Oh Champs Élysées

Last night we were fortunate enough to watch Miss France in the hotel room. The boys actually picked out the winner before she won. Very impressive. Then I passed out from the exhaustion of the day.

After a lovely sleep we gathered to take the metro to Paris.

Paris is much different in the winter time. There are way fewer tourists, and of course everything is dressed up for Christmas.

We went up the Arc de Triomphe and just did a bit of shopping. After the intense day in Disneyland, we weren’t up for anything too aggressive. Actually, we went to Starbucks AND McDonald’s…so American…I’m almost ashamed, although I’d just like to say that the Canadian and Swede made me do it.

 As always, Paris is beautiful, busy, and Paris.

Disney Pogo

Today, or yesterday rather, we set out on a grand adventure. It started with a rather large group of international students meeting at a restaurant for a lovely meal. After dinner we split off into groups. Those of us with luggage, and those of us without luggage.

I was in the group with luggage. Why were we hauling luggage throughout Bordeaux? Because we were going to Disneyland!

The adventure started with everyone meeting up downtown at midnight to catch two charter buses that would take us to Disneyland! Of course the buses were late, and we were standing in the cold for a while, but that didn’t slow down my jolly spirit.

The fun things about long French bus rides, is that the bus driver unions mandate that we must stop every 3 hours in order to do what the French love (smoke and drink coffee). Another fun thing is that there are about six toll booths from Bordeaux to Paris. This means, that when you’re attempting to sleep so you are bright-eyed for Mickey, you’re woken up every hour or so.

After a quick (in French time) breakfast we finally drove up to Disneyland! Freaking out! WOO!

A group of international students started following me and we headed to the first ride of the day. At this point there were about 15 people in the group. WAY too big for Disney, but we had a grand time riding together, although the line set the very cold pace for the rest of the day.

We split off into smaller groups! Yay! My group was fantastic. No one had as much Disney experience as I did, so I got to be the boss. In fact, by the end of the day I had been labeled Disney Warrior Princess, because I was having us run all over the park (keeps the blood flowing) getting fast passes, and just generally dominating the park. I also had been labeled mom, because I kept snacks in my purse and always kept the troop’s spirits up.

In the end, we had fun. I would NEVER recommend going to Disneyland Paris in the winter time. We all finished the day with wet frozen feet, and could have been miserable if not for the awesomeness of Disneyland. Many people didn’t have fun…suckers….It was a beautiful, snowy, cold, magical day.

I miss my puffs

I have been ill for ages. It’s quite inconvenient. It has been quite educational about the French health care system and how different cultures feel about illnesses.

It all started with a sore throat. Followed by a night locked out of my apartment in the rain. This means I went from occasionally coughing to having no voice in one night. I still felt like it was ok. I felt fine, I just couldn’t really speak. This is about when my roommates started freaking out.

As it turns out, countries that have free health care use it! Countries that pay for health care don’t (until they’re dying on the side of the street of course) I keep the attitude of “I’m fine! Sure you can’t hear me attempting to speak and I have a 20 minutes coughing fit every 30 minutes, but I’m fine!” Sure I was taking some Nyquil that I brought with me, but nothing drastic.

Finally, I get sick of coughing so often, and my roommates harass me enough to go to the doctors. I attempt to try and find one, but fail. While wandering around I manage to find a pharmacist. We have a nice conversation and I get 3 different kinds of medications for 13 euros. Not bad! And it was so simple (minus the fact I couldn’t just go to a super market like I would in the states…..)

I try the drugs for a few days. My throat no longer hurts! How thrilling! Oh wait… as I later said “J’ai beaucoup de mucus” Time to visit the doctor’s office….

Finding doctor’s offices in France is quite challenging. They are just located in simple apartment just labeled with gold placards out front. But if you don’t know what you’re looking for it’s quite challenging. So I find the building, wait for it to open, press a button, that fails to open the door, press a new button get let in, sit in a waiting room for a bit only to realize that it’s in fact a dentist’s waiting room, cross the hall and sit completely silently with a few other people. They are slowly called into the room and never come out again…..it’s not looking promising.

I get called into the room. It’s just a normal office, I thought the lady was actually a secretary until I saw an examination table sitting there. She asked me if I had my card (no…I’m American…), student? (yes) BEM? (oh yeah, we’re all sick as dogs right now, I’m sure she’s seen a lot of us) she asked me a few questions, listened to me breath and cough (she didn’t wash her hands btw); she gave me three prescriptions, and note for class and sent me on my way. I paid 22 euros. That’s cheaper than many people’s co-pays! And I can get that money reimbursed! (Once I figure out how to fill out the paper work…)

Pop over to another pharmacy and get my harder core drugs. (I can get the cost of those reimbursed too!)

That being said, I’m STILL sick. Sure, it’s really easy to get drugs in France. REALLY easy. I hear that France is actually one of the most over medicated countries in the world. There are positive and negative sides to free health care. Sure, EVERYONE gets the help they need. Many people get more than they need. Some people aren’t properly diagnosed. I think I would be in the same place I am right now if I wasn’t taking medication…but I guess I’ll never know.

