Today I woke up and ate some food.
Continuing my mission to find the best place to study in Bordeaux, I decided to try an indoor cafe. I voted for the place I found a while back when the guy told me he wasn't a bookstore. The joke is on him, because they 100% sell books there too.
The woman wanted to know if I wanted lunch because it was noon. As I had pretty much just woken up, I did not want lunch, but I had a diabolo peche which I forgot how much I liked before. Also FYI, peche has a circumflex but I'm too lazy to go find one on the internet to copy and paste into here. It's basically just peach syrup and then you put sprite in it. It's a good time.
I sat on the couch in the corner of the other room where there wasn't anybody at all. It was comfy. My drink was tasty. I figured I had achieved. Another woman came in, but she was quiet and all by herself. Then this boisterous group of women and a child came in. They were kind of loud, but I powered through it. They were eating these delicious looking salads, so I got one too.
I ordered the "goat salad" which I expected to be a salad with a piece of bread or two with melted goat cheese on it, which is what I've gotten in the past. (very far in the past, I think it was Paris in 2011). It turned out to be a salad with one giant piece of goat cheese. That was way more goat cheese than I wanted, but it was okay, I like goat cheese. I ate maybe half of it.
After I ate my salad, I went to the public library. Once I got inside, I realized that there was no real reason for me to be there. When I went there on... Wednesday?...they told me to come back October 1st and then my library card would be free. So I couldn't have checked out anything anyways. I decided to see about the study rooms in this library.
They were full. There was no room.
I left the library and went to the mall. My pants weren't done.
I took the tram to Hotel de Ville. Then I just walked the rest of the way home because it's not like I was running low on time. I went to the CasinoShop and got some Kleenex and some grapes and a tomato and a pizza crust.
Then I came home.
I made a pizza, and then I ate it. I watched some TV. Now I'm here.
I did ask if my German friends were going to the event that it says they're going to on fb. They aren't. They're going to have a stay-in. So I am too. Staying in that is.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Longing for a 143
On Friday I set out with a mission. I was going to find somewhere that I could sit and study.
At Wartburg, my favorite places to study in order are as follows:
SC143
SC141
second-floor outside of those gen chem labs (only for writing papers)
that computer lab I found in WBC
that awkward table in the FAC upstairs
third-floor right next to the window
the classroom directly below SC141 (only if you have a study-maze)
the weird library tables you can see into from first floor but are really below that
my desk
If you can't tell, I would really prefer to study in a classroom alone than at my desk. In 143, if you sit by the window the sun will shine in and it's really warm and there's room to dance when you need to take a break. (145 also has room, but it's really an awful room with its desks for miniature people)
So I knew that I wasn't going to be able to fit into the library, so I thought it would be fun to go searching for maybe a study room, or an unlocked classroom in the building that I have most of my classes in. All the classrooms I tried were locked. I went up to the fourth floor, and I'm pretty sure that I am not allowed to be up there. It was really disappointing, actually. I was hoping to find a 143 here so at least studying would maybe feel like home. It doesn't. If I have to sit at my desk to study, I might as well just never leave my room.
I went outside then, and I sat at an outside table at the pub and I waited for the waiter-man to bring me an Orangina. I spilled it on my legal pad, but I ain't even mad. It's not worth it. I got quite a few pages of work transferred and I sat there for probably an hour and a half on my 3,50 euros so I'll take it.
I went home then I think. Yeah, and probably ate some lunch.
Then I went to the bank to put more money in my account so I can pay my electricity for September in the next couple weeks. And whatever else comes out of that account. That's pretty much it, I think, except that insurance, but that was one time.
I went to the park again so that I could read some stuff for Anthropology. It was super boring. And all these people were there just having a super chill time on their Friday afternoons with their buds and their children. There was this one guy who was stretching for a run, but someone's little girl really wanted him to play so she kept running around him and pulling on his arms. He was all like "go back to your mother" but she was all "nah" and it was actually pretty cute. He eventually left for his run.
I went back home then. I didn't get quite 10000 steps, so I paced my apartment while my pasta was boiling to make up the last thousand. I bet the people below me really like that. They probably like all the country music I play too. What a good life for them. Oh and when I was coughing all night ever night for over a week. Oh yeah, that's fun.
I also painted my toenails. Cuz that's how much fun I am.
At Wartburg, my favorite places to study in order are as follows:
SC143
SC141
second-floor outside of those gen chem labs (only for writing papers)
that computer lab I found in WBC
that awkward table in the FAC upstairs
third-floor right next to the window
the classroom directly below SC141 (only if you have a study-maze)
the weird library tables you can see into from first floor but are really below that
my desk
If you can't tell, I would really prefer to study in a classroom alone than at my desk. In 143, if you sit by the window the sun will shine in and it's really warm and there's room to dance when you need to take a break. (145 also has room, but it's really an awful room with its desks for miniature people)
So I knew that I wasn't going to be able to fit into the library, so I thought it would be fun to go searching for maybe a study room, or an unlocked classroom in the building that I have most of my classes in. All the classrooms I tried were locked. I went up to the fourth floor, and I'm pretty sure that I am not allowed to be up there. It was really disappointing, actually. I was hoping to find a 143 here so at least studying would maybe feel like home. It doesn't. If I have to sit at my desk to study, I might as well just never leave my room.
I went outside then, and I sat at an outside table at the pub and I waited for the waiter-man to bring me an Orangina. I spilled it on my legal pad, but I ain't even mad. It's not worth it. I got quite a few pages of work transferred and I sat there for probably an hour and a half on my 3,50 euros so I'll take it.
I went home then I think. Yeah, and probably ate some lunch.
Then I went to the bank to put more money in my account so I can pay my electricity for September in the next couple weeks. And whatever else comes out of that account. That's pretty much it, I think, except that insurance, but that was one time.
I went to the park again so that I could read some stuff for Anthropology. It was super boring. And all these people were there just having a super chill time on their Friday afternoons with their buds and their children. There was this one guy who was stretching for a run, but someone's little girl really wanted him to play so she kept running around him and pulling on his arms. He was all like "go back to your mother" but she was all "nah" and it was actually pretty cute. He eventually left for his run.
I went back home then. I didn't get quite 10000 steps, so I paced my apartment while my pasta was boiling to make up the last thousand. I bet the people below me really like that. They probably like all the country music I play too. What a good life for them. Oh and when I was coughing all night ever night for over a week. Oh yeah, that's fun.
I also painted my toenails. Cuz that's how much fun I am.
22
Thursday morning I have Epistemology at 8h30.
I like to get up to go to class at 7h10-7h20ish. This gives me time to lay in bed and check my email, as well as eat my oatmeal. (or if you prefer, my "flakes of oat" that I smother in yogurt and microwave).
However, on this morning, I woke up at 8h08. That means I had 22 minutes to get up, get ready, and walk the about 15 minutes to my class in Victoire.
I'm not certain at what point I turned my alarm off in the night, but I don't know what else could have happened. Anyways, I can officially say that I was on the street walking to the square at 8h13, and I was in my seat in class at 8h29, which made me much earlier than a few of the other students. I was pretty darn pleased.
Epistemology was okay, I do much better understanding what's going on in that class than in Cognition. I don't know why that is because both of them just sit there and read the lecture off a big stack of papers to you.
After class the professor approached Luisa and I and wanted to talk about the evaluation. We can either write a "memoire" about research we are doing for another class, or we can just meet up with him in a coffeeshop at some point in December and talk for about an hour about what we learned from the class. I'm still making a decision about which one I'm going to choose.
I went home and ate some lunch.
At 13h30 I have Biological Anthropology which is by far my favorite class. It was a little bit irritating this Thursday because this man sits behind me and he doesn't understand a lot of things and the professor has to explain them to him. Like, dude, 1) you should know this and 2) it says it on the screen in front of you.
We were discussing the basics of evolution and Darwin's theory of natural selection. I don't know why this man has never heard of this before. He was genuinely confused about the difference between Darwin's evolution and Lamarck's "use it or lose it" giraffes. I have done this so many times. And I would have been able to explain it to him better than the professor but I feel like that might be considered even more condescending in France than in America. And considering he was behind me instead of next to me, it would have been disruptive as well. (I would also like to mention that whenever I'm in a class without another international, no one will sit next to me. I sit at this huge, long, five-person table alone. In both Cognition and Biological Anthropology.)
Anyways, it was irritating enough that he didn't understand evolution, he also didn't understand mutations. I think he got that mutations are spontaneous, but when we got to that point in the powerpoint, he thought that evolution was entirely based on mutations. Yes, some traits arise from mutation, but there is also always diversity in the population. If one giraffe has a longer neck than another, it's not necessarily a mutation. Just diversity.
AND THEN he didn't understand/know about gut microbiota. "There's bacteria in us?! What does it do?! Where does it come from?! Can we get rid of it?!" M. Bauduer, please just throw this man out of the class. I implore you.
I have no problem with people not understanding something. Or someone asking a question when they don't understand. But for a reasonable amount of time. And don't fight the professor when they give you an explanation. I think they know what the answer is.
We spent so much time on these stupid little things that the professor had to be super speedy through the rest of the lecture and I missed writing some of the last lines from the slides because he didn't have enough time to read through all of the information, and I didn't have enough time to write it all down. Thanks.
Biological Anthropology goes directly into Visual Anthropology which is also in the same classroom. I didn't have to get up, but Idil and Julian sat next to me so that proves that people weren't avoiding me for some physical reason.
We talked about camera angles and what they are trying to highlight for the audience. I don't really understand why this is an anthropology course but whatever.
Then we watched another film. It was called Afrique 50. It was about Africa in the 1950s.
I went then down to Talence again to go to French class. I was hoping that after class people would want to do something again, but they didn't. Everybody had work to do. There was some kind of music festival that two people were going to, but they didn't really invite me to with them, and I'm tired of forcing myself to just follow people around so that I'm doing something.
I went home and I watched TV.
I like to get up to go to class at 7h10-7h20ish. This gives me time to lay in bed and check my email, as well as eat my oatmeal. (or if you prefer, my "flakes of oat" that I smother in yogurt and microwave).
However, on this morning, I woke up at 8h08. That means I had 22 minutes to get up, get ready, and walk the about 15 minutes to my class in Victoire.
I'm not certain at what point I turned my alarm off in the night, but I don't know what else could have happened. Anyways, I can officially say that I was on the street walking to the square at 8h13, and I was in my seat in class at 8h29, which made me much earlier than a few of the other students. I was pretty darn pleased.
Epistemology was okay, I do much better understanding what's going on in that class than in Cognition. I don't know why that is because both of them just sit there and read the lecture off a big stack of papers to you.
After class the professor approached Luisa and I and wanted to talk about the evaluation. We can either write a "memoire" about research we are doing for another class, or we can just meet up with him in a coffeeshop at some point in December and talk for about an hour about what we learned from the class. I'm still making a decision about which one I'm going to choose.
I went home and ate some lunch.
At 13h30 I have Biological Anthropology which is by far my favorite class. It was a little bit irritating this Thursday because this man sits behind me and he doesn't understand a lot of things and the professor has to explain them to him. Like, dude, 1) you should know this and 2) it says it on the screen in front of you.
We were discussing the basics of evolution and Darwin's theory of natural selection. I don't know why this man has never heard of this before. He was genuinely confused about the difference between Darwin's evolution and Lamarck's "use it or lose it" giraffes. I have done this so many times. And I would have been able to explain it to him better than the professor but I feel like that might be considered even more condescending in France than in America. And considering he was behind me instead of next to me, it would have been disruptive as well. (I would also like to mention that whenever I'm in a class without another international, no one will sit next to me. I sit at this huge, long, five-person table alone. In both Cognition and Biological Anthropology.)
Anyways, it was irritating enough that he didn't understand evolution, he also didn't understand mutations. I think he got that mutations are spontaneous, but when we got to that point in the powerpoint, he thought that evolution was entirely based on mutations. Yes, some traits arise from mutation, but there is also always diversity in the population. If one giraffe has a longer neck than another, it's not necessarily a mutation. Just diversity.
AND THEN he didn't understand/know about gut microbiota. "There's bacteria in us?! What does it do?! Where does it come from?! Can we get rid of it?!" M. Bauduer, please just throw this man out of the class. I implore you.
I have no problem with people not understanding something. Or someone asking a question when they don't understand. But for a reasonable amount of time. And don't fight the professor when they give you an explanation. I think they know what the answer is.
We spent so much time on these stupid little things that the professor had to be super speedy through the rest of the lecture and I missed writing some of the last lines from the slides because he didn't have enough time to read through all of the information, and I didn't have enough time to write it all down. Thanks.
Biological Anthropology goes directly into Visual Anthropology which is also in the same classroom. I didn't have to get up, but Idil and Julian sat next to me so that proves that people weren't avoiding me for some physical reason.
We talked about camera angles and what they are trying to highlight for the audience. I don't really understand why this is an anthropology course but whatever.
Then we watched another film. It was called Afrique 50. It was about Africa in the 1950s.
I went then down to Talence again to go to French class. I was hoping that after class people would want to do something again, but they didn't. Everybody had work to do. There was some kind of music festival that two people were going to, but they didn't really invite me to with them, and I'm tired of forcing myself to just follow people around so that I'm doing something.
I went home and I watched TV.
Big, long, wooden tables
On Wednesday, as with most days, I didn't really do anything. I went to the library to get a book for Cognition which was exciting, but there is no room in the library to study.
There's a room with all of the psychology books that you can study in, and it has those big, long wooden tables they always show you in movies that are in law libraries, or the library of congress. And there are literally no seats available. It's cray-cray.
I think I went back to the mall then to try and pick up my pants I was having hemmed. They weren't ready yet. Big surprise that the French aren't on time with something.
That's actually something I want to talk about. These French people are always so angry when they're driving, honking and yelling and running over pedestrians. But in reality, why are they upset if they're held up? It's not like it matters if they're late wherever they go. That doesn't make a difference because everyone in France is late. And then if you say "ohhhh but I always show up a half hour late, any later would be wrong!!" then no. You are not late. You just need to get it together and make the half hour late your start time, or get going a half hour earlier. I'm not putting up with your excuses, France. It's your own fault. Stop honking at everyone.
Except the cute little bachelor party today. You can honk all you want because I know that's a thing.
Wednesday I also went to explore this park near me. (At least I think it was Wednesday, correct me if I'm wrong and have already talked about this). It's on my way to the tram stop that I take when I'm coming from the South, and it's pretty cute. There were all kinds of people in it, and that was gross. But I got over it. I paced around some, because I was trying to read a text for Epistemology and you know I always pace and whisper the text to myself in French. I felt that this was irritating people, though, so I sat down. I think I powered through about 20 pages of that.
Then I think I went home.
There's a room with all of the psychology books that you can study in, and it has those big, long wooden tables they always show you in movies that are in law libraries, or the library of congress. And there are literally no seats available. It's cray-cray.
I think I went back to the mall then to try and pick up my pants I was having hemmed. They weren't ready yet. Big surprise that the French aren't on time with something.
