Oh, geez...

I thought I swore to myself when I came to France that I would not keep a blog. It seemed useless. Who was going to read it, really, other than my parents? There is also that distinct chance that I will come across as an angsty teenager who is angry at the world. Not that I can't be angry at the world anymore. I should just try not to come across as such. Particularly considering that I am no longer a teenager. Being twenty years old obviously makes me vastly more mature and capable of looking at the world in an entirely un-angsty way.

At any rate, here I am, writing a blog. Callie and Emily ask, Callie and Emily get. Hope you guys are happy.

Living in Bordeaux probably means I should comment on Bordeaux. As far as cities go, it does not seem to me to be particularly interesting. Maybe it would be moreso if I made the effort to drag myself away from my computer screen every once in a while to do something cultural. Then again, I'm not sure I have a great idea of what it would mean to do something cultural. Go to the opera? Done that, albeit not for a big performance. Stroll through a park? Done that too, and it's getting too cold to keep doing it comfortably. Go on strike? I'll let the real French people take care of that, thanks. What French people seem to do the most of is eating and shopping. I think I do more than my share of both. Does this make me French? Possibly. If being French had a direct relationship to the number of pastries you eat then I would be very French indeed.

Back to Bordeaux, though. I suppose it's rather pretty. I live in a house that has traditional architectural qualities - it is stone, three stories and has those little balcony railing things on the second-story windows (although here, of course, that is the first floor - words cannot describe how much I despise this European floor labeling system). The majority of the city seems to look like this. The colors range from Clean Stone to Stone That Desperately Needs Cleaning. It's a pretty fantastic variety. Unfortunately, I do live rather close to the part of the city that is ugly and modern. Mmm, concrete. Things could be worse, but some of the buildings are true eyesores.

The universities are currently striking. Oh boy. How French of them. I do not have class until at least Tuesday, and possibly not for the rest of the semester. That's five weeks of incertitude. Fine by me, really. I wasn't going to do any homework either way.

I have run out of anything remotely clever to say, and thus am going to stop my post so that I can wander off to another part of my room (or, more accurately, another website) and keep on doing nothing for another couple of hours. Happy Sunday.