In The Midst Of Tourism

How do I even write blog posts anymore? At this point, I feel like I've been here long enough to ramble on and on about everything for multiple years on end. 

Every time that I go to write a blog post, I have one hundred and one things I need to write about. I can never choose which one to write about, so I end up just not writing anything at all.

This is the most frustrating part about this; so, as a copout once again I'm going to do a photo post, but it's going to involved additional rambling too. Who know's what's happening anymore. Thank you for reading- I appreciate you.

Friday, we went to an art museum. I have lots of photos, so here's a link:

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0IGfnH8tsVoLK

This is my last free weekend in Toulouse, and that makes me sad.

I shopped today. I bought a few euros worth of things. Mostly I took pictures.

Karina, Myself, and Courtney went shopping (along with Brittney, Victoria, and Seyeda)

There were macaroons

And the usual high class dressing rooms

Cool graffiti. The norm.

On the top floor was a woman drinking tea and smoking

Also, I got Karina to be my photographer (I am habitually Karina's paparazzi), so here's... me...

And there you have it

Okay so

(Roomate/Lunch date/Dead weight)

After dinner, Karina and I went to ride the Toulouse Ferris Wheel that has some super obscure name in actuality. Here are some photos:

"Risk" says the graffiti. Graffiti doesn't lie.

Please laugh at the above set ^^^

In Group Activities

Many, many times I have been in camp situations where I'm forced into activities for what I call "mandatory 'fun'". These have rarely ever actually been fun in the past, however they have really been pretty nice here with my program in Toulouse:

Yesterday, my group and I went to the 216th anniversary celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Everyone dressed nicely and there was lots of food. It was in the capital building, this palace-like place in the middle of the city that hardly anyone is ever allowed into. 

All we had to do was show our U.S. passports to get in, and shabam. It was heartwarming to be around so many Americans. I met the American Ambassador in France and Monaco, and also the mayor of Toulouse.

The Ambassador and I

My entire group with the Ambassador 

In the capital building for the celebration, where there still was not air conditioning (from left to right: Karina, Me, Courtney, Siada)

Just before that, went to the downtown area and explored. There was a playground. I love playgrounds.

A particularly cool building

Today, we went to a patisserir and learned how to make macaroons (pastries which every French person makes fun of us for mispronouncing the name of). I tried foi gras (not my favorite) and made a whole bunch of macaroons. There was a lot of effort involved in this process and I'm glad we can just buy them at the Sunday market for .2 euro a piece instead.

Three of my five

MACAROOMIES

In A State Of Suprise: Continued

More important things that need to be pointed out:

Traffic circles instead of traffic lights

Milk is not refrigerated until opened (Still not over it)

Recycling everywhere

Driving is jerky (predominately stick shift)

Texting while driving is real

Classical music in parking garages

Scented pink toilet paper

Very real sex ed for the children growing up here

No cops for the road (literally nothing to prevent speeding; there is lots of speeding)

Beer everywhere (even McDonald's)

Formal dinners

American music- everywhere and all the time

In handwriting, 9's are written like tall g's and m's are written with 3 humps instead of two (n's are still written with 1 hump)

Photos In Carcassone

Yesterday, I went on a tour with the entire CIEE group to Carcassone. This is an ancient castle surrounded my enormous, ancient walls. Within the walls, there is a town of ancient buildings that have been modernized into boutiques and whatntot. Outside of the walls is just you're normal, everyday city and that's bizarre to me. Here are some pictures:

We took a subway and a  walk to get to the train station

Here is where Carcassone is

Outside of the walls

The bridge to the ancient city 

The view from the bridge 

More outside of the walls, after the bridge 

Inside the outer walls (peep my program leader, Meg, in the black strapless dress)

Inside the outer wall

The slits in the inner wall for archers

The slots from the other side of that same wall

The city below 

Every other picture is from inside of the walls:

Karina and myself

The garden where we ate our picnics

That garden

The church

Its inside

A window

The inside

A street

Weird pastries a shop was selling

Kailey and myself 

Creepily realistic manicans

Doors to somewhere