sometimes i run around monasteries and think about airbending monks.

Toulouse. is. so. hot. all. the. time.*

I can't remember if I mentioned finally purchasing a fan from Auchan so I could actually sleep at night in my sweltering room, but I'm a little nervous that little baby 12 euro fan isn't going to make it through the next four weeks. It makes slightly unsettling mechanical noises, like the plastic blades are off balance or something, and alternates between blowing really nicely and not moving air much at all.

It being so hot makes you not want to do anything (including going running in the morning, although the fear of rape and death also makes you not want to do that. I'm paranoid, what can I say?). 

I like visiting old cathedrals, because they are very very cool inside...both literally and figuratively. This weekend we went to Le Musée des Augustines, which used to be a monastery, and the Jacobin monastery. So cool. The museum had this great gothic sculpture wing with beautiful medieval art. There were two sculptures of Mary that I particularly liked. They were beautiful. Both monasteries had cloisters, or a courtyard with a covered walkway all the way around it. The Jacobin one had these little hedges trimmed into designs. When we walked outside I gasped. Haha, I don't even know why, I didn't know what a cloister was and was expecting a chapel or something. To walk into this beautiful, arch-surrounded garden was a shocker. It was so quiet there too, the walls of the monastery keeping all the Toulouse street noise out. If I was a student here I'd go there all the time and read. Toulouse is a major student town, so students get into a ton of stuff for free, including both the museum and the Jacobins. We rejoiced in that greatly as we just spent 15 euros each on dinner at a tapas restaurant (Tangent: I tried calamari! When did I get so adventurous with food? This summer I've eaten haggis, eggs (don't mock, I hate them), salmon, marmite, lamb, and now calamari! I'm so proud of myself.).

Cue photographic evidence:
(Notre Dame de Grasse, both landscapey shots from les Jacobins)

*Ok, it's probably the same temperature as Utah. Maybe. I never really know how hot it is since everyone throws around temperatures in Celsius. Maybe one day I'll stop being lazy and look up a conversion online. Or I'll just keep pretending I know the difference in feeling between 30 and 35 degrees.