Les Vacances

         Well, I made it back safe and sound from Greece! Our traveling was pretty radical (we got to take all types of transportation: train, plane, ferry, bus, metro, tram, taxi…) but we got everywhere we needed to be.  I will give you more detailed accounts of my adventures but until then, here is a little taste of what went on:

         -    Spending the night at CDG, freezing and delusional

-       Apartment in Athens: Spanikopita, Ouzo, Bakalava, and Gyros

-       Akropolis, Parthenon, Museum, Hadrian’s gate, columns

-       The Bazarre: “Please buy my product…please, PLEASE!?”

-       Ferry ride of doom to Mykonos

-       Getting lost on ATV’s, beach, white and blue, day drinking, octopus

-       Back to Athens!

-       Mary, Murphy, Chris, Phil, Peter at Zeus

-       Easter mass at the Greek Orthodox church followed by guitar playing pow-wow

-       Beach, friends, dance party

            -   Deux nuits sans lit, sans amoureux: spending one night in the Athens airport, the next day at Parc Luxembourg in Paris, then catching the last train into Bordeaux

 

GREEEEEEEEEEEEECE!!!!

Well, it's that time of the semester...again! I am leaving today for a week-long trip to Athens, Greece with all of my lovely ladies! When I get back, I will only have a few more finals and the last part of my stay here in Bordeaux! 

Time to go touch some really old stuff!
Bonnes vacances!
 

Internet

    You would think that after three and a half months living in the same house and using the same computer, that the internet situation would be figured out...that is not the case.  My internet went out two days ago - both the wireless in the house and for some odd reason the free hotspot wifi thing.  So, here I sit...in Mcdonalds...in April...just using the internet.  On the bright side though I am officially on Spring break and I leave for Greece on Sunday!!! I am the last to get out of here so I am getting antsy for lack of things to do, I hope that I will be able to make it to Sunday without exploding!!!

Less than thrilled about the internet not working...

 

Walking

         So, I accidentally walked about ten miles the other day.  I have been sick all weekend (I finally feel better, but I have that smokey lounge-singer voice) but on Sunday, I had a random burst of energy and decided to go on a walk.  As I was walking I realized that I didn’t want to just walk around Bordeaux, I wanted to explorer, so what did I do? I crossed Pont de Pierre (the bridge over the Garonne).  It was weird over there, not quite a bizarro-Bordeaux, but different all the same.  It definitely was not as nice, but I figured that it was uncharted territory for me so it would suffice.  I ended up walking for close to three and a half hours, just wandering around and taking my time.  I was about to go back when I looked up onto this hill and saw a big church.  I said to myself, “Alright, let’s go there”, so I went.  I started walking up and up, and all of a sudden I had no idea where I was.  I found this gate that led off of the path and onto a dirt road, I figured that since I was already lost, how much more damage could this do?  That road turned out to be the back entrance to the cemetery of eglise St. Romain that I had been trying to get to! It was nice to explorer on my own and be able to get lost and then find my way again.  This walk has given me some self-confidence that I have been lacking toward my abilities to get places, even if I don’t know where I am going.   

"Hey, self, let's go there!"

On my way back home, crossing Pont de Pierre, the sky was absolutely amazing

Parents

         Last week was such a weird week for my little group of friends.  Emily and Sandy both got a few visitors so it was just Lea and I for the most part of our day-to-day lives.  First, Sandy’s friend Cecelia came into town, she is nice and bubbly and fit right in.  Then Emily’s parents came in, they are oh-so-kind; they invited us over for a wine and cheese night one night and a taco night the next.  After Emily’s parents left (or rather while they were all in Paris) Sandy’s mom and grandma came, who also made us a Mexican food dinner.  It was really nice to have some family in town and to get some insight as to why our friends are the way they are. We realized, however, that we can’t go for very long without missing one another.  Lea and I were hanging out a lot, and eventually Coral as well, but it was so weird to not be around Sandy and Emily for that week.  It seems like we spend most of our waking moments together laughing, talking, playing, and just all around having fun. While it was nice to have some family in town, it became kind of a reminder that we are going to be going back home in the nearer future.  That, along with Mexican food and graduating in one year from now, we have all decided to not speak of until absolutely necessary. 

  Mes Filles Favorites

Fête Américain

         Last month Jean-Lucien planted in my mind an idea for an American themed party, yesterday that idea became reality.  Sandy’s mom had rented an apartment for the week that she was visiting, but ended up leaving a day early, so we figured that we could use her apartment to have this little shindig seeing as how it was very close to the city center and a tram stop.  We invited French and American students, so there was a lot of Franglais going on there.  We made cookies, brownies, cornbread, and sangria (just to throw in a little bit of Spanish flair).  

 Sandy, Lea, and Coral baking the night before

 Of course we knew that no American (college) party would be complete without beer pong, so we set up a table and bought some ping pong balls and made ourselves our very own make-shift beer pong! The night turned out pretty great, everyone had a good time, and my host brothers all got a taste of the California college party scene!

  Team 1: Jean-Lucien and Coral

  Team 2: Adam and Lea

La Plage

           When you live in Bordeaux and you want to go to the beach you have a few options: Arcachon, Biertiz, and a few more.  Each is about an hour train ride away but the most popular one for Bordeaux is Arcachon (possibly because it is so easy to get to).  This past Friday, Lea, Coral and I took a day trip there and we had a blast!  To get there we took a ten-minute train ride and an hour-long bus trip (it wasn’t too bad though because we decided to make mimosas on the bus, you know, to keep it classy).  We got there at around 10:30 and found out that there was a bus that goes to Dune de Pyla (the biggest sand dune in all of Europe) leaving at 11:45, so we decided to walk around and check out the city for a bit.  Arcachon is so adorable, it feels like a beach town the second you step foot off of the bus.  It was warm and sunny, there were even palm trees! This city is more like an old-person beach town though, which I personally prefer, so there weren’t a lot of teenagers running amuck.  The bus finally comes, but right before we hop on this class of about 20 students gets on and the bus driver just turns to us and says, “sorry no more room, there is another bus in two hours”.  Two hours!?  We decided then that it would be better and more enjoyable for us to just walk to the beach.  It was such a nice walk, the houses were gorgeous and there wasn’t anyone on the beach, and it ended up getting up to 29.5 degrees Celsius (that’s like 80F).  We found a nice place on the beach to lay out and eat our salad and drink our let’s-just-put-oranges-and-juice-into-our-wine sangria.   

(the sangria is in the water bottle!)

We ended up just lounging around for about 4 hours—it was heaven! Then we decided to try and find the actual dune, so we started walking and every time there was a bend in the coast we would say, “Oh, I bet it’s just around this bend!”…but it never was.  After walking for over an hour we finally see the dune! It really is huge! 

We are so excited and we know this time it really is just around the bend, unfortunately this particular bend before the dune turns into a little cove which was easily going to be another two miles (at least) of walking.  We had a train to catch, so we decided at this point that it would be better just to come back again and go to the dune.  We head back towards town and find a bus stop where the bus is supposed to come in five minutes.  We are sitting there, sore, tired, and a pretty hungry when we see the bus…zoom past us.  The top of the bus said “complet” which meant that this bus too was full, and there wasn’t going to be another for two hours.  We ended up walking all the way back into town and just barely made it onto our train home.  By the end of the day we were all so exhausted, hungry, and sunburned, but it was well worth it.  I had forgotten how much I love the beach and how much I really do miss it! I think I know how I will be spending my summer vacation!