Day 13: Pau, France

HI EVERYBODY!!




Nothing exciting today.  I woke up a little early, and I got to practice for about 45 minutes, which was really nice.  I still sound terrible. (Mom, this is when you messaged me, and I didn't see it until I had to leave for class. Sorry!!) I went to phonetics again, and talked to the computer.  After, I had an individual session with a French teacher to work on pronunciation.  All week I had been hearing about how awful they are.  The lady doing it was about 4000 years old, and was made out of clay.  She was pretty nice, and it was all pretty painless.  She says my pronunciation is good.  She also really liked my Liverpool jersey, so we talked about football for a while. After a quick lunch (my first since arriving in France), I headed to my literature class.  It is still really hard, but I do understand like half of everything, so hopefully that will continue to improve.

I went home for a little while and practiced for another hour.  I still sound terrible, but it is nice to be playing again.  (Marie, this is when you messaged me, and I didn't see it until I had to leave for dinner. Sorry!!) On the way to dinner, I stopped and bought some football cleats for my football activities. They are pretty nice and weren't too expensive.  For dinner, we headed to the restaurant area near the Chateau.

While we were waiting, Laura took this picture of me.

For dinner, we went to Creperie du Chateau-Chez Maman, which came highly recommended., with Anne, Kate, Jamie, Laura and a few others. It is in a great location, and was absolutely fantastic.  This may have been my favorite meal of my trip so far.  Except the kabobs are really, really good.  My crepe had fromage et champignon.  That is French.  If you can't read it, get out.  We had a very nice, relaxing dinner and had a nice evening. 

Not a bad view for a dinner.

After dinner, Laura and I worked on homework for our literature class. After working diligently for several minutes, I took a break and discovered this:

I thought it was pretty good.

Hopefully, something exciting will happen tomorrow.

BYE!

Day 12: Pau, France

We need to talk.  I know that I have been in boring old Pau for like 4 days straight, and I'm very sorry.  I swear I will do something cool soon.

That being said, today was a pretty good day.  I had phonetics class again this morning. It was basically more conversing with the computer.  It always seems a bit one sided.  We also get a poem/tongue twister to say each time we go.  This is my poem for tomorrow:

Yeah, I have a back lit keyboard.  It's no big deal.

 I really like the lady who teaches the phonetics lab.  She always makes me feel really good about being terrible at speaking French.  It is very sweet. After this class, I went and made copies of my passport for my residency paperwork.  I am getting much better at French, but simple things like that still pose a bit of a challenge.  I then worked on my French homework with Laura.  It was really hard.  It is still not completed.  it is really hard doing homework in a language you barely speak.  We should probably do a better job of accommodating non English speaking students into our education system... Anyway, after about an hour of struggle, it was time for our obligatory 6 hour lunch break.

So, here we are... The obligatory part of my blog where I talk about how awesome the food here is.  We went and ate lunch at the smaller of the two cafeterias on campus.  It is called La Vague.

1 € to the first one to figure out why it is called La Vague.

 The food here is always fantastic, even when it sucks, it is really good.  This isn't even "good" French food.  I am eating at a cafeteria.  I don't even know what I have been eating my whole life. Today the menu was paupiette de boeuf (this is basically a present, except the wrapping paper is beef, and the present is like, vegetables and stuff.  The string is still just string.), penne pasta, carrots, and my usual yogurt, fruit and Orangina.  I know it looks like the Orangina is on her tray, but don't worry, we switched. An exciting thing also happened at La Vague today.  I told the food man what I wanted, and he gave me my food without squinting at me or asking what I said, or giving me that look French people give when you ruin their language. 

I guess Laura really likes carrots...

 After lunch, we finished our homework.  Mostly.  We gave up towards the end.

I then went home and did nothing for a little bit, and then we had dinner.  Dinner was a tomato and basil salad, made by yours truly. (I chopped the tomatoes.) And pasta with either pesto or some kind of balsamic sauce.  You got to pick which one you put on your pasta.  There was also green salad and bread and wine and cheese.  I am always amazed that this family can get the kitchen spotless after dinner in about 5 min.  It is awesome.