Seeing as it's Thanksgiving

What I'm Thankful for in France:

Awesome bread
New great friends
Being in such a beautiful city, country, continent
Bordeaux public transportation (my life would be miserable without those trams)
Being able to learn about different cultures first hand
Amazing new roommates
Having my own bathroom
French pharmaceuticals

I'm sad I'm missing Thanksgiving at home (and the parade, and the dog competition :) ), but I am beyond grateful for the fact I'm have the most amazing time here. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that could have never been possible without the great nation of France to provide the setting, fantastic Erasmus students, my own will and drive, and my parents' financial and mental support.

Life is good!

Happy Thanksgiving! You lucky dogs eating turkey today!

Top 10 (non-human) things I miss about the United States (In no particular order)

1. Fast internet
2. Macaroni and Cheese
3. Having an oven and baking
4. Operational efficiency of businesses and general customer service
5. Television and cable websites
6. Harry Potter
7. My clothes, but mainly my shoes
8. Normal rain
9. Brown sugar
10. India

I'm going to add:
11. Decent professors (not that ALL of them have been bad...)
12. Normal, Seattle rain
13. Having a car to get around
14. Normal washer and dryers, having a dishwasher
15. People not really smoking
16. Pad Thai
17. Puffs
18. Normal water
19. Big shower (with previously mentioned normal water) and room to shave

In fact, I am crying on a train

I woke up pretty early today, because I wanted to watch the sunrise at the church. I missed the sunrise, but I still got some pink clouds!

The church is so much better when there aren’t as many people. I would hate to be here during the summer when every shop, restaurant, and tourist trap is open (not to mention the hordes of people…)

I wandered around the sanctuary, did the disabled Stations of the Cross.

Went to mass in French. I thought it would be difficult to understand, but no one told me there would be an African priest and an Italian (?) deacon. I had no prayer of understanding. The guy who led the singing had a beautiful voice, I just wish they had song books so I didn’t have to fake singing along! I would if I could people!

Next, I did the non-disabled Stations of the Cross, which were arranged on a giant and very steep hill. After passing one group of intense (religion-wise) English speaking Africans I decided to subtly join the next one. I’m really glad I did! It forced me to slow down and pause for reflection. I didn’t know their songs, but I really appreciated their passion.

After, I went down and just people watched. There is literally every kind of person, some freaking out and crying, others just kneeling at whatever random statue they can find, and of course the Japanese tourist.

(No, these people aren't peeing. They're getting/drinking/bathing in holy water!
People fill anything up with holy water!
Giant containers, Mary statues, coke bottles, vials you can purchase for 1E, etc)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve always wanted to come to Lourdes. Since about the time I decided on Bernadette as my saint I’ve struggled with religion, so much of it seems invented or imagined. It is also often used as an excuse to do horrible things to each other. I’m not just directing my issues at the Catholic church either, they’ve just been around long enough to cause A LOT of damage….

But, like I said before, I’ve always wanted to visit Lourdes. I was hoping it would answer some spiritual questions. Or at least advise me in some way.

Instead I found myself mourning the loss of my childhood throughout my journey. Yes I miss my Barbies, but I miss my innocence more. I want to go back to a time of accepting things the way they are; without doubt, and without fear of the future. Instead I’m forced to live in a time where there are more gift shops in Lourdes than there are in Vegas.

On the other hand, I saw some amazing views, passionate people, thousands of prayer candles...and I’m old enough to remember. 

Pretty sure my province is bigger....

Ok, so I wasn’t able to write on the train from Toulouse to Lourdes because I was in a compartment with a really nice French guy and his sweet boxer named Max.

Yes, it did occur to me that I was literally cornered by this guy and his potentially lethal dog, but all went well, and I got to speak French for two hours! Phew! He was really nice about repeating himself and rewording sentences so a three year old could understand. I also told him I was Canadian (I HATE talking politics, that that’s everyone’s favorite subject with Americans) so that led to a discussion as to how big Canada is (as it turns out, it’s bigger than France (and they say Americans are bad a geography…sheesh))

I got to Lourdes, asked someone how to get to the tourists’ office and found my hotel. The hotel is really weird. I walk in and there’s religious memorabilia EVERYWHERE, not to mention the fact that the guy was watching porn. AND as it turns out I accidentally booked the room for LAST night…my bad…so I start to freak out a little (not a lot of hotel options in Lourdes after October 15^th), but the guy has a room for me!!! Praise Jesus! (Who is literally surrounding me at this point)

I’m in this teeny tiny room that’s a little sketchy, but I’ve been in worse. So no big deal.

I decide to leave the room for a stroll and walk passed insane amounts of gift shops to arrive at the cathedral. I was expecting the area to be little more mountainous, but it was more like being in a valley. That being said, it was really nice to see the Pyrenees off in the distance. I think I will always feel closer to home when I see unflat country side. I always assumed the church was nestled in the hills, but it was more just placed there…While it was epically amazing I can’t help but feel if Disney were to create a church, Lourdes would be it.