That's actually something I want to talk about. These French people are always so angry when they're driving, honking and yelling and running over pedestrians. But in reality, why are they upset if they're held up? It's not like it matters if they're late wherever they go. That doesn't make a difference because everyone in France is late. And then if you say "ohhhh but I always show up a half hour late, any later would be wrong!!" then no. You are not late. You just need to get it together and make the half hour late your start time, or get going a half hour earlier. I'm not putting up with your excuses, France. It's your own fault. Stop honking at everyone.
Except the cute little bachelor party today. You can honk all you want because I know that's a thing.
Wednesday I also went to explore this park near me. (At least I think it was Wednesday, correct me if I'm wrong and have already talked about this). It's on my way to the tram stop that I take when I'm coming from the South, and it's pretty cute. There were all kinds of people in it, and that was gross. But I got over it. I paced around some, because I was trying to read a text for Epistemology and you know I always pace and whisper the text to myself in French. I felt that this was irritating people, though, so I sat down. I think I powered through about 20 pages of that.
Then I think I went home.
Tuesday
So when I sat down on Wednesday to finish writing about Monday, I had actually meant to finish writing about everything up until Wednesday.
I suppose I'll do that now.
I went to class on Tuesday. I definitely struggle the most in Cognition of all of my classes, and I'm not sure if it's the subject matter or the professor that's causing the problem, but honestly I'm not worried about it.
She wants me to get the notes from somebody. But these are all people in a master's class. They don't want little 20-year-old American me coming in and grabbing their notes when I can't understand what the professor's saying. No thanks.
From Cognition at 8h30 I don't have anything until 15h45, which is my Varieties of French course. Man that is hard to spell in English. I really like it. He's already given us the topic of our evaluation. I'm planning on doing it tomorrow. The majority of the class is just attendance with ten points going to this written evaluation, I believe.
Basically, all we are going to do each class period is study a group of words and how that has evolved and is still varied in Francophone culture today. Next Tuesday is "Words about Men and Women". I don't know anything else about it. It's a super full class so you can't just drop in to listen, you have to be fully registered.
My next class is down in Talence, it's also a French class. It's pretty awesome, even though I only have about an hour to get there and that's right around when I want to be eating dinner.
A lot of the people in my class are people I was with before in class so that's nice. Some of the British girls, a polish girl, and some other people I recognize but never actually talked to. (for the record, it wasn't the Fabian that I thought it was--though I do also recognize this Fabian).
This class meets on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and Tuesdays are only to do with learning current phrases and such and Thursdays are all about grammar and speaking, I believe. The only sucky bit is that there are way too many people in my class so they are going to split us up next week so I don't know if I will remain in the same class with the people I know.
After class, I stood around outside with the British girls trying to figure out if they were going to do something. They were. We and two German guys went and bought pizza and then we sat back at Helen's place and watched Pitch Perfect. I went home a little before midnight because it's quite a way if I can't take the tram.
I suppose I'll do that now.
I went to class on Tuesday. I definitely struggle the most in Cognition of all of my classes, and I'm not sure if it's the subject matter or the professor that's causing the problem, but honestly I'm not worried about it.
She wants me to get the notes from somebody. But these are all people in a master's class. They don't want little 20-year-old American me coming in and grabbing their notes when I can't understand what the professor's saying. No thanks.
From Cognition at 8h30 I don't have anything until 15h45, which is my Varieties of French course. Man that is hard to spell in English. I really like it. He's already given us the topic of our evaluation. I'm planning on doing it tomorrow. The majority of the class is just attendance with ten points going to this written evaluation, I believe.
Basically, all we are going to do each class period is study a group of words and how that has evolved and is still varied in Francophone culture today. Next Tuesday is "Words about Men and Women". I don't know anything else about it. It's a super full class so you can't just drop in to listen, you have to be fully registered.
My next class is down in Talence, it's also a French class. It's pretty awesome, even though I only have about an hour to get there and that's right around when I want to be eating dinner.
A lot of the people in my class are people I was with before in class so that's nice. Some of the British girls, a polish girl, and some other people I recognize but never actually talked to. (for the record, it wasn't the Fabian that I thought it was--though I do also recognize this Fabian).
This class meets on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and Tuesdays are only to do with learning current phrases and such and Thursdays are all about grammar and speaking, I believe. The only sucky bit is that there are way too many people in my class so they are going to split us up next week so I don't know if I will remain in the same class with the people I know.
After class, I stood around outside with the British girls trying to figure out if they were going to do something. They were. We and two German guys went and bought pizza and then we sat back at Helen's place and watched Pitch Perfect. I went home a little before midnight because it's quite a way if I can't take the tram.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Blankets...?
So I'll start off with the fireworks on Monday night.
They were epic.
As I thought this was like going to fireworks in America, I obviously packed all my blankets (1) and everything else I had to sit on (a kitten towel) and all sorts of other amenities like water and cookies and whatnot.
Everyone was all like "why do you have your backpack?" and I was like "blankets...?" and they were so confused as to why I would bring blankets to a fireworks show. Turns out that this is because there were 12000 people (that might not even be an exaggeration this time) at the fireworks. I waited for three trams to go by before there was one with enough room for me to even get on. This apparently also happened to Idil, who ended up going past our meeting point because she could physically not get off the tram until the stop by the fireworks venue.
I have some pictures that we took together:
They were epic.
As I thought this was like going to fireworks in America, I obviously packed all my blankets (1) and everything else I had to sit on (a kitten towel) and all sorts of other amenities like water and cookies and whatnot.
Everyone was all like "why do you have your backpack?" and I was like "blankets...?" and they were so confused as to why I would bring blankets to a fireworks show. Turns out that this is because there were 12000 people (that might not even be an exaggeration this time) at the fireworks. I waited for three trams to go by before there was one with enough room for me to even get on. This apparently also happened to Idil, who ended up going past our meeting point because she could physically not get off the tram until the stop by the fireworks venue.
I have some pictures that we took together:
We weren't entirely certain about why these fireworks were happening, but from the article I read on facebook, I think it was an exposition of multiple firework artists. (Are they called pyrotechnicians?)
Anyways, it was weird because we would have fireworks for like 10ish minutes, and then there'd be a 15 minute break and then another set. It was very confusing. At one point we BROUGHT OUT THE BLANKETS and sat down in the street. It was the best decision ever to have brought my blankets and no one will ever make fun of Iowa again. That's totally not true.
Apparently I also pushed too much through the crowd and reinforced negative American stereotypes. After I was told this originally, I turned on the American drawl and "EXCUSE ME, SORRY, THANK YOU, EXCUSE ME"'d for the next solid ten minutes and by golly did we have excellent standing room for that first set.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Half a pizza for breakfast gets you pretty far through the day, let me tell you
You might be thinking to yourself: "Sara, you have been so productive this weekend, how on Earth were you possibly still productive today?"
Well, let me tell you.
First off, I started my day off right. With the rest of my pizza. That's right. Half a pizza for breakfast. That's what's up, team.
Then I went to the mall. ANNND I took the most effective way to the mall. I took tram B up to Hotel de Ville and then tram A all the way to the mall. I would like to mention now, that every time I went to get on a tram today, maybe four times (though also counting the time I almost got on the wrong one) they showed up immediately as I was getting to the platform. It was cray cray.
I decided to explore the mall to find me some pants. The German girl told me that I should try going to Pomod, and I knew there was one on Sainte Catherine, so I was going to go there later this afternoon. HOWEVER, there is one innnnnnn the mall!!! So I obviously went to the one in the mall instead.
I asked the saleswomen about 12000 questions in total, first which size I should get and then what about length and how does this hemming thing work? It turns out the store will hem my pants for me! For 5 euros! And in two days! It was the most exciting.
So now I have pants! Kind of. I'll actually have pants on Wednesday afternoon.
From Pomod I went to Achan which was the main reason I went to the mall. I bought a legal pad, and some bar soap (which is way hard to find) and some breakfast cookie things and what I'm hoping is oatmeal. The internet said it was, but I don't know whether to trust it or not.
I did discover while I was in Achan that I had left my shopping bag in Pomod. I was saddened, because this was a very quality Carrefour bag that I bought for 15 cents, but it had lived a good life carrying shopping things. It didn't have anything in it, so I will let the salespeople have that in addition to the money I paid them for my pants.
This did mean that I had to buy a new shopping bag to carry my things home with, but I just got a plastic one for 4 cents because I have my eyes on a fabric one that will be less embarrassing to go other places than just shopping with.
From Achan I took the tram to the Monoprix to buy some tomatoes and some chicken because I was hoping to cart my chicken through the heat as little as possible. I achieved.
When I got home I voted to use the excellent method of a timer to get some actual work done. So I transferred notes for 25 minutes, and then I washed dishes. And then I transferred notes for 10 more minutes, and then I washed the table and swept the floor. Then I underlined vocabulary words for 5 minutes and I gave up.
I made myself a really awkward enchilada that tasted okay, but then was weirdly runny. I don't know what was up with that. I'm probably not going to eat it again.
Then I ate a banana. I don't know why I'm telling you. Ima guess that you don't care what I ate for dinner.
Right now I'm messaging Tay Tay and catching up on what's up in the Wind Ensemble flute section (spoiler alert--drama).
Tonight is the first night of a week-long fireworks convention. At least, that's what I understood from the article I read. I think I'm meeting up with some people here soonish to get together before we meeting with the rest of the group at 21h10 at Grand Theatre.
Well, let me tell you.
First off, I started my day off right. With the rest of my pizza. That's right. Half a pizza for breakfast. That's what's up, team.
Then I went to the mall. ANNND I took the most effective way to the mall. I took tram B up to Hotel de Ville and then tram A all the way to the mall. I would like to mention now, that every time I went to get on a tram today, maybe four times (though also counting the time I almost got on the wrong one) they showed up immediately as I was getting to the platform. It was cray cray.
I decided to explore the mall to find me some pants. The German girl told me that I should try going to Pomod, and I knew there was one on Sainte Catherine, so I was going to go there later this afternoon. HOWEVER, there is one innnnnnn the mall!!! So I obviously went to the one in the mall instead.
I asked the saleswomen about 12000 questions in total, first which size I should get and then what about length and how does this hemming thing work? It turns out the store will hem my pants for me! For 5 euros! And in two days! It was the most exciting.
So now I have pants! Kind of. I'll actually have pants on Wednesday afternoon.
From Pomod I went to Achan which was the main reason I went to the mall. I bought a legal pad, and some bar soap (which is way hard to find) and some breakfast cookie things and what I'm hoping is oatmeal. The internet said it was, but I don't know whether to trust it or not.
I did discover while I was in Achan that I had left my shopping bag in Pomod. I was saddened, because this was a very quality Carrefour bag that I bought for 15 cents, but it had lived a good life carrying shopping things. It didn't have anything in it, so I will let the salespeople have that in addition to the money I paid them for my pants.
This did mean that I had to buy a new shopping bag to carry my things home with, but I just got a plastic one for 4 cents because I have my eyes on a fabric one that will be less embarrassing to go other places than just shopping with.
From Achan I took the tram to the Monoprix to buy some tomatoes and some chicken because I was hoping to cart my chicken through the heat as little as possible. I achieved.
When I got home I voted to use the excellent method of a timer to get some actual work done. So I transferred notes for 25 minutes, and then I washed dishes. And then I transferred notes for 10 more minutes, and then I washed the table and swept the floor. Then I underlined vocabulary words for 5 minutes and I gave up.
I made myself a really awkward enchilada that tasted okay, but then was weirdly runny. I don't know what was up with that. I'm probably not going to eat it again.
Then I ate a banana. I don't know why I'm telling you. Ima guess that you don't care what I ate for dinner.
Right now I'm messaging Tay Tay and catching up on what's up in the Wind Ensemble flute section (spoiler alert--drama).
Tonight is the first night of a week-long fireworks convention. At least, that's what I understood from the article I read. I think I'm meeting up with some people here soonish to get together before we meeting with the rest of the group at 21h10 at Grand Theatre.
0 for the day = #living my best life
Saturday I didn't really do anything of use except try to heal my body of this cough. I never put on my watch, so I have a nice 0 for that day in my graph.
I did, however, wash my hair so that counts as basically like walking a mile.
Sunday I woke up to go the market, and this time I brought cash so I wouldn't have to run around the planet to find an ATM.
First I bought some potatoes and some broccoli. And then I bought some apples (which are enormous and super delicious btw), and then at the stand directly next to that I bought some bananas which were the first bananas I have seen that look good and I was very excited.
From the market, I went into the Carrefour City down the street and I bought a pizza crust--which I was very excited to find out you can buy exactly like pie crusts that are already rolled out and everything.
Then I went home. Probably watched some tv. Who knows.
That afternoon I went to explore the park that's on my way to the Bergonie tram stop. I wasn't certain it was a public park because I've never read the sign that closely, but it is, and it's open until 8pm.
I sat on a bench and started reading my really exciting anthropology book "Ecology of others-anthropology and the question of nature" which is of course in French and not really that exciting. It's only 100 pages though, and the professor said it was the most important text for us to read.
It was cold on my bench though, so I moved to another bench. It was boring sitting there, so I decided to pace while I read which is what I did whenever I read French novels at Wartburg. I guarantee all the other people at the park thought I was a freak but I don't even care.
I've now knocked out about 20% of the book. I sat down for a bit, but there were mosquitoes in the bushes so I went home instead.
Later, for dinner, I ate this magical pizza that I created:
I did, however, wash my hair so that counts as basically like walking a mile.
Sunday I woke up to go the market, and this time I brought cash so I wouldn't have to run around the planet to find an ATM.
First I bought some potatoes and some broccoli. And then I bought some apples (which are enormous and super delicious btw), and then at the stand directly next to that I bought some bananas which were the first bananas I have seen that look good and I was very excited.
From the market, I went into the Carrefour City down the street and I bought a pizza crust--which I was very excited to find out you can buy exactly like pie crusts that are already rolled out and everything.
Then I went home. Probably watched some tv. Who knows.
That afternoon I went to explore the park that's on my way to the Bergonie tram stop. I wasn't certain it was a public park because I've never read the sign that closely, but it is, and it's open until 8pm.
I sat on a bench and started reading my really exciting anthropology book "Ecology of others-anthropology and the question of nature" which is of course in French and not really that exciting. It's only 100 pages though, and the professor said it was the most important text for us to read.
It was cold on my bench though, so I moved to another bench. It was boring sitting there, so I decided to pace while I read which is what I did whenever I read French novels at Wartburg. I guarantee all the other people at the park thought I was a freak but I don't even care.
I've now knocked out about 20% of the book. I sat down for a bit, but there were mosquitoes in the bushes so I went home instead.
Later, for dinner, I ate this magical pizza that I created:
It was amazing. Better yet, my Supertracker says it's worth 500 calories for each half, so you can knock out a quarter of your day's worth easily. mwahahahah
After that, I finished the book that my mother got for me for the Kindle (thanks mother) and I went to sleep.
Rat Attack
On Friday I first went to the second Biological Anthropology lecture. During this lecture I learned many things, most importantly that Australopithecus lived in trees. I had no idea and I am so excited about this.
After class, (which a lot of people didn't come to) I went to my registration meeting. Beforehand, however, I decided that sitting through lecture deserved a reward, so I went across the street and bought a chocolatine. One day, that's what I always say.
