jean de Luz, another coastal town ten minutes away. Definitely could see the Spanish influence there. We (being my roommates Joanne and Kayla, along with Kim) spent the weekend basking in the sun and picnic-ing on the beach. Just in time for the end of the warm weather.

October 29-November 7, 2010
My first big one. We had a week off of school so everyone planned out trips all over Europe. I started out in Paris with two high school friends, Ali and Ainsley. Ali had won (on the Ellen Degeneres show) a super fancy hotel room at the Westin Paris, with a beautiful view overlooking the Jardin des Tuileries with Eiffel Tower to the right and the Louvre to the left. Still can't believe how lucky we were! I played tour guide and we went all over Paris, ate some good food, and really enjoyed ourselves.
From Paris I headed to Dublin, Ireland to spend a week on the green isle. Monday morning I flew and met up with Claire in the airport, since our flights arrived fairly close to one another. We checked into our hostel and found a pub, where I ate some soup (pretty much what I survived on that week). After, Claire went back to take a shower and I met up with Kim and Kayla, who were in Dublin at the same time. They went to eat before Claire met up with us again and we walked around the city, took a tour at Dublin Castle (which I had definitely already done before with the choir; it was like déjà vu!), and for dinner we went to a pub where we were supposed to meet for a literary pub crawl, but it turns out that it was off season so it wasn't happening. All the pub had was sandwiches, I guess because it was before dinner and they were a little fancier than a normal pub. That didn't fill us up so later we went to another pub, which had some really incredible mixed drinks. Kim and I shared a sampler plate. Getting hungry thinking about it! The next day, Tuesday/ my birthday, Claire and I went to the Guinness factory where I had my first pint (I think it was...hard to remember). We took a train after that to Killarney, but arrived a little too late for this small town and ended up eating Indian food for dinner, pretty good! The next day we walked around Killarney National Park, played with some dogs, and saw some incredible views. (like this)
 
From Killarney we took a bus to Galway. We arrived pretty late and we were tired so we skipped dinner in favor of sleep and got up the next morning for an Irish breakfast. That day (Thursday) we took a tour to the Cliffs of Moher and the surrounding area that was arranged through our hostel (which we paid a euro for!) with a friend from work who is studying in Galway this year, Shea.

EAP photo contest winner!

Yesh, that's right! I won a $25 gift card to the UC Davis bookstore for this photo that I took in Normandy on Omaha Beach:

http://ucdavisabroad.com/photo/come-away-o-human-child

And today, I took my Sociology of Immigration final. Pretty sure I did well on it. I knew the subject matter (integration) pretty thoroughly, and wrote as much as I could. Two more to go, plus my papers!

Procrastination's a bitch.

Finals!!

GAHHHHH!!!
Ruining my social life... but at least after next week it will be over/mostly over.

Right now I'm finishing up this ten page paper (or attempting to) and after that I have:
4 page max paper for my Anthro Islam class
1.5 page max essay for travail supplementaire
3-6 page paper for Soc of Discriminations

aaand next week I have one final on Mon, Tues, Wed each.
Can't wait till I can say DONE.

Things I'll Miss About France/Europe!

To follow up my angsty Things I Miss About California post...


Food: (it's probably possible to find/make most of these, but the fact that they won't be the norm is what I'll miss)
-Desperados beer (pretty sure it isn't available in the states, but if you know of a place that sells it, TELL ME)
-Lardon
-Baguette
-Goat cheese/Chèvre
-Kebabs (not the ones on a stick, that would be a brôchette)
-Balsamic Vinegar and Oil on everything and anything
-Formules and Menu Midis
-Wine at every meal (ok, bit of an exaggeration on my part, but it is the norm)
-Jambon serrano
-Variety of fromages 
 

Activities:
-Drinking and walking on the quai
-Going to the market to buy my fruits and veggies
-Pretending like I actually need to study
-Finding new ways to reject my many street admirers
-Speaking French, Hearing French, Reading French, Learning French
-Drinking alcohol (not just the drinking, but the whole go out to a bar and be social part of it. I'll rant on alcohol later.)
-Traveling, and easy access to cheap flights and hostels
-Couchsurfing
-Having friends over for lunch at dinner
-Experimenting with new foods and being creative with the things I make


Things:
-Architecture
-This apartment (yeah, even with the leak and all the quirks)
-Tramway
-French people (they're just so nice!)
 -Outdoor and open air markets
-Quinconces carnivals, fairs, circuses


There is so so much more that I have taken advantage of and I am now realizing how I will truly miss it all. This whole time I've been thinking about going back to California and that it will be so great to see my family and friends again, meet my new niece and nephew, eat mexican food, etc etc but I haven't thought very much about what I am leaving behind. I've really embraced French culture this year and although I don't feel like I've changed too much personality wise, I have grown up a lot and learned so much about the world, as well as experiencing all that I have. Talking with a new French friend today about his upcoming summer in Berkeley, I remembered how new and exciting everything was when I first came, and how Europe has lost a little bit of its novelty for me. Before it was this strange land that I had a whole year to discover, but now it has become my home and the place that has opened my eyes to so many new ideas. I have a little less than two months left so I won't go into it much now, but I'm kind of sure that a lot of my future blog posts will be me going deeper into these thoughts. 

