Toulouse continued.
So where was I? I find it much more difficult to write when things have actually happened. When there's something truly interesting going on in my life, well I suck at documenting it. I find it far easiser to go into great and exuberant detail about the mundane. Maybe I feel like there's too much pressure. Not sure. In any event. Every time I start talking about France I inevitably begin speaking only of food. I am trying to eat as many croissants and pain au chocolat as I can before I leave this country. Bah, there's just so much to say I don't where to begin, so uh....some pictures of Paris!
These signs were up all around the Sorbonne. I hope you saw them Vincent!
I love this one.
Clémentine and I are watching these wierd magic show/circus on TV. There was this crazy guy who could do flips and balance all his weight on one arm. I just had this milk straight from a farm, and Jenna! You would have LOVED it! It basically tasted like ice cream. It was sooo good.
I can't remember what I wrote in the last entry. Yes, I could just check but I am too lazy. Clémentine drives a Renault that's very old and often stalls in cold weather when we go around corners. She smokes little cigarettes she rolls herself and she is OBSESSED with coffee. It is the greatest! Of course the coffee she makes is so strong, I fill half the cup with milk and it's still dark brown. But I love it, at least three times a day she'll ask me if I'd like a cup. And the tea she makes is extraordinary. The best we had was a mint tea that I think was some kind of Arabian tea. Really good.
Her two cats are called Borris and Gao. Gao is named after a city in Africa. They are both very sweet and fight each other for the chair in the sun. And she calls them her "Bébé d'amour" Hearing baby-animal talk in another language is pretty much awesome. She has a boyfriend who lives just south of Paris and gets up at five o'clock in the morning to do archery. Her job is something to do with teaching airline pilots or flight engineers? It sounds cool. She also sculpts. And loves to read! Her house is really lovely. It's fairly big, with a kitchen downstairs connected to a dining room, connected to a little sitting room on the front of the house. THere's lots of sunlight during the day becuase there are windows all around and sheer orange curtains that the light comes through. The house is decorated very red-orange on the downstairs. With a red and purple painting on the wall and a photo of the dhali-lama. Lots of paintings with bright swathes of color in abstract patches. And fresh tulips right now! Red and yellow tulips on the kitchen table. There are real wooden shutters on the windows that she opens and closes every morning and night. There's something about that that I love. It really signifies the beginning and end of the day. There is a little garden around the house and a metal front gate. Her neighborhood is only a twenty minute walk from my school.
I take classes with just my group of eleven other SIT students, who are all from different American universities. One kid from Oberlin, two girls from schools in California, two girls from Williams, two girls from Macalaster college... etc. It's nice, we're all really similar types of people (I mean it makes sense, since we're all doing this spesific program) but still, our overarching life goals and views are similar so it's nice. There's one kid who makes me laugh so hard becuase, well he's a funny kid, but he this is the first time in his life that he's learning French and we've dubbed him the loud American in the group. He's from Tennessee and he has this habit of pronouncing French words in the MOST American way possible and it makes me laugh. so HARD. We were at this boulangerie/patisserie and they had some special kind of pastry they were adverising, something like 'galletes frange-pain' I don't thikn that's right at all but the way Peter says it, is the most nasal, least French thing ever, oh my god it's so hilarious. "GAl-Ette FrANGE PAN." I dont even know. Peter lives right down the street from me, and *his* family has SEVEN children. I was so jealous when I found out, and he was jealous of my situation. He's like 'I'll take one lady over TEN KIDS any day!' The number kept increasing every time he talked about it. But the house is literally the size of a hotel. It takes up half the block. HE says he hasn't even seen the top two floors because they're all just bedrooms.
ANyway, our classes are in the Science/Medical buildings for the University of Toulouse and they're actually really beautiful. Old red brick buildings. Here is a picture I took and you can see the school through the trees.
It's right next to a garden which is going to be gorgeous in the spring. And the other day while we were walking to school through the garden there was a TRUE rooster, crowing the rooster crow. Very random. The building is very old and falling apart in random places. It has lots of courtyards and in order to get to the odd little room where there are computers, you have to cross through this musty garden courtyard with a murky fishpond that has long been devoid of fish. And the other day there were peacocks wandering around when we turned the corner. What is it with studying abroad and peacocks? I'm seeing some kind of trend here.
I am so happy to be in French class again. I really missed it. We have class every day from 8:30 to 12:45, which is WAY early for me compared to last semster. But it's nice to be awake at the beginning of the day and finished so early. We have two hours f speaking class and two hours of grammar. Our speaking teacher is amazing, his name is Jean Pierre/Pedro and he's Brazilian/French/was born on a tiny island off the coast of South Africa. He is FULL of life! He speaks incredibly fast and has wonderful expressions, which is good becuase it makes it easier to understand what he's saying ,because he acts out so much of it. Then on Fridays we have music/history/culture random Frenchness. We've only had a week of class so far but anyway it seems promising.
Oh! And the first day here Clémentine took me to rent a bicycle! It is red and has a basket!!! I am so excited because I've always wanted to ride bicycles places but there's no where in Rochester and I'm too scared in Boston. I ride it to school! (when it's not raining) It's wierd though because you just act like a car. It can be pretty terrifying. There's also a beautiful canal, five minutes from our neighborhood andI went running there today.
Alright I should probably wrap it up for now, because I'm using Clementine's computer. But first here area few more pictures of Toulouse.
OK! I will write again very soon! I still have many adventures to recount, such as Elizabeth interacting withFrench dinner party and American students MEET French students and pose awkward questions. Today I saw a lady walking down the street with a real cigarette holder! HA!
oh! And I almost forgot, toolish self portrait!! (that's right, it was taken at the Louvre:
ok bye.