Sunday, August 29, 2010 I spent pretty much the entire day in my room alone watching tv online and searching for apartments to rent. Lame… I know… but I wanted to finally chill out before classes started on Monday.
Monday, August 30th was the first day of our two week language intensive program before classes officially start. I, like a failure, tested into the first group. It was pretty good review and class was only from 8:30am-12:30pm with a 20 minute break somewhere in there. After class we went to one of the Cafes on campus that finally opened and got the token ham and cheese sandwich… (jambon et fromage tous les jours!)
That night, some of us got Pizza at an Italian restaurant in the center of town. But apparently during my Sunday of solitude, I missed out on tons of craziness. On Saturday night, a girl named Larissa, on her way back to her, saw some random naked guy masturbating in one of the communal kitchens in the dorms. So everyone was now making a big deal about locking the front door to our dorms so that creepers like that couldn’t get in. Also, the next day, this random old guy was trying to get into our dorm building to meet up with a friend. The only people here in this building are from California so that was total BS. Larissa wouldn’t let him in, but he got in when someone else was entering the building. Larissa called the program coordinator who came with the security guard and escorted the man out of the building. Later on, he came back and was yelling at her about having him escorted away and he kept telling her that he “knew who she was”. So this poor girl Larissa has been threatened and is just seriously not having the best luck here in the dorms.
Saturday, August 28th was like the longest day of my life. We had a planned excursion today with all of the EAP students. We went to an oyster farming town somewhere by the Atlantic. We saw how the oyster farm which wasn’t really a particularly interesting trip. It only got interesting around lunch time when they made us try raw oysters… I would totally try escargot, but there is no way in hell I am trying raw seafood… especially since I don’t eat any seafood ever anyway. I got my friend to eat some of mine so that it didn’t look rude to not eat the oysters. Then they just kept feeding us ham, cheese, and bread, followed by an apple tart with red wine glaze which wasn’t amazing or anything…
Then we went to the world’s largest sand dune and climbed it… once again, I am shown that I am more out of shape than I thought. I thought that it would be a cool idea to climb the sand rather than just take the steps up the sand dune…(yes it is so large that it has its own flight of steps). France keeps handing me my fat butt by making everything so hard to get to. Even the thinnest people here were out of breath after climbing a huge sand mountain. Nevertheless, it was soooo worth it! Gorgeous view
Sand Dune
After, we went to Arcachon to go to the beach… it sucked because they only gave us one hour of beach time. I would have rather not eaten oysters or visit the oyster farms and have spent more time at the beach. The water was perfect but it didn’t last very long.
On the bus drive home, the driver decided to take the streets rather than the freeway for some reason. It took FOREVER! And we were listening to weird American radio with the occasional French pop song. There was this crap Bohemian Rhapsody cover that was playing and I immediately felt insulted… way to ruin a good song. It was like jazzy and stuff… insanity.
I had an appointment to look at an apartment at 6pm but I called and canceled because I didn’t think we would be back in time. But the guy said that I could come at 8pm… he told me this at 7:15. I had 45 minutes to get dressed, catch the metro, and walk to this house. I had just gotten back home at 6:30 then I took a shower and put sweats on… so much for relaxing. I got to the house at 8:07ish and I really liked it, but the guy told me that one girl had come before me to see the house… which means that now there is a good chance that I wont get it… AWESOME!
I left the house kinda bummed and waited at the metro stop for my friends who of course didn’t get there until 40 minutes later and then I still had to find them because they got off at a different stop. I was not happy.
We got dinner at a fast food pasta place which is pretty much the coolest idea ever. Instead of a vat of boiling oil, they use a vat of boiling… water? Plus, it was really good… the Italian in the group agreed.
Once again, we went to the river and people drank… but because I was only with a couple of girls, they bought flasks of vodka and some chasers and very classy-like drank them on a bench by the river.
The big party group in the program eventually made their way downtown and we met up with them… only to get more alcohol and return to the river… the exact same thing that we had done the previous night, and earlier this night… needless to say, I was not happy… I was bored of all the drunken Americans.
Then the group split and half of us randomly walked to a metro stop. We got on and it was SOOOO crowded. Probably the craziest bus/metro experience of my life… plus everyone was speaking in French. We got off by the train station which is a relatively sketchy part of town. We were lost while trying to find some club that some people had heard of from somewhere… very specific, I know.
The club had no cover charge and played electronic/house music. I actually had a really fun time. Those guys stare, grab, and try to dance with you even when I was not dancing sexily at all. And they kept trying to talk to me, but it was too loud and I don’t understand enough French so it was pretty much useless… I kept seeing girls from my group making out with random French boys… it was just a seriously crazy night
We caught a taxi home and didn’t get back until 4am… longest day of my life!
