A few random things

It's sunny today in Périgueux! Hooray!

My classes this week have been chiant (translation: a pain). Marina said her students have been annoying as well and thinks part of it is the weather; nobody wants to work when it's sunny and fairly warm outside. I think she's right. Only four weeks (plus tomorrow) until I'm done with teaching though!

Just a couple snapshots from this week. I don't have anything too interesting going on this week, though this weekend we'll be celebrating with Cathi because she's leaving on Monday! The German assistants finish a month before the rest of us (their contracts work differently because most of them are still in grad school) so she'll be officially finished on Friday. We're going to have an apéro (best way to translate that one is as a pre-dinner party, but apéros and goûters - "tasting" - are things that can't really be translated into English because they're cultural and therefore don't exist in American English) on Sunday and wish her a happy send-off. We're all sad to see her go!

On Sunday we went to a barbecue with friends and ate Argentinian-style food, which was fun. Our friends had the barbecue at a friend's house a little outside of Périgueux, and this friend had an enormous dog (that must have weighed 160+ pounds).

You actually can't see quite how big he is in this picture.

He was calm and quiet and didn't even try to eat the meat. But he was really clingy to anyone who petted him and also slobbered a lot (I learned the word for slobber - la bave). So after a couple pets I avoided his big slobbery head, but he was a nice dog.

Unlike the East Coast of the U.S., it's spring in Périgueux. It's been pretty warm lately, the trees are starting to grow leaves again, and flowers are coming up. I think the city is going to be really pretty in April (we've been told that it is) so I'm looking forward to seeing both the city and the region with lots of flowers!

Flowers outside of Bertran de Born, the high school.

I'm going to take advantage of the weather and go for a run with Eve this afternoon, and this evening I'm having dinner with Bridget, one of the British assistants. Marina's cousin comes into town today and is staying through the weekend, so we'll try to go out and do something this weekend or at least go out for dinner in Périgueux. And next week I need to start packing up my big suitcase to take to Paris next week since I'm going to see my family and my grandmother is taking my big suitcase home to the U.S. for me!

Also:

Why, France? Why are you trying to bring back the Furby?

A toute à l'heure!

Château Hautefort

I'm back! I like that during vacation I have lots to write about; it's no fun that when I'm in Périgueux I really don't have much to recount. But I'm down to only five weeks here, which seems crazy! I won't lie, I'm definitely ready to leave, though I do think I'll miss speaking French all the time. I'm pretty scared I'm going to lose a lot of it...I need to do everything I can to avoid that!

Anyway, I'm posting today because we went out and saw a cool castle today! I had seen it in my guidebook, but it was closed for the winter, so we hadn't visited yet. Also, growing up, Colleen and I always watched the movie Ever After with Mom. It's a Cinderella story with Drew Barrymore and we loved it. Coincidentally, the entire movie was filmed in the Dordogne region, where I live! The main castle is Hautefort, the castle I visited today, though another castle I've visited is also used in the movie as is the town of Sarlat, which I visited once with my friends and where I stayed with my family. It was pretty cool to see the castle and think about all the scenes in the movie where it's featured.

Château Hautefort in some classic Dordogne weather.

However, that also made me think, "Really? You're more excited about this castle because it was in a movie, not because it was built in the 1600s?" But, hey, you all know I like history, so that part was cool, too - plus we really watched Ever After all the time, so it's funny to think that I was watching a movie at age 10 and had no idea that in 12 years I'd be living where it was filmed. I'm definitely going to go home and watch it with Mom and Colleen!

The outer wall of the castle with some kind of grove next to it. You'll see in the other pictures that the castle is also known for its fancy gardens and bushes.

Walking up to the castle. Needless to say, we later got caught in a thunderstorm. Not a big one, but it started to rain on us as we were leaving and we didn't get to walk around the gardens as much as we wanted to.

Fancy bushes.

View of castle across said fancy bushes as we were entering this long archway of bushes.

The gardens and view were really very gorgeous. It would have been nice to be there on a really sunny day because you could see really far and see a lot of tiny tons dotting the hills. It has, at least, started to get green here again, which is nice. The countryside is a very pretty green and it's so much nicer now than it was during the winter. It's all rolling hills, grass, and farms. Plus tiny towns and castles.

