I have arrived in the Franceland!

So, I arrived safely in Toulouse! My flight to London was fine, although I didn't sleep as much as I'd like, despite the Benedryl.

I had about four hours to chill in Heathrow, which was fine, if a bit boring. For some reason there were Japanese schoolgirls running around EVERYWHERE. It was quite bizarre, especially since at that point I was really sleep deprived and somewhat out of it. I was just wandering around all the stores with my big rollie bag.

Then I popped on another flight, and arrived in TOULOUSE!

The hostel I'm staying in is completely awesome. There are people from all over the world, and since all of them seem to be looking for apartments in France, there's a sense of solidarity among all of us. Our hostel has a garden, and last night we had a barbecue (aka cheese and chips) in it. At one point, there were people there from Canada, England (Wales too), Turkey, Georgia (the country), Sweden, Mexico, Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain, and, of course, the US of A. There were some very intense debates, which mainly consisted of me yelling at the Brits and telling them our pronunciation/spelling of words was better. There were three rather spirited debates along this them:

1. The pronunciation of urinal: In England, they pronounce it Ur-RI-nal (like rhino). However, they say urine the same way we do. I proposed that since our pronunciation of urinal was closer to that of urine, it was better than theirs. Winner (in my mind): me.

2. Aluminum/Aluminium: British people say and spell it like "Aluminium." When they heard me say "Aluminum," they immediately pounced on us, telling us that we were saying it wrong. Eventually, they figured out that since we spelled it differently, it was okay that we also said it differently.

3. Eggplants and Courgettes: In England, they say "Aubergine" for Eggplant and "Courgette" for Zucchini. For this one, we reached a compromise. We decided that Eggplant was a strange word, and should be replaced by Aubergine, but that zucchini was far superior to courgette.

Today my friend (another girl from the program) and I wandered about Toulouse. I did not realize how small this city would be. After living in Paris, I think I expected Toulouse to be the same size. However, it was way smaller, so much that we were able to walk across it in a relatively short time.

Toulouse is a really pretty city. It is definitely a walkable city, and it seemed like there were people everywhere! Cars actually stop for pedestrians, while in Paris, they are more likely to run you over.

Since I know some people (aka my father) are interested in what I've been eating here, I'll list what I've been eating. So far today I've had a croque-monsieur, a café noisette, a café crème and three mini pastries: une chausson aux pommes, une chausson aux framboises, and something called une jésuite.

My Swedish roommate is skyping a Swedish friend, and every once in a while I hear her use an english phrase. Let me tell you, it's quite bizarre to hear 5 minutes of Swedish and then "Being Spontaneous" (the way she said it requires capitalization), followed by more Swedish.

I am meeting more people from my program tonight! Four of us are going to dinner together. It will be nice to finally put names to faces!

Bises!

So, I'm moving to France next week....

6 days, to be exact.

Speaking french has always made me happy. There is something about the throaty sounds, the liaisons, the overall beauty of the language that appeals to me. French is, quite frankly, fun.

The name of this blog comes from a nickname my french teacher gave me back in sophomore year of high school. For those who know me, they can attest I like to talk. A lot. This is true regardless of what language I may be speaking. As a result, my teacher gave me the nickname "la bavarde": the chatterbox

. This nickname has remained apt, even 6 years after it was originally given to me.

So, next year I am going to be an English teaching assistant in a collège (middle school) and a lycée (high school) in a tiny little town called Gaillac, about 65 km from Toulouse. That's a picture of it to the right. So far, the only thing I can find about this town related to wine. Gaillac produces every sort of wine possible, from red to rosé to sparkling. Hopefully, I'm going to come out of this a wine connoisseur. If I don't, then I obviously will not have drunk nearly enough wine.

Since Gaillac has only 12,000 people (none of whom seem to be people my age), I am going to be living in a town 20 km away called Albi. Albi is the perfect example of the type of little

french town I want to live in. It has 50,000 people and a university, so I would definitely be able to have a social life.

More importantly, Albi is chock-full of awesome french history. It is home to two 13th century buildings, le Palais de la Berbie and the Saint Cécile Cathedral. It is because of these buildings that Albi has been labeled a UNESCO world heritage site, which basically means that it has something worth preserving.

It is also the birthplace of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, a french artist famous for his posters of the Moulin Rouge. Since Toulouse-Lautrec is one of my favorite artists, I am looking forward to exploring the museum devoted to him in more detail.

Anyway, I need to get on with preparing for my trip: packing, getting insurance straightened out, copious amounts of netflix, etc. Everything you need to have a successful foreign voyage.

À bientôt!