Friday, August 27th, we had our DEFLE test at 9:30am. The DEFLE test was the first placement test that we have to take to determine our level for the language intensive program before classes start. I didn’t think that this test was too bad… that is, except for the oral section. We had to listen to recordings and answer questions about them. One of the recordings had the people speaking so fast, I would be surprised if all French speakers could understand what they were saying. The entire test room looked so taken aback by this recording. But of course, you still have those people who understand enough to answer some of the questions…
Later, we had our lodging meeting for those of us who were planning on renting an apartment for the semester. I didn’t want to live in a homestay so I went to the meeting. (Once again, it was in French… I’m sure there was important information that I will never know because it was in French). They gave us a list of apartments for rent with names, addresses, and brief descriptions of the places. I could feel the level of competition rise so much once that list was handed out. Unfortunately, with that list, came the pairing of people to search for apartments together… which means I got stuck finding a place by myself… those bitches… (I wont give too many details about my apartment search except that my friends kept getting the apartments that I wanted but I eventually found a place in future posts)
That night, a bunch of us bought bottles of wine and went to the river. They all very classy-like drank a bottle of wine each… out of the bottle, not from a glass. They were being the typical loud Americans. Then we proceeded to a bar where people continued to drink and some of the girls fawned over some guys… not a particularly interesting night.
Thursday, August 26th we had our program orientations (all in French) which was annoying because I couldn’t understand half of what they were saying. I feel that all of the important stuff should be said in English to make sure we know what we are doing. But whatever…
Later that day, we had a walking tour of centre ville (the center of town) in Bordeaux. We split off into two groups and saw the beauty of Bordeaux! This city has all the beauty and history of Paris minus the tourists.
I got really behind in these blog posts so I don’t remember what I did that night.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010, Valeria and I went to the grocery store Carfour to get stuff for breakfast. We got chocolate croissants, boxed orange juice, and nectarines to last us for the week. Then we got ready because we had a “pique-nique” with everyone and the directors of the EAP program in Bordeaux. Then we had our first and last meeting in English. It was about safety and scheduling and stuff…
Afterward, a bunch of us went downtown. We all of course split apart because it is hard to keep everyone together in a group of like 20-25 people. My group wandered, went to a phone store, got ice cream, picked up my black and white film, went into a bunch of stores and did some minor shopping for necessities like bath towels and such, and then proceeded to get sandwiches for dinner in the park.
While eating dinner, we saw this major fight break out. A man and a woman were hitting and kicking this other woman and yelling stuff in French. Dogs were barking like crazy and both girls were bleeding down their faces! It was insane! I immediately told the girls I was with to get up and leave. I didn’t even want to risk the chance of being involved in that… especially since they kept moving closer and closer to us.
As soon as we got back to our dorms, people were leaving to go back downtown… so of course Valeria and I went with them. We met a bunch of the EAP people at a bar downtown. We hung out in the bar for like 20 minutes and then everyone decided to leave… besides the fact that half of the group left the bar when we got there or didn’t even bother to go inside. We decided to just catch the tram back to our dorms… unfortunately the tram wasn’t running in that direction anymore. By that time, there was a group of like 30 trying to figure out how to get back to the dorms. We ended up calling a bunch of taxis to take us back. I’m not sure that much effort to get back to the dorm was worth the 20 minutes at the bar. :/
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 we got up early to catch our train. We got a taxi to pick us up from our hostel… which was totally hilarious because he had to drive up and down steps. GOODBYE PARIS! HELLO BORDEAUX!!!
The train ride was like 3 and a half hours… alone… but I caught up on some sleep and listened to music to pass the time. We caught another legit taxi, except the taxi driver totally seemed like he hated us. It wasn’t until the end of the ride where we told him that we were from California did he seem to get nicer. French people really do like Californians apparently.
We checked in and got our keys to our rooms. Of course, there were no elevators so we had to somehow drag our heavy bags up two flights of steps. That was fun…
I was being very friendly and meeting like everyone. One guy that I met looked awfully familiar. I asked him where he was from and he said Santa Monica. I was like okay there might be a connection there… so I asked him what middle school he went to… he said Wildwood. No connection there… so I asked him where he went to elementary school and he said Canyon. YES! THAT WAS IT! I am totally in France with a guy that I went to elementary school. Heck, I am amazed that after all this time, he still looked familiar.