A semi-view of the surrounding countryside. The light wasn't great to take pictures of it unfortunately.

The very pretty archway of bushes/trees that we walked through in the gardens.

In terms of the castle itself, it wasn't overly interesting inside. It was nice and there was an area to walk through and old furniture to look at/read about, but it was more fun outside and in the gardens. The castle has been renovated many times - several times over the centuries of course, but also in 1968 because there was an enormous fire (started by cigarette butts at a reception). Much of the castle is original, but the fire apparently really did a number on much of the interior.

In the courtyard of the castle. 

Looking down at the "village" of Hautefort. I put that in quotations because it's so tiny! People live there (you could see cars and toys and a trampoline) but it's very small.

The girls looking out over the gardens and village from the courtyard.

Fancy gardens!

More fancy gardens!

Entrance to the castle - with small drawbridge and all!

We spent a few hours at Hautefort and really enjoyed ourselves. I really liked the castle! On the way back we stopped a couple times when we saw an old abbey (that was closed, despite the sign saying that it was open every day between 2pm and 6pm - but in France, I'm pretty sure signs like that are just suggestions) and a pretty waterfall. We took a long way back to Périgueux because we took some wrong turns and just enjoyed driving through the countryside. In all, a pretty good day!

Tomorrow we're going to a barbecue-type thing with our friend Eve and her boyfriend Flor and then I need to take some time and actually prepare for my classes this week. I haven't thought much about what I'm going to do with my classes or with my tutoring students. Luckily, I don't work much on Mondays, so I have a couple days to figure it out. And, phew, only five more weeks of it! And then I never have to teach a class of high schoolers again! Hopefully.

Happy Saturday - everyone have a good weekend!

Oxford

Today has been a pretty quiet day. We wandered around Oxford this morning but then it started to rain and Michelle had work to do (I should probably do some lesson planning myself - but I don't feel like it), so we've just been hanging around her dorm this afternoon. She's having a big birthday dinner/party this evening, so we'll just hang around until then. I'm pretty tired from traveling for two weeks straight, so I don't mind relaxing a little! And while I'm not looking forward to going back to Périgueux, at least I'll be able to catch my breath before I start packing and thinking about coming home!

So Oxford is much bigger than I expected. Michelle said that's a common misconception. Apparently Cambridge is much more like what you'd think Oxford is supposed to look like: I was expecting a small town and a campus feel, but instead it's a decent-sized town with lots of shopping and lots of people. And Oxford University is set up in a completely alien way in comparison to American universities. While there are 18,000 students (undergrad - plus there are a ton of grad students), the school is split into about 40 colleges; Michelle is at Oriel College. Each college has its own little campus and section in the town of Oxford. So it's all very separate. It's kind of confusing. They're all Oxford students but they really identify more with their colleges; they can go into some of the other colleges, but usually only with other students. There are some shared libraries, but most colleges have their own libraries. Even after having Michelle explain a lot of it to me, I'm confused. There's no comparison to American universities.

But the pictures are pretty straightforward.

High Street, one of the main shopping streets.

One of the many towers in Oxford!

Another view of High Street and one of the colleges on the right (with the spire). Each college has its own chapel since they were mostly formed anywhere between the 12th century and the 16th century.

It's amazing how old the buildings are in Oxford. None of the buildings from the 12th century really still exist, but tons of them are from the 15/1600s. It seems like it would be surreal to go to a school that is so old. It doesn't seem like real life! One of Michelle's friends said it's good for their friends from other schools to come visit because they remind them that they go to such a cool, interesting school! He said, "It's actually a bit ridiculous that we go here."

One of the most famous landmarks of Oxford. It's a big university library.

Another part of the main university library. It's a copyright library, so it has all the books ever published in England. Not too shabby...

What is called the "Bridge of Sighs" but is made to look like the Rialto Bridge in Venice. It connects two buildings of a college.

Michelle's college! Oriel. It has three courtyards that we wandered through and she also showed me the library.

