look! je suis voyageuse!

So, I’d hate to be one of those people who nonchalantly says, “Yeah, I went to Spain the other day,” but I can’t help it: I did! Oh and I guess I’d hate even more to tell you all that I also went to Paris last week (yeah, a little change in plans…). But alas, I must!

Last Saturday morning, Michelle, Carly and I piled in Bertrand’s little Peugeot and drove to San Sebastián, which is about 2 ½ hours away from Bordeaux. It’s crazy that in driving such a short distance, you enter into a different country with a different culture and language (although since we were in Basque country, everything was actually written in both Spanish and Basque). When we got there, we stopped to wade in the ocean (yes, that’s right: the ocean! I was so pumped because it was my very first time ever seeing the ocean!), and then tried to find a restaurant to eat lunch at, but since lunch isn’t served until 1:00 or 1:30, we had some time to kill. What better way to spend that time than climbing up a mountain? Actually, Monte Urgull isn’t a huge mountain, and the view was spectacular from the top (see pictures below!).

After lunch (which was actually a mirowaveable pasta dinner…), we drove another hour to Bilbao, where we spent about 3 hours in the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum. The architecture of this building was probably more impressive in some ways than the works inside the museum, but that’s just my opinion. For supper that evening, we spent about an hour trying to find a place to eat downtown and then another ½ hour waiting outside for them to start serving dinner at 8:30. Seriously, why do they eat so late in Spain? And why were there so many little kids dressed so well in their petticoats that they looked like they were posing for a Sears catalogue? Yet another mystery we had to contemplate while we waited with growling tummies.

Finally we got to order and eat, which was interesting because we had trouble reading the Spanish menus and we also didn’t know what to expect in terms of the meals themselves. I guess Michelle and Carly decided to try something new and order cheese plates, and literally, that’s all they got: a plate of cheese each. At least Michelle got a few raisins and some walnuts arranged artistically on her plate along with her cheese; Carly got hers in a pile. I ended up getting a “combinado” which ended up being a rather filling compilation of eggs sunnyside up, some french fries, bacon that was half fat, a “tomato salad” which was actually just tomatoes, and some weird potato-ball-things. All in all an excellent day in Spain I do say.

I spent Sunday back in Bordeaux relaxing a bit and then hanging out with Michelle, planning our spontaneous trip to Paris. I’m kind of starting to like this spontaneity thing. It’s definitely getting me out of my comfort zone of hyper-planning but it also has forced me to see that things can really work out if you don’t stress about them months, weeks, or even days in advance. I want all my trips to be spontaneous now! Well, except maybe for that trip to Paris and Poland in February that I planned this weekend with Rachelle (my friend from Winnipeg who’s teaching English in Korea right now)… but I’ll get into that later.

So, Paris. Carly, Michelle and I were there together but Carly ended up coming later, on Wednesday afternoon for2 nights. So Michelle and I took the train on Monday morning and 3 hours later, we were in France’s capital, a center of culture and commerce for over 2000 years, a symbol of romance, revolution, heroism, and hedonism, a city twinkling with magnetic charm… OK I’ll stop now. And I must confess I got those phrases from my France guidebook. But Paris was amazing! Seeing all of the sites that I’ve seen hundreds of times in books and in friends’ pictures and on TV was surreal to say the least. We had a huge list of places to visit, and I’m happy to say that we got to see nearly all of them. We did at least one museum a day, covering the Musée Carnavalet (probably a less-known museum on the history of Paris, but it was free!), the Maison de Victor Hugo, the Louvre (and in mine and Michelle’s opinions, that museum is too big for its own good), the Musée d’Orsay (which was my favourite out of all them; it houses all of the impressionist and post-impressionist’s works), and the Musée Picasso.