I went to the open air market near my house today and bought a grapefruit (.50€), some apples(2.+€), some bean sprouts (1.50€), jambon serrano (7€), chunk (.5kg) of delicious bread (2.80€), and a fillet of fish (3.23€)(for Seafood Sunday 4, except this time I'm making it) and it was all so fresh and so well priced! I'm sure I spent less than twenty euro on it all.  For lunch I made two small sandwiches with butter, bean sprouts, jambon serrano, balsamic vinegar, and vegetable oil on fresh bread. Yum. I talk about food a lot, huh? I've become such a foodie...

Nerd it up.

Current exchange rate $1.48 to 1€
UGH.

I took out 50€ from the bank today and it turned in to $73.54.
I was thinking about going to the store...but then I remembered I have a sack of potatoes and some rice so I made by. Maybe tomorrow, for the basics. 


Today for lunch, a group of us went to Café St. Projet because a lot of us haven't seen each other in a while, since a lot of people went out of town for the break. We all got the menu midi for 11.50 which comes with a salad, plate, and dessert. I got a pizza with some German name made with créme fraîche, lardon, onion, and seasoning along with a crumble aux pommes. The pizza was really good, but it unfortunately didn't satisfy my craving (must have been the lack of tomato sauce). The crumble was okay. It's SO hard to say crumble in French, along with brownie!

After lunch, went to Bordeaux 2 for study time and got a little bit done. Not as much as I had hoped... but maybe tomorrow will be more of a success. Maybe.

Travel news!
I might be going to Rhodes, Greece and Turkey in a couple weeks.
I've figured out how to get a ticket for the Rock Am Ring music festival (in Germany in June) and who to go with.
Angelique and I have bought all our plane tickets and booked most of our accommodations for her trip here in June. We'll be going to Santander, Bilbao, Madrid, and Barcelona, Spain with a pit stop in Porto, Portugal as well.
I'm so excited for all these!!!!

Oh, almost forgot. The reason for the title. I had some incredibly intelligent conversations today about
1. Child Development and Adoption
2. Images of Masculinity and Homophobia/Feminism
3. How many combinations you can make between strawberry jam, butter, and rhubarb jam on a piece of toast, and if things like layer order and design should be taken into consideration. I know this one seems a little iffy, but it was so mathematical and nerdy that it definitely counts.

Seafood Sunday 3/ Easter

Yesterday's seafood choice: Paëlla from Marché des Chartrons.

Also bought a baguette ancienne and some delicious apple cider (3€ for a whole liter! needless to say I finished it by the end of the day)

Easter wasn't really anything special. I didn't even eat chocolate or ham. I went to mass at Cathédrale St. André in the morning, before going to Marché des Chartrons to eat my now weekly seafood lunch and meet up with Autumn. There was a giant cruise ship on the Garonne, so there were plenty of English speakers about. I was confused as a cruise tourist by many of the vendors. Oh well, at least I know French and I can aw them by responding in their own tongue. :-P

Friday night I went to an amazing Ratatat concert with my couchsurfers. Couldn't believe how awesome the imaging was. And the energy the guys gave off while banging their drums, WOW!! I definitely need to get back and see them again. Afterwards we went to the quai to drink some wine and chat, before heading home where I made grilled cheese with goat cheese and lardon (smoked bacon) for everyone.

Nomnomnom

Tonight I made pasta à la carbonara and it was soooo good! Topped it off with a beet salad and a baguette, and some friends chipped in with wine, beer, and dessert (raspberry beignets with crême fraîche, rice pudding, and raspberries). I will definitely be making that again. :)

Un jour gourmand

Here in France, we like to eat. And boy do we eat well :)

A day of food:

Lunch at Marché des Chartrons:
----Six large oysters from Cap Ferret, dribbled with lemon juice, along with a glass of white wine and some bread (complet, kind of an all natural and more healthy bread)
----Followed with about 500 grams of fresh Spanish strawberries, shared between Kim and I

Tradition of Seafood Sunday has been started. Two Sundays in a row, baby! I love oysters so much. Something about the way they are served and eaten is just mmmm. Pick up the shell, top it with a little lemon juice, cut the oyster from the muscle attaching it to the shell, put the shell to your mouth and slip the oyster right in there. Then there's the amazing taste of salt water (reminds me of home every time), lemon, and fruit de mer, chew to your heart's desire, swallow, take a sip of white wine, follow it with a little bread maybe. Oh, and can't forget to detach the muscle from the shell. Very creamy and good as well.

Hung out a little on the quai with Kim and a couple of her French friends before heading back to her place to watch the second half of Gladiator, which we had started last night. After the movie we made brownies, instant ja jang myun (type of Korean noodles), and started on some tea eggs (man, I love tea eggs). Now I'm back at my place wondering what to make for dinner...

Saturday I did a little shopping, bought a cute pencil case from Virgin Megastore and a saucy pair of earrings at a bijouterie.We wanted to do more but got started a little too late and all the stores were closing. So tomorrow we're setting out a little earlier to do the a little more!

Oh did I mention, IT'S SPRING BREAK, BABY!!!!

I'm going to see this guy in concert end of May :)

La fin de l'année scolaire!

