I only hung out in my room for about an hour, before heading back out again on the long walk to find the Maison Picassiette, which is the second biggest site in Chartres. I didn't realise how far it was, though. I walked, and walked, and finally found a sign, and walked some more. When I checked my map, I realised that it would be faster to cut through a cemetery that's just nearby. It turned out to be several city blocks wide, though, I swear, so it was more walking until I finally came out exactly where I needed to be!
The Maison Picassiette (or Picassiette House) used to be where Raymond Isidore and his wife lived in the early to mid-1900s. He was a basic manual worker, but some passion, insanity, or inspiration drove him to cover his entire house in paintings and gorgeously complicated mosaics made from crockery, bits of glass, and other random things like shells. They don't allow pictures (which seems stupid to me; what are they protecting? They don't have a gift shop or anything), but I sneaked a couple anyway. The amazing thing is that you don't expect every single thing to be a mosaic, but it is. The sewing machine, the stove, the walls, floors, flowerpots, *everything*. A lot of it is depictions of Biblical stuff and Christian iconography, and there are also world monuments, and a whole area full of designs and models of the various sites in Chartres (he seemed particularly preoccupied with the cathedral, which he apparently visited every year on his birthday). They had a couple of records written by his wife, along with pictures and the basic history, and she said that he basically just always wanted to live surrounded by beauty and couldn't imagine why people wouldn't, and so he made that beauty himself.
The house is pretty small, and doesn't take long to circuit through, so I was done quickly and headed back to town. I went through the cemetery again on my way, and this time wandered through at leisure and took some pretty pictures. People think it's weird, but I do love cemeteries; they're peaceful, and beautiful.
When I got back to the town center, I was dog-tired and my feet were killing me from all the walking, so I went back to my hotel for a nap. That evening, I ended up deciding that between the fact that it was raining, how full I still was from lunch, and the little bit of food I had left over from my lunch on the train the previous day, I would just stay in for dinner and not worry about it. I set my alarm (properly this time) and went to bed.
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
European Public Transit Has Earned My Love Forever
Today, I finally started my adventure in London! Yesterday was spent in a rush of finalising plans, information, tickets, packing, etc, and then this morning Grant and I woke up bright and early so that we could leave the house by 6:30am. We had to walk down to the Gare (the train station), and our train was leaving at 7:06am.
We ended up being about 15 minutes early, and found the train easily enough. When we got on and sat down at first, though, the lights were out in the car. It was kind of creepy and weird, so Grant checked it out and we moved down to a different car. That one had little eight-seat compartments rather than the usual seats, so the two of us took a car together, put up the arm rests, and mostly slept on our way to Orléans. It was kind of funny; at one point when we were both almost asleep and the train was going decently fast, a TVG passed us going the opposite direction and it sounded like a dragon howling past right by our heads! Grant screamed, and we both bolted straight up! We were a little confused about what the train was doing when we sat in Orléans for a long time, and a couple of women joined us in our car since the train was filling up more. Getting to Paris was pretty uneventful, except that we were about 12 minutes late; which is unheard of in the French train systems.
Once in Gare Austerlitz in Paris, we found the Métro to take us to Gare du Nord, where we were going to catch the Eurostar. We were briefly above ground, and managed to see the tops of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, but that was the extent of our Parisian experience. I'm really going to have to go back; I missed it even just from the Métro itself.
The Gare itself wasn't that hard to navigate, although I hadn't really thought about the security necessary since we were going to another country. We had to fill out a card for non-UK residents. Then we got our passports stamped by the French border patrol (my first passport stamp with a train on it!) and had to talk to the British border patrol about 5 feet further on. The X-ray and stuff was ridiculously simple, and then we were through to the boarding lobby. Grant had had some kind of mix-up with his ticket and was scheduled to be on the 12:13 train rather than the 11:13 with me, but we talked to the desk and they got him on the earlier train, although not in the same car. I was in Carriage 1, the very first on the train. There were a couple of French girls sitting beside and across from me, a British girl across diagonally, and there was a Spanish couple with their two young boys across the aisle. The father was cute; he kept trying to mind the two boys, calling them "mi amor" and stuff.
