Bowling, Basilica and Brain Power

On Tuesday, April 28, I waited patiently for my good friend Amy to arrive and when the time came I whisked myself toward the bus stop for the airport. But to my dismay Toulouse had yet another one of France's famous protester's walk directly in my path. Waiting as long as I could, I snuck through the line of them and got to my destination. Then it occurred to me since the protester's were allowed through how then would the bus get through? The road on which they held their protest was a road that made a T so the end on which my bus was to come was blocked via police barricade. I'm thankful I was not only person anxiously watching the barricade slowly go down and cars slowly allowed back through. Then it seemed like an hour or so later the bus arrived. Thankfully I arrived more than on time for Amy's plane. I'm glad I took the earliest possible bus. Yet one more dilemma, I thought I knew the airport better than I did. But alas, I was at the wrong gate and I was happy to hear "We would like to invite Taylor Goemaat to the information booth, Thank you." So I headed straight there hoping Amy didn't feel too scared. I found her, looking anxious (as I'm sure I would feel) but greeted her cheerfully. She gave me a hug and we were off to meet Ben who would be waiting with the car. We all got back to the apartment to rest for a few minutes before we headed to a bowling alley to meet Ben's co-workers.
We were the first ones to arrive to the bowling alley. It was near the large shopping center in Blagnac and we found it without hassle. But ever so slowly Ben's co-workers arrived. Then we seemed to wait for at least 10 minutes to be seated at the restaurant area of the alley. Being a French bowling alley, the meal was the main thing. Every single one of Ben's co-workers got the menu that was offered and we had just ordered pizza. So Ben, Amy and I tried to eat the pizza as slow as possible to wait for Ben's co-workers to finish each part of their meal. It was nice to meet Ben's co-workers face to face, some of them I had never seen before and it was also nice to chit chat with them about my time in Toulouse, what French words I was having trouble with and how long Amy was staying. They all seemed nice and glad to have some conversation. After the meal was over, we headed over to give up our shoes to get bowling ones and play the one game. Ben's co-workers were scared we Americans were going to be really good at bowling, but we definitely proved them wrong. At least on my end of things. Ben and I haven't been bowling at least since College so I knew I was going to be rusty. Rusty I was, for my frames each showed a nice little zero to say I was losing miserably. Ben, being the good husband explained why I was not doing so hot. He gave me some direction and I was finally earning some points, as little as they were. By the end of the game I was pretty close to one of Ben's co-workers, she only beating me by a few points. It was fun, a different way to do bowling, at least compared to America's version. Only playing one game I was not allowed to improve my score by much, which made me miss American bowling a little because you can play as many games as you want. But we all seemed to have fun. we headed home to rest after a long day.

I have not seen all that Toulouse has to offer so, a couple days later (Thursday, April 30), Amy and I headed to St. Sernin Basilica and the Natural History museum. Since I have been here awhile, I've heard a lot about St. Sernin and why it was a good place to visit, so one might as well see for themselves. Amy was immediately impressed by the architecture, its curving domes and doorways as well as the carvings decorating the pillars. Admittedly, I thought the Basilica would be more grand than it was. Of course I am just comparing it to the cathedral's I have already seen. Compared to Albi, it did not have the painting nor the scale of Albi's cathedral, but it was pretty in its own right. The front altar of the the Basilica was elaborately done in gold, beyond the altar there were vast paintings of Bible stories some having golden outlines. The many chapels each had their own elaborate decorations displaying their patron saint, one was even bigger than the rest. One of the most interesting things about the the Basilica is the story behind its creation. It was built in honor of a Toulousain bishop that was martyred by a bull dragging him through the streets. He was a popular bishop and he had a fascinating story, so after the Basilica was finished people came from all over to see the church which was built for him. With its following the Basilica became one of the stops on the way to Compostela in Spain. After we took a few pictures and explored all that we could explore in the church we headed straight to the Toulouse Natural History Museum.
When we arrived at the museum I was expecting something different when we arrived. I was expecting more about Toulouse and its natural history and not so much about the world as a whole, which was what the museum was about. It takes you on an adventure through the different layers of the earth starting with the rock and working up to the surface. Continuing on our journey through the earth we learned about earthquakes and lava, as well about many of the beasts that can be found on the surface. The first stuffed animals we saw were birds and insects then it began to tell of the other creatures, zebras, rhinos, sloths, snakes, alligators, and many other creatures one can see throughout the globe. It was all very interesting, even though several times I had to convince myself my imagination was playing tricks on me and that the animals were not moving in the least. Besides the stuffed creatures, the museum also has a garden full of different flowers and plants. One can also see two live peacocks show you their feathers as they strut through the greenery. We were done with the museum and decided to head to its boutique to see what was there. We made quite a splash in the boutique, finding neat things to give to friends. We both enjoyed our time there, learning about the animals and our earthly domain.