Les vacances d'été sont presque là, donc ça veut-dire que c'est le temps d'aller chez mes parents, oui? Non. Je reste deux mois plus en Europe! Il est bizarre que quatre sur six de mes cours sont finis, sauf les examens et les dossiers. Pour moi, il semble que je devrait preparer à déménager et partir de la France. En fait, je serai là jusqu'à la fin de juin. Je suis contente que j'ai choisi cette date (28 juin), mais encore, c'est bizarre parce que généralement je pars de Davis quand je finis mes examens et c'est tout. Mais il sera bien d'être à Bordeaux sans les cours, et je suis vachement enthousiaste de voyager en Grèce en mai, et aussi d'assister la festivale de la musique et voyager avec ma soeur en juin. Il est un jour comme aujourd'hui, quand je dois travailler beaucoup, que la California me manque le plus fort. Mais Bordeaux est une belle ville, et je l'adore. Aujourd'hui j'ai mis des vêtements de l'hiver dans un sac; c'était le premier étape de partir, je crois. Dans les deux mois prochains, je vais faire beaucoup de choses, tout que je voulais faire pendant cette année. On peut regarder la liste que j'ai fait...  Je suis triste que j'ai pas travaillé, ou fait plus d'amies français, mais c'est la vie. J'étais trop paresseuse, trop timide peut-être. J'ai plein de souvenirs et peut-être c'est mieux que mes nouvelles copines viennent de Californie, parce que je peux les voir encore dans le futur. Quand même j'ai rencontré beaucoup de personnes avec qui j'ai fait des connections et partagé les cultures et des histoires, et ça va rester dans ma tête toujours. C'est comme j'ai dit plus tôt...c'est bien quand tu rencontres quelqu'un avec qui tu as une connection, mais pense pas de ce qui pouvoir passer dans la vie, souviens les bons moments et laisse-le comme ça (c'était un peu bizarre en français, je suis sûr). D'accord, je vais laisser ces pensées pour le moment, et peut-être je vais revenir, peut-être pas. On va voir.

Il fait beau!

With the arrival of Spring and nice weather, Bordeaux has become an even greater city to live in. I can't believe how much I take for granted here, so I've been trying to really notice the things that I know I will miss when I leave on June 28. There's crazy amounts of people out in the streets of Bordeaux at all times of the day. Winter clothes are being put away in favor of light Spring dresses, shorts, and sandals. It's been close to 30°C the past few days (that's about 90°F). Gelato stands are emerging again. The quai is filled with picnic-ers, tourists, lovers, musicians, runners, and groups just enjoying life the best way you can: with friends, a bottle of wine, and an incredible atmosphere.

Last night I was walking around town after seeing a movie (Tous les Soleils, definitely recommend if you can find it with English subtitles) with Charlotte. There were so many people out, young and old--more than I've seen since it became cold. Something about the French way of life... going out at 10pm to eat dinner; sitting around at cafés and salon de thés; hanging about by the river sippin some wine out of plastic cups... so cool. This town is amazing; I really can't believe how comfortable I have become here.

Last weekend it rained a little bit, but despite that it was nice. I had a couple couchsurfers over and we went to a boîte (club) with a bunch of people until the early morning hours. After sleeping in on Saturday, I went out and donated blood, which was a great experience and I am so glad I did it. -Only in France would they provide you with a whole meal of quiche and tarts and other delicious foods after giving away a pint. I missed my free t-shirt, but I walked out of there feeling stronger than usual and really needing to pee. Besides, everyone was so nice and impressed that I was a foreigner donating. I had next to no problems speaking with everyone, and I understood the questionnaire completely. After I had finished my nurse started speaking to me in English telling me that there was food on the other side of the tent, I shouldn't drink or do sports, etc etc. Getting englished used to make me kind of frustrated, but now I realize that people probably just want to practice their English, just like I want to practice my French (although I wouldn't really call it practicing anymore). I was actually surprised how much she knew, since we had been speaking in French up until then.- Sunday I walked around Bordeaux, and lucky I did, because it was the one day a year that the Bordelais empty their attics and have a city wide garage sale. I didn't buy much, but I saw a lot of cool things and got a bande-desinee (TinTin au Congo, 1970) in great condition for 2€. Another book to add to my old book collection! There was also a Nature and Bio market happening, and I talked with a couple who work on a snail farm and sell escargot. They showed me some pictures about how they harvest the snails and said I could come out and check out the farm if I wanted to. Definitely want to try to do that if I can!

School news: Finals are arriving at the beginning of May, so I've started preparing for them. My anthropology class already finished, I just need to do the paper for it. My two sociology classes end next week, and then I have the test for one and the paper for the other. Spring Break is the week after next, but I've decided to stay in Bordeaux to prepare for finals and to save money for Greece in May and southern France in June. I enjoy Bordeaux the best when there aren't classes so I don't feel bad at all about missing this travel opportunity (and lets face it, I've done a lot of that this year already).
I pretty much finished my sculpture in last week's sculpture class! I'm going in next week to add some more bottle caps but then it's done. :) All I have to say is that it's amazing how things like this take shape (and I mean that quite literally). I started out with a completely different idea, which eventually turned into this:

What I did:
-connected a bunch of yogurt cups into arches
-covered those with bottle caps collected from pubs
-attached the arches
-filled in the blank spots
-and voilà!

Donnes-moi ton coeur, et je te donne ma vie.

100 cities

So when I came to France I had this little dream that I would be able to visit 100 cities before I left. Even though I have since realized how impossible that is, I figure I'll get at least halfway by the time I leave. Here's what's been happening so far.

100 cities!!