More Oriel - see what I mean about it being a bit surreal?

Another courtyard of Oriel. The buildings are used both for housing and for classrooms. It's all kind of mixed in together onto this mini-campus within the greater city of Oxford.

The fancy campus of one of the larger colleges of Oxford, Christ Church College. It also has a big fancy church. We went inside the church which was under renovation because, as the woman who greeted us at the door told us, "Her Majesty the Queen will be paying us a visit on Maundy Thursday." She literally said, "Her Majesty the Queen."

A passage in Christ Church College which was apparently used for some filming in the Harry Potter movies. The dining hall that provided some inspiration for Harry Potter is also in Christ Church, but it was unfortunately closed when we went in.

The major courtyard in Christ Church College - which apparently used to make the royalty who attended the college "feel at home." I'd say. 

Just a pretty path we walked down!

So, as you can see, Oxford is pretty unique. It's just lots of really old buildings all over the place; lots of spires, lots of decorations, lots of old stonework. It's an enchanting little place though I really can't imagine going to school here.

It's also been fun to meet some of Michelle's friends. While they go to school in a completely different setting and learn in a different way, they seem a lot like American college students. I think there are fewer differences between American and English students compared to American and French students, simply because the cultural differences aren't as great. I've also liked Michelle's friends, so it will be fun to see them all tonight for her birthday!

Soon it's back to the real world (well, my version of the real world - which isn't very real, I guess). Tomorrow we'll spend some time in Oxford and have a pub lunch and then go back to London, but Sunday it's back to Perigueux. Maybe I'll do another post tomorrow - it will depend if I do anything interesting!

Pretty weather in a pretty town

I've been posting these blog posts at progressively later times each day. I'm in Oxford now and don't have to get up super early tomorrow, plus we spent some time with Michelle's friends this evening after arriving because it's her birthday.

We spent the day in Bath and got extremely lucky with the weather. We had bright blue skies and reasonable temperatures, which I think really made the day. Bath is a spa town only about 15 minutes from Bristol (it's been a spa town since before the Romans) and is built all out of sandstone-colored buildings, so it was nice to see it with bright sun and blue skies.

The entrance to the Roman Baths and an example of the color of all the buildings in Bath.

The Bath Abbey/Cathedral.

Bath has naturally occurring hot springs under it which were discovered thousands of years ago. The Romans came several thousand years ago and they built giant elaborate bath houses to make use of the springs. Then there were other spas for centuries and even today there's a modern spa. The main attraction in Bath are the remains of the Roman baths which were discovered in the 1700s/1800s and have been a major tourist site ever since. They were really very cool. They're below ground level because the ground was lower back in Roman times and the museum is built up and around it (which was built starting in the 19th century). It's all very well-done and very pretty and interesting!

The Roman baths below and the observation area above (built by people in the 19th century to better view the baths). When the baths were used by the Romans they were covered by an enormous roof and were inside a huge building.

Statues on the observation deck.

Looking over the baths with the cathedral in the background; as you can see, it would have been a bummer had it been cloudy and/or rainy.

Down on the lower level after we checked out some of the information inside about Roman history and the baths. 

People have been throwing coins into fountains for thousands of years! The Romans used to do it as well. Though they also used to write "curses" on pieces of lead, usually complaining about people who had stolen things from them, and throw them into the springs as a way of complaining to the gods.

So the Roman Baths were very cool. After seeing them we decided to wander around the town a bit and we saw the Royal Crescent (expensive townhouses in a half-circle, like the pictures in Bristol - apparently that was a thing in the 19th century) and the Circus which is a big round-about in the center of town with fancy townhouses surrounding it.

The Royal Crescent - the fancy townhomes.

A pretty park we walked through.

The Circus - more nice townhouses!

I guess they just loved building on a curve. 

And fancy ornamentation on the buildings...

After a good birthday lunch we checked out a Jane Austen museum. As much as I love Jane Austen (and I really adore her), it was okay. It wasn't her house or anything because she didn't live in Bath for long and there wasn't a ton of information, but I still learned some new things and enjoyed hearing about her since I love the books so much. It also gave me the opportunity to buy a keychain that says "I <3 Darcy" on it. And it inspired me to pick up those books again.