After dinner, I practiced trumpet, which was nice, except I sound really, really, really bad.  It is sad for me.  However, I have a very cool playing opportunity.  I will be performing “Les Mousqetaires au Couvent” by Louis Varney with a local opera company.  I have no idea how good they are, but it should be a lot of fun.
We will perform at the start of November at the Théatre St Louis de Pau. 

I lose a little bit of vacation time, but it should be a lot of fun.

I'm going to start having prize offerings for the people who make it to the end of these blog posts.

Day 11: Pau, France

Today was sweet because I didn't have class until 15h 00 so I got to sleep in.  I then had time to go for a run, do my laundry and practice trumpet a little bit.  My run was really great, and was the source of my only pictures for today.  It was a really nice run.  I went about 6 miles, in to town, past the Chateau, and into the parc. I try to take pictures of stuff I see that I like, but if I stopped for everything, by 45min run would have been like 55 feet.  The park below the chateau is gorgeous.  It is full of a web of jogging trails.  In the United States, they would be paved and have rails along them.  These are very unfinished and a lot of fun to use.

I thought this old French home was really pretty.  There were like 10 of them on my run.

This is a view of the River Pau, and a newer part of the city from one of the jogging trails in the park.

This is a little walkway into the below the chateau.  To the left is a small gate house that guards the only access to the castle from this direction.

After my run, I put my laundry in, and took a shower.  I accidentally brought my deodorant to the shower instead of shampoo.  Drag... My host family has a washer that is what we would call "high efficiency" and possibly "modern".  It is clearly at least 10 years old and not a big deal to them.  What were we doing while they were designing, developing, manufacturing and selling these things? While I'm on the subject, the cars here are so much better/more efficient.  It is too bad American cars that have any sort of decent gas mileage or hybrid technology have to look completely stupid.  Maybe if they didn't more people would buy them.


Playing trumpet was great, and I am way better than yesterday.  After, I went to the cafeteria for lunch with Laura.  I had some kind of pork stew, rice, and cauliflower with cheese, and several other things. I don't like pork.  My food was delicious.  I then went to class, and it was considerably easier today.  I think I will be ok in there.

For dinner, we went out for kabobs again and went to the bar across the street for some drinks. The food was fantastic again.  Overall, great day.

Day 10: Pau, France

Today was my first day to not really do anything new, but it was still pretty nice.  I got to sleep in pretty late, because I didn't have class until 10h 00.  I celebrated this even by waking up at 7h 45.  Sweet.  I went back to phonetics and listening to and repeated more french phrases on the computer.  It was very fun.  After this, I went to the store and bought notebooks and pens, as a starting class present.  I also signed up to play football on Monday nights.  This means soccer.  I had lunch again at the cafeteria.  It was passable, I guess.  I had a cordon bleu, sauteed zucchini, mashed potatoes, yogurt, two fresh apricots and a plum, a roll, and an Orangina.  Again, 4.05 euros.  It was really, really good.

After lunch I went to class.  This will invariable be the hardest class I have ever taken ever.  Mostly because it is a French literature class, taught in French, and I don't really know or speak a lot of French.  It does seem like it will be a pretty good class, and I will probably learn a lot, and it will probably make my French much better.  The homework only took me like 3 hours with a partner.  (Bear in mind that about 40% of this time was spent either translating French, or trying to figure out what the hell we were supposed to be doing.) 

After homework, I walked back to my house and played trumpet for about 40 min.  This was nice because I like playing trumpet.  This was bad because I haven't played since I left the United States, and I sounded really bad.  I also found a cool playing opportunity I am currently pursuing. Pau has a youth orchestra that I may be able to join, so that would be very cool, and a fun way to meet people.

I then met up with some friends for dinner.  We walked into town and went to a kebab place near the bar we frequent.  I got a kebab sandwich, and it was delicious.  I think every meal I have had here has been in my top 20 meals ever.  I was committed to not staying out late, so as soon as we ate, I headed home.  It was at this point I realized I hadn't taken a single picture today, so I went to the town square and took a few pictures.  Of the town square.  Sorry these are so lame, but now, if I ever talk about the town center or town square or the place with the fountains, you will know what I am talking about.

A fountain, and the main square.

Other fountain, the main square, and some apartments.