As for other sites, we saw the Eiffel Tower (mais bien sûr!), the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Sacré-Coeur, Place de la Bastille, Place de la Concorde, the Moulin Rouge, la Comédie Française, and walked along the Champs-Élysées. We walked a ton—I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my life! We also went to the Cimetière Père Lachaise, a humongous cemetery where a lot of famous people are buried, including Jim Morrison (this is how many people know this cemetery). Unfortunately we couldn’t find Morrison’s grave, as we didn’t know where to get maps and had to keep relying on our wandering skills and the other people we kept stopping to ask for directions. In all, we found Molière, La Fontaine, and Oscar Wilde’s graves, the latter which is covered in kisses (I’m not sure if you can consider that defacing a tombstone or not…). You can see a picture of it below. Something that Amélie fans will find cool: we found the Café de 2 Moulins, the café Amélie works in in the movie, and went inside to eat, but changed our minds upon seeing the prices, even though there was a sign that offered a free drink to anyone who answered 5 questions about the movie correctly. FYI, it’s actually a lot smaller than it seems in the movie.

Our hostel was nice enough too. We had a private room with a wash corner and a double bed (pretty good for 16,67€ each a night for downtown Paris). We bought fresh baguettes, cheese and fruit every morning for breakfast, took the leftovers with us for lunch, and ate out for dinner each evening. Oh and did I mention all the walking we did? We bought a week pass for the metro when we got there, but didn’t even end up using it enough to get our money’s worth because sometimes it was just easier to walk places. Plus we got to see Paris above ground, and that was a beautiful site too.

So, all in all, my trip to Paris was amazing. I’m so glad I went before school started too. I had a mission in my time between when I arrived and when school started, and that was to travel at least a little bit. I think I accomplished that. I hope to do more traveling on the weekends while I’m in school and there’s the winter break at the end of February, when I’m going back to Paris for a couple of days (to do some things I didn’t get to do while I was there last week). From Paris, Rachelle and I will fly to Krakow, Poland to stay for 3 nights. Now you may be wondering, “Why Poland? That’s kind of random,” and you’re right. However, in a conversation Rachelle and I had last week, we discovered that we both have been for years harbouring a dream to see Auschwitz-Birkenau, the concentration camp-turned-museum not far from Krakow. It turns out that both of us were thinking the exact same thing: “But who on earth would ever come with me to see a concentration camp?” Well, it seems that we are that person for the other (awkward sentence… you understand what I mean though!). So, we found a reasonable flight from Paris and we’re going! Krakow is also apparently a beautiful city, so that’s going to be awesome. Bonus: we get to learn some Polish phrases and try them out!

But before I can continue my galavanting around Europe, I must start what I came here to do in the first place: SCHOOL. Vacation’s over. School is starting on Wednesday. I’ll be going around to the different departments tomorrow to check out the course offerings to make my schedule up and on Wednesday I’ll also be writing a placement test for DEFLE, the school I’ll be taking evening FSL (French as a Second Language) classes to improve my oral and written French. I’m a little nervous for all of this to start since I don’t know what to expect in terms of the school system. But, if I’ve learned anything in my 3 weeks here, it’s that I can adapt to whatever they throw at me. I’m ready! I think…

Anyway, below you’ll find some pictures of my trips and an extra one that has nothing to do with traveling, unless you count the fact that the parmesan cheese traveled with me all the way from Winnipeg (long story). It’s especially for Leanne and Alannah (and you’d thought I’d forgotten!).

The first three photos were all taken in San Sebastián while we were by the ocean. The next one is us walking up all those steps up the mountain, and then us on top of the mountain (Michelle is on the left and Carly is on the right in the picture of the 3 of us). Don’t the trees look like the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter? The next 3 were taken at the Guggenheim Museum—I thought the giant flower dog was kind of funny. After that, there’s my spaghetti dinner with the cheese, and after that all the pictures are from Paris. The grave is Oscar Wilde’s and there’s me eating my first Kebab (very popular Middle Eastern food here). Michelle has no arms because she’s pretending to be the Venus de Milo, and I’m pointing to the Mona Lisa, even though you can’t really tell. My expression is supposed to be saying “That’s what all the fuss is about?” In the next one, Carly is supporting the Eiffel Tower on the palms of her hands (I know, amazing feat!) and the last one is one of my favourite moments in Paris. We actually found a street called rue de Steinkerque!!! Imagine my surprise when I was looking on our map for the street where the Moulin Rouge is found, and I stumbled upon a street with my name in it! So, we tracked it down and took this picture. I was doing something kind of illegal in the picture, climbing on the gate to get closer to the sign, but shhh…. don’t tell the French police! (I don’t really think it’s that bad I guess, and we could always have played the foreigner card). Till next time!

one week down...

