Aquarelle no. 7

Voila! It's been a while since I've painted. There's one part I should have fixed, but I won't say which part so that people don't stare at it. My host mom says that I'm improving greatly, and she likes the style that I'm developing. I like painting trees. 

Ciao.

Partie Deux

Well ladies and gentlemen, I am officially on to round two of my stay in France. My classes with USAC are finally completed, and now all I have are my French language courses. I've had one week of these new French courses, and I really enjoy them so far; I have four professors, who all seem more fast-paced and on top of things than my last professors. I am the only native English-speaker in any of my classes, which is pretty cool

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Today is the last day in Pau for my Americans, which is an incredibly sad statement. I've built such wonderful relationships with them, and I can't believe that I have to tell them goodbye -- it came far too soon. We're hoping to organize vacations in each region where we live back in the US: San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and Idaho are the destinations. We hope to be able to see each other each year or every other year...gosh that's depressing compared to the every day that I see them here. 

So it's a mix of exciting and sad; I'm stoked to be taking up my classes again and excited to continue learning, but I'm sorry that I have to say goodbye. C'est la vie. 

 

Résumé

I know that it has been a while since I've updated my blog, and so much has happened that I can't possibly go into as much detail as needed, so I'm going to give a "quick" resume of all the things I've been doing:

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Toulouse and Carcassonne for the weekend with USAC. We took a guided tour, which showed us two main churches: one from Roman times and one gothic-styled. Toulouse was really fun and we had a lot of downtime there as that is where we spent the night -- my friends and I went down to the Garonne River and sunbathed. Toulouse was holding their Carnaval that weekend, so we watched the parade while we ate our dinner out on a terrace.

Roman church

Inside of Gothic church

Ceiling art depicting Toulouse's history

Me and the Garonne

The day after Toulouse, we left early to go to Carcassonne, which is a magnificent, fortified city. We took a tour of the inner castle, and after lunch were left to wander the cobbled streets. We went to the torture museum and to the city's church (so many churches). This place was like a journey through time; it was absolutely wonderful.

Outer walls

Inner courtyard

Me in a wall

More outer walls

Cobbled streets

The week following, I went out dancing and I learned some traditional Béarne dances. They were mostly line-dances, and there were some couples dances thrown in there as well. My host-mom told me that I'm the first student to really get incorporated to the culture of Southwest France; it really has a completely different feel to it than the rest of France, and it's culture is so unlike that of any of the traditions in the US. It's fascinating and exciting to get to be a part of it.

I spent Easter with Estelle's family out in the country. We had magret de canard (a traditional plat of the region) and a ton of other delicious food. I felt as if my stomach was going to grow a second self by the end of the meal. Her family was so kind and I was given a large sac of chocolate to take home. :)

We had no school on Easter-Monday so I went hiking with some friends. One of my friends works at a kids' camp just outside of Lourdes, and he took us on the hiking trail that he takes the kids on. It was a beautiful, cloudless day, and the hike was incredible (although pretty difficult for small children...). Here are pictures:

View from the camp

View near the summit

Summit view

Another angle of the summit view

School-wise, I'm almost on my last week of literature class and my first week of semester two of French courses. I am very impatient to pick-up my language classes again; my French friends can correct me when I speak, but often they can't explain to me the grammar behind it, and then I don't end up retaining anything they tell me, so I'm excited to get back on track with my language courses.

Other than that, I've been seeing friends, going to movies, eating out, and appreciating every moment I have left with my beautiful Americans who are leaving in 10 days. Resume: terminated.

Lourdes

I'm technically on my spring break at the moment; I say technically, because I still have classes, but only one class three times a week, so I have a lot of down time. One Wednesday, when we didn't have classes, I went to Lourdes with two friends. For those of you who do not know, Lourdes is a pilgrimage destination for Catholics, and it is where St. Bernadette say the Virgin Mary in a cave. Catholics come from all over the world to ask for healing. 

The train ride was a short 20 minutes and we headed straight for the castle from the train station. Since it was March, there weren't many people there at all; in the summer months there are as many as 5,000,000 pilgrims, so we were lucky to be able to see it in tranquility. The chateau was beautiful (as are all of the castles I see here):

Le jardin

La Tour

The chateau was much more intricate than I had expected -- it had scenes set up of what the rooms would have looked like, there several art pieces as well as a wide array of costumes and utensils. 

