Food anyone...?

This is going to be dedicated solely to food today.


So there's this Mexican restaurant downtown... I love Mexican food, and I miss it. I would love to go to this place for lunch one day or something, just to try it out. Supposedly it's really good, because it's actually owned and run by Mexicans.  The problem is that it's expensive because a Mexican restaurant is a rarity in France, and none of my friends would want to go for dinner and no one else has time to go for lunch... I only want to go once though...  I'm not sure what to do about this...


Jennifer and I have been to 4 kebab restaurants in the last 2 or 3 weeks and we've decided we're going to start rating all the kebab places we go to. The place in Carcassonne had really good meat. I think the place we went to last night had my favorite sauce so far. The first place we went to had good service (we don't really remember the food enough, we've decided we're going to have to make a repeat trip). The second place we went to, I didn't really like.  Out of the other three, I'm pretty sure all of them had good fries.  The other thing we decided to rate based on was composition of the actual sandwich but at this point I'm not sure which one did that best. The one in Carcassonne was generous with meat but the veggies were all squished to the bottom, the one we went to last night might have been a little light on the meat but the veggies were distributed a lot better...  You get the point, right?  So far all of the places we've been to have been fairly good... Now, if I could just have the meat from that one, and the sauce from that one, and the sandwich type/bread from that one, and the fries from that one, I'd be happy.  Kebabs are so good, what am I going to do without them?  I need to move somewhere that has kebabs in the States, I think...


I found a new poison, in the vending machines at school. There's this drink, the brand is Oasis, it's a strawberry-raspberry drink in a can (non-carbonated) and it's soooo good.  I bet I won't be able to find it at home. This is what sucks about coming here, all these things that I like that I won't have at home!


Not to mention the other night my host mom made this really good... stuff.  It was white rice with a sauce on it. And the sauce had big pieces of meat, and also little pieces of bacon, and I could taste that it had mustard in it, I don't know what else was in it. It seemed kind of sweet. That's one I might have to ask her for, because it was very good. Also, several weeks ago we had sausage and lentils and that was very, very good.


I'm so hungry.

Photo albums...

All my photo album links should now be working.

Post.

I haven't posted in the last three days... I'm sorry. I just haven't been in a very good mood and I don't want to post things that come off sounding too sad or something.


Aside from that, I haven't been doing much in the last 3 days either.  Learning French. That's about it. A lot of people who are here are deciding to stay for an extra semester because they like it here. I'm kind of glad I'm going to Spain next. I don't like it here. It's cool and stuff but I'm already done with it.  I feel like I've been here long enough already.  The next couple weeks should pass quickly enough though because I'm going to London and then Mom and Dan are coming, and then I only have to be here for a little while longer. It'll work out fine.  I can't wait for it to finally be "winter" because it'll be a bit cooler and we'll have the rain...


So, now I don't know what else to write about. Let's see. Last night I went to Stephanie's dorm for dinner and we made spaghetti. She asked me if we should use the alfredo sauce, or the marinara sauce, and you should have seen the look on her face when I suggested we use them both.  Guess she's never tried that...  I mixed them together and we used them and we actually ended up having barely enough sauce, so I guess we kind of needed to mix them.  It was a very nice dinner.  And then when it was time for me to go, it was already like 9pm so I was going to have to walk home. Stephanie decided she was going to walk me home because she didn't want me walking an hour in the dark. I told her she wasn't allowed to because I'd be fine and besides, if she walks me home she'll be walking back in the dark. She said we'd find someone to go with us. So she asked three different people who all said they were busy or already in their pajamas, and then she went to ask Elizabeth, who had her neighbor over. And Elizabeth asked her neighbor, who had a car, if he could just drive me home.  So some French guy drove me home last night, it was very nice of him.


What else...  I got a package in the mail yesterday, packages are cool... Uhhh...  My class today, which is normally at 9am, got changed to 1pm, so I get the morning to do whatever. So far it's been spent sleeping and typing a blog post. It's only 10, who knows what'll happen next. I'll probably go into town early anyways and see if I can find something to do there. I think I need to go to the post office anyways.