The Eurostar was pretty nice, as trains go. Grant and I both realised that when we didn't know whether we'd crossed the Channel yet all we had to do was see which way people were driving on the freeways. I was expecting the Chunnel to be more of a big deal, but it was basically just a long black tunnel; I honestly didn't even notice we were through until I looked up from my book and everything was grey and misty and *so* typically obviously England. The Eurostar was also about 15 minutes late (we had bad luck, I guess), but we still managed to get out of the St. Pancras station, cross over and find King's Cross, and meet up with my Aunt Roxanne's friend Katie in front of the appointed Burger King. Grant and I both got some British pounds from the ATM, got some lunch (mmm, traditional pasty with beef and potatoes and onions...), and went with Katie to the Underground.
Katie is American, but her new husband Allan is from Scotland and works in the Royal Air Force, so she moved to London after their wedding. She very graciously agreed to let me and Grant spend a few days with her during our vacation, and she seems to be purely adorable and sweet. I went ahead and bought a 7-day pass for the Underground, since I'm planning to ride it everywhere the whole few days I'm here, and it's just simpler. Katie showed us how to take the Northern Line (which is actually one of the more confusing, since it splits and meets up and splits again) up to her house. It's an adorable little two-bedroom apartment (I'm sleeping in the guest bedroom and Grant agreed to take the air mattress in the living room) where there's apparently mixed civilian and military housing. We also got to meet Mazzie, who is Katie's wiener-dog mutt. I'll have to take pictures of her before I leave, because she is adorable.
After dropping off our luggage and settling in a bit (and I changed, because it was pouring down rain and I was soaked), the two of us headed off on our own again to see a little bit of the city. We went to Embankment, which is right on the bank of the Thames, and took brief little pictures of the London Eye and Big Ben. The main reason I wanted to go was to see Cleopatra's Needle, which is an Egyptian obelisk that was taken from Egypt when the British defeated Napoleon and now sits in the center of London. We took a couple pictures, but it was very cold and rainy, so we quickly headed back down into the Tube. We went up to the theatre district, near Leicester Square. On Monday we'd decided that it would be fun to see a show, but before it began we walked around a bit. It was amazing to see all the lights and posters for all the various shows that are playing: Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Les Misérables, Billy Elliot, and a hundred others.
For dinner we decided on a little Italian restaurant. It was really small and close, but cute. Grant got a pizza, and I had Penne Marco Polo, which was penne pasta with duck and mushrooms in a plum sauce. It was really, really good, and really sweet, which was interesting. I also tried something called Fruitisa, which was some sparkling pomegrante juice, and that was okay. What absolutely made the restaurant, though, was the dessert. We split a piece of cheesecake with red berries and sauce on top, and it was absolutely the lightest, sweetest, most heavenly piece of cheesecake I have ever tasted; and the berries were sweet and tart and added just the right touch of flavour.
After dinner, we headed back towards the Wyndham's Theatre, which was where our show was. The website had said that you come out of the Tube station and the theatre was right there, and they weren't lying; you could basically walk 5 steps from the station awning to the theatre awning without even getting wet! The show we went to see was called "An Inspector Calls," and is a British play about a well-off British family whose dinner party is interrupted by a strange Inspector Goole, who shows up and starts asking questions in regard to the suicide of a working-class girl, Eva Smith. We had considered going to something more well-known, but a friend of mine who's in theatre told me that the best thing to do in London was to see British theatre, rather than a show that you could see any time back in the States. It definitely paid off, too! The theatre itself was obviously a little old (there was a renovation fee included in our ticket price), but it was elegant and the seating was perfect. We were in the very last row in the very top balcony, but we could see and hear everything just fine.
The show itself is extremely different. It kind of plays tricks with your mind, and you're not really sure what to believe at certain points. They had magnificent effects, though; the stage was built so that half of it was this huge mechanised cutaway house, which could open up so that you could see the inside, and had a staircase that moved up to lock in place and connect it with the rest of the stage. At one specific part in the play, they used pyrotechnic explosions and the mechanics made the house fall down, and it was really startling and a little terrifying for a second. The plot is really twisty, and it's definitely not what you might expect it to be. I left at first going "what the...?" and it wasn't until I'd really thought it over a bit more that I decided I actually liked it quite a lot. The actors were fantastic (in my, admittedly very limited theatrical opinion), especially the Inspector himself.
After the show, Grant and I took the train back to Katie's house, where we got to meet Allan for the first time. We sat up and talked for a while, and then they told me how to use the internet here. Now, I need to go to bed. Tomorrow we have even more things planned, and I need to get some sleep!