1. London, England
2. Pessac, France
3. Bordeaux, France
4. Arcachon, France
5. Paris, France
6. St. Emilion, France
7. Biarritz, France
8. St. Jean de Luz, France
9. Versailles, France
10. Dublin, Ireland
11. Killarney, Ireland
12. Doolin, Ireland
13. Galway, Ireland
14. Inis Mor (island), Ireland
15. Carcassonne, France
16. Toulouse, France
17. Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Holland)
18. Edinburgh, Scotland
19. St. Andrews, Scotland
20. Agadir, Morocco
21. Marrakech, Morocco
22. Ouazazate, Morocco
23. Zagora, Morocco
24. Casbah Ait, Morocco
25. Casablanca, Morocco
26. Fes, Morocco
27. Rome, Italy
28. Scafati, Italy
29. Pompeii, Italy
30. Florence, Italy
31. Fiesole, Italy
32. Venice, Italy
33. Milan, Italy
34. Vannes, France
35. Quiberon, France
36. Mont St Michel, France
37. Bayeux, France
38. D-day beaches, France
39. Reims, France
40. Laon, France
41. Oxford, England
42. Reading, England

Hopefully soon I'll follow this up with a little log of travels since day one.

Rousseau

"Le ciel de mon lit était formé par les têtes des arbres."

Something deep

I said this to a friend recently and was kind of proud of it. Here you go.

"I think in life, we need to accept that we will meet people that we really appreciate, that we love, that we have connections with. Sometimes they will stay in our lives, and sometimes they will leave. We could know them for years, or just days, or even just hours. We should just appreciate the good times that we enjoy with them, and then start the search for the next person. That way, we can have the good memories, without thinking about what could have been."

Bucket List

I'm officially leaving in two to three months (date still to be decided, either June 2 or 26)!! There's still a lot I haven't done, so I'm gonna make a bucket list of everything I still want to do. I'll be editing it whenever I do something or want to add a new one.

*note: This is all stuff that I know is actually possible to do, so I guess it's more of a reminder list. Things like "go to Greece" and "find a French lover" (jk about that last one) I'm not going to put here because it's stuff I want to do but might not necessarily happen.

1. Go to Hammam
2. Jump into the lake
3. Musée des Beaux-Arts
4. Find alligator
5. Eat escargot
6. Order an Irish Coffee at one of the Irish pubs
7. Base sous-marine
8. Find a cute dress
9. Go to Sunday mass at St. André
10. Running on the quai
11. Sunday Marché des Chartrons on the quai
12. Bar à Vin
13. Contemporary art bus
14. Frisbee at Jardin Public
15. Attend a good concert
16. Beach with frenchies
17. Learn to make crêpes
18.  Babysit French kids
19. Go to a Girondin game
20. Donate blood
21. Piercing/Tattoo
22. CAPC
23. Perigeux
24. Oysters, encore
25. Marché St. Michel on Sunday
26. Used book store on Cours Victor Hugo
27. Contribute something in class
28. Go fishing
29. Cheval (Horse), encore
30. Frog legs
31. Dune du Pyla, encore
32. Exchange music with a frenchie

Another notch on my travel post

Yup, just got back from England. Fourth time in the UK since August! Whoa.

I like England, it's cute. I had a really good time in Oxford Wednesday night to Saturday morning. Kim and I explored the town and got to know it pretty well. She did her university thing on Friday, while I did my tourist thing. We cooked French food. I got to see my friend Nadhira from Davis, who goes to Oxford Brookes University now. My new found love for old books was supported upon discovery of the secondhand sections in the amazing Blackwell's bookstore. I bought a book of "Selected Czech Tales" with a note on the inside front cover "To Dorothea, Christmas 1928" and the Oxford print on the bind. I had a hard time deciding on one book to buy, but that note really did it. It was a good choice, I'm already half through and each story has been really good. I saw the Oxford University Press, but couldn't go inside. I saw a blackboard Albert Einstein had written on, along with the pub where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to chill together.

Then London. For the second time I wasn't too impressed, and I think I figured out why. It's too fucking stressful. Sunday I saw some things I hadn't seen before, and it made me feel slightly better about the city (Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, aka the more relaxed area of the city, I suppose). Even so, though. I was really glad to get back to Bordeaux.

Homesickness has set in again. Sigh. Probably going for a run tonight to try to get rid of it.

Au revoir, Paris

This weekend I went to Paris, probably for the last time in a very long time. Who knows when I'll get back. I had been thinking about spending two weeks there in July, so that I could see the end of the Tour de France and celebrate Bastille Day with the French, but the June 25 date that my travel agent recommended to me is starting to look better. I get out of school in early May; I'll do a little traveling with friends after finals (hopefully to Greece!), and then pretty much everyone I know will be leaving. There's a three day musical festival I want to go to in early June in Germany (Coldplay, Kings of Leon, We Are Scientists, System of a Down, other good bands; it's called Rock Am Ring), then I'll spend a week traveling in southern France, and back to Bordeaux for ten days or so to say goodbye and to see the river festival). After that, back to real life. I think I'll be ready by then.

I was able to do the three things in Paris that I've been wanting to do for a while but never had the time each trip I go back.

Espace Dali: Some of Salvador Dali's sculptures and sketches were on display. He's my favorite artist so of course I was in heaven. None of his paintings were there, but representations in sculpture were, which in my opinion are just as cool. The colors of the paint aren't visible, but the 3D abstractness makes up for it in so many ways. I think I actually prefer his work that way.

Catacombes: One of the creepiest places in Paris, and I went alone. Six million people's bones have been arranged in walls and pillars, in various designs. Pretty much, the Paris cemeteries got too full so they dug up all the bones and put them down in the Catacombes, and then later arranged them so they could be put on public display. I made friends with the security guard and he told me that people are really disrespectful by stealing and touching the bones (ok, I'll admit I touched one for a split second just to see if it would move), along with using flash. He showed me holes where people have taken the skulls out (gross), and showed me the difference between a skull that had been touched a lot and one that hadn't. He also said that while they were making these walls, they would throw the broken bones behind, and that they go up to 50m back. Crazy how many are down there. After giving me all this useful information he tried to get me to hang out with him after work. No thanks, man.
*As I was leaving I was asked to open my bag, and I noticed on the table a skull and some other bones. Two girls were sitting down next to it. CAUGHT.