Alright. That's it for now. I'll try to find something to post about for tomorrow.

Pictures

Forgot to mention... My father pointed out to me that the picture links are all broken, I am working on fixing that, don't worry...

Gavarnie

I didn't post yesterday... Because I didn't feel like posting yesterday... I thought about just posting a message saying I wasn't going to write anything but I didn't feel like doing that either...


The buses were back up after two days of strikes. No problems with that anymore.  Today we took a trip with USAC and got home really late, so I ended up walking home again.  Google said I should be able to walk that in 47 minutes and it always took me a lot longer, so I wanted to see if I could walk home faster than Google said I could. I got home in 40 minutes.  Not bad, but I had to speed-walk and I was pretty exhausted...


Gavarnie is beautiful. One of the prettiest places in France, supposedly. It's just this little tiny town in the middle of the Pyrenees mountain range.  We ate some special local stew at a restaurant in Gavarnie and then we took this long hike into the Pyrenees to look at one of the tallest waterfalls in Europe.  I was a little unhappy with myself.  It was so beautiful. I forgot my camera at home.  Also, that hike was exhausting.  Which is why I was exhausted speed-walking home.  I've gotten so much exercise today...


One more week and I get to go on my fall break. I am not going to be any more rested then than I am now, thanks to our week-long trip to London... But oh well. It'll be fun. And at least we'll be able to sleep in if we really want to...  Though Jennifer has us booked at a hostel in a 21-person room.  I am not sure if I will like that.   I hope it's quiet. I guess we'll have to see what it's like when we get there.  They're supposed to give us free breakfast and stuff...  Hope it's worth it.


I'm so tired...


And I miss my best friend...

I can't remember...

I've forgotten everything I was going to post today.


I got a card from Grandma. A card from Heather.  A card from Kelly.  Thank you all very much.  I go by the USAC office every day to check for mail, because I have nothing better to do.  Now I'm waiting for a box, I guess.


I got a new student ID card because I already lost the first one. The USAC office told me I'd have to pay 10 euros for it, but the foreign students office didn't charge me so I guess my program's office was mistaken...


My host dad is excited to speak American to my mother. He wants to surprise her with how good his American is.  Don't tell him I told you that, it's supposed to be a surprise.  They've both warned me that normally when they have dinners with friends or family, they can spend up to 3 or 4 hours at the table and that they think their last host student's mom got really bored and annoyed with being at the table for so long, especially since not a lot of Americans eat at the table I guess....


So when they were talking about speaking American, and my host dad said something about how when my family is here, he can speak American with them, etc. and my host mom said something along the lines of, well you don't speak Spanish to Angie, she speaks some Spanish, don't you Angie?  And then he started to talk to me in Spanish and... my brain exploded.  My brain is thinking in French! And it's an English brain!  Do you know how hard it is to translate French to Spanish in an English brain?!  I could understand him but I was drawing blanks on how to respond. It wasn't very nice of them.  I have a feeling it might be similar to that next semester when I first get to Spain. My brain will think in French before it thinks in Spanish...  I have been studying them both at the same time for 4 years and have never had a problem with that, but I think pretty soon I will.  I can't wait for the day when I can say things without having to think too hard about what I want to say.  Well I can already sometimes do that in French but there are still things I have to think about or backtrack on.  I'll get the hang of this, I'm sure...  I wish I could take on a couple more languages... But maybe I should fluently learn the ones I've already got first.


I hope Mom and Dan will survive in Paris without me that first day.... Just remember, guys.  Pickpockets... Especially on a crowded metro (and particularly metro line 1), if you have a bag or anything hold it in front of you on the metro...  And a surprisingly small number of people in Paris know English (especially compared to Carcassonne. I was shocked).  Before you get too far from the airport, find somewhere to grab a metro map...  Those are super useful...  I found the metro pretty easy to navigate as long as you know where you're going.  I know you guys aren't even going to be here for another three weeks but still.