We ended up being about 15 minutes early, and found the train easily enough. When we got on and sat down at first, though, the lights were out in the car. It was kind of creepy and weird, so Grant checked it out and we moved down to a different car. That one had little eight-seat compartments rather than the usual seats, so the two of us took a car together, put up the arm rests, and mostly slept on our way to Orléans. It was kind of funny; at one point when we were both almost asleep and the train was going decently fast, a TVG passed us going the opposite direction and it sounded like a dragon howling past right by our heads! Grant screamed, and we both bolted straight up! We were a little confused about what the train was doing when we sat in Orléans for a long time, and a couple of women joined us in our car since the train was filling up more. Getting to Paris was pretty uneventful, except that we were about 12 minutes late; which is unheard of in the French train systems.
Once in Gare Austerlitz in Paris, we found the Métro to take us to Gare du Nord, where we were going to catch the Eurostar. We were briefly above ground, and managed to see the tops of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, but that was the extent of our Parisian experience. I'm really going to have to go back; I missed it even just from the Métro itself.
The Gare itself wasn't that hard to navigate, although I hadn't really thought about the security necessary since we were going to another country. We had to fill out a card for non-UK residents. Then we got our passports stamped by the French border patrol (my first passport stamp with a train on it!) and had to talk to the British border patrol about 5 feet further on. The X-ray and stuff was ridiculously simple, and then we were through to the boarding lobby. Grant had had some kind of mix-up with his ticket and was scheduled to be on the 12:13 train rather than the 11:13 with me, but we talked to the desk and they got him on the earlier train, although not in the same car. I was in Carriage 1, the very first on the train. There were a couple of French girls sitting beside and across from me, a British girl across diagonally, and there was a Spanish couple with their two young boys across the aisle. The father was cute; he kept trying to mind the two boys, calling them "mi amor" and stuff.
The Eurostar was pretty nice, as trains go. Grant and I both realised that when we didn't know whether we'd crossed the Channel yet all we had to do was see which way people were driving on the freeways. I was expecting the Chunnel to be more of a big deal, but it was basically just a long black tunnel; I honestly didn't even notice we were through until I looked up from my book and everything was grey and misty and *so* typically obviously England. The Eurostar was also about 15 minutes late (we had bad luck, I guess), but we still managed to get out of the St. Pancras station, cross over and find King's Cross, and meet up with my Aunt Roxanne's friend Katie in front of the appointed Burger King. Grant and I both got some British pounds from the ATM, got some lunch (mmm, traditional pasty with beef and potatoes and onions...), and went with Katie to the Underground.
Katie is American, but her new husband Allan is from Scotland and works in the Royal Air Force, so she moved to London after their wedding. She very graciously agreed to let me and Grant spend a few days with her during our vacation, and she seems to be purely adorable and sweet. I went ahead and bought a 7-day pass for the Underground, since I'm planning to ride it everywhere the whole few days I'm here, and it's just simpler. Katie showed us how to take the Northern Line (which is actually one of the more confusing, since it splits and meets up and splits again) up to her house. It's an adorable little two-bedroom apartment (I'm sleeping in the guest bedroom and Grant agreed to take the air mattress in the living room) where there's apparently mixed civilian and military housing. We also got to meet Mazzie, who is Katie's wiener-dog mutt. I'll have to take pictures of her before I leave, because she is adorable.
After dropping off our luggage and settling in a bit (and I changed, because it was pouring down rain and I was soaked), the two of us headed off on our own again to see a little bit of the city. We went to Embankment, which is right on the bank of the Thames, and took brief little pictures of the London Eye and Big Ben. The main reason I wanted to go was to see Cleopatra's Needle, which is an Egyptian obelisk that was taken from Egypt when the British defeated Napoleon and now sits in the center of London. We took a couple pictures, but it was very cold and rainy, so we quickly headed back down into the Tube. We went up to the theatre district, near Leicester Square. On Monday we'd decided that it would be fun to see a show, but before it began we walked around a bit. It was amazing to see all the lights and posters for all the various shows that are playing: Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Les Misérables, Billy Elliot, and a hundred others.
