The world is looking a more rosy place
The world is looking a more rosy place. (this is a slight pun as Toulouse is called la ville rose but such a subtle one I thought I should point it out in case anyone had missed it). Third week of work now. It’snot too busy at the moment and hopefully it wont become much busier because it means that I can get the stuff done that I need to while at a computer. Still finding it had to be sat for hours at a time, especially as today we have a bit of a tempête and I couldn’t go outside in my lunchbreak.
Getting fed up with Telecom, still waiting for internet... Was very amused to learn that the german Telekom is being punished by Brussels! Well the german government is on their account but anyway I’m glad someone has their eye on them! That company is bad news.
Drama with camera ensues, hence the lack of snaps but Alice has a camera so there will be some more pretty pictures of (french) buildings soon. French post sucks big time, so far 3 things have got lost and they wont let my camera be sent off for repair without insurance and even that is complicated.bleugh.
Had a really fun weekend. Was properly out on the town in all weathers. Sunday was the strangest day, sunshine and showers, hail and rain, apparently march weather is upon us. Went for a run (sunshine), bought bread on the way back and suddenly hail, bread was soaked and I must have looked a right sight, sprinting throught the streets without a coat with a soggy baguette clutched in my hand. Alice studies anthropology and all that stuff fascinates me so we went to 2 really good exhibitions, one on global cultures and the other on the history of Toulouse which was a roman city called Tolosa originally. We have a fun time communicating, Alice and I, mostly French but a bit of English and Italien when the vocabulary nous manque.
We tried out the nightlife (not overly impressed but then we don’t know that many areaas yet!). Our area seems to be the rugby central of the town. Friday nicght we ended up in what was obviously a rugby bar. The town is a big rugby place anyway but EVERY bar has the matches on on saturday, its great, much emptier streets due to the entire male population being inside watching the match! It is also clear from the build of the guys what the popular sport is around here, not to mention the cauliflower ears... This bar had everything, the six nations insignia, little rugby balls etc. They drink a fair bit og beer here in little demis most of the time and some wierd pink drink. I tried the pink thing not having a clue what it was. It’s nasty. Avoid beer and grenadine. Not good. The music was pretty good, nice and international, they even played “99 Luftballons” which I enjoyed.
We had a rather random encounter, but one which we hope we will be able to use in the future! I say we at the moment not as in the royal we but because in my spare time Alice and I do everything together as we both want to get to know the place and the people better. Saturday afternoon on our cycle ride we stopped off at the office de tourisme so I (being little miss tourisme as I am) could pick up some flyers to see what was going on around town. I came back out and Alice had struck up conversation with some random guy. She makes friends fast! It turned out he too was an erasmus student but actually from Bordeaux rather than Toulouse. He was swiss and was waiting for 2 of his friends who were doing the same thing as me. One czech girl and a german. We chatted for a bit and went our seperate ways never thingking to see them again but thinking, maybe we’ll bump into them on our trip to Bordeaux. Saturday night we made our way back to Place St Pierre to find experience another bar. Absolutely packed. We magaged after a struggle to get seats, squeezing through burly men, and then discovered why those were the two seats left free, right next to the speakers! Pounding drum and bass, so we stuck it ut for a couple of hours and then moved on.
On our way to the next bar who should we meet but our erasmus buddies! So we went to a bar with them and spent the evening comparing our years abroad. We also successfully got the number of the girl so we now have a contact in Bordeaux to act as tour guide; my little reseau of international contacts is expanding....
Getting fed up with Telecom, still waiting for internet... Was very amused to learn that the german Telekom is being punished by Brussels! Well the german government is on their account but anyway I’m glad someone has their eye on them! That company is bad news.
Drama with camera ensues, hence the lack of snaps but Alice has a camera so there will be some more pretty pictures of (french) buildings soon. French post sucks big time, so far 3 things have got lost and they wont let my camera be sent off for repair without insurance and even that is complicated.bleugh.
Had a really fun weekend. Was properly out on the town in all weathers. Sunday was the strangest day, sunshine and showers, hail and rain, apparently march weather is upon us. Went for a run (sunshine), bought bread on the way back and suddenly hail, bread was soaked and I must have looked a right sight, sprinting throught the streets without a coat with a soggy baguette clutched in my hand. Alice studies anthropology and all that stuff fascinates me so we went to 2 really good exhibitions, one on global cultures and the other on the history of Toulouse which was a roman city called Tolosa originally. We have a fun time communicating, Alice and I, mostly French but a bit of English and Italien when the vocabulary nous manque.
We tried out the nightlife (not overly impressed but then we don’t know that many areaas yet!). Our area seems to be the rugby central of the town. Friday nicght we ended up in what was obviously a rugby bar. The town is a big rugby place anyway but EVERY bar has the matches on on saturday, its great, much emptier streets due to the entire male population being inside watching the match! It is also clear from the build of the guys what the popular sport is around here, not to mention the cauliflower ears... This bar had everything, the six nations insignia, little rugby balls etc. They drink a fair bit og beer here in little demis most of the time and some wierd pink drink. I tried the pink thing not having a clue what it was. It’s nasty. Avoid beer and grenadine. Not good. The music was pretty good, nice and international, they even played “99 Luftballons” which I enjoyed.
We had a rather random encounter, but one which we hope we will be able to use in the future! I say we at the moment not as in the royal we but because in my spare time Alice and I do everything together as we both want to get to know the place and the people better. Saturday afternoon on our cycle ride we stopped off at the office de tourisme so I (being little miss tourisme as I am) could pick up some flyers to see what was going on around town. I came back out and Alice had struck up conversation with some random guy. She makes friends fast! It turned out he too was an erasmus student but actually from Bordeaux rather than Toulouse. He was swiss and was waiting for 2 of his friends who were doing the same thing as me. One czech girl and a german. We chatted for a bit and went our seperate ways never thingking to see them again but thinking, maybe we’ll bump into them on our trip to Bordeaux. Saturday night we made our way back to Place St Pierre to find experience another bar. Absolutely packed. We magaged after a struggle to get seats, squeezing through burly men, and then discovered why those were the two seats left free, right next to the speakers! Pounding drum and bass, so we stuck it ut for a couple of hours and then moved on.
On our way to the next bar who should we meet but our erasmus buddies! So we went to a bar with them and spent the evening comparing our years abroad. We also successfully got the number of the girl so we now have a contact in Bordeaux to act as tour guide; my little reseau of international contacts is expanding....
posted by Georgina at 11:35 AM
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