L'Orangerie: Monet's Lily paintings, and I got in free (advantages of being a student in France, lots of discounts and free entry). I couldn't believe how big and beautiful they were. Two giant oval shaped rooms, with one giant painting on each side, equaling eight of the most incredible scenes ever. Up close it looks like blotches, but the farther away you get the more you can see how it all fits together.


I also get to check out an English bookstore across from Notre Dame called Shakespeare and Co. It was kind of expensive but I made two really great finds: A copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, marked at 4€ but I talked down to 3€ because a couple pages were falling out, and an amazing old Europe guide book from 1954 that I paid 2€ for. It includes black and white pictures and, as I discovered on the train ride back to Bordeaux, a pressed flower and a pressed leaf from who knows where and when. I am absolutely in love with it.

Also...I'd like to proudly announce that I went to Paris with 50€ for three days and that is exactly what I spent. I think I have perfected budget traveling. Couchsurfing helps so much.

I wish I had pictures to post along with this, but alas, my camera is still broken. It was kind of a relief not taking pictures, though.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Oxford and London for the weekend, then no more traveling for a little while :)

Just a little update

It's been a fairly normal week in Bordeaux, although a little busy with preparations for my trips to Paris and England in the next week.

-Last Friday there was a California picnic, I met some Frenchies who are going to CA next year. One girl might be going to Davis!
-There was a little French soirée Saturday night for the birthday of my friend's host mom. Had some good chats with a few other Californians there (there were about seven of us mange-ing amidst the middle aged French people). There was so much good food there! I couldn't stop haha. I've missed French cooking since moving out of the Pommarede's, although I don't miss living there. So dancing, mange-ing, mingling. Gooood night.
-Mardi Gras parade was last Sunday in Bdx. Very lively and cool.
-Met an Indian guy who speaks English when I went to buy chicken at CFC (similar to KFC, which also exists in Bdx). He works there and gave me a free coke and a couple salads. I'll be back :)
-Met a German exchange student in one of my classes and we ate lunch together, had a nice French conversation about ourselves, our cultures, and some politics
-Had a dinner party for my friend Marissa (from high school, who is also studying in Bordeaux this semester). We made burgers and some other friends brought things potluck style. Fun :)
-Broke my camera and my phone screen in the same week. Phone is still usable...camera, not so much.
-Monday night theme dinner this week was chicken (the reason I was at CFC) and waffles. Surprisingly delicious!
-Bought some rock climbing shoes finally. Wallet went OUCH.
Out to a soirée. Chkchk.

Red Robe Choir

Five years ago, I took my first journey across the Atlantic Ocean with Grossmont High School's Red Robe Choir. Last week, I re-lived a little piece of that trip by visiting a couple of the places in northern France that I went to, Mont St. Michel and the D-Day beaches. And today, out of curiosity, I googled the Red Robe Choir and found this article:

http://lamesa.patch.com/articles/red-robe-choir-drapes-students-in-traveling-tradition

Although the stuff about the one-hour study break each night is crap, the rest of it really hit home and got me thinking...I would not be in France today if I hadn't made two important decisions at the age of thirteen: to take French and Beginning Choir as my electives freshman year. And if I hadn't traveled to Europe three times during high school and fostered a love for culture, language, and experience, then I would not have had the desire to study abroad, especially for a whole school year. I'm giving myself a pat on the back for this one.

Things I Miss about California

-the ability to call my parents and my sisters inbetween classes just because I'm bored
-the motivation to study
-living in Greystone, with friends, with students, in a modern apartment with an oven and a handyman on call
-my bike
-the dollar
-being able to use a debit card without a stupid usage fee
-my car
-English
-my roommates, my friends, my family
-powerpoints
-small toasters
-lots of counter space and plenty of room to have people over
-potlucks with friends
-going home to San Diego during the quarter breaks after a long time away
-the feeling of home, in Davis or SD
-sweatshirts
-breakfast distributions
-falling asleep in public and not feeling weird about it (ie on the quad, on the benches in front of Wellman, in the library)
-the beach
-milkshakes
-a good internet connection
-costco, target, and other awesome stores comme ça
-baggers at grocery stores



Ok, I feel better now :)

On to the next voyage...

I'll be gone for the next week in northern France/Champagne. Even though I'm really excited about this trip, I can't seem to get myself ready for it mentally. I haven't packed, showered, or finished the dishes, although my to-do list has gone down drastically today. I think I have just become so comfortable in Bordeaux that it's getting hard to leave, but the change will be good.

In other news:

1. Finances have been really tough this semester. Came back from Italy broker than ever, had to pay rent and deposit, buy stuff for the apt, food, then the soldes tempted me. Good news, though. Finally figured out where my scholarship money ended up so I'll have the rest of the first half (that I should have received in like September) by the end of March, and I sent in the information to receive the second half so I'll have that soon as well.

2. Talked to Dad yesterday and he made a good point. Said that I can't always be playing and that I should work this summer to save up money for next school year, and even though I don't really want to go back to the camp (great job, but I really need to build my resumé) I should because it's there and the job market is so tough right now. So I'm considering that. Probably won't be able to go to TX and AZ like I wanted, but hopefully will still be able to take a half a week or a week off to go to Davis for Ashley's birthday and to see people.

