Le Musée d'Art Contemporain

Sunday, I went to the Musée d'Art Contemporain (Museum of Contemporary Art), and I have to say, the art was not the only thing I found confusing. Since there's a tram stop named "Musée d'Art Contemporain," I didn't bother looking up directions on how exactly to get there; I figured it would be obvious from the tram. Not exactly. I followed the street signs (large white arrows labeled "Musée d'Art Contemporain") which led me on a 15 minute tour of the surrounding blocks. However, I eventually discovered yellow arrows spray painted on the ground leading to the museum. To be clear, these arrows were not as conspicuous as you might expect yellow spray painted arrows to be.

When I finally got to the museum and met up with my friends, we discovered that there was essentially nothing besides dark, long, and slightly creepy hallways on the first and second floors. The presence of so many security cameras was puzzling.

However, we finally found the art when we got to the third floor! I particularly liked these hanging neon shapes (houses?). It was interesting to see all this weird, conceptual, very modern art displayed in an old stone building. You could also walk around on the rooftop courtyard, where I found a French moose!

  

Finding this guy made all the confused wandering totally worth it! Un élan français!

À bientôt!

L'Autobus

I admit, I always thought people looked a little silly running after the bus. But now, I am one of them. The most direct route from my homestay to campus is bus line 34, but the problem is the 34 only comes every half hour or so. So if I just miss the bus, I have to wait at the bus stop for like at least half an hour, which is boring and unproductive. So, in the past week, I’ve sprinted (or at least done that awkward power walking thing where you’re almost running and you probably look more ridiculous than if you just went ahead and ran) to catch the bus like at least three times. Plus you have to wave down the bus here, or it will not stop, even if there are people standing at the bus stop. Some French people have the casual high-sign to the driver down pat, but I feel like I'm not smooth enough for that to work for me, so I always do at least two awkward arm jerks – and that’s when I’m already waiting at the stop. So when I run for the bus, I'm usually also waving vigorously, which makes me feel extra ridiculous! I'm just not very graceful with my backpack flopping around as I fumble for my bus pass, and my shoe flies off (not that that’s happened…).

Anyways, now that I, too, am one of those people who runs after the bus while flailing both arms to flag it down, I am now less inclined to think they we look silly when they we run after the bus. Although the UCSD shuttle comes every ten minutes, so I still think it’s not really necessary to break into a full sprint in that case. Just saying. Not judging.

Also, I can’t believe I’ve been in France now for over a month! Whaaaaat!

À bientôt!

Des Pâtes dans une Boîte, le Jardin Public, et la Tour Pey-Berland

Pasta in a box. What more needs to be said?! Ever since I saw other EAP students with this mysterious pasta-in-a-box, I have been dying to try it. The novelty! I realized I was not alone when I was discussing what to do last Friday with my friends, and I was like, "OMG, we should get that pasta that comes in a box!" and they instantly both knew what I was talking about and agreed. So we had a picnic in the Jardin Public (Public Gardens) with the famous box-pasta. I got a "petit cup" with pesto. It was pretty good! And the box was indeed very convenient. The wonders of French cuisine!!!

The Jardin Public was huge and very pretty. There are a lot of grassy areas and small ponds. There's also a carousel and a playground for little kids. Well, okay, we're all in college, and we still went on the seesaw. But those pictures will not be posted...

After walking around the Jardin Public, we took the tram a few stops to the Tour Pey-Berland, which was built as the bell tower for the Cathédrale St-André in the 1400's. Today, you can climb 232 steps to get to two levels of viewing areas at the top. And it's free if you're either under 18 or 18-25 and a legal resident of France! So we all made sure to bring our passports or photocopies to show our visas, but then they didn't even check and just waved us through.

The staircase leading up the tower is made of these really cool spiraling stone steps. It's very narrow and steep though, so letting people who were going down pass us made me a little nervous. Once we got up to the first level though, the view was amazing! You can see the cathedral that's right next to the tower, and pretty much all of Bordeaux. When you get up to the very top, the steps get really narrow, and even I had to duck to go through the tiny door to the second viewing area. The view from the very top is even more amazing! You can see for miles, and the architecture of the tower at the top is really cool too. There are gargoyles and these interesting designs on the triangular part of the top of the tower. And you can see the statue at the very top looks like it's peering down at you!

In other news, I'm still figuring out my classes. I went to a literature class today; it sounds like it will be intense but interesting. It was a two hour class, and when the professor gave us a break halfway through, she announced that this was a "five minute break, so don't come back in fifteen minutes. If you're going to smoke a cigarette, make it a half a cigarette." And my friend from EAP and I just looked at each other and were like, okay... that is not something you would hear back in California!