Yes, I realize the sky is blue

Toulouse is amazing! (I’m actually writing this in Lourdes, but that’s another story)

I arrived at the train station and attempted to find a map. Luckily one of the guys handling people’s complaints was nice enough to give me one. He said it wasn’t very good, so just use the one on the metro. So I take the metro a whole ONE stop only not to find a new map and realize the one he gave was perfectly acceptable. Oh well.

I wandered around for a bit (user error, haha, what can you do?) and found my hotel. It was very nice for the price I paid; only I had to leave my key with them when I left for dinner. Strange!

I had Quick for dinner! Quick is France’s weak attempt at creating their own McDonald’s. I didn’t want to leave France without eating there (seeing how truly French it really is) so I figured it was the night to do it! I would have much rather had McDonald’s, but I’m really trying not to eat it while I’m here.

I watched French television (aka The Simpsons with French dubbing and BBC), then got lulled to sleep by French tennis announcers.

This morning I woke up bright and early to wander around Toulouse. I think it’s about the same size population wise as Bordeaux, but organized differently. It had a completely different feel than Bordeaux.

In the area I walked around, I ran into five churches, had breakfast, bought an umbrella, ate lunch (PB&J!) sat by a river and just enjoyed France. It was glorious!

I went back to the hotel where they were holding my bag and got myself to the train station without the metro. I think I’m getting pretty good at maneuvering around Europe.

Can I hum?

Train travel is unique. There is very little fuss about anything. You purchase your ticket in whatever manner suits you. There are no security checks, no one makes sure you’re on the right train, hell there’s no one to ASK if you’re on the right train. You just hop on board two minutes before it departs and pray you’re going the right direction.

I’m currently on my way to Toulouse. I’m pretty sure we’re going the right direction because I see signs pointing from where I came from that say Bordeaux and ones pointing to where I’m going that say Toulouse. All very good signs.

The car that I’m in currently has four people in it; it could hold 26. E just pass corn field after vineyard. It’s shocking to me how open France is. You would think they would have over populated by now, or at least built bigger houses. They live in quite cramped quarters considering the countryside we’re rolling through.

I’m really excited to be leaving Bordeaux. It has become so comfortable, it’s almost mundane. Like when the tram broke down the other day, I quite easily maneuvered myself to a bus to take me and my groceries home.

I have no idea what I’m getting myself into in Toulouse, but I’m quite thrilled. This is my first time traveling alone. I really like the idea of having to fend for myself. I can do what I want, when I want, but I also HAVE to do what I want. There’s no way to blame anyone else or depend on their knowledge.

It’s just me and the open rails.

What time is it?

Last night provided much confusion. As it turns out, day light savings time happens earlier in Europe. This meant we had to spend our evening trying to figure out what time we had to set our alarms in order to clean up, leave, catch the metro, to catch the plane. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem. In the states, all our fancy phones automatically change themselves, so we would just set our alarms and wake up and go. Our French phones are not only archaic, but they are in Bordeaux time not Porto time. In the end we set our alarms 2 hours before we actually wanted to wake up. Some phones got us up at 6 am (the fancier ones that set themselves) and other phones got us up at 8am (success!). While it was annoying the we got woken up 2 hours early, we managed to get back to sleep and catch the plane on time!

Seeing as it’s Halloween Taylor and I treated ourselves to some Halloween candy before takeoff.

It was a little sad that this is the first Halloween ever that I haven’t dressed up. It’s a very strange feeling to be in a country that doesn’t really celebrate Halloween. Some clubs and bars had dress up parties, but other than that nothing too thrilling. (Also, it should be noted that the French are very uncreative when it comes to costumes)

Getting back to Bordeaux was a great feeling. It was refreshing to realize how much we missed it. Bordeaux has become completely comfortable to us. It’s home. I realized that I’ve actually lived in Bordeaux longer than I have in Walla Walla, or the new apartment in Bellingham. It makes it that much more scary to leave. This is more my home than the US is. How weird is that? In a country where I understand about a quarter of what is being said, I feel pretty darn comfortable.

On the bus

Today, Taylor and I took THE BUS. Oh yes. Not public transportation. Quite the opposite in fact. We took the big red bus that ports all the tourists around!

We learned many fun facts about Porto. We came to learn that Porto isn’t really that old compared to most of Europe. All the cool buildings were generally built in the 18^th century. While that seems really old for the states, it’s relatively young for Europe.

We also went to the ocean! It was really epic, with waves crashing everywhere. I felt so salt when we left. Both our cameras needed to be cleaned up a bit from the spray. Totally the best part of the trip.

The city is filled with gorgeous old buildings right next to really trashy apartments built in the 60s. There are also many churches everywhere. Portugal has to be the most Catholic country that I’ve ever been to (and I’ve been to Mexico…granted I’ve never been to the Vatican) Jesus and Mary are everywhere! They watch you eat lunch, they bless your pastries, they help you pick your groceries.