What a difference a few days can make! It’s now Friday, and things are so much better in terms of my homesickness and my settling in. I’m almost set now with appliances in my room. All I need now is a mini fridge, so I can stop using a bag hanging out my window as one. Laura got me a microwave and is getting me a hot plate to borrow (the one in the cuisinette is upstairs and it’s a little out of the way and I think I will eventually spill my pot full of whatever all over myself due to the obstacle course that is before me as I try to get back to my room). Michelle gave me some clothesline so I’ve hung that up in my room. I did laundry for the first time the other day and again today. I need to do a little bit at a time, because I don’t have that much line. It’s weird doing laundry in the sink, but it’s not too bad. I’ve realized that there are so many things I take for granted at home, like a washer and dryer and also an oven. I was thinking the other day of making a pizza, but unless I want to cook it in the mirowave, that’s a no-go…

My appetite has come back in full force now, which I’m grateful for. I’m trying new things all the time (mostly they’re desserts, bread, cheese and wine, which I make no apologies for: I’m in France!). The other day I tried a macaron, a Bordeaux (or France) specialty, and yesterday I tried a briochette, a pastry bun topped with melted butter and big sugar granules. Yesterday I bought my first cheese since I got here. For starters I’m trying Roquefort and Chèvre doux (mild goat cheese), which are both amazing and so cheap (2,00€ for a package that would normally cost around $7 or 8.00 at home!). The wine here is incredibly cheap, too: I bought a white wine from the coast of Gascogne for 1,15€, which is roughly $2.00 CDN. I’m still in disbelief that these things are so inexpensive, but I’m not complaining, that’s for sure! Baguettes are also my new favourite thing. Everyone makes sandwiches with them here. Mmm, baguettes!

I’ve been here now for 10 days, and it’s seemed like a very long 10 days. It’s been an emotional roller coaster, but I think I’m actually going to survive. It still hasn’t really sunk in that I’ll be here for 4 more months. I still feel kind of like I’m on vacation, exploring a new city and all. But I think once school starts, that will help to establish some routine in my life and I’ll feel less like I’m floating around. It has been a long process adapting to new things, and I know that it’s not over, but I’m excited that I’m actually in a country where I get to practise my French. I have no excuse not to.

Tomorrow, Michelle and I are going to Spain for the day with her friend Bertrand, who is French and lives in Bordeaux (you have to specify which area you live here, because there’s Bordeaux the city and then all the surrounding suburb areas. The university campus is actually spread out over Pessac, Talence, and Gradignan). He has a car, so that’s a bonus. It feels weird to say that I’m going to Spain “for the day”, but since it’s so close, it’s possible. I’ll tell you all about my day trip when I get back. Also next week, I may be going to England with Carly (another girl from UofW who just arrived) and Michelle (if she wants to come too). I think we’ll be leaving on Monday and return on the weekend. I would like to visit my penpal and see London, and since there’s still a week and a half until school starts, why not?

Slowly I’m buying little things for myself and room that I didn’t bring with me. I went out and bought some gerber daisies to liven up my room, but after 3 days they are looking so pitiful that I think I may need to throw them out (which sucks but I guess it is winter here; maybe I didn’t take care of them enough though). I bought a pan and a lid and a saladier (a salad bowl, aka a bigger bowl than what I had already) yesterday, along with a corkscrew and a little rubber dish for my soap that says “savon”. Prices here are comparable to prices in Winnipeg, except on taco kits, which are in the foreign food aisle (along with peanut butter!) and cost around 7 or 8,00€. One thing I’ve noticed here is you don’t see a lot of jumbo sizes like you do in Canada. They also like little packages of everything. It’s way cheaper to buy a pack of 10 of the little packages of kleenex (I bought one for 0,69€) than it is to buy a box.