À bientôt!

Frozen Yogurt en France!

You cannot imagine my relief when I learned there was a frozen yogurt place here in Bordeaux. I was worried about lasting so long without peanut butter, but that many months without frozen yogurt? I did not even want to think about it. Luckily, downtown Bordeaux has NiceBerry! I admit to being a little disappointed by the Americanized name (in fact, there is almost no French on the sign) and the fact that frozen yogurt is just called "frozen yogurt" here and not "yaourt glacé," but there were definitely French twists on the self-serve style shop that's so ubiquitous in California.

For one, it had this very French café chalkboard sign outside! Classy, classy! And of course, they had the standard French café set up with chairs and tables outside on the sidewalk. And the price was way different. It was 2 euros for 100 grams, which is like 56 euro cents per ounce. I'd rather not think about the conversion to dollars, but suffice it to say this was not Yogurtland's 30¢ per ounce!

The shop was self-serve and had six flavors. There were sample cups too! And one of the women who worked there was greeting everybody and explaining how it worked. Considering the French are not known for their customer service, I was impressed! I ended up getting caramel and "natural," which is their tart flavor. They were pretty good! Not Pinkberry status, but pretty good. The caramel was not too sweet, and the tart was a nice balance of tang and sweet, and the yogurt was thick and creamy. They also had the standard assortment of dry and fruit toppings; I got chocolate chips, sliced almonds, coconut, and strawberries. Délicieux!!!

However, there was one rather unappetizing thing about this frozen yogurt place. After we finished our fro-yo, my friends and I were still sitting outside talking for a while (so French!), when one of the women who worked at the shop started digging through the garbage can next to us and collecting all the spoons from it. We all looked at each other and then slowly down at the spoons resting in our empty cups. Oh geeze... Bringing my own spoon next time...

À bientôt!

Un Match de Rugby!

Last night, I went to my first rugby game! Rugby is extremely popular in southern France; my host family tells me it is even more popular than soccer here. The game was between Union Bordeaux-Bègles and Toulon. Obviously, Union Bordeaux-Bègles is the local team; I guess a few years ago Bordeaux and Bègles combined rugby teams in order to create one elite team. It was kind of last minute; I had just gotten back from going downtown with some friends, when my host family asked me if I wanted to come with them, like 15 minutes before we left. I was pretty exhausted - but pourquoi pas!

For the first half of the match, all I could think was, "This. Game. Has. NO. RULES." Tackling? Allowed. Two players lifting up a third to catch the ball? Allowed. 20 person pile-ups? Play doesn't even stop. Having a huge brawl to get the ball after a penalty? Oh, that's a mêlée.

(And really, what even counts as a penalty in this game?)

Anyways, after I got used to the ridiculous lawlessness, the match was interesting and fun to watch. We had a pretty good view, and my host family explained to me what was going on. The crowd got really excited whenever Union Bordeaux-Bègles was close to scoring, and I clapped and chanted along with them (when I could understand what they were chanting anyways). Sadly, Bordeaux-Bègles lost 16-27, but my host family insisted that was just because Bordeaux-Bègles only recently moved up to the top level of rugby.

I also learned that French people are really bad at doing the wave. Three people bothering to stand up and everyone else sort of limply raising one arm does not a good wave make.

À bientôt!

La Glace!

Yesterday, after class, I went downtown with some friends from EAP, and, after saving a few euros by crashing finding a free barbecue at Université de Bordeaux 2 (where none of us have classes...), we decided to get ice cream. Almost all the ice cream here is labeled "Glace Artisanale" and is in rectangular boxes like gelato, so I'm a little unclear as to whether it's actually gelato or just very European ice cream. But it was hot out, so that mystery was not our first priority.

We went to one of these Glace Artisanale places, and they made the most beautiful ice cream cones ever!!! I ordered a small "cornetto" (Italian! Could it be gelato?!) with coffee and caramel ice cream. What they do is put one flavor in the center and then use a flat scoop to put little petals of the other flavor around it. It looks so cool! And it was delicious! It was a little on the pricier side, but how often does your ice cream look like this??

Le Jardin Botanique

On Saturday, I went to the Jardin Botanique in downtown Bordeaux. On the other side of the Garonne River! It was my first time crossing the river. The other side was so similar to our own world, yet so different...

Anyways, the Botanical Garden was pretty. There were a lot of cool plants and landscaping. There was also like a plant museum there, which is where we found this informational sign. Which cites Wikipedia...

WHAT.

I'm assuming this means I can use Wikipedia in all my papers here...