We were settling in for the night when we get a call from the Germans. It turns out the hostel they were going to stay at was full, so they stayed with us…after all we had 2 extra beds. We had a couple EPIC rounds of spoons (luckily we have no shortage of spoons) where we all have the pleasure of exchanging curses and attempting to steal spoons from the person across the table from you.

We eventually convinced the Germans it’s time for bed.

Right 'ere Docta?

Today it was pouring! This made our usual activities of sightseeing, grocery shopping, pastry drooling slightly more damp than one would like. We decided to buy some cards and some books and cozy in for a bit.

Nothing extremely epic besides microwave popcorn! Which we all have been jonesing for! 

Gravy man, gravy

Today, Taylor and I had another ladies day. We did some more shopping. It’s really nice in Porto because it’s so cheap! Also, it’s a fun way to practice Portuguese! Not that I’m that great at it…I know how to say thank you, and do you speak English/French. All very important. We generally just wandered around the city.

Taylor and I also made dinner for Jon and Matt. It was epically awesome. We made chicken, in a bag!. It was kind of like shake n’bake. You add the spices, and the chicken into a plastic bag and shake it. But instead of putting it onto a baking sheet, you simply put the bag in the oven, and let the chicken cook in its juices! Magical!

The chicken turned out fantastically and also provided us with some gravy for the mashed potatoes we made! Oh yes, we made mashed potatoes despite the fact that the best masher we had was a giant spoon. What joy! Another great meal!

Effing Stairs

Today we woke up and went to get some pastries! Portuguese pastries are quite good and very cheap! We were buying things that were 50 cents that in France would have been 3 euro! Then we went to buy groceries. We filled a bag completely full of cheap wine, port and olive oil. While Portugal may be cheap, some questions about quality are brought to mind. Our jam that we bought was completely disgusting…oh well

Later, we met up with the Germans on Point de Luis. This is a giant epic bridge that kind of looks like a sideways Eiffel tower; that could be because it was designed by one of Mr. Eiffel’s cohorts.

We walked to the Port manufacturers! There are 14 just sitting on the hill across the river. We went to the tourist information to find out which ones had free tastings. One was called Taylor’s…so of course that’s the one we had to go to! After learning much about port production we got to taste the port. And the result is….drum roll….I don’t like port. It’s too sweet.

I honestly never thought that that would be a problem for me, but it just tastes like cough syrup. I even had a tiny sip of the 40 year old port that’s 180 euro a bottle! Still, no thank you. I’ll stick to wine.

After a nice lunch we all went our own way. Taylor and I got some ice cream and did a little shopping. Yay for girl time!

The Germans came over for dinner. We had salad, pasta, and rolls. It was a fantastic meal, minus the fact that we had 3 forks for 7 people. Let’s just say that eating salad with a spoon is quite challenging. 

Oporto

Today the Americans (Me, Jon, Matt and Taylor) left on our grand adventure to Porto! On the bus ride to the airport we ran into the other BEM exchange students going to Porto (Jan the German, Reini the Austrian, and Dominique the Swiss German…generally just called the Germans, just to make things simple). We caught the ever complicated RyanAir out of Bordeaux into Porto.

Getting from the airport to the hotel was very simple. Just a long metro ride to the hotel where we found out speaking French is actually more useful than English in Portugal. It turns out most people learn Spanish, then French and the English; so not too many Portuguese know English.

Our hotel ended up being better than we expected. It was a room with 2 bunk beds and another bed, and another room with a bed. It also had a fairly complete kitchen!

The four of us went out to dinner at a really nice Italian place that would have been insanely expensive in France, but was extremely reasonable in Porto.

After eating dinner we bought a bottle of Port and wander around. Porto is gorgeous and seeing all the Port manufactures across the river was so beautiful. The view was very welcoming! 

I'm getting tired just blogging about it

Now a days, the most common question I receive is about the riots. Don’t you worry, I’m quite safe. Generally speaking the most aggressive protests are in Paris, and there’s nothing really that exciting here in Bordeaux.

Now, the question is: what is getting the French all riled up? Well, like I’ve pointed out in previous blogs, the French love their breaks. This translates beyond the simple coffee/cigarette breaks; it means that they vacation longer, don’t work on Sundays, nothing is open past 7 pm/19 and they retire at the age of 60. (Random side note: some professions actually retire earlier, 55, these are usually the more laborious jobs, but still….)

France’s politicians are quite smart to realize that with this weak economy it’s going to be difficult to pay for everyone’s retirement. Also, people are living longer these days, which means that France will be forced to pay retirement longer. The brilliant way to avoid paying these benefits just a few years longer (and surprisingly enough, keep collecting taxes) is to raise the retirement age. They aren’t even raising it to the world standard (65 years old), they are just raising it to 62 years old. I read an article that described the young people protesting (they’re upset because there won’t be any jobs when they finish school because no one is retiring.) as going through a French rite of passage. It’s funny because the people that are protesting are fighting for the opposite things--the right not to work and the right to work.