Other peculiarities about this country: all the flushers for the toilet are either on top of the tank and you have to pull up or above the toilet and you have to push the button. I’ve also seen a few instances of a huge rectangular button to push. Bathroom stalls have full doors to the floor, too, and usually have a light switch in the stall. Most of the TP that’s sold in stores is coloured and scented, but in public washrooms as well as on campus here, the TP is white and unscented. There are no toilet seats anywhere on campus… pretty strange. OK, I’ve just written a whole paragraph about bathrooms. Something else unrelated to bathrooms: the stop signs here actually say “STOP”, but there are no four-way stop signs, because every intersection either has a roundabout or traffic lights.

Well, I think that’s all I have to say for my second official installment of my blog since I’ve been in France. I’ve included a couple of pictures: the first is a picture of the gutter system here (everything drains to the middle of the street); the second is for all my fellow Parking Authority coworkers (the paystations are almost the same! But a lot of people park half on the sidewalks too); the third one I just think is humourous. I saw it near the Jardin public (Public Garden) for people walking their dogs. The last one is in the Jardin public. It’s a huge park and I saw palm trees there! I think it’ll be a lot prettier in the spring. I’ll take some more pictures then. I just think it's neat that I’m in a place where palm trees can survive.’Til next time, then!

yikes

I apologize for the crazy appearance of the picture post... I still haven't gotten the hang of this whole blog thing. You get the idea though. Here's the picture of the cookie aisle, because apparently that one didn't want to work.

some pictures

The first few photos are just a few that I took around the campus.

There's lots of graffiti everywhere here. Apparently, the students don't like Sarkozy very much.

These pics were taken when I was with Laura in downtown Bordeaux on my second night. The building is the famed Grand Théâtre, and the dessert is called "fromage blanc aux pommes caramelisées." It was delicious! The reason it's in a little casserole is because we went to a restaurant called Cassolette which serves all its courses in these dishes. I'm definitely enjoying the food so far (but I haven't tried the wine yet unfortunately).

This picture is of the cookie/brownie aisle at Auchan, a grocery/department store kind of like Walmart or Zellers. I couldn't believe how many choices I had when buying cookies!

This is rue Ste-Catherine, a pedestrian-only street filled with shops, restaurants, and markets. Laura told me it's the longest of its kind in France.

Yes, there actually is a store called Jennyfer! I was pretty pumped about it! A lot of the stores here have English names (the funniest I've found so far is Athlete's Foot), and you can almost always hear English songs playing in the stores. It kind of makes le feel like I'm at home-- almost.

Here's my room. Is you can see, it's not super huge, but it's homey now that all my stuff is unpacked. The bag hanging from the window is actually vegetables; I'm using the outdoors as a makeshift fridge until I get a real one!

so i'm actually here

As I write this post, I’m sitting in my room eating biscottes (kind of like little Melba toasts) and “groseilles framboisées” jam, and I think I’ve finally come to the realization that I’m really, really in France. This is partly due to the fact that I’ve never eaten biscottes at home, and partly due to the fact that my homesickness is lessening every day.

How to describe my experience thus far? Well, I’ve been here 6 days now, and it’s been challenging to be here every single one of those days. The first day was the hardest, what with the jet lag and culture shock, and thank God I had my French friend Laura to help me out and take me everywhere. I can’t really say that the first couple of days were better or worse than I had expected, because I didn’t really know what to expect at all coming here. The first few days were full of firsts for me: first time taking the tram, first time in a French grocery store, first time ever in Europe (that one’s pretty significant I guess), etc. To sum up, I’ve been taken far from home, from everything familiar, and thrown into this new city with a different culture and a different language, and now I’m expected to live here for four months. And at first, four months seemed so very long. I immediately began the countdown until I’d be able to go back home, back to my own room, my couch, my kitchen, and my family and friends.

Amidst my homesickness, I was forced to do things, because there were (and still are) actually a lot of things to take care of, like getting a room (Laura was my spokesperson the first day), unpacking (which I didn’t really want to do at first, wanting to go back home and all), getting my student card, tram card, and a million other cards, getting a microwave and fridge (so far I have only the former), finding the kitchen (I found it after a couple of days one floor up; of course! Why didn’t I think of that?), buying food (which I also did not care to do, my appetite being virtually nonexistent until a couple of days ago), and many other tasks that were essential to getting settled. These things filled up the days and were also determinants for my mood. When something went well, I was happy, like when I got my laptop to connect to the Wifi internet at the Sirtaki restaurant. But when something went badly, like when my internet connection didn’t work at the same location the very nxt day (and still doesn’t…), I was ready to throw in the towel, except I couldn’t, so I just tried to deal with it.

