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