The day of the first tram strike in Bordeaux we had a brief discussion about retirement ages around the world because there were many international students in the class. It seemed for the most part retirement age was 65, some countries actually have different retirement ages for men and women, some countries (like France) force you to retire at said retirement age. That one shocked me, I informed the class that most people in the US work past the retirement age, whether it is because they like it, or we just have horrible retirement benefits. This kind of discussion is one of the greatest reasons to be here, I love learning about everyone’s different lifestyles and why they live like that, what a hoot.

Anyway, back to the angry French. If anyone is unhappy about something they strike. I have heard from more than one French person that strikes are their national sport. To Americans it just seems stupid and a waste of time, but this is how they have been solving problems since the French Revolution. I think that we should just be grateful that they aren’t whipping out the guillotines. It actually is quite interesting to ask the French how they feel about the strikes. Most people support the strikers, because it is their right to protest, not necessarily because they agree that the age should stay at 60. Daily life in France is greatly affected by the strikes, but you just figure it out, there’s no point in complaining, you just shove onto the tram with the rest of the population and move on with your life.

Like I mentioned before, there haven’t really been riots in Bordeaux. The biggest issue is the trams going on strike. While it would get the message across if they stopped running the trams all together, the workers understand that it’s not the commuters’ fault that the politicians want to raise the retirement age, so instead they just run on Sunday schedule. This means that the tram doesn’t come very often, and when it finally does it’s completely packed with people. The funny thing about the strikes is that they tell us when they’re going to happen. All I can say is go grocery shopping the day before the strike is planned. Also, some days they plan “demonstrations” (these just look like parades), this can shut down pieces of the tram line, but it’s usually just for a couple hours.

Some other issues with protests around France are the gasoline supplies. People are blocking the use of fuel, so costs are going through the roof, and making gas very difficult to obtain. The trains are running on a completely confusing schedule that involves praying that your train will arrive and praying it will leave. On the other hand, I heard it’s really easy to ride the trains for free because no one checks tickets or really cares, because really, people just want to get home. Because fuel costs are so high, flights have been having difficulties. My friend actually got stuck on the runway, the pilot literally said, “we are at the mercy of that man, who is on strike right now.” After an hour of sitting on the runway, the man decided to stop striking and help attach the plane. Wow. My only hope is that the street cleaners don’t go on strike because there’s enough dog merde already.

Dreaming of the days of Toasty Strudel

Ok, how about a simple topic. The weather? It really is about the third question I’m asked every time I speak to someone back home. Not always interesting, but ALWAYS entertaining.

Bordeaux has been quite docile so far. When I arrived it was quite hot, maybe getting to 85. But generally it’s between 65-75. There was one day of INSANE rain, and heavy wind, but no need to worry I brought my awesome Bellingham-Northface rain jacket. Other than that, it’s usually quite nice, although lately, it’s getting much colder; I don’t think that it will get above 60 today.

These lowering temperatures raise some important questions. Clothing seems to be a big issue, I only brought one sweat shirt…big mistake. Also, I only brought one pair of simple-everyday shoes. I don’t really know what I was thinking, but as the weather gets frosty, I think my toes will too. Eek.

Another issue to be held is my blanket. While I was thrilled to be spending only 7 euro on a blanket at Ikea, I think it will soon be failing to keep me warm at night. This is not helped by the fact that we can’t turn on the heat. It’s not a physical question, it’s simply that CROUS (the rental company) refuses to give us heat. This does not seem very hospitable to me, but that’s just coming from someone who’s a little cold.

My last issue is that the US uses Fahrenheit. There is really a point where we should just give in. We should just switch to Celsius, for the sake of the exchange students! When people are discussing the weather, I am never able to participate! Beyond that, I just get confused. Here is a sample conversation:

“How was the beach?”

“Oh it was great! It was 30 degrees!”

“Oh, that’s not good….” You see, in my American brain, that is quite nippy noodles (below freezing, eegads!), while the other person (because really they could be ANY nationality) is just thinking I’m crazy. As it turns out, 30 degrees is quite warm. Who knew?

Being Schooled

I can’t believe I’ve been here for almost two months! You’re thinking, I still know nothing! For that, I apologize. It just seems like daily life is not very thrilling. But I’m in France! Everything is different! Well kind of….

I guess I’ll start with school. At BEM, you only take one class at a time. For three weeks… let’s just say this is nice (yay! Only one class!) but bad (bleh. I have to sit in a class for 8 hours). Although, the French system makes it pretty easy on you:

                Class 8:30 to 10:00

                Break 10:00 to 10:30

                Class 10:30 to 12:00

                Break 12:00 to 1:30/13:30

                Class 1:30/13:30 to 3:00/15:00

                Break 3:00/15:00 to 3:30/15:30

                Class 3:30/15:30 to 5:00/17:00

So as you can see we take lots of breaks, and use the 24 hour clock (which still takes me a long time to figure out, sorry Dad). The French need to smoke. The French need coffee. The French need to eat. The French need their breaks. At every break (which the entire school has at the same time) we cram into the cafeteria. There is a cafeteria style food and the little shop thing that has the coffee and sandwiches. Rather than making orderly lines you must shove up to the front and make eyes at the lady taking orders. Everything that could be well organized just ends up feeling like you’re at a bar, not well dressed enough, being purposely ignored by someone less attractive than you. On the plus side, I’m getting really good at cutting. Don’t judge! It’s the French way! Have I mentioned how poorly planned it is to have 3,000 people, all caffeine and nicotine deprived, vying for the attention of two elderly women?

