life in the french lane

Hello to all my adoring fans out there! I have returned to the technological world with a vengeance! Below lies the my life the last couple of weeks, but before that, let me write a quick recap:

• Changed out of my host family. It wasn't particularly working out, due to her requests for more stability, more than I could provide given my social nature. It's still quite amicable, though, just agreed I wan't what she wanted.
• Moved into a studio, living in a french batchelor pad, quaint but just what I needed.
• Started school two weeks ago. Going well, although there's a lot that I just have no idea what is being said. Luckily, I can generally pick up enough key words to figure out 1) what the homework is, 2)when it's due and 3) when the tests are. I figure that's enough to get me started
• Meeting new people left and right. Lots of Erasmus students, which is the big European international exchange program. They generally host parties late at night under a bridge, which has left me feeling awfully trollish. 

Cool, so lets get into the pictures. The following are my pictures from my trip to Arcachone, a beach in the Bordeaux region. It was really nice, sunny the whole weekend, the beaches were white sand, and the campground had a pool with a water slide. So much fun, although certainly not made for adults who want to reach mach 1 and end up bottoming out and bruising their tailbone. There was 7 of us, me, laura, brandon, genevieve, kirsten, irene and peter, so split up it was fairly cheap. Most money was spent on beer, bread and cheese. Which inevitably led to irritating the entire community of Arcachon.

Our tent. Nearly froze to death with one sleeping bag between 3 people. 

Luckily we drank ourselves to sleep

Brandon's the one in the America Shirt. I couldn't stop laughing for the life of me.

 

beautiful beach. In true French fashion, clothing was clearly optional. Unfortunately, it turns out Arcachon is a retirement community. yeah...

the crew, already a few drinks under

Sweet-as merry-go-round. Laura got kicked off for smoking on it, and not having a proper seat

Crazy good breakfast burrito mix we made our last morning. The only actual food we consumed, and we did it right

Our living situation was the typical camping experience: cramped, cold, hard ground, unsanitary and at times miserable, but as we explained to laura who had never been camping, that being miserable at one point is crucial to camping. All in all, and incredibly successful trip. The video is us on the way home, craving real food, a shower and a bed. god I love being young enough to abuse my body.




So, to ensure that I have been actually doing scholastic things here at poitiers, Here's some pictures of my campus:

I spend all of my time in the building below, the fac de lettres et langues, since all my classes are language oriented, except my history of europe class.

Other views of the building, although it is remarkably unimpressive, architectually speaking. Howard Roark would be devastated.

That little woodsey area is where we generally have lunch

And finally, the coup de gras, me!

harumph, well, that's the lot of my pictures I have uploaded on my camera. I can't believe I've already been here almost a month. I'll post pictures of my new place and some other happenings that have been going on later, but now, I have a whole weekend's worth of homework to finish, and a plate of bread, cheese meat and tomatoes to devour. Donc, A tout a lors!

French Mot du jour:
ivrogne: drunk

*disclaimer: alright, so apparently we have an actual french person reading this, mom's exchange student. Which means she can (and has) called me out on my incorrect french. therefore, I can't just search on babelfish to translate something half assed. I publish the correction to last post's mot du jour

Horse's ass: cheval âne (literally horse ass)
or rather: bourricot for an insult

The year of the puppy hatred

Yesterday was really only half the story, b/c I got way too tired of loading and unloading pictures and typing and explaining and blah. So here are some more pictures from the Eiffel Tour. Various government buildings and such. I actually don't really know what they are, but they look really neat. As if anything in France isn't neat. And a man on a horse. Being...gallant I can only assume. Probably killing the english. or africans. or other french that pissed him off. Who knows. But its a cool statue. I'd like an equestrian format of myself some day.

 

Also, they put the soda in upside down. Isn't that weird?? crazy french...

Donc, so after I got into Poitiers and rested, the real reason I came here surmised. Monday morning I caught the bus about 10 minutes from my house and I spent the next 6 days in the following classroom

It was called the intensive language course, lasted into the following saturday, from 9-4 and certainly lived up to its name. On Monday, I filled out about 3 dozen forms and got all my instructions for my bank account, student id and school instructions, spoken entirely in French. Not only that, but French through what sounded like a cement mixer. The director, in true french fashion, has been smoking for what I can assume has been 8 decades and the result was so gravelly I figured they replaced her voicebox with the cobblestones that adorn the streets, and at roughly the same time. The only phrase I understood was "any questions?". Where to start.

