Virtually Home

Apparently that tempest, which barely inconvenienced us in downtown Bordeaux, destroyed a lot of homes and lives and knocked out a lot of electricity elsewhere. Always important to look at things from other perspectives. Or maybe just read the news, which I am notoriously bad at. I just tend to really hate the news, though I occasionally do like to know what's going on. This is a really silly contradiction, but I live with it. Last night, one of our roommates moved out, and we spent the rest of the night cleaning up the apartment. I got my room organized and we bought a new shower curtain. I wish I had more interesting things to report on that front, but I really don't. Tonight, I must read The Illuminations in its entirety. I was supposed to have done this before, but it's daunting with all of its vocabulary I've never seen. I think I'm reading more of my translation dictionary than Rimbaud, at this point. I tell myself I'm learning things, but in reality i...

Last night there was a "tempête", which the internet translates as "gale" or "storm" or "uproar". I'm guessing that first is the most appropriate, because there was a lot of wind. However, it wasn't enough wind to shut down anything except maybe the C-152s at training schools, had it happened in Oklahoma. They shut down the trams on account of the storm hours early, and I was expecting more. The sky was clear and the moon was full and we ended up at a house party with some friends. The remarkable thing about a house in Bordeaux is that it's more like a multi-story, multi-bedroom apartment, since all of the buildings in Bordeaux are connected to each other. This particular house was among the most spacious places I've seen in France. The bathroom was, as Nico said, big enough to play soccer in, and there was a small garden in the back yard, complete with a magnolia tree. When the gale was starting, it was oddly warm and felt a lo...

The first day back, I had to go to a mandatory medical visit to retain my visa. I was in and out of doctor's offices and waiting rooms, but aside from it being complicated, it wasn't too much of a hassle. I was in and out in 45 minutes, and really all they wanted was my height, weight, blood pressure, a chest x-ray, and to listen to me breathe. I guess I proved I didn't have TB because they gave me a carte de sejour and they sent me home with the chest x-ray, which I decided to hang on my wall to fix some of the previously un-relieved white. Plus, I think it's kinda cool to see my vertebrae and heart on the wall, but maybe I'm the only one. Amy has been on a furious search for somewhere to live on various apartment-finding websites for Bordeaux, with not very much luck. Tomorrow, she's going to look into getting a dorm room, but last fall there were too many students to accommodate them all in the dorms, so I'm not sure how much hope I have for that scenar...