Also wanted to let my mommy know that all French people are far more aggressive as drivers and you'll probably have to be equally aggressive or you won't be going anywhere. Also, French people don't really follow speed limits...


Alright. I'm out of things to say for now. Bye bye!!

(insert title here)

You want to know what I love about France? Every city I've been in up to this point has had either a river or a bay.  There's water everywhere! I love water (I get that from my mom).  It's too bad I can't go play in it. When I get the chance, I will upload my pictures of all the pretty fishies that I saw in the bay in San Sebastian. I'm not sure how to, though.  I took the pictures on my iPod.  Another thing I like about France?  The public transportation system and how easy it is to use. (Until everyone goes on strike and then you have to walk.)  It's so nice to be able to jump on a train with a ticket that you got for a fairly decent price and go where you want to go. Likewise, it's nice that when I need to go downtown I can just flash a bus driver my bus pass, which I pay 15 euros monthly for, and get a quick ride downtown.


It's going to be really weird going back to the US. Right now, I'm so used to having to formulate in my head what I need to say in French if I'm going into a store or up to a counter to ask about something.  Even when I was thinking forward to our London trip, I was thinking about how we were going to have to go somewhere (I don't remember where) to ask about something, and I was trying to decide the best way to say that in French. Until I realized that in London they speak English.


I can't wait for this week to be over. And then after that, I can't wait for next week to be over. And then I get my fall break. Yay!

My new part-time job.

Did you know I have 22 and a half hours of French class each week? It's like a part-time job...  And then I get to come home and talk to my host parents in French too. Like a job that follows you home!  I thought only some full-time jobs did that...  I'm so tired.


Today, there was a bus strike. Well I'm not really sure what the strike was on, someone said it was just a strike in town right in front of the bus depot so none of the buses could get out to run their routes. I saw a couple buses later on in the night.  I hope the strike is out of the way tomorrow at least, the website says that they expect at least 60% of routes to be running.  This is no fun. This morning my host mom generously drove me to school and then I walked home at 8pm. It takes an hour to walk home!


I asked my host mom if it'd be okay to invite my mom and brother to dinner here while they're in Pau. She said it was fine, but the last time one of their host students invited her mother to eat dinner with the family it was awkward and she sensed that the girl's mother was a little annoyed, because French people like to spend a lot of time at the dinner table talking, particularly when they have guests, and she said she thinks most Americans aren't used to that because most don't even eat at the table at all. We talked about what day would be best for dinner, and then we talked about renting cars and the non-existence of automatic cars in France and the autoroute from Paris to Pau.  Mom, I hope you know that highways in France are toll highways.  And that the autoroute between Bordeaux and Pau is supposed to be one of the most expensive roads in France.

I hate titles.

I'm pretty sure, just in this last week or so, my teacher has chosen me as one of her "favorites."  She always wants me to read stuff, and she always asks me to write stuff on the board because I write "pretty," and today she told the class that as of today I'm going to talk more because we talked about it last Friday.  And how it's too bad that I don't talk more because participation is part of our grades and I speak well, etc.  I'm trying, alright?  It's just hard for me to talk.  Believe it or not, I'm shy.  Today we had 3 French students who want to be French teachers sit in on our classes. I don't know if that was just for today, or for forever.  Fine with me though, I thought it was nice having them there.


There's a "notice of a strike" all over the buses and I'm not really sure what it means. I asked my host parents and they don't know either.  The website for the buses says that due to filed notice of a strike between 11/10 (October 11th) and 31/12 (December 31st), bus routes could be... perturbed.  Does that word mean the same in English as it does in French?  Give me a second, I'm going to look it up.  Okay I think it means almost the same thing... Close enough.  The bus routes may have to change a little to accommodate for the strike, perhaps?  I just hope it's not an all-out bus strike... I have no way to get to school and it takes an hour, walking. Trust me, I walked home yesterday. Eep.


