Kebabs!

First of all, today was a long day. 


Second, I'm extremely glad I bought that 12-25 discount card for trains.


Third, kebabs are awesome.


Fourth, I can't wait 'til Mommy and Dan come visit!


Alright. I had 5 hours of class today. All the same class, not 4 or 5 different classes. And it was really 3 hours of class, a break for an hour and a half, and then two more hours.  It was tiring but somehow I actually survived. Yay!  I don't think classes are going to be bad at all. I'm just glad I can comprehend people a lot better now than I could when I first got to France. Though, there was the guy at the bus stop tonight... I'll get to that in a minute.


So today after classes Jennifer and I went down to the train station to get train tickets to Paris and also train tickets to go to Toulouse tomorrow. The art history class is required to go, but anyone can tag along if they want.  I decided I want.  Some girls told me it wasn't cheap, 46 euros for a round-trip (hey, that's not that bad if you ask me) but it turns out that since I bought a discount card I got my round-trip ticket for 30 euros. And then the train to Paris was 33 euros. I feel like that was a huge bargain.  Turns out tickets are definitely cheaper if you buy them with a 12-25 card, and in the actual station (online the cost for the round-trip tickets to Toulouse on the same trains are 40 euros).  I'm taking my first ever train ride tomorrow! I have to leave at 7:30 in the morning and I have Jennifer's tickets so I can't be late (Jennifer is actually in the art history class. She has to be there).


So we actually managed to find that kebab place today. It was awesome. Positively excellent. Stephanie and Jennifer stood there looking at the menu and I knew neither of them would know what was good (and neither would I) so I asked the guy at the counter, what's the best thing on the menu? And he told me. And asked if we wanted three of them. So that's what we got. They were just regular kebab sandwich things, with lettuce, tomatoes, onion and kebab meat, and then he asked us each what sauce we wanted.  Stephanie and Jennifer got mayonnaise and ketchup (respectively) and I decided to try the traditional stuff rather than the American condiments, and I had this weird red picante sauce. It was very, very good. Nice and spicy, too. We also got a decent-sized pile of fries. We only payed 4,50 euros for the whole thing. It was such a good deal, and so delicious.  (If you don't know how kebabs work, they thinly slice the meat off of something that looks like this and stuff a pita-type bread full of the meat and other ingredients. So good.)


So, now that I've bought my ticket to Paris I can't wait to go!  Well, I couldn't wait to go before either but now I'm even more excited. I get out of class at 16h30 and the train leaves at 17h36 so I think I'll have plenty of time. Jennifer didn't buy her ticket yet because she didn't have enough money on her at the time (and somehow I feel like she might not even buy one? But it'll be okay with me if she doesn't).  And I can't wait to show Mom and Dan around Pau.  I think there are places here that they'd really like. I'm going to ask my host family if it'd be okay to invite them over for dinner one night, something tells me my host parents would like that.  Also, Dear Mom: I need to know what day you guys are leaving France, please, and I have Wednesday afternoons (after 11am) completely free if we want to try to go to the French Basque country (and the beach).  I'm so excited!


In the bus stop downtown, understandably, there are always some very questionable characters hanging around. It's a little unavoidable because the last bus from the university leaves at 19h49 and the last bus from town leaves at 20h26 so it gives me a little more room for doing things in town with friends...  Tonight there was this weird guy with a euro-mohawk there, he had two manga books and he asked me for cigarettes. I told him I don't have any, I don't smoke.  He decided to sit down next to me to read his manga books (after he offered to sell them to me for 5 euros) and he popped open his beer and talked to himself a little. I was singing because I decided I don't care what French people think, and after a few minutes he interrupted me to ask me what my name is, tell me I have a pretty voice, and ask me where I'm from. I know I shouldn't talk to people like that but oh well. I talked to him until the bus came.  He wasn't there to catch the bus though, he was just there for who knows what reason, so thankfully he didn't follow me home or anything.


I would like to thank my mommy's friends Char, Tammy, Stacy and Kim for the cards (though they probably don't read this. I decided it's the thought that counts).