A group of people that I met here, and I went to downtown Bordeaux for lunch and got kabobs. And I found a place that would develop my film in 1 day.
A girl named Valeria and I were the only two from that group that lived on the second floor so we hung out in my room and went on facebook and watched tv online. We got a free 24 hour trial to the WiFi in our building. She had a mutual friend with me. It turns out, that she lived on the same floor as a bunch of my friends from UCLA (Kelly, Mimi, Jen, Jacob, etc… I’m talking about Fir 4). WHAT ARE THE ODDS!?!?
Me and Valeria
After hanging out in my room for a couple of hours, we went back to the first floor where our group lived. Our hanging out in the hall talking to one guy kept growing. It turned into a hallway party with like half of the people studying abroad in the hallway. We were proud that it all started with us, but it got ridiculously loud. Hours later, people were finally back in their rooms and it was quiet.
Monday, August 23, 2010 was my last day in Paris and I wasn’t motivated to do anything at all. Unfortunately, my hostel kicks everyone out from noon to 3pm for cleaning, so I was forced to leave. I went to BNV (the greatest department store ever) and explored a little and then found a memory card reader for my camera so that I can upload my pictures (because I, of course, forgot to bring that chord with me to France). It was POURING rain! I was wearing my rainbow flip flops and long sleeves (thank goodness!). I also asked the lady at the front desk where I could get my black and white film developed and she told me to look on “la rue de pont neuf” (which I think means “the street of the ninth bridge”). So I walked down to that street which isn’t too far from the Louvre. There was totally a mall (centre commercial) over there, along with just a bunch of stores and restaurants outside of the mall. Since I was doing all of this exploring alone, I decided to go in and window shop. I found out that pretty much nowhere in Paris will develop pictures faster than like a week or something ridiculous like that. (Someone told me that the French were a bit inefficient) I wanted like a 1 hour photo or something but nooo…
I decided to just wait until I got to Bordeaux to develop my film. And I proceeded to get lunch that I ate on some steps (like other French people at the mall) and people watch (one of my favorite past times).
I walked to Starbucks to try to use the free WiFi but my laptop was almost dead and the outlet nearest to me wasn’t working. I studied my French language textbook for half an hour instead and then headed back to my hostel where I played online for a while and almost got some of my blog updated… another FAIL
Shelby and I went back to the mall to eat dinner. I had lasagna and an apple tart. Shelby convinced me to splurge on our last night in Paris and get ice cream after. I immediately regretted it, but it was good anyway.
I went to bed early because our train was early the next day.
Sunday, August 22 we went to Versailles. The chateau was great and all… it’s kind of a “been there, done that” sort of thing for me. It’s mostly full of furniture and a couple of paintings… whatever.
The most important part of Versailles is the gardens. But security told us that our museum passes didn’t work for the gardens… which was stupid. They worked for the chateau but not the gardens. LAME! So we got drinks from the café and split up. Shelby (now known as Spees since another Shelby has entered our group… she will be known as Dempsey. We lost Dempsey pretty much as soon as we got to Versailles) and I walked around the outside of the chateau to the chateau of Marie Antoinette… seriously, so much cooler. The chateau itself was not impressive, but the gardens were AMAZING!!!
Spees and I took some grapes we found growing on the vines and a winter squash growing in the garden with squash and pumpkins… sort of stealing, but no one else would’ve actually taken them… so really, we were just using resources available. (The grapes were ridiculously sour so I guess that’s karma).
On our way out, we were pretty lost, but we ended up being let into the gardens of Versailles through the back way… FOR FREE!!! This day just keeps getting better!
We got dinner in town at a bar and the food was alright, but the service sucked! We spent like hours there because our waiter never bothered to check on us to see if we were okay… which means we spent a bunch of extra time just waiting on the check so that we could pay and leave. Eventually we got out of there, took the train back to the Notre Dame, and went back to our hostel for the remainder of the night.
By day four, we were definitely in the swing of things. We had all gotten up by 9am and ate breakfast and showered by 11:00am. So for once, we started our day before noon. We went to the Notre Dame and actually walked inside and appreciated its hugeness and the amazing stain glass windows. Then, we climbed the towers of the Notre Dame to the very top. Another zillion step spiral staircase. (The French clearly like their tall spiral staircases)! It had a great view of the city so it assured me that my decision to not waste money climbing the Eiffel Tower was the right one.
After the Notre Dame, we took a couple of metros to a very sketchy part of Paris. Now this was the REAL Paris. Graffiti abound, sketchy characters everywhere, holding your bag close to you so that it doesn’t get stolen, crazy street vendors, etc. We walked through without making eye contact with anyone and looked very focused. We knew that we were not taking that street back to the metro station.
We were headed to the Sacre Coeur (sacred heart) which is another famous cathedral in Paris. It is on top of a big hill. Alas, lots more steps! Totally worth it, because it too had a great view of the city. Cameras weren’t allowed in the cathedral which was kind of lame, but I made sure to light a candle when I was inside. (although I’m not Catholic).
We got lunch in that area and had really good food served by a rather attractive waiter.
On our way back, we decided to stop at the Concord instead of going home and Trang transferred to another train to meet her friend. Shelby and I took pictures of the Obelisk and tried to cool down by the fountains.
The museum that we wanted to go to was already closed for the day so that was a bust. Then we didn’t really feel up to our back up plan. So we went into the Louvre to go to the bathroom while we decided what to do. This was the most interesting bathroom experience I have ever had. We had to pay to use the bathroom… no big deal I guess… except that there were rolls of toilet paper in every color sitting on the walls. When I went to the back, a man opened the door to a stall and guided me into the nicest bathroom stall I have ever seen in my life. I stared at him and the door in utter confusion… why is this guy assigning a stall to me? and is that guy going in the stall next to mine? They weren’t just any kind of stalls. NO! They were like small rooms with toilets in them. Full doors and three walls. CRAZINESS.
Yes, those are different colored toilet papers
We decided to just stay at the Louvre food court and get coffee and dessert. So I have officially tried my first coffee. We ordered a cappuccino and a cappuccino noisette (hazelnut). The cappuccino obviously tasted just like strong coffee (or what I assumed it would taste like). Oh but the cappuccino noisette was amazing!
On our way back to the hostel, I had dropped my jacket and didn’t realize. A rather attractive French guy picked it up, caught up to me and returned it. So all of you who think the French are rude… clearly they are not.
I also discovered 6 bug bites on my legs and it has been ridiculously hot all week! FABULOUS!
Day three we actually managed to wake up in time for breakfast at the hostel. They serve bread, a chocolate croissant, cereal, orange juice, yogurt, and a choice of coffee or hot chocolate. After breakfast, we went to Orange and bought prepaid phones. The lady there saw my ID and expressed how much she LOVED California. HAHA :D
my French cell phone
Afterward, we caught the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. Anyone can see the arc on the outside, but our museum passes allowed us to climb all the way to the top of the arc which seemed like a zillion steps up a spiral staircase. Nevertheless, it was totally worth it. Forget the Eiffel Tower! You can see the city perfectly from up there!
Then we walked along the Champs Elysses and got lunch at some restaurant. Our waiter had like movie star looks, but he clearly got annoyed of us for asking for more carafe d’eau (tap water). No restaurant really appreciates it when you order une carafe d’eau because its free… they all want you to pay ridiculous prices for real drinks!
My omelet on the Champs Elysses
While heading to the Eiffel Tower, we made a few wrong turns and ended up in a nice, non-touristy area of Paris. Like we saw real French women walking home from God knows where, and legit apartments and stores that are not catered to tourists.
While walking up one street, we saw a church which we decided to check out. I have been trying to take pictures of the REAL France, not just what you see in movies and on postcards. The church looked like it tried to use historic architecture, but it was definitely modernized. This guy that was in the church started talking to us in French outside of the church. We had a long conversation in Franglais (French and English mixed). He would help us with our French while practicing his English. He would laugh at some of the things we would say because they weren’t used in the correct context, but we would laugh at him because of how he pronounced some English words. He was cool for challenging our French skills, but he was kind of creepy. At the end of our conversation, in French, he was asking if we could all go out for drinks and was telling us that we should get boyfriends immediately because it was the best way to learn French… Needless to say, like many French guys, he started coming on to the smiley girls from California… we left him with a “maybe we will run into each other”… hopefully we won’t.
We proceeded onto the Eiffel Tower and left Trang to climb the tower by herself. Shelby and I had already climbed it in previous trips to Paris and didn’t want to spend the money to climb it again… it’s really not a big deal once you’ve done it once. We sat in a park next to a pond by the Eiffel Tower. It was really cute and had a really good view of the Eiffel Tower, perfect for pictures.
We took the metro back to the area around our hostel and looked for a restaurant to get coffee and dessert. We sat in a restaurant, but when we began to order dessert, the waiter started yelling at us in French. I could understand enough to know that he wanted us to order an entire meal and that we couldn’t just order dessert. So we pretty much got kicked out of that restaurant as he very sternly took our menus from us. But it’s totally OK because we went and got ice cream and crepes. Mine was a crepe with nutella and bananas and mint chocolate chip ice cream. Seriously, I love French food… even their ice cream is amazing.
Day two, we woke up at 10am… breakfast at the hostel is included (it is a bed and breakfast) but breakfast at the hostel ends at 10 am. Convenient eh!? We were all just getting ready since we had to be out by noon. We left and explored a different area near our hostel. We stopped at BNP which is like the BofA in France and if you are a BofA customer, you can withdraw from BNP without a 5 euro charge. (By the way, the conversion rate now sucks!) Looked into buying cell phones, and bought crepes. Mine was sugar and lemon juice. YUMMY. I am soo going to gain weight here… but alas, the amount of walking that we do counteracts that eating.
After buying 5 day unlimited train/metro/bus passes and 4 day museum passes, we caught the train to the Louvre and pretty much spent the entire day there in the museum and in the gardens.
The Louvre
We got lunch not too far from the Louvre and ate giant sandwiches because that is how sandwiches are made in France. We walked by the Musee d’Orsay just to take pictures of the building (we were pretty much tired of looking at art after a day at the Louvre). We caught the train back to our hostel and stopped to get some uninteresting groceries for snacks. We spent most of the night trying to get internet. The hostel makes you pay for WiFi, but it didn’t work for Trang and me… so we had to just pay Shelby so that we could use her computer for internet. It was seriously stressful.
So my flight was a bit of a disaster. It started off well because the ladies at the luggage check-in were super nice and gave my mom a day pass to get through security with me. So my mom went with me all the way to the gate which was awesome. Once I got on the plane, there was someone in my seat which was awkward. So I walked to the back of the plane to let the people behind me pass, then I went up to one of the flight attendants and told him. Then there was all this confusion about who was assigned to what seat blah blah blah. It turned out that we were both assigned to the same window seat on the plane. So I took the aisle seat in some other row that he was actually supposed to be assigned to. Then when I got to Texas for my 58 minute lay-over, my flight was delayed for a couple of hours. It was supposed to depart at like 3:40pm, but didn't depart until 6pm. This meant that I wouldn't get to Paris on time and the people I was supposed to meet at the airport would be gone. Other than that drama, the flights weren't that bad. I slept a lot; in fact, I was always conveniently asleep whenever the meal carts came by so that I never got a meal when I was supposed to. It happened so often, that one of the flight attendants came by and asked me if I had eaten and if I was okay. Apparently, no one had seen the burger and fries that I got from Ruby's diner at the airport and ate on the plane.
When I got to Paris, I waited forever for my bag to show up, but when I was ready to exit the airport I saw and recognized the girls that I was meeting in Paris. Shelby and Trang. They waited for me! So that was seriously cool because we all shared a taxi to our hostel instead of me having to pay 75 euros for a taxi by myself. We totally got in a rather sketchy taxi but he got us to out hostel no problem. We got there at noon.
We are staying at the Hotel Maubuisson in Paris (with the MIJE company... not like anyone knows what that is)
my hostel
At this hostel, you must be out of your room between the hours of 12:00pm and 15:00pm. Now this seems easy, but with three tired, jet lagged American girls, this was soo hard! We left our stuff in the luggage room and explored the area. We are like a two minute walk from the Notre Dame. It is just across the Seine! We walked by all the restaurants and cafes, got some ice cream, sat at the park by the Notre Dame and still managed to have way too much time left before we could go into our rooms.
We finally killed enough time and got to our rooms and showered and napped. I, of course, forgot to repack my towel in my quest to lose pounds in my suitcase. So I had to buy a towel before showering and napping, which in France is not cheap! We asked the lady at the front desk who told us where to go. The store was BNV which is like the largest department store you will ever see in your life! IT HAS EVERYTHING AND MORE!!! Towels were so hard to find because I wanted a cheap one, but in Paris, people must like designer towels that are 75 euros (like more than $100). FOR A TOWEL!!! I didn’t even know they made designer towels. I finally managed to find one that was ONLY 25 euros. Oh but you should have seen their collection of hangers, now that was impressive! Bejewled, ones with pearls, plastic, metal, wood, circular, triangular, rectangular, bendable, etc.
Then Shelby and I stopped at a boulangerie (bakery) and saw seriously the most delicious looking desserts ever. I was broke from that darn towel so Shelby got an éclair and such desserts for herself.
With our renewed energy from napping, we went back to the area with all the restaurants and cafes to get dinner. I had vegetable soup, spaghetti, and la tarte du jour (the tart of the day). All very good, but the tarte was especially delicious.
