The beautiful days in Bordeaux... Good times in Bordeaux... you know, I'm not sure how to translate the title because it English it just sounds funny. It's halfway a joke- last week I was super sick with a nasty virus, but just as I was beginning to feel better, the sun came out and the weather here got gorgeous. Being sick abroad SUCKS, but it was nice to have my host mom here asking about me all the time and giving me French tylenol for my fever. So that was a week totally wasted and gone. Luckily, the grève continues and I have only one class per week (EU History for non-native French speakers at 8:30 on Thursday- yuck) so I didn't miss anything.
But then Spring arrived in Bordeaux and my fever left and all was good in the world again. We went to a picnic and I was kind of in a daze because I had been in bed for 4 days and I might have still had a little fever. Note the tanktops and skirts! (Sorry, Shaz, it's the only photo I had)
The weather has been so beautiful and we have had no class. So we have picnics, take boat rides on La Garonne, the river that runs through Bordeaux...
... walk along the Quay, where they have a skate park and a good ice cream shop...
Yeah, no helmets on any of the kids. French people are literally too cool to wear helmets. We go to museums, and sit for hours talking in cafés. We complain about the grève, but I'm not sure if I've ever been so relaxed in my entire life. I really don't know how I'll be able to go back to late nights up writing, long days of reading long books, running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and barely any time at all to actually enjoy good food, good friends, good weather, and how wonderful my life really is. I'm going to cross that bridge when I get to it.
On Thursday, after Moravia and I had our 8:30 am midterm canceled because not enough students were present (the trams were only running halfway because of a national, general grève for the day), we miraculously got invited to go to the beach with April and some of her newfound French friends. So we spent most of the day on a beach with NO ONE ON IT, the sun shining, doing nothing at all but collecting shells and digging holes in the sand. It was so, so beautiful and such a perfect day- but no one had a camera. Just imagine an almost untouched, calm, sunny beach, with clear blue water and no one in sight- it was really just wonderful. Very interesting fact: the beach had a few leftover German bunkers on it still. That's right- German bunkers. In terms of History, Europe beats California hands down. Thanks so much for inviting us, April!
On Friday my host family left for a weekend at the beach. So I had a party! Well... Moravia and Shahzadi came over and we made a gigantic chocolate chip cookie to eat with ice cream...
... yeah, we felt like we were going to throw up after we finished it...
...and then we watched Out of Africa until we fell asleep...
-Out-of-Africa-1985-1.jpg)
So not exactly a party but still my idea of a crazy fun night. The next night we had a potluck, which was also very nice, but I have no pictures.
Well there you have my life here in France for the moment. I think it was probably good that I saved two weeks for this entry- nothing much happens in the day to day here. I'm planning a Spring Break trip around southern France in a few weeks, a trip to the UK when I get out of class with Ali, and (drumroll, please) Italy, Sicily, and Paris with Mike at the end of May! He bought his ticket and applied for his passport, so we are on our way. I will update more on our official itinterary when it actually becomes official, but for certain we are starting in Rome, I want to visit Ragusa, where my great-grandpa was born and raised, and we are ending in Paris. I think we'll be traveling almost exclusively with Eurail passes.
That's all for now! Bisous!
*Thanks Shahzadi and Moravia for pics
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pizookie withdrawals
ReplyDeleteSo Mike is coming! Yay for traveling in Europe. Sometimes the day to day is the best.
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