Arts Plastiques

DEFLE classes are back in session after a two week break. After this week we will have one more week of classes and then finals. Two weeks of breaks then two weeks of classes don't make quite much sense, but that's what the French do. My contemporary French literature class and my French novels class were as boring as I remembered.

During lunch, I went to Maison des Etudiants, literally student house or for a more accurate translation student center. The weeks before break, I've been going to the student house to do some reading, translating, and eating. Nobody goes there any more because of the strike so it's a perfect place to get some work done. I reread an article for my sociology paper and I had a closer idea of what quotes I should use for my paper.

It was raining all the while, but just when lunch time rolled around, it stopped raining and the sun came out for a while. This is a photo of the Arts Plastiques building (Fne Arts). The first day I went to campus, a French student (Audrey Lambert) came to pick me and Gwynne up at our place and she drove us. As we were finding parking Audrey commented about the building, "Ce affreux bâtiment-là est l'arts plastiques..." (that hideous building is fine arts...). The little attachment on the top right is the campus radio station. I used to have class in there. My film sociology class to be exact. I think that building has the most personality of all the buildings on campus. The green is really cool.

I went to have lunch at Le Sirtaki, one of the campus dining commons. My lunch of roasted chicken, a mountain of fries, a small baguette, raspberry yogurt, and couscous was only 2.85 euro! What a deal I would say. As I was eating, Pierrick spotted me and he invited me to sit with him at his table. There I met more Frenchies and Audrey (not the same girl from my first day).

After my second DEFLE class, I went to the Pessac Médiathèque, which is a pretty cool multimedia library down the tram b line. I was looking for a book that the university library didn't have. I was too late though, I asked the librarian if they had it and she said no. The lady was really friendly. She asked if I wanted to reserve it and she gave me a form to get a library card. While she was inputting my information on the computer, she complimented me on my French by saying "tu parles bien le français" (you speak french well) or something of that sort. She has to be at least my fourth person to compliment me on my French. I love getting those compliments. It really makes me feel so good. Well she explained the library a bit and told me about the Espace Histoire-Image, which my Film Econ prof also mentioned. She said, that part of the library would interest me because I'm a film major.

I stayed in the Histoire-Image a while. I was the only person there and they had really cool green lamps! The chairs and tables were also really nice. When you moved the chair it didn't even make any screeching noise on the floor. After staying there a while and flipping through a couples books, I went to the other parts of the library and got some CDs and movies to borrow. It's too bad I didn't utilize this library any sooner. It's such a nice place to get work done. I would say much better than any place on the Bordeaux 3 campus.

The next activity on my list of things to do for the day was meet up with Pierrick and Audrey again to see Ponyo Sur la Falaise (Ponyo on the Cliff) by Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki has to be one of my favorite directors. Everything he does is so wonderful. Ponyo was no exception. After the movie at Jean Eustache Theater, we went to Pierrick's place and we made dinner. We made a tarte flambée which has Alsatian origins. Alsace is a region of France bordering Germany. The tarte was joking called a pizza just because it really looked like one. We also had salad and for dessert pears and vanilla ice cream drizzled with melted chocolate. It was a really delicious meal.

While we cooked and ate, I listened to Pierrick and Audrey speak in French and I would drop a couple words at times. My French still needs work. Sometimes there are things I would like to say, but it just doesn't come out right.

Anyway, it was a great day. Unfortunately it was another day of not working on my paper. Oh well, I'm only here for a couple more weeks and I need to squeeze in as many things as I can.