But after that, it progressed rather smoothly. The teacher was different and very nice, spoke smoothly and explained the more foreign words. I passed the class with a 12/20, which if you don't know anything about french grading scales, is about a B+. go figure.

As I got to know the family more, I found them to have had an incredibly interesting life, the mother particularly. After her husband died, she took over their husbands company, after having just absorbed 3 others and gotten into the medical field. She does windows and doors and overhangs and security, employs about 100 people and is so incredibly strong of spirit, I wouldn't have been surprised if she had given birth, threw it over her shoulder in a rucksack and continued working.

Anyway, when her husband died, she got a dog. (sound familiar? just wait) Not just a dog, but a dog from a rescue pound. AND... (wait for it) it had been abused by its former owner. a man.

yeah. that's what I thought. Here's the little bitch (dictionary term! it's a girl) below

I think I'm making headway on it though. I feed it ham and cheese pretty regularly, so I think its coming around. It still won't let me walk it, which sucks because the family wanted me to in the morning when they go to work and school. oh well.

Also, I don't know what it is about France, but actual showers are scarce. Therefore, this is my bathing unit.I still haven't got it down, and I get water everywhere. thank god I've got my own bathroom.

last but not least, here are some friends and I discussing literature, drinking coffee and smoking in the centre ville, or down town.

Genvieve and Brandon from St. Louis

Whew, I do believe that's everything. Hope you enjoyed. I'm going to bordeaux this weekend, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and get them up tout de suite.

French Mot du Jour!
âne de cheval= Horse's ass

Gross right? They even have some veins...

An American Airline in Paris

Here is all my recent photos. I hope they all made it. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

I left PDX on time, no troubles or problems with luggage (my bag was 48.5 pounds. whew). My trip to Texas was quick and I got one last bite of america before I left, some chicken mcnuggets and some terrible water. Texas has awful drinking water. Then, the last leg, that turned out to be miserably long. However, the contrasting pilots proved most entertaining; one was an uptight and reserved frenchman who talked infrequently and covered only the safety topics. I don't even think he announced when the drink cart came around. Then, the other pilot, an overly excited Texan who evidently just couldn't get enough of his job. He greeted us with an exuberant Howdy! and told us everything from the flight path to the altitude.

Then, Paris. My friend molly, depicted in some of the pictures below, met me at the airport and helped my get a ticket into town, where we stayed in the luxurious hostel below.

Paris Airport

Fancy hostel room. actually remarkably expensive

Front Desk w/ Molly

After about 30 seconds of closing my eyes (no exaggeration), we hit the town and saw everything from the Eiffel Tower

To the louvre and the arc de triumph and all the streets and people in between

Then off to Poitiers...

This is the train ride to Poitiers. Only about 2 hours and although I was so tired i just about had loose bowels from sleep deprivation, I couldn't fall asleep due to excitement or...whatever. When I finally got into the train station, below...

train station

City streets

I got a ride to my host house and breathed deep for the first time in what seemed like months.

My room and house are all below. Its really nice, 4 stories tall but very narrow, old wood and stone, with a patio and a gorgeous view of the city from the second floor.

Living room/main floor

Patio

Right side out of my window

Left side out of my window

My room. Obviously, in grand Moreno tradition, settling in entailed: my suitcase exploding, my gin broke out and I slept for about 14 hours.

And as the last image, here is what has been accompaning every single one of my meals:

I mean come on. come ON. sheesh, these people are incredible. Thanks for reading, sorry it took so long, and I will try to be more consistent. Love you all.

ps: here's my number here. I think its free for me if you call into my phone, so feel free. We're ahead by about 9 hours, so just keep that in mind. 0687646737. I think there's some extra numbers in the beginning for the country code, but you'll have to look that up :p

French Mot du Jour: il fait soleil: it's sunny