Advertisement
Published: January 24th 2008
Hello everyone!!!
I am so sorry it has taken so long for me to update you all on my time so far. The computer situation is a bit difficult right now. To use some of the computers and WiFi on campus we need our student id number and password, but we don’t have those yet…kind of dumb. There is a room of computers that you don’t need an id or password, but the computers are really old and half of them don’t work, the keyboards are different than in the US, and it smells really bad. Oh and my current host-mom doesn’t have the internet, and I can’t even use my computer because it uses too much electricity and is too expensive (I’m changing families, which I’ll get to in a bit). So for now I’ll try to give a brief overview of all that I’ve done in the week-plus that I’ve been here.
On Thursday, the 10th we flew out of GR to Detroit, then to Amsterdam, then to Toulouse where our professor rented a van to drive us two hours to Perpignan. None of us had really slept on the planes so the drive from Toulouse was the only sleep we had in about a day. We met our host families at the train station and went to our homes. I was pretty tired so I took a nap for a few hours, woke up did a little reading and went back to sleep for the night.
The next day, we met our professor at the university for an afternoon in the city. He took us to get cell phones. It really was wonderful having him there with us. Then we kind of wandered around the city for a while. We ate dinner at a really nice restaurant where we all had our first glass of legal wine. This was also where I ended up LOSING my camera (thanks mom for buying me another one and sending it to me…LOVE YOU!!!!!!).
Sunday, was the best day ever. We met Professor Pichot at 10 in the morning to go down the Mediterranean Coast. We first stopped at Canet, which is really close to Perpignan (there’s actually a bus that runs back and forth from Perpignan…we’ll be there a lot). It was really nice. Standing on the beach we had the Mediterranean Sea on one side and the Pyrenees mountains on the other. We left Canet and drove to Collioure, which is my absolute favorite place so far…it even beats Paris! Its right on the border between France and Spain, which also makes it nestled in the Pyrenees. Part of the town is built into the mountains and part of it is next to the sea. There is a old Majorcan castle from the 13th century. We didn’t go in, but we wandered around the outside for a long time. There is also a cathedral from around the same time as the castle. It was just really beautiful to see a castle, church, and town practically IN the Mediterranean. We had lunch here and I had my first dinner crepe (ham, egg, and cheese)…delicious. We had all left our coats in the van, which we nicknamed La Bete (the beast), but regretted that decision as soon as we sat in the shade and had the wind coming at us from all directions. But it was still beautiful. After we finished eating, Ashley and I decided to take a walk to warm ourselves up. We walked along some of the residential streets with beautiful three story buildings surrounding us. The colors were seriously amazing: there were pinks, oranges, yellows, and blues all around us. Eventually we had to leave, which leads me to my new life plan (its been added to as the week had gone by). I am going to find a cute French boy who lives in Collioure (or any cute European who will relocate to Collioure); he will drive a moped or one of those really tiny two person cars like in Just Married; he will run a restaurant and I will teach English to the locals. Sound good? I sure do like it, I’ll at least put my French and International Studies to use. Our next destination was a town in Spain. To get there we had to cross through the mountains. The roads were so tiny and winding that we all were getting nauseous. Pichot eventually had to stop so we could rest. When we got to Roses it was late afternoon and everything was closed before dinner. We were all tired, hungry, nauseous, and needed a bathroom, so I don’t think we really appreciated Roses (but there was a really nice sunset over the Mediterranean!). We drove back to Perpignan to get dinner…this time by the highway.
Monday we had our placement test at 8:30 in the morning. It was in two parts: a written part and an oral part. They weren’t too difficult, I was definitely more nervous for the oral part though. We didn’t find out how we did until Friday. I place into level 4 out of 6 (the last two mean you are practically fluent). One of the other girls, Becca, is in my level, so that will be nice to have someone with me. Level 4 also has the least number of classes out of all the levels…hooray! Monday evening we met with Pichot for the last time…he flew back home Tuesday morning. He took us to the train station to help us figure out plans for our first trip. We decided to go to Paris! Only three of us actually decided to go, the other two wanted to stay here and get to know the city better. After we bought our tickets and whatnot, Pichot took us to a really nice restaurant. It is in the old part of town in this really cool old gray stone building with high arching windows. It almost looks like it could have been a cathedral. Most of us had pizza, and all of us had dessert. I had my first crème brulee…I want a crème brulee kit for when I’m back in the states now.
Tuesday, Ashley, Libby, and I left for Paris. We took the TGV. It wasn’t highspeed until after Marseille, but it was a nice scenic ride the entire time. We got to the Gare de Lyon around 7pm and headed to find our hotel. We were amazed to be in Paris, we ended up using la place de la Bastille as the landmark to find our hotel. Caitlin, I did use your map you gave me, but I kept forgetting to check my email for the name of the hostel and the other girls were a bit apprehensive about a hostel on our first trip away from Perpignan…but next time, I promise! After we checked in and dropped our bags off we got dinner at Subway and went to find Notre Dame. Notre Dame at night is amazing. I wish we could have gone in, but we’ll be back sometime.