You’re all probably feeling very sorry for me right now. Don’t. The first week has been tough, but I’m optimistic now that things will be okay. I will survive this. And besides, it’s not all horrrible! I’ve had a lot of really great experiences so far too (each day consists of both, for sure, and slowly but surely each successive day consists of more and more good experiences). Laura took me to downtown Bordeaux the first night, and my first thought as we got closer, was “Wow! Bordeuax is very European,” which may seem silly, but for me, I’ve only ever seen Europe on TV and in pictures. So to actually be here is very surreal. The small, narrow streets with motos and tiny cars parked on the sidewalks, the cafés and stores with apartments overtop all crammed together within an inch of their lives, the roundabouts with statues sitting on a mound of grass or cement in the middle (yesterday I saw one of a frog!), yes, they all really do exist!

The weather here is beautiful, and actually feels more like spring back home. I don’t think it’s gone below zero since I’ve got here, and it’s only rained a few times, mostly at night. Almost everything is green here and the leaves on the ground from some of the trees make it look more like fall than winter. It’s interesting. I just really like having my window open all the time (although it does cool off a bit at nighttime). The windows are neat: there are no screens, just shutters and the window panes that open up wide.

The campus itself, while like a ghost town on the weekends, is lively during the week and is actually quite big, although I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to explore it yet. Laura showed me around the first day a bit, and another girl, Michelle, from the UofW and on the same exchange I’m on, showed me more the other day when we met. Since I’m at Bordeaux 3, I’ll only be taking classes in buildings in the part of the campus closest to my residence. The entire campus is divided into Bordeaux 1, 3, and 4 (each school specialises in different faculties), and is about the size of the UofM campus. Bordeaux 2 is downtown I think. I live about a 5-min walk from the buildings where I’ll be having classes, so that’s a plus. My room is actually nice enough. There are more than enough cupboards and shelves for my stuff, and I have a desk and my own sink. The bathrooms (toilets and showers are in separate rooms) and kitchens (1 per 2 floors, equipped with sinks and hot plates ONLY) are communal, and there are a couple of study areas and a recreation room with ping pong tables, although I doubt that I’m going to spend much time in there…

I found out that I don’t start any of my classes until Jan. 30, so it turns out that I have a couple of weeks to fit some travelling in before then. Now all I need is someone to travel with. Like I said, I already have 2 friends here, and there are 2 more girls from UofW coming within the next week, which will be awesome to have more familiar faces around. I’ve met some new people through Laura and Michelle, both international students and French students. I also went to a church right down the street from me yesterday and it turns out the pastor is American and his 85-year-old mother from South Carolina was visiting and she doesn’t know a word of French, so I talked to her for awhile. I stayed after the service (which they call “le culte” here… Don’t worry though, I haven’t joined a cult) to eat lunch and I ended up meeting a guy on an exchange from U of California and a few other students studying at Bordeaux 3. I think I’m going to go back to this church next Sunday. I really liked it and although it’s a lot smaller than Soul Sanctuary (about 40-50 congregants) and we sing from a hymnal, I think it could be good.

In terms of understanding and getting along with the language, it’s challenging, but not too bad. I thought it would be harder for me to understand the accent, but it’s not hard at all. I just have trouble understanding things people say when they speak really fast and often have to ask them to repeat what they’ve said. I can see that getting a little frustrating, but I hope that with time, it will get easier. I’m excited that I get to practise my French, and I’ve even surprised myself with how much I know. When people are patient with me, that helps a lot. So far I’ve mostly been around people who either speak English or don’t mind me asking for grammatical corrections. While I spoke English for the first few days with Laura, we’ve gradually switched to French and I’m happy--- that’s what I’m here for anyway. I’m looking forward to school starting and to taking a French as a second language class too, which will improve my French a lot I think.

