Bayonne

Before heading back to Poitiers, we spent our day in Bayonne, which is a city north of Biarritz. We took the bus and ended up in the centre ville in less than 15 minutes. Bayonne is a lot smaller, and has more of a French feel to it. Here are a few pictures that I'd like to share; my camera's battery died early in the day so I didn't take many.

That morning I oogled over a surf instructor... and I took a picture from far away.. I don't know if this is legal!

A castle/restaurant in the middle of Bayonne. I think it may be a hotel also.. but I am not very sure.

Please ignore the bright sun in the corner of this picture.. this was the only semi good picture I took of the cathedral. 

Inside the cathedral's courtyard.... a little bit empty, but it's still has a nice courtyard with nice grass. 

The walkway surrounding the courtyard. 

A little peek into one of the streets. This street has Spanish banners draping from building to building. 

After exploring and eating ice cream, we headed towards the train station to wait for our train and parted home. It was nice to feel that "going home" feel, I thought I wasn't going to have it because it's not really home for me. It made me feel like I had began to adapt to the French way of life.

Biarritz Day 2

The next day in Biarritz was a lot of "playing tourists" and we weren't ashamed of doing it. We stayed in a youth hostel which was about 300m from the beach (I think). I've been eating a lot of bread in France, but I don't feel too guilty because it actually is kinda healthy.

Wednesday morning on the beach there was a couple taking wedding pictures. They were a bit ridiculous, and cheesy. Towards the end of their shot they both were in the water, the groom on his surf board and the bride was pretending to care about his hobby. This is one of the many couples that I have seen where the lady was taller than the man. I think that is pretty common here though.

Here is a little collage of the buildings in Biarritz. The architecture from building to building is very diverse. You can see that there is a lot of Spanish influence on the buildings, but we also saw German influence and American (in the casino). 

There were so many pastry shops in the city that we couldn't resist stopping every hour to buy something. This little dessert is a lemon meringue treat. 

 That day we visited some churches and cathedrals, I didn't take many photos of them. They are all very dark and have dramatic architecture. In one of the cathedrals, I was snooping around and I peaked into one of the confession booths, and out of nowhere, someone's head popped out and it freaked me out. In another church, one of the doors randomly opened right in front of me. I know many will think that these encounters are signs that I should go to church...  On the bright side, here are some bright pictures of the ocean. The water was warm, and would be considered very warm by those of you who are from Oregon.

To end this wonderful post, I'll leave you with a delicious picture of a crêpe that I ate.. peaches, raspberries, currants, a slice of kiwi, whipped cream, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream... mmmm :)

Some pre-school traveling

As it turns out, apparently, we didn't have classes this week. The only students who did start this week were the law and science students, but I am not taking either of those materials so I didn't have to go to school. Instead of lounging around in Poitiers, because it has already started becoming a little boring, two other girls and I went to a beach city called Biarritz in the the south west of France. The place was amazing, and great for surfing. This was probably the nicest beach I have been to, and it was by far the most "chic" beach I've ever seen.

 On the way we stopped in a city called Bordeaux and we explored for a while. The picture above is a door with mail in the mail slots. I thought it was pretty cute.

The Bordeaux city sign.. inside of the train station. 

We were all excited when we got there and were taking pictures of everything. This is the main beach where a lot of people swim, surf, and boggie board.

 This is one of the streets at night.

 These are Emily and Madeliene, the girls I was traveling with. We ate a lot of ice cream on our trip.

A tunnel that we walked through. There were a lot of trails built for walking along the beach side.

Exploring Poitiers

On Friday we had a "cultural excursion" in Poitiers, which was really nice since I hadn't really explored the city. The levels 3-5 students all participated and we had a two hour lunch that day. I had lunch in Poitiers, a sandwich and a chocolate croissant... and bottled water.. I've been buying bottled water because everyone here does it, not even the citizens drink out of the tap. I was drinking from the tap the first week I was here but then I stopped because I got a little scared that no one else did it. I should look into the water though, because plastic bottles are no good.

The class met in front of the Baptistère Saint-Jean, which is an old baptistery from the V century. In the old days a person could not enter a church if he/she was not baptized, so to get around this rule, the church performed baptisms in other buildings. This is the Baptistère Saint-Jean which was built to baptize people. I did not go in because you had to pay 2€ to go in, but there is basically only a shallow pool type thing in the middle (empty) and some posters to read. The architecture is pretty cool though, on the outside that is. 

I didn't take many photos of all the buildings that I went into, I keep forgetting to bring out my camera until the end, I'm just not that used to it. We basically did a scavenger hunt with all the students. The teachers made groups of three with people from each level. I was in a group with a girl from Switzerland and a boy from Spain. The guy is a history major which made the excursion really awesome because he knew the history behind all the buildings and would tell us about them. I really enjoyed working with my group, we were a very good team (and we also spoke French most of the time, all the exchange students speak English and use it to communicate with each other).
This was the first time that I had ever enter a building that were hundreds of years old. I went inside a church which houses the tomb of some saint (I forgot the name), and walking inside gave me the chills because I realized that these buildings are old.. very old. It was very weird.. and I also feel that catholic churches are actually very creepy. They have this very eerie feel to them. 