Anywho, my first sequence was Brand Management. For the first two weeks we had a French professor who was really interesting and had some good stories to tell. I always trust business teachers more when they have been in the real world and can give real-personal-life-experience stories to back up their lessons. The third week, we had an Australian teacher (yes, that’s right. We have more than one teacher in one class). She too had good stories to tell. I think she loved me, which is never a bad thing. In fact, on the project that we were doing in class, my group won. We won Oreos! Oh yes, the Australians are not above bribing. I don’t think I mind.

So, the class was based on participation (I think, still not too sure…they said it counted, but I don’t know if they were bluffing) and a final case study. We were supposed to do this case study based on two vague power point slides, turn it in to someone who was not our teacher and never present on it. How they are supposed to know what we learned, I will never know. My group was pretty good, although we never met one of our team mates. The annoying thing is, is that he’ll get the same grade as the rest of us, despite the fact he was never in class (one of my teammate’s argument’s was “He’ll fail if we don’t put his name on it” my reply “who cares?”)

This brings me to another point. The French students. They are really weird. All the international students are completely shocked and often appalled by their attitudes. In class, they literally have full voice conversations; they just ignore the professor completely. I don’t really get why they come to class at all. And when you’re in a group with them, they’re all about procrastinating, dividing the work, never meeting, and pushing something through in the last minute. After this experience, I honestly don’t think I would ever higher a French person. Cultural differences galore!

In the second sequence I’m taking E-marketing and E-commerce, which is e-boring. So far, we’ve had 2 professors, one French (horrible accent and BORING) and one Quebecois (ooo French Canadian, and he’s funny, and he lets us out early! Huzzah!) Again, we have to do a case study and we have a test. We have no idea what will be on the test, in what form it will be, which teacher(s) information it will be on AND when it will be. This is especially frustrating for those of us trying to plan travel.

That is just a little peek into the world of BEM in all its glory. That being said, I actually have learned some pretty interesting things.

Here’s a fun one on viral marketing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEqJV1acgN4

PS When they say football they mean FOOTball.

Maybe I lied

So last week was actually pretty exciting! So I will be telling stories, rather than the general information that I promised last time.

Hokay. So. On Friday we went to the Férias. When we heard about it we got the impression it had something to do with cows. Later we heard bulls. So we really had no idea what to expect. So when we got off the tram we were shocked to see a circus looking situation in Place de Victoire (a typically open space, albeit filled with people mulling about)

So we wander in (it was free!) and start walking to a side that the security (?) told us to sit on. Luckily, before we reached that side we realized that ALL the other BEM students were sitting on the other side, so in our brilliance we joined them. This ended up being a very good idea considering the Férias ended up being a competition between BEM and Bordeaux 4.

Now, you are probably wondering what this competition involved. Well, teams of "brave" souls from each school got to enjoy the sport of being in the ring with a bull. Now, these bulls are much smaller than the typical rodeo bull, or Spanish bull fighting bull, but they are still large bovines with all the angry attitude. So each game involved different things. On game was trying to get the bull to walk through the pond, another one was potato sack racing (while a bull is chasing you), filling a bucket up with water, getting the bull to run through your hoop. This was one of the strangest things I've ever seen. I just don't really get the "sport" of it. I don't feel bad for the idiots who volunteer, but the bulls! They don't have a choice.

None of my pictures really describe the epic strangeness of the experience....

The next day I was without Taylor because she decided to go on the BEM trip to Spain. I was thinking I had nothing to do that day...just sitting on facebook and my Swedish friend Oliver says, come to Saint Emilion. I jump on the tram, run into some other exchange students and we find our way to the train station. As soon as we know it, the train is off and we run into some other people.

In total, there were probably 10 of us, but we split up into 2 groups (the ones that did and didn't eat lunch). We spent the day wandering around the adorable town and wine tasting. Saint Emilion is surrounded by vineyard and chateaus. Gorgeous to say the least. It's pretty touristy, but we definitely brought down the median age of the tourists by at least 20 years. Good food was eaten, wine was drunk, and I'm getting better at drinking it. (I will like wine by the end of this trip dang it!!!)

The weekend was different. It was nice to be without the Americans for a bit (not that the Canadians are that much different haha) but I still managed to entertain myself. That being said, I missed Taylor....

Long time no blog

So, it's been a while. Sorry. My life went from going non stop, to going non stop, but in a much less touristy way.
For those of you that were confused why the blogs from Edinburgh were showing up a week after they were dated, it's because I was post dating them. I didn't have time to write in Edinburgh, but I wanted to keep things nicely in sequence.