I was really excited for my registration meeting, because she didn't tell me that I had to bring anything and that everything would be ready when I got there.
I got to my meeting about 5 minutes early, but I couldn't hear anyone inside so I voted that it was my turn. All the times I've been in offices here, people do this (what I consider to be) really rude thing where they knock on a closed door, and then open it and walk in. I say, if you knock and aren't invited in, the other person is probably doing something you're not involved in. However, when in Rome, I did the exact same thing.
The woman told me she was waiting for the person before me to come back. I knew that wasn't true because I had talked to Ludovica when I was eating my chocolatine and she was the person before me and she definitely wasn't coming back. So I sat down for a few minutes, and then the woman came back to get me.
Everything was all ready, though I did have to give her an identity photo. If I hadn't been carrying five of them around for weeks now, I would have been real irritated that she hadn't told me to bring it. She seemed confused about something else, but didn't talk to me about it, so I just sat there quietly. At one point another woman came in and wanted to speak to my register-er. She made me leave the office and sit in the hallway so they could talk about whatever *incredibly urgent* thing it was. I was a smidge irked, but as I had nothing else to do the rest of the day, I got over it.
I got my Certificate of Scholarity and I went downstairs to get my card printed. I took a picture with it:
After class, (which a lot of people didn't come to) I went to my registration meeting. Beforehand, however, I decided that sitting through lecture deserved a reward, so I went across the street and bought a chocolatine. One day, that's what I always say.
I was really excited for my registration meeting, because she didn't tell me that I had to bring anything and that everything would be ready when I got there.
I got to my meeting about 5 minutes early, but I couldn't hear anyone inside so I voted that it was my turn. All the times I've been in offices here, people do this (what I consider to be) really rude thing where they knock on a closed door, and then open it and walk in. I say, if you knock and aren't invited in, the other person is probably doing something you're not involved in. However, when in Rome, I did the exact same thing.
The woman told me she was waiting for the person before me to come back. I knew that wasn't true because I had talked to Ludovica when I was eating my chocolatine and she was the person before me and she definitely wasn't coming back. So I sat down for a few minutes, and then the woman came back to get me.
Everything was all ready, though I did have to give her an identity photo. If I hadn't been carrying five of them around for weeks now, I would have been real irritated that she hadn't told me to bring it. She seemed confused about something else, but didn't talk to me about it, so I just sat there quietly. At one point another woman came in and wanted to speak to my register-er. She made me leave the office and sit in the hallway so they could talk about whatever *incredibly urgent* thing it was. I was a smidge irked, but as I had nothing else to do the rest of the day, I got over it.
I got my Certificate of Scholarity and I went downstairs to get my card printed. I took a picture with it:
After this I went home and ate something. I don't remember what it was.
I was trying to watch "Rat Attack" on PBS which is a Nova special about a plague of black rats. But then I kept falling asleep, so I took a nap instead. That was a good time.
After my nap I finished Rat Attack and probably watched some more TV. And probably read some. Who knows.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
No sir, that is not a cucumber
Thursday I got to drop one of my classes out of my schedule, so after Epistemology I went to the bookstore to try and find some of the books the professor had given us on the reading list.
This bookstore (Librairie Mollat) is literally the biggest bookstore I have ever been in in my entire life. It is enormous.
So I ask the first helper-bee that I see if she could tell me if they have any of these four books. And she was like "you'll have to ask my colleague in Social Science". Yes, the bookstore is that big that they have a person assigned (with a desk) to each area of study, along with floating people who shelve books. This next social science woman knew right where two of them were, but told me that the other two she would have to order and they were like twice as expensive. So I did not buy them.
Then I asked if they had any anthropology books in English, because if you remember, I don't actually know anything about anthropology. They don't, but she gave me directions to the English bookstore which might have some.
After I bought my books, I set out to the English bookstore which was quite tricky to find. You first had to go down (like actually down, it was a sloped street) this kind of alleyway, and she said the bookstore would be on the left. I went quite a ways and it didn't look like there was any kind of store there at all. I dropped into a coffeeshop and asked where the bookstore was. I apparently did not look convincing in my French, because the man first informed me that his store was not a bookstore. Yes, I know that. Thank you. But then he told me that it was just a little ways down the street and that it was on the left.
The bookstore was pretty cute, but it mostly had books for children and teens. I asked the woman about anthropology books and she said they could order some in. However, the books would cost like $1200000000 because they would have to come from the US. So I didn't buy any books.
I walked outside of the store and tried to find my way to a bigger street so I would know where I was. Where I actually ended up was the garden right by the mall. As I was feeling like some lunch, I was like, let's go to the mallllll!!!!!!
I bought a sandwich (you're welcome Kammie) from Paul and I got on the mall wifi to chill and eat my sandwich right inside the doorway on a ledge kind of a thing.
After I had eaten my sandwich, I got a message from Julie about our next class at 13h30. This is her only class in Victoire so she wanted to meet up beforehand so she wouldn't get lost. We agreed to me about 10 minutes before class, and so I voted I wanted to go home and eat some cookies before I met up with her.
I went to get on bus 5 which goes right by my street and is the speediest way to get home from the mall, but there was some kind of demonstration that made all the traffic really slow and so bus 5 was not coming along.
This bookstore (Librairie Mollat) is literally the biggest bookstore I have ever been in in my entire life. It is enormous.
So I ask the first helper-bee that I see if she could tell me if they have any of these four books. And she was like "you'll have to ask my colleague in Social Science". Yes, the bookstore is that big that they have a person assigned (with a desk) to each area of study, along with floating people who shelve books. This next social science woman knew right where two of them were, but told me that the other two she would have to order and they were like twice as expensive. So I did not buy them.
Then I asked if they had any anthropology books in English, because if you remember, I don't actually know anything about anthropology. They don't, but she gave me directions to the English bookstore which might have some.
After I bought my books, I set out to the English bookstore which was quite tricky to find. You first had to go down (like actually down, it was a sloped street) this kind of alleyway, and she said the bookstore would be on the left. I went quite a ways and it didn't look like there was any kind of store there at all. I dropped into a coffeeshop and asked where the bookstore was. I apparently did not look convincing in my French, because the man first informed me that his store was not a bookstore. Yes, I know that. Thank you. But then he told me that it was just a little ways down the street and that it was on the left.
The bookstore was pretty cute, but it mostly had books for children and teens. I asked the woman about anthropology books and she said they could order some in. However, the books would cost like $1200000000 because they would have to come from the US. So I didn't buy any books.
I walked outside of the store and tried to find my way to a bigger street so I would know where I was. Where I actually ended up was the garden right by the mall. As I was feeling like some lunch, I was like, let's go to the mallllll!!!!!!
I bought a sandwich (you're welcome Kammie) from Paul and I got on the mall wifi to chill and eat my sandwich right inside the doorway on a ledge kind of a thing.
After I had eaten my sandwich, I got a message from Julie about our next class at 13h30. This is her only class in Victoire so she wanted to meet up beforehand so she wouldn't get lost. We agreed to me about 10 minutes before class, and so I voted I wanted to go home and eat some cookies before I met up with her.
I went to get on bus 5 which goes right by my street and is the speediest way to get home from the mall, but there was some kind of demonstration that made all the traffic really slow and so bus 5 was not coming along.
I even took a picture for you guys because that's how cool I am. Not a quality picture, but that's what's up. There was some chanting and people with signs, but I don't know anything else about it.
Anyways, I needed to get home and bus 5 was not coming when it was supposed to, so I took bus 15 to Victoire and walked home from there. At this point, it would have been speedier to take the tram because the bus got stuck behind traffic and it took way longer than it should have.
I got home and picked up some cookies and put on different shoes and then I went back to the campus to meet up with Julie.
Our Biological Anthropology class is in Arnozan (or Arzonan, I don't know which one) which is a lecture hall, but basically just a regular classroom. This was where Parenting was, but that was really loud and awful so I wasn't looking forward to this.
HOWEVER, Biological Anthropology is God's gift to Americans. It's the best class ever. The professor is a doctor, and he starts class on time, and he gives snotty looks to all the people who come in late. He has a powerpoint, and everything he says is on the powerpoint so you can just write it down. ANNNND the final exam is content-based, so you can just memorize the text that he's giving you. He also has a textbook he wants us to get, but he wrote it, so I'm probably not going to go try to find it unless it's in the library.
That's my new favorite class.
Directly following Biological Anthropology, I wanted to try out Visual Anthropology which everyone was raving about. It is, in fact, something to rave about. The professor spoke for a smidge at the beginning, and then we watched a movie. I'd like to ask him for French subtitles just so I'm certain about what's going on, but I probably won't. After the movie, he told us all to take our stuff and follow him, so we blindly followed him down some streets to a coffeeshop kind of a place. We all assumed we were going to discuss the movie here, but he really just wanted to show us the shop so that we could go to an event later that night if we felt like it.
The guy who ran the shop gave us all mint tea and that was fun. Then I got my What'sApp set to my French number so I could be included when all the Germans are making plans. (This did backfire later that night when they all text each other in german...)
One guy further down in the table invited us all to his house that night so me and this Ana girl decided we wanted to go and we got each other's numbers.
Then I went home and ate some dinner.
I got a text from Ana a while later asking about when I was going to the party. I was still eating dinner so I informed her of that fact. She said she was going to eat some dinner then too, and we would meet up afterwards.
We had some snafoos getting to the meeting place, but eventually we both ended up at the same place at the same time. From there we went to Idil's apartment in the CROUS village over by Capucins.
I thought a couple other people would be there, but it was just her and an Italian girl, but that was okay because they're fun to talk to.
A couple hours later, we walked to cross the river to go to the Anthropology party. The house/apartment/bohemian flat was pretty easy to find, and there were probably 15 people from the class, but no other international students. The people were really fun, but they were all smoking and that did not make my cough feel any better.
At one point, the host of the party decided we needed to try French vegetables. This comes after he told us about "Chicken Joe" which is some chicken from some movie about a penguin...? And then he brought us a tomato that was shaped like a chili pepper and had no seeds and informed us that is what a natural tomato looks like. As that of course makes no sense for a natural plant to have no seeds, Idil tried to dispute him, but I had mostly lost my voice so I just gave up. It was a very tasty tomato (though not natural). Then he brought us a "cucumber". It was not a cucumber. It was a zucchini. We tried to tell him, but he didn't believe us. We ate it anyways. I'd never eaten a raw zucchini before, but he wasn't giving us a whole lot of choice. At one point, he took it and put it in some kind of dressing with mayo and olive oil and vinegar and pepper and it was pretty okay. Really weird though. Then one girl decided that is was ridiculous to be eating all these vegetables so she cut up a peach so we could have that for "dessert". It was all rather odd.
I left then to walk home and I got in my bed immediately because I had to go to the second lecture for Biological Anthropology at 8h30.
Washing Wednesday
I want to apologize for my pansy-ing along and not writing any blog posts. I was pretty certain I was dying of secondhand smoker's cough, but I feel a lot better today, so I don't know what's up with that.
On Tuesday after my class-related breakdown, I appealed to Wartburg about the number of credits I'm required to take. If I take a Wartburg course long-distance, I get to cut out 9 ECTs. This is apparently supposed to mean that a Wartburg class is worth 3 University of Bordeaux classes. I'm super dubious about it, but I'm going to take it.
I was also a smidgeon confused about how the credits pan out for my master's course, but they are actually worth twice what I thought, so I get to drop four of my classes from my schedule. Best week ever.
On Wednesday I basically did nothing. I went to attempt to do my laundry again, and there was another girl in the laundry room so I asked if she would help me start the machine. At this point, she informed me that I had to use powder detergent. So I ran very quickly down the street to buy some from the store. It was tricky until I found one that said "one soap for all your clothes" and I voted that was the best soap for me to buy.
I started up the washing machine and went and ate some breakfast.
Since I had a dryer token already, I voted to dry my towels and sweatshirts and socks and pants. However, there are no instructions for the dryer. Not wanting to lose my token to the machine again, I asked the woman if she would show me how it worked. She was all like "put the clothes in, put the token in, push the button" and I was like "what button?" and she was like "I'll show you" and as this was all I wanted from her originally, I was glad she finally worked herself around to it.
So yes, Wednesday I washed clothes and sat about.
On Tuesday after my class-related breakdown, I appealed to Wartburg about the number of credits I'm required to take. If I take a Wartburg course long-distance, I get to cut out 9 ECTs. This is apparently supposed to mean that a Wartburg class is worth 3 University of Bordeaux classes. I'm super dubious about it, but I'm going to take it.
I was also a smidgeon confused about how the credits pan out for my master's course, but they are actually worth twice what I thought, so I get to drop four of my classes from my schedule. Best week ever.
On Wednesday I basically did nothing. I went to attempt to do my laundry again, and there was another girl in the laundry room so I asked if she would help me start the machine. At this point, she informed me that I had to use powder detergent. So I ran very quickly down the street to buy some from the store. It was tricky until I found one that said "one soap for all your clothes" and I voted that was the best soap for me to buy.
I started up the washing machine and went and ate some breakfast.
Since I had a dryer token already, I voted to dry my towels and sweatshirts and socks and pants. However, there are no instructions for the dryer. Not wanting to lose my token to the machine again, I asked the woman if she would show me how it worked. She was all like "put the clothes in, put the token in, push the button" and I was like "what button?" and she was like "I'll show you" and as this was all I wanted from her originally, I was glad she finally worked herself around to it.
So yes, Wednesday I washed clothes and sat about.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
In which I'm not allowed a meeting
So I've been awake for 5.5 hours now, and 4 of those were straight lecture.
I've been feeling very frustrated lately because no one has given me good information about what is going to be expected of me in class. So I think, I'll just ask the professor for a meeting so we can discuss the classes.
I go up at the end of the second lecture and I wait in line behind a couple other people. Then when everyone is gone, I say "Do you have time to make a time to meet with me about classes?" and she's like "what about the classes?" and I was like "tests, things to read, how to study, other things" and she's like "I explained that all already but maybe you didn't understand." And I'm like "I would like some instructions so I know what you want so I can get started and make sure I do well." This she is not pleased about. She's like "I don't want to start too early because you're coming from another discipline and you need to be sure you understand everything so you don't miss something that interests you as a subject." And then she asks, "Are you understanding what's going on in class?" So I say "I understand, but it's hard to write and listen and understand at the same time." And she's like "yeah." And she won't give me a meeting because she wants me to look at the reading list that she hasn't given us yet.
At this point, I'm so frustrated (and hungry) that I'm almost crying. Why won't this woman please just let me meet with her? Why do the French make me wait for everything? Can I please just have some instructions?
So she asks "Is everything going good with being here? Because you need to tell us, and your friends, if things aren't going well." And I'm like (not very convincingly) "it's fine." And she's all like "Is it hard?" And I'm like "It's just different." And then she makes me tell her why I'm so upset. And so I inform her that in America, at the beginning of every course we get a piece of paper that tells us what we have to do, and what the class is about, and how the exams work and here I go to class, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or what I'm supposed to study and I just don't have any idea what to do.