When the excursion was finally over, I walked around town with Clara and Madeline, and I finally brought out my camera. It is really hard to take pictures because of the buildings blocking most of the sunlight on the streets. But I did manage to get a semi good one of Madeline. 

And this final picture that I will share is one of me (with another bottled water) in front of the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre. 

The buildings are a little hard to photograph with my little camera, but I'm trying and learning as I go.


Actually, I'll leave you all with this picture: Un Chat Français (sleeping on a government building)

On Sunday, Sylvie's husband (the program director in Poitier) took me to an outdoor market. The market was in a beautiful small village called Chasseneuil-du-Poitou. I didn't get to take pictures of the village, but I will definitely go back and visit another day. Anyway, the market was more like a huge outdoor garage sale. People brought their tables and booths and sold what they didn't use anymore. There were a lot of antiques everywhere. The market was really large and there were many things to see, but I only had an hour and a half because Sylvie's husband was in a hurry to get back. I bought a purple dress with lace, a old yellow t-shirt that says "La mode des montagnes" which means "the style of the mountains.. I am semi a mountain person.

 I am not sure if French people are ok with me taking photos of them, so I discreetly took photos. This was one of the better

 After finishing a long journey of walking, I bought some French baked goodies. I forgot the names, but the taller one was like very dried custard/flan that was covered in sugar, and the little balls were like cream puffs, but with nothing but air inside.

 My host family finally came back from their vacation and they picked me up after my orientation on Monday. There is a mom, a dad, a boy who is 17 (I think, he doesn't talk much), and a boy who is 7 (I think.. he talks too much). The house is very beautiful and the family is really kind. They love to cook, so I am very excited to learn how to cook a few dishes from them. The picture above is a picture of my room. I like the small cozy feel to it. I think I will cut my room in half at home.

 This is my closet. Right now everything is organized, and I hope it remains that way for the whole semester. I am living a different life, so why not try being organized, right?

 This is the view from my window. The family has a beautiful garden, and they grow their own vegetables. Overall, they are very "ecologique".. I think that means environmentally friendly.

 I finally explored the city today after school! This is a picture of "centre ville". Centre ville in French cities is where everything happens. There are stores, services, transportation, bars, restaurants, cafes and churches. This is the perfect place to people watch.

The picture above is a picture of "l'eglise de Notre-Dame", the church of our lady. It is very grandiose. A lot of the older cities in France have a "notre-dame", which is basically a religious reference to having a lady look over them. In Poitiers there is a tall statue of a lady and it is suppose to look over the whole city and protect it.

 This photo is for those of you who don't believe I'm here.. I'm here!

 This is the "Hotel de Ville" and the plaza in front of it. I hung out in centre ville after class with some friends (from Oregon and the UK.. the English speaking people) after class today. We were sitting to the left of it at a bar.

And these two young filles are Clara and Margaret. Both are here with the same program. Clara she's very happy because she can legally buy alcohol.

Class was a little long today. We are in this orientation phase in which we basically do intensive language classes from 9am to 4pm. I'm not used to taking classes for that long.

I bought my bus pass for the semester, and I finished some stuff with the bank.. Tomorrow I will buy a telephone card. I got lost on the way home this evening and ended up on the other side of the city. The buses stop running around 8, so I ended up walking home from the train station (which isn't to far, I took another bus there). But yea, I explored the ghetto-er areas of the city which was nice so I don't have a one sided view of the city.

Class tomorrow again. I'm eating cafeteria food right now which is not bad tasting and it's pretty inexpensive for students. Which is great so I don't have to worry about packing a lunch.

To finish tonight's post.. what do you all think about the layout/design of the page?

Arriving in Poitiers

We finally arrived in Poitiers on Friday around 4pm and were picked up at the train station. Riding the TGV (high speed train) was an experience. In Paris, we basically had to fight our way onto the train with all of our luggage, and then afterwards.. I fell asleep. Clara and I were very exhausted since we didn't sleep on the flight. My camera was out of battery the whole time so I didn't take any arrival photos.

I am currently staying at our program directors home because my host family is out on vacation until Monday. She lives out in the "campagne" (country side). France terrain is very similar to the Willamette Valley.

This is a picture of my walks through the campagne. There are lots of sunflower fields, and I think they are almost ready for harvesting.

This is a lovely picture of the home I am staying at right now. I really love the architecture here. That old kind of feel. The rocks here have a nice subtle color to them.

Talking in French has been a little overwhelming. I feel like I want to talk as fast as everyone around me, but I am not that skilled yet, so I stumble over everything I say. 

I haven't taken many pictures yet, but I will post as I go. Au revoir!