Hhhhokay. So now I'm in Bordeaux! How thrilling! Yay!

Bordeaux is a great city. It's big enough to have lots of things to do, see, eat etc. but small enough to have a friendly population. It's a total college town. There are tons of universities and dorms all over. Just walking through the city you run into the Bordeaux Universities (1-5 I think...), random art institutes, engineering schools, pretty much anything you can think of school wise.

And then there's BEM (it's pronounce bem, not spelled out) Bordeaux Ecole (school) of Management. That's where I go. In France, if you go to a public university it's paid for by the government, but BEM is a Grand Ecole, which basically means that it's private. The students have to study for 2 years after high school, take a very difficult exam and then pay about 3,000 euros a year to attend BEM. It's really funny because they always talk about what a hardship paying for it is, when really they pay nothing compared to what we do in the states. Also, there's TONS of federal aid to help students. There's a program that literally just pays your landlord some money every month. How convenient.

Ok, I think from now on I won't neccisarily blog about my day, but a general topic, like the weather, or class, or food, or life....I don't know. Je ne sais pas.

Au Revoir

Finally time to leave Edinburgh. Today was not very exciting. We ate breakfast, packed up and hopped on a double decker bus for the precarious journey to the airport.

It was very strange. Matt and I checked in at different kiosks. Went through security together. And I saw him off at the gate. It was like the olden days. How weird. I practically expected little Jonah talking back to Tom Hanks to be right there. So off Matt flew, back to the US of A and I wandered off to find my gate. I had a slightly less painful Ryan Air flight and rode the bus to my apartment.

And so starts daily life in Bordeaux.

Cheers for that

Today we went to more free Scottish museums. Although these were less impressive than yesterday’s.

We went to the insanely creepy People’s museum, which basically described the people of Scotland, starting in the 19^th Century. Why was it creepy? you ask. Well instead of having normal exhibitions, like, this was Jane’s brush, and John’s bath tub, and Jack’s bucket. They decided to dress mannequins up in whatever fashion of the day happened to be in-style. You just walked room to room staring at these slightly lifelike, but not lifelike enough, creatures “learning” about them. Then you reach another room to stare at a Scottish police man, WHO MOVES. Scared the poo out of me. It turned out ok though, because he actually was real. Although why he was sitting so stilly in the first place, I’ll never know.

We went to the writer’s museum. A nice little museum about Edinburgh’s three favorite people/the only people that were slightly well known from Edinburgh. Robert Burns (poet?), Walter Scott (poet?) Robert Louis Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Treasure Island (Thank you Muppets!))

We also went to the Edinburgh museum, which really by this point was just overkill. I’m sure that’s why my writing is so sarcastic. So. Many. Museums. But at least they were free. And at least we had more pie…and fudge.

So since we were not enjoying ourselves to the fullest (as one should in such a lovely town) I decided to take us to the back to the botanical gardens because it was a lovely day, and we loved it so much. So I start us off (using the BAD MAP) and we get slightly lost. Lost isn’t really the right word, we just weren’t where we wanted to be, I knew where we were. We find a different park, and watch crazy people dump loads of bread out for the swans/seagulls/ducks/pigeons to eat. We get up to go, MAYBE find the gardens and it starts POURING. So we run. Into the botanical gardens. It was pretty lucky that we found shelter so quickly because the rain didn’t have a chance to soak through to the marrow of our bones. Neither of us have been in rain like that, it was like it was hailing, only it was water. So much water.

Being the clever person I am, I decided we should try and take the tour bus back to the hotel, despite the fact that our tickets expired some days ago. And yay! It worked! Of course, it had stopped raining by that point….

Monet is pretty legit

So Scotland is pretty awesome. Their national museums are free! So that is what we did today. Because it’s free, and awesome. We walked to the National Scottish Museum and wandered around there. It is a HUGE museum. It has information on Scotland from the beginning of time until present day. It’s slightly awkwardly arranged, but maybe that’s just because we really are starting to become exhausted from all this walking. The days are tough when you start walking, then have some slow walking in between, and finish with some walking.

After the museum we walked to the National Scottish Gallery. It had some very impressive stuff, although we didn’t find the impressionists (my favorites) until the museum was about to close. We can’t really complain that much because we did see two amazing museums for free, ones that in the US, would have easily cost $20 each to enter into.

During our walk to the gallery we ran into horses. Not literally because we knew they were coming. But there WERE a lot of them. It was a GINORMOUS parade of horses! Never have I seen so many horses in my life! What a hoot. It was also fun when the people sitting outside of a bar booed the police horses. Smile and wave boys, smile and wave.

For dinner we went to the World’s End Café. It is so named because that’s where Edinburgh’s wall used to be, and back in the day you had to pay to leave and enter into the city, so generally, if you were born there you died there (if you catch my drift). Therefore, the wall was the “world’s end” for most people. The food was pretty good, but it’s just a little tourist spot so nothing to freak out about.

