(no subject)
I walked around Bordeaux today. It's very pretty-- old restored buildings and streets lit up with christmas lights (which i assume are only for the holidays? not sure).
However, the classes here are kind of awful. They start at 9am-- every morning I have 3 hours of French grammar classes (which are boring, and this is coming from the freak who actually likes studying grammar), a lunch break, and then 2 hours of "Conversation Workshop" in the afternoon. Today was the first day of the conversation workshop, which was actually fun-- we had to solve a murder mystery in which we were all suspects with assigned characters (yes, I know, sucked into the world of RPGs even in France...)
Overall, I think the general feeling of the group is that we're already ready to move on to Paris-- with the early classes in Bordeaux, we can't really do much at night, and so I at least constantly find myself doing nothing in my room, rather than out exploring the city. Tonight, I decided to venture out by myself for a little while just to get out, which was nice. I got a better sense of how where I lived connected with the rest of the city, and peeked into the windows of different shops. It's funny, some of the stores in the central shopping area of Bordeaux make me forget that I'm in France and think that I'm in the Westchester-- it makes me wonder what the stores were like 20 years ago, there was probably a lot more of a variety then. The only shops I couldn't resist walking into were the patisseries-- from their windows alone were the most incredible desserts! Boulangeries are also very tempting-- you just walk by and smell the fresh bread baking and melt.
Tomorrow, we take a group field trip to Dordogne, a town near Bordeaux, where there are apparently a number of castles that we will explore. While it sounds interesting and exciting, we unfortunately have to meet at 7:45am-- which means I have to get up no later than 6:30 or 7.
Even though I feel kind of ready to move on to bigger and greater things, Bordeaux kind of has a homey feel that is somewhat comforting. I know by next weekend, when I have to pack up everything again and board yet another airplane, I'll wonder where the time went. Also, I'm definitely going to miss this free wireless internet-- I'm getting so spoiled!
However, the classes here are kind of awful. They start at 9am-- every morning I have 3 hours of French grammar classes (which are boring, and this is coming from the freak who actually likes studying grammar), a lunch break, and then 2 hours of "Conversation Workshop" in the afternoon. Today was the first day of the conversation workshop, which was actually fun-- we had to solve a murder mystery in which we were all suspects with assigned characters (yes, I know, sucked into the world of RPGs even in France...)
Overall, I think the general feeling of the group is that we're already ready to move on to Paris-- with the early classes in Bordeaux, we can't really do much at night, and so I at least constantly find myself doing nothing in my room, rather than out exploring the city. Tonight, I decided to venture out by myself for a little while just to get out, which was nice. I got a better sense of how where I lived connected with the rest of the city, and peeked into the windows of different shops. It's funny, some of the stores in the central shopping area of Bordeaux make me forget that I'm in France and think that I'm in the Westchester-- it makes me wonder what the stores were like 20 years ago, there was probably a lot more of a variety then. The only shops I couldn't resist walking into were the patisseries-- from their windows alone were the most incredible desserts! Boulangeries are also very tempting-- you just walk by and smell the fresh bread baking and melt.
Tomorrow, we take a group field trip to Dordogne, a town near Bordeaux, where there are apparently a number of castles that we will explore. While it sounds interesting and exciting, we unfortunately have to meet at 7:45am-- which means I have to get up no later than 6:30 or 7.
Even though I feel kind of ready to move on to bigger and greater things, Bordeaux kind of has a homey feel that is somewhat comforting. I know by next weekend, when I have to pack up everything again and board yet another airplane, I'll wonder where the time went. Also, I'm definitely going to miss this free wireless internet-- I'm getting so spoiled!