The Time Has Come to Pau-rt

My french class!! 

So sorry for the long pause, things have just flown by, believe me it was not anticipated. I'm currently sitting here as all my USAC friends have already left for Paris, needless to say there isn't much to do around Pau. In the last weeks alot has happened, french classes ended, trips to Spain ensued, and friendships grew stronger. We've become a family here. I have made friends here that i know i'll keep in touch with forever. Sadly no one lives in the Chicagoland area, but I guess it means i'll have to start earning points on the airlines, and taking roadtrips. So where to begin...

Our last days of french classes ended with a huge lunch that everyone participated in. We were all told to bring food that represented our country. I made pigs in a blanket, it was either that or just bringing in a bucket of lard. It was a great time, we all became really close in our class and I even managed to get a good "worm" dance in.  It's not a party unless I have the opportunity to worm. So I had to bid adieu to my favorite teacher Madame Gely, and hopefully find her on facebook and poke her every once in awhile.  When one door closes another one ouverts...at 8:30am. Once my french classes ended my Themes of Francophone literature took off and changed to take place Monday thru Thursday at 8:30. Anyone who knows me knows that mornings are not my favorite thing. I managed to get my cul out of bed and get to class and successfully pass. Classes actually just ended for me on Tuesday the 19th, so I am officially on summer vacation. It definitely doesn't feel as good as it did when I had to study for finals until 5am for a week straight, but hey i'll take it. Plus i'm super hung up on the fact that i'm not going to see my friends. GAHHH!!! I'm the worlds worst person with change. Anyways, Wednesday we had our final lunch with are USAC group and our directors Ryan and Robina. It was beyond lovely. We had a wonderful meal, and it was beyond gorgeous outside. The weather has been great, i've been wearing capris, and shorts and even threw on a dress the other day.

My USAC family

Christine and Victor went to Paris this week so I was left alone for a couple days. I'm not a huge fan of being alone, some might say I like having people to talk to. Due to this fact I made Julie stay over one night and then Shay and Maddie another night. Basically my bodyguards incase any crazed blog reading fans decide to break into the apartment. What I can remember from Wednesday night is that I had an AMAZING last night with my USAC family, and i'm going to be the annoying one that coordinates a reunion in a couple years. Ok so on to my latest expeditions.



TOULOUSE & CARCASSONNE 

The weekend of April 4th our program went on a little trip. We started off in Toulouse on the warmest day of the year thusfar. We had an amazing lunch and then took a tour of the city. We visited Cathedrals, and monuments, and other structures of which the significance is not known by me because I tend to wander, and daze. All I know is that I love this city. It is populated with an insane amount of students, there are people our age walking around all the time. As much as I love seeing the adorable old couples in Pau, it's nice to see people my age. The city really is beautiful. After the tour me and my friends went to a park right on the canal and just sat, played frisbee, enjoyed legal alcohol and just took in the beautiful day. It was Dahna and Renee's 21st birthday so we swiftly returned to our hotel, yes a real hotel, not a hostel, and changed and got ready to explore the nightlife of Toulouse!

We went out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and toasted to my friends' 21 years. Chin, Chin. We then got coupons to go to a bar and get free sangria, which is never passed up, and we found the worlds coolest bar top ever. To all of you readers this may not seem very interesting, but to those who have experienced it, it's mind blowing. It changes colors when you touch it, there are bubbles that follow your hand movements... It is the perfect thing for an ADD kid. It will be missed. After that bar we wandered back to the canal and just talked with everyone for awhile. On the way back to the hotel the 12 or so of us came across a rotating wheel in the center of town. The only rational idea was to mount it and spin. So there it was, 8 American's spinning on a wheel while the rest of the group watched and laughed...in France. I mean, we had nothing Toulouse. This lasted for well over an hour, and really never got old.  Here are some pictures just to give you an idea.

Spectators!!

The next day we had lottts to talk about thats for sure. When we woke up we immediately hopped on the bus and went to Carcassonne. It's a beautiful town built in and around a castle. The weather changed and it was actually pretty cold and rainy. We got a long tour of the castle and grounds and had a delicious meal at one of the restaurants. We had some time to kill in Carcassonne so we went into the stores, I got in trouble for playing with wooden swords that I hadn't paid for, you know just the usual day in french magasins. We then got back on the bus after just 5 hours in Carcassonne and returned to Pau. We lost about 15 people on the way home because the lucky kids in the other  elective class had a whole week off and nearly all of them went on trips somewhere. Which brings me to my next essay

What do you do when nearly all your friends are off traveling but you still have class. 


