Spring Turns to Summer in the South of France

Ok, quick update as I'm RETURNING HOME tomorrow and should be packing...

Summer Solstice Parties are AWESOME

Some of you may remember two years ago...I was in Barcelona for "Verbena de Sant Joan" during the longest day of the year. And it was spectacular.

Well now I have experienced the Shortest day of the Year French style. Fête de la Musique (read about it at wikipedia).

It's like....Whyte Ave during a the Oilers Playoffs..meets..Stage 13..

Basically all the streets are closed to cars, and are packed with people. And on every corner bands are playing music. Every kind of music, every kind of band. Local kids, drum only bands, jazz, DJ's. It was really a lot of fun...until 4am..when as with any place..alcohol makes for some fights and the police have to step in. But other then that it was a great time.

It's a Bigger Party when your Team Wins

Here in Toulouse, RUGBY is numero uno. And Stade Toulouse is the team. And after a heartbreaking loss a month ago at the European Heineken Cup they were in the final for the French Top 14 league and this time they did not disappoint. We watched the game in Captial (the main center square) on a huge TV along with..well as many people as they could pack into Capital.

And after the winner celbrations ensued and yet another Saturday of partying was had in Toulouse as we danced the night away.

Follow this up with the very next night when Spain won it's first Euro Cup in something like 40 years. And of course mon amie, Arturo (whom I went to Finland with) is from Spain. So he was more then happy as we watched Spain beat Germany on the sunday.

It was the weekend of Sport.

Cheryl comes to VISIT!

Ok, I know I shouldn't expect when I live over 7500km away to have visitors. But still, you still start to notice it when your the only student in the Masters who hasn't got to go home, or have friends and family visit. Of course I understand..but it doesn't make it easier.

Well that changed as last weekend Cheryl came to visit me!!! I went to Engineering at the UofA with Cheryl and she was part of the MecE club with me. She was also a cheerleader at the UofA and led our MecE dance troupe (an Engineering week competition) to three years in a row of winning. And taught me a couple sweet cheerleader moves (I hand pressed a girl, it was studly)

So she was in the country visiting her sister in Paris and came down to Toulouse for the weekend. There is not a lot of 'touristy' things to do in Toulouse, most of all it's just a nice city. Nice sites, nice streets, nice river and canal. We went for a bike ride. And luckily she was here for the big Stade Toulouse Rugby win mentioned above. So we had a good night.

And of course my friends will miss her, it's not often (especially in the mostly male town of Toulouse) that we have a cheerleader in the group ;)

FINLAND and ESTONIA

Ok, i know i never posted about this as I just haven't had the time. I'm not going to go into detail other then to say it was an incredible trip.

Why? Because it was just one of those trips where EVERYTHING went perfectly. Every night we had nothing planned, no idea what to do or where to go. and EVERY night we met random people who took us to Random bars and we ended up having Incredible nights. And it just kept happening. Everything fell into place like the most wicked party, sightseeing puzzle imaginable. I'll let the slideshow speak for itself.

Biking in Toulouse

Toulouse is a the perfect size city. It's big enough to have all the amenities. But small enough that I can go anywhere I want on bike in 15 minutes. As such, now that i live in town I go by bike everywhere. And the cars respect the bikes, there are numerous bike paths, many bike/bus only streets. It's incredible, I love it!!

And the Canal du Midi goes through town and it's a beautiful ride (and easy since it's flat). So far i've down one 30km ride by myself and then a 45km ride two weeks ago with Manuel. We are working our way up to the 100km one way trip to the next big town Carcasonne (famouse for the castle, check the link!!) Then we'll take the train back with the bikes.

Pays Cathare

About a month or more ago, we decided to get out of Toulouse for the weekend and go castle hunting in the Pyranese in a region known as Pays Cathare

So we rented a car and off we went. Pictures give the idea.
http://picasaweb.google.com/logan.jones/200805PaysCathare
In the end we visited 5 castles and there is much more...for another weekend.

Ok, that is about it for a spring time update. Less then 6hrs now until my plane leaves!! Ciao