Luckily, this weekend we have a USAC trip to the Pyrenees, the weekend after that starts our autumn break and then I'm going to London for a week, and then the weekend after I get back from London I'm going to Paris to get my mommy.  I really think that's all going to make classes seem to pass a lot quicker, because I'm going to always be busy....  Busy is good! Right?

Carcassonne

Carcassonne was amazing, to sum it all up.  We got there, couldn't find the hotel I'd researched, so we found a park and utilized France's convenient thing called free wifi.  Alright, it's not as easy as it sounds.  There's a cell phone company in France called SFR.  SFR has free wifi in a lot of different places, the only thing about it is that you have to make an SFR log-in. I believe in order to make an SFR log-in you have to have a French bank account. However, other students before us who have gone through the trouble of doing this have passed on their log-ins to all the rest of us so that we can use this free wifi if we need to. (This is especially useful to those in the dorms, they don't have internet at all there.)  We sat down in a park and Jennifer used SFR free wifi on her iPad to find the hotel we wanted to stay in.


We dropped our things off at the hotel (wasn't the best hotel in the world but oh well) and the guy at the front desk gave us a map and showed us how to get up to the fortress and castle from where we were.  That was where we immediately headed.  It wasn't too long of a walk.  We got there and before we even got into the little city inside the fortress, we found the outer fortress wall.  There's the nice big gap between the inner fortress wall that encloses the city, and the lower outer fortress wall.  Both the inner wall and outer wall have walkways along the top and holes for gunners/archers (I'm not sure which it was at the time).  We found some old stone steps and climbed up to walk along the outer fortress wall.


I guess the thing I really liked about the fortress at Carcassonne is that it wasn't staged. All the other places we'd visited had been staged to show you certain different aspects of how the people in the castle lived.  This place was left raw, as it was.  There were no signs all over the place saying "THIS IS THIS."  There were no safety ropes keeping you from touching things that were hundreds of years old. Some places where there were enormous holes in the ground had metal doors keeping you out but they looked like they'd already been part of the castle anyways, all the had to do was add a modern lock.  The view from those higher walkways was amazing. (I need to find a new adjective...)


After we finally got our heads out of the clouds, we went into the actual city.  This place was also very neat.  There were tons of little souvenir-type shops, and they had such cool things. I had to stop and go in every single one of them. I'm a little upset, I appear to have lost my really cool picture of the candy shop.  I have to admit, I did buy a few souvenirs...


After we got done shopping we explored the area between the outer and inner wall again, and then we headed back down to the actual town... We found a pretty little bridge over the river and sat there as the sun set, just because it was pretty.  We went back to our hotel, dropped off our purchases, and then went out to find food. (We actually managed to find another kebab place, those kebabs were better than any others we'd had but I wasn't hungry enough to eat it all. It was very sad.)  After we ate, it was dark enough to walk back to the bridges and take pictures of the fortress and castle and footbridge in lights.  My pictures didn't turn out the best but it was still a very pretty sight to see.  (Also, Jennifer thought I was insane because I was in a good mood and running everywhere we went. She just wanted to walk.  Poor Jennifer.)


Our hotel was not the best, but it got the job done and that's all we could ask for, for 45 euros.  The room was clean, the toilet was down the hall and we shared it with the other people who had cheap rooms. We had a shower in our room though.  Two twin beds, Jennifer's was horribly hard. I guess I made a lucky pick.  She didn't really get much sleep.  In the morning we went to the Monoprix there -- we don't have one in Pau and Jennifer had never been.  We bought waffles and went back to that pretty little bridge and sat with our feet over the water trying to decide what to do. In the end we decided to go home early.  We went to the train station and caught a train 6 hours before our scheduled return train.


All in all, it was very nice.  I loved Carcassonne. I'm glad we went, even if Jennifer thought it was a little on the expensive side.


I have pictures from Carcassonne already posted, please check the sidebar.