She thinks this is like the funniest thing in the world, and I am now legitimately crying. She's all like "This is just a different learning style." And, I'm not an idiot, I know that. I would just please like some godforsaken instructions so I know that I'm on the right track. I'm not going to blunder about nebulously and not know what I'm doing when I could just ask for a meeting and get some information.
And then she's like "Let me get you the reading list next week and then we can get together and discuss what interests you and then we can go through the list together and pick out the best readings for you and give you a list of things."
And I was all "That's good. Thanks." Because I'm just so done because that's what I wanted in the first place but it was too unreasonable a demand for anyone that isn't a crying American wishing she had a syllabus.
And she's like "This is why you have to tell your professor what you need, otherwise we don't know."
THAT'S WHAT I WANTED THE MEETING FOR BUT THANKS FOR BEING CONDESCENDING LIKE I CAN'T GET MY POINT ACROSS FOR MYSELF.
Now I'm just going to lay in my bed until I have to go down to Talence to take that French test because they won't give me the schedule until I've taken the test.
I've been feeling very frustrated lately because no one has given me good information about what is going to be expected of me in class. So I think, I'll just ask the professor for a meeting so we can discuss the classes.
I go up at the end of the second lecture and I wait in line behind a couple other people. Then when everyone is gone, I say "Do you have time to make a time to meet with me about classes?" and she's like "what about the classes?" and I was like "tests, things to read, how to study, other things" and she's like "I explained that all already but maybe you didn't understand." And I'm like "I would like some instructions so I know what you want so I can get started and make sure I do well." This she is not pleased about. She's like "I don't want to start too early because you're coming from another discipline and you need to be sure you understand everything so you don't miss something that interests you as a subject." And then she asks, "Are you understanding what's going on in class?" So I say "I understand, but it's hard to write and listen and understand at the same time." And she's like "yeah." And she won't give me a meeting because she wants me to look at the reading list that she hasn't given us yet.
At this point, I'm so frustrated (and hungry) that I'm almost crying. Why won't this woman please just let me meet with her? Why do the French make me wait for everything? Can I please just have some instructions?
So she asks "Is everything going good with being here? Because you need to tell us, and your friends, if things aren't going well." And I'm like (not very convincingly) "it's fine." And she's all like "Is it hard?" And I'm like "It's just different." And then she makes me tell her why I'm so upset. And so I inform her that in America, at the beginning of every course we get a piece of paper that tells us what we have to do, and what the class is about, and how the exams work and here I go to class, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do or what I'm supposed to study and I just don't have any idea what to do.
She thinks this is like the funniest thing in the world, and I am now legitimately crying. She's all like "This is just a different learning style." And, I'm not an idiot, I know that. I would just please like some godforsaken instructions so I know that I'm on the right track. I'm not going to blunder about nebulously and not know what I'm doing when I could just ask for a meeting and get some information.
And then she's like "Let me get you the reading list next week and then we can get together and discuss what interests you and then we can go through the list together and pick out the best readings for you and give you a list of things."
And I was all "That's good. Thanks." Because I'm just so done because that's what I wanted in the first place but it was too unreasonable a demand for anyone that isn't a crying American wishing she had a syllabus.
And she's like "This is why you have to tell your professor what you need, otherwise we don't know."
THAT'S WHAT I WANTED THE MEETING FOR BUT THANKS FOR BEING CONDESCENDING LIKE I CAN'T GET MY POINT ACROSS FOR MYSELF.
Now I'm just going to lay in my bed until I have to go down to Talence to take that French test because they won't give me the schedule until I've taken the test.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
Didn't really go outside, but got lost twice
Today, Sunday, I had an incredible goal to go to the huge Sunday market down my street and buy some potatoes.
On the way there, though, I realized that I should get some cash before I went to the market because no self-respecting market person will take American Express.
I, like a fool, assumed that there would be many ATMs nearby. There was one. A huge line of probably like 15 people were waiting to use this single ATM that was for a specific bank and thus would probably charge me. I knew I was nearby to Victoire, and my favorite ATM is there, so I figured I'd just cut through the marketplace and look on the other side.
This of course took me to the benches that we had eaten oysters at last Sunday, and I knew that was wrong, but I wasn't certain how to get from Cours d'Alger to Victoire. So I walked farther up thinking that maybe there would be an ATM in Capucins. There was not.
From there, I took an alternate path back to the Market and crossed back through. Looking down the streets parallel to the market like a normal person would have originally, I found that Victoire was literally right down the street to my right.
So I walked all the way down the street to Victoire to go to the ATM. At this point, though, I don't really want to walk back to the market because I'm tired of walking and I decide just to head down Argonne to go home, because that street is the closest to the ATM and I know how to get home from there.
As I was walking, though, I realized that Argonne is not the most effective way to get home, since I have to go all the way down to the Bergonie stop and then go east for a bit before heading further south down Somme.
I thought, hey, let's take a shortcut and go east from where I am right now. So I found Rue des Sabliers, which I recognized as a streetname (I'd figure out why later after being a fool) and I assumed that meant that it was a street that crossed Cours de la Somme.
I followed Sabliers down for quite a ways and then recognized another street name "Georges Rioux". This also looked familiar, and I assumed it must be a street that I cross usually to get to Somme, because I was crossing it right now. I was like man, I am good.
I keep walking on Sabliers and then I see a big glass building that I have never ever seen before. I'm like this is cool I'ma just keep walking toward it. When I get to the big building (which turns out to be a student residence) I turn right to go what I'm thinking is south.
I walk and walk and walk on this street and at this point I realize that this route is 100% longer than just going down to Bergonie. When this street runs out, I see the tram tracks. The tram tracks run down Argonne, and I have ended up about 500 feet past the Bergonie tram stop.
At some point, Rue des Sabliers turned to go south, and I never noticed. So then when I turned right, I just ended up heading back west again.
So I walk up to the tram stop and just take the normal streets I use to go home. I have never looked at the names of these streets, because it's residential, and even though it's pretty much a straight path, it changes names a bajillion times.
As I'm waiting for a bicyclist to pass, I look up and see that I am at the intersection of Rue des Sabliers and Georges Rioux. Again.
Except this time, I'm walking on Georges Rioux, and if I look to my right, I can see the big glass building.
So I was literally there probably 30 minutes beforehand, with no idea that I could have been home in less than 10 minutes if I had turned.
When I got back to the residence hall, I walked a little further down the street to a Laverie, because I thought maybe I could just do my laundry there. Unfortunately, it is a great deal more expensive. Washing is 4 euros by itself, and drying is 0.50 for every 5 minutes.
I voted to stay home the rest of the day. Though I did go out and buy some chips, because the grocery store down the street is open 4-8 on Sundays.
I cleaned my apartment, and I would like to inform you that my toilet cleaner smells really gross. When I was buying all these products, I looked at the pictures on the label to make sure that I actually knew the words for what I wanted. I'm pretty sure "javal" means bleach, but I wasn't certain and I couldn't tell from the picture, so I didn't buy anything with it. But then, I saw it again inside of the washing machine as like a place to put a liquid so I'm deciding that that's what it means.
Because I mean, what product do you use to clean your bathroom that you also put in a washing machine?
Other than that, I mostly just thought about my mosquito bites. Mosquitoes only show up once every week, so I wasn't prepared to shut my window (since there's no screen) when one came along, and I'm pretty sure it's living in my room. I have a bite right on the back of my ankle, which has never happened before. Three other ones on that same leg, one one the other thigh, and one on my left forearm. It's a vicious little devil, but I'm hoping it died from the stench of my toilet cleaner.
On the way there, though, I realized that I should get some cash before I went to the market because no self-respecting market person will take American Express.
I, like a fool, assumed that there would be many ATMs nearby. There was one. A huge line of probably like 15 people were waiting to use this single ATM that was for a specific bank and thus would probably charge me. I knew I was nearby to Victoire, and my favorite ATM is there, so I figured I'd just cut through the marketplace and look on the other side.
This of course took me to the benches that we had eaten oysters at last Sunday, and I knew that was wrong, but I wasn't certain how to get from Cours d'Alger to Victoire. So I walked farther up thinking that maybe there would be an ATM in Capucins. There was not.
From there, I took an alternate path back to the Market and crossed back through. Looking down the streets parallel to the market like a normal person would have originally, I found that Victoire was literally right down the street to my right.
So I walked all the way down the street to Victoire to go to the ATM. At this point, though, I don't really want to walk back to the market because I'm tired of walking and I decide just to head down Argonne to go home, because that street is the closest to the ATM and I know how to get home from there.
As I was walking, though, I realized that Argonne is not the most effective way to get home, since I have to go all the way down to the Bergonie stop and then go east for a bit before heading further south down Somme.
I thought, hey, let's take a shortcut and go east from where I am right now. So I found Rue des Sabliers, which I recognized as a streetname (I'd figure out why later after being a fool) and I assumed that meant that it was a street that crossed Cours de la Somme.
I followed Sabliers down for quite a ways and then recognized another street name "Georges Rioux". This also looked familiar, and I assumed it must be a street that I cross usually to get to Somme, because I was crossing it right now. I was like man, I am good.
I keep walking on Sabliers and then I see a big glass building that I have never ever seen before. I'm like this is cool I'ma just keep walking toward it. When I get to the big building (which turns out to be a student residence) I turn right to go what I'm thinking is south.
I walk and walk and walk on this street and at this point I realize that this route is 100% longer than just going down to Bergonie. When this street runs out, I see the tram tracks. The tram tracks run down Argonne, and I have ended up about 500 feet past the Bergonie tram stop.
At some point, Rue des Sabliers turned to go south, and I never noticed. So then when I turned right, I just ended up heading back west again.
So I walk up to the tram stop and just take the normal streets I use to go home. I have never looked at the names of these streets, because it's residential, and even though it's pretty much a straight path, it changes names a bajillion times.
As I'm waiting for a bicyclist to pass, I look up and see that I am at the intersection of Rue des Sabliers and Georges Rioux. Again.
Except this time, I'm walking on Georges Rioux, and if I look to my right, I can see the big glass building.
So I was literally there probably 30 minutes beforehand, with no idea that I could have been home in less than 10 minutes if I had turned.
When I got back to the residence hall, I walked a little further down the street to a Laverie, because I thought maybe I could just do my laundry there. Unfortunately, it is a great deal more expensive. Washing is 4 euros by itself, and drying is 0.50 for every 5 minutes.
I voted to stay home the rest of the day. Though I did go out and buy some chips, because the grocery store down the street is open 4-8 on Sundays.
I cleaned my apartment, and I would like to inform you that my toilet cleaner smells really gross. When I was buying all these products, I looked at the pictures on the label to make sure that I actually knew the words for what I wanted. I'm pretty sure "javal" means bleach, but I wasn't certain and I couldn't tell from the picture, so I didn't buy anything with it. But then, I saw it again inside of the washing machine as like a place to put a liquid so I'm deciding that that's what it means.
Because I mean, what product do you use to clean your bathroom that you also put in a washing machine?
Other than that, I mostly just thought about my mosquito bites. Mosquitoes only show up once every week, so I wasn't prepared to shut my window (since there's no screen) when one came along, and I'm pretty sure it's living in my room. I have a bite right on the back of my ankle, which has never happened before. Three other ones on that same leg, one one the other thigh, and one on my left forearm. It's a vicious little devil, but I'm hoping it died from the stench of my toilet cleaner.
Wimping
So I wimped out this weekend and did not actually do anything fun. I really just stayed in my room and read, colored, cleaned, and filled out some paperwork to prepare for my meetings tomorrow.
On Saturday, my VivoFit would inform you that I walked like 600 steps. This isn't entirely true, because I always take the watch off when I'm in my room. All this tells you is how far it was for me to walk from my room to the trashroom and back, and then to the laundry room and back.
My main struggle on Saturday was attempting to do my laundry. As I have now washed my hair three times in France, it means I have been here about three weeks. (I cut down on hair washing because it's so hard and zero people have touched my hair, so it doesn't matter if I ever wash it). I only brought a supply of clothes for three weeks, and since I bought laundry tokens on Friday, it seemed logical to do my laundry on Saturday.
I went down to the laundry room where there was a set of instructions on the wall. These washing machines are rather different than the ones at home, but I was confident that even if I can't get registered to the University, I can figure out how a washing machine works. The instructions wanted me to make sure that there was a light on on the machine. There were no lights on on any machine. I thought, immediately, that this meant that I needed to put my token in and push the button on the token machine to make my machine ready and have the light turn on.
My token did nothing.
I thought, maybe I just need to have everything selected and then my token will work. This was foolish thinking. I put my clothes in and I shut the door on the machine. At this point, the light lit up and I was very very excited that my token had not been eaten entirely by the machine and I might get my 3.50euros out of it.
I followed all the rest of the instuctions, putting in the soap, turning the dials, etc. At this point, the instructions wanted me to push the green button that should be lit up. It was not lit up.
I read on closer to the next instruction--which was apparently to put my token in. So since I put my token in before the first light was lit, my token did nothing at all.
You think to yourself: Sara, that's irritating, but just go get another one, like if the machine at Wartburg eats your quarters!
Well, the joke is on you readers, because you have to purchase these tokens specifically from, guess who, THE AWFUL PEOPLE AT THE FRONT DESK. And when are they there? WHENEVER THEY WANT BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO SIGN THAT SAYS THEIR HOURS AND WILL GET UPSET WITH YOU WHEN YOU SHOW UP IF THEY'RE "CLOSED".
[I will note that when I went to buy the laundry tokens the first time, the woman behind the desk said they were closed for the next two hours, even though her window was open. And then when I came back later that day, she was real irritated that I didn't understand that she was closed. I said "do you have a sign?" and she said "no, but I don't have any blinds." I'm hoping there was some kind of misunderstanding because that is not an acceptable answer to me. If you are going to be irritated by me asking you a question when you're closed, you'd better have a sign telling me that you are closed.]
Yes, so now I have to wait until Monday to buy another token from them because they did not explain how the laundry works to a pretty obvious international student. I'm hoping they will let me buy just a washing token. I'm betting they won't.
On Saturday, my VivoFit would inform you that I walked like 600 steps. This isn't entirely true, because I always take the watch off when I'm in my room. All this tells you is how far it was for me to walk from my room to the trashroom and back, and then to the laundry room and back.
My main struggle on Saturday was attempting to do my laundry. As I have now washed my hair three times in France, it means I have been here about three weeks. (I cut down on hair washing because it's so hard and zero people have touched my hair, so it doesn't matter if I ever wash it). I only brought a supply of clothes for three weeks, and since I bought laundry tokens on Friday, it seemed logical to do my laundry on Saturday.
I went down to the laundry room where there was a set of instructions on the wall. These washing machines are rather different than the ones at home, but I was confident that even if I can't get registered to the University, I can figure out how a washing machine works. The instructions wanted me to make sure that there was a light on on the machine. There were no lights on on any machine. I thought, immediately, that this meant that I needed to put my token in and push the button on the token machine to make my machine ready and have the light turn on.
My token did nothing.
I thought, maybe I just need to have everything selected and then my token will work. This was foolish thinking. I put my clothes in and I shut the door on the machine. At this point, the light lit up and I was very very excited that my token had not been eaten entirely by the machine and I might get my 3.50euros out of it.
