Saturday, December 17, 2011

End of the semester

Waaooww it's been a while !!! ... I feel like I've been starting my posts with that too often :( but it's a rainy morning in Bordeaux so I figured what better time to whip out a new post. And my blog-savvy friend Sara told me I need to put more spaces in my blogs, so that my giant paragraphs of storytelling aren't intimidating. Oh and ps, thanks for reading this cause I feel like I'm just posting these to cyber space and no one really cares about what I have to say. SO merci:)

Ok so the weather is actually terrifying. It almost prevented me from sortir-ing hier soir. Almost is the key word there. This is the aftermath of ce mauvais temps:
except I don't look nearly as glamorous as that girl. I look a lot more soaked and haggard and wet-dog-like.

Anyway, besides the torrential storms, la vie bordelaise is amazing as usual. OH my god I can't believe first semester's over. It's insane and scary how fast time is going by. These last 4 months seem to have been compacted into a whirlwind blur... Time really is a TRIP.

One sad thing about this fact is that our friends who chose to spend only 1 semester here are leaving. This is immensely triste because we've made some great friendships , and Bordeaux just won't be the same without them. But I'm lucky to have met them and I know this isn't goodbye forever. We've already planned a road trip when we all get back to California :)

To say au revoir, we went out to a nice lunch at a real French restaurant. This is a rare occasion since we're all poor foreign students, and our lunches usually consist of cheap kebabs or fast-food pasta. But we decided to class it up at a cute restaurant downtown. The food was delicious and it was a great way to have one last get together.

Of course, lunch wasn't our only last hurrah. We had to go to our favorite pub, Houses of Parliament (aka our second home) one last time! There were lots of Californians from our program there, getting in their final Serbian iced teas or Long Islands (both very dangerous!)


A picture's worth a thousand words, right? ; )

So for the holidays, my friends Sara and Marina are lucky filles and get to go back to California. I'm jealous they get to have a taste of home, but what's even better is that my mom is coming to France! I really thought it wasn't gonna happen, but she pulled through at the last minute. I am leaving tomorrow to meet her in Paris, then taking her back to Bordeaux. I am so excited to play tour guide and show her everything I've experienced here. And I really miss my mom! You can't beat spending Christmas in France, and having your mom with you too is just the icing on the cake :)

Mama Menagh is leaving before the new year, so my french friend Ed invited me to spend new years with him and his family in Nantes!

Nantes:


Needless to say, I am very excited. I'm lucky to have nice French friends!


Another little piece of news is that I'm moving! I spent an interesting first semester living with Erika, my host mom, in her home, but it is time to déménager. I will miss living here with my great roomies Laura and Deyuanne. And I'll miss those chickens too I guess. I snapped this pic of a silly poule standing on a cement block:
But I found a great room to rent downtown in a lovely house, right next to my favorite spot- Jardin Public. I'm so excited for all the picnics that will take place there in springtime! And I'm looking forward to a more independent living situation.
(Just for reference, this is a typical French picnic for me and my friends) :

I know we're classy, you don't have to tell me.

Ahhh, it feels like just yesterday I was frantically packing my bags to leave for France. Now one semester is behind us, and a new one is waiting. So many crazy things have happened already, I can't imagine what another 6 months has in store. But I really can't wait to find out !

Ohhh.. just realized that I have mentioned school approximately 0 times in this post. I assure you, I actually am studying here!!! Finals were interesting... all I have to say is the French university system is a piece of work. I made it out alive though! Over all, my classes were interesting and I learned a thing or two. I really enjoyed my littérature class. The professor was a little wacky, but those are the best kind! He was very interesting and kind to us foreign students. My Linguistics class sucked, besides getting a good laugh out of the hilariously grumpy and frazzled professor. Phonetics class was definitely helpful with pronunciation, although I don't know if it actually made a difference since my accent is still notoriously Californian. Oh and I can't forget Dragons, aka Middle Ages class! I don't really have a comment for that one, actually. It was.... interesting. All in all, this semester was a good introduction to the French university way of life. I can't wait to get back to taking Psych though, which I'll be doing next semester.

Ohh, lala lala lala, guess it's time to wrap things up. Im not sure if anyone actually cares about the ongoings of my life that I post here, so if you made it through til the end, merci :) As always, I'm thinking about my homies back at home and missing everyone dearly! I'll be back in June - c'est booon ca! ; )

love all y'all, bisouuss!