Well, I think that’s all I have to say for this post. I could write a lot more, but I need to cut myself off somewhere. I’ll try to write another post next weekend. Until then, hope everyone is doing well over there! Thank you to all who have written encouraging messages to me. I’m going to see if I can answer each one but I don’t know if I’ll have enough time this week (I might be going to England with Michelle!). I’ve posted some pictures of my room, the campus, the city, and other little things. I’ve described them above. Take care!

the countdown begins...

Well, actually the countdown officially began almost seven weeks ago. Back in November, it hit me that I'd be leaving in just a few, short weeks, and now it really hasn't sunk in that I'm leaving in just three short days. I really don't think I'm going to realize what's happening until I'm actually in Bordeaux, but until then, I'm doing the best I can with coping with all of these different emotions.

I have to say I've never done anything like this before. The longest I've ever been away from home is one month, and that time I was still in Canada. My summers working at Camp Cedarwood were longer-- 2 1/2 months-- but that doesn't really count, since I came home almost every weekend to spend the night. So, it's a very strange feeling to know that I'm leaving everything and especially every one I know for almost 5 months in order to experience life in a different country, culture and completely different language. While I have some ideas about what to expect while I'm there, I really don't know a lot of what's going to happen. Being someone who likes to plan out life and who doesn't especially like to "expect the unexpected", I think that this experience of living overseas will actually be really good for me (even though part of me says that I'm nuts for doing something like this!).

The past week has been very emotional, to the point that I can feel tears coming on at any given moment without warning. I know that leaving will be hard; I love my family and friends and actually don't think I appreciate them enough. Thank God that I have a few friends in Bordeaux already, otherwise I think I'd be even more homesick than I'm sure I'm going to be! There are 3 other girls from the UofW on the same exchange program as me. Two of the girls are already there, since they decided to go for the whole year. The other girl is going around the same time as I am. Having a few fellow Winnipeggers there will hopefully make it a little easier to transition. I also have one friend, Laura, whom I got to know really well when she was here in Winnipeg on the same exchange program last year. She even ended up living with Sarah and me for 4 months during the summer (she just didn't want to leave Winnipeg to back to France!). I'm so glad that I have a good friend who's going to be picking me up at the airport and who'll show me around her city like I showed her around mine. I'm especially glad that I'm already friends with a native French speaker so that I can practise the language without wondering if I'm speaking it right. I also hope to make more friends, although I've never tried to make friends by only speaking French before, so I guess we'll see how that goes!

Just to give you an idea of what my schedule for the first couple days of my trip is like, here's a rough outline, although really the only thing set in stone is my flight, and really even that is liable to change! On Monday, the 7th, I depart from Winnipeg at 10:45am, and after 2 layovers (in Toronto and Paris) and about 12 hours of flying, I arrive in Bordeaux at 2:30pm the following day. From there, Laura will pick me up and take me to campus I think, where I'll wait for a couple of hours until Michelle gets out of class to meet me. Michelle is one of the other girls from Winnipeg who's there right now. Kristin is the other one, but she's actually back in Winnipeg for the holidays, and she's been kind enough to let me stay in her room for a couple of nights until I get my room situation all sorted out. Anyway, Michelle has the key to Kristin's room, so I can throw all of my luggage in there and then do something for a little while until I'm too exhausted to think anymore (that's what I assume will happen; I've never actually had jet leg before!) and I'll go to bed. After that, I have no idea what'll happen. I'll keep you all posted though. Hey, I just made a pun without even intending to! Hehe aren't you all going to miss me?

I'm going to try to update this blog at least once a week, so you can check back regularly if you want to see what I'm up to over in France. Like I've said before, I won't be doing mass email updates, so if you want to know what's going on in my life for the next 5 months, this will be the place to find out. Not that I won't reply to emails if you send me one out of the blue though...

Well, that's about all I have to say for this post. I have to finish packing today (even though I'm pretty much done) and then I'm supposed to go skating with Sarah (my roommate, for those of you who don't know). I've wanted to go skating for awhile now, and this is my last chance! Thanks for reading this far and I'll let you all know when I get to Bordeaux safe and sound!

À bientôt! (That's French for "see you later", or in this case it works as "talk to you later"). Bye!