I followed all the rest of the instuctions, putting in the soap, turning the dials, etc. At this point, the instructions wanted me to push the green button that should be lit up. It was not lit up.
I read on closer to the next instruction--which was apparently to put my token in. So since I put my token in before the first light was lit, my token did nothing at all.
You think to yourself: Sara, that's irritating, but just go get another one, like if the machine at Wartburg eats your quarters!
Well, the joke is on you readers, because you have to purchase these tokens specifically from, guess who, THE AWFUL PEOPLE AT THE FRONT DESK. And when are they there? WHENEVER THEY WANT BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO SIGN THAT SAYS THEIR HOURS AND WILL GET UPSET WITH YOU WHEN YOU SHOW UP IF THEY'RE "CLOSED".
[I will note that when I went to buy the laundry tokens the first time, the woman behind the desk said they were closed for the next two hours, even though her window was open. And then when I came back later that day, she was real irritated that I didn't understand that she was closed. I said "do you have a sign?" and she said "no, but I don't have any blinds." I'm hoping there was some kind of misunderstanding because that is not an acceptable answer to me. If you are going to be irritated by me asking you a question when you're closed, you'd better have a sign telling me that you are closed.]
Yes, so now I have to wait until Monday to buy another token from them because they did not explain how the laundry works to a pretty obvious international student. I'm hoping they will let me buy just a washing token. I'm betting they won't.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
I don't care if you're closed, I will climb through the window
Friday was also a most irritating day as I once again attempted to get things done.
I did get my email from Orange, but the instructions were just to look at the website. I tried to follow the instructions, which involved calling the company. But then, apparently it doesn't work with my phone.
So I opened up a chat with some guy from Orange and asked for help. He said I needed to go through a different process and that first I had to buy the new SIM card. I was like "are you serious rn???"
I trucked my butt down to the Free store to buy my SIM card, but you have to buy it out of a vending machine thing, and I didn't want to do it myself, so I asked for help. I had to take a number,and then when I went up to the man, he was like "do it at the machine" and I was like "can you help me?" and he was like "YOU DON'T READ FRENCH????!!!!!" and so I just agreed with him because please help me.
So we were going along and I was all ready to get my new SIM card, when he informs me that they are out of SIM cards and I need to do the whole process online and they will mail me one in 5 days.
And I was like "are you serious rn???" for the second time in one day, because I might as well just throw the godforsaken thing away and just not text anyone for the remainder of my time.
It was soooooo irritating.
Then I went to the University and asked the secretary woman about the German class and whether I can take French classes at the other campus. She gave me the form for the German class and said I needed to go turn it in in Montaigne. She also has no idea if I can take the French classes at the other campus. I'm voting that I can, though it adds some struggle to my bus.
I got on the tram and took the 30 minute ride down to Pessac so I could see about the German class. As it turns out, the class I want to take meets directly after my last class on Tuesday, so it would be really hard for me to get down there on time. I asked the guy if that was a problem, and he didn't really know. I have until the 21st to decide--and then worst comes to worst I'll just switch to Spanish which actually fits in my schedule.
WOULDN'T IT BE COOL IF ALL THE SCHEDULES WERE FINISHED/FINALIZED/IN THE SAME PLACE/ONLINE??? I think so.
I then went to see Anna at the Talence campus about her French classes. They are apparently closed on Friday afternoons, but I just asked her my question through the window because I've had enough.
She did get someone to come unlock the door for me when it was clear that I don't care if I have to climb through a window to get some answers.
She says that I am registered for the French classes down at Talence but that she can't give me a schedule and I will have to go and get my level tested and take the first intro classes before I can actually get a schedule. It's so frustrating.
However, it's not a problem with credits because she said they might not show up on my transcript from Victoire, but that someone would write me an attestation with my grade so I could actually get credit.
I bet the registering woman is really going to enjoy this.
Joke's on you, France: I'm going to do whatever I want. I would've done it on time if you weren't so late giving me information, so really this is your own fault.
Then I went to my favorite grocery store again and bought all the cleaners I need for my room (toilet, counter, laundry soap) and some chicken and some cheese and some more yogurt. I will tell you, a mile from the tram stop to your apartment is wayyyy farther when you're hauling heavy soaps around.
After this, I went to try and buy a copy card but I forgot what store we went to before, so instead I bought onion rings. They weren't American.
I did get my email from Orange, but the instructions were just to look at the website. I tried to follow the instructions, which involved calling the company. But then, apparently it doesn't work with my phone.
So I opened up a chat with some guy from Orange and asked for help. He said I needed to go through a different process and that first I had to buy the new SIM card. I was like "are you serious rn???"
I trucked my butt down to the Free store to buy my SIM card, but you have to buy it out of a vending machine thing, and I didn't want to do it myself, so I asked for help. I had to take a number,and then when I went up to the man, he was like "do it at the machine" and I was like "can you help me?" and he was like "YOU DON'T READ FRENCH????!!!!!" and so I just agreed with him because please help me.
So we were going along and I was all ready to get my new SIM card, when he informs me that they are out of SIM cards and I need to do the whole process online and they will mail me one in 5 days.
And I was like "are you serious rn???" for the second time in one day, because I might as well just throw the godforsaken thing away and just not text anyone for the remainder of my time.
It was soooooo irritating.
Then I went to the University and asked the secretary woman about the German class and whether I can take French classes at the other campus. She gave me the form for the German class and said I needed to go turn it in in Montaigne. She also has no idea if I can take the French classes at the other campus. I'm voting that I can, though it adds some struggle to my bus.
I got on the tram and took the 30 minute ride down to Pessac so I could see about the German class. As it turns out, the class I want to take meets directly after my last class on Tuesday, so it would be really hard for me to get down there on time. I asked the guy if that was a problem, and he didn't really know. I have until the 21st to decide--and then worst comes to worst I'll just switch to Spanish which actually fits in my schedule.
WOULDN'T IT BE COOL IF ALL THE SCHEDULES WERE FINISHED/FINALIZED/IN THE SAME PLACE/ONLINE??? I think so.
I then went to see Anna at the Talence campus about her French classes. They are apparently closed on Friday afternoons, but I just asked her my question through the window because I've had enough.
She did get someone to come unlock the door for me when it was clear that I don't care if I have to climb through a window to get some answers.
She says that I am registered for the French classes down at Talence but that she can't give me a schedule and I will have to go and get my level tested and take the first intro classes before I can actually get a schedule. It's so frustrating.
However, it's not a problem with credits because she said they might not show up on my transcript from Victoire, but that someone would write me an attestation with my grade so I could actually get credit.
I bet the registering woman is really going to enjoy this.
Joke's on you, France: I'm going to do whatever I want. I would've done it on time if you weren't so late giving me information, so really this is your own fault.
Then I went to my favorite grocery store again and bought all the cleaners I need for my room (toilet, counter, laundry soap) and some chicken and some cheese and some more yogurt. I will tell you, a mile from the tram stop to your apartment is wayyyy farther when you're hauling heavy soaps around.
After this, I went to try and buy a copy card but I forgot what store we went to before, so instead I bought onion rings. They weren't American.
Que veut dire [insert man's name]?
On Thursday I had class again.
In Epistemology (which is the study of knowledge btw) there are only six of us, so it's my favorite class. People ask a lot of questions, and I get a chance to ask the professor vocab questions.
However, this is also embarrassing. Not just because I don't know simple words, but because sometimes I think things are vocab words when they are NOT.
The prof kept saying this thing that sounded like "les vitroses" and I was like what is that?? and so whenever he says something over and over again I like to ask about it. Maybe three times total in that lecture.
So I ask about "les vitroses" and he writes it on the board. It is a man's name. Levy-Strauss.
This is two-fold embarrassing:
1. I cannot tell a name from a word
2. I listened to a lecture about Levy-Strauss on Tuesday
After he wrote it down, though, I made that really loud OHHHHHHHHH sound and I think that endeared me to the class.
After Epistemology I have Anthropology of Parenting which is with this really young professor who I suspect is maybe a grad student? But the room is really awful because it sits right off the street.
Everyone was being super loud for a while and it was hard to hear, but he was fun to listen to.
I think next week I might understand what's actually going on.
This guy sits behind us and wanted to know where we're from. So I told him the United States, and then I told him Iowa, and then he told me "Des Moines?" and I was like "nearby-ish" and he was like "no, is that the capital?" and I was like "oh, yeah it is." and he was so excited because he is a Geography major.
I didn't know you could major in Geography and/or what the purpose is, but Luisa told me that nowadays they also study immigration and population dynamics and stuff so that's interesting.
Because I had to sit through four hours of lecture, I voted that I deserved a chich taouk. hahaha no I just always deserve one. So I went to the Lebanese place and asked the man for one. I feel like he recognizes me and that makes me a little uncomfortable.
I came back then and drank the rest of the Schweppe's Agrum' that I bought the other day.
Agrum' is the flavor and it says at the bottom "with the flavor of four agrumes". I don't know what an agrume is, but it tastes kind of like grapefruit and it's my favorite.
I asked Ludovica about it, and she thinks it maybe just means citrus.
Then Thursday night, there was a big Erasmus party downtown, so I met up with Luisa and Olivia and Julien and all of them at this place called "Bollywood" in Victoire. This was around 20h30ish. We stayed there until probably 23h and then we headed off to where the Erasmus party was supposed to be.
There was this enormous line, like you know, 5-10 people wide and stretching out maybe 30 feet from the door. When we showed up, we were standing on the tram tracks because we wouldn't fit on the sidewalk. I have decided that this is why the tram doesn't run as much at night. Not because less people ride it, but because it's so hard to get people off the tram tracks every 8 minutes at midnight. There was a group of people near us that had no idea that tram was coming their way and the driver had to slow the tram down and wait for them to get off.
Anyways, this place also had a 6 euro cover, and so me and Alex and Julien and some of their different German friends were like "let's go somewhere else" so we were going to go to the Frog where everyone else would meet up with us later. But even though it was like maybe a block away, it took us forever to get there because people were always stopping to talk to someone else on the way. AND THEN when we got there, the Germans were like "we want to dance now" and so then we all just walked back to where the original party was. But my new friend Sophie and one other girl whose name starts with an "m" were like "we're going to go home" because now it was almost after midnight and I wouldn't have stayed very long so the cover wouldn't have been worth it.
On the way home, I saw a girl literally slip and slide through a big pile of dog poop. It was disgusting. But now I understand why it's always smeared all over the sidewalk. It's these night-people slipping in it. UGH so gross.
I did count three people peeing on the sidewalk, which also accounts for why it always smells like pee in the morning.
In Epistemology (which is the study of knowledge btw) there are only six of us, so it's my favorite class. People ask a lot of questions, and I get a chance to ask the professor vocab questions.
However, this is also embarrassing. Not just because I don't know simple words, but because sometimes I think things are vocab words when they are NOT.
The prof kept saying this thing that sounded like "les vitroses" and I was like what is that?? and so whenever he says something over and over again I like to ask about it. Maybe three times total in that lecture.
So I ask about "les vitroses" and he writes it on the board. It is a man's name. Levy-Strauss.
This is two-fold embarrassing:
1. I cannot tell a name from a word
2. I listened to a lecture about Levy-Strauss on Tuesday
After he wrote it down, though, I made that really loud OHHHHHHHHH sound and I think that endeared me to the class.
After Epistemology I have Anthropology of Parenting which is with this really young professor who I suspect is maybe a grad student? But the room is really awful because it sits right off the street.
Everyone was being super loud for a while and it was hard to hear, but he was fun to listen to.
I think next week I might understand what's actually going on.
This guy sits behind us and wanted to know where we're from. So I told him the United States, and then I told him Iowa, and then he told me "Des Moines?" and I was like "nearby-ish" and he was like "no, is that the capital?" and I was like "oh, yeah it is." and he was so excited because he is a Geography major.
I didn't know you could major in Geography and/or what the purpose is, but Luisa told me that nowadays they also study immigration and population dynamics and stuff so that's interesting.
Because I had to sit through four hours of lecture, I voted that I deserved a chich taouk. hahaha no I just always deserve one. So I went to the Lebanese place and asked the man for one. I feel like he recognizes me and that makes me a little uncomfortable.
I came back then and drank the rest of the Schweppe's Agrum' that I bought the other day.
Agrum' is the flavor and it says at the bottom "with the flavor of four agrumes". I don't know what an agrume is, but it tastes kind of like grapefruit and it's my favorite.
I asked Ludovica about it, and she thinks it maybe just means citrus.
Then Thursday night, there was a big Erasmus party downtown, so I met up with Luisa and Olivia and Julien and all of them at this place called "Bollywood" in Victoire. This was around 20h30ish. We stayed there until probably 23h and then we headed off to where the Erasmus party was supposed to be.
There was this enormous line, like you know, 5-10 people wide and stretching out maybe 30 feet from the door. When we showed up, we were standing on the tram tracks because we wouldn't fit on the sidewalk. I have decided that this is why the tram doesn't run as much at night. Not because less people ride it, but because it's so hard to get people off the tram tracks every 8 minutes at midnight. There was a group of people near us that had no idea that tram was coming their way and the driver had to slow the tram down and wait for them to get off.
Anyways, this place also had a 6 euro cover, and so me and Alex and Julien and some of their different German friends were like "let's go somewhere else" so we were going to go to the Frog where everyone else would meet up with us later. But even though it was like maybe a block away, it took us forever to get there because people were always stopping to talk to someone else on the way. AND THEN when we got there, the Germans were like "we want to dance now" and so then we all just walked back to where the original party was. But my new friend Sophie and one other girl whose name starts with an "m" were like "we're going to go home" because now it was almost after midnight and I wouldn't have stayed very long so the cover wouldn't have been worth it.
On the way home, I saw a girl literally slip and slide through a big pile of dog poop. It was disgusting. But now I understand why it's always smeared all over the sidewalk. It's these night-people slipping in it. UGH so gross.
I did count three people peeing on the sidewalk, which also accounts for why it always smells like pee in the morning.
Actually, I won't see you soon.
When Hugo the landlord had coffee with us on Tuesday, I told him about my phone problem. If you weren't aware, my phone just stopped working last week and told me that I was out of credit. I thought I bought a month's worth so this didn't make any sense, but I really really really hate the phone store so I didn't want to go back in there.
Hugo says he has the Free (it's a brand) plan for 2 euros a month. That's what most of the international students have and it sounds really reasonable.
So on Wednesday I set out to find out what happened to my phone and get a new plan.
I had the receipt, so I waited in line at Orange to figure out what had happened.
As it turns out, the woman was wrong when she told me I was buying a month. I only bought a week's worth for my 10 euros and you have to pay 40 euros for a month. The guy did say that he would give me the next month for 10 euros and I turned him down like a fool. In hindsight, I should have taken that so I wouldn't be the next week or so still without a phone.
I went then to the Free store and told them I wanted to buy this plan and that I wanted to use this phone. He was like "you need a new SIM card" and I was like "ok" and he was like "but you have to get your phone unlocked" and I was like "ughhhh" and so I went back to Orange.
Because I had told the guy at the Orange store that I "would no longer be giving any money to Orange" as my reason to not buy the month, I instead went to a different office.