For dinner we decided on a little Italian restaurant. It was really small and close, but cute. Grant got a pizza, and I had Penne Marco Polo, which was penne pasta with duck and mushrooms in a plum sauce. It was really, really good, and really sweet, which was interesting. I also tried something called Fruitisa, which was some sparkling pomegrante juice, and that was okay. What absolutely made the restaurant, though, was the dessert. We split a piece of cheesecake with red berries and sauce on top, and it was absolutely the lightest, sweetest, most heavenly piece of cheesecake I have ever tasted; and the berries were sweet and tart and added just the right touch of flavour.
After dinner, we headed back towards the Wyndham's Theatre, which was where our show was. The website had said that you come out of the Tube station and the theatre was right there, and they weren't lying; you could basically walk 5 steps from the station awning to the theatre awning without even getting wet! The show we went to see was called "An Inspector Calls," and is a British play about a well-off British family whose dinner party is interrupted by a strange Inspector Goole, who shows up and starts asking questions in regard to the suicide of a working-class girl, Eva Smith. We had considered going to something more well-known, but a friend of mine who's in theatre told me that the best thing to do in London was to see British theatre, rather than a show that you could see any time back in the States. It definitely paid off, too! The theatre itself was obviously a little old (there was a renovation fee included in our ticket price), but it was elegant and the seating was perfect. We were in the very last row in the very top balcony, but we could see and hear everything just fine.
The show itself is extremely different. It kind of plays tricks with your mind, and you're not really sure what to believe at certain points. They had magnificent effects, though; the stage was built so that half of it was this huge mechanised cutaway house, which could open up so that you could see the inside, and had a staircase that moved up to lock in place and connect it with the rest of the stage. At one specific part in the play, they used pyrotechnic explosions and the mechanics made the house fall down, and it was really startling and a little terrifying for a second. The plot is really twisty, and it's definitely not what you might expect it to be. I left at first going "what the...?" and it wasn't until I'd really thought it over a bit more that I decided I actually liked it quite a lot. The actors were fantastic (in my, admittedly very limited theatrical opinion), especially the Inspector himself.
After the show, Grant and I took the train back to Katie's house, where we got to meet Allan for the first time. We sat up and talked for a while, and then they told me how to use the internet here. Now, I need to go to bed. Tomorrow we have even more things planned, and I need to get some sleep!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Finally Accomplishing My Reason For Being Here
This week has been interesting; it's the first week since I got here that I have an actual (mostly) stable, normal class schedule. Monday morning I slept in, since I didn't have class until late evening. I went out with the others to buy sandwiches for a late lunch, and then we found a little art supply store where we found folders and paper for classes. The artistes (Valeria and Mamie) needed sketchbooks and pencils for their drawing class, so they found those and everyone went back. I, however, had class to go to.
My new Ancient Greek class goes from 5-7pm, so I made my way up to Rue des Tanneurs and found the classroom. I made sure to ask the professor what class it was, to verify that it was definitely for beginning beginners and not halfway through. I had missed the first class period, but it turned out that several other people had too, so at least I wasn't alone. He briefly went over what he'd talked about last time and gave us the book list, the Greek alphabet, and a couple of worksheets. I quickly discovered that he is extremely fond of photocopies; I left the class with 8 or 10 pages of worksheets and other random things. After getting briefly lost in the Tanneurs building (they apparently close stuff down by 7pm, and it was hard to figure out where to go) I headed back to Le Nonante. Since it was the first time I'd had to walk around the city at night by myself, I was a little paranoid. I ended up taking the longer way around down the larger streets, rather than going through the little tiny old ones.
When I got home, everyone was just finishing with dinner. Jacqueline had saved some for me, though, and I was ravenous. I had to hurry, since we had planned on going to the Café des Langues again. We went with Luzé and her friend Sarah again and managed to get there before it was crowded with people. The group basically got split in two, and our end became the "English" table. I talked to some nice Swedish and Danish girls, who were in Tours doing mission work, and some creepy French guys who seemed to be there to try and pick up Americans; one of them kept trying to say that he knew Sierra, when obviously he didn't. After a while we left and came back to the house.
On Tuesdays I don't have any classes at all, but everyone else does. So I slept in, relaxed, and did my Translation homework for Wednesday. It was really nice to have a chill, solo time. I did go out briefly for some shopping and to get a brioche, though. Yay, brioche! That evening, Mamie and Aaron found out from some German girls that there was an event planned for exchange students, so they went to check it out. Apparently we were all supposed to go; they had our named on lists along with our French buddies, and they had sign-up sheets for the various school events throughout the semester. We hadn't heard anything about it, which was a little frustrating, but we didn't really know if there was a reason why we were left out.
