Classes continue...but the weekend always comes around :)

I've been continuously plugging away at my classes and doing a little more exploring. The material I'm being taught in class isn't so hard to master, its the teaching of it in a foreign language that makes it a bit difficult to grasp. Example: Charlemagne was important in the organization of France during the late 8th/early 9th centuries. Ok. Good. Yes, I can understand that. However, I have to decipher everything the professor said to get to that conclusion. Thank goodness I'm fairly good with linguistics and context clues. Other than my history class, my courses aren't really any problem: my French Language class is about as easy as my French courses in high school, my French art history course is nothing new- but the vocabulary is new and I get to have class in the Louvre (we had class there this past Monday, as in yesterday- it's so much better to learn about a painting standing in front of it instead of looking at a slide), and I know more than my professor in my Contemporary art class. This is not an exaggeration- she's referred to me on several occasions for explanations and asked my thoughts on certain ideas. I'm in it for the actual contemporary art that's coming up (right now we're doing a lot of background stuff leading up to the contemporary) and all the gallery/museum visits, like we did last week.

This weekend, I went to Toulouse, in the south of France, with my friend Joscelyn- her cousin lives down there and was nice enough to let us stay with her while we visited. It's a cute little town and the people were very nice (but I think I prefer Paris). The weather was awful when we were there, but that didn't stop us from site-seeing.

(la Garonne)

(I felt like I was in a Category 1 hurricane.)

(la Captiole)

(Saint-Sernin)

(We stopped off at the Natural History Museum, since the weather was so awful. It even had a horseshoe crab- oh, the Jersey Shore, how I miss you.)

Natalia (Joscelyn's cousin) was a really good guide and a really great host, introducing us to all of her friends and taking us all over. We went to La Maison du Cassoulet for lunch, where I had the BEST cassoulet (if you don't know what it is, use Google or Wiki).

While I was in Toulouse, I watched my first television how in four weeks (French "Dancing with the Stars" and some Exteme Makeover-type show), my first rugby game (still don't understand it- but the Welsh team was pretty damn good looking), and listened to the radio- which plays English-language  music. No joke. Coldplay, James Blunt and Katy Perry going strong.

Later that night, it was one girl's birthday, so we were all invited (told you the people were nice) to go dancing, at a Latin club, mind you- where I was one of the few people without a drop of Latino blood in them- I'm pretty sure I held my own, though. Almost everyone in the picture below is a citizen of a South American nation- Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, etc., except me, of course- and another girl who was born and raised in Toulouse, so the night was a mixture of English, Spanish, and French. With all of the Spanish that I've been exposed to- at home, at school, traveling, etc., I'm beginning to understand the language. Granted, I can't say anything myself, but sometimes I can understand the conversations people are having.



And yes, that is a giant animal cage in the background- Natalia has a pet rabbit named Mirko (still not sure if it's a boy or a girl- we're gonna go with male on this one). He was the cutest thing ever and I was ready to steal him.

The weekend had to come to an end, so Joscelyn and I hopped on the train to take us back to Paris. The train was 7 hours. Seven. Hours. Coming and going, so 14 hours total. On a train. In second class, with 6 total people in each car sectional. Guess what? A flight to Toulouse only takes 1 hour and apparentlt costs about the same. What the hell were we thinking?