Isn’t Poitiers beautiful? It’s been a while since I’ve written. I’ve added many photos to my Parties gallery, which I am here to tell you about right now.

On the 17th, we had a dinner party with bread, cheese, chicken and rice. Since rice is not my favourite food, I enjoyed mostly the bread and cheese.

Meal preparation in progress. My contribution to this part was simply taking the picture.

Me and Marie, one of the Aloha girls. She helps organize many events for the international students, and enjoys speaking English. At this party, I had the opportunity to speak lots in French with Marie’s cousin, who is still learning English.

Early in the week, my American housemate, Charles, cooked spaghetti for French friends that he invited over. He didn’t do too bad, for it being his first time cooking it. He over-estimated the amount of spaghetti that he needed though. Notice how it is almost overflowing the pot below.

I spoke French with our visitors, and they were all impressed with how clean my room is. We took a few pictures. Below is one with me and Sihem, who is also in my class at school, and one of my project groups.

Moving on to Canadian issues, there is talk in a CBC News article about dropping the penny from circulation again. After all, it costs more than 1 cent to produce the coin, and some countries have already removed their equivalent of the penny. Some people argue that removing it would turn the next highest coin into the new “penny”, and make them more careless to spend money to get rid of coins.

In France with the Euro, I have developed a collection of 1-cent and 2-cent coins. I don’t really use them, and probably will just collect and cash them in every now and then. It’d be more convenient and cost effective to just get rid of these small value coins in Canada, as well as Europe (as a couple countries have done already).

On Tuesday, Charles and I will be taking a train from Poitiers to Loudres, and then Toulouse in France. I’m not fully sure what we’ll all be doing or seeing, but I’m sure I’ll have plenty to report afterwards.

The weather was very warm and sunny on Thursday the 15th, the best it’s been so far. I decided to take advantage of this by walking around Poitiers. I eventually found myself in a very beautiful residential neighbourhood. The pictures speak for themselves.

We’ve all heard about how too many staples and nails in hydro poles can be dangerous for the workers that must climb the poles. I recently read a CBC news article about Newfoundland’s Hydro company advising a woman not to tack a yellow ribbon to hydro poles, based on this reasoning. “The utility says even one staple can cut a worker’s protective clothing, putting them at risk of electrical shock.”

I was interested that this problem does not exist in at least some parts of Poitiers.

As you can see, the pole is made of concrete with indents, presumably to be used for climbing. If we used these in Canada, the hydro companies wouldn’t need to whine about safety issues caused by their method of maintenance being vulnerable to tiny staples.

Saturday the 10th was mostly relaxing.

Since before I left for France, I’ve been in contact via e-mail with Nico, a French university student who went to UNBSJ a few semesters ago. I finally met him in person Saturday afternoon, and we went to the Caribou Café. This place follows a Canadian theme with Canadian license plates, maple syrup, and everything else. We talked mainly about our experiences in Canada and France, and the differences between the two cultures. Did I mention that we talk only in French? He’s doing a masters in English linguistics, and likely does not need to practice his second language as much I do! I was able to somehow say most things I wanted to say.

In the evening, I got my hair cut. Ben (my British housemate) organized to have the hair dressing come to our flat to cut the hair of anyone who came. She spoke only French, so this was yet another opportunity for me to practice speaking in my second language. Here’s my head chopping procedure in progress:

Notice how I am actually holding the mirror? No, I didn’t do that the whole time, just at the end. Ben tried to mount a mirror on the wall, but that didn’t work so well. Let’s just say he now has 7 years of bad luck. I have more pictures of others waiting to get their hair cut, as usual, in my gallery.

On Sunday, I didn’t do a whole lot. I went for a walk at around noon. I had my earphones with music playing the whole time. At 12:34, I realized my cell phone alarm block was ringing since 12:00 without me hearing it. That explains some looks I got from some random strangers as I walked by.

That’s all for now. 4 days of classes this week, plus various group meetings. Enjoy the week everyone!

It has unfortunately been a while since I’ve updated. Hopefully I’ll make up for that today.

On Sunday the 4th, Brian (another UNBSJ student) and I went to a museum here in Poitiers. Mr. Gervis (our landlord) had told me that the museum is free on the first Sunday of each month, and that the 4th would be their last day for a type of exhibit. Some of the artwork and French sculptures were interesting, particularly an illustration of Poitiers several decades ago showing the old wall around the city, and other landmarks. After the museum, we walked around Poitiers a bit, where I got some more photos for my gallery.

A nice shot in the park beside the river. If you’ve seen my Rockwood Park photos, you would know I love to compose pictures with sunlight, pathways, and such.

Entrance to the Cordeliers mall, with the Monoprix grocery store visible. This mall has a strange blue mascot which you can see above the entrance.

The pink toilet paper at Monoprix. One of the great mysteries of French culture.

A house located right on the river. Not far from here, some people have farm fields next the river, all visible from the crowded city centre.

Cars park pretty much anywhere here, even on sidewalks making it somewhat dangerous to go walking if traffic is heavy.

One of the many crowded streets. Most streets are one-way in Poitiers, with one lane of most two-lane streets being used for parking.

On Friday the 9th, I went with some French and international students to see a movie “à la Recherche du Bonheur” (The Pursuit of Happiness) with Will Smith. It wasn’t a bad movie. After that, we went to a Tunisian restaurant, which has cheap sandwiches. I had “Kebab Frites” (Kebab with fries), and it was pretty good. I brought my phone out, and everyone had fun taking pictures with it (despite the fact nearly everyone had their own camera phone capable of taking better pictures than mine).

After the restaurant, we went to the flat of Julien and his girlfriend, where we just sat and talked for a few hours. I spent most of the time speaking in French, and so I am getting good practice with that at least!

That’s all for now. I have more to tell soon in another post about today’s adventures.