FRIDAY

I think I made a mistake.  Today, in my French class, we were doing some exercises and the teacher was coming around and checking our work as we were doing it.  And she told me mine was parfait.  Everyone else had tons of problems.  Then we got to the part where we were going to correct them together, she sent me to the board. And told me I get to be the teacher.  Then I got to read the sentences out loud with my answers, tell why I chose those answers, and then write them on the board for spelling purposes.  She said it was because I have good handwriting but she was probably only saying that for the class's sake... I feel like she's going to target me from now on... I don't want to always be the one giving answers.


Jennifer and I changed our minds. We're going to Carcassonne this weekend instead of Biarritz.  Carcassonne is supposed to be really pretty, I need to charge my camera.  We don't have a place to stay the night but I'm sure we'll find one. I hope. That probably sounds really bad...  We'll manage, don't worry.


Jennifer said I have to blog about my bus experience today.  We were on a crowded bus going downtown, and Jennifer was sitting in a seat behind me and I was turned around to talk to her.  And then this weird old guy standing in the aisle right next to me started asking me something, and I honestly have no idea what he was saying. Then some younger guy standing behind Jennifer told him that I don't speak French, I speak English and I said that no, I speak a little French. And then the old guy next to me said something again and I really couldn't understand him and I said, well I speak French but I have no idea what you're asking me. And then he said something probably about 10 times that sounded like "omelet" and I said, I don't understand.  Then he gave up.  It was pretty amusing I guess but it was so odd. I don't know what you're saying! Crazy person.  The people around us thought it was pretty funny too so I'm glad I could be there to entertain them.

Oops.

I didn't write again yesterday. Sorry about that. I need to stay on top of it.  I just didn't really have a lot to say, I went to school and that was uneventful, and then I came home.  It rained last night. I talked to Alyssa on Skype. It's supposed to rain today, and be cold and clammy all weekend. Jennifer and I are thinking of taking the train to the beach tomorrow.


I've only got about two more weeks before break, and then I'm headed to London. I can't wait for that.  It'll be a lot of fun. Especially since the next weekend I get to go find my mom in Paris. I'm trying to stay busy. I have 11 weekends left here and I now have plans for I think 8 of them. There are a couple places I'd like to go and I think I can squeeze them in, I just need to plan well.  Beach this weekend, Pyrenees with USAC next weekend, London the two weekends after that, Paris the weekend after that...


And I definitely think that when I go to Spain for my semester there, I'm going to drag a few of the friends I make there back up here to France to visit.  I also feel like it's going to be so difficult to go to Spain and speak Spanish to everyone after I've spent a semester absorbing French. It'll be fun.  I'm going to audit a Spanish class here so I at least keep that Spanish stuff in my mind.


Anyways, I'm going to go to school now. Yay, it's Friday!

Food?

I didn't post yesterday. Sorry.  Yesterday was my long day. My busy day. My first class starts at 9 in the morning and my last class ends at 19h30 and by the time I get home I'm exhausted. In contrast to my long Tuesdays, Wednesdays are my short days. I have one class, from 9 to 11, and then I'm free to do whatever I want... I didn't think it was necessary to go home that early, so I went downtown and walked around a bit. My feet hurt so bad, I was wearing my tie-up shoes, which have heels...  I think I'm going to be wearing those until it starts getting cold so I'm sure I'll get used to it.  I don't like wearing tennis shoes all the time, I feel so out of place... No one wears tennis shoes.


So, there was a specific someone who mentioned that all I ever talk about is food. Well I just want you to know, food is a big part of French culture. When you go to a foreign country, after you're done 'seeing the sights,' what is there left to do but talk to the people and eat the food?  You might have seen everything, but there's no way you've tasted everything.  And for some reason, I feel that with Americans it's even more important to see and taste all the food in another country, because the United States doesn't really have its own food culture. We borrow food from other cultures.  I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that -- I love "American" cuisine.  It's just that here I'm in a country that has spent so much focus and so many years building up this food culture to be what it is today.  True, they borrow things from other countries too, like the kebab place I went to or the falafel places I want to visit, but they're still pretty unique to me when I've never seen anything like that.


