There are no blonds in France.

Seriously. The only other blonds I know are an Australia, Lucy, and my housemate, Leah. I saw one other blond today at our international orientation. But she was German, so she doesn't count. We get stared at a lot because of our hair. But anyway, today was our first orientation to the uni. It started at 9:30am, so I rose at 7. I'm still not used to it being dark until 8:30am. I walked to the tram station in the dark and it was raining and so windy. Lucky I had my new weather proof jacket on... Didn't feel a thing!
The orientation was pretty much the most confusing thing any of us had ever sat through. And not just because it was in french. We went through different ways to pick courses and how to get onto l'espace etudiante on the website. We all walked out of there feeling more confused about the uni than we did before entering.

Impromptu photo minus Nat

Afterwards, I had to pick up some stuff for my house. I wanted to get some flowers and a calendar. I love flowers. They make me happy. Like really happy. There are florists everywhere here so they're quite inexpensive. We ended up going to Meriadeck again (giant Westfields) and doing some shopping there. I found these amazing chocolates (even the cheap choc here is amazing) and stocked up. I've actually been eating quite healthy over here, no soft drink, alcohol, processed foods. I haven't even had a pastry yet! I have had several cheesecakes though...

The flowers grow even in the concrete... Lovely Bordeaux street art

On our way to Meriadeck

On the way home, I left the group and went back to a florist in the centre of town I'd seen earlier that day. It was the most colourful one I'd seen so far so thought that would be perfect for my room. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to buy a small pot plant, or purchase a vase and then flowers whenever I felt like it. I found some cute vases, but didn't want to buy anything until I'd found the right one. Anyway, the most colourful florist wasn't open... It was 3 when I got there and she is closed from 2-4pm. So, what else do you do when you're killing time in Bordeaux? Get some hot chocolate! I ended up browsing through another florist too for ages.

Waiting for the florist to open

A church I found... not sure of the name

Hot chocolate

Eventually, at 4, I went back and bought two bulbs plants in glass vases. So cool!

The bulbs I bought. They smell so good!

When I got home, I had snacked on almost a quarter of the chocolates I had bought. So thought now would be a good time to go for my first run. I actually wanted to go tomorrow morning, but it's forecasted to snow (I will wet my pants if it snows!), so thought it would be best to go this arvo. As it gets dark pretty early here (about 6:30pm it's black), I went almost as soon as I got home. I have never run in so many layers before. Thick socks, tights, shorts, singlet, long sleeve shirt and gloves. I warmed up running pretty quickly though. I was gone for about half an hour in which I ran to Quinconces and back. It was a pretty good run. The cold didn't affect me too much and I felt really good afterwards.
Not many people here exercise in winter, I'm not sure about summer though. Especially young women. I saw some young and old men exercising, and some middle aged women, but no young women. I found I got stared at by all passersby. Do young women not exercise here?!? As I was running home, I was stopped at some traffic lights and got whistled at by two guys in a car!
Tonight is just left over spaghetti night lol. I need to sit down soon and actually calendar out a meal plan.

Running track