And that's all she wrote.

I've been home for a week now and even after two days I wished I was back in France. However, as much as I would not like to be in the Sunshine State, I'm excited to take this time and find a job and start looking at grad schools. I'm ready to get back in the swing of things and start planning so that in the near future I can settle down some place above the Mason-Dixon Line and try to lead a lifestyle more like my European one. Until then it's looking like I'll be wasting away either in Orlando or Gainesville.

On a happier note, to properly close out my blog now that I'm back Stateside, here's a list of must do activities for any teaching assistant (or visitor) in Pau.

1) Have a drink on the Boulevard des Pyrénées. Try one of the trifecta of foreign bars, preferably The Galway or Café Russe. Whatever strikes your fancy will do, but I love a good Perrier Menthe on a sunny day.

2) Visit the château. It's only an hour-long guided visit (complete with a peek of Henri IV's legendary birth cradle oooo ahhhh), but even if you want to just hang out in the courtyard and see the façade, it's really beautiful.

3) Hang out in the park behind the château, and if you're feeling up to it, hike a bit in the forest behind it. I visited it literally my last weekend in Pau, and felt like I was back in the times of Henri IV seeing the château from that perspective.

4) Have a burger and drinks at Le Garage. Nice ambiance, though it can get crowded at night. Sorry no picture for this one. :/

5) Go for a hike in the Pyrénées. Seriously, take a bus, find a group going, do whatever it takes. It's absolutely worth it.

See the colors of the mountains? Incredible.

6) Check out the Basque coast if the weather is nice. If you're lucky enough to be in the area in the summer or early fall, you'll be in for a real treat (from what I hear).

In Biarritz. Note the coat. Definitely didn't visit during summer or early fall.

 7) Try some Basque and Béarnais specialities. Some of my favorites are garbure, gâteau basque, fromage de brebis (ewe's cheese, it's very good wtih black cherry jam!), axoa and jambon de Bayonne (Bayonne ham). Oh, and as for wine, it is a must to drink some sweet Jurançon.

Brebis with some bourret. Drink that too while you're at it!

 8) Go see the Section Paloise. Rugby's actually really cool. There, I said it.

9) Grab some hot chocolate and/or chocolate from L'Atelier du Chocolat and enjoy it in Place Clémenceau, the central meeting place in Pau. Their chocolate is incredible. The store originated in Bayonne, the first city in France to start making chocolate back in the day.

Hot chocolate and caramel chocolate

10) If you're gonna be living in Pau, stop by L'Atelier du Vélo and buy a refurbished bike (or get your bike fixed) from the best bike repairman in France.

Andor and I

We'll leave it at a top ten list, but if you find yourself in the SW corner of France, know that I have more suggestions for you. I hope you all have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I've enjoyed writing. A très bientôt!

So Here We Are

I leave Pau this evening and I am not doing well. Riding into town today to close my bank account, I started to tear up, thinking of how this would be my last bike ride down to Place Clemenceau. If circumstances were different, I would love to stay a bit longer, though as much as my heart is telling me that it's too soon and that I should stay, I know that it's time to go. As many frustrations as I have dealt with, and as AWFUL as the weather has been here in Pau from time to time, especially in the last month, the city and the region has treated me well.

This is just a quick update, as I'm hurriedly going through bags again, looking for clothes I can donate and putting my bags together. After this I'll be going back into town to say farewell to uncle Andor and hand off his bike, and then hopefully enjoy a few hours on the Boulevard with some friends and a Perrier Menthe. After, it's an evening train to Paris and then an afternoon flight tomorrow back to the U.S.A. Catch you all on the other side of the Atlantic, when I can write a proper blog post summing this all up. A très bientôt!

Andalusia and Morocco

Andria and I on the terrace of Abaco

Recently my friend Andria and I took a week-long trip to Malaga and Granada, Spain and Chefchaouen, Morocco. Now, this trip was organized with the intention of finding some sunny, warm weather which had been seriously lacking in cold, wet and rainy Pau. The trip met these expectations for the most part, except for our third day of vacation in Granada. It just hurts a bit when you're visiting the Alhambra, what should be a remarkable historical jem, under a constant cold rain and you have to decide whether it is more important to take photos or save your poor hands from the cold. To top it all off, this was in April. Highlight of Granada though: having delicious tea on the terrace of a cool cafe with a beautiful view. That's why it's the best to have friends who are from the area!

Chaouen- the blue city

From Granada, we traveled to Chaouen (as it is known by the locals), which was an experience in and of itself. It took pretty much a full day, leaving Granada at 7AM on a train to Algeciras, taking a ferry to Ceuta in Africa, and from Ceuta after getting our passports stamped at the border, carefully making our way to Tetouan and then Chefchaouen, after a very cosy taxi and a quiet but bumbling bus ride. When most people heard that my friend and I were travelling to Morocco, they assumed that we would be going to a larger, more touristy city such as Marrakech. When it came down to it, because we would only have about a day and a half there, we decided to go for a city easier to get to after crossing with the ferry, and a city that was tourist friendly, without being really touristy, if that makes sense. With the market that many visit Chaouen for, tourism definitely plays a role in the city, but you don't have to step out far from the main square to see parts of the city that really represent Morocco.

Can you spot the little white mosque on top of the hill?

Chaouen is a beautiful little blue city of marvelous scenery, good hiking, and markets with inhabitants eager to sell beautiful blankets, teapots, tea glasses and spices among other goods. Andria and I stayed in a beautifully decorated guest house with incredibly welcoming staff, eager to help us however they could from arranging to have breakfast served earlier for us when we left, to getting bus tickets for us ahead of time. One of the things that surprised me most about our quick stay in Morocco was that in Chaouen, most of the residents we interacted with spoke more Spanish than French. Even though Morocco was a former French colony, with Chefchaouen's proximity to Spanish Ceuta and the many Spanish tourists who visit, Spanish is more used than French there.

Sunny and warm Malaga :)

We reversed the intense bus, taxi, ferry process and ended up back in Malaga for the end of our trip. We really only visited Malaga because the cheapest flight from Toulouse landed in that airport, but when all was said and done, Malaga was a really charming beach city with some really famous former residents to its name, such as Pablo Picasso and Antonio Banderas. Who knew?

Antonio (unofficial statue)

Overall, I really loved our vacation. Andalusia was incredible. With the atmosphere, the ambiance, the food, the landscape, the language... it really is a little paradise. While I'm at home this summer, hopefully looking for a job and then working, figuring out what I want to do in terms of grad school, I would really like to work on my Spanish in my spare time. Being able to chat with people of the countries you visit really enriches your experience, and Spanish is a language that I would love to be more at ease with. With three days and three nights left in Pau faithful readers, on this note I will take my leave. A+

Picasso chillin' on a bench at Plaza de la Merced