Also, in regards to numbers and times.... In European numbers, the comma and decimal are reversed. When I talk about 4,50 euros for a kebab, that's 4.50.  When I say there are 5.000 people somewhere, that's 5,000. Also, in France time is written, for example, 10h00 rather than 10:00 (the h stands for "heures" or hours, of course) on a 24 hour clock.  I'm probably going to be writing my times and numbers like that from now on so there's your explanation for that.

Is it Friday yet?

Yesterday we finally got our student ID cards for the University of Pau, and I put 20 euros on mine so that I can use it in the school vending machines. I never have change. That's the only place I know to find a good espresso...  And yea, they're little tiny cups and they cost 40 cents but I don't think that's horribly priced.


We got half the day off today because it's a Sports Day on campus where a bunch of different activities were giving demonstrations. We went to where they had a tightrope walking demonstration and then they would let you walk on the rope. Why do we not have this at BSU...?  It was really cool.  (I should have tried it. I don't know why I didn't. I watched Catalina try it though.)


(I'm about to talk about food again...) There's this place on campus called La Vague (the wave) where you can go for lunch and it costs 3,05 euros and they give you a lot of good food, it's a really good value.  You get an entree plate, and then you can also take a dessert (which is usually yogurt or a little thing of grapes or something like that) and a side (which is usually a little thing of shredded carrots, or couscous, or a hard-boiled egg, or something simple like that).  Yesterday for our entree plate we had some decent raviolis and a big pile of green beans, today they had dark meat turkey cooked in some sort of red sauce (it was good) and steamed potatoes.  Actually they typically have two different choices for entree plates.  Yesterday along with the raviolis they also had some kind of fish with sauce, and along with green beans they had plain penne pasta.  You can have either green beans, penne pasta, or a little of both (for example).  I've been pretty happy with most of the stuff I've gotten from there.


Jennifer and I need to go buy tickets to Paris now that we have our class schedules... We're not going to be able to leave until probably 6pm... It's going to be no fun.


I could really go for some of that pizza we had in San Sebastian. I don't suppose they deliver this far....

Can I talk about food again?

Bleh. I'm already tired of classes. I'm sure I'll get over it but right now I don't feel like it...  It's so hot here.  Supposedly, when the (late) autumn actually starts, it rains a lot. I love rain, that'll be cool with me. If it never gets really cold here, going home might be a shock after all.  I guess a couple weeks of cold/snow will be nice before I go to Spain though... That feels like it's so far away....  In reality, I'll only be here for 12 more weeks (no, I haven't been counting down the days, I just did a quick count just now). Wow, 12 weeks? Really?  With a week and a half off for "fall break."  I just started classes though!  I guess they really mean it when they say "intensive" classes...


I want Mexican food. I looked at the "foreign foods" section in the grocery store (granted it was the little grocery store, not the big one) and they barely have anything in the way of Mexican food.  Though, they still have way more Old El Paso stuff than I've ever seen in once place at home.  I would totally offer to make my host family dinner, and then make them burritos or something... But I think I'd be too worried they wouldn't like it...  It'd be so different from what they're used to eating.  (They'd need an appetizer, bread with the meal, fancy French cheese afterwards, those just don't go with burritos...)  Just like, I wish I could make a big pot of soup but they don't eat soup as a meal. They eat it as an appetizer.  Besides, I think the ingredients for the stuff I would want to make would be too expensive because they are foreign foods....


I don't really know. What I do know is that it's almost dinner time and I'm starving, I hope we get to eat soon.


Also... My friend gave me all the songs from the new Lady Antebellum CD. I love Lady Antebellum....

Emotions...

You know, the French see things different...


I told my host parents about how, before I came, I was warned by so many people that French people do not like Americans.  My host family didn't get that at all. My host dad said that the biggest impression most French people have about Americans is from the World Wars, when America saved everyone's butts.  He said he doesn't see why anyone would particularly not like Americans unless they'd had bad personal experiences with them.


The two of them told me about how, a while back when they were flying to some South American country, they had a long layover in New York City. And they were just shocked by the things they saw. People were so helpful. They'd see families going to pick up family members with balloons that say things like "We Love You" and "Welcome Home Daddy" and that kind of thing was very different to them, because in France you don't show your emotions openly.  They said they think it is just that many French people are afraid of being ridiculed, and taking balloons or signs that openly display your emotions would definitely get you ridiculed.