3. Book Club meeting yesterday. Didn't quite finish but we had a good discussion about Love in the Time of Cholera. Next we are reading a french book that sounds cute. I want to finish LTC and Eat, Pray, Love on this trip so I can concentrate on it when I get back, because I know it will take some time even though it is pretty short.

4. Thinking about starting a "French moment of the week" on here. This week's is too awkward to put up here (but I know I'll remember it in the future).

5. Had a good day today despite something on my mind. Went to class and enjoyed it (learned that a country can't be a part of the EU if they have the "peine de mort"; France abolished it in 1981); went rock climbing and made some progress (I have to buy my own shoes before the next time, instructor said today was the last time we could use his shoes), was pretty tired after; café "Les Mots Bleus" for a failed attempt at reading some of LTC with Kim, then Jardin Public where we sat under a tree and watched some french youth play football (aka soccer); then my first time doing yoga (it's harder than I thought!).

6. Academic Project...need to figure out how I am doing this. Which aspect of immigration will I tackle? Economic, Political, Social, Effects on Children?

7. Greatest '80s song ever:

Dessert Night

Valentine's Day equaled Girls' night, Dessert night, and Movie night (Laws of Attraction, not the greatest), at my place. So delicious! But I'm still doing dishes...

I made dessert tacos! Cinnamon and butter on fried tortillas, ice cream, fruit, nutella, voila!

 Kim's Brownie

Aujourd'hui

C'était bien!

-Cours Civilisation
-L'escalade
-Un café et Pago avec Kim et Autumn, en asseyant sur la pelouse parce qu'il faisait très beau
-La bibliothèque avec Kim et Madeleine, j'ai lu 50 pages de Love in the Time of Cholera, finalement
-Une biére et promenade avec Nix
-Le film: Hors de Prix avec les filles chez Marisol. J'ai compris tout!

L'anniversaire de Madeleine

Yesterday (Wednesday), was my friend Madeleine's birthday. She turned 21, and even though that isn't a big deal in Europe because the drinking age is 18 (unless you have parental consent, as I recently learned from a French friend), a birthday is a birthday and it is a very good reason to get together with friends to eat, laugh, talk, and enjoy. Madeleine chose a restaurant that has one star in the Michelin guide, meaning it is freaking amazing. Us four Californians left over from the Octi-Claire were a little overwhelmed by the formality of this place. The servers were all extremely attentive, from the moment they took our coats to the moment we paid. It wasn't busy at all; we were the only people in our particular room, and a number of employees waited on us with the greatest attention. Each seemed to have their own little job, for example the wine pourer (who had really beautiful eyes).

The pre-fixed meal started with an "amuse bouche", a little something to wake up our taste buds. It was a little appetizer that resembled sushi right down to the salmon inside it. Next up was the entrée, which I didn't get a picture of, but consisted of little tuna steaks that melted in your mouth. The main course was a portion of calamari and veggies covered in an incredible sauce which was extremely satisfying. So delicious! I wish I could have more of it right now. Dessert was crêpes with an orange sauce, also extremely delicious, and that was followed by a café and a selection of bon bons: a macaron, a truffle, and a little thing that tasted like Thanksgiving in my mouth because of the cranberry sauce and buttery cookie that was a part of it.

After lunch, we went our separate ways. Autumn and I walked along the river back towards our apartment, but ended up spending a couple hours on a bench bonding over conversation. It was so nice and relaxing after the meal. Also, the day was so beautiful! I can't believe it was just a week ago that I was wearing every layer I could, and now I'm out in a dress and a light sweater. I love Bordeaux when it is sunny. It makes me feel so happy. :)

That night, Kim and I went over to Madeleine's for facials. Kim ended up making tea eggs (I LOVE TEA EGGS) and Madeleine curled my hair (by the way, she cut my hair Monday so it is short once again, just how I like it), and I actually kinda liked how it turned out. I wouldn't mind doing it for a special occasion every once in a while. We spent a little time planning our trip to northern France and Luxembourg, which we are doing Feb 19-28 during the winter break. I had to walk home since the tram had stopped running at midnight, and along the way I witnessed three French youth in their underwears jumping (no, attempting to jump) into the pond at Place de Gambetta. Also I was asked directions to the train station by a guy on a bike who I initially ignored because I thought he was just trying to talk to me (I don't really consider it unfriendly when it's 1h30 and I'm alone). I was able to tell him, which is always such a great confidence booster because not only do I know where this place is, but I can give directions in French!

We did some more planning for our trip today, but Mont St. Michel is causing us some problems because it isn't the easiest place to get to and away from apparently. Spent the evening with my upstairs neighbors and my landlord and his wife during a little goodbye party for a girl who is moving out. They brought one of their 7 months old twins up since she wasn't sleeping. She is such a chunky little baby! But so full of laughter and energy, very adorable. I hope to meet her brother soon.

Time for sleep now, I should probably be awake for class and rock climbing tomorrow.

Monday Night Themed Dinners

My friend Madeleine had the fantastic idea that a few of us should get together each Monday for a little dinner. We made up a list of themes that we choose the week before and so far have had three of these meals. All have been delicious, of course. :)

The first one was on January 24; we made tagine kefta, a popular Moroccan dish, in honor of Madeleine's and my one week stay in Morocco over the Christmas holiday (before I went to Italy and met up with Kim for two weeks). Tagine is a mixture of veggies, meat, and broth. Very delicious! As we learned in Morocco, you are supposed to take a piece of bread and scoop it to the side of the dish and kind of fold it into the bread. They even have special tagine pans, which are very cool. Unfortunately I don't think I can take one back home because it is too big and heavy. Maybe I will be able to find one in California, but I doubt it. At least I have the memory!
I didn't take any pictures of the one we made (but they are on my friend's facebook), but here is one that we ate in Casablanca, Morocco at our friend's home:

See what I mean about the scooping?