After the chateau we stopped for lunch and then headed for the cathedral. This cathedral was absolutely breathtaking. I suppose pictures can explain it best:

The entrance with crosses from every country.

Voila

There's me with the cathedral.

Kind of resembles a submarine wearing a crown.

Entrance to the church and the crypt. 

I actually did not take a picture of the cave where St. Bernadette saw the virgin; it felt weird taking pictures while people were praying. The cave was cool though; the walls are slicked smooth from so many people touching them. 

It was a great trip. Here's a picture of holy water for sale:

L'Escalade

This past week has been absolutely beautiful here in the Southwest of France, which has meant lots of sun-bathing and relaxing. Last night I got to go a bit further than that and go up into the mountains to rockclimb! I went with a friend and four of his cousins (none of whom spoke English) to the same area where I went snowshoeing (lower down on the mountain, we weren't in the snow). I climbed the cliff several times and had a slight woopsie one time when I lost my footing -- thank God for belay-ers. Then my friend asked me if I wanted to learn how to belay, so I said sure...I wasn't aware that learning meant actually doing it and having his life in my hands. I was absolutely terrified that I was going to kill him, but one of his friends helped me and made sure he had a hand on the rope just in case I lost control. My friend did not die thankfully.

When we were getting ready to leave, another of his cousins asked me if I had enjoyed myself, but I mistranslated her words into "were you scared", so I responded with a confident "no." When they are stared at me in disbelief, I knew that I had said the wrong thing. After apologizing profusely for misunderstanding, I assured them that I enjoyed myself immensely and hope to do it again sometime (if they'll excuse my foreign-ness).  

Les Pancakes!

This last weekend was very relaxing. We finished with our French language courses on Friday and ended with a theater production, which I reluctantly played in. I decided that I'm not cut out for theater, but I had fun nonetheless. That night I went to a friend of Estelle's house and we played wii until two in the morning. It was pretty great. The rest of the weekend was incredibly sunny and warm, so I sat outside and read quite a bit and tried to get some color on my all-too-white legs. Saturday night, I went bowling with a handful of people, and Sunday was filled with watching too many episodes of Dexter (however, there's really no such thing as watching too much Dexter), and then I went to Estelle's house and made pancakes for her and her boyfriend. I introduced them to pancakes with peanut butter and maple syrup, which they quickly fell in love with. Clement was pretty skeptical of the peanut butter at first; he said it looked like something you would vomit. But he loved it, and I got to have a little taste of home. After dinner, we watched the Return of the King extended version in English, so that they could practice listening and comprehending English, and so that I could just sit there and basque in Lord of the Rings magic.

That was my weekend. Sounds just like a normal weekend in the US, right? Don't worry, I'm going to Toulouse next weekend, so I'll have beautiful new pictures and stories to tell.

Bisous à tous!

Le Phare et Une Résumé

Voila, my latest watercolor. I'm quite proud of this one as my host-mom did very little to help me. Usually she adds the little things that make the picture actually look like a piece of art, but this time, I did almost all of it (with her instruction of course). Hooray for progress!

Le Phare: Yes, this is for you, Grandma Van.

I know I haven't updated my blog much lately, so here's a recap of my recent activities:
Last weekend I went to Biarritz, which is a very rich, Bearnese village on the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but I'll try to scrounge up some pictures from my friends for another post. It was beautiful, sunny, and windy day, and I'm rather convinced that the South of France is the most beautiful place on Earth. This past week I had my DELF which is a French exam, whose results will contribute to my grades, and if I pass, I will get an official French certificate, which would help me get a job in France should I ever wish to work here. I think I did pretty well on the written section, but I was too nervous during the oral exam and all I can remember is stuttering and tripping over my words, so we'll see. I had a three day weekend because of the exams, so Friday I did a bit of shopping with my friends and then I returned home for a very long and wonderful Skype date with a friend from home. Saturday, I did absolutely nothing until the evening when I went to Estelle's apartment for crepes and a movie -- we were going to go out for St. Patrick's Day, but we became tired and lounged on the couch instead. Sunday, I slept in and then helped my host-mom bake carrot cake. The cake turned out quite tasty (thanks again for the recipe, Grandma Chris). I then painted my painting and I'm going to see Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close this evening with Estelle. The weather has been fluctuating from 80ish degrees to stormy and raining over the last week. Happy Spring!