Wednesdays, in contrast, are my intense days. I had a meeting at 9am over at the Fromont building to sign up for my CUEFEE classes, so I hurried through breakfast and made the half-hour walk in record time. Kate and I both needed to sign up, so it was cool to see her. We finished early enough that I came back to the house before Translation and walked to class with the boys. It was a fun enough class; we mostly finished the article we were translating from French to English and have one going the opposite direction for next week. Pelletier talked to us after class about not going to the event Tuesday night; we explained that we hadn't heard about it and got that taken care of. Now we should hear about things when they happen!
Then Grant and I walked down Rue Nationale on our way to Fromont, for my first CUEFEE class, and got delicious "complete ham sandwiches" on our way (the complete part is the mayo, and tomatoes, and lettuce, and stuff). It turns out that the little sandwich stall is La Grignotine, the same business as on Rue Bordeaux. I like them a lot. The CUEFEE class was called "Actualités," which means Current Events. It seemed like it'd be a pretty easy class, although it'll require more work. Kate and her friend Christina are in the class, as well as a Swedish girl that Grant knows from choir, so we even have people to talk to! We had a brief discussion about the metric system and conversions, as well as how cold it gets at Concordia. Don't we Cobbers love our school; we complain about the location constantly! ;-P
After class, Grant had to hurry home to check his email (RA stuff, apparently. He had ants in his pants all class about it.) so I waited the half hour for my second CUEFEE class: French Sciences. I ran into Sierra, who had a different class at that time. The Sciences class turned out to have less than 10 students, and most of them were older. There was a British girl named Natasha there who's also in my Translation class, so we talked a bit. The topic of the period was global warming; apparently the first unit will focus on the environment. I kind of felt like I was back in 9th grade, it was so easy, but whatever. I'm really only taking it because it fits my schedule. We're also doing some work on constructing a scientifically well-composed written argument, so that should help me improve my writing skills. When I got back to the house after dinner everything was weirdly quiet; most everyone had either class or choir, so they were all gone. I was starving after all my day's walking, so dinnertime seemed to be forever away. In the future, I think I might have to buy snacks at the store and come up with things to do on Wednesday nights.
Today I was pretty tired, since I'd stayed up really late. That was okay, though, since I didn't have class until 2pm. I dragged myself out to Tanneurs for Italian, which we thought would be the actual class we would take. It turns out, however, that the session we wanted is also really full and there wasn't space. Grant and I stayed anyway, figuring that the extra exposure to the language would be good, especially if we're going to have to transfer to a different group. Now we have to email one professor to see if she has space, and if not there's one last group we can hope for. Still, that'll be next week's concern, and at least the different groups are at the same time so our schedule won't change, just the classroom. He and I went and took care of some other administrative stuff we still needed to do, and bought sandwiches on our way back to the house (ham pizza panini om nom nom!).
Dinner tonight was chicken and some cooked vegetables that were really delicious. It was a little awkward, though; Xavier decided that the topic for the dinner conversation would be gender equality, in his continuing efforts to get people to speak up in French. No-one wanted to say anything, though. Valeria and Luzé and I spoke some, but a lot of people didn't say anything. I'm not sure if it was the topic or Xavier's intimidating insistence that kept them quiet. After dinner and dishes we came back upstairs. Everyone else went out, since they don't have classes on Friday and their weekend is already started. Since I tested into a higher level on the CUEFEE test, though, my written and oral classes are bright and early at 9am over at Fromont. I'm not looking forward to it.
Bonne nuit, tout le monde. Dormez-vous bien!
My new Ancient Greek class goes from 5-7pm, so I made my way up to Rue des Tanneurs and found the classroom. I made sure to ask the professor what class it was, to verify that it was definitely for beginning beginners and not halfway through. I had missed the first class period, but it turned out that several other people had too, so at least I wasn't alone. He briefly went over what he'd talked about last time and gave us the book list, the Greek alphabet, and a couple of worksheets. I quickly discovered that he is extremely fond of photocopies; I left the class with 8 or 10 pages of worksheets and other random things. After getting briefly lost in the Tanneurs building (they apparently close stuff down by 7pm, and it was hard to figure out where to go) I headed back to Le Nonante. Since it was the first time I'd had to walk around the city at night by myself, I was a little paranoid. I ended up taking the longer way around down the larger streets, rather than going through the little tiny old ones.