Wednesday, we got up a little early, had breakfast and headed out for the day. Our plan was to see as much as we could. We first headed to the Louvre. We didn’t actually go in but we hung out in the courtyard and took lots of pictures. We did go under the pyramid into the shopping area. At a kids store I bought Babar, en francais. After the Louvre we went in search of a place to eat lunch. We settled on a boulangerie where we all got sandwiches. Then we went to the Musee d’Orsay. This time we actually did go in, but really all we wanted to see was the impressionist collection, which was very big and very impressive. At the giftshop here I bought Le Petit Prince en francais, I can’t wait to read it again. Once we left the Musee d’Orsay, we walked towards the Champs Elysees. We walked down the road to l’Arc de Triomphe. I was in awe when I stood underneath it, and I think for the first time I really understood Napoleon’s might. This Arc really shows his power, and that’s what he wanted it to do. From l’Arc de Triomphe, made our way to la Tour Eiffel. I know it is so stereotypically French, but really it trumps all other monuments. To imagine how Eiffel designed something like this and to imagine how it was built…it just hurts your head. We sat underneath it for a while and were twice accosted by women who wanted us to help their babies in Bosnia…they were not all Bosnian. They went through a list of languages. The first time we made the mistake of answering yes to “do you speak English.” The second time, we said no to English, French, Spanish, Hungarian, and Indian. Indian? Really? At this time we were so tired from walking all day that we took to metro back to our hotel and were watching TV at 8 at night. Yes, we go to Paris and turn in at 8…we’re really cool if you couldn’t tell already.
Thursday we woke up to catch our 11:30 am train back to Perpignan. We just went home once our train arrived.
Friday we had to be back at school for our test results and we just ended up hanging out downtown the rest of the day. We found the H&M and another nice cheap store.
Saturday, we met for lunch at le Quick downtown (fast-food burger place). We then took the bus to the Palais des Rois de Majorque (Palace of Majorcan Kings). It was free that day and we went inside. My first castle and I was certainly not disappointed. There were many rooms and little passageways to explore. There was even a tower from which you could see all of Perpignan, even the Mediterranean AND Collioure. Perpignan is seriously surrounded by mountains; every direction you look, you see mountains. The spiral stairs up to it were scary though. After the Palais we went back into the city and had desert crepes. Amazing. The buses here stop running around 8 pm, so we can’t really stay out super late.
Through all of this: the Coast, Paris, and Palais des Rois de Majorque, I had no camera…I earned the nickname Forgetty for that one.
Sunday, I had lunch with Ashley’s family, which was great. It was a nice refreshing change from my family situation. I could really understand the mom and dad and even the kids (13 year old twin boy and girl) weren’t too bad. Then we went to Libby’s house to exchange pictures.
Finally, on to my family situation. I don’t like it, and I’m changing families. So hold off on sending me anything until I give you all my new address (hopefully soon). It’s just me and my host-mom, Martine. She is really nice, so I’ve been struggling with leaving because I don’t want to hurt her feelings. But some of the rules are ridiculous (I have to take five minute showers because water is too expensive and the whole computer thing). And it’s kind of lonely/awkward. After 15 or so years of just living with one other person, I was kind of looking forward to other people being around too. I guess, I’m just not comfortable here.
Ok, so I guess that’s about it for now. I hope that I’ll be able to update more regularly soon. And eventually I’ll get pictures up, once we can access the WiFi.
I miss you all and love you all (although I’m really proud that I’m not too homesick yet…no offense!) You guys can all email me and let me know what’s going on with you…I don’t now when I’ll get to it, but I’ll try.
Update (I wrote all the above a few days before the following paragraphs, but I left them the same because I didn’t want to change it):
I have a new family!!! Hooray! It feels great to be over with, I’ve been dreading the change for days (mostly the telling Madame Bassereau that I’m leaving…and I had reason to worry). This morning, the move was finalized with the university and my new family. I moved to the De Cecco family (they were assigned to another girl, but she ended up not coming). After classes, I went back to the apartment to pack. Becca came with me to help me…and serve as a buffer. When we got there, I told Madame Bassereau that I was leaving. She was not happy. I think mostly that I didn’t tell her earlier, but what was I supposed to tell her? I suppose I wanted to leave and have it be super awkward. Yeah right, I don’t do awkward. So that was a lot of fun…In short, she was upset and I started to cry…the first time of my time here. I was doing so well. The De Cecco family was going to get me at 5pm. Madame Bassereau had to leave a little after 4, therefore, Becca and I had to sit in the cold with a really strong wind coming from all directions. So not even cool, but major props to Becca for sticking it out with me!
So now I’m here, and only a little worse for the wear. Its another cute little apartment. There’s another student here too, so I won’t be lonely. She’s in high school and I think she’s from Germany, but maybe Spain, the two countries were mentioned in the same sentence. AND there’s internet….so all my concerns have been taken care of in one fell swoop: no crazy restrictions on shower time; not only can I use my computer, but there’s internet; and there’s more than one person. I don’t think the apartment is too far from the university, I think I still walk there, but I haven’t been able to find it on the map yet. But the best thing of all is that there’s a CAT!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!! His name is Milo (only you have to say the ‘I’ like an ‘e’, that’s how the French do it. He’s a super large gray cat. The only thing is he’s not really friendly I think. He’s either mean or scared, the latter I think. I wasn’t sure if they were saying I should be scared or if he is scared. All should be good from here on out now. My camera will hopefully be here soon and I have the internet so I can fix my stupid computer and play games and watch movies and put the few pictures I have on facebook. Did I mention that I have the internet? Update on Milo: they were definitely telling me I should be scared of him. I touched one hair and he kept hissing at me until I left the room...I'll have fun with this though.
Ok, so I guess that should do for now, you are all basically caught up. The next time something cool happens I'll update, I might try to put pictures on too.......If there's anything you guys want to know about let me know and I'll try to write about it. I miss you all bunches!!!!!!!!!
Freya
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0495s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Laura Masko
non-member comment
So I take it you were impressed by the impressionist paintings?!?! Haha, oh, I crack myself up sometimes. Anywho, I'm glad to hear you're having a great time! It's a bummer about the first host mom, but this sounds like a better situation for you. I can't wait to see pictures and hear more!