So here I am, in Toulouse France. Gotta love google maps and there little new map applets. So you can drag and scroll the map below and I've made some placemarks, where I live, where i eat etc...and then I can add to things as I discover them. Unfortunately the maps starts off not exactly where i am...you have to scroll out and to the right....or just click view larger map and get the full sized version....haven't completely figured it out yet.
View Larger Map
So what has been going on. Well I arrived on Wednesday, got in here feeling pretty tired and took a taxi straight here from the Airport 30 euros. Saw the headquarters of Airbus coming in on the runway with numerous mega airplane A380's on the tarmac.
I was too late to eat wed night so I had stored granola bars. Thurs midday I went to the cafeteria with cash and a visa...but..apparently (via charades since the restaurant staff don't speak english) I needed some type of student card that had credit on it...so she let me go and wrote my name in the book. Logan 18. 18 euros??? for one meal....with my Coke costing 5? I was a little distraught. And as such didn't eat for the rest of the day, not knowing where to get this card and how the price's worked.
Friday came and I met the other international students for our initial registration day. There is Ashish from India, Manuel from Mexico, Bruno from Portugal and Vladimir from Spain. There I got the restaurant card (turns out it is one point = 13 euro cents...so my 18pt meal was only 2.34. phew!!)
Friday night we went to the first of the parties. They are partying here every single night for the first initiation week. The second year team in charge of the initiation week bought 7000 (yes thousand) litres of cheap wine for the week. And I do mean cheap wine, they bought all 7000 litres for 5000 euro. So we're talking 70 cents for a litre of wine cheap...and keep in mind there are only around 800 or so students...if all participated in the partying...you can do the math.
So myself, Ashish and Bruno went to check out the party, it's just held in the lawn around the residences. There were playing a game similar to Hoe-down as we learned in engineering (and I also played in Denmark with a Star Wars theme). It is called Balle Magique and basically you sit in a circle and pass an imaginary ball, and you must pass the ball with specific moves and words. If you do the action wrong, or say the wrong word, you drink. So we preferred just to sit and watch, chat with the occasional passer-buyer. The french (or at least the french engineers) seem to like to get naked...I don't understand why. But every once in awhile they would all begin chanting, some chap, having done something wrong...i assume, is peer pressured into stripping... and then they all chant and he stands there nude with a shoe..or hat...strategically placed....all very strange.
Then they all yelled and started running towards the canal, i guess they were chanting boat boat boat, but in French. Turns out one of the tours boats was coming down the canal. Well of course they all lined the sides of the canal and the bridge and mooned the boat...while chanting... a lot of chanting.
Next they led all of the first year students to one of the Mig fighter jets that is on the campus. All of the second year students sat on top of the mig and the first year students had to push it around...this 40yr old plane...with flat tires. Taking it off the grass and then pushing it around the campus...avoiding shearing of the wings on some traffic signs or trees. Quite a site, took about an hour to roll it around and then back into place. And that was about it for Friday evening.
Saturday evening there was of course another party and games. They organized all of the first years into 12 teams who would compete in different events. The events were already going, but one team, onze (eleven) needed some help and they asked if I would participate...i figured why not. The first game was simple. Two teams lined up across from each other with the prize (a hat) in the middle and each person on the team was numbered. They yelled out a couple numbers and then it was a free for all to get the hat back to your side. I was a little slow on the gun, as they yelled out quatre...it took a moment or two to realize that was me...and to get out there. But i brought the hat home a couple times :-)
The next game was basically wresting in a kiddie pool. They had a kiddie pool you took of your shirt and shoes, locked arms and then had to wrestle, the first to get your arms free and grab the 'prize' which was about 3 ft over your head, just enough you had to jump for it. So i participated in that one. I was of course victorious, taking on a first year french student...probably 3 years or more my younger. I promptly threw him down into the kiddie pool and grabbed the prize...anti-climatic, i know.
Next I have no idea what we did for the game, we ran to the other side of campus, got some key, ran up to the 5th floor of the residence. They had some guy dressed there as an 'old wise man' he gave us...i guess riddles with no real answer...when we answered wrong we had to drink this cheap wine...i don't know...all i know is we just had to keep drinking the wine...
Then came some other challenge where three of our teammates had to team up to race and finish a 1.5litre bottle of Coca-Cola. So i got volunteered again...however once a person starts drinking he cannot stop and restart. So our first team member choked and stopped after not even 250ml, the next guy tried but maybe finished another 350ml. By this time the other team had already finished there bottle....but they told me we would lose even more points if I could not finish...so the competitor in me, proceeded to chug nearly 1 litre of Coke....i'm sure that was good for the ol heart and stomach...felt a little full after that. The next game was to do with music...guessing the name of the song...determining a change in melody.
And that was it, the other team did not show up to our last game, the Tug-of-War. The night ended with the music blaring in the grass and people dancing. In traditional engineering fashion, there would be 5 guys dancing around/with the one girl....There are a surprising number of girls here, but if course being engineering it still is not even close to an even ratio.
Ashish took a camera phone picture of me dancing with some girl...and of course proceeded to bug me about it the next day, 'my girl'. I busted some good moves on the dance floor, it helped when they played my theme song, "What is Love" from a Night at the Roxbury.
After that i somehow ended up playing balle magique, which promptly ended my night as I had no idea how to play, or the french movements or phrases. And as such had to consume more cheap wine then I would have liked to.
Ok that post is long enough for now. I'm pretty sure i'm the only one who will ever read it all..but that's ok. If you have read this far, leave me a comment, I love to get them, makes me feel special.
Labels: France