We also went into the cathedral which had some really nice stonework on the ceiling and wandered along the river as well. Pretty, pretty! Bath was so nice.

Walking along the river.

More river!

The inside of the cathedral and it's very amazing roof!

The cathedral walls and floor had an absurd amount of tombstones/stones in memory of lots of things.

 Bath was really, really gorgeous and interesting - I'm so glad we went! I can't think of much else to say about it now, plus I'm sleepy cause it's about 3 a.m. here already. We don't have to get up early tomorrow since we'll tour around in the afternoon and then in the evening it's Michelle's birthday party. Then Saturday I'll go back to London with her and then I have my flight on Sunday morning. Unfortunately! I'd love to see more of the UK!

A quiet day

Today Michelle and I were in Bristol staying with a friend of hers from Oxford, Becca, who showed us around the city a bit. We saw a few nice things, but we also spent a lot of time just hanging out and chatting - which was honestly just what I needed. It was nice to just spend time with people and chat and hang out. As much as I love traveling, two weeks is a lot of time to be constantly on the go, so it's nice to have a down day to chat and hang out a bit.

Bristol is west of London, very close to the coast. I feel like it's a typical English town (though it's pretty large) in the "west country" of England. It had a nice feel to it. Like I said, we didn't see a ton, but what I saw was nice and very British-feeling.

One of Bristol's main attractions is an old suspension bridge that was built in the 19th century. It's built over a gorge and there are some nice views of it from a hill right near Becca's house. We got up late this morning and after a breakfast of English muffins, scrambled eggs, crumpets, and tea (so English), we went out and walked around and across the bridge.

The bridge is apparently a big attraction in England. It's called the Clifton Bridge.

The bridge with a view of the countryside and some of the city beyond it.

More bridge, more city, more gorge.

After checking out the bridge we walked across it over to an estate (now owned by the local government) of a big old manor house. It has hundreds of acres of land that are now open to the public so we just wandered around, saw some deer (there's some kind of deer park on the grounds), and saw this old manor home. Again, it felt very British country-ish to me; very stereotypical in the sense of lots of a land and a manor home. It was nice to wander around.

Entrance to the estate, Ashton Court. I could already tell it was going to be fancy. (It was also in this estate that we had a whole discussion about the words "posh," and "snobby," and "well-off" and the differences between all of them. I didn't really catch it all, though.)

Wandering... 

...still wandering...

An enormous herd of deer. We saw even more later.

The actual house of Ashton Court. I love how brightly colored it was. It's not lived in now, it's just used for private functions; it can be rented out.

Ashton Court.

We wandered around the town a bit after the estate before stopping in a cafe to get tea (oh my goodness, the English really do love tea. Becca asked me if I was tired yet of people asking if I wanted tea). Bristol was a nice town and the area we were in, Clifton Village, was very nice and small-ish feeling, despite the fact that Bristol is a fairly large city. We didn't see a whole lot of the town, but the part I saw was nice. We saw some pretty row houses on a street called a "crescent," so called because it is slightly curved in a U-shape. Apparently it's the largest crescent in Europe.

Experimenting with a black-and-white setting on my camera: balconies of the row houses in Bristol.

The crescent row of all the houses (which were sooo nice) with a very nice view of the countryside and a lot of Bristol.

A shot of the mailbox on the crescent row and a view showing the lower level; those doors on the bottom would have once been used as stables and servant rooms. Now they're basement apartments or garages.

We stopped and had tea in a cute shop and then went back to Becca's with ingredients for dinner. We pretty much just hung out for the evening, cooked dinner, and then went out for some cider to celebrate Michelle's birthday (which is tomorrow). I really had a nice time chatting with Michelle and Becca - we had lots of either fun or stimulating conversations! Even though I've been able to make very good friends in French/France, it's nice to be able to express myself on whatever topic I want to talk about - it's nice not needing to search for words.

Oof, I need to go to sleep, it's already after 1:30 here. Tomorrow we head to Bath for the day and then on to Oxford. I don't want vacation to end!