Aujourd'hui.

  La Rochelle, France
Sunday, October 12, 2008

Hi everyone.

Not much happened today at all, but I just felt like saying hi. =)

Hi!

I went to church this morning with Josée. There was a chance of Bek, Doug and Bonnie coming as well, but for various reasons they all couldn't make it today.  And Meredith is in Geneva for the week end (why not?), so instead of the potential 6, it was just us two.

Came home, lunched in my room, read some Armance (a french book for uni that I am really enjoying), played some solitaire, had some tea and biscuits. Very chilled out kind of Sunday.  Lovely. 

Bek came back up and we both read for a while.  That was really nice too - the whole atmosphere of the room was just great - like a little retreat, a haven. 

Josée came a-knocking on our door and invited us to go for a walk with her, and commented on the fact that our room was very "zen".  So, Josée, Bek, Amy and I went for a walk down by the beach and along the coast.  We each had our music players, so listened to our own music and walked a few paces apart from each other, so we each had our our head-space, but had company at the same time.  We walked quite far - further than I had been before, and then Bek and I stopped and sat (separately) on the shore while Josée and Amy kept walking.  I had a little meditation and reflected on a few things.  I believe that Bek did the same.  When Josée and Amy came back, we all walked home together.

Cooked dinner: omelette.  Watched an episode of The Vicar of Dibley with Bek, over a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate, and now, am typing this. 

Not a very exciting day, but a nice one.  Very relaxed. 

Yesterday was a little more eventful. 

Market Croissants

Bek has been feeling that we're not making the most of being in France.  We're just being students, like we would be at home.  So, some decisions have been made - nous avons prend des décisions.  Firstly, we are going to go to the fruit and veggie market in town every week.  We are going to eat something delicious one a week, and we are going to have coffee in a café once a week, and we have been arranging a few week end trips.  We were thinking about going to Nantes net week end, but there is a possibility of that moving to after the holidays (I hope it does).  I  would like to guard my dollars for a while as my trip to Taisé is costing me a little more than I had expected: Taizé itself is only as expensive as your voluntary contribution, and that includes food and a bed for the week (it costs THEM 7€50 a day to have you, but you don't have to pay if you don't want to, although I do intend to), but the transport there, my goodness!  Taizé is only 2h15mins from La Rochelle, and yet I have to cantch a train to Paris, change trains and catch a train back down, totalling between 6 - 7 hours depending on the wait between connections and the number of stations it stops at, and then I have to catch a bus of an hour.  All up, the return journey has cost me 200€.  That's almost $450, just to get to somewhere 2 hours from here.  It's cheaper to go to another country!  Slightly unhappy about that, but...then again, the travel will be quite an adventure, and I am sure it will be absolutely worth it.

Douglas, Amy and Gem at the markets

Anyway, where was I?  Oh yes, yesterday.  Amy, Bek, Doug and I went into the markets.  I still have plenty of veggies (I was just there for the french atmosphere), but I did buy some delicious apriocts. Mmmmm-mmm.  Bek went crazy with my camera.  And Doug bought each of us flowers - bright pink for me, pale pink for Amy, & orange for Bek.  Aww, what a sweetie.  The four of us then went to a little café and got coffees - so good.  ^_^

Amy, Gem & Bek with our flowers

Walking home, Bek's new shoes were hurting her feet so she took them off and carried them. The got quite a few odd looks, and one woman who frequently is in the street trying to hand out some leaflets even pointed at Bek and called out to the guy leaning on a wall near by "REGARDE! REGARDE!" 

Barefoot Bek

Back at home, we all went about making our own lunches, and then it was down to the beach for a pique-nique. It was Bek, Amy, Bonnie, Douglas, Josée, Staña (pronounced Stahn-yah) and me, all sitting on the beach, eating and chatting and enjoing a bit of sun. 

Stana, Douglas & Josee pique-nique sur la plage

I did get to chat to David after, which was lovely, as he has been away on Camp fo over a week.  It was wonderful to talk to him again.

Sailing boats a plenty.

The day before, which was Friday, was also lovely:

We had our first French Literature Tutorial of the semester (5 weeks in, with only 2 weeks until holidays - ahhh, French organisation).  The teacher started by telling us about how is we had more then 3 absences we would fail the class.  I take it that doesn't go for her too then.  But she was talking about all the assessments for the course, and it all sounded pretty scary, but after making me shake with fear, she adds "oh, but the exchange students don't have to do that - you get the exam essay question a month in advance and can do it at home, and you will have, instead of the final exam, you just have to talk about one paragraph of the book (yes, talk.  But hopefully by then the prospect of talking for an exam won't be so intimidating). So, yay!

Friday Sunset

I had the rest of the day off, as I don't have a Friday afternoon class anymore.  Yay again!

That evening, Bek and I were getting ready for a movie night - she has bought the film "French Kiss" off the internet, and it has an option to listen to it dubbed in French.  After inviting everyone in to watch it with us, I discovered it was Region 1, NTSC - o-oh.... I know my computer can play any region (although you can only change the region 5 times before it locks onto whatever you last changed it to), but NTSC... That's American format.  In Australia, we use PAL.  So, I was somewhat nervous that we would be sending everyone back to their rooms, but my computer magically came through for us!  So there we were, Bek (Australian), Bonnie (Welsh), Amy (Australian), Josée (French-Canadian), Doug (Brazilian) and myself (of course, Australian), all squashed onto our 2 beds, watching my little laptop.  Unfortunately, the sound was really quiet, even when I turned the volume of my computer right up - I checked all the settings - it was just a quiet DVD.  we were all straining to hear, and I was dreading sitting through 2 hours of that, when there is a knock at the door.  It is Staña (Czech).  Turns out, he has a set of speakers.  She goes and gets them from her room, we plug them in (nice proper speakers, they are) and....wow.  We can hear.  So, Staña joined us too, and we had a great big movie night, eating bits of baguettes dipped in jam. 

What a great evening.

Oh, that was another thing we have decided to do more often. 

Oh, but I didn't tell you about Thursday! Good day, Thursday.  We (Amy, Bek, Josée and I) went back into Centre Ville so Amy could buy a few things, and we went back to Etam, where I bought my rain coat from, and... well...with the sales and everything.... and my favourite brown pants starting to get a bit thin in certain places.... I bought a few things....

New Clothes!

New brown slacks that and my new favourites, and 2 singlet tops, one bright pink, the other sort of burgany.
Money spent, it's true, but well spent.

That's me really. 

I am rugging up, taking vitamins and eating lots of vegetables, and keeping in perfect health, despite Amy, Meredith, Bek, Doug & Josée all having had (or still currently having) colds/flus.  Gold medal for my immune system.

Okies, all.  This was probably a bit of a mundane entry, but I just felt like posting, and while the internet is working I though I would make the most of it: "en profite" as they say here.

Love to you all,

Gem