J'aime Albi!

Cathédrale Saint-Cecile d'Albi

          I've now been in Albi for three weeks now and I love it! I’ve been waiting for the weather to clear up and last weekend it finally did, so now I have pictures to put up! It's a fair sized, medieval city. The campus is small. The weather is great! Centre-ville is simply charming! There are cobblestone streets, cute shops, and of course the cathedral (Cathédrale Sainte-Cécile d'Albi). It is the largest brick building in the world. I've not yet had the chance to go inside, but even from the outside it is certainly a remarkable building! It is right by the Tarn River and the Toulouse-Lautrec museum. I cannot wait to see the gardens in spring and summer! It's been overcast every time I've gone downtown with my camera, so I'll have to put pictures of the city up later. Every Saturday there is an open market downtown by the cathedral. It's the best place to get groceries- especially fruits and vegetables! One morning that I went, I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I was going to buy an apple to eat, but they just gave it to me! There is a plaza downtown that has 81 small fountains (just like the ones that you run around in). They look really cool in the evening.

Downtown by the cathedral, there was a man playing a music box and singing! It was so cool! So I gave him what coins I had. Speaking of which, 1 and 2 euros pieces are coins, not bills!

One of the less scary looking paths going down to the river

I found a cute park!!

More of the cathedral... I can't wait to see the interior!

An half hour walk towards Toulouse takes you to the closest thing to a mall they have here- Centre E. L’Eclerc: Portes d’Albi. It’s about a 15-20 minute walk to any grocery store, which makes grocery shopping fun. Aside from fruits, vegetables, and frozen foods, things here are so different! [Baking soda is bicarbonate alimentaire and baking powder is levure chimique. You’ll find baking soda by salt, and baking powder by baking goods and yeast.] Milk comes in cartons like Rice Dream in the US. I love that the majority of the refrigerated section is cheese! I haven’t been quite brave enough to try many of them yet. I’ve been sticking with brie and Tinnery (it’s like cream cheese). I tried some others while I stayed with Chabaud family, but I can’t remember the names! Baguettes, Nutella, and chocolate are super cheap. My absolute favorite thing I’ve had so far has been Galette des Rois. It’s simply delicious, and totally fun!

My room! Because I have no roommate I have two beds, and... TWO CLOSETS!!

I live in an apartment for the study abroad (Erasmus) students with a boy from Turkey and a boy from England. The school itself used to be former military complex; the buildings which house the classrooms, former barracks. I live in the homes built for the married soldiers. The boys are upstairs with their own rooms, and downstairs is my room, living room, bathroom, toilette, and kitchen. I hate our shower… It’s like a hip bath and there’s nowhere to put the shower head, not to mention the inconstant water temperature. But, on the bright side, I love cheap rent and having my own room!! We also have a washing machine, but to dry clothes we put them on top of the heaters, or if it’s sunny, on the clotheslines outside. The Erasmus students are all great!  There are 3 kids from Britain, 1 from Barbados, 1 from the Czech Republic, 1 from Finland, and 2 from Turkey. I’m the first person anyone has ever heard of coming from the U.S.! Rent is 100 Euros ($140) per month, and we don’t have to pay for heat, electricity, or water! Université Jean-François Champollion is a small university really close to the train station so it’s easy to get to Toulouse, although I haven’t been yet.

If our "shower"didn't have tile on the sides, it'd look like this.

The system here is much different for signing up for classes. I have 10 classes (30 credits), but the classes only meet once a week. I have 3 English Literature classes in which we are studying Dracula, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’m also taking a literature and cinematography class in which we analyze the adaptation of literary works for the screen. In my French literature class we only analyze excerpts each week. Then there is FLE (French as a foreign language), Danse, two translation classes, and History of the English Language. History of the English Language is actually my most difficult class! It’s not only the history, but most of it is actually translation between Old English and modern English, using our knowledge of Latin and German. I know nothing of German, and what I know of Latin comes from biology courses! I swear these skinny French girls in my Danse class are either naturals, robots, or its genetics. But, we go through a series of moves once and I can do everything perfectly, then they turn on the music and do it 5x faster and they do it perfectly! I think there are quite a few girls there who might hate me. I got a number of dirty looks. I hear there is salsa dancing on Tuesday nights, so I'm going to start doing that. Yesterday I helped with an advertisement they’re doing for the school. They photographed and filmed a bunch of us holding up letters (I was the “T”) spelling “Small is Beautiful.” I found out that I have to send things to the immigration office, get a medical exam, and go to an integration meeting all in Toulouse and get a special stamp in my passport before I leave the country or they won’t let me back in! I have a two week break starting at the end of February and I had wanted to go to Spain (Madrid temple!) to see Britt (one of my best friends who is a SA student there), but I guess I might have to wait.

Random Sculpture

Church. L’Eglise de Jésus Christ des Saints des Dernier Jours is just a 5 minute walk from my apartment. It’s great! The branch is very small. There are probably only 20 members each week. I’ve already given prayers three times, and I am basically the official pianist already! The second week at church, I found out that my Book of Mormon was an old version and some of the wording is slightly different than the newer one. It made it a little difficult to follow along, but the elders gave me a new edition! The elders are great. Elder Baret was here for the first week (from New Caledonia). So now there is Elder Carson (Portland, Oregon) and Elder Hilgendorff (Seattle, Washington). Church vocabulary is pretty different, but once you know it, everything makes sense. I’ve already gotten to go teach with them 3 times now, and it’s been really cool!

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