Activities of course. Me, Julie and Fabrizio had a wonderful week of exploring Pau and the surrounding areas. It was well in the 70's and perfect for what we had planned. The first day we decided to go mini golfing. French minigolfing is a little different. The first thing is that an 80 year old mini golf pro man follows you around telling you how you are putting all wrong. And the second thing is that the course is made of cement. Thirdly, none of that mattered because I still won.
Then we went and got ice cream at the best glacier in Pau. The next day we went FISHING!! It was pretty difficult because we had to buy lots of things like hooks, worms, weights, string and other fishing things. I knew I shouldn't have left my tackle box back in Chicago. It was even hotter that day and we were out there waiting to feel a bite for over 3 hours. I caught nothing, Fabs caught nothing, but Julie caught something. It's ok we threw him back, he had the hook stuck in his mouth and we had to ribbit out of him. The day ended fish-less, and sunburned, so we decided to go back to Pau and eat hamburgers, because nothing cures the heartache of spending money and not catching anything like a good ole french hamburger with weird ketchup sauce.

I applied lots of aloe lotion and stayed indoors until the weekend, which once again brings me to my next dissertation paper.

Sangria, Surfing & San Sebastian, Espagne


Well that basically sums up my time in Spain. Myself, Andrea, and Molly met up with Maddie and Shay in San Sebastian for the weekend. Mad and Shay had been in Barcelona for the week due to their bodybuilding teacher who takes a week off of classes to cover himself in oil and fake tan and compete. We arrived in beautiful San Sebastian and found our adorable hostel located right in the heart of Old Town. We quickly put on our swim suits and hit the beach. We laid out for quite some time, chatted, quickly felt the water, and then returned to shower and get ready to explore. We went out and of course had tapas and sangria. The barcelona girls were a little burnt out from their "rough night" in the party capital of Spain, so we took it easy Friday night. I want to live in San Sebastian. It is beyond gorgeous, it may even beat Biarritz in my book. The next day we woke up, had to check to make sure a spring wasn't still stuck in my back seeing as the bed was so comfortable, and then headed back to the beach. I got surfing gear on the way there and suited up! So turns out surfing is not like riding a bike, and that waves are just as soft as my hostel bed. I had a bitttt of trouble getting up on the board between getting pummeled by HUGE waves, and managed to nail myself in the eye with my board and slice my hand open with the fins on the bottom of it. I kept on trucking for over 2 hours, but then I realized I was bleeding and didn't feel like becoming intimate with Jaws so I made my way back onto shore. Then I slept for the next few hours or so and got a nice tan. Andrea and Molly had to go back to Pau so the rest of the day and night was just me and my two besties. The wind on Saturday was worse than the city. At one point I thought we were all going to be blown all the way back to France. The three of us took a nice long walk around the city and enjoyed the scenery.

The girls in Spain!!

Maddie, Me, and Shay

Side note-- The ice cream in Spain was the most amazing thing i've ever had in my life. If you ever get a chance, make sure you hit up that venue. So after we walked around, we went out to this adorable restaurant right on the port and paid too much but had great Paella and great wine. Then we moved on to a bar recommended to us by our hostel girl and had great mojitos. The night life in SS is so much fun. The night continued on well into the morning, and we ended up sleeping pretty late Sunday and getting back to Pau in the late afternoon. This weekend was by far my favorite out of all my travels. I need to have a house here. Imperative.

Well that about covers everything up to now. I have lots of packing to do, possibly another suitcase to buy, and lots of tissues to hold on to. I get into Paris on Tuesday the 26th, so I have one more night with my friends which i'll make the best of. Hopefully I can store my luggage at CDG and the next day I can easily get my things and hop on the 8-9 hr flight back home. But lets be serious, nothing is ever cookie cutter when it comes to airports. I'll update on what happened once i'm back in the windy city. I'm excited to see my new puppy. The parents got a new little Golden Retreiver puppy named Trixie which is definitely going to make my transition back to real life a little easier. Thanks for following me these last 4 months. I hope i'll be able to keep up and remember my french! I've decided that once I graduate from Loyola i'm going to move back to France for at least a year and teach English like what my brother did. Having something to look forward to is making this a little less hard. but still #idontwanttosaygoodbye

Tout a l'heure

Mariel