Bonus pic: my creepy street at night.

Day 9: Pau, France

Today was a pretty easy day, but it was nice to really have something to do. We met at 9 this morning to complete the USAC orientation and attend a phonetics session and then complete the tours of campus and the city center.  The rest of campus was nice.  It looks a lot like a typical American college campus.  Mixed with a park.  I'm sure I'll take pictures of it eventually.  My phonetics session was really "listen to this French stuff on these headphones and repeat it." Then the nice lady came around and had me read some stuff out loud.  Then she told me to start on Lesson 7, p. 98 tomorrow.  I think this means I am some kind of savant.  After this, we had a long lunch break.  I'm starting to learn that in France, this is the only kind of lunch break.  This is much better than the usual, "eat a cookie and some sprite real quick before orchestra starts" diet.  For lunch I had a salmon...meatloaf? I don't know what it was, but it was really good.  With green beans.  These green beans were clearly fresh before they were cooked.  They were actually green and flavorful.  I also had a peach, yogurt, and a can of Orangina.  This all cost me 4.05 Euros. It would have been 3.05 had I not bought the Orangina.

Sorry this is half eaten.  The point is, look how good this CAFETERIA food is. 

Orangina.  I don't know how many of you (When I write this blog, I imagine that I have like 8765983 readers, I know in reality it is probably in the ball park of 6, but that's ok.) know about this drink, but I do.  I have always loved Orangina, but now that I am here I love it even more.  It tastes better here.  Like, way better.  I don't even know how it is possible.

This is the 6 pack of Orangina I bought today.  It will be proud of it if it makes it past Wednesday.  (It won't.  One of those bottles is already empty.)

Once we were done with lunch, we headed to town on the city tour, part dos.  (This is Madison Scouts for anything you do a second time.) It was very nice.  I learned about this whole portion of the city that I had not yet discovered, and I don't know when I would have.  There were several street of shopping district.  Including the "nice street." Stores like Prada.  We also went through an area with tons of restaurants, many that are open late or in the afternoons or on weekends.  There looked to be some very interesting places.  We also saw both of the Cathedrals in the town.  Both were pretty new, in that they are less than 200 years old.

Small side street in the restaurant district.

 After the churches and the restaurants we went to the Chateau of Henry IV he was born in Pau.  Pau also produced a king of Sweden, and his family still holds the throne in Sweden.  I thought that's pretty good for a little place.  We looked around the Chateau for a while, but did not go inside.  I'll take more pictures of it when I actually visit.

This is the Royal parking garage.

Me standing on the Royal patio.  Behind me are the Pyrenees.  This is a pretty fantastic view.  I mostly made this picture huge for my mom.  Moms love that kind of stuff.  HI MOM!!!

After the tour ended, I walked home.  At 5 h 30 I met up with some friends and we ran about 4 miles.  It was fun.  Then for dinner, we grabbed some groceries and ate on the steps by a fountain. Good day again. :)

Day 8: Biarritz, France

Today was the worst day ever.  Really.  I will tell you why today is the worst day ever at the end of this, sure to be very long, blog entry.

I woke up at about 8 00 this morning, because I am stupid.  That was fine, because I got a chance to write my previous post, "Day 7: Pau, Fr".  Anyway, at about 10 h 00, we sat down for brunch and we had stuff like omelets and toast and fresh fruit and stuff.  I don't know if I've really talked about this yet, but the food here is wonderful.  I had apple juice today for brunch and I liked it.  A lot. I hate apple juice.  Just ask my mom.   Anyway, brunch was good, and then we got ready for Biarritz.

Basically, Biarritz is the West Coast(not California) version of Nice.  This means that it isn't sunny, and the water is cold, but everything is still really expensive.  Basically this is where all of the rich English people used to go on Vaycay.

The main beach in Biarritz.  Please note, if you can, the varying architectural styles.

Once we got set up on the beach, we went for a swim.  I'm not nuts about swimming, or oceans, but it was pretty fun.  The waves were quite powerful, and were definitely the strongest waves I have even experienced.  There was a yellow flag up, which means swim if you must, but don't drown.  It was extremely tiring, and at one point I thought about getting out, but I had to show how strong and tough Americans are, so I stayed in. 
I also refused to put on my sweatshirt after I got out, even though I was soaked and it was cloudy and windy.