As such, I think I'll talk about food a little now.. Just a little, not a lot.  I have been told by quite a few people that Georgio's ice cream van is the best ice cream in Pau.  It's not always very easy to find though.  Today, I found it.  And I got a cone with banana ice cream on the bottom, strawberry ice cream next and then pistachio ice cream on the bottom.  I think this stuff was fresh-made, it really seemed like it... It was delicious.  I ate all the pistachio ice cream on it's own and then I ate the strawberry and banana together (I'm a genius). It was definitely worth it.


I also toured the castle of Pau today. You know, the castle where Henri IV, king of France was born.  Yes, that one.  You hear about Henri IV a lot here in Pau.  Supposedly, the castle here in Pau has the biggest tapestry collection in all of France, or something.  It's a nice castle. Really big. And three floors. Remember how I said my feet hurt....?


I'm tired. I've probably been staying up too late. I think I need to go places on the weekend more. Travel to the local places that I can go to.  Avignon is supposed to be pretty, Lourdes too.  And I'd really like to make it to the beach in Biarritz.  I don't think I can find anyone who wants to go somewhere every weekend though.  I just think we need to do it. We only have 12 or 11 more weeks here. At least 5 of those weekends, I already have plans.  (Two in London, one in Paris, another in the Pyrenees and I don't know where the other one is supposed to be but it's a program trip.)  If I don't get my butt moving and actually go to these places, I'm going to run out of time...  Some people are going to Avignon this weekend, I might tag along with them.  I don't really know.


I added a couple things to my sidebar -- first of all, a follow-by-email thing down under the actual followers thing.  Second, my mailing address.  

Longggg Days

Good news!  The postal service works.  I got two more cards today. Thank you, Nani and Karen.  I love getting mail!  Also, Nani:  I'm jealous of you guys going to Olive Garden. I would love some Olive Garden right about now.


So today I lost my student ID card. You know, the one I just got last week. I keep it in the pocket with my bus pass and my bus pass has a rubbery-type cover thing. I'm thinking that it stuck to my bus pass when I went to pull it out before getting on the bus this morning, and then it probably fell on the ground.  I did check the ground by the bus stop on my way home this afternoon but I didn't see it... Hopefully someone picked it up and will turn it in to the Faculte des Lettres building in the IEFE office... I'll check tomorrow. I think it only had about 10 euros on it.


I'm starting to like my class. Right now we're just reviewing grammar a lot, and of course grammar is my very favorite.  Today my teacher actually called me to the board to write the answers to homework questions as people read them out.... We get two types of homework in my classes. The kind that we have to do and turn in, and the kind that we just do and then talk about in class. This was the kind that we were just talking about in class, and I didn't do it (shame on me).  It was the kind of assignment where they give you a sentence with an un-conjugated verb and you have to fill in the blank with the conjugation.  She had me writing the correct answer on the board as each person read a different sentence out loud with their answer. It's good that I'm quick at that, it was easy stuff.  Also, the building is a bit behind on the times and I got to write all the answers on the chalkboard. I think I like chalkboards better than whiteboards...