Ok, the second night was January 31, hamburgers and milkshakes. It is impossible to get a good milkshake over here. They don't make them with enough ice cream and always end up as a thicker version of chocolate milk. I've gotten maybe three or four here and have been disappointed every time. I even got one at an American diner here in Bordeaux. The food was crappy, but they did have a license plate that said WYLIE so I might be back someday. When Kim and I were in Venice we went to Hard Rock Cafe and although the hamburgers were delicious, the milkshakes were highly disappointing once again. And the waiter called it their thick milkshake. Yeah, right.
We proved that it is possible to make a good milkshake in Europe, though. With a lot of ice cream and a little milk. :)

And the third night was Asian night, since it was the Lunar New Year last weekend. I made Spam Musubi for the first time and discovered how easy it is, so I will definitely be bringing it to potlucks in the future.

 

Next Monday is dessert night for Valentine's Day! Hopefully we won't be too overloaded with sugar by the end of it. 

Side note: I was just invited to my upstairs neighbors for the first time because one of them is moving out. Off I go :)

La Cirque!

Last Sunday, I went to my first ever circus! It was a really incredible experience and the whole time I was in complete awe of the acrobatic acts. Here are some pictures of my favorite stunts:

Laser show

 These people are JUMP ROPING like this!

 It's a tiger in a giant hamster wheel... whoa.

 Elephants

 Belly Dancer, sort of

 This guy was really amazing; I don't know why he isn't in the Olympics winning gold medals on the bars.

 This guy was just really strong and cool.

 A giant ball with motorcross bikes zooming around. Started off with 3, went up to 5, ended with 8. I was dying of excitement and anxiety.

Mes cours

A little spot about the classes I am taking this semester:

Monday: Pas de cours

Tuesday:
8h30-10h30   L'univers de l'Islam, un cours d'anthropologie
10h30-12h30   La Sociologie de l'immigration
12h30-13h30   Mandatory one hour lunch break, during which I have time to walk home, make lunch, relax a little, and head back to school. I love where I live :)
13h30-15h30   La Sociologie des Discriminations

Wednesday:
10h30-12h30   Litterature Classique (at the international school)

Thursday: Pas de cours, but I think I am going to look for a sport to do this day

Friday:
9h30-11h30/12h30 (changes week to week)   Civilisation (at the international school)
12h-14h   L'escalade (aka Rock climbing)
13h30-17h30  Atelier sculpture (in which I have twelve weeks to make one scuplture, and as the prof said, it has to be un bien bien sculpture)

Anne Frank was a smart one.

I'm currently reading Tales from the Secret Annex, which I bought at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. It's a collection of short stories, fairy tales, personal reminisces, and even an unfinished novel that Anne wrote while in hiding during World War II. Some of them are just okay, some of them are really good, and a couple are pretty WOW. This is one of the WOWs, called Give! It's incredibly deep for someone so young, and it ties into my blog post from a few days ago and pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject. Here's a link to the full text; ignore the cheesiness of it being read outloud, it's the only one I could find.


http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/af/htmlsite/give/flash.html

Postcards

I've been doing a really great job of sending postcards to friends and family on my travels, better than I have ever done before, but I had this wonderful idea just now of sending my own photos out! It gets expensive constantly buying cards and stamps around Europe, plus it takes up time searching for the perfect postcards at a reasonable price, writing meaningful (or as meaningful as I can get in a few minutes time) and sometimes witty notes, addressing and stamping all of them, and finding a box to put them in. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE writing postcards. It's a new found joy of mine. And then there's the anticipation as I wait for people to tell me they received them and how awesome I am for sending them one. Heh heh...

I 'll admit though, it's getting a bit tiring. In Morocco I wanted to send EVERYONE a camel postcard bragging about what I had done, but I only ended up sending out a few. In Italy I decided to make up for it by sending out as many cards as I could, but I still didn't send one to everyone I wanted. Then on the last day after I bought my 12 stamps to put on my 12 postcards to send out to various friends and a couple family members (I try to send a postcard to everyone in my family from everywhere I go, but I have a BIG fambam and I didn't have enough cards or motivation in Italy) I discovered the HUGE stamps didn't have glue on them! Thus began the massive search for scotch tape at the Venice train station, where I found enough to send out two of my cards. I ended up having to wait until we got to our Milan hotel for our last night in Italy. There, I asked at the front desk if they had any tape, and proceeded to explain what it was because they barely spoke English (I don't blame them, they're Chinese immigrants living in Italy running the "American Hotel"). The guy first tried to give me a giant roll of packing tape until I told him I needed something smaller, like scotch tape. So, I apologize if you receive a rather messy looking postcard, but there is a funny story behind it.

Back to the point of this post:
After getting my awesome idea I googled to see if it was allowed to send photos as postcards, and found this site:        http://content.photojojo.com/diy/postcards-from-your-photos/

If you read Method 1 and 2, you'll see it's kinda risky to do this overseas because of potential damage, so I'm wondering if someone could maybe possibly send me one (or a pack) of those handy dandy postcard backings. I'll return the favor by sending you a photo-card from wherever I go next. My address is:

Qiana Wylie
c/o Aymeric Guibert (you can get away with leaving that out)
47 Rue des Douves
33800 Bordeaux, France

Merci beaucoup!


