Alright, let's try for a coherent one this time.

Sorry for the last post... I had a lot of information to dispense, and as I mentioned, living abroad can be somewhat exhausting. I appreciate the fact that so maybe people have actually taken the time to look at this blog... it really means a lot to me to be able to share this experience with the people I care about.


So today, we spent some class time walking around the Basilique de Saint Sernin; a basilica dedicated to the first bishop of Toulouse, who was martyred. It's absolutely stunning, as you can see from the picture I took and put at the top of this entry. My favorite part inside is the feet of a destroyed statue of St Christopher that are fused into one of the pillars inside the church (pictured above). People go there to pray to St Christopher for safe travels home, and touch these feet that have now been rubbed smooth as a result. My favorite ritual involving this feet, though for some reason it died after WWII, was that when children began to take their first steps, the parents would bring them to walk around this pillar for the same reason... a safe journey to wherever life may take you.

After we looked around in the basilica and its museum, I decided to go off on my own for a while, and walked around Toulouse. It was probably the best thing I've done since I've been here. I love getting myself lost, and then finding my way... walking down streets and people watching.



Toulouse is a gorgeous city. I was able to see the Place du Capitole almost entirely covered with bright red poppies... an advertisement for some sort of perfume, I think. Needless to say it was beautiful. There is a street where branching off of the Place du Capitole heading towards the Place Esquilrot, where I was literally hit by a car a couple days ago. No worries, it was a funny sort of hit by a car... in a slapstick sorta way... I'm fine, my left arm is just a little sore.
Place Esquilrot is probably the busiest part of Toulouse... I looked around for a while, saw a sign in the window of a store that made me laugh ("les prix fous!"-- literally, crazy prices!), and spent a little time looking at the cell phones in an electronics store (I really need to get one, for safety's sake, but I can't bring myself to spend that much money... phones are really expensive here, and I am terrified that I am going to run out of money).

One of my favorite things to do here is to find the back streets that twist and turn, usually just located a street or two over from the large boulevards (left). They are beautiful and oddly silent considering the bustle of town life happening only a street or two away. It's very surreal.

I then headed to Place Wilson (named after Woodrow Wilson), where many a hilarious sight awaited me. So apparently today was the day for hazing the University students, which the French seem to take very seriously. All over town there were groups of students dressed up as robots, spacemen (covered in tin foil, of course), gladiators, cavemen... you name it. They were forming human blockades in the busiest part of town (Place Esquirol), stage fighting (those dressed as gladiators, naturally), and generally just singing in loud voices. It was shocking to me, the fact that everyone seemed not to mind when these kids slowed down traffic or generally disturbed the peace. They stopped to watch, laughed along, it was surprisingly good-natured fun. At the underclassmens' expense, of course.

When I arrived at Place Wilson, there was a large crowd standing around the fountain. I walked up, and there were a bunch of students playing games in the water (more hazing, of course). It was absolutely hilarious. They were chanting, climbing the statue in the center, racing to see who can do a lap inside the fountain the fastest, holding hands between each others' legs and walking a lap... honestly it looked like fun. I was in a crowd, so I couldn't get great pictures, but...


Why don't we do this kind of stuff in America??? We need some good rituals.

Bryna