Now, asides from writing on chalkboards.... I want you to know that McDonald's in France has bendy straws -- also, two-story McDonalds' are common. Teenagers in France cannot get their driver's licenses until they are 18 years old -- they can drive with their parents at 16.  Domino's only sells sandwiches at lunch, they do not sell pasta at all. Domino's also sells beer and wine (even for delivery).  They have a lot more "side" options than the Domino's in the states.  (You can look at the Domino's menu for yourself if you'd like, it's at http://dominos.fr.  It is in French, if you use Google Chrome as a web browser you can translate it.)  Korean people do not bother distinguishing whether they are from North Korea or South Korea, to them they are just Korean (I know people who would always get on my case for saying just 'Korea' but honestly the Koreans themselves even do it).  What else do I want you to know, hmmm...  If you are in the crosswalk in France and the light turns green, the cars will go.  They might just go slowly to not hit you but they will get as close to you as possible if you don't move.   Restaurants in France actually do close between 2pm and 7pm (give or take an hour or two depending on the restaurant) -- no one eats at that time. Ever.  French people talk to their cats and dogs. Often.  Most French dogs are small breeds but I have seen a good number of retrievers and pit bull mixes and I even saw a pretty rottweiler Saturday.  French food is good, Basque and Spanish food are better (so far. I've only had a little bit of Basque and Spanish food yet though).  In southern France (or at least in this town), it supposedly rains all winter.  I brought an umbrella.  There is no such thing as a one-stop-shop in France. (Sorry, no wal-marts.)  I never actually thought about what kind of things are considered "pharmacy" products but if you need toothpaste or soap, you go to the pharmacy.  Pharmacies are very different in France.  You go there for general care products, but you also go there for advice.  If you have a cold, you go the pharmacy. The pharmacist will either give you drugs to get better, or advise you to see a real doctor if he thinks it's bad enough.  You always go to the pharmacist first here (it's cheaper, not that money at a doctor's office is an issue because if you go to the doctor without insurance, you pay the doctor twenty-some euros up front and a little more later if you end up needing more than just an general exam and a prescription but all-in-all it's not expensive. No hundred-dollar doctor bills).  I think that's all I want you to know right now. I can't think of anything else.


Tomorrow is my longest day of the week, followed by my shortest day of the week. I think I'll survive it just fine.  I can't wait until the semester is over because I can't wait to go home, but I don't think it'll drag on forever because luckily my classes are not unbearable.  I'm glad I'm not horribly homesick. There are just certain little things I miss. I miss my cat. I miss my phone. I miss the food.  I miss my bed.  Stuff that I can get by just fine without, but still.  They said November is when most American students get homesick because that's when it starts raining. Every day.  I can't wait.  I love rain.

Toulouse!

So, as before stated, I went to Toulouse today. Nothing overly exciting, but it was fun.


I rode a train for the first time in my life though!  You want to know the best part about the train ride?  We passed an Ikea!  Alright that wasn't the very best part but it was pretty cool.  I spotted it and then we all talked about how awesome Ikea is for maybe 15 minutes.  We got a compartment to ourselves (rather than the cars that just have rows of seats) so we got to be as loud as we wanted. It was so much fun.  We probably stopped in every town possible between Pau and Toulouse. On the way home we only stopped two places.  Also, for some reason we stopped in the middle of the tracks on the way there and just sat there for half an hour.  And they told us, for our safety, not to try to get off the train.  I can't wait to ride the high-speed train, it's going to be super fun! The train today was so slow... Though, on the high-speed train we have assigned seating so I'll probably not get a nice compartment.


So, Toulouse. Pretty city. I guess my host parents are actually going to Toulouse tomorrow to see their son Julien.  I kinda stuck with the art history class as their teacher led them all over the dang city to look at the architectural structures of churches. I got a couple pictures, they're not too terribly exciting... I'll put them on the sidebar, look for "Toulouse."  I was just there for the sights so I didn't really listen to what their teacher was saying....   He was surprised that we were hungry when we got off the train and asked for a lunch break (oh come on, we were on the train from 8 to 11) but he did give us half an hour to find lunch. He showed us the pretty river and then dragged us to two giant churches and he even got us free admittance to the crypt at the second one because we are "history of art" students.


The first church we went to was enormous, and also was a former monastery, so I have some really nice pictures of the gardens and such, and then the high Gothic ceilings.  The second church was Roman rather than Gothic, and I didn't take a lot of pictures there.


And then we rode the train home, got to town around 18h45. I kind of had no time to find dinner but we went and got dinner anyways. Okay, I'll admit it! We went to McDonald's. I hadn't been to one in France yet and I heard it was different, I wanted to see for myself. We were going to the French fast food restaurant, called "Quick Quality Burgers" but we weren't sure where it was.  I missed the bus from the university but I grabbed the bus to downtown and then from there took the bus home. I love my bus pass.  And getting home is so complicated for me but hey at least I didn't have to take a cab...  So expensive.


Pretty decent day, all in all. Tomorrow I have the house to myself and I probably just get to spend time doing tons of homework. Yay!