Moving on to France.

Okay, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated. A lot has happened. I have now changed locations from Spain to France. Let’s see… I think the last thing I wrote about was the Valley of the Fallen. Well, since then I have also been to Barcelona, Toledo (again) along with a few more museums. Here are the highlights:

Barcelona: It was good. I would like to go back, but not in the “I’m with a group” sense. And Barcelona was the only time so far that people have looked at me like they are thinking about pick-pocketing me. But those times were when I was with the group, it was obvious we were American, and I was one of the ones that stood outside the store while the others went in to look at clothes. I have enough clothes, I don’t need any more to haul around :-)… In Barcelona we went around the gothic quarter (really pretty, but all the cathedrals looked the same to me), saw the open air market "Las Ramblas", saw Gaudí stuff, and went to the beach. I think I like Gaudí’s natural form of architecture. Everything is inspired by nature, and it just looks different. I think I might write my paper over modern monuments, such as La Sagrada Familia and El Valle de los Caidos. But I know nothing about architecture, I’d probably just write about how these places are already huge tourist attractions.

Toledo: I was able to go into the Cathedral this time. It’s so beautiful. And I bought jewelry :-). I don’t think the other students liked the city as much as I do. Their loss… They left really early, and probably didn’t even see the roman bridge, nor the fantastic view that the city has.

Other things I did in Madrid before I left were: take a ride on the teleferico, visit the Egyptian temple, and hop on the Madrid Vision busses. The teleferico was interesting. Take a cable car over a small part of the city and into a park. I saw a prostitute as I was going over one of the roads. Muy interesante. I thought she was just trying to hitch a ride by going topless, not that she was working. Silly me, I didn’t realize that until later. The same day as that I walked over to the Egyptian temple. It’s pretty fascinating. It sounds like there was this temple in Egypt, and it was going to be demolished to make a market or something. Instead, it was taken apart in pieces and sent to Spain, and has been there since the 60s, I believe. It was pretty cool. Literally, it had air conditioning :-). And when they reassembled it that put in lighting, and projectors, so there were projections against some walls. It was small, but very cool. Then, my second to last day there I went on the Madrid Vision bus. I just rode around and saw a little more of the city. The first bus I was on ran into a fence lining the road. The second bus stopped working altogether. The third bus functioned just fine. So, that’s that story.

My classes in Madrid were just too easy, I have to say. I think I did more today in my first French class than I did in four weeks in Madrid. Hmm. But I hope that the pace here will be slower as well. More time to get to know the area I am in. I have signed up to do a lot of excursions, so maybe they will be good, and then I can take a couple of weekends and go to Italy or Monaco, and then have a few weekends here.

I flew to Paris from Madrid on Saturday. I thought mi madre de casa said she was going to accompany me to the airport, but she only meant she would help me carry my bags down to the street. That works. The flight was uneventful. When I checked in the lady seemed mad at me for having an overweight bag… I said I could pay, but then she didn’t make me. It was interesting.

When I got to Paris, I got a taxi. The driver was fluent in Spanish, so we ended up speaking some sort of Fragnol (Francais, espanol). I got to my hotel, which seemed to be in a ghetto-ish area, but the room was really nice. I decided to leave to go to the Eiffel tower, at about 7 o’clock, and started walking. I kept my eyes open for a taxi, but never saw one. Found a payphone in a nicer area, called the mother, then kept walking. I saw a taxi at about 8, but he wouldn’t take me. I think he was headed home and would just take me where I was going if it was on his way. So I kept walking until I came to the next bus stop. I got on the bus, and rode for a while until a stop when everyone else got off. I figured if there were a lot of people there, there would also be taxis. Nope. I continued walking for until a little before nine when I encountered a taxi that would take me. When I got to the Eiffel tower, I took the boat tour. It was cool. I sat by a group from Spain, and I was able to talk with them a bit. About five minutes before the tour was over, all hell broke loose in the city. France had beaten Brasil in the World Cup games. It was madness. When I got back, I tried to get a taxi, but it was madness as well. There is supposed to be a line of people, but that line demolished pretty quickly. It was a free for all. It wasn’t chaos, but it wasn’t organized either. I think taxis turned me down because my hotel was so far away, or they didn’t know where it was. Finally a taxi came, and the guy insisted on knowing if I was first in line. There was no line. So I said yes. He kept saying “are you sure?” And I kept saying yes, that everyone I had seen there before me was already gone, which was true, I think. This driver was very interesting. He had a very negative view of his fellow people, especially the ones out celebrating the victory of France. And he cussed a lot (of course in French). I got back to the hotel, showered, went to bed.

Next morning, train to Cannes. Why do I have so much luggage? Unpacking it I see that I need it all, but it is so much. A nice lady in the Cannes train station helped me by carrying one of my bags up the stairs. It is better than having to leave one at the bottom of the stairs, I think. The taxi line at the train station was long, too, but it wasn’t as disorganized. I got to the school, went through a mini-orientation (which I found out I didn’t need since I’m through a separate program). In the brochure the school made a big deal about not bringing more than you can carry, because you have to go up so many stairs. Well, they have brute guys that carry your bags up the stairs for you. The liars! :-). I was actually very relieved. My big bag would have been quite a burden. I carried my smaller one up though, and it still weighed a lot.

I got unpacked. I think everything is still with me. I liked not having the jet lag that everyone else had. My roommate didn’t arrive until about 9 pm. I don’t think there will be any problems, but I’ve felt terrible because I am a little sick with a cough, and it feels like I’m coughing up my lungs every night. I’ve apologized, but I still feel bad about it.

Yesterday was my placement exam. I think it must have gone well. I’m in an upper intermediate class. And I get credit for the level I’m at by the time I leave here. I guess we get advanced. There are a lot of people here that it sounds like they come to the college here every year. One older lady, from Florida, comes here to learn French, and to avoid the hurricane season. Her son is apparently here, too, and he’s staying for a year. And just talking to other people, it sounds like if I would have come here independently I could have paid a lot less than I did. But since I came through an American organization, it is more expensive. Oh well, such is life.

I know this has been a long post, but I haven’t written anything in a while. So if you have any questions, let me know, hehe. Happy 4th!