P.S. I could also use a few paper clips.

A New Friend

It's very common in France, as in the U.S., to see beggars sitting on the streets asking for money. You'll find them sitting at random corners and next to ATMs most commonly. I don't always give change to them, but sometimes if I have something loose in my pocket then I'll pull it out.

Today, I walked to the ATM near my place and like usual there was someone sitting next to it. The person always changes, sometimes being someone worn down looking with a large backpack to the side of them, or wreaking slightly/strongly of alcohol. This afternoon, the woman was rather homely looking and I decided to give her a euro and a twenty cent piece. She was very nice and smiled at me, said thank you, and when I turned to leave we exchanged "Bonne journée"s ("good day", a common farewell) and she said "merci" once again.

On my walk home there is a muslim woman who sits on a corner all day; I see her every time I walk by unless it's late. The first few times I didn't give her anything, but after I saw her crying one time it broke my heart a little. I've only been back from my travels a few days but I try to give her a little bit every time I see her. She's very nice and even when I don't have anything she doesn't pressure me, and I've witnessed the same thing with others. While walking back today I pulled ten cents out of my coin purse to give her and when she saw Autumn and me she greeted us so enthusiastically it shocked me. Before she even saw I was going to give her money she reached her arms out to embrace us each in a hug (which is uncommon in France) and to bisous us. I think part of it was that right before we walked up there were two guys that said something I didn't catch to her, but I know it wasn't nice. I'm going to try to give her a little something each time I see her, and maybe strike up a conversation with her. Maybe I can integrate her into my academic project even...

All this reminds me of the breakfast distributions I helped organize in Sacramento, which I've really missed going to. I'm hoping this semester I can find some sort of community service where I can work with the homeless and less fortunate again.

A song for you:

Day 4 back in Bordeaux

A very good day--

I'll start off by saying that I had a really amazing time in Morocco and Italy over the holidays. I met some cool people in Morocco, got to ride a couple camels, and was acquainted with a very different culture that I came to love. In Italy, I saw some incredible sites, including many ancient Roman ruins and the excavated city of Pompeii--where Mount Vesuvius erupted rather spontaneously and buried a whole town alive within hours. I also visited Florence/Firenze (same town, different names in Italian and English) and got to see A LOT of art, and Venice, where I wandered the misty canals and tried not to get lost. Christmas was nothing special, just another day of travel (although a really good one). We went to mass which was really interesting; it was hard to figure out where the only church in Marrakech is, since Morocco is a muslim country, but the service was beautiful and full of a lot of spirit. New Year's Eve I spent in Rome. It was so crazy! I didn't expect there to be THAT many people, but there were thousands crowding the streets of Rome until well past midnight. There were so many bangs and shouts going off from random fireworks and people that it was hard to know where to direct my attention. Overall the trip was incredible, as I said. But I learned that three weeks is a very long time to be away traveling, constantly busy, and surviving off of what little you brought in your backpack, not too mention it's EXPENSIVE (Italy anyway, Morocco was surprisingly cheap!).

I'm back in Bdx now, all moved into my new apartment (which I love!), unpacking, cleaning, organizing, and preparing for the new semester starting on Monday. Time flies... My semester friends have left, but I'm making new friends already; I've been hanging out with people pretty much nonstop, from shopping to cooking dinner to hanging out in cafés and bars.

Today was pretty great :)
I started off the day going to the St. Michel flea market, which is now about a seven minute walk from my home (used to take over half an hour on the tram), walked around and got a baguette to eat with some paté and clementines. After eating I walked around more looking at all the booths of fabric, clothes, and food and ended up buying a pair of tights from one of the booths.

Afterwards my friends and I went to check out the French sales at H&M, and let me tell you those sales are intense! Instead of having sales for a short period after the holidays, it seems they have them throughout all of January, making the streets of Bordeaux packed with people. The sales are really great too, I ended up getting a shirt, pair of shorts, and a sweater jacket for 25€, saving me 28€ if I had bought them not on sale! Quite awesome :) After looking at a couple other stores and almost buying a pair of boots, my new housemate Autumn and I went to Auchan, the European equivalent of Target and Wal Mart, to buy some things for our place, including a wok and a cutting board.

We dropped our stuff off at our apartment, then headed to the tram to go to a free classical music concert, but after waiting a few minutes we realized there was a strike (gotta love them...) and the tram wasn't running to that stop, meaning we had to walk all the way down Rue St. Catherine (the longest shopping street in EUROPE) to get to our destination. Twenty or so minutes later after tackling the crowds swarming around all the sales we reached the other side and made our way to the concert. It was very beautiful and soothing; therefore, I couldn't help but fall asleep for most of it.  I've become so great at sleeping in the most random places and in the most uncomfortable positions! I blame the traveling.

After stopping for a chai tea at a café, Autumn, Kim, and I went back to our place to cook dinner. Kim ended up doing most of it while Autumn and I cleaned (the apartment wasn't very clean when we moved in, but it's getting a lot better with some work). It was delicious!! Kim wanted potatoes, I suggested steak, we added some zuchini and a salad, bread, chèvre,  and wine to the table and voilà! French meal.

Classes are starting Monday and I still don't know exactly what I'm taking. I love the disorganization and last minute-ness of France -_-

I'll post more on Morocco and Italy soon! Until next time!


A song for you: