My first day in Bordeaux

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.