My host parents said that overall they just find Americans to be big babies (with good connotations): always smiling and laughing, always in a good mood. They envy the ability that Americans have to be friendly and (as I said before) to be unafraid to show emotions.  I guess I'm glad they have that impression of Americans.  I'm sure we are all aware that there are very narrow-minded Americans out there who are probably not quite so friendly.


I've been observing French people though (after all that's what I'm here for) and they just do so many things different than we do.  I normally wouldn't think to say hello to the bus driver when I get on the bus, or to say goodbye when I get off. You literally get off the bus halfway back -- nowhere near the driver.  Also, when they come home in the evening or whatever and someone else is home, they always say hello to them to let them know who it is and that they're there (I don't know why but for some reason this seems strange to me, so when I get home I specifically go find someone and say hello rather than just calling out to the house in general).


And then there's the whole concept of the "bise," the commonly known (and commonly practiced) French greeting where two people kiss each other once on each cheek as a greeting.  Most people do this the first time they see each other every single day.  The concept of shaking hands or just giving hugs is pretty strange to them -- also they think our hug is the equivalent of their bise.  But we don't hug people we are just meeting for the first time, and we don't hug everyone we know every day when we see them.  I think a combination of handshakes and hugs is more equivalent to the bise, one being more formal than the other.  I don't know.  I just think it's strange that, to us a kiss on the cheek is definitely reserved for people you are close to, but we are the ones who openly show emotions more easily than French people.


French culture. That's what I wanted. I'm definitely getting it.


Oh and one last thing: I'm not sure they find it acceptable to go around singing... It makes me afraid to do so.

First day of classes

I don't like trying to type blog posts at school because I have to use my iPod and I can't do any formatting. However, I have two hours of free time and I didn't really post yesterday.


So my classes started today. It's very interesting. It's so amazing to me that two people with different origins and backgrounds can communicate via this second language that both are still learning. In my group there are people from Venezuela, Bolivia, China, Korea (yes, I am generalizing. He only said he's Korean, not the north or south part), Japan, Greece, Poland, Niger... People who don't speak English. I had a decently long conversation with one of the Polish girls. And no one has the option of explaining what they want to say in their own language like they would have had in language classes at home.


I have a "media" elective class where they mix people from 3 different language levels. You can really tell who is in which level though. It seems to me like those placement exams were fairly efficient. But the 3 levels in the class are still advanced enough that we can all for the most part understand each other, I just think it'll be harder for some to clearly understand and express themselves... I feel like we're going to be spending a lot of time in the same class every week but I guess that's all for the best... These classes aren't going to be too bad. I hope.


I thought maybe I should talk about food a little, for Alyssa. Did you know that in France they have every flavor of yogurt imaginable? I had pistachio yogurt, chocolate, caramel, someone found coffee flavored yogurt... I swear, if you just look hard enough I bet you could find anything. And it's yogurt, not pudding. I love pistachio yogurt....


I am going to post more later because this is so hard to type on, but there's a little update for you.

I got mail.

Dear Mommy:
I got a card in the mail from one of your Salem friends. It was a very nice card. I like getting mail.
As for this whole care package thing we discussed, I could really use some plain hypoallergenic earrings. They don't have them here and I'm not about to go buy three pairs of expensive earrings. So that would be nice, please.
I can't remember what else I had in mind. If I remember I'll email or text you.
Love, Angie.

I'm bored.

Hello. Welcome to my Sunday. I don't have much to do today, and there's no one online to talk to, and I have homework that I'm avoiding. That's pretty much all there is to it.  I can't wait until my literature class drops to only once a week so that we actually have time to do our homework between classes.  I just did half of my homework (which took forever) and now I still have the rest to do. Yay, intensive French courses!


