Billy is awesome.

Billy created an awesome rendition of the Charlie Brown "Bon Voyage" movie poster...adapted to Wada girls.



Thank you Billy!

Dress codes and posture

Two posts within 20 minutes of each other seems like bad form, but right now I am too nervous/excited to give a fuck. 

Today I finally cracked open the handout given to us at our orientation - "France: A Cultural Primer." Yes, it's as frightening as it sounds. Here are some of my favorite excerpts - 

"Nothing amuses (or horrifies) [the French] more than the American habit of stepping out of one's home in shorts, sneakers or sandals, and a wrinkled T-shirt."

Uh...there goes my Berkeley uniform.

"The French body tends to be kept muscularly tense while walking, standing or even sitting, which induces a sort of stiffness further reinforced by wearing more formal attire."

I'm really hoping this handout is comprised of outdated non-demographically-correct French customs. Of course, if facebook pictures don't lie, my host sister's posture is positively lax, especially when she's passed out on couches with penises drawn on her face.

Then again, I have yet to see a photo of her in a t-shirt.

Au Revoir!

So the Frenchies are leaving tomorrow already...



Let the adventures begin!

Francophonic nightmares

Last night I dreamt that I missed my flight to France.

Actually, it was much more elaborate than that, as my dreams usually are (Cara can testify - I've regaled her with dreamscape stories about whales in Paris and a quest to destroy Salazaar Slytherin (I'm still cool I promise)). The dream went something like this - 

I woke up, realizing that it was 9:00 and my flight was at 10:00. I must have been in Berkeley, even though my surroundings were decidedly Texan, because I remember thinking to myself, "I can't take the BART to SFO, it'll take an hour. Someone has to drive me." Some guy offered to give me a ride (I don't remember who, so we'll skip the Freudian analysis), and I left without packing - just zipped up my suitcase and shot out the door. In a later part of my dream I remember remembering, "Fuck, I left all my toiletries." We took this weird convoluted route through dirt roads and up mountains (yes, this is still San Francisco), finally arriving at the airport minutes late. They don't let me on the flight. The airline is Southwest, which is appropriate because they fucked up my last flight in all sorts of ways. Anyway, I look over and who do I see but Sophie! Apparently, she missed her flight to Madrid too. The next few minutes of the dream are taken up with me trying to decipher this convoluted chart that the airline rep hands me, which is supposed to be a flight schedule but looks like gibberish. There are no other flights to Paris. Ever. For the rest of time. With the same chart, Sophie finds another flight to Madrid and walks away happily, and I'm left stranded and alone, pulling my suitcase towards the automatic doors.

The upside is that now I'm going to set 3 alarms 5 hours ahead on the day I actually leave.

--

I'm running a bunch of errands with my dad today for Bordeaux. We're getting euros from the bank, picking up adapters and converters from Radio Shack, and getting a new suitcase from Southwest because they fucking destroyed the one I had. I'm not bitter, by the way. I want to pick up travel guide books and a book of French slang. There are so many things to take care of that keep popping in my head, it's impossible to keep track. My suitcase is already overflowing - I'll definitely be leaving a few things I originally packed at my family friend's place in Texas. Better to be overprepared than not at all, right?

The eternal question

Is packing six pairs of shoes for next semester excessive?

...nah.

Ma famille francaise

It's finals week. All four of my roommates have disappeared to the depths of the library, and here I am - clad in sweatpants, notes in a haphazard stack on my desk, books yet to be cracked open - blogging.

Every day, it starts to feel more and more real. Last Friday we had our pre-departure orientation with EAP (Education Abroad Program) Alums, and this week we finally got our housing assignments. At first I was really disappointed, because instead of living in the centre-ville (downtown Bordeaux), I'm living in the suburb Talence, half an hour from most of my friends. Bordeaux is a commuter school, so the actual university is about a 30 minute tram ride away from the city. I'm somewhere between the two.

A Google Maps stalker search showed this to me –

View Larger Map

That's where I'll be living for the next 6 months. Je peux pas le croire. Anyway, I was none too thrilled about being so far from everyone else. On top of that, there was only one name listed - Mme Barry, whereas others' host families were listed as "La famille xxx," or "M et Mme xxx." Thinking I was going to be stuck with a lonely old French spinster, undoubtedly more bitter than the American variety, I begrudgingly emailed my host mom to introduce myself. Mostly though, I just wanted to find out if I had to bring my own sheets.

It turns out the email address they gave me actually belongs to Mme Barry's daughter, and her reply yesterday made my attitude do a 180. Turns out Mme Barry has three daughters - Lisa (the one I emailed), 21, Anna, 20, and Sarah, 22. Lisa and Anna are living at home next semester. On top of that, they have a dog (Bill), two cats, and THREE CHICKENS. I'm sure you've seen my outburst on that topic on facebook, but seriously, THREE CHICKENS?! How fucking awesome is that? They live in a big house with a spacious backyard. Mme Barry is German and speaks English fluently, and Anna is studying English at the University of Bordeaux, where I'll be going. It's going to be so tempting to speak English to them, but I'm going to do my best to resist temptation. Also, I had heard that it was really difficult to make French friends, but they'll have to be friends with me. MUAHAHA. In all seriousness though, Lisa has been so friendly - she added me on facebook and her emails were so nice. I'm really looking forward to meeting them.

Now I just have to calm down and study.