This guy told me that it was fine for them to unlock my phone, but that they would have to send me an email with instructions and that the email could take 2 to 3 days.
Then he made me wait. I'm for serious. He took my name down, and made me wait for someone to SEND ME AN EMAIL. I think, maybe, you could've done that yourself, sir. I was the most irritated.
Eventually another man came to send me the email. He explained that it would have all the instructions.
I asked "do I need to come back to the store then?" and he said "no" and I said "So I never have to go to Orange again in my entire life" and he said "no, I guess not" and I said "good". And then when I was leaving he was like "see you soon" and I was like "no you won't".
Never again. I hate that store.
Hugo says he has the Free (it's a brand) plan for 2 euros a month. That's what most of the international students have and it sounds really reasonable.
So on Wednesday I set out to find out what happened to my phone and get a new plan.
I had the receipt, so I waited in line at Orange to figure out what had happened.
As it turns out, the woman was wrong when she told me I was buying a month. I only bought a week's worth for my 10 euros and you have to pay 40 euros for a month. The guy did say that he would give me the next month for 10 euros and I turned him down like a fool. In hindsight, I should have taken that so I wouldn't be the next week or so still without a phone.
I went then to the Free store and told them I wanted to buy this plan and that I wanted to use this phone. He was like "you need a new SIM card" and I was like "ok" and he was like "but you have to get your phone unlocked" and I was like "ughhhh" and so I went back to Orange.
Because I had told the guy at the Orange store that I "would no longer be giving any money to Orange" as my reason to not buy the month, I instead went to a different office.
This guy told me that it was fine for them to unlock my phone, but that they would have to send me an email with instructions and that the email could take 2 to 3 days.
Then he made me wait. I'm for serious. He took my name down, and made me wait for someone to SEND ME AN EMAIL. I think, maybe, you could've done that yourself, sir. I was the most irritated.
Eventually another man came to send me the email. He explained that it would have all the instructions.
I asked "do I need to come back to the store then?" and he said "no" and I said "So I never have to go to Orange again in my entire life" and he said "no, I guess not" and I said "good". And then when I was leaving he was like "see you soon" and I was like "no you won't".
Never again. I hate that store.
First day of classes
Tuesday was the first day of my classes, because I only have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays really--I don't know why everyone schedules their classes on the same day.
I began the day in Cognition (the master's course) at 8h30. I couldn't honestly tell you what really happened, because I don't understand most of what she's saying. In addition, these lectures aren't dynamic, they're super boring. The professor sits in the desk in the front with a big stack of papers and reads them off to you. Your job is to write down everything they say.
When you're still trying to puzzle out what they're saying and write it down, you miss big chunks here and there and it's really just an unfortunate time.
I had a really hard time finding this class because a whole bunch of the campus is hidden behind other buildings and it's hard to figure out where things actually are.
This professor let us out 7 minutes late, and so I was automatically 7 minutes late to my next class, because the classes don't have any time between them. The good news is, the same professor teaches my next class, so I still obviously got to the next class before she did.
It kind of sucks though because the lectures are two hours long, and they're right back-to-back with the same professor and so I don't really know how much I can take.
The second class is my least favorite of the four I've had thus far. It's "personne, rituel, et cosmogonie" but I don't think she talked about any of that at all.
After this class (which I have with the three other Anthropology Germans from my language class), we found another German whose name I think is Julien, but I'm not certain. We took him with us for lunch. On the way, we found Ludovica and Oskar and Julien's friend Alex from Romania. Ludovica and Alex joined us for lunch. We were supposed to meet Mitchell the other American at a specific place but everything was really confusing because only a few people were really hungry and he wanted to go to a coffeeshop and then some people got fish and chips and it's just like WUT.
We stayed at lunch for like forever, and I don't think I went back home even though I have three hours between my second and third class of the day.
We were all supposed to meet on the stairs at 15h20 to go to this third class, but then at 15h22 no one else was there because only the American is EVER on time for anything. So I left them all to find the room themselves.
You have to go awkwardly up some (very scary) outside stairs and then inside a building and then up more stairs and through another building and up some more stairs to find the room. Very tricky. In the end, only Lisa ended up showing up to class because everyone else decided just not to come. This really wasn't a bad decision because our professor didn't turn up. She's apparently also sick, and her classes won't start until next week. That's what the two other French girls said who where there. Then they asked us if we wanted to go out for coffee. We went with them and a girl from the California program came too. Her name is Brenna and I believe I've actually met her before. There are about 50 Californians here for the program. Then you add me and Mitchell and you've practically got America covered.
We went to the pub/cafe thing right next to the campus. I didn't look at the menu at the time the waiter guy came up to ask, so I blurted out that I wanted a tea. It was about 1200000 degrees outside and I didn't really want a tea, but I had it anyways.
It turns out these French girls are non-traditional students coming back for a second degree (which is why they look older than the other License students). One of them was a nurse and one was something that I think is like a paralegal? They were really nice.
Lisa's friend/landlord man came and sat with us too. He's pretty nice. She moved out of his apartment, but is going to stay again with him for a couple days because her place is being exterminated now.
That night, then, I went to French class. It's really irritating because as it turns out the French classes you can get credit for are held during the day, and they are all offered on Tuesday and Thursday so unless the final schedule changes, I won't be able to take these courses at this campus to fill up some of my ridiculously many credits.
I began the day in Cognition (the master's course) at 8h30. I couldn't honestly tell you what really happened, because I don't understand most of what she's saying. In addition, these lectures aren't dynamic, they're super boring. The professor sits in the desk in the front with a big stack of papers and reads them off to you. Your job is to write down everything they say.
When you're still trying to puzzle out what they're saying and write it down, you miss big chunks here and there and it's really just an unfortunate time.
I had a really hard time finding this class because a whole bunch of the campus is hidden behind other buildings and it's hard to figure out where things actually are.
This professor let us out 7 minutes late, and so I was automatically 7 minutes late to my next class, because the classes don't have any time between them. The good news is, the same professor teaches my next class, so I still obviously got to the next class before she did.
It kind of sucks though because the lectures are two hours long, and they're right back-to-back with the same professor and so I don't really know how much I can take.
The second class is my least favorite of the four I've had thus far. It's "personne, rituel, et cosmogonie" but I don't think she talked about any of that at all.
After this class (which I have with the three other Anthropology Germans from my language class), we found another German whose name I think is Julien, but I'm not certain. We took him with us for lunch. On the way, we found Ludovica and Oskar and Julien's friend Alex from Romania. Ludovica and Alex joined us for lunch. We were supposed to meet Mitchell the other American at a specific place but everything was really confusing because only a few people were really hungry and he wanted to go to a coffeeshop and then some people got fish and chips and it's just like WUT.
We stayed at lunch for like forever, and I don't think I went back home even though I have three hours between my second and third class of the day.
We were all supposed to meet on the stairs at 15h20 to go to this third class, but then at 15h22 no one else was there because only the American is EVER on time for anything. So I left them all to find the room themselves.
You have to go awkwardly up some (very scary) outside stairs and then inside a building and then up more stairs and through another building and up some more stairs to find the room. Very tricky. In the end, only Lisa ended up showing up to class because everyone else decided just not to come. This really wasn't a bad decision because our professor didn't turn up. She's apparently also sick, and her classes won't start until next week. That's what the two other French girls said who where there. Then they asked us if we wanted to go out for coffee. We went with them and a girl from the California program came too. Her name is Brenna and I believe I've actually met her before. There are about 50 Californians here for the program. Then you add me and Mitchell and you've practically got America covered.
We went to the pub/cafe thing right next to the campus. I didn't look at the menu at the time the waiter guy came up to ask, so I blurted out that I wanted a tea. It was about 1200000 degrees outside and I didn't really want a tea, but I had it anyways.
It turns out these French girls are non-traditional students coming back for a second degree (which is why they look older than the other License students). One of them was a nurse and one was something that I think is like a paralegal? They were really nice.
Lisa's friend/landlord man came and sat with us too. He's pretty nice. She moved out of his apartment, but is going to stay again with him for a couple days because her place is being exterminated now.
That night, then, I went to French class. It's really irritating because as it turns out the French classes you can get credit for are held during the day, and they are all offered on Tuesday and Thursday so unless the final schedule changes, I won't be able to take these courses at this campus to fill up some of my ridiculously many credits.
How about you check your email?
Monday was the day of real irritation.
Last week all of us were told that we would be able to register on Monday when the woman returned. So we met up and went to her office at 9h.
She was not there, because apparently she will not return until next Monday now. It's really frustrating. There was this other woman there who was supposed to be making appointments and fielding things for her, but she just got really mad at all of us. I mean, yeah, there were probably 20 of us, but I don't think you should be mad at us for showing up when/where everyone has told us to so we can register to the University.
I waited there for probably an hour or so before she let me in to make my appointment. Of course, she had no information on me, but told me to come back at 9h30 on Monday to register. She didn't tell me what documents I need or anything else but it was super irritating.
After this, I went to the secretary woman that was supposed to have registered me in the first place. She has to have the information first, and we have waited about a week now for the documents to transfer from the other campus. She's all like "nooooooo I don't have any information" so I gave her some of the documents I carry around on my flashdrive and was like "I will go to Talence and make sure Anna sends the information."
So then I take the 20ish minute tram ride down to Talence to physically tell a woman to check her email. That is not acceptable to me. If you don't respond to me after a week, I will come find you--because apparently this is a thing that you have to do in France.
My favorite grocery store is down by the other campus so I went there and bought some things.
Then I probably went home and had a lay down.
Last week all of us were told that we would be able to register on Monday when the woman returned. So we met up and went to her office at 9h.
She was not there, because apparently she will not return until next Monday now. It's really frustrating. There was this other woman there who was supposed to be making appointments and fielding things for her, but she just got really mad at all of us. I mean, yeah, there were probably 20 of us, but I don't think you should be mad at us for showing up when/where everyone has told us to so we can register to the University.
I waited there for probably an hour or so before she let me in to make my appointment. Of course, she had no information on me, but told me to come back at 9h30 on Monday to register. She didn't tell me what documents I need or anything else but it was super irritating.
After this, I went to the secretary woman that was supposed to have registered me in the first place. She has to have the information first, and we have waited about a week now for the documents to transfer from the other campus. She's all like "nooooooo I don't have any information" so I gave her some of the documents I carry around on my flashdrive and was like "I will go to Talence and make sure Anna sends the information."
So then I take the 20ish minute tram ride down to Talence to physically tell a woman to check her email. That is not acceptable to me. If you don't respond to me after a week, I will come find you--because apparently this is a thing that you have to do in France.
My favorite grocery store is down by the other campus so I went there and bought some things.
Then I probably went home and had a lay down.
Oysters
If you didn't already know this, I have a horrible horrible episodic and auditory memory. If I hear something, or if I am involved in whatever it is, I will not remember it.
If you want me to remember something, you have to write it down. [please take a moment to write your name down and mail it to France--just in case I forget your name while I'm gone]
With that disclaimer: I will now begin to attempt to recount my week beginning on Sunday.
Saturday night after the game and things, I was invited to go with some other people to taste oysters on Sunday at 11.
I met up with everybody, in total about 7 people, and we went to the Sunday market down the street (a ways) from me. A couple people had tried them before, along with the Spanish guy who would eat oysters for breakfast every day if it was possible I think. The two men bought the oysters, and then we had the woman open them for us and bought a lemon. In total, I paid 2 euros for my share of the 18 oysters, the lemon, and the baguette that we bought later on.
I had no idea that oysters are alive until you eat them, so I was kind of sketched out that we were buying them raw. I thought maybe you cooked them like mussels? But, no.
You use the top part to scrape the poor guy's muscles out of his shell, and then you drip lemon on him and eat him. It looks weird and tastes weird and I'm not a super big fan. I ate two of them. They really just taste like salt and one of them had sand inside and it felt weird and gritty.
We stood around eating these oysters for probably an hour or more, and then we walked a little ways to the flea market. We walked around that, and then went to get ice cream over near the Quai.
The ice cream was really super tasty, but I left with two other girls to go home instead of going to the park.
I don't know what I did for the rest of the day.
If you want me to remember something, you have to write it down. [please take a moment to write your name down and mail it to France--just in case I forget your name while I'm gone]
With that disclaimer: I will now begin to attempt to recount my week beginning on Sunday.
Saturday night after the game and things, I was invited to go with some other people to taste oysters on Sunday at 11.
I met up with everybody, in total about 7 people, and we went to the Sunday market down the street (a ways) from me. A couple people had tried them before, along with the Spanish guy who would eat oysters for breakfast every day if it was possible I think. The two men bought the oysters, and then we had the woman open them for us and bought a lemon. In total, I paid 2 euros for my share of the 18 oysters, the lemon, and the baguette that we bought later on.
I had no idea that oysters are alive until you eat them, so I was kind of sketched out that we were buying them raw. I thought maybe you cooked them like mussels? But, no.
You use the top part to scrape the poor guy's muscles out of his shell, and then you drip lemon on him and eat him. It looks weird and tastes weird and I'm not a super big fan. I ate two of them. They really just taste like salt and one of them had sand inside and it felt weird and gritty.
We stood around eating these oysters for probably an hour or more, and then we walked a little ways to the flea market. We walked around that, and then went to get ice cream over near the Quai.
The ice cream was really super tasty, but I left with two other girls to go home instead of going to the park.
I don't know what I did for the rest of the day.
Friday, September 11, 2015
A Caveat Before I Write About This Week
I wish I could say I haven't had time to write every day because I've been out with friends travelling and sightseeing and generally Sara-ing about.
While I have been talking to more people and for longer periods of time, I've mostly been just trying to get things done.
My phone stopped working, because it actually costs 4x what I paid for my phone plan a month.
I haven't been able to register with the university, though I have a meeting set to discuss it next Monday.
I cannot find any pants that will fit me, because their French style is very slim in the calves. I can no longer wear the pants I brought from America because they are falling off and generally look horrible and baggy in weird places.
Class schedules are either not yet finalized or not yet completed for the French language courses, so I will not be able to add them to my learning contract when I try to register. This will create another step later in the process for revision.
These things seem irritating on their own, but consider that I am taking on these tasks in a foreign language with no instructions or help from the university or the companies from whom I am trying to buy my products.
Anyways, when I come home at the end of the day after waiting in line to wait in another line to be told I need to go to a different store or that I don't have the right documents, I just don't want to think anymore. I just make myself some lame excuse for a dinner, cross off the one or two things on my list that I got done, copy the rest down onto the list for tomorrow, add whatever I found out I needed today, and go to sleep.
Rinse and Repeat.
While I have been talking to more people and for longer periods of time, I've mostly been just trying to get things done.
My phone stopped working, because it actually costs 4x what I paid for my phone plan a month.
I haven't been able to register with the university, though I have a meeting set to discuss it next Monday.
I cannot find any pants that will fit me, because their French style is very slim in the calves. I can no longer wear the pants I brought from America because they are falling off and generally look horrible and baggy in weird places.
Class schedules are either not yet finalized or not yet completed for the French language courses, so I will not be able to add them to my learning contract when I try to register. This will create another step later in the process for revision.
These things seem irritating on their own, but consider that I am taking on these tasks in a foreign language with no instructions or help from the university or the companies from whom I am trying to buy my products.