When I got home, everyone was just finishing with dinner. Jacqueline had saved some for me, though, and I was ravenous. I had to hurry, since we had planned on going to the Café des Langues again. We went with Luzé and her friend Sarah again and managed to get there before it was crowded with people. The group basically got split in two, and our end became the "English" table. I talked to some nice Swedish and Danish girls, who were in Tours doing mission work, and some creepy French guys who seemed to be there to try and pick up Americans; one of them kept trying to say that he knew Sierra, when obviously he didn't. After a while we left and came back to the house.
On Tuesdays I don't have any classes at all, but everyone else does. So I slept in, relaxed, and did my Translation homework for Wednesday. It was really nice to have a chill, solo time. I did go out briefly for some shopping and to get a brioche, though. Yay, brioche! That evening, Mamie and Aaron found out from some German girls that there was an event planned for exchange students, so they went to check it out. Apparently we were all supposed to go; they had our named on lists along with our French buddies, and they had sign-up sheets for the various school events throughout the semester. We hadn't heard anything about it, which was a little frustrating, but we didn't really know if there was a reason why we were left out.
Wednesdays, in contrast, are my intense days. I had a meeting at 9am over at the Fromont building to sign up for my CUEFEE classes, so I hurried through breakfast and made the half-hour walk in record time. Kate and I both needed to sign up, so it was cool to see her. We finished early enough that I came back to the house before Translation and walked to class with the boys. It was a fun enough class; we mostly finished the article we were translating from French to English and have one going the opposite direction for next week. Pelletier talked to us after class about not going to the event Tuesday night; we explained that we hadn't heard about it and got that taken care of. Now we should hear about things when they happen!
Then Grant and I walked down Rue Nationale on our way to Fromont, for my first CUEFEE class, and got delicious "complete ham sandwiches" on our way (the complete part is the mayo, and tomatoes, and lettuce, and stuff). It turns out that the little sandwich stall is La Grignotine, the same business as on Rue Bordeaux. I like them a lot. The CUEFEE class was called "Actualités," which means Current Events. It seemed like it'd be a pretty easy class, although it'll require more work. Kate and her friend Christina are in the class, as well as a Swedish girl that Grant knows from choir, so we even have people to talk to! We had a brief discussion about the metric system and conversions, as well as how cold it gets at Concordia. Don't we Cobbers love our school; we complain about the location constantly! ;-P
After class, Grant had to hurry home to check his email (RA stuff, apparently. He had ants in his pants all class about it.) so I waited the half hour for my second CUEFEE class: French Sciences. I ran into Sierra, who had a different class at that time. The Sciences class turned out to have less than 10 students, and most of them were older. There was a British girl named Natasha there who's also in my Translation class, so we talked a bit. The topic of the period was global warming; apparently the first unit will focus on the environment. I kind of felt like I was back in 9th grade, it was so easy, but whatever. I'm really only taking it because it fits my schedule. We're also doing some work on constructing a scientifically well-composed written argument, so that should help me improve my writing skills. When I got back to the house after dinner everything was weirdly quiet; most everyone had either class or choir, so they were all gone. I was starving after all my day's walking, so dinnertime seemed to be forever away. In the future, I think I might have to buy snacks at the store and come up with things to do on Wednesday nights.
Today I was pretty tired, since I'd stayed up really late. That was okay, though, since I didn't have class until 2pm. I dragged myself out to Tanneurs for Italian, which we thought would be the actual class we would take. It turns out, however, that the session we wanted is also really full and there wasn't space. Grant and I stayed anyway, figuring that the extra exposure to the language would be good, especially if we're going to have to transfer to a different group. Now we have to email one professor to see if she has space, and if not there's one last group we can hope for. Still, that'll be next week's concern, and at least the different groups are at the same time so our schedule won't change, just the classroom. He and I went and took care of some other administrative stuff we still needed to do, and bought sandwiches on our way back to the house (ham pizza panini om nom nom!).
