La Fac

Here are some pictures of the Université de Bordeaux campuses. Honestly, the infrastructure is not very nice. The buildings are mostly really old, the desks and chairs are really beat up, and there's a ton of graffiti. I guess that's the trade-off when you don't pay tuition. Anyways, it made me appreciate all the new buildings and equipment at UCSD.

Université de Bordeaux 1 (sciences and engineering): 

Lecture halls and offices

The library (actually pretty nice)

Université de Bordeaux 3 (humanities): 

Vélo³ bicycle program

Best thing at the dining hall - double espresso with chantilly!!

DEFLE (the foreign student department, part of Bordeaux 3): 

Université de Bordeaux 4 (law and political science) (I didn't actually take any classes here, but it's right across from Bordeaux 3):

Cool graffiti!!

 À bientôt!

Sarlat!

I went to Sarlat just three days before my flight back to the US. I didn't decide to go until the night before. I had a million things to do and pack, but my French teacher from high school had told me I should visit Sarlat, so I decided to go ahead and spend the day there. Anyways, I didn't realize that the train ticket website doesn't let you purchase tickets the day of your trip, and I didn't work up the energy to go get my credit card until after midnight. Sooo, I ended speed-walking to the tram stop the next morning, finding out the tram wasn't coming for 45 minutes (wtf), speed walking/jogging to the train station, and finally buying my tickets like 20 minutes before the train left (when you're kind of supposed to be on the platform already). I guess it was all very spontaneous.

Sarlat was a really pretty town! It's like a two-and-a-half hour ride on the slow commuter train from Bordeaux. The Sarlat train station is about a 25 minute walk from downtown. The walk is really pretty because it's sort of along a ridge and then downhill, so there is a really nice view of the valley and a cool old bridge. There's not really a ton to do in Sarlat, but it's a really pretty French town to just spend an afternoon walking around in. It's a big tourist destination for people visiting southwest France.

I visited the Cathédrale Saint-Sacerdos de Sarlat, which was pretty and had some cool stained glass. 

The town square is really pretty and features many over-priced restaurants. There is also this famous statue of a guy sitting and watching the square (don't really remember anything else about it...).

There was a fair going on, with food and souvenir vendors and old French fair games. I finally found a beret here!! (For being iconic of France, they are surprisingly had to find there...)

I ate lunch in a park that was next to downtown, with lots of pretty gardens. There was a hill you could walk up, with a nice view of downtown Sarlat from the top.

The cutest part was this statue of ducks!! Everyone was taking pictures of it and with it. However, it's actually a little morbid because it's there to commemorate the foie gras that Sarlat is famous for. :/

On the train back from Sarlat, I wrote postcards and watched the countryside go by. I was kind of sad because it was the last time I would be watching the vineyards and little towns fly by my window. I was really glad I decided to go to Sarlat after all (even after almost not getting tickets!) because it was such a pretty small town, and even though it was pretty tourist-y, it had a certain French feel to it. And it was nice to take one last day trip before leaving.

À bientôt!

Une Demi-Journée à Paris!

Between my very early flight from Berlin to Paris and my train back to Bordeaux, I had a few hours to walk around Paris one last time. I was glad I got to spend some time in Paris since it's like the quintessential French-y thing to do, and I was leaving in just a week. 

I got off the bus from the airport near the Eiffel Tower and found a boulangerie, where I got a jambon et fromage sandwich (so French). And then I ate on the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower!! It was like the French-est thing ever. And it was a beautiful day out. :)

They were doing some kind of work on the Eiffel Tower.

Cool elevator things.

After leisurely eating my sandwich, I took a roundabout walk through Paris to the train station and picked up a couple of souvenirs along the way. By the time I got on the train, I was ready to pass out!! 

À bientôt!

 

Les Saucisses Allemandes!

Voilà les saucisses que j'ai achetées pour mon père d'acceuil! FIVE POUNDS. This may not seem like that much, but remember I had to fit everything in my backpack with all my clothes and my camera and everything, since you get one bag and one bag only on EasyJet. I got salamis, apple sausages, classic (I'm assuming that's what "klassik" translates to), and some other thing that was not a sausage but was a gross-looking preserved block of a meat product, so I assumed it would be a hit. And it was! I think my host-father was actually most excited about that one haha.

Berlin Journée 5!

If you forget what boba is.

When I first arrived at my hostel, the receptionist gave me a map and highlighted a big shopping street on it, which was right next to the hostel. I normally wouldn't have gone out of my way to see it, but since it was only a few blocks away, I figured I would walk down it to the next train stop. The shopping street turned out to be puh-retty underwhelming. It was like walking down your average American strip mall, but more German (obviously). I did stop and get boba though! I'm not like a boba fanatic, but after hearing my friends complain about how they missed it so much in Bordeaux, I figured I should get some in their honor. Or maybe all the talk just made me crave some myself...

Anyways, then I made my way over to St. Nicholas's Church, which is a really cool-looking brick building with its trademark double spires. Anyways, I was not so impressed inside because not only did you have to pay to go in, you had to pay extra to take photos past a certain line. Pfffft. Please. I've got plenty of photos of awesome European churches, I'm certainly not paying to get some special press pass for this one.

My allowed photo. *eye roll*

I ended up hustling out of there anyways because I realized I was going to be late to my reservation for the English tour at the Reichstag building (where the German Parliament is). Which would be bad, since security is super tight. You have to sign up in advance and bring your passport and go through a metal detector and everything. Anyyyways, I ended up speedwalking and getting all sweaty and still being late. Woops. Then I went through security and a bunch of officials spoke German into walkie talkies while glancing at me and then funneled me into a  huge group of German schoolchildren. HOWEVER, I was eventually able to oh-so-nonchalantly slip into the English tour group.

The Reichstag tour was so cool! The building is really modern and has a lot of art installations. We got to see the room where the German Parliament and Angela Merkel meet. And then the grand finale! The DOME! There is this super awesome glass dome on the top of the Reichtsag building, so at the end of the tour, you get to go up to the roof and look around, and then go up the glass dome.¹ They give you audio guides that are some how activated when you walk by certain spots, so they point out monuments you can see as you pass them, which is pretty cool.

Art installation - the yellow, black, and red canoes represent Germany,
and the blue one represents the European Union.

Whoaaa, on the roof now!

The dome!!!

Viewing platform at the top inside the dome.

Afterwards, I went to the DDR Museum, about life in East Berlin while the Wall was up. A Finnish girl in my hostel room had recommended it to me. This museum is unique because it's interactive; there are lots of drawers and cabinets to pull out as part of the exhibit. And basically you can touch a lot of old stuff. Like this car!

Crappy commie car

I left the museum when it closed at 8:00, and got some well-deserved ice cream at a place right outside. It was right by the river and Berliner Dom, and I literally cannot express in words how good it felt to put my feet up. I kid you not, I took my shoes off in the DDR Museum and pushed them around hoping no one would notice because My. Feet. Hurt. So. Bad. So many days of constant walking and standing in a row really takes a toll on my delicate soles.

Best ice cream-eating view ever.

However my rest was short-lived because I soon realized that souvenir shops would be closing soon and I needed some gifts for friends and family back at home. I also went on a frantic mission to buy five pounds of German sausages at 10 o'clock at night, which was about as awkward as it sounds. But that's another story.

Sadly, it was auf wiedersehen to Berlin the next morning. :(

 À bientôt!

1. It symbolizes transparency in government because it opens onto the Parliament room.