Anyways, when I come home at the end of the day after waiting in line to wait in another line to be told I need to go to a different store or that I don't have the right documents, I just don't want to think anymore. I just make myself some lame excuse for a dinner, cross off the one or two things on my list that I got done, copy the rest down onto the list for tomorrow, add whatever I found out I needed today, and go to sleep.
Rinse and Repeat.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Wrote this blog post Saturday night/ Sunday morning. Forgot to click "publish".
Right now, I'm tired and my legs really hurt. According to my vivofit, I went 25,293 steps today, or 9.56 miles. Which is a lot of miles. Too many really.
I do skew the graph a little, because any time I'm in my room I usually take it off. If I'm going to be typing or writing or laying down, it drives me crazy to have it pressing against my wrist. So if you look at the graph, at 18 and 19h, it looks like I didn't move at all. That's not true. I ate food and probably did some other stuff too.
I set out this "morning" around 12 to try to buy some pants. My bootcut ones obviously have the hole in them and were starting to wear out before I left America. I had to go in a hole on my belt so I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to have to find someone to punch another hole in it in October if I'm going to lose one every month. On that note, my jeggings are getting much too large in the waist--I bought them a size bigger than usual in the first place so my ridiculous gladiator calves would fit into the bottom, but it's just getting out of control. The top bit slides down all the time and they aren't really flattering because the material folds in on itself and bulges out in weird places. I don't think anyone actually walks around with three weirdly thin stomach flabs right in a row, but it certainly looks like I do.
I had asked Yanis where to buy pants, since obviously there is no American Eagle in France. He told me just to go down the big shopping street. So I did.
All the fashionable French ladies are wearing super skinny jeans with holes in them. I know, the holes again. Hang on America, we'll be getting there in a couple years. So naturally, the only pants I could find were super skinny with holes in them. After trying to figure out what size I might possibly be, I tried on a couple pairs that didn't have holes, but they obviously didn't fit over my calves.
A store a couple blocks later had "regular" jeans, which look skinny on my legs, and so I put them on. They were about five inches too long and did that weird gap thing at the waist. I didn't buy them.
In truth, I didn't buy any jeans. I'll try again next week.
I did, however, go to FNAC (I don't know what it stands for) and bought a journal, a coloring book, and colored pencils. I'm very excited to spend my Sunday coloring.
The FNAC has three levels, and the cash registers are only on the second. Oh wait, no, it actually has four because the rez-de-chaussee doesn't count as a floor, but it really only had a security guard as I remember. So I picked up my journal, and took the escalator up to the second and then third floor. For some reason, I don't remember why, I ended up going down to the second floor again. The down escalator from the second to third floor was broken, so you just had to pretend it was stairs.
This is very tricky on the mind, though, because you never think about the escalator as not moving, and so you (or at least I do) stand on the top step for longer than you should wondering what's happening. Then, as you're walking down them, you fear for your life that it's going to start moving and you'll be launched down to the floor.
I did this twice--pausing and being afraid--because I went down that escalator two times.
After this, I went to the grocery store a little ways back and bought noodles and apples and different trash bags. The ones I bought last week are too small. You say to me, you say "Why you not know the size of your trash can???" and I would inform you that it is because they use liters here.
Here's how it went down the first time:
1. walked into trash bag aisle
2. had no idea how many liters worth of trash bag to buy
3. walked to trash can aisle
4. estimated which trash can was the size of mine
5. looked at the number of liters of that trash can
6. saw that it did not actually say
7. walked back to trash bag aisle
8. randomly bought some bags
9. has foolish looking trash bag
This second time, I bought a set of trash bags that are 3 times the size of the ones I have now, so they will probably fit. It's all very exciting.
Then I went to the park. There's all kinds of exciting trees there. It's really a good time. Kammie would like it a lot which is why she should come to France *cough cough*
On a side note to that, I think I may be getting sick because my throat feels really dry. I've been drinking three bottles of water a day at least, which I keep track of by filling up three different water bottles and then making myself drink them all by the time I go to sleep. idk maybe I'll feel better tomorrow.
After I ate some chocolate lava cake and did some facetiming, I met up with the internationals @ the miroir d'eau to watch them play some ball game to which I was invited.
Apparently they didn't start until ~ the time I had left to go there, and only played like two rounds of it, so I didn't miss out on anything. It looks as stupid to watch as it seems in the video.
Then I left with the German girls plus an Irish, a Czech Republican, and a Brit. We went to a place where the city of Bordeaux plays music so you can dance in the street. We were later joined by the rest of the internationals and danced about for a while.
Then I went home and wrote these blog posts. Now I'm probably going to go to sleep because I have to wake up to go taste oysters with some people tomorrow.
I do skew the graph a little, because any time I'm in my room I usually take it off. If I'm going to be typing or writing or laying down, it drives me crazy to have it pressing against my wrist. So if you look at the graph, at 18 and 19h, it looks like I didn't move at all. That's not true. I ate food and probably did some other stuff too.
I set out this "morning" around 12 to try to buy some pants. My bootcut ones obviously have the hole in them and were starting to wear out before I left America. I had to go in a hole on my belt so I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to have to find someone to punch another hole in it in October if I'm going to lose one every month. On that note, my jeggings are getting much too large in the waist--I bought them a size bigger than usual in the first place so my ridiculous gladiator calves would fit into the bottom, but it's just getting out of control. The top bit slides down all the time and they aren't really flattering because the material folds in on itself and bulges out in weird places. I don't think anyone actually walks around with three weirdly thin stomach flabs right in a row, but it certainly looks like I do.
I had asked Yanis where to buy pants, since obviously there is no American Eagle in France. He told me just to go down the big shopping street. So I did.
All the fashionable French ladies are wearing super skinny jeans with holes in them. I know, the holes again. Hang on America, we'll be getting there in a couple years. So naturally, the only pants I could find were super skinny with holes in them. After trying to figure out what size I might possibly be, I tried on a couple pairs that didn't have holes, but they obviously didn't fit over my calves.
A store a couple blocks later had "regular" jeans, which look skinny on my legs, and so I put them on. They were about five inches too long and did that weird gap thing at the waist. I didn't buy them.
In truth, I didn't buy any jeans. I'll try again next week.
I did, however, go to FNAC (I don't know what it stands for) and bought a journal, a coloring book, and colored pencils. I'm very excited to spend my Sunday coloring.
The FNAC has three levels, and the cash registers are only on the second. Oh wait, no, it actually has four because the rez-de-chaussee doesn't count as a floor, but it really only had a security guard as I remember. So I picked up my journal, and took the escalator up to the second and then third floor. For some reason, I don't remember why, I ended up going down to the second floor again. The down escalator from the second to third floor was broken, so you just had to pretend it was stairs.
This is very tricky on the mind, though, because you never think about the escalator as not moving, and so you (or at least I do) stand on the top step for longer than you should wondering what's happening. Then, as you're walking down them, you fear for your life that it's going to start moving and you'll be launched down to the floor.
I did this twice--pausing and being afraid--because I went down that escalator two times.
After this, I went to the grocery store a little ways back and bought noodles and apples and different trash bags. The ones I bought last week are too small. You say to me, you say "Why you not know the size of your trash can???" and I would inform you that it is because they use liters here.
Here's how it went down the first time:
1. walked into trash bag aisle
2. had no idea how many liters worth of trash bag to buy
3. walked to trash can aisle
4. estimated which trash can was the size of mine
5. looked at the number of liters of that trash can
6. saw that it did not actually say
7. walked back to trash bag aisle
8. randomly bought some bags
9. has foolish looking trash bag
This second time, I bought a set of trash bags that are 3 times the size of the ones I have now, so they will probably fit. It's all very exciting.
Then I went to the park. There's all kinds of exciting trees there. It's really a good time. Kammie would like it a lot which is why she should come to France *cough cough*
On a side note to that, I think I may be getting sick because my throat feels really dry. I've been drinking three bottles of water a day at least, which I keep track of by filling up three different water bottles and then making myself drink them all by the time I go to sleep. idk maybe I'll feel better tomorrow.
After I ate some chocolate lava cake and did some facetiming, I met up with the internationals @ the miroir d'eau to watch them play some ball game to which I was invited.
Apparently they didn't start until ~ the time I had left to go there, and only played like two rounds of it, so I didn't miss out on anything. It looks as stupid to watch as it seems in the video.
Then I left with the German girls plus an Irish, a Czech Republican, and a Brit. We went to a place where the city of Bordeaux plays music so you can dance in the street. We were later joined by the rest of the internationals and danced about for a while.
Then I went home and wrote these blog posts. Now I'm probably going to go to sleep because I have to wake up to go taste oysters with some people tomorrow.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
A busy copyshop? Truly an alternate universe.
Friday morning bright and early we had an Anthropology meeting. The German girls didn't know about it because it was hidden deep in the website and I stumbled across it when I was looking for a schedule earlier this week. Oh foolish Sara. But I informed them on Wednesday I think, so they were all there with me.
The meeting was mostly about handing out the schedule. Which literally no one had but me. BWAHAHA. It also introduced all of the professors. The room was super had to find because on the sheet it is called an amphitheatre, but the rest of the campus thinks it's just a "room" and so it wasn't on the amphitheatre map and was confusing.
None of the other girls have registered yet, and so we went to the woman who had given me the schedule on Thursday and asked where we register. She informed us that it was the useless woman. At this point, I was like "hey maybe she's not useless, maybe she just doesn't do independent exchanges and only does Erasumus" (On a side note, did you know the Erasmus students not only pay no tuition except some fees back home, and get four installments of grant money to come here??)
So we went to the useless woman's office, and as it turns out, she can't register anyone!! Everyone thinks she can register us, but it is not to be had. None of that.
All the other girls have to wait until Monday to register as well. We are meeting in the square beforehand so we can have a mighty united front.
I decided that #friends was a good thing, and so I went with them to run some errands. We went to the copy shop, which was the busiest I've ever seen a copy shop in my entire life--usually there's what? two employees, an old man trying to fax something, and someone printing out flyers?
No, this copy shop had everyone in the world in it. There were probably ten computers hooked up to printers so you could get on the internet and retrieve something, or use your USB. Then there were at least five or six free standing copy machines. Everything was being used and there was a line maybe four people long. Crazy.
After the copy shop we went to the bank. That wasn't all that super fun obviously. All the Erasmus students have to go to the same bank, and so they are overrun with needs of SIM cards and bank accounts and it has been over two weeks and I imagine people want to use their phones and have money.
Luisa and I went then to the mall because I needed to buy notebooks and folders (you already know about the folder situation) and the best place to buy them according to Yanis was FNAC or Achan. So I went to Achan. They don't take my credit card there, and I didn't have a bunch of cash on me, or I would have bought a drying rack. That's the only place I've seen them so far, and I am going to have to do laundry probably this week. Ick.
The folders were irritating. I've seen some people who just carry around all their papers in a sheet protector. How weird is that? ANNNND their paper is a different size!! Did you know that? It's longer and thinner and makes anything I printed in America look derpy for being a different size. Apparently the paper in England is the same size and so it doesn't bother anyone but me.
Then Luisa sent me home because I was done and I should go eat some lunch.
I ate some lunch and then I watched Whose Line and then I read more than one romance novel. Then I ate some noodles and went to sleep. Super exciting.
The meeting was mostly about handing out the schedule. Which literally no one had but me. BWAHAHA. It also introduced all of the professors. The room was super had to find because on the sheet it is called an amphitheatre, but the rest of the campus thinks it's just a "room" and so it wasn't on the amphitheatre map and was confusing.
None of the other girls have registered yet, and so we went to the woman who had given me the schedule on Thursday and asked where we register. She informed us that it was the useless woman. At this point, I was like "hey maybe she's not useless, maybe she just doesn't do independent exchanges and only does Erasumus" (On a side note, did you know the Erasmus students not only pay no tuition except some fees back home, and get four installments of grant money to come here??)
So we went to the useless woman's office, and as it turns out, she can't register anyone!! Everyone thinks she can register us, but it is not to be had. None of that.
All the other girls have to wait until Monday to register as well. We are meeting in the square beforehand so we can have a mighty united front.
I decided that #friends was a good thing, and so I went with them to run some errands. We went to the copy shop, which was the busiest I've ever seen a copy shop in my entire life--usually there's what? two employees, an old man trying to fax something, and someone printing out flyers?
No, this copy shop had everyone in the world in it. There were probably ten computers hooked up to printers so you could get on the internet and retrieve something, or use your USB. Then there were at least five or six free standing copy machines. Everything was being used and there was a line maybe four people long. Crazy.
After the copy shop we went to the bank. That wasn't all that super fun obviously. All the Erasmus students have to go to the same bank, and so they are overrun with needs of SIM cards and bank accounts and it has been over two weeks and I imagine people want to use their phones and have money.
Luisa and I went then to the mall because I needed to buy notebooks and folders (you already know about the folder situation) and the best place to buy them according to Yanis was FNAC or Achan. So I went to Achan. They don't take my credit card there, and I didn't have a bunch of cash on me, or I would have bought a drying rack. That's the only place I've seen them so far, and I am going to have to do laundry probably this week. Ick.
The folders were irritating. I've seen some people who just carry around all their papers in a sheet protector. How weird is that? ANNNND their paper is a different size!! Did you know that? It's longer and thinner and makes anything I printed in America look derpy for being a different size. Apparently the paper in England is the same size and so it doesn't bother anyone but me.
Then Luisa sent me home because I was done and I should go eat some lunch.
I ate some lunch and then I watched Whose Line and then I read more than one romance novel. Then I ate some noodles and went to sleep. Super exciting.
Who actually registers me?
You might be thinking "What has happened to Sara? She hasn't written anything since Thursday and that was about Wednesday and Tuesday." Well, I'm pleased to inform you that I have not been stolen or anything, I have mostly been having a lay down for the past few days.
On Thursday, I went again to try to register for classes since the woman that I needed to meet with was gone on Wednesday, if you remember that (the eight flights of stairs to find her office and all). When I got to the woman's office, she was not there. She was on her two hour lunch break and wouldn't be back until 2 pm.
So I went off to find literally anyone who could give me a class schedule (or as the internationals would understand it, a "timetable" which I think should be reserved for trains). I went first to the original man who sent me to the Faculty of Anthropology the day before to ask him for a schedule. He told me to go to the department. Not to be swayed this time, I went immediately up the deceptive stairs past the library to the actual department. There was no one at the secretary's desk, but as I had almost two hours to kill, I figured I'd sit in the chairs there and wait.
As luck would have it, I was actually lucky. A woman came out of her office, and I asked her for the schedule. SHE IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS THE SCHEDULE. And she gave it to me!!!!
I went back to my room then, and found the times for all my classes but one (which is for some reason not on the schedule--but probably no one could tell me the answer to that). As it stands now, I have class only on Tuesday, Thursday, and one Friday a month. I suppose that will do for me.
OH also I had to go meet with the French professor to find out about the French class and I just assumed he wouldn't be in his office. He wasn't. Buuuuuuut on the way to find his office--which was marked as being in a hallway on which the door said "forbidden, access only registered persons" he came out of the door and I told him I was looking for his office and he was like "I'm right here" and I was like "AWESOME" and I was so excited. He told me I needed to take this test and that no, his email didn't work and he gave me the new one.
