Sunday, January 23, 2011

First day of school, and a giant sand dune!

california girls :)

on top of la Dune du Pyla/the world!

la Dune du Pyla

I knew at some point I would actually have to face the fact that I am living in France not only to meet cool people, see beautiful places, and eat delicious food...but to study. Zut. My first week of classes was a labyrinth of confusing schedules and very daunting literature assignments, but luckily I think everything has sorted itself out and I now have a tentative schedule of: The Retellings of Tristan and Isolde, French Literature- Proust, French Political Culture, Art History (XIX century),  and Methodology. I am taking Tristan and Isolde, Methodology, and Art History at the University of Bordeaux main campus (taught in french by french teachers with french students), and the remaining classes I am taking at DEFLE (French as a second language school), which is a part of University of Bordeaux. Fear not though, I am definitely still finding time to explore Bordeaux and all of its treasures! Yesterday my French friend Joris and I went to Arcachon, which is a beautiful little beach town an hour-long drive towards the coast. Although it was chilly (ONE DEGREE CELSIUS, I MISS ME SOME CALIFORNIA SUNSHINE!), it was absolutely gorgeous! We climbed up this massive sand dune, la Dune du Pyla, which is a stunning 3 km long and made up of 60 million cubic meters of sand (don't you just love the metric system?). This little day trip got me super excited to start traveling and exploring different parts of France...and also was the inspiration to buy my plane tickets to Barcelona in February! I suppose at some point I will have to do some homework, but until then I will just be eating cheese, wearing scarves, and planning my next adventure!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Hearts and livers and brains, oh my!

Just a petite update on my first official week in Bordeaux- the city is absolutely beautiful! The buildings are ancient and all lit up at night and it's just spectacular. There are literally remnants of castles hanging out in the middle of streets...it's like Disneyland, but real!! So far I have had a week of Intensive Language Program, which is just as fun as it sounds...but I have a great teacher and the other day she brought in a bottle of wine to to teach us the proper way to taste a wine (vital French knowledge, apparently). Speaking of tasting, the food here is MAGNIFIQUE. Every night for dinner my host mom Nathalie makes magic happen in the kitchen...the highlights so far have been cress soup (some sort of winter vegetable?), duck hearts (surprisingly good), tomatoes provencal, fresh bread, cheeeeeese, and for dessert white cheese with sugar and fruit. I could get used to this :) There are, of course, the occasional culinary curve-balls...such as sheep's brain, which I politely declined last night at dinner. As a recovering vegetarian, I have to ease into organs slowly. On Sunday we went to my friend Coral's host family's house for lunch and it was, in short, a 4 hour food extravaganza featuring champagne, pâté, little sausages, cabbage and potato soup, pasta, chicken, green beans, cauliflower casserole, cheese, bread, 2 different types of pear tarts, and of course many bottles of red wine and good company. The French definitely know how to do meals! I guess it makes up for their completely nonsensical grammar rules...

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Au revoir Paris, bonjour Bordeaux!

So much has happened since I left the states a few weeks ago...where to begin! I'll start with the plane ride from Sac-Chicago-Paris, fairly uneventful but completely sleepless, which put me in Paris somewhat disoriented and starving. Luckily Taylor was waiting for me at baggage claim with fresh croissants, apples, and some yogurt to keep us going during our epic trek back to downtown Paris. After a lot of walking around cobblestones with my INSANELY HEAVY luggage (WHY DID I PACK SO MUCH MOM?!?), we found our hotel (La Cluny Sorbonne), which was in the latin quarter. After one night there, we somehow managed to find Samantha's apartment on Rue Oberkampf (not Rue République..damn french street signs), where we met up with Sam, her boyfriend Julio, and my friends from high school Becky, and Lorenzo. New Years Eve we went to Sacre Coeur for a hazy but beautiful view of the city of lights! Quelle bonne année! The next few days Taylor and I rose early and covered Paris by foot, metro, and sometimes sheer will power, knowing that we were about to eat a crêpe. We saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, le Centre Pompidou, l'Arc de Triomphe, le Champs Elysées, Père Lachaise, la Tour Eiffel, Sacre Coeur, the flea markets at Clignancourt,  with many allotted pitstops for a café crème or a croque monsieur (a grilled cheese and ham sandwich). Perhaps the best part of Paris was meeting up with the Redfords, a family that we know from McClatchy days. One night we met up with them and had a DELICIOUS meal at Café Stella, where we had a gajillion course meal that included steak tartar, 2 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of champagne, escargots (the verdict- damn good!), smoked salmon, frites (fancy french fries), and desserts that literally blew my mind. I'm full just typing it. The night before I left Paris we went to the incredible apartment that the Redfords are renting a block away from Notre Dame and proceeded to eat and drink until we were just barely able to roll ourselves to Sacre Coeur for another view of the city. Needless to say, I was very sad to leave Paris but now that I am in Bordeaux I think I will be very happy here :)




My host family in Bordeaux is adorable: Henri Etcheber is a oceanic science professor at Université de Bordeaux 1, and looks a bit like Dumbledore. Nathalie, his wife, also works at Bordeaux 1 and calls me "ma chère" (my darling). Renaud is their son who is my age, and is really funny. He spent a summer in San Diego working so he understands my need for them to speak at a ridiculously slow pace so that I can actually understand a word they say. But so far so good! The other housemate is a GIGANTIC cat, who puts Marge's girth to shame. They are super welcoming and I feel very at home in my cute room. Today all the students in the EAP program met at University of Bordeaux 3 for orientation, where we got waay too many packets of french grammar. The Intensive Language Program starts tomorrow morning at 8.30 and goes until next week to make sure that we are able to handle French courses at the university. A très bientot!