So, this weekend I had my first taste of French ice cream. In Bayonne, there was a little ice cream shop across from the chocolate shop that we'd been at (oh dear, chocolate is another story entirely. I'll get to that next) and I got some violet flavored ice cream. It was really good. Unexpectedly good.  Who ever thought of eating violets? Yesterday, on our way home from San Sebastian, we stopped in Saint Jean de Luz, a French beach town, and we found an ice cream shop there too. I had pistachio ice cream, coffee ice cream, and strawberry ice cream. All very good.  I still need to find Georgio's blue ice cream truck here in Pau, because it supposedly has the best ice cream in the entire town. I guess I need to get into town at the right times... I think I'll be in class at the "right time" tomorrow, which is sad because it sounds so good.


Alright, about the chocolate. Bayonne used to have 35 chocolate shops. They used to have more chocolate shops in Bayonne than in all of Belgium, at one point. Now, supposedly there are only 5 really good chocolate shops left, and 4 of them are all on the same street.  Of the three that were pointed out to us, one has a store in Pau so we decided not to go there. We did go to a shop though, called Paries, that created a kind of kanougas which are "the best caramels in the world" (according to some New York press) so I had to buy some of those. They are delicious.  Then we went across the street to another shop, Chocolat Cazenave, that does this frothed hot chocolate drink that's really famous, a chocolat mousseux.   That was extremely delicious too. I'm glad it's not in Pau, because it was definitely not cheap.


Yes, I just talked a ton about food again. I'm thinking maybe I should continue.  I just thought of a couple new things to talk about.


When we were in Bayonne, our program paid for our lunch (I guess technically we paid the program to pay for our lunch).  We went to a Basque restaurant called Le Victor Hugo.  It was, of course, a French Basque meal so it was the typical three-course lunch.  This lovely restaurant gave me the first salad I've had in France that I actually liked.  It had three separate-but-equal-sized piles of lettuce, shredded carrots, thinly sliced cucumbers and sliced tomatoes.  I normally do not like cucumbers but they were very good in this salad (the tomatoes not so much).  I'm not sure what it was about the salad that I liked but I do know it was something to do with the dressing. Can't any French person make a decent salad dressing?   The second (main) course of the meal was a piece of chicken (skin + bone included) which I couldn't eat very well because I can't pull chicken off a bone with a fork and knife, a ball of rice and a red sauce that had probably tomato, onion and red bell peppers cooked in it.  That was very good. And then for dessert we got this cake thingy, I don't really know how to describe it because I don't know what it was.  It was good though.


The next day for lunch, they also paid for that (kind of) but apparently Spain doesn't have large cafes that can seat 50 people, like France does. So they gave us each 10 euros to spend on lunch.  Jennifer, Susanne, Schyler and I found a Spanish restaurant called "La Vaca" (The Cow) where they had burgers and sandwiches and such.  It was a very interesting place. Susanne got a Spanish tortilla on a sandwich (and I had to explain to her that a Spanish tortilla is more like a potato omelet, not a flat piece of cooked flour/corn dough) which looked pretty good, Sky got a burger that I didn't even see because it disappeared too fast, Jennifer got a weird sandwich with this flat piece of pork, a cooked piece of red bell pepper, and some "local cheese" that she let me taste, it was interesting. I got a delicious sandwich with bacon (European bacon is VERY different), green bell pepper, mushrooms and cheese, all cooked and melted together, in a long baguette-shaped sandwich.  It was delicious, and then there was "ketchup" on the table that Jennifer, Susanne and I put on our sandwiches, but it didn't taste like American ketchup at all, it actually reminded me of Arby's special sauce.  It was really good.  It's sad that it's in Spain, because we all said we'd definitely go back if we could.


There. I just wrote another entire post about nothing but food (and a little bit of school talk, I suppose).  I told my host mom I'd probably go for a walk or a jog or something today, but it's so hot and I had forgotten I had homework, so I might as well just stay and do homework.  Yay, homework!  Tomorrow the IEFE (Institut d'Etudes Françaises pour Etudiants Etrangers, or Institute of French Study for Foreign Students) is buying us breakfast and putting us into our groups based on level of French (as decided by placement tests) and I think they're going to try to encourage us to get to know our group. Then I think we get our French schedules, and I'm pretty sure language classes start Wednesday or Thursday.


On a final note: I use parenthesis a lot (maybe I'm better at explaining things that way).