That's when I actually went back to my room. Sorry for any confusion. I figured out my class times and got an email from the professor with the link to the test.
After I ate something, I don't remember what, I went back to the university to talk to the woman who was supposed to be able to register me. She was in her office and I informed her I wanted to register. She asked my discipline and I told her "Anthropology" and then she said something that I took to mean she didn't know anything about Anthropology and asked if I was Erasmus. I am not. I told her my name and she informed me that she did not have a folder on me.
Apparently having a folder is the most important thing ever. She literally cannot do anything for me, unless she has a folder about it. I will let you know right now that the French do not use folders. They use big pieces of construction paper that they wrap around whatever they want to protect and then they complete the idiocy by putting a rubber band around it. All of this certifies that your papers will be wrinkled, lost, and generally look foolish.
Remember the registrar with important papers on her floor about people getting kicked out this semester that I could literally read? That is how the French seem to operate. Luisa informed me that the only time that Germans ever put papers on the floor, or stacked up in any form on a surface, is immediately after people hand in their dissertations.
Germans. Timetables and clear surfaces. You know what Aaron always says, "one more surface is just one more place to put things."
Anyways, that's not important. The biggest problem here is the lack of communication. When I went to see my original international coordinator two weeks ago, she told me I couldn't register there and that everything would be taken care of at the other campus. She did not tell me that I needed to inform the other campus and have her send over the documents. This means, that right now, two days before my classes start, I am waiting for this woman to give permission to the SAME UNIVERSITY for me to register for class so I can give them all the same documents and basically waste my time some more.
You think, well, Sara, just go register with this woman tomorrow. hahahahhaa you're soooo wrong. I can't register with this woman because she doesn't do anything. Literally no things can she do. I have to go to the administrative woman. She is gone until Monday. Registration started on Wednesday for everyone. Registration ends on Tuesday. Why did she take (at least) Thursday, Friday, and Monday off??
Then I went home I think. And probably watched "Whose line is it anyway" on youtube. You can only really take three days of bingeing that show. It's not really funny anymore.
On Thursday, I went again to try to register for classes since the woman that I needed to meet with was gone on Wednesday, if you remember that (the eight flights of stairs to find her office and all). When I got to the woman's office, she was not there. She was on her two hour lunch break and wouldn't be back until 2 pm.
So I went off to find literally anyone who could give me a class schedule (or as the internationals would understand it, a "timetable" which I think should be reserved for trains). I went first to the original man who sent me to the Faculty of Anthropology the day before to ask him for a schedule. He told me to go to the department. Not to be swayed this time, I went immediately up the deceptive stairs past the library to the actual department. There was no one at the secretary's desk, but as I had almost two hours to kill, I figured I'd sit in the chairs there and wait.
As luck would have it, I was actually lucky. A woman came out of her office, and I asked her for the schedule. SHE IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS THE SCHEDULE. And she gave it to me!!!!
I went back to my room then, and found the times for all my classes but one (which is for some reason not on the schedule--but probably no one could tell me the answer to that). As it stands now, I have class only on Tuesday, Thursday, and one Friday a month. I suppose that will do for me.
OH also I had to go meet with the French professor to find out about the French class and I just assumed he wouldn't be in his office. He wasn't. Buuuuuuut on the way to find his office--which was marked as being in a hallway on which the door said "forbidden, access only registered persons" he came out of the door and I told him I was looking for his office and he was like "I'm right here" and I was like "AWESOME" and I was so excited. He told me I needed to take this test and that no, his email didn't work and he gave me the new one.
That's when I actually went back to my room. Sorry for any confusion. I figured out my class times and got an email from the professor with the link to the test.
After I ate something, I don't remember what, I went back to the university to talk to the woman who was supposed to be able to register me. She was in her office and I informed her I wanted to register. She asked my discipline and I told her "Anthropology" and then she said something that I took to mean she didn't know anything about Anthropology and asked if I was Erasmus. I am not. I told her my name and she informed me that she did not have a folder on me.
Apparently having a folder is the most important thing ever. She literally cannot do anything for me, unless she has a folder about it. I will let you know right now that the French do not use folders. They use big pieces of construction paper that they wrap around whatever they want to protect and then they complete the idiocy by putting a rubber band around it. All of this certifies that your papers will be wrinkled, lost, and generally look foolish.
Remember the registrar with important papers on her floor about people getting kicked out this semester that I could literally read? That is how the French seem to operate. Luisa informed me that the only time that Germans ever put papers on the floor, or stacked up in any form on a surface, is immediately after people hand in their dissertations.
Germans. Timetables and clear surfaces. You know what Aaron always says, "one more surface is just one more place to put things."
Anyways, that's not important. The biggest problem here is the lack of communication. When I went to see my original international coordinator two weeks ago, she told me I couldn't register there and that everything would be taken care of at the other campus. She did not tell me that I needed to inform the other campus and have her send over the documents. This means, that right now, two days before my classes start, I am waiting for this woman to give permission to the SAME UNIVERSITY for me to register for class so I can give them all the same documents and basically waste my time some more.
You think, well, Sara, just go register with this woman tomorrow. hahahahhaa you're soooo wrong. I can't register with this woman because she doesn't do anything. Literally no things can she do. I have to go to the administrative woman. She is gone until Monday. Registration started on Wednesday for everyone. Registration ends on Tuesday. Why did she take (at least) Thursday, Friday, and Monday off??
Then I went home I think. And probably watched "Whose line is it anyway" on youtube. You can only really take three days of bingeing that show. It's not really funny anymore.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Eight flights of stairs and not a person has a schedule
So my intensive French course ended on Tuesday, and thus Wednesday was spent attempting to register to my campus--which was supposed to have opened on Tuesday morning for registration.
I first followed the registration signs which took me [up some stairs and] to a secretary man for the Department of Human Sciences. I asked him where the anthropology secretary was and he informed me that the Department of Anthropology was actually upstairs across from the library. I attempted to go up the first flight of stairs, but that was incorrect and took me absolutely nowhere, and I now had to go two flights back down.
I walked across the campus to the next building (they're probably about as far apart as Wartburg's) and went up those stairs to find the Anthropology's office, but haha that was the "Faculty of Anthropology" and duh the secretary isn't there. So that's up and down one more flight of stairs.
Then I asked a man where the library was. It was up a flight of stairs btw. ANNNND they're really weird stairs where the height of the stairwell changes as you're going up and it's really confusing for your legs because at the top of the stairs you're trying to take the same size of step and then you look like a fool for raising your leg so high up. I did find the Anthropology secretary up there (and this is where I had gone wrong all along) because she turned out to not be the woman I was looking for. I needed a specific secretary that is not even a secretary at all. Luckily, her office was in the same building and so I went immediately to it. She was gone that day. UGH.
At this point, I was like, "I'm just going to ask for what I need, which is a SCHEDULE OF CLASS TIMES SO I CAN PICK THEM OUT WHY DOESN'T THIS EXIST???"
I asked the secretary. She doesn't have a schedule. It makes no sense to me. Why wouldn't you have a schedule?
So then I walked back down the devious little stairs and went to the welcome desk thinking maybe they have schedules because I would certainly feel more welcomed in this university if I had a schedule.
I ask the welcome man "Do you have a schedule of all the classes for Anthropology?" and he was like "Are you German?" and I was like "No, from the United States." And then he sang me a song.
It went "AMERICAAAAA AMERICCCCAAAA, AAAAAAMMMMEEERRRRIIIICCCAAAAA" and I don't know why he did that because I just wanted an answer to my question and he is not American and so I'm offended by his patriotism.
He didn't have a schedule.
Defeated, I went home and pretended that I could actually do something with my registration.
Then Yanis wanted to go out for a drink so I agreed #friends. I don't know any drink names and you don't need to know anything else about that story because it's embarrassing. You can ask Madison. He smoked like three cigarettes while we were at the patio thingy for an hour and a half which makes me wonder how many cigarettes he smokes in a day?
Because we were over on the other side of the square, after he left I went and bought a chich taouk and I ate it. It was amazing. Best decision.
I first followed the registration signs which took me [up some stairs and] to a secretary man for the Department of Human Sciences. I asked him where the anthropology secretary was and he informed me that the Department of Anthropology was actually upstairs across from the library. I attempted to go up the first flight of stairs, but that was incorrect and took me absolutely nowhere, and I now had to go two flights back down.
I walked across the campus to the next building (they're probably about as far apart as Wartburg's) and went up those stairs to find the Anthropology's office, but haha that was the "Faculty of Anthropology" and duh the secretary isn't there. So that's up and down one more flight of stairs.
Then I asked a man where the library was. It was up a flight of stairs btw. ANNNND they're really weird stairs where the height of the stairwell changes as you're going up and it's really confusing for your legs because at the top of the stairs you're trying to take the same size of step and then you look like a fool for raising your leg so high up. I did find the Anthropology secretary up there (and this is where I had gone wrong all along) because she turned out to not be the woman I was looking for. I needed a specific secretary that is not even a secretary at all. Luckily, her office was in the same building and so I went immediately to it. She was gone that day. UGH.
At this point, I was like, "I'm just going to ask for what I need, which is a SCHEDULE OF CLASS TIMES SO I CAN PICK THEM OUT WHY DOESN'T THIS EXIST???"
I asked the secretary. She doesn't have a schedule. It makes no sense to me. Why wouldn't you have a schedule?
So then I walked back down the devious little stairs and went to the welcome desk thinking maybe they have schedules because I would certainly feel more welcomed in this university if I had a schedule.
I ask the welcome man "Do you have a schedule of all the classes for Anthropology?" and he was like "Are you German?" and I was like "No, from the United States." And then he sang me a song.
It went "AMERICAAAAA AMERICCCCAAAA, AAAAAAMMMMEEERRRRIIIICCCAAAAA" and I don't know why he did that because I just wanted an answer to my question and he is not American and so I'm offended by his patriotism.
He didn't have a schedule.
Defeated, I went home and pretended that I could actually do something with my registration.
Then Yanis wanted to go out for a drink so I agreed #friends. I don't know any drink names and you don't need to know anything else about that story because it's embarrassing. You can ask Madison. He smoked like three cigarettes while we were at the patio thingy for an hour and a half which makes me wonder how many cigarettes he smokes in a day?
Because we were over on the other side of the square, after he left I went and bought a chich taouk and I ate it. It was amazing. Best decision.
Let's build a wall completely encasing something because ynot?
Alright team, I know what you're thinking: "Sara's been awfully quiet so obviously she's out having such fun." This not 100% not true, but really that's not why I haven't been blogging.
On Tuesday our internet went out because the residence decided to test a new wifi system and did not inform us very well. (I found a pamphlet in my mailbox today, but I don't know when they originally gave it to us, since I checked my mail this weekend). I was incredibly irritated because I have to do all sorts of things, like emailing every French person at the university hoping that they will respond to me. And I can't do any of these exciting things without internet. I missed out on an invitation to hang out with Yanis because I couldn't get the fb message. Dumb.
But anyways, the internet worked for me on Wednesday morning, but apparently it's still not working for some people in the building. I'm lucky, since I can't get internet at the university until I have a student ID, and I'm still not registered!! hahahahahahaha
On Tuesday I went to class and then we had a visit to the Musee d'Aquitaine in the afternoon. Because we had like an hour and a half break and I had brought along a sandwich, I thought it would be a super fun time to go get my civil liability insurance from across town while I ate my lunch. It wasn't actually such a bad time because it's so nice out here the past couple days. But the LMDE place is exactly like the DMV and it was going to take longer than the time I had available--and I hadn't brought my passport so I might have been waiting and then been sent back anyways.
So I went to the museum with everybody else and that was okay. They are the only museum that has a rosette on display from a church. Why, you ask? Because the rest of the churches that have rosettes prefer to keep them on the wall. Here's how the museum achieved this (at least what I understood of what the woman said).
Some church had this huge rosette (I think it's like 9 feet across) up on a wall. Something happened that made the wall more fragile. So instead of fortifying the wall, they literally built a wall on both sides of the wall with the rosette. The purpose of this? No idea. You couldn't see the rosette--because there was a wall on each side. Later on, some people were all like "church? Nah. Apartment building!!" So these people destroyed the church, but left this awkwardly strong wall as one of the walls of their building. Did they question why it was so awkwardly strong? No. Later on, when people destroyed this apartment building, they discovered the rosette finally, but since obviously the church wasn't there to keep it on, they gave it to the museum. TADA!! The French, ladies and gentlemen. Questioning nothing.
After the museum, I ran home to grab every single document I could find so I knew that I had anything that the insurance woman could possibly want. This is my new strategy.
As it turns out, I did have everything she wanted, and it didn't take nearly as long as I thought. Super nice.
I probably ate noodles for dinner, but I honestly couldn't tell you. The rest of Tuesday is totally gone.
On Tuesday our internet went out because the residence decided to test a new wifi system and did not inform us very well. (I found a pamphlet in my mailbox today, but I don't know when they originally gave it to us, since I checked my mail this weekend). I was incredibly irritated because I have to do all sorts of things, like emailing every French person at the university hoping that they will respond to me. And I can't do any of these exciting things without internet. I missed out on an invitation to hang out with Yanis because I couldn't get the fb message. Dumb.
But anyways, the internet worked for me on Wednesday morning, but apparently it's still not working for some people in the building. I'm lucky, since I can't get internet at the university until I have a student ID, and I'm still not registered!! hahahahahahaha
On Tuesday I went to class and then we had a visit to the Musee d'Aquitaine in the afternoon. Because we had like an hour and a half break and I had brought along a sandwich, I thought it would be a super fun time to go get my civil liability insurance from across town while I ate my lunch. It wasn't actually such a bad time because it's so nice out here the past couple days. But the LMDE place is exactly like the DMV and it was going to take longer than the time I had available--and I hadn't brought my passport so I might have been waiting and then been sent back anyways.
So I went to the museum with everybody else and that was okay. They are the only museum that has a rosette on display from a church. Why, you ask? Because the rest of the churches that have rosettes prefer to keep them on the wall. Here's how the museum achieved this (at least what I understood of what the woman said).
Some church had this huge rosette (I think it's like 9 feet across) up on a wall. Something happened that made the wall more fragile. So instead of fortifying the wall, they literally built a wall on both sides of the wall with the rosette. The purpose of this? No idea. You couldn't see the rosette--because there was a wall on each side. Later on, some people were all like "church? Nah. Apartment building!!" So these people destroyed the church, but left this awkwardly strong wall as one of the walls of their building. Did they question why it was so awkwardly strong? No. Later on, when people destroyed this apartment building, they discovered the rosette finally, but since obviously the church wasn't there to keep it on, they gave it to the museum. TADA!! The French, ladies and gentlemen. Questioning nothing.
After the museum, I ran home to grab every single document I could find so I knew that I had anything that the insurance woman could possibly want. This is my new strategy.
As it turns out, I did have everything she wanted, and it didn't take nearly as long as I thought. Super nice.
I probably ate noodles for dinner, but I honestly couldn't tell you. The rest of Tuesday is totally gone.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)