After our swim, we went for a walk along the beach, and it was quite beautiful.  The end destination was this statue of the Virgin Mary on top of a big rock in the middle of the ocean, but there was plenty to look at on the way.  It probably took us about 30-40 min to make the walk as we stopped for pictures and exploring.  I took over 200 pictures today, so I put more than normal on here.

This is one of the many features just off the coast in Biarritz.

Here I am with my host family(L to R): Charlotte, Corine, Pablo, Me, Thom, and Jean-Francois.  They have been absolutely wonderful in welcoming me into their home.

I'm not exactly sure what this is, but I thought it was a very cool feature

There are pathways like this one built all along the shore.

 I was not able to get any good pictures of the Virgin Mary. I guess she just isn't very photogenic. But I promise she looked great.  The shore around the statue was quite rocky, and the waves crashing on the rocks were quite impressive.

Please note the tiny people on the rocks for scale.  Just to be clear, they just look tiny, because of the size of the rocks and waves.  They are actually 15 ft tall.

On the walk back, we went through the town center.  It was mainly very narrow streets with lots of shops and some cafes.  Basically what you'd expect from a beach resort town.  Typically shops and businesses are closed on Sundays, but this is probably when they get most of their business, so they were all open. The town is great and has a beautiful old cathedral and a square with an art museum.  When we got back to our stuff, it was gone.  The tide had come in abnormally high, and soaked the beach.  Some nice people moved our stuff to the seawall.  Once we were there, we sat on some steps leading into town and ate our lunch.  We had bread, various cheeses, fresh fruits and tomatoes (yes, I know tomatoes are technically a fruit), tea, water, cup cakes and rhubarb pie. If you have never had rhubarb pie, it is really good.  After lunch, some people swam some more, and then we left.

Looking back towards the ocean.

After returning to Pau, for dinner, we had pizza delivered.  Pizza here is basically the same as pizza in America, except it is good.  For desert, we had plain yogurt with jam mixed in, left over rhubarb pie and plum pie. It was very nice.  I also had to endure this beautiful sunset, out of my window:

 Anyway, in case you are still wondering, my day was awful because there is water in my ear.  It is stuck there, and it looks like I will be bringing it home with me.

Day 7: Pau, France

Today was a pretty good day.  I woke up at about 8, so I could meet up with some new friends at 9 for a run.  We met near campus and ran south, into town.  There, we stopped at Les Halles, which is a massive farmers market.  It is open every day of the week, but Saturday is the biggest day.  There are all sorts of foods for sale including stands for olives, meat, seafood, cheeses, and clothes and crafts.  We then ran through town to the chateau of Henry IV.  We then ran through the park below the castle, where there are extensive running trails.  I don't have pictures of any of this stuff, because I didn't have my memory card in my camera. (Embarrassing, I know.)  After we returned to campus, we went to a cafe nearby for lunch,  I got a Panini with ham, mozzarella and tomatoes.  It was delicious.  I also got an Orangina to drink.  Way better in France.

After I got home, I showered and spend like 4 hours in my room, Skype-ing and napping.  It was really nice.  I think I might be a little homesick.  Not that I miss Texas... at all.  Haha, I don't know. It was nice to have a little alone time though.

In the evening, I went over to the residence hall where about half of the students live, and we went in to town for the evening.  We went to a place called Le Garage.  It is a pretty good local bar, with not a lot of English speakers, and it isn't too crowded. (It would be extremely crowded if you were allowed to smoke inside of bars in France.) The entire street outside is blocked by smokers. This is where I took the 4 pictures on my camera for the day.

This is Jenny, Laura, and Courtney at Le Garage with me.

And this is Rehana.

This is what I look like at Le Garage.  I did not take this picture. Also, the beer in front of me is a Heineken, and it is way better here than in the United States.

 On the way home from the bar, we got lost in Pau.  This is pretty easy to do.  There are no straight streets in Pau.  This is made even more difficult by the fact that on maps of Pau, all of the streets are straight.  Anyway, I finally made it home by like 2 am.  It was a pretty fun night, and I'm glad I went out.