Dinner tonight was chicken and some cooked vegetables that were really delicious. It was a little awkward, though; Xavier decided that the topic for the dinner conversation would be gender equality, in his continuing efforts to get people to speak up in French. No-one wanted to say anything, though. Valeria and Luzé and I spoke some, but a lot of people didn't say anything. I'm not sure if it was the topic or Xavier's intimidating insistence that kept them quiet. After dinner and dishes we came back upstairs. Everyone else went out, since they don't have classes on Friday and their weekend is already started. Since I tested into a higher level on the CUEFEE test, though, my written and oral classes are bright and early at 9am over at Fromont. I'm not looking forward to it.
Bonne nuit, tout le monde. Dormez-vous bien!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
Last night after we went shopping we pretty much just hung out in our room. Valeria, Joel, and I napped, and then in the evening we went downstairs and hung out and talked to people in the salon. There's another girl here named Flabiola, who's from Peru, and right before dinner Lucé returned from Belgium. Lucé is Canadian, but born in Mexico, and she'd already been staying here. Mathias did his puzzle that Valeria had brought, and we watched some of Charmed, which was really strange because it was dubbed into French.
Then we had dinner, which was interesting with everyone at the table. I'm not really sure how we're going to fit twelve people in that dining room, but I'm sure we'll manage. Xavier had made a chocolate cake for dessert, which was fantastic. Everyone was talking about the fact that it was supposed to snow last night, and they were all freaking out. It reminded me of Seattle, where the possibility of snow was the top headline on the news. We helped clean up, and went back upstairs. Mamie and Grant were supposed to come in last night, but their plane was delayed, so we didn't know when they would be here. I finally got to take a shower (yay, buying shampoo!), and even caught Gramma on the phone and talked to her briefly. Around midnight, Joel came to our room and we just kind of talked about internet fads and things.
I had a really hard time going to sleep, for some reason. I think it was because I'd napped longer than I intended. I finally got to sleep around 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning, but I woke up completely at 4:30, and then woke up a couple other times through the night. This morning I woke up around 9:00, but Valeria and I were both really tired. We were getting dressed and thinking about going downstairs, when the doorbell rang! Valeria and I both looked at each other in confusion for a second, and then she burst out with "Grant and Mamie!" and ran downstairs. I followed after, and sure enough it was them, arrived bright and early in the morning. With them had also come the snow; there was thin blanket of white over everything; maybe an inch, probably not even that much.
Poor Jacqueline and Mathias must have thought we were crazy; they came after us a bit later, still dressed in their pajamas. That was good, though, because neither of us knew where the new arrivals were supposed to go. Turns out Grant and Aaron are sleeping on the third floor as well, and Mamie is on the second. All of the bedrooms have specific names, which is adorable. Valeria and I are in Les Marguerites, Grant and Aaron are in Les Pigeonniers, and Mamie and Sierra are in La petite Marie. Joel's by himself, so his room doesn't have a name that I know of. Flabiola is also on the third floor, on the other side of the water closet. I have no idea where Lucé's room is.
After Grant and Mamie had gotten settled a little bit, and we had talked and shared stories, we all went downstairs for breakfast. Mathias didn't have school today (apparently French kids don't on Wednesdays) and Jacqueline was home from work, so she told us that she could take us on a little tour of Tours. We finished, cleared the table, got ready, and headed out into winter!
She took us a different way than we had gone yesterday, through the little streets and older parts of Tours. We went by the Musée des Beaux Arts, and the Cathédral de Tours, and then went through what is apparently the antiques district to get to the Théâtre Municipale, or the City Theatre. After that we headed more towards the Rue Nationale, which is full of stores and boutiques, and that led us straight to the Loire river. That whole part of the city was bombarded during WWII, so it's all been rebuilt and is fairly modern. Tours is apparently a city in three parts, divided by the Cher river and the Loire. Le Nonante and everything we've seen so far is in Tours-Centre, the middle part of the city. We took some pictures, and Jacqueline took a picture of the four of us, where I look pretty much translucent.
After the river, we turned and went through another older district, built in the 13th century (or something like that; I didn't quite catch what Jacqueline told me). It was amazing; I think I could spend entire days just taking pictures of the architecture in this city. We found a Monoprix, which is a supermarché where I was able to buy some slippers to wear inside the house. The staircase is old and kind of slippery; Joel fell down most of the bottom flight yesterday, so we've all been treading with trepidation since then. Hopefully with the slippers it won't be so treacherous.