During one of our many walking sessions today we stumbled upon a nice little park that happened to house the Nelson monument. And other random war memorials (cannons) and a romaneque thing (columns ect). Pretty pimpin’.

Also, we ate more pie.

Let them Eat Pie

Today we realized how far we’ve been walking every day. Just to get to the sights from the hotel is a little over two miles every morning. Not to mention the slow museum walking followed by the walk back at night. We are easily getting at least 5 miles of walking a day.

Today we walked to the beginning of a hike to Arthur’s Seat. Then we hiked (and I wheezed) up to it. Arthur’s Seat is the tallest point for miles around, so naturally it had an amazing view. We were able to see all of Edinburgh, the sea and the beautiful blue sky. We picked the perfect day to hike because the sky finally decided not to rain. It was insanely windy at the top (I was a bit concerned for my safety) but just fantastic.

It was a really great hike because there were multiple ways to reach the top; you don’t have to go up and down in the same direction. Going down we stumbled upon some ruins and a swan pond.

It’s really great, because I’m really starting to figure out Edinburgh and how to get around, we’re finally able to get ourselves off the beaten track but still manage to make it back to the hotel.

It's a simple question of weight ratios

Today was epic. Yesterday or the day before we found this tour company that goes to the SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS that’s still kind of just starting. In Scottish, that means it’s free (well, you pay what you want). And it was awesome.

The company is called the Hairy Coo. Coo is cow in Scottish. Hairy coos are these wonderful cows that are gingery and hair and have giant horns. They are quite epic. As was our bus because it was orange and had horns and little fringe on the top. It also had a sign on the back of it saying “honk if you’re horny” (much to the delight of the garbage man)

This tour involved us riding through the Scottish country side to visit many a sights that we (who are under 25 and cannot rent a car) would have never seen.

The first stop was the Falkirk Wheel. Many years ago Europe was obsessed with canals, so Scotland jumped on the band wagon, only with slightly less thought. One engineer started from one end and the other from the other direction and attempted to meet in the middle. Failing to discuss at what height they would be meeting. Long story short they were WAY OFF and built a horrible loch system that was only recently replaced by the epic wheel/boat lift extravaganza.

Hopping back on the bus, we went to a little Scottish town. Luckily for us there was some dog thing going on, the main event being herding. But instead of herding sheep like normal people would they were herding ducks. Let’s just say it’s not very efficient. Highlight of the stop: DUCK RACING. It really doesn’t get any better, unless the man calling the race happens to be Scottish. And the person who bet on the winning duck gets 5 quid. Epic.

On this adventure we saw the William Wallace monument, old bridges, new bridges, we went off-roading in Scotland’s first national park. We visited a beautiful lake called Loch Drunkie because alcohol smugglers used to sink their whisky in the loch to hide it, they used to say that you could go swimming in the lake and get drunk because there was so much alcohol. I just watched Matt skip rocks much to the amazement of the weird American students on the tour.

Seeing the Hairy coos was amazing. We even saw little baby ones. What joy.

Epicness of all Epicness was going to Doune Castle. One would think by now ANOTHER castle wouldn’t impress us. But this was awesome. No, it didn’t look that cool, or house a gangsta kind or queen. No, no. This is where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was shot. Every single scene that involved a castle was this castle. Good times were had by all, with coconuts in hand.

Free Cookies are not always free

Today we got up early so we could see Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood. We caught a new bus to take us to the castle. On the drive there we saw Hogwarts! And I don’t mean that phoney stuff that you see in the movie, I mean the school that JK Rowling actually based Hogwarts after! My life is just THAT much cooler now.

When we reached the castle it was starting to rain. Oddly enough, both of us were smart and brought our Bellingham rain coats. The rain is Scotland is very strange, it barely drizzles and then all of the sudden it’s POURING.

Then all of the sudden it’s sunny and beautiful out.

Freaky

Edinburgh castle is really awesome. It’s on the top of the city so it has amazing views. It’s a very weird castle because some parts of it are really old (13^th century) and then works its way up to the 18^th century. It also has the royal crown museum and Scottish military history museum inside. By this time the rain had finally let up, and allowed us a spectacular view of Edinburgh.

Moving on to the Palace of Holyrood. This is a newer (for Europe) building, maybe 17^th century. It’s just your typical castle and another place to practice our audio tour syncing. It was enjoyable to learn about the crazy shenanigans that happened to Mary Queen of Scots. The only old part of the castle is a 12^th century monastery that’s now in ruins, but it was one of the most beautiful and yet melancholy places I’ve ever been. It inspired Mendelsohn’s Scottish Symphony, and if you listen to that music you really feel what the emotion of the building is.

We decided to visit Scottish Parliament after the Palace (and free cookies!) because it was across the street. This building is creepily modern (don’t get me wrong it’s beautiful, but it doesn’t really fit in with the rest of Edinburgh) and apparently went about 400 million pounds over budget. Wow.

Fantastic day filled with amazing sights, history lessons and bus rides. Oh, and Hogwarts.