We walked back to the house, and Jacqueline was helping me orient myself. I think I pretty much understand Tours-Centre, at least, and with a map I shouldn't have any problems at all. I might restrict more ranging to when it's not so wet out, though; my socks and the bottoms of my pants are soaked, and my feet were half-frozen by the time we got back to the house.
Since then, we've been hanging out still. We can hear Mathias playing in the house; he is so ridiculously adorable. Mamie gave him a little hamster toy that scoots around, and we can hear him playing with it. I really kind of want a nap, but I know it'll just make me tired again tomorrow. Such a conundrum. :P
Then we had dinner, which was interesting with everyone at the table. I'm not really sure how we're going to fit twelve people in that dining room, but I'm sure we'll manage. Xavier had made a chocolate cake for dessert, which was fantastic. Everyone was talking about the fact that it was supposed to snow last night, and they were all freaking out. It reminded me of Seattle, where the possibility of snow was the top headline on the news. We helped clean up, and went back upstairs. Mamie and Grant were supposed to come in last night, but their plane was delayed, so we didn't know when they would be here. I finally got to take a shower (yay, buying shampoo!), and even caught Gramma on the phone and talked to her briefly. Around midnight, Joel came to our room and we just kind of talked about internet fads and things.
I had a really hard time going to sleep, for some reason. I think it was because I'd napped longer than I intended. I finally got to sleep around 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning, but I woke up completely at 4:30, and then woke up a couple other times through the night. This morning I woke up around 9:00, but Valeria and I were both really tired. We were getting dressed and thinking about going downstairs, when the doorbell rang! Valeria and I both looked at each other in confusion for a second, and then she burst out with "Grant and Mamie!" and ran downstairs. I followed after, and sure enough it was them, arrived bright and early in the morning. With them had also come the snow; there was thin blanket of white over everything; maybe an inch, probably not even that much.
Poor Jacqueline and Mathias must have thought we were crazy; they came after us a bit later, still dressed in their pajamas. That was good, though, because neither of us knew where the new arrivals were supposed to go. Turns out Grant and Aaron are sleeping on the third floor as well, and Mamie is on the second. All of the bedrooms have specific names, which is adorable. Valeria and I are in Les Marguerites, Grant and Aaron are in Les Pigeonniers, and Mamie and Sierra are in La petite Marie. Joel's by himself, so his room doesn't have a name that I know of. Flabiola is also on the third floor, on the other side of the water closet. I have no idea where Lucé's room is.
After Grant and Mamie had gotten settled a little bit, and we had talked and shared stories, we all went downstairs for breakfast. Mathias didn't have school today (apparently French kids don't on Wednesdays) and Jacqueline was home from work, so she told us that she could take us on a little tour of Tours. We finished, cleared the table, got ready, and headed out into winter!
She took us a different way than we had gone yesterday, through the little streets and older parts of Tours. We went by the Musée des Beaux Arts, and the Cathédral de Tours, and then went through what is apparently the antiques district to get to the Théâtre Municipale, or the City Theatre. After that we headed more towards the Rue Nationale, which is full of stores and boutiques, and that led us straight to the Loire river. That whole part of the city was bombarded during WWII, so it's all been rebuilt and is fairly modern. Tours is apparently a city in three parts, divided by the Cher river and the Loire. Le Nonante and everything we've seen so far is in Tours-Centre, the middle part of the city. We took some pictures, and Jacqueline took a picture of the four of us, where I look pretty much translucent.
After the river, we turned and went through another older district, built in the 13th century (or something like that; I didn't quite catch what Jacqueline told me). It was amazing; I think I could spend entire days just taking pictures of the architecture in this city. We found a Monoprix, which is a supermarché where I was able to buy some slippers to wear inside the house. The staircase is old and kind of slippery; Joel fell down most of the bottom flight yesterday, so we've all been treading with trepidation since then. Hopefully with the slippers it won't be so treacherous.
We walked back to the house, and Jacqueline was helping me orient myself. I think I pretty much understand Tours-Centre, at least, and with a map I shouldn't have any problems at all. I might restrict more ranging to when it's not so wet out, though; my socks and the bottoms of my pants are soaked, and my feet were half-frozen by the time we got back to the house.
Since then, we've been hanging out still. We can hear Mathias playing in the house; he is so ridiculously adorable. Mamie gave him a little hamster toy that scoots around, and we can hear him playing with it. I really kind of want a nap, but I know it